“Joseph, either you trust me or you don’t. That’s the choice.” The great narrative of Joseph in the last quarter of the book of Genesis, captures the difference between hoping for a both/and circumstance instead of an either/or reality. If given the choice, Joseph would have never been sold into slavery. He would have still been with his family, tending sheep and being his father’s favorite.

But God was positioning Joseph in history to not only play a major role in the big picture of the coming nation of the Jews, but to also make choices that resonate even to this day in the halls of faith. He could have rejected God because it sure felt like God rejected him. Or, at the very least, forgotten about him.

Sold into slavery. Falsely accused of attempted rape. In prison for more than a decade. Either he would continue to trust God or he would not. God didn’t give him both a comfortable life and use him to fulfill his promise of the coming Savior. At least not yet.

Finally…finally!!!...Joseph was rescued from prison by Pharaoh after Joseph showed him he was blessed with divine wisdom from the true God by interpreting his dreams. Only then was Joseph granted some peace, comfort, and safety. He became the second most important man in Egypt…and he wasn’t even an Egyptian! He had a wife and children. He had power. But he was still far from home and family, not knowing whether is father Jacob was even alive.

The Great Famine drove his brothers from their homeland to Egypt. Because of Joseph’s God-led wisdom, Egypt stockpiled supplies that would help sustain not only the Egyptians through the famine, but others who would come to purchase the necessary grain in order to survive. They came face to face with the brother they had sold into slavery but didn’t recognize him. He knew who they were, but kept that quiet until it was the wisest time to reveal his identity to them.

What happens when we make the right choice – the godly choice – in an either/or moment. Does God notice? Does He care? What will happen? Well, for Joseph, pretty much nothing happened for a decade and a half. But when his brothers came to him and he was able to sell them the supplies they needed to survive the famine, it made sense.

As he first spoke to his brothers after telling them he was Joseph, they were terrified. Rightly so. When they had an either/or moment so many years ago (“Either we put up with this irritating younger brother of ours or we get rid of him.”), they made the worst choice. Now it seemed it would all come back on them. This man, their brother, held the power to end their lives. Instead, Joseph recognized the good that came from a faithful God to Whom he remained faithful while in Egypt for so long.

“I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve your life…. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God.” (Genesis 45:4-8)

God was protecting His promise that He’d one day send the One that would solve the sin problem of mankind. He preserved the lineage of Abraham, through whom the promise would be fulfilled. He set the stage to bring Jacob and his expanding family to Egypt, leading eventually to a bondage followed by a deliverance (the same thing God has done for us through Jesus – delivered from sin’s grip).

There are a lot of reasons to choose God in this either/or faith life we live, not the least of which is we are then right in the middle of God continuing His plans and will in ways we could have never imagined, but are now involved with.

Let God do His work. Choose godliness. Always.