Joseph and Suffering

Anyone have a little brother that drives you crazy?

I think this is a story that we probably all need after 2020, a year that was full of trouble and difficulty and suffering.

In difficult times we must remember two things about our God: He is at work and He is the object of our faith.

Pray

The Story

The temptation in reading the Old Testament so often is to see the earthly characters as the main characters. To look to them to find the main lesson about what we should do.

We have to remember that in all of Scripture, the main character is God. Revealing himself to us through the people. So while we can certainly take lessons, find things to emulate and to stay away from from Joseph and Jacob and his brother, the most important question is what do we learn about God from this story and how do we live in light of it.

Tell the story of Joseph using the markings in the ESV pastor’s Bible and notes in the 2021 ESV Scripture Journal file.

God is always at work.

Even in our most difficult and trying times, God is still at work.

I think the Ocean’s movies are great. Ocean’s 11, Ocean’s 12. They’re about Danny Ocean, a world class thief. He and his team come up with these elaborate and fun heists. In the first movie they are robbing a casino vault so Danny can get his girl friend back. It’s super romantic! Guys, do this for your lady!

But they start the heist and things start going wrong and it seems like the plan is failing. Then at the end, they pull it off. While it seemed like the plan was thrown off, we find out that every thing that seemed wrong, Danny and his team had planned for and it was all part of the heist.

One day, when we all get to Heaven… we’ll be able to look at God’s plan. To see the whole thing, beginning to end, and we will see that everything worked out just like God planned. For now, we only get to see little glimpses of that. We see little glimpses in Joseph’s story. And we must choose to trust that, as God has told us in his Word, He is at work. That’s what Joseph did. That’s what we’re told in his story.

39:2 & 21; the Lord was with Joseph in the beginning and the situations ended badly.

Bad situations do not mean that God has left us.

The usual punishment for the crime Joseph was accused of by Potiphar’s was death. But for some reason, he sent him to prison instead.

45:4-8; Joseph acknowledges that through all of the mess he had been through, God was at work. He doesn’t seem angry or bitter about it. We watched him honor God at each stage.

50:19-20; Again Joseph sees the God was at work, unfolding his plan of salvation through Joseph’s suffering.

We see in this story that when it seemed like everything was wrong, God knew what He was doing. We can rest assured, as Joseph did, that God has not forgotten us, He has not left us, He is not ignoring us. God Has bigger plans than we do.

His ways are not our ways.

Even when it seems that the worst thing has happened, it is still in God’s story. Not out of his hands.

Acts 4:27–28 ESV

for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

At the worst moment in history, God was still writing the story. It seemed off the rails, but it was God’s definite plan, as Peter said at Pentecost. Even if it seems that everything is crumbling, it isn’t. God’s plans for your life are not in jeopardy. Your part in his story is no in danger.

If you are watching your surroundings to judge that then it will be so difficult to believe it. But our faith is not in our surroundings. Our faith is in the God who wrote the story before time began!

God is the object of our faith.

Our faith is in God, our hope is in Him. Not our circumstances or surroundings.

Before we had apple watches and digital watched and analog watches and even sun dials, all people had to go off of was the sun. Where is it in the sky, where is it casting shadows. It worked no matter what was going on or where you were, it still worked…

God is doing his work not in response to what we are doing, but He is doing it because it is his work. So we can trust that it will be done!

Joseph continued to honor the Lord through his suffering because that’s what his faith was set on.

39:9; He would not dishonor God by giving into her advances

40:8; He gives God the glory for interpreting the dreams

41:16; Before Pharaoh, he again credits God for giving him the interpretation of the dreams

41:50-52; Joseph names his sons

Manasseh - Joseph won’t be defined by the suffering and difficulty of his past

Ephraim - he is still in the land of his affliction, God has promised him a better home and he knows God will do it

This Earth is not our home, it is the land of our affliction. God has promised us a better home.

42:38; Though Jacob was not a great example, though in his past he had been unfaithful, God’s plan was not thrown off.

In ch46 God speaks to Jacob to let him know that his plan is still on course.

50:24-25; At the end of Joseph’s life he showed that he was still in the land of his affliction and his faith and hope were set on God’s promises because they were better!

When God is the object of our faith, we can face down troubled times, difficulty, suffering because God isn’t changing. His story does not hang on our goodness, in who we are, or in our faithfulness. He is unfolding his story of salvation because of who He is. He is good. He is loving. He is faithful.

2 Timothy 1:8–9 ESV

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

Ephesians 2:4–5 ESV

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

Joseph remembered this and he was able to keep his focus on the promises God made to him and his family and remain faithful through his time in the land of persecution.

In the midst of all Joseph went though, he maintained faith in God, and God was at work through the whole thing. In the face of the somewhat pitiful life that Jacob lived, God was still faithful because his promises are based in who He is and what his plans are.

God is bigger than your past. That parent, sibling, or teacher who abused you does not define who you are today. That person who hurt, disappointed, rejected, or criticized you repeatedly while you were growing up cannot “make” you something that Christ’s blood is insufficient to cover. That church you grew up in, filled with backbiting hypocrites, is no excuse for you to reject God’s people today. In short, you need a Manassseh! Don’t be defined by the difficulties of your past. Instead, be defined by the hope that is yours in Christ.

Vodie Baucham, Joseph and The Gospel of Many Colors

We must remember that God’s primary concern/job is not to keep us from inconvenience. That understanding will keep us from thinking He is not being faithful to us in those times.

Brothers and sisters, what are you going through that you need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness? No matter what it is, God’s plans cannot be undone. Your role in his story is not at risk. The promises He has made you are not in jeopardy. It doesn’t matter who has hurt you or betrayed you or forgotten about you. It doesn’t matter if you’ve ended up in a place you never thought you’d be. God is faithful. He has not left you. His plan is still unfolding in your life!

God’s plan was unfolding in Joseph’s story, working towards its ultimate goal, pointing towards it through Joseph. Joseph was an innocent man found guilty of false charges, persecuted though he had done no wrong, and suffered for no good reason. But God orchestrated it all so that people would be saved out of Joseph’s suffering. Is this sounding familiar?