Divine Orchestration

"Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard…and Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So not it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." (Genesis 45:1-8)

"But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." (Genesis 50:20)

While I don't intend to skip all the chapters between 45 and 50, I thought it important to keep these two verses together for the purpose of better understanding just what it is God had done through Joseph….or perhaps we should say what He has done through the brothers of Joseph and their murderous envy of him.

If you will focus on the underlined portions of scripture above, and really meditate on them for a few moments, you will be amazed at what the scripture is telling us has happened.

How many years before was it when Joseph dreamed his double dreams? Therefore, how many years before was it when God began to plan for the years of famine in the land of Egypt…and for what purpose? "To preserve life," "to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance," "to save much people alive."

All of that is what God had in mind for Jacob and his family, and for the chosen people of God, and for nations that did not yet even acknowledge God, but might someday. God was busy orchestrating, at least 20 to 25 years earlier, the events that would be unveiled during Joseph's adult life. That many years in advance!

Which leads me to ask this question: "What is God orchestrating right now, regarding ME? And how far down the line will the results of that orchestration be seen?"

We must all ask ourselves this question; and then think about it seriously and at great length.

What if you are currently undergoing some trouble or tragedy in your life? How many years past was it that God knew these events would be happening in your life? What did He do to ascertain that you would be blessed in spite of those current events, even if there is some hardship to be faced now, such as Joseph had while in prison? How long might it be before His handiwork in the events of your life will be revealed to you? And if you could see those events unfolding sometime in the future, how would it impact your thinking during these hard times? How would it change your communication with God? Would you still question and complain about the things happening right now? Or would you begin thanking Him, even while in the midst of the hardship, for what He is about to do?

You see, I think Joseph was a man of great faith in God. We aren't told that God came down and visited him and told him all that would happen to him, other than in those first original dreams; and we know that Joseph couldn't understand those dreams at first, in fact, not at all until they began to be revealed to him at the end of all those years. We never see God visiting him and saying, "Don't be afraid."

What we do see is that scripture says "The Lord was with him" in Genesis 39:2. The word for LORD used in that passage is "Jehovah" which means "the existing One." That says a lot about why the Lord WAS with Joseph. I think it can only be because Joseph acknowledged Him (that He was "the existing One") at all times during his life. At ALL times…he never forgot God and therefore God never forgot Joseph. Joseph was never alone and he knew it.

And he knew that "the existing One" was good and merciful. He knew that "Jehovah" was sovereign over anything that happened on this earth. Therefore, he trusted that the LORD knew what He was doing to allow these circumstances to happen. True, in the shock of the moment when he was first thrown into the pit by his brothers, and then almost immediately sold into slavery, he cried out for them not to do this evil. But beyond those first moments, we don't see him complaining to God, and we don't see God having to comfort him specifically; we just see that where Joseph was, so was the LORD; and to such an extent that even unbelievers like Potiphar recognized it. It was Joseph's own acknowledgement of the Lord in all of this that provided him with the comfort he needed….God's presence felt in the midst of it all.

Do unbelievers that are in your life recognize that the LORD is with you? Do YOU even recognize His presence? And does it show to others that you do? If not, I ask again:

If you knew that God was busy orchestrating all the events in your life, how would that change your thinking, your attitude, and especially your response to God? What would change in your life today, this moment, with that knowledge? What would change in your relationship and communication with the LORD?

If you give these scriptures some deep and prayerful meditation, it could change your life!

And I pray that it does just that!