What To Do When You Find Yourself In the Pit

Genesis 37:1-4 (NIV2011) 1 Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. 2 This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

Joseph Sold By His Brothers

Genesis 37:12-18 (NIV2011) 12 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father’s flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, “As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you to them.” “Very well,” he replied. 14 So he said to him, “Go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me.” Then he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, 15 a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, “What are you looking for?” 16 He replied, “I’m looking for my brothers. Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?” 17 “They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let’s go to Dothan.’” So, Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him.

Introduction

How can we have victory over the feelings that rage inside of us? Feelings of revenge, bitterness, and hatred. How can we be victorious when life delivers a blow below the belt? How can we overcome when life’s problems and adversities overwhelm us? How can we be excellent, when we live in a world system that is constantly trying to keep us at a level of mediocrity? John says that, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world even our faith (1 John 5:4).”

Oswald Chambers says it like this:

“Faith for my deliverance is not faith in God. Faith means whether I am visibly delivered or not, I will stick to my belief that God is love. There are some things only learned in the fiery furnace.”

Faith in God means that whatever you are going through, God loves you so much that he will go through it with you. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me!” God will strengthen you in the middle of your trouble!

Today I want to look at this episode in the life of Joseph who is the great-grandson of Abraham, grandson of Isaac, and the son of Jacob. Joseph’s life tells us how one can go through adversity and come out victorious. Many of you have had life throw you a curveball in the form of an abusive parent; the death of a loved one, at what seemed to you to be a tender time in your life, or maybe you were molested or raped and you asked, “Where in the world is God? Lord I need you to show up right now!” And it seemed as if God did not show up for you. And you didn’t or don’t know what to do. I want to present Joseph to you this morning. Joseph was hated, by those who were supposed to love him! These were his brothers! His own flesh and blood! Look at the text: Joseph had brought his daddy a bad report on his brothers. We don’t know the details of the report, but this incident implies that Joseph would not go along with anything shady nor would he hide anything from his daddy. Now some folks would say that he was faithful, honorable, and filled with integrity, but some folk I know would say that Joseph was a tattletale or a snitch!

This first recorded adversity that Joseph encountered is the result of being shown favoritism by his father Jacob. Look at the text. The Bible says that Jacob loved Joseph more than his other children. And the Bible says that he loved Joseph more because he was the son of his old age by his favorite wife Rachel. The Bible further says that Jacob gave Joseph a coat of many colors. This coat was something that a royal person would wear. A king or a prince would wear this kind of a coat. The Bible goes on to say that because Jacob gave Joseph this coat, his brothers hated him and could not speak peaceably or kindly to him.

Refuse to be envious

When you find yourself in a situation where God is blessing someone else don’t become envious. Don’t become jealous or angry. Because in the end jealousy can cause you more hurt, than the one you are envious and jealous of.

Dwight L. Moody once told the story of an eagle who was envious of another eagle that could fly better than he could. One day the bird saw a sportsman with the bow and arrow and said to him, “I wish you would bring down that eagle up there.” The man said he would if he had some feathers for his arrow. So, the jealous eagle pulled one out of his wing. The arrow was shot, but it didn’t quite reach the rival bird because he was trying to hide. The first Eagle pulled out another feather, then another-- until he has lost so many feathers that he couldn’t fly himself. The archer took advantage of the situation, turned around, and killed the helpless bird. The model in the story is if you are envious of others, the one you hurt the most by your actions will be yourself.

So, refuse to be envious. Don’t be like Joseph’s brothers. Joseph had a dream that implied that one day he would reign over his family. And being young and naïve, Joseph shares his dream with his brothers. This only adds to their resentment of him because the Bible says they hated him all the more. The text then goes on to say that Joseph has another dream about his family bowing down before him; and the Bible says for the third time that his brothers were envious and hated him more and more. This means they hated him completely they just didn’t like Joseph. Brothers and sisters when God shows you something you have to be very careful about who you share with because there are some folks even in church, who will smile in your face yet all the time they want to take your place because they are back stabbers; they will stab you in your proverbial back. Yes there are some folks in your life right now who been drinking the hater-aid they can’t stand you and every time you open your mouth to testify about the goodness of God, and how He has blessed you, they get angry. So, be careful about who you share your dreams with.

One day Joseph’s daddy Jacob sent him to check on his brothers who were supposed to be at Shechem feeding the flocks but they had went down to Dothan, the place of the pits. When they saw Joseph coming the Bible says in verse 18 his brothers conspired together to kill him.

Joseph’s brothers decide to kill him, and put him into a pit, and tell their daddy that he was eaten by wild animal. They then say, “We shall see what will become of his dreams!”

From time to time we all face the temptation of being jealous and envious we see someone else receive an honor or a promotion or blessing we think is undeserved and in those times we all must be very careful and listen to what James tells us in James 3:16, “Where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.” In other words when we are jealous or envious, we opened the door to all kinds of evil and dysfunction.

When life is in the pits it’s tempting to look at others whose lives seem to be going great and be envious of their blessings but when you are in the pit,“Refuse to be envious,” and then...

Reflect on the long-term.

Joseph was betrayed, by those who should’ve had his back. Yet he was able to keep his eyes on the prize. How do we do that? How do we keep our focus on the Lord’s purpose for us when we experience trials and tribulations? How do we keep hope alive when it seems as if everything is stacked against us? I’m glad you asked…. You must reflect on the long-term. When life is the pits and you feel no one cares about you. The pit just seems to become darker and deeper; you are ill, and no one calls. You’re having problems with your husband or wife and no one seems to care. A loved one dies, and you feel forgotten. You lament with David, “Reproach had broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none(Ps 69:20).” An even worse thing is knowing that someone else is in the pit and not doing someone to help them or to let them know that you are there for them. Joseph’s brothers except for Ruben are eating their meal and ignoring Joseph’s plea for help. He’s down in the pit with no way out. His own brothers have put him there. Isn’t it ironic how Satan will use those who are closest to you to hurt you? Folk who you never thought would hurt you, hurt you the most. They sold their own brother to a caravan of Ishmaelites. They are traders of all kinds of goods including slaves, and they are headed for Egypt where they will sell Joseph into bondage. When life is in the pits sometimes things get worse before they get better. He travels for days with the Ishmaelites I’m sure he slept out under the stars at night thinking, “God why is this happening to me?” Joseph needs a word from God. But God is silent. Joseph probably thinks, “Where in the world are you God?” I’m sure Joseph feels like David in Psalm 22:2 when he says, “oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season and am not silent.” Have you ever felt like you were calling on God, but God didn’t hear you? Things may look hopeless for you just like they did for Joseph. But God says, your delay is meant to direct you into your destiny! When you don’t know what to do when you find yourself in the pit. # 1 Refuse to be envious. #2 Reflect on the long-term and finally

Rely On God’s promises!

In Egypt, the Ishmaelites sell Joseph to Potiphar; one of Pharaoh’s officials, who is the captain of the Royal Palace guard. They are like the Secret Service agents who Guard the president of the United States. Joseph doesn’t know it, but God is strategically placing Joseph in a place so that he can fulfill his destiny. God has placed Joseph in the car that is meant to drive him into his destiny.

The Lord had promised the land of Canaan to Abraham’s descendants he told Abraham they would be strangers in a land not their own. “And shall serve them; and they shall afflict them 400 years.”

Joseph doesn’t understand what’s going on right now. He doesn’t understand God’s purpose. But just as God has a good reason for allowing Joseph’s life to be in the pits the same is true when our lives are in the pits. Not just for Joseph’s life; not just for our lives. But for the next generation. I’m in Bible country, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28. It does not say that all things that happen to us are good. They are not. It does say that God uses all things that happen in our lives, even very bad things for our collective good. In Romans 8:29 he tells us how God uses these things for our good. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

When life is in the pits God is sculpting our lives with the hammer of adversity to make us more and more like Jesus Christ. When you are in the pit you can be sure that in God’s time, he will bring something good out of all the adversity; of the trial; out of all your trouble. When you were in trouble, God was conditioning you, God was strengthening you.

An eagle has a lifespan of about 70 years. However, at about age 35 the Eagles beak gets softer, his wings becoming weighted down with soft brown feathers that make flying difficult, and his talons or claws become brittle and break. Some scientists say it causes the Eagle to go through a self-evaluation process in which it hides in the cleft of a mountain for 150 days. While the Eagle is there, she breaks it’s soft beak by pecking on the rocks, but it grows back in 90 days. It then breaks off its talons by sticking them into the crevices of the rocks, but they grow back within 45 days; she then takes these new talons and pulls off the feathers that weighed her down. As a result, the Eagle is able to finish the second half of its life stronger than it was before. That’s how we should approach life. Too often we focus on what slows us down, and what weakens our lives. We should go to the rock and ask him to strengthen our mouths, so that we can call those things that are not as though they were! We should ask for strength, to take off some bad habits, wrong people, and overcome some circumstances that weigh us down. Rock of ages cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee! Why? Because I get tired, I get weak, and I get worn! If you have Jesus, you don’t have to worry because there’s something on the inside of you! Joseph had a dream on the inside of him! What’s on the inside of you? A woman was given a necklace that contained a large stone that was supposed to be a diamond, but she wondered if it was real. One day she decided to take it to a jeweler to have it appraised. The jeweler took it to the back of his store to assess it. And when he returned, he told the lady the stone was not a real diamond. He told her that it was glass. She asked him how he determined that the stone was glass and not a real diamond. The jeweler told her he knew because when he wants to be certain about a diamond, he takes it into a dark room and looks at it. There he can tell the difference because glass shines only when it’s hit by outside light, but diamonds carry their own inner light. Diamond shine in the dark. Maybe somebody under the sound of my voice you’re in a dark season and but God is trying to show you your value. God wants you to know you are a diamond because even in the dark seasons of your life you can still shine through the darkness! The HOLY GHOST will shine through you! Shine! Not just on Me But Shine! Through Me! Jesus shine in me! Jesus is the Light of the World! He is ever shining in my Soul