Joseph, the blessed child of Jacob (along with his brother Benjamin) seemed to face one crisis after another in his life.
Even though he was highly favored by his earthly father, to the detriment of peace with this ten older brothers, even though he had dreams that one day his parents and brethren would bow down to him, he was despised from the beginning.
Those who receive God's grace will always be despised by those who labor to enter God's good graces, like Joseph's older sons, despised because they were not the offspring of Jacob's beloved Rachel.
From his father's house to the pit, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery of the hated Midianites.
Stripped to nothing in a foreign land to be sold a slave, Joseph never forgot that "The Lord was with him."
In Potiphar's house, he brought favor and wealth his master and his household.
So favored was he, that even Potiphar's lecherous wife lusted after him.
But the Lord was with him, and Joseph refused her advances, declaring, "How can I do this thing and sin against God?"
Catching his robe as he fled for trumped evidence, Potiphar's wife then falsely accused him. Fearing the consequences of letting an accused rapist remain in his household, Potiphar has his number One servant cast into prison. Keep in mind, however, that a might military man like Potiphar would more likely have put a servant to death for attempting to rape his wife -- if he had believed the story,of course.
In prison, where God's favor promoted Joseph to overseer of the prison, he interpreted two dreams for two of Pharaoh's servants, recently fallen out of favor with their master. For the baker, he would be beheaded; for the butler, he would be restored.
After the butler was released and returned to his office, the butler forgot Joseph. But the Lord did not, and His favor and respect was all that Joseph needed.
When Pharaoh had two troubling dreams of his own, the butler finally remembered Joseph.
Within one hour, after years in prison for a crime that he did not commit, Joseph was brought before Pharaoh, and he interpreted the dreams for the Egyptian ruler.
Yet Joseph made it very clear where his power came from:
"It is as I have spoken to Pharaoh: God has shown to Pharaoh what He is about to do." (Genesis 41:28)
Not because of Joseph's skills or talents, not because of his stature or bearing, but because the Lord was with him, did Pharaoh exalt Joseph to be second in command in his kingdom:
"Then Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is a divine spirit?” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are. “You shall be over my house, and according to your command all my people shall do homage; only in the throne I will be greater than you.” (Genesis 41: 38-40)
It was the "divine spirit" of the Lord which gave Joseph favor, nothing of himself, as Joseph had already made clear.
God is in the business of promoting the weak, beggarly, lost, and broken to great heights, that He may be glorifies. Joseph enduring everything so that the world would know that it was not Joseph's skills or abilities that promoted him, but the Lord's favor.
In a short period of time, Joseph wed and had two sons:
The first he named Manasseh:
" And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, For God said he hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house" (Genesis 41:51)
God made him forgot all his trouble, literally עָמָל amal, which covers a wide variety of things worth forgetting: trouble, labor, toil, fruit of his labor, mischief (9), misery, unjust decisions , wickedness, and work.
God caused Joseph to forget not just the unjust decisions of his brothers and Potiphar's wife, not just the painful labor he had endured as a slave and prison, not just the wickedness perpetrated against him, but his own work, his own labor, the fruits of his own efforts.
When we are graced by God, we do not rest on our laurels. We no longer take pride in our self-effort, seeing how it frustrates the grace of God in our lives:
"I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain." (Galatians 2:21)
God also caused Joseph to forget his father's house.
Yet in forgetting where he came from, Joseph was not just forgetting the wrong done to him by his brothers (which we have already touched on), but he was giving up his identity as a cherished son of Jacob. He was now a blessed child of God. When we live by God's grace, we do not settle for the finite and fleeting favor of other people, even our parents, though they may have loved us and doted on us. Nothing compares to the infinite, unmerited loving favor of the Lord! He was no longer defined and limited by his family blood line. By grace he had been graced into royalty, the same precious legacy that awaits every believer who trusts in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then Joseph had another son, Ephraim:
"And the name of the second called he Ephraim For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction." (Genesis 41:52)
"Ephraim" comes from the verb "parah" פָּרָה meaning, "to bear fruit, be fruitful
become fruitful, flourishes , fruitful, fruitful tree, increased, and made fruitful.
Strong's concordance official recognizes "Ephraim" to manifest "doubly fruitful", for the "--im" in the name "Ephraim" is a plural marker. One could translate the name of Joseph's second son to mean "Fruitfulnesses" or "abundantly fruitful", or "manifold fruitfulness". Amazing! The term event suggests "fruitful tree", a never-ending source of bearing good things.
And this flourishing expands in a land of "affliction", עֹ֫נִי onyi, which speaks of misery. So, even if everything is failing in the land, even with a view so desolate as to evoke despair, yet Joseph was doubly fruitful!
This double-movement of blessing was experienced by Job:
"And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before." (Job 42:10)
By the Prophet Isaiah:
"For your shame ye shall have double; and for confusion they shall rejoice in their portion: therefore in their land they shall possess the double: everlasting joy shall be unto them." (Isaiah 61:7)
By the Prophet Joel:
"And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you" (Joel 2:25, and 3:1))
and even Zechariah:
"Turn you to the strong hold ye prisoners of hope even to day do I declare that I will render double unto thee." (Zechariah 9:12)
Joseph, evidenced through the naming of his second Son, is like the one glorified in the First Psalm and Jeremiah 17 -- the one who heeds Godly counsel, or better still who lives by grace!
From Psalm 1:
"Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper." (v. 1-3)
From Jeremiah 17:
"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. [That's Joseph, and that is for every person who believes on Him!]
For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit." (v 7-8) [He will bear fruit, even in times of affliction!]
So without striving, without writhing, but letting the Grace of the Lord, who was with him, lead him into all righteousness, peace, and joy, in one hour Joseph was transplanted from the pit to the palace, made prime minister of Egypt, rewarded with a beautiful bride, and blessed with two sons, which represent the Lord causing him to forget all his pain, hurt, loss, the abuses of family and place, and even his own efforts, to be grace by God alone -- that no one, not even his father could boast-- and to be made doubly fruitful, not just restored for what he had lost, but blessed with so much, so that Joseph would be as one who has never lost anything to begin with.
This is the glorious power of our God, who by grace sent His son, not just to redeem us out of the sinful pit of death, hell, and the grave, but to promote us as heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, a royal priesthood, forever blessed with forgetting all of our shame and toil, and being doubly blessed! And He did all the work! We are called to believe on Him, to grow in grace and knowledge of Him, and to let Him work within us both to will and to do for His good pleasure: to GIVE us the Kingdom of Heaven!
Hallelujah! What a great God we serve! Praise your name, Lord Jesus Christ!
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