Dear Friend,
Joseph was faithful in his fellowship with God and service to Him in a day of small things - very small! Though a wrongly convicted criminal in Pharaoh's prison, he chose to be a remarkably consecrated servant in God's service. Genesis 40 records Joseph's amazing service.
He served prisoners, most of whom were justly convicted criminals, willingly caring for their souls and daily seeing to their needs. He willingly submitted to the warden's instructions - the same warden who, when Joseph was the manager of Potiphar's estate, was his subordinate! But, most significantly, when he could have chosen to be offended with God he chose instead to keep honoring and serving Him by using his God-given gift of interpretation. When one day two new prisoners, Pharaoh's butler and baker, received startling dreams, Joseph promptly sought God for them and received and delivered accurate interpretations. Then just as promptly the butler forgot him.
But God did not. After two exhaustingly long years of nothing but mundane routine, day after day after day, God showed He had remembered Joseph and his humble service all along. Pharoah dreamed his now-famous dreams and none of his counselors could interpret it (Genesis 41). Reminded of his similar scenario, the butler finally remembered Joseph and his spot-on interpretations. You know the rest of the story.
But you may have forgotten its primary lesson: if Joseph had not continued serving God in his lowest season, he would never have reached his highest season. If he had not continued being a blessing to few, he would never have become a blessing to many. Two things worked hand in hand during this formative period, Joseph's remarkable humility and God's remarkable training.
How perfectly God trained Joseph in those hidden, prison years! When he emerged he was thoroughly humble: "It is not in me" (Genesis 41:16). He was completely God-dependent: "God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace" (v. 16). He clearly discerned God working: "God hath shown Pharaoh what he is about to do ... Behold, there come seven years of great plenty ... and ... of famine" (vv. 25, 29-30). His gift was perfected and his prophecies flawless: "And the seven years of famine began to come, according as Joseph had said" (v. 54). And above all, Joseph assigned all the credit where it belonged: "The thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass" (v. 32). Then, one day, everything changed.
Yet, in a sense, nothing changed! Joseph had used his gift of interpretation faithfully in the day of small things. Now he used it faithfully in the day of big things. It was the same gift, given by the same God, operated by the same Spirit, through the same minister, in the same ministry, all exactly as was the case in the prison. But now Joseph prophesied in Pharaoh's palace, and his messages impacted many more subjects: Egypt's teeming population, Joseph's (Jacob's) family, and the whole ancient world! All these blessings flowed because one believer continued faithfully using one God-given gift when it looked like the one true God had abandoned him.
When Joseph's day of small things became a day of big things, his purified heart was as big as his new task. His days of small-heartedness - thinking, praying, grieving, or rejoicing only about himself - were gone. Now it was all about doing God's will, executing God's plans, saving God's people, in God's appointed time, to honor God and bless and establish His people. Later he stated his new ministry motivation to his brothers: "You thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to save many people alive as it is this day" (Genesis 50:20).
Again, how perfect God's training was! Those two years of waiting were not wasted. God was working in Joseph every day and did not stop until his heart was thoroughly enlarged and completely delivered from all selfish motives in ministry. What does this have to do with you?
A lot! What's your gift, my friend? Are you using it? Or have you laid it down because God has let surprising injustices, sufferings, or crosses visit your life? Or because He seems to have forgotten you, your calling, and your ministry? Do your faithful labors seem unappreciated, unrecognized, and unfruitful? Do you feel like you're in a prison, with invisible restraints holding you back from your day of larger things? Do you feel like you're slowly, quietly, surely dying in your prison?
Recall Joseph! Remember what God did with one man who used his one gift in one season of insignificance. Then keep pressing on, using your gift in your day of small things. And understand this: you're not in prison, you're in the very limited sphere of ministry God has personally designed for your maximum spiritual growth and maturation. So, let the perfect One train you perfectly. Also, understand this: you're not dying, that's just your religious ambition, personal pride, and Adamic impatience that are dying. So, don't succumb to self-pity or offense at God. Stay put, just where He placed you. Stay close to Christ, ever refreshed with the Vine's supernatural life. Stay strong in the Spirit, nourished with God's Word, prayer, and worship. And stay sure of Christ, confident that He who is without favoritism will in His time and way reward your faithfulness as He did Joseph's.
Lastly, keep things in perspective. Surely, your day of small things isn't harder than Joseph's, is it? Are you wrongly convicted? Subsisting on beans, gruel, and water? Sleeping in a filthy dungeon? Burdened and injured by heavy iron chains? And all without any natural hope of judicial review and appeal? Doesn't this make your "prison" much more palatable?
Summing up, if you'll be faithful, God will be also. And when His time comes, He will remember you by bringing you to your day of bigger things, whatever that may be. By that time, your gift will be perfected and you will use it with skill to bless many more than you have previously served. But just as importantly, your spiritual training will be complete. You will be as humble as Joseph, faithfully giving God His due and faithfully focused on, not your desires, but His people's needs.
Faithful in small things,
Greg Hinnant
Greg Hinnant Ministries