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Victorious though Victimized
Genesis 39:23-40:23
Sermon 06
October 25, 2009
Victim! That’s a word that we hear a lot these days. I realize some rush to the word too quickly and too often. There are those who claim that they’ve been victimized and are not telling the whole story. But what we want to talk about today are genuine victims of unfair and unjust mistreatment. Periodically, we meet or read of such people and our hearts go out to them.
Some years ago there was a letter sent to Ann Landers. The headline was “Dream of Love spoiled by well-meaning Dad.” The woman wrote:
“During World War II, I lived in Los Angeles. It was an exciting place to be. Thousands of soldier, sailors and Marines were here waiting to be shipped to the South Pacific. I was 19, and ‘Bud,’ my high school sweetheart, was already overseas. We weren’t engaged, but we wrote to one another three or four times a week. Then one night at the Hollywood Palladium, I met Ken Morrison, a handsome Marine. It was magic. We danced for hours and talked all night. Ken was the man I had dreamed of all my life. We were together every possible minute for three glorious weeks before he was shipped out. I will never forget his teary-eyed smile when he promised to write. We knew that we belonged together and prayed that one day it would be possible. I was living with my Dad at the time (Mom was dead), and I worked as a secretary. Several weeks went by and I asked my Dad every evening, ‘Any mail for me?’ There were plenty of letters from Bud but none from Ken. Every time I read about some awful battle involving Marines, my heart sank. After six months and no word from Ken I was certain he had been killed. Bud came home in 1946 and we were married. We had three children and I knew that I had settled for a stable but dull existence. I never stopped mourning for Ken. He was the true love of my life. When Dad died in 1958, I went to his house to sort out his belongings. In the attic was an old trunk. As I was digging through his papers and personal effects, I ran across a bundle of letters addressed to me. There were dozens of letters held together by leather bands. When I discovered they were from Ken, I thought my heart would break. Then I heard my children’s voices in the next room and I knew I had to throw those letters away, unopened. It took all the strength I could muster, but I did it. When my oldest child was 18, I divorced Bud. By that time my marriage had become so sterile and lifeless, I couldn’t bear it. I remarried in 1970. It was a poor choice and we divorced in 1985. Now I occupy myself with volunteer work at the hospital and a few classes at the community college. I am lonely and very sad when I think of what my life could have been. I often daydream about Ken and hope that he found a wonderful girl, is happily married and like me has grandchildren to love. But I can’t help but wonder whether he ever thinks about me.”
The desolation of a shattered dream! A dream sabotaged by a father who probably meant well, but ruined a chance for his daughter’s happiness and the dream of a young Marine. There is nothing left for her except to wonder what life might have been like if she had married her true love. If only…if only…if only…Sadly, that poor daughter was truly a victim.
Without question we could fill this entire day with stories like that, most of them far worse. I don’t doubt that every one in this room this morning has their own story of being a victim. Some are criminal. Many are just unfair experiences that are hard to bear. And when those things happen, the greatest test of that experience is the test of attitude. If we’re ripped off, we want to rip in return—only worse! It’s our human nature. We want to get revenge, we want to get even. And that spirit binds us until we’re imprisoned by it, unable to be free, unable to live an enjoyable life. Suddenly, we stumble across a very like 1 Peter 1:20, “But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.” You heard me right. That’s really what it says. And when we read verses like that in our Bibles, we start to wonder how these things square with the truth that God is good. That’s because our human ways are based on what seems fair. In our heart of hearts we believe that when someone does what is right, rewards and blessing result. When someone does what is wrong, there are serious consequences…even punishment. But that’s our way, not necessarily God’s way…at least not immediately. God has been known to allow unfair treatment to occur in the lives of some of His choicest servants, some absolutely innocent folks, for reasons far more profound and deep than they or we could even begin to imagine.
If anybody knew about being a victim, about unfair treatment, about cruel mistreatment, about being an innocent victim on the receiving end, it was Joseph. And as an innocent victim, Joseph powerfully models for us how to still be Victorious though victimized. Turn again to Genesis 40 (p. 30). You and I must learn from Joseph the way to live life in the pits to the glory of God and for our own sanity and serenity. If you’re taking notes…
1. Placing our hope in God is the answer to not giving in to hatred and bitterness when we have been horribly mistreated. One of the great mistakes that is easy to make when we study Scripture, and particularly when we study Bible characters is that we tend to make them to be some kind of super hero – at least in our own minds. There’s nothing special about Joseph. He could easily be sitting here today. He does not have some special connection with God. He’s not overly talented. We know that he’s nice looking and attractive. What made Joseph unique was not his physical appearance or talent, it was his character. That’s something that all of us can utilize and control.
What makes Joseph stand out is that he does react, he responds. Without getting bogged down with a dictionary definition, reacting is shooting from the hip. It’s often an unintelligent, un-researched or un-thoughtout action. Reacting is based on emotions rather than reason.Responding means that we think through what the other person has said or done. It involves considering the information and either agreeing or coming up with an intelligent counter claim based on actual knowledge, research or critical thinking. Responding is being wise, using your head and the intelligence that God has entrusted to you.
If we had been Joseph most of us would have been tempted to just react. At best Potiphar has been absent from his home. He’s been apathetic about what his wife is up to. Joseph has resisted her countless attempts to seduce him. Finally, she springs a trap, tries to grab him – he flees and she accuses him of rape. He’s been faithfully serving Potiphar for some ten years now. He is known to be a man of integrity and has a sterling reputation – and Potiphar chunks it all in the dumpster with one fell swoop.
I cannot explain what I am going to say next. I have though experienced it. For some reason, a wife can more greatly influence her husband for godliness or godlessness, than a husband can influence his wife. This goes all the way back to the Garden. Eve influenced Adam, not visa versa. Sarah influences Abraham to make a poor choice. Queen Esther influences King Xerxes to do the right thing. While God has given men the spiritual leadership in the home and we know it must happen, there is not a case outlined for us in Scripture where the husband influences his wife, yet the opposite is the case over and over again.
In my decades of pastoral ministry I’ve wonderfully seen some men who would have been apathetic about spiritual things but because of a godly wife, took steps forward spiritually. Sadly, I have seen the opposite too many times. I’ve seen many men who would step up spiritually, would get more involved, would give more but they’re not willing to take the grief that they would get at home.
My good friend, Bob Loggans, who pastors in Watertown, has repeatedly told me that he’s never had a family leave his church where the wife did not initiate it. That has not been my experience, yet it has happened enough where I am fully aware of the influence of a wife on her husband for good or for evil. Mrs. Potiphar is a classic case of a wife influencing for evil.
So Joseph does the right thing. He obeys God and he’s thrown into prison. No doubt I’ve visited more jails and prisons than most people. There have been a few times where I was as concerned about being mugged on the outside by one of the other “visitors,” as I was on the inside by one of the prisoners. But all of those prisons are the Ritz Carlton compared to this prison that Joseph is sentenced to. In Genesis 39:20-23 it is literally referred to as a “round house.” This dungeon was probably windowless, stifling, smelly and filthy, half-buried hall with a roof shaped like an inverted bowl. Through an opening in the top Joseph was lowered into the dank interior. most likely beneath Potiphar’s house, probably with no windows, a dark and unpleasant place, especially if you had irons on your feet and neck! The prisoners were all chained to a beam in the center. The clanking of the prisoners’ chains would be heard 24/7. It’s a horrible place. Psalm 105:18 gives us a glimpse of this wretched reality, “They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons.”
Not only is Joseph innocently thrown in jail, he has no hope for release. Unlike our judicial system with set sentences and jail time, how long Joseph would be incarcerated was completely in Potiphar’s control. It could be days, weeks, years or for life. Humanly speaking, Joseph’s situation is hopeless. He is doomed to die in this dungeon.
What is most shocking is not that Joseph has been falsely accused…or that Potiphar sends him to the dungeon? What is most shocking is not that this is a death sentence? What is most shocking is nowhere do we ever read that Joseph gives into self-pity, anger or bitterness! Humanly speaking, none of us would have been surprised to find Joseph seething with bitterness. Far too many of us question God’s goodness in the midst of suffering. We’re not just mad at our situation, deep down we’re ticked off at God.
It’s totally human to ask question – Jesus did, “Why have You forsaken Me?” But there is a major difference between asking God why and accusing Him of wrong. God never does anything wrong so it’s never right to be angry at Him. When we’re tempted to have hard thoughts about God, we must remember God’s blessings of the past and fill our minds with truth, “Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; His love endures forever” (1 Chron. 16:34).
Make no mistake about it, Joseph didn’t deserve the dungeon but he responded to it beautifully. That’s the great marvel of this story. First and foremost in his life was his vital and consistent relationship with his Lord. Because of Joseph’s faith and faithfulness, God blesses him and uses him in strategic and significant ways.
Joseph had been a model son, a model slave, became a model administrator – and now he is a model prisoner. Wherever he is at, whatever he is doing, Joseph is the same person. Joseph is a man of character and principle. Jerry Bridges says, “The narrow way was never hit upon by chance, neither did a heedless man ever live a holy life. What keeps a man or woman true to the Lord is not pragmatism but principle.
Joseph does not live in what Alistair Begg has dubbed “kitchen verse theology.” What does he mean by that? Well, kitchen verse theology is when we take a plaque with a verse on it like Romans 8:28 and stick it above the kitchen sink with the idea that when we say it over and over again as a sort of Christian mantra, it will somehow start working for us. This is often accompanied by the notion that working for “our good” will mean an abundance of sunshine and the absence of storm clouds. But the idea that Romans 8:28 is only at work in the sunshine and not the storm produces an unbiblical and warped theology.
Such a worldview fails to be able to handle life when the clouds come and the wheels fall off. We need to learn that God’s providential hand is work in the hard times, as well as the good times. And that God works for the good of those who love Him in all things, not just during the good times but also in the dungeon. The “good” of those who love Him is ultimately our conformity to Christ and our sanctification. We must recognize that God in His providence shines His light into our darkness, just as He did in the dungeon for Joseph. God is good even in the pit. And circumstances cannot imprison the person who is trusting God even in the pit. That’s why some people live in a palace with their hearts in a prison; others like Joseph, live in prison with their hearts in a palace!
And God was still watching out for Joseph. The text tells us that, “The LORD was with him; He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did” (Gen. 39:21-23). Before the text said that Joseph found favor in Potiphar’s eyes, now it is God Himself who shows kindness to Joseph.
2. Placing our hope in God is the answer for how to faithfully serve God even in adverse circumstances. After an extensive tour of the United States, the well known German pastor and theologian Helmut Thielicke was asked what he saw as the greatest defect among American Christians. He replied, “They have an inadequate view of suffering.” Thielicke was right. Sometimes a well meaning Christian counselor will encourage their clients to rage at God because of tragedies that they have gone through. I’ve heard of pastors and missionaries who have left their ministries and sometimes left the faith because of burnout or other hardships. I’ve seen many in the local church quit their ministries, sometimes dropping out of church completely because they were criticized or ran into conflict with other believers. We have an inadequate view of suffering.
Joseph had a Biblically accurate view of suffering. Though in prison, though innocent – he still served God. He lived out what the Apostle Paul wrote of in Philippians 4:11-13, “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” No matter what – Joseph served God, even though he was in a horrible and discouraging place. Now that’s power – to serve God even in the most adverse circumstances. Anyone can serve God when everything is going well! There are four attention grabbers in Joseph’s life in the dungeon that God desires to use to emancipate our own souls.
a) When your hope is in God, you’re not absorbed with yourself and your problems but look for ways to serve God and others. A cupbearer was the person who tasted the king’s food and wine before he touched it to make sure that it had not poisoned. That way if it was poisoned, “So long cupbearer” but “Long live Pharaoh!” He was very close to the king and a king had to totally trust him. The baker was another man that the king had to truly trust. We’re not sure what these two men had done to tick Pharaoh off but they both ended up in Joseph’s jail under his care. Verses 6-7 record, “When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, ‘Why are your faces so sad today?’”
Though Joseph is suffering unjustly, he’s still concerned about how someone else feels! That needs to get our attention. If anyone should have had a sad face, it should have been Joseph. His plight is much worse than theirs. He’s been unjustly enslaved and now imprisoned for over ten years, and yet Joseph seeks to comfort and encourage someone else. What faith!
When you’re heart is right, even though the bottom may have dropped out of your life, it is remarkable how sensitive you can be to someone else in need. When we suffer, even if it is unjustly, by God’s grace we are to look for ways to minister to others. Because when we are suffering and still care and seek to minister to others, we are truly following our Lord’s example. Isn’t that what Jesus did as He walked the road to the Cross? Luke 23 records for us, “A large number of people followed [Jesus], including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, ‘Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me…’” (vss. 27-28). Isn’t that what He did when He took care of the needs of His mother and reached out to the two thieves being crucified with Him?
Joseph could have easily thought, “I’ve got my own problems. Tough luck guys.” Do you want to know a major part of the cure for depression? Start ministering to others. And what a testimony to the power of God and our gratitude for the Cross, when in the midst of suffering, we still seek to serve Him by serving others! One of the beautiful things about trusting God in the midst of suffering is that every day has sunshine.
Bob Deffinbaugh shares how that one of his college teachers shared a personal illustration of how we save our lives by giving them up in the service of others. He had spent several years of the Second World War in a prisoner of war camp in Japan. He observed that those who thought only of themselves, hoarding up what little food they could beg, borrow, or steal, often crawled in a corner and died. Strangely, those who sought to care for others, even by giving generously of their own supplies, survived. Ministering to others has a most beneficial effect upon those who serve.
Beyond the immediate value of Joseph’s service to others was the fact that his service was the means to his final deliverance. Had Joseph not observed the needs of those under his care, he never would have ended up in Pharaoh’s palace. Had he not interpreted the dreams of the butler and the baker, the butler could not have told Pharaoh that he knew of a Hebrew who had the ability to interpret dreams. And so an act which, at the moment, seemed to have no great significance was the turning point of Joseph’s career. His faithful ministry in that dungeon opened the door for a far greater ministry in the palace of the Pharaoh.
Years ago a tornado struck the prairies of Minnesota, killing many, injuring hundreds and almost demolishing the town of Rochester. An elderly doctor and his two sons worked for days aiding the stricken, bandaging wounds, and setting broken limbs. Their heroic work did not go unnoticed. Financial backing was offered for a large hospital, provided the doctor. and his sons took charge. They agreed, founding in 1889 a clinic which soon attracted wide attention. For years from fifteen to twenty operations were performed daily. People came from all walks of life to the ‘Mayo Brothers’ Clinic. When the tornado struck, people reacted, “God has forgotten!” Yet blessing came out of disaster, and today Rochester, Minnesota is known around the world and has brought blessing to uncounted millions. What seemed to be a time of anguish and travail resulted in unimaginable blessing and victory.
b) When your hope is in God, you’re not focused on your circumstances but see life through the eyes of faith as a result you have victory over anger and bitterness. My daughter, Charity, has a real gift for photography. She didn’t get it from me. I’ve taken great pictures of the sunset with my thumb in the middle or someone famous, and it’s so fuzzy you can hardly tell that it’s a person. And when you get back one of those pictures, you think “that’s not what I was taking a picture of!” But the fact is, that what shows up in the pictures is exactly what was in the lens. A photograph reveals the focus of the photographer in an undeniable way. In the same way, Joseph’s response to all that has happened to him reveals an incredibly God-centered life. And here we find another attention grabber, Joseph says, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (v. 8).
Would you trust God? Would you steer others toward God if you had gone through all that Joseph has gone through? If anyone had a reason to be bitter at God, it was Joseph. But what a high price tag bitterness has.
Bitterness is one of the most crushing mental problems in a person's life. When a Christian is bitter, there is a loss of close fellowship with the Lord and a hindrance in one's relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Bitterness causes a loss of many of the blessings of the normal Christian life, including emotional stability, peace, and joy. It’s a devastating attitude sin that triggers a wide range of other sins: hatred, cruelty, sarcasm, cynicism, antagonism, self-pity, unteachableness, vindictiveness and desires for revenge. Bitterness is neither consistent nor rational. A bitter person is his/her own worst enemy. It is very difficult to maintain any kind of relationship with a chronically bitter person. Bitterness is also a major contributing cause of marital, family and church problems. Someone wisely said, “Interpret your circumstances by God’s love, not God’s love by your circumstances.”
The greatest single characteristic of Joseph is his total trust and absolute faithfulness to God under all circumstances, and it is through this that God worked to use him and exalt him so highly.
Adoniram Judson, the great pioneer missionary to Burma, had been thrown into a horrible prison run by the toughest Burmese prisoners. The torture was awful. He had almost no fruit to show for his years of hardship in Burma. He wasn’t sure whether or not his years of translation work would be destroyed. In those conditions, suffering from fever and weakness, he received a letter from a friend who asked, “Judson, how’s the outlook?” He replied, “The outlook is as bright as the promises of God.” It always is!
c) When your hope is in God, you’re quick to look to Him when facing problems. “‘We both had dreams’, they answered, ‘but there is no one to interpret them’” (v. 8). To this day my stomach turns at the thought of Hamburger Helper. After my Mom died, the one thing my sister could cook was – you guessed it – Hamburger Helper. And here we find another attention grabber, Joseph gets all excited that they have had dreams. He’s in jail because of his dreams back when he was a boy and his brothers determined to turn his dreams into a nightmare. If anyone should have wanted nothing to do with dreams, it should have been Joseph. He’s the one who should have said, “Forget it boys! Let me tell you want dreams have done for me!” Yet, as soon as these men mention their dreams, Joseph responds, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
He wasn’t being arrogant, but as Donald Grey Barnhouse puts it, his reply was rather “the simplicity of a child who knows just where his father is and how to reach him.” Joseph walked so closely with God that he automatically mentioned His name when these men told him their problem. And he had such trust in God that his answer assumed that God would reveal to him the meaning of the dreams. Had Joseph given up on his own dreams, he would never have offered to interpret these men’s dreams. His faith though is not in his ability but in God.
When your hope is in God, He’s the first thing you think of in a crisis, not the last. So often, we try everything else and then finally say, “Well, we’ve tried everything else. Now all we can do is pray.” Often you can do more after you pray, but you should never do more until you pray. Calling on the Lord ought to be the first thing that comes to mind when a problem comes up. What a wonderful way to witness to lost people, to tell them, “I know God and He has an answer to your problem. I’ll pray for you.”
And Joseph still has such faith in God that he tells the cupbearer, “But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison” (v. 14). He has no doubt that God will fulfill these dreams.
d) When your hope is in God, you’re also honest about how hopeless life is without God. “When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, ‘I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.’ ‘This is what it means,’ Joseph said. ‘The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat away your flesh’” (vss. 16-19). Most of us hate to be the bearer of bad news. We’ll do nearly anything to avoid confrontation. But here we find our fourth attention grabber, in spite of all that Joseph has been through, he’s committed to honesty. So far honesty has not helped Joseph out. Yet, even when the news is bad news, Joseph believes that God will fulfill what He has revealed.
Joseph could have gotten away with never telling the baker the truth. In three days the baker was going to be history, so what’s the big deal? It would have been both dishonest and wrong. Living for God does not mean that we tell everybody nice, upbeat things all the time, whether they are true or not. Now I am committed to thinking positively but I don’t believe in phony bologna. As Christians, we are to think positively as we see things through Christ’s eyes. That’s not the same as thinking unrealistically or living in a dream world…or just saying something nice to make others feel good.
Some Christians wrongly desire to share with the unsaved only the good news of salvation through Christ. While this is both true and necessary, it’s not the whole story. The warning must also be given that to reject Christ is to continue on the path to destruction.
John 3:16 is a wonderful promise of salvation but it’s not the whole story. Verse 18 says, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” If we’re honest, we need to share the gospel something like this, “Well there’s the good news, and there’s the bad news. The good news is that Jesus Christ is coming again. The bad news is, boy is He mad!” The gospel is good news, but its rejection necessitates the bad news of eternal condemnation and separation. The gospel is not our message to men; it’s God’s. We can no more alter it than Joseph could change the interpretation of these men’s dreams. We must tell it like it is. It’s easy to share the cupbearer’s interpretation but we must be willing to share the baker’s interpretation too. It’s not enough to share heaven, we must tell the truth about hell too. Joseph told the truth in the dungeon even when it was hard.
3. Placing our hope in God is the answer for how we can wait even when it appears that we have been forgotten. After all that Joseph has done, verse 23 is a heartbreaking verse, “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.” Just when it appears that things are looking for this godly young man, bam! The bottom falls out again! Please mark it down – in God’s plans – delay is not denial.
If Joseph had released when the cupbearer was, he would not have been there to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams and to act as a savior for his family. But Joseph does not know what we know…and you and I do not know what God knows.
All of us experience those “waiting rooms” of life. Have you ever noticed that some rooms seem to speak for themselves? Walking into a new freshly decorated nursery prepared by proud parents and immediately the room speaks of joy, excitement and anticipation. Enter into a cozy den on a cold winters evening. A large fire in the fireplace casting shadows from the cracking fire, cast an invitation to come in, sit down and enjoy its atmosphere. Or walk into a dining room just before the thanksgiving meal, smell the food and hear the sound of friendly voices, the room reverberates with welcome. But other rooms are not nearly so inviting. Some rooms are distinctly lonely regardless of how many people may be in them. There a frightened uncertainty prevails. Those are the waiting rooms. As a pastor part of my responsibility is to spend a lot of time in the waiting room of medical institutions. There you can experience the full gamut of human emotions. These waiting rooms are difficult and challenging to cope with and yet throughout our lives here on earth we have many experiences that develop into “waiting rooms” just like Joseph.
Can you picture Joseph shaking the cupbearer’s hand as he exits, saying, “I’ll be waiting to hear from you.” Every time keys rattled, Joseph thought that he was coming back for him. First it was a few hours, then a day, two, days turned into weeks. Ultimately, Joseph waited two long years.
But should we really be surprised? How many times have we been forgotten or disappointed by someone? And how many times have you and I forgotten or disappointed someone? If you are relying on people for your hopes and plans, your trust is in the wrong place, and even more so if you are trusting in yourself. Our hope must be in God!
My friend, it’s in the “waiting rooms” that we must remember that God is always sovereign, even when it seems He has forgotten you. As the master weaver, God was bringing all these strands together so that all was working according to His schedule. Nothing is outside of His sovereignty, even though it seems like it to us as we sit in a dungeon for two more years. My friend, never lose your hope, never doubt God’s sovereignty. He and He alone is the unfailing One and the only One that we can truly trust! Read His promises and rest in them! Attendance though in the school of patient expectation is mandatory for the child of God. It’s there He burns away the dross and makes us completely dependent upon Him.
Conclusion: Are you like Joseph? Are you a victim today? How are we supposed to handle it so we don’t become bitter or resentful? Do what Joseph did – put your complete hope and rest in the living Lord. When we do that, the simplest message from God calms our spirits.
Christian Reger is a man who did exactly that. He spent four years in Dachau, that infamous Nazi Death Camp. He was imprisoned by the Nazis from 1941 to 19i45. His crime? He was a member of the Confessing Church, one of the German state churches that took a stand against the Nazis in the 1930s and 1940s. Dietrich Bonhoeffer ministered in that church. As a whole, it was a church that stood for the truth, but Christian Reger was turned over to the Nazis by the organist of his local church. He was shipped hundreds of miles away to spend the next four years in the concentration camp of Dachau, outside Munich.
Philip Yancy tells this hero’s of the faith memorable story in his book, Where is God when it hurts? “Christian Reger will tell the horror stories if you ask. But he will never stop there. He goes on to share his faith—how at Dachua, he was visited by a God who loves. ‘Nietzsche said a man can undergo torture if he knows the why of his life,’ Reger told me. ‘But I, here at Dachau, learned something far greater. I learned to know the Who of my life. He was enough to sustain me then, and is enough to sustain me still’.”
Please listen, victims of abuse and mistreatment – please listen to God’s truth! He has a hundred different messages to give you during a hundred different dungeon experiences. He knows just the right message at just the right time, and all it takes to receive it is a sensitive, obedient, trusting heart. Not one that is preoccupied with revenge or anger or bitterness but a heart that says, “Lord, God, help me now. Right at this moment. Deliver me from my own prison. Help me to see beyond the darkness to see Your hand. As I am being crushed, remold me. Help me to see You in this pain, this abandonment, this rejection.”
Friend, pray that prayer. Turn your trial into trust as you look to your Heavenly Father to tenderly use that affliction, that dungeon, that abandonment for His purpose. I plead with you – do that today! If Joseph could survive those years of mistreatment, loneliness and loss by God’s grace – so can you! Because God has not changed! He loves you and He has not forgotten you. He understands all of the heartache that you have been through.
And just as He did for Joseph, He will give you the grace to trust when you hurt and when you cannot see. He will give you the grace to endure!
