Gen 41:41    So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt ."

    

These words are the culmination of a long process that seemed to start when God gave Joseph prophetic pictures about his future. It certainly looked glorious, but of course it didn't explain the process through which Joseph would have to pass to get there. Here is Joseph now, being given authority that will make him one of the most powerful men in the world, but the process to get him there was most painful: sold off to slave traders by his brothers, sold by the slave traders to an important Egyptian, falsely accused and thrown into prison for fourteen years. If you'd told Joseph that that was what he was going to have to go through, he would probably have said, “No thank you!”

If we explained some of the processes that some of us have to go through to arrive at the glorious end that God has spoken about in some word of personal prophecy, we'd have quailed and the elders would have denounced it for lack of encouragement, but this is the way it sometimes has to work. If the Lord had left Joseph for fourteen years and then told him to go to Pharaoh, he would probably have been like Jonah and run off in the opposite direction. No, God knew the potential of this man, given the right circumstances, and once they were through he would bring God's salvation to millions of people.

 

It is an incredible story but the reality of it is difficult to take. It's all about God taking sinful men and bringing His blessing through them!