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THE KING’S BUSINESS
realize the invisible. Men need the in spiration of visions. The mole has no vision. He burrows in the' ground. The eagle sees the wide expanse of the hori zon. The worldling has no vision, but the child of God sees beyond the stars and looks into the face of God. Motherless at seven, Joseph was thrown much in the company of his father and upon his own resources. From Isaac he would have had the story of the offering upon Mount Moriah, and from Jacob the strange story of Bethel and •Peniel. He went early to the great school of experience where he learned to know God. This is the sum of wisdom and God gave him dreams to awaken in him a sense of Divine purpose concerning his life. His dreams had a great effect upon his own life and the life of his father and his brethren. Jacob no doubt sinned in his evident favoritism of Joseph, for he early made him an overseer and caused him to bring damaging reports concerning his brethren. We are prepared to hear these brethren say, when provi dence threw Joseph into their hands, “Come, let us slay him.” “Sin when it is conceived brin'geth forth lust, and lust when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” It was-not a difficult thing to get rid of Joseph, but they could not get rid of his dreams, for they were of God. Their plan seemed simple, but God overruled, and spared the dreamer to work out His plans for his life. The fairy story which the boys told their father only accentuated their awful guilt and God compelled them to carry the burden of guilt for many years. The scene ends with the picture of a broken-hearted, deceived father. The story of Joseph is fascinating. Every phase of it is full of interest. From pit to prison and from prison to palace, Jo seph’s life shines out in marked contrast with all around him. As a slave in Poti- phar’s house Joseph exhibited the same traits which afterward distinguished him L esson V— M ay 4, 1913. Golden Text—Job 32:8.
him as the heir by calling him, ,my lord, Esau. How humiliating is sin, how wretched the consequences. Jacob makes no confession of his wrong doing. He adroitly evades the invitation of Esau, who offers him his company and protection. In this lesson Jacob does not measure up to a very high standard as a man of God. The circumstances were peculiar. The test was a severe one. Esau abandons the birthright and then Jacob gets it. How much better might it have been had Jacob committed it all to God in the beginning and trusted Him to fulfill His promise. We will never succeed in obtaining spirit ual gifts in the power of the flesh. The lesson of today is in marked con trast with the last one. There it was the craven Jacob, here it is the courageous Joseph. We are entering the story of one of the most interesting and helpful char acters in the whole Bible. There are sev eral characteristics of this young man well worth noting. He was spiritually minded, a man of God, a man in whom the Spirit of God dwelt, over whose life the wings of God were stretched. He was generous hearted—no selfish trait is manifested in the story of his life. In all of his relations to others he exhibited a gracious spirit. There is no fault finding, no recrimination for all the wrongs wrought upon him, and he had the courage of his convictions. It’s a splendid story of a grand life and has much that suggests the life of another young man who had experiences of the same character, but who rose to heights beyond those reached by Joseph. The family life of Jacob was not con ducive to happiness. He had four wives and twelve sons, and these four families of the one father were very human and there was envy and bickering between them and where envy and strife are there is confusion and every evil work. Joseph was a dreamer, as all of God’s great men have been—men who see the unseen and L esson IV— A pril 27, 1913. Golden Text—1 Cor. 13:4.
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