The Lord loves to "turn the captivity" of people who have suffered, and bring them out of the painful shadows of rejection into the bright sunlight of His favor.
Take Joseph for example. We think of the text that says "Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth" (Eccl. 11:9). Boys should be full of fun. But Joseph at the age of 17 or maybe 18 is crying his eyes out one night in an agony worse almost than death--he has just been sold as a slave to some hard-hearted Midianites. A life of torture is before him, when he had thought that God's favor was on him.
And those who sold him? His fellow church-members, his ten brothers in the faith. No, they are more than that--they are the church leadership of his day, for they were all older than he, the heirs of the glorious promises God made to Abraham's descendants. Condemned to Egyptian slavery, Joseph appears to be God-forsaken, and he feels like it except for the little glimmer of faith he has.
His slavery goes from bad to worse and he ends up in a dark Egyptian prison. At least 12 or 13 years of this “chastisement” discipline go on; the Lord must have loved him enormously, for "whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives" (Heb. 12:5-9).
The Lord gave Joseph a little sunlight when he was made prime minister of the realm of Egypt and he realized that his painful suffering had prepared him to become the famine "savior" of the Middle East civilization of his day.
But still the years of soul captivity dragged on; his constant temptation was to think that the prophetic dreams of his boyhood were a deception; no one can suffer a deep, private pain more agonizing than the fear that the Lord truly has betrayed your trust. You can’t talk to anyone about it. Not until his ten brothers come and kneel before him in fulfillment of his prophetic childhood dream is Joseph finally led out into the bright sunshine of the heavenly Father's vindication.
There are little Josephs all over the world today, people whose faith is tried to the utmost (it seems to them) when everything seems to shout at them that God has forgotten them. In some cases as in the life of the prophet Jeremiah, the pain goes on and on until death is the final release from it (then the Jews realized that he had been the prince of prophets).
If you must look through tears, remember that "God is love"--your "Abba, Father" (Rom. 8:15-17) who has adopted you into His family. Remembering brings joy.
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