“Let Your Goodness like a Fetter Bind my Wandering Heart to Thee”
You might recognize the words above from the hymn “Come Thou Fount.” Isn’t it amazing in a Christian hymn we would find such words related to imprisonment and captivity?
Our case study today will be the Old Testament story of Joseph, the favored son of the patriarch Jacob, found in the latter part of the book of Genesis. who had his own experience of imprisonment. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, and then was falsely accused as a slave and thrown into prison. There were no doubt times that he would have been tempted to think that God had forgotten all about him. But no, God had him right where He wanted him.
But let’s think about another kind of captivity for a moment. What about the captivity of the brothers? They took Joseph’s many-colored coat and dipped it in blood and told their father that he must have been killed by animals. It was the lie they told and the lie with which they had to live for the next twenty years, until the truth came out and Jacob saw “dead” Joseph again face to face. That is another kind of captivity, is it not, when we are “caught” in our lies?
When I say that God had Joseph right where He wanted him, I understand it carries implications. Joseph’s life was not his own. His life had been taken from him, by his brothers. But also, his life had been commandeered, by God. God in His wisdom and purpose designed to use Joseph as the one who would sink low and then rise high to a position in Egypt from which he would be able to save his family from starvation. In so doing, his role “saved” the very plan of God, the formation of a people for Himself, begun with Abraham, but continuing though Isaac and Jacob and now Jacob’s sons. Joseph’s role as “savior” was critical on God’s plan.
But so far as we know, Joseph had never agreed to his plan. Now we don’t know everything in Joseph’s mind or all that Joseph had committed to the Lord. Perhaps at times Joseph had said to the Lord, “let me be your servant,” or “use me however You will,” or “not my will, but Yours be done.” In those cases, I suppose one could argue that Joseph had already agreed to this. I wonder: what is it to which you and I have agreed, that, if we knew the details, we might have second thoughts?
Now I believe that the brothers were and will be held responsible for their treachery toward their brother. But there is a sense in which you could say that God sold Joseph into slavery, or at least allowed it. And we could also say that God placed Joseph in that Egyptian jail, though the historical figures were a conniving wife and an angry husband. So do you see that the hymn-writer of “Come Thou Fount” may not have been too far off when he used “captivity” language in his poem, “let Your goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee?”
We may indeed aspire to freedom, but God calls us to slavery, to Him, the most gracious and generous Master beyond what we could ever ask or think. What we must learn is that to be “bound” to God and to be “captivated” by His will is the very best place in the world to be. Easy? No. But good? Yes. He is indeed the Good Lord who rules and reigns.
