What a comfort to know that we don't need to be a part of a perfect family for God to work in us and through us. God showed that time and time again in His Word. Two good examples of this are Joseph and Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Joseph shows the triumph of faith. Joseph never complained and he never compromised.
i. “He was loved and hated, favored and abused, tempted and trusted, exalted and abased. Yet at no point in the one-hundred-and-ten-year life of Joseph did he ever seem to get his eyes off God or cease to trust him. Adversity did not harden his character. Prosperity did not ruin him. He was the same in private as in public. He was a truly great man.” (Boice)
ii. Best of all, Joseph is also a remarkably powerful picture of Jesus Christ.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children: Jacob (Israel) was father over a troubled family. With sons from four different mothers, all living and working together, there was much rivalry and competition. Yet Jacob had a clear favorite – Joseph, who was the son of his old age.
i. We all have ideas and dreams about what a perfect family should be. By anyone’s measure, Joseph’s family had a lot of problems.
· As a young man, his father Jacob tried to trick his grandfather Isaac into giving him the family fortune instead of his older twin brother.
· It all fell apart and Joseph’s father Jacob had to run for his life when his twin brother vowed to murder him.
· Jacob went away, more than 200 miles on foot. He did not see his father Isaac for more than twenty years, when Isaac was almost dead. There is no record that he ever saw his mother again.
· Jacob found a place with his mother’s relatives, but his uncle cheated him and treated him like a slave.
· Jacob married two of his cousins, and took two more concubines (legal mistresses).
· Between them all, they had twelve sons and one daughter.
· There was constant competition and conflict among all the children and all the mothers.
· It was one great big messed-up family; still, it brought forth Joseph, and furthered God’s great plan of the ages.
It can be helpful to remember that Jesus Himself came from difficult family circumstances.
·Unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, His mom became pregnant well before the wedding.
· His mom and dad were quickly married, far ahead of their announced wedding date.
· Things didn’t seem right with His dad’s side of the family down in Bethlehem.
· When Jesus was just a young child, they had to escape as refugees, fleeing for their lives.
· They made a home back in Nazareth, where everyone knew about the strange pregnancy and the shotgun wedding.
· Jesus never got married – unusual and maybe even scandalous for a 30-year-old rabbi.
· We don’t know what happened to Joseph, and His mom seemed a little pushy.
· His own brothers didn’t believe in Him and called Him crazy.
· Jesus said that being in God’s family was more important to Him than His biological family.
· Jesus put His mom into the care of one of His disciples, not one of His brothers.
God’s word to everyone is this: Your messed-up family – past, present, or future – does not mean God has forsaken you or that some cloud has come over you that will never pass. God works in and through difficult and messed-up families.
(from Enduring Word commentary)
Jesus came to bestow on them a crown of beauty
instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
instead of a spirit of despair.
They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
for the display of his splendor.
Isaiah 61:3
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