So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe - the richly ornamented robe he was wearing - and they took him and threw him into the cistern........they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming form Gilead.....Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites"......So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.
Genesis 37: 23-28; 39: 1-4 (NIV)
The story of Joseph, which I'll be sharing a little more of in the coming weeks, goes on to tell us how Joseph, who continued to face trials, trusted God & in return, God blessed him & made him a ruler!
But right now I want to focus on this one point:
God had a plan for Joseph. While being hated by his own brothers & being sold into slavery probably made Joseph feel very abandoned, not only by his own family, but possibly even by God, he continued to honor God. He trusted that God had a plan. And guess what? God did! God used the horrible circumstances {hated by brothers, sold into slavery, wrongly accused, forgotten in prison, etc.}, to get Joseph to where he wanted him to be! Romans 8:28 tells us that in all things, God is working for the good of those who love Him. And Psalms 37: 23 reminds us that the steps of a righteous person are ordered by God. In other words, no matter what trials you may be facing, no matter how difficult life may seem at the moment, no matter how abandoned you may feel, God has a plan for you! He simply asks that we continue to trust, love, and honor him.......He will do the rest!
