Gen. 50:12-21, Joseph’s Oppressions

Before we leave the idea of Israel’s experience of oppression as a nation, consider Heb. 12:15 where the writer warns the people about a root of bitterness rising up that will defile many.  In the context of Hebrew this is a warning to people considering turning back from following Christ to their former worship.  It is, like Joshua 24 and 22 (yesterday's post), a call to choose the Lord (following His Christ, the Lord Jesus) rather than choosing to worship another god.  The writer of Hebrews has in mind words of warning from Moses in Deut. 29:18 (that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood) where this is exactly the context: that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations. 

Do we not see what we referred to a couple of days ago with respect to the value of these life-long oppressions?  We look back so we might have hope for the future.  These events are helpful to break up the fallow ground of our proud hearts so that we will come to fear and trust and love the Lord our God!  We should note that the events themselves are not the root of bitterness.  Rather it is the way we respond to the event that can be a root of bitterness.  By God’s grace the remembrance of these things will cause us to pursue holiness (Heb. 12:14).

Let us turn to a few individuals who could rightly say they had been oppressed in some way from their youth but who show us a life of choosing the Lord rather than a life of bitterness.  (Remember: everyone has these things in their lives.  By calling attention to some of them we are simply noting that they are common to all of them and all of us.)

·        Joseph the son of Jacob, Gen. 37-50).  Two events in his childhood were used by God to shape Joseph.  First were his two dreams whereby he could have some understanding of the plan of God.  They were God’s revelation, not only to him but to his family.  Second was the hatred of and abuse by his brothers.  So understand: we are not using Joseph as an example of the value of psychotherapy or healing therapy for our memories.  There is no statement in the Record that Joseph ever hated his brothers or doubted God’s plan.  You do have the one occasion (Gen. 40:14-15) where Joseph speaks of the two events, of being sold into slavery and being put into prison.  Perhaps he struggled with these things; that would not be a surprise.  But what we know is that Joseph’s life was defined like this: It was not you who sent me here, but God (45:8); you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good (50:20).  He was defined by the word of God that prophesied that all his brothers and all the family would bow before him. 

Let us do this one more day.   What a joy to see God Almighty, El Shaddai, time and again, taking oppressed people and using them for His glory!