Today's Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 39 verses 10 through 20:
10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. 11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.” 19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.
There is a favorite story I have of an old Chinese peasant who was very poor and used his one horse to work the fields and keep his family alive. One night a storm came and blew down the peasant's fence and the horse ran off. The next morning all the other villagers came over to the peasant's house. "What bad luck, what bad luck," they said. "How do you know it's bad luck?" the peasant man asked. Then, three days later that horse came riding back into the peasant's pen leading five wild horses following. Here came the villagers. "What good luck, what good luck," they said. "How do you know it's good luck?" the peasant asked. Then two days after that the peasant man's only son was out in the field breaking one of those wild horses when he was thrown and trampled and his leg seriously broken. Here came the villagers. "What bad luck, what bad luck," they said. "Bad luck," the peasant asked, "How do you know it's bad luck?" That very night the emperor's army rode into the village and conscripted all the men of fighting age and led them off into a battle where all were killed and none spared. But the peasant's son was spared because of the broken leg because of the wild horse because of the storm.
Joseph was falsely accused of and imprisoned for attempted rape. Good luck, bad luck? Obviously bad. But God works all things for good.
Always has. Always will.
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