I. Called With Power for a Purpose 00:05
We’re going to talk today about being called with power for a purpose: that all of us as Christians are called. And so as we talked through this, and as I was praying about the sessions (because, like Bishop Jason was saying, it had to do with striking the spark, equipping, the anointing coming; these are the things that we’re talking about today), as I was praying about it, God gave me the story of Joseph to talk through. Because I want to talk about what it looks like when God calls you with power for a purpose. And each one of you here is at a stage in Joseph’s life. Why do I say that? Because Joseph is a figure, a prefiguring, a type of Jesus.
He shows us the pattern in the Old Testament. We see Jesus in the life of Joseph, and each of us is called to conform to that pattern. It’s one of the many images. In fact, Joseph images Jesus to us through his life, through the way God used him. And we get to now be running out there imaging Jesus in the same way. Each of us is called to live after the pattern of Christ, after the image of Christ, that people would look at us and see him. And you’ve heard a lot about that, so I’m just going to keep going here.
First of all, I’ll introduce myself. My name is Jesse, Deacon Jesse Harris. My grandfather was Archbishop Adler, who founded this church and this denomination, the first patriarch of the CEC. And so I actually get the honor of claiming I’m the first baby born into the CEC. Literally. I mean, I worked really hard to make that happen. No. But as far as we know, I don’t think any other person was born into the CEC before me. And so I just love what Bishop Jason was talking about, a generation of people born and raised in the CEC. And I do believe that there is a particular blessing and calling on the CEC that we are living out. There’s a reason you’re not at the Baptist church right now, or the Catholic church right now. There’s a reason God has put you in the pew here today. And so be expectant that there’s something that God wants to do in you and through you because of who you are and where you are.
II. Unearned Favor 02:22
And keep that in mind as we dive into the story of Joseph, starting in Genesis chapter 37, verse 2:
2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. Gen 37.2–3
Maybe a rainbow robe, maybe.
4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him. Gen 37.4
So this is a great introduction. I want to start here because actually this is a part of how we are like Joseph. Our Father loves each of you more than anybody else. Now, it’s like a mathematical impossibility, but you understand the point I’m trying to make. Each one of you is valued, treasured by your Father. No one here is better than you in his eyes. He loves you, who he made you to be. Joseph started from this place of immense unearned favor, and so do you, each one of you.
And that gave him a mindset about his life that was different than his brothers’. His mindset was one of favor first: that he was already loved, already accepted. I deeply resonate with Joseph about this, because I walk into every room saying, “Everyone loves me. Why should I be afraid?” And if you know me, that’s funny, because it’s exactly what I do. I just walk in and expect people to love me.
III. The Dreamer 04:01
So, because he was operating from this place of favor and love, he was a dreamer.
5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed.” Gen 37.5–6
I mean, you just have to put yourself in the moment. His brothers hate him. He’s a tattletale. And they’re sitting around the campfire, and he goes, “Guess what I just dreamed last night?” And they go, “What?” And he goes, “Behold, we’re binding sheaves in the field.” And they’re like, “He’s never bound a sheaf in his life, this privileged little…” “Behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf” (Gen 37.7). Are you joking? How naive can you be? How loved can you be, that you cannot imagine somebody rejecting you? He had this innocence and this naivety.
8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?” So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Gen 37.8
Then he dreamed another dream, and he kept it to himself and prayed about it and had a lot of wisdom. No, no, no. That’s not the Joseph we’ve seen here. He told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream.” Oh, now they’re ready: “Okay, what’s this one?” “Behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were bowing to me” (Gen 37.9). How grandiose can you get?
10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Gen 37.10–11
And you might remember this guy Jacob. He had an interesting story himself. He was the second born, who was grasping at the heel of his older brother (Gen 25.26) and stole his inheritance. He supplanted his brother. And so he hears Joseph talking like this, and he goes, “Well, maybe.” But he’s not going to let anybody else know that. He has to keep some semblance of peace in his household. And so he takes the side of the older brothers (and probably Joseph needed a little humility anyways), and he comes against him. But he keeps the saying in mind.
IV. Betrayed Into the Pit 07:10
I’m skipping around so that we can get to the point here, so if you’re trying to follow along in your Bible, we’re in 37:13 now.
12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, … “Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” Gen 37.12–13
18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. Gen 37.18
Now, I have been mad at my brothers before, but what level of anger had they fostered in their hearts to get to the point where they want to kill Joseph? The jealousy, the rage: it’s this evil thing that, if you’ve ever felt it, you know how it can stew and build and grow. Don’t let this happen. It only leads to death. Repent. If you’re feeling anger and rage toward your brother, repent. Or sister. We know how wonderful our ladies are; I can’t imagine being upset ever with them, but just saying. You’ve got to repent. You’ve got to get that stuff clean, because it only leads to death.
So at this point they’ve conspired to kill him, and they said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer” (Gen 37.19). You can hear the anger in their voice.
20 “Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.” Gen 37.20
Now, the brothers are not painted in a nice light in this story. But I do want to say that absolutely you who are born in favor, who are born with unconditional love, with this unearned favor that God has given you, are going into a world at war. There is an enemy who seeks to destroy you, who seeks to throw you into the pit. And this is a story not just about Joseph; it’s about overcoming that war.
Now, how does God do it? Does he come down with his angel and smite all the brothers? No. The way he overcomes is a way we would never expect. He allows Joseph to get beaten and thrown into the pit. But Judah says to his brothers, while Joseph’s in the pit bleeding:
26 “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him.” Gen 37.26–27
As if that helps. He’s like, “Don’t worry, guys, I’ve got a great idea. We won’t even be guilty of murder. We’re just human trafficking. It’s all okay, ‘cause he’s our own flesh. Trafficking seems like it’s within the bounds. Kill? No, probably not.” And his brothers listen to him.
It’s the depth of betrayal that Joseph must have felt at that moment, because we know from the story he did not suspect a thing. He was coming up to them like, “Do you know this great thing God told me? How you’re going to bow down before me?” He assumed that they loved him. And they betrayed him, threw him into a pit, sold him into slavery.
You can imagine he sat at the bottom of the pit and he’s like, “Guys, okay, I get it. I was a bit of an ass. I’m sorry.” Donkey, not body part. “I was a problem. You can bring me out now.” And they don’t come back for a while. And then he hears the sound of horses, and he’s like, “What the heck is going on?” They pull him up, and he’s like, “Okay, guys, fine. I won’t tell Dad. It’s all good. All in good fun.” And then they tie him up and they hand him over. And then he sees the traders giving them silver, and he’s like, “All right, guys, this is a bit far. What is going on here?” He’s still the dreamer, you know? And he knows this isn’t his dream. And then they’re a day out, and he starts to think, “Wait. Is this real? Did this really happen?”
And maybe you’ve been in that moment, where you were just running after the things of God. You had rainbows and butterflies on your horizon. And then something happened and you got laid flat. You got betrayed. You got abandoned. And you feel like you’re just chained to that betrayal, being brought to a foreign land. So Joseph is going through this.
28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. Gen 37.28
We get that echo of Jesus’ betrayal here.
V. The Lord Was With Joseph 11:34
Meanwhile, some stuff happens. Then the Midianites sell him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard (Gen 37.36). This is the moment where Joseph could be bitter. This is the moment where he could be self-pitying, resentful, angry, jealous. He could have all these things. But let’s see what it says of Joseph. He’d been brought down to Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, who bought him from the Ishmaelites.
2 The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Gen 39.2–6
I love that. He was such a good servant that his master didn’t have to worry about a thing except, “What do I want for lunch?” That’s the life. I need a servant like that. I’m putting a wanted ad out. You guys are discerning your calling: servant. It’s a position. Not paid.
All of these things that Joseph is doing: do you think that somebody who was sitting in his room moping and crying about how he’d been betrayed, and dreaming up ways of revenge, do you think that’s the guy who ends up becoming the servant who’s in charge of the entire household? No. We’re given clear evidence that he chose to walk in the ways of the Lord even in his slavery, that he served and learned. He had to learn how to read and write Egyptian. He had to learn how to navigate a foreign place, where he started as a random slave and rose to that position as steward of his master’s house. It was a long and grueling journey of self-sacrifice to get to this moment. He didn’t stew in self-pity and jealousy.
How many of us, in our moment when we’re chasing God and we’re laid flat, we’re betrayed, how many of us spend weeks, months, years stewing in the pain of our betrayal, when God says, “I want to make you the master of this house”? Wherever you’re at, he wants to promote you. He wants to bring you up. He wants to train you up. In fact, in the pattern of Joseph’s life, we see what God does. He got the promise, and now he’s in the process. You can’t get the promise without the process. You can’t get the crown before the cross. God has to make you into a man or woman who can receive his promises. And that path, we’ve been shown time and again, is a path that goes through suffering.
You will in this world face tribulation, but do not fear. Why? Because you’re strong? Because you’re great at doing this thing? No, because Jesus has overcome the world (John 16.33). We’ve been learning about this. It’s not because Joseph was so amazing that he was able to deny himself and serve after his betrayal. It’s because he followed Yahweh, because the Spirit of the Lord was with him, so much so that even this Egyptian man said, “God is with this slave.”
Now, once again, resonating with Joseph very strongly here: he’s handsome. Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. Confidence is something I was born with. It’s a gift. But this actually is a great intro, because you’re like, “Wow, this is so good. He’s prosperous. He’s successful. He’s holy. He’s good-looking.” Don’t you hate him already? I don’t know about you, but I’d be pretty darn pissed at this guy. Who does he think he is, being so good-looking and amazing and successful? Watch out. That jealousy thing just sucks the air out of God’s purposes in your life, because jealousy is a rotten center in the fruit of your understanding of that person. It really just eats away at your ability to love them.
VI. Tend Your Heart 16:16
Okay. “Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.” It’s like this thing where you give him a compliment, but then all of a sudden it’s going to just cause him trouble. I put it twice, so much I liked it.
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” Gen 39.6–7
I mean, this feels like a B movie. It’s like something that somebody wrote: I’m a servant, and the master’s wife is lying there, “Lie with me.” It’s comical. It really is. But man, can you imagine if he had embraced self-pity, if he’d embraced jealousy, resentment, anger? How open would he have been to this moment? How open would he have been to that temptation? “I deserve it, because I was betrayed.” Or, “Look at this Egyptian. I do all the work for him. All he does is order food. I should get the fruit of my labor.” It’s all the ways that we can play it in our mind if we don’t tend our hearts.
Temptation is actually not a battle against temptation. It’s actually about where your heart is. Are you tending your heart? Joseph was.
8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Gen 39.8–9
We don’t get to hear Joseph talk a lot during this time. But when he speaks, you can just hear the heart that he has cultivated. He’s concerned not with his immediate gratification, but with honoring his master, his slave owner. In this day and age, with the things we think about slavery, do you think that we could honor a slave master like Joseph? “Slavery’s wrong, so I should have a right to rebel. I should have a right to do these things.” No. Joseph wasn’t looking for a way out. He was looking for a way to serve. That’s how he was able… In the midst of the unbelievable evil he had been subjected to by his brothers, he was just looking for a way to serve the Lord his God, and by doing that he was serving his master. And when he was tempted, he thought of his master and God, not of himself.
I think naive, confident Joseph has learned a thing or two. I don’t think the dreamer could have said no the way that the slave did. God was shaping him.
10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her. Gen 39.10
And maybe you think, “Jesse, I’m never going to have a powerful woman lying out saying, ‘Lie with me,’” or a powerful man, whatever. But man, our glowing rectangles, those things that we keep with us at all times (otherwise we have a panic attack): you can find whatever you want there. And day after day they whisper to you, “Lie with me, lie with me. Do this, do that. Find your meaning here, find your purpose here, find your calling here, find your pleasure, your comfort here.” We are tempted in ways that nobody in history has had access to. Pharaoh himself had no access to the things that we do. It would blow his mind. So you have to tend your heart.
So we know what happens. Eventually she finds him alone in the house, and she attacks him, and he separates himself. And what does he do? He runs from temptation. That is the right response. You flee temptation. The classic example: if you’re an alcoholic, don’t hang out in a bar. Get it away. Or maybe you struggle with any of the number of things on your phone; find a way to get away from that. You’re not meant to go looking for fights with temptation. You’re meant to keep your eyes focused on Jesus, tend your heart, and get that stuff away. Jesus isn’t tempted, but we understand that we are physical beings who can fall back into patterns that aren’t ours anymore. Jesus is our identity, but we can easily fall back into those things. And so Joseph in wisdom runs from this temptation. In fact, in 2 Timothy 2:22 it says:
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 2 Tim 2.22
“Flee youthful passions.” I just want to say this: this is a young adult conference. You’re no longer children. All those encouragements in the Scripture about when you were babies you had milk, and now you’re old, you’re going to do meat: that’s for us today. There’s no excuse. You never had a junior Holy Spirit. You never had a junior Jesus. You were always filled with that. But man, there’s so much more to walk in, praise the Lord. It’s good to be an adult. It’s good to grow up. The world has Peter Pan syndrome. We all want to be with Tinker Bell on the island where we never grow up. It’s like, “No, no, no, no.” It’s good to take on the responsibilities as you grow and you age and become wise. Flee youthful passions.
VII. Promotion in the Kingdom Goes Down 22:53
Now, he runs from temptation. He does exactly what he’s supposed to do, and yet once again he is betrayed. She says, “Look, I have his cloak.” Earlier, what happened? His brothers betray him, they beat him up, they throw him in the pit, they tear up his cloak, they put blood on it, and that’s how they deceive their father, to say he’s dead. Now he’s in the same moment, where God’s about to transform him again, and he loses his cloak again, and it’s used again to betray and deceive. There’s this idea that God is transforming him, this image that he’s getting new clothing, and it’s so backwards.
We think that the promotion is when they put that cloak on you, that really nice one. We think that that’s the promotion. But no, God is stripping Joseph bare of everything that he can call “mine” so that he can make him into Jesus, because Joseph has a destiny. And promotions in the kingdom only happen one way. In the kingdom, the promotion isn’t to climb the ladder. It’s actually to go down. It goes through laying down, through the way of the cross, through crucifixion, through giving up, through surrender. That’s how you’re promoted in the kingdom. Joseph is a pattern of this behavior.
19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. Gen 39.19–20
Surely now Joseph is going to feel some self-pity, right? Surely he’s going to give up on God at this point. He is now a slave, rapist, prisoner, through no fault of his own. His faithfulness was repaid unjustly. And we get pissed… angry. My wife doesn’t like that word. Angry. We get angry because we try and follow Jesus and somebody else gets promoted instead of us. We feel self-pity because “I was believing for marriage, and somebody else got engaged.” We feel self-pity because “we were doing everything for the Lord, and my ministry didn’t take off. I didn’t have the hundredfold return.” All of us need a heart change. That’s what God’s doing. He’s giving us a new heart. We’re identifying more and more every day with his heart.
And so when you look at Joseph, surely in the prison cell he gives up and responds… But the very next thing we hear is, “But the Lord was with Joseph.” What are we told in the Psalms? “Where shall I go that you are not there? Even if I’m in Sheol, you are there” (Ps 139.7–8). There is nowhere that you end up, by your own fault or others’, that God is not there. That’s a word to hold on to. That’s the pattern we see even with Jesus on the cross. He did that so that when we get to our cross, we’re right there with him. He meets us right there.
21 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Gen 39.21
I want to say one word about favor. I think a lot of us believe the lie of social media, which is that if you work hard, look good, and do the right things, you will have favor in your life. That’s actually not true. It’s like a half-truth. There are things you can do to improve the likelihood that people will like you, but that’s not what we’re looking for. We’re looking for favor from God, in our job, in our life, in our relationships. It didn’t say Joseph was such a good administrator, so the prison keeper liked him. It didn’t say Joseph had such a good attitude, so the prison keeper liked him. It said he had the favor of the Lord. Everywhere you go, you bring God with you. Let’s operate under his favor, not by our own strength.
22 And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Gen 39.22
I forgot to say one more thing about favor. Just because you have the favor of God doesn’t mean you don’t end up in prison. It doesn’t mean you don’t go to a dark place. There are going to be tribulations in your life, but God is with you in those, and he will give you favor even in the midst of those: favor unlooked for.
I’m sure Joseph was there, and the guy started talking to him and putting him in charge of things, and Joseph turned around like, “What is happening? I’m now running a prison?” He was the keeper of the prison. He was in charge of all the prisoners. The guy who was in charge of the prison is only worried about what he has to eat. Everywhere he goes, not because he’s so smart, not because he’s so handsome, not because he’s so anything, but because the Lord was with him. That means each one of you is currently qualified to do what Joseph did, because the Lord is with you everywhere you go.
Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. Gen 39.22–23
VIII. Forgotten in Prison 28:44
Okay, I’m going to summarize here and move through. Let me… what is it? Let me tell you… no, there’s too much. Let me sum up. I was trying to do the Princess Bride quote, but it didn’t work.
He’s in prison. He’s running the show. And this really important baker comes in (this is a guy who was a big deal in Egypt) and the cupbearer. We think, “Baker, cupbearer, who cares?” In this case, we’re talking about some important personages, to the point where it makes a special note that Joseph was put in charge of them, because they were so important that even in prison it mattered how they were treated. And so you’ve got to put your best guy on this.
So Joseph is dealing with this, and they have some dreams. And they come to Joseph and they’re like, “Hey, we have some weird dreams.” And Joseph’s like, “Well, just lay it on me. What’s going on?” And he interprets their dreams rightly. The baker is going to die, and the cupbearer is going to be restored. We have no idea why. It’s a whole thing. God is ordering their steps.
That’s a good thing to take out of that: God is actually in charge of the whole universe, and he is doing things that you can rely on. You can trust him. And even when you have a bad boss, you actually have to know that if God wanted you to not have a bad boss, he has ways to get you out from under that bad boss. And so maybe you should just serve, because whatever you’re doing, you’re doing it unto the Lord (Col 3.23).
So God’s maneuvering some things, and he discerns this through the Spirit, and he’s able to say, “You’re going to be back, and you’re going to die.” And he says to the cupbearer at the very end of the interpretation:
14 “Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.” Gen 40.14
I mean, the cupbearer, when I say he’s important: he has Pharaoh’s ear. That’s how important he is.
15 “For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” Gen 40.15
Probably the hardest scripture in the entire story:
23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Gen 40.23
Can you imagine? You’re in prison. You were like king of the world. You’re cupbearer to Pharaoh. You get thrown into prison, and this Hebrew slave is running the show. You have a bad dream. He tells you exactly what it means, and it comes true, and you leave that out of your story? I’d be telling everyone, “Oh my gosh, there’s this guy in prison who can interpret dreams. He told me this.”
I postulated this morning that God wasn’t done with Joseph yet. I know it’s a hard thing. Suffering is not fun; that’s one thing it is not. It’s a hard thing, but I don’t think God was done with Joseph. I think Joseph was still being cooked. It’s like in the oven: God stuck a fork in him, and he still needed some work. And at this moment, surely Joseph gives up. He has self-pity and doubt and resentment.
And then we see (and I didn’t even put this on the slide; I just took this little snippet of the next verse), it says, “After two years”: after two more years in prison (Gen 41.1). I wouldn’t think that anybody would remember me at this point. He’s playing out the scenario: maybe the cupbearer told Pharaoh, but Pharaoh talked to Potiphar, and he was like, “No, that’s why he’s there.” Maybe, whatever. But we know from how he responds to this next part that he continued to serve the Lord.
IX. It Is Not in Me 32:22
Pharaoh has a bad dream. It’s kind of a creepy dream, if you want to read it. It has to do with these skinny cows eating these fat cows. Very vivid. And he’s disturbed, as you might imagine. And he’s asking all the magicians and the wise people, “What does this dream mean?” And nobody has the answer.
There are people in this room who have the answer that the world needs, and nobody in the world can give it to them. And by that I mean each one of you has the Holy Spirit, and the world has needs that you can fill that nobody else can fill. The wise people of the world, the magicians of the world, cannot help. Only you can. And there are billions of people out there. We all have plenty to do. It’s not like there’s only the superstar, this person, that person. Wherever you’re at, you have God’s presence. The solution to all the world’s ills lives in you. The power that raised Christ from the dead is in you (Rom 8.11).
Joseph was the only one in Egypt with the solution for Pharaoh at this time. God had put him there particularly for this moment. And so at this moment, in his great humility, Joseph is brought to Pharaoh.
15 And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Gen 41.15
What does Joseph say?
16 Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.” Gen 41.16
I mean, if you just read the story, how many times does it say, “For the Lord made him succeed. For the Lord was with him”? What was Joseph doing? He was a prefiguring of walking in Christ. He was living it out by faith. What are we told? You get to see and live out what all those people in the Old Testament were looking towards by faith. So Joseph is modeling this: “It’s not me. It’s Christ. It’s God.”
And so, inspired by God, he’s able to give Pharaoh not only the interpretation of his dreams, but the strategy to save the known world at the time. It’s this incredible moment. I don’t know how many thousands, hundreds of thousands, I don’t know how many people were saved because Joseph allowed God to shape him and lead him and guide him to a place where he could stand in front of Pharaoh and say, “It’s not me. It’s what God’s going to do right now.”
And then he said the strategy, he said the dream, and Pharaoh’s like, “You’re going to do it. You’re in charge.” And Pharaoh only had to worry about what he was going to eat. This is Joseph’s calling: to make very powerful people really good at ordering their lunch.
All of this because Pharaoh was not dumb. Pharaoh knew Joseph’s experience in Potiphar’s house. He had people; I’m certain he had people check in: “Hey, how did he do when he was running the show over there? What was he doing in prison?” He was running the prison as a Hebrew slave. “He knows the language, he knows the politics, he knows how to run a great household. He has the word of the Lord. Let’s get him to run the show.”
And this is what I call God’s Miyagi training. Joseph was doing his wax on, wax off during this whole thing, so that when the time came, he was able to do exactly what he was supposed to do. You might not know the story, but Miyagi has the guy waxing the car, doing his thing. Then he gets into the fight, and all the motions he learned doing these completely meaningless, mundane, boring tasks are exactly what he needs to defeat the giant in his life. And so God does that to Joseph. Along the way he waxes on and waxes off, and by the time he gets where he’s supposed to be, he has everything he needs, by the power of God, to save the world.
How many of us are complaining to God about where we’re at? “God, I just can’t do my job anymore. God, I just can’t live here anymore. God, I can’t afford my life,” or, “I don’t like my friends,” or whatever it is. And God goes, “I worked really hard to get you to this spot. This is exactly where you need to be. What do you mean you don’t want to be here?” You don’t know what God’s doing to prepare you for your destiny.
But it has to start where Joseph started. He was so full of favor and love that he was a dreamer. He was able to hear the promises of God. Everyone here needs to have a dream with God. In fact, you’ll probably have several over your life, things that God gives you. And in fact, we’re told in Timothy again that we actually wage warfare by the promises spoken about us (1 Tim 1.18). That’s both the promises you can take in Scripture, but those are also the specific words that you were given throughout your life. You can stand on the promises.
You think Joseph in Potiphar’s house was like, “Oh, this is what God meant”? He probably was. He was like, “This is what God meant. All these people are bowing to me. All these servants report to me. This is probably my thing.” Then he gets to prison, and he’s like, “Well, this is the fulfillment. It’s not my brothers…” But then he gets to Pharaoh’s house, and he goes, “Oh, this was it all along.” And his father and mother and brothers come begging for food. They would have died, except that Joseph was sent before them. We would have died, except that Jesus was sent before us. It’s the picture that’s being painted here.
X. You Meant Evil, God Meant It for Good 38:26
And so Joseph faces his final test. As you go through your life, you’re going to have these peaks and valleys. You’re going to have the promise, you’re going to have the process, you’re going to have the power, you’re going to have the purpose. These things are going to come in your life, but God’s not done with you yet. Because Joseph had to face the final test of facing his brothers who betrayed him, who sent him on this journey where he did not get to know his youngest brother, where he did not get to know his father during this whole time, where he had to go through what they could only imagine.
And then they come, and he shows them favor. He saves them. He puts them up. He has Pharaoh give them a plot of land so that they can multiply their cattle and all this stuff. He’s doing all this, but then Jacob dies. And the brothers look at each other and go, “You think he was just doing that so Dad wouldn’t be heartbroken? You think he was just taking care of us because Jacob was there, and he didn’t want his dad to be upset that he killed all his brothers, or whatever he wants to do? He’s probably going to kill us now.” And they come to Joseph, and Joseph says one of the most incredible things in the entire Bible in response.
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” Gen 50.15
They figured out human trafficking was across the line, actually.
16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.”’” Gen 50.16–17
We have no record that Jacob ever said this. They were just so scared. They were willing to say, “His dying wish was that you wouldn’t kill us. I know you didn’t hear it. It was really soft. I was sitting right next to him. He just said, ‘Don’t kill your brothers.’” They’re so scared. You have to understand, Joseph could do it. It’s hard for us to imagine that type of power, but he could do it in an instant. They could all be dead. And now they say:
“And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Gen 50.17
Heartbroken. Because he forgave them when he was in Potiphar’s house. Because he’d been forgiving them every day since. Because he lived a life of forgiveness and love toward them, and they didn’t know. They thought it was an act. And it broke his heart. It’s this beautiful, unbelievable, incredible, only-by-the-power-of-God story. That’s not a human response in the fallen sense. That’s a human response in the Jesus sense. We are being made human as he is human.
And so he has this forgiveness, and he hears that. And they come to him and they say, “We’re your servants,” and they bow down (Gen 50.18). And he remembers the dream. He sees them again as the sheaves bowing down to him, or the stars bowing down to him. He remembers again, and he thinks of this whole thing, and he says to them:
19 “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?” Gen 50.19
Man, Joseph is so humble. He’s been so shaped by his suffering that he keeps it always in the center: it’s all about God, not about me.
20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Gen 50.20
How many people here have had evil committed against them? All of us. How many of us have come to the point where we can truly say, “What you meant for evil, God meant for good”? That’s a lifetime of being in Christ. Joseph already believes it. Joseph knows the story, because he lived the story. What the Romans, the Pharisees, what they meant for evil, God meant for good. The cross, the torture device, is now worn as a symbol of beauty. It’s like wearing an electric chair around your neck. It doesn’t hit for us anymore, because two thousand years of beauty have come out of it. It’s the image that has been recreated more than any other image in art, the crucifixion. And yet God made that beautiful.
If he can do that with the cross, what can he do with your baggage, your burden, the thing you lug around saying, “Well, God can’t fix this. God can’t redeem this. They were too mean to me. They were too evil to me. They betrayed me too much for me to let go”? And God says, “Let me make it beautiful. Let me redeem it. Lay it out on the cross. I took their sin already. You don’t get to bear it anymore.”
And so, like I say, Joseph is the pattern of Christ that we all want to be conformed to. He illustrates how we can respond. And so, as you’re hearing this word, repent, because the kingdom of heaven is at hand (Matt 4.17), and the world needs you like it needed Joseph, like it needs Jesus. And as you’re going through, you’re going to get promises this week. You’re going to have God work in your life. You’re going to have freedom this week. Remember that the process comes after the promise. In fact, David said of Joseph that the word of the Lord tested him (Ps 105.19). It was actually the promise that tested him, that shaped him, that formed him.
I want you to come forward if you need to hear a promise of God today. If you’re here and you’re feeling directionless, if you’re feeling like, “I don’t have a dream with God,” or, “I can’t even imagine dreaming. I’ve lost my hope or faith in something bigger than where I’m at,” I want you to come forward for that. Or if you’re in the process, you know you have a promise you’re holding on to, but you’re in the process and it doesn’t look like it’s going the right direction, let’s pray with you. Let’s stand with you. Joseph didn’t have people to pray with him. He did this just with God. How amazing is that? We get brothers and sisters in Christ to stand with you in this. Come forward and share. Or if you’re struggling with unforgiveness, come forward. Let’s pray with you. There’s the promise, there’s the process, there’s unforgiveness. And lastly, if you just want power to achieve the things you’ve been burdened with, if you’ve been burdened with responsibility, burdened with a destiny that you don’t know how to hold, come give it to him. He has the power for you.