Romancing The Rock

“And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” [Genesis 45:5-7 NIV]

Joseph had a dream when he was a young lad. A dream that he had authority so that even his brothers and parents bowed down to him. His brothers were so annoyed by the supposed arrogance of this dream that it led to them doing a despicable thing — selling him into slavery.

For Joseph, all his dreams came crashing down. And then when things started to look up again, when he’d been entrusted with Potiphar’s household, circumstances not of his making caused him to end up in prison. Not guilty. Once again his dreams shattered.

Hope burgeoned again when he interpreted dreams for Pharaoh’s baker and cup-bearer, but he was forgotten, left to press on in the dungeons. I wonder how many times Joseph cried out to God, ‘Why?’ None of his journey would have made sense. It was unfair, undeserved –pointless.

Or so it seemed. Until the day he stood in the court distributing food to starving people, wearing the very authority of Pharaoh, and saw his brothers come before him. All of a sudden it all made sense. God knew a famine was coming — way back then when he was first dumped in the cistern by his brothers. God knew his family needed a deliverer. God had promised his great-grandfather a countless nation of descendents, and God would honour that promise. God had been in it all along. It was only that Joseph couldn’t see the big picture.

How many of us have received promises only to watch everything crumble around us? Take heart, child of God, you like Joseph, cannot see the big picture. If God said it, He will do it. Just keep walking in integrity and faith.