Joseph's Slavery

0:00We're beginning now to wrap up the book of Genesis. We're entering into this final section of Genesis starting in chapter 37. If you want to go ahead and start flipping there, Genesis chapter 37 is where we will be. Yep. We're going to see one of the main characters in this section, one of the sons of Jacob, Joseph. We're going to talk about Joseph for the next few weeks. I pray, God willing, as we have seen with the other characters, that we see them for who they were, and that we especially see them for who they point to, meaning these characters. So I hope and pray that you see Joseph for who he was, and certainly who he points to. I want to begin by setting this scene for us this morning. How common is it for us to see people suffering at the hands of evil? Go to any news outlet, and that is mostly what we read about. Right? One story after another, with the main theme being someone who has suffered because someone else was evil. It's perfectly reasonable then to ask, where's God? So much suffering on account of evil, where is God? In all of this. And much of their questioning came from their self-inflicted suffering. But they suffered much and they wondered if their God had left them. Even the nation of Israel today and all its inhabitants there have to be wondering: has God left them? The reality of suffering is so common to humanity that we must confess that if God is not present in it and doing something through it, then surely he has left us. I wouldn't blame him if he did. Quite honestly, after the blasphemy that was committed on the world stage about a week or so ago at the Olympics, I wouldn't blame him if he sent a planet-sized meteor right at us. But in his grace, he has not. Joseph certainly would have been wondering if God had left him. The evil that was done to him and the suffering that he endured surely would have looked like in that moment that God had forsaken him. We know, though, that God never leaves, nor will he ever forsake us. And despite the evil that is in this world and the suffering that such an evil inevitably produces, God is always working. Always. And that culminates in the central theme of this section, which happens to be the central theme of the whole of Genesis, which happens to be the central theme of the whole of human history. What man means for evil, what God means for good. May we be comforted this morning by the reality that God uses even the sin and evil of his creation to fulfill his plan of salvation. He does not abandon us in our sin, nor in our suffering. He uses it for our good and for his purpose. What a gracious God. Amen. So I gave most of the end away, right? Right here at the beginning. But that's where we are going. We're going to start reading in Genesis 37. If you want to stand with me, Genesis 37 and chapter 1. The words will not be behind me because we're skipping around a bunch. But this is Genesis 37, starting in verse 1. Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojourning in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors, but when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully, peacefully to him. Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, uh he said to them, Hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf. His brothers said to him, Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us? So they hated me even more for his dreams and for his words. Skip down to verse 18. They saw him from afar. This is after they have gone, and Joseph is sent to him. They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, Here comes the dreamer. Come, now let us kill him, and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams. But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, Let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, Shed no blood, throw him in this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him, that he might rescue him out of their hands to restore them to his fat to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colours that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty, there was no water in it. And finally skip to verse 29. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, The boy's gone, and I, where shall I go? Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in blood. And they sent the robe of many colours and brought it to their father, and said, This we have found. Please identify whether it is your son's robe or not. And he identified it and said, It is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for many mourned his son for many days. All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain of the guard. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Please now speak for Christ's sake. It is in his name that I pray. Amen. Thank you all for bearing with me through that lengthy text. I hope, uh, as I've done with other characters and as I kind of mentioned to you at the beginning there, um, I want to tell you the truth about Joseph. Who Joseph was is certainly relevant to the story, right? But I also think it's important to have a proper view of these biblical characters. Joseph was the oldest of the sons of Jacob and Rachel, right? Okay? Hear me when I say that. Joseph was the oldest of the sons of Jacob and Rachel, right? The wife whom he loved and treasured beyond all others. Joseph was not the youngest of Jacob's twelve sons. Rachel had one other son, who she tragically died giving birth to. A thousand points to the one who knows who the youngest son of Jacob was. Remember, we mentioned last week or last time, this was two weeks ago now, that Jacob's son Judah was a son of Leah, and Judah is the seed that carries forth into Christ. Right? So Christ becomes or comes to us through the neglected, unwanted wife of Jacob. So Joseph then is not in the direct lineage of Christ, but as we will see, he plays a vital role in the fulfillment of God's purposes. And if not for Joseph, Judah would have very likely died in this famine that we will read about later. So Joseph is a critical character in the fulfillment of God's plan, and this is why the author of Genesis devotes such a large section of Genesis to him. Let me also point out, as we begin to look through this passage, that Joseph was not a great kid. He was not. He was not a great kid. These things are often, these things aren't often, sorry, pointed out. I want to bring this up not to pick on Joseph, but to show why what happens happened. And so you appreciate the transformation that does occur in Joseph over the course of the rest of Genesis. Joseph was a tattletale. Okay? He was a tattletale. In the second verse of our text, this was verse 2 of chapter 37, we read that at least on one occasion, Joseph was helping his older brothers pasture the flock, and after the work was completed, Joseph went to his father with a bad report of them. 17-year-old Joseph, young Joseph, is given the opportunity to work with his brothers, and the first thing that he does when he gets back is he goes to his father and he talks bad about them. This is what he does. Secondly, Joseph is spoiled. Jacob loved Joseph more than his other sons. We're not really told clearly why. The text says it's because Joseph was the son of his old age. But he did have another son, as we've pointed out, who was born even further into his old age. So there is certainly something more behind this favoritism that Jacob shows towards Joseph. It's possible that Joseph is favored because he is the firstborn of Rachel, the wife that he certainly favors, and explicitly so. Again, that's somewhat speculation, but we can certainly imagine that that is potentially what his brothers would have thought. It doesn't seem that Jacob hid the fact that he loved Rachel more than Leah, so it probably wouldn't shock anyone if he loved her children more than Leah's children. Whatever the reason, he clearly and explicitly favors Joseph. He gave him a flashy, colorful robe, right? Almost a royal kind of robe. And Joseph wore the robe, and his brothers hated him for it. They didn't get a fancy robe. Certainly didn't get one from their father. They saw how much Jacob loved Joseph's mother more than their mother. So you can imagine that every time they saw him walk by in that robe, their anger grew. What makes matters worse is that Joseph, in his immature pride and his complete lack of self or situational awareness, doesn't and wouldn't keep his mouth shut. He knows he's the favorite. He knows that he's been given this gift, which basically tells everyone that he is the favorite. And then when he starts having these dreams about him being exalted over his brothers, he has to go and tell them about it. Hey guys, guess what? I had this dream that y'all are all going to bow down to me. Be cool, right? It's not cool, Joseph. It's not cool. Keep that one to yourself. Have a little bit of self-awareness, but he doesn't. He doesn't do it just once, he does it twice, he tells them. And the second time he says, and we didn't read it, that his even his father in the dream is going to bow down to him. And this kind of lack of consideration for the feelings of others and the need to be braggadocious is a product of being shown favoritism by his father. So that's who Joseph is to this point. Young, prideful, boastful, immature, and runs his mouth way too much. It's honestly no wonder that his brothers want to kill him. Right? Still evil. I'm not excusing their murderous intent. But this to say that Joseph, if we were to say that Joseph is a fully innocent party here, that is just not correct. And that is important to demonstrate as we look into Joseph as a foreshadowing of Christ. Joseph isn't Christ. He's not. Joseph isn't innocent. Joseph isn't spotless or blameless. When we see what is done to Joseph, we must see him for who he is, so that we maintain this pull in our hearts towards the greater Joseph. The deeds done to Joseph were only a shadow done to a shadow. The truly beloved, the truly favored son, at whom every knee will bow, is the substance. Christ is the one who actually deserved the love and favor. He is the only innocent one who was betrayed. Okay, and that's a further peek at where we're going. Let's continue with the story. I'm going to fill in some of the gaps because we didn't read everything there. Joseph is then sent to Shechem to check on his brothers who are pasturing the flock there. A couple of significant things about Shechem. It's about 50 miles away from their home. That's no small distance, right? 50 miles back then was days and days of journey. So you get a better idea of where we're talking about geographically, Shechem is located in what now is the Palestine West Bank, where all this present conflict is happening. This is exactly where they were. We skipped over the section in Genesis. This was a couple chapters ago. Dinah, this is the daughter of Jacob, was taken advantage of by men in this region. And in retaliation, the sons of Jacob killed all the males in this area. So Jacob's family cannot be very popular at all, okay, in this area. And it is certainly a dangerous place for them. So when Joseph arrives there, he is providentially runs into a man who has seen his brothers and tells them, no, they're a little bit further down in Dothan. Or Dothan. Interesting connection about Dothan. That is where later Elijah is surrounded by the enemy. If you remember that story, surrounded by enemy forces, and God opens the eyes of Elisha's servants to see this army of angels around them that were protecting them. That happened in Dothan, the same place that this story is happening here. So certainly we see then that this instance with Joseph is not the first time someone has received divine assistance in Dothan. And as we read, they see him coming from afar, and they begin to conspire a plan against him. Okay? That's what our text read in verse 18. How did they know it was Joseph from so far away? Any thoughts? His coat. His colorful coat, of course. The coat of favoritism ended up being the thing that gave him away and allowed his brothers time to make a plan against him. Maybe that's reading too much into it. Something to consider. I'll let you noodle on that further if you wish. The oldest brother Reuben saves him, right? They want to kill him, but Reuben persuades them to throw him in a pit where he plans to come back later and rescue him out of this pit. So they throw him in this pit, which providentially doesn't have any water in it, or he would have drowned right again, God's providence. What is very interesting and instructive here in that portion of the text is that we don't see or hear Joseph say a word. Not a word. The talkative Joseph, who previously couldn't keep his mouth shut to save his life, now has not a single word in his defense. Sounds an awful lot like Isaiah 53, doesn't it? He was oppressed, he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. Like a lamb that has led to slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. Isaiah is, of course, not talking about Joseph, but the similarities are not coincidental. Joseph is opening the door of our minds to Christ. As I've previously hinted at, Christ was the real innocent one who was betrayed. Christ is the royal son, the favored one, who was worthy to wear the royal robe. Christ deserved none of the mistreatment that he received, and he is the only one who has justification to speak up at his defense, but he stayed silent. Who can speak against the will of God? Who can speak against the will of God? Providentially Job was mentioned this morning, but Job learned after spending 39 chapters defending himself against the affliction that he was dealing with, when Job was faced the reality of God's mighty power and his sovereign will, Job says this: Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth, I have spoken once, and I will not answer twice, but I will proceed no further. In silence, then, we must drink the sweet cup of God's mercy, or the bitter cup of his judgment. In either case, we have no words of defense. Providentially as well, that text from Isaiah is the text that the Ethiopian eunuch is reading when Philip meets him on the road, recorded for us in Acts 8. We read there that Philip begins with that text and connects all of the dots of Scripture. He points everything to the eunuch to Christ. Showing the eunuch that all of these things are actually teaching about Christ. So if we don't read Joseph and see Christ, we miss the entire point of Scripture. If we read Isaiah and don't see Christ, we've miss the entire point of Scripture. The entire reason why God did what He did to Joseph was to preserve his people and do it in such a way that awakens you to see the innocent, spotless lamb who was slain. My prayer is that our response to such a story and an explanation is the same as that of the eunuchs. Where is the water that I may be baptized into my Savior? Where's the cup that I may drink the sweet wine of his mercy poured out from me? Today is the day of salvation. The day of mercy. The water is open for cleansing, and the cup is available to drink. Repent, believe, and receive his blessed mercy. We're not done yet, though. Finish the rest of the story, and then we'll apply this a little further to us. So they sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites. He is taken by them to Egypt. And there he is resold to Potiphar, the captain of the Pharaoh's guard, and we'll talk a little bit more about that later, not today, in a few weeks. That is obviously an important detail that we have to circle around back in a couple weeks. I said that. The final part of this story that I want to point out is that is this how his brothers deceived their father. How it was that his brothers deceived their father. They take Joseph's robe, right? They dip it in blood and they take it to their father. It's a deviously clever thing that the brothers do here. We may have missed it. They, meaning the brothers, never tell their father anything, right? Other than just showing him the robe with blood on it. Jacob is the one who devises this story that he must have been eaten by a wild animal. The brothers allowed him to make up this story, and they didn't even have to lie to him. They didn't have to make up a story themselves because Jacob did it all himself. It's very deceptive, some real bad stuff by them. So Jacob then is deceived by his sons, using the clothes of their brother and a goat to be the instruments of their deception. Does that sound familiar to you? Somebody using clothes and a goat as an instrument of deception? Remember how Jacob deceived his father Isaac? He used his brother's clothes and the hair and meat from a goat. Jacob is sent into mourning through the exact same deception that he used to gain favor with his father. Jacob was the good son, right? Esau was the problem child, if you remember, who caused all the issues. But even still, Isaac was prepared to give the blessing and the favor to Esau, but Jacob stole that favor that he felt he deserved. Remember that. So when Jacob has kids, he favors Joseph. He treats him better than his other children for no apparent reason. And in God's grand poetic justice, he takes Joseph's favoritism from him. He takes Jacob's, did I say Joseph? He takes Jacob's favoritism from him in the same way in which he stole it from his father. Deception. I've said it before, but there is no doubt that God wrote the Bible when you see how all of these details and stories are woven together. Further, we see how the story of Joseph points so perfectly to Christ. One commentator summarizes it like this: quote, Joseph prefigures Jesus Christ. Through his suffering and eventual ascension to rulership, Joseph saved God's people, Israel. Jesus, similarly through his suffering, death and resurrection and ascension, will save God's people. Note the parallels between Joseph and Jesus. As Joseph's brothers conspired to kill him, so according to Matthew, Jesus' brothers, the chief priests and elders, conspired to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him. As Joseph's brothers sold him for twenty pieces of silver, so Jesus' disciples Judas sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. As Joseph's brothers handed him over to the Gentiles, so Jesus' brothers handed him over to Pilate, the governor, Gentile. As Joseph suffered in silence, so Jesus suffered in silence. We've noted that. And as God uses the evil deeds of Joseph's brothers to save his people, so God uses the evil deeds of Jesus' brothers to save his people. The connections are unavoidable. Furthermore, when we look at the robe of Joseph, we see a symbol that originally meant honor, right? And favor. This robe. It meant honor and it meant favor. But that robe became the symbol of death as his father held that bloody robe in his hands. In Christ, we see a cross, which was a symbol of death, but when beheld by us now in light of his glorious grace, becomes a symbol of honor, of favor, of salvation. In Christ, God quite literally is reversing the curse. And he is showing us this reality through these incredible symbols. We must not miss it. Let me very quickly give us three points of application and we close. The story must give us comfort in uncertainty. Okay? Must give us comfort in uncertainty. The ways of God are so much higher than our ways, right? His plans are so much bigger than our plans. We can never know in this small snapshot of eternity all the things that God is doing. But we have in his unfailing word the promise that despite our current circumstance, he is up to something. He is up to something. We can and should be comforted by the fact that all things are working according to his glorious plan, even when in this moment it doesn't look like it or feel like it. We must be comforted. Secondly, this story must give us confidence in God. Confidence in God. He doesn't forget anything. And he ultimately sets all the wrongs right, as we will see in this story and the grand story. Things are not spiraling out of control. Okay, they're not. I'll say that again. Things are not spiraling out of control. The world is not going to hell in a handbasket. It's not, at least not all of it. We're not doomed. And we shouldn't live as though we are. Live confidently. That our God is blessing his children and he is laughing at the wicked. Psalm 37, 13, but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming. The day is coming when all will be made right. Finally, this text should give us the full assurance of salvation. The full assurance of salvation. God is never absent. He's always behind the scenes, seeing his plan through and accomplishing his purpose. Nothing, not even the deception through the evil deeds of human will get in the way of that. Not even the deception of those fallen things in the spiritual realm will get in the way of that. Providentially as well, you might even say that nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. If you are in Christ, He has begun a good work in you. Have the assurance that this morning he will most certainly see it to completion. Okay, so that is the story and application of Joseph. At least the first part of it that we'll finish later. I pray that it pleases the Lord to strengthen your faith through this message this morning. Amen. Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for showing us all of these symbols. Lord, and pointing us to your Son by and through your word. We thank you, Lord, for this word. We thank you for the encouragement and the assurance that this word gives to us. Lord, please forgive us where we have failed you. Lord, we confess to you that we have sinned grievously against you. We ask, Lord, please forgive us. Please forgive us of where we have failed, Lord. And now we know as we take this supper and we proclaim Jesus Christ that we have the assurance from you that you have remembered our sins no more. That in Christ you have covered them, forgiven them, and we are spotless and blameless before you only by the work and power of Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord. Ask all this in the name of Jesus. Amen.