Providence. The word comes from the Latin, providentia. Pro means “before” or “ahead of time”; videntia is from videre, meaning “to see,” from which we get our word “video.” Put them together, and you have “seeing ahead of time,” which is what God does. He sees the events of life ahead of time—something which we of course can never do. We’re great at history. Our hindsight is almost always 20/20. But were lousy at prophecy, that is, the specifics of the future. Stop and think. We have no clue as to what will happen one minute from now; we have no idea what’s going to happen next. But our God, in His providence, is continually, constantly, and confidently at work. Someone has defined providence this way: The Hand behind the headlines.
This morning we are going to consider the providence of God—the “invisible hand”—in the life of a man named Joseph—not the husband of Mary, but the son of Jacob. His story is told in the book of Genesis.
We are introduced to Joseph in Genesis 37. He is seventeen-years-old. Life is good. His father is a wealthy man, and on top of that—He’s his father’s favorite son. He has everything a teenager could want: the latest name brand sandals, his very own camel. But his most prized possession is a robe his father gave to him. This is no ordinary robe. This is a very expensive and rare robe all the way from the land of Egypt. Every time Joseph rides through town, people stare at his expensive threads.
Joseph has ten older brothers, and you can imagine how they must have feel about their father’s preferential treatment of Joseph. They hate him. They envy him. They can’t say a kind word to him. Then one day their hatred for Joseph reaches an all-time high. He tells them about a dream he had the night before. He says, “We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. My bundle stood up, and then your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before it!” Perhaps it was foolish for Joseph to mention his dream. Maybe he should have kept quiet. But he didn’t. His brothers taunt him, “So you are going to be our king, are you?”
Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers go to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. When they had been gone for some time, Jacob says to Joseph, “Your brothers are over at Shechem with the flocks. I’m going to send you to them.” So Jacob sends him on his way.
After along search, Joseph finally finds his brothers. When Joseph’s brothers see him coming in the distance, they make plans to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer!” they exclaim. “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into a pit. We can tell our father that a wild animal has eaten him. Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”
But Reuben, the oldest brother, comes to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him,” he says. “Why should we shed his blood? Let’s just throw him alive into this pit here. That way he will die without our having to touch him.” Actually, Reuben was secretly planning to help Joseph escape, and then he would bring him back to his father.
So when Joseph arrives, they pull off his beautiful robe and throw him into the pit. Then, just as they are sitting down to eat, they notice a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It is a group of Ishmaelite traders taking spices, balm, and myrrh from Gilead to Egypt.
Judah says to the others, “What can we gain by killing our brother? That would just give us a guilty conscience. Let’s sell Joseph to those Ishmaelite traders.” And his brothers agree. So when the traders come by, his brothers pull Joseph out of the pit and sell him for twenty pieces of silver, and the Ishmaelite traders take him along to Egypt.
Let’s stop here for a moment. You might be thinking, “What a terrible thing to happen to poor Joseph.” Instead of Joseph attending Canaan College in the fall, he is headed to a life of slavery in Egypt. He won’t have a chance to be a star on the football team. Instead, he will live a life of humble servitude. In one sense, this is a terrible event in Joseph’s life. He is taken from his family into a strange land. All of his hopes for the future seem to be lost. But in another sense, this is the beginning of something great for Joseph. The invisible hand of God is working in the background. Though Joseph can’t see it, it’s there. In the end, Joseph will look back on his life and see that “all things work together for good to them that love God.” The providence of God is alive and well in Joseph’s life, even in the land of Egypt.
The story continues with Joseph arriving in Egypt with the Ishmaelite traders. There he is purchased by Potiphar, a member of Pharaoh’s personal staff.
The Lord blesses Joseph greatly as he serves in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar notices this and realizes that the Lord is with Joseph, giving him success in everything he does. So Joseph naturally becomes quite a favorite with him. Potiphar soon puts Joseph in charge of his entire household and entrusts with him all his business dealings. From the day Joseph is put in charge, the Lord begins to bless Potiphar for Joseph’s sake. All his household affairs begin to run smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourish. So Potiphar gives Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owns. With Joseph there, he doesn’t have a worry in the world, except to decide what he wants to eat!
Now you might be thinking, “Aha, I see what God’s good purpose for Joseph was in Egypt. He brought him there to have a great position in Potiphar’s house.” Well, not exactly. God certanily did bless Joseph while he was with Potiphar, but He has something far better in mind for Joseph. And he must lose all he has now, before he gets to where God finally wants him.
Now Joseph is a very handsome and well-built young man. And Potiphar’s wife begins to desire him and invites him to sleep with her. But Joseph flatly refuses. Day after day, she keeps putting pressure on him, but he refuses, and he keeps out of her way as much as possible. One day, however, no one else is around when he is doing his work inside the house. She grabs him by his shirt. Joseph tears away, but as he does, his shirt comes off. She is left holding it as he runs from the house.
She keeps the shirt with her, and when her husband arrives home that night, she tells him, “That Hebrew slave you’ve had around here tried to make a fool of me. I was saved only by my screams. He ran out, leaving his shirt behind!”
After hearing his wife’s story, Potiphar is furious! He takes Joseph and throws him into prison. Again, it seems as though Joseph’s life has taken a tragic turn for the worse. But what seems bad at the moment will be used for good. The invisible had is still at work.
The Lord is with Joseph in prison, too, and he grants Joseph favor with the chief jailer. This seems to be a pattern with Joseph: he was a favorite with his father, with Potiphar, and now with the jailor. Before long, the jailor puts Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happens in the prison. And the Lord is with Joseph, making everything run smoothly and successfully.
Some time later, Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer is put in the prison where Joseph is. One night the cup-bearer has a dream, and the next morning Joseph notices the dejected look on their faces. “Why do you look so worried today?” he asks.
And he replies, “I had a dream last night, but there is no one here to tell me what it means.”
“Interpreting dreams is God’s business,” Joseph replies. “Tell me what you saw.”
The cup-bearer tells Joseph his dream. “In my dream,” he says, “I saw a vine in front of me. It had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon there were clusters of grapes. I was holding Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into it. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
“I know what the dream means,” Joseph says. “The three branches mean three days. Within three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison and return you to your position as his chief cup-bearer. And please have some pity on me when you are back in his favor. Mention me to Pharaoh, and ask him to let me out of here. For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in jail, but I did nothing to deserve it.”
Pharaoh’s birthday comes three days later, and he gives a banquet for all his officials and household staff. He sends for his chief cup-bearer, and he is brought to him from prison. He then restores the chief cup-bearer to his former position, just as Joseph had predicted. Pharaoh’s cup-bearer, however, promptly forgets all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.
Two years later, Pharaoh has two dreams. The next morning, as he thinks about it, Pharaoh becomes very concerned as to what the dreams might mean. So he calls for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt and tells them about his dreams, but not one of them can suggest what they mean. Then the king’s cup-bearer speaks up. “Today I have been reminded of my failure,” he says. “Some time ago, you were angry with me, and you put me in prison. One night I had a dream. I told the dream to a young Hebrew man. He told me what my dream meant, and everything happened just as he said it would.”
So Pharaoh sends for Joseph at once, and he is brought hastily from the dungeon. After a quick shave and change of clothes, he goes in and stands in Pharaoh’s presence. “I had a dream last night,” Pharaoh tells him, “and none of these men can tell me what it means. But I have heard that you can interpret dreams, and that is why I have called for you.”
“It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replies. “But God will tell you what it means and will set you at ease.”
So Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream. Joseph says, “The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten and wiped out.”
Then Joseph adds, “My suggestion is that you find the wisest man in Egypt and put him in charge of a nationwide program. Let Pharaoh appoint officials over the land, and let them collect one-fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. Have them gather all the food and grain of these good years into the royal storehouses, and store it away so there will be food in the cities. That way there will be enough to eat when the seven years of famine come. Otherwise disaster will surely strike the land, and all the people will die.”
Joseph’s suggestions are well received by Pharaoh and his advisers. As they discuss who should be appointed for the joy, Pharaoh says, “Who could do it better than Joseph?” Turning to Joseph, Pharaoh says, “Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, you are the wisest man in the land! I hereby appoint you to direct this project. You will manage my household and organize all my people. Only I will have a rank higher than yours.”
Joseph has gone from the pit to the palace. He has gone from a prisoner to the primer minister. Looking back we can see how God was working behind the scenes to cause this amazing promotion to take place.
• God used Joseph’s brother’s jealousy to get him to Egypt.
• God made sure there was no water in the pit. Had there been water in it, Joseph’s brothers might have immediately drowned him.
• God brought the Ishmaelite traders along at just the right time. If the brothers had not spotted them, Joseph probably would have been killed.
• God caused him to be sold to Potiphar, the captain of the palace guard. As a result, when Potiphar threw Joseph in prison, he put him in the prison where the king’s prisoners were held. And this allowed him to meet Pharaoh’s cup-bearer.
• God placed forgetfulness in the mind of the cup-bearer after Joseph had asked him to mention his case to Pharaoh. If the cup-bearer had remembered, Joseph probably would have been released from prison and may have left Egypt to go back home.
• Instead, God kept Joseph in prison until Pharaoh had two dreams two years later. He then caused the cup-bearer to remember Joseph, and He gave to Joseph the interpretation of Pharaoh’s dreams. After all this, Joseph was named second in command in all of Egypt.
Some would call what happened to Joseph luck or fate, but it was really providence. I would like to point out a key statement used twice in Joseph’s story. The first time we find it is in 39:2. The previous verse tells how Joseph was sold by the traders to Potiphar. And then we read, “And the Lord was with Joseph.” Though Joseph may have felt as though God was very distant at the moment, He was not. The Lord was with him working out his good purpose.
The next place we find this statement is in 39:21. Joseph had been cast into prison, and the verse says, “But the Lord was with Joseph.” Joseph was probably wondering why God would allow him to be wrongly imprisoned. He may have been tempted to doubt God’s presence, but as the verse says, “The Lord was with Joseph.”
At the end of the story of Joseph’s life we discover the reason why God wanted Joseph to become prime minister in Egypt. Sometime during the seven years of famine, Jacob sends his sons down to Egypt to buy some food. Since Joseph is in charge of distributing the food, he meets his brothers—those same brothers who had sold him as a slave. Of course, when the brothers finally realize that they are standing in the presence of Joseph who is now in a position of great power, they are terrified. However, by this time Joseph realizes that God was behind it all. Let’s look at 45:7. There Joseph tells them, “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” Joseph recognizes that God has put him where he is to deliver his family, the nation of Israel, from the famine.
Later, after their father Jacob dies, the brothers are again afraid of Jacob. They think that he might have only been nice to them for their father’s sake. Now that their father is gone, Joseph might seek revenge. But, no, Joseph has no thoughts of revenge. Look at 50:19-20.
And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.
“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.” Both sides of that statement are true. “Ye thought evil against me”—what the brothers had done was indeed evil and Joseph didn’t sugarcoat the truth. They were 100% responsible for their sin. “God meant it unto good”—this doesn’t mean that evil isn’t evil. It just means that God is able to take the evil actions of sinful men and use them to accomplish His plans. Joseph saw the “invisible hand” of God at work in his life. He understood that behind his conniving brothers stood the Lord God who had orchestrated the entire affair in order to get him to just the right place at just the right moment in order to save his whole family.
Joseph is saying, “Though your motives were bad, God’s motives were good.” And though it took years and years for God’s purposes to be clear, in the end Joseph saw the hand of God behind everything that had happened to him.
Two Implications of God’s Providence
A. Providence frees us from bitterness.
This is clearly the message of Genesis 50:20. If ever a man had the right to get even it was Joseph. If ever a man had the opportunity and power to get even it was Joseph. We get bitter because we doubt God’s goodness and we don’t see His invisible hand at work in our lives. We think God isn’t involved in our situation and that’s why we get angry and try to get even and hurt the person who has hurt us. If you really believe God is at work in your situation, you can just stand back and let God do whatever He wants to do.
B. Providence gives us a new perspective on our tragedies.
That new perspective might be stated this way: God is involved with us even in the worst moments of life. I believe that in the great issues of life we generally will not have an answer to the question “Why did this happen to me?” That is, we won’t know why our mate got sick or why we can’t have children or why we lost our job. Most of the time we are simply left to wonder why these things happen. Who would dare say to a woman, “This is why your husband died”?
But it is as this point that God’s providence is so crucial. It doesn’t tell us everything we would like to know about the mysteries of life, but it does assure us that God is there and that He cares for us. Remember what the Bible says when Joseph was sold as a slave and when he was put in prison: “The Lord was with Joseph.” Vance Haver once said, “The Unseen Hand may be obscured at times by the fogs of circumstance but just because we can’t see the sun on a cloudy day doesn’t mean it isn’t there.” God is somehow involved even in our darkens moments in a way we cannot see—and probably wouldn’t understand even if we could see. Because of God’s providence we can keep believing in God in the face of many unanswered questions.
I close with a poem by A. M. Overton. The poem is called “He Maketh No Mistake.”
My Father’s way may twist and turn,
My heart may throb and ache
But in my soul I’m glad I know,
He maketh no mistake.
My cherished plans may go astray,
My hopes may fade away,
But still I’ll trust my Lord to lead
For He doth know the way.
Tho’ night be dark and it may seem
That day will never break,
I’ll pin my faith, my all in Him,
He maketh no mistake.
There’s so much now I cannot see,
My eyesight’s far too dim;
But come what may, I’ll simply trust
And leave it all to Him.
For by and by the mist will lift
And plain it all He’ll make,
Through all the way, tho’ dark to me,
He made not one mistake.
In the end that will be the testimony of every child of God. When we finally get to heaven, we’ll look back over the pathway of life and see that through all the twists and turns and seeming detours that “He made not one mistake.”
