The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
– Genesis 39:2–3
I want to actually do something a little different for this episode of Pray the Word. I want to read four different verses, two from the beginning of Genesis 39 and two from the end. As I read them, just listen for a phrase that you’ll hear four times in each of these verses.
First, in Genesis 39:2, the Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. Then in Genesis 39:3, His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
Genesis 39:2–3 Shows Us a Biblical Pattern
Then at the end of the chapter, Genesis 39:21. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
In the last verse, in the chapter Genesis 39:23. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.
Genesis 39:2–3 Reminds Us the Lord is With His People
Did you hear it? Four different times in this one chapter, the Bible makes clear that we hear this phrase, the Lord was with Joseph. Joseph is in very different circumstances at the beginning and the end of this chapter.
At the beginning of this chapter, he’s elevated in Potiphar’s house and he’s experiencing much success. But then Potiphar’s wife frames him for sexual immorality and he is put in prison and yet there in prison, the Lord was with Joseph.
The Lord is with Us
Isn’t this a powerful picture? No matter what the circumstances are in our lives, when things are going relatively well, when things are totally falling apart, regardless of what the circumstances are that we are walking through, the Lord is with us.
The Lord is with all who trust in him. There’s a sense in which God is omnipresent. Of course, he’s with us. He is everywhere. That could be said about everywhere and everything. But there’s a particular picture that we see in the Bible specifically in places like Genesis 39 here, where God is present with Joseph in a way that God is leading and guiding and helping and comforting and strengthening Joseph with his presence.
Genesis 39:2–3 Teaches Us that God is with Us
When you think about this phrase in Genesis 39, and you think about this phrase all over the Bible, God’s saying to his people over and over and over again, “I am with you. I will be with you. I will be with you.” This is the end of the great commission, as Jesus sends out his disciples and what does he say? “And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age.”
I just want to encourage you today, not knowing what’s going on in your life, not knowing what you’re walking through, not knowing what today holds for you, what tomorrow holds for you. Maybe your circumstances are going really well right now, or maybe you’re going through some really challenging days right now. Maybe it’s a lot of both of the above. There’s some things that are great and there’s some things or really challenging.
Reminded in a Fresh Way of Jesus
Regardless, I just want to remind you in a fresh way today, that for all who trust in Jesus, for all who know God, no matter what the circumstances are that you are walking through, the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you in your successes. The Lord is with you in your failures. And the Lord is with you on the mountain top. The Lord is with you in the valley. The Lord is with you in whatever you are facing.
God, we praise you for this reality. God, I think about just challenges in my own mind and heart right now. I’m just so thankful that I’m not alone in these challenges. As I face these challenges, God, I praise you that I’m not alone, that you’re with me, that your strength is mine, that your wisdom is promised to me when I ask, that your comfort is mine, that your help is mine, that you love me and you’re with me.
Genesis 39:2–3 Shows Us that God is All-Powerful
God, I thank you for this reality in my own life and I pray that people listening right now would know this reality in their lives in a fresh way today. In this moment, even, God, that they would know they’re not alone, that you, the all-powerful, all sovereign, all-loving, all-wise, all-good God of the universe.
That you are with them, that they are not alone, that they’re not facing whatever they’re walking through alone, that in their successes, it’s because of your grace and your mercy, because of your presence with them, that in their struggles, that you have not abandoned them to their struggles, to walk through those alone. Even in their failures, God, even when we sin, you pursue us. All glory be to your name, the one who never leaves your people alone.
Praying for the Arunthathiyar People of India
God, even I say for all who trust in Jesus and for all who know you, God we pray today for the Arunthathiyar people in India, over a million of them, Dalits, outcasts in South India. Most of them never having heard the gospel and they don’t know the wonder of your presence with them through Jesus. They don’t know Emmanuel, God with us. They don’t know Jesus.
We pray that the gospel would spread to the Arunthathiyar people in India. Please, Oh, God cause the gospel to spread. That they might know this reality that we know and live in every day, that you are with your people.
God, I praise you, we praise you, that we are not alone. We pray that as we walk through today, tomorrow. That we would do so with the humble confidence that the Lord is with us. In Jesus’ name we pray, the name of the one who makes this reality possible for us. In his name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
