Joseph, He Got Up
Genesis 37:12-36 Matthew 18:21-35 Genesis 44-46 October 20, 2009
How many of you have asked that question, “Lord how many times should I forgive? How many times should I put up with this? How many times is enough” One person that dealt with this question was Joseph in our Scripture reading today. Joseph was in a family with 11 brothers from four different women, but all the same father. So there was a lot of family tension, because Joseph’s mom had been his father’s favorite and everyone knew it. Joseph became the favorite of his father and his brothers resented him for it.
Not only that, God chose Joseph for a certain task in life and gave him some dreams about what was going to happen in the future. Joseph had two dreams, but it was obvious that in both dreams that his brothers would kneel down before him as if he was ruling over them. Now with Joseph being the second youngest of all the family, this was extremely unlikely to happen. Now if you combine Joseph’s ego that he was going to be somebody special, with his father’s favoritism you can see why his brothers were not very fond of him.
Then to make matters worse, the brothers were out doing something they were not supposed to be doing, and they all made an agreement not to tell what they had done. Everybody went along with this plot except Joseph. He told his father what his brothers had done, and they got in trouble for it. This made them more furious with Joseph.
Joseph is about 17 when his father sent him looking for his brothers, because his father thought something might have happened to his brothers. Joseph is willing to go look for them, not knowing if he was risking his life to the same trouble which may have befallen his brothers. When Joseph does get close to his brothers, they recognize him coming at a distance, because he was wearing that special designer coat of many colors that his father had made for him.
Just seeing that coat made them angry and jealous and upset. One of them said, “here comes that dreamer, let’s kill him and throw him into one of the pits and lie, and say a ferocious animal tore him to pieces. Then we will see what comes of his dreams.” One of his brothers Rueben, the oldest, said “let’s not kill him, but just throw him into the pit and let him die there”
Joseph finally reached his brothers, after this long journey and said, “boy I sure am glad I found you guys. I was getting so worried. I got lost myself.” The next thing he knew, his brothers had stripped him of his designer coat, and threw him down into this well. He hit the bottom with a thud and was trying to figure out what was going on.”
He started begging with them to please help him out. They were all laughing at his pleas and his pain. He’s in the pit starting to cry, he started to feel where his body was hurting from landing so hard in that well. He probably called them by name to help him. He’s saying, “I think I’m hurt, why won’t you help me.”
Joseph is down in the pit in pain. They are sitting up top eating a meal having a good time. Then the brothers spot some slave traders passing by on the road to Egypt. Judah, one of the brothers say, “Hey why should we kill him and get nothing for it. After all he is our brother, let’s sell him as a slave and get some money for it.”
They begin to help Joseph out of the pit. Joseph thinks this cruel joke they have played on him is over, little does he know just how bad things are about to get. His brothers dust him off, not to help him but to get a better deal from the slave traders. When he realizes that he’s being sold as a slave, he begs and pleads for his life, but all his efforts fall on deaf ears. His hands are tied. He’s led away like an animal, having to walk many, many miles to Egypt.
Now think about this. He had risked his life to go and find his brothers. Now he’s being beaten by people whose language he does not understand. His feet are blistering in the hot desert sand. The life of comfort he once knew is gone. His chances of seeing his father and his little brother, the two people in the world he really loved are gone.
His own brothers had sold him to slavery. Where was he to start in trying to forgive his brothers? Should he even want to forgive his brothers? Each day he was suffering a new pain, a new lash from a whip and an extreme loneliness because of his brothers actions.
His brothers had set out to get revenge on Joseph for things Joseph had no real control over. It was not Joseph’s fault that his father Jacob loved Rachael more than he did the other 3 women. Joseph had no control over who his mother was. Joseph had not control over his father choosing to make him his favorite son.
You know we can be angry with and jealous of people for things they have no control over. Even worse, we can set out to get revenge on them, and the revenge we seek is way out of proportion to the wrong we have suffered. Nothing Joseph had done or said to his brothers had merited this level of revenge of condemning him to slavery for the rest of his life. Most of his brothers were grown men and Joseph had just turned 17.
There is a warning I give to all those who seek revenge. You don’t know what the future is going to bring. You don’t even know what the outcome of your plan for revenge really will be. God can change our most thought out plans right at the last moment and have them backfire. I know it is difficult to believe, but the person you despise today, may be the same person who determines your fate in the future. You might need to get up, and to start to let go of some things you were thinking about doing to get even.
Joseph goes to Egypt, but he does not go alone. The favor of God is on his life. The one thing you should desire in your life, is to have the favor of God. The favor of God is not gained by lip service and talking about “I thank the man upstairs for His blessings on my life.” The favor of God is on you when you are living your life in obedience to the word of God, and putting Jesus Christ first in your life. God is with you and working in you even when you can’t see it.
Joseph’s brothers were determined to kill him and his dreams. They had no idea they were putting the dream into motion. Joseph probably saw that they were doing as killing the dream. He had no idea he was being positioned for the dream to take place.
It is hard for us to understand why we go through what we go through, but remember it’s not because we have lost the favor of God when we are living for Christ. God has promised not to put us in any situation that we cannot bear to stand up under it. Joseph is sold as a slave to Potiphar, one of Pharoah’s officials.
Joseph decides to get up from his circumstances and work hard at giving his best. Because the favor of God is upon him, he rises to the level of executive vice president in Potiphar’s business. His standard of living has zoomed up to the top. He’s learned the language of the Egyptians. He seems like he has it made. Little does he know because he wants to keep the favor of God on his life, he’s going to lose it all.
Joseph is a very handsome young man in his early twenties with a great personality. Unfortunately he attracts the eye of his boss’s wife. She tries to get him to have sex with her on several occasions. Joseph calmly explains to her that she is married, he does not want to betray his boss’ trust, and he does not want to sin against God.
She replies, forget all that Jesus stuff and let me show you what a real Egyptian woman can do for you. He now realizes that he needs to get up and run every time she come near. Joseph knew in order to have sex, you need two things , the opportunity and the time. He did his best to avoid the opportunity. Are we doing the same?
One day the opportunity came when she cornered him in the house and there was no one else there. He got up and ran out the door, but left his coat behind. She then screamed “Rape” and held up his coat as proof. She had him thrown into prison on charges she knew were false, just to get her revenge. He’s now gone overnight from executive vice –president to inmate #543221 with no family to come and get him out.
He’s in the prison for Pharoah’s prisoners which mean there is no appeal process except from the king himself. How on earth could a slave expect to get word to the king or pharaoh to look into his case. Should he forgive Potiphar’s wife for what she did to him? Do you think he’s a little upset with God—God I did the right thing and look what it got me.
But one thing he did have was God’s favor there in the prison. He got up and did his best in the prison and before long the prison warden had made Joseph in charge of the prison. It’s not as good as it was in Potiphar’s house, but it was better than it could have been. Two of Pharoah’s men are thrown into prison.
One is a baker and the other is the cup bearer. They each have dreams that confuse them. Joseph notices their confusion. They tell him their dreams. Joseph tells the cup-bearer in three days they will send for you and you will get your old job back. Now when you do, speak to Pharoah for me, because I have done nothing to be in this place. He tells the baker, in three days they will send for you and you will be executed. It happens exactly as Joseph says.
The cupbearer gets out and says nothing to Pharoah about Joseph. Two years and not a single word. Do you think Joseph should forgive this dude who swore, “I’m definitely going to help you out.” It is the cupbearer’s silence that keeps God’s plan into motion. If Joseph had of gotten out of that jail, he would have been heading back home to see his father and his brother. So God let him stay there for two years.
Then Pharaoh had a dream that scared the daylights out of him. He fell back asleep and had another dream that left him worried sick. He sent for all his magicians and wise men to ask them, “what on earth could these dreams mean.” No one had the faintest idea. Then the cupbearer spoke up and said, “there’s a Hebrew man in prison by the name of Joseph who knows how to interpret dreams.”
A few minutes after he said this, Joseph was grabbed once again by guards, he was shaved, and he was given some new clothes. The next thing he knew he was standing in front of Pharaoh, one of the most powerful men in the world at that time.
Joseph told Pharaoh, God will tell you what your dream means. It boiled to this: For seven years you are going to have a great harvest of food, so much that you won’t believe it. But it will be followed by seven years of famine, and there will not be food in Egypt and for the surrounding nations. God gave you two dreams which means the first seven years is going to happen immediately. So you should appoint someone over the food supply for the next seven years to store up the surplus so that in the years of famine there will still be plenty to eat.
Pharaoh said, “look since God has shown you all this, you should be in charge. From now on, everyone in Egypt will obey your command and you are second only to me.” Do you see what God’s favor can do in reversing your situation? An hour ago, he was just a slave in a prison with no hope of going anywhere. Now he’s the second most powerful man in one of the most powerful nations on earth at the time.
Pharaoh, gives Joseph authority, a new home and a wife. It has been 13 years since his brothers sold him as a slave. It’s been at least 3 years since Potiphar’s wife had him thrown in jail. Do you think Potiphar and his wife are a little bit nervous about what they had done in putting Joseph in prison?
Let’s move ahead 8 years. His brothers are in a country that’s run out of food. They hear they can get food in Egypt. Jacob sends 10 of them to buy food. The moment they show up, Joseph recognizes them, but they see an Egyptian in such power that it was inconceivable to even think it might be Joseph. He wants so bad to get even with them, but he wants to keep God’s favor on his life.
Joseph scares them by accusing them of being spies trying to find out the unguarded areas of the country. He confuses them by asking questions about their family. He really messes with their minds by inviting them to have dinner with him.
When it’s time for them to leave, he says the only way I will believe you are not spies is to bring your younger brother back with you. I’m locking up one of you until your youngest brother comes back. Don’t come back if your brother is not with you. Joseph has been using an interpreter the whole time to keep them off balance. They now ask the question, “is God paying us back for the wrong we did to Joseph. We saw how he begged us to help him and we would not listen.” Joseph’s brothers thought they would never need him again in their lives. Some times we just need to keep living.
Joseph brothers came back a second time, with Benjamin his younger brother. Joseph was struggling with this issue of forgiving his brothers. He arranged a scheme so that Benjamin was framed and would have to stay behind while the other brothers went back home. His intent was, once they were gone. He and Benjamin would hook up together. But the brothers knew, if they went home without Benjamin, their father would probably have a stroke or heart attack and die.
Those same guys that wanted to kill Joseph because he had a dream in which they would come and bow before him, come running in, and get on their knees in front of Joseph begging him for mercy. You don’t know what the future is going to bring when you set out for revenge. Joseph was tempted to do back to his brothers some of the damage they had done to him. He knew there were 5 more years of this famine. He knew the starvation that awaited them in the future.
The brothers knew they were not going to be allowed back in Egypt, but they had no idea the famine was going to get much worse. Do I get even or do I let it go. Here his brothers are crying and begging for mercy. They say, if we go back without our brother Benjamin, it would bring misery upon our father and ruin the final days of his life.
Joseph cannot bear the thought of adding misery to his father’s life. He makes the decision to get up. He sends out all of the Egyptians and others from the room so it’s just him and his brothers. He then breaks down in tears and is crying so loudly as he lets out 21 years of pain wondering how could they have done this to me. Can you imagine their shock and dismay when he gets up and says without an interpreter, “ I am Joseph your brother.” The brothers could say nothing because they were terrified at his presence.” They probably are thinking the ghost of Joseph has entered into this Egyptian and now he is going to get revenge.
But Joseph says, “come close and look at me and see it’s really me.” I know you sold me to Egypt and tried to make my life miserable. But God had a hand in this thing in order to save all of our lives. God sent me here to preserve our people. Go and get my father and bring him to me. Joseph then provides for father, his brothers, their families and their servants for the rest of their lives. How many people would have been destroyed if Joseph had not chosen to get up and forgive?
Have you asked the question, how many people would be liberated if you chose to rose up and forgive? God puts this thing of forgiveness in context when he says, “our unwillingness to forgive, puts a road block up that keeps God from forgiving us.” We cannot come to God seeking a grace and mercy that we are not willing to grant to others. We like to kid ourselves into thinking we are so much better than others, but we don’t know if given the same set of circumstances and choices, what we would have done, because all of us are sinners in need of a savior.
When Joseph rose up, he didn’t change his brothers, but he did change himself. He let go of his right to get even. And he experienced a freedom for the rest of his life that his brothers never did quite know. Even after he granted them forgiveness, they lived under the imagined fear that when their father died, then Joseph would get even. The evil in their hearts kept them from enjoying the free grace Joseph had given.
When Christ forgives us, Christ forgives us. When we blow it, Christ does not bring back up what was forgiven. He allows us the chance to start where we are. Don’t keep records of how many times you’ve forgiven. Use each day as a new chance to make a difference in the lives of others. The experiences that come into our lives will make us better or bitter. God always leaves the final choice up to us.
For hope and healing to come into our lives, we may have to let go of the past in order to enjoy the present and be able to dream for the future. I know you want the other person to change, but you may the one to have to make the adjustment. Jesus made the adjustments for us so that we could be saved.
You may say I just can’t forgive. Maybe by yourself you can’t, but with God’s grace, all things become possible. Joseph got up. With God’s grace, you can get up too.
