A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 12 February 2015. Presented to Riverside Cafe, 27 November 2015.
Read Genesis 37:36,39:1-3
Genesis
39:2, “The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.” This prosperity of Joseph’s
is not wealth. He is a slave. It is not luxury. He is a slave. It is not
freedom to do what he wants, when he wants. He is a slave. Joseph is a teenager
who has been sold into slavery in a foreign country. He is a slave against his
will without specified terms for release. This is the condition he is in when
the Bible records, “The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.”
Even
more: While Joseph is a slave, his master’s wife wants to have an affair.
Joseph spurns her affections. She gets so upset at Joseph’s rejection that she
accuses him of sexual assault and his master throws Joseph into prison. This is
what it looks when it says that the LORD was with Joseph and he prospered.
Joseph
is sitting in prison in a foreign country charged with a crime he didn’t commit
with no specified end to his sentence. How many of us would consider this
prosperity? Remember this the next time someone tells you that when you are a
good Christian you won’t get sick and you will always have all the money and
freedom you want. It is not true. That is NOT what God’s prosperity looks like.
What
God’s prosperity looks like is when God’s work is being done through us. Joseph
prospered with no money, no luxury, no freedom, just sitting in a dungeon in a
foreign country with no hope of parole for a crime he didn’t commit. Genesis
39:23 reiterates in the prison context, “that LORD was with Joseph and gave him
success in whatever he did.” And this success and this prosperity are mentioned
only after he is sold into slavery and when he is in prison for a crime he
didn’t commit.
The
Lord’s blessing Joseph is NOT mentioned in the context of his being released
from slavery and prison. Genesis doesn’t say that Joseph prospered when he was
receiving all the benefits and privileges of being second in command of the
entire Egyptian empire. And it doesn’t tell us that Joseph prospered and the
LORD was with him when he was the favourite son of a well-to-do herdsman receiving
special attention and pampering from his dad. His prosperity is only noted in
the 13 years (almost half his life to this point) that he spends in slavery and
in prison.
This
is significant. God’s prosperity is not financial well-being and a self-indulgent,
easy life. Prosperity is when God’s work is being done. When Joseph is
worshiping, serving, and giving credit to God in the midst of suffering is when
we hear of the LORD blessing Joseph.
I
think this is important for us today: We need to realize that prosperity is
when God’s work is being done through us. When we are in the dungeons of our
lives, when life is its most challenging, when we are completely overwhelmed
and when we know we cannot solve our problems on our own; as we take the focus
off our predicament and our own selfish desires (as legitimate as they maybe)
and instead concentrate on the LORD, fully trusting and worshiping Him, then we
will find that even and especially in these times of trouble we will prosper as
the LORD is with us.
When
have you experienced God’s prosperity in the midst of adversity in your life?
[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Genesis 39:2a:
The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered. Presented to Swift Current
Salvation Army, 10 July 2011. On-line:
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/07/genesis-392a-lord-was-with-joseph-and.html
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