Joseph

One of my favorite stories in the Bible, since I was a little boy, a boy, I remember this story as of four years old. It would be Friday night. We'd always have a big family meal because it was the Sabbath, and we were bringing in the Sabbath with a celebration with the family. We still do that to this day as a tradition. And then my dad would take us all in this front room that we had. To me, it was the back room, because from my perspective as a four-year-old, the back door was my front door. That's always where we pulled in. That's where all the playground was, right? That was my front door, the back door. But there was this formal room in what I considered the back of the house by the front door where visitors came through. And we would always go in there on Friday night, and dad would sit down and he would say, what story do you want to hear? And we would get to hear a story from the Bible. And he wouldn't read it to us. He would tell it to us. He knew the Bible pretty well, so we could pretty much pick any story we wanted. And he would open his Bible for reference, but then he would just tell us the stories. So, I mean, Abraham and Moses and Samson and all the great stories in the Old Testament. And we'd just pick somebody, and dad would tell us that story. Every Friday night, we would hear a story from the Bible. My favorite story was Jophis. Well, that's how I said it when I was four. Joseph. It's actually Yousaf, I believe in Hebrew. And I loved, I was fascinated with it. I don't know how many times my dad told me that story, but I loved that story. It actually shaped the way I think in life. And I wanted to shape all of our lives. It should. Today, I'm going to go through the story of Joseph, and I'm going to pick two lessons from the story of Joseph. Essentially, if you want a title to the sermon, it's Joseph, a Lesson in Hope. There are so many lessons that we can draw from Joseph. The results of obeying God, the results of being diligent and doing whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Joseph's a great story for that. It's a story of faith. It's a great story for faith. I'm not going to talk about any of those today. I'm going to narrow in on two lessons that are actually related to each other from the story of Joseph. And these lessons should actually determine and shape our outlook on life. Excellent lessons. Joseph was born as an indentured servant, as the son of an indentured servant. Now, his grandfather happened to be his owner, so it wasn't a bad life, but it was a complicated life that he was born into. You see, Jacob had made a deal. He'd run away from Esau. He was on the run. He ran to his uncle, Laban. And Laban was not an honest man. He was a wheeler dealer, even to his own family. And Laban made deals with Jacob, using his daughters as collateral. You can marry my daughter, and then he switched it on him. Instead of Rachel, it was Leah. So he had to be indentured another almost decade to get Rachel. And so Joseph was born in this dysfunctional family, where family members cheated each other, no problem whatsoever.

There were jealousies and infighting. And this is the environment that young Joseph is born into.

And in Genesis 30, verse 22, we're introduced to the hero of our story. Genesis 30, verse 22. Rachel, his mother, was barren. And in verse 22, then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her and opened her womb. And she conceived and bore a son. And she said, God has taken away my reproach. So she called his name Joseph and said, The Lord shall add to me another son.

And Joseph is born into a world of jealousy and deceit, with no qualms whatsoever of cheating each other. And then Joseph grows up in the ranch life. It's a good life. He's a country bumpkin, right? His father herds sheep, cattle. They're very wealthy. Because sheep and cattle, back in the day, that was money. He was probably a skinny, idealistic teenage boy with some very older brothers. These brothers were fully grown adults by the time he was born. Some of them were actually had already seen battle. They were already married and had children of their own. This family was huge, and the age difference was dramatic. So some of his brothers were old enough to actually be his father. Some of his cousins were some of his nephews and nieces were likely older than him. Just to let you know that the diversity of this family, they were not a tight-knit group. Well, not at first. This strange favoritism went on and went all the way back to this deal that Jacob made with Laban and the jealousy that started from that. Joseph was favored. Why was Joseph the favorite? This was really bad for Joseph, but it ended up being really good for Israel and really good for you and me. Why was Joseph favored? Well, when Jacob was a young man, he wanted Rachel to be his wife. And Laban, the father of Rachel, got him drunk at the wedding and swapped girls so that Leah became his wife. He didn't want Leah, poor woman. She had no choice in the matter. It wasn't her fault at all. So Leah becomes the wife, and he starts having kids with her, and he has to work a long time for the one woman he wanted, which was Rachel. And he finally gets Rachel, so Leah is unloved. Can you see the jealousy that formed there? The rivalry? And then finally Rachel gets blessed by God and has a son. His favorite wife has a son. That son becomes his favorite son. Oh, how would you feel if you needed the love and acceptance of your father, and he loved another child way more than he loved you? That child got all the good stuff, and you got the scraps. How would you feel? How do you think they feel felt?

Put yourself in their shoes for a minute. This was a horrible family, but they had hope, and it got them through. The brothers were so jealous of him that they wanted to kill him, and they had already, some of them had already taken life. They had already seen bloodshed.

It was no big deal to them to take a life. This was a rough family also. So, Joseph, as a teenager, has some dreams. Two very special dreams.

We learned that they were given to him by God. First, wheat bows down to him, to his stock of wheat, and then the sun, moon, and eleven stars bow down to his star. He, being unwise and yet guided by God, this cocky young man, says, Guess what, brothers? I had a dream, and you bowed down to me, not once, twice in my dream. And Jacob, his father, scolded him. Will I bow down to you, young man? But secretly, he kept in his heart that that may be true, because he listened to Joseph, and he perceived that that dream was from God. But what about those brothers? Wow did they hate him! Oh, they hated him before! They really hated him now. And then, just to put the icing on the cake, Jacob, or Israel, gives Joseph, after this dream, a coat of many colors. A coat, a cloak that's just ornate. A kingly gift! They didn't get a kingly gift. Oh, they had food and shelter and wives and children. They had everything they needed, but they didn't have daddy's love. But Joseph did, and he was too young and immature to understand the threat. And one day, the brothers are off in the fields, tending the sheep many, many days away, because you move sheep around. If you keep him in one spot, they eat all the grass, and then there's no more grass, and they starve, and they die. So they were way far away. And Israel, or Jacob, tells Joseph, hey, where are your brothers? Go check on them and make sure everything's okay. Make sure bandits haven't killed them and taken our flocks. So Joseph goes booking her off, and he goes to where he thinks they are, and they're not there. So he asks the guy, hey, have you seen my brothers? Now, this is a huge family. Everybody knows who the sons of Israel are. Okay? They are a force to be reckoned with. When they come through, you notice. And he knew right where they were. He said, oh, they're a few days up the road. So Joseph goes bounding up to find them.

And he's got this ornate coat, this kingly gift, that you can see from miles away.

So they see him coming. They have no doubt it's him. He's lit up like a neon sign. Joseph's coming, and they got him right where they want him. Here are these rough, dejected men who Daddy never gives them what they needed. And this little punk is in the middle of nowhere. And he's defenseless. He's a boy. And they were soldiers. And he comes walking up, hey, guys, just checking on you to make sure you're doing your job, because I'm going to report to Dad.

They clobbered him and threw him in a hole, an old well that had been dried up. Now, Reuben, the oldest son, he had made plenty of mistakes in life. But Reuben was the responsible one. Reuben and Judah, both of them handled the situation differently. But both Reuben and Judah behaved well in this situation. They plotted to kill him. They took his coat off, and they said, all we've got to do is take this coat back and say he was torn by wild beasts. So Reuben said, don't kill him now, let's make a good plan. And he brought them all off, and they were conspiring. What Reuben was going to do is sneak back, rescue him out of the old well, and tell him to run. Reuben was actually going to save his life. But, you know, it didn't take him very long to make plans. Reuben didn't get the chance to save his life, because they were right back around him, ready to kill him. They had all decided, pretty much unanimously, this young man is dead. And Reuben didn't get the chance to pull him out of the hole. And so Judah, also being a responsible man, but, you know, Judah wanting to make a deal at the same time, sees a caravan of Ishmaelites coming by. Sway guys, don't kill him! There's no profit in that! Well, every one of those Israelite boys understood profit. They had children. They knew they had to work to make a buck. Hey, yeah! They thought, why not make a profit out of this deal? Right? We'll sell him!

He's a young strapping lad. He'll bring a big, you know, pretty penny. We'll get some drinking money out of it. Nobody will be the wiser. So they do. They take Judah's advice. Good for Judah. I think that is the prophetic significance to Judah doing that. Because after that, the children of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, the countries that are Ephraim and Manasseh, had defended Judah over the years. And Judah defended Joseph right here. And I do not think that that is a coincidence. I believe that is inspired by God, because Judah saved Joseph.

He made a buck, but he saved him. So Joseph gets sold into slavery to the Ishmaelites, and they take him down to Egypt, where he gets sold into the servitude of a very powerful man in Egypt, the captain of the guard. It's like our secret service, the guy who protects the president, the leader of the army that protects the Pharaoh, was Potiphar. And Joseph is a strapping young man, a very capable young man, probably fetched a really high price. So he bought him. He said, yeah, I could use a guy like him in my house. And God blessed Joseph in Potiphar's house.

Everything that Joseph did made Potiphar a prophet. So eventually, Joseph was so loved by Potiphar, the king's guard, the captain of the guard, that he put him in charge of his entire household. So when Potiphar is out gallivanting with the king, protecting the king, Joseph is back running the ranch, the household, really, because the Egyptians detested shepherds, detested them. So they were really more city folk. And if you were a rancher in Egypt, you were looked down upon. Right? So obviously, there was one thing that Potiphar didn't put Joseph over, and that was his wife. Now, you can imagine that if Potiphar... Now, this is my assumption. All right, I'm throwing in the blanks here. Just want to let you know that this is not part of the Scripture. Taking a little side trip here. Potiphar is the king's guard, the captain of the guard. Powerful man, a wealthy man, probably had his choice of wife. Whatever woman he wanted, he had. Okay, let's get to the point. She was very likely smoking hot.

Okay? She was not a homely woman, most likely, because we're talking about the top cream of the crop guy. He was a catch. She was very likely a catch. All right? Joseph could see that.

Joseph was an honorable young man. Worked there for years. Wasn't a teenager anymore. He was very likely a man at this point. It's all the drives that a young man has.

And, you know, Joseph was very handsome also. Potiphar had to travel all the time. So Potiphar's wife was lonely. Right? And here's this handsome young Hebrew.

Good muscles, nice hair, good jawline. He's a good-looking man. I'm a lonely woman. So she started to try to seduce him. Why don't you come lay with me? No, he refused. No, it wasn't a one-time thing. You read that story. She hit on him constantly, which means Potiphar was always gone. And one day she had had enough. I'm lonely. You're lonely. Let's get this going. He absolutely refused and told her, I am over everything in your husband's house, but you are his wife. In other words, lady, you know better. I know better. Not happening. And he tells her, I will not do this sin against God. That's another great lesson for a teen Bible study someday. Right? But that's not the lesson of this sermon, so we're going to move on. She grabs his cloak as he runs out, and then she screams, help, help! He tried to rape me. Look, he left his cloak. And then Potiphar comes back, and he's so angry with Joseph, he doesn't even listen to the other side of the story. Bam! Throws him in prison. So, Joseph's life goes from slave to prisoner. Things just keep getting better for the young man. Does your life feel that way sometimes? Do you go from the frying pan to the fire, and who knows what comes after the fire? Does your life feel that way? How do you think Joseph felt? He didn't ask to be born in the family he was born into. You didn't ask to be born in the situation you're born into. He didn't know. He wasn't supposed to go, I had a dream. It was his family. Who else is he going to share it with?

If you can't trust your family, who can you trust? Not your family! So, he becomes a slave, and now he's a prisoner. And again, everything that he touches in that prison, God blesses. So that, the captain of the prison puts him in charge of everything in the prison. He's running everything! This guy had an organizer's mind. He was a natural-born leader. He was gifted from God in leading people and getting things done.

And then one day, two prisoners come in from the Pharaoh's court, a baker and a cupbearer.

And they're in prison for a little bit of time. And they don't pay any attention to Joseph, until one day they both have these terrible dreams. And they're just perplexed by the dreams. Nobody knows what they mean. And so, Joseph sees them. He's over the whole prison. He's like, hey guys, what's bothering you? And both of them are like, well, we both had terrible dreams on the same night. They talked about the symbolism of the dream, and Joseph said, I'll interpret those dreams for you, because God gave him the ability to interpret the dreams.

And one of them was that in three days, he was going to return and become the king's cupbearer again. And the other was, in three days, he was going to be hung on a tree, and the birds were going to eat his flesh. And sure enough, in three days, it was the Pharaoh's birthday. And the Pharaoh brought the cupbearer back. And on that day, he became the king's cupbearer once again, and put wine in the king's hand.

And on that very day, the baker was executed by hanging and left on a tree for the birds to pick his flesh. And Joseph asked the cupbearer, because he knew the baker was a dead man. Didn't bother asking him. He asked the cupbearer, when you get back in the Pharaoh's court, remember me.

I didn't do anything. It's not my fault. Get me out of here. And the first thing that the cupbearer did when he got back into the presence of the Pharaoh is he absolutely forgot about Joseph. We don't need you at all. Until two years later, Joseph is still in prison. Pharaoh has a dream. And no one could interpret the dream. But the cupbearer remembered that there was a man named Joseph in prison that interpreted his dream.

And he told Pharaoh, there was this guy who told me that I was going to be returned to you in three days, and that the baker was going to hang on a tree in three days. And that's exactly what happened. I bet he can interpret your dream. So, Pharaoh calls Joseph in and says, well, here was my dream. Well, it was actually two dreams. One, these fat, shiny cows, seven of them were grazing. And up out of the Nile came seven skinny cows like you've never seen in Egypt before.

These were horrible looking, just emaciated cows. I've never seen the like. And they consumed the fat cows. But it looked like they hadn't eaten anything. And then I had another dream where there were seven heads of grain on one stalk that were fat and beautiful. And there were other seven heads of grain, like you've never seen in Egypt before, that were just looked like the east wind had blown and dried them to nothing. And the windblown grain ate the fat grain, and it looked like they hadn't consumed anything.

And Joseph said immediately, I can interpret your dream. This is what is going to happen to you. And he said, the reason you had two dreams is so that God was telling you this is surely going to happen now, seven years of plenty, like you have never seen before. And following that will be seven years of famine, so bad that nobody will remember the seven years of plenty. So he gave him some unasked-for advice. You need to hire, you need to appoint somebody right now to oversee the seven years of plenty and store food, or you will be wiped out.

God has given you this dream that he might spare you for the famine that is to come. And so Pharaoh said, I know nobody else to put over this project other than the wisdom. Obviously, God's Spirit is with you. You will run my kingdom. And nobody will be over you in all of the land of Egypt, except for me. And he gave him a ring, and he would go out on chariots, and people would go in front of Joseph and say, make way!

Here comes Joseph. Joseph was now the leader under Pharaoh of the most powerful nation in the world, and it happened like that. He went from slave to prisoner to the leader of the free world, practically, overnight. But, you know, and Joseph did a great job. All right? Did a great job. He stored up 20 percent. He taxed the people. They had no choice but to give the tax of 20 percent of everything they grew during the times of plenty.

He stored so much grain that he stopped measuring it, because they couldn't measure it. That's how plentiful those seven years were. It says that they had no ability to measure the level of grain that they stored. That's amazing. Right?

And then the famine hit.

Decades have gone by since this idealistic teenager was living the rancher's life with his family. He's a middle-aged man now. He gets a beautiful wife. He has two children, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Ephraim. I always transposed them, because later they were transposed. But actually, Manasseh was first. Because of Joseph's advice, when the famine hits, only the country of Egypt has food. And this places Egypt in super-power position, like no other time. They are the only place that people can go to get food.

Joseph's father, Israel, sends Joseph's brothers to Egypt to buy grain and food. They know nothing of Joseph's story. They assume he's dead. But he doesn't send Benjamin.

Benjamin was now the new favorite son, because he's the only surviving son of Rachel, Joseph's now dead wife, his favorite wife, the one he wanted from the get-go. So he keeps Benjamin back, but he sends the other ten down to Egypt. And when they get there, Joseph recognizes them immediately, because when he left them, they were already full-grown men. They were already probably...well, they weren't fat like me. They were ranchers. But they were already the way they were. Probably a little bit more gray in the beard. But they were the same guys. He, on the other hand, looked completely different. First of all, he had no beard at all, most likely. Because when he went before Pharaoh, he had to shave, which means he was likely clean-shaven from then on. If you're a rancher out in Canaan, you've got a beard, man. You don't have time to shave, right? So here are these bearded men, and Joseph likely was a skinny little runt with a beard when he left them. Now he's this filled-out, full-grown man, clean-shaven in an Egyptian uniform. They had no idea who he was. They come up to him, his ten brothers, and he is overwhelmed with emotion. So he invites them to his house so that he can gather himself. He goes away and gathers himself, and the brothers come, thinking, why did the leader of Egypt invite us to his house? Are we dead? You know, why couldn't we have just done business in the marketplace? So they get there, and he serves food.

The shepherds of Israel eat over there, and Joseph eats by himself, and all of Joseph's men eat over here because Egyptians don't eat with shepherds. Shepherds are detestable things to Egyptians. Then Joseph says, why have you come here? He speaks through an interpreter, so they don't recognize him at all. Why have you come here? Are you spies? No, no, no, no, no, no.

We're ten of twelve brothers, and he just questions them and grills them, question after question after question, and he gets the truth out of them. He says, is your father still alive? Yes, he's still alive. You say there are twelve, where are the other two? Well, one's dead, and one's back with the father because he can't stand to lose that one. That's his favorite. He's like, I don't believe you. It's true. This is okay, okay. I'm going to test you. I'm going to keep one of you here in prison, and the rest of you are going to take food back to your father. But in order to confirm your story, you have to send the one brother you didn't bring. Bring Benjamin back to me. Benjamin was his only true brother. The rest were half brothers.

Bring Benjamin back to me, and I'll believe your story. And so, he commands the Egyptians to put grain on their donkeys, keeps one of them in prison, and sends the rest on their way. But he instructs the guy to take the silver that they bought the grain with, put it back in their bag. So, they're going up the road, walking along, and they camp for the night. And they open their bag, they need some food. They're going to take some grain, they're going to make some bread. And what do they see in the top of their bag? The silver that they were supposed to buy the grain with was in the bag. They're like, oh no! We're going to be accused of stealing. We didn't pay for it.

Anyway, long story short, they go back to their father. They tell him the whole story, and Israel basically says, you idiots! I'm not sending Benjamin back with you. And so, he doesn't do it. He leaves the one son in prison. That's the father's love for you. And because he's not giving up, another one of Rachel's boys. No way, not doing it. Oh, the favoritism in his family. It's terrible.

And then, finally, they run out of food again. And so, he says, well, I guess you're going to have to go to Egypt. And one of them pipes up, well, if he just sent us ahead of time, it wouldn't be an emergency, would it? We knew this day was coming. They have this little family argument. And finally, they send Benjamin down, and they go back down to Egypt. And he sees them coming. Joseph sees them coming. And he sees Benjamin, who was just a little child when he left. He's overwhelmed again, and he leaves. And then, he calls them all in for lunch again. And pretty much does the same thing. Ask his fathers alive. Ask them a bunch of questions. Before they get into lunch, they ask his officer at the gate, hey, last time, these coins were in our bag. We didn't mean it. The guy said, no, no, no, you paid. That must be from God. God must have put those in your bag, because your account is clean with us. Come on in. So, they did. And they get the grain again. And they head back. And he says, well, you have to leave Benjamin with us. No, leave another one with us. We can't leave Benjamin. And on their way back, he sticks. He allows Benjamin to go. He sticks. Not only does he stick the first money that they left, he sticks the second pouch of silver that they left. Now, there's in each bag of grain two pouches of silver. Oh, no. And in Benjamin's sack, he puts a silver cup that he drinks from, his own personal cup. Like he stole from the house of the leader of Egypt. He's a dead man. So, then he sends the guards on to catch him that night. And Joseph's guards come up to them. And everybody show us your grain bags. And the person that's found holding any item from Joseph's house will be taken back and put to death. They're like, yeah, no problem. They open their grain sacks and, oh, no, the silver's here. And the guard is like, I'm not concerned with silver. I want to see household items from Egypt. And all of a sudden, Benjamin opens his sack. Because they intentionally start with the oldest, and they work their way down, building up the drama, building up the drama. They finally get the Benjamin's sack, and they open it up. And there's the golden chalice that they put there. They knew it was there. Oh, they panic! Benjamin's dead! They round them all up. They bring them all back to Joseph, and he says, I should throw you all in prison and execute this one. And so, they bargain for his life and convince Joseph that to hold one in prison, if they'll bring the father back. And Joseph finally goes into another room, and he balls his eyeballs out so loud that even his people can hear him. He has his people leave, and he speaks to them in Hebrew language. And he says, I am your brother Joseph. And they say, ah! I mean, now they know they're dead, right? Before, it was just, what's going on? Are we going to die? Now it's like, we are going to die. So, let's pick that up in Genesis 45 and verse 1. You're probably wondering, is this a sermon or a story? Genesis 45 and verse 1.

Then Joseph could no longer control himself, his attendants, and he cried out, Have everyone leave my presence? And so, there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and the Pharaoh's household heard about it. Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence. And then Joseph said to his brothers, Come close to me. And when they had done so, he said, I am your brother Joseph, the one who you've sold into Egypt. And now, do not be distressed, and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. Now, we could talk about Joseph's faith, and we will sometime, just not today.

For two years now, there have been famine in the land, and for the next five years, there will not be plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve you for a remnant on the earth, to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So then it was not you who sent me here, but God. Do we have that perspective from people who mistreat us? We're going to get a little bit more refined explanation of this by Joseph himself in a few years. But right now, Joseph is calming them down. All right? So Joseph is just giving them the big picture, not all the details. He gives them some details in a few years, but not now.

So then it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler of all Egypt. Now, hurry back to my father and say to him, this is your son Joseph, what your son Joseph says. God has made me, lord of all Egypt, come down to me. Don't delay. You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me. You, your children and your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have. Now, he told them this before Pharaoh even made it possible, because he knew he could get it done with Pharaoh. He knew that. He was, Pharaoh trusted him implicitly. Joseph told him, told them what was going to happen before Pharaoh even ordered it. Pharaoh had to order it, and he did. But Joseph knew, you go tell my father, come down here, and you're going to live in the best part of Egypt, then in the Nile Delta, where it was still wet. That's where they were going to live. I will provide for you, verse 11, for there, because five years of famine are still to come, otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will be destitute. You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I whom speaking to you. Tell my father all the honor accorded to me in Egypt and about everything you have seen, and bring my father down here quickly. And he threw his arms around Benjamin and wept. And Benjamin embraced him weeping, and he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and afterward the brothers talked with him. The first lesson from Joseph's life that we should pick up is to seek reconciliation, not revenge. You see, Joseph could have easily taken out the other ten, unless Benjamin alive. There would have been so few mouths to feed. From a human point of view, it would have been so easy to just take them out, and there would have been so much satisfaction. They owed him. Do people owe you? You know they do. Everybody gets wronged. Everybody is owed something by somebody. We'll get to that in a minute. Joseph did not seek revenge. How did he do that? How did he grow up in such a dysfunctional family and not just cut their heads off? They would have. They almost did. And he came from them. He was one of them. How did he not do it? Let's look at that today.

There are some steps involved that Joseph understood we must understand.

First of all, Joseph understood the legality of revenge. This is under lesson number one. Joseph seeks reconciliation instead of revenge. How did he do it?

Number one, Joseph understood the legality of revenge. It's against the law. It's against God for you to take revenge against your brother, even when they owe you. Leviticus 19. Did you know that Jesus Christ quoted as the second of the greatest commandments, that you are not to take revenge? Most of us don't realize that because he quoted the last half of the command. Let's read the entire command that Jesus was referring to. Leviticus 19. Did you know this was here?

The second half is what Jesus quoted. Jesus said, this is the second greatest commandment that's like the first one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. The second one is like and to it, love your neighbor as yourself. How do you do that? According to this, you do not seek revenge. It's against the law. Wow.

Paul expounds on this and gives some teeth to it. In Romans 12, God's Spirit led Joseph to understand what Paul is saying to us. Brethren, we need to understand it. Romans 12, verse 18, if it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. What?

Are you kidding me? Do you know what they did to me? Fill in the blank, because everybody has a different story. Paul understood that. Paul had gone through quite a bit of trial by the time he wrote the book of Romans. He had been left for dead, had to escape out a window in a basket, had been shipwrecked. By the time he wrote this book, he had gone through a lot. And yet, he understood what Joseph understood, what we're supposed to understand. The revenge is not ours to take. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

Therefore, and he quotes another Old Testament scripture, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

Joseph's brothers could easily, reasonably, by any court in the world, be counted as Joseph's enemies.

And yet, they were also his brothers, weren't they?

I ask you, brethren, who on the planet earth is not your brother?

So, verse 20, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you will eat heaps of fire on his head. Do not be overcome with evil.

But overcome evil with good, and that's exactly what Joseph did.

He overcame evil and saved his family. God built Israel up through that act into a large nation. Israel gave birth to Jesus Christ, and we were all saved by his blood. That's amazing what God did through Joseph. He's part of that story.

So, the second half of that equation, not the second lesson, we're still under seek reconciliation, not revenge. First lesson. First is, revenge is illegal. Second, there's a better way. Seek reconciliation. Colossians chapter 1. How do we do it? How do we seek reconciliation? Brethren, we follow God's example. He's already led the charge. He's cut the path. All we have to do is walk down the path that he went down. It's what God has already done with us. And all we have to do is follow his example. Colossians chapter 1 verse 19.

Colossians 1 verse 19. For it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell in Jesus Christ. And by him to reconcile all things to him, by him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of the cross, the blood that forgave us, is what we remember when we think back of all the terrible things that happened to you. All the terrible things that we've gone through, we reconcile because God reconciled with us first. But what did God do when he reconciled us? Let's read on. Verse 21. And you who once were alienated and enemies. Oh yes, we were enemies to God.

In your mind, how? By wicked works. Oh, people do wicked things to us, don't they? They mistreat us. They disregard us. They favor one over another. You're thinking, hey, I'm right here. Why don't you love me? People just do wicked things. Well, guess what? We did wicked things to God. We were enemies to God. We were not one with him. And while we were enemies, he sent his Son and he forgave us. How much did he forgive us? It's right here. Let's read on.

Yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death. That's Jesus Christ's flesh with sacrifice for us. To present you, present you how? Notice this. Holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. Do we do that to people that we have forgiven? Are they holy? In other words, special. Holy means set aside as special to God. Are they special to us? Are they blameless to us? No longer to blame for what they did. That doesn't mean you're not cautious, right? But they won't do it again. They're still people, right? You're not an idiot. If you were abused at one point, you don't just walk back into that situation. But can you say, I was forgiven to the point where I'm holy and blameless and I'm actually above reproach. Nobody can say anything to me about my past sins. Do I hold the same for everybody else who sinned against me? Joseph understood this. Talk about big picture, right? Joseph got the big picture. Matthew 18, verse 21. You know God requires this of us. This is not a suggestion. This is not an optional course that we can take when we join the University of Christianity. This is a core requirement. Matthew 18, verse 21. I don't know how I'm going to fit a sermon into 50 minutes, but I have to. Matthew 18, verse 21. Then Peter came to him and said, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me? And I forgive him. Up to seven times, Peter thinking he's being generous, and Jesus said to him, I don't say seven, up to seven times, but up to 70 times seven. Now, a lot of people read that in the Greeks. Some Greek experts say, but I say up to 77 times.

Whether it's 70 times seven or 77 times is irrelevant. It's a colloquial statement. It means there is no limit to how many times my followers are going to forgive other people and reconcile with them. There is no limit. We just do it.

And he goes on, therefore, when somebody says, therefore, in the New Testament, you better pay close attention. The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. You know, our relationships with other people are interrupted by things that people owe us, aren't they? Right? What gets in the way of two people getting along? Someone did such and such to me, and they owe me. This king was settling accounts. What does that mean? Somebody owed him something. This king represents God the Father.

Verse 24. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought with him who owed him 10,000 talents. That's a lot of money. More than you and I can come up with. Worth more than the building that we're sitting in. How many of you sitting here can buy this building out of your bank account without mortgaging it? I can't. Neither could this servant, but he owed the cash right now. There was nobody going to give him a loan. But he was not able to pay, verse 25, his master commanded that he be sold, and his wife and children, and all that they had, and that payment be made.

And the servant therefore fell down before him, saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. Patience is part of love. Patience is part of love. Love me. I'll pay all. Don't we ask that of God? Then we have to give it to other people. Okay? Therefore, the master of that servant was moved with compassion. He loved him, released him, and forgave all of his debt. And that is exactly what God the Father did. God forgave our debt through the blood of Jesus Christ. Okay, so we stand forgiven. We are that servant. Verse 28, But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. The guy owes him a hundred bucks, less than a week's wage.

And he laid his hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me what you owe! Scoundrel! You abused me! You favored somebody else! You fill in the blank! Whatever it is they did to you! You owe me! That's what this servant did after being forgiven. Joseph did not do this. Verse 29, So his fellow servants fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me and I will pay you all! Reconciliation is simple.

Somebody has to be the mature one. Somebody has to go first and say, I forgive you. You're special to me. You're blameless. You are above reproach.

Relationship is back on! Easier said than done. But that is our core requirement. Our core requirement. It's not an elective, an option.

So the fellow servant fell down on his feet and begged him, saying, Have patience with me and I will pay you all! I'm good for it. I'll pay you back.

He apologizes.

And he would not. But he went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servant saw what had been done, they were very grieved. Of course they were grieved. Because they saw that that man was forgiven ten thousand, which would be millions to us. And he wouldn't forgive a hundred bucks. And they were just grieved at the conflict. And they came and told their master all that had been done. Then the master, after he had called him, said to him, You wicked servant! Brethren, we never want God to say that about us. I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. I sent my only begotten son, Jesus the Christ, and he bled and died. And you do this? You spit on his grave?

And then 33. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you, what kind of servant of God are we? Are we a wicked servant or are we a good servant? Verse 34. And his master was angry. What a huge statement. And delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due him. So, and here's the conclusion, my heavenly Father also will do to you. Put your name there. I put my name there. So my heavenly Father will also do to Rod if he from his heart does not forgive his brothers his trespasses. Put your name there.

So Joseph, in the most impressive way, led by God, guided by God's Spirit, didn't take revenge on his brothers, but he forgave them. Okay. Okay. What did he use to do that? How did he do it? The Apostle Paul gives us the second lesson that we can take from the story of Joseph that I want to bring out today.

How can you do that? One word, hope. Hope. Hope is based on faith, but I'm not going to talk about faith today. You can't have hope without faith, and it's also based on love. You can't have hope without love. Just want to talk about the mechanism that we call hope, the thing that is hope. Joseph had hope. There was a promise given to Abraham that his descendants would be as the stars of heaven, and that all children of the earth would be blessed. And that promise was passed down to Isaac, and that promise was passed down to Jacob, his father. And all the sons knew the promise of God, and they had hope. Abraham looked for the kingdom to come. It says that in the book of Hebrews. And they passed down that hope, the same exact hope that we have.

Joseph knew something that he hadn't attained yet better was coming. He even knew that when he was the leader of the largest nation on the planet, he had not attained his hope. He hoped for something far greater than that, because even being the leader of Egypt didn't reconcile him with his family, what he really wanted and didn't give him that kingdom. The second lesson of Joseph's life is faith-based hope. It replaces revenge. Joseph's entire family moved to Egypt and had plenty of food, and they became very well off. How can you hold on when people treat you wrong? That's one of the worst feelings that you can face. How do you forgive when you were owed so much by other people? Well, first lesson is we know God forgave us. We better not put our hand on revenge. Okay? We do know that, but the second half of that equation is we know something better is coming, and we have hope. Joseph had hope. Romans chapter 8. Paul talks about hope. Romans chapter 8. Let's go through it. I consider Romans chapter 8 and verse 18. I'm going to read from the new, revised, standard version.

I understand Paul better when I read him in something other than King James, and then I go back to King James to make sure I get it doctrinally correct, because those other translations tend to slip on the law and on once saved, always saved. They like to rewrite it just a little bit. It's subtle, but you don't want to let it throw you off track. But in order to understand Paul's conversation, it's better to read it something like NIV or New Revised or New Living. New Revised Standard Version, Romans 8 verse 18. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that to be revealed in us. Hope. This is our hope. A better day is coming. A better body is coming. A better life. A glory will be revealed in us. Let's read on, verse 19. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. For the creation was subjected to futility. Oh, aren't we ever! And not of its own will, but by the will of the one who subjected it. How? In hope. God had a purpose for kicking mankind out of the garden. The futility and vanity that we read about in Ecclesiastes has a purpose, and that purpose was with hope. Hope for us. And it's our hope. 21. That the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay, and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. Wow, we have such hope. People have messed up their lives so badly. Our siblings, sometimes our parents, sometimes our children, have gone astray. And God's intent is to reconcile all men back to Him. And we have hope that all is not lost, just because it's a mess. We can't clean it up. It's way over our heads, but God can. And we have hope. And the creation itself is set free from the bondage to decay, and will obtain freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly. We wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. Paul understood that. Paul understood it. It's hard. Yeah, it's hard. So why don't we just crumble? Why don't we just give up? Why don't we just take revenge on other people? Because we have hope. For in hope, verse 24, we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. Kingdom's not here yet. Body is not really in good shape. Hair's gray. Tired all the time. Bones are starting to creak a little bit. How about you? Verse 25, But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Oh, yeah, we've got to wait. Like young Joseph, we sometimes fall into a pit, and we have to wait for God to rescue us. He will and He will give us the strength to endure the pit also. We need faith. We need hope. And we need love. But God will supply the strength. He will put it in us. So don't fret it. Verse 26, Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know how to pray as we ought. But that the very Spirit intercedes with size too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints, according to the will of God. God gets it. He's so in tune to us. He knows what you're feeling. He can actually feel it. And He cares. That's what that means. And God, who searches the heart, knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes according to the will of God. Verse 28, For we know that all things work together for good, for those who love God, who are called according to His purpose.

That was read last week in the sermon also. I wanted to give the context of that verse. What is the context? Hope. Okay? That verse shapes my outlook in life. It defines my outlook of life. I am not an optimist. I'm not. Optimists tend to think that everything's going to work out okay. I'm not an optimist. I know bad things happen all the time. Boy, howdy. Do they ever?

I am a man of hope. I know that bad things are going to happen, and it's going to work out. That's not pie in the sky. That's hope. What did Joseph have? He had hope. One with hope trusts that God will make bad things better. Yes, we have trials. We all do.

How do we deal with him? Romans 12. Let's just skip down in the same letter. Paul is still on the subject. Just skip down a few words. Romans 12. Verse 12. Switching back to the New King James. Didn't have time to grab this out of the New Revised. Romans 12. Verse 12. Rejoicing in hope. Patience in tribulation. That's us. Joseph was thrown into a pit, sold into slavery, thrown into prison, and the whole while he had hope. Your life story. What you go through. How people treat you.

Your entire life through. Don't be an optimist. Have hope. It's so much better. It's so much more certain. Your outlook on life will be so much better.

Don't pretend everything's all right. Know that God is going to make everything all right, and then you will be all right. So, rejoicing in hope. Patience in tribulation. Continuing steadfastly in prayer. Stay close to God. Distributing the needs of the saints. Given to hospitality. You know, when you do that, you stop thinking about yourself only. You start thinking outside of your own self.

Verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. That's what Joseph did. When he got to them, when they finally met up again, he didn't curse them. He got the big picture. He had the hope. He forgave them and blessed them. Bless those who persecute you. Bless. Do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Back to the story of Joseph. The father dies. Joseph returns to Canaan to bury him with Abraham and Isaac, and he returns back to Egypt to be with his family. And the brothers are worried.

All right? Okay, so Joseph may have just been pretending to like us while Dad was alive, and now he's going to wipe us out, and he had the power to do it. Their lives were in his hand.

Chapter 50 of Genesis. Let's go there and read it.

Genesis chapter 50 and verse 15. Genesis chapter 50 and verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, Perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.

So they sent a messenger to Joseph. Before your father died, he commanded, saying, Thus, you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespasses of your brothers their sins. For they did evil to you. Now please forgive them the trespass of the servants of God of your father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, again, fulfilling the prophecy. Remember, Joseph had two dreams that they would bow down before him. They did it once already. When he came to Egypt and they went for food, they bowed down before him. But now it was more intense.

They bowed down a second time.

Behold, we are your servants, they said. And Joseph said in verse 19, Joseph said to them, Do not be afraid. And this is us. This is you and me. This is how we're supposed to be. Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? Who are we, you and me?

God. Okay, so and here's the detail that Joseph fills in. But as for you, you meant it for evil against me. Oh, you meant it. We don't have to candy coat it. We don't have to be phony Christians. We don't have to say, That's okay. You didn't mean it. It's all better now. It's not. Joseph never said that. Not one time. He absolutely admitted the truth. You meant it for evil. You are guilty of what you did to me. That's okay to say. Hey, that's reality. Life's messy. Joseph didn't pull any punches. You did evil to me and you owe me, but Joseph had hope.

But God meant it for good in order to bring it about this day to save many people alive.

Hope. Joseph got it. Do we get it? Is that our outlook on life? Should be.

Now therefore, do not be afraid. This should be me and you. I will provide for you and your little ones, and he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So there are two lessons. Oh, there are tons of lessons. I love the story of Joseph. I just love it. It's just chock full of lessons. How to be diligent, how to follow God, to flee fornication, have faith, all kinds of things. So if you want to give a sermonette on the story of Joseph, knock yourself out. There's plenty more to do. I just wanted to touch on two lessons that you can draw from the book of Joseph and gain an outlook on life that's awesome for you, that makes life worth living. We don't take revenge.

We reconcile. Why? Because like Joseph, we see what God is doing and what he's going to do and how he's going to fix things. To do that, we have hope.