Knowing God through His Word … Day by Day

God’s sovereignty doesn’t make our actions pointless – rather, God’s sovereignty makes our actions effective.

Consider the alternative: If God is not sovereign, if He doesn’t rule, if He doesn’t know the end and ensure that it comes about, then we can never know if we accomplish our objectives. We might seem to make progress during our lifetime, but then after we die all falls apart.

But if God is in control, if He has determined the ends, and if He tells us what they are – and if, furthermore, He tells us He will use us to bring those ends about – then we can know confidently that our actions by His power to bring about His purposes will bear fruit – even if no progress is evident in our lifetimes.

We see this in our present text. God tells Joseph about the harvests – he realizes God is using him to save Egypt from famine. Now, God is doing much more than this! He is saving the Israelites and removing Israel from the Canaanite influences that have already damaged them so severely. Joseph doesn’t see everything – but he sees in part, and he fulfills his tasks, the tasks God shows him, faithfully.

Just so with us. We won’t see the entire picture – just as Joseph did not. But God gives us a ministry – and tells us the ends we are to work toward.   

What has God told us?

Perhaps you are thinking, “Boy, I wish I was like Joseph! I wish God would reveal to me in a dream exactly what is going to happen in my life! Then it would be clear to me what to do!”

Guess what? You don’t need a dream. You have the Word of God. As we read in Isaiah, “The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8) And in this Word, He tells us everything we need for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:3). What are some of those things? What are the equivalents of Pharaoh’s dreams for today?

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