20240128 Genesis 40: Forgotten But Not Forsaken
Genesis: Looking Back in Order to Move Ahead Spiritually • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Call to Worship - Psalm 94
1 O Yahweh, God of vengeance, God of vengeance, shine forth! 2 Be lifted up, O Judge of the earth, Render recompense to the proud. 3 How long shall the wicked, O Yahweh, How long shall the wicked exult? 4 They pour forth words, they speak arrogantly; All workers of iniquity vaunt themselves. 5 They crush Your people, O Yahweh, And afflict Your inheritance. 6 They slay the widow and the sojourner And murder the orphans. 7 They have said, “Yah does not see, Nor does the God of Jacob discern.”
9 He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? 10 He who disciplines the nations, will He not rebuke, Even He who teaches man knowledge? 11 Yahweh knows the thoughts of man, That they are vanity. 12 Blessed is the man whom You discipline, O Yah, And whom You teach out of Your law; 13 That You may grant him calm from the days of calamity, Until a pit is dug for the wicked. 14 For Yahweh will not abandon His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance.
Scripture Reading
1 Now Joseph was brought down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian official of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had brought him down there. 2 And Yahweh was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
21 But Yahweh was with Joseph and extended lovingkindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. 22 So the chief jailer gave into the hand of Joseph all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s hand because Yahweh was with him; and whatever he did, Yahweh made to succeed.
1 Now it happened that after these things, the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. 2 And Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. 3 So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, in the jail, the same place where Joseph was imprisoned. 4 And the captain of the bodyguard appointed Joseph as overseer over them, and he attended to them; and they were in confinement for some time. 5 Then the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, who were confined in jail, both had a dream the same night, each man with his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation.
6 Now Joseph came to them in the morning and saw them, and behold, they were dejected. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in confinement in his master’s house, saying, “Why are your faces so sad today?” 8 Then they said to him, “We have had a dream, and there is no one to interpret it.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Recount it to me, please.”
9 So the chief cupbearer recounted his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me; 10 and on the vine were three branches. And as it was budding, its blossoms came out, and its clusters produced ripe grapes. 11 “Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.” 12 Then Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days; 13 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. 14 “Only remember me when it goes well with you, and please show me lovingkindness by remembering me to Pharaoh and getting me out of this house. 15 “For I was in fact stolen from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the pit.”
16 And the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, so he said to Joseph, “I also saw in my dream, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head; 17 and in the top basket there were some of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.” 18 Then Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days; 19 within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head off of you and will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off of you.” 20 Thus it happened on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
21 And he restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; 22 but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them. 23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Let’s pray:
What do we believe as a church?
The sovereignty of God
Regeneration precedes the gift of faith
Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone
The gospel - that Christ died, was buried, but was raised by the Holy Spirit from the dead. And through His death those who through faith receive Him have eternal life
A life of true faith always produces a life of obedience to the word of God
How do these beliefs appear in the life of Joseph? God is in control, Joseph has been set apart by God, he is a man of faith and he is a man of God, a man who trusts in God
And how should we look at the life of Joseph in Genesis 40?
In this chapter we read that God is with Joseph and God blesses Joseph. In this chapter God gives Joseph the ability to interpret dreams. But in this chapter we read that Jospeh is forgotten.
What can we learn from the life of a man who is used by God but forgotten by men?
14 “For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place, and you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not reached royalty for such a time as this?”
28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose.
5 Make sure that your way of life is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU, NOR WILL I EVER FORSAKE YOU,”
How do we cherish these verses in those times of life when we find ourselves faithful but forgotten?
In Genesis 18 Abraham declares, Will not the Judge of all the earth do right? Then in Genesis 39 Joseph proclaims, How could I do such a thing and sin against God? And so, when we see in Genesis 40 that Joseph has been forgotten, it is only natural to ask the question, Can God sin against us? In other words, is it possible for God to forget us, to not care for us, to not do right? Could Romans 8:28 not be true?
Two truths to cling to when you feel forgotten:
(1) The Lord never forgets
1 Then God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided.
29 Thus it happened, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot lived.
22 Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb.
(2) The nature of prophetic truth - sometimes it heals, sometimes it hurts
The chief baker and the chief cupbearer remind us of an important principle - in His sovereignty God will accomplish His will for His glory.
But this may mean trials and struggles for those who being made into the like ness of Christ through trials and struggles.
40:16 - and the chief baker saw that he had answered favorably
16 And the chief baker saw that he had interpreted favorably, so he said to Joseph, “I also saw in my dream, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head;
Finally, we need to understand that the entire Book of Genesis shows us that sinful men live in direct disobedience to the word of God. It began in the Garden of Eden. In the life of Joseph we see in Gen 37 Joseph’s brother’s rejecting the word of God, in Gen 39, Potiphar’s wife reject the word of God, in Gen 40 the chief cupbearer rejects the word of God.
But how, he does not honor the one who brings the word to him.
And we see the same in the life of the Lord Jesus who came with the words of life but they rejected him and crucified him.
When life is not fair we must be careful to not think that God is not good.
We may be forgotten but we are never forsaken.
(Now Thank We All Our God) Oh may this bounteous God through all your life be near you, with ever joyful hearts and blessed peace to cheer you; and keep you in His grace, and guide you when perplexed, and free you from all ills in this world and the next. Amen.