BUT GOD WAS WITH HIM

9“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him

10and rescued him out of all his afflictions and gave him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him ruler over Egypt and over all his household.

11Now there came a famine throughout all Egypt and Canaan, and great affliction, and our fathers could find no food.

12But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent out our fathers on their first visit.

13And on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and Joseph's family became known to Pharaoh.

14And Joseph sent and summoned Jacob his father and all his kindred, seventy-five persons in all.

15And Jacob went down into Egypt, and he died, he and our fathers,

16and they were carried back to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of silver from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.

1. 1.Why did Joseph's brothers sell him? How can jealousy lead us to hurt the very people closest to us?
2. 2.List what God did for Joseph in Egypt then read Genesis 39:20-23. What did God's presence look like even in prison?
3. 3.Why do you think God allowed time to pass before Joseph made himself known?
4. 4.Jacob and the fathers of Israel died in Egypt and were buried at Shechem, not Jerusalem. What does this tell you about where God's story unfolds?

Picture a hospital waiting room at three in the morning. Plastic chairs. Fluorescent lights. The smell of disinfectant. Your phone battery is at nine percent, and the doctor still hasn't come out. It doesn't feel like a holy place. It feels like the loneliest place on earth.

Joseph knew places like that. Stephen sums up years of his suffering in one sentence: "And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt" (Acts 7:9).

Sold by his own brothers. Dragged to a foreign land. Later, as Genesis tells us, falsely accused and thrown into prison. But then Stephen adds five words that change everything: But God was with him.

God didn't wait for Joseph to get out of Egypt before he showed up. He was there in it. The slave became a ruler over Egypt, and the brothers who sold him ended up depending on him to survive.

Notice verse 13: "on the second visit Joseph made himself known to his brothers." The first time, they didn't recognize the one they had rejected. The second time, they did, and he forgave them. That pattern will appear again in Stephen's speech, until it points us to Jesus.

Whatever place you are in today, a hospital, an office where you feel invisible, or a season you never asked for, Stephen's words are for you too.

Today's application: Write down the hardest place in your life right now. Underneath it, write: "But God was with me." Remind yourself today of that truth.

Faithful God, thank you that there is no pit, prison, or waiting room where you are absent. When I feel alone, remind me that you are with me just as you were with Joseph. Use even my hardest seasons for good, and give me a heart that forgives the way Joseph did. In Jesus' name, Amen.