Subscription Lists

Perhaps there has been a time in your life (probably more than one) in which you came to wonder why God led you to do something or to go somewhere. You were sure that God’s hand was involved in directing you one way, and yet things only seemed to end up going poorly. Perhaps you encountered a lot of conflict and struggle and experienced a lack of smooth sailing, to say the least. If you can at all relate to this dilemma, the story of Joseph is particularly for you.

Joseph didn’t do anything wrong to be the preferred child of his father. That was his father’s issue, yet it led to his brothers hating him. Joseph did nothing wrong for God to give him dreams implying that his brothers would bow to him. Perhaps he didn’t share the dreams with the most sensitivity, but still God’s choosing to use him was taken by his brothers to be further reason to be jealous of him. Joseph didn’t deserve to be thrown into a pit even though his father gave him a beautiful coat of many colors. He certainly didn’t deserve to get sold into slavery and be sent to a foreign country away from family, friends, and familiarity, possibly forever. Yet Joseph is such a remarkable story because he kept believing and persevering. He didn’t give up, throw a pity party, or develop a seething, hateful, vengeful personality. He just kept being faithful and living to please God. He sure didn’t understand why this all happened as it happened, but he had faith nonetheless.

Joseph was helped by the fact that he didn’t hold to a theology that said that if he was just faithful, all would go well such that life would be easy. I have heard it said many times that the safest place to be is in the "center" of God’s will. I believe that either we are doing God’s will or we are not. Yet even if we are doing God’s will, as Joseph did, still we might find ourselves encountering difficulty and trial. The will of God for Joseph wasn’t "safe" in the respect that it was free of difficulty, but Joseph could go to bed at night at peace and with great rest because he knew that the God of his fathers loved him. For Joseph, that was enough.

Scripture says repeatedly that God was with Joseph (Genesis 39:2,21, 23), which resulted in blessing, favor, prosperity, and success. Joseph became a blessing to Potiphar while he was a servant in his house (Genesis 39:4-6). While Joseph was in prison, he was given charge over all the prisoners because the chief jailer trusted him (Genesis 39:22-23). The goodness and mercy of God followed Joseph wherever he went (cf. Psalm 23:6). Yet we must remember that while God’s blessing was altogether evident in Joseph’s life such that those around him noticed it, came to trust him, and experienced blessing themselves, Joseph certainly had his share of trials. Thus, even though we might be experiencing the blessing and favor of God, we can and do still have trials just as Joseph did. For whatever reason, God chooses to work through travail and strange circumstances such that it requires faith on our parts to believe even when we cannot see. For such is the desire of God, that we walk by faith rather than by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). If we were to look at the relative "prosperity" of Joseph’s life over different time periods, we might think that God’s blessing came and went multiple times. After all, how could God have possibly been showing him favor if he allowed him to be sold as a slave or put unjustly into prison? Yet the blessing and favor of God was there at all times and in all places, for God knew what He was doing. Joseph rightly kept honoring and believing God no matter the circumstances.

This is such a wonderful and powerful truth for us if we can only grasp and accept it. There is nothing like having the favor of God resting upon us such that in whatever we do God makes it to be a blessing for others and for His kingdom. Yet we must understand that the state of being in the favor of God does not mean that we necessarily don’t have trouble. The primary lesson that Scripture highlights from the life of Joseph is spoken by Joseph himself once he sees how God has tied all the loose ends together into a beautiful masterpiece of grace, love, mercy, deliverance, and provision. He says to his brothers, "As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive" (Genesis 50:20). Joseph had wrongly suffered in a great many ways, yet he was able to look back and acknowledge and recognize God’s sovereign hand in his life and how God had a purpose of good from the beginning ordained for Joseph, for his brothers, and for the nation of Israel. God ordained and designed the paths of Joseph’s life such that things would eventually work out by God’s hand to save Israel from starvation during the years of famine. In so doing, God’s promise to bless Abraham and give him many descendants remained good. But it took Joseph on a wild ride in order for that end to come. Couldn’t God have done it another way? I suppose, but it is an irrelevant question because He did it this way. The same holds true for our lives. There is no point trying to answer all of the "why" questions in the present, for only God knows all. We might not know what God is doing in our lives much of the time, but God knows what He is doing all of the time. It took many, many years before Joseph had an answer to some of the why questions which he likely had in the back of his mind. In this instance, God allowed Joseph to see some of the reasons why such awful things happened to him as he was blessed to be the savior of his family and the nation of Israel. And God does sometimes let us see glimpses of why He does what He does, but He owes us no explanation this side of eternity. In eternity, we will praise Him for His wonderful plan and purposes, and the right thing to do is to praise and thank Him now because He is good, kind, and in complete control.

People might intend evil for us, and Satan will try to attack us. But what is sure is that God is ultimately working behind the scenes for His children such that all is intended for a blessing and for good for us and for others through our faithfulness. The favor of God rests upon those whom God loves and who love Him, and these must continue believing, serving, and obeying God, no matter what the circumstances dictate. God has a plan, and He knows what He is doing. When we don’t know what God is doing or why things happen as they do, let us remember that if we could only see as God sees, we would say, "Oh, wow, God, You knew what You were doing the whole time, and Your way, well, it’s just…perfect."

"Today's Little Lift" from Jim Bullington

Mercy and not Sacrifice (Sept. 29, 2010)