Joseph was no plaster saint; he was human. And obviously after 10 years in prison he had enough. God knew however that it would be two more years before Joseph would be released. That was the story God was writing. We do not know why. God could have pushed the impending famine up two years instead of making Joseph wait. But maybe those two years are what finally made Joseph who he was. Maybe he still had some bitterness towards his brothers for selling him into slavery of against Potiphar's wife for having him falsely imprisoned. Maybe it took those last two years for Joseph to hand the pen back to the Master so He could finish this part of Joseph's story. Maybe it took those last two years for Joseph to fully realize the terror of the majesty of Almighty God.
That terror is not fear of God. God doesn't want us cowering
in fear of who He is. He wants us to have reverent fear of forgetting who He is. I am sure that Joshua must have been confused
by the story God was writing for him at
But the L ord said to Joshua, "I have given you
This must have made absolutely no sense to Joshua in the natural world.
This must have grated against everything he knew about warfare and logic. He
must have wanted to grab that pen out of God's hand and show him a better way.
But instead, Joshua must not have focused on the parts of the plan that made no
human sense and instead he must have focused on verse 2 "I have given you
Namaan was a character in the Old Testament that did not understand the
majesty of God. Seeking a cure for his leprosy, Naaman was convinced by a servant
to seek out the Prophet of God, Elisha. The Prophet did not come out to greet
him but rather sent a servant with instructions for him to dip himself in the
But
Naaman became angry and stalked away. "I thought he would certainly come out to
meet me!" he said. "I expected him to wave his hand over the leprosy and call
on the name of the L ord his God
and heal me! Aren't the rivers of
Naaman wanted to be the writer of his small part in the grand story of God. He thought it would be more dramatic for a wave of the hand by the man of God over his leprosy and "voila!" the leprosy would be cured! But God intended a better story. A story more glorifying to God. A story about obedience to the writer. There have been countless Naaman's throughout the history of man. People who walked right out of the plans God had for them in His story. Thankfully in Naaman's case, he listened to the advice of his servants:
Naaman's servants
went to him and said, "My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great
thing, would you not have done it? How much more, then, when he tells you, '
