Well, let’s take our Bibles, and I want you to go actually first of all to Ecclesiastes 3. We’re looking tonight at the perfect timing of God. And I want to remind you from Ecclesiastes 3 of that fact, and then we’ll back into the text tonight in Genesis 41. Listen to what Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 3:
To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven:
A time to be born,
And a time to die;
A time to plant,
And a time to pluck what is planted;
A time to kill,
And a time to heal;
A time to break down,
And a time to build up;
A time to weep,
And a time to laugh;
A time to mourn,
And a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones,
And a time to gather stones;
A time to embrace,
And a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to gain,
And a time to lose;
A time to keep,
And a time to throw away;
A time to tear,
And a time to sew;
A time to keep silence,
And a time to speak;
A time to love,
And a time to hate;
A time of war,
And a time of peace.
What profit has the worker from that in which he labors? I have seen the God-given task with which the sons of men are to be occupied. He has made everything beautiful in its time.
That’s a verse you might want to go to again and again. And we’re going to see it played out in the life of Joseph.
Let’s go back to the book of Genesis. Remember last week, Joseph interprets the dreams of the butler and the baker. In the case of the butler, things will turn out well for him. He’ll be released. He will be reassigned to Pharaoh’s court, and Joseph has asked him to perhaps, given an opportunity, to put in a good word for Joseph. But, at the end of chapter 40, we read, “Yet the chief butler [upon his release] did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” Look at verse 1 of chapter 41: “Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years . . .” The timeline has moved on. We’re two years on since the butler’s release. And Pharaoh is troubled by a dream. That’s what we have in the early part of chapter 41.
And, I’ll draw upon your knowledge of this passage, where you have these two images which are drawn up. In one of them, you have these fat cows, these skinny cows. The skinny cows gobble up the fat cows, and you have the same with fields of wheat. And the whole intention there is there are going to be years of prosperity, years of poverty. And the years of poverty are going to wipe out the good of the years of prosperity.
And no one can understand this. Pharaoh calls the best brains in Egypt together. There they stand scratching their heads. And then, in verse 9, we read:
Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying: “I remember my faults this day. When Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker, we each had a dream in one night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him, and he interpreted our dreams for us; to each man he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came to pass, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him.”
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.”
So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, “It is not in me;* God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace.”
*Or, if you’ve got an NIV, that will be rendered, “I cannot do it.”
And then, Pharaoh goes on to relay his dreams. Joseph interprets them, talks about how in the years of prosperity they’ve got to prepare for the years of poverty. Joseph realizes you can’t run deficits in the government. And during years of surplus, you’ve got to be wise in your stewardship. And we will look at that in a particular sermon a week or two from now. But having advised Pharaoh of what to do during the years of prosperity in preparation for the years of poverty, here’s what we read in verse 37:
So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?”
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.”
And that’s a staggering statement, okay? I mean, Joseph has just come out of the dungeon, shaved, put on some clothes, and in a matter of hours, he’s now being handed the keys to the kingdom. It’s an astounding passage. You talk about a rags-to-riches story. Here’s one without parallel, apart from Christ. Verse 41:
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. And he had him ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried out before him, “Bow the knee!” So he set him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh also said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.”
And then we read of Joseph marrying and bearing two children. And we read that in verse 46: “Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.” If you scroll down, you’ll read that Joseph names his sons. The firstborn, verse 51, is “Manasseh: ‘For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.’” And then second son is named “Ephraim,” which means “‘For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.’”
In his book Turning Mountains into Molehills, and in the chapter entitled “Avoiding the Accidents of Life,” Warren Wiersbe says this: “The National Safety Council is greatly concerned about the slaughter on the highways. Each year thousands of people are killed, and millions more are maimed and injured because of auto accidents. You’ll be interested to know that studies have revealed two basic causes for most of these serious accidents: excessive speed and failure to yield the right-of-way.” Wiersbe says this in response: “When I read that news item, I thought to myself, ‘Those are the very causes of the human collisions and tragedies of life: people exceed the spiritual speed limit and rush ahead of God’s will, or else they fail to yield the right-of-way to God.’”
How true. In fact, in Psalm 32:9, what are we told? Be not like the horse or the mule. Some people are like a horse. They tend to jump ahead of God’s will and purpose. Others are stubborn, not yielding to God’s good purposes for them. And surely Wiersbe is on to something here, reminding us that you and I will face some trouble in life and tragedy in life if we seek to exceed the spiritual speed limit or if we fail to yield the right-of-way to God’s good purposes in our lives.
I think we’d all agree that exceeding the spiritual speed limit is a constant desire and a constant danger. When you and I get caught up in the slow-moving traffic of life, we’re tempted to dart past God’s will for the present moment.
Isn’t this what Moses did as he took things into his own hands? God hadn’t seen fit yet to liberate the people of God. Moses was a little tired of waiting. He didn’t want any more of this yoke of bondage, and so he took things into his own hands. He darted by the will of God for the present moment. He exceeded the spiritual speed limit, and he failed to yield right-of-way to God. And he winds up on the backside of the desert for 40 years, waiting some more.
Was this not a challenge and a temptation to Abraham when God had promised him a son? And yet there is Abraham and his wife Sarah in the twilight of their life, when she’s past childbearing age, and the promise has not yet been fulfilled. So, rather than wait anymore, what does Abraham do? He exceeds the spiritual speed limit. He fails to yield right-of-way to God’s sovereign purposes in his life, and he takes to himself another wife, Hagar. And she bears the son Ishmael, which brought trouble to the house of Abraham. And Ishmael’s descendants still are a trouble to the seed of Abraham.
You and I need to learn the paramount importance of waiting upon God. We need to learn to trust in the perfect timing of the one who transcends time. That’s the lesson we want to garner and gather from the story of Joseph tonight: God’s perfect timing in time. One of the lessons we need to learn is that we can’t exceed the spiritual speed limit. We can only do what God gives us permission to do. James 4 reminds us that we might plan, we might press, but it’s only if the Lord wills that we will do this and we will do that.
And I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed the unbending law of the road—and that is you cannot get to your destination any faster than the traffic lights will allow you. I don’t know if your experience has been my experience. You’re sitting at a set of traffic lights. You’re in little bit of a hurry. And as they change to green, you morph into Jeff Gordon, and you leave everybody in the dust at the traffic lights, especially Miss Daisy, who’s sitting beside you in her town car. And you belt down the road only to find about a half mile down the lights have turned red. You’re sitting there waiting for everybody to catch up with you, and Miss Daisy arrives with a real Cheshire cat smile on her face. And you learn the lesson that you can’t get further or faster than the traffic lights will allow you.
And it’s the same in life. You and I will only get to where we need to be when we need to be there, as God wills it and as His providence allows it. I don’t know about you, but I suffer from a spiritual lead foot. And I think you do, too. Waiting upon God is not an easy thing to do. But you and I need to realize that speed doesn’t necessarily equate to distance. And we need to trust God’s perfect timing. In fact, on another occasion, Wiersbe says this: “When God is at work He works with calmness and precision, not with haste and carelessness.” And if that is ever exemplified, it’s exemplified in this part of the story of Joseph.
Joseph will help us see tonight that the brake, as well as the accelerator, is just as much a part of God’s purposes and plans for our lives. The stops as much as the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. So, let’s learn tonight to wait more patiently and more calmly. Let’s adjust our watches to the truth that God is always on time. Let’s synchronize our lives to heaven’s clock because I’m sure you find yourself tonight in life’s traffic jam. And you’re getting antsy and agitated, and you want things to move a little quicker than they’re doing. And you’re about to dive and dart in and out of the lanes of God’s good purposes for you. That’s going to cause an accident.
Now, there are three things we’re going to see in the passage we’ve read tonight. One, as you see, first of all, the time of his release. The testimony at his release. And the throne on his release. The time, the testimony, and the throne.
Let’s look at, first of all, the time of his release. We’re told in chapter 41, in verse 1, that after the butler had been released and had duly forgotten Joseph, that it came to pass, at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh had a dream. No one could interpret it. The penny drops, and the butler remembers his fault. He remembers that he had let Joseph down. Joseph had shown kindness to the butler, but the butler has shown no kindness to him. This is where we’re at in the story. We’re told of the time of Joseph’s release. It’s two years after the butler’s seeming forgetfulness and God’s seeming idleness that Joseph is released. We want to think about that for a moment. In fact, literally, the Hebrew is “two years of days.” This time didn’t go by fast. It was one hour upon another hour, one day upon another day, and one month upon another month: 17,520 more hours of waiting on top of the 11 years that are already gone by; 730 more days; 104 more weeks; 24 more months.
Let me help you get the math. If you go back to Genesis 37:2, you’re going to realize that Joseph is sold into slavery when he’s 17. We just read in Genesis 41:46 that he was 30 when he was released. So, between his being sold into slavery and his being exalted to a place of prominence in Egypt: 13 years. We’re told here that two years back, the butler had been released and forgotten Joseph. So he had been waiting 11 years? It’s long enough for the promise of God to be fulfilled, for the dream to materialize. But it’s about to materialize. What do we read that Pharaoh says of those who come before Joseph? Bow the knee! The promise is about to be fulfilled. After 11 years and two more years, it will be fulfilled. Joseph had to learn to wait.
But the time of his release is interesting. Two years earlier, I think Joseph would’ve thought to himself, you know what? Maybe things are looking up. He hangs his hope on the butler perhaps being kind to him as he was kind to the butler and putting in a good word in Pharaoh’s ear. Days went by and months went by, and maybe in those early days and early weeks and early months, Joseph thought to himself, “You know what? It’s government bureaucracy. There’s a lot of red tape to cut through.” Or, “You know what? Maybe Pharaoh is out on an international mission, and the butler hasn’t yet had any time to really deal with him.” Or, even if he’s home, the butler’s waiting for that choice moment, the best time to bring Joseph’s case to Pharaoh’s attention. But as days went by and weeks went by and months went by, that hope began to fizzle. And it was two more full years. The Hebrew is “two years of days.”
But after two full years, the gears of God’s plan began to mesh, and the events began to move forward at quite a clip. Before he knew it, Joseph stood amidst a thronged, breathless court, surrounded by the evil eyes of the magicians, before Pharaoh himself. God had opened a door, and God had released him at a most propitious time. In fact, I want to just draw two thoughts as we look at the time of his release, as we look at the timing of it: it was slow in coming, and it was sudden in happening. And I think you and I want to spend a little bit of time thinking about that as we find ourselves standing in the line, waiting for something to happen, or we find ourselves in the traffic jams of life.
It was slow in coming: “Then it came to pass, at the end of two full years . . .” Two years on top of 11 years. Thirteen years between the dream being given and the fulfillment of that dream being granted. Thirteen years is a long time, isn’t it, to wait for something. It was slow in coming. Joseph had to learn patience. He wasn’t the first child of God to have to learn that. It was a while after David was anointed by Samuel that he actually became king. Anna and Simeon had to wait a whole lifetime to see with their eyes the salvation of the Lord in the coming of the promised Messiah, in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ.
There’s a long line of saints who’ve had to wait on God’s good purposes ripening in their lives. It was slow in coming, but when it came, and when the release happened, it happened perfectly. The time was just right. In fact, if you think about that, say the butler had done his due diligence and had been able to unlock the prison door and get Joseph out. The injustice would’ve been recognized, and the wrong would’ve been righted two years early. What do you think would’ve happened? I think Joseph would’ve scampered home. But that’s not what God had planned. That’s not what God had purposed. And here’s what you want to think about. Two years earlier would’ve been too early. Two years earlier, too early. It was at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream. And that triggered the chain reaction of events that would lead to Joseph’s elevation to power and the fulfillment ultimately of the dream of his brothers and his family coming to bow down before him.
And, in this time, God is acting as a production manager, all right? Joseph had been given the script. He knew his lines, but the stage hadn’t been set. The cue hadn’t been given. God was acting as a production manager. And although the time of release is slow in coming, when it comes, it comes at the right time, the ripe time. And you and I want to nail that down tonight. God makes everything beautiful in its time. There’s a time for everything, and God has His finger on everything. When the circumstances are ripe, and when the moment is right, God will indeed turn the red light to a green light. And I think that’s a tremendous encouragement. God is never in a hurry, but God is never late. God is precise. Have you ever thought about the punctuality of God? That’s a challenge for people that come late to church. They’re coming to worship a God who is actually punctual Himself.
I came across this in an interesting sermon. I love to quarry old books. And I have a book in my library written by a Scottish apostolic pastor by the name of Ian Macpherson. And in this book, there’s a compilation of sermons. One is entitled “The Punctuality of God.” It’s an intriguing sermon. And here’s what he says: “It is the supreme paradox of history that the eternal God is always on time. He who stands beyond the ordered sequence of temporal events pays the strictest attention to the march of the moments and plans. His interventions and terrestrial affairs are what look to us like interventions, for God is within His world as well as above it, imminent as well as transcendent, with the greatest possible care and precision.” Is that not one of the great paradoxes? The eternal God is always on time? The timeless one is always timely?
And it came to pass at the end of two full years on top of 11 years, but it’s all precisely planned by a God who acts precisely and punctually. In fact, Ian Macpherson bases his thought on a number of texts. What do you read in Romans 5:6? “In due time Christ died for the ungodly.” You read in Acts 2:1–4 that “when the Day of Pentecost had”—what?—“fully come,” the Spirit of God comes—just exactly at that right moment, during that season of Pentecost, which was so appropriate for the descent and coming of the Spirit of God Himself. But one of the best verses is the other verse he uses. In Galatians 4:4, what do we read? “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,” that He might redeem us from out under the curse of the law. In “the fullness of time”—really, when the time was ripe, when the time was right—God sent His son.
Let me paint in a little bit of the background. See, when Jesus came, He came at a most propitious time. What do we call the years between the end of Malachi and the beginning of Matthew? We call those the 400 silent years because prophecy had ceased. God wasn’t giving any more revelation. Those were silent years. But don’t think that God was sitting still, although He was indeed sitting silent. God was very active. And if you paint in the background, it was during those years you have the Jewish dispersion—when many Jews went to some of the great commercial centers of the ancient world. And they established synagogues, and they practiced their faith amidst paganism.
And we know that when Jesus Christ comes and the great work of redemption is complete at the fullness of time—at the end of the age, according to Hebrews—He comes and makes Himself a sacrifice for sin. He then says to His disciples, what? Go into all the world and preach this gospel. And one of the first ports of call for an apostolic evangelist was what? The synagogues in the great major cities. They became springboards and fishing pools for the early church.
I’ll tell you a second element. During that time, you have the spread of the universality of the Greek language, which made it easy for the heralders of the gospel to go to different places and different cultures but speak a common language. They were able to travel because during the time of the Roman Empire, the Pax Romana was implemented. There was greater lines of communication. The shipping lanes were open. There were roads that were built. It wasn’t all bad under the Roman Empire. There were a lot of good things happening in terms of commerce and communication. And those roads and the order of the Roman Empire provided a certain protection and a certain accessibility for those early evangelists.
Plus, during that time, you have the evident decay of the pagan religions, which created a spiritual vacuum. And we find Paul stepping into that vacuum in Acts 17, when he said, “Can I tell you about the God you haven’t yet discovered? The one you call the unknown God? He’ll fill the emptiness.”
When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son. The eternal God is always on time, and you and I need to grasp that reality. In fact, that’s so much so that we can look at Scripture. We can look at creation. God’s providence is like God’s nature. Among the stars, there are no haphazard moments. I mean, every so often we’re told on the evening news, what? If you go out tomorrow at five o’clock—or whatever the time is that they say—they’ll say you’ll be able to see what? An eclipse. How do they calculate that? Because the God who ordered nature is a God of precision. We not only see it in history; we see it in creation. Men calculate transits, eclipses, conjunctions a thousand years ahead and know to the smallest fraction of a second that the calculations will be verified. The sun never rises late. We’re told, aren’t we, the night before? Here’s the time you’ll have sunrise and the time for sunset. God’s clock is never a second slow.
You see it in the Bible. You see it in nature. We could go on illustrating it even from church history. A few years ago, I had the privilege of preaching in Germany. And then one day we went to Wittenberg and actually stood where we believe that Luther stood and declared his protestation against the Catholic Church and its doctrine. Given no opportunity to debate, Luther said, well then, if you give me no option, here I stand; my conscience bears witness, and I’m held captive by the word of God. And that launched the Protestant Reformation, which changed the face of Europe.
But in the one day I left Wittenberg—and I can’t remember if it was an hour and a half or something in a car—we headed to a town called Guttenberg. And around the time Luther was doing this, printing was coming to prominence. You think that was a coincidence? I think it was a providence that when these men wanted to write and show the accesses and errors of the church of their day, they could put it into pamphlets. It was printed and given out in the thousands. Again, around that time, you’re going to have Tyndale putting God’s Word into the language of the people. It gets out. That’s a coincidence, isn’t it? No, that’s a providence.
When the Methodist Revival came to England, many of the historians believe it came just at that time when England may have imploded into something akin to the French Revolution and social disorder. God’s timing is something that you and I need to get our heads around and our hearts around. It was slow in coming, but when it came, it came precisely.
It was not only slow in coming. It was sudden in happening. Okay? For 13 years, Joseph is left hanging on to a hope. And then we read in verse 14 that “Pharaoh sent and called Joseph.” And what do we read? “And they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; and he shaved, changed his clothing, and came to Pharaoh.” And I think that’s striking. It was slow in coming, but it was sudden in happening. Joseph went from the depths of the dungeon to the steps of the throne in one leap. In a moment in time, while Joseph was still buttoning his shirt, he goes from the basement to the penthouse. And we see God’s ability to rearrange our worlds very quickly.
Where there is no way, God will find a way. His ways are perfect, and His timing is perfect. And I’m not going to make a great deal of this, other than you and I need to remind ourselves when we’re waiting, when God has locked us in the waiting room and the clock is ticking and the noise of it bothers us because we want something to happen—and as time goes by, it seems it’s getting worse. Okay? It’s not getting better. It’s getting worse. And the hole is getting deeper, and the problem’s getting bigger. And you go, “How in the world am I going to get out of this?” That’s when you need to remember it was slow in coming, but when it happened, it happened suddenly, quickly, in a flash, because God is not at a loss to solve our problems or to create a set of circumstances that move things exponentially forward.
And that’s when you and I need to remind ourselves that you need to wait and not be tempted to manipulate or to help God out or to make things easy for the Almighty. God specializes in the impossible. Nothing stumps Him. Nothing defeats Him. And when He’s ready to move, you’ll know it. He doesn’t need our help.
We could go back into the story of Elijah, right? In 1 Kings 18:33–34, remember that task with the prophets of Baal, the Phoenician god who’s meant to be the god of fire? Elijah says, “Okay, let’s have a contest. Let’s build an altar. Let’s put a few stakes on the altar, and we’ll see which God answers by fire.” And they dance around. They cut themselves. You have their incantations. And Elijah pokes fun of them. And the day goes on, and nothing happens. And then Elijah comes on the scene. He says, “You’ve had your go. Get out of the way.” And then what does he do? Does he pray for God to send the fire down? Not until he’s done what? He soaked the altar in water. And then the fire comes down from heaven and licks it all up. What, as if Elijah made things more difficult for God, because nothing’s too hard for the Lord.
When things get worse or more difficult, or they seem harder, you and I need to remind ourselves that it’s still all within God’s ability.
Phillips Brooks, the famous New England preacher, pacing up and down his study one day like a tiger in a cage, was asked by a friend what was wrong—to which he replied, “I’m in a hurry, but God’s not.” It’s true, isn’t it? And I thought about that story, as we kind of summarize this thought: God is never in a hurry because God doesn’t need to be. God is never in a hurry because God doesn’t need to be.
And so, we see the time of his release: slow in coming but sudden in happening. And you and I need to lay hold of that. We read in verse 8, “Now it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt.” That was the morning that was going to change everything for Joseph.
And you know what? As the sun rises, so must our hope every morning that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we can ask or think. He’s never in a hurry. He doesn’t need to be, and we need to wait upon Him with hope and confidence.
We see that not only with the time of his release; I want you to see the testimony at his release. And these last two thoughts are much shorter, but look at the testimony at his release. We’re going to look at the dreams in a week or two. But Pharaoh shares the dreams with his magicians and wise men; they can’t interpret them. And then the butler remembers, verse 9, his fault this day, and he remembers a young Hebrew who interpreted his dream. And he says, “You know, Pharaoh, he might be able to do that for you.” And we find Joseph released.
We’ve looked at its time. But look at the testimony that accompanies the release in verse 15: “And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream, to interpret it.’
“So Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying”—here’s his testimony—“‘It is not in me.’” I actually like the way the NIV puts it: “I cannot do it.” Okay? That’s the secret to Joseph’s resilience in the face of trouble and at the feet of despair. In his inadequacy, he rested in God’s all-sufficiency. In the midst of his limitations, he rested in God’s boundless horizons. Here was a young man focused on God. Here was a young man whose faith was unequivocally placed in God.
This exclamation is striking. “It is not in me.” Its position in the sentence within the Hebrew syntax makes it emphatic. This is the point that you don’t want to miss. Joseph comes out of the prison disavowing any trust in himself, disavowing his own ability to interpret these dreams. God is the sole revealer. God is the sole benefactor. The answers don’t lie in his natural abilities. Now, what’s striking about this is, as one writer says, “He goes from the prison to the throne of the king, and this is his first word.” Remember, he’s been in servitude and slavery for 13 years. He’s asked the butler to put in a good word for him. And when he is released, what’s striking is he doesn’t talk about himself. He talks about God. “He goes from the prison to the throne of the king, and this is his first word. This speech is as pious as it is frank. He who is aware of God, is humble and fearless at the same time. Even a king is nothing compared to God.”
I mean, he says this in the presence of a man who’s considered a god, in a country that has 2,000 deities. So you want to take note of the testimony at his release. And this gives us a perspective into Joseph’s heart and the condition of his soul. He doesn’t emerge bitter. He doesn’t emerge in the grip of unbelief. He doesn’t emerge angry or withdrawn. “Hey, Pharaoh, it’s not in me. I can’t do it. But God can.” He’s still worshiping God, still glorifying God. What faith, what boldness. It’s hardly the language of a soul crushed by despair or dying. And you know what? Kudos to Joseph. And it’s striking. Thirteen years he has waited—all those years. Anger could have built up. Bitterness could have taken root. Disbelief could have imprisoned him.
But, as we saw last week, he walked, conscious of God’s presence. He worked, conscious of God’s providence. He waited, conscious of God’s promise. And when he emerges, he’s got a testimony to give. And I think that’s challenging, isn’t it? Really, doesn’t he exemplify Isaiah 26:3–4? “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” That’s the challenge of Joseph. In the midst of the whirl and the swirl of life’s circumstances, when things are turned upside down and inside out, can you maintain your spiritual equilibrium? Will you keep your focus upon the throne and the unshakable providences of God and His good purposes? “Faith,” said Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “is the refusal to panic.”
And I think what we take from this is that wherever Joseph was, his mind and heart lived focused on the Lord. He lived in two places at the one time. While he was in Egypt, he was still in mind and heart a Hebrew, focused on the Lord. Don’t we read that in Revelation 1:9–10 as it relates to John, where he says, I was in the Spirit, and I was on the Isle of Patmos. Don’t we read that almost in the introductions to a number of the epistles, where we read: to the saints at Philippi, in Christ Jesus; to the saints at Colossi, in Christ Jesus. They’re at Colossi, but they’re in Christ. They’re on Patmos, but they’re in the Spirit. And Joseph’s in jail. He’s in prison. He’s in Egypt. But he’s in God.
He’s focused on God. He’s walking with God. He’s worshiping God. He’s fellowshipping with God. He’s talking to God. He’s praying to God. He’s hearing from God. This was a life that was God-centered and God-focused, and you and I have got to work at that. Wherever we are, we’re in Christ. And we must remain in Christ in our mind and in our hearts and in our focus. We’re accepted in Christ. We’re forgiven in Christ. We’re blessed in Christ. We’re seated in the heavenly places in Christ. We have been given the Spirit of Christ, and all the promises of God are “yes and amen” in Christ. And as you live there, it doesn’t matter what else is happening elsewhere. Now that’s where you are. Wherever you are, you’ll be able to survive.
That’s his testimony. And that’s a challenge—to stay focused there. Let me read this. This is worth listening to. This is Max Lucado. In his book In the Eye of the Storm, he says this:
There is a window in your heart through which you can see God. Once upon a time that window was clear. Your view of God was crisp. You could see God as vividly as you could see a gentle valley or hillside. The glass was clean, the pane unbroken.
You knew God. You knew how he worked. You knew what he wanted you to do. No surprises. Nothing unexpected. You knew that God had a will, and you continually discovered what it was.
Then, suddenly, the window cracked. A pebble broke the window. A pebble of pain.
Perhaps the stone struck when you were a child and a parent left home—forever. Maybe the rock hit in adolescence when your heart was broken. Maybe you made it into adulthood before the window was cracked. But then the pebble came.
. . . .
Whatever the pebble’s form, the result was the same—a shattered window. The pebble missiled into the pane and shattered it. The crash echoed down the halls of your heart. Cracks shot out from the point of impact, creating a spider web of fragmenting pieces.
And suddenly God was not so easy to see. The view that had been so crisp had changed. You turned to see God, and his figure was distorted. It was hard to see him through the pain. It was hard to see him through the fragments of hurt.
You were puzzled. God wouldn’t allow something like this to happen, would he? Tragedy and travesty weren’t on the agenda of the One you had seen, were they? Had you been fooled? Had you been blind?
The moment the pebble struck, the glass became a reference point for you. From then on, there was life before the pain and life after the pain. Before your pain, the view was clear; God seemed so near. After your pain, well, he was harder to see. He seemed a bit distant. . . . Your pain distorted the view—not eclipsed it, but distorted it.
Maybe these words don’t describe your situation. There are some people who never have to redefine or refocus their view of God. Most of us do.
It’s a great illustration. I think we can all identify with it. Probably out in the car lot tonight in the church is a car with a cracked windshield, where the stone has come up and left its dent. How easy is it for your eyes as soon as you get into the car, even if you have Windexed that thing, all of a sudden you go to the crack?
I’ve only bought one brand new car in my life. When we moved to Toledo, we needed a car. And under penalty of death, I was told I had to buy American. So, I went and bought a Ford Taurus. And at the time Ford was offering a five-year plan with no interest, so it was a good deal. And we only had it about two months. We’re sitting outside Sam’s Club in Sylvania, Ohio. My mum and dad were in from Ireland. We’d gone and we’d come out. And when we came out, there was a shopping cart up against it, and there was a dent in the left fender. It didn’t scrape the paint, but it created a dent. It wasn’t that big, maybe the size of a quarter, but it was amazing how when I would come out in the morning or get out of the car to get back into the car, I would just see that one dent. That little dent. It really bothered me. There was a time before, and there was a time after.
And you get the picture here, and many of us have experienced things. And the challenge of Joseph is he emerges intact. I mean, this guy had a cracked windscreen, didn’t he? And yet when he emerges, he’s still focused on God. May God give us that grace to stay focused on Him. Congregational worship will help us do that. Sanctifying friendships will help us do that. Personal devotions will do that. Reading a good biography will do that. Do what it takes. When this guy comes out, the first thing he says is, “It’s not about me. It’s about Him.” Striking, Isn’t it? Really striking.
What about the last thought? This is a great thought. What about the throne on his release? I mean, this is powerful. He tells Pharaoh what needs to be done. Pharaoh buys into this hook, line, and sinker by verse 37: “So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. . . . ‘Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?’” We’re going to do a whole lesson some night on Joseph the leader. I mean, he’s a leader par excellence. Pharaoh recognizes that. Can we find such a one as this? We’ll look at his leadership qualities. But the basic ideas here: Pharaoh’s taken by him. He realizes this is Egypt’s savior. He’s a God-send.
I mean, again, God’s at work here. I mean, this man thinks he’s a deity himself, and the Hebrew boy has just been telling him about the one true God, unafraid and bold. And we read in verse 41, it’s astounding. In fact, verse 40: I’m going to put you “over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” In verse 42, he took a signet ring. He basically gave him the platinum card. The signet ring was the authority, the seal that went down into the wax on any of the letters or any of the government policies that had the stamp of approval. This guy was given his own entourage. He had his own Secret Service agents. He was in the second limousine in the presidential parade. I mean, this is just unbelievable.
The throne on his release. What a turn up for the books. No Hollywood script would match this story. This is a Cinderella promotion, all purposed and provided for in the providence of God. And we see it here in that Joseph names his sons Manasseh and Ephraim: “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house. . . . God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Now that’s quite a statement, right? Thirteen years of hurt and heartache, and it’s obliterated in one day. Or, not one day . . . Well, one day and then the immediate days that lead to his marriage and the birth of these children. But within a short period of time, Joseph is focused on God’s goodness. The change has been so swift and so sweeping that it has pushed the past 13 years into the shadows.
The present is so sweet that there remains no bitterness from his past afflictions. I’ve been able to forget. It’s a great thing if you can forget, get past the crack on the windscreen, and allow God to work all things together and bring fruitfulness in the midst of affliction. The buoyancy of this, the boldness of this, and there’s a very simple point that comes out of it. We can trust our future to God, can’t you? Is that not what we learn here? Trust your future to God. While you wait in the dimly lit waiting room, waiting for the door to open, waiting for the log jam to break, waiting for things to line up and move ahead—you can trust God with your future. It’s worth the wait.
I was trained under Pastor McLaughlin. You heard me introducing his son on Sunday, Johnny. Pastor McLaughlin did a series on Joseph, and if he said it one time, he said it 100 times. We remembered nothing from that series but this little statement. In fact, we keep him going 10 years later. We’ll always go, “Freddie, waiting time is never wasted time.” Because that’s what he said again and again through the series. Waiting time is never wasted time. Not in the hands of a God who is precisely moving things according to His purposes and plans. James 4:10, 1 Peter 5:6 have a similar thought. Humble yourself, and He will exalt you in what? Due season.
Now, you can try and move things ahead yourself. You can take things into your own hands, but that’s never as good as leaving them in God’s hands and letting Him move things forward at a clip. It may be slow in coming, but it’ll be sudden in happening. You stay focused on Him, and you’ll be surprised. Remember what lies on the other side of the door of the waiting room. Last quote. Spurgeon said, “Remember, the longer the blessing is in coming, the richer it will be when it arrives. That which is gained speedily by a single prayer is sometimes only a second-rate blessing; but that which is gained after many a desperate tug, and many an awful struggle, is a full-weighted and precious blessing. . . . The blessing that costs us the most prayer will be worth the most.” And what’s true of prayer is true of anything. If you’re willing to wait on God and willing to trust your future to Him, God will provide more abundantly than you ever could or ever would.
In fact, you’ve heard me tell the story of Spurgeon’s own conversion, where he grew up in a Congregationalist home. His father had some relatives that were involved in that denomination, and his mother had prayed for his salvation. And although he was saved in a primitive Methodist church, Spurgeon quickly became convinced of Baptist patterns and Baptist principles. And he told his mother that he had not only come to Christ but had become a Baptist. And she said, “Well, I prayed for your conversion, but I never prayed for you to become a Baptist.” To which Spurgeon replied, “But God has answered your prayer exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think.”
If you’re willing to wait on God, He’ll not only answer your prayer. He’ll do it exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think. Luther said, “We pray for silver, but God often gives us gold instead.” Joseph had an outline of what God had promised, right? “My family’s going to bow down to me.” But I don’t think he could have comprehended the fullness of the story, the grandeur of the design, which he’ll later say to the brothers, “Hey, God sent me ahead of you to protect you and to protect and preserve the seed of Abraham and the covenant that God had made with our grandfather,” and so on.
I’m in a hurry, but God’s not. That’s where many of us are tonight. But God’s timing is perfect. The timeless one is always timely. Amen?
Let’s pray. Lord, tonight’s been an encouragement. What comfort we find, what hope we receive in a message like this. We would be mindful, then, of the words of David: “I had fainted except I believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Therefore, wait upon the Lord and be of good courage. Again, I say, wait on the Lord.” And, Lord, we are encouraged.
But before we really just take hold of that and run home with it, Lord, it has been a message that’s chastised us. Lord, we are all speed demons when it comes to our walk with you. We’ve all got a spiritual lead foot. We all like to dart and weave in and out of the traffic of your good purposes for us. We don’t like the lane you have us in. We don’t like that there are two or three cars ahead of us, and they don’t seem to be moving very fast. Oh God, we do exceed the speed limit. We do get ourselves into all kinds of fender benders in life—relationally, emotionally, spiritually—because we do not yield the right-of-way to you. We do not acknowledge that the stops of a good man are ordered by the Lord as well as the steps.
Make us more patient. Make us more willing to trust You. God, help us even in the midst of life’s challenges, when the windscreen is cracked and our view of You is challenged. Lord, help us not to emerge from the pains and the pressures of life with a distorted view of You. Help us to be challenged to fix our minds on You and to know that peace, that perfect peace.
And, God, as we wait, and as we stand in line, Lord, help us to do it not passively or pathetically but patiently and hopefully—knowing that, Lord, Your hands are bigger than ours. And we have really been encouraged and instructed and chastised all in the one tonight, from the story of Joseph and Your perfect timing in his time. And we pray and ask these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.