Genesis 48-50 - God keeps His promises

When Hilary and I were planning our wedding, we were so awful at it.

There are some who agonize every meticulous detail looking forward to the day.

Some take years because of the pressure they feel.

Couples are delaying themselves because culture has emphasized the Cinderella weddings.

The entire day is planned around a promise.

The vows that husband/wife will share with one another.

They are ceremonially believing the commitment they’re making will last a lifetime.

There’s nothing magical about the words.

The wedding day is a declaration of promises that each intend to keep.

Big Idea: God keeps His promises

Context

Joseph has been reunited with his brothers and his dad after 22 years.

He has been through struggles

Slavery, accusations, imprisonment.

Now he’s the governor of Egypt.

He’s provided for his family in the midst of crisis.

Jacob settles into Egypt and begins to bless his twelve sons, who are called the twelve tribes of Israel.

Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher.

He goes through each son and blesses them.

Now he’s giving his farewell speech.

Jacob dies, and Joseph leads the charge for his father’s burial.

Just as God told Jacob, “Go down to Egypt, I will bring you back”

He is keeping His promise through Joseph.

Joseph leads the charge to take Jacob’s body back to the Promised Land, Canaan, to bury him in the cave that Abraham bought for his family when Sarah died in Genesis 23.

Up to this point, the entire story of Genesis has been God keeping one promise after another.

Stand to read

Genesis 50:15–17 ESV

15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Leader: This is God’s Word

Everyone: Thanks be to God

Joseph’s brothers recognize that the glue that held their family together was gone.

They recognize the evil they’ve done to their brother Joseph, and now the only reason he wouldn’t retaliate is gone.

Now they’re open season—Why would Joseph repay them for selling him into slavery?

They’re bracing for impact.

“We’re about to get got.”

They appeal to Joseph by saying, “Your father gave this command…” (v. 16)

We don’t have this anywhere. It seems unlikely that Jacob said this to his sons.

If he was worried about this, he would’ve said it directly to Joseph.

They’re trying anything to appease him.

Then, something else happens.

Genesis 50:18 ESV

18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”

Remember Joseph’s dreams?

The very dreams that God showed Joseph are happening!

Genesis 37:5–7 ESV

5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.”

Decades had passed between the time Joseph tells his brothers the dream and they sell him into slavery and now they’re kneeling before him begging for forgiveness.

Decades.

Joseph could act in retaliation for their wickedness against him.

An eye for an eye, right?

Remember what you did?

How did Joseph respond to their pleas for mercy?

Genesis 50:19–20 ESV

19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 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.

God, in His ultimate control and providence, used their evil against Joseph to save numerous people—Egyptians, Israelites, and other nations.

God is completely sovereign.

Although humans are sinful and wicked in nature, God is sovereign and His plans are good.

God can take evil, and make it good.

Church, the beauty that we can trust is:

God’s promises are good (even when we don’t understand them)

We don’t always understand the evil of the world.

Sometimes it’s a consequence of our own stupidity

Sometimes it’s because we live in a broken world.

A major struggle we have as people is “How can God be good if there’s suffering in the world?”

We fail to ask the question “What is the Lord trying to show me through this?”

The question we ask is: “God, why do you let this happen?” instead of “Lord, what are you trying to produce in me?”

At any given moment, the Lord is doing at 10k things in your life. You know of about 3.

In the joy, and in the suffering, the Lord works.

So what should we understand about suffering?

Suffering is what produces the muscle of Christian faith.

Earlier this year, I competed in a jiu jitsu tournament.

I wanted to compete at 165lbs/weighed at 180lb.

I had to lose 15.

There was an easy way to do it, then there was the way I did it.

The weight didn’t just fall off.

I had to train, sweat, and not eat all I wanted to.

The suffering is what prepared me to compete in the way I wanted to compete.

When you want to build muscle, you have to work the muscles.

Suffering trains and strengthens our spiritual muscles.

It forces us to depend on the Lord.

If you don’t suffer, your faith deteriorates—You have nothing to hope in.

Suffering reminds us of two things:

I’m a broken person living in a broken world.

I need the Lord.

I have nothing to offer Him and I can’t change the brokenness of the world.

I need His mercy/grace/power.

I need to be reminded that the Lord’s promises are good.

Joseph’s brothers come to him recognizing their sin against their brother and their need of his mercy.

Transition

Joseph adds this reassurance to his brothers.

They don’t deserve God’s goodness or his forgiveness and provision, but he acts in extreme grace toward them.

He does more than forgive them.

Genesis 50:21 ESV

21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

In spite of what they did to him, he is going to protect them.

They feared he was going to retaliate and cause harm, but he does the complete opposite. He responds in grace and ensures their safety.

He has become their personal protector.

Joseph mirrors the heart of God.

We have done evil—God has responded in grace.

Gospel presentation

We have all rebelled against God.

No one is innocent of sin

Your good works are not righteous.

We are all guilty and deserve condemnation.

We deserve eternity away from God.

Joseph’s brothers understood that they deserved Joseph’s anger.

We deserve God’s wrath because we have all violated God’s holiness.

But Joseph models the heart of God because he acted in grace.

God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to atone for our sins.

We did not receive Jesus. We murdered Him.

He went to the cross because of our evil, but God used it for good because Jesus’s death was the perfect sacrifice for our sins.

Now, because Christ suffered, He has given us grace and mercy!

Church, what this shows us is

God has promised us grace (in Jesus Christ)

Jesus God’s promises kept.

Then, Jesus rose again from the dead, not merely to secure our forgiveness, but to show that we have eternal life in Him forever!

If you’re not a Christian, trust in Jesus Christ and receive God’s free gift of eternal life.

You can’t be good enough to earn your way to heaven.

You’ll die trying.

Perhaps you can’t see past the suffering that you’ve endured.

The Lord is good and He is powerful to use the evil of the world to bring about good for those who love Him.

Do we understand it, not always.

We have this hope, that when God will keep His promise that when our Savior returns, He will bring an end to all suffering and restore us to a perfect relationship with God.

Will you trust in Christ today?

Will you receive God’s free gift of grace?

You can receive God’s grace that He gives to those who trust in Christ and surrender to His lordship.

Jesus’s sacrifice is not like a wedding day, where we focus on all the tiny details of one day.

It isn’t about the day you become a Christian.

Jesus promises you His grace from this day forth and forevermore.

God keeps His promise of grace the moment you come alive in Christ until you are with Him in glory.

What do we need to do in light of God’s promises?

Take the Next Step

Believe: God can bring good from suffering.

Receive God’s promised grace.