There are different kinds of waiting.
Sometimes we know roughly how long the wait will last. Other times, we have no idea whether something will change tomorrow, next year, or at all.
Joseph knew that second kind well.
After asking Pharaoh’s cupbearer to remember him, Joseph waited two full years in prison. We know his circumstances are about to change because we can turn the page. Joseph couldn’t.
And then, after all that waiting, everything happened at once.
Pharaoh dreamed. The cupbearer remembered. Joseph was rushed out of prison, shaved, changed, and brought before the most powerful man in Egypt.
We can do the math based on Scripture. Thirteen years had passed since seventeen-year-old Joseph had been sold into slavery. Whatever else had happened during those years, Joseph himself had changed. When Pharaoh offered him the opportunity to claim an extraordinary ability for himself, Joseph answered simply.
“I cannot do it … but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”
Waiting doesn’t guarantee that everything will eventually work out the way we want. Scripture doesn’t promise us that. But Joseph’s story reminds us that we can remain faithful in the time we have been given, even when we cannot see what comes next.
We can’t see the chapter number in our own lives. Sometimes tomorrow looks exactly like today. Sometimes everything suddenly changes. Either way, God is present today.
Listen to this week’s sermon, Waiting for God’s Time, from Genesis 40–41.
We’d love to see you in person at Lincoln Park-Lynnwood United Methodist Church, 3120 Pershing Street, Knoxville, TN. Come as you are. We’re not in the judging business. We’re in the welcoming business.
