Genesis, page 2
What on
earth am I here for? Genesis
1.27-2.3 & Revelation 4.1-11
It’s not about you! (Read first two
paras of Purpose Driven Life, p17)
That’s
the secret of why you are here on earth. That’s the secret of the purpose of your
life. That’s the secret of the meaning of your life. It’s not about you, it’s
all about God
To know why we are here on earth we
need to ask the person who put us here. That’s why we are spending forty days
as a church family thinking about God’s purposes for our lives
Without knowing God’s purpose we
are adrift, not really knowing where we are going or how to get there. We are a
little like Alice in Alice in Wonderland, in her conversation with the
Cheshire Cat
"Would you tell me please,
which way I ought to go from here?" says Alice to the Cat.
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,"
said the cat.
"I don't much care
where," said Alice.
"Then it doesn't matter which
way you go," said the cat.
Thank God that the Bible tells us
not only where we want to get to but how to get there.
Today we are going to look at the
very beginning of the Bible and at the very end, to find out how the story of
humanity began and how it will end, and To discover where we started and where
we are heading
What on earth am I here for? The Beginning
There
is something wonderful about you. You may well share 99% of your DNA with the
chimpanzee and the gorilla. You may well be the result of millions of years of
random mutations, but the really wonderful thing about you is who created you
and what you were created for:
So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Genesis 1
verse 27
The really wonderful thing about
you is that God created you and he created you like himself. Every
single human being was made in a particular way: like God. That means
that we share certain characteristics with God and it means that we can know
God and love him
But it means something else, too. In
scripture and in the ancient world to be the image of someone implied that you
ruled on their behalf. So you could say that Tony Blair is the image of the
Queen, not because he looks like her, but because he runs the country on her
behalf
This point is expanded in verse 28:
God blessed them (the men
and women he had created in his image) and said to them, "Be fruitful
and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the
sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the
ground." Genesis 1.28
You, me, everyone of us, are God’s
representatives, God’s agents here on earth, we have been put here to run the
world on his behalf. PSALM 8 agrees, speaking of man it says:
5
You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him
with glory and honour.
6
You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything
under his feet: all flocks and herds,
and the beasts of the field,8 the birds
of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
9
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
That doesn’t mean of course that we
have a charter to do whatever we like with the world, despoiling it, polluting
it, and hunting species to extinction. It means the opposite of that, that we are
caretakers of the planet, charged by God to take care of it, not wreck
it. We are divinely appointed managers of Planet Earth, answerable to the
managing director of the universe for the way we are looking after his property
But it does mean that we have
something very precious, if we take these truths seriously, purpose
Its something that many people
haven’t had and don’t have. Ralph Barton was a gifted cartoonist of
international repute. This was the note he pinned to his pillow the night he
took his life:
"I
have had few difficulties, many friends, great successes; I have gone from wife
to wife, from house to house, visited great countries of the world, but I am
fed up with inventing devices to fill up twenty-four hours of the
day."
Bertrand Russell was a great
philosopher. He rejected his Christian upbringing and became an outspoken
atheist. At the end of his life his
daughter said:
"Somewhere
at the bottom of his heart, in the depths of his soul, there was an empty space
that once had been filled by God, and he never found anything else to put in
it’
But God
has made us, and has spoken to us, and given us a purpose to live for. There is
a job to be done, there is a purpose and a point to life. We are here to know
God, to serve God, and, ultimately, to be with him forever. We’re here
to make something of the world God has created. The work we do, whether paid or
unpaid, whether in the home, or in the sphere of employment, means something,
both now and in eternity
You are here for a reason.
Your life matters. Genesis tells us
its all part of the plan.
Now
lets go to the other end of the Bible to see how it all ends up
What on earth am I here for? The End
Life is short – before we know it
the years have raced by and we are near the end of our lives - what has it all been about?
In the book of Revelation at the
end of all things we discover its not been about us, its all been about God. God’s
people, represented in John’s vision by the twenty four elders, cast their
crowns before him. They sit in thrones and wear crowns because they are rulers,
appointed by God to rule his world, but, recognising a higher authority, they
cast their crowns before him and cry:
11 "You are worthy, our Lord and God, to
receive glory and honuor and power, for you created all things, and by your
will they were created and have their being."
So, What on earth am I here for? It’s all
about you, Lord.
Thomas
Carlyle once said:
A
man without a purpose is like a ship without a rudder--a waif, a nothing, a no
man. Have a purpose in life, and, having it, throw such strength of mind and
muscle into your work as God has given you.
So
let us discover God’s purposes, and then devote ourselves, heart, mind, body
and soul, into living them out to his praise and glory.
God Meant it for Good Genesis 45:4-11; 50:15-21
by Mick
Hough
The
story of Joseph comes to an emotional and dramatic end in our readings this
morning. Tell story of Joseph and Jacob being reunited… It would make a great
stage play…
But
when the emotion of the reunion has died down, what will Joseph have to say to
his brothers? After all, he has been playing games with them, hasn’t he? The
silver in the sacks – the cup in Benjamin’s sack. He’s played mind games with
them – seating them in order of their age – giving Benjamin, his younger
brother, 5 times more than the rest!
So when
his father, Jacob, has died, and his brothers are left without the protection
of their father, left with a brother who is second only in power to Pharaoh, then
what will Joseph do with them?
Well,
that very thought is on the minds of the brothers – 50:15. (READ) They
are so afraid of what will happen that they concoct a story, ‘our father’s
dying wish’, they say, ‘was that you forgive us’. Don’t come out of this well,
do they? Throw themselves at his feet, as Joseph’s dreams had predicted 20+
years before. ‘We are your slaves’.
Don’t
think Joseph falls for this story, but he can see their fear: His response is
one of the greatest statements of faith and Godly wisdom that we will find in
the Bible:
50:20 (v.19) But Joseph said to them ‘Don’t be afraid. Am I
in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to
accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.’ ‘You intended to
harm me, but God intended it for good...’
He is
in no doubt about what his brothers intended for him, and he doesn’t let them
off the hook. You intended to harm me…’
But,
says Joseph – God intended it for a different reason – God was at work to bring
about his purposes – the saving of many lives. Remarkable statement of faith.
And of course, we know he’s right!
As
we’ve been reading this story, we’ve heard the Bible tell us all along that God
is in control. The LORD was with Joseph (slavery, prison; good times and bad)
Joseph has been able to come to
terms with what has happened to him because he has been able to trace the hand
of God in his experiences.
It’s one
thing for Joseph to be able to say that – what about me, and my situation? In a
world that often seems out of control, or random, can I have any confidence
that God is in control – that the events of my life are in the hands of
a Sovereign God?
Look at
Joseph’s experience and find answers to those questions.
Might
seem at first that Joseph is an exception.
He is born into the family line of Abraham. God made promises to Abraham
back in Genesis 12. Promises to make his descendants into a great nation,
promise of blessing in a relationship with God – promise that his offspring
would be a blessing to the whole world.
These
promises are fulfilled finally in the person of Jesus Christ many hundreds of
years later. But here in Genesis we see them beginning to be worked out.
(The end of the Joseph story is also the end of the book of Genesis – Joseph’s
comment is a comment on the way that God works out his purposes in the world.)
And Joseph was a key player in
God’s plan to bring those promises to fulfilment.
By the
time of Joseph, Abraham’s descendants couldn’t be said to be a great nation. 12
brothers born to Jacob, none of whom are very attractive characters.
But
what God has promised, he will bring about, and the story of Joseph
shows us that God is at work in and
through the apparently ordinary, random things that happen in Joseph’s life.
Think
what Joseph has been through -, rejection / separation from his father /
slavery / false accusation / imprisonment. But in the midst of all that, God has
brought him to the place he wanted him to be.
If
Joseph hadn’t been sold, he would never have gone to Egypt; if he hadn’t ended
up in jail, he would never have met Pharaoh’s cupbearer, who in turn is able to
tell Pharaoh about Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams. If he hadn’t been
successful in interpreting Pharaoh’s dream, he would not have been made Prime
Minister of all Egypt, and placed in a position where his brothers (and many
more) could be kept from starvation at a time of famine.
Why God
chooses to do things this way, we don’t know – surely he could have saved Jacob
and his family another way – prevented the famine from affecting Canaan, maybe?
But that’s not the way he does it, and we’re not told why.
Joseph
must have wondered at times: Is God really in control? There was little
evidence of it, sometimes. We have the benefit of seeing the way things pan out
for Joseph, but as he is in the middle of it, he simply has to trust that God
is in control.
But by
the end of the story he is able to look back and trace God’s providential hand
in all that had happened.
So Jo
is able to say (Ch.45 – God v.5…God v.7…God v.8).
Many
Bible commentators have drawn parallels between Joseph and Jesus. They both suffer
at the hands of wicked men. Both of them suffer personally so that others may
have life. And behind the suffering and sacrifice of both of them lies the
powerful, saving hand of God.
Joseph
says to his brothers: You meant it for harm, but God meant it for good.
Jesus
warns the disciples at the Last Supper: The Son of Man will go just as it is
written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man, it would
have been better for him if he had not been born. (Mtt.26:24)
Apostle
Peter, preaching at Pentecost (Acts 2:23): This man was handed over to you
by God’s set purpose and foreknowledge, and you, with the help of wicked men,
put his to death by nailing him to the cross.’
2
levels of operation:
Our
level – we get on with life, and our actions and the actions of others all have
consequences. We live with the results of our actions.
But the
other level is that God is bringing about his Sovereign purposes in the work in
and through those actions.
(Now
many will see only the first one – man in control…)
To have
seen Joseph thrown into prison – a gross miscarriage of justice - who would
have believed that it was all part of God’s plan to bring salvation to his
brothers, and many more besides.
To see
Jesus hanging lifeless on the cross,
who would have believed that this was God’s means of bringing salvation and
life to the world?
It is
only because God has revealed that this is his way that we can know it.
We’d
have never worked it out for ourselves. We need God to reveal to us what he is
doing.
Heard
someone recently describe the Bible as God preaching to us – he’s interpreting
his actions in the world for us. Thank God that he does! Without that, life
would seem meaningless and random.
What
about when things aren’t working out in our own lives as we would want them to?
Does this give us any cause to look at our lives and say, It’s OK! God is at
work behind the scenes! I may be having difficulties at home, at work, in my
marriage, with my finances etc. but God is working out his good purposes. Can
we be confident that a Sovereign God is working out his purposes in my life?
God is
involved in every part of his creation. He’s not like a watchmaker who’s wound
up his creation and left it to take care of itself. He’s involved. He knows everyone of his creatures
intimately (sparrow / hairs on your head!). There is nowhere we can go to
escape him.
So it’s
true for everyone that God is involved in the events of our lives. He’s with us
whether we know it or not – whether we acknowledge him or not.
But for
the Christian, the person who has put their trust in Jesus, there is a much
more personal answer.
The bible
teaches that when we put our trust in Jesus Christ, when we turn from our sins
and believe in him, we are joined to Christ. We belong to him, and all of God’s
good purposes for his Son become his purposes for us too. Eternal life, eternal
riches in heaven at the right hand of God for those who belong to Christ.
One of
the verses that we have mentioned on more than one occasion during this series
has been Romans 8:28 ‘And we know that in all things God works for the good
of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.’
Whatever
our experience of this life is – one of relative comfort, or one of poverty,;
whatever difficulties or joys we experience, the Xn can be sure that God is
working out his purposes for good in our lives.
Makes
an immense amount of difference to the way we experience life.
Kate.
Husbands letter. Expresses a confidence that God is in control (Ps.139) and the
comfort that they have in knowing God. Why God has taken Kate away from them he
doesn’t know. But what God is doing in his world – where it is all heading,
they do know.
Like
Joseph we may not have all the answers – we may find ourselves in our
equivalent of his suffering. But we can be sure that whatever this world throws
at us – behind it is the powerful, loving hand of God. We are not subject to some impersonal force
called fate; we’re not working out karma – good or bad. There is a personal God
who knows us intimately, who is at work in our lives.
Caught! Genesis 42.1-28 (covering chaps
42-45)
Twenty
years elapse. Twenty years of hiding a guilty secret for the brothers. Twenty
years of mourning for Jacob. Twenty years of exile for Joseph
And now
gripped by famine the brothers are forced to go to Egypt to buy grain. What
they don’t know, but we know, is that their brother Joseph who they sold into
slavery, is now Prime Minister of Egypt. Moreover it is thanks to Joseph, or
rather thanks to God who sent advance warning of the famine by means of a
dream, that there is food for sale in
Egypt at all
What we
know is, that as evil men, themselves included, have been plotting evil, God
has been working things out for good
So Jacob’s
sons, all except for his favourite, Benjamin, arrive in Egypt and appear before
their brother who they do not recognise
To
their consternation they are
immediately accused of espionage and thrown into gaol for three days.
The only way they manage to get out is by agreeing to return with the missing
brother Benjamin, having left Simeon as a hostage in Pharaoh’s gaol
Ten
very guilty people start to talk among themselves:
21 They said to one another, "Surely we
are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he
pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that's why this distress
has come upon us." 22 Reuben
replied, "Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't
listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood." Genesis 42.21-22
Ten
very guilty people start to fear that in a mysterious way they cannot fathom,
their sin is catching up on them . However, although, they fear punishment for
their sin they do not turn from their sin
In fact, they continue to maintain a completely
unrealistic picture of themselves, in 42.31 they say ‘we are honest men’ but
this is manifestly untrue. They have deceived their father for all these years,
and now they are deceiving themselves.
But you
and I don’t have to be like those men. There is no need for you or I to be
paralysed by fear of punishment or burdened by a guilty conscience. The Bible
does not believe in ‘karma’ (Karma is
the idea that there is an inevitable consequence to your action: it leads
people to believe that there is a fixed and unchangeable payback for a sin).
Instead God’s word teaches a way out from our sins; God’s Word teaches that you
don’t have to reap what you sow. You can repent! May God’s Spirit help
us to do this
Before
they return home there is another shock for them: they find the silver that
they paid to the Egyptians has been returned to their sacks. Genesis describes
their horrified reaction at this latest turn of events:
Their
hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, "What is
this that God has done to us?" Genesis 42.28b
Ten
very guilty, very miserable men, return to their aged father to tell him the
terrible news: a hostile Egyptian ruler has taken Simeon hostage and demands to
see Benjamin before any more is food dispensed or the hapless Simeon set free
The
father’s reaction is one of anger and despair
36 Their father Jacob said to them, "You
have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and
now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!" Genesis 42.36
What
they propose is utterly out of the question, but in the end desperate hunger
and the serious prospect of the whole family perishing of malnutrition, leaves
them no choice, and so Jacob is forced to let the brothers return to Egypt,
this time with Benjamin
Back in
Egypt events take an even more alarming turn - not because they are mistreated,
far from it, but because they are treated so inexplicably well
They find
themselves honoured guests at a state banquet at the Egyptian 10 Downing
Street. Their explanation about the silver is brushed aside by the steward with
the comment that God had placed it there
Amazing
grace. Shocking, astounding grace. Not only are they not treated as they
deserve, they are treated better than they could ever imagined
Such is
the amazing grace of Joseph. Such is the amazing grace of God. When we come to
know the living God we discover we are more wicked than we ever realised but
more loved than we ever dreamed
God
loves his people so much that he won’t let us go. That love can pursue us, back
us into a corner, and leave us no choice but to run into his arms. Sometimes we
need to be brought low before we can be lifted up, but the God of grace will
also bring us back to himself, as he did for the wayward sons of Jacob
And
when they sit down to eat they discover to their consternation that they are
seated precisely in the order of their birth. It is beyond them how the
Egyptians discerned that piece of information. Their incredulity increases when
the food is served and Benjamin receives a
portion five times the size of everyone else’s
Their
discomfort turns to alarm, terror, and dismay the next day with the Strange
Case of the Silver Cup in the Sack (chapter 44)
At this
point the reader may puzzle at what Joseph is up to. His motives are unclear,
perhaps they are rather questionable, but whatever Joseph is trying to achieve,
what God achieves is the melting of hard hearts
At last
there is evidence of a change of heart:
First
there is evidence of real compassion for their father (the suffering that they
at least in part have caused). Their selfishness and self-absorption is slowly
breaking down.
And
we answered, 'We have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in
his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's sons
left, and his father loves him.' Genesis 44.20
30 "So now, if the boy is not with us when
I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely
bound up with the boy's life, 31 sees
that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the grey head
of our father down to the grave in sorrow. Genesis 44.30-31
Secondly,
on Judah’s part, at least, there is a
willingness to personally pay the price for the sin, to put his own life on the
line to save Benjamin
"Now
then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the
boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. Genesis 44.33
Hard
hearts are being melted and so perhaps repentance and reconciliation may be
possible even in the tortured affairs of Jacob and his family
We will
have to wait next reconciliation come in all its fullness to Jacob’s family. It
is enough to note now that hard hearts can be melted, that God can change
people as well as events. Even long-standing problems can be resolved. No
relationship is ever so far gone that it is irreparable by God
Jacob’s
brothers closed their ears to the prompting of their conscience for 20 years.
If you sense the Spirit of God speaking to your conscience today don’t be hard
hearted. Instead heed the words of Psalm 95, repeated in Hebrews 3 & 4:
Today,
if you hear his voice, do not harden
your hearts Psalm 95.7-8