Pursue the Dream

A. Review of the Previous Lesson

1. Joseph was a descendent of promise from a long line of dreamers.

a) He was Jacob’s favorite child, the firstborn of his beloved Rachel.

b) He was elevated above his brothers, but most importantly God elevated him.

2. Joseph was given a dream from God that changed everything.

a) He knew he was being called to do something great for God, but it would mean setting aside the plans his father had for him.

b) In this moment of decision, Joseph chose to dream.

3. God’s plans for us may not always line up with the current direction of our lives, but we must choose to embrace the dream. To do this we have to learn to rely on God, trusting Him to be sovereign, no matter what He leads us from or to.

Genesis 37:12–28 The Message

His brothers had gone off to Shechem where they were pasturing their father’s flocks. Israel said to Joseph, “Your brothers are with flocks in Shechem. Come, I want to send you to them.” Joseph said, “I’m ready.” He said, “Go and see how your brothers and the flocks are doing and bring me back a report.” He sent him off from the valley of Hebron to Shechem. A man met him as he was wandering through the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” “I’m trying to find my brothers. Do you have any idea where they are grazing their flocks?” The man said, “They’ve left here, but I overheard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph took off, tracked his brothers down, and found them in Dothan. They spotted him off in the distance. By the time he got to them they had cooked up a plot to kill him. The brothers were saying, “Here comes that dreamer. Let’s kill him and throw him into one of these old cisterns; we can say that a vicious animal ate him up. We’ll see what his dreams amount to.” Reuben heard the brothers talking and intervened to save him, “We’re not going to kill him. No murder. Go ahead and throw him in this cistern out here in the wild, but don’t hurt him.” Reuben planned to go back later and get him out and take him back to his father. When Joseph reached his brothers, they ripped off the fancy coat he was wearing, grabbed him, and threw him into a cistern. The cistern was dry; there wasn’t any water in it. Then they sat down to eat their supper. Looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites on their way from Gilead, their camels loaded with spices, ointments, and perfumes to sell in Egypt. Judah said, “Brothers, what are we going to get out of killing our brother and concealing the evidence? Let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not kill him—he is, after all, our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. By that time the Midianite traders were passing by. His brothers pulled Joseph out of the cistern and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt.

1. Joseph was so excited about the vision he received from God that he could not wait to tell his family all about it.

a) Surely Joseph expected his family to be excited for him.

b) He probably believed they would be supportive since, after all, the dream had come from God.

2. What actually resulted was quite the opposite.

a) His brothers were furious. Did Joseph really think they, being older than him, would be willing to bow before him?

b)Even his father rebuked him. “Do you really think we’re going to bow down before you?

A. Jealousy—the Dream Killer

1. What was the big issue Joseph’s brothers had with him?

a) They saw the favoritism of his father.

b) They saw that he was not made to tend the sheep as they were.

c) They saw that he was elevated by God.

d) Ultimately, they saw Joseph being blessed and allowed it to make them feel inferior.

2. The inferiority complex of Joseph’s brothers led to an intense jealousy. They coveted Joseph’s rank and position to the point that they would rather not have their brother in their lives any longer than continue to see him blessed.

3. Even Jacob was not immune to it; he seemed unsettled by Joseph’s visions as well.

4. Jealousy is like a cancer; it eats away at all the good that is around it until it completely consumes you. At first Joseph’s brothers were frustrated with the dream, but jealously eventually led them to hatred.

5. Jealousy is not content until it drags you down to its level.

a) The only way to do this was to kill Joseph’s dream, but he refused to allow that to happen.

b) If the brothers couldn’t kill the dream, they reasoned, they would kill him instead.

6. While others may not seek to physically kill us for the dreams God has given us, jealousy can still rear its ugly head. Those who are affected by it may not try to harm you physically, but they’ll do everything in their power to derail the plan God has for your life.