Who Directs Your Steps?
My verse for 2015 is Prov. 16:9: A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. I shared my “verse for the year” with a friend, and she found it peculiar.What does it mean? Does it mean we are simply puppets? That’s a question a person would be tempted to ask. But I don’t plan to examine it as much on an intellectual level as on a Bible-example level. I’m reading through the Bible this year with that verse as my overlay or my lens.
So, in the book of Genesis, I read about Joseph, his father Jacob’s favorite of 12 boys. I read about the dreams Joseph had and shared with his brothers that they would bow down to him someday. If I had a dream like that, I’m not sure I’d share it with my siblings, knowing that they just might get jealous and hate me. But Joseph shares it, and they get jealous and hate him.
His brothers toy with the idea of killing him after they throw him in a pit. While they sit there eating lunch, with Joseph stuck in the hole, they decide the better deal is to sell him as a slave and make some money off of him. (And you thought your siblings were bad!) Before they finish lunch, a group of Midianite merchantmen pass by, find Joseph in the hole, and decide to sell him. The brothers miss their chance to make money, not knowing what happened to him (Genesis 37).
Let’s take a look at Prov. 16:9 again. A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps. Hmmm. According to that verse, was God in control of Joseph and his brothers’ situation? I’ll bet none of them thought so that day. Joseph ends up in Egypt as a slave in the home of Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh’s.Joseph’s scheming brothers, who don’t know what happened to him, have to make up a story to tell their father and choose to tell him a wild animal killed him.
Fast-forward, if you know the story, Joseph ends up being 2nd in charge, just below Pharaoh, and he’s in charge of the food supply during a wide-spread drought. His father and brothers are about to starve, so the brothers come to Egypt for food and bow down to Joseph, just like Joseph dreamed would happen. Only the brothers don’t know it’s Joseph. They probably assume he’s dead.
In Gen. 45, Joseph finally makes himself known to his brothers after toying with them for a while. His brothers are shocked speechless—after bowing down to him for the 3rd time since they meet him as governor of Egypt. And here is the Prov. 16:9 perspective that Joseph appears to have as he talks to his brothers, who are sure Joseph is going to take revenge. “And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.” (Gen. 45:7-8)
The brothers and their father Jacob get to come live near Joseph where he provides for them. Then Jacob dies. The brothers fear. Perhaps Joseph has been nice to them all this time for their father’s sake. Now that he is dead, Joseph might just turn on them. They bow down again. Wow. This is the 4th time. And his brethren also went and fell down before his face; and they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive. (Gen. 50:18-20)
What I learn is that in the moment, I might not see God anywhere near my circumstances, but He is weaving His tapestry with my life for His glory. And here’s my verse again: A man’s heart deviseth his way, but the Lord directeth his steps.
Tell me what you think.
Jody