Does it ever feel like sometimes in life things keep going from bad to worse? I know that I’ve been there. Cecily and I have said that a lot about the past week. If there was ever a story in the Bible that captures the essence of life going from bad to worse, the story of Joseph could make a pretty good claim on that (excusing maybe the story of Job).
Joseph is the eleventh of twelve brothers. If some of you think having one older brother was bad, how do you think Joseph felt with ten older brothers? Life for Joseph started out pretty good. He was his dad’s favourite son. And if you have ever got caught playing the game of ‘Who’s the favourite?’, you know that it’s a messy game. Joseph’s brothers hated him. In a naïve teenage manner, Joseph would share his dreams about how all his brothers and family would bow down to him.
You’re not winning any popularity contests like this, Joseph.
But still, things aren’t that bad. That is until his brothers throw him in a cave having planned to kill him. However, instead of killing him, they sold him into slavery and tricked his dad, Jacob, into thinking that Joseph was dead. Daddy wasn’t coming after Joseph. Now that is cold. Joseph ends up as a slave in Egypt. He ends up working for a man named Potiphar and subsequently rose the ranks in his house. When Potiphar’s wife takes a liking to Joseph and tries to seduce him, and Joseph refuses, she accuses Joseph of attempting to rape her and
Joseph is thrown in prison. Joseph would spend several years in prison as an innocent man. Talk about things taking a bad turn.
Some of you might be able to relate to Joseph. Reading the story of Joseph (or seeing it acted out) can be hard because it appears to go against our understanding of who God is. We understand that God is good and that God is loving. So, when life feels so bad and miserable; when we feel rejected and uncared for by God, we are left with this dichotomy, this tension between God wanting good for my life but my life is going horrible. God, where are you in this? Are you even there?
These are real questions that we ask when going through these difficult times. It’s hard to see where God is in those situations. But the end of Joseph’s story shows us that God works through our difficulties and pains and hardships for his good. Joseph is brought from prison to interpret Pharoah’s dream. The dream foretold the seven years of plenty and seven years of famine that were ahead. Having interpreted the dream, Joseph was released from prison and ascended to the rank of second in command of Egypt, second only to Pharoah. It was in this role that Joseph could navigate and lead Egypt and the wider area through the devastation of the famine. In this role, Joseph would save Egypt and also save his family with whom he was now reunited.
Joseph goes through the hard times and is probably confused about why this has happened to him. But by the end of his story, he has realised the bigger good that God was doing through the suffering and pain Joseph was experiencing. He explained all this to his brothers.
4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come closer to me.’ And they came closer. He said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.[1]
Sometimes we can go through difficult and challenging times for a reason. That is not to say that God likes to see us in pain or suffer but there can be a greater purpose behind them. God used Joseph’s terrible circumstances to position him in a place to save many lives and to bring his family to safety. You see people caught in similar positions on the news around the world. Just look at what is going on in Ukraine as millions of people are enduring hardship with the hope that peace will win out.
If you feel like you are going through a tough season at the moment, I encourage you to hold before you the story of Joseph. That doesn’t mean that your suffering is some divine pre-payment to get the reward at the end. That’s not how things work. But when it feels that God isn’t answering prayer to save and rescue you from a difficult situation, consider whether perhaps God might be doing something in that difficult time, or maybe that the place where this suffering will lead might be the exact place that God wants you to be. Joseph didn’t know this whilst he was going through it, but it was clear by the end. We might not always know where we are going or why the journey is as bad as it is, but when we reach the final destination, we can look back and see how the journey made sense. We can see how God was at work in our lives.
If you look back on your journey now, what can you see that God has been doing? Perhaps you might see part of the greater work that God is doing in and through your life. It’s not easy going through these times, but part of our life of faith is surrendering our lives to God to let him take the lead on our lives, even when it feels uncertain or unsure. God shares through the prophet Isaiah: ‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’[2] God’s ways are greater than ours and often don’t make sense to us. That’s okay. God’s ways are greater and higher beyond our understanding. We might not always understand them, but we can always trust that they are good.
To close, I want to briefly touch on the gospel parable of the wicked tenants. Because, for all the ways that Joseph’s story is a great inspiration that we will see good in the end, the parable of the wicked tenants tells something slightly different.
In the story of the wicked tenants, slave after slave goes to collect the owner’s share and they are beaten and sent away by the wicker tenants. The owner, having tried sending all of his slaves, sends his son to collect the share. But the tenants kill the son. This story foretells what will happen to Jesus, but it also reminds us, that sometimes, like it also did for Jesus, the good God promises waits for us on the other side of eternity. Jesus didn’t find the good until he had risen to eternal life. The bandit at Jesus’ side joined him in paradise after he was crucified. Sometimes the truth of how God works in the world is that our suffering might take us to the point of death and losing everything in this life, but that does not make it the last word on our lives. We trust in the hope of eternal resurrection life in Jesus. We trust that all will be made new. Sometimes we will see transformation in this lifetime, but sometimes it will look like death and resurrection to new and eternal life for us. But whatever happens in life, whether our story relates more to Joseph or to Jesus, we know that pain, suffering and death will not have the last word. The last and final word is Jesus. That Jesus is risen, that he is alive, and that whatever we may face in life, God will lead us to his eternal, good life.
Amen.
[1] Genesis 45:4-9 [NRSV].
[2] Isaiah 55:8-9 [NRSV].
Shakeel Nurmahi 