Introduction
We come now to the story of the final major character of Genesis – Joseph, the son of Jacob and great-grandson of Abraham.
As with all great narratives, "tension" drives the plot toward the climax, which resolves the tension and creates a new situation. The tension that drives this story is the alienation between Joseph and his older brothers. Because the story covers 14 chapters, we only have time to read portions of it.
Setting
Read 37:1-4. We begin with a pretty dysfunctional family. Jacob blatantly favors Joseph over his other sons, and Joseph tells Jacob about his brothers' poor work. The result: Joseph's brothers hate him as the spoiled brat tattle-tale. The tension begins.
Read 37:5-8. Joseph's dream only increases the tension. Regardless of Joseph's motives for telling them about his dream (clueless? Conceited?), his brothers hate him all the more.
Read 37:9-11. Jacob, who has had dreams and visions from God, considers that Joseph's dream may be prophetic. But his sons only become even more jealous of Joseph – and this jealous hatred soon boils over . . .
Main narrative
One day when Jacob sends Joseph out to check on his brothers again, they decide they've had enough of him and plot to kill him. When Reuben talks them out of homicide, they decide to sell him to some Midianite traders on their way to Egypt. They tear up his tunic and soak it with goat blood, and show it to Jacob – who draws the conclusion that his favorite son Joseph has been killed by a wild beast. Having rid themselves of their troublesome brother, the other brothers start to intermarry with Canaanites (chapter 38). This creates another tension in the story: How can God form the Jewish nation if Jacob's sons are absorbed into Canaanite culture?
Meanwhile, Joseph winds up being sold to Potiphar, a wealthy military aristocrat. God blesses Joseph's hard work as a house slave so that Potiphar makes him the head steward of his entire estate. Things are fine for about ten years until Potiphar's wife gets the hots for Joseph and comes on to him with amazing subtlety: "Lie with me" (39:7). Joseph declines, but she persists day after day and finally grabs his skirt-towel. When Joseph flees from the house, she claims that he tried to rape her. Fortunately, Potiphar doesn't execute Joseph – but he does throw him into jail ("pit" – a horrible hole-like dungeon).
God upheld Joseph and something about him caught the eye of the chief jailer. He made Joseph his top prisoner in charge of serving the other prisoners. Then Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and baker get thrown into jail for reasons unknown. One night they both have dreams which disturb them. God enables Joseph to explain the meaning of their dreams (EXPLAIN), which are fulfilled three days later. He asks the cupbearer to put in a good word for him with Pharaoh – but once the cupbearer gets out, he forgets all about his promise. So Joseph rots in jail for two years.
Then Pharaoh has a dream about 14 cows which no one can explain. The cupbearer remembers Joseph and recommends him – and Joseph is ushered into Pharaoh's presence. God enables him to explain the dream as a prediction of 7 years of bumper crops followed by 7 years of famine – and counsels Pharaoh to find someone who will organize and execute a grain storage system. Pharaoh says, "I'm looking at the best man" and so in one day Joseph goes from jail to Prime Minister of Egypt. Joseph spends the next 7 years getting married and starting a family, and executing his grain storage plan. Then the famine hits.
It's at this point that the plot thickens and the tension between Joseph and his brothers resumes. The famine is severe in Canaan, so one day Jacob says to his sons, "Get your lazy butts down to Egypt and buy some grain before we starve!" They go down and are sent (like everyone else) to Joseph (read 42:5-13). Joseph accuses them of being spies and says he won't believe they're not unless they bring their youngest brother to him. Not realizing he can speak Hebrew, they say in his presence: read 42:21-24. Joseph locks Simeon up and sends them back home with just enough grain to make it home and back.
When they God get home, Jacob gets hysterical ("I've already lost one son, I've got another rotting in jail – and you want me to entrust my youngest to you?") and refuses to let Benjamin go. But they get hungrier, and when Jacob tells them to return to Egypt for more grain, it's their turn to refuse ("Oh no, not without Benjamin!").
Finally Jacob agrees, and they go back to Joseph with Benjamin. Joseph releases Simeon, dines with them (read 43:26-30). The next day, Joseph loads them up with grain, but has his servant hide his favorite silver cup in Benjamin's suitcase. After they leave, he sends his security guards to pull them over and say, "So this is how you repay my master's kindness – by stealing his favorite cup?" They are offended and say, "You can kill whoever you find it on!" They search the luggage, and when the cup falls out of Benjamin's suitcase, they are beside themselves! They are cuffed and put in the cruiser, and when they are brought before Joseph, Judah says: read 44:30-34.
Climax: read 45:1-9,14,15
Epilogue
The brothers bring Jacob and the rest of the family down to Egypt, where Pharaoh gives them the best grazing land in the country (Goshen), which is also separated from the Egyptians. Thus the family is delivered from famine and cultural/spiritual assimilation. There they multiply into the great nation God had predicted to Abraham, and they remain there for 400 years . . .
Three lessons
This story is one of the most moving of all time. It also contains many important spiritual truths and lessons for us – especially when we reflect on it light of the rest of the Bible's teaching. Let's look at three of these lessons . . .
From Joseph's brothers, we learn what our root problem and how to resolve it.
They had true moral guilt. Their father may have been foolish to show favoritism toward Joseph – but they were morally wrong and responsible for what they did to Joseph. They had wronged Joseph and they had sinned against God by what they did – and until they got this issue resolved, their lives were fundamentally off course. This is why their statement in 42:21,22 was so important (read).
This is the way God says it is with us, too. The root problem of our lives is not that we have been mistreated by other people, but that we have sinned against a holy God and are alienated from him and justly under his judgment (read Isa. 59:1,2). And this is the root problem that manifests its symptoms in other areas of our lives . . .
And so God, because He loved them, orchestrated events to bring this issue to the surface. Notice the factors God used to move them to repentance, because He uses these same factors in our lives.
He allowed them to experience need (i.e., famine). Later, they would look back on this as the best thing that ever happened to them – but at the time they just saw it as misfortune. This is often how God gets our attention because it is the most effective way to help us see that something is radically wrong in our lives (EXAMPLES). "Need is the mother of spiritual receptivity."
He prompted the memory of their guilt by having Joseph treat them in the same way they treated him. Joseph was not being cruel or vengeful. He was cooperating with God to awaken their consciences (42:21). This is what God wants to do with us, not so we can be tortured by guilt but so we can resolve our guilt. We try to repress it, rationalize it, focus on how others have mistreated us, etc. – but God will find ways to remind you of your guilt before Him (EXAMPLE).
He showed them how their sins were adversely affecting others. When they realized how Benjamin's death would break Jacob's heart, they probably also realized how much they must have broken his heart when they sold Joseph. I know God did this with me (EXAMPLE).
Judah's confession to Joseph is the response God is looking for (read 44:16). He acknowledges his guilt without any excuses, he admits he deserves judgment, and he asks for mercy. This is the response Jesus says God is waiting to hear from us (read Lk. 15:18,19).
Joseph's response (read 45:5,15) is the response we will be greeted with when we turn to God in this way: forgiveness, experience His love and celebration (read Lk. 15:20-24a). How can God respond this way if He is holy and righteous? Because Jesus went to the cross to pay for our moral guilt. This is why we have to come to Jesus if we want to resolve our root problem.
This leads to the second lesson: Joseph seems to be a foreshadowing of Jesus. One cannot be dogmatic, but the resemblance seems more than coincidental. He is specially loved by his father, he is betrayed and rejected and "killed" by his own people, but he was "brought back from the dead," and God worked through his rejection to provide deliverance for many – including the ones who rejected him.
From Joseph, we learn how to thrive in spite of ill-treatment and adversity. Read 49:22-25a. Joseph is the antithesis of the "victim mentality" – "Because life or others have treated me unfairly, I am justified in seeking vengeance, nursing self-pity, living selfishly, etc."
Because we live in a fallen world, we are all victimized by others and this causes real pain. Many people's pain is aggravated because their world-view doesn't include the fall, and therefore they expect their lives to be happy and pain-free.
If ever there was a true victim, it was Joseph! Yet his life was so different because of his response. He models for us what it looks like to trust God's loving sovereignty. Jacob noted this in his death-bed tribute to Joseph (read and explain 49:22-25a). You can see this trust expressing itself throughout Joseph's story:
Instead of giving into despair, he kept choosing to recall and believe God's promise concerning his life (37:5,9), which involved believing that God was bigger than the circumstances and people in his life.
Instead of passively resigning himself and giving way to self-pity, he creatively sought to serve wherever he was (e.g., POTIPHAR'S HOUSE; JAIL). God blessed his trust by prospering him where he was, and by advancing him.
Instead of compromising morally to get ahead, he kept his integrity before God even at his own personal disadvantage (39:9; 1 Pet. 4:19).
Instead of taking credit in order to get ahead, he gave God credit at every crucial point (39:2,3; 40:8; 41:16).
Instead of becoming bitter toward his offenders, he extended forgiveness to them (read 50:19-21). He knew that God alone had the right to judge, so he refused to usurp God's role. He knew that he was not a victim in the sense that no human could ruin his life or prevent him from fulfilling God's purpose. On this basis, he chose to adopt a redemptive (rather than retributive) attitude toward his offenders.
Because Joseph trusted God's loving sovereignty, he experienced His personal support in every situation ("the LORD was with him . . ." – see especially 39:21), and he experienced the satisfaction of fulfilling God's purpose for his life (50:20). This is what God wants you to experience, too!
Conclusion
NEXT WEEK: No CT – join us at the Christmas Eve meetings!
QUESTIONS & COMMENTS