Some Lessons from Joseph, the disciplined and Successful God-fearing Professional

Joseph was a multidisciplinary and God-fearing professional. The twenty-first professional who is desirous to succeed has much to learn from his discipline, dedication to duty and his determination to succeed. What is more, he was a resounding success such that through his policies and their implementation, the then known world, and not just Egypt alone, was saved fro seven years of devastating famine.

There are lessons that we can learn from Joseph which are relevant and valuable to the modern professional. These have been grouped as message to the strong and powerful, message to the follower of the Lord, and message to the professional, respectively. Please these groupings are not hard and fast or water-tight demarcations because all the messages are applicable and beneficial to everyone.

Message to the strong and powerful

Avoid evil, refrain from deliberately hurting anyone. Fear the Lord always whether in public or in private, for He is God. You cannot thwart the plans of God. He will still bring  them to pass, no matter how long it takes. The brothers of Joseph could hardly believe their eyes and ears when they saw him after so many years and he introduced himself as the lord of Egypt, Genesis 45. This was after they had given him up as dead because of their ill-advised and malicious plans against him. Their compromise solution was to sell him as a slave.

Message to the follower of the Lord

The faithfulness of young Joseph should be an object lesson to all of us whether young or old. Some of the highlights of his walk with the Lord, as I see them, are as follows:

• He maintained his walk with Lord all through his chequered experience. In spite of being sold as a slave into Egypt, he did not abandon the Lord but remained obedient and worshipped Him. This was despite his physical sufferings.
• It was not only that he kept a level and disciplined head, but it was also that he rejected an illegal sexual  affair when the invitation and advances came from no less a person than Mrs. Potiphar. His reasons, it was a sin against the all-seeing God, and a crime. The realisation that the all-seeing God monitors our indiscretions and lapses, whether sexual or otherwise, public or private, should constitute self-checks and personal discipline to us in our everyday life.
• His faith and confidence in his relationship with the Lord to provide answers to prayers were simply incredible and challenging. When the chief butler and chief baker, Pharoh’s servants, told him of their respective dreams and also added that there was no interpreter. Joseph replied: “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them , I pray thee.” Genesis 40:8. Can we see through his confidence in the Lord that when he prayed the Lord would answer! Do I have this? Do we have this in our daily walk with the Lord? The rest is history. He interpreted their dreams and the subsequent events happened as he foretold them.

Message to the professional

• Joseph’s successful management of the Egyptian economy during the famine

His masterly management of the Egyptian economy during the seven years of plentiful harvest and seven years of  famine testifies to  his skills in production and operations management, corporate management, and crisis management. His corporate strategies during the lean and plentiful years were proactive and comprehensive. They demonstrated his foresight, diligence and faith in the Lord and divine guidance. He was so dedicated that the years of plenty, he travelled throughout Egypt to supervise his policy of collecting and storing the surplus grains in cities (Genesis 41: .30-36). By implementing these policies, he ensured that they did had adequate reserves that not only preserved lives through the famine years but also enhanced the position of Egypt as a dominant economic and political power in the then known world. 

• His forgiveness of his brothers – an object lesson in forgiveness

When Joseph talked with his brothers to reveal to them who he was, they were frightened fearing vengeance from him for their wickedness to him. But he reassured them that while they meant to harm him, God used the occasion to achieve His goal of saving lives during the famine that was occurring in Egypt and the rest of the world.

It is instructive that Joseph could understand that the Lord was in control in spite of their malicious plan. A takeaway lesson from this event is the fact that the Lord remains in control. Therefore, we should learn to treat our adversaries in that knowledge that we cannot take vengeance because vengeance belongs to the Lord. Rather, we should offer forgiveness as the Lord requires us to do because the battle is the Lord’s and our protection is in His hands. Joseph remained true to his forgiveness of his brothers even after their father had died and they were worried but he did not change. His forgiveness to them was not based or predicated on his respect for his father but on his obedience to the eternal and unchanging God who was, and will always remain, in the scene.