Title: Joseph with a Dream
Contents
Joseph who had a dream (Genesis 37:1-6)
People say that child farming is the most important among farming. Other farms, for example, business, human relationships, success, fame... No matter how good these farms are, those who ruin their children's farms have unhappy lives. If you look around us, even if you do business in a market or run a food stall on the street, their children will prosper, and people who have children who are filial to their parents have bright expressions. I have confidence. However, even if they are in a high position and have all the wealth and honor, those who ruin their children's farming cannot raise their heads anywhere. Child farming is so important.
Looking at the man named Jacob, there were many ups and downs in life. While looking back on his own life, he confesses that he has lived through difficult years. Today's text is the story of Jacob, who lived a troubled life, after he settled in his father's land, the land of Canaan. If you think about it from the perspective of Jacob's entire life, it deals with the second half of his life. The first half is a young man who lived with his parents. The middle part is about 20 years of running away to Uncle Laban's house after deceiving his older brother and father to take away his firstborn blessing. Jacob spent the most golden period of his life as a refugee.
During that time, Jacob lived a fierce life. He struggled to survive in an unfamiliar country. He worked for 14 years without pay to get the woman he wanted. For the next six years, he lived fiercely, fighting the cold and heat, sometimes day and night, to accumulate wealth. Then he settled down in the land of Canaan, which he wanted so much, and found stability in life. However, the biggest failure of Jacob's life was farming his children. I had accumulated some fortune and found stability in my life, but I couldn't properly raise my children.
1. Today's text verse 2 tells the story of Jacob's genealogy.
‘Jacob’s genealogy’ refers to the story of Jacob’s descendants. However, while talking about the descendants of Jacob, if you look closely, you are talking about one person. That's Joseph. Why do we focus on Joseph when we talk about descendants? For reference, Jacob had 12 sons, including Joseph. had one daughter. There are 13 children in total, and the only story about the children is the story of Joseph. Why? In short, there were many children, but Joseph was the only useful child.
Even if there are so many children, there are no good children or useful children. I had a daughter, but when she was a virgin, she was raped while shooting outside and ruined her life early. How grieved Jacob's heart!
Why couldn't there be a proper child even though there were so many children? Jacob had been so busy with his life that he had no time to properly educate his children. Because I worked day and night to make money, there was no time to properly take care of how my children were growing up. Also, since there are 13 children, it must have been difficult to pay close attention one by one. I gave birth a lot, but I couldn't raise them properly. Fortunately, there was Joseph among them, and I was able to take comfort in them.
But looking at Jacob's family environment, it is difficult for a person like Joseph to emerge.
1) Joseph had four mothers.
He had four wives because his father was very talented. It's actually not a good environment.
My maternal grandfather had three wives. There were many children under him. But there were not many good children. I think it was an environment that had no choice but to do so. There were always conflicts between half-brothers. In particular, we fought each other even over trivial things, and we felt sorry for nothing. And there was always a sense of harm. So it's not an environment where big characters can come out.
2) Joseph had 13 brothers, including himself, and there were many brothers, but most of the children were crooked because he did not properly educate them. It was easier to learn the bad than the good because my parents were out of reach. Brothers growing up together in such an environment are unlikely to be affected for good. Joseph grew up in such an environment. But the strange thing is that Joseph and the other brothers were so different.
2. Let's compare Joseph with the other brothers.
1) The characteristics of Joseph are that, first, he had a dream that God gave him.
Joseph had a God-given dream when he was young. Let's look at verses 5-7. When I was a teenager, I already had big dreams, great dreams. I dreamed of becoming a great figure who rules and rules over everyone.
If a person has a dream early, he already lives his life differently. Instead of living a simple life like the teenagers of that age, we let them live a life that they prepare diligently from now on while thinking about their dreams. That's why it's good to dream early. I'll see you later. In the end, because of one Joseph, the family of Jacob comes to life. Not only does Joseph save his own family, but wherever he goes, wherever he goes, whatever he does, he becomes a person who makes things well, saves lives, and makes others happy.
So God writes the story of Jacob's descendants, focusing on Joseph. The person God was paying attention to was Joseph. If possible, let us also become people that God pays attention to. If possible, let's become the protagonists rather than the fringes in the kingdom of God.
2) Who were Joseph's other brothers?
Verse 2 tells us that when Joseph was living with his brothers, he was with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, and he told his father what they had done wrong. Bilhah and Zilpah were Jacob's concubines, and they confessed their sons' faults to their father. I don't know what's wrong, but I think it was such a bad mistake that parents shouldn't be aware of. Looking at Joseph's other brothers, they have already become delinquent youths who only do bad things without their parents' knowledge.
In particular, the brothers hated Joseph very much, for a reason.
One day Joseph had a dream. The dream is not an ordinary dream (6-7). It was a dream in which all the brothers bowed down to him. The dream is that Joseph will become a man of great authority. Even the parents dream of bowing down to Joseph. But the brothers hate Joseph even more because of the dream (8).
Everyone! If you have a dream that your brother is doing well, should you congratulate those who are well-intentioned? Should I hate my brother? Even if you can't celebrate, don't hate it. If you can't celebrate, you have to take on a challenge to see your younger brother dreaming like that. The younger brother is already looking at the wide world, the big world that they have never even thought of before, but how do they make accidents every day? I am only thinking about how to live a fun and comfortable life, so I have to take a challenge while watching my younger brother. However, I was jealous and jealous of what I was doing, and I acted like I was crushing my dreams.
3) Such is the characteristic of people without dreams. People without dreams ignore those who do. People without dreams do not think about the future, but only pursue their desires and pleasures in the present. If you are full today and have nothing to worry about today, you are satisfied with it. there is no tomorrow There are no holy complaints.
Look at verse 18. Joseph visits his brothers on an errand from his father. But what did they think when they saw their younger brother coming to see him from afar? Tried to kill and get rid of it. Because I hated being loved more than myself, I hated being recognized, and I hated living with a dream different from myself. So let's look at verse 19. He scoffed at the dreamer coming.
Look at verse 20. “I told him to kill him and see what the dream would be like.” <What kind of dream is this, if we get rid of it, it will be over in a single day, but I'm ignoring it!> People called hyungs were like gangsters. They were complete bullies. I don't know how bad they are.
They tried to get rid of the brothers who not only had no dreams, but were actually worthwhile. Rather than nurturing and pushing people who are better than me, I thought that those who were better and more advanced than me were objects of elimination and overthrow. <I don't do well, but why are you doing well?> So I hated the guy who did well. In particular, he tried to destroy dreams. It's an atmosphere we want to destroy together.
3. Everyone! As always, individuals and nations without dreams will eventually perish (Proverbs 29:18).
Why? If you don't have a dream, you're going to eat, drink and play today. Because I only think about today, I only think about how I feel right now. Why do students not study? Because there is no dream. Because I don't need tomorrow. Now, having fun, sleeping when you want to sleep, and playing when you want to play are the most important things. eventually get ruined Hit the ground later and regret it.
But Joseph is a man who lives with the dreams God has given him. A person who thinks more about the future than the present. The environment he lived in was like mud. There was no hope when he saw his own family. But Joseph had a dream. I had a dream of becoming a great person, a dream of commanding the world, and a dream of living when respected with dignity and value.
Because he had that dream, he did not give up on himself no matter how bad his family environment was. lived differently. The hyungs did not follow when they were enjoying their lives every day, “No-se, old-age, old-fashioned.” lived separately. I lived with restraint, perseverance, and preparing for tomorrow.
1) Everyone! When a person loses his dream, he becomes miserable.
So, one of the things Satan does is steal dreams from people. <What's going to happen to you!> It gives you this thought. Don't live in a special way, just enjoy life day by day. Everyone! Please do not be deceived by Satan. The harder it gets, the more I hope to live today with a dream.
God gives us dreams. Dreams come true when you are with God. So I see hope, and I run to make my dream come true no matter what price you pay today.
2) From my point of view, people living in this age are just like Joseph's older brothers.
Joseph's brothers have no tomorrow and live only for today. These are also people who have no sky and no dream of looking only at the earth. But it is the people who live in this era today. I have no dreams. Having fun, having fun and living today is in your best interest.
There is no sky. We prepare for today, thinking about the future with hope, not living holy and noble, but spontaneously, emotionally, and instinctively. If you live without a dream, what you are left with is your ambition. Everyone! Do you know the difference between an ambition and a dream?
Ambition is an instinctive desire and a self-contained thought. However, the dream is thinking of tomorrow rather than instinct, and not only thinking of oneself, but of serving others and contributing to society.
1) People have ambitions and no dreams about their children.
I only think about how to study well and succeed in a good university. I have no dream of how to raise my children well in front of God and people so that they can serve God, serve the nation, and serve their neighbors.
2) If you think about how to increase the size of the church and increase the number, that is not a dream but an ambition. The church is not a place of ambition, it is a place of dreams. How can we become a holy church, a church that God desires, and a church that serves the nation and the world? This is the dream.
3) If our nation's goal is to become a great nation economically, and to become a well-fed and prosperous country, that is only an ambition. However, it is a dream if our nation wants to become a nation that serves the world with its strength and is an honest and clean nation. When there is a dream, the individual lives, the family lives, the church lives, and the nation lives.
< Conclusion >
Don't live by your instincts like Joseph's brothers, but live with dreams like Joseph.
- A dream of becoming a godly home where our family is used by God, a family where descendants of faith come from.
- A dream in which influential figures in the church and society come out through our children.
- The dream of our church becoming a model for the nation and sending missionaries all over the world.
Individuals, families, and churches with dreams. I hope to be a nation.
< Prayer >
Please help me see my dreams in God. Let me see the dreams of myself, my children, my family, the church, and the nation.