Previous on the story we met Abraham and his family. Our story this morning is about his great grandson Joseph. Remember last week God had started his nation building thing which of course is not politically correct to do today. Remember things had not started off very well either. Abraham and Sarah took over twenty-five years to have a child and then they only had one. Isaac after twenty years well he only has two and one of them turns out to be a trouble maker. Finally with Jacob the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham we start getting a people production line going, we end up with twelve and then it’s off to the races, it just took awhile to get some momentum going. Jacob like his grandfather Abraham has his named changed by God. God changed his name to Israel and gave him the same promise he had given his grandfather and then his father Isaac. God said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and increase number. A nation and community of nations will come from you, and kings will be among your descendants. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.”
Jacob, now Israel who the nation would be named after again has twelve sons. One of the youngest of those sons is named Joseph. Joseph was Israel’s favorite son. Our story this morning starts off with Joseph at age seventeen. We have all heard that phrase mom loved you best, or you were always the favorite. Thankfully most of the time that is said jokingly. But unfortunately sometimes it also true and it usually creates problems in the family as the other kids feel left out. I am the youngest in the family. My parents both had kids before they married each other and had me. My oldest brother was 18 years older than me and then I have one that is fifteen years older and one that is seven years older. None of them lived at home while I grew up, so in a sense I grew up as an only child. My brother who is fifteen years older than me, told me once that they were all amazed at how differently I was raised than them, I got everything and was treated as the center of the universe, and had a totally different childhood than they did. A couple years before Darla and I got married I was at his house in Northern California and he said, “You know mom couldn’t have cared less who the rest of us married, but man I sure feel sorry for whoever marries you. Nobody can ever be that perfect.” Fortunately I don’t think my brothers were the jealous type, they found it more funny than anything else.
Unfortunately that is not the case with Joseph’s brothers, they resent him to death. It doesn’t help that Joseph is a pretty good kid who always seem to want to do the right thing. You ever met people like that? It also doesn’t help that he keeps having dreams where his brothers and his parents are always bowing down to him. It also really doesn’t help that he keeps sharing those dreams with whoever will listen. Discretion is something that Joseph could probably learn here. Joseph’s dreams are a big part of the story. Joseph has two dreams where he sees himself in the center and his brothers bowing down to him. When he tells them this dream they are really ticked off, even his dad Israel is mad. Who do you think you are that we should bow down to you? You and your coat of many colors, dad’s special one. Joseph doesn’t mean to make them mad it’s just the dream that God keeps giving him.
Well his brothers have had enough and one day his father sends him to check on his brothers and they see the perfect opportunity to get rid of him. The story says, “But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. “Here comes that dreamer! They said to each other, “Come now, let’s kill him and thrown him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” Boy I am glad my brothers weren’t like that, I mean with family like that, who needs enemies. Think this is a dysfunctional family, oh yeah! So they rip his coat of many colors off of him and they thrown him in the cistern while they decide exactly what they are going to do with him. As they sat down to eat their lunch they see a caravan approaching and say to each other hey instead of killing him ourselves and his blood be on our hands why don’t we just sell him into slavery, after all he is family. Gotta love that type of thinking, hey remember he’s family, he’s our brother, let’s just sell him into slavery and then we will go back home and tell dad that a savage animal tore him to shreds. Remember last week when I talked about how God was going to start a new nation that would follow him and how in our thinking this nation should be made up of all stars from other nations. God’s plan was to start from scratch, well this what you get when you start from scratch, definitely not the all star team, more like a family off the Jerry Springer show.
So that is what they do they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites and they tell Israel their father that they found Joseph’s coat, which they cover with animal blood, and that he must have been killed by wild animals. This is overwhelming to Israel and he never gets over his grief. Meanwhile these traders take Joseph to Egypt. He is sold again as a slave to an Egyptian administrator named Potiphar. Joseph is such a good slave that Potiphar puts him in charge of the whole household. So Joseph is prospering but then Potiphar’s wife decides she wants to sleep with Joseph and Joseph refuses saying he will not sin against God. Notice what he says there, he will not sin against God; ultimately every sin is against God. Potiphar’s wife gets fed up with being rejected and so she falsely accuses Joseph of assaulting her. When Potiphar comes home he believes his wife and he throws Joseph in prison. After Joseph is thrown in prison it says that God was with him and Joseph was so liked in the prison that the warden put him in charge of everything. Do you see a pattern developing here? No matter how bad Joseph’s life gets God never abandons him. While in prison Joseph gets a reputation for being able to correctly interpret dreams. One day there were two prisoners who had dreams and they asked Joseph what he thought. After listening to their two dreams he told one that his dream meant that in seven days he would be restored to his position serving the king, he told the second guy that his dream meant that in seven days he would be hanged by the king. Both of his interpretations turned out to be true which I am sure the second guy was not too please about. Joseph told the first guy when the king restores you remember me in this prison. The guy says sure no problem, but once he gets restored he completely forgets about Joseph.
Over two years pass and Joseph remains in prison, this wasn’t some short stint in jail. Even though he is pretty much running the show, his life doesn’t seem to be turning out too well. No one wants to spend their life in prison. Even if you are the head prisoner you are still a prisoner. And who knows how long he would have remained there if God hadn’t done something in his upper story. What happens is that Pharoah the King of Egypt starts having very disturbing dreams. He knows that they have great meaning but he cannot understand them. He brings in all his wise men and magicians to interpret the dreams, but none of them can do it. They too are dumbfounded. The man who was in prison with Joseph is the Pharaoh’s cupbearer and watching this remembers Joseph. He says you know what I just remembered something I promised I would do and he goes to Pharaoh and tells him about Joseph and his ability to interpret dreams. Joseph is brought to Pharaoh and Pharaoh tells him his dream and asks him to tell him what it means. Joseph’s response to him is revealing he tells Pharaoh, “I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.” He tells Pharaoh I will tell you what it means, but understand it is not me telling you but God. He is the one with the power to do this not me.
So Joseph tells him what his dreams mean. Here is where we see God’s upper story and our lower story converging. Pharaoh tells him that in the first dream he saw seven beautiful cows emerge from the Nile only to be eaten by seven ugly cows. In the second dreams he saw seven savory heads of grain on a single stalk and they are swallowed up by seven dried up, worthless heads. Joseph tells Pharaoh that the dreams mean that God is saying that for the next seven years Egypt will have seven years of bountiful harvest, but that will be followed by seven years of famine. He told Pharaoh this is God’s plan, there is no doubt this is what he going to do so you must prepare for it. He tells Pharaoh you should put a wise man in charge of storing food during the seven years of bountiful harvest so that you will have food for the seven years of famine. The Pharaoh and his official after hearing this are so impressed by Joseph they say okay well how about you? Admittedly there is bizarreness to this story. Pharaoh is like, I know you were just in prison this morning, but you’re the wisest guy I have ever met, so I am going put you in charge of this whole thing. In fact I am going to make you my deputy, the only one who is going to have more authority in Egypt then you is going to be me. Talk about a promotion. This is better than winning the lottery.
And so in this rags to riches story, Joseph after being sold into slavery by his brothers, after being falsely thrown in prison, suddenly becomes second in command of all of Egypt, and he is not even an Egyptian. Well things happen just as Joseph said they would. For seven years the harvest is huge and Joseph makes sure that a large portion of it gets stored away for use during the coming famine. The people of Egypt must of have thought he was a little crazy all they could see was all the good stuff that was happening, what famine are you talking about? But Joseph is diligent in his duties. He even gets married and has a family of his own. Well after the seven years of good times, the famine hits and there is no food. The Egyptians start coming to Pharaoh to ask for help and Pharaoh sends them to Joseph. Joseph opens up the storehouses and starts supplying the people. Now they don’t think he is crazy. A couple of years into the famine more of the upper story and the lower story come together, the famine spreads into where Jacob, Israel and his sons are living in Canaan. Israel, still grieving for Joseph who he thinks is dead, tells Joseph’s brothers to go down to Egypt to bring back some food so they don’t starve. And so Joseph’s brothers travel to Egypt and finally end up standing before their brother Joseph, now age 39, this is 22 years after Joseph had told them his dream about them bowing down to him, and they had sold him into slavery, and guess what they do, the bow down before him and ask for grain, 22 years after Joseph dreamed they would do it. They don’t recognize Joseph, but he recognizes them. Now in our lower story, what is the first thing you would think would go through Joseph’s mind? Wow, who’s laughing now? Who’s in control now? Throw me in a cistern huh, sell me to slave traders, tell my dad I was killed by a wild animal. Don’t even think about looking for me for the past 22 years? Well guess what, now its payback time! Wouldn’t this be the perfect ending to this morning story? Joseph tells them who he is and has them all thrown into prison or executed for what they did to them. That’s what they deserve right? Yes, that is exactly what they deserve. What goes around comes around. Or at least it would be nice to see them brought to justice.
But here is another reason that this is the greatest story ever told. Joseph doesn’t do that. He doesn’t take revenge. He doesn’t hurt his brothers or chew them out or hold them accountable in way shape or form. Why? I mean down here in the lower story we want to see some justice meted out, so why doesn’t Joseph do that? Why instead of that does he eventually move his entire family into Egypt with him and give them lush land to live in? Well this is that upper story lower story contrast here again. Joseph though living in the lower story understands what is going on in the upper story. He realizes that the upper story is the most important story. When he reveals himself to his brothers he says, “Come close to me. I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. God sent me here to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then it was not you who sent me here but God.” Joseph understands the upper story, he understands that like us he is an actor on God’s stage and he knows his lines and the part that God has called him to play. Once you understand the upper story, then what happens in the lower story makes sense to you, even if it doesn’t make sense to anyone else.
That is why Joseph is able to forgive his brothers, and it why we should be able to forgive those around us as well. Joseph understood the grace and forgiveness that God had provided for him in his life so he felt free to do that in his own life with his own brothers. When we understand that God’s upper story is all about his relentless pursuit to get us back. When we understand just how much he has forgiven us and how much he continues to forgive us everyday then that frees us to forgive those who have sinned against us. When we do not forgive others, no matter what they have done to us, we are blocking God’s forgiveness of us. We are showing that we really don’t understand the upper story of God’s great love for us. We are called to forgive because we have been forgiven. Joseph saw that upper story, he saw God’s plan, moreover he saw God’s grace and he simply passed it on to those in his own life.
Here is some more upper story stuff. Remember last week with Abraham how we talked about how God was going to use this new nation he was building to reveal himself to the world? That this new nation of Israel, which was founded by Abraham, was going to be God’s light on the hill, the beacon that would draw others in the world to him? It was through this new tiny nation that God was going to bring salvation to the world through the Savior who would come from this nation, namely Jesus Christ. Well right now in our story this nation is still very small with all the sons and daughters there were about 70 people when they came into Egypt. They are not yet that large nation that is as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sand on seashore, they are tiny and they are vulnerable. The famine could have very easily wiped them completely out. God in the upper story had a desire to preserve this new nation of his so down there down in the lower story working through man’s sins and bad decisions he orchestrated it so that Joseph would be sent into Egypt and be able to make sure that there was food for them to make it through the famine. Understand that God saved the Egyptians through this too, but his primary mission was the save this new small nation of Israel, his nation, his people. Joseph understood that was what had happened. So even though his brothers had committed a great sin against him, which he would have been justified in making them suffer for, he knew the upper story and therefore he knew this was God’s will.
So Joseph brings his brothers and all their families into Egypt. And it turns out to be the perfect move. The Israelites were shepherds and the Egyptians considered shepherding an abomination. Therefore they were more than willing to let the Israelites do it and even gave them lush land to live in, so not only did they have land and food but also they were separate from everyone else, and that brings up another important part of the story, and this is important to remember. God strictly forbids the people in the nation of Israel to marry anyone outside of the nation. If other nations joined them and worshipped their God they would allow them to marry into the nation, but that was it. There was a reason for that. The other nations worshipped pagan gods, and God knew that if they intermarried with these other nations that his people would also began to worship these false God. It was not a racial or ethnic issue; it was purely a religious issue. God knew that if they did intermarry the nations of Israel would be destroyed as his people before they even got started. Therefore this move from Canaan to Egypt was perfect. In Canaan there was always the temptation to marry into the other nations, but not in Egypt. The Egyptians owned everything and they wouldn’t even think of intermarrying with people who shepherded sheep. The Israelites lived there for over four hundred years. During these 400 years of no intermarrying they grew to over a million people and that set the stage for them to be able to later take over the land of Canaan. Only after 400 years were they finally big enough and strong enough to drive the other nations out and claim the land that God had promised them. God’s upper story converging with man’s lower story. God does things in his time but he does them.
In midst of this story about the nation of Israel I want to take one last look at Joseph and the point of his life. I want you to look at the sheet that I passed out to you that has the timeline of Joseph’s life. Remember at age 17 Joseph is sold into slavery. At age 30 Joseph is made second in command of all of Egypt and at age 39 is when his brothers come and ask him for grain. Twenty-two years had elapsed from when Joseph was given his dream of his brothers bowing down to him to when it actually happens. Those twenty-two years of slavery and prison time and being separated from his family were very hard times for Joseph. God was always with him making him successful but they were years of suffering. But then I want you to look at the age he died, 110. So for 71 years Joseph lived in prosperity and peace with his family. And those 71 years made all the junk that happened to him in the lower story survivable. Joseph was blessed in that he seemed to always be able to see the upper story even was his lower story seemed a disaster.
Maybe you have gone through similar time periods in your life that were like Joseph's 22 years. It may have been ten years, thirty years, two months, six months where it seemed everything was over, but now you can look back and see that God used that time to train you, to make you stronger, to get you ready to handle something big that was coming later. Maybe some of you of are currently in that 22 years period. Maybe it seems that nothing is going right in your life, that it is one emergency after another, or that just when things start to go good, something else pops up and knocks you back down again. If that is the case remember Joseph, and remember God’s upper story, remember he hasn’t forgotten about you or stopped loving you. Deliverance will come, this too shall pass. Let God use this period to strengthen your faith and your resolve. Remember no matter what is going on in your lower story, God still loves and cares for you in the upper story and one day He will deliver you in the lower story.
Every week we conclude with a clue. This week’s clue is not like the previous week’s clues, which involved the shedding of blood and pointed forward to Jesus’ death on the cross. This week’s clue is about a deliverer. Joseph is a deliverer. He delivered the people of Israel from starvation. That deliverance comes by the way of 22 years of suffering. Because of him the nation of Israel is saved. Joseph today points us to another deliverer, who is promised to deliver all nations through his suffering. That man’s name would be Jesus who would deliver us from our sins. So we leave the nation of Israel in Egypt. Next week we find that all does not go well there, and now a new deliverer is needed to bring them back out of Egypt. Next week we meet a man who talks to bushes, divides water and carves tablets.
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