“But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison….. the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.”
Genesis 39:21, 23 (RSV)
Most people can relate to a prison story more than they realize. We’ve all had times in our lives when we felt bound, trapped, roadblocked, or imprisoned even if we’ve never been in an actual prison cell. We can feel imprisoned through an unhappy relationship, miserable job situation, a debilitating chronic illness or major financial difficulties.
There’s only a few bible stories about men who’ve spent time locked up. Maybe we can learn something by looking at these four men who were unjustly imprisoned. The first one was Joseph of the Old Testament, then Peter, Paul and Silas in the New Testament. All were sentenced to prison time, even though innocent. Each man had a different prison sentence length, but all had two things in common; they all loved God and were wrongly accused.
Scripture says that the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love, while he was behind bars, but his story is still a sad one. He was falsely accused of rape, and spent thirteen years in prison. His jailer and fellow prisoners saw his unfaltering reverence for God, and over time, he was promoted to chief over all the prisoners. Later, he was set free and became second in command to Pharaoh, and promoted to governor of Egypt. Instead of going after all those who falsely accused and mistreated him, he had an amazingly forgiving heart towards his enemies. That’s why the Lord showed him such favor.
Peter was imprisoned for preaching the gospel. He had genuine trust in God to be able to fall asleep in a dirty, dark dungeon, chained to guards on both sides of him. That kind of trust stems from knowing that God loves us with a steadfast love. An angel appeared and put the guards to sleep, broke Peter’s chains, opened the locked iron gate and led him out of prison and back home.
Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns, while their arms and legs were chained in their prison cell. The power of praise can never be underestimated, because as they sang, God brought heaven to earth with an earthquake that shook the foundation of their jail cell. Praise brings the power of God to earth, which loosed their chains and flung the prison doors wide open.
After a period of time, God opened the prison doors for all of these men. The verse I have come to love, out of all these stories is, “But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love, and gave him favor”…..Isn’t that really what we all want?
For God to show us “steadfast love and give us favor.”
A lesson can be learned from these imprisoned four, Joseph, Peter, Paul and Silas. God shows us through these four stories, the keys to unlock any metaphorical prison doors.
We are all so loved by God, with a steadfast love. He loved us long before we ever knew who He is. When we forgive those who hurt us, trust in God’s steadfast love, and give Him praise for who He is, not for what He does, we will be lifted out of our prison, and find a little bit of Heaven here on earth.
Lord, help us to remember the lessons of these four men, in forgiving our enemies, trusting in your steadfast love for us, and praising you for who you are, rather than for what you do. Amen
