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Hello everyone, Shalom in Christ! Welcome again to the devotional program, “Joseph at the Marketplace” by GLOBAL REACHOUT. I am Tom Nohelty.
Day 8: Unrelenting Hardship
Today, the Scripture is taken from: Genesis 40:23-41:1.
Theme verse: “For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” Genesis 40:15 (ESV)
Don’t skip over the opening of Genesis 41:1: “When two full years had passed.” Only a few words, but they pack a punch.
We don’t know how long Joseph had been in prison before Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker showed up, but we can imagine Joseph’s thoughts and emotions after the cupbearer received freedom. After a long time in an Egyptian dungeon, Joseph finally got a break. He had a shot at getting out—if the cupbearer followed through on his promise.
Whenever Joseph heard someone enter the prison, did his hope rise? Did he think, “This is it! I’m going to be released”?
We don’t get full access to Joseph’s thoughts. The closest glimpse we get is when he tells the cupbearer and baker, “I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon” (Genesis 40:15). Joseph doesn’t add anything along the lines of, “But I know God can work all of this for good.” It doesn’t necessarily follow, though, that Joseph felt bitter and resentful.
Still, there had to have been some dark moments. Dark moments are regularly showcased in Scripture.
Take this example from the Psalms:
I am overwhelmed with troubles and my life draws near to death. I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am like one without strength. I am set apart with the dead, like the slain who lie in the grave, whom you remember no more, who are cut off from your care. Psalm 88:3–5
Or the prophet Jeremiah’s lament after the destruction of Jerusalem:
He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead. He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains. Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked. Lamentations 3:6–9
Over and over, people in the Bible talk about how God seems absent. It’s refreshingly honest and true to life. The Bible doesn’t sugarcoat anything. But it gives us deep hope that God is with us through it all.
English apologist and author C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters is a series of messages written by Screwtape, an older and more experienced demon, to his nephew Wormwood on how to tempt humans. The book has some of the most insightful commentary ever on human nature and spiritual growth. In the book, Screwtape writes about the ways that God (The Enemy) uses the dark times in people’s lives:
And that is where the troughs come in. You must have often wondered why the Enemy does not make more use of His power to be sensibly present to human souls in any degree He chooses and at any moment. He is prepared to do a little overriding at the beginning. He will set them off with communications of His presence, which, though faint, seem great to them, with emotional sweetness and easy conquest over temptation. But He never allows this state of affairs to last long. Sooner or later He withdraws, if not in fact, at least from their conscious experience, all those supports and incentives. He leaves the creature to stand up on its own legs—to carry out from the will alone duties which have lost all relish. It is during such trough periods, much more than during the peak periods, that it is growing into the sort of creature He wants it to be. Hence the prayers offered in the state of dryness are those that please Him best … He wants them to learn to walk and therefore must take away His hand; and if only the will to walk is really there, He is pleased even with their stumbles. Do not be deceived, Wormwood. Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending to do our Enemy’s will, looks round upon a universe where every trace of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.3
Joseph probably would have had a lot to say about this part of The Screwtape Letters. And perhaps you do as well. Are you going through one of the troughs that Screwtape describes? If not, you will at some point. We all do.
You can take heart from Joseph’s story. God is at work even when he seems silent.
Let’s Pray:
Lord, when You seem silent in tough times, please teach us to be still and know that You are God. We gaze at the cross and saw the redemption of humanity through the death of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Through the power of resurrection, we will rise above our circumstances. Break and mold us for Your higher purpose. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Time for Reflections.