Dream to Reality

Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.
Genesis 42:6

The beginning of seeing a dream come true for Joseph has got to be a surreal experience. I am sure that he had resigned himself to his new political leadership in Egypt. There is a matter-of-fact sort of way in which the text talks about the exercise of his political power. He was the governor charged with the distribution of Egypt's carefully stored grain. And we already know from the text that he was a gifted planner and administrator. I think he thoroughly enjoyed the work. But the day came when unexpectedly the brothers who sold him into slavery show up in obedience to him.

God seems to use this event to get their attention. For the first time, we hear them banter around about their treatment of Joseph. There appear to be serious regrets. Physical famine, and the temporary incarceration of the brothers puts them in a different, more spiritual, frame of mind. And Joseph is seeing his boyhood vision from God begin to come into reality.

So it is with God's providential work. God's work is worth waiting for. God uses all the events in our lives, even the difficulties and pains, to bring about bigger purposes than we can see at the moment. That is the overwhelming spiritual truth that marked the life of Joseph and the sons of Israel. And that is still very much the reality of how God works today!

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From Prison to Prime Minister

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you."
Genesis 41:39-40

In one day Joseph moves from being a prisoner to a prime minister. This is a dramatic work of God and it was worth all the waiting, the suffering, and the faithful witness. When the cupbearer remembers what Joseph did for him, he is immediately summoned from prison to stand before Pharaoh. There, he interprets the prophetic message of Pharaoh's dreams and the king takes note of the wisdom that Joseph entails with the interpretation of them.

But all the wonder of the story is focused on the God of Joseph. His interpretation of the dream lets Pharaoh know that he is convinced that God is bringing about both the outstanding bumper crops and the future famine. Egypt would respond to the sovereign act of God by preparing and administrating well. And Pharaoh quickly sees in Joseph the man to head up just such a project. But in picking him, it is clear that the king acknowledges God. Joseph is wise because God has shown him these things. And that is what the king recognizes and rewards.

So it is that any event, whether boon or bane, blessing or trial, must be seen as coming from the purposeful hand of an Almighty, Sovereign God. I long to be prime minister, but God is equally concerned that I am faithful while in the pit of prison. And if any good comes of this life, it is because God brings it about in me or through me.

I need the lessons of Joseph's faithful life. Of course, at this point in Genesis, God is just beginning to make things move in blessing for the faithful young Hebrew man. It would still take many years for God to restore his relationship with his family and repair those broken relationships. The young man would become the wise man of Egypt in the interim. And he would excel in the great times as well as in the hardships. Those are the lessons I need to learn.

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The God of the waiting.

Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Genesis 40:23

This is not the ending to this scene in Joseph's life that we want. We would hope that upon restoration to the court of Pharaoh, the cupbearer would immediately tell the king of Joseph's plight. But that was not the case. The human foibles in this story give it such plausibility. It is the ring of historical truth. Human beings forget their good fortune and encouragement. And that is what happened.

Evidently God had His reasons for keeping Joseph in prison for two more years. Perhaps it was to keep Joseph at the ready. Perhaps it was to teach the young man further lessons of trust. Perhaps it was to keep him humble so that when indeed he was called upon, it would be in a way that God would get the glory. And that is exactly what will happen. Joseph will be remembered by the cupbearer, not as a victim of injustice, but as a gifted interpreter of dreams, which was just what the Pharaoh needed.

Waiting is no fun. It is no fun in tragic circumstances. When our routine is reduced down to day after day after day of what we do not like or want, we might be tempted to forget God. And it is just those times when we need to trust Him most. God is using the pit of the prison. He is waiting for His time to bring us out in such a way as He is clearly in control. We must wait. But we will find God at work even in the waiting.

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A Shining Light in Difficult Days

From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.  So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.
Genesis 39:5-6

In Joseph we find the merging of both character and blessing. He was a young man who did not let his circumstances drag him down. I am sure he felt like doing so. His brothers beat him up and threw him in a pit. He was sold into slavery. He was brought to a foreign land and in Egypt, where he did not know the language, the people, the customs, or even possess full humanity as a slave, he rose to honor, even as a slave. He was a remarkable individual.

Strong character and faith will always make up any deficit in our circumstances. Not because we are so great, but because that is what it takes to love and obey God and seek His blessing. That is exactly what happened with Joseph. He may have been a slave, but he was the noblest slave in Egypt, and God blessed him so that Potiphar, his master, prospered as well. And Potiphar kept giving responsibility to Joseph in return until the young man became the chief steward of all that he had.

In those circumstances, we would hope for a positive continuation of the story, but that is not the case. Potiphar's wife entices Joseph for sexual sin. Rather than hurt God or his master, Joseph flees the scene, and she cannot stand to be scorned. She falsely accuses him of attempted rape and Joseph is thrown into Egyptian prison. But even there God rewards his strength of character until Joseph, as model prisoner, is given liberties by the chief guard. Everywhere this young man goes, even in the downturns, he prospers in character and faith.

During uncertain times, I look to his example. I believe that a downturn, or a loss, may not necessarily be a bad thing. In fact, in scripture those are often times designed by God to prove His people and advance the knowledge of the Holy One. Joseph serves as an example as to what to do, and more importantly, how to trust in difficult days.

Technorati Tags: Genesis,Joseph,Faith,Character,Uncertainty

Pyromaniacs: Bible reading — in church

Gotta find this opinion interesting...

Pyromaniacs: Bible reading — in church

The Dangers of a Relative Righteousness.

Then Judah identified them and said, "She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah."
Genesis 38:26

This is not a speech delivered in the context of biblical morality. In fact, in this one short chapter, Judah lives more immorally and with impunity than any other short section of scripture describes. He is in contrast to his youngest brother, Joseph, who was presented with occasion to sin and fled from it. Judah's family is very immoral. From his sons, to himself, sexual sin prevails upon his household.

In this episode, Judah manages to get the widow of his immoral sons, Er and Onan, pregnant. He assumes she is a prostitute (which makes the situation even worse). She must deceive him to fulfill levirate marriage law, which required that the unmarried brother of a husband who died take a widow for his wife. When Judah refuses to give Tamar his youngest son in marriage, she resorts to deception to obtain a child. This is certainly a soap opera, no doubt.

It is in the context of lies, immorality, sexual promiscuity and prostitution that Judah makes this pronouncement that Tamer "is more righteous than I". That is certainly a vague and valueless statement given the circumstances. It does not ring with even a hint of holiness. It is the inevitable consequence of defining righteousness down in a deviant culture.

More and more, my culture looks like Judah's home. I find that immorality and sexual promiscuity have become the norm even in homes within the church. I am witnessing the pornification of American culture to the point that sexual deviancy is the joke in the average sitcom on television. Righteousness will become so relative as to be in non-existence, just as it was in Judah's household.

Pure water from a poisoned well.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
Genesis 37:3-4

Jacob could not seem to rise above the sins of his father. Favoritism had ruined his early years and poisoned his relationship with his brother, Esau. Yet he cannot seem to remember that pain when he magnifies the problem of playing favorites by elevating his youngest son, Joseph over all the others in his household. This favoritism resulted in his home looking more like a gang warfare zone with rivalries, sexual exploits, plots to murder, and deceit.

Joseph was innocently caught in the after affects of his father's sinful choices. Some people like to fault the young man for bringing a bad report to his father of his brother's behavior, but nowhere in scripture are we told that he lied about it or was malicious in intent. His brothers did behave badly, as evidenced by everything else we see them doing in this chapter and beyond. I believe he was speaking the truth in love when he did so. But because of the pre-existing animosity between Joseph and his family, no good would come of it.

Sometimes other people poison the well for us. Jacob poisoned the relationship that Joseph might have had with his brothers by giving him the robe that set him apart. He clearly favored him and the resentment that followed was inevitable. But Joseph had no control over that. In fact, his story in Genesis is remarkable in that despite everyone else around him being less than obedient, often directly defying God, Joseph remains constantly true, full of mature character, and used by God despite his experience.

So there is hope. All of us can be lifted up by God beyond the circumstances of sin around us that we may have no control over. I can control my response to temptation. I cannot control what others may do to me or their behaviors. And so Joseph shows us how God can graciously reward obedience even while we are sinned against repeatedly. There is a lot of hope in his story.