Encouragement

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Shackled to Dreams and Circumstances
Psalm 105:17-22



Psalm 105:17-22
And he sent a man before them-Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till the word of the Lord proved him true. The king sent and released him, the ruler of the peoples set him free. He made him master of his household, ruler over all he possessed, to instruct his princes as he pleased and teach his wisdom.


Joseph, a favored son, favored of his father and his heavenly Father. Honored by his earthly father with a coat of many colors, honored by his Heavenly Father with dreams and plans for the good of many. Dreams sometimes sustain us, give us hope that endures and outlasts the hardship.

Joseph’s dreams troubled his family and they did not ask the Lord, they just made their own assessment of the dreams as did their father. It doesn’t say that God told Joseph the meaning either, but Joseph went away with dreams in his heart, dreams that gave no indication of the fact that he was being sent before them by the hand of the God.

We hardly expect to be sent someplace within God’s will with bruised feet encircled with shackles. Sometimes our imagination allows us to envision a different picture, more like Joseph’s dream, but not his experience. With shackles on his feet and his neck in irons was a far cry from his sheaf of grain standing upright and his brothers’ gathering around and bowing down to it or having the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing down to him.

Much like our own lives we hardly expect a trip into ridicule, slavery, servanthood, false accusations, imprisonment and abandonment to lead us anywhere good, but the path to the dreams God gives us often takes us through places we never thought we’d have to walk through.

Sometimes the way of being sent somewhere by God takes us through rough, hurtful experiences. It doesn’t mean God’s dream for you died, it does mean that it is being built; it is in the process. In looking at Joseph we see that from the time of his betrayal by his brothers when he was sold into slavery until he was raised up into a position of authority he had no control over the events in his life. The only control he had was the choice to do right or wrong, to walk in integrity in his circumstances believing God had a plan for his life by faith, and to speak what was right before God to others using the gifts God had given Him, acknowledging God in the process and in the circumstances of his life. That is something we can all do. We can believe God is working out his plan for our lives even when it isn’t fun or it’s hard, painful or even when we are sick or angry. We can trust in the heart of God for our lives. We don’t escape hardship here but we get to walk with God through it.

We see people didn’t believe in Joseph’s dreams that God gave him at first. Joseph walked with God anyway. In the midst of betrayal, slavery and false accusations, people didn’t believe him but Joseph chose to believe God anyway. When he reaches a place of authority Joseph continues to depend on God and believes Him. He could have chosen the other way, which was to doubt, to give in to despair and worry and make another prison for himself but he chose freedom in Christ where bars and circumstances don’t hold the key to life, Jesus does; live in the freedom of Christ.

I am not always overly fond of my circumstances. They are sometimes like chains around my heart and bars around my life. Try to get free as I might I can’t always shake them loose. Sometimes I desperately want to be free of them. You may want to be free from yours too, whether that is a wheel chair, an illness, a financial disaster or something else. They hold us firmly in place, we may not need deliverance but we may need to say “Yes” to God and worship Him anyway and live our lives for him wherever we are in our circumstances. Freedom comes when we turn to Him in our circumstances, embracing God in the situation no matter what our shackles are.

Some have told me that Joseph was foolish; he never should have told his family about the dreams. Although we don’t know Joseph’s heart it is obvious God did. Joseph’s dreams did trouble his family, some have told me that Joseph was being arrogant, rubbing it in that he had had these dreams. We see him sharing with his family, but not in anger or malice. Whatever Joseph’s personal thoughts on the dreams were, we are not told but we do see the reaction of the heart of his brothers and God makes it clear that they were jealous and disliked him.

Have you ever wondered what it is that sometimes makes others dislike you? Especially when you have done nothing to them? Sometimes we experience others not liking us and so we try harder to please but it doesn’t do any good, we can’t change the heart of others. When we look at Joseph’s character, we do not see the description of the intent of his heart but what God says about his older brothers’ attitudes and hearts is very evident.

What we do see about Joseph’s character is that he seems to have found favor with God; for example: the dreams, the coat of many colors, and the favor shown to him in captivity; but also we see a young man who did what was right, he was responsible and he did God’s will in difficult, scary circumstances. He had nothing to hide because he was a man of integrity, his brothers had a lot to hide and had to live with that for a long time.

When your plan for your life changes abruptly, don’t assume that the devil has stopped in, chose to believe God.
God is in charge
He knows where you are
He knows where you are going
He knows who you are going to be
He knows all of your circumstances, that includes betrayal, being unloved and loved, being hated by others, being mocked, being sent away and being set up, being lied about, being forgotten while you languish in prison with your heart crying out “Remember me!” when you go before Pharaoh. God knows how to bestow favor on a man and it usually doesn’t come in the way we might normally think it would. Favor with God is different then favor with man. What looks like favor of God can find you in pretty awful places and circumstances that any mortal man might look at and think God has left him.

Joseph, disliked by his brothers, sold as a slave, carried away, sold again as a slave, trapped by someone else’s evil desires towards him rises up in integrity, does what is right as he has tried to do all along, only to end up in prison for doing right when he could have chose to do wrong. Now he finds favor in prison and the bible says “God was kind to Joseph”. Kind? I thought, the man is in prison! Eventually the word of the Lord does prove him true as it says in Psalm 105.
Man tends to look, I think, on favor of God as when things go well for us, good health, good food, good jobs, good home, good kids, respect of fellow man, the easy life. The life Joseph lived doesn’t sound pleasant or one of ease yet God bestowed favor on him. We tend to want God’s favor without the trials because it is hard, it hurts sometimes.

I used to wonder about the book of James in chapters 1 and 2 about “considering it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds” and how “God has chosen those who are poor in the eyes of this world to be rich in faith”. Joseph was poor in the eyes of the world, yet he was a man of compassion. God’s favor doesn’t appear as man’s favor and so we need to know that our circumstances don’t determine how God feels about us.

Sometimes I wonder where God is in the events of my life. When it feels like He is not there, like when I am afraid, sick or sad. I am learning that “the Lord God He is God, He is the faithful God”. My circumstances sometimes do get worse but I am learning to ask Him to be in them with me. He doesn’t have to fix them but sometimes He does. This is where I learn to trust, in the Joseph part of my life. It is where I learn faith and how to rest. It is a place of favor, not punishment.

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