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Joseph exchanged the dream God put in him for a nightmare (Genesis 35-Exodus 1).

I’ve listened to many sermons about Joseph, but NEVER one that speaks negatively of him. So Loren’s statement was a real shock to my system.

Joseph’s status as the favourite son of his father provoked the jealousy of his siblings. Their anger against him burned even more when as a young man, he bragged about a dream God gave him that he would one day rule over his entire family (Genesis 37:5-11). They wanted to murder him but ended up selling him instead as a slave. Throughout the more than 20 years of slavery, he proved himself to be a god-fearing man.

The Lord raised Joseph to the position of prime minister, second only to the Pharoah of Egypt. Loren said that the real test for many of us is not suffering but success. It was at this point that Joseph lost it.

Here’s something I got out of someone’s blog:

Please bear with me for a minute while I digress to tackle a strange subject: Egyptian public policy during the Josephean administration. Joseph is, of course, Pharaoh’s viceroy during the fat years and the famine. To hear the author of Genesis tell it, he’s the best viceroy the Middle Kingdom had ever seen. But to a modern reader, Joseph is appalling.

Here’s what he does: During the seven fat years, he gathers grain from all over the country in warehouses. When the famine comes, he sells grain to the hungry Egyptians and to foreign buyers. This is all well and good. As the famine worsens, Egypt’s peasants return to Joseph to beg for help. So Joseph sells them more grain, collecting “all the money that was to be found in the land of Egypt … as payment for the rations.”

The people were still hungry. Joseph feeds them, but seizes all their horses, sheep, cattle, and donkeys as payment. The famine continues. The Egyptian people, having given all their money and livestock to Pharaoh, come back to Joseph once more.

This time, Joseph takes all their land in exchange for grain: “Thus the land passed over to Pharaoh.” Joseph explains the new deal to them: They will be sharecroppers, and will hand over one-fifth of their harvest every year to Pharaoh, keeping the balance for themselves. They reply, “We are grateful to my lord, and we shall be serfs to Pharaoh.”

Didn’t someone write a book on the biblical roots of capitalism and free enterprise? How did he handle this episode? Our hero Joseph abolishes private property, turns freeholders into serfs, and transforms a decentralized farm economy into a command-economy dictatorship. This is bad economics and worse public policy.

This is China, 1949. Joseph is Chairman Mao. (And, to speculate a little bit, perhaps this centralized dictatorship established by Joseph is what ultimately led to the Israelites enslavement in Egypt. Once you create a voracious state apparatus, it must be fed. Is it a surprise that slavery became part of its diet? In a less totalitarian state, perhaps slavery wouldn’t have been as necessary or as feasible.)

Loren said that God had given Abraham (Joseph’s great, great grandfather) a promise:

“I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.“
- Genesis 12:1-3

God’s desire for his people is that they be a blessing to the nations. Joseph blew it big time — he did not use that opportunity to bless the nations. He managed Pharoah’s kingdom and protected his family well. But he made the Egyptians and other nations into slaves instead of blessing them.

Joseph in doing so actually created his own (or rather his own people’s) nightmare and monster. He created a system of slavery in Egypt that eventually kept his own people as slaves for 18 generations (400 years!).

Why does this strike me so much?

My tagline for communications has been:

Giving voice to the vision

There is always so much to be done. I have been praying for a long time that God will raise up people with gifts in communication and the media. The door to make that happen, that is, teaching and passing on my skills, seems to be opening up.

Now I am seeing a new role I need to play as a media specialist.

Giving vision to the voice

What I mean by this is: I must develop the voices (or the people) and give vision to them so that they will do meaningful things with the skills they acquire.

… whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

P.S. Here’s an interesting side read about scientist Einstein.

Bring them to me

For the past three days, I have both helping out and attending workshops at the go4th nationwide missions conference. God is mobilising his people to respond to the needs of the world with compassion and calling. They are entering many strata of life – the poor, the marginalised, the business and corporate world, countries, the media. May the message of Hope reach the nations. God loves the world and the people that he made.

The Navigators have an exhibition booth, along with about 30 other groups. Yesterday, a young woman at the booth opposite ours came smiling to me. She said, “Hi Angel. Do you remember me? I’m one of LY’s Bible study girls.”

After a brief introduction, I put the face and name together. She said, “I saw you and I just had to come to say hi.” She said that LY her Bible study leader during her secondary school days had talked a lot about how she had been inspired by me. My heart was thrilled for many reasons.

I discovered that she has been for the past three years living in one of challenging-to-live cities in Asia. She went there first as a student, and now as a business person. In her first two years, God used her to lead some of her friends to Christ. One of these girls in turn led her entire family to Christ. Her family live up some remote mountain. The young lady had gone to visit the family. She told me that she is teaching these young believers everything that LY had taught her.

What a thrill that God can use our little to do something with long term and eternal rippling effects.

I wonder what God will have me do to respond more strategically to the needs around and beyond me. I am limited by physical, emiotional, geographical, financial etc resources. Jesus, who made five loaves and two fish feed five thousand men (their wives and children were not included in the head count – so more than five thousand were fed!) can do it if we bring the needs to him.

I got a call from Jenny of Armour Publishing telling me that a major bookstore chain in Singapore responded to their publicity blitz to retailers introducing my Moken book. Jenny said that the purchasing executive picked my book out of the many that they had marketed. The retailer asked how they could work together to do a book launch for it. While nothing is set in concrete and it is all still in the very early negotiation stages, it’s really encouraging to see that things are moving.

Jenny said that she had completed reading Aunty’s story. She said that Aunty is amazing. She also said that it was very well written.

Yesterday, Christina also from Armour Publishing had called to say that she was going for a book publishers conference in Orlando, and if I’d be open to have the Moken book published under Armour Publishing if she could find an international publisher who would be interested in the book. She said that the story is unique and that there might be someone who would be interested.

My heart is celebrating. But it’s not just because the Moken book is gaining attention, but because God is fulfilling his promise to me.

Last year when I completed the publication of my book, many people asked when I would write my next book. I felt really pressured and asked God what he would have me do. In January, I felt him telling me that this is not my year for writing. And that I was to focus on promoting the Moken book.

But work and everything else got in the way. I tried knocking on doors but nothing opened up. More than half a year went by and I didn’t see any progress with the marketing. When Aunty was here, I told her about this. Aunty prayed that God would open doors. I didn’t see how it could happen.

And then suddenly things are happening. I can only attribute it all to God. I know he has special plans to use Aunty’s story. I just happen to be placed here to enjoy what he wants to do. What a privilege.

Thank you Jesus.