Joseph’s Joy

 August 8, 2022

I’ve been reading the Joseph story in Genesis 39-50. It’s the longest narrative of a single person in Genesis, which is quite remarkable in that the previous 37 chapters take us from Creation at the beginning of time through Noah and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

No specific sin or shortcoming is ever attributed to Joseph, which some have taken as a foreshadowing of Christ, rejected by his own and redeeming his people. The parallels fall short however, and even if specific sins are not mentioned, Joseph at the beginning is clearly a spoiled brat with little common sense. His is however, the classic story of someone repeatedly ill-treated who overcomes all odds to become deliverer for his family.

The point of the story is found at the very end, where he declares that what his brothers meant evil against him God meant for good (50:20). This is a lesson each of us has to learn for ourselves. There is no shortage of evil in the world, and some of it may be directed directly and specifically towards us, but as Isaiah declares some 1500 years later, “no weapon formed against you can stand” (Isaiah 54:17). 

We tend to ask, “Why me?” when bad things happen to us, but less frequently do we ask that same question when we are besieged with blessings. My inability to discern God’s plan and purposes do not mean he has none. I’ve seen people crumble beneath the smallest of burdens, but I’ve also witnessed those whose troubles piled up like mountains before them without destroying their faith and joy. 

Notice my choice of words: “joy.” Joy is different from happiness. The word happy is related to “happen,” or “happenstance,” external events that come along seemingly without meaning or purpose. The person who wants to be happy is surrendering his sense of well-being to others, or to events he cannot control. Living for happiness sets us on a roller coaster ride of ups and downs that control our inner peace. Joy is found only in that which is eternal, even God himself. “In your presence is fullness of joy “(Psalm 1 6:11). The troubles of this life don’t determine our character; they only reveal it. 

I’m sure Joseph wasn’t particularly happy in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, but his life wasn’t grounded in what happened to him, but in God within him. This is what makes the difference!