Title: A Promised Walk
Text: Genesis 37; 39-46
Subject: Faith
Series: The Walk Series; #4
Introduction: Promises don’t mean too much to people of this day and age. There was a time when a simple handshake and a promise were as good as any legal contract. The handshake was binding. Nothing is ever done today without an extremely detailed contract, and even with that lawyers can find ways out of even the most complex contract. Beyond in depth contracts down to the level where most of us live, promises still aren’t worth much. A father promises his children he’ll make it to the game; knowing full well he’ll never arrive on time. A bride and groom promise to love each other until death, after signing a prenuptial agreement on who gets what in case of a divorce. A friend promises to stick by your side through thick and through thin, but disappears at the first sign of trouble. Because of this reality, sometimes it makes it hard when we deal with the promises of God.
God is a God of promises. As you read through the Bible this becomes very clear. God has promised many things to us, but so often it appears as if He isn’t going to keep His promise. Time passes and we eventually just forget about it because our world has taught us that promises are rarely kept. What are we to do in the light of this? Today, we are going to look at the walk of a young man in the Bible. He was given a promise from God and God fulfilled it, but not in the time frame any of us would have chosen. Let’s look at the story starting in Genesis 37:3-11.
Now Israel [Jacob] loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: 7 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." 8 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. 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.
We know from the text that Joseph was around seventeen years old when all these dreams, which I’ll call promises from God, happened. Twenty short years later, the promises came true. Jump over several chapters with me to Genesis 42:3-6.
Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 4 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. 5 So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also. 6 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground [emphasis mine].
We have ten of Joseph bothers bowing down before him. In the last verse I want to look at, the brothers have gone home and have returned for more food and by Joseph’s command (he wasn’t recognized by his brothers), they have brought their youngest brother Benjamin with them. All eleven of Joseph’s brothers are present. Let’s read Genesis 43:26.
When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house, and they bowed down before him to the ground.
A promise to Joseph that was twenty years in the making. Twenty long years he had to wait for God to keep the promise (Gen. 41:46; Gen. 41:47-49; Gen. 45:6). There are some truths in here if we’re ready for them.
I. God’s promises always come true.
Promises are a dime a dozen. I’ve had friends ask to borrow things from me and they promise to return them, yet I know inside that they never will. Usually my suspicions were right. In the same way, people often come to churches asking for money promising that when things get better they’ll pay it back. Rarely do they hold to their promise and actually pay the money back. I remember a saying once that “promises were made to be broken.” This is the attitude behind promises today. When we live day in and out with a certain belief, it’s easy to begin to attribute the same belief to God. Take for instance, many of us have probably pictured Jesus as being white. It’s what many of us are and we just assume it holds true for Jesus. We know for fact though that he was a Jew and Jews of that time period were definitely more olive skin colored.
We do this same thing with the promises of God. We’re used to people breaking promises so we begin to believe that God breaks promises too. When we do this we’ve allowed the world to hide from us the reality. God always keeps His promises. If God say he’s going to do it, He will. Consider this truth from Numbers 23:19.
God is not a man, that he should lie,
nor a son of man, that he should change his mind.
Does he speak and then not act?
Does he promise and not fulfill?
(Spoken by Balaam. Verse 16 makes it clear the words were from God.)
God doesn’t lie. If He gives a promise, he definitely, absolutely, assuredly, positively, incontestably, and beyond any doubt will keep the promise he has given. It is his very nature to keep his promises.
Joseph had been given the dream from God about his brothers. Once God made that promise it was going to happen no matter what. When Joseph’s brothers threw him in a pit and were planning on killing him, God brought by a band of traders so that they sold him to them instead. God wasn’t going to allow his promise to be killed. It would seem though, that God was breaking the promise. As Joseph is being led to being led to Egypt to be sold as a slave, his bothers are remaining behind. How will they bow before him if he’s a slave in Egypt? That’s another truth concerning God’s promises. They come true in God’s time.
II. They come true in God’s time.
If God would allow me the privilege, I would love change his time schedule. Why, because God never seems to work when I want Him to work. When I get on my knees and pray for my friend to get saved, I want it to happen now. When I discover there won’t be enough money for the bills, I want the answer now and not the day I need the money. So often we want God to act on our behalf at a time of our choosing. God rarely works that way. God has His own schedule of when things need to be done. If He has promised to do something, He’ll do it. It just might not be when you expected it. 2 Peter 3:8-9 reads, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness.”
God knows what’s best. He knows when the best time to give the fulfillment of a promise is. It may be after all other hope is gone. That way God receives all glory. It may be when you’ve come to a place where all you can do is believe by faith. Sometimes that might be what God wants you to have even more than the promise itself. It’s hard I admit. We like to be in control of the timing but it’s completely God’s. The biggest question we must face though, is what are we going to do during the between times.
III. Faith is needed for the time between.
For every great promise God has given, there has been a time from its proclamation to its fulfillment. The years Abraham waited for the promised son. The years Israel waited for the promised Messiah. The years Joseph waited for the dreams God had given him to come to pass. Looking specifically at Joseph, we can see several things that we should do while waiting for the promise to come to pass.
A. Flee sin
We know the story of Joseph well. He was sold to a man named Potiphar in Egypt. Joseph was an extremely good servant and with God’s blessing, rose to a high position within the household. Unfortunately, Joseph was also extremely good looking and Potiphar’s wife took a liking to him. Day after day she would invite him to come sleep with her and day after day he would refuse. What a temptation for Joseph to face. He has every right to feel abandoned by God. Surely a weaker man would have said, “God has obviously forgotten about me so I might as well enjoy myself.” Joseph wouldn’t do this. In the time between the promise and fulfillment, he would not let himself give into sin.
When we are waiting for God to keep His promises to us, we must be like Joseph. It’s easy to get depressed and begin to doubt when nothing seems to be happening. This makes us easier targets for the attack of the enemy. The child of God must flee any attempt of the enemy to drag them down into sin no matter what the cost. For Joseph, the price was high. He was accused of attempted rape and thrown into jail.
B. Work
During the time in between, Joseph worked. “If God has allowed me to become a slave, I’ll work at being the best slave I can be. If God has allowed me to be the head of Potiphar’s house, I will work hard and do the best job I can. If God has allowed me to become a prisoner, I’ll work hard and be the best prisoner I can be.” This was Joseph’s attitude 13 years of slavery and prison. It seemed like every step Joseph took led him farther away from having the promise fulfilled. How could his brothers find him let alone come and bow down to him when he was in the depths of the Egyptian prison.
Joseph kept right on plugging along. No matter where Joseph wound up, he worked hard and God blessed that. In time, the warden of the prison took notice of Joseph put him in charge of all the other prisoners. The warden had no worries because Joseph worked hard and did the job well.
Even as we wait for the promise that God has given us, we must still be faithful to work until it comes to pass. Joseph has provided the example. God expects his people to remain faithful and do his will even if it seems that there is no chance of His promises ever being fulfilled.
C. Care for others (baker and wine steward)
Once Joseph was in prison, didn’t he have every right to forget God? Didn’t he have very right to ignore every one and wallow in self-pity. Day in and day out he has the right to say, “why did you let this happen God.” Joseph did none of these things. In fact, while Joseph is in prison, he shows incredible concern for other people. While Joseph was in prison, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt were also thrown into prison. After awhile, both of these men had dreams on the same night. They both were sure that their dreams had meaning, but they couldn’t find anyone to interpret them. Then Joseph walks in. He sees their sad faces and he cares enough to talk to them and find out why. He cares enough to listen and even interpret the dreams for them. He could have just ignored the two men; after all, they were just prisoners too. He doesn’t though. He cares and takes the time to help them.
Even as we wait for God’s promises to come true in our own lives, we must still see the needs of those around us. Though we may be in the dark in between times, we should still show love and care to those around us.
D. Be willing to learn.
One of the toughest things we have to do during the in between times is learn. Sometime the promise is so long in coming because God wants us to learn something. For the promise to come true for Joseph, God was going to make Joseph Pharaoh’s right hand man, God was going to make a drought fall upon the land, and God was going to bring Joseph’s brothers to Egypt looking for food. In this process, Joseph was going to become the savior of Egypt and his entire family. As a seventeen-year-old, Joseph was in no way ready to help rule Egypt and control the agriculture. Thirteen years later he was ready because he was willing to learn. God had Joseph placed in Potiphar’s house. It was here that Joseph learned how to manage a household. He got to know how to keep track of supplies and how to efficiently use them for Potiphar’s benefit. In prison, Joseph learned how to work with people. The warden trusted him for the fact that the prisoners under Joseph did what he said. He had learned to be a leader. This all prepared him for the day when he would be in charge of the basically the entire nation of Egypt. He was ready to watch over and control the supplies of grain that were harvested for the upcoming famine and he knew how to oversee people.
Is God trying to teach us things when we go through the dark times waiting for the fulfillment of His promises? Yes. Whether or not we will allow ourselves to be teachable is the choice of every believer.
Conclusion: For Joseph, the promise came absolutely true. We began the message with the image of his brothers coming in and bowing before him. Yet so much more good came out of the fact that he went through the terrible time between. God has given each one of us promises. Salvation, healing, and so on. Will you be faithful as Joseph was during the time when it seems no answer from God is in sight and everything seems to be falling apart? We need to be. If God has tugged at your heart today, I encourage you not to leave until you’ve spent some private time with Him. Come to the altar if possible and talk with God and give God a chance to talk to you.
