In the School of God with Joseph: Life Lessons Taught by a Master Overcomer

In the School of God with Joseph

Life Lessons Taught by a Master Overcomer

By

Douglas Hammett

Copyright 2011 Douglas Hammett

Smashwords Edition

All scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, King James Version.

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Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One: The Classroom of Bitter Rejection

Chapter Two: The Classroom of Alluring Temptation

Chapter Three: The Classroom of False Accusation

Chapter Four: The Classroom of Dashed Expectations

Chapter Five: The Classroom of Divine Protection

Chapter Six: The Classroom of Intentional Reconciliation

About the Author

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Introduction

"For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope." Romans 15:4

There’s a reason why God gives us the Bible stories of people in the Old Testament. It’s not just to give us interesting stories to read. God’s emphasis is always on people. The whole book of Genesis is about people. God gives us these Bible stories for our learning. As we learn about the Bible characters and see how God worked in their lives and how they responded in situations, it give us hope that we too can live the Christian life.

"Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted…Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come." 1 Corinthians 10:6, 11

The Old Testament passages were given to us for our example and for our admonition. If we just read through the stories quickly and don’t think about the lessons behind them, we will be the ones that miss out. The characters in those stories can serve as examples for us to know what we ought to do and not do. We can see the mistakes that they made, and yet see the mercy of God as He gave them another chance. We can see the right choices they made and the way that God blessed them because of that.

One of the characters we find in the book of Genesis is Joseph. We are going to take a look at the life of Joseph and see what God taught him in the School of God. You would think that if God was going to put a person into His school and try to teach them some things, that there would be nice buildings and smart teachers. There would never be a worry for the students. There would just be a wonderful, relaxing atmosphere in which the students could do their very best study.

Such is not the case. As we walk through the life of Joseph, we will find that God put him through some really tough times. We will find that God is not putting him through a school of enjoyment, but a school of difficulty.

There are several classrooms we see Joseph in as he is put through this School of God. We are going to study each of these classrooms to see what Joseph learned. Hopefully it will be for our learning and our example also.

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Chapter One

The Classroom of Bitter Rejection

"And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying." Genesis 37:1-11

The very first classroom we see Joseph in is the Classroom of Bitter Rejection. He is rejected by his father and his family, then sold off into slavery. Joseph is an Old Testament example of someone who knew what rejection was.

A Past to Consider

Let me preface this section by saying that our past is important, but it doesn’t have to run our present life. And just because someone’s past may be different than another’s is not an excuse to do wrong. We can’t blame our lack of obedience on our past.

Joseph was the eleventh son of Jacob, who was old when Joseph was born. Jacob’s early life was marked with deception. He tricked his brother out of the birthright and the blessing. Then the tables were turned on him by Laban, and instead of marrying Rachel, he was tricked into marrying Leah, her sister. So Jacob made another bargain with Laban and he was able to marry Rachel too. Then he had two wives, but he didn’t love Leah like he loved Rachel, so the tension began to build.

In Bible days, to have children was a blessing, but for a wife to present her husband with a son was an especially great thing. Leah began to have children and gave Jacob six sons and one daughter. She thought it would win Jacob’s favor, but it didn’t. Rachel had no children, but Jacob still loved her more than he loved Leah. When Leah couldn’t have any more children, she decided to give her servant girl to Jacob to have children for her. Rachel thought it was a great idea, so she did the same; but Rachel still did not have any children of her own.

Favoritism in a home means there will never be peace. Even though Jacob favored one wife above the other, the tension was about to get greater. Rachel had a son, and he quickly became the favorite of his father Jacob. Rachel named her son Joseph, which means, Add to me. She was saying, God, this isn’t enough. My sister has six sons, so don’t let me stop here. She wanted to be better than her own sister. Later Rachel did have another son, Benjamin, but she died during the childbirth.

Can you imagine being a part of a home like this? First, there is Jacob, known in his younger years as a great deceiver. He has four wives, two by marriage and two as concubines. They are all vying for Jacob’s attention. Read in the book of Genesis and you will see how Rachel and Leah, the two sisters, fought with each other and deceived one another as they tried to be the favored wife. There are four sets of half-siblings who don’t feel like they are loved properly, so they are all bickering among themselves and trying to get their father’s attention. There was constant chaos and tension. That is the kind of home that Joseph grew up in.

When studying Old Testament stories, our tendency is to look at the end. We see that everything turned out all right, but we forget the background and the setting. We forget about all the happenings that led up to the end. There is also a past that we need to consider. Every person has a past and no two are alike. There are four things to consider about Joseph’s past:

Diligent Faithfulness

"These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report." Genesis 37:2

Joseph was listed first in this description of Jacob’s children. He was eleventh in line of birth, yet he was God’s first choice. Joseph was seventeen years old, doing what was right, but his brothers were evidently not doing right. So he had to give his father an evil report about them. What do you think will happen? When siblings tell on each other, it certainly does not bring about fond feelings, especially in this family.

"Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours." Genesis 37:3

Joseph was favored by Jacob (also called Israel, as seen in this verse) more than the other sons. As we study the life of Joseph, we are going to see a pattern that shows up here first. He always rose to the top, no matter what the circumstances. Here we see that, even though he was the eleventh in line birth wise, he was the favored son of Jacob. Because of that, Joseph was given a coat of many colors, which meant that he was the person in charge of the other sons and workers of the family. Joseph’s coat of many colors caused him many problems with his other brothers.

A coat of many colors was very expensive. Each color would have to be painstakingly dyed separately. Because it took so much time, labor, and extra work, such a coat cost a lot of money. You wouldn’t wear a coat like that to go out to do manual labor, unless you are the one in charge and giving the orders. And it is not common to put a seventeen-year-old in charge of the family business when there are older brothers, especially ten older brothers. Yet Jacob could see that Joseph was faithful in all he did, therefore he put him over all of his brothers, some twenty or thirty years older than he was.

Later, when Joseph was