PROCLAMATION
“And
Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren; and they hated him yet the
more … they hated him … for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream … And he told
it his father and his brethren; and his father rebuked him … And his brethren
envied him …” Genesis 37:5-11 (KJV)
EXPLANATION
These
are the words of God which were revealed to and written by Moses under the
influence of The Holy Spirit of God. Jacob, now called Israel, had
twelve sons. (Genesis 35:23-26) He loved
one, Joseph, the son of his old age and his first son by his wife Rachel, more
than the others. His brothers hated him
because of that. (Genesis 37:3-4) At the age of seventeen, Joseph had
dreams in which his brothers bowed down to him. When he told his brothers
of his dreams they hated him even more. (Genesis 37:5-8 and 37:9-11)
Joseph’s brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. (Genesis
37:12) Later on, Israel sent Joseph to get information for him regarding
the wellbeing of his brothers and the flock. (Genesis 37:13) His
brothers saw him coming from far off and they had plotted to kill him, but his
oldest brother Reuben prevailed upon them not to kill him but to cast him into a
pit. (Genesis 37:17-24) Afterwards they saw a caravan approaching and
agreed to sell him to them. But first they took his coat of many colors
that his father had given him and smeared it with goat’s blood, to give it to
their father who would think he was devoured by a beast. (Genesis
37:25-33) Joseph’s brothers were moved by envy when they sold him into
slavery, but God was with him. (Acts 7:9) The Midianites who bought
Joseph sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain
of the guard. (Genesis 37:36)
APPLICATION
Not
all of our family members and friends will rejoice with us and share in the joy
of our dreams. In fact, not all of them really want to see us do well and
succeed, especially if we will become better off than they are.
Unfortunately, some people act like crabs in a barrel, pulling one another down
before they can reach the top. We should rejoice when our family and
friends rejoice and be sad when they are sad. (Romans 12:15) We are not
to desire or covet anything which belongs to others. (Exodus 20:17) We
should also be aware of the fact that dreams may show us a successful end
point, but they may not reveal the grievous predicaments which must be endured
before the prosperity. We must keep the faith and endure to the end, with
or without the support of family and friends.
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