Four times in chapter 39 the text says that the Lord was with Joseph. What does that mean? It certainly means that God comforted and protected him. But the Bible adds that "the Lord gave him success in everything that he did" (v. 3). Potiphar liked and trusted him, and Joseph came to the attention of various people in prison as well, including the warden. Finally, Pharaoh liked him and recognized his gifts.

This doesn't mean that Joseph just sat back and let the Lord pave the way to ultimate success. When you think about it, the very qualities that infuriated his brothers made him an ideal manager. Joseph's intelligence, diligence, confidence, and his innate pride made him precisely the kind of person Potiphar, the warden, and ultimately Pharaoh, could trust with the most important duties.

But Joseph's road to the pinnacle of success led through some very dark places. Potiphar's wife became fascinated with this young, virile Hebrew slave and tried to seduce him. Joseph's upright refusal only angered her more, prompting her to set up an elaborate scheme to accuse Joseph of attempted rape. And Joseph ended up in prison.

In prison we begin to see what it means that the Lord was with Joseph. While in prison, Joseph displayed an uncanny ability to interpret dreams, which that culture considered important omens of the future. This ability ultimately brought him to Pharaoh's palace.

Pharaoh had two dark dreams, the second confirming the first. These dreams must have seemed threatening to Pharaoh, and he was deeply troubled by what they might mean. But no one at court was able to interpret the dreams to Pharaoh's satisfaction. (We wonder if they didn't dare to give a pessimistic interpretation to an obviously dark dream.) The royal cupbearer recalls Joseph's gifts in interpreting his own dream, and Joseph is summoned to the palace.

With his characteristic confidence and faith, Joseph declares, "God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires." After hearing the dreams, Joseph immediately sees them as a kind of parable that foretells the future---seven years of abundance and seven years of famine.

If that were all Joseph did, he might have been thanked and sent back to prison. But Joseph presumed to offer some wise administrative advice to Pharaoh. Save up during the years of abundance, and be the world's best grain market in the years of famine. (We can imagine Pharaoh's advisers burning with the same kind of jealousy that gripped his brothers.)

Joseph's patient faith through all those years (he was seventeen when sent to Egypt and thirty when appointed by Pharaoh) finally brings this miraculous leap from prison to palace, from slave to governor. But it's not a matter of rewarding Joseph for his faithfulness and suffering. God has a much larger purpose, centered in his covenant promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.