One of the most enduring of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s quote is this – “The heights by great men reached and kept were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.” The quote can be put to different uses. Firstly, it is to encourage those who may be weary of making efforts. Secondly, it is to help people cast their dream of ease away, if they want to make it to the top. The story of Joseph is a good illustration of this.  He made it to the top of God’s plan for his life, but the ride was far from smooth. The vision that God imprinted on his mind was to be a ruler. That took thirteen long years before it came to pass. He first had to endure the envy and cruelty of his own blood brothers who seized and sold him.

“God can make good things to proceed from every evil you have been through…”God never ends anything on a negative; God always ends on a positive.””

For a long time, Joseph’s experiences did not correspond with what God showed him, at least not on the surface. He was also slammed with a sentence that took him to jail. At the fullness of time, he was brought out of the prison and ushered in straight to the palace, having the whole world at his beck and call. God’s word to Joseph eventually came to pass when his brothers came to him to buy corn. They could not hide their shock to see a man whom they thought had been forgotten becoming their succour. Joseph’s word to his brothers is captured in our passage today. Everything done to him by his brothers (and of course his boss’s wife) were meant for evil; but God turned them around for good. God can make good things to proceed from every evil you have been through. This brings me to a quote of Edwin Louis Cole that I have used repeatedly – God never ends anything on a negative; God always ends on a positive.”