Imagine that you repeatedly saw dreams that suggest that you will become so greatly elevated that your brightness will be like that of the sun. The sphere of your influence from such an elevated position will reach the ends of the earth. And not only that, your entire family, including your accomplished parents, would be like stars bowing to you; you could be seen as the master while they are your servants.
Then, you are woken up from this mindblowing dream by the voice of your father asking you to run an errand – not any other errand but one that requires you to trek kilometres to enquire about the welfare of your brothers who have never hidden their hatred for you and disdain for your dreams.
It would take humility to obey such instruction. This was what happened to this teenager, Joseph, in Genesis 37:13. He could have become proud and disobedient to his parents, but he obeyed and went to Shechem to ascertain the well-being of his brothers and the flock.
Whenever God gives you a dream of what he wants to do through you, full delivery and accomplishment of the dream are greatly dependent on constant, continual listening and obedience to God. You cannot accomplish that vision if you do not learn to obey God’s instructions.
The tricky thing is that God’s instructions can come through various avenues, not limitedly through reading the pages of the Bible. His instructions can come from parents, superiors, colleagues or even juniors. And when they come from juniors, God often wants to see if you will place your ego above his word at the mouth of a little child because he that desires to be the greatest must be the servant who washes the feet of others. God needed to ascertain that Joseph would listen to him and obey his voice in the later years.
Speaking about Jesus in Philippians 2:8-11, Apostle Paul had this to say:
And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Reflection: Although the age of Methuselah has nothing to do with the wisdom of Solomon, you must obey the elders to get to where God is taking you. The experience and wisdom of the elders are the ladders that you climb towards greatness. There are no shortcuts to the top, but one of the safest routes is through mentorship and guidance from experienced climbers. Jacob was one.
