Wounded by the Archers
PPT 1 Series Title
Summary of previous message
God makes arrows out of the most unlikely sources of wood. It is not the type of wood you are that really matters but how good an arrow maker God is.
PPT 2 Today's Title Wounded by Archers
PPT 3 Text
Ge 49:22 "Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall.
Ge 49:23 With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility.
Ge 49:24 But his bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed supple, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, (NIV)
Ge 49:23 The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot [at him], and hated him: (KJV)
You will notice there is quite a difference in the translation of v. 23 between the KJV and the NIV. In the NIV the archers are enflamed with hatred, and the KJV translates instead as Joseph being deeply hurt in his heart by their attacks. The reason is that the word can be translated either way. I will use it both ways in this message.
Words and actions can be like arrows that are shot at us, which are intended to hurt and sometimes kill. Joseph was never literally attacked by archers, so today I am going to use this text in the way it is being used: as a euphemism for those who hurl attacks at us, and the hurt those attacks CAN bring. The important word in that last sentence is "can." To some degree we determine the effectiveness of the enemies arrows.
In the movie the Lord of the Rings, the stories hero is stabbed with a "supernatural" sword by a ghost like figure, and we are told that type of sword leaves a wound from which one never fully heals.
While there is truth that some wounds are so severe and so deep, we do carry them with us for all our lives. But there are also other truths that come into play. Some peoples scars are very noticeable and are the predominant aspects of a person's personality, and there are other people who have had the very same type of injury and their scars have almost faded completely. In fact some people can have a scar and you will know them for years before you ever even notice it, and you will realize you had to be really looking to find evidence of it.
So it is with life. We have the ability to some extent to determine how visible and how pronounced the wounds inflicted on us by archers will be. We can be like the mollusks that cover injuries and foreign objects with Mother of Pearl, and thus create pearls or those same things can become a festering infection. Choose mother of pearl.
Joseph, the scripture tells us was sorely grieved by the archers, but the record of his life makes it very clear that the wounds others inflicted on him were not the dominant aspect of his personality, but the unshakable faith that God takes even the worst things that life and others throw at you and works them out for good.
So this morning I am going to use the life of Joseph and talk about three types of archers that can shoot at you in life.
The three archers I am going to speak of are:
PPT 4
Bitter Brothers
Workplace Weasels
Hope Hurters
Archers you know are not people who go toe to toe with you, but they shoot from behind walls, and rocks, and on top of hills and behind bushes. They are people and things that sneak attack you, and you may or may not even know it is they who are doing it to you.
PPT 5 Bitter Brothers text
Ge 37:3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he [was] the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of [many] colours.
Ge 37:4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably unto him.
Ge 37:19 And they said to one another, "Here comes this dreamer!
Ge 37:20 "Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, 'A wild beast devoured him.' Then let us see what will become of his dreams!"
Joseph had some very bitter brothers, and when the text says they could not speak peaceably to him, that is a loaded text that speaks volumes of life in Jacob's household.
Taunting, teasing, insulting. Teaming up to make his life miserable. They shot arrows at Joseph in his presence and when he wasn't around.
Now let me teach you a spiritual truth, behind every bitter spirit is a wound that has not healed.
Read verse 37:4a again. They were hurting Joseph, because they were hurt of their father.
I have had a phrase going over and over in my mind as I have prepared this message, I am not sure I fully understand it yet, but it is simply this: "The orphan spirit."
There are many kinds of orphans in this world. Some from war, or accidents, some from poverty or an attempt to make a better life for the child, and some are orphans of rejection. That is the kind I want to zero in on for a second.
The bitterness of Joseph's brothers that cause them to shoot arrows of harsh words, and envy was a fruit of the root of a feeling of rejection by their father. There are a lot of people in this world who have been shot by rejection and they in turn shoot others because of the wound they have that hasn't healed. In this case the brothers saw dad loved Joseph more than them. That kind of hurt is almost universal in today's "blended families." There are people who marry, but never accept step-children, and that fact is never missed by the kids. They know when they are being treated as excess baggage. The step-parent chose a spouse and grudgingly accepted the kids. That was exactly what happend in Jacobs family. The only woman he loved was Rachel, everyone else was grudgingly accepted, and they all knew it. It was flagrant, it was horrible. If you are a stepparent please try to be the best stepparent you can be. Be equal in Christmas gifts and birthday parties, if not you may be creating the dynamics that will one day explode in your face.
The second type of archer that shot at Joseph is the Workplace Weasel.
Joseph's employers wife did wrong and blamed it on Joseph. She tried to seduce him, and then told her husband, Joseph's boss, that Joseph tried to seduce her. Workplace weasels will do wrong and them blame others for what they did. They will be the reason the project is behind and then tell their manger it is your fault.
A workplace weasel talks about others behind their back, and shoots flaming arrows of insults and accusations to others whenever they are not around. Beware of such people. Those who talk about others when they are not around will talk about you when you are not around.
Another phrase I have for workplace weasels is reputation ruinors. The bible says a good name is rather to be chosen than riches. It takes years to build a reputation and one weasel can ruin it in two minutes around the water cooler. Guess what, we have all done it. There is something about fallen nature that we think that by putting others down, it improves our standing. Who here hasn't been convicted by the Holy Spirit of the wrongness of speaking evil of others?
I remember once hearing a football illustration where the church was compared to a football team and it was said, we are sometimes the only team that the offensive line turns on and tackles the quarterback. We need to protect our quarterback, our running backs, our goal is to score against the enemy not help him by verbally attacking our teammates.
An interesting fact about this passage in Genesis is that the Hebrew word translated archers in our text literally means, the masters of the bow. Joseph wasn't simply attacked by archers he was attacked by the Olympic Gold Medal winning archers, and it caused great pain in his life. There are people who are experts at shooting arrows of accusation and insult. They can and do inflict real and serious pain, that is what the scriptures tell us happened to Joseph. The lesson for us is, don't be one of them, don't be a workplace weasel, and if you have been shot at by those people leave them to God. Joseph was promoted because God saw that he didn't render evil for evil.
1Th 5:15 See that none render evil for evil unto any [man]; but ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves, and to all [men].
So Joseph was shot at by bitter brothers, workplace weasels, and finally by hope hurters.
PPT 6,7 text
Ge 40:9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, "In my dream, behold, [there was] a vine in front of me;
Ge 40:10 and on the vine [were] three branches. And as it was budding, its blossoms came out, [and] its clusters produced ripe grapes.
Ge 40:11 "Now Pharaoh's cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh's hand."
Ge 40:12 Then Joseph said to him, "This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days;
Ge 40:13 within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer.
Ge 40:14 "Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.
Ge 40:23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Joseph has been a long time in prison at this point. God miraculasly gives the cupbearer a dream and it is perfectly fulfilled. Joseph's hopes rise, surely he will remember me to Pharoah. Days turn to weeks, weeks to months, and slowly turns disappointment into loss of hope, and loss of hope to despair.
In life there will be times where your hopes are dashed. You will have the rug pulled out from under you. People you trusted will let you down. When that happens you become very vulnerable to quitting.
In this series one of the ways we are using arrows is to talk about the purpose and goals God wants us to hit the target on. Arrows are meant to hit a target. Hope hurters have done more damage than almost any other thing to keep people from hitting the targets in life that God has for them.
The great danger that hope hurters bring is that when our hopes are dashed we abandon them. We throw in the towel. We get discouraged and give up. We stop trying and surrender to what the archers of evil are shooting arrows at us for: to quit pursuing God's target.
There is an old song by a group called the Imperials that has encouraged me many times perhaps more than any other, a couple lines go like this:
When your hopes have been cruelly crushed by satan's manifested schemes and you feel the urge within you to submit to earthly fears, don't let the hope you are standing on seem to disappear. Praise the Lord, He can work through those who praise Him, Praise the Lord, for our God inhabits praises, Praise the Lord, for the chains that seem to bind you drop powerless behind you when you praise Him.
When your hopes have been cruelly crushed, what a picture of life. But the song goes on to say, don't quit, in fact do the opposite of what the circumstances suggest, give Glory to God in the worst seasons of life.
Think of the archers who are hope hurters as cattle drivers, they are trying to drive you in the direction of their choice. Don't let them change the target for your life.
So we have talked about three archers
Bitter brothers
Workplace weasels
and Hope hurters.
In life we will all face these types of issues, and will be attacked by these types of archers. The question is will you overcome or will you be overcome? We all will have scars from our battles with these enemies, will those scars become dominant, or will they fade almost into invisibility?
Will you let the enemy force you into his corral? Or will you steer your ship towards God's barn?
Let's close:
Have you struggled with what I called the Orphan spirit?
Do you have Workplace weaselsthat youI want to release them to God and stop worrying about them?
Hope hurters, will you refuse to let the enemy force me into his corral?
Close in prayer
