“Remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.” Genesis 40:14
After Joseph interpreted the dreams, he asked the cupbearer to remember him. Then we read, “The chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (40:23).
Meanwhile two years had passed (41:1), two years of being forgotten, being passed over, two years of Joseph’s life in which nothing significant happened. No great achievements. No remarkable answers to prayer. No great movement forward in the purpose of God. Two years of waiting—not easy, especially when you are in your late twenties.
There will be times in your life when you just don’t know what God is doing. Times when you feel forgotten. Times when you do not know your future direction. Times when, if someone asked you what God was doing in your life, you would have to say, “I really don’t know.”
When we read the story of Joseph, we are able to see how God was at work because we know the end of the story. But for Joseph in prison there were so many unanswered questions. “Why was I beaten up by my brothers and carted off to Egypt? Why this injustice, being falsely accused and cut off in the prime of my career? Why has the cupbearer forgotten me? I spoke the Word of God to him. The least he could do is to remember me.” And for years there was no answer.
Do you feel forgotten? How does knowing the ending of Joseph’s story encourage you in your situation?
