Fri.’s Devo - The Good Seed 1-19-24

Read: Genesis 39:1-41:16; Matthew 12:46-13:23; Psalm 17:1-15; Proverbs 3:33-35 Joseph was taken to Egypt and sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh. God blessed Joseph and prospered everything Joseph did. Potiphar noticed his gifts and promoted him to run his household. *** Joseph was handsome and Potiphar’s wife tried to get him to have an affair with her. Joseph refused day after day. One day when they were alone in the house, she grabbed his garment and he ran out without it. She told the other servants that Joseph had tried to rape her. She kept Joseph’s garment until her husband came home and showed him. Potiphar had him put in the king’s prison. This injustice put Joseph right where he needed to be for advancement. (What the devil meant for harm, God meant for good.) *** Once again, the favor of God could not be hidden and God gave him favor with the prison keeper. He committed all the prisoners to Joseph’s hand. *** There must have been a threat on Pharaoh’s life of poisoning because both his chief butler who handed him his wine and his chief baker were put in prison until they could investigate the threat and find out the truth. They were put under Joseph’s charge. They both had a dream on the same night and when Joseph asked the butler why he looked so sad, he told him he had had a dream and didn’t know the interpretation. Joseph told him that interpretations belong to the Lord so he asked him his dream. *** He had seen vine with three branches and it budded and blossomed and brought forth ripe grapes. Joseph told him that the branches were days and in three days Pharaoh was going to restore him to his place of his butler. The chief baker heard what Joseph said and told him his dream. He had dreamed that he had three baskets on his head and the one on top had baked food in it. The birds ate them out of his basket. Joseph told him the three baskets were three days, In three days, he was going to be taken out of prison and hanged. The birds would eat his flesh. *** In three days, it was Pharaoh’s birthday and everything he said came true. Joseph had told the butler to tell Pharaoh he was innocent so he could be freed. He forgot, until Pharaoh had a dream two years later. *** In the Pharaoh’s dream he saw seven fat cow that came out of the river. Then seven skinny cows came up after them and ate the fat cows up but remained skinny. In the morning, the Pharaoh was very troubled and called in his magicians and wise men. When the told them his dreams, no one could interpret them. The chief butler remembered Joseph and recommended him to Pharaoh. The Pharaoh called Joseph out of the prison. He shaved and changed his clothes then went to Pharaoh and heard the dream. *** Joseph told the Pharaoh that the answer would not come from him but the Lord. *** In Matthew, Jesus made it clear that those who did the will of God were his brothers and sisters and mothers. *** Then he gave them the parable that would be the key to all the other parables. It was the parable about the seed and the sower. When he finished telling the parable, his disciple asked him why he spoke in parables that no one could understand. Jesus said that his mysteries were not supposed to be understood by all. They were to know the mysteries of the kingdom and Jesus explained the parable. *** The sower was anyone who brought forth the Word of God. The seed was the Word. The places the seed fell were men’s hearts. Some seed was devoured by the birds because they fell along the wayside. They didn’t even make it to the heart. Others fell on stony hearts that didn’t hame much depth. Other seed was scorched up because of the trials of life. Other seed fell among thorny hearts that had evil in them which choked the Word. But, the seed that fell on tender hearts bore fruit according to the person’s hunger to hear. *** Lord, may we have hungry hearts that take your Word and reap a hundredfold. May we have ears to hear and a heart to understand what you are saying and who you are.