The Bigger Picture: Joseph 5

Joseph 5: ‘The Power and the Glory’

(preached May 23rd, 2010)

Chapter 41 of the Book of Genesis is a little like those visual illusions, which look like one thing one minute and something else the next (see above). Undoubtedly, it is a picture of power – but it’s a picture which actually turns out to be very different to the way it looks when we first set eyes on it. At first sight, there could surely be little doubt where the power lies in this story. Let me take you to two different places – only a short distance from one another, and yet whole worlds apart.

First, we enter the palace of the Pharaoh and see a glorious figure seated upon a golden chair: a man clothed in the finest materials; his strong arms ornamented by beautiful bracelets; his head bedecked with the royal head-dress of blue that is decorated with the sacred asp at the brow and two ribbons flowing from the back; and everywhere there are attendants – some whose duty is to fan him to keep him comfortable in the midday heat; female musicians who play gentle notes upon stringed instruments to soothe his mood; the cupbearer who brings him his wine, having first tasted it to ensure its harmlessness; and miscellaneous others who wait upon his every need.

The palace in which he sits is a testament to his authority, to his opulence, to his dominion: he is the monarch over a vast and highly developed kingdom – he is, in his time, a king without equal.

Now let me take you to a prison building not so far away from the palace. The cells within the prison are tiny compared to the huge, airy spaces of the palace, and they let in just a fraction of the sunlight that floods into the Pharaoh’s quarters, illuminating their magnificence. Then we see one of the inmates – not an Egyptian, but a Hebrew – looking after his fellow prisoners; he is young, yet it’s hard to tell because he has a long and very full beard which makes him look older than his years; he’s also probably quite handsome, but his worn and grubby clothing do nothing for his appearance. He has been given some responsibility within the prison, but he cannot leave, however much he would like to.

As we consider these two scenes, these two men, there can surely be no question of where the power lies, can there? Could there be anyone more powerful than Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who holds the power of life and death – just remember the cupbearer and the baker – and whose word is law? Well, that’s what you’d think when you first looked at the whole situation; but, as we know, things are not always quite as they seem!

PHARAOH’S DREAMS

One night, as Pharaoh slept upon his couch in his sumptuous palace, he began to dream – and what a strange dream he had! He was standing by the Nile, when, suddenly, out of the river appeared seven beautiful, fat cows came out of the water which then began to feed on the grass. Then, seven ugly, thin cows emerged from the water and devoured the beautiful, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up with a start, feeling quite unsettled; but drowsiness quickly overcame him again and he went back to sleep.

Moments later, he was dreaming again: this time of seven wonderfully healthy ears of grain growing up from a single stalk; but then alongside them grew seven rather sorry looking ears of grain, which turned and swallowed up whole the seven healthy ears of grain. Again, the Pharaoh awoke in an agitated state and, next morning, he summoned all his magicians, sages and interpreters to find out the meaning of the dreams, because he knew they were of great significance. But not one of them could tell him what they meant.

Just consider for a moment the significance of what has happened here. Pharaoh is usually the one who sits upon the throne and dictates what is to happen, and everyone rushes back and forth making sure that it does happen. But this time, it’s different: these dreams have intruded upon Pharaoh’s privacy and the one who normally directs others is now himself being directed. Yet he himself cannot understand the directions he’s being given, so he feels confused, concerned and strangely out of control of the situation.

The apparently all-powerful king begins to see that there really are limitations to the power he wields. Not only that, but the power and mystique of his kingdom is undermined, as none of its learned people, none of its finest minds can explain the meaning of the dreams – Egyptian wisdom and knowledge are found wanting.

JOSEPH REMEMBERED

It’s only now, two years after the event, that the cupbearer remembers Joseph, the man who had accurately interpreted his dream; and so he tells Pharaoh about him. The desperation that Pharaoh feels is illustrated by the fact that he immediately commands that Joseph be brought before him – summoning a foreign jailbird into his presence on the off-chance he can interpret the meaning of some dreams would not be something that the king of Egypt would do if he had any more reasonable alternative.

In effect, by resorting to consulting a Hebrew, he – the most powerful man in the most powerful kingdom – is admitting that he and his nation are out of their depth. They realise they have no control over their own destiny, so they look to Joseph. And notice how he has to have a wash, a shave and a change of clothes before he was presentable to the Pharaoh. I’m so glad that this little detail was put in here, because it emphasises the entirely different worlds that the two men have been living in up to this point in time.

And so the apparently power-full Pharaoh asks the seemingly power-less Joseph to interpret his dreams; but, just as he had told the cupbearer and the chief baker two years beforehand, Joseph makes it absolutely clear that it is not he himself, but the God of Israel who will show Pharaoh their meaning and thus give him the peace he has longed for. Joseph doesn’t hesitate to point Pharaoh towards God – he has no wish to glorify himself.

If only we were as ready to acknowledge God as the source of all our talents and skills as Joseph is here! Often, when we are praised or thanked for something we’ve done, it’s not that we remain silent because we want to take the glory for ourselves, but perhaps because we feel a little embarrassed or reserved to say, “Actually, it’s due to God, not me.” Let’s be less self-conscious and more God conscious, and give Him the glory, just as Joseph does!

GOD RULES, OK?

When Pharaoh describes his dreams, God immediately gives Joseph the true interpretation. I want you to notice that, at the beginning of the interpretation, Joseph tells the king: “God is telling Pharaoh in advance what He is about to do.” Then, in the middle of the interpretation, Joseph breaks off to repeat: “This will happen just as I have described it, for God has revealed to Pharaoh in advance what He is about to do.” And just in case Pharaoh has failed to get the message, at the end of the interpretation Joseph explains: “As for having two similar dreams, it means that these events have been decreed by God, and He will soon make them happen.”

Surely, by now, even Pharaoh must have realised that the dreams were saying that it was God who was in control here, that it was God, not Pharaoh, who had the ultimate power of life and death, and that Pharaoh’s own authority was subject to God’s approval and blessing. You see, the power and authority of the Egyptian kings’ depended upon the fertility of the soil provided by the waters of the River Nile, if the water dried up and the crops failed, the Pharaoh’s authority counted for nothing. In short, the dreams show that God rules.

When Joseph explains the meaning of the dreams, it becomes clear that, over the next few years, life in Egypt is going to be ‘a game of two halves’, to use a good old footballing term! For seven years, there will be good harvests and plenty of food to go round the country, but the following seven years will see disastrous harvests and potential famine.

There’s nothing that Pharaoh can do to stop this happening because it is God, the real Powerful One, who has deigned that it will happen. And to give Pharaoh some credit here, he listens intently to what Joseph has to say – there is absolutely no doubt that he recognises the word of God when it is spoken and he doesn’t jump in with a response when Joseph has finished the interpretation. He is happy for Joseph to carry on with advice as to how to cope with this impending disaster.

JOSEPH PROMOTED

As has been implied in other parts of his life story to date, Joseph is a terrific manager and organiser, so it comes as no surprise that he has a jolly good idea of how to respond to this problem. A discerning and wise man should be put in charge of Egypt, a man who is equipped to supervise the collection of one fifth of the grain by regional commissioners during the fruitful years. This grain should then be held in reserve and distributed according to need during the years of failed harvests that would follow.

Now. I’m absolutely certain that this must be the Holy Spirit of God speaking through Joseph, for how else could a Hebrew prisoner have the bare-faced temerity to tell Pharaoh that he “should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt”? On the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit enabled the Lord’s disciples to speak in a multitude of languages and made Peter into a powerful and effective preacher – amazing! But what the Spirit did through Joseph in Pharaoh’s court is no less amazing. What he said could have been taken the wrong way – after all, Pharaoh himself was in charge of the country – but, as we know, God was with Joseph and Pharaoh was led to appoint Joseph himself to the position.

I don’t think that Joseph was angling for the job, he was just telling it like it was and the hand of the Lord was upon him. As I think about Joseph’s qualities here, I’m reminded of some words from Isaiah:

[T]he Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. He will delight in obeying the Lord.

Isaiah was looking forward to the coming of a messiah king, but the description also seems quite fitting for Joseph; and, of course, Pharaoh bestowed upon him all the power and trappings of royalty to affirm his new rank and position. He put him in charge of the whole country and gave him his own signet ring which was used to put the royal seal on decrees and invoices; he clothed him in the finest robes and jewellery; he ensured that the whole population paid him respect; and he gave him a high profile bride in marriage – Asenath, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. The contrast between Joseph’s time in the prison and his promotion to the position of deputy king could not be more marked, and it all goes to prove that God is supreme and His timing is perfect.

And this is the whole point that we need to take in today: God is almighty, all powerful, there is none like Him; all governments, all dictators are subordinate to Him and their power cannot compare with the God who holds the future of their countries, their continents, and the whole world in the palm of His hands. There’s a danger that, when we look around the world, we see the world leaders – some of them dictators and tyrants wielding horrific weapons and making all kinds of threats – and we fear their power, their ability to wreak destruction in the world. But we must not forget that, behind it all, the God of Abraham, the God of Israel, the God of Joseph is still in control.

According to His good purposes, He can turn the most dire of circumstances around and, as with Joseph, He can transform a pauper into a prince, a slave into a sovereign. And this same God is our God, the God of power and glory – let’s remember that fact whenever we face drama, despair, or discouragement: our God reigns and can override the schemes of man, so let us have confidence in Him, living in the knowledge of His power and giving Him the glory.

Amen.

The Bigger Picture: Joseph 4

Joseph 4: Joseph the Prisoner.

(preached May 16th, 2010)

I wonder if you’ve ever felt hard done by? I remember one occasion when I was about 15 at school, when I was told off in no uncertain terms and punished so unfairly by one of my teachers – I hadn’t actually done anything wrong, but my teacher just wouldn’t listen to what I had to say about it. I felt so aggrieved by it then and, more than 35 years later, I still do! Even though it was a relatively small and pretty inconsequential injustice, a sense of hurt has endured over the years.

So, just imagine how Joseph felt. Betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, framed by his master’s wife, and thrown into prison, he had every reason to feel hard done by – after all, he hadn’t done anything to deserve this ... he’d always tried to do the right thing. Was he crushed? Was he bitter? Did he turn his back on God? No, he didn’t, because he knew that God was with him – even though he was many miles from his homeland and his family – yes, God was with him watching over him and caring for him, turning the wickedness of others around to his blessing and making sure the dreams He had entrusted to Joseph would be fulfilled.

But Joseph was still in prison. Through the grace of God, the chief jailer had been kind to him, giving him a degree of responsibility for the care of the other prisoners – but he was still in prison, and there was no prospect of him being released. Potiphar wasn’t going to change his mind and have a wayward slave released – in fact, I expect that, within a very short space of time, he had forgotten all about Joseph ... after all, slaves were ‘ten a penny’. So, how was it possible that he would get out of there? Enter the cupbearer and the baker from Pharaoh’s court.

The Cupbearer and the Baker

At the beginning of Genesis chapter 40, we read:

Some time later, Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer and chief baker offended their royal master. Pharaoh became angry with these two officials, and he put them in the prison where Joseph was, in the palace of the captain of the guard.

Well, what a surprise! Two senior royal officials in prison with Joseph.

The cupbearer would have been the person who tasted the wine and food before it was presented to the king to ensure that it wasn’t poisoned. He was also there to ensure that everything served to the king was of a high standard and healthy. As a result, cupbearers and kings became very close and the king would often treat his cupbearer as a confidant, someone with whom he could share his ideas and his concerns. You may remember that Nehemiah was the cupbearer in the court of King Xerxes and was able to persuade the king to allow him to travel to Jerusalem to repair the city walls.

For the cupbearer and the baker to end up in prison, there must have been some mess-up on the catering front: maybe the baker prepared something which wasn’t of a high standard and the cupbearer mistakenly let it through for the king to eat. Whatever was the cause of their downfall, the important fact is that they ended up in the same prison as Joseph. And Joseph, drawing on his own dreadful experiences, was able to minister to them, able to help them cope with their new circumstances – if he himself had been bitter or angry, I don’t think he could – or, would – have done that. It’s only when our hearts are right with God that we can truly empathise with and minister to someone in need.

Anyway, both the cupbearer and the baker have dreams and they’re depressed when no-one can interpret the dreams for them. Like the 19th and 20th century psychoanalysts, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, the Egyptians and other peoples of that day reckoned that dreams had deeper meanings and that there were those able to unlock those meanings. Little did they know that they were talking to God’s dreamer-in-chief! But Joseph makes it clear to them that only God can accurately interpret dreams and then he invites them to share their dreams – he is so confident that God will give him the power to understand them.

The cupbearer goes first and tells the story of how he had dreamed of a vine that grew with three branches which produced healthy clusters of grapes. In his dream, he picked them and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup for his master to drink. Quick as a flash, Joseph tells him that it means he will be restored to his position in the royal court in three days’ time. Oh, and he asks the cupbearer to remember him when he is restored.

Hearing this gives the baker confidence to share his own dream. In it, he was carrying three baskets of pastries on his head, when birds came down and ate the goodies in the top basket. Again, Joseph is quick to share the meaning of the dream, but this time it’s bad news: in three days, the baker will be executed! Now, Joseph could have made something up, so the baker didn’t know the full horrific truth, but he didn’t – in fact, he couldn’t, because he was representing God and had to share the meaning that God showed him.

Like Joseph, we too have sometimes to tell people the blunt truth, because this is what God has called us to do. It’s not easy and they may not like it, but it is the right thing to do. We should always be very positive and very compassionate in the way we deal with everyone – that is how Jesus was – but we also have to be very realistic and straightforward with them – Jesus was like that, too.

Maybe people don’t want to hear that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life and that no-one comes to the Father except through Him; maybe they don’t want to hear that there are dire consequences for those who turn their backs on God and go their own way, but we fail them and we fail God, if we don’t share it with them because we fear hurting or annoying them.

Joseph didn’t fail God in interpreting those two dreams in the way he did and, three days later, he is totally vindicated, as his interpretations come true. The cupbearer is restored and the baker is executed. But, we’re told, “Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.” Again, Joseph has done all that he could do – and got it right – yet still he languishes in prison. What a let-down! It’s enough to knock the stuffing out of anyone.

Application

Being let down, feeling abandoned, feeling hard-done-by are common human experiences. At some time or another, we probably all feel that we have been treated in ways that we just don’t deserve – whether it be a case of being told off at school for something we didn’t do, or of being overlooked for a job that we really should have been offered, or whatever it might be. It hurts and, unless the hurt is dealt with, it will go on hurting and will affect our ability to serve God and others.

An American Christian writer, Chuck Swindoll (in "Joseph: A man of integrity and forgiveness", Word Publishing Inc., 1998) argues that there are four main causes of such long-lasting and hurt:

first, there is the way people have been treated within the family, either in the past or at present or both) – the pain of physical or emotional abuse within the home may affect the victims of it for a lifetime, if not addressed;

then, there is the hurt that comes as the result of unexpected restriction of circumstances – for example, a sudden injury, or the onset of a debilitating illness, can often make a person feel very alone and abandoned;

there’s also the damage suffered through untrue accusations – the spreading of gossip and rumour is so destructive and can cause people such mental anguish that some even resort to suicide;

and the fourth area that Swindoll highlights is unfair abandonment – it may occur within marriage, when one partner or the other leaves without any warning or valid reason, leaving wife or husband high and dry; it may occur when so-called friends disappear when your circumstances change through no fault of your own; it may occur when you’re made redundant, after tirelessly working your socks off for your employer. Let’s face it, it can occur in any number of circumstances.

From what we’ve already read in Genesis, it’s clear that Joseph suffered all these kinds of mistreatment: suffering cruelly at the hands of his half-brothers, finding himself as a slave without any human rights, being thrown into prison because of someone’s false accusation; and then left there by the forgetful cupbearer. He must have felt the pain of all that, but he survived it because he never stopped trusting or hoping in God.

Even though people – even friends and family – may mistreat or abandon us, God never does and, as we turn to Him in hopeful trust, He offers us the healing we need and sustains us in our darkest hours. That is an integral part of His nature: “The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love” – that’s what the Bible tells us on numerous occasions.

In fact, God took upon Himself all of that mistreatment and hurt, when He came in the form of Jesus Christ to dwell among us. At one point in His ministry, He was dismissed by members of His earthly family as being mad. His circumstances were very definitely restricted when He was arrested and tried by the Jewish authorities, and nailed to a cross by the Romans. He experienced the pain of false accusations, when some said that He must be in league with the devil and when so-called witnesses lied at His trial. And, of course, He suffered undeserved abandonment, when His disciples fled after His arrest and when His closest friend, Peter, even went so far as to deny any connection with Him.

Christ experienced all those hurts and took them to the cross with Him, so that we can find our healing, our relief, and our comfort in Him, and in Him alone. So, if you are hurting right now, turn to Him, trust in Him, pray to Him and, in faith, receive from Him. If you are in that position this morning, I invite you to repeat in your hearts this prayer (from Swindoll's book) that I’m going to say now – let’s pray:

Lord, God, help me now. PAUSE


Right at this moment. PAUSE


Deliver me from my own prison. PAUSE


Help me to see beyond the darkness to see Your hand. PAUSE


As I am being crushed, remould me. PAUSE


Help me to see You in this abandonment, this rejection. PAUSE


Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner. PAUSE


Amen.

If you would like to pray with someone about your own painful circumstances, please ask me or any of the deacons afterwards, and we will be delighted to do that, here and now. Or, if you would like to pray at another time, maybe in your own home, do speak to me afterwards and I will gladly arrange to come and visit you.

Next week, we will see how God rescues Joseph from His predicament and dreams begin to become reality.

Until then, to God be the glory! Amen.

The Bigger Picture: Joseph 3

Joseph 3: Joseph the Slave.

(preached May 9th, 2010)

This morning, we return to our look at the ‘Bigger Picture’ of the Bible and to the story of Joseph that we began two weeks ago. So far, we have seen in the Bigger Picture how God created all things from nothingness; how mankind disobeyed God and paid the penalty; how the wickedness of human beings increased to the point that God said, “Enough!” and cleansed the earth with a flood, saving only Noah and his family; how God chose one man, Abraham, through which to bless the whole world; and how, over the years, God prospered his family, despite their shortcomings.

Those shortcomings have become all too apparent in recent weeks, as we have focussed in on Jacob – Abraham’s grandson – and his family. Three weeks ago, I highlighted their tendency to be deceitful, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all being guilty in this respect. And then, a fortnight ago, we saw how the father’s favouritism, the favoured son’s behaviour and his brothers’ jealousy combined to bring about a tragic event: the selling into slavery of Joseph.

And yet, in spite of all the upset, there is a clear sense that God is at work here. No, He isn’t mentioned in chapter 37 of Genesis at all, but we know He is there, all the same. We know that, when Joseph shares his dreams with his brothers, those dreams don’t come from his own vivid imagination, they come from God – they are God-dreams and, even though Jacob finds them personally distasteful, he knows deep down that they mean something important and that something significant will come out of them.

And so, at the end of chapter 37, we seem to find ourselves looking at a split screen: on one side, we see the brothers deceiving their father with the blood-stained robe of their half-brother; and, on the other side, we look on as Joseph is forcibly taken into a life of slavery by Midianite traders. Then, the picture fades and the credits start rolling, as the author leaves us with a cliff-hanger: Have the brothers really disposed of the dreamer for good and thereby killed the dreams? Will the broken-hearted father ever recover? Will he ever discover the truth? And what suffering will Joseph experience when he arrives in Egypt? We just have to wait with baited breath until the next episode.

In fact, the next episode doesn’t concern Joseph at all, but tells us about Judah and his relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar – an important story, which again involves family strife and deception, but not one we’ll dwell on. Instead, we’re going to move on to Genesis chapter 39, where we find the story of ...

Joseph and Potiphar’s wife

You see, Joseph has been bought from the Midianite traders by no less a figure than the captain of Pharaoh’s guard, a man named Potiphar, to work in his household.

In verse 2 of the chapter, we find some very significant words: “The Lord was with Joseph ... .” As I’ve already said, nowhere in chapter 37 is the presence of God mentioned, even though we know He was active in the situation. But here, right at the beginning on chapter 39, we’re told that “the Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master.” That is so important for us to take on board.

I have said before that I don’t believe God engineered every part of Joseph’s story – because that would mean that human beings are merely His puppets – but I am certain that God responds to the sin of human beings in such a way that ultimately His purpose is fulfilled. That is why I don’t give up all hope when I see the awful things that human beings sometimes do in this world – and let’s face it, human beings are responsible for some terrible atrocities and wickedness. I believe that God, ultimately, always brings good out of evil, so that His will is done.

Here, we learn that, in spite of the wickedness of the brothers which has brought Joseph into a dire situation, the Lord is with him and the Lord makes him prosper. He turns the sins of others to Joseph’s advantage, so that the God-dreams come one step closer to fulfilment.

The fact that “the Lord was with Joseph” is the single most important factor in this chapter. In fact, we’re told that even Potiphar noticed what was happening “and realised that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did.” That’s not to say that Potiphar believed that the God of Israel was supreme in authority, or anything like that, but he certainly did realise that the God Joseph worshipped was helping him. That, of course, implies that Joseph must have been very open about his worship of God – and this in spite of the fact that he had recently experienced such hardship.

Now, there’s a great example for us today! Joseph could have been bitter because of what had happened to him, but he didn’t let it affect his faith in God. As I consider all this, I’m reminded of some New Testament texts; for example, Colossians 3:22-24, which says:

22 Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything you do. Try to please them all the time, not just when they are watching you. Serve them sincerely because of your reverent fear of the Lord. 23 Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. 24 Remember that the Lord will give you an inheritance as your reward, and that the Master you are serving is Christ.

Those first two verses could have been written about Joseph himself. And, in 1 Corinthians, Paul tells the church: “whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” That’s what Joseph seems to have done and it gets him noticed.

In the same way, as we recognise in our daily lives that we are to do everything we do for God and for His glory, others will see that the Lord is with us, too, and Kingdom opportunities will open up. Yes, Potiphar sees that God is with Joseph and puts him in charge of the whole household while he is away fulfilling his military duties.

But, just as things seem to be going swimmingly, sin again rears its ugly head: this time through the actions of Potiphar’s wife, a woman who has – perhaps appropriately – remained nameless throughout history. She lusts after Joseph and constantly tries to pressure him into an illicit relationship with her, but he steadfastly resists her sinful advances. You see, he knows that the Lord is with him and that this is most definitely the wrong thing to do – it would be a sin against not only his earthly master, Potiphar, but also against his heavenly master, God.

Of course, we might ask whether this development is the devil’s doing, but sometimes we can too easily assign everything to the devil’s schemes and shift the blame in that direction – ultimately, sin is down to human desire and disobedience. After all, when the serpent enticed the woman and the man into eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they could have said “No!” You know, if we consistently said “No!” to sin, the devil would have no power – it’s in our hands. Remember what the Apostle James tells us in his letter:

“[H]umble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

Throughout it all, Joseph remains true to God and spurns the schemes of Potiphar’s wife, but as the playwright William Congreve once wrote:

Heav’n has no rage, like love to hatred turn’d,
Nor hell a fury, like a woman scorn’d.

Although Joseph does the right thing all the way along – even physically running away from sin’s grasp – Potiphar’s wife has another sneaky card up her sleeve, which she uses against him. She frames Joseph, claiming that he has attempted to sexually assault her and showing his left-behind robe in evidence. Again, Joseph’s clothing is used to deceive: just as Jacob was deceived by the sight of his son’s torn and blood-covered finely made robe, Potiphar is deceived by the sight of his slave’s left-behind robe. And, as a result, he has Joseph immediately thrown into prison and left to rot.

But notice what it says again in verse 21: “But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love.” This is the second time that we’ve heard that the Lord was with Joseph and, again, it has immediate effects, because Joseph quickly becomes a favourite of the jailer, who then trusts him with responsibility for the other prisoners and for everything that happened in the prison.

There’s another theme emerging here: that of Joseph as ‘the favoured one.’ First of all, he was the favoured son of Jacob; then he was the favoured slave of Potiphar; and now he is the favoured prisoner of the jailer. And it’s becoming clearer as we go further into his story that he is a favoured one of God – God has chosen him to be the dream-bearer and will be with him through it all, because those dreams must come to fruition.

As I said last time, we, like Joseph, have been entrusted with God’s dreams: dreams of a renewed heaven and a renewed earth; dreams of life everlasting, in which joy will be unbounded and tears have no place; dreams of all creation illuminated by the presence of God Himself. And remember, these dreams are not just flights of fancy, but cast-iron certainties, because they are God-dreams. As we are faithful to God and bearers of His dreams, we become aware that the Lord is with us and constantly shows us His faithful love ... just as He was and just as He did with Joseph.

Conclusions

So, let’s just think a little about what we’ve learnt from this part of Joseph’s story.

Well, first of all, we find out that God isn’t tied to one place: He is with Joseph in Egypt, every bit as much as He is in Canaan with the rest of Jacob’s family. And we need to remember that ourselves: wherever we are, wherever we go, God is with us – there is nowhere we can go which is beyond His love, His care, His reach. No matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, God is with us and we can always turn to Him, for help or for forgiveness.

Later, when the Jews were carried away to Babylon after Jerusalem was overrun, they were distraught because they thought that God had been left behind. But they soon found that He couldn’t be left behind and that He was there with them – just remember the stories of Daniel and his friends for proof of that.

When we believe and trust in the Lord, He is with us. And because He is always with us, we should look upon everything we do as being within His gaze and we should do it for His glory. It might be our regular job, it might be voluntary work, it might be housework, or some other kind of task – whatever it is, we must do it for the Lord. That’s what Joseph did.

And just as Joseph fled from sin, when Potiphar’s wife tried to grab hold of him, we too must be prepared to do whatever it takes to escape sin’s clutches. We must try to avoid sinful, or tempting situations, just as Joseph tried to avoid being alone in her company, but, when necessary, we have to be prepared to run away from them, as fast as our legs will carry us – however undignified we may look! Treat sin like the plague.

So, we leave Joseph in prison, but we know that God has much more in store for the young man who is the bearer of His dreams and we’ll find out more next week.

The Bigger Picture: Joseph 2

Joseph 2: Dream-killers?
(preached April 28th, 2010)


I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.


I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." ...


I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day ... one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

In April 1968, an assassin killed the dreamer – Martin Luther King – and the world waited to see if the dream was dead, too. But it wasn’t, because the dream was even bigger than the dreamer, and America is a much different place now to what it was just over 40 years ago.

This morning, we’re taking a look at another dreamer and considering how his brothers planned to kill his dreams by disposing of him. Of course, I’m talking of Joseph, son of Jacob.

But first, I want us to remember how, last week, we started to identify a certain dysfunctionality within the family, a problem that went back generations. We saw how Abraham had deceived Pharaoh in Egypt and Abimelech, the king of Gerar; how Isaac had done the same thing to Abimelech years later; and how Jacob was involved in a series of family deceptions. They were the chosen family of God, but they weren’t without their shortcomings.

This week, we start reading chapter 37 of the Book of Genesis and what do we see? Trouble, that’s what we see. What we have to understand is that Jacob had a huge family, but his children were born to four different mothers: Leah – the wife Jacob was tricked into marrying – was the mother of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar and Zebulun; Rachel’s maid, Bilhah, bore two sons – Dan and Naphtali – for Jacob, because Rachel thought she herself couldn’t have children; Zilpah, Leah’s maid, bore another two sons – Gad and Asher – for Abraham, when Leah thought her own child-bearing days were over; and, finally, Rachel did have two sons, after all – Joseph and Benjamin. Oh, what a tangled web we weave ... !

The rivalry between Leah and Rachel was intense – and no doubt Bilhah and Zilpah regularly came into the equation, too. The rivalry between the mothers must inevitably have been taken on by their sons and daughters (we know there was at least one daughter, Dinah, who was born to Leah). The point is that all was not sweetness and light within the family. So, when Jacob quite clearly favours Joseph, the elder son of his favourite wife Rachel, by giving him a beautiful robe, it’s a recipe for disaster. And Joseph himself doesn’t really help matters, either – verse 2 tells us that “Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.”

It all results in Joseph’s half-brothers despising him – we’re told that “they couldn’t say a kind word to him.” What a sad, sad situation for any family – and, eventually, something just has to give. The final straw is when Joseph tells his half-brothers about some dreams he’s been having.

Actually, I had a dream this week, too, and it involved all of you. Would you like to hear it? Well, we were all out on a ramble, walking across a lovely green field, talking and enjoying ourselves, when we all suddenly stopped and you formed a semi-circle around me. You all got down on one knee and bowed your head before me. I looked around and noticed that even the sun and the sheep in an adjoining field were bowing down to me. Wasn’t that a truly wonderful dream? No?

Maybe now you can imagine how the brothers felt when Joseph told them that, in one dream, all their sheaves of wheat bowed before his sheaf and, in another, the sun, moon and stars paid him homage. You see, the dreams were provocative – they clearly placed Joseph in a superior position to his brothers and his parents, without providing a clear explanation for why that should be. We who know the full story will, of course, realise that, in time, Joseph will be in charge of Egypt’s stores of grain and be in a position of power over the rest of the family. But they had no way of knowing that then, and there’s no suggestion that Joseph knew, either.

Notice though that, while the brothers seethe with jealousy and anger, Jacob has some inkling that there is a much deeper meaning to them. After all, he himself was a dreamer – he had dreamt at Bethel of a ladder with angels ascending and descending and of a blessing from God ... it was a God-dream. And now we must become aware that these were God’s dreams, not Joseph’s. They may have been entrusted to Joseph, but they didn’t originate from him. They weren’t his property, but they were his destiny. And, because they were God’s dreams, they couldn’t die, no matter what the dreamer has to go through because of them.

And go through it, he does. When he is sent out by his father to check on how his brothers are looking after the sheep, his brothers see him coming from afar off. “Here comes the dreamer!” they say and quickly plan to rid themselves of both the dreamer and the dreams. They sincerely believe that they have the power to achieve all that, little knowing that, ultimately, the dreams are more powerful than they.

But, if these dreams are God’s dreams and the brothers are powerless to prevent them from coming to fruition, does it mean that God engineers all the circumstances? Does it mean that, from the beginning, God arranged it that the brothers would be angry with Joseph and throw him into a waterhole? Does it mean God pre-ordained it that he would be sold to Midianite traders, who would in turn sell him to Potiphar, an official of Pharaoh’s, in Egypt?

You could read Joseph’s story like that – it’s quite possible. But wouldn’t that be a case of God treating the human beings concerned like puppets? Wouldn’t it amount to a denial of human freewill? I think, on reflection, that it probably would.

Perhaps, instead, it is the case that God has an end in view, an end which is for the benefit of humanity, and that He is able to ensure human sinfulness doesn’t prevent that end from being achieved. You see, it is completely inconceivable that God would cause the brothers to sin in such a way – God and sin do not go together. It is man that always takes the “sin initiative”; and then God works it around, so that His will is fulfilled. He may well be aware of how things will occur, but there’s a very definite difference between that and making things happen that way.

So, here in Genesis, when they decide not to kill Joseph themselves or to leave him to die in the cistern, but instead to sell him to the Midianite traders, the brothers actually enable the dream to become a reality – ironic, eh?

Earlier on, we also read some verses from the very end of the Book of Revelation. They describe a vision given to the apostle John of how all things will conclude:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

It goes on to describe how God’s people will dwell with Him forever and there will be no need for lamps or sun, because the Lord God Himself will shine upon them.

A dream, you may say, John’s dream. But just as Joseph’s dream was God’s dream and just had to become reality, John’s dream or vision is God’s dream and it will happen – nothing can stop it. The Devil will do his utmost – particularly by attempting to stop us believing in the dream – but nothing can stop it. The purposes of God will be fulfilled; His will will be done. So, take strength and courage from that – strength and courage that will keep you going on your journey.

Of course, the funny thing about the beginning of the story of Joseph is that God isn’t mentioned once, and yet we know that He is there. We know that, unseen, His hand is very much on the situation, because it is His dream that must be fulfilled. And, today, God isn’t always recognised as we look around us, we don’t often hear Him mentioned; yet His hand is very much upon our situations, very much active in the world, bringing that vision of a new heaven and a new earth, a new heavenly city, to fruition.

Let’s trust in Him to do that and let us be the dreamers who share our dreams with a sceptical and sometimes punishing world.

Amen.

The Bigger Picture: Joseph 1

Joseph 1: ‘A Dysfunctional Family’
(preached April 18th, 2010)

This morning, we’re returning to our look at the bigger picture of the Bible after a break for Easter. Over the next year or so, we are going sequentially through God’s written word, The Bible, to get a clearer idea of His purposes for creation and of the story of His people.

For a while now, we have been working through the Book of Genesis, and, before Easter, we reached the account of how Abraham and Sarah were blessed with the birth of a son named Isaac. I want us to move on now to look at the family of Abraham’s grandson, Jacob; and, over the next few weeks, we’ll be focussing very specifically on how it was that Jacob’s son, Joseph, was used by God to save his family.

But, this morning, I want to start by taking a look at why, for so long, they were such a seriously dysfunctional family. And a seriously dysfunctional family they were! After all, it’s not every family in which one son is so highly favoured by his father that his brothers – born of several different mothers – attack him, sell him into slavery and then deceive their father into believing that he has been killed by a wild animal.

And yet I think the behaviour of the brothers isn’t just a one-off situation, but has its roots much earlier in the family history, even in the life of the man who is regarded with such reverence by Jewish and Christian people – Abraham!

Abraham’s deceit

No sooner had Abraham first received the call from God to leave his own country and begun the journey to a new home than there was a great famine in the region – a famine so severe that he had no choice but to go with Sarah to Egypt, where there would be food available. There’s only one problem: Abraham fears that, when they get there, the Egyptians will find Sarah so attractive that someone will do away with him in order to marry his wife. So Abraham instructs Sarah to tell the Egyptians that she is his sister, not his wife, so that they’ll treat him well and not kill him.

Later, in chapter 20, we find out that Sarah actually is Abraham’s half-sister – the daughter of his father, but not of his mother – so it isn’t a total lie, but it is a deception; and, as a result of that deception, Pharaoh takes Sarah as his wife and brings judgement upon himself and his household, before sending her and Abraham out of the country.

And, later, just before Isaac is conceived, unbelievably Abraham pulls the same trick again, when he and Sarah arrive at a place called Gerar, a city-state in the south-western corner of Canaan. This time it is the ruler of Gerar, Abimelech, who is deceived and takes Sarah to be his wife, only to be warned by God to give her back to Abraham. When he does so, disaster for himself and his household is avoided.

So, in spite of the reverence with which he is later held – just remember what Hebrews says about him – we see that Abraham is not a flawless individual, but is prepared to use deception to save his own skin, even when it means the dishonouring of his wife. And yet he is still used powerfully by God, he is still God’s chosen.

Isaac’s deceit

Then, we take a look at Isaac, his son, and see that he too deceived the people of Gerar. Like his father, he went to escape a famine and decided that the only way he would remain safe would be by telling everyone that his beautiful wife, Rebekah, was his sister. Can you believe it? He committed the same offence as his father, through deception he risked his beloved wife’s dignity and honour for the sake of his own safety. Of course, it is impossible to put ourselves into the shoes of Abraham or Isaac – they lived in a completely different culture and faced such circumstances as we are unlikely to face – so mustn’t be judgmental, but can you see how the moral legacy of the parents is often inherited by their children.

Of course, the moral legacy that Isaac inherited from Abraham was generally an excellent one, but we’ve seen that he, too, resorted to deception for his own purposes. And when we look at the story of one of his sons, Jacob, it would appear that the propensity to deceive was passed on to him, too. Let’s briefly take a look at how that was evident in Jacob’s life.

Jacob’s deceit

Jacob was born one of twins – his twin brother was Esau. The Bible tells us that they were very active in their mother’s womb and, while Esau was born first, Jacob came out, clutching the heel of his brother. Esau was so named, because right from birth he was very hairy (and, in Hebrew, that’s what ‘Esau’ means). ‘Jacob’, on the other hand, means ‘heel’ in Hebrew – but please note that it can also mean ‘deceiver’! How very apt.

As is common with siblings, there was occasionally tension between the two brothers. For example, once when elder brother Esau returned from a hunting expedition, feeling tired and very hungry, he demanded some of the stew that younger brother Jacob was cooking. But Jacob would only give him some, if he in return passed his birthright as the eldest son over to Jacob. A tricky customer was this Jacob.

Then years later, as blind Isaac is wondering how long he has to live, he announces his intention to pass his special blessing on to his favourite son, Esau. However, when she hears this, his wife Rebekah helps Jacob, her favourite son, to receive that blessing instead. With his mother’s assistance, Jacob tricks his father into thinking that he himself is Esau and, in so doing, he cheats his brother of the blessing that is rightfully his. Egged on by his mother, he lives up to that other meaning of his name, “The Deceiver” – so, you see, the legacy has again been passed on.

Later, when Jacob seeks a wife and falls in love with Rachel, his cousin, and works hard for seven years to win her hand in marriage, he himself is tricked by Laban, his uncle, and unwittingly marries Leah, Rachel’s elder sister, instead. In order to marry Rachel as well, he has to pledge to work for Laban for a further seven years. And so the Deceiver has been successfully deceived by another member of his family.

The deceit doesn’t end there, either. Fast forward some years and we see that, when their sister Dinah is raped by Shechem the Hivite, Jacob’s sons use trickery and deceit to exact their terrible revenge upon the Hivite people – you can read about that particular episode in Genesis, chapter 34.

This has been a very rapid review of 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis and, of course, I’ve only highlighted incidents of deception. I’m not in any way suggesting that this family were truly awful people – they weren’t at all – in fact, quite the opposite, because they were the chosen people of God and God doesn’t make mistakes in His choices. But our brief review of Genesis does reveal that there was a family tendency to resort to deceit in times of trouble – a tendency which will again be apparent as we study the story of Joseph in weeks to come.

Application

So, what lessons do we take from all this?

Well, some Christians speak of something they call ‘generational sin’ – sin which is passed down spiritually from parents to children, from one generation to another, thus bringing successive generations under God’s judgment. They point to scriptures like Exodus 34:6-7, where it says:

And God passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, "The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation."

Now, I’m not sure that the Bible is suggesting that the sins of the fathers are passed down to their children in some sort of spiritual way, so that the children are punished for the sins of their parents; but, even today, we can see how sins and problems are passed on from one generation to another.

For example, it has been shown that the children of alcoholic parents are more likely to become alcoholics themselves; that the children of those who are involved in criminal activity often get drawn into it themselves; and that children who grow up with domestic violence are more likely to engage in it themselves in adult life. Of course, these are generalisations and there are plenty of children who don’t go on to become alcoholics, or criminals, or use domestic violence, even if their parents did.

But, undeniably, sin that is left unchecked and problems that are left unaddressed have a tendency to become entrenched and more likely to be passed down the generations to the detriment of all. The chain needs to be broken and I believe the Church of Jesus Christ can play an important role in breaking it. We can do that by connecting with families (both parents and children) and listening to their concerns and their problems, giving them space to share. We can do that by offering appropriate support when possible – for instance, by running parenting courses and marriage courses – and by pointing them in the direction of other agencies that might be able to help them. We can also do that by praying for specific families and for family life in general; and, of course, by being vigilant. Groups like Tots ‘n’ Toddlers, Girls’ Brigade, and Messy Church are really significant in doing these things, as, of course, is Barn-a-B’s Pre-School.

But the most important and significant thing we can do for any family or any individual locked into sin is to introduce them to Jesus, because when someone comes to Christ the chain of sin is broken. The Apostle Peter writes in his first letter:

“For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom He paid was not mere gold or silver. It was the precious blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.”

Christ came to break the power of sin that bound us and, through His death and resurrection, all those who welcome Him as Lord are set free. You know, the most important, the most beautiful, the most liberating thing that we can ever do for families is to share with them the Good News of Jesus Christ.

As we come around the communion table again this morning, let us commit ourselves as individual Christians and as a church fellowship to helping others address the problem of sin in their lives and to introducing them to Christ the liberator.

Amen.