Yesterday I spoke with a friend of mine who was feeling old, tired, and sick. He had recently finished working on a documentary about our mutual friend Jack – Murf the Surf – Murphy and now several major actors want to make a full-scale movie about it. The documentary in our estimation did a very poor job of accurately recounting Murf’s life and cast doubts about his Christian belief system. Much of it focused on his life of crime prior to turning to Jesus and barely mentioned the decades he spent working for Christ and leading tens of thousands to Jesus. Now he envisioned more hard work on aa movie only to have Hollywood moguls twist the story again to portray Murf as a crazed killer.
I was trying to cheer him up a little and recounted the story of Joseph, son of Jacob. He was his father’s favorite, and his brothers were jealous. The rancor was so intense that they decided to kill him but held him in a well until some Egyptians came along and they sold him into slavery. Joseph was sold to a man as a household servant and eventually ended up saving the nation of Israel by opening Egypt’s granaries to them, but it was a long road to get there.
Consider what had to happen for him to get into to pharaoh’s court and stand before this powerful ruler:
- The wife of his master wanted to have an affair with him and when he refused, she falsely accused him of raping her.
- He was subsequently thrown into prison.
- The keeper of the prison liked him so much he put him in charge of the prison, and he had free reign inside it.
- Pharaoh’s butler and cook were thrown into the same prison and Joseph went to see them.
- He met with them on the very day that they were upset about their respective dreams they had the previous night. (Dreams were very important to Egyptians and correctly interpreting them was considered divine revelation)
- Joseph correctly interpreted both their dreams – the butler was released in three days and the cook was put to death in three days.
- Subsequently the butler had to be in pharaoh’s court the day. He had to be there that day to overhear that pharaoh was troubled about his own dream and then remember his dream that occurred two years ago and Joseph’s interpretation of it.
- Then he had to have the courage to tell pharaoh about it and tell him about the Hebrew slave in prison who interpreted it.
- The pharaoh who was arguably the most the most powerful person in the world had to be willing to bring a lowly imprisoned slave into his court and tell him of his dream.
- Joseph had to receive the correct interpretation of the dream from God that there would be seven years of bountiful harvests followed by seven years of drought and famine.
- Pharaoh had to correctly surmise that God was with Joseph and be willing to put him in charge of his entire kingdom including filling the granaries during the bountiful years.
I suppose you get the drift of how God was working behind the scenes all along to orchestrate this series of events culminating in pharaoh appointing Joseph as the most powerful man in Egypt second only to pharaoh himself. He used this position to save Israel during the seven-year drought and famine and reconcile with his family and the brothers who sold him into slavery.
At any point ordinary men would have lost hope and faith, but Joseph trusted God and even when the situation looked bleak he had faith in Him. God did not ever abandon him and continued weaving his divine plan into fruition. I reminded my friend about this story to encourage him that often we don’t see God behind the scenes. Just like the documentary on Murf we do not see the outcome and may never see it, but one thing sure God has a plan and things will go according to it. Thus there is no room for disappointment.
I don’t know what trials that any of you readers might be going through today, but rest assured God knows and is with those of us who trust Him and have faith. We should keep in mind that nothing that occurs in life is by chance, luck, or karma. All things work out for good to those who love Jesus. So don’t worry about things.
But don’t take my word for it, read God’s Holy Bible. The following verse is one of many that attest to the fact that God has a divine plan for your life.
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
Have a great weekend and go to church this Sunday!