Are you burdened with circumstances you feel you don’t deserve? Do you wonder whether doing good will actually bring you any rewards? If any of that sounds familiar, then you and Joseph from the Old Testament could relate well to each other.
Perhaps no hero from the scriptures could claim a life more like a roller coaster than Israel’s son, Joseph. The major events and circumstances of his first thirty years went something like this:
Favored and righteous child
Sold into slavery
Made leader of Potiphar’s household
Resisted sexual advances
Thrown in prison
When this is all you see of Joseph’s life, it’s natural to wonder if God even cared about what Joseph was going through. If anything, it seems that Joseph’s life only went worse when he tried to do the right things. Some people might even say it looks like God was playing with Joseph.
Many of us have probably felt the same way about our own trials. Maybe being honest at work or school only got you in trouble; or being a good example to your friends lost you those friends; or your health took a nosedive even though you live the Lord’s law of health. Discouragement comes easily in times like that.
Why is that? Probably because humankind tends to think in patterns of cause and effect, black and white, and here and now. Each time something happens in our lives, we naturally associate it with whatever came just before it. In other words, when Joseph resisted the temptation to lie with Potiphar’s wife and was immediately thrown in prison, most people would have thought, “Prison, a bad circumstance, was caused by my righteousness.” We may start to believe that righteousness doesn’t help us.
To see how wrong that is, let’s look at the end of Joseph’s struggles and do it with in the Lord’s pattern of thinking. God is all-knowing and tends to think in terms of destinations and pathways. Even from before Joseph was born, God knew He needed Joseph to eventually end up in a position of power in Egypt. How could He make sure that happened? Take a look at Joseph’s life story told backward:
Savior to his family in Egypt
Made leader in Egypt
Interpreted Pharaoh’s dream
Interpreted dreams in prison
Thrown in prison
Tempted by Potiphar’s wife
Made Leader in Potiphar’s household
Sold into slavery
Favored and righteous child
With Joseph’s tale mapped out this way, it’s easy to see all the pieces—even the hard ones—not as detours from Joseph’s happiness, but as steps to God’s final destination for him. Joseph never would have ended up in Egypt if his brothers hadn’t sold him, and Pharaoh never would have hear
d of him if he hadn’t interpreted dreams in prison.
Joseph didn’t know all this would happen as he went along. But he had faith that God would bless him for keeping His commandments. That’s why he was able to take advantage of every opportunity given to him, resist temptation, and stay hopeful. Knowing that God was involved in his life also helped him forgive those who had wronged him. Clearly, keeping an eternal perspective brings peace.
We can keep the same faith in our own lives. When hardships come, it will help to realize that God has placed us on the path to the blessings He wants for us. That path may wind through thorns, but God will help us find the good in every situation as He did for Joseph. We can look at present hardships as potential blessings, even in our darkest moments. And someday, we will look back on our lives as Joseph did: with tears of gratitude in our eyes.
| What Joseph of Egypt Did | What We Can Do |
| Refused to lie with Potiphar’s wife (Gen 39:8-9, 12) | Flee from temptation and sin |
| Knew God could help him interpret dreams (40:8) | Believe that we can do anything through God |
| Asked the butler to tell Pharaoh of him (40:14) | Look for chances to beat trials and ask for help |
| Faithfully fulfilled his duties (39:22, 41:48) | Keep the commandments and fulfil our duties |
| Knew God had used his trials to save lives (45:5) | Search for divine purpose in our trials |
| Forgave and helped his brothers (45:10-11) | Forgive those who have wronged us |
