Hated part 3

Introduction

I started this series talking about suffering. It’s not necessarily a great way to start a series, because most of us like to limit the amount of suffering we experience, and most don’t like to dwell on times they’ve been suffering, and none of us are looking forward to our next experience with suffering.

And yet, suffering is common to all of us. To be human is to experience times of suffering.

Augustine: “God had one son on earth without sin, but never one without suffering.”

Martin Luther: “They gave our Master a crown of thorns. Why do we hope for a crown of roses?”

C.S. Lewis: “Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself.”

And, it is during times of suffering that we typically want to know the answers to some pretty big questions:

Why am I suffering?

Where is God when I’m suffering?

Why has God allowed me to suffer in this way?

Now, truth be told, we aren’t promised answers that will make the suffering go away or lessen the pain. However, knowing a little about how God works despite the suffering of His people can help us to keep our eyes fixed on Him, even when we might be downcast and beaten up.

One of the greatest people in biblical history that we can learn from when it comes to the area of suffering is Joseph in the book of Genesis.

So far we’ve seen that Joseph was hated by his brothers because his father favored him, because God favored him, and because he’d earned his father’s trust while his brothers had shown their father how untrustworthy they were.

Eventually the brothers concocted a plan to kill Joseph and blame it on wild animals. However, the oldest brother, Reuben, talked them out of killing him, but only because he wanted to win back his father’s affections by “rescuing” Joseph.

So the brothers took Joseph and threw him into a cistern.

And that’s where we pick up this morning.

Body: Genesis 37:25-36

Verses 25-28

“…they sat down to eat...”

Joseph’s brothers show how wicked their hearts have become, in that after doing such a horrible thing they can sit back and eat, possibly celebrating their deed.

Doing it while hearing the pleading for help from Joseph.

Where is that, you ask?

Genesis 42:21 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.”

This is a picture of the depravity of man.

Depravity means that, because of the effect of sin on all humans, we are incapable of saving ourselves because we are throughly sinful.

Our depraved nature means that, without the influence of the Holy Spirit, we are incapable of moral good according to God’s glorious standards of perfection.

This results in ever increasing sin against God and man.

Depravity also fools people into thinking that their sinful actions are justified for any number of reasons.

The brothers felt so justified in their actions, that they now have an appetite without any signs of remorse whatsoever.

Jeremiah 17:9 ESV

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?

This challenges the modern saying, “Follow your heart...”

“…a caravan of Ishmaelites...”

As they are eating, they see a caravan of Ishmael’s people coming and Judah decides to get rid of Joseph by selling him into slavery.

Wait, are this Ishamelites or Midianite traders?

Ishamelites is a broad grouping of people, while more specifically we see that they were people from Midian.

“Then Judah said...”

Why did Judah do this?

It might have been an attempt to save his brother’s life, but more likely that he saw an opportunity to get rid of his brother and profit at the same time.

They sold their brother into slavery for twenty shekels of silver.

The slave trade was big business in Egypt. Many were prisoners of war, but others were sold into slavery through other ways. They often came from Canaan, Mesopotamia, and other places throughout Asia Minor. In fact, the term for slave was “Asiatic.”

Joseph ends up in Egypt and the brothers believe they have rid themselves of an annoyance.

However, little did they know, God had other plans in spite of their wicked schemes!

Proverbs 21:30 ESV

No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel can avail against the Lord.

Verses 29-30

“…Reuben returned...”

Reuben was apparently not there when Joseph was sold into slavery, so when he returns to the pit to become the hero, his plan is foiled by his brothers.

Reuben is really broken up here, but not because of the loss of his brother, but because of the loss of his opportunity to gain favor in his father’s eyes.

It is possible the Reuben believes Joseph to be dead.

Verses 31-35

“…they took Joseph’s robe...”

The brothers have another problem they need to solve. Jacob is going to ask questions about Joseph’s whereabouts.

But they concoct another plan: they make it look like Joseph was attacked by a wild animal.

Notice that they “sent” the robe to Jacob, soaked in blood.

This gave the plausible deniability that they were there when their brother was killed. It would be these unnamed others who supposedly found the tunic and brought it to Jacob.

This also allowed the brothers to not look their father in the eye when they broke his heart.

“Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days...”

Their plan works and Jacob, upon seeing Joseph’s robe and surmising that he was dead, goes into a deep grief.

Putting on sackcloth was a common custom associated with mourning in the ancient world.

He also feels so depressed that he believes he could go into the grave himself.

Sheol was the OT name for both the grave and the place of the dead, Hell. However, at this time the theology of the afterlife has not really been fleshed out too much.

Consider this:

Jacob is going through the worst kind of pain a parent can experience, losing a child. In particular, he has lost the child that he favored.

For Jacob, Joseph is dead. He has no reason to believe otherwise.

And yet, Joseph going to Egypt is within God’s sovereign purposes. So, it was within God’s sovereign purposes to allow Jacob to feel immense pain for a long period of time. The resolution of which wouldn’t come until much later into Jacob’s life.

This doesn’t fit people’s favorite narrative of God wants us to be happy. It reminds us that God can, and sometimes will, allow us to go through excruciating pain to bring about something greater than we can see in the midst of our pain and suffering.

That’s a hard truth. And it’s a reality of a sinful, fallen world.

Verse 36

“…the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar...”

Potiphar

During this same time, Joseph is sold to an important man in the Pharaoh’s military, Potiphar.

We don’t know what exact position captain of the guard was in Egypt, but is likely was linked with the prison system.

This is foreshadowing for the next chapter we will look at.

Egypt

Egypt would have been an awesome and terrifying place for young Joseph. But, as we shall see, Joseph would put his trust in the LORD.

Egypt is one of the greatest civilizations in human history.

Their culture goes as far back as 3100 B.C., consisting of at least thirty-one different dynasties;

Some of their incredible monuments, most of which erected seven hundred years before Joseph came to Egypt, still stand today;

The Great Pyramid at Giza has a square base of 755 feet on each side, and stands 481 feet high. It is made up of nearly two and a half million blocks weighting two and a half tons each.

Think about it for a second: In Joseph’s time these would have been seen as extremely old!

The Nile River feed the Nile River basin, making it one of the most fertile places in the ancient world. The land was rich with natural resources. And gold was plentiful in the north and south.

But it’s greatest advantage was that it was naturally defended by deserts on all sides. The African tribes to the south didn’t have the power to overcome mighty Egypt, and the people of Asia Minor were hindered by geography.

In fact, many historians believe that if it wasn’t for the various Egyptian Pharaohs desire for greater wealth and expansion, they would have continued to stay a world power much, much longer than they did…which is impressive when you consider that the United States is only 247 years old, and has only really been a world power for the last 100 years or so. Compared that with Egypt which was at least 1500 years old, and probably much older!

Joseph entered into an amazing place, for sure! But a place foreign to his experience, especially as one who feared God.

Genesis 39:2 ESV

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.

So What?

In this passage, three things stand out about suffering:

Suffering is a consequence of mankind’s sinfulness.

Why is God putting me through this?

God certainly allows bad things to come into our lives, but it’s a stretch to suggest that God causes us to suffer.

Sin is a result of man giving in to the world, the flesh and the devil.

The result of sin will always be suffering.

And yet, we live in a world where many like to justify their sinfulness...

Mankind’s ability to justify our sinful actions exposes our total depravity and our greatest need: atonement.

The depravity of man requires the purifying atonement of Christ Jesus.

There is only one cure for the disease of sin: the atoning work of Christ Jesus on the cross...

Romans 5:1–2 ESV

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Suffering is a pathway God often uses to accomplish His purposes.

My favorite book of the OT is Habakkuk...

It is common for us, in the midst of suffering to ask God why.

God is not afraid of our why, He’s just under no obligation to answer it.

In fact, when it comes to suffering we need to move from “why” to “what now?”

But, for too many, when we are suffering we think that God is not there.

Here’s something vital to remember: The experience of suffering for God’s people doesn’t suggest the absence of God’s presence and purposes.

God was with Joseph in Hebron, in the pit, on the road to Egypt, in Potipher’s house, in an Egyptian prison, and in the Pharaoh’s court.

He never once left Joseph and He won’t leave us either.

But, the suffering we experience is often the pathway that God is using to accomplish His purposes.

Not necessarily just His purposes for our personal life, but for the life of others as well!

Suffering is a pathway God often uses to bring His people to where He wants us.

Phoebe’s dog Butch…got out of the house...

Chasing that big dog around my neighborhood was frustrating…but I was reminded that as stubborn as that dog is, I’m more so, because I know better!

In my experience, when given the choice between doing something new and doing something familiar, most human beings take the familiar.

Because of this, we don’t necessarily like change or getting out of our comfort-zone.

But, sometimes it’s God’s will to put us somewhere else or to call us to do something different.

But oftentimes, suffering is the best tool to get us where He wants us to be.

God will always get His person where His purposes will be fulfilled for the good of His people.

I purposely said His “person” then His “people.”

Most of the time, when God moves us somewhere else, it’s to benefit someone else or multiple other people.

We tend to just think about how a situation may hurt or benefit us. God thinks on a broader scale.

Kyle’s conversation about me preaching…and pastoring...