HOW TO BE THANKFUL WHILE STANDING IN A DEEP HOLE!

 

Saturday, November 21, 2020

 

HOW TO BE THANKFUL WHILE STANDING IN A DEEP HOLE!

 

Gen 37:23-25

23 And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him;

24 And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.

 

           The first prison experience that Joseph endured was at the hands of his own brothers! They did not understand his strange dreams – or maybe they did. In a jealous conspiracy, they removed the symbol of his special relationship with his father and lowered him into a dry pit. Then they sat down to have lunch. Such casual cruelty seems common today.

 

           Joseph may have found it difficult to be thankful in the midst of his situation. You may find it difficult to be thankful as we approach the holiday intended for giving thanks as well. It has been a long and difficult year fraught with disappointments. CDC Director Robert Redfield commented in July on a spike in suicides. Some officials have suggested eliminating Thanksgiving gatherings. It is not a joyful time.

 

           But Joseph did have things for which he could be thankful. The most obvious is that the hole was dry! I know, that seems a small thing but significant when you think about it. His brothers did not kill him but sold him into slavery. That is another plus. We know now what Joseph could only see by faith. God was working out a plan so complex and so generally beneficial that it was almost impossible to see from a pit – without looking UP!

 

           Joseph would meet his brothers again. He would be in a position to have them either jailed or killed. Which would it be, revenge or restoration?

 

Gen 50:20-21

20 But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.

21 Now therefore fear ye not: I will nourish you, and your little ones. And he comforted them, and spake kindly unto them.

 

Dear Lord, let me be sensitive to the possibilities of praise in the midst of pain. AMEN