The Hand of God

Something struck me this morning as I was reading Genesis 45. The sons of Jacob had come to Egypt for famine relief aid and found themselves dealing directly with the Grand Vizier. (If Egypt loved acronyms like most goverments, this was the "Office of GiVE" -- Grand Vizier of Egypt-- the office in charge of giving famine relief.) The brothers were shocked when the second most powerful man in Egypt, revealed himself as Joseph, their long lost brother. Well, he wasn’t really lost; they had sold him as a slave to some Arab traders headed for Egypt and convinced Jacob that Joseph was dead. (Talk about sibling-rivalry). And now that same brother stood before them as the great and might Grand Vizier. That reuninion must have been a bit awkward, don’t you think?

Joseph was thrilled to be reunited with his family, but his brothers were somewhat less than thrilled. In fact, they were “terrified at his presence.” Joseph assured them that vengeance was not his agenda. Joseph’s faith in the workings of God shows itself in the way he responds to the fears of his brothers—

Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. (Genesis 45:5-7)

Joseph could see God’s hand working in his suffering to bring him to his lofty office so that he could save many lives. Joseph believed that "God sent me ahead" to prepare for the salvation of his family (the family that had abandoned him). Now that meant that he lost his family for many years, he suffered as a house slave in a foreign land, he was falsely accused by an evil woman, and he was sent to prison where he languished for many years. But Joseph saw all of that as the "hand of God" in preparing for the preservation of the clan of Jacob. Joseph was not seeking vengeance; he was seeking the hand of God! (Of course, the text does not tell us about the first meeting of the newly appointed Grand Vizier and Potipher’s wife, the lady that had him thrown into prison. I imagine that was an interesting reunion as well!)

Here’s the thought that hit me. If God used Joseph’s travails to prepare him to save Jacob’s family from the famine, why did not God just send a thunder-boomer or two to end the famine in the first place? God gives strength to those who suffer (see Psa 71:20), but would it not be easier for Him to just take away the suffering? Evidently not. That is what we want God to do when we suffer, and I'm sure that Joseph prayed many times for God to end his suffering. I rather doubt that Joseph ever prayed for God make him the Big Cheese over all Egypt. God does have a way of surpising us, but sometimes we have to suffer before we are surprised.

There is something we discover about God through difficulty and struggle that we just can’t learn any other way. That’s why James tells us to “consider it and pure joy” when we suffer trials, because in that suffering that we become “mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4). Joseph’s travails taught him a perspective that showed him the hand of God in his life. That same hand of God is working on our lives in powerful ways. The question is whether or not we will see it and grow because of it.