Meant for Good: Promises and Process.
A journey through the life of Joseph, encouraging us when we go through times of challenge, reminding us of God's promises!
If God loves me, he will make my life comfortable.
God's goal for my life is to make me happy.
If I'm suffering, it means God is punishing me.
There is a process that leads to the promises of God.
God had amazing things he was going to do through Joseph. God made promises to Abraham and his descendants. He had great promise for Joseph's life. But it would not be easy, nor would it simply be dropped in Joseph's lap. He would have to suffer and have his faith in God put through the fire.
This is the account of Jacob's family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending to the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Genesis 37:2
Joseph was most loved by his father. Coat of many colors. The favoritism angered Joseph's brothers to the point that they despised Joseph and could not say anything nice to him.
Easy to say - Joseph the favorite, what a narc.
Make no mistake if you call out evil, if you call out sin, the world would hate you for it.
"Don't judge me!" The world wants to be comfortable in their sin and too many times Christians want to be comfortable in their approval of sin.
Joseph went from favorite to despised.
Joseph already had animosity from his brothers. Then he has two dreams and tells his brothers about his dreams.
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it." His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Genesis 37:5-8
It is a very common approach to see Joseph as spoiled, bratty, arrogant, and cocky. As he has dreams and openly shares those dreams with his brothers and father.
Dreams were prophetic, before and after Joseph. Joseph saw these dreams as a promise from God and there was no way that could keep it to himself.
Joseph didn't change wo he was to please others. God could allowed tough times to enter Joseph's life so that God could get Joseph exactly where he wanted him to be.
Character and faith will at times lead to the pit.
Jacob sends Joseph to take on his brothers.
So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. "Here comes that dreamer!" They said to each other. "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." When Reuben heard this , he tried to rescue him from their hands. "Lets not take his life," he said. "Don't shed any blood. Throw him into the cistern here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him."
Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe-the ornate robe he was wearing-and the took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it. Genesis 37: 18-24
God's promises will take will take Joseph through a process.
A process of evil on the part of his brothers.
A process of faith on the part of Joseph.
A process of providence on the part of God.
When we try to live for God. The world will hate us for it.
When we are obedient, the world will be cruel.
When we walk in the world, they will throw us into a pit.
Lies, gossip, unfair judgement, personal attacks, vengeance.
They went after Jesus and killed him. They will do the same to us.
At times the promises will seem impossible.
Can you imagine Joseph there in the pit? Did he talk to God?
Did he question the dreams God gave him?
How do we react when we find ourselves in the pit?
Pit of despair.
Pit of financial distress.
Pit of dysfunction in our relationships.
Pit of destructive sins.
God pulled Joseph from the pit, but maybe now not as Joseph thought he would.
As they sat down to eat their meal. they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm and myrrh and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.
Judah said to his brothers, "What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 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.
So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up up put of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. Genesis 37:25-28
Sometimes the distance and tension between God's PROMISE and His PROCESS can be incredibly jarring and can feel contradictory. God's ways are not our ways, and His plans are not our plans. As Christians, we have precious promises, like Joseph. We are more than conquerors. All things work together for our good. God will exalt us; we will judge angels, God will crush Satan under our feet.
God's promises will always be proven true.
Even when we don't understand, even when our faith is being tested to the limit. God never fails in his promises to us.
He called down famine on the land and destroyed all their supplies of food; and e sent a man before them - Joseph, sold as a slave. They bruised his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, till what he foretold came to pass, till the word of the Lord proved him true. Psalm 105:16-19
Joseph was tested. God's promises were about much more than just Joseph. God's promises were about an entire nation.
God's hand in our life my have much bigger implications than just our life. His promises will be proven true.
"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." John 16:33
God does not promise us that we will not suffer.
God does not promise us that we won't be tested.
Bod does not always protect from every evil.
God does promise us
That nothing can separate us from His love.
That He will never leave us or forsake us.
That he will give us the strength to persevere.
