Genesis 39:21
Joseph was never found in a revengeful spirit nor was he ever heard to utter a threat against those who abused him. His distress when his brethren threw him into the pit brought forth his anguished tears and cries, but he uttered no word of hatred or revenge against those wicked men. Again, when the Midianites sold him into slavery in Egypt, never a word of complaint was heard; nor, when his master’s wife falsely accused him and when Potiphar thrust him into prison, did any expression of bitterness escape his lips.
In all this Joseph portrays the character of the One, who in the torments of Calvary, could cry out: “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” That blessed One, whose sufferings far exceeded Joseph’s, could say: “I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave My back to the smiters, and My cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help Me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set My face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed.” Isa. 50:5-7. Reader, what is your estimate of the One who thus displayed His love toward you?
While Joseph was in prison, we read, “The Word of the LORD tried him.” Psa. 105: 19. Certainly the life of that child of God was full of trials and the enmity of those who hated him without a cause. But the secret of his strength and patience through it all was his simple trust in the Lord. “The secret of the LORD is with them that fear Him.” Psa. 25: 14. Like Moses, by faith “he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible.” Heb. 11:27. God had revealed a glorious future to him, and he rested in the assurance that those promises would be fulfilled in their due time. Like the Saviour whom he foreshadowed, humiliation and suffering were to go before glory. Acting in the good of his faith in God he thus accepted his trials without complaint and was rewarded in this dependence on God. While he was a slave in Potiphar’s house “The LORD was with Joseph”; and now he was cast into the dungeon we again read, “the LORD was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” v. 21.
Christian friend, have you too experienced trials along the way? Has your answer been one of bitterness and complaint, or have you, in dependence upon God, proved the encouragement of His Word: “But we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” Rom. 5:3-5. The eye of God is ever on His own and if He allows something of affliction, the believer can still look up joyfully, knowing that the end of the trial will bring blessing. Thus, too, the believer knows in his own experience something of the sufferings of Christ and proves the place of “death with Him” in a Christ-rejecting world. “It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him: If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him.” 2 Tim. 2:11,12.
ML 04/02/1967