People who could help forget us. However, Sovereign God is in control to send us help only at the appropriate time. Joseph in the prison or pit could have come to an end, but for the forgetful friend for whom Joseph gave interpretation of dream. (Genesis 41:1) In the meanwhile, God worked in the life of Joseph in that two years.
1) Professional Maturity: Joseph grew in maturity, spiritual as well as professional. He had more conversations with palace employees in the prison. The insights he received shaped his project proposal to Pharaoh later.
2) Spiritual maturity: In his understanding, he could remember only injustice meted out to him by his brothers, Potiphar’s wife, and others. “For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” (Genesis 40:15) Joseph was forced to rearrange his priorities according to purpose of God. Even when his brothers visited Egypt to buy grains, he was not in a hurry to reveal himself to them. (Genesis 43)
3) Priority: Joseph’s priority was to get back home as soon as possible earlier. Then he considered himself as a victim and needed justice by restoration to his family. Standing before Pharaoh his priorities were not about his family, but Egypt, where descendants of Abraham would be slaves for four hundred years. (Genesis 15:13) Joseph could have that prophetic insight and interpretation.
4) Purpose: Joseph had to realize that God had sent him ahead of his family for a purpose. It was to preserve lives of his family, the chosen children of Israel, from whom the Messiah will come, and others in several nations. (Genesis 45:7) Committed to that plan of God, he did not even ask leave of absence to visit his loving old father Jacob.
The delay of God’s intervention and friend’s forgetfulness helped Joseph to look beyond his circumstances to grasp God’s plan in his life.
Have I grasped God’s plan in my life?