Steadfast

Can you believe the terrible circumstances that Joseph has gone through? I’m not just talking about the short part of his story that we read today but his overall story that we get in the Bible. Joseph was loved by his father Jacob more than any of his other brothers becuase he was born to him in his old age. Out of that love he made Joseph a robe and due to that robe and that favoritism, his other brothers hated him and couldn’t even say a single nice thing to him. Then Joseph began telling them his dreams which upset them even more because they were about Joseph, the youngest, being a ruler over them. The real unfortunate event happens when they throw him into a pit and sell him into slavery. On the bright side his brother Reuben convinced his other brothers to only sell him into slavery, because the original plan was to actually kill him.

Then he enters Potiphar’s house and things go well for a little bit until he catches the eye of Potiphar’s wife and as we hear today he is thrown into prison as a result. If you think about it, if Joseph had gone through with Potiphar’s wife’s proposal, he would have been caught eventually and been either killed or thrown in prison, and as we see, even though he resists her he is still thrown in prison. Which actually is a light sentence because even attempted adultery would have been punishable by death in ancient society. Even though I say it is a light sentence I don’t think that we can claim that anything has been really easy or fair for Joseph when he was with Potiphar and even when he was at home with his brothers. It seems as though Joseph went from one series of unfortunate events to another.

Have you ever felt that way? No matter what you do you find yourself in one bad or negative situation after another? Or you are doing something and nothing seems to be going right for you? It is especially frustrating when you feel like you are trying to do something right or good for yourself or others and still things don’t turn out the way that you want them to be. I remember meeting a woman at a church I was serving and she had just shown up to church one day. I learned that she had gone to church as a child, but as she got older she stopped going, and coming to our church was the first time she had gone to worship in over 50 years. She couldn’t really explain it other than she felt like she needed to come back to worship.

As the weeks and months went by she came to worship with us regularly and was attending multiple Bible studies and other learning opportunities. As Lent approached I put a call out for people to be in short videos to share their faith on a particular topic. She volunteered to do one of the weeks and she did a wonderful job explaining her faith on that particular faith topic. After we finished filming, we kept on chatting about what she said and about her time at the church. She shared with me that she had a lot of good and bad times in her life. Sometimes the bad times seemed longer than the good times, for example when she lost her husband. She, admitted though that she had always, eventually, moved back into a routine of life, and the bad times obviously didn’t last forever.

What she told me next was what has made this conversation so memorable. She said that now that she had been back to worshipping God and study God’s Word, she has been doing even more reflecting on all those periods of her life and something really struck her. Even though she had not known in at that time, even though she could not see it when she was going through all the ups and down in her life, she could now look back and emphatically say that she saw that God was with her and involved in her life. Through all the trials and tribulations, through all the laughter and joy, she realized that God was at work in her life. Being in worship and in Bible study had helped her to look back at her life and recognize that God truly was active in her life even in the span of 50 years that she had not stepped her foot in worship.

Now you might look at the story of Joseph today and say that it is about the unfortunate event that involved him and Potiphar’s wife. While that may take up the majority of what we read today, in terms of actual words on the page, there is a lot more to it. Becuase what actually bookends this story we hear is what this woman told me that day, years ago. In Genesis 39:2-3 and Genesis 21-23 we see what this story is really trying to tell us. We hear over and over again this very important phrase. I hope that it is hard to miss and that we don’t just pass over it. It is up on the screen already and it is also on the cover of your bulletin. The most important thing to see in all of this is that the LORD was with Joseph.

I think it’s just as important to look at what the Bible doesn’t say. Nowhere does it say that the LORD caused any of these bad things to happen to Joseph. God didn’t make his brother’s hate him. God didn’t cause him to be sold into Egypt. God didn’t plant the idea of adultery in Potiphar’s wife so that God might test Joseph. God didn’t send Joseph to prison. God didn’t cause a single one of these evil or terrible things to happen to him. What does it say? It says that in spite of everything that happened to him in his life, God was with him. When his brother’s despised him God was with him. When he was sold into slavery, God was with him, when he was going through the ordeal with Potiphar’s wife, God was with him. When he was in prison, God was with him. In fact, it in Genesis 39:21 it says not just that the LORD was with Joseph but it also says that God remained loyal to him. God was faithful to Joseph even in the worst of moments in his life. The LORD didn’t just promise blessing a favor to him as long as he was free and successful, God remained faithful to Joseph even when he was sitting in prison and there was no one who even really knew or probably cared if he was alive. God was with him.

And God is with you. It doesn’t matter if you are rich or poor, loved or despised by others, a social ladder climber or sitting at home alone, because the same promise that God made to Abraham and passed down to his great grandson Joseph is with each and every one of us. God has chosen us, not the other way around. God has promised to love us and bless us. To be with us in whatever stage or aspect of our life we find ourselves in. It doesn’t matter if you are wearing a coat of many colors or the colors of one who has been put in prison, God has claimed you as God’s own and God is with you and God’s steadfast love will remain with you every single day of your life. And to use the words from Paul’s letter to the Romans 8:31 “31 So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us?” Nothing can stand in the way of God’s love and blessing for you, this day and always. Amen.