God meant it for good

How the life of Joseph can give us hope for the future.

In the Book of Genesis almost a quarter of the chapters are devoted to the life of Joseph. This would indicate how important the LORD sees the events in the life of Joseph to be, yet we could almost summarise Joseph’s life as simply being the means of getting the Israelites into Egypt. In fact, the whole story of Joseph could be reduced to a few sentences and the story could still be concluded with Jacob blessing his sons and Joseph commanding that his embalmed body be taken out of Egypt and buried in Canaan, yet much space is given to Joseph. So, why is so much attention given to Joseph in Genesis? Surprisingly, Joseph does not get much mention outside the Book of Genesis.

One thing that has struck me in the Bible is how much space is given to the lives of individuals rather than to the great world events that so preoccupy many of us in our day. We do not even know the name of the Pharaoh that Joseph dealt with and neither do we know the name of the Pharaoh of the Exodus, yet we do know the name of the two midwives who defed the Pharaoh’s command (Exodus 1:15).

An interesting aspect to Joseph’s life is that he had little or no control over the major events in his life. His story started with dreams from the LORD. Joseph had no control over these dreams and never even asked for them. Then the story of Joseph relates how his brothers hated him and wanted to kill him. They sold him into slavery in Egypt and there Joseph was wrongfully accused by Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison, presumably to be forgotten and never heard of again. In prison he correctly interprets the dreams of two of Pharaoh’s servants but the one who could have spoken up for Joseph forgot all about him. Then the Pharaoh had his dreams and Joseph is called for and his life is completely changed leading to the saving of many, many, lives from famine, including the lives of his brothers, his father and their families.

Temptation thwarted!

An incident in Joseph’s life that he did have control over was his response to the sinful overtures made to him by Potiphar’s wife. We read that Joseph referred to the overture made to him by Potiphar’s wife as a “great wickedness” and a “sin against God” (Gen 39:9). Joseph feared God and would not do what she asked of him, even though it led to great hardship and pain for him (see Psalm 105:18 & 19). He also had control over how he responded to his brothers when he fnally met them again after all that they had done to him. He did not seek revenge for what they had done to him, but he did seek that they face up to their lies and deception.

In our lives as believers in the Lord Jesus there are many things over which we have little or no control, just like the circumstances in Joseph’s life. We may contract cancer; we may lose our employment; we may lose a loved one to a wasting disease; we may be mistreated and lied against by those around us. We have no control over who our parents are or with regard to the place where we are brought up. So, what should the attitude of the believer be to such events and incidents? At the close of Joseph’s story, after Jacob has died and his brothers feared for their lives, we read Joseph’s view of all that happened to him, especially with regard to the part that his brothers played in his life. He says to them, “as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good” (Gen 50:20). Joseph could see that the LORD had been in all that had happened to him, and that it had all been for a godly purpose. But, if Joseph had fallen for Potiphar’s wife’s temptation what would have become of Joseph? The LORD would still fnd a way to preserve His people although Joseph would not have fulflled all that the LORD had for him.

Joseph feared the LORD, hence he would not sin against Him (Gen 39:9), even after the mistreatment by his brothers. I am sure that this was not an easy time for Joseph and he could have given way to self-pity. Even though he could not see a purpose in all that was happening to him at the time he would not deny the LORD that he knew, and he believed that somehow the dreams that the LORD had given him years previously would be fulflled in their time.

Faith rewarded!

Of course, we all know the story of Joseph, but how would Joseph’s understanding of the LORD’s ways with him, with regard to his brothers, play out in the rest of his life? When Joseph made himself known to his brothers he would have been in his late thirties, and when Jacob died he would have been in his mid to late ffties, and as Joseph died when he was 110 it meant that Joseph lived about another ffty years after telling his brothers that what they had meant for evil, God had meant for good. It is one thing to look back and see the LORD’s hand in a past experience or event, but it is another thing to see the LORD’s hand in current personal, and often mundane, events of our lives. The fact of the matter is that we cannot see clearly what the LORD is doing in our present situations and only hindsight can shed light upon such matters. But for Joseph, and for us, there would appear to be two essential things that are needed. One thing we need to be sure of is that the God whom Joseph, and we ourselves, have seen act in the past is still the same God today and that He knows exactly what He is doing, and that He acts both for His glory and for our good.

Is this not precisely where the walk of faith comes into play? We trust in the LORD who is trustworthy and faithful to all His promises. The fact that we do not see clearly the LORD’s purposes in our lives today is neither there nor here – We are called to trust Him! We do not know what happened in the remainder of Joseph’s life, but he knew that the LORD had been in those difcult early days of his life when he was unaware of the LORD’s purposes, and he also believed that the LORD would still be with him in all that lay before him.

The other essential lesson in the whole story of Joseph is his refusal to compromise with sin. Joseph could not change his circumstances, but he could make sure that he would not sin against God. This is the exact same challenge and situation that we, who trust in Christ, face in our day. This is where the fear of the LORD and a godly character are seen: It is one thing to see a godly character in Joseph, but what about us?

Job’s worth!

We read at the end of the Book of Job this statement on Job’s lips, “I know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You” (Job 42:2). This was not said at the end of Job’s life for we know that he had another family, so who knows how much longer he lived? But the point is, that like Joseph, Job lived the remainder of his life in the light of the revelation he had been given. Job wrestled with the LORD’s dealings in his life and came to realise that the LORD’s plans for him cannot be thwarted. Job could look back and see that his wrestling had led him to meet personally with the LORD Himself, and that this had always been the LORD’s intention for Job, and now he would live the rest of his life in the light of this knowledge. In the lives of both Joseph and Job there may not come again such times of revelation but their future lives were built upon what the LORD had shown Himself to be to them.

Trust the Lord!

So, what about us? One purpose in the story of Joseph is to show us the LORD’s ways, and that His ways with us are not always, if ever, clear to us. Each of us who trust in Christ can look back and see the LORD’s hand in the path that He has taken us, and if the LORD was in our past then He is also in our present and He will certainly be in our future. We hear of words like ‘mid-life crisis’, where people lose their direction in life and stray into paths they have not known previously. In Joseph’s ‘mid-life’ he saw that the hand of the LORD had been in all that had happened to him previously in his life and we also know that he ended his life in faith, fifty years later, trusting the LORD, for he made provision for his bones to go into the Promised Land. May we be of the same character and faith as we see in Joseph as we perhaps face dry, unexciting and mundane days! Those in the world may have a ‘mid-life crisis’, but we who trust in Christ can use such a time to renew our trust in the LORD confdent that the LORD will fnish in us what He started in us (Phil 1:6).

In the life of Joseph we can see that all that he went through was to bring blessing upon many, many, people – some he knew, like his family, and many more he did not know. Is it too much to believe that the LORD might want to do something similar with us? Job went through what he went through that he might know the LORD more personally, and Joseph went through what he went through that others may beneft from his obedience and faith.

These two outcomes are what the LORD also wants for us – to know Him more personally and to see the LORD’s blessing upon those around us. In the years that lie ahead of us, be they few or be they many, let us be faithful to the LORD, walking in faith and keeping alert to our enemy’s temptations that we might also end our days in faith, trusting the LORD!