Joseph’s Story
This is a beautiful story that starts with unimaginable pain and ends with unimaginable glory.
Let’s picture for a moment Joseph growing up as a little boy, maybe around 8 years old.
His mother Rachel was very, very beautiful, and his father was madly in love with her. What a wonderful world this was… as long as it was just with his dad and mom.
But then there were the other wives… Leah and the concubines Zilpah and Bilhah. Leah was his aunt. All the other “mothers” each had several children of their own, and their tents were filled with delicious sounds of merriment and noisy chatter of company. Being his mother’s only son meant Joseph had no immediate siblings, and he was lonely. But Daddy Jacob more than made up for it, for he so dearly loved Joseph, and made no bones about making it publicly known that Rachel’s boy was special to his heart.
Still, a kid is a kid, and Joseph longed for brotherly company, and so he would in the evenings trot up to Aunt Leah’s tent, or Bilhah’s or Zilpah’s, to join with his brothers in the sport and games. But it was like he brought with him a cloud of desolation. The moment he walked in, the other boys made sure Joseph knew he wasn’t particularly welcome in their home. You see, this was the favorite son, and the boys knew this was in no way fair.
Most of the boys were much older than Joseph, had been around longer, and were witness to the uneasy relationships between Jacob and the women. There were troubled waters. Leah’s boys had heard of how it had been for Mummy to be wedded off to Aunt Rachel’s suitor, and the shame and anguish she bore for years to come with a man who refused to love her… the man they called Father.
And nothing had changed. Rachel was still Jacob’s favorite, and whatever Leah did couldn’t change that. There was a deep resentment in the children’s hearts that could not be explained.
And so here was Joseph, prince of his father’s household, and yet desperately lonely.
Oh why, oh why wouldn’t his mama have more children?
And then, amazingly one day he heard the glorious news! Mama was finally going to have a baby! Yes, he was going to show the other children that he didn’t need them. He didn’t need anybody! He had everything they could ever dream of… and never have.
But little did he expect what was to follow.
Yes, he did have a little brother, but along with that little baby’s coming he lost his whole world that bewildering night. He watched as people lifted his mother’s limp body into the grave his father dug for her by the wayside.
He was moved to Aunt Leah’s tent for the night, the baby too. Too many things were happening too fast. The world was crashing in on him.
In his bewilderment, he cried out into the darkness. “God, where are you. The God of my father. The God of my grandfather. Where are you?” There was no response, but there was an unexplainable Presence. It reminded him of when his mama held him in her arms. And so he was calmed. Only this Presence would calm him, and so he returned to this Presence often… for often was he painfully reminded of his heartbreaking loss. And then there was his dear little brother, the delight of his heart. And of course, there was Daddy Jacob. But there was no joy anymore in Daddy’s eyes. It was like he had lost his very life when he lost Rachel.
And so little Joseph grew, in the home of his father, with his father’s wives and their sons, a lonely young adolescent, older than his years having spent so much time contemplating his condition in solitude and seeking the Presence, that he now recognized to be none other than the Living God, God of his father and his grandfather. The spitefulness from his brothers had not declined in any amount, but probably had much increased over the years because Jacob would now all the more insist that Joseph be beside him always, almost like he feared losing the boy as he lost the boy’s mother. The bitterness from most of his brothers was almost palpable in the air. The isolation was unbearable.
As much as the isolation was unbearable, he experienced the Presence of God that surrounded him with comfort and strength for God alone remained his companion. There were dreams that brought peace and assurance.
And then one night, he dreamed stuff he dared not believe. Was it God saying the tables would one day turn around? Well, he had to make sure his brothers knew! See, God’s on MY side! Serves you right for treating me so bad!
We all know the story of what happened next. God took Joseph through unbearably painful circumstances. But the difficult circumstances of his growing years and the relationship he had built with God in his loneliness and the promises God had given him sustained him during his toughest times… with Potiphar’s wife, in the dungeons…
And everywhere it says God was with him and caused him to prosper… until God finally brought the promises to fulfillment.
Beloved, have you been through difficult circumstances? Have they drawn you toward God or away from him?
It is the extreme magnitude of pain little Joseph went through in his childhood WITH GOD that enabled him to go through the even more horrible experiences of his adult life WITH GOD and finish his race wonderfully. He ended up as Governor of Egypt and was the one person who saved the entire nation of Israel from extinction.
Are we willing to go through painful circumstances WITH GOD knowing it is preparing us for things we cannot yet see?
-Ann George
Image credit: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/381398662178762280