The Prime of Life

Joseph was 30 years old when he entered Pharaoh’s service (Genesis 41:46). In one day, he went from a prison to a palace. In one day, he went from rags to riches. In one day, all of his past and unfavorable circumstances gained a reason, and for the next seven years he would use all the skills and experience gained over his lifetime to begin his greatest work in life. This work would be the saving of many lives, and it would also play a direct part in fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham: that a nation would come from his offspring, and this nation would be a blessing to the world.

From age 30 to 37, Joseph had it made. He had a meaningful job and purpose in life, God blessed him in all he did, he was married and had children, he didn’t have to worry about finances, he was the second most powerful man in all of Egypt. He had it made. That’s the kind of life most men dream about.

To get to that point however, God had to lead Joseph through 30 years of hardship. Because in the hardship Joseph learned integrity and trust in God. Those 30 years prepared him for his great purpose in history. Then, after 7 years of blessing, God had another hardship for Joseph to go through.

With a famine throughout the world, Joseph, although he had made provisions for Egypt to have enough food, was faced with a famine in his own life: the starved relationships with his own family; and this was a famine he hadn’t prepared for.

My guess is that the seven years of abundance and blessings also gave Joseph some pride. When he first sees his brothers, his first reaction is not forgiveness and joy, but bitterness and pride. Genesis 42:7 says that his first reaction was that he “treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them.” Then in verse 9 it says that he “remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.” What ran through his mind at that point, I think, was that he was going to force those dreams on his brothers by his own authority.

This is how I imagine his thoughts: “Now that I’m the main man in Egypt, my older brothers have to bow down to me. Those dreams I had were true after all! Thank you, God, that you have brought sweet justice on their heads and for allowing me to taste this sweet revenge.”

But as the events unfold, it becomes clearer, at least to us, that God didn’t just give Joseph those dreams because he was somehow better than his brothers, and he didn’t just give Joseph those dreams so that he would be avenged from the injustice of his brothers.

Those dreams of his youth pointed to a day when his brothers would come to him out of a life or death need, and the reaction that God wanted from Joseph was not pride or revenge, but mercy, forgiveness, and reconciliation. Joseph eventually gets to this point, but it did take him some time, and a lot of tears and inner battling.

Even though Joseph’s life was blessed vocationally, he had a lot of inner pain to fight through in the area of his family. And God brought this to light in the middle of Joseph’s most blessed years. Even though we may be riding on God’s blessings in life, we have to also accept that during these blessed times, God will probably also address hurt and pain that comes from our past. That’s not necessarily what these chapters of Genesis suggest, but it certainly is wise to assume that God will also deal with us in a similar manner.

This is especially important in our American culture, because we are so driven by our jobs, our occupation, what we do for a living. We wrap our identities around it. We schedule our lives around it. Our relationships, especially with our family, tends to take a back seat; and when we begin to realize that family is important after all, it’s often too late to reconcile or make amends. Through Joseph’s life, it seems pretty clear that God is not only concerned about what we do in life, our occupation and achievements, but he cares about our relationships very much. Even though Joseph had it all, God still wanted to address the gaping hole in his family relationships, and God chose to bring this to light during Joseph’s prime years (and at the same time he was doing this deeply personal work in Joseph’s life, God advanced his plan of salvation for the entire world).

So this New Year, as I look at my resolutions and goals, I see that I need to pay particular attention to my relationships, especially with my family. My prime years of vocation will also be peppered with the screaming need to reconcile old relationships, and to keep current ones well tended.