Ruler of the Roundhouse

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 39:11-23

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Well, this morning we look to complete chapter 39 together. I won't be present next week.
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I'll be at a seminar in Michigan, and we look forward to having Brian Labossiere come and preach from Lamentations 3 this coming
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Sunday. So please greet him heartily. Be on your best behavior while I'm away.
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But we hope to complete this chapter, and we'll begin in two weeks in chapter 40, and really where the narrative begins to take off.
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As we complete chapter 39 this morning, I really have three goals, and that'll form really the structure of our time.
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First, I kind of want to consider just the text itself, what we just read, just looking at what unfolds and maybe some of the details within these verses.
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But then we also want to take a brief amount of time to consider the text theologically.
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Specifically, we've been seeing how Joseph is a placeholder, a foreshadowing, what we've said is a type of the
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Lord Jesus Christ. And as we look at the details of the narrative, they're filled with enigmatic meaning and symbolic richness that points us to the gospel of our
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Lord. And then we also want to give room for some practical application. So we left
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Joseph in verse 10 last week. So it was as she, that's
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Potiphar's wife, spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her.
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We left Joseph in verse 10 day by day, resisting the allure, the call, the temptation of Potiphar's wife.
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It was a daily assault, and daily, Joseph resisted it. Daily, we can imagine,
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Joseph prayed throughout the day, Lord, deliver me. Lord, help me. Help me to stand.
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Help me to flee. Help me not to succumb. Please turn her away.
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Please move in her life, change her heart. Turn her ways from my ways. But as we take up in verse 11, the whole situation escalates.
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It happened about this time, maybe within a matter of days, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, lie with me.
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But he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. That last sentence there, he fled and ran outside, it's almost redundant, and the whole construction is emphasizing the fact that he jetted out of there.
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He bolted out of that situation. It would be interesting to think through thousands of years where this story has been recounted, how often has this been the model of fleeing from temptation?
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That the Christians to have a Usain Bolt -like instinct to flee from sin.
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Joseph's robe is caught in her grasp. I don't have time to recount it, but there's some beautiful structure in the use of the word hand in Hebrew, yad, throughout this whole chapter.
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All that's given into Joseph's hand by Potiphar, and then really the hand of Potiphar's wife putting
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Joseph in this predicament, but then God's hand being upon him in prison. There's beautiful symmetry and poetry in the chapter.
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Practically speaking, Joseph's robe has been caught. Often, outer garment translated as robe or cloak, and it's stripped away, so he's left with the inner garment.
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He's not running out in his birthday suit, so to speak. It would be the equivalent today of running out in one's boxers.
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It's embarrassing nonetheless. All of a sudden, he's running through the halls of Potiphar's house in his boxers, completely vulnerable.
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He thought through, I need to get out of here, but he didn't have time to think through, what am I going to do next?
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Joseph saw, as John Calvin points out, that he had to choose the immediate danger of losing his character and his life, and he chose to sacrifice his character and even prepare to give over his life rather than to be guilty of wickedness before God.
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That was his instinct. That was his knee -jerk response. I don't know what's gonna happen.
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I'm gonna be running through in my boxers, and I'm probably gonna be caught and executed, but that would be better than to do this wickedness before my
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God. That's the kind of character, that's the kind of righteousness that Joseph has.
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And Calvin, in applying this, says, to this we must bend all of our efforts, that we have regard for God alone.
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No one will prove that he loves righteousness, but the one who, being content that God is his only witness, living before the face of God, quorum deo, he does not hesitate to submit to any disgrace rather than decline from the path of God.
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He will not hesitate to submit to any disgrace, running through Potiphar's house in your boxers, not knowing what's gonna come next, rather than depart from God's righteousness.
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Let no one say, when he is tempted, I'm tempted by God, because God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone,
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James tells us. Potiphar's wife, calling out day by day, tempting
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Joseph, was in the control of God, as we'll see, but it was not caused by God.
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It was not directly, as first cause, brought about by God. He himself does not tempt anyone.
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This is an important theological truth, that we never impugn to God the temptations that we face or that we must resist.
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And Scripture says, not only does God himself not tempt anyone, though the temptations and troubles and sins of this life are under his dominion and sway, not only does
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God never himself tempt anyone, the apostle Paul goes on to explain, God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.
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That's how powerful he is over the temptation that he does not himself cause in anyone's life, and yet he has power to restrain the evil that is bringing about his redemptive purpose in this fallen world.
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And he will not allow his people to be tempted beyond what they are able to bear. But, with the temptation, he provides a way of escape.
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We could not catch up with Joseph, having gone to bed with Potiphar's wife, and say, what happened?
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Well, day by day I resisted. Day by day I resisted. You don't know how much I prayed.
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But God was not faithful to me. I prayed for deliverance, and she laid a hold on me, and what could
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I do? He never provided a way of escape for me. He tempted me beyond what I was able to bear.
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I tried. We read of fallen ministers with that claim.
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We read their accusations against God. And the difference is this.
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Sometimes the way of escape is quite literally a way of escape. The way of escape for Joseph was literally running away with no plan.
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And that was better than to do something wicked in God's sight. That was the way of escape for Joseph.
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And so it's important that we understand God Himself is not bringing temptation, but in the temptations that we face,
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God is not giving us more than we're able to bear, though it always feels like more than we're able to bear.
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And with the temptation He allows in our lives, He's providing a way of escape. And sometimes that way of escape is not easy and convenient and comfortable.
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Sometimes it's chaotic and drastic, and you don't know what's coming next. And so the same faith that causes you to resist and flee is the same faith that will see
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God's hand of providence controlling you as you flee. And that's what we see in chapter 39.
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Joseph literally runs away, his robe, his garment, in Potiphar's wife's grasp.
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We're told elsewhere by Paul, resist the devil and he will flee from you. In this case, resist
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Potiphar's wife and she's coming after you. She immediately calls out to the men of the house.
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She's still holding his robe. Verse 14, she called to the men of her house and spoke to them saying, see, he has brought into us a
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Hebrew to mock us. Oh, where did that come from? We'll get back to that in a moment. He came into me to lie with me and I cried out with a loud voice.
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And it happened when he heard that I lifted my voice and I cried out that he left his garment with me and fled and ran outside.
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Potiphar's wife, giving credit where credit is due. She's very clever. Joseph has to think on the spot and thinking on the spot for him is
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I just need to get out of here. Whatever the shame, whatever the embarrassment, I don't know what's coming next.
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I just got to get out of here. Garment, the garment in the hand, Potiphar's wife, it doesn't take her too long to realize
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I have a way out of this. Notice that as she calls, significant, two different verbs here, she calls to the men of the house and this is what she says to them.
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He has brought into us a Hebrew to mock us. He came in to lie with me. I cried out, it's a different verb.
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She called to the men of the house and she says to them, I cried out with a loud voice.
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Notice first when she calls the men of the house, these were servants, right, other servants, the servants that had been underneath Joseph and like Potiphar knew the character and the meekness and the integrity of Joseph.
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She calls them to herself and maybe the servants know as much about Joseph as a righteous, whole, solid man of God as they do know about Potiphar's wife's character.
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But she gathers them in and the first thing she says is see, he's brought into us a Hebrew to mock us.
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She does not say, Joseph, you know, the one that my husband put over you, Joseph, you know, the one that has brought blessing month after month and year after year that has enriched all of us and blessed all of our lives,
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Joseph. No, he's no longer Joseph, he's a Hebrew. The man that she had been infatuated with now, she distances herself from mentally.
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He's not Joseph, the one that she was obsessed with, he's just a Hebrew, not worthy of being named.
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This is moving her toward abstraction from guilt, right? She diminishes
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Joseph, she diminishes the victim of her sin, she abstracts her conscience from him.
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A Hebrew, I won't even name him. That's what sin does. Sin diminishes the consequence, diminishes the victims, it abstracts them.
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It's not worthy to be named. I'm not gonna think through what I've caused or what I've brought about.
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That's the effect of sin. And we'll see it again in a few verses.
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Notice that another fruit of sin, blame shifting.
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What's the first thing she says when she calls these men to her? He has brought us a
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Hebrew to mock us. What are you talking about? She's talking about her husband. She's talking about Potiphar.
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She's completely shifting the blame toward him. Do you see whose fault this is? It's not mine calling after him day by day.
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It was my husband. Lord, it was the spouse you gave me. That's why this has come about.
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The verb mock here doesn't simply mean teasing. He brought in a Hebrew to tease us.
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It should be probably understood as humiliate. Elsewhere, it's translated humble.
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It's almost always used in the context of sexual assault or rape.
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And so it fits it here. He brought in a Hebrew to humiliate. So it's taking on almost a double entendre to make a ridicule out of us.
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But the euphemism there is also sexual assault. Notice what she's doing.
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First, in sin, she's abstracting her guilt, dissociating from her victim. She's also shifting the blame toward her husband.
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She's not really ultimately responsible for any of this. Her conscience is now becoming dead.
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It's no longer sensitive to what lies ahead. She's protecting herself and protecting her reputation where Joseph is literally in his boxers because he's willing to sacrifice his reputation so long as he can be righteous before God's sight.
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She calls the men of the house, and now what is she doing? She's coaching them. Remember that I'm saying this to you.
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Remember to say this when my husband comes home. She's leading their testimony.
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She's planting a corroboration into their minds. And that's the significance of these two different verbs.
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She calls for the servants to come, and then she tells them, I cried out, and that's when
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Joseph ran. That's when the Hebrew ran from me. Well, when she called them, they heard her and they came.
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But just sitting here and listening to this they're saying, wait, wait, wait, I'm sorry. We heard you call for us and we came.
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But you're saying that you cried out? We never heard that. We never heard you cry out.
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She's coaching them. You need to understand that you may not have heard this, but this really did happen. So they heard the call but not the cry.
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And among the men of the house, none of them seeks justice. They must have all been cowed under the authority and the threat of Potiphar's wife, their servants.
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What can a servant do? Unfortunately, there's not another among them like Joseph who would stand up for justice and truth no matter what it cost him.
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Unfortunately, there's not, if you've ever read the play of 12 Angry Men, or maybe watched the film, there's no
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Henry Fonda character that stands up and overturns the other servants. No, no, that's not what happened.
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Let's be clear with evidence. Let's be clear. Let two or three witnesses be gathered. If justice had been sought, they would have said,
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Master, all we heard was when she called for us. We never heard anything else. This is, ironically,
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Joseph's Me Too moment. This is Joseph's Me Too moment.
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It's ironic, isn't it, that part of the Me Too movement in our popular culture, which is meant to be a reckoning for sexual abuse and sexual assault in almost every facet of society where men have not been kept in bounds, and certainly some of that is warranted.
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If you go to the cesspool of Hollywood, you shouldn't be surprised that there's gonna be all sorts of filth and corruption, and it's a part of that.
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But at the same time, we're not excusing sin. But it's interesting that there's been a banner statement attached to the
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Me Too movement in our society, which is what? Believe all women. Remember Kamala Harris saying, back when she was running against Biden, well,
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I think we should believe all women. Well, now you're the VP. Interesting. Believe all women.
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And I think as Christians, we need to say, no, believe the truth as it is established with clear testimony.
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Let it be by the word of two or three witnesses. Let there be justice. And if you're pressed back on that, maybe you open up Genesis 39 and say, this is what believe all women might get you.
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We believe the truth. Now, it's interesting. People think somehow they're more just than God.
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We're rectifying the wrongs that even God's word and Christian influence has brought to bear on our society, right?
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The idea of overturning the patriarchal dominance that has allowed there to be such abuse and assault to the most vulnerable.
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And it's interesting, when we go to God's laws to Israel, that's not the case at all. This is Me Too before there ever was a
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Me Too in Deuteronomy 22. Beginning in verse 22, just to kind of summarize, the idea is if there's a case where a man and a woman have been caught, there's been some sexual act between them.
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And maybe it's just been discovered after the fact. If it happened in the remote rural part, if it happened in the country, the idea there's not being a lot of people that could have heard a cry.
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It says, if you catch the man and the woman and it was in the country where no cry is heard, you kill the man, right?
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The man's dealt with. If it happens in the city and there's no cry, then they're both punished.
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The key here is the man is never assumed innocent. It's just whether in the country or in the city, the man takes the punishment.
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But the Bible would rather assume in the integrity of truth that it's better to allow a sin to go unpunished in this life and trust the just judgment to God in the life to come, rather than in this life, assign someone guilt who may be innocent.
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And that's the difference between the crying out that may not be heard in the countryside versus the crying out in the city.
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And that's how God instructs His people to deal with these kinds of situations. Deuteronomy 22 would have a lot to say in this situation in Genesis 39.
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The basic principle is, something that has been established in our own country, though it's rarely practiced as it ought to be, especially in the days of social media, the presumption of innocence.
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You're innocent until it's established, until it's proven that you are guilty. And as Christians, we need to be very careful looking at Genesis 39 with open eyes that we don't join in to the bloodthirsty mob's cries for justice, which is not really justice.
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That we allow presumption and a quest for the truth to be established with biblical order in biblical ways.
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Joseph receives no justice. Potiphar does not come in and say,
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I need to be clear, I want to have a timeline, I want to have direct testimony from each one of you men in the house.
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I want to hear Joseph and his side of the story and your side of the story, and my wife's side of the story. I need to sort all of this out and let it be established.
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He doesn't do that at all. The coaching works. Potiphar's wife goes to him and he becomes enraged.
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It must have grieved Joseph to the core that he had worked so hard for so long.
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He'd been a decade in this household and his whole life had been open to blessing and serving his master.
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He had lived his life with integrity. And now this lie clings to him, this filth.
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All of that diligence, all of that loyalty, a decade of working hard to bless and provide for his master, all of that is thrown entirely out of the window.
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His character, his reputation completely smeared. And the most amazing thing about it is he doesn't protest as far as the text is concerned.
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He doesn't protest, he doesn't outrage, he doesn't create some great groundswell of movement.
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He remains silent. He submits to the injustice. Very significant typologically as we'll see.
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What we see here, brothers and sisters, is sometimes there's a price to be paid for resisting temptation.
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Sometimes there's a price to be paid to resist sin. We have to have the kind of faith in God that says,
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I don't know how this will all work out and it seems so unfair, so unjust, and so painfully difficult, but I know that God will vindicate me.
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And so I plant myself on His side, in His truth. I entrust myself to His care.
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How shall I fear man? What shall man do to me? We have to have that kind of integrity and faith if we want to see
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God's good and God's glory in our lives. Notice in verse 17 when she finally speaks to her husband,
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Moses summarizes with words like these. You get the sense that she was just rattling off so much that what could
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Potiphar do? He, like the servants, he, like everyone in that house, had to sort of buckle under the oppressive weight of her words.
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And she says to her husband, the Hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to mock me.
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Shameless. Potiphar's wife repeats the same story. She embellishes it even more.
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And notice now that Joseph is not just a Hebrew, but he's denigrated even further. The Hebrew slave.
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The Hebrew slave, right? Not the one that you put over our whole household who's become a decade of blessing and wealth and prosperity to us, but that Hebrew slave.
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What was his name again? Her cruelty is not only evident in these words, but it's even more evident in the consequence of what her words would lead to.
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She knows as she's giving this false testimony, it's a death sentence for Joseph. She knows in claiming, he assaulted me, he tried to rape me.
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It's a death sentence for Joseph. And perhaps that's why she doesn't name him.
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She not only debases him, she disassociates him, she dehumanizes him.
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He's just a slave, he's just our property. We can hand him over to death, it will be okay. The cruel coldness of sin.
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Diminishment, dissociation, dehumanization. You see it all around us with the terminology shifts in the whole pro -life.
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Notice how pro -life disappeared these past few years? There's no pro -life anymore, is there? It's anti -abortion.
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As if abortion is imbued with some virtue. The dehumanization of sin.
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Notice that not only has her denigration of Joseph intensified, her blame shifting. She says to her husband, the
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Hebrew slave that you brought to us came into me. It's Genesis three all over again.
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You're as much to blame as I am. If anything, this is your fault. You allowed this to happen.
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You brought him into us. And her language is so ironic. She's speaking of their household as if she's trying to protect it.
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You brought him into us. Look what you jeopardized. You almost ruined us. There is no us.
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She was the one actively destroying the household. Day after day, calling out to Joseph.
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We read in verse 19, when Potiphar heard these things, his anger was aroused.
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We read of no plea, no defense, no counterclaim. No one rises to Joseph's defense.
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What can Joseph do? He may have been over the household for many years, but at the end of the day, he was still just a
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Hebrew slave. A Hebrew slave in ancient Egypt can't call up the Better Business Bureau and file a formal complaint.
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A Hebrew slave has to submit to the sufferings of these pagan rulers who have authority over him.
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The interesting thing in this text, in verse 19, is it does not say that Potiphar's anger was aroused toward Joseph.
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Perhaps he knew, and perhaps he could see faintly through his wife's rattled words, this just does not add up.
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Maybe week by week, he noticed how his wife looked so longingly toward Joseph, how she sought time to be with him.
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Maybe he was adding some pieces together, and he looked at Joseph's character. He looked at the repugnance he showed toward those beckons and that flirtation.
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And maybe he just knew something that doesn't add up here. But he's not willing to risk his own reputation, his own marriage, all the prosperity of his household.
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And perhaps this is why Joseph is not executed. Remember that Potiphar is the butcher.
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He's the captain of the guard tasked uniquely with execution. This is a death sentence.
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And for some reason, this butcher is unwilling to slaughter the so -called victim.
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Perhaps also this explains why Joseph is shown favor in prison. I'll get to that in just a moment.
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But I want to point this out. Derek Kidner says, death was the only penalty Joseph could reasonably expect.
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His reprieve presumably owed much to all of the years of respect he had won. And Potiphar's wrath was mingled with restraint, which may reflect a misgiving about the accuracy of the charges against him.
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In other words, maybe even Potiphar is becoming wise to the issue.
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But it does not prevent him from clearing, from vindicating the innocence of Joseph. So verse 20,
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Joseph's master took him, put him in the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in the prison.
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You notice the emphasis, the prison, the prisoners, the prison. In Hebrew, the term prison is literally house of roundness, which may mean that it was a citadel or a part of a fortress in ancient
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Egypt. Other ancient writers think it may have been a sort of circular pit. And there would have been an opening that let light in.
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And that's what the prisoners were thrown into. And it was sort of a pit, something like maybe Daniel would have experienced in his own way.
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And I like to term it the roundhouse. It's kind of literally what it is. It's the roundhouse, symbolic of the place of suffering, the place of what seems like injustice, outside of God's control, outside of God's plan.
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It's a place of deep pain. It's a trial. That's the roundhouse. Most likely, this roundhouse is underneath the house that Joseph had been a servant in for all these years.
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It seems to have been attached to Potiphar's property. When we turn to Genesis 40, beginning in verse 3, where the baker and the butcher are brought in, we read, he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard.
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Who's the captain of the guard? It's Potiphar. In the prison, in the very place where Joseph was confined, so the place where Joseph is confined is the prison, the roundhouse, which is in the house of the captain of the guard, of the butcher, of Potiphar.
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So basically, Joseph goes from the top of the house to the basement, from the very top of prosperity and authority in the house, directly under his master, over all things in the house, to the dungeon of the house, where the criminals and the slaves are awaiting their sentences.
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We can see that though there was mercy and Joseph's life was spared, that initially, he did have to suffer.
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We don't have that in Genesis 39, but we have it in Psalm 105. There in Psalm 105, we open the service with some of that, the call to seek the face of God.
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And we're given these examples of what God has done and what we can expect as we seek the face of God.
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Beginning in verse 17, God sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave.
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They, now this is not connected with him being a slave. This is connected with what follows.
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They hurt his feet with fetters. He was laid in irons until the time his word came to pass.
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The word of the Lord tested him. So when he's cast into this dungeon, he's bound in fetters, he's laid in irons, and he's there until the word of the
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Lord comes to pass. He's there suffering in the roundhouse as the word of the
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Lord is testing him. That's what the psalmist says. The Lord is testing him.
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So we see again, brothers and sisters, we do not flee from temptation just because it has an immediate and automatic payoff.
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I could give in to this temporary passing pleasure, but if I just hold out immediately, the next day in my mailbox will be the greatest thing.
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What we see here is sometimes when you flee from temptation and you pursue righteousness, the reward is far from apparent.
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Sometimes the pursuit of righteousness leads to more suffering, more trial, because the
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Lord is now testing. He's testing the blessing and the work, the integrity of what
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He's been building and planting and cultivating in our lives. And we have to, as the psalmist is saying, so seek the face of God that whatever it may cost us, we will stand in His way, because it is our delight to please
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Him. And if righteousness in our lives pleases God, then we will face whatever consequences may come to live a righteous and godly life.
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We're not living for the rewards, the blessings, the splendors, the positions, the status, all that Joseph had.
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He willingly threw all of that away that he might serve God and be a delight toward his
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God. How few there are today who are willing to do the same.
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How few there are today who are willing to do the same. Temptation is blind to the future.
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Temptation is urgent immediacy. Have the fruit now. Listen to her voice now. Go into her room now.
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Do this thing now. You need this. You want this. You deserve this. This is good for you. Your mind is completely blank.
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It's forced down like horse blinders. You can only see what's in front of you. You will not look ahead. How could
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I do this? Look where I am. Look where I've been. What will this affect? I will lose all of this. How could I do this in God's sight?
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Everything that works through Joseph's mind. His eyes are fixed on what God had promised him.
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He has a long -term view. Sin and temptation force you into the immediate.
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There is no view of future consequence. There is no view of future hope.
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Joseph was concerned not only about the future consequences. He was living with a future hope.
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Even all these years, he had not forgotten what the Lord had shown him.
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Your brothers will come and bow before you. You will be the heir of the family.
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The line, that faithful line. Though the serpent slowly made its way into the garden to bring destruction and ruin into this world,
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God was working out of that garden in a line with a seed that would crush that destruction, crush that rebellion.
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And Joseph, you will be the heir of that line. He had not forgotten. Even though Joseph is in the roundhouse, his eyes are fixed on a future hope.
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And because his eyes are fixed on a future hope, verse 21, God showed him mercy.
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God gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Here's Joseph.
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He's forced into the Egyptian federal penitentiary. Orange jumpsuit and all.
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Humiliated. The talk of the town, oh, there's that rapist. I hope he gets what's coming to him.
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Talk about depressing circumstances. But Joseph's not looking at the immediate.
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His eyes are fixed on what's ahead. And so what does he do? He recognizes that God is as sovereign here in this prison cell as He was when
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I was at the top of Potiphar's household. If God is sovereign there, He's sovereign here. If God has authority to bless there,
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He has authority to bless here. And in spite of all of the depression and despair, all of the temptation to doubt the righteous way of God, is it worth it?
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Is it worth it? Will I be that well -watered tree if I avoid the way of the wicked and walk in the way of the righteous?
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Was it worth it? I don't feel like a well -watered tree. But instead,
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Joseph humbles himself. He's a meek man. And he serves
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God and says, God, even here will You bless me. Even here will You walk with me. He works with what's in front of him.
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And even the Egyptian jailer notices, right? God so moves in the heart of the jailer that even the jailer can't deny.
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Never seen a prisoner like this. Joseph doesn't exude these things naturally.
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V. 21 makes it crystal clear. This is not some one -off of humanity where Joseph is all of a sudden to have these things at his disposal.
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This is a result of receiving something from God. What does V. 21 say? God showed him mercy.
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He received mercy from God. God was with him.
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He received the presence of God. And this was not only sufficient grace that was surrounding his life.
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God gave him, I think, a gift of faith to work diligently unto the
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Lord and wait upon Him while he was in this roundhouse of suffering. And brothers and sisters, all of that is open to you as a believer in the
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Lord Jesus today. All of it. God's presence is promised to you.
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God's mercy is promised to you. Brian had a blank slate to preach next week.
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And he's preaching from Lamentations 3 .23. His mercies renew every morning. That's promised to you.
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His presence, His mercy, a gift of faith that will cause you to persevere. All of these blessings are given to believers in whatever time of trial or trouble they may face.
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When you are in the roundhouse, and maybe here this morning, you are in a roundhouse of sorts.
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If you are trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, God's presence and God's mercy will attend to you. The Lord was with Joseph.
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That's the most marvelous statement. We can't miss it. It's emphasized again and again four times in chapter 39.
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The Lord was with Joseph. Wasn't with the brothers back home in the land of promise.
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Wasn't with Potiphar who said I just need to get back to square one here and hopefully my blessings don't begin to disintegrate now that Joseph's not in charge.
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No, the Lord's not in any of those places so much as He is with Joseph. And as Bruce Waltke points out, the
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Lord was with Joseph in Potiphar's house, but He was also with Joseph in the prison. Joseph's circumstances changed dramatically.
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But God's presence with him didn't change. It doesn't matter what pinnacle you arrive at or what depth you fall to.
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If you are in the Lord Jesus, His presence is with you. Do you remember
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Acts 16? When Paul and Silas are put in the Philippian jail cell? And what do they do?
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Probably a lot like Joseph. I don't know. That was a waste.
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You know, as soon as I get out of here, I'm done with this. I've wasted my life. What are they doing when they're in the jail cell?
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They're singing. Singing hymns. They're singing hymns to God in their own roundhouse, as it were.
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That's the difference the Lord's presence makes. Notice, brothers and sisters, that there's no space here for the false teaching of health and wealth.
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There's no room for this false prosperity teaching that is blinding so many around the world today. Please, please, please notice that God did not remove suffering from the life of Joseph, but rather was with Joseph as he suffered.
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That's the difference. He does not always remove the thorns that find their way into our lives, and sometimes quite literally into our bodies, so much as He promises
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His presence and His mercy to attend to us. He is faithful and He will do this good work in our lives.
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Have you grasped that truth, not only with your minds, but with your heart? That God's presence is with you and that presence makes all of the difference.
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Is it something you know on the paper as you're looking at it on your lap, or is it something you know in the experience of your life?
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Can you say, with Joseph, with Paul, with Silas, with Bunyan, with Rutherford, the
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Lord is with me. And what difference does that make?
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For Joseph, it was all the difference in the world. It was the difference between persevering or buckling.
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It was the difference between standing or folding. It was the difference between victory or defeat. That's the difference between the presence of God or the lack of it.
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Moses' writing to the Israelites and the presence of the God is so significant in the book of Exodus.
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In chapter 3, God's presence in the same way promised to be with Moses. In chapter 14, going before the
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Israelites. In chapter 33, again, all of the attendance to Moses. I'll be with you.
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The Lord was with him, we read in verse 23. So much so that the jailer, just like Potiphar, soon had nothing to do in the prison system.
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Everything was entrusted to Joseph, the prisoner. Somehow the prisoner became the warden, as it were.
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The jailer so entrusted him, and anyone's not gonna escape, it's gonna be Joseph.
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If anyone's gonna take care and do things diligently and seek after justice and make for peace and work out all of these needs and situations, it's going to be
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Joseph. Why? Because the Lord is with him. The Lord is prospering him. So the Lord not only is with him in his presence, showing him mercy, but he's also giving influence, giving authority, even as he's trying his servant.
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His servant is prospering with authority and influence. Please, please hear that.
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Even as God is trying, painfully trying his servants, he's giving them influence and authority.
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I dare say it's because he's trying them painfully that they have authority and influence.
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On the one hand, we own what Psalm 105, verse 18 says, the word of the
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Lord tested him. On the other hand, we look at Acts 7 and Stephen's testimony, and he says, the patriarchs sold
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Joseph into Egypt, but God was with him, right? That's not lost to Stephen. God was with him and delivered him out of all of his troubles.
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Tony prayed it, right? Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but God delivered him out of them all.
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God delivered Joseph out of all of his troubles. So the Lord is testing him, but the Lord is delivering him.
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That's the experience of trial, isn't it? God is testing me, but God is delivering me.
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God is oppressing me, but God is showing me mercy. You read the
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Puritans, and they had this balance between these two poles, as it were, as we face trials.
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I was reading of a Puritan, I read so many this week,
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I can't quite remember which one it was, but it was from his journal, and he was talking about his wife, and they had just recently buried a child, and his wife fell sick, and it turned out to be her deathbed, and in his journal, he said, the
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Lord's hand has laid heavy upon her. Recognize, it's the
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Lord's hand. It's the Lord's roundhouse. His hand has laid heavy upon her.
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But it was that same hand that was blessing and upholding them, that same hand that was showing them mercy.
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It may be that the dungeon master and the jailer and Potiphar and the cruelty of Potiphar's wife, maybe all of that was ultimately how
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Joseph is suffering and struggling in this little prison, but God is the ruler of the roundhouse.
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God is the ruler of the roundhouse. Let's consider this briefly from typology.
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I want to move through these quickly because I don't want to miss application, but there's some important images that we have here that point us toward the gospel testimony.
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First of all, we know that Joseph was envied and hated by his own brothers, but he was also persecuted, as we see in this chapter, by Gentiles.
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Like Jesus, who was cast aside by his own brothers, but persecuted by Gentiles. We see in Potiphar a man a lot like Pontius Pilate.
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Has an inkling that this man is innocent, but he's not willing to fight to clear him, to vindicate him, he's actually willing to hand him over, as it were, to death.
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We see that as a result of that injustice, knowing the storyline of Joseph and what this will all lead to, and knowing the storyline of our
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Lord Jesus, this very act of injustice of delivering them over to the sentence will actually be the means by which all of these persecutors will be spared.
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All of them will be saved. Both the Gentiles and also the brothers that are now reconciled to the one that they had persecuted.
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We see in Joseph, and in the silence of Genesis 39, that like Jesus, when he was reviled, he reviled not.
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Like a sheep before its shearers is silence, so he opened not his mouth. He didn't know if he would be spared or executed, but he was silent and he held his peace.
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We see that Joseph's temptation foreshadowed the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, the constant call to turn aside that he resisted faithfully as Jesus resisted faithfully, that call to temptation.
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And speaking of Adam, as we go back to Genesis 3, we can't help but see
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Adam and Eve. We already talked about the blame shifting that we saw with Potiphar's wife, but if that's not keying us into Genesis 3, there's even more.
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Notice, Joseph is given charge of everything in the household of his master.
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So here he is, as it were, in the abode, the household of his master, and Joseph is given authority over all of it, except the forbidden food, except for the food which he eats, which we said last week, that's a euphemism for his wife.
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So just like Adam, he's given charge over everything in the abode of his master, except for the forbidden food.
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But where Adam partook of that and blamed his spouse, Joseph does not partake and goes on to suffer.
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Adam went from being naked to becoming clothed, and that clothing was actually a sign of his guilt.
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You know, I got to cover up because now the dread of God has fallen upon my heart. I'm a sinner. But we see the very clothing that was a sign of Adam's guilt is stripped away.
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It becomes a sign of innocence for Joseph. The fact that he's been stripped is actually his innocence.
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Certainly that points us toward Jesus who is stripped from his garments as he's an innocent man upon the cross.
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We see God granting favor in the sight of this Egyptian jailer who had direct authority over Joseph.
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And it's a lot like the Roman centurion who had authority at the crucifixion. Like the
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Egyptian jailer, the Roman centurion said, truly, this was a righteous man. And we see that God's presence is with Joseph.
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And because God's presence uniquely resides upon Joseph, blessing results in Potiphar's household.
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But even as that blessedness is then thrust into that metaphorical death of the dungeon, when he's brought out of it, the result ends up being salvation for not just Egypt, but even as it were the
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Gentile lands surrounding Egypt. And so we see as a result of faithfulness, the suffering servant is as it were resurrected so that the blessing of Abraham would come upon the
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Gentile. And all of this he does for righteousness sake.
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Like Joseph, Jesus had been a favored son, and yet he became a Hebrew slave so that in the wisdom and the purpose of God, the world would be reconciled to him.
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Amen. That's the gospel in Genesis 39. Let's talk about some practical application.
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Throughout the whole storyline of Joseph, the key is really the providence of God.
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As we said, it intersects with wisdom literature, and so we're partly meant not only to read it as narrative, but to reflect upon the wisdom of God's providence and how that corresponds to our lives and our faithfulness.
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Joseph's whole storyline is putting in front of us God's providential control, his foreknowledge, his arrangement of all things that come to pass.
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As Paul says in the doxology of Romans 11, of him and through him and to him are all things.
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That really is a good verse to have behind the Joseph cycle. So what do we mean by the providence of God?
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It would be hard to improve upon the Heidelberg Catechism, one of the great catechisms of the Reformation where this question is asked,
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Lord's Day 10, what is meant by the providence of God? And here's the answer. The almighty and everywhere present power of God.
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Whereby, as it were by his hand, he upholds and governs heaven, earth, and all creatures, so that herbs and grass, rain and drought, what we sang about in that second hymn, fruitful and barren years, meat and drink, health and sickness, riches and poverty, yea, all things come, not by chance, but by his fatherly hand.
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Now, if you were English, you'd probably stop there. That was a good description, but the
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Heidelberg is written in a very intimate, personal kind of way. And so the next question says, so what does that actually mean to you?
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What advantage is it for us to know that God has created and by his providence still upholds all things?
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Why do you need to know this? Why do you need to take this away from Genesis 39?
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So that we may be patient in adversity, thankful in prosperity, and that in all things, whatever may befall us, we place our trust in our faithful God and Father, that nothing will ever separate us from his love, since everything is in his hand.
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And without his will, no creature can so much as move. That's why we need to know the providence of God.
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So let's take that into God's providence with trials. If you've come to God through faith in the
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Lord Jesus Christ, and you believe that your sins have been forgiven you because of his shed blood, and you're living as a result of that with a conscience clear before God and before man, you can, as Heidelberg says, place your firm trust in your faithful God and Father, knowing that nothing shall separate you from his love.
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All that befalls you in this life is from his fatherly hand. For he himself has said,
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Hebrews 13, five and six, I will never leave you, nor forsake you. We may boldly say, the
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Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me? Joseph knows that God is with him.
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And if God is with him, it does not matter who is against him or what he is up against.
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If God is with him, it doesn't matter how much in his life or in the prison cell is screaming no at him.
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If God is with him, he will stand by faith in the providence of God. Five points, five points of application about how we can be like Joseph in the roundhouse, in the place of trial.
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Five things that we need. First, we need faith in God's will. Faith in God's will.
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It is vital that we learn how to turn toward God's will and not away from God's will in a time of suffering.
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The temptation and the reel of the flesh is that when suffering comes, you're gonna be tempted to just mitigate that.
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Turn away from God's will. Do damage control. Can I just have some of this? Still wanna come to church, and I still, but I'm not ready to go full bore toward righteousness.
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When suffering comes, the clarion call is turn toward God's will, not away from God's will.
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Imagine if Joseph had turned away from God's will, and maybe that turning away was simply sitting in depression, not working, not eating, not really resting, but just being restless, never striving, having no belief and no witness toward God, thinking thoughts like, if this is how
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God is going to move in my life when I was actually trying hard to serve him, I'm not gonna waste any more of my life trying to serve him.
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What did Joseph had to do? He had to turn to God's will and cling to it. This makes no sense to me.
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Show me why you're against me. Show me why the wicked prosper, and your hand is laying heavy upon your servant.
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This makes no sense. How is this blessing to my life? Don't give me those trite answers to count it all joy.
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You're not in a prison cell. You're not in the roundhouse. You're not being afflicted like this. Joseph's not tempted to do any of that.
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He had to cling to God's will by faith, even though everything surrounding him was pressing against him saying no.
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The doctrine of God's providence calls us to surrender to God's will. Part of having faith in God's will is not turning away from it.
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Another part of it is therefore surrendering to it. Like you finally give up.
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It's like we're giving you a good clap. You went as far and as long as you could of resisting God's will.
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It's time to wave the white flag and just surrender. Okay, God, I don't know how you're gonna do this.
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I don't know what this is gonna look. This is painful to think about. My stomach is in knots. I don't want to do this. But I surrender.
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Just bless me and help me. Thomas Goodwin says, if God works all things according to the counsel of His own will, you should never lean on your own will, never on your own wisdom.
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Give yourself up fully to God. Suffering in trials brings this weakness into our faith.
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Not because we deny the sovereignty of God, but we believe the sovereignty of God and we doubt
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His relationship to us as a result of that. I know God is sovereign. I just don't know if I'm really
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His. Why would my life look like this? Maybe He's punishing me. Maybe those sins really weren't forgiven.
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Maybe I just didn't measure up. Maybe I just quenched and grieved Him and ran Him away. Maybe I re -crucified the
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Savior. You know that. But once He died for sins, it must just be that though He is sovereign in my life,
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Ichabod, the glory has departed. That's the temptation, isn't it? And this is why we're called to walk humbly with our
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God. Micah 6 .8. We pray painfully with Joseph, how can a dungeon be part of your plan to enthrone me?
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How can this roundhouse be part of your purpose to bless me? This is not blessing, this is pain.
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And so we walk humbly with our God. We don't recount on our circumstances so much as we recount
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His character. Everything that my God does, He does in wisdom, in righteousness, in goodness, out of love, from an abundance of mercy, all that He does will bless me and sustain me and uphold me, will never let me depart from Him, will never rock me out of His hand, even though it may be difficult to see how
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He is for me when everything in my life seems to say He's against me. Though He slay me, yet I will praise
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Him. Martin Luther had to reflect on this in his life often.
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He once said, were it not for tribulation, I would never understand the Scriptures. The Scriptures almost presuppose an afflicted people.
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So much of the body of Scripture is written to afflicted and troubled people.
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The lens by which we seek to understand our lives and seek to understand God's providence in our lives is to reflect upon the way that Scripture addresses us in our brokenness, in our need, in our sinfulness, in our stubbornness, in all of these ways.
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We see the fatherly hand of God, Hosea 5, in their affliction, they will seek me early. Was it
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Thomas Watson who said, in relation to prayer, a hungry man does not need to be taught how to beg.
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You have these Hollywood actors that are method actors and they spend eight months living in a homeless community in LA to pick up how they're gonna portray a homeless man.
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But they don't actually know what it's like to beg. It might be convincing for a moment.
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But there's something missing. Only a hungry man, only an afflicted man knows how to plead for God's presence and God's mercy.
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If a Christian cannot thank and praise God in suffering as well as in prosperity, he's not really a
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Christian. I think we have to look at Joseph and we have to look at the Lord Jesus and say, this is normative
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Christianity. To bless and praise our God in times of trouble and in times of abundance.
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So we need, first of all, we need faith in God's will. We need faith in God's will.
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Second, we need faith in God's preparation. Faith in God's preparation.
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The providence of God is unraveling toward redemption. It moves actively, dynamically, mysteriously, all in conforming us toward a greater role in advancing his kingdom, advancing his redemptive purpose.
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So no one can quickly and easily pronounce upon why God allows things and what he's doing in them, but we can say
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God in his wisdom is actively, dynamically addressing us in providence so that we will have greater roles and effectiveness and influence in the advance of his kingdom.
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It's God's preparation. With Joseph in the dungeon,
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God is actually actively, dynamically preparing him for greater responsibility ahead.
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It wasn't enough that for 10 years as the head of the household under Potiphar's command, he was learning the
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Egyptian language, Egyptian writing, Egyptian court manners.
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He was in many ways becoming an apprentice to the royal palace. All of that positively was part of God's preparation for what he would be called to.
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But as important, if not more important, is the roundhouse. Because Egyptian alphabets and Egyptian papyri is not ultimately more important than patience, perseverance, dependence, humility, meekness, integrity, solidity, all of the things that God is producing in the roundhouse.
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Jeremiah experienced something very similar. Remember the context of Jeremiah, the nations on the brink of Babylonian exile.
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Jeremiah has been called as a prophet to go and declare woe unto the nations. And of course, as he's calling them unto repentance to turn back to the
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Lord, they're resisting and rejecting and mocking him for his message. And by the time you get to chapter 12,
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Jeremiah is beginning to lament. It's what a Jeremiad is, right? A lamentation.
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And his complaint is the wicked are flourishing. And I'm here as a servant and I'm being humiliated.
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A word he uses, interestingly. And in chapter 12, verse 5,
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God shows how in His providence He is preparing Jeremiah for a greater role.
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If you have raced with men on foot and they've wearied you, how are you going to race against the horses? If you're in a safe land and you're so trusting, what will you do when you're in the thicket of the
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Jordan? You see, I'm preparing you. It's difficult, but if I don't do this work now and strengthen you, and my presence is more powerful in your life and you're more dependent and more humble before me, if you can't do that now when you're being wearied, how will you do it with what
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I have prepared for you? If you can't race with the men, how will you race with the horses? If you can't dwell in the farmland, how will you dwell in the jungle?
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I have greater work for you to do, Jeremiah. That's the kind of work that God does in His roundhouse.
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Some of you have had seasons, years of struggle. You need to understand.
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You need to have faith in God's preparation. I don't know why
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His hand has been so heavy upon me. It seems like every effort and every attempt is not reinforced or encouraged, but torn down.
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I don't understand why He's allowing this. I've examined myself. We've been addressing the things that seem to be apart from Him or out of His way.
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It's just not adding up. Have faith in God's preparation. He's preparing you for greater roles, greater responsibilities to His kingdom.
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We see that in Joseph's life. This was said not only of Joseph, it was also said of the
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Lord Jesus. Though He was a son, Hebrews 5, 7, yet He learned obedience through suffering.
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Though He was a son, He learned, interesting verb,
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He learned obedience by suffering. No servant is greater than his master.
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Guess how you and I learn obedience? Through suffering.
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God is crafting Joseph by His providence to reverberate all the way to the
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Gospels when all that providence in Joseph's life is seen as the great foreshadowing of Joseph's greater son.
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Joseph, in that sense, is being conformed to the Son by God's providence.
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And brothers and sisters, you and I are being conformed to the Son by God's providence.
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And so like that son and like Joseph, we must, through suffering, learn obedience.
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And why? For the greater role and the greater responsibilities that lay ahead.
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We need faith in God's preparation. Third, these are getting shorter now. Third, we need faith in God's task.
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Faith in God's task. Joseph didn't become lazy while he was in prison. He didn't say, well,
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I used to be tomp dog. All of this is beneath me now, so I'm done. Okay, I used to run a whole household.
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Now I'm running plastic trays and the Egyptian pen. But I'm gonna do that well.
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If that's the work that God has given me, then I'm going to do it well. Derek Kidner says, Joseph's abilities and integrity, crowned with the touch of God, were constant at every level.
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Whether he was a prisoner or governor, he was simply the same man. Isn't that amazing?
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The same integrity, the same diligence, the same work ethic, the same faithfulness.
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You could depend on him. He was stout, he was steadfast, he had a heart for the Lord, and it wasn't contingent upon his position or circumstance in his life.
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Whether he was at the bottom or at the top, in the dungeon or on the throne, he was the same man.
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Brothers, are you the same men? At church on a Sunday, at home on a
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Monday evening, at the workplace through the rest of the week, are you the same man? Joseph was the same man.
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Joseph never felt this demotion outside of God's providence, beneath Him.
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He could have sulked, he could have spent his time mourning about all that he had lost, but he said, okay, that was my task under God then, this is now my new task for the time being.
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I'm not ultimately Potiphar's servant, I'm God's servant. And whatever task he sees fit to put before me is the task
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I will work heartily unto. I serve the Lord Christ. He recognized, come what will of it, it was better for him to have a clean conscience and serve
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God with integrity and faith in a prison cell than to have compromise and slithered his way toward the king's table.
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Having faith in God's task means, no matter how difficult, however grating, however thorny, however irritating, you will be faithful in fulfilling it because you are a servant of God and this is the way you bring your master glory.
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It attracts His blessing, it reinforces your faith in Him. You need to have faith in God's task.
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Fourth, you need to have faith in God's blessing. Faith in God's blessing.
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The blessing is not always apparent. Having faith in God's blessing means you look beyond the immediate circumstances, you look for God's wisdom.
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Joseph would have had a lot of time to sit in that cell and consider how the trials that he had endured, even 10 years ago, had been steps in knowing more and more about God.
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It's interesting how God uses blessing. We're so familiar with the idea of blessing removed from suffering in the sort of modern evangelical church.
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We want crossless blessings, right? Blessings without sacrifice, blessings without pain.
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God rarely gives blessings in that way. He's abundant and He's gracious and He's good. He surrounds us with many good things.
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He certainly, like a good father, He loves and delights to give good things to His children, but the real blessings, the blessings that produce spiritual fruit in vast amounts and have effectiveness for His kingdom, those blessings are rarely given apart from sacrifice and suffering.
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I was reflecting on the Aaronic blessing. We often use it as a benediction from Numbers 26.
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And it just struck me how this blessing that God instructed Aaron and the priest to give upon the people.
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Literally, He says, this is what you will say when you put my name upon the people. When you take my divine name, threefold.
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In the stanzas, the quotas are beautifully arranged, three, five, seven lines. When you say my name, when you say the divine name, the
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Lord, capitals, Yahweh. When you put that name on the people so that those people will be blessed, this is what you will say.
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And it struck me that presupposed throughout Numbers 26 is that trial is almost assumed and the blessing that's placed upon them is answering the trial.
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And so God commands His priest to gather the people and the assumption is they've been tried, they've been afflicted, they're weary.
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And now it's time for them to be blessed. I can't, whenever I hear it,
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I have a vivid memory. So it was years ago before Dr. Gibson, who was a homiletics prof, he moved to Baylor University, Truett Seminary.
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But I did a week -long intensive and he was doing aspects of worship service in a pastoral ministry class.
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And on the last day, we got to the end of the worship service, the benediction. And he just kind of took that as the opportunity to conclude the class.
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And he stood before the class, a very genteel southern man. And he looked around the room, looked in all the eyes.
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And he stretched out his hands. I can just picture where I was and looking at him.
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Very composed, no wasted words, no ums ever. Never say um if you're a homiletics professor.
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And he stretched out his hands and he bowed his head. And tears began to stream down his face.
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He said, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
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The Lord turn his face to you and give you peace. What do you notice in those words?
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In the blessing of God? This is what I notice. The Lord bless you.
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You seem afflicted, but may the Lord bless you. You feel empty, may the
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Lord bless you. It seems wasted, it's not working, may the
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Lord bless you. Yes, but he's forsaken me, may he keep you. No, you don't understand,
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I've gone wayward. May he keep you. The Lord will keep you.
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Well, he's not keeping me because I'm in this pit, I'm in this roundhouse. My life's been dark. But his face will shine upon you.
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His face will shine upon you. But you don't understand.
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I know I'm in this pit, I'm guilty. I'm a sinner, I deserve more than this, at least this.
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And be gracious to you. But it seems like the
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Lord is against me. He's departed from me, he's turned his, no, he's turning his face to you to give you peace, wholeness, integrity, to take the fractured splinters of your life in this time of trial and recompose you to gather you up in his bosom.
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That's the Aaronic blessing. Amen. These are precious words.
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This is how God's name is to be placed upon his people. It's a weary and needy and afflicted people that come to these words.
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They're glowing with all that the cross means to us, that God can be gracious to us and turn his countenance toward us.
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It's a result of the cross of our Lord. Precious words. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we need to have faith in God's presence.
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Faith in God's presence. The point of the whole chapter is God is with Joseph, with Joseph, with Joseph, despite all of the outward circumstances, screaming no,
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God's presence and God's mercy are found in his life, and therefore, that presence means all of my
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God's promises are yes and amen. I don't know how, and I don't see how, but by faith,
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I recognize they are yes and amen. He is with me. More than anything,
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Joseph turned again and again to this refrain, the Lord was with Joseph.
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It's another stage, another pit, another time of trial, and Joseph is walking by faith, not walking by sight, and he's able to do this because God is with him.
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He's trusting the God of the trial. He's trusting the ruler of the roundhouse.
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Are you trusting the ruler of the roundhouse? The God who in his providence saw fit to cast you into it.
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Do you trust him? Brothers and sisters, as we close, we must have faith in the presence of God.
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Is God with us? Ahead, there are battles that we are going to have to fight.
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As Christians in this dark society, there are battles ahead that we will have to fight.
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Our children, maybe our children's children will have to fight. There are battles ahead, mockeries, travesties, injustices to be endured.
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Is God with us? Ahead of us, there are persecutors, deceivers.
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There are so many wives of Potiphar all around us, but is God with us? Ahead, there are roundhouses, trials, pits, persecutions, sufferings for anyone who's simply seeking to live a godly life.
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Is God with us? And with it, all ahead, there are greater responsibilities, greater roles, greater impact, greater effectiveness in God's kingdom, advancing through this fallen world, and beyond that, greater blessings untold.
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Is God with us? We need to have faith in God's presence.
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Let's pray. Father, may each one in this room know
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Your presence, know Your mercy. May You be with us.
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If there are some in this room, Lord, who find themselves in the roundhouse, in the place of trial, might
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You lift up and encourage their hearts even now. Use Your Word as You use Your Word to Joseph, though in a different form.
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Lord, may it be a future hope and a present help. May it be the means by which they walk by faith and not by sight, and a refuge as their hearts fill them.
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Lift us up, Lord. Turn Your face toward us. We pray, not only as individuals and as families, but as a church,
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Lord, turn Your countenance toward us. Give us peace. These things we ask in Your Son's name, amen.