Character Hurts

How do you keep life from taking you for a ride? The life of Joseph teaches us various principles and five of those we highlighted on Sunday that we will examine through this week.

        The fifth principle is Character Hurts! Someone has defined character as ‘What we are when no one is looking.” Character is revealed by our honest answer to the question, ‘What would we do if we could, and would not be held responsible for our actions later?’ The god pleasing character that is held up as the goal in the Bible is one that cannot be obtained without pain caused by self denial in order to obey God. Jesus noted this in Matthew 16:24 “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

This godly character was not noted by Moses in the lives of Joseph’s brothers.  The oldest, Reuben, had showed great lack of control by disrespecting his father in having sex with one of his father’s wives (Genesis 35:22; 49:3-4). The second and third born, Simeon & Levi, also showed great inability to deny themselves a hearty drink of anger when they tricked and slaughtered a whole town of people in a lust for revenge (Genesis 34; 49:5-7). And then there was Judah who was put in direct comparison to Joseph in Genesis 38 (Judah’s account appears in the middle of the Joseph account) and did not reveal the same godlike character as Joseph. When faced with the lost of a loved wife we ask “What Would Judah Do?” (WWJD?). Unfortunately, he chose to drown his sorrows in the intimate embrace of a prostitute, who he later discovered was his misguided and veiled daughter-in-law. In the same situation as Joseph, Judah most likely would have slept with Potiphar’s wife because she asked nicely. Joseph’s character on the other hand was stellar having been formed through an obedient walk through the furnace of challenges.

        You may be facing some challenges today that have you overwhelmed and questioning ‘Why?’ But please remember that it is through this process that you will grow to be the vessel God can use and be pleased with. Character hurts, but the results are worth it!

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”  John 17:3 (NASB)