***Genesis 45***

Verse 4
*
And Joseph said unto his
brethren, Come near to me,
I pray you. And they came near.
And he said, I AM Joseph
your brother, whom you sold into
Egypt.
(King James Version)
******************************************************

Grace be unto you from me, my beloved Christian brothers & sisters. Let us thank God for allowing fellowship in His Word through this group once again. Take out some time in your daily life to give God praise for all he has done for you. In this world, the hurt from rejection is all too real: children rejected by their parents, spouses turning on each other, a friend turns his/her back on another friend. We have to be careful in how we raise our children & the treatment of others, in that the ugly head of jealousy shall not show up in the form of rejection.O dear friends, whatever you are facing in your life today, remember that God has your life in His control & never will He Reject YOU or ME.
(John 6:37)

For this brings me to my topic for this week:
(Climbing Joseph's Ladder)
(Rejected & Loved)
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
In the book of Genesis, Chapter 37, we find the story of Joseph. For me, this is the most awe inspiring piece of literature of all time. A beautiful story of how God's perfect overruling providence is present, in not only Joseph's life, but ours as well. Through rejection, deceit, slavery & imprisonment, Joseph's life was still blessed.
(Genesis 39:2)
He must have felt such a knife-like pain in his heart when his brothers sold him to Midianite slave traders at the tender age of seventeen. Even though his pain was unbearable, he overcame this tragic setback through:
*He stayed in fellowship with God*
He did his job well
He refused to be swayed by temptation
Even rejection by his boss, unfairly so,
he remained committed to God
*

You see, God is so wonderful my beloved Christian friends, in that, through all of his suffering, God had his life in his hands & He used him to be the instrument to save his brothers lives & sustain Joseph's father; Jacob, for he thought he was dead & Jacob got see his beloved son before his death.
[O, what a wonderful reunion that was],
[I am sure of it]
After the bitterness & shame, have you had a reunion, friends?
We don't always understand the ways of God, but he will never leave us.
(Hebrews 13:5; Isaiah 52:12)
Dear friends, how many of you have cried out unto the Father, "Why Has
This happened To Me" Take a Moment to Reflect, Christian friends,
I too, have uttered such words of despair.
____________________________________________

Now, we see in the life of Joseph, he was a Noble character in the Old Testament. Jacob's parents, Isaac & Rebecca made the mistake of playing favorites with their sons. Isaac favored the hunter, Esau & Rebecca, the quiet Jacob. O, friends what a dangerous thing it is to show favortism. Jacob followed the same pattern, as we often do in this act & other areas as well, which aroused the ugliness of jealousy & rejection with his sons toward Joseph. He gave Joseph a "coat of many colors", which in turn was a badge of favortism, sending a signal to his brothers, he was to be heir to the Birthright. Remember, he is not the oldest, which is usually the way things are passed down, but dear friends, God is in this plan. Reuben, Jacob's first-born, was natural heir, but his illicit act with one of his father's concubines was disavowed.
(Genesis 35:22; I Chronicles 5:1-2)
Simeon & Levi, second & third in the line were passed over because of their crime at Shechem (Genesis 34:25-30, 49:5-7). Judah, 4th son, should have received the Birthright, but it was not to be. The Birthright was split between these two sons, in that national prestige was to be in Joseph's family, through his son Ephraim
(Genesis 48:19-22, 49:22-26)
& watch this friends, even though Judah had done such an evil in the sight of the God, "Shiloh", taken to be the name of the Messiah, would come from the tribe of Judah, which produced David & David's family produced Christ (Revelation 5:5). Joseph, though 11th son; Rachel's first born, she was Jacob's most beloved wife, would be in rivalry with Judah for the Birthright & might explain Judah's part in selling Joseph, his own brother into slavery. My Dear Christian friends, do you feel the jealousy in the air? To make things worse Joseph tells his brothers of dreams he had, which he would be ruler over them & that was to much for them. In Dothan, his brothers saw him afar & there they plotted to kill him, saying here comes the dreamer. Reuben said not to shed his blood.
They took his coat, cast him into a pit & when the Midianites came by, he was sold for twenty pieces of silver. Is this a familiar scene of even our Lord, betrayed for thirty pieces of silver? Now, his brothers had to cover their tracks, in that, returning unto Jacob; their father, they killed a kid of the goats & dipped the coat in the blood & showed their father, also telling him, Joseph had been tore to pieces by a beast.

JUST A LYING SHAME
my dear friends

O, what a story to hear about one of your children, family member or even a friend & then find out it was all a lie, because someone, in this case family members, was so full of jealousy, they lied & took action against their own brother. We need God in our lives everyday. Jacob died that day in his spirit, because he loved him so much. Many troubles became unto Joseph, but God's plan would be fulfilled & the dream was true. Joseph was in prison, lied on by Potiphar's wife, he refused her & fled, later becomes the Ruler of Egypt at age 30.
Now, unto the crux of the topic, there was a famine in the land & Joseph's brothers came to him not knowing he was the Ruler of Egypt, needing help, for God had blessed Joseph as the Ruler of Egypt, to mete out corn in that world wide famine. The plan of God coming into play. Joseph planned for a cup be put in Benjamin's, the youngest brother's sack & finding it, he said to them he would stay with him as a slave. Joseph did not want to deal with his brothers in the spirit of revenge, but bring them to repentance. Judah, who years before had been the leader in the selling of Joseph into slavery is now offering to be hostage for Benjamin, for he knew Jacob could not take hearing his youngest son staying behind. For he thought Joseph was dead & losing Benjamin would break his heart, unto death. In Judah's telling to Joseph the story of their father; an old man now, remembering the loss of Joseph, his brother Isaac dead, & now about to lose Benjamin, maybe Judah was now remembering what he had a part in, selling Joseph into slavery was getting to him, not knowing Joseph was right there in front of him, he was in humble spirit, as after our wrong doings to each other, we become this same way. Joseph could not take it anymore & excused everyone & he CRIED, he WEPT aloud.

O, my friends I feel his pain in this passage, this is one of the most touching, heart felt stories in all the Bible, Joseph had endured a Great hardship, an injustice of unparalleled sorrow. He never failed to stay close to God. He now then tells them, he is their brother, the one they had lied to their father about & sold into slavery.

In an act of Love & Brotherhood, they cried & talked together.
(God Have Mercy On Us)
They returned to Canaan to tell Jacob, his son was still alive & his heart fainted, for the thought was to much, but he said let me go & see him before I die, for his spirit was revived.
We see in (Genesis 46-50), God, reuniting father & son, once thought to be dead.
Dear friends, I believe that God might have cried with Jacob & Joseph.
The Pharaoh was well pleased at this & he later allowed Jacob & his children to settle in the land of Egypt, where they would be blessed by God's plan for them, until Jacob's death, wherein his bones was returned to Canaan & 400 years later, Joseph's bones also returned there. How wonderful the Word of God is. Joseph climbed his ladder of trouble, each rung with God's help, now out of the pit of rejection & sorrow, standing on solid ground, finally buried in the promised land with his father. How can we not serve a God that has all power & a plan for our lives even though we fall short.
Remember also dear friends, the best weapon to use against our enemies & family, when jealousy & rejection is present,
*Show*
*Love*
(Romans 12:21)

Pray for one another in the uplifting of spirit & healing. If any one of you wish to be opted from this list, please send me a note & I will delete your name in that I wish not to offend anyone.
May God always walk with you & you with God.

(Thank you Lord)

F-orsaking
A-ll
I
T-ake
H-im