ENGAGE
Most of you know by now that Matt Dodd, one of the missionaries that we support as a church, was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer a little over two months ago and then experienced a stroke a little over a month ago. And if you have been reading any of his wife, Cameron’s, updates on Facebook or elsewhere I know that you, like me, must be astounded with how their family is handling this crisis which threatens to take Matt’s life at any moment.
I’m going to try and read to you just a portion of what Cameron posted on Tuesday this week:
God's steadfast love towards us was not proved today when Matt walked again, but rather 2,000 years ago when Jesus took our place on that cross and purchased on our behalf freedom from our sin and an eternity to spend with Him.
There is so much brokenness in this world. So much sin. So many burdens carried. I marvel at how this one hope outweighs all of them. How the light that came into this world is so bright, that all who look to Him to be saved cannot possibly see darkness again. How that future weight of glory awaiting us in heaven will ultimately make this ravaging of Matt's body and blood look light and momentary. It was once our plan to declare this hope in the remote mountains of Papua New Guinea. But now, we will declare it here. Or wherever we are. Declare hope to the very hopeless, light in the blackest darkness, and the truth of One who carries burdens far too heavy for any of us to bear, who carried them completely on the cross.
So tonight, as Matt and I fall asleep, still in separate places and still with a terminal illness in our lives, we rejoice in that truth that will never change, both on the days of bad news which have come and will likely come again, and on days like today, with very, very good news.
TENSION
I’d like to think that if I were in a similar situation that I could respond like that, but frankly until we actually face something like that I’m not sure that any of us can be sure we would. But this morning as we look at the life of Joseph, and especially at some of his final words that are recorded in the Bible, we can all get a better handle on what it takes to respond to the difficulties in our life like that.
TRUTH
Last week, we left off with Jacob’s return to Bethel in Genesis 35. Just before he took his family and left Laban’s home, his wife Rachel had born a son and named him Joseph, which means “may he add”, expressing Rachel’s hope that God would add to her another son. After returning to Bethel, God granted that wish and Rachel gave birth to Benjamin, but she died during childbirth.
The account of Joseph’s life takes up most of the last 14 chapters of the book of Genesis and many commentators have noted similarities between his life and that of Jesus during His earthly ministry. Unfortunately, with our limited time we won’t be able to explore those together this morning, but that would be a great thing for you to research on your own.
When he was 17 years old, Jacob, who loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, made Joseph a coat of many colors, which infuriated his brothers. Then they become even more enraged when Joseph had two dreams in which his father and brothers bow down to him.
So when he goes to meet his brothers while they are tending sheep, his brothers plot to kill him. But when they have the opportunity to sell him off as a slave instead, they do that. Afterwards, they take Joseph’s coat and dip it in animal blood and bring it back to their father and imply that Joseph is dead.
But God was with Joseph. He is brought to Egypt and ends up serving in the house of Potiphar, one of Pharaoh’s officials. When Mrs. Potiphar tries to seduce Joseph, he flees, but is thrown into prison based on her false report about the incident.
But once again, God is with Joseph and he is put in charge of all the prisoners. So when Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker are thrown into prison and both have dreams, God gives Joseph the ability to interpret those dreams. The cupbearer’s dream was good news because it meant that in three days he would be restored to his position.
For the baker, however, the news was not nearly as good since it meant that in three days he would be killed. And sure enough that is exactly what happened.
Two years later, Joseph is now 30 years old, when Pharaoh has two dreams. And the cupbearer tells Pharaoh about Joseph, and how he had accurately interpreted his dreams. So Joseph is brought before Pharaoh and tells him that God will interpret his dreams. After hearing Pharaoh retell the dreams, Joseph reveals that both dreams are really one. Egypt is going to experience seven years of great plenty, followed by seven years of famine. Joseph also recommends that Pharaoh select a wise and discerning man to carry out a plan to collect and store some of the produce of the land during the seven years of plenty in order to have enough food to sustain the land during the years of famine.
So Pharaoh appoints Joseph for that task and makes him second in command only to Pharaoh in all of Egypt. Joseph is given an Egyptian name and wife, but when she conceives and bears two sons, Joseph gives them Hebrew names. The older son is named Manasseh, which means “made to forget”, since God’s goodness has caused Joseph to forget his past hardships. The second son is named Ephraim, which means “making fruitful”, a testament to the way God has made Joseph fruitful in a foreign land. Those names are both evidence of the fact that Joseph has already forgiven his brothers. We’ll come back to that theme of forgiveness in just a moment.
When the famine comes, Jacob sends all of his sons except Benjamin, from their home in Canaan to Egypt to buy grain. When they appear before Joseph and bow before him, in fulfillment of his earlier dream, they don’t recognize him, but he recognizes them. And for the first of many times in the remainder of Genesis, Joseph weeps. On Monday morning we were joking that he was just a big crybaby, but it actually reveals his tender heart.
So Joseph sends all of his brothers except Simeon back home with orders to come back with their youngest brother Benjamin. And he also gives orders to put every man’s money that they had brought to buy grain back into their sacks along with the grain. When his brothers discover that on their way home, they respond with these words:
“What is this that God has done to us?” (Genesis 42:28)
As we’ll see in just a few moments, those words reveal a completely different mindset than that of Joseph. They look at their hardship and immediately assume that God means them harm. And when they get home and tell Jacob what has happened, he has a similar reaction:
“All this has come against me.” (Genesis 42:36)
When Jacob and his family run out of grain again, he has no choice but to send all his sons back to Egypt. When Joseph comes into the room where they are gathered to eat, Joseph is overcome with emotion and goes out and has another good cry before returning to eat the meal with them.
After testing his brothers one more time, Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers. This time he weeps so loud that the entire household heard him cry. Joseph recounts his life, making sure to continually make it clear that his current position is a result of what God has done for him and not because of his own efforts. I’m going to come back to his words there in a bit.
And then he sends his brothers back home one last time to bring their father Jacob back to Egypt, where they will be able to dwell in the fine land of Goshen where Joseph will insure they are provided for.
On his way to Egypt, God appears again to Jacob and repeats His promise to make Jacob’s offspring into a great nation. When they arrive in Goshen, Joseph meets them there and is reunited with his father and he – you guessed it – he cries.
Jacob and his family live in Egypt for another 17 years, until Jacob dies at the age of 147. Joseph keeps his promise to Jacob to take his body back to the land that God had promised to him and there he was buried in a cave that had earlier been purchased by Abraham. Then Joseph and his brothers return to Egypt. That is where we’ll pick up the story.
[Read Genesis 50:15-21]
When I read this passage, I see 2 distinct, but equally important themes here:
1. Forgiveness
2. Handling trials
As I was studying this week, I ran across a sermon that used this passage to address the forgiveness theme and as I began to read through it I thought “This is actually pretty good”, but it also had a familiar ring to it, which I guess it should have since it was one of my sermons from about a year and a half ago, when I was preaching on the topic of relationships. I was actually quite surprised because my usual response when I read, watch or listen to any of my past sermons is more like “I preached that?”
So since I’ve covered that theme pretty recently, I ‘m going to focus on the second theme of handling trials this morning. But before we do that let me just remind you of the bottom line from that previous message:
Authentic relationships are enhanced when
I give up my right to hurt you for hurting me
That is exactly what Joseph does with his brothers here. In fact, as I pointed out earlier, I’m convinced he had done that long ago. For the last 25 years of his life he had the motive to retaliate against his brothers and for the last several years he had the power to do that very effectively. But he never did.
So in your sermon outline, I’ve provided you with a couple of links in case you want to review that message and I’d really encourage you to do that while this passage is fresh in your mind since the idea of forgiveness is so important.
https://sermoncentral.com/sermons/forgiveness-pat-damiani-sermon-on-forgiveness-196144
http://streamingchurch.tv/cgi-bin/streaming_setname.pl?churchid=church6724¬es_id=36764&html5=&hd=&embed=&guest_id=Guest13464
I’ll also include those links in my “Between Sundays” email newsletter this week so you can click them directly instead of having to type in those long addresses.
We’ll focus the rest of our time talking about how it was that Joseph could come near the end of his life and look back over all the terrible things that had happened to him as a result of what his brothers had done to him as a teenager and be gracious and grateful rather than bitter. And when we look at this passage we find that Joseph could do that because of three things he knew about God.
APPLICATION
Three things I need to know in my trials
1. God is100% in control
This is not the first time that Joseph has acknowledged that God is sovereign over the circumstances of his life. Go ahead and turn back to Genesis chapter 45 and look with me at Joseph’s words to his brothers when he first revealed himself to them. As I read this passage I want you to note how many times Joseph talks about what God has done in his life.
And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry.
(Genesis 45:5-9 ESV)
When Joseph had his dreams as a teenager, I don’t think had any idea how that dream would be fulfilled but he trusted that God was in control.
When he was sold into slavery to the Ishmaelites and taken to Egypt, He had no idea that would lead to him eventually becoming second in charge only to Pharaoh in all Egypt. But he did trust that was part of God’s plan for his life and he trusted that God was in control.
When he was wrongly accused of violating Pharaoh’s wife and thrown in jail, Joseph never questioned why God had allowed that to happen. He just kept trusting that God was in control.
When the cupbearer gets restored to his position and forgets Joseph while he remains locked up for two more years, Joseph waits for God’s timing because he trusts that God is in control.
And when he is finally brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dreams, 13 years after his brothers had sold him into slavery, Joseph is still trusting that God is in control and that God will enable him to interpret those dreams.
So when his brothers finally show up, he is not bitter or angry at them because he recognizes that even though they meant what they did for evil, God had been in control for all of those 13 years.
This idea that God is in control, is not particularly popular today, sometimes even in the church. When someone endures trials, we are often quick to either jump to God’s defense or to conclude that He is just not powerful enough to handle the situation. So we hear people saying things like this:
• God had nothing to do with that. People will either attribute a trial to Satan or claim that it just happened without God’s knowledge. As far as I’m concerned it’s really not necessary to get in to the whole argument about whether God “causes” or “permits” trials in the lives of His people. As we’re going to see next week with Job, even when Satan intervenes in our lives, God is 100% in control and Satan can do only what God permits. So to argue over whether God causes or permits difficulties just obscures the real issue, which is that He is 100% in control.
• God couldn’t do anything about it. The person who says something like this seems to believe that God would really like to step in and help out, but He’s just not powerful enough to do that.
But both of those mindsets essentially deny this idea that God is 100% in control.
If you’ve been reading any of Cameron Dodd’s updates, the one thing that stands out is that the Dodd’s continually acknowledge that God is in control of what has happened to Matt. Like Joseph, they don’t know what the final result will be, but they trust that it’s in God’s hands.
Before we leave this point, let me make sure that you’re clear that I’m not saying here that trusting that God is in control means that we have to passively endure abusive relationships or circumstances that put us in danger of physical, emotional or spiritual harm. It does not mean that we shouldn’t report mistreatment or abuse to the proper authorities or press charges if that’s appropriate.
Just because the Dodd’s are trusting in God’s sovereignty doesn’t mean that they aren’t pursuing medical treatment or that Matt has refused to undergo physical therapy.
2. God is 100% good
Before I talk about God’s goodness, it’s important to note here that Joseph did not excuse what his brothers had done. He called it exactly what it was – evil. He did not minimize at all the seriousness of their sin. His brothers had intentionally attempted to cause him harm. But God had taken what they intended for evil and turned it into good because that is His nature.
You can’t read Joseph’s words here without thinking of Romans 8:28:
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
(Romans 8:28 ESV)
But if we don’t understand that God’s definition of good is different than our own, we’re going to misunderstand and misuse both the words of Joseph and Paul. To us “good” is whatever makes us “happy” and comfortable or brings us pleasure or enjoyment. But if we read the verse right after the one we just read, we see God’s definition of good for us:
For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
(Romans 8:29 ESV)
God defines “good” as being that which leads us to me more like Jesus. And often that can be painful and difficult.
Perhaps it’s helpful for us to think of this in terms of the birth of a baby. For nine months that baby remains in the womb where, unlike the mother, he or she is quite comfortable. All of his or her needs are provided for and that baby is quite content to remain there. But if that baby remains there too long, he or she will die. And not only that, the baby would never get to experience what it is like to taste or smell or to see the world outside the womb or to understand what it means to love or to experience faith.
But then all of a sudden things become rather uncomfortable for that baby. It is being squeezed against its will through a very small opening and it emerges into bright lights with a bunch of people poking and grabbing at him or her. It’s life support is cut and now it has to fend for itself. But all that pain and tumult is actually a very good thing because it allows that baby to become the person God intended for him or her to become. So as painful as it is for both mother and child, it is good for that baby to be born.
Throughout their ordeal, Matt and Cameron Dodd have obviously been sustained by knowing that God is good, regardless of what might happen in their lives. Let me read again just a portion of Cameron’s post that I read earlier:
God's steadfast love towards us was not proved today when Matt walked again, but rather 2,000 years ago when Jesus took our place on that cross and purchased on our behalf freedom from our sin and an eternity to spend with Him.
There’s not really anything I can add to that.
3. God never makes a mistake
Joseph is clear to acknowledge that even when he had absolutely no idea what God was doing, God engineered each and every moment of his life to bring him to the place where he would save the lives of many people, including his own family. He is absolutely convinced of the fact that God never ever makes a mistake.
That is because God is absolutely wise and knowledgeable. I love the way Paul, quoting both Isaiah and Job, writes about those attributes of God in Romans 11:
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!
“For who has known the mind of the Lord,
or who has been his counselor?”
“Or who has given a gift to him
that he might be repaid?”
(Romans 11:33-35 ESV)
My favorite description of God’s wisdom comes from Dr. Charles Ryrie:
The wisdom of God tells us that God will bring about the best possible results, by the best possible means. for the most possible people, for the longest period of time.
Don’t you love that? Let’s go ahead and read it out loud together. Although this doesn’t carry the same weight as Scripture, it is so in line with what the Bible teaches that I’d suggest that you write this down somewhere where you can refer back to it whenever you’re going through some difficulty or trial in your life.
Whatever you’re going through right now, you can be sure that God is wisely and sovereignly ordering the circumstances of your life to accomplish His work in your marriage, your family, your work, or your worship or some other area of your life. That is not God’s plan B or C. It is His plan A, designed specifically for your life for this moment in time in the place where you are right now for your good and God’s glory. If there was some better way for God to accomplish that in your life, then you would be experiencing different circumstances than what you are going through right now.
Several weeks ago Cameron Dodd began her weekly update with these words:
God's timing in all He does is perfect--never early and never late. I've thought about that a lot in the last few days as both the good and the challenging continue to make themselves known along this path.
INSPIRATION
How different would your life be today if you looked at your problems and difficulties in light of what we’ve learned this morning? What if you began to see those difficult circumstances that have made you feel overwhelmed and ready to give up as actually being orchestrated by a God who is 100% in control, 100% good and who never, ever makes a mistake? What if you knew that in your life God was working to bring about the best possible results by the best possible means because He loves you more than you’ll ever know?
ACTION
It may very well be that today God is calling you to decide that you’re going to evaluate your problems in light of what He reveals in His Word rather than based on your own feelings. Today He is inviting you to trust in his sovereignty, goodness and wisdom and to view your troubles in light of those attributes. So as we pray this morning to close our time, will you pray these things back to God and thank Him that He is 100% control, 100% good and that He is never, ever wrong.
[Prayer]
