I hope that you have enjoyed this study. I pray that it has been as beneficial for you as it has for me. I feel like this has been my life’s story for the past four years, maybe longer. If I’m honest I would say that I probably have felt disappointed with God for the better part of ten years I just wasn’t able to admit it. It’s a miserable place. You are stuck between the knowledge that God is good and BELIEVING that He is in spite of your circumstances. There are many things that we have knowledge about but we can’t get that knowledge from our heads to our hearts. If I’ve learned anything at all, I’ve learned that sometimes you have to make the right choice with your head and allow your heart to catch up! Submitting our will to the will of God is never easy but the rewards are immeasurable. God is always for obedience, you can take that to the spiritual bank!!
We have already seen that Joseph was not short on obedience and that he believed God in spite of his circumstances. There is so much more to the story of Joseph than we have time to get to but I do encourage you to read the rest of the book of Genesis to get the full picture. For our last lesson read Genesis 41: 50-57; 42:1-8; 45:1-15
Why did Jacob send his sons to Egypt?
What was Joseph’s response to his brothers?
Through a series of CIRCUMSTANCES that God orchestrated in an entire nation, Joseph and his brothers were reunited. I cannot even begin to tie all of the strings together that form this thread but I want to focus in on the totality of Joseph’s life. When we met Joseph he was a young man at the vibrant age of 17. When we meet back up with him in chapter 45 he is a middle aged man, humbled and disciplined by years of disappointments, discouragements and despair. By now, Joseph is 39 and has spent the majority of his life in Egypt. He has been in Egypt longer than he was at home. He spent the first 13 years in prison before the Lord providentially moved to set him free. We have seen intimately how he handled all of the plans that the Lord had for him; from the darkest dungeon to the highest honors. I think it is fair to say that he handled all of his circumstances with a humble trust in a sovereign God.
But how would he react coming face to face with his perpetrators? How would he deal with them given the opportunity for revenge? Don’t forget that Joseph was in a position to do whatever he wanted with his brothers. They were on his turf and if he had allowed emotions, bitterness or hatred to motivate his actions then he could have exacted revenge. He certainly had the power to do so. But he CHOSE not to. He CHOSE mercy instead.
Oh girls, what a picture of the God that we serve! Who is a God like ours that changes the hearts of people from bitterness to mercy! Who is a God like ours that has mercy upon our souls in salvation instead of exacting due payment for our sin? God has the power to show mercy or to avenge. He has chosen mercy for today but that will not always be the case. One day He will chose to avenge His great name and He will pour out His wrath on all who will not believe. Today is the day of mercy, today is the day of repentance. Won’t you seek repentance and fall on His mercy before it is too late?
You know, there is so much to see here but I want to bring this all home in four points:
1) We all have a choice to make. We either choose to believe God is good or that He isn’t. Regardless, we are choosing. I want to challenge you with something though; if you say God isn’t good but claim Him as Savior then you have some searching to do. God didn’t send His Son to save you for all eternity and then make you miserable every day until you get there. He doesn’t work like that and there is no scriptural basis for that kind of thought process. The other thing I want you to consider is why would you proclaim, promote and serve a God that you ultimately do not believe is good? You see, when we really start to THINK about what we believe and why we believe it, there are so many contradictions! Let’s address the spiritual contradictions in our lives. Test your beliefs against the pages of scripture and then CHOOSE truth! It is only when our truth is overcome by THE truth that we find freedom!!
2)Scripture says that, “God remembers our frame He knows that we are dust.” In our human frailty we have no scope! Actually, we probably have less than no scope! Our perspective is limited to the past. We have no knowledge of the future aside from what scripture proclaims. Our perspective is limited to our own experience. Although we might have some knowledge about what is going on in the lives of other people we can never fully know what is going on in their hearts. But God, who has “all of the intents of our hearts laid bare before Him” is intimately aware and He is doing “heart work” in the lives of all people! For some it is a hardening but for His children it is surgery through our circumstances that cleans, strengthens and sanctifies. You will never know all of what God is up to and you will never be able to figure it out! God was working in the life of Joseph and his brothers and at the right time he moved to reunite them. The result was complete forgiveness, restoration and preservation of God’s chosen people through the famine! What a mighty God we serve!
3)God expects us to exercise faith in all of our circumstances. Scripture says over and over, “The just shall live by faith” and “without faith it is impossible to please God.” If we had all the details from beginning to end there would be no need for faith. Besides, I think if we knew everything from beginning to end we wouldn’t be able to handle it! Faith fuels the Christian walk. It is the energy that propels us into deeper waters and greater riches in the person of Jesus Christ. God wants nothing more than for us to find Him more satisfying, more delightful and more enjoyable than anything or anyone else. He will go after the things that keep us from getting to this point and do whatever it takes to loosen our grip…for our good!
4)Finally, hardship prepares us to leave this world. Trials wear us down and wear us out! Sin, temptation, testing and doing battle with the enemy of our souls is exhausting. The world has so much to offer that doesn’t offer much! If we become comfortable here we will never long for the glorious eternity that awaits us. We will settle as C.S. Lewis said, “for making mudpies instead of a holiday by the sea!” God is not content to let us settle! He does want the very best for us because He gives us the very best…Himself!
Beloved, don’t spend your years believing the lie that God is disappointing! It is so very far from the truth! If this is your present reality then hang on until the blessing comes!
Joseph did this very thing. He continued to believe God even when he couldn’t make sense of His circumstances. Through all of the seeming misfortune, God brought Joseph, his brothers and his father Jacob to live in Egypt. He preserved His chosen people through the sin and deception of Joseph’s brothers, the dream of a pagan king and the blight of a severe drought. Sin, pagans and natural disaster could not thwart God’s overarching purpose! God’s plans cannot be thwarted and no weapon formed against you shall prosper! However, it was Joseph, in the end, as he reflected on all that had happened to him that summed it up best: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good!” Indeed He did, yes, He did!
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