What I Taught at Summer Camp 2006
Tom Shrader recaps six sessions from East Valley Bible Church's 2006 summer camp, walking through the life of Joseph in Genesis 37–50 under the theme 'Life Interrupted.' He traces how God remained faithfully present with Joseph through betrayal, slavery, false accusation, and imprisonment, drawing out repeated applications about trusting God's process over visible outcomes. The teaching closes with reflections on guilt, forgiveness, and the promise of eternal life in Christ, grounded in Genesis 50:20 and supported by passages from Philippians, Ephesians, Job, and John.
“You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good — and we know God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Summer Camp
Recorded: 2006 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 51 min
Themes: suffering, forgiveness, trust, betrayal, hope, perseverance, guilt, God's plan, teenager, feeling betrayed, struggling with guilt, young adult, dealing with injustice, student, new believer, feeling abandoned by God
Scripture: Genesis 37:3-4, Genesis 37:5, Genesis 37:8, Genesis 37:11, Genesis 37:18, Genesis 37:26-27, Genesis 37:36, Genesis 39:2, Genesis 39:3, Genesis 39:6-7, Genesis 39:8-9, Genesis 39:10, Genesis 39:20, Genesis 39:21, Genesis 39:23, Genesis 40:1-2, Genesis 40:7, Genesis 40:12-14, Genesis 40:23, Genesis 41:1, Genesis 41:16, Genesis 41:42, Genesis 42:21, Genesis 50:19-20, Philippians 1:6, Psalm 119:71, Daniel 3, Romans 8:28, Ephesians 4:31-32, Job 23, Job 38:1, John 3:16, John 10:10, John 17:3, Matthew 5:13-16, Matthew 11:28
Theological Themes: providence, divine sovereignty, sanctification, redemptive suffering, eternal life, typology, reconciliation, soteriology
Full Transcript
Welcome Back from Summer Camp
This year we did things a little differently — no goldfish eating, no boxes colliding with one another as we've done in the past. Not because those things weren't good, but to try something different. We also anticipated that though we would change operationally, God would still bless what we did — and indeed He did. We even took a side trip on Monday to SeaWorld. I was a little concerned that somebody would go, "Hey, who's that with Shamu?" and it would be one of our kids, but that didn't happen. It was a wonderful time.
I had several interesting emails and comments from parents when we announced we were going to make this change, expressing some concern about it. They made clear that they were at East Valley Bible Church not so their kids would be entertained, but so they'd be taught. We decided to try to live on the edge and see if possibly we could have fun and be taught as well. I tried to comfort them with that — and then I wondered at the same time how much fun it would be to live in that house. I didn't say that to them personally, but I thought it.
About the Camp Video
One of the things we do every year is show you a video, and there are a couple of things you need to understand as you watch it. One thing we did differently this year is that when we ended camp on Monday night, after we got back from SeaWorld, we went back to the amphitheater. We had two large canvases where we invited students to go — with no pressure — and, as we were playing and praying, to write what God had done in their life or any change that might be taking place. So the handwritten things you see in the video are not just graphics. Those are words written by students at the close of summer camp.
You'll also sense a certain heaviness in the video. We had a lot of fun, but it was pretty serious, and you'll get a sense of that as we go through our material today.
The Theme: Life Interrupted
God does incredible things at summer camp. There are always moments where people have a life-changing experience over just a few days. We always warn the kids about that — there are some who respond and then drift away, and that's no different from what you see anywhere. But our prayer is that there were moments at this camp that changed students forever.
Typically when we come back from camp, I do one of two things: I either talk about what I learned or what I taught. In light of perhaps some concern that we had softened our positions on things, I thought I would share with you a highlight of what I taught at summer camp. So we are going to take six sessions and condense them into one.
The title of the camp was *Life Interrupted*, and that is what we talked about the first night. I took those two words and defined them. Using Webster, the word *life* means "the period from birth to death." *Interrupted* means "to stop or hinder, to break in." So what we talked about was that period from birth to death — which we are all in — and how it has these hindrances, these stoppages, these break-ins that come along and invade it. By definition, they are almost always unexpected.
Interruptions Can Be Positive Too
When I hear the phrase "life interrupted," my first instinct is to think of negative things. But interruptions can be positive as well. Summer camp is an interruption. Vacation is an interruption. Text messages are interruptions. I think of those things that God orchestrates that we don't understand at the time — they may be defining moments, those seemingly coincidental events.
I was living in Scottsdale in apartment 202, and one day I was out front when I noticed apartment 201 was vacant. I saw coming up the stairs a chair, and when they got a little higher, the chair was covering the top of the person carrying it — you could only see them from about the waist down. I thought, "This could potentially be good — someone moving in next door." Then I noticed there was another girl. I said to myself, "That's even better — so they're both girls, not a girl and a guy or a husband and wife." Then the girl who had been carrying the chair came back out, and I thought, "Oh my gosh, this is really going to be good." So I turned on that charm radar, that x-ray thing you can't resist — though she was able to resist it for a while. And that is how Susan and I met, which was a pretty cool interruption.
they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, here comes this dreamer. Now let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits, and we will say that a wild beast has devoured him. And we will see what will become of his dreams.
A Family Torn Apart
Yesterday was our anniversary. We were married 28 years yesterday, so that was pretty cool. It was a pleasant interruption. Since then, we have had our own interruptions — some on the aggravating side, and they can be little things. Somebody at an arrow light who just drifts and doesn't get through, so only two cars make it. Three lanes of traffic, the middle lane empty, and a guy on the right-hand side not turning right, so you have to sit through the whole light wondering why anyone would do that. It could be something small and almost insignificant by comparison, or it could be a huge interruption — you lose a job, you lose a spouse, you lose a friend, a relationship that is broken, something that hurts deeply, sickness.
So what we did that first night at summer camp is talk about that and establish two things, which we do every year. Frankly, I do it every time I am invited to speak in a setting like that. This August I will be in Oregon — right on the beach, teaching twelve times in six days. I did not know that when I said yes, but twelve times in six days on the beach is great duty. But I will do those same two things that first night. I do it at camp, I do it with the kids, it does not matter. Number one, the Bible is the final authority in our life — the Bible is the Word of God. Number two, there are two groups of people in the world: those who know Christ in a personal way, and those who do not. Our objective in camp is to see God move you along that continuum somehow.
Introducing Joseph
To help us in our six sessions together, we decided to look at the life of Joseph. Turn to Genesis chapter 37. If Joseph is unfamiliar to you, hopefully today will whet your appetite and you will want to go back and delve into this — Genesis chapter 37 through Genesis chapter 50. I will also give you a heads up, because a lot of times in the summer you are looking for reading material. Chuck Swindoll did a series of biographical sketches — I think there are six or seven of them — and one is on Joseph. It is a great read. I finished the one on Joseph, the one on David, and the one on Elijah as well, and I have set aside Moses to take with me for summer reading this year.
Jacob is a character. Joseph is a character. The brothers of Joseph are characters in this story. Potiphar, Potiphar's wife — all sorts of characters. But the main character in our study is God Himself. This is a study of God's faithfulness. We will look at Joseph, but all the time we are looking at Joseph in the midst of his travail and suffering and pain, we see God's faithfulness and God's sovereignty. I know that in this room there are some of you who are really hurting, whatever the source of that affliction might be. In the midst of affliction, sometimes we can think thoughts like, where is God, and what has He done, and what is He thinking? That is okay. We are going to answer those questions right here.
Favoritism and Its Consequences
Joseph is Jacob's son. Look at verse 3, Genesis chapter 37: "Now Israel" — that is Jacob — "loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he gave him a multicolored tunic. His brothers saw that his father loved him more than all of his brothers, so they hated him."
Let me stop there. I obviously did not make this point at summer camp, but I would make it to you on Father's Day. If you are in a situation where you are showing favoritism and loving one child and all the other kids see it, you better understand you are going to have problems. I think it is natural, if you have three, four, five, six, seven — in this case twelve — kids, to have a special affection for one. You will naturally get along with one better than the others. Most likely they will have an easy personality, they will be easy to be around, and you will naturally gravitate toward that one. The problem is not that Jacob loved Joseph more than the others. The problem is that all the other boys saw it. They knew it. In fact, he displayed it.
He gave Joseph a coat of many colors, and you have probably heard a lot about that. But here is what makes this tunic significant: it was long-sleeved and went all the way from the shoulders down to the ankles. A typical tunic would be sleeveless or short-sleeved and would go just above the knees. The reason was practical — you put a tunic on because you had work to do, and you were not going to do heavy work in a long tunic with long sleeves. When Jacob gives this coat to Joseph, what he is saying is, there is a lot of heavy lifting to do, and I do not want you to do it, little fellow. That is the problem. And all the boys knew it.
Hatred That Grows
Look at verse 4 — the brothers hated him. Verse 5 — they hated him even more. Verse 8 — they hated him even more. In a story like this, I like to circle a phrase when it is repeated, because it allows me to look quickly at the page and see these patterns emerge. I have in parenthesis "Israel loved Joseph," underlined "more than all the other sons," underlined "they saw it," and then circled "they hated him — they hated him even more — they hated him." By verse 11 this hatred explodes into jealousy.
The boys were out working. They had gone to a place called Shechem. In verse 13, Jacob says to Joseph, "They are out there — why do you not go check on them?" So as Joseph performs this reconnaissance mission and comes up on the brothers, verse 18 tells us: they saw him from a distance, and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer. Now let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits, and we will say that a wild beast has devoured him. And we will see what will become of his dreams."
Here Comes the Dreamer
They plotted against him to put him to death, and they said to one another, "Here comes the dreamer." What had happened is Joseph had had this dream, and he told his brothers about it. In the dream, essentially, it said: you are going to bow down to me. Then he had another dream involving his mother and his father, and again it said, you are going to bow down to me. They hated him. They hated him all the more.
Here he comes, and they see him approaching from a distance. They could probably tell by his gait, but what was it that set them off so clearly? Most likely the coat. They hated that coat. So here he comes — let's kill him. Here comes the dreamer.
Here is one of our application points. When you come, people are looking at you as you approach them. Everybody is talking, and everybody has an opinion or a view of you and who you are. What do they say about you? And what would you like them to say?
If what you would like them to say is not what they are saying, what are you going to do so that they will begin to see you and respond to you as you would like them to? How are you going to change your life? We could put it another way: there is a day, not far from now, where we will be sitting in here conducting your memorial service, and part of that — and it seems to get more free every year — is a series of people speaking about you. What do you want them to say? Here comes the dreamer. What would you like them to say about you?
Sold Into Slavery
Joseph comes to his brothers, and they are prepared to kill him. Then in verse 26, Judah says to his brothers, "What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover his blood? Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and don't lay our hands on him. He's our own brother, our own flesh and blood." I appreciate two aspects of this. One is what you might call the American aspect — let's not kill him, let's sell him. Good, hearty, free-enterprise capitalism.
I laugh out loud at verse 27, when they say, in effect, how could we possibly kill him? He's our own brother — let's sell him into slavery. If you gave any Israelite in that day and age a choice between being sold into slavery or being killed, one hundred out of one hundred would say, kill me. This is as bad as it could possibly get.
They sell him into slavery, and by verse 36 he ends up in the household of Potiphar. Potiphar is Pharaoh's officer, the captain of the bodyguard — the head of Pharaoh's secret service, if you will. Some historians say this was a ruthless group that Pharaoh used to maintain control, and some identify Potiphar as the chief executor within that group. So there is Joseph.
He had probably been having a fairly normal day. We have to assume that Joseph may have done some things that aggravated his brothers in his own way. But looking at this, we would say he has done nothing to deserve what has happened here. Our sense of fairness would say: this is not right. Where is God? God, where are You at moments like this? Don't You care?
The Lord Was With Joseph
Turn over to chapter 39. Joseph is taken to Egypt, under the control of Potiphar, the Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard. Where is God? Verse 2: "The Lord was with Joseph." There is the answer. He is right here.
We went through something like that nationally on September 11th. Where is God? He is the same place He was on September 10th, and the same place He would be on September 12th — the same place He has been from the beginning of time and on into infinity. He is in control. You may be at a point in your own life where you are saying, God, where are You? Look at this. This was not fair, this is not right. Where are You? He is right where you left Him. As Paul writes in Philippians 1:6, "I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Christ Jesus."
In this life come all sorts of feelings and emotions, even circumstances that might cause you to ask, where are You? Here is a huge application point: you make a giant mistake if you try to evaluate your spiritual condition by your physical circumstances alone. It would be wrong to say, everything is going smoothly, therefore I must be a spiritual giant. It is equally wrong to say, I have real problems, therefore there must be sin in my life. That is not necessarily so.
Throughout Scripture we see men and women God uses in significant ways, and part of His process of using them involves hurt — whether that is discipline, affliction, or hardship. "Count it all joy when you encounter various trials." Why? Because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. What you know trumps what you feel, so you can rest in the middle of it. Where are You, God? The Lord was with Joseph.
Visible to Those Around You
Look at verse 3: "His master saw that the Lord was with him." We did not get very far before we had to stop again and ask: the Lord is with you as a follower of Christ — but do the people around you see that? Is it evident? When you walk into the office tomorrow, do they see that the Lord is with you? Do they see something clearly different and distinctive about you, something they may not be able to fully name, but something unmistakably unique?
That is what Jesus says in the Sermon on the Mount: you are the salt of the earth, the light of the world. "Let your good works shine before men, that they may glorify your Father in heaven." There ought to be something different about you and the way you live — something different visible in the students when
Joseph in Potiphar's House
As you walk onto campus, as you push that stroller through the grocery store, there ought to be something different about you in the midst of frustration — and people should see that. So you have to ask the question: do they? Potiphar saw something different about Joseph. Verse 6 tells us he left Joseph in charge of everything. He said, in effect, you are the CEO of Potiphar Enterprises — everything that comes in, everything good, you are running the whole household.
Verse 7 says, "It came about after these events" — after what appears to be a significant turn, a time of great blessing when Joseph is in charge, still in slavery but running things — that Potiphar's wife looks at Joseph and says, "Lie with me." Do not sterilize this. Do not let it be printed words on a page. Look at the very end of verse 6: Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. This is a good-looking, well-built man.
Potiphar is a major player, so he is going to marry an attractive woman. And she says, "Have sex with me." Joseph refuses. In verses 8 and 9, he says he could not do that, could not sin against Potiphar — and most importantly, in the last part of verse 9: "How could I do this evil and sin against my God?" Joseph is far away from home. He could have said there are two consenting adults here. But Joseph understood that if he is God's man, if the Lord is with him, he cannot live like everyone else. There is something distinctive about him.
Temptation That Does Not Let Up
He got through it. We survived the temptation — surely it is over now. But look at verse 10: "It came about as she spoke to Joseph day after day." It never lets up. She comes at him again and again. As you read the story, you find that there is one day when Potiphar is gone, the guards are gone, the servants are gone — no one is in the house but Mrs. Potiphar. Joseph comes in and she says, "Come, lie with me." He says no and runs out of the house. She subsequently and falsely accuses him of trying to force himself sexually upon her.
So Potiphar takes him and, in verse 20, puts him in jail — the place where the king's prisoners were confined. He is now in the dungeon. That seems like an inadequate reward for saying no, day after day after day. This is the thanks Joseph gets: he does everything God asks, things are moving along, and now he finds himself in a dungeon. Where are you now, God?
The Lord Was With Joseph
Verse 21: "The Lord was with Joseph." And verse 23: "The Lord was with Joseph." In my Bible I have circled verse 2 — the Lord was with Joseph — verse 3 — the Lord was with Joseph — verse 21 — the Lord was with Joseph. And see what happens? The Lord gives Joseph favor in the sight of the chief jailer. The jailer did exactly what Potiphar had done: he saw something different in Joseph and said, "Joseph, this is yours to run. You're the man." He did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge. Verse 23 says he did not even have to check up on him or ask for reports.
It is a wonderful story, and it seems to me, by implication, to be saying there was no bitterness or anger in Joseph — because if there had been, I am convinced Potiphar or the chief jailer would have wanted no part of him. There is something sweet about Joseph. They were probably a little mystified: how can this man have this attitude in the midst of all this suffering, all this pain, all this hardship? What is so distinct about Joseph?
The answer is that what he knows trumps what he feels. What he knows is that the Lord is with him. Circumstantially, it is a hard case to prove — it certainly does not look like it right now. But he knows that God wants what is best for him, and if right now God has him in prison, that is where he needs to be.
God Is a God of Process
God is a God of process, not a God of outcome. God takes care of the outcome. What He wants from you and me is the right process — and that runs contrary to how I naturally think. I have been boycotting my local newspaper for decades now. I was angry about something, but I have long since forgotten what it was. When I do come across a newspaper in a store or a coffee shop or a restaurant, I go straight to the sports section and straight to the scores, the results, the standings. I cannot wait to know the outcome.
On Father's Day my family is fixing a special meal for me — it is a surprise, so I will be surprised, and they will be surprised when I say how good it was before suggesting we go watch the U.S. Open. And I do not really care about it shot by shot; I want to know the final score. God says, no — here is the process. I will take care of the score.
Two Men in Pharaoh's Prison
Chapter 40 is interesting. Two key figures in Pharaoh's administration offend him. Verse 1 tells us that Pharaoh was furious with his chief cupbearer and his chief baker. The cupbearer is someone who would be with Pharaoh almost constantly. Many cupbearers had an ongoing intimate relationship with the Pharaoh — intimate in the intellectual sense: friends, confidants, trusted companions. It is a post we are unfamiliar with today, but
Joseph in Prison
The cupbearer was one who would taste Pharaoh's food and drink before he ate it, to see if anybody was trying to poison him. It was an important job. The baker was not only responsible for baking but was running the whole house — he was the chief baker. For whatever reason, they did something to make Pharaoh furious, as verse 2 tells us, so he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail — the same place where Joseph was.
The captain of the bodyguard — who is that? That's Potiphar. Potiphar has this politically hot potato land in his lap: the cupbearer and the baker. Pharaoh is furious, and Potiphar cannot afford to have this messed up. So he needs somebody he can trust to handle this, and he puts Joseph in charge of them.
I don't believe for a second that Potiphar believed his wife when she made those accusations. Because if he really believed her, what would he have done? He knew what kind of woman she was, and he knew that at crunch time he needed somebody he could absolutely trust — and that was Joseph.
Joseph Interprets the Dreams
One night, both of these men have a dream. The next day, verse 7, Joseph comes in and says, "Why is your face so sad today?" That is a huge point. Joseph sees these men and sees there is something in their lives causing them concern. He does not say, "Not my job." He does not say, "Hey, you think you've got problems? Let me tell you about Potiphar and his wife, and my brothers, and the slavery. You're nothing compared to me." He says, "What's your problem, and can I help you?" That is the mark of a servant.
They tell him they have had dreams they do not understand, and Joseph asks to hear them. He gives the cupbearer his interpretation in verse 12: "The three branches are three days. Within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer." Joseph tells him that even though he is in prison now, he will be restored to his position.
Verse 14 contains the only request we get from Joseph throughout this entire time: "Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this." Do not think that everything was fine and Joseph was simply saying it was not that bad. He is saying this is awful — please talk to Pharaoh for me and get me out of here.
When the baker hears that interpretation, he says it sounds great and asks about his own dream. Joseph's answer is not good news. The cupbearer's head will be lifted up; the baker's will be lifted off. This is not what he wanted to hear. And then it happens exactly like that.
Two Full Years of Waiting
I have a line drawn in my Bible from verse 14 to verse 23, because it says, "Yet after all this, the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." Is there any end to this? One might think it took the cupbearer a week or two to get settled back in, but no — verse 1 of chapter 41 says, "It came about at the end of two full years." Seven hundred and fifty days. Two full years before anything happens.
Pharaoh has a dream and calls in all of his brain trust, asking if anyone can interpret it. No one can. The cupbearer, who is always nearby, suddenly remembers: there was a man back in the prison — a young Israelite. That is exactly how he describes him. Pharaoh says to bring this man in, and Joseph comes before him.
Joseph Before Pharaoh
Pharaoh tells Joseph that he has had a dream no one can interpret and that he has heard Joseph can interpret dreams. Look at Joseph's response in verse 16: "Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, 'It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.'" That is different from how you might approach that situation. You might be tempted to say, "Well, you are a very lucky Pharaoh, because here I am — you have a dream and I have an interpretation." Joseph says nothing of the sort. There is nothing special about him, nothing significant about him. It is God who interprets the dreams.
Joseph tells Pharaoh the interpretation: seven years of unparalleled prosperity in the land, followed by seven years of famine. He tells Pharaoh to be prepared. Pharaoh asks what they should do, and Joseph advises him to find a wise man, a man of discernment — a grain czar, someone to manage it all. Pharaoh asks where such a person could be found, and the answer they arrive at is Joseph himself.
From the Dungeon to the Palace
On what started as an ordinary day — Joseph doing his usual routine, perhaps long since having given up on the cupbearer and maybe even given up on the idea of ever getting out — everything changes. He begins his day in the dungeon like every other day. But by the end of that day, verse 42 tells us, Pharaoh took off his signet ring and put it on Joseph's hand, clothed him in garments of fine linen, put a gold necklace around his neck, had him ride in the second chariot, and proclaimed before him, "Bow the knee." He set him over all of Egypt. Joseph becomes the second most powerful man in the entire world.
That is a wonderful moment, but it is not the end of the story. Joseph at this point might have had a hard time getting back at Pharaoh, or at Potiphar, or even Potiphar's wife. But while all this famine is going on, it is worldwide. So the scene shifts in chapter 42: Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt and said to his sons —
Guilt and Its Four Responses
"Behold, I've heard there's grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some of it for us from that place so that we may live and not die." I laugh when I hear that, because I read it with a sense of attitude. It is almost as though Jacob is talking to his boys as if to say: We're hungry. Boys, why are you standing here? Your stomach growls. They have food. Go get food. Buy it. Bring it here. We eat. We live.
So away they go, and inevitably they end up before Joseph. Joseph recognizes them and decides to test them, so he throws them into prison. Verse 21, they land there and they said to one another, "Truly we are guilty concerning our brother because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us." We didn't have that information before — we just had a transaction — but he was pleading, begging: Don't do this. Why would you do this? Kill me. Don't sell me to these men. Yet we didn't listen. "Therefore, this distress has come upon us."
What is interesting to me is that here they are, seventeen or twenty years later, and the moment adversity comes, their minds immediately go back to that moment with Joseph. These men have been walking around with a time bomb waiting to go off because of guilt.
So what do you do with guilt? There are four options. First, you can deny it — pretend it doesn't even exist. Second, you can admit you're guilty and be filled with despair. The biblical illustration of that is Judas. Third — and many people go down this road — you can admit you're guilty and try to clean up your own act. "I'm guilty, but I'll do some moral realignment." That is what the Pharisees did. Fourth, you can admit your guilt and turn to Christ. That is what Peter did. There is not much difference between Judas and Peter in the denial itself; the difference is entirely in their response to it.
If you are carrying around all this guilt and asking what to do with it, you come to Him. That is what Jesus says: "Come to me." And who should come to Him? All who are weary and heavy laden — not only with the trials and tribulations of the day, though followers of Christ can certainly bring everything to Him, but also to those who would say they are not Christians. He says to you, come to me. You are going to grow weary of moral realignment. You are going to grow weary of how many times you give up this or that, turn off the computer, make this resolution or that one — because inevitably you will turn it back on. You just do. Come to Him. Believe Jesus for who He said He was.
Joseph Reveals Himself — and a Godly View of Suffering
Much transpires from that point to the end of the story. Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, is reunited with his father, and then his father dies. Turn to chapter 50, the very end of this wonderful book. After Jacob dies, the brothers are afraid that Joseph is finally going to settle the score — that perhaps he had only been gracious to them while Jacob was alive, and now that Jacob is gone he will have no reason to remain congenial and will kill them.
There is a short dialogue in verse 19. Joseph said to them, "Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?" Then Genesis 50:20 — many of you are familiar with it, and many of you have returned to this verse again and again for comfort: "As for you, you meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good in order that this present result might come about."
It takes a mature, godly, discerning view to be able to look at the things in your life and say, "You may have even intended to hurt me deeply, but God used it for good." The psalmist writes in Psalm 119:71, "It was good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn Thy statutes." That is a strange thing to say. How can he say it? It was good that I was afflicted so that I might understand You and who You are, God — and that understanding seems to come through affliction.
Can God get us out of everything? Of course He can. In Daniel chapter 3, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are about to be cast into the fire, and here is what they declare: "Nebuchadnezzar, our God is able to get us out of this." And then comes the part I love: "But even if He doesn't, that doesn't change anything." Even if He leaves us in the fire, even if He places me in this affliction, I may not fully understand what God is specifically teaching me — but I know this: He will use that pain and suffering and affliction for His honor and His glory and His good. You meant it for evil, but God is going to use it for good. "We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose."
The Purpose of Pain and Affliction
Chuck Swindoll writes these words: "Pain, when properly handled, can shape a life for greatness. History is replete with stories of those whose struggles and scars form the foundation of remarkable achievements. In fact, it was because of their hardship that they gained what they needed to achieve greatness."
A.W. Tozer writes these words: "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man, woman, boy, or girl greatly until He has hurt them deeply." God is in the process of transforming you — breaking you down not to destroy you, but to assemble you so that you are more fit to serve as a soldier in His army. That is what affliction does. Good times do not do that.
This does not mean we never grow weary. It does not mean there are never moments when we say, "This does not even make sense to me." Job had a moment exactly like that.
Job's Complaint and God's Response
Job is with his friends, and they are going back and forth. Job is very frustrated and a little angry. From Job chapter 23, Job says this: "I'm not letting up, I'm standing my ground. My complaint is legitimate. God has no right to treat me like this. It isn't fair. If I knew where on earth to find Him, I'd go straight to Him. I'd lay my case before Him face-to-face and give Him all my arguments first-hand."
Some time passes, and by chapter 38, God begins to respond. Chapter 38, verse 1: "Now finally God answered Job from the eye of the storm and He said, why do you confuse the issue? Why do you talk without knowing what you're talking about? Pull yourself together, Job. Stand up on your feet. Stand tall. I have some questions for you and I want some straight answers. Where were you when I created the earth? Tell me since you know so much. Who decided on its size?" This goes on for four chapters.
Finally Job says, time out — no more questions, God. Here is his classic response: "Before I'd heard about you, now I've seen you." Before, he could fill in all the blanks in a Bible study and answer everything from memorized verses, but it was all theory. Now it is real. That is the same thing Joseph would say: you meant it for evil, but God used it for good.
The Promises of God
According to someone who has taken the time to count, there are 7,474 promises from God in the Bible. Here is one of them: "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." You can have everlasting life today — not based on anything you do, because we know how we think humanly. We think religion. We think we will do this, give this up, break off that relationship, turn this off. But it is not about that.
"God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus says in John 10:10, "I've come that you might have life and have it in abundance." And as Jesus is saying goodbye to His disciples in John chapter 17, verse 3, He says this: "This is eternal life, that they might know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You've sent."
This is a wonderful, timeless story. A timeless God does not produce dated material. This truth is as fresh and applicable as though it were written yesterday.
The Call to Forgive
There is one more thing, and time prevents us from fully expanding on it — any one of these points could easily fill a full day or an entire series. But now consider: you are Joseph. What do you do when you want to get even and you cannot get even? There is remarkable forgiveness in his life. As we noted earlier, there was no visible buildup to that moment, no visible anger or bitterness.
Paul writes in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 31: "Let all bitterness and wrath, anger, slander, be put away from you along with all malice, but be kindhearted to one another, forgiving each other." How can you forgive when you have been hurt like that? Nobody would deny that Joseph had been genuinely wronged. Many of us feel the same — it is not fair, they did us wrong, and we cannot find the capacity to forgive.
The answer is in the next breath of that same passage: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ is also forgiving you." Not because you deserved it — God forgave you. Now, are you going to hold a grudge against this other person?
Life Interrupted
This is really the story of virtually all of our lives: life interrupted. Things happen, and we look at them and say this just does not make any sense. But you do not need to understand it. If you waited to use a computer until you fully understood it, you would never turn it on. If you had to understand your car to drive it, you would never get in it. You are never going to fully understand an infinite God. You are never going to take an infinite God and make Him operate within your finite boundaries.
What we do know is this: His ways are higher than our ways. You may have had evil intended against you, and the world may have meant it for evil, but God uses it for good. He is in charge. Where is God in your life? Right where He was in Joseph's life. If you are a follower of Christ, He is right there with you.
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Father, thank You for this marvelous truth. Thank You for what You have done in our lives, for the forgiveness we find in You and You alone. For those here today who may be carrying bitterness or anger, God, I pray that You would help them — remind them of how much they have been forgiven, so that forgiving others becomes an easier goal to reach. We see how brutal guilt can be, how something from years before can hang over a life and never be brought before You. God, thank You for Your Son Jesus, and for the forgiveness we find in our lives because of Him. We pray to You this morning in His name, amen.