It’s Time To Get Up Pt 4 -God Knows What’s Ahead
Genesis 40:1-23 Revelation 20:7-15 July 19, 2020
Many of us today use our phone for driving instructions. Our phones tell us to exit, and we exit, turn left and we turn left, and take the next right and we do it. Why do we follow these instructions almost blindly and with out thinking when we are going some where we have never gone before?
How would we feel if we were halfway to our destination, but out in the middle of nowhere, and our phone said, “sorry, this is as far ahead as I can direct you. You are on your own from here.” How many of us know that we would be lost?
The reason we trust our phone is because we believe that somebody knows what’s ahead and if we follow their instructions, we will get to the place they know we are trying to reach.
We have been looking at the life of Joseph. A young man whose life keeps taking twists and turns and reversals. The prayers he wanted God to answer kept getting a resound no.
Please don’t let them throw me into this pit. Please don’t let them sell me as a slave. Please don’t t let them take me to Egypt. Please stop this sexual harassment. Please don’t send me to prison. Please remember to speak up for me.
I imagine if I were Joseph, I could not help but wonder, where is the God whom they claim “shows up right on time.” Joseph would have had a problem with the song, “He’s an on time God, yes He Is.”
God’s timing is far off as far as he may be concerned. God’s timing really is off only, when we’re looking at today and not at what’s ahead.
People are under the impression, God must act on their time table in order for them to believe. Some 2000 years ago, Jesus was nailed to a cross.
Jesus was suffering and headed for a certain death and yet there were a group of people who wanted God to prove whether or not Jesus was actually God’s Son. They said, in “Matthew 27:43 (NIV2011)
43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’
God had been designed and been waiting from before the world was began to send His Son to die for us. Yet this group of men think they can force God to change those plans to act within a six hour period for their benefit.
“If you want us to believe, take Jesus down from the cross alive right now.” Why do we think God must prove Himself to our specifications? Why do we think we know God’s plan for the future? It will always take faith to know God.
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV2011) 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Did you know that you can love God, and your primary goal for your life can be the opposite of what God has in mind? In our last episode of Joseph’s life, Joseph had been falsely accused of trying to rape Potipher’s wife. In actuality the opposite was true. She had tried to rape him.
Potipher was Joseph’s master, and as punishment, Potipher had Joseph thrown in prison where the king’s prisoners were. There was virtually no chance of escaping that prison.
Joseph had been unjustly condemned for doing what was right. He had said no to temptation, and he now had a life sentence in prison. His prayer was to be taken out of that prison, to get out of Egypt, and to get back home to his family as soon as possible.
His prayer was based on what he wanted for his future and what he thought was best for his life. His prayer was similar to our own prayers.
Yet this was completely contrary to what God had in mind for his life. Joseph is thinking about Joseph, not the salvation of a nation. Our prayers may be far too limited based on what God wants to do in the world.
Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Jesus too had said no to temptation. Jesus was unjustly tried and condemned for crimes he never committed.
Before his trial, he too prayed for a way to escape. We think of Jesus as being eager to go to the cross and die for our sins, but that’s because we don’t understand the price we are going to have to pay for our sin without Jesus.
We don’t understand how great we are in need of a Savior that can take the wrath of God away from us. We think our sin is no big deal, but God does see the future. Like Joseph, Jesus also prayed the prayer for an escape from his circumstances.
Jesus prayed, “Father if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, but not my will, Your will be done.” As a result of Jesus’s obedience to the Father, he received a death sentence.
God said no to Joseph’s prayer. God said no to Jesus’ prayer. Sometimes God is going to say no to our prayers. Not because God is mean, or angry, or disappointed with us. God simply knows what’s ahead and we don’t. Will we trust him for guidance as much as we trust our cell phone for directions.
When Joseph is put into prison, once again the favor of God brings him to the top. It’s not long before Joseph is in charge of the prison. The prison warden puts Joseph in charge of everything that went on in the prison.
Joseph did all the work, but the prison warden got the paycheck and the accolades for running the prison in such an efficient manner.
No matter where Joseph goes, God blesses his administrative skills, and his ability to solve problems. Joseph has such a desire to get home, that he can’t see that God might just have a purpose for him in Egypt.
One thing about Joseph is that he doesn’t overlook people. Here he is practically the warden in the prison, and he happens to notice, two of the prisoners were looking confused, depressed and dejected.
Now some of us would have taken one look at them and said, “no I don’t want to be bothered with them today, they look too sad.” Do we pray in the morning that God will open our eyes to see the people he is sending into our lives?
We can think the world is about us, but God may be connecting us to other people in ways that we could not imagine. Your greeting a person in church this week, could change both of your lives.
These two prisoners had previously served Pharaoh himself, before Pharaoh got angry with them. Turns out both of them had had a dream that night and neither one of them could understand the dream. Joseph took the time to ask them “what was the problem and how could he help.”
Joseph had the cupbearer tell his dream. Joseph explained that in three days the cup bearer would be leaving the prison. Pharaoh was going to look upon him with favor and restore him to his former job.
Joseph said to him, “Now look, when you get out of this prison, put in a good word for me with Pharaoh so I can get out of this place. I have done nothing to deserve to be here.”
When the baker saw that Joseph gave the cupbearer a good positive interpretation, he said, “let me tell you what my dream was and you can give me the interpretation”. When he told Joseph the dream, Joseph probably hesitated to give him an answer.
How do we feel when we have to give somebody some really bad news? Are we tempted to try to break it to them gently, or tempted to make it sound not as bad as it is, do we hope someone else will tell them or do we simply let them find out for themselves.
We talk about the gospel of Jesus Christ as being good news. It is good news. Anyone can come to Jesus Christ no matter what their lives have been like. Jesus can cleanse you of your sin no matter how evil or wicked it has been.
That’s good news, but it’s only good news if there is no consequence for rejecting the message. If there is no consequence for rejecting Jesus, then the gospel is merely information.
Suppose Joseph had told the baker, “Your dream means, that in 3 days you too will get out of this prison. You also will get to see Pharaoh again.”
What if Joseph never told him about the part of the dream that indicated the baker’s head would be cut off and his body impaled on a pole? Would that have been the nice thing or the right thing to do?
Joseph was willing to tell the baker the whole truth even though it must have meant turmoil for the baker. He told him, in 3 days you are going to have your head cut off.
The baker could have dismissed Joseph as not knowing what he was talking about, but that would not have made his final destination any less true.
The one thing Jesus does do is tell us the whole truth. Jesus tells us that any of us can come to Him from any walk of life. He also tells us that we should fear God, who after we died in this life, has the ability to cast us in hell.
What makes the gospel good news, isn’t that it’s a possible way to escape a punishment that might happen. It’s good news because it’s a way to escape a punishment that is certain to happen.
In our New Testament reading it was clear, that anyone’s name that was not written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. That’s the true cost of our sin without Jesus.
Well in three days, the guards came to get the cupbearer and the baker. Pharaoh was celebrating his birthday. The cup bearer got his old job back and the baker was executed, and his body put on a pole.
Isn’t it strange that God would give these two unbelievers a dream about their future, but would not give Joseph a dream about his own future.
It’s been at least 11 years since Joseph had a dream from God. It didn’t look like that dream would ever come true. Joseph was glad he finally was going to have somebody put in a good word for him.
But the scriptures tells us, that the cupbearer quickly forgot about Joseph. Think about it, if you had been fired by your boss when he was angry at you, would you like to bring that incident back up again if you didn’t have to.
As a matter of fact, Joseph is in that prison for two more years. Nobody is talking about Joseph outside those prison walls. He’s never had a family visit. His family doesn’t even know where he is or even if he’s alive.
Suffering is once again his companion, even though he takes it all in stride and tries to keep his faith in God. What on earth could God be doing in his life except keep hiding from him?
In chapter 41, we again discover the sovereignty of God. Sovereignty means God is free to do what God wants to do, and God can use anyone or any nation to carry out his will.
God chooses to use Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt to continue a plan of salvation that started a couple of hundred of years ago.
You may recall, God made a promise to Abraham and Sarah that through them, all the nations of the world would be blessed because of their descendants. Their descendants would eventually lead to Jesus who is the Savior of the World.
Two years after the cup-bearer got his job back, Pharaoh had a dream that literally scared the daylights out of him. He woke up and was glad it was just a dream. He fell asleep, and had another dream that was as terrifying as the first.
He woke up and called for all of the magicians and wisemen of Egypt, but none of them could interpret the dream. No doubt somebody would have made up something, but God made their minds go blank.
When everyone in Pharaoh’s court had about given up hope on the dream being interpreted correctly, the cup bearer speaks up. He said, “I hate to bring this up, but once when you were angry with your servants, me and the baker both had a dream the same night.
There was a young Hebrew there, the servant of the captain of the guard, and he interpreted both of our dreams. Things happened just like he said they would. In 3 days I was restored to my position, and the baker was hanged.”
The same God who gave dreams to people in a prison, gave dreams to a person in the palace. God’s workings are amazing and his timing is perfect. The cup bearer might have thought it was something he did to get his job back.
People may have told him how lucky he was. No, he got his job back, because it was part of God’s plan for the redemption of God’s people. He needed to be there for Pharaoh’s dream to provide direction.
When Joseph woke up that day, it was just an ordinary day. He had no idea that God’s plan for his life was about to unfold in a huge way. He thought the cupbearer had long since forgotten him.
When the soldiers came to the prison to get him, Joseph didn’t know what to expect. The next thing he knew he was getting a bath, getting a shave, and putting on some new clothes.
They were making him look more Egyptian. At the least he might be leaving the prison, at best he might be going home. He had no idea he would be receiving a revelation of what was going to happen for the next 14 years.
He could not believe it when he was taken to the Egyptian Version of the White House to meet face to face with Pharaoh. Pharaoh gets straight to the point. “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said, when you hear a dream, you can interpret it.”
Joseph does not try to impress Pharaoh and does not try to exalt himself. He confesses, “I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answers he desires.” He’s not saying he will give an answer that Pharaoh will like but rather he will give an answer to set his mind at ease.
Pharaoh tells Joseph his dreams. Joseph tells Pharaoh, your dreams are one and the same. For the next 7 years, Egypt is going to have an abundance of food all over the country.
But then those years will be followed by 7 years of famine. The famine will be so great, the people will have forgotten those 7 years of abundance and the famine will ravage the land.
The reason you had two dreams about the same thing is God has determined it is definitely going to happen, and God is getting ready to start this thing right now.
We like to think that we are in charge of things. Egypt is about to have the biggest robust economy it has ever known, and the politicians and businessmen are not really the ones that are going to make it happen.
God has determined it and it didn’t matter which political party was in charge. This is why our faith and our trust are to be in God and God alone.
Psalm 39 says that we are nothing but Phantoms or mere breaths bustling along with activity trying to obtain wealth with no idea of knowing who is going to get it.
We forget that God is in charge and our focus should be on getting right with him by dealing with our sin that separates us from God.
Joseph goes further than just interpreting the dream. He starts making some strong suggestions. 1) Appoint a wise and discerning man to put him in charge of Egypt. 2) Appoint commissioners over the land to take 20% of the harvest during each of the years of abundance.
They should store up the food near cities instead of selling it. 3) Keep the food held in reserve until the 7 bad years arrive so that there Egypt will not be ruined by the famine.
When he started giving ideas, he didn’t know he was writing his own job description. Since he didn’t start out as trying to impress people with his ability, Pharaoh didn’t feel threatened by him.
All those administrative skills Joseph had developed running Potiphar’s household business and running the jail for the warden are now shining through.
He demonstrates he’s a very acute businessman and knows how things work in Egypt. Those 12 years as a slave was God’s way of getting Joseph a PhD. in the workings of the Egyptian nation.
Pharaoh listened to the interpretation, he listened to the plan and he looked at his officials. He told his cabinet, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God ?”
This is the first time in the bible that we see the idea of the Spirit of God dwelling inside of a person. As I said earlier, Joseph is a type of Jesus. The Holy Spirit came down and descended upon Jesus.
The answer to Pharaoh’s question was obviously “no”. Pharaoh told Joseph. “Since God told all this to you, you are wiser than everyone else. I am going to put you in charge of my palace, you have the job, and all my people shall submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” All of Egypt had to bow the knee before Joseph.
Joseph’s life has been characterized by dramatic reversals not because he did things right or did things wrong, but because God knew what was ahead.
It’s taken Joseph 13 years to get out of that pit and into Pharaoh’s palace. He never dreamed or wanted to get in the palace. He just wanted to get back home to his father. We can’t limit what God may want to do through us.
He had no idea that going to Egypt was part of the salvation plan God had in mind not just for him and for his family, but for a nation and ultimately the world. I said two sermons ago, somebody has said,” God is doing a 100 things in your life and you are probably only aware of three of them.”
God has greater things in mind for our lives than we can conceive of and the same is true for our church. But why we are afraid to go for them?
Why are we told to love our neighbors? Because they may be a part of God’s plan for our lives. Joseph had lived for God faithfully for 11 years.
Suppose he had decided he was sick and tired of being in prison , and he could care less that the baker and cup bearer were looking dejected and depressed.
He had enough problems of his own to be concerned about their dreams. It may be the little things that turn our lives in a different direction to align us with the purposes of God.
Joseph’s reversal was dramatic. He walked out of prison into a palace and came out with every Egyptian knee being forced to bow down to him and to acknowledge his authority.
There was another reversal that happened just as dramatically. Jesus Christ was taken down from a cross, and buried into a tomb battling the gates of hell and death itself.
But on the third day, Death could not hold him down. God raised him from the dead and declared that at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
One day, we are going to face a dramatic reversal. The writer of the book of Hebrews in chapter 9:27, tells us that it is appointed to us once to die, and then comes the judgment. Up until the point, we cast the deciding vote as to what our future is going to be for all eternity.
If we give our lives to Jesus Christ, our names are written in the Lambs Book of Life and we go from being a condemned sinner to child of God. We are received into heaven as one whose sin debt has been paid in full by the blood of Jesus Christ.
If we insist on having our own way and getting what we deserve, our reversal goes from a body of flesh to an immortal body. A body that will endure pain and suffering in the lake of fire without being consumed, because we have rejected the only means God guaranteed we could escape the flames.
Nobody goes to heaven because they were a good person and nobody goes to hell because they were a bad person. God knows the future and His word tells us how to get to where we would like to end up.
Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life. No-one comes to the Father except through me. Friend I beg you, don’t choose to go to hell, while you have the opportunity to choose the provision God has already made for you.
