If you have ever felt like you entered a Joseph Experience and want to navigate out of the situation, this Bible study will help you. I, myself, was in a Joseph Experience and had to learn to navigate my way out of Attitude City. I wanted to share what I learned so nobody has to live in a Joseph Experience any longer than necessary. You, like me, may not be “the favorite child” or the spoiled rich kid, but that won’t prevent a Joseph Experience from happening to you. This week we’re going to study Joseph’s teenager attitude problem.
Before we jump into studying the Word, I want to say that the Lord never sits up in Heaven cooking up plans to give us Joseph Experiences, Job Experiences, Jacob Experiences, and so on. I’ve learned from an enormous number of messes of my own, I’m the one that paves these paths. Learning what I did wrong helped me navigate my way out as opposed to playing the victim and blaming God. We will go over the story of Joseph in depth, and if you feel like this is you or someone you know, be open to the Holy Spirit’s leading and guiding.
Genesis 37 NKJV
2… Joseph, being us, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.
Bilhah was Rachel’s handmaiden that had children with Jacob. She had Dan and Naphtali. Zilpah was Leah’s handmaiden that had children with Jacob. She had Gad and Asher. Did Joseph know these were originally the handmaids’ children that his father married? Did Joseph view these brothers differently than the other brothers? Maybe that’s why they were mentioned by name.
3Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors.
Let’s stop here for a moment. It’s very important to realize that Jacob, his father, is a very wealthy man. We read about all Joseph’s wealth when he met Esau on the road. From the scriptures we just read; Joseph, the favorite, was tattling on his brothers. He’s seventeen years old, and well past the age where this is acceptable behavior.
4But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
Joseph was clearly a spoiled rich kid, daddy’s favorite! This situation, where Joseph is tattling and still the favorite, upset the other brothers. It’s important for us to note as we read on that the brothers, “could not speak peaceably to him.” It’s important to keep that in mind as we read the next scripture.
5Now Joseph had a dream, and he told it to his brothers; and they hated him even more.
I often hear of this scripture, “Joseph was just sharing what God told him, and his jealous brothers became angry.” Absolutely not! Let’s recap: a spoiled rich teenager, daddy’s favorite, went up to his brothers, who couldn’t even speak to him without a fight, and basically said, “You’ll all bow to me and serve me.” What is the extent of this 17-year-old’s bad attitude problem? We have to remember this is a MUCH bigger insult to the ancient world than it is to a modern westerner. Everything was in age order, so the first born was in line for the blessing and to carry on the father’s business and name. Secondly, the multicolored robe he was wearing while he told his brothers about his dream was a symbol of authority. Ancient robes weren’t just fashionable but had meaning. The oldest brother that should have had that special robe was Reuben. In the end, despite Rueben’s actions, he did get a tasty sandwich named after him and now everyone knows his name.
Joseph goes on to tell the dream, and then the Bible says,
8… So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
Joseph tells his brothers the dream and they hate him even more. Do you think he knew they hated him even more? Of course. So let’s see what Joseph did about it!
9Then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers, and said, “Look, I have dreamed another dream. …
10So he told it to his father and his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?”
Joseph dreams another dream and immediately tells it to his brothers first. Interesting, huh? He tells the people that hate him first. Then what does he do? He tells his father right in front of his brothers. That’s twice he told the second dream of them bowing down to him. The Bible isn’t redundant, Joseph did it twice! Why would he do that? He was probably enjoying the upset reaction.
11And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
You think Joseph and their father knew they were mad? Absolutely. If you were one of the brothers, you’d probably want your father to stop him, but as we see, Joseph didn’t stop him. Why should he? It was a dream from God. I think that’s where we, as readers, get tripped up. We think, “Oh, he was just sharing what God gave him.” But sometimes people hurt others with their Christian faith and Christian attitude and justify it with God said, God told me, God showed me, the Word says, and so on… This is where the Joseph attitude is often overlooked in the church. “I don’t drink alcohol, I’M A CHRISTIAN!” That’s another way to say, “I’m morally better than you.” What’s wrong with just saying, “No thank you?” When asked why, what’s wrong with sharing your faith in love without putting anyone down? The Joseph attitude doesn’t do it that way, because the focus of the attitude is the concern for how the Christians, themselves, are viewed, as opposed to the focus being loving the person offering alcohol and looking for an opportunity to share Jesus in love.
What else does the Joseph attitude look like?
A young minster in seminary school walking up to the director and telling the director they’re going to believe God that the director gives him his vehicle. Yes, that really happened. That’s the “you’re above me, but you will serve me” attitude. Another example is a transgender with multiple hair colors being told by an arrogant Christian that they will burn in hell for their sins, because they’re just telling the truth no matter how upset the unsaved person has become with this information. The example in my own personal life, increasing in knowledge lead me to arrogance and judgmental behavior. I found myself saying, “You’re a pastor and you’re playing on your phone during prayer.” Truth is, it’s none of my business. I also found myself saying of ministers, “Wow! You need to study more.” Several times I remember arrogantly saying of a particular minister, “Look at you, showing off and making praise and worship a YouTube show with Star Bucks demon cups in the foyer and sanctuary. I wonder how much of your preaching is a show.” Truth is, it’s none of my concern and if I didn’t like it, I needed to leave. So… let’s look at a couple of scriptures and how to get out of these situations quickly.
Ephesians 5:21 NKJV
submitting to one another in the fear of God.
The context of this passage is walking in wisdom. It’s good for us all to be submitted to someone’s wise counsel as a leader. That doesn’t mean that the prayer leader or minister you’re submitted to is perfect, it means that you’re making a wise decision to avoid arrogance. With that, I am speaking of my own experience. The Lord wanted me at a particular church in a women’s group. Their teaching was very elementary and misguided, but the Lord wanted me submitted to the leader and other attendees to learn how to better speak to people in God’s loving way. While I may have had more extensive knowledge of studying scripture, they had much more extensive knowledge on love. I needed to learn to view them as just as valuable as me.
1 Corinthians 8:1 NKJV
…. We know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.
Yes, we all have knowledge. We all have gifts. What we should always remember is where did this knowledge come from? Did someone read 30 books, take some tests, declare themselves an expert, and now has become better than everyone else? Did God give someone a gift, then they acquired knowledge from their gift, and in-turn has become better than everyone else? Did a person figure something out or invent something that the Lord has revealed, they earned money, and now they’re better than other people? What I’m trying to point out is that sometimes people, both Christian and non-Christian, are busy patting themselves on the back when they really need to be giving God the glory. I think on judgement day we might find out we patted ourselves on the back for a skill or information, but accidently missed it was God… because we didn’t pray and ask for it. That’s exactly why knowledge puffs up, it takes the revealing work of the Lord but claims it for itself. The way to stop that is through love. If I looked at everyone and said, “God has gifted us all, and some are using their gift more than others. We’re all important. Some people are walking with God where they should, others need help to get there, and the rest need to meet Jesus.” That would have stopped arrogance in its tracks. It’s also God’s love toward us! That an important lesson that I needed to learn as well. He knows what we enjoy, and it pleases Him to teach us, reveal things to us, and help us. Giving God the glory for smarts is also another way to stop arrogance in its tracks when we increase in knowledge.
Identifying an attitude problem and repenting is the quickest way out of a Joseph Experience, Jacob Experience, or even a Job Experience. If you don’t know exactly what’s causing your Joseph Experience, how to pray to leave Attitude City will be in the upcoming posts.
We’ll continue studying the rest of this story in detail next week. Don’t forget to come back and see what the Lord has revealed to me about this story and how to pray. You’ll never look at it the same again!
Lord bless you with His eyes to see people, His ears to hear people, and to season your tongue with salt so that you may know how to answer everyone in love.
Christi
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