Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 37 before reading the devotional below.
If you find yourself humming Broadway tunes when you read this chapter, you know you’ve gotten to the part in the Bible where Joseph gets his amazing technicolor dreamcoat. (I’m singing “Jacob and Sons” right now…) Broadway isn’t known for getting all the biblical details right, so let’s lean in to what the Bible actually tells us about Jacob, Joseph, and the whole family of Israel.
We see some serious sibling rivalry in this chapter, and Joseph doesn’t make it any better by being presumptuous and arrogant. Sometimes even when you get a word or dream from God you should keep it to yourself. Even his father thought he was being a bit brash to tell everyone that his father and brothers would bow to him someday — although it was true. Joseph is sold into slavery and this story is the perfect example of how earthly circumstances cannot always show us what God is doing.
Here’s your freedom for today:
God has a plan for your life and will see it to completion.
God gave Joseph a dream of power and royalty. That was absolutely where God was taking him. But when his brothers sell him to slave traders he might have felt that God’s plan was getting disrupted. Quite the opposite! God’s plan was just beginning. Joseph would never have been in a position of royalty had he not be sold by his brothers. We can’t assume when things fall apart that God stopped working or his plan is thrown off course. If you’ve given your life to God, you can trust that he is leading you and will bring you exactly where you need to go. He’ll even use your weakness and mistakes to get you there.