“Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.”NIV

Just a word about the context of chapter 39 before I comment on the first two verses. The contrast with chapter 38 is stark, and F.B. Meyer makes this point:

‘What a contrast between this chapter and the former: that like a Rembrandt background throws up the bright colours of this.’

The chapter opens with these words:

“Now Joseph had been taken to Egypt” (1a).

He had been “taken” by the Ishmaelite merchants. But the subtext of the story is that it was God who took him there. The best place to be in the world is wherever God puts you – wherever He sets you down. There is no sweeter place to lay your head.

Sometimes we are not simply taken; we also go. We make our plans in view of God’s guidance. We are actively involved in choosing to move somewhere we sense the Lord wants us to be.

But then there are those times when we are just “taken.” We have no control over the events. We are moved by sheer force of circumstances. So it was for Joseph. But if the Lord is “with” us wherever we go, we will have nothing to fear. That is not to say life will be trouble-free, but God will work out His purposes in us, for us, and through us in the places where He takes us.

PRAYER: ‘Yea choose the path for me, although I may not see, the reason thou dost choose to lead me so.’ (From the hymn: ‘Thy blessed will divine, with joy I make it mine.’