Last Monday, I sat on the steps outside my condo and watched the storm clouds building to the north. It had been such an awful day that had lightning clawed its way out of the sky and struck me right then, not only would I have not been surprised, I probably would have been thankful.
I had made one last attempt to get my air conditioning fixed before school started. I was pumped up, telling myself that as horrible a situation as it was, God could do anything and He could make this work. The a/c guys showed up early and started digging up the pipe in the yard and we were on our way.
But after a few hours, the work came to a grinding halt. They had dug up the pipe just fine but needed access to it inside the building which meant taking out my downstairs neighbor’s water heater. Here’s what happened next. They couldn’t get the valves to shut off the water to the tank so they had to shut off the water to the building which immediately endeared me to my neighbors, then they couldn’t get the water to drain from the tank, but thought they had drained it enough so went ahead and cut the pipes leading from the water heater to the wall. But when they did that they discovered the water heater wasn’t drained at all and they couldn’t move it. That’s when they told me I needed a plumber.
That’s when I told them to put the pipes back together and fill in the hole in the backyard. I was done.
Only I wasn’t done, because they didn’t put the pipes back together correctly and now the pipes were leaking.
It was an hour or so after that that I found myself out on the steps watching that storm cloud as I waited for the plumber.
And as I sat there thoughts raced through my head. Was this all a test? How come every time I tried to fix the air conditioning, something really horrible (and increasing in horribleness) happened to stop me? Did God need me to prove myself? Had I done something to deserve this?
It was that last question that got me thinking about Job.
Job is the Old Testament poster child for suffering and not just any suffering. In a short amount of time, he loses everything he loves, his possessions, his family, and finally his health. He suffers in a way that few people understand. He suffers not because he has done anything wrong. He suffers because Satan, we are told, is trying to prove a point that Job only praises God because he is blessed. If he suffers, Satan surmises, Job will curse God.
Job is innocent, yet his friends tell him that he must have sinned to have been cursed so. In Job 3:7, Eliphaz tells Job, “Think now, who that was innocent ever perished?” The righteous, the innocent are blessed. Sinners are cursed.
Job’s friends, of course, are idiots.
In the midst of Job’s suffering, God asks him to pray for his friends. As bad off as Job is, his friends turn out to be the ones most in danger.
The message of Job is that God does not punish us with suffering.
Even the God of the Old Testament who regularly sends the Israelites into battle, who drowned Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea, does not cause us to suffer.
And if we think that God is responsible for our suffering, if we think we have done something to deserve the bad things that happen to us, then we don’t know God at all.
God does not cause suffering, but He will make use of it.
He can and will use our suffering and turn it into something good and powerful and glorious.
In today’s reading from Genesis, we are coming to the end of Joseph’s story. Joseph, like Job, has suffered horribly. If Job is the poster child for suffering in general, then Joseph is the poster child for anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Let’s review his life.
Joseph, favorite son of Jacob, is leading a pretty good life, pretty carefree. He has a nice coat. He has bizarre dreams sometimes, but they don’t trouble him too much.
Most importantly, Joseph’s completely oblivious that his brothers are jealous of him.
So jealous in fact that they plot to kill him. Joseph’s brother Reuben actually tries to save Joseph by suggesting that instead of killing him, they just throw him into a pit. Reuben then plots to rescue Joseph from the pit later.
Whew, Joseph is saved.
But wait, the other brothers decide to make some money off dear Joseph and so sell him into slavery before Reuben has a chance to save him.
So close.
Ah, but wait, Joseph is sold to Potiphar who is very wealthy and soon puts Joseph in charge of his household. Joseph is still a slave, but leading a good life.
Whew.
But no, Joseph refuses the advances of Potiphar’s wife who then turns around and accuses him of attacking her.
And now Joseph is in prison.
Nothing has gone right for Joseph. Every time things seem to be going his way, an obstacle is thrown into his path to derail him. Even when people try to do right by him, like Reuben and Potiphar, someone else is there to make his life a nightmare.
Joseph has every right to despair.
Meanwhile, God has other plans for Joseph. The story does not end with Joseph languishing in prison. The story ends with Joseph as a leader in Egypt, respected and admired by the Pharaoh himself. Joseph is wealthy and thanks to God and the dreams He gave Joseph, Egypt is weathering a famine far better than her neighbors.
God blesses Joseph and He blesses him in the most unlikely way imaginable.
From prison to a ruler of Egypt, how Joseph’s fortunes changed.
And much like Job who is asked by God to pray for his friends, Joseph also has a chance to do the right thing when he reunites with his family years later. He was in a position to hand out a perfect vengeance, but instead he embraces his family and forgives them saying something I personally hold close to my heart, “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”
Whether it be Job or Joseph, God can take the most horrible suffering and turn it around to create the most amazing blessings.
I don’t know what the end of my air conditioning story will be. It’s still not fixed. I need to sell this condo, but can’t if it doesn’t have air. I really don’t know what’s going to happen next.
But last Monday, when the a/c guy told me that they might need a jackhammer to reach the pipe in question, I said to myself, “Wow, when God works His miracle here, it’s going to be something amazing.”
