Earlier this morning, I took a walk down to the graveyard and took some pictures of some of the gravestones there. I’d like to look at them together right now, thinking of one question. How are these people remembered?
***Go through images***
This week, as I thought about and studied the passage that we are going to look at today I have been struck with this same question. How do I want to be remembered? This is a question that I think most of the people in this room rarely think about. For starters, thinking about how you want to be remembered usually means thinking about your death and who really wants to sit and contemplate that. Second, most of us are young; we have a long way to go before we need to start worrying about the epitaph on our grave stone. Tonight, putting those excuses aside, I want to think about the question of how we are going to be remembered. To help us, I want to look at how Abraham’s grandson, Joseph, was remembered.
For those of you who know who Joseph was, you should remember that his life was anything but normal. Joseph was one of twelve brothers and he was also his father’s favorite. This made his brothers very jealous, so one day when the brothers were out tending the flocks they decided to beat Joseph and throw him in a ditch. As they were doing this, some slave traders came by, so they decided to sell Joseph to them and tell their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal.
Joseph ended up being bought by an Egyptian named Potiphar who was one of Pharaoh’s officials. Joseph began to have great success in the work that he did and found favor in Potiphar’s eyes. Potiphar began to put him in charge of more and more things until Joseph was basically second in command. Now during this time, Potiphar’s wife began to take notice of Joseph and wanted to sleep with him. Joseph refused and one day literally ran away. As he ran, he accidentally left his cloak behind. Potiphar’s wife used this to frame him by telling her husband that Joseph tried to rape her. Joseph was sent to prison.
While Joseph was in prison, the cupbearer and the baker of Pharaoh were also in prison. One night the two men had dreams and the next day shared their dreams with Joseph. God gave Joseph the ability to interpret the dreams which came true after three days. The cupbearer was reinstated and the baker was hung.
Two years later, Joseph being in prison this whole time, Pharaoh had a dream and was greatly troubled the next day. He told his dream to everyone he could think of but no one could tell Pharaoh what it meant. At this point the cupbearer spoke up and told Pharaoh of Joseph. Joseph was summoned to Pharaoh and interpreted the dream for him. Pharaoh’s dream meant there was going to be seven years of harvest and then seven years of drought and famine. Joseph told Pharaoh that he had to plan accordingly, to store food for the famine otherwise the people would die. Pharaoh was so pleased with Joseph’s interpretation and wisdom that he made Joseph the head of the palace and told all the Egyptians that they were to submit to Joseph’s orders.
While Joseph was in charge they stored up food to prepare for the famine and in seven years they had enough that all the surrounding nations were coming to Egypt to get food to survive. One day, Joseph’s brothers came to get food but they did not recognize him. Joseph eventually told his brothers that he was Joseph and they embraced and wept. Joseph sent them home to get his father, Jacob, and bring him to Egypt. Joseph then cared for his whole family saving them from the famine on the land. They lived together in Egypt for the rest of Joseph’s life.
Joseph has so much to be remembered for! Which of the remarkable things that happened in Joseph’s life do you think he was commended for in the New Testament? None of them!!! Joseph is only mentioned four times in the New Testament. Two of the times it is only his name that is mentioned and one time his role in the history of Israel is mentioned. The only other time is in Hebrews 11:22 which commended Joseph for his faith. “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.” The passage that this verse in Hebrews refers to is Genesis 50:24-25.
***Read Genesis 50:24-26***
Out of all that Joseph did, out of all the amazing things that happened to him, Joseph is remembered and commended for the words he spoke on his death bed. At first glance, it seems to be unfair. Abraham had three paragraphs in Hebrews 11 talking about the acts of faith that he took. Joseph has one sentence. What was so important about Joseph’s last words? These last words of Joseph show us where his focus had been throughout his entire life.
Joseph had lived in Egypt for 93 years! He grew up in their culture, was surround by and taught their customs, their language, and the history of the land. He could have been buried in a pyramid among the other Egyptian gods. Even though many would argue that Egypt was his home, he himself did not recognize Egypt in that way. He knew that all his wealth, possessions, and fame in Egypt would simply disappear and be meaningless in years to come. His home was the paradise that God had promised his people. He even rejected the idea of being buried in the land his father and grandfather were buried. The only place that Joseph wanted to be buried was the land that he had been hoping and living for, for his entire life.
Joseph didn’t give up hope or loose his faith even in the face of death. Imagine how it would feel to be hoping for something your whole life, looking forward to something for 93 years, just to reach your death bed and realize you would never be able to see this promise land? Many people would curse God and be angry that God did not deliver. Joseph did not do that, instead he spoke confidently to his brothers, “God will come and take you to the land he promised. It will happen. I am so sure it will happen that I want you to promise to take my bones when you go.”
Joseph was then embalmed and placed in a coffin. Imagine the message that would have sent to all of the Israelites? Every time they pasted by that coffin they could see that it was not buried and was simply waiting to be brought home. That coffin was a reminder of God’s promise and an amazing example of the faith that Joseph had. In Exodus 13:19 it tells us that Moses took with him the bones of Joseph and then in Joshua 24:32, Joseph is finally buried in the promise land.
Today, we too have a promise from God that talks about a paradise and a promised land. The Bible tells us that everyone who has a relationship with Christ will go to heaven and have eternal life. That is to be our home, our final resting place. The world that we are living in is only temporary. We need to follow the example of Joseph by having a promise land focus. As Paul writes in the New Testament, we need to be in the world but not of it.
Our focus on earth shouldn’t be money, popularity, sex, sports, power, position, or anything else on this earth. Our focus should be solely on the promise of salvation and eternal life in paradise. This should affect every way that we live!! If we believe and have faith in this promise of heaven it should make you want to tell all your friends about it!! It should change the way you look at money and material positions because all those things will be meaningless when you die and go to heaven. As Joseph learned, we are not always remembered for the things that we might consider to be of great importance. This focus on heaven should change your life so much that this is what you are remembered for once you have died rather than anything else.
I want to close by asking the question that we started with. How do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be an example of faith to family and friends for years to come, an example so strong that it instills the promise of heaven and salvation within their hearts? That’s how I want to be remembered. I want to be remembered as a man of God, one who pointed the way of Christ the best I could. I can’t wait for the day that I enter through the gates of heaven and meet Jesus face to face. I long for the day that I hear Jesus say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” I want people in the future to talk about me as an example of Christ and I hope that you guys long for the same.
I want to close by giving you guys your own headstone. Go off in the sanctuary and on one side I want you to right what you think you would be remembered for right now if you died. Then I want you to pray and write on the other side how you want to be remembered. Pray and ask God to help you live your life with a promise land focus.
