JANUARY 18 "CHARACTER IS A WORK IN PROGRESS..."
It's hard to find much fault
in Joseph. He is one of the stellar examples of Godliness, in the Bible.
But here, in Joseph's youth, we see some flaws or perhaps naivety. It
makes you wonder what would have prompted Joseph to share these dreams with his
bothers; dreams that depicted his brothers would one day be serving him. Joseph
already knew that his brothers were not all that favorable towards him, how
could he think for one moment, that sharing these dreams would help matters?
And we know, as he should have known, but apparently didn't or didn't care;
that it would only make matters worse between them. And not only does Joseph do
this once, but twice! Perhaps Joseph felt some animosity of his own, towards
his brothers. What other reason would Joseph tell his brothers that he had a
dream and they were bowing down to him? Our text tells us that "even his
father scolded him, "what kind of dream is this, will we be bowing down to
you?", his father asks, indignantly. Now you can say, "but they did
eventually bow down to him!". That's not the point. The point is what was
Joseph's motive was in telling his brothers? It proves that we can have great
potential and calling, but yet still be character deficient in some areas of
our lives, yet God still works with us. I don't think God approved of Joseph
going and telling his brothers about his dreams. Joseph got himself into the
trouble he found himself in by going to his brothers about his seemingly
braggadocios dreams that were only intended to be between him and God. We read
of Mary of all the things she heard and knew about Jesus, the bible tells us,
"she treasured them in her heart". There are dreams and visions that
God shares with us in privacy and in confidence that are meant to be kept
there! They are not for public consumption but between you and God. We see here
that Joseph lacks the wisdom and maturity that Mary had, when also being shown
great and wonderful things that God would use her for. Mary didn't share or
brag about it to others, but simply treasured them in her heart and let them
play out in life, as they did. Joseph on the other hand lacks the maturity and
also uses these dreams that God has shown him, to get back at his brothers and
it only exacerbates the problem and almost gets him killed. We've all met this
early version of Joseph, haven't we? A young man or woman who senses God's
grace & calling upon their lives, perhaps certain gifting and qualities
that everybody sees and nobody can deny; and they think that because of this
Grace and Gifting upon their lives, that they can do and say no wrong. And
often all we can do is look at them and think, "yes, God's Grace may be
greatly on your life, you may have talent, gifting and calling, but God has a
long way to bring you before he can use you, because right now, you are full of
yourself". And often that's what God does, he brings that young man or
woman through a refining process and years later you run into that same man or
woman, with that same Grace, gifting and calling, but yet you notice now there
is a maturity, a modesty, a humility that has now been worked in that person,
to make them fit for the master's use. Beware of thinking, when you sense of
see God's Grace upon your life that you are above reproach. Beware of thinking
that somehow you are better and above those around you, because God will
quickly bring you through a process that can and will, knock all that out of
you. We don't know why God chooses one man or one woman over another to pour
out his gifting and Grace Our problem is we automatically assume he chose us
because we were special. Sometimes people in the church with the most talent
and ability are the individuals God ends up using the least because they are so
filled with pride and arrogance because of their gifting and talents. The
wisdom that can be gleamed from our scripture today is that sometimes God gives
us dreams and visions for our sake and our sake only, and they are not to be
shared or even considered to be understood by others and any sharing would seem
braggadocios at best and/ or prideful. They are to be treasured in our hearts
and to be pursued between us and God.
Comments
Post a Comment