The following is a journal entry from the book "The Journals of Jim Elliott" edited by his wife Elisabeth Elliot. The entry is dated January 31, 1948 and is based on his thoughts from reading Genesis 37 that day. Jim was 20 years old when he wrote this. Consider the depth of understanding and the practical application evidenced in the writing of this very young man. Surely the Lord's hand was upon him for good.
Joseph was hated for three causes. First because it was evident that his father loved him (v.4). Then, because of his dreams and his word (v.8). So with the Savior. Because the power of God clothed Him with grace ("glory as of an only begotten son"[John 1:14]), they were moved to envy. His aspirations of a Kingdom built in the Spirit, wherein all things in heaven (stars) and earth (sheaves) would be subject to Him, called forth hatred. His reasoning and words maddened them, so that when He came seeking them, they plotted to destroy Him. "They could not speak peaceably to Him" (v.4). Jesus, like Joseph, was the Son of his Father's old age. In the realm of the supra temporal life before time began to flow, before matter could be known as either old or young, The Son Eternal was the object of His Father's affection, and He alone is cognizant of the experiences of His Father's "old age". At His revelation the Father clothed Him with the varitinted character of the God-man, so that we see in Christ's life such amazing paradoxes - the uniting of power and perfect love; the fusion of compassionate mercy and consuming truth; meekness and might; zeal and reticence so that He was taken for both fire-demanding Elijah and weeping Jeremiah - the pattern being so much more vivid for the contrasts. It was this many-colored coat that betrayed Him from afar so that His brethren could say, "Behold, the heir, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours" (Matt. 21:38; Mark 12:7; Luke 20:14).
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