Why Joseph’s Journey Has Profound Implications for Your Own

Sitting in our prayer room one morning about 10 years ago, I was talking to the Lord and reading through the book of Psalms. I came to Psalm 105 and began to read, “Moreover He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole supply of bread. He sent a man before them, Joseph” (v. 16-17a).

This message marked me in my late teenage years, and I knew that it was part of the destiny and assignment both on my life and on many others across the body of Christ in the coming decades. Seventeen years, marriage, three kids, a house and a few pets later, I still believe it, maybe even more deeply and profoundly than before. The challenge, however, with this message has always been its application. How do we disciple a generation to walk out this message with so little in the Scriptures about John’s life and formation? How do we develop leaders who can walk the long road of obedience in the same direction? We don’t want them just signing up for a few years; we need them to get on the journey of formation for decades.

The Gospel writers skip about 18 years of the most formative years of John’s life. Luke, the great biblical historian, gives us a snapshot into the birth and calling of John but then jumps to him baptizing in the wilderness some 30 years later. Almost as if it happened overnight. We lose the human dynamic of what must happen in the preparation of a forerunner. When I read those verses in Psalm 105 that day, I saw a path of formation. I saw the human dynamic in the process of formation. I began to see a pattern emerge in the life of Joseph that filled in the gaps: