Home for the Holidays 8
Written on December 8, 2014.
Jesse Tree
Day 8 – December 8
RESURRECTED
Marked for murder, left for dead, nearly rescued, before being sold into slavery. Though Joseph’s life story sounds like a script for Hollywood, it reminds us that God’s plan is far more exciting than anything man can make up. Joseph’s brothers didn’t like him very much. Jacob’s favor of him made them feel forgotten. As Jacob’s blessing of Joseph’s covenant became tangible through a robe full of color, the more visible his condition appeared to his brothers. For though he carried a great gift, he had not yet learned how to wield it. Favor turned to pride, and the forgotten brothers fought to be remembered. Though the brothers were not unified in their plans and schemes, they agreed on one thing: Joseph had to go. A series of miscalculations and missteps followed, and the boy once enslaved by his brother’s hatred and jealousy, was freed into another captivity. Though bound to spice traders, he was truly captured by a relentless God who would resurrect him once he was willing to die.
As Joseph’s new life began, life as they knew it ended for the brothers. For the murder in their hearts and the fear of being discovered kept them from truly living. In silence and strain, they handed Joseph’s blood stained robe to their father, terrified their deceit would be revealed. As their world became a tomb, Joseph was being resurrected.
Joseph would soon be used by God to intervene in the life of a nation. But God definitely dealt with the stones that made his heart a grave. Before he could be used to change the course of a nation, the stones needed to be rolled away.
The spices the Ishmaelite’s carried were used for burial. It seems Joseph was destined to die, but this was a death that would lead to resurrection. Joseph was positioned and imprisoned, but no matter what the condition, his covenant flourished just as those around him prospered. Honored and humbled Joseph began to live as the man he was meant to be and for the One that came to mean everything to him. Once the glory switched from himself to God, freedom came once more. Now it was time to resurrect his brothers. Joseph realized that not once had his life been taken from him but that he had laid it down for those he loved.
Joseph’s story is an appetizer at the banqueting table, a foretaste of the One who would lay His life down so all could be resurrected. Joseph’s torn and tattered garment simply foretold of a robe to come covered in the Blood of redemption.