Biblical Reconciliation

This sermon is from Grace Fellowship Church in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. To access other sermons or to learn more about us, please visit our website at graceedmonton .ca.

Joseph as a Picture of Biblical Reconciliation

This message will be a departure from our ongoing exposition of Mark. This message is going to be directed towards the children of the congregation in particular. However, my hope is that the adults will find it to be just as instructive, perhaps in different ways.

The story of Joseph is often one of the first narratives from Scripture told to children. But it has tremendous points of application for all of us, both practical and redemptive. The goal of this message will be to demonstrate that the story of Joseph is an example of biblical reconciliation.

And indeed, the story of Joseph foreshadows the ultimate reconciliation that is to come through Christ. But before we get to that, I'm going to tell a story. It's a fairly long one for the benefit of the children, and some of you may even be familiar with it.

Many years ago, there lived a group of 12 cowboy ranchers out west. Their ranch was called the Okidoki Corral. Now, their father, Papa Grape, had a favorite son, and his name was Little Joe. When Little Joe's birthday came around, Papa Grape gathered everyone around, made some birthday cake, and then presented Little Joe with a very special gift, a vest of many colors.

This made the rest of his brothers very jealous because they only received mittens for their birthdays, certainly not as valuable as a beautiful coat. And to make matters worse, after getting the coat, Little Joe decided to tell his brothers about a dream he had had the night before.

In Little Joe's dream, he saw 12 cactuses, or cacti I think, cacti I think they're called, in a field. And Little Joe saw 11 of the cacti bowing down in the desert before the 12th cactus. And his brothers knew what this meant.

They asked Little Joe, Whoa, does your dream mean that you'll rule over us like a king? Who do you think you are? But Papa Grape intervened to stop the brothers from fighting, as some of your parents may do.

After all, Papa Grape didn't want his sons to hate his blessed and favorite Little Joe over something as silly as a dream. However, his brothers were fed up with their father's favoritism towards Little Joe, and they planned to get rid of him for good.

So the next day, Little Joe's brothers took him out to an abandoned mine shaft, a deep, dark, and scary place. And one of his brothers, Judah, tells Little Joe that his birthday present is hidden somewhere inside the mine shaft.

So while Little Joe is standing in front of the mine shaft, squinting his eyes, trying to see in the dark, looking for the present in the shaft, his brothers push him from behind, and he tumbles into the pit.

As Little Joe is standing up, trying to collect himself, a rope drops down into the pit. He thinks he's saved, and he takes hold of it in the hope of being rescued. In fact, he thought a goat had pushed him off the edge of the pit.

He didn't assume that his brothers would have done that. But upon being pulled out of the hole by this rope, a group of bandits tie him up, gag him, and throw him on a wooden-wheeled horse. The bandits hand over some money to his brother Judah, and off they go with Little Joe.

He was sold to the bandits by his jealous brothers, who wanted to get rid of him. Now, Little Joe was taken away, and soon enough, he found himself in a place called Dodgeball City, being forced to work at the rootin' tootin' pizza place for the owner, Mr. McPotifar.

Now, Mr. McPotifar took a liking to Little Joe, and he even awarded him Employee of the Month. Now, Joe's performance was provoking the jealousy of the restaurant performer, Miss Kitty. In response, Miss Kitty decides to frame Little Joe for theft.

Because she knew that Little Joe was a man of integrity, she had to set him up. So Miss Kitty stuffed some of Mr. McPotifar's coins into the cow head that Little Joe had to wear every single day at work.

After Little Joe put his cow head on one day, he fell over due to the weight of the coins that were suddenly placed inside his headdress. Miss Kitty yells out in the middle of the restaurant, and accuses him of being a thief.

And just as she does that, Sheriff Bob stops by to see what the fuss is all about. Miss Kitty rips the cow head off of Little Joe's head, and all of the coins spill out onto the floor. Sheriff Bob looks at Mr. McPotifar in disbelief, and proceeds to take Little Joe to jail for theft.

While in jail, Little Joe meets two new friends, a baker and a blacksmith, former employees of Dodgeball City. The baker and the blacksmith start having crazy dreams in jail, and as it turns out, Little Joe has a special talent.

He can interpret dreams. The baker and the blacksmith ask Little Joe what their dreams mean, and he gives them both good news and bad news. As for the blacksmith, Little Joe predicts that he will be restored to his position of honor with the city of Dodgeball.

But as for the baker, Little Joe predicts that he will be removed from the city, sent away for his misdeeds. Sure enough, these very things come to pass, and the mayor of Dodgeball City himself pardons the blacksmith and restores him to his coveted position with the city, while the baker is sent upstream to a faraway land.

While Little Joe continues to suffer in jail, word comes to the mayor from the blacksmith that he has a special talent for interpreting dreams. So the mayor also needed assistance interpreting his dream, and he heard that Little Joe could do this, so he took Little Joe out of his spot in jail and told him about his dream.

Now, the mayor had a dream where seven fat cows stood on a hill before seven skinny cows came along and ate the fat cows, and this troubled him greatly. Little Joe tells the mayor that this means there will be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine, and Little Joe advises the mayor to stock up on food for the next seven years to prepare for the coming famine.

The mayor was very impressed with Little Joe's interpretive ability, so impressed, in fact, that he immediately put Little Joe in charge of the entire city. In a matter of moments, Little Joe went from a man who had been sold out by his brothers to a bunch of vagabond bandits, subjected to very hard work at the Rootin' Tootin' Pizza Place, framed by his employee, by a co-worker, for a theft he did not commit, to being the commander-in-chief of all of Dodgeball City.

The adults in the room may be somewhat jealous of Little Joe's accelerated career trajectory. I know I certainly am. After the seven years of plenty had passed, famine struck the land just as Little Joe predicted.

Little Joe's eleven brothers came down from the Okie-Dokie Corral looking to purchase food in Dodgeball City. His brother Judah approaches Little Joe on behalf of the whole family, and he doesn't even recognize Little Joe.

Many years have passed, and Little Joe is dressed in the uniforms associated with the leadership of Dodgeball City. His brothers never would have expected to find him in such a position, nor did they ever dream that the brother they sold to the bandits would actually rise to be the second-in-command of the entire city.

Looking for food, Judah pleads with Little Joe for assistance, because they don't have any food left at the Okie-Dokie Corral. Little Joe decides to put his brothers to the test. He's going to use this opportunity.

After giving them all some pizza to go, Little Joe stops them on their way out and grabs a pizza box from his youngest brother, Benjamin. He opens up the box and says, those aren't pepperonis. Little Joe tosses the pizza box on the ground, and coins fall out of the pizza where the pepperoni was supposed to be.

Little Joe accuses his brothers of attempting to steal money from Dodgeball City with the pizza that they had been given. So then, the story repeats itself and Sheriff Bob places Benjamin under arrest for theft and hauls him to jail, just like what happened to his brother.

Judah pleads with Little Joe to let Benjamin go, insisting that his little brother could never do anything like that, that he had been framed. In his desperation, Judah pleads with Little Joe to imprison him instead of Benjamin.

Judah, the same brother who led his brothers in their efforts to sell their brother off to the bandits, was now, years later, willing to take the punishment that was going to be inflicted upon his youngest brother, Benjamin.

Little Joe then asks his brothers whether they're willing to all sacrifice themselves for their brother, and they answer, yes. With Little Joe being satisfied of the renewed faithfulness of his brothers, he reveals himself, and his brothers gasp in terror.

Upon realizing that their brother is in charge of Dodgeball City, Judah pleads for Little Joe to forgive them for what they did to him. And Little Joe graciously forgives his brothers, reminding them that his time in Dodgeball City was used by God to save many people throughout the famine, including now his own brothers in need of food.

Now at that very moment, Papa Grape comes walking in, reminding the brothers that they forgot their mittens for the journey to Dodgeball City. And to his incredible surprise, he sees his beloved son, Little Joe, standing there with all of his brothers, and they rejoice together in celebration.

The family was back together, just as they were at the Okidoki Corral. What was once broken was mended, and relationships that had been fractured were reconciled. Little Joe's brothers were desperate to repent of their wrongdoing, and Little Joe was eager to forgive, for he saw what God had done with the situation.

While God's purposes for Little Joe may not have been evident when he was pushed into the mining shaft, nor when he was thrown in jail by the false accusation of his co-worker, they did become abundantly clear when he was put in charge of Dodgeball City and given authority even over his brothers.

Joseph, Genesis 37, and the Reconciliation of the Family

Now what does all this have to do with anything? Well, as some of you have probably realized, that was a retelling of the story of Joseph from VeggieTales, with a few changes for the sake of accuracy.

You can probably figure out who the characters represent. Little Joe represents Joseph, the favorite son of his father, Jacob, as played by Pop Grape, sold into slavery by his brothers in Genesis 37. While Little Joe may have gone to Dodgeball City, Joseph arguably went to a much, much darker place, ancient Egypt, ruled by Pharaoh.

Rather than being forced to work at the Rootin' Tootin' Pizza place, however, for Mr. Mick Potiphar, Joseph was a slave for Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guard, a very powerful man in the land of Egypt.

And rather than being framed by Miss Kitty, Joseph was framed by Potiphar's wife. In prison, Joseph went on to interpret the dreams of a baker and a cupbearer, and then his dream interpretations were sought out by Pharaoh himself, as played by the mayor of Dodgeball City.

Just as Little Joe was put in charge of the city, Pharaoh made Joseph governor of Egypt, after he predicted that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine in the land. Joseph was in charge of storing up the grain ahead of the coming famine, and his brothers came to Egypt from their home in Canaan.

Rather than giving them pizza, Joseph gave them grain. And rather than putting coins in a pepperoni pizza, Joseph ultimately tested his brothers by placing a silver cup in Benjamin's sack, which he proceeded to use to accuse them of stealing, as a test.

Just as Judah did in Dodgeball City, Judah pleaded with Joseph to let his little brother Benjamin, who had been framed for the theft of the silver cup, to let him go, offering to take the punishment in his place.

This satisfied Joseph of his brother's changed heart, and he revealed himself to his brothers. Upon revealing himself, Genesis 45 records that his brothers were terrified at his presence. Indeed, they were suffering under the weight of all that they had done to their brother, and fearful of what he could do to them with his newfound authority as governor.

While his brothers had to go all the way back to Canaan to get their father and bring him back to Egypt, unlike when Papa Grape simply walked in during the reunion, the result was the same. The entire family was reunited under the same roof, repentance was made, and forgiveness was extended.

How Joseph Teaches Us About Human Relationships and Our Relationship with God

Now, how does the story of Joseph, now that the overview has been provided, instruct us? How does it apply to us as we move towards what occurs in Genesis 50? Well, I'm going to explain it from two different angles.

How does Joseph inform the way that we relate to one another? And how does Joseph inform the way we relate to God? You can think of this as our horizontal relations and our vertical relations. Children, think for a moment of all the times you fought with a sibling.

Think of a time when your sibling made you very, very frustrated, perhaps even furious. When they wronged you, reflect upon how you may have reacted. Did you seek revenge, or did you run to mom or dad and exaggerate the story to make your sibling look as terrible as possible?

Perhaps you even lied to serve your own interests, even just a white lie, but it was justified, right? Because it meant that your sibling was going down for it. Perhaps you hit your sibling to inflict pain upon them.

Or maybe you stole something from their room to get back at them for whatever it was that they did to you. I am confident in asserting that at some point, all of you children have done something like this.

And indeed, all of the adults in the room did something like this when we were both children and as adults. Children, we've gone through the Ten Commandments many times during our catechism classes. Over and over again, we've repeated the Ten Commandments.

Think of all the times you have violated one or more of the Ten Commandments during a simple fight with your sibling. Something that seems so trivial, yet so consequential. You're certainly not as innocent as you may think, nor are your parents fooled by your attempts to make it so.

They can see your sin before them. However, no matter what your siblings have done to you, I can guarantee that they haven't sold you into slavery, given that you're all here right now. And yet, you withhold forgiveness over the slightest of sins.

As both children and adults, it can be difficult to see the purposes that God may have for a particular situation. And it can be especially difficult to understand why He permits other people to sin against us.

In this way, all of us can relate to Joseph. At certain times throughout our lives, we have undoubtedly been made victims of other people's sin, to various degrees. For both the children and the adults in the room, whether it be a sibling, a parent, a spouse, a friend, a co-worker, or even a child.

We would all agree that we have been deeply hurt, perhaps even utterly broken, decimated by what another person has done to us. A deep betrayal. We have a tendency to shake our fist at God, wondering why He would let such a horrible thing happen to such a supposedly good person.

Yet throughout the life of Joseph, we see God weaving His plans together amidst the seemingly insurmountable obstacles that Joseph had to overcome. In Genesis 50, verse 15, Joseph's brothers said,. It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.

But in Genesis 50, verse 20, after his brothers plead for forgiveness, Joseph says,. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones. The response of Joseph was much more gracious than his brothers could have ever anticipated. What allowed Joseph to be so forgiving, despite his brothers not deserving it, despite his brothers inflicting a sin upon him that we could hardly imagine, especially in our modern context?

Joseph had his perspective grounded in the goodness and the sovereignty of God. While he may not have been able to see what God was doing when he was sold into slavery or when he was thrown into jail due to false accusations, an unjust result, God was using all of those apparently unjust events for His glory and indeed to save the lives of many in Egypt through Joseph's service, something he never could have foreseen at the time.

The mere fact that we cannot discern the hidden will of God does not mean that our suffering is without a purpose. When we are sinned against, it is being used in ways which we cannot see. As we see in Joseph, as just one example, it had a twofold purpose.

To bring sinners, his brothers, to repentance, bowing before him, and then to save the lives of many through the suffering that Joseph endured. If we can remember that God is working through the actions of others, even when they hurt, even when our siblings deeply hurt us, even when our friends betray us, we can forgive just as Joseph did.

There is nothing to be bitter about, for everything works together for His good purposes, even if we don't realize it for a very long time. Often these things take years, if not decades, to realize. And you may look back on it later and realize that your perspective was limited, just as Joseph's was.

It took Joseph years to see why he was going through such incredible hardship, but it made sense in the end during that beautiful reunion that we see. Now what does the story of Joseph have to say to us about our relationship with God?

So we've addressed the horizontal relations of how we're to be gracious and forgiving, even when they may not deserve it, in recognition of the sovereignty and goodness of God. How does that relate to how we interact with God Himself?

Joseph and Christ as the Ultimate Reconciliation

Well, throughout history, the Church has recognized many similarities between the life of Joseph and the life of Jesus Christ. Joseph was loved deeply by his father, rejected by his brothers, and sold for some pieces of silver.

After enduring temptation and overwhelming hardship, he reigned over his brothers and was given full authority over them, and they bowed down to him in submission. Notice the parallels? Jesus, loved by his father, was sent down to the earth as God in the flesh, rejected by his brothers, despised in his hometown, suffered temptation in the desert, and ultimately was sold out by one of his disciples, Judas, for a sack of silver, just as our brother Shane exposited the other week.

After enduring the cross, the ultimate form of punishment, far worse than anything even Joseph endured, he was buried, rose out of the grave three days later, appeared to the many, and ascended to heaven, where he continues to reign on high at the Father's right hand, with the entire Church in submission to him.

The similarities are striking. Just as Joseph ascended to his position of authority for a particular purpose, so too did Jesus endure such persecution for a purpose. Joseph's reconciliation with his brothers foreshadowed the ultimate reconciliation that was accomplished by Christ.

To illustrate this beautiful picture, 2 Corinthians 5 builds on what we see in Genesis 50. 2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 18, says, We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. Now, in light of this passage, what does reconciliation mean?

What does reconciliation mean in Joseph's context as it relates to how we are reconciled with God? Well, let me take a break from the children for a moment. For the adults in the room, let me take a moment to address something which I would hesitate to guess bears upon our daily lives.

If you've noticed, our culture loves to talk about reconciliation. Nearly everywhere we go, we are confronted with this concept. It is inescapable, but the definition is always elusive, and it certainly isn't defined by the Gospel.

We are often told by institutions that we must do reconciliation with various demographics, but you'll notice that it is never enough. The repentance is never deemed sufficient, and the goalposts are always moving.

Heavy burdens are placed on our shoulders, but there is no solution offered besides never-ending deconstruction of all existing systems and values. Indeed, the Christian message of the Gospel itself is held up as an example of an oppressive system that must be done away with if we are to achieve the culture's definition of reconciliation.

And sadly, many Christians have unknowingly adopted the definitions of critical theorists and become ashamed of the very body of Christ. While the world adopts the inherently biblical language of reconciliation, I would contend that they pervert it, distort it, and use it as an ideological weapon against the very type of reconciliation that Scripture teaches us, as we will see.

The Pharisees of our day are those who seek to supplant the reconciliation accomplished by Christ with the never-ending reconciliation of social justice, which has become a new law unto itself. Be watchful, be sober-minded, and always ask yourselves whether the version of reconciliation you are being offered leads to eternal damnation through works of a new law or eternal life through the blood of Christ.

Do not be deceived. In the absence of Christ, any other definition of reconciliation is merely a righteous path to hell paved with good intentions and the affirmation of man. The famous preacher, Matthew Henry, describes reconciliation like this.

He says, In light of this definition, what does reconciliation mean? Well, I would contend that it means a restoration. Children, as we've gone over in catechism, the breach of humanity's friendship with God started in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, way back in Genesis.

When they ate of the fruit, the sin of Adam was passed on to all of mankind, you included. That's why you quarrel with others. That's why you take revenge upon your siblings. That is why you are unforgiving towards them.

That is why you break the Ten Commandments, God's holy law, in both thought and deed, on a near-daily basis. That's why you do all of the things we have just described. Sin entered the world through Adam, and that fractured man's harmonious relationship with God.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who came down in the flesh to suffer and die, is the solution to our broken relationship with God, and it is through Him that we must be reconciled to God the Father. It is the solution to the sin of Adam, to what went wrong in the Garden.

Joseph did not count the trespasses of his brothers against him. But rather, he passed over their trespasses, forgave them unconditionally, and rejoiced in their reunion. At the cross, Jesus made one sacrifice, once and for all, to cover the sins of His people.

While Joseph modeled what would come through Jesus, Jesus accomplished a better reconciliation, an ultimate restoration. Through the blood of Christ, we can be made right with God, and be restored in our relationship with Him for all of eternity.

So what must we do to be reconciled with God? Children and adults alike, repent of your sins and place your faith in Christ, crucified and risen. Follow the example of Joseph's brothers, who were once slaves to sin when they sold their brother into slavery, and then they became slaves to Joseph, bowing down before him in submission and reverence.

Just as we were once slaves to sin, but when we are made new creations through Christ, we are no longer slaves to sin, but rightful slaves to Christ. It is not a matter of whether we will be a slave, as Joseph once was, but who we will be a slave to.

That is the only question we must address. Acknowledge that you are a sinner, unable to save yourself. Repent of your sins and seek forgiveness, just as Joseph's brothers bowed down and begged to be forgiven in anticipation of the coming wrath.

Beg Christ for forgiveness, and as Scripture promises, just as Joseph did, he is merciful to forgive, and you will be reconciled with God once and for all, for all of eternity. In that beautiful picture of the family of Jacob, Joseph and his brothers reunited at last and rejoicing in their reconciliation.

You don't deserve it. None of us deserve it. And we can't do anything to earn it, children. Yet Christ accomplished it. That is true reconciliation. And there is no other form of reconciliation, and no other name by which we can be reconciled by aside from Jesus Christ.

And that is what I implore you to do today. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for the ministry of reconciliation that you have brought through Christ. The blood that was spilled on the cross was sufficient to atone for each and every one of our sins.

Lord, we know that if we break one part of the law, we are guilty of breaking all of it, and we would stand condemned before you on our own merit. Yet through Christ's sacrifice, we can be reconciled to you, Lord.

And we stand in awe of that merciful gift and how little we deserved it, Lord. We don't contribute anything to our salvation except the sin that makes it necessary. And yet you still sent your Son to die a horrible death on a cross for us so that the ministry of reconciliation would be brought to the church.

And Lord, with so many conflicting definitions of what reconciliation may mean, let us rest in the reconciliation that you have given us through the story of Joseph throughout the Old Testament, and then ultimately fulfilled in the promises of the new covenant that you have purchased through your spilled blood on behalf of the church.

That you became sin for those, even though you knew no sin, you became sin for us so that we may be declared righteous. And Lord, we know that it is not by anything we may do, any of our works, that we can be saved, but only through your mercy, through the renewal and the regeneration of the Holy Spirit.

And Lord, I ask that as the children are reminded of the story of Joseph today, that it would impress upon their hearts the need to be reconciled with you, that it would give them a holy desperation, that they would seek you, and that they would want to see the gospel imprinted upon their hearts, and that they would bear fruit in accordance with that.

And Lord, I just ask that you would reconcile the children to you. We know that you have called the little children to you, and that you care deeply for them. And Lord, we thank you for the incredible gift of the gospel that has come to us through these stories.

And as we can see your hand throughout the entirety of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, we can see the promises being gradually fulfilled in the Messiah, Lord. Thank you for those beautiful gifts, the shadowings of the substance to come in Christ.

And I ask that that beautiful gift would be granted, the gift of repentance and faith would be granted to each and every child in this room, and each and every adult in this room, that everyone would be made right with you, Lord, and that you would declare them righteous, that their sins would be removed from them, as far as the east is from the west, and that you would pass over their transgressions, just as Joseph did for his brothers.

I pray that this church would reflect upon this, and ensure that they too are right with God. In your name we pray, Lord. Amen.