Academic Year:06-07
Term: 03
Chapel Subject: Eagles Standard IV
Looking at the eagle process through the experience of our fathers - session 4
Deuteronomy 32:11

Deut 32:7 - Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

- Remember the days of old - Source wisdom that comes from previous ancient journeys.
- Consider the years of many generations - Identify the parallels represented in the lives of distinct people in history.
- Ask thy Father and he will shew thee - Speak to the closest authority on the matter of personal family history.
- Thy elders and they will tell thee - Speak to those in authority over corporate tribal history.

Through the above text we will apply the instructions and look at how the life of Joseph fulfilled all the distinct parts.

- Joseph took a perculiar journey.
- Jospeh's life was part of a distinct history of people.
- Joseph's life was linked to a particular family history.
- Jospeh's life had a particular effect on the corporate tribes and nations of Israel.

1. The nest is a temporary place of residence. The nest cannnot hold your dreams and visions.

Genesis 37:1-12 - Joseph's early live was a pleasant and comfortable one filled with the love his Father had for him. And yet he had dreams of another life far from his current circumstances.

- Joseph could not relate his dreams with his current comforts.
- Our dreams often do not fit into our current experiences.

2. Familiar places will often soon become uncomfortable to live with.

- As a result of Joseph's dreams familiar people became uncomfortable with what he was saying.
- People will become envious of you and have difficulty understanding you when you begin to talk about personal and corporate change.
- People fear change when they are not contributors to its process.

3. Familiar forces will be used to instigate personal change.

Genesis 37:1-18 - 24 - Joseph's experience with his brothers identifies how some personal change effects who you are by who you have identified with. Joseph's coat was symbolic of the people he had come to love and cherish, rather then the journey in which he had to embrace.

- To leave and enter into the next phase of your life, you will have to be stripped of what you connect your knoweldge to and are comfortable with.

4. The journey out of the present place will often not be the way you anticipated.

Genesis 37:1-25 - 28 - Strangers played a crucial role in starting Josephs journey.

- Unfamiliar people will not always understand your purpose but however play apart in your leaving the nest.

5. The new place of your habitation is often formidable and unnerving.

Genesis 39:1 - 3 - Bought down to Egypt

- Joseph had not experienced the life of cities in Egypt, he was used to the pilgrim (journey) lifestyle.
- Joseph had not lived as a slave or a servant, he served his father out of his sonship.
- Joseph had not experienced other types of authorites.
- Jospeh had never experienced such levels of restraint and temptations against his beliefs.
- Entering into a new context brings a certain degree of lifestyle change. (demands change of habits).
- Entering into the new can determine changes in particular roles.
- Entering into the new can mean having to manage different levels of authority and administrations.
- The new will bring about new disciplines some enforced, some drawn out of a requirement.

6. The new place will draw out of you undiscovered capabilities.

Genesis 39:4 - 6/39:20-23 - Blessed in your new capabilities.

- Joseph developed a high calibre of stewardship skills.
- Joseph developed leadership and management skills.
- Joseph learned how to prosper another's wealth.

40:9-23- Jospeh learned that bringing change for people as well as himself rest in the higher authorities of God's will and principalities.

- We must learn to manage the gifts we have in the seasons of the least and the most.
- We must learn how to order and organize ourselves.
- Our character is developed in the attitude of prospering others.
- We must learn to live by the decision we make even when the outcomes are not what we expect.
- We must learn that personal change may not always bring about corporate change in the way we expect.

7. Genesis 41: 1 - 57 - Discovering the you at the end of the journey has both personal and corporate benefits.

- Joseph had the same divine gift from beginning to end.
- The divine gift was crucial for particular times.
- Joseph had to take a journey that built character as a foundation for the gift.
- Joseph learned stewardship skills, to enable the gift to be appropriated properly and orderly.
- Without character, order and administration the gift might not have been effectively used.
- The administration of the gift realized personal and corporate comfort during a very difficult period of change.
- Not all change is beneficial unless it teaches you about God's faithfulness and character.
- Joseph became a government official because his journey encapsulated the changes experienced by many people.

- Changes of journeying. (Landscape, culture, people)
- Changes of identity.
- Changes of offices and roles.
- Changes of capabilities.
- Changes of outcomes.

- Joseph had to live with the following effects of change.

- Effect of living without our family.
- Effect of living away from home.
- Effect of being mis-treated.
- Effect of being highly respected.
- Effect of familiarity and being an alien.
- Effect of chaos and order.
- Effect of difficult circumstances (famine)

Jospeh endured to become an example of the eagle believer. One whom we should respect through the education taught to us by our fathers and elders.