Genesis 50:20

Well let me ask you to turn back again in your Bibles if you will to these closing verses of Genesis chapter 50.

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

A seven year old knew that the Apostle Peter was also a prophet because you'll remember there are very specific prophecies that Peter makes about exactly how the world is going to end.

So next week there will probably be a question where the answer is hidden in the book of Revelation.

So it's excellently encouraging to me as I feared I might be turned into a pumpkin for not getting back to Scotland on the Sabbath day.

And that's been a blessing to me.

Well you would guess that the particular verse I want to draw your attention to this evening is the famous words.

Very familiar words in Genesis chapter 50 and verse 20 where Joseph is addressing his fearful brothers.

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

Who are obviously concerned that perhaps now out of respect for his father he has been gracious and kind to them.

But now that their father is gone the real Joseph will emerge and they will get their comeuppances for the way in which they have treated him.

And he speaks to them with such kindness.

You meant evil against me but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

So do not fear I will provide for your little ones.

I did not have the privilege of growing up in a church going family.

And I'm a post war baby.

We did not have much in the way of literature in the house.

My mother had relatively little education although I think she was a highly intelligent woman.

And she taught me to read very very early on.

And the one book that I remember we had in the house although we were not church goers was my grandmother's Bible.

Looking back now I think what phenomenal eyesight these people must have had.

These thick Bibles and tiny print.

And since we also had no central heating I simultaneously devised a way of satisfying my reading habit and enjoying central heating.

When my parents got out of their bed in the morning I got into their bed with my grandnana's Bible.

And it was the story book of my childhood.

And there were two particular stories that I always loved to read for some reason.

One was the story of Daniel whom I always found difficult to find because he was kind of lost away somewhere in my grandmother's Bible.

And the other was the story of Joseph.

And I could never remember there was not a book of Joseph in the Bible.

So sometimes I was scrambling around in order to read it.

And in much later life I looked back on those early childhood memories of reading this story again, again, again and again.

And realized I think God was preparing me to be a minister of the gospel.

To be a pastor of the flock of God.

Because one of the most frequent questions that comes up in conversations ministers have with people and people with ministers is the question,

Why is this happening to me?

And that is what this whole narrative is about.

This narrative that begins in Genesis 37 ends here in Genesis 50 is a narrative of tracing the pattern of God's working in a man's life

until he is able to look back and he knows why these things were happening to him.

You meant it for evil to harm me.

God meant it for good.

And I'm pretty sure all of us here this evening know the story.

Joseph is his father's favorite.

And his foolish father gives him special treats.

His brothers are jealous.

They express that jealousy.

He is sold into slavery.

God is with him in that slavery.

And yet in that God presence with him, he finds himself going further downhill.

He is faithful to God.

But he is betrayed by Potiphar's wife.

He is given the gift of the interpretation of dreams.

And those whose dreams he interprets find their interpretation comes true.

And then he is forgotten in prison.

And then eventually, years later, actually 14 years later, inclusive reckoning.

17 through to the age of 30.

Eventually at the age of 30, he is raised up to become, for all practical purposes, the prime minister of Egypt

and ultimately the human savior of the whole Mediterranean basis.

Because he has this wisdom to harvest the seven years of plenty in order that they may be used for the seven years of famine.

In the providence of God, his brothers appear.

He becomes part of God's instruments in eventually bringing the whole family together.

There is a glorious reconciliation.

And here, in the end of chapter 50, we read that this reconciliation was the real deal.

And the brothers are united together again here in the land of Egypt.

And it becomes clear from, at least from chapter 45 onwards, that Joseph has long meditated on the ways of God in his life.

My mother used to say to me when I was seven, Sinclair, there is no substitute for experience.

And it used to infuriate me.

Because at seven, you don't have much of it.

And it made me see that this was a very unjust world.

That at seven, you couldn't have much experience.

But there is no substitute for experience.

And here now, he's old enough to look back on God's ways and to see the pattern of God's working in his life.

So much so that what he says here summarizes what is a kind of dramatic version of what Paul says towards the end of Romans 8, isn't it?

That God works everything together for good for those who love him and who are called according to his purpose.

We cannot read God's purposes in advance.

But often in retrospect, we are able to see how the various elements in the experience of the Lord's providence that we have.

He has been working together in order eventually to bring us to this place at this time.

As these particularly carefully shaped people to serve him for his glory.

And that's all I really want to point out from these verses this evening and from this whole section.

That Joseph is now able to look at the jigsaw puzzle of his life with the major pieces in place.

I know, not by happy experience, but by observation usually of my wife,

that the way you begin to solve a jigsaw puzzle, if it's square or rectangular, is to look for the four corner pieces.

And once you've found the four corner pieces, you begin to build the rest of the picture together.

And I want to suggest to you that in the jigsaw puzzle of Joseph's life,

there actually are four corner pieces that are not only in his life,

but they're really to be found in the life of every believer.

And I want simply to pick them out one by one and emphasize their importance.

The first is this, that our God is always working in a variety of circumstances.

You know, when we ask the question, what is God doing in my life?

We're almost always thinking about one particular thing.

One particular thing goes wrong.

And it's usually when things go wrong that we ask this question, what is God doing in my life?

And we need to understand that God's purposes are not like individualized words.

They're like sentences.

And when we focus on particular incidents and become, as some of us tend to do, obsessed with particular incidents,

we will never be able to unravel the answer to the question, what is God doing in my life?

Because God is never working merely in one particular incident, one particular circumstance in my life.

He is creating a mosaic.

And his purposes are seen when the pieces of that mosaic begin to fit together, and never before.

That's why John Flavel, the 17th century English minister, said that the providences of God are like Hebrew words.

They're always read in what we regard as reverse order.

We can't interpret them looking forward.

We can only begin to see the picture as he gives us, as it were, more dots.

And eventually a face begins to appear, and we understand a little of what he is doing.

Because certainly earlier on in Joseph's experience, he must have felt quite lost.

He must also have felt that whatever God was doing in his life, and we're told that when he was in Potiphar's house, the Lord was with him.

Whatever God was doing in his life, he was doing it far too slowly.

And I'd be surprised if you have not been there.

Where you're waiting for God to catch up with what your idea of his will might be in your life.

And what he eventually learns is that as God works in a variety of circumstances, as the dots begin to be joined, and the picture begins to become clear,

is that God's ways are perfect, God's purposes are perfect, and God's timing is perfect.

I think as I look at Joseph's life and think about servants of God I've known,

that he and they shared in what I have come to call the divine cul-de-sac principle.

The divine cul-de-sac principle.

Because I've noticed how actually quite regularly in the lives of men and women that I have later seen God use in particular ways,

there have been times in their lives when they seem to have been shunted into a cul-de-sac,

and whatever God is doing seems to have passed them by.

And on occasion I've sat with some people like that and said,

what we need to do under these circumstances is to recognize God has not passed you by.

God is simply getting you ready for the place in the traffic flow of his purposes in which he intends to use you for his glory.

Because he is concerned with timing.

And he is concerned that you should learn what it means to experience waiting on the Lord.

And do you know how the scriptures use those two expressions that we might think mean the same thing,

but they don't mean the same thing.

Waiting on the Lord and waiting for the Lord are related to one another.

But what Joseph had learned to do was to wait for the Lord until in his providences he began more fully to disclose where he was really leading Joseph.

There's a very interesting illustration of the same principle in the life of the Apostle Paul in the Acts of the Apostles in chapter 16.

You'll remember the tale end of this experience even if you don't remember the beginning of it.

They went through the region of Phrygia and Galatia.

So why were they doing that?

Because they had been forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.

Now that clearly means they intended to speak the word of God in Asia,

but they had been forbidden from doing what they intended to do.

So they came to Mycenae.

And they attempted to go into Bithynia.

Now here's the paradox.

They were attempting to do what God's sovereign will did not want them or purpose them to do.

They were not sinning because they were seeking to be wise.

But Luke tells us here in the Acts of the Apostles that when they came up to Mycenae and attempted to go into Bithynia,

the spirit of Jesus did not allow them.

So, passing by Mycenae, they went down to Troas.

Everything they've sought to do thus far.

Everything they've laid before the Lord and said,

Lord, show us if this is not your purpose.

Every, every move they've made has been frustrated.

And what is the result?

Well, you know what the result is.

The next verse is about the Macedonian call.

It's about the gospel coming to what we call Europe.

It's about the gospel coming to people like us.

And you see what the story is.

That they were able to look back and realize

if we hadn't been prevented there and forbidden here,

we would have never ended up here in Philippi.

Where in God's mercy, there had been a preparation of a woman

who went to a prayer meeting at the riverside.

And in God's mercy, a girl who was oppressed by wicked men.

And a jailer who would never in a thousand years have imagined

he would ever become a Christian believer.

And that's how it is.

The fact of the matter is, they did not know what God was doing.

But he was working in a variety of circumstances

in order to bring about the fulfillment of his will.

And he always is.

He always is.

So God was working together a variety of circumstances

in Joseph's life.

But we ought to notice also that God was working

in a variety of people in Joseph's life.

My tendency, and I imagine some of you at least share it,

is when the Christian life and how we are looking to serve the Lord

becomes frustrating, then the way in which we frame the question

is usually, why are these things happening to me?

Why are these things happening to me?

Now what Joseph clearly came to understand was

many of these things that involved him were not about him.

And that's a particularly important lesson for our self-obsessed, narcissistic age

in the way that self-obsession and narcissism has profoundly influenced

not just the Christian church in general, but the evangelical subculture in particular.

You only need to listen to the songs that are being written and sung

to catch a sense of the self-obsession that has been encouraged

in the atmosphere of the late 20th and early 21st century.

But you see, this isn't just about Joseph.

This is about others.

I mean, ultimately it's about the whole Mediterranean basin.

But it's also about his father.

And if you go back to the beginning of this narrative in Genesis 37,

what do you see?

You see that Joseph's father is repeating the very same mistake his own parents did

in bringing him up.

He's got a favorite.

And all of that needs to be divinely torn out of his soul.

And God is using the situations into which Joseph is brought

in order to do something at distance, as it were, to his father.

In order to bring about a restoration and a reconciliation

between the father and all his other boys.

And the same is true of the brothers.

It is true.

I mean, it's very interesting that Joseph is clear to them about this.

You meant evil against me.

But you see, in God's amazing providence,

he had used this in order to do something to the brothers.

And if you, if you're like, you'll read through the narrative.

Don't just keep your eye on Joseph.

Keep your eye on what is happening to these brothers.

And the way in which God slowly deconstructs them.

Until, instead of selling their brother,

they're embracing their brother.

It is amazing the way in which God does this.

So, if earlier on in the narrative,

it would be perfectly understandable if Joseph was saying,

God, why is this happening to me?

The answer is, Joseph, this is only partly about you.

It's about them.

I'm doing this in you for them.

And the person who grasps that that is the way God works

will be a happier, contented, more stable,

and indeed more fruitful Christian believer.

Of that I have no doubt whatsoever.

And you see this repeated time and time again,

don't you, in the pages of Scripture.

Let me just use Paul as an illustration again.

There he is in jail.

And he's writing to the Philippians.

What's his concern about the Philippians?

His concern about the Philippians is

that the Philippians are concerned

that the whole project of preaching the gospel

is going to die because the Apostle Paul is in prison.

And Paul underlines for them that he is a prisoner

for the sake of Jesus Christ.

And that because of that,

there has been fruit in the Roman artillery.

And there has been fruit in the Christians

who have been bold to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And he realizes this did not happen to me for me.

This happened to me for the sake of the gospel

and for their sake to do something in them.

And that's the way God works, isn't it?

I remember hearing at the memorial service

for the daughter of a colleague

that she had said one Lord's Day after worship

just bare bones of a young woman.

And she had said to him

as they greeted one another at the end of the service,

she said, I realize this isn't just about me.

It isn't just about me.

Very moving, isn't it?

But you see, it's true.

It's true of everything that happens to us.

We're not the center of the universe.

So God, in his mercy,

works together a variety of circumstances.

He works together in a variety of lives.

And he also works out a variety of consequences.

And I've already alluded to this, really,

in Jacob's life, the reconciliation.

There's this beautiful illustration of it, isn't it?

When the brothers are seated by Joseph.

They come and they don't recognize him, you remember.

And he seats them all

just the way they should have been seated

and maybe were seated at home.

We have four children.

And of course, we were all together for years.

And then you get this age.

And you're never together in the same way.

Except on the rarest occasions.

And the last occasion,

my wife and I,

and just the four children,

none of their attachments of any kind,

their spouses or children,

the last time we were all together,

our first son,

as we went to the table in a restaurant

to have a meal,

he insisted we sit around the table

the way we sat around the table.

Which was immovable.

It was the law of the Meats,

the Persians, and the Fergusons.

We always sat in the exact same place.

It moved me profoundly

that he even remembered that.

And Joseph does the same thing.

Now some of you are probably mathematicians

and you can work out the statistical probability

of accidentally placing

a whole bundle of brothers

in the right age order around a table.

And they're stunned.

And then you remember

when the wee boy arrives,

Joseph says,

pile his plate high.

Put the best steak on his plate.

Now why is that?

You see what he's doing?

He's kind of,

he's like a surgeon,

just,

well not a surgeon,

he's like your family doctor

that you go to

and you know,

he knows where to press.

Is it sore here?

No!

If you're a man,

you're relieved,

there's nothing wrong with me.

It's not a really serious doctor.

And then he,

are you sore here?

And you go,

oh!

And that's what he's doing.

This is exactly the sore point.

They were jealous of Joseph

because he got the best.

And here God is using Joseph

to discover whether they're going to be jealous

of the wee boy again

because Joseph is giving him the best.

And what begins to emerge

is that God has so worked

in the lives of these brothers

that they are prepared to make sacrifice

for the sake of their youngest brother.

And it's all,

it's all sourced back

to what God was doing here

in their formerly younger brother's life.

And yes,

God was working in Joseph's life.

I have never understood

why God does things this way.

But both Scripture

and the history of the church

teach me

that God gives people gifts

even when they're not able to handle them.

And I think it's pretty clear

God gave this boy,

age 17,

an extraordinary gift.

He did give him

a revelatory dream

that actually came true

when he didn't have the wisdom

to contain it.

And so when he came down

to breakfast in the morning

and he put his cornflakes

into his bowl

and he poured the milk out

and one of the brothers said,

did you sleep well Joseph?

Instead of saying,

yeah it was okay.

And keeping it all to himself.

He blurted it out.

And nobody was in any doubt

what he was saying.

The arrogant 17 year old teenager.

The favourite of the father.

And yet,

given this extraordinary revelation

that came true,

he blurted it all out

and the message was,

I'm the man.

You'll all be coming

and bowing down

before me.

And what is so amazing,

what is so apostolic

in this is,

this foolish act of his

in the hands of

a gracious, loving,

heavenly father

becomes, as it were,

the raw materials

out of which

this elongated process

of transforming

this whole family

and reconciling them

and it's so interesting,

it's so interesting

this connection

that when you read

through the whole narrative

you meet Joseph

when he's 17,

when he becomes

prime minister

he is 30.

Okay,

so that is 14 years

by the kind of

inclusive reckoning

that Bible writers use.

And that's significant,

isn't it?

Because what he's now

going to deal with

is the next 14 years.

He is at 14 years

in which he has learned

patience and wisdom.

And those are exactly

the two gifts he needs

in order to accomplish

what he accomplishes.

Patience.

Patience to handle

those seven years

of plenty

and wisdom

to use those

seven years

of plenty

so that he may be

a blessing

to the world

in the seven years

of famine.

And it's taken

14 years

to make him that.

So that when he becomes

prime minister of Egypt

he's not only

in the right place

at the right time

but he's the right man

for the right place

and the right time.

And I don't know

why God does it

this way as I say

but he was not

the right man

at the age of 17.

And when he spoke

it wasn't the right time.

And yet in his

you know maybe

maybe some of you

are thinking

I have been

exactly there.

I have so messed up.

And God is

in the mystery

of his wisdom

and providence

he's taken

all that rubbish

you've kind of

landed on his plate

and he's made

something of you.

And you realize

that the wonder

of his working

is that he has

been working out

his own purposes

in this way

because

he's able to

not only work

in a variety

of situations

and to

work

in a variety

of people

but he's able

to work out

a variety

of consequences

and how often

it's true

in our lives

that he does

that through

pain and difficulty

and challenge.

John Flavel

again has a

lovely saying

when he

he says

that afflictions

are like

frosty weather

on garments

they change

their hue

and whiten

the sheet.

If you're under

30 you've no idea

what that is all

about

because you use

washing machines

and tumble dryers.

But my generation

I still remember

as a little boy

in those rare days

in winter

when the sun

shone

and it was

frosty

my mother

would say

this is going

to be a great

day for bleaching.

And

that's it

isn't it?

The frost

in Joseph's

life

had

been used

by God

to make him

the right man

in the right

place

at the right

time.

Now there's a

fourth corner

piece

I want you

to notice

and

it's not

a corner

piece

that is

stated in

the text

but it's

really written

all over

the story

of Joseph

and that

is that

in our

lives

God

is always

working

through a

variety

of

circumstances

he is

working

in a variety

of people

he's working

a variety

of consequences

and the

fourth corner

piece

is this

and it's

the one

to hold

on to

that he's

doing all

this

in order

that Jesus

may be

glorified

he's doing

all this

in order

that Jesus

may be

glorified

now

you know

there's some

very artificial

preaching of

Jesus from

the Old

Testament

you know

where suddenly

you leap

from the

text to

Jesus

and you

don't know

how you

got there

but it's

pretty evident

how you get

to Jesus

from Joseph

it's because

all those

men and

women of

faith in

the promise

of God

in the Old

Testament

scriptures

are united

by that

faith to

the Jesus

who is to

come

just as we

are united

to that

Jesus

on this

side of

his death

and resurrection

they were

united by

faith to

Jesus

on their

side of

the death

and resurrection

and as the

New Testament

makes clear

one of the

great implications

of that

is

that if you

are united

to Christ

in his

death and

resurrection

your life

will be

shaped

in small

ways

perhaps in

very great

ways

your life

will be

squeezed

into the

mold

of his

death

and resurrection

you will

be united

to

remember

how Paul

puts it

what I want

to do

with my

life

is to

know

Christ

the

power

of his

resurrection

share

the

fellowship

of his

sufferings

become

like him

in his

death

and attain

to the

resurrection

the lenses

through which

he viewed

what it means

to be a

Christian

were lenses

of being

united to

Christ

and being

transformed

into his

likeness

and it's

all over

his life

and it's

all over

his letters

but you

see the

same

is true

of the

Old

Testament

saints

and you

can

just

run

through

them

in

your

mind

and you

see

this

is

the

way

they

share

in

advance

in the

fellowship

of the

sufferings

of Christ

in this

world

and they

also share

in advance

in the

triumphs

of Christ

and his

resurrection

and you

can see

it here

in Joseph

what we

might call

the Jesus

pattern

of humiliation

and exaltation

suffering

and glory

death

and resurrection

it oozes

out of

what God

is doing

in the

life of

Joseph

and in

addition to

what we

might call

the Jesus

pattern

there's the

Jesus

principle

it's

through his

suffering

that blessing

comes to

the nations

it's all

over Joseph's

life

it's through

his

suffering

that blessing

comes to

the nations

and you

notice also

in the end

of Genesis

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

chapter 50

there's

the Jesus

promise

that runs

right through

his life

the promise

that was

given

you remember

to

Adam and

Eve

that there

would be

a seed

who

would

be the

conqueror

of the

evil

one

and that

as it

were

grows

in the

promise

that's

given

to

Abraham

that in

his seat

the nations

of the

world

are going

to be

blessed

but in

the pursuit

of that

promise

God's

people are

going to

be brought

down

into

a land

where they

will remain

for over

400 years

before

the next

stage

in God's

movement

forward

to the

coming

of our

Lord

Jesus

Christ

comes

on to

the

horizon

and you

see

Joseph's

place

there

in that

timeline

the promise

of Genesis

315

the promise

that's given

to Abraham

the fact

that before

that promise

given to

Abraham

is fulfilled

in the

coming of

Jesus

Christ

the saving

seed

there is

going to

be a

period

when the

people

will be

brought

down

to

a

land

from

which

they

will

be

brought

up

so

that

in

Joseph

without

Joseph

this

does

not

happen

in

Joseph

God

is

advancing

his

purposes

that

eventually

lead

to

the

revelation

of

Jesus

Christ

and I

think

we can

apply

that

to

ourselves

can't

we

that

this

actually

is

his

purpose

in

our

lives

and

everything

that

happens

he's

wanting

to

shape

our

lives

in

such

a

way

that

our

lives

will

be

a

manifestation

to

others

of

the

grace

of

God

in

our

Saviour

Jesus

Christ

and we

will

be

a

link

in

the

chain

of

God's

providential

purposes

as

Joseph

was

such

a

major

link

in

that

chain

that

eventually

would

lead

history

and

lead

individuals

to

the

foot

of

the

cross

to

embrace

the

Saviour

and

to

advance

the

gospel

in

the

world

and

maybe

the

best

way

to

put it

is

like

this

that

in

these

chapters

between

Genesis

37

and

Genesis

50

God

puts

these

principles

on the

big

screen

Joseph

is a

big

screen

example

but

you're

only

an

iPad

or

perhaps

you're

just

an

iPhone

and that's

true of us

isn't it

not many of us

live on the

big screen

not any of us

have lives

that are written

in capital

letters

but in

small

letters

but it's

the same

sentence

that's being

written

that transforms

our lives

transforms

others

lives

and brings

others

to faith

in the

Lord

Jesus

Christ

because

our

God

is

a

master

of

his

purposes

we

we are

we are

but members

of the

orchestra

different

instruments

seeking

to play

to his

glory

and he

is the

conductor

who

harmonises

absolutely

everything

I remember

when our

daughter

our daughter

had a

birthday

I think

it was

maybe her

13th

birthday

and she

wanted to

go and see

Joseph and

his amazing

technicolor

dream coat

she didn't know

anything about

Joseph and

his amazing

technicolor

dream coat

she knew

about Joseph

and the

Bible

and unfortunately

for her

and for me

my wife

who was

going to

take her

took

unwell

and I

had to

take her

we had

seats

absolutely

in the

front row

I don't know

about 3,000

people in the

theatre

it was

the professionalism

was spectacular

beyond words

but I was the

only person

in the entire

theatre

who did not

know

that at some

point

in this

musical

Pharaoh

turns into

Elvis

Presley

and I

left out

this kind

of wild

and

daughter

embarrassing

but the

thing about

sitting in

the front

row

was

that we

could see

into the

pit

and so we

could see

the whole

thing on

two levels

we could

see the

conductor

who was

absolute

master

I mean he

was so

master of

the score

that I

watched him

walk in

and he

pulled out

a packet

of M&M's

and he

poured them

into this

little cup

he had

at the

side

and he

was

in total

control

and I

sat there

thinking

this is how

it is

in the

Christian

life

isn't it

although

God is

a much

more

serious

conductor

you know

we see

the drama

being played

out

but it's

being played

out

according

to

the score

that the

conductor

has designed

from all

eternity

and he

is a

master

an absolute

master

of that

score

yes it's

true

he moves

in mysterious

ways his

wonders to

perform

it's true

he plants

his footsteps

in the

sea

and the

problem

with footsteps

in the

sea

is they're

not visible

but he

does work

in the

deep

unfathomable

minds

with his

never failing

skill

he treasures

up his

bright designs

he works

his sovereign

will

and his

sovereign will

is to work

in our lives

in a variety

of circumstances

to work

through our

lives

in a variety

of people

to work

by our

lives

a variety

of consequences

and most

of all

to work

upon

our lives

for the

glory of

our Lord

Jesus

Christ

those of us

who are here

for the unique

two o'clock

service

were thinking

a little

about Simon

Peter

and the

storm

and this

narrative

also makes

me think

about the

words that

Jesus

you remember

spoke to

Simon Peter

when he was

arguing about

the foot washing

with him

that is

Peter

arguing with

Jesus

remember what

Jesus said

the words

could be written

all over

Joseph's life

you don't

understand

what I'm

doing

now

but afterward

you will

understand

sometimes

in his

kindness

that afterward

becomes

here and

now

the great

thing about

being a

Christian

and being

a Christian

who is

getting older

is you

know the

day is

coming

when that

afterward

will reveal

the whole

of his

purposes

congregation

I served

in

Columbia

came to

know

that when

I was

finding it

difficult

to land

the plane

as the

sermon

went on

I tended

to finish

the same

way

and I

think I'll

do that

tonight

don't you

think it

is the

greatest

thing

in the

world

to belong

to the

Lord Jesus

Christ

let's pray

together