INI   September 7 & 8, 2008

Sermon preached by Pastor . . . at Cross of Christ Evangelical Lutheran Church, Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS), 9931 Foley Blvd. NW, Coon Rapids, MN  55433. Please share this with someone else after you have finished. Thank you!

Bible Text—Genesis 50:15-21

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

In the Middle Ages in Europe, the nobility would often place large tapestries on the stone walls of their castles. They were used for insulation during the winter as well as for decoration. The back of the tapestry would be a mixed up mess of thread. But on the front of the tapestry would be a beautiful picture or design. If your mom or grandma did any embroidery when you were growing up, maybe you remember seeing a cute design on the front of the embroidery, but the back was a jumble of threads.

Consider how our lives on this earth are often like a tapestry or embroidery. On this side of heaven, our lives often appear like a jumbled mess of unrelated events and relationships. What we don’t see now is that as children of God through faith in Jesus, our Savior is leading and guiding our lives so that for his own glory we will live with him forever. To us, our lives may seem like a jumbled mess without purpose or design or meaning. But God is weaving our lives into a beautiful pattern that brings glory to him and finally results in our eternal life. There are times when we are blessed to see in this life how God has made everything work together for our good. But if we don’t see it before we leave this veil of tears, we will certainly see in heaven that “in all things God works for the good of those who love him,” Romans 8:28.

As we approach our text from the book of Genesis, we witness how Joseph was blessed to see how all the difficult events of his life served a wonderful purpose—a purpose determined by God for the benefit of the entire human race. We’d like to use Joseph’s own words to his brothers as our theme: YOU INTENDED TO HARM ME, BUT GOD INTENDED IT FOR GOOD.

Joseph was one of the twelve sons of Jacob. The patriarch had ten boys by his wife Leah, whom he was tricked into marrying, and he had two sons by his wife Rachel, whom he wanted to marry in the first place. Because they were Rachel’s children, Jacob loved Joseph and Benjamin more than the others. Unfortunately this was obvious to the entire family, especially after Joseph was given his coat of many colors. As older siblings often do, the ten sons of Leah thought Joseph was really spoiled. It especially irritated them when Joseph shared two dreams he had. In the first dream, Joseph and his brothers were harvesting grain in the field. His brothers’ sheaves bowed down to Joseph’s sheave of grain. In his second dream, the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to Joseph. Because he was the favorite son and because of these dreams, his brothers were jealous of Joseph and hated him. 

One day, when the brothers were out with the family’s sheep, Jacob sent Joseph to check on them. When they saw their little brother coming at a distance with his coat of many colors, their jealousy and hatred were so great they plotted to kill Joseph. After some fast talking by the oldest brother, Reuben—who really didn’t want to kill his little brother—the brothers ended up selling Joseph into slavery. He ended up in Egypt, in the home of a government official by the name of Potiphar.

God had blessed Joseph with the talent of being able to manage things. His master realized this, so he was put in charge of all of Potiphar’s affairs. Unfortunately, Potiphar’s wife had her eye on Joseph, since he “was well built and handsome,” Genesis 39:6. When the wife of his master wanted to go to bed with Joseph, he responded like every Christian should when confronted with temptation: “How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” Genesis 39:9.

When Joseph shunned her advances, Potiphar’s wife lied to her husband and accused the young Hebrew of trying to rape her. So Joseph ended up in prison. And there, because he was again blessed by God, Joseph was eventually put in charge of the prisoners.

Now remember who Joseph was. He was the second youngest son of a family of twelve boys, not to mention the sisters. He was the most spoiled of the boys. How do you think Joseph felt after being spoiled for so many years, and now he finds himself a slave and a prisoner? As a sinner himself, Joseph probably held some not too nice feelings toward his brothers. Their jealousy and hatred landed him in a strange land surrounded by strange people. My guess is he probably felt very sorry for himself. 

People have done all of us wrong, too, at one time or another. Maybe it was a classmate who picked on us at school, or who said some terrible things to make us feel bad. Maybe it was a coworker who was miserable with her life and she wanted everyone around her to be miserable, too. Maybe a neighbor is jealous because of the house you own or the car you drive or the job you have. Maybe a friend is jealous of your spouse or the kind of children you have. Because of jealousy and hatred, they try to make life difficult for us. Maybe they feel we have it coming because of the way we have sinfully acted toward them. It’s very possible others hate us simply because we confess Christ. Such people would like nothing better than to see some kind of harm happen to us. When we have to deal with such people in our lives, we very often end up feeling sorry for ourselves. We wonder where God is and we sinfully doubt his love. We may even have sinful thoughts and desires.  For all these things we deserve God’s punishment.

While he was in the Egyptian prison, Joseph got to know Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, who had been put there for offending the king. Both of these men had dreams Joseph was able to interpret. The baker eventually lost his life to the executioner, but the cupbearer was restored to his position of serving Pharaoh.

Then one night a couple years later, Pharaoh the king had two dreams. In the first one, seven skinny cows ate up seven fat cows. And in the second dream, seven skinny heads of grain ate up seven full heads of grain. When no one could interpret the dreams for Pharaoh, the cupbearer remembered Joseph, who was still in prison. Joseph was summoned by the king and God gave him the ability to interpret the two dreams. God was giving the king advance notice there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Since Pharaoh recognized God’s Spirit was with this young man and Joseph had given good advice as to how to deal with the upcoming famine, Pharaoh put him in charge of preparations. Joseph became second in command of Egypt—kind of like our vice-president. As a good manager—who had several years of experience in Potiphar’s household and in the prison—during the seven years of plenty Joseph prepared for the seven years of famine.

The famine struck in Canaan, too. So Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt searching for food. After Joseph revealed himself to his brothers, the entire family moved with their elderly father, Jacob, and their own families, and settled in the fertile land of Goshen in Egypt. After living there seventeen years, Jacob died. This takes us to the beginning of our text: When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’ Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept.

From a human perspective, the brothers had every reason to be afraid of Joseph. How their consciences must have accused them! How they must have lived in guilt and fear! Joseph had all the power of Egypt at his disposal. Now that their father was gone, what would prevent Joseph from getting even with his brothers? Maybe he didn’t want to hurt Jacob, so he waited until his dad died before he exacted his revenge.

Obviously the brothers had confessed their sin to their father, and he forgave them. Before he died, he told them to ask for their brother’s forgiveness. Not only had they treated him badly and sold Joseph into slavery, but theirs was a deeper problem. Their hearts had been filled with hatred and jealousy. But they confessed their sin and they asked for their brother’s pardon. This account is like a commentary on the apostle John’s words in his first epistle: “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness,” 1 John 1:8, 9.

So why did Joseph weep, especially after everything his brothers had done to him? There were probably a number of reasons why he cried. Possibly he felt hurt his brothers didn’t trust him, even after he saved their lives and the lives of their families. Possibly these were tears of happiness because of their changed attitudes. Maybe he cried because they now referred to themselves as the servants of the God of your father. They were sorry for their sins, and they trusted in the coming promised Savior for forgiveness.

His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

The brothers express their changed attitude not only by their words but also with their actions. What we witness here is the fulfillment of Joseph’s dreams of the sun, moon and stars as well as the sheaves bowing down to him. And when the brothers threw themselves down before Joseph, their actions should remind us how we want to show our sorrow over our sins and our gratefulness for Christ’s forgiveness not only by our words but also by our actions.

If Joseph had wanted to, I’m sure all he would have had to do is say the word, and these brothers who had done him so much harm would have lost their lives. But just as the younger Joseph put into practice his Lord’s will when it came to Potiphar’s wife, even so he now put into practice the will of his Lord who later said when he walked among us on this earth: “Forgive, and you will be forgiven,” Luke 6:37.

Joseph’s brothers hated him and sold him into slavery because of their jealousy. But after having so many years to think about the events of his life and how it all came together for a good purpose, and after having lots of time to ponder the precious gospel promises of the coming Savior, Joseph realized everything that happened to him God used for good. God used the seemingly bad things in Joseph’s life for the saving of many lives.   

Now we would miss the whole point of this historical record if we forgot God wanted to save the lives of these people because from this extended family the Savior of the world would be born. Through Joseph and what happened to him, God was carrying out his plan of salvation. He did not want this extended family to starve to death during the famine, because from them would come the Offspring of the woman who would crush Satan’s head and his power over us. From this people would come Abraham’s promised Descendant who would bless all the families of the earth with the forgiveness of their sins. (Gen. 3:15; 12:3; Gal. 3:16). From this family, this people, this nation, would eventually come Jesus.

Joseph’s kind words of love and compassion, his recognition of God’s hand in everything that happened in his life, his understanding of the Lord’s will—all of this caused the brothers to be comforted. They could breathe a big sigh of relief knowing they and their families would be taken care of. They would be taken care of by the Lord physically through Joseph. But more importantly, they would be taken care of eternally by the promised coming Savior. 

As he suffered through his many difficult experiences, Joseph’s life often seemed to him, I’m sure, like a jumbled mess. Later in life, however, when his brothers came to Egypt for food, this child of God was given a glimpse of the beautiful side of his tapestry. He could see how God was working everything out for his good, for the good of his family, as well as for the good of the entire world.

As we live out our lives in this sinful world, with all its trouble and sickness, hardship, persecution and difficulties, it can be hard to fathom how God is working out a beautiful tapestry for his glory out of our lives. From our perspective this side of heaven, our lives may seem like a jumbled mess of threads. But someday we will see how God has also worked everything out for our good to his eternal glory.  In Jesus’ name. Amen.