God who is big, close, and good (The Life of Joseph)

Genesis 37:3–8 NET

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was a son born to him late in life, and he made a special tunic for him. When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated Joseph and were not able to speak to him kindly. Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more.He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:There we were, binding sheaves of grain in the middle of the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves surrounded my sheaf and bowed down to it!” Then his brothers asked him, “Do you really think you will rule over us or have dominion over us?” They hated him even more because of his dream and because of what he said.

One day, Joseph’s brothers were out taking care of the sheep and Jacob sent him to check on them.

Genesis 37:18–20 NET

Now Joseph’s brothers saw him from a distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. They said to one another, “Here comes this master of dreams! Come now, let’s kill him, throw him into one of the cisterns, and then say that a wild animal ate him. Then we’ll see how his dreams turn out!”

They decide not to murder him right away, but they do take his cloak and throw him in a cistern and then they just sit down for lunch.

Genesis 37:25–28 NET

When they sat down to eat their food, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh down to Egypt.Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites, but let’s not lay a hand on him, for after all, he is our brother, our own flesh.” His brothers agreed.So when the Midianite merchants passed by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. The Ishmaelites then took Joseph to Egypt.

After they sold him into slavery, they told Jacob he was eaten by wolves and Joseph ended up working as a slave in the house of a guy named Potiphar who worked for the Pharaoh of Egypt.

Genesis 39:2–6 NET

The Lord was with Joseph. He was successful and lived in the household of his Egyptian master. His master observed that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made everything he was doing successful.So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal attendant. Potiphar appointed Joseph overseer of his household and put him in charge of everything he owned. From the time Potiphar appointed him over his household and over all that he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s household for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on everything that he had, both in his house and in his fields.So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; he gave no thought to anything except the food he ate.

So things are looking up! But then, Potiphar’s wife decides she has a crush on Joseph and when he rejects her because he knows it would be wrong, she gets embarrassed, and lies to her husband. She told him that Joseph attacked her.

Genesis 39:19–23 NET

When his master heard his wife say, “This is the way your slave treated me,” he became furious. Joseph’s master took him and threw him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. So he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him kindness. He granted him favor in the sight of the prison warden.The warden put all the prisoners under Joseph’s care. He was in charge of whatever they were doing.The warden did not concern himself with anything that was in Joseph’s care because the Lord was with him and whatever he was doing the Lord was making successful.

While he was in prison, he met these guys that had weird dreams, and by the power of God Joseph was able to tell them what the dreams meant. After two years in prison, one of the guys who’s dream he had interpreted remembered Joseph in a crucial moment.

You see after Joseph told him was his dream meant, he was restored to Pharaoh’s court. At this point two years later, Pharaoh had his own crazy dream and no one in all of Egypt could interpret the dream. When Pharaoh was starting to get really frustrated, the man remembered Joseph.

Genesis 41:14–21 NET

Then Pharaoh summoned Joseph. So they brought him quickly out of the dungeon; he shaved himself, changed his clothes, and came before Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. But I have heard about you, that you can interpret dreams.”Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “It is not within my power, but God will speak concerning the welfare of Pharaoh.” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing by the edge of the Nile. Then seven fat and fine-looking cows were coming up out of the Nile, and they grazed in the reeds.Then seven other cows came up after them; they were scrawny, very bad-looking, and lean. I had never seen such bad-looking cows as these in all the land of Egypt! The lean, bad-looking cows ate up the seven fat cows. When they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had done so, for they were just as bad-looking as before. Then I woke up.

God empowered Joseph to know what the dream meant and he told Pharaoh that the healthy cows represented 7 years of plenty, but they would be followed by 7 years of horrible famine (famine means all the plants die and there’s nothing for the animals to eat so all the animals die and nothing is growing and no one has food). He told Pharaoh that what he needs to do is put someone in charge of gathering all the food during the time of plenty so that everyone can survive the famine. Pharaoh was amazed at Joseph’s wisdom so he made him second in command over all of Egypt and put him in charge of getting everyone through the famine.

When the famine did come, it stretched all the way to Canaan where Joseph’s family lived, and Egypt was the only place that still had food. So, Jacob sent Joseph’s brothers to Egypt for grain. You would think that when they all got back together that Joseph would be angry, that he would yell and scream for all they took from him, but when he reveals to his brothers who he is, this is what he says.

Genesis 45:4–8 NET

Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me,” so they came near. Then he said, “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now, do not be upset and do not be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me ahead of you to preserve life! For these past two years there has been famine in the land and for five more years there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me ahead of you to preserve you on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now, it is not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me an adviser to Pharaoh, lord over all his household, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Genesis 50:20 NET

As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day.

This feels like a miraculous moment to me. Joseph has spent his life going through hardship after hardship. The easy thing to do when we go through hardship is to get bitter. We start to focus on how unfair everything is, which leads us to constantly be thinking negative thoughts, which makes us quicker to get angry, which leads us to be unkind and make enemies, which leads to even more loneliness and the spiral keeps going down until we get to this place where we are only thinking about ourselves because that feels safer, and we aren’t talking to God because we are pretty sure this is all his fault, and we get stuck in this trap of anger and bitterness. That’s an easy spiral, that is a slippery slope.

It would would have been easy for Joseph to say “God you said my brothers would bow to me in my dreams, why am I in slavery?!” It would have been easy for Joseph to say “God I did the moral thing even when it was hard, why am I in prison?!” It would have been easy for Joseph to say “God did you forget about me?!” But that is not what Joseph does. At every step of the way Joseph obeys God’s standards, gives God the credit for the good times, and sees God’s work as a good thing that was worth the hard times. How does he do that? How does he continue to be so positive and full of faith in such a consistent season of difficulty? Joseph lived in such a way that proved he believed 3 crucial things about God. These are the truths that will remind us to look for joy and not bitterness in the face of difficulty.

1) God does not lose control in the face of bad attitudes or difficult circumstances

God was not surprised or thrown off course when Joseph’s brothers acted in jealousy, or Potiphar’s wife lied- he was still in control.

God was not looking down from Heaven at Joseph sitting a cistern, or sold into slavery, or sitting in prison thinking “oh no! how has this happened, what am I going to do now?!

God is big enough to do anything he wants, and he is never out of control

Isaiah 45:5–7 NET

I am the Lord, I have no peer, there is no God but me. I arm you for battle, even though you do not recognize me. I do this so people will recognize from east to west that there is no God but me; I am the Lord, I have no peer. I am the one who forms light and creates darkness; the one who brings about peace and creates calamity. I am the Lord, who accomplishes all these things.

God is the boss over all creation all the time. He is big enough to handle whatever you are facing, any person, any circumstance.

2) God never leaves us alone in the pit

God who is all powerful allowed Joseph to go through these hard things, but he did not make him face it alone! We see the phrase “The Lord was with Joseph” 4 times through the course of this story. 1) when he was sold 2) when God was blessing him in Potiphar’s house 3) when he was sold into prison 4) when he was leading in prison. In the highs and the lows of Joseph’s life God stayed in the exact same place, holding him through it all.

Psalm 139:7 NET

Where can I go to escape your spirit? Where can I flee to escape your presence?

When Joseph’s brothers betrayed him they threw him in a cistern he was sitting in a pit. I can just picture God holding him close and encouraging him in his darkest moments.

My story

So you may be thinking, ok so God is powerful and God is with me, but does God care about what is good for me?

3) God works ALL things for our good and his glory

God is not some puppeteer in the sky who gains pleasure from our pain. He is a good father working to make us whole.

Romans 8:28 NET

And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose,

James 1:2–4 NET

My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything.

Joseph is sure of this and it’s why he says Genesis 50:20

Genesis 50:20 NET

As for you, you meant to harm me, but God intended it for a good purpose, so he could preserve the lives of many people, as you can see this day.

Discussion Questions:

What stood out to you about tonight’s story?

Where do we see God’s power and authority in Joseph’s story?

How do we know God was with Joseph? How can that encourage us in our own life?

What is God’s purpose in our trials according to what you learned tonight?

In your life, which of the qualities about God do you most struggle to believe: his sovereignty (ability to do all things), his closeness, or his goodness? How can this story encourage you in that doubt?