Joseph's Scars

Genesis 45:1-15 Joseph's Scars

1. Most people have some sort of scars

• Every scar is a memory, revealing an unfortunate accident (Bike accident) , a random act of stupidity, or some kind of injustice. Maybe you were trying to imitate Evil Knievel on plywood ramp,

• Maybe you had a brother and a neighbor like I had who threw rocks at vultures thinking they could hit them but instead rock hit right on top of head. That explains my intellect

• Maybe there are scars that are less visible and yet run much deeper, the result of a deep wounded-ness of the soul. Scars remind us that life isn’t fair and can be painful. Every time we look at a scar, we remember the story.

2. The Joseph story is a scar story about a young man’s wounded-ness and recovery.

• Joseph scars are many due to jealousy of his brothers because his Father favored him3Now Israel loved Joseph more than the others and he made A robe for him. (Genesis 37:3).

• Joseph shared his dreams of his brothers bowing down to him. Brothers were hot

• When Joseph goes out to check on the brothers after Jacob told him to, they finally decide to get rid of him. They toss him in a well taking off his coat, and then sold him

• The brothers told their father he was eaten by a wild animal and showed him the coat

3. Joseph is brought as a slave to Egypt and sold to an official named Potiphar, who saw Joseph’s potential and put him in charge of the household.

• Potiphar’s wife desired to have Joseph. But Joseph refuses her, she accuses him of rape Prison

• But Joseph doesn’t complain about the wounds. Instead, he makes a favorable impression on the prison warden, who puts him in charge of the other prisoners.

• He interprets dreams and eventually rises from the dungeon to pharaoh’s house.

• Joseph predicts a great famine to come, Pharaoh appoints him in charge of everything

4. The famine strikes hard in Joseph’s homeland of Canaan, where his father and brothers are.

• Joseph now can get his brothers back for the horrible scars they have given Joseph

• Scarred for life by what they had done to him. He has every right to see himself as a victim, and we wouldn’t blame him if he wanted some payback.

• Joseph refuses to be the victim of misdoings; he refuses to use his physical and emotional scars as reasons for despair or revenge. Joseph instead sees his scars as signs of God’s grace

• Genesis 50:20, Joseph sums up all that he has learned from his scars. “Even though you intended to do harm to me,” Joseph says to his brothers, “God intended it for good, in order to preserve a people,

• Joseph had scars from being tossed in the well, scars from being tossed in the dungeon, scars of rejection, scars of false accusation, and scars from longing to be in his father’s presence

5. Joseph now meets the ones who have punished him and scared him

• Genesis 45, Joseph stands over his begging brothers who don’t yet recognize him,

• Joseph could inflicted great harm on the brothers but he didn’t

• Joseph isn’t there to inflict more scars on them. “I am your brother, Joseph,” he said to them, “whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here;

• Joseph looks back at the events of his life with a new vision where the scars of pain, injustice, rejection, and separation were only part of the story.

6. Finally, God used Joseph’s scars his slavery, to save his family, through whom all would be blessed

• Then later God used the scars of Jesus to bring salvation to the World

• God’s goodness wins in the end The apostle Paul, while in prison with many scars of his own, could say, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, ” (Romans 8:28).

• God is at work God is making things good, yes we have scars, but we also have God who helps us persevere