God is with us

I have been reading Genesis lately, trying to keep up with my son.  We decided to read the New Testament this year, and when we got through Revelation, my son just flipped back to the beginning and started in on Genesis.  So, I decided to read along with him, but that boy is a voracious reader and it's been a challenge to keep up with him.  Today, I covered a bunch of ground in the middle of Genesis to catch up with him as He's almost done with Joseph's story.  (By the way, I have to wonder what a 7 year old boy does with the story of Dinah and Shechem, or Lot and his daughters!?)

I love reading larger sections of scripture at once.  Don't get me wrong, I enjoy focusing in on a word or a verse as well, but there is something about taking in the whole scope of a story or a series of stories that illuminates the broader themes.  I was struck by the phrase "God was with him" and how many times in occurs.  It is a theme in each of the patriarchs lives and is also clearly a theme with Joseph.  God was with them.  This is usually either preceeded or followed by a list of the blessings they received, the wealth they accumulated, or the sons that were born.  Clearly God being with them is a tremendous source of blessing.  So much so that even their neighbors and erstwhile enemies could recognize it as the hand of God and sought treaties with them.

As I read the story of Joseph in particular I found myself pondering the blessing of God being with Joseph.  It is clear that He was with Joseph, but that God being with him did not prevent him from being abused and almost killed by his brothers, being sold into slavery, being accosted and falsely accused by his bosses wife, being imprisoned, or being forgotten by those he helped.  God was with him and was blessing him in the midst of these difficulties and injustices.  God's presence did not prevent them or allow Joseph to circumvent them. 

God did not rescue Joseph from the harsh realities of a radically dysfunctional family, work place discrimination, or the miscarriage of justice when falsely imprisoned.  God was with Joseph in the middle of these things.  Oh! How Joseph must have wondered where God was in the middle of his sufferings!?  I can only imagine how he might have felt as others were released from prison while he remained.  The one chosen and blessed by God seemed to be the only one who was not being blessed.  There was simply no way for Joseph to know what God was up to and God never told him.  God was with him the whole time, blessing him, but not releasing Him.

Emmanuel, God is with us.