Author: Christine Wyrtzen

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.” The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Genesis 41:51-52

If much of your life has been characterized by hardship, then you know how long life can feel. Pain is your ‘normal’ and the thought of living any other way is inconceivable. If your circumstances changed dramatically in the next 24 hours, the possibility that you would ever forget what you have suffered seems unlikely.

I suspect that the word for ‘forget’ is the same word that is used when scripture says that ‘God puts my sins behind his back and forgets them.’ He puts them out of sight and they are no longer held up in front of my face as a reminder of what I’ve done. Memories of my sin take a back seat to the joy of walking in forgiveness.

In light of that ~ To forget former hardship is to have painful memories eclipsed by something infinitely more powerful ~ the kindness and redemption of God. It is impossible to feel the wonder of such exhilaration while, simultaneously, feeling the depth of my former despair. God’s redemption is that powerful. But while I wait for God, the all-consuming sense of distress can overpower me were it not for momentary experiences with God’s grace that fuel my journey.

I’ve seen the fruits of powerful prayer. Some were answered overnight and others within a few months time. Many of them, in fact. But others accompanied me in God’s waiting room for a decade or two. The pain of waiting made God appear uncaring and I feared that life would never be any different. I had to fight for my faith and sound theology had to war against the language derived from my emotions. But when the tide turned, when God came sweeping in with the redemption I sought, it exceeded all that I had asked for. My prayers had been so one-dimensional but His answers were as deep and wide as an ocean. Even now, I cannot plumb the depths of His deliverance.

If you fear that the joy of answered prayer would pale in comparison to the ways affliction is ravaging your soul, expand your hope in God. If God could cause Joseph to ‘forget’ the betrayal of his brothers, to forget what it was like to be sold into slavery, and to forget what it was like to be unjustly accused and imprisoned for a decade, could He not surprise me with unspeakable joy?

A taste of heaven, even today, can wash over me and drown out all sorrow.  Thank you for redemption and restoration that happens this side of the grave.  Amen

And Pharaoh called Joseph’s name Zaphenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt. Genesis 41:45

I can learn a lot from watching the lives of heroes like Joseph and Daniel. Both stood strong in a foreign land. Both paid dearly. But both were eventually honored by heads of state and given new names. They graciously accepted them but managed to keep themselves from embracing a pagan religion. To further honor Joseph, Pharaoh gave him a wife from a region called On. This city was the worship center for the sun god – Ra.

Joseph was surrounded on all sides by people who lived and practiced idolatry. How would he rule this nation without becoming like them? To be respected in authority, wouldn’t he also have to be popular?

Throughout history, God has been generous with instructive protocol when we find ourselves living in alien territory. We are to learn to dwell in the land while cultivating faithfulness to God. These seem mutually exclusive but it is possible to be among a people but not of them. To dwell and still be faithful. Poor leaders, however, feel they must blend in and become like the people they serve. Otherwise, they fear they won’t be respected and certainly won’t be elected again.

I don’t have to move to a foreign country to feel like a foreigner. I can feel that way in my church, at work, and I can also feel peculiar among family. I am God’s daughter before I am anyone else’s friend, employee, daughter, wife, or sister. I am called to be true to Him and do things His way first. If it rubs against the grain of others, I leave the outcome to God. Like Joseph, I may feel out of step and peculiar. It may be permanent but it may also be temporary. When hard times come and others languish for good leadership, people might look to me for the same strength they rejected yesterday.

Trying to fit in is not the way to lead. In a world where true disciples are harder to find and churches are slowly descending into apostasy, it becomes even more critical that I become a leader others can trust even though they may not understand me. The results are up to God. Am I willing to share the stigma Jesus suffered? No one could own Him. His allegiance was heaven bound and his hallmark was faithfulness.

I often fear those who don’t understand me. Help me stand under the pressure. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years. 35 And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it. Genesis 41:34-35

Joseph didn’t just interpret Pharaoh’s two dreams. He offered a way to address the dismal prediction of famine. Joseph was a seer but also one who could administer a righteous plan.

God never gives divine insight just for mere intrigue. He discloses His thoughts to someone who can then be responsible to find out why they were given such information. Are they to pray? Are they to step forward with information? Are they to expose? Are they to encourage? Seeing leads to proactivity.

The gift of divine sight is built on the culmination of thousands of life experiences. Spiritual understanding is not something bred overnight. God shapes His servant through years of practice runs. The gift is sharpened through suffering. If you are a prophet, one who can prayerfully discern the mind and heart of God about a person or situation, that gift has been expensive on a personal level. But know this too ~ the gift of divine eyesight is usually paired with another strong gift.  God revealed the dream so that Joseph could step up with a wise plan.

How might God pair gifts within His child today?

• God reveals danger so that His child can pray.
• God reveals the root of a problem so that truth can be proclaimed and unrighteousness exposed.
• God reveals the broken heart of another so that they may be strengthened by compassionate words and actions.
• God reveals where people perish for lack of knowledge in order for a teacher to arise. 

What has God been showing you about a person or a situation? Perhaps that revelation has been painful, has arrested you in place, and you feel helpless. Assess your giftings and ask God to show you how you are to channel what He has revealed. God, in your story, has prepared you for such a time as this.

Confirm the message and then reveal my action plan, Jesus.  Amen

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. Genesis 41:25

God gave Pharaoh two dreams that meant the same thing. Why did He do that? I suspect so that Pharaoh wouldn’t miss the message.

Has God been trying to speak to you about something? You’re stuck in inertia because you fear you’re reading into things. Perhaps it was a dream and it was so allegorical that you lack the confidence to act upon it. Perhaps it was a word in prayer but you wonder now it if was just your own inner voice. Maybe it was a set of ‘coincidences’ that seemed too incredible not to be divine. All of these scenarios lead us to ask, “Did I really hear God’s voice?” Until we know for sure, we dare not embrace the message as truth and we certainly dare not endeavor on something risky.

What I’ve come to realize is that God is for me, not against me. He wants me to get it even more than I do. If I suspect He is speaking to me (and in a way that is outside my box), I ask Him for confirmation. I confess again that I am small and blind, unable to perceive spiritual things well. I ask Him to have mercy on my spiritual condition. I ask Him to treat me as He treated Moses. He made it His will so plain ~ When the cloud moves, move. When the cloud stops, stop.

I must say that I experience a Father who confirms and confirms. More than just twice; sometimes three and four times. And each in a different way. Just as God gave Pharaoh two dreams, each dream different but bearing the same message, how much more will God lead a child whose heart is bent to covet His voice and respond with obedience!

I pray for each one this morning who is discounting what You’ve spoken to them. They are afraid. Repeat Your message, Lord, and confirm it in a way that is unmistakable to their tentative faith. In Jesus’ name, Amen

Then Joseph said to the cupbearer, “This is its interpretation; the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. Genesis 40:12-13

Have you been shamed? No matter what the context, the experience is gut wrenching. Every part of your being feels it. Your emotions plummet. Your mind runs tapes of the accusations. Your body language turns inward.

Joseph told the cupbearer, who was falsely accused, that Pharaoh would lift up his head in three days. The Hebrew idiom paints a beautiful picture. It is when the one shrunken in shame is restored to his position of power. It’s used other places in scripture that expand its beauty.

God speaks to His people and joyfully commands them to lift their heads. He has gone out to battle on their behalf and has come back victorious. Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Psalm 24:7

King David, betrayed by his son Absalom, on the run with just the clothes on his back, turns to God for vindication. He climbed the Mount of Olives, covered up his head, wept, and said, “You, Lord, are a shield around me, my glory, the One who lifts my head high.” Psalm 3:3 As king, he could have formed an army, or at least a posse, to get back his throne. He abandoned all ideas of conniving, of battling, and of manipulating. He recognized that God was his rescuer.

Who has stripped you of your honor? How long have you been brought low? Have you accepted your fate and given up all hope of restoration? Perhaps you even abandoned prayer.

Or if you’re a fighter, you’ve vowed to take revenge and battle it out. You intend to get back what you’ve lost no matter who has to pay. Turning aside from God as your Redeemer, you’ve taken up your own cause.

David left the battle to God. So did Joseph. They did the thing that is the hardest for any of us when betrayed ~ they waited on God to move. He always will. We just don’t know when. In the meantime, the waiting is never wasted. God draws near, comforts, teaches us what He suffered under the same circumstances, and pours out treasure upon treasure that is only found in the darkness. He is, and will be, the lifter of our heads.

Satan offered you a way out of waiting when he offered you the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship. Thank you for not caving. Everything would have been lost. So teach me to wait! In Jesus’ name, Amen

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Genesis 40:9-10

I know one thing for sure – God communicates far more than I hear. I was told growing up that God only speaks through scripture. Any other claim was heresy. And yet, the same people who policed what constituted a genuine word from God were the first to say that God had spoken to them in the night and called them to Peru as missionaries.

I grew up Baptist and I attend a Southern Baptist Church. However, I am much more progressive in my quest for experiencing God. Over a decade ago, I asked God to open my ears to hear Him in ways I had previously been closed. That began a new chapter for me. While I am a conservative person, careful to sift everything through the grid of scripture, I have now had many dreams. I share them when God nudges.

The cupbearer dreamt about vines, branches, blossoms, and clusters of grapes. Had he been hallucinating? Joseph never suggested that. Dreams are sometimes literal, sometimes allegorical, and when they are from God, they are powerful and life shaping.

Are all dreams from God? No. Satan also gives dreams. Dreams can also be quirky and full of silliness, quickly forgotten in the morning. Not all people dream, either. God speaks differently to each child, according to how He wired them. But for each of you who do dream, I share some thoughts. I keep a journal by my bed. When I wake up with details that are fresh, I get them down on paper. If the dream fades by the time I have the pen in my hand, I know it wasn’t important. If the dream was from the enemy, I know it because it was tormenting. At that point, I ask God to wipe the effects of it from my heart and mind and protect the rest of my night from Satan’s interference. If the dream was from God, it was vivid, unforgettable, instructive, intriguing, and came with an urgency to pray and seek clarification.

Many years ago, there was a period of time when I was in counseling. I was in denial about some of the people in my life and their true nature. God used dreams to show me their character. Night after night they acted out and I began to see that their behavior in my dream was quite consistent (though exaggerated) with how they behaved in real life.

The bottom line is this ~ none of us want to miss God’s voice in our ear. He speaks far more than we know. He will help us discover the hidden meanings behind many of our dreams by guiding our search for wisdom. And most importantly, if a dream is from God, it will be completely consistent with the character and behavior of God from scripture. As soon as a dream deviates, I am quick to let it go or I will be led into deception. The Word of God is always my plumb line for truth.

For each person who has been afraid of Your voice, give them courage. Instruct, comfort, and enlarge their experience of You. In Jesus’ name, Amen

When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” Genesis 40:6-8

Many royal courts employed dream interpreters since, in the near East, dreams were accepted as a way of foretelling the future. Since the royal cupbearer and the baker were in prison and away from the privileges of the court, they had no access to an interpreter when they needed insight about their own dreams. But Joseph was intuitive, read their body language, and asked them why they were downcast. They admitted to their need of an interpreter. Joseph recognized this as a divine appointment. He ascribed the power of his interpretation to God only and invited them to share more.

How many divine appointments have I missed? Would I have lived in my own world if I had been Joseph? Would I have even interacted with my two cellmates or would I have withdrawn and become reclusive? Would I have seen their need as an opportunity for God’s power to be on full display?

God knows who will be in proximity to me on a certain day and He will cause someone’s distress to surface at the very moment our worlds intersect. My part is to live prayerfully so that I recognize this opportunity when it’s standing in front of me.

Who is downcast nearby? Who is sick? Who lives in chronic pain? Who was up all night churning because they lack wisdom about a decision? Who is crying alone? Who is afraid of the future and wants to rehearse the latest headlines about a threatening pandemic? These are all opportunities. God’s kingdom begs to come to the people God is constantly  putting in my path.

Fear keeps me from reaching out. If I haven’t settled matters of faith and trust in God for myself, I won’t have much in the way of encouragement and insight for others. If I live in crippling fear, how will I comfort others with the promises of God! I can’t give away what I don’t possess for myself.

The amazing thing about Joseph is that despite the multiple decades of slavery and imprisonment, he did not take a spiritual vacation. He stayed engaged with his God. His spiritual skills were sharpened by pain, not dulled. This prepared him to trace the fingerprints of Yahweh and resist the temptation to think of any  occurrence in his life as mere fate.

You are sovereign over all my steps, even my mistakes.  The kingdom is here now, right now, in my messes and mountaintops.  Open my eyes to all the possibilities for spreading the Gospel.  Amen

Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. Genesis 40:1-3

God does not redeem sin when the person who committed it is an unbeliever. He is not their Father and they are not in relationship with Him. But when someone sins who is nearby, especially someone whose sin affects me, then I can know that God is active somehow and that the redemptive process is working for my ultimate good.

Joseph is in prison, a place where it would be easy to believe that God is inactive. His privacy is interrupted when he is given two cellmates, both strangers to him. They have sinned against Pharaoh and while Joseph doesn’t have a relationship with Pharoah, nor does he have a relationship with the cupbearer and the baker, their sins will have direct impact on Joseph’s life.

When will I fully grasp that God is involved in everything that has anything to do with me? He is providentially tying all perceived loose ends together. I have met no one by mistake. I have worked for no one by mistake. I have not suffered at the hands of anyone by mistake. I have not been betrayed by mistake. The sins committed by all those in proximity to me are woven into my redemptive storyline.

The sins of the baker and cupbearer will eventually result in Joseph gaining an audience with the Pharaoh. If Joseph had known that their sins would somehow be useful to him, he could never have guessed how. Nor can I predict how the sins of those around me will impact my future. At the very least, they will afford me wisdom as I learn the patterns and progressions of sinful choices.

Here’s what I need to remind myself of today. Yes, I am grieved when I watch other people sin, whether in my family, my church, or within my circle of friends. Because I have no control over them and their sin is hurting others, it can feel hopeless. In this web, however, are God’s hidden gifts. Someone who is sinning nearby me may be used by God to advance me, or to teach me, or to wound me so that I can experience the double fold blessing of God’s healing and redemption. My faith should swell at the announcement of such good news.

My life is in such good hands, Father. In Jesus’ name, Amen

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 39:21

Really? God gives favor in captivity? I thought the ideas of blessing and captivity were mutually exclusive. This is another reminder that what is logical to me is not logical to God. He turns a concept on its end and constantly surprises.

Joseph sat in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. He probably had moments when he felt utterly forsaken by God. And yet, the reality was that his prison was the doorway to leadership. The story is about to take an amazing turn when Joseph shares a cell with men that came from the royal court. Their crimes, and their time in Joseph’s company, will bring Joseph’s name before the Pharaoh.

Has God blessed others in captivity? I was surprised to find direct proof. “And the Lord gave his people favor in the sight of the Egyptians.” Ex.11:3 Many generations after Joseph, the Hebrews will believe that their God has forgotten them. For 400 years, they will doubt His goodness. Yet history will prove that God gave them favor in the midst of slavery.

I’m old enough to have had significant periods of captivity. The one who is confined never feels favored. I can think of 3 reasons: 1.) Pain can obscure my vision of blessing. 2.) My view of my life is limited by time-bound perspective. And, 3.) My expectations of what favor looks like blinds me.

If I’m in a prison today from which I can’t escape, how do I surmount these three challenges? Faith and trust in the character and promises of God. I’ve got to live beyond myself by reviewing God’s legacy of faithfulness in the lives of His children. His reputation does not begin and end with what He is doing in my life. If I did nothing but read the story of Joseph to get to know the heart of God, I would cease to be tormented. Captivity is one of the narrow pathways to the gateway of advancement.

Every time I accused You, You were fashioning something beautiful. I’m sorry and I will remember! In Jesus’ name, Amen