Joseph

INTRODUCTION

The story of Joseph is an incredible story. It has every element of drama that we can possibly think of.

Conflict, intrigue, temptation, betrayal, deceit, concealed identities.

This is the story of the family of Jacob, the fourth generation of Abraham’s family. They are to carry on the promise of God to Abraham, and if we’re honest, things are not looking good!

Yet God uses all of their sin to bring about redemption, forgiveness, love and hope.

I found a wonderful paper written by Murray Capill entitled, “God Meant it for Good: Preaching the Gospel of Joseph”.

A lot of the material I have here is adapted from that paper.

We are going to do an overview of the story of Joseph this evening, and we are going to highlight 5 truths that stand out that we can cling to that are woven into this account.

Let’s begin by reading the beginning of the story to set the context.

Genesis 37:1—11

The first truth that we find in the story of Joseph is that it is…

1. A Story of Divine Providence

At the highest level this is a story of God preserving the family of Jacob because it is the family of promise.

God preserves this family through their sinful actions.

Some of the sin and injustice we see is:

The brothers’ rejection of Joseph and their selling him to the Egyptians

Genesis 37:25-28

Joseph’s injustice at the hands of Potiphar’s wife.

Genesis 39:11—23.

Yet we see God is with Joseph. (vv. 2; 21)

Being forgotten for 2 years by the butler.

Genesis 40:20—23.

Joseph Realizes God is in Control

Though we think of all of these things as unfair and unjust in the life of Joseph…

At the end of the story, Joseph’s realization corrects us, because he understands that it was all a part of God’s plan to preserve His people in order to fulfill His promise.

Genesis 50:20 ESV

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

This is the pattern of turning evil to good, which climaxes in the death of Jesus.

Acts 2:23 ESV

this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

Acts 4:27–28 ESV

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

The Doctrine of Divine Providence

Divine providence is the governance of God by which He, with wisdom and love, cares for and directs all things in the universe. The doctrine of divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. He is sovereign over the universe as a whole (Psalm 103:19),

the physical world (Matthew 5:45), the affairs of nations (Psalm 66:7), human destiny (Galatians 1:15), human successes and failures (Luke 1:52), and the protection of His people (Psalm 4:8). This doctrine stands in direct opposition to the idea that the universe is governed by chance or fate.

This raises a lot of questions about why God chose to do things the way He did…

Why did Joseph have to suffer so much?

Why did their have to be such a severe famine?

Why did Joseph test his brothers so harshly?

Why did the Egyptians have to sell themselves during the famine?

We do not have all of the answers, but we do know that God uses suffering for His glory, and for our growth and refining.

How does the fact that God is in control encourage you today?

The second truth that we find in the story of Joseph is that it is…

2. A Story of God Creating a Nation Out of Nothing

Through this story we see that God is continuing to make a nation out of the descendants of Abraham.

At the beginning of the story things do not start out well, and we wonder how God is going to make this bunch of sinful people into a great nation who will fill the earth with His glory!

Through what God is allowing them to go through, God is shaping and moulding them into the people He wants them to be.

Murray Capill — God Meant it for Good: Preaching the Gospel of Joseph

It is clear from the start that God chooses them and then changes them, not the reverse. This is the chosen family but clearly they are not chosen as a model family.

It is a powerful reminder to us that God can use broken, sinful people.

This would have been a powerful reminder to the Israelites, to whom this account was originally written. (We must always remember the original audience.)

God did not choose the Israelites because they were amazing!

The account of this story was a reminder to them that their roots were rotten, and only by the grace of God were they a nation.

God would remind them of this later in…

Deuteronomy 7:6–11 (ESV)

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates him. He will repay him to his face. You shall therefore be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today.

God does His work slowly over time.

There are long gaps in these stories during times of suffering.

Long gaps in Joseph’s story, his families story, Jacob laments Joseph’s death for many years, the brothers make multiple trips to Egypt with weeks in between...

Through this waiting, God is working, building His nation.

How does this make you feel about things you are waiting for in this season of life?

The third truth that we find in the story of Joseph is that it is…

3. A Story of God Transforming His People

We see God transforming Joseph.

He is the caught in the middle of favouritism and all that comes with it.

Joseph is then sent to Egypt with no support.

There he is tempted and mistreated.

In all of this Joseph is being transformed into the man God’s wants him to be.

He names his sons after his suffering, noting God’s sovereignty and blessing amid hardship.

Genesis 41:50–52 ESV

Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On, bore them to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.” The name of the second he called Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.”

Through his struggles he has learned to trust in God, and wait for his timing.

As we’ve already seen, Joseph also recognizes God meant these things for good.

We see God transforming Joseph’s brothers

Joseph becomes a large part of God transforming his brothers.

When they come to Egypt, they bow down to Joseph. Although they wouldn’t have been able to recognize him, he immediately recognized them.

Let’s read… Genesis 42:1-10

We may not understand all the reasons why Joseph acts the way he does toward them, but he may have realized that God was working through him to transform his brothers.

Joseph does this through three rounds of testing.

The first round of testing

The purpose — to get info and expose their hearts.

Accuses them of being spies; imprisons them; detains Simeon and sends the rest to get Benjamin; blessing them with the money back in their bags.

God is using Joseph to see where their hearts are at. We see hints of their heart change…

Genesis 42:21–22 ESV

Then they said to one another, “In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.” And Reuben answered them, “Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.”

The second round of testing

The purpose — to soften their hearts

They must put their lives on the line for their brother Benjamin. In order to return to buy grain, they must bring their brother Benjamin. This means Jacob must release his beloved son to them, and Judah vows to bring him back safely.

Genesis 43:8–9 ESV

And Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.

Their return also brings the interesting question about what will they do about the money in their sacks.

They had previously sold Joseph for twenty pieces of silver, so are they still greedy? What we find is that they quickly make things right.

When they return, Joseph has them come to his home for a meal.

Genesis 43:33–34 ESV

And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.

This too was a test. They had been jealous of Joseph, so what are they going to do when Benjamin is shown favour?

So far we see no on-going resentment or bitterness in his brothers.

Maybe they had changed.

The third round of testing

The purpose — to see how they will treat Benjamin, the son of favour, when he falls into trouble.

Joseph tests them by putting his silver cup in Benjamin’s sack. What are the brothers going to do when Benjamin falls into trouble, and brings trouble on the family?

Genesis 44:10–13 ESV

He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.” Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack. And he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city.

Here we see that the nature of these brothers truly has changed. There is no selfishness, no bitterness. They stand with him and go back to Egypt with him.

It is after all these tests that Joseph sees their love, and that God has truly changed them.

God has transformed this family through all of their hardships and struggles.

How did God transform His people?

Do you think God still changes His people this way?

The fourth truth that we find in the story of Joseph is that it is…

4. A Story of Salvation Surprises

A reader of the book of Genesis would be looking for the one who would crush the head of the serpent (Gen. 3:15).

We would expect Reuben as the oldest son to be the heir to the promises of God, but because he slept with his father’s concubine, he disgraced himself.

Then it would make sense for Simeon as the second born to become the heir, but he is not.

The narrative of the story with Joseph as the Saviour of the family would lead us to believe that he would be the heir, and then that one of his sons would become the heir. But that is not the case.

Ultimately we find out that Judah is the one through whom the promised Messiah will come.

Though he is sexually unfaithful with Tamar, he eventually becomes the one who sets himself apart as a truly sacrificial leader, and gives a wonderful speech to Joseph.

It is a speech of humility, love for his father, integrity, and self-sacrifice.

Genesis 44:18-34

APPLICATION

God is unconventional. He seldom does things the way we would expect.

His plans and purposes are unique, and He uses the things this world regards as nothing.

This culminates in the story of Christ, the ultimate serpent crusher, who wins the victory by dying as a sacrificial Lamb.

NOT WHAT WE WOULD EXPECT!

How should this affect our thinking as we wait for God to move?

The fifth truth that we find in the story of Joseph is that it is…

5. A Story of Hope

We end the story with two deaths.

Jacob’s death

Asks to be buried in the land of Canaan. Genesis 49:29-33

He was still hanging on to God’s promise to give them the land.

It served as a reminder to his sons of the promise of God, that he was passing down to them.

It foreshadows their exodus from Egypt later on… as well as…

Their ultimate exodus from the world to a heavenly kingdom where they will hail a son of Jacob as King.

Joseph’s death

He likewise expressed the same faith as his father, asking to be buried in Canaan. Genesis 50:22-26

His bones were collected, taken through the Red Sea, carried around the desert for 40 years, and eventually buried in the promised land.

It shows Joseph’s humility. Though he was such a great, powerful man, he was simply trusting in a promise from God, passed down through his father.

It shows he was looking for a land of promise beyond this world… beyond the grave.

As NT Christians, we have the fulfilment of these promises.

Hebrews 11:39–40 ESV

And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

We are not merely on-lookers, but we are a part of the story that God is weaving.

Hebrews 12:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

We should follow the example of faith in the saints of the OT.

They were not perfect, but they had faith in God’s promise.

We must look to Jesus, the fulfilment of those promises, who will ensure our faith, and safely bring us into the Promised Land.

His own example was humble obedience to God’s will.

CLOSING PRAYER PROMPT

In what ways have you been challenged to “lay aside every weight”, live with more faith in God, and give more of yourself in sacrifice to Jesus?