And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Genesis 39: 20-21
…some time after this… (40:1)
…After two whole years… (41:1)
… Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. (41:14)
Have you ever had to wait on God for something? Why is it that God doesn’t seem to have a sense of urgency? Recently God has been bringing my attention to the story of Joseph (mostly through my sons movies of Veggie Tale’s Little Joe, and Disney’s Joseph: Prince of Dreams). I had my appendix removed last week, so I spent a week at home recovering, and watched these movies with my boy more times that I can count. The whole time I’m sitting there watching this story of Joseph I’m growing impatient with God over some things that I expect him to do in my life. Then after the umpteenth time of watching Little Joe it dawns on me how little faith I have to wait on God.
As I start looking through Genesis at the story of Joseph it amazes me how much junk he went through. First he got thrown into a pit by his brothers and left for dead, then they came back just to sell him into slavery. Then after serving his master faithfully he gets thrown into prison on a false charge. We see in chapters 40 and 41 of Genesis that he spends over two years in prison before God moves and brings him out of the pit. What’s amazing is that during this whole time Joseph never loses faith that God will deliver him. I spend a couple of weeks or months (NOT in prison) waiting for God to do something and I start to get frustrated with him. Bummer…
Lord, please forgive me for my impatience with you. Thank you for Joseph’s example and for bringing it to my attention. Please help me to have the faith and perseverance that Joseph had to trust in you through all situations.
