you'll get through this

HOPE AND HELP FOR YOUR TURBULENT TIMES

Thomas Nelson

Contents

CHAPTER 1

you'll getthrough this

She had a tremble to her, the inner tremble you could feel withjust a hand on her shoulder. I saw her in a grocery store. Hadnot seen her in some months. I asked about her kids and husband,and when I did, her eyes watered, her chin quivered, and thestory spilled out. He'd left her. After twenty years of marriage, threekids, and a dozen moves, gone. Traded her in for a younger model.She did her best to maintain her composure but couldn't. The grocerystore produce section became a sanctuary of sorts. Right therebetween the tomatoes and the heads of lettuce, she wept. We prayed.Then I said, "You'll get through this. It won't be painless. It won't bequick. But God will use this mess for good. In the meantime don't befoolish or naive. But don't despair either. With God's help you willget through this."

Two days later a friend called. He'd just been fired. The dismissalwas his fault. He'd made stupid, inappropriate remarks atwork. Crude, offensive statements. His boss kicked him out. Nowhe's a fifty-seven-year-old unemployed manager in a rotten economy.He feels terrible and sounds worse. Wife angry. Kids confused. Heneeded assurance, so I gave it: "You'll get through this. It won't bepainless. It won't be quick. But God will use this mess for good. Inthe meantime don't be foolish or naive. But don't despair either. WithGod's help you will get through this."

Then there is the teenager I met at the café where she works.She's fresh out of high school, hoping to get into college next month.Her life, as it turns out, hasn't been easy. When she was six yearsold, her parents divorced. When she was fifteen, they remarried, onlyto divorce again a few months ago. Recently her parents told her tochoose: live with Mom or live with Dad. She got misty-eyed as shedescribed their announcement. I didn't have a chance to tell her this,but if I see her again, you can bet your sweet September I am going tolook her square in the eyes and say, "You'll get through this. It won'tbe painless. It won't be quick. But God will use this mess for good. Inthe meantime don't be foolish or naive. But don't despair either. WithGod's help you will get through this."

Audacious of me, right? How dare I say such words? Where did Iget the nerve to speak such a promise into tragedy? In a pit, actually.A deep, dark pit. So steep, the boy could not climb out. Had he beenable to, his brothers would have shoved him back down. They werethe ones who had thrown him in.

So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that theystripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was onhim. Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit wasempty; there was no water in it.

And they sat down to eat a meal. (Gen. 37:23–25)

It was an abandoned cistern. Jagged rocks and roots extendedfrom its sides. The seventeen-year-old boy lay at the bottom. Downybeard, spindly arms and legs. His hands were bound, ankles tied.He lay on his side, knees to chest, cramped in the small space. Thesand was wet with spittle, where he had drooled. His eyes were widewith fear. His voice was hoarse from screaming. It wasn't that hisbrothers didn't hear him. Twenty-two years later, when a famine hadtamed their swagger and guilt had dampened their pride, they wouldconfess, "We saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us,and we would not hear" (42:21).

These are the great-grandsons of Abraham. The sons of Jacob.Couriers of God's covenant to a galaxy of people. Tribes will beartheir banners. The name of Jesus Christ will appear on their familytree. They are the Scriptures' equivalent of royalty. Yet on this day theywere the Bronze Age version of a dysfunctional family. They couldhave had their own reality TV show. In the shadow of a sycamore,in earshot of Joseph's appeals, they chewed on venison and passedthe wineskin. Cruel and oafish. Hearts as hard as the Canaanite desert.Lunch mattered more than their brother. They despised the boy."They hated him and could not speak peaceably to him ... theyhated him even more ... they hated him ... his brothers envied him"(37:4–5, 8, 11).

Here's why. Their father pampered Joseph like a prized calf. Jacobhad two wives, Leah and Rachel, but one love, Rachel. When Racheldied, Jacob kept her memory alive by fawning over their first son.The brothers worked all day. Joseph played all day. They wore clothesfrom a secondhand store. Jacob gave Joseph a hand-stitched, multicoloredcloak with embroidered sleeves. They slept in the bunkhouse.He had a queen-sized bed in his own room. While they ran the familyherd, Joseph, Daddy's little darling, stayed home. Jacob treated theeleventh-born like a firstborn. The brothers spat at the sight of Joseph.

To say the family was in crisis would be like saying a grass hutmight be unstable in a hurricane.

The brothers caught Joseph far from home, sixty miles away fromDaddy's protection, and went nuclear on him. "They stripped Josephof his tunic ... they took him and cast him into a pit" (vv. 23–24).Defiant verbs. They wanted not only to kill Joseph but also hide hisbody. This was a murderous cover-up from the get-go. "We shall say,'Some wild beast has devoured him'" (v. 20).

Joseph didn't see this assault coming. He didn't climb out of bedthat morning and think, I'd better dress in padded clothing becausethis is the day I get tossed into a hole. The attack caught him off guard.

So did yours. Joseph's pit came in the form of a cistern. Maybeyours came in the form of a diagnosis, a foster home, or a traumaticinjury. Joseph was thrown in a hole and despised. And you? Thrown inan unemployment line and forgotten. Thrown into a divorce and abandoned,into a bed and abused. The pit. A kind of death, waterless andaustere. Some people never recover. Life is reduced to one quest: get outand never be hurt again. Not simply done. Pits have no easy exits.

Joseph's story got worse before it got better. Abandonment ledto enslavement, then entrapment, and finally imprisonment. He wassucker punched. Sold out. Mistreated. People made promises onlyto break them, offered gifts only to take them back. If hurt were aswampland, then Joseph was sentenced to a life of hard labor in theEverglades.

Yet he never gave up. Bitterness never staked its claim. Anger nevermetastasized into hatred. His heart never hardened; his resolve nevervanished. He not only survived; he thrived. He ascended like a heliumballoon. An Egyptian official promoted him to chief servant. Theprison warden placed him over the inmates. And Pharaoh, the highestruler on the planet, shoulder-tapped Joseph to serve as his primeminister. By the end of his life, Joseph was the second most powerfulman of his generation. It is not hyperbole to state that he saved theworld from starvation. How would that look on a résumé?

JosephSon of JacobGraduate with honors from the University of hard KnocksDirector of Global effort to Save humanitySucceeded

How? How did he flourish in the midst of tragedy? We don't haveto speculate. Some twenty years later the roles were reversed, Josephas the strong one and his brothers the weak ones. They came to himin dread. They feared he would settle the score and throw them into apit of his own making. But Joseph didn't. And in his explanation wefind his inspiration.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for goodin order to bring about this present result, to preserve many peoplealive. (50:20 NASB)

In God's hands intended evil becomes eventual good.

Joseph tied himself to the pillar of this promise and held on fordear life. Nothing in his story glosses over the presence of evil. Quitethe contrary. Bloodstains, tearstains are everywhere. Joseph's heartwas rubbed raw against the rocks of disloyalty and miscarried justice.Yet time and time again God redeemed the pain. The torn robebecame a royal one. The pit became a palace. The broken family grewold together. The very acts intended to destroy God's servant turnedout to strengthen him.

"You meant evil against me," Joseph told his brothers, using aHebrew verb that traces its meaning to "weave" or "plait." "Youwove evil," he was saying, "but God rewove it together for good."

God, the Master Weaver. He stretches the yarn and intertwinesthe colors, the ragged twine with the velvet strings, the pains withthe pleasures. Nothing escapes his reach. Every king, despot, weatherpattern, and molecule are at his command. He passes the shuttle backand forth across the generations, and as he does, a design emerges.Satan weaves; God reweaves.

And God, the Master Builder. This is the meaning behind Joseph'swords "God meant it for good in order to bring about ..." TheHebrew word translated here as bring about is a construction term.It describes a task or building project akin to the one I drive throughevery morning. The state of Texas is rebuilding a highway overpassnear my house. Three lanes have been reduced to one, transforminga morning commute into a daily stew. The interstate project, likehuman history, has been in development since before time began.Cranes hover overhead daily. Workers hold signs and shovels, andseveral million of us grumble. Well, at least I do. How long is thisgoing to last?

My next-door neighbors have a different attitude toward the project.The husband and wife are highway engineers, consultants to thedepartment of transportation. They endure the same traffic jams anddetours as the rest of us but do so with a better attitude. Why? Theyknow how these projects develop. "It will take time," they respondto my grumbles, "but it will get finished. It's doable." They've seenthe plans.

By giving us stories like Joseph's, God allows us to study his plans.Such disarray! Brothers dumping brother. Entitlements. Famines andfamily feuds scattered about like nails and cement bags on a vacant lot.Satan's logic was sinister and simple: destroy the family of Abrahamand thereby destroy his seed, Jesus Christ. All of hell, it seems, set itstarget on Jacob's boys.

But watch the Master Builder at work. He cleared debris, stabilizedthe structure, and bolted trusses until the chaos of Genesis37:24 ("They ... cast him into a pit") became the triumph of Genesis50:20 ("life for many people").

God as Master Weaver, Master Builder. He redeemed the story ofJoseph. Can't he redeem your story as well?

You'll get through this. You fear you won't. We all do. We fearthat the depression will never lift, the yelling will never stop, the painwill never leave. Here in the pits, surrounded by steep walls and angrybrothers, we wonder, Will this gray sky ever brighten? This load everlighten? We feel stuck, trapped, locked in. Predestined for failure.Will we ever exit this pit?

Yes! Deliverance is to the Bible what jazz music is to Mardi Gras:bold, brassy, and everywhere.

Out of the lions' den for Daniel, the prison for Peter, the whale'sbelly for Jonah, Goliath's shadow for David, the storm for the disciples,disease for the lepers, doubt for Thomas, the grave for Lazarus,and the shackles for Paul. God gets us through stuff. Through the RedSea onto dry ground (Ex. 14:22), through the wilderness (Deut. 29:5),through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps. 23:4), and through thedeep sea (Ps. 77:19). Through is a favorite word of God's:

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you.When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned,Nor shall the flame scorch you. (Isa. 43:2)

It won't be painless. Have you wept your final tear or receivedyour last round of chemotherapy? Not necessarily. Will your unhappymarriage become happy in a heartbeat? Not likely. Are you exemptfrom any trip to the cemetery? Does God guarantee the absence ofstruggle and the abundance of strength? Not in this life. But he doespledge to reweave your pain for a higher purpose.

It won't be quick. Joseph was seventeen years old when his brothersabandoned him. He was at least thirty-seven when he saw themagain. Another couple of years passed before he saw his father.Sometimes God takes his time: One hundred twenty years to prepareNoah for the flood, eighty years to prepare Moses for his work. Godcalled young David to be king but returned him to the sheep pasture.He called Paul to be an apostle and then isolated him in Arabia forperhaps three years. Jesus was on the earth for three decades beforehe built anything more than a kitchen table. How long will God takewith you? He may take his time. His history is redeemed not in minutesbut in lifetimes.

But God will use your mess for good. We see a perfect mess; Godsees a perfect chance to train, test, and teach the future prime minister.We see a prison; God sees a kiln. We see famine; God sees therelocation of his chosen lineage. We call it Egypt; God calls it protectivecustody, where the sons of Jacob can escape barbaric Canaan andmultiply abundantly in peace. We see Satan's tricks and ploys. Godsees Satan tripped and foiled.

Let me be clear. You are a version of Joseph in your generation.You represent a challenge to Satan's plan. You carry something ofGod within you, something noble and holy, something the worldneeds—wisdom, kindness, mercy, skill. If Satan can neutralize you,he can mute your influence.

The story of Joseph is in the Bible for this reason: to teach you totrust God to trump evil. What Satan intends for evil, God, the MasterWeaver and Master Builder, redeems for good.

Joseph would be the first to tell you that life in the pit stinks. Yetfor all its rottenness doesn't the pit do this much? It forces you to lookupward. Someone from up there must come down here and give you ahand. God did for Joseph. At the right time, in the right way, he willdo the same for you.

CHAPTER 2

down, down,down to egypt

Joseph's troubles started when his mouth did. He came to breakfastone morning, bubbling and blabbing in sickening detail aboutthe images he had seen in his sleep: sheaves of wheat lying in acircle, all bundled up, ready for harvest. Each one tagged with thename of a different brother—Reuben, Gad, Levi, Zebulun, Judah ...Right in the center of the circle was Joseph's sheaf. In his dream onlyhis sheaf stood up. The implication: you will bow down to me.

Did he expect his brothers to be excited about this? To pat himon the back and proclaim, "We will gladly kneel before you, our dearbaby brother"? They didn't. They kicked dust in his face and told himto get lost.

He didn't take the hint. He came back with another dream. Insteadof sheaves it was now stars, a sun, and a moon. The stars representedthe brothers. The sun and moon symbolized Joseph's fatherand deceased mother. All were bowing to Joseph. Joseph! The kidwith the elegant coat and soft skin. They, bow down to him?

He should have kept his dreams to himself.

Perhaps Joseph was thinking that very thing as he sat in the bottomof that cistern. His calls for help hadn't done any good. Hisbrothers had seized the chance to seize and silence him once andfor all.

But from deep in the pit, Joseph detected a new sound—thesound of a wagon and a camel, maybe two. Then a new set of voices.Foreign. They spoke to the brothers with an accent. Joseph strainedto understand the conversation.

"We'll sell him to you ..."

"How much?"

"... trade for your camels ..."

Joseph looked up to see a circle of faces staring down at him.

Finally one of the brothers was lowered into the pit on the end ofa rope. He wrapped both arms around Joseph, and the others pulledthem out.

The traders examined Joseph from head to toe. They stuck fingersin his mouth and counted his teeth. They pinched his arms formuscle. The brothers made their pitch: "Not an ounce of fat on thosebones. Strong as an ox. He can work all day."

The merchants huddled, and when they came back with an offer,Joseph realized what was happening. "Stop this! Stop this right now!I am your brother! You can't sell me!" His brothers shoved him to theside and began to barter.

"What will you pay for him?"

"We'll give you ten coins."

"No less than thirty."

"Fifteen and no more."

"Twenty-five."

"Twenty, and that is our last offer."

The brothers took the coins, grabbed the fancy coat, and walkedaway. Joseph fell on his knees and wailed. The merchants tied one endof a rope around his neck and the other to the wagon. Joseph, dirtyand tearstained, had no choice but to follow. He fell in behind thecreaking wagon and the rack-ribbed camels. He cast one final glanceover his shoulder at the backs of his brothers, who disappeared overthe horizon.

"Help me!"

No one turned around.

"His brothers ... sold him for twenty pieces of silver to theIshmaelites who took Joseph with them down to Egypt" (Gen.37:28 MSG).

Down to Egypt. Just a few hours ago Joseph's life was looking up.He had a new coat and a pampered place in the house. He dreamedhis brothers and parents would look up to him. But what goes upmust come down, and Joseph's life came down with a crash. Putdown by his siblings. Thrown down into an empty well. Let downby his brothers and sold down the river as a slave. Then led down theroad to Egypt.

Down, down, down. Stripped of name, status, position. Everythinghe had, everything he thought he'd ever have—gone. Vanished.Poof. Just like that.

Just like you? Have you been down in the mouth, down to yourlast dollar, down to the custody hearing, down to the bottom of thepecking order, down on your luck, down on your life ... down ...down to Egypt?

Life pulls us down.

Joseph arrived in Egypt with nothing. Not a penny to his name ora name worth a penny. His family tree was meaningless. His occupationwas despised. The clean-shaven people of the pyramids avoidedthe woolly bedouins of the desert.
(Continues...)Excerpted from you'll get through this by Max Lucado. Copyright © 2013 Max Lucado. Excerpted by permission of Thomas Nelson.
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