MONDAY June 2nd
Genesis 37:2-4
‘These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colours. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.’
As we come back to the devotions today, I have also moved on quite a few chapters, from Abraham to Joseph.
We will consider Joseph over a few devotions, obviously because there are agricultural and horticultural references in his story, (he was a shepherd) but I won’t always refer to these things because I think at this point there are many things we can learn from his life.
We meet Joseph first in Genesis 35:24 as one of the sons of Jacob and Rachel, by the time we get to our verse for today he is seventeen years old, and along with his brothers he is pasturing the flock.
Joseph and his brothers were shepherds, but they didn’t get on too well together, maybe from verse 2 we would call him a tell-tale as he gave their father a bad report about the brothers! But perhaps, in fact we should look at this way that already there is evidence that Joseph was a young man with good principles!
And can I say especially to any of the younger ones who read these devotions, that you must never feel embarrassed, nor ever feel ashamed of firstly, your Christian testimony and secondly of your godly principles. When the morals you have been taught and learned about from your Christian parents, the pastor, the Church and the word of God are different to what you see in the lives of your unbelieving peers or what you witness with whatever you watch in films or on TV, don’t compromise, don’t put yourself into situations where you fudge the boundaries just to fit in. God has set moral boundaries because he wants the best for us as his children. He wants us to be faithful in the way that we pursue life and how we live so that we bring honour and glory to his name.