"Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was
6. THE PATIENCE OF JOSEPH
"Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass" (Psalm 105:17-19). The great-grandson of Abraham, grandson of Isaac, and son of Jacob, Joseph was the last of the great biblical patriarchs, yet in his divinelysupported leadership accomplishments Joseph eclipsed them all. Rising from slavery to the position of second most powerful man in one of the greatest superpowers of the ancient world, Joseph's story is familiar to all readers of the Bible. The Patriarch and Prophet of Patience But there is an aspect of Joseph's life that, although it made his accomplishments possible, is often overlooked. That quality, so clearly found in everything we are told about Joseph, was patience. Joseph is one of the greatest examples of patience with events that we can find in the Bible – or elsewhere. The events of his life read like the nominations for a patience awards ceremony and comprise a nearly endless succession of things for which he had to wait in order for them to work out. Consider the following:
The favored young son that God had shown would become a leader of his people (Genesis 37:5-11) was thrown into a pit by his jealous brothers and sold into slavery in Egypt (Genesis 37:27-28). But over time Joseph patiently worked his way up to become the trusted second-in-command in the household of the wealthy Potiphar. When he was wrongfully accused and imprisoned, Joseph patiently worked in jail for many years, eventually acquiring responsibility over all the prisoners there.
We are told that while he was imprisoned, Joseph prophetically interpreted the dreams of two royal servants. Although his interpretation proved true, Joseph had to wait yet more years until he was brought before the Pharaoh, who elevated him as second leader in the nation (Genesis 41:37-44).
To briefly mention these events fails to give a real sense of the years of waiting – under adverse circumstances – that Joseph endured. Psalm 105:17-22 summarizes the difficulties of those years of patience. But although he doubtless did not understand all that was happening, Joseph
trusted God to fulfill his plan for him. He patiently worked in each situation he found himself in until God did elevate him to great power and responsibility. Continued Patience Under Joseph's patient leadership, Egypt saved and stored grain during seven years of abundance before it was carefully disbursed to the people through seven years of hunger. This was the widespread famine that prompted Jacob to send Joseph's brothers to Egypt to seek food (Genesis 42-46). But Joseph and his family were not quickly reunited. Yet more patience was needed when Joseph did not reveal who he was to his brothers immediately. Instead, he waited patiently for them to take the needed food back to their families and eventually return to Egypt for more. Even once he revealed his true identity to his brothers, Joseph waited again while they went back to Canaan to bring their father, Jacob, to Egypt. In an era when international travel – by foot – took months, Joseph's patience was needed repeatedly.
The book of Genesis makes it clear that God directed the events of Joseph's life, but without Joseph's patience he would not have been able to accomplish God's plan. At every stage of his life Joseph was willing to wait. From the pit of slavery to Potiphar's house, from the depths of prison to the heights of the palace, Joseph displayed the ability to wait for situations to work out while continuing to advance – without succumbing to ineffectiveness and self-pity in his own difficult circumstances. The People behind the Circumstances There is also another aspect to Joseph's patience that we should not overlook – his patience with people. There are several examples of this in Joseph's story, but none is as clear as the way in which he patiently accepted and forgave his brothers when they came to him in Egypt – despite the fact that they had sold him as a slave.
Humanly, it would have been very easy for Joseph to write off his family, to disown and reject them – and even his whole people – and to identify entirely with his wife, children, friends and neighbors in Egypt. But Joseph's patience with people not only made his reconciliation with
his birth family possible, but also made it possible for him to be instrumental in saving both that family and the Hebrew people.
Interestingly, Joseph is the first person in the Old Testament who is shown to have exhibited patience not only with events, but also with people. This does not mean, of course, that he was the first person to exercise patience in this way, but that his life contains the first examples we are given. These instances of Joseph's patience with people are all in terms of their past behavior toward him. While we may think of this trait as one of forgiveness, it is also a vital aspect of patience. We can learn much about this kind of patience from the story of Joseph.