Author: Dwight Clough

So Pharaoh sent for Joseph and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. — Genesis 41:14I want to focus on the word "quickly." At the right time, God’s deliverance will come. And when it comes, it will not dilly dally. At exactly the right moment, Joseph was brought quickly from the dungeon. At exactly the right moment, the walls of Jericho fell. At the right moment, fire fell from heaven and consumed Elijah’s sacrifice. At the right moment, the trumpet will sound, the graves will be opened, and we will step into eternity.In our book, Amazing Faith, Tom Shaw and…

"Do not interpretations belong to God?" — Genesis 40:8Dreams aren’t the only things that need to be interpreted. Throughout life — from the very beginning to our last breath on earth — we are confronted with a bewildering array of events that need interpretation. Apart from God we will not interpret these events correctly. We will fail to take into account God’s presence, His restraining hand, His care, His empathy, His ingenuity, His ability to literally take all things and turn them around for good for His children. We need God to see things from God’s perspective. We must remember…

But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. — Genesis 39:20-21What makes heaven what it is? According to John 17:3, eternal life is knowing (experiencing) God. God’s presence makes heaven heavenly. Some time after my grandmother died, our family went through her little home to get it ready for sale. I was astounded at what I experienced on that hot summer day. Her cottage which seemed so full of warmth and life and love when she was alive, now seemed…

[Potiphar’s wife] kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this story: "That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house." — Genesis 39:16-18I’m glad this story is in the Bible, because we need it. Who among us hasn’t been falsely accused! My wife was once accused of stealing fifty dollars from the cash register where she worked. She didn’t take the money, but even now, over thirty years…

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe — the richly ornamented robe he was wearing … — Genesis 37:23Each of us has been given a robe, for each of us is a favorite of the Father. What is this robe? It is the favor, the attention, the undisguised devotion of the Father. These are robes. They are not uniforms. I cannot wear yours, nor can you wear mine. It wouldn’t fit. It wouldn’t look right. Your robe is for you alone.Joseph’s brothers believed the lie that they were not loved. They simply could not…

"Come now, let’s kill [Joseph] and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams." — Genesis 37:19God is so smart. He knows that the enemy schemes to destroy you and to destroy me. God could, of course, just stop every one of those schemes before it starts — and, no doubt, He often does. But look here, God uses the very schemes of the enemy to bring about the triumph of God’s people.We see it here. God adjusts the plans of the jealous brothers, and…

Joseph had a dream … — Genesis 37:5Why does God give us dreams? To let us know that everything that doesn’t make sense is headed someplace. Someplace good.There was much about Joseph’s life that didn’t make sense. His brothers hated him. He lost his freedom. He lost his reputation. He lost his chance. He was forgotten, ignored, marginalized, underrated.My life and my world often hasn’t made sense either. If I could call all the shots, it would look very different. But God has given me a dream, just like He has given you a dream.In that dream God tells us…

As [Rachel] breathed her last — for she was dying — she named [her newborn son] Ben-Oni. But his father named him Benjamin. — Genesis 35:18I always feel a great sense of sorrow when I read this passage. I imagine a man, first on the run because of his brother, now later on the run because of his sons, with no permanent home. Here, on the way, he pauses to watch his wife die.What can he do? He has no permanent home, so all he can do is bury her on the way, pile up some stones, and walk away…

Then God said to Jacob, "Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau." — Genesis 35:1Things fell apart for Jacob. His daughter went out to find some female friends. The most eligible bachelor in the area found her, and turned her into a piece of property. Her brothers were, of course, enraged, so they cooked up a scheme to kill him and all the men in the city, claiming all their women and children for themselves. It doesn’t take a Philadelphia lawyer…

For to see your face is like seeing the face of God, now that you have received me favorably. — Genesis 33:10How is the face of Esau like the face of God?For twenty years Jacob lived a fugitive. Sure, he was working. He was raising a family and building a career. But in the back of his mind was one nagging thought that wouldn’t go away: Esau. Somewhere there was a man who wanted Jacob dead. With the passage of time, would he calm down and forget about it? Or would he show up in Jacob’s tent some night in…