Posted: 02 June 2024

From a sermon given on 04 June 2024:

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

Joseph’s affliction started when he went visiting his brothers to deliver supplies and to find out how they were faring. When they saw him from a distance, they first plotted to kill him. But Reuben diverted their plans by proposing that they throw him into a pit. Later, when they saw the Ishmaelite's caravan, they removed him from the cistern and sold for twenty shekels of silver who took him to Egypt.

As far as they were concerned, that was good riddance! That was a chapter closed! He was going to rot as a slave in Egypt. Little did they know that we serve a God who changes things. Joseph was sold to Potiphar where he learned the art of administration, later thrown into Prison where he learned resilience and tolerance and eventually landed in Pharaoh's palace where he was second in command in Egypt. When he got his second son, he named him Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful, in the land of my suffering."

God’s purpose for your life cannot be thwarted and his promises will come to pass. Sometimes we go though more than our share of afflictions: (From the pit , to the Potiphar's house and to the prison) . Child of God, don'[t give up, don"t waste your affliction; Ephraim is coming. "Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase." (Job 8:7)

Further Readings:

And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee.
(Genesis 17:6)

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:
(Genesis 49:22)

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
(Jeremiah 29:11)