I love the story of Joseph. I was reading some of it this morning in my devotional time. It was the chapters where he interprets the dreams of the royal cupbearer, the chief baker, and Pharaoh. In particular it was Genesis 40:8b that caught my interest as I read it again. In the New Living Translation this section reads, “‘Interpreting dreams is God’s business,’ Joseph replied. ‘Tell me what you saw.’”
At first I thought Joseph’s statement was a bit presumptuous. First of all he says that the whole dream interpreting thing is God’s business. Which is all fine and dandy, but then in the same breath he asks the cupbearer and chief baker to tell him the dreams. What is he thinking? Is he pretending to be God here. Now I know that may sound like a bit of a stretch but think about. He says that it is God’s business and then does it himself. Why would he do such a thing?
So here is what is going on. Yes, Joseph rightly states that the ability to interpret dreams is God’s business. However, God in his infinite wisdom has granted Joseph the ability to interpret dreams. Joseph knows this and is confident in the gift that God has given him, and recognizes that indeed it is a gift that comes from God. He is a little clearer in Genesis 41:16 when he speaks to Pharaoh about how this works. “‘It is beyond my power to do this (that is to interpret Pharaoh’s dream),’ Joseph replied. ‘But God will tell you what it means and will set you at ease.’” Joseph is directly identifying the source of the interpretation as God himself. Joseph is merely the vehicle or instrument that God uses to communicate the interpretation of the dream. The interpretation does not originate in the mind of Joseph.
This is a great example of how the gifts of the Holy Spirit work. The gifts of the spirit are mentioned in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 – 14; Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. When we exercise our spiritual gifts we are doing God’s business. It isn’t that we are taking the place of God. But like Joseph we are communicating the truth of God either in action or in words to those we serve.
When there is work to be done in the kingdom of God may you first say with confidence say, this is God’s business, and then roll up your sleeves and say let’s get busy.
So apparently I have been on like a six week vacation from my blog. You see the problem is around the first of the year I had some extra time on my hands but then life got very busy because our youth ministry was in full swing and I have been coaching basketball at the local middle school. So I will try to do a better job of posting blogs.
This morning I was watching the Today show and they had an interview with the mother of the little girl who submitted a false essay to win a contest for Hannah Montana tickets. Turns out the mother actually helped the daughter write the essay. They now claim that they didn't know that the essay had to be factual and that they didn't intend to mislead anyone. Are you kidding me?
Now I don't really care about the tickets what really bothers me about this is the dishonesty and the unwillingness to just admit that they were wrong and got caught. For crying out loud she had a lawyer with her on the Today Show interview. There isn't even an ethical delimma here, there is no grey area for this mother to hide in. Even those among us that live in a land of moral relativism can clearly see that this deception was wrong regardless of their intention.
The Bible is very clear that this type of deception is wrong and is not approved of by our heavenly father. We are to let our yes be a yes and our no be a no. Basically meaning that we are not to deceive. You can also look at Ananias and Sapphira in the NT to see how God feels about deception. Another great example is King Saul in the OT when he spared the king of Amalek and some of the animals when God commanded him to utterly destroy everything. He reluctently took responisibility but it was too late. Compare Saul with King David who later when he deceived the nation by his sin with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah the Hittite was immediately repentant when confronted by the prophet Nathan.
Ethical standards are important for every person but especially so for Christians because we represent the Lord Jesus Christ. And it is also clear in scripture that God has an expectation of ethical behavior. Bear in mind that there is grace and forgiveness when we sin, but we need to acknowledge that sin and ask for forgiveness.
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