Genesis 37 & 38: Will You Discern According To God’s Will?
Verse of the Day: (38:25) When she was brought forth, she sent to her father in law, saying, By the man, whose these are, am I with child: and she said, Discern, I pray thee, whose are these, the signet, and bracelets, and staff.
    
1. Dream (37:1-20)
And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? (37:10)

Before the Bible or God’s Word was completed, God spoke to His people through dreams and angels. Here God spoke to Joseph in his dream that he would be a powerful ruler one day, and everyone in the world, including his family, shall bow before him.

2. Deliver (37:21-36)
And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. (37:21)

Joseph’s brothers were angry with Joseph, because Jacob favoured Joseph, and also Joseph had told them that one day they shall bow before him. So when the opportunity arose that Joseph was with them, they conspired to kill him. However, Reuben delivered Joseph out of them, and suggested that they cast him into the pit. While Reuben was out of sight, they sold him to the merchants who were on their way to Egypt. Reuben was upset when he found out that Joseph was sold, and his brothers then conspired to deceive their father that a wild beast had killed him. Jacob could not be comforted when he was told that Joseph had “died”. However, let us rejoice as all who believe in Jesus Christ never die, as to be absent from the body is to be present with God. (2 Corinthians 5:8)

3. Discern (38:1-30)
And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She hath been more righteous than I; because that I gave her not to Shelah my son. And he knew her again no more. (38:26)

Tamar was upset with Judah, her father-in-law, as by tradition, he should have given her his other son to be her husband after the deaths of her two husbands who were Judah’s sons. Tamar took matter into her own hands and pretended to be a prostitute, and Judah committed immorality with her as her face was hidden from him. When Judah was told that Tamar was pregnant he did not discern that he was the father and commanded her to be burnt. When he discovered that he was the father of Tamar’s children, he repented his sins. Let us not be quick to judge the sins of others, but discern others according to God’s will as we are all sinners saved by grace. Indeed, God is so good, that despite Judah’s sins, he was chosen as the ancestor of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world! (Matthew 1:3,16)

Prayer of the Day:
Dearest God, please help me to discern according to Your will, and never my will.