Joseph and God's Purposes

Gospel Storey  •  Sermon  •  Submitted   •  Presented   •  23:23
0 ratings
· 58 views
Files
Notes
Transcript
Handout
We are going to look at Gen 50:15-21 in a few minutes where Joseph is dealing with his brothers after they sold him as a slave to the traders who then sold him to slavery in Egypt.
To get to Gen 50 and the passage for tonight, we travel through several events in Joseph’s life.

Joseph tells his brothers that they will bow before him.

Remember when Joseph was young, he proclaimed to his older brothers that they would bow down to him? Here is how Joseph told it…
Genesis 37:7 NLT
7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!”

Joseph was thrown into a pit and sold as a slave

Genesis 37:24 NLT
24 Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.
Genesis 37:25 NLT
25 Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt.

Joseph was falsely accused of assaulting Potiphar’s wife and thrown into prison

Joseph being falsely accused of assaulting Potiphar’s wife and being thrown into prison.
Genesis 39:20 NLT
20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained.
So Joseph, by no fault of his own, has been sold into slavery and then falsely accused to trying to rape someone and thrown into prison.

Then is a reversal of his fortunes…

Joseph does well in prison. god blesses him and he has it pretty good fro being in prison. Joseph interpreted a couple fo dreams the cupbearer and the baker for Pharoah had … after a few more years, he interprets Pharaohs dream and here is what happened.
Genesis 41:41 NLT
41 Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the entire land of Egypt.”
Talk about a change. Joseph came from slavery and prison to being number 2 in the nation of Egypt, the most powerful nation on the planet at that time.
And just as Joseph dreamed as a young man,

Joseph’s brothers bowed before him.

Genesis 42:6 NLT
6 Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came. When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground.
Notice, in everyone of Joseph’s realms of authority, Potiphars’ house, the prison, and the Egyptian court …

Joseph was always second in command.

He was second under Potiphar
Genesis 39:6 NLT
6 So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn’t worry about a thing—except what kind of food to eat! Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man,
He was second under the warden at the jail
Genesis 39:23 NLT
23 The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.
He was second under the Pharoah
Genesis 42:6 NLT
6 Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came. When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground.
He is never the sole head of any of these places, but always needs to submit to somebody higher than him. And he honors this limitation and need for submission meticulously. Sometimes as in Potiphar’s house, it helps him maintain his moral integrity, even though it results in him being thrown onto prison.
Genesis 40:15 NLT
15 For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison, but I did nothing to deserve it.”
This shows a lesson we all need to learn.

He who is chosen to lead must learn to submit.

Finally, Joseph decides to reveal himself to his brothers and shows how he has grown by forgiving them.
Genesis 45:5 NLT
5 But don’t be upset, and don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place. It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.
He even states that though they meant evil, God was behind it using their actions to eventually save the known world.
Now in Genesis 50, Jacob is dead ant the brothers are afraid that Joseph will take it out on them and that now Joseph will kill them.
Genesis 50:15 NLT
15 But now that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers became fearful. “Now Joseph will show his anger and pay us back for all the wrong we did to him,” they said.
Now that Jacob was dead, the brothers were afraid that Joseph would take his revenge on them for what they did. After all, how could he possibly forgive them for selling him into slavery?
So they sent a message to Joseph.
Genesis 50:16–18 NLT
16 So they sent this message to Joseph: “Before your father died, he instructed us 17 to say to you: ‘Please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you—for their sin in treating you so cruelly.’ So we, the servants of the God of your father, beg you to forgive our sin.” When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept. 18 Then his brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph. “Look, we are your slaves!” they said.
They just knew he was going to take revenge on them, so they offered themselves as his slaves. But to their surprise. Joseph did not seek revenge on them.

Joseph forgave his brothers for what they did.

He not only forgave them, but promised to take care of them and their families.
Genesis 50:19–21 NLT
19 But Joseph replied, “Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, that I can punish you? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. 21 No, don’t be afraid. I will continue to take care of you and your children.” So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.
Joseph’s forgiveness was complete. He demonstrated how God graciously accepts us even though we don’t deserve it. Because God forgives us even when we have ignored or rejected him, we should graciously forgive others.
God brought good out of the brother’s evils deed, Potiphar’s wife’s false accusation, the cub-bearers neglect and seven years of famine. The experiences in Joseph’s life taught him that

God brings good from evil for those who trust Him

Let me ask, do you trust God enough to wait patiently for Him to bring good out of bad situations?
You can trust him because as Joseph learned,

God can overrule people’s evil intentions to bring about his intended results.

If you have money or power or status today, it’s due to being born in a nation where yo can work hard and rise above the minimum to succeed. You don’t deserve it, but you were blessed to be born in the US. Basically, everything you have is a gift from God, not a result of your hard work.
It doesn’t matter what you have been through or are going through, God can and will redeem it and use to for his glory and your’s and others, good.

God is our hope through all life’s circumstances

Related Media
See more
Related Sermons
See more