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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Rhonda Grakov

That Dude You Thought You Knew!

Now, dear Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this opportunity to open your word together.

I ask that the Holy Spirit would be here among us and that he would be the 1 speaking and not me.

And I'm going to introduce our character by actually just starting to read from the story.

And I know that many or most, or maybe all of you are going to know instantly who this is.

But what I'm going to ask you to do is just empty your mind of everything you know about this character.

Just try to temporarily erase it, and let's all approach this story with an entirely fresh mind.

So, I'm starting to read and I will let you know in a second where I am, so you can join me.

But, starting, then Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God?

All of you know who this is now, But just empty your minds, just leave all that you know about Joseph aside.

And continuing in Genesis chapter 41 verse 39, I just read verse 38, it says, So Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has informed you of all of this, "'there is no 1 so discerning and wise as you are.

"'You shall be over my house, "'and according to your command, "'all my people shall do homage.

"'Only in the throne I will be greater than you.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, see I have set you over all the land of Egypt.

These are some awe-inspiring words that are being spoken, wouldn't you say?

What kind of a person would you expect the king, the pharaoh of Egypt to be speaking these words about?

What kind of a person would you expect this character to be?

It says that he's full of the Spirit of God.

Whoever this person is, he has just been promoted to being second in command of all of Egypt.

And not only that, but he was expected to help prepare the nation for a moment of extreme crisis.

Educated, that is the 1 I've been fishing for, yes.

You would expect this person to have just graduated with honors from Loma Linda University, right?

Or maybe Harvard, or maybe Cambridge, but top school, elite, what else?

An Egyptian, yes, He had to be intimately, or you would think, had to be intimately acquainted with Egyptian foreign policy and domestic policy, right?

Which means he would probably be a member of the highest ranks of Egyptian nobility, right?

Okay, we have created quite an image of this person, whoever he is, educated, intelligent, wise, experienced Egyptian, probably from the nobility.

I'm hearing all sorts of answers, but I know we're all on the same page.

This young man was, first of all, was he Egyptian?

Yes, but that didn't really help him in his current situation, did it?

He was not educated according to our standards of education, was he?

And yet Pharaoh is referring to this man as there is no 1 in Egypt, not even an Egyptian, as wise and discerning as you.

Let the awesomeness of these words just sink in.

Not only was Joseph not an Egyptian, not educated, where had he just spent the last decade and more of his life?

He had been first a slave and then in prison.

Let's think about this just a little bit more.

How old was he approximately when he arrived in Egypt?

17, 18, somewhere right around there, right?

And in verse 46 of chapter 41, it says, now Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

So from the ages of about 18 to 30, Joseph had no opportunities of building his future, his career, anything like that.

What are most of us doing between the ages of 18 and 30?

Joseph didn't have a single opportunity like that.

And yet, this young man came out of the pit, out of the Egyptian dungeon, having spent the best years of his life without freedom.

And yet, he came out of this pit more prepared and with greater readiness for greater things than I think any of us expect to have when we either are or have our, you know, MDs, DDSs, PhDs, or whatever level of education.

He was more prepared because he had the Spirit of God with him.

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That Dude You Thought You Knew!

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