King Joseph
Notes
Transcript
Of the five sections of Genesis, Creation, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph — The section on Joseph is actually the largest.
Abraham was promised a great nation, at the time he was surrounded by other nations and each nation had a king, so Abraham understood this as a promise that God would make Abraham and his descendants into a great kingdom.
1 The Lord said to Abram: Go out from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you.
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But he had no children to reign as kings, and he had no land for them to rule as their kingdom.
But God did the impossible. Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90 when they had a child together, Isaac.
Isaac, same story. Him and Rebekah couldn’t have kids, but God eventually gave them children when he was 60 years old. Again God reissues the same promise to make him into a great kingdom, but still no sign of that kingdom yet, that’s for sure.
Isaac’s son Jacob, same story. He marries Rachel who can’t have kids but he gets tricked into marrying her older sister Leah first. They both can’t have children at different times and so he ends up also marrying their servants so he ends up with four wives and 12 kids when it’s all said and done, and again God reissues the same promise to make him into a great kingdom but still no sign of how that could possibly happen yet.
Then we come to Joseph.
Long story of him living the way God wants him to live. Lives a righteous life, always turning from temptation, always telling the truth, but instead of inheriting the promised kingdom he has been told about his whole life, he is sold into slavery, separated from the family that he believes God has promised to make into a great nation. The family that he was a son of, but now the family that will become a great nation without him. But still, even in slavery, he honors God. He doesn’t turn his back on God. He doesn’t accuse God of abandoning him. He continues to faithfully worship God. And then he gets thrown into prison. But again, he doesn’t turn bitter or abandon God. He still faithfully worships Him and honors Him. And then God takes him from the prison cell and places him as second in command over one of the most powerful nations on earth at the time, Egypt. The narrative is told in such a way that it appears that the king, Pharaoh, goes off and just does whatever he wants and Joseph runs the entire kingdom, or at least that’s how it comes across, and so we see Joseph not just as a leader, but we see him as a king, a king of a large and very powerful nation.
So we see this story of how God promises the impossible and then makes the impossible happen. And this is just the beginning. Genesis is just the first book of 66 books written across 1500 years, by about 40 different authors, in three different languages, on 3 different continents.
God doesn’t shy away from telling us about people’s faults when he tells us their story. Almost every character in the Scriptures has some serious faults, and that’s especially true for the ones who have the most pages devoted to them, but there are a couple exceptions, and Joseph is one of them. Joseph has an enormous portion of the Scriptures devoted to him and we are not told hardly any negative qualities about him. And I believe that is for a reason.
God has promised to make Abraham’s descendants into a great kingdom and Joseph is the first person in that promise that is elevated into a kings position over an enormous kingdom, and he is the example that God wants to set for the future kings of Israel. All future kings of Israel will look back to their history and will read the entire life of their first real king, Joseph, and Joseph sets a high bar that every king should strive to live up to. And not just every king, but every member of His kingdom.
God said:
4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.
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The entire story of Joseph, what was told, and what was left out, was specifically written by God for our instruction, so that we can have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. It was written to instruct us. There is so much to learn from Joseph’s life. And it gives us strength to endure in this life, just like Joseph did, and we can be encouraged and have hope that God can do the impossible and that God will fulfil His promises to us.
He has promised us a new kingdom. John said:
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 I also saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared like a bride adorned for her husband. 3 Then I heard a loud voice from the throne: Look, God’s dwelling is with humanity, and he will live with them. They will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them and will be their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; grief, crying, and pain will be no more, because the previous things have passed away. 5 Then the one seated on the throne said, “Look, I am making everything new.” He also said, “Write, because these words are faithful and true.” 6 Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will freely give to the thirsty from the spring of the water of life. 7 The one who conquers will inherit these things, and I will be his God, and he will be my son. 8 But the cowards, faithless, detestable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars—their share will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.” 9 Then one of the seven angels, who had held the seven bowls filled with the seven last plagues, came and spoke with me: “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 He then carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, 11 arrayed with God’s glory. Her radiance was like a precious jewel, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. 12 The city had a massive high wall, with twelve gates. Twelve angels were at the gates; the names of the twelve tribes of Israel’s sons were inscribed on the gates. 13 There were three gates on the east, three gates on the north, three gates on the south, and three gates on the west. 14 The city wall had twelve foundations, and the twelve names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb were on the foundations. 15 The one who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city, its gates, and its wall. 16 The city is laid out in a square; its length and width are the same. He measured the city with the rod at 12,000 stadia. Its length, width, and height are equal. 17 Then he measured its wall, 144 cubits according to human measurement, which the angel used. 18 The building material of its wall was jasper, and the city was pure gold clear as glass. 19 The foundations of the city wall were adorned with every kind of jewel: the first foundation is jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, 20 the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. 21 The twelve gates are twelve pearls; each individual gate was made of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass. 22 I did not see a temple in it, because the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. 23 The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates it, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 25 Its gates will never close by day because it will never be night there. 26 They will bring the glory and honor of the nations into it. 27 Nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those written in the Lamb’s book of life. 1 Then he showed me the river of the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the city’s main street. The tree of life was on each side of the river, bearing twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree are for healing the nations, 3 and there will no longer be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 Night will be no more; people will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will give them light, and they will reign forever and ever.
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you must be born again to enter the kingdom of God
1 There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to him at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.” 3 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 “How can anyone be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked him. “Can he enter his mother’s womb a second time and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. 8 The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 9 “How can these things be?” asked Nicodemus. 10 “Are you a teacher of Israel and don’t know these things?” Jesus replied. 11 “Truly I tell you, we speak what we know and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. 12 If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? 13 No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. 16 For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Anyone who believes in him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. 19 This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed. 21 But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.”
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Have you been born again?