Genesis
Moment of destiny Genesis
41.15-40
On the 10th May 1940,
and at the age of 65, Winston Churchill became prime minister of Britain.
Speaking of that day he said:
‘I felt as
if I were walking with destiny and that all my past life had been but a
preparation for this hour’
His hour
had come. The hour where a man of his unique gifts could do a unique service
for his country. Churchill was walking with destiny
As was
Joseph. Like Churchill, Joseph’s hour of destiny came after a long wait.
Churchill had waited 65 years, and had
spent most of the previous decade in the political wilderness branded variously
as an extremist a maverick or merely yesterday’s man, a failed middle-ranking
politician. For Joseph his hour of destiny came after two long lonely years of
imprisonment in Pharaoh’s gaol, branded, quite falsely, as a sex offender
But then
suddenly Joseph was walking with destiny, with all his past life but a
preparation for this hour.
Joseph’s
destiny, like Churchill’s was to be a leader at a time of national crisis, and,
ultimately, to save his people from ruin and death
With a
great international famine coming on the ancient world, Joseph, who had spent
the last two years languishing in gaol would now find himself in a unique
position to save lives, but what does this episode tell us about God?
Three
things:
1.
God is the God Who Directs
It is
God who has brought to Joseph to Egypt in the first place. It is God who has
brought Joseph to Pharaoh’s attention. It is God who has placed Pharaoh in a
position where Pharaoh needs Joseph’s help. It is God who has given Pharaoh the
dreams to give advance warning of his purposes. It is God arranges for Joseph
to become Chief Executive of Egypt PLC
Proverbs
21:1 says:
The king's heart is in the hand of
the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.
The
heart of the king of Egypt is in the hands of God. God directs pharaoh in the way
he wants him to go. Such is the goodness and the power of God that even evil
events and wicked men can be used to achieve his ends. It’s not that he is ever
the author of evil but just he is able to use it and work it for good.
Previously
we used the image of the recycling plant (explain)
It is
with that knowledge that St Paul is able to say:
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. Romans 8.28
We may
not be able to say with Winston Churchill that we are walking with destiny, but
we can say something better: we are walking with the God who works out all
things for good according to his purpose
God is
able to bring us to the place where he wants us to be so that we are able to be
used by him in his purposes. Whatever may be going on in your life now,
whatever decisions you have to make, God is the God who is able to direct you
according to his good and perfect purposes
2. God is the God Who Gives Gifts
God is
the one who has given Joseph the gift of discerning dreams. Joseph readily
acknowledges that:
15 Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I had a dream,
and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear
a dream you can interpret it."16
"I cannot do it," Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God
will give Pharaoh the answer he desires." Genesis 41.15-16
God is
also the one who has given Joseph the leadership and management skills to
organise a vast logistical exercise that turns out to be a brilliant success.
So that
when Joseph explains that the meaning of the dreams is that seven years of
plenty will be followed by famine, and when Joseph suggests a strategy of
storing grain from the years of plenty for famine relief in the years of need, Pharaoh
gives him the job
Why?
Because Pharaoh – even Pharaoh the pagan ruler – recognises the hand of God on
Joseph’s life:
39 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God
has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.
40 You shall be in charge of my palace,
and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne
will I be greater than you." Genesis
41.39-40
When God
calls, he equips. This is how the Apostle Paul puts it
7 But to each one of us grace has been given
as Christ apportioned it.8 This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led
captives in his train and gave gifts to men." Ephesians 4.7-8
God is
not only able to bring you to the place where he wants you to be: he is able to
equip you with the gifts needed for that ministry. Joseph was a square peg in a
square hole because he was God’s man in God’s place at God’s time. If God is
calling you to some avenue of service for him, if it is really God doing it,
you can be confident that he will equip you with the gifts you need.
3. God is the God Who Rescues
The God
in his general gracious love to his creation arranges events to save many
thousands of lives from Egypt and elsewhere
God in
his special love for the people he has chosen arranges events so that Jacob,
his sons, their wives, and families may all be saved from certain death. God
has made a covenant, a solemn and binding agreement, with that family, to bless
them and multiply their numbers across the face of earth. It would be
unthinkable for God to allow them to perish. God keeps his promise, is faithful
to his covenant, and works to save his people
How good
is the God we adore
our
faithful, unchangeable friend:
his love
is as great as his power
and
knows neither measure nor end.
Thank
God, that his love is as great as power
Not only
is he the God of unbelievable power but he is the God of everlasting love. He
is the God who uses his power in love to rescue and to save
That of
course is seen supremely in the cross and resurrection of Christ. The salvation
God worked through Joseph was wonderful enough but the salvation he worked
through Jesus puts that into the shade.
Through
the cross, the rescuing, saving God has
saved not just one family or the representatives of one nation. the Jews, but
people from every tribe and language and nation who will come to put their
trust in Christ.
Through
the cross the rescuing, saving God has saved not just from famine and early death,
but from sin, and hell, and eternal death
Jacob,
Joseph, and their families had every reason to give praise to God for all that
he had done for them, but how much more should we give thanks to the God who
has directed us, given us gifts, and saved up for eternity
As the
Apostle Paul said:
Like September 11th it
was the day that changed everything. You might have had a day like that in your
family - a day where an event happened so calamitous, so far reaching in its
impact, that nothing was ever the same again.
For Jacob’s the family, it was the
day Joseph met his brothers in a remote rural setting close to the village of
Dothan. By the end of that day the young boy’s life was devastated, the old
man’s heart was broken, and the eleven brothers had a guilty secret that would
haunt their consciences for the best part of a generation
Nothing was ever the same again
But if all holy scripture is given
for our learning, what can we learn from that day?
Like cancer, it is the nature of
sin to spread. left to its own devices, unchecked by repentance & the
transforming power of the Holy Spirit, it tends to get worse
Kitting that young lad out with a
posh new coat seemed to be only a small sin to Jacob, if it was a sin at all, but
Jacob’s favouritism towards Joseph bred a deep-seated jealousy in his sons’
hearts. Joseph’s malicious tales about his brothers, his flaunting of that
coat, and the relish with which he related his dreams of domination and
superiority, all added fuel to the flames.
In time jealousy, led to anger,
which led to attempted murder
Beware the downward spiral of sin
Once you are caught up in sin it
tends to become a way of life. Last week we saw how Jacob was himself both a
victim and a practitioner of both
favouritism and deception. This week we see deception came as naturally to his
sons as to their Father, and, in the irony of ironies, it is Jacob the
arch-deceiver who is at the receiving of their very cruel deception
At the end of the chapter, Jacob is
the one left weeping. In fact he will be in mourning – quite unnecessarily, for
the best part of twenty years. His sons know Joseph is alive but they are too
cowardly or too callous to lighten the old man’s misery. Instead they leave him to grieve .
Beware the downward spiral of sin
And do you note the final irony:
the goat! It is a goat that is used to deceive Jacob into believing that Joseph
is dead; it was a goat that was used by Jacob to trick his father into giving
him the blessing meant for Esau. Our bible writer wants us to see how sin
spreads, how evil deeds lead to other evil deeds, how everything is
interconnected
Beware the downward spiral of sin
There’s a warning there for us. It
is the nature of sin: it gets worse, it makes things worse. The power of sin
can travel down the generations, and through families and relationship
networks. Wherever it goes it creates misery
But
we can stop it in its tracks – at the foot of the cross. It’s there that we
repent. It’s there that we find forgiveness. It’s there that we are renewed by
the power of Calvary love
You
see, we don’t have to travel the downward spiral sin of sin. There is an
alternative route: via the cross to the blessing of God
2. When you reach rock bottom never
doubt that God is with you
The treatment meted out to Joseph
was pretty terrifying
I can’t help hearing the jolly
tunes of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Joseph
and His Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat ringing in my eyes, but when I read
the pages of scripture I am confronted with the shocking savagery of the
brothers actions:
23
So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe--the
richly ornamented robe he was wearing--24
and they took him and threw him into the cistern.
They stripped him. They took him. They
threw him. No gentleness. No mercy. Just brutal visciousness. Just a fearsome
outpouring of hate.
What would happen to him? Would
anyone hear his cries for help? Would he ever see his father again? Joseph was
at rock bottom, hated by his brothers, far from home, and abandoned to a slow
and lonely death in his desert prison
I don’t know if Joseph experienced
God’s presence with him at that point, because in extreme moments of terror or
distress we don’t always feel
the presence of the Lord. Sometimes the experience of suffering is so
overwhelming that it blots everything else out, but whether or not Joseph experienced
God was with him, the fact of the matter was that God was with him, and
not just with him passively holding his hand, but powerfully and actively
working things out for good
The
truth of the matter is that God’s hand is on Joseph’s life. Ultimately nothing
can hurt him, and nothing could prevent God’s purposes from him being worked
out. Joseph is at rock bottom but God loves him!
And
we know something that perhaps Joseph didn’t:
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. Romans 8.28
Secondly,
God takes the evil and works it for Joseph’s good. It’s better to be sold into
slavery than to be dead, but, even so, slavery in a strange land is a pretty
unpleasant fate. To sell your brother into it is a very wicked thing to do, but
God takes this evil action and works it for good. The chapter ends with this
statement:
36
Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of
Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.
What we know, but his brothers
could never have guessed, is that Joseph is travelling to precisely where God
wants him to be. To achieve God’s plan of saving lives, Joseph needs to be in
Egypt, and not just anywhere in Egypt, Joseph needs to be in a position of
influence in the Royal household. Not many 17 year old Hebrew shepherd boys
ended up in that particular context, but, such is the wisdom and grace and
mercy of God, that is precisely where Joseph is going as fast as camel-power
will allow
He doesn’t yet realise it, but
Joseph is being fast-tracked to an executive position in the ancient world’s
greatest superpower. The young boy from Israel is being positioned by God in
the right place in the right time to be his people’s saviour
Ye fearful saint(s), fresh courage
take
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big
with mercy, and shall break
In
blessings on your head
(From God moves in
a mysterious way by William Cowper)
As the brothers work out their evil
plans, the Lord works out his purposes for good. How weak and inadequate
evil men appear when measured up against the all-loving almighty ruler of the
universe, who can even use their most wicked schemes for his good and glorious
purposes
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs,
And works His sovereign will
(From God moves in
a mysterious way by William Cowper)
When
you reach rock bottom never doubt that God is with you. Not only is God with
you, but such is the grace of God that in all things God works for the good
of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose
Family Favourites: Genesis 37.1-11
Today we would call them a
dysfunctional family. The father was a practised cheat and liar and had
fathered children by four different women. His own childhood was disturbed and
marred by parental favouritism and now he was reproducing the same mistakes in
his own family
Jacob was the man who persuaded his
brother Esau to sell his birthright for a bowl of stew. He then tricked his
dying father into giving him the blessing meant for his brother
Then poetic justice! The deceiver was himself deceived, finding
himself married to Leah, the rather less desirable sister of the girl, Rachel,
he had worked seven years to marry. He married Rachel aswell and now had two
wives. The three of them were destined to live unhappily ever after. Jacob
never really loved Leah, and his preference for Rachel was only too obvious
Children come in abundance to the
less favoured wife, Leah, but Rachel was seemingly barren until eventually her
first child Joseph was born. In the meantime Jacob had slept with two servant
girls at Rachel’s instigation and fathered four more children
What a mess!
How far the family of God had
fallen from God’s perfect plan as set out in the first chapters of Genesis. And
what an unhappy family resulted from the deception, the favouritism, the
jealousy, and the sexual sin that marred their lives
Today and in the rest of
the series our focus is on just one of the son’s of Jacob, Joseph – the boy
who, in the purposes of God, would bring salvation to many, including to those
who hated most. We see first of all
The Problem of Favouritism
3
Now Israel (that is, Jacob) loved Joseph more than any of his
other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a
richly ornamented 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.
It was a terrible mistake to make,
but it was an easy mistake. It would lead to tragic consequences: to an
attempted murder, and to years of emotional turmoil and suffering for Jacob and
for Joseph. In one sense it was a surprising mistake but in another way so
predictable
It was a surprising mistake
because Jacob’s own childhood had been marred by parental favouritism - his mother loved him and his father loved
his brother - and now he was repeating the same sin of favouritism in the lives
of his own children. You might think he would have want to spare them that
anguish, but it was a predictable mistake because it is so easy for all
of us to reproduce in our own lives the worst mistakes of our parents
That was what Jacob was doing now:
the wrong attitudes that he had learnt from his own mum and dad, he was passing
on to his own offspring with disastrous results. The sins of the parents were
being visited on the sons.
But how natural it had seemed to
Jacob to do what he was doing. All along Jacob had preferred Rachel to the
other women in his life. She was the real love of his life
And now in his old age his beloved
wife had bore him a child. How easy, how natural, it felt to lavish all his
love and affection on that boy Joseph! How Jacob must have delighted to see
that lad toddle around the family home! What joy it must have given him to kit
the boy out, now a teenager, with that
richly ornamented robe - all
done as a sign of his love and affection.
But how much anger and jealousy he was
building up in the hearts of his other sons. What trouble he was storing up for
the future for himself, for the family, and above all for Joseph himself.
Verse 4 says it all, when speaking
of Joseph, it says:
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.
What a lesson to us. 1. To avoid
favouritism in our dealings with children and grandchildren, especially in
those complicated situations where the children may have more than one father
or mother. May God help us in that. 2. To avoid passing on to our offspring
harmful attitudes and behaviour patterns that we have learnt, perhaps
unwittingly, from our own parents
We need God’s grace for
that. We need self-understanding and discernment. We may need counselling or
prayer ministry. We need help to break the chain of sinful behaviour passing
down the generations (Thank God that Gospel can break it)
We’ve seen the problem of
favouritism but that’s not all we see in the first episode of Joseph’s life. We
also see:
6
He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had:7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the
field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered
around mine and bowed down to it."8
His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you
actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream
and what he had said.
Those dreams of course were like
pouring petrol on a fire. His brothers seethed with anger at that jumped up
little upstart with his extravagant visions of family domination. Who did he
think he was?
But those dreams are a reminder
that God, who is not mentioned at all in this passage, is at work. That God has
a plan – the family’s future is in his hands - and God’s plan is a plan for
good: as we shall see in due course
Romans 8
verse 28 is like a commentary on this family saga, as it is commentary on the
life of every believer:
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.
You see what we know, but no one so
far in this history realises, not Jacob, not Joseph, certainly, not the
brother, is that in this dysfunctional mess, the sovereign purposes of God for
good are being worked out
No one in the Joseph story comes
out very well: God’s laws are broken, bad attitudes are adopted, much
unhappiness and heartache is caused, but God works things out for good
Not only can sinful wicked people
not frustrate God’s purposes but their sinful wicked deeds can be the raw
material of God’s good and excellent purposes.
What a God! What a good God who can
turn evil to good
No
wonder Paul says 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.
Conclusion
Jacob’s family was a dysfunctional
family. All families are dysfunctional to some extent. None of them work
exactly as they should. There is no perfect family on earth
In his great family classic Anna
Karenina Tolstoy says ‘each unhappy
family is unhappy in its own way.’ There is probably not a single family
represented in this building today that does not have some significant source
of unhappiness : a marriage on the
rocks, a broken relationship, a wayward son or daughter, a difficult parent, a
problem with drugs or drink or even abuse, long term illness or bereavement.
We all come from problem families
because we’re all problem people. We all need forgiveness. We all need the word
of God to guide us in the ways of God. We all need the Spirit bringing us to
repentance, moulding us and changing us
But those of us who know Jesus can
be confident, too, of the promise of providence: of God working things out for
good in our lives. That doesn’t of course mean that only good things will ever
happen to us, but it does mean that God can turn even the bad things to good
account
God is the God who works out his
purposes for good and we can trust him. That was the bottom line for Jacob and
Joseph: God was their God, from the mess that was their family history, God
would bring salvation and blessing. The bottom line for us is that their God is
our God who continues his work of
working things out for good
The cross, above all things, teaches
us that glorious truth: how the ultimate tragedy became the greatest victory,
how the most wicked act in history, brought the greatest possible good. It is
because of the cross that St Paul can say and we can say with him,
notwithstanding great problems, troubles, and unhappiness
‘we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
him, who have been called according to his purpose.’