Context No. 4091 of 4322 · Genesis

Genesis 39:19-23: in context

19When his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, “This is what your servant did to me,” his wrath was kindled. 20Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were bound, and he was there in custody. 21But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22The keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever they did there, he was responsible for it. 23The keeper of the prison didn’t look after anything that was under his hand, because the LORD was with him; and that which he did, the LORD made it prosper.

Joseph, falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, is thrown into prison, punished for a crime he did not commit. It is a low point, another undeserved descent for a man who had already been betrayed and enslaved. And yet, the passage repeats a phrase that shines through the injustice: the LORD was with Joseph.

In the prison, God showed him steadfast love, gave him favor with the keeper, and made everything he did prosper, until the keeper entrusted the whole prison to his care. What stands out is not that Joseph escaped suffering, he did not, but that God was with him in it. The injustice was real; Joseph was in prison and would remain there a long time. But he was not alone, and he was not abandoned. God's promise is not always that we will be spared the pit, but that he will be with us in it. The LORD was with Joseph in prison, and he is with his people in their own hard and unjust places. His presence does not always remove our trouble, but it transforms it, for we are not alone.

When I suffer unjustly or find myself trapped in circumstances I did not deserve, do I hold to the truth that, as the LORD was with Joseph in prison, God is with me too, his presence sustaining me even when he does not remove the trouble?

Sources

Genesis 39:21: "But the LORD was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison."
Genesis 39:23: "The keeper of the prison didn't look after anything that was under his hand, because the LORD was with him; and that which he did, the LORD made it prosper."
Genesis 39:20: "Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison... and he was there in custody."