Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Wednesday, July 11, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 68
Scripture: And when they saw Joseph afar off, even before he came near to them, they conspired against him to slay him. Genesis 37:18
Note: The rude awakening awaiting Joseph, as he finally approached his brothers, to commiserate with them on their welfare, tending the flock, was very much unexpected. Joseph had not seen any ominous sign from his brothers. Pampered, protected and powered by the reassuring love of his dad since his birth, Joseph had never experienced the painful side of life. To Joseph, life had been a straight line, always on the ascendancy. He had grown up nurtured within the ambience of the bright side of life.
While Joseph’s senior brothers were working their socks off, sweating in the desert heat tending their father’s flock, Joseph was yet to be introduced into the rough terrain of having to tend the flock away from the comfort of his dad’s covering. Having passed midteen age, Joseph was yet to come to terms with the reality of the dangers involved in having to put his life at stake to protect the flock and in doing so, confront the elements of nature, including wild animals who may prey on the flock.
It’s interesting to note the similarities and essential differences between a growing Joseph and a growing David. Both of them were Hebrew children with the same cultural environment. Both of them had fathers who kept flock. Both of them had senior brothers. Yet, while David was alone tending the flock, confronting lions and bear in the course of his duty, Joseph was enjoying a cozy life under the protection of his dad. While David’s three senior brothers were in the war front with king Saul, the other senior brothers were enjoying life at home with their dad whereas Joseph’s life was the opposite to that of David’s. Joseph was enjoying the life, dreaming at home, while his senior brothers sweated in the field, tending the flock, confronting the elements.
The early life of Joseph ran a trajectory that made him unprepared for the future task that God had for him. Joseph was a mere dreamer, because the reality was that there was nothing else left for him to do. He needed the dreams to fill the gaps of the boredom of inactivity and over pampering. The pit life experience, which represents extreme physical pain, emotional distress, mental anguish and lack or discomfort regarding life’s basic needs like water, food and clothing, was therefore a needed experience to wean Joseph from the destructive pampering of his dad and rudely jogged him into the beginning lessons in the school of the wilderness under the supervision of the Spirit of God.
Food for thought: No sane person likes discomfort. Yet, it’s an inescapable path to traverse if one’s life ambitions are to align with that of God.
Declaration: Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, “Some evil beast hath devoured him:” and we shall see what will become of his dreams. Genesis 37:20
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
