In Adversity and Prosperity
LIKE causes produce like effects. When Joseph was taken into Egypt he was not alone. The Mighty One was with him, because he had resigned himself into God’s hands to follow Him exactly in all His ways. We first find him as a slave, but merit will out. “The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a prosperous man. And his master saw that the Lord was with him . . . and all that he had he put into his hand.” We next find him as a prisoner in the Egyptian jail. “But the Lord was with Joseph, and . . . the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.” We next find him before the king. “And Pharaoh said, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this, . . . thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. . . . See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.” The same thing in each instance produced precisely the same effects appropriate to the existing conditions. Unswerving allegiance to right brings the right kind of prosperity. It was never intended in the providence of God that we should all be rulers in the palace of earthly kings, but the advancement is as certain in the way that seems good to God if the conditions of the heart and life are the same. Like causes produce like effects. The prosperity God gives will be apparent to others. Confidence will be acquired as a heritage, and eventually God will bestow honor and glory.