An Unexpected Tapestry

Please stand for the reading of the Word . . .

Genesis 45

5 But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

I’d like to preach a message today entitled . . .

An Unexpected Tapestry

Shall we pray . . . you may be seated . . .

Introduction

Joseph’s story culminates with a revelation he’s had about how he got to Egypt . . . he even repeated this emphatically in Genesis 50 . . . to Joseph . . . this was a CORE TRUTH he discovered . . . he told his brothers . . . essentially . . . “What you did to HURT me . . . God TURNED AROUND . . . to BLESS ME” . . .

He realized . . . “God brought GREAT THINGS through AWFUL CIRCUMSTANCES” . . .

The Hebrew language paints Joseph’s statement like this . . . “My brothers . . . you WOVE evil into the tapestry of my life . . . tears . . . pain . . . suffering . . . sorrow . . . but . . . WITHOUT YOU EVEN KNOWING IT . . . God took what YOU wove . . . and turned it around and made it a BLESSING TO ME . . . it became an UNEXPECTED TAPESTRY!”

It’s like one of those pictures that looks one way . . . but when you look a little deeper . . . it’s totally different . . . you see something totally UNEXPECTED . . . *2 Pics . . .

It’s the SAME INK . . . SAME PAINT . . . SAME LINES . . . but . . . when you look a little deeper . . . it becomes a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PICTURE . . .

I’m telling you . . . my God has this problem . . . He things He’s God . . . and He’s OMNISCIENT . . . OMNIPRESENT . . . AND OMNIPOTENT . . . and because of this . . .

He has this UNFATHOMABLE . . . UNCANNY . . . UNMATCHED . . . ABILITY . . . to TAKE the very same circumstances the devil brings against you . . . and do something NOBODY EXPECTED . . . He makes them into something beautiful . . .

God knows how to bring the BEST THINGS . . . OUT OF THE WORST PLACES . . . and weave an UNEXPECTED TAPESTRY . . .

Let’s take a look at the tapestry of Joseph’s life . . .

At one time . . . Joseph was the youngest son of his father . . . Jacob . . . and the only child of Jacob’s favorite wife . . . Rachel . . . later on she had Benjamin . . .

Laban TRICKED Jacob into marrying . . . Leah . . . Rachel’s sister . . . FIRST . . . then he was able to marry Rachel . . .

And while Leah . . . his least favorite wife . . . had SIX boys . . . Leah had NONE . . . she was barren for many years . . .

Then . . . the Bible says in Genesis 30:22 . . . God opened Rachel’s womb . . . and she became pregnant . . . and gave Jacob a son . . . Joseph . . .

Now . . . during all the years of Rachel’s barrenness . . . while Leah was having all those sons . . . the Lord was working on Jacob . . .

By the time Joseph WAS born . . . Jacob had CHANGED significantly . . . he walked differently . . . he walked with a limp . . . because he had a God-encounter . . . God had TOUCHED HIM . . . and changed him . . .

God also changed his name from “Jacob” . . . meaning . . . “supplanter” . . . or . . . “manipulator” . . . and changed it to “Israel” . . . meaning . . . “prince with God” . . .