R.C. Sproul’s series of Saturday messages on the life of Joseph, the Old Testament patriarch, have been both fascinating and inspiring. Not long ago, my own pastor preached a series on the providence of God, in which he highlighted several Biblical characters, including Joseph.
There are many reasons why believers ought to find Joseph’s story so helpful in our journey to sanctification. This man’s unique dreams, his privileged upbringing, the betrayal and enslavement at the hands of his own brothers, his reaction to being sold as a slave in another country, his faithfulness to the Lord when faced with sexual temptation, his loyalty and good will toward fellow prisoners, his wisdom and wise use of his God-given gifts, and the list goes on.
I was especially struck this morning by the way that testing figures throughout the story of Joseph. God appears to be putting Jacob and his family to the test by giving Joseph his bizarre dreams of future prominence. Obviously, Joseph’s older brothers react to this test in a purely negative way, seeing those dreams as simply a way their spoiled sibling is “lording it over” the rest of them. The very way they decide to “solve” this problem ironically ends up sending their hated brother into the path that eventually leads to the dreams’ fulfillment!
The next series of tests is directed at Joseph, at least primarily. His faith and his faithfulness are sorely tested through a gauntlet of crushing disappointments, all while he is choosing to do the right thing time after time. Repeatedly the devil seems to be whispering, “Just give in and accept the fact that God has abandoned you. There’s no use in remaining virtuous. Surrender is your only logical option...” Joseph seemed to be destined for obscurity by the dismal circumstances in which he found himself. Can’t you imagine the echoes of despair in his mind, like: “May as well have gone ahead and given in to Potiphar’s wife. Certainly, God wouldn’t have cared!”
But, no, Joseph somehow, with God’s help, waited patiently for the tide to turn. Patient endurance is certainly a virtue that this present culture of “gotta have it now” must reacquire. And it must be admitted that Christ’s church must also seek to major on such ideals if it is to become all our Master wants us to be!
All the while that Joseph is waiting, his father is also being tested. Jacob has seemingly lost his favorite, darling boy. But it’s interesting that when God requires him to suffer this great loss, Joseph’s father ends up favoring the younger of the two sons borne by his favorite wife. Benjamin becomes the new Joseph in Jacob’s life, to be coddled and protected at all costs. Rather than seeing his loss as an opportunity to sharpen his parenting skills, he falls back on his old habits of favoritism. And when Benjamin must accompany his older brothers to Egypt, he can only moan that everything seems to be against him!
I’m challenged by this negative example to have a more optimistic view as I face the future. May the Lord give me the trust in Him it will require to take future losses in stride, and see them as opportunities to grow and change for the better. We must realize that the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, even as Job of old admitted. When we advance in years (and, hopefully, in wisdom) we often find that more gets taken away than we’re comfortable with. At those times, we need to recall the words God gave Paul concerning his “thorn in the flesh.”
Well, God’s grace was certainly “sufficient” for Joseph, especially when the day came for this former slave and long-time prisoner to be elevated to the role of Prime Minister in the land of his captivity! It amazes me that somewhere in the intervening years, Joseph apparently developed or otherwise obtained the gift of interpreting dreams, not just having them himself. Either that, or he was taking a tremendous leap of faith when he encouraged his fellow prisoners to share their visions with him. “Don’t interpretations belong to God?” he asked them, then urged, “Tell me your dreams.”
Tested and tried over and over, this young man refused to let the disappointments drive him deeper and deeper into himself, becoming a bitter, hermit-like malcontent. Rather, he remained outgoing and interested in the moods and the needs of others. God gave him a caring heart that shone out even when few people if any seemed to care about him. When the day came for him to leave the prison forever, he was prepared to set that caring heart loose to meet the needs of entire nations of people faced with a seemingly worldwide famine.
Then, the rest of Joseph’s story continues the testing theme in a beautiful, yet intriguing way: the way that this new Prime Minister of Egypt takes the unexpected opportunity to put his own family to the test! It seems to me that Joseph is absolutely justified in acting almost like the unseen hand of God Himself in the lives of his ten older brothers when they come before him to purchase life-sustaining grain for their families. All the while he is magnanimously meeting their physical needs, Joseph is giving them almost playful little tests to sound out their characters and get them to face their own suppressed guilt. His use of his own elevated position to manipulate their circumstances--all for their own good--may seem arbitrary to those used to democratic rule. But isn’t it a great picture of how Romans 8:28 is worked out in all our lives?
And at the end of the road that God’s providence lays out for you and me, there is a “land of Goshen,” a new heaven and new earth, waiting for those who remain faithful through all the testing and trials He planned for us along the way.
MNA
10/3/2020
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