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Genesis 39
Redeemer exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
Tonight, the text is out of Genesis 39. If you have a bible, you can open up and turn there And listen carefully for these are the words of the lord and as we've been praying and and hearing, take in God's sovereignty in this chapter. 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 there. The Lord was with Joseph.
Speaker 1:He became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 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. From the time that he had 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.
Speaker 1:So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge. Because of him, he had no concern about anything, but the food 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.
Speaker 1:He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself because you are his wife. 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 be with her. 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, 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.
Speaker 1: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 her household and said to them, see, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came into 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. She told him the same story saying, the Hebrew servant the Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came into me to laugh at me.
Speaker 1:But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house. 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. 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. 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.
Speaker 1:Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him. Whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. This is the word of the Lord.
Collin Hansen:Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Lord, we are thankful for your word. We're desperate for it. We're desperate for your truth and and for your spirit to teach us tonight.
Collin Hansen:And so in this time, Lord, please open our hearts and our minds. Challenge us, change us, confront us with your truth that we might be made to look more like your son, our savior, Jesus. We pray these things in his name and for his name among the nations. Amen. If this is your first time at Redeemer or if you haven't been here for a while, we have been studying the book of Genesis for the last 24 weeks.
Collin Hansen:We've been studying it since August. Yeah, since August. We've been in for a while. Took took a little bit of a break, for a couple of different weeks, during the fall, but, but really for, for all the fall and then through winter and now, as we head into spring, we've been in the book of Genesis and, and here we are, walking through these stories and really one of the, one of the greatest things that comes out of this kind of a study is is we get into chapters and issues and themes that we otherwise maybe wouldn't just pick out and, and really last week was a good example of that. As, as Joel talked from Genesis, 38, Judah and Tamar.
Collin Hansen:But tonight we go back to the story of Joseph, You know, Joseph, the the, you know, the story that Veggie Tales are made out of, you know, like the the somewhat familiar story of Joseph. But really, it's still quite a racy and tragic scene. In chapter 39, we discuss really tough issues like God and his sovereignty, suffering, and success. And so tonight we we turn our attention again to the life of Joseph. And as we've said a couple of different times throughout the study, it's it's good to hear the voice of Moses retelling these stories to the people as as they have fled Egypt.
Collin Hansen:And so we we're kind of at an interesting point as we're we're looking at now. You have Joseph going into slavery in Egypt. And so so keep that keep that playing in the in the back of your mind as as we walk through this together. And also that Moses is a really, really good storyteller. I mean, this is like the the quintessential good story where you have exposition, you know, a scene is kind of laid out there.
Collin Hansen:You've got the rising action, the climax, then the falling action, and the conclusion. And so these stories, you know, as we as they've been broken into these chapters are really these these lessons about who God is and how he relates to his people. And and so as we as we look at it, I mean, follow along the the arc and the flow of the story that Moses is telling to God's people, particularly these people that have fled slavery in Egypt. Alright. So here we are.
Collin Hansen:Last we heard of Joseph, he was sold by his brothers as a slave, and he was taken about 300 miles to Egypt where he would have been put on the auction block and sold to the highest bidder. For Joseph, the purchaser, his new master was Potiphar, an officer of pharaoh. Keep in mind here that Joseph has nothing. He's in a strange land. He's sold to the highest bidder.
Collin Hansen:He's a common slave treated as a half human. He's surrounded by the worship of false gods. No one cares who Joseph's father is. No one knows who Isaac is. No one cares about great grandfather Abraham.
Collin Hansen:No one cares about some covenant made with some God that no one knows. You see in this great loneliness, in this misery, without family or friends, without the life that he knew before, we're told something unbelievably important in the story. God is with Joseph. Not simply that God knows that he was sold into slavery or that God feels badly for this suffering that's happening to Joseph. No, God was with Joseph.
Collin Hansen:Look at verses 2 and 3. 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. I mean, how important to hear. God is not just fixed in some place.
Collin Hansen:He's not just in a temple or or a promised land. He's not he's not just fixed in some location, but God was with Joseph in this foreign land. Because the Lord was with him and caused him to be successful in all of his work, Joseph was promoted. He became sort of a business manager for Potiphar. In fact, he was put in charge of everything in Potiphar's house and his field, and God blessed it.
Collin Hansen:He caused prosperity to come to Potiphar And this is this is great exposition here. I mean, what what a scene. I mean, Joseph exiled, you know, there's this break in the storyline. We all of a sudden, this Judah and Tamar, all this crazy story, and then we're back to Joseph. What's happening to Joseph?
Collin Hansen:And and he's in Egypt now, sold to a very important man and God is with him and blesses him. Now everything seems to be working out pretty well for Joseph, you know, except for the whole he's miles away from home, presumed to be dead by his family, despised by his brothers, a slave in a foreign land and in the midst of suffering and difficulty. But God is blessing him. God has been with him and giving him success. And and a really important note here on work, the blessing that we're seeing here is a result of God working through Joseph's work.
Collin Hansen:See, he didn't just bless him, like it wasn't just magical things start happening around Joseph, but Joseph in his misery, in his slavery, starts to work well. And God blesses not only Joseph, but the people around Joseph. That's an important thing for us to hear, I think. Something very important about work. That god uses work to bless us and to bless others.
Collin Hansen:But Joseph had to to trust in that. He had he had to pray that God would be faithful to him in this foreign land. That God with him and that God blessing him wasn't just evident on the auction block. It wasn't just evident when he was told who his new owner was. And now, temptation is introduced.
Collin Hansen:Joseph was handsome in form and appearance that might remind you of Rachel. The same was said about her. Look at verse 7. And after a time in 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.
Collin Hansen:He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself because you are his wife. And pay attention to this. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And as he as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or be with her. You see the man, the, the wife of the man whom God was giving all this blessing, blessed through Joseph, is tempting him to throw it all away.
Collin Hansen:Not only that, and this is key, Joseph sees that this would not only be an offense to his master, Potiphar, but far greater. Joseph sees that temptation is to sin against god himself. You know, this echoes David in Psalm 51 after he assaulted Bathsheba. David recognizes that the assault was against God. His sin was a sin against God.
Collin Hansen:Against you and you alone have I sinned, he says. David recognizes this, and Joseph does as well. A sin against another person is ultimately and most importantly, a sin against God. But day after day, she tempted him, and every day he refused. But one day, they were alone.
Collin Hansen:Here is the climax of the story. Verse 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. She caught him by his garment saying, lie with me. And he ran.
Collin Hansen:He left his garment, and he ran. And she sees the garment and she because she's holding on to it, and so she calls the men of the house and she says, see, he has brought among us a Hebrew, a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came into 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.
Collin Hansen:She keeps the evidence with her and she holds on to a robe until her husband comes home. And when he comes home, she gives the same speech, slightly modified. The Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came into me to laugh at me. But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house. Joseph betrayed yet again by his robe.
Collin Hansen:And of course, when her her husband hears this, as soon as he hears this story, this accusation, he's furious. And he had full right to do with Joseph as he pleased. He could have killed him right then and there and no one would have questioned it, but he didn't. Joseph was thrown in prison. He was kept alive.
Collin Hansen:He had been cast out by his brothers, made a slave in a foreign land, owned by a pagan, and now accused of sexual assault and imprisoned. This, the son of Israel, heir of the covenant, child of Abraham, imprisoned in a foreign land. A few years ago, I was at a camp. I was the camp pastor for a week, and, they would pull in with all these buses, with busloads of youth, and they'd all pull in and camp staffers would be going insane and welcoming them and all that. And, I saw this one bus pull up, and all the kids piled off, and, they'd been on there for, like, 7 hours or something like that.
Collin Hansen:And and they all pile off, and they're stretching and glad to be out of the bus. And then this this man walks off the bus, and he just looks beat to shreds. Now the first thought that happens to a lot of youth ministers as they're piling off the bus because they had to get up at, like, 4 to make sure all the kids get on at 5, and, of course, none of the kids get there till 6. And all the all the madness that comes with youth ministry. But he just looked beat up.
Collin Hansen:And I I really wondered. I I questioned, you know, aloud. Like, I wonder what what's wrong here? And after the first night, after after the service, he he came up to me, big guy, and he was just breaking down. And we started to talk and he said in that last year, he had been arrested for sexually assaulting a student in the youth group.
Collin Hansen:And he he had gone to jail and his picture was all over the newspaper, all over the news, and it came out sometime later that the mother who had gone to the police had made up the story because she was mad at the church. You see, he he had been falsely accused and publicly despised. You know, as, as he talked about and he shared the story and as he shared about God's faithfulness to him, to give him strength to go through that season, to be cleared of the charges, to be reinstated into that youth group, to stay in the same town. I was floored by the story. We can't forget how tragic and devastating this must have been for Joseph.
Collin Hansen:Joseph didn't live on a felt board in a Sunday school class. Alright. He was 17 years old when he was sold into slavery. He was flesh and bone. He got hungry.
Collin Hansen:He got cold, and he was in jail because everyone there thought that he tried to take advantage of his master's wife. That's where he was, but God was with him. Imprisoned, rejected once more. The truth is restated, verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph, and he showed him steadfast love.
Collin Hansen:This this is a love that's very particular to God. This loving kindness, this steadfast love, unwavering 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 prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him.
Collin Hansen:And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. The Lord was with him. That's the refrain of the story that Moses is telling about Joseph. The Lord was with him. The tragedy and suffering in tonight's reading from the life of Joseph Joseph is bookended with this statement.
Collin Hansen:The Lord was with him. But what does that mean? You know, the the psalm that we began the the service with, Psalm 139, where shall I flee from your presence? He can't go anywhere without being in the presence of the lord. If he went all the way up to the heavens or all the way down to Sheol, god would be there.
Collin Hansen:So what's so special about Joseph and God being with him? You could point to the success in Joseph's life, and his work and say that that is evidence of God being with him. I mean, it's repeated in that statement of God being with him is this success. They're they're they're tied there. Whatever he did, the lord made it succeed.
Collin Hansen:God being with Joseph is tied to that prosperity. And I think that's true. The term prosperity comes from the the Latin word, prosperitas, and it means exactly what you think it would. Sometimes people like to bring up, you know, in a sermon, like, here's this word, and then here's what it really means. And they flip it upside down on you.
Collin Hansen:No. It means success. It means to do well. And this wellness, I think, is really important. I believe the wellness of Joseph relates to his withness of God.
Collin Hansen:The steadfast love of God is the promise of God being with you regardless of the circumstances that you face, Suffering or success. In this withness of God, Joseph relates everything to God. In in verse 3, success for Joseph and for his master related to God. Verse 9, Joseph relates the temptation to sin as a sin against God. In verse 23, favor with the prison guard was related to God's steadfast love.
Collin Hansen:And later in, in Psalm 105, talking about Joseph being sent off in slavery, it says that God sent him to Egypt. Not his brothers or the caravan going to sell him as a slave, God sent him. We see this again in in in Acts 7. This refrain that that God was doing a work in sending Joseph to Egypt. He relates his suffering to God.
Collin Hansen:All things related to the Lord. His goodness, his kindness, his presence, all of these things are related to God. The prosperity described here is not simply a success of work, but the significance of the presence of God. God with him. In this reality of God's presence, our notion of prosperity must be redefined.
Collin Hansen:Wellness in your life is marked as the withness of God. He is sufficient in success and suffering. We see this in the life of Paul. In, Philippians 3:8, indeed, I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my lord. The greatest gain, the greatest worth, the greatest prosperity is the withness of god.
Collin Hansen:Joseph had tremendous success in Egypt, but not without suffering. You cannot separate the 2. His success was in the midst of his suffering, and his suffering was in the midst of his success. Constant throughout all of this is the presence of God with him. A few weeks ago, I went to the Alice Stevens Center and got to hear a live storytelling by Ira Glass.
Collin Hansen:He has this show, called This American Life and, it's a show. Every week they choose a theme and they bring 3 or 4 stories on that theme. And about 10 years ago, there was a, there was an episode. It's this radio program. It's on, PRI, NPR stations and all that.
Collin Hansen:But about 10 years ago, there was an episode on faith. And he, Ira always starts off with some story, and then from that story, kind of relates what that theme is for the week, Then all these different stories relating to that theme. And so this first opening one is actually a little bit unique. He gives a personal story. And on this week where the theme is faith, losing faith, talking about faith, constructing it, and working within it, he tells this story about, when he was 14 years old and he was in Hebrew school, he had come across this book called Chariots of the Gods, which explained to him something that he really, didn't like about the Bible.
Collin Hansen:And that was how all these miraculous things just seemed to be happening in this book. Chariots of the Gods suggested that aliens had come to the earth and, interacted with humans. And that's how something like, you know, Abraham and Sarah, how is Sarah going to conceive a child? Well, the aliens had superior medical technology, and so they helped her conceive, and so that explains it. And so he was sent as a 14 year old to the rabbi because he kept bringing this up in class.
Collin Hansen:And so he goes to the rabbi, and he goes to the rabbi, and they they have all these meetings. And slowly, he deconstructs this whole theory, which by the way, in the seventies, the one of the head guys at NASA wrote a book on the same thing concerning Ezekiel. Crazy crazy things. Anyway, but he goes to the rabbi, and and slowly the rabbi deconstructs it all, and and he he no longer believes that aliens came. But he also, confesses another thing.
Collin Hansen:He no longer believes in God at all. And Ira says that since that age of 14, he still does not believe in God. And the primary reason is this, if he didn't have this answer of the aliens coming in, he didn't understand why in the Bible, God always seemed to interact so much with humanity. But now he stopped. We have these stories like Joseph, where God was with him, but then he up and left.
Collin Hansen:God isn't with humanity anymore. He doesn't interact. He doesn't do things like this anymore. And so Ira just gave up believing in God. You know, this is a serious question though about God being with us today.
Collin Hansen:And really, it's a it these are questions that don't just have quick Sunday school answers. Is god in the world today? Is he in your life today? Do the things in your life relate to god? Is he with you?
Collin Hansen:How do you know? I ask myself these questions a lot, and it's not because I'm super spiritual. Maybe it's because I'm not. I've never felt like a super Christian, and contrary to popular belief, you don't go to seminary because you're really good at Jesus or Jesus ing, if you need an adjective there. And I don't believe that Joseph related to God easily.
Collin Hansen:Sitting in a well while your siblings talk about murdering you, being auctioned off as a slave, being accused of attempted rape, being thrown into a jail for a crime you didn't commit, these aren't really the confidence building experiences where a person looks at their life and simply says, god must be at work here. Relating all things to god is difficult, but we must not forget the primary truth that God has related himself to us. And this is ultimately the true withness of God. Paul wrote of this withness in Philippians 2. Have this in mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.
Collin Hansen:Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Jesus is the withness of God. He is Emmanuel, God with us. And this is the promise of wellness.
Collin Hansen:The promise of prosperity. He is with you. The promise of prosperity is not that you will be free from suffering, but that he will be with you in it. He who is sovereign over the circumstances, the heartbreak, the diagnosis, the earthquake, the job loss, the death, the infertility, the divorce, the breakup, the dysfunctional family, the false accusations, the gossip, and the fear of what suffering is yet around the corner. In all of this, he is with you.
Collin Hansen:And the way for you to be with God is made through the cross of Christ. And this we cannot speak lightly of. This is not a passing variable of bible or a bit of doctrine in the religion of Christianity. This is how you relate all things to him, and he relates himself to you. It is through the birth, life, passion, cross, and resurrection of Jesus.
Collin Hansen:This is the magnificence of our relational triune God. This is the love of whom we sing, oh love that will not let me go. The hymn that we're going to close with is by George Matheson. He's a Scottish preacher and theologian. He he wrote it in 18 82.
Collin Hansen:He he went to university and graduated when he was 19 years old, And the reason for the rush was because he was starting to go blind, and he was engaged at the time, but he started losing his vision quite rapidly. And before he was married, his fiance left him because she said, I can't be married to a blind man. And so his sister actually helped him as he lost his sight. She learned Greek and Hebrew and helped him in writing sermons as he was preaching, and and she was such an aid to him in helping him, to do his his work in ministry. But the night of her wedding, he realized that he was losing that helper.
Collin Hansen:And while the family was off, he wrote this song. Oh, love that will not let me go. I rest my weary soul in thee. See, this is the truth that we hear in Genesis 39 tonight. That just like with Joseph and all the suffering, and, yes, all the success that he has, god does not leave him nor forsake him.
Collin Hansen:He is with him. And we sing of this truth. We, we desire and are desperate for this truth, that we would have this love that would not let us go. That in suffering or success, in trials, in temptations, false accusations, that God would be with us, and that we would see that that withness of God in the image of Jesus. That he has made a way for us.
Collin Hansen:Oh love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would you would teach us what it means to know you, to relate to you, to relate all things to you as Joseph did. To relate all things to you as Joseph did. As he would see in his suffering, and in his success, in his temptation, in all of his life.
Collin Hansen:That all of these things relate to you. And Lord, that we would find you faithful with steadfast love. Just as Joseph did. Teach us to treasure Christ. Teach us in this Lenten season to repent, to see our sinfulness, and to see the forgiveness given to us and purchased for us through the cross.
Collin Hansen:Help us to trust that in suffering, you will be sufficient. And that in success, you are at the root. For help us to have a mindset, a vision of you active in our lives today. Help us now as we turn to worship you in song, that we would delight in you as father, son, and spirit. We pray these things in the name of Christ.
Collin Hansen:Amen.