“Joseph” – Genesis 50:15-21

I have what I think are some fun questions to ask you. If you could be God for just a few minutes, what would you do? If you had all the power and resources of the universe and the ability to make or change or create or destroy, what would you do? Would you make yourself a billionaire? Would you kill your worst enemy? Would you do away with sin or poverty or would you cure all cancer or other disease? Would you make Mexican food calorie-free? Send the Cowboys to the Super Bowl? What would you do?

My next question is, if you were God for those few minutes and your time was up but you could then give that power to somebody else, who would you give it to? It is your decision who you want to be God for a few minutes, who is the person you would choose? Would you choose a politician? An athlete? Your spouse? That’s probably a harder question than the first one because you have to completely trust that person, don’t you? You don’t want to give that kind of power to somebody that might be mad at you or would hurt you in some way.

Several thousand years ago there was a group of brothers that were grateful that another brother was not God. These brothers had done their other brother wrong years before and through a wild course of events, they now find themselves at this brother’s mercy. What is interesting is that the one brother has the power to kill them or make them slaves or just torture them or ignore them. But, like God, the brother chooses to forgive and to show kindness.

Joseph’s story is fascinating for several reasons. It is fascinating just for the fact that it takes up so much room in scripture. God uses less than one chapter to describe the creation of the entire universe but for the story of Joseph, he uses fourteen chapters! His story is fascinating because other than being a little arrogant when he was younger, nowhere in all those chapters does it mention Joseph actually sinning. We know he did but there is no mention of it in scripture.

It is fascinating because his is the ultimate rags to riches story. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, put in prison for something he didn’t do, lied about, forgotten about and then raised literally out of the pit and into the palace to be just about the most powerful man on the planet at the time. As we have seen going through the book of Genesis lately, Genesis can be short on details and sketchy on what we think are important issues but for the life of Joseph, there is a lot to read.

There is a lot to read but the very last chapter of Genesis is really the pinnacle, the peak, the dénouement of the book and of Joseph’s story as well as the story of the Hebrew people up to this time. It explains in a nutshell the story of God’s promise to Abraham and his family and to the world. It is the reason, the explanation for how and why God allowed His promise to hang by the precarious thread of certain people’s actions and yet God showed Himself to be faithful all through Genesis and the climax of that is in this story and in the words of Joseph in the last chapter.

Turn to Genesis 50 and let’s read verses 15-21. For context, you need to know that Joseph is now second in command only to Pharaoh here in Egypt and Egypt is basically the center of the world at this time. Most of you know this story but I want you to think about this. In all the years of captivity and slavery, in all the years of being forgotten and abused and slandered and oppressed, Joseph has proven himself. He has proven himself to be helpful. He has proven himself to be a hard worker. He has proven himself to be honest. He has also proven himself to be right.

In chapter 41, Pharaoh has a dream and Joseph interprets that dream correctly when nobody else could and it leads to the salvation of the nation of Egypt. It was a bold prediction and Joseph got it exactly right and in chapter 41, verse 16, Joseph makes God look good and gives Him the glory for being able to do it.

In all of this and even later, as we will see, his brothers have proven themselves to be deceivers, liars, greedy and petty. Now, here in the last chapter of the book, Joseph is the man in charge. He’s the big king kahuna and whatever he says goes. This is Joseph’s chance to make things right.  Their father, Jacob, has died so there is no reason for Joseph to show any mercy. They don’t deserve mercy. They don’t deserve grace. They don’t deserve forgiveness. They don’t even deserve to live. Let’s look at what Joseph does. Genesis 50:15-21.

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?" 16So they sent word to Joseph, saying, "Your father left these instructions before he died: 17'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. 18His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. "We are your slaves," they said. 19But Joseph said to them, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children." And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

Have you ever watched an old western movie and the good guy and the bad guy have a shootout with their six-shooters? So many times you see the bad guy finally get shot and wounded pretty bad and as he lay in the dirt of the street dying, you see the good guy come over and stand over him with his gun cocked and pointed right at him. The bad guy has shot the other man’s mom. He stole his woman. He kicked his dog! Then they have this long, stupid conversation about what is right and what is wrong and the good guy drops his gun into his gun belt. And the whole time, what are you screaming at the TV? If you are like me you are screaming, “Shoot him. Shoot him! Just do it and quit talking!” Right?

That’s sort of the situation we are in with Joseph and his brothers. He has them dead to rights and has the gun pointed at them with his finger on the trigger and then puts it away. I want to ask the question of “why” here in just a minute but let’s think back to how we got here. It all started with Joseph’s great grandfather, Abraham. You remember a few weeks ago we looked at the story of Abe and how God promised him he would be the father of a great nation and how anybody that cursed him would be cursed and those that blessed would be blessed. Now think of all the problems God had to overcome to make that promise come true in Joseph.

First, Abe and his wife were old and couldn’t have kids but God overcame that in a miraculous way. Then his son, Isaac, and his wife couldn’t have kids but God overcame that and the fact that the first born was not the one through whom the promise would be kept. Then Jacob did all kinds of things to jeopardize the promise but God overcame all of those including saving him from his brother Esau. Now, that promise has really been tested with the imprisonment of Joseph. It looks like there is no way that God’s promise is going to be able to be fulfilled. Joseph has been forgotten in prison. This is horrible! It’s impossible! And then God said, “Excuse me. I’ve got this…”

So, here we have Joseph, in control of all Egypt, with his family in front of him, with the promise of Almighty God upon him, with the hand of All-Knowing God guiding him, the sovereignty of God paving his way, the presence of God giving him peace and the provision of God making it possible. With all that we see Joseph make a choice to forgive and to protect and provide for his family.

Now I want to ask, “Why?” Why would Joseph forgive them? They had done nothing to deserve it. They had done nothing in the past to deserve it for sure but look what they did even now. It says that they sent a note to Joseph that was supposedly from their father asking him to forgive the brothers. All of you that believe this was really a note from dad, please stand on your head. They were trying to deceive him even now to save their own hides. Joseph knew and I think that is why he cried. He was disappointed in them even at this point.

A friend of mine posted on Facebook the other day that he got a call from his son’s school. His son is in the third or fourth grade or so. He got the call and he knew it wasn’t going to be good. It never is from the school. But the nice teacher that called said she assumed that the father had not received his son’s latest report card. The man said he had not. How did you know? The teacher said the little boy brought the report card back and it was signed, “Daddy.”

That’s kind of what we see with Joseph’s brothers right here. But none of that mattered to Joseph. He was determined to forgive them. Why do you think he forgave them if they didn’t deserve it? What was in it for Joseph? They had no money and besides Joseph was rich beyond all they could have imagined. They had no power especially to the second most powerful man in the land. They had proven they didn’t deserve it. Was it just because they were family?

Family Schmamily! They never wanted Joseph to be part of their family. They had not treated him like family. They treated him like their worst enemy. Besides they hadn’t even seen each other in decades. But look at what Joseph tells them. This is one of the most beautiful and powerful verses in all of scripture. If we could wrap our minds around this, it would change everything about us.

He tells them in verses 19-20. "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done.” At some point in Joseph’s life, and we are not told where, but at some point, he came to have a life-changing relationship with God. He knew God. He had an experience with God, probably somewhere between slavery and imprisonment, he had come to understand that God had a plan for him, a plan as God said in Jeremiah 29:11 to prosper him and not harm him and because he had been forgiven by God and could see that God had allowed or even caused all this to happen for his good and the good of his family, he could forgive his brothers that had once tried to kill him.

This is sort of the Old Testament version of Romans 8:28 that says, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” This does not mean that bad things won’t happen. God may allow or even cause you to go through great poverty or sickness or extremely unfair situations. Yes, you are loved and highly favored but you will often go through great difficulties in this life that you won’t understand.

Joseph was blessed to be able to see in his lifetime how all the horrible things that happened to him was not the world falling apart but God’s plan falling into place. You may or may not be blessed like that to be able to see it but whether or not you can see it or not, it is still true. Yes, it takes faith to be able to see it in the midst of your tragedy but without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

Notice that Joseph never downplayed his pain or what happened to him. He never said, “Oh, don’t worry about it. It didn’t bother me. It didn’t hurt. It’s okay.” No. In fact, I think that is why he said in verse 19, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God?” Because if he was in the place of God, he probably would have thumped them off the planet and straight into the pits of hell. They had tried to ruin his whole life and Joseph was aware of that but he was also aware that God was and is in control and had used even their wickedness and meanness to bring about a promise He had made hundreds of years ago to Joseph’s great grandfather.

They had intended to harm Joseph but God used that situation for Joseph’s good and for the good of their whole family and, more than that, to bring about and continue and fulfill His promise to Abraham. It was just going to take a while to see it.

On May 11, 1996, Demingo Pacheco had a major problem. He was on a tight schedule to catch his plane out of Miami when the left rear tire of his Cadillac blew out on the Palmetto Expressway. For more than hour he sweated under that broiling Florida sun changing that tire. Just as he finished changing the tire, he got a call on his portable phone. It was his mother. She said, "Where are you?" He said, "I’m stuck on the freeway, having just changed a flat tire, and I have missed my flight." She shouted, "Turn on your radio and thank God. The plane you were supposed to be on just crashed!” (sermoncentral.com)

In stories like that it is easy to see that God provides and protects and sometimes allows us to go through difficulties for our own good. But sometimes it takes a little longer than the hour that Pacheco spent changing his tire. Sometimes it takes years and the circumstances are much worse than a flat tire and a messed-up schedule. Sometimes we never see how any good comes out of it at all and we won’t see it until we see Jesus face to face in Heaven.

Why do some people have to spend their lives in a wheelchair? Why do some people get cancer or lose a child or come down with the virus? You know what I would like to ask God when I see Him? I would like to ask what good came out of the Holocaust? God allowed millions of His special, chosen people, the Jews, to be tortured and murdered and I don’t get it. I really don’t. I don’t understand. But I don’t have to understand!

Am I in the place of God? Thank God I am not and since I am not, I don’t have to understand His ways. I don’t have to know His thoughts. I don’t have to even believe it is true that all things work together for the good of those who know God. All I have to do is know God!  The whole point of this sermon series is for us to know God better and all I have to know is that God is sovereign. He is just. He is creative. He is faithful to provide. He wants to reveal Himself to you and to me and His presence is enough.

When I know God, I don’t have to understand everything He does or causes or allows. All I have to do is believe it. All I have to do is believe His Word and either God’s Word is true when it says “all things” or it’s not true and if it is true then it is true in the darkest days. It is true when I have a flat. It is true when the doctor gives me a bad report. It is true in death, in hardship, in sickness and in divorce and if you can’t believe it when those times come, and they will come, then keep your mouth shut in the good times because you don’t really believe it.

Let me close by saying that one of the things I love about the story of Joseph is that he is a type or a picture of Jesus. I’m not saying he is God or that we should worship him or anything like that. It’s just that there are a lot of parallels between Joseph and Jesus. Both were loved by their fathers. Both were rejected by their brothers. Both were tempted. Both suffered innocently. Both forgave those who hurt them and both were put in glorified positions. There may be more parallels but that’s enough for now.

Why did Joseph forgive his brothers when they did not deserve it? Why didn’t he kill them? Why did he protect them and provide for them and their families? It’s the same reason that God forgives us and protects and provides for us and our families. He loves us. Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

We don’t deserve it. We have all proven over and over again that we don’t deserve His grace or His mercy or His forgiveness, let alone His generosity and favor. But He loves us and that is how people will know that we are followers of Jesus when we act like Him and love others.  Jesus said Himself in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." How do you prove you love somebody? Is it love when you love the folks that are lovely? No. You prove your love by loving and forgiving and protecting and providing for them when they are the most unlovely. We know that’s what God does and we know God and are His followers so now we have to act like Him.

For those of you that are true Christians, who is God calling you to love today? Who is He telling you to forgive or protect or provide for? Now, for those of you that are not true believers, don’t worry. God doesn’t expect you to love like that. You can’t. That is only done through the power of God living inside of you through the Holy Spirit.

Maybe you aren’t a Christian today but you want to be. Maybe you want to be able to love like that. Maybe you want the kind of peace that scripture says is beyond all of our understanding (Philippians 4:7). Maybe you want to know God and live forever with Him in Heaven for eternity instead being alone in Hell. All you have to do is go to Him and honestly say just what Joseph’s brothers said to Him. They said, “We are your slaves.”

Now, let me just tell you that if being a slave to God doesn’t sound like what you want, I understand. But you are going to be a slave to something. That’s just how we were created. You will either be a slave to God or a slave to sin. There are no other choices. Some people think they want just part of God. They want just enough to keep from going to Hell but they don’t really want to give everything they have. They think of Christianity as a nice buffet where they can pick and choose. They want peace here and provision over there and maybe throw in a little worship when it’s convenient but that whole being a slave to God thing is a hard pass.

But it doesn’t work that way. Choose you this day whom you will serve. As for me and my house we will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15). Give it all to God today. Admit you are a sinner. Ask Him to forgive you and He will. Then allow Him to change your life. It is a process that will take all of your life in every way. Do it right now. Let’s pray.