The life of Joseph expands over 14 chapters of the first book of Scripture, which means God must have serious reasons for devoting so much space and detail to one man's life.  He does, and one reason is to highlight divine providence, which is abundantly manifested in Joseph's life, from beginning to end.  Another purpose is God's use of Joseph as a prophetic type of the Lord Jesus and His two advents.  Joseph's early years of "toil and affliction" picture the sufferings and rejection of Christ at His First Coming.  Joseph's later years of "forgetting and fruitfulness" (which we begin to look at in this lesson) picture the exaltation and glory of Christ at His Second Coming.

One thing we learn from Joseph (among so many) is that a key word for a believer in the midst of suffering is not escape, but endurance!  Timing is in the hands of Almighty God!  It was the Lord Who predetermined and orchestrated both the day Joseph's brothers cast him in a pit and the day the butler finally remembered him, and he went straight from the prison to the palace!  

Remember, joy cometh in the morning!