The story of Joseph

Let’s pray

Father in heaven

Thank you for your mercy, grace and love

we are sinners

and need to be forgiven every day

we know we don't deserve it we ask for mercy

forgive us draw us into the freedom of your love

the love you gave when your son died in our place

and now we want to worship you with all our heart.

come to us. and fill our heart with your presence

Today sermon topic is The story of Joseph.

and through this story, I want to talk about that

God brings his people into trouble

while planning for their good.

The story begins in Genesis chapter 37.

joseph is 17 years old

He is one of the 12 sons of jacob

His father loves him better

therefore his 11 brothers hate him.

they hate him.

verse 4

“all his brothers hated him and could not speak peacefully to him “

then on top of everything joseph has a dream

all those brothers and mom and dad are going to bow down to him.

so all those brothers hated him all the more

so one day they're out hitting the flock

they see him coming

and their hatred and jealousy boils over

they resolve to kill him they throw him in a pit.

reuben tries to save him. while reuben is missing

they sell him to the midianites into slavery in egypt

joseph is bought there by potiphar

and when his success as a faithful follower of yahweh

when his success is at its peak and his righteousness is at its most faithful

potiphar's wife slanders him as a rapist

and potiphar in fury throws him unjustly into jail

and again

his success the blessing of god on him

his righteousness flourishes

his power to interpret dreams is exercised for the baker

and the cup bearer of pharaoh

the cup bearer goes back to pharaoh just like joseph predicted

and he totally forgets joseph for two more years

two years he waits

and now 13 years has gone by

he's 30 years old

every time

he thought he was under the blessing of God

doing what God wanted him to do

things got worse

not better

pharaoh has a dream

the cup bearer remembers

“there's a man in prison who can interpret dreams. he interpreted mine”

“go get him”

joseph says to pharaoh

“It is not in me

God will give pharaoh a favorable answer.”

the dream is this

there's going to be seven years of prosperity

followed by seven years of famine

pharaoh is so impressed by joseph's wisdom that

he makes him vice president in charge of making sure that

during those seven prosperous years

there's enough grain for the seven lean years

and the writer of this story

moses makes very clear three times that this prosperity and this famine

are the work of god

Let me read those to you

genesis 41:25

God has revealed to pharaoh

joseph says what he is about to do

verse 28

god has shown to pharaoh what he is about to do

verse 32

joseph said to pharaoh

the doubling of pharaoh's dream means that

the thing is fixed by god, and god will shortly bring it about.

so God is bringing on egypt and the entire region

including where joseph’s brothers live

he's bringing a famine

which is going to threaten the existence of God's chosen people

all the while

laying a 22 years plan to rescue those people

through the very sin of selling joseph into slavery

He reveals himself to the brothers

they send for their father and the 12 tribes of israel that God had chosen

and they all moved 70 plus people to egypt

it's been 22 years

and think of it

only now can joseph see

what in the world God was doing for 22 years

the loss

the slander

the loneliness

the affliction

the injustice

the seemingly pointless righteousness

Now He sees what that was about

I don't doubt that

this could happen to you too.

Why didn't god prevent joseph from being sold into egypt?

Why didn't he prevent the cupbearer from forgetting joseph for two more years?

If god's sovereign hand is all over this

Why didn't he just prevent it?

This is the bible's answer. psalms 105:17

“he had sent a man ahead of them joseph, who was sold as a slave”

The brothers sinful, hateful, jealous selling of joseph into slavery

was in fact god's sending of joseph

to rescue the very brothers who sold him into peril

that God was designing

that would be a great God-glorifying deliverance.

so the suffering of joseph

who was decisive?

God was decisive.

The gospel of our salvation was

accomplished through the evil of sinful men

as they killed the son of God

Sinful men killed Jesus

Random evil saved nobody

700 years before jesus, isaiah said

“It was the will of the Lord to crush him

he has put him to grief.”

he planned it, he predicted it, he superintended it,

he finished the rescue of his people glorious salvation

This is not random evil.

This is planned.

otherwise we wouldn't be saved

Joseph said to his all brothers

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.

Satan meant to make us miserable

and he meant that we would lose faith

in the goodness of god and his prayer answering power

and at any given point where evil strikes God's people

you can say that sentence truly

“you meant it for evil, satan!

my God, my loving kind purposeful wise sovereign God

meant it for good”

let's pray

father these students

have a great calling

oh that the world would see

what you have put in your word

that they would see it for themselves

not just have information move from

one head to another head

but skills imparted for seeing glory

truth that is totally revolutionary to the way we live

I pray this in jesus name

amen