Lessons from Joseph…

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These past few weeks we have been in Genesis studying Joseph. I remember watching Joseph King of Dreams several years ago with the children and reading this passage. Yet it never spoke to me like it did this week.

In this passage Joseph, one of Jacob’s twelve sons is sold into slavery by his brothers. He is taken to Egypt and sold as a slave and through a miraculous series of events he becomes ruler over Egypt. When a famine comes to the land, he is in charge of giving out food that had been stored up previously.

His brothers end up coming for food, and he is able to provide it for them and eventually he reveals who he is- the brother that they had sold so long ago as a slave because of their jealousy, now saves them.

Wow. It hit me. How God used a series of events, even evil at that- his brothers’ jealousy- to save his family in the end. These were certainly not immediate results either. They were events that took place over many years and the good was not revealed until many years later.

During the years Joseph was a slave, imprisoned even, God was still working for his overall plan. Even through his brothers jealousy and evil attempt to rid of him, God was still working.

Oh, God is sovereign. How often I forget. Daily. I forget the whole picture. I forget the overall plan. I know God is good. I know the plans He has are good. (Jeremiah 29:11)  Yet I focus on the daily occurrences. I fret over disappointments or people or daily woes.

Yet the truth is that God works everything for good.Our daily needs are always met, yet that doesn’t mean that each day is a promise without hardship. The hardships are part of the plan that will be revealed.

Truth is, in this world will always have trouble.  (John 16:33) It will never be perfect. Oh that is what heaven is for! That is the only place of guaranteed perfection. Not here. Ever. Here is work. Here is turmoil. Here is hard. Yet, God wants it that way in order to let His plans unfold. His plans for  a future of perfection.

This weekend my son was sick with a stomach flu. In the midst of his throwing up and crying, and praying for God to heal him (which was so sweet, by the way) he asked me, “Mommy, why does God make it so I get sick?” And I reminded him how we learned that because of the curse, all of creation is under sin, and not until we are in heaven one day will anything be perfect. The plants wither, people get sick, people die. People suffer. Only when Jesus returns and we are in heaven will there be no sickness or suffering.

He replied, “Oh heaven is so far away!  It is so many years until I get there.” 

Now that is childlike faith. Amen?