One of my favorite stories, which I’m sure I’ve told before, is about a young paratrooper who was learning to jump. He was given the following instructions: First, jump when you are told; second, count to 10 and pull the ripcord; third, in the unlikely event that it doesn't open, pull the ripcord for the backup chute; and fourth, when you get down, a truck will take you back to base.
The plane ascended up to the proper height, the men started peeling out, and the young paratrooper jumped when told. He counted to 10 and pulled the cord, but the chute failed to open. He proceeded to the backup plan. The second chute also failed to open. “Oh boy,” he said. “When I get down, I suppose the truck won't be there either.” (www.PreachingToday.com)
Life doesn’t always go as planned. In fact, sometimes it is downright unfair. So what do we do in those times? What do we do when things don’t happen the way they should? What do we do when our plans and dreams are dashed against the ground? What do we do when life is unfair?
Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Genesis 39, Genesis 39, where we see how Joseph handled himself when life was unfair to him.
Genesis 39:1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. (NIV)
Joseph’s brothers had sold him into slavery, and he ends up as a slave to Potiphar – “the captain of the guard” or Pharaoh’s chief executioner.
Genesis 39:2-6a The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. So he left in Joseph’s care everything he had; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. (NIV)
Joseph succeeded, because God was with Him. I’m sure he faithfully carried out the duties assigned to him, but his success is not attributed to his hard work or ingenuity; his success is attributed to the presence of God Himself. Verse 2 – “The LORD was with Joseph and he prospered.” Verse 3 – “The LORD was with him and… The LORD gave him success in everything he did.” Verse 5 – “The LORD blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph.”
The LORD was the reason for Joseph’s success, and He is the reason any of us succeed at anything. Jesus Himself said to his followers, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). On the other hand, He says, “If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit” (John 15:5). Any fruit we bear, any success we enjoy, comes from the Lord as we remain connected to Him. So when life is unfair…
PUT YOUR FAITH IN THE LORD.
Get connected to Christ and depend on His presence in your life. Trust God to give you success as you pursue His will for your life. It’s the only thing that will keep you going when life knocks you for a loop. In fact, your faith in Christ is the only thing that will help you do better than your best even when life is unfair.
You see, when we have been unfairly treated, we’re tempted to give up, or to get by with the very least we can do. We’re certainly not encouraged to give life our best effort when we have been wrongly treated. But when our trust is in the Lord, like Joseph, then we can serve people well wherever we are.
Three years ago (2008), Chris Downey had just started a promising architectural job at a successful design firm. A few weeks after he took the job, he noticed that there was something wrong with his vision. The doctors told him he had a tumor wrapped around his optic nerve, which required immediate surgery. After the surgery he could see with blurred sight, but five days later everything went dark. Downey had become permanently blind.
Downey tried to maintain his architectural work, but he couldn't read the plans or use the design software. Initially, Downey's limitations jeopardized his job, until he found a blind computer scientist who had devised a way to read tactile architectural plans. Much to his surprise Downey discovered that his blindness actually gave him a unique way to “observe” interior spaces – not with his eyes, but with his fingers. As one of the company vice presidents would later say, “At first I thought, Okay, this is going to be a limitation. But then I realized that the way he reads drawings is… the way we experience space.”
Downey is now able to use his fingers to “walk” through a space and “view” it from a different (and sometimes a better) perspective. Due to his blindness, he can also envision new possibilities for the creative use of space. As a result, his limitations, or weaknesses, have become gifts and strengths – not only for himself, but also for his community. (Douglas McGray, “Design Within Reach,” The Atlantic, October 2010)
The Apostle Paul, who also had vision problems, put it this way in 2 Corinthians 12: “I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses… For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).
Dear friends, that’s true for every believer in Christ. So don’t give up when you face a setback. Instead, give in to the Lord and trust Him to use your limitations to demonstrate His strength. When life is unfair, put your faith in the Lord, and…
BE FAITHFUL TO HIM.
Remain loyally devoted to God’s will. Stay true to what you know the Lord wants you to do. That’s what Joseph did.
Genesis 39:6b-7 Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” (NIV)
She is seducing him, a practice not uncommon among Egyptian women in Joseph’s day. They were notorious for their loose morals and unfaithfulness to their own husbands. How does Joseph respond?
Genesis 39:8-9 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” (NIV)
Joseph refused to sin against God by sleeping with his master’s wife. No matter what the culture expected, Joseph had made a commitment not to break God’s moral law.
Genesis 39:10 And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her. (NIV)
Joseph not only refused to sin against God, he did everything he could to refrain from that sin. He wasn’t even going to allow himself to be tempted. So he avoided Potiphar’s wife even though she pursued him day after day.
Genesis 39:11-12 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. (NIV)
Joseph had refused to sin against God, and he did everything he could to refrain from that sin. But when the temptation became unavoidable, he ran away from that sin as far and as fast as he could go. Joseph maintained his integrity even when others didn’t.
He remained true to the Lord even when people were unfair to him, and that’s what we must do when life is unfair to us. We must maintain our integrity and remain true to the Lord even when others deal falsely with us. I mean why make a bad situation worse? Why compound the unfairness with unfaithfulness to God. Instead, do what Joseph did.
1st of all, refuse to sin against God. Make a commitment up front that you will not violate God’s moral law no matter what anybody else says or does. Before you start your day, spend some time with the Lord and commit yourself to full and complete obedience to Him. Before you go INTO the world, determine to stay clean FROM the world with God’s help. Young person, before you go on that date, set the boundaries in your own mind far away from any inappropriate behavior and resolve to stay within those boundaries. Refuse to sin against God.
Then 2nd, refrain from any and all sin. Avoid every situation where you might even be tempted to sin.
Once there was a little boy whose mother told him to come straight home from school without stopping to swim at the local swimming hole. Even so, that afternoon, he came home dripping wet with his bathing suit on. He said to his mom, “I’m sorry. I really wanted to obey you, but it was so hot and the water looked so cool, I couldn’t help myself.”
His mother asked him, “Then why did you take your bathing suit to school with you.”
He replied, “I took it just in case I got tempted.”
The point is: Don’t do anything that would allow you to fall “just in case you get tempted.” Don’t even put yourself in a situation where you can be tempted. “Don’t make any provision for the flesh,” the Bible says (Romans 13:14).
When you’re on that date, don’t spend a lot of time alone together. Stay away from the magazine racks if pornography is a temptation. Get a filter for your computer. Avoid any and every situation where you might be tempted. Refuse to sin. Refrain from sin.
But if that’s not possible, then run from sin as far and as fast as you can go just like Joseph did. Don’t stand there and try to fight the temptation to sin. Instead, get out of there as soon as you can.
2 Timothy 2:22 says, “Flee the evil desires of youth.” I find it very interesting that the Bible says, “Resist the devil and HE will flee” (James 4:7). But when it comes to sexual sin, the Bible says, “YOU flee.” Don’t stand there and try to resist it. Run from it like Joseph did.
Fred Smith was once president of his own food packing company. He was a consultant to Mobil and Caterpillar and vice-president of operations at a division of Genesco. As such, he became a mentor to business executives all over the world and a leadership expert.
Do you know what his advice to leaders under fire was? He said, “If I feel the least bit depressed, I don't dare sit and meditate. That's as ridiculous as Joseph trying to meditate his way out of the bedroom of Potiphar's wife.” (Fred Smith, Leadership, Vol. 1, no.1; www.PreachingToday.com)
You see, when we’re feeling low, especially when someone has treated us unfairly, the temptation to sin is even greater. Maybe we think we deserve a little “fun” on the side, or we’re just trying to “medicate” our sadness with alcohol or sex, or with overeating or overspending for stuff we don’t really need. That’s not the time to think and meditate about whether or not we should give into the temptation. No. That’s the time to run as fast and as far as we can from the temptation before we do something stupid. Dear friends, when life is unfair, put your faith in the Lord and be faithful to Him.
Now, that doesn’t guarantee that our circumstances will get better right away. In fact, our circumstances may get worse long before they get better like they did for Joseph. Joseph, in faithfulness to God, ran from Potiphar’s wife to avoid any hint of sexual sin, but…
Genesis 39:13-18 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.” (NIV)
She’s lying.
Genesis 39:19-20a When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. (NIV)
Despite Joseph’s faith and faithfulness, he got thrown into prison!
Genesis 39:20b-23 But while Joseph was there in the prison, the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. (NIV)
The Lord was with Joseph even in prison. You see, God never promised us the absence of problems when we commit our lives to Him. No! But He has promised us His presence even in the midst of those problems.
That’s what Joseph experienced, and that can be our experience too. Hebrews 13 puts it this way, “Be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we say with confidence, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5-6)
No matter what happens, we have the Lord. So when life is unfair, put your faith in Him, be faithful to Him, and if things get even worse…
KEEP YOUR FAITH IN THE LORD.
Don’t stop trusting God. Continue to rely on the Lord no matter what happens.
You see, Joseph’s life is not so much the story of his faithfulness to God as it is the story of God’s faithfulness to him. Verse 21 says, “The Lord…showed him kindness.” That word, in the Hebrew, literally means “loyal love.” In other words, God was loyal to Joseph, committed to keeping His promises to Joseph no matter what happened.
God did not stop loving Joseph in prison, and God does not stop loving us in our problems, as well. He is faithful to us. He is loyal to His own, committed to keeping his promises to us no matter what happens.
So keep on trusting Him even if things do get worse! Don’t stop depending on the Lord, because He will come through for you. He will make a way even when there seems to be no way.
That’s what Jesus did. 1 Peter 2 says, “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).
You do the same. When people treat you unfairly, entrust yourself to Him who judges fairly; entrust yourself to the Lord who will remain loyal to you no matter what.
Richard Culp worked in the hot California sun as foreman of a large ranching operation. He and his wife, Geneva, also owned their own farm, consisting of 200 acres of almond trees. Then years of bad weather and skimpy harvests forced Richard to take on additional work, but even that didn’t help. So he and Geneva took on additional loans to pay their farming expenses, but that only put them deeper in debt. They spent many sleepless nights struggling to find a way to cover all their obligations.
One day, Geneva brought Richard the bad news: “Oh, Richard,” she said. “I've just been to the farm credit company. They've taken it all! We're being forced to sell. They have a buyer; there's no price negotiation. All they want is our signatures.”
They cried together as they realized everything they had worked a lifetime to acquire was gone. On top of that, they still owed $100,000 even after all their assets were seized. Richard was 50 years old and had been farming all his life. Two of their eight children were still at home, and they had no money to start over.
Even so, Richard says, “In spite of the overwhelming loss and grief, I knew that God was in control of our situation. I remembered the Bible story of Joseph. Even as a slave and prisoner, that young man was part of God's glorious plan. As for me, I knew that God must have something better for our future too.”
Richard and Geneva were trusting the Lord, but that didn’t make things better. In fact, things got worse. Two weeks after the creditors took their farm, Richard lost his job as a ranch foreman. Their family moved into a compact rental unit, and they began working a series of minimum wage jobs, including a stint at a fast food restaurant. There were many times they didn't have money for groceries and living expenses, but God provided for them through their family, their friends, and their church.
A year-and-a-half later, Richard and Geneva were offered a management position at an exclusive, 2,600-acre waterfowl hunting club in northern California. The club catered to wealthy clients. Richard says, “As we served at the club in numerous ways, we realized again and again that money and possessions cannot bring happiness. We had lost everything, yet we had joy in our lives.”
Then after they had been at the club for about a year, Richard received a call from the head of the credit company that had taken their farm. He wanted to talk with them and insisted on making the hour's drive out to the hunting club.
As they sat together, the head of the credit company said, “I want to ask you something personal. A friend of mine recently lost everything he owned. His wife just committed suicide. We at the office have noticed that you two are handling this crisis differently than most people do. Can you tell me what your secret is?”
Richard was happy to explain. “We believe in the God of the Bible,” he said. “He is sovereign over our lives, and he is in control. Even though the pain is real, we are confident of this: God has proven sufficient and able to take care of us.”
Geneva added, “God's Word promises, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’”
It was absolutely true. Throughout the entire ordeal, Richard says, “We never felt alone for a single moment.” Later, as the head of the credit company rose to leave, he thanked Richard and Geneva. “You've given me a lot to think about,” he said quietly. (Cynthia Culp Allen, “We Lost the Farm,” Christian Reader, Sep/Oct 2001, pp.77-80; www.PreachingToday.com)
Dear friends, you think about it too. In fact, do more than just think about it. When life is unfair, like Joseph, and like Richard and Geneva, put your faith in the Lord; be faithful to Him; and if things get worse, keep your faith in the Lord. Don’t stop trusting the One, the only One, who is absolutely trustworthy.
God will make a way when there seems to be no way.
He works in ways we cannot see; He will make a way for me.
He will be my guide, hold me closely to His side.
With love and strength for each new day;
He will make a way, He will make a way. (Don Moen)
