Sometimes we just need to accept trials as mysterious and even surprising at times! Mysterious because of the nature of the trial and surprising because of what we get out of it.
4 words describe Joseph’s life… Dismay, Dungeons, Dreams & Destiny!
Victim mentality vs. Victorious mindset
Looks for one to blame Looks for the best
1. The Testing Period. 40:23
Joseph had been left behind in a jail cell hoping that the cupbearer would remember him. However, here we are 2 years later and he is still in his dreadful dungeon!
Chuck Colson, after serving his prison sentence because of his crimes with Nixon’s cover up scheme in Watergate said, “Pain, when properly handled, can shape a life for greatness. History is replete with stories of those whose struggles and scars formed the foundation for remarkable achievements. In fact, it was because of their hardship they gained what was needed to achieve greatness.”
A young woman sang a solo in front of a large audience. Her vocal skills, pitch and tones were perfect and the sounds were very pleasing to the ear. It just happened that the man who wrote the music and lyrics was sitting in the audience that night. The person sitting next this man asked, “Well, what do you think of her?” The man gently leaned over and whispered, “She will be great when something happens to her to break her heart.”
It was A.W. Tozer who said, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He has hurt him deeply.”
Does this seem like hard philosophy? I personally have come full circle with this concept…that God at times has to break a person in order for there to be anything valuable in that life!
Look at any person with purpose in or out of the Bible and you’ll see that this is true! Certainly Job and Joseph, Peter and Paul and king David learned from this philosophy!
2. The Timing Perspective. 41:1-14
Even though God is timeless, He operates in time. That is, he sees and knows the epics of time, whether it’s the time in your life or of governments and societies.
Let me build on this from the Bible:
• In Geneses, God is the one who creates time and seasons.
• Galatians 4:4 “The fullness of time” (Christ birth)
• Luke 21:24 “The times of the Gentiles” (before His return)
• Acts 2:17 “In the last days” (the gospel age)
Folks, whether we like it or not, God controls our lives from the cradle to the grave!
Read vs. 1-14
Vs. 25-32, Joseph gives the interpretation!
I personally believe that God timed the dream in Pharaoh life! In fact, the disgrace of the brothers, the drudge of the dungeon and the deployment of dreams were all apart of God’s timing in Joseph’s life!
Job 23:10 “When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”
The key phrase is “When He has tested me”! Notice Job uses the word “gold” to describe the outcome of God’s timing perspective! Not silver or bronze! Why gold? Of all the metals it’s the most precious and most valuable! You are the most precious and valuable to God than any other creation!
Think about this:
• It takes a longer time span to refine gold.
• It takes a courser material to refine gold.
• It takes a higher heat to refine gold.
Doesn’t this sound like our lives? The symbolism is incredible!
Affliction is gold in the making for the child of God and only God determines how long the process takes.
LifePoint: If God is our eternal Redeemer, then He’s also our eternal refiner!
There’s no way to get around it or you’re cheating God’s best!
• Joseph waited two years for the perfect dreams to come.
• Abraham waited 100 years for the perfect son.
• Moses waited 80 years for the perfect exodus.
• Noah waited over 1 year for the end of the perfect storm.
• The apostles waited in the upper room almost 2 months for the perfect power.
God is working while we are waiting. Personal patience brings spiritual perfection and suffering shapes our lives for significance!
Oswald Chambers wrote, “We are apt to think that everything that happens to us is to be turned into useful teaching...We shall find that the spheres God brings us into are not meant to teach us something but to make us something.”
In 1644, a child was born. He lived to be 93 years old when in this period of time the average life span was only 35 years. He was patient with himself and taught himself a trade and a career. He worked with very primitive tools, but his focus was to put the best he had into his work. He labored over each of his musical instruments and created a standard of excellence for his craft and he was so sure about the finished product he even signed his name on each.
Today, some 300 years later, the name Antonio Stadivari is known around the world for his patience and perfection! His Stradivarius violins sell for thousands of dollars because they are
the best.
3. The Turning Point. Vs. 37-43
Vs. 37-40
How does one know he’s at a turning point? Humbleness!
Somehow deep within Joseph, probably during his dungeon days,he learned to let go and let God be involved in the work! That’s real humility.
What was the result? Pharaoh saw in Joseph – gold, God and grace all at one time!
41-43
James 4:10 “Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up.”
To be humble is to willing to submit oneself under another. There will never be a turning point in your life until there is humbleness!
4. The Triumph Principle. Vs. 45-52
Vs. 45-49: Joseph is 30 years old now. That means he had been in Egypt for 13 long years! Oh, how his fortunes have changed! He gets 18 karat Gucci gold around his neck, a royal Rolls Royce chariot for wheels, a new name written down in (glory) Egypt and an a popular pagan priestly princess for a wife and on top of that - everyone is bowing their heads and bending their knees before him! And that’s not all!
Vs. 50-52: His two new sons! Notice that Joseph gives them Hebrew names!
• Manasseh = forgetful
God healed Joseph of the pitiful circumstances of the last 13 years. By the way, if God healed before the law, He surely does it today!
• Ephraim = fruitful
God made Joseph abundantly fruitful and prosperous in 13 years!
You see, that’s the triumph principle that Joseph teaches us…no mater where life dumped on us, no matter why life dumped on us, no matter how life dumped on us and no matter who dumped on us… we are more than conquers in Christ! And no matter what, God can always move us into the place of forgetfulness and position us for fruitfulness!
THIS IS YOUR DESTINY!
