"What Do You See?" A Pastoral Reflection on Jeremiah 1.

Photo: Greg K Dueker

I teach students preparing for Christian ministry. Some share that they struggle with the lack of opportunity in the church for younger leaders, and it causes them to doubt their calling. At the same time, I see other more experienced pastors and ministry leaders who are struggling with their own long-term ministry resiliency. So many sense a calling, even having some kind of "vision" for how they will participate in the work of the kingdom, at the beginning of their ministry, but then they seem to lose clarity and confidence over the years. The last couple of years (2020-21) have been especially hard on ministry students and established pastors alike. So many of us have been in survival mode. However, in seasons of difficulty, when other needs and noises are stripped away, we may hear God reassuring us of his invitation and empowerment, if we will listen! He has not stopped working. 

At the beginning of the prophetic book of Jeremiah, we have a record of how God first called, then confirmed, and encouraged the young priest Jeremiah to step out of his comfort zone into a world-shaking prophetic ministry. As I read this passage afresh, this week, I was moved to consider how it might be applied in our contexts today.

Let's take a look at Jeremiah 1:11-14 together in light of ministry in difficult times...

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 

                           “Jeremiah, what do you see?”

                                            And I said, “I see an almond branch.” 

    Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well,                                                                                                             for I am watching over my word to perform it.” (v. 11-12)

Blooming Almond Trees
Photo by Steffen Lemmerzahl on Unsplash

This first vision comes after the Lord has spoken that he had put his word in Jeremiah (v.4-10). It almost has the feel of a trial run or a practice swing before something more complicated comes. Not only was it a simple vision, but the Lord gave Jeremiah immediate feedback. Is it not that way with the gifts and calling of the Lord, that first, when we are asked to be faithful in a little, before we are entrusted with much?  

Once it has been established that Jeremiah had both seen and spoken the vision correctly, we see that the Lord is “watching over his word” …to bring to pass what he has said. Has the Lord given us a vision that we are supposed to share with others? A message of repentance calling his wandering children home to the God who loves them? A message of hope that God is working through the very difficulties that we are facing? I am convinced that we all have a part to play if we will lovingly trust and obey. 

Do you wonder why God started Jeremiah off with a vision of an almond branch? Well, it is a homophone that sounds like the word for watching. The almond is also the first tree to bloom in that part of the world and is referred to as the "wake-up tree". This is powerful as a metaphor for the prophetic role. However, doesn’t this remind you of something else that was inside the ark of the covenant? Is it possible that the vision of the almond branch might have reminded Jeremiah of Aaron’s staff that budded in Numbers 17:8? That staff was a sign that God had chosen Aaron and his sons for the priesthood (as opposed to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram et al) and should have encouraged Jeremiah, the uncertain young priest, that God’s choice to use him to speak a wake-up call to the people was settled.

The word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” Then the Lord said to me, “Out of the north disaster shall be let loose upon all the inhabitants of the land. (v. 13-14)

Photo by 🇮🇳Saif Ali on Unsplash

The second vision God gave to Jeremiah was also pretty straightforward. It was a simple, "See the vision and report what you see" type of assignment. As a teacher, I can appreciate the Lord's pedagogy here. Jeremiah was being given the prophetic equivalent of baseball’s Spring Training before he would have to preach these messages to the public. In the process, the Lord dealt with any possible fear or dismay that might have discouraged Jeremiah.

As we try to recover from more than a year of viral conflicts and Covid-19 challenges, and we wonder about the future of our ministry and calling and whether we have the strength to press forward, I hope that we can all find a bit of hope in the commissioning of Jeremiah. He was called to a task that required resiliency. He would be attacked, both verbally and physically, and yet he was commissioned to speak the truth to the people. He was not alone in this mission, and neither are we.

And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the Lord, to deliver you. (v. 18-19)

When I think through this narrative of a young and somewhat reluctant prophet, there are many ways that it resonates with me… though I am no longer young. I think that as Jeremiah leaned into the call of God, he must have been moved by more than duty. He must have been responding to the amazing love of God! My mother’s favorite Bible verse, which she regularly slipped into letters and cards over the years, was,

I have loved you with an everlasting love;
    therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you. (Jer. 31:3)

Now that she is no longer able to send such encouragement, that verse means more to me than ever. Jeremiah certainly was privy to the affective-relational heart of God's message, but too often we lose sight of love in our pursuit of success and the subsequent boasting related to our efforts and programs. Yet the Lord calls us back to what is most important...

Thus says the Lord: 

    “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,

      let not the mighty man boast in his might,

      let not the rich man boast in his riches, but 

      let him who boasts boast in this,

                            that he understands and knows me,

                            that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love,

                                                                                 justice, and

                                                                                 righteousness in the earth.       

   For in these things I delight, declares the Lord.” (9:23-24)

So I am encouraged by passages like these to see my calling and my success in terms of faithfulness in response to his steadfast love rather than in more crassly economic measurements. 

As the Lord speaks into our lives by the Spirit through his Word, what is it that we see? What will we speak about? When we speak does it sound like Jesus? Will we be moved to respond relationally to God's wonderful love? I hope so. In such love, there is great resiliency.

By the way, there is one other place where God asked, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” (Jer. 24:3-7ff). If you want to do a little homework, ask yourself how the context of that final passage relates to what we have experienced in recent months, and how it might speak to the way that we respond to the current ministry challenges we are facing. How does it contrast self-reliance with surrender? I will leave those answers up to you. But feel free to chime in through the comment section with your helpful suggestions!

Unexpected (A SOAP Journal from Job 9 and Acts 13)

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Job 9:16

If I summoned him and he answered me,
    I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.

 v.32-34

For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him,
    that we should come to trial together.
There is no arbiter between us,
    who might lay his hand on us both.
Let him take his rod away from me,
    and let not dread of him terrify me.

Job’s cry in his distress was that he might be heard by God, yet amid his great pain, shame, and grief, he could not believe or expect that God would actually hear and answer him. He longed for there to be an advocate, a mediator who could take away his fear and reconcile his relationship with God. A real-life man of peace. His words remain the profound longing of honest men and women in their pre-relational faith. I'm referring to those people who know that God must exist, and they feel like he is angry with them, and have no idea how to fix it. This is a common condition throughout the ages. Yet God, in His great love for us, has sent the promised savior. As Paul announced in Acts 13:32-33a, 38-39,

And we bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus… Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses.

Photo by Mateus Campos Felipe
 on Unsplash

I know that there are times that I ask God to come through with something or to answer my prayers, but deep down don’t expect him to do so. And when he does answer, help, comfort, and deliver, then I can doubt that my prayers had anything to do with it. Lord, have mercy!

The good news is that he heard the cry of suffering and confused people like Job, as well as those sinful and slow-to-believe people like me, and sent Jesus Christ. God the Son came in the flesh to save us from our sins, to spread his arms on the cross to put his hand on our shoulder and his other hand on the Father so that we might be restored to a right relationship with the God who loves us.

Lord God, thank you for hearing and answering my prayer in Christ before I even asked it. But Lord, I pray that you would also bless me with faith to believe that you do answer so that I might live my life expecting that you are near and that you are at work even when I can’t see it or feel it. May you not be unexpected. Hallelujah! Amen.

Psalm 21 — Humble Glory & Deliverance from the Proud

This post originally appeared on my Honest2God blog in 2014. I am reposting it here because it is still relevant today, for we are surrounded by the manifested selfishness of a society of fallen souls. We all seek to establish and expand our own kingdoms, and in the process, we treat others with disrespect. This psalm is a powerful reminder that those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted (Luke 14:11). As we lead the people of God, we should do so in a way that best reflects the love of Jesus!

Psalm 21:5-7, 11-12

This is a psalm of David, presumably written by or for King David and using the third person "him" most likely to refer to himself and any godly descendants to follow. I like his statement in v. 6b and desire that I, too, might be glad today with the joy of the Lord's presence. So having sorted out the pronouns, the author is speaking of the king (David), and by extension of the people of the king, to God,

⁵ His [David’s] glory is great through your [God's] salvation;
    splendor and majesty you bestow on him.
⁶ For you make him most blessed forever;
    you make him glad with the joy of your presence.
⁷ For the king trusts in the Lord,
    and through the steadfast love of the Most High he shall not be moved.

The king’s glory was not in his own achievements so much as it was great through what God had done to save and deliver him time and time again. David didn’t have to promote himself, but it was God who bestowed splendor and majesty on him. God’s consideration of us is usually better than anything we would honestly think of ourselves. Self-glory is always at the expense of others and, in the end, poisons our own lives. But the humble glory that God gives to those who trust in him and are “glad with the joy of your presence” results in our being firmly established. Following the plan of God is not some dour task demanding grim determination, though often difficult (as it was for David), it is filled with joy and the greatest of loves.

In this psalm, David, the king, represents all who would trust the Lord for their honor and glory. David worked diligently as a shepherd in obscurity even within his own family—until the time that the Lord chose to elevate him. Saul persecuted David for years, and yet David spared Saul’s life several times (see 1 Samuel 16-31), and though a proficient warrior, he refused to take things into his own hands (his military advisors told him to kill Saul), trusting in the plan of God. Why? Because he knew the steadfast love of the Lord for him! The steadfast love of God is something we all need to be reminded of amid a culture of self-promotion, self-esteem, and selfishness. Amazingly, we matter more to God than we do to ourselves!  

I wrote a major paper in the first year of my doctoral program about the “humble glory of God,” and this passage fits into that model. In that paper, I included an original poem, Scent of Glory, that begins like this,

Born to share glory, not seek it.

Yet sniffing, climbing, grasping, fighting, expecting,

We hunt along a different path

Twisted we claim it, kill it, and die

Poisoned by pride.

And then later,

Glory is given not grasped,

Belonging to God—Father, Son, Spirit—

Shared in Trinitarian community of love.

Yet he invites us in as family, to eat once again

What we once lost by taking.

His invitation to “come up” is far better than the humiliation of falling from our self-claimed glory (Luke 14:7-11). 

The second section of this Psalm that stood out to me, in this reading, was v.11-12. While the king/person that trusts in the Lord is established and unmoved, the person who is filled with the pride of self-promotion will not ultimately succeed. These verses contain some very military language that we would like to be true of us in our conflict with our enemies today.

Though they plan evil against you,
    though they devise mischief,

                they will not succeed.
For you will put them to flight;
          you will aim at their faces with your bows.

When I read the phrase “aim at their faces with your bows” I can’t help but picture the humorous scene in the movie, Fellowship of the Ring, where Gimli the Dwarf covers his own fear of the forest by bragging about how stealthy he is, only to look up to see a bunch of Elfish bows pointed at his face. It seems that prideful people are like that…surprised to learn they’re not “all that.” 

The humble glory of God has a much better shelf life than any works of human pride.

God is still in the business of confronting the pernicious idol of our own pride. In the midst of cultural discord, political campaigns, and sadly, even in church conflicts, pride is not absent. I pray that we might be delivered from the attacks of the proud, yet often that means we need to be delivered from ourselves. 

We are to be different, following the example of our gift-giving Savior, Jesus Christ, and considering others first. 

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. (Phil. 2:3-4)

Lord, have mercy, Christ have mercy!

Trusting God in a Tottering World

Photo by Cindy Tang on Unsplash

In tumultuous times how will we respond? Will we care only about our own needs or will we bear one another's burdens?

Recently, in a men’s Bible journaling small group meeting, I read a handful of assigned texts including 1 Peter 2, Isaiah 38-39, 2 Kings 20, and Psalm 75, and I chose the following three brief passages for this devotional post. 

As the world "totters" it is through times of reading and sharing the Scriptures in community with others that the tottering seems to stop and the challenges seem to shrink as we stand together in Christ-centered faith, reminded of the goodness of God on our behalf.

Psalm 75:2-5

 “At the set time that I appoint  

 When the earth totters, and all its inhabitants,     Selah
   I say to the boastful, ‘Do not boast,’
    and to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horn;
do not lift up your horn on high,
    or speak with haughty neck.’”

Isaiah 38:17

Behold, it was for my welfare    
but in love you have delivered my life
    from the pit of destruction,
for you have cast all my sins
    behind your back.

1 Peter 2:21-24

                                   For to this you have been called, 

because Christ also suffered for you, 

                                        leaving you an example,

                                        so that you might follow in his steps. 

    He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 

    When he was reviled, he did not revile in return;

    when he suffered,      he did not threaten, 

  but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. 

                 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree,

                 that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. 

                         By his wounds you have been healed. 

   For you were straying like sheep,

                                                  but have now returned

               to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.

Comments: 

Photo by Wonderlane on Unsplash

As Americans, we need to remember that not all suffering is bad. Some suffering serves the gracious purpose of turning us back to God. Yet even as we do so and receive deliverance, we should be careful not to claim it only for ourselves. Rather, we should share what God has done for us with others so that they, too, might benefit from it.

In Isaiah 38, when God delivered him, Hezekiah responded well (at first) by writing down his words of praise. However, later, once he was comforted by the envoys from Babylon, in pride, he showed them all that he had in his storerooms and was nonplussed when Isaiah told him that it all would be taken away and that some of his sons would eventually be eunuchs in the court of Babylon. Further, once he knew how much time he had left to live (15 years), he didn’t seem to intercede for his sons or do anything to try to change the trajectory of the nation despite having personally experienced the efficacy of fervent prayer!

Do I do the same thing? Do I cry out when I am in need and enthusiastically embrace God’s deliverance for me, but fail to really care about others and mourn over what they will face? Am I satisfied to get what I need when others do not have what they need? It is too easy to fall into an egocentric trap of success and blessing instead of working, compelled by the love of Christ, as ministers of reconciliation.

O Lord, thank you for suffering for me. You alone are my rock and my shield. Yet may I remember that you suffered for the sins of others and that they need to hear the good news that you judge justly and that you took our place. Lord, I also contend for the next generation that they would not be "eunuchs in a foreign land" but living stones and a holy nation built together for your own possession (1 Peter 2:9). May we continue, generation after generation, to praise and serve you alone!

So now, Lord, as the earth seems to totter, in a pandemic, in protests, in political schemes, and in personal suffering, I look to you to steady its pillars. My first call is to you and you judge with equity. 

Lord, hear my prayer!

The Big Picture (Part 3)

We have been considering how God worked in the life of Joseph and that in his suffering and integrity, Joseph was an amazing type (as a symbol and foreshadowing) of Christ. Though we are no longer types, we are called to be witnesses, pointing people to Jesus Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

It has been said by many that we are always witnesses, one way or the other. Either our life attracts people to Jesus through the light of a transformed life, or it repels people because it claims something that it doesn’t deliver. 
We need to ask whether our lives and churches are like a dark and oppressive forest to those who "know not the way"? It seems that so many of the people that I talk to who are antagonistic towards the church have been exposed to someone who was, in their view, an offensively negative witness. At the same time, those who are in the church may see those people who are angry and hurt as merely twisting things to justify their own sin. There is probably truth in both positions. What if we learned to look for the big picture in the lives of those we meet? What if we took the time to listen to the other person’s story and appreciate their suffering in a manifestation of the love of Christ? There would probably be fewer people angry and turned off at the church. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote from a Nazi prison,

We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer. The only profitable relationship to others - and especially to our weaker brethren - is one of love, and that means the will to hold fellowship with them. God himself did not despise humanity but became man for men’s sake.[1]

Last week’s post ended with me asking three fairly pointed questions,

• 
  
  Do we bear a family resemblance to Joseph and to Jesus? If we are going to be positive witnesses then it will be because people can see, hear, and feel Jesus in our lives.
• Where do we fit in the big-picture plan of God? We know that he has called us to be a part of the plan, though we may not know all the details. It may involve waiting, as well as suffering, and rejection at the hands of those we are trying to reach. It may not be a place of power and prominence, but rather a place in the margins, but why should we expect better than Jesus? He has allowed us to share in the fellowship of his suffering so that we can also share in his comfort. 



Vines on a Kibbutz in Israel


• He has a place for us. Will we embrace it? Jesus said that he who saves his own life will lose it, and he who loses his life will save it. Yet we too often prefer to trust in our own efforts rather than trust in Christ. We self-medicate in a thousand different ways and yet can never heal ourselves from the sickness of sin. Only Jesus can do that.

What if things don’t work out the way we planned? It is all too easy to blame others for our failures. It is harder for us to accept our own responsibility to live fully for God despite hardship, suffering, and even death, and leave the result to God. Trust is hard, but it is the only way to embrace the big picture. Let us not become discouraged by setbacks and mistakes. God will see that his plan comes to completion. We just need to stay humble as we strive to live responsible, committed lives, depending daily on his grace. Again, let me quote Bonhoeffer, 

“I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil. For that purpose, he needs men who make the best use of everything. I believe that God will give us all the strength we need to help us to resist in all times of distress. But he never gives it in advance, lest we should rely on ourselves and not on him alone. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future. I believe that even our mistakes and shortcomings are turned to good account, and that it is no harder for God to deal with them than with our supposedly good deeds. I believe that God is no timeless fate, but that he waits for and answers sincere prayers and responsible actions.” [2]

We're not out of the woods yet... though Jesus knows the way! 
Perhaps trusting God together is the big picture.

[This was originally posted on my Cultural Engagement blog when I was still a doctoral student.]

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[1] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (2011-05-10). Letters and Papers from Prison (Kindle Locations 224-227). Touchstone. Kindle Edition.

[2] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, (Kindle Locations 244-249).

The Big Picture (Part 2) — Learning From Joseph

In my last post, I started talking about Joseph’s experiences as an example of how God uses even the bad things in our lives for his big picture purposes. I know what is so hard for me is that I don’t really have a clue as to how it all works together while I am walking through it. Does that bother you, too? I am learning to trust God more in the moment of trial than ever before, and Joseph’s story helps. From this narrative, I was reminded of and challenged in several areas.

1. God’s plan operates above, under, and around the “right now” instantaneous sensory perception of those of us who are involved in the world. Joseph would have had no idea what God was going to do at the beginning of his story. When Joseph was a slave in Potiphar’s house or in the dungeon, would he have imagined that one day he would not only be released but be placed in charge of the entire country of Egypt, and with all the trappings of his new position and authority? Pharaoh even gave Joseph a new name, "Zaphnath-paaneah."  While scholars are uncertain as to its exact meaning, this name has been interpreted to mean any of the following: "The Savior of the World," "The Supporter of Life," "The Food of the Living," or "The Revealer of Secrets."  All are appropriate to Joseph and ultimately to our Lord Jesus Christ as well. One day, the Lord Jesus Christ will give to those who overcome a new name as well! What should comfort us in the valley of the shadow is the presence of the Lord with us, even as he was with Joseph.
2. We can allow the things that people have done to us to keep us from trusting and loving others the way that God requires, or we can see our own brokenness in their broken actions. We are all broken and need the grace that God offers in Christ. In acknowledging our own susceptibility to treat other people as mere objects to be arranged as we wish, we will be quicker to forgive and show grace when others treat us that way. When we see the sins of others, it should remind us to repent of our own sins all the more fervently. The tears of a broken and repentant heart, when mixed with trust in God’s love, are the certain antidote for the malignant cancers of cynicism, bitterness, and hate.
3. How do we live in the moment when we can’t see God’s big-picture plan? Joseph lived with integrity, distinguishing himself in his work, with patience, and with trust in his God, no matter how grievous the situation. We would do well to learn from Joseph to do the same. Yet Joseph was not the hero in his own story…it was the presence of God that made all the difference in giving success (Genesis 39:3, 21, 23). Jesus still promises us our daily bread through the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It is because, though he fully knows us, he does not leave us, that we can respond in love. It is because of such responsive love that we can sing, even in the dungeon, “Though none go with you still I will follow, no turning back! No turning back!”
4. What do we do when the tables are turned and we have both the power and the opportunity for revenge? After testing his brothers to see if they would throw Benjamin “under the bus” like they had done to him, Joseph recognized that God had not only been at work in his own life through the years but in his brothers’ lives as well. Not only did Joseph pass the test of power, but his brothers passed the test of humility. As God used Joseph to test the brothers' hearts, he worked repentance in them.  The testing of their lives produced fear (Gen. 42:28,35) and sorrow (Gen. 42:21), then confession (Gen. 44:16) and repentance (Gen. 42:13-34). Their hearts were changed. They were concerned about their father and his potential grief. They were now willing to stand in place of their brother, even to their own hurt—truly an act of relational repentance from their shameful treatment of Joseph. It was because of this repentance that they were in a position to experience grace, which they heard and received (Gen. 45:5).  It is an old saying, but true that "Those who say, 'We are guilty' could rightly understand the words of precious grace, 'It was not you but God'."[1] Joseph chose to forgive their sins against him and to embrace them again as his family. He yielded to the larger purpose of God. Are we willing to stand before our brothers whom we have treated shamefully, in some way like Joseph was treated, and repent? Are we willing to take the place of dishonor for the benefit of another? I hope so.
5. They really meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Which purpose will we choose to respond to, to live into, to die for? It is all too easy to blame others for our failures. It is harder for us to accept our own responsibility to live fully for God despite hardship, suffering, and even death. For what are we willing to die? For our own power, desires, and comfort, or for the holy redemptive cause of Christ in the world? In 1980, Salvadoran martyr Bishop Oscar Romero told a reporter, a short time before he was killed, "You can tell the people that if they succeed in killing me, that I forgive and bless those who do it. Hopefully, they will realize they are wasting their time. A bishop will die, but the church of God, which is the people, will never perish."[2]
6. God’s big-picture cycle of reward and retribution is not contained in this life on earth, much less within the current workweek. It has been said that we don’t sow and reap in the same season. It is a theological error that directly associates material wealth, worldly comfort, and ease with personal righteousness or the lack of these things with personal sin and foolishness. Just as it was wrong for Job’s friends to conclude that because he had suffered so terribly, he must be a heinous sinner, it is wrong for the wealthy to think that God will not hold them accountable for looking down on the poor in oppressive contempt. Jesus is coming back. He is not slow…he is just patient and does not desire that any should perish (2 Peter 3). Let us work together with Jesus towards that end as agents of reconciliation! 

Joseph was not only a wonderful and personal type of Christ, but his actions served as a historical type as well.  Arthur W.  Pink, in his book Gleanings in Genesis, lists and describes 101 ways in which Joseph was a type of Christ! While I have not found as many, there is plenty of room for further study on this point. More importantly, I have to ask, do we bear a family resemblance to Joseph and to Jesus? Where do we fit in the big-picture plan of God? He has a place for us. Will we embrace it?

[This post originally appeared on my cultural engagement blog while I was a DMin student.]

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[1] C.H. Mackintosh, Notes on the Book of Genesis, (Loizeaux Brothers, 1880,1959), p.331.

[2] http://www.uscatholic.org/culture/social-justice/2009/02/oscar-romero-bishop-poor#sthash.qv9WtkTj.dpuf

The Big Picture (Part 1) — Learning From Joseph

As Pastors and leaders, we often experience setbacks, stress, and suffering in a way that can be hazardous to our well-being and that of those around us. There are times when we experience betrayal and false accusations, and may be subject to the court of public opinion without an opportunity to defend ourselves. I am not even talking about the huge train wrecks of moral failure, but of the smaller issues where our motivation is questioned or our effectiveness is criticized. Those times when our allies turn on us unexpectedly or forget about our valuable input into the process. Sometimes we launch out in faith that God has called us, but we don't see immediate results or perhaps feel like we have been sidelined unjustly. If you can relate to any of this, then I hope that this series of three posts based on the story of Joseph will serve as encouraging reminders of God's presence during trial and of his continued ministry call on our lives.

We all have our stories of brokenness and hurt…for no one is immune to the bruising experience of life in a fallen world. Some people’s pain may be more acute—stabbing, searing in a moment of tragedy. While others hurts may experience more chronic suffering over the years and even decades. Why do we evaluate the pain of others in the same way that we consider our own sin and failure? We tend to amplify our own pain while minimizing that of another. At the same time, we minimize our own sin while that of others is often perceived to be more severe. When we are hurting, physically or emotionally, our pain can seem like it is the center of the universe. 

But it isn’t.

Yet, it is not wasted, not a bit of it, if we are surrendered to Christ, the one whose suffering was, in fact, the center, the crux, of the universe! Do we see the big picture of sharing in the suffering of Christ, or are we mired in the dark pit of our own limited view? Has our short-sightedness caused us to become angry, frustrated, or bitter? I hope not.

Years ago, my son was a medic in the Army National Guard, and at times chafed at the extremely mundane assignments performed during monthly drill weekends. However, when his unit stepped up their training in preparation for their deployment, that all changed. After returning from some intense brigade-level training, my son had a different attitude and said that he had finally gotten to see “the big picture.” He saw how all the mundane tasks, if not done with diligence, can have tragic consequences on the battlefield. 

The Bible story that perhaps best illustrates this concept is the story of Joseph found in Genesis 37-47. His birth is described in Gen. 30:22-24, but the story really gets going in Gen. 37.

Joseph was Jacob's first son by his wife Rachel, who had waited many years to have a child.  She named the child Joseph for two reasons: (1) The name Joseph is connected linguistically to his mother’s testimony, "God has taken away my disgrace," and (2) the name itself is a prayer of faith to God ("may the Lord add" to her another son).  Joseph was certainly a man who would never be one to bring disgrace, but instead, by his integrity and simple faith, he worked to remove it…even in the lives of those who meant him ill.   

Joseph grew up with the love of his father but not that of his brothers. They were alienated from him by their jealousy and their father’s show of favoritism. They blamed Joseph for their disgrace instead of taking responsibility for their failures. The Scripture says that they "could not speak a kind word to him" (37:4).  Literally, they would not speak a "peaceable" word, referring to the common Middle Eastern greeting, "Peace be with you."  They snubbed him at every opportunity.  You can read about what happened as the old story of Cain & Abel (Gen. 4) reverberates in the life of Joseph. Here is a brief outline of Joseph’s story:

1. God used Joseph as a youth to reveal God’s plan for his family (Gen. 37)
2. God used Joseph as a slave in Potiphar's house (Gen. 39:1-20)
3. God used Joseph as a prisoner serving other prisoners (Gen. 39:21 - 40:23)
4. God used Joseph as a prophet to interpret Pharaoh's dreams (Gen. 41:1-36)
5. God used Joseph (raising him to power) to save Egypt, and his family (Gen. 41:37-56)
6. God used Joseph as a judge to test his brothers (Gen. 42-44) 
7. God used Joseph as a peacemaker to reconcile his family. (Gen. 45-47) 

Why is the life of Joseph so important to us today? It asks and answers questions about our purpose in God’s plan for our families, nations, and the world. Joseph experienced a lot of pain—relational, physical, cultural, and perhaps even racial bigotry. Yet there was a larger purpose behind all he suffered. He was hated by his brothers, betrayed, sold as a slave a couple of times, sexually harassed, falsely accused, and imprisoned, and finally forgotten by one who should have quickly shown gratitude. This happened over many years before God suddenly raised him up as one prepared for the moment of crisis. Not that betrayal, estrangement, slavery, and the dungeon are good (they’re not!), but that God took what was intended for evil and used it for good. God was with him every step along the way. He was not separated from, or a stranger to, Joseph’s suffering. One thing we don’t see Joseph doing is questioning God’s presence or complaining about God. Do we have an attitude and a work ethic that God can bless no matter what our circumstances are? Can God give us favor with those in authority over us without violating his own character?

Are we using what has been intended for evil against us for the good of God’s people? I am convinced that God wants to do just that.

My next post will elaborate on some of the “big picture” lessons I am learning and the hard questions I am asking myself in response to the example of God’s working in Joseph’s life. Join me on the journey!

[This was originally posted on my Cultural Engagement blog when I was still a doctoral student.]