How to See God’s Dream Fulfilled – A Lesson from the Life of Joseph

Joseph had a true dream from God, but he did not consider the thoughts and feelings of others in the way he shared it. Perhaps being the favorite child of his father, he had learned to be pretty much wrapped up in himself and his own importance. For this reason, his brothers hated him even more when they heard about this dream that they would bow down to him.

God has ways of dealing with us to prepare us for the plan He has for our life. It might sound like a cliche, but it is true – God is working on our character development. Many times God actually frustrates us and puts us in lowly positions in order to work on our character. God can form character more easily in our afflictions than in our comfort and prosperity.

Just before Joseph is promoted to the position of Prime Minister of Egypt, which was the ruling powerf of the day, it is very interesting to note a couple of things that come out of Joseph’s mouth and a couple of things Joseph did.

From Genesis 40:

There are strong hints here about what had changed in Joseph by the time he got to this point. No longer is Joseph a self-absorbed prima-donna type who doesn’t care for anyone except himself.

Joseph took notice of these men, and observed that they were sad. He was paying attention to other people now.

He asks the servants of Pharaoh “Why do you look so sad today?” Joseph shows that he cares, and if he had never done so, it is not clear that he would have ever gotten out of the prison.

Sometimes when our situation looks hopeless, it is our taking an interest in OTHERS that will be the key to our release from prison. It certainly was in Joseph’s case.

Joseph found out that they had both had a dream. Joseph says, “Tell me your dream”.

Before our own dreams can be fulfilled, we have to be the kind of person that is interested in the dreams of OTHERS. We need to be willing to do what we can along the way to help others in the fulfillment of their dream. Joseph did his part using his God-given gift of intepreting dreams. It was the faithful use of this gift in a LOWLY SITUATION that opened the door for his own eventual promotion. Because it was the chief butler who Joseph served here who later opened the door for him to appear before Pharaoh and use his gift there. And the use of Joseph’s gift THERE opened to him the door of authority and power in Egypt, which ultimately led to the fulfilment of His own dream.

And even if Joseph’s dream looked egotistical at first, it was actually a God given dream pointing to a future day when Joseph would be used by God to save the family of Israel from starvation and death.

The moral of the story is this:

Take an interest in other people and their dreams and one day God will cause YOUR GOD-GIVEN dreams to come to pass!