Into the Forge

Into The Forge

Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it….Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

Genesis 37: 24&28

God forges, fits, and fashions all the tools which He uses to accomplish His Divine Plan and Purpose. No one of holy character springs from the Head of Jehovah, fully formed. This is no less true for Joseph. Before Joseph could be the savior of Israel, he must undergo the forging from the Master’s Hand, which would conform Him to the Image of Christ. There was much of the ‘pride of life,’ particularly, that God would remove from him before he could become the instrument of God’s salvation to others. The God Who ‘foreordained whatsoever comes to pass,’ had chosen Joseph’s brothers to be the ones who would thrust Joseph into the ‘furnace of affliction,’ out of which God would ‘choose’ him. When Jacob sent Joseph to see his brothers in Dothan there was the previous episode in the background, when Joseph had, in effect, been a talebearer against his brothers. That, mixed with Jacob’s partiality, and Joseph’s unwise disclosure, produced a prejudice from his brothers which provoked them to throw him into a dry pit, and then sell him as a slave. This does not excuse their behavior in any way, but it enables us to see how God uses ‘the wrath of men to praise Him.’ He would use the wicked deeds of these unrighteous men to forge, fit and fashion Joseph into a useful tool to accomplish His Purpose. So, God may use wicked people to thrust us into His forge until He conforms us to the Image of Christ.

Our most Gracious God, and Wise Father,
we rejoice that You know the temperature to which You must heat us,
and that every hammer blow of life,
comes from the Gracious Loving Hand of our most Skillful Master.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning