God has a vision for your life but between the seeing and the living of the vision there is a journey requiring perseverance, endurance.
Perseverance: to persist in an undertaking in spite of opposition or discouragement.
Joseph was created and called by God to be an instrument of kingdom purpose. He would eventually become the Prime Minister of Egypt so that during a terrible famine, he could provide the food that kept his father and brothers alive. Joseph and his brothers would become the fathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, the nation into which the Messiah would someday be born.
Joseph was chosen by God to preserve the Messianic seed from starvation. But what trials, betrayals and disappointments he endured. His journey is a story of perseverance.
It also is a story of dream and vision.
To journey with Joseph is to make a pilgrimage into the regions of the soul. Joseph was a dreamer of dreams, a seer of visions and as God gave him wisdom, an interpreter of dreams and visions.
When I say that Joseph was a dreamer of dreams, I mean those moments of deeper insight and revelation in which God gives us wisdom concerning our life or the lives of those around us. This sense of vision may happen in slumber or wakefulness and may even be called a dream but more than a dream, deeper than a dream, are these moments when God gives a glimpse of the truth, the reason, the pattern and purpose for our lives.
The Bible says, Where there is no vision, the people perish (Prov. 29:18). The word vision may also be translated revelation. The word perish has a sense of the unraveling of life, a loss of center. The verse could be translated, Where there is no revelation, the people are unrestrained.
How dull and uncolored, how ragged and random life can be without a God-granted sense of purpose. There is no gravity, nothing holding time and talent together in cohesion and focus. All the moments and gifts fly off in unrestrained orbits of chaos and meaninglessness.
How rich, focused and full life is when we are able to say, “Here is why God created me, this is the design that exists in the heart and mind of God and it is now my purpose. This is the dream of my soul. It may not be spectacular, it may not hold meaning for anyone else. But it is my vision.”
I trust we have all had glimpses of God’s design for our lives. Have you discovered that there are two kinds of people in this world? There are those who have seen the vision, who speak the dream and live in the direction of their vision. Then there are those who merely sleep and wake and spend their lives resenting the vision of others.
Joseph was one who dreamed and with Godly courage and wisdom, shared the dream, suffered for the dream, lived into the fulness of his dream.
The story of Joseph begins in Genesis 37 when Joseph was 17 years old and shepherding the flock with his brothers. If this sounds peaceful, it was not. His brothers hated him. Their father, Jacob, loved Joseph more than his other sons and gave his favored son a special robe, a robe of many colors. The others resented this, they were jealous.
There is something about Joseph himself that reminds me of a coat of many colors. Something about his brothers reminds me of dull, faded robes. In each of us there is the art work of God, but no one will ever know unless we share it, live it. As we do, some people tend to reflect back to us the patterns of our giving. Joseph lived his colors and Jacob gave him a coat of many colors.
His brothers never spoke of dream or vision, seemed unaware of a divine design for their lives. Or maybe they did have a sense of God’s purpose but were unwilling to expose their souls, only risking the safe, acceptable conversations of stale, drab society. Not coincidentally, no one gave them a multi-splendored coat. They were angry at the guy who did get one.
One day Joseph had a vision from God, a dream-picture of the future. In this dream, he and his brothers were gathering sheaves of wheat and Joseph’s sheaf stood upright while the sheaves of his brothers bowed down to his (Gen. 37:6,7). He did not interpret this to them, did not boast. Really, they did the interpretation: Are you indeed to reign over us? (37:8). They hated him even more.
Then another dream — the sun, moon and eleven stars were bowing down to Joseph (Gen. 37:9). Now even his father Jacob was angry, Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? (37:10). But Joseph was not flaunting himself, it was not he who interpreted the dream. He merely shared it. There was something grand and glorious in his tomorrow and he had a sense of the journey. It was indistinct, not fully formed yet, but a sense of vision was birthing in his soul.
Again, he wasn’t boasting. He merely spoke the colors of his dream, as was his nature.
His brothers’ hostility multiplied. How the world loves and hates a dreamer who shares his vision. People give them gifts, coats of many colors, and resent the boldness of the pattern.
Martin Luther King said, “I have a dream.” It was a dream of people walking in dignity and liberty, free to pursue the colors of their destiny. He was rewarded with honors, gifts and hatred. His dream inspired prayers and curses, loving embrace and violent retaliation. When he was killed, some mourned, some applauded.
Jesus began His ministry preaching, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Good News (Mark 1:15). He called the world to turn and believe the Good News that a day is at hand when men and women will be at peace with God and with one another, when the world will be restored as a garden. He healed the sick, forgave the guilty, released the captive. As Jesus proclaimed His kingdom vision, He was loved and hated, praised and persecuted. When He died, some grieved and many rejoiced.
How the world hates and loves its dreamers.
There came a day when the brothers of Joseph were out in a field tending their flock. They saw Joseph approaching and said, Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, ‘A wild beast devoured him.’ Then let us see what will become of his dreams (Gen. 37:19,20).
Here comes this dreamer whose visions and colors are so visible, this one who reminds his brothers of their lack of vision and the poverty of their souls. “Come,” they said, “and let us kill him and no longer be threatened by his richness and our poverty.”
How true the proverb, Without a vision people perish (without revelation people are unrestrained). Either translation will do. Rather than risk seeking and sharing and living the colors of their own dream, it’s easier to kill the one who reminds them that they have never seen their own vision.
So they seized Joseph, stripped him of his robe, cast him into a pit (Gen. 37:24). Then they sat down to eat lunch (37:25). Bigotry is hard work, you can really stir up an appetite. They have a tailgate party before the main event. We’ll finish the lynching in a minute but first, fried chicken and biscuits.
While they were eating, a caravan appeared on the horizon (Gen. 37:25). Wouldn't it be simpler to sell Joseph into slavery? Then we could be rid of him without incurring the guilt of his death. “Don’t want his bright blood on our colorless robes,” they might have said. Violence has many disguises but prefers counterfeit righteousness.
So they sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver. Jesus also confronted the souls of men. He too was loved and hated, stripped of His robe and sold for pieces of silver.
The brothers dipped the robe in goat blood, took it to Jacob and said, We found this; please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not (Gen. 37:32). Jacob wailed his grief, It is my son’s robe; a wild beast has devoured him (37:33). And he wept.
So, the world had finally stripped the robe of many colors from the dreamer. But they could not strip away the dream. The vision goes where the visionary goes, it accompanies him for it abides within him. The haters could take the outer form, but they could not touch the colors, the dynamic life and power of the vision that filled Joseph’s soul.
Joseph, dreamer of dreams, was stripped of his robe and sold to a caravan of merchants who carried him to Egypt. There he was sold to a man named Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh’s guard (Gen. 39:1). Joseph is now a slave in a foreign country, separated from his father and home, from family and friends.
Joseph, dreamer of dreams, welcome to a world in need of a dream.
1. Lesson number one, Joseph:
If you will be a dreamer of dreams,
if you will see and live God’s purpose for your life, if you
will wear the coat of many colors and risk sharing your vision,
then you will suffer for the vision,
you will bleed for its colors,
you will weep for the dream.
Isn’t it true that Joseph was innocent and good, that he suffered unjustly at the hands of unjust people? Yes and what does Jesus say?
Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who went before you (Matt. 5:11,12).
Joseph was a Godly man, a visionary, a man who understood that God’s unique design for his life was woven into God’s grand design of a kingdom coming. And he suffered for righteousness.
Where is God in all this?
2. Lesson number two, Joseph:
The Lord is with you.
The Lord was with Joseph,
and he became a successful man;
and he was in the house of his
master the Egyptian (Gen. 39:2).
God’s blessing continued to be upon Joseph to prosper and lead him in the direction of his dreams. Remember this, Joseph, when you are persecuted for the sake of Godly vision: God is with you.
In Psalm 105 we read how God shepherded the ancestors of Israel before there was a nation, from the time of Abraham when Israel was only a promise. Many years after Abraham had passed on, there was a famine in the land and his grandson Jacob had to leave and go to Egypt. But God had sent someone ahead to prepare a place for Jacob and his family. That man was Joseph. We read, He (God) sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave (Ps. 105:17).
Did you catch that?
Joseph’s brothers sold him. God sent him.
There was an intentionality in Joseph’s life, a divine purpose designed in the heart of God. Joseph may have been discouraged, may have been confused. He may have been asking, “Where is God’s plan in all of this?” He may not have been able to see God’s design at that time but it was as finely woven as a beautiful robe.
You may not always discern the pattern of God’s purpose, the wisdom of His design. You may not always even sense His presence with you, but the God of the journey has made promises to you: Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (Matt. 28:20).
I will never desert you nor will I ever forsake you (Hebr. 13:5).
The Apostle Paul experienced unceasing, violent opposition and persecution. Yet he said confidently, And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son so that He would be the firstborn of many brethren; and those whom He predestined He also called; and these whom He called He also justified; and these whom He justified He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? (Rom. 8:28-31).
Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? … But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 8:35, 37-39).
David the Psalmist experienced great hostility and opposition, yet he sang, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You are with me (Ps. 23:4).
Joseph was sold into slavery.
Where was God? God was with Joseph and the blessing of the Lord continued to be upon him as he served his master, the Egyptian. So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house and all that he owned he put in his charge (Gen. 39:4).
Notice that because God is with Joseph, he is favored. And because he is favored, his master put him in charge over his house and all that he owned. Joseph is not wasting time. He is exercising administrative responsibility over a household in preparation for the day when he will administrate the entire nation of Egypt.
Notice also that Joseph is a Godly witness to his pagan master: Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his charge (Gen. 39:3). The blessing and favor of God upon Joseph is visible even to a man who does not know God. What a wonderful witness!
Notice also that because Joseph was blessed, his master was blessed: The Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph (Gen. 39:5). God glorifies Himself in causing His blessing to flow through His covenant people into the lives of the lost around us.
Where is God in Joseph’s trial? God is with Joseph. Therefore, he is favored and blessed. He is being prepared for a day of greater responsibility by exercising responsibility where he is. He is a witness and a blessing to an ungodly man.
So, it all comes up roses?
Not so much.
3. Lesson number three, Joe:
There will be temptations that could compromise your dream and you must be a person of integrity or you will forget who you are and where you are going.
And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and said, ‘Lie with me’ (Gen. 39:7). This was a constant effort — she sought him day after day (Gen. 39:10). Remember that Joseph is alone, he’s single, he’s been rejected by his brothers. You know he’s hungry for love and acceptance. Would there be a demon whisper in his ear? “Come on Joseph, ease up on this vision thing just a bit. You only go around once so grab some gusto, have it your way. You deserve a break today. You don’t have to be a giver all the time — do some taking.”
What a dangerous moment in his life. Sexual temptation strikes at the center of our being, our self concept and our relationship with God. If Joseph had given in, he would have separated himself from God and from God’s purpose. His response reveals that he was aware of this, How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? (39:9).
Joseph understands that all sin is ultimately against God, as David reveals in his confession before the Lord, Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge (Ps. 51:14).
Make sure you understand this Joseph: if you will be a person of vision, you must also be a person of integrity because there will be temptations, enticements, bribes under the table and gold coins in a handshake. Though some of them may seem insignificant at the time and others as huge as the sun, each can cost you everything.
The greatest cost of compromise is that it separates us from the Lord. It is impossible to compromise our integrity and enter the fullness of God’s vision for our life. Yes God forgives and restores when we repent. But often there may be consequences.
4. Lesson number four:
People of vision will be sometimes misunderstood, falsely accused and unjustly punished. There will be accusations and allegations that threaten to destroy your dream.
When Joseph refused the offer, the woman became angry, grabbed his robe and ripped it off him as he fled. Of course she gave it to her husband with lying accusations. Joseph was falsely accused and thrown in prison by the very person whom he had served so faithfully (39:12-20).
That’s not fair!
Right, and that can happen in a fallen world. And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim 3:12).
This latest injustice in Joseph’s life was not because of his sin, failure or separation from God. It happened because Satan was seeking to destroy an instrument of God. That’s the way it is in a fallen world. But every attack of Satan only brought Joseph closer to the time and place when God would use him to fulfill kingdom purpose.
Some of the hurtful things that happen to us in life are because of our own failure or sin. But often it is because we we are living in an evil world. But if we are patient and faithful, we will see the hand of God positioning us in this fallen world and preparing us for our destiny. Where personal sin is involved, we repent, we humbly make a fresh surrender of our life to God and ask God to redeem the time and the experience and use it for His glory. When it is not our sin, when it is an attack of Satan, we endure, we persevere, we press on, trusting that God is present and is working all things together for our good and His glory.
That’s why the Apostle James encourages us, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials (James 1:2-4). Why should I count it all joy?
5. Because of lesson number five:
God will use these seasons of trial to color, enrich, deepen, stretch the vision and strengthen the man or woman who carries the vision. Continuing James’ exhortation, Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing (James 1:2-4).
Therefore, the Apostle Paul said, And not only this but I also exult in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance (patience, endurance) and perseverance, proven character and proven character, hope (Rom. 5:3,4).
Paul says that he will rejoice in seasons of trial because these experiences build endurance and endurance builds character, enabling him to push on and fulfill God’s purpose for his life.
When I was a boy I ran on a track team. I remember the first time I ran a quarter mile in competition. Coming around the last turn I thought I was about to die and go to heaven. I had to learn the hard way that they don’t give awards for looking good coming out of the blocks or going into the last turn. The prize is to those who finish the race.
What does it take to finish the race? Endurance, perseverance. How do we acquire this? It is our trials which produce the persevering character which enables us to finish the race.
If we quit, we rob ourselves of the endurance we would have gained, the character that would have matured in us. And we rob God of the opportunity to use us more greatly in the future. We learn how to finish a painful quarter mile by running a painful quarter mile and not giving up but enduring and the more we endure, the more we are able to endure, the more our character grows and God is able to fulfill more of His design and purpose for our life.
Trials do not destroy the dreamer or the dream. They are a part of the transforming journey.
In Psalm 105:19, the Psalmist is speaking of the Lord’s vision for Joseph’s life. He wrote, Until the time that His word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.
The word tested may also be translated refined, purified, purged. It refers to the refiner’s fire applied to gold or any precious metal. Fire does not destroy gold — it purifies gold. Until the season when Joseph entered into the fulness of God’s purpose for His life, the journey refined him, purified him, prepared him to live God’s purpose.
The same can be said of the vision which God has planted in our hearts. Our communion with God may sometimes be a journey of fire but it is the fire of transformation.
Fiery trials do not mean that God is absent. Quite to the contrary, But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison (Gen. 39:21).
Where was God during Joseph’s imprisonment? The Lord continued to be with Joseph, showing him steadfast love, giving him favor, using and honing his gifts. He is Lord of the journey and as such, exercises sovereignty, Lordship, over the trials of the journey.
So it naturally follows, The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it ... and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper (Gen. 39:22,23).
Joseph was doing the same thing in prison that he had been doing in his former master’s house — exercising leadership, administration, organizing, responsibly caring for people. The Lord was continuing to prepare Joseph, transforming and shaping him for his moment in history, using the circumstances of prison to mature him toward the fulfillment of the purpose which God had for his life.
Joseph had been seventeen years old when he began to sense God’s purpose but it would be years before he was ready to live that vision. During the intervening years, God used every circumstance of life, just and unjust, to develop him into the man who could live the vision at the right moment in history.
Jesus was twelve when he understood the necessity of being about His Father's business but even He spent eighteen years in the carpenter shop. You may be entering in to a deeper awareness of the way God wants to work through you. The Lord may be sharing with you a keener sense of His vision for your life. But it may be years between the seeing and the living of the vision. Between these two events is the journey of transformation and you will need to persevere.
As you endure, be encouraged that the Lord is just as sovereign during these seasons of adversity and trial as in any other season. He is just as present in the fire of trial as in the dance of triumph. This leads to the next lesson.
6. Lesson number six, Joseph:
Even in times of preparation, God will still use you to minister to others.
It seems that Pharaoh’s chief butler and baker were thrown into the prison and Joseph was given responsibility for them. It says, He waited on them (40:4). The words waited on are also translated, ministered to, served.
God was using Joseph to minister to those in circumstances just like his own. Our mission field is wherever we are on our journey. If Joseph had not been available to God in prison, he would not have been available anywhere else. If God could entrust ministry to him within his immediate circumstances, then He could trust him beyond.
Later, the butler and baker had dreams which they could not interpret (40:5-8). Joseph said, Do not interpretations belong to God? Because he was living close to God, he could interpret their dreams. God was using Joseph in ministry even as He prepared him for ministry. He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much (Luke 16:10).
Have you ever been falsely accused, unjustly imprisoned in the circumstances of your life? Joseph was, but God used him there to touch other lives even as He prepared him for higher purpose. Two more years would pass before that purpose would manifest. Though God’s calendar seems sometimes slow, yet it draws irresistibly toward a divinely appointed fulfillment.
7. Lesson number seven:
If we are faithful, the day does dawn when the prison door opens and the time of preparation is ended. If we have been faithful, if we have stayed close to the Lord of the journey and allowed Him to conform and shape and weave us to His holy pattern, if we have allowed Him to purge out the stains that would mar the vision’s full color, the moment arrives when the circumstances of life open up into higher purpose.
That moment may seem long in coming. Abraham and Sarah journeyed for 25 years into the vision of a child, but we read, Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him (Gen. 21:2). Paul reminds us, When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son (Gal. 4:4).
In God’s perfect timing, the doors opened and Joseph stepped forth into the realized vision of God for his life. Now, he could not only see it, he was also mature enough to live it and wear it like a coat of many colors.
It seems that Pharaoh had a dream that troubled him and he could not interpret it, neither could his advisors (Gen. 41:1-13). There was a famine of wisdom in the king’s court. Amazing! Not that there was a lack of wisdom in the palaces of power — we've known that for some time. But amazing to hear a king admit it rather than spin it with his media advisors.
Pharaoh’s advisors could not provide wise counsel but the cupbearer, who had been released from prison, remembered the young man in the dungeon who had interpreted a dream for him and for the baker. He mentioned the young man to Pharaoh.
Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon; and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came to Pharaoh (Gen. 41:14). Who is called to stand and deliver God’s wisdom for that hour? Joseph, a man prepared by God for that moment in history.
How many times have the power brokers and witch doctors been bankrupt of wisdom and vision, and the people perishing? Yet God calls someone to stand — someone chosen and prepared. Then God’s messenger brings the vision of the Most High God. From Joseph to Paul, from Martin Luther to John Wesley and Catherine Booth to you and me — it is a long line of messengers and we are included in this line if we have journeyed with Christ Jesus.
When the butlers and bakers, the kings and strangers, prisoners and neighbors look to us and say,
“I don’t understand, can you give me wisdom?”
“I cannot see the way, can you give me vision?”
What will we give them? Cliches, bumper sticker slogans? Or will we give them God’s word, God’s vision for their life? Will we be Joseph to a perishing generation?
Truly, there would have been a terrible perishing in Joseph’s day, had there not been a Godly man to stand and interpret the times. Pharaoh’s dream was from God, for there was a time of prosperity coming, followed by devastating famine. God, in His mercy, desired to reveal this, so that the nation might make preparation.
Joseph gave the proper interpretation and suggested a plan.
The king’s response was to say, Can we find such a man as this, in whom is the Spirit of God? (Gen. 41:38). Pharaoh then set Joseph over all the land of Egypt (41:41). Joseph emerged from prison as the Prime Minister of Egypt, second in power only to Pharaoh.
Guided by Joseph’s wisdom, during the years of plenty the storehouses were filled. When the famine came, it was as terrible as God had revealed but there was abundant provision thanks to the wisdom of Joseph. From all nations round about, people came to buy grain, including the sons of Jacob, Joseph’s brothers.
Joseph revealed his identity and ministered to them, saying, And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God (Gen. 45:7,8).
His brothers fell down in fear before him but Joseph, recognizing the hand of God in the events of his life, said, Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? As for you, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore do not be afraid; I will provide for you and for your little ones (50:19-21).
“You sold me. God sent me.”
“You betrayed me. God prepared me.”
“You meant it for evil. God meant it for good.”
As a young man Joseph had a visionary sense of the calling of God upon his life and he steadfastly endured through years of betrayal, false accusation, trial and adversity. He pressed into God’s vision for his life.
Because Joseph persevered, pressed on faithfully, the kingdom purpose of God continued to unfold in history. Because he endured, the family of Jacob was preserved from famine; so that someday the infant nation of Israel could go forth out of Egypt to the land of promise; so that someday a Messiah could be born to that nation; so that someday a holy church could go forth preaching the good news of salvation; so that someday you and I could know the Lord and enter in to the vast wonder of His kingdom purpose for our lives.
Yes, there is vision for us, too. There is a robe of many colors. The times are just as urgent, the famines as deadly as ever.
If we will be Joseph to our generation, then we will need to learn the lessons Joseph learned: before we can show anyone their vision, we need to see our own; before we can show anyone how to wear their robe of many colors, we must learn to wear our own; if we would be a minister to the kings before us, we must first be servant to the prisoners around us.
If we would be a person who wears the robe and lives in the direction of the vision, then we will be persecuted and misunderstood. Yet God will be with us and He will use that time and those circumstances to shape us into men and women who can fulfill His vision.
If we persevere faithfully, the day will come when the doors of soul and circumstance open into the broader purpose, that vision far richer than we could ever have imagined for ourselves.
Others might say of you,
“Well, I never thought she would have amounted to that.”
“Hmm, I had no idea he had that in him.”
God did, God imagined it.
God bless you, you Josephs yet to be released,
God bless you for that moment when you step out,
when you stand and bring God’s vision to a broken world.
Because Joseph, the world needs you.
People are perishing for lack of that vision,
that dream, that coat of many colors.
They are waiting for you, Joseph.