- Genesis 37 Daily DEVO So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. Genesis 37:23 – The attitude Joesph’s brother had towards him is the same attitude our enemy has towards us. Our enemy wants to strip us of all the blessings our Father has clothed us with: joy, peace, favor, grace, etc. Then all our enemy wants for us is to throw us into a dark pit to die alone and broken. Cheery way to start the day off right? While Joseph’s brother had some mercy on him, know your enemy won’t. That’s why God speaks to you so much of following God in His Word. God knows where your enemy will lead you and wants to save you from that. Trust that whatever sacrifice God asks of you in the walk of following Him is worth letting go of compared to the pit of darkness the enemy wants you in. Follow the one who truly loves you. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 517
- And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Genesis 37:24 – I love how God works, this passage happens to be the passage I’m teaching on this Wednesday as we speak about joy. My takeaway will be “The Pit Isn’t It.” This is the joy we who follow Jesus can have in the darkest of nights, that this pit we are in isn’t all there is to our story. Joseph was tossed in this pit with no plans to get him out, but God had a different plan. Jeremiah was tossed in a cistern and had mud up to his neck, yet God didn’t let that be the end of his story. Jesus was placed in a tomb and a rock rolled in front to shut Him in and we all know that didn’t last long. The pit isn’t it. Does that message change the intensity of the darkness right now in the pit? Sadly no, but it does bring us hope that this isn’t all there is to our story. We can have joy knowing we have a Savior who knows how to save from a pit. Maybe the pit season will end with a step into Heaven, but the pit isn’t it for those who trust in Jesus. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 1841
- Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Genesis 37:3-4 – We see that Israel gives Jospeh a coat of many colors to show his love for him. In your translation, or in your footnotes, it may also say the coat had long sleeves. Now why is that important? Because a coat with long sleeve was not the coat of a worker, but a coat of a supervisor and master. We see throughout this chapter that while of age to go out into the field to work, Joseph was in the role of watching over his brothers and reporting back to Israel the state of the things. Whether it was the coat or the position as overseer of all his brothers, it’s clear who Israel had chosen of his twelve sons to pass on the family blessing to. Just as we see it being hard for the other brothers to accept their father’s choice, so is it hard for the world to accept the choices of God the Father. How and who God blesses, who gets lifted to certain roles and who doesn’t, and even who God has chosen to demonstrate His love towards doesn’t make sense to the world. Often that lack of understanding and desire for things to be different leads the world to hate God but also to the hate followers of God. Let then this message just be a reminder to you of what Jesus first said, the world will hate us because of our devotion to God. What we’ll stand for, what we show others, and what we have in God is something that the lost world won’t understand and often won’t accept. This though does not excuse us from showing love in return for their hate. Let the lost be the ones who hate, and let the followers of Jesus be the ones overflowing in love even for those who hate them. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2843
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