When Life Goes Terribly Wrong • Genesis 39:21-23; 40:5-8; 41:10-14
By Melody Mercer
This week’s lesson takes us to Egypt where Joseph has been dealt another blow that had nothing to do with either of his dreams back in Genesis 37. It seems that when Joseph takes one step forward, he takes two steps back. There is so much that we can learn from Joseph’s life, and how he handled tough situations.
On Sunday mornings at my church, we are going through a sermon series titled, “God’s Plan of Redemption,” in which Joseph had a major role. One of the sermon points has been, “Because God is sovereign, we understand that sometimes God allows difficult circumstances and sometimes He brings them, BUT He is always good!” We must remember that whatever the situation in life, God never leaves us. He is always there and always working. There are those “terrible” life interruptions where you are totally dependent on God. You don’t make a decision without Him leading you. It’s one day at a time, one hour at a time, or literally one step at a time. In the moment, things just don’t make sense to us, but it always makes sense to God.
Something that probably made no sense to Joseph was when he was thrown in jail. He had been Potiphar’s personal attendant and was in charge of his household and everything he owned. Everything was great until Potiphar’s wife enters the picture. Even though Joseph had never given Potiphar a reason not to trust him, Potiphar took his wife’s word over Joseph’s and that was that.
“But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden” (39:21 CSB).
Even in jail, the LORD was blessing. The LORD was with Joseph. The power of the “with” is what helps us to be different during difficult circumstances. When nothing makes sense, we’ve got to keep doing what we know to do in the moment. This is exactly what Joseph did. He made the best of his situation and did whatever he was asked to the best of his ability. All the prisoners were put under his authority, and the warden didn’t have to worry about anything. The LORD was indeed with Joseph and gave him success in everything he did.
Joseph could have easily thrown himself a pity party and said forget it, but he didn’t. When we’re faced with a terrible interruption, the enemy wants to isolate us, but we can’t let him. The Devil wants to isolate us, so he can lie and destroy. Joseph didn’t isolate himself, but instead made it his business to check on the prisoners. The cupbearer and the baker were two that he paid particular attention to. In different versions, the Bible describes the two men as looking distraught, dejected, worried, or sad because there was no professional Egyptian dream interpreter present (CSB Study Bible). Joseph knew something was wrong, and asked them, “Why do you look so sad today?” (40:7b CSB) Joseph knew that God was still with him, and he took this opportunity to glorify Him. Joseph told the men that accurate interpretations belonged to God, and thus the men told their dreams to him.
So much for the glimmer of hope that the cupbearer would remember to tell Pharoah about Joseph, and get him out of prison. We’ve got to remember that God’s timing is never our timing. There’s an old gospel song by Dottie Peoples that says:
“He’s an on-time God, yes He is
He may not come when you want Him
But He’ll be there right on time
He’s an on-time God, yes He is”
God had Joseph right where he needed to be and exactly when he needed to be there. Pharoah also had a dream that had him “troubled in his spirit.” If Pharoah was troubled, then everyone around him was troubled. Finally, the cupbearer remembered Joseph. It had been two long years. Scripture says “…they quickly brought him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to Pharoah” (41:14b CSB). The difference in Joseph was God, and Pharoah recognized that. God was faithful to protect His plan of redemption through Joseph.
In the midst of those “hard interruptions,” know that God never stops working, and that we can’t control anything but the fact that we need to keep glorifying Him.
Mercer is a member of First Church, Jackson.
Comments are closed.