Highly Favoured

No one dreams of being the runner-up. When Joseph, son of Jacob, was given a dream of being the first, he likely awaited a life of privilege. Yet the favour of God led him into the wilderness and chains before the throne. Much like the soldiers did not realise that crowning Christ with thorns glorified him, so were Joseph’s many oppressors unknowingly used as the purpose of God in his life. As we explore the life of Joseph recognise how God brings Joseph into places of darkness and light as his highly favoured one.  

From his birth, Joseph was the favourite. As a son of Jacob's beloved second wife, his life was destined for better things than his brothers. He was even given a coat of many colours by his father to shine bright among his ordinary brothers. God confirmed this favour by giving him a dream at 15 years old that his own father and brothers would bow to him as ruler.

“I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” Gen 37:9.

All this adoration was rather insulting to his older brothers. In a fit of jealousy, they threw him into a dry well and took his colourful cloak to fake his murder. They intended to kill him, but instead sold him into slavery in Egypt. Betrayed by his own blood, cut off from his parents and reduced to property. From the darling child to a slave, an unwelcome start to his young life. I wonder if, as he was being dragged away by Ishmaelite slave traders, he thought of his dreams. Seems cruel that God would give him such wonderful dreams of grandeur only to be thrown into a pit. Still, these were the promises of God he carried in his heart as he walked down the road to favour.

Down in Egypt, he was no longer a son of Jacob but a foreigner, nameless, bought like a commodity.  He was sold to an Egyptian official as a household slave. With every reason to curse God, he chose to remain faithful to him. First, in his work, he became a trustworthy servant to his slave master Potiphar.

When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favour in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. Gen 39:3-5.

Strangely, Joseph fulfilled the promise given to his great-grandfather Abraham that all nations on earth would be blessed through his family. When faced with the cruelty of Egypt, Joseph responded with faithfulness to God, and so God blessed Egypt. This troubles me; shouldn’t the favour of God have taken him out of that house? Why be a blessed slave and not a free man? Surely the blessings of God could have prevented Joseph from being sold in the first place. It was not so; God led him there and allowed him to be blessed in bondage. God planted his chosen one away from the promised land. Had he remained with his father, Israel, only his family would be blessed. His faithful servitude brought the blessings of Israel to the nations.

Just when the story was turning for the good, this same devotion to God would lead him to more suffering. A certain wife of Potiphar wanted Joseph as more than a servant; specifically, she wanted him in her bed. She grabbed his cloak to lure him there, but Joseph declared that he would never touch her and sin against God. His brave flight from temptation was his undoing. Potiphar’s wife spun the story that he was, in fact, the abuser and not her. With a false rape accusation to his name, he was thrown into prison, not just any prison, but the maximum security one where the king’s prisoners were held. And so, our blameless Joseph stands accused. From son, to servant, to prisoner. Like Christ, he suffers for the sins of others:

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.” Isaiah 53:3.

At this point, I might have given Joseph the advice of Job’s wife, ‘Why don’t you curse God and die?’ After all, it seems God had set himself against him. Perhaps Joseph did wonder in that lonely prison cell, ‘Why, my God, have you forsaken me?’ Yet, it is clear that all the injustices Joseph endured put him right where God’s favour rested; in the valley of the shadow of death...

“But while Joseph was there in the prison,  the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him Favor in the eyes of the prison warden.  So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.” Gen 39:20-23.

In this same prison Jospeh meets two prisoners of the King. A royal baker and cup bearer both troubled with nightmares. Now it just so happens that their new prison manager is a dreamer himself. How divinely orchestrated. To the cupbearer, Joseph interprets the dream as a sign that Pharaoh would free him from prison and restore him to work. To the baker, he interprets that he will be hanged by Pharaoh. Three days later, both interpretations come true. Now Joseph has an ear to the royal palace through the cupbearer.

Two years later, the king of Egypt dreams too, and at last the cupbearer remembers his vow to help Joseph. Joseph is brought up from the prison to interpret the dream of the king. This looks like his moment now. The time to take the honour due to him all along. Yet he claims no such praise.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it.” “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” Gen 41:15-16

The same God who up till now had allowed him to go into slavery and prison unjustly, yes, this God he still praises. His assurance of faith was born from much suffering. With every chance to ask ‘Where are you, God?’ he kept choosing to see the hand of God. Having lived a life full of so much pain, he was humble; he understood that his very life, much less his dreams, was a gift of God. How far that little teenager had come. Now, 33, he stood before a king not touting his lofty dreams as he once did to his brothers; instead, he recentres his gift on God. Only endurance can mature faith.

Joseph correctly interpreted Pharaoh's dreams as a sign of the impending harvest and famine Egypt would experience. He then gave them a plan to survive the famine by collecting a grain tax during the 7 years of harvest and then selling it during the 7 years of famine.

“The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” Gen 41:37-41.

Finally, Joseph is raised. This would have been a good ending to his story, from prisoner to ruler. However, those brothers who sold him 15 years ago still needed to be saved. The 7-year famine had spread as far as Joseph’s ancestral land. With Egypt being the only place with grain, Joseph’s brothers had to go down there and buy grain or suffer starvation. Faced with his betrayers, would Joseph be able to show mercy instead of justice?

In those 15 years apart, the brothers, too, were refined by God so much so that one of them, Judah, offers himself to save Joseph's only full brother, Benjamin. In a scene much like his dreams, his brothers kneel before him, begging for his trust. It is a sacrifice that wrecks Joseph's. Through many tears, he reconciles with his brothers. He even brings his whole extended family to live with him in Egypt. So, the children of Israel leave the promised land of Canaan for the bounty of Egypt. Life springs up in the desert, and Egypt becomes like Eden.

But Joseph said to his brothers, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Gen 50:19-20

The result of a life surrendered to God is the salvation of many. God working through us will achieve far greater than anything we can ever hope to do on our own. It was God’s plan with the first Adam, now evidenced in Joseph’s life. When you get a human who really fears God above all things, so much is possible. Even in the middle of the world’s undoing, an image of God can save life.  It is amazing what divinity and humanity can accomplish together.

It is no coincidence that Joseph’s life so mirrors Christ’s, a son of man raised to glory through unjust suffering. I believe this was the greatest result of Joseph’s favour; having his life’s story foreshadow the Messiah’s. We are presented with the same choices as Joseph in all moments of life: believe in God, flee sin and endure suffering with hope. For just as we suffer with Christ, so will we be raised to glory with him. What a privilege it is to know God in this way.

I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Philippians 3:10-11

As we see in Joseph’s story, a life that is highly favoured mirrors Christ on earth and draws people into the full blessings of Heaven. Being highly favoured means that God is with you. He will lead you beside still waters and walk you through the valley of the shadow of death. Yet what better way is there than the one that leads to life? May this be the prayer of our lives: to have God with us in all we do. To pray not for our will but for his to be done.

“If your presence does not go,” Moses responded to God, “don’t make us go up from here. How will it be known that your people and I have found favour with you unless you go with us? Your people and I will be distinguished by this from all the other people on the face of the earth.” Exodus 33:15-16