The Prison Perspective

Most of us have either heard or been told that when God closes a door, he opens a window. My response to this is, that this particular saying is often used to optimistically, but mysteriously explain the providence of God. It implies that despite disappointment that closed doors can bring, there is a ray of hope and another opportunity that presents itself through the open window. It is essentially grounded in a moving forward philosophy that acknowledges that God is in control and has something else for us. When we are in closed door circumstances, it is often hard to grasp the hope that a view from an open window can offer, because we are too busy looking back. How much more would this be magnified if the closed door was a prison door securely locked and the open window was the small one above my bed in my cell? 

After being betrayed by his brothers and sold into slavery to the Egyptians, Joseph experienced the divine providence and presence of God in his life that caused him to greatly prosper in the house of Potiphar. However, after 3 years of this corporate climb up the ladder of success, fueled by Gods’ power, Joseph abruptly found himself back on the bottom rung. He was falsely imprisoned for a crime of passion he did not commit. Joseph’s return to captivity is certainly more than a closing door. It seems more like a thunderous slam to me as I read the account of what transpired. Once again, because God was with Joseph, he was able to take the open window of hope God offered him, and make the most of the opportunity. Joseph continued to cooperate with God and utilize his circumstances to build his spiritual resume. I think of all the times I have pouted  over not getting my way and frustrated by Gods’ work in my life simply because I refused to cooperate. By the way, for a follower of Christ, the word for this is disobedience. It took me some time and a lot of deep knee praying to come to understand this: sometimes God and His Purpose in my life were not prospering because I was too busy laying down on the floor of faith throwing a spiritual temper tantrum.

The scriptures in Genesis 40 and 41 relay that Joseph continued to prosper in prison. It says that God used His divine favor to advance Joseph within the prison system. Starting with the warden and it eventually included all the other prisoners, until Joseph was eventually running the prison as smoothly as he had run Potiphar’s house upstairs in the palace. I love in Joseph’s life, that once where favoritism was his enemy, it had now become his ally. This is the amazing mysterious signature of Gods’ hand at work. This pattern of “what was meant for evil has turned to good”(Gen 50:20) has been part of Joseph’s legacy handed down from his grandfather Abraham to his father, Jacob and then to Joseph himself. I have to remember that the Bible is written from a long sighted perspective and a multi purposed one as well. God is always at work carrying out His divine purpose, while He works in the lives of his beloved people. Only God can weave these two things together. 

However, if I’m not careful, I can miss that Joseph took advantage of every moment of divine favor and made the most of every opportunity to honor God. In order to experience the blessing of divine favor it must be accompanied by obedience to God.

I grew up in a home and family where like all families favor can be an issue. Our grandparents were firmly established in their community. My grandfather was a local pastor and my grandmother an English teacher/principal. Everyone knew them and as a result, and most knew us. My cousins and I had no names ourselves, but were the grandkids of Mrs. Phillips or Bro. Lemuel. This offered a little favor in a few places, but it didn’t take long to understand the accountability that belonging to these two people brought was significantly greater than any passing moment of local recognition could bring. 

Our grandfather was a Godly man and his family was his legacy. Both our grandparents encouraged us to use any opportunity of favor to honor God, our family name, and to reach the potential God had placed in all our lives. I did my best to carry this on into my own family. I prayed for my children to have divine favor with teachers and authority, not to make them prideful but to help them carry out Gods’ purpose in their life. I prayed for both open doors and open windows and mercifully pleaded for exits and entrances to be closed for things that would cause them to stray or harm them. As I look back I see that in most important events and transitions, God as faithful in answering my my prayer. Of course I think they are wonderfully talented people, however, time and time again they experience the divine favor of God. 

It’s true that Joseph was favored by his dad, but the deeper truth is that he was blessed with the favor of God. His life had the mark of a big purpose. I like to say that in the chicken yard of life, Joseph was a peacock. Joseph stood out among his brothers, among his fellow slaves and even in prison, he continued to strive for the potential God had placed within him. I have always told my children, “you cannot be less so others can be more.” This belief does not advocate pride or a haughty spirit, but rather it humbly embraces the opportunity to honor God through integrity and excellence. As Paul said, “pressing toward the prize and each running their own race.” (Philippians 3:14) What athlete or musician would not do their best if given the chance? This is how I view Joseph. Every-time he got the chance to excel, he took it. Did this make him popular? Probably not, but I do see in his account that Joseph used is skills to help others when given the opportunity(more on this later).

Do I think Joseph loved every moment of his unjust hitch in the palace prison? No, I sure don’t. I am definitely not a spiritual Pollyanna. But I do believe every time Joseph faced a closed door, he kept knocking while he waited. Do I think he had days where he loathed the sound of the name of city of Dothan? Of course! Just like I think he swung between grief and anger towards his brothers. But time in the hands of God is a healer. While Joseph’s prison account is covered in 2 chapters of Genesis, he remained in Prison for 10 years. That’s 3,650 daily commitments to Gods’ plan but I do believe because God had placed with in Joseph the heart of a dreamer, that helped equip him for this challenge. When all seemed lost, we see a resilience in Joseph that is a result of trusting God with a big obstacle.Over time, the more Joseph trusted God, the more God trusted Joseph. This is true for me. Jesus gave us words of hope like this in
Mark 11:22-24

“Have faith in God, Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain”Be taken up and thrown into the sea” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. “

This is Christ encouraging us that faith can grow. As our faith in Him grows, the more we can face the challenges that we encounter in this life. Many of us experience lost and broken dreams. We stand behind locked doors of our own grief looking back and refuse to look forward at the hope God offers through the window of different opportunities. Things like sickness, depression, financial distress, relationship failure, and betrayal imprison our hearts to the point where we can’t even dream, let alone face the harsh reality we find ourselves in. 

Psalm 57:2 says, “I cry out to God, the Most High, who fulfills His purpose
for me.”  Many times I have turned t 2 Corinthians 1:3, that says “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles….” This says ALL our troubles, not some.

This scripture helps me change my outlook:
Proverbs 4:25 ” Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you,” 

and finally this:

Phil 1:6 :”Being confident of this very thing, that He which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”

Just like Joseph, we can have the confidence that God doesn’t give us a dream, and leave us to linger and struggle on our own to realize it. God stays with us in every struggle, every setback and disappointment  and keeps working out His purpose all the days of our lives. If we are not careful in the times that we live in, we will start buying into the bad news that dreams are no longer possible, and that we have received a life sentence in a prison that for today is called Covid 19. God holds all the keys to all doors and can make windows out of walls and let His light shine in even n the darkest places.

Come back to the vineyard where next time we will see Joseph transform from the dreamer to the interpreter.

Sharon Bundo, 5 o’clock worker