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Genesis 39
39:1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.”
19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed.
(ESV)
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
So can we all agree that 2020 should go back to where it came from? It has been the absolute worst to have the coronavirus hit us right at the same time as the presidential election season has been going on, has been especially cruel, and I've heard that there's a good chance that college football will be cancelled come fall, which is disappointing. But I will say this, as a Georgia bulldog, at least we get our disappointment away with early this year instead of having to endure a full season only to have our hopes crash down at the bitter end. One of the things that I have heard from quite a number of people that has been difficult during this season has been the crashing of dreams. Some of you have been dreaming about finally having the ability to buy that home that you've wanted, and that dream has come crashing down.
Joel Brooks:Now you are just hoping to keep your job. Some of you, have been dreaming about a wedding. And now, if you do have a wedding, if it's not postponed, it certainly is not gonna be the wedding that you had dreamed about all these years. And some of you have had to cancel your vacation. And you have been dreaming about that vacation for the last 6 months thinking if I could just get to this this time at the beach or this time in the mountains, then, then everything will be okay, and that dreams come crashing down.
Joel Brooks:And to make matters worse, your boss might count this time, this quarantine time that you have now had stuck in your house, perhaps with your kids, he might count that as your vacation and expect you to work doubly hard and doubly long when things finally get going again. Thinking about the crashing of dreams has actually made me think a lot about Joseph as we've been working through this story, because Joseph had dreams. And his dreams weren't just, they weren't just something that came out of his head, they weren't just his own aspirations, but these were God given dreams to him. But by the looks looks of things, these dreams have all come crashing down. They're at their end.
Joel Brooks:So what is what is Joseph supposed to do? What are we supposed to do when our dreams come crashing down, when it looks like the plans that we've had for our lives, they've been disrailed? Are we supposed to give up or are we supposed to trust that God is actually doing something throughout all of this? So that brings us to Genesis chapter or Genesis 39. If you have your Bibles, read with me there.
Joel Brooks:Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had brought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in the sight and attended in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian house for Joseph's sake.
Joel Brooks:The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him, he had no concern about anything but the food that he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance, and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything except you because you are his wife.
Joel Brooks:How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or to even be with her. But one day when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house were there in the house, she caught him by the garment saying, lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and he fled out of the house. And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of the household and said to him, said to them, see he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us.
Joel Brooks:He came in to me to lie with me and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house. Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home. And she told him the same story saying, the Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came in to me to laugh at me. But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and he fled out of the house.
Joel Brooks:As soon as his master heard these words that his wife spoke to him, he said, this is the way that your servant treated me, or she said this, his anger was kindled. And Joseph's master took him and put him into prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.
Joel Brooks:The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Father, we ask that you would be with us this morning and that through your spirit you would open up your word to us and that you would open up our hearts and our minds to receive it. Lord, I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:So this is one of the favorite stories that my Sunday school teachers would teach me during the youth group years growing up. Typically, this story was taught by focusing in on the sexual temptation of Joseph, which I do believe is actually the primary focus of this story here. But before we look at that, I don't want us to just go so quickly by, how Joseph actually got here. Remember, Joseph was a mere teenager when his brothers had thrown him into a pit, and then sold him to those Midianite slave traders. He went from being that doted on son wearing the fancy suit, to being stripped down and becoming a slave just like that.
Joel Brooks:Everything changed so quickly. He then he's transported across the border into another country, a country where the culture would have been foreign to him, A country where he would not have spoken the language. He's being stripped of everything he knew, everything he loved. Think of how terrified this teenage boy would have been during all of this. And to make matters worse, he's not just sold to anyone, he's sold to a military man.
Joel Brooks:He's sold to Potiphar, a man of high rank in the military, one who's used to barking orders and having them immediately and absolutely obeyed. This was going to be a hard life. By the time we get to the end of verse 4, where Joseph has now worked his way up in the ranks of this household to become an overseer of the house, many long years would have passed by. We can actually do the math because we know he was, 34 years old when he came to the high ranking position, 2nd highest in the land in Egypt with pharaoh. And what that means here is that he was a slave for 14 or 15 years.
Joel Brooks:15 years, most likely serving in the the bottom of the rung, the bottom of the totem pole, cleaning latrines, scrubbing the floors, having to learn a new language. These years would have certainly humbled him. And what we saw from a few weeks ago was that without a doubt, Joseph needed humbling, and he gets humbled here. But but all of this to say that the dreams that Joseph had, the glorious plans that Joseph had for his life, let's just say life's not turning out the way that he had hoped. Yet we read in verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph.
Joel Brooks:The Lord was with Joseph. And what you just have to ask, really? Really this is what this is what the Lord being with someone looks like? It looks like being thrown into a pit, thrown into slavery, having these undignified jobs. It seems like when the Lord's with somebody things go well.
Joel Brooks:You're healthy, you're prosperous, you're wealthy, you become an important person, but that's not what we see here. We actually see that the Lord being with Joseph did not keep Joseph from being thrown into the pit. The Lord has Joseph thrown into the pit, but his presence is there with him. His presence is there sustaining him. God's grace will be sufficient for Joseph during this time.
Joel Brooks:We read that the Lord made Joseph successful, and that even his pagan master noticed that it was the Lord who was with him. And here we get to see that Joseph, what Joseph did when his dreams came crashing down. He worked hard. He served those around him, and he did so with integrity, trusting the Lord. And as a result, his boss, Potiphar, noticed.
Joel Brooks:Not just that Joseph was a hard worker, but he noticed that the Lord was with him. Now, Potiphar had likely never even heard of the name of the Lord, yet now he is learning not only the name of the Lord, he's learning about the character of the Lord simply by watching Joseph. And the way Joseph does his job with such integrity and character, and how everything seems to be blessed that Joseph is putting his hands to. And I find this remarkable because often we think we have to go in the mission field, or we have to do some extraordinary thing in order to share our faith or the good news of the gospel. But here what we see is Joseph doing his job.
Joel Brooks:He's serving those around him well. And because of this, people notice the Lord, the Lord is with him. Because he's doing such a great job here, Potiphar gives him a promotion and puts him over all of his household. This would have actually been a pretty big job. Don't think of this as Joseph is is now like the chief butler or something like this.
Joel Brooks:Potiphar was an important person. He was wealthy, he was a high ranking official. Official. This would be more akin to Joseph being promoted to being the CEO of a company. This is now a position of somewhat importance even though Joseph remains a slave.
Joel Brooks:So things seem to finally be turning around for Joseph. Then the story takes a sudden downward turn. We read in verse 6 that Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. You might remember those words because that's how his mom was described. And so Joseph, he looks good.
Joel Brooks:He's got, you know, the CrossFit abs. He's got the, the face of a model. He's going to draw attention to himself, and he certainly got the attention of Potiphar's wife. And so everything's going well, finally. And then sex comes.
Joel Brooks:Sex comes. Joseph wasn't looking for it. He was just minding his own business, trying to do his job, but then temptation comes knocking on the door. Actually more than that, temptation didn't knock on the door, temptation barged right through that door. And what we see here is the nature of temptation.
Joel Brooks:You don't have to go looking for it, temptation comes to find you wherever you are. Last October, I was on my computer working and I began to get some horribly inappropriate ads, popping up of some women who were not wearing much clothing at all, And I began thinking like, what in the world? This is like on, you know, USA Today. This is like different news articles and these things are popping up or all over Facebook, and and so I started thinking, what websites could I have gone to? And, and I thought well, you know, maybe it was the website.
Joel Brooks:I was looking at a ministry to the homeless and to the poor. Maybe it was that because obviously these women could not afford clothes. You know these jokes, they sound so much better, you know, when you picture a full crowd here. They kinda they kinda die before they hit the camera, although probably most of my jokes die before they hit the camera. But anyway, these, these inappropriate images kept coming up no matter where it would turn there would be some scantily clad woman, some advertisement there.
Joel Brooks:And so, finally at dinner that night, I asked my girls, I said, have any of you been using my computer? And one of my girls said, yes, dad, but but not for anything bad. I was like, well, what did he look up? And she said, well, I was looking up Halloween costumes. I was like, uh-oh.
Joel Brooks:And she goes, but nothing bad, I just looked up, I I wanna dress like a cat, and so I looked up, girl's bodysuit, cheetah, leopard print, tights. I was like, so just stop stop there. How about we not use dad's computer, for those things anymore? Okay. Just that's all it took.
Joel Brooks:That's all it took for those images and for things to come relentlessly knocking at my door. You don't have to look for temptation. Temptation will come and find you. It's like that adulterous woman in Proverbs 8 calling out on every street corner. Now this story here is about Joseph being tempted sexually, but really the story is about temptation in general.
Joel Brooks:And the author, he he obviously, he writes this story in such a way that he wants us to notice, to take notes as to how we are to overcome temptation. In verse 7, we read that Potiphar's wife, she cast her eyes on Joseph and she said, lie with me. That phrase there, she cast her eyes, it means more than just looking at him. It means that she was contemplating him. As her husband is away and Joseph is so nearby and he, once again he is a good looking man, she begins to fantasize about him.
Joel Brooks:This is more than sexual desire here. This is lust. Lust is sexual desire that's gone out of control. Lust is not looking at somebody's figure or their body and saying, God I give you praise for they are fearfully and wonderfully made. No, lust looks at someone and you've already gone to bed with them in your mind.
Joel Brooks:This is why Jesus said, whoever looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. And I want you to see just how powerful lust is here. Potiphar's wife, she can't stop. This is destructive behavior here. She's pursuing him day after day.
Joel Brooks:Just think how stupid and dangerous that is. I mean, if she gets caught, she would lose absolutely everything. Best case scenario, if she gets caught as a divorce and she gets kicked to the curb. Worst case scenario is she could lose her very life. But she can't stop.
Joel Brooks:She keeps going after him. And what we see here is that this this lust has become this all consuming power over her. Her sexual desire is out of control and it is now controlling her. Joseph however, he refuses her advances. In verse 9, we read that he says that, he will not sleep with her because she is Potiphar's wife.
Joel Brooks:Now when Joseph says that you are his wife, he's not just saying adultery is wrong. When he says you are his wife, he is implying you are not my wife. You're not my wife. Any sex outside of marriage is wrong, not just adultery. Even if she wasn't married to Potiphar, she was not married to Joseph, and therefore, it was wrong.
Joel Brooks:And I want you to notice that she's always called Potiphar's wife in this story. We actually never know her name, because for the author, that's the only detail we need to know. She belongs to Potiphar not belongs to Joseph. She's not his wife. And one of the reasons this is so wrong is because of the nature of sex itself.
Joel Brooks:Sex is God's gift to man to be enjoyed within the covenant relationship of marriage. It's more than just a physical act that results in physical pleasure. Christianity holds that sex is a union of both body and of soul together. 2 people becoming 1. If you have sex with someone without promising that person, committing to them your very life, what you are saying to them is, I want your body, but I don't want you.
Joel Brooks:That's not love, that's what lust is, when you don't want to fully give yourself to another person. Lust wants pleasure above all else, and a person will they just become the means to that pleasure. Look how quickly Potiphar's wife just discards Joseph after he rejects her. I mean, not just discards him. Her thoughts turned murderous in an instant.
Joel Brooks:And it's because Joseph was never a person to her. Joseph was just a means to what she saw as a pleasurable end, and so she could just discard him. C s Lewis, he wrote about sexual immorality and marriage and he said this, to have sex outside of marriage, to want pleasure without a promise is like trying to eat and taste food and then vomit it up. Wanting the taste of food, but not the ramifications of eating it. Not wanting the food actually become a part of you.
Joel Brooks:Of course, we call this bulimia and we know that bulimia has all sorts of both physical and emotional dangers. They are harmful. Bulimia is harmful to the body and to the spirit. This is a graphic image, I know, but it's also an appropriate image for sexual immorality. God did not design sex to be a pleasure apart from a promise.
Joel Brooks:And to seek this pleasure without a promise will only result in emotional or physical harm because it's going against our design. Sex within marriage marriage nourishes the body and the soul. Sex outside of marriage is when you only want the taste, but you vomit up the very thing that nourishes you, and it's harmful. Joseph will not sleep with her because they are not married and he will not settle for anything less than God's design, his joyful design for marriage. But I would say even more than that, the reason that Joseph chose to resist temptation was because he saw it as sin.
Joel Brooks:Notice his words. He says, how could I do this great wickedness and sin against God? He calls what she wants them to do. He calls it wicked. He does not call it a struggle.
Joel Brooks:He does not call it an indiscretion. He does not call it, well, this is probably isn't the smartest thing for us to do. He doesn't call it a possible mistake that they might regret. He calls it wicked. This is sin.
Joel Brooks:Christians, we are to call sin sin. And because Joseph called this thing for what it was, it's wicked, it is sin. This actually led to him doing some pretty radical actions, some pretty radical measures in order to keep this sin at bay. We read that Potiphar's wife, she tried to seduce him day after day, and not only would Joseph not listen to her, Joseph, he determined he would not even be in the same room with her. That's some pretty radical measures.
Joel Brooks:Think how hard that must have been to do. To be in the same household as somebody, but to commit yourself to I'm not even going to be in the same room with this person. This is extreme. Today this would be like getting rid of your computer If you know that it is too hard for you to resist looking at Internet porn. This would be like getting rid of Instagram because you know every time you look at it or often when you look at it it causes you to be jealous, and it produces envy.
Joel Brooks:This would be like canceling Netflix, because honestly it makes you lazy, or because it often fills your mind and your heart with impure thoughts. This is a pretty extreme measure here, but Joseph would not even be in the same room as this temptation. But even that did not prove to be enough because once again, temptation is relentless and it will find you. So one day when he does happen to be all alone in the house and Potiphar's wife comes in, she grabs him and literally begins tearing off his clothes trying to sleep with him. And so Joseph has no options other than to run away.
Joel Brooks:And I know that in the New Testament, James says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. Well, that might be all well and good for resisting the devil, but Joseph resists this woman and this woman stays. This woman stays and he has to flee. You have to flee sexual immorality. And whether your struggle is with lust or whether it's with envy, or whatever it is, know that there are some temptations that you just have to flee from, that you can't be alone with.
Joel Brooks:When she stripped him of his garment and Joseph ran away, he knew was he he was in trouble. Joseph is not a stupid man. He knows what this can mean. She's got the picture of them together. So he knows his options are either he can go back, sleep with her, and try to get his garment back and then hopefully no one finds out about it, or he can keep on running and then realize she's likely going to use that picture or that garment against him, and she does.
Joel Brooks:She does. It's a hard option for Joseph there. Do I lose my integrity and keep my job and possibly keep my life, Or do I lose my integrity or do I keep my integrity and then lose my job, lose my life. We're presented with options like this all the time, do we keep our integrity and yet know bad things might happen to us? We might not get that promotion, we not might not have these good things, or do we lose our integrity and just go along with it so that things will be easier?
Joel Brooks:Joseph runs away. He runs away, and he knows he's in trouble. Just like that garment, a former garment was used to deceive his father, now this garment is used to deceive Potiphar. When Potiphar hears the story that his wife brings to him, he blows up. He gets extremely angry and he throws Joseph in prison.
Joel Brooks:We actually don't know who he was angry with. There's actually some good evidence to show that he doesn't believe his wife. He's just angry that he has to do something about this. If he had actually believed his wife, Joseph would have been dead then and there right at the spot. But this actually shows that he probably believed Joseph, but he did the best he could to keep his family's honor, and so he throws them into prison.
Joel Brooks:There's a lot going on behind the scenes there about their relationship. Potiphar and Potiphar's wife, obviously he was gone all the time. They probably fought a lot. Even the way she brought the accusation up, she doesn't accuse Joseph. She says, this Hebrew that you brought into our house, this slave that you brought in our house to make fun of me, she's actually blaming her husband in all of this, forcing him to do something to prove his love.
Joel Brooks:He proves it by throwing Joseph into prison. So I want us to stop here, and I want us to hold up this story with the story that we heard last week, the story that Jeff told us about Judah and Tamar. Hold those 2 up. Last week we got to see Judah leave his family, leave the faith. Temptation did not have to come to him because he went running right to temptation, he sleeps around and the result of all of it is, things actually turned out really well for Judah.
Joel Brooks:Things went just fine. And now we come to this story and you have Joseph. Joseph who keeps the faith even in extraordinarily hard circumstances, Joseph who resists every temptation, who keeps himself sexually pure even though he knows it will cost him. And what's the result? Well, Joseph is thrown into prison.
Joel Brooks:Unfaithfulness and lose your integrity, and everything seems to turn out fine. Faithfulness, keep your integrity, and you're thrown into prison, and your life falls apart. But these stories were written side by side in order that we would compare them with one another, that we would see the differences. They're teaching us a story and the story is this, God does not promise that if we do the right thing, things will immediately be smooth. He will bring us an instant happiness.
Joel Brooks:He does not promise us those things. Sometimes he wants us to know that our obedience will cost us. Actually, faithfulness and obedience to him might bring more pain and more suffering into our lives. We certainly see that here. But Joseph Joseph, he still has the faith to endure all of this.
Joel Brooks:Knowing that he can follow the Lord and he can follow with all his heart, and he'll keep on doing so even when bad things come his way because Joseph still believes in a dream. He still believes that God actually has a plan for his life. And I believe that's ultimately what sustained Joseph in this time. I think what sustained him in this dark moment during this trial, during this temptation is knowing God has a plan for me. And I would rather keep my integrity, obey God, and suffer, and be kept in God's plan, than to give myself temporarily to some pleasure in sin and to leave the plan that God has for my life.
Joel Brooks:Ultimately, I think it was that dream that sustained him. He wanted to be a part of whatever God had planned to do in his life, And that gave him the strength to resist any temptation. And hear me church, knowing that God has a glorious plan for us, glorious plan for you, gives you the strength you need to resist the temptations that are around you. And so we see Joseph being given the strength to do this. But his obedience did cost him.
Joel Brooks:Because he didn't have casual sex with this woman. Look at the results though. Yes, it cost him, but look at how it kept him in the plan of God and what God decided to do with this. Because he did not have sex with this woman, well that meant that she would turn on him, that he would then be thrown into prison. And then when he was thrown in prison, he would meet somebody and he would interpret their dreams.
Joel Brooks:This person then would be raised up to a to a place by Pharaoh himself. Pharaoh needs some dreams interpreted, and he said, well, I was just with somebody in prison who interprets dreams. So then Joseph was then raised to a position of power next to pharaoh. Joseph uses that power to then feed, keep, fed all of Egypt, not just Egypt, but all the surrounding countries and nations around him, thus keeping Judah alive, keeping his family alive, keeping that that line, that seed of Judah alive to where it can go another generation and keep going and going until 1800 years later, we finally will result in Jesus being born. Let me put this in perspective or or just put a a fine dot on this.
Joel Brooks:If Joseph had had casual sex with that woman, Judah and his family and all of them would have died, and the line of Jesus would not have endured, because Joseph refused though, refused in what seemed like just a small moment there, because he refused to have casual sex with that woman, it results in 1800 years later Jesus being born. And what we see was the Lord that was with him. The Lord did indeed have a plan for his life. It was the Lord who gave him the strength and sustained him during this to where he could resist this temptation, and the Lord was doing it all for his joy and for his glory. And so we see that that the Lord was indeed with him.
Joel Brooks:It's actually the book ends of the story if you will. The story ends when Joseph is in prison, We read that phrase, and the Lord was with him. We read that phrase at the beginning of the story, now we read it at the end of the story. It's the bookends of the story, meaning you have to understand all of it with this lens, the Lord was with Joseph. It was the Lord working in his life, the Lord allowing him or giving him the strength to resist temptation, the Lord using it all for his own purposes.
Joel Brooks:There's actually another phrase that's in there. It's another word that pops up often in this story. Depending on which translation you have in your Bible you might not see it, but it's the word hand. Hand keeps popping up throughout the story. You find that, Joseph at one point he was in the hands of the Midianites, and then he was in the hand of Potiphar, and then Potiphar put everything in his hands, in Joseph's hands.
Joel Brooks:And then you have Potiphar's wife took his garment into her hands, and then he's thrown into the jailers hands where once again everything is put into his hands. But this theme of hands keeps popping up over and over and over to where when you're at the end you ask the question, so whose hands whose hand was the life of Joseph? Who was actually holding up Joseph at this time? Was it the Midianites? Was it Potiphar?
Joel Brooks:Was it Potiphar's wife? Was it Joseph himself? Was it, the person the jailer in prison? And we know the answer to that. Joseph was always in the Lord's hands, always.
Joel Brooks:It might have looked like his destiny or things were in other people's hands, but it wasn't. He has always been in the Lord's hands, the Lord sovereignly caring for and providing for him. That's what we're to remember in this story. No matter how dark our situation is, no matter the chaos that's all around our lives, we are comforted with this fact. The Lord is with us, and we are in his hands.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me, church. Lord Jesus, we thank you that you have gone to great lengths to save us and to draw us near to yourself. We thank you that no matter what's happened in our lives, we have never escaped your care. We have always been in your hands. And, Lord, that even when we are in the pit, even if we are to go to Sheol itself, behold, you are there with us.
Joel Brooks:And, Lord, we thank you for that, that you are with us and that, Jesus, you are our Emmanuel We pray this in your strong name. Amen.