Faithfulness in the Pits

Transcript

GRS 10
4/06/1986
Faithfulness in the Pits
Old Testament Survey
Genesis 36-40
Gil Rugh

The Book of Genesis in your Bibles. The Book of Genesis. And we’re going to be beginning our study together in chapter 36. We’ve been surveying the content of the Book of Genesis and seeing God’s unfolding plan in developing and bringing into existence a people for Himself. Now keep in mind that the material in Genesis would have been committed to written record by Moses about the time of the deliverance of the Children of Israel from Egypt. And so the record of these events would be a great encouragement to the Israelites as God has brought them out of the Land of Egypt, takes them through the wilderness and ultimately will bring them into the Land of Canaan. Here they’ll have before them that reminder that it has been God’s plan to establish them in that land as His people. And now he is bringing that to pass. As you study the life of the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we’re reminded that God did not choose these men because of their own personal character of greatness. That they are human beings with their deficiencies and shortcomings, and I must say that I find it tremendously encouraging to see God sovereignly working in their lives in spite of their failures, in spite of their shortcomings. It’s amazing how God can accomplish His purposes even using fallen human beings. Chapter 35 of Genesis concluded with the death of Isaac and Esau and Jacob, his two sons, join together at the burial of Isaac. Isaac having lived 180 years, the longest of the patriarchs. Now he is buried and the Scriptural record will pick up with Jacob, because is the one through whom the promises will be fulfilled. They come from Abraham through Isaac through Jacob to the twelve patriarchs. But there are two sons in view: Esau and Jacob. Now we have been considering the record of Jacob’s life. Now with chapter 36 there is going to be a break and we’re going to be reminded of the family with chapter 37. So in many ways chapter 36 is a parenthesis, but it’s important to understand something of Esau’s family, because they are going to play an important role all through the rest of the Old Testament. And sad to say, they are going to be the adversaries of Israel. And this too will be an important reminder for Israel as Moses commits this material to writing to their benefit because as they come in to Canaan they are going to find themselves dealing with the descendants of Esau on many occasions. Now it’s going to be stressed throughout this chapter that Esau is Edom. So when you talk about Edom you’re talking about the descendants of Esau. Now that’s significant because Israel is going to have a continual struggle with the Edomites and the Book of Obadiah the prophet Obadiah addresses the conflict with the Edomites and God’s judgment as a result of their opposing His people.

So chapter 36 opens up, “Now these are the records of the generations of Esau.” You can just title this chapter “Esau’s descendants’, that’s what the whole thing is about. We’re just going to highlight it since we’re not going to take the time to look at each of these descendants. In verses 2 and 3 of chapter 36 you have the wives of Esau and if you compare this with chapter 26 and verse 34 and chapter 28 and verse 9, you’ll see that the names don’t mesh, of his wives. There are several possibilities. Perhaps some of his earlier wives had dies. Perhaps these are additional wives, favored wives, and so they are given a focal point here. It could be that some of the names overlap for example, Esau, he is also Edom. Well perhaps we have an occasion here with a wife or two being known by more than one name. So there are a variety of possibilities. Just a reminder to you that you may, if you study this closer, you’ll see that the names don’t necessarily overlap in all those passages. Then you go down and find out the descendants of each of his wives, and in verse 6, verse 7, you’ll find that Esau moved out of the area where Jacob was living. Because they had so much property that they couldn’t live together. They were getting in each other’s way, and that brought conflict. So Esau now leaves the region which again is in the plan of God because Jacob and his descendants are the focal point. And Esau moves, you’ll note in verse 8, to the country of Seir. Esau is in Edom. And that reminder again. We started that out in verse 1. Now we are reminded again. Esau is Edom. Because this region is going to take on the name of Edom and the people here will be known as the Edomites since Esau will become the dominant people. These then in verse 9 are the records of the generations of Esau the father of the Edomites in the hill country of Seir. Now you see what he has done? He has identified for us Esau, related him to Edom, related him to the Edomites. A reminder to Israel of the background of these people who will be their opponents and their foes on many occasions. And the names, then, of Esau’s sons are mentioned. Come down to verse 16. I just want to pick out one name here. Verse 16 you have “chief Korah, chief Gatam, and chief Amalek.” And I mention Amalek, because Amalek becomes one of Israels’ bitterest enemies through the Old Testament. They attack Israel as they come out of the land of Egypt. In Exodus chapter 17, beginning with verse 8. You have the attack of the Amalekites who are the descendants of Amalek. They are going to be finally destroyed under the reign of Hezikiah much later in Israel’s history. But a note here that when you read about the Amalekites and you can consider some of the other peoples that are mentioned here, you see, you’re dealing with the foes of Israel. Come down to verse 20. We pick up with the sons of Seir, the Horite. Now you say, What this got to do with Esau? Well, Seir the Horite is the original, they are the original people his family that settled the region of Edom or the Edomites. What happens is Esau comes in and takes over and dominates this region. He intermarries with these people. So they in effect become the family of Esau and he takes over their land. Then you have those descendants mentioned. In verse 31 you have a note “Now these are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the sons of Israel.” You say, well, if Moses was writing this, how could he be writing this occurred before there was any king? Again, a couple of possibilities. One, this could be a historical addition, added later on by someone later than Moses as an update and a clarification, that’s no problem. I t could be that as God directed Moses in his writing we know from what Moses has written already of God’s revelation, there are going to be kings in the family of Abraham. And so it may be that Moses is simply writing under inspiration noting the kings of the Edomites preceded the kings of Israel. Either way are possibilities. Then on through further of the descendants in the line, concluding in verse 40 to 43 the chiefs descended from Esau, identifying them now with their localities, where they are. That chapter then draws together the family the descendants of Esau, the enemies of Israel.

Now in chapter 37 we’re going to return to the account of the family of Jacob. So you see in verse 2 of chapter 37, “These are the records of the generations of Jacob.” And we’re really picking up from the end of chapter 35. And that’s why we say chapter 36 is almost a parentheses as Genesis now is concerned with unfolding God’s plan and God’s working with His chosen people, it’s but a break in there, because Esau is significant in God’s dealings with His chosen people. Chapter 37 begins the history of Joseph. And it’s going to unfold something of God’s sovereign control. We call it God’s providence and the events of the lives of His children. How God is controlling and working and directing in all the events of all the details to accomplish His purposes in His chosen people. Also shows hos God’s going to use suffering to mold and shape and develop the character of the man Joseph who’s going to become the dominant theme now from chapter 37 through the rest of the Book of Genesis. In fact, except for chapter 49 of Genesis, the rest of Genesis is about Joseph. Now Joseph is the son of Jacob, so it’s about the family of Jacob, but Joseph is the person, the subject of the rest of the Book of Genesis. He comes on the scene quite frankly as a breath of fresh air. We read about Abraham. He’s mighty man of faith, but we also read about Abraham’s failures. Isaac. He had his failures. Jacob. He had many of his failures. You come to Joseph, there’s nothing bad written about Joseph. That doesn’t mean he never did anything wrong. We’re going to see in chapter 37 there are at least some things that raise some questions, but there is nothing directly said concerning any of Joseph’s failures. Areas of rebellion. In fact, when the opportunity presents itself, Joseph comes through with flying colors. Now God had revealed to Abraham, you remember, that it was His intention to bring His people, the descendants of Abraham, under the control and domination of a foreign people. He was going to do them, was going to do this to preserve them and keep them until it was time to conquer Canaan. Come back to Genesis 15 as a reminder. Genesis chapter 15. Look at verse 13. “And God said to Abraham. Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs where they will be enslaved and oppressed 400 years. As for you, you shall go to your father’s in peace. You shall be buried at a good old age.” This isn’t going to happen in Abraham’s lifetime. Then in the fourth generation, generation at this time being about a hundred years, he’s just told us it will be for 400 years at the end of verse 13, they shall return here. So you see he’s going to put them under a foreign power and it’s going to be under a foreign power outside the land of Canaan. So it’s not going to be they’re going to be conquered and ruled over in Canaan. But they’re going to be ruled over by a foreign people outside of Canaan. They shall return here for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. See how God’s sovereignly working? It’s not time for judgment on the Amorites, the Canaanites. So I’m going to hold my people in Egypt, He doesn’t specify the place here, for 400 years. That will develop that nation. We’ll see, one of the purposes is it keeps them from being assimilated into the Canaanites. And it also prepares the Canaanites for God’s judgment. It wasn’t time yet for judgment. It’s going to take hundreds of years to bring the Canaanites to that point before God. Back to chapter 37. Chapter 37 is about “Joseph sold by his brothers.” Joseph sold into slavery. That’s the subject of chapter 37. “Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned, in the land of Canaan. These are the records of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, when seventeen years of age,” so here’s the time line for us how old is Joseph? He’s seventeen when we pick up the account of what is going on here. “He was pasturing the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father.” See they have the same father, but they have different mothers. And so this family is divided according to the mother. And Joseph is not very popular and he’s out in the field where they are pasturing he comes back and tells dad evidently they weren’t doing a good job. They had fallen down on the job. Now in verse 3 you see the problem’s compounded, “Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age.” Remember the events of the birth of Joseph. “He made him a varicolored tunic.” Here you see a breakdown. There is preference demonstrated in the family, and it becomes common knowledge that Jacob or Israel loves Joseph more than any of the other kids. In fact, Jacob displays his affection by giving Joseph what is called here a varicolored tunic, a robe worn, a cloak worn that marked him off as his father’s favorite. Now you can see how this would cause tension in any family. We’ve got compound tension here because we’ve got different mothers involved so different sets of loyalty. We’ve already seen how this kind of conflict worked in these families where there was polygamy going on. And now Jacob says Joseph is my favorite and here is a special cloak for Joseph to wear so that every time he walked in and they looked at that cloak would say this is daddy’s favorite and I love him more than I love you. Now this varicolored tunic could be a variety of things. It could be a coat of many colors. That how we have it translated here, a varicolored tunic, different colors in it. It could be some would see it a long robe with sleeves in it sometimes used for that or a ceremonial robe that would have ornaments on it. I’m just as comfortable with multi-colored anything. The point of it is it was a garment that marked him out as special and apart from the rest of the brothers and the object of his father’s love. That’s going to create problems. Verse 4, “His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers; and so they hated ham and could not speak to him on friendly terms.” Their hatred was so deep they couldn’t even say a kind word to Joseph. Now the problem is going to get a little stickier, because Joseph is a dreamer and he has a dream. Now this is where you begin to wonder about the wisdom of Joseph. When he has the dream he goes and tells his brothers. “He said to them, ‘Please listen to this dream which I have had; for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves bowed down, gathered around and bowed down to me.’” That’s not geared to win his brothers over. Because the brothers understand the significance of it in verse 8, “’Are you actually going to reign over us? Are you really going to rule over us?’ So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.” Now Scripture never indicates any wrong motives to Joseph here and I think we ought to be careful about attributing them. It may be Joseph is really this innocent. And the rest of the Scripture record would support that. You do cringe a little bit because now he’s going to have another dream, and he’s going to run and tell his brothers that dream too. So verse 9, he had another dream, “’And lo, I have had still another dream and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ And he related it to his father and to his brothers; and his father rebuked him and said to him, ‘What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to bow ourselves down before you to the ground?’” Now it’s not only the brothers, the eleven stars, but the sun and moon. Sun representing the father, the moon representing the mother. So it’s not only the brothers, but also the parents are going to bow down before Joseph. And I take it god is revealing here what he is going to do in Joseph’s life, and he intended for all the family to know it. So that when it would come to pass, they would see the hand of God at work in this event. Well, having done that, he’s got this fine garment that marks him off as special to his father, he’s told on his brothers when they didn’t do their job right, he’s shared a couple of dreams he had which indicated I’m going to be above you and you’re going to bow down to me. Now the brothers are sent off to go pasture the flock in other places, Shechem and then on to Dothan. Jacob’s a little concerned about them so he sends Joseph to check up. You remember Shechem was the area where the brothers had executed the people of the city for raping their sister, maybe Jacob’s a little nervous about them being out there. At any rate, he sends Joseph to get a report. And Joseph finds them and he’s coming to them in verse 18 and “They saw him at a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. And they said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer! Now then, come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; and we will say, “A wild beast devoured him.” Then let us see what will become of his dreams!’” Now the brothers aren’t above this, because remember they executed a whole city. The men in the city of Shechem for violating their sister. But Reuben, Reuben is the eldest. He’s had some character deficiencies himself being involved in incest, but he comes to the rescue of Joseph. Perhaps as the eldest he feels the responsibility for Joseph. And he suggests they just drop him in a pit rather than kill him. His idea was he’s come back and rescue him. The brothers would think we’ll just let him die in the pit. Reuben thought I’ll come back and get him out and that’ll work out all right. Well, they take his tunic, that fine garment his father had given him, and throw him into the pit. They sit down to eat in verse 25. You see the callousness of it. That doesn’t affect their appetite one little bit. Verse 25, “They sat down to eat a meal.” As they are eating they see a caravan coming. It’s a caravan of Ishmaelites, so here’s more of the family getting into the picture. Down in verse 28 they are called Midianite traders and the name Ishmaelite and Midianite is used interchangeably. Both people are descendants of Abraham, the Ishmaelites by Hagar, the Midianites by Abraham through his concubine or second wife Katura. You see, if Abraham had just stuck with Sarah and had Isaac and let it go at that, the whole rest of Israel’s history would have been greatly simplified. But here you have the Ishmaelites, the Midianites, and Judah, verse 26, comes up with a plan. Let’s not kill our brother, let’s sell him into slavery. So they sell him to the Midianites for 20 shekels silver which seems to be the going price for a slave in this point in time in the early second millennium before Christ, about 2,000 years, that early section of the second millennium before Christ. Now they have to go and tell their father what happened. Reuben comes back, of course, finds the pit empty. Evidently he was out, perhaps with the flock when they made arrangements and sold Joseph. He comes back, he’s in despair. What they do now is they kill one of the goats, put blood all over Joseph’s garment. Now they’re going back to their father. Verse 33, they give him the garment, they say, we found this in the field does this look like Joseph’s garment? Verse 33, “He examined it and said, ‘It is my son’s tunic. A wild beast has devoured him; Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!’” You know what’s happening here? Deception again. Remember Jacob the deceiver. He deceived his own father, remember, with the goat’s skin. Now he’s being deceived with the goat’s blood. And this family can’t get away from the pattern of deception and you get the idea like father, like son and now the sons are following the pattern of the father’s deception. So Jacob mourns and in verse 36, “The Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard.” You want a mark a date for this? It would be about 1875 B.C. The way you come at that, now don’t get lost in this, but you might want to write down the Scripture passages. 1 Kings chapter 6 and verse 1. Don’t turn there, but 1 Kings 6:1 says, that the fourth year of Solomon’s reign, when King Solomon reigned , the fourth year of his reign was 480 after the Exodus. Well, we can date pretty much the fourth year of Solomon’s reign as 966 B.C. So you just back up from that 480 years. We know the date of the Exodus. It’d be about 1446, 1445 B.C. We know that the Egyptian bondage was 430 years long. Book of Exodus tells us that in Exodus chapter 12 and verse 40. So we go back from 1446, 1445, 430 years and we come to 1875 B.C. So that’s how we arrive at that date and then we can identify who was the pharaoh at that time, Sistosterous, I know you’d want to know that, and Sistosterous was pharaoh from 1878 to 1843 in Egypt. So it’s amazing how much material we can begin to develop as the background for what is going on here. Joseph is now a slave in Egypt. Now we’ve got another break in the story that fits the pattern, but it’s sort of an ugly story, in fact one commentator said there’s nothing you want to preach in Genesis 38, so I won’t preach about it, I’ll just share with you some highlights.

It serves a very important purpose. It does two basic things. It shows the moral deterioration not only in Canaan but the moral deterioration that is affecting the chosen family of God which will make necessary his removing them from Canaan to maintain their distinctive identity and purity. It’s also going to clarify the line of succession through which ultimately Jesus Christ Himself will come, because remember even though the rest of Genesis is about Joseph, Jesus Christ is not of the family of Joseph. Jesus Christ is of the family of Judah. And chapter 38 is about Judah. It helps set the line of Messianic succession. Chapter 38, “And it came about at that time, that Judah departed from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a ceratin Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her and went in to her. So she conceived and bore him a son.” You see what happened? You go back to earlier chapters like Genesis chapter 34 and the chosen family were not taking wives from among the Canaanites. But now we find Judah taking a wife from among the Canaanites, and so there is a breaking down of the distinctiveness and the barriers here. She bears him two sons, Er in verse 3 and Onan in verse 4 and then another son in verse 5, Shelah. Now the problem is Er sins and we’re not told what the sin is, God kills him. Whatever the sin was it was severe enough that God intervenes and takes Er’s life. Now the problem is, Er had a wife. The wife was Tamar in verse 6. Now since Er is dead and he has a wife Tamar and he has no children by Tamar, there is a relationship to be established called a leverit marriage. Leverit marriage. Leverit comes from the Latin word levir, levir which means “husband’s brother”. And a leverit marriage was when a man died without fathering a son his brother took him as his wife, even if he already had a wife, and the first born son born of that relationship was counted as the son of the dead husband. What that did was guarantee the succession of that family. The property and everything would stay then in that dead brother’s line, because he now had a son that was counted as his. And so verse 8, “Judah said to Onan, ‘Go into your brother’s wife, and perform your duty as a brother-in-law to her, raise up offspring for your brother.’” You see what happens here. The children born especially the first son, will be considered the son of Er, not of Onan. “Onan knew that the offspring would not be his; so it came about that when he went in to his brother’s wife, he wasted his seed on the ground, in order not to give offspring to his brother. But what he did was displeasing in the sight of the Lord; so he took his life also.” See some direct intervention here, because these are the people of God, and God is still controlling to keep them on the track if you will, as His people. Now later on in the law in Deuteronomy chapter 25, verse 5 to 10, the leverit marriage will be incorporated into the law of Israel, guaranteeing the family lines would continue. We know from historical records that the leverit marriage was practiced at this point in time early in the second millennium B.C. among various nations. Now what the problem is, Onan knew that it wouldn’t be his child, and his brother Er was the firstborn and Onan knows if there are no children for Tamar I become the heir of my father. So he’s unwilling to father a child for his brother because he wants to inherit how own father’s possessions have the right of the firstborn. So he does not consummate the relationship. He spills the seed on the ground. The name Onan has given his name, he has given his name to this act onanism that continues down until today. Now I want to note something here. The sin of Onan was not failure to consummate the relationship in and of itself. The spilling of the seed, some take this therefore to mean that any time that contraceptives. Contraception is not the goal in the sexual union in marriage; it’s sin. That’s not the point. The point here is that Onan is to beraising up seed to his brother, and he won’t do it. That’s what makes his action wrong and sin before God. The unwillingness to raise seed to his brother, for his brother. We need to be careful that we don’t get off the track on what is really being driven home here. He knew it wouldn’t be his seed, but his brother’s so he’s unwilling to raise up seed to his brother. For that he is executed by God. You ought to note that this was a common practice. When it says in verse 9, “It came about that when he went into his brother’s” that word translated “when” would be more accurately translated “whenever”. This just did not happen on one occasion, but it was his practice, so he took Tamar as his wife, and he’s carrying on a sexual relationship with her, but he’s unwilling to fulfill his responsibility in raising up seed to his brother. So how long this went on before God intervened, we’re not told, but it says “whenever he went into his brother’s wife” this was his practice. So God takes his life as well. “So then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, ‘Remain a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.’” Gotta let Shelah get a little older here. Shelah here is a man, it’s his son. Then I’ll give Shealh as a husband. But deception is occurring. Judah doesn’t have any intention to give Tamar his other son. He’s already lost two. I think he thinks this lady may be a little bit jinxed. And so he is lying and that’s we’re told that at the end of verse 11. “He thought, ‘I am afraid that he too may die like his brothers.’” So what he’s doing, he’s just delaying it. And what he’s going to do is conveniently forget about it. “Tamar went and lived in her father’s house.” What you have from verses 12 through 19 are rather unpleasant account of Judah. Judah goes at harvest time or at the shearing time up to another region. His daughter-in-law Tamar realizes she’s never going to get Shelah for a husband. She dresses as a prostitute, which involved veiling her face, sits up by the road, Judah’s wife has died, so he sees a prostitute sitting here, he makes arrangements to go in and have sex with the prostitute, not knowing that it’s his daughter-in-law Tamar. He agrees that he’ll bring a goat from his flock to pay her, a kid from the flock in verse 17. She says, “Well, what will you give me as security so I know that you send the kid?” He said, “What do you want?” “I want your seal, I want the cord that holds your seal as you hang it around your neck,” a little cylindrical seal that would have hung around the neck, “and your staff,” and the staff would have been a distinctive carved staff that would have been marked off as belonging to Judah. Then when you send the kid I’ll send these things back to you. Judah goes in, has sex with Tamar, returns to his flock, sends his friend up with the kid, and he can’t find the prostitute. Comes back to Judah and says, can’t find her. Well, you’re familiar with the story, three months later in verse 24, Tamar’s found to be pregnant, and Judah says we’ve got to kill her, burn her, execute her, and she brings out Judah’s seal, Judah’s cord and Judah’s staff and says now I’m pregnant by the man who owns these things. And you have to give Judah credit at this point. He acknowledges she was right and he was wrong. He had been untrue to her by withholding his third son Shelah. Now you say, why do we have this, you know we don’t have to stir up all the dirt, all the muck and the mire, do you? Well, what is going to happen in verse 27 is she’s going to have twins. And as she’s giving birth to the twins, one of the twins comes out reaches his hand out, the midwife marks the wrist of the son. Because keep in mind the firstborn is important in this society. The firstborn becomes the heir, he gets the double portion and so on. So they mark the wrist of the firstborn to be sure there won’t be any mistake. But then the other one squeezes through first, and so they call him breach and the word is Perez. And the other is called Zerah. Now that’s significant, because here you see God overruling. Even though the midwife marks off Zerah as the firstborn, Perez is chosen by God as the true firstborn and he will appear first in all the genealogies, he is the one that will appear in the genealogical list of Christ in the book of Matthew, for example. So what you have here is how does Perez get in the Matthew genealogy? Very simple. He is the son of Judah through his daughter-in-law. And you know what? There are very few women in the genealogy of Christ. But turn over to Matthew 1 quickly. Matthew chapter 1, verse 3. “And to Judah were born Perez and Zerah by Tamar.” It’s interesting to me that one of the few women picked out to be in the genealogy would be Tamar and her son, and you note Perez and Zerah are mentioned and to Perez was born Hezron because the Messianic line is going to come from Judah through Perez. And not necessarily the way we would like it to happen. An incestuous relationship, when Judah thought he was having sex with a prostitute, it was his daughter playing the role of a prostitute, and yet in God’s sovereign plan, Perez, who was born of this will be the line of the Messiah. So you have chapter 38, does two things: It establishes the Messianic line coming through Judah through Perez. It also draws clearly to our attention, does it not, the corruption that is beginning to make its way even into the chosen family? For Judah not only married a Canaanite, but after her death he’s out consorting with one that is dressed as a cultic prostitute. You see at the time of the sheep shearing these prostitutes were there because they were part of the whole process of prosperity and so on in the worship system of the Canaanites. And Judah is involved with a prostitute. So the Canaanite lifestyle and influence is beginning to corrupt the people. It’s going to be necessary for God to pull his people out of the land, isolate them, build them into the nation and then put them back in the land. Sort of like a period of incubation.

And we come to chapter 39, we pick up with Joseph again. And Joseph the last time we was him, I think it’s getting dark, right? Okay. The last we saw Joseph, he had been sold to Potiphar’s wife. Chapter 39, one of the more familiar stories of the Old Testament. Three movements through this chapter. The first six verses are the elevation of Joseph. He’s going to become an important man in his masters’ house. Then in verses 7 to 18 you’re going to have the temptation of Joseph and then in verse 19 to 23 the imprisonment of Joseph. I want you to note that there is a constant reminder through this chapter that God was with Joseph and it’s going to seem like God has forgotten about Joseph and everything that happens to Joseph through this chapter seems to be taking a downward turn. And that’s going to continue into chapter 40 as well. And yet we’re reminded four time, just note these. In verse 2, we’re told that the Lord was with Joseph. Verse 3, his master saw that the Lord was with him. Verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph. Verse 23, the chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him. So the chapter opens and closes on the same note: the Lord is with Joseph. Do you for the idea that the Lord is with Joseph doesn’t seem to be working very much on his behalf? Because Joseph is going to go from being an important person as a servant to being a prisoner in a dungeon. Verses 1 to 6, Joseph is sold to Potiphar, and Potiphar uses Joseph as a servant and he sees that God is blessing Joseph, so he entrusts Joseph with all of his possessions. Joseph rules the house of Potiphar. He’s a servant, but he’s an honored servant. He’s given responsibility over the house of Potiphar. Now there’s a problem at the end of verse 6. Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. He was a good looking man. He’s one of three men in the Old Testament that are called beautiful. And I forget the other two. Absalom is one. David may be the other. I don’t remember the third. But at any rate he’s special, he’s good looking. He’s the kind of man the girls today would sort of, you know, ooh and ah over. Verse 7, “It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, ‘Come lie with me.’” Now here is the temptation that is going to strike out to Joseph. One writer noted an important point that I thought we ought to, you ought to mark it down, maybe on the flyleaf of your Bible. “Temptation always comes in days of prosperity and ease.” Temptation always comes in days of prosperity and ease. And you know, I think about that, even in our own body. Who are those getting involved in things they should not, we see marriages break up, we find affairs going on, people running off with other people’s husbands and wives. They’re not the people in the hospital struggling for their life. People that somehow in the time of ease and prosperity, the good life as much as it could be in his circumstances. And this temptation comes to him. Verse 8 and verse 9 Joseph refused, “Behold, with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil, and sin against God?” Two reasons. Joseph says I can’t do it. Number one I want to be faithful to my master. Number two, I want to be faithful to my God. And you note Joseph has right perspective. How could I do this evil and sin against God? She is persistent. It goes on all the time, continually. Verse 10, day after day. One day he goes into the house to do some duties and it happens that none of the other men, none of the other servants are there, and she grabs onto Joseph, verse 12 grabbed on to his garment and said, “Lie with me.” Let’s go to bed together. And that famous action of Joseph. He just turned around and ran out the door and left her holding his robe. He fled the temptation. Now I take it this tells us something here. That perhaps Joseph didn’t find her unattractive. That’s not the issue. Evidently he recognizes that there is a real temptation here that he could be caught up in. And sometimes the better part of valor is to turn around and run. Couple of passages, jot ‘em down from the New Testament, 1 Corinthians 6:18: “Flee immorality.” 2 Timothy 2 :2: “Flee youthful lust.” You know what Joseph’s doing? He’s fleeing. Sometimes we get in trouble because we stay and dabble, we debate, we think we’ll handle it. This is no time for Joseph to enter into a theological debate. He just turns around and runs off, leaves his garment there. Well, the woman makes up a story. He tried to force me to have sex with him. When I screamed he got scared and ran off, and here’s his garment as proof. When her husband hears that story he is furious. Here I’ve trusted Joseph and he does this to me. He throws him in the dungeon. Now it seems like Joseph has been as faithful to God as he could be, and God hasn’t honored that faithfulness. What has Joseph got for his trouble? Now he is in prison. You know it’s be easy to think if you were Joseph, I’d of been better off to give in. Couldn’t come out much worse than being in this dungeon. You know Genesis doesn’t make reference to the suffering that Joseph endured in that dungeon. We might get the idea it was part picnic, but that’s not what dungeon prisons were. Look over in Psalm 105, Psalm 105. You see here God’s working with the nation Israel. And in verse 16 he called for a famine upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, and it’s into Egypt he was sent, that’s Joseph. Joseph who was sold as a slave. You see, God was preparing for the coming down of the rest of the family during famine. Note what they say in verse 18, they afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid with irons, when Joseph was sentenced to prison by Potiphar, he was put in chains, his feet were bound in chains. It was a very unpleasant and trying experience for Joseph. And you know why it happened to him? He was faithful to God. He had been unwilling to sin against God, to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And this is what he gets for it. Come back to Genesis. It turns out for good from the standpoint that in prison God gives Joseph favor with the prison keeper. And so Joseph is given responsibility to oversee other prisoners. And so we’re told as the chapter closes, “The Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.” But it seems like Joseph is being progressively demoted. He started out in his father’s house as the most important son, the son of favor. Then he’s sold into slavery in Egypt, well that’s a step down, he’s lost his freedom, but at least he had the role of an important servant in an important man’s house. Then because he’s faithful to God he’s sent to prison, it’s another step down. The Lord’s with him, but now he has responsibility in a dungeon. It seems like the more the Lord’s with him and the more the Lord prospers him the further down he goes. Good reminder. You sometimes think, Lord, I’ve tried to be so faithful to you, why does this happen to me? Be easy for Joseph to say that, wouldn’t it? Lord, what have I done? I’ve tried to honor you, I’ve tried to walk in a way that would obey you. Now here I am in a dungeon. One who started out as the important son of an important man, and now all a can boast about is that I have some responsibility in this prison. Well, chapter 40.

Joseph, the baker and the butler. Meet some important people in prison, and Joseph’s going to meet the baker and the butler. Or the cup-bearer, more accurately. I used butler because it was another “B” to go with baker, not for any good translation reason. While Joseph is in prison, the king’s cup-bearer and the king’s baker do something to displease the pharaoh, and they are cast into the dungeon. Now the sup-bearer and the baker are important people. They had to do with the king’s food and the preparation of his food. So they are positions of honor. They are very close to the king. The Pharaoh is the king of Egypt. Whatever they did, they stirred up his wrath, he cast them into prison, there Joseph has some responsibility for them. And they had a dream one night, both the cup-bearer and the baker. Now Joseph hears about it and in verse 8 they’re sad when he comes to see them that day. They said to him, “We have had a dream. There is no one to interpret it.” Then Joseph said, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.” This verse leaps out to me that Joseph has not lost his faith in God. Here he is on the downward side and what’s he say, “Oh, it’s God who can interpret dreams. Tell it to me.” Why? I have a personal relationship with God. He can reveal to me about your dream. Joseph’s not sitting there thinking, God’s abandoned me. Maybe that was a bad move. I should have taken up with Potiphar’s wife. That would have brought me into more influence. No he’s still confident here. God’s in control. You had a dream? Well, God interprets dreams and I talk to God, so tell me your dream. So the cup-bearer tells him his dream and the basic result of it is Joseph tells him that in three days Pharaoh is going to restore him to his former position of honor. Verse 14, “Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. 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.” So don’t get the idea Joseph’s enjoying his stay, even though he has some responsibility. He’s a prisoner with responsibility. And he says here I’ve told your dream. Note, he has no doubt whatsoever that that dream is going to be fulfilled just as he has interpreted it. He has full confidence in God and the interpretation God’s given him. So his confidence in God’s power and God’s working on his behalf hasn’t been shaken. And he probably thinks well here’s maybe the way God wants to work. Because I interpret the dream for the cup-bearer, I can just see why God had this cup-bearer come to prison, can’t you? It was so that he would have this dream and then I would interpret it, he’ll go and tell Pharaoh about me and Pharaoh will release me from prison. Isn’t it amazing how God sovereignly works on behalf of His children? Well, the chief baker hears that interpretation, and it’s so good he thought I’ll give Joseph a try myself. So he tells Joseph his dream. Too bad for the chief baker. Three days for him too, but in three days Pharaoh’s going to lift his head up and hang him on a tree, leave him hang there until the birds are done eating all the flesh. That’ll be the end of the chief baker. Verse 20, “It came about on the third day, which was the Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief cup-bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cup-bearer to his office. He restored the chief cup-bearer (see it is easier to call him a butler) to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand; but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.” So it comes about that Joseph’s interpretation comes true for each of the men. But note the end of the chapter, verse 23, “Yet the chief cup-bearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” Now I have to believe that that was a blow to Joseph. You know how we get our lives all arranged and we go through a difficulty and a trial and it seems like things are pressing in on us, and all of a sudden we can see how God’s going to work this out. Just like Joseph could have seen, Now I can see why God put me here, why God brought the cup-bearer.” You know what, Joseph not only has months to go, he’s got years to go in that prison. And, I’ve got to believe there were times when he said, God, have you forgotten about me? God, do you remember I’m still here? Couldn’t God have prodded the memory of that cup-bearer when he stood before Pharaoh and put it into his mind to say, Pharaoh you know what? There was a man in that prison who told me exactly what was going to happen. But he doesn’t. But you ought to note something. The cup-bearer forgot Joseph, but God didn’t forget Joseph. You see, God is not done molding and shaping and preparing Joseph for the great work that He has for him to do. Has God failed Joseph? Not in the least. You know, a good reminder for me, a good reminder to all of us. We need to recognize God’s at work. He’s doing what He does for our good and he’s developing our character. He’s molding and shaping us. Now not everyone goes through what Joseph did. But you know there are not many that are used a greatly as Joseph was either. You know, Joseph’s not going to be taken out of prison and given some side responsibility. God is preparing Joseph to rule the land of Egypt. What an honor, what a privilege! That means that God has got to work in shaping and molding and developing Joseph to be ready for that awesome and great responsibility. And that’s going to happen to Joseph under the pressure of trial, under the pressure of suffering and under the pressure of difficulty of prison life. Isn’t it strange how God works? That’s not the way I would prepare a man to rule a nation. But God’s preparing his choice servant to rule the nation in a dungeon in Egypt. In total control. So that in His time He can bring him forth. You know there’s another thing we ought to note. Temptation does often come to us when we’re most comfortable. That’s why we see such a fragmented church in our own country. We are a comfortable church and a comfortable people. The result in our ease and in our comfort, all sorts of temptations come in on us, we find believers involved in one thing and another. We need to be reminded of the temptation. Wouldn’t this story of Joseph read totally different if he had succumbed to Potiphar’s wife? What would be the outcome of it? We say, we don’t’ know. God only has one plan revealed, and that’s right. You know I sometimes think that we don’t know the great blessings that we would have forfeited. We have forfeited. When we have not pursued God’s way. Joseph couldn’t know when he said no to Potiphar’s wife that that was going to be a major step in preparing him to rule Egypt. All he knew was it would be sin against God and he couldn’t do that. Now I take it we won’t know till glory how terrible the impact of our sin has really been. I often think in my own ministry, back to when I came. There was a little fellowship of people in a little building. And I thought what’d happened if I had turned from the Lord then and walked away. All I would have ever had in my mind was that little group of people in that little building. I would have never realized what the course of my life could have been if I had been willing to have God work and bless. We sometimes think, oh, well, it doesn’t matter. It matters more than we realize. The problem is when we have got off the track and sinned against God. Often we don’t realize, and I take it that’ll be one of the things that comes to light at the judgment seat. We’ll have a glimpse into what could have been would we have been faithful. Praise God for the life and testimony of the man Joseph who regardless of the cost was faithful to God and when we get to chapter 41, God finally remembers Joseph, not that He’s ever forgotten, but now it’s God’s time to elevate Joseph to a position he could never have even dreamed of, but the position that God had been preparing him for. Let us pray together.

Father how we praise You, for Your sovereign control. That You are a God who has all things under… (end of tape)