Good morning, I hope you find a blessing in reading God’s Word today. We read Chapters 36-38 in Genesis.
Joseph’s dream
The most prominent storyline in these chapters is Joseph and how he dreamt he would rule over his brothers and even parents. Understandably, this was not well received.
The underlying issue, however, is that God’s ways are higher than our ways, but instead of realizing all blessing come from the Lord, we try to circumvent His plans. This results in deceit, lies, and often death. This is not an isolated incident, and you would expect that after seeing it play out this way enough times, we would understand. But we never learn that lesson.
Resisting change
Even today in America, when someone has a plan that doesn’t match the status quo, even when the status quo is failing, it is met with resistance. We will lie, cheat, prostitute ourselves, and even plot murder to elude God’s will.
God’s will always prevails
We will learn in the next few chapters that what his brothers had intended for evil, God used for good. That does not mean we don’t fight it, often to our own demise.
There is an established blueprint of how things are supposed to work in America. We send our children off to school; they are to learn to be like each other. We are trained from an early age to be pawns in a game we have little control over.
This results in a large group of interchangeable human capital that corporate America can draw from.
If one employee leaves, we can just replace them with another. They were all trained by a system to play a role, perform a duty.
In his book Linchpin, Seth Godin describes this situation, pointing out how important it is for people to step out of this mold and distinguish themselves as a unique, and needed, entity.
We should all be irreplaceable
This was what God was doing with Joseph. But, just as people may resent the people at work who stand out and go against the grain, his brothers decided they didn’t like that he was going to be special.
Today we see how the establishment, or as the news refers to them, the swamp, is not favorable to an outsider wanting to mix things up. They assume that since no one had done that before, it will be uncomfortable. So they resist.
Time to stir things up
I know many people who don’t like their cheese to be moved. They learn to navigate the maze we call modern life, and by doing the same pattern, they always get their cheese. When someone moves it, they panic because they get to the end of the path and it’s not there!
It may be better cheese they would find by learning a different route. Perhaps even a great quantity of cheese. But that does not matter, since it would require additional effort for them to discover it. (Dr. Spencer Johnson)
Jacob’s sons would rather kill their brother, or sell him into slavery, rather than to accept change.
God can’t be deceived
Fortunately, God knows our foolishness and His plans are always much greater than our feeble minds can conceive.
Embrace God’s plan.
When a new leader emerges, we need to develop a mindset of exploring what God is intending to do. Attempt to be led by the Spirit to support the change so that you can contribute to the future success.
In these days of transition, Lord, I pray that we as a nation would bow down to your power. You appoint leaders, as you did with Joseph, and it is for our good and Your glory.
Give us a heart to join your plan, so that you will get all the praise.
