God Works In Mysteriuos Ways! Series

God reveals Himself to people in many ways! God reveals Himself through His own words in the Bible. God reveals Himself through the Holy Spirit. God reveals Himself through Creation. God reveals Himself through the work of angels. And God also reveals Himself through people!

In the days of the Old Testament, God chose a group of people to reveal Himself; God chose Abraham and his descendants; God chose the Israelites to reveal Himself in the past! And if you study eschatology, you will note in the future that again through Israel, God will powerfully reveal Himself once and for all to the world! Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord!

God works in “mysterious ways”, but His message is clear; God is Creator who desires everyone to be holy and be with Him forever and ever!

Before we talk about how this should impact our lives today, let us learn more from the story of Joseph in Egypt.

Open your Bibles to Genesis Chapter 41. I’ve asked Joe and Sesil Morris to read our text this morning………

Does God work in mysterious ways? Mysterious means beyond ordinary understanding. What happened in this story with Pharaoh and Joseph that were beyond ordinary understanding?

First of all, the Pharaoh not only had one but 2 interesting dreams which bothered him. The dreams bothered him so much that he called all the wisemen to interpret the dreams; but no one could interpret the dreams!

Was God involved in bringing those dreams to Pharaoh?

Absolutely! Pharaoh’s dreams provided a way for Joseph (God’s man) to get out of prison and become Pharaoh’s right hand man. All of this had to happen because God had plans for the Israelites. God desired to reveal Himself to the world and to bring holiness to the Chosen People. God works in mysterious ways; He gave dreams for the purpose of His Chosen People!

And for more than 2 years, how can the cupbearer completely forget about Joseph, the man who gave him the great news of getting out of prison?

We noted last week that God likely kept the cupbearer silent about Joseph to teach Joseph a lesson about totally depending on God not man. Look again at v9…………

The cupbearer’s conscience all of sudden woke up after 2 years! Do you think God had anything to do with that? God used the cupbearer to bring Joseph, God’s man, to Pharaoh. God works in mysterious ways! God even used a bartender! Now, this doesn’t mean, I encourage you to hang out at bars!

Let’s stick to the Bible!

How well did Joseph know his God?

Look again at v15-16……….

Joseph knew that it is God who deserves all the power and glory! Joseph knew that God can work in mysterious ways!

And look again at v32…………..

God was certainly at work and He gave Pharaoh 2 dreams to make sure He got the king’s attention! God works in mysterious ways and God may repeat Himself to emphasize His point; God may repeat Himself to emphasize His point; God may repeat Himself to emphasize His point! Does Scriptures seem to repeat itself for you? God maybe trying to get our attention!

Are we listening?

Now look again at v33-36…………..

Joseph without any hesitation spoke wisely! Joseph spoke without thinking about himself. Joseph spoke without hesitation about a third person. How can Joseph speak without any hesitations or reservations? The wisdom spoken by Joseph was directly from God!

And so, even to the king of Egypt, it was clear that God was mysteriously but powerfully at work! Look at what Pharaoh said in v38, "Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?" And because of God’s presence in Joseph, what did Pharaoh do according to verses 39-41? Because God was at work, Joseph, who was a slave, was put in complete charge of the most powerful nation in the world at the time, second only to Pharaoh!

Two more points about God being at work mysteriously but powerfully: God allowed and blessed Joseph to marry not only a non-Israelite, but a daughter of a priest!

Why do we freak out about “mixed marriages” when it may be God ordained?

And we note of course at the end of Genesis 41, God accomplished everything that was predicted!

Does God still work in mysterious and powerful ways today? Let me ask this question: How did you learn about Jesus Christ??

Do you know that many Muslims are recently becoming Christians because of dreams and visions? According to Wendell Evans of the Billy Graham Center’s Institute for Muslim Studies, “more and more stories are coming out of closed countries, of God supernaturally evangelizing Muslims through dreams and visions. Of the estimated thousands of new believers in Iran in the last few years, over half of them became believers after Jesus personally came to them in a dream or vision.” Here’s one example.