The Cistern

Genesis 37: 19-24

19 "Here comes that dreamer!" they said to each other. 20 "Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams."

21 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Let's not take his life," he said. 22 "Don't shed any blood. Throw him into this cistern here in the desert, but don't lay a hand on him." Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing- 24 and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

Joseph's life was great and terrible . He was a brat who got everything he wanted- his father educated him and coddled him so he thought he was top notch- pride became his fall. You could say it was his brothers who were too jealous for their own good but then- every emotion strikes because of an outside source. Joseph was on his way to spy on his brothers, to tell Jacob that they were fooling around and not doing their work. So this spoiled kid enters into a world he did not expect to encounter- after being sheltered all his life now he can truly only depend on God and God alone and countless times this faith is tested- but possibly not as bad as sitting in the cistern all alone.
Imagine being alone in a dried well- which was what the cistern was- hearing your own brothers plot your death, sitting in the scorching sun.
Often times we go through moments in our lives where we are sitting in a cistern- sitting in a dried well fearing what lies beyond it. But this well doesn't have to be a place of despair, but a place to grow in strength- without having had those moments of solitary silence or that walk of slavery to Egypt- sitting in jail for decades and refusing potifer's wife would have been unmistakeably hard.
So in moments of despair and grief understand that it is not your lowest point but the foot of a ladder- a place to begin climbing.

God Bless