Success Re-defined and Re-discovered

UV 1296/10,000 Success Re-defined and Re-discovered

And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
Gen 41 v 52

In Jesus all the identities of every positive Biblical personality is subsumed in us. This is the reason Jesus said, “ Even the least in the kingdom of Heaven shall be greater than him”, referring to the comparative greatness of John the Baptist. In this context, each of us is a Joseph. Like Joseph, we too should see dreams and visions and be able to interpret as well as be a willing participant in their fulfillment. Joseph’s name itself is a prayer that “Jehovah add or give increase.” The name of the second son was “Ephraim” meaning fruitful. The blessing that Jacob the patriarch gave to Joseph was also reminiscent of his fruitful life despite being greatly afflicted from the days of his youth. Jacob affirmed the destiny of his beloved son Joseph thus, “ Joseph is a fruitful bough beside a well whose branches overhang a wall.”

From his childhood, a wellspring of living water of faith in Jehovah and His goodness toward him had fed and sustained him. When he was afflicted due to the jealousy and insecurity of his brothers and the archers shot their fiery arrows at him, God strengthened his bow and his arms. God delivered him out of all his afflictions. He used Joseph to deliver not just his brothers and father from affliction, starvation and death by famine but whole nations. His fruitful branches overflowed the wall of affliction. Each affliction and challenge takes us to the next level in our relationship with God and man as well as in the fulfillment of our divinely ordained purpose. The afflictions taught Joseph to be secure in his faith in God. It pruned and made him more fruitful. Our afflictions point out to us the direction in which we should be serving God and man. We should rise above the walls of the affliction that confine us and keep our vision restricted and constrained. Jesus is the wall of our protection, the fencing around our faith, the hope of our lives, the strength that sustains us. We are called to be a fruitful blessing to satisfy the spiritual hunger of the nations.

The uni-verse states unambiguously that God was the cause or stimulus or source of Joseph’s fruitfulness. He was the One who watered him from the well of His blessings and counsel in the desert of his afflictions. We too as modern Josephs are called to be fruitful despite our afflictions and limitations as well as on account of our afflictions and limitations. We are to rely on God as a fruitful bough rests on a wall. We are to be watered by the promises and the Word of God for these soften our otherwise hardened, aggrieved and bitter hearts. We will draw with joy water from the well of the Lord. Jehovah will add and cause us to increase step by step, measure by measure. The very wall that was meant to obstruct us will become the perch for our success and fulfillment. We will realize that it is more significant to be blessed and fruitful than to be successful or prosperous.


Prateep V Philip