• Read: Genesis 37

MORNING— Joseph’s Dreams

• Focal Passage: Genesis 37:5

“Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.”

Genesis 37 opens quietly. Jacob is settled in the land of Canaan, and though his story will continue, the focus subtly shifts with a single name:

Joseph.

At seventeen, Joseph lives in a complicated household. He is favored by his father, marked by a richly ornamented tunic, and resented by his brothers. Long before God speaks, the family system is already strained by favoritism, rivalry, and unhealed wounds.

And yet God does speak.

Joseph receives dreams—clear, symbolic, unmistakable. In them, his life matters. Authority is promised. Honor is foreshadowed. Even his own family will one day bow. Scripture presents these dreams not as ambition, but as revelation. Joseph does not chase greatness; it is announced to him.

But revelation often arrives before readiness.

Joseph shares his dreams openly, perhaps too openly. Instead of encouragement, he meets resistance. His brothers grow angrier. Even Jacob rebukes him, though he quietly stores the matter away in his heart.

God-given dreams rarely come with immediate clarity.

John Kavanaugh once traveled to Calcutta to work among the dying, hoping to gain direction for the rest of his life. On his first day, he asked Mother Teresa to pray that God would give him clarity. She refused. When he asked why, she replied, “Clarity is the last thing you are clinging to and must let go of. I have never had clarity—only trust.”

Joseph receives no clarity—only a dream.

He does not know how it will happen, when it will unfold, or what it will cost. He knows only that God has spoken. And for now, that will have to be enough.

God often gives dreams without explanations, promises without timelines, and calling without instructions. What He looks for first is not understanding, but trust.

• Reflection:  Is there something God once placed in your heart that you quietly stopped believing was from Him?

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EVENING— Between Promise and Fulfillment: A Pit

• Focal Passage: Genesis 37:28

“So they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver.”

Genesis 37 turns sharply from dreams to violence.

Joseph is no longer dreaming in safety. He is stripped of his tunic, lowered into a pit, and eventually sold to strangers. Joseph does not choose this path. He does not consent to it. His life is redirected without his permission.

There is a popular philosophy that says, “If it is to be, it is up to me.” It sounds empowering—until the moment life slips from our grip. When control is taken away, that philosophy collapses. If everything depends on us, then losing control means the dream is over.

Joseph’s story tells us otherwise.

Nothing about this moment suggests progress. Joseph is not moving closer to the dream—he is being carried farther from it. He is no longer directing his life; he is being forced along by decisions made by others.

And yet, God is not absent.

The God who gave the dream is greater than every outside force now steering Joseph’s life. He reigns above betrayal, above injustice, above systems that buy and sell people. What feels like chaos to Joseph is not outside God’s providence.

Joseph’s brothers believe they are ending the dream. The traders believe they are controlling his future. In reality, none of them are in charge.

God is.

The pit is not the end of the dream.
It is the place where Joseph learns who truly controls his life.

• Reflection:  When control was taken from you, did you assume God had lost His grip—or were you being asked to trust Him more deeply?
• Closing Prayer:  Father, when my life feels steered by forces I cannot control, help me trust that You still reign.  I release what I cannot manage, and rest in the truth that You govern even this. Keep my heart faithful while You work beyond my sight. Amen.