Joseph #10

“Becoming a Believer of Integrity and Forgiveness”
The Life of Joseph #10
October 12, 2008
Pastor Ben Fleming

We have been studying the character of Joseph for the past 10 weeks. I pray that you have enjoyed studying this man’s life and that it has caused you to examine your own life and character. Joseph was a great man – but why? Why did the Spirit of God hover over his head more in the book of Genesis than any other man, including Abraham???? Joseph was not superhuman. He was a mere man. He never walked on water. He did not have a halo. He never performed a miracle and he certainly was not one who was free from trouble. Do not be deceived into thinking that he was a perfect saint and you could never live like him. He interpreted a few dreams with God’s help but he never gave a prophecy and as far as we know today – he never wrote any scripture. Why was he so great????? He had a great faith in God. He believed that God was in control and in full power over everything. His strong faith gave him a godly attitude. He knew and believed that God had a purpose for everything. It did not matter what happened to Joseph – he knew that God had a purpose for everything that happened in his life and all around him. Knowing and believing that God had a purpose was his key to greatness and it is your key to greatness in God’s kingdom. The purposes of God. Write that in on the blank at the top of your outline next to my name. PURPOSES OF GOD Turn in your bible to Genesis 50 and look at the top of your outline: the prophet Jeremiah wrote these words about God

Jeremiah 32:18 -19 “You show love to thousands but bring the punishment for the fathers’ sins into the laps of their children after them. O great and powerful God, whose name is the LORD Almighty, great are Your purposes and mighty are your deeds.

Your eyes are open to all the ways of men; you reward everyone according to his conduct and as his deeds deserve.” The prophet Jeremiah, who was known as the weeping prophet because he shed tears for the sins of God’s people. He was a prophet who suffered greatly like Joseph and yet He knew that the purposes of God were great. Psalm 33:11 “But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations.” Notice how the psalmist takes the purposes of God and says they come from the heart of God. Dr Luke wrote about David

Acts 13:36 “For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.”

Proverbs 16:4 The LORD has made everything for his own purposes, even the wicked for a day of disaster.

God makes the wicked for a day of disaster…………We want the purposes of God when they are good for us but what about when they cause us pain? Do we want the purposes of God when they seem like a human disaster???? What about when it seems unfair and not right? The purposes of God are not always easy to understand and get your mind around. We often only want one view of God – one that we agree with and one that kind of makes us feel good.

Deut 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.”

I thought of this as looking at this apple. (hold and turn) You can see one side of it and you think that by looking at the one side when you bite into it you are going to get apple that tastes good – it is not rotten or has bugs or worms in it --- but what is the other side like? GO PUT THE APPLE DOWN… What is your view of God? Is God good when everything is going your way and you are doing what you want? What happens to you when you run into evil? Does God use evil to accomplish His purposes? Does He bring disaster to accomplish His plan? Will you walk with God and pursue His purposes even when you have to walk through fire – pain – lonliness and hardship? God wants you to be able to echo and live out the words of Jeremiah - “great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds.”
Please stand with me as we read chapter 50.

Background
Joseph had revealed his identify to his brothers after giving them test after test and he saw that they were now men who could be trusted and indeed God had worked in their lives. Joseph told the brothers that it was God who had sent him on ahead to preserve the family of the Jewish nation. After talking with his brothers and catching up with them – he sends them back to Canaan and tells them to bring his father back to him. Pharaoh heard about this and says to “load animals and carts and go back to Canaan and bring your father and your households back to me. I will give them the best in the land of Egypt.” When the brothers arrived back in Canaan to their father and told him everything – he found it hard to believe but he could not explain the carts loaded down with food and all of the animals. So – Jacob and his 11 sons and families take off to Egypt and on the way down Jacob stops at Beersheba to offer sacrifices to God. MAP PHOTO PHOTO – this does not mean anything to you but in biblical history this is where Abraham and Isaac had lived years before and called on the name of the Lord in Genesis 21:22 and it is where Abraham died and God made the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12. (BLANK). And if you look in chapter 46:2… God speaks to Jacob and tells him to not be afraid as he goes down to Egypt and that in Egypt God would make him a great nation – so when they went down to Egypt there were 66 in all. The nation of Israel consisted of 66 people. Not one Hebrew was left in the Holy Land. Scholars have estimated that Jacob moved to Egypt in 1876 B.C. and in Exodus when they left Egypt some 430 years later there were some 600,00 men, women and children. God kept His promise did He not??? God had His purpose for everything that He did and everything that He brought about. He even used evil to bring about His purposes. So --- if God can keep His promise 3,000 years ago and fulfill His purposes can He still do that today???????

Jacob and the 11 brothers arrive in Egypt in chapter 46 and in verse 29 it says that Joseph threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.” Jacob was 130 years old at this time. He lived another 17 years and died at age 147. He lived his final years in luxury and got to be around Joseph’s children. We read at the beginning of chap. 50 that Jacob died and again we see the deep love of a son for his father when Joseph threw himself upon his father and wept over him. Joseph wept tears of grief. Pharaoh hears about Jacob’s desire to be buried in Canaan so he grants Joseph permission to honor his father’s request and the king treats Jacob like Egyptian royalty and all the Kings officials – Joseph and family make the trip north --- can you imagine what that scene was like going through the dessert???? They buried Jacob --- everyone returned to Egypt and if you look at chp. 50 vs. 15 --- the brothers got worried.

“perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may repay us for the evil which we did to him” so they sent someone to plead with Joseph and asked him to forgive them for the evil they did. Joseph wept when he heard this and says an amazing statement which I am going to spend the rest of our time on “do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God. But as for you – you meant evil against me – but God meant the evil for good.” Notice that it does not say that God allowed the evil but it says that God ordained the evil. Joseph comforted them and spoke kindly to them. The brothers had a hard time understanding the purposes of God but Joseph did not……. He knew that God had used the evil for good.

I want to take a moment to walk through with you what the bible says about God and evil. I want to look on the other side of the apple with you. Most believers cannot see God as having anything to do with evil. Joseph said, “what you meant for evil – God meant the evil for good.” Most people think like this: God is good and God is love and therefore he has nothing to do with evil. God cannot and will not be associated with evil. Evil is running loose and it determines what it wants to do and there is nothing that can constrain evil. Sounds good to you does it not? But, let me tell you that is wrong thinking. It is not biblical thinking. That is seeing only seeing one side of the apple. Let me read some scriptures I put on your outline:

God and Evil

Isaiah 46:10 God speaking, “I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say: My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please. “

(softly) God does what He pleases and man is in no position to question God and judge what He does. When God pleases Himself…… He is always 100% right and holy and without evil. That can include a hurricane or a tidal wave or anything that we might say does not come from God. Before these words in chapter 46 – Isaiah records other words that God spoke.

Isaiah 45:7 God speaking, “I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the LORD, do all these things.” That is what it says – there is no mistake in the bible. That is what the Hebrew says. …. God brings prosperity and God brings disaster. If God brings disaster to bring about His purposes do you see that as Holy or unholy? Is God therefore evil as He uses evil to bring about His purposes? NO ---- God is sovereign over evil – He controls evil and He uses evil and yet at no time is He ever evil.

Many believers have said that God could never have had anything to do with Sept 11, 2001? Did God allow Hitler to murder 6 million Jews? Did God use that evil? Could God have used the holocaust to bring about and fulfill prophecy and re establish the nation of Israel which He did in 1947 – 2 years after the last gas chambers?

Now I realize that what I am speaking to you about is difficult to understand and comprehend but it would be wrong of me not to address this with you ------it is my hope that you will learn to have a biblical worldview with the eyes of God. Remember Joseph said in chapter 50 “what you intended for evil, God meant that evil for good.” God used that evil – God took that evil and used it for good ---- God was Lord of the evil --- God was in control of the evil ---- the evil did not control God. COMMENTS: I have battled addressing this with you because I know that it is the deep deep meat of God ----- but the scriptures tells us in John 17:3 “This is eternal life that they may know you – the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” How much do you want to know God? I want you to have as full of understanding and knowledge of the God of the bible that you can

Deuteronomy 28:63 “Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please Him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.” God is always pleased to bring about His purposes in the lives of His children. God will always use what He chooses to use to bring it about and that includes evil and when He does it and when He brings it about at no time does He ever become evil or smell of evil.

There are many things that happen in this world. God is ruler and sovereign over them all. He does not sit back in a chair and watch His creation --- never never fall into that deceptive thinking – We do not know what God is doing. We do not know why God does what He does. God took my grandson and that was good. God had his purpose. The car crash – the cancer --- the house burning down ----- loosing your job ----- I firmly believe that God is bringing His hand down on this nation through this financial crash in our nation ---- we are either going to repent our not. What Joseph said about God and how God used the evil for good completely agrees with what Paul said in Romans 8:28 “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose.” God does not work all things for the good of everyone ----- this scripture verse is not a promise for all people. The verse does not say that. He works all things for the good of those who love Him and for those who have been called according to His purpose. Not all people have been called according to His purpose. But if you are a real Christian --- you have been and He will use all things for His purposes for your life.

Let me put it this way on a slide:

If you have a view of God that is always and must always be explainable to you then you have a small God. – Pastor Ben Fleming

Lessons about the Purposes of God

1. When God accomplishes His divine purposes in spite of our sins, we must never excuse ourselves for doing what was sin. God is sovereign in all aspects of life. This is how Joseph saw and understood who God was. Someone might be tempted to read and hear about Joseph and blame God for their sin. The brothers committed their sin but God used it to bring about His purposes but the responsibility for the sin of the brothers does not lie at the feet of God. The apostle James in the New Testament warns us of this kind of thinking.

James 1:13 -15 “When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone.” So never blame God for your sin. Never blame someone else for your sin. Never blame God for the sin that someone else committed against you --- …..look to God and ask God to use that evil for good. Look at what you are going through right now and expect that the purposes of God are being worked out and that one day you will be able to see them and walk in them.

2. On this earth, you will never be able to explain away all human suffering. God had a special plan for Joseph’s suffering. There are times when believers suffer and we will never understand why. How do we explain rape to a person who has been marred for life? How do we explain child abuse that leaves a person an emotional cripple? Suffering in general is related to the fact that we live in a world that is contaminated through with sin. The point is this: You can use your freedom to sin and make other people suffer and you can use your freedom to sin and cause suffering in your own life. But, because you cannot explain all human suffering never let that rob you of the joy that is found in knowing God and walking and reflecting the love of God in your own life.

3. Suffering is difficult to explain but a Christian has the potential to see the meaning of it and non believers do not. A non believer will always question and blame God. As a believer you have the opportunity to understand some of the purposes of suffering. Let me give you 4 purposes. Suffering can give a believer the opportunity to communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ to someone else. Suffering can help a believer understand the suffering of others. Suffering can produce Christian maturity. Suffering can bring a person to personal salvation

4. Suffering can give the believer an inner strength and mature and mold that believer beyond normal human capacities. This is what happened with Joseph and as you walk with God you can experience that in your own life as well. It is easy to drift away from God and His people. We are warned to be careful that we do not drift away. Especially when we suffer it is easy to draw away. Hebrews tells us to not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing but to encourage one another. God knows especially that when you are suffering you need the family of God – you need worship – you need prayer and to hear the prayers of others. (PHOTO) Dr Victor Frankl was a prisoner in a concentration camp in WW2. During his time he found that when one looked for meaning and purpose in suffering it brought hope – strength and enabled that person to endure and mature. He came out the other side alive because he had learned to focus on finding meaning in suffering. “What you meant for evil --- God meant for good.”

As I got to this point this past week KNIS came on with an interview of Pastor John Piper. He was being interviewed about his new book called Spectacular Sins – it addresses the issue of evil and God. I know that God wants His people to fully understand who He is and His complete sovereignty and power over evil. Would you stand with me this morning and say out loud with me the words of the prophet Jeremiah and may these be words that you do not just say but words that you experience in your journey with God through life on this earth.

Slide: O great and powerful God, whose name is the LORD Almighty, great are Your purposes and mighty are your deeds.