Joseph: Bound for Service

An examination of the life of Joseph and usefulness in ministry

Much of what we call 'ministry' today has fallen into decline. All through Christian history, God has anointed and called men who are faithful; men appointed for a season. As a father passes what he has learned to his children, often these men will do the same. Unfortunately, in many instances the price paid is forgotten and mere knowledge is propagated. This results in second or third generation children who have grown up spoiled; seeing and hearing of past callings without a receiving of the way they were walked out. They may loudly proclaim their spirituality and freedom yet a lack of reality will mark their work. What we are left with is clergy.

Usefulness of ministry does not mean how much a person can do, how many souls they win, how many people are preached to or how much they help churches grow. Rather, I am speaking of a usefulness to the Lord; being available for what the Lord desires. This article does not contain quick tips on ministry but choosing God’s heart over hype, quality over quantity and bond-servanthood over busyness.

CHAPTER ONE: THE FAVORITE ONE

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colors.” Genesis 37:3

Israel loved Joseph more than all his other children. We all know that parents should not have favorites, and that God certainly does not have favorites. Or does He? I know He certainly favored the children of Israel and He’s favored you and I with granting us salvation, praise the Lord. It may appear at times He favors some Christians more than others. Peter, James and John must have looked like favorites to the rest of the apostles. If the Lord does not have favorites, He certainly allows it to appear that way at times. It can be a real test of our hearts when we are envious of the blessings you see other brothers receive. We all need to be content that He has called us and we are His children. “Godliness with contentment is great gain” (I Timothy 6:6).

Lamentably, contentment is hard to find in Christianity today. Many in ministry have simply found another way to gain acceptance: through good works, good preaching, good insight. Many, having abandoned their quest for contentment in the world upon finding Christ, soon pick up the search again within Christianity. For some, ministry seems the best place to try and obtain greater contentment. Large crowds applauding a preaching may be an inflated measure of worldly success yet is no indication that God has gotten what He desires. It takes years of the cross before we are unmoved by praise or criticism. All of our worth must be found in Him. Good is always the enemy of the best; and the best is simply letting all stand aside for our relationship with Jesus. May we learn to bask in His love, as Joseph did in Jacob’s. Jacob represents Father God and Joseph, his only son, Jesus. How beautiful it is to witness the relationship of Father and Son between these two in Genesis.

“And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.” Genesis 37:4

To be favored by God is a beautiful thing but the world, or worldly Christianity, will not favor those who find themselves in such a relationship.

CHAPTER TWO: THE DREAMER

“And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more.” Genesis 37:5

Joseph has the first of his dreams. The interpretation is clear to all: his brothers would bow down to him in homage. To no surprise his brothers hated him all the more. Joseph is seventeen, good-looking, well-dressed, his father’s favorite and now a recipient of God’s revelations. By today’s standards he would be a young man going places, to be mightily used of the Lord; a man to be envied, or was he? It would be some seventeen years before the dream would come to pass and much of this time would be spent in slavery and imprisonment. God’s dealings can seem difficult for those he has prepared for a greater work. With such a long time until fulfillment and at such a cost, perhaps Joseph would have done better to keep his dreams to himself. Whether he proclaimed it out of youthful zeal or arrogance the word was nonetheless from the Lord. In order that events, which even our dreamer could have not imagined, could be set in place the revelation had to be proclaimed aloud.

“And he dreamed yet another dream” Genesis 37:9

Joseph dreams of the future again, this time his father and mother also bow down. His brothers are again angered and he received a rebuke from his father. Still, Jacob had walked, and wrestled, with the Lord long enough in times past to know not discount the word of the Lord; even if it comes from an unlikely source.

CHAPTER THREE: THE TRIAL BEGINS

“And Israel said to Joseph, “Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come and I will send thee unto them,” and he said “Here am I.” Genesis 37:13

Now that the trial, or rather the training begins, the father sends Joseph away from his security out into the wilderness and into his trials. Jacob is unaware of where he is sending his son, but God is never unaware of where He is sending all those who truly want to be useful to Him. Joseph’s response to his father is, “Here am I.” God always honors a young man’s sincere heart when he makes such a cry. Usually that is followed by trials and tribulations, as in Isaiah’s case and of course with our Lord Jesus. God is still looking and searching for those young men of sincere hearts who will cry, “Here I am.” Will young men who cry out in such a way continue through the turbulent journey until God’s purpose is fulfilled?

CHAPTER FOUR: THE PIT

“Come now therefore and let us slay him, and cast him into a pit…” Genesis 37:20

Joseph sets out to find his brothers and they are waiting for him. Through the intercession of Reuben they decide to cast him into the pit. Suddenly and without warning Joseph goes from a pedestal to the pit: a pit of despair. The same pit every young man is going to face if he wants to truly walk with God. The same pit that David was rescued from in Psalm 40. Disregarding Joseph’s pleadings, his brother proceeded to sell their own flesh and blood into slavery. His coat of colors was not stripped from him and covered with blood, just as our Lord was stripped of His cloak. Jesus' blood was shed from Him, for us also. Any usefulness for the Lord will always be by way of the cross, always by way of loss. True service will only come by losing one’s life unto the Lord and finding your usefulness to Him. The brothers returned home without Joseph, thus breaking their father’s heart. Their bitterness had turned into revenge. Whoever hurts the son, hurts the father. Jacob was inconsolable, convinced that he would go down to his grave with a broken heart.

“For I will go down into the grave mourning my son” Genesis 37:35.

In his sorrow, Jacob could not see that the loss of his son would be the resurrection of his family. Often in the smallness of our vision, we cannot see God’s greater purposes fulfilled in the cross.

CHAPTER FIVE: THE BOND-SERVANT

“And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s and a captain of the guard.” Genesis 37:36

Joseph is now sold into slavery, he is to become a bond-servant. His delicate years are over. He would now learn the harsh realities of life, what it is to obey and to serve. God is ever watching, He has not abandoned His child. Neither does He abandon us in the midst of our trials. They are there to build character, to prepare us for usefulness unto the Lord. God’s call was coming through in spite of the circumstances, Joseph prospered in all he did and rose up in Potiphar’s house. The call has nothing to do with numbers, wealth or calculated signs but realizing that He is still with us, by setting our hands to the task before us with all our might. Some may argue that if the church is full, if the singing is good and the offering is large enough that is enough. How often people are uplifted by this, yet all over the world there are many unsung, unknown laborers of God working away quietly, with all their heart. The anointing upon our work is not based on how we feel, how things look or any numerical nonsense but rather- God is either with His man or He is not. Either you have heard a call from God or you have not. Joseph was his father’s favorite and even in slavery he was still his Father’s favorite. He heard God in slavery and God was going to use him; for in all he set his hand to he prospered.

CHAPTER SIX: THE LIE

“And it came to pass from the time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake; and the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house, and in the field.” Genesis 39:5

There is nothing that Potiphar takes care of that he doesn’t put in Joseph’s hands. Joseph is succeeding, he is probably just now beginning to enjoy his new life. He’s found himself in a decent position, distanced from his troublesome brothers, treated with respect. Still, he is a slave, still a bond-servant, yet through all this he has not forgotten his God. I’m sure that he had his questions and frustrations but he knows God is still there and that becomes evident when Potiphar’s wife makes her move. Satan will try and bring God’s man down in any way he can. In this story Satan aligns himself against Joseph in so many ways: through the hatred of his brothers; through separation from his father; through the harshness and cruelty of the world he tries to discourage him. Now he sets another trap for Joseph. Being the good-looking man that he was, Potiphar’s wife tries to entice Joseph. How many young men start off so good only to be shattered and stopped in their quest to really be useful for the Lord, by some woman’s flattering eyes? It is never worth it. She makes her play and asks him to lie with her. His words are clear here, he refuses not just because it’s wrong, for the fear of punishment or fear of losing his position but because it would dishonor his God. His God that he still looks to in the midst of slavery. There is a virtue and courage here that is sadly lacking today. She was insistent and grabbed him by his tunic, Joseph does the one thing that many young men should learn to do with lust comes right up to you- run! The full fury of a woman scorned: she screams and wails lying that it was Joseph who was at fault.

One of the most painful trials that people can experience is being falsely accused: another trial that stops many a man. If, like Joseph, you want your usefulness to be based on the heart of the Lord and not on simply doing the good Christian thing” then you will likely face these kinds of accusations. To ask the question “What would Jesus do?” is to ask a question of the Pharisees. Our hearts must cry out “Lord, what would you have me to do here, broken, here in this arena that I’m in?” Sometimes there is no greater pain than to stand as Joseph did, for the Lord, in the face of lies. In his anger Potiphar has Joseph thrown into prison. Once again, God spares Him. He could have been executed. Perhaps Potiphar knew his wife well enough to know she may have had a hand in it, but for whatever reason God spared him so that our bond-servant might become a prisoner. Whose prisoner was he, really?

CHAPTER SEVEN: THE PRISONER

“But the Lord was with Joseph, and shewed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” Genesis 39:21

Joseph now finds himself in prison. He has gone from favorite son to wilderness into slavery and now a prisoner. Joseph was a prisoner in Pharaoh's prison yet in God’s will and God’s economy; a prisoner to the Word of God. All the prisoners were committed into Joseph’s hand.

“The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.” Genesis 39:23

Once again, whatever Joseph sets his hand to, prospers. God is with him. His leadership qualities seem to come out wherever he goes. If you feel called of by the Lord, what has been in your heart since you were saved, is probably what he has called you to do. It’s not a matter of your choosing or your discovery of something in Bible School. It is something that God has designed from the very foundation of your salvation, and it will come to the surface again and again. In today’s Christian economy men seem to feel a call or see a need and off they go to training and when they finally emerge they are either an evangelist or a pastor. We are not prepared to go into the wilderness, learn slavery and become a bond-servant and a prisoner of God’s will.

“And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.” Genesis 40:1

Joseph finds himself leading, albeit leading a group of prisoners. Two of the prisoners that he took care of were the baker and the butler, each had a dream and Joseph’s gift comes to the surface again. He says “Do not interpretations belong to God?” acknowledging the sovereignty of God even in prison. Joseph was a man, as we are, and must have experienced the pain of separation and hurt, yet he did not abandon his faith. His gift was God’s gift; God would use it whether it were to be in a place of privilege or a place of poverty, it was always God’s gift. After interpreting the butler’s dream, Joseph asks him to remember him when he gets out of prison. The baker also has a dream, hoping for a fortuitous interpretation, but Joseph has learned that one has to speak for God whether it is good or bad news. Genesis 40:23 says, “Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph but forgot him.” After coming through rejection, separation, slavery and imprisonment, now he had to face another enemy: he was forgotten. Just when hope seemed possible, disappointment slaps him in the face. He may have been forgotten by the butler but not by God.

CHAPTER EIGHT: THE TRUE TESTING

Until the time that His word came, the word of the Lord tried him.” Psalms 105:19

Joseph went about his duties in the prison, seeing to the needs of the prisoners, making sure all is being run properly. Gone are his youthful looks, after almost thirteen years in prison, he is now thirty years old or so (about the same age as our Lord when He started His ministry). His beard is full, his eyes have seen many things and his youthful zeal has been replaced by testing and experience. The greatest pain that he would experience, as he walked around with his faith intact for His God, was not from his surroundings or from things people had done or not done to him. The most pain within his heart was from the Word itself. If you have truly heard, not from man, but by the calling of the Lord and a word from God has arrested you, not just a need or a romantic idea of God’s work, then that is what will test you. The Word will test you. In Psalm 105, the Lord reminds us how he called for a famine upon the land:

“He brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them even Joseph who was sold for a servant whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in irons. Until the time His word came, the word of the Lord tried him.” Psalms 105:16-19

Until the word of God came: that word challenged our precepts today. Today is the day of instant-everything and self-gratification. There are ten step books to get the Word of the Lord to work for us, to get it to work according to our will. Today, we don’t understand some of the ways in which God works. Yet, if we look at some of the men of the Bible we will see how. Abraham waited fifteen years for the Word of the Lord to come to pass and the word tried him because everything else spoke that it wasn’t going to happen; the Word was trying him. Moses wasn’t really used by the Lord until he was eighty years old; the Word that he had heard tried him. Many men start off with zeal, seeing and longing for true, raw Christianity but as time and trials go by they just begin to give up and get into 'institutional church'. When the financial trials get too much we just begin raising money the world’s way in the name of supporting God’s work. When we don’t see people being converted in a biblical way, we give up and proclaim them saved through some kind of prayer program or mental exercise. We give up, we quit because the trying is too much. This, however, is the true trying of the Lord, one in which God’s Word stands immoveable, unshakeable and forever settled. We will hold onto His Word when the ground under us begins to shift, Satan mocks and hell enlarges her mouth against us? If we will stay firm on the word, though it cuts us and tries us, it will surely come to pass if we will let it have its work.

CHAPTER NINE: THE RELEASE

“And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed.” Genesis 41:1

It is significant that this chapter starts off with the words after two full years. Joseph had spent eleven years in prison, in brokenness, learning to trust God. He had hoped the butler would remember him and secure his release but it would be two more years. For many of us, we trust the Lord but put some sort of time limit on His promises, and when that time is passed we give up. We are admonished in the Book of Hebrews to, “Cast not away your confidence which has great recompense of reward. For we need patience that after we have done the will of God we might receive the promise” Hebrews 10:35-36. How many times have believers stood faithfully for the Lord, become weary and Satan brings disappointment, and they quit right before God is about to get what He wants.

“Then spoke the chief Butler unto Pharaoh saying I do remember my fault this day...Then Pharaoh sent for him called Joseph and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon and he shaved himself and changed his raiment and he came to Pharaoh.” Genesis 41

Notice it says here that Joseph shaved and changed his clothes, he prepared himself to meet Pharaoh. These actions speak volumes; after all those years being forgotten by others, the trials that had come had not failed to produce the character that God was after. Joseph wasn’t in the prison hopeless and forlorn saying that nothing will ever change, when he heard the word from Pharaoh he knew: “This is the Lord. This may be a way of God answering me, freeing me.” He went with hope and faith in his heart. He shaved himself, changed his clothes. He was not going to leave prison as a slave or a beggar but as a favorite son of the Lord; to meet God’s challenge and see how He would produce His promises and will for his life. Joseph interprets Pharaoh's dream and lets him know that the understanding of it is from the Lord, He is the interpreter of dreams and not Joseph. Those last few years for him produce humility if nothing else. Joseph is appointed as the one to oversee the work, to gather the food in and prepare the land for the predicted famine. The word of the Lord is beginning to open up to Joseph.

“Humble yourself therefore under the Mighty Hand of God that He may exalt you in due time.” I Peter 5:6

Joseph is now as Pharaoh, favored across the land. He interpreted his dream and begins to store up during the seven years of plenty. Through his time of poverty, he learned the value of grain and bread, that indeed man does not live by bread alone but by every word of God. He begins to store up for the times of famine that are coming.

In this current age, the Western World is experiencing peace and prosperity the likes of which we have never before seen. Places like America and Europe are living as though this time will never end. Even in Christianity there is a similar philosophy: never have there been more bibles printed, more TV/radio/teaching/bible school programs. Yet we haven’t learned what it is to really value what God has given us and how to really store up those treasures within our heart for the days of famine that are approaching. I believe there are many Josephs languishing in prisons right now: prisons of obscurity, of seeming failures, poverty and persecution. God desires to bring these men forth in a time of famine that will surely come upon the world, and the worldly church.

“Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt: get you down thither and buy for us from thence; that we may live, and not die.” Genesis 42:1,2

The time of famine comes, Jacob sends his sons down into Egypt to buy grain. They come before Joseph, who recognizes them, and they all bow down before him. In a moment, after all these years, the dream has come to pass, though not in a way Joseph could have ever imagined. Many times this is the trouble with the prophetic, by which I mean the foreknowledge that God would give us whether in dreams or in prophecies and understanding; we always interpret through our own eyes and ways of thinking. It never seems to turn out the way that we had envisioned. If we are too discouraged, we may miss it altogether, but His word will come to pass. Joseph was now a different man, his brothers didn’t recognize him. We should long for a transformation such as this- that the dealings of God would produce such an alteration of character in our lives that our brothers in the Lord would not recognize us. Joseph accuses them of being spies and asks them to bring their youngest brother. He is testing them, looking to see if there is true repentance; wanting to know if Benjamin, who undoubtedly had become Jacob’s favorite after the loss of Joseph, is still alive and not destroyed by his elder brothers?

“They said to one another we are verily guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore this distress has come upon us.” Genesis 42:21

So Joseph’s brothers are finally coming to a place of conviction and repentance over what they have done. Through the next few verses the test goes on where they have to go back to Egypt. Jacob was refusing to send Benjamin, Joseph had kept Simeon and in Jacob’s heart Joseph was forever gone. He couldn’t bear to lose Benjamin also. He could not see, though the man of God he was, that the whole time God was working for his good and for the preservation of the whole family. The story continues as Joseph tests them further with the money in their sacks and as Judah pleads with Joseph there is this beautiful scripture:

“Now therefore when I come to thy servant my Father and the lad be not with us; seeing that his life is bound up in the lads life…” Genesis 44:30.

Just as God’s life is bound up in the life of His Son, Jacob’s was with Benjamin. These allegories are important especially for those of us who are going to endeavor to minister. For it seems that ministry is always focused on reaching out, on how God is going to have a relationship with us. However, what is tremendously overlooked is the beholding of the relationships that God the Father has with His Son. Jesus came not to reach the world but to obey his Father and in obeying him, give him his desire. We must be aware that when a love-for-souls supersedes a love for Christ then an angel of light has come in. The most important thing is that we obey the Father, that our life becomes bound up in the Father’s life. Through the blood of Jesus and His redemption, He has made a way for us to enter into that relationship; and that, is exactly what we are seeing here in this chapter.

CHAPTER TEN: THE HEALING

“Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all of them that stood by him and he cried, Cause every man to go out and there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.” Genesis 45:1-2

Joseph’s plan to deal with his brothers has now come to an end and Joseph cannot hide his feelings any more. He sends everyone out and weeps, showing the love that he has for them. He tells them not to be grieved, “God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity before you and to save your lives by this deliverance.” Joseph’s life is not self-centered but God-centered. Joseph has discovered a true ministry. Not something to further his vision, his agenda or ego, but all that he had gone through, every gift and anointing was for one reason, and one reason only. Joseph wanted to give God what He desires, to preserve His people. There was no hint of unforgiveness, resentment or bitterness. Solely a realization that a seventeen year old boy was given a dream for one purpose and one purpose only: to preserve God’s people.

CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE PURPOSE & GOD'S PLAN

There is so much more to be gleaned from this story. Sufficient to say that God’s work, done God’s way will have His blessing upon it. Joseph’s relationship with his father is restored, Jacob’s wildest hope comes to pass. His brothers are repentant and God’s heritage preserved. When Jacob dies, Joseph’s brothers are still unsure if true forgiveness is in his heart and they send this message to him:

“And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren, and their sin; for they did unto thee evil: and now, we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants.” Genesis 50:16-18.

Joseph’s tears said it all.

“And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” Genesis 50:19-20