“For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Genesis 41:52
My yearly Bible reading plan runs from August to August, so I just finished Genesis this week. The life of Joseph is one of my favorite parts of that book. The way I see it, Joseph’s character was mostly impeccable throughout his life. I suppose he could have been a bit more winsome in sharing his dream about his entire family bowing down to him — but he was, after all, a teenager and I keep a few pass cards at the ready for young men in that season of life.
Joseph earns points in my book for how he just kept rolling through the multiple injustices that came his way! First, the cruel rejection of his brothers (Gen. 37) must have been a trial of monumental proportions in his young life. Just imagine being sold by your own brothers! Yet, once sold as a slave in Egypt to Potiphar, he proved himself so useful that even Potiphar attested that the Lord was with him (Gen. 39:3).
Then came the false sexual abuse accusation from Potiphar’s wife, which landed Joseph in prison. But again, he landed on his feet. Genesis 39:21 says, “But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.” That favor basically meant that Joseph became the overseer of all of the prisoners, even though he was himself a captive.
A third major disappointment closed in on him after he accurately interpreted two dreams from two of his fellow prisoners. The chief baker was released and executed (as predicted), and the chief cup-bearer was restored to his position, just as Joseph had interpreted from his dream. However, rather than mentioning Joseph's plight to Pharoah, the cup-bearer forgot all about him — FOR TWO MORE YEARS!
Those were three sizable afflictions in Joseph’s life. We would describe him as someone who just couldn’t seem to catch a break — and yet, Joseph continued to display patience and perseverance and hopefulness in the midst of his afflictions.
After those final two years in prison, when Pharaoh was in need of an interpreter-of-dreams himself, the chief cup-bearer’s memory returned. He told Pharaoh that he once knew a guy in prison who had the exact skill set required. Joseph proved useful, was finally released and began a new life again, this time serving at the highest level of Egyptian government.
Obviously, there is much more to the story, but eventually He was given a wife who bore him two sons and this whole blog post was inspired by the name that Joseph gave to his second son. Look at what came out of his mouth:
The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” (Genesis 41:52)
I read that phrase this week and had to put my Bible down and sit and think for a bit. After a decade of trials, Joseph could still see the hand of God doing good things in his life. This type of perspective doesn’t come automatically to everyone. It is a choice to see life through the lens of gloom and doom, or to see the good things God is doing in our lives even in the land of our afflictions.
Joseph’s choice to see God’s hand working in his life had become a life-long habit. In fact, even after his father, Jacob died Joseph was able to tell his brothers, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” (Gen. 50:20)
Maybe you are inspired along with me by Joseph’s attitude. Most of us face a land of affliction at some point in our lives — or at several points in our lives. Being able to say, God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction can make the difference between a happy and hopeful life or a gloomy and glum life.
My personal update is that my chemo train has arrived at its final destination two weeks early. My oncologist and I both agreed to move the finish line up by a few weeks. This isn’t the way I envisioned this chemo journey to play out. I always thought I’d gut it out to the last lap while I rang the bell after the final infusion and reveled in the cheers and back-pats of the entire medical staff. It’s slightly anti-climactic to just suddenly be done. But, don’t get me wrong, it’s also quite emotionally satisfying to not face one more infusion after four months of chemo. Phase I is complete and in the books — now we move on to phase II in October.
Paul and I will be up in LaGrande this weekend celebrating the wedding of our daughter (another reason I am quite happy to be done with chemo) and we’ll be back early next week. Since I’m beginning to teach the book of Esther next week, I may or may not do a weekly update for the next month. If I do, it may have quite a bit to do with Esther and the Persian Empire.
My Love & Blessings,
Sue