In the Bible there are two great principles that operate in the relationship of God with His people which we see operational in Joseph’s life and particularly so at this point where we find Joseph taken from the prison to the pinnacle of Pharaoh’s realm (Gen 41).
The first is given in 1 Sam 2:30 where God says He “honours those who honour Him.”
Joseph had honoured God in all that he went through and endured in all of the dark days from pit to prison, is now honoured by God and put in a position of unique usefulness.
It may be in our lives that the principle may not be expressed in things of physical and material prosperity (though it may well be), but God will always be true to this principle of His Word. And one day we will be revealed not only as vindicated by the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, but be with Him as partakers in His glory in that very public display and indeed for all eternity.
The second is given in Luke 12:48, “to whom much is given, from him much will be required.”
Jesus was teaching that all we are and have is held in trust from God and we must give account of how these things are used.
God, in our spiritual lives, church life, daily and family life, has given us much – but He hasn’t given them to us to sit back and congratulate ourselves or to warm ourselves in their glow… He has given them that we will be useful, or as Paul puts it that we might offer our lives “as a spiritual sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving” by living our lives in His service (Rom 12:1).
With blessing and privilege comes responsibility. It lifts our attention away from ourselves to God, not in slavish fear but in energetic gratitude and worship.
We are called to look at our entire Christian life as an act of worship. It is not just what is done on Sunday in a church building that ‘ascribes worth’ to God, but what God and the world see in us every day and every moment of the week.