‘“I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.’”
~ Genesis 41:16
Hi James and Ellen,
God has a plan for your lives! Your grandpaa is sure that God’s plan for your lives – which are perfect plans, will have things happen that you will not understand until maybe years later why what happened happened the way that it did. Your grandmaa, grandpaa and dad in the spring of 1971 relocated to Sioux Falls, South Dakota from Agawam, Massachusetts. The manager of the Beneficial Finance office that is in Sioux Falls had promised your grandpaa a job. Beneficial Finance a year or so later asked your grandpaa to transfer to Aberdeen, South Dakota to manage the Beneficial Finance office that is there. Because your grandmaa and grandpaa were actively involved in the Sioux Falls Christian Reformed Church, your grandmaa and grandpaa really hoped that they would be able to find a church in Aberdeen where they would be able to become actively involved. Your grandmaa was eight months pregnant with your Aunt Lynn when your grandmaa, grandpaa and dad moved to Aberdeen. Before making the move to Aberdeen, your grandpaa called your dad’s Uncle Craig. Your dad’s Uncle Craig was living in Aberdeen where he was going to Northern State College on the GI Bill. Your grandpaa asked his bro what church that he and your dad’s Aunt Carolina thought that your grandmaa and grandpaa might like to attend. Your dad’s Uncle Craig told your grandpaa that your grandmaa and grandpaa probably would not enjoy going to the church that he and your dad’s Aunt Carolina were attending – which was the Aberdeen Reformed Church. Your dad’s Uncle Craig told your grandpaa that he had heard some good things about the Aberdeen Christian & Missionary Alliance Church. Your grandpaa did not like the Aberdeen Christian & Missionary Alliance Church when your grandpaa visited the church about a month or so after your grandmaa, grandpaa and dad moved to Aberdeen. Your grandpaa did not like it that amen was blurted out while the preacher was preaching and that kids moved about the church sanctuary during the morning church service. As your grandpaa was leaving the church, one of the gals in the church stopped your grandpaa to ask your grandpaa to sign the church’s guestbook. After your grandpaa visited just that one time at the Aberdeen Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, your grandpaa began attending the Wesleyan Church that is in Aberdeen. The Wesleyan Church is located almost kitty-corner from the house that your grandmaa and grandpaa had been able to buy in Aberdeen. A couple of gals from the Aberdeen Christian & Missionary Alliance Church showed up at the house where your grandmaa, grandmaa and dad were living about month or so after your grandpaa visited the church. When your grandpaa signed the guestbook when he visited the church, your grandpaa thinks that he must have put the address where he, your grandmaa and your dad were living. Your grandpaa was at work at the Beneficial Finance office that is in Aberdeen when two gals from the church – Holly and Deidra, showed up at the house where your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn were living and ended up visiting with your grandmaa.
Your grandpaa sometimes wonders if Holly and Deidra had not taken the time to go to the house where your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn were living – would your grandmaa and grandpaa be missionaries today. Because Holly and Deidra took the time to go to the house where your grandmaa, grandpaa, dad and Aunt Lynn lived, your grandmaa and grandpaa began to attend regularly the Aberdeen Christian & Missionary Alliance Church. Joseph was seventeen years old when some of his bros decided – instead of letting him die in a deep hole, to sell him to some Midianite merchants who were caravanning on camels through the desert. Joseph’s bros had gotten tired of Joseph being their dad’s favorite kid. Joseph ended up in Egypt where he was sold. Joseph did okay as a slave until a gal tried to get him to do something that he knew that he was not to do. The gal would accuse Joseph anyway of trying to do something to her which resulted in Joseph being put in a jail. Joseph at this time was still a young guy. Genesis 41 begins with Joseph still languishing in jail. Joseph is now thirty years old. Pharaoh’s baker and cupbearer two years earlier had been put in the same jail that Joseph was in. The baker and cupbearer each had a dream which Joseph interpreted for them and which came true.
Do you think that Joseph thought that he would ever get out of jail? God had a perfect plan for Joseph’s life. God gave Pharaoh two scary dreams. Pharaoh’s first dream had fourteen cows in it. These fourteen cows came out of the Nile River. Seven of the cows were healthy looking. Seven of the cows were skinny looking. The skinny cows ate the healthy cows. The skinny cows still looked skinny after eating the healthy cows. Pharaoh then had another dream. This second dream had fourteen heads of grain in it. Seven of the heads of grain were healthy looking while the other seven heads of grain looked like nothing. The seven heads of grain that looked like nothing seemed to eat the seven healthy looking heads of grain. The nothing looking heads of grain still looked like nothing after having eaten the seven healthy looking heads of grain. The two dreams freaked out Pharaoh. Pharaoh could not find anyone who could interpret the dreams. Then Pharaoh’s cupbearer remembered that Joseph interpreted his dream two years earlier. When Pharaoh got Joseph, Joseph said what is verse 16 ‘“I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.’” God told Pharaoh through the two dreams that there was going to be seven years of good crops and then a seven year drought. God’s plan was for Pharaoh to put Joseph over everything.
God’s plan for your grandmaa and grandpaa to become missionaries was to have them jump through a lot of hoops.
Genesis 41 (175)