And Iron Entered His Soul

I have been meditating a lot on the life of Joseph. He is one who early on in life had a sense of God's calling him to a high purpose in life. He had dreams. He had a position of favor in his family. I wonder how many times Joseph asked himself, "What happened?" ...Why did his family turn on him and reject him? How could he end up in a dungeon when he had tried so serve and walked in integrity, even in captivity? How had his life spun so wildly out of control? I can identify so much with Joseph and the questions that undoubtedly entered into his mind in those dark days of imprisonment. Yet, we've read Joseph's story from beginning to end and we know that those days were part of God's plan. God never lost control and He never made a mistake in moving Joseph into exactly the place He wanted him to be for His purposes. Psalm 105:17-19 has an interesting insight regarding this time that Joseph spent in prison. It says that this was a testing time for Joseph. F.B. Meyer notes that where it says, "His soul entered into iron," we also might translate this into our language as saying, "Iron entered into his soul." I often think of God's testing as one in which He seeks to find our weaknesses, but in fact, a study of God's testing reveals that in these times, as we yield to Him, He creates in us strength. It is when we go through a trial that God is able to forge His strength in the place of our weaknesses. Without the times of trial and testing we would happily go along on our own strength, never realizing we are ill-prepared for the next phase of our lives.