So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail. But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. ~Genesis 40:20-21
Why do we sometimes need to go through hard times? God says to count all trials as joy (James 1:2). But how in the world could Joseph count going to jail as a joyful event? How can we count hard times as a joy?
We can’t.
Joseph was in his mid-20s at this point (Genesis 41:46). He had already lost his mother, been sold by his brothers to a group of foreigners, and risen in rank within Pharaoh’s house. He’d been through a lot and God was with him every step of the way. Those first two life events were definitely trials, but no one would consider finding favor with Pharaoh a trial.
Enter his master’s wife.
This woman did everything in her power to bring him down. He did nothing to invite it, and he made it clear he was not interested in her. He was not in the wrong place at the wrong time; he was simply working and she chose to pick a fight with the foreigner.
Joseph was a Godly man who made the simple mistake of leaving his jacket behind when he ran from her.
Now he found himself in jail.
From the perspective of his jailmates, he must have seemed like a man made of gold as he gained favor with the jailer. But Joseph knew God was with him.
Bad things happen to us. Jesus promises that in this world we will have trouble. There are so many verses that dismantle the “always blessed” philosophy. Markets crash, houses burn down, relationships aren’t what we hoped. Life happens.
But if we are in Christ, we know that God is with us. We live in a fallen world, and Ephesians 2 tells us that without Christ, we inevitably blindly follow the enemy. In this fallen place, the presence of the Holy Spirit within us won’t protect us from hard times, but it will guarantee that we can survive through the hard times.
God is with us, always.