Joseph: From Slavery to Deputy Pharaoh The Story: From Eden to Egypt September 28, 2014 There s always a story behind the story. The normal day to day stuff. The circumstances and situations we find ourselves in in life. The place where we make routine choices and decisions. It s the mashed potatoes of the meat and potatoes routine of our daily life. But it s not the Big Picture. It s the snapshot story. The Big Picture, the meat of the meat and potatoes is the big stuff, the visible stuff, the things everyone sees. The Big Picture of The Story is what we ve focused on these last two weeks. In the first week we saw how God created everything in the universe and yet how God s passion is human beings and His supreme passion is to be with us. And so when Adam and Eve sinned, God made a plan to get us back through the promise of a Saviour. The Big Picture continued as God built a nation upon faith upon a relationship, not a bunch of laws, and did so through Abraham. Today we ll see the Big Picture and the snapshot story in our character for the week, Joseph. As we look at Joseph s life and see the Big Picture and snapshot pictures played out, as we think about how the Big Picture and the snapshot story is part of our lives, we shouldn t get so caught up in the snapshots that we can t see God s Big Picture at work. Have I confused you? Well, the key to making sense out of all the stuff of life is to be able to envision God s Big Picture through all the snapshots of life. So, let s look at Joseph s life, From Slavery to Deputy Pharaoh. And let s start by reviewing some of the aspects of Joseph s life that you read about last week. The story about Joseph is about Daddy likes me best. It opens with his 10 brothers out in the field tending to flocks. Where s Joseph? He s in with his father, not getting his hands dirty. Joseph is the favored son. Daddy has made that plain, even gave Joseph a technicolor dreamcoat that Andrew Lloyd Weber had to write about. At Christmas, Joseph s 10 brothers would get a bouncy ball and Joseph would get the new IPhone 6. To make matters worse, Joseph would remind his brothers that Daddy liked him best. He wore a T-shirt that said, Daddy loves you, but I m his favourite. And, Joseph had dreams. He dreamt that all of his brothers would bow down to him and he told his brothers about that dream. Make a note: if you have a dream where your siblings are bowing down to you, don t tell them about it. Joseph s brothers aren t too happy about that. They hatch a plan to sell Joseph to some travelling Ishmaelites and when Joseph comes into the field to call his brothers for supper, they put their plan into action. The pounce on him, sell him off, and then drench the despised coat of many colours in goat s blood and tell Daddy that Joe bit the dust. Talk about a dysfunctional family. No episode of Jerry Springer even comes close to this stuff. Joseph is sold into slavery, betrayed by his own brothers.
The Ishmaelites take Joseph to Egypt and sell him to Potiphar, the captain of the guard in Pharaoh s government. Open the inside cover of your book, locate Egypt and draw a little triangle with a J in it for Joseph in Egypt. This is really part of God s Big Picture which included moving the people of Israel to Egypt and then having them escape from 400 years of slavery enroute to the Promised Land. Another indicator of God s Big Picture is found on page 31: The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered Genesis 39:2 Can you see it? How God s supreme passion is to be with us and how the Lord was with Joseph. How Joseph prospered so much and did so well as a slave in Potiphar s household that Potiphar made Joseph the head of his entire enterprise. And just when things are looking up, when Joseph is just getting back on his feet, he s hit with another bomb, or should I say, bombshell. We re ready for the Prequel to Desperate Housewives: Mrs. Potiphar lands Joseph back in prison. The Story tells us that Joseph is a real hunk. He s wearing his little Egyptian manskirt, all aglow in his I ve-been-working-in-the-fields-all-day tan and Mrs. Potiphar sees him and says, I want some of that. She hits on Joseph, but Joseph resists. He knows that this woman is trouble, and doesn t want any part of it. But one day the two of them are in the house all alone and Mrs. Potiphar makes another move. Joseph rejects her and flees but she grabs his Egyptian man-skirt and cries rape. Potiphar likes Joseph but his wife did cry rape. So what s the captain of the guard to do? Joseph is sent back to prison. Now, prisons in those days were either large pits in the ground or fortress-like facilities where prisoners awaited torture and death. This is what was in store for Joseph. And for what? He honoured God when he resisted Mrs. Potiphar s advances. He was doing what was right and look where he ended up. Talk about a roller coaster ride. He had the good life in his father s house but was sold into slavery by his own brothers. He worked his way up to being the chief slave only to be put in the pit. Talk about disappointment. So, here s the question for us: What do we do with life s disappointments? One response is to take it out on God. A lot of people do that. Joseph was in prison and it wasn t his fault. He could have been asking, Where s God now? Where s God in the midst of this disappointment? Where is God when you hear you have to undergo a third round of chemotherapy? Where is God when you hear that a classmate is cutting herself? Where is God when you hear about a co-worker s daughter struck by a drunk driver? Where is God at CHKD s cancer ward? Taking it out on God is one reaction people have toward disappointments. Another response is to justify disobedience. You re single, want to be married but feel that God hasn t sent you the right person. You figure that God isn t holding up His end of the deal so you take matters into your own hands and date around carelessly and prayerlessly.
When the disappointments of life come, we might take it out on God or we might use them as an excuse for disobedience - unless we look for God s Big Picture amidst the snapshots of everyday life. The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered Genesis 39:2 This was part of the Big Picture for Joseph. Which pretty much sums up life, doesn t it? Because if you believe that God loves always loves you then you have to believe that even when you go through times of disappointment in life, God never stops loving you. Never! The next time you go through a disappointment, remind yourself, Jesus loves me this I know. Your marriage is on the rocks--- Yes, Jesus loves me. The test results come back and they aren t good- Yes, Jesus loves me. Death is looming large--- Yes, Jesus loves me, The Bible tells me so. The next time you go through a disappointment, just take that song to heart. Now, let s look at the season in Joseph s life when he goes from Prison to Deputy Pharaoh. And this season has three phases, the first of which is Joseph the dreamer. Joseph is in prison and he has this gift of interpreting dreams. He interprets the dreams of two of his fellow prisoners and the Pharaoh hears about it and wants Joseph to interpret his dream. So this foreign slave without a green card, this ex-con still on the chain gang, interprets the dreams of the most powerful man on earth. And Joseph tells Pharaoh that it s God who s interpreting the dreams, not Joseph. Joseph tells Pharaoh that his dream means there will be 7 years of bumper crops and 7 years of famine. Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of making sure the people of Egypt don t go hungry during the famine. Joseph goes from prisoner to deputy Pharaoh. The next phase of this season is that Joseph is reunited with his family. As envisioned, the famine reaches well beyond Egypt and affects the land of Canaan where Joseph s father Jacob and his brothers live. To get grain to survive the famine, Jacob sends his sons to Egypt to buy grain from the deputy Pharaoh (who we know is Joseph). His brothers are given audience with Joseph and bow down before him. They don t recognize him as their brother, as the guy they sold years ago, and they bow down. Remember that dream that Joseph had about his brothers, how they would bow down before him? Bam! Here is it unfolding. From a Big Picture perspective we can see how God was using Joseph s life. He was 17 when his brothers sold him into slavery. He was 30 when he became deputy Pharaoh. He was 39 years when his brothers come to him to ask for grain. Twenty-two years had elapsed from the time Joseph had his initial dream to the time it was fulfilled. From a snapshot story perspective, Joseph could have been having a Woe is me pity party as he sat in prison. From God s Big Picture perspective, we can see over the course of these 22 years, that, as Genesis 39:2 says, God was with Joseph. Joseph s brothers come to Joseph asking for food, but don t recognize him wearing his Egyptian man-skirt, all olivey looking and tanned.. Through a whole series of shanandigans, Joseph reveals his identity. And the brothers, who 22 years earlier sold Joseph into slavery, go, Uh, oh, and start looking for the nearest door
What does Joseph do? While he could have had them tortured and killed, he forgives them. Really? I mean, how could Joseph forgive his brothers after what they d done to him? The answer is that Joseph captured God s Big Picture. Listen to how Joseph explains this; I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt... You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Genesis 45:4-8, 50:20 Did you hear that? God sent Joseph to Egypt to save lives. God sent Joseph ahead to preserve a remnant on earth and to save the heritage of the people of Israel. It wasn t the brothers who sent Joseph to Egypt. It was God. The brothers intended evil for Joseph that s snapshot story and instead God worked it out for good that s Big Picture. God had bigger plans for His supreme passion than what happened with Joseph s brother s betrayal, which was slavery and imprisonment. God s plan was to be with us and to let Joseph know that He wanted Joseph to be with Him. God didn t cause all the bad stuff to happen to Joseph. God allowed it to happen and then used the bad stuff to achieve His Big Picture purpose. God was with Joseph and Joseph knew that. Joseph could sing, Yes, Jesus loves me. Now, before I stop there, I want you to understand that there are three Big Picture Lessons for our lives. The first one is that God can take all things and redeem them. God will use all the things of your life for good. That is where Romans 8:28 comes in; And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. God can redeem any person and any circumstance. By redeem, I mean that God can turn a bad thing into good outcome. Joseph was able to see how being sold into slavery was ultimately good. He could see how his imprisonment was ultimately good. This is the way Randy Frazee says it; No matter how painful some moments seem, your story is not over. If you love God and align your life to his Big Picture purposes, everything in your life, the ups and downs, the mountaintops and the valleys, the highs and the lows, the praises and the rejections, the good and the bad are all working together to accomplish good. Be patient. Trust God. Let Him mould you during the difficult seasons to equip you for the assignment ahead. 1 God is the great redeemer and He showed that chiefly in the cross where our great Redeemer, Jesus, died. The first Big Picture story is that God can take all things and redeem them. 1 The Heart of the Story, page 47
Secondly, know that God will use us when we acknowledge Him. God cannot use someone until they are ready to acknowledge Him. As Joseph considered his life, he gave God all the praise. You heard it again and again, how Joseph knew that God was with him. You heard him say that his brothers intended it for evil but God intended it for good. You heard Joseph tell Pharaoh that Joseph had no powers to interpret dreams but that God did through him. God uses us when we acknowledge Him. It helps us see that I didn t it but that God did it through me. Lastly, God s Big Picture story puts the snapshot story in perspective. The Big Picture story helps us see that God does have a plan. The snapshot for Joseph was: Sold into slavery, rise in power, Mrs. Potiphar s frame up, prison, success, reunion with family. The Big Picture story was that God had a plan and was carrying that plan. God s Big Picture story for you is that you ll see that God is in control, that He wants a relationship of love and trust in Him, that he wants you to see that every circumstance of life is part of His grand design to have you be with Him. It is you affirming that Jesus loves you today when life is good, but also when you go through life s disappointments. It s knowing, as the psalmist says, Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Why? for Thou art with me. God s supreme passion for all His creation is coming through me. Truth is, when we don t get caught up in the snapshot moments in life we can see God s Big Picture. And when you interpret your snapshot moments through God s Big Picture, then God will give you the most fulfilling life ever, if for no other reason than that you will know that no matter what you go through in life, God loves you, God wants to be with you, and that will make it all okay.