God is love, and wherever true agape love is found, God makes his abode there. And whomever God will use, in any magnitude, must possess the essential quality of love. This is besides whatever skill set the individual possesses.
While the brothers of Joseph were glaringly displaying their hatred towards him, Joseph was required to love them in return. While Joseph would be bought into slavery by his brothers, he was still to love them. While he will be lied against by Potiphar’s wife, he is still to show love. While he will be imprisoned unjustly and forgotten by the king’s chief butler, whose dream he accurately interpreted, he is still to love. And when he will be called before Pharaoh and ultimately to the throne, love for the Egyptians must be shown. As the Bible says, “Love your enemies, and do good to them who despitefully use you and persecute you.”
God, who sees the end from the beginning, knew the future travails of this young man and wanted to make sure that Joseph possessed this essential eternal perfume called love.
So, when Jacob asked Joseph to take food to his brothers who hated him, Joseph gladly obliged even at the risk of his life. For Jacob to have believed his sons when they told him that Joseph was killed by a wild animal shows that death by a wild animal was a possibility in the bushes of Shechem. God is forgiving in nature, so He can’t use someone who is unforgiving.
Reflection: God cannot use people who cannot overlook an offence to serve. Joseph did not refuse to take food to his brethren, despite the obvious hatred towards him. One of the characteristics of love is that it forgives; it Lets Over Very Easily. It seeks the good of others. Love serves. Love blesses. And throughout the life of Joseph, he exemplified this. How about you? Do you think you can go far with God and with that vision he has given you without love?
