2009 - Day 6 - God's Unknown Ways

January 6, 2009 … Swindoll’s Topic for Today: God’s Unknown Ways

Passage of the Day: Genesis 39: 19 - 23 19 So it was, when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him, saying, “Your servant did to me after this manner,” that his anger was aroused. 20 Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined. And he was there in the prison. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison; whatever they did there, it was his doing. 23 The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority, because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.

My Journal for Today: Perhaps you think you’re having a bad time in life. Things have not gone your way. Maybe circumstances seem like they are Satanic oppression. Perhaps someone or some organization is treating you unfairly. And having read the passage above, I think you know where I’m going with this.

Yeah, … if anyone was treated unfairly; … if anyone had experienced unjust or unfair circumstances in life; … if anyone was ever at the mercy of oppressive forces in life, … it was Joseph. Sold into slavery by hateful, jealous brothers; … restricted in his freedom to live; … forced into prison by a scheming woman and a master who believed her lies. If anyone ever had human reasons to say, “Hey, what’s up, God?!;” it’s Joseph. But as Swindoll points out for our edification and growth in today’s devotional reading from Great Days with the Great Lives, we need to remember the words of Isaiah 55: 8 – 9, which states [NKJV]…

8 “ For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
9 “ For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.

If you believe, as do I, that this is God’s absolute truth (see 2nd Tim. 3: 16), we need to recognize and acknowledge the contrasts in this passage, as apparently Joseph knew and understood.

We base many of our perceptions of life circumstances on human fairness. Note I say “HUMAN fairness.” And there are times when we simply don’t get it … i.e., God’s ways. We don’t understand God’s thinking in the midst of trying circumstances. We want to cry out, “What’s going on, Lord?!” But we need to recognize that God is God and we are not! And we’re also confronted with the belief/faith challenge as to whether, as Christians, we believe and are going to accept the truth in Romans 8: 28. I’ll link you here to that one [hyperlinked]; but I hope you know it by heart.

Yes, as with Joseph, there are times when God’s ways are simply and inexplicably His; and we become challenged to believe that God is in control and that He’s working things out for our good … even if we are unfairly thrown into the pits of life. I hope you believe and live out the truth of Heb. 13: 5, which is quoted from the OT (Deut. 31: 6, 8 and Joshua 1: 5) that God is in control and He will never leave us nor forsake us. Apparently Joseph not only knew but believed and lived in these truths. Certainly how he lived onward and upward in the face of the challenges we’ve been studying in his life is an example of having faith in God’s sovereign control in life. But I have to ask myself, “Do I believe and live that truth?”

My Prayer Today: My Lord, you are God and I am not! Amen