Joseph--the Blessing

When we last visited Joseph, he'd narrowly missed being murdered by his brothers by being sold into slavery instead.

Did Joseph weep? Did he cry out to God when he experienced this? Did he blame God for giving him his dreams, which incited his brothers against him?

Did he react in anger to the situation he was in? Did he despair for his life?

Did he worry about what kind of master he would get, what kind of person would end up buying him?

Did he wonder how he would live? Did he wonder if he would ever see his family ever again? I'm sure Joseph experienced all of those things.

His future was taken out of his hands, his life looked hopeless.

And yet, when we observe Joseph's behaviour in Egypt, we see a determined young man.We see someone who lived according to God's promises to him.

We cannot control our circumstances. But we can control our reactions to them.

Joseph dealt with reality as it happened. He did not spend time or a long time, as far as we can tell, from this short passage in the Scriptures, wallowing in self-pity. Or wishing that the circumstances could be different.

It sounds like a small thing, but we are always tempted into despair, we are always tempted into fear. We are always tempted to complain, to ask, "Why is this happening to me, why, why, why? This is so frustrating! I can't believe this is happening to me! Why couldn't things just stay the same, the way they were for just a while longer? I can't handle this. I can't take any more of this. I don't know what to do.”

Make no mistake, beloved in Christ, when life suddenly shifts, when your expectations for the way you think your life's trajectory is going to go, when those things all of a sudden change, when you're facing crazy hardship, pain, suffering, loss… the temptation is to pack it in and give up. The temptation is to flee from the reality and hope it'll just go away.

But it's important to acknowledge the new reality. It's important to take time to grieve over what we hoped would happen. And that's the right word, grieving. Mourning a loss of what we had hoped might happen. But we must accept the new reality. There are two things, and probably several more, but two things that came to mind that help us to accept changes in our lives. The first and most obvious and most important is God himself, Jesus Christ is present in our lives and in and through the person of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is with you constantly. Especially when you don't feel him.

When you are at rock bottom and you think there's nothing you can do—that's when the Holy Spirit comes in. That's when he starts to take over, because that’s when we finally let go and allow God to work. The Holy Spirit quietly acts in the background, powerfully acts.

But so often we hardly notice his work, and when life deals us a blow, such as losing a parent, losing a spouse, losing a job, having an accident, getting a bad diagnosis, failing an exam, being forced to quit school, a worldwide pandemic, the Holy Spirit is with you speaking to your heart and to your mind through God's word, bringing people to visit, giving you hope when you feel hopeless.

The second thing that helps us through changes in our life, is God's promises to us. Jesus promised his disciples, “I will be with you always, even to the end of the age.”

In Hebrews 13 verses five and six, we read, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." So we can confidently say the Lord is my helper, I will not fear. What can man do to me?

This is God's promise, he is with us, he will never, ever forsake us.

This means that whatever we face in life, not one bit of it comes as a result of God's anger, frustration or dislike for us.

When God the Father looks at us as we go to school, as we go to work, as we work about the home, as we visit people, as I preach, he looks at us with the kind of love that a father has for his child. A mother has for her child.

God looks at us and he doesn't see our sins. He doesn't see your wrongdoings. He doesn't see it. For everyone who has put their trust in Jesus Christ, when the Father looks at you, he looks through the Son and he sees the Son's righteousness covering over you. Because the Son, his work on the cross, has taken your sins from you. He put it on his own shoulders and he's removed all your sin as far as the east is from the west. So when the Father looks at you, he sees his Son and he's full of an eternal undying, never-ending incredible love for his Son, and he's pouring out that love upon you. A love that just pours out constantly.

Therefore, we cannot look at the horrific circumstances in this world and say, oh, it's because God is judging his people. God does not judge us, because he's judged his Son in our place.

We cannot look at circumstances and think that God does not love us. God allows things to happen to us in this life. It's true. But he doesn't cause them to happen out of anger or disappointment in us, God allows circumstances both good and bad to happen to us so that he can demonstrate his blessing to us.

We see this playing out in Joseph because Joseph really demonstrates the mind and the attitude of Christ.

I am sure that Joseph reacted to his circumstances just as you and I would react. I'm not going to try to make Joseph into this perfect person.

He wasn't.

He reacted with anger and disappointment and frustration, and he communicated all of those things to God. That's what we have to do when we face circumstances, we bring them to God. That’s what Joseph’s brothers should have done in their woundedness, but didn’t. Joseph did, and God, helped him embrace his circumstances, to process them and then to surrender himself again to God's will in this new circumstance. Joseph realized that no manner of emotional outburst, no wishing, no denial, could change the reality that he was in: it was slavery in Egypt.

It's nothing he could do to change any of it.

He came to the harsh realization that his brothers would rather that he was dead, except that they realized they could make some money instead, and so they sold him into slavery.

I can't even begin to imagine having to live with that kind of hatred from my siblings.

In short, Joseph was having a very bad day. When they arrived in Egypt, the Ishmaelites took him to the slave auction and he got Potiphar's attention. Potiphar, as it says in the scripture, was a captain of Pharaoh's guards. Which means that he was a very important person in Egypt. If I were to try to imagine what his position would be like today, it would be like the captain of the Secret Service for the President of the United States, he was a pretty important guy.

He had great responsibility.

Now, there was something about Joseph’s appearance that caught Potiphar's attention, we know, and we'll learn next week that he was handsome, but he also carried himself with a certain maturity. He bore responsibility, well. He was shouldering the burden of being placed into slavery well, already. And it showed there on the auction block. It was proven over and over again in Pharaoh's household, the Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man.

Even though Joseph was alone, he had no family, he had no friends… the Lord was with him and was friend and family to him. Joseph learned to experience, and through this experience, to trust in the Lord and to receive his presence in his life.

Joseph knew that the Lord was with him and he trusted his life to him. He entrusted his work to the Lord. He put forth his best effort even though he was working for a master now and not for his father.

And the Lord chose to bless him with success. That's what it says, in our passage.

Please bear in mind this very important fact that gets messed up in many sermons, in many churches.

Success is not a barometer of God's blessing. It is not.

Just because a person is successful, just because a business is successful, just because a church is successful does not mean that they necessarily have God's blessing.

God is not a genie that if we show up on Sunday mornings and if we are faithful with certain things, that God will necessarily bless us with many more things. Showing up and doing certain tasks and activities will not guarantee that you will receive healing for your diseases, trusting in God with your life will not necessarily solve all of your relationship issues. Also, success, when we think of the word success, we probably most of us think of us right away in terms of social status or financial gain or improving our situation or what have you. Jesus, however, was perfectly successful in all he came to do on Earth, and yet he died penniless.

He used a borrowed grave.

They fought over his only real possession, which was his undergarments.

They cast lots for it.

He used, as I mentioned, a borrowed grave, he rose victorious, of course, from the dead, and of course, we know that Jesus is Lord of the universe. So he had everything already anyway. But if we were to judge him by worldly standards, he was a total failure.

Trusting in God gives you the proper perspective. In life, it allows you to see how the Lord is at work, even when things don't go well, even when success cannot be measured by human standards. It allows you to realize even when things are going well, that it's the Lord's blessing. As Joseph proved himself in the Lord and proved the Lord's blessing upon him, Potiphar gave him more and more responsibility. Why? Because Joseph proved that he was an honest, hardworking slave. In this way, we see his true character.

Joseph was hated by his brothers because he was an honest, hard-working young man. He refused to be corrupted by their desire to try to get away with the least amount of work is possible.

He refused to to follow into their footsteps, as I mentioned, a couple of weeks ago. And because he took his responsibilities from his father very seriously, he reported truthfully about what was going on. His brothers hated him as a result of that.

So he was hated because he was righteous. And not because he was a whiny braggart, Joseph was wise. He he displayed incredible wisdom. He was a hard worker. He was honest.

And he constantly pointed out that his success was from the Lord. He gave credit where credit was due, Joseph witnessed to the Lord, consider what it looked like from Potter's perspective.

You buy a 17 year old boy at an auction. He tells you about his life working for his dad, being put in charge of his older brothers, getting dreams from God and then being nearly killed by his brothers and then sold into slavery. And yet he's prepared to work as hard for you as for his father.

It's kind of crazy.

And because of the Lord’s blessing on Joseph, Potiphar entrusted everything into his care. We don't know what kind of fortune that was existent in Potter's household before Joseph came. He might have had a turn for the worse just before that, but whatever happened immediately after that, when he put Joseph more and more in charge, Potiphar's whole life changed.

He experienced a sudden upswing in everything, and just as God blessed Joseph, he now blessed Potiphar. With Joseph in charge, Potiphar didn't have to worry about anything.

So where are you in your life this morning?

Feeling good, feeling excited about the future, feeling blessed by God? Are you feeling like the Lord is with you, feeling successful even if it isn't in the world's measurement of success?

Then tell others about God's blessing upon you.

Tell them about God's promises, how God is with you, no matter what circumstances you face, even if your friends abandon you, even if your family sells you off as a slave, God is your friend. He's your family.

Tell people about what God has done to set you free from guilt and sin. Tell them about God's love for you in Christ, his perfect and amazing, no matter what love. Tell others why you're doing well.

If you're feeling bad, if you're having a tough go, acknowledge it for what it is. Accept the reality: this is the situation you're in. The reality is that the Lord knows your circumstances intimately, he is with you. Ahead of you, behind you, alongside of you, within you, holding you.

He knows how you've reacted to your circumstances. He knows if you're trying to dodge them because you just can't handle it, he knows it's OK.

He knows if you feel inadequate. Talk to him, pray to him, let him minister to you.

He will. He has allowed the circumstances in our life, he's allowed the circumstances in our congregational life, to demonstrate his power in you, his power in us.

Remember this: while a storm raged on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus slept.

Full on storm. He was asleep.

He had not a care in the world and his disciples were freaking out. They wisely realized that if the storm got any worse, they would surely die. And so finally, they couldn't handle it anymore. They woke up Jesus and they said, “Hey, you need to get your life vest on, this ship is going to go down soon. How did Jesus respond? What did he say?

“Why are you afraid? You know, I’m here. I'm with you.”

And then to demonstrate his power in every circumstance, He spoke to the wind and the waves and everything ceased. Why was Jesus able to sleep in midst of a storm? Jesus slept because he is the creator of the universe. There's nothing the universe could do to him if he did not allow it to happen.

That means nothing can happen to you in your life that Christ hasn't allowed to happen. There's nothing that can happen in your life that Christ himself can't handle. It's true you will not be able to handle it. Christ, can. And he does, he does.

He might calm your storm. Or he'll carry you through it. He’s rich in love and slow to anger. His power, is great and his heart is kind. For all his goodness, let’s keep on singing , for we have ten thousand reasons and more! And on that day when our strength is failing, when the end draws near and our time has come, still our souls will sing His praise unending, ten thousand years and then forevermore.

Amen. Let us pray.