Hardships are hardly synchronous nor synonymous with victories. However, somehow I believe those who have had great victories understand hardships well.
I recall watching a play one of our daughters participated in. Truth be told, I didn’t give much thought to the title of the play as I was just overjoyed to see her take part in something I could see she was so natural in doing. To watch her on stage filled my heart with so much warmth and extreme joy for her.
It wasn’t until after the end of the play where (this will make me sound like having the least of all brain matter, but I’m good with that) I took note of how the script resembled the Hebrew Old Testament story of Joseph and his brothers. My daughter exclaimed with a kind laugh, “Yes! Did you not know?!!”
No. I had not. My heart, mind, and spirit were too engulfed in watching her. Although the show went exceptionally well for all the evenings it was performed, I honestly could have cared less what show it was. Our daughter’s smile on the stage was ever more than enough for me.
Funny how a moment in time plants seeds differently for the future to harvest.
Though that play will mark a time as our daughter’s debut performance on stage, I believe it planted in me so much more. Many years have flown by and I have since come across that story over and over to a point that one day I envision myself creating it to its perfection on screen. While there are other historical stories to be taken in and reflected upon, this story is one that has strengthened and carried me through in times of hardship and enduring faith.
There is so much more background to this story, drama amongst women that continues on to present days, but to set aside all that, Joseph was clearly the most favored by his father, Jacob (interestingly, other than Judah, the only other one whose name started with the letter “J” of all Jacob’s twelve sons; just enough time for all to remember before Jacobs’ name became Israel), who makes this clearest to all when he gives Joseph this vivid coat before all of his brothers to see.
I believe Joseph is a lot like us sometimes, where we can’t help but share our good thoughts when things are in our favor, inadvertently stepping on other people’s toes. Even in my earliest twenties I hadn’t realized being a stay at home mom in our first bought home with a Bachelor’s degree and Teacher’s certificate by twenty-two was uncommon around me. I thought nothing of any part of my circumstance as just pure grace and reaping good harvest from hard work as I innocently thought others to think of their own lives.
You have to imagine this brother, already having created enmity amongst his brethren to the point where they are not able to have peaceable talk with him, probably wearing his colorful coat given only to him by his father, as he gleefully speaks of this dream he had where all of his brothers’ sheafs (bundles of grain) gave obeisance to his uprightly standing one. Joseph didn’t stop there.
Joseph shared yet another dream where the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bow down to him. Even his father questions Joseph regarding this dream. A former colleague of mine would have suggested, “It’s like someone rubbing sandpaper onto already a bruised skin.”
As surely none of Joseph’s dreams came to anyone’s hopes to come true or acceptance, one can only just imagine how Joseph was causing his brothers to feel, most especially due to how Joseph’s words spoke with so much forthright and foreseeable belief. Rubbing sandpaper to his brothers’ skin again, and again.
Noted to be the reporter of his brothers’ ill doings, Joseph was clearly a target for all his brothers to easily despise. Throwing Joseph into that pit must have been that last draw for his brothers. Seeing him come toward all of them perhaps after already a long day’s work may have been their very last time to endure, having been sent to fetch them, but never of any mention Joseph doing the same labor that day. Having no spoken history of any of his brothers giving him food, even to a point where they ate bread as Joseph was placed in that pit in the wilderness with no water, signifies much spite and bitterness for one soul.
Hate would have had Joseph slain, let us understand. Whether the reason in heart, mind, and spirit to not have Joseph killed was out of respect for their oldest brother, Reuben, who suggested to just throw Joseph into the pit, or that none had a murderous blood, Joseph was given mercy, his life spared.
I imagine the brothers sitting around or close to that pit, working out their mixed emotions, calming down any percolating thoughts to do worse than what they had already done.
Perhaps knowing that should they decide to free Joseph, he would only tell their father of their wrongdoing. Perhaps seeking a chance to be finally seen and acknowledged by their father, they could find a way to rid of their brother for good. Bringing him back home to face their father’s disappointment under the report of Joseph would not have been an option. Selling him for profit just seemed like the only choice in their minds. No more sandpaper to their skin. Now, with a story to explain of Joseph’s demise, they would also gain 20 pieces of silver to share amongst one another.
With at least ten of his eleven brothers, Joseph was sold into slavery. Still, once made into a servant, his goodness led him to be trusted and overseer of all his Egyptian master’s possessions. And then, he passes the temptation to betray, only to find himself imprisoned nonetheless. Still, and again, his goodness led him to be keeper of all other prisoners. And then, when there is hope to be freed, he is imprisoned for yet another two years before he is remembered, acknowledged, and redeemed where because of his continued good will and character, given the gift of vision, becomes overseer over all of Egypt.
I hurt to envision the entirety of this story because even up to the point where he is finally reunited with his father and full-blooded brother, Benjamin, he has to go through the path of seeing his other brothers first, the ones who threw him into a pit many years ago and who had sold him into slavery.
I felt Joseph’s hurt, heard his tearful cries, saw the reflection of his face in the water basin he washed his face in immediately after hearing from his brothers that his father is still in good health and seeing his younger brother, Benjamin, again after so many years. He had every power to punish his brothers in however way he would have thought and pleased to do. Still, he went back out to have all his brothers dine amongst themselves before him.
At the moment he could hide his true identity no longer, thus, revealing himself to his brothers, I imagine this time, Joseph’s eyes swelling from tears and yet, goodness and honor remained his true character still.
He reminds his brothers that they indeed sold him into Egypt, and yet, he forgave in this manner, telling them to not be angry with themselves.
Joseph, before his brothers, provided the understanding that though they meant to harm and rid of him, greatness, not just goodness, transpired from it all.
Here, even readers of his story come to the understanding that had Joseph never been sold to Egypt, going beyond being framed and imprisoned, we see now this man who not only saves his family from famine, but an entire country.
Joseph’s resilience and strong faith to remain good and honorable led an accounted 136 of his entire family, from his father to he and his sibling’s offspring, a welcomed grant to dwell in the best part of land of Egypt and beyond.
One hundred and thirty years old was his father, Jacob, at that time, and seventeen years later did he live before he passed. But, not until it was said that his family continued to multiply.
It was written that Joseph wept on his father’s neck at the moment of their reunion. I recall curling up in bed with my Papa, already a grown woman, mother, and wife, crying in his arms like a little child, while asking forgiveness for my tears, explaining they were tears of understanding how much I truly loved and appreciated him and how much I was going to miss him.
Every time I eat at a nice restaurant, I think, Papa would have loved it here. Anytime I laugh at yet another hilarious comedy movie or show I think, Papa would have been in tears laughing with me, too. Anytime I come by some interesting news about the world and its people I think, Papa would have loved to talk about this one.
Would I have wanted Papa to have lived another seventeen years more just so he could see how much more I had become? Surely. Would I have wanted him to ever suffer, in exchange, being told and believing for many years I had been slain, having him suffer from such bereavement? Never.
There are painful sacrifices we have to make, some sacrifices we may have to endure for a great length of time. And, just when that sacrifice seems to have shed some light or lightened in burden, another sacrifice requests its own carry, weighing you down even more than what you thought was already a load.
There are moments so unclear, perhaps to a point of darkness, that we may think there is no light to come from its point of arrival. There are those who hurt us out of spite not to our intentional fault, but just the perceptive imbalance of blessings and grace favoring your way.
Whether you openly rejoice or remain silently humble, your air, your light, your presence causes trouble for others either or all in heart, mind, body, and spirit. Desire or conspiracy to take you down will be others’ infatuation until the day you are found in a pit with not even water to quench your thirst. Darkness may be around you, but, just like Joseph, keep protecting that light from within. If you were meant to illuminate, no darkness will overcome you.
Even with just a drop of light, there can never be complete darkness.
Remain good and honorable, without the pursuit for any riches, but mere desire and duty for unbreakable character.
That hardship you find yourself in? That’s training for your victories.
