I wonder if
there’s a single adult out there who could say life has not had twists and
turns for them. The truth is, I doubt that anybody could make that assertion;
life is full of twists and turns that are unexpected and sometimes
unexplainable. But sometimes, after the fact, things become clearer; other
times, even later, nothing makes sense.
Jacob, the
father of the twelve tribes, had a problem with playing favorites with his
children; he loved Joseph so much more than the rest of his children. That led
to the other boys disliking and being mean to Joseph (see Genesis 37:2-4). This
hatred was so intense that when the opportunity presented itself, they sold
Joseph into slavery; in fact, their first instinct was to kill him, but one of
the brothers, Reuben, talked them out of that idea (see Genesis 37:20-22).
He was sold
to a group of Ishmaelite traders who were on their way to Egypt; they, in turn, sold Joseph to Potiphar, the captain of the guard of the Pharaoh of Egypt (see
Genesis 37:36).
One might
wonder what went through Joseph’s mind. Where was God when all this was going
on? Didn’t He care? Why didn’t He intervene?
Yet, Joseph,
after being meanly treated at home by his brothers, sold into slavery, thrown
into jail in Egypt because of false accusations by Potiphar’s wife, and then
being forgotten by a jail-mate for two years, rose to be a top official in
Pharoah’s government.
Wow! Where
has God been? That was a lot of injustice in one person’s life. Did Joseph
complain and mope around? I wish we could talk to him and put an end to the
guesswork, but we can’t. However, his response at the end of this saga leads us
to believe that he saw the hand of God at work in all of that. But what was his
day-to-day attitude? How soon did he come to the conclusion that his suffering
was not for naught?
After many
years of suffering, Joseph, as a governor of Egypt, was now in power! God used
him to save lives during seven years of famine in the region. It was so bad;
his own family came down to buy food. As the brothers became aware of Joseph’s
role in Egypt, they were rightfully terrified! Joseph’s response, as I hinted
before, was, “God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive
and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And he
is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh-the manager of his entire palace
and the governor of all Egypt” (Genesis 45:3-15). WOW!
Have you
ever gone through a bad experience that would just not go away? How did you
feel, and how did you handle it? Can we, like Joseph, endure such adversity
with grace and patience? We should be able to, by following God’s direction:
“Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you” (1 Peter 5:7),
and understand that, “God causes everything to work together for the good of
those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them” (Romans
8:28).
May God help
us to remind ourselves that problems don’t just happen; God is sovereign and
allows them for a purpose. In addition, we need to lean on Him for strength and
courage to endure whatever He allows for His glory!
No comments:
Post a Comment