Servants bring blessings to their masters and the households where they are employed.

Joseph was a young boy who was sold as a slave by his blood brothers out of the bitterness and resentment they had towards him because of the dreams of his future that he shared with them.

On the journey to fulfil his Purpose in the land of Egypt, as the man who will later save Egypt and the world in general from great famine through the gift of dream interpretation given to him by God and also become the second most powerful man in the land of Egypt after Pharaoh,  had a stopover in the house of Potiphar as a slave.

Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.

Because of Joseph, the LORD blessed the house of Potiphar the Egyptian.

The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had both in the house and in the field.

But the Lust Of The Flesh of Potiphar’s wife for a well- built handsome young man (Joseph) who had a brief stopover in her house, which would have been a covenant relationship that would have elevated her husband and household when Joseph eventually become who God has purposed him to be in the land of Egypt cost her husband and household this blessing and opportunity.

Many men and women today are like Potiphar’s wife; the LORD through divine orchestration, has brought young, beautiful, and handsome young men and women under their care, to be a blessing to them and their household just like Joseph was to the household of Potiphar, but their pride of life, feeling superior as a master over the slaves and servants has led them to physically abuse by inflicting horrible injury and pains on these young men and women like; burning them with pressing iron, cutting them with a razor blade, using rod iron to beat them, denying them food, if they must eat, they must not eat with same plate and spoon as them and their children, and late after their bosses have eaten and gone to bed. Sometimes they even kill them.

Children put in their care to be a blessing to their household, while they, in turn, take care of them.

Some, because of their lust for the flesh and threats to throw these servants out of their houses where they are taking shelter briefly or stop paying their school fees or allowance, these helpless servants succumb to their threats. Thus they molest them sexually by carrying out all forms of pervasive sexual acts on these blessed children of destiny brought under their care because they see them as slaves and servants who have no future nor anything to offer them and their household.

Looking at the case of  Joseph as seen in our text above, we see that this is not true.

When this happens they miss out on the blessings that these great men and women who had just a brief stopover in their house as they journey to their place of destiny, brought into their household.

There are lots of cases in the Bible apart from that of Joseph wherein servants and slaves became a great source of help and blessing to their masters and their household.

Abraham’s Senior Servant :

In Genesis 24:1-67, Abraham was now very old, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. He said to the “Senior Servant” in his household, the one in charge of all that he had, ‘Put your hand under my thigh. I want you to swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and earth, that you will not get a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I am living, but will go to my country and my own relatives and get a wife for my son Isaac’’.

Did he fulfil his master’s request? Yes, he did.

He did not only find a wife for  Isaac among his own people and relatives, but he also prayed fervently to the LORD God of his master Abraham, who granted his request. Though his prayer was answered, without saying a word, the man watched her closely to learn whether or not the LORD had made his journey successful.

He was careful to find the very best for his master’s son.

The Scripture testifies that when the servant brought back the bride Rebekah home to his master son; he married Rebekah so that she became his wife and loved her, and Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.

The choice of a wife a “Servant” made for his master’s son brought him comfort even after the death of his mother.

Naaman Healed Of Leprosy 2 Kings 5: 1-15:

Now Naaman was commander of the army of the King of Aram, he was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded because through him the LORD had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.

Now bands of raiders from Aram had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.

Naaman’s wife took the counsel of the young captive girl and informed her husband who in turn informed the King of Aram and was given a letter to the king of Israel.

The King of Israel as soon as he received and read the letter, tore his clothes and said,

Am I God?

Can I kill and bring back to life?

Why does this fellow send someone to me to be cured of his leprosy? See how he is trying to pick a quarrel with me!”

When Elisha the man of God heard that the King of Israel had torn his robes he sent him this message: “Why have you torn your robes? Have the man come to me and he will know that there is a prophet in Israel.”

Naaman went with his horses and chariots and stopped at the door of Elisha’s house. Elisha sent a messenger to him, “ Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored and you will be cleansed.”

But Naaman went away angry and said, “ I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of leprosy. Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be cleansed? So he turned and went off in a rage.

Naaman’s Servants went to him and said, “My father if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more, then when he tells you, ‘ Wash and be cleansed’? So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.

David, Nabal and Abigail 1 Samuel 25: 1-37:

Now there was a man in Maon whose business and possessions were in Carmel; the man was very rich. He had three thousand sheep and a thousand goats, and he was shearing his sheep in Carmel.

The man’s name was Nabal and his wife’s name was Abigail. She was intelligent and beautiful in appearance, but the man was harsh and evil in his dealings; he was a Calebite.

David heard in the wilderness that Nabal was shearing his sheep. So David sent ten young men; and send to the men, “Go up to Carmel and go to Nabal, and greet him in my name; and this is what you shall say, ‘Have a long life! Peace be to you, and peace to your house, and peace be to all you have.

“Now I hear it’s shearing time. When your shepherds were with us, we did not mistreat them, and the whole time they were at Carmel nothing of theirs was missing. Ask your servants and they will tell you. Therefore be favourable to my men, since we come at a festive time. please give your servants and your son David whatever you can find for them.”

When David’s men arrived, they gave Nabal this message in David’s name then they waited.

Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat  I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”

David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. David said to his men,

“ Each of you strap  on your sword !”

So they did, and David strapped on his own as well. About four hundred men went with David.

One of the “Servants” told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them.

Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins, and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys.

Then she told her servants, “ Go on ahead; I will follow you.’’  But she did not tell her husband  Nabal.

As she came riding her donkey into the mountain ravine, there was David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.

David had just said, “ It’s been useless all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his is missing. He has paid me back evil for good. May God deal with David, be it ever so severely if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belongs to him!”

Beloved, from the numerous examples shared above, we see that servants bring blessings to the households where they are serving.

• So I ask Masters, How are you treating that servant whom the LORD God has brought under your care now?
• Are you treating them as slaves with cruelty and every form of abuse known to mankind?
• Are you aware that someday in the future, your servant might play a major role in either, protecting or carrying out important assignments to your household or lineage?
• When that time comes, will they serve and even be willing to stand by your side as a father or stand in the gap as a father and helper to your household?

Or

• Will they remember you and your wife’s wickedness and leave your household in danger?
• If Abraham was cruel and abusive to his head servant, would he have prayed and watched to make sure he brought back the best wife for his master’s son?
• If  Naaman’s wife was cruel and harsh to the young girl taken captive from Israel, who served her, or
• if Naaman abused her sexually as he wills because she was a common servant girl in his house,  would she have said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy?
• If Naaman treated his male servants badly, would they have called him “ Father” and also given him reasons to obey Elisha’s instructions so that he may get his healing as he turned and went off in a rage?

For a servant to call his master father, means that the master is indeed in the true sense a father to him.

• If Abigail was a high and mighty lady of the house, who no servants dare come before her,  would the servant have run to tell her about the wrong response of her husband  Nabal to David’s request?

It was a servant that stopped a great calamity from befalling the household of Nabal and Abigail because David had sworn by God not to leave alive one male of all who belong to him.

Would your servants do the same for you?

Meditate deeply on the following questions and answer them sincerely.

Beloved the Word of God in Colossians 4:1 says, “Masters deal with your slaves justly and fairly, knowing that you have a Master in heaven.

This simply means that just the way you are a master to your slaves and servants, you are also a  servant to your own Master, the LORD God in heaven.

If your master is to evaluate and score you on the slaves and servants on their way to their place of destiny, but have a temporary stopover in your house, what will your report card say?

‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in your master’s happiness !”

 Or  ‘ I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

The choice is yours.

God Bless You

Husbands Are To Pray For Their Wives Too