7 “But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
8 "So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.” (Genesis 45 - NIV)
The Big Idea: Your Unexpected Journey with God tells a story.
Everyone is influenced by their life story. Simply put, people take their passion and priorities from their life stories. Everyone has a life story. It has been forming since the days of our youth. Early in life, God is at work in believers and seekers to reveal the beginnings of this life story - or Unexpected Journey.
Your life story is really about how God reveals His grace through your life. All of us are shaped in a profound way by a life story framework or outline. We often take our personal and professional cues in life from these past events.
Your Unexpected Journey tells a story. Stories are meaningful; facts are forgotten. Stories are memorable; emotions fade. Stories are mesmerizing; lists are boring. It is an amazing story of God at work in your life. Others want to hear it. You need to tell it. God wants to use it!
People think in stories. What do you think of when I say, "He is a Jonah?" or "this basketball game is a David versus Goliath." And no woman wants to be called a Jezebel.
Why don't people make the connection between their Unexpected Journey and their life story? Because so many lack introspection and perspective. We should put our lives out there for evaluation, but let's put it on the real – that's scary business. It can be threatening. Mark my words:
All of us drift/get off purpose – We get off purpose when it becomes about us instead of about God. What should I do with my life? What should I be when I grow up? What are my dreams, goals and ambitions? You were made by God for His purposes.
All of us drone – We drone on and on about things that really don't matter for the kingdom. Analyze what is happening in your life today, and ask yourself this question: Will your current problem or concern really matter in 10 years? In 100 years? In 1,000 years?
All of us dramatize – We like to be on stage. Friend, there is only one name on the marquee of life, and it’s not any of ours. You were made for God, not vice versa. Life is about God using you to tell a story. Your story about His grace at work. How you met God. What lessons you have learned in the journey. How God is surfacing your passions and using them for His purposes.
As novelist John Barth said, “The story of your life is not your life. It is your story.” Basically, it is your story that matters, not the facts of your life. 1
When you see God's story for your life as He sees it, then your Unexpected Journey makes sense. And the benefit? You can relax. You can accept yourself. You can have fun!
So you are on this Unexpected Journey. You will be telling others about what you experienced, where you went, who you met and what you learned about yourself and God. God is in the editing business. God is into brevity. He uses the delete key often. He wants your story to be riveting, so let's do some editing. In the editing of your life, let me suggest a framework for your life story. The framework for your life story: your story is a trust; your story is a test; and your story is a temporary assignment.
Joseph's life story is clearly told using this framework and outline.
1. Your Unexpected Journey with God is a trust.
3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 5Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. (Genesis 37 – NIV)
Ellen Breyer married after college and soon became a corporate leader in the marketing department for Godiva Chocolate. It was her husband’s promotions at American Express that moved her to London, New York and finally to Minneapolis. Along the way, she raised three boys. “I was spending a lot of time on nonprofit volunteer activities and enjoying that more than my day job.” she said. While skiing in Aspen one winter she thought about what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.
While serving as interim CEO on the Hazeldon Foundation board – an organization that helps people with chemical dependency issues – she discovered her Life Story.
“This experience has reconnected me with my passions. I feel strongly about helping people recover from alcohol and drug addiction. On a personal level, my father died of alcoholism. There is a direct link to what I did before I was thirty and what I am doing now, in terms of connecting your work life with your passions, and the belief that you can change things in a dramatic way,” Breyer said.2
Did you see it there? Ellen Breyer saw her life as a trust. She used her painful past to make a difference in the lives of others. You should do the same. Life on Earth is a trust. God has given you talents, gifts, time, opportunities, relationships and personality, and you are called to be a good steward and manager. This management begins with accepting the truth that God is the owner of everything and everyone. Did you know that we never really own anything during our brief stay on Earth? Not even ourselves…
Paul reminds us that: You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies. (1 Cor. 6 – NIV)
Everything belongs to God and although He is willing to share, He is not willing to relinquish ownership. Are you prepared to replace it if you break it? What if someone else damages it while it is in your possession? A gracious father replaces, replenishes and refurbishes those items that get damaged in your Unexpected Journey.
I borrowed a lawn mower from a friend. The mower hit a rock and got damaged. Although I was willing to make it right, my friend took financial responsibility for the damage. I was grateful for such kindness.
2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1 Cor. 4 – NIV)
Our culture lives by the idea that if you don't own it, you can't enjoy it! As God's children, we live by a different standard. God owns everything. I own nothing. One day, I will give an account about those resources that God let me use.
In the opening verses of our story, Joseph's life reminds us that there is a natural list of stewarded items as well as a supernatural list. Joseph received a coat from dad and a dream from God.
Joseph's father is the famed Jacob. Like his grandfather, Abraham, he, too, had a name change. His name was changed from “Jacob” or “deceiver” to “Israel,” which means "God strives." Joseph was familiar with this landmark event because every time he saw Jacob limp, it reminded him of the night that Jacob wrestled with God until He blessed him in Gen. 32:
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. 26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
Joseph's ability to interpret dreams is a family trait. If you go back to Genesis 28, you see Jacob meeting God in a dream. Jacob dreamed. Joseph dreamed. Like father, like son.
God uses these two blessings to tell the life story of Joseph. First a coat, then some dreams. Be careful, my friend. All that you are and possess is given for God's deployment, not just your enjoyment.
If watching Joseph parade down the family runway like a New York model wasn't enough, to add insult to injury, Joseph not only got a coat from dad, but he also got some dreams from God.
God used these two experiences to give Joseph a glimpse of his life story – first a coat, then some dreams. As Joseph began to share the dreams with his family, it was like waving a red blanket in front of a charging bull – or in this case 11 bulls.3
God's gift to you is a rich blend of the natural and supernatural – coat from Dad, dreams from God.
Oh, by the way, God has been using dreams to bless people more than you can imagine.
Elias Howe patented the sewing machine in 1846. He had the idea of a machine with a needle that would go through a piece of cloth, but he couldn't figure out exactly how it would work. He first tried using a needle that was pointed at both ends, with an eye in the middle, but it was a failure. Then one night he dreamt he was taken prisoner by a group of natives. He was told he had the night to come up with a solution to his sewing machine, or he’d be executed. He worked desperately but with no solution to be found. As he was taken to be executed, the Indians were dancing around him with spears. It was then that he noticed that their spears all had holes near their tips!
When he woke up, he realized that the dream had brought the solution to his problem. By locating a hole at the tip of the needle, the thread could be caught after it went through cloth, thus making his machine operable. He changed his design to incorporate the dream idea and found it worked! 4
So how do we truly know if dreams are from God? The only way is to become like Jesus. The more like Him you become, the more of His thoughts and ways you experience. When you become more like Christ, you will let go of anything that isn’t a part of His plan. Do you want your dreams to become your destiny? Then realize that what God dreams for you is much superior compared to what you dream for yourself. If you are stuck between your dream and your destiny, then commit to growing in Christ.
The Squires kids have grown up vacationing at a beach home on Whidbey Island in Washington. The owners have made it available for pastors for years and said, "enjoy it like it is yours." We fished in the nearby sound. Played crocket and baseball in their yard. Played eye spy at their dinner table. And relaxed with views of whales, boats and amazing water views. We used their towels, fished from their boat, ate their food and even jumped on their beds having fun. We knew the place was not ours, so we gave extra attention to the care and cleaning of the place. Our kids still argue today about who is going to buy the beach house.
2. Your Unexpected Journey with God is a test.
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 18 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” (Gen. 37 – NIV)
God has a purpose behind every trial and trouble. Your life story is a series of tests. No one is immune to pain and problems. Not all are big, but all have a God-intended design. God wants you to shine and show off his grace through these tests. In doing so, others will be attracted to the God you serve.
As author John Baker said, "You will never know that God is all you need until God is all you've got."5 Regardless of the source of the test or problem, none of it could happen without God's permission. Do you realize that all problems are filtered by your Heavenly Father?
Listen to what Joseph says to his brothers at the end of his story in Gen. 50: 19 "Don't be afraid, Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."
Think about your most intimate places of relationship with God. What drove you into that posture and place. Blessing? Pleasure? Success? No, you arrived because of pain. You have prayed your best prayers in your darkest of days. You have encountered God in worship when you felt abandoned and out of options. When you face pain and problems, you have no interest in superficial or veneer Christianity.
God could have kept Joseph from prison, Daniel from the Lion's den, Paul from being shipwrecked three times – but He didn't. Joseph reminds us of this truth in Gen. 37:18-20.
As Joseph approached his brothers, they could tell who he was from afar. He looked more like a prince than a shepherd. Two types of robes were worn. First, the prince-like robe – long, flowing, colorful. Next, the field hand robe – short in length, non ornamental, allows for ease of movement in work. Can you guess what Joseph was wearing when he arrived in Dothan?
At least four of the brothers were still carrying a grudge from an earlier run-in with the tattle-tale. None of them could forget the dreams that were etched into their hearts as unresolved anger.
Conspiring together, they decided to take his life and to dispose of the body by throwing Joseph into a cistern. They would cover up the death by saying that a wild animal had devoured him. Since there was no CSI, the chance of discovering the real cause of death would be lost forever. With anger in their voices, they shouted, “Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.”
26…“What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 27 Come let’s sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him; after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood.” His brothers agreed. (Gen. 37 – NIV)
Since the likelihood of someone being sold into Egypt and getting his freedom would be virtually impossible, it seemed like a fool-proof plan. As sailors of the desert, the Ishmaelites were heading for Egypt to trade spices, balm and myrrh that abounded in the Palestinian forests and would be of great value to a culture that placed priority on embalming. In a culture that also used and traded frequently in slaves, Joseph would easily be lost in the slave population of Egypt. Egypt offered an immediate gratification for the carnal brothers as they thought about the slave market of Egypt as their new-found solution.
In a few minutes, the transaction was done. No tearful good-byes. Hey, write when you arrive. Just anger, indifference and justification rising from a Palestinian plain. Soon, Joseph was fettered, pushed into line and bound for a foreign country.
Joseph would one day look back and see this as a key moment in his life story that had taken such a surprising turn in a matter of days. Can you look back over your life and trace the hand of God, even through the darkest of valleys?
4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23 – ESV)
If you don’t see the relationship today to the darkest moments of your life, certainly as the sun rises in eternity, the brightness of God's grace will be forever shown.
3. Your Unexpected Journey with God is a temporary assignment.
41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, "I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt." 42 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 43 He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, "Make way!" Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. (Genesis 41 – NIV)
Life on Earth is a temporary assignment. The Bible is filled with metaphors that teach about the brief, temporary, transient nature of life on Earth. Life is described as a mist, a fast runner, a breath or a wisp of smoke.
“…9 for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.” (Job 8 – NIV)
To keep from being frustrated and to bring glory to God, you must remember two truths. First, compared to eternity, life is brief. Second, life on Earth is only a temporary assignment. You won't be here long, so don't get too attached.
Joseph’s life goes from the pit to the palace. Joseph's life is a blessing, regardless of his setting. And we pick up his story after he successfully interprets some dreams for Pharaoh. All that Joseph is about to receive is a trust – how would he use it? Is a test – how would this blessing change his heart? Finally, it was only a temporary assignment – he couldn't take it with him.
Taking Joseph to a place in the palace where he could see for a great distance, Pharaoh showed him a territorial view and said, “It’s all yours, Joseph.”
First, Pharaoh had placed on Joseph’s finger a signet ring. It was the way that the king stamped his invoices. It was the platinum charge card of the day. Joseph possessed an unlimited budget. He could authorize any expenditure.
Next, he was given fine linens and a gold necklace. Joseph wore the most exquisite clothes of the day. Valentino, Gucci and Calvin Klein. Joseph’s clothes not only offered armor for the day, but they were also a psychological boost to his status. He didn’t have to worry if someone else would be wearing the same outfit that day.
Talk about Bling. Nobody had more gold other than Pharaoh. Joseph’s Cinderella-like promotion also included a chariot, and as he traveled throughout Egypt, people bowed to him as he passed by.
When God decides it's time for you to be blessed, it’s right.
46 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt. (Gen. 41 – NIV)
The power, privilege and prestige that went with Joseph’s blessings were nothing less than miraculous and incredible. Is this miracle any less than the feeding of 5,000 or parting the Red Sea? Not in God’s eyes! This was all part of God's plan to use Joseph. It was a trust. It came after Joseph passed many tests. Most of all, it was temporary. It would not last beyond this life.
How many Christians have betrayed their king and His kingdom? They have fallen in love with their present life on Earth; they have made it their home, even when the scriptures tell them otherwise. They are travelers, aliens, pilgrims, foreigners, strangers. They fail to accept the reality of the briefness of their stay.
In no century of Christianity has life ever been easier and more enjoyable as for Christians today in much of the Western world. We are entertained, amused and catered to. We live amidst mesmerizing experiences, fascinating foods and exciting attractions, so it is easy to forget that the pursuit of happiness is not what God sent us here for.
11-12 Friends, this world is not your home, so don’t make yourselves cozy in it. Don’t indulge your ego at the expense of your soul. Live an exemplary life among the natives so that your actions will refute their prejudices. Then they’ll be won over to God’s side and be there to join in the celebration when he arrives. (1 Peter 2 – MSG)
Hey, friend, don't make the mistake of focusing on temporary crowns.
Don't let misplaced affections be the fatal wound in your spiritual journey.
End Notes
1 George, Bill. “True North.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 2007, Pg. 14-15.
2 George, Bill. “True North.” San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishing, 2007.
3 Getz, Gene. “Joseph: Overcoming Obstacles through Faithfulness.” Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1996, Pg. 27.
4 Kaempffert, Waldemar. “A Popular History of American Invention.” New York: Scribner's Son, Vol. II, 1924.
5 Baker, John. “Life’s Healing Choices.” New York: Howard Books, 2007, Pg. 244.
