Recently, for my own personal study, I’ve been digging into the second half of the book of Genesis, and I’m nearly finished with the book. I’ve come to the downs and ups in the life of Joseph, and was struck by a thought.
Joseph is so easy to root for as a person, you might start to think he “deserves” every good thing that could ever come his way. You might also start to think he “doesn’t deserve” any bad that befalls him. There’s a danger in that line of thinking.
It’s true that Joseph was a good person. Moses has exactly zero negative things to say about him. Despite that, he is plotted against by his brothers. Sold to passing traders. Sold again to the house of Potiphar in Egypt, and then, after being lied about and slandered by Potiphar’s wife, tossed into an Egyptian jail cell. Then, while in prison, after meeting the baker and cupbearer of Pharaoh, he used the power of God to interpret their disturbing dreams, and brought comfort…to one of them at least: The cupbearer was promised he would soon leave prison (the baker, alas, was promised to die).
Joseph’s only request to the cupbearer was that he would remember him after he returned to serve in Pharaoh’s court. He only asked for some small amount of “good” to come out of all the profound “bad” he had been forced to endure. Didn’t he “deserve” that? He certainly “didn’t deserve” to rot away in an Egyptian prison, did he? Alas…
Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
(Genesis 40:23)
Despite Joseph proving himself to the cupbearer, the man whose dream came true did indeed forget about him. Once again, Joseph—this good man who never did any wrong to anyone—got the short end of the stick, and was mistreated when he “deserved” to be blessed. And there is the danger. It happens when we start thinking about what we deserve. We start being the judge. We start deciding what should and shouldn’t be done to us, and what should and shouldn’t be done to our enemies. That’s a dangerous game to play, because unlike God, we have no idea what the future holds.
God has a plan, and sometimes, in the meantime, blessings from the holy God are replaced by curses from evil men. So be it. Instead of griping about what we deserve or don’t deserve, we should do something else: Endure. Stay faithful. Remain patient. Trust in the Lord, and in time, the blessing will come.
It is as true for us as it was true for Joseph.
~Matthew