9b But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles.
Stephen is standing before the religious leaders making his defense to them, preaching the Gospel from the Bible they knew. He retells the story of Joseph who was put in a well in the desert to die, sold by his brothers as a slave, wrongly accused and thrown into prison, quickly forgotten and left several years. If these things happened to you today, you probably wouldn’t say that God had rescued you from your troubles. If you are at all like me you probably would complain about the unfairness of the charges and treatment. But out text has some very subtle colors of meaning. Notice that even in these circumstances, God was with him. The presence of troubles does not mean the absence of God. On the contrary, the presence of troubles means the presence of God. Even when in prison as a result of false charges, God was with him. Notice also that Joseph still had to go through his troubles. God did not immediately come and pluck him out of difficult circumstances. He spent years in prison! How often do we want immediate relief from our troubles? When things get just a little bit rough, we want to bail. We want God to come on our timetable and do what we want. We want out of the mess. But Joseph endured the mess. He was faithful even in unjust circumstances. And our text tells us that God rescued him from his troubles. You see, the perspective of time and the perspective of God both show us that God rescued him. He became second in command in Egypt. He went from prisoner to Executive Officer. It was his job to take care of the day to day running of Egypt. From the prison it seems to us that he was not rescued, but from the palace we see he was. Right now in your life you might be in the prison. Everything around you looks like God has forgotten about you. Take heart. A palace is waiting for you. There is a place of honor reserved. You will look back on these prison-days and be able to say, “God rescued me!”
The Arnold Journey 