It has been years since I have paid much attention to the recruitment slogans of America’s armed forces. But as I think over the slogans that have been used in the past and are being used today, what strikes me is the aura of achievement, competence and control they project. The most established is probably the marines’ motto: Semper Fidelis (“Always Faithful”). But how about “The Marines are looking for a few good men” or “Join the Navy, see the world”? The army draws its recruits with the slogan “Be all you can be.” A recent air force poster shows the cockpit of a modern fighter jet and boasts, “This desk can reach Mach II.” The copy underneath says, “But you can handle it!”
The appeal of these posters is their ability to touch our natural desire to manage things or be in control, which is what most of us want deep down in our subconscious. We want a good life, but most of us are willing to endure things that are not so good, so long as we are in control of the situation. We will bear all things, believe all things, hope all things, endure all things—we will willingly submit to great hardships—so long as we are doing the submitting and retain ability to manipulate the difficult circumstances to our ends. Some persons will die for what they believe, if the choice is theirs. The difficulty comes when control of life passes out of our hands and we see ourselves as the one acted upon rather than the actor. We resist necessity.
This is one reason God uses it in awakening the conscience to His demands on a life! So long as we feel we are in control, we think we can keep God and His standards at a distance. When we lose control we are most inclined to acknowledge that it is God’s world in spite of everything, and that we must ultimately come to terms with Him.
This was the next thing God was doing in the task of awakening guilt in Joseph’s brothers and bringing health and healing to his family. Already it had been a long process. God had begun by bringing the pinch of material want into their circumstances. This want, produced by the famine, had dislodged them from their comfortable life in Canaan and had brought them to Egypt where the brothers had met Joseph, though they did not know him.
Next, God had subjected them to the pain of harsh treatment. They had probably never endured this before, for back in Hebron everyone would have spoken respectfully to them. They would have been flattered. In Egypt Joseph accused them of being foreign spies. The third element in God’s work of restoration of these men was the press of solitude. They were thrown into prison, and it was there in prison, not knowing whether they would be released or forgotten, that their consciences at last began to come vividly alive. It was after their incarceration that they first confessed sin: “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that’s why this distress has come upon us” (Gen. 42:21).
