Team Talk
Bible Heroes
Lessons from Joseph
The story of Joseph is found in Genesis 37-50. The narrative of his life occupied a good portion of
the book of Genesis. With this in mind, it should not be a surprise to learn a lot of lessons from
Joseph’s life.
Jacob is the first son of Jacob by Rachel. Since Jacob loved Rachel more than Leah and his
concubines, it is a natural thing for Jacob to love Joseph more than his other children. For this
reason, Joseph’s brothers resented and hated him. This resentment even grew when Jacob gave a
highly decorated coat to Joseph. To make things worse, Joseph narrated to his family a prophetic
dream which tells them that Joseph will rise into power and be more influential than his brothers
and parents.
Joseph’s life is filled with so many untold suffering, anguish, and sadness. As this might be the case,
Joseph is among the heroes of faith mentioned in Hebrews 11. So what are the lessons we can learn
from his life?
Lesson no. 1: Doing the right thing does not always lead to physical relief
The jealousy, hatred, and resentment of Joseph’s brothers led them to sell Joseph to the Midianite
traders. Joseph was brought to Egypt where the Midianite traders had sold him to Potiphar, “an
officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard” (Genesis 37:36).
Joseph stayed faithful and obedient to the commandments of God even in a strange land. Because
of this, the “LORD was with Joseph and he became a successful man” (Genesis 39:2). The blessings
of God helped Joseph to find favor in the sight of his master and eventually made him be the
overseer of his house.
However, the story doesn’t end there. The wife of Potiphar “casts longing eyes on Joseph” (Genesis
39:7) and seduced him to lie with her. However, Joseph is better than that. He refused and strongly
overcame the seduction of his master’s wife.
The seduction did not just happen once, but it happened day by day until Potiphar’s wife had to
force herself to Joseph as a last resort. She forced Joseph to lie with her but Joseph fled.
Joseph did the right thing, but this did not lead to something good, at least for the moment. The
wife of Potiphar accused Joseph of “mocking” her and Potiphar’s anger was aroused against Joseph.
So Joseph was imprisoned for doing the right thing.
You can just imagine how Joseph would have received this punishment. After all, he did the right
thing and he “deserves” to be fairly dealt with.
Life is unfair. But God is always fair.
Continue….