Reading: Genesis chapter 39 verse 21 to chapter 40 verse 23.
ill:
• I was relieved recently to find out that I’m not the only one who forgets things.
• According to researcher Karen Bolla.
• Everyone does at one time or another.
• These are the six things people most often forget:
• (6). faces 42%
• (5). what was said 49%
• (4). words 53%
• (3). telephone numbers 57%
• (2). where something is 60%
• (1). names 83%
• And if you can’t remember whether you’ve just done something;
• You join 38 percent of the population.
Quote:
• Physician to patient:
• “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a hundred times—I do not treat amnesia cases!”
In the chapter before us this morning:
• Joseph seems to be a forgotten man;
• In fact the very last verse of our chapter finishes with the words (verse 23)
“The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him”.
From a human perspective:
• It would appear God had also abandoned and forgotten him too:
• Now if you can cast your mind back to the previous chapter.
• Joseph had been true to God and he refused to be seduced by Potipher’s wife;
• As a result of his faithfulness to God; he has now been wrongly imprisoned;
• And while in prison he has to bear the stigma of being a rapist!
• Chapter 41 verse 1 tells us that he would be in prison for two whole years.
(A). Joseph in prison (Ch 39 vs 21-23)
(1). Josephs secret (Ch 39 vs 21-23)
“But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the LORD was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favour 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.”
Ill:
• A man went out to his car one morning;
• Only to discover that it wouldn’t turn over because the battery had been stolen.
• After lifting up the bonnet,
• He discovered a note where the battery should be, it read:
“I’m sorry I had to take your battery, but it was an emergency and I had to get to the hospital.
I will return your battery as soon as I can.”
• The following morning he woke up;
• To find his battery had been returned and alongside it was another note:
“Thank you so much for the use of your battery. To express our appreciation and to make up for the inconvenience we have caused you, here are two tickets to the theatre for this Saturday’s top show!.
• The couple was ecstatic.
• They had heard how good the show was and were thrilled at the opportunity to go.
• What a wonderful turn of events this had been.
• But when they returned home from the show they discovered, to their dismay,
• That their apartment had been burgled.
• The theatre tickets had simply been a ruse to get them out of the house.
Now Joseph’s could empathise with those twp people:
• For him life, too, had taken several curious turns of events.
• Whenever things were at long last looking up;
• The situation soon took a turn for the worse;
• And Joseph wound find himself in even worse circumstances than before!
• He has gone from being head of Potiphar’s household;
• To being imprisoned and with his reputation in tatters.
Questions:
• Where was God in all of this?
• We can see God in the good things.
• We can even see Him in the questionable things.
• But where is God when everything seems unfair?
• Where is God when the dungeon experience occurs?
• Does His silence mean He's absent?
Answer:
• We're not left to wonder at the answers to those questions.
• Genesis chapter 39 verse 21 tells us clearly, "The LORD was with Joseph."
• That's where God was. He was right there.
• He never left and he did not abandon Joseph!
• Deep in our hearts we believe in a God who is good.
• Yet how shallow is our understanding of His goodness,
• Especially since we see many things that seem to deny it.
• Corrie Ten Boom clarified the issue for us. She wrote:
“Often I have heard people say, ‘How good God is! We prayed that it would not rain for our church picnic, and look at the lovely weather!’ Yes, God is good when He sends good weather. But God was also good when He allowed my sister, Betsie, to starve to death before my eyes in a German concentration camp.
I remember one occasion when I was very discouraged there. Everything around us was dark, and there was darkness in my heart. I remember telling Betsie that I thought God had forgotten us. ‘No, Corrie,’ said Betsie, ‘He has not forgotten us. Remember His Word: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him.” ” Corrie concludes, “There is an ocean of God’s love available—there is plenty for everyone. May God grant you never to doubt that victorious love—whatever the circumstances.”
Joseph was about to discover that God was with him …even….in the dungeon;
• Not only that, but God would do for Joseph what he had done before.
• He gave him favour in the eyes of others.
• Twice we read in verses 21 and 23 that "The LORD was with Joseph,"
• Joseph began to see the hand of God in his prison experience.
• Humanly speaking Joseph was in what appeared to be the direst of positions,
• And the dreariest of places,
• Yet, Joseph was not taken up with self-pity;
• Concerning the bad deal he had been dealt.
• Instead he kept on trusting God; and as a result of his trust in God;
• He able to be used of God strategically in the lives of at least two men.
Other people in the prison soon became aware that God was with Joseph:
• Verse 22 tells us Joseph found favour even in the eyes of the prison warden;
• So much so, that the man trusted Joseph to supervise all the other prisoners.
• Verse 23 tells us that the warden trusted and respected Joseph so much that he:
• (Quote: The Message):
“The head jailer gave Joseph free rein, never even checked on him, because GOD was with him; whatever he did GOD made sure it worked out for the best.”
Application:
• When a dungeon experience comes along:
• (And for both the Christian and the unbeliever they will):
ill:
• Prison: may be ill-health, bereavement, unemployment, work or family related issues,
• Difficult circumstances etc there is an endless list!
• The quickest and easiest response to these sort of problems;
• Is to blame God or to feel that you've been forgotten by God.
• And yet for the Christian nothing could be further from the truth!
• God has promised us: “Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you!”
• For the Christian our times truly are in his hands!
• But simply because we are Christians will not mean ;
• That we will be kept from experiencing the difficulties of life.
• We must experience them as ALL people have to experience them;
But the big difference is this.
• As Christians we can experience the Lord’s help through these dark situations;
• And we can actually spiritually grow from our unpleasant experiences.
Ill:
• If you catch a small shark and confine it,
• It will stay a size proportionate to the aquarium you put it in.
• Sharks can be six inches long yet fully matured.
• But if you turn them loose in the ocean, they grow to their normal length of eight feet.
• That is like what happens to some Christians.
• God helps us not to be confined by our circumstances.
• He wants us to grow and mature in our faith;
• And at times he can only do that by placing us in these ‘dungeon’ situations.
Ill:
• Alexander Solzhenitsyn the old Russian writer;
• Who spent eight years in the infamous Soviet Gulag camp system
• Painfully describes his spiritual awakening in his powerful and dramatic book;
• The Gulag Archipelago (Ar-k-i-pel-ago);
“It was only when I lay there on rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, not between classes, nor between political parties either-but right through every human heart-and through all human hearts
……So, bless you, prison, for having been in my life.”
• He sounds very much like the psalmist, who wrote (Psalm 119 verse 71):
• "It is good for me to be afflicted, so that I might learn your decrees".
As Christians we might not want to embrace these difficult ‘dungeon’ experiences:
• But rather than be weighed down by self-pity and defeat;
• Let us look at them as an opportunity to experience more of the Lord.
• Let us view them as opportunities for growth;
• Let us focus on the positive rather than the negative!
(2). Josephs contacts (ch 40 vs 1-3):
• Ignore the chapter heading because this chapter flows into chapter 40 verses 1-4;
• Where we are introduced to Joseph’s cellmates;
• They were put there by Stephen Langton in the year 1288a.d.
• And not by the Holy Spirit.
“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.”
• A cupbearer or butler;
• Was the person who tasted the wine and food of the king before he ate or drank.
• That way, if it was poisoned,
• "So long, cupbearer," but "Long live Pharaoh"!
• He also would not allow poorly prepared food to be served to the pharaoh;
• Since he was responsible for watching the monarch's diet.
• This led to a very close relationship, a relationship of trust between the two men.
• Often the king of the land would confide in the cupbearer.
Ill:
If you know the story you may remember,
• Nehemiah was the cupbearer to the king of his day;
• And he also had a very close, personal relationship with him.
• So in many ways the cupbearer was the most trusted man of the court.
• If that trust was ever broken, serious consequences followed.
Verse 2:
• Tells us that something happened to spoil that relationship:
• We are not told the details of this falling out, just the punishment.
• The cupbearer to Pharaoh landed in jail;
• And alongside him in the cell was the king's baker.
• The kings baker was another person on whom the pharaoh relied,
• Because whatever food he prepared passed into the mouth of the Egyptian ruler.
Ill:
• We can only speculate as to whether or not he put too many jalapeno peppers in the chili,
• Or too much spice in the curry.
• I think that their imprisonment must have been related to the food;
• Because their jobs were interrelated.
We are not told what:
• But something happened that caused these two officials to make the king furious!
• He was obviously offended and so he had them both thrown in jail.
• And the jail and cell they ended up in;
• Just happened to be the very same place where Joseph was imprisoned.
(3). Josephs ministry (ch 40 vs 4-8)
“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.
6 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.”
Verse 7
• Is just a brilliant verse (don’t miss it!):
• "Why are your faces so sad today?"
• You have to smile as you read it;
• Because if anybody ought to have had a sad face, it should have been Joseph.
• Think about it; his predicament was much worse than theirs.
• They were there on a whim of the Pharaoh and surely would not be there forever.
• But Joseph had been accused by the chief executioner's wife;
• And he didn't know if he'd ever see the light of day again.
• Yet in spite of his own circumstance,
• Joseph noticed the plight of these two men.
Ill:
Both the hummingbird and the vulture fly over American deserts.
• All vultures see is rotting meat, because that is what they look for.
• They thrive on that diet.
• But hummingbirds ignore the smelly flesh of dead animals.
• Instead, they look for the colourful blossoms of desert plants.
• The vultures live on what was (they live on the past).
• They fill themselves with what is dead and gone.
• But hummingbirds live on what is (they seek new life).
• They fill themselves with freshness and life.
• Each bird finds what it is looking for.
• We all do!
Joseph unlike the other two prisoners refused to live in the dead past:
• With God he had a bright future even in prison!
• Quote: “Two men look out through the same bars………..stars”.
• The difference between the prisoners was Joseph cultivated the Lord’s presence.
• And when a person is right with God:
• He helps us see beyond our own situation;
• And he even uses us to help and comfort others in a similar situation.
• Joseph and these two men may have ended up in prison for different reasons,
• But they found themselves in the same place, sharing similar miseries.
• And out of his own experience,
• Joseph was able to minister to them.
Ill:
• Our English word ‘comfort’ comes from two Latin words meaning ‘with strength’.
• Sympathy may often weaken us;
• God does not pat us on the head;
• And give us a piece of chocolate or a toy to distract us from our troubles.
• Instead God gives his people comfort;
• He puts strength into hearts, so that we can face our trials and triumph through them.
Because ‘The Lord was with Joseph’:
• Joseph knew the comfort, the strengthening of God in his life;
• And when the opportunity came his way, he too was able to strengthen others.
Ill:
• Years ago, the Salvation Army was holding an international convention;
• And their founder, Gen. William Booth, could not attend because of physical weakness.
• He cabled his convention message to them.
• It was one word: “OTHERS.”
• Joseph could have been full of self-pity:
• Instead he used his experience for God’s glory and to the benefit of others.
Quote: Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 3-4 (The Message):
3”All praise to the God and Father of our Master, Jesus the Messiah! Father of all mercy! God of all healing counsel! 4He comes alongside us when we go through hard times, and before you know it, he brings us alongside someone else who is going through hard times so that we can be there for that person just as God was there for us”.
• That was a lesson Joseph learnt;
• May each one of us also know and live out that truth.
(B). The dreams (ch 40 vs 4-15).
• Because this section is quite self-explanatory;
• I do not want to dwell on the dreams or their interpretation.
• All you have to do is read the passage;
• And it interprets itself.
• You can see from the OHP outline;
• Here were two dreams are interpreted & for one it is good news & the other bad news!
The thing that grabs my attention is Joseph’s response to their situation:
• It is rather amazing that Joseph would want to have anything to do with dreams.
• Remember what happened the last time he did that?
• He told his brothers about his dreams and it was rejection, a pit;
• And he was taken against his will and he up as a slave in an Egyptian slave market.
So you might think when he hears these two cell-mates need a dream interpreting;
• That Joseph would keep his head down.
• No doubt he thought to himself: "Dreams are not me, man! I'm off of dreams forever."
• But no!
• Not Joseph, he is keen to help and in verse 8 he tells them:
• "Only God can interpret dreams, but tell me about yours."
• He listens and with the help of God interprets both the dreams.
When it comes to the bakers dream:
• You have to respect Joseph's integrity.
• He knew the dream meant that the guy was going to be killed.
• And who wants to deliver that kind of message?
• He could have told the baker anything, made up a lie, and he would never known the difference.
• Or, by the time he did find out the truth, it wouldn't have mattered anyway.
• But Joseph was a man who told the truth.
• He was not out to win friends and become popular;
• He realised that he was representing God and needed to remain true.
• Joseph said, in effect to the baker;
• "My friend, your days are numbered."
• And that is exactly what happened.
Go back for a minute to verse 14 for here we see a very human side of Joseph charecter:
• He says to the butler: "When your dream comes true & you are reinstalled, remember me,"
• And he explained to him a little bit about his own plight and his innocence.
• Here was Joseph's humanity emerging.
• I love this, because it shows us that Joseph was a real person, not some plaster saint.
Ill:
• He knew that sometimes an inmate got out of prison by knowing the right person.
• And nobody was closer to Pharaoh than the chief cupbearer.
• Hopefully, when the cupbearer returned to Pharaoh's presence and had his ear again,
• He would say, "Master, there's a man you should look kindly toward."
(c). JOSEPHS DISAPPOINTMENT
(ch 40 vs 20-23)
“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.”
(1). Fulfilment (verses 20-22):
• Everything Joseph had said would happen to the butler and the baker took place;
• The butler was restored and the baker was killed.
• When Joseph saw the cupbearer taken from the prison,
• And events coming true according to his interpretation of their dreams.
• He must have thought, his own release would be very, very soon.
• After all, the butler has Pharaoh's ear and surely he'll want to get him out.
• Joseph’s eyes must have been fixed on the door of his dungeon.
• Waiting hopefully for the warden to come in and announce
"You've been set free, Joseph. You've been remembered and vindicated."
• Yet Joseph's long-awaited hopes were dashed.
• Verse 23: “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.”
(2). Disappointment (verse 23).
“Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.”
• And if you peak into the next chapter we read;
• “When two full years had passed Pharaoh had a dream.”
• Talk about disappointment!
• Instead of being remembered and rewarded, he was forgotten for two more years.
• But for two years after the cupbearer left, Joseph remained buried in that dungeon.
• Notice the emphasis: two FULL years. Two long, monotonous, miserable years!
Questions:
• What did Joseph think about during that time?
• The human tendency would be to question God:
"Will I be in here forever, Lord?
You know I never deserved to be here to begin with,
You know I didn't complain or try to escape.
I even helped other people by interpreting their dreams correctly.
I did what You wanted me to do. I've served You faithfully.
How long must I stay in this dungeion?”
• Now when you read the narrative there is no of that recorded;
• Joseph was a most remarkable man,
• Despite the fact he was victimized again and again,
• He continued to wait-to trust-to hope-to lean on God.
Quote: Eliza Tabor:
"Disappointment to a noble soul is what cold water is to burning metal;
it strengthens, tempers, intensifies, but never destroys it."
Ill:
• Thomas Edison’s son, Charles, writes of the event about his father in his book titled,
• The Electric Thomas Edison.
• Thomas Edison invented the microphone, the phonograph, the incandescent light,
• The storage battery, talking movies, and more than 1000 other things.
• In December 1914 he had been working for 10 years on a storage battery.
• This had greatly strained his finances.
One evening spontaneous combustion broke out in the film room.
• And within minutes all the packing compounds, celluloid for records and film,
• And other flammable goods were in flames.
• Fire companies from eight surrounding towns arrived,
• But all attempts to put out the flames was futile.
• Everything was destroyed.
• The damage exceeded two million dollars,
• And the buildings were only insured for $238,000
• Because they were made of concrete and thought to be fireproof,
His son Charles writes:
• “My heart ached for him,”
• “He was 67—no longer a young man—and everything was going up in flames.
• When he saw me, he shouted,
• ‘Charles, where’s your mother?’
• When I told him I didn’t know, he said,
• ‘Find her. Bring her here. She will never see anything like this as long as she lives.’“
• The next morning, Edison looked at the ruins and said, “There is great value in disaster.
• All our mistakes are burned up. Thank God we can start anew”
• Three weeks after the fire,
• Edison managed to deliver the first phonograph.
Like Joseph, Thomas Eddison refused to let disappointment rule his life:
Quote:
"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts.
It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do..
It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill.
It will make or break a company... a church... a home.
The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
We cannot change our past ... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.
The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude ...
I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it”
• And so it is with you;
• We are in charge of our Attitudes!
Quote
• Fanny Crosby was one of the great hymn writers;
• She lived to be ninety-five but was blind since childhood
• When she was eight years old, she wrote this poem.
“O what a happy soul am I!
Although I cannot see,
I am resolved that in this world
Contented I will be;
How many blessings I enjoy
That other people don’t!
To weep and sigh because I’m blind,
I cannot, and I won’t.”
Question:
• Who is in control of your attitudes?
• You or your circumstances?
• The secret: Joseph realised that the Lord was with him!
• Ill: Campbell Morgan story – “That’s not a promise, it’s a fact!
