Joseph & the Multi-Coloured Roller Coaster

Joseph & The Many-Coloured Roller Coaster
Genesis 39-40

Joseph was preferred by God as His own conduit for blessing. 39-40

Preview: Sara’s throat injury
What are you thankful for that didn’t first appear to be a blessing?

a. Unseen depth of our brokenness:
b. Unseen depth of God’s engagement in our lives=GRACE.
c. Unseen CONFUSION of our MIS-perceptions.

I. The Story
A story for the short-sighted; a parable for the defeated.
Joseph on the roller-coaster ride in Egypt:
1. Sold as a slave by his brothers.
2. Rising to the heights in Potiphar’s household.
3. Falsely accused and imprisoned again in the dungeon.
4. Promises from God by the gift of interpretation of OTHER’s dreams!
a. The cupbearer
b. The baker
c. The Pharaoh
5. Rising to the heights in Pharaoh’s court.

a. Through the desert to Egypt: his brothers having sold Joseph, the teenager is transported across the Sinai to the fertile Nile delta.
i. He left an arrogant brother.
ii. He arrived in Egypt quite different.
1. He had accepted his “special status” in the family.
a. His brothers did away with him because he was prideful.
2. With Potiphar’s wife, he denied any special privileges.
a. She did away with him because he was humble.
b. From a slave in the desert to a slave in a household.
c. From the head of a household to a dungeon.
d. From a cell in a dungeon to head of the prison.
Along the way…
e. Power temptation—Joseph is placed in a privileged position, though a slave, as the head of household for a man of the highest position.
f. Sexual temptation
i. “a wicked thing”—not just wrong because she’s married, but because she’s not his wife.
ii. “sin”

Gen. 39:2 The LORD was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian.
Gen. 39:3 Now his master saw that the LORD was with him and how the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.
Gen. 39:4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer over his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.
Gen. 39:5 It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house on account of Joseph; thus the LORD’S blessing was upon all that he owned, in the house and in the field.
Gen. 39:6 So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate.
¶ Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

Gen. 39:21 But the LORD was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
Gen. 39:22 The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge all the prisoners who were in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.
Gen. 39:23 The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the LORD was with him; and whatever he did, the LORD made to prosper.

Gen. 40:4 The captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them, and he took care of them; and they were in confinement for some time.
Gen. 40:5 Then the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt, who were confined in jail, both had a dream the same night, each man with his own dream and each dream with its own interpretation.

Gen. 40:8 Then they said to him, “We have 1had a dream and there is no one to interpret it.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.”

Gen. 40:23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but aforgot him.

II. The Meaning of the Story
a. Unseen depth of our brokenness:
New Orleans was sinking year by year, decade by decade, century by century. Some realized that, others did not.
When debi and I honeymooned there, I was stunned to see with my own eyes that the Mississippi river, held back by a levee, was ABOVE the level of the protected streets. Parts of the city were 18 feet (5.4m) below sea level.
New Orleans was a disaster waiting to happen, but few knew and no one listened.

i. God sees Joseph’s character, among his brothers.
ii. God oversees the sale of Joseph by his brothers, preventing his murder through the intervention of the fourth son, Judah.
iii. Joseph’s faith response to God.
1. Gen. 40:8-- Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.”
2. Gen. 40:15 “For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.”
WE CAN’T SEE OURSELVES AS WE ARE!!
DiSC—we see ourselves as other’s see us…

b. Unseen depth of God’s engagement in our lives=GRACE.
Divine oversight of Joseph’s life and therefore of Abraham’s offspring.
i. Gen. 39--vv. 2,3, 21, 23--’the Lord was with Joseph’
1. This comment from the narrator explains the movements from the pit to the palace.
2. Joseph makes enemies for…
a. good reasons: lording it over his brothers
b. bad reasons: he refused to betray his lord
ii. He accompanies Joseph through the dessert to Egypt.
iii. He transforms Joseph’s heart on the journey.
1. Transformed from self-absorbed brat who might have delighted in the wife’s invitation.
2. Now, character enough to say, “no, this is sin, and this is wrong.”
3. The INNER TRANSFORMATION HAS EXTERNAL IMPACT.
DEEP INSIDE OUR LIVES, GOD’S PURPOSES ARE UNPACKING AND UNFOLDING.
Joseph was not aware of Judah’s move into the Canaanite camp, marrying a Canaanite woman; the drift towards Canaanites threatened God’s good purposes for Israel; the Egyptians mixed with NO-ONE! They wouldn’t even EAT in the presence of outsiders. In God’s good purposes, Israel was being moved into Egypt, to be preserved and to multiply unmixed for several hundred years.
God is at work in our lives: we just can’t yet see it all.

c. Unseen CONFUSION of our MIS-perceptions.
i. Does this “bad thing” prove God is against me?
1. Things often “go wrong”!
2. Debi’s story:
Her dad was a career Air Force officer; they moved regularly from posting to posting. Twice, the assignment was Guam. During the first assignment, the family moved into officer’s housing, only to be moved again shortly.
You might imagine the frustration of a young mum, having just moved to the island with two very young daughters, only to be told they would have to move again immediately.
So, they did.
A week later, an Air Force plane crashed on approach, INTO THE HOUSE THEY HAD JUST VACATED.
I’m sure my mother-in-law was happy to have moved; and I am happy to be married to the toddler who was NOT in harm’s way.
THINGS OFTEN DO NOT GO THE WAY WE INTEND;
GOD ALWAYS WORKS OUT HIS GOOD INTENTIONS,
EVEN WHEN THEY MIGHT SEEM TO BE GOING AGAINST US.







III. Takeaways
If God is in charge of things, He must be either cruel or incompetent.
i. I’m alone.
ii. I’m deeply wounded by someone close to me, someone I trusted; who’s protecting me??
iii. I’m greatly disappointed by the circumstances of my life; this is NOT the way things were supposed to go.
This story tells us something completely different: God’s wises purposes are a fit with”bad” things that happen in our lives.

* God’s commitment to His own is unbending and without compromise, even though UNSEEN.

* God’s purposes can be recognized if we have eyes to see, but God continues his work even when we remain blind to them.
1. He doesn’t ask us NOT to believe what we see;
2. He asks us to more thoroughly believe what we hear from Him.

* God is delighted with what only God can do.
3. This is not about Doing Better!
a. If good intentions could save the day, they would have!
b. The stories of the Bible have no human heroes;
c. God’s active grace in the stories makes HIM the HERO.
4. Transform a heart, through the desert.
5. Give sight to the blind, in the darkness of a dungeon.

What are you thankful for that didn’t first appear to be a blessing?
We can be thankful that God is active in our lives, though out of sight.

ANOTHER, LATER, JOSEPH CAME TO WALK THE ROADS OF THE CANAANITES; HE SPOKE OF THE DEPTHS OF OUR BROKENNESS, THE GREATER PURPOSES OF GOD THE FATHER, UNFOLDING IN GRACE.
THAT NEW and GREATER JOSEPH WAS ARRESTED, STRIPPED, AND PUT TO DEATH.
All who will hear him, and trust him will become part of his family, and enjoy His friendship, FIND REST FROM WORRY AND ANXIETY, BECAUSE His purposes as good.

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
in light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise.

To all, life thou givest, to both great and small;
in all life thou livest, the true life of all;
we blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
and wither and perish, but naught changeth thee.