Wilderness Wanderings 5

Genesis 37:28 "So the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites (slave traders) for twenty pieces of silver."

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Now, in these three instances we see three Bible luminaries experiencing the sting of betrayal--Moses, Joseph, and our Lord Jesus.

Moses's two siblings--Aaron and Miriam--betrayed their covenant with him by breaking ranks and criticizing his choice of a wife.

Jesus received the ultimate betrayal when Judas turned Him over to the Romans for 30 pieces of silver--and he did it with a sarcastic kiss.

And Joseph experienced the bitter sting of betrayal not once, not twice, but several times in his life, which we'll talk more about in just a moment.

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We've been talking about various wilderness experiences for several weeks now--the wilderness of want, the wilderness of loneliness, and the wilderness of trouble.

We've seen that God uses our wilderness experiences to strengthen, form, and shape us into the kind of God-focused, Faith-oriented people that can take down the giants of the Promised Land.

A wilderness experience is essentially those times in our Christian walk where we feel dry, God seems far away, and our faith is tried by difficult, challenging circumstances.

Wilderness experiences were common to God's people all through the Old and New Testaments.

Peter encouraged the Christians of his day, "My friends, don’t be surprised at the painful things that you are now suffering, which are testing your faith. Don’t think that something strange is happening to you. 13 But you should be happy that you are sharing in Christ’s sufferings. You will be happy and full of joy when Christ shows his glory" (1 Pet. 4:12-13).

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So today I want to talk to you about a fourth type of wilderness experience--the Wilderness of Betrayal.

Nothing stings, shocks, or throws you into a wilderness place quite like BETRAYAL.

A trusted loved one is found to have turned on you.

That person you placed total trust in has delivered a Judas kiss, betraying your confidence, and has stabbed you in the back.

You feel like the world's biggest fool for ever having believed in them.

How did you not see it? you wonder.

How could you have been so blind? So trusting? So lacking in discernment?

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In Shakespeare's famous play called Julius Caesar, the moment arrives when a number of assassins have attacked Caesar. While they are stabbing him to death he sees amongst them his dear friend and protege, Marcus Brutus. As he falls dying he utters the words, "Et tu, Brute?" Meaning, You too, Brutus?

The quotation is widely used in Western culture to signify the utmost betrayal by an unexpected person, such as a friend.

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Have you been betrayed by people you trusted?

Have you been abandoned by your family?

Are you a victim of false accusations or some kind of injustice?

I doubt there are many here today that have not felt the pain of betrayal somewhere along the way.

The question is, How do you navigate the stormy waters of betrayal to continue your spiritual journey with the Lord unhindered?

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No one in the Bible gives us the answer like the Old Testament patriarch, Joseph.

Consider the level of betrayal he experienced:

As a teenager he was the victim of resentment, hatred, and rejection.

Gen 37:4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

He was later kidnapped by his brothers and thrown into a deep, dark, claustrophobic well...

Gen 37:23-24 "So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his coat of many colors, and they took him and threw him into the abandoned well...the well was empty; there was no water in it."

He was sold as slave by those same brothers to the Ishmaelite slave traders.

Gen 37:28 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the well and sold him for twenty pieces of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

Once in Egypt he was sold as a slave again to an Egyptian named Potiphar.

Gen 37:36 "Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard."

Later, he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and thrown into prison...

Gen 39:19 "When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, This is how your slave treated me, he burned with anger" and had Joseph thrown into prison.

After helping two of Pharaoh's servants through their own personal crisis while in prison, they forgot to mention his injustice to Pharaoh when they got out.

Hated, betrayed, lied about, and forgotten---this was the first half of Joseph's biography.

But Joseph didn't withdraw into a cave of self pity, join himself to a party of whiners, or let these things destroy his life....

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We know that he "more than conquered" betrayal because of what he later named his children.

Gen 41:51 Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: "For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house."

Gen 41:52 And the name of the second he called Ephraim: "For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."

So Joseph's children were named "forgetful" and "fruitful."

God had "made him forget" the sting of betrayal.

And God had caused him to be fruitful in the very place the enemy had tried to destroy him!

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Now, there are two keys in Joseph's life that protected him from becoming an angry, bitter old man, and carried him through betrayal to fulfilling God's plan...

And they are the keys we too must use to unlock the door to victory.

I. He embraced God's grace.

Joseph recognized and responded to the grace of God in the presence of every betrayal.

He didn't become jaded, cynical, bitter, or give up on life.

Joseph teaches us that, No matter what you're going through, the silver lining of God's grace is there.

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The Bible warns about the trap of missing God's grace when you're offended and hurt.

When we refuse to embrace grace, we usually fall to bitterness.

"Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many" (Heb. 12:15).

What is GRACE? Grace is what gives to us the desire to do, and the power to do the will of God.

It is God's will that we not become embittered by betrayals, but trust God to work through it for our good.

This is exactly what Joseph did.

He embraced God's grace and look what happened...

"The LORD was with Joseph and blessed him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master."

And then it says, "Potiphar noticed this and realized that the LORD was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did" (Gen. 39:3).

Potiphar soon put Joseph in charge of his entire household and entrusted him with all his business dealings.

From the day Joseph was put in charge, the LORD began to bless Potiphar for Joseph’s sake.

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And Joseph did exactly the same thing when lied about and thrown into prison for something he didn't do.

It's not that Joseph didn't have some very dark and discouraging moments.

But his M.O. was to embrace God's grace in the pain of betrayal.

And this is exactly what the Lord Jesus did as well!

As the crowd cried out for His crucifixion, mocked Him while He hung on the Cross, and betrayed their loyalty to Him, Jesus responded to grace and prayed for them: "Father, forgive them...."

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What we see in Joseph's experience is that "Life's not fair, but God is good!"

God doesn't always change negative, unfair circumstances when we wish He would.

But He can be totally counted on to send His empowering grace to carry us through it!

It says in Gen 39:21, "But the LORD was with Joseph in prison too, and he granted Joseph favor with the chief jailer."

Before long, the jailer put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison.

So, in the presence of betrayal---Embrace God's grace to forgive and move on.

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II. Joseph stayed focused on the bigger picture.

This is how he kept his sanity.

He remembered the dreams God had given him...

In those days there was no Bible, so God gave dreams.

And as a teenager, Joseph had dreamed of being in a position of authority and power.

He had even seen his own family in subservience to him.

These dreams were given to Joseph to anchor him in the difficult days that would come.

Even though it looked like all was lost and the devil had won the day, Joseph held to God's dream for him.

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LESSON: God ministers many things to us in the early days of our walk to prepare us for the journey ahead.

God knew what the future held for Joseph---the betrayals, the lies, the slavery and the prison.

So God gave him two unforgettable dreams that were branded on the inner walls of his soul...

At night when he laid his head on the hard prison floor, he remembered them---claiming, clinging, and believing in the God of those dreams.

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You know the rest of the story...

Pharaoh had two disturbing dreams of his own, and Joseph the dreamer accurately interpreted them.

In a single day the rejected, hated, lied about, slandered, and forgotten Joseph was hauled from the pit of prison to the pinnacle of success...

He was proclaimed second only to Pharaoh in all the land of Egypt!

He would later tell his mortified brothers...

"You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Gen. 50:20).

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Today, have you been betrayed?

Are bitterness and cynicism creeping like a cancer into your soul?

I encourage you today to "embrace His grace," and remember Who holds your future!"