I have lived long enough to know what love looks like and when someone is simply faking it! That is why, when one reads Scripture about Joseph’s life, we are a bit confused. The Bible says that “the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” What? God’s steadfast love helped Joseph gain favor in prison?
I am sorry, but I am thrilled that God never talked about His unfailing love coming my way while I was incarcerated! I have told many people that I would not mind doing jail ministry as long as I did it from the outside! Joseph was hatefully sold into slavery by his brothers and unjustly imprisoned by a lying woman, who happened to be his master’s wife. I know that all God’s leadings are loving and faithful for His covenant keepers, but I do not always understand God’s covenant of loving humanity!
Now, living thousands of years post-Genesis, where the story of Joseph is written, I think I can get a bird’s eye view of how God used Joseph’s slavery to save many people’s lives. His father and brothers and their families would have died from starvation had Joseph not been Prime Minister of Egypt. Their lands suffered such a grievous drought that going to the enemies’ land to buy grain was their only option to sustain their lives. So I see the truth in Joseph’s statement to his brothers, “You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.”
But Joseph did not have the advantage of a bird’s-eye view from this many years past the setting from his “barred hotel room”. If we only looked at a frozen frame of our lives, can we see God’s steadfast love during our darkest hours? The answer all depends on who is at the center of our individual universe.
When I see myself as the biggest force in my universe, then my thoughts are what matters most! All of the sudden, it is not God working in me out of the abundance of His grace, but me giving my life for God out of the abundance of my self-sacrifice. With that attitude, then of course, this God should respond to my service with the sort of gratefulness I deserve, which would be making my life as easy and full of blessings as possible? Right?
But, when God is the biggest force, if it is in Him that we live, move, and have our being, if all things exist because of Him, through Him, and for Him, then He gets to do what He wants! And while this fact would be terrifying were it said of any other diety, this God is the One Who is good and does good – Who not only shows love, but Who is the very definition of Love! He is the Almighty Creator Who humbled Himself to become like His creation, the Holy King Who uses His power to lift the humble and helpless, and the suffering Savior Who gave His life for a rebellious people.
As we look back at the varied pathways of our lives, what we see will depend on our view of God. Joseph recognized God as the reigning King of he universe, and that is why he emerged from his jail cell not as a bitter atheist, but as a humble, faithful servant. He would see his brothers, who greatly mistreated him, as agents of God’s plan for his life!
Not many of us have gone to jail for doing only what is right in America, but around the world, there are many who have been removed from their personal freedoms simply because they made someone mad! I dare not speak for those who have been incarcerated, because I know that most have the same story, “I am totally innocent”! But, if I find myself in that small, uncomfortable place in a county lockup, I hope my thoughts will go to the One who went to the Cross for me! He was totally innocent, yet He gave His life for my wrongdoings!
When we recognize God as the King of the universe Who graciously condescended to His creation, we will realize that there has never been a dip in His love or a moment He has not been there for us. His Fatherly love has helped us through our darkest days and our most faithless hours.
