It’s been a while since I’ve been given a nickname or had a well crafted slur aimed at me (to my face anyway!)

However at school I remember this happening often! School is brutal for that kind of thing and many people still bear the scars and trauma from a name thrown at them in a lunchtime discussion. Of course most of the time when we share that name with someone and talk about our struggles we are rightly told to forget about it and not dwell on it. Those names don’t form who we are and we can’t allow them to have the room to shape us.

I agree with this of course…….but sometimes even a name spoken in disdain can reveal something that is true of us and speak of something that is true in us. Sometimes in the opposition and the criticism our identity is named and we must ensure that we don’t discard or tame the identity God has given us.

I notice this in the life of Joseph. Joseph was his fathers favourite and naturally his other brothers had a few issues with the favouritism that Joseph was shown by his dad. Brothers haven’t exactly evolved throughout history!

One of the things that gave his brothers more fuel for their Joseph fire was his dreaming. We are told early in the story of Joseph of two dreams that he had. These dreams really displeased his brothers greatly and it was these dreams that cause Joseph’s initial downfall. At one point in the story Jospeh’s dad sends him out to check on his brothers. When they see Joseph coming we read this;

Here comes that dreamer! ” they said to each other.“Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” Genesis 37:19-20

I want to focus on how they identify Jospeh.

That Dreamer

They are using the title in a disdaining way here but the interesting thing here is that they seem to realise that his dreams do mean something. If they didn’t believe there was some truth or potential outworking of these dreams surely they wouldn’t be so intent in causing him harm.

Josephs identity was revealed even in his opposition

His brothers were declaring Josephs destiny over him even when they are annoyed at him. And this is not the only time this happens in the Scriptures. Even the devil when he comes to tempt Jesus speaks out His identity! What the enemy wanted to tame he ended up naming.

Perhaps we need to be quicker to look at the criticism we receive to understand what God might be revealing through it?? We have to look after ourselves of course, I don’t want us to spend our time listening to people hurling insults at us, I just want us to recognise the breakthroughs and the revelation that happens in the criticism.

What are the things people accuse us of or have spoken out against us?

What might they reveal about us, even though they were said in a dishonouring way?

How do they line up with other things God has said about us?

Be blessed