Chapter 3: Sermon (Tina)

CHAPTER 3: THE STORY

Joseph: From Slavery to Deputy Pharaoh

Scripture review ... 

So…I think that 2 words summarize this chapter:  

Dysfunctional Family.  

Wouldn’t you agree?  

This chapter should make every one of us feel better about our own family of origin.  Let’s face it, no family is perfect and every one of us could probably tell stories about their family; about arguments and who’s not speaking to whom, about the crazy aunt or uncle – or maybe you ARE the crazy aunt or uncle that the rest of the family talks about!  

You could tell stories of cheating, lies, habits, addictions, secrets, and stories that would make the rest of our hairs stand on end.  But the thing is, we don’t tell those stories, do we?  We keep them tucked away in a safe place or we keep them swept under a rug, but we definitely don’t share them.

In chapter 3 we get this abridged version of the story of Joseph and his family.  In The Story, it took one chapter, or 14 pages, to tell his story.  In the Bible, the story is told in about 20 chapters.  We read about Joseph’s birth in chapter 30 and the story runs all the way through the end of Genesis, which goes through chapter 50.  But The Story gives us the highlights of Joseph’s life.  It gives us enough detail for us to realize that Joseph came from a dysfunctional family.

His father, Jacob, was married to 2 women, who happened to be sisters.  Joseph had 11 brothers and some of his brothers were also his cousins because his father was married to his aunt.  Joseph was not even related to a few of his brothers’ mother.  Joseph’s great grandmother Sarah was also his great aunt because his great grandfather, Abraham, married his half-sister. 

Then one day Joseph is minding his own business and his dad sends him out to check on his brothers.  His brothers see him coming in the distance and they try to devise a plan to kill him.  As we read our chapter this week, one of the pieces of the story that was missing is the fact that Joseph had this dream that one day his brothers would bow down to him.  His brothers are thinking, “Yea, right – ya little twerp!”  They didn’t want to hear anything about it. 

So as they see him coming they’re like, “Here comes that dreamer!”  So they come up with a plan to kill him and throw him into one of the cisterns and they were going to tell their father that a ferocious animal devoured him.”  That’s how much they thought of his dreams!

One of his brothers had enough sense to suggest that they don’t actually kill the boy; that they just throw him in the cistern.  So when Joseph got to them, they took off the fancy robe that their father had given him and they threw him in the cistern, which was empty.  Apparently they didn’t have much remorse because right after they did that, they sat down to supper.  As they were eating, they saw an Ishmaelite caravan coming toward them and somehow they knew that this caravan was heading for Egypt.  So they decided to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites; that way they wouldn’t actually lay a hand on him so they thought they would be off the hook. 

Another interesting point is that when Joseph was sold into slavery he was actually sold to his great uncle Ishmael’s clan, so he was really related to his captors as much as he was related to some of his brothers. 

So after they receive 20 shekels of silver for Joseph, the brothers have to figure out what they are going to tell their father.  So they slaughtered a goat and took Joseph’s fancy coat and dipped it in the blood of the goat.  The took the robe and presented it to their father who determined that it was in fact his son Joseph’s robe and dad was devastated.  He mourned for Joseph for many days.  What in the world could the conversation have been like between the brothers on the way back home?  They all respected their father very much, so they had to be wondering how they were going to explain this to him.  It would’ve been a completely different story, if Joseph actually HAD been devoured by a wild animal, but to try to convince their father that that was the case….I can’t even imagine what must’ve been going through their minds. 

Meanwhile, things are going good and bad for Joseph.  We read that the LORD blessed Joseph and he worked in the house of Potiphar, who was the captain of the Pharaoh’s guard.  One day Potiphar’s wife comes on to Joseph and Joseph doesn’t fall for it, but the woman cries wolf and says that Joseph was trying to “make sport” of her.  Potiphar, of course, believes his wife and he throws Joseph in prison.  But because of Joseph’s skills as in interpreter, he was able to interpret a dream that the Pharaoh had so the Pharaoh put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt, in order to prepare the land for an upcoming famine. 

Then during the famine, Joseph’s family runs out of food and their father sends the brothers to Egypt to get some.  

When the brothers get there, they bowed down to Joseph with their faces to the ground (just like in Joseph’s dream many years before).  Joseph knew they were his brothers, but they didn’t realize it was Joseph.  So Joseph messes with them and accuses them of being spies.  Of course they deny it, but Joseph insists, and decides to test them.  

He wants to keep one of the brothers in prison while the others go back and bring their youngest brother, who is actually Joseph’s only full brother, back to Egypt. 

We can’t even begin to imagine the turmoil these brothers must have been in all those years.  They could not have been living a very peaceful life; they had to realize that what they did to their brother was eventually going to come back to haunt them.  So they go home and after quite some time, they come back with gifts for Joseph and with Benjamin, but Joseph still acts like he doesn’t know them.  He’s so emotional about seeing Benjamin, who was really his only full brother, that he had to leave the room.  We’re told, “He went to his private room and wept there.” 

As emotional as he was, he still wasn’t done messing with them.  He sent them on their way with their donkeys and he had their sacks filled with as much food as they could carry and he even returned each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack.  But he also put his own silver cup in Benjamin’s sack and he sent them on their way.  After they were gone a short while, Joseph sent some men after them and when they caught up with them, they accused them of stealing Joseph’s silver cup.  The brothers denied it and said that if the cup is found in anyone’s sack, that person would die.  Well, there it was….in Benjamin’s sack. 

They all went back to Joseph and his half-brother Judah begged him to imprison him instead of Benjamin.  He just couldn’t bear the thought of going home and facing his father without Benjamin.  Well, it turns out that Joseph just couldn’t take it any more and he reveals himself to his brothers.  He sends his brothers home to get his father and all their household and bring them to Egypt so they would survive the rest of the famine. 

We can’t even imagine the turmoil Joseph’s brothers must’ve been in for all those years, knowing that they sold their brother into slavery.  

We can’t imagine the loss that Jacob felt as he thought that his favored son, Joseph, had been devoured by wild animals.  

We can’t imagine how Joseph felt being abandoned by his whole family and not being able to return to his father. 

Each of those family members had issues they had to deal with:  guilt, fear, loneliness, grief, sorrow, abandonment, and so much more.  Jacob and each one of his 12 sons had issues; they were a truly dysfunctional family. But here is the great news; even in the midst of tremendous dysfunction:  God was still in control.  Joseph may have been separated from his family for 20+ years, and his brothers may have been dealing with their guilt for all that time, but even in the midst of all that, God was making things work together for good. 

Joseph and each of his 11 brothers and his father Jacob each had their own individual stories; their lower stories.  But even in all their dysfunction, God still used it as part of His Upper Story.  And if God can take a story like Joseph’s and make it work for God’s glory, just imagine what He can do with your story!  You may think that your family is pretty screwed up, but it’s not as bad as Joseph’s was. 

So the lesson that we learn from this chapter is that God is always at work no matter what our circumstances are.  

You may be going through something right now that seems impossible.  You just have no idea how you are going to get through it.  You may be experiencing a tremendous amount of guilt over something that happened or you may have a strong sense of grief or loneliness.  You are not alone.  God is with you and God is working all of that out for your benefit and for His glory.  

The word we get from this story today is to keep the faith.  You may not see what God is doing at this moment, but know that God is doing something more powerful than you can imagine.  God is planning to give you a tremendous blessing through the situation you find yourself in today.  No matter what it is, God is working in it and you are going to be blessed.