Transcript Document

Presentation 54
Presentation 54
Introduction
The story of Joseph reveals God's remarkable control over circumstances
and his ability to bring good out of what, on the surface, appears to be far
from good for us. We find it hard to believe that God can take the dark
threads of circumstance and from them weave something of eternal value
and glory. The story of Joseph encourages us to believe that he can!
Further encouragement can be drawn from the fact that
Joseph’s story unfolds within the context of family
tension and conflict. We often mistakenly think that
our faith would be stronger, or the quality of our
service for God more thoroughgoing, if only our
family circumstances were different.
The life of Joseph encourage
us to think otherwise.
Presentation 54
Introduction
The life of Joseph is remarkable. He is hardly mentioned in the N.T. and yet
more has been written about him than about any other O.T. character. He is
one of a few men in scripture about whom nothing bad is written. Whenever
Joseph speaks, he almost always makes some reference to God. Joseph's life
experience spanned the social spectrum of the ancient world.
In his 110 years he had known what it was to be; a future
heir of a wealthy Jewish Patriarch, a slave in an Egyptian
household, a prisoner in a notorious dungeon and the
prime minister of a world superpower. He was abused
and he was exalted. But in whatever state we find
Joseph, God is always uppermost in his thoughts
and his confidence in God's goodness and
faithfulness remains unshaken.
Presentation 54
Introduction
As we consider Joseph’s life, there are a number of areas that repay careful
examination. The first is in the field of typology. There are in the O.T. black
and white pictures, which foreshadow the Technicolor revelation found in the
N.T.
Joseph’s life has been viewed as a character, who foreshadows the person of
Christ. One commentator has traced 101 parallels between the life of Joseph
and the life of Jesus. One suggests that the life of Joseph is a type of ‘the
pathway of Christ and his work’, from lowliness to exaltation, from slavery to
liberty, from suffering to glory!
Presentation 54
Introduction
Joseph is also an encouragement to those, who have enrolled in Christ’s
school of discipleship. His steadfast trust in God and determination to do
what is right is an example to us all. Joseph did not subscribe to the dictum,
'When in Rome do what the Romans do'. He did not camouflage his faith in
order to embrace an alien worship system. He never compromised.
He never complained. God was always the chief
and determining reality in his life.
One commentator writes,
“From the example of this dreamer, who became a
doer we may learn how: To overcome envy, To face
adversity, To resist illicit sexual advances, To plan for
the future, To forgive those who wrong us, To dispel
doubts about forgiveness, To have faith in God's
promises, To recognise the sovereignty of God,
even in the wrongs done to us by others”.
Presentation 54
Introduction
A study of Joseph’s life provides an illuminating glimpse into the marvellous
providence of God. Joseph's story, perhaps more than any other in the Bible,
demonstrates God's remarkable control over every circumstance of our lives.
We see God’s ability to order good out of, what on the surface appears to be,
evil. There are times in our lives, when all we appear to be able
to see are dark threatening threads!
We find it hard to believe that God really can take
those threads in his hands and from them
produce something glorious. The story of
Joseph encourages us to believe in
the astonishing and beneficial
providence of God.
Presentation 54
The Significance of Joseph
The words 'this is the account of Jacob’ in 37.2 introduce a new division in
the Genesis story. Chap 36 traces the family development of Jacob’s brother
Esau. It describes the great Edomite nation. And only
after this account of great wealth, status and power
do we find the story of a young 17 year old, who
was having a rough time at home.
Given the choice, where would you choose to live?
In the palaces of great kings or in a family marked
by great tensions?
Before you answer, 'Give me a palace any day,'
note that it was not in the palaces of the
Edomites but in a dysfunctional family
that God’s purpose of redemption
was to take a great leap forward.
Presentation 54
The Significance of Joseph
God does not normally work through the great and the mighty cf 1 Cor. 1.26:
“Brothers, think of what you were when you more called. Not many of you
were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of
noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise;
God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the
lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not
to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him”.
God works through the most ordinary and unlikely individuals, for then, both
they and others, are more likely to recognise the hand of God at work.
Presentation 54
The Significance of Joseph
Why did Joseph possess a greater spirituality than his brothers? Did he ask
his father to recount his own spiritual experiences with God? Think of what
Jacob could have shared; the story of God’s ladder, the special covenant
promises God had made, God’s protection in situations of real danger, and
of course the momentous evening at the River Jabbok, when God wrestled
Jacob into submission.
Did hearing of these experiences help shape Joseph’s
life of faith?
In the final analysis of course it was God,
who opened Joseph's heart and drew
him to himself. But God uses ‘means’
like the faith experiences of others
to impress young formative lives.
Presentation 54
The Significance of Joseph
This should encourage parents to talk openly and unashamedly of their
experience of God. Tell your children how God has been at work in your life.
Too often parents neglect to do so and instead hope that something ‘will
happen’ to their children in Sunday school, church or at a Christian youth
camp. It is as we share our hearts with our children that they can begin to
understand, what motivates our love for God.
Jacob was far from being a perfect parent. He had favourites, 'Now Israel
loved Joseph more than any of his other sons‘ v3. What made Joseph special?
He was Rachel's child. Jacob had children by four women, only one of whom
he loved. Rachael was that woman and that made Joseph, her son, special.
Presentation 54
The Significance of Joseph
The fact that Jacob had a favourite is all the more disturbing given that Jacob
had himself felt isolated, devalued and unloved by his father Isaac. You will
remember that Isaac had loved Esau and had little time for Jacob. Had Jacob
forgotten the personal heartache, which that had caused him? He of all
people should have decided, "I will never place any of my children in that
position”.
But Jacob, like so many of us, failed to learn from past
personal experience. Some have suggested that
Jacob's favouritism was justifiable in the light
of the behaviour of his other sons towards
the Shechemites. But the text makes it
clear that this was not the reason
for his discrimination.
Presentation 54
The Significance of Joseph
Jacob made the situation worse by making Joseph, what is described as 'a
richly ornamented robe.' The Hebrew allows for the possibility of a robe
that extended down to the ankles and wrists unlike those worn by working
men. Does this adequately explain the intensity of the brother’s anger?
It was not simply that Joseph’s clothes came from Harrods.
That would have been bad enough but this ‘robe’ gave
Joseph ‘manager status’ over his brothers. A position
normally reserved for the eldest son! Reuben’s
behaviour, sleeping with his father’s concubine,
Gen. 35v22, had deprived him not only his
father's favour but of his birthright.
These rights had been transferred to Joseph, and
his robe was a constant reminder of that fact!
Presentation 54
The Significance of Joseph
From Jn. 4v5, which records the famous meeting between Jesus and the
Samaritan woman at the well, we learn that the well was situated near a plot
of ground that Jacob gifted to his son Joseph. This was the only piece of land
Jacob ever owned! Giving it to Joseph was another way of saying that he
intended Joseph to be his heir with all of the associated blessings. This in turn
throws a somewhat different light upon Gen. 37v2, which is sometimes used
to criticise Joseph as a talebearer.
But if he had been given a managerial role in the
family, then one of his responsibilities would
have been to report back to his father.
And so he was not so much a talebearer
as a truth teller.
Presentation 54
The Momentum of Sin
Joseph’s brothers were jealous. Jealousy is closely allied to resentment and
envy. James tells us: 'For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there
you find disorder and every evil practice’ Jas. 3.16.
The root of the brothers’ envy is an angry resistance to the decrees of God.
For ultimately it is God who is responsible for the circumstances that
surround our lives, though he is not always
the author of them.
The brother’s envy reflects their resentment
towards God as their reaction to Joseph's
dreams make clear. Joseph’s dreams of brothers’
sheaves in the field bowing down to his sheaf
and of the stars, sun and moon bowing
down to Joseph, needed little interpretation.
Presentation 54
The Momentum of Sin
For all their spiritual immaturity the brothers recognised the significance of
these dreams. They believed that Joseph had done no more than reveal his
God-given destiny to rule over them. This is seen even more clearly in v20
"Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say
that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we see what comes of his
dreams." This reasoning showed they were not only attempting to alter
Joseph's destiny but that ultimately they were opposed to the purpose of
God.
This has searching application.
Whenever we are covetous or
envious of others we are in fact
saying to God, 'You have failed to
satisfy me you have not given me
all that I want'.
Presentation 54
The Momentum of Sin
Jacob's response to Joseph's dreams was quite different in v 11 we read
that, 'he kept the matter in his mind'. Jacob knew that God often worked in
ways that cut across the grain of natural expectation. Had God not done so
in choosing him instead of his elder brother? Was it really then so difficult
to believe that God might indeed have some significant purpose for his
young son?
That is the reaction of faith, which
results from a growing comprehension
of God's method of working.
Presentation 54
The Momentum of Sin
Some have questioned the wisdom of Joseph in sharing his dreams with his
family. Might it not have been better to have hidden these things in his heart
rather than provide additional fuel for his brothers’ resentment. He may have
been naïve but others believe that it was a God-given compunction that
caused him to make this divine revelation known. The brothers hated the
dreams as much as they hated Joseph for reporting them. This passage
reveals the frightening conflagration of sin. Smouldering jealousy, when it is
unchecked flames into hatred. Joseph, because he had been chosen by God
and secondly because he was different from his brothers [his godliness of life]
was fuel to their hatred.
Presentation 54
The Momentum of Sin
What does Jesus say in Jn. 15v18-19? ‘If the world hates you, keep in mind
that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its
own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world. That is why the world hates you.’
You will see that Jesus gives precisely the same
two reasons for the hatred that the church will
experience at the hands of others. Hatred for
being different and hatred for being chosen.
If you are different from the ungodly
men and women around you in the
workplace or in your neighbourhood and only God's grace can make you
different - then expect to be objects
of hatred!
Presentation 54
Conclusion
The brothers failed to deal with jealousy and envy and so it grew into hatred
before developing into attempted murder. There is an awful momentum in
the out of control rollercoaster of sin. If the brakes are not applied, then it
can propel us into behaviour that later causes us to ask,
'Was I really responsible for that?'
If you react to Joseph’s brothers’ behaviour by
raising your hands in horror asking,
'How could Joseph’s brother's treat him
in this way?'
then remember that the same
potential lies in all our hearts.
Presentation 54
Conclusion
That knowledge alone should cause us to cry to God for the grace of
contentment and for a willingness to run the race that he has marked out
for us rather than look enviously around at what he asks of others.
This is the antidote to much of the misery experienced by so many. We
need ‘Christian blinkers’ that will enable us to keep in the lane that God has
marked out for us and so complete the race to the best of our ability.
Presentation 54