Life Changes - God Doesn't
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Good morning everyone.
I hope you had a good week. I hope you were able to navigate the first week of 2021 without many challenges.
Of course, as a church we saw one of our dear ladies move her residence from her to heaven, Anna Lee was indeed a precious lady. She served and decorated our church for years and served in many, many ways. Please continue to pray for Jack and their extended family.
This week wasn’t the way I wanted the first of the new year to start, but I also realize God is faithful and His plans and ways are being fulfilled each day.
Now, this first week of 2021 reminds me of Joseph’s life in Genesis 37 and 39.
Why, life has ups and down, good things happen to us and then suddenly it seems like the bottom drops out from under us.
Have you every left that way? Things were going smooth and suddenly, “BAM” you take a hit…you feel like you got knocked off your feet!
I think that situation is common to life, and we don’t like it.
No one wants to take a hit… we like easy days… but that’s not how life is..
You know this… and Joseph learned this as well, but God was with Him and He is with us as well.
I love the fact that we see this over and over again and every character of the Scriptures reveal it.
So this morning we return to the book of Genesis and we will come to chapters 37 and 39 today.
It is here that we see Joseph’s life changed drastically, from a special son to a common slave. And the blessing of his life was that God was with Him, He never left him....
So this morning let find Genesis 3718-24
18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
So we know from the previous passage, Joseph was sent by His father Israel to His brothers to who were shepherding their father’s flocks near Shechem. Israel want to know how they were doing and if their had been any problems.
So Joseph followed His Father’s instructions, and out toward Shechem to find them, but they were not there, they had moved on toward an area called Dothan.
Now most likely, there were only 10 of the brothers there… Benjamin was younger than Joseph and I would say that Israel kept him closer to him like he did with Joseph for the most part.
But Joseph had gotten a little older, he was 17 now and so the Father let him go out to work alongside of His brothers from time to time. And this day, they saw Joseph coming toward them from afar....
The brothers were really in no mood for him, jealously had gripped their lives and severely strained their relationships with Joseph… being Father’s favorite made him the most un-popular man around.
So let me share three thoughts with you,,, 1.) A Dangerous plot 2.) Stripped and Rejected and finally 3) God was with Him
So let us begin with this thought today ....
1. A Dangerous Plot....
1. A Dangerous Plot....
Remember we talked just last week about how jealously ruins our relationships between God and others.
We looked at the relationship Joseph had with Israel, the brothers hated him for it. Because he was loved more than all the rest...
And as we continue to examine His life, Joseph begins to have dreams, and they are so marvelous, so astonishing that He shares them with his family. And at this time in His life, I am not sure if he understand that they are from God or not...
But the very nature of the dreams led Joseph’s brothers to despise him all the more...
And as Joseph comes close to His brothers, they are not happy to see him at all, look at the text...
18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.”
Dangerous times my friend, dangerous times…
The coat probably gave Joseph away, and as they saw him coming toward them, and the Scriptures say that they, collectively, conspired against him. It is interesting that the word conspired or plotted meaning a deceitful action is only found 3 times in the Old Testament.
The spoke sarcastically of Joseph, they said her come the “dreamer” which in the Hebrew carries the meaning of the Lord of Dreams, They were mocking him, Here he comes boys, the king of dreams,.... if you will.. they had a deep, deep resentment against him.
It’s sad to see just how their jealously had ruined their relationship with God and their brother.
And it doesn’t get any better, verse 20 tells us just how bad it was… The phrase “Come now” is a term of excitement, they are wound up… they are like a pack of sharks circling their prey and suddenly there is the smell of blood in the water...
They mean to kill young Joseph and the intent is seen at the end of verse 20 they say “… and we will see what will become of his dreams.” My friends they are explicit, they are executing a preemptive strike against their brother in the hopes that His dreams would never become true.
How pitiful my friends, how pitiful the brothers have become, jealously and their father’s attention has blinded them to see anything or want anything special from Joseph, so this dangerous plaot quickly developed...
Lets kill the brat and see what becomes of his dreams them...
Jealously, broken relationships and hurt feelings have driven them farther down the road than they could have ever imagined...
These brothers, family members were ready to commit murder to make themselves feel better...
My friends, this illustrates the necessity of keeping a pure and right heart before the Lord our God. Only a “right” relationship leads to life that is free from those practices the devil uses to hold out lives in sin, leading to death.
And this brings me to a second thought my friends,
2. Stripped and Rejected
2. Stripped and Rejected
Its hard to imagine that your family would turn on you, that they would plot to kill you over status, over wealth or because some one loves you more than them.
But we see it, look at the newspapers and the television shows, and right here in the Word of God.
Jealously, hatred, pride, it doesn’t matter it’s all sin. It’s sin that has driven this family apart and caused so many problems.
And its sin, that is fanning the flames or murder, the horrible thoughts of murdering their younger brother.
It’s the same thing that leads to similar actions today… Like I said a moment ago, we see it all around us.
As Joseph approached His brothers they were conspiring against him. Joseph is walking into the moment whereby His life will change forever and God will move him another step closer tot he reason He was created, for the reason that God is glorified.
Lets go back tot he text....
20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
So these brother are planning to murder him and hid him in a pit, but then Reuben, the oldest of the brothers hears their plans and steps in…
Reuben says you cannot do this, you cannot shed his blood. Instead just throw him in the pit and leave him there.
Secretly, Reuben’s plan is to humiliate him in a sense that is what he is portraying in front of the brothers, but His true desire is to save Joseph and rescue him and get him back to his father, verse 22
I cannot imagine the scene, Reuben is probably shocked at what he’s hearing.. this is their brother and they want to kill him..heaven’s no… So Reuben proposes this alternate plot....
And the brothers went along with this at first… there was no shedding of blood if you will...
As Joseph came into their midst they pounced on him, tied him up and stripped that beautiful coat from his body… and they placed him in the pit…verse 24
Now this pit if you will was a water cistern, a large place to gather water for the shepherds and the grazing animals to drink from as they traveled from place to place.
So Joseph is trapped and the brothers are sitting down to eat…all but Reuben appears to have left their presence for a while as we see in verse 29.
But while the other brothers ate, they saw a band of traders passing by in the distance. look at verses 25-28
25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
Now Judah, seeing this band of traders proposes a plan to his brothers…
It profits us nothing to kill this dreamer.... his blood will be upon our hands.. The word for profit there in verse 26 is one in the Hebrew that speaks to dishonest gain, or greed.
Later on it will be one of the test that Joseph places upon the brothers when he hides silver in their packs of grain… will they honestly return it. Or will they try to profit from the mistake..
Now returning to the point at hand, instead of murder, Judah proposed they sell him into slavery… you see while they would be free from the plot of murder, they would gain a few coins each for this treachery. Guilt is still upon their hearts..
The price they gained was 20 shekels…it was the common price to pay for a slave, according to the law of the day, from 5 to 20 years of age, this was the set price. No doubt he most likely brought a higher price in Egypt. The brothers didn’t barter with the slave traders, they simply wanted him gone and gone before Reuben could return...
The deal is done… I can imagine Joseph screaming, pleading, begging for mercy… how do they do this? He was their little brother,their own flesh and blood. Their hearts are indeed hard, filled with hatred and jealously, it is a very sad time.
Joseph is stripped and rejected… my friends it is a picture of Jesus… he was stripped of His robes the night of His crucifixion and rejected by the world, Jesus was put to death, a sacrifice for sin, to save the world.
The rejection of Joseph, would save the world in the days to come, no one knew or understood… except God.
Now just one last thought my friends,
3. God was with Him....
3. God was with Him....
Now we don’t know where Reuben was during this time, He was absent when Judah proposed the plan to sell their brother into slavery.
He tore his clothes when he discovered that Joseph was gone, the tearing of your clothes was a outward sign of mourning.... The boy wasn’t there.. You see as the oldest he was ultimately responsible for Joseph, as he was everyone else being the oldest.
How would they tell their father, Israel, How would they explain it. They propose the ruse that he was killed by a while animal, bringing a blood soaked robe back to their father and they ask him to “examine it” verse 32-33
32 And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” 33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
Israel confirmed it was his sons robe, he was heartbroken, distraught....and refused to be comforted… His son of his old age was gone...
But God was with Joseph...
36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
Now you might ask, How did the whole situation reveal that God was with Joseph..
It reveals that in life and death, freedom and slavery, God had not abandoned Joseph and my friends, He does not abandon us either.
Let me share verses 1-3 in Genesis 39
1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
Verse 2 tells us plainly, the Lord was with him, and he was a successful man, and verse 3 says that Potiphar witnessed the fact that the Lord was with him, for all that he did had success.
My friends, even when it appears that life as we know it is gone, broken and shattered God is there.
God knew you before your birth, and He has walked with you, his people all the days of your life.
Next week we will look at Joseph in the land of Egypt more in depth, but for now..
a dangerous plot was leaved against Joseph, he was rejected and stripped of everything, his clothes, his status, his freedom and even his family… but no matter the circumstances of His life, God was with him.
What are you facing today, what are you struggling with in your life?
Do you know and believe that God is with you?
He is, He has promised He would never leave us or forsake us… take comfort in that my friends,
Today cast your cares on Jesus, He is there to help.
Lets pray