Betrayal
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It’s all about us
It’s all about us
It’s Tuesday morning.
You go to hop on the freeway, and go south on the 15.
If you’ve ever made that mistake, you know what it’s like.
The freeway is backed up onto the main roads.
You finally make it onto the freeway.
You drive for about 5 miles and you find out the problem.
A big rig has tipped over.
An ambulance is on the scene.
And you mutter to yourself, “Of all the days. This had to happen today?”
There’s a hurricane that hits both of the Carolinas.
Flooding.
Damage.
And you think to yourself, “I wonder who’s gonna pay for all the damage. They’ll probably raise my taxes.”
You can feel your throat starting to get itchy.
You know what that means.
You’re starting to get sick.
Now the baby’s starting to cough.
“Why now?”, you mutter to yourself as you hear him cough up the hallway.
When things happen, our first impulse is very cause and affect.
This is happening, and its going to affect me how?
This is happening and it’s going to make my day bad.
This is happening and it’s going to hit my bank account.
This is happening and I don’t want to deal with it.
Our first reaction is cause and affect.
What is happening?
How does this affect me?
Yet, we are Christians.
And being Christians we believe in something called the sovereignty of God.
We have little phrases like:
“God has a plan.”
Or “God has a purpose.”
We have verses that we cling to such as , “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
We know these things.
We sing about these things.
But then putting them to practice … sometimes we aren’t so good at it.
That’s why we react towards cause and effect even as Christians.
Today we will be going through .
We begin the final leg of Genesis.
We are introduced to Joseph.
And what better way to learn about the providence and the sovereignty of God then by looking at Joseph.
Here’s the trick, the thing though.
We can’t look at Joseph the same way we look at our lives.
We can’t apply that same man centered thinking that we apply to our lives.
“How does this affect me?”
That doesn’t bring us any comfort.
That doesn’t bring you any comfort.
Man centered thinking, self centered thinking, vain thinking, is pure reaction.
It’s cause and affect.
You are most likely familiar with the life of Joseph.
Unfortunately, most of the time when we look at Joseph, we look at it in a cause and affect system.
But that’s not what this book is about.
Genesis is not about Joseph.
It’s not called, The Book of Joseph.
It’s called Genesis.
It means beginning.
It’s the beginning of God’s plan of salvation for mankind.
Instead, we are going to practice understanding the sovereignty of God.
We are going to practice finding God in horrific situations.
That’s what this is about, finding God in horrific situations.
Why is this important?
Because our purpose on earth is to glorify God.
To recognize His glory, His honor.
We are to give Him praise.
It’s easy to thank God for the good things.
Family.
Shelter.
Salvation.
Yet, we are to rejoice always.
There’s a flip side to that, and I’m sure you see it.
How can we do we rejoice when things are sour?
When the freeway is backed up because of an accident?
When unexpected bills arrive?
When tragedy strikes?
How do we do that?
By finding God in horrific situations.
First, we are Finding God in disappointment.
First, we are Finding God in disappointment.
Look at the first 4 verses of .
Read .
The passage begins with Joseph being 17 years old.
He’s with Bilhah and Zilpah’s sons, so 4 of Jacob’s sons.
He’s out being a shepherd, watching over the flocks.
Something happened, and Joseph brought back a bad report.
Often times this is taught as cause and affect.
Joseph is a tattle tell, a snitch.
He’s the arrogant son, who is just looking to get his brothers in trouble, and elevate himself.
That’s actually not the case at all.
Think about who Jacob’s sons are.
It’s not like they are known for being good.
They deceived one entire town.
Ransacking and plundering it.
They brought shame onto Jacob’s name.
Reuben, Jacob’s oldest son, had an affair with his step mom.
There’s plenty of reason to be suspicious of Jacob’s sons.
They need someone to watch over them.
And so while out in the field something happened, and Joseph brought a bad report.
This was the responsible thing to do.
It was the good thing to do.
He had his father’s desires in front of his own reputation.
We then learn that Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons.
Verse 3 says “because he was the son of his old age.”
And to show his love for Joseph, he gave him a robe of many colors.
The many colors means it was an expensive robe.
It would have been composed of many different pieces of fabric that were all a different color, then sown together.
The fabric isn’t cheap and neither are the colors.
If you were in Joseph’s brothers shoes, you’d cry out, “That’s not fair.”
Reuben’s the oldest, shouldn’t he get the special privileges.
That’s not fair.
Why does Joseph get the fancy jacket?
That’s not fair.
In fact if you look at verse 4, the brothers were so angry that it says they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
And understanding the type of guys they were, they probably weren’t just calling Joseph a big fat dodo head.
It was probably worse than that.
They were angry because they thought they deserved:
The affection.
They deserved the responsibility.
They deserved the favor.
Remember, this is not about them.
We are finding God in horrific sin.
We are finding God when we are disappointed.
Genesis is not called the Book of Joseph, it’s called Genesis.
Genesis means beginning.
This is the beginning of God’s plan of redemption, where He will save a people.
One common theme in salvation is that God graciously saves.
He doesn’t save people who are deserving.
Why?
Because no one is deserving.
All have sinned.
Genesis is where we meet the people that God is saving, Israel.
Now if you were going to pick a nation to save, would you pick Jacob’s family?
No.
Somewhere around the act of incest I’d be done with them.
Grace is giving something that is not deserved.
And that has been a theme throughout Genesis.
God chose Abraham and not Lot.
God chose Isaac and not Ismael.
God chose Jacob and not Esau.
And here we have Joseph being chosen and not his brothers.
One of the themes of the early books of the Bible is predestination and election.
God is choosing a people to show His love to.
You can’t get around that in the early books of the Bible.
You just can’t.
You cannot get around that God chose Israel instead of all the other nations.
You just can’t.
Babylon didn’t have the Temple.
The Philistines didn’t have the Law.
It was Israel.
I’m pretty sure the staunchest and strictest Arminian would have to agree, God chose Israel over every other nation..
says, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you ...”
One of the reasons why people have problems with the doctrine of election is because like Joseph’s brothers we think we deserve the best.
We forget about our sin.
We may not have committed incest.
But the sin that we have done disqualifies us from deserving anything other than death.
So when we face disappointment in life, we must put things into perspective.
We must find God in what our expectations are.
And never presume that we are actually deserving of anything.
Instead, remember this principle of grace.
What is it we actually deserve?
It’s not whatever we are disappointed in.
We deserve His wrath.
In Christ we receive His mercy.
When we keep this in our perspective.
When we remember what it is that we deserve, then how can we think we deserve anything?
Then when we see the grace of God, demonstrated in Christ dying for us ...
How can we be satisfied in anything else?
And know that we live and die by the grace of God.
Finding God in others’ abilities.
Finding God in others’ abilities.
Look at the next group of verses in our text, .
Read .
Joseph’s brothers already hate him.
Now he’s starting to have some dreams.
One dream was that he was in the field binding sheaves.
Basically, rolling crops, binding them, so they can be transported.
All of a sudden what he was rolling stood up.
And then his brothers sheaves began to bow down to his.
Later he had another dream.
In this one there was the sun, moon and 11 stars.
And the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowed down to him.
The
These aren’t normal dreams.
These are not what we experience on a nightly basis.
They aren’t deja vu.
These aren’t your average dream.
You ever dream of flying.
I like that one.
My least favorite dream is I’m in a fight, but I can only punch like you move underwater.
Super slow.
I can promise you, none of you have dreamt like what Joseph was dreaming.
These dreams were messages from God.
And the message is pretty clear, and it’s explained in the text.
In both dreams Joseph was elevated over his family.
The first one, his brothers were bowing down to him.
And the second one, the entire family was bowing down to him.
Now if we think about this in the hopeless, cause and affect way, there’s plenty to be angry about.
It seems as if Joseph is just looking to get everyone mad at him.
He knows his dad likes him.
Now he’s rubbing it in everyone’s face.
“I’m the favorite son, bow down to me.”
Does that ever happen to you?
You see someone succeeding.
Someone joyful.
Someone carefree, and inside you’re angry.
We are a strange people aren’t we?
We want to be happy, but if someone else is happy and I’m not, I’d like that happy person to pipe down please.
There’s nothing worse than a cheerful person when you’re grumpy.
Yet, we are finding God in other’s abilities.
Therefore, we need to view other’s abilities through God’s eyes.
Joseph was not being arrogant.
He was not being proud.
He had received a message from God.
One of the ways that God used to communicate to the prophets, was through dreams.
To silence Joseph was to silence a message from God.
It would be like going to Elijah and saying, “Tell me later bro, I don’t want to hear it.”
You don’t silence a message from God.
That’s the kind of thing that people did to the prophets in the Old Testament, and God was furious.
Additionally, you don’t want to silence this message.
This wasn’t a bad dream.
Joseph’s dreams were not something that should have scared or intimidated Jacob’s family.
If you think forward in the book, Joseph ends up being in a position of power to save Jacob and his family.
They eventually will come to Joseph and receive:
Food.
Shelter
Protection
Jobs.
Joseph being in a position of power over his brothers is actually what saves their lives.
It’s the type of thing you don’t silence.
It’s the type of thing you want to hear over and over again.
Joseph’s elevation was for their benefit.
Let’s apply this to our lives.
When you are in a position of seeing others succeed and prosper, instead of holding a grudge against them, we are to find God in their abilities.
Especially, within the church.
Remember that God has gifted each of us differently.
Within the body you have a special place.
Within the body you have a special purpose.
Within the body you have a special function.
And when you see someone working how they are gifted and designed by God, it’s to be praised.
It’s to be accepted.
This past year we’ve talked a lot about finding out where you are gifted.
says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
You are His workmanship.
It’s not just you who is gifted.
But others are gifted as well.
Others are His workmanship.
Therefore, just as we celebrate how God has gifted you, let’s celebrate how God has gifted others.
When Joseph’s brothers wanted to silence him, they were really wanting to silence the Holy Spirit Who was working within him.
Don’t let this be charged against you.
Instead, see others as what you need, and someone that God has provided for you in them.
Obviously, we aren’t talking about a sinful trait.
Again that goes back to our purpose.
But when someone is getting to you.
We exist to glorify God.
Remember what God is doing within them.
And when God demonstrates His work upon a life and we recognize it … we are recognizing the work of God and He is glorified.
By the way, when I see God working in you, I give praise to God.
God has given elders, teachers and pastors over the church to, as it says in , “to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,”
And when you work … the body of Christ is built up … and God is praised.
Finding God in violence.
Finding God in violence.
The last element found in this text is perhaps the most sensitive.
It contains lots violence.
And how do we find hope where there is violence.
We live in a fallen world.
Just after creation, Adam ate of the fruit.
When that happened, sin entered the world.
God’s beautiful creation would never be the same.
It would never go back to what it was before.
Adam and Eve had a son named Cain.
Followed by a son named Abel.
It wasn’t long till the first crime was committed … Cain killed Abel.
And his blood was crying out to God from the ground.
There certainly is evil in this world.
And it’s unfair.
Joseph hasn’t had an easy life so far.
His brothers hate him … for being the responsible one.
His family hates him because he’s gifted by God.
And now things only get worse.
In verses 12-13, Jacob sends Joseph to Shechem to find his brothers.
Earlier in Genesis, Shechem was where his brothers forced all the men to be circumcised, then attacked them while they were recovering.
So, Joseph is going to a place that isn’t safe … all by himself.
They hate him.
He’s going into enemy territory by himself.
But out of obedience to his dad, he goes looking for his brothers.
Sadly for Joseph, it’s not the people of Shechem he has to watch out for.
His brothers see him from the distance and they figure out now is the time.
Now’s the time to get their revenge on him.
They plot to kill him and then throw him into a pit.
Reuben, has had a bit of a change of heart.
He doesn’t want to kill Joseph.
Why?
We don’t know.
Maybe he’s genuinely sorry for having an affair with his step mom.
Maybe he’s trying to get in good with his dad.
Maybe it’s both.
We don’t know.
We do know he tries to stop the murder.
He comes up with a different plan.
And in his different plan you can see just how evil Jacob’s sons are.
He says, “We don’t want to shed blood.”
“We don’t want him to die at our fingertips.”
“Instead, let’s throw him into a pit.”
Before their plan was to kill him then throw him into a pit.
The new plan is just throw him into a pit.
He’ll die there.
That’s a slower death.
What they didn’t know is that later on, Reuben would come and rescue him out of the pit, and he’d be the hero.
They agree with Reuben’s plan.
They take Joseph’s colored robe and throw him into the pit.
They throw him into the pit.
And then have a little picnic.
There is Joseph, going to die of starvation and dehydration in a pit.
And they think it’s a good time to eat.
All in a day’s work.
How they could eat after their crime, I don’t know.
Reuben must have left, because after they ate, they saw some Ishmaelites coming along the way.
They sold Joseph to them for 20 pieces of silver, which comes out to about $115.
And Joseph gets shipped off to Egypt.
None of this is fair.
Theres very little good to say is found in violence like this.
Joseph is a sad victim.
Yet, remember this book isn’t about Joseph.
And life isn’t about you.
This is about God.
This is about His plan of redemption.
This is about His plan to make a people for Himself.
This is about introducing us to His plan of redemption.
And so, even this apparently, random act of violence by Joseph’s brothers … is something specially planned by God.
Therefore, it means that this is something that we can find God in.
It means it is something that we can even find comfort in.
Do you know what the most dangerous part of this whole chapter is?
The most dangerous part.
The part most up in the air.
This is a terrible statement to say, because God never fails.
But the part where His plan could have been damaged the most … was if Reuben had been able to pull Joseph out of the pit and bring him back to his father.
Because that would have messed everything up.
God’s plan always was that Joseph go to Egypt.
And God’s plan was that Joseph would go there in chains.
There are a handful of reasons.
The first reason is because God said so.
Back in , God told Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in another land for 400 years.
So number one reason is because God said so.
It will serve as a time for Israel to grow and become a nation.
70 people will enter Egypt.
A multitude will leave.
Another reason is because there is going to be a huge drought in the area.
Joseph’s role is that he is going to go to Egypt and God will allow him to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams and then come up with a plan to save the region.
Egypt will be spared.
The surrounding areas will be spared.
And … Jacob’s family will eventually show up, they will be spared.
For this to happen, Joseph must first find himself in chains within Egypt.
What looks like random, evil acts of violence is actually a part of God’s good plan to save a people, make a people, and to protect Jacob’s children.
And on this side of the story, we look back and we praise God for his good plan.
As we do so many things in life.
And God continues to reveal His good plan … even through violence.
What I’m about to say, I don’t say lightly.
In fact … I’m pretty sure that what I’m about to say might even be insulting.
Our nation’s past has an ugly history of slavery.
People were kidnapped.
Stolen.
Bred like animals.
Sold on auction blocks.
Treated like property.
I’m of course talking about the treatment of African Americans during the time of slavery.
And yet … many of them became Christians through these awful events.
It’s not an excuse to say, “Maybe slavery was okay.”
I don’t say maybe Joseph’s brothers were okay in what they did.
And I’m certainly not saying, maybe slavery was acceptable.
But there are people who we will be with for eternity.
Many African Americans have been saved by Christ, and are saved by Christ because of the awful sins of our ancestors.
They heard the Gospel through, cruel, oppressive, slave masters.
And had that never happened … they never would have met Christ.
I can find God in the violence.
Corrie Ten Boom, the dutch Christian who was arrested and put into a concentration camp, said that at night, they would gather around the little Bible they smuggled into the prison.
It would be read aloud, then translated into different languages.
She recounts of those times, “These were little previews of heaven, these evenings beneath the light bulb.”
Those moments were a glimpse of what heaven would be like.
Time in a concentration camp led her to have a better understanding of what heaven will be like when people from every corner of the earth are gathered in awe before our king.
That was under Nazi oppression in a concentration camp.
I can find God in violence.
And the greatest act of violence, was when Jesus Christ was put on that cross.
From a simple cause and affect world, we say what a waste.
What a shame.
It’s ugly, and like so much of history, the death of Jesus was violent.
But Jesus was no ordinary man.
And His death was no ordinary death.
Was it an evil act?
Yes it was.
In Peter’s sermon in , he says, “this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.”
Jesus was killed by lawless men.
It was an evil act.
And yet, His death was no accident.
It happened according to God’s definite plan, and is something He foreknew.
He foreknew it because He planned it.
If there’s ever a crime that should be mourned, it’s the death of the innocent Jesus Christ.
“for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. “
And yet, if there ever was a death that we celebrate … it’s the death of Christ.
It was His death where our sins were paid for.
It was His death where Satan was openly mocked.
It was because of His death that we find ourselves being adopted by God, because our sins were paid for.
By looking to the cross we find God in violence.
And when we find God’s purpose and plan … then we have a reason to rejoice.
Each week at communion.
Slightly off topic, but I heard of a church where people went up in front of the church with cards.
The cards were a before and after.
One side was before they were a Christian.
The other side was the after.
There was a lady and her card said, “Terminal cancer. 6 months to live.”
There was a man next to her, and his said, “Unbelieving doctor, who watched lady with cancer deal with death.”
He then turned his card over.
“Because of her hope in Christ, I became a Christian.”
She then flipped her’s over, and it said, “Worth it.”
That’s what we are getting at here.
Being able to rejoice in the sovereign plan of God.
Getting outside of a pure cause and affect world, and instead, dwelling within a mindset and the reality that God is sovereign.
He’s not reacting.
He’s not watching.
He’s planning.
He’s working.
He’s saving.
As we continue through life, these things are going to continue to happen.
As we continue through life, these things are going to continue to happen.
You will meet people who annoy you.
Violence will happen.
Hearts will be broken.
Disappointments will happen.
Violence will occur.
You can continue to look at them in a fatalistic, cause and affect manner.
But I promise you that is an empty path.
Because everything is meaningless on it.
Or you can do what you were created to do.
And that is give glory to God.
By trusting His plan.
And by looking for His good plan.
And then when you see it … give Him thanks.
I’m sure there are those of you who are there.
There are things you would choose to ignore.
There are people you would choose to ignore.
Yet, the sovereignty of God doesn’t allow you to.
If we seek to glorify God … then we have to trust that he has:
Placed people and situations in your life for a reason.
He has gifted people and made them a certain way for a reason.
And the worst of events … are for a reason.
If we truly acknowledge the greatness of God, then we have to do it in all things.