We mentioned yesterday the importance of God’s timing in orchestrating events in our lives. One of my favorite quotes on the sovereignty and timing of God comes from John Piper. He states, “God is always doing a million things at one time that we cannot know or see.” How true! We are limited in our scope so we have a tendency to think that God is only doing one thing…and that one thing ultimately has to do with us…and He’s taking His own sweet time!
God is never late, He’s rarely ever early but His record for being on time is perfect! Today we will begin to see how the delay in God’s timing in regards to Joseph was the difference between feast or famine, literally! Read Genesis 41: 1-49
How many years had gone by since the cupbearer forgot Joseph?
How long did it take Joseph to be released and made second in command?
Wow! We covered a lot of ground in that chapter. Don’t you wish that our lives progressed that quickly? Especially in times of testing, tribulation and distress? It is so much easier to read about someone else’s experience when we are able to know how it all ends. It isn’t quite as simple when we live it day in and day out! Let’s not rob men and women in scripture of their humanity. It was just as difficult for them. They felt the great swells of emotion that we feel from the depths of despair to the heights of great joy.
Joseph was no less human than you and I. I have no doubt that there were days when he was discouraged but scripture intentionally does not dwell on his misfortune. Possibly because “one day with the Lord is as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day.” God knew that Joseph’s story would not end in the dungeon. His time there was only a brief interlude in God’s plan for his life.
However, as we read verse one in light of the last verse in chapter 40, we are struck afresh with the agony that Joseph must have felt when he realized that relief was delayed, maybe forever. Scripture is descriptive in telling us that “at the END of two FULL years” Pharaoh had a dream. Two years when you are reminiscing seems inconsequential. Two years when you are in the midst of serious circumstances is a very long time!
Well, that cupbearer finally found some gingko and got knocked in the head by the Holy Spirit, praise the Lord! We don’t know for sure what prompted him to speak after holding his peace for this long but at just the right time he got a clue! Look at the wording in verse 14, “then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph and they HURRIEDLY brought him out of the dungeon. Just like that, God had moved and Joseph was free.
It is always fascinating to me in reflecting on the past how one day before the Lord moves we have no idea that deliverance is just a day away. Would we live life so differently if we knew deliverance was coming tomorrow? One day, deliverance IS going to be tomorrow. How do you know if that tomorrow is not on the heels of today? It only takes a moment for weeping to turn into joy.
For Joseph, the weeping turned to joy within a matter of a few hours. He opened his eyes in the dungeon but would close his eyes that night in a palace. I often wonder what would have been his fate had the cupbearer remembered him two years earlier? He may or may not have been granted freedom from his imprisonment but what would have been his future? Another few years as a servant in the house of a government official? Some kind of indentured servitude? Only God could have written this story and only God was able to see it through. That, ladies, is God’s sovereignty.
Do you remember the definition of sovereignty? All things are under God’s rule and control, and that nothing happens without His direction or permission. God has the right and the power to rule and control everything!
In yesterday’s post I mentioned a portion of a scripture from Isaiah 30:18. I like the way the ESV phrases it best: “Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” Sometimes, actually more often than not, the Lord waits to be gracious to us. But, in the next line we get a clue as to why He waits by the word “therefore”. I have learned anytime you see that word you need to ask yourself what is it “there for?” Usually the answer is in the verses proceeding. Something like cause and effect. In this case, the cause: God waiting to be gracious to you; the effect: He exalts Himself to show mercy to you. Conclusion: When God waits to be gracious to you He is exalting Himself in order that He show mercy to you. In other words, when God is exalted then we receive mercy! What an amazing concept!
Scripture tells us that God is able to do all things and He is able to do whatever He wants, whenever He wants. He has the ability to show grace to us at any time or to change our situation instantly, as we have seen with Joseph. However, most of us are intimately aware that there is usually nothing quick about a trial. If God instantly fixed every issue would there be room for display of His mercy and grace?
When testing becomes “long in the tooth” the deliverance is that much sweeter. What exalts the glory of God to an unbelieving world? A trial that ends quickly with little or no discomfort or a lengthy trial that puts our faith and our God on display? So it was in Joseph’s case. Through his obedience he exalted the faithfulness of his God through unfair and difficult circumstances. Potipher saw it, Potipher’s wife saw it, the jailer, the other prisoners, the cupbearer, the baker, countless others and eventually Pharaoh.
You see, our trials are never just about us and how we deal with those trials are never just about us. God has made us to have relationship and connect with others in order that we be light and salt to an unbelieving world as well as encouragement to other believers. When God calls us to Himself we are relinquishing our rights to our own desires and submitting those to the perfect will of a sovereign God. He has purposed to use us for His glory and His kingdom…we don’t get a say in how that looks!
Being disappointed with God stems from a lot of things: rebellion, pride, unbelief but ultimately it comes down to trust. Do you trust the Lord? I’m not asking do you understand or are you comfortable. I’m asking do you completely trust that God really is good and that He only has good for you? This is a critical question and one that we will dive into tomorrow.
For now, I will leave you with this: Joseph waited on the Lord through much discouragement, disappointment and despair but rose to second in command in a matter of a few hours. He was given all authority in Egypt and there was no one greater than him except Pharaoh. Do you think his circumstances had groomed him for his future? Do you think he would have been ready for this kind of responsibility at 17? It says in 1 Peter 5:6, “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.” Joseph had indeed humbled himself but it didn’t come cheap, easy or quickly. “For the Lord is a God of justice! Blessed are all those who WAIT for HIM!”
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