God’s Discreet Presence

Genesis 37, 39-48
 
In human terms, the enigma of Joseph’s teen years was truly pathetic. Nevertheless, how events finally unfolded towards Jacob’s twilight years is reassuring as God did not give up on this profoundly dysfunctional family but took particular pains to weave His plans around them through His unflinching grace. The portrayal of Isaac’s blatant preference towards his older son, Esau, sowed the seeds for Jacob’s paternal insecurity for the rest of his life. Furthermore, Jacob’s own biased love for Rachel over Leah dangerously skewed his affections towards Joseph and Benjamin, replicating his own unconscious conditioning. This sets the tone for the inimitable story of Joseph.
 
Being favoured, and unambiguously, a product of his own father’s dysfunctional needs, Joseph grew into an obnoxious narcissistic 17 year-old. Spurred on by his father’s misplaced patronizing ways in using him to spy on his other sons, soon led Joseph to lie in his reports on his adult siblings (Gen 37:2). And when it came to his dreams, his arrogance knew no bounds, as he blatantly exposited them before his family. Jacob immediately upbraided him for his inappropriate remarks, but hate was already spouting its bitter roots (Gen 37:4, 5, 8, 10) and the result can only be murderously evil. God, however, did not chide him; and even if He did, would Joseph pay any attention? We are often the result of our own family systems or dynamics, and these relationships or the lack of it, mould our character and personality in indelible ways. Our innate blindness to our own flaws signifies how unconsciously we have adapted, not unlike Joseph. 
 
When Joseph arrived looking for his brothers at the remote trading settlement of Dothan, they stripped off his classy clothes, threw him into a pit, and eventually trafficked him to an Ishmaelite slave trader on his way to Egypt. Under these circumstances, would it make any difference to loudly protest his circumstances? Who would believe that they came from the same family? DNA testing would have certainly helped! Joseph’s dreams were from God, but the Almighty’s apparent silence from then on was deafening, and despite his brothers’ despicable cruelty and vicious intent, He preserved Joseph’s life.
 
Before God was able to use him for the salvation of his entire family and people, Joseph’s presumptuous self-importance and manipulative ways had to go. The torturous journey into Egypt must have been his longest! How did he feel now that his family ties had been severed, with an alien future in abject slavery before him? Broken and overwhelmed with hopelessness, Joseph’s trust in humanity and God, if he believed in Him, must have been at its lowest. Suffering seems to be God’s preferred choice to secure the transformation of a person and the development of humility and grace. And the process is fraught with His interminable apparent absence and silence as Joseph went through its motions. The only way to know what God is doing is to trust Him totally, placing his faith in Him, a step at a time. God did not crush Joseph’s independent streak and He had no intention to create an automaton, He needed one who would serve Him with a willing heart that is deeply committed to His purposes and ways of achieving His goals. He knows what He is doing with us!