IN THE SCHOOL OF ADVERSITY.
-GEN.
39:20-40:15.-OCT. 13.-
“For God was with Joseph, and showed him mercy.”
AS THE FAVORED child
of his beloved wife, Rachel, Joseph was no doubt esteemed by his father as the
special inheritor of the Abrahamic promises. He remembered his own
experiences, and how the divine favor had come to him, making him an heir of
that promise; and doubtless he had, to a greater or less extent, communicated
these hopes and promises to all of his sons, and especially to Joseph, his
favored one. Joseph’s dreams, which so angered his brethren, must have
appealed to him and to his father as rather an intimation on God’s part of his
pre-eminence. It must therefore have caused great disappointment and chagrin
to Joseph, first to find himself in the pit, and his strong cryings and tears
unheard both by his brethren and the Lord. It must have been a source of
bitter disappointment and chagrin when he found himself sold to the Ishmaelites,
to be a slave. But however disappointing these circumstances we can see that
they were profitable experiences, tending to develop in him a proper character,
if rightly accepted-to develop patience, obedience, trust.
There are good lessons in Joseph’s experiences for all who are hoping to
be heirs of the spiritual features of this same Abrahamic covenant,-joint-heirs
with Jesus Christ our Lord. (Gal. 3:29.) The promise is sure, and the
privilege of inheriting is ours; but in order that we may be prepared for that
service and its responsibilities it is needful that we should learn lessons of
humility, patience, faith, endurance. Our Lord, the head of this “Seed of
Abraham,” endured such contradiction of sinners, and trials and testings, and
learned obedience to the Father’s will even unto death,-although he was
perfect, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Much more does it
seem necessary that we who are called to be “members of his body” should pass
through severe testings and trials, to be fitted and prepared for the glory
that shall follow.
Arrived in Egypt, the Lord’s blessing was upon Joseph in a remarkable
manner, in that he was sold as a slave to a wealthy master. We have little
insight into Joseph’s previous history, but apparently he was a remarkable boy
when he entered Potiphar’s house at seventeen years of age. His manliness and
sedateness and faithfulness to duty and quick intelligence were a good
inheritance from his father, who had earnestly desired his birth;-which was,
indeed, in answer to prayer. He evidently inherited considerable of his
father’s faith, benevolence and executive ability, and as a result rose rapidly
in Potiphar’s house to a position of great responsibility, to have charge over
all his master’s affairs. We cannot doubt that the boy’s mind frequently
reverted to his father and brethren, and his dreams, and to the Abrahamic
covenant. Unquestionably he believed in those promises, and doubtless often
wondered how they would be fulfilled,-what would be the leadings of divine
providence in his affairs. His faith in God, his trust in the promises, served
to separate him from the evil influences connected with that sudden transfer of
his life from the pasture fields of Canaan to the busy scenes and luxuries and
pleasures and sins of one of the greatest cities in the world at that time, a
capital of the most renowned nation in that day.
So it is with every life; there is need of an ideal, of a hope, of a good
ambition, to act as a ballast and to keep the life steady in the midst of the
divers winds and currents of the present evil world. The boy or the girl who
has had a proper training by godly parents, especially in respect to the hopes
set before us in the gospel, has much advantage every way over youthful
companions who have no specific object and motive in life, who lack the ballast
of the divine promises, and are driven hither and thither by the changing winds
of time, generally into folly and often into sin, in search of satisfaction,
which all crave. Christian parents who have been derelict of duty toward their
children cannot too quickly correct the fault and help them to settle their
minds upon the only things that can bring them true peace and joy and
satisfaction, and balance, in the storms of life.
But if Joseph thought he had learned all the necessary lessons of
experience, and that his course henceforth would be one of prosperity, he was
mistaken. Divine providence had marked out for him a higher station than that
of chief overseer of the household affairs and business of General Potiphar;
and if his station was to be a higher one, likewise also he must receive
further lessons in a still severer school, in order to be prepared for the
still greater exaltation in due time. Suddenly, while evidently enjoying his
master’s confidence and his mistress’ favor, calamity came upon him, and that
through no fault of his own, but really because of his faithfulness to his
master. He was falsely accused by Potiphar’s spited wife. He was cast into
prison; and this expression, “prison,” meant and still means something entirely
different in Egypt and all eastern countries from what it means in Europe and
America. There prisons were dark, loathsome, terrible places; and prisoners
were frequently horribly mistreated, bound in iron fetters, etc. That this was
Joseph’s treatment, at first, seems evident from a reference to the matter in
Psalm 105:18: “Whose feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in iron.” This
must have been a severe trial to Joseph, a doubly bitter experience by reason
of the hopes he had been entertaining respecting divine favor and future
exaltation.
And so it is with the spiritual heirs of the Abrahamic promises:
sometimes, while in the discharge of duty to the best
of our ability, and when apparently we have the Lord’s blessing and favor upon
us and our affairs in a most marked degree, suddenly trouble may arise,
adversity come, the powers of darkness seem to triumph, and for the moment we
may be apparently culprits in the judgment of our fellow-men, and apparently
forsaken by divine providence. The only consolation in such conditions
is that we have suffered wrongfully-“as deceivers, yet true.” Such experiences, doubtless, are needful to us; for though
we may sing:-
“I would rather walk in the dark with God,
Than go alone in the light,”
yet this might be but an empty boast unless we were put through the trying
experiences which would develop such faith, such a trust, as would hold to the
Lord’s hand, and trust divine providence in the darkest hour. We are to
learn to walk by faith, and not by sight, to trust our Lord where we cannot
trace him.
Joseph’s faith evidently stood the test, and his nobility of character
shone out even under those adverse conditions; and this became a sign to the
master of the prison that the Lord was with Joseph, that he was a peculiarly
exemplary and wise young man-now twenty-seven years old. The warden of the
prison was anxious to have such a faithful servant to assist him in his work.
Indeed, there is always room in this world for efficient men and women, and the
most efficient are those in whom is the spirit of the Lord, and who have “the
wisdom which cometh from above-first pure, then peaceable, easy to be
entreated, full of mercy and good fruits.” (James 3:17.) The prison keeper
doubtless was actuated by selfish motives to favor Joseph and put him in charge
of the prisoners. But no matter for this; it was the operation of divine
providence, nevertheless, and not merely Joseph’s abilities that secured for
him the position. However, we are to note that those whom God specially favors,
and specially uses, must have character. A rough diamond may not look better
than an ordinary pebble, but it has something of firmness and purity about it
that ordinary pebbles do not have, that justifies the cutting and polishing and
ultimate mounting as a gem. So we are to remember that while all our blessings
are of the Lord and through Christ, nevertheless we have something to do in the
matter of “making our calling and election sure”; we must have the love, the
devotion, the zeal for God and for righteousness; and not only must we have
this character, but we must have the submission which will enable us to accept
and profit by the various trials of faith and patience which divine providence
sees proper to permit us to experience for the trimming and polishing of the
jewel.
Not only were Joseph’s experiences as a slave and as a prisoner calculated
to give him a sympathy for those in adversity, but additionally he was learning
lessons of experience and wisdom, educational in their character, which would
prepare him in time to stand before King Pharaoh and to be made his Prime
Minister. Some of these experiences he gained in the prison, as related in
this lesson. The prisoners at that time were not all culprits, but sometimes
the subjects of the king’s displeasure. Two such persons high in Pharaoh’s
household (the “butler” or cup-bearer to the king, being one of the highest
officers in honor and trust, and the baker, the manager of the king’s culinary
department, and general steward of the household) were cast into the same
prison with Joseph because of having in some manner offended the king; and as
Joseph had by this time chief charge of the prisoners he must have come
frequently and into intimate contact with these men, so well versed in the
affairs of the kingdom. And under the circumstances they would undoubtedly be
communicative to Joseph, as we may be sure he was receptive to all the
information obtainable. They must have thought him a very different sort of
prisoner from others of that time when he even noticed so small a matter as
sadness upon their faces, and enquired considerately respecting the same. So
all of the spiritual heirs of the Abrahamic promise, while passing through the
trials and difficulties needful to their preparation and polishing for the
future glory, must learn to be compassionate. “Blessed are the merciful;
they shall obtain mercy.” Their own experiences help to mollify their hearts,
and make them tender-hearted toward all who are in trouble. All of the Lord’s
people should be peculiar in these respects-“full of mercy and good
fruits.”
Joseph’s expression of sympathy soon brought from the prisoners an
explanation of their sadness- they had each dreamed on the previous night, and
each was troubled, thinking that his dream foreboded evil. Joseph was blessed
by the Lord with some intuitive understanding of dreams, and promptly gave
their interpretation-one of the officers would in a short time be released,
while the other would be executed; and having sympathized with the one who
would suffer, and having congratulated the one who would be released, Joseph
made request of the latter that in his coming days of prosperity he would
remember him and his kindness, and if possible secure his release through the
king’s mercy.
Joseph’s two dreams, and now these two dreams of the butler and baker, and
two subsequent dreams by Pharaoh, all give evidence of having been in some
manner divinely inspired, and intended to exercise certain influences and to
bring about certain results. In our accepting these for all that they were, we
are not to be understood as endorsing the thought that every dream is of the
Lord, or is to have a special prophetic or providential fulfilment. Quite to
the contrary, we believe that the majority of dreams are mental fictions, the
result frequently of disordered stomachs and of the brain being partly asleep
and partly awake, producing often unreasonable and absurd images, without
special meaning except as warnings for better care in respect to our eating.
We may even go further than this, and say that we feel sure that there is still
a third kind of dreams,-dreams of a still different origin-neither inspired by
the Lord nor by indigestion, but by evil spirits, for the purpose of misleading
the dreamer. To make sure that our dreams are not the inspiration of evil we
must make sure that we are not the children of the Evil One, but that having
renounced sin and fled for refuge to the hope set before us in the Gospel, we
have, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus our Lord, obtained
adoption into the family of God, and thus obtained relationship to him and
protection from the power of the Evil One, and his delusions as respects our
affairs; and come under the gracious promise that “all things shall work
together for good” to us because we love God and have been called according to
his purpose. In the dreams mentioned in this connection we are to notice that
those of the butler and baker and Pharaoh were not the dreams of God’s people,
but nevertheless were evidently inspired of him, and that the purposes of these
dreams were not specially in the interest of the dreamers, but largely in the
interest of Joseph.
As respects the Lord’s people of to-day, there is much less necessity for
dreams than in olden times. We have the Word of God-God’s testimony bearing
upon every subject needful to us. This message is so complete that the Apostle
could say that by it the man of God might be thoroughly furnished unto every
good word and work. (2 Tim. 3:16,17.) This should not hinder us from
recognizing a dream as from the Lord, provided it would stand the tests of the
written Word-provided the dream was not in any sense in conflict with God’s
revelation in the Scriptures. If the dream be in conflict with the Scriptures
we are to reject the dream. If we find it in harmony with the Scriptures we
are to accept it because of that harmony, and merely allow it to draw our
attention more particularly to the Scriptures with which it accords. But
whether by dreams or walking by faith entirely, and not by sight or dreams in
any particular, the true child of God, the heir of the spiritual promises to
Abraham, is to look for, to expect, to find, to realize, more fully even than
our Golden Text says of Joseph, that “the Lord was with him, and showed him
mercy.” If the Lord be with us and show mercy toward us, no matter how he may
do this, we are to take his favor with grateful hearts, and to show forth the
praises of him who hath called us out of darkness into his marvelous light, and
who eventually will bring us out of the prison-house of death into the glories
of the everlasting Kingdom, to joint-heirship with his Son.