God intended it for good (Genesis 37:1-28; 50:15-21)

Genesis 37:1-28 (NRSV) Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. ² This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. ³ Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves.⁴ But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

⁵ Once Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶ He said to them, “Listen to this dream that I dreamed. ⁷ There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright; then your sheaves gathered around it, and bowed down to my sheaf.” ⁸ His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

⁹ He had another dream, and told it to his brothers, saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ¹⁰ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What kind of dream is this that you have had? Shall we indeed come, I and your mother and your brothers, and bow to the ground before you?” ¹¹ So his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

¹² Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem.¹³ And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” He answered, “Here I am.”¹⁴ So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock; and bring word back to me.” So he sent him from the valley of Hebron.

He came to Shechem, ¹⁵ and a man found him wandering in the fields; the man asked him, “What are you seeking?” ¹⁶ “I am seeking my brothers,” he said; “tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.”¹⁷ The man said, “They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph went after his brothers, and found them at Dothan. ¹⁸ They saw him from a distance, and before he came near to them, they conspired to kill him. ¹⁹ They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. ²⁰ Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits; then we shall say that a wild animal has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” ²¹ But when Reuben heard it, he delivered him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.”²² Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but lay no hand on him”—that he might rescue him out of their hand and restore him to his father. ²³ So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the long robe with sleevesthat he wore; ²⁴ and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.

²⁵ Then they sat down to eat; and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels carrying gum, balm, and resin, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. ²⁶ Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? ²⁷ Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers agreed.²⁸ When some Midianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

Genesis 50:15-21 (NRSV) Realizing that their father was dead, Joseph’s brothers said, “What if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?” ¹⁶ So they approached Joseph, saying, “Your father gave this instruction before he died, ¹⁷ ‘Say to Joseph: I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they did in harming you.’ Now therefore please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.” Joseph wept when they spoke to him. ¹⁸ Then his brothers also wept, fell down before him, and said, “We are here as your slaves.” ¹⁹ But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? ²⁰ Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.²¹ So have no fear; I myself will provide for you and your little ones.” In this way he reassured them, speaking kindly to them.

September 25, 2016 Sermon Notes

Joseph is the namesake of Jesus’ earthly father and one of the key characters of the Old Testament.
Here’s a brief introduction to his story:

(Video: Chip Borgstadt)

Throughout my time in pastoral ministry I have found that most people are very uncomfortable with grief and despair. Instead of dealing with the difficulties of life head on, we live in a society where we create euphemisms and platitudes to explain away painful situations. Given that reality, I was somewhat uncomfortable when I first read Joseph’s words in Genesis 50:20 when he met with his brothers following the death of their father. His words seemed to point to a capricious God who led people into trouble and torment solely for God’s divine glorification. A surface reading of the text seemed to be saying that God had deliberately sent Joseph through a lifetime of torment and suffering so that he would be properly placed to take care of his brothers and the nation of Egypt when the time came. While I know that a lot of people find comfort in that kind of logic, I struggle with the idea of vindictive God that seems to play games with human lives. After all, if God is truly loving and all powerful, why did Joseph need to go through what he went through when God was simply going to help him out in the end?

By extension, the same question runs through my mind whenever I thinkabout all the negative headlines in the news. If God had done all that to Joseph, is God playing sick games with the people of our world today?

Fortunately, my initial reading of the text is not where I came out in the end. What finally made the difference was digging back into the Hebrew text of Genesis 50:20. The word, chasab, that the NRSV translates as “intends” has a much deeper meaning in the original language. It is the same word that ended last week’s story of Abram when he believed God’s promise and God “reckoned” it to him as righteousness. In Hebrew God’s reckoning or intending is the same thing as making or weaving things together as a master workman. Suddenly, there was a perfect Old Testament parallel to Paul’s statement in Romans 8:28 that all things work together for good.

This statement all the difference. Suddenly, instead of trying to say that all the terrible things that happen to human beings are God’s direct and person intention for our lives, it was possible to say that God is working in the midst of all the terrible things of life to create, make, and weave together something better. This is not a pie in the sky theology. It is a statement on the challenging reality of human life. There is no question that everything Joseph went through was real and tragic, yet there is also no question that God was with him in the midst of everything he experienced. Even at his darkest moments in slavery and unjust imprisonment, God was there with Joseph preparing a way forward.

This is the key to the whole story. The question is not really about Joseph’s faithfulness to God, although that is true and undoubtedly supported him in the darkest moments of his imprisonment. The key point is God’s faithfulness to Joseph. No matter what happened to Joseph, no matter how bleak the future seemed, God did not abandon him. God was busy placing people and situations in Joseph’s life so that he would be ready for the future moment when it would be his turn to shine.

This is the way God works in our lives as well. No matter how overwhelming the world looks. No matter how real addiction, disease, racism, violence, or injustice seem, the promises of God are more real. God’s faithfulness overcomes even our human tendency to screw up the world. We can know this is true because we have seen God’s promises throughout the pages of Scripture. Throughout out the Old Testament we repeated saw God redeem people like Joseph, his brothers, and ultimately the entire people of Israel. These constant demonstrations of God’s intervention our world were just a foretaste of the ultimate intervention that occurred with the death and resurrection of God’s own Son. In Jesus Christ we saw the reminder and demonstration of the fact that God is able to “reckon,” “make,” and “weave” together good out of the evil of our world.