Genesis The Final Week
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Into Egypt
Into Egypt
Our passage:
Gen. 50:15-21
The essence of who we are as believers can be found in the word faith.
· We are saved by grace through faith alone.
· It was faith that was ultimately asked of Adam and Eve in the garden. Real faith leads to obedience regardless of circumstance, and Adam and Eve disobeyed due in part to a deficiency in their faith.
· Noah obeyed and spent decades building the ark based upon the faith he had in God’s word.
· It was by faith that Abraham was counted as righteous, and Issac’s birth was a symbol of God’s never-failing word.
Through Issac, Rebecca gave birth to twins Esau and Jacob. Jacob was chosen as the son by which God would keep his word to crushing the serpent’s head and delivering the world from the certain death brought on by sin.
Jacob had twelve sons, and despite the almost daytime soap opera nature of all of these stories, God proves to be faithful to His promises, even when man abuses his gift of free will to be a disobedient child.
Today our passage looks into a portion of the story that causes us to wonder and test our portion of faith. Forcing us to ask what our lives would look like if we truly trusted God in every circumstance.
And as is always the case, the story itself points out important observations of God’s nature and character that show us the kind of God that comes to save humanity who cannot save itself. The kind of God that lowers himself to become a mortal man to die in the place of humanity.
Many say that Jesus was our ransom or that He paid a ransom for our sin. And this is true, but I tell you that it isn’t the whole story. A complete look at this reveals that not only did God our Judge pay the bond, but the Judge also come down off of His judgment throne to stand in our place so that we would have a worthy sacrifice for our sin, so that we may be pardoned from our deserved penalty of death.
Scripture points to this being true, but before we look at that more, consider the question before.
How would our outlook on life change if we believed God was really with us—in every situation?
Maybe it was;
● In your family and, therefore, your world felt like it was falling apart.
● Though you or perhaps your loved one’s disability
● In being mistreated and abused in a relationship
● In the fact that you had to change your life around dramatically because of any of those things aforementioned.
How would our outlook change if we knew God had a plan in and despite our suffering?
● You may not be sure if you believe that about everything in life, but if you did, I am certain that your life would look a lot differently at times.
The Bible teacher Andy Stanley points out that few people cause us to ask ourselves this question more than the subject of discussion here in Genesis 50, Joseph, the son of Israel, otherwise known as Jacob.
In a series he did on adversity titled “Being Better in a Crisis,” Stanley mentions that Joseph’s ability to trust that God was still in control was a sort of Superpower that allowed him to be successful in remaining faithful even when family betrayed him, throwing him into a pit, and then into slavery. Even when his master believed his scandalous wife scorned by Joseph’s rejection accused him of attempted rape, resulting in Joseph being thrown into prison. Joseph knew that God was in control through all of this, and God’s ways were higher than his own.
And so, how would your outlook change if you knew God had a plan even in your suffering?
Please stand with me for the reading of God’s word.
When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.”
So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died:
‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Backing up a bit, Genesis chapters 37-50 cover the story of Joseph. What we see there is a story that would have made any daytime soap opera writer jealous.
Joseph should have known from personal experience the turmoil that sibling rivalry can bring when a father plays favorites. His father Issac favored Esau, and Jacob was favored by mommy dearest, and of course, this led to Jacob and Esau’s lives being difficult and rocky for most of their lives.
Joseph is given what we have come to know as the coat of many colors. It was made of many colors, but the Syriac translates it as the “robe of long sleeves.” Such a robe was typically given to the heir, but Jacob gave it to his favorite son, Joseph. The garment was a status statement, saying, “See, I don’t do manual labor. How could I in these long sleeves?”
In Asia, particularly China, there are charms and symbols meant to grant great wealth. This status of long sleeves and many colors was a status that one had arrived.
Joseph not only received this status symbol from his father, but he also made matters worse by telling them about the dreams that he had where they all bowed down to him. Even Jacob was offended by these statements initially but didn’t pursue it and instead kept it in mind. On the other hand, his brothers didn’t appreciate it and eventually wanted to kill him. His older brother Reuben convinced them not to kill him but to leave him in a well and wait a bit before deciding. He intended to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. While Reuben was away, they were all convinced to sell Him to some of their lesser-known cousins, the descendants of Ishmael, the firstborn son to Abraham, by the handmaiden of Sarah. These cousins, known as Ishmaelites, were headed towards Egypt. This makes perfect sense because their Grandfather settled in Paran and was married to an Egyptian woman, according to Genesis 21:21. Paran is to the west of Cannon on the way toward Egypt, and so it made perfect sense for this reason that they would take Joseph there. Another reason it made sense was that these particular cousins were merchants, and Egypt was the place to be regardless of your product. Even slavery, unfortunately.
Now Joseph was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharoah, a captain of the guard. In other words, an important guy in Egypt. Things seemed to be getting better for Joseph as he was entrusted with Potiphar’s whole house. The story doesn’t end there. God is not content with Joseph’s present status and see’s fit to allow the next part of the story.
Potiphar’s wife was a tramp and made a pass at Joseph, to which he refused because it would dishonor his master who had been so good to him. As he fled away from her, she tore off his outer robe. She used this to give us a perfect example of a woman’s scorn and all that and accuses Joseph of attempted rape.
Now Potiphar, furious, threw Joseph into prison. Joseph could have fallen apart and felt betrayed by God; instead, he acknowledges whom God is and stays focused on pleasing God and not falling apart.
While Joseph is in prison, he gains the favor of the jailor, and while Joseph is taking care of the prisoners, he hears the troubling dreams of two inmates. One was given the great news that his freedom will be restored, and the other was told of his imminent execution. Now, I know that had to be disappointing regardless of the situation, but could you imagine that after comparing strange dreams with your roommate who just received great news about his dream, only to hear you are going to die.
The freedman promised to remember Joseph and speak with Pharoah about his plight once he was restored to his former position in the palace. Joseph asked him not to forget, and what did the man do? He forgot all about Joseph for two whole years, according to chapter 41.
After two whole years, what jogged the cup-bearer's memory. Pharaoh had a dream and started threatening to kill folks until it was interpreted. Finally, after this gentle nudge, the cupbearer remembers Joseph and mentions him to Pharaoh.
Now Consider the fact that Pharaoh's believed themselves to be God’s up until the 11th Dynasty and then pay attention to Gen. 41:14-16 hi
Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
This realization brings me to my first point when we believe that God is with us in all our situations.
When we believe that God is with us in all our situations…
1. We are bold to speak the truth even in the face of great power and even under the fear of certain death.
We behave differently when we learn to trust that God is in control and He is with us in all things.
Now Joseph could have thrown a fit when he found himself in chains at the slave market, but instead, he realized that God was with him. Genesis 39:2 tells us that the Lord was with Joseph in Potiphar’s house. Later in Gen. 39:21, we are told that the Lord was with Joseph and gave him favor in the sight of his jailers.
Through it all, the Lord was with Joseph. Not to say that you will be president someday if you believe God is with you even in your suffering. Stephan recalls Joseph’s story just before his martyrdom, and its true meaning remained just as sound as it did in the case of Joseph himself. Even with Stephen being stoned to death after his sermon.
Stephen knew this fate was a possibility and still, knowing that God was with him even in his deadly situation, made him bold before his accusers even though it cost him his life. You can read Stephen’s story in Acts chapter seven.
In Acts, Stephen’s focus when considering Joseph’s story was that God was with Joseph.
“And the patriarchs, jealous of Joseph, sold him into Egypt; but God was with him
We behave differently when we believe that God is still working in our favor. Joseph understood that even in slavery and the betrayal of his brothers, God was with him, and so, he served Potiphar faithfully, and according to 39:5, Even Potiphar, on some level, had to have recognized the fact that the Lord was with Joseph.
From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field.
After being thrown into prison, Joseph could have fallen into depression, crying that God has forsaken him and that he doesn’t deserve these awful circumstances.
Instead, Joseph remained convinced and served God faithfully in the place where God had him at the moment.
So, we are bold and speak the truth even when it isn’t popular. And we are content in any circumstance to remain faithful and righteous even when the world intends to do us wrong.
So, Joseph displays confidence in the presence of the Pharoah. He asks for time to pray to the God of heaven that can interpret dreams and leaves to pray. When he returns with the dream’s interpretation, he warns Pharoah about a coming seven years of famine and offers him the correct answer to such a problem.
About ten years after being sold into slavery by his brothers, the famine arrives, and things are getting bad pretty much everywhere. Even with seven years of storing up in Egypt, the Egyptians had to sell their land to Pharoah to eat. The only people that didn’t were the priests of Pharoah. The following year they came to Joseph to become the servants of Pharoah, at which time Joseph is given charge of their land that they remained on to farm for Pharoah.
During this time, the famine had devastated everyone, including Joseph’s family. Jacob, Joseph’s father, sends the rest of the boys to Egypt to buy food. Now Joseph recognizes them right away, but they didn’t know him at all. To their defense, the last time they saw him, he was in a caravan headed to become a slave and not the governor of the world’s most powerful empire.
Now Joseph plays a game with his brothers to test them, but he breaks out into tears and reveals his identity after a while.
Something tells me that this was not a meeting they had stable emotions about, were they sad, glad, scared, all of the above? Regardless of what any of them, including Joseph, was feeling at the time, Joseph tells them in
And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.
So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
So, when we believe that God is with us in all our situations…
1. We are bold to speak the truth even in the face of great power and even under the fear of certain death.
2. Our attitude towards our situations changes, and our attitudes towards people change.
Joseph’s brothers return to get their father, Jacob, and bring him and the rest of the family back to Egypt. Initially, the brothers suspected that Joseph forgave them for their father’s sake. But years later, Jacob dies, which brings us back to our text today in chapter 50.
“Genesis 50:15-21”
As I mentioned before, there are two lights that we should see this passage under, The first being that Joseph is a picture of Jesus.
One of the things I want you all to begin to see on your own as we go through this year of Biblical literacy are the echoes of Jesus throughout Scripture. So, what were they throughout Joseph’s story?
· One day, many years in the future, Jesus would come and walk a similar path as that of Joseph. He was betrayed by his brothers, the sons of Israel. He was lied about and falsely sentenced. However, his situation would cost His life on the cross.
· Joseph was thrown into the pit but raised to sit on the highest seat in the land. Christ was thrown into the grave only to rise to the highest throne in existence.
· Like Joseph, Jesus uses His exalted position to save the very brother’s that betrayed him.
· Joseph wept with joy when reunited with his brothers, and Christ is overjoyed over those of us reconciled to Him.
Jesus is the point of every story in the Bible and every believer’s story. The main point is not to point out how great Joseph was, but instead to point out that all great stories of great men are mere reflections of the character of God that we are meant to portray in this world.
Joseph’s story was to points to the reality that God and God alone is in full control. He is in full control of history or the situation you are in, and He alone works together for your good, even when it feels like He has forgotten you.
The main point of the greater narrative is that, like God put Joseph on the throne, He will place Jesus on the throne in his new Kingdom.
With all of that still in mind, the second lens I want us to see this story under is that Joseph’s life is a picture of what it looks like to live with the assurance that God is with you in every situation. And remember that this story is not a way of telling you that you are the one God will put on the throne; Jesus is.
Joseph believed God was in control and working in his favor even though he was sold into slavery by his brothers and thrown into prison on false charges.
Joseph was not living on blind faith either. Because he believed God was in control, he was able to gain favor because his actions and attitude made all of those around him realized that the Lord was with him.
So, I ask you again, “what would our lives look like if we believed that God was with us?” Joseph believed it to be true. He believed that while those that should have loved him the most meant evil against him, God was in control, and God was with him.
But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
“You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”
So, if Joseph’s response to adversity looks much different from yours, and you want to change that, then you must realize the same thing that Joseph’s life demonstrated. God was just as in control in the pit as he was in prison. Just like, God is in control and just as present in your suffering as he is in your jubilation.
Just like God was in control of Joseph’s life, He is in control of yours too. If you want to learn to be better in the face of fear and adversity, start by accepting that it is God who is in control and that He works all things together for the good of those who love Him. Now that is a verse I have seen misquoted in nearly every case I have seen it used.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
People love quoting that portion without the context of the following verse.
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Believing God is in control and present in the good times as the bad does not mean that the sin of others should be downplayed; recall that we just read Joseph acknowledging that what they did to him was evil.
Part of accepting God allows or even ordains your suffering, and that no matter how much it hurts, He is working it for your good, is accepting the reality that people have sinned against you, and that hurts. It hurts, but it does not define you.
Next, just because God is working it for your good does not mean that you will necessarily ever see it in your life as Joseph did. But even Joseph did not see the whole story play out. God used Joseph’s suffering to save his family, and God rescued Joseph’s family to save the world through his people. His brothers meant him evil, but God meant salvation to all through or despite their evil actions.
So, we will not always see or understand God’s plans for our suffering.
When I was a young boy, my mother forced me to read this book called the hiding place by Corrie Tin Boom. In it, I remember the way she revered her sister Betsy’s faith even as they suffered, and Betsy eventually died in their suffering.
I was captivated by her story, and I went on to read mean things about and by her. One of the stories I recall was how Betsy always found reason to praise God. Betsy even thanked God for the fleas, and this upset and frustrated her sister Corey.
Later, Corey recalls that they could have secret worship with a smuggled Bible and even prayer sessions while being held in one of the worst concentration camps of the war, all thanks to those same fleas. You see, Corey couldn’t see what her sister Betsy could at first. Those fleas kept the guards at bay, and their bunkhouse was the only place in the entire camp that the Guards wouldn’t go. Those fleas kept them safe as they worshiped all mighty God that Betsy knew then and Corey could see later.
Our lives look different when we realize that God is in control and that He is with us. Sometimes we fail to see the blessing in the metaphorical fleas that bite and torment us so, but God is with you in that torment.
Paul taught that “because I was afflicted, I was able to comfort others with the comfort I experienced from Jesus.
So, God is with you in that situation that you face.
· He is with you when you lose someone close to you.
· He is with you when you are discarded and abused.
· He is with you when your world is falling apart
· In your disease and afflictions, He is with you
· And when you are in complete despair suffering from the darkest of situations,
God is there, and He is working all things together for the good of His children
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
And what is that Purpose?
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
So, acting like Joseph and believing that the Lord is with you does not mean that everything will work out to your five-star satisfaction in life, but it all works for this, his final good in the course of history. When Christ returns and sets on His throne in the new heaven and earth, he will have taken every bit of the suffering of those that love Him and worked it out for His purposes and our good.
Let us pray!