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PRAISING GOD FOR
DETOURS #1
THREE STRIKES BUT NOT OUT
If I could do a Monday survey right here on the radio,
and have you dial in your response somehow, it would be very interesting
to get your answer to this question: "Are you doing right now, occupationally,
what you went to school to learn to do? If you went to college, and got
a diploma in some field, are you functioning on this very Monday in that
field?"
I certainly don't have a statistic or percentage to toss out to prove
the point, but the world is filled with people who went to school to learn
A, and are now functioning very successfully doing B instead. Or C or
D. Just here on our Voice of Prophecy staff we have two men who were once
schoolteachers. One of them now heads up our development department, seeking
funding and Christian financial support from donors to keep our radio
messages on the air. He's a genius at it. The other one, with a B.A. and
M.A., both in the field of mathematics, is now busily writing sermons
for these very broadcasts! And by his own admission, he took virtually
no writing classes in college. During all those years of higher education,
it was a latent, hidden gift.
I bring the point up for this reason. Very often in life, and for Christians
too, it's possible to look back at what can only be called detours. You
trained to do one thing — maybe for long years in school — and at the
end, it simply didn't happen. Now, perhaps you ended up doing Plan B with
great effectiveness and skill. But the thought still nags at you: Why
did God permit those years to dribble away? What's the purpose of a detour?
In one of our local Christian churches this Spring, the entire sermon
curriculum for 13 weeks was on the great Old Testament story of Joseph.
And you know, if there was ever a case where a devout follower of God
got knocked off the Interstate of life, and onto a side road, the Bible
hero Joseph is that man. Many of you listeners, I'm sure, are familiar
with this story, but if not, just pull out the nearest Bible and scan
quickly through Genesis chapters 37, then 39, then 40. And we find here
not one, not two, but three huge, agonizing delays in his journey to success.
In chapter 37, this favored son, the spoiled offspring of Jacob, is grabbed
by his brothers. Actually, his resentful half-brothers. They don't like
the perks he's already getting, and so they toss him into a nearby pit.
But that's only temporary. A bit later they pull him out and sell him
as a slave to some traders heading into Egypt. All right, that's Detour
#1.
But read ahead to chapter 39. This incredible kid, Joseph, shakes off
the dust, wipes away his tears, and makes the best of his situation. In
the early part of chapter 39, he's already recovered. He rises through
the ranks as a servant in Potiphar's house; before long, he's running
the entire household. From a traveler's perspective, he's gotten off that
dirt road and back onto the four-lane freeway.
But hold everything. Now an evil seductress named Mrs. Potiphar tempts
him with her silk sheets and soft stereo music. And he resists her. Here's
verse 9:
"My master has withheld nothing from me
except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked
thing and sin against God?"
But this beat goes on, a relentless siren song. And
finally, when he resolutely tells her no again, she grabs his coat and
cries "Rape!" And the master of the house has no choice, politically,
but to have Joseph thrown into jail. That's Detour #2.
Now, friend, just hit the pause button with me and think about Joseph
there in prison. You know, detours aren't so hard when you're finally
off them, but while you're out in the boonies, on the dirt road of confusion
or prison or divorce, one can really wonder where God is. The evidence
is clear in this story — especially as you read to the finish line — that
Joseph is a talented, dedicated, faithful young man. And here time is
going by! What a blessing he could be on the outside; what a difference
he could be making in the world of Egypt if he weren't in a prison cell
with a six-digit number on his inmate uniform.
But now chapter 40. Once again, this resilient, faith-filled believer
in the God of his fathers doesn't let bad things get him down. So he's
in prison. He keeps right on serving, encouraging, progressing. Actually,
here's the tail end of chapter 39:
"But while Joseph was there in the prison,
the Lord was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in
the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all
those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was
done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care,
because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did."
That's a great testimony, isn't it? True, Joseph was
on a detour. The Egyptian Penitentiary was a side road if there ever was
one. But notice: "The Lord was with him." Friend, when you and
I are tempted to think that God has wandered off the job, that He's not
attending to business — specifically our business — remember those five
words. "The Lord was with him." And He's still with us too.
We'll have some wonderful, modern-day stories as we go along to demonstrate
that when we think our detours are terrible news, that we're all alone,
that's not the case.
But now on to Detour #3. Because here in chapter 40, Joseph, under God's
power, is able to interpret two mysterious dreams: one told by the baker,
the other by the butler. And for the butler, it was very good news, indicating
his soon release. Just three days later, the parole board, meaning Pharaoh,
gave him his old job back. And before he checked out, Joseph got him to
promise that as soon as he was back in the palace, he would say a diplomatic
word and get Joseph sprung from prison too. But now here's a tough verse
23:
"The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember
Joseph; he forgot him."
Just like that. "He forgot him." And Joseph,
who has his suitcase packed and his one pair of shoes all shined, waits
. . . and waits . . . and waits. He sits in San Quentin by the phone waiting
for — get this — two whole additional years.
And do you know something? If you do the math, the Bible says Joseph first
got sold into slavery at the age of 17. He finally got out of jail — and
the story wraps up later on here in chapter 41 now — at the age of 30.
Which means that these three painful detours costs our young hero a full
thirteen years of life. And they were the best years! He was a young man,
so talented, and 13 prime-time years were just snatched away from him
by these three bleak, unforgivable accidents.
A wonderful book came out recently, written by Chuck Swindoll, entitled
Joseph: A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness. He had something to forgive,
all right! His stupid brothers and that stupid butler and that wicked
woman, Mrs. Potiphar. Between them, they cost him the best 13 years of
his life. And in Swindoll's book, he points out four categories that the
detours of life, the unfairness of what comes along, can fall into. All
four happened to Joseph; listen and see if any of them have been your
experience too.
Number One: undeserved treatment from family. Has that happened to you?
Number Two: unexpected restriction of circumstances. And of course, Joseph
had this one squeeze him like a vice. This young man is simply oozing
with talent; if they had SATs back then, he'd have scored in the high
1500s. And what's he doing instead? Pushing a broom. He's not a megastar
televangelist for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's not prime
minister of Egypt . . . yet. Right now he's pushing a broom in Potiphar's
house. And then in prison. When the butler forgets to help him get out,
he's still pushing that broom for two more years. So that's a big detour:
unexpected restriction of circumstances. Number Three: untrue accusations.
And Number Four: unfair abandonment.
Many of you, I'm sure, have been through something like those last two
years in prison Joseph endured. How could his friend have forgotten? Maybe
God had forgotten too. It's like you're on that muddy side road, and the
patrolman who promised to escort you back to the freeway never even showed
up.
Which reminds us of that cry in Psalm 22:
"My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?"
Does that sound familiar? Even Jesus, hanging on the
cross, was human enough to quote that anguished cry. Or the cry from Revelation
six:
"How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true,
until You judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?"
But friend, let's stay with those five words:
"The Lord was with Joseph." Did it seem like it? No. Did it
feel like it? No. But the evidence is clear . . . and thank God chapters
37 and 39 and 40 are followed by the great, heaven-ordained triumph of
chapter 41.
And it's the same for us, out there in the rain-streaked detour of our
own journey. You can't see Him or sense Him, maybe, but God is there with
you, waiting for His perfect time to lead you to glory.
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