Tues.’s Devo - Joseph’s Faithfulness

Read: Genesis 39:1-41:16; Matthew 12:46-13:23; Psalm 17:1-15; Proverbs 3:33-35 While Joseph was at Potiphar’s house, he was excellent in all he did and brought much success to his boss. Potiphar raised him to be in charge of his whole household while he was away. There was peace among the workers and God blessed everything Potiphar had for Joseph’s sake. Satan also noticed Joseph and tried to ruin him. He put lustful thoughts in to Potiphar’s wife’s ear and she tried to seduce him. Joseph ran from her and escaped every time till one day she was able to catch is sleeve. Joseph just let her have his cloak and ran out of the house. When Potiphar’s wife realized she couldn’t have Joseph, she set out to discredit him. She accused him of trying to take advantage of her. When she told her husband, he was so furious, he threw Joseph in the jail he oversaw in the king’s palace. There, God made him a favorite once again and the warden put him in charge of all the other prisoners and everything that happened in the prison. After a while, the king’s cup-bearer and baker offended the king. The king must have thought one of them was trying to poison him. They were the only ones handing him food and drink. So they were both thrown into prison pending investigation. They both dreamed on the same night and told Joseph their dreams. Joseph told him that God had the interpretation of dreams but was able to interpret both of them. The bake was guilty and would be hung in three days. The cup-bearer was innocent and would return to his job in three days. Joseph asked the cup-bearer to remember him to the king when he got out because he was in prison on a charge he was not guilty of. In three days, it happened just as Joseph had said, but the cup-bearer forgot Joseph. God had another plan, but it would not manifest for another two years. At just the right time, Pharaoh had two dreams that he knew were significant. He looked for someone to interpret them. That is when the cup-bearer remembered Joseph and told the king about him. The king immediately sent for Joseph. Joseph shaved and changed his clothes. He wanted to look like an Egyptian so the king could relate to him and receive him. In Matthew, Jesus established that he had no favorites; those who obeyed him were his brothers, his sisters and his mother. Then he told the parable that all the parables would hang on. His disciples asked him why he always used parables to teach and he explained that what he was teaching was only for the remnant to understand and it wasn’t for those who could not receive it. He had told the crowd a parable about seeds and soil. He explained the parable to his disciples. The seed is the Word of God and the soil is hearts of people. The condition of the soil constituted how it would be able to receive the seed. If the heart was good soil, the Word would be understood and obeyed producing a harvest of up to a hundred fold. Lord, may your Word produce a hundredfold harvest in our hearts and may we share our harvest with the world.