When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile … - Genesis 41:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (August 1, 2018): Genesis 41

Bishop Fulton Sheen argued that “patience is power. Patience is not an absence of action; rather it is "timing" it waits on the right time to act, for the right principles and in the right way.” Life is often about timing. And often it involves patience. There is an old joke that it is dangerous to pray for patience because God usually makes you wait for it. Much of the Christian life seems to involve patience and this kind of waiting.

We have no idea how long Joseph was in prison. Before the Cupbearer and Baker show up, the Bible says that he had already been in jail for “some time.” It is likely that some unspecified amount of time passed while the events of the story arch of the Cupbearer and the Baker took place. (The story specifies three days after Joseph interprets the vision, but we are not sure if any time had passed between their condemnation into the prison and the visions that they saw there.)  But finally the Baker was executed, and the Cupbearer was restored to his position, with a promise to tell the king of this man who was spending time in his prison.

And then two years passed. And Joseph waited. Somehow Joseph was content that it was not yet time for God to act, but that that time would come. This kind of waiting is not unknown in Christian life. Neither is the idea that sometimes the good acts that we do seem to be ignored by God. And often God seems to be much more comfortable in making us wait than we are m ready to spend our time patiently waiting.

Yet, the moral of the story is clear. When the time was right, the Pharaoh would have a dream that would need to be interpreted, and at that moment, the Cupbearer would know exactly where Joseph was to be found. If he had been released earlier, Joseph might have used his newfound freedom to return home, and then he would not have been where he needed to be when the Pharaoh would have need of him. And as it turns out, Joseph being in a place where he could be found was not only important to Pharaoh and the Cupbearer, but to Egypt and Joseph’s father and brothers as well. So much of the future of Joseph’s own family depends on him being in jail these two more years later. The time was not yet right, but soon it would be, and that would make all of the difference.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 42