What About Joseph?

This has been a hard post to write.
In fact, I've been struggling with the topic for months.
Maybe longer.

It's hard to face the topic of Joseph.

People honestly love me and try to encourage me

with their thoughts of Joseph,

but they haven't grasped our daily reality.

I know this is the Lord's will.
I accept this by faith.

I long for a little compassion when they remind me of Joseph.

The Innocent Man has to find a way in jail to buy his own clothes,
his own toothpaste, his own shampoo, his own snacks.
He is limited to two shots of insulin a day,
when his doctor had him on a daily regimen of four.
In jail they consider baloney a food,
a food worthy of serving twice a day,
once on white bread, once with gravy.

I think if anyone pictured their innocent loved one in jail,
they would struggle with the story of Joseph, too,
because they would be struggling with having to accept
that this is part of the Lord's plan for their lives.


Not a wedding, not a career, not a public ministry.
Jail.

 I made myself read part of the Scriptures about Joseph.

Shying away from any part of the Lord's Holy Word

is like turning my back on God.

Of course, I was blessed.

As I finally faced that story of Joseph,
I discovered  the first use of the word
deliverance

in the Bible is in the telling of the life of Joseph.

Genesis 45:7

And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth,

and to save your lives by a great

deliverance.

When I walked out of the courtroom

without the Innocent Man  I understood

God doesn't always deliver.

 Deliverance

did not come that day,
despite the tears, prayers and pleadings of many believers
around the United States.

Deliverance
occurs in
God's timing
and
God's way.

If God had delivered Joseph from his brothers out of the pit

and brought him home to his father,

he wouldn't have been able to restore and  save his family.

If God had delivered him after he was sold to the Ishmaelites
he wouldn't have been able to save the nations.

If God had delivered him when he was first jailed
he wouldn't have been able to fulfill God's plan.

 

Each step in Joseph's life of suffering

brought him farther away from the comforts of home and family,

but  into closer fellowship with the Lord.

 

We can easily read about Joseph's sufferings, because we know how it ends.

With the Innocent Man,

we don't know how the story will end.

We don't know how or when

deliverance

will come.

But, we read the story of Joseph for encouragement and hope.

We know who sent Joseph to jail,

even though it may be hard to accept.

Genesis 45:7-8

God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth,

and to save your lives by a great

deliverance.

So now it was not you who sent me here, but God;

We know it was meant for good.

Genesis 50:19-20
 Joseph said to them,
“Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God?
But as for you, you meant evil against me;
but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day,
to save many people alive.

By faith, we know
deliverance
will come.

Until
deliverance
comes,
we must live by faith.