God Faithfully Leads His Call
Engage with the Lord: Joseph’s Story • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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At the Root of It All, Covenant
At the Root of It All, Covenant
Only Talk to God When I Need a Favor, Jellyroll Song
Contract based perspective - ledger of credit and debt; you know what you are getting yourself into; you set limits on the commitment; you analyze a cost benefit analysis in advance; you calculate; If one party falls short of the expectation, you in turn should not fulfill in full your end
Covenant based perspective - relationally driven; built on gift and grace; does not calculate; follows through no matter the reciprocation by the other party; there is no cost benefit analysis because a covenant is fulfilled with an “at all cost” mentality; closed human covenant is the one of marriage
I will take you as my own people and I will be your God
Exodus 6:7 (NIV)
I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.
He rescues His people because of His covenant
Exodus 6:5 (NIV)
Moreover, I have heard the groaning of the Israelites, whom the Egyptians are enslaving, and I have remembered my covenant.
God does not treat his people as their sin deserves
Leviticus 26:44 (NIV)
Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them or abhor them so as to destroy them completely, breaking my covenant with them. I am the Lord their God.
Christ is a fulfillment of God’s covenant
Jeremiah 31:31–34 (NIV)
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
God’s covenant is not a reciprocal relationship. Contracts are built on equivelance like an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. If I invite you over for dinner, you must do the same.
The logic of the covenant is an at all cost logic. God walks through the animals alone as he makes his covenant with Abram in Genesis 15. God rescues the Israelites in Exodus before He gives them the Law to uphold. Jesus lays down his life in the New Covenant.
Romans 5:9–10 (NIV)
Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
God’s covenant pursues His creation at all cost. The truth of the covenant then is not swayed by circumstances; neither good or bad. When man falls short of God’s justice, God’s grace steps in and God sacrifices Himself to fulfill our shortcomings that His covenant may not be swayed by anything. It is at all cost. There are no limits. God has pledged all of Himself to the fulfillment of His covenant at all cost. This is clearly seen in the rescues of the Lord in spite of the Israelites cursing. This is perfectly seen in the gift of Jesus upon the cross.
At All Cost Joseph is Called
At All Cost Joseph is Called
Genesis 41:1–32 (NIV)
When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing by the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up.
He fell asleep again and had a second dream: Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted—thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up; it had been a dream.
In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.
Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I am reminded of my shortcomings. Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was impaled.”
So Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh.
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.”
“I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “In my dream I was standing on the bank of the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, fat and sleek, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows came up—scrawny and very ugly and lean. I had never seen such ugly cows in all the land of Egypt. The lean, ugly cows ate up the seven fat cows that came up first. But even after they ate them, no one could tell that they had done so; they looked just as ugly as before. Then I woke up.
“In my dream I saw seven heads of grain, full and good, growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads sprouted—withered and thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven good heads. I told this to the magicians, but none of them could explain it to me.”
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.
“It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravage the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.
When we fix our eyes on our circumstances, we are moved to deal with the Lord in a contractual manner. We seek favor and become willing to sacrifice in return. This manner of engagement only lasts until we no longer have need for the terms of the contract. It is the reason why all too often we find ourselves in cyclical patterns of surface engagement with the Lord that fail to transform our hearts. We have to shift our focus to that of covenant to look beyond our circumstances.
God’s covenant has driven the narrative from the story of Abraham through to the story of Joseph. God would fulfill His covenant and preserve His people at all cost, even Joseph being sold into slavery and falsely imprisoned. Joseph, recognizing that God’s covenant applied to him as well, trusted the Lord with his circumstances and he leaned into the Lord and His covenant to sustain him as he was positioned by the Lord in accordance with God’s covenant.
God has woven each of us into the proclamation of His covenant with His creation. Each one of our lives and every one of our circumstances has been redeemed for His perfect purpose of transforming hearts in accordance with His covenant. At all cost, God will fulfill His covenant with His creation. How has your life been shaped by His covenant? How will you life tell the story of God’s covenant?