Tehillah Generation Chapel
Daily Manna | Tuesday, July 24, 2018 | Topic: Conscience 79
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: Reuben did well to doubly warn his brothers not to lay their hands on Joseph, knowing that the raging anger that he had managed to bring under control was still a fragile arrangement that could easily spiral out of control. Inspite of the strict warning not to touch Joseph, they still managed to touch the iconic coat of many colours. That coat from Jacob to Joseph was one of the main flash points that had put Joseph into this sticky situation he found himself. What was supposed to be a blessing, to bring joy to Joseph, had become an albatross on his neck, seeking to destroy him.
Joseph’s brothers didn’t merely touch his coat of many colours; they violently stripped him of it, leaving him with no alternative covering for his nakedness. Joseph was therefore compelled to face the unpredictable elements of the weather without a covering, after getting thrown into the waterless and foodless pit. This was a pit that had failed to find water, representing failure. For the first time in his short life, Joseph was made to have a taste of what failure was like. Having enjoyed the overprotective shelter and pampering of a doting father for all these years, Joseph wasn’t conditioned with the requisite life experiences for the assignment that God had for him in the future.
It’s a tradition in those days that whenever someone was sent out to check on the welfare of others, they went with extra food for themselves and those that they had been sent to. Similar example abounds with David, when he was sent by Jesse to check on the welfare of his senior brothers that were on the battlefront with king Saul against Goliath and the Philistine army. David went with food for his brothers as well as the king’s portion. Joseph therefore, would most likely have brought food for himself and his brothers as well.
Unfortunately for Joseph, when he suddenly found himself languishing naked in the pit, he didn’t have the availability of the luxury of water and food; not even the food that he carried to that place. Judging from the violent manner in which he was stripped of the coat of many colours, food was unlikely to be one of the things that would be rumbling through the troubled mind of Joseph, not even water. The pangs of death were beating eerie noises through his troubled soul that seemed lost in a deep, dark pit of nowhere. That was Joseph’s preoccupation at that material moment, at a time his brothers sat down comfortably to eat and to feast over Joseph’s predicament and their perceived victory over him for the first time in their lives.
Food for thought: We may lose the accessories of life, but that’s only temporary. The assurance of full and overtaking recovery is our birthright.
Declaration: The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. John 10:10
©Author: Rev Fred Aboe
