The Ultimate Purpose of God's Providence

Scripture reading/prayer

Tonight’s Scripture reading is going to be found in the book of Exodus, and we are going to start at the very beginning of the book. This is on page 45 if you’re using one of the black Bibles underneath. Exodus 1:1 reads:

English Standard Version (Chapter 1)

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel who came to Egypt with Jacob, each with his household: 2 Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, 3 Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, 4 Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher. 5 All the descendants of Jacob were seventy persons; Joseph was already in Egypt. 6 Then Joseph died, and all his brothers and all that generation. 7 But the people of Israel were fruitful and increased greatly; they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong, so that the land was filled with them. 8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest they multiply, and, if war breaks out, they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land.” 11 Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel. 13 So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.

This is God’s Word/thanks be to God

Let us pray: Our father in heaven, we thank you and praise you that because you are good, we can trust that your purposes for our lives are good, even in the midst of darkness and pain. We thank you for the story of Joseph, and we thank you for the Scriptures that show us how the story of Joseph is just one story in the greatest story ever told. I pray that as we conclude our series on Joseph tonight that the Spirit would open our hearts to the Gospel, to the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, and that we would rejoice in your glorious purpose to reconcile all things to yourself through your Son. I ask this in the name of Jesus, amen.

The Epilogue to the Story

Last week we ended the story of Joseph in Genesis. We looked at how God did more than just raise Joseph up to save Egypt through his providence, he used Joseph to save his family from death despite the fact his family abandoned him to death as a child. After quoting it every week in this series, we finally got to the scene of the story where Joseph tells his brothers and his father 20 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. Jacob got to see the son he thought was long dead before he died, and Joseph and his brothers were reconciled to each other - Joseph did not retaliate against his brothers, but forgave his brothers, and instead of using his power to crush those who did all of these horrible things to him, Joseph uses his power to serve his enemies. Joseph lived to a good old age and died a blessed man, able to see multiple generations of his and his brother’s children. By all accounts, what begins as a terrible story ends on an incredibly happy and blessed note, and a book that begins with Adam and Eve ruining everything because of their sin now ends with God powerfully using everything to accomplish his good and gracious purposes - even awful and terrible things.

But the story of Joseph is not actually over - at least, the story of Joseph relative to the rest of Scripture. The book of Exodus picks up exactly where Genesis ends, and tells us that the people of Israel continue to take root in Egypt and eventually the land of Egypt becomes filled with them. But in verse 8, we get a pretty shocking twist in the story: “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph”. How in the world could there be a new Pharaoh who didn’t know about Joseph, who saved Egypt and the known world from disaster? There is actually a clear historical answer for this: at one point in Egypt’s history, Egypt is invaded a group of Canaanites called the Hyksos [HICK-socks] and eventually they take control of the Egyptian government. This is a picture from the tomb of a Pharoah and the inscription is “Abisha the Hyksos”, which is the earliest appearance of the word “Hyksos”. Historians aren’t quite sure exactly how that happened but it’s very clear from Egyptian archeology that at one point a foreign ruler takes over the land of Egypt, and while it can’t be proven conclusively, it’s more than likely that this “king who did not know Joseph” was from this Hyksos people and quite literally did not know or care about who Joseph was. And because this new Pharaoh didn’t know or care about Joseph, he didn’t see the people of Israel and Joseph’s family as being people that are significant and important to Egypts’ well being. Instead, he saw them as a threat, and so he began to oppress them with fierce and intense slavery.

In the book of Ecclesiastes, we are told that there is a season for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven. Neither the good times nor the bad times of our life last forever. There are seasons of our lives where the Lord leads us through the valley of the shadow of death; there are also seasons of our lives where the Lord leads us to rest on green pastures and still waters of calmness, peace, and stability. In Joseph’s story, we see God’s providence lead him through very dark seasons of trial, and then lead him to peace and prosperity for him, his family, and the nation of Egypt at the end of his life. But now God is about to lead his people through another dark trial - they will now become enslaved in the land that used to be their home. This season of prosperity had ended, and now a season of darkness was upon them. But though their seasons change, God does not change, nor does his purposes for his people change even though he leads them into a new, dark chapter. As we have said for these past several weeks, God’s providence is an expression of his perfectly good, wise, and loving character, and because God does not change, his providence does not change either. It is easy to believe that God is good when life is good; it is much more difficult to believe that God is good when life is hard and, as we believe, that it is the Lord himself who allows these hardships to occur. Faith does not say “because God is good, these bad situations are not that bad”; faith says that “these situations are bad, but because God is good and all powerful, I will trust that his purposes are good even when they’re painful and hard.”

Preparing the Stage

But like we talked about near the end of the story, even in the midst of this new horrible experience for the Israelites, God is providentially preparing for the next chapter of the story even in the midst of their darkness. Let’s look at Exodus chapter 2:1

English Standard Version Chapter 2

2 Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. 2 The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. 3 When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. 4 And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. 5 Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. 6 When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” 7 Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” 8 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. 9 And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. 10 When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”

For context, Pharaoh ordered that every Hebrew son be thrown into the Nile; basically, a genocide on the Hebrew people. A Hebrew woman bears a son and tries to keep him alive for a time, but eventually she can’t keep him hidden and rather than throw her son into the river and drowning him, she makes a basket that can float down the river in the hopes that it’ll give her son a chance of somehow miraculously being rescued. Against every conceivable odd and likelihood and purely by the power of God, this baby boy is rescued - and not just by anyone, but by the daughter of Pharaoh, the very man responsible for the decree that put this baby in the river to begin with. Not only is she going to save the baby, she goes and hires out his mother to nurse the baby for her - not only is this baby being saved, this baby is going to continue to be nursed by his own mother and now his mother is getting paid to do it! And what Pharaoh’s daughter eventually name this baby? Moses. That Moses. The Moses who will one day lead the people of Israel out of Egypt. The Moses would will give the 10 Commandments. The Moses who would lead the people of God to the land God promised to Abraham centuries prior. That Moses. Even in the midst of an incredible darkness, God is at work for his people. What this Pharaoh intended for evil and in the midst of all the evil this Pharaoh caused, God would use the very thing Pharaoh hoped would keep him secure and in power to one day ruin Pharaoh.

By now I hope you can at least get a glimpse that the stories of Scripture, especially the Old Testament, aren’t random or arbitrary, but they’re telling a single story that builds up to something. You can look at the story of Joseph, but Joseph doesn’t exist in a vacuum; you can look at the story of Moses, but Moses doesn’t exist in a vacuum; you can look at the stories of David, Solomon, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther by themselves, but all of these stories are building up to something. The entire Old Testament is a story of God’s providence over centuries and peoples and individuals and governments and armies and while we can look at those things individually it’s not just about those things. These stories aren’t in isolation from one another. They’re not an anthology of standalone stories. They’re all connected to tell a story but it’s a story that doesn’t have a resolution because the point of these stories aren’t just about themselves; they’re pointing to something beyond themselves. They’re pointing to someone who will do something greater than all the accomplishments of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, David, Isaiah, and all the other heroes of the Old Testament: they’re pointing to the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who will save the world from their sins and defeat Satan, sin, and death.

The Bible is entirely about Jesus. Even if Jesus isn’t immediately relevant or noticeable on every page, every single story, character, and event is told to lead up to the greatest story ever told: the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But unlike these other stories, the Bible tells us that when we place our faith in Jesus Christ and believe that his life, death, and resurrection is the only thing that can save us from our sin and make us right before God, that God uses this story, this message, this proclamation to do something extraordinary in us. We believe that the Gospel, the announcement of what Jesus Christ has accomplished on the cross and that we will be saved when we repent of our sins and place our faith in him, is God’s chosen method of changing people’s lives. He doesn’t make us into nicer people; he makes us into a new people. He doesn’t just forgive our sins; he adopts us into his family. He doesn’t just secure us today; he secures us for eternity.

When we believe the Gospel message and place our faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation, we receive more than just forgiveness. We receive more than just adoption into God’s family. We receive more than eternal security in Christ. We join in the ultimate purpose of God’s providence to save the world through Jesus Christ, and we join in a story that isn’t over yet. We know how the story ends - but that ending hasn’t come yet. For those who believe in Christ for their salvation, no matter how much hardship or suffering or evil we may experience in our lives, this is the end of our story - and if you’re not a Christian, this can be the end of your story as well:

English Standard Version (Chapter 21)

21 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 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), Re 21:6–7.