I Cannot Do It

I love the Old Testament story of Joseph. Joseph's story is in Genesis 37-50, and it's a fascinating read of family, jealousy, hardship, forgiveness, and God's will. But there is one moment right in the middle of the story that has always intrigued me. Do you ever read something in Scripture and think, "That's not what I would do?" This is one of those moments.

In order to drop into the middle of Joseph's story, we have to understand what has happened so far. Joseph was the son of his father's favorite wife, so naturally, he was the favorite son. If you have siblings, you've probably heard your parents say that they "love you all the same." That wasn't really the case in Joseph's family. Joseph was the favorite, and everybody knew it.

Joseph started having dreams that one day his family was going to bow down to him. He made the mistake of telling them about the dreams, and his brothers got super jealous. They ultimately captured Joseph, thought about killing him, but sold him away as a slave. Joseph ended up in Egypt. Joseph worked in the house of an Egyptian officer, and eventually was given charge of the whole house. This was a decent setup until Joseph was accused of crimes he didn't commit and thrown in prison.

Imagine how Joseph must have felt at this point.

Joseph was probably at his lowest of lows. He had probably never felt more forgotten. He was deep in Egypt, in prison, and any thought of ever seeing his again was long gone. Joseph was a follower of God, and He probably prayed a lot during this time that God would set him free.

While in prison, Joseph met two men who used to work for the king of Egypt. The cupbearer (sort of like poison control for the pharaoh), and the king's baker. These were pretty important people to Pharaoh. While in prison, they had some weird dreams that Joseph was able to interpret for them. The interpretations were correct: the cupbearer was restored to his position with Pharaoh, but the baker died.

After telling them this, Joseph looked at the cupbearer. He told him he was innocent and asked him to please remember Joseph when he was back with Pharaoh. Joseph probably thought this was his ticket out of prison.

But the cupbearer forgot Joseph. Two years went by. There were two more years of Joseph sitting in prison. Two more years of Joseph having no hope. Two more years of loneliness. Can you imagine that? Two whole years. This is a real story– this actually happened to someone! What would you do? It scares me to think about that. But Joseph did not lose faith in God. We know that because of what he does when he gets out.

What happened to Joseph next was crazy. Two years later, Pharaoh, the king, had a dream. No one had any idea what it meant. Pharaoh had magicians and wise men in his court who were around for the purpose of dream-interpretation, but none of them even had a clue of what to do with this one. No one knew what it meant. The king was losing it and asking everyone he knew about what his weird dream could mean. The cupbearer was still around, and he finally remembered Joseph. He told pharaoh that Joseph (still in prison) had interpreted dreams before.

Joseph was cleaned up and brought in to stand before Pharaoh. This was exactly what he had been waiting for. The most powerful man in the world needed him. This was his chance to bargain for his freedom. If I were Joseph I would be thinking, "Sure, I'll tell you whatever you're looking for if you'll set me free." This was his chance. Look at what Joseph does in Genesis 41:15-16:

“Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.' 'I cannot do it,' Joseph replied to Pharaoh, 'but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.'”

What was Joseph thinking?! The only thing Pharaoh is looking for is a dream interpreter, and Joseph says "I cannot do it." He gives away the secret that God was really doing the work. Joseph hadn't lost his mind, but he was living for something different than his own freedom and comfort.

In this moment, it was more important for Joseph to help Pharaoh see God than it was for Joseph to taste freedom again. Joseph wanted Pharaoh to see God in this moment more than he wanted to be vindicated or free.

What is most valuable to you? Is it people's perception? Money? Security? Often we become so focused on things other than God that we can't even see His provision of those things.

Pray this with me today:
God, I want You to be most valuable to me. Don't let me become distracted by the things of this world, but keep my eyes on you. AMEN.