Practically Perfect (Genesis 38-39)

Main Idea:

Biblical perfection is not doing everything right. Biblical perfection is growth in character (maturity) that happens through faith. Biblical Perfection is substance of heart, not flawless behavior.

Introduction

Mary Poppins clip (1:25)

Back in the 1800’s they had these places called “finishing schools.” Have you ever heard of that? The idea was that before a young lady could be introduced to society, she had to learn manners, etiquette, how to fold a napkin properly, how to walk, even how to enunciate her speech. The name came from the idea that academics was all well and good, but a true lady needed to be schooled in social graces, charm, and etiquette. Only then would they be considered finished. They would now be perfect debutantes. Like Mary Poppins, Practically Perfect in Every Way.

As we continue through our series on the life of Joseph, Meant for Good, we are going to see that God also desires for his daughters and sons to be perfect. After all, Matthew 5:48 says be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect. And I don’t know about you, but when I hear that, I think about Mary Poppins with her magic measuring tape. And I’m afraid that I’m never going to measure up. I would flunk out of finishing school for sure.

Maybe you feel the same way. You know you could never measure up to “Be Perfect like your heavenly father” You couldn’t even manage Mary Poppins’ standard of “Practically Perfect in Every Way.” And you wouldn’t be able to pass finishing school even if you cheated.

If that’s you, then I have good news and bad news for you. The good news is, God’s definition of “perfect” isn’t the same as the world’s definition. In the Bible, perfect means to be spiritually mature. It means to be complete, to be finished. In Greek the language of the New Testament, the word is telios— complete, finished, fully realized. Paul says in Philippians 1:6

And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

It’s the same word Jesus used in Matthew 5:48. Only in philippians it’s epiteleo. Epi is a prepositional phrase that often connotes emphatic action. It’s a little like saying “God will absolutely complete the work He began in you.” God will bring it to completion, full stop, questions, none. But notice that it is God that is completing us or perfecting us, not ourselves.

And that’s the part that may seem like bad news. Because God’s method of making us “practically perfect” doesn’t look anything like finishing school. God’s not interested in making us fit for polite society. He’s interested in making us “practically perfect” Practical in the sense of being useful. Being a tool in His hands. 2 Timothy 3:16–17

16 All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”

KJV is “that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly established for every good work.

So this morning we are going to look at God’s process for making Joseph practically perfect. I invite you to turn to Genesis chapter 38. Let me pray for us, and we’ll get going.

[pray]

Now, I don’t want to spend a lot of time in Genesis 38, because it really doesn’t have anything to do with Joseph. It’s about Joseph’s brother, Judah. At first glance, it’s a story that makes you wonder what its doing in the Bible.

Judah was the fourth son of Jacob’s less favored wife, Leah. He took a Canaanite woman named Shua to be his wife, which was a no-no. She bore three sons to Judah— Er, Onan, and Shelah.

Er married a woman named Tamar. But he was a wicked man, and verse 7 says that God killed him before they could have children.

The custom of the day was that if a married man died, his brother was expected to take his wife and have children in his name. Well, Onan didn’t want to do that, and so God killed him too. According to custom, Shelah, the youngest son, would be expected to marry Tamar. But he was still a kid, and so Judah told Tamar to wait until he came of age, and then she would become his wife. Only Judah didn’t like the Black Widow vibe he was getting from his daughter in law, so even when Shelah was old enough, Judah kept him from Tamar.

So fast forward a few years. Tamar says to herself, I’m not getting any younger, and Judah hasn’t kept his promise, so unless I want to die a childless cat lady, I better take matters into my own hands. So she disguises herself as a prostitute and places herself along the side of the road at a place she knows Judah is going to pass by. And she disguised herself as a prostitute.

Judah, whose wife had died recently, takes the bait and propositions her. Tamar says, “How much will you pay me?” Judah tells her he will send her a goat from his flock when he gets back home. Tamar takes Judah’s staff and signet ring as a pledge until she gets his goat. Then they do the deed, and Judah goes on his way. But when he sends the goat back to Tamar, she’s disappeared.

A couple months later, it’s discovered that Tamar is pregnant. Judah gets all self righteous and sanctimonious and orders that Tamar be burned alive. But just before they light the fire, she brings out the signet ring and the staff and says to Judah, her father-in-law, hey, shouldn’t the baby daddy be punished too? He gave me these as a pledge. Do you recognize them? Judah realizes he’s busted, so he releases Tamar. She gives birth to twins, Perez and Zerah.

You may still be asking, what is this doing in the Bible? Well, it’s in the Bible because about 1800 years later, Jesus is born. And when Matthew writes his gospel, the first thing he includes is a genealogy of Jesus. Check out Matthew 1:1–3

The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Ram

Remember the title of this series? “Meant for Good.” Friends, there is nothing in your story God can’t use for His glory. Even this icky story in Genesis 38, God redeemed it. We call Jesus the Lion of Judah because he is a descendent of the child Judah fathered with his own daughter in law! So be encouraged. God redeems every story for His glory. No matter what your past, God has given you a glorious future. Regardless of how messed up your family of origin is, God has adopted you into His family. And that’s a game changer.

So now we get to Genesis 39. We aren’t going to read the entire chapter together, but I want you to notice a crucial thread that runs throughout the chapter. Let’s look at verses 1-6:

1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.”

We talked last week about how from Genesis 35:16 all the way through to Genesis 38, God is never mentioned. But now, in the story of Joseph being sold into slavery and bought by Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, God shows up again.

Verse 2: The Lord was with Joseph

Verse 3: Potiphar saw that the Lord was with Joseph

Verse 3: the Lord caused everything Joseph did to succeed.

Verse 5: the Lord blessed Potiphar because of Joseph. His fields thrived. His household was blessed.

Can I get practical for a moment (remember, the title of this message is “practically perfect.” We want to talk about how God’s finishing school makes us “thoroughly equipped for every good work.” So let’s get practical:

Does your boss “see that the Lord is with you? And if he does, is he blessed because the Lord is with you?

It’s one thing for the people you work with to know you’re a Christian. You may read your Bible during break times, or not go out with them for drinks after work. So maybe your boss “sees the Lord is with you,” the way Potiphar saw the Lord was with Joseph. But now the second part of the question: is your company better off because the Lord is with you?

Verse five says the only thing Potiphar had to worry about is the food he ate. Man— that’s success right there. Wouldn’t you love it if you wome up every morning and the only thing on your mind was what was for breakfast? Because Joseph was in charge of everything else.

Potiphar is not a believer In the one true God. His name actually means “dedicated to Ra— the Egyptian sun God” But he sees that Yahweh is with Joseph, and not only that, Yahweh is blessing Potiphar’s entire household for the sake of Joseph!

Ill tell you what— if you want to be a witness at work, how about being such a good worker that the company is actually blessed that you are a Christian!

So God is with Joseph. God blesses Potipher’s household for the sake of Joseph. Joseph wasn’t a slave in Potipher’s household because God had forgotten him. He was where God wanted him.

If that’s hard for you to accept, then I should tell you that things don’t get any easier for Joseph after this. In fact, they get a lot worse.

Potipher’s wife sees that Joseph is a good looking kid, and so she gets all “Real Housewives of Egypt” on him, and tries to seduce him. I kind of picture Joseph like Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate, if you remember that movie: “Mrs. Potiphar, are you trying to seduce me?”

Joseph’s response:

Genesis 39:8–9 “8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?””

Joseph doesn’t object to the come-on because they might get caught. He objects because it’s a sin against God. You see in verse 8 that his singular focus is serving his master. “Because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house.” He says, “My master hasn’t kept anything back from me.” He’s good. He provides for my needs. It doesn’t matter if “no one will ever know.” God will know, and this is a sin against Him.

Listen, if your motivation to avoid sin is fear of getting caught, you’re gonna fall. You’re gonna get in the habit of clearing your search histories, or always having breath mints to hide the smell of alcohol. If its dishonesty with your finances, you’ll get good at hiding your money or manipulating the numbers. And eventually you will make a mistake.

But if your motivation is to be the kind of servant that God can depend on, you are less likely to fall to the temptation in the first place. You aren’t living to not get caught. You are living to please the God who is so good to you. The God Josh and Alli sang about a few minutes ago.

Ok, so if we were writing this story, this would be the part where Joseph is freed from slavery, right? He’s resisted temptation. He’s passed the test. He’s graduated from God’s finishing school, and now he’s going to rise to his position in Pharaoh’s court and save the world from a global famine, right?

Not so fast. Things go from bad to worse to terrible.

Potiphar’s wife won’t leave Joseph alone. Cougar’s gonna cougar. And she keeps trying to get Joseph to lie with her. Remember according to Genesis 37:2, Joseph is seventeen years old when the story begins. So probably by now he is in his mid 20’s.

Finally one day Mrs. Potiphar grabs Joseph by his cloak (verse 12) and insists that he lie with her. Joseph flees, leaving his cloak behind. So here’s to you, Mrs. Potiphar- Joseph’s gone and left us all today— hey hey hey

That’s what Joseph did. He left Mrs. Potiphar holding his robe. And then Mrs. Potiphar, in order to avoid the embarrassment of getting rejected by a teenaged boy, blames Joseph (and, to an extent, her husband). Look at Genesis 39:17–18 “

17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.””

Of course Potiphar is enraged, but notice that he doesn’t have Joseph executed on the spot, which I think is what he would have done if he loved his wife or even believed her. I think he is enraged at losing his most trusted servant.

So in verse 40, he throws Joseph into prison, where he will be for sometime between two and thirteen years. We know this because he was seventeen when the story begins. Then Gen 41:1 says he was in prison for two full years after he interpreted the dream for Pharaoh’s cupbearer, which we will talk about next week. Then Gen 41:46 says that he was 30 when he began to serve as Pharaoh’s famine relief manager.

Can you imagine? Let me ask you: at what point would you have quit? Would it have been when your brothers threw you into a pit? How about when you were sold into slavery? Or maybe it would have been when your boss’s wife accused you of rape and you went from slavery to prison. What is your testimony when you feel stuck in a place you don’t want to be? Is it, “I’m trusting the Lord to get me out of this job and into a better one?” Is it “I’m believing God to cure this cancer, then I’ll know he’s with me.”?

“I know the Lord is with me, BUT I hate this job.

“I know the Lord is with me, BUT I have cancer.”

What if you tried AND instead of BUT, or EVEN THOUGH?

“The Lord is with me, AND my husband was unfaithful.

“The Lord is with me, AND we lost everything in the tornado.

You see, it could be that