I was looking into the files in my old laptop and found this. This was my note when I was asked to speak for a few minutes on a Wednesday night at our previous church. I am inspired again!

Joseph was relentless

 One of the definitions of the word “relentless” is “being unyielding”. As far as being “unyielding”, Joseph is one of the most relentless personalities in the Bible. His being relentless was evident early on the chapter when he was first introduced in Genesis 37. He was working with his brothers as shepherds and at the end of the day, he would go home telling his father, Jacob, all the wickedness that his brothers did in the field. It is very obvious that Joseph could not stand any form of wickedness.

As we all know, he ended up as a slave in Potiphar’s house in Egypt. Once again, he had shown his being relentless as he was being tempted by Potiphar’s wife. In Genesis 39: 10, Joseph said “…how then can I do this great wickedness against God?” And on the second attempt of Potiphar’s wife to tempt him, Genesis 39: 12 and 13 says that Joseph fled!

 He couldn’t stand betrayal. He would never betray his master and most of all he would never choose to sin against God.

Another occasion when Joseph showed his relentless life was when he was summoned by the Pharaoh to interpret his dreams. He was relentless in that he was brave enough to tell the Pharaoh and his people that it wasn’t him who could interpret dreams but the Lord God. He wasn’t trying to be “the man!” He wasn’t ashamed of God in front of these heathen Egyptians.

God looked at his relentless character and knew he could be trusted with a bigger responsibility and bigger blessings!

Background that led him to being relentless

-          Looking back into Joseph’s ancestry, we will find repeated cases of betrayal. Jacob, Joseph’s father betrayed his father Isaac when he pretended to be Esau, his older twin brother, to get his blessings that were meant for Esau. In turn, Jacob was also betrayed by his father-in-law, Laban, when the later gave him Leah instead of Rachel for a wife. Jacob knew and suffered the consequences of his dishonesty. So, Jacob who loved Joseph more than he loved his other sons, must have spent a lot of time teaching Joseph about the fear of God and the serious consequences of sin. Jacob made sure that Joseph would live a different life- a relentlessly honest life especially before God.

We, too, can become as relentless as Joseph!

-          We might not have a calling as great as that of Joseph’s, but we face the same challenges and temptations in life as him. Today, we are bombarded by all kinds of wickedness around us every day: dishonesty, materialism, sexual immorality and so on and so forth. But like Joseph, we can live a relentlessly honest life. We can say, “no!” and flee from sin. We are more than able to do this because we have the Holy Ghost living in us. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:9, “But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you...”