The Life of Joseph: Favorite Son, Hated Brother

Dave Ens -www.EastView.org
The longest connected story in the Bible. A distinctive story telling style.
The story of Joseph is written for those who have doubts. The modern style in which it is told makes it fresh.
"God said" is very much first part of the Genesis story.
Sometimes we think we need to hear God talking to us. Sometimes he does not appear to respond.
Joseph is someone God spoke to in dreams. They are the driving force of the dreams. God has been working and active the entire time. Gen. 5o:2o
In the big picture God was living through Joseph.
Dualism = God is in his castle until we call him. If he does not appear to respond it creates guilt in us. Joseph's story says God is working / intersecting with our space. If we look for it we may see that.
Many of us fail to consider that God may be in our space the whole time. We ignore God's Nudges.
2. There is a realness to Joseph's story. He has shinning moments. He has moments of complete dysfunction and arrogance. He dishonors his father expecting him to bow down to him.
Gen. 37:7 he fanned the hatred by telling his dreams to his brothers. God has grace for dysfunction. The plot is driven by dysfunction. God used that to put him where he needed to be. the collision of our shining moments and our dysfunctions God can use to fulfil his will in us.
Rom 7:18 why do I do what I don't want to do?
I'm a better husband than 17 years ago because I made mistakes and learned from them. Life's lessons learned the hard way. God brought us together but that does not mean there will be no conflict. A story with no conflict is not a good story.
Too often we crush the dreams of tomorrow because it is too hard to get through today.
Don't limit God because you cant get things right.
We all have good and bad the Conflict between good and evil.
Jesus was sent to us to Suffer what we should have suffered. To set us free despite our dysfunction. Heb 4:14-16 Let us approach the throne of grace with boldness. Read the story of Joseph this summer. Look for God at work.