Gospel Outreach International

Have you ever found yourself in a place you never chose, doing everything right and still seeing things go wrong? Perhaps you have wondered where God is when faithfulness seems to be rewarded with a pit, a prison, or simply a very long wait. If so, you are in good company. In this Bible study we are going to walk alongside Joseph through thirteen hard years in Egypt, and ask a question that may surprise you: what if the hard places are not a sign that God has stepped away, but the very place where he is at work? So open your Bible, get comfortable, and come and see what God was doing in the unseen years.

The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. Genesis 39:2

• Joseph was about 17 when he was sold and about 30 when he stood before Pharaoh, so roughly 13 years of slavery and prison shaped him. Hard seasons can feel long, but God is never idle in them.
• Egypt was an ancient, organised and highly religious nation, yet it was polytheistic and immoral. Religion alone does not make people live well. Faith is what changes a life.
• True Christianity is not a religion but a way of life, and the justified live by faith.
• Potiphar was an officer whose Hebrew title is often understood to mean a eunuch or chamberlain. Court officials in some ancient cultures were required to be castrated. This may help explain the desperation of his wife, though Scripture does not tell us, and it is important to separate what we are told from what we imagine.
• Joseph prospered in Potiphar’s house because the Lord was with him. Honesty, integrity, faithfulness and diligence are the fruit of a Christian life, and people notice them, believers and unbelievers alike.
• Joseph’s prospering in a difficult place is a picture of Christ, who suffered and was on the cross bearing our sins, yet whom God causes to prosper. People are still coming to Christ in great numbers.
• The idea that God wants every believer healthy and wealthy is not true. Our wealth is stored in heaven, and God’s reward for faithfulness is often seen in eternity rather than in time.
• Outward good looks are not what matters to the Lord. He looks at the heart, at whether we love him and love the people he puts around us.
• Purchased: being bought and sold was a humiliation, and it was part of God’s training of a young man who had been proud. But suffering does not mean we have done something wrong. God permits hardship so that Christ-like qualities grow in us.
• God’s protection is like a hand closed around a coin. Nothing can reach us unless he allows it, and he is not a sadistic God. He allows it for a reason, that we might become more like Jesus.
• Purity: temptation is not the sin, giving in to it is. Joseph knew adultery was wrong in God’s sight long before the Ten Commandments, because God’s design from the beginning was one man and one woman.
• Resisting temptation is part of fighting the good fight. Christian life is a battle, not comfort and ease, and God sees even what is done in secret.
• Prison: even when unjustly accused and punished, Joseph was blessed in the prison as he had been in the house. The dreams he had been given seemed impossible in a dungeon, but it was part of God’s preparation.
• Prophecy: Joseph correctly interpreted the dreams of the butler and the baker. One was restored and the other died, just as he said.
• Plea: Joseph asked to be remembered, and he was forgotten for a time. People forget, but God does not.
• Promise and Pharaoh: the story is moving toward the Pharaoh who will have a great influence in the chapters ahead.
• Whether serving or suffering, Joseph was never abandoned. Do not despair, because God is still with you, still your heavenly Father, and still loves you.

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 40:8

When we look at Joseph, it is easy to be impressed by his strength and his character. But the real hero of this story is the God who was with him in every room, whether it was a palace or a prison cell. And that is where Jesus comes in. Jesus walked a harder road than Joseph ever did, rejected, stripped and nailed to a cross, and yet God was at work through every moment of it. He knows what it is to suffer and to be forgotten, and he has promised that he will never leave us or forsake us. So whatever place you find yourself in today, you are never alone in it. The one who was faithful through the darkest place of all is with you, and he is still working it out for your good.

Bible References

• Genesis 39-40:
• 1 Samuel 16
• Psalm 34:7
• Proverbs 15
• Hebrews 11