January 20: Of Singleminded Focus

Genesis 41:17-42:17

Matthew 13:24-46

Psalm 18:1-15

Proverbs 4:1-6

Let's review what Joseph's been through, shall we?  His father's favorite, living a bit of a privileged life, he saw his brothers plot to kill him, then sell him into slavery instead (small comfort, that!).  He's sold to a master whom he serves diligently, a master who promotes him to his right hand, and entrusts all he has to Joseph…a master whose wife then asks Joseph to betray his master, her husband by sleeping with him - and when Joseph refuses, falsely accuses him of rape, and gets her husband to throw Joseph in prison.

Even there, though, Joseph does not appear to be bitter; even there he lives uprightly, serving the jailer, and the interpreting his prison mates' dreams, asking of one of them nothing more than a good word to Pharaoh.  That prison mate - the cup bearer - promptly forgets…for TWO YEARS! - and remembers only when Pharaoh himself has a dream no one else can interpret.

This is where we find ourselves: Joseph called out of prison to interpret Pharaoh's dreams.  If we were in Joseph's shoes, what would we be thinking right about now?  I am pretty sure that, when Pharaoh told me is dream and it became apparent to me God had revealed to me what it meant, I would have bargained with Pharaoh - interpretation for a pardon, maybe lost wages, maybe even a little payback for Potiphar and his lying wife.  Because I can tell you, at that moment, all my anger, all the injustice I'd suffered, all the time I'd lost - all of that would be coming to mind, manifesting itself in a rage.  

Joseph does no such thing.  He volunteers the interpretation freely.  And when it becomes apparent someone is going to have to deal with the coming famine, he doesn't even put himself up for the job.  "And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt."  Not "and now let Pharaoh put me, the guy who figured this out, in charge…". No, Joseph's only thought at that point is to make God's will known to the man before him.  Nothing more, nothing less.

Could he have known he would shortly hear Pharaoh say "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt"?  Could he have known he would become second in command, without whose word "no one will lift hand or foot in all of Egypt"?  I doubt it.  And I doubt it even crossed his mind.  And so because he had demonstrated an ability to focus solely on God's work, God entrusted him with so much more than he might have received had he bartered the way I would have.  

Father teach us to live as Joseph did - focused entirely on You, recognizing the treasures in the field, the pearl of great value, and focusing on only that, to the detriment, to the loss, to the sale of all else we might have.