Hearing His Voice #270

While his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.

Genesis 37:11

Joseph had been roundly rebuked for his dreams, both by his brothers and by his father. The dreams were culturally and socially inappropriate. Fathers and older brothers don’t bow down to sons and younger brothers. Surely God would never speak such an offensive picture of the future. That couldn’t be His voice. But it was, and Joseph paid a heavy price for sharing what he had seen.

Though everyone around Joseph was offended by his God-given dreams, and though Joseph himself surely didn’t understand their purpose, God was busy preparing for a future day when Joseph’s presence in Egypt would be needed. God was providing for His people far in advance of their need. He knew they would one day be in a desperate situation, and only a sympathetic government in Egypt would be able to provide for them. God began setting up that sympathetic government years ahead of time.

But God also was providing for Egypt. He knew the Egyptians would one day need a ruling official with divine wisdom, and the Egyptian religious system wasn’t going to equip a man with that kind of insight. God placed someone who could dream and interpret dreams in a foreign society long in advance of that society’s crisis. He had a solution before the problem ever arose.

That’s often the purpose of God’s voice. He doesn’t just speak into our individual lives or the immediate future. His agenda is bigger than individuals, families, churches, and communities. He is drawing entire nations into His purposes, building His Kingdom at every level of society. When we listen for His voice, we need to listen with grand purposes and long time frames in mind. We serve a big-picture God, and He wants to give us a big-picture vision. He is looking for people who can hear His heartbeat for the world.

Lord, raise my vision to look beyond myself, my immediate needs, and my near future. Show me more than I can imagine. Draw me into Your greatest purposes for this world.