Jalen Hurts is one of my favorite football players. He is the starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, but it was a long path getting there. Jalen began his football career playing for the University of Alabama in his first year leading them to the National Championship. One year later they were in the championship again but this time he was benched and lost the starting job. Things looked rough for him but he stayed another year on the bench. That same year he started in the second half of the SEC Championship game making a great comeback. After all that he transferred to the University of Oklahoma where he was a Heisman finalist. Jalen Hurts was drafted in the second round of the 2020 NFL draft to the Philadelphia Eagles. After a couple of hard years he won the starting job and has now led them to two Super Bowl appearances.
In the last few chapters of Genesis we find a similar story. A seventeen year old boy called Joseph is the youngest of eleven children and his father’s favorite. As you can imagine, this did not make his brothers too fond of him. We see in Genesis 37:3-4 that after their father gave him a coat of many colors they cannot even speak of him they are so mad. To make matters even worse, Joseph brags to them all about his dream of how they would bow down to him. Then, one day Joseph was sent to check on his brothers in the field. They saw their chance for revenge in Genesis 37:19-22, “Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”
But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” 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.”
That is just what they did. But, later on, while Reuben was gone Judah suggested in verse 26, “What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood. Come and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him for he is our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him.
They sold their brother, Joseph, into slavery to the Ishmaelites. He went with them and became a slave in Potiphar’s household and was soon the head slave. Everything was going great for him until Potiphar’s wife tries to lay with him and Joseph, being a righteous man, fled. In Genesis 39 she lies to Potiphar saying Joseph attacked her and Potiphar threw him into prison. It was here that he met and interpreted the dreams of two of the kings servants who were in prison with him.
After having to spend two years in prison, Pharaoh had a dream and his cupbearer had said to call for Joseph because he had interpreted a dream fro him while in prison himself. God through Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. Pharaoh then puts Joseph in a position of power in charge of all the food. As Joseph’s interpretation of Pharoah’s dream predicts, a famine comes to the land and Joseph’s brothers need food so they come to Egypt. In the end Joseph gives them plenty of food and land but his brothers think, “what if he tries to kill us for what we did to him?” In Genesis 50 verse 18 says, “Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
God meant it for good. After all the wrong Joseph had done to him, he knew that it was meant for good. Like Jalen Hurts, he went through highs and lows but in the end, it was good.
Sometimes it will be rough, but remember what Romans 8:28 says, that ALL things work together for good to them that love the Lord. It will be very hard to trust God sometimes. You may think you have been benched, but we know that as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:7, we walk by faith and not by sight.
In the last few chapters of Genesis we find a similar story. A seventeen year old boy called Joseph is the youngest of eleven children and his father’s favorite. As you can imagine, this did not make his brothers too fond of him. We see in Genesis 37:3-4 that after their father gave him a coat of many colors they cannot even speak of him they are so mad. To make matters even worse, Joseph brags to them all about his dream of how they would bow down to him. Then, one day Joseph was sent to check on his brothers in the field. They saw their chance for revenge in Genesis 37:19-22, “Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”
But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” 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.”
That is just what they did. But, later on, while Reuben was gone Judah suggested in verse 26, “What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood. Come and let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him for he is our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him.
They sold their brother, Joseph, into slavery to the Ishmaelites. He went with them and became a slave in Potiphar’s household and was soon the head slave. Everything was going great for him until Potiphar’s wife tries to lay with him and Joseph, being a righteous man, fled. In Genesis 39 she lies to Potiphar saying Joseph attacked her and Potiphar threw him into prison. It was here that he met and interpreted the dreams of two of the kings servants who were in prison with him.
After having to spend two years in prison, Pharaoh had a dream and his cupbearer had said to call for Joseph because he had interpreted a dream fro him while in prison himself. God through Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream. Pharaoh then puts Joseph in a position of power in charge of all the food. As Joseph’s interpretation of Pharoah’s dream predicts, a famine comes to the land and Joseph’s brothers need food so they come to Egypt. In the end Joseph gives them plenty of food and land but his brothers think, “what if he tries to kill us for what we did to him?” In Genesis 50 verse 18 says, “Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
God meant it for good. After all the wrong Joseph had done to him, he knew that it was meant for good. Like Jalen Hurts, he went through highs and lows but in the end, it was good.
Sometimes it will be rough, but remember what Romans 8:28 says, that ALL things work together for good to them that love the Lord. It will be very hard to trust God sometimes. You may think you have been benched, but we know that as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:7, we walk by faith and not by sight.
