Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)
We first read of Joseph in Genesis 37:1-4. However, his account really begins seventeen years earlier as recorded in chapter 30. When Joseph was young, God allowed him to go through things that strengthened him and prepared him to be the man God desired him to be.
Joseph had an amazing heritage. He was the son of Jacob, who was the son of Isaac, who was the son of Abraham. His grandfather, Isaac, was still alive when Joseph was a boy. [Can you imagine the stories he might have heard at his grandfather’s knee!]
In Genesis 35, we read about three sorrowful events that no doubt greatly affected Joseph’s life. In verse eight, we read that Rebekah’s nurse Deborah died. She was a beloved person in Joseph’s life. In verse nineteen, we read that Joseph’s mother Rachel died. This was a time of great sorrow. Then, in verse twenty-nine, we read that Joseph’s grandfather Isaac died. Why did God allow such sorrow to come into young Joseph’s life?
The strength that came out of Joseph’s sorrow caused him to place the proper emphasis on three things: life, his loved ones, and the Lord.
Proper Emphasis on Life
…we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away…So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalm 90:9b, 10, 12)
When someone close to us dies, it causes us to think of the opportunities that are ours just to be alive. Because of the death of his loved ones, Joseph had occasion as a young man to place the proper emphasis on life and to consider the preciousness and value of it.
A wise man once said: “Our lives are like stories that end too quickly; we must value them while they are being told.” As a young man, Joseph saw how wonderful and grand it was just to be alive.
We find Joseph’s brothers throwing him into a pit and selling him as a slave. We follow him into Egypt as Potiphar casts him into prison, and it seems as if everything is going wrong. However, God had put something in Joseph’s life while he was still young that helped him to carry on. God enabled him to place the proper emphasis on life.
Proper Emphasis on His Loved Ones
When someone we love dies, most of the time we think of something we would have liked to have done for or with that loved one. As Joseph faced the deaths of Deborah, his grandfather Isaac, and his own mother Rachel, he had the opportunity to think about how precious and wonderful they were to him.
Sometimes God allows trouble and heartache to show us how important our families truly are. God can speak to us through sorrow to place the proper emphasis on our loved ones. God brings sorrow at times to teach us how to love our loved ones more deeply. If we ever intend to do anything to express the love we have for our family members, we should do it now.
Proper Emphasis on the Lord
When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek…When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up. (Psalm 27: 8, 10)
I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications. Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. (Psalm 116:1-2)
God allows things to come into our lives that cause us to place the proper emphasis on Him, and sometimes those things are sorrowful. When Joseph saw his loved ones die, he had the opportunity to think about people dying and standing before God. He thought of God and learned to place the proper emphasis on the Lord.
As we see Joseph as a slave in Egypt and later as a prisoner, remember that as a young man, he learned to keep his eyes on the Lord. God sustained him in the darkest hours.
God does use sorrow, trouble, and heartache to help us see that we must trust Him. The sorrow that God allowed to enter Joseph’s life opened his heart. It allowed God to speak to him about placing priority on the Lord.