Joseph

We can’t really understand the significance of Joseph’s faith if we don’t understand his story, so let’s turn to Genesis 37. Because of the length of Joseph’s story, we’re going to move quickly.

JOSEPH IN GENESIS

JOSEPH’S DREAMS

Aside from his birth, we first meet Joseph in Genesis 37. He is seventeen years old, and working for his father, Jacob, as a shepherd. We are told in Genesis 37:2 that he brought a bad report about his brothers back to Jacob. Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons, and even dressed him in fine clothes. His brothers hated him, probably for a number of reasons.

We also see in Genesis 37:5-11 that Joseph had some dreams in which his family – his parents included – bowed down to him. As a result even Jacob was upset with him, and his brothers certainly remained antagonistic.

JOSEPH SOLD INTO SLAVERY

The time came when Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers, who had the flocks in pastures three days to the north. Their hatred of Joseph was so great that they sold him to some passing Midianite traders. They slaughtered a goat and smeared the blood on Joseph’s clothes, and showed them to Jacob, who was understandably shattered by grief.

JOSEPH IN POTIPHAR’S HOUSE

The Midianites took Joseph to Egypt and sold him to a man named Potiphar. Potiphar was the captain of the bodyguard of Pharaoh – the head of his secret service, in a sense. The Lord gave Joseph tremendous success as a slave in Potiphar’s house, and Potiphar eventually made Joseph his personal servant and the overseer of all his property.

Joseph was a handsome man, and Potiphar's wife became attracted to him, and began trying to seduce him, with Joseph consistently resisting her. Eventually she became so desperate that she grabbed his robe, giving him no choice but to slip out of his clothes to escape her grasp before running outside. She accused him of trying rape her. Potiphar was outraged, and had Joseph thrown into prison.

JOSEPH IN PRISON

We read in Genesis 40 that the Lord granted Joseph success in prison as well, and soon he was virtually running the place. Two servants of Pharaoh – his cupbearer and his baker – had so offended him that he had them locked up. Both men had troubling dreams the same night. Joseph correctly interpreted the dreams. The baker would die, but the cupbearer would be released and put back into Pharaoh's service. Joseph asked the cupbearer to remember him when he was released, but he promptly forgot.

JOSEPH BEFORE PHARAOH

Two years later, Genesis 41 says, Pharaoh had a pair of deeply troubling dreams. None of his wise men could interpret his dreams, but the cupbearer remembered Joseph, and mentioned him to Pharaoh at long last. Joseph was released from prison and correctly interpreted Pharaoh's dreams: Egypt would experience seven fantastic harvests, followed by seven terrible harvests. Joseph offered sound advice to Pharaoh, who was so impressed that he made Joseph the number two ruler in all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself, and put him in charge of carrying out those preparations.

During the seven years of abundance Joseph followed the plan he had laid out for Pharaoh. He build storage facilities, and so much grain was stored up that it couldn’t be counted. Pharaoh had also given Joseph a wife, Asenath, who was the daughter of an Egyptian priest. During those abundant years she and Joseph had two sons, Manasseh, which means “cause to forget,” and Ephraim, which means “fruitfulness.” Both names are Hebrew, not Egyptian.

THE FAMINE

The famine began just as Joseph had said it would. The entire region suffered, but there was grain in Egypt, and Joseph increased Pharaoh's wealthy by selling grain to those who were hungry.

Genesis 42 tells us that Jacob and his family in Canaan faced starvation. So Jacob sent ten of his sons south to Egypt to buy grain and bring it back, keeping Benjamin at home.

The men came before Joseph, whom they hadn’t seen in twenty years or more. He recognized them, but disguised himself so they wouldn't know him. He had all ten thrown in jail for three days, and then kept Simeon in jail, and allowed the nine to go back to Canaan. He promised to release Simeon when they returned with their brother, Benjamin.

BACK TO CANAAN

The brothers returned to Jacob with the story of another lost son, telling him the truth this time. Jacob refused to let them take Benjamin back to Egypt with them. But, the famine grew even more severe, and finally he had no choice. He sent them back with Benjamin, but had little hope of seeing him against.

BACK TO EGYPT

When they returned to Egypt Joseph kept his word. He released Simeon, and sold them the grain they wanted. He also arranged for Benjamin to be accused of theft, and threatened to keep him as a slave. Judah then offered himself as a substitute for Benjamin, and asked for mercy. At this Joseph broke down and identified himself.

JACOB BROUGHT TO EGYPT

In Genesis 46 the brothers returned home and brought Jacob and the entire family back to Egypt. They became shepherds in Goshen, a very green area on the west side of the Nile delta. When Jacob died seventeen years later, Joseph had to ask Pharaoh for permission to leave Egypt to bury his father in Canaan. He might have been the number two ruler in Egypt, but he was the slave of the number one ruler.

JOSEPH AND HIS BROTHERS

Genesis 50 tells us that after Jacob died, Joseph’s brothers became terrified about what he might to do them. They lied to him, telling him that Jacob wanted him to forgive them. But Joseph reassured them: “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And the Scripture says, “So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.”

THE FAITH OF JOSEPH

This brings us to the end of Joseph's life, and the moment spoken of in Hebrews 11.

24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. (Genesis 50:24–26)

Exodus tells us that Moses did, indeed, take Joseph's remains with him when the Hebrews left, and Joshua 24 tells us that Joseph's body was buried in Canaan with his father, Jacob.

JOSEPH IN HEBREWS

22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel, and gave orders concerning his bones. (Hebrews 11:22)

What was it about Joseph’s faith that was so remarkable? It's that his faith had nothing to do with his own life, or even his own lifetime. By faith he spoke of a time centuries in the future, when Yahweh would deliver his family from Egypt. Joseph knew that the Lord had told Abraham that his descendants would be slaves for 400 years. Joseph also knew that the Lord had promised to personally deliver the children of Abraham from their slavery:

13 God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. 14 But I will also judge the nation whom they will serve, and afterward they will come out with many possessions.” (Genesis 15:13–14)

Joseph knew that this promise was in the process of being fulfilled, and that there were about 350 years to go. That was the focus of his faith. He trusted the Word of the Lord, and asked that they take him with them when they returned.

Consider this for a moment. Canaan couldn’t have held very many happy memories for Joseph. It was in Canaan that his brothers came to hate him. It was in Canaan that he was sold as a slave.

But in Egypt God made Joseph successful. He was an overseer in Potiphar's house. He was an overseer in the prison. He became the number two leader of the entire nation. He spent 80 years in that position of wealth and privilege and power and luxury.

From a practical point of view, for those who are inclined to focus on their immediate experience, Egypt was much better to Joseph than Canaan was.

But Joseph's faith was in what God would do for Israel, and he wanted to be part of that blessing. He didn't have any choice about dying in Egypt. But he didn't want to be left in Egypt, even if that was hundreds of years in the future.

BRINGING IT HOME

Why is this so important for you and me today? Because one of the reasons the letter to the Hebrews was written was to strongly warn against apostasy, falling away from Jesus Christ.

Twenty-two years ago a 23-year-old man named Joshua Harris published a book called “I Kissed Dating Goodbye.” He had been raised in a Christian home, and wrote that book as a defensive of sexual purity. That same year he became a pastoral intern at a large church in Maryland, and for several years was groomed by the pastor to take over one day. He became the senior pastor at the age of thirty. Eleven years later he resigned as pastor in order to broaden his spiritual horizons. Not long after he started a business consulting company.

And then, just a couple of weeks ago, he announced that he is divorcing his wife, and has complete renounced Jesus Christ and the Gospel. He wrote, “By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian, I am not a Christian.”

How could he have risen so high, so fast, and not ever been truly saved? I think it's because the modern church is incredibly short-sighted. The popular Christianity of today rarely looks more than a few weeks or months into the future, and usually not even that far. There is an entire industry of publishing and "ministries" that promise quick results.

For many, making even a one-year commitment to something is unthinkable. We are urged to seek instant results and quick satisfaction. If you believe the hype, you can read a book in a day or two that will radically change your life. Many in our time, Christians included, are so short-sighted that they fall for the advertising campaigns, and end up wasting their lives on the intensity of this moment.

Last week we talked about Jacob, a man whose focus was almost always on his immediate circumstances. At the age of 130, Jacob summarized his life as short and bitter.

But Joseph, after suffering far more betrayal than Jacob, after spending decades of his life as nothing more than a privileged slave, tells the men who betrayed him and sought to end his life, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." That isn't just the answer he gave them, but the summary of HIS life. Whatever his brothers or the Midianite traders meant, whatever Potiphar and his wife meant, whatever the jailer or the cupbearer or Pharaoh meant, God meant it for good.

Joseph had a faith that was centered not on today or tomorrow or next week, but looked forward years and decades and centuries, and ultimately, into eternity. There is never a point in Joseph's story where he shifts his view from eternity to this very moment.

That's why Joseph could say to his brothers, with all honesty, that God meant what happened to him for good.

Can I ask you, where is your faith aimed? Is your faith so focused on today that you need a microscope to see what it is you hope for? Or have you lifted your eyes the Lord and His promises, so that you need faith's telescope to see into eternity?

If, like Jacob, your hopes are settled on today and tomorrow and these moments, then you face summarizing your life as Jacob did his: short and bitter.

If, following Joseph's example, you keep your eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and finished of your faith, then you will be able to say with Joseph at the end of your days, "God meant it for good."

I urge you to life your eyes from the things of today, from the immediate circumstances of your life, from the temporary and momentary issues you face, and look to the Lord who is enthroned in the heavens. It’s not easy; it takes the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But by the help of the Spirit of God we can live with our hope fixed on the eternal promises of God, and live free of the burden of the moment.

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