It is certainly good to see everybody here this morning to
worship, and I pray that something that is said this
morning will be edifying to the body and uplifting to you.
So if you would please open your Bibles to the first book of the
Bible, the book of Genesis. If you didn't bring your Bible,
we have Bibles in the pews in front of you.
We're going to be in the Old Testament kind of in chunks this
morning. I wanted to start this series of
of the life of Joseph. And in doing so, I wanted to
take the time before we really delve into the events that we
really understand and maybe really remember in the life of
Joseph is really understand the early years of his life, kind of
his background, his upbringing, what it looked like in his
father's house. And I think it'll be
particularly helpful if you want to follow along in the Bible's
physically this morning. There's, like I said, we have
those here. But if you don't want to bother
with that, I'm going to have a lot of the verses up here on the
screen as well as we move through the study.
So for those of you who enjoy stories, this is a story of
stories in the Bible. This is a great one.
It's a classic, it's an epic or a saga.
If you want to say this is about as good as it gets of a story in
the Bible, it as it unfolds for us, the whole basically it's one
of the greatest in the Old Testament.
The biography of Joseph covers more space than any other given
to any other character in the Old Testament in just in Genesis
more than Adam or to Noah or even Abraham.
And actually it gives more space to him than his father Jacob.
And even those of us who maybe just know a little bit about
Joseph and or the Old Testament, we probably heard of Joseph.
You probably understand me. We we know who he is or we've
heard of him. You see, the reason that we know
Joseph is the same way that we know of Jonah because of the
whale or because of the great fish or Noah because of the ark.
And we know this guy Joseph because of his multi colored
coat that he was given. And the story of Joseph is
common and popular. Even Broadway has recognized
Joseph. They have created a musical
called Joseph in the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
And this was all based on Joseph in the Bible.
But we're introduced to Joseph in chapter 37, verse 2 of
Genesis, chapter 37, when it says he was 17 years old, a
young man, 17 tending the flocks with his brothers.
And between that point and the record of his death, there's 93
years where he where there's a span of where we really see his
story. He eventually dies at the age of
110. And that's recorded for us in
chapter 50. And we have all the biographical
details of a life which was really amazing for many, many
reasons, as we'll see. He provides for us probably the
classical Testament illustration of the New Testament truth that
is summarized in Romans 828. All things work together for
good to those who love God, who are called according to His
purpose. There's perhaps no other
character whom to whom we may go in the whole Testament.
In this character Joseph, who quite amazingly provides this
awesome summary of this verse that we see in Romans, a very,
very important verse. The story of Joseph, as we'll
see it is a tale of bitter jealousy, of deceit, slavery,
misrepresentation, injustice, lust, rivalry, forgiveness,
brothers fighting, brothers resenting parental influence.
It's a story of imprisonment. It's a story of deep trials that
do not produce self pity. It's the account of the
prosperity that comes to 1 without any accompanying pride.
By that manner and in and all the overreaching theme that is
the sovereignty of God bring about that which which He has
purposed in the affairs the time of this character of Joseph.
In short, it ought to be for us a story of great encouragement,
a great reassurance as we as individuals in our different
lives and our families, different backgrounds and places
and different positions in our faith.
Maybe carrying all with us all the baggage that we have, all of
our past, all of our fears of our present situations, maybe
and maybe the uncertainty of the future in our lives.
And wondering somehow in all these things that are going on
in our lives, does God care? Is God in control?
And what can we expect from it all?
And before we address these matters that go from age 17 to
110 in his life, what I want to do is I want to study what
happened before then. What happened before age 17?
What were the incidents and the influences of the life of Joseph
prior to the age of 17? And that overarching theme is
that the sovereignty of God bringing about which what he has
purposed in the affairs of time and the wonderful truth of His
providential care over those who dearly love him.
Now, I know mostly of how my wife's mind works mostly, and
maybe you know yours as well, or maybe yours just works the same
way. But I think if we were to look
at this verse and if Lizzie would read this first and we're
just introduced to Joseph in this manner, says Joseph being
17 years old was feeding his flock.
Well, seventeen. OK, well, seventeen.
Well what we're just introduced them before the age of 17.
What then? Where did he come from?
What kind of family did he have? What kind of role model did his
dad play? What kind of influence?
Where did, what was his family background?
What can we expect? What was his character before
that? And so with maybe me thinking
that she might have those questions, I think there's
probably others that have those questions as well.
How did Joseph get to where he was by the age of 17, and who
was he? What were his family ties, if
you want to say? And if Lizzie would ask me that
question, I would just simply say I don't know.
Which prompted me to maybe dive a little deeper into this, as we
should, not just for that reason, but of course for other
reasons. All of us have families.
They all mean something and they are sometimes undesirable.
Undesirable. Most of the times are full of
joy. They're blessed and sometimes
they're troubled. And what we have that There's no
question that Joseph came from quite the background.
Not every 17 year old could boast that his great grandfather
was Abraham, or that one of his grandpas was Isaac, or that his
dad was Jacob, but his mother was Rachel.
He had come from quite the context, but what I want to do
is I want to consider it from a point of his father, Jacob, the
man Jacob, as we recall, maybe you know this, I didn't know
this, but he had a name that was the figurative meaning of Jacob
is actually called the chiseler or the schemer.
And he had been appropriately named that because almost from
his birth he had been very, very skillful, a very manipulative at
getting the things that he wanted in the way that he wanted
to get them. And when we read the story of
Jacob, which I recommend that you do in this on your own, of
course, and discover that he actually chiseled his his
brother out of his own birthright, we see that in
Genesis 25, he further deceived his father.
He further deceived his father and he conferred upon him the
blessing which ought to be had given to Esau.
We see that in chapter 27. He was also a very focused
individual. When we when he set his mind to
something, he was ready to give it all that he had.
And we see this no more on display in Jacob's life than in
the realm of his love life. If you want to say, we're told
in Genesis 29 that when his eyes fastened, having gone to live in
the country of of Laban, when his eyes fastened upon this
girl, Rachel, she really, really captivated him.
He was enamoured by her and in Genesis 2915 through 18, it says
Laban said to him, just because you are a relative of mine,
because Jacob was Laban's nephew.
Should you work for me for nothing?
Tell me, what should your wages be?
Well, Jacob was quick to answer Laban.
He noticed that the fact that his uncle Laban had two girls.
The older girl was Leah, the younger one was Rachel.
And we're told that Leah had weak eyes or she was she was
delicate, if you want to say, or she was kind of frail or she was
just not what Rachel was. Whereas Rachel, we're told, was
lovely in form and beautiful. And Jacob had fallen in love
with Rachel. We see that in verse 18 of 29.
And so when his uncle, uncle asks him, what would you like
for your wages? He said, well, how does Rachel
sound? And he said, by the way, he
said, I'll work for seven years for you, for Rachel.
And that's quite a deal. That's quite a deal.
I mean, I just now I'm a father-in-law and, and, and
Justin didn't come to me asking for Kylie's hand in marriage,
but I distinctly don't remember him saying that he'll work for
me for seven years for Kylie's hand in marriage.
And that's exactly what Jacob did.
Now, ironically, Jacob's Uncle Laban was a bit of a schemer
himself, and he deceives his nephew Jacob by slipping his
older daughter to him of the night of their marriage and
experience. We can read all this in the
record. It's really quite amazing.
It sounds almost like a soap opera, and it really is a soap
opera. It's better than any episode of
Days of Our Lives that we'll ever watch.
And it's really amazing. Jacob says.
Lavin, give me my wife. My time is completed and I want
to lie with her. And there's nothing like getting
right to it, right? So Laban brought together all
the people of the palace and gave a feast.
And when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her
to Jacob. And Jacob lay with her.
And Laban gave his servant girl Zealpa to his daughter as a
maidstream. And there's a ton of stuff in
this, this couple of verses here.
And we're not going to understand, you know, we have to
understand the Eastern customs of the Old Testament.
They understand the bridal veils, the purity, the sanctity
of the event, all that comes into play in this manner.
And when you need to understand that, when Label went to his bed
at night, you know, I could imagine him saying to his wife,
you know, you wait till the morning.
This can be quite the event, quite the show, because, you
know, it was quite the conversation and it was
unbelievable. Verses 25 to 27 says when my
warning came, there was Leah. So Jacob said to Laban, what's
this you've done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't
I? Why you deceive me then, Laban
and trying to legitimize the whole whole situation says,
listen, the custom is that you can't give away your younger
daughter until you give away your older daughter.
So I determined that I must first give you my older
daughter. And now that I've done that, but
here's the deal. If you'll fulfill the
responsibilities of the bridal week, I'll give you Rachel,
provided you work for me for another seven years.
And such was Jacob's passionate longing and commitment for
Rachel. He really, really loved Rachel.
And he agreed to that deal. He said fine, That's, that's the
deal. I worked for another seven
years. So seven years he worked for her
only to get her older sister. Now he gets her in another seven
years of hard labor. And you see the relationship
between uncle and nephew now as we read the story, it's just
kind of one guy scheming and and another guy both kind of
scheming each other, outdoing one another and various business
deals or family affiliations all the way through.
And so now the family is starting to grow.
It's starting to take full picture.
Leah produces four children in a row because God favors her, it
tells us. And we're told that in the in
the book of Genesis, Leah was not immediately favored by her
husband Jacob, yet God favored her with children.
Rachel was supremely favored by her husband, but God chose to
close her womb. God is sovereign even in the
details of these things, and we don't think in these terms
today, but we should because it's right to do so.
God is involved in the details, and so when we read, for
example, in verses 2032 through 35 in chapter 29 in the way in
which Leah was giving birth to all these cheating, she's giving
them kind of just one verse at a time, one right after another.
And so we read, we read that we'll notice in verse 32 that
she became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
She called him Reuben. Verse 33, she conceived again,
gave birth to a son, called him Simeon.
Verse 34, she conceived and gave birth to a son, called him Levi.
And verse 35 she conceived again and gave birth to his son, and
she called him Judah. And then we have just a really
strange statement at the end of chapter 29.
It says then she stopped having children just like that.
OK, so Genesis 30, verses one through 2.
But Rachel, when she saw she was not bearing Jacob any children,
she became jealous of her sister.
So she said to Jacob, give me children or I'll die.
Jacob says, come on, give me a break.
I'm not God. I don't choose who gives you
children, who doesn't give you children.
I can't make that stuff up. I'm not in charge of that.
Verses 30 and verse 3 it says, or chapter 30, verse three it
says. And so she did what was
customary at the time she took the servant made Bilhah, and she
said that she had been given and she gave her to Jacob as a wife
says sleep with her so that she can bear children for me and
that through her I can too build a family.
And as was the custom back then, any children born through that
servant may would be credited to as a child of Rachel.
And no matter and the matters of course take their course.
And Bill Hogg gives birth to Dan in verse 6 and to Napoli in
verse 7. Now Leah then, whose
productivity had dwindled, decided to the same strategy
with her maid servant Zilpa. And Zilpa gave Jacob Zilpa and
Jacob got together and Zilpa in turn gives birth to Gad in verse
10 and then to Asher in verse 13.
And then we have this unbelievable thing where they
start trading favours with Mandrake's currency of
Mandrake's. And in verses 14 and 15 of
chapter 30, this whole Mandrake trade going on during the wheat
harvest. And Rachel and Leah are talking
to one another. And Rachel says to the other,
Hey, give me some of your mandrakes.
And she said, well, wasn't enough that you took my way, my
husband. Now you want to take my
mandrakes too. You know, I think that's kind of
a bit over the top or a snap response by by her, you know,
can I have a few mandrakes? Hey, man, you just took my
husband too. Now you want my mandrakes?
Give me a break. It's kind of how I pictured in
my mind how the conversation went.
And in 15 and 16, we look at the reaction here, it says, it says
very well, Rachel said he can sleep with you tonight in return
for your son's mandrakes. So when Jacob came in from the
fields that evening, Leah went out to meet him and she said,
you know, you must sleep with me.
She said, I've hired you with my son's mandrakes.
And so that's what that was that I guess.
And, and God listened to Leah. She became pregnant.
She bore a fifth son. And Leah said, God has rewarded
me, giving my maidservant to my husband.
So she named him Issachar. And then she conceived again and
she bore him a sixth son. And she she said, God is
presenting me with a precious gift.
And this time my husband will treat me with honor because I
have borne him six sons. So she named him Zebulun.
And then she pops out a daughter named Dinah in verse 21.
So I mean, this thing is going crazy.
All these burst things going hog wild, just child after child
after child, kids all over the place.
You've got six boys and a daughter straight up out of
Leah, 2 by her servant maid. So that's nine.
And there's two by the other servant maid, that's 11.
So up to this point, up to this point, we're looking at these
children right here on this family tree.
Up to this point, that's 11. You got 10 boys, one girl, one
dad, 4 mothers, 2 concubines. And you think that you've got a
complicated family. You know, we don't need to think
in terms that our family is so messed up or so twisted because
when we look at the Old Testament and even just this
picture here, there's a lot going on there.
And then comes Joseph, in the midst of all this, you know,
this is not a mythological story.
This is truth. This is history.
This is what came from the this is where Jesus came from.
He came from this family tree. Verses 22 through 24 of Genesis
30, it says, then God remembered Rachel.
He listened to her and he opened her womb and she became pregnant
and gave birth to a son. And she said, God has taken away
my disgrace and she named him Joseph.
And she said, may the Lord add to me another son.
And so all in the background of all this family, the growth of
this family, comes this little fella named Joseph and they love
him. Now what we need to understand
in this narrative, in this progression, what I'm going to
try to do is that while it's not recorded for a step by step and
and clear accuracy, it's clear that at points where we have
silence, there is actual a progression of time that happens
there. So now between verses 24 and
chapter 30 and chapter 37, verse 2, what we've got is we've got a
space of 17 years like we talked about already, 17 years.
That's all wrapped up in the formative stages of this little
boy's life, Joseph. And sometime after he was born,
however short or however long, maybe months, maybe years, we're
not told, but Jacob's father or Joseph's father, Jacob
determines that they're going to move.
The kind of occurrence that maybe happens in all of our
lives. They're going to move from one
place to another. The family moves from the land
of Laban to Canaan. You know, maybe mom and dad are
talking. They finally conclude, you know,
we're moving, hey, we're going to move back to where we came
from. We're leaving this land of
layman. We're going to go back to
Canaan. We're going to relocate in
Canaan or where they were at Laban, the land of Laban, which
is Padamaran, all the way to Canaan was about 500, five, 150
miles. That's about from here, from
Bakersfield all the way nearly to the border of Oregon.
That's a long way, 550 miles or so To the kids who are old
enough, maybe they would understand.
They were shared at the dinner table.
If you want to say the parents would tell the older kids say
we're going to go ahead and move.
You know, maybe they don't need to make this explanation to the
younger children. We're going to move to Canaan.
We don't know how old Joseph was at this time.
Maybe he was four, 5-6 or seven, but he was the youngest one at
that time. We do know sitting around the
time a table at the time, if he was this age, he was able to
maybe catch on to these conversations that were going on
with his parents. He would know that there's a big
change underway, and in that little boy's life, God was
already forming his character. For an exceptional.
Purpose which Joseph nor any others could understand at that
time. God was already moving through
it all. God was working and planning and
putting into this young boy's experience the essential
situations and feelings that would be necessary for him to be
his man in His place at his time.
God is. Sovereign over all these things.
I think it's safe. To estimate that by the time
that they were ready to make the move, maybe Joseph is 6 years
old or so and therefore he would have been aware of the fact that
they were moving they. Would have looked forward.
To it and they would have prepared for the children for
it. And he probably had one of his
earliest memories of the moment that's recorded in verse 17 of
chapter 31. It says then Jacob arose and set
his son and his wives on camels. When they get there, they.
They maybe the kids really didn't know what was going on.
The kids couldn't process the information.
Their tiny lies were just in an in an amazement in the world.
So many things going on, moving from one place to another,
loading up on camels, moving to a different land.
You know, his father comes in, says this is it, this is the
time, this is what we're doing. We're going to go ahead and
move. And when all that uncertainty,
you know, dad, Jacob just starts saying, hey, just trust me,
listen to me, we're going to move.
This is what we're doing. Stick with me.
And for Joseph, that experience would have been exactly the
same. Maybe you same mom, where are we
going? What are all these camels for?
You're going to ride on that camel.
Am I going to ride with you? Am I going to get my own camel?
Am I going to ride in front with dad?
Can I ride shotgun on the camel? All these questions that maybe a
kid can ask, you know, when all this stuff is going on.
You know. I, I, I'm saying these things in
order for us to understand like this is a real family.
This was a. Real moment in a real family's
life where these things actually come into play.
Making a real. Journey.
And in it all, God is fashioning and forming this young boy for a
future unknown to him. So on to the camels they go,
with all the livestock being driven ahead, all the goods
accumulated in pad and a ram. Pad and a RAM.
Some of them legitimates, some of them illegitimately.
To go to his father. Isaac in the land of Canaan.
Well, Jacob? Had not gotten where he was by
that point by putting all this stuff behind him.
You know, we're not going to ride up in front with all of our
stuff behind because people who who are interested in this our
stuff, they're trying to come after us.
If they want all the stuff that's behind us, they're going
to get that fairly easily. So Jacob decided to put all of
his live stuff, all of his goods in front of him and kind of
drive drive the whole family and all of his goods.
He put him in front of me. He.
Was smart to do that because three days after he left the
land of Laban, his uncle Laban, Laban decided that he had
decided that Jacob had left or pulled one over on him.
And so he goes chasing after Jacob and he catches up to him
three days later, which we're we're told in Gilead and verse
23. And Jacob pitched his ten in the
Hill Country of Gilead when Laban overtook him, and Laban
and his relatives camp there too.
Then it says when Laban. Had gone to shear his sheep.
Rachel stole her father's household.
Gods, now maybe we imagine Joseph, little Joseph at this
time saying, hey, mom, why do you have all of this stuff that
you took from Grandpa? Why do you have the things?
That maybe when we went over to his house, we would see these
things, maybe in the China cabinet, these things that he
called his gods, things he had over here in the corner.
Why do you have all those things?
Why do you take those from him? Why do you take all the grandpa?
Stuff. And maybe we can think of Rachel
saying, oh, Joseph, be quiet. Don't worry about it.
You know your grandpa and I, your grandpa knows me and I know
your grandpa and just you just leave it alone.
Don't bother me with these questions.
Just run along. Go play with your sheep.
Maybe then. Joseph goes over to his father
or Jacob. It says, hey, dad, why are we
running away from your from Laban?
Why are we running away from grandpa?
Why can't we just got up and left?
Doesn't grandpa like you? Don't we love grandpa?
I mean, we got all these camels loaded up.
Why do we have to go away and all this stuff?
Hey, mom, why did grandpa show up now?
We've left for three days now. Grandpa's here meeting us.
What's going on? What's all what's, how come
everyone's camping over here beside us?
We can kind of imagine these little minds processing these
things, Joseph processing these events in his life.
And what do you think? Do you think he was in the
company maybe of what happened in verse 26?
Do we think he was kind of Maybe.
Eavesdropping a little bit when these questions were asked.
Around the corner. Listening intently to his
grandpa, looking at his dad, says what did you done?
Laban goes to Jacob, says what have you done?
You've deceived me. You've carried off my daughters
like captives in war. Joseph, what has been?
Saying to himself, maybe So that's right.
That's what I've been saying. Why did we just leave like this?
Why did we take all the things? And now grandpa said that we're
doing exactly what I thought we were doing in verse. 27.
Why did you run off secretly and deceive me?
Why didn't you tell me so we could have a party?
And that's the significance of what Joy and and singing the
music of tambourines and harps and Joseph sings.
Yeah. Why didn't we have a party
before we left? Why didn't we have dinner
together? Why didn't we have a a sending
away party? We just got up and left out of
there. And so maybe Joseph.
Would have been listening and and we think that little boy may
have processed the question here in verse 28 says you didn't even
let me kiss my grandchildren and my daughter's goodbye.
You've done a foolish thing. Now I.
Don't know about your relationship with your
grandfather, but we all love our grandfathers.
This is my grandfather, Galen Osborne.
He's known for many, many great works in the church,
establishing and helping the growth of the church in Africa,
all of his preaching and all the things that he did.
But what I remember about him more than anything.
More than anything. Is who he was away from the
pulpit. That's what I remember of him
just being an absolute goofball. For his grandchildren.
To be entertained by him. This is what he loved.
This is who he was. All this formal preaching was
great. All the work for the Kingdom was
a memorable, was immeasurable. But he was by far a great
grandpa, you know, So I don't want any.
That's a great one right there. And grandma sent this.
One to me last night. But this is who he was.
This is what I remember most about my grandfather, willing to
goof around and to make his grandchildren or his children
laugh. Now, I wouldn't want anybody
tearing me away from my grandpa without saying a proper goodbye,
and that's what was happening here.
He wasn't. Joseph wasn't going to have, you
know, Joseph was going to have to learn how to cry, learn how
to deal with the pain, learn how to get get gut punched, and even
those early circumstances that we're going to read about in
future studies. God was forming and framing this
tiny life in preparation for what would be in the future.
So do you think Joseph kind of leaned in a little bit or maybe
his eyes tightened up a little bit when this when he heard this
question in verse 30. Now you have gone off because
you long to return your father's house.
But why did you steal my gods? OK, now if.
We had any inkling and all if he'd been hanging around his
mom, you know, maybe his mom's skirt or dress or even you aware
of this. You know, he wants to hear the
answer. This Joseph wants to hear the
answer to what his grandpa is asking Jacob at this point.
And look what it says in verse 3132.
And Jacob Asher says, I was afraid I thought you'd take your
daughters away by force. But if you find anyone who has
your gods, he shall not live in the presence of our relatives.
See for yourself whether they're anything of your of yours here
with me. And if so, take it now.
Jacob did not know that Rachel had stolen the gods.
You see when you're a. Deceiver.
You'll make people around you be deceivering as well at some
point. And I think Jacob May.
Be rubbed up on Rachel a little bit here.
Rachel having. Spent time in the company of
Jacob. It's clear that he rubbed off on
her just a little bit, and we can only imagine as Joseph heard
his mother from the top of her camel and she sat on the
saddlebag and held the gods maybe in that bag that she was
sitting on. For which his dad was looking.
For and now she had sinned by taking those things.
She's sinned just in the. Act by stealing those things.
But she also lied through her teeth.
Then again in her response when she was prompted with this
question. She probably didn't have to lie.
But she did, and deceit will do that.
You see one deceitful. Action sends into the process of
sight a cycle that's almost unstoppable.
Listen to her from the. Top of the camel in verse 3035,
she says she said to her father, don't be angry, my Lord, that I
cannot stand up in your presence.
I'm having my period. So he searched, but he could not
find the household gods. And then you'll turn to the end
of the chapter. What?
It's a ton of material tied up in the concluding verse of
chapter 31. They take a.
They make a covenant with one another, that is Jacob and
Layman. They make a covenant with one
another. They establish the lines of
demarcation. If you want to say they offer
sacrifices together, they sit down, they have a meal, and at
the end of verse 4054 and after they had eaten, they spent the
night there. And I think we've all had those.
Moments, all the gathering of the family together, having
dinner, having all the good times together, just being with
one another. But there's always that
anticipation of when everything's going to
everybody's got to go home. There's that on.
Underlying feeling of of maybe anxiety, like, oh, these guys
are going to have to leave now we're going to deal with the
sorrow of a goodbye that's coming.
And that was going to happen the following morning in this story.
The party was over and the separation was inevitable.
So they couldn't have all. The joy of that evening all all
that they did without the prospect of the morning party.
And in verse 55. Is the picture, it says.
Early the next morning, Laban kissed his grandchildren and his
granddaughters and he blessed them, and then he left them and
went home. You know only one of the.
Hardest hearts can read that and and walk away without any
emotion. Do you think Laban squeezed
those boys, held them tight? Do you think he grabbed?
Those teenage kids and the ones that were now in their maybe
early 20s. Do you think he grabbed?
Them tight and held them close. And don't you think that he was?
Uncontrollably attracted to his his two daughters, Rachel and
Leah. And wanted to just.
Hug them as long as he could. And then when he turned and.
Walked away to go home. Maybe he chose not to look back
because he couldn't look back for the emotions that was going
on in his mind. And what is a small?
Boy like Joseph, make of that. And in that.
All things were working together for the good of this young boy
Joseph, who was called of God according to his purpose.
It's a great story. So far and I'm really excited to
get into it further as we go. When Herod.
Trembled. Jerusalem trembled.
We read that in Matthew. 2 verses 2 through 3, The arrival
of the wise men brought this question reverberating to the
core of Herod's being. It says, Where is he that is
born king of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the
east, and we've come to worship him.
And Herod was troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him.
Basically in other. Words When he started to freak
out. The entire place started to
freak out. And I'm convinced that.
The fear and distress which gripped the life of Jacob in the
prospect of facing his brother Esau that we see in chapter 32.
I think Jacob started to get really, really anxious of seeing
his brother Esau. We can read about all that went
on with him. Quite contentious relationship
there. Verse 7 of chapter 32, it says
in great fear and distress, Jacob divided the people who
were with him into two groups. And again, I think Joseph would
have been in on this a little bit.
He would have heard something of the of the stuff going on.
And I bet Joseph would have knew that there was something up with
his dad in the news of 400 men coming with Esau.
Jacob's thinking, 400 men. Why is 400 men coming with your
brother with my Uncle Esau? He kept a little bit.
Of this in his mind why is dad so upset why is he sending 4 men
and all the all the fear may be going on in Jacob's in life and
we see they kind of what. The Father's.
Feeling, then, the family feels. If the father's.
Upset that the family starts to get agitated.
If the father's happy. Then maybe the family starts to
get happy and I think these feelings that Jacob was having
in in confrontation of his brother Esau was definitely seen
by his family. And then we have the night.
When Jacob left his family, we see this in verse 22.
Verse chapter 32. Jacob gets up.
He takes his wives in the night, and his two maidservants and his
eleven sons, and he crosses the Fort of Javik in the night.
What would you think if you're? In all of a sudden, your family
just uprooted in the middle of the night to go somewhere else
again. They're moving again.
They have torches, very few because they want to move
circumspectly. They don't want to be noticed.
They're walking their children. Maybe they're waking their
children from their beds in the middle of the night and said,
come on now, We got to cross the river middle of the night.
Kids are kind of groggy and still not awake.
But what are we doing this for, dad?
Why do we move in the middle of the night?
Well, don't we need to gather? Everything can I get my my
favorite stuffed animal and go with this?
We're in the middle of the night.
And you know, all these questions and, and, and maybe
Jacob says, look, look, just be quiet.
We're moving in the middle of the night.
We're going to go. Just listen to your mother.
We're moving. This is the decision that's been
made. And so Jacob ushers his family
across the board of Javik. And in verse 23 it says after he
had sent them across the stream, he sends over all his
possessions. And Jacob was.
Left alone. And I don't this and this has.
Never happened to me. I don't know what's ever
happened to you. But I know for sure that if if a
father moved his entire family in the middle of night across
the stream and he gets everybody crossed and then he just stays
there, I think all the family could live in.
Like, what's dad doing? How come Dad's not coming
across? Why dad stay back there?
What's going on? He wanted us to get all up in
the middle of the night and move us all the way across this
stream. And now he's going to stay back.
Give me a break. Come on, Dad.
What are you staying back there for?
What's he going on? And the fact of the matter was
that Dad Jacob was meeting with God.
And Jacob didn't know. He was going to meet with God at
that moment. God was going to come and
wrestle him all the way to the ground.
And and when God did that, basically it's kind of a wake up
call for Jacob. He's going, hey, Chisler, I'm
going to give you a new name. Hey, Deceitful.
I want to turn your life around. I want to make you a brand new
dad. I want to make you a brand new
husband. I'm going to change your life.
And in the morning, when he. Returned with his staff, which
had become a characteristic of Jacob's life.
He now leans upon his staff and he limps back because as he
limps back and he goes back to his family, and maybe when he
gets back to his family, you know, his family's looking like
what in the world happened to you?
What are you limping now for? What do you got a staff for?
What happened to you? What kind of trouble did you get
yourself into? Well, I think it had to have.
Some sort of impression upon his children, without a doubt.
And then we have this dreadful experience in chapter 34,
Genesis, the violation of the one daughter's purity.
You have 11. Sons and one daughter at this
point. Don't you think those?
11 boys would watch after their sister.
Don't you think they'd be? Watching out for her in all
manners of her life, maybe even if 9 or 10 of them were doing
something else and there was one boy left with her, would be
watching over her and making sure that she was taken care of.
You better believe it. Don't you think they noticed
when Shechem, the son of Haymore of the Hivites, saw her?
Do you think they care? When they saw him walk away with
her, do you think their hearts burn with the deepest passions
when he had his way with her? And what about Joseph?
Maybe 10 or 11 years old at this point, maybe not fully
understanding the whole reproductive system of the human
body and all the other secretive conversations and the
aggravation of his older brothers.
All these things are happening now.
He's noticing these things. Something happened to Dinah.
What did this other guy do to Dinah?
And she looks away to her and he looks to his father Jacob and
hear his here's his father Jacob say now let's be careful here.
We don't want to become a disgrace of the surrounding
culture. And all the brothers looked.
To Jacob and said, are you kidding me?
How can a father know what just happened to his daughter act
like this or think like this So Dinah's brothers take matters
into their own hands. They set up an amazing,
deceitful scheme. They get these guys in the most
compromised and physical positions, and then they drive
under the cover of darkness and they butcher the whole place of
Shechem. They bring in the outsiders,
they plunder all of Shechem. And in it all, God is working to
form the character of Joseph in all these events.
Chapter 35. They then they go to Bethel and
Jacob had been at Bethel before if you read back in chapter 28.
In Bethel is where Jacob had a dream of the latter going to
heaven. The heaven where he was.
Fleeing in that dream where he was fleeing from Esau.
And here in chapter 35, verses 2 and three, he says to the people
of Bethel, he says purify yourselves.
He says, let's make sure that we experience God's presence before
we go on from here. And then the following verse is
recorded as a story of of deep bereavement that he's going to
experience Jacob and the whole family.
We don't have time to go. Through it all, and I recommend
that you read it on your own, you find the funeral of Deborah.
You know, everybody must have loved Deborah.
Just the verse here it says now Deborah, Rebecca's nurse died
and was buried under the oak outside Bethel.
It was really a solemn time in their lives.
And then the tragic loss of his wife, wife Rachel, for whom he
had worked so many years to have.
Verses 16 through. 18 All the expectations and all the
excitement on Joseph's part of becoming maybe a Big Brother,
expecting his mother to give birth and he's going to be a Big
Brother now. He's going to have a little
little little brother or a yeah brother or daughter to hang out
with now. Maybe he's 12 at this.
Point All the siblings are grown up, maybe in their late teens or
20. Maybe someone can have children
on their own now, and maybe we see Joseph going to his mother.
Hey, mom, when are you going to have this kid?
When do you have am I going to be Big Brother?
When's that going to happen? Is it going to be a boy?
Is it going to be a girl? What do you think, Mom?
Well, that day, finally. Comes and that day, mingled with
joy and deep, deep heartache. She goes into the pains.
Of childbirth, and as the contractions increase, as the
sense of terror then grieve grips that mother grips Rachel.
And finally as in. Giving birth, her very life ebbs
out from her and again the life of this boy, Tragedy and pain
and sorrow and bereavement come crashing into his life once
again and into his experience. And then we read the.
Record of the death of his grandfather, Jacob's grandfather
Isaac, and another burial service and all the inevitable
thoughts about the frailty of life and the reality of death
and the necessity of faith. Maybe that's coming upon Joseph
at this time. In the middle of all.
That then there's the unthinkable that happened in the
middle of all this grief, the childbirth of of Benjamin and
the death of Rachel, the death of Isaac.
In verse 22 we read the following the death of the his
most treasured companion, Rachel, while Israel, that is,
Jacob, was living in that region, his oldest boy, Reuben
went in and slept with his father, concubine Bilhah.
And we're told. That all we're told is Jacob
heard of it. No action.
No response. Nothing.
We're told. How callous.
Can a person like Reuben be? How hard of a?
Heart. What kind of man is Reuben?
You and your father just. Lost his his wife of devotion,
the lady whom for now now he's involved with his father's
concubine. And at the very breath.
Of of the death of Rachel. Now we're involved in an
incestuous activity, and when we get to chapter 49, realize that
Jacob had actually not forgotten about it.
We'll get to there at some point, God willing.
In chapter 36 you can read about the lineage of Esau.
And chapter 30. 7 verse 2 where we started here.
We're now back at the. Beginning of our sermon face to
face, looking into the eyes of a young boy named Joseph, 17 years
old, who has been through more than most of us in our lives by
the age of 17. The grace of God.
Is great. Now I have deliberately taking
that time to give just a glimpse of or a touch of the background
of Joseph and his family's life. And I.
Really recommend that you read it through on your own multiple
times to understand it more and more.
And I want you to notice that if you think you have a
dysfunctional background, we've got a long way to go.
And indeed, we all came up with dysfunct from a dysfunctional
background. Sin makes us dysfunctional.
But when we take my. Sin plus your sin and a few
other people's sins. Then we all have revealed that
we have these implications that we're not all perfect, we're all
out of alignment, so we're all going in different directions
most of the time. Well, I want to summarize.
With just a couple thoughts. In a less than perfect.
Family Life God was preparing Joseph for the role he planned
for him. You know, if there was ever.
A boy, if there was ever a character by the age of 17 who
had enough to blame, had enough basis to blame.
Everything on his. Past it was Joseph, but he
didn't do it. He somehow realized that more
spiritual progress is made through failure and tears, then
through success and laughter. He realized that God.
'S grace was greater than all the daunting experiences in his
real life, and the only explanation for the existence of
Joseph in the role that he played is found in the wonderful
grace of God. There's no human.
Reason whatsoever as to why it should be that Joseph could ever
emerge out of this mess of his family life, except for the fact
that God purposed that it would be so.
So I want to say to you, don't allow a bunch of books to try
and explain your life for you. About what our.
Past expose us to the excuses from our own activities or our
legitimize our own impoverishments or mind or
spirit of service to God. Don't buy those books that try
to legitimize those things for you.
Listen, God is greater than all of that.
He brings beauty out of ashes. He gives oil of joy for the
morning. He gives the garment of praise
for his spirit of heaviness. In the clear.
Less than perfect family life, God was preparing Joseph for the
role he planned for him. Here in these formative.
Years. These 17 years, there's a
striking reminder of the impact that a father's life will have
upon a boy or a girl. Jacob was not a.
Good illustration of integrity. He was poor when it.
Came to decisiveness. He was slow when it came to
action. He was the master of passivity.
He sat when he should have stood and he stood when he should have
sat. He was not a perfect dad, but
God choose chose to use that imperfect dad to be the dad of
the boy that he had purposed to be his Redeemer of his people.
And that experience that we'll read about in Egypt?
And indeed, one of the most. Moving scenes in this story,
which we'll get to is when Joseph gets to his dad, gets to
his dad, his old age, and he just absolutely smothers his
father with love. I mean the scene that when.
We get to it's just, it's full of emotion when they're finally
reunited, but there's no hatred on the part of Joseph.
There's no hatred with. His brothers at that point.
And in chapter 40. 5 paraphrasing his brother say,
hey Joseph, you know we're sorry.
We put you through the pit. We we sorry, we sold you in the
slave. We're sorry for this.
And Joseph stop, listen, it's OK, God sent me here.
And his brother say, you know, no, no, you don't understand
Joseph, we were in the wrong. We were doing.
Joseph says, no, you don't understand.
God put me here. Joseph's.
Explaining to his brothers and to his father, he was here for a
purpose. And then maybe he looks at.
His dad says, Dad, I know you're not perfect, but you're my dad.
And I love you, man. I love you, Dad.
So some of the kids may be older adults.
Back off your old man. A little bit.
Some of us dads. Maybe quit wasting our time that
comes by reading the latest book that tells us how to do this,
how to do that, how to make this right, how to make this right.
You do this, they're going to turn out this way.
You do that, they're going to turn out that way.
Listen, it is not going to be perfect.
It's we're not. Going to get it right all the
time. We're not going to get it all
dialed in. We do our best.
We trust God and at the end of the day, we will honor God in
all things that we do. And although we.
We haven't been perfect. All the chaos, all the rubble of
background. He will raise up the standard
for His glory now. I know I went, probably a
little. Longer than I intended to, but I
think it's necessary for us to understand who Joseph was and
where he came from. Because it really does.
Play an impact on what the things that he does here in the
future as we're going to get into it.
I do pray that I can convene the dramatic story to us all where
we can just kind of grab it and take a hold of it.
I do encourage you to read the story over and over again.
You always get little pieces the more each and every time that
you read it. It's a great story.
It's an epic story. Maybe there's one here who needs
to follow the Lord. Maybe you need to be baptized
for the remission of your sins. Maybe you've made that decision
and you want to get get that taken care of today.
We can, we can facilitate that very quickly.
We hear the word of God, we believe, we believe it.
We believe Jesus. We understand who he is when we
change our life because of what He's done for us.
We confess the name of Christ, among others, and we're baptized
for the remission of our sins. Maybe you have done that?
But you need the prayers of the church or need to make a public
confession. We ask you, please do that now,
while we stand and while we stand.