Joseph - Steadfastness And Forgiveness
Tom Shrader walks through the story of Joseph from Genesis 37-50, examining how Joseph maintained steadfastness and forgiveness despite being sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, and imprisoned for years. Through Joseph's example, Tom demonstrates that circumstances don't always indicate spiritual condition, God's timing is perfect, and believers should resist revenge while trusting that God works all things together for good.
“Your circumstances aren't always an accurate indicator of your spiritual condition.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: CBCC July 2014
Recorded: 2014 at Cannon Beach Conference Center
Duration: 58 min
Themes: forgiveness, steadfastness, betrayal, suffering, trust, revenge, faithfulness, perseverance
Scripture: Genesis 30:24, Genesis 37:2, Genesis 37:4, Genesis 37:13, Genesis 37:18, Genesis 37:19, Genesis 37:25-28, Genesis 39:1, Genesis 39:2, Genesis 39:3, Genesis 39:6, Genesis 39:7, Genesis 39:9, Genesis 39:10, Genesis 39:20, Genesis 39:21, Genesis 40, Genesis 40:4, Genesis 40:6, Genesis 40:8, Genesis 40:16, Genesis 40:20, Genesis 40:23, Genesis 41:9, Genesis 41:14, Genesis 41:15, Genesis 41:25, Genesis 41:29, Genesis 41:33, Genesis 41:34, Genesis 41:37, Genesis 41:46, Genesis 41:53, Genesis 41:57, Genesis 42, Genesis 42:6, Genesis 43:20, Genesis 45:1, Genesis 45:2, Genesis 45:5, Genesis 50:20, 1 Corinthians 10:6, 1 Corinthians 10:11, Romans 15:4, Matthew 5, Romans 5:6, Romans 5:8, Romans 5:10, Romans 8:28, Romans 12:14, Romans 12:17, Ephesians 4:32
Theological Themes: providence, gods sovereignty, biblical narrative, old testament character, divine purpose, gods timing, spiritual maturity, redemptive history
Full Transcript
Guys, thank you very much. That was great. We could just adjourn right now and say just what he's saying, and that'll be our lesson for the day. But I'm going to remind... How many of you were not here last night, either traveling in or high school students or whatever? How many of you?
Let me remind you real quickly, two points from last night, then we'll get started today. The first point was the Bible. Look what I found up here. I have an iPad, and look at this. How cool do I look? I think I'll teach in these from now on. So two points from last... No.
Two points from last night. Number one, the Bible's the word of God. The Bible tells us what's right, what's not right, how to get right, how to stay right. So as I approach and you approach the great issues in life, we may make it as simple as who am I, why am I here, where am I going, all of those things, the answers are found not in individual speculation, not in what you hope is true, but in God's word.
Our Foundation: The Bible and Christ Alone
The second thing was exactly what Jesse just sang, and that is in Christ alone. My salvation is not found in religion or personal effort, but it's found in Jesus Christ. Man has a fundamental problem, and our fundamental problem is sin, and the solution of sin is not to work harder. There's nothing I can do to get myself out of this.
John Kennedy talked about the problems we're in in 1961 and 62, and he said, we got ourselves into this, we'll get ourselves out of this. Well that may have been true in some political sense, though it doesn't look like it, but in our own personal lives, we got ourselves into this through sin, and we cannot get ourselves out of it. So that becomes the basis for everything that you're going to hear from me in the morning, from Bill at night.
Lessons from the Legends
Now what we're going to do in my next five sessions together is look at something I've titled Lessons from the Legends. We're going to look at tomorrow at Daniel, Tuesday at Paul, Thursday at Peter, and then a surprise guest on Friday.
But this flows from, and let me just take you through this, this flows from, hopefully, oh this is what, here you go, I said I didn't have any pictures. So Sandy said, let me send you some pictures of the grandkids and have them post them. So I think two, four, six, that's them. So on the left is Brayden, I think I have another one that's more stair-stepped, there they are, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, and poor McKinley's stuck in a car seat down there at the bottom. So number one and three, and what is that, six and seven are brothers and sisters, and then the four girls go together. So there they are, and that just is amazing. I could go through, you want to hear about each one? Sure. No, let's not do that. No, I'm as bored already as you are. But Sandy said, no, we've got some pictures. So I probably have more, I'll keep those coming.
Old Testament Examples for Our Instruction
Here's the basis for what we want to look at this morning. Paul's writing in the book of 1 Corinthians, and he makes this passing reference to Old Testament, and he says in 1 Corinthians 10:6, again in 10:11, "Now these things happened as examples for us," or examples for them. In the book of Romans, Paul writes a similar thought, and he said, "For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction." So as through perseverance and encouragement of scriptures, we have hope.
What Paul's saying is, I can look at that Old Testament, and I can see a picture of man and of God and His mercy. You have a lot of people who will say, oh, I don't want that God of the Old Testament. Well, here you go, breaking news, Fox News alert. The God of the Old Testament is the God of the New Testament. God didn't change. It's the same God.
Understanding God's Complete Character
And so we love the idea of the love of God. If you go down to, let's pick a spot, you go down to Bill's today, and you start to interview people, and you say, I'm going to Word Association, tell me about God. When you say God, they will almost instinctively say, what, love. God is love. And so it raises all sorts of questions.
And here's what we do. We focus on the love of God, but we have to be very, very careful that we don't edit God. Is God a God of love? Yes. But He's also a God of judgment and of wrath. And so I can't look exclusively, how can a God of love send anyone to hell? Well, here's my question. How can a God of judgment send any of us to heaven? I have to look at the scripture and say, what does the scripture say in its totality?
And Paul's saying here in 1 Corinthians and in the book of Romans that we have these Old Testament pictures. And we can look at those lives. And they're for our own instruction. And they give us a great source of not just instruction, but encouragement. Again, from Romans 15:4, the encouragement of the scriptures that we might have hope.
Our True Source of Hope
There's the old phrase, the last best hope for the world is the United States of America. Well, that's not true. In 1984, Walter Mondale, remember Walter Mondale? He won, what, two states? Walter Mondale, one was his own. Walter Mondale's running for president. He's in a debate with Ronald Reagan. And Walter Mondale made this comment. He said, the United States of America will last forever.
Well, I'm a big USA guy. I'm a big free market capitalist pig. And I love the US of A, but I got to tell you, it's not going to last forever. Our hope is exactly, Jesse could not have teed this up better. Our hope rests on Christ alone, Him alone, nothing less than Him.
So here's the little paragraph I want to use, what the heck am I doing here? The paragraph I want to use for the week right here, we'll come back to this again and again. Our hope is rooted in four things: the character of God, the promises of God, the sovereignty of God, and the faithfulness of God. Now I think in my four or five presentations, we close and end with this each time. As you look at your life, here's what gives you great comfort, the character of God.
How do I know that character of God? See how it ties into last night? Right here. And the promises of God. What does God say when He says, "I'll never leave you or forsake you"? So there are moments when it feels like it. There are moments when I look at the circumstances around me and here was this thing that I was so convinced was so important. It's that scholarship, that education opportunity, that job, that whatever it is, and all of a sudden that's not there. But God promises, listen, I'll never leave you, I'm all you need.
It is well with my soul. I mean, the dark is overwhelming and I can't even see Him, but I can trust in His character and His promises and His sovereignty. Sovereignty is the big deal. That says that God is God and He does as He pleases. And as R.C. Sproul says, there's no maverick molecule loose in the universe that can usurp His plan. And that's His faithfulness.
When we talk about the attributes of God, we tend to talk about His love and power and mercy and all-knowing and all. There's an attribute of God that's like the least acknowledged attribute of God, it seems to me, or at least taught, and that's the immutability of God. He doesn't change. So when He said, listen, I'll never leave you or forsake you, if you believe in Jesus, you have everlasting life, His faithfulness, His immutability, those promises are in place.
So we come back to this again and again. Those of you that take notes and scribble and are typing in your phone or your iPad, that sentence becomes really important for us. Our hope as followers of Christ is rooted in God's character and His promises, and His sovereignty and His faithfulness.
Joseph: A Study in Steadfastness and Forgiveness
Now our first character study is Joseph. So if you have your Bibles, you can turn to toward the front of the book, to the book of Genesis, chapter 37, and from Joseph we're going to see a picture of his steadfastness and forgiveness. At each of these characters, I want us to look at something, and then we're going to tell a story. I've never taught this way before, and I told Sandy I'm a little nervous about it, it's a long narrative.
It's a story, the story of Joseph, that probably many of you are very familiar with, almost all of you are somewhat familiar with, and for some of you, brand new. But we're going to take some time, probably 20, 25 minutes, and work through the story as we go through the book of Genesis.
Three Stages of Joseph's Life
Joseph's life falls into three categories: birth to age 17, and that's found in Genesis 30, verses 24 to Genesis 37, 2. That's that time when his family's in transition, there's an unsettledness, there's a level of antagonism that's developing between Joseph and his brothers.
Then age 17-30, found in Genesis 37, verse 2 to Genesis 41, verse 46. That's him now, moving into that second stage, that stage of early manhood. It feels in that, and you're going to get a sense of this, and this is part of why I've chosen this, and really focus on that segment, it feels like his life is out of control. That may or may not be where you are right now, that's somewhere where you're going to be in your life, probably.
If things are going unbelievably good in your life right now, I got advice for you, warning for you: this too shall pass. Now we got the other side, if it's not going very well, this too shall pass, because here's what you have in life, you have this. These are the circumstances, that's what we're going to see in Joseph.
The circumstances are like this, but you are not a victim whose attitude and joy is related to circumstances. You don't have to be up when it's good, and down when it's bad. In the midst of that, you find the consistency of a relationship with Christ.
And then the last part of Joseph's life, from age 30 till his death, is covered in Genesis 41, verse 46 to chapter 50. That's when Joseph hits this time of prosperity, and there's opportunity, opportunity especially to get even with his brothers who dealt him dirty, pretty dirty. So we're going to work our way through this, I want to make a couple of big points along the way, and then I think we're going to end every one of these sessions with three or four "so whats."
The Journey to Find His Brothers
So Genesis chapter 37, verse 2, Joseph is in a position where he is 17 years old, and his dad says to him, in verse 13, "Are not your brothers pastoring the flock in Shechem?" And he said, they're in Shechem, you go and check on them, will you? Go and see how they're doing. Do some reconnaissance work, and then bring whatever you find, the facts, back to me.
So that's exactly what Joseph does. They are pastoring, he goes to find them, and he finds a man, and he says, yeah, they were here, but they're gone, they've moved on, they're on the way to Dothan. So away goes Joseph after them. And his brothers see him from a distance.
The Roots of Resentment
Let me take you back to verse 4, early on, where Joseph becomes the favorite of his father. And I don't know if this is true or not, but I'll say it anyway. I think if you have more than one kid, you probably have a favorite. Don't shake your head up and down, because that's going to give it away. But there's usually just one.
I had two daughters, and I don't want to say that one's a favorite, but one was just much easier to deal with than the other. One was very much like her mom, and the other was very much like me. And the one that was like me was a little tougher to deal with. My daughter Haley literally could have raised herself. I always said she was a Gerber kid. All you had to do was add water, and she would just grow. And so you knew dealing with Haley was going to be a little easier than dealing with Sarah.
Now you're Joseph's dad with all of these kids, and he, Joseph, had one in his old age that was the favorite. It was Joseph. And then, like I said, I think that's okay. But here's the thing...
The Favorite Son's Downfall
The problem in this story is his dad comes along and says, "You're my favorite." And just to make sure everybody knows that, here's this coat of many colors. So every time he wears this around, what happens is the brothers saw that their dad loved Joseph more. And the more they saw that, the more they hated him.
And so it plays out, as they're out working in the field, out goes Joseph to do this reconnaissance work. As the brothers see him coming closer, they plot, in Genesis 37, verse 18, to put him to death. "Here he comes. This is the one." In fact, they say in verse 19, "Here comes the dreamer." Joseph had had a dream about how the brothers were going to worship him.
That's okay if you want to be a dreamer. But keep it to yourself if it's a dream like that. You don't tell your brothers, "Here's what's going down." Imagine this. You have siblings. Imagine you sitting with your siblings and going, "I'm glad we could all get together. I just want to tell you something. Someday you're all going to worship me." That's not the way you start Thanksgiving dinner.
The Brothers' Plot
And so they see him coming, and they say, "Let's kill him." Then Reuben said, "No, no, no. Let's not take his life. Let's not have any bloodshed here." So they take him, and they throw him in a pit. They're sitting, and they're eating a meal.
It's Genesis 37, verse 25 through 28. They see a caravan coming. In verse 26, he said, "What's the profit if we kill him? Let's not do that. Do the American thing. Let's sell him." And so they do that. They sell him to the Midianite traders in verse 28. Joseph's lifted out of the pit, and they brought Joseph. Now his life obviously begins to change there.
A New Life in Egypt
But here comes a big change in chapter 39, verse 1. Joseph is taken down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
So let's make sure we capture this. Here's the favored boy. My guess would be the pampered boy. All of a sudden he goes doing what his daddy told him to do. His brothers see him. They throw him in a pit. He thinks this is the end of it, right? You come from a dysfunctional family, but nothing. You didn't sell each other into slavery, probably. Now he's in this, and he's now been sold again. He's now in Egypt. He's now the property of this guy named Potiphar.
God's Hidden Presence
And here's something that you might not know if God didn't tell you. Verse 2 of chapter 39: "The Lord was with Joseph." Here's a key thought. Remember we said we're going to drop two or three in along the way. Here's the key thought: it may or may not look like God is with you based on circumstances.
If you were looking at this moment, here's what you'd have said or thought: there must be something wrong with Joseph. Must be some sort of sin in his life. Must be something wrong. "Why would God do something like that?" Well here you go. In those moments, those sentences, those questions that start with "Why would God," I don't always have the answer in a specific way. But here's what I know: whatever's going on in my life is for my good and God's glory.
We have the benefit now—we saw it in 1 Corinthians 10 and Romans 15—whatever's going on, it's for our instruction. And our instruction here is: here is Joseph in slavery in the household of Potiphar, and rather than God abandon him, God is with him.
Success Through God's Presence
Look at the next word in verse 2: "So." As a result of God's involvement, he becomes a successful man. He's in the house of his master, the Egyptian. And consequently, in verse 3, Potiphar saw the Lord was with him.
Right about now, back in my church, back in Gilbert, our administrator's teaching today. It's in Romans chapter 11, it's the story of Israel and Paul's writing about Israel. And one of the points—I met with him before we left, "met" is too formal, we're talking—and I said, "Are you ready for Sunday?" He said, "I am." It's on Israel and how God reaches out to the Gentile, and in doing so, creates this jealousy in a sense within the Jews, that they were to see that God had shown favor here. They had something that they were supposed to want.
I thought immediately of this: now the master saw that the Lord was with Joseph, and how He caused all to prosper in his hand.
Making the Invisible God Visible
So let me ask you, do the people around you see that the Lord is with you? See, here's our mission, I'm convinced. It's to make the invisible God visible, that people are supposed to look at us as followers of Christ, and see that there's something different about us. Not odd, different. Some of you look different. Not bad, not odd, there's something different. In the midst of the storms and difficulties of life, there's a peace about you, that you know how to celebrate and how to experience life at its fullness. So you are to make the invisible God visible.
Now here's the second part of that: it's to then speak the truth boldly. Jesus says it this way in Matthew chapter 5, that people should see our good works—so something different about us—and glorify our Father in heaven. They won't do that naturally, they don't know. If they see your good works, they're going to attribute it to your personality. "That's just the kind of gal she is, that's the kind of guy he is."
Words Are Necessary
So there should be in your life, on a regular basis—I don't know about frequent, but on a regular basis—there should be people saying to you, "There's something different about you. What is it?" And then you're supposed to say, "It's Jesus." That's how that's supposed to work.
So the idea—whoever, was it Francis of Assisi or whoever said this, I think it's attributed to him—is one of the dumb things that we say and keep repeating, which is, "Preach the gospel and if you must, use words." We think that's clever and cute and deep because we don't fully understand it. Well I'll explain it to you: it makes no sense at all. No one's won to Christ through a wordless sermon alone. Now what they're saying—
Live in such a way that they see Jesus, but they then are going to ask you, what's the difference? And if you don't say Christ, they're going to attribute it to something else. The Lord is with them, and now his master sees it, and Joseph finds favor, and he's put in charge of everything. He gave him control over all of this house.
The Test of Temptation
You may know the story, maybe you don't. It came about after these events that Potiphar's wife looked with desire on Joseph. We're told in chapter 39 and verse 6 that he was left in charge of everything, and Potiphar didn't concern himself about anything, and it says about Joseph, "he was handsome in form and appearance." What does that mean? He was handsome in form and appearance.
So Miss Potiphar, in chapter 39 verse 7, it came about after this that the master's wife looked at him with desire, and she said—they weren't as bold then as they are now—so she said, "lie with me." And he said, no, I couldn't do that. And look at this statement that begins, "Behold, with me here, my master doesn't concern himself with anything in the house. He puts all that he owns in my charge. There's no one greater in the house than I. He's withheld nothing from me except you, because you're his wife." He said, "How could I possibly do this and betray the trust that this man has placed in me?"
But then he goes to a greater calling. Verse 9, "How then could I do this evil and sin against God?" There's my ultimate motive. That's the thing that keeps me on track in the midst of all things.
The Persistence of Temptation
And what happens, it isn't just a passing fancy. Verse 10, and she spoke to Joseph day after day, day after day after day after day. Here's this strong, handsome, now man, been a long time since he's seen a girl. Don't erase the drama, the reality of this. And here's Potiphar's wife, and I'm assuming he's captain of the body, I'm assuming he's probably not going to marry some dog. He's going to marry an attractive gal. And here she is, and she's saying, "Here, come here, buddy, come here, big guy."
And he says no. Doesn't mean he didn't have a desire, but he said no. But now, one day, something different happens. He goes to the house, and none of the other guys are there. And she says, "lie with me." And he ran away. She grabbed his garment, and he fled.
False Accusations and Prison
And when she saw that he'd left his garment there, and had fled outside, here's what she did. She called the men of the household, she says, "Come here." And she tells her version of the story. It's a false accusation. She said, "It's that Hebrew slave who Potiphar brought in there." And as she told it, he left. He was afraid somebody was coming in. So totally different, totally different than what actually happened.
Potiphar then comes back. Joseph's master takes him. In verse 20, "Joseph's master took him and put him in jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined." And there he's in jail. It doesn't say it in the scripture, but I have the feeling that Potiphar knew his wife pretty well, and knew Joseph pretty well. And when she told her story, Potiphar didn't believe it. How do we know that? That's right, he's alive. If Potiphar believed this really happened, he would have killed him. But he didn't. He placed him into the jail.
God's Faithfulness in Prison
Verse 21 of chapter 39, here it is again, "the Lord is with Joseph." Might have been a chance there to step back and go, all right, I see He was with him that first time, but now here's second time, almost the same situation. He's now in the jail, the dungeon. He's in the most guarded of places. And yet, verse 21, he gains sight in the mind of the chief jailer, and the chief jailer committed to Joseph all that's in his charge, all the prisoners, all that was there. It's the same thing all over again.
In chapter 40, what happens is there comes this day, this time, when there's two guys, a cupbearer and a baker. And they're working for the king, and they offend him. Don't know what they did, but they did something. It may be rational, may be irrational, but Pharaoh is furious with these two guys, so he put them in the confinement of the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail, the same place where Joseph was.
Joseph's Compassionate Heart
And the captain of the bodyguard had put Joseph in charge of them, and he took care of them, verse 4 of chapter 40, and they were in confinement for some time. Here's what's happened, in comes these two guys, and they're political hot potatoes, I should watch them myself, but I got somebody I trust, and that's Joseph, and he puts Joseph in charge of these two guys, these officials of Pharaoh.
Then the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, who were confined in prison, both had dreams the same night, and each man with his own dream and its own interpretation. Chapter 40, verse 6, and Joseph comes to work the next day. He comes in in the morning, and he observed them, and he saw they were dejected. And he asked Pharaoh's officials, who were with him in confinement, in the master's house, he says to the cupbearer and the baker, "What's wrong with you?"
Let's hit the pause button on the story, let's look at the application to you. Who's Joseph? And Joseph is so aware of the people around him that he looks at him, and he says, your face is so sad. He sees it. We don't always see it. I'm stunned at how often, I'll be at church, and there'll be people who get there early. Usually when people get there early, they're people who are here the first time, or have nothing else to do, or they have serious problems. And you can tell, right? It's not very hard. All you got to do is look around.
Joseph could have easily said, "Hey boys, not my job. I'm not here to babysit you." He didn't even have to get involved at all. There's a great role model right there. Are you sensitive enough to see the hurt in the people around you? There always are. I guarantee you, there'll be a time—
this week where you'll be walking across the grounds, or going in to maybe sneak a cup of coffee, or getting there early for coffee in the morning, and you're going to see somebody. If you just look at them, they're going to look like somebody licked all the red off their sucker. They're going to look very discouraged, and very hurt. You know why they're going to look that way? Because they are.
You're going to have this important moment where you're walking across the grounds, and you're going to look, and you're going to see them, and you're going to make eye contact, and you're free. Here's your reflex. Your reflex is to go right away. But there's an opportunity.
A Moment of Compassion
It wasn't last year. I think it was the year before. I was here, and there were some picnic benches back here in the park. I'm walking by, and it's easy to spot the people because you got your badge on. I see—and it was, I would guess, well, I don't have to guess—he was a college kid. I'm walking by, and he looked terrible.
I said, "Hey man, are you okay?" "Yeah." I said, "Anything I can do to help you?" He paused. It was a moment on his end where he was deciding how vulnerable he was going to be.
We sat out there and had this amazing conversation about life. Whenever you see something like that, you can always say, "Well, so your girlfriend dumped you." "Yeah." I mean, you always know that story. You begin to play it out. You begin to play out life. It's not just her. It's all of life. I'm in my third school in two years, and I'm not sure what I want to do.
I didn't have anything for him other than to take him to this. He was raised in this Christian home, and he knew all of the verses. Didn't matter whatever verse I quoted. You know what he needed that day? Something in the flesh, somebody to talk to him, somebody to encourage him.
Joseph's Compassion in Prison
Look at Joseph. That's an amazing little study right there, chapter 40, verse 6 and 7. That's the opportunity you're going to have. I'm telling you, you'll be able to experience this as soon as this week as you're walking across these grounds. You got to determine in your mind now if you're going to be involved in that, if you're going to really want to see it.
In verse 8, they said to Him, "We've had a dream and there's nobody that can interpret it." Joseph said, "Don't interpretations belong to God? Nothing special about me. I know the God of the universe. Maybe if you tell me this dream, I'll be able to tell you what it means."
So that's exactly what the cupbearer did. Then the baker looks at this in verse 16, and he saw the interpretation was favorable that Joseph had given him. He said, "I had a dream too." Then he tells him what the dream is.
On the third day, in chapter 40, verse 20, on the third day, which is Pharaoh's birthday, there's this feast. He lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker, and he restored the cupbearer. This is what Joseph said was going to happen to his office. He hanged the baker. Joseph had interpreted him exactly as he predicted.
Forgotten in Prison
Here's this moment where the cupbearer is going back into the presence of Pharaoh. You can see Joseph saying, "Hey, remember me, I'm kind of in here. You know, I'm your man. You've seen me operate. You know, I'm trustworthy."
This may be one of the saddest verses in all of scripture. Genesis chapter 40, verse 23: "The cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." Away he went. Joseph's going back to his cell. He's getting everything in order. He's whistling, "Leaving on a Jet Plane," because he's convinced everything's going to happen. That guy's going to get back in office. He's going to remember me, that cupbearer, and away I go.
But it doesn't happen. It doesn't happen for a day or a week or a month or a year. But two full years later, Pharaoh has a dream.
God's Perfect Timing
He looks all over with his best and his brightest, and he says, "Who can interpret this dream?" There were none of them. Then in chapter 40, verse 9, we're told the cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh and said, "I don't want to bring up bad memories. But do you remember when I really did whatever it was that really hacked you off and you sent me to prison? Well, when I was in prison, I had a dream."
Verse 12: "There was a Hebrew youth who was with us. He was a servant of the bodyguard. We told him the dream, and he interpreted the dream." Verse 14: "Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon. They shaved him. They prepared him for His presence of Pharaoh."
Chapter 41 and verse 15: "Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I've had a dream. Nobody can interpret it. I've heard it said that you hear dreams, you can interpret them.'" Joseph answered Pharaoh and said this. Look at humility. We're going to look at Daniel tomorrow. You see the same thing when Daniel has this opportunity before Nebuchadnezzar.
Humility Before Power
Here's what Joseph said: "It's not to me. God will give you the dream." Let me tell you what I would be tempted to do. "You are one lucky Pharaoh, because here I am, and I can interpret this dream." That's what I want. Maybe build up this little indebtedness. "Maybe you're going to want to let me out of here, Pharaoh, don't know."
But that's not what Joseph does. Joseph says, "Listen, it's God who's doing this." Joseph interprets the dreams. There were two of them. He says in verse 25, "Pharaoh's dreams are one in the same, and God has told the Pharaoh what He's about to do."
Here's what He's about to do. There's going to be seven years of prosperity, and they're going to be followed by seven years of unbelievable famine. That dream takes place, two different dreams, with the same interpretation.
So in chapter 41, verse 29, Joseph says this: "Behold, seven years of great abundance is coming in the land, and after that, seven years of famine, and all the abundance will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage
the land. So the abundance will be unknown in the land because of the subsequent famine, and it'll be very severe. He said this thing is coming, and you're going to have this unbelievable boom that you had in 2000 through 2007, when anybody seemed like they could invest in anything. But all of a sudden you're going to get 2008 through the next few years, and you're going to go, I don't even remember that other stuff. Whatever boom there was is gone.
And Joseph said, here's what you ought to do. In verse 33, let Pharaoh look for a man who's discerning and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Verse 34 of chapter 41, and the Pharaoh took action to appoint an overseer in charge of the land. He's going to take a fifth of the produce of the land and save it.
Here's what he said. He said, Pharaoh, you need to find a grain czar, and let him take 20%. Some of us would love a tax rate at that. Let us take 20%, we're going to take it away, and the reason we're going to do this is not to penalize you, but we're going to bring this back. We're going to bring this back, and you're going to find something that you're not going to find anywhere else on the earth. In the middle of famine, you're going to have provision.
Pharaoh Recognizes Joseph's Wisdom
And Pharaoh says, that's a really good idea. In fact, verse 37, it said it seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his servants. And Pharaoh said, where do we find a guy like this?
Here's another key thought. In your life, your greatest asset is your relationship with Christ. Pharaoh's looking around, and he's looking at all of the guys he's got, and he's saying, who do I have that's discerning, that's wise? Who do I know that's connected in this divine spirit? Who do I know that knows God? And he said, well, there's only one. It's Joseph. And so they got him.
And indeed, in chapter 41, verse 53, this seven years of plenty come. Joseph's in charge of all of the land in Egypt, and now this hunger comes. In chapter 41, verse 57, the people of all the earth come to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because there's famine everywhere.
The Brothers Come to Egypt
Now Jacob, in chapter 42, Jacob sees that there's grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, I always like this, why are you staring at one another? So I get this picture, and here are these boys going, well, what do we do? No food here. And Jacob's going, okay, this isn't very hard. There's only food in one place, Egypt. You better go there. And he said, behold, I've heard there's grain in Egypt. Go down there, buy some.
And then the 10 brothers of Joseph went down to buy this grain in Egypt. Chapter 42, verse 6, Joseph's the ruler of the land. He's the one who sold all of the people. He's the one in charge, and his brothers come in and bow down to him.
Now FYI, that was the dream that Joseph had had. There's going to be this day where you're going to come and bow down to me. And now it comes. But he disguises himself, and he spoke harshly to them, and the famine is severe in the land.
So it came about that they'd taken this grain, they brought it from Egypt, and now they're out of it, and Joseph's father says, go back and buy some more food. There's all sorts of subplots, but you get what's going on. And they come. Chapter 43, verse 20, we came down the first time. We bought this food, and we had this money in our bag. We don't know where this money came from. We've left our brother. We've come back again.
Joseph Reveals Himself
And then Joseph, in chapter 45, verse 1, couldn't control himself anymore, and he cried. And he said, get everybody else out of here. You boys stay. And chapter 45, verse 2, he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and a household of Pharaoh heard him.
Then Joseph said to his brother, I'm Joseph. My father's still alive? Brothers couldn't answer. They were dismayed in his presence. And Joseph said to his brothers, come closer to me. And they came closer. He said, I'm Joseph, your brother. You may forget this, so let me write the one you sold into slavery.
Verse 5, now don't be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me here to preserve life. Here's the payoff. It's a classic. Chapter 50, verse 20, Joseph speaking to his brothers, and he said, here's the deal. As for you, you meant all these things for evil against me, but God meant it for good.
The Power of Forgiveness
There's another key thought, and then we'll get to the so what. Here's that moment where the brothers are afraid. Why? Because they knew in their heart that they had done him dirty, and they didn't imagine the capacity to forgive.
Some of you are sitting here today, one of the biggest problems you've got is you've got a person or people in your life that you can't forgive. They oftentimes have an ex on the front of their name: ex-spouse, ex-boss, ex-neighbor, ex-friend.
I, in my life, have some things that I do well, not many. A lot of things I do poorly, but there's one thing that I do really well. I'm an amazing forgiver. You can screw me over and over and over and over again. And here's how, because for a long time, my motto was, I don't get mad at even.
The Foundation of Forgiveness
But here's what Paul tells us about forgiveness, a key verse that ought to be in the front of your Bible or circled or one of those you go to over and over again. He says, be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God and in Christ has forgiven you.
Remember what we saw last night? Try to build on this. Read Romans chapter 5, verse 6, 8, and 10. While we were helpless, while we were sinners, while we were enemies of God, Christ died. Say it again. We said it last night. Maybe it'll sink in even more to us now, that God saved you in spite of you, not because of you.
That I'm saved by grace, unmerited favor. Nothing I did. Here's what He's saying. He's saying all of us have sinned. I love this. Here's the word picture. If sin were blue, we'd all be smurfs. That's how riddled with sin we are. And it's in that
Your Circumstances Don't Always Indicate Your Spiritual Condition
There's nothing you can do to fix your sin. That's why I love the term helpless on our own, enemies of God on our own, sinners on our own. And we can't fix it. But Christ died for us.
I am very confident. I got a text this morning saying, I don't know if you saw the obituary, but Rick died. Rick's funeral's tomorrow morning at 11. Rick is a guy who comes to my priority living study. He played offensive line in college at TCU. Big guy. Got diagnosed with cancer out of the blue.
He went on a hike, and he had all his gear, and he came back, and as he's coming back, he's really tired, which I would assume you would be at the end of a hike. But he goes to the doctor, and he said, I was tired. I didn't have the gas that I thought I would coming out of there. And the doctor said, well, I'm going to guess, just probably conditioning issue, but let's do the blood work. And the blood work came back and showed he had cancer, and that was like three months ago.
George Bernard Shaw said the statistics on death are impressive. One out of one people die. So that's your future or my future. There's that day coming. Don't know when it is for me. Could be today, could be 20 years from now, but there's going to be that day when I die.
Resting in God's Promises
Here's what I know. I know when I breathe my last breath, I will then move into the presence of Christ. How do I know that? Because I'm such a good guy? No. I'm a helpless enemy and sinner of God. But Christ died and His promise was, if you believe in Him, you have eternal life.
So I rest on the character of God and the promise of God and the sovereignty of God and the faithfulness of God that says that all of that's true. I bring all of that together. It's not me. If I want to know the future and what the future is going to bring, all I have to do is read that word. I may not get all the specifics, but I understand what God's going to do.
Four Practical Applications
Here's the so what. I've got four of them.
Number one, your circumstances aren't always an accurate indicator of your spiritual condition. You may look around. You go in tomorrow, go to the doctor, same story, does the blood work. It comes back and it says, not good news.
I have been to the doctor a lot. I had counted last week. I have nine doctors right now, which is amazing. Two years ago, I had one and I never saw him. So I'm nine doctors now. So I'll get these all the time. These phone messages, Mr. Schrader, we got the blood work back and everything is fine. But every once in a while I'll get this one, Mr. Schrader, we got the blood work. Could you give us a call?
Here's the one you don't want. I'll get a voicemail. Hello, this is Dr. Michael with a doctor. Could you call me back? Here's my cell phone. So it's a doctor with a cell phone. This is not going to be a good call.
Well, I don't all of a sudden go, wow, praise God. I have cancer. If I have a bad blood test or a good blood test, it's not necessarily an indication of my spiritual condition. Here's Paul in prison. He's in Philippi. They're beating him. Are we to conclude from that that Paul's out of the will of God? Well, not necessarily.
If I'm Bill Gates and I'm rolling along and I'm just cashing checks like mad, should I conclude because he's doing well in business that everything's okay? You can't always say that your circumstances are an indicator of where you are spiritually.
God's Purposes in Difficulty
My grandpa had a bunch of phrases he'd use. This is one he'd always use. Doesn't that jar your preserves? Now, maybe this will jar your preserves. God may want you sick and broke. And some of you are going to want to now engage in dialogue for the rest of the week with me and try to straighten me out. Do us a favor. Don't do that. Email Sandy and then she'll talk to you or she'll meet with you.
But God may not want you wealthy and healthy. Why? Well, you go in and the doctor said, hey, we got the x-ray. Everything is fine. What do you do? I know. I've been there. Praise Jesus. What are we going to eat? But you get the one that say, well, no, no, there's this little thing. We're not sure. We're going to have to go in there and get it. That's what they said about Saddam Hussein. I don't like that. What do you mean go in and get it?
When they say that, we're going to have to go in there and get it. Here's a different attitude. You go, we ought to pray. You want to go eat? No, I don't want to eat. Why would God want you in financial difficulty or health difficulty or relation difficulty? You know what? You're a lot more coachable. You'll listen.
God's Perfect Timing
Here's the second thing. God's timing is perfect. Why will He help us? He died for you. Why are you the enemy? When did Christ die? At just the right time.
Resist the Temptation to Get Even
It's the third thing, resist the temptation to get even. Paul writes about this in the book of Romans, Romans chapter 12, verse 14, "Bless those who persecute you." Verse 17 of Romans 12, "Never pay back evil for evil to anyone, respect what is right in the sight of God. If it's possible, so far it depends on you, live at peace with one another, never take your own revenge, but leave room for the wrath of God, vengeance is mine, says the Lord."
Rather than get even, forgive.
Wait a minute, they done me dirty. Don't they deserve this wrath? Yes, God's wrath, not yours. Don't get mad and get even, but forgive. Why? Because you've been forgiven so much.
And then the last one flows really from Romans 8, Jesse sang about it. God works all things together for good. That's indeed the beginning of Romans chapter 8, verse 28. If you've listened to tapes that I've done or been here when I've been here, I'm going to guess I've talked about this because I come back to it over and over again.
What You Know Trumps What You Feel
Here's one of those key phrases, one of those easy to remember, to hang on to: what you know trumps what you feel. Here's what God says in Romans 8:28, "and we know" - we circle that word, in my Bible I've written by it, fact - "and we know." What do we know? We know that God causes all things, no, not that He causes all things to occur. Is He the author of sin? No.
We know that God causes all things to work together for good. And that's not a universal promise, that's not necessarily for everybody in this room. That's for those of us who love God, those who were helpless and are now a sinner, and now a saint. And we know God causes all things to work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.
And again, I'm not looking to debate this. I enjoy Oprah. I like Oprah, I think she does some really interesting things. She's a whack job when it comes to theology, but she does some great stuff.
Everything Happens for a Reason
Here's what Oprah says, and not only Oprah says it, I'll bet you and everybody around her says it too. You help me out here. Everything happens for a reason. Oprah says that all the time. And I one day would love to go, "Okay, Oprah, if that's true, and it must be true because you believe it's true, if that's true and everything happens for a reason, then there has to be someone or something, some power that's in control to be able to make all of these things work together, right? If everything's happened for a reason, there has to be a purpose."
Now Oprah doesn't have a clue what that is. She might cause some higher power or whatever God you believe in, or all these doors are doors of the same house that lead us to the same God. That's really goofy. There's one way there: Jesus.
But if we had a Bible that had not one chapter in it, but one verse, and it was this verse, we would know from this that God is all-knowing and all-powerful. He has to be for this verse to be true.
Joseph's Example of Steadfastness and Forgiveness
So as we look at the story of Joseph, we see this amazing story of his steadfastness and his forgiveness. Why? Because you understand God and who He was. That as you understand God and who He is, and you understand His character and His promises and His sovereignty and His faithfulness, it doesn't mean that you aren't going to have those emotions, or you aren't going to have those circumstances that swing up and down.
But in the midst of that, there's a steadfastness so you can sing, just like Jesse did, "It is well with my soul." In the midst of all of the hardship and difficulties of life, it's okay. Why? God's in control. And my hope is in His character and His promises and His sovereignty and His faithfulness.
Let's pray. Father, thank You for this amazing story. Thank You that indeed Paul tells us we can read these stories, and from them they're a source for our perseverance and our faith and our trust in You. God, we don't for a second pretend that life isn't difficult. But whether it's the great times or the hard times in the midst of it, we know You're in charge. We know that we can rest in Your character and Your promise, that You're sovereign and in control, and that You're faithful and immutable. Father, thank You for that.
Let us enjoy this day and this place, and Father, this week as the opportunity comes to see those around us who need an encouraging word, give us first the eyes to see it, and then second, the boldness to reach out and to risk. We pray that in Christ's name, amen.