Gospel Outreach International

Have you ever been treated unfairly by the very people who should have stood beside you, and wondered where God was in it all? In this Bible study we open the story of Joseph, a young man who is loved too much by one person and hated by many others, and who ends up in a pit with his future in ruins. It looks like the end, but is it? Grab your Bible and settle in, because we are going to find out what God does with a situation that seems completely lost, and what it might mean for the hard places in your own life.

Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. Genesis 37:5

• Genesis shows God’s plan moving forward from creation, through human sin and judgment, to the promise of a deliverer in Genesis 3, and the family from which he would come.
• God is patient and gracious. He keeps working out his purposes despite human failure, and he has not written off a post-Christian England or anywhere else.
• The failures of God’s people are not hidden. Even great believers got things wrong, yet God’s plans are unchanged, as the line from Judah to David to Jesus shows.
• God moves in unexpected ways. His work does not depend on great saints, and he often chooses the unlikely and the unqualified.
• Typology is the study of people and events in the Bible as pictures of spiritual truth. It is a valid way of studying Scripture, but a type is always less than the reality it points to, and we must be careful not to stretch types too far.
• Joseph can be seen as a type of Christ. He was rejected by his brothers, suffered, and later delivered the very family that turned on him.
• Vocal: Joseph spoke up, reporting his brothers’ behaviour and sharing his dreams. There is a time to speak and a time to stay quiet, and we need wisdom to know which.
• Valued: Jacob valued Joseph above his brothers. Favouritism is wrong, and every member of the body of Christ should be valued for the gift they have been given.
• Gifts matter more than qualifications or connections. Every believer has a part to play, and those who do nothing become pew polishers.
• Vilified: the brothers hated Joseph more for the message he brought. We should not shoot the messenger, and we are called to love fellow believers even when it is hard.
• Violated: Joseph was thrown into a pit, his coat was dipped in blood, and he was deceived into slavery by his own family.
• Valued less: Jacob overvalued him and the brothers undervalued him, selling him as a slave to travelling traders.
• Varied: Joseph’s experiences ranged from favourite son to the pit to slavery in Egypt, and each stage teaches something about walking with God.
• Believers should be wary of false teaching, such as the promise of a rich, healthy and happy life, and should stand on Scripture alone.

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. Genesis 37:23

Here is the thing about Joseph: he was rejected by his own family, handed over for silver, and left for dead, and yet the story never ends with the pit. It points us to someone greater. Jesus was rejected by his own people too, and he went all the way to the cross, not to get even but to rescue the very ones who turned away. So when life feels like a pit, remember that you are not forgotten. The One who was rejected for you is the One who is working all things for good, and he does not let go of his people.

Bible References

• Genesis 37:
• Genesis 3
• Genesis 37
• Genesis 38
• Genesis 50
• Romans 6