Foundations of Our Faith: The Story of Genesis
12/14/2003 - The Story of Joseph the Ruler
This week I read a story about a young woman who sang a solo in front a large audience. Her vocal technique was excellent, her intonation was superb, and the range of her voice was unmatched. It was beautiful. The man who had written the piece of music that she was singing was sitting in the audience that night. And after she had finished, someone leaned over to the composer and said, "Wow! What do you think of her?" The composer said softly, "That was good. But she'll really be great when she lives long enough for something to happen that breaks her heart."
What is it about a broken heart that can transform us into better people, singers in the score of life with more passion and compassion? Who wants to have their heart broken? Not me. Can any thing good come out of pain and suffering? Absolutely. In fact, God often uses pain and struggle in our lives to take us to the next level of our faith and fruitfulness.
Jesus knew that when he said in John 15, I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
Did you ever prune a bush or see one after it's pruned? If you have, you know that you don't just snip a little bit off the ends. You whack it and cut it down sometimes almost to the root so that it can grow back fuller and stronger than ever before. That's what our heavenly Father, the cosmic gardener, does in our lives through pain and heartache. He cuts us back so we can bear much fruit for his glory.
This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples (John 15:1-2,8) .
The late author A. W. Tozer once said, "It is doubtful whether God can bless a man or a woman greatly until he has hurt them deeply." Ouch! I first heard that quote about twenty years ago and remember wrestling with it. It sounds so cruel. Why should anybody who follows God have to suffer? Is pain really the only way to blessing? Isn't God the answer to our problems? Or is he the cause of them? The answer is both. He's both. God allows trouble to come into our lives so that we can find the answer to our troubles in him.
Reflect back over your own life. When were the growth spurts in your relationship with God? Did they happen when you were sailing along with the sun on your shoulders and the wind at your back? Or did they happen when the storms of life churned up the sea and threatened to sink your boat? Chances are you grew the most in your walk with God when the seas got rough.
I love the way David Wilkerson, the pastor of Times Square Church in New York City, put it in his message on Jacob called The Making of a Worshiper, "Worshipers of God are not made during revivals. They're not made in the good, sunny times, in periods of victory and health. Worshipers aren't made when they see the enemy on the run, put to flight. The truth is, worshipers of God are made during dark, stormy nights. And how we respond to storms determines just what kind of worshipers we are."
This morning we conclude our series through Genesis called Foundations of our Faith with a final look at the life of Joseph. Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob. More is written about Joseph's life than about anything or anyone else in the book of Genesis.
Last week, we watched the storms of life sink Joseph's boat. So many things happened to him that were totally out of his control. His brothers threw him into a pit then sold him into slavery. He's taken out of the Promised Land, torn away from his family and his home, marched down into Egypt and sold again to a man named Potiphar. He resists the repeated sexual advances of Potiphar's wife and as a reward is accused of rape and thrown into prison for two long years.
And that's where we pick up the story. If you have your Bible turn to Genesis 41:1, When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream.
Two full years Joseph was a forgotten man serving a prison sentence for a crime he didn't commit. There's nothing in the text to indicate that those years were anything but long, dull, monotonous, and uneventful. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year nothing happened.
Have you noticed in the story of Genesis how long God's people have to wait for things? Waiting is a required course in God's curriculum for all of us. Noah waited 120 years for it to rain. Abraham and Sarah waited decades for their promised son Isaac. Isaac and Rebekah waited twenty years for the birth of Jacob. Jacob waited seven years to be married to Rachel. And after he was stiffed with Leah he had to work another seven years for Laban to finally get Rachel as his bride free and clear.
Why is waiting a required course in God's curriculum of spiritual development? Because it gives God time to work on our hearts and on the circumstances around us. And it takes a while for most of us to be broken before God. Joseph is being shaped for a significant future. At the moment it seems like nothing is happening. But in reality everything is happening to prepare him for his future and his future for him.
Finally, after two full years a turning point happens in Joseph's life. He finally gets the break of his life. On a day that starts out just like any other day out of the blue he hears a voice shout, "Joseph, get yourself together! You're going to meet Pharaoh."
Look at Genesis 41:9-15, Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, "Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. 10 Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. 11 Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. 12Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. 13 And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged." 14 So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. 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."
Look how Joseph responds in verse 16, "I cannot do it," Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires."
Joseph finally comes to a point in his life when he's standing on the edge of his dream. He has the opportunity to turn his life completely around. That morning he had woken up in prison as a number, now he's standing in front of the most powerful ruler on the planet. He could easily have said, "That's right. I can do it. I can figure out your dream. What's it worth to you? Show me the money!" But he doesn't say any of those things. Instead, he says, "I can't do it, but God can." That was a bold move. What if Pharaoh didn't like Joseph's God? What if Pharaoh thinks he's god, which many of them did? Why bring God into this thing at all?
Because Joseph really believed that was the truth. He brought God into this thing because years of heartbreak and suffering had brought him to a place of great humility. He wasn't seventeen anymore, holding life by the tail, bragging to his brothers about his dreams to rule the world. He knew if anything good was ever going to come out of his life it had to be from God. That's what suffering and disappointment does. It's God's way of breaking down our pride and our delusions of grandeur and making us more dependent upon him.
"I doubt," Tozer said, "if God can bless a man or a woman greatly until he has hurt them deeply." Joseph would agree with that. He had been hurt deeply, now he was about to be blessed greatly.
I find that a lot of people confuse humility with a poor self-image. They think humility means beating yourself up, thinking that you're no good at all. That's not humility. That's raging pride because it focuses all our attention on ourselves. Someone has said, "Humility is not thinking less of ourselves. It's thinking of ourselves less."
I love how Phillips Brooks the writer of O Little Town of Bethlehem once described humility. "The true way to be humble is not to stoop till you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your real height against some higher nature that shall show you what the real smallness of your greatest greatness is." That higher nature is God.
So now Joseph is ready to hear Pharaoh's dream. Look at verse 17, Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile, 18 when out of the river there came up seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds. 19 After them, seven other cows came up-scrawny and very ugly and lean. I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt. 20The lean, ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that came up first. 21 But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.
He had a second dream in verse 22, "In my dreams I also saw seven heads of grain, full and good, growing on a single stalk. 23 After them, seven other heads sprouted-withered and thin and scorched by the east wind. 24 The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but none could explain it to me." 25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, "The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. 26 The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. 27 The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.
That's the dream and now the interpretation in verse 28, "It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. 29 Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, 30 but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. 31The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. 32 The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon. 33 "And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. 34 Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. 35 They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food.36 This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine." 37 The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. 38 So Pharaoh asked them, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?" 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."
With God's help Joseph interprets Pharaoh's two dreams. There will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine in the land of Egypt. The bulls will be running on Wall Street for seven years and then the crash will come. And a wise man is needed to make sure that enough food is stored during the seven good years to take care of the seven lean years to follow. And Pharaoh says, "Joseph, you da' man! You're the man to do it." And he puts him in charge of the entire nation of Egypt, making him second in command to Pharaoh himself.
Skip down to verse 46, Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt.
It took thirteen years for Joseph's dream to turn into a reality. But when it finally happened how quickly things turned around. In one day, Joseph literally goes from rags to riches, from the prison to the palace. And that can happen to any of us when God decides to act. Joseph gets a new job, a new title, a new home, a new name, a new wife, and two new kids.
Look at verses 50-52, Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. 51 Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, "It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household." 52 The second son he named Ephraim and said, "It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering."
Joseph's humility is seen even in the naming of his two kids. He gives God all the credit for helping him to forget all his troubles and for making him fruitful in the land of his suffering. His blessings are off the charts in a place where he's only ever known heartbreak.
Right now some of you are where Joseph was. You are in the middle of that thirteen-year stretch when nothing seems to be happening. You're in the winter season of your life when everything you've dreamed about looks dead. Take heart. God is working in the silence. He's preparing you and your circumstances for blessings yet to come. That's why this story is in here. Don't give up on God. He hasn't given up on you. Keep opening the door of your heart to him. Some of you are on the other side of the silence and you know that everything good in your life has come from God. You've seen him turn tragedy into triumph and you give him all the credit.
True worshipers are not made during revivals. They're not made in the good, sunny times. True worshipers of God are made during the dark, stormy nights. And how we respond to the storms determines what kind of worshipers we are.
That's what's been happening to Joseph over the years. But meanwhile, what's been happening to his father, Jacob, and his eleven brothers?
Look at Genesis 42:1-5, When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, "Why do you just keep looking at each other?" 2He continued, "I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die." 3Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. 5So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch things were not good. The famine had hit the Promised Land too. It was worldwide. And Jacob says to his boys, "What are you looking at each other for? Do something! Go down to Egypt and get us some food."
So he sends ten of his boys on a mission, but he doesn't send his youngest son, Benjamin, because he remembers all too well what happened when he sent Joseph to find them over twenty years ago. He never came back. The wound is still open. The memory is still fresh. And so he's not letting his baby out of his sight again. The deception of his sons had eroded his trust in them. Which is what deception does. It always breaks down trust.
And chapters 42-44 tell this elaborate story of his brother's encounter with Joseph, first without Benjamin and then later with Benjamin. Only they don't recognize him as Joseph. He's grown up now. He's thirty-nine years old. He's clean shaven, dressed in royal robes, wearing the elaborate headdress of Egypt, and speaks to them in Egyptian through a translator. They don't know him as their little brother. Instead, they see him as this powerful, intimidating ruler. But finally, Joseph comes to the point where he can't keep his identity a secret any longer and there is this marvelous reunion.
Turn over to Genesis 45:1-18, Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, "Have everyone leave my presence!" So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. 2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still living?" But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. 4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, 'This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don't delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me-you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.' 12 "You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. 13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly." 14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. 15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him. 16 When the news reached Pharaoh's palace that Joseph's brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased. 17 Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Tell your brothers, 'Do this: Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, 18 and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land.' 19 "You are also directed to tell them, 'Do this: Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. 20 Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours.'"
Could the story have a better ending? It's like those emotional reunions you sometimes see on talk shows where long, lost brothers and sisters are finally reunited after decades of separation. And they just break down and weep. Joseph is alive and God has been working behind the scenes all along to fulfill his dream and to provide for his family. Pharaoh gives Joseph's family the choicest real estate Egypt has to offer and invites them to settle in the land of Goshen.
Look at verse 25, So they went up out of Egypt and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan. 26 They told him, "Joseph is still alive! In fact, he is ruler of all Egypt." Jacob was stunned; he did not believe them. 27 But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 And Israel said, "I'm convinced! My son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die."
Turn to Genesis 46:28-30, Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen. When they arrived in the region of Goshen, 29Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. 30Israel said to Joseph, "Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive."
Jacob and Joseph now have this tear filled reunion after all these years apart, father and favorite son reunited. It's like Joseph is resurrected from the dead! And Jacob will live in Egypt, with his son, for the rest of his life.
Look at Genesis 47:28-31, Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. 29 When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, "If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, 30but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried." "I will do as you say," he said. 31 "Swear to me," he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
Eventually Jacob did die after living a good long life and Joseph promises to bury him in the Promised Land. But his death triggers fear in his sons that Joseph would now, after all these years, finally take revenge and do them in. And it broke Joseph's heart.
Look at Genesis 50:15-21, When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?" 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 17 'This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.' Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father." When their message came to him, Joseph wept. 18 His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said. 19 But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
Joseph wept because he realized that his brothers had not really received his forgiveness. He had already forgiven them and told them that this was all part of God's plan. But they hadn't heard him. And now that the restraining influence of their dad was gone, they fully expected Joseph to even the score. But he had no bitterness towards them or towards God.
"What you meant for evil, God meant for good." Joseph never stood taller than at this moment in his life. It was his finest hour and reminds us of God's promise to all his children found in 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.
Why does God give so much space to Joseph's story in the book of Genesis? Because it's the story of all of us. It's the way God works in all our lives. He is always working behind the scenes to turn our tragedies into triumphs, our heartbreaks into blessings.
When I think of this truth I often think of a beautiful tapestry. From one side it's an intricately woven work of art, pulling together all kinds of threads of different lengths and colors to make an inspiring picture. But when you turn the tapestry over, all you see is a tangled up mess of thread, some short, some long, some smooth, some rough, some knotted, some cut, and all going off in a thousand directions.
God is weaving a tapestry in the life of every believer. And the picture is the picture of his Son, Jesus Christ. He's making us more like Jesus. But right now all we see is the back and it can look so confusing and so messy. But from God's vantage point, every twist, every tangle, every knot has its place in this great masterpiece of God. And that gives me hope. Hope that God is making something beautiful out of what sometimes looks like a tangled up mess.
The story of Genesis closes in 50:22-26, Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father's family. He lived a hundred and ten years 23 and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph's knees. 24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." 25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, "God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place." 26 So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Joseph died at the age of hundred and ten. He lived a long fruitful life, long enough to learn that God is always working to make something beautiful out of our lives.