The Big Reveal
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 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. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
Genesis 45:4-8 (NIV)
Emerging from all of these years of being suspected dead, Joseph now reveals a restored and strengthened soul, a tough and resilient survivor. And so Joseph, in one small sentence, shares how he understands this entire journey to date, though marred and filled with treachery and trials. Here is what Joseph essentially says, “Brothers, don’t be afraid. You don’t have to nurture fear. Now that I’ve revealed my identity, all of my life has been part of the intricate tapestry of God’s plans. The threads of love, redemption, and reconciliation are being woven together, creating a human picture of divine grace that will forever change the course of human history.”
We see the seismic collision of human fallibility and divine providence. We see the transformative power of forgiveness and how it has the strength to pierce through the darkest recesses of the human heart, forcing it to emerge from brokenness and mistreatment and displacement to a place of healing, restoration, and the promise of a future imbued with divine purpose.
Not one expression of hate or anger. We see Joseph enveloping more than 20 years of life’s worst hits by saying, “Trouble didn’t push me here. You brothers did not push me here. People who sold me and resold me did not push me here. It wasn’t pain that pushed me here. It was God who sent me here.” Do you see the difference in perspective?
It is God who has delivered us to this place of strength. We must not take advantage and repay evil with evil or critique in others what finally has become conquered in us. Joseph could have paid evil for evil or he could have been depressed and committed suicide. He could have pointed his finger in the face of God and told God that He’s unfair and inequitable. But Joseph has grown through what he’s been through until he had a different perspective.
He’s not a prisoner to his pain and disappointment. He’s a child of God who believes that God is working a complete work in him. He wasn’t pushed. He was sent.
Making the Best of the Less Than Perfect
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.”
Genesis 41:38-41 (NIV)
Can we learn to honor God with gratitude and faithfulness when we have to steward less-than-perfect seasons?
Life doesn’t always gift you with perfection, but God’s perfect will is always gifting you, even if His presence and purposes in your life are displayed in less-than-perfect contexts and conditions of life. Even in the less-than-perfect context, you are perfectly situated to honor God in the same way you would if it were absolutely perfect, because perfect is not the only way God gives gifts.
God is saying, Why are you limiting your theological reflection of Me to think that I can’t accomplish My perfect will in your less-than-perfect circumstances? I can take your broke circumstances and make you rich. I can take your sick condition and make you a healer. I can take your conflicting environment and still give you peace.
Faithfulness does not depend on perfect conditions. It thrives in imperfect circumstances because faithfulness is a choice. We make a commitment to persevere despite the challenges that are surrounding us. It’s an unwavering belief that even when we cannot see the results of our labor or efforts, we keep showing up because God can work His perfect will in a less-than-perfect context.
The context and conditions are going to change, but you will only benefit from it if you can be faithful in the season that precedes it. So get up and go back to the same job you can’t stand and work it like you love it. Drive that dilapidated car and let it smoke and shake; drive it like you just rolled it off the showroom floor. Get your sick body up out of the bed, shake yourself into some flexibility, and walk even with your ailment, like you are a picture of perfect health. Why? Because trouble doesn’t last. Be faithful in the less-than-perfect because God’s perfect will is in it.
Better at Being Almost There
“We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
Genesis 40:4-8 (NIV)
Do you ever feel like you’re “almost there”? You’re standing on the precipice. You can feel it, you can taste it, you can emote it, you can hear it, you can see it, you can discern it, but you can’t touch it yet. You can’t enjoy it yet.
Every single one of us can relate to the space in life where we’re “almost there.” God’s plan is not moving at the pace you’d like but you have to find some peace and freedom in this space as you look forward. Being “almost there” is being free to embrace the future but also feeling like your life right now has you in a prison.
How do you honor God when you’re in a space called “almost there”? When you finally can say, “I discern that I’m doing what I am supposed to do, and I will not feel restricted in how I use my gifts right now,” you can be better at being “almost there.”
This is what Joseph does. He doesn’t let his gift be as restricted in its flow as he is restricted in his autonomy. His gift is being pulled on in his exchange with the cupbearer and the baker. Joseph easily, swiftly, and spiritually discerns their dreams. Joseph doesn’t let all that’s happening to him make him sit idle. When his gift is being pulled on by others, he becomes fully engaged and decides “I may not be where I want to be, and where I am is certainly not an optimal space. It doesn’t seem to match the vision that God has given to me, but since I am where I am and I can’t do anything about that until God decides to make a transition in my life, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to use my gift.”
Do you let your gift starve because your circumstances are not optimal? The worst thing you can do when you carry big dreams is to be stingy with your gift. God is giving you an opportunity to exercise it and mature it so that you don’t mess it up when He takes you where you’re meant to go.
What Faith Remembers
In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him. Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings.”
Genesis 41:8-9 (NIV)
There is a parallel between faith and patience. Two years earlier, Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him in his freedom. The cupbearer, two years later, repents of having not remembered Joseph. And in between Joseph asking to be remembered and the cupbearer repenting of not having remembered Joseph, Pharaoh has a dream. That dream is going to teach Joseph that while he may have been delayed, he is never forgotten by God.
What could not be rushed is the natural progression that is going to lead to the seven years of unusual plenty followed by the seven years of excruciatingly damaging famine. But it takes two years to unfold, and while waiting, Joseph has to steward his belief in the person, the power, and the promises of his God. The only offering Joseph can give to God, beautifully wrapped in faith, is patience.
Waiting is a part of patience and, whether we like it or not, our faith requires patience. But patience is not just about waiting. If you were to study the word patience in the original Hebrew, it is transliterated not as waiting but as bearing and tolerating.
Patience is an offering you give to God that disciplines your spirituality to tolerate the waiting. Here’s the key: it’s not just the capacity to handle the load. It’s not just the capacity to tolerate the season. It’s the willingness to do it.
You have to love God enough, trust Him enough, believe in Him enough, want to honor Him enough that you’re willing to bear the load and wait on Him because you trust that however He is working, He is working for His will and your good.
You have to decide:
- I’m not going to stop trusting that God will remember me.
- I will not settle for comfortable at the risk of providential.
- I won’t cut short my process.
- I’m not going to accept temporary relief that will then ensure long-term pain.
Instead, I’m willing to bear this load and tolerate this season because I trust God to be unfolding His will for my life according to His sovereign plan for me. And I’m not just bearing this because I have to. I’m bearing this because I want to.
Why? Because you mean that much to God. You mean so much to Him that He gave His Son for your redemption. That’s how much you mean to Him! You have to bear this load, tolerate this season, and handle this weight while you wait—not just because of how much you mean to Him, but because of how much He means to you.
Better at Pushing the Boundaries
The Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
Genesis 39:23 (NIV)
Have you created boundaries in your life where you have concluded there is really no productive space beyond them? No experience worth connecting to? No discoveries beyond those that you have already been connected to? No need for challenge, stretching, growing, learning, or evolving?
Have you perhaps protected boundaries that God is pushing on to extend you beyond them?
Maybe your resistance is because if you occupy space beyond your current boundaries, you are not sure that you can carry that weight. In other words, you’re not sure that you can honor that task, that you can bring healthy emotion to that exchange, or that you can lift that burden or endure that trial or manage and steward that sickness.
This constant theme is so revelatory in Joseph’s life. It’s clear that God had to get Joseph from wearing a coat of many colors to being sold into slavery to dispensing wisdom that guides a nation in famine-stricken times. And to get him there, God keeps pushing out the boundaries of his life, pushing him through these awful experiences, pushing him through these tough emotional embraces, pushing him through these perilous predicaments.
The writer of Genesis can only say this with all he’s been through: The Lord was with him.
Joseph would never have signed up for the project in Egypt if God told him, “Now, in order for us to get you there, Joe, we are going to have to let you be dropped in a pit, sold into slavery, carted off 280 miles away to Egypt, sold to Potiphar, accused of sexual harassment because of Potiphar’s wife, and sent to prison—all because we are trying to get you in position.”
Whenever God is pushing us where we obviously would not volunteer to go, we have to go remembering that “outside our boundaries” is never outside the space of God’s providence, presence, and love. God is with us, which is why He’s forcing the expansion of these boundaries.
Faith grows, vision expands, lessons are learned, beliefs are matured, and theology is deepened where boundaries are pushed.
