Joseph: Finding Purpose in Feast or FamineНамуна

Testing Our Purpose

Before my various chronic illnesses hit, I was an off-the-charts extrovert. Though I’ve learned to cherish my time alone, I go a little overboard during the rare seasons when I feel almost “normal” again. I schedule coffee dates and lunches, asking everyone, “How can I pray for you? What are you learning in your morning quiet time?” Trying to get a year’s worth of relationship into hour-long visits, my emotional tank drains quickly, which inevitably sends me to the couch for some extended recuperation. I want so much to be “all things to all people,” but must be reminded by my loving Heavenly Father that my cherished and fulfilling purpose—writing about God’s Word—is not just a hobby, but a career, and truly my delight!

I imagine Joseph felt fulfilled in his role as vizier, husband, and father—just as I cherish being an author, wife, mother, and grammy. But when his brothers arrived at his grain booth, I wonder if Joseph was tempted to go a little overboard with his emotions. Surely, “I told you so,” came to mind when they bowed before him. Joseph must have remembered his boyhood dreams of bowing stalks of grain and moon, sun, and stars. And though Joseph was a righteous man, he must have been tempted to exact revenge for the way they’d thrown him into a cistern and sold him twenty-two years before. Or perhaps fear overtook him instead. Where was his little brother Benjamin—the only other son of his mother Rachel? Had the brothers murdered Jacob’s twelfth son, who their father had likely favored as much as Joseph?

Instead of wielding his God-given purpose to satisfy his own tainted desires, Joseph tests his brothers—and perhaps even his own heart—with excruciating patience. With a series of carefully calculated actions, Egypt’s vizier forces his brothers to return to Egypt with his beloved younger brother Benjamin and threatens to send the others home while making Benjamin his slave. When the brothers’ grief is real and Judah—the brother who had suggested they sell Joseph to the Midianites—offers himself to remain a slave in Benjamin’s place, Joseph finally trusted their hearts and his own. All twelve brothers’ hearts are broken when Joseph reveals his identity and the fulfillment of God’s purpose for him.

If Joseph had allowed his brothers’ sudden appearance to induce a knee-jerk emotional error, Pharaoh might have questioned his vizier’s wisdom. Too often we become anxious to prove our God-given purpose to ourselves or others. But why? If God has truly extended the calling, won’t He also firmly establish us in the place/way He’s chosen that we live it out? Patient step-after-step is wisest as we both seek and discover God’s good purpose for our lives.

Is God calling you to be patient about your purpose? To trust Him about the timing or testing of it? Can you again—and again and again—give Him the reins and let Him fully take the lead?