When you come to the final section of Genesis, which translates into 14 chapters as it reveals how Israel ended up in Egypt. The second verse of this chapter 37 gives a change of writers from Jacob to that of His first son through Rachel, Joseph. Throughout Josephs 110 years of life, he remained consistent in character in spite of his circumstances. Success didn’t weaken his character, nor did adversity harden his heart. Proverbs 30:8-9 could have been his prayer, “Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches; Feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, and say, “Who is the LORD?” Or lest I be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”
Joseph’s life is a balanced life of a man that triumphed in his faith no matter what he faced. How was he able to do so?
Well, thank God, he tells us in the final chapter of this book as we hear his words, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is today, to save many people alive.” Do you get it? Joseph saw all that happened towards him from the perspective of what he knew to be true about God. In other words, Joseph used God’s character to interpret his situation rather than the situation to interpret God’s character!
In the 3rd century a man wrote a letter to a friend named Donatus, listen carefully to what he wrote, and you will discover the secret to life: “It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found joy and wisdom, which is 1000 times better than any of the pleasures of a sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians…and I have become one of them.”
Thomas Paine once said, “The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheaply, we will esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value.”