‘He made him a coat of many
colours.’ Genesis 37:3
God gave Joseph a dream of
future greatness - one in which his brothers would bow down to him. But when he
announced his dream, his brothers hatched a plan to kill him. And to make
things worse his father ‘loved Joseph more than all his children…and he made
him a coat of many colours’. Try to see it from Joseph’s brothers’ perspective:
‘How come he gets special treatment? What’s wrong with us?’ There are important
lessons here: 1) Be careful how you come across to others; your enthusiasm can be interpreted as arrogance.
2) When God blesses you, it’s always for the benefit of other people. One day Joseph would wear a royal robe and ride in Pharaoh’s chariot, but that was just a fringe benefit. His true calling was to preserve his family lineage, from which would come the Redeemer of the world.
3) You must be generous towards those who have less than you. Joseph’s brothers worked hard and deserved their father’s love too. The coat Joseph wore didn’t mean he was better than they were; it simply marked him as having a different destiny.
4) The coat of his father’s favour didn’t exempt Joseph from hardship. Actually, he suffered more than all of them because of it. Why? Because the level of your assignment determines the level of Satan’s attack.
5) Joseph’s character, not his coat, sustained him through years of betrayal, temptation, accusation and imprisonment. How do we know that? Because he was able to look back and see the hand of God at work: ‘You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good’ (Genesis 50:20 NASB).
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