We want to look at Joseph’s life this morning. Jacob has 12 sons, Joseph is the 11th son but the first one from Rachel. The second is Benjamin.
Let’s read what he shared to his brothers in Genesis 37:1-11.
We’ve just read the beginning account of Joseph’s wonderful life under the hands of God. Joseph was only 17 years old when he received dreams from God.
• God has great plans for him. He will be instrumental in bringing hope to the nation of Egypt and the surrounding lands, when a severe famine strikes.
• Through him, God will save his entire family in that long famine.
God gave him a glimpse of what He has in store for him through TWO dreams.
• It is a foretaste of what is to come. I believe Joseph gets these dreams because he spends time with God. He is a seeker of God.
• I get that hint from the character I read in the next few chapters, how Joseph remains faithful to God, and the Lord’s presence was with him (mentioned many times), both Potiphar and the Pharaoh saw it. God shows him the meaning of dreams.
• He has a close relationship with God, probably from the quiet times he had tending to sheep, just like David.
God showed him TWO dreams with the same message.
• In the 1st dream, they were all binding sheaves of grain and then his sheaf rose and stood upright. The rest of his brothers’ sheaves gathered around his and bowed down to it.
• In the 2nd dream, the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to him.
• The father rebuked him and in the process revealed the understanding the family had, which is not too hard to guess.
• Joseph was hinting the family will one day bows down to him because he is holding an elevated position.
These were revelations from God to Joseph when he was only 17 years old (37:2).
• When did these come true? When did the family members bow down to Joseph?
• The answer is found in Genesis 42, when his brothers came to Egypt looking for food.
Joseph has become the second-in-command in Egypt by then.
• Why was he in Egypt? Let me run through very quickly, for those who are not familiar.
• Right after this passage about the dreams, his brothers betrayed him and sold him to slave traders who brought him to Egypt.
• After many turns of events, Joseph ends up serving in the Pharaoh’s court.
How old was Joseph then? Gen 41:46 “Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh King of Egypt.”
• He was invited because he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream about an impending famine.
• God revealed that they would have 7 years of abundant harvest, followed by 7 years of severe famine, throughout the land.
• They need to store up food during the 7 good years, for use during the famine.
When the brothers finally came to Egypt to seek help, it was 2 years into the famine (cf. Gen 45:6).
• The dreams were fulfilled in Gen 45. That’s 22 years later.
• From 17 years old to 30 years old when he entered Pharaoh’s court. Plus 7 years of abundance and now 2 years into the famine.
• When Joseph met his brothers, he was 39 years old.
It takes 22 years for them to reach the point where they can say, “Now, we understand the dreams. Now we know what they mean.”
• It’s scary to think that this can be true of us too. But it can.
• There are some things that we will not understand now, until God shows us some 20 years later.
WE DO NOT SEE WHAT GOD SEES. Don’t try.
That’s what we do. We think and think and think, hoping that by thinking long enough we can get an answer.
• We won’t. The answer comes through revelations from God, through dreams, through His Word. It’s alright not to have answers.
• We are called to trust Him and surrender to His providence, to believe that God knows what He is doing, even when I don’t understand what I am seeing.
Surrendering to His providence is the only way to peace and happiness in life.
You see, the very next thing that happened to Joseph after the excitement of sharing his dreams was this long series of nightmares.
• The subtitle to the next section in Genesis 37 puts it bluntly: “Joseph Sold by His Brothers”. It ushered in for Joseph, a decade of slavery, suffering and pain.
• If you are going by what you see, you will be devastated!
Everything turned upside down. Everything appears wrong. It doesn’t sync with the dreams he had.
• That’s right, it only APPEARS wrong. It only appears wrong, it seems wrong, because we cannot see what God sees.
• My hope is not in what I see. My hope is in God, who sees what I cannot see.
When you are betrayed, like Joseph, thrown down a pit, rejected by your own, discarded like an unwanted commodity, remember this, we are not seeing what God is seeing.
• And if we cannot see what God sees, we TRUST. We trust He has a good plan, a good purpose, and He is still in control.
• We trust God will work the good out of the bad, shine His light out of the darkness, and fulfil His will out of the chaos we see.
God is not a passive observer in the adventure called life. He is very involved, not just in our lives but in this world today.
• Believe this even when what you see is not understandable. He works behind the scenes to bring about His own ends.
• We have to hang on to God no matter what, because He’s all we’ve got.
Basically, Joseph tells his brothers: “GOD SENT ME HERE.” That’s as good as it gets.
• That one line writes of all the pain and suffering he went through.
GOD KNOWS WHAT HE IS DOING, EVEN WHEN WE DON’T. Just trust.
Gen 45:4-11 “Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Come close to me." When they had done so, he said, "I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 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. 9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, `This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don't delay. 10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me--you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. 11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.'
The irony here is that the betrayal is God’s way of sending Joseph off and saving his family.
• The very thing that is used against him becomes something that is used for him. The betrayal is a blessing in disguise.
• This can only possible because the hand of God is upon it. And Joseph saw it.
• “You did not sent me here. God sent me here ahead of you! And God made me lord of all Egypt!”
• Joseph mentioned GOD 4 times in this speech. He wanted his brothers to get the point – it’s not you, it all God’s plan. He orchestrated everything!
How can we see it earlier? No way can we ever see it earlier. We cannot see what God sees. Don’t try. We can only TRUST Him.
• Joseph’s vision of God’s providence was so great that it dwarfed everything else – his brothers’ betrayal, his mistreatment, his slavery, his wrongful imprisonment, he being forgotten….
• He writes all of these off and simply said: GOD SEND ME HERE AHEAD OF YOU.
What you see is important. What are we looking at today?
• Do we see on the sovereignty of God or the suffering that we are put through?
• What is trust? Trust is training my eyes to see the hand of God in my life.
I don’t always see that. I’ve to learn to see that. I struggle when I fail to see it.
• Each time I feel tired trying to cope with a difficult situation, I know I am losing sight of God’s providence.
• Because when you lose sight of that, the feeling is everything depends on you. You begin to look at yourself - your resources, your time, your strength, your abilities to cope.
When you surrender yourself to God and recognise His sovereign rule again, everything inside of you changes.
• You experience a peace and a joy that does not come from what is happening around you. You experience this quiet CONFIDENCE that comes from God.
• You are able to tell yourself, nothing is amiss. Nothing can be amiss with God.
• If He has a hand in my life and yours, then everything is fine, and everything will be fine.
Like Joseph, we will know that our troubles did not happen by accident.
• We will see the good even in the bad, the blessings even in the troubles.
• Let Joseph’s faith be our faith today. May we see the way he sees.
• The Scriptures say repeatedly that the Lord was with him wherever he goes, even in his sufferings.
• God’s presence was so real that even Potiphar and Pharaoh could see it.
We live by FAITH in an UNSEEN God who has a hand in your life and mine.
• We live TRUSTING the One who has already SEEN our end and all that He has prepared for us.
Life is like a jigsaw puzzle. We are all here trying to put the puzzle together, but without the box with the picture on the cover.
It is challenging. We are left trying to fit the pieces together while figuring out the big picture at the same time. There is no easy way about it.
As the years go by, we get a clearer picture. We pick up more pieces to the puzzle and things that once troubled us now seem to fit into place.
Over time, a picture finally emerges. We sees something. And we gain a new appreciation for the wisdom of God, because nothing is ever wasted.
Everything fits somewhere. Every piece has its place.
That’s our lives in Christ. We live this way by FAITH.
• We choose to believe that God is at work in everything that happens to us.
• We choose to believe this, even when nothing makes sense to us now.
Commit our lives entirely into God’s hands, and be satisfied with His dealings with us.
