Our Sovereign God

Over the last month I have been attending a Bible study on Joseph. I must admit I am not the model Bible study member; I successfully avoided four weeks of homework in a four week class. I know, impressive to some and tragic to others... Either way I did thoroughly enjoy this weekly time with others talking about scripture and life.

"Joseph Interpreting Pharaoh's Dream" -Reginald Arthur

As I mentioned our study was on Joseph, he was the guy in the Bible who's brothers beat him up, threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery, then he spends the rest of his life in Egypt (part of his life there he was in jail and the rest he was a servant for others). Yes that is a really quick recap; you can read it in Genesis 37-50. 

As we met and talked through the weeks about this story and the homework I didn't do, I had a strange feeling about it all. I felt like I couldn't relate to this story. In the story we don't see Joseph's sin (but he was sinful because he's a human and sin is what we do), we don't see Joseph get angry, and we don't see him curse God or his brothers. What we do see is a man have incredible faith in God through some very challenging circumstances and he seems to always make the right decision. See what I mean? I don't relate to that! My life is full of sin and making wrong choices.

However this story is in the word of God for a reason, and I don't think it is to show how awesome a guy Joseph was (he does seem pretty awesome though). I believe it is to show how powerful God is. A lot of times we approach scripture and ask, "How does this relate or apply to me?". But one of scripture's purposes is to teach us about God. Once I began to ask, "What is this telling me about God?", I began to see the purpose in this story. God is presented as supremely sovereign. He is the God of Jacob's hope and the salvation of his people. In this story we get to see just how big and powerful God is.

That was my takeaway from this story. The God I worship is sovereign. He is big enough to save me and to deliver me. I got to see God's sovereignty this week in my work, he sent a great encouragement when I wasn't feeling so encouraged.

Have you experienced God's sovereignty lately... have you looked for it?