JOSEPH #62 | JOSEPH IN EGYPT#44 | LAST WORDS OF JACOB #33
Pastor Christopher Choo
Lesson 3658
JOSEPH #62
JOSEPH IN EGYPT#44
LAST WORDS OF JACOB #33
11. JOSEPH #9
PRINCIPLES OF GODLY LEADERSHIP FROM THE LIFE OF JOSEPH #3
3. GODLY WISDOM
Joseph showed us that Godly Character and Persistent Hope in God were desirable traits for leaders like himself.
But these tried and trusted aspects of Joseph's character were forged on the anvil of private pain, anguish, and suffering.
This third trait of Joseph is different. It was gifted from God for Joseph to operate in godly and not manmade wisdom.
It was part of his prophetic gifting as a Seer of Visions.
Pharoah's dream was extremely difficult to interpret - even beyond the ability of his occultic wisemen in his court.
Pharaoh dreamt of 7 fat cows co-existing with 7 lean cows before the latter consumed the former.
As recorded in Genesis 41:1-4, Pharaoh in his dream saw how the seven ugly and lean cows that came up after the seven handsome cows “stood near the other [fat] cows upon the bank of the River.” In other words, there was a moment during which both sets of cows coexisted simultaneously, and only afterward did the lean cows proceeded to swallow the fat cows.
Joseph understood that the coexistence of the two sets of cows contained the solution to the approaching famine. During the years of plenty, Egypt must “live” with the years of famine as well, as though they were already present.
Even while enjoying the abundance of the years of plenty, Egypt must experience in its imagination the reality of the upcoming famine, and each and every day store away food for it.
What leadership lesson is there for us today?
Joseph's interpretation of Pharaoh's dream had a practical and spiritual application.
This is the essence of Joseph’s wisdom: You must never detach the years of plenty from the years of famine. When you experience plenty, do not let it blind your vision and desensitize you from what is truly important in life.
The priorities you cultivate during your “good times” should be of the kind that will sustain you during your “bad times” as well.
On the practical side, a rationing system will have to be set up over Egypt during the seven years of surplus, Joseph explains, in which grain will be stored for the upcoming years of famine.
But the spiritual lesson was even more compelling.
Pharaoh was blown away by Joseph’s two-fold wisdom. “Can there be another person who has God’s spirit in him as this man does?” Pharaoh asks his advisors. “There is none as understanding and wise as you,” he says to Joseph. “You shall be over my house, and according to your word shall all my people be ruled; only by the throne will I outrank you.”
Joseph is thus appointed viceroy of Egypt. The rest is history - thanks to his gift of godly wisdom for which God gets the glory!
