Fruitful In Suffering - The One Year Book of Discovering Jesus in the Old Testament

Fruitful in Suffering

At the very beginning of his covenant relationship with his chosen people, God told them about the tremendous suffering that was ahead for them: “The LORD said to Abram, ‘You can be sure that your descendants will be strangers in a foreign land, where they will be oppressed as slaves for 400 years’” (Genesis 15:13).

God’s people would suffer. But it would not be wasted, meaningless suffering. It would be fruitful suffering. They would emerge from Egypt with great wealth and great in number. How would they become “strangers in a foreign land”? Through the suffering of Israel’s beloved son, Joseph. Joseph suffered the abuse of his brothers’ jealousy as they sold him off to a caravan of slave traders heading for Egypt. There Joseph worked as a slave until he suffered as a result of the false accusations from Potiphar’s wife that put him in prison. He suffered being forgotten in prison for many years before he emerged to become second in command to Pharaoh. But when he was released, his suffering did not leave him embittered. In fact, he celebrated what God had done in his life through his suffering in the naming of his sons: “Joseph named his older son Manasseh, for he said, ‘God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father’s family.’ Joseph named his second son Ephraim, for he said, ‘God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief’” (Genesis 41:51-52).

Joseph was able to look at his suffering and see that it was not wasted; it was fruitful. God was accomplishing something good through all the hardship and hurt he experienced.

Likewise, Jesus, the greater Joseph, was willing to suffer, confident that his suffering would bear much fruit. The writer of Hebrews captured the fruitful suffering of Jesus:

Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. (Hebrews 5:8-9)

I find myself in a land of grief where I have known suffering. But only you can make me fruitful in this land. Only as I abide in you can I be fruitful. So don’t let my suffering be wasted; make me fruitful in my suffering.