“I AM JOSEPH!”
MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY
“Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.” – Gen 45:1-5
There is no story so moving as this one, in fact the whole Bible is full of stories that have kept me mesmerized. Read this quote : “The beauties of this chapter,” says Dr. Dodd, “are so striking, that it would be an indignity to the reader’s judgment to point them out; all who can read and feel must be sensible of them, as there is perhaps nothing in sacred or profane history more highly wrought up, more interesting or affecting.”
Today while doing my private walk around the park, I found myself hearing over and over, “I am Joseph, I am the Head over all things to the Church, I am your elder brother, your close to kin and am in all points tempted like as your are and am touched with the feeling of your infirmities.” He knows my down-sitting and my uprising. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.” (Ps. 139) Jesus comes to us so tender and personal, how do we begin to explain the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives?
Octavius Winslow puts it like this, “Are not your thoughts at once thrown back upon some of the most sacred and solemn periods of your experience, when, separated and alone, not a human eye seeing, not a human ear hearing, there has been a gracious manifestation to you of God in Christ, the most personal, touching and overwhelming.
The church of God is hidden and invisible. Her divine life, her spiritual conflicts, her joys and sorrows, are, for the most part, concealed from the rude gaze of an ungodly world; and that which transpires between the child of God and his Father in heaven, between Jesus and His brethren, is cognizant only to Him whose most confiding, solemn, and gracious interviews are reserved for hours and places of the profoundest privacy. He will have you throw back a glance on the past of your journey, trace all His providential interpositions on your behalf, and remember the time when your heart was sorrowful, and how He comforted it; when your mind was desponding, and how He sustained it; when your path was dreary, and how cheered it; when your needs were pressing, and how He supplied them; and when the cloud was dark, and your trouble threatened and your foe was ready to devour you, how He appeared for your help and deliverance.”
Thank God for this eternal union!