The Story of God: Hope in Dark Places
July 18, 2017
Dark Places. Sometime in the course of life we face times when we find ourselves in a “dark place” not of our own making. Sometimes that dark place is related to family. Your dad left home when you were a child and you grew up in a broken family. Or one of your parents died prematurely. Or as you got married and raised a family, you lost one of your children, or one of your children went through a difficult time in their marriage and got a divorce. None of these things were your fault, but the result was the same – it led you to a dark place in life.
Sometimes that dark place is related to circumstances beyond your control. I mentioned this one last week. You got laid off because the company you were working for was looking for ways to save money or was bought out. Or the economy went sour and you lost money in an investment, or even your home, and you found yourself in a dark place.
Then, sometimes that dark place is related to your health. You exercise, eat properly and get good sleep, but then your knee goes out, or your heart gives you trouble, or your doctor tells you that you have cancer. Suddenly you find yourself struggling with fear or depression, anger or all three – and you’re in a dark place. And in that dark place you feel alone and helpless.
That’s where we find Joseph today in the story of God. He is now in a dark place that was entirely not of his own making. His brothers turned on him and sold him into slavery, but then he prospered in the house of Potiphar… only to have Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him of improper sexual conduct… and now because Potiphar was left with no choice, and Joseph with no rights, we find Joseph in a dark place –in prison. But as we shall soon see, Joseph does not struggle with fear, nor depression or even anger in his dark place – for he’s neither alone nor helpless. How is that? How did he not let bad circumstances ruin his life? Well that’s what we’re going to look at today, as we return to his story in Genesis. So, if you brought your Bible, let me encourage you to turn to Genesis 39:20 where we will see how Joseph handled his dark place, and what can help us do the same.
And the first truth we gain from Joseph is this: God Will Be With You Even in the Darkest of Places But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. Genesis 39:20-21
So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. Genesis 39:22-23
Just because Joseph ended up in a dark place, didn’t mean that God abandoned Joseph. God never left Joseph. And that’s good news for us. Just as God was with Joseph in Potiphar’s house, he was with him in this dungeon. You see, one of the common misconceptions that is often taught today is that when you give your life to Jesus, your life will change for the better. Now, to some extent that is true, your life will change for the better – you will no longer be shackled with guilt and shame, because you are forgiven. You will no longer be paralyzed with anxiety and fear, because God gives you His peace. You will be filled with a confidence of a sure and certain hope in heaven, because Jesus is risen. And you will know the love of God, as your Father. You will never be alone again.
But here is where this misconception can lead us astray, when we’re told our life will be free of troubles, or that knowing God will make you rich, or that you’re your relationships with be trouble free. Well, if you buy into that way of thinking, and then trouble does come your way, it can wreak havoc on your spiritual well-being. You begin to feel short-changed by God, or that you’ve done something wrong, or God is punishing you. But that’s just not true…
…That’s why Joseph’s plight is helpful to us. He’s gotten a raw deal for sure. But we don’t see him despairing. We don’t hear anger. And we don’t see him whining to God about his plight. All we see is that God is with Joseph, and he is experiencing God’s presence and kindness in a place where dreams die.
He is not alone. God is with him. He’s not helpless. God is still for him and is working on his behalf. He’s been given the run of the prison. He’d been put in responsibility over all the other prisoners. And so these truths sustain Joseph. And they should sustain us. For what his story teaches us is that we are never out of the reach of God’s loving presence.
The irony is, that most of us don’t learn these truths until we find ourselves in a dark place. Like Paul. If anyone knew hardship, suffering, it was Paul. It was Paul who wrote these words: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: “For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:35-39
Joseph knew God’s covenant love in his darkest hour. When it seemed like all hope was lost, God was near. He never left him. David expressed this same truth when he said, Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. Psalm 139:7-10 And then this gem: If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,”even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. Psalm 139:1-12
Knowing the presence of God, experiencing God with you, is one of the greatest blessings we have as believers. Even the darkness will not be dark to you, because God is there. We need to recapture the reality of God’s presence with us. His presence helps us to persevere in tough times. His presence gives us joy in joyless circumstances. His presence gives us hope when there seems to be no hope. And Joseph had this hope, because God was with him.
You see, you and I will face difficult days; circumstances beyond our control; people who will fail us. Any of those things can put you in a dark place. But we have the same hope Joseph had: God is within reach. And because God was there, Joseph could handle his darkest hour. And if God did that with Joseph, imagine what he can do with you? “even the darkness will not be dark to you!”
One Pastor said it this way: There is no dark corner of your life’s experience where the blessing and favor of God cannot find you. Joseph’s story proves this to be true: If God can find you in Potiphar’s house, he can find you in Potiphar’s prison. Even there, His favor on Joseph was self-evident and it created hope and possibilities for him…
Which leads us to the next truth we see in this passage: God Can Use You Even in the Darkest of Places Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them. Genesis 40:1-4
Imagine that? The cupbearer and baker, two of the men who were the most trusted officials in Pharaoh’s court, are put into prison because Pharaoh lost his temper over a bad meal. And we see here, they were both put under Joseph’s care. He was the one assigned to attend to them. Coincidence? I think not. No, God lined this up, because He had something prepared for Joseph to do. Let’s read: After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. Genesis 40:4-5
When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?” “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Genesis 40:6-8
Now dreams were a big deal in Egypt. If you could interpret a dream, you could predict the future. So, they had schools where they trained their wise men in how to interpret dreams. But now that these two men were in their dark place, they no longer had access to “the learned men” who could help them. So they were distraught, depressed, sad! You could see it all over their faces. Enter Joseph. He sees their sadness and takes this as an opportunity to be bold with his faith: Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.” Do you see Joseph’s confidence here? He has God’s presence. He’s enjoying God’s favor. And he acts on faith. He believes God will help him interpret their dreams. So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in his hand.” Genesis 40:8-11
“This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. Genesis 40:12-13
Joseph is swift and clear in his interpretation. He expects the dream to come true in three days, and so he says: But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.” Genesis 40:12-15
Joseph knows that God is with him and is giving him favor. What more favorable circumstance could there be than this? The cupbearer, one of Pharaoh’s closest confidants, had just shared his dream with him, and God gave him the interpretation. Joseph was quick. This was his chance. He knew the cupbearer had the ear of Pharaoh. And once he was restored and shared what Joseph had done, then he could be set free. You can sense Joseph’s anticipation. God was using him in prison to help a distraught man. It won’t be long now.
Here again is where we can learn from Joseph’s example: As soon as Joseph had an opportunity to help someone he jumped at it. If he was moping around, and complaining about his plight, he would never have been available to help this man. As it was, Joseph’s faith was alive. My guess is that he’d been in prayer daily, looking for opportunities to serve others while in prison. He wasn’t going to let his raw deal keep him from serving others. We can do that too. In fact, serving others when your life is in a dark place is one of the best ways to re-ignite joy in your life. You see, one of the evil one’s most debilitating strategies is to get us to keep our eyes on our problems, and not on God. If he can do that, then he can keep us on the shelf. We then allow our bad circumstances to define us, rather than God. He’s happiest when we are miserable. Because he knows that a miserable saint will not shine in the darkness.
So Joseph did not allow his circumstances to define him. And neither should we. We need to learn how to let God define us. After all, it is His Word that says this about us: For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10
You see if we keep our eyes on God, if we let him define us, and not our bad circumstances, then God can use you even in the darkest of places. And when you do, you will shine in the darkness.
So Joseph was used by God to help the cupbearer. He gave him this great interpretation. He gave the cupbearer hope… Of course, when the baker hears this, he is now quick to seek Joseph’s help as well: When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.” Gen 40:16-17
“This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.” Genesis 40:18-19 Okay, sucks to be you, Mr. Baker. Joseph just lays out the truth. It’s not going to go well for you buddy. You must’ve done something pretty bad to end up like this… But what I like about the narrator including this interpretation… it tells us that Joseph wasn’t just saying stuff to get in good with the cupbearer. These were real God-given interpretations. How do I know this?
Well look at what happens next: Now the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand— but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation. Genesis 40:20-22
Everything happened just as Joseph had said it would. The chief cupbearer goes back to his wine tasting job, but the baker gets skewered. In one sense, this is good news for Joseph, because both dream interpretations were bang on. Now, with the cupbearer back in place, it will only be a matter of time before the cupbearer shares what Joseph did. And when he hears, Joseph will be set free.
This is great drama. You can’t make this stuff up. You can even feel Joseph’s hopes rise. But then we read: The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. Genesis 40:23 And that leads us to our last truth from Joseph’s dark place:
3. The World May Forget You But God Never Will
You see the cupbearer did what many people do today. They get in a jam, pray some kind of prayer like, “God if you get me out of this jam, I’ll serve you the rest of my days.” But then as soon as life gets back to normal, they forget how bad it was. So they put it out of their mind. We’re kinda naturally wired that way. We go back to living in the present and leave the past behind us. That’s what the cupbearer did. He didn’t remember Joseph to Pharaoh… at least not at that moment. And so he forgot. Hebrew Scholar Bruce Waltke says, “This was not a mental lapse, but a moral lapse. He self-centeredly does not bother to “remember” himself with his former inmate.” He goes on as if nothing ever happened. You might even say, he betrayed Joseph.
And that’s kinda the way the world works. It’s everyone for himself or herself. It’s this callous indifference to caring people. That’s what we see in the cupbearer. And I think most of you have already experienced this kind of indifference to your plight. And if you have, you know how crushing such indifference can be. It can be devastating.
But it wasn’t to Joseph. He just kept close to God, kept trusting God and serving others. And he waited, holding onto the hope, that because God was with him, and God was for him… his time would come. It just wouldn’t be right now.
And that’s what we need to learn from Joseph: Sometimes we’ve just got to trust that God’s got this, even when things look their darkest – Even when there seems to be little, or even no hope. That’s what Joseph did. For some reason God’s presence with Joseph was so real, that he believed this promise from God before it was ever written: Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Hebrews 13:5
The World May Forget You But God Never Will. That’s the hope of the Gospel. That’s the hope of Our God who promises to be with us no matter what. With this hope you will never be alone. You will never be helpless. For God will be with you. Do you have this hope?
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