April is kicking my butt.  I knew that many people who had spent time researching the holocaust or other human atrocities (rape of Nanking) suffered emotionally as a result.  I am finding this is true for me also.  I made a commitment to spend a month focusing on public stories about sexual assault and it has been emotionally exhausting.

There is so much pain in the world and the knowledge that all sexual assault is angry and unnecessary makes the pain worse.  All sexual assault is the result of deliberate and egregious wrong-doing. 

The Bible talks about “the years the locusts have devoured” 

Tonight I want to look at the biblical Joseph, son of Jacob.  Joseph is one of only a few men identified in the Bible as victims of sexual assault.  Potiphar’s wife attempted to sexually assault Joseph and then wrongly accused him of rape.  But he was not just the victim in this story, he was the victim of attempted murder, kidnapping, slavery, and the scars of his mother’s death and his sister’s rape.  Joseph was wounded and wrongly accused.

Christians would say he is a “type” of Christ– a character whose story and issues echo the life of Jesus.

When the triumph of his story becomes evident the Egyptians call him savior in their language.

I want the living survivors of all sexual assault to know that God is a God who can heal us, who can return what the locusts have devoured.  Demand this of His Father’s heart, His abiding love.