One of the most difficult things we’re ever asked to do is wait. Most of us hate it—and yet the reality is most of us are probably waiting for something right now. We’re waiting to hear back about a job interview … or to know what we made on the test we took on Friday … or to get results back from the lab. We’re waiting to see if the bank will give us a loan … or for the right time to start our family … or for a delivery from Amazon … or for someone to buy our house. Waiting is a normal part of life.
Think about football. As most of us know football, at the college and professional levels, is made up of four fifteen minute quarters—sixty minutes of actual game time. But the average NFL or college telecast takes around three hours. But what you probably don’t know is that, in that telecast, the actual time spent playing football—running, passing, blocking, and tackling—occupies approximately fifteen minutes. In other words, in a three-hour block of time, only about 8-10% of it is spent actually playing the game. So—what happens with the rest of the time? Waiting! You have the breaks between plays and after each quarter and at the half—breaks filled with lots of commercials and a variety of replays from all kinds of different angles. You have crowd shots and talking heads in the booth or back at the studio in New York giving you updates on other games … shots of cheerleaders or fans who are dressed up in the team’s colors … images of the stadium from the blimp. But when you eliminate the waiting, what you’re left with is about fifteen minutes of actual football action. In many ways that’s a parable of life itself. We spend an awful lot of time waiting.
As we continue looking at the life of Joseph, a relevant question as move into Genesis 40 is, “Are you willing to wait for God?” Cause here’s the deal: When Chapter 40 opens, Joseph is in jail. He is accused of a crime he didn’t commit and charged with doing something he didn’t do. And when Chapter 40 closes, he’s still in jail. He’s waiting, because there’s nothing else he can do. He can’t get out of prison … or appeal his sentence … or escape. He’s stuck! And he’s far from home. His father thinks he’s dead, and his brothers are glad to be rid of him and have dismissed him from their minds.
Because we know how Joseph’s story ends, it’s easy for us to read it with the thought swirling in the back of our head, “Don’t worry, Joseph. Things are going to turn around for you—just hang in there.” But Joseph didn’t know there was a dramatic turnaround in his future. He didn’t have insider knowledge. All he knew is he was unjustly stuck in a circumstance he couldn’t eliminate or change. So—what do you do while you wait? How do you conduct yourself while you’re stuck in a situation not of your choosing that you can’t do anything about?
Three answers emerge from Joseph’s prison experience in Genesis 40. First—be faithful.
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, NIV)
We don’t know how long Joseph had been in prison when the cupbearer and baker showed up, but it must have been more than a day or two. My guess is he’d been locked up for a few months—perhaps a year or more—when these two guys stepped into his story. But as far as he was concerned, it was just another day in prison when they arrived. He couldn’t see into the future. He didn’t—he couldn’t—know the cupbearer was eventually going to be his ticket out.
So—what do you do when you’re stuck in a set of circumstances you didn’t choose and don’t want? What do you do when your dreams have turned to ashes? You do what we see Joseph doing here. You remain faithful.
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might … (Ecclesiastes 9:10a, NIV). This verse challenges us to take hold of the ordinary responsibilities of life and make sure they get done … to not get immersed in the never-never land of what we’re going to do someday to where we neglect the thing that’s staring us in the face. It’s so easy for us to get lost in the hopes and dreams of the future. We dream of starting a diet … or getting a new job … or finishing that term paper … or painting the living room … or going back to college … or any of a thousand other worthwhile ideas. Meanwhile, there’s work to be done—much of it tedious and tiresome—that remains undone while we’re dreaming about what we’ll do someday. One of the things that speaks to Joseph’s depth of character is that, even though he found himself in the middle of circumstances he didn’t want and didn’t choose, he chose to do that which was right in front of him.
I believe this characteristic contributed to his promotion we read about at the end of the previous chapter.
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 (Genesis 39:22, NIV)
Because he was faithful, he didn’t shirk his duty when these two men entered the prison . And little did he know—in fact, he couldn’t know—that by taking care of them he was advancing the cause of his own freedom. But that wasn’t why he did what he did. He did it because he was trying to be faithful. Which raises an important question each of us need to think about: Will you be faithful where you are even when life seems to make no sense? Will you give yourself to the mundane work in front of you even when your circumstances don’t seem to add up? Joseph reminds us that faithfulness is ultimately an internal quality and not something our circumstances draw out of us..
Second—be ready.
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. 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.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.” (Genesis 40:5-8, NIV)
An interesting lens through which to view Joseph’s story is the prevalence of dreams. In Chapter 37 he had the dream about his family bowing down to him—a dream that furthered the divide and heightened the animosity that existed between him and his brothers. Here in Chapter 40, these two new prisoners have dreams. And in the next chapter, Pharoah has a two-part dream—a happening that ultimately proves to be the catalyst for his release from prison.
But here’s what really speaks to me: Joseph’s willingness to interpret the dreams of the baker and cupbearer means he hadn’t given up on his own dreams. Even though many years had passed—and even though he’d endured the pain of rejection, enslavement, false accusation, and imprisonment—deep down inside he still believed that one day those dreams would come true. For if he’d given up on his dreams—if he’d have thrown in the towel—he’d have probably said to those guys, “My advice is to just forget about those dreams—they don’t mean anything.” But he didn’t say that. Joseph had a big God, and he knew that his being in prison—although he didn’t like it and wished life was otherwise—was no hindrance to Him.
It appears to me, as I think about it, that God does some of his best work in prisons. The Apostle Paul is under house arrest, and out comes some of his most impactful writings—Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. John Bunyan goes to prison, and the result is Pilgrim’s Progress. Dietrich Bonhoeffer is held captive by the Nazis and the result is The Cost of Discipleship. Even more recently—the late Charles Colson goes to prison for his role in the Watergate conspiracy and the result is Prison Fellowship. God is not restrained by barbed wire and high walls, which leads me to pose another question: Are you ready to serve God right where you are, even when you’d rather be somewhere else? Joseph was. And because he was, when an opportunity came along a little while later that could be leveraged, he was able to seize upon it.
Third—be bold. When you read Genesis 40, Joseph tells the cupbearer he’ll be released in three days and restored to his former position. But then he adds a personal request.
But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison (Genesis 40:14, NIV)
I remember hearing a preacher, some years ago, characterize this statement as a lack of faith on Joseph’s part. But that makes absolutely no sense. If Joseph has been unfairly treated and isn’t guilty, why shouldn’t he seek his release? Why shouldn’t he say to the cupbearer, “Help me get out of here ASAP.”
Put yourself in his shoes. He hadn’t done anything wrong. He was faithful and ready to serve God where He was, but he didn’t want to stay in prison forever. His mental approach was one of, “I can accept and put up with where I am for the moment, but I don’t want to deal with it long term. I hope to be set free eventually.” There’s nothing wrong with that.
It reminds me of the classic scene from The Shawshank Redemption—a movie that stars Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. Tim Robbins’ plays Andy Dufresne—a banker who, like Joseph, was falsely accused of a crime—murdering his wife and her lover. He is sentenced to Shawshank State Prison—a maximum security facility reserved for the worst of the worst. He experiences a number of horrific things while inside but, in the process, he’s befriended by a prisoner named Red—Morgan Freeman’s character. There’s a classic scene where Andy is sitting along the wall in the prison yard talking with Red about his hope, even after twenty years on the inside, of someday getting out when Red says he needs to let it go … that all it’s going to do is make him miserable. But Andy utters the memorable line, “It comes down to a simple choice—(I can either) get busy livin’ or get busy dyin’.” In other words, I can hold on to hope, or I can surrender it entirely. And if I do the latter, I might as well start digging my grave. If I allow the unwanted and undesirable situation I’m in cause me to lose hope, I might as well hang it up.
So—what do you do while you wait? You be faithful … be ready … and be bold. But even then, that’s no guarantee things are going to turn around. For look at how Chapter 40 ends:
The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him (Genesis 40:23, NIV).
After all that, the cupbearer forgot Joseph. Presumably he got so preoccupied with his life that he dismissed Joseph and forgot about the assistance he provided him. And I’m sure, after a while, that fact became apparent to Joseph—a circumstance that caused him to ask himself some questions … “what if” questions … questions like “What if he never remembers? What if I die in prison? What if I never get the opportunity to clear my name?” Folks—the “what if’s” of life can kill us. What if I lose my job? What if the kids get sick? What if the contract falls through? What if things don’t work out?” There’s a sense in which the frequency, intensity, and quantity of our “what if” questions are tied to how magnificent, glorious, and big we believe God is. The bigger our opinion of God, the less likely the ‘what ifs’ of life will sidetrack us.
For God doesn’t keep time the way we do. A.W. Tozer said it so well: God never hurries. There are no deadlines against which He must work. He’s never late or behind schedule because He’s not operating on our timetable. But for the One who conceived and crafted the whole notion of time, that’s not a problem.
Genesis 40 ends where it began—with Joseph in prison … falsely accused … unjustly imprisoned … alone … forgotten … thinking he’s hit a dead end. But a relevant question to ask yourself if you find yourself in an unasked-for and undesired circumstance like Joseph’s—where you’re stuck waiting—is, “Are you willing to wait for God?” Because even when it looks like nothing is going on, with God something is always going on. And Joseph will discover that before too long.