Introduction:
A. Let’s begin with a statement that I think that all of us can agree on – “Life just isn’t fair!”
1. Can we all agree on that?
2. Do any of us need proof that life isn’t fair?
3. Look at this cartoon – “Life is unfair…for proof insert $1.00…get nothing in return.
B. I like this Calvin cartoon about fairness.
1. Calvin is arguing with his dad about going to bed.
2. “Why can’t I stay up late? You guys can. It’s not fair!”
3. His dad looks down and says, “The world isn’t fair, Calvin.”
4. Calvin marches off to bed saying, “I know, but why isn’t it ever unfair in my favor?”
C. How many of us have ever felt that way?
1. We know that life is unfair – we just feel like it is always unfair against us.
2. We wouldn’t mind the unfairness as long as it is unfair in our favor.
D. The truth of the matter is that life can be very hard.
1. Many people not only experience unfairness, they also experience mistreatment.
2. Children mistreat other children and that is not right or fair.
3. Students in school mistreat other students and that is not right or fair.
4. Parents and other adults mistreat children - and how tragic is that? Children mistreat their parents.
5. Husbands mistreat their wives and wives mistreat their husbands.
6. Neighbors mistreat their neighbors.
7. Sadly, even church members sometimes mistreat other church members.
8. None of this is right or fair, and it can make our lives very difficult.
9. If you have experienced any mistreatment, then I am truly sorry for you, and I pray that God will bring help and healing into your life.
E. For the past three weeks, we have been engaged in a study of a man by the name of Joseph.
1. If anybody knew about unfair treatment and mistreatment, it was Joseph.
2. As we have seen, he was from a classic dysfunctional family – he had three step-mothers, a step-sister, and numerous step-brothers all living in the same household.
3. He was his father’s favorite and everyone knew it and his brothers hated him because of it.
4. His brothers seized him and sold him as a slave, then tricked their father into thinking he was dead.
5. As a slave, he ended up in Egypt and was sold to a man named Potiphar who was the captain of the guard to Pharaoh.
6. But the Lord was with Joseph, and allowed him to prosper in Potiphar’s house. Over time he became in charge of all of Potiphar’s household.
7. Unfortunately, Mrs. Potiphar was a desperate housewife, and she pursued a sexual relationship with Joseph.
8. After he resisted her advances for some time, things came to a head when she grabbed him and tried to drag him to bed.
9. Joseph freed himself from her by coming out of his cloak and running out of the house.
10. With his cloak in her hand, she fabricated the story that he tried to rape her.
11. This is where we ended the story last week. The Bible says: When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. (Gen. 39:19-20a)
F. Today we want to pick up the story of Joseph and learn how it was that Joseph could endure such unfair treatment and remain true to God.
I. The Story
A. The story continues: But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did. (Gen. 39:20b-23)
1. So we see that Joseph again landed on his feet, just as he had done after he was forced into slavery.
2. It would have been so easy for him at this point to give in to despair.
3. He shouldn’t have been sold into slavery, and now he certainly shouldn’t be in prison.
4. He did the right thing, and look where it got him!
B. If I were Joseph, I think I would have been asking: “Where is God and why isn’t He helping me?”
1. How could God have allowed this to happen to Joseph?
2. Things seem to be going from bad to worse.
3. Remember, we have the ability to know the end of the story, Joseph had no idea what God was up to.
4. So where was God? He was right there with Joseph, and he was helping Joseph in so many ways.
5. And just like Potiphar noticed God’s blessing on Joseph and promoted him, so the warden noticed the same thing and put so he put Joseph in charge.
6. Make no mistake about it, Joseph didn’t deserve to be in jail, but he responded to it in the best way he could.
7. That’s all we can hope to do when we find ourselves in our own dungeon experience.
C. Let’s pick up the story in Gen. 40, verse 1: Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. 2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. 4 The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.
After they had been in custody for some time, 5 each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. (Gen. 40:1-5)
1. So are introduced to two new characters in the story – the cupbearer and the baker of the king.
2. The two of them landed in Joseph’s prison and were placed under his care.
3. The specifics of what they had done are not revealed to us, but we can guess what they were suspected of.
4. The cupbearer and the baker were some of the most trusted men in a king’s court.
5. The baker was responsible for making the king’s food, and the cupbearer was responsible for tasting the wine and food of the king before he ate or drank it.
a. That way if it was poisoned, “So long, cupbearer,” but “long live Pharaoh!”
6. I’m guessing that some poison was found in the palace, and the two of them were imprisoned until an investigation was conducted to determine who was guilty of a plot to kill the king.
7. While awaiting the outcome of the investigation, both men had dreams, which will open the door for Joseph to minister to them and will open a door for himself.
D. The story continues: When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. 7 So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, “Why are your faces so sad today?”
8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
9 So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, 10 and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. 11 Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand.”
“This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. 13 Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. 14 But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. 15 For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.” (Gen. 40:6-15)
1. How striking is it that Joseph noticed that there was something bothering the two men.
a. If anybody should have had a sad face and a selfish preoccupation, it should have been Joseph.
b. But in spite of his own circumstance, he took notice of the plight of these two men, and he showed concern for them.
2. Their answer must have startled Joseph – “We’ve both had dreams.”
a. The last time he had been involved with dreams, things hadn’t turned out so well.
3. Nevertheless, Joseph immediately gave glory to God and said that God is the one who gives dreams and their interpretation.
4. Joseph suggested that they tell him the dreams and he would see if God would give the interpretation to him.
5. After hearing the cupbearer’s dream, Joseph immediately gave the interpretation – the cupbearer would be restored to his position.
6. Then Joseph asked the man for a favor - Joseph humbly asked that the cupbearer put in a good word for him with the king, for he was an innocent man who had been falsely accused.
7. Look at the words Joseph used and how they sound like the words of a man who had a brokenness of spirit – “remember me and show me kindness, mention me, and get me out of this prison.”
E. Let’s continue the story: When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. 17 In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”
18 “This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. 19 Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat away your flesh.” (Gen. 40:16-19)
1. Imagine how Joseph must have felt when he heard the dream and God gave him the interpretation.
2. You have to respect Joseph’s integrity – he told the man the truth even though it wasn’t pretty.
a. Who wants to deliver a message like this one?
b. He could have made up anything, and it wouldn’t have changed the baker’s outcome, but it would have made him feel better along the way.
c. But Joseph couldn’t do that – he was a man who told the truth.
d. He was not trying to win friends, rather he was trying to faithfully represent God.
e. The news was grim, but Joseph told him the truth.
F. Well, were Joseph’s interpretations correct? Let’s read the rest of the story: Now the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: 21 He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, 22 but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation. 23 The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him. (Gen. 40:20-23)
1. Joseph must have been so hopeful as the two men were taken back to Pharaoh’s presence.
2. The events involving both men came about precisely as Joseph had predicted, and surely he thought that would make the cupbearer say something to Pharaoh about Joseph.
3. But then as the days passed, and Joseph’s situation remained the same, he must have been so disappointed.
4. How could the cupbearer have forgotten him?
a. Was it the excitement of being restored to Pharaoh’s service?
b. Was it that he didn’t want to chance offending Pharaoh by giving input that wasn’t asked for?
c. Was it that he didn’t believe Joseph?
d. Or was he just waiting for the right time, which didn’t come for 2 years.
G. Surely these must have been the most difficult years of all for Joseph.
1. If only Joseph could have known that the time of his vindication and reward were nearing.
2. If only he could have known that God had wonderful things planned for him.
3. Maybe the dreams of his youth were enough to give him hope during all of these difficult years.
4. Tune in next week…same “bat channel”…same “bat time”…for another exciting segment in Joseph’s saga.
II. The Application
A. What lessons can we learn from Joseph about how to handle the unfairness and mistreatment of life?
1. Let me begin answering that question by saying that there are no easy, glib answers.
2. The last thing I want to do is to minimize the pain that anyone has experienced because of unfairness or mistreatment.
3. And on top of that, the last thing I want to do is to add to anyone’s burden by making them feel worse because they have not responded as well as Joseph.
4. Joseph is, indeed, a marvelous example for us to try to imitate, but we don’t know the whole story of Joseph – we aren’t privy to his moments of despair or disobedience.
5. All we are told about are the high points – the moments of faithfulness and victory.
6. So let’s not be too hard on ourselves in comparison with Joseph and his example.
7. With that in mind, what lessons can we learn from Joseph?
B. First of all, let me suggest that we learn that God is with us always.
1. No matter where we are or what we are going through, God is with us.
2. God does not leave us alone. He does not abandon us.
3. Although God may allow us to be unfairly mistreated, He is with us always.
4. Others may abandon us or let us down, but not God.
5. God can be fully trusted. Our total faith must be in the Lord not in others.
6. Philip Yancy tells the memorable story of Christian Reger in his book, Where is God When It Hurts.
a. Christian Reger spent 4 years in a Nazi prison camp from 1941-1944.
b. Why was he imprisoned? Because he was a member of the Confessing Church, which was one of the German state churches that took a stand agaist the Nazis in the 1930 and 1940s.
c. Reger can tell you horror stories if you ask, but he prefers to talk about the ways he was visited in the death camp by the God who loves.
d. Reger says that Nietzsche said a man can undergo torture if he knows the “why” of his life, but in the Nazi prison came he learned something far greater – he learned to know the “Who” of his life – and that was enough to sustain him then and it is enough to sustain him still.
7. God is enough and He is always with us.
8. During times of unjust, unfair mistreatment we often learn that lesson.
C. A second lesson we learn is that God can help us grow through our suffering.
1. No matter what the ultimate reason is for our suffering, God can work through it to grow us so that He can make us more useful in His service.
2. God had some important plans for Joseph’s future, but Joseph would not be able to be successful in his future appointment without some significant change and growth.
3. He had to grow from being a spoiled, self-centered young man to a humble, spiritual adult.
4. God used his suffering to bring about that transformation.
5. It is so important for us to allow God to help us become better rather than bitter during our trials.
C. A final lesson we learn is that there is a better day coming.
1. That better day may not be tomorrow, and may not even come in this world, but a better day is coming.
2. There is a light at the end of the darkness, therefore, we must not give up; we must hang on.
3. A day is coming when all the wrongs will be made right.
4. A day is coming when God will reward us for our faithfulness in the midst of our trials and persecutions.
5. May God help us to hold on until that day.
D. Let’s end with the passage we began with in the Scripture Reading: For it is commendable if a man bears up under the pain of unjust suffering because he is conscious of God. 20But how is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God. 21To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.
22”He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth.” 23When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. (1 Pet. 2:19-23)
1. So we find ourselves in good company if we suffer for doing good.
2. Even though Joseph is a great example for us, Jesus Christ is an even better one.
3. We are called to walk in Jesus’ steps – to live and love like He did – and to entrust ourselves to God like he did.
4. Because of Jesus suffering and death and resurrection, we have the hope of eternal life.
5. Praise God that we have such a wonderful Savior!
6. It wasn’t fair that He had to die for us, but thank God that He did so willingly and lovingly!
7. Next time we get to thinking that life isn’t treating us fairly, let’s just remember Joseph, and better yet, let’s remember Jesus.
Resources:
Joseph: A man of Integrity and Forgiveness, by Charles Swindoll, Word Publishing, 1998
“Dealing With Disappointment” Sermon by John Hamby. SermonCentral.com
