Let Prayer Sustain Us

The chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
GENESIS 40:23
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Let Prayer Sustain Us
Again Joseph, who is very good and very pious, is tried. He feels that his hope and the confidence he has gained that the hour of his liberation was drawing near have been frustrated. He had asked the butler to remember him when it was well with him. But what happens? Joseph is forgotten, and God lets him be tried and vexed again in that hope and consolation for two whole years. . .. At the same time a teaching concerning the ingratitude of the world is presented, namely, what recompense it is wont to make for the greatest benefits. It is truly a horrible picture of this height of ingratitude. Joseph had served the lady of the house, Potiphar's wife, not only according to her good pleasure but even to the point that she desired him with an insane love. What does she give him in return? Death and misfortunes of every kind. . .. Accordingly, Joseph is kept in bonds and in hell, and although he had conceived the hope that he was to be liberated at an early date, he nevertheless sees that this hope is futile. But he has the Spirit of prophecy, who consoles him, so that he sustains himself with the doctrine of the fathers. "Now God will help, but He is tarrying too long." But it is decidedly irksome to hope and always to be mistaken and frustrated, and this heaps up grief for those who are afflicted. . .. But let prayer be constant and importunate, let it not cease, let it not grow weary, and let it resist mistrust and despair.
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