We're so thankful for each and everyone who is here this
morning, thankful for your presence.
It has been mentioned, if you're consider yourself a visitor,
please come back each and every time that we have the
opportunity to worship God at this place.
We're continuing, like I said, the study of the life of Joseph,
a huge topic, a huge story in the Old Testament that we can
gain so much from in so many ways.
Genesis 37, verse 2 tells us that Joseph was 17 years old and
involved with his brothers in the task of Shepardy.
And as we noted last time, by the time Joseph reached the age
of 17, he'd seen so many things in his life.
So many. The ugly side of life, the ugly
side of family, all the hardships that come along with
it, more than most any people experienced in their entire
lifetime. And the events that unfolded
since the day of his birth involving his brothers and the
cruelty of all manners and the chaos within the family that he
experienced of within the family structure.
It's really quite remarkable who this young man is.
By the time he's 17, his background was prosperous.
His family was huge. He was already living with an
increasing sense that maybe somehow in some way, God had
really had a plan for him and his future.
And you can see that little snippets throughout the story of
his life as we go through our study.
And So what I strive to do this morning is to look at the life
of Joseph in the terms of God's dealings with him, and
particularly having identified him as a classic Old Testament
illustration of the truth that we find in Romans 8 verses 28.
Namely, all things work together for the good of those who love
God, who are called according to his purpose.
Some translation say what I want to do is I would like to
consider this from three prospects and priests for
perspectives this morning in our study to view Joseph first of
all, as he has revealed to us, being the object of his Father's
special interest, then the object of his brother's jealous
hatred, and then thirdly, the object of God's providential
care. OK, first of all, when we see
Joseph here in these verses before us as the object of his
father's special interest. Now this is clearly stated in
verse 3. It says now, now Israel, which
is the new name that was given to Jacob.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons.
That's the fact. The fact is he loved Joseph more
than his other sons. Was it right?
No, but it's the fact nonetheless.
We're immediately given the explanation of this.
Why is it that Joseph loved? Was Joseph was loved more than
his other sons? And the answer is because he was
the son of his old age. Now in one sense, there's really
no surprise to this. Joseph's brothers were older.
They were actually much, much older than Joseph and all they,
they didn't clearly share their father's love with Joseph for
their brother. Maybe there was somewhat
understanding to why Joseph or why their father loved Joseph
more because after all, everybody loves a puppy, right?
Everybody loves a cute little small puppy.
You know, no matter if you got a big dog that you've had for
years and years and years, you're walking your dog, you
walk by, you know, a puppy, you stop to give the puppy love.
You stop to to show that love. And in the same way, going
through your life, you reach a significant age, as Jacob had
already done. And then to discover that the
object of your affection, this child is born to the woman who
you have really loved your entire life, which is namely
Rachel has a baby boy. So it's not surprising that
there would be a unique sense of affection tied up with Joseph
from his father. Once the kids grow up a little
bit, you know, maybe like the older boys are able to make
their own decisions, move out on their own, start their own
family lives. And then Joseph, Oregon or
Jacob, Isaac or Israel is left with this young boy, Joseph.
So then when it's time to go to Home Depot, you take Joseph.
When it's time to go help out a neighbor, you take Joseph.
The boy just comes along with you.
And naturally, there's a certain kind of affection just by the
ebb and flow of life that these two experience.
And he's given this boy, however, there is wrong with it
in this story, as we will see. And the explanation of this
special interest is that he was taking Joseph is in is then
expressed in a gift which he gave him and we're told of this
richly ornamated Rd. which he had made for him and for and
which Joseph obviously enjoyed wearing.
Now, how could a nice, well made, beautiful coat create such
hostility between others, between his brothers?
You know, what kind of think of it you take when you're when
you're raising children, You know, maybe you want to reward,
reward your kid when they're older or take them to get new
clothing or hey, you got good grades on your report card.
We're going to go buy you a new code.
We're going to get you some new shoes, whatever it may be.
And when you come back to the siblings, maybe they're
irritated or annoyed he got this and I didn't get it, you know,
kind of an idea. But they learn to deal with it.
Children get over it. Children work with it, siblings
work it out together and they soon forget about it.
So be of great of no surprise if somebody showed up with
something and then it created. It's really a great surprise, I
should say, that when he showed up with this coat, that there
was such hostility, such venom, such hatred that was going on
from his brothers to himself because of it.
And certainly if a coat can do that to somebody, then there's a
much bigger problem going on much deeper than just a coat, of
course. And if somebody can get enraged
in their response to something which is a gift to another, then
they're dealing with something that is far, far deeper than
just what's on the surface. And of course, the brothers were
enraged. As we see now, it wasn't much
that the coat was very valuable. I'm sure it was a nice coat, but
it wasn't something valuable, wasn't piece of gold.
It wasn't ornate valuable piece, if you want to say.
Nor was it specifically that the coat alone was a display of
their father's affection because there was other ways where their
father was showing affection to Joseph.
And I think the other brothers were picking up on that.
But it was that the coat was set on Joseph.
It set him in a class apart. If you want to say there was
something about wearing that coat that spoke of leadership.
And that leadership would naturally fall to the oldest
child, which would have been Reuben at this point, the son of
Leah. And yet Reuben had violated his
father's confidence in the terrible, sickening events that
happened in back in chapter 35 where he was involved with one
of his father's wives. And so it would naturally be in
the mind of Jacob that he ought to translate, transition this
leadership within his home. And then it would go to his son
born of his, his affection of his wife's affection, Rachel's
son, and that being Joseph. And then although that Joseph
was 17, he was already establishing himself as an
individual of character and who was able to be trusted by his
father. And when he gave him this coat,
Joseph's father set Joseph apart.
He exempt him in once in in a sense, from the mundane tasks
that the other brothers were doing and that they had to face.
And Joseph didn't have to do that.
At some points will notice. And obviously it really ticked
off the brothers. It upset them.
It was really kind of unavoidable from those brothers.
I mean, every time that Joseph put on that coat, they would
look at his Joseph and say, man, I hate that coat.
I hate that coat on him. I hate the way he wears it.
I hate the way he fits on him. I hate the way it looks.
We hate that coat. The favouritism within the
family life is foolish and it leads to fury.
Now before we move on, let's stop and recognize that there
are there were unwise actions that Jacob did.
We can see those poor judgement as a father to display such
obvious favouritism to a child. No matter how we try to might
want to justify Jacob's reasons to favour him, it was really,
really stupid of Jacob to display favouritism to him.
Bad decision in that fashion. And Jacob himself, if we will
remember, Jacob was actually the object of favoritism as well
with his mother. Jacob's mother favored him over
his brother. And that led to conflict for
years and years and years with Jacob between Jacob and his
brother Esau. And, and you would have thought
that that alone, Jacob would have taken the opposite action
that his mother took to him. Maybe that would have taught him
the lesson, Hey, we're not going to show favoritism.
Because now I see what my mother did and our brothers, myself and
my brother, you know, we were at conflict for years.
He said, maybe this happened to me, but I'll never let it happen
to Joseph. And we need to be careful about
having that much pride and confidence within ourselves when
we think in those terms. So let us notice, especially
fathers here, beware the folly or the foolishness of favoritism
and the fear which will often accompany it.
All of our children, each one of them individually, are uniquely
gifts from God, and we need to learn to cherish them in their
own way, with love, their personalities, their
capabilities, their special needs, whatever it may be.
Each one of them has their own need, and we love them in their
each and every own way. And it's imperative, especially
on those who are born a little later, to make sure that we
don't cherish the older over the younger or the younger over the
older. And we have to work at it.
It's a job. You have to do it.
It takes effort to do so. And to have this young man,
Joseph, as his favorite might have been a means of lighting up
Jacob's life, but it's simply just cast a dark, deep,
destructive shadow over the life of Joseph and those that were
around him. Favoritism within the family
life is foolish. That leads to fury.
And we can see it clearly here. So here then is the object of
his father's special interests. And secondly, we want to notice
that Joseph is the object of his brother's jealous hatred and
hatred it is. And we see a progression here.
We're told that they hated him in verse 4.
They could not speak peaceably to him.
In verse 5 it says they hated him even more.
Verse 8, they hated him all the more.
All the more. And and in verse 11, they envied
or were jealous of him. It wasn't that they just didn't
like him. It was more than that.
It wasn't that they just keep saying to the dad, what do we
have to take Joseph with us? You know, you guys, we see it
when we make times when we were kids, you know, we would go play
at the field and you do we have to take our little brother with
us? Does he have to come along?
And then when we get to the field and we're playing
football, our son, well, you're just or soccer.
Hey, you're just going to catch the ball.
You're just going to go. If we overthrow it, you're just
going to be Rover for us. And you kind of know that your
little siblings are with you. And do we have to take him
again? Come on, Dad.
He's such a pain in the neck. No, it wasn't anything
superficial like that by any means.
The hatred that they had with him was such a passion.
It was. And it was capable of expressing
itself in in a really, really poor way.
Their hatred of Joseph was provoked first of all by the bad
report mentioned in verse 2. Now, there's little doubt that
the close relationship that Joseph had was dead with was in
one sense encourage this kind of report.
But there's nothing that says that Joseph here was motivated
by ill will or by Vadnais or unkindness to his brothers.
It doesn't say anything about that.
There's nothing inferred. It simply says he brought their
father a bad report. Another fact.
That's a fact. He brought him a bad report.
Now, if there was a reason to bring a bad report, well, then
there was. If there wasn't, of course, and
he was, and he was willing to make it up.
That was wrong on Joseph's part. But the fact was that he brought
a bad report. But the little bit that we read
about in with these brothers in the past few chapters, if you
just read before, there was many poor things that they did, many
bad things that they did, that it makes me think that there was
plenty of reports to be brought. And indeed, if he'd only brought
one bad report about them, that was really quite nice for Joseph
to only bring one report. You think Joseph was a little
tabletail? You think he kind of told on his
brothers every now and then? I don't know, maybe maybe he
was. Everyone has a kid brother or
sister or doesn't like their siblings telling their parents
of everything that they've done. You know.
Hey, dad, you know what? He did this yesterday.
You know what I saw him doing? You know who I saw him hanging
out with? Dad, You know, kind of a thing.
Dad, guess what your oldest did while driving your car?
Kind of an attitude, we get the point.
Secondly, they hated him because of his coat.
Because of his coat. We mentioned that already in
that's there in verse four. He had this tunic of many
colors, but the reaction to the coat was absolutely
disproportionate and unnecessary.
They hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.
Some other translations say they could not speak a word to him.
They hated him so much. So in other words, we can
imagine, you know, maybe they're sitting together at the
breakfast table in the morning. Jacob and all his brothers or
all his sons were sitting together, you know, and, and
Joseph's there, too. And one of the brothers says,
hey, can can you ask? Can you ask Joseph to pass me
the bacon? Can you ask Joseph to pass me
the salt? And Joseph sitting right next to
him. You know, they did absolutely
everything they could. They hated him so much that they
just didn't even acknowledge his presence at some points.
They could not speak peaceably to him.
They never looked at at him as any type of with any type of
value at all at any moment. Now the root of this is given to
us in verse 11, a simple phrase. His brothers envy him.
That's it. It's a flat out jealousy.
That's what the root of the problem was.
And that's the problem in many families since then, right up
until today, you know, there's so many families that can be
fractured and friendships that, that get dissolved.
And the root of this, of all that is jealousy.
No matter how we try to disguise it, how we try to explain it, no
matter what we try to do, the problem is flat out jealousy.
It is a huge, huge problem. There are many people who have
not written to the brothers or sisters or called their brothers
and sisters because they're jealous of the brothers and
sisters, whatever the case may be, for years and years and
years on end because of jealousy.
Jealousy is a monster. It is huge, it is so
problematic. It is a giant that'll eat us
alive and it is everybody's problem.
The happiness of a success of other men and other men, women
is poison really to us, to the jealous.
That's why it's easier, you know, sometimes to get demoted
in our work than get promoted, because when we get promoted, it
reveals the character of those that are around us, our fellow
workers, Co workers. You know, it's very, very hard
for people to say, you know, if if somebody was to get promoted
and your Co worker comes to you and you say, you know, I'm glad
you got promoted, you deserve it.
I've been passed over for years. I've been here longer than you,
but you got promoted. You know, I'm happy for you.
That's hard to do. It's hard to be happy about
somebody else being showed a little bit of favouritism or
blessing, if you want to say So before we get up on our
spiritual high horse condemning Joseph's brothers here, let's
just not be too quick to notice. Maybe that jealousy shoe fits
pretty good on us as well. Football players, you know,
aren't jealous of doctors, and doctors aren't jealous of
athletes. Painters aren't jealous of
florists. If you want to say, people tend
to be jealous within their own rights, within their own world,
if you want to, if you understand what I'm saying.
So it'd be like myself or Dad or Frank going, owning our, we
have, you know, owning the painting business.
You know, we would have the tendency to say to each other,
well, hey, how many jobs you have going on?
Well, how many painters you have going on right now.
You see, we try to compare and compete a little bit.
I don't care what you know, the Olympics are going on right now.
There's Figure skaters. I don't care how good a figure
skater is. I don't get jealous about how
good somebody can do a triple. Let's if you want to say good
for them, good for you. But within our own world, within
our own things, we get jealous of other people We have a
tendency to. So we need to be careful of
that. Listen to this quote I found.
It says the odious passion of jealousy torments and destroys
oneself while it seeks to ruin, seeks the ruin of its objects.
Jealousy destroys the jealous person, not the object of envy.
It's like self pity. It eats you up but it doesn't do
anything to the other person. The Greeks have in their history
the story of a statue that was erected in honour of a famous
athlete and took his position of the prominence of the Greek
city. A rival athlete so jealous of
the success and triumph of this colleague, determined that he
would try to destroy this statue, jealous of this athlete
who had a statue made-up after him.
And the story goes that under the cover of night, the rival of
the jealous athlete would come at night and chisel away at the
base of that thing, trying to knock that that statue down
night after night. He would work.
And his purpose was clear, to weaken it and to bring it down.
And he finally weakened it enough and he brought it down
and it fell on him and killed him.
You see, his jealousy of that other athlete of that statue
that was erected ended up killing him at the end of the
day. And if we're going to make sure
that we avoid, we want to make sure that we avoid the folly of
favoritism, we need to ensure that we don't end up in the
grips of jealousy. And I think if Joseph's brothers
would have understood or were prepared to understand the
principle of jealousy, then maybe they would have saved,
been saved from this horrible, envious hatred.
Maybe if they would have understood it a little more, if
they really had understand that God had a plan for Joseph, maybe
they would have embraced Joseph a little better than what they
did. But they didn't.
They refused to see it that way. Maybe they would would have been
prepared to accept their less significant position, even
though they might have been hard for them to accept that less
significant position than Joseph.
You see, everything is special about God.
Everything that God does, everything that God sustains,
everything is special about God. God sets people up.
God brings people down and therefore the people that God
sets up that he chooses to get to set up mustn't get the
fatheads and, and just be prideful about it.
And also at the same time, those who are blessed mustn't get
discouraged. And if the brothers had only
understood this and they wouldn't have been saving
themself a lot, a lot of heartache.
Someone put in a little found another quote.
It says it takes more grace than I can tell to play the second
fiddle. Well, that's the hardest spot on
the team, the backup, the number two position.
It's hard to play second chair if you want to say, but we're
given an example of John the Baptist who played the second
fiddle very, very well and he was happy to do so.
We read of him in the opening chapters of John and how God had
given him a, a ministry as a forerunner.
He was there to proclaim the repentance that was there and
baptizing lots of people and he was doing it very, very well and
he understood what he was doing. His disciples seemed like maybe
didn't appreciate it or understand it fully.
And on one occasion he says to the disciples that are with him,
he says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the
world. And then in John 326, we read
that the disciples came to John the Baptist and they said to
him, Rabbi, he, he who was with him, he was with you beyond the
Jordan to whom you have testified, behold, he is
baptizing and all are coming to him.
You know, they're saying, hey, John, you're losing your crowd
here, man. All these people are now going
over to Jesus and getting back and following him.
John, you're losing your appeal. And see, it's in that experience
of the reality that the hearts of people begin to open up, at
least to us and God, even if we can conceal it to our own
selves. But look how John the Baptist
replies. He says a man can receive only
what is given him from heaven. You see, John knew that God had
made him a voice, but he hadn't made him the Word.
He knew that God had made him a forerunner, but he hadn't made
him the Messiah. And he knew that God had made
him a herald, but he hadn't made him the King.
But he was very happy to be a voice crying, a finger pointing,
a light shining, a herald speaking, and a forerunner
running proceeding. And he understood he wasn't the
king. He understood that he was not
the Messiah, Messiah, and he was not the word.
These are very, very biblical terms here.
But the fact of the matter is we can all translate this into
whatever arena life that we are are living in.
Academics, craftsmanship, art, journalism, business, home
making, decorating, whatever it might be.
God is the one who sets up and brings down everything it says
in First Corinthians. What do you have that you did
not receive Then? If you received it, why do you
glory as if you didn't receive it?
Thirdly, the reason that he was the object of his brother's
cruel and jealous hatred was on the account of his dreams.
We see that in verse 5, they hated him jealously because of
the bad report he brought, and they hated him because of the
richly ornamented rogue he wore, and they hated him because of
his dreams that he had. Now these dreams were not
ordinary dreams, of course, because if you think about it,
everybody dreams. We all have dreams, whether they
be good or bad. The good ones, we can maybe wake
up in the morning and tell somebody, get this, this is what
I had dreamed about. And we can laugh it off and joke
about it. There are other dreams that kind
of nightmares you can consider that we remember or care to
forget if you want to say. But we all have dreams.
And it would be perfectly possible for his brothers to
maybe laugh it off when Joseph told him his dreams, thinking,
oh, man, this guy, Joe, our brother Joseph, he's telling us
he's dream. This guy's crazy.
Give me a break. Thanks, Joseph.
You know, we'll move on to the next one.
But it didn't. And the reason that it didn't
reason, they didn't have that reaction.
It is is obvious in significant ways that God was involved in
these dreams. God was involved in the dreams
of Joseph. These were not ordinary dreams.
These were the plans of what God would do in the future.
And that God was speaking by means of dreams in order that
when the events unfolded as they would do that, that these things
were not done by, these things didn't happen in Joseph's life
by just luck or or good fortune. This was the plan of God.
And this plan of God was going to unfold in Joseph's life.
And so it is that Joseph tells his brother about these dreams.
We see that in verses 6 through 11.
Should he have told him that, told him these dreams?
Well, maybe not, but he did nonetheless.
Maybe they would excuse the first one and probably the
second one that Joseph told him was a bad judgement call.
You know, you say saying, you know, I had a dream and I was
standing up and you were bowing down.
His brother would say, thanks, Joseph, thanks for that dream
telling us, you know, they forgot about it.
And Joseph's wait, wait, wait. I got another one.
I got to tell you. And he tells them about the next
dream that he had and how the sun and the moon, the 11 star
were blowing, bowing down and worshipping them.
And Joseph says, and then they say, Joseph, we hate you because
of those dreams. We hate you because of that.
Did you tell Jad Dad about that dream?
Said, yeah, I told Dad about that.
And he rebuked me a little bit about it.
He said something like, you know what?
Your mother and I bow down to you as well, and your brothers
as well. You see, something was involved
here. There was within these dreams a
strong hint that Joseph was the object of God's special favor.
That's what it boils down to and the servant of a special
purpose. And that of course was exactly
the case. And that is why there is this
increasingly intensity hatred of his brothers.
Now God's favor, favor upon Joseph was no gravy train for
Joseph. It was not a good and easy path
for Joseph. 17 year old and nobody likes him.
His father who was putting putting up with him had has had
affection for him. He's beginning to cool it a
little bit on it as well it would seem.
And his brothers, they just want nothing to do with him.
Do you remember when you were 17 years old how you wanted
approval? It's all you're looking for was
just approval At 17. It was very important.
You know how long you would stand in front of the the mirror
and do your hair. Use just the right amount of
Aqua Net. Spending all the time to make
sure you look the way that you think you ought to look at 17,
wearing all the right clothes, putting on the right Cologne.
If you want to say couldn't be wrong, We could not walk out of
the house without looking just right that we thought looking
for approval had to be right. So the last thing in the world
that we want to be a some kind of isolated person wandering
through the halls or the courtyard of high school and and
being by ourselves, being not having friends, not hanging out
with the cool kids, with with the crowd, you know, we wanted
that approval. His brothers had no time for
him. And Joseph was 17 years old.
And we would not be surprised that if Joseph that that emerges
from this context is really drawn to itself, into a shell or
into his plain life, if you want to say, and maybe become a weird
inward looking guy just kind of by himself.
You know, we wouldn't be surprised if Joseph turned out
that way, maybe full of fearful of resentment.
And if we want to bring it into the 21st century, you know, in
other words, he just went to his room, close the door and listen
to really weird music for hours on end.
Because when he went out the door, it was into a world that
hated him. The world hated Joseph the way
he saw it, A world that was alien from him, a world that was
caused him confusion and discord and fracturing of his personal
relationships he had around him. And so we might have anticipated
that he would have become this introspective weirdo, But no, he
was not. He was focused.
He was resilient, he was clear in mind, he was ready to obey
and he had a future that he was ready to execute.
Sound in his belief of God, sound in his his purpose in
life. The resiliency that he really of
his personality is really, really impressive to me.
Everything that Joseph had been through, his resiliency showed
his character and it was really, really amazing because in human
terms, you know, Joseph shouldn't be like this, right?
Joseph shouldn't be so focused. He shouldn't be so resilient. 17
years of chaos, incest, confusion, destruction, and
murder and intrigue, all these things, and he's coming out of
the most dramatic soap opera that we could ever think of.
And yet look at him. He is the object of God's
providential care. And why is that?
Why was that? Why did that happen like that?
And that brings me to my third and final point.
It's not only because Joseph was the object of his father's
special interest in the object of his brother's jealous hatred,
but it was in and through it all, the object of God's
providential care. God's providential care.
There's a definition that I found of God's providential
care. It says God's providential care
refers to the divine guidance and governance by which God
directs all things in the universe, ensuring that His
purposes are fulfilled. The.
This concept encompasses God's preservation, provision, and
governance of creation, as well as his intimate involvement in
the lives of the individuals. It is a A testament to God's
sovereignty, wisdom and love, demonstrating that nothing
occurs outside of His will or his knowledge and God was
providentially involved in these events in Joseph's life.
We look at verse twelve of our chapter there.
It says it says, and Israel said to Joseph, are you are you are
not your brothers feeding the flock and Shechem come, I will
send you to them. And if we were reading this,
maybe without knowing the full story, maybe we would expect
Joseph to to respond and and say, you know what can I just
can I not go to Shechem to find my brothers?
These guys hate me. Dad, can you really not send me
there? Do you realize they hate me?
Do you know they never talked to me, Dad?
And when I get there, it's terrible, it's miles away and so
on. But what does he respond with?
He says yes, Dad, I'll do what you ask.
He says here I am. He says very well, I'll go ahead
and go. Now, how do you explain that?
How do you explain that reaction or that obedience from Joseph?
The only way that I can think of is, is Joseph maybe had a little
bit of awareness that God had greater things for him.
That God had greater things for him.
That his father was in providential control of his
life. And that somehow or another
these dreams and the code and the chaos all in the background,
that God the Father was master and sovereign over it all.
And so he says, I will go in obedience and seek out those who
hate me and will not speak a word to me.
I don't know how you how tuned into Jacob was even to this to
this journey. You know, did he really realize
that he was putting his boy into grave danger or into that kind
of danger? Do you think, do we think that
Jacob had an inkling of knowing how much the brothers hated
Joseph? Did you realize the anger that
was there or did he just kind of tune out at this time of pay no
attention to what was going on in his family?
Was he superficially aware of maybe the hatred that his
brothers were showing toward his sons were showing towards
Joseph? I think it's possible for
parents to kind of explain it away sometimes and lose touch
with the family at times. I think it's possible, maybe
Jacob said to himself, you know what?
It's not as bad as you think it is.
It's not that bad. Your brothers really don't hate
you. They're just teen, you know,
they're older boys picking on a younger boy.
No go, Joe Joseph, you go on. You'll be fine.
Go on now, find your brothers. And I think if Jacob had
realized that when his boy turned back to him and began to
walk off towards Shechem, that I don't think Jacob realized what
was going on here. I think if Jacob realized that
this was the last time he was going to see his boy, Joseph's
son for 20 years, he would had a little different thought about
the things and and sending him off there.
I'm sure he wouldn't have dispatched him on this journey.
Because when Joseph walked out that day, neither he nor Jacob
realized that it'd be 20 years before they saw each other
again. And God was providentially in
control of these circumstances. It was actually better for
Joseph to be sent from his home in the center of God's plan than
to be isolated in his home, to be living in his home in
isolation from God's purpose. And you see, that is that is the
mistake. When we try to determine God's
guidance on our own basis of what is most comfortable for us,
we try to determine what God's plan is.
This because we need to be comfortable what's most
acceptable to us, what's most most rational and obvious to us.
Well, God surely doesn't want me to do that.
God surely doesn't want me to talk to that person about him.
There's no way God is wanting me to go to all the nations and and
preach and go live on in the dirt and the huts out in Africa
or go to the Philippines. God doesn't want that for me.
Really. We got enough work here to do.
But God's plan is God's plan and we need to follow God's plan.
So it's an amazing picture of him arriving now in this region,
having gone some 50 plus miles to Hebron and from Hebron to
Shechem asking people in that area, hey, have you seen my
brothers discovering that they moved on another 15 miles or so
to the region of Dothan. And so, yeah, he's gone about
6568 miles, travelling through hilly and terrain and difficult
land looking for his brothers. And he finally gets to his
within his brother's eyesight and they get within.
He gets within their sights. And so we read in verse 18, this
is now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near to
them, they conspired against him to kill him.
And they said to one another, look, this dreamer is coming.
Basically, here comes this guy Joseph with his coat.
And together they conspire to do away with his life in a really
despicable way. Now we don't want to miss the
irony of this. As they sit watch and watching
the appearance of Joseph, they are plotting to kill the very
person without whom they will be be unable to live in the future.
God is purposing to take Joseph into Egypt so that in the time
of famine, Joseph family will not die in famine, but will be
recipients of God's providential care and through the life of the
very one that they're trying to kill.
And so he comes into the horizon, his brothers see him,
and they plan to kill Joseph. Keep that in your mind.
We'll come to that back in a moment.
I want to make a couple points of observation and application
as we draw this to a close. First of all, I want to
recognize that as in Joseph's circumstances, so is so in ours.
God is as much in control of the trauma and the hardships of life
and the pits of life and the hatred and the difficulty as he
is in the fulfillment of raising Joseph into a position of of
usefulness. And we when we can't understand
why is that would be going such all the hatred we're getting all
this hatred we're getting all this difficulty in our life when
we just don't don't understand we're why we keep facing more
and more and more. Why do these things keep
happening to me? If you want to say we're in a
lousy hole in the ground with no prospect of escape and at the
point, we need to recognize that God is on the throne, God is in
control, and He's personally interested and providentially in
our lives in every single affair that we are going on through.
It's not easy, but it's necessary for us to understand
that. And there's some here who have
walked those that road in the months past or just recent past,
dealing with trauma, grieving with loss, watching loved ones
suffer with nothing of our own that can fix it.
And we have to emerge to deal with these traumas and these
emptiness and these pains of life and the temptation we have
a temptation to say, where is God and all this?
Isn't God supposed to be here helping us with this?
Where is he at? I've been praying for weeks and
months and days, night and day, and he is not answering me.
Where is God in all this? We're tempted to say that, and
the answer is God is as much sovereignly in control of all of
this as He ever is in the blessing as well.
He's involved in it all. God is on the throne and is
providentially interested in the affairs of our lives.
Secondly, we need to learn that with Joseph not to be burdened
when God determines the props for us.
And in doing so, others become jealous.
That's a hard lesson for many of us.
It can be hard to try to explain success.
You know, if we are successful, sometimes it's hard to say,
well, you know, I'm really, I really had nothing to do with
that. You know, I'm not really good at
that. I'm not really that bright and I
don't play the. Piano way well, or whatever it
may be. Or I, I, I'm not successful in
this business and so on. Listen, it's OK to be
successful. It's OK.
It's OK to be phenomenal, phenomenally successful.
And that's why people get jealous.
People are naturally jealous of success, but we don't want to
bury ourselves. We don't want to have the guilt
or the weight of success on us because honestly, we're not the
ones who are the smart ones. If, if we're successful, it's
not by our own doing. It's by others that are around
us. It's by we can even make the own
business deals or business decisions.
You know, it's those that we have brought alongside us to
make help us make those decisions.
Or maybe it's something God just chose for us that helped us be
successful. Whatever the case may be, if
Joseph's brothers had a problem with Joseph's success, then they
ultimately had a problem with God the Father.
See, they didn't have a beef with Joseph.
Joseph never asked for the coat. Joseph never produced the
dreams. We think about it, and that's
the case. You know, Joseph never asked for
this stuff, but it was given to him.
And so let's recognize that God's providential care
expresses itself in wonderful and unusual ways.
So out of the dark cistern, Joseph is about to shine in the
light of victory and power and provision.
And so let us not see the dark times and the disappointing
times, that which all of God's unfolding purposes.
Let's make sure we trust in Him, no matter what our situation may
be. And finally, I want to note, I
hope that you noticed something. Maybe you've already been
brought to your mind. Maybe it's already kind of
flashing before your mind, maybe it hasn't.
Do you find yourself thinking forward about somebody else?
Do you feel Joseph's story kind of pushing you towards somebody
else, namely Jesus? In this story, do you see how
the experience of Joseph there is a foreshadow of a far greater
one who is to come? You see it was on the account of
envy and jealousy that Joseph ended up in the pit.
It was on the account and envy of jealous see that put he was
put into slavery and face the prospect of death.
And when Pilate in Matthew 27, when Pilate asked the crowds who
would have who would you have me to release to you?
Would you like me to have Barabbas released to you or
would you like me to have Jesus released to you?
And the crowd says we would rather have Barabbas and then
magic records in verse 18 of Matthew 27, he says, you see,
Pilate understood that it was on the account of envy that Jesus
had been delivered unto them. It was flat out jealousy on the
part of the religious religious leaders.
They did not like the fact that God had sovereignty purpose to
do so in that person Jesus Christ to unfold the reality of
who he was. And the envy of his brothers
that threw Joseph into a pit. And the envy of those who had
all the benefits of the prophets of the Old Testament, all the
wisdom of the Old Testament, all the expectations of the Messiah
who was to come. It was the ending of those same
people who put Jesus on the cross.
And we have that picture of Jesus in so far as we find
Joseph travelling across the country in search of his
brothers, looking diligently for those who will reject him.
Isn't that what Jesus did? Jesus has come diligently across
the terrain of our lives looking earnestly for those who seek
him, saying let's kill him. Who like the brothers in
response to Joseph's are saying, do you think they're going to
reign? Do you think you're going to
reign over me? You know, Jesus is looking for
us to make him load of our lives.
Are we going to reject him in doing so?
And Jesus comes into his word and he comes in a human
friendship and he comes Jesus the Good Shepherd, John 1011 and
14. He goes over the Hill Country
looking for one individual, looking for you, searching for
you, drawing for you, wanting you.
Are we going to respond like Joseph's brothers?
I don't want him to rule over me.
I don't want to Jesus in the back seat or in the trunk of the
car. I don't mind Jesus as an
insurance policy for something or maybe something we just tack
on on Sunday. But I don't want to Jesus who
I'm going to bow down to. Are we going to react that way?
See, Joseph was despised and he was rejected by those who he
would one day rescue. What a wonderful picture.
We see it on Isaiah chapter 53 verse 3, paraphrase, I say he
was despised and rejected by men.
He was a man of sorrows. He was a familiar with suffering
and like one from from whom men hide their faces, he was
despised. The prophet Isaiah speaks of him
who took up their infirmities and carried out sorrows.
And we consider him stricken by God, smitten by him, and
afflicted, he says. And he was pierced for our
transgressions. He was crushed for our
iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace upon him.
And his wounds are healed. Isaiah 5, four through 5, when
we get to the scene where he's reunited with his brothers.
And when they come, they speak to him.
He speaks to Joseph, speaks to his brothers through an
interpreter, because Joseph at this point was very fluent in
the Egyptian language at that point, Egyptian dialect.
And so he speaks to an Egyptian and they can't recognize him
after all these years and in his position.
Last time they saw Joseph, he was carried away.
He was 17 years old, throw down a hole, then strapped to a Bale
of hay on the back of a camel and carried him to the unknown.
That's the last time his brother saw him.
And as he speaks through this interpreter to them, and as they
explained the poverty of their condition, of the great need of
provisions, Moses tells us that Joseph went into the room on the
side and he wept. Joseph wept for his brothers,
and he wept for a great sobbing tears.
And when they had had, he had to compose himself and come back
out to them. And that's Jesus when he was
waiting for Jerusalem. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who
stone the prophets, how often would you have gathered as you
His hands to get as a hen gathers her chicks?
But you would not come to me. A coat the dreams and a dark
pit. Joseph was the object of his
father's special interests, the object of his brother's cruel
hatred, and the object of God's providential care and the shadow
of Christ who was to come. Today, as we hear God's voice in
whatever era that we're in our lives, as we hear God's voice
through this word, he's telling us to step away from jealousy,
to get away from favoritism in our family.
If that's the case, quit our belly aching and complaining
sometimes of the positions that we're in and understand that God
is in control no matter what area of our life, whatever it
is. Have you surrendered to the only
one who has what you need? Have you surrendered to Jesus?
If not, why not? Why not do that today?
Hear the word, believe, repent, confess of our sins, confess
that we are wanting to live a new life living for Jesus,
living for him, confess the name of that he is the Son of God,
and then be baptized for the remission of our sins.
If you've done that today, but you need to make a confession in
some way, public confession have brought approach upon the church
or a public sin that needs to be dealt with in that way or just
need the pressure the congregation.
We actually come while we stand, while we see.