Go ahead and open up to Genesis 37 and just be ready there for a second. I thought tonight, just for the sake of some context, I would just refer to two New Testament verses that sort of hit me this week as I was looking at it. One was out of Mark chapter 6. You don't have to turn there. It's a familiar passage, but the scene begins with Jesus entering his own country and on the Sabbath beginning to teach people in his own hometown. about the things of the Lord, you know, and you all know the story. Many who heard him, it says that they were astonished, wondering where he could have received such things. And, you know, this was Jesus. OK, the little boy grown into a man who had been in their community and they'd seen him grow up and they just couldn't connect the wisdom and the knowledge and the understanding they were now hearing from the adult Jesus with who they knew as a young child and probably their familiarity with the family. They were not able to really, really understand and connect how this man who was standing before them could have been the boy who had grown up playing with their kids. And the sad thing is it said their astonishment turned to offense, and then it turned to doubting. And Jesus was unable to really do a whole lot there. And we had that famous saying where It says a prophet is not without honor except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house. And that word offense in that passage actually refers to a stumbling block. So Jesus was a stumbling block. It's to cause a person to begin to distrust or desert one whom they ought to trust and they ought to obey. And the word unbelief just simply means lack of faith. And so that was one thing I thought of about Joseph, because the very first thing we're going to see is we're going to see God giving Joseph a prophetic dream, OK, and Joseph in his immaturity, sort of letting go of that dream and making it public, probably before wisdom would have dictated that he should and then getting in trouble and being despised for it. And one of the reasons was he's 17 year old cocky kid, you know, and all of a sudden he is telling his family things about them, you know, that he's going to sort of be exalted above them. Well, it wasn't received and. And so, you know, maybe they were astonished at first, but they certainly, you know, turn to offense very quickly. And they doubted that what they were hearing was of God. And their doubt actually led them to even despise Joseph. And so that was passage number one. I think the other thing I just wanted to bring up real quickly is this verse from Mark, chapter 13. It's also in Matthew 10, where Jesus says, speaking of the end of the age, he says, and you'll be hated by my you'll be hated by all. for my name's sake, but he who endures to the end, so shall be saved. So, you know, we've gone through a really incredible series of chapters dealing with Jacob. It ended with Jacob prevailing. He wrestled and he prevailed with God. And we're about to enter into the story of Joseph, one of Jacob's sons. And we're also going to see how he too will prevail and he will wrestle maybe not so much with God. but certainly with the circumstances of life that seems stacked against him at almost every turn. And we'll see him triumph and we'll see him overcome and we'll see really neat things come out of this life of Joseph. It's really amazing the parallels like his father before him. Joseph will experience the forced separation from brothers who hate him. You know, Jacob was forced out of Dodge because he had offended Esau and Esau had set in his heart to murder him. Right? Remember that? And that's really what catapulted Jacob away from home for 20 years. Well, the same thing's going to happen here. Jacob, Joseph, is going to offend not one brother, right? This time he's going to offend ten, probably everybody but Benjamin, right? And they're going to do the same thing, and he's going to be catapulted too, like Jacob, who was thrown back into Mesopotamia. Joseph is going to be catapulted into Egypt, another pagan land, far from home, unfamiliar. where he's going to have to go through his intense period of sanctification. God's got things that he needs to teach Joseph, and he has a destiny for him there. And he's going to be among a pagan people and a long road ahead. Kent Hughes says this about the Joseph narrative. He says, the story of Joseph is about God working his will through the everyday events of life. There are no miracles here. Depends on how you define miracles. not the Moses type of separating the waters and the sea. God does not suspend his natural laws to make things happen. The story is about the hidden but sure way of God. God's hidden hand arranges everything without show or explanation, without violating the nature of things. God is involved in all events and directs all things to their appointed end. And this is declared by Joseph directly at the end of the story. We flash forward to the very end that we won't get to the next week when he reveals himself to his brothers. And he says this, he says, and God sent me before you to preserve you. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. And guys, I just want to show you the end as we go into the beginning, just to keep in mind that this whole story is an amazing tapestry of God's divine will being woven into place by God. Nothing happens accidentally here in these passages. It's all by God's sovereign design. So with that, let's go ahead and begin looking in Genesis 37. I'm going to try to catch back up to you guys here real quick. And, again, we'll probably jump around a little bit, but we see in verse 1 of chapter 37, the story begins, Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. This is the history of Jacob, and that history We've seen it written as genealogies before the genealogy of Seth, the genealogy of Terah and so forth. This is the last Toledot. OK, this is the last sort of demarcation. Pretty much the rest of Genesis is going to have Joseph as pretty much the main character. OK, at least up until maybe the last book or two where we get we get Jacob back involved with the blessing of the sons. So Jacob is finally You know where he's supposed to be. He's back in the promised land. And and this chapter really begins the important providential history of his life. So I think that's why this is marked by Moses is now begins the history of Joseph. This is what God was preparing Jacob for all along. I said, Joseph, talk about Jacob. And it's going to involve one of his sons. So the chapter opens up and we meet this young sort of brash, I said cocky a minute ago, 17 year old. young man, he is the prize son who has garnered the lion's share of Jacob's love and pride. He struts around proudly in his amazing technicolor dreamcoat. The story picks up with Joseph feeding the flock with his brothers and Joseph brings a bad report to Jacob concerning them and his bad report is directed specifically against the sons of Bilhah. and the sons of Zilpah. OK, the sibling rivalry continues. OK, so interestingly enough, just a little word about Joseph. I was reading in the commentaries and some people come on in, guys. Some of the older commentators that go way back, you know, for a long time thought that, you know, Joseph really was sort of this. this picture of perfectedness, you know, that he just sort of did nothing to deserve being thrown into the pit. OK, well, Joseph, in my opinion, I think a lot of the other commentators, including Kent Hughes, say otherwise. And he he, you know, was a 17 year old young man who made mistakes. And the key word in this particular passage is the word report. And if you go into the original Hebrew, the word is Deba. I don't know if I'm saying that right. But it's always used negatively as a reference to an untrue report. So the report that Joseph brings, it was really sort of like he was just simply tattling on his brothers. You know, at best, Joseph was a good boy center. He was sort of daddy's guy. He was called upon often to go and check up on his brothers. And in this particular passage, his attempt here was to malign his brothers through the use of exaggeration or inaccurate representations. He may not have been outwardly lying, but his report was tainted to the fact that, you know, he wanted it to make him look good and his brothers look bad. So there's this continual jockeying for position. OK, I'm among this dysfunctional family where Jacob, you know, has still is still showing favoritism. And the marks of that favoritism, jealousy and envy are running rampant through this family. And it's causing, you know, a lot of rifts. It's causing a lot of tears, a lot of tensions and so forth. So. In verse three of 37, it says Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age. Also, he made him a tunic of many colors. And I'm sure you know his brothers, you know, saw that Jacob loved his brother. You know, he didn't sort of keep it hidden. You know, he didn't sort of have private moments. But this was a very, very public show of affection. You know, Jacob had, you know, his daddy went and found the best. Robe maker in, you know, all of the promised land. So this special robe together to show his fondly affection for his favorite son. And they hated him for it. And they could not speak peaceably to him. So obviously, Joseph has been singled out. He's a marked man in the eyes of his brothers. They're just looking for, you know, the opportunity and the motive to come together in that single moment so they can go ahead and act on what has been in their hearts for some time. Well, Joseph, Joseph is a dreamer. You know, we know that about him. He's going to dream. His dreams are going to get him into trouble in the beginning. And interestingly enough, dreams are going to also result in getting him out of trouble later. So it's kind of neat how God uses dreams throughout this whole thing. He has two dreams, tells his brothers the dreams and his parents and his brothers hate him all the more. And, you know, we need to be careful about immediately sharing what God has revealed to us. Sometimes God will give us a dream. Sometimes God will give us a word. And guys, not everything is meant to be shared publicly. Sometimes the word is just for you. And again, the thing about this, God's sovereign over all of this. God knew, in giving that dream to Joseph, that Joseph would share it. He couldn't hold it to himself. And that the dream would sort of initiate a sequence of events that God sovereignly wanted to see happen. But I think the other part of that is that sometimes we do sort of get ahead of God with the things that he shows us. And I think for me, a reminder here is that we need to sometimes hold on to words in our heart. Let them grow. Let them become the word that God wants. And unless he specifically intends for you to share it, you know, sometimes that word may just be for your ears only. Well, in this case, the dream served as a catalyst that fueled an already growing hatred and jealousy in the hearts of his brothers. And and so let's just go through these these dreams. All the dreams and Joseph's narratives are coupled in pairs. indicating the certainty of their fulfillment, and that's explained in Genesis 41, 32, where Joseph tells Pharaoh, this is later, this is in chapter 41, when Pharaoh has those two dreams that are sort of coupled together, they both say the same thing, but it is one dream followed by another one. He tells Pharaoh that the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God and God will shortly bring it about. So this is the very same kind of dream that that Joseph has. He has these two different dreams, one involving sheeps in the field and the other one involving celestial bodies in the sky. So the first dream has a harvest theme. Okay, Joseph shares, he sees these binding sheaves in the field and Joseph's sheaves rises up, it stands upright, and all the other sheaves of wheat or grain or whatever they are, they bow down to him, around him. And his brothers immediately pick up on the idea that Joseph is suggesting that he will rule over them and have dominion over them. And they were insulted by that suggestion and hated him even more. While the second dream just gets better, Joseph says, okay, in this dream, I see the sun and the moon and the 11 stars. They're all bowed down to him. So now it's time to get his dad a little bit upset because Jacob picks up on the symbolism that the sun and the moon symbolize, you know, father and mother, you know, bowing down to him as well as the brothers, causing Jacob to verbally rebuke him in verse 10. He says, what is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you? and his brothers and be done, but his father kept the matter in mind. So guys, the whole route of this story is, is, is going to erupt out of this sin of envy that grows inside the hearts of Joseph's brother and Joseph doesn't get off the hook for. You know this, he sort of helped to fuel that just by his youthful immaturity and by poor timing, to say the very least. Well, this is a definition from Webster's on envy. It says to feel uneasiness, mortification or discontent at the sight of superior excellence, reputation or happiness enjoyed by another, to repine at another's prosperity, to fret or grieves oneself at the real or supposed superiority of another and to hate him on that account. And guys, I just want to tell you, as a parent, I think this is the sin that You know, I don't like to see it in myself, but I really worry about it when I see it in my children, because I think with siblings growing up, especially in large families, this is a sin that can do you great harm, is when you begin to envy your brothers or your sisters, you know, in your family, and you too begin to jockey for position. I only had one brother, so I didn't have a large family, but I can tell you, even when there were just two of us, Amos, you had just one brother, right? It still goes on. It doesn't matter if you have a family of 10. I guess the only way not to have to deal with this is to be an only child, but then there'll be other sins that sort of probably crop in there. But this is just a reminder to us guys of how dreadfully horrid envy can be. Envy can tear apart families. Envy can stymie people's spiritual development for years and years and years. And sometimes people keep envy hidden in their hearts for a long time. And I think we're going to see this. You know, Jacob's journey up to Mesopotamia was 20 years. Joseph's journey into Egypt is going to be 13 years. So there's going to be 13 years before we see resolution between the maturation of his heart and that of his brothers. So, envy is at the root of all of this. Well, the story continues in chapter 37. Joseph is sent to Shechem, of all places. Remember what happened in Shechem, to see if all is well with his brothers. Jacob had sent them off to feed the flocks. You know, Joseph takes off and heads for Shechem. A stranger there redirects him to Dothan. OK, where Joseph catches up with his brothers, found this picture on the Internet of supposed to be Dothan. So we'll just pretend that it is sheep. grazing in the field. So this is near the area where Joseph might have encountered his brothers and he catches up in about 14 miles. I'm sorry, 15 miles further north and 65 miles from home. So he's a long way from home. He's outside the umbrella of his father's protection. And in Dothan, it would appear that Joseph was all alone and that God had abandoned him to his brother's evil plans. We're reminded otherwise in Second Kings 617, you have to turn there, where Elijah found himself surrounded by horses and chariots and the armies of Syria. And when his servant responded in fear, Elisha prayed that his eyes would be open to see the mountains surrounding them were actually filled with horses and angelic chariots of fire. Y'all remember that story? That actually was in Dothan. So this place that Joseph finds himself, that feels probably like God has abandoned him, he's all alone. You know, in the eyes of faith, he's never alone. And God's angels were with him there just as they were with Jacob and Bethel, although it would seem it would seem maybe otherwise to the the unapparent observer, I guess. Well, even while Joseph was far off, the brothers see him and they immediately conspire to kill him. You guys know the story. They devise a plot to kill him, throw him into a pit, claiming later to the father that a wild beast had devoured him. Reuben, the eldest son of the 12, intervenes, persuades his brothers not to kill him. Instead, he says to them in verse 22, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit, which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him, that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him back to his father. So it's interesting that Reuben actually steps up in Joseph's defense, at least tries to spare his life. We read last week at the end of the chapter how Ruben, you know, had actually conspired to position his side of the family better by actually lying with Jacob's concubine. So on Rachel's side. And so, you know, maybe he was just kind of weary that he was already pretty much in the hot seat with Jacob, didn't want to do anything else and maybe trying to minimize the damage that's going to occur. Nobody really knows. But at this point, he actually steps up and helps to save Joseph. from further harm. So they stripped down Joseph, they cast him into the pit with no water, and then they sit down to eat a meal. And then they spy an Ishmaelite caravan loaded down with spices on its way to Egypt. And from there, let's just go ahead and read the rest of the story. Let's go to verse 26. And we'll just read the end of this just to set up the context for the rest of the night. So chapter 37, verse 36. So Judah said to his brothers, What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh. And his brothers listened. Then the Midianite traders passed by, so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt. So Joseph's gone. He's out of the pit. Started his day off looking like things were just another typical day in the promised land and he ends up having quite an unfortunate series of Unfortunate events at the hands of his brothers and he's taken off to Egypt well, Reuben returns to the pit later and Finds that Joseph is gone, you know Reuben I think in his heart probably intended to go back and rescue Joseph and he was unable to do so and Everything is set in motion at this point And we're rudely interrupted in chapter 38 with, you know, this story will continue at a later chapter. So let's go to chapter 38, and we're going to have this interesting sidebar. We call this a sort of a sidebar story in journalism. I get that term right? Where's Sarah? Right? Where you sort of, you know, have the main article, and then on the sidebar, you have this sort of article that's either loosely related or not related at all. But we're going to we're going to depart from the Joseph narrative for a minute and talk about Judah and Tamar. And and this is another one of those uncomfortable chapters that I sort of have trouble dealing with with a young audience. So just forgive me. I hopefully I'll be we don't need to say all that I need to say. You older guys should get what's going on here. But. But the older commentators, as I read about this, was kind of interesting. Some of the older commentators said, what was Moses thinking? Did he like, you know, this is back in the days where you can't just simply cut and paste. Whoops, I meant to tell this earlier, you know, so maybe Moses just made a mistake. Oh, I need to insert the Joseph and Tamar thing in here or whatever. You know, God doesn't make mistakes. We believe that the scripture was inspired by the Holy Spirit and more modern Commentators all agree that actually this story and its placement makes perfect sense And so I'm just going to share with you sort of Kent use take on this and why? this story is is so important and why it makes sense within the larger narrative of Genesis and that being really God's providential and Well, we're going to see a contrast between Judah and his heart, and Joseph and his heart in the very next chapter, chapter 39. So anyway, here we are, and Joseph is sold to the Ishmaelite caravan, and we move into chapter 38, and here's an artist's rendition. I have some sort of comic book-y sort of slides, forgive me on that, I had trouble finding actual photographs of the event. They weren't available on the Internet, so we're resulting in having to go back to this here. So this will work for us. But well, Judah departs from his brothers. He marries this woman named Shua. And I'm going to go into this rather sort of weird looking family tree. Just stay with me here for a second. But she's a Canaanite woman. And so right away, we know there's a red flag because the patriarchs all the way up to now have pretty much been emphasizing over and over again. It's not good to marry Canaanite women. Right. We kind of established that, you know, Abraham was going to make doggone sure Isaac would would not marry a Canaanite woman. Um, you know, and, and it was just going to kind of go on from there. Jacob and Esau, you know, Jacob was sent to Mesopotamia partly to get away from his brother, but also to find a wife from their homeland. Esau married two Canaanite wives and it was just nothing but trouble. Um, so this is just an indicator that this is not good. Judah would have known the patriarchs long held displeasure against marrying Canaanite women. So the mere act of doing this screams to us that trouble is coming. Um, I think a reminder here too, to guard yourself. in terms of the friendships that you keep. We are to minister to the Gentile people, to the unsaved people, but we need to be really careful about the friends we choose. This whole story begins by Judah going off to visit his friend, a Dolomite, And his friend's name was Hira. How would you say that? Hip hip hurrah? This is Hira, okay? And so he goes off to visit his friend, who's Canaanite. And while he's visiting his friend, he spies this woman Shua, and things go on from there. They get married, and Shua bears Judah three sons. Their names are Ur, Onan, and Shelah, okay? And so, in verses six through ten, we sort of discover some hard truths about these sons and God's harsh dealing with them. First of all, we hear about Ur, okay? Judah goes out and finds a wife for him. Her name is Tamar, okay? And the passage doesn't give us a lot of details. It just basically says that Ur was wicked in the sight of the Lord, and therefore, the Lord kills him, okay? You can wrestle with that on your own later. We're not going to get into all of this too much, and I don't have a lot of time, but guys, the wickedness of Ur prompted God to kill him. There have been plenty of other wicked people all the way up to this point in Genesis, you know, so why? Why the death penalty at this point, you know, that'll be something maybe we find out when we go to be with the Lord We don't really know there's just the details just not there but we do know that he was wicked and we do know that God is sovereign even over our lives and that he is the one who Keeps the number of our days. He knows the number of our days so Ur was wicked in the sight of the Lord, the Lord kills him. So Tamar is now a widow, okay? And she has been neutralized from the covenantal promises unless she can bear an heir. And the one thing about Tamar I would establish right off the bat, her actions are going to be somewhat deplorable, I think, to all of us. Again, through our Western mindset, but I think even in that mindset, what she does is deplorable. But at the same time, she has a covenant heart, and she is a woman in those biblical times who has very little recourse but to do what she is commanded to do, either by her father or, in this particular case, by her father-in-law, Judah. She has very, very little recourse, but she's left without an heir. She must believe that there's something significant to Judah in the covenantal promises of God, because she takes exacting measures to sort of right the wrong that is done to her. So anyway, Judah commands son number 209. to go and marry Tamar. This was sort of the law of the land. This is before the mosaic laws established, but there was still a law of the land because having an heir was really, really important. So Onan is to take his brother's wife and to help produce an heir. Well, he takes issue with that and he doesn't fulfill his obligation and he knowingly doesn't fulfill his obligation. And as a result of that, the Lord kills Onan, son number one, son number two. they're gone. OK, well, gosh, this is really getting kind of scary and kind of interesting. It said in verse 10 that the thing which Onan did displeased the Lord. You know, Onan was basically getting in the way of of covenantal providential matters. You know, this was serious, serious stuff enough for God to again exact the death penalty. So versus 11 through 19, Tamar takes matters into her own hands. So Judah instructs Tamar just to wait. He has a third son. His name is Sheila. He's apparently younger, too young for marriage. So he says, let's wait for the lad to grow up and then I will give you to him and then you can bear an heir through him. In the meantime, why don't you go back home, live with your dad, and just wait, okay? And most of what I read pretty much indicates that Judah probably had no intention. At this point, two sons killed by God. You know, would he really risk it? You know, maybe Tamar has something to do with this. I don't know. But for whatever reason, he decides to protect his third son, and he doesn't give her. He doesn't fulfill the promise. And so Tamar is left hanging, you know, pretty much just indefinitely. without any hope at all of being a part of this great covenantal promise that was made known to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob. And she sees again, Judah playing a significant role in this. And she wants that for her, for her descendants to be included in that. So there's faith here. Although again, it's hard to, to understand exactly, you know, what she was thinking, but again, it's a woman pushed to the only end that maybe she could think that she could somehow rectify. So anyway, go on here. So there's Judah, there's Tamar. And so Judah ends up going off again to visit his friend, actually, Hurrah, the Adulamite. I have to sort of catch up with this, I'm sorry. Um, his wife dies in the meantime. So Judah now too is a widow and he decides after his period of grieving, he's going to go up and share some sheep. He's going to go visit his old friend. Uh, Tamar hears of Judah's departure and she veils herself seductively in the garb of a harlot. And she do seduces Judah on the way to the city Timnah, which is in verse 14. And it says in verse 14, for she saw that Sheila was grown and she was not given to him as a wife. So. One thing leads to another and we end up, I probably should back up from there, sorry. Let me get back on the story here. So anyway, we see some things about Judas Hart. He's a grieving widow. So first of all, he thinks nothing of probably the Canaanite liberties in terms of You know, sexual relations of that day doesn't appear to him, at least at the time, any great conviction that going in to lie with a harlot who he has just met, that there's anything wrong with that. He thinks it's going to be a quick sort of one night stand and he's just going to go on and things are going to be fine. Well, they have to agree on payment. He agrees to pay her a goat. They didn't always use currency back then. Sometimes they used animals for payment. So the payment for this little trisk in the desert is one goat. And Tamar makes a request of Judah. She says, listen, how do I know you're going to pay me this goat? Because he didn't have it with him. He didn't bring his wallet. His wallet's not big enough to put a goat in it. So she basically says, give me something as a pledge that you will fulfill the monetary obligation that we've agreed to. So he leaves her his signet cord and his staff. And these three items, the signet, the cord, and the staff, represent the modern equivalent of a driver's license and a social security number. These are his personal identification, means of identification. And he leaves these with her. And the idea is he's going to go on, and then he's going to go and send payment, and then collect his effects, and then the transaction will be Be done. So anyway, they. take care of business, and after it's all done, Judah heads off to visit his friend, and in verses 20 through 23, Judah attempts to fulfill the payment. He sends his friend, Hira, down to find this woman who he met, sends him to the spot. The guy can't find her. She's not there. The locals don't know anything about her. She's just disappeared. And so Hira comes back and says, Judah, listen, I went looking. She's not there. And so Judah just sort of shrugs it off and says, well, let her have my stuff. That's fine. Well, just that'll be the end of it. You know, let her take it for herself, lest we be shamed. And so it's interesting. Kent, you says there's now three generations of deceit involving an item of identity and a goat. This is where it helps to read a commentary. I'd never I would have never picked up on this on my own. But you got to remember, Jacob deceived Isaac wearing a goatskin. OK, so a costume and a deceitful act wearing goatskin. All right. Judah deceived Jacob by dipping Joseph's robe in blood. Isn't that interesting in Ghostblood? And then now we have the third deception, Tamar deceiving Judah, masquerading as a harlot and taking his personal effects to hold for security down the road. And she has sort of a plan in mind for all that. All right, well, three months pass and all of a sudden Judah's rudely erupted one day and somebody comes to his tent, knocks on the door of the tent and says, oh, you're not going to believe this, but Tamar has played the harlot and she's now a child. She's pregnant. So Judah's response in verse 24 is really kind of interesting. He just says, bring her out and let her be burned. What's up with that? Pretty harsh response. And he would have every right to do that. Right? Under that culture. But again, it just reveals his heart. Maybe he's had enough of just worrying about his other son, and the bottom line is it would be better if she was just sort of out of the way, so maybe this is going to take care of itself. Well, she ends up sending the personal identification markers to him, claiming This, she says, by by the man to whom these items belong, I am with child. And it didn't take Judah too long to calculate what had happened. He recognizes the items immediately. And in verse 26, he declares. She has been more righteous than I, because I did not give her to Sheila, my son. And the text says he never knew her again. So it's interesting out of this sinful union. OK. comes these two brothers, Zerah and Perez. Perez is actually listed in the Messianic line. So if you go to Matthew one, you'll see Perez's name listed. So he is in the genealogy that leads to David, the genealogy that leads to Christ. And we have no idea of knowing why Tamar was so determined to be a part of this plan, but something in her propelled her. to sort of take actions on her own. And she is remembered really sort of as a heroine here. She's not, she's a heroine. She's not, you know, lifted or remembered, I guess, for the sinful act and the deception, but for the fact that, you know, her determination actually resulted in her being a part of God's covenantal plan. Well, we know that God is sovereign over all these things. One thought, I guess, out of this that's real important. is that God changes people. We can't forget that throughout all of Genesis. We've seen people change. OK, they start out as scoundrels and we see them sort of become saints, not always polished and perfect saints, but we see their character transformed. And the one really encouraging thing here is that Judah immediately repented. He immediately acknowledged and he didn't acknowledge that she was totally vindicated in what she did, but he said she was more righteous than he was. Well, they were both unrighteous. But at least she had a godly motive in what she'd done, and she, in a very, very clever way, held him to accountability for the sin that he'd committed against her. So Judah admits to his gross moral failure, and he vindicates Tamar in the process. And as we'll see next week, Judah will later act righteously before Joseph. He'll actually plead for Benjamin's life, offering his own in exchange as a pledge to save his half-brother. And in the end, he receives a favorable blessing from Jacob. Jacob proclaims that Judah would be the royal tribe from which the Savior, the Prince of Peace, would come. So we know that he's remembered fondly by Jacob, receives a favorable blessing. And this is really his turning point, I think, in all of that happening. Second thing I want to point out, and again, this is one of those things I probably wouldn't have seen without the help of a commentary, but I thought it was really interesting here that in Matthew's genealogy, Forgive the graphics, but I was trying to find a way to just show five silhouettes, but that's what I came up with. We won't go there, but make a note to look tonight at Matthew 1, the genealogy by Matthew. And I never caught this before, but there's five women who are referenced in that genealogy, four by name and one saluted to by her position. And so those women are Tamar and Rahab, and they're both Canaanites, Ruth, who was a Moabite, Bathsheba, who was a Hittite. She's not referred to by name, but it says in the genealogy, the wife of Uriah. And then the last one is Mary, the mother Jesus. OK. And four of those five women are Gentile women. OK. Only one is Hebrew. Interesting, isn't it, that Matthew actually begins in chapter one with the idea that God's grace is to be extended to all the nations. These five women would not be mentioned in that genealogy by name had their names not been recognized with honor and position. Ironically, you don't see the matrix. You don't hear here about Sarah and Rachel and Leah and Rebecca. They're not mentioned, but these five women are. And so, I just thought that was a really, really interesting point. Matthew ends with the wonderful declaration, go out and make disciples of all the nations. So, you have this great bookend in the Gospel of Matthew, and part of it's tied all the way back to Tamar, who's the first woman in this list that is actually included. So, you know, the other ironic thing is that all five of these women have a potentially scandalous marital union. Think about it. We don't have time to go into it. But there's something potentially scandalous, and it's kind of interesting. Well, why would God join Christ to such a lineage that's filled with such scandal and sin and so forth, if not just to remind us again that all of us have sinned. All of us have sinned, and Jesus doesn't come on the scene through Mary because he is In a human sense, coming through a royal bloodline that is untainted and that is, you know, the way that we sort of attach ourselves to the royals, you know, you follow all the stuff over in England, especially with the Olympics now, and they're just crazy about the whole royal family thing. It's not just a hobby, it's an obsession in that culture. Attach themselves to that like we attach ourselves to the celebrity culture here in the US It's a big big part of what they think over there. Well, this is none of this, you know, God is basically saying I will move through who I want to move and I will do what I want to do and And I just find it interesting that all of these these women are listed Well in conclusion to this this is what can't you says he says here's a great surprise Tamar the Canaanite who began outside the people of God, turned out to be a heroine of God's people. Tamar aligned herself with the purposes of God, and through her, God's promise to Abraham, blessings to all the peoples of the earth, was fulfilled. The Judah Tamar story teaches us that God's purpose is bound up with the growth and development of his people, so that God is always at work in his children's lives, shaping them to serve his design. He did so marvelously with Judah and Tamar so so guys think of that. That's the contrast now Let's compare that to chapter 39 where we pick back up on the Joseph narrative. Okay, so Joseph headed off in that caravan and kind of immediately his life improves. Okay, he gets to Egypt and And he gets bought by this really guy who's kind of high up in Pharaoh's court. So this guy Potiphar comes and buys him. Potiphar is referred to as an officer of Pharaoh and as the captain of the palace guards. So he's pretty high up. I don't know exactly what his role was, but he's positioned very, very well. And so of all the people that Joseph could have ended up with, it bodes pretty well for him that he ended up with this guy, who ends up treating him really well, very quickly recognizes qualities in Joseph that are worthy and begins to dole out responsibilities. Joseph status in the house grows immediately begins to prosper in his new setting, but it's interesting that immediately chapter 38 and chapter 39, you know the relationship here. This is tale number two of back-to-back sexual scandal. So we have the Judah Tamar. Affair in the last chapter, now we're going to have Potiphar's wife and Joseph in this chapter. A couple of us went up last spring, our family, to visit Lydia and we got to see Regent University's Joseph in the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. And it was a great production, so wonderful production. And I love the whole thing, except this part of the story, because they totally strayed from what the text says. And I'll tell you in a minute where they strayed. But I really sort of took an issue with their portrayal of Joseph during the temptation with Potiphar's wife, because it's nothing like what we read here. We're going to see Joseph again, you know, just at the pinnacle of of moral character and fortitude and the decisions he makes here are really good examples for all of us, especially the young men in the room who might find themselves dealing and wrestling with temptation. Look to Joseph's example and follow it, and it'll go well with you too. So, Joseph finds himself in the middle of Egypt, a vastly hedonistic culture, full of pagan temptations. You know, it's totally different from what he grew up with. But he manages, like Daniel, to stay true to his God. He manages, like Daniel, to live true to his beliefs and to not give himself over. He has to start dressing like an Egyptian. He has to start acting like an Egyptian. But in his heart, he's a Hebrew man, and he serves Yahweh. He serves one God, and he's not going to give himself over to this multicultural culture that he finds himself in. And the contrast here is just incredible. Alright, so let's look at chapter 39. Let's read the first six verses and see where this goes. Chapter 39 verse 1. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar An officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him and the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house and all that he had. he put under his authority, so it was from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had that the Lord bless the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake and the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house. And in the field, I think three times, all that he had, the emphasis here on total, total dominion by this steward, Joseph, this Hebrew slave, has been given total run of Potiphar's affairs. He is his chief steward. He is his right-hand man. And there's nothing that he withholds from Joseph in terms of his care, except one thing, and that's his wife. Well, Joseph... I'm sorry, I lost my place here. We don't have time to go back, but just think of the comparison here again, back in Chapter 38, when we heard about Ur and Onan and the reference was. that he was wicked in the sight of the Lord. And here in verse thirty nine, we see the total opposite, OK, with with Joseph. And I think, too, if you look at the comparison of Judah's heart, you know, one who was very quickly given over to a temptation in the wilderness with somebody dressed up like a harlot who happened to be his daughter in law, how quickly he gave in to that. And here you see Joseph's resolve. So again, to the contrast is really important, guys. We're seeing again Judah as a man who pretty much gave in to the pagan culture of the Canaanites. Alright, and his sons who apparently gave into that culture full bore headlong into it and Joseph who refuses to do so. Joseph believes that he is he is God's son, you know, and that he has been singled out for a higher purpose and he will not give into it. So we come to the temptation. All right, here's a little cartoon drawing Potiphar's wife in verse six. Actually, we're told that Joseph was handsome and form and appearance. This same wording was used to describe his mother, handsome and form and appearance. You know, he was very, very attractive, you know, and Potiphar's wife was attracted to him. And in verse seven, it says that she began to long for Joseph and enticed him to be with her in a sinful way. And so Joseph rejects her advances, saying, in effect, hey, I have my master's trust. He's given me everything of his except one thing. And that's you, his wife. How could I do this to him? He actually says, how can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And so Joseph's retort back to Potiphar's wife is that to do such a thing would not just simply be, you know. It might be acceptable in your culture, but to do so would actually be against my God. Joseph was living in such a way as he knew the eyes of the Lord were upon him. He knew that God was with him and he knew that what he did would not be done in secret, that God would know about it and that there would be consequences. And so in verse 10, she persists. She needles Joseph every day with endless taunts, and yet he still resists. Resists all the way up until the end and then in verse 11 one day he finds himself alone in the house All of the men are outside of the house and he enters the house to work and in verse 2 Potiphar's wife grabs his garment again Provoking him to lie with her and he instantly does what any one of you men should do if you find yourself in a similar situation He turns and he runs. Okay, she holds on to his garment. She finds it in her hand I hope he had an undergarment on But anyway, he runs out of the house and she's left holding the garment and probably the lightbulb finally turns on that nothing she can do. is going to lose Jacob from his commitment to observe fidelity in the eyes of the Lord, that he is going to be faithful. He's not going to sin against his master and sin against his God. And nothing she does is going to make any difference. And she probably has had her way with other men for so long that this is a personal insult. So if she can't have Joseph her way, the next best thing is to simply do him in. And that's what she does. And you all know she concocts a lie and she makes a false accusation to the men of the house and then later to Potiphar. And back to the play at Regent University that they did so well, you know, where they really blew it was they showed in that scene Joseph, you know, just sort of taking too long to flee. You know, the text says he just ran. He turned, tuck tailed, he ran. He didn't even allow that temptation to linger. Those of you, you know, I think I'll just I'll just say it, I think if you ever start to linger when you're tempted with sin, you may have already lost the battle. You can't delay in running, you can't delay in turning away, because the second that sin lays hold and the desire is formed within you, And then sin is just simply a millisecond away. And Joseph knew that, and so he ran right away. And I wish the play would have grabbed that and shown his moral fortitude that it was actually, you know, he, I'm sure he was wrestling. I'm sure he was tempted. But he just tucked tailed and he ran. He didn't really care what it looked like. He was going to get out of there. So we know the story. Potiphar comes home. He gets angry when he hears the tale and he decides to throw Joseph into prison. Kind of a sad story, but if you think about it, Potiphar would have had the recourse in Egyptian culture to probably instantly put Joseph to death. So putting him in prison was probably merciful. And second of all, we don't really know if his anger was against Joseph or if, you know, as the husband of this woman who was so obviously, you know, doing things behind her husband's back that he may have actually known her heart, known that she was lying to him. I tend to suspect that probably was true. that Potiphar in his heart probably looked at Joseph's record of faithfulness to him. And this just didn't square up with the Joseph he knew, whereas he probably looked back at the things that his wife had done over time and it squared up with her that maybe she was not telling the truth. I mean, you got we don't know the whole story, but I think that that would perfectly make sense. The fact that Joseph's life was spared shows that Potiphar showed him some mercy and showed him some grace. And again, Potiphar is being used of God to to work his will into this whole story. So let's just end with verses 21 through 23 in chapter 39. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy, and he gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever they did there, it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. Guys, I love this story of Joseph. You know, this is a man who's beaten down. who, you know, just a series of bad things happening, and he just keeps getting back up and doing the foundational stuff. He just practices faithfulness. I'm going to serve others with no understanding that I'll ever be rewarded for it. I'm just going to serve. I'm here to serve other people, and I'm going to do it with integrity, and I'm going to do it well. And I don't know if Potiphar had hinted to the jailer that Joseph could be trusted and maybe that helped to sort of, you know, get Joseph on the fast track. I don't know what happened, but it said that he saw these things in Joseph, that the Lord was with him. The same thing that Potiphar saw. Potiphar was blessed. His household was blessed because of Joseph's presence. Blessing came into that household, just as it did now into the jail. This is amazing. Amazing that God would do this. Guys, I want the Lord to so be with me. that this happens in my workplace. I don't think it's happening yet like I want to see it happen. I don't know about you guys, where you work and where you go to school and so forth. Don't you want to see this happen? You know, at North Star Marketing, Jordan, you know, don't you see what happens, Sam, at Elon, you know, that your very presence on the campus of Elon, your very presence at North Star, your very presence, you know, at Barnes & Noble or in the school where the kids are running around, you know, wherever it happens to be, that your very presence is transformative, that that place is blessed because you're there. I'm not saying this to puff you guys up, but this is what God wants. God wants to use us as a blessing of salt and light to the people of the world. And when we serve him and we honor him with integrity, especially as the world grows more wicked and grows more sinful, and there's less honorable people in the workplace doing what is right, and there's more of them that are doing things that are wrong and scandalous and dishonest and so forth. You know, that mark of integrity, you know, if we let that grow in us and we we live our life in such a way as to honor God and everything, guys, it will produce great fruit. It may also produce great hatred. You will be hated for it. You may be mocked for you might even be fired for it. You probably won't get thrown into prison like Joseph was, you know, for it. But, you know, it doesn't mean that everything's going to go hunky dory, but it does mean that God is going to bless you for taking a stand in the workplace for him and in the world for him. And I think that's a great lesson that we have from Joseph in this story. And it just gets better and better. Well, I got to speed up to get through the rest of this tonight, but let's go on to Chapter 40 and. Joseph's in jail, immediately things take off, forgive the cheesy graphics here, but he encounters these two guys who are in prison because they did something that Pharaoh didn't like. Okay, these guys served in Pharaoh's court. One was the chief butler or cupbearer. I guess he was the guy who was responsible for, you know, tasting the wine maybe before, you know, Pharaoh would taste and if he didn't, croak, you know, then Farrah could taste it and then the chief baker. But anyway, they did something along the way that offended Farrah. I don't know if they tried to take his life, you know, tried to assassinate him. Nobody knows, but he did. They did something. And apparently one of them was guilty and one of them wasn't. OK, at least from the dreams, we sort of get that figured out. So in this particular chapter, the narrative picks up and I make sure I didn't go too far. I went too far. Sorry. And these two guys are sort of on their jail cots one morning, and Joseph comes in and he sees them, and they're hanging their head down low, and they're sort of upset, and they're troubled. And Joseph says, guys, in verse 7, he says, why do y'all look so sad today? What's going on? Why are you hanging your head down low? And the two guys say, well, We both had dreams last night, and neither one of us know what they mean. There's not an interpreter here to help us know what the dreams mean. So in verse 8, Joseph's immediate response to them is, do not interpretations belong to God? Again, we see Joseph's orientation. It's always, always about the glory of God. He's given God glory for everything, the gift of interpretations and the ability to interpret them. They belong to God. God is over everything. He's even over our thought life. So, they proceed to tell him their dreams, and we can pick this up in verse nine of chapter forty. Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said to him, behold, in my dream, a vine was before me and in the vine were three branches, it was It was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. Then Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. And Joseph said, This is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days. Now, within three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner when you were his butler. Well, pretty good. So the butler's interpretation bodes well for him. Things are looking up. And he admonishes him in verse 14 says, but listen, listen, when this happens, when you're restored in verse 14, remember me when it is well with you and please show kindness to me. Make mention of me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house for indeed, I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews. And also, I have done nothing here that they should put me into this dungeon. He's totally right. He's there because he was falsely accused. Well, then it turns to the chief baker in verse 16. The chief baker saw that the interpretation was good. Hey, maybe Joseph will have a good word for me, too. And so he said to Joseph, I also in my dream, I also was in my dream and there. were three white baskets on my head. In the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head. So Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation of it. The three baskets are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh from you. Well, now it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored the chief butler to his butlership again. And he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. And yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." So the chief butler, the cup bearer, is back to business as usual, restored, but he has a short memory. Maybe he's just fearful, so grateful to be back in serving the Pharaoh that he doesn't risk saying something You know, his intentions might not have been to purposely forget Joseph because he does remember him finally later. But it's a two year gap that passes between this ending in Chapter 40 and Chapter 41. So we're in pretty good guys. Last chapter tonight, Chapter 41. And the dream sort of narrative continues here with with Pharaoh's dream. So Chapter 41, two years pass and Pharaoh has back-to-back dreams in the night. Let's go ahead and read chapter 41, verse 2 through verse 7. Suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine-looking and fat, and they fed in the meadow. Then, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river, ugly and gaunt, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the river. And the ugly and gaunt cows ate up the seven fine-looking and fat cows. So Pharaoh awoke. He slept and dreamed a second time and suddenly seven heads of grain came up on one sock plump and good Then behold seven thin heads blighted by the east wind sprang up after them and the seven thin heads devoured the seven plump and full heads so Pharaoh awoke and Indeed it was a dream so the story goes on it says in the morning that Pharaoh and His spirit was troubled and he called for all the magicians says he called for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men to come and interpret his dreams But no one was able to do it No one could understand the meaning of the dream. And so in verse nine, all of a sudden, our friend, the cupbearer speaks up verse nine. And the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh saying, I remember my faults this day when Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, both me and the chief baker. We each had a dream in one night. He and I, each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. And now there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard. And we told him. And he interpreted our dreams for us. To each man, he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came to pass, just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me to my office, and he hanged him. So the butler remembers Joseph. Two years late, but he remembers him. And so Pharaoh immediately sends for Joseph, orders him to be shaven and new clothes to be put on him. Joseph is now 30 years old. So 13 years have passed. He's 30 years old. And this is going to be an incredible day. This is going to be the day that starts in the dungeon. And it ends with just an incredible rise to a new a new position and a new authority and everything about Joseph's life is about to change. Verse 15, we pick up the story. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it, but I have heard it said of you that you can understand a dream to interpret. to interpret it. So Joseph answered Pharaoh saying it is not in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. So again, we see the heart of Joseph. He is very quick to say, listen, this isn't about me. I'm just a man. I'm nothing special. But yeah, God can show me and God can reveal this to me. He can reveal it to you through me and he will bring an answer that will bring peace to your soul. And so Pharaoh tells Joseph his dream. And Joseph gives the interpretation beginning in verse 25. Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do, the seven good cows are seven years and the seven good heads are seven years. The dreams are one and the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Indeed, seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt. But after them, seven years of famine will rise and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt and the famine will deplete the land. So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God and God will shortly bring it to pass. So this is just amazing. In verse 37, and while Joseph goes on to tell them, listen, you need to raise up a wise man who will steward the next 14 years of Egypt's history. Somebody needs to manage the good years of plenty and to store up the grain so that there'll be years of stored grain that will help us get through those seven years of blight and seven years of famine. And so in verse 37, We read that Pharaoh recognizes in Joseph the spirit of God and he promotes him to the task. Who is better to do this thing than the person who actually could provide the interpretation? God gives Pharaoh immediately a sense of peace in saying that this is the man who will do this task. It's incredible. The head of Egypt is going to turn over his country to a Hebrew from another land and give him total, total authority. It's absolutely incredible. And in verse 41, Pharaoh said to Joseph, see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. He gives Joseph his signet ring. He clothes him in fine linen like the robe of a viceroy. He puts a gold chain around his neck. He places him in a chariot. to ride beside him in a procession, runners going out in front of them saying, bow the knee, as he was led in a procession all over the land of Egypt. In verse 44, Pharaoh says to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no man may lift his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt. I mean, it's like he's given Joseph unlimited power of attorney here, of authority to do whatever he Deems needs to be done and there's no better person in all the world at this time To trust that that won't get abused than Joseph who's proven his integrity over and over and over again Wow Well, it goes even further. He gives Joseph an Egyptian name Changes his name. He gives him an Egyptian wife and That further sort of seals the fact that nobody's going to question Joseph's legitimacy, that he can't provide his birth certificate. Chances are he wasn't born in Egypt. So he's going to have an Egyptian wife, and all of that's going to be put to rest. And what a difference a day makes. But Joseph was also in peril with all of this newfound success and this rise to power, being in a pagan society, pagan religion. And now honored with such a position and such a job, the center pride and independence could easily enter in. How would he preserve humility and faith in God? Well, the man who would not relent to Potiphar's wife's relentless advances would not be easily seduced by the ravishments of Egyptian power and prestige. Time had tested him and imbued him with a character of steel. And guys, I think all of that testing. I mean, think about what Joseph had to endure. Because quite honestly, I think if any of us were sort of just catapulted into all of a sudden, you know, I find myself being president of Elon University tomorrow, it will never happen. OK, but what if it did? What would that potentially do to me? You know, would I let that go to my head? So many people who have had quick rises to power have only just fallen in terms of their moral character and fortitude. Well, God has tested Joseph over and over and over again. He's not a perfect man. I'm sure he makes mistakes along the way, but he's going to carry out his task in a way that is just amazing. So we don't have time to go into too much more detail here, but in verse 41, Joseph begins to toil. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Verse 48 begins to toil like never before. He gathers up grain. It says it's the sands of the sea. His wife bears him two sons. And I think this is really interesting. Because again, it points to Joseph's heart and it sort of sets the stage for what we're going to experience next week But he's given two sons and he gives them Hebrew names Okay, that's really important to remember. Okay, cuz you know, he could do what he wanted, right? This is kind of pushing it a little bit, you know, I don't know what Pharaoh would have thought about this, but he's having such great success He's given latitude to name his children Hebrew names. He names his first son Manasseh and He who causes to forget. Guys, next week, we're going to see this incredible reunion, you know, the the heart of Joseph has melted the anger and the bitterness that potentially could have taken hold of his heart, which I'm sure he was tempted over the years to hold on and to form a grudge and to hold on to heart feelings against his brothers for what they've done. I mean, it's only human, right? I mean, who of us wouldn't struggle with that? But He names his son Manasseh because he says, he who causes to forget is the literal translation. But in verse 41, it says, for God has made me to forget all my toil and all my father's house. It doesn't mean that he's forgotten Jacob and his brothers, but he's forgotten the sin. That was put upon him, and again here, if you haven't seen the connection yet between Joseph and Jesus. You know, this is a beautiful foreshadowing of the saving grace of Christ, you know, that Christ, too, was scorned and he was persecuted and he was falsely accused and he was put on the cross that was meant for criminals to bear the sin that we all committed. We all contributed to Jesus going to the cross. He went on our behalf and he went willingly. And I think Joseph did, too. He found himself in the pit. But at some point he turned the corner and he decided, you know what, I'm going to go through this willingly because God is still with me. And he began, you know, I hate the phrase. It sounds like such a cliche, but to make lemonade out of lemons. OK, he began to take this horrible, horrible situation and he just decided to go with it because he knew. before God that it wasn't because he had offended God that all this bad stuff happened. He knew probably that he was a sinner, but he knew that God was still with him. And guys, it's just an amazing thing. So he names his first son as a reminder that God has lifted out of his heart bitterness and anger and envy all the things that he could have attached that would have been aimed at his family for the horrible things that they've done for him. And he's not living in Egypt full of bitterness and full of envy. He's moved on. He's moved past it. I don't think the same can be said yet for his brothers, but that's amazing. And the second son, he names Ephraim, which means fertile. And he explains, he says, for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. How many of us can say that? Guys, none of us have gone through what Joseph has gone through, but a lot of us have gone through tough times. You know, we have a lot more younger people in the room tonight and some of you guys are going through tough times. The teenage years, the young adult years can be fraught with just a lot of uncertainty and confusion and things and relational angst and all sorts of things that can sort of crop in. What do you do with those difficulties? Do you embrace them? Do you see God reigning in your life through those afflictions, which Paul actually says are momentary afflictions, light afflictions, probably compared to what Paul went through compared to what Joseph went through. Our afflictions are light in comparison. Wouldn't you agree? Pretty light. How do we handle them? Do we handle our light afflictions in the same way? Listen guys, God will produce fruit in our life when we decide to worship Him even when we go through our light afflictions and our moments of challenge and so forth. I just want to leave you with a couple of thoughts, and one is from Kent Hughes. He says there's glimmers here of the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham as well, because God used Joseph to save the world. You know, we I don't have time to go into it, but in verse 53, we find out the famine is a worldwide famine. It says it affected all the lands over the face of the earth. OK, so everyone. was affected by this famine. It was a global famine, however big the globe was in terms of the areas of the globe that were populated at that time. It was worldwide famine. And God used Egypt and Joseph to provide for all the countries. It says in verse 56, 57, that all of the Egyptians and all of the countries of the world came to Joseph to buy grain. And Egypt profited from all of this, by the way, too. We'll get to that next time. They made a lot of money. People make a lot of money. Believe it or not, off the recession right now, people that have money and know how to buy when everybody else doesn't have the resources. There's a lot of people making money these last five years, while a lot of other people are struggling and suffering. But that's just the way life is. But God is the one who prospered them. But anyway, God's promise to Abraham was that in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. And this is a partial fulfillment of that. The ultimate fulfillment is through Jesus. But the partial fulfillment is that because God did this to Joseph, he did it for the benefit of everybody else living in the world at that time. It's amazing. So let me leave you guys with just three sort of things to end with. Joseph's life was grounded in three fundamental beliefs that I think are important for us to remember. The first one is God controls all of life. All right. You guys say amen. God controls all of life. Guys, he doesn't just control the good things that happen to us. He is over everything. All right. All of life, including the day in day out events of life, our failures and our successes. It said that Joseph was a successful man because God made him a successful man. God did that work in Joseph. Some of you guys have gifts and talents and you haven't yet figured out that those gifts and talents are totally, totally under the grace of God. He's given them to you. You're not special because you have gifts and talents. OK, God doles out gifts and talents. He decides who has what gifts. All right, we need to appreciate the fact that they come from him and that he moves in our life through those things. Second thing, real quick, God fulfills his word and his word is truth. Joseph held on. to his dreams. God had given him those dreams. I think Joseph, he was immature. He was cocky. He probably didn't need, that was too much information. The brothers and his dad and mom, they didn't need to, his mother wasn't alive at that time, but they didn't need to hear all that, okay? He probably would have been better left, you know, but God's purposes wouldn't have happened, you know, had he kept to himself. God knew that he would gush forth and that would come out. But Joseph believed that he had a destiny, that God was going to do something to him and that his future was secure and that God would never leave him. And we heard that over and over again. Potiphar saw that God was with Joseph. Pharaoh saw that God was with Joseph. The jailers saw that God was with Joseph. If they all saw it, Joseph knew it. God was with him and his word was true. And he hung his life on the promises made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And I kind of got ahead of myself. The last one was that God was with him in both the good times and the bad. You know, and I guess that's the thing I just would leave us with tonight, that God is not just God of the good times and life is not just simply about trying to move from one good thing to another. It's about learning to grow and learning to honor God and learning to praise him when it's hard, you know, when it's difficult, you know, when things aren't going your way and when you find yourself on a rocky road. You know, that that's really when your character will be proven and we'll find out what kind of a man or woman you are by virtue of how you conduct yourself during those times. We don't really know too much about people. The old analogy of the strength of the tea bag isn't known until you put it into the hot water, right? You know, when you put it in the hot water, you realize how strong the tea is and how flavorful it is. Your flavor, your savoring flavor, the flavor that's supposed to season the world around you comes out when you're tested. And so I just challenge you guys tonight, think about how much are you savoring those around you? How much are you providing an aroma of the goodness of God to your co-workers, to your friends? Are you flowing with that in your life? Or are you not? And if you're not, get on your hands and knees and determine now, Lord, I've not done these things. I've not surrendered myself to you fully. So let's pray and let's have some time of fellowship. And by God's grace, we'll pick up the second half of the story. The next five chapters next week will deal with Joseph and his brothers and their testing and ultimately the reconciliation that will come. Beautiful, beautiful story. Read ahead of it, guys. It's a wonderful one of my favorite passages in all of the Bible. Well, Father, we thank you for this time together. Please bless us and give us grace. Father, our land is full of such incredible wealth and prosperity. You know, just listening to the testimonies today at church was another reminder, Lord God, of how easy it is for us to. Lord, just not not really need you as much, that really sounds like a human way to phrase it, but Father, we we sort of act that way. Because, Lord, so much is at our fingertips. So many resources are so easily available. Lord, we're in a land where that is flowing, and yet we don't realize, Father, what we're missing. Father, I pray that you would orchestrate the events of our life in such a way as, Lord God, to develop the character of Joseph in our hearts that, Lord God, we would We would recognize these things more fully. We would lean ever more fully upon you. We would give glory to you in all things, in all places, and that you would be honored this week, Lord, in how we conduct ourselves before men. Father, please, we can't do this without you. Joseph could not do it without you. I pray that you would do just a supernatural work in us this week. Please, Lord God, do not stop working in your people. We need you here in America. Lord, the sin of our nation is great. The sin of our community is great. And father, there's much that we have need to repent of. And I pray that you would yet, Lord God, just fill us with a sense of remorse over the sins of our. Of our culture, Lord God, of being so materialistically minded that, Lord God, we do not fully, fully surrender ourself to you. So, father, please have your way with us and please bless our families and bless our nation in Jesus name. Amen.