WHEN LIFE IS ON HOLD—Genesis 40-41
Joseph led a charmed life.
It started with his birth: the favorite son Jacob, also known as Israel, the father of the nation of Israel. Jacob showed his favor by giving Joseph a “coat of many colors,” and God revealed his plans for Jacob by giving him dreams, in which everyone bowed down to him. Those dreams were fulfilled later in life, as he wore the signet ring of Pharaoh, and he had charge over the whole land of Egypt.
Between his dreams and their fulfillment, Jacob endured 13 hard years. At age 17, his brothers sold him into slavery. Joseph landed on his feet, and as a slave, he was in charge of the household of Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, Potiphar. Then, when he refused the advances of Potiphar’s wife, we was sent to prison, where the warden put him in charge of the other prisoners. He was in prison until he was 30.
Thirteen years! In the grand scheme of things, 13 years is not a long time. But for Joseph at age 30, that was almost half his life! Between the dreams and the fulfillment, 13 years of waiting!
Thirteen years doesn’t seem like much—unless it is our 13 years of waiting!
When we are kids, we can’t wait to grow up, and get out of school, and get that dream job. And then, once we get that job, we can’t wait to finish paying our dues and reap the rewards.
When we are single, we keep looking for “the one”—the person who will fulfill us. Our parents and grandparents may be waiting too—to get us “settled” into a happy and mature marriage and family.
Then we might have kids. We can’t wait for the kids to get out of diapers, and to be able to do on the rides at Disneyland. Then they are teenagers, and we can’t wait for them to grow up, and recognize that their parents are not so stupid after all.
Some of us—or most of us—have those times when our hopes and dreams have fallen apart, and we are waiting, struggling, floundering. If there is a happy ending out there, we can’t see it, and we can hardly even imagine how it can come.
WHAT CARRIES US THROUGH TIMES OF WAITING?
Joseph was in prison, a slave falsely accused of trying to rape his master’s wife.
Read Genesis 40:1-23.
WHAT CARRIES US THROUGH TIMES OF WAITING?
GOD CARES
It couldn’t have been easy for Joseph to believe that God cared about his situation. For 13 years, every time things seemed to be turning around, he was knocked down again. In every situation, he rose to the top—but the top means that he is still in prison, with no hope of ever being released.
The worst part is that no one seems to care about him! He doesn’t have a wife, or a family, to visit him. He hasn’t heard from his father or brothers, since his brothers sold him as a slave. Potiphar trusted him and used him, until Potiphar’s wife got to him. The prison warden is using him as a trusty, but he doesn’t really care about Joseph. Pharaoh’s cupbearer said that he would help him, but that was two years ago.
Two years! It is not a long time, unless it is your two years!
Does anybody care? Well, God cares.
If I were Joseph, I might be wondering why, if God cares, I was still in prison. I think the reason why Joseph had to wait something to do with this:
1 Peter 5:6-7 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
God knew that Joseph needed humbling! God cared—not just about eliminating Joseph’s pain and distress, but about Joseph as a person. God cared about his inner life, and his trust, and preparing him for his mission to come.
Joseph believed that God cared. Because Joseph believed God cared, Joseph cared for the people around him: the cupbearer and the baker, and even the warden who kept him in prison.
During World War II, someone asked Winston Churchill whether God was on the side of the Allies. Churchill replied, “The question is not whether God is on our side, but whether we are on God’s side.”)
Joseph chose to be on God’s side, whether he was taking care of sheep, facing temptation in his master’s bedroom, rotting in prison, or wielding power in Pharaoh’s court. He cared about the things God cared about.
How do we stay on God’s side? We care for what he cares for.
Maybe your career is on hold, and you look for a chance to contribute something. Your health is not good, and yet you reach out to the people who cross your path. There are disappointments in the family, and yet you see doors opening to love and care.
It is all based on your faith that God cares for you, and he cares for others.
It is not always easy to believe that God cares. We have an advantage over Joseph, however, for we know that God cares enough to send his Son to save us. Jesus went to the cross for us.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Because God cares, we can care—about people, and about God’s plan, which we can’t see yet.
GOD CAN BE TRUSTED
It is easy to trust God when everything is going our way. (Most of us are privileged, capable, and blessed.) The problem with that is that we are not so much trusting God, as we are trusting the good things God has put into our lives.
Joseph was privileged. He was a child of God’s covenant promises, an heir of Israel, the favorite son—not to mention being smart and spiritual!
Now, in prison, he can’t trust his birth or his family. He can’t trust fate, for the good things that have happened to him have turned into dead ends. He can’t trust his goodness, his dreams, or the promises of a man who owed him a favor. He can’t even do anything to make God show favor to him.
Have you ever come to the place where all the things you trusted in failed you? You ate right, exercised, and avoided obvious risk factors in life, and still you got sick. You worked hard, tried to do the right things, and seemed pretty good at what you did, until it all fell apart. You invested in your family, and expected that your investment would guarantee a good outcome, but it isn’t working out as you hoped.
Joseph had no one to trust except God, and that was enough. Because Joseph trusted God, Joseph could persevere in living. He kept spiritually fit, in touch with God, so that he could interpret dreams. He was emotionally and relationally fit, not moping or shutting people out. He was physically and mentally sharp, and ready when Pharaoh put him in charge of the entire kingdom.
Sometimes people get so discouraged that they let themselves go down. Maybe they are in assisted living, and they lose their will to stay involved and take care of themselves. They have a boyfriend or girlfriend, so they stay in a cocoon and don’t take care of themselves or others. They are in a dead-end job, so they stop trying to learn and prepare for opportunities that might come.
If you trust God, you persevere! You do what you can to be healthy (spiritually, emotionally, and physically). You look for opportunities to serve God and others, despite your limitations. You train for the opportunities that you don’t yet have.
You are not trusting circumstances, or your own abilities, or other people, or getting a lucky break. You are humbly trusting God to fulfill his purpose for you.
1 Peter 5:6-7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time”
(Due time could mean after death…and that’s OK too!)
GOD IS ABLE
Read Genesis 41:1-43.
Is there such a thing as hopeless situation? No, although some of our hopes are not realistic. I am not going to be a pro basketball player or a billionaire. It may be also, that a sick person might not get well, or a relationship might not turn out as someone hoped it would.
If you have God in your life, there is always hope for God’s plan and purpose for you to be fulfilled. It may not be like you hoped, but God can fulfill his purpose for you.
Look at what happened to Joseph: Everything he had tried ended in failure, until God did something unimaginable. Pharaoh took him from the prison to the palace! He traded his prison garb for the funny-looking clothes we see in pictures of the Pharaohs. He had a gold chain around his neck. For good measure, God threw in a wife and two sons. Joseph recognized the hand of God in all this: Read 41:51-52.
Is your God able to do things like that? It may not be what you wish for, but God is able. How do we know that? This is what the Apostle Paul said:
2 Corinthians 1:8-9 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about the hardships we suffered in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
Because Joseph believed God was able, Joseph was able! He never gave up. He never gave in to “What’s the use?”
So, when the cupbearer finally remembers, Joseph is spiritually prepared.
Genesis 41:15-16 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”
After God helps Joseph interpret the dream, Joseph is ready with a plan for dealing with the famine. How did he come up with that? He wasn’t vegetating in prison! In prison, he learned how Egypt worked, and he was probably more in touch with common Egyptians than Pharaoh!
Whatever you are going through, God is able to work in and through that.
Ephesians 3:20-21 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.
If that is true, we want to keep learning and growing. Maybe we reinvent ourselves, or we muddle through, or we take risks. God is able, so we are able.
Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength.
What is your greatest struggle? Family? Yourself? Some hope or dream that seems impossible? Do you feel like there has to be more to life, but you can’t get there?
Humble yourselves under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
God cares, so your life matters. Care about what and whom he cares about.
God can be trusted, so humble yourself and trust him. Trust him enough to do what he wants you to do.
God can lift you up, so prepare for the opportunities that may come. This time is not wasted.
