Making the Most of It (Part 2 of 2)

When you read the devastating story of Joseph in the Old Testament book of Genesis, learn how he fell from being the favored son to being cruelly humiliated, sold into slavery in a foreign country.

It's hard to see any blessing in that story, but today on Truth for Life we'll find out how God can use our worst times to prosper us and others as well. Alistair Begg is teaching from the opening verses of Genesis chapter 39. So let's trace a line through these opening verses. Let's notice four things about Joseph. Number one, he was protected. He was protected. Young guy, protected by God's presence, protected from the silent killers and for God's purpose. Secondly, he was prospered.

Prospered. Verse 2, the LORD was with Joseph and he prospered. The LORD could clearly have restored him to his house. His father could have showed up one day and cut a deal with Pharaoh or with Potiphar—potentially so. There are a number of ways that he could have been restored to his home.

But the LORD chose not to do that. He had lessons for him to learn. He had discoveries for him to make.

And there were discoveries that he could only make in this circumstance that would not have been made elsewhere. You see, Joseph had lost his coat, but he hadn't lost his character. And if all that he'd had was a coat, then he'd be done. But there was a character inside the coat.

Indeed, his character was being formed and was being framed in the crucible of Potiphar's control. And somewhere along the line, sooner rather than later, Joseph must have sat down and said to himself, I'm going to make the most of this. And the day that we do that is a great day, because it is a day of liberation. Because what we do is we say, This is where I am. This is where I work. This is what I face. Here are all the bad things. I can't hardly see any good things.

But guess what? I'm going to make the most of this. I'm going to make the most of this because I believe it's right to do so.

And I'm going to make the most of this because I believe that God will enable me to do so. And so, Joseph, as of that day, quit doing what is normal to do in a foreign country when you really don't want to get involved in things, when all you want to do is establish your own little Caledonian society, which is a Scottish society, or your own little United States service people society and live in a cocoon within the world in which you live, and you go around saying, Sorry, mino speak French, mino speak Egyptian. Sorry, can't answer your questions, can't speak Egyptian. I don't want to be involved. I don't want to get involved.

I don't want to hear from you, whatever it is. Joseph must have decided, he said, You know what? I'm going to learn to speak Egyptian. I'm going to give myself to it big time, because this is where I am.

He must have sat down, wrestled with it, said, I've got it. I'm Potiphar's slave. That's who I am. I used to be Jacob's son. I'm still Jacob's son, but nobody knows, and nobody cares. What they know me as now is Potiphar's slave.

So guess what? Although I am apparently Potiphar's slave, I'm actually God's slave. And since I am God's slave serving Potiphar, I'm going to be the best slave that Potiphar ever had in his life. I am going to make the most of it. And the same disciplined commitment which attached to his search for his brothers in their shepherding in Shechem, about which we read in chapter 37, he now determines to apply to his role as a slave in the realm of a pagan master. Now, loved ones, there's a tremendous amount to be learned from this in these days, and I want to prevent myself from red herrings.

But notice this. It is in the crucible of the most undesirable circumstances, not in protesting the paganism of Egypt, not in resenting the mastership of Potiphar, not in trying to reorientate the whole culture in which he's living. None of that was open to him or potential to him. The only opportunity he had for witness and for testimony was to do what? Was to be a good slave.

For that was his job. So, he says, that's what I'm going to be. I'm going to be diligent, obedient, reliable, industrious, and conscientious. Anybody here who employs people is scribbling down these five words now for the next interview, if they're sensible.

Because in the course of it all, this is what you would like—diligent, obedient, reliable, industrious, and conscientious help. And that's exactly what Potiphar starts to get from this character Joseph. He just picked him up in the market. Someone said, Maybe we should take this kid. And he said, Fine, bring him in.

And he brought him in. And now all of a sudden he recognizes that there is a measure of favor, there is a blessing which is on this young guy's life. Notice Joseph didn't tell Potiphar that there was blessing on his life. Potiphar saw that there was blessing on his life. Verse 3, when his master saw that the LORD was with him. See, I don't think it is so much that Joseph is going around saying, Hey, Potiphar, let me tell you something.

You think you're a big shot? The LORD is with me. You'd better look out, Potiphar.

That would have been insurrection. He'd probably get his head chopped off for that. No, he's polishing. He's doing his business. He's sweeping.

Just doing the things that slaves do. And when Potiphar comes around, he keeps saying to himself, You know, there's something about this kid. I've had many slaves in my time, but this boy has something.

Oh, to be that kind of person in the marketplace of life. The favor of God rests on the shoulder of Joseph. When God's blessing is on a life, we won't have to telegraph the news. It will be apparent, and sometimes, even as in Potiphar's case, it will be apparent to the pagans.

I came across these little four lines that express it fairly succinctly and well. It isn't the style nor the stuff in the coat, nor is it the length of the tailor's bill. It's the stuff in the chap inside of the coat that counts for good or ill. See, you can dress up like John the Baptist, wear a big hairy jersey, eat locusts and wild honey and try and grow a beard, and you can walk up and down, and you can roar.

You can dress up like him without any influence of God, but you cannot speak like him without the hand of God. And some of us are in grave danger of relying on the clothes or the length of the bill of the tailor, as it were, and are missing the fact that it's the chap or the girl inside of the suit that really counts. And Potiphar was smart enough to pick it up. Now, can I ask you this morning, are you making the most of it? Are you making the most of it? Making the most of what? Well, making the most of anything. Are you making the most of your singleness? Well, no, I don't really want to be single. I was hoping to be married by this time, I understand. But are you making the most of it? Making the most of your marriage?

Making the most of every opportunity, of your employment opportunities, etc. There's a fable told of two grasshoppers which were thrown into a pail of milk. And the first grasshopper began immediately to sulk, gave up, and drowned. The second grasshopper began to kick like fury and work hard at it, and making the best of it, churned the milk into butter. And then he walked out on the top of the block of butter. Now, if you believe that, you'll believe anything. That's what a fable is.

But it's a good picture. Two guys in the same jail, two men behind bars, one looks out and sees mud, the other sees stars. Is the bottle half full or half empty? Are you gonna suck it up or suck air, suck milk, and die? Or are you gonna kick and paddle around and climb out on the top of the butter?

Are you making the most of it? For the glory of the Lord Jesus! To say to the watching world, With Christ, I can jump over a wall. With God, I can run through a troop. Now, we may say that through our teeth cleansed.

We may be able to say that only after agony. But the fact of the matter is, where God's protection abounds, the possibility remains. He was prospered on account of God's goodness. For twelve years, John Bunyan was in a jail in Bedford in England. The reason he was in jail was because he refused to preach within the framework of the Anglican Communion. He wasn't a Church of England clergyman, but he loved to preach, and so he preached all over the place. And they told him, Bunyan, cut it out, or we'll put you in jail. And Bunyan said, I can't cut it out. I have to preach. And he preached everywhere he went. So they came and manacled him and took him to the jail, and they buried him in Bedford for twelve years.

Rotten circumstances! And within a small matter of time, historians tell us that there was music coming from Bunyan's cell. But Bunyan had no musical instruments taken into the cell with him. All he had in the cell, apart from his bed and a couple of possessions, was a three-legged stool. And it became apparent that he had removed one of the legs of the stool, and he had carved it into a flute. And when the guards came by to Bunyan in the most miserable of circumstances, instead of him in there shouting expletives and resentful and embittered and dissolved in a pool of tears for his own self—diddle-a-diddle-a-diddle-a-diddle.

And what else was he doing? He was writing a book. A book that has become the classic book after the Bible in the whole history of Christianity. Pilgrim's Progress. No other book sold so well over so long a period of time to such great impact in the lives of so many than a book written in the worst of circumstances by a tinker, a street person, from Bedford, England. He prospered in the worst of circumstances.

And so did Joseph. Indeed, there's a lot of drudgery in Joseph's day. There's a lot of drudgery in everybody's day. I mean, it doesn't matter. You see the captain on the airliner, and he looks so nice with his starched shirt and the hat, and your shoes look so terrible, and standing next to him, and you feel your pants could do with a crease and so on, and you say to yourself, Oh, if only I was flying a plane, you know, that would be fantastic.

And he actually is looking at you, saying, I wish I didn't have to wear this dumb hat, and I wish I was simply just sitting back and taking an orange juice on the plane and so on. Everybody has routine and drudgery into their days. And the key to fulfillment in life is not in managing to work ourselves to the position where, as a result of financial prosperity, we are able to buy for ourselves the little release valves from the drudgery. Those things we may be thankful for and should, and for times of vacation and for the down times. But loved ones, the most successful people I have ever seen in life are the individuals who are able to take the routine experiences of life, the potential for drudgery, and to see the shining of the blessing of God on those day-to-day circumstances.

Whatever they are. George Herbert writing in the sixteenth century a poem entitled The Elixir deals with this in a very helpful way—in fact, with such help that it became a hymn in Great Britain. And addressing this issue of seeing our responsibilities as opportunities to reveal our dependence upon God and the evidence of God shining on us, Herbert writes, Teach me, my God and King, in all things thee to see, And what I do in anything to do it as for thee.

A servant with this clause makes drudgery divine, Who sweeps a room as for thy laws, Makes that and the action fine. Our whole consumer society and our whole leisure-time preoccupation is to build a mindset into our existence that constantly says, Okay, we know it's Monday, but don't worry, it's gonna be Friday. Well, at quarter to seven on a Monday morning when you're driving to the office, I don't know about you, but that's not a tremendous encouragement, because I can do a lot of math, but I can do enough math to know that's a lot of minutes before I get to five or six o'clock on Friday afternoon. So it's no great help to me to tell me that there's a cherry at the end of the drudgery. What we need is somebody to say, Do you realize that you were created for his pleasure? Do you realize that you were made for his glory?

Do you realize that every matter that you deal with, every moment that you spend, every move that you make is an opportunity to bring glory and praise to God? And in such a life we may expect prosperity. Protected, prospered, thirdly promoted. Verse 4. Hardly surprising.

You do your annual reviews, and you look through your slaves. On the strength of this, Joseph's gonna come out on top, don't you think? And Joseph found favor in his eyes. In the same way that he didn't tell Potiphar that the Lord was with him, but Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him, he didn't ask Potiphar for favors. He found favors. Lawson, the Scottish commentator, says, When men are precious in God's sight, they're honorable, whatever be their station in life.

It is good to have those for our friends and for our servants who are beloved by the Lord. His kindness towards his people overflows to all with whom they are connected. And that's exactly what had happened here in Potiphar's house. Every fellow in Potiphar's situation would look for the opportunity to create a context where he had someone to whom he could delegate the most of his day-to-day routine.

Indeed, archaeologists have found that on the tombs of prominent people in the Egyptian context, they have discovered not only an inscription to the memory of the one who is entombed but also accompanying that—a diagram, a picture, or some reference to that individual steward or attendant. Because that individual was vital in the development of this great man, and that is exactly what Joseph became here. Because Potiphar recognized that a good one of these could make him, and a bad one could break him. And Potiphar realized he had a good one, and so he very quickly expresses his confidence in this young man and puts everything into his care. He entrusted everything to him.

He kept only for himself the decision-making as it related to his food. Everything else, he let it go. And he was delighted too. Because the more he delegated it to this young guy, the more blessing.

He gave him, if you like, his portfolio. And he said, Joseph, I want you to look after this as well. And Joseph started to handle his investments, and they were way up from anything he'd ever known. He said, Joseph, I want you to look after the fields. And suddenly they were far more prosperous than they had ever been.

Why? Because God determined of his sovereign purpose that he would take this young lad Joseph and he would bless him. And God does that. He singularly blesses certain people at certain times in certain ways. And you know what? It's fantastic if we happen to be around while someone's getting blessed like that.

Because the blessing spills over, and you can get up to it and cozy under it and benefit from it, to be in the presence of a fellow or a girl who is singularly being blessed of God, even when we're pagans. And business people would tell you that within the framework of their day-to-day routine and running the same business plan, using the same marketing strategy, employing the same methods, and selling the same product, all of a sudden the thing's gone right through the roof. And they look for all kinds of human explanations. Oh, I think we've been following up better.

Oh, I think we've done this a little better or whatever it might be. But you know, when they sit at home and they lay it all out in front of them, they sit and they say, There is no human explanation for what's going on here. And then suddenly they say, You know what? It's a funny thing.

But this all started since I hired that Christian kid. There's something about that girl. It's as though the hand of God is on everything she touches. I've never known somebody for curing the bitter tongue of a disgruntled rep better than her. It's amazing the way when people are in the coffee room and she comes in, there's a sort of harmony and tranquility about the place.

And we used to have all this animosity. Because that's exactly what was happening in Potiphar's house. And it was because God determined that this young fellow Joseph, in responding correctly to the most awful of circumstances, would be the recipient of his favor and of his blessing, and as a result of that, Potiphar's eyes would be made to see what can happen with a life given over to God. It's a remarkable story. And it opens the possibility for Potiphar to sit with Joseph and to say, Joseph, can you please explain this to me?

See, that's the way it's supposed to work. That's what Matthew is about. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven. When they see, they'll ask.

When they don't see, there's nothing to ask. The story of Joseph is saying at least these things to me. Number one, reminding me that when we shun trials, we miss blessings. That when all you have is sunshine, all you have is desert. That more spiritual progress is made through failure and tears than is made through success and laughter. I think it was Browning who penned the well-worn words, I walked a mile with pleasure, and she chattered all the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say.

And I walked a mile with sorrow, and ne'er a word said she, but, oh, the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with me. Not that we would go out and seek sorrowful circumstances, but that we would recognize that in the progress of life is the inevitable pain of human experience and relationships, and that through it all God is working all things out for good according to his great plan and purpose. So do not let us wrestle then and try and manipulate the hand of God or even our circumstances. Do not let us stay awake at night trying to make it all work for our good. Let us take the questions of our hearts and not allow them to overturn our faith. But let us allow our faith, albeit the size of a mustard seed, to overturn the questions of our hearts. Father, I pray that your Word may be written in our hearts today for your glory and for our encouragement and good. For we ask it in the name of your Son.

Amen. You're listening to Truth for Life, that is Alistair Begg encouraging us to persevere in every circumstance in light of who God is and all his promises. As we heard today, Joseph was able to make the most of his daunting circumstances because he trusted God. But you can't trust a God you don't know.

That's the reason we teach the Bible on Truth for Life every single day. And along with Alistair's teaching, we also want to recommend books that will help you get to know God better. Today we're recommending a book that takes a deep dive into a key aspect of his character and power, his providence. In fact, that's the title of the book, Divine Providence. Let me read a brief excerpt from the book that I think will encourage you as you face challenges. Stephen Charnick, the author, writes, God's eye is always on those who fear him, not to keep them from distress, but to strengthen them in it and give them, so to speak, a new life from the dead. God brings us into dire straits so we can deeply experience his compassion when he gives us relief. Read more in the book, Divine Providence, when you ask for your copy today as you make a donation to Truth for Life. Click the image in our app or visit our website at truthforlife.org slash donate or you can call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lapine. It's easy to trust God when everything is going great. Tomorrow we'll find out how to trust him when things seem bleak. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.