Stripped: Trusting God When He Allows Others to Hurt Youಮಾದರಿ

As I approached Joseph’s story that morning, I did what I’d always done: turned to Genesis 37. We are introduced to 17-year-old Joseph, somewhat of a nice guy who lacked tact when it came to boastfully sharing dreams with his brothers.

I hadn’t noticed that Joseph is actually introduced earlier, in chapter 30, many years before the dreams, but not before the family drama began. To better understand his story, we have to start way back, all the way in Genesis 1. However, I am going to fast forward a few hundred years and focus mainly on the story of his family, starting with his great grandfather, Abraham, the man God chose to be the father of nations and the vessel through which He would bless all mankind.

ABRAHAM (THE GREAT GRANDFATHER)

You don’t have to be a Bible expert to have heard of Abraham. Most of us know him as the father of faith. However, when we meet Abraham (called Abram then), there’s no acknowledgment of him being special in any way. God simply chose him. I believe He could have chosen anyone else because His plans went beyond who He chose, to why he was chosen.

God’s plan involved more than merely giving land to a man and his descendants. Ultimately, the plan was to redeem mankind because it was through Abraham’s descendants that the Messiah, Jesus, would come to save the world from sin. This was God’s purpose for humanity—but He was going to do it through people.

Not great people, but messed up people.

Who was this family, then? I will give you a super brief history, but the best way to get the full picture is by reading Genesis, chapters 11 through 37.

Abraham had a wife named Sarah (originally, Sarai) and God promised to give them offspring as numerous as the stars. This seemed impossible since Sarah was barren and they were old and past child bearing years. Yet, God spoke to Abraham on several occasions about giving him children, and blessing the entire world through his descendants. As the years passed and no child was born, Sarah resorted to what a lot of us do when God promises something that seems to be taking longer than expected: trying to interpret God’s words and finding ways to self-fulfill His promises.

In their case, Sarah suggested Abraham used their servant Hagar as a surrogate mother for their child. Abraham agreed, and she bore him a son, named Ishmael. Afterward, the tension between Sarah and Hagar became unbearable, and Abraham had to send Hagar and Ishmael away. God promised Abraham to bless Ishmael too, but reaffirmed his promise to bless him through a child that would be born to Abraham and Sarah. As we can see many times in their stories, they were far from perfect!

We have to keep in mind that at this point in history, God had not given His commandments and precepts, and people did whatever they thought was good, which was usually terrible.

Finally, when Abraham was 100 years old and Sarah 90, they had a son: Isaac. You may remember the story, since this was the son that God asked Abraham to sacrifice as a test of his faith that God would keep His promise even over death. Thankfully, Abraham trusted and believed God and, just as he was about to sacrifice Isaac, God stopped him and provided a lamb in his place. This was a symbol of Jesus, the lamb of God, who was sent to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world. These are fascinating stories that we could discuss endlessly! Bear with me a little longer, this will all come together soon. Tomorrow, we’ll look at Isaac and Jacob.