Sunday November 23rd​
The Life Of Joseph

Welcome to The Journey Church.

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Good morning, Church. If we haven’t met before, I’m Jerry Schmidt and am a trustee here at the Journey Church. If you’ll permit me, I’d like to start today by sharing the sentiment that’s always expressed by Pastor Ben, and that is how thankful I am to be afforded the opportunity to teach The Word of God to a congregation. The pastoral team does not take this responsibility lightly.

We’ve been learning about Bible Giants this month, and a centerpiece section of the series has been Hebrews 11, so let’s read part of that again together:

Hebrews 11:17-22 By FAITH Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. By FAITH Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By FAITH Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff. By FAITH Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

So today we come to Joseph! And Joseph’s story goes all the way back to Genesis, and in fact, it’s the last story in Genesis. In case everyone’s not familiar with the structure of the Bible: thousands of years ago, everything from the Old Testament was written on scrolls, and each of these scrolls had a name, and they’re what we call the “books” of the Bible now. In the timeline of biblical events, Genesis contains the oldest history starting at the creation of everything – and Joseph’s story is about 25% of that entire book.

And Hebrews 11 is his family tree. It goes all the way back to Adam and Eve, but I’ll just start at Abraham. Abraham was blessed by God and promised to be the father of the nations. He then had Ishmael and Isaac, and Isaac had Esau and Jacob. Jacob was the inheritor of the blessing, and that’s when God then called him Israel – that’s where the people of “Israel’s” name comes from. And there are twelve tribes of Israel, and they are named after his twelve sons – one of them being Joseph.

Joseph is the 2nd youngest of twelve boys in the family line that God promised would be the blessing to the world. And Joseph’s story starts in Genesis 37, when he was SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD. And I know what some of you are thinking: Donny Osmond wasn’t 17 when he played Joseph. “Go go go Joseph…” No he wasn’t. In fact, let’s compare Donny to some actual 17 year olds.

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So Joseph was 17, and there was tension with him and his brothers. In fact, the Bible says the brothers hated Joseph because it was obvious Jacob loved him more than them. And Joseph would tattle on them. And then Jacob gave Joseph this super ornate, colorful robe to show how much more he loved him than the other brothers. “Go go go Joseph…” And then this happened:

Genesis 37:5-11 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”

His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Now, really, Joseph didn’t do anything wrong. God gave him a dream and he shared it. I mean, you could read it as him bragging or being a jerk, or you could read it as him kinda shrugging his shoulders and just sharing what the dream was. But either way, it clearly got the brothers (and even Jacob) super worked up.

So Jacob sends seventeen-year-old Joseph out to check on his brothers who were tending a flock - 50 miles away. And at this point all you boomers can finally stop bragging about walking to school in the snow, because it probably wasn’t 50 miles. Oh, and when Joseph gets there, a stranger tells him they went to a different valley another 15 miles away. A total of 65 miles. Without Dr. Scholls inserts.

He finally finds his brothers, and rather than greet Joseph and tell them how cool that is that he walked 65 miles to check on them for their dad, they debate if they should kill him, then decide not to and instead fake his death by throwing him in a pit, make some money by selling him as a slave to some Ishmaelites yes, those Ishmaelites, who would’ve now been Joseph’s distant cousins.

A classic brotherly move: punch him in the arm, give him a wedgie…sell him into slavery. Then the brothers take Joseph’s robe that their father gave him and dip it in goats blood as part of faking his death, and go home and tell dad his favorite son is dead. Every family’s dysfunctional I guess.

The Ishmaelites brought him to Egypt and sold him again, and scored big time because they sold him to Pharaoh’s captain of the guard, whose name was Potiphar. But don’t fret, it gets better for Joseph.

Genesis 39:2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned.

And Joseph was, according to God’s word,:

Genesis 39: 6 …well-built and handsome,

“Go go go Joseph!” See, God’s on Joseph’s side and things are already getting better! He’s got the faith and God’s taking care of him-

Genesis 39: 7 and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!”

So cliche. But Joseph can handle it.

Genesis 39: 9 But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?”

“Go go go Joseph…” See? With faith, he can stand against that sin, tell it to its face, “Sin, you’ve got no hold on me!” How blessed do you think he’ll be because of his faith?! Until the wife accuses him of trying to sleep with her and Potiphar throws him in jail. Mkay, minor setback. But it gets better for Joseph!

Genesis 39: 20-23 But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

“Go go go Joseph…” Joseph’s winning again! So he was a big deal at home, then he was a big deal at the captain’s house, now he’s a big deal in prison. I mean, yeah, friends and family are betraying him left and right, but he’s keeping his chin up. Plus, he got some fellow prisoners as company and began interpreting their dreams:

Genesis 40:9-19 So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in his hand.”

“This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”

When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

“This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.”

”Go go go Baker…” I forgot to turn my old laptop into work a couple weeks ago and got a kindly worded nastygram from IT. Doesn’t seem so bad now. And now Joseph’s got that chief cupbearer on his side, and he’s just gotta remember to tell Pharaoh about Joseph. Except he didn’t.

TWO more years go by, and Joseph is still in prison. But now Pharaoh has a couple dreams, about seven fat cows eating seven ugly skinny cows, and seven heads of healthy grain that swallow up seven thin nasty grains. And those dreams were concerning enough that Pharaoh started asking people what they meant. And like Jamie reminding me to take out the trash, the cupbearer has the “oh crap, sorrrrry, I forgot” moment and tells Pharaoh he remembers just the guy from a couple years ago that can interpret these dreams.

Genesis 41:25-27 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years; it is one and the same dream. The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind: They are seven years of famine.

The dreams were that seven years of abundance were coming, followed by seven years of famine, and now was the time to prepare. And since Joseph’s got a knack for getting put in charge of important things…

Genesis 41:41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.”

Atta boy, Joseph! Plus Pharaoh gave him a wife, a new name, a new ride (chariot), and sent him all through Egypt as his righthand man. “Go go go Joseph!” He was 30 years old, in charge of a country. And check that out: 30 years old. Remember, he was sold to the Ishmaelites at 17 – so it’s been 13 years of betrayal, slavery, prison, no family, no friends, did nothing wrong, only wrong done to him. And now here he is, on top. Ruler of Egypt.

The seven years of abundance came, he has two boys, even starts to forget about his dad and brothers. And seven years of famine came, too, just as Pharaoh’s dreams said. But Joseph had it locked down – storehouses FULL of grain. Starvation happening everywhere, but the Egyptians had Joseph and the storehouses. Blessed and winning.

Genesis 42: 3 Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.

This’ll be interesting. Remember, Joseph is the one in charge of the storehouses. He’s about 40 years old now, they haven’t seen each other in twenty-something years.

Genesis 42:7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked.

That’s right, Joseph. Don’t forget what they did to you. These guys, your own flesh and blood, dropped you in pit and sold you. Told your dad you were dead. Your life was pretty much hell on earth for 13 years. Let ‘em have it.

Genesis 42:9-12 “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”

“No, my lord,” they answered. “Your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.”

“No!” he said to them. “You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”

Putting the screws to the brothers. Right on, Joseph! Don’t let them get away with what they did to you. They deserve this! In fact, Joseph goes further and puts them in jail for three days and then makes a deal: if they go back and leave one brother behind, get the youngest brother (Benjamin) and bring him to Egypt, then they can bring grain home. Sweet revenge, because from the brothers’ perspective, this is probably a lose-lose situation. They’re either gonna die in jail, or the brother that’s left behind dies, or they get Benjamin, bring him to Egypt, and then he kills them all anyway.

This mess even gets them talking about Joseph, that this must be some kind of punishment from God for what they did to him (not realizing he is Joseph).

Genesis 42:22 Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.” They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter.

Well, they should’ve thought of that sooner. Reaping what you sew, boys. Woulda, shoulda, coulda. Joseph’s gonna drink your tears for

Genesis 42:24 He turned away from them and began to weep,

Well okay, so Joseph’s drinking his own tears, but it doesn’t mean anything. Still gonna show them who’s boss. They agree to the deal and their brother Simeon stays behind. But Joseph also secretly orders all their money given back to them, as well as food and provisions for the trip home. They didn’t find out he gave their money back until they found it in their bags on first night on the trip home. It was…weird…that an Egyptian ruler would give their money back. Think of it like the mob, making you a deal, “nah, go ahead, you take your money that you were gonna give me, get your brother, come back, everything will be fine.” Or worse, someone made a mistake, and now this ruler guy thinks they STOLE the money back.

So when they do get home to their dad, the debate becomes: Joseph’s already dead (they think), Simeon’s probably gonna die, this ruler thinks we’re spies… we’re basically risking all our lives if we go back. BUT we need food, and if we show our brother is more important than money and that we’re honest and bring the money back with us again, he could keep his promise. Or he’s ruthless and wants to kill us just to spite us.

But Jacob wasn’t having it.

Genesis 42:38 “My son will not go down there with you; his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.”

But the famine was brutal and after a while they were out of options. Jacob reluctantly agrees to send Benjamin back to Egypt with them. And they even bring double the amount of money just to prove they didn’t keep any from Pharaoh. They get to Egypt, Joseph sees them and tells the house steward to make a meal for them to eat with him. And this freaks them out. They think it’s their last meal. He’s gonna kill us while we eat.

Joseph says,

Genesis 43:23 “It’s all right,” he said. “Don’t be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks; I received your silver.” Then he brought Simeon out to them.

Wink wink. Keep ‘em guessing, Joseph.

Genesis 43:30 Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there.

We all have our weak moments. Joseph has a few. So they ate and started getting prepped to go back to Israel. Home free. Or so they thought.

Genesis 44:1-2 Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house: “Fill the men’s sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man’s silver in the mouth of his sack. Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one’s sack, along with the silver for his grain.” And he did as Joseph said.

Nice. Here we go. Revenge time. Right when they started to leave the next day, Joseph had the steward stop them and accuse them of stealing. They were super confused of course and dropped their sacks for inspection. And voila - there was the cup in Benjamin’s sack. Boom.

Genesis 43:15 Joseph said to them, “What is this you have done? Don’t you know that a man like me can find things out by divination?”

Got ‘em. And they even begin to confess as if they’d done it because what’s the point of denying it? They’re trying to survive at this point, and they’re best option now is to all serve as slaves and hope he doesn’t kill Benjamin. But Joseph tells them, no, I’m keeping Benjamin, the rest of you can go home.

And in one last desperate attempt, Judah approaches Joseph, probably head bowed, and pleas with him, saying we already have a dead brother, Dad can’t handle another one, we’re starving and all we wanted to do was buy food. I promised Dad we’d be okay and everyone would come home safe. Please let me stay; I’ll be your slave and the rest can go home. I can’t let this happen to my dad.

Genesis 45:2 And he (Joseph) wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.

Plot twist, but maybe not so much: Joseph is a Giant of the Bible, and he lives by faith.

Genesis 45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?”

None of this was for revenge, although we probably wanted it to be. I’m sure a few of us saw ourselves in Joseph’s shoes and thinking all sorts of things. But Joseph was never about and would never want to have revenge. It was to see what choice his brothers, after twenty-something years, would do. He wasn’t going to kill them or Simeon or Benjamin. He wanted to see who they were now; who they’d become.

But why wasn’t Joseph bitter about what they’d done to him? Why didn’t he look at all the horrible things that had happened to him for so many years and say, “now’s my time. Forget these guys. All this because they were jealous that I was the favorite son.” Because he lived by faith. He lived with the faith that God had a plan. A plan for him, a plan for them, a plan for me, a plan for you.

Genesis 45:3-14 But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “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. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you 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. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’

“You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”

Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.

And you might’ve heard this one before. It’s Joseph, reassuring his brothers when they came back to Egypt after going home to get dad:

Genesis 50:19-20 …Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.

Winning. Real winning. Go Joseph. So being a Bible Giant seems to mean believing that your circumstances, from the lowest valleys to the highest mountaintops, are laid out in preparation for something great. It seems to mean faith calls us into an attitude of believing God put “me” in “this” for a reason. My job, my family, my friendships. My time I got rejected. My time I got betrayed. My busy schedule. My retirement.

And what does this mean about our storehouses? No one was stopping anyone for prepping for a famine, yet here they were, outta food and nowhere else to go. The very people who sold their own flesh and blood into slavery, begging him for food. Joseph could’ve told his brothers to pound sand. Have fun starving to death. Even more, he could’ve ordered them to be killed. Pff, they deserved it, right?

So what does this mean about our storehouses. I wonder, quite often actually, if they’re meant for more. More than new tools, new cars, new electronics, new this, new that. You ever get together with a friend and you end up talking about the stuff you bought or the stuff you want to buy? I’ll actually give you that challenge: when you’re together with friends, see how long you can make it without talking about buying things. I think you’ll be surprised. So what does this mean for our storehouses.

2 Corinthians 9:11 You will be enriched in every way, so that you can be generous in everything. And through us your generosity will cause people to thank God, because rendering this holy service not only provides for the needs of God’s people, but it also overflows in the many thanks people will be giving to God.

Have we thought about it this way? That our jobs, our money, our weekends, our skillsets…were laid out before us as a part of something bigger? When we think about why we have a job…instead of saying “so I can provide for my family” or “so I can afford something”, could it be, “because God put me here for something”?  “Because God’s preparing me for something”? “Because God’s sending me to prepare something”?

Some of us have pretty stocked storehouses. Are you nervous to open the doors? You’ve built up all this grain over the years, the famine’s here, people are asking for help…which way are those doors gonna swing? Are you going to live by faith? What are you gonna live by?

There’s famine as we speak, and a lot of us have storehouses. And I want to be clear: the generosity of this church is unmatched. We write some pretty big checks, because we have a FAITHFUL congregation. Last year almost 30 of you volunteered and a bunch of you chipped in to send a check for over $10,000 to Feed My Starving Children. $10,000 today will provide over 34,000 meals, or about $0.30 per meal. 34,000 meals seems like a lot, and at $0.30/meal it seems like it must be easy to feed a ton of kids. But the math breaks that down to about 94 kids getting one meal per day for a year.

If you’re not familiar with them, it’s a Christian organization that sends meal packs around the world. 93% of every dollar that comes in goes directly to food to feed starving kids and share the good news of Jesus Christ. After we volunteered and gave the check, we got phone calls from the main office wanting to speak to our church. They don’t get donations like that from small town churches. It was out of the ordinary. Those were biblical giants that gave and volunteered. THAT was FAITH.

So can we do this again?

Jeff and Georgi Majeski are FMSC Giants, and they’ve arranged a date for 30 of us to go again.

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We want to be an abundant blessing both in manpower and generosity. Did GOD give us the storehouses for a trip to Home Depot, or something greater? Did God give us weekends off for watching football, or something greater? Does hunger wait for us to figure out what works best for our storehouses or for our calendars, or does another kid miss a meal because the storehouse doors won’t open?

Please consider signing up for FMSC packing day, and please also consider making an extra offering for our donation. If you designate your offering to Missions or FMSC, we’ll make sure it’s included in the donation total.

because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

What if this is you?

Because it was to save lives that God sent Tony ahead of you.

Because it was to save lives that God sent Dan ahead of you.

Because it was to save lives that God sent Paul ahead of you.

Because it was to save lives that God sent Dorothy, Cam, Craig, Linda, Michael, Jeff and Georgi ahead of you.

This is your chance to save lives, and it’s real. It’s tangible. God’s giving us this opportunity to be a Bible giant.

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Next week Diane will preach on Ordinary Women of the Bible!

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      Message Questions

1. How does Joseph’s life show a consistency of faith in a variance of circumstances?

2. What enabled Joseph to avoid bitterness and revenge? What does that reveal about his view of God?

3. Why does God give us storehouses?

4. How does Genesis 50:20 demonstrate that God puts us in specifics seasons of life for a reason? What great things is God preparing you for today?

5. How does the mission of FMSC connect to the life of Joseph?