BY REV. DEREK P. ELPHICK
If you think about it, we can hardly go a day, even an hour, without “interpreting” (as good or bad) what’s going on around us and inside us. Life is a constant stream of incoming data that requires a response from us. But how accurate are our daily, hourly assessments? Do we have things correct (a) some of the time, (b) most of the time, (c) always? Should we feel confident with our interpretation of life’s ups and downs? And more to the point, by whose standard or measurement are we interpreting the world around us and the people in it - ours, God’s, or the say-so of others? Joseph had every reason to place a bad interpretation on what was happening to him - sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused of wrongdoing while serving in Potiphar’s house and then being imprisoned for 13 years - yet despite all this, Joseph responds in ways that led him on a path toward equanimity, toward one of freedom and peace. Joseph’s “secret” was looking to the Lord in everything he did which we see in his response to the butler and baker’s sadness over not knowing how to interpret their dreams, to which Joseph replied, “Do not interpretations belong to God?” (Genesis 40:8). The purpose of our lives here on earth is to slowly, methodically “align” our purposes with the Lord’s purposes. This is a patient, lifelong process of gaining humility and acceptance to let the Lord be the interpreter of our life. “I was wrong” (changing how we think) and “I am sorry” (changing how we act) are two of the biggest and hardest things to say because we so desperately want to be right, and yet there's so much we don't know and can't see. Human pride and arrogance, if left unchecked, will generate sadness and confusion over and over again. Joseph, despite all the turmoil and hardship in his life, acknowledged the hand of providence, saying to his brothers, "You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good..." (Genesis 50:20). When we choose the Lord in His Word as our interpreter, a whole new world opens up. As we slowly and patiently confront the selfish habits and thought patterns we discover in ourselves, we will be "daily taught by the Lord what we must do and what we must say..." (Apocalypse Explained 825:3).