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Good morning, Covenant Family. On Sunday morning, Wilfried led us in considering a small part of Joseph’s story. He reminded us that just because things are bad, doesn’t mean God is punishing us and it certainly doesn’t mean God isn't with us. He highlighted that we have the privilege of reminding others that God is with them, even in hard times. This morning, I want to pick up on that and offer an additional thought.

Just a note that I’ll be riffing off of the Sunday morning passages throughout most of the Covenant Weekly’s this year. When I do, it isn’t to correct whoever preached or to suggest they missed anything! No sermon can cover everything one text has to offer. And, I’ll be doing this following my own sermons too. I’m just adding something extra to what is covered on Sundays. And this week I’d like to briefly consider how God was with Joseph in difficult circumstances. This is the Covenant Weekly for September 29, 2026.

Near the end of Genesis 39 we read, “But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.”

Joseph has consistently sought to do what was right and yet was beaten by his brothers and put in a pit. He was sold as chattel to some nomads and resold again in a foreign land. He has tried to honour his master through not responding to the master’s wife’s advances. And yet here, he finds himself in the lowest place he has yet been. Joseph is in prison, hundreds of kilometres from home and family. He is falsely accused and in the dungeons of one of the most powerful cities in the world.

On Sunday we were reminded that God was with him. But this morning I want to highlight the next phrase. We read that, "he [that is God] showed Joseph kindness.

The word there for kindness gets translated in different ways in English versions of the Bible. Sometimes as mercy. Sometimes it is loving-kindness. Sometimes as loyal love. The Bible Project describes this word (khesed) as an extremely personal presence that is "generous, loving, and eternally loyal." God wasn’t with Joseph in a judging way or as nebulous force. God was personal and caring. Kind.

This word becomes one of the primary descriptors of God’s character throughout the Scripture. Psalm 136 rehearses Israel’s story through a call and response and 26 times the response is His love [khesed - personal generosity, love, and eternal loyalty] endures forever.

Often how we feel about our circumstances is shaped by what we are paying attention to. For example, we can focus on conflicts and horrors in our world and believe that things are worse now than they have ever been. Or we can focus on the fact that infant and child mortality rates are the lowest they have ever been in human history and be hopeful. (https://ourworldindata.org/child-mortality-in-the-past)

Our sense of things can be reframed if we, in whatever situation we find ourselves in, work to focus on the presence of God’s personal generosity, love, and eternal loyalty - something not founded on our innate worth or behaviour, but in God’s character. God was with Joseph with khesed - kindness, generosity, love, and eternal loyalty. And because God’s khsesed endures forever, it is with you today, too. Where can you see it active and present in your life?