by: Cris Corzine-McCloskey
I will be the first to admit that God’s ways make absolutely no sense to me. In fact, much of my prayer time is spent advising God on how I think He should fix a situation, and yet He insists on doing things His way. And His ways are full of surprises. I was reminded of this point the other day when I was studying the life of Joseph. This story, perhaps more than any other, shows us that we can be smack dab in the middle of God’s will and still feel like everything is going wrong.
The first stand out scripture occurs right after Joseph got sold to Potiphar in Genesis 39. To set the stage we must remember that Joseph had been thrown down a well by his brothers, an then they sold him to slave traders. He arrived in Egypt bound, penniless, and sold on a slave block. I think we would all agree that this was a horrific time in his life. But what does the Bible say? In Genesis 39:2 it says that the “Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man.” Say what?! And if that is not strange enough we continue the saga and discover that Joseph was indeed a successful man in his master’s house, until he got sent to prison on a bum rape charge. And what did God have to say about that? “The Lord was with Joseph and showed him his faithful love” (Genesis 39:21).
As someone who has spent some time on the wrong side of the law, I can promise you it is not a time when a person feels they are being showed any faithful love. And if God, who created the universe, was so fond of Joseph, why didn’t He change Joseph’s circumstances? See, that’s where we get stuck in our thinking. We think that when the circumstances are hard that God can’t be in it, but Joseph’s story teaches us something quite different.
I wish, for Joseph’s sake, I could tell you that God got him out of prison quickly, but that is not what happened. Years went by. He was blessed by God, but he was blessed in a place he did not want to be. I can easily imagine that Joseph’s circumstances were polar opposite of what he prayed for. When he was at the bottom of that well I’m sure he prayed that his brothers hard hearts be softened and they release him. They sold him to slave traders instead. When facing the rape charge I’m sure he prayed for acquittal, but was thrown in to prison. He had every reason to believe that God was against him. Yet the Bible is clear when it states that God was not only with him, but because of God’s presence and love, God considered him blessed. What must have felt like the end of the world to Joseph was actually setting the stage for one of the most miraculous family reunions and reconciliations of all time. God’s ways are strange, but wow, are they ever good. Our part is to trust that if we feel like everything is going against us, we may very well being positioned for the miraculous!
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