Introduction
We come now to the final major character of Genesis--Joseph, the son
of Jacob and great-grandson of Abraham.
Reiterate the historicity of this story, and the importance of "tension"
in stories. The tension that drives this story is the conflict between
Joseph and his brothers. We only have time to read the beginning and the
climax of this story. I'll narrate the material between and the epilogue.
Narration
Read the beginning to set up the tension between Joseph and his brothers.
Read 37:2b - Joseph is a tattle-tale. Read 37:3 - Jacob shows that
Joseph is his favorite, which doesn't help matters any. Read 37:4 -
They hated his guts. Read 37:5-8.
One day when Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers again,
they decide they've had enough of him and decide to kill him. When Reuben
talks them out of homicide, they throw him into a pit without water,
mockingly ignore his pleadings while they eat a meal--and then sell
him to some Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. They tear up his
tunic and soak it with goat blood, and show it to Jacob and allow him
to draw his own conclusion that he was killed by a wild beast.
Narrate the story.
Chapter 38 seems like an unconnected story, but it shows the danger
of assimilation.
Joseph winds up being sold to Potiphar, a wealthy military aristocrat.
God blesses Joseph's hard work as a house slave so that Potiphar makes
him the head steward of his entire estate. Things are fine for about
ten years until "Mrs. Robinson" (Potiphar's wife) gets
the hots for Joseph (who's a stud) and comes on to him with amazing
subtlety: "Lie with me" (39:7). Joseph declines, but she persists
day after day and finally grabs his skirt-towel. Joseph flees from the
house (possibly the first biblical streaker), and she claims he tried
to rape her. Joseph is fortunate Potiphar doesn't execute him--but he
is thrown into jail (a horrible hole-like dungeon where prisoners slowly
rotted).
God upheld Joseph and something about his attitude caught the eye of
the chief jailer. He made Joseph his top prisoner in charge of serving
the other prisoners. Then Pharoah's chief cupbearer and baker get thrown
into jail for reasons unknown. One night they both have dreams which
disturb them. God enables Joseph to explain the meaning of their dreams
(EXPLAIN), which is fulfilled three days later. He asks the cupbearer
to put in a good word for him with Pharaoh, but once he gets out the
cupbearer forgets all about his promise. So Joseph rots in jail for
two years.
Then an amazing thing happens. Pharaoh has a dream about 14 cows which
no one can explain. The cupbearer remembers Joseph and recommends him--and
Joseph is ushered into Pharoah's presence. God enables him to explain
the dream as a prediction of seven years of bumper crops followed by
seven years of famine--and counsels Pharaoh to find someone who will
organize and execute a grain storage system. Pharaoh says, "I'm
looking at the best man" and so in one day Joseph goes from jail
to Prime Minister of Egypt. Joseph spends the next seven years getting
married and starting a family, and executing his grain storage plan.
Then the famine hits.
It's at this point that the plot thickens and the tension between Joseph
and his brothers is resumed. The famine is severe in Canaan, so one
day Jacob says to his sons, "You knuckleheads! Why are you staring
at one another? Get your lazy behinds down to Egypt and buy some grain
before we starve!" They go down and are sent (like everyone else)
to Joseph, and they bow down to him (fulfilling 37:7). Joseph recognizes
them, but they don't recognize him (almost 40; Egyptian dress; position).
Joseph accuses them of being spies and says he won't believe they're
not unless they bring their youngest brother to him. Not realizing he
can speak Hebrew, they say in his presence: "Great! This is what
we get for killing our brother." Joseph locks Simeon up and sends
back home with just enough grain to make it home and back. But he's
not doing this to get back at them because he weeps privately over this
encounter.
When they God get home, Jacob goes hysteric ("I've already lost
one son, I've got another rotting in jail--and you want me to entrust
my youngest to you?") and refuses to let Benjamin go. But they
get hungrier, and when Jacob tells them to return to Egypt for more
grain, it's their turn to refuse ("Oh no, not without Benjamin!").
Finally Jacob agrees, and they go back to Joseph with Benjamin. Joseph
releases Simeon, dines with them (against Egyptian custom), and is so
moved by seeing Benjamin that he has to remove himself from the room
to weep. The next day, Joseph loads them up with grain but has his servant
hide his favorite silver cup in Benjamin's suitcase. After they leave,
he sends his security guards to pull them over and say, "So this
is how you repay my master's kindness--by stealing his favorite cup?"
They are offended and say, "You can kill whoever you find it on!"
They search the luggage, and when the cup falls out of Benjamin's suitcase,
they are beside themselves! They are cuffed and put in the cruiser,
and when they are brought before Joseph, Judah says: "What can
we say? We are being punished for God for our past sins." He begs
Joseph to make him a slave rather than take Benjamin because he can't
bear to break his father's heart.
Read the climax (45:1-8,14,15).
Narrate the epilogue.
They go back and bring Jacob and the rest of the family down to Egypt,
where Pharaoh gives them the best grazing land in the country (Goshen)
where they are separated from the Egyptians. Thus the family is delivered
from two lethal dangers which threatened God's plan: physical starvation
from famine and spiritual apostasy from assimilation. There they multiply
into the great nation God had predicted to Abraham, and they remain
there for 400 years . . .
Two Lessons
This story is one of the most moving of all time. It is also one of the
spiritually richest sections in the whole Bible, containing many important
truths and lessons for us. Let's look at two of the most important lessons
we must learn if we want to know God and have meaningful lives.
From Joseph's brothers, we learn what our root problem and
how to resolve it.
They had true moral guilt. Their brother may have been an arrogant
brat, and their father may have been foolish to show such favoritism--but
they were morally wrong and responsible for what they did to Joseph.
They had wronged Joseph and they had sinned against God by what they
did--and until they got this issue resolved, their lives were fundamentally
off course and all their other relationships were adversely affected
by it.
This is the way God says it is with us, too. The root problem of
our lives is not that we have been mistreated by other people, but
that we have sinned against a holy God and are alienated from him
and justly under his judgment. And this is the root problem that
manifests its symptoms in other areas of our lives . . .
And so God, because he loved them, orchestrated events to bring this
issue to the surface. Notice the factors God used to move them to
repentance, because he uses these same factors in our lives.
He allowed them to experience need (FAMINE). Later, they would
look back on this as the best thing that ever happened to them--but
at the time they just saw it as a real drag. This is how God gets
our attention because it is the most effective way to help us see
that something is radically wrong in our lives (LEWIS QUOTE).
He prompted the memory of their guilt by having Joseph treat them
in the same way they treated him. Joseph was not being cruel or
vengeful. He was cooperating with God to awaken their consciences
(read 42:21). This is what God wants to do with us, not so we can
be tortured by guilt but so we can resolve our guilt. We try to
repress it, rationalize it, focus on how others have mistreated
us, etc.--but God will find ways to remind you of your guilt before
him (EXAMPLES: PEOPLE WITH SAME SIN).
He guided them into the realization of how their sins were affecting
others. When they realize how Benjamin's death would break Jacob's
heart, they realized how much they must have broken his heart when
they sold Joseph. I know God did this with me (DAD CRYING AFTER
HE BUSTED ME).
Judah's confession to Joseph is the response God is looking for (read
44:16). He acknowledges his guilt without any excuses, he admits he
deserves judgment, and he asks for mercy. This is the response Jesus
says God is waiting to hear from us (read Lk. 15:18,19). This
is what the Bible calls repentance.
Joseph's response is the response we will be greeted with when we
turn to God in this way: forgiveness, experience his love and provision
(read Lk. 15:20-24a). How can God respond this way if he is holy
and righteous? Because Jesus went to the cross to take rap for us.
This is why we have to come to Jesus with repentance if we want to
resolve our root problem.
It's almost as though Joseph is a Christ-figure, isn't he? This is
no coincidence. Joseph is in fact a prophetic type of Jesus: He is
righteous, he is wrongly rejected by his people, but God works through
his rejection to provide deliverance for the ones who rejected him
(read Acts 2:23).
From Joseph, we learn how to navigate victoriously through a world
that is hostile and unfair. Joseph is the antithesis of the "victim
mentality"--because life or others have treated me cruelly and
unfairly, I am justified in seeking vengeance, nursing self-pity, living
selfishly and irresponsibly, expecting others to compensate me, etc.
Part of this picture is true. Because we live in a fallen world,
we are all victimized by others and this causes real pain. Civil rights
and civil justice are important. Many people's pain is aggravated
because their world-view doesn't include the fall, and therefore they
expect their lives to be happy and pain-free.
More importantly, God exists and has revealed himself to us through
his Word. This does not change evil into good, nor pain into pleasure,
but it provides a perspective which can deliver us from the bondage
of the victim mentality. Part of this perspective is lesson #1:
I am a perpetrator as well as a victim, guilty before God and deserving
of judgment, yet he forgives me.
If ever there was a true victim, it was Joseph! Who has ever met
anyone who has been treated more unfairly than Joseph? Yet his was
so different because his response is so different. He models for us
what it looks like to trust God's loving sovereignty.
Instead of giving into despair, he chose to recall and believe
God's promise concerning his life and he chose to believe that God
was bigger than the circumstances and people in his life (Rom. 8:31-37).
Instead of passively resigning himself and complaining about his
circumstances, he creatively sought to serve wherever he was (JAIL;
Col. 3:23,24). Because he was faithful in little, God made
him faithful in much (Lk. 16:10).
Instead of compromising morally to get ahead, he obeyed God even
at his own personal disadvantage (39:9 >> VERTICAL vs. HORIZONTAL/THERAPEUTIC
VIEW OF SIN >> 1 Pet. 4:19).
Instead of taking credit for everything to get ahead, he witnessed
by giving credit to God at every crucial point (39:2,3; 40:8; 41:16
>> 1 Cor. 4:7; 1 Pet. 2:9).
Instead of becoming bitter toward his offenders, he extended forgiveness
to them. In 50:19-21, Joseph reveals how he was able to do this.
He knew that God alone had the right to judge, so he refused
to usurp God's role (50:19; Rom. 12:19).
He knew that he was not a victim in the truest sense of the word.
He knew that because of God's loving sovereignty, no human could
ruin his life or prevent him from fulfilling God's purpose (50:20;
Rom. 8:28).
Because of the above, he chose to adopt a redemptive (rather
than retributive) attitude toward his offenders (50:21; Rom. 12:14,20,21).
(QUALIFY: forgiveness and trust are different.)
Because he trusted God in this way, Joseph experienced God's personal
support in every situation ("the LORD was with him . . . "
see especially 39:21), and he experienced the satisfaction of fulfilling
God's purpose for his life (50:20 as the secret of true freedom).
This is what God wants you to experience, too!
Next: "How To Get Lasting Results Through An Eternal Perspective"