Summer
1984
And Joseph was Brought Down
Jim Kerwin
Pastor
Scripture Readings:
Genesis 37:39-41; Psalm 105:17-24
God has His failures. His kingdom cannot do without them.
These failures are His men and women of promise. The divine
wisdom has decreed that all such should walk in the way of
defeat, failure, humiliation, and resignation—unto glory.
Joseph is a case in point: “. . .Joseph was brought
down . . .” Gen. 39:1.
Whatever we may think of his awkward family situation, Joseph
was favored by God with two extraordinary dreams. Even his
jealous brothers saw clearly that these dreams heralded great
things for this young man. “And they hated him yet the
more for his dreams.”
What a time this must have been for this dreamer. Highly
favored by his father (if not by his father’s house),
and in possession of an infallible, “double-witness
promise” of God that he should be the great one among
his brethren. Perhaps he was lost in the contemplation of
this future bliss as he approached his brethren in the fields
of Dothan. At seventeen years he may have been quite intolerable
to those around him!
But then came the disillusioning and crushing blow—sold
into slavery by his brothers, his bright future dashed in
a few hours’ time. Yet this should speak to us, for
to all those going on in God this disillusioning and crushing
blow must come. It is a spiritual maxim that everything, even
the promises of God, must come to us by way of the Cross.
How many of us have seen our dreams and visions and high callings
seemingly smashed until we have nothing left. “We shall
see what will become of his dreams!”
Yes, Joseph was brought down—not only into Egypt, but
into the ignominy of failure and defeat. We are such a simple
and shallow people that when God brings us low or tests us,
we believe it will be only for a short time. Yet Joseph was
a slave for years and a prisoner for years. It was through
the years that God blessed him in the house of Potiphar that
Joseph rose to be the head steward—his was a hard-earned
success. But it took only a matter of hours for all of it
to come crashing to nothing—a false accusation destroying
the success of the man who had stood for divine morality.
How the devil must have pummeled him as he was hauled to prison!
Yet the Lord prospered him again even in prison, and he rose
through the ranks once more. But let us not deceive ourselves—this
too took years. Eleven years after being sold to the Midianites
he had his remarkable encounter with Pharaoh’s butler
and baker. How he shines as he is used of God! Buy the Spirit
of God he interprets two God-given dreams. Happy day! Surely
this must be his ticket to freedom at last.
“Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but
forgat him” Gen.40:23. After all, who remembers a failure?
He was dashed by his brothers, dashed by Potiphar’s
unfaithful wife, and dashed by the king’s ungrateful
servant. (This last was the cruelest of all, for of a certainty
those prison dreams must have all-too-painfully evoked his
own decade-old dreams.) A lesser man would have given up on
God and His promises. What wrestlings there must have been
with bitterness and depression! Everywhere he looks in his
past there is blessing—blessing in which he has no part.
How his miserable brothers must be prospering as cattle barons,
watching their families grow, while he has neither life-mate
nor shekel to his name! Luxury is still the lot of Potiphar’s
lustful lying wife, while his accommodations are but a dark,
stark cell. The ungrateful butler is in a place of honor in
the king’s service, while he is an unknown convict.
Yes, a lesser man would have given up on God and His promises;
but strange to say, it is in part these very trials that make
him something better than “a lesser man.” Psalm
105:18 speaks of Joseph: “Whose feet they hurt with
fetters: he was laid in iron.” But the marginal note
will speak far more deeply to those who walk in the Spirit:
“. . .his soul came into iron;” or perhaps, as
Edersheim translates it; “iron entered into his soul.”
Has this Jesus Whom you follow, Who promised “deliverance
to the captives . . .to set at liberty . . ,” “the
opening of the prison to them that are bound . . . ;”
has this same Jesus brought you down into this place of failure,
where you can see neither the reason nor the end? Have there
been times when it almost seemed that “now it will be
over,” only to be brought down even further? Has your
soul ever come into iron? Have you despaired of God’s
calling on your life, of the vision he has set before you,
of the promises He made to you?
If you are being made to walk the path of failure and disillusionment,
you have already discovered that few, if any, will understand
your situation. How many thought of Jesus as the Great Failure
as He hung upon the Cross! If we follow this Great Failure
(as men see Him), then it is inevitable that our paths will
meet with His at the Cross. “Many are called but few
are chosen,” because they will not let God lead them
this way.
But why did Joseph have to suffer so, and for so many years?
Imagine, seventeen-year-old Joseph suddenly trust into the
rulership position he eventually received. A spoiled, pampered
teenager who has known only success, wealth, prestige, good
health, with dreams from God to add to his swagger—all
in all, not a very good prospect to be one through whom the
purposes of God could be accomplished. Such exaltation without
the critical preparation would have led to his eventual destruction.
“Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct
Him?” I Cor. 2:16
But we see an entirely different man in the thirty-year-old
“failure.” Here is a humble man with no confidence
in the flesh. His trust is in Christ alone. Joseph puts his
reliance in nothing—not his abilities, his experiences,
nor even the promises he has received, nothing except His
heavenly Father.
“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures might have hope” Rom. 15:4. Why do we go
through these things? What are we to learn and how are we
to be comforted by Joseph’s life. For our sakes God
made Joseph to be an example of perseverance, a type of Christ,
and a type of those who will reign with Christ.
Joseph is an example of perseverance. He came through with
a solid, proven character and hope that God would yet do what
He had promised and that all that transpired would yet vindicate
God and His ways. Joseph came through with iron in his soul.
I suppose we might say that he had some steel put in his backbone.
God had proven Himself to Joseph. He showed His ability to
keep him. In the end Joseph proved it to be so within himself.
He was absolutely solid in God, meek, standing for God, and
useful to Him. He was built upon his Rock, and not even the
pleasures of Egypt nor his heady position under Pharaoh could
ruin him. “. . .we also exult in tribulation, knowing
that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance,
proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does
not disappoint. . .” Rom 5:3-5.
Joseph was brought down by suffering, defeat, and the discipline
of failure that he might be a type of Christ to us. Joseph
was acquainted firsthand with slavery, injustice, heartbreak,
hard work, and despair; like his Master, he was “a man
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” For an Old Testament
saint to have lived in such a way as to be a type of Christ
is remarkable! What a life! How wonderfully close this is
to the New Testament saint’s goal: “Always bearing
about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life
also of Jesus might be manifest in our body. For we who live
are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that
the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
body” 2 Cor. 4:10-11. Believer, are you a “type
of Christ” to others? Is this one of your most cherished
desires? Yes? Then you must walk this way.
Joseph is a type of those who will rule with Christ. He represents
another truth we neglect to our eternal loss: only if we suffer
with Christ shall we reign with Him. How few of us believe
this! This was God’s path for Joseph. It was His path
for His Christ, your Master. In this light we consider Paul’s
maxim to Timothy: “It is a faithful saying: For if we
be dead with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we suffer
with Him, we shall also reign with Him: if we deny Him, He
also will deny us: if we believe Him not, He abideth faithful:
He cannot deny Himself” 2 Tim 2:11-13. Reigning! Glory
to God! After all, that lies at the end of this path. We see
this end in Joseph’s life. God fulfilled His promise
to Joseph: His word came; the word of the Lord tried him.
The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people,
and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler
of all his substance. It happened suddenly to Joseph, and
not by any works which he had done. Others began to perceive
the deep work of God which had been hidden from human eyes
and understanding. “Can we find such a man as this,
a man in whom the Spirit of God is?” It is clear that
he is God’s man. Joseph begins to perceive the Lord’s
purpose in all his defeats and failures. He has become the
man to whom secrets are revealed, for he has walked with God
in the secret place of obscurity and sorrow, there communing
in the Spirit and learning of Him. He ascends to the fulfillment
of God’s promise—and in God’s time he is
ready.
The years of barrenness now begin to bear fruit. To Joseph
is born Manasseh, which means forgetting. Though he will never
forget the things he learned while he was brought down, the
pain is assuaged in seeing God’s hand in all. And he
learns to bless God for Ephraim, which means fruitful; for
God made him fruitful in the land of his affliction ad because
of his affliction. And (though it takes eight or nine years
more) his brethren are restored to him. He recognizes the
mercy and perfect love of God in his years of trial: “God
meant it unto good” Gen 50:20.
Yes, Joseph was brought down—not only into Egypt, but
into the ignominy of failure and defeat. He was mourned by
some, forgotten by others; yet who saw the hand of God in
it all? Do you see it? Have you ever walked there? Are you
walking there now? Then you know how Joseph felt—alone,
misunderstood, empty, numb, and forsaken. Here is a fiery
trial of isolation, the discipline of defeat, the narrow gate
for those who would be used by God.
Can you trust God for this as well—that He means for
good the failures of your life and ministry? This is God’s
way, beloved, if you would be real with God and have His life
and unction in you and your ministry. Let the dream die! Trying
in your own strength to make it come to pass is frustrating
the dealing of God in your life. If the dream is of God, He
will “resurrect” it and fulfill it in His own
perfect time. You will glorify Him for His faultless wisdom
and timing.