The last few messages I have shared have been about the life of Jacob and how it parallels the Christian life. Some of the parallels we discussed were the nature of Jacob’s struggle with his brothers, with God and with facing his past. We talked about how he was prone to his old habits, how his sons repeated his behavior, and how eventually, God brought about His plan of redemption through Jacob’s life. We concluded that our lives are a lot like Jacob’s. That we too have a life of struggle and even after encountering God, there are still difficulties and things we have to fight through. But in the end, our lives too are a testimony to God’s plan of redemption. He is making something beautiful out of our junk!

Today, I would like to take a look at one of Jacob’s sons, Joseph. It’s the end of Jacob’s life, and Joseph has been through a whole lot of injustice, but all along the way, God has used the injustice to bring about a greater purpose both for Joseph and his family, and for the people of God. We are going to look at the response of Joseph to the injustice that has come his way. Even after losing his father, and having wrestled through great struggles of his own, Joseph sees the bigger picture of what God has been doing. His responses are worth emulating in our lives. He rejects bitterness, chooses forgiveness, and embraces a greater purpose.

My hope this morning is that as we take a look at our own lives, and see some parallel situations of injustice and difficulty, that we too can imitate the response of Joseph. Maybe there is someone in our past that we need to extend a measure of grace and forgiveness to. Maybe there is an issue that has caused us to become angry or bitter that we need to give to God. As we take these righteous steps of faith, we will be pointing ourselves to God’s greater purpose and a future of hope!

Kingdom Blessings, Pastor John