Thank you. It's rarely a problem to have a favorite song or a favorite book or hobby.

But when we show favoritism among family members, that can be devastating.

And today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg illustrates just how deeply family dysfunction can arise

when one member of the family is treated with favoritism over the others.

Genesis 37 and verse 2 tells us that Joseph was 17 years old and involved with his brothers

in the task of shepherding. As we noted last time, by the time Joseph reached the age of 17, he had seen more of the ugly side of life, the seamy side of

family life than many people ever experience in a lifetime.

The events that had unfolded since the day of his birth involving his brother's cruelty and all manner of chaos within the family structure are such that it is quite remarkable the young man to whom we're introduced as we find him in his 17th year. His background was prosperous, his family was large, and he was already living

with an increasing sense that somehow in some special way God had something planned for him.

There are just these little inklings of it that we have come to already, and which

we'll find again this morning, indeed, throughout the whole of this record of the life of Joseph.

It's immediately obvious that we could profitably engage in a number of topical studies which

emerged from the text, And that would not be wrong

to do. There would be value in that. But we've set our purpose as looking at the life of Joseph

in terms of God's dealings with him, and particularly having identified him as one of the classic

Old Testament illustrations

of the truth of Romans 828, namely that all things work together for good to those who love God

who are the called according to his purpose. And this morning, as we look at this further unfolding of the record of

Joseph's life, we do so with respect to that. Now, what I would like to do is to consider this

from three angles in particular. To view Joseph, first of all, as he is revealed to us being the object of his father's special interest,

then the object of his brother's jealous hatred, and then thirdly, the object of God's providential care.

All right? First of all, then, we see Joseph here in these verses before us as the object of

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