I marvel at how God arranged His holy book. He could have just listed the important facts we need to know and it would have thrilled our souls, but in His divine wisdom He chose to reveal the facts and then emphasize them in amazing ways so that we would never forget. This week’s bulletin article is the first of two articles to show this.
God, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2), has promised His children He would always be with them. David was assured that God’s protection would be with him both day and night and that his Protector would never slumber (Ps. 121:3,6). Jesus told the apostles, “I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Mt. 28:20). The writer of Hebrews states this truth in these words, “For He Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Heb. 13:5).
God not only expressed this truth, but He illustrated it again and again as He cared for His people. The truth is that God’s unchanging nature is that He will never leave us nor forsake us. This truth is emphasized in the amazing story of Joseph’s life.
At a very young age God began to work in the life of Joseph. The dream Joseph had of his brothers, sheaves bowing down to his sheaf, and the dream of the sun, moon and stars bowing to him did not originate in Joseph’s mind. They were messages placed there by God. They immediately brought trouble into his life because his brothers hated him (Gen. 37:8). They mocked him and gave him the nickname, Dreamer (37:19). They plotted to kill him and would have done this had Reuben not intervened. Stripped of his coat of many colors he was cast into a pit, then sold into slavery. Because you know the rest of the story you know that God was with him throughout all of this, but one wonders what Joseph must have thought.
God was with Joseph when he arrived in Egypt and was bought by Potiphar. Moses wrote, “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian” (Gen. 39:2). It is hard to imagine what emotions might have characterized that teenager who had gone from being his father’s favorite to being a household servant, but one does not have to imagine where God was! He was there with Joseph.
This is His nature. He cannot forsake those who love Him. Even when we may question His presence, He is still with us! (We will continue this study next week).