Joseph’s Life
The life of Joseph is a great story about life being unfair. The fact that Joseph’s brothers tried to kill him and then found out that they could make a profit by selling him to slave traders. They thought they had seen the last of Joseph and for all intents and purposes, he was dead; at least in their minds. They even deceived their father Jacob about it, making him endure needless grief over what he thought was the life of his favored son. Joseph was special to Jacob because he was the youngest born to his more beloved wife, Rachael, whom he loved dearly and so Joseph had a special place in Jacob’s heart. Imagine what he must have felt like for many years, since Joseph would be there for at least 8 years when his brothers finally came from grain due to a severe famine that had struck the whole region. The point is Joseph never complained and although God never directly communicated with Joseph, even in prison, it was said “And the Lord was with Joseph” (Gen 39:2). It probably didn’t look like it to us because he was sold into slavery, falsely accused and thrown into prison, forgotten about, and yet, “the Lord was with Joseph” (Gen 39:21). Never forget that God is always with you and even in the silence of God there is the presence of God (Heb 13:5) and will turn evil into His own good for us (Gen 50:20; Rom 8:28).