Joseph & the first Christmas

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost.
19 Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.
20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.
21 And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.
22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
24 Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: Mt 1:18 - 24

There are many lessons to be learnt from the first Christmas. This time around we’d let Mary & baby Jesus rest and shift our focus to Joseph. I don’t know if there are many men in the history of the earth that would have been able to flow along with Mary as Joseph did.

For a minute, put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. Here is this young, holy, and beautiful lady that you have decided to marry. She walks up to you one afternoon with this strange “gospel” that goes something like – I am very much in love with you and gladly await our becoming man and wife its just that there is this great news I have for you. I am pregnant. The God of Abraham is responsible for this oh praises to Yahweh Adonai!

I can imagine Mary, typical woman; she has a lot to say and yearns to share it with her man with that wonderful degree of detail that is legendary with the woman. It is in her best interest to give as much detail as possible. The trouble is that the more details she gives the faster she’d prove her insanity. Joseph wanted the “child” to be a parable that refers to some great idea that Mary will bring forth. Mary assures him that a parabolic child does not make the tummy rise. She maintains that it is the handiwork of God.

Who had ever heard of such an event in human history?

Joseph, evidently asides being a just man, is also a thoughtful man. He is analytic, a man of intelligence. This is obvious because we are told, “he thought on these things”. I know of many men that in the same situation it would be said “he screamed on these things ..”. However no matter how thorough Joseph is in his intellectual adventure this is an area where the brain will not compute. Someone would hastily say that Joseph should have remembered Isaiah’s prophecy that a virgin shall be with child. That is so easy to say because you are not Joseph.

Mary was a wise woman. She tells the news to Joseph but does not try to convince him or railroad him into going along her way. She couldn’t afford to keep quiet for she was sporting a bump. If she doesn’t do the talking, her tummy would. She had to do some talking. That is common sense. You see, sometimes folks throw away common sense when it comes to spiritual matters. Imagine the folly of Mary refusing to say anything to Joseph. She would have allowed foolishness open a door that would have effectively shortened her life and jeopardized the first Christmas.

God has a way of getting the right parties to come to a place of conviction also.

It is clear that Joseph did not believe Mary – rare is the man that would. He had rejected her testimony. He did not accept or believe one word of what she said. We are told that he was “minded to put her away”. That is old English expressing the fact that he had already decided to part ways with her. He was strategising how to go about staging the break up. While it might not be obvious to us now, the truth of the matter was that Mary’s life was in jeopardy. If Joseph acts rashly Mary will have to explain how she got pregnant to the elders. If she goes down that route the whole thing could end up in death by stoning.

The way God leads in these matters is based on a concept of multiple witnesses. You see, if you are getting involved in something that involves other people’s cooperation and consent, God will not only get across to you, he will get across to the others too. For example, when an angel appears to Cornelius and says to go to Peter to hear the good news of salvation, God finds a way to get across to Peter also that there were men seeking him that he should go with [see Acts 10: 1 – 20]

Joseph’s analytic mind had shut out any possibility that Mary could be right. It is obvious that in his soul realm his whole being was full of noise. He kept thinking of how to spare Mary’s life by secretly releasing her. His mind was leading him down the wrong alley and quickly too. His powers of analysis had shut out God. In effect there was little room for God to get through to Joseph while Joseph’s mind was in full control. This greatly limits the avenues that are open.

You see, very often our minds are immersed in a sea of thoughts, worries, fears and anxieties during the day that the only times of rest we have are the times we sleep. It is a dangerous combination to be a champion at worrying and mix this with sleeplessness. Man’s constitution is not designed to function optimally in that scenario. If you do not manage your thought life properly and deprive yourself of good sleep no matter how spiritual you are when you start out, it doesn’t take long before you break down emotionally and end up a spiritual wreck.

Somehow in the midst of this storm Joseph managed to sleep! That is supremely commendable. We know that he slept because the bible says “Then Joseph being raised from sleep”. So Joseph did sleep. When we sleep we function a lot more in the subconscious, which is a much richer realm than the conscious. This is why sleep is good. When you sleep you allow the things that you have heard, experienced or become exposed to during the day become properly catalogued.

No human can afford to actively filter every single thing he hears during the course of the day. If you do that you will become emotionally wasted and drained. This is the problem that people whose thoughts wander all over the place face. Their mental energy is getting depleted quickly and this exposes them to exhaustion. There is a safety mechanism in sleep that helps restore us. You are sharper at discerning things.

Sometimes you find believers that are in a tough situation and are looking to receive directions from God. They persistently pray all night and all day for extended periods and still nothing happens. The direction they so sorely want to receive seems so far away. We need to learn to rest. Praying all night and all day to the extent that you deprive yourself of sleep is actually counter-productive! It promotes exhaustion and not creativity.

You will notice that one of the things that quickly deserts people when they are in dire circumstances is sleep. There is a reason. Confusion is amplified in our soul when we fail to rest.

We can glean some beautiful gems from this detailed story about Joseph and how the first Christmas came about and it is this – what did Joseph do before he went to sleep?

The last conscious thing that he did before drifting off into sleep was that he did some thinking. There is a strong correlation between the direction that Joseph received and the thoughts he had before going to sleep. As a minister I often counsel people who fill their thought-life with junk as the last thing they do before going to bed at night. They feed on spiritual junk. Sometimes it is even books that profess to be “Christian” but are full of gloom and doom and scary stuff. They stay full of this before drifting into sleep and then wonder why they end up with nightmares. Reading books that celebrate the occult, demonic activity and the likes before going to bed is the equivalent of playing Russian roulette with your inner well being.

The truth is that whatever we focus on, whether good or bad, gains dominance in our awareness. A Christian fellow unconsciously opens doors to the enemy by focusing all his attention on satan's activity, things that are evil and an evil report. I know of folks that all they do when they are in a tough situation is to focus on the times that they have missed it and times when they didn’t quite pick the leadings of God. They are full of a fear of not getting it right. This fear erodes their spiritual initiative and robs them of the leadings they so sorely need to receive. When you are actively involved in fear or have your mind set on certain things, that slant limits you from receiving direction from the Lord Jesus.

You must learn to come into a position to receive direction. Thats the key word "receive".

Hmm .. should I stop here? …. for additional tapes …. [we’d continue later]

Recognising divine patterns

S. SEKOU ABODUNRIN

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, [there is] none so discreet and wise as thou [art]:
Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. Gen 41:39 – 41

As you read through Genesis 37 – 41, there is a recurrent theme that marks out Joseph. Joseph was envied by his brothers, set up by Potiphar’s wife and subsequently reduced to the standing of a common felon. A casual glance shows that at the onset Joseph was the son of a wealthy Jacob, and then we see him become a slave in Potiphar’s house after which he becomes a prisoner of Egypt. That is one way of looking at it, but is that the eternal perspective on things?

I want you to notice what Pharaoh said to Joseph - he set Joseph over all the land of Egypt. This means that back of Joseph was the throne of Egypt and back of that throne is Pharaoh himself. The more you delve into Joseph, the more you see that this thing is not a unique event in the life of Joseph. This elevation before Pharaoh did not drop out of thin air.

I want you to pay close attention to the verses below:

For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf.
And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. Gen 37: 7 - 8

Joseph tells his brethren a dream. Somehow his brothers knew the meaning of the dream without Joseph having to interpret it to them. I want you to notice that we are not told that Joseph interpreted the dream to them. He told them the contents of his dream and their response showed that they knew its meaning. I want you to see that the dream implied that Joseph would rule over his brethren.

And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. Gen 37: 9

As soon as Jacob heard this dream, he knew its significance. Again we are not told that Joseph did any interpretation. Joseph’s dream is expanding in its scope. In the earlier dreams we see no reference to his parents coming under his dominion. It seems that the more he dreamt, the wider the scope of his dreams. It should dawn on Joseph that what he was to function in was not just on family level.

The brothers responded to Joseph’s dream out of their flesh. A casual reader will assume that Joseph was loosing significance with each step he took. This is because of the way we often measure things. A fleshly interpretation of things will say that Joseph moved from son to slave and then to prisoner.

The implication of his dreams was that he carried a governmental anointing, something kingly, and something by which he will walk in high authority where human lives are concerned. Joseph learnt how to handle people by his early contact with his brothers. It seems that the greatest area of challenge that Joseph had was with people.

In reality, his dreams showed him that people were going to be committed to his charge.

And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. Gen 41: 46

Joseph wasn’t 31 or 29, but 30 when he stepped into that which he was born for. A rough calculation shows that Joseph was about 17 when he got sold into slavery. Since he was 30 by the time that he stood before Pharaoh it implies that he had 13 years between being sold into slavery and standing in Pharaoh’s presence. Again, that’s 13 years! What could Joseph have mastered in those 13 years? Was there a way by which Joseph could have observed what the future held for Joseph?

I am convinced that Joseph’s life turned out to be the logical conclusion of a pattern that was discernable all through his life. This pattern stands out to us because we have the advantage of seeing his whole life played out in a few chapters of Genesis. You need to be aware that God keeps patterns with us. One hopes that Joseph recognised these patterns. These are patterns of God’s workings. The patterns that God keeps with us are to aid us in intelligently preparing for the future. Why didn’t Joseph avoid the tough relationships that he was faced with? It is likely that sometime during his life in Egypt Joseph came to recognise the meaning of the patterns.

A strange fact of life is that tough relationships are great turning points in our lives. There are tough relationships that we shouldn’t avoid but develop our muscles in and there are others that we should move out of – we have to learn the difference.

Moses became aware of God’s plan at age 40. He had a ministry to Pharaoh, but mistakenly tried to bring about the plan by killing an Egyptian on the street. He was on the run for another 40 years and he had a wonderful testimony of leadership for the last 40 years of his life. Clearly there is a numerical pattern in Moses’ life. Should Moses base his predictions on this? I think it should aid us in standing in faith as we go through periods of intense change.

But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and shew kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house:
And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof: The three baskets are three days:
Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree; and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants.
And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand:
But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
Gen 40: 14, 18 – 23

Joseph actually was designed to stand before Pharaoh. While it might not have been obvious to him at the beginning, we can see this pattern. He first met an important army officer in Pharaoh’s army. Then he meets people that have ministered daily to Pharaoh. Potiphar didn’t stand before Pharaoh, but the chief baker and the chief butler did. The chief butler directly puts the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.

Joseph interpreted the dreams of the chief butler and the chief baker. These were high officials close to Pharaoh’s throne. His interpretation prepared the chief butler for restoration to high office and also prepared the baker for death. He had done both men great favour – they each had information on what loomed ahead and so could prepare adequately. Joseph leans on the chief butler returning a favour by mentioning him to Pharaoh.

By now it is clear to Joseph that he should stand before Pharaoh. You note that like many of us, Joseph tries to bring about fulfilment through political means - in this case the well tested method of "name dropping". It does take a lot not to resort to this. There are very few men who develop the capacity not to try to bring to pass these things that they have already sensed within. It is one thing to see something ahead and a totally different thing to resist trying to administer its fulfilment by our own ability and means. The closer Joseph got to "graduation", the stronger the urge to resort to this. He was very close to standing finally in the full dream of God.

I am convinced that Joseph was an outstanding administrator. Imagine what would have happened to the prison system of Egypt as a result of Joseph’s activity there. He could easily have started a revival in that place for whatever he said governed the place. In reality he was physically in the prison, but had assumed greater administrative duties than the one he had while in Potiphar’s house. Administratively he had made tremendous progress! He was in charge of the life or death of tens of thousands of prisoners. He would have learnt how to handle the toughest of men.

Joseph, when he stood before Pharaoh could expect the pattern to continue. He had managed Potiphar’s house in Egypt. He had managed the prison system of the whole of Egypt, and now he was to manage the whole of Egypt. I have deep respect for this guy - it took him 13 years.

Often I meet Christians who are sweating over trying to discover God’s purpose for their lives. They are waiting for some gruff heavenly voice and all the while missing the opportunity to discover the patterns of God already present in their lives.

… to be continued