Hope in Hard Times

THE PIT KEEPS GETTING DEEPER

When last we met Joseph, he had been enslaved in the house of Potiphar, a high-ranking Egyptian official. Despite serving faithfully, Joseph was the victim of a smear campaign at the hands of his master’s wife whose efforts at seduction Joseph had rebuffed. And so he wound up in prison.

Joseph’s travail continues. In Genesis Chapter 40, we read how Joseph is given the assignment of tending to the needs of two VIP prisoners. Pharaoh's cupbearer and chief baker have been imprisoned for reasons we’re not given. On the same night, the two experience dreams that seem to leave them in a bewildered state. Joseph, seeing their agitation, offers to interpret the dreams (although he is quick to credit God for the wisdom to do so). The first official, the cup bearer, shares his dream. Joseph tells him it means in 3 days Pharaoh will spring him and restore him to his position. The baker, encouraged by the good report, shares his dream. Only, this one’s not so good. In three days he’s going to be executed. Joseph pleads with the cupbearer to bring up his case before Pharaoh. Three days later, the cupbearer gets restored and the baker gets put to death, just as Joseph had predicted. But the cupbearer forgets to hold up his end of the bargain.

Proverbs 13:12 starts by saying, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Joseph probably experienced this in the moment. It seemed for a moment like the cupbearer was his ticket out, but after days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into months he no doubt concluded that the hope he had placed in the cupbearer was misplaced. Two whole years pass, and nothing happens. I can imagine that Joseph feels dejected, frustrated and confused. It’s hard to hold on to hope when the things you hope for seem like they’re slipping away. Yet despite the temptation, we see that Joseph actually never allows himself to despair.

FAITH THAT WITHSTANDS HARD TIMES

How can we know that Joseph hasn’t given up all hope of getting rescued? At the beginning of the story, Joseph volunteers to interpret dreams for the imprisoned officials. If he believes he’s able to interpret dreams, he must still put stock in the dreams he had of his youth, dreams about ruling over his family, even though his own life experiences since suggested he was going to spend his life as a slave and prisoner, the furthest thing from a leader. When Joseph eventually comes before Pharaoh, he says the two dreams with Pharaoh have the same meaning, and that two dreams with the same meaning mean that God is firmly set on the course of action. If he truly believes that, then he must also believe that the two he had in which his family bowed down to him must also be something God is firmly committed to doing. So the circumstantial evidence here shows us that while Joseph may feel dejected and confused by the things he’s experiencing, he still firmly believes that God is going to deliver him from his troubles.

In 2007, ten years after her death, a collection of Mother Theressa’s private letters were published. The writings provided a glimpse into her inner life that showed a similar struggle. In her youth, she had experienced a powerful sense of God’s calling, but for the rest of her life, she struggled with a profound sense of God’s absence in her life. Was she a hypocrite for trying to serve God when she didn’t have the feelings? I don’t think so. I believe that there are times when God calls us to walk in faith even when we have trouble quelling our doubts. This ‘dark night of the soul’ as Spanish mystic St. John of the Cross termed it, tests our faith. It confronts us with the question of whether we serve God for the emotional high, or whether we serve him because we are devoted to him. Faith in God is not the absence of doubt, but a devotion to God that bears the hard times of doubt while refusing to give up. Joseph’s prison experience shows his faith, even if he started to question whether God was really still with him.

A MORE HUMBLE JOSEPH

Joseph’s ordeal of slavery and imprisonment lasts for thirteen years, and it changes him. As a teenager, God gave him the ability to interpret dreams. He used the insights he gained from those dreams to lord God’s calling of his life over his brothers. As we mentioned two weeks ago, it’s this character defect that I believe necessitated Joseph’s travail. But Joseph’s experience with adversity has humbled him. As he interprets the dreams of the officials he’s careful to give God the credit rather than taking it for himself: “Do not interpretations belong to God?” Joseph asks his fellow prisoners. We see this same humility later in the story when Pharaoh asks Joseph to interpret his dreams. Joseph has finally become the person God requires him to be to take up his calling. With this work done, we read the story of Joseph’s deliverance in Genesis 41:

When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.

He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.

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. Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was impaled.”

So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”

“I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”

Then Pharoah repeats the dreams, and Joseph responds:

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.

“It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.

“And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”

The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”

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.”

A humbled Joseph goes from prison to being the Prime Minister of Egypt in the blink of an eye, because God had been preparing him for this meteoric rise for years. But it’s not just about Joseph’s character, it’s also about God’s glory.

What do I mean? Great Man history sees events in history as happening because of superhuman characters imposing their will on nations. Alexander the Great or Ghengis Khan led armies in fabulous conquest. Caesar Ausustus brought the Pax Romana to the Mediterranean world. Winston Churchill stared down Nazi agression. We seem to attribute the great events in history to powerful people doing powerful things. But throughout scripture we see God select unlikely people to do powerful things. Gideon, the youngest man from the most insignificant family in Israel delivers the nation from the Midianite horde. David, a young and poorly regarded shepherd boy, becomes Israel’s greatest king. Peter, an impulsive and uneducated fisherman, becomes the leader of a movement that changes the world, and Saul of Tarsus, the fierce prosecutor of the nascent church, becomes its preeminent missionary and theologian. God calls unlikely people to do powerful things because the unlikeliness of the person highlights the power of the God at work through them. As Paul says,

God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.

Joseph is a foreigner and an imprisoned slave. Yet he effortlessly does what the wise men of Egypt could not do. He interprets Pharaoh's dream. Pharoah immediately recognizes that this is a gift from God: “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” In working through such an unlikely candidate, God has demonstrated his power to save. God works to glorify himself in what he does. He does this because He loves us. Only he can save us. The more he is seen as the one who saves, the more likely we are to come to him to be saved. Even as God seeks his own glory, it’s because he is love.

BEING GOD’S INSTRUMENTS

While our experiences are, no doubt, very different than Joseph’s in some ways they may have some common features. Most of us aren’t important people. And while you might believe that God uses the truly extraordinary people to shape the world, scripture points out, again and again, how God does his most powerful work through regular people. God can even use you and me.

Maybe the wearying circumstances you’re living through today are God’s way of preparing you to do something amazing. Amazing things aren’t always the most visible things. While they could be, it could be that God wants to show people around you that with God’s power, we can learn to love and forgive those who wrong us. Maybe we can learn to give generously to help those in need even when we’re not wealthy ourselves. Perhaps God wants to show the world that his people don’t need to be ruled by racial prejudice. Or maybe God simply wants to show that people don’t have to live selfishly. God may be transforming you not just to free you from your sin, but to help that person across the street or across the office see that he’s the one who saves. If we hold on to hope that God is using the challenges we face as a way of bringing others to salvation, then it puts our difficulties into a different perspective. We don’t endure hardship as those under God’s judgement, but rather we endure it with Christ to glorify the God who saves us.

Hardship can be a sign of God’s love for us. In the book of Hebrews we read, “God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” Discipline doesn’t mean punishment. Rather think of it as training. If you want to be a world class athlete you must be disciplined in your practice. In the same way, if we are to grow spiritually, we must come under discipline. But God promises that when we allow it to work in us, his discipline will develop righteousness and peace. Sometimes that discipline means that God allows us to suffer consequences of our wrongful actions (not out of vengefulness, but out of love) and sometimes it means that we encounter difficulty because God not in response to sinfulness but as a tool to help us develop. God’s discipline made Joseph able to serve as the salvation of his people. God’s discipline in our lives can help us be a presence that leads others to life. Let’s direct our lives and energies to being people like that.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION

Have I ever been tempted to believe that God had abandoned me? How did I hold on to hope?

Looking back over your life, have you ever seen how hard times have made you into a more Godly person? Have you developed humility, kindness, empathy, peace or other important tools because of the things you’ve endured?

Do you ever struggle with the idea that God couldn’t use someone as unremarkable as you? Does the story of a foreign slave saving his country with God’s help give you any encouragement?