The life of Joseph is one of the most familiar and beloved Bible stories, with timeless themes of God’s sovereignty, beauty out of ashes, forgiveness, and restoration. (See Pastor Israel’s sermon on the life of Joseph: Part 1 and Part 2.) It’s no wonder Christians in a valley of hardship—chronic illness or otherwise—find solace and hope in this young man’s story of suffering and redemption.
When I read Joseph’s story again earlier this year, I found new encouragement in his journey through the tunnel of captivity, slavery, and imprisonment to the light of national leadership—and more importantly than a position of leadership, a godly character.
Let’s dive in.
What Joseph Lost
Privilege
Joseph’s story begins with a position of privilege among his brothers at the age of seventeen. The elder son of Jacob’s favorite wife, Rachel, he was likely lavished on from an early age. The special clothes Jacob gave his son may suggest that Jacob was grooming Joseph to take the mantle (pun intended) of family leadership even though he wasn’t the firstborn son of Jacob’s family.
Promise
Besides the favoritism he regularly enjoyed, Joseph received two dreams from God. Both these dreams promised that he would rule over his family—not just his brothers but also his parents. Likely his brothers assumed Joseph would become the next patriarch to follow the names of his predecessors: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob . . . and Joseph.
Perspective
First, it was Joseph who brought an account of some brothers’ poor actions to their father. Then, when Jacob’s other sons went far from home to carry out their responsibilities of feeding the sheep, it was Joseph who was sent to check on them and bring a report back to their father.
While I don’t envy Joseph this unasked-for role of brotherly inspector, and the annoyance it likely brought his brothers, it does indicate he could be counted on to give a reliable report of his family’s doings.
What Joseph Learned
Betrayal
First, at the tender age of 17, Joseph was kidnapped, mocked, and stripped of his symbolic clothing. Then he was sold to slavers to be taken to a foreign country—all by the older brothers who should have protected him. If that wasn’t bad enough, those same brothers went home to Jacob, showed him the evidence they had faked, and made Jacob believe his favorite son had been killed by wild animals.
To his family in Canaan, Joseph was dead.
Slavery
Very much alive, Joseph was taken by the slavers to Egypt, the superpower of the world at the time. There he was put on the auction block as a slave to be bought by Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, a man named Potiphar.
At least Potiphar treated Joseph well. Recognizing God’s clear blessing on this young man, Potiphar promoted Joseph again and again until this Hebrew slave had complete charge of the entire property, inside and out.
Imprisonment
Unfortunately, Potiphar wasn’t the only one watching Joseph. Potiphar’s wife had her eye on this handsome, gifted Hebrew slave, and when he refused her advances, she slandered him with the accusation of attempted rape—a capital offense.
Once more lied about, Joseph was locked up in the king’s prison. My Nelson Study Bible suggests Potiphar either didn’t fully believe his wife or sought to protect Joseph, putting him in the prison he oversaw (Gen. 40:3) rather than killing him. As the commentary says, “In any case, Joseph wound up in prison for something he had steadfastly refused to do” (p. 76).
Abandonment
During his time in this prison, Joseph interpreted the dreams of two important prisoners and asked the man who would be released, Pharaoh’s butler, to speak on his behalf. Sure enough, the butler was released, but as the text points out so bluntly, he “did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (Gen. 40:22).
From privilege to poverty. From chosen to chained. From promise to oppression. Not just once, but twice—three times if you include the hopes dashed as a result of the butler’s abandonment.
What Joseph Gained
Freedom
But Joseph’s story doesn’t end in the king’s prison. In short, after two years, he was summoned before Pharaoh to interpret another dream. As a result of his discerning interpretation and response, Pharaoh appointed Joseph governor of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. (Oh, and Joseph got a wife and no doubt some choice property out of the deal.)
Genesis 41:46 says that Joseph “went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.”
Leadership
As God foretold through Pharaoh’s dreams, the next seven years produced a surplus of crops in Egypt’s fields. Joseph was put in charge of gathering a portion of each harvest, building storage facilities, and storing the crops.
When the following seven years of famine began, it was Joseph who was in charge of selling the stored grain to the Egyptians and to the foreigners who came for food.
Restoration
The famine wasn’t just in Egypt; scarcity in Canaan forced Joseph’s brothers to travel to Egypt to buy food. There, in a chain of events, Joseph tested them, revealed himself to them, and forgave them. Jacob and his entire family moved to Egypt, Joseph and his father were reunited, and they and all their families lived in peace and prosperity.
Happily ever after.
From Root Bound to Fruit Found
It was right after I read Joseph’s story in my devotions that, in a conversation at work, I mentioned how my spider plant was producing so many babies.
“Oh yeah,” my coworker replied. “Spider plants go to town producing babies when they’re root bound.”
I took that idea home and chewed on it for a while, and I realized it exactly illustrated the beauty of Joseph’s story.
He was root bound for 13 years: kidnapped by his brothers, sold into slavery, and then locked in a prison.
Yet look at the fruit that came from those years: a character of faithfulness and integrity that invited divine blessing wherever he went; a deep walk with God that would allow him to forgive the brothers who sold him and lied about him; and leadership skills that equipped him to effectively rule a nation.
As a slave, Joseph’s life was simplified and his decisions concentrated to the things that were most important.
So in the valley of chronic illness or in other valleys, God takes away our freedom and puts us in a narrow road with barriers on either side so that we don’t get distracted from what He wants us to learn. With or without our approval, He removes the weights that slow us down in our pursuit of Him (Heb. 12:1-2). He burns away the dross to make us purer gold (1 Pet. 1:6-7, Job 23:10).
The moral of the story? When God confines us, He refines us. When He takes away the world, He gives us Himself. And when we trust in Him and let Him do His good work of sanctification in our souls, we go from root bound to fruit found.
Right now, your chronic illness has you root bound. Yet this season of physical, external barrenness can be a rich season of spiritual, internal growth.
Joseph’s fruit didn’t just appear at the end of his time as a slave, however; when you follow his journey, you see him bearing fruit—flourishing—in his chains:
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him.
Genesis 39:1-4a
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. But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and He gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
Genesis 39:20-21
And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you.”
Genesis 41:38-41
Notice that in each passage, not only is Joseph recognized as a man under God’s blessing, with a character of faithfulness and integrity, but he’s also given a position of administration:
Then [Potiphar] made [Joseph] overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority.
Genesis 39:24b
And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison . . . [He] 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.
Genesis 39:22-23
“You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word; only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.”
Genesis 41:40-41
If Joseph hadn’t been a slave first, he likely wouldn’t have learned the administration skills and abilities that allowed him to become an effective ruler of Egypt years later. (See Luke 16:10.)
I wondered if he could have learned those skills just as well if he’d been a free man in Egypt, but I think he would have been distracted by other things, such as trying to get back to his family in Canaan.
Similarly, if he’d stayed in his life of prosperity and privilege in Canaan, he might have learned the leadership skills his father wanted for him, but likely without the humility or obedience he learned in Egypt.
In Egypt, sold to Potiphar, Joseph had nowhere else to go; so he learned how to be a good servant.
In this way he serves as a type of Jesus, not because of how he saved the nations but because of how he had to learn humility and obedience for a greater end.
Hebrews 5:8-9 tells us that “though [Jesus] was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him.” (Talk about fruit!)
So we in chronic illness must learn humility and obedience in order to bear fruit for God’s glory.
Like Moses in the desert of Midian, David on the run from Saul, John the Baptist in the wilderness, and the countless other men and women in Scripture who had to go through a valley of waiting (and often suffering) before the start of their ministry, Joseph had to be trained before he could take up the mantle of leadership God had for him.
He had to be root bound in order to produce the fruit God wanted.
And guess what he named his second son: Ephraim, which means “doubly fruitful.”
God is producing fruit in your life too, even if you don’t see it yet. He’s teaching you obedience and humility. He’s removing distractions from your relationship with Him. And He’s preparing you for future stewardship, whether here on earth or with Him in heaven.
Until then, dig your roots into the living water. Reach upward to the sun of life. And let the Holy Spirit, in that supernatural process of growth, bring fruit out of your valley.
Are you faithfully stewarding what God has given you in this valley season? Is your focus on what really matters? How is your confinement leading to your refinement?
The Valley 