I saw a bearded man in shackles,
clothed in what appeared to be prison garments. There were two men on
either side of him. These two men appeared to be jailors. The two
jailors had the shackled, bearded man by the arms, and were hastily
escorting him down a stone passageway in a dungeon. The jailors
delivered the prisoner to a group of soldiers. These soldiers
appeared to be Egyptian. The soldiers escorted the prisoner to a
palace. He was taken into a room where his shackles were removed. He
was told he would be having an audience with Pharaoh. When he heard
this, the prisoner made a strange request. He asked if he could shave
and have new garments to change into in order to be presentable to
Pharaoh. After shaving and changing his clothes, the prisoner was
taken into the presence of Pharaoh. The man now had no resemblance to
the prisoner who had just been dragged from the dungeon.
I perceived that the prisoner I was
seeing was Joseph, the son of Rachel and Jacob (Genesis 30:22-24).
Joseph had numerous traumatic events happen to him: His brothers
sold him into slavery because of their jealousy and hatred for him.
Joseph’s brothers despised and resented him because he was their
father’s favorite son. Joseph retaliated against the hostility of
his brothers by being a tattletale. He also dreamed dreams where his
family would bow down to him, and he loved to brag about these dreams
(which certainly didn’t further endear him to his brothers.) Joseph
was resold in Egypt to be a household slave to an Egyptian official.
He was falsely accused of attempted rape by the wife of the Egyptian
official, and thrown into prison.
I was asked the question: "How
do you let go of the past when it's still a part of your present?"
I immediately began to think about the vision I shared earlier.
Letting go of things from the past is
sometimes difficult because of our own emotional attachment to the
memory of those events. When an event has traumatized us, we can
exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress. Future events that may "feel"
the same as a past traumatic event trigger those same feelings of
helplessness, and we're right back reliving and emotionally
re-experiencing a past event.
Maybe we think Joseph just somehow
breezed through his traumatic events because the Bible says that the
Lord was with Joseph, and caused all Joseph did to be successful
(Genesis 39:2, 20). In the house of the Egyptian official, Joseph
became the manager. In prison, he became the overseer over the entire
prison. Joseph found favor with those he was a slave to. But he was
still a slave, still a prisoner, still a convict.
He was still in prison. He was still in
bondage. Prisons are a place of oppression, confinement, torment, and
obscurity. In prison, Joseph learned that God’s presence was still
with him, that he was still being provided for by God. Joseph learned
that even in prison, even as a slave, there were opportunities to
succeed available. Later, he would be able to look back over all that
had happened to him, and see how those things had prepared him for
future events (events where he would become the person through whom
his family was saved from starvation and death).
Two high profile prisoners (royal
ministers of Pharaoh) Joseph was imprisoned with had dreams that
disturbed them. Joseph successfully interpreted their dreams. One of
the men (Pharaoh’s baker) would be executed; the other would be
restored to his position as Pharaoh’s cup bearer. Joseph asked the
man who would live to intercede on his behalf to Pharaoh when he was
released from prison. When the man was released from prison, however,
he promptly forgot all about Joseph.
He forgot about Joseph for two years;
until Pharaoh dreamed two troubling dreams that no one could
interpret for him. The cup bearer then told Pharaoh about Joseph, and
how Joseph had successfully interpreted the dream him and another
prisoner had had. Joseph was brought out of the prison with haste
and was presented to Pharaoh (Genesis 41:14).
When Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s
dreams (there would be seven years of great plenty, followed by seven
years of famine), Pharaoh made Joseph the Prime Minister over all
Egypt.
Joseph was given gifts, a new name, and
a wife from Pharaoh. He eventually had two sons. The names of these
two sons reveal how truly traumatic the years of slavery had been to
Joseph.
Genesis 41:51, 52 – “{51} And
Joseph called the name of the first-born Manasseh: For God, said he,
hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. {52}
And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me
to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
Years later, when the famine came as
Joseph had predicted it would, Joseph’s brothers arrived in Egypt
to buy food. Here was a perfect opportunity for Joseph to repay his
brothers for having sold him into slavery. He did indeed test them,
to prove them. When Joseph finally revealed his identity to his
brothers, they were terrified of his retribution. But Joseph
reassured them, saying unto them:
Genesis 45:4, 5 – “{4} …I am
Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. {5} Now therefore be
not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for
God did send me before you to preserve life.”
Genesis 50:19-21 – “{19} And
Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? {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.”
Over the years, Joseph had come to
understand that every traumatic event that had occurred to him had
been ordained and planned by God for a greater good. Only God can
truly deliver us from the emotional pain of our past traumatic
events. And He can only deliver us to the extent that we trust in Him
and allow ourselves to fully surrender our lives into His hands;
during the times of suffering and affliction as well as during the
times of blessing and prosperity.
Just as the two dreams Joseph had as a
young teen-age boy sustained him during the years of his slavery and
imprisonment in Egypt, so we, too, have a promise that can sustain us
during traumatic events in our life: Jeremiah 31:17 – “…there
is hope in your future.” God will always give you a promise to
cling to in advance of the times when you will experience affliction.
Hold on to that promise and continue to trust that not only does God
direct your steps, He also directs your stops.
Those who have been in a spiritual
place of confinement, affliction, and distress, I feel the Lord is
saying His release for you will occur suddenly (as suddenly as it
happened for Joseph). Be prepared for that moment by ensuring your
hearts are free from an unforgiving spirit; free from holding any
grudges against those who may have inflicted spiritual wounds upon
you; free from the desire to retaliate against those who seem to have
forced you into a spiritual dungeon.
Remember the words and attitude of
Joseph: Genesis 50:20 – “But as for you, ye thought evil
against me; but God meant it unto good…”
Job faithfully avows during his
afflictions: Job 23:10—“but he {God} knoweth the way that I
take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
After we have faithfully learned during
our times of affliction that God has been preparing us and refining
us for a greater service to Him and to others, our release will be
sudden. We will be brought into the presence of those for whom God
has prepared us to minister unto. Our spiritual, inner man will have
been changed and transformed and we will have a mission and purpose
from God.
1 Corinthians 5:17, 18 – “[17}
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things
are passed away; behold, all things are become new. {18} And all
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”
Isaiah 43:18, 19 – {18} “Do not
remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. {19}
Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; Shall you
not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness and rivers in
the desert."
In Him,
(Hollie L. Moody)
(Hollie L. Moody)
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