Joseph's Patience
View daily reading plan: Genesis 40; 2 Peter 1:6
For over two years Joseph languished in an Egyptian jail. Condemned unjustly he could have become bitter but Joseph is never heard calling into question God’s care for him. We may feel confined and restrained by factors such as frailty with age, illness or a change in our economic circumstances. This can mean we are no longer able to do the things we once did for the Lord. It is at times like this that we are called upon to have patient endurance.
James reveals in his epistle “that the trying of your faith worketh patience” (Jas 1:3). The experience is not purposeless, though the immediate reason for our adverse situation can be hard to discern. He goes on to counsel “but let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (1:4).
Joseph’s expectations might have been raised when the butler, as he had predicted, was restored to his former position. Before he left the prison, Joseph asked him “think on me when it shall be well with thee” (Gen 40:14). Alas, the butler “forgat him”. In his continued confinement Joseph was made to realise “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man” (Ps 118:8).
Saturday, 1 June, 2024