| Finding the Way |
Chapter 2 |
Page 5 |
Edward Everett Hale, in a story, fancies that Joseph had escaped during his first night with the caravan and was starting homeward. Then a yellow dog barked and aroused his keepers, who followed him and brought him back. Could not God have kept the dog from barking, and thus have let the boy get home to his father? Would not that have been the truest kindness?
But the writer of the story shows us what would have been the consequences of Joseph’s escaping that night. A number of years later, when the famine came on, there would have been no storehouses filled with food, and Egypt would have been destroyed. The Hebrews in Canaan would have perished, there would have been no chosen family, the history of the ancient world would have been changed, and civilization would have been set back centuries – all because a yellow dog was kept from barking and a cruelly wronged boy was in kindness allowed to escape and get home. So we see it was in wise, far seeing love that God did not interfere to save this Hebrew lad from the wickedness of his brothers. He used the evil of men to lead Joseph through all his hard training and discipline, to prepare him for the great work he was to do when he became a man.
If we would be led by God we must submit to His providences, when they clearly interpret His will. Not always, however, are hindrances meant to hinder; often they are meant to be overcome, in order that in the overcoming we may grow strong. But when there are obstacles which cannot be removed, they are to be accepted as the waymarks of divine guidance. Whatever in our lot is inevitable we must regard as indicative of God’s will for us, showing us gates closed against us, and other gates opening out upon ways in which we must walk.
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