Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt; and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there. And the Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man. And he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and became his personal servant; and he made him overseer in his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge....So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge; and with him around he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. [Egyptians were so fastidious about their food they would not allow a foreigner to touch it.] Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.
We would say Joseph was a well-built, handsome young man, seventeen
years of age. We don't know how long he was there, but it wasn't
long before he was placed in a position of authority in Potiphar's
household. Potiphar was the captain of Pharaoh's bodyguard, a
very important official in Pharaoh's cabinet, and Joseph was successful
in his home.
As a handsome man, it wasn't long before he attracted the attention
of Potiphar's wife. Verse 7 tells us that she tried to seduce
him, and he resisted her a number of times. Finally, one day as
he was walking about the house, she grasped his robe, and he fled
out of the house in his skivvies. Potiphar learned of these events,
his wife lied to him, and, verses 19-20 say, Now it came about
that when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke
to him, saying, "This is what your slave did to me,"
that his anger burned. So Joseph's master took him and put him
into the jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined;
and he was there in the jail.
As far as we know, he was in prison for thirteen years, until
he was thirty years old. Now, there was an opportunity to build
a great case of resentment. The only sin you can pick up in this
young man's life is that he was spoiled, and a little demanding,
and flaunted the favor that his father bestowed on him. The first
time Joseph was in bondage, he might have reasoned, "Perhaps
I deserved to be sent into slavery because of my attitudes toward
my brothers."
But now that God had prospered him and he was in prison the second
time, he might justifiably reason, "This isn't fair. I was
walking with God, doing what was right. I was resisting this idolatrous
household." Potiphar's name means "dedicated to Ra."
This was a household that worshiped the Egyptian god of the sun,
Ra. In that pagan household, Joseph obeyed God. He did what was
right and resisted the attempts on the part of Potiphar's wife
to seduce him. All he got for his trouble was a 13-year jail sentence.
That would have been a great place for Joseph to get bitter and
resentful at his brothers, because he certainly didn't deserve
that sort of treatment. We are told in verse 21, But the Lord
was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor
in the sight of the chief jailer.
The word "kindness" is the Hebrew word "chesed"
that occurs throughout the Old Testament to refer to God's loyalty
to the covenant. God is true to his word. God was loyal to his
word to this young man. God had promised to exalt him. That was
the promise given to Joseph in his dream, and God was loyal to
him. He didn't abandon him, but stayed with him. Verses 22-23:
And the chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were with him in the jail; so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it. The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper.
In the terms of our modern day idiom, he became a trusty. He was
given certain privileges and responsibilities that no one else
in the jail had. He was still in jail, but he had a measure of
freedom.
Through one of those divine coincidences, after a number of years,
two officials from Pharaoh's court came into his life, and their
imprisonment is described in chapter 40. The butler, or cupbearer
of the Pharaoh, and the baker somehow fell into the king's disfavor,
so they were cast into prison.
Three days before Pharaoh's birthday party, they both had a dream--different
dreams, but with certain similarities. Perhaps they were thinking
that, were they not in prison, they would have been involved in
various activities concerning the birthday celebration in Pharaoh's
house, and, in thinking about their former life, they dreamed.
The cupbearer's dream was this: He saw a grapevine with three
branches, and as he watched, it flowered and produced grapes.
He squeezed the grapes into Pharaoh's cup, placed the cup into
Pharaoh's hand, and Pharaoh took it from him. Joseph rightly interpreted
that dream to mean that Pharaoh would restore the cupbearer again
to his household, that he would again take the cup from his hand,
and that this would happen in three days. As we know from the
following narrative, that is what occurred.
The baker's dream was a bit different, although the number three
occurs again. He saw three baskets of bread on his head, and the
birds came and ate the bread from the baskets on his head. Joseph
rightly interpreted the dream to mean that the baker would lose
his head, that the birds would devour him. And in three days,
both dreams were fulfilled. The butler was restored to his position
of eminence; the baker was executed. Joseph had said to the butler
in 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." The word translated "kindness"
is the same word that occurs in chapter 39, verse 21, "the
Lord extended kindness." It has to do with loyalty to your
word. Joseph had made a covenant with the butler, and when he
went back, the butler was to secure his release. But verse 23
tells us, Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but
forgot him.
For two more years, Joseph languished in prison, forgotten. Now
that will make you bitter. It will make you bitter against your
brothers, and against the cupbearer. Everyone is treating you
unjustly.
At the end of two full years, we are told in' chapter 41, Pharaoh
had a dream. In fact, he had two dreams, with the same element
in each. His first dream was of seven fat cows coming out of the
Nile, and the seven fat cows were devoured by seven lean cows.
Then he dreamed that seven fat ears of corn were devoured by seven
lean ears of corn. The wizards and magicians of that day tried
to interpret the dreams but were unable to.
It dawned on the cupbearer that there was a man in prison who
could interpret dreams, and he called on Joseph in prison. Joseph
interpreted the dream for the Pharaoh. He said that there would
be seven years of plenty and fertility in Egypt, and then seven
years of famine. Then Joseph described certain steps that ought
to be taken to prepare for the famine. Because his words were
so wise, Pharaoh placed him in a position of authority over all
of Egypt. He became the vizier of the king, second only to Pharaoh,
and he began to implement plans to provide for the people during
the famine.
Again, by one of those divine coincidences, Joseph happened to
be on the spot dispensing grain to people coming from all over
the world (there was famine in all the western part of the Mediterranean,
and people were coming from all over to get bread in Egypt) when
who should turn up one day but Joseph's own brothers!
That story is given us in detail beginning with chapter 42. I
am not going to take time to read that story, but I encourage
you to read it on your own. It is very interesting to see what
Joseph does with his brothers. It almost appears that he is playing
games with them, but he is not. He is trying to get them to face
themselves and put away this treacherous trait they have. Whatever
it was in them that caused them to deny their brother before was
still there. He wanted them to face it and put it away.
At first Joseph treats them harshly and puts them in prison for
three days. My belief is that he put them there to give them some
idea of how he felt when they put him in the pit for three days.
Then he sent them home. But to their amazement, when they opened
the sacks of grain, they found the money they had paid for the
grain. They couldn't understand this strange fellow off in Egypt
who on the one hand, was harsh, and on the other, returned their
money.
Two years later, they come back, having run out of grain, and
here is the same grand vizier. Again, by some happy coincidence,
Joseph happens to be there when they show up to buy grain. This
time they are invited to a feast. This is even more perplexing.
Then they are sent home.
As they are traveling, they are stopped by one of Joseph's aides.
What they don't realize is that before they were sent away, Joseph
had one of his helpers plant his silver divining cup in the sack
of his brother Benjamin. Benjamin was one year old when Joseph
left his father's house. He hadn't seen him for fifteen years,
and Joseph loved Benjamin. Yet, for some strange reason, he implicates
that brother in a crime. He puts his own personal silver cup,
his most precious possession, in his younger brother's sack, and
then they are sent back to Canaan.
Joseph's aide is then dispatched to stop them before they discover
the cup, and he accuses them of the crime.They say, "But
we are innocent!" Then they vow a great vow: "If you
find that cup on any of us, we will be your slaves forever."
The aide says, "All right; the person we find that cup on
will be Pharaoh's slave for the rest of his life, and the rest
of you may go free." They open their sacks and, to their
dismay, in the sack of their youngest brother Benjamin is the
silver cup.
Here was another chance to betray their youngest brother. Their
sacks were clean, so they were innocent. But their younger brother
had the cup, and he was now to be the servant of Pharaoh. They
could have walked away and abandoned him, as they abandoned Joseph;
but they said, "No, we will all go back to Egypt and serve
Pharaoh." Do you see what Joseph is doing? He is correcting
them, doing something redemptive. He is not playing games, he
is trying to get them to face what they are, and to change their
behavior. In chapter 45 we have the account of Joseph's encounter
with his brothers after they return, a very dramatic moment when
he reveals himself. Verses 1-8:
Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried, "Have everyone go out from me." So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard of it. Then Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Is my father still alive?" But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. [I would have loved to have been a little mouse present at that scene!] Then Joseph said to his brothers, "Please come closer to me." And they came closer. And he said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance [Listen to this!] Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God..."
There are three things that I see in this passage that are extremely
important. One, people will always disappoint you. I hope you
have learned that. I hope your expectations of people are realistic.
It is amazing how our sense of moral justice is outraged when
people treat us unjustly. We can treat others unjustly with the
greatest of ease, and justify it. But we are always outraged when
people are not just toward us. Somehow we expect them to be just.
But why should they be? We are not. People will always disappoint
us. Joseph's brothers disappointed him. The cupbearer disappointed
him. Potiphar's wife disappointed him. Potiphar disappointed him,
because Potiphar should have known better. He had seen Joseph's
life and character.
The problem with most of us is that our expectations of people
are totally unrealistic. We will be treated unjustly--we can expect
it. We can't expect people to be fair. Only the Lord is loyal,
in any ultimate sense. The Lord is loyal to his word. What we
see throughout this entire account is that the Lord was with Joseph,
and the Lord was dealing in mercy and in grace and loyalty to-ward
Joseph. As Carolyn, my wife, frequently tells me when I get uptight
at what people do and say, "Men will always disappoint you;
try Jesus."
The second thing I want you to see is that God himself accepts
the responsibility for all these terrible things that happened
to Joseph. God takes the responsibility for all these calamities.
Joseph says to his brothers, "You sent me...God sent me."
Now, they were responsible. They acted freely, and they acted
wickedly. And God would judge them, as he judges the wickedness
of people. But God takes the responsibility for their actions.
Now I don't understand that, but I find that principle all the
way through the Scriptures. Men are free and responsible, and
yet God himself is acting sovereignly in their lives to accomplish
his will. That, you see, is what set Joseph free. It wasn't his
brothers acting upon him--they were only the secondary cause.
It was God who was working in his life to accomplish constructive,
redemptive, purifying things, to prepare for his own people, and
to do something in his own life. That principle is found throughout
the Scriptures.
Look at the first chapter of Job, and look at all the terrible
tragedies that came into his life--his family and flocks and herds
were taken away, he was destitute, just he and his wife were left.
But Job worships and prays and says, "The Lord gives, and
the Lord has taken away." Who did it? The Lord. In case you
think Job's theology is off, in the next paragraph, God is speaking
to Satan (who is the perpetrator of all these terrible things
that happened--at least he is the one who is directly responsible)
and says, "You moved me against my servant Job." God
takes the responsibility for those actions.
Now that ought to give us a new way of looking at people who have
caused us to be bitter. We say, "You made me bitter."
We say this about the guy upstairs who turns his stereo on full
blast at two o'clock in the morning, the employer who insists
you make brick without straw, the man who promises all sorts of
things and raises your expectations and then jilts you. Whatever
the cause of disappointment in your life may be, this ought to
cause you to look at that person in a different light.
Now it may be necessary to go to that person and to correct him
in love--which is what Joseph did to his brothers. But the key
to this entire operation is Joseph's spirit. There is no bitterness,
no rancor, no resentment. He is at peace because he sees that
it is God who is at work in his life, both to will and to do of
his good pleasure.
It is not always true that you and I will see the good things
that Joseph saw. He had the privilege of seeing it with his eyes.
But that may not occur with us; we may have to take it by faith.
John the Baptist died in prison; they cut off his head. Jeremiah,
as far as we know, was stoned to death in Egypt. But the eye of
faith looks at all those circumstances and says, "That is
God at work in my life to accomplish his very best, and nothing
can thwart that. And whether I see it or not, it is working together
for good, for me and for my brothers and sisters in Christ."
That sets you free from resentment.
Many of us have been burdened by bitterness and hatred toward
some person who has done some violent thing in our life--perhaps
a parent who wreaked psychological havoc in our lives. And we
blame this person and brood over it and resent it. Joseph reminds
us that it is God who put that parent in our lives. It is God
who is behind all those circumstances. It is his fingers that
are squeezing us. Realizing this sets us free.
The third thing that I want you to see is that because Joseph
understood this principle, he was able to act in love toward those
who had wronged him. Turn to chapter 50, verses 15-17:
When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "What if Joseph should bear a grudge against us and pay us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!" [I would say that Joseph had every right, humanly speaking, to bear a grudge and pay them back, to retaliate. And they were afraid that he would.] So they sent a message to Joseph saying, "Your father charged before he died, saying, 'Thus you shall say to Joseph, "Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong."' And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
I am convinced that the entire thing was fictitious. Jacob
understood his son better than that. I think the brothers fabricated
that message in order to save their own skins. Verses 18-21 continue:
Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said,
"Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them,
"Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place?" [Only God
has the right to take vengeance. "Vengeance is mine, I will
repay." Joseph says, "I am not in God's place to judge
to avenge myself."] And as for you, you meant evil against
me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present
result, to preserve many people alive. So therefore, do not be
afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones." So
he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
The Hebrew says "he spoke to their heart." Jesus says,
"Love your enemies. Pray for those that despitefully use
you." Now, how do you do that? You do it by having a clear
vision. You do it by understanding that you do have the strength
of God himself to respond that way to people who have done you
wrong. But you also see that ultimately it is God who is working
through the terrible things they are doing to you, to accomplish
his ends, his intended results.
G. Campbell Morgan says that one mark of maturity is the capacity
to ignore secondary causes, not to look at the immediate cause--the
person who is pressing you--as the ultimate source of that anguish,
but to see that it is God who is at work in that very situation
to bring you his good. That is why Paul could say, "Let your
forbearance be known to all men, because God is at hand."
It is God at work in your life to will and to do for his good
pleasure. What a freeing thing it is! It ought to set us free
from resentment. It ought to give us the ability to love those
who hate us, and to pray and bless those who curse us and despitefully
use us.
Father, we thank you again for this reminder that you are loyal to us. Teach us to be realistic in our expectations of others, and not expect that they treat us the way we think we ought to be treated, but to know that it is always your response to us; that every perfect gift is from above. There are many things that happen to us that we wouldn't call good; but they are good, because these things are intended to produce the good that you are working out in us. So we pray that as we come into situations that normally would call for resentment and bitterness, we may be peaceful, quiet, and faithful people. We ask these things in Christ's name, Amen.
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