“Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns.”
Genesis 37:18
I hold the advantage of knowing the end of the story.
I know that the punk kid brother Joseph ends up second in command over the greatest nation of his time.
I know that it does not end in the pit or Potiphar’s house or prison. That is a huge advantage.
But in life, there is not that advantage of having the end of the story already in your hands. Sure God gives promises. Sure we have hopes and desires. Sure we hold to the unwavering word that God has a plan for prosperity and success penned by Jeremiah.
But we still don’t know the end.
And life, life has put us in some pits.
If you don’t know Joe, he was a dreamer. He dreamed God dreams. Dream that one day his 10 older and one baby brother would bow to him. He dreamed that his father, mother and 11 brothers would come under his rule. He dreamed dreams that frankly upset everyone in the house.
So to kill the dream, his brothers decided to kill the dreamer. Read that again, his brothers were going to kill Joseph. While they did not go through with the death sentence, they essentially killed the dream when the sold him as a slave to some passer-bys. Surely, most certainly, they would never see him again or hear about the dream.
Sometimes it is those closest to us that try kill the dreams inside us. Sometimes intentional out their own fear. Sometimes unknowingly because their own inability to dream or see past their current situation. But we all have dream killers in our life.
I don’t believe the pit was the only way for Joseph to reach the palace,but it may have been the best way. And that is a hard pill to swallow. That punk kid needed to learn a lesson. And because we know the end of the story it seems he did.
Years pass, in fact 16. The 17 years old kid is now 33. He has been a slave, servant, a prisoner, and now seated next to Pharaoh. The dream that seemingly had been killed in the cistern God resurrected in the most unlikely of circumstances.
I have been there. In fact, have visited there recently. That childhood cistern where the God given dream seemed dead. But as the words of the worship song melodically state “the resurrected King is resurrecting me”.
I don’t know the end of your story. Shoot, I don’t know the end of my story yet. But I know the end of Joseph’s story.
The dream comes true. What was birthed as a kid is fulfilled in the man. And the boisterous bold punk kid says these words to those who were out to kill the God dream inside him.
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. Genesis 50:20
So your pit, prison, enslavement, the cistern you have felt thrown into may just be the way God intends to bring salvation to others, even those who tried to kill the dream and the dreamer.
