God Won’t Leave You There

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Here are some of the news and lines we're watching on the conference was over.

The president want to play the American's worshiping government over God.

It's really rare safety moved by 18 years.

The Palestinians and the Israelis will be able to see it.

Hi friends, welcome to in the market with Janet partial.

Thank you so much for choosing to spend the hour with us.

I hope you're going to find encouragement.

Our conversation this hour and let me just get you thinking about what we

might be talking about by asking you a couple of questions.

So have you ever felt betrayed?

Have you ever been wounded by a family member?

Have you ever found yourself in a pit of circumstances?

Have you ever decided that you didn't have the patience to endure whatever

trial the Lord put you in?

Have you ever decided that oh, you had to dig really deep and really

forgive someone who is deeply deeply wounded you?

Have you ever thought that maybe God has called you to leave a legacy?

If you said yes to any of those questions and there's a whole lot more

where that came from, then you are in for a great conversation.

One of my favorite stories in scripture is the story of Joseph and the Old Testament.

We love that character so much that is Craig and I were praying before we

named our children Joseph was one of our sons as a direct result of the

Joseph you find in the Old Testament.

Is it a story that can be read over and over and over again?

And it should be and every time you read it, you're going to find something

there you didn't find before that's going to tell you something about you,

but far more importantly, it will tell you about the goodness of God.

And there's a brand new book out that really dives deep into the story of Joseph.

It's called God won't leave you there.

It is written by mother and daughter team and Graham Lotz and Rachel Ruth Lotz writes.

Let me introduce them.

I'm sure you already know, but Anne, of course, is called the best preacher in the

family according to her father, Billy Graham.

She's has spoken and speaks around the world with wisdom and authority and more

does that come from because she is immersed in the word of God.

She is a bestselling and award-winning author of 21 books.

She is the president of Angel Ministries in Raleigh, North Carolina.

And previously served as the chairman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force.

One of her precious children is Rachel Ruth.

Rachel Ruth, right, is the daughter of Anne Graham Lotz.

Obviously, granddaughter of Billy Graham, vice president of Angel Ministries,

and has shared God's word as a speaker around the world.

She teaches an online Bible study that reaches over 137 different countries

with thousands of registered attendees.

And we have the privilege of spending the hour with both of you.

Welcome.

You know, I thought that this through between Anne Graham Lotz and Rachel Ruth Lotz,

right, that's seven names between two women, and that doesn't count your middle names.

Thank you for attending the document.

You just told me, Anne, I'm going to Rachel Ruth, Rachel.

Yes, that's it.

I love this book.

I thank you so much for it.

You know, you think in old story and that's the thing about the word of God, isn't it?

You read it and you never come away disappointed because you always find something else.

And I just love this story with all my heart.

But first, I thought, okay, I want to know for you, too, what the process was like.

And this isn't the first time you've done it.

And Lord Molling, it won't be the last because you're a fabulous team together.

But how does that work?

How does the process work?

You know, we're all fearfully and wonderfully made,

and we all have our different approaches and our different points.

So how did the two of you work in groove together when you're right?

And by the way, we're friends.

So don't wait for me to ask one person a question.

Both of you jump in.

We're just having conversation around the table here.

Rachel Ruth had just talked about the study in her online class.

And so it was very fresh on her heart.

So she did the heavy lifting.

I've talked Joseph before, but she wrote the chapters.

And so each chapter she would write, she would send it to me.

Then I would go over it.

And I would delete, add, smooth out, you know, just sort of polish it.

But I wanted to leave her a voice in.

Because she has so much passion and energy and imagination.

And so the book is written in her first person.

Even though it was a collaborative effort,

she put it in the first person.

And then I added, wrote the front material.

And at the end of each chapter, there's a section, Jesus in the shadows,

how we recognize, we saw Jesus in Joseph's life.

And then a prayer, and I wrote both of those pieces.

But she did the book of it.

And it's amazing, Janet.

It's captivating.

It reads like a novel.

I think she could have done great on her own,

but I think the two of us together made it better

than either one of us could have done it by ourselves.

Oh, so Rachel Ruth, when your mom's talking,

and you hear her say that,

is it hard to take direction from your mom?

I mean, do you, is it still the little girl in you

and your mom's telling you something?

Or, you know, you're kind of in a corporate relationship too,

president, vice president,

evangel ministry.

So you're connecting on multiple levels.

So how do you receive the direction from your mom?

Is it easier hard?

My, my mom is just a wealth of wisdom.

And so I feel like I need to smack myself.

If I want to argue with her or to hold myself,

that I, you know,

because she just has so much knowledge and wisdom

from experience.

And I love the fact that the Lord called us both

to do this book on Joseph,

because we've been through so much.

And I don't think we could have written it

if we hadn't.

And so it was something that we had to do together.

And I see that.

And the Lord blessed it.

And I think it's, I'm excited about the book.

I'm happy for you.

And you have a reason to be excited.

It is a fabulous study.

So it raged to you first when you were studying Joseph,

because you don't teach until the Lord has taught you.

You prepared and then you go out and preach.

So what was the biggest takeaway?

If I were to say 30 seconds in an elevator,

hey, tell me about this Joseph in the Old Testament.

What's the number one characteristic that comes to your mind?

I think Joseph, what he went through,

when his life turned upside down in one second,

he went through all that and remained faithful to the Lord.

And he did not grow bitter.

And he didn't turn his back on God.

He didn't get angry with God.

He didn't just try and sabotage Potiphar's house.

And he just submitted to what God's plan was for his life

and went after it.

And so I think just his focus on the Lord,

despite the horrendous suffering in his life,

and the people in his life.

And it's just, I mean, in a nutshell,

I think that's what stood out to me is Joseph

didn't let the things of life, the hardships of life

in bitter him and make him angry.

But instead, he thrived under him

and served the Lord faithfully through it.

Wow. And how about you?

I think step, fast faith.

You know, I know his faith grew under that hardship.

And the foundation was laid in his home.

But then when his life is when he's thrown into a pit

sold into slavery by his brothers,

bought Potiphar in Egypt.

And then at one point thrown into Pharaoh's prison,

he never, as Rachel pointed out in the book,

his circumstances may have changed,

but his character didn't.

And he just stayed very strong in his faith

and his trust in God.

And as says again, and again,

that God was with him,

so he had that awareness of God's presence in his life

and God gave him favor with everybody.

But it's faith in God was amazing.

Wow.

But a great way to start our conversation.

Brand new book by Ann Graham Lott's

and Rachel Ruth Lott's right.

The book is called God Won't Leave You There.

It is a fabulous study on the life of Joseph.

So many takeaways.

And as Ann just said,

there's a part at the end of each chapter

where we recognize that in the story of Joseph,

there is Jesus.

We're going to talk more about that.

Stick around.

A lot more coming your way.

You

Are you living with a biblically-based passionate faith

or are you pulling back from letting your light shine?

That's why I've chosen call to take a bold stand

as this month's truth tool.

Learn how to influence the culture for Christ

in a transformative way.

As for your copy of call to take a bold stand

when you give a gift to any amount to in the market,

call 877 Janet 58 that's 877 Janet 58

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We are spinning the hour with Ann Graham Lott's

and Rachel Ruth Lott's right mother and daughter

serving together in ministry, writing together.

And they've got another book that they've

co-authored called God Won't Leave You There.

Out of the pit and into God's promise.

It is a study of Joseph and it's superb.

You know, as I read your book,

I had my Bible alongside with me already marked up

with all kinds of notes for past studies

just like both of you have.

And you start with chapter 37 and it says

that Jacob lived in the land where his father

had served in the land of Canaan.

And this is the account of Jacob and it starts with Joseph.

A young man of 17 was tending his flocks

and I stopped and I thought to myself,

why is it that so many of the patriarchs of scripture

are shepherds?

I was thinking about David.

I was thinking about the fact that Moses

tended sheep for 40 years before he had to lead Israelites

and then you've got Joseph who's out in the fields as well.

I don't think it's a coincidence.

And I don't think anything is a coincidence in God's world.

But isn't it fascinating how many of these men come out

from a background of being a shepherd?

And I'd love you to take on that.

Is it because it's a frowned upon?

I mean, in reading the book both of you

write the Egyptians because it's in scripture,

the Egyptians hated shepherds.

I mean, not exactly a praised career choice.

Where exactly?

But God used that to put people, children,

in Goshen where they developed into a nation.

So God used that the fact that the Egyptians

were the spa shepherds.

But I don't know, Jen, I'd have to think about that.

But I think shepherds, the characteristics of a shepherd

are so Christ-like because he himself described himself

as a good shepherd.

And the good shepherd cares for a sheep,

gives his life for a sheep, takes care of them

from the time they're born to the time they die

and protects them from danger.

So Joseph wasn't really a shepherd.

He checked on his brothers who were shepherds.

You get the impression Joseph sort of stuck around

the tent with his father more than when he was his brothers.

And then when he went to Egypt, of course,

he was in charge of Potiphar's house and his fields

and everything that Potiphar owned.

So he may have been overseeing people like that.

But that's just an interesting thought, isn't it?

And many shepherds in the scripture

and some of the minor prophets were shepherds.

So certainly Jesus was the example of the perfect good shepherd.

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

So Rachel Ruth, when there's so much in the book,

let me just point out that you divide it into three sections,

which is brilliant.

And each of it is comprised of the four chapters of the book.

So the first one is part one.

God is with you.

The second part is God is guiding you.

And the third part is God will bring you through this beautifully

logical way in which you've laid it out.

But it's chronologically walking through

the passages and Genesis that tell us the story.

So your mom makes an excellent point.

So he's not really a shepherd.

His brothers are supposed to be shepherds.

They're not doing a real good job.

He comes back, he tells dad, they're not doing so good.

So where does the animus from the brothers come from originally?

We know that he was a dreamer, not one, but two dreams.

And he makes this as a 17 year old child.

You can imagine what this was like having your older brother say,

listen, I want to tell you about my dream.

So it's a flesh fight right out of the gate.

Talk to me about that.

Yeah, they, you know, I think as 17 year old

and he has these dreams that show his brothers

bowing down to him.

And then the second dream not only has his brothers bowing down

but his parents.

And so he starts telling everybody his family, all his brothers,

that oh, one day, you know, you're going to bow down to me.

You're, this is the dream that I had.

And they're like, what are you kidding?

And, and so they were jealous.

And they knew that Jacob favored Joseph as well.

And so it didn't, it didn't help the situation.

And, and so all of that, I thought when I was writing the book,

it's so strategic of the Lord that even having

jealous brothers, having a dad that favored Joseph

was all part of God's plan because he was going to use that

to push Joseph out, you know, to take him to Egypt.

He needed to get him to Egypt because he needed Joseph there

in order to save their family and the future nation of Israel

and Egypt at the time.

And so God uses broken families and bad situations and homes.

And it sounds crazy, but he does.

And there's a purpose that builds your character.

It sends you, it can put you to where God wants you to be.

But, but Joseph didn't help the situation,

talking about, you know, the dreams that he had.

But, but God used that he even uses our mistakes.

Yes, but I loved your perspective.

And let me underscore it because I want our friends to have picked up on what you just did.

It would be very easy to always default to the mortal's perspective on this.

That, oh, this is bad, this is terrible, this is awful.

And you just took this situation,

which is going to go from bad to worse very quickly

over a long period of time.

One of my takeaways in reading the book was the remembrance that this

wasn't five minutes in jail.

This was an adjunct for years.

And when you read in the space and the scriptures is like two sentences apart,

you failed to comprehend the depth of time that's been allocated to that space and scripture.

And so I was really struck with, whoa, that's a long time to be an adjunct.

But what I find interesting is that you said there was a purpose.

There was a purpose. There was a purpose.

That same idea, I think,

Harkin's to Paul, writing to the church at Philippi when he says

that he's learned in whatsoever state he's in to be content.

How do you get there?

If you don't, if you default to the mortal's position,

you're always going to be looking at your circumstances.

What Paul did and what you just pointed out that Joseph does

is he sees God's hand in the midst of all of this.

That seems to me to be an act of the will where we have to develop some muscle memory.

To say, stop, don't ruminate on the negative.

God's at work here.

It is. It's actually, oh,

Harkin, are you going to?

Yeah. Well, I was just thinking it's actually amazing that he doesn't,

he goes into the situation going into part of his house and then when he's thrown into prison

wrongfully, he just goes after it and he serves the Lord faithfully.

He doesn't get bitter.

He doesn't focus on his circumstances.

He doesn't say, I'm the son of a wealthy man in Canaan, you know,

send me back.

I shouldn't.

I don't belong here.

And and instead of that, he just took it from the Lord and then just to the bed.

He was the best slave he could be.

He was the best prisoner he could be.

And and when we start focusing on our circumstances,

they're like Peter focusing on the waves and sinking or, you know,

then, then things start to get, you know, dicey.

And that's when we've got to put our eyes on Jesus.

And no, there's a greater picture than to this.

He's got a greater plan for our lives.

And and we just need to say, Lord, what is it?

What is it you're showing me here?

What is it you're wanting to teach me?

Yeah, Janet, I think if I can just add, I think it goes to something deeper.

It's your perspective of God, you know, who you think God is.

And if you don't think God is good, then you need to settle that because

Joseph, obviously, he trusted God and he believed God was good.

That everything in his life was for a particular purpose.

That's you quoted Paul.

That's what Roman day 28 is.

All things work together for good.

To those who love God and call it according to his purpose.

And that's all things good and bad.

Wow.

Excellent perspective.

Wonderful book.

Brand new book called God won't leave you there out of the pit

and into God's promises.

And the reality is, this is the study of Joseph,

but it's such a standard for us to subscribe to,

to understand the character and the nature of God

and how we respond to what happens to us

this side of glory back after this.

God won't leave you there.

It is the brand new book by Anne Graham Lotz

and Rachel Ruth Wright, mother and daughter writing team.

And it's the study of the life of Joseph.

And it's, oh, it's so well done.

And it just reminds you again of the richness

that we find in scripture.

Aren't you glad that the Lord gave us his word?

You know, it's illuminating.

Isn't it a light into our path and a light into our feet?

And I'm so glad that we don't have to wake up every day

and stumble to figure out how we get through this life.

We have this wonderful gift of his word.

And I hope we spend as much time in it as possible.

So, and I love stunning types in scripture.

I love to see the telling and telling and telling.

So you can't say you haven't been told.

I mean, here are the archetypes and the pictures

that are all through scripture.

So you've got Abraham called to sacrifice his son

with a picture, what a foretelling of what's going to happen

at the cross.

And when I read the story of Joseph, he's still human.

He's not God by any stretch of the imagination.

But he is so configured to foreshadow

the person of Christ.

And that's why I was thrilled at the end of every chapter

you talk about Jesus in the shadows.

Just kind of peek that for our friends listening

so that they can understand that he's a man.

He's not God incarnate like Jesus was.

But it begins to tell us something about the attributes

of Jesus that will know more about in the New Testament.

Well, there's so many similarities.

You know, Joseph was the beloved son of his father.

And Jesus is the beloved son of his father.

And then Joseph went to his brothers

who threw him in a pit.

And Jesus, John chapter one says he came into his own

and his own refused to receive him.

You know, they didn't receive him.

And then they didn't throw him in a pit.

They ended up crucifying Jesus.

Joseph ended up enslaved.

And Jesus ended up on a cross.

And Joseph was in prison.

Jesus died and was buried in a tomb for three days.

But then Joseph, just in a nanosecond,

was raised up from the prison

and came second in command under Pharaoh.

And he ruled all of Egypt, ruled basically

the whole world under Pharaoh

because Egypt was the world power at that point.

And Jesus in a nanosecond was raised up from the dead

where he now ruled the universe.

So the similarities and to see Joseph's character,

to see his patience, to see the way he trusted God

and everything, to see the way that his character

never changed.

He's just an amazing sort of a shadow.

You see Jesus in the shadows of his life.

The Bible doesn't tell us he's a type of Christ,

but you just see the similarities in a way

that makes him really extra special.

I think he never did anything, you know,

shared the dreams.

But Rachel Ruth has a good point that when God speaks to you

twice and those dreams would have been God's word to Joseph

because he didn't have a Bible, he didn't have a Torah,

and that is for emphasis.

And so Joseph must have known it 17 years of age.

God was speaking to him and telling him

he was going to be a leader.

And so you see every situation he's in,

he becomes a leader in part of his house, a leader in prison.

And then of course a leader in Pharaoh's court.

So his faith in God's word is faith in God,

the goodness of God and his belief that God was going

to bring him through and keep his promise.

And God did, brought him through in a remarkable way.

And then God did the same thing for Jesus.

After all the struggle, the suffering,

the persecution, the torture, all of that,

just whatever you've described the cross as in his rejection,

God brought him through in a glorious way.

See, the man is right hand, you know,

put all authority under his feet.

So it's a beautiful similarity.

Absolutely.

So Rachel Ruth, where do you think

that character comes from in Joseph?

I mean, you look at his father, I walks with a limp,

I mean, he's had some issues in his life.

So you wonder, he wasn't like saying,

well, you know, I've had Samuel from my father.

So you could understand that Joseph's personality

might be a little more understandable,

but he had Jacob for a dad.

So I'm not belittling by any search of the imagination,

the sovereignty and the molding and shaping of God,

but isn't it interesting?

Plus, there are a whole lot of kids in the house.

How do you think Joseph began to develop this character?

I think Joseph was watching Jacob.

We know they're around each other a lot

because he was Jacob's favorite.

And sometimes you can have that in a family

where you can have a bunch of kids,

but there's one that takes from their parents,

their love for the Lord.

And maybe the other brothers,

they cared more about the robe that Joseph got,

or the, you know, all the different things like that.

But I think Joseph must have seen something in his father,

must have had Jacob tell him the stories

when he used to meet with God

or told him about his father or his grandfather.

And enough so that Joseph took it with him.

And he had a love for God.

He wouldn't have been able to do what he did

if he didn't already have a love for God established.

And I think it grew as he was in,

I must have grown as he was just struggling and suffering,

but there was a definite relationship with the Lord there

already.

And I think it had to have been established

by him watching his father.

And I think Jacob had grown too.

He was older and wiser and following the Lord

and must have really invested in Joseph.

Yeah, I think that's a great point.

And he'll have something to add to that.

The fact that just as Ray Truth was sharing,

I think how important it is for us to set an example.

And we're watched, and sometimes we don't know

we're being watched, but it's our children, you know,

they will listen to what we say, but, well, maybe,

but I think they watch us more carefully than they listen.

And so if they see us reading our Bibles,

if they see us on our knees in prayer,

if they see us sharing the gospel with somebody,

that impacts them much greater than us,

telling them to read their Bibles,

telling them to pray, telling them to witness, you know.

So I think Ray Truth's point, and Joseph was pretty much raised

after Jacob had that experience of pineal

when he surrendered to the Lord and got changed his name

from Jacob to Israel.

And because Israel, he said, meant Prince

who had power with God.

And I think the power with God came

because he was totally surrendered.

And so Joseph saw that in his father.

And I think again, going back to the point that Ray Truth made

at the beginning, God can use a broken home.

He can use dysfunctional families,

and he can pull us out of a central family

and use us for his glory.

Wow.

And that's why we say God is good all the time.

This is the study of Joseph.

It is fabulous.

There's so much depth and width and breadth to this story.

And Ray Truth and Anne write about it beautifully

in their new book, God won't leave you there.

And aren't you glad he doesn't?

Much more right after this.

As a Christian, how do you digest the cultural issues of our day?

And in the market, we believe that understanding happens

when we bring biblical truth to expose the darkness in our world.

That's what we do every day on in the market.

May I ask you to join us when you become a partial partner,

your monthly gift ensures this daily program continues.

Become a partial partner today by calling 877 Janet 58

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We're spending the hour with Anne Graham Laths

and Rachel Ruth Wright, mother and daughter, writing team.

And of course, the president of Angel Ministries

and Rachel Ruth is the vice president

and is a best-selling author and award-winning author,

21 books, by the way.

And Rachel Ruth has an online Bible study

that reaches 137 countries with thousands of people attending.

Their new book is called God Won't Leave You There.

It is the story of Joseph.

And it's a marvelous breakdown of his life

and teaches us so many things about the nature

and characteristics of God.

And I'm not going to do the chronology of Joseph's life.

I want people to get the book and you walk through this book

and read it with a scripture.

Open your Bible, read it as Anne and Rachel Ruth

are teaching.

That's the best way to do it, I found.

The pit experience in and of itself is frightening.

You get thrown down an empty well with sister

and there's no water in there.

I love what Chuck Swindall says in reference to this point.

He said, when you find yourself in a pit and surround it

on all sides, you have no choice but to look up.

And I've never forgotten that.

I thought, what a great perspective again.

So much of Joseph's story is a question of perspective.

But let me fast forward to the fact

that when his brothers finally sell him to the Midianites,

he gets sold to Potapher, who's this high official in Pharaoh's

court and Potapher sees that this man has some skills

and he could take advantage of it.

And then along comes nothing new under the sun.

The right of Ecclesiastes was spun on this cunning female

that basically accuses Joseph of rape.

And Joseph says, of course, I didn't do it.

Potapher has no choice.

And I want to linger here for a minute

because Rachel Ruthie right in the book

and I thought this was spun on that Potapher

probably knew the character of his wife.

But because of cultural pressure,

he's going to have to do something with Joseph, right?

He can't turn to all of the people that he's ruling over

and saying she's a liar.

He can't do that.

So he throws Joseph into jail, into the dungeon

and you say, note the word dungeon there.

That's what the scriptures say.

And he's there for what 14 years?

I mean, that was stunning to me when I read that again.

It was a long time and you know what struck me

is that while he's serving in Potapher's house

and he's a slave and living in slave quarters

and making Potapher thrive, you know,

his whole family, his business, everything.

And Joseph is working hard.

And then he gets this temptation, you know,

where Potapher's wife, like you said,

you know, then accuses him of rape

when he had actually fled and done the right thing

following the Lord in the right way.

And yet he gets thrown into prison.

Like it, it's like he could have then said,

God, where are you?

I'm doing the right thing.

I was serving you.

And then I did the right thing

when Potapher's wife comes after me

and this is what I get for it.

And instead of him turning against God

and saying, why me?

Or why did you do this?

And where are you?

Don't you even care about me?

Instead, he's like, all right,

I mean, he just goes after it

and in prison, he does the same thing

and it's a lower position than what he was before.

And he's just at the bottom,

I don't think it gets any lower than that.

And yet he served God in the worst of circumstances

and that should speak volumes to all of us.

No matter our circumstances,

no matter our situation,

no matter what we think we where we should be

or all this stuff,

we need to just serve God where he has this

because there's a reason he's got us there.

There's a purpose in it.

And he will eventually find out,

but we've just got to stick to it.

Have that stick to itiveness and not give up.

I'm lingered.

If I just go ahead.

Just because Rachel's the same,

there's a reason for it.

And we don't know the reason right away,

but Joseph, think of it in Potapher's house.

That's where he learned Egyptian language.

He learned Egyptian customs.

He learned how to be an administrator

of a large household in the field

and the business that Potapher had.

And then when he was thrown into prison,

it was Pharaoh's prison.

So there would be political prisoners there.

So as he interacted with the political prisoners,

he would have learned about Pharaoh's court

and the way the government worked.

So I think the lesson for us is not to waste those times

when we feel we don't see the purpose in it,

we're struggling, we're suffering,

we've been betrayed, we have an injustice,

but don't waste it.

Keep your eyes on the Lord,

serve him to the best of your safety as you

and knowing that he's going to use everything in your life.

And that's again Romans 828.

All things work together for good

and good is not your health, wealth prosperity.

Good is ultimately to be conformed to the image of Christ,

but to fulfill God's purpose for your life.

And Joseph was not wasting that enslavement

or that imprisonment, he learned everything he could.

So when God brought him out

and he was brought out before Pharaoh,

then he was ready.

So he knew what he needed to know

and he could plan to save Egypt and it was amazing.

But if he had wasted those times,

just complaining, bitter, curled up in a field position,

saying, why me, why me?

He never would have been ready

when the time came for God to call him out.

I love that.

That's why going back through the book,

the word that just kept coming and coming to my mind

over and over again was the question of perspective.

It was your perspective.

So I love what you said.

So everything is God's classroom.

So he's learning when he's serving pot of her,

but he's learning when he's also thrown in the camp.

And what's scripture does for me personally

is it's a mirror.

When I'm reading stories like this,

I go, oh, how would I have responded?

What I have had that same perspective.

So he's in this dungeon for,

and I don't know why the years hit me so much this time

for 14 years, A, to be falsely accused,

that would be the seed of bitterness

if there ever was a seed where you would say,

I didn't do that.

I should, this is injustice.

I should be out of here.

And instead, he realizes that he's in God's classroom again

and it is a tutorial.

And he never gets bitter, which is amazing to me.

So Rachel Ruth talked to me.

There's just something about Joseph in these dreams, boy.

So he's telling the two dreams to his brother.

Now he's got a cup bear and a baker

that want to talk to him about dreams.

This is where do you really want the truth,

the whole truth, or you can't handle the truth?

This is going to be interesting.

So talk to me about this.

I know, and I think it's so sweet

because it shows Joseph's character again

because he's sitting there taking care of all the prisoners.

He's a prisoner himself and here comes the cup bear

and the baker.

They're thrown into prison and one morning they're just upset

and Joseph comes in instead of him saying,

what are you upset about?

I mean, I've been here longer than you.

I shouldn't be here and he could have complained himself

but instead he said, what's wrong?

And so then they tell him, all we have these dreams.

And so he says, well, God can interpret those dreams

and he tells them what it means.

And it ends up the baker was going to get killed,

killed by the Pharaoh, but the cup bear

was going to get his job back.

And so when he goes off when the cup bear sure enough

gets his job back, the baker gets killed.

It ends up, chapter ends and it says that the cup bear

because Joseph says, don't forget me

and the cup bear sure enough forgets him.

He didn't remember Joseph.

And so even when you think you have a glimpse of hope,

even when you do something good like helping somebody

and you think, oh, maybe this will get me out

and it doesn't just hold on because God remembers.

God doesn't forget.

And he knows how to take care of us

and his timing is perfect.

And I love that Joseph later when he then interprets,

that's what happens.

I mean, he ends up interpreting Pharaoh's dream.

He doesn't go in and try and wheel and deal

and say, I haven't heard from God.

I'm still stuck in this prison.

I'll tell you your dream.

If you get me back to Canaan with a whole bunch of treasure.

And instead, all he does is he says to Pharaoh,

he was like, I can't interpret this dream, but God can.

And then God gives him the interpretation.

And that is why Pharaoh picked Joseph

because he said, this is a man that God speaks to, you know,

and raised him up the second and command.

And so it's such a beautiful picture.

When you submit your life to the Lord

and you serve him faithfully and help people

and you're not self-absorbed,

I mean, what God can do with one person is amazing.

Yeah, so much.

And every verse is so rich in this particular story.

So Anne, I was thinking to Rachel Ruth's exact point

where he says, I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh

the answer he desires.

You know, let me have a look at this from Pharaoh's perspective.

He's in a polytheistic pagan culture.

Why would he even give credence to the fact

that Joseph said, God, he didn't say,

hey, God, my God, he said, God declaratively desires.

What does that say about God turning over the soil

of this Pharaoh's heart to be receptive

to what Joseph has to say?

It's so interesting isn't it?

I think Pharaoh was desperate because he knew

his dreams meant something, but he didn't know what they meant.

None of his magicians and his wise people

could interpret the dream.

So I'm not sure that Joseph had credibility at that point,

but before Joseph interpreted the dream,

he said, God would give him the interpretation.

So then when God gave him the interpretation

and Pharaoh knew it was right, it was accurate,

then he knew that God had given it the Joseph.

Do you see what I mean?

So Joseph had given God the credit, the glory,

before he got the interpretation.

And then it was afterwards

that Pharaoh recognized that God had given it the Joseph.

So if Joseph had bragged and said, yes,

I've done some dreams before

and I see what I can do with you, he didn't do that.

He just said he could not interpret dreams, but God could.

And so when the Bible says,

when you honor the Lord, the Lord honors you.

And so God honored Joseph with the interpretation of that

because Joseph had honored God even before he received

the interpretation.

Wow.

And Rachel, with what does it say about Joseph's character?

Again, the fact that dreams just keep working

their way through Joseph's story here.

Well, it's interesting because the first two dreams,

they came twice and are two different dreams.

And then dreams come again.

And I think what God was showing,

I think one lesson is that sometimes God speaks to us twice

and you can hear a verse spoken to you

like in your devotions and then all of a sudden

your pastor says the same verse in the same week.

And God's trying to get your attention

and he's trying to speak to you about something.

And so that was one lesson I got out of that.

But I think also, like we've talked about,

they didn't have scripture back then,

they didn't have a Bible, they didn't have Old Testament.

And so God used dreams.

And I think as God showed that Joseph had the gift

to interpret those dreams because God gave it to him.

And so, and I think I'm so thankful we have God's word

that we can turn to and read and study.

So that's the way that Joseph heard from God.

Yeah, I underlined in the book that part about repetition.

That has happened so often to me.

And then you think, look, coincidence, again,

he's not a God of coincidence, by the way.

He talks to us, he speaks to us through his word,

through his spirit.

And so very often I'll say, oh, that's the second time

today I've read that verse.

And I'm glad that you underscore that

because I thought, okay, next time I hear it,

give significance to the fact that you're seeing it again.

What is the Lord trying to tell you?

There's so much to the story and I've only got one segment left,

this will give you a hint.

If you don't know the story of Joseph,

this is a great book to start you in the study of who he is.

Even if you've read the story a hundred times,

I guarantee you, because it's God's word,

you're going to plumb this and come back

with a wealth of new insight and perspective

on our great God back after this.

What a pleasure it is to spend time with Anne Graham-Lots

and Rachel Ruth Rice, mother and daughter,

team, both worked together at Angel Ministries

and of course the president, Rachel Ruth, the vice president.

And they are now writing another book together.

This one's called, God won't leave you there.

It is the story of Joseph and boy,

you read his story and you understand

that God never left Joseph but at every spot

and every step of his pilgrim's progress,

God was teaching him, conforming him,

transforming him, renewing him,

preparing him, getting read for the next step.

And boy, this next step, at this part of the story,

makes me cry every time I read it.

And I want to go to one of the core issues

of this chapter of his life.

So Pharaoh says, you're going to be in charge of the whole land

and then scripture even takes the time to tell us

that he puts a signet ring, which even if study British history,

that was the hallmark of someone who was at the top of the command.

He puts a robe on him, he dresses him and fine linen,

he puts a gold chain around his neck, he rides in a chariot,

he's deemed to be the second in command.

I mean, there's zero ambiguity that now Joseph

has this vaulted position.

Fast forward, the famine comes through the dream

and his brothers are still back there with Jacob

and they're desperate to eat.

And so they have this trip down to find out if Egypt can provide

them with some food, with nutrition.

The brothers come minus Benjamin.

And I just want to linger in this part of the story

because every time I read it, and I don't know

how many times I've read the story, I always get tearied.

And I'm going to get emotional when I talk about this,

how Joseph reacts.

I loved the fact that he cries.

Thank you, God, for putting that in the story.

He cries when he sees his Benjamin.

He cries when he sees his brothers.

He cries when he sees Jacob.

That tells me so much about the heart of Joseph.

Talk to me about that.

That I think I'm wept when we got to that part too.

So I'm going to let Ray Truth describe it.

Joseph, he met with his brothers.

He they didn't recognize him because he looked like an

Egyptian, he recognized them.

And then he takes him to a series of events to bring to

their conscious mind the guilt of what they had done to him.

So they would be willing to repent and confess it.

And so they could reconcile because Joseph had forgiven them,

but reconciliation takes two people.

So Ray Truth explained that because you did such a

beautiful job and it's so moving when he finally

reveals himself to his brothers.

Yes.

It is, it's just, you just can't even believe it,

because the second he saw his brothers walk in the room,

he could have immediately had them seized, thrown into

prison, had them killed and been done with it, you know,

and I think all of us would be like, well, I don't, you

know, they had it coming to him.

But at the same time, it's unbelievable, his restraint.

And I love the fact that he cried too because no doubt he's

a man's man.

I mean, he suffered, he was strong, he was confident, wise,

but he had emotion and that it hurt him.

It wasn't something that he could just flick off.

It was a deep wound, what had happened to him, but he didn't

let it affect the way that he lived his life.

And he still, he wanted to bring about a reconciliation.

He didn't want to let them have it.

And like, what is human nature to do?

You know, we all want it, we would want to do that.

But then just his mind sat the Lord, you know,

we give it to the Lord.

But Joseph, instead brings them to a point of reconciliation

and then he reveals himself to his brothers and just weeps.

And the whole theme that I picture of my mind when he sends

the servants out, they're standing out in the hall, you

know, just wondering what's going on.

And they hear, it says that they all heard him wailing.

And you just wonder if they wanted to come back in the room

and somebody stopped them from coming back in the room.

You know, let's just wait, wait.

And and there is Joseph with his brothers, just bawling

as he reveals himself and maybe had to take off his Egyptian

makeup that he would have had on his face in his big head.

And all this evidence, I'm Joseph.

I'm Joseph.

And and the shock of of knowing that there is their brother

that they had betrayed.

And and knowing that they that Joseph had thrown them

in prison, hadn't killed them.

It's just the most beautiful picture of forgiveness.

And and Joseph, it wasn't just a one time thing like for a big

show, oh, I forgave you.

And now I'm going to let you have it.

He continued to live in that forgiveness in that love for his

brothers, even when Jacob died, their father dies.

And they devised a plan to say, oh, Jacob told us to tell

you to to treat us well.

And and Joseph still said, of course, I will.

You know, this was all God's plan in the first place.

You know, it was to raise me up so that I can I can save God

could use him to save all the people.

And so just a beautiful jaw dropping forgiveness.

And and it's a lesson for all of us to let it go, give it to

God and forgive and look what God can do in restoration of

your family, your loved ones, your friendships.

If we do it God's way.

And you know, Janet, if I can say out, I think that's another

place for us to see Jesus in the shadows because it's going

to ask you that because you know, you think of all the things

we've done and so many things were not even conscious that

we've done, but all of our sin and he took all of the sin of

all the world on himself and and forgave us.

And so you know, if you confess your sin, it says he's faithful

and just to forgive us all of our sin.

And so you see that in Joseph and and it's just the most

amazing picture of Jesus who also offers us forgiveness when

we come to him and confess what we've done.

And Joseph's brothers finally did that, they acknowledged it

and then they had the reconciliation.

But Joseph and then when he met his father, Rachel, that's

another incredible scene because it says he went for a long

time when he saw Joseph saw Jacob and and Jacob and Joseph

saw each other for the first time.

And that would be almost 30 years at that point.

And and he just clung to his father and just wept and wept

for it's it for a long time and but then God gave him I think

maybe 16 years was it Rachel at the end where he we had Jacob

down in Goshen and he could visit visit him with his children.

So it's God brought him through and I think that's the

point of this book you'd asked what we hope to take away

wasn't and and it's a book of hope because regardless of what

you're going through now, God is with you, he will God you

through it and he will bring you through and even if you're

struggle less than entire lifetime, when you step into

eternity, if you're a child of God, he will bring you through

to heaven, you know, where there's glory, there's no more

suffering or pain or death or crying or you know, I'll be

over. So so it's an incredible story of hope that regardless

so many people today are struggling, they're they're suffering

and financially and in their marriage and their

relationships and their health, but and God will be with you

in in that and he will God you and make everything come together

for your good and his purpose and then one day he will bring

you through. Wow. Rachel Ruth and it is a fabulous study

on the book of Joseph such richness there and the part at the end

when you talk about legacy and Jacob is speaking to every single

one of the sons and then even when he switches his hands on the

head of Joseph's children, that whole commentary about leaving

a legacy and there's so much here. We just skated over the top. I

wanted my friends to get the book. I hope I've just got

new interest in enough to say, oh, oh, if that was so good, I

want to hear what the rest of the book is all about. Good.

I've got a link to my website through to pick it up. God won't leave you

there. It's called out of the pit and into God's promise.

It's a wonderful book by Anne Graham Lottes and Rachel Ruth Lottes

right to love the word, love the Lord, and love to teach people.

And aren't we blessed for having spent the hour with him?

Thank you to your friends, both of you. I appreciate it. May the

Lord use this book to his honor and glory to equip his saints. Thank you.

And thank you, friends. We'll see you next time on In the Market with Janet Partial.