As we conclude our series on asking God and believing, we must emphasize that it is total trust and belief IN God. We live in a culture where interacting with people only because of what they can do for us, dropping hints and basically making every effort to manipulate situations to favour an outcome we desire at our desired time is not only normalized, but also encouraged. We call it ‘casting our nets’ or ‘shooting our shot’ and ‘networking’ not realizing that we are indeed just trying to get what we want, when we want it by manipulating the situation.
Let’s talk a little about that. It is not right, to walk into a room full of people, decide based on appearance or prior knowledge, who can serve your purpose based on their connections and pockets or your perception of these things, then only speak to those people because you can get a job, funding or something else. You are looking to them, to get you out of a certain, current situation. Networking is the process of making connections and building relationships, not using people as pawns in a game. It is not looking to people to be your salvation, then either discarding them once they are no longer useful, or keeping them around incase they are useful again. Using people is wrong. Viewing the world that way, is… narcissistic.
Listen friends, deliverance is of the Lord. Let us take a look at Joseph, who was unfairly thrown into prison after NOT sleeping with his master’s wife, who then accused him of trying to rape her after he rejected her. Keep in mind, he only ended up serving in this particular master’s home after his brothers sold him to the Ishmaelites out of jealousy and spite because his father loved him more than they. The Ishmaelites thereafter, traveled to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar- an officer of the Pharaoh of Egypt and the captain of the guard. [Check out Genesis 37 and 39 for the full story.]
Now, now, we must accept that the probability of Joseph being paraded as a prospective servant at a possible open-air market, just when the captain of the guard needed a servant, then being chosen and bought is quite low. The probability that he was the only servant being sold that day is close to zero. Yet, he was chosen. Even in the darkness, God gave him a solid place to serve. He could have ended up in a very dire, dark and hopeless situation. When one was being sold, one did not have the luxury of choice. You went with whomever paid those who were selling you. If they were happy with the pay, you had to go, regardless of whatever services, purpose or intentions your buyer had. That was none of their business. Their business was the coin! The bag! Your well-being, was not their business. So, we can see God’s hand in favouring seventeen-year old Joseph with servanthood in a home with a humane and observant master. The blessing of environment.
Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph and that all Joseph set his hand to prospered, so he put him in charge of his household, and guess what, the household flourished under Joseph’s care! [Check Genesis 39 for the full story]. Look at God’s favour! Imagine how Joseph the servant must have felt. Here he was, far from home. Further than he ever had been, no hope of escape, possibly no wages, the conversation among his brothers mocking him and discussing methods of killing him ringing in his mind from time to time, occasional daydreams of his father or brothers coming to get him, occasional anger realizing that this was a delusion, other times imagining his father’s grief, and his own feelings of rejection, abandonment, anger and hopelessness looping in his heart.
He still remembered the dream the Lord gave him. This, together with his fear of the Lord, pure grit and grace are probably what kept him going. Amidst all these internal storms, he still got up and worked as unto the Lord! Amazing!
The Lord prospered him and now lil’ dude has some respect in the streets! Well, the corridors. He was put in charge, so his fellow servants saw he was favoured, he probably out-ranked them and oversaw their work too. Finally, a sense of purpose. A light in the dark sky. Some warmth and fuzziness within. Then ALAS! He refuses to sleep with Potiphar’s wife, is accused of attempted rape and now is thrown into jail.
Now, you and I know he got out. We have the priviledge of knowing how this story ends. But just like our lives today, Joseph did not know how long he would be in jail. He probably thought he would be in there forever. There was no parole, no trials, no lawyers or someone on the outside lobbying for his release. He was known as the servant boy who tried to molest his master’s wife! People probably laughed at him. A servant thought he could get a shot at the wife of the captain of the guard! Ha! Delulu! Servants/slaves at that time were not even allowed to marry! Others pitied his delusion. Some loathed him for what he had tried to do. Rape is indeed detestable. Probably some believed he was innocent. But here was, in jail, with no one on the outside looking out for him. In the elite circles, he was a pariah. To those who knew of his innocence, he was a slave boy in the royal jail_ “oh so sad! Next!”.
BUT GOD (I love a good “But God” moment. Listen friend, even if no one else sees, cares or knows, GOD DOES, and God will come through for you. Back to Joseph now). But God gave him favour with the prison warden and the warden put Joseph in charge of the other prisoner’s affairs. [Check Genesis 40 for the full story] Here he was, in his view probably in prison for the long haul, but in leadership again and a kind environment. A sense of purpose again. Some warmth.
Then two (2) of his fellow prisoners had dreams. By God’s power he interpreted them. Then Joseph did that thing we do today, “But when it goes well for you, please remember me and show me kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, that he might bring me out of this prison (Genesis 40:14, BSB, bold mine). “Hey, “ukiomoka usinisahau!” Translation, “remember me when you make it!” I mean, he was just shooting his shot, right? Well, let us establish this first: there is nothing wrong in asking for help. If you want to go far, go with others. Getting help is wise. But asking for help can so easily cross over into seeing others as our salvation. It is easy to lose sight of the fact that deliverance is of the Lord and it is God who will work through others to save us. Once we lose sight of this, we look to others as our source and salvation. We peg our success or failure based on their actions and start looking to them to do what only God should do for us. Look at Joseph pleading his case to the cupbearer “show me kindness… that Pharaoh might bring me out of this prison” dungeon.” He was looking to both the cupbearer and Pharaoh for justice and deliverance. Well, guess what happened next? The cupbearer did in fact forget all about Joseph until two years later, when the Lord caused Pharaoh to have a dream and the cupbearer being in the presence and earshot of Pharaoh, remembered Joseph. Another set of events, at the appointed time, that favoured Joseph. When the time was right, the Lord made it happen. His name came up, he was called and voila! He was in charge of all the land! His life literally changed in a day, not by the hand of the cupbearer, but by the hand of God. Friend, God showed out! Joseph did not come out a slave, but free, promoted, and honoured! The Lord not only removed reproach from him but also, elevated him above all and gave him power and freedom!
“Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. 40You shall be in charge of my house, and all my people are to obey your commands. Only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you.””
(Genesis 41:39-40, BSB, bold mine)
Joseph tried to bring about his own deliverance when he told the cupbearer to put in a good word for him. He did not know that God had a plan, so he was just “shooting his shot” instead of just being “passive”. But he was shooting his shot to the wrong person. God does not reward this. No amount of meddling, traipsing, networking, bootlicking, bribery, hustle, toil or complaining, will get you what GOD has for you! Because your life is hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3) and you cannot pry your life out of the hand of God.
If Joseph had succeeded in his human wisdom, he probably would have ended up released from prison but still a slave and ‘owing the cupbearer’. Imagine that conversation “thanks man, you really helped me out!” He wanted the deliverance for himself. But God was looking at the deliverance of an entire nation from obliteration by famine, and had already planned for how it would be, for His glory, Joseph’s good and the saving of many lives. [Check Genesis 42-48, for the full story]
Friend, you literally have no idea what God has written for you. Trust God’s timing and look to God as your deliverer. You might look back now and realize that the most amazing opportunities you got, you could never have come up with them on your own. They “just happened”. No no honey, they did not “just happen”. God authored them. I encourage you to wait on the Lord. Stop looking to your own wisdom, methods, efforts and cunning to get what you need. Look to God, only from whom deliverance comes. As you go for interviews, ask for help and make applications, look to God and ask God to open doors for you, give you favour and go before you. Do not look to that person who knows someone else to get you that thing. Look to God, in whom your life is hidden. God will never let you down and frankly, your efforts can only get you so far.
Let’s look at Jeremiah 17
5This is what the LORD says:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind,
who makes the flesh his strength
and turns his heart from the LORD.
6He will be like a shrub in the desert;
he will not see when prosperity comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
8He is like a tree planted by the waters
that sends out its roots toward the stream.
It does not fear when the heat comes,
and its leaves are always green.
It does not worry in a year of drought,
nor does it cease to produce fruit.
Do not make the work of your hands or your own efforts your god. Do not put your trust in these or in fellow human beings, looking to them as your salvation or help, thus turning to these and away from God. (Whenever we turn to one thing, we are turning away from something else.) Yes, you may be in a situation and you see no way out. I encourage you to SEE the One who sees all things, knows all things and is above all things (I’m talking about God in whom we have deliverance through the Son Jesus, by the work of His Holy Spirit, in case it wasn’t clear 😉 I want to leave no room for ambiguity! We gotta be on the same page). Because what the enemy meant for evil, God will use for good. If ever in doubt, remember this story. May this be your testimony and the testimony of your brothers and sisters in Christ.
“As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people.”
(Genesis 50:20, BSB)
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