Verse of the day: Genesis
41:1 Then it came to pass, at the
end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream; and behold, he stood by the
river.
We
saw yesterday that Joseph’s request to Pharaoh’s butler to remember him, once
he was reinstated, was forgotten. We were reminded that no matter what we do to
try and escape our circumstances, it will not come to pass until God is ready
for us to move forward to what He desires to accomplish in us, and through us.
God allowed Joseph to sit in prison for another couple of years before He gave
Pharaoh the dreams regarding the famine that was to come. We read nowhere that
Joseph received a fair trial at any point during his imprisonment, and simply
had to endure being unjustifiably imprisoned without being tried. What he,
Joseph, may not have known was that God was trying, or testing, him. Psalm
105:19 reads, in respect to Joseph’s sufferings, “Until the time that his word
came: the Word of the Lord tried him.” The word “tried” used here is
significant in that God tested Joseph as a Refiner. In other words, God was
turning up the heat in order to purify Joseph, in preparation for the task
ahead. I have explained, in the past, that the refiner turns up the heat while
purifying precious metals, and continues to turn up the heat until the
impurities come to the surface. If he turns up the heat too high, he ruins the
metals. In order to avoid that, the refiner carefully monitors the level of the
heat. When he is done, he pulls the metal and polishes it until he sees his
reflection. This is what God was doing with Joseph in trying his faith and patience.
There will be times in our lives that we, as God’s children, will be allowed to
go through difficult tests where it seems like God is doing nothing. God may
very well be trying our faith and patience. Like the Refiner, He is attentively
monitoring our life, the circumstances, our faith, and our level of patience.
He will continue to turn up the heat until our impurities surface. The result
will be that He will begin to see more and more of Jesus, and less of us (and
so will everyone else). Here now, Joseph is given an opportunity to use his
God-given ability to finally come before Pharaoh, who would have the power,
humanly speaking, to finally set him free and promote him to second in command
of Egypt. The reality of the situation is that it was not by Pharaoh’s power
that Joseph was freed, but it was God who finally tried and freed Joseph using
the power that gave him the ability to translate the butler’s, baker’s, and
Pharaoh’s dreams. What God allows us to experience in the midst of
difficulties, and the good that we do in the midst of it all, will be used by
God to move us toward the future tasks He will enable us to accomplish in His
Name. Again, I encourage you to trust God, and patiently wait on Him to see you
through whatever it is that He is allowing in your life today. It is the
results of this very test that God will use for your good, and His glory, in
the future, should He tarry (Romans 8:28-29).
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