The Cost of Humility

We are all familiar with the story of Joseph and for the sake of this article, I took the liberty of being a little creative with the story.  What can I say, Joesph inspired me.  Walk Worthy Divas a.k.a. Walk Humbly before the Lord!

Josephina was loved more so by her father and the favorite of all her father's children because she was born in his old age.  Josephina was flaunted in front of her siblings as the favorite and she had a coat of many colors to prove it.  Her sisters couldn't stand her.  In fact, they saw that she was loved more than they.


But the story gets even more interesting because home girl was gifted with the interpretation of dreams.  She dreamed and couldn't wait to tell her dream to her sisters.  Now, Josephina was far from humble and/or grateful.  What she was in fact was demonstrating false humility.


Mind you, she's the youngest, raised to be a tattle tale, most loved, and daddy's favorite, had a coat of many colors, and dreamed dreams.


I can only imagine how anxious she was to tell her dream and the first group of people she shared her dreams with was her sisters and they hated her even more.  She told them that her sheaf arose and stood upright while the other sheaves (them) stood all around and bowed down to her sheaf.


One of her sisters asked, "Shall you indeed reign over us?"  You know what happened then...they hated her even more.  Are you surprised?  Let's just say, they poured on the hate!


Then she couldn't wait to tell another dream but it wasn't because she genuinely wanted to share with her family; she did so out of boasting and bragging.  It was a result of the hidden pride in her heart.

This story is often told from the angle of Joseph being compared to Christ due to his suffering and some have even portrayed Joseph as guiltless but Joseph had to learn humility.  He displayed a false humility as a result of the hidden pride within his heart.  The boasted humility is not genuine.  


Josephina when she told her dream, it wasn't because she was genuine and highly favored but it was the product of a deceptive humility.

The dreamer she was referred to as but not as a sign of honor or respect, but they mocked her.  And it makes you wonder why she was constantly under attack mostly by them closets to her but there were those who refrained from acting in response to her behavior because like her father, many of us are guilty of creating these monsters.  Instead of conspiring to kill her or to have an ill-will toward her, Joesphina's father once rebuking her because it shocked him that "his favorite" would suggest that he too along with her mother would bow down to her kept the matter in his mind.

If we be honest, God spared her life because she dodged a bullet.  Instead of being murdered by the hands of her sisters, she was thrown into an empty well. Truth be told, I'm pretty sure that Josephina could see the part she played in getting herself thrown into that pit.

I know so all to well, because so often in my alone time with God am I fortunate to see my true self, the hidden parts of me that need to be washed, flushed and purged.  Purify me oh Lord!

Favoritism, jealousy, hatred, and especially hidden pride landed her into that pit.  But the blessed assurance was that Josephina was not alone after being removed from the pit and sold into slavery.  The beauty of the story is that God was with her, she was favored not a favorite as we tend to see with humankind and she was very successful and landed a very high-profile job in the end and she was reconciled back to her family.  Most importantly, when the Lord exalted her to the place of power, and honor, the hidden pride was extracted from her heart and she operated in her gift out of  genuine humility.  


How do I know?  After the entire ordeal or trials and tribulations.....it is in Chapter 45 of Genesis that Joesphina reveals herself to her sisters and it is in verse 5 that she humbly says, "But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here (in Egypt); for God sent me before you to preserve life.


Yes, in sending her before them, God had to turn up some earth, the soil of her heart so that life could be preserved.  She suffered but not to be compared to with Christ.  She suffered but God also used her in order that her life too was saved while Christ lost his but to be resurrected!  He was without sin but we must be born-again!


Yes, Josephina saw her dreams but only in part.  She shared them boastfully with no regard to the Lord. She only gloated in her upright posture in contrast to her sisters.  In the end, Josephina was made the better for the experience and her dream benefited more than just her ego! 


"But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted," Matthew 23:12.


To God be the Glory!