3 Reminders for the Waiting Soul

Look at this timeline from Joseph's life:

17 years of age

• Joseph has two dreams that infer his family would bow down to him - and tells them the dream (you can imagine how that went...)

• In their envy, Joseph's brothers threw him into a pit, then sold him to Midianite merchants, who in turn sold him to a master in Egypt.

• Joseph is lied about by his master's wife and is thrown in prison.

~28 years of age

• While in prison, Joseph interprets dreams for two of Pharaoh's servants, but is forgotten about for a couple years after one of them goes free.

~30 years of age

• Joseph interprets two of Pharaoh's dreams, and is appointed second-in-command in Egypt.

• 7 years of abundance takes place in the land.

~37 years of age

• 7 years of abundance comes to an end, and 7 years of famine begin.

~39 years of age

• Two years after the famine begins, conditions are so desperate that Joseph's own family is driven to seek out help for food.

• Joseph's family comes face-to-face with him as the overseer of Egypt.

If you're doing the math, that's 22 years from the time Joseph has the dreams at age 17 to those dreams coming to fruition. 22 years. At 17 years of age, an hour is a long time to wait. 22 years? Most of us would pass.

Yet it's the activity of the Lord during this time of waiting for Joseph that makes it so powerful for those in seasons of waiting today.

If you're in a season of waiting, here are 3 specific reminders not to be overlooked from Joseph's 22 years of painful patience:

Reminder #1: Your adversity isn't indicative of God's absence

Genesis 39 brings up the image of having to write the same phrase on the chalkboard over and over to ingrain it deeply. The phrase?

"The Lord was with Joseph."

Most striking is the range of circumstances in which we encounter the phrase. It happens in some unlikely places:

1. Taken from his home and sold (Genesis 39:1-2).

2. In the house of an Egyptian master (Genesis 39:2-3).

3. Lied about (Genesis 39:16-21).

4. Thrown in prison (Genesis 39:23).

This looks vastly different from the way we tend to interpret God's presence. We'd be looking for things to work out, to be freed, experience vindication, and receive apologies from all who wronged us. Exactly none of that happened here.

If anything, the externals got worse. But if you pay attention, God was at work on the internals for Joseph and those around him.

Reminder #2: Find purpose in what's right in front of you

Just one of Joseph's seasons of painful patience would have been a lot for anybody. Joseph endured at least three of them. But he didn't just endure them; he enriched them.

• Genesis 39 speaks of the way Joseph went through his time at Potiphar's house, becoming his attendant and being put in charge of everything Potiphar owned.

• Later, as Joseph sat in prison, Genesis 40 tells us that Joseph attended his fellow prisoners, even interpreting their dreams with the assurance that the interpretations came from God.

• By the time we get to Genesis 41, Joseph has moved from prison to palace, placed in charge of all Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. And what did Joseph do? Stored up food beyond measure for Egypt, knowing famine would come.

Completely different settings, exact same situation. God bestows favor upon Joseph, and Joseph uses it to serve others. Regardless of the setting - when life wasn't ideal - Joseph still looked at the situation and operated from the place of God's favor.

The story glimmers with that image that stands out so powerfully from the last night of Jesus' life: washing his disciples' feet, knowing his own standing and fellowship with the Father.

Reminder #3: Keep watch over your heart

Can you imagine the story Joseph could have told himself? He could've traced all those years, all that hardship, and all the pain back to one act by his jealous brothers, repeatedly mulling it over in his head. But that's not the narrative he told himself.

Only at his reunion with his brothers do we get to see the overflow of Joseph's heart:

Perhaps the most striking reminder about the posture of Joseph's heart through all those years was that he learned to look at his circumstances with a perspective on what God was up to, keeping in mind God's good character.

Rather than repeatedly rehearse what his brothers had done to him, he saw it all as contributing to God's purposes.

Most beautiful to me is the humble posture of heart in Joseph all these years later. What if that's the work of God in all this?

If I'd had those dreams at 17, you can bet I'd have proclaimed it from the rooftops that all would bow. But through all the waiting, the Lord was brought front and center, while Joseph found his intended place as God's steward, and operating as such in every situation.

That's how to wait well.

I don't know what you're waiting on, waiting for, or waiting through today. But I do know this: God hasn't run off and left you there. He's working in the waiting.

More next week,

Nathan