Fruitful in the Land of Affliction

“God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction." (Genesis 41.52)

As a young man, Joseph always did his best to please and obey his father. Because he was the son of his father’s old age, the son of Rachel, and because of his compliant ways, he was rewarded. His father, Jacob, gave him a special coat. Though he was only a teenager, this designated him as the man in charge of all his father’s house, including all of his older brothers – all ten of them. None of the others seemed to qualify in Jacob’s eyes.

This special treatment of Joseph may have caused Joseph more bother than blessing. When I say “bother,” I mean serious trouble.

The older brothers, bent on doing wrong, saw Joseph as a threat and were jealous of his elevation. When the opportunity arose, they stripped him of his coat, threw him into a pit and then sold him into slavery. They soaked the coat in the blood of a baby goat and took it back to their father. “There,” they thought, “we are rid of him for good.”

Jacob, thinking his son was dead, was inconsolable.

The slave traders took Joseph into Egypt and sold him to the King’s (Pharaoh) Captain of the Guard, a wealthy man of authority by the name of Potiphar.

Joseph was a wise, excellent and trustworthy servant. Soon he was put in charge of Potiphar’s household. But, again he was double crossed by Potiphar’s wife who wanted Joseph as her play thing. Because Joseph wouldn’t play along, she falsely accused him. Now he winds up in Pharaoh’s prison.

Again, while in prison, because of Joseph’s faithful demeanor, he is put in charge again – this time by the prison keeper, over all the inmates.

While there he interprets the dream of Pharaoh’s butler and baker who had both been incarcerated.

Two years later, when Pharaoh himself has a dream, the butler, now free and serving Pharoah, remembered Joseph. Pharaoh calls for Joseph from prison to interpret his dream for him. Joseph tells him that “interpretations belong to God (Genesis 40.8).”

Joseph explains Pharaoh’s dream. There would be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Pharaoh should appoint someone to be in charge of storing all the abundance during the first period to have food for the land for the last period.

Pharaoh loves Joseph’s interpretation and his plan and then places Joseph as the man in charge. He lavishes him with significant gifts. “Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph's hand; and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck (Genesis 41.42).” He also gives him a very special lady to be his wife.

Soon Joseph’s wife would bare him two sons. Manasseh and Ephraim. Names had a great deal of meaning for people back then, often reflecting what was transpiring in their lives. Manasseh meant “Forgetting.” When he was born, Joseph said; “For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house."

Joseph had seen a lot of ups and downs, but unlike Nottingham (as sung by Roger Miller in the cartoon Robin Hood), Joseph experienced one more up than he did downs. Let’s count them:

After this final blessing, Joseph forgets about all the trouble he went through to get where he was at that point. He names his son Manasseh, (forgetting). Joseph said; "For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house (Genesis 41.51)."

It’s important that we learn to forget past troubles. The Apostle Paul wrote, “forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3.13-14). Paul forgot not only his past acclamations but also his past obstacles.

Joseph’s second son he named Ephraim (fruitful). Joseph commented: “For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Joseph saw God at work through all that had happened to him and you’ll notice that he always gave God glory in every stage of his life – whether up or down.

I love these words: fruitful in the land of my affliction. He experienced the fruitfulness of the land – seven plenteous years that allowed him to store up food for the whole known world, really. He experienced the fruitfulness of a blessed life and he experienced the fruitfulness of family – a loving wife and two wonderful boys. But all this took place in a land where he had endured great affliction.

I don’t know what stage you are in right now. Maybe you’re experiencing fruitfulness as Joseph did. I know Joseph appreciated the fruitfulness of his life more than most because of all the turmoil he had to go through to get there.

But maybe you’re in a time of affliction yourself. Can you look to God in faith right now and believe that as a child of God, you expect to see fruitfulness in your land of affliction? It has been said that God will take your trial and turn it into blessing. I believe God will do this for you as well if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. Wait patiently on the Lord.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not (Galatians 6.9).

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