Genesis 40-41

God puts you in the right place at the right time to work for His glory and the good of the world.

The 90’s were amazing! Brimming with hope, global peace, no smartphones to numb us to death! We had conversations with each other. We looked around, noticing each other and nature. And, we had great music, even if it came from one-hit wonders.

This week I was waxing nostalgic for one such band and song. Released in 1991 by Jesus Jones, a British Alternative Rock band, “Right Here, Right Now” embodied the vibe of the era. Dramatic change of the age. Empire falling, only great prospects on the horizon!

“A woman on the radio talks about

Revolution when it's already passed her by

Bob Dylan didn't have this to sing about you

Know it feels good to be alive

I was alive and I waited, waited

I was alive and I waited for this

Right here, right now, there is no other place I wanna be

Right here, right now, watching the world wake up from history

I saw the decade in, when it seemed the world could change

At the blink of an eye

And if anything

Then there's your sign (of the times)”

I was alive, and I waited for this…

Now, we were waiting on temporary things for sure, and as I approach the end of my fifth decade, I find myself more a student of Ecclesiastes and recognizing the vapor that was the dreams of a generation. Plus, thirty years of headlines have been proving the world didn’t change!

But it still captured the soul’s aspiration to be at the right place at the right time.

To be, as Thomas the Tank Engine would say, useful.

Walking humbly with God will include this very thing. He will orchestrate the events of history and your life to have you where he wants you when he wants you for his purpose, and we can find comfort in that and lean into it as followers of Jesus.

The story of Joseph is among the biblical accounts that reveal this truth.

Whatever you are carrying with you this morning, this is for you. I don’t want you to wait to hear the gospel!

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” (ESV)

“It’s easy to assume that everyone shows up to church the same way—settled, steady, ready to sing. But the truth is: everyone comes carrying something.

Some are looking back to simpler days, or to moments they wish they could take back. Some are looking ahead, hoping for a breakthrough or bracing for what’s next. Some are focused on the here and now, managing the noise and doing their best to stay afloat.

But Jesus doesn’t ask us to sort that out before coming to him. He invites us to bring all of it—past, present, and future—to the fullness of his grace.

To your past, Jesus says: “I died for you.” Your past, whether you miss it or regret it, is not your identity. His mercy changes the subject. To your future, Jesus says: “I go before you.” You don’t have to live caught between blind optimism and quiet fear. In Christ, your future is incredibly bright and already held. To your present, Jesus says: “I am with you.” He can make all grace abound to you. Not someday, but today.

The gospel is not just for the part of you that feels put together. It’s good news for every part of your life—past, present, and future—because Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever!” - Tony Shepherd

God puts you in the right place at the right time to work for His glory and the good of the world.

Joseph will be our main character through the end of Genesis. The son of Jacob was given dreams that led him to be sold into slavery by his brothers. He ended up in the household of Potiphor in Egypt, which was blessed because of him. Then he resists the advances of his master’s wife and ends up in prison.

“That he resides in prison at the end of chap. 39 is mitigated by the narrator’s repeated assertion that “the LORD was with Joseph” (vv. 2, 23). As in the experience of Jacob (e.g., 28:15; 31:3, 42; 35:3), we expect that the enabling presence of God will assure a favorable outcome for Joseph too.” - K. A. Mathews

As we traverse the story thinking of how the Lord might use us, we get three cues from Joseph, cues to faithfulness. Trust in the training, Speak of Him, Boldly Go.

Trust in the Training

I love feel-good sports movies, and I often force them on my family! The fun thing about these movies is that they are all structured the same; they all have a training montage, a series of clips with music showing training, development, and improvement of an athlete or team.

Momentum building, leading to the breakthrough or dilemma of the movie.

For Joseph, most of his story before meeting Pharaoh is a training montage.

“After thirteen years of humiliation and testing, Joseph was exalted according to a divinely sovereign timing that must have challenged Joseph’s faith as the years rolled by—a frequent theme of Genesis and all of Scripture.”

If none of it had happened, he wouldn’t be at the right place at the right time.

He is 28 in prison and attending to, taking care of the king’s cupbearer and baker, who have been imprisoned (likely because the king became sick after a meal and there is suspicion one of them is trying to kill him).

They have these confounding dreams - dreams held great significance in the ancient Near East related to divine revelation, as we have seen in Joseph’s story already. But in prison, these two have no books or experts to consult as to the meaning of these dreams.

Joseph notices them, sees that they were troubled.

The character we all imagine as narcissistic and self-centered, too good-looking for his good, sees the other.

There is a lot of waiting underneath this—a decade combined between serving in the house and prison. In chapter 39, he reveals faithfulness to God, and here he trusts God to empower him to interpret these dreams.

Years of continued trust.

“His interpretation of the cupbearer's and baker’s dreams demonstrated trust in God’s gifts and purposes. Modeling for us how to remain faithful and diligent, trusting God to work through us, even in difficult times, knowing that He is preparing us for future purposes.”

Genesis 40:14 “Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.” (ESV)

Interpretation comes true, the Cupbearer is restored, and the Baker is hanged.

Genesis 40:23 “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” (ESV)

Of chapter 40: “his greatest successes were not at the top, but in the pit in Egypt. Joseph’s whole being had undergone the renovating grace of God. He had grown to become a man who was sensitive to others. His soul was God-reflexed; so it was to God that he instinctively turned. And though life was difficult those long years in the pit, he sent his delays and disappointments up to God. Notice: This episode ends in disappointment. But truly that disappointment never thwarted God’s purposes;” it is doing something in Joseph. - Hughes

We don’t know how Joseph feels. The text doesn’t tell us. Doesn’t clue us in on how he prayed.

I know how I would have felt and prayed! And I have never been in prison! Like most of us, I have found myself not where I expected to be, or where I dreamt of being.

But this was “training,” he is being equipped by trusting, gaining maturity, wisdom.

The truth is that being in the right place can feel like delay, but in Christ, it is working some in you for good.

V. Raymond Edman wrote, “Delay never thwarts God’s purposes; it only polishes his instrument.”

We have the benefit of the new Testament to remind us tha this is where formation happens.

James 1:2–4 “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, [3] for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. [4] And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” (ESV)

Romans 5:1–5 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. [2] 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. [3] Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, [4] and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, [5] and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (ESV)

Because this is true, we become open-handed to his will, not our own.

We can trust that God is working behind the scenes to position us where we need to be, when we need to be there.

The Lord of heaven oversees every event in the lives of his people down to every last detail. And he does this all with fatherly concern.

This has been all over our study of Genesis so far.

Experiences like this were often part of the training of those whom God was going to use in outstanding roles. Abraham and Sarah had to wait until old age for the birth of Isaac; Moses was exiled for much of his life in an inhospitable desert; David lived under threat of death at the hand of Saul, and was on the run for months, if not years. Yet in every case the purpose of God was being worked out and in due course came to fruition. Indeed it has been said that only those with faith in God experience his testing, which after all is self-evident, for it is designed to put steel into faith so that it becomes steadfast and mature, and can testify to the tender love of the Lord in designing the suffering.” - Joyce G. Baldwin

1 Peter 5:6–7 “Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, [7] casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.” (ESV)

Speak of Him

It happens, in God’s timing… 41:1a “After two whole years…”

Pharaoh has two dreams, they scare him awake, and his magicians can’t decipher them. But his Cupbearer finally remembers Joseph.

Joseph does what he has done all along.

Genesis 40:8 “They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.” (ESV)

Genesis 41:16 “Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” (ESV)

Genesis 41:25 “Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.” (ESV)

Joseph relies on God for the interpretation and for wisdom in facing the famine. And he doesn’t shy away from the truth of it. Even in the naming of his sons, he glorifies God - Manasseh, “God has made me forget all my hardship,” Ephraim, “God has made me fruitful.’

This is trust translating into traction, in his elevation, or realization of placement.

For us, living like this is telling the world to whom we “bow the knee,” King Jesus!

Living in light of whose we are and letting people know.

Joseph didn’t wait until he had the platform for it; this is who he was formed to be, what he had always done.

Romans 12:1–2 “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. [2] Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (ESV)

Luke 12:8 “And I tell you, everyone who acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man also will acknowledge before the angels of God,” (ESV)

Luke 12:11–12 “And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious about how you should defend yourself or what you should say, [12] for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.” (ESV)

“Key to living a life “worthy of the gospel of Christ” (Phil. 1:27) is the ascribing of all glory to God for all fruit borne in our lives. Jesus himself did this, honoring his Father (John 12:28). In the upside-down framework of the gospel, it is precisely through glorifying God that humans regain their true dignity and their own derivative glory (Rom. 2:7, 10; 3:23; 8:30; 2 Cor. 3:18). Or as Jesus said, “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant” (Matt. 20:26)—a servanthood-unto-greatness that Jesus himself supremely exemplified in his great love for us (John 13:1–20).”

Joseph the servant, glorifying God, was elevated to a place from which he could save many more and continue the covenant promise of God.

“Joseph had become a radically God-centered man who believed that his God-given dreams would come true in God’s good time. God would remain at the center of his vision through everything that was to come. At last Joseph was ready for the great work of his life.”

Boldly Go

Star Trek fan!

This is enmeshed throughout Joseph’s life, he is bold. Bold because he knows his backing.

He goes before the most powerful man in the world, thought of as a god himself, and he is unfazed.

He is anchored in the reality of who is supreme.

There must have been a temptation to tell Pharaoh what he wanted to hear, to temper the truth.

We know this temptation.

The late Chuck Colson, of Watergate infamy, and prison conversion fame, in his book Kingdoms in Conflict, described how he would us the aura of the White House to pacify visitors. Groups would come in for meetings, intending to be strong and make demands… but they would relent.

He would start with the executive dining room, then he would escort his guests past saluting guards down a long corridor of photographs of the president in action and point to a door and in a hushed voice say “that’s the situation room.”

“The ambience of the executive dining room was overwhelming with its rich, hand-rubbed mahogany walls lined with a waiting row of red-jacketed navy stewards and most of the Cabinet and senior staff huddled around the tables. Usually, even the staunchest adversaries began to soften. If some needed more prodding, they were treated to a walk upstairs and a reverent tour of the Oval Office. And if the President was in, there was a prearranged impromptu greeting and a gift of gold-plated cuff links with the presidential seal. Colson summarized the effect:

“Invariably, the lions of the waiting room became the lambs of the Oval Office. No one ever showed outward hostility. Most, except the labor leaders, forgot their best-rehearsed lines. They nodded when the president spoke, and in those rare instances when they disagreed, they did so apologetically, assuring the president that they personally respected his opinion. Ironically, none were more compliant than the religious leaders. Of all people, they should have been the most aware of the sinful nature of man and the least overwhelmed by pomp and protocol. But theological knowledge sometimes wilts in the face of worldly power.”

Joseph is brought in, and Pharaoh speaks to him, saying, “I hear you are a dream interpreter.”

How did Joseph respond - v. 16 “It is not in me”

As if he knows he is made for the moment.

He was. This is how God works.

Esther 4:14 “For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (ESV)

The story of Daniel, an exile, bold in not conforming, refusing to bow to idols, even to being thrown to the lions.

Joseph’s boldness changes the world.

Genesis 41:56–57 “So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. [57] Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.” (ESV)

Glimmers of the Abrahamic covenant, the offspring blessing the whole world. Sacrifice of the one saving the world. This is the arc of God’s redemptive story, always bringing good.

“Joseph's life foreshadows Christ, especially in his suffering and ultimate exaltation. Just as Joseph interpreted dreams that changed his fate and the fate of many, Jesus fulfills the dreams and prophecies of the Old Testament, bringing redemption and hope through His suffering and resurrection.”

The better Joseph doesn’t build a system to bankrupt hungry people, but he gives freely. This is the compassion of the Lord.

Isaiah 55:1 “Come, everyone who thirsts,

come to the waters;

and he who has no money,

come, buy and eat!

Come, buy wine and milk

without money and without price.” (ESV)

Here’s the thing, God may use you to devise a plan to sustain humanity through a famine, or he might use you to love your neighbor and serve them in obscurity. Both bring him glory. Both are according to his purpose.

Wherever you are, God has a purpose in it, for His glory and your good.

When the waiting seems long, know it’s a training montage. When the task isn’t what you expected, know he cares for you and is orchestrating it all for something amazing.

God puts you in the right place at the right time to work for His glory and the good of the world.

How might he use you?

Believe in Jesus - So you have someone to trust, to speak of, and a boldness to borrow for life.

Trust, Speak, be Bold - By the Spirit of God in you, know he is working and live in light of it with joy.

Right here, right now, there is no other place I wanna be.

Right here, right now, watching the world wake up from history.

Right here, right now, seeing our hunger met by His glory.

May it be so in us.