God's Providence Through Joseph - [Genesis 37-50]

Well, it is my pleasure to introduce our guest speaker this morning Dr. Russell Fuller from Southern Seminary is a teacher with a pastoral heart

He's a professor of Hebrew and of Old Testament in Louisville, Kentucky And for those of you who were with us for Sunday school

You know that he is one who loves the Lord loves the truth and is one who will stand for the truth in a day of compromise on behalf of Bethlehem Bible Church Dr.

Fuller, we're thankful to have you with us and We look forward to you opening up the scriptures for us this morning.

Please come Well, it is good to be with you this morning and I want to thank the pastor for the invitation to come and minister to His congregation today.

I appreciate this opportunity and it's good to see The church so full this morning. This is absolutely excellent.

Good to be here as I mentioned this morning I'm from the Deep South. Someone's already mentioned. I Don't speak like I'm from the

Deep South My sister got the family blessing. I didn't get it if you were to listen to her this morning

You would know where she's from People think I'm from the Midwest and still

I start talking like y 'all and things like that Especially if you saw my diet things like grits and collard greens if you saw that you would know where I'm really from but It's always good to be up here in Massachusetts and It's always good to see the beautiful countryside that's up here

Well this morning if you would turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 37 Genesis 37

When you look at the Word of God and Look at its contents You'll notice that most of the scriptures are written in the form of a story

Of a narrative it's not as if it's just like a textbook of Teaching or theology where it's just giving you propositional statements one right after the other it's not that way at all most of it is written in a story form and For good reason we remember stories stories stick in our mind and If you put certain lessons with stories

That is a particularly helpful thing a good illustration for instance in a sermon is something that if done properly

That when you remember the illustration You'll also remember the spiritual truth that was supposedly conveyed by that story and obviously the

Bible was written at a time when there was no printing presses and so forth and Many people would just memorize large sections of Scripture and Memorize these stories and of course stories are gripping

I mean as we read the story we can put ourselves in the place of the characters we can sympathize with them

Now sometimes we read the Bible and we read Certain characters, and we read them as almost like they're super Saints and so we sometimes read it and go well

No, they're different than me. You know they're in the Bible They're a super saying of some type and that doesn't quite apply to me

But if you read very closely you'll see wait a minute and these people have many of the same problems we have

They have many of the same difficulties in their lives as we have in our lives some of the same problems in our family

Hey, that's the problem. We have right there, and so as you read the Word of God and as you read these stories

You'll find out wait a minute these people are not so much super Saints And you read about a man named

Samson for instance you go that guy's no super Saints and not at all is he a saint You see and so when we look at the stories of Scripture We can really sympathize with who they are and we can rejoice or mourn with their outcomes

And indeed as we read it there are many lessons for us to learn One of my favorite

Bible stories is the story of Joseph There's much here of course Joseph was the great -grandson of Abraham The 11th son of Jacob and as We look here in chapter 37 the story of Joseph begins and of course he is the youngest he's the baby of the family and He's treated differently

Now of course there is something a little different than any of our families here today And that is that in this day there was polygamy and with polygamy of course that caused even extra tensions in the home and As we read here, we'll see that there was a lot of jealousy about Joseph And of course

Joseph didn't help himself out too much There was a lot of jealousy toward him and instead of understanding that now

He would go around and tattletale on his brothers and by doing that of course that led to a lot of hatred to him

Directed against him and a lot of problems, so let's look here at Genesis 37 Now Jacob dwelled in the land where his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan and this is the story of or the generation of Jacob Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brothers and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah his father's wives and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father so He's already the father's favorite

But to go ahead and go a step further He's bringing a bad report in verse 3 of course tells us that Israel Loved Joseph more than all of his children because he was the son of his old age

It was almost like a grandchild to him and so therefore obviously he probably spoiled him in many ways he also made him a tunic of many colors and When his brother saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers

They hated him and they could not speak peaceably to him so there was a great amount of tension here in the home and The tension was so great that they could not speak to him in any way

But harshly now they could not speak kindly to him. I cannot speak peaceably to him in any way But when there was a conversation between them it was always it had an edge to it at all times

And in verse 5 and Joseph dreamed a dream and He told it to his brothers and they hated him even more

God gave him a dream And of course in the dream and it's going to be described in just a second

It is something that really irritates his brothers even more because now

Our young brother is going to be over us. He's gonna rule over us and we're gonna bow down to him

Not on your life, you know and not only we're gonna bow down to him But my father and my mother are gonna bow down to him

You've got to be kidding me. And so you can see in verse 6. He says to them, please hear this dream, which

I've dreamt There we were binding sheaves in the field then behold my sheave arose and also stood upright and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf and His brother said to him

Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion over us?

So they hated him even more with his dreams and for his words I'm sure he couldn't wait to relate that dream to them.

And As soon as he did, of course more trouble and then in verse 90 dreams another dream and he knew the last dream made them

Upset. Well, how about another one? Sure. Why not? Look, I've dreamed another dream and this time the

Sun the moon and the eleven stars bow down to me So he told it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him.

What is this dream that you've dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you and his brothers?

Envied him but his father kept the matter in his heart And so even the father is concerned about the relationship between the brothers

He is Upset that Joseph is saying these things and he's upsetting them. And so as the story goes on, of course one day the brothers are off and are

With the sheep and he tells Joseph go see about the brothers see about their welfare. Make sure everything is okay

And when they go to when he goes to see his brothers and see if they're okay Of course, you know the brothers see him from afar and immediately come up with a plan they see that coat of many colors coming and Immediately their minds

Start thinking we've got to do something about this guy. We've heard enough from him in his dreams

And when they saw that coach, you know that had to be like fingernails on a chalkboard to them as soon as they saw that you know there comes daddy's favorite and we're gonna do something about it and Indeed they decide to do so at first they decide let's kill him

Let's just go ahead and do away with him, but the older brother who would be probably most responsible

Reuben Says wait a minute as he realizes he dies. They murder him father's coming after him

So he makes a decision to say hey wait a minute. We better not do that. Why don't we just throw him in a pit? Then we can leave and things will you know take course naturally

Maybe an animal will get him there won't be any of my fingerprints on this and we'll get by just fine

But then Judah thinks a little bit more and says wait a minute We can make a buck on this here comes a traveling caravan.

This will really get us out of any problem We'll sell him into slavery Send him on his way

And he'll be no longer a problem to us. And of course, that's exactly what happens So if you'll turn over to chapter 39 now

Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh Captain of the guard an

Egyptian bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there The Lord was with Joseph You read that statement and from from our perspective as readers we read that and we go

Right, no problem. But if you put yourself in Joseph's position, what would you think about that statement?

You've just been sold by your own flesh and blood you've been sold by your own brothers into slavery and If we were to walk up to Joseph right at that point and say don't worry

Joseph. God is with you. Can you imagine? What Joseph might say to you? He would not be too happy with that statement.

What do you mean? God is with me How can you say that I'm in I'm in slavery right now.

How can God be with me? But it says in verse 2 the

Lord was with him and he was a successful man and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian and his master saw that the

Lord was with him and That the Lord made all He did to prosper in his hand now obviously

Potiphar is not a Christian he's not a

God fear He's not someone who fears the Lord, but he can look at Joseph and he can immediately tell

God is with this man You know, I think it's important that the unsaved world out there can look at one of us and say you know

What God is with them? It's very important that the loss can see that about us and only by having following the

Word of God Can people really see the Spirit of God working in us? And as they see that I hope they can see exactly what this man saw verse 4 so Joseph found favor in his sight and he served him then he made him overseer of his house and all that he had put under his authority and So it looks like I'm gonna have a happy ending right off the bat.

You know, everything is looking good. Yes. He's in slavery but yet He's being treated very well

But as the story continues, of course Potiphar's wife starts making improper advances and What the scripture says is that Joseph?

refused if you look down at Verse 8, but he refused

Now in the Jewish synagogues, they chant the scriptures Okay, like we had the scriptures read this morning

But the Jews what they would do and not you won't see this in all their congregations anymore, but especially the

Orthodox Jews They will Actually sing it or chant it

They'll chant scripture. And of course, that's a that's a great advantage because when you sing things

It's easy on the memory. You can memorize things very quickly through a song But when they get to this word, he refused it's it's really interesting to hear them sing it

Because it's it's a very odd Thing normally when they would sing this word only just about five times in the first five books of the

Bible Would they sing this word a certain way? They are so impressed with Joseph Here refusing her advances that they really make it long.

And so they say it's that's almost like this and he refused And they just keep going they just hold it and hold it and hold it

It takes them a good Minute for them to quit singing refused that one word because they're so impressed with this and indeed they should be

He does right? And when you do right good things always come your way, right?

No, not necessarily You can walk in the Word of God, but not necessarily will everything come out, right?

You know, it looked like a very fortunate incident To be in a man's house who's so powerful

Potiphar. He's described. You remember as the bodyguard You see the captain of the bodyguard the bodyguards were tough guys

Literally the word means slaughters Because if you mess with the king it was his job to go and whack you

Okay, that's what he was. He was a slaughter He's a person that if anybody gives the king trouble he's gonna take you out

This is a tough guy and though it looked like hey things are going well

I've done exactly what the Word of God told me to do and then look what happens She gets framed

She claims something happened that didn't happen. He is very upset and throws him into Jail and not just any jail, of course

This would be the prison where the king would keep his political enemies Those that he feels is the greatest threat to his kingdom

And therefore this prison would not exactly be a very pleasant place to be in it would be like a dungeon

It would be a terrible place to be but yet what does the scripture say after he's thrown into the prison?

It says in verse 21, but the Lord was with Joseph Would you believe that?

When you're in the slammer Would you say oh the Lord's with me? I don't think so.

I don't think so at all When you're in the slammer for doing right? You did what the

Lord said to do and now you find yourself in prison How can the

Lord be with such a person? Why is the Lord doing this you see? Sometimes I teach not only in this area and I'm finishing up teaching ten weeks in this area

But sometimes I teach in Manhattan and I have some students in New York And one time a student said hey, can

I talk to you? And I said, yeah, and he teaches in In the Bronx and a very difficult part and they're in New York City and he told me says, you know,

I See these children every day and I know what they're going through and at home.

It's horrible There's no such thing as a two -parent home there No such thing and the things that are going on in these homes are just terrible and the homes are in just terrible situations and The students see me and they know

I'm different and so they come to me and they ask me, you know what makes you different who are you and he'll tell him about the

Lord and It's rather controversial obviously to do that and he says listen if you're in my situation in my shoes seeing these lives

Destroyed every day and then they're asking you for help. What do you do?

He says I start telling them about the gospel because that's the only hope they have Because sin and atheism has destroyed

Homes all over this country and he says I see it every day. And so what can

I do? I'm supposed to teach math, but sometimes I just tell him about the Lord well, my principal found out about it and He's not very happy.

Matter of fact, he's extremely upset He's told me never to do it again But he says but I'm telling you if you're in my shoes and you see these children what they're going and when they tell me

The abuse they're getting at home and the different things What else can I say to them you see so he told him about the

Lord again and The principal found out and he told me he said pray for me because I think

I'm gonna lose my job And sure enough the next week he got fired And the principal said there's no worse thing you can do at my school and tell someone about the gospel

He says, you know had you abused a child? I About God, I cannot believe you would do such a thing

So when I fly back the next week, I said, how did it go? And he says I lost my job. I Did what

I thought I had to do These children were in tear. They're in terrible situations. I Had to tell him about Christ.

I could do nothing else and I've lost my job and we of course we prayed as a class and we prayed for him as individuals because Here's a guy who you can have nothing but respect he did the right thing

You know, he was told this is against the Constitution that you know all that stuff But yet in that desperate situation, he knew only the gospel and if it cost him his job it cost him his job we kept praying for him week after week and finally another school contacted him and said hey, would you

Be interested in teaching math at our school. He says well, okay And he said to me this he goes, you know,

I Thought about taking my resume and doing a few changes on there so they wouldn't see my

Christianity He says but you know, I realized that wouldn't be the right thing I'm just gonna keep it right on there that I'm an assistant pastor at this church over here and I'm gonna keep it on there

He says it cost me the job. It doesn't matter. I'm gonna do it and so he arrives and they start taking him around showing the different rooms and stuff and He's they say, you know, this is the math room here.

This is the physics room This is where the Christian Club meets and then he's like what? Yeah, that's where the

Christian Club meets and we want to talk to you about that in a moment But and then you know different things and then of course they sent him in a room and say, okay

Why did you lose your job? And he says I'll tell you why I lost my job These kids

I told him about the gospel and I couldn't do anything else I have to tell him and they said when can you start working for us?

we want you to head up the Christian Club at this place and Indeed, that's where he's teaching now and it's an amazing thing.

They let him tell the children about the gospel there Now things don't always work out like that in Joseph situation

It's gonna eventually get there, but it's going to be a long long time

God was with him again. If we'd have said that to Joseph at this point, he wouldn't see it. He would not see it

It says but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison and of course what happens is two important officials of Pharaoh the

Baker and the butler Don't think the Baker is some low individual.

The Baker is a very high office Just like don't think the Secretary of Defense is a small position.

He's not getting coffee tomorrow, you know It's a high position. We like humble titles for our leaders.

And so today, yeah, he's the Baker. All right But he's a high high government official very important.

And so is the butler they both get thrown into prison for something they did and they both have dreams and of course

Joseph tells them about their dreams and The Baker's listening to Joseph tell the good news to the butler and says hey,

I think I'll try that too Tells him his dream, but it works out different for him your head is going to be lifted up just like he said to the

Butler and I'm sure that had to excite him. Oh, my head is gonna be lifted up just like the butler Well, it's a little different.

It's gonna be lifted up off of your shoulders. Oh And so of course he is executed but the butler is restored to his position and Joseph sees this is his

Opportunity and he says remember me when you get to Pharaoh Remember me because I was thrown in jail for no good reason and Therefore remember me before Pharaoh and get me out of here

And of course he forgets for two years and when you really look at it when you add it up Joseph is in slavery for some 13 years and and these are not just Any old years.

This is from the age of 17 to the age of 30 Okay Now growing up I can remember my father

Talking about a certain baseball player and he says but you know He missed about five years of his career

Fighting in Korea or he had to put up numbers that were just absolutely Unbelievable and he was talking of course about a guy who played in town here

Ted Williams He'd always say to me he'd go five of his prime years.

It was like the late 20s I believe of his life that he missed because he wasn't entertaining the troops He was shooting people down from fighter jets, you know, and he goes all that was such a terrible thing

But when I read the story of Joseph We're not talking just about five years we're talking 13 years

And we're not talking about being able to fly an airplane. We're talking about slavery We're talking about being in dungeons and in this dirty stinking places you see for 13 years

Those are hard hard years on Joseph If you look in the Psalms it talks about it and it talks about the chains around his ankles and so forth

It was a bitter bitter existence for Joseph but of course Joseph is

Finally remembered by the butler and he tells Pharaoh about a man who can explain your dream for Pharaoh's having dreams

And these dreams are troubling him greatly of these cows prize -winning cows coming up But then these other cows very sickly coming up and devouring the prize -winning cows

But yet they remain sickly they remain weak and therefore to Pharaoh is something that disturbs him greatly and he wants the answer to this and so they finally remember about the

Situation with Joseph look at chapter 41 verse 9 Then the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh saying

I remember my sin this day When Pharaoh was angry with his servants

He put me in custody in the house of a captain the guard both me and the chief baker And then he goes on to tell about the dream

And so what they do is they look at verse 14 Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon

Shaved and change his clothes. Yeah, they were probably Stinking and terrible condition.

And so they basically clean him up very quickly and bring him before Pharaoh and in verse 16

So Joseph answered Pharaoh saying it is not in me Far be it from me.

It has nothing to do with me that I can understand your dream But as he says

God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace Listen, I can't give you the answer but God can and I believe he will and so indeed he explains it to him and so he's put in a very

Powerful position as the second person that Nothing is done in Egypt without Joseph's approval and when you get to chapter 41 verse 51

You can really see the pain of 13 years in Joseph watch what he says here in verse 51

Joseph called the name of his firstborn Manasseh For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father's house

The name Manasseh means he has caused to forget Meaning God has caused me to forget all my troubles and all of my father's house

There's these are years of bitterness these are very difficult years and yet what

Joseph is seeing here is God has caused me to forget all the pains that I had

All these things that have happened God is causing me to forget It's very important that God grants you the ability to forget things

We have memories and the memories are long and the memories can be very deep in our minds

But it's a pure grace of God that God can cause us to forget certain things

Notice what else and the name of his second he called Ephraim for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my

Affliction you see this was a land of affliction to him This was a land of great difficulty, but yet God has made me fruitful in this land

And that's what Ephraim means it has the idea of fruitfulness. God has caused me to be fruitful So you can see in the naming of his children

You can see how difficult and bitter the years are to him But yet God has allowed him to forget how very important that is well as the story goes on of course there's a famine that breaks out in the land and so Jacob sends the remaining sons down to Egypt in order to Buy Grain and they run into Joseph and of course

Joseph immediately recognizes and Joseph does whatever it takes to disguise himself, and he talks to them and he talks to them rather Roughly let's say and he accuses him of being spies in the land and so forth and when you read this you think aha

Joseph is now getting his Needed revenge you know he is now able to stick it to him

But if you read the whole account, I really don't think he's sticking it to them I think he's trying to find out all right.

Where are where is their heart now? Where are these cutthroats have they killed my father?

You know what else who else are they killed? I think he's trying to find out a lot about their hearts and by doing that he's jabbing away at them.

Yes. He is but look at verse 22 of chapter 42 42 22 and Reuben answered them saying did not not speak to you saying do not sin against the boy and You would not listen

Therefore his blood is now required of us It's amazing after they talked to Joseph. They'll know who he is

Of course they bowed down to him you know in fulfillment of the dream But do you see with the brothers their consciences on them at all times?

Everything that bad happens to them now They bring up Joseph every time something bad happens they go

Joseph Joseph, it's driving him crazy Every time something goes wrong.

They know why it goes wrong. It's Joseph. It's always Joseph You would not listen

Look at verse 28 So he said to his brothers my money has been restored and there it is in my sack

Then their hearts failed them and they were afraid saying to one another what is this that God has done?

What is God doing to us they know? They know exactly what God's doing to them when we do when we sin the

Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and Indeed, that's what's going on here and over and over again.

They can't get away from it We shouldn't have done this to him. Why did we do this and Of course what

Joseph says is I want to see your youngest brother you say you're not spies

We'll prove it. You told me about this younger brother. And of course that would be the brother of Joseph bring him down I want to see him.

I want to see if he's still alive Basically see if you've killed him yet And of course

Jacob will have nothing to do with that Jacob wants nothing to do with that He doesn't trust the brothers the last time

I sent a Joseph out with you See what happened not about to send Benjamin out as well

But then finally they become so hungry that they indeed do that And when you get to chapter 44 in verse 16

Then Judah said what shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak or how shall we clear ourselves?

God has found out the iniquity of your servants Here we are my lord servants both we and he also with whom the cup is found

So again, God has found out the iniquity Of your servants they can't get beyond it when bad things happen

Here we go and now it looks like a great disaster because it looks like Benjamin has stolen the cup of Joseph's and Whoever's bundle that cup is in it's going to be a slave to Joseph's and the brothers are very confident.

Oh, that's okay I know none of us would have done it. We're okay and sure enough when they open Benjamin's sack and there's the cup the brothers completely lose heart and they realize

God is against us We have sinned against our brother Joseph's and we're suffering greatly for it now well, look at verse 32 now chapter 44 and They're saying this for your servant became a surety or a guarantee for the lad to my father saying if you do not bring him

Back to to you if I do not bring you back bring him back to you Then I shall bear the blame before my father forever now therefore

Please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my lord and let the lad go up with his brothers

For how shall I go to my father if the lad is not with me? Lest perhaps

I see the evil that would come upon my father Joseph has been rough with his brothers, but he's seeing what their heart is all about and now he knows

Here's the brother. He's not been murdered Now he can see what they're saying

They think when they're talking to each other that Joseph cannot understand. They think he's speaking in a language that Joseph cannot understand but Joseph hears everything they're saying

When they talk about their sin and God is doing this to us because of our sin Joseph is hearing this.

He now knows of their heart. And so in chapter 45 verse 3 Joseph well, let's look at verse 1

Then Joseph could not restrain himself But before all those who stood by him and he cried out make everyone go out from me

You can tell this is not just vengeance or why would he be crying about things like this?

You see he's in tears over his brothers. He has a burden for them

He is not just wanting to stick it to him. There'd be no tears then There'd be nothing but joy at constantly putting it to them.

But no, it's not that at all. He is weeping for them Verse 2 and he wept aloud and the

Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard it Then Joseph said to his brothers. I am Joseph does my father still live?

But his brothers could not answer him They couldn't answer him. Do you remember before they couldn't talk to him peaceably?

Now they can't answer him at all Now they're totally quiet before it was every time they spoke to him.

It was something Negative something difficult. It was something evil

But now he speaks to them and they can't say a word For they were dismayed at his presence

Then Joseph said to his brothers Please come near to me. So they came near then he said to them

I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here

For God sent me before you to preserve life

For these two years of famine has been in the land and there were still five in which there will be neither plowing or harvesting and God sent me before you to preserve a

Prosperity for you and the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance

So now it was not you who sent me here But God and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and a lord of all of his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt Here's a man who humanly speaking has every right to be bitter and angry with his brothers forever

But you know what he does he looks at the situation and he says, you know what? This is

God It wasn't my brothers who really sent me here for those 13 years of affliction

It was God who did this God sent me here now. He's not saying.

Oh, don't worry. You have no blame. You're totally innocent You didn't sin. He didn't say that to them.

Oh No, and he'll later mention the fact that what they did was sinful but Joseph now

Recognizes what God is working in his life. He understands the reason for those 13 years of affliction

There's gonna be things that happen to us that some things we're gonna later realize why

God did this to us But I'm telling you there'll be other times. We won't know why God did something to us.

We'll have no idea But I tell you what you can see right here it was God who did it

And when we understand that God is in control of things. He's even in control of evil people

He's even in control of Satan when we recognize that we can understand that everything that happens to us

Even right now when we leave this afternoon tomorrow at work or whatever. We're under the merciful hand of God and Whatever happens

God is going to send you where you're supposed to go tomorrow and what happens to you tomorrow

It's not that God doesn't know or doesn't know he certainly does and he is there to be with you

Even during the most difficult of times and what's very difficult for us is when we're going through years of affliction

How about 13 years of slavery and to see that God was truly with us?

That takes what? faith That takes a tremendous amount of faith and that's exactly what

Joseph has he has the eyes of faith And with the eyes of faith he can see it wasn't you that sent me here

But it was God who did it and I can see why he did it to preserve the life of our family and so forth

And so indeed he reveals himself Jacob of course comes down But after a while, of course

Jacob dies and his brothers are afraid maybe now Joseph will exact his revenge as long as Father Jacob was alive

Was one thing but now our father is dead. Will Joseph now take his revenge?

And so if he would turn to chapter 50 and you can see they went to dear old dad

You see asking him. Hey help us against Joseph. We don't know Maybe he's just acting this way and when you die, we're done.

Who knows? Who's the person sort of tatted telling, you know, tattling now to dad now you see it's the brothers

But when you go to verse 19, it says Joseph said to them do not be afraid For I am

I in the place of God. I do not stand in God's place. It is not me

To judge you for your sins in the sense of revenge God you are accountable to him for your sins.

Not to me. Oh, yeah, you did me wrong He makes it very clear, but he says look I am

NOT in the place of God to exact my vengeance But as for you You meant evil against me.

There is no doubt what you did was wrong and it was evil But God meant it for good in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive

God can use evil You know, this is a sin curse world and God when he works he can he uses sin as part of his now again

He's not trying to get people to sin or anything like that But as God works in our lives God's going to have to work with sin as well.

This is a sin curse world there's no getting around that and Therefore he says look you meant your deed was meant as an evil

But God meant your evil and turned it to good Indeed, it's an important thing that we remember that when people do evil against us that God has the ability

To turn it to our good and that we do not set in the place of God and that indeed

That we can have trust in him. This is real trust think of David Many times

David had the opportunity to kill Saul and even those around David would say hey look

God has put Saul right there in your hands if you kill him You've got every right

God has allowed you to do this But what would David do? No, I Will not touch the

Lord's anointed. I'm not gonna do it God can take care of Saul in his own time.

I'm not going to do it that takes a Tremendous amount of faith. I mean an enormous amount of faith to do that To not take things into our own hands and to leave things in the hands of God Takes a tremendous amount of faith.

If you want to see a person with great faith It's a person who instead of doing vengeance instead of getting back at someone is one who will say the

Lord Is in charge of these things. I leave it to him and notice one other thing in verse 21 now therefore do not be afraid

I will provide for you and your little ones and He comforted them and look at this.

He spoke kindly to them The brothers were only able to speak evil to him

But now because of the grace of God worked in his heart where God has allowed him to forget the evil of his brothers and now

Joseph through faith is able to see the hand of God at work in his life Now by the grace of God, he is able to speak kindly to his brothers

What a marvelous thing what a marvelous work of grace of God May God grant to all of us that he will grant us the ability to forget certain things

Not only that to see God's greater glory and everything that he does in our life that we might speak kindly

To all those around us who've done us wrong. Let us pray Father how we thank you for your word and what it teaches

Lord. We would ask and pray that you would give us such faith That regardless of what happens to us in the future

That you would give us such grace That we can love those who persecute us that we can pray for those who persecute us

And we can pray and love those who do evil against us Give us such eyes of faith that we can always see that you're at work

May we trust you in the difficult days and may we look to you and again