Ok, so here are my thoughts on Joseph. I honestly love this guy, beside of one question that he asks in jail to the Butler, "But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house...For...I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.", I honestly can't see a single thing he did that wasn't good, or Loyal. I am blown away with his response to Potiphar's wife, but I do wonder if it wouldn't have been better to just tell Potiphar that his wife was coming on to me. I pray daily that I never find myself in a situation like that. One Question:
Do you think Joseph was acting like a little jerk brother when he told his brothers and parents about the dreams, or do you think they were just responding incorrectly?
I'm pretty sure everybody in the darn house, probably including Potiphar, unless he was that blind, knew that his wife had a giant crush on Joseph. But I think she was working politics more than anything else, and Potiphar couldn't favor his servant over his wife. It wouldn't look good, and might cost him politically. That's just my guess. But the point is, you can do everything right and still find yourself in a bad spot with a bad reputation. That's when we have to remember our value comes from God, and trust that He will bring truth to light in His good time if we stay faithful to Him.
ReplyDeleteI always preferred Aunt Sue and Uncle Dan's version of Joseph being the good guy and his brothers being jerks. But I can see how he could have either been completely naive about how his brothers might take it (that's sometimes what it looks like to me--"Hey, guys, guess what? Dad says I'm his favorite! Isn't that neat? uh-hyuk!") or maybe a little spiteful. After all, he was probably always trying to measure up and please them, but never could because he was the favorite child and they all hated him. So he might have been like, isn't this an interesting dream? rib rib. It kind of goes along with how Dad treats me anyway...so you all might as well get used to the idea...
Joseph is honestly one of my favorites. Other than perhaps the rough start as a kid, he's one of the few that seems to stay faithful to God completely through his whole life, in the middle of some pretty dark times.