His father loved him, perhaps too much. God chose him and while he was young made the sketch of His plans known to him. His brothers hated him- because he was favored by their father and God. So, finding an opportunity, they got rid of him by selling him to slave-traders who took him hundreds of miles from his home to a foreign land. So much for dreams of destiny, or so it seemed; but, he didn’t surrender to despair. Instead, when he found himself the property of a nobleman, he worked hard and was soon the household’s manager.
Then, the woman of the house became interested in him and when he wouldn’t cooperate with her illicit desires, he was accused of rape and jailed on false charges. He was soon a trusted man that was in charge of the jail! Years past and two men from the king’s court were jailed with him. They had dreams and he told them the meanings of their dreams. He asked the man who was going back to serve the king to please remember him. The man didn’t - at least for a few years – until the king had a nightmare that defied understanding. Then, the man remembered Joseph and Pharaoh sent for him. After decades of disappointment, Joseph realized the dream of destiny that God gave him while he was a teenage boy. He became the Prime Minister of Egypt.
I am fairly certain that a man who had Joseph’s abilities and intelligence must have been tempted to wonder, “what’s going on?” Has God forgotten me? Why is all this happening to me? But, he had faith and the dream of destiny that God gave to him which he held tightly…. waiting, trusting, hopeful! How do I know that? Because of his own words. When Joseph was at the pinnacle of power and his poor brothers came into his court seeking food and favors, not knowing they were standing in the presence of the person they sold to slave-traders years before, he told them this: "But don’t be angry with yourselves that you did this to me, for God did it. He sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives. These two years of famine will grow to seven, during which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. God has sent me here to keep you and your families alive so that you will become a great nation. Yes, it was God who sent me here, not you! And he has made me a counselor to Pharaoh—manager of his entire household and ruler over all Egypt." (Genesis 45:5-8, NLT) God used the circuitous route that led through slavery and prison to produce a man that would save a nation and his own family.
Honestly, even though it has a happy end, I do not like the story of Joseph all that much. It makes me understand that God is at work, using people and situations that are not necessarily pleasant or of my choosing, to implement His sovereign plan for this world. My exalted sense of self-importance is challenged and the fact that my personal happiness is not God’s paramount purpose is under-lined in my understanding. For us, raised in a culture that emphasizes personal fulfillment and the avoidance of pain at all costs, the thought that God might allow us to suffer as He works out His plans is very, very hard to accept!
If God loves me (and He does, very much!) how could he ask me to suffer? Because He is perfecting us for His purposes, purposes which reach much more widely than we can see, given our finiteness. There is a widely misquoted and misunderstood text that assures us God is amazingly at work to bring all circumstances- good and bad- to a place where His will is done. It says: "… we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified. What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Romans 8:28-31, NIV) Living in that truth requires a great faith- which God will provide to us, if we ask!
If you’re in a place where you’re asking, “what’s going on?” let me recommend the Psalm of Patience (37). The lead verbs in that Psalm point the way to endurance, the way to let God’s will emerge from the pyre on which self is offered up to His purposes. “Trust in the LORD… Delight in the LORD…Commit you way to the LORD… Be still before the LORD… and Wait on the LORD!”
Take this word from the Word to heart and let God love you today:
"But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord;
He is their strength in the time of trouble.
And the Lord shall help them and deliver them;
He shall deliver them from the wicked,
And save them,
Because they trust in Him." (Psalm 37:39-40, NKJV)
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