PROSPECTS DIMMED BUT REALIZED

From our psalm today we take a character study that provides us with details not contained in the historical record. Joseph had had dreams that seemed significant. His brethren hated him because of them, Gen. 37. 8, his father rebuked him for them, v. 10, and his brethren envied him. Why? They had all detected a prophetic significance about them. What did all this mean to the lad? How often had he consequently dreamed of distant glory? “Reign over us?” his brethren had said; “Bow down to thee?” his father had questioned. The lad was seventeen years old—the age for castle-building, but soon his castles crumbled. He must have thrown his dreams away when in the pit and prison. He had gone to see his brethren at his father’s request, and did not know that the Lord had sent him, and that his going out of the vale of Hebron was the first step to becoming the mighty centre in an important movement of God. So watch your circumstances, and do not form conclusions hastily. Sold, and no longer free; a servant and no longer a son; hurt and no longer comforted; in irons, and a malefactor, it seemed. Where are his prophetic dreams now? The important word has yet to come: “until”, v. 19.

Have you felt stirrings of divine leading with hopes raised high, yet strange happenings have left them a heap of ruins? Frustrating events are often the crucible of heavenly preparation. God’s fulfilments have a time factor, v. 19, and patience is needed. In the meantime, God’s word “tries” for sincerity. When God’s time ripens, the needed machinery moves, v. 20. Circumstances which seem to hinder give place to circumstances which fulfil. “Shalt thou … have dominion?”, they said, Gen. 37. 8; Pharaoh “made him lord”, Psa. 105. 21. No, God did! He sent a man—so it was God who made him lord. We see Joseph now, his calling fulfilled, his hopes confirmed. His is dominion over house and substance, v. 21, with authority and wisdom, v. 22, a Zaphnath-paaneah (revealer of secrets) for the God-determined catastrophe, v. 16. The Lord’s goal for those of His appointing is often reached by devious and undesired paths; it is for the servant to wait for the divine “until”, v. 19, giving serious heed to the Word.

Watch the diversions; they lead to true destination.