Friday: Further Thought ~ Joseph, Master of Dreams

Further Thought:

Ellen G. White, “Joseph in Egypt,” Pages 213-223, in Patriarchs and Prophets.

“In early life, just as they were passing from youth to manhood, Joseph and Daniel were separated from their homes and carried as captives to heathen lands.

Image © Stan Myers from GoodSalt.com

Especially was Joseph subject to the temptations that attend great changes of fortune. In his father’s home a tenderly cherished child; in the house of Potiphar a slave, then a confidant and companion; a man of affairs, educated by study, observation, contact with men; in Pharaoh’s dungeon a prisoner of state, condemned unjustly, without hope of vindication or prospect of release; called at a great crisis to the leadership of the nation — what enabled him to preserve his integrity? …

In his childhood, Joseph had been taught the love and fear of God. Often in his father’s tent, under the Syrian stars, he had been told the story of the night vision at Bethel, of the ladder from heaven to earth, and the descending and ascending angels, and of Him who from the throne above revealed Himself to Jacob. He had been told the story of the conflict beside the Jabbok, when, renouncing cherished sins, Jacob stood conqueror, and received the title of a prince with God.

A shepherd boy, tending his father’s flocks, Joseph’s pure and simple life had favored the development of both physical and mental power. By communion with God through nature and the study of the great truths handed down as a sacred trust from father to son, he had gained strength of mind and firmness of principle.

In the crisis of his life, when making that terrible journey from his childhood home in Canaan to the bondage which awaited him in Egypt, looking for the last time on the hills that hid the tents of his kindred, Joseph remembered his father’s God. He remembered the lessons of his childhood, and his soul thrilled with the resolve to prove himself true — ever to act as became a subject of the King of heaven.” — Ellen G. White, Education, Pages 51, 52.

Discussion Questions:

Compare Joseph with Daniel and Jesus. What are the common points? How do Joseph and Daniel, in their own ways, reveal aspects of Jesus and of what Jesus would be like?
In class, talk about the question at the end of Thursday’s study. How do we learn to trust God when things don’t turn out as well for us as they did, eventually, for Joseph?

<–Thursday

Amen!