Title: JOSEPH—THE MAN WHO DISPLAYED GOD’S WORK

Focus: Joseph lives and dies under the umbrella of faith and trust in God’s providential guidance and covenant promise of salvation.

Function: To encourage the people to trust in the Lord at all times, by considering their life’s circumstances or story in light God’s grand story of salvation. Texts: Hebrews 11:11-22, 39-40; Gen. 30:22-24; 49:1,2,22-26; Deut. 33:13-17; Gen. 50:15-26

America’s greatest cultural obsession today seems to be the notion that says: Life is all about me! This notion is most visible among movie stars and television celebrities: Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, George Clooney come to mind, for example, or Whoopee Goldberg, Matt Damon, and Rosie O’Donnell to name a few. Many politicians also seem to think that life is all about them. Instead of serving their constituency, they more frequently serve themselves and their favorite, high paying interests groups. It’s downright discouraging to see this notion at work in our culture today.

The life-is-all-about me” mentality also pops up in churches, where some pastors glamour for recognition and TV popularity, and where many parishioners think of themselves as consumers, thus demanding a certain entertainment and worship style menu that is supposed to qualify as biblical worship. It may shock you, but folks, here’s good news: Life is NOT about me, or you! It’s all about God at work in us and through us to accomplish his purposes.

My grandfather was born sometime in 1881; he died in 1975. He had 10 children, lost his wife at a very young age; lived through the Great Depression, two world-wars, worked the soil all his life, never had a day of vacation, owned no stocks, lived on a small plot of land which he called his home. He was a plain man, who learned to trust and worship God through good times and bad times. He took life as it came to him and did not complain.

At the end of his life, he had only one request: when I die bury me at the local cemetery. And please, nothing elaborate, and no tombstone by my grave. My grandfather lived a marginal, hard life; he died unassumingly as well. When I visit his cemetery in Holland, I have a hard time finding his grave: there is no marker, no name, and no tombstone. There’s nothing that suggests that life was about him.

Yet, my grandfather’s legacy lives on. Looking back on his life, I learned from my grandfather to live and die in faith, trusting God’s providential guidance and work throughout my life. The story of our brother, Joseph, teaches us the same thing: we are to trust the Lord at all times by considering our life’s circumstances or life story in light of God’s grand story of salvation. In other words, life is not about me, but about God in relation to his fallen people and creation.

The inspired writer of Hebrews 11 writes a letter to persecuted Christians. He wants to encourage us to persevere in faith, especially in times of affliction and cruelty and death. So what does he do? He holds before us the portraits of people of faith: Abel, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham, to name a few. They are the saints, the ones who have gone before us. One of those saints is Joseph, the eleventh son of Jacob. Now many of us know the moving story of Joseph. What is it, however, that stands out for the inspired writer of Hebrews 11? In a narcissistic culture that insists that life is all about us, what is it that we must learn from Joseph?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Life stinks! So says one slogan. (_________) happens! So says another bumper sticker. That’s how Rachel, the favorite wife of Jacob may have felt at times. Rachel was barren, unable to produce children for Jacob. Rachel’s sister, Leah, however, managed to produce 6 sons and 1 daughter. Using their maidservants, Rachel and Leah brought forth four more sons for Jacob.

But none of these children could increase the happiness of Leah or Rachel. Life seemed rotten, especially for Rachel, since she herself remained childless. In the race of child production, Leah kept adding and winning, while Rachel remained scoreless.

Imagine then her astonishing delight when Rachel became pregnant with a child. Maybe this child would be the beginning of a home run dash that would lead to Rachel winning the child production game in Jacob’s household. Thus we notice that Rachel names her first-born child Joseph, which means, ‘May he add.’ That is, may this child be the beginning of many more children. May this child Joseph be the first of many more to come forth from Rachel’s womb! Rachel looks for prosperity, fruitfulness, and an abundance of sons. May Joseph add—lead to the increase of Jacob’s quiver filled with Rachel’s offspring! Life is all about Rachel and her quest to produce children and to keep her sister Leah away from the favor of their husband Jacob. But life—for Rachel—and yes, also for Joseph continues to reek.

Joseph captures his father’s heart. Jacob is delighted with Rachel’s first-born child. And Jacob favors Joseph above all his sons. As Joseph becomes a teenager, Jacob gives him a royal robe. Like a peacock, Joseph stands out and shows off his favorite status among his half-brothers. The sons of Leah play second fiddle. And they feel it. And they gag of envy. They can’t stand Joseph. With his colored robe and high-falutin dreams, Joseph keeps adding flair and favor and prestige to himself, while his 10 older brothers are stuck with their secondary place in their father’s household. Life is not fair.

How true! Life can be downright evil. Sinful people begin to heap up a pile of trouble in Joseph’s life: his brothers plan to murder him, but end up selling him to merchants. They, in turn, sell Joseph to Potiphar who puts him to work in his own household. There, in that foreign land, far from home and Jacob’s God, Joseph faces a moral test. Potiphar’s wife begs him to seduce her. But Joseph refuses the illicit affair—and ends up in prison. Life is not fair.

In prison, Joseph shines with a spirit of service and kindness. But he remains in prison, forgotten by all. “May he add,” said Rachel of her newborn son. Well, for a long time, Joseph saw nothing but a heap of trouble coming at him. But Joseph remains steadfast in faith and he perseveres in the midst of affliction and sorrow.

Then God begins to add—blessings to Joseph. Pharaoh calls him out of prison and elevates Joseph as vice-regent or governor of Egypt. And God gives Joseph wisdom and political savvy to elevate Egypt as the breadbasket of the Middle East. Then the Lord reunites Joseph with his family, and Joseph ends up saving the household of Jacob from starvation. Life is good! Life is now about Joseph and his family, safe and secure in Egypt. Life centers on Joseph, right?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dying Jacob, lying on his deathbed seems to think so. When Jacob pronounces his blessing upon Joseph, using rural and military images, Jacob recalls Joseph’s story of life: “Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring whose branches climb over a wall.(highly productive, thus; Joseph lived up to his name, “May he add”) With bitterness archers attacked him (his brothers and his adversaries in Egypt); they shot at him with hostility.”

Then Jacob explains the reason for Joseph’s fruitfulness or abundance. Behind Joseph’s trouble and behind Joseph’s victories and successes stands the God of Jacob. So, Jacob explains: “But (Joseph’s) bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of your father’s God, who helps you, because of the Almighty….” In other words, your life, Joseph, was not about you. It was and is about our God who displays his works in you and through you.

Then Jacob, like a volcano, spits out blessing after blessing. Digging deep in his reservoir of faith, inspired Jacob talks of blessings produced by rain and rivers, blessings of children, and blessings from heaven, and blessings from the plains and mountains and fields of Canaan: “Let all these blessings rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers,” so speaks dying Jacob to Rachel’s first-born son.

At first glance, you may get the feeling that Jacob thinks that life is all about Joseph. Rachel thought it was all about her. And when Jacob raised his son and gave him that favorite status (signified by that colorful robe) when he was a teenager, Jacob certainly gave the impression that life was all about…Joseph. And when you listen to that last part of Jacob’s blessing to Joseph, you get that feeling again: “May Joseph be the prince among his brothers!”

Loaded with these blessings, did Joseph really think that life, after all, is all about him? No, he did not. That’s why I read from Genesis 50 and Hebrews 11.

You see, after Jacob dies, Joseph’s brothers worry. They worry that Joseph will punish his brothers for the wrong they did to him decades ago. Joseph’s brothers appeal to Joseph to forgive them. And his brothers offered themselves to Joseph as “slaves.” But Joseph responds and says: “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.” In other words, your evil actions, my sorrows and my adverse circumstances—they were not about you or me—they were about God displaying his work in us and through us.

Earlier, I asked you what the writer of Hebrews wants us to learn from Joseph. Listen to the text: “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.” Think about this in light of Joseph’s story as told in Genesis 50. Joseph is about to die. He is thinking about his own burial; he is thinking about the future—about life after his death.

Does Joseph build a pyramid for himself—a tomb to place his well-preserved, mummified body in a coffin covered with a mask such as that of King Tut Ank Ammon? Does Joseph instruct the engineers of Egypt to build an obelisk—a huge monument in commemoration of Joseph’s grand achievements as vice-regent or governor of Egypt in a time of starvation? A lasting monument thus for a Hebrew slave who rose to the position of a mighty king in Egypt? No. Life is not about Joseph.

This is what Joseph instructs his brothers to do: “I am about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” And then Joseph made his brothers swear an oath and Joseph said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

In his dying moments, Joseph shines in his faith. He anchors his life—and his death—his eternal future not in the grandeur of Egypt with its lasting, impressive monuments. No, Joseph anchors his faith in the God who has made a promise to make a new heaven and new earth. Joseph casts his lot—including his dust or bones—with the God of Israel who has promised that out of the tribe of Judah would come a Savior. That Savior is the Lord Jesus Christ. Joseph wants to be buried in the Promised Land, and thus he stakes his claim of faith and trust in the God who works out all his promises for the good of creation and for all his people.

With the eyes of faith, Joseph adds up his life and all his blessings—and Joseph concludes that his life will abound more and more on the day when God makes all things new. That’s also the point of the writer of Hebrews for us: We, too, who put our life and hope in the hands of the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, we too are waiting for the day when life shall come to us in abundance. On the day that Jesus comes again, we shall join Joseph, and Jacob and all God’s people throughout the ages, and together with them we shall inherit or receive what God has promised us in Jesus Christ.

Here’s in a nutshell what I hear God saying to us tonight:

(1) See your life in light of the grand story of God. Life is not about you or me; it’s about God making all things new in Jesus Christ. Life may reek of affliction; it may throw us all kinds of curve balls of nastiness and sorrow; life may end in misery for us today. But in the grand scheme of God’s story of salvation, God will wipe away our tears, heal all our sicknesses and cast out the pangs of death.

John the Baptizer lost his head—but that’s not the end of his story. My grandfather’s body has turned to dust—but the best is yet to come for him and us who belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Never lose sight of God’s work in your life—even in the midst of trouble. See your life in light of the story of God.

(2) Live with humility. Away with a victim attitude, away with an entitlement spirit, away with self-aggrandizement; away with self-promotion and a narcissistic spirit. Live with humility, especially in times of blessings and glory but also in times of inexplicable evil and trouble. Remember Jesus’ words to his disciples when they asked him about this man born blind: “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Jesus replied: “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

The same answer, I think, applies to Joseph’s story of life, and the same response qualifies for all God’s people throughout the ages: “…that the work of God might be displayed in our lives.” Live with humility. And connect your life’s circumstances with the story of God’s salvation.

(3) One final comment: Periodically, we do well to walk around the quiet paths of a local cemetery. Walk around, soak in the silence, read the names on the markers, take note of the epitaphs or sayings on the tombstones and ponder your own story and your own inevitable day of death. Then remember Joseph. Cast your anchor of faith in Jesus Christ, and rest assured: God will finish and bring to perfection the work that he has begun so long ago.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen!