This morning I read about Joseph in Genesis and for all of their sakes, my strong and resilient youth kids, I want to use my last devo of break to explain what I learned from Joseph.
If you have the time, read Genesis 37, 39-42.
Basically, Joseph was the youngest brother of Jacob. Joseph was also Jacob's favorite son because he was born to Joseph in his old age.
Well, Joseph begins to have these dreams that imply that one day his brothers will bow down to him and the moon and the stars will bow down to him. He gets excited to share the best dreams he's ever had with his brothers and, not so surprisingly, they didn't take the news well.
They took to the extreme and plotted to kill him. One of his brothers wanted to save him so he tried to convince his fellow brothers to spare Joseph. One thing lead to another and they sold their youngest brother Joseph as a slave for 20 shekels of silver and told their father that he was killed by a wild animal. Lame.
The brothers go on with their lives and the story picks back up in chapter 39 with what happens to Joseph.
Joseph was sold and resold and ended up the slave to Pharaoh's captain of the guard, Potiphar. In chapter 39, verse 2 it simply says, "The Lord was with Joseph" and goes on to say that whatever Joseph put his hand to, the Lord blessed. Joseph serves, and all that he did in serving prospered. Joseph is promoted to overseer of Potiphar's house and the entire house is blessed. So up and up Joseph goes in the latter to leadership until he was running all of Potiphar's affairs for him.
Until. Until Potiphar's wife begins making impasses at Joseph time and time again until finally he says to her, (Chapter 39, verses 8-9) "8 Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, [a.k.a. you, you crazy woman] and he committed all that he has to my hand. 9 There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" Bravo Joseph.
And what does his honorable response get him? A jail sentence.
Potiphar's wife takes his robe and he flees from her, she gets angry and tells everyone that he tried to make advances on her and he was thrown in the king's prison, no questions asked.
Joseph is in there for years. YEARS. For something he didn't do.
And yet. Chapter 39, verse 21 says "But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison."
What did Joseph do to deserve slavery (besides maybe telling the wrong jealous brothers about his dreams)? Nothing. What did he do to deserve jail time? Nothing.
Yet God has not left him in all of this. So Joseph advances in the prison and ends up overseeing the prisoners for the keeper of the prison.
When the king of Egypt's butler and baker are thrown in prison, Joseph watches after them and when they both have cryptic dreams, Joseph says that interpreting dreams is God's business so he can interpret on God's behalf. Basically what Joseph interprets happens and when he tells the butler to mention him to the king when the butler is released, the butler forgets Joseph. (Boooo!)
Two years later Pharaoh has a dream that no one can interpret and all of the sudden the butler remembers Joseph, a little late but hey. The butler tells Pharaoh about Joseph, Pharaoh sends for Joseph, Joseph says he can't interpret dreams by himself but God will interpret the dream. So Pharaoh explains the dream, Joseph interprets it and Pharaoh sees God's favor over Joseph and Joseph was promoted to Pharaoh's second-in-command and set him in command over all of Egypt.
The story doesn't just end there! No Joseph's brothers come to him needing help, not recognizing him and he helps them. It's amazing the full-circle effect this story has. Joseph wasn't just bragging, his dreams that got him sold into slavery came true, he did rule before his brothers.
While reading this story this morning I was able to see how much God's favor got Joseph through his hardships. In the midst of being sold by his brothers, he could have grown angry and hateful. By the time Joseph was sold to Potiphar he could have grown bitter. Who knows if he would have still advanced the way he did and ended in prison the same way but with his bitterness he could not have made it through prison without letting his rage and hard circumstances eat away at everything good and pure in his heart. If ever sprung from jail he most likely would have gone after Potiphar and his wife in vengeance.
But that's not the story we read here. We read a story of a faithful God who never left Joseph's side, not in slavery, not in prison, and Joseph clung to God with all that he had and God blessed him for it.
This story gives me hope. It reminds me that while I am praying with my kids while they face tough circumstances and opposition that they are in the middle of their story. The story for Joseph didn't stop at slavery or imprisonment so I have to remember that my kids' hard, hard situations are not the end of their story. God is still present, God is still at work.
For any of my youth that have made it this far into this last devo, hold onto this promise: If you draw near to God, He will draw near to you (James 4:8). Don't get so overwhelmed by your situation that you can't cling to God and trust that He has a better end to your story then you can foresee. Cling to God and He will guide you.
I so trust God with every single one of you. I do. That's how I can sleep at night, that's how I can tell each of you again and again that I believe that God has a purpose and a plan in your life and that He is still at work in the midst of your darkest moments. I believe it with all of my being.
My final prayer for you is that you would grow to believe in it too.
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