Joseph's Journey

I love the story of Joseph because it is such an inspiring story of God’s faithfulness to a young man who remained steadfast in the midst of his life being turned upside down. The story of Joseph begins in Genesis 37 and continues in chapters 39-45. If you would like to read the entire account of Joseph, please feel free to do so, it is truly heart stirring story. For our post today, we will largely be focusing on his life up to the time of him being placed in a position of authority in Egypt (Genesis chapters 37- 41.) I want to retell the story of Joseph bringing out some highlights and some thoughts to ponder upon as we examine this touching story.

The Story of Joseph
Let’s set the stage here at the beginning in Genesis 37. Here we have this 17 year old kid of whom his father absolutely adores. This adoration stems from the fact that Joseph was the son of Jacob’s beloved wife Rachel. However, Rachel was not his only wife. Jacob was tricked into marrying his first wife, Leah, and out of obligation he stayed married her, but he did not love her. Rachel had been barren for many years until the blessing of Joseph came along. As Joseph grew, he became his father’s “spy” so to speak. He would check in on his brothers and report back to his father about them. Can you see how just this alone would build animosity and tension between Joseph and his brothers? However, this was not the only thing that seemed to drive a wedge into this relationship of brothers. The “wedge” that more of us are familiar with is the coat that Jacob bestowed upon Joseph. This was no ordinary coat. This was an exquisitely colored coat, one similar to those worn by kings of that time period. This coat was not only beautiful in appearance it was extremely expensive. It probably cost his father a rather large amount of money. Quite possibly part of his older brothers' inheritance. I’m sure that by this point Joseph’s brothers were outraged at the fact that the favoritism had just gone from hearsay to outwardly obvious to anyone and everyone. This coat became a symbolic representation of Jacob’s favoritism toward Joseph. This fueled the the fire that was already burning inside his brothers even farther.  

The fuel to the fire didn’t stop there. In Joseph’s excitement for what God was revealing to him, he failed to realize that maybe sharing everything, was not necessarily the best of ideas. As he began to share his dreams, his brothers' ability to hold in their enraged feelings any longer failed and those outraged feelings let loose with unstoppable force. The actions Joseph’s brothers took that day hurled Joseph onto a path of revealing God’s faithfulness in epic proportions! 

Joseph then found himself on the road to a life of slavery. He now faced a long hard 30 day walk to Egypt. This was no ordinary journey either. This was the journey of a slave. This means Joseph would have been chained hand and foot making every step even more painstaking. Slavery was a violent business. The slaves were treated worse than animals. Slave traders showed no mercy. Joseph was no exception to this treatment. Chances were he was probably whipped and beaten, not given much food and barely enough water to cross the desert alive. Once he finally reached Egypt he was sold just like merchandise to the highest bidder. Let’s pause for a moment and try to wrap our minds around this situation Joseph has been catapulted into. One day Joseph was in the comfort of his own home and the next day he found himself chained as a slave on his way to Egypt. Talk about a bad nightmare!

Life in Egypt
When Joseph arrived in Egypt Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, bought him as a slave. Potiphar was an extremely wealthy man. As Joseph served, he began to prove himself faithful to Potiphar and his household. Potiphar began to take notice that Joseph was a man full of  integrity and one who was trustworthy. With these qualities out in the open for all to see, Potiphar began to place more and more responsibility in Joseph’s hands and eventually turned over his entire estate into Joseph’s care. With the vast wealth that Potiphar had, it proved itself to be a wonderful training grounds for the responsibilities that were yet to come for Joseph. God has a beautiful way of working all things out for the good for those who love the Him, even though it may seem far from the good in the moment.  Potiphar’s wife however, had other plans in mind for Joseph. When her attempts to seduce him failed she accused him of something he did not do. Naturally, Potiphar believed his wife and had Joseph thrown into jail for his “crime.” So now we can add criminal to Joseph’s spotless resume.

Prisons did not even resemble the type of prisons that we know of today. Prisons were dismal places where many people ended up dying due to the foul conditions. People were not innocent until proven guilty. They were thrown into prison until their trial and there was no guarantee if or when that trial would even take place. Many people died innocently just waiting for their case to be called to trial. I tend to think Joseph had to have been in that prison for quite some time because he was noticed by the warden who in turn promoted him to prison administrator. This is not something that would have happened overnight. Just like Potiphar's house, he would have had to prove himself to be different than the others around him. Proving ourselves trustworthy is truly a matter of time. During this time spent in prison Joseph’s childhood gifting of dreams came back around. Only this time instead of being the one having the dreams, he was the one giving the interpretations of those dreams. It was this very thing that drew him out of the clutches of the prison cell and into the posh palace life that he had caught a glimpse of in his dreams. This time it was Pharaoh who called him to interpret his dream. It was this dream that launched him on the path that ultimately allowed his childhood dream to be fulfilled.  

As we look back on Joseph’s life up to this point it truly is astounding! Joseph had been cut off  from everything he held dear: his family, his precious possessions, his home, his life as he knew it and his pride. He was stripped of his coat, thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, accused for a crime he did not commit, then thrown into jail for that very crime and lastly placed into a position of major authority in the land. His life was a roller coaster of ups and downs. His life was characterized by chaos and instability. After each major “plummet” in Joseph’s life events he faced a choice. He could have easily chosen to get angry and frustrated with the Lord and say “God, you gave me these dreams. I have been faithful to you so why am I here?” But Joseph never asked the question why. He never questioned God’s reasons. He never showed frustration or discouragement. In fact he did just the opposite. He exhibited his trust in the Lord. He trusted in God’s faithfulness.

Honoring and Blessing in the trials
Joseph chose to honor God in the face of his own adversity. I find it interesting that even though Joseph choose to respond rightly in action and attitude God did not immediately deliver him from his problems. In fact in many instances the problems appeared, at least from the outside, to be getting worse. Joseph had to honor God in the midst of the hardships before he could ever be entrusted to honor God in the midst of the blessing. Just like Joseph we need to make a conscious choice to give God honor and glory in the midst of our hardships. We need to recognize that it’s the hard times that build our faith not the times of blessing.

Lord, I thank you for this beautiful example of Joseph. What a perfect example of what honoring you in the midst of our hardships should look like. Help us in those moments when things are hard to remember that you are building us for a much greater purpose than we have sight of right now. Help us to approach our struggles with a spiritual perspective. Help us not to get hung up on the struggle only to lose sight of the bigger things you are trying to do in our hearts and lives. You have such amazing plans and purposes for us. Help us to remember that promise in the times when the challenges of life seem to be more than we can handle. Help us to keep our focus on you and not to ask the question “why?” You are trustworthy. You have plans to prosper us and not to harm us. You have plans to give us a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11). We do not always understand those verses, but you are in control of it all. Thank you Lord!   

For more mention of Joseph, see my blog post entitled: "Worthy To Be Praised." This post discusses the topic of praising God in the midst of our hardships because it ushers in the character of God to be built in our hearts.

For more reading on specific Bible characters, please visit posts entitled: "The Example Of Esther", "Touching The Hem Of His Garment", "Seeking The Value In God's Reward", and "Blind Faith."