You're Not There Yet

What are you looking for? 

I was reading Genesis 37 the other day. Verses 5-11 tell of the dreams Joseph had, dreams of his entire family bowing down to him. Joseph, possibly too young to understand the value of discretion and humility, tells his brothers about the dreams. His brothers, already fed up with their father's indiscreet favor toward Joseph, burn with jealousy. When the brothers are out tending their father's flocks, Jacob sends Joseph out to see what their up to; Bring back word to me, he says (v. 12-14). Joseph travels more than eighty miles to find his brothers, but when he does, is repaid by his brothers selling him into slavery (v. 23-28). It's the in-between that stuck with me as I read the other day.

So he sent him away from the Hevron Valley, and he went to Sh’khem, where a man found him wandering around in the countryside. The man asked him, “What are you looking for?” (v. 14b-15)

Joseph answers with --not a what, but --a who: he's looking for his brothers. But it sort of stuck in my craw: here is this young man, wandering about in the wilderness, a man appears and asks him what he is looking for. Joseph responds with a who. Nevertheless, the man informs him, You're not there yet. Joseph's brothers are another fifteen+ miles away in Dotan; so, he heads out to find what --I mean who he is looking for. And though the what-who thing may be important to the point or purpose of Genesis, I began to think about this seventeen-year-old, clearly favored by his father, envied --hated more precisely --by his brothers, sent a prophetic message through dreams, and given the gift of interpreting them. What was he seeking? Did he simply want to find out what his brothers and get back home to Dad? Did he want his brothers to understand he hadn't chosen this calling? Did he want to be like the others, be included in his brothers' shop talk or their inside jokes? Did he want his father to understand what favoritism was costing him and to just treat him normally? Did he seek the fulfillment of his dreams, those dreams that caused so much contention? You're not there yet.

If we read on in the book of Genesis, we find Joseph sold into slavery by his brothers, unjustly imprisoned, forgotten, summoned to help Pharaoh, and given authority and position second only to Egypt's king. He is stripped of his Jewish heritage, given an Egyptian wife, and raises his family in "the land of (his) misfortune." When a famine grips the area, Joseph's brothers come to Egypt begging for food. They unknowingly bow before Joseph --so desperate are they to eat, so powerful and unrecognizable is he --fulfilling those long-ago dreams. After testing their hearts, Joseph reveals himself to his brothers and demands they bring his father to him. The family is reunited in Egypt and the nation of Israel is preserved. 

The young man who, simply by answering the question of a stranger, found himself betrayed and far from home, eventually finds truth and purpose. In Genesis 50:20, he declares to his brothers, You meant to do me harm, but God meant it for good — so that it would come about as it is today, with many people’s lives being saved. Had he answered the stranger with a what, rather than a who, would it have remotely resembled what came to be? Would he have ever imagined the path he followed would lead him to the victory he experienced? 

Often in our lives, the what we are seeking comes about in ways we would never imagine, ways we would never choose. Many times, I have not been prepared to receive the what it is I have been seeking: God has had to work in me, change me first. From time to time, as I've prayed --even as I've eagerly assured God I'm ready to do that which I know He has called me to do --He has whispered You're not there yet. But when we submit, when we're willing to make the trip regardless of the outcome, He is faithful to prepare us and lead us in all He has for us to do. We may not be there today, but rest assured, we one day will be.