Wait

Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church.

Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern Minnesota.

We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

And now here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg.

A reading from Genesis.

Chapters 40 and 41.

Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their

lord, the king of Egypt.

And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody

in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined.

The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them.

They continued for some time in custody, and one night they both dreamed, the

cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream

and each dream with its own interpretation.

When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled, so he asked Pharaoh's

officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces downcast

today?

They said to him, we have had dreams and there is no one to interpret them.

And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God, please tell them to me.

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream there was a vine

before me, and on the vine there were three branches.

And as soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, the clusters ripened into grapes, Pharaoh's

cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.

Then Joseph said to him, this is its interpretation, the three branches are three

days.

In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall

place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were in his cupbearer.

Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to

Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house, for I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews,

and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also

had a dream.

There were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all

sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.

And Joseph answered and said, this is its interpretation, the three baskets are three days.

In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds

will eat the flesh from you.

On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all of his servants and lifted up the head of the

cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's

hand.

But he hanged the head of the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them, yet the chief

cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and

behold there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they

fed in the reed grass.

And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them and stood

by the other cows on the bank of the Nile.

And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows.

And Pharaoh awoke, and he fell asleep, and dreamed a second time.

And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk.

And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind.

And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears, and Pharaoh awoke, and

behold it was a dream.

So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all of its

wise men.

Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.

Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, I remember my offenses today.

When Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of

the guard, we dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own

interpretation.

And a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard.

When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his

dream.

And as he interpreted to us, so it came about.

I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.

Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit.

And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to

Joseph, I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it.

I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it.

Joseph answered Pharaoh, it is not in me.

God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, behold in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile, seven

cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass.

Seven other cows came up after them, poor, very ugly and thin, such as I had never

seen in all of the land of Egypt.

And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, but when they had eaten them, no

one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning.

Then I awoke.

I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good.

Seven ears withered thin and blighted by the east wind sprouted after them, and the thin ears swallowed

up the seven good ears.

And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.

Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one.

God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years.

The dreams are one.

The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years.

The seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of

famine.

It is as I told you, God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do, and there will come

seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.

But after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be

forgotten in the land of Egypt.

The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will

follow, for it will be very severe.

And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that this thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it

about.

Now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and a wise man.

Set him over the land of Egypt.

Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one -fifth of the produce of the land

of Egypt during the seven plentiful years.

And let them gather all the food of these good ears that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of

Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.

That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the

land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.

This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all of his servants.

And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God?

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all of this, there is none so discerning and wise

as you are.

You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.

Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all of the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took a signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine

linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.

And he made him ride in his second chariot.

And they called out before him, Bow the knee.

Thus he set him over all of the land of Egypt.

Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up

hand or foot in all of the land of Egypt.

And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphonath -paneah.

And he gave him in marriage to Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of On.

So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt.

During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly.

And he gathered up all the food of these seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt, and he put the food in the

cities.

He put in every city the food from the fields around it.

And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to

measure it, for it could not be measured.

Before the year of the famine came, two sons were born to Joseph.

Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of On, bore them to him.

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all my hardship

in all my father's house.

And the name of the second he called Ephraim, for God had made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine

began to come.

As Joseph had said, there was famine in all the lands, but in all the lands of Egypt there was bread.

When all the land of Egypt was famished, the Lord cried to Pharaoh for bread.

Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph, what he says to you, do.

So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold

to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe

over all the earth.

O Lord, have mercy on us.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Thirteen years.

So, Joseph, God had given him prophetic dreams, told him what was coming down the pike.

Well, he kind of skipped a whole lot of details if you think about it.

God kind of told him what was happening at the end of all of this.

And then no sooner does God tell him this, his brothers who hate him, they sell him into slavery,

which is loads of fun.

Talk about people who have been abused by those who believe in God.

This is an example of that.

I would say that selling somebody into slavery kind of ranks up there as far as abuse is concerned.

I mean, well, he was this close to being murdered because those Yahweh

-believing sons of Jacob were so loving and kind and full of the fruit of the

Spirit, right?

You get kind of the point.

And you're going to note something.

It's really easy for us when we suffer, especially when we suffer at the hands of those who claim to be Christians, to

say, that's it.

I'm chucking God out the window, putting it all in the past, and moving on with my life.

Atheism is looking pretty good.

But you know, Joseph doesn't do that.

So he's sold into slavery.

We don't know how many years he served Potiphar.

Was it one?

Was it two?

Was it less than a year?

We don't know.

But we do know that when he comes out of the prison, which is kind of like his resurrection, if you would, because you're going to note,

Joseph's life really parallels a lot of the details of Christ.

That's his resurrection.

But before his resurrection, 13 years.

And I would argue that prisons nowadays are still not good places.

But the sanitary conditions in today's modern prisons are going to be a wee bit better

than the sanitary conditions of an ancient Egyptian prison.

And you can already kind of tell what Joseph's jobs are going to be, right?

He's not going to be high up.

He's not doing the books.

He's doing the slopping.

That's what he's doing.

And in fact, the Psalms tell us that Joseph, when he was in prison, his neck was put in iron fetters, and it

hurt him terribly.

So he suffered for 13 years, and here's the weird

bit.

His faith is as strong as ever.

You can see it in this text.

So our text begins, a long text, I can only hit the highlights, but our text begins with two

officers, a pharaoh, a cupbearer, and a baker.

You know, bread, wine.

No.

Really?

Yeah.

It's kind of cool how it works if you think about it.

Even in the types and shadows, you get an illusion to the Lord's supper.

And, in fact, here's the other bit.

Well, I'm getting ahead of myself, but think about how that baker dies.

How does he die?

He's hung on a tree.

Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree, the Scripture says.

Indeed, the sky is indeed cursed.

But that's kind of the point.

This is brimming, teeming with types and shadows that point us to Jesus.

And when Joseph is doing his work as a prisoner, you know, it's at

this point that I think about one of my favorite Farside cartoons.

You guys remember the Farside?

Calvin and Hobbes' Farside?

Grew up on these things.

But there was this one Farside in particular that I thought was just a scream.

It depicted hell.

And so there you had fire and brimstone and you had demons and people who were being lashed with

a whip and stuff like that.

And there was some poor guy named Frank.

And Frank was pushing a wheelbarrow and he was whistling in hell.

And one demon says to the other demon, I don't think we're getting through to Frank.

It's great when you think about it.

Same thing with Joseph here.

He's been put through the wringer.

He's been made to suffer horribly and now God is deciding he's going

to talk.

And Joseph knows immediately that God is talking.

God hasn't said a word for 11 years.

He's let him suffer alone and yet he has had faith.

How is this possible?

It's real simple.

He's no different than us and we're no different than him.

We have promises from God and guess what?

In the promises that we have are we not also made to suffer?

Yeah, we are.

Think of the Apostle Paul who brags about all the different things he went through.

All the beatings he went through, the lashings, the treachery he faced as a result of false brothers and those who wanted to

kill him.

And all the times he was stoned or shipwrecked and stuff like this.

And never once did his faith wane or flag.

Same with Joseph.

So he walks in doing his work.

Hey guys, why are you looking so down?

Well, we've had dreams and nobody can interpret them.

You can just hear them mopey, right?

Well, do not interpretations belong to God?

Who is this guy, right?

And that's the thing.

He's waited and waited and waited.

What did our Psalm say?

I waited patiently for the Lord.

He inclined his ear and he heard my cry.

He lifted me up out of the pit.

Hmm, sounds like a song.

I will sing.

Sing a new song.

So, as the story goes, Joseph gives the interpretation and note the

confidence he has when he gives the interpretation to the chief cupbearer.

He says, when these things come true, because he knows that God doesn't lie.

When these things come true, tell Pharaoh about me.

I've been stolen.

I'm here unjustly.

I don't deserve to be here.

Help.

Rescue me.

The only way he could say something like that is if he had absolute confidence that what he was saying would

happen.

And guess what?

It happened.

And then you think of that poor baker, man.

But see, there's the thing.

It's in the types and shadows.

That's a picture of the crucifixion of Christ.

Bread, wine, body, blood, given, shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

It's all hinted at here.

And then, just when you think everything's going to be fine, he's going to be rescued,

he's going to be lifted up out of the pit, the chief cupbearer forgets.

Poor Joseph, man.

Could you imagine going to work the next day going, this is it.

I'm going to get out.

I'm going to finally be able to have a shave and a shower, and I won't have to smell all the smells of this prison anymore.

I can take these iron fetters off.

I'm going to be free.

And then, that day turns into another day.

And the next day turns into another, and that turns into a week, and that week turns into

another week, and the weeks stretch out into a month, and another month, and more

months, and then a whole year, and then a whole other year after that.

Two full years of forgetfulness.

But then God speaks again.

This time to Pharaoh.

And nobody can interpret what God has spoken.

And all of a sudden, the chief cupbearer goes, oy vey.

I remember my sin.

I remember my shortcomings.

There is a fellow, and he can interpret dreams.

He interpreted my dreams, and so what happens?

He then gets the call.

Come talk to Pharaoh.

And in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, he goes from being

dead to being alive.

That's kind of the point.

All of that is there.

The twinkling of the eye, the changing of fortunes in a second.

And when Joseph stands before Pharaoh, his faith is fully intact.

How?

He's waited.

He trusts.

The circumstances that we go through do not determine our faith.

Is the love of God determined by what you are made to suffer in this lifetime?

Of course not.

If that were the case, then we must come to the conclusion that God hated Jesus because he died a cursed death.

But Christ did nothing wrong.

Instead, he died in your place so that you can be forgiven.

And so there's Joseph now.

And Pharaoh says, I've heard it said of you that you can interpret dreams.

And he says, it's not in me.

But God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

And you know how the details go.

And literally, it's absolutely stunning.

It's miraculous.

But in the midst of all of this is a man who held on to the promises of God.

The promises that God had given him before he was sold into slavery.

And God, who makes a promise, never reneges.

God, when he says he's going to do something, he's going to do it.

And Joseph emerges from prison with his faith intact.

And now he's setting about to save the world.

Ooh, sounds like another fellow I know that died, rose again, who saves the world.

That's kind of the point.

But Lenten tide is a time for us to consider our own sin and our own shortcoming.

And it's in this regard that I would consider, as I work this theme a little bit more, Psalm

25.

In Psalm 25, this is the Psalm of David.

And this is the Psalm that is teeming with, well, that theme of I'm in a

lot of danger.

My enemies are pursuing me.

And yet I will wait.

Wait.

I will continue to trust in you.

So consider David's waiting.

You'll note that he is the anointed but not yet coronated King of Israel, which is kind of awkward if you think about it, because the anointed

and coronated King of Israel seemed to have it out for him.

Wanted to pin him to the wall with a javelin on a couple of occasions.

And then hunted him down like he was a dog in the Judean wilderness after spinning some false

narrative about him wanting to overthrow the kingdom in order to get his army on board with

the task.

But on two occasions, David had the opportunity to do in the King of Israel, Saul.

And yet he wouldn't raise a hand against him.

He trusted God.

And in the midst of it, he also, like Joseph, like all of us, he had to wait.

So listen to the Psalm of David, Psalm 25.

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

O my God, in you I trust.

Let me not be put to shame.

Let not my enemies exult over me.

That is quite the plea if you think about it.

And you know the circumstances that David went through.

Let not my enemies exult over me is basically don't let them catch me and kill me.

Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame.

Listen to those words again.

None who wait for you, Lord, shall be put to shame.

They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

When we consider the major theme of the book of Revelation, a book that tells us of the ever

-increasing insanity on planet Earth as God pours out judgment after judgment

upon humanity for their impenitence, for their unbelief, for their breaking of all of God's commands, for their idolatry,

for their acting like they are their own gods and God pouring out further and more intense

judgments.

We also learn that persecution of the saints goes hand -in -hand with that.

And what does the Scripture say?

This calls for patient endurance.

Wait.

None who wait for you will be put to shame.

They shall be ashamed who are wantonly treacherous.

So make me to know your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me.

You are the God of my salvation and for you I wait

all the day long.

Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love.

They have been from of old.

Remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions according to your steadfast love.

Remember me for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.

And note here in the midst of this waiting theme of please rescue me from my enemies, do not let them exalt

over me.

You know what he's not doing?

Go get them, Lord.

Hope you strike them down with lightning and let the brimstone burn them to a fiery crisp.

None of that.

While he's waiting for the Lord to deliver him, he's considering his own sin, confessing his own

transgression, noting that he is not worthy of the very things that he is asking for and

so he cries out to God to remember not the sins of my youth or my transgressions,

but to blot them out according to your steadfast love.

Good and upright is Yahweh, therefore he instructs sinners in the way.

He leads the humble in what is right and he teaches the humble his way.

Those who are arrogant, those who exalt themselves, God will not instruct them because they will not be instructed.

They are just like the devil.

Humility says I have sinned, Lord, have mercy on me.

Arrogance says oh I'm so thankful that I'm such a good boy when you're not.

The psalm continues.

All the paths of Yahweh, they are steadfast love and faithfulness

for those who keep his covenant and keep his testimonies.

For your name's sake, oh Yahweh, please pardon my guilt for it is great.

I love this.

In the midst of being unjustly pursued, he continues to confess

his sin.

We would be wise to do the same.

Who is the man who fears Yahweh?

Him will he instruct in the way that he should go.

His soul shall abide in well -being and his offspring shall inherit the land.

The friendship of Yahweh is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant.

My eyes are ever towards Yahweh for he will pluck my feet out of the net.

So turn to me and be gracious to me.

I am lonely and I am afflicted.

The troubles of my heart are enlarged.

Bring me out of my distresses.

Consider my affliction and my trouble and forgive all of my sins.

Consider how many are my foes and with what violent hatred they hate me.

Oh, guard my soul and deliver me.

Let me not be put to shame for I take refuge in you and may integrity

and uprightness preserve me for I wait for you.

And I would note something.

This is one of the major themes of Scripture.

Abraham waited.

David waited.

Joseph waited.

And do you know who else waited?

God.

Let me explain what I mean here.

All the way back in the Garden of Eden when God was handing out punishments, curses for the

disobedience of Adam and Eve, but namely Adam, God cursed the serpent

and said that he would raise up a seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent.

And humanity waited for thousands and thousands of

years for that seed of the woman to come onto the scene.

Waited and waited.

Waited through the generations preceding Noah.

Waited for the thousands of years and generations from Noah all the way to

Christ.

In fact, Jewish women in the Old Testament period when they would get married,

there was a little blessing that the women kind of gave to the newly married women and it basically went

along the lines of may you be the one.

May you be the one to bear the Messiah.

The one who will rescue us.

The one who will redeem us.

And the children of Israel coming out of slavery, back into captivity in Babylon

then under the boot of Alexander the Great who was then his

kingdom conquered by the Romans they waited and waited

and waited.

The scripture says in Galatians 4, but when the fullness of time had come,

God sent forth his son born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who

were under the law so that we might receive the adoption as sons.

God kept his promise.

He sent us the seed of the woman who bore our sin on the cross so that we can be forgiven,

pardoned, redeemed, reconciled to God and have hope hope in the world to

come.

And now we are back to the waiting game.

We wait.

We wait patiently for the arrival of our great God and Savior.

We wait patiently for Christ to come to rescue us, to raise our bodies from the

grave, to give us resurrection and lead us into the new world.

And in the moment, have you guys noticed that right now the new normal is

that everything is getting worse by the day.

I don't want to date this sermon, but I'm going to end up dating it anyway.

Right now we have Kyle Mann in the Babylon Bee banned

from Twitter for daring to say that Michael Levine is a man.

And yet he is.

They've spoke the truth and they had their account locked so they cannot continue to speak.

And others who have followed suit have had the similar fate.

It's as if, well, Twitter has decided to pull a Putin.

And you know what?

It's only going to get worse.

What it's called for right now is that we wait.

We wait patiently.

While the world goes crazy and rages against God, while the church apostatizes

and continues to head into oblivion, we wait.

We continue to hang on to these promises.

The promises of being reconciled to God, adopted as His children.

We no longer being slaved but children.

Now we can cry out to God, Abba, Father, that's the point here.

We wait.

And someday, Christ will make good His promise.

He will return in glory.

He will judge the living and the dead.

And the Scriptures are so clear.

Read Daniel 7.

God will vindicate His saints.

Those who keep the testimony of Jesus.

Trust in Christ and obey His commands.

He will give them the new earth.

The present regimes of the world that are waging war against the sun.

They are doing it futilely.

And in the midst of it, we will be made to suffer.

If not directly, then maybe our bodies might fail.

Maybe we might have an accident or get a chronic disease.

And then, what do we do?

We wait.

We wait.

I think of Bernie Setter, Pastor Setter of the Lutheran Church in Grafton.

A man who's played an instrumental role here at Kongsvinger.

He was a man who helped us tremendously, great patience, great skill.

Who trusted in Christ.

And today, he's no longer waiting.

He's with Jesus.

He died in the faith a couple of days ago, and his waiting is over.

And so whether Christ shows up today, or next Thursday, or whether we

expire and are with Him sooner than that, the time

will come when we no longer need to wait.

But like Joseph, like David, like God, like the patriarchs,

today we wait.

Faith hangs on to those promises and knows that the changing, shifting sands of time cannot

undo or erode the promises of God.

We are forgiven in Him.

There's a new earth coming, so let us wait.

In the name of Jesus.

Amen.

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