Jacob Taube has written a very good article that I want to invite you to read. Here is a small excerpt:
So here we find an extraordinary incongruity: a humiliation in the heart of vindication. A triumph that was the opposite of everything he himself could have envisioned. Joseph wanted to go home, but a one-way ticket to Canaan was not in the plan. Before he knew it, Egypt was in his hip pocket. He was the man in Egypt. He never prayed for that, but God wanted Egypt. What God wanted is what Joseph got.
(I love that thought – “God wanted Egypt.†What did Egypt mean to Joseph as a teenager in Canaan? Nothing! Maybe less than China meant to me as a teenager in the United States! Joseph had a set of dreams, desires, and wants, but God wanted Egypt to recognize His glory. Joseph was picked for the task. God had to allow some awful things to happen to Joseph to align his wants with God’s wants! I’ve wanted a ton of things, even felt like God has torn many of those wants away from me – but God has done it to give me another all-consuming desire!)