The Feed Mill

Today’s Bible Reading: Genesis 40-42

Today’s Devotional: Genesis 40:8b

Still dependent on God

… So Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me please.” Genesis 40:8b

Joseph never stopped depending on God and never stopped sensing the presence and favor of God in his life.

When Joseph looked at his present situation, he never said God was done. Joseph never threw in the towel and gave up serving no matter his circumstances, but instead what God taught Joseph is that He equips His children in every situation and no matter the circumstances to walk out His plan from eternity. Jacob saw the favor of the hand of the Lord no matter his situation or circumstances.

What’s important here is who has equipped. Did Joseph go to Georgetown University and get a degree in international and domestic relations? No. In order to be used by God, Joseph had only the understanding God works in no matter how small the situation. And that just as Daniel, it wasn’t because he was better or wiser than anyone else, but because God desires to speak through vessels that have been rejected by this world. And to reveal Himself, His strength and His wisdom through weak vessels so that we may know who He is and His character Daniel 2:30.

Do you think that Joseph worried about what he would say about the dreams of the butler and the cook. Or that Joseph recognized that God was working and that God would speak.

• Jesus in Mark 13:11 and Luke 12:11 tells us not to worry about what we will say before we are delivered to and taken before the rulers of this World to be condemned in their eyes. Because He will tell us what to speak of Him when that time is needed.

Paul wrote four letters while in prison in Rome; Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. In them Paul speaks about being a prisoner of Christ Jesus for the Gentiles, Ephesians 3:1. Paul tells the Ephesians not to loose heart at his tribulation, Ephesians 3:13. And that God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, Ephesians 3:20.

• Paul here lays out 2 negative situations, Paul’s a prisoner (someone who has lost their freedom) and he’s undergoing tribulations. Tribulations speaks of an intense pressing, similar to pressing olives for olive oil. And what Paul concludes Ephesians 3 with in Ephesians 3:20 is exactly what is produced through sufferings for the furthering of the Gospel, and that is what oil symbolizes throughout Scripture, the fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit in an individuals life. Through imprisonment and tribulation the exceeding abundant power that came forth, was that no matter how much the elements of this world wish to quiet the Gospel; Salvation and Spiritual Growth continued to work out as God planed from eternity. The continuation of individuals coming to a saving Trust in Jesus Christ for their life and their spiritual growth, it can not be stopped by any outside force or individual. The only one who can stop it, is the individual, choosing not to receive it in their own life. Paul gloried in tribulations, Romans 5:3, because he knew that neither tribulation, nor anguish, nor persecutions could separate him from the love of Christ, Romans 8:35.

Joseph is a great type or picture of Christ for us in the Old Testament. Up to Genesis 40 and a little later we see: Joseph’s a beloved son, a rejected servant, and an exalted savior. As a rejected servant, we see of Joseph in prison; that he was hated, sold into the hands of gentiles, he suffered, it was intended and thought that he was dead.

In all of Joseph’s situations and circumstances we see that he never lost his dependency on the will of God. We also see that with Jesus, all the way to the point of the cross, Jesus never took His trust off of the eternal plan of God and trust in it’s fulfillment, Galatians 2:20, as we live by the faith (trust) of the Son of God. In the year to come do you wish to have the same unwavering trust in the Lord’s presence in and amongst your present situations and circumstances? I would like to encourage you then to continue to let the Lord to be apart of every situation, continue to allow His presence to lead you into each situation and circumstance, and to continue to look for where He is working.