'So Pharaoh said to
Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt,”' Genesis
41:41.
How quickly life has
turned around in the most amazing way for Joseph. One minute he is languishing
in prison with seemingly no hope of getting out. The next, he is the second
most powerful man in the land. When God moves he doesn't do half measures. When
he gives, he doesn't give merely what we need. He is a God of the super
abundance, who blesses us with more than we ever deserve, more than we could
have hoped for or imagined. When Jesus fed the 5,000, those 5 loaves and 2 fish
were transformed into more than enough to satisfy the hunger of the people.
The only thing that puts the brakes on
God's abundant giving is our disobedience, which is always due to our lack of
faith. Challenging the people to give to God what is rightfully his, God says,
'See if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much
blessing that you will not have room enough for it,' Malachi 3:10. Our God
is One who, as St Paul reminds us in Ephesians 3:20, 'is able to do
immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power …' What
God did in Egypt was immeasurably more than Joseph ever anticipated. He had to
give up keeping records (v49), such was the vastness of the harvests. Sometimes
we just do not believe enough in what God himself can do. We expect little and
so that is what God gives us. He isn't one to disappoint. If we would only
expect much, again he would not disappoint and would probably give us far more
than we asked for.
Joseph now has a brand new life. At last
he has been liberated from what no doubt plagued him and distressed him during
his last 13 years, when I'm sure he was always looking back. But now he has
hope, where there was none, value where before he felt valueless, a bright
future in place of a bleak one. He is able at last to put the past behind him,
to forget the horror of it all, (v51). He is a new man. One is reminded of what
Jesus is able to do for us, bringing hope in place of hopelessness, help in
place of helplessness, value in place of worthlessness, 'Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away, behold
all things have become new,'
2 Corinthians 5:17. God bless you all.
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