Hope of Glory Ministries

The Pit, The Cave, The Prison and Joy

You can preach your self happy with this one.

How many of you have joy in your life. You need some joy in your life. You know, Gods desire is that we have joy even in the midst of tribulations, even when things aren’t going right. We can still have joy in knowing that although we can’t always see him at work, God is working to change things in our lives.

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. (KJV)

Sometimes we have to go through some “stuff “to get where we’re going. Look at Joseph.

Genesis 37: 1 ¶ And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren; and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives: and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours. 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him. 5 ¶ And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren: and they hated him yet the more. 6 And he said unto them, Hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed: 7 For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright; and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. 8 And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words. 9 And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. 10 And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? 11 And his brethren envied him; but his father observed the saying. 12 ¶ And his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. 14 And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren, and well with the flocks; and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. 15 And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field: and the man asked him, saying, What seekest thou? 16 And he said, I seek my brethren: tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. 17 And the man said, They are departed hence; for I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren, and found them in Dothan. 18 And when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. 19 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. 20 Come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, Some evil beast hath devoured him: and we shall see what will become of his dreams. 21 And Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands; and said, Let us not kill him. 22 And Reuben said unto them, Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him; that he might rid him out of their hands, to deliver him to his father again. 23 ¶ And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stript Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colours that was on him; 24 And they took him, and cast him into a pit: and the pit was empty, there was no water in it. 25 And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. 26 And Judah said unto his brethren, What profit is it if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood? 27 Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmeelites, and let not our hand be upon him; for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brethren were content. 28 Then there passed by Midianites merchantmen; and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, and sold Joseph to the Ishmeelites for twenty pieces of silver: and they brought Joseph into Egypt. 29 And Reuben returned unto the pit; and, behold, Joseph was not in the pit; and he rent his clothes. 30 And he returned unto his brethren, and said, The child is not; and I, whither shall I go? 31 ¶ And they took Joseph's coat, and killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the coat in the blood; 32 And they sent the coat of many colours, and they brought it to their father; and said, This have we found: know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. 33 And he knew it, and said, It is my son's coat; an evil beast hath devoured him; Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. 34 And Jacob rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his loins, and mourned for his son many days. 35 And all his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted; and he said, For I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. 36 And the Midianites sold him into Egypt unto Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's, and captain of the guard. (KJV)

Joseph was given this awesome dream that his brothers and family would bow down to him and yet soon after he is given this awesome dream he ended up being tossed into a pit by his brothers . Can you just imagine what he thought about while he was in that pit?It had to be pretty rough, to be rejected that way by your own family, and to make matters worse they sold him into slavery . Wow his own brothers, members of his own household, his very flesh and blood brothers rejected him and sold him into slavery and what’s more they caused their father to believe he was dead, and by doing this they cut off any possibility that his family might search for him. They cut off his help…. Or so they thought.

Did you know the devil wants you to think that your help has been cut off.

Matthew 10:36 And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

So it started out pretty awful for Joseph. In fact, it didn’t look anything like what God had promised. Instead of his family bowing down to him they had cast him off altogether.

PRIME TIME

It is at times like these we have to walk by faith, when we can’t see God in the midst of the storm. This is what I call prime time because it’s a prime time for the devil to mess with you and try to make you doubt God’s promises, but its at times like these that we begin to see the hand of God working in our lives if we look his way.

Pr 16:7 ¶ When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

Joseph after some tribulation ended up in Potiphar’s house spent two years in prison and later was put in charge of running all of Egypt. Joseph was trusted and put in charge of every thing, all the kings’ affairs. Likewise God has set us as priests and kings to do the work of the Lord and sometimes we have to go through some “stuff” first. We see later in the story that a great famine came and his brothers indeed just as God had promised showed up to buy food and bowed before him not knowing who he was. God literally kept his word. His brothers bowed down before him and also were made to be at peace with him
There’s always seems to be some persecution here, and some there and of course many a battle to fight against the enemy who wars against our minds. But after all of this, after we have done the will of God the reward is very great!So where are you in all of this? Are you in the pit on the way to Potiphar’s house? Fact of the matter is many of you feel like you are in a tug of war between the devil and God and you wonder how can you ever win with so much working against you. In a sense we are in a tug of war, but you have to decide who wins. The choice is yours. See the key is this. It isn’t the things that happen in your life that determine your outcome but it is the way you respond to them that determines these things.

Let us look again at Joseph He was tossed into a pit. In the pit he could have given up or he could say this must be temporary because, God promised me something different, so I know I’m not staying in this pit. It has to be a temporary pit. Many of us when we find our selves in a pit our typical reaction is that we cry woe is me because of this pit , instead of saying " This is a temporary pit on the way to Potiphar’s house" Joseph must have trusted God. HE MUST HAVE SAID “THIS IS A TEMPORARY PIT”. It is a temporary pit because God has something better for you! AMEN Things might look ugly, right now, but watch and wait because God is working and the pit you’re in is just a temporary pit on the way to Potiphar’s house.

Of the great patriarchs we see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and we see that Jacob is he who had twelve sons from which came all 12 tribes of Israel.Jacob having had two wives Rachel and Leah he worked a total of 14 years to get them from their father Laban.

Leah : Gave birth to Ruben, Simeon, Levi and Judah, Her Handmaid Zilpah: bore Zebullun, Gad and Asher , Rachel :( Jacob’s favorite) gave birth to Joseph and Benjamin ,her handmaid Bilhah bore Dan and Napthali

So we see that Joseph had no idea what all this was about but God had shown him in a dream how they family would bow down to him. But we can see looking at the genealogy that it was imperative that all end of these things come to pass. The genealogy eventually leads to Jesus the root of Jesse spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 11:10 ¶ And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.

And we see mention of this again in Ro 15:12 And again, Esaias saith, There shall be a root of Jesse, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles; in him shall the Gentiles trust.

So thank God for the pits.

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