It is a fact of life that we are presented with many opportunities to be offended during our time on planet earth. Jesus told his followers: “It is impossible but that offenses will come”. Offenses are stumbling blocks or bait that the enemy of our souls loves to use to get us off track, to have us get caught in his trap. If we take the bait and become offended, we’ll imprison ourselves in anger, resentment, strife, bitterness, envy and hatred.
The biblical account of Joseph and his brothers provides us with an object lesson. Joseph’s brothers became offended because their father openly favored him; he loved Joseph more then them. They became offended because Joseph was a tattletale. Topping it all, Joseph shared his dreams with his family, making him seem proud and arrogant. Offense changed their feelings toward their brother. They were no longer able to speak peacefully to him, they became hateful and jealous toward him. Their offense culminated in throwing him into a dried up well, leaving him to die. After one of the brothers seemed to grow a conscience, they removed him from the well and sold him as a slave to a foreign land, hoping to never see him again.
Now it was Joseph’s turn to become offended. An unwarranted threat on ones life and the subsequent sale as a slave certainly seems to qualify as a real reason to become offended. However, the text is silent about Joseph harboring any such feelings. Instead he applies himself in the household of his owner and quickly gets promoted. This is by no means the end of Joseph’s troubles. The wife of his owner tries to seduce him. When Joseph resists her repeated advances she gets him punished for rape and thrown into prison although he is completely innocent.
While in prison, Joseph must have wondered about his dreams and by now they probably appeared more like nightmares to him. However, if he had thoughts like that they are not mentioned in the account. Instead he quickly wins the favor of the jailor. After being stuck in prison for years and forgotten by a fellow prisoner who broke his promise to help him, Joseph finally gets released after interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh. He is promptly promoted to Vice-Regent of Egypt, in which capacity he later becomes the rescuer of the very brothers who previously plotted to kill him. After Josephs brothers recognize him they understandably fear for their lives. Yet Joseph speaks to them with tenderness, assuring them that he will not harm them. He is able to tell them: “what you meant for evil, God meant for good”! These are not words of an offended person! He indicates that it is God’s job to set things right, not his. He comforts them with kind words.
Although faced with plenty of reasons to become offended, Joseph never took the bait. He continued to trust God. Although enslaved and imprisoned, his mind and heart was still free to chose what was right. He rejected Satan’s bait of offense.
We too have to choose to reject offense if we want to remain free from the tempters snare. If we do, we’ll remain within God’s will and will see His purposes fulfilled in our life.
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