What a series of ups and downs Joseph's life turned out to be ...
Raised up by his father ... only to be trodden down by his brothers.
Elevated in Potiphar's house ... only to be expelled and imprisoned.
Made a trusty in the prison ... only to be forgotten by the butler and left to languish.
And then he was made Grand Vizier of Egypt!
Look at those occasions.
The first of them, the disaster into which he fell at his brothers' hands, happened because when his father Jacob sent him to see how they were faring with the flocks, he went on from Shechem to Dothan to find them - a thing he might easily have decided not to do if he had been any less conscientious than he was. He could easily have let his fear of meeting his brothers alone persuade him that it was not necessary: he could have taken back a good report of them to Jacob without bothering personally to check them out. He had learned from a man he met in Shechem that all was well with them.
The second, his imprisonment in Egypt, happened because he would not yield to the blandishments of his master's wife. We do not know, of course, how attractive he found her! So it is not easy to gauge the strength of the temptation she presented. Even so, he might have done himself a bit of good by yielding: if he played his cards right he might have used his influence with his master's wife to lever himself out of slavery.
The third, his languishing in prison, happened because he served his fellow prisoners' interests honourably and honestly. When he understood the meaning of the butler's dream, that he was to be freed and restored to his former position, a man with any meanness in his soul might well have thought, "Why him and not me? Let him find out for himself what his dreams mean. Anyway, I could be wrong."
At every turn he behaved honourably. He was conscientious, even when it exposed him to danger; upright, even when it exposed him to the fury of a woman scorned; selflessly helpful even when there was nothing in it for him. And every time it put him at a disadvantage.
It is worth pondering. The man or the woman who is honourable and upright, true to God, will often be at a disadvantage in this world - they really will. There are such obvious and immediate advantages to be gained from cheating and fornication and selfishness. "You look after No. 1, mate, because nobody else will."
Joseph staggered from setback to setback because he played the game to the rules. But in the end life worked for him.
If he had not gone to Dothan he would never have got to Egypt.
If he had yielded to Potiphar's wife he would never have got beyond Potiphar's house (except perhaps to prison anyway!).
If he had not been a good mate he would never have got out of prison.
Every right decision, while it shut him away from some possibilities, opened the way to others ... which God could bless. Because he remained faithful and obedient no matter how often he was knocked down, God could bless him every time where he fell.
v. 2 "The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man."
Tyndale, one of the first translators of the Bible into English, translated that, "He was a luckie fellowe." Somehow everything prospered under his hand. Why?
Because he did not do it for himself.
At Dothan he served his father's interests conscientiously.
In Potiphar's house he served his master's interests honourably.
In prison he served the governor's and his fellow inmates' interests generously.
In Egypt later he would serve Pharaoh's interests selflessly.
In the end he served his own family's interests forgivingly.
And so ... he served God! To serve another's interests well is to serve God! He would say, at the end of the saga, "God brought it about that I should be in a position to save you and your little ones this day."
God brought it about? ... his brothers' hate ... Mrs Potiphar's lust ... the butler's neglect ... the famine in Egypt? No. God did not initiate all that. That was all the fault of man and nature. But ... because through it all one man, the victim of it all, was open to his fellows and true to his God, he gave God the means to turn all this evil to good.
"In everything God works for good together with those who love Him." (Romans 8:28)
I was impressed by what a former Health Minister, Leisha Harvey, and her husband were reported at one time in the Brisbane Courier Mail as saying. She had been serving time in prison, and was granted home detention. Along with several of the prison's inmates she was, while serving her sentence, baptised in a pond at the gaol. She was not in gaol for the same reasons Joseph was, but she came to a faith like Joseph's there. And like Joseph, she was described as a model prisoner. Said her husband Barry, "Prayer has really helped through all this. For Leisha in gaol it has been a time of spiritual building. It must have been part of God's plan for her to serve time in gaol. We're not bitter. We can learn from the hard times."
"In everything God works for good together with those who love Him." The psalmist might be suspected of knowing what Paul would later write, for Psalm 105:16 - 22 summarises Joseph's story this way:
"When God summoned a famine on the land, and broke every staff of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron. Until what he had said came to pass the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples set him free; he made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions, to instruct his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom."
God had a care through all these tumultuous events...
... for Jacob's sons, mean-minded though they were
... for prisoners, forgotten people though they were
... for Joseph, lonely and oppressed though he was
... for Egyptians, strangers to Him though they were
... for the world at large.
In the long run events physical, commercial, spiritual, accidental, even diabolical - all - were woven into a pattern providential.
Do we believe in such a God ... enough?
The Bible's dominant theme is God's plan to save the world from itself by the choice and providential guidance of a community who oppose the massed forces of greed, hate, cruelty, and all else that disfigures us, with a defiant faith in God and obedience to Him. It is a theme as clear as day in Joseph's story. God's will in the world is always served by people whose sufferings, brought on by their faithfulness in the face of evil, fulfil His purpose to save.
So Jesus, crucified by His brothers and the evil of the principalities and powers of His day, was raised up by God to bless those same brothers and the nations.
Are we of His company, or do we, like the people of Israel in Elijah's day, "halt between two opinions" ... half believing in God, but half doubting at the same time whether there is any real future in it? How do we rate faith's profit and loss account? Do we believe the books will balance at the end of the fiscal year, despite the losses and bad debts we have to absorb? Do we believe it pays to be faithful?
We backtrack the story a little now to cover one or two episodes in more detail.
Joseph's temptation first. His reasons for not yielding are worth pondering: he saw it as a betrayal of Potiphar's trust in him; and because he saw it that way he saw it as a sin against God.
"Having me," Joseph said to his master's wife, "my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am; nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself because you are his wife; how then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?"
Understand the logic of what Joseph said. "Potiphar trusts me; to betray that trust would be to sin against ..." whom ... Potiphar? No - against God ... against a person, Potiphar, who was His - for as we read in Ezekiel, "All souls, saith the Lord, are mine." (Ezekiel 18:4)
Is there a better, a truer, or a more forceful reason to resist the temptation to sleep around? That girl who is a temptation to you ... she is God's girl! "All souls are mine," saith the Lord. She is God's girl; He trusts you with her. Mess her about for your own selfish pleasure, and you will have God to answer to. Do not fool yourself about that. The same goes in these days of equal opportunity for girls. God trusts you with that fellow. Tempt him beyond his capacity to handle it, and you will have God to answer to.
The hoary old argument for pre-marital or extra-marital sex, "If you really love me, you'll do it for me" is a lie, a lie as old as the world. If she really loves you she will not - because she loves you. Really to love a person means to take full responsibility for all the possible consequences of our relationship with them; failure to accept responsibility is failure to love. And I care not what preventative measures we take, a pregnancy will always be a possible consequence of shared sex. To take full responsibility for that consequence means accepting a minimum of twenty years responsibility for the nurture of that child to adulthood; the making of a new human being calls for a great deal more than half an hour's pleasure in bed. If we are ready for that responsibility, we are ready for marriage, and marry we will. If marry we will not, then talk of love is humbug.
The second episode to look at is Joseph's relationship in prison with Pharaoh's butler and baker.
The chief butler and the chief baker, note. In the Egyptian culture of that day, they were not menial servants; they were high-ranking palace officials. Between them they had the administration and catering of the entire royal establishment under their control.
Note, v. 4, that Joseph "waited on them for some time." It must have worked to his great advantage. Bear in mind that Joseph's responsibility as a prison trusty was changed from the care of all the prisoners in general to the particular care of these two high-ranking officials. Joseph could hardly have been aware then how valuable an education he was receiving thereby for the responsibility he was destined ultimately to carry in the royal household. "You shall be over my house," Pharaoh would say to him, "and all my people shall order themselves as you command." By the time Joseph was charged with that responsibility he was no ignoramus in matters of Egyptian protocol. Isaiah 55:9: "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." God was thinking his higher thoughts for Joseph there in prison at a time when Joseph was totally unaware of them.
How well this association did educate Joseph depended of course on the attitude of mind he brought to daily life. Had he been too sunk in brooding resentment over the injustice of his own plight to be more bothered with them than duty demanded he would have learned nothing.
It is often urged upon us these days to 'think positive.' The Bible here supplies a better reason to do so than mere psychology does: the reason the Bible supplies is faith in the over-ruling providence of God that shapes our lives. To think negatively may muzzle God Himself!
Verses 6 and 7 are a window on to Joseph's attitude: "When Joseph came to them in the morning and saw them, they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, 'Why are your faces downcast today?' They said to him, 'We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.' Joseph said to them, 'Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, I pray you.'"
With every reason to be sunk in misery himself he was sensitive to their moods, eager to help, and concerned enough to listen.
Is there any more precious ministry in the world than that of a true listener? How many 'prisoners' have been released from their 'prison' of loneliness by it? Do we have any idea how dreadful it can be to have not a single living soul with whom to share a deep trouble? "Wherever we are in the world, whoever we are, there is a fellowship of sad and lonely hearts to cultivate." (F. B. Meyer) This a thing we may do for each other.
Finally note the reference (rare indeed in this narrative) to Joseph's walk with God: v. 8 "Joseph said to them, 'Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, I pray you.'"
A man does not say a thing like that unless he has a daily sense of closeness to God. That is one of the most precious - and most needed - qualities in a listener if their listening is to have healing power. When the troubled person is pouring out his troubles to them, it is God's ear, too, that he has.
"The Lord was with
him." (39:21) It did not always mean that God 'got him out of it'
though. Joseph, like Paul, had learned to walk contentedly with God
whatever his circumstances were: "Not that I complain of want; for I
have learned, in whatever state I am, to be content. I know how to be
down and out, and I know how to be well off; in any and all
circumstances I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger,
abundance and want. I can do all things in him who strengthens me."
(Philippians 4:13)
There speaks the man whose life is hid with Christ in God.
But then he says, "Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble."
There speaks the man who knows the comfort of human companionship in
the Lord. God grant us both.
We cannot end without
a comment on that forgetful butler. "Naughty man," we say. Such
thoughtlessness and neglect we universally condemn. How could the man
be so ungrateful?
Answer: "Just the same way you and I are!" For Jesus is
our Joseph ... who has shown us such kindness in our deep
trouble.
What have we forgotten that we once promised
Him?
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