The Lord Was With Joseph
“The Lord Was With…”
It is fascinating to see the people in the Old Testament about whom it is said, “The LORD was with them.”
The Lord was with Moses (Josh 1:17 & 3:7). That might seem rather obvious, what with the plagues, and the miracles, and the patience, and the tablets. But it is affirmed in Joshua that the effectiveness of Moses was not based in his own ability, but in God’s presence with him.
The statement of God’s presence with Moses was a prelude to the promise He would also be with Joshua (Josh 6:27).
The Lord was with Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, as he led God’s people (1 Chron 9:20).
The Lord was with Judah and The House of Joseph as they took the land promised to them beyond the Jordan (Judges 1:19 & 1:22), just as He had been with Their Fathers while they wandered in the wilderness (1 Kings 8:57).
The Lord was with each of the Judges who led Israel (before they insisted on a king), including the last of the judges, Samuel (Judg 2:18 & 1 Sam 3:19).
We are told the Lord was with Kings:
David (1 Sam 18:12, 18:14, 18:28, 2 Sam 5:10, 1 Chron 11:9),
Solomon (2 Chron 1:1),
Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:7),
Asa (2 Chron 15:9),
Jehoshaphat (2 Chron 17:3).
And we are told he was even with Ishmael, the rejected son of Abraham. Sarah, heartbroken she was not able to have a baby, gave her servant, Hagar, to Abraham for him to have a child by her. But, when Sarah did finally have Isaac, she hated Hagar and Ishmael and demanded they be sent to the desert. Ishmael became the father of the Arab peoples, “And God was with the boy,. . .” (Gen 21:20).
It is interesting, however, to see about whom it is never said, “The Lord was with.”
We are never told the Lord was with Abraham. That is an interesting omission to me. But, when you are called “The friend of God,” (Isaiah 41:8, 2 Chronicles 20:7, & James 2:23) I suppose God’s presence might be considered a foregone conclusion!
But there is one about whom it is said, “The Lord was with him” I would like for us to think about: it was that beloved dreamer, captive, slave, interpreter, community organizer, and national leader. . . Joseph.
Four times, in just one chapter, we are told the Lord was with Joseph (Genesis 39:2, 3, 21 & 23). God’s presence led to Joseph’s success in everything he did, but it was also God’s presence which caused his master (Potipher) and the warden of the prison Joseph spent time in to entrust everything they had to Joseph’s care.
Four times it says “The Lord was with Joseph.” I wonder what comfort there might be for us in God’s presence with Joseph.
Serving God can be a very lonely endeavor.
Abraham lost his dad and his nephew, but at least he had his wife and, eventually, his son.
Moses knew the solitude of leadership, but he did have Aaron and Hur who held his arms up and helped secure the victory.
Jeremiah never had a convert during his entire ministry, but he did have his faithful scribe, Baruch, and he did have that kindly Cushite who rescued him from a true “Pit of Despair.”
Amos was sent from the Southern Kingdom of Judah to prophesy against the Northern Kingdom of Israel (which would be like Yugo telling Chevrolet how to improve the Vega. (IYKYK)), but he still had his family in Tekoa and the security of home.
Elijah had the widow, Obadiah, Elisha, and even the 7000 he failed to recognize.
David had his mighty men, Samuel had Eli, Daniel had the 3 Hebrew children, and Deborah had Jael.
But Joseph: who did he have?
Certainly, there were some who worked in hostile environments. People like Jonah, Nahum, and Nehemiah had difficult assignments, but they also had the opportunity to return to “kith and kin.”
Not so with Joseph. Joseph was singularly “alone.”
Even when we consider those who had difficult assignments, but still had someone they could talk to, how did they survive? How did they endure? How did their faith remain intact and their ministry effective? It would have been so easy to have quit, to have given up, to have let the world go to blazes. In fact, there were those who actually did (or at least tried to) quit.
Isaiah tendered his resignation due to fatigue in Isaiah 45. Moses sure was ready to throw in the towel, Jonah tried his best to leave, Habakkuk had a couple of complaints which could have tempted him to quit, and Jeremiah actually did quit preaching for upwards of 17 years (his return is in Jer. 20). But all of them stuck with it! Many of us would have slacked off because of far less than any of those people endured, but what about Joseph?
Have you ever complained that you were the only Christian in your family?
Joseph was sold into slavery by his family!
Have you ever complained you were the only Christian in your school or at your “Meet you at the Pole” day of prayer?
Joseph was a slave in Potipher’s house and a forgotten prisoner in the prison where the king’s enemies were housed.
Have you ever complained about being the only Christian at your work place?
Joseph worked in the court of Pharaoh, the most powerful ruler in the world at the time, and never had a pastoral visit, never attended church, never opened a Bible, and never had an inspirational text sent to him.
Have you ever noticed you were the only Christian on your block? That is not terribly uncommon here in Utah!
Joseph was the only one who knew God, ON THE ENTIRE CONTINENT OF AFRICA!!!
And yet he, and all those others, remained faithful to God in the midst of their loneliness and, for Joseph, complete “alone-ness!!” How did they do it? How did they remain faithful in the face of so much opposition and solitude? How did they stick, when so many of us would have quit?
“And the Lord was with him.”
I believe we could say it was a good thing God was with Joseph, BECAUSE NO ONE ELSE WAS!!!
And today, whether Christian, pre-Christian, or non-believer, God is with us.
“Well I don’t know if I agree with that or not!” That’s fine. I get it. But I base that on a very clear statement from Paul when he was addressing extreme non-believers in Athens while standing atop the Areopagus. Paul explained to those philosophers that the god they worshiped as “unknown” was actually the creator of all things, the all-powerful, longing-to-be-known, ever-present God. In fact, God is so desirous of a relationship with all humanity, and so very close to all humanity, it could even be said, “‘In him we live and move and have our being’” (Acts 17:28).
God lives in nearness to us, His creation, for the purpose of calling us into relationship with Him. He had overlooked ignorance for unknown generations, but now, now that He had revealed Himself to us through His Son Jesus, and proven His Sonship by raising Him from the dead, it was time for all humanity to turn from their sin and get ready for a steadily approaching day of judgement.
If you are alive, you are “with God.”
If you breathe, eat, drink, exist, you partake of “the mercies of God” (Ro 12:1).
If you feel the warmth of the sun, marvel at the beauty of the stars, watch the tide drawn by the gravity of the moon, are humbled by the majesty of the mountains or the power of a storm, you are experiencing “his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature” (Ro 1:20).
There is no getting away from God. There is no escaping His presence.
The Psalmist asked “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?” (Ps 139:7-16). If he ascends to the heavens, God is there. If he were to go into death itself, God is there. The depths of the sea? God! Deepest darkness? Blackest night? God! Even the seclusion of my mother’s womb, and God is there!
And yet, there is a place where God is not. There is a place where God refuses to manifest Himself.
There is a place where all those who are so foolish as to say “No God!” (Ps 14:1) may, finally, experience the absence of His presence. Beyond the torments, beyond the privations, beyond the imps and the worst of Dante’s imaginings, hell is a place “. . . away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thess 1:9).
No mercies!!
No blessings!!
No manifestations of eternal power or divine nature!!
NO GOD!!
But now, in the experience we call “life,” we sense, we are sustained by, we engage with the very presence of God.
Truly it is “in Him” that life is sustained. Time and place are experienced, with the express intent that we all, “ . . . should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him (Acts 17:27).
If you are reading this, God is “with” you. He surrounds, supports and encapsulates you. He has revealed Himself in the exact image of His person, Jesus Christ, and invites each one into a relationship which will draw us even closer than merely “With” us.
Assuredly God was “with” Joseph, and it was God’s presence which sustained and prospered Joseph in everything he was able to accomplish. But the invitation of Jesus is so much more personal than simply “with” us. The invitation of Jesus is that He will be IN us.
The last night Jesus was with His disciples is when He gave the most intense teaching concerning the Holy Spirit He ever gave in His earthly ministry.
Until that night, the disciples had Jesus. After His departure they would have the Holy Spirit (John 16:7).
The disciples were, understandably, confused. They wanted a Kingdom! They wanted 12 thrones! They wanted recognition! They wanted Jesus!!
But the promise they received was that it was actually going to be better for them, it was going to be to their advantage, for Jesus to leave.
Up until this time, Jesus had been WITH them. But if He were to go away. . .
“. . . I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper, . . .You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you” (John 14:16-17).
Those coming events, which the disciples had no understanding of, were the means by which the ministry of the Holy Spirit would be ushered in.
It was almost as if Jesus was telling them, “You think it has been good for me to be WITH you?!?! Wait until the Holy Spirit shows up!!! He has already been WITH you, but He is GOING to be IN you!!!”
And as the time drew near He told them to, “. . . stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). “Hang on!! Don’t go anywhere!! The day is coming, and it is going to be aMAZing!!!”
The promise was that, on THAT day, “. . . you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, . . .” But it won’t be power to flaunt as a child with a water pistol. It will be power which will enable them to, “. . . be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
While Jesus had been WITH the disciples, the Holy Spirit would be IN the disciples, and placement makes a whole world of difference.
I have preached a lot of funerals over the past (nearly) 50 years. Every corpse I have ever seen has been “with” the air. They have even been “in” the air. They have been surrounded by it, warmed or cooled by it, even, at times, had they hair tousled by it.
But a corpse being “in” the air is a very different thing from the air being “in” them. In fact, the reason they are a corpse is because the air was no longer able to be “in” them!
Their being “in” the air was something they were completely unaware of.
But, were the air to suddenly returned to “in” them!! That is something everyone in the room would be aware of!!
It is wonderful to “live and move and have our being” in God. To experience His grace, His premeditated provision, His generosity, His power and divine nature are the very definition of physical life.
But friends, there is a life which cannot be experienced apart from God not only being “with” us, or our not only being “in” Him, but Him, also, being “in” us.
“. . . The riches of the glory of this mystery, ” truly is, “. . . Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27).
We truly do possess “. . . this treasure in jars of clay,” for the purpose of showing “that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us (2 Cor 4:7).
There are no more pilgrimages needed! No more shrines to visit or temples in which to bow, because, “. . . you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you” (1 Cor 3:16).
If you are a Christian, while God was “with” Joseph, He is “IN” you, and placement makes a world of difference!