Untitled Sermon (3)

Now What?

The Bible is an absolutely fascinating book to read. And you may be thinking- well of course you would say that- you are a pastor. But it really is a fascinating book. What I love about the Bible, is that it is so complex, there are so many layers that I am constantly learning something new. I have had formal academic training for approximately 7 years, I had an internship heavily centered around scripture, and I’ve been teaching from the Bible going on 5 years now on a weekly basis. There is no end of fascinating things to learn.

I once knew this great teacher of the Bible. He wasn’t a pastor- he was a chemist actually and he definitely looked the role. For whatever reason, he felt led to teach a 5th-6th Sunday school class. He had no Bible training other than just spending time in it on his own. He would always ask me these questions that would push my faith, my understanding of God and the Bible. He regularly taught this 5th-6th grade Sunday school class from the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible.

In Genesis, we find a lot of the great characters of the Bible we are all really familiar with. For example- Adam and Eve, the first people; Noah; We meet Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob- the beginnings of the nation of Israel which propels the rest of the Old Testament, from which Jesus is a direct descendant. Abraham, especially, is continually a focus of the Bible because of the really important role that He plays in the history of God saving us from sin.

The overall story of Genesis is God’s creation of all things good, the breaking of all things by sin, and how life is continually getting worse because of sin. Then, God picks one person through which the which the great plan to save us from sin begins: it’s Abraham. Yet, when we look at the book of Genesis, 14 of the 50 of the chapters are centered around Abraham. A HUGE foundational person and he is in 14 of the chapters of Genesis.

And one day, knowing all of this, this Sunday School teacher comes up to me and tells me that the story of Joseph we find that he too comprises 14 chapters, just as much as Abraham. BUT- Joseph is only mentioned 9 times in the New Testament, 5 of which comes in a speech by the first Christian martyr Stephen in as he retells the Jewish history in the scriptures. Yet, we look at Abraham and see over 220 mentions of Abraham- just in the New Testament!

It was just one of those mind blowing moments for me. In an era of expensive copying of paper, Joseph was so important that Genesis devoted equal amounts of time between Abraham and Joseph and yet it is Abraham that the NT reveres for his faith. Joseph isn’t someone that we talk about often, and if we do speak on a Joseph it is Jesus’ believed father on earth, not the Joseph of Genesis.

As a young person- most of my knowledge of Joseph came from the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber play- Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat. My mom loved teh Donnie Osmond version and I can still hear the songs in the back of my head as I read today.

I’ve entitled this series: Visions and Dreams. I was captured in reading through the Joseph story how the different people saw things or didn’t see things and how much that affected what happened each step of the way. Joseph is also famous for his ability to interpret dreams, but even within that interpretation, his vision clouded in sin can get in the way.

As we read and see the story of Joseph, one person who isn’t going to be acting much is God. As opposed to other stories in the Old Testament such as the Exodus in Egypt, God is not in the foreground, acting, creating, or speaking. We are going to find a lot of sin, a lot of difficulty, and a lot of brokenness. The visions and the dreams, not necessarily direct action from God, are going to drive the story to its ultimate conclusion: God’s vision, or God’s will, to save His people could not be stopped, despite the sin and brokenness we will see.

Let me say that again: God’s vision to save His people could not be stopped. Visions and dreams are going to drive us forward.

Let’s jump right into the story of Joseph today. Joseph one the second youngest of 12 brothers. His father, Jacob, had four wives. Joseph’s mother was Rachel- the one whom Jacob really loved. But Jacob was tricked by Rachel’s father into marrying her sister first! So Jacob was married to Leah. Leah and Rachel competed for Jacob’s attention with children and thus he had children through both Leah and Rachel’s maidservants Bilhah and Zilpah. Off all the children, all 12, Joseph was the second youngest, born of Rachel. Rachel dies giving birth to the youngest, Benjamin.

All this competition for Jacob’s affections has created some really bad family dynamics. Joseph was seventeen years old and a tattletail. He ratted his brothers out for the bad things they were doing. Even thousands of years ago tattletailing has ALWAYS been frowned upon. You can imagine how this made Joseph’s 11 brothers feel. Despite this, Jacob loved Joseph more than all his brothers- and the worst part is everyone knew it. Jacob bought Joseph a brightly colored robe, a beautiful robe. V. 4 tells us that the robe made Joseph’s brothers hate him even more. They couldn’t even say anything nice about him! There are some really difficult family circumstances going on here. But things are about to get worse. Read with me in v. 5:

5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”

8 His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them.

9 Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!”

10 This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” 11 But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant.

Can you imagine? For some reason, at this point in the story, I always identify with the older brothers. How dare this little punk? I don’t know if his dreams are real or not- but he has the audacity to tell me I am going to bow down to him? That he is going to be my king? That he is going to have power over me? Doesn’t it make your blood boil? I just want to call him a little snot and to stop talking! Jealousy creeps in. There is already hatred. We have a broken family.

Jacob, soon after the dreams, sends Joseph to see how the sheep are doing. They are a family of shepherds and the brothers are all out with the sheep. After traveling some distance, Joseph’s brothers see Joseph coming. How could they see Joseph? He was probably wearing his brightly colored robe- he would have stood out like a sore thumb in the desert or the landscape. It was unique- it wouldn’t have been worn by others.

18 When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. 20 “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!”

21 But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22 “Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness. Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him.” Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father.

23 So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. 24 Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.

The cisterns of this period were often shaped like a glass bottle- wide at the bottom, narrow at the top. There is absolutely no way for Joseph to climb out. And did you see the motivation for their act- “Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!” They are thinking- if we kill Joseph, that dream about us bowing to him will never happen!

The way that the brothers treat Joseph is based on how they see him. Like I’ve said, trying to be one of the brothers, I see Joseph as this spoiled, tattletailing, favorite son that causes hatred and jealousy to burn within me. What they do not see is a brother, a family member of deep relation; What they do not see is Joseph as one of them. All throughout the story the brothers- not all of whom are mentioned by name here- are on one side and Joseph on the other. The hatred and jealousy so fuel them that they don’t even ask what it would mean for Joseph to one day be king! Could this dream have been from God?

As they are all eating, a group of traders on their way to Egypt, and Judah- one of Joseph’s brothers- suggests that they sell Joseph into slavery instead of killing him. Joseph is sold for 20 pieces of silver. Reuben, the oldest, is obviously not there at this time because he comes back to find Joseph gone and now he’s unable to save him and return Joseph to Jacob. The brothers rip Joseph’s robe, dip it in blood from a slaughtered goat, and return it to Jacob.

32 They sent the beautiful robe to their father with this message: “Look at what we found. Doesn’t this robe belong to your son?”

33 Their father recognized it immediately. “Yes,” he said, “it is my son’s robe. A wild animal must have eaten him. Joseph has clearly been torn to pieces!” 34 Then Jacob tore his clothes and dressed himself in burlap. He mourned deeply for his son for a long time. 35 His family all tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “I will go to my grave mourning for my son,” he would say, and then he would weep.

36 Meanwhile, the Midianite traders arrived in Egypt, where they sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard.

What a dramatic shift for Joseph. He began the chapter as the favored son, in his home with his family, in a brightly colored robe. He has had 2 dreams of all his family bowing down to him, in a king-subject kind of way. By then end, he is stripped, possibly naked, in a cistern, heading to Egypt to a life of slavery. He’s 17 years old. The idea that he will be a king or worshipped- it has to be far from his mind as a slave.

It is interesting that we don’t know much else about Joseph’s dreams. Were they from God? Were they random? Ultimately, we will see them fulfilled later in Joseph’s life. We find that the dreams were from God. God’s vision to save His people could not be stopped.

And it is absolutely a fair question to ask at this point- God is going to save his people from what? As the story unfolds in the coming weeks, that question becomes crystal clear.

Stay with Joseph- in the cistern this week though. Can you relate to Joseph? When you were young did you have a calling from in your life? Did you have a vision on how life should go? Joseph has this idea that he will be a leader or a king and instead is sitting in this pit. He won’t see his family again for about 22 years. 22 years in slavery.

It can be easy for us to give up on God because we want things in our time, our way, and that are easily understood.