Genesis 45:1-2, “Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, ‘Send everyone away from me!’ So none of them were with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. But he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household soon heard of it.”
Can you imagine Joseph telling you the story of his life and how it was brought to this place of being able to forgive, release the pain and pour out his soul before his brothers? Joseph would probably say something like this:
I was highly favored and deeply loved by my father. He put a robe on me, a coat of many beautiful colors that I wore as I stood in the position of and authority of his love. As a result, my brothers hated me. So much so that when my father sent me to check on them, they stripped me of this coat and threw me in a pit until they could sell me to the Midianites. I went into slavery for a time and was stripped of all my rights.
In slavery, I found I had the great favor of my Father in heaven and rose to the top as I walked in His authority. My authority in my mater’s grew until there was nothing outside of it except for my master’s wife. Then one day as I was falsely accused by my master’s wife, I ended up in prison.
In the darkness of the dungeon, I learned that while darkness had overtaken my world, and chains held my limbs, it could not touch my soul. In those dark places I also learned to navigate by faith and not by my sight. No matter how things looked around me, I knew in my heart that I was the chosen, favored son of my Father.
Eventually I was given the opportunity to interpret the dreams of two men who served the king. My Father spoke to me that one of them would be restored and one would perish. I asked the one who would be restored to remember me when he went back into position and I became so hopeful. For a long-time nothing happened and I began to loose hope of ever walking in the light again.
Then suddenly, I was brought out to interpret a dream. I was faced with the reality of needing to trust to interpret it correctly or I would perish. The pressure was immense but my Father had made a way for me where there seemed to be no way.
He not only made a way for me to gain freedom but put me in position of full authority under the Pharaoh. Not only this, but he brought my family back to me. I can see they have changed and are remorseful over their decision to harm me. And I can now see that my Father had used me to spare their lives and other’s lives during the famine.”
Jacob did not lament that he did not have a normal childhood like other kids. He did not lament his loss of ease and comfort in his life. Rather, he saw a greater purpose to it all. He could now see how the Lord had used it for good for his family and many people (Genesis 50:20). He made a difference.
Making a difference does not often come by an easy and comfortable life. It is often the harder and more difficult decisions we make to trust in trying circumstances and hard work of changing ourselves rather than our circumstances that lead to making a difference in other’s lives. It is in the place of trust and surrender that we bear fruit..
John 15:4-5, “Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing.”
One of the deepest lessons that Joseph perhaps learned through these incredible difficulties in his life, was this place of trusting and standing in the favor of his Father.
Tearing from Joseph his coat made by his father, they were in essence trying to strip from him his belief that he was loved, provided for, protected and had a position of favor within their family.
Yet they couldn’t strip him of his true coat of many colors. In the shades of all that he faced, Joseph stood in the love, protection, provision and inclusion of the love of God.
Joseph learned to glorify God and exercise faith in every situation while not controlling his circumstances or managing outcomes. When he trusted and remained faithful, no matter what he faced, His Father caused him to rise back up and rule in authority over it.
Each situation of tremendous difficulty, while it stole his time to comfortably enjoy life like everyone else, brought him to a deeper place of intimacy with God. The one thing that Joseph did not suffer was in his relationship with His Father. He learned that he could trust his Father not to abandon or leave him and always be with him to help him navigate through anything he faced.
He also learned to navigate in dark places by faith and not by sight. Having been in such difficult situations, if he would have saw them outside the eyes of trust and hope, he probably would have lost his mind or even his desire to go on. But seeing through eyes of faith and trust, he believed in God’s purpose for Him and surrendered. In the end of every difficulty, Joseph ultimately prevailed and rose above it through the power of God.
Joseph not only overcame it, but he rose in authority and prevailed over it. Each difficulty moved him to positions of greater authority. He started out with very little authority. Telling his parents and his brothers his dreams, they laughed at him. Then after being sold into slavery, he eventually rose up into a position of authority in the house of his master. It was this, along with the difficulty he endured that prepared him for his position under the Pharaoh with authority over all of Egypt.
In the end, Joseph did not count the cost with resentment. Rather, he rejoiced with complete forgiveness of his brothers and stood in awe of the favor of His Father and how he could use him to genuinely make such a difference in their lives and the lives of all the others who suffered through the famine.
The key to this for him was surrendering in his suffering and trusting. Rather than become bitter, offended or obstinate, Joseph submitted to the love of his Father and trusted all things would be worked out to bring God glory. He stood in the position of being loved and belief that the Lord’s favor rested upon him.
Where do we stand when we walk through difficulty? Do we quickly give up and lose hope? Do we become resentful and offended? Does it confront our belief that God is good because He is not prospering us in the way we think He should? Or do we embrace it as a work of the Lord to benefit us and others?
Our natural tendency is to avoid pain. We want a way out of our struggles rather than a way through them or even to embrace them as we allow them to transform us. We put our energy and attention on how to escape or minimize our pain rather than how to most glorify God through them.
I think about the man who was forced to carry the cross for Jesus as He was being crucified when it became too heavy for Jesus to bare on His own. The man was able to walk with Jesus down the last moments of His journey at the most difficult time in His life and share in His pain. While it seems on the surface that he was the most unfortunate person around at that time for being called to this task, what an incredible honor and intimate moment to walk with Jesus and carry something for Him in His most traumatic last moments.
Our response to suffering matters. In reflecting on Job, Steve Harrison notes that in his suffering that what mattered to the Lord was not Job’s lack of understanding of the situation, but rather Job’s response to the circumstances he faced. Job was offended and responded with a negative attitude and self-righteousness. [1]
What comes out of us when we go through a trial and to what do we give our attention?
David Wilkerson writes that we can become so focused on our difficulties that we lose more than our song. How we get swallowed up in our difficulties is that our focus turns in on only ourselves, our needs, our families. Rather than lifting up our eyes to other’s suffering, we get caught up in our own difficulty and wanting comfort and escape. [2]
There are no rewards for suffering in itself. It is not our struggles that mature us or draw us to the Lord. Rather, it is our response: glorifying God and exercising faith with an attitude of trust, humility, and willingness to obey God. By pressing in and going through with an attitude of trust and dependence, we, Like Jacob, come out the other side victorious.
Steve Harrison refers to a quote about Mother Teresa, that “It was not the suffering she endured that made her a saint, but the love with which she lived her life through all the suffering.” [3] Just let that sink in a moment. It is not the circumstances we face or the suffering we endure but the way we love people in the midst of it.
Jesus most reflected His love for us when He sacrificed His life for us on the cross. He sacrificed for us not because we were deserving, but because of our need. As He was dying and suffering in pain, He used some of His last breaths to cry out, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” (Luke 23:34).
Following Him, we also sacrifice and suffer because we love. We make choices that are hard and difficult for us because our deep desire to see someone’s life better. We may go without something so that they have what they need.
Like Joseph in this story, sometimes our sacrifice in suffering is to forgive. As we have been forgiven so freely, we forgive others with the same unconditional love. If Joseph had failed to forgive his brothers and thrown them all in jail or ended their lives, the story would have ended much different and tragic. God had such a deep trusting relationship with Joseph that He placed the future of His people in Joseph’s hands.
I was told a story by someone in ministry named Charles about a journey of suffering that led to forgiveness. When Charles was little, living in Africa, his uncle killed his father to take his land. This left his family both fatherless and without resources to barely survive. When he became older, he came back and fully forgave his uncle. Out of this forgiveness, he said his ministry was launched in God’s power and authority.
Suffering can also draw us into deeper relationships and strengthen them. Proverbs 17:17 says that “A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” As we go through something difficult together and help each other, it bonds us and builds trust in the relationship. We learn we can count on others.
At the same time, being part of the world system, we can quickly measure our days by our enjoyment and not by His presence. We want comfortability and circumstances that make us feel good. This has become the American way– the pursuit of happiness. Anything that does not make us happy and comfortable we view as bad for us.
When people are following the ways of the world, experiencing pain and suffering can lead people to come to know the Lord or be drawn back to Him. Like the story of the prodigal son, it can help them to see that the path that they are following is not good and open them up to seeking a better path. It brings us to a place of greater humility where we are open to receive the Lord. It can cause stray ones to return and those who do not know the Lord to seek Him.
The greatest treasure we have is the Lord. And the Lord promises that He will not abandon His people. Our days are best measured by our relationship with God– how we love Him and others with the love that He gives to us. He will see us through every difficulty. (Psalm 94:14).
“I just want to be where you are; There is nothing like Your love; I can’t get enough of Your amazing love; I can’t walk away, I have seen Your face and I can’t walk away” sings in the background.
The issue in pursuing happiness and comfortability is that we use the wrong standard of measure of what is good. Paul says in 2 Cor. 10:12, “[They] make up their own standards to measure themselves by and then they judge themselves by their own standards.”
By the Lord’s standards, suffering is a place of blessing. In Psalm 119:71, the psalmist declares, “It was good for me to be afflicted, that I might learn Your statutes. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees. My suffering was good for me, for it taught me to pay attention to your decrees. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes.”
Joseph is a shadow of Jesus in His willingness to trust, surrender and sacrifice for others in the midst of his suffering. Through His [Jesus’] suffering and sacrifice, we are forgiven of our sins and provided for. We have been undeservingly given the benefit of His suffering. In the same way, Joseph’s brothers who had persecuted him, were undeservingly given the benefit in his suffering and were, along with their families and entire households, provided for.
Joseph is also a shadow of the end time church that rises up in the midst of adversity in power and authority, despite all odds and based upon the promises of God.
Whenever there is a birthing of something big the Lord is doing, there will also be larger birth pains. At the time of Jesus, we see this with the persecution, not only the family faced, but all who were in sight of the promises coming forth. While Mary and Joseph escaped into Egypt with Jesus, all the male children in Bethlehem and all the surrounding area from two and under were slaughtered.
It says in Matthew 2:17-18, “Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet:
‘In Ramah a voice was heard, grieving and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and she would not be comforted, because they are no more.”
The Father used a young betrothed virgin Israelite who was under the covenant to birth Jesus coming to earth. The holy bride under the covenant promises has always been the center of His attention and love. When He comes again, He will birth this forth through His holy Bride, His Ekklesia. And we know that it will come forth with great tribulation.
Steve Harrison writes about the current times relating to getting the Bride ready, “While we may be facing increasing hardships and crisis situations, God is effectively preparing us for His return. He is purifying His Bride and drawing her intimately to Himself. This has been His plan from the beginning, and it will be fulfilled.” [4]
The great tribulation, in the wisdom of the Father, is preparing and purifying the Bride for His Son. Do we embrace this with joy, looking forward to His coming or resist it, minimize it and survive it in fear and hopes it will go away?
Steve Harrison goes on to write, “It is appropriate for the Bride to make herself beautiful for the Bridegroom. Some the adornments are costly and great sacrifice must be made to obtain them. However, the sacrifice reflects the depths of her love.” [5]
In the midst of the tribulation will arise a holy and mature Bride who is trustingly dependent upon the Lord. She will be fully filled and empowered with the Spirit of the Lord, sent into the great harvest with signs and wonders following. It is said by the Prophet Daniel about the end times, that the people of God will stand and do exploits. Like Joseph, they will rise-up in the midst of the tribulation walking in full authority.
Like Mary birthing Jesus under circumstances of difficulty, this holy and mature virgin betrothed Bride of Christ will birth forth the return of Jesus and the coming Kingdom of peace. The Church will not only overcome but prevail and rule over circumstance with full authority. She will come out operating in new realms of glory.
We came into fire and water—and You brought us out to great ease [abundance]. (Psalm 66:12, ALTER)
Lord, “For we continue to look forward to the joyful fulfillment of our hope in the dawning splendor of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus, the Anointed One.” We look forward to all that You are doing in this hour with tremendous expectation. All your ways are good!
1, 3-5. Harrison, Steve. Suffering Love: When Emotional Intimacy Triumphs Over Pain. Ardor Media, Brainerd, MN. 2020.
2. Wilkerson, David. God is Faithful. Chosen Books, Bloomington, MN. World Challenge, Inc. 2012
