We often use common expressions so much that all of their meaning drains out of them. “God will be with you,” is on that list. How much does that overused expression mean to a person with terminal cancer, or their family members. Tell that to the mother whose son was just killed in battle, or to the deserted young woman, on her own in the world, who has just learned that she is pregnant.
The scriptures are brutally honest about what it means to say, “God is with you.” Genesis recounts the life of Joseph who is sold into slavery by his brothers but ends up second in
command in Egypt. Several times in Genesis 39-40—the dark years of his life—we are told that God was with Joseph. Let’s take a few snapshots of his life to see what it looked like for God to be with him.Joseph’s brothers seize him, throw him into a dry pit, and heartlessly ignore “the distress of his soul” (Gen. 42:21). And while he pleads for his life they sit down to have lunch! Then when some slave traders who are headed for Egypt happen by, they yank him from the pit and sell him in to slavery. So, here’s a seventeen-year-old boy with fetters on his feet and an iron collar around his neck (Psa. 105:18), trudging mile after mile toward life of slavery in a foreign country! What would the statement, “God will be with you,” have meant to Joseph at that point in his life?
When he arrives, he is bought by Potiphar, a wealthy Egyptian official, and we are told that “Yahweh was with Joseph and he became a successful man.” (Ge. 39:2) That looks great. But when his master’s wife tries unsuccessfully to seduce him, he is thrown into prison on false charges of attempted rape. What is that like? What would the phrase: “God is with you,” mean to Joseph just then?
Let’s take another snapshot. We don’t know what an Egyptian prison may have been like, but they didn’t call it “the pit” for nothing! (Gen. 40:15, 41:14) Although Joseph is in prison, we read: “Yahweh was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love . . . gave him favor in the sight of the prison keeper: “. . .And in whatever he did, Yahweh made him succeed.” (39:21-23) Things are looking up again. But after he graciously interprets the dream of the Pharaoh’s cupbearer who was with him in prison, the man forgets to mention it to Pharaoh. No doubt his hopes dim as he spends more years in “the pit”, not knowing when or if he will ever go free. What do you think the expression, “God will be with you” would mean to Joseph during those years?
So what can we learn from Joseph’s life? Simply that “God will be with you,” may sometimes mean that God gives us favor in the eyes of the people around us, and we are successful in our life activities. But it can also mean that He is with us when we’re begging for mercy while those around us turn a deaf ear. And it can mean that He’s still with us when we are unjustly accused of wrong-doing and severely punished for crimes we didn’t commit. It can mean doing the right thing and being rewarded with more anxiety and frustration, with no end in sight.
When God is with us, it doesn’t mean that life is just a bowl of cherries or an all-expense paid stay in Disney World. It means that He hasn’t forgotten us, and that He knows what we’re going through, and that He has a purpose in it all. This reminds me of the famous poem that well describes Joseph’s real-life experience of the presence of God:
Footprints in the Sand
Mary Stevenson
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky.
In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only.
This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord,
“You promised me Lord,
that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”