Is God waiting for us to reach a certain level of maturity before He begins His Plan for the next phase of our lives?
46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and TRAVELLED THROUGHOUT EGYPT. Genesis 41
The first thing we’re told about Joseph was that he had Freedom. He’d been CONFINED IN PRISON (perhaps some of us feel like that) and now Joseph travelled throughout the land of Egypt. (We’re told this in two consecutive verses) He was no longer a prisoner, but now a governor and he needed maturity and strength of character to stand in that office.
44 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.’ 45 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, TO BE HIS WIFE. AND JOSEPH WENT THROUGHOUT THE LAND OF EGYPT. Genesis 41
Joseph was no longer to be shut up alone with the Lord, now he had the freedom to travel the whole nation (many people have been deprived recently of the freedom to travel and meet with others, so there’s more understanding today of Joseph’s situation).
Both Isaac and Jacob had followed their parents instructions and taken wives from the land of Mesopotamia, which Abraham left at God’s command. It was important that they didn’t take wives from among the Canaanites, so there was nothing of that land in their genetic history. Esau didn’t obey his parents and took wives from among the people of Canaan; the easy/expedient way can be totally against God’s will!
34 When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and also Basemath daughter of Elon the Hittite. 35 They were a source of grief to Isaac and Rebekah. Genesis 26
But God treated Joseph differently, he couldn’t leave Egypt to get a wife. His wife was to come from the people of the land where God had taken him and she was the daughter of a pagan priest!
There are two Rabbinic traditions regarding the history of Joseph’s wife, the first was that she was a godly convert to Judaism, like Zipporah and Ruth. Their sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, were therefore raised as Jewish boys and accepted by Jacob as his own children. ‘The Rabbis learn from Joseph’s marriage to Asenath that a favorable attitude is to be exhibited to converts, who are to be drawn closer.’ Asenath: Midrash and Aggadah by Tamar Kadari
Joseph’s life was directed by God and his wife was chosen for him. His sons were known as Jacob’s sons and became the fathers of two of the twelve tribes of Israel. The difference to following the leading of God, rather than slavishly following traditions laid down by previous generations. I believe the coming generation today, the bride church, will be different to any before them, certainly not bound by men’s traditions. Just as Elijah 1 Kings 17:21 and later Elisha 2 Kings 4:34 stretched themselves and breathed life into two boys, so should we breathe that same life into the young of our day. No matter how different they may seem to be.
God bless and keep you today.