Genesis 40-41 | The God Who Wastes Nothing

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

In the heart of the Australian Outback, there's a place called Cooper Petty.

The climate is about as inhospitable as you might imagine, but the region is rich with the gemstone opal.

And as early as 1915, Australians began to mine that area around the Kuber Petty, but they had a distinct mining technique.

In that region, miners can lay claim to a very small patch of ground, like the size of an American football field or so.

And so, because of that, there's all these little mines and they drill straight down, sometimes 100 feet down.

And historically, and even still today in some small operations, miners are then lowered down into that hole on what's called a bosun's chair, which is a piece of timber fixed to a hook on a winch cable.

I got a picture of one from like a museum there.

I think that guy's made of wax.

There wouldn't be light down in the pit.

But it's just a board on a hook at the bottom of a really deep pit.

Mike Rowe of Dirty Jobs wrote a bosun's chair about 60 feet down in a pit like that in 2012.

He describes it this way.

He says, at 40 feet, you start to wonder how dark it is without the headlamp.

So you turn the headlamp off just for a second.

But it's long enough to confirm that you're not really in a hole at all.

You're in a tomb.

Your tomb, a tomb you dug for yourself not 20 minutes ago and stupidly entered for no good reason.

And the panic starts to creep up at the back of your legs and it settles into your gut, and you don't want to scream, so you begin to hum a tune under your breath that you soon recognize as Mozart's requiem, which is a funeral dirge, right?

He says at 60 feet he stood up on the bottom of the shaft, he looked up, and it was like looking in the wrong end of a telescope.

And he began to pray that the rope would hold on the way back up.

Our text for today is about that rope.

And Joseph is at the bottom of the pit.

And Moses wants Israel and by extension all of us to know that God is on the other end of the rope that pulled Joseph out of the pit.

So here's my main idea for us this morning.

Even through great hardship, deep pits, right?

Even through great hardship, God works his saving purposes.

And therefore, the wisest way to live, the wisest way to live is according to what he has revealed.

That's my main idea and my outline this morning.

It'll guide us through the text.

Look at chapter 40 with me.

Let's think about Jason's, excuse me, Joseph's great hardship.

Jason already read it for us this morning, so let's just look together.

Sometime after this, Joseph was thrown in prison on false accusations from Potiphar's wife, and two of Pharaoh's officials were thrown in there with him, right?

The chief bearer, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker.

But notice right away in verse 4, it says that the captain of the guard is the one who appointed Joseph to be with them.

And so Joseph attended them.

Chapter 39 ended with the keeper of the prison.

Not the captain of the guard, the keeper of the prison putting Joseph in charge of all these prisoners and everything done there, and he succeeded, and the Lord was with him.

But the captain of the guard very likely is Potiphar himself.

He may remember Joseph.

He may remember Joseph's alleged offenses, and so he assigns Joseph to serve.

The ESV text says attend, to serve Pharaoh's disgraced officers, just like earlier he had attended or served Potiphar.

And so here Joseph is, a slave thrown in prison, and he's made a servant again.

So this is slavery within imprisonment, within slavery itself.

And then one night the baker and the cupbearer had eerily similar dreams and were troubled by them enough that Joseph could see their concern, even when he came to see them in the morning.

Why are your faces downcast?

He says in verse 7.

And so even in his great hardships, even in the deepest pit, even in his heaviest sorrows, there's just a little glimpse that Joseph is still compassionate, right?

And Joseph then says one of the most important sentences in these two chapters is in verse 8.

He says, Do not interpretations belong to God.

So please tell me your dreams.

Please tell them to me.

And that word for interpretation, it's used only in the stories about Joseph in your whole Bible.

Only in the stories about Joseph.

And this word in particular is all over chapter 40 and 41.

Moses is putting 40 and 41 together, linking them here in verse 8, all throughout the story, and again in verse 41, 15, and in chapter 41, verse 15 and 16, to show us and Israel that God is the one acting.

Interpretations belong to God.

God is intervening.

God is doing something.

This story is not about Joseph's technique or Joseph's skill.

No, my main point is even through great hardship, God works.

God works.

And then Joseph says, tell me.

As if telling Joseph the dream is the way to hear God's interpretation.

It's incredible.

He says, God's the only one who can handle dreams like this, so tell it to me.

That only makes sense.

Joseph's either crazy.

Or he's somehow aware that God is still with him.

Right?

The narrator told us at the end of chapter 39 that.

But Joseph seems to know, he seems to be confident that he can function like God's prophet to the cupbearer and the baker.

So tell me.

Only God can do this, so tell me.

And there's no contradiction there.

And that's what Joseph does, right?

He explains to the cupbearer that he'll be restored to his office in three days, and that the chief baker's head will be lifted off of him, and he'll be executed and then displayed in Pharaoh's court.

That's the interpretation.

It comes from God, and Joseph delivers it.

I think we can see that God's interpretations don't always tell us what we want to hear, do they?

He didn't shy from the bad news nor the good news.

Joseph knows that he was right.

He knows that God is with him.

He's confident his interpretation is really from the Lord.

And because every word of God proves true, Joseph tells the truth too.

But look at verse 14 with me.

Look at verse 14 with me.

After Joseph delivers his favorable interpretation to the cupbearer, he pleads with him.

Jason slowed down when he read this for us.

It was really good.

Joseph says, Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.

For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I've done nothing that they should put me into the pit.

The pit.

For the pit that Joseph's brothers threw him into.

Back in chapter 37, Moses used the word pit seven times.

How many fingers?

Seven times.

Almost like Moses wants you to be ready for this moment, so that you'd remember the word pit when you get here.

And so Joseph is remembering this whole thing.

He sees this his whole sojourn down as one story.

He's gone from the favored son of his father, the recipient of dreams, it seemed to imply he'd be greater than his siblings, greater even than his parents, and now he's been thrown into a pit and then sold down to Egypt into an even deeper pit and then again into an Egyptian prison.

He's in the pit of the pit of the pit of the pit.

And it cannot get much lower for Joseph.

Son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham.

Because he can predict that the cup bearer will be pulled up out of the pit.

God has promised the cupbearer gets to go free.

And Joseph doesn't know what will become of his own life at the bottom of the pit.

That's not fair.

It's not fair.

He was stolen, he says.

And he's done nothing wrong that they should put him into that pit.

And so Joseph sits in this prison, suffering unjustly, but curiously still aware that Yahweh is with him.

And he waits.

And in verse 23, he's forgotten.

Maybe that's you.

Or maybe that's somebody you know.

Maybe you're stuck in an unfair situation.

Joseph can probably think of things he could have, should have done differently in his life to not lead up to this point.

He's not claiming he's perfectly sinless.

But Moses is making it crystal clear to us that none of this is Joseph's fault ultimately, and that earthly speaking, he doesn't deserve this.

Maybe you just can't catch a break financially.

Or maybe despite your most careful efforts, a relationship with a family member or a coworker or a neighbor just keeps backfiring on you.

Maybe the cancer keeps coming back.

Or maybe your knee just won't heal right.

Forgotten.

Chapter 41, verse 1 says, For two whole years.

What do you do?

David felt like this once.

He sang in the Psalms, right?

How long, O Lord, will you forget me?

Forever?

It's dragging on.

And there's nothing Joseph can really do.

He's trying.

He's doing his best.

He's asking for release.

He's enduring great hardship, and really the best glimpses we have into what that's like for him is that he knows it's unfair, he wants out, and that despite all of his best efforts going successfully, he's still just stuck there.

Joseph doesn't know what God's doing.

But he's continuing to do what's right, and then he responds wisely to God's revelation of dreams and their interpretation.

And even if the cupbearer forgets, God remembers and God works his saving purposes.

Chapter 41.

The cupbearer was supposed to tell Pharaoh about Joseph.

But like we already saw, he forgot Joseph for two whole years.

And then by the end of this story in chapter 46, it tells us that this whole trial takes Joseph 13 years.

From age 17 to age 30.

If you're 28, that feels like your whole life, right?

Age 17 to age 30.

But then, two years later, for no apparent reason, Pharaoh has two dreams.

Just two dreams.

Joseph tells us in verse 25 that these dreams were given to him by God.

And so it's Moses is making it clear to us.

This is all God's timing.

Two years later, two more dreams.

And Pharaoh dreamed like we saw of seven healthy cows and seven ugly thin cows.

The seven thin cows devoured the seven healthy cows, and he has the same dream again, right?

But with grain.

They're parallel.

Seven healthy ears of grain were swallowed up by seven thin and blighted ears of grain.

Like the baker and cupbearer before him, God gave dreams to Pharaoh that just he couldn't ignore.

Right?

They were just too odd and too similar.

It's almost like God saying, How many times do I have to tell you?

Right?

The dream repeated itself.

And none of the wise men of Egypt could figure it out.

None of the magicians, none of Pharaoh's magicians could interpret the meaning.

I hope you hear already this echo starting in your Bible of it's gonna keep unfolding.

God through Joseph is about to best the wisest of a pagan's king's magicians, and Moses will follow him, and then Daniel after that, until ultimately Jesus stands there and shows that God is mightier and wiser than all the wisest men of the greatest nations.

That's the story here.

God is triumphing over Egypt through his servant.

And verse 9 says that after nobody could figure it out, the cupbearer finally remembered his offenses.

And if we'd been studying the whole book of Genesis up to this point, instead of just Joseph's life, that word remember ought to scream off the page at us.

I've got a whole bunch of them for you here.

In Genesis chapter 8, God remembered Noah and all the beasts on the ark.

Genesis 8 · chapter mention

God remembered.

And so God caused the waters to recede.

In Genesis 9, God promised to remember his covenant, never to flood the earth again.

That's why he hung the rainbow in the sky.

Because God doesn't forget, God remembers.

In Genesis 19, Moses narrates the story of Sodom Gomorrah and he finishes it this way.

He says, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out.

And then in Genesis chapter 30, as Rachel sat barren amongst all of Leah's children, Moses tells us that God remembered her.

Genesis 30 · chapter mention

God listened to her and he opened her womb.

She conceived and bore a son, and she said, God has taken away my reproach, and she called his name Joseph.

So this son of Abraham, the one who's about to stand before Pharaoh, he was born.

Because God doesn't forget his people.

And the cupbearer remembers Joseph when God sends another dream to Pharaoh just at the right time.

Just like the one that predicted the cupbearer's release from prison.

So, in verse 14, Pharaoh sent and called Joseph.

And they called him up out of the pit.

Out of the pit.

The pit is really important here.

They called him up out of the pit.

And Pharaoh says, I've heard that you can interpret dreams.

This is the moment, right?

How easy would it be if you were Joseph and your life has been a mess and you're finally out of the pit.

You've shaved for the first time in years, you've got new clothes on, you're standing in front of Pharaoh, you're probably still hungry.

You're standing in front of Pharaoh and says, I hear you can interpret dreams.

How easy would it be to say, Yep, that's me.

I can do that.

Please don't put me back in the pit.

I can be useful.

That's what I would do.

That's not what Joseph does, though, is it?

No, this is an example of humility and a picture of integrity to hold on to for a long time, friends.

Joseph says, Not me.

Not me.

It's not in me.

But God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

That's verse 16 of chapter 41.

Not me, but God.

So then Pharaoh tells Joseph the dream again, right?

But he adds a detail in verse 21 that I think is really interesting.

Pharaoh says, the cows are still thin and ugly, even after eating the healthy cows.

No one would have known that they had eaten them.

So Pharaoh's something about it's making him nervous.

I think it's a stretch to say that Pharaoh almost gets it already, but he's at least uncomfortable.

Because this thing hints at something bad.

And then Joseph tells him the truth.

God has revealed this to you, Pharaoh, he says.

There will be seven good years followed by seven years of famine, and the famine will be so severe, verse 31 says, that the good years will be forgotten.

See, these themes keep coming back.

The good years will be forgotten, and the famine will consume the whole land.

And it's also significant, guys, that the Nile is involved.

Pharaoh is standing by the Nile, and up out of the Nile come these things.

Some commentators point out the Nile is the agricultural source of almost all the economy and well-being in Egypt.

It's even part of their religious system.

And so God is saying, at my command, the Nile no longer provides for you.

And he challenges all of Pharaoh's assumptions about life and security and religion.

The whole nation comes tumbling down if the Nile doesn't provide.

Where do we place our confidence that our future will go well?

Pharaoh trusted in the Nile so much he even kind of made it a God.

Was it in our savings accounts, our careers, the stability of our nation, the wisdom of our leaders?

Maybe if you're young, you're confident you'll be okay because you have good parents.

Those are all good things.

But those are all things that God gives as gifts.

He's the one who gives children to their parents.

And the point of this story in many ways is that God is the one who knows the future.

Not you.

But yet, even as Joseph tells Pharaoh that Pharaoh's gods won't provide for him for long, and that Pharaoh's a little bit maybe even too full of himself, God still sends Joseph.

He still sends a Hebrew slave who walks with him and puts him right there in front of Pharaoh to give him a favorable answer, verse 16 says.

A favorable answer.

Hope.

A message of shalom.

The word is shalom.

It's a message of peace.

Which mostly means a satisfying answer.

But there's some weight behind the word shalom, isn't there?

And then the news is there's gonna be a famine.

So things will go well and everything will be happy.

But a famine.

God sent his prophet to speak.

Good news at just the right time.

And then don't miss verse 32 either.

Because the dream happens twice, Joseph says this thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.

And in this text, that's God's sovereignty in the strongest sense of the word.

He is going to send this famine.

And there is nothing that Pharaoh can do that will change that.

It's gonna happen.

And then all of a sudden, in this text, God's sovereign action drives wise human response.

We act in response because God does.

In verse 33, Joseph gives Pharaoh a civic policy to deal with the revealed famine.

He does something when he sees what God has done.

It's not complicated, it's just a sophisticated savings plan, right?

On a national scale.

And this is, admittedly, the sort of administrative wisdom that Moses has hinted at in Joseph's story all along.

Joseph's plan to store grain in all the places is decisive.

It's simple, it's clear, it's well informed, it's thorough, it's just wise.

But most importantly, the wisest thing of all about this whole story, the wisest thing that Joseph does in light of God's savings purposes, is that he takes God at his word.

And he believes it enough to act on it, to do something.

He clearly believes that God revealed this to Pharaoh so that Egypt could be ready.

And therefore, Joseph, just like he asked the cupbearer to remember him when God's word came to pass, Joseph asks Pharaoh to be prepared when the famine consumes the land.

Notice what kind of confidence the word of God gives.

To this shepherd boy's slave.

Hours ago, he's in a pit, and now he's standing before as mighty a man as the world knew in those days, and he declares the word of God simply and directly and humbly, because Joseph's strength is not in himself, but in the God who is with him.

And he was right.

Verse 53 says it happened just that way.

God's words proved true.

Even before that happened, even before it was proved right, Pharaoh was so impressed by Joseph's interpretation, wisdom and discernment that he said, We can't find anybody else like you.

Who else is there in whom the spirit of a God is so clear?

With such wisdom and discernment.

I don't think that's what's happening.

But Pharaoh does recognize at the very least that Joseph, a Hebrew slave, was able to solve a problem that Pharaoh, a monarch who thought himself a God, couldn't even solve.

So he's humbled.

Right?

And so Pharaoh puts Joseph in a position that befits all of his wisdom, saying, only as regards the throne will Pharaoh be greater than Joseph, the man in whom the Spirit of God is at work.

The result then is that God worked his saving purposes through Joseph's wise response to God's revelation.

Let me say that again.

God worked his saving purposes through Joseph's wise response to God's revelation.

Like the cupbearer's memory, like Pharaoh's dream.

Joseph's wisdom is a tool in God's hands that he uses.

Joseph's wisdom didn't save Egypt.

God used Joseph's wisdom to provide bread.

In other words, God used Joseph's willingness to believe and to act upon his word to bring Joseph up out of the pit and to provide food, not just for Egypt, but by the end of the story, it's the whole world.

And Joseph, son of Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, becomes a blessing to the nations.

Through his belief in the word of God, Abraham believed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness, right?

Even from the bottom of the deepest pit of great hardship, God worked his saving purposes.

Do you think that Joseph recognized God's providence when he was assigned to serve the cupbearer and the baker?

I kind of doubt it.

Do you think that Joseph could tell that God had a plan when he was forgotten in the pit for two whole years?

Probably.

But he sure didn't know how it was going to work.

No, friends, Moses isn't making the argument.

Moses is not trying to impress us with Joseph's sensitivity to God's providence.

The point of the story is not that you're supposed to be impressed with Joseph.

No.

Moses is trying to impress upon you and me and Israel and everybody God's perfect wisdom and timing.

That he put Joseph in the right place at the right time.

God sent Joseph for a moment like this one.

And Moses is doing that so that Israel wandering in the wilderness can trust God's leading and they can save a little extra manna for the Sabbath, even though it rots every other day of the week.

And if we zoom out, if we take our whole Bibles in our hands for a second, if we zoom out, it's not hard to imagine that the God of all the earth, who chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, would send a dream to Pharaoh, plan to save Judah from a famine, raise Moses with an Egyptian education, save Rahab from the walls of Jericho, place Obed, Jesse, and David in Bethlehem so that Jesus would be born in a manger, teach in Galilee, die on a cross and be raised, and all of that so that you could be saved, not just from famine, but from the wrath of God upon your sins.

All that was in God's mind.

While Joseph sat in prison, and Pharaoh woke up one night.

Oh, the depths of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are his judgments, Paul says, and how inscrutable his ways.

My friends, be so very impressed with the wisdom of God.

And look around.

There are no small moments.

There are no trivial hardships.

No.

Even through the greatest of hardships, God still works his saving purposes.

And therefore, and therefore the wisest way to live is according to what he has revealed to us.

Right?

Not only, not only did Joseph deliver the dream's interpretation faithfully, not only did Joseph propose a wise plan to Pharaoh that pleased Pharaoh enough to set Joseph in a high place with a signet ring and fine linen and a gold chain as prince over all of Egypt.

Not just that.

Joseph followed through.

You ever thought about that?

Thirteen years after he first dreamt of God's future as a 17-year-old shepherd boy, Joseph now sits in the second chariot of all of Egypt.

And he could have just lived it up.

Maybe for a little bit.

Wealth and power and wives and position were all his rather than sit back in the Egyptian palace.

Verse 46 says that Joseph went through all the land of Egypt, administrating, storing, leading, measuring, counting, inventorying, preparing for what God said God would do.

That's just smart, guys.

It's wise.

It's like putting gas in the snowboard when it's gonna when there's gonna be a blizzard.

I'm not often that wise.

Joseph heard a dream, and then was given its interpretation.

The book of Hebrews says, long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son.

And Jesus says, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock, rather than like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand, right?

So take into consideration with me, friends, everything that's been revealed to us, everything God has shown us that Joseph hasn't seen.

Joseph doesn't know about Moses, but he predicted the Exodus, maybe because he knew God's promises to Abraham.

Joseph may well know of Eve's coming offspring, but he does not know the name Jesus yet.

Joseph hasn't heard of David.

But Joseph told his brothers to carry his bones back to the land of Israel.

Guys, Joseph's faith is stunning.

And verse 50.

This is one of the keys to the whole story, I think.

In verse 50, Joseph names his firstborn son Manasseh, which we might translate as forgetfulness or forgotten.

A nice name.

I wouldn't recommend that one, parents.

And then Joseph says, God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.

Some commentators worry that this might look like Joseph giving up on the line of promise and just accepting his new life in Egypt.

Maybe.

I think it's more likely that Joseph is just acknowledging the greatness of all the hardship that he's been through while giving thanks for God's kindness to him.

That when everybody else forgot Joseph, God remembered.

So Joseph forgets all his hardship.

But either way, either way, Canaan is not a land of milk and honey for this son of Abraham.

Now the pasture lands of Israel are at best bittersweet to Joseph.

And yet by the end of his life, Joseph considers God's will that Abraham's children reside in that land, the land promised to them, the revealed plan of God.

He considers that better than all the treasures of Egypt.

And he sends his bones home.

I really think that even though he's forgotten all the hardship of his father's house, he still trusts in his God.

I think that is a faith in God's leading that just staggers the mind.

Joseph is willing to have his bones go back to that pit.

No, more than that.

Joseph is confident that that pit is where he'll be buried.

And he trusts the Lord with it.

And Joseph can trust God like that without ever hearing the name Jesus Christ.

And Joseph can say in verse 52, God has made me fruitful and the land of all my afflictions, without ever memorizing Romans 8.28 as a kid.

God surely does work all things together for the good for those who love God and are called according to his saving purposes.

That's true.

And Joseph believes that this early in your Bibles.

And so then whether you feel like you're in a chapter 40 pit or like God has made you forget all such afflictions with chapter 41 blessings.

Either way, the wisest way to live is according to what God has revealed to you.

And what has God revealed to us, friends?

You're a sinner.

Jesus loves you.

Jesus died for you.

If you believe God in Christ is getting you ready for heaven, Jesus will return to judge the heavens and the earth, that death and judgment will come to all men, just like they came to the chief baker.

But God has promised eternal life to those who believe in his Son.

And so much like, much like how God preserved Egypt and the whole world through Joseph's faithful response, he does something similar, though so much more, with Jesus.

Right?

Because Jesus and Jesus alone makes atonement for sin and saves sinners not from famine, but from the wrath of God.

None of Pharaoh's magicians and none of the earth's religions can bring salvation apart from Jesus Christ.

For there is salvation in no one else, and there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

That's been revealed to you.

No other religious leader died for sinners and rose to give them eternal life.

That's the good news.

That's the fullness.

Maybe just part.

That's part.

I shouldn't call it the fullness.

That's the meat, maybe, of God's revelation to you and his son.

And so we would all be wise to not only heed his commandment to repent and believe, but to live wisely in light of all of his teaching and all of his instruction.

Because the wisest way to live is according to what God has revealed to you.

Not just for a moment, not just to get saved, but for a lifetime.

Joseph's faith in God's word and his willingness to respond to God's revelation with wisdom was a tool in God's hand for the blessing of the nations.

In Jesus' life, it fulfills and he overflows and surpasses this pattern of all the patriarchs.

Because of Jesus' obedience and suffering, Jesus became the source of an eternal salvation to all who obey him.

And his first command is to repent and believe in the gospel.

And in Jesus Christ, the blessing of God's word passed through a son of Abraham to the world.

It's just incredible.

Jesus Christ, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, the very word of God crucified and raised for you pulls you up out of the pit that your sins had dug for you.

That's the story.

But it's so much more than that.

It's not just that.

Your God, our God, delights, does it over and over and over again, to take wise living and turn it into blessing for other people.

But he often does.

He often does.

God could have saved Egypt without Joseph.

But he chose Joseph for this purpose.

He sent Joseph, even, just like he would later send Jesus.

And now he sends you.

And me.

We can't save people from their sins, right?

Only Jesus does that.

But in the light of what God's revealed to us, in the brilliance of the revelation of Jesus Christ and the lamp of his word to our feet, just imagine, just think for a second about what good things God might be pleased to do for other people when you follow in Jesus' footsteps and live wisely according to Jesus' words.

Love your enemies, Jesus says.

And pray for those who persecute you.

Jesus says, deny yourself.

Take up your cross and follow me.

And whatever you wish that others would do to you, Jesus told us to do also to them.

Remember how we told the disciples to love one another just like he had loved them.

It's wise.

It's even life-giving sometimes in God's providence to live that way.

Work and plan and lead in light of God's word to love others, just like just like Joseph worked and planned and led in light of God's word.

Jesus says, make disciples of all nations, teaching them to observe all that He has commanded us.

And then even through great hardship, imprisonment, pits, famine, sickness, financial strain, persecution, crucifixion, even through great hardship, God works to saving purposes.

And therefore, the wisest way to live is according to what he has revealed.

It would be worse than foolish, even dumb, to ignore that warning sign in the Cooper Petty Outback.

Don't walk backwards is my favorite one.

Don't walk backwards.

And people do, they want to take a picture of the sunset, right?

So they're.

It does not depend on the strength of your grip, but on the Savior who holds you fast, just like we sang.

And so then we must cling to our Redeemer because He has first taken hold of us.

And then sometimes, not all the time, but sometimes, like opals in dark places, God will let us see our earthly blessings grow out of our afflictions.

He turns them around sometimes.

Not always.

Your medical trials may never go away, but they might.

I think it's very unlikely that any of us become the second most powerful person in the United States.

But hey, it could happen.

We may never, guys, we may never even fully understand all of God's purposes for all the details of our lives.

I mean, at this point in the story, Joseph doesn't get the big picture yet.

He'll die in faith without having received all that was promised to Abraham.

And that's us.

You don't get answers to all your why questions.

But you do get the promise that God will work it out.

And that's what this passage makes unassailably true is that God can be trusted with our entire lives.

And that the wisest thing to do is to listen when he speaks.

And so whether God has entrusted you with chapter 40 hardships or given you the stewardship of chapter 41 abundance, live wisely in light of God's revealed truth.

Joseph gave his life, his work, his planning.

He invested his authority and his time all to preserve life and save people from famine.

How much greater was the life that Jesus lived for the salvation of souls?

We should try to do the same.

We can't save people from their sins.

But we can follow Jesus' example of faithful obedience and Joseph's example and love our neighbor with whatever it is that God places in front of us.

Because even through the greatest of hardships, God works his saving purposes, and the wisest way to live is according to what he's revealed.

Let's pray.

Oh Father, what do we have that we did not first receive?

Left to ourselves, Lord, we'd fallen into a great pit because of our sins.

We'd made a mess.

But by your grace, Jesus Christ has rescued us and set our feet on solid ground, the promise of everlasting life with Him.

Oh, Father, it's so amazing that you can work your salvation in the midst of the years, turning the smallest events of ordinary life into moments of salvation and moments of grace and mercy.

You are a great redeemer.

And it doesn't take much reflection, Father, to remember.

Some but not all of the little moments in our lives.

The places we were born, the things we heard, the decisions we made, the ways other people impacted us, even the weather.

So many things, Father, you used to bring us to a place to hear the gospel for the very first time.

Where would some of us be if we if we hadn't made such and such a friend or turned on the radio at such and such a time?

You are a good, gracious, and remarkably gentle King.

And so, Father, we ask that you would help us.

We need your help.

Help us to see our lives and the world around us through that light.

God, there are no small moments.

You've shown us there are no ordinary conversations.

You can turn the smallest moment or even the greatest difficulty to your glory.

We trust you to do that.

But help us to live always in the expectation that you've called us to obey, to speak, to trust, and to give you thanks at all times.

I'll teach us to say thank you more often.

God, you work all things together for good.

So we trust you.

Whether we're in the pit or we feel like we're in Pharaoh's chariot.

And we trust you most of all because you turned even the death of our Lord into our salvation.

So we give you our lives.

We give you our hardships and our trials.

We give you the pleasant things, the good things, the easy things.

And we hand them over to you to use according to your will.

That all things may be done in service of your purposes.

That your will would be done on earth, even as it is in heaven.

For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

And we all say together.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.