1 STORIES YOU VE HEARD: JOSEPH AND HIS COAT OF MANY COLORS GENESIS 37-50 JULY 21, 2013 Do you know any messed up families? Don t look at them! The Bible is filled with messed up families, from the very beginning of the story. Eve led her husband Adam into temptation, and he went willingly. Cain was jealous of his brother Abel and killed him. Lamech introduced polygamy to the world. Every polygamous family thereafter in the Bible felt the strains of favoritism, competition, envy and jealousy. Noah, that great saint, after they got off the ark, got drunk and cursed his son. Lot, when neighbors threatened his guests with gang rape, offered them his daughters instead. Later his daughters got him drunk and slept with him. Abraham had sex with his wife s servant and had a baby with her. Then he played favorites between his sons Ishmael and Isaac, and they ended up estranged. His son Isaac didn t learn a thing from his dad, but played favorites between his sons Jacob and Esau, fighting with his wife over which one would get Dad s blessing, and those brothers ended up estranged. Jacob was tricked into marrying two sisters, who then competed against each other for his love. Jacob so favored his son Joseph that Joseph s brothers almost killed him and ended up selling him into slavery. Then Jacob s firstborn son slept with his father s concubine. These people are badly messed up. They need Dr. Phil, Dr. Laura, Dr. Ruth, Dr. Seuss; they need somebody! These are not stained glass figures with halos. These are real people, broken just like the messed up and broken families you know. But we find them in the story of God s work in the world because God used them in his work. Just like he can use the messed up families you know. Just like he can use you. Today we re going to hear the story of one son from one of these families. Joseph, the favored son of Jacob. Joseph was the son of Jacob s favorite wife, Rachel. His story begins in Genesis 37. GENESIS 37:3-11 I get the feeling that Joseph had been so coddled by his dad that he was a real brat. Who tells his older brothers about dreams of superiority over them? He was begging for trouble. And he got it. That robe was a symbol of Jacob s love for Joseph, and in his brother s eyes a symbol of his lack of love for them. It s interesting how jealousy works. Joseph had not wronged them. Their father had neglected them. But he was the one they so wanted to be close to, so they couldn t be angry with him. So, instead, they aimed their anger at Joseph. Their jealousy was so great that several of them plotted to kill baby brother.
2 But one of them intervened, offered an alternative plan, and they sold him into slavery. They took his coat of many colors, ripped it up, dipped it in goat s blood, and convinced Dad that Joseph had been killed by some wild predator. But they still didn t get the love they craved from their father. Jacob went into deep mourning, and continued to neglect his other boys. Joseph, meanwhile, ended up a slave in Egypt. (Ge.37:12-36) Joseph s owner and master was one of Pharaoh s officials, the captain of the imperial guard. GENESIS 39:2-5 He was a slave, owned by a foreign official. But even there, The Lord was with Joseph. Pay attention to that. Hated by his brothers, separated from his father, he s lost his freedom, sold into slavery, and The Lord was with Joseph. Confession: I cannot tell you how many times something has gone wrong, I ve had a bad day or a rough week, and I wonder where God is and what he s up to. Why did you let this happen, Lord? Are you there? Do you care? Why didn t you answer my prayer? Joseph was in a worse situation than I ve ever experienced, but The Lord was with Joseph. Potiphar could see God s hand on this young man, so he gave him increasing responsibility. And Potiphar received blessings because God was with Joseph. Potiphar s wife wanted a blessing from Joseph, too. Maybe her husband was too busy at work to give her the attention she craved, or maybe she just wanted something new and different. Whatever it was, this young male slave caught her eye. But he refused to sleep with her. She was frustrated, got angry, and falsely accused Joseph of trying to rape her. So Potiphar had him thrown in prison. (Ge.39:6-20a) GENESIS 39:20b-23 Unjustly accused and imprisoned, but The Lord was with Joseph. While he was in prison, a couple of other prisoners had dreams. God gave Joseph the ability to interpret those dreams. As predicted, one of those prisoners was executed. The other was restored to his previous position as Pharaoh s cupbearer. Sadly, for quite some time the cupbearer forgot all about Joseph. Then Pharaoh had a couple of disturbing dreams. When none of his magicians and wise men could interpret the dreams, the cupbearer remembered Joseph and recommended him to Pharaoh. Joseph was brought to him. Pharaoh said, I ve been told you can interpret dreams. Can you interpret mine? You d expect him to step up boldly and say, Sure, I can interpret your dreams. No problem. Sort of like when he was the spoiled, braggart back home. But something had changed in Joseph, perhaps through his experiences of hardship, of not wearing the robe, and God still being with him in the midst of it all. He said to Pharaoh, I cannot interpret dreams. But God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. (Ge.40:1-41:16) He told Pharaoh the dreams were a forecast of seven years of plentiful harvests followed by seven years of drought and famine. Then Joseph recommended Pharaoh have an administrator collect and store surplus grain during the first seven years, so they d have a stockpile to live on during the seven bad years.
3 Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph and sure that God s hand was on him, he made Joseph his chief administrator, second in authority only to Pharaoh himself. He gave him a signet ring as a sign of imperial authority, fine robes, gold chains, a chariot, an Egyptian name and an Egyptian wife. Notice, he gave Joseph fine linen robes. Long ago his coat of many colors was a sign of his father s favor. It drew his brothers jealousy, inspiring them to get rid of him. Now he had robes signifying Pharaoh s favor, and soon he would use Pharaoh s favor to save his brothers lives. (Ge.40:17-45) But first he used his position to mess with his brothers. A little payback for what they did to him so many years before. Jacob sent them to Egypt to buy food so his tribe wouldn t starve in the famine. But he kept back his younger son, Benjamin, his favorite after Joseph, the only remaining child of his favorite wife Rachel. The other brothers still did not have their father s favor. The brothers had to deal with Joseph in Egypt, but didn t recognize him because he had grown into a man, was dressed and adorned as an Egyptian official, and had an Egyptian name. He recognized his older brothers right away, accused them of being spies against Egypt, and insisted they prove him wrong. The only way they could do that was to hand over one brother as a ransom for the rest, then return with their younger brother, Benjamin, who was Joseph s only full brother. So the one brother was held in an Egyptian prison, while the others returned home to tell their distraught father, Jacob, they had to go back with Benjamin. Worse yet, they discovered the money they had paid for the grain they were taking home was in their bags of grain! Now they would be charged with stealing! What they did not know was, Joseph had framed them, having one of his men sneak the money in there. (Ge.42) Jacob wouldn t let them take Benjamin until they were again in dire straights, running out of food. Needless to say, they were not thrilled to be returning to face this administrator who eyed them with such suspicion. But they had run out of options. Back to Egypt they went, to return the money for the first payment and with enough to make a second purchase. Joseph managed to play some more head games, staging another apparent theft, making them fear they would all be imprisoned for life, and had them all on the verge of tears. They concluded God was getting back at them for what they d done so long ago to little brother Joseph. Joseph told them only Benjamin would be held in prison. But one of the older brothers, Judah, stepped forward, explained their father was old and would die from grief, and begging the administrator to let the youngest boy Benjamin return home, and offered himself as a ransom in his place. (Ge.43:1-34) Joseph was moved to tears by the turmoil his brothers felt and the selfless offer of Judah. Finally he revealed to them who he was.
4 GENESIS 45:3-8a They were shocked, maybe even more afraid of him now that they knew who he was, remembering what they d done to him. But he gave reassurances, extending great grace to them. You sold me into slavery, with the worst of motives. But God was at work in it, too. God didn t put me here to get revenge on you. He put me here to rescue you, to provide for you. He cried over them, hugged them, kissed them. And he had them return home to bring back Jacob and the whole tribe, so they could live in Egypt throughout the remaining five years of famine. (Ge.45:8b-28) There was a wonderful family reunion, the tribe was given land of its own to settle and live in, and all was well for a while. When their father, Jacob, died, the brothers became fearful of Joseph again. They figured Joseph had been nice to them just for their father s sake, but now he d be free to get his revenge. So they begged him to show mercy. (Ge.46:28-50:18) But Joseph was not like them. He d been changed by his difficulties and the fact that God had been with him through it all. GENESIS 50:19-21 Here, in the words of Joseph, are some huge lessons about forgiving others. And this is where I want to drill down a little deeper. First, he said, Am I in the place of God? Ultimately, judgment belongs to God. Not you and me, but God. Oh, we have to evaluate actions as good or bad, right or wrong. But, as the Bible says, Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. (Ro.12:19) Our role, when hurt or offended by someone, is to hand that person over to God in prayer. Not carry around the offense, not look for an opportunity to get even, but to hand them over to God in prayer. Because we are not in the place of God. Notice, too, that Joseph was bluntly honest about what they did to him and why they did it. You sold me into slavery. You intended to harm me. He didn t say, Oh, it s no big deal, you didn t mean it. That s not forgiveness. That is minimizing their actions. God does not minimize human actions. God takes seriously our actions, our words, even our thoughts and feelings. You cannot forgive what you don t take at full face value. If we are to forgive someone who has wronged us, we ll first have to be honest about what they did and why. You sold me into slavery. You intended me harm. That was wrong. BUT, Joseph went on, God intended it for good. God intended it for good. The truth is, difficulties, hardships and pain can make you bitter or they can make you better. And one of the keys to the difference is right here. God intended it for good. Even in his most painful experiences, through the hatred and betrayal by his brothers, through life as a slave,
through injustice and imprisonment, Joseph saw the goodness of God at work. Joseph learned that, In all things God works for the good of those who love him. (Ro.8:28) In all things. God used that terrible act of selling him into slavery to eventually put him in position to save his family. The story of the Bible shows God often making use of even the worst of human intentions and actions to get his own kingdom work done. God used the hardships encountered by Joseph to transform him from a spoiled brat lording his favored position over his brothers to a gracious man wielding power to save his brothers. God used Judas Iscariot s betrayal of Jesus, the opposition of the Jewish religious leaders, and heartlessness of the Roman crucifix to work out the salvation of sinners through Jesus. God used the first persecution of the early church to scatter believers out of Jerusalem so the gospel would go into the surrounding area. God used a really painful experience of conflict to teach me the importance of Christian brothers and sisters who would stand with me and pray for me. Maybe you can remember times when God used painful experiences to bring a blessing of some sort. None of that minimizes what another person may have said or done to you. But it can make it much easier to let go of the hurt and the sense of having been wronged. It makes it easier to forgive. Because forgiving is not saying what they did was OK. And it s not foolishly allowing yourself to be hurt again in the same way. To forgive is to give forth the feelings of hurt and offense. You give it forth to God. And in doing so, you are the one who is set free. Set free from that emotional burden you ve been carrying. After fifteen years of marriage, she d had enough. Shortly after their wedding he began isolating her from friends and family. It was subtle at first, mentioning how he didn t like this or that person, how he thought they were not a good influence on her, that her church was no good, that her parents were too nosy, she was too bound to them, and so on. He also let her friends and family know he didn t like them, and as she reduced her contact with them they began to back away. As her outside relationships dwindled, his treatment of her became worse. He had called her the ugliest names you can imagine, names I cannot speak. He had repeatedly told her how useless she was, how incompetent, how worthless. As her self-esteem crumbled, things got worse. A plate of food, not to his liking, thrown from the table. A door slammed so hard it cracked the frame. She prayed for God to help her. She knew he heard her prayers. There was a hard slap across the face that left a bruise on her cheek. More than once she found herself cringing in fear. He beat her severely enough that several times she had to stay home a few days until the marks faded. She felt like she was imprisoned. She prayed for God to set her free. 5
Oh, he always cried, and apologized, and promised he d never do it again. But he did. Then he hit their eight year old son with a fist, knocking him to the floor, his lip bleeding, tears in his eyes. That was what finally woke her up. One day while he was at work, church friends helped her pack, she took her son and left, hiding in the home of church friends till she could make other arrangements. The divorce was finalized, and she tried to move on with her life. She prayed for God to help her. Counseling helped her find a bit of self-respect. Soon the fear was gone, but now was replaced by resentment, anger, even hatred, that simmered just below the surface and occasionally erupted in inappropriate ways. After one particularly troubling eruption of her own anger she prayed for God to help her. Late into the night she prayed, God, help me. I m so broken. I m out of control. God, help me. And deep inside she heard one word, Forgive. That was the beginning of her journey to freedom. It was not a short journey, nor an easy one. She had to start by praying, Lord, I don t want to forgive him. Please give me the desire to forgive. But eventually she found her way through. She named what he had done to her and her son as a sin, ugly, painful, damaging. Something she would never again allow to happen to her or her boy. She saw how God had been with her through it all. She caught a glimpse of how God might make use of that painful past, that she was growing stronger in her sense of self-worth, that she could use those ugly scenes to teach her son how NOT to be, that she had new understanding for others in painful family situations, and she might even have a ministry there someday. And she handed her ex- over to God. Day after day she handed him and all those feelings over to God. She for-gave, gave him forth to God. And little by little she found herself free, free from fear, free from anger and hate, free from the burden of that terrible past, free to be who God always intended her to be. And you can be free, too, no matter how messed up your family might be, no matter how painful your past might be. With God s help, you can forgive, and you can be free. 6