Message
Mother’s Day
The Life of Joseph #1: Joseph: A ‘Chosen’ Child, a Dreamer, and Sibling Rivalry
Genesis 37
Sunday, we begin a message series on The Life of Joseph, from Genesis 37-50. The life of Joseph is embedded in the grand story of God’s redemptive history of salvation for the world and his people. Sometimes, we have the tendency to view characters in the Bible as moral lessons about ‘how to be, how to act’, ‘what to do, what not to do’, essentially boiled down to ‘be like Joseph’ or ‘don’t be like Joseph.’ Often this misses the mark.
God’s revelation of himself and his ways revealed in Scripture highlight God’s character and God’s saving ways above all. God is at work in and through Joseph, his life, his flaws and his faithfulness. The Bible is a grand story of God’s redemptive working in human history and God created time. And all of Scripture is pointing forward to Jesus, through whom God’s plan of salvation comes to fruition.
All of Scripture is pointing forward to Jesus, through whom God’s plan of salvation comes to fruition.
As we walk through these chapters in Genesis, focusing on the life of Joseph, we will be telescoping out to see how the life of Joseph fits into the grand story of God’s redemptive, historical narrative. For example, the life of Joseph can’t be separated out from the Creation account, the disobedience of Adam and Eve and resulting curse of sin, the crescendo of sin’s destructive fruit during the time of Lamech, the Flood of God’s judgment and renewal, the Tower of Babel, the calling of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob… and now, for our focus of the next 6 weeks, The Life of Joseph. Nor can the life of Joseph be set apart from the coming bondage in Egypt, the Exodus, the wilderness experiences, the promised land, the line of Prophets, Priests, and Kings… and of course, it all points to Jesus, the ultimate fulfillment of God’s revelation of salvation. So we cannot separate the life of Joseph from the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Looking forward to kicking off this new series! For God’s coming, present, and growing Kingdom within us and in his world, to God be the glory both now and forever, see you Sunday!
Pastor Mark
PS: Happy Mother’s Day coming to all of our Mothers in our faith family, and to each of our Mothers! God’s blessing be upon our Mothers!