22 July Genesis 41

God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.

Genesis 41:50-52 (NIV) Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphar, priest of On. 51 Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” 52 The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”

Joseph named his two sons to reflect God's work in his life. When we see what the names mean, we see the great work God had done. Manasseh means forgetfulness. He named his firstborn Manasseh because God made Joseph forget his previous pain and trials. Joseph had been spoiled by his father, rejected by his brothers, and then attacked and sold into slavery by them. He had been thrown in jail for honouring God and those he had helped forgot him. Despite years of this kind of treatment, Joseph could say, “I choose to forget it all.”

Ephraim, means fruitfulness. He gave him this name because God had made Joseph fruitful in Egypt. God moved him from the prison to the palace. God blessed Joseph and gave him peace and blessing. Later, Joseph’s father, Jacob, Joseph’s brothers, and their families moved to Egypt to escape famine. When Jacob was about to die, Joseph brought his sons to him for a patriarchal blessing. Jacob adopted the boys as his sons. Manasseh and Ephraim are among the twelve tribes of Israel that inherited territory in the Promised Land.

Not only does God have the power to make Joseph forget the painful circumstances of his past, he also has the power to bless your future. Joseph says that God has made him fruitful in the land of his affliction.

As in the New Testament Paul writes in, Philippians 3:13-14 (AMP) “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider that I have made it my own yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. Also the Psalmist writes in Psalm 34:19 (AMP) “Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, But the Lord rescues him from them all”. This is a guarantee of better days ahead. God has better, bigger, and brighter things for us.

Zechariah 9:12 (NLT) Come back to the place of safety, all you prisoners who still have hope! I promise this very day that I will repay two blessings for each of your troubles. Whatever the trouble you’re going through now, don’t lose hope. God will give you abundant or double blessings, and your problems will become a thing of the past. Amos 5:8b (NLT) “He turns darkness into morning and day into night”.

God will give you double blessings for your present troubles. Believe in God for this. Confess it, pray it into your life, and expect it. If anyone had a “right” to be bitter or resentful, it was Joseph. But he wasn’t because God was with him. He knew it, and he knew what that meant.

I conclude with James 1:2-4 (NIV) “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything”.