Lying On the Stones

Packing up and heading to Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia has been a family tradition for years, begun by my parents-in-law, and then passed down to my husband and me. For financial reasons, and more recently, for Covid-19 reasons, we haven't visited in a few years, but because we've spent so many vacations there, I know that amusement park like the back of my hand. 

This morning, I sensed a strong call for surrender of myself -- absolute, total surrender of my expectations, of anything that "belongs" to me, and place them at the feet of Jesus. I felt the need to uncurl my fingers from my death-grip on every comfort I've known. Genesis 41, where I was reading today, slides right into this idea, but I'll get to that in a minute.

As I was praying, the Lord brought Busch Gardens to mind. In this picture, I found myself wandering up the hill toward the bumper car ride. It looked as it always does -- a long line, squealing, screaming parents and children wheeling around the floor in the cars as they crash into each other. While I was watching, I heard the Lord say: Lie down. 

I didn't pause to wonder why He said it; I immediately lay down. The paths at Busch Gardens aren't smooth; they are lumpy paved pebbles, presumably to maintain traction in slick rain (Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee does not have such pavement, and I have noticed how much harder it is not to slip when it's wet). Anyway, as I lay on my back, I expected the discomfort of hard rocks pressing into my joints, but it took me a second to realize... what I thought would be uncomfortable was actually soft and yielding to all my bones. The pebbles fit around me like a mold, as though the pavement had been designed to accommodate every necessary part of me. After a moment, I realized that the soft pebbles were not soft pebbles at all, but rather arms that surrounded me from behind and held me securely. Those wrists, I would have recognized anywhere: they displayed the deep scarring of nails. 

By this point, I was wondering what in the world the Lord was trying to teach me through this. I thought at first it was just a random memory that presented itself from my many times there, but I most assuredly have never lain spread-eagle on my back in the middle of a walkway at Busch Gardens. :) As I prayed for the Lord to speak to my heart, He showed me three aspects of this picture. 

First, as is typical of amusement park rides, there are long aisles that run switchback for several rows right up to the ride's entrance, and I realized that this line is like a spiritual journey. It's long. Sometimes it feels like an eternity as we wait for the fulfillment of our expectations. More often than not, there are blind twists and turns. But the inevitable fact is: that line leads every time to the intended destination. It will never empty out anywhere besides at the ride's entrance. There is assurance in that fact.

Second, the ride itself is designed to be bumpy (hence the name). It's full of jarring impact. It's loud and chaotic. But it is, unequivocally, the entire point of the ride. I don't wait in line at the bumper cars to get into the Teacups. I don't wait in line at the bumper cars to ride the Loch Ness Monster. I wait in line at the bumper cars to ride the bumper cars. So even with the jarring impacts and the bumpy ride, there is a certain exhilaration and joy that comes as a result of finding my intended destination, the purpose for which I am there in the first place.

And third, lying on the pathway was hard to do, even in a simple picture. I was embarrassed -- what would people think? I dreaded the discomfort; I don't like lying down on my living room rug, much less paved pebbles. It's hard to get up again. But my expectations were completely obliterated. Instead of pain, I found comfort. Instead of seeing the astonished and perplexed gazes of passers-by, I saw the hands of Jesus. In surrendering myself completely, I found myself carried by the Lord.

Isaiah 43:18-19 says: "Forget the former things (lay them down, drop them right there on that pebbled pathway), do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland."

Genesis 41 is a chapter about transformation. Transition. Movement from the caterpillar (the past) to the chrysalis (a new thing!) to the butterfly (the way in the desert, the streams in the wasteland). 41:1 finds Joseph still in prison, two years after he'd interpreted the dreams of the baker and the cupbearer. 

Thirteen years have now passed since Joseph has had his prophetic dreams where his father and brothers bowed down to him. Seemingly, nothing is happening. Maybe Joseph imagined the dreams. Maybe they were a figment of his imagination. The vivid assurance that those dreams were from the Lord has long passed in these thirteen years of slavery and prison. In the eyes of the world, it seems that Joseph has been forgotten by God.

But Joseph stays faithful in the middle of his desert experience. I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. 

Meanwhile, Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, has a dream. Actually, he has a couple of dreams. Dream #1 shows him seven fat cows coming out of the Nile River where they graze among the reeds on the riverbank. Then seven skinny, ugly cows also come up out the Nile and they eat the seven fat cows. Dream #2 is essentially the second verse of the same song. There's a stalk of grain with seven healthy heads. Then seven withered heads form and swallow up the healthy ones.

After his unnerving dreams, Pharaoh decides that they must mean something, so he calls all his magicians and wise men from all over the country to come interpret his dreams for him, but no one can.

Daniel 2:11 follows a similar story, and the response of the astrologers here is interesting: "What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods, and they do not live among men." Even the astrologers recognize that God-given dreams need divine interpretation. They are diviners, but they cannot divine a dream given by the one true God.

Contrast this to Genesis 40:8: "Then Joseph said to [the baker and the cupbearer], 'Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams." Back to Daniel 2:27-28: "Daniel replied, 'No wise man, enchanter, magician, or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come."

I don't know about you, but I get excited when people recognize that there is a difference between gods and God. Psalm 46:10 says: "Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." God does things in ways that make His glory known. He is God! He will be exalted! He is deserving of all praise and worship, and I do mean all praise, even from the lips of unbelievers.

Isaiah 44 and 45 have some fascinating things to say about this concept, this idea that God does His thing, no matter who is in charge. "[I am the Lord, Who] says of Cyrus (a pagan, future king, for the record), 'He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please..." 

And then in chapter 45: "This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus (pagan king = anointed?! What?!) whose right hand I take hold of..." 

Farther down: "...so that you may know that I am the Lord (He is exalted among the nations, remember?)...

"...the God of Israel, who summons you by name (He summons a pagan king, He summons Cyrus by name, He summons a man not born yet by a name already given him, because God is God. He is exalted among the nations!)" 

Farther down, "I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from Me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged Me..." 

Why? "So that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting, men may know there is none beside Me. I am the Lord, and there is no other."

Here's the point: God is the only God, and in the end, every tongue in heaven and earth will acknowledge that absolute Truth, no matter what the circumstances. God will be exalted in all the earth, by all the people. He is God!

So, back to Joseph and Pharaoh. The cupbearer, hearing of the king's dreams, suddenly remembers a very important detail that he forgot two years previously. Oops. Ahem, oh king, "today I am reminded of my shortcomings." How very short his shortcomings. " He explains to the king how Joseph had interpreted his dream and the baker's dream, and how their respective interpretations had come true.

So Pharaoh immediately sends for Joseph and tells him that he's had a dream. "No one can interpret it," he says, "but I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it."

Oh, the beauty of Joseph's self-surrender here: "I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires." Joseph knows that if God does not give him the interpretation, he'll likely head right back to prison, or possibly be killed if the king is displeased enough. There is absolutely no benefit for Joseph in telling the king that he himself cannot interpret the dream.

But God.

God will be exalted, even in the eyes of this king who does not acknowledge God as God. 

Joseph listens to the dream, interprets it according to the revelation that God gives him (famine is coming, y'all. Stock up. Brace yourselves. It's gonna be rough).

Here's Pharaoh's response in 41:38: "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God?"

Pharaoh doesn't know, acknowledge, or follow the Holy Spirit, but he recognizes His work in Joseph's life. Like Isaiah puts it in 44:28: "[I am the Lord, Who] says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd and will accomplish all that I please.'" 

God has a purpose for Pharaoh, and this is what it is: For Pharaoh to put Joseph in charge during a time of testing, pressing, squeezing, and refinement of nations. 

God also has a purpose for Joseph, and God orchestrates events so that even the king of Egypt, top dog, totem pole topper, head cheese, steps in alignment with His will, His plan, and His purpose.

Here are three things I've noticed about God-given dreams in the Bible: 

#1: No one can interpret God-given dreams without God (Gen 40:8, Genesis 41:16, Daniel 2:27-28).

#2: God-given dreams have a point. They're not random; they're meant to convey a message (Matthew 2:13: An angel appears to Joseph and tells him to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt in order to remove him from Herod's fatal reach; Genesis 40:14: Pharaoh's cupbearer has a dream so that when he returns to the king's service, he can mention Joseph to Pharaoh, the next stepping stone in Joseph's journey, etc.).

#3: God-given dreams are fulfilled by God. He is the One who takes care of fulfillment, and no effort put in by people will do anything at all. Isaiah 44:25-26: "[I am the Lord Who] foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, Who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense (all of these are examples of manmade efforts), Who carries out the words of His servants and fulfills the predictions of His messengers (brought about by God Himself)."

By the end of this chapter, Joseph's transition from prisoner to vizier (that rhymes! Kinda...) is complete. God has acted in Joseph's interest, but he's had to wait a long time (13 years) to see any fruit from his perseverance. Blind twists and turns have ruled the events of those thirteen years, and he's had to stand in his absolute trust that God has an intended destination.

Joseph suffers many hard knocks and jarring, faith-shaking events. Favored son to slave. Trusted servant to (falsely) accused rapist. But in the middle of it all, he is exactly where he is supposed to be. God has a purpose for him, and such a purpose, that Joseph had glimpsed years before in two God-given dreams when he was seventeen years old.

Through Joseph's absolute surrender, through the laying down of every expectation that he'd held, the ridding of his "rights," God uses him mightily, so mightily that he ends up as second-in-command of a powerful nation in order to fulfill the purpose God gives him.

I named this blog The Leaky Vessel after 2 Corinthians 4:7-8, and I can't imagine a much better example of this idea than Joseph: He is hard-pressed on every side, not crushed, perplexed, not in despair, persecuted, not abandoned, struck down, not destroyed. Over the course of his entire life, through his self-surrender, the eyes of the nations see the all-surpassing power of the one true God. This one-of-twelve-sons of Israel blooms out of obscurity and becomes recognized all over the known world at the time.

Because he's surrendered himself to God.

God's upside-down kingdom, God's inverted way of making His will come to pass is so evident here. He sends Joseph down in order to bring him up. 

And because of Joseph's faithfulness, nations are saved from starvation, including the nation of Israel, with whom God holds a covenant promise.

God always has a plan and a purpose. Even when we can't see what it is, we can still place ourselves absolutely, completely in His arms, surrender every last "right" to which we've been clinging and calling our own. 

Let it go. Let Him have it. It might look hard, it might look uncomfortable, and every joint in our spiritual bodies may be screaming in protest as we place ourselves on the hard walkway. 

But He can be trusted to guide us around the blind curves, past the bumps and bruises, and pull us, finally, into His oh-so-comfortable embrace.