A series of unfortunate events
This article is based on a talk on Genesis chapters 40 and 41, first given by David Couchman at Bradley Stoke Evangelical Church, on 25th September 2005. It may be reproduced in print or on other web sites, subject to the copyright notice below.
Do you recognise this picture? Whether you do or not may depend on whether you have children of a certain age. It comes from the film 'Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.' The web site for the film says:
The movie you are about to watch is extremely unpleasant. In this story, not only is there no happy ending, there is no happy beginning, and very few happy things happened in the lives of the three Baudelaire youngsters.
This just about sums up the film. If you have not seen it, it tells the story of three children who become homeless orphans. They are taken into the care of their uncle Olaf, who is barking mad. His only interest is to get his hands on the fortune that they will inherit. So he tries to kill them. They go through a string of more and more improbable crises involving trains, snakes, storms, carnivorous leeches and a forced marriage. Things just seem to get worse and worse. But in spite of everything, good triumphs – just about. At the end of the film, one of the characters says:
At times the world can seem an unfriendly and sinister place, but believe us when we say that there is much more good in it than bad, and what might seem to be an unfortunate series of events may, in fact, be the first steps of a journey....
I wonder whether you ever feel that your life is like this? There does not seem to be a happy ending or a happy beginning – or much that is happy in between. I am sure Joseph felt like he had been through a series of unfortunate events too.
We pick up the story with Joseph in prison in Egypt. He has been sold into slavery by his brothers. He has been falsely accused of attempted rape. He has been unjustly put in prison.
You may never have been in prison, but there are all kinds of ways that you may have experienced suffering and injustice, as Joseph did. If so, this passage is for you.
Joseph was trapped in prison. Perhaps you feel trapped by your circumstances – trapped by a relationship where the love seems to have gone, trapped by a job that is not going anywhere, trapped by a long-term disability or health problem. If you feel trapped in some way, this passage has something to say to you.
While Joseph is in prison, the Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker are put in with him. This is not a coincidence – it is going to turn out to be a divine appointment, but Joseph does not know that yet.
The cup-bearer is not just a waiter or a butler. His job is to make sure that Pharaoh is not poisoned. So he is more like the chief of security.
The story begins three days before Pharaoh's birthday. We do not hear this until verse 20 – but the people in the story all know. They know that on Pharaoh's birthday, there is a good chance that he will set them free (if he is in a good mood) or that he will put them to death (if he is not).
Not surprisingly, they have nightmares. And Joseph interprets their dreams for them. The cup-bearer is going to get his life back. The baker... is not. Joseph asks the cup-bearer, when he is restored, to put in a good word for him with Pharaoh.
Joseph's interpretations come true: There is a very bleak pun in verses 20-21: Pharaoh 'lifts up the head' of both the cup-bearer and the baker. The cup-bearer is restored. The baker's head is lifted up on a pole.
At this point, Joseph is expecting to be set free from prison any day now. He waits... and waits... and nothing happens. The cup-bearer has forgotten all about him.
But as we read on into chapter 41, two years later, Pharaoh himself has a seriously disturbed night, and the cup-bearer remembers Joseph. They get him out of jail, smarten him up, and wheel him in. He explains Pharaoh's dreams – there are going to be seven years of good harvests, followed by seven years of disastrous famine.
Joseph does not just interpret the dreams – he recommends what Pharaoh should do about them: appoint the smartest man he can find to store up food during the good years to provide for the bad years to come.
Pharaoh scratches his chin and says, 'who's the smartest guy we know?' Every eye swivels to Joseph.
And suddenly, through this series of unfortunate events, Joseph is launched on his journey. He goes in one day from being a prisoner to being prime minister of Egypt. It has taken two years for his divine appointment with the cup-bearer to have a result.
So that is the story. Why does the Bible include this story about the cup-bearer and the baker? Why give it so much attention?
It shows us how God uses the difficult times. He uses them:
- to bring Joseph to power in Egypt
- to grow Joseph as a person
Let's unpack these two key themes:
(1) How God grows Joseph as a person
Back in Genesis chapter 37, as a young man, Joseph has a dream about his brothers and his parents bowing down to him. When he tells his parents and his brothers about this, he comes over as rather arrogant and immature. But instead of rising to great heights, he has first been sold as a slave, and then thrown in prison. While he is interpreting other people's dreams, his own dream seems to have come to nothing. Has God forgotten him? Is his life on hold?
But God is doing something in Joseph's life, through his sufferings.
Let me ask you a question: do you want to grow spiritually? Do you want to become all you can be as a person? I expect most of us would say 'yes' to that.
Well, how do you grow? We might come up with some different answers:
- You grow through prayer. This is certainly true.
- You grow through spending time with other Christians. This is true, too.
- You grow through reading the Bible and reflecting on what it says. If this was not true, there would not be much point in this article.
But the Bible itself gives us another answer: and it is one that we do not hear very often. It says that we grow spiritually through the unfortunate events and difficult circumstances we face. So James says in his letter:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. (James chapter 1 verses 2-4)
He does not mean that we are supposed to celebrate the trials themselves, as if we enjoy the pain. No. Rather, we are to look beyond the trials, to what they're achieving for us. That is why Paul says that our...
... light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. (2Corinthians chapter 4 verse 17)
The idea is not just that here we have troubles and one day we shall have glory, but that the troubles are actually doing something to get us ready for the glory.
The Bible is clear that the unfortunate events we go through are not just accidents. They are not just something that God lets happen to us. At least sometimes, God sends them our way so we will have the opportunity to grow.
But this does not just happen. When we go through these tough times, they give us a choice: how will we respond?
If we are going to grow, we have to respond to the injustice, the suffering, the delay, in a right way – a way that honours God. Joseph learned to do that.
Joseph grows in wisdom
These chapters make a point of Joseph's wisdom - wisdom that God has given him:
So in chapter 41 verse 13, the cup-bearer says that things turned out exactly as Joseph had said. In verse 38, Pharaoh says that God's spirit lives in Joseph. And in verse 39, Pharaoh says that he is discerning and wise.
The story is deliberately pointing to Joseph's wisdom and insight. Wisdom that God was growing in him during these years as a slave and a prisoner.
Joseph grows in faith and patience
Twice in this story, Joseph says that God is the one who explains the dreams.
In chapter 40 verse 8, he asks the cup-bearer and the baker:
Do not interpretations belong to God?
And in chapter 41 verse 16, he tells Pharaoh:
I can't interpret your dream, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.
Let's not be naïve or simple-minded about this. Joseph did not know that he would only have to wait for two years – he had no idea how long it would be. I do not suppose that he found that waiting time easy.
He has to learn to trust God, and to wait for God to work – even when it looks as if things are not working out. We think of waiting as just doing nothing. But it is not passive – it is one of the hardest things to do. It does something to us. It changes us spiritually. In the waiting, Joseph learned to trust God.
So here in chapter 40, we see how God is at work even when it looks like everything is going wrong. He is at work in Joseph, developing his character – his wisdom and faith and patience, equipping him for his key role in the future, making Joseph ready for his big moment.
What about us? How do we react when we are faced with injustice or suffering, or when God keeps us waiting and nothing seems to happen? God is at work through these difficult times. He is growing us as people, just as he grew Joseph.
(2) How God brings Joseph to power
If we only focus on how God develops Joseph as a person, we shall miss something important. Way back in Genesis 12, God had called Abraham, and said that through Abraham's descendants, all the peoples on Earth would be blessed.
When God says that all the peoples on Earth will be blessed through his descendants, this is pointing forward to what he is planning to do through Jesus Christ.
The Israelites were not chosen just so they could receive God's blessings for themselves, so they could have a good time. They were chosen to be the means of bringing God's blessings to the whole world, through Jesus.
Now, the famine threatens to destroy God's people and derail God's purpose. But God has been at work, ahead of the famine:
- arranging for Joseph to be sold into slavery
- arranging for him to be unjustly thrown in prison
- arranging for the cup-bearer and the baker to be put in prison with him
- arranging for the cup-bearer to forget him.
Now, at just the right moment, Joseph ends up running the country, so that God can deliver Jacob and his descendants, as well as saving many other people.
The key to the whole story of Joseph comes in chapter 50. After their father Jacob has died, Joseph's brothers are terrified that he is going to take his revenge. But Joseph says:
You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. (Genesis chapter 50 verse 20).
So what happens to Joseph is not an accident. God is using the difficult times to grow Joseph as a person, and to bring Joseph to power.
It is not that God is in control in spite of the things that go wrong. God is actually working out his purposes through the things that go wrong. 'You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.'
God's timing is right. When Joseph found himself stuck in prison at the end of chapter 40, he might have said, 'It's all gone wrong. I was so sure that this was God's way of getting me out of here.' And it was – but he had to wait another two years. God's timing is right, even when it does not look that way to us. Even when we are kept waiting.
Other people's sins and failures cannot mess up God's purposes for our lives. It was the sin of Joseph's brothers that put him into slavery. It was the lust and lies of Potiphar's wife that put him into prison. It was the forgetfulness of the cup-bearer that meant he was left in prison for two more years – but through all this, God was still in control, still working out his plan.
God is at work even when it looks as if everything is going wrong. He is at work in us, and he is at work through us. Do we believe that, in the difficult times we face?
The story points forward
There is a bit more to the story than that. God allowed Joseph to go through slavery, unjust imprisonment, and through being forgotten for a purpose – so that his people could be delivered from the famine. Deliverance for his people meant suffering for Joseph. Does this sound familiar? Does it remind us of anyone else?
Of course it does. In many ways, Joseph points forward to Jesus Christ. For both Joseph and Jesus, there is a God-given path that leads through suffering to glory and to deliverance for God's people. No suffering, no glory.
That is why the writer of Hebrews can say that although Jesus was a son...
... he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Hebrews chapter 5 verses 8-9)
(When it says that Jesus learned obedience, it does not mean that he was ever disobedient, and when it says that he was made perfect, it does not mean that he was ever imperfect. But what it does mean is that even Jesus went through a process of growth and development that involved suffering.)
Not only that, but God worked out his plan through Jesus, through the sinful actions of the people around him. So in Acts chapter 2, when Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost, he can say:
This man was handed over to you by God's set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. (Acts chapter 2 verse 23)
It is God's purpose, God's plan – but it is fulfilled through the sinful actions of wicked men.
So the story of Joseph points forward to Jesus Christ.
Two warnings
We have seen in these chapters that God is at work even when it looks like everything is going wrong. He is at work in us, and through us. There are a couple of warnings about this story:
Not a promise of deliverance
You might be facing some kind of suffering, and some kind of injustice, and you might read this story and say 'Well, there you go. God is certainly going to get me out of this mess, just as he got Joseph out.'
This story is not a promise that God is going to work things out for us, as he did for Joseph! We are not all going to end up as prime minister of Egypt. Our problems will not all be solved, necessarily. Being a Christian is not a guarantee that things will always 'turn out right' for us, or that we shall be 'healthy, wealthy, and wise.'
The message of these chapters is not that God will get us out of trouble, but that God is in control of what happens to us, and He is at work even when it looks as if everything is going wrong. He is at work in us, and through us.
One day, God will deliver us from all our suffering and all our injustice – but we may have to wait until heaven for that day.
We shall not always understand
When we go through unfortunate events, or when people we know and love go through unfortunate events, we often find them very confusing and puzzling. Why is God letting this happen to us? We may think that if only we were spiritually mature enough, we would understand what He is doing.
But it is not like that. We are very small. God is so much greater than we are. We shall never completely know what he is doing. So being spiritual mature does not mean that we understand God's reasons for what happens. Rather, it means that we accept what he is doing, and trust him, even though we do not understand it.
This is something we can only learn through the unfortunate events of life.
Joseph was fortunate enough to be able to see in this life why God had put him through the things he went through, but we cannot always see. Sometimes, we just have to trust God with it. One day, we shall see – but we may have to wait for heaven for this too.
Conclusion
So what is the point of this chapter? That God is at work even when it looks like everything is going wrong:
- He is at work in us – growing us as people.
- And He is at work through us – achieving his purposes.
Sometimes God puts us through very difficult things – trouble, or suffering, or injustice. We cannot always understand what he is doing. The way out that looks so obvious does not always come.
One reason God puts us through these things is so that we will grow spiritually. But this does not just happen. If we are going to grow, we have to respond in the right way – a way that honours God.
So how do we respond? Do we trust God even when it looks as if everything is going wrong? Do we trust that he still loves us, and that he is still in control? Do we trust God's timing? Do we believe that God is at work in us, and through us, in the things that we would not choose to have?
Joseph said, 'You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.' This was true because God was at work through him, bringing him to power.
And the fact that he could say it at all was a mark of how God had been at work in him, growing him as a person.
When we can look at the troubles of our lives, and at the injustices that other people inflict on us, and say, 'You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good,' then we have learned a really important life lesson.
The South African pastor Andrew Murray, talking about being kept waiting in suffering or injustice, wrote these words:
He brought me here; it is by his will that I am in this difficult place... in that I will rest. He will keep me here in his love, and give me grace in this trial to behave as His child. He will make this trial a blessing, teaching me the lessons He intends me to learn. In His own good time, He can bring me out again. So – I am here by His appointment, in His keeping, under His training, for His time.
I am here by his appointment, in his keeping, under his training, for his time. Joseph could have said this. Can we?
Questions for reflection or discussion
- Have I experienced 'divine appointments'?
- Have I ever experienced a divine appointment that has had results years later?
- How has God used difficult circumstances to develop my character?
- What lessons have I learned through suffering or injustice that I might not have learned any other way?
- What difference will it make to how I live, if I really trust God even when things seem to go wrong?
- What difference will it make to how I live, if I really trust God's timing in my life?
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