Joseph does what he believes is right in God’s eyes and gets clobbered for it. He loses his job, his reputation, and he’s even flung in jail, Genesis 39:20, and all because of trumped up charges against him by his employer’s wife (verses 14-18).
Potiphar was no help either. He didn’t even bother to question his wife’s wild story, nor did he give Joseph a chance to defend himself, despite trusting Joseph so completely up to this point (6). Joseph was completely powerless, much like we are today as our political leaders lie and chuck blame in all directions to cover for their scandals and corruption.
But Joseph didn’t get angry, demand justice, camp out on Potiphar’s lawn, or wave a sign accusing Potiphar’s wife of a hate crime against men. He didn’t even try to defend himself. So off to prison he went, branded as a convicted criminal with no hope of parole.
So where was God while all this was happening? Verses 20 and 21 tell us that “while Joseph was in prison, the Lord was with him, showing him kindness and granting him favour in the eyes of the prison warden.” Joseph even ended up “in charge of all those held in the prison” (22), and the warden simply left Joseph to it (23). Imagine the temptation for Joseph to make his escape. But he stayed. So what was going through his mind that enabled him to do that?
There’s a clue in Hebrews 11:22, that “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.” Joseph knew what God had promised to his great-grandfather Abraham, that his descendants would inherit the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:8), which meant that the Israelites, Abraham’s descendants, would one day have to exit Egypt for that to happen. What held Joseph steady, therefore, was knowing God’s promise to Abraham and his descendants, because Joseph – being a descendant of Abraham too – meant that God was fitting in what was happening to him personally with that promise as well.
Well here we are now as the present day descendants of Abraham (Galatians 3:29). We too, then, can experience God’s kindness and favour, and in the same way Joseph experienced it, in confidence and peace that what’s happening to us fits in with God’s promise to Abraham – of blessing the whole world in Genesis 12:3 – as well. How God does that is his business. Our business is to be the answer to Pharaoh’s question in Genesis 41:38: “Is there anyone in whom is the spirit of God?”.…(next blog)
Buck To Basics 