EQ - Example from the Bible - Joseph

Mark Batterson gave this example of Emotional Intelligence (EQ) in a blog post a while back.

Here goes:

There is a fascinating example (of EQ) in Scripture.
In fact, I would suggest that the nation of Israel owes its existence to one act of emotional intelligence.
Check out Genesis 40:5.
One night the cup bearer and the baker each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. The next morning Joseph noticed the dejected look on their faces. "Why do you look so worried today?" he asked.

Joseph had zero EQ as a teenager. Read Genesis 37.
If you're still a tattle-tale at seventeen you've got EQ issues! Plus he was so self-absorbed and emotionally oblivous that he told his brothers about two dreams that anybody with any EQ would know would tick them off. I'm not excusing what his brothers did. They sold him into slavery. But Joseph was totally out of touch with the feelings of others.

But there is nothing like a little suffering to produce a little emphathy. Slavery and imprisonment educate Joseph emotionally. In Genesis 40:5, Joseph notices a discreet facial expression that seems to reveal an ounce of anxiety. Not only does he discern that subtle emotional clue, but he is compassionate enough to get involved. He could have thought to himself: I have enough problems of my own. He was sharing the same prison cell after all. But Joseph had developed an acute emotional sensitivity to the people around him. And that emotional intelligence saved the nation of Israel and changed the course of history.

Let me explain.

Joseph interpreted the cupbearer's dream and the dream came true. The cupbearer went to work for Pharaoh. Several years later, Pharaoh had a dream and the cupbearer remembered Joseph. Joseph not only interprets Pharaoh's dream, he lands a position in the administration as the Prime Minister. Because of Joseph, his family finds safe-haven in Egypt during a seven-year famine. And the family of one hundred turns into a nation of more than a million people during 400 years of slavery. Then God delivers them. The Israelites occupy the Promised Land. And hundreds of years later, a descendant of Jacob named Jesus is born in Bethlehem. And as they say: the rest is history.

One of my favorites branches of history is counterfactual theory.
It asks the what if questions.
What if Joseph hadn't noticed the dejected look?
He wouldn't have interpreted the dream! And what if he hadn't interpreted the dream?
He would have never met Pharaoh!
So the nation of Israel owes its existence to one act of emotional intelligence.
Joseph noticed a dejected look.

Don't underestimate the importance of emotional intelligence!