Joseph was a man of integrity. We saw this in his response to the temptation from Potiphar's wife. From that scene two truths were drawn regarding people who have strong integrity: they always draw relational boundaries and they always see the invisible as present.
People with integrity are people of strong morality such that it has been said that integrity is what you do when no one is watching. I think that is a fitting description in cases of moral challenge but, there is something else that counts, especially with regard to those who have been given the weight of a dream. Let me offer one additional truth regarding integrity:
Truth 3: People With Strong Integrity Remain Faithful In Every Seasons
What if integrity, while referring to morality (what we do when no one is looking) also referred to faithfulness (those who remain faithful to the calling when nothing but the opposite is happening)? Genesis 41:46 says that "Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt." We were also told that he was seventeen years old when he received the dreams from the Lord (Genesis 37:2). So between the calling and his serving in Pharaoh's house were thirteen years. Now, when you add the seven plentiful years in which he served (Genesis 41:47) and the beginning of the years of famine (Genesis 41:53ff) you have, roughly, about 8 years. Why is this important, you may be asking? This is important because it was 21 years before Jospeh would see the calling and dream God gave him come to pass.
What is remarkable is that in those 21 years nothing looked like what God has shown him. The dream did not begin well as Joseph was betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery. but he remained faithful to God - a man of integrity.
Because of this faithfulness to God he found favor in Potiphar's house. All was getting better and then he was hit with a false rape accusation which sent him to prison; but he remained faithful to God - a man of integrity.
Because of this, he found favor in prison. Things, again, were looking up. The chief cup-bearer had a dream that Joseph interpreted as favorable to Pharaoh which spared the life of the chief-cupbearer lived. This man made a promise to Jospeh that if he was exonerated he would remember Jospeh before Pharaoh. He was exonerated so, again, things were looking better for Jospeh. Freedom from prison was so near he could taste it. But then, the chief-cupbearer forgot to tell Pharaoh about Jospeh and he remained in prison.
Through it all Joseph remained faithful to God - a man of integrity. He remained faithful to the God of promise even when everything looked like an endless cycle that ended in failure after failure. What we know from Joseph's story is what he could not know since he had to go through it. The Spirit of the Lord teaches us through his life that greatness, though a calling, will have a pathway that looks, oftentimes, like nothingness. What we learn from Joseph is that getting to the end of the call goes along a path that will involve a seasons of frustrations and hope that will lead into additional seasons of frustrations. From Jospeh we see that if we faithfully navigate these seasons they are designed to lead to the fulfillment of the call. Here is what that looked like for Joseph:
Season of Frustration 1: Joseph is left for dead by his brothers and then sold into slavery
Season of hope 1: Joseph finds favor with Potiphar
Season of Frustration 2: Joseph is accused of rape
Season of hope 2: Joseph finds favor in prison
Season of Frustration 3: Joseph is forgotten by the chief cup-bearer
Season of hope: Joseph finds favor with Pharaoh
Calling fulfilled: Joseph stands as the servant-leader of his father and brothers
Our pathway from calling (dream) to fulfillment will take a similar path. We can count on this cycle being on the path because, by it and in it, God is making and preparing us for the fulfillment. Whatever the Lord has called you to He will fulfill it but, He has made our faithfulness to him in, all seasons, a crucial element to fulfilling the call. We cannot have the confidence of Joseph that God was in control of it all, if our path is littered with a multitude of times when we conceded our integrity. We are not perfect, and neither was Joseph, but one does not have to be perfect to be faithful and live in dependance of the faithfulness of God.
If we remain faithful we will see His favor in and through our lives as signs that we are on the path to fulfilling His calling on our lives and are on our way to, in a word, greatness.
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