TUESDAY June 3rd
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.’
The second thing that we see in these first few verses concerning Joseph and his family is that their dad, who was Jacob had a favourite! There were twelve sons altogether, and today we would almost call them a dysfunctional family, for the twelve sons came from 4 different women, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph whose mother was Rachel was the favourite son.
We used the word ‘principles’ yesterday, today from this account I want to use the word ‘partiality’, Jacob showed partiality to Joseph, he loved him more than any of the other sons and he gave to him a special gift, a robe of many colours.
Now, we are all the sons and daughters of God, and it is because of our coming to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, we have been adopted into his family, (Romans 8:15) and I want to say that God does not so partiality to any single one of us, he loves us all equally, he cares for us all equally, he provides for us all equally, he watches over us all equally and he gives out of his storehouse to us all equally. And we could make an even longer list than what I have just done. He does not love me more than he loves you and he doesn’t love you more than he loves me.
But then we could come back with a question, then if God does not show partiality how come from among these twelve boys, did God single Joseph out and he becomes the subject of the next 15 chapters in Genesis. The answer is simple, and it introduces another word beginning with P and it is the word ‘plan’. God does not show partiality and if you want some further proof, God has given every one of us a special coat, it is called a robe of righteousness! But more specifically God also has a unique plan for each one of us. He loves us the same, but he has a special plan, a special purpose for you and it is different to his plan or purpose for me, even though currently it has caused our paths to cross as we fellowship together at Emmanuel.