Joseph reminds us that very often dreams have to die before they can be raised to life again by God. Jesus said to His disciples, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.’ (John 12:24) For Joseph, circumstances after he speaks of his adolescent dreams soon take a turn for the worse, when his brothers plot first of all to kill him and then decide to sell him into slavery. (Gen 37:12-36) His comfortable life as the beloved of his father is drastically brought to an end; he is sold into Potiphar’s household and ends up in Egypt. (Gen 39:1) Later, things get even worse when Potiphar’s wife makes up lies about him to satisfy her thwarted plans to seduce him; ‘hell hath no fury like a woman scorned’, as Shakespeare said! Joseph is unjustly thrown into prison for a crime he did not commit. (Gen 39:7-23) Far from having people bow down to him, his life seems in ruins. There seems no hope of prosperity, no prospect even of justice.
But the God of miracles is not absent, even when we cannot see Him or understand what is going on. With the benefit of hindsight and knowing the end of this story, we know that every setback is actually a step further towards the fulfilment of Joseph’s dreams. What we see in the life of Joseph is the jigsaw pieces being fitted together to make a coherent whole. We see God moving people into place to save many people, to save His chosen people, the Israelites. We see miracle after miracle of God’s providence and foreknowledge. Joseph only saw disaster, disappointment and the frustration of injustice, but he flourished even in dire circumstances because God was with him. (Gen 39:2, 22-23) He learned to serve God faithfully wherever he was rather than always yearning to be somewhere else. This ability to work for God in the mundane while waiting for God to do the miraculous is one the hallmarks of Christian maturity. Paul puts it like this: ‘Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.’ (1 Thess 5:16-18) When we’re called to wait in the mundane, remember that how you wait can be a testimony in itself; you yourself can become God’s miracle.
