Managing the Unknowns

Genesis 45: 4-5 KJV

4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.

5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.

Genesis 50: 20 KJV

But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

These are the words Joseph spoke to his brothers as they were afraid that he would seek revenge against them for the great evil they did to him by selling him into slavery. In this particular verse, Joseph tells of how he suffered and endured many things, including slavery, in order to fulfill God’s mission of saving many people, including his oppressors, in the day of famine.

Joseph is was a man on a mission for God, but Joseph was not aware of all of the details of the mission. He knew that he was favored by his father, because his father invested in him educationally, spiritually, and physically Gen. 37: 3-4). His father symbolized the favor and love he had for Joseph by making him a coat of many colors. Joseph was also favored by God, because God is the one who blessed him with purpose for living. He knew that God had a mighty work for him to do, because he gave him dreams that showed him he was favored by God to be a leader. Although he had these dreams of affirmation from God, he did not know exactly what that work was to be at the time.

Although Joseph was on a mission unbeknownst to him, he was successful in his mission through spiritual virtues and moral character. Joseph leaves behind jewels of wisdom that we can use in our own mission as witnesses for Jesus Christ even when we don’t know exactly what God is doing in our lives.

The Reality of Rejection

The first thing Joseph encounters along with the favor of God and his father is rejection because he was favored and purposed by God.  What makes rejection even more potent is when that rejection comes from your own family. Joseph was rejected by his brothers. Jesus Christ was rejected his family and the very people he came to save. Jesus said that “A prophet is not without honor (respect) except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own household” (Mark 6: 4 AMP). Joseph knew that form of rejection all too well.

As a Christian witness, this is a reality that we must face, but it is not reality that should detour us from our mission. When we are faced with rejection, we must remember two things. 1) We must draw close to God who called us through prayer, fasting, and meditation. 2) We must understand that rejection produces within us the virtue of endurance.

It is an interesting grace that somehow being alone allows us the opportunity to spend time with the one who is always there and is available for communion. Rejection produces in us endurance, because it removes the distractions of outside influences. Joseph’s brothers’s rejection are more evident than ever when they strip him of his coat of many colors and casts him into a pit (Gen. 37: 24). This is the beginning of his journey alone with God. He no longer has the comfort of home and his father.

A Pit Experience

Every Christian witness has a pit experience where everything that has brought you comfort in the past has been taken away. I experienced this when I was hired to work for the federal prison system. The prison was in a remote place in a town I knew nothing about around people I knew nothing about. I was alone, but I was where I knew God wanted me to be at the time. Although I was away from the basic comforts I knew all of my life, I know that I was with God, on a mission. Communion with God has to be the assurance we have when God’s providence says we need a season of being alone.

After being thrown into the pit, he was sold into to slavery to the Midianites who sold him into slavery in Egypt. He was a servant to Potiphar, who was one of Pharoah’s officers and captain of the guard. Although Joseph was a slave, his spiritual virtues of humility and diligence were evident to those he served. Genesis 39: 2-4 describes such evidence in saying:

2 And the LORD was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. 3 And his master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD made all he did to prosper. 4 And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him: and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he had put into his hand. (KJV)

Humility and Faithfulness

As Christian witnesses, it is expedient that we understand the that humility and diligence can be a blessing to our ministry to Christ. These particular virtues cause our light to shine brighter for men to see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven (Mat. 5: 16).

It is easy to let our light shine when everything is going well, but let us be encouraged by the fact the Joseph’s light shines while he was under the oppression and subjection of slavery. Yet and still, Joseph was humbled to be alive, and he was faithful in his service to his master the Egyptian. And his master the Egyptian was able to see is faithfulness. He was able to see that Joseph was blessed as an administrator, and his gift of administration brought blessings upon Potiphar. This same is true for us, in that in our diligence, we will bring blessings upon our leaders. We will bring blessings to those we have been called to. There was nothing extravagant or flamboyant about what Joseph was doing. He simply served with faithfulness, and God’s favor was upon him to prosper in the place he was called to. Let us be found being humble and diligent in our service, and God will reward us in due season (Gal. 6: 9).

Notice the words due season, because Joseph was not rewarded immediately for his faithfulness in Potiphar’s. At least on the surface level, it seemed as though Joseph’s fidelity to Potiphar brought him to a worse state than slavery, and that worker state was the state of imprisonment.  I’m time, Joseph flew under the radar of Potiphar’s wife, and she was determined to have Joseph for herself. To her dismay, Joseph rejected her saying:

9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God. 10 And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he heartened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her. 11 And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business; and there was none of the men of the house there within. 12 And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me : and he left his garment in her hand, and fled, and got him out (Gen. 39: 9: 12 KJV).

Potiphar’s wife was so distraught by Joseph’s repeated rejection of her, that she lied to her husband telling him that Joseph raped her.  Potiphar in his rage, had Joseph out in prison. Simply put, Joseph’s fidelity to God and his master landed made him a prisoner (Gen. 39: 17- 20).

In the life of the Christian witness, it may seem as though your faithfulness to God and his mission brings you to worsen situations that you had ever imagined. Be encouraged that the LORD is with you as he was with Joseph when he taken from slavery to imprisonment(Mat. 28: 20). Joseph’s gift as a blessed administrator also shined forth while in prison. The keeper of the prison gave all authority of the prison and its prisoners to Joseph.   Genesis 39: 23 says, “The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him (Joseph), and that which he did the LORD made it to prosper.” This is a testament of diligence and steadfastness.

Work Your Gift

While in prison, Joseph’s gift as an interpreter of dreams was also seen as he was serving the prisoner. Specifically, Joseph ministers to two prisoner who worked in the house of Pharaoh one worked as a cup bearer, and the other worked as a baker.  Providence would have it that these two men had dreams that caused anxiety among them, and Joseph, seeing their dismay, offered to interpret their dreams. He told them what each of their dreams meant concerning their future. As it were, Joseph tells the baker he would be condemned to death in three days, and he tells the cupbearer that in three days he would be restored to his position in the house as before. As God would have it, everything that Joseph told them came to pass. Joseph appealed to the cupbearer that he would remember him when he returns to Pharaoh’s house (Gen. 40).

However, the cupbearer forgot about Joseph for a full two years (Gen. 40: 23; 41: 1).  So, Joseph remained faithful while in prison those two years. He was faithful in his prayers and service. He waited patiently on the LORD. A large part of the process of Christian witnessing is prayers, service, and waiting on God. Many times God has told us or has shown us the great things He will do, but the hard part is waiting on those promises to come to pass. Patience truly is an virtue, and it was shown forth  in Joseph.

An Opportunity to Witness

For two full years Joseph was forgotten by the cupbearer until Pharaoh had a dream that troubled him, and none of the magicians of Egypt could interpret the dream (Gen. 41: 7-8). When Pharaoh could find no man to interpret, the cup bearer remembered How Joseph interpreted his dream saying:

9 I do remember my faults this day 10 Pharaoh was wroth with his servants, and put me in ward in the captain of the guard’s house, both me and the chief baker: 11 And we dreamed a dream in one night, I and he; we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. 12 And there was there with us a young man, an Hebrew, servant to the captain of the guard; and we told him, and he interrupted to us our dreams ; to each man according to his dream did he interpret. 13 And it came to pass, as he interpreted to us, so it was; me he restored unto mine office, and him he hanged (Gen. 41: 9-13 KJV)

Desperate to understand the meaning of his own dream, Pharaoh calls Joseph in and immediately. When Pharaoh asked Joseph if he could interpret the dream, Joseph said, “It is not me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” In this very moment, Joseph tells Pharaoh of a God he had not known before. If we are faithful to the mission God has called us to, moments like this is whatever desire; to reveal God to those who do not know him. Some might have heard of him, but they do not know him.

The grace of God is evident in this story, in that God reveals his will to one, Pharaoh, who did not know him as God. In this story, God initiates a conversation with Pharaoh by way of a dream. I’m Genesis 41: 17- 24, Pharaoh tells Joseph of the dream he had, saying:

17 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river:

18 And, behold, there came up out of the river seven kine, fatfleshed and well favoured; and they fed in a meadow:

19 And, behold, seven other kine came up after them, poor and very ill favoured and leanfleshed, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness: 20 And the lean and the ill favoured kine did eat up the first seven fat kine: 21 And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them; but they were still ill favoured, as at the beginning. So I awoke.

22 And I saw in my dream, and, behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good:

23 And, behold, seven ears, withered, thin, and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them:

24 And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears: and I told this unto the magicians; but there was none that could declare it to me. (KJV)

Again, Joseph tells of the goodness of God, saying, “The dream of Pharaoh is one: God has shewed Pharaoh what He is about to do” (Gen. 41: 25). In Genesis 41: 26-36, Joseph also interpreted the dream for Pharaoh saying:

26 The seven good kine are seven years; and the seven good ears are seven years: the dream is one.

27 And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

28 This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh: What God is about to do he sheweth unto Pharaoh.

29 Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt:

30 And there shall arise after them seven years of famine; and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt; and the famine shall consume the land;

31 And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following; for it shall be very grievous.

32 And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice; it is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.

33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.

34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.

35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.

36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine. (KJV).

Pharaoh found that Joseph’s interpretation of the dream was good. Not only did the Pharaoh see Joseph’s interpretation as good, but he also saw Joseph as good. In Genesis 41: 38, Pharaoh said, “…Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the spirit of avid is?” Pharaoh went on to make Joseph the second highest ruler in all of Egypt, coming second only to him.  There are some who read this portion of the passage as a type of glory that Joseph had obtained for the suffering he endured. Rather, Joseph’s suffering, enslavement, favor, and position, was used to bring salvation to the land of Egypt and his brethren in the midst of a famine that would otherwise destroy them all. Furthermore, Joseph witnessed to the people that God is the One who wrought the salvation they all needed. That is why Joseph could assuredly tell his brothers, “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive (Gen. 50: 20 KJV).  As Christian witnesses, let us be mindful of the witness of Joseph. He had a purpose and a dream. Although he was hated and rejected, he was humble, faithful, and diligent as a servant. At every opportunity, he was a faithful witness for God, and he gave all of the glory to God.

Let us pray,

Heavenly Father, thank you for the new life you have given us in Jesus Christ. Thank you for sharing with us the witness of Joseph. Help us so that we can be  humble, faithful, and diligent servants, even in the face of hatred and rejection. Help us to always be committed to witnessing Jesus Christ to the world. Let us never forget his death, burial, and resurrection; and let us always remember his life, love, and example. In Jesus’s mighty name,

Amen,