Genesis 39:22

Placed in servitude, he became the one who ran his master's house. Cast down into prison, once more all things fall into his hands. The prisoner in chains becomes the ruler of the prison. The official keeper of the prison found such a treasure in him that he gave him full powers. He "paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed."

That "God was with him" is what marks his condition, and he had plenty of evidence of it. A change of scene changes nothing here. As soon as he is in prison, we read the same record of him and see the same circumstances around him. The keeper of the prison puts the same confidence in him that Potiphar his master had. Under his hand in the prison all things prosper, as they had in the Egyptian's house. So Joseph had full witness from God that God was enough for him.

Reading the story, we cannot miss one thing: he was a submissive man. His circumstances were hard and his position was trying. He was cut off from his relatives, a stranger in a foreign land. He had passed from the love of his father's home to slavery in the Egyptian's house, yet there is no complaining. He holds no bitter thoughts against his brothers. He makes no complaint about his hard lot, and not a single rebellious word against the ways of God.

The person who really leans on God improves the circumstances of trial he is in, whether they are temporary or permanent. No adverse circumstances can crush real living energy; they may limit and shape it... And Joseph is soon found to be as useful in prison as he was in the house of the captain of the guard... In every trial, however dark, there are gleams of light and relief. But full deliverance is often delayed by our anxiety to get it. God is to be the satisfaction of His servant, not the deliverance. So the deliverance is often postponed until we have no prospect or expectation of it.

With Joseph in it, God blesses the house of the Egyptian. But with Christ serving in it, how beyond words the world was blessed!... Even this did not turn man's heart to God. False witness casts Joseph into Pharaoh's prison, where, however, all things come into his hand. Under a false accusation the Lord goes down into a darker prison-house, and there He shows Himself Master of all.

Notice the trial of Joseph and his righteous suffering in Egypt. They were meant to frustrate God's purpose and looked dead against it, yet they only brought about the very thing they seemed to prevent. His brothers sold him into Egypt, and Potiphar put him in prison. It was there that he met the cupbearer and the baker, and that meeting set him as governor over all the land of Egypt. We cannot push God out of His way. It is better to trust Him.