Hearing His Voice #186

One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever.

Genesis 37:5

From a human perspective, Joseph’s journey looked like a tragic mistake. God had spoken to him, and he had indiscriminately told his brothers about how one day they would bow down to him. This seemingly arrogant sense of having a superior destiny enraged them, and they retaliated first with a plan to kill him, then with a revised plan to sell him into slavery. As we know in retrospect, this was the path to the fulfillment of the dream. But for years it looked like the opposite.

When God gives us a glimpse of our calling and then circumstances seem to take us in the opposite direction, we’re usually very disoriented. We cry out, “Did You tell me only to frustrate me? If it was going to take this long, why didn’t You wait until closer to the time to tell me?” But what looks like an overdone lesson on faith and patience is really God’s mercy. He didn’t give us a glimpse of our calling to frustrate us during the delays and obstacles. He gave us the glimpse in order to prepare us to persevere. At confusing and disappointing turns in the journey, we will need to hang on to those words. They become our anchor of truth in the midst of shifting messages from the world around us. They give us direction and hope when it’s hard to tell which way is up.

Joseph’s dreams may have seemed like an unnecessary part of the story—God could have accomplished everything in his life without giving him a preview—but he likely held on to those dreams through years of darkness. Psalm 105:19 tells us that the Word of God tested Joseph until it was fulfilled. It would also encourage him. When God speaks a “yes,” He is giving us something to cling to when everything else says no.

Lord, I’m clinging to the words You have spoken to me. They are my anchor, my encouragement, my food for living in hope. Help me always to see them as larger than my circumstances.