Hello beloved child of God, I hope you’ve had a wonderful week in the presence of The Lord.
If I have to be honest I would say my week wasn’t that easy, I faced a certain number of challenges but by God’s grace I am standing still.
Today we’re going to look at a text in The Bible which I was reading a few weeks ago.
I think you’ve probably already heard about the story of Joseph, Israel’s son. He was sold by his own jealous brothers into slavery, but God had a plan and used all this to make Joseph rule over Egypt under Pharoah.
Genesis 37:2-4 NIV
This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
Genesis 37:19-24, 28, 31-36 NIV
“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. “Let’s not take his life,” he said. “Don’t shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the wilderness, but don’t lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing— and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. Then they got Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe.” He recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.” Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said, “I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.” So his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard.
Today however, my focus won’t be on Joseph but on his father Jacob(Israel).
Before we move on, I want to tell you a little story. This week I had the wonderful privilege of organising a surprise birthday party for my best friend Sakina with a few of our common friends and her siblings.
As you probably already know, for a surprise party, you have to make sure that the person concerned doesn’t hear anything about it. It has to remain a secret🤫.
That’s why, we all acted as if we had forgotten her birthday and we were even a little silent, acting busy or distant on the day of her birthday.
Little did she know that while we remained silent, while it seemed like we didn’t care, and like we had forgotten about her, we were busy preparing everything for the surprise party.
Have you seen the similarity between this story and Jacob’s story?
When his sons came back to him with Joseph’s coat, Jacob didn’t know that Joseph was alive. He thought that his son was dead. He cried, he was in pain. Do you see any Bible verse where God appears to him here and tells him?
“Oh Jacob, calm down, I’m taking care of your son in Egypt, he’s alright, he’s alive”
You can go to read the story in The Bible. You’ll see that God didn’t do that. God remained silent about the fact that Joseph was alive. God kept it secret.
But God was busy taking care of Joseph everywhere he went to.
Genesis 39:1-5 NIV
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field.
Genesis 39:22-23 NIV
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.
This means that while Jacob was mourning over Joseph, feeling sad, crying, trying to recover from the pain, God was busy taking care of making Joseph prosper and preparing their reunion.
God prepared everything, from Joseph’s arrival at Potiphar’s house to his séjour in prison, him interpreting Pharoah’s dream, and Pharoah placing him at the head of all resources in Egypt, and his family coming to Egypt to get food from him.
Genesis 42:1-7 NIV
When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?” He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also. Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”
After testing them a little bit, Joseph revealed to his brothers who he was and asked them to come with his father and they finally met again.
Take a look at this
Genesis 45:25-28 NIV
So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. They told him, “Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt.” Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, “I’m convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
For how many years did God remain silent about the fact that Joseph was alive? God loved Jacob, God had spoken to Jacob a certain number of times in the past, God cared about Jacob but God didn’t tell Jacob that Joseph was alive and that He was caring for him in Egypt and making him prosper in Egypt.
God kept it secret.
Jacob may have thought “why did I have to lose my son? Does God care? Has God forgotten about me?” , but God remained silent.
God let Jacob wait for years and hear about the fact that Joseph was alive through Joseph’s brothers. Only after that did God tell Jacob.
Genesis 46:3-4 NIV
“I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”
Just like we didn’t disclose anything about Sakina’s surprise birthday to her, God didn’t disclose anything about Joseph’s survival to Jacob.
God kept it secret for Jacob, He’s keeping it secret for you. He’s not gonna disclose His surprise to you.
Let me ask, is it possible that you’re asking a few things to God right now, you’re waiting on Him for some stuff, and He seems to be quiet, to be busy with something else?
Could it be that while the devil is telling you (as he’s been telling me this week) “If God hasn’t answered yet it’s because He doesn’t care about you, it’s because He doesn’t want to help you”, could it be that while the devil is telling those lies to you, God is actually busy preparing His surprise for you?
Busy preparing the moment you meet your Joseph?
Like we were busy preparing for Sakina to enjoy her surprise birthday party?
You can’t imagine the look on her face when she realized that we were only acting as if we had forgotten about her birthday. She was so happy not only to realize that we cared indeed but that we also organised that surprise party.
In the same way imagine the look on Jacob’s face when he said “I’m convinced my son is alive”, in fact The Bible says his spirit was revived.
Look at how God surprised him.
Genesis 46:29-30 NIV
Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. Israel said to Joseph, “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”
God wants you to live with the expectation that He is about to surprise you. He can’t give you all the details 🤫🤫🤫 since it’s a surprise.
Every time I read about Joseph’s story in the past the person I felt sad for was Jacob. I always felt like, many years of his life were “wasted” feeling sad because of the “death” of his son, but this time when I read it God’s Holy Spirit showed me something.
“You never know when God is going to surprise you, that’s why you shouldn’t waste time mourning about situations which God is busy working on in the background”
I want to live with the expectancy that God is up to something. In such a way that the time I spend waiting won’t be in tears, but with joy knowing that God is going to surprise me.
So next time the devil comes up to you with his lies saying that God doesn’t care reason why He lets you go through difficult times, smile to yourself and say to yourself
“God’s preparing my surprise party”
This is what I learned about God while preparing a surprise birthday party.
Prayer
Father Lord God Almighty I pray that You forgive me for all the times where I believed a lie according to which You weren’t answering because You didn’t care. Teach me to live with the mindset that You are busy preparing a surprise for me, help me wait with enthusiastic expectancy, in Jesus Christ’s Name. Amen.
It’s Now Your Turn
Try to imagine how you would feel if you heard right now that someone you love is planning a surprise party for your birthday. Now take these feelings and this expectancy and carry it throughout not only this week, not only this year, but through out your whole life and your relationship with God knowing that He’s preparing a surprise for you.
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Thank you for reading
Invitation
Click here if you’re looking for a church. I recommend Elevation Church to you. A wonderful Christ-centered Church in which you aren’t limited by your location and in which you can see what God can do through you. We’re in a series right now called FLIP THE FLOW, you are highly invited.
God loves you so much
God bless you
Victoria Eyog
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