Joseph the Dreamer

Today we’re going to look at Joseph, Jacob’s youngest son at the time. He was definitely a dreamer, and God was speaking to him through dreams. One thing I want us to see in today’s message is we must be Good Stewards of God’s Dream for Us! What do I mean by that? We need to realize that the dream from God is something we need to guard in our hearts and be able to follow His leading concerning the dream. Good stewardship means this: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. So let’s start by looking at these portions of scripture in Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37:2–3 NLT

2 This is the account of Jacob and his family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks. He worked for his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing. 3 Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day Jacob had a special gift made for Joseph—a beautiful robe.

Genesis 37:4 The Message

4 When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him.

Joseph was the favored one!

So Joseph was the youngest son of Jacob at the time. He was kind of the spoiled brat. For one, he was a tattle tale always telling Jacob all the bad things that his half brothers were doing. But, he was the favorite of Jacob because he was the son born to Rachel, which was Jacob’s first love. Remember when Jacob fled because he had deceived Esau and he stayed with Laban and worked for him? He wanted to marry Rachel but Laban deceived him and when he had worked the seven years for Rachel, Laban had him marry her sister Leah. He had to work another for seven years for Rachel and then Rachel was barren. So through a series of relationships with Leah, her handmaids and Rachel’s handmaids, Jacob got 11 sons and one daughter. The 11th son being Joseph. So he was Jacob’s favorite but because he was the youngest and favored he actually didn’t steward the dreams God had given him well. Let’s move on...

Genesis 37:5–11 ESV

5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.

Joseph shared the dream with the wrong people!

A big part of God’s dream for us is to know who we are to share it with. Joseph, first of all shared it with his step-brothers who hated him. Why? He was a tattle tale remember? God’s dream is not always to be shared unless it’s like a corporate dream and everyone is like minded. This wasn’t the case with Joseph and his brothers. The more they heard Jospeh talk about his dream, the more they hated him. So we can see here that it would have been better for Joseph to have kept the dream to himself. That would have helped him in the long run to be a good steward of God’s dream for him!

Genesis 37:12–20 NLT

12 Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. 13 When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them.” “I’m ready to go,” Joseph replied. 14 “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are getting along,” Jacob said. “Then come back and bring me a report.” So Jacob sent him on his way, and Joseph traveled to Shechem from their home in the valley of Hebron. 15 When he arrived there, a man from the area noticed him wandering around the countryside. “What are you looking for?” he asked. 16 “I’m looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Do you know where they are pasturing their sheep?” 17 “Yes,” the man told him. “They have moved on from here, but I heard them say, ‘Let’s go on to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph followed his brothers to Dothan and found them there. 18 When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. 20 “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”

Joseph’s brothers tried to kill the dream!

Now I know they had plans to kill Joseph, but what they really wanted to do was kill the dream. They weren’t threatened by Jospeh, he after all was the youngest. What really bothered them was the dream he shared with them that one day all of them would bow down and submit to him. We must realize that the reason the devil hates us is because we are carrying the dreams of God to save the world. Satan was at one time one of the three archangels. He was the one who brought praise to the throne of God. But when he tried to be like God, he was thrown out of heaven. Jesus tells us in John chapter 10 that the devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants nothing better than to kill steal and destroy the dream God has placed in our hearts. Just like Joseph’s brothers wanted to kill the dream. So knowing that, we must be good stewards of that dream.

Genesis 37:21–28 NKJV

21 But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father. 23 So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. 24 Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. 26 So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

Instead of killing Joseph they sold him into slavery!

How many of us have lost God’s dream because of the situation we find ourselves in? It seems as though life has taken its toll on us and we feel imprisoned in our current reality. So the brothers after they sold Joseph, kill some goats and put it on the coat that Jacob made for Joseph and makes their father believe that Joseph is dead. It’s times like this when people around us think that our life is over that we must continue to steward that dream. We must continue to fight for that which God has given to us. So Joseph ends up in Egypt and becomes a servant to Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah and captain of the guard.

Genesis 39:1–6 NKJV

1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. 5 So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and in the field. 6 Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

Joseph continued to have favor because of the dream!

So we see that even as a slave, Joseph was blessed. In fact God blessed Potiphar because of Joseph. He made Joseph overseer of his house ad all that he had. Wow things seem to be going great for Joseph even though he’s a slave. But of course Joseph, like all of us has that enemy that we spoke about before who steals, kills, and destroys.

Genesis 39:7–23 ESV

7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.” 19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

Joseph has favor no matter where he’s taken because of the dream!

So he’s doing well at Potiphar’s house but then gets falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife and is thrown into prison. But even there, in the pit, God was giving Joseph favor. It doesn’t matter what we face because if we are following God’s dream, not our own ideas, He will always be there for us no matter what challenges we face. We must be good stewards of God’s dream that He has for us. Joseph made some mistakes early on probably because of his youth, but now he is starting to see that God is with him no matter what and he can hold on to that dream. We have to be like Joseph. Using the dream to manipulate others, to demand our way, to be boastful, is not good stewardship. But relying on God to bring it to pass no matter what we face, now that’s being a good steward. We’ll continue looking at Joseph and the dream coming true next week.