Title: Joseph Suffering from Youth
Contents
Bible Text: Genesis 37:24-28
Joseph struggling in his youth
Genesis 37:24-28, 39:20-21
Chairman Chung Ju-young's younger brother Jeong Se-young returned from Korea University's entrance exam and bowed his head, saying to his brother, "I think it will be difficult to pass." Jung Joo-young got angry and said, “Hey man! I also entered ancient times, so why can't you?" As you know, Joo-Young Jung only went to elementary school. To say that he entered the ancient world means that he had just entered as a worker when constructing a building. The brothers laughed out loud together. It's a funny story that blows away my anxiety. Let's laugh! is a word that has been used since ancient times.
Joseph married Asenath and had their first son, and he named him Manasseh. It means “God has made me forget all my troubles and all my father’s household chores.” Joseph was a young man who suffered. I was abandoned by my brothers. sold into slavery. He was convicted of attempted rape without guilt and was sentenced to two years in prison. Yet, nowhere in the Bible does he ever feel distressed or sad. He laughed. “The grace of Manasseh” This is the grace that made us forget all the unjust hardship, tearful sorrow and pain.
thrown into the pit
On an errand from his father, Joseph went to the field where his brothers were tending sheep. The brothers see Joseph from a distance and say: “The dreamer is coming! Come, kill him and throw him into a pit, and let us say, An evil beast has devoured him” (verses 18-20).
Reuben, the eldest of his twelve sons, was determined to save Joseph and said, “Let us not harm his life. Throw him into the pit in the wilderness, and do not put your hand on him.” When the brothers heard what their brother said, “They threw him into the pit in the wilderness, and the pit was empty, and there was no water in it” (verse 24).
Joseph's brothers were jealous of him at first. The times turned to malice. Malice turned into a murder plot. Everyone is like that. What starts out as a trivial feeling gets worse and deeper as it goes down to the bottom of the crime scene. Joseph's older brothers are also on the steep slope of their depravity.
When President Park Chung-hee was in the army, he was arrested and sentenced to death on charges of meddling with the left-wing South Labor Party. In February 1949, following the decision of Colonel Paik Seon-yup, then head of the Intelligence Bureau, he was dramatically saved. Major Park Jeong-hee said with a trembling voice, but resolutely, "Please save me once." Colonel Baek Seon-yeop said, "I do. Let’s try to do that.” Ten days later, he was taken to the execution site in Susa and was about to die, but miraculously survived. At that time, the Republic of Korea was a new country that had to eradicate the left wing within the military.
Just as Reuben had a heart to save Joseph, General Paik Seon-yup also wanted to save Park Jeong-hee. It is said that this was possible because the US military received an understanding to respect Paik's judgment.
What would have happened if Joseph had been killed? What would the Republic of Korea be like if Park Chung-hee had died as a major? Just thinking about it is terrifying. God is the ruler of history. Both Joseph and Park Jeong-hee had a lot to do in this world, so God saved them. Joseph became the shepherd and rock of Israel in the future. Park Chung-hee became the science president of the Republic of Korea and a leader who saved the economy.
What kind of man is Joseph, and do you forsake him? The brothers abandoned Joseph, and Potiphar bought him. Buying Joseph was the best decision, whether knowingly or not knowingly. What happened to Potiphar, who bought Joseph?
“…The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake, and the Lord’s blessing was on all that he had in his house and in his fields” (Genesis 39:5). receive a blessing. When you accept the Son of God, you receive the authority to become a child of God.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).
sold as a slave
“At that time, Midianite merchants were passing by, and the brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and the merchants took him and went to Egypt” (verse 28).
The price of a slave is 30 silver shekels. Jesus was also sold for 30 shekels of silver. Joseph was sold for 20 pieces of silver. The Midianite merchants did not know how expensive the Joseph they had bought and sold was. I didn't know that he was the prime minister who would get the trust of Pharaoh and hold the key to a warehouse that would manage the economy of a country.
God had spoken to his great-grandfather Abram earlier. “...Your descendants will be strangers to the Gentiles and will serve them, and they will torment your descendants for 400 years, and I will punish the nation they serve, and after that your descendants will come out with great wealth” (Genesis 15: 13-14)
Joseph is now sold as a slave, but God is with him. The brothers sold Joseph for 20 silver shekels, but Joseph could not buy even with ten million gold.
“Are not two sparrows sold for a Assyrian? But not one of them will fall to the ground unless your Father permits it. Even the hairs of your head are all numbered; do not fear; you are of more value than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29-31).
Even if our social status disappears, material things leave us, and we suffer injustice, our spiritual status does not change.
The saints are the princes and princesses of God. They are the heirs of God. They seem like unknown people in this world, but they are famous people. Those whose names are written in the book of God.
“...all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are the called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28). has been achieved.
Judas said to his brethren, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and cover his blood? Come, sell him to the Shiram of Ishmael, and let us not lay our hands on him, saying, “He is our brother, our blood and flesh.” And his brothers obeyed” (26-27).
It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The carnal mind is death, life and peace. The word of the savior destroyed the plan of the slayer.
Of Jacob's twelve sons, Reuben and Judah were merciful. Their words saved Joseph. He said, "What good is it that killed Joseph?" Those words thwarted the conspiracy to kill Joseph.
“Cast all your anxieties on the Lord, for he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Recognize God everywhere and always and trust in His love and care.
It is said that it is beautiful if you endure sorrow by thinking of God even if you suffer vaguely. “Consider it all joy, brethren, when you are subjected to various trials, for you know that the trial of your faith produces perseverance. Perfect your patience, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in anything” (James 1:2-4).
go to jail without guilt
“Then the master caught him and put him in prison, which was the place where the king’s prisoners were imprisoned. Joseph was in prison, but the LORD was with him, and he was kind to him, and he found favor with the chief of the jail.” (Genesis 39:20-21)
Just as a stone rolls into the lowest valley, so Joseph managed to get out of the pit of death and roll through Potiphar's house and now into prison.
A prison is a place where criminals are held in custody for trial. A place where detention is held to be punished or executed.
Prison is a place of humiliation and shame. Joseph was included in the number of sinners without any fault. Like Jesus, he was innocently humiliated and tried.
Joseph becomes a prisoner and after some time becomes the custodian of the prisoners. It was because of the trust of the jailer. In Potiphar's house, he became a household secretary, and in prison he was trusted by the warden, and later in the court he was trusted by Pharaoh. Trust and honor always go together. The words, “Joseph was in prison, but the Lord was with him” were testified with trust.
For Joseph, prison is an important time. There he met the servants who served the king. Through them, I was able to stand before the king. The prison became a turning point in Joseph's life.
A prison is bad for the body but good for the mind. “Sorrow is better than laughter, because a grieved face is good for the heart” (Ecclesiastes 7:3). He is a foreigner and no one can help. While interpreting the cupbearer's dream, he said that I was a Hebrew boy and had never committed any sin to come in here. I asked you to remember me when you came out of prison, but he completely forgot and Joseph spent two years in prison. There, he only looked to God.
The Apostle Paul, recalling his prison life, said, “We should not depend on ourselves, but on God alone” (2 Corinthians 1:9). Joseph learns to be patient and wait in prison. I learned to forgive my brother who took my life for the sake of my dream, and even those who were framed and sent to prison. There are no people in the world to trust. The prison is the place where we decided to live only looking at God.
Joseph waited, trusting that God would reveal his innocence in due time and respect his chastity.
“The Lord will give you the bread of affliction and the water of affliction, but your teacher will not hide it any more, and your eyes will see your teacher” (Isaiah 30:20). Abundance and freedom are easy to corrupt life. Tribulation and suffering are the teachers of life.
“The crucible refines silver and the furnace refines gold, but the LORD refines the heart” (Proverbs 17:3). The furnace of suffering makes man. Suffering makes people.
Job knew the secret that God created saints through suffering and God's people.
“But he knows the way I go; and after he has tried me I will come forth as gold” (Job 23:10).
“I had a dream I had a dream I dreamed the green dream that God gave me I had a dream God-given dream... I forgave my brothers who betrayed me, forgave Potiphar's wife, and learned to forgive for a long time and made my dream come true...”
“The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us” (2 Corinthians 1:8).