When reading a story I find it's often hard to fully comprehend or understand the emotions in it largely because the time it takes me to read or hear it is so much shorter than the actual time that passed in the story.
I didn't realize til today the the length of time that passed for Joseph after he was sold into slavery. Joseph was sold at 17 years old. At some point after that he was falsely accused of rape and then thrown into prison for at least two years. At 30 years old Joseph becomes the prime minister of Egypt. He got married and had two kids; the seven years of plenty followed by the seven years of famine. So Joseph was around 40 years old - 23 years after this trajectory started for him when he was thrown into a pit - when he could then see God's purpose in his affliction and he was reunited with his family. 23 years! In all those years Joseph never questioned God but was always faithful to him.
Wow, and sometimes I can hardly wait a day or a week!
I didn't realize til today the the length of time that passed for Joseph after he was sold into slavery. Joseph was sold at 17 years old. At some point after that he was falsely accused of rape and then thrown into prison for at least two years. At 30 years old Joseph becomes the prime minister of Egypt. He got married and had two kids; the seven years of plenty followed by the seven years of famine. So Joseph was around 40 years old - 23 years after this trajectory started for him when he was thrown into a pit - when he could then see God's purpose in his affliction and he was reunited with his family. 23 years! In all those years Joseph never questioned God but was always faithful to him.
Wow, and sometimes I can hardly wait a day or a week!
3 comments:
This is convicting. Yet by the same token, I'm thankful for His grace. Just last night a colleague mentioned that in times of strife we will either grow away from or closer to God. I suppose the Joseph's virtue attests to the latter.
Yes, good points -
Note that each time a calamity happened to Joseph it says, "And the Lord was with Joseph." The same is true for us. We suffer all the time and small ways and big ways (car starter stops working to laid off from job). No matter what God is with his children.
Your comment about strife reminds me of someone a friend told me yesterday that I will blog about now...look for it in a couple days :-)
Yes--no matter what. Reminds me of the 23 Psalm.
Looking forward to the coming post!
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