Joseph the Faithful Servant

Turn with me, please, in your Bibles to the 50th chapter of Genesis, the last chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 50. Though it is our normal tradition to speak from the New Testament in the morning and the Old Testament in the evening, we'll pretty much be reversing that a little bit today as we look at a common theme, but starting here in Genesis chapter 50.

Before we begin, let's ask the Lord to bless our time together. Our gracious Heavenly Father, we would ask for strength. We would ask for your Spirit's ministry amongst us, that we might hear your word.

And Lord, that you would bless us, that we might be changed, become better servants of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is in his name that we pray. The book of Genesis, under a lot of attack these days in our world, it is unfortunate that when people hear the name Genesis, about all they think about today is the issue of creation.

And yet there is so much in this book. It is ironic to note that a book that begins, In the beginning God created, ends in this 50th chapter, well, sort of hoping for the exodus. When you think about it, Genesis chapter 50 is not really an uplifting chapter.

Chapter 49, right at the end, Israel dies. And so chapter 50 begins with a long period of mourning. And Joseph and his brothers go up and bury their father. Many Egyptians go up with them. The division hasn't yet taken place.

And Joseph, of course, second in the nation of Egypt. And there is great lamentation. And then the whole book ends with Joseph in a coffin in Egypt. Interesting how that comes about at the end of this book.

When we think about this man Joseph, his story is an amazing story. We learn a lot about his brothers. And we see a lot of sin in his brothers. But the Bible really doesn't say much negative about Joseph at all.

Aside from what seems to be some youthful naivete in bouncing up to his brothers, Hey, I want to tell you about the dream I had. You all bow down to me. Which is always, every time I remember even as a child hearing that story going, Man, I wouldn't do that.

What's this guy's problem? Other than that, the Bible does not say much about Joseph in any type of negative fashion at all. We can learn a lot from this young man. But it's a lot of what it doesn't say that helps us to grow in our maturity.

Because though it doesn't narrate exactly how it happened, there's one thing that is absolutely certain. Sometime during those silent years, the years in service to Potiphar, the years in prison, somewhere in that time, Joseph really grew up.

And Joseph learned things that we need to be reminded of regularly as Christians even today. I want to look at Genesis chapter 50 beginning at verse 15. It's a familiar text to a lot of us, but I want to once again consider the application that can be made from these verses.

Genesis 50 -15, when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay for all the evil which we did to him. So they sent messengers to Joseph saying, Before your father died, he commanded, saying, Thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.

Now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we are your servants.

Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive.

Now therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Now when we think about this incident, we have to go back in our minds, and I am assuming that everyone in the sound of my voice knows the story.

If you do not, I would highly recommend that you go back into the book of Genesis and read. Most of us have known the story, especially if you were raised in a Christian family as I was. I remember very clearly the story of Joseph and his coat of many colors.

Some of you think I have become fixated on that in light of certain sweaters that I like to wear during the winter period. It must have stuck with me real well, the flannel graph presentations of Joseph and his coat of many colors on that blue flannel background.

But we remember the story. We remember Joseph's dreams where he saw the sheaves and his brother's sheaves bowed down to his, and his coming and telling his brothers these things, and the hatred that his brothers had toward him.

And you remember the story. The brothers are out attending flock, and Joseph is sent to them, and as they see him coming from a long distance away, which would tend to indicate that it was a coat of many bright colors, if they could see him coming from that far away.

They see him coming. They say to one another, here comes that dreamer. Let's slay him. We're far away from Dad. We're sick and tired of Dad's favoritism toward him. There were problems in this family.

Unlike my Muslim friends who try to clean all of these stories of man's sinfulness up from the Old Testament, the Bible tells us that nobody can look back at the beginning of the history of Israel and look at Abraham, and look at Isaac, look at Jacob, Israel, look at his children, and go, ah, if only all our families could be like them.

No, we don't really want our families to be like that, actually. And we see favoritism, and we see what today would be called dysfunctionality, which is a nice way of saying sin in the families. And so they see their brother, and they are so consumed with jealousy and anger that they want to kill him.

Now, Reuben steps up, and Reuben keeps them from doing this, and Reuben wants to try to save Joseph's life. He doesn't have the courage to stand up and say, you're a bunch of sinners, you're wrong, you're not going to do this, but he at least tries to come up with an alternative plan, and, well, let's toss him in this pit here, and he was thinking to himself he'd come back later and get him out.

And evidently Reuben wasn't around when the Ishmaelite traders come along, and they sell Joseph because he comes back, finds the pit empty, and cries out, and what the conversation must have been like at that point as they dipped that coat of many colors, which they had to have hated, out of jealousy, in the blood of a slain animal.

Then what kind of hardness of heart, what kind of hardness of heart can we imagine that would cause those ten men to come to their father and present that coat and to see his brokenness? I would imagine there was even a fair amount of thinking in their minds as they watched him grieve.

That's what you get. He showed so much favoritism to him. There probably was even jealousy then. I'll bet you one or two of those brothers thought, he never would grieve like this for me. Such hardness of heart, that even though he extends the period of mourning, yet there is no speaking of the truth.

The ten together, in some way, shape, or form, can you imagine the conversations as they headed back to home with that coat of many colors torn and bloodied? What were they saying? Were some people, was Reuben saying, no, we have to tell them?

Well, no, we're not. Was there threats? We don't know. But I can guarantee you one thing, when you have group committed sin, when you have community sin, then pressure comes upon the members of that group to not confess, to stay in line, in this inflection.

And evidently, it worked. It worked for a long time. And so you have a dysfunctional family, now a father in grieving, refuses to be consoled. But then you have Joseph. And what was it like to be Joseph?

To be drawn out of that pit, that rope comes down, it's like, oh, thanks guys, I knew you were just kidding. Then you see all these Ishmaelites, and you see the exchange of 20 pieces of silver, and then you realize, this is for real.

They sold me into slavery. And you go into a land, you don't speak the language. You have to learn a whole new language. You're sold in slavery. But then, you notice, the Lord blesses what you do. Whatever you put your hand to as you work for Potiphar, He blesses it.

But still, in the darkness of the night, he must have thought of his home. And he must have thought of his brothers. What did he think of them? For many of us, Joseph had every reason in the world to become extremely hardened.

Extremely bitter. How he must have thought about what his brothers did to him. How he missed his father. I wonder if as he matured, he didn't look back and sort of question, my father did seem to show some favoritism toward me.

I wonder if that had something to do with what my brothers did. But you know, we live in a day where you're supposed to look back upon your past. You're supposed to look back upon your mother and your father, your sisters, your brothers, your neighbors, whoever.

And we're taught to add up all the things that were done wrong to us. Well, this teacher said this to me one day. You see, all of that's supposed to come together and that's supposed to give us the excuse for, well, everything that we do.

And if we mistreat our spouses, and if we have this failure in our life, and that failure in our life, well, it's just all because of my upbringing. Because those nasty parents of mine, if God had just given me good parents, I'd be perfect.

If that teacher hadn't done that, that pastor hadn't said that thing to me after a church service once. But you know, Joseph doesn't seem to have fallen into that trap. We don't have anything narrated for us.

We don't have any psychological inquiry into how Joseph made it through. One thing's for sure, he knew all about betrayal. And yet, he was trustworthy. Have you thought about that? He had been betrayed.

How many people who had been betrayed by flesh and blood then take that as an excuse to themselves lack faithfulness and trustworthiness in your dealings with others? And yet, the one thing that marks Joseph all the way through?

Faithfulness. He's in Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife tries to seduce him. Ain't gonna do it. No way. Somewhere, somehow, God's grace had gotten to Joseph. Joseph would have had every reason in the world from our perspective today to have said so much for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

If he can't even keep my brothers from betraying me and selling me into this pagan land, hey, let's just enjoy it. Let's go with it. He doesn't do that. But then, even when things look like they're going well, all of a sudden he finds himself in prison for doing what's right.

He had done what was right in serving his father to go look for his brothers. Sold them to slavery. Does what's right in refusing to give in to the sinful desires of Potiphar's wife and ends up in prison.

I don't know about you, but about that point, I think I would have had the largest pity party in the world. And the idea of working hard. The idea of helping to serve in the prison. Probably not the first thought that crossed my mind.

Yet, that's what he does. And once again, the Lord is with him and blesses him and he's put in charge of things. Except, of course, we'd have to look back and go, well, I once was the most beloved son of a wealthy man.

I had great freedom. That was taken away from me. Then I became the servant of a wealthy man and I had authority, but it was taken away from me. And now I have authority again, but as a prisoner in a prison taking care of other prisoners.

It doesn't look like my life's going the right direction. The Lord must have abandoned me. The Lord must not love me. He would have had every reason to die a bitter old man. God has taken all the good things from my life.

Just think of my brothers. They're going to get more of the inheritance now that I'm gone. They're enjoying their freedom and the fat of the land. Oh, how he could have complained. And then it looks like an opportunity comes forth.

The dreams of the Egyptian servants of Pharaoh. The cupbearer and the baker. And God gives to Joseph the ability to interpret these dreams and those dreams are fulfilled. And yet the man who promised to remember him before Pharaoh forgets and two years pass.

I know that strike three wouldn't have meant anything to Joseph. I realize that's something from our context. And there's patience. Two years. First, I would imagine within the first few weeks, every time the prison door opened, Joseph is looking.

But by now, if he was a human being, the thought would have crossed his mind. Well, here we go again. I'm never getting out of this place. Doesn't matter. I thought I saw a ray of light there. Not going to happen.

And yet, then, a massive turnaround. The Pharaoh's dreams, the incapacity of his soothsayers to interpret them. The servant going, oh, I remember. There's this man. There's this Hebrew. He's brought forth.

He's clothed. He interprets the dream. He gives wisdom again from God. He does not claim to have any of this authority himself. Through all of this, he keeps recognizing that his abilities come from God.

He evidently has not turned his back on the God of his father. There has been faithfulness. And we know what happens. Pharaoh's a wise man. He sees wisdom in Joseph. If this man can see what's coming, well, that's the guy you want to put in charge of your finances.

Many people would like to have had a Joseph just a few years ago. See what was coming. There weren't too many people who saw what was coming. There weren't too many Josephs. And so, Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge and things begin happening just as they said, as Joseph said.

Now, I sometimes wonder, did Joseph sit back and go, seven years is plenty. Seven years of famine. This could be worldwide. I wonder. It's not too far from homeland to Egypt. And if we do what I've said we're going to do, and if we store up the grain during the fat years, the seven lean years that are coming, I wonder, did he watch?

I would imagine if you're the second most powerful man in Egypt, it would have been easy for you to delegate the selling of this grain. And yet, finally Joseph's brothers show up and who's doing the grain selling?

Who's in charge? Joseph. Had he thought this might happen? I don't know. Certainly seems like a wise man. If he knows the famine is going to be extended to his homeland, you wonder. But finally the brothers show up and I don't think Joseph was trying to, I do not believe Joseph was trying to torture them in how he did what he did.

He wanted to know about his father. He wanted to know about his brother. And you know the whole story of how he finally reveals himself to them. What must it have been like to have an interpreter between himself and his brothers and yet he can hear what they're saying to one another.

This is because of Joseph. He's standing there. I always loved that story. It is just so tremendously well told. There's so much pathos in it to think about the fact that he knew exactly what they were saying.

I remember how he had them in for dinner and he arranged the table so it was an exact order of their ages. You'd think something would have kicked in about that. Do we look like they were that? Can you tell just by looking at us?

How does this work? But they thought he was dead and of course he was just a lad when they had sold him. So I imagine he had gone through one of those growth spurts. I don't want to embarrass anybody, but we have a young couple in the congregation getting married a little bit later.

My understanding is that they actually knew each other since the time they were about yea big and about yea big. And that was summer and that was that. So when she sees him later and now he's up here someplace, it's like, wow, a totally different person.

Who are you? Maybe that's what happened with Joseph. Maybe when he had a coat of many colors, it was more like a little coat of many colors. And now he's nice and big and wearing all the Egyptian attire and everything else.

They don't recognize him. But then he reveals himself to them. Joseph has his father brought down and you know the rest of the story. They live together there in Egypt, but what must it have been like after Jacob, Israel has come to Egypt and the excitement wears off and regular life starts kicking in.

When did the conversation take place? Because you know the conversation took place. There was some day Joseph had to go do something. He was the second most important man in Egypt. I bet you he was rather busy.

There was the first dinner without Joseph after Israel has come to Egypt. And it must have been extremely uneasy. Because if you're Jacob, you know what your sons have done. You know that your sons had allowed you to grieve for years.

You know that your sons had sold their brother into slavery and deceived you. What about the brothers? Are we ever going to have a relationship with Dad again? Obviously it was some type of conversation because we see here in Genesis 50, after the burial of Jacob, Joseph's brothers saw their father was dead.

They said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him. So they sent messengers to Joseph saying, before your father died, he commanded saying, thus you shall say to Joseph.

Now I imagine that he did say this. But notice they sent messengers to Joseph. They didn't even show up themselves. They sent messengers. Now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.

Notice it doesn't say, please forgive the trespass of your brothers. It says the servants of the God of your father. Let's be religious while we're at it. Because the brother part ain't going to work.

We didn't listen to him when he cried out, I'm your brother! Because you know he did. So we won't go there. Invoke the God of your father that we see Joseph has remained faithful to his entire life even though we really only pretended to be.

And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. He wept because he could see that his relationship with his brothers had not been restored. They still feared him. It doesn't say that Joseph sent for them. Maybe he was still weeping.

Maybe he was contemplating what to do. Maybe he hoped that they would come. I don't know. After sending the messengers, we don't know how long a time passes, but then his brothers also went and fell down before his face and they said, behold, we are your servants.

So they can't stand it. They can't stand the waiting. They're probably expecting armed soldiers to show up at their doorstep at any time to take them off to some kind of hideous death. And so they come and they fall down before Joseph.

Here we have a dysfunctional family. We have broken relationships due to sin. Grievous sin. Sin that resulted in the enslavement of one man. His imprisonment years away from his family. His freedoms taken away.

The hardness of heart. Seeing the deception of an old man. The grief that was his. Serious sin. Finally, it's time to deal with it. And so they come before Joseph and Joseph said to them, do not be afraid.

For am I in the place of God? How many people would respond that way? How many people with the kind of authority and power that Joseph had? We all know, if he had instructed, if he had said to his servants, kill them or imprison them or anything else, he had the authority to do it.

And in fact, nobody would have said a word. I'm sure by now Pharaoh well knew the whole story. Was probably amazed at the graciousness of Joseph in the forgiving of his brothers. But he would have had the right to do it.

And everybody would have understood. Yeah, you didn't do this while your dad was alive because, you know, he would have had much grief. But now he's gone. So hey, why not? But Joseph's response is, do not be afraid.

For am I in the place of God? Somehow, in all of his life, in all of his experiences, Joseph had not forgotten that God is God. Somehow, by the grace of God, and I believe it can only be by the grace of God, in experiencing everything he experienced, Joseph remained faithful in recognizing that he is a creature and that God is God.

Joseph knew what God's place was and that's why Joseph knew what his place was. Joseph never tried to usurp Pharaoh's authority. He never tried to usurp Potiphar's authority. He never tried to usurp the jailer's authority.

Joseph understood that God is God and God is sovereign. God is king. God has authority. He orders things. He knew what God's place was and that's what made Joseph such a stellar example of a faithful servant of God in the Old Testament.

Isn't it amazing how little revelation Joseph had in comparison to what we have? He had no New Testament. He had no Psalms. He had none of the major prophets or anything like that at all. And yet, with the amount of revelation he had, there was one thing he was absolutely certain of.

And that was who his God was and what his role as his servant was. And he was content with that. I was told many years ago by a wise person that there are certain people in this world that choose to be happy and certain people that choose to be unhappy.

And it really doesn't have a lot to do with what they've gone through in this life. There are people who eat with silver spoons and they have everything handed to them on a silver platter and they're the most miserable creatures on the face of the earth.

And then there are other people who face physical difficulties and trials and they experience poverty and sickness and constant difficulties and trials and tribulations and yet their countenance shines.

It isn't about our external circumstances. It's not about the size of the house, the car, the length of the hair, or the straightness of the teeth. Who from the world's perspective had every reason in the world to answer completely differently.

To answer, about time you bowed down. You remember the dreams? You're doing it voluntarily now, huh? Oh, it would have been easy. We would have felt the temptation. You're sitting on that throne. You've got servants over there with weapons that are going to do whatever you tell them to do.

And there they are on their faces in front of you going, hmm, remember this? It would have been so easy. But Joseph wipes the tears from his eyes and he says, am I in the place of God? What gives somebody that kind of maturity and stability and character?

Well, look at verse 20. He is not living in a fantasy world. He is not living in a fantasy world. That's what it says. As for you, you meant evil against me. You intended raw, evil against me. Personal pronoun.

I, no. I saw it in your eyes. If it wasn't for Reuben, if it wasn't for God restraining the madness of your hearts, I would not be here this day. You would have killed me. I know. He doesn't deny the sin of his brothers.

You know he had thought through the entire extent of that sin. In that prison house, he had thought about his father grieving for him, thinking he was dead. He knew the full extent of their sin and he does not excuse it.

He recognizes that they acted upon evil desires. You meant evil against me. But what's interesting here is that we just really can't render the Hebrew and the English in an exact parallel. But there is an exact parallel in the original language between these two clauses.

You meant evil against me. But God meant it for good. Very same intended. At least here in the New King James, it uses meant in both places. That's good. Intended in both places. As long as the same words used in both, at least it's communicating something about the fact that what Joseph is talking about, we all know what the sin was.

One sin that has caused these men to be on their faces in fear of their life before Joseph. And we're talking about that sin. And we're talking about the intentions of those that were involved in that sin.

And for these, his brothers, they intended evil against Joseph. He does not whitewash it. He's not living in a fantasy world. He doesn't have a view of God where he's the old grandfather on the throne and he just winks at sin.

He's not doing any of that. He knows they intended evil. He recognizes it for what it is. Then you have the maturity. Then you have the truth that allows people a life of stable, continual... They meant it for evil.

God meant it, the sin, for good. You see, I don't know how long it took him. I don't know if he was in Potiphar's house standing on the back porch looking up at the heavens one dark night and it struck him.

Or if more likely, it was a day-by-day growing maturity and understanding. If part of it happens in Potiphar's house and part of it happens in the prison and part of it happens in Pharaoh's court. I don't know, but over all these years, Joseph came to a position of maturity and he recognized as he brought his family down, he recognized as he saw people coming in, as he saw the people of Egypt not starving, as he saw all the people in that region not starving, he saw many people kept alive to that day, including his own family.

And it finally sunk in and become a firm conviction in his heart. God did this. God was with me in that. God was with me in restraining the madness of my brothers. God was involved even in the not overly brave cowardice of Reuben.

God kept those Ishmaelite traitors from killing me. God kept me alive in the prison house. God gave me the ability to interpret those dreams. God gave me the ability to administer all the things that Pharaoh has given to me to administer.

And he's done it for his good, holy, just reasons that I may not have seen at the time, but my looking back now, I can see. And he sees God has a purpose. Not just a general good, but notice, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive, this is how God has chosen to save life, yours, your wives, your children, our family.

I know you meant it for evil, but you see, I'm not in the place of God. And I realize I am here because God placed me here. And yeah, it was a rough road to get here, but you see, he did it for good. He did it for his own purposes.

Therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. You see, Joseph did not have to be vindictive. Joseph did not have to try to bring some kind of recompense upon his brothers because Joseph saw who he was and he saw who God was.

And I say to all of us, if we see who God is, if we understand his kingship, that he is God and we are not, and he orders the events of our lives, the contentment that can be ours in the midst of the most severe trial, Joseph knew it.

And many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. It only comes by grace. It is an act of faith in God. It comes from maturity. But you see, it changes a person because so much of the time, vindictiveness, an unforgiving spirit...

The only person who can have an unforgiving spirit is a person who doesn't really know what it is to have been forgiven. The person who wants to derive some kind of punishment from somebody is a person who doesn't understand that by God's grace, so much of our punishment, all of our punishment, all that was due to us, laid on someone else.

Joseph didn't have the example of Jesus, but God's grace always changes people and makes them more like God would have us to be. Joseph understood what we Reformed call compatibilism. God's absolute sovereignty is completely compatible with our responsibility.

One action. A sinful action. The hearts of men involved, they wanted to kill their brother. God, first of all, violated their free will by restraining them. If you're going to be one of those folks that's all big on man's autonomous free will, then you better complain to God about how many times He has restrained the evil will of people who wanted to kill you.

He restrained their evil. But even in their sin, one act, yes, it's evil. You meant evil against me. But God, in the same action, began that sovereignly ordained chain of events that led the saving of lives.

Joseph had come to understand, my, what a privilege. What a privilege to be a servant of this God. What a privilege to be the servant of the true God who ordains. These very days brought me through all of this to this position.

If Joseph had ended up in that prison house for the rest of his life, would he have understood this? I don't know, but I think so. God's purposes would be fulfilled. Joseph had come to understand God is sovereign.

Anything good I have comes from His hand. He is not to be charged with evil even though He's sovereign over it. And it was not a matter of where God's observing. He's going, oh, I hope they don't kill Joseph.

Well, if they sell him to slavery, what can I do here? Oh, I'm going to come up with a plan now. No. God's intention in what took place was that of a sovereign king who sees all of time. And He doesn't just sit back and observe what's happening.

The very fabric of time itself comes from His sovereign Joseph understood that. And the effect and impact it had on his life makes him one of the greatest examples of patient faithfulness that God has ever given to His people.

As we look to the future, as we look to those who come after us, what will our children and our children's children and our children's children's children think of us? Stories are told as they should be in families about those who went before.

What will the stories be about? Our patient endurance? Our faithfulness to our God? Or will they be about how we were just absolutely wrapped up in our love of things in this world? Will we be known as patient people?

Long-suffering people? People who exhibited contentment with God's sovereignty in our lives? Those are the people that I like to hear about from the past. Those are questions we have to ask ourselves.

This text, we often run to it very quickly. They say, incompatibilism. Yes, it's there. But when you think about everything that led up to it, it takes on a much more meaningful application. You may be facing trials and difficulties in your life right now.

The question I have for you is if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, if you know that you have died and your life has been hidden with Christ in God, and that therefore nothing touches your life but that which the triune God has chosen to allow to touch your life, then how do you respond to those trials and difficulties?

Do you question His goodness? Or do you trust, even when you can't see what the purpose was? And before those dreams of Pharaoh's servants in the prison house, Joseph didn't know what the purpose was.

He couldn't have possibly known. But even then, he trusted. Can you trust before you see the reasons? The Word of God gives us a basis for doing so. As servants of Christ, it should be our desire to please Him in showing ourselves to be faithful, to trust Him in all things.

Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You for this example from Your Word of a faithful servant who recognized who He was and who You are, O God. By Your Spirit, impress upon our hearts the fact that we must daily be convinced that You are King.

We are Your servants. You are still on Your throne. The world does everything in its power to cause us to forget this, to not live in light of it. May You cause us by Your Spirit to never, ever forget.

May we live our lives this coming week as those convinced that we serve a powerful King who sits upon the throne of the universe, who orders our lives, and who, as a loving Heavenly Father, brings every joy and every difficulty into our experience for a purpose.

We thank You for this truth. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.