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Today's Reading: Genesis 40-41
Two years had gone by since Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharoah's chief cup-bearer and chief baker. (Genesis 41:1) Two years! Can you imagine. We never hear Joseph complain, but I do wonder if he felt forgotten, not just by the cup-bearer but also by God. That question was on my mind when I came to Genesis 41:50-52:
During this time, before the first of the famine years, two sons were born to Joseph and his wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said, “God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father’s family.” Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.”
There we get a glimpse into how Joseph might have been feeling. Do you see it in the meanings of the names of his two sons? All those years of troubles, missing his family, the land of his grief. And yet I find too in Joseph's words to Pharoah as he interpreted Pharoah's dream this insight:
“This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt. Famine will destroy the land. This famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased. (Genesis 41:28-31, NLT, emphasis mine)
Thinking back to some of my troubling times I recall how hard it was to remember the good. How important it is to remind myself of how good God is-even in the storms that seem to never end. How often I have prayed for some trial to be over, to be removed, and still it remains. From my perspective I cannot always see God's hand at work. I do not recogniize when He brings people like Pharoah's cup-bearer into my life for His future purpose. I want the solution now, not two years down the road. But that is my way, not God's. And once again these words are ringing in the back of my mind. Thy will be done.
There is a song that I have just recently discovered that speaks well to this. It is called Thy Will strangely enough. God has been using it to remind me of just whose will takes the lead in my life.
During this time, before the first of the famine years, two sons were born to Joseph and his wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said, “God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father’s family.” Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, “God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief.”
There we get a glimpse into how Joseph might have been feeling. Do you see it in the meanings of the names of his two sons? All those years of troubles, missing his family, the land of his grief. And yet I find too in Joseph's words to Pharoah as he interpreted Pharoah's dream this insight:
“This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what he is about to do. The next seven years will be a period of great prosperity throughout the land of Egypt. But afterward there will be seven years of famine so great that all the prosperity will be forgotten in Egypt. Famine will destroy the land. This famine will be so severe that even the memory of the good years will be erased. (Genesis 41:28-31, NLT, emphasis mine)
Thinking back to some of my troubling times I recall how hard it was to remember the good. How important it is to remind myself of how good God is-even in the storms that seem to never end. How often I have prayed for some trial to be over, to be removed, and still it remains. From my perspective I cannot always see God's hand at work. I do not recogniize when He brings people like Pharoah's cup-bearer into my life for His future purpose. I want the solution now, not two years down the road. But that is my way, not God's. And once again these words are ringing in the back of my mind. Thy will be done.
There is a song that I have just recently discovered that speaks well to this. It is called Thy Will strangely enough. God has been using it to remind me of just whose will takes the lead in my life.
May grace abound,
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