Joseph had just had the greatest experience of his young life. In a short space of time, God had twice visited him and imparted a dream that would be the obsession and direction of his entire life. He couldn’t wait to share both dreams with his brothers and father. Not realizing the process necessary to fulfill his destiny, he was feeling his youthful oats. His father had always told him he was special. His life was embedded in an atmosphere of favor, and now even God was telling him he was special.
Then suddenly the roof caved in for Joseph. His own brothers kidnapped him and threw him into the bottom of a pit. He must have been in shock as he heard his own brothers speaking of murdering him. It was only a few days earlier that God had confirmed his destiny – to be head over all his family. What went wrong? Absolutely nothing!
Deep down in the bottom of that pit, as the angry, jealous, murderous words of his brothers echoed down to him, Joseph came to a vital principal of God’s dealings with man: DEATH ALWAYS PRECEDES LIFE. Joseph was dying in the horrible darkness at the bottom of the abyss. Joseph was not dying physically. (God’s hand of protection would not allow anyone to harm him.) He was slowly dying to his dream. As a result of the sudden tum of events he had experienced, he came to the important conclusion that:
God’s will can only be done God’s way.
Joseph was dying to personal ambition and the need for human recognition. From feelings of being in-destructible and privileged, he quickly was brought down to being totally and completely dependent on God. In this sense, God can only use dead men and women to accomplish great things for Him; men and women who will not steal or even want to share in His glory. As Joseph died, the vision lived until he was totally and completely emptied of himself and dependent on God.
Jesus said:
”"Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”
John 12:24-25NKJV
Jesus was prophesying of His impending death and resurrection. He said that the corn will produce after it is dead and buried. Jesus literally died and rose from the dead so that we might escape eternal death and live in His life. Paul says that he was “crucified with Christ: nevertheless” he lived; yet no he, “but Christ” lived in him: “and the life which” he lived “in the flesh” he lived “by the faith of the Son of God”, who loved him, “and gave himself’ for him. (Galatians 2:20) His death was for US, so that we might bury our own Adamic nature and walk in newness of life in Christ. Your fleshly nature and control must be buried in order for the promises of God to live in us. Dead men don’t sin!
