In this lesson, we examine how God sovereignly arranged circumstances in Joseph’s early life to bring Joseph to Potiphar’s household in Egypt. We also ask what we can learn from this account in Genesis for our own lives, that is, how we can trust in God’s good plans when it looks like God’s promises are being frustrated.
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was being accomplished that was partly being accomplished in Jacob’s life many of God’s plans were intersecting in what seemed like the ordinary circumstances of Jacob’s life God was accomplishing some very significant things and so it is with us God is Not only active in accomplishing things for us personally at the same time he’s accomplishing he is accomplishing an unfathomable number of purposes for all people both currently those alive and those who are not yet born he’s actually accomplishing things for them right now that should be a comfort that should be a comfort to us knowing that that God is doing all this not just for us but for the whole earth questions about last week’s lesson okay now we turn to Joseph God’s spirit through Moses is going to show us another lesson in trusting in The Sovereign care of God they’re probably familiar with the historical account of Joseph you’ve heard this before that’s good but as we look at the first part of Joseph’s history today pay special attention to how God was accomplishing his Sovereign purposes through many people and across many years of time we’re going to see that what looks like there’s nothing happening let’s say in a certain segment of Joseph’s life some great things are actually being put in motion we’re going to trace that together today let’s pray a great king Lord you are so great you are so you’re so awesome Lord we’ve encountered you because you opened our eyes and it is a wonderful and yet a fearful thing and I don’t mean to fear punishment because that has been that has been covered by Christ but God you were just so so big so So Glorious so powerful so authoritative and yet you’ve made a covenant of kindness with those you’ve chosen thank you for being so gracious God Lord as we study your scriptures today I want to be able to explain it well and help us be able to understand just how great you are how we can really leave our cares with you because you will bring your promises to pass in Jesus name amen we’re going to be looking mainly at one passage today that’s in Genesis 37. but before we get there let’s look at Genesis 35 please open your Bibles to Genesis 35.
just want to review a little bit the family background that Joseph finds himself in with his siblings and this in Genesis 35 verses 22 B to 26 we get a summary of the sons of Jacob categorized by their mothers so look down to verse 22.
Genesis 35 verse 22 B now there were 12 sons of Jacob the sons of Leah Reuben Jacob’s firstborn then Simeon and Levi and Judah and issachar and zebulun the sons of Rachel Joseph and Benjamin and the sons of bilha Rachel’s maid Dan and naphtali and the sons of Zuppa Lee is made Gad and Asher these are the sons of Jacob who were born to him in paddinaram okay so here we have six Sons from Leah Jacob’s first wife two sons from Rachel Jacob’s second wife two sons from bilha Jacob’s third wife and two sons from zilpa Jacob’s fourth wife let’s observe a few things who was Jacob’s first born Reuben from Leah if you look slightly above the section that we read we see that that Reuben has actually committed a great evil and would have greatly displeased his father what does Reuben do that’s right he slept with bilha Jacob’s concubine well remember the relationship of bilha and Reuben bilha is essentially his mother-in-law or one of his mothers-in-law so this would have been a great evil and very annoying to Jacob but Reuben’s not the only son who does things to displease his father we don’t see it here but Simeon and Levi they also commit evil in Genesis 34 they end up slaughtering a whole town the male’s there and in Genesis 38 we see Judah committing great evil a number of the older Sons of Jacob all getting into various kinds of trouble but Reuben is mentioned mentioned right before our passage and his evil stands out here that’s gonna be important I think perhaps a little bit later on today now it says that these 12 sons that were born here or that are listed here were born in pad in Iran and that is true in a sense but one of these sons was actually born in Canaan if we look again at the preceding context what comes before which son of these 12 listed here was actually born in Canaan Benjamin that’s right and what happened during Benjamin’s birth um I’m not sure if there was a famine I have to go back and look at that but the the most significant thing is that Rachel dies Rachel dies while giving birth to Benjamin Rachel’s also Joseph’s mother and was the one that Jacob loved the most the wife that he loved the most so with these things in mind let’s now move on to Genesis 37.
we’re gonna be looking at the whole chapter but we’re going to break it into pieces Genesis 37 verse 1. so at this point Rachel has died we have the 12 sons Joseph and Benjamin would be the youngest Isaac has also died at this point and Jacob’s sons are growing up let’s examine the first section of this passage verses 1 to 11.
now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned in the land of Canaan these are the records of the generations of Jacob Joseph went 17 years of age was pastoring the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth along with the sons of bilha and the sons of zilpa his father’s wives and Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father now Israel loved Joseph more than all his all his sons because he was the son of his old age and he made him a very colored tunic his brother saw that their father father loved him more than all his brothers and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms then Joseph had a dream and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more he said to them please listen to The Stream which I have had for behold we were binding sheaves in the field and lo my chief rose up and also stood erect and behold your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my Sheaf and his brother said to him are you actually going to Reign Over Us are you really going to rule over us so they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words now we had still another dream and he related it to his brothers and said Lo I’ve had still another dream and behold the Sun and the Moon and 11 stars were bowing down to me he related to his father and to his brothers and his father rebuked him and said to him what is this dream that you have had shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come to Bow ourselves down before you to the ground his brothers were jealous of him but his father kept a saying in mind okay let’s make some observations on this passage Joseph 17 years old here and his brothers hate him we’re given two were three reasons for why his brothers hate him what’s one of those reasons exactly the brothers know they can see that the that Jacob loves Joseph more than the other sons and that’s most emphasized by the coat the special coat that the father gave or made and gave to Jake to Joseph that’s one reason what’s another one foreign that’s intriguing to me that you say that I’ll just repeat your comment it seems that Joseph is responsible and you’re probably referring to the report that he brings back right so we read that Joseph brings a bad report about some of his brothers they had been pastoring the flocks and he brings back a bad report this may indicate a responsive a responsible nature to Joseph we certainly see that later on in his life and perhaps that’s one of the reasons why his father really had affection for him is not just the son of his old age but he’s also a very dutiful son a very obedient son that could be a reason but certainly or that could be part of why the why Jacob loves him but certainly that’s going to annoy his brothers the four brothers who who got the bad report likely they resented or Joseph for giving that report but there’s one other thing here that definitely makes the brothers upset with Joseph yes exactly he shares these dreams with his brothers now it says the brothers hate Joseph so much they can’t even do what to him can’t even speak to him in friendly terms every word out of their mouths of Joseph is filled with anger now Joseph has two dreams here the first heinous Brothers in the field Gathering grain Joseph Sheaf his little bundle of grain suddenly stands up tall while his brother’s sheaves gather around and bow down to Joseph chief and in the second dream the Sun the moon and 11 stars all bow down to Joseph what did these dreams indicate about the future or seem to indicate about the future that’s right that he would rule over him that they would bow down to him and this is obvious from the way the his family members respond to him they don’t even say like huh I wonder what that means they they just get mad and Joseph’s brothers find the idea of submitting to Joseph extremely offensive because not only do they hate him but he other than Benjamin is their youngest brother doesn’t make sense for them to submit to Joseph even Jacob rebukes his son over this dream with the idea that Jacob and Leah the first wife the chief wife and the rest of the family would all be submitting and bowing down to Joseph but you’ll notice while the brothers are jealous of Joseph they hate Joseph because of the dreams it says that Jacob kept the saying in mind he thought that this was significant these dreams something worth remembering something we’re thinking about let’s ask a few interpretive questions now What similarities do you notice between this situation and what we learned about Jacob’s early life yeah Roy that’s right we have seen God speaking to the earlier Patriarchs and even showing Visions or showing dreams and we saw that with Jacob what else hey Emma yeah we have a struggle struggle between Brothers we had Jacob and Esau before and now we have the 12 Brothers yes Judy that’s right we have a reversal of who’s going to be the Blessed son who’s going to be the um who’s going to be Supreme the younger ruling over the older what else yeah Shane yeah we see certain preferences or certain are we see Parental favoritism with um Isaac and Rebecca it was each had a preference for one particular son but here we see that Joseph is the one that has the preference from his father there’s also at the very beginning or early in these people’s lives we see prophecies about the future remember with Jacob before he was born it was said that the older would serve the younger there’s a prophecy before they even came out of the womb but here we have a prophecy about Joseph’s future in these dreams and these dreams are extremely significant because they are going to be fulfilled and this is something that we see throughout the Bible God tells or shows his people what’s going to happen before it does why to show them he’s completely in control even says as much in other scriptures he says when this comes to pass you’ll know that I am the Lord you know that I did it so we do see some similarities to Jacob’s early life some consistent themes between these two situations here’s another question though does Joseph sin against his brothers by bringing back a bad report and by sharing these dreams it could be no we might say well come on he’s being a little snot here don’t you think well this is a good time for us to remember one of the principles of interpretation and that is if there’s not enough evidence we should withhold judgment now it is true as Bill noted that we do see later on Joseph’s character is very upstanding but what is the what is motivating him here it could be that Joseph is acting like a little snot tattling on his brothers exulting in these dreams that he has oh listen of his dream you’re all going to be bound down to me but it also might be that his brothers really were warranting a bad report that they were not taking care of their father’s flocks like they should have and like a good son he’s letting his father know and it might be that these dreams were so astonishing to Joseph that even though he knows his brothers hate him he just has to share it this is so strange Brothers listen to me I don’t understand this so we can’t say for sure what motivates Joseph In this passage but that’s okay because the passage the main point of this passage is not about emulating or not emulating Joseph’s Behavior it’s about something else it’s about what God is accomplishing what God is sovereignly bringing to pass we can say though as a side note that the Folly of polygamy is on display here we can see the natural consequences of polygamy now you know polygamy is not directly condemned in the Old Testament though it is a clear violation of the Paradigm that God set in Genesis 1 and 2 with Adam and Eve the Two Become One flesh man shall leave his father’s wife his father and be joined to his wife father and mother and be joined to his wife polygamy here and in Jacob’s life led to Strife between his wives and now it’s led to Strife between his wife’s Sons but this is a natural consequence if you prefer one wife over the other there’s going to be jealousy there’s going to be strife and if you prefer that wife’s Sons over the others there’s going to be jealousy there’s going to be strife and it’s going to lead to almost murder here as we shall see questions on what we’ve looked at so far okay let’s look at the next section let’s see what unfolds oh same slide verses 12 to 28.
then his brothers went his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock in shechem Israel said to Joseph I know your brother’s pastoring the flock and check him come and I will send you to them and he said to him I will go then he said to him go now and see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock and bring word back to me so he sent him from the valley of Hebron and he came to shechem a man found him and behold he was wandering in the field and the man asked him what are you looking for he said I am looking for my brothers please tell me where they are pastoring the flock then the man said they have moved from here for I heard them say let us go to Dothan so Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan when they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them they plotted against him to put him to death they said to one another Here Comes This dreamer now then come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits we will say a wild beast devoured him then let us see what will become of his dreams but Reuben heard this and rescued him out of their hands and said let us not take his life Reuben further said to them shed no blood throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness but do not lay hands on him that he might rescue him out of their hands to restore him to his father so it came about when Joseph reached his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic the very colored tunic that was on him and they took him and threw him into the pit and the pit was empty without any water in it and then this sat down to eat a meal and as they raised their eyes and looked Behold a caravan of ishmaelites was coming from Gilead with their camels bearing aromatic gum and balm and myrrh on their way to bring them down to Egypt Judah said to his brothers what profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood Come and 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 listen to him then some midianite Traders passed by so they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver thus they brought Joseph into Egypt oh let’s once again start analyzing this passage with some observations Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers see how they’re doing as they pasture the flocks Joseph doesn’t find them in shechem where they initially went to pasture he hears that they’re in Dothan so Joseph goes to Dothan when the brother see Joseph coming they decide that they want to kill him and make it look like an animal is what took care of Joseph but who intercedes which brother Reuben his brother Reuben the firstborn Reuben says no let’s just put him in a pit because Reuben planned to rescue Joseph later and restore him to Jacob now who is it that proposes to sell Joseph Judah they do sell Joseph the brothers think this is a good idea and they sell him to do they sell him to a passing band of ishmaelites for 20 shackles of silver which was a common price for a Slave at the time from where were these Traders coming Gilead the region of Gilead and to where where the Raiders going the traitor’s going to Egypt by the way the text calls these Traders both ishmaelites and midianites those are two different tribes that might be a little bit of a head scratcher why do they have the same name is this an error well of course not by now we know there’s always a reasonable explanation for things that may seem a little bit odd to us in the Bible it could be that these terms were synonymous at the time because the tribes had intermarried so ishmaelites and midianites they’re basically the same or it could be that this was a band of ishmaelites living in the region where most the midianites lived so that these were ishmaelites and bloodline but midianites in place of origin whatever the reason these terms are used anonymously and it’s not an error let’s pause and ask some more interpretive questions now after the brothers decide to kill Joseph they say let us see what will become of his dreams or in other words this will make sure that those dreams never come to pass why is this statement ironic yeah Rob exactly they’re actually helping along God’s plans for those dreams to come to pass by selling Joseph into slavery by trying to prevent Joseph rise they’re actually facilitating it now why does Reuben want to save Joseph or not told specifically here but what might be the reason he’s the oldest he’s the firstborn so maybe he feels some responsibility for his brother why else yeah Julie ah it could be to restore favor with Jacob because remember he had already done something that really annoyed Jacob by Sleeping with bilha so perhaps this is the way he could get back in his father’s good graces it could be that this is a righteous impulse that Reuben says no God this is evil it could be that he’s actually just being compassionate here or it might be something a little bit more self-seeking but for good or selfish reasons Reuben seeks to save Joseph and his effort is part of what God was going to use to bring about his plan and to get Joseph into Egypt another important part of God’s plan are the Traders and their route of travel we’re going to do a little activity now based on the Traders should have received a worksheet when you came into Sunday school if you don’t have the worksheet I think George and Roy have them in the back it’s like a map it’s got some questions there in the bottom right once you to now take a couple of minutes use the map and use the passage that we have here in Genesis 37 to answer answer the questions and to to do to follow the directions feel free to work with some people who are sitting next to you give you three minutes once you complete the worksheet just look up and then we’ll go over the answers any questions about what you’re going to do okay take about three minutes foreign take about one more minute thank you all right let’s go over the answers didn’t finish that’s okay will help you fill in the blanks so the first question you were asked to draw an arrow on the map to show Joseph’s path so you should have drawn an arrow from Hebron up to shechem and then up to Dothan so Joseph is going north question number two what similarity did you find in the listed verses yeah okay that he’s going to check him uh let’s see I think it’s kind of in the let’s see yeah verse 12 then his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock and check and then Israel said to Joseph are not your brother’s pastoring the flock and check him yeah so that would be where we know where we get that he’s going to check him good question now question number two though what was the similarity in those verses that’s right Gilead is often mentioned with bomb bombing this product associated with Gilead and that’s what these Traders are taking in Genesis 37 to Egypt with some other things number three which route from the map is mentioned in numbers 20.
the King’s Highway that’s right so that would be the southern route on your map number four question number four another question asking you to to draw an arrow this time you’re going to be drawing an arrow West or Southwest from the region of Gilead to Dothan now question number five if the Traders continued in their general direction to which route would they eventually come the vmrs or which would be translated the way of the sea the one that goes along the Mediterranean Sea also called the Great Trunk Road or the way of the Philistines this was a major trade route back in this time Now understand that these two trade routes on your map the vmrs and the King’s Highway they weren’t the only routes used at the time they were very major routes but there are lots of other routes that crisscross these so it’s not like you get off this route and then you’re in the middle desert no there are some other trade routes too but it’s very likely that this band of Traders it’s coming from Gilead going west they are going to try to link up to the vmres and then head to Egypt and their route just happened to take them by Dothan question six was it a matter of coincidence or lucky timing that arranged the events that would take Joseph to Egypt no of course not what was it it’s God’s Providence God’s sovereignly bringing it together these Traders at just the right time to interact with Joseph and his brothers let’s look now at this last section in Genesis 37 and then we’ll tie all our observations together with some conclusions so Genesis 37 now in verse 29 verse 29 to the end of the chapter now Reuben returns to the pit and behold Joseph was not in the pit so he tore his garments he returned to his brothers and said the boy is not there as for me where am I to go so they took Joseph’s tunic and slaughtered a male goat and dipped the tunic in the blood and they sent the very colored tunic and brought it to their father and said we found this please examine it to see whether it is your son’s tunic or not and he examined it and said it is my son’s tunic a wild beast has devoured him Joseph has surely been torn to pieces so Jacob tore his clothes and puts sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him but he refused to be comforted and he said surely I will go down to sheol and mourning for my son so his father wept for him meanwhile the midianites sold him in Egypt to potiphar Pharaoh’s officer the captain of The Bodyguard a few more observations what do verses 29 and 30 reveal to us about Reuben’s whereabouts during Joseph’s sale he was not there he was surprised that Joseph was not in the pit anymore which means that he had not been there when they had sold him with Joseph gone the brothers intend to cover up their Deed by by putting blood on Joseph’s cloak from one of the animals and then present that cloaked present the quote to their father so at this point their brothers have kidnapped their brother sold them into slavery and now they’re going to deceive Jacob their father and their deception Works Jacob sees the blood and infers exactly what the brothers hoped he would which is that an animal has killed Jacob I mean not Jacob Joseph Jacob then goes into a deep depression refusing all comfort from his children but verse 36 tells us that meanwhile Joseph is sold to potipher who just so happens to be a high-ranking official in Egypt let’s pull together our different observations now we are shown in the beginning of chapter 37 a foreshadowing of something to come Joseph’s family will bow down to Joseph then we see a number of tragic circumstances that lead to a seeming contradiction of that future I mean this is the total opposite of the brothers bowing down to Joseph Joseph has is hated by his brothers and they’ve even sold him into slavery but you know because you’ve heard this history before you know what comes later it’s part of our memory verse what is God actually doing here he’s bringing it to pass not only the prophecy about Joseph but he’s accomplishing something even greater exactly there’s a huge Grand purpose here not only is God bringing Joseph into Egypt to put him into a position of power in which his brothers would bow down to him but that position of authority that God arranges for Joseph is going to allow Joseph to save many people from famine including his own family and that’s important because his family are the the family that have the Covenant Promises of God God’s going to keep those promises and God is eventually going to fulfill specific promises within that Covenant that is in you all the families of the earth will be blessed in other words the Messiah God is going to preserve and prepare the Messiah partly through what he’s doing with Joseph Jacob’s family has to survive this famine and God is going to use Joseph to do that because later on the Messiah would come through the line of Jacob so a grand grand purpose is that work here and really the chain of events that are bringing us to pass are quite remarkable just to review a few of them at the end of this chapter Joseph ends up in Egypt in Potiphar’s house but Joseph wouldn’t have gotten there unless he had been enslaved but it wouldn’t have been enslaved unless his brothers had unless his brothers had sold him but his brothers wouldn’t have sold him unless Reuben had tried to intercede and save Joseph’s life but another thing at work there though was that Judah had a greedy thought and a band of Traders just happened to be going by right when Joseph was in the pit when Reuben was absent but Reuben wouldn’t have interceded for Joseph’s life unless their brothers had sought to kill Joseph but the brothers wouldn’t have sought to kill Joseph unless they had become jealous of Joseph and they had gotten far enough away from their father to act more or less in secret but they wouldn’t have been jealous of Joseph it wasn’t if it weren’t for the great favoritism that Jacob was showing to Joseph but Jacob wouldn’t have shown favoritism to Joseph if it weren’t for his love for Rebecca above the other wives and God’s withholding or not Rebecca Rachel and for God’s withholding pregnancy from Rachel until all the other brothers were born but Jacob wouldn’t have married multiple wives if it weren’t for laban’s trickery but Laban wouldn’t have tricked Jacob if Jacob had never gone to haran but Jacob wouldn’t have fled to haran and left his unless his life was in danger and he would have known his life was in danger unless his mother happened over here that Esau wanted to kill Jacob and we could go on so many just almost seems like chance happenings coming together all bringing about this result of bringing Joseph to Egypt and putting him in pot for his house and what is this all about as we said saving a people from a massive famine and ultimately God revealing his glory in the gospel of salvation in the Messiah all of these things are coming together here really if we were to string all right if we were to string together how the different events of the Bible are connected to the past and to the Future we would never stop making the connections because God is in his sovereignty and his total power and his authority is accomplishing all these purposes personal and Global at the same time the things that happen to the first humans to Adam and Eve they were directly linked to God’s plans for the future and everything that happens to us today has been in part already prepared by what’s happened in the past we’re here today many who blame their upbringing on or blame their upbringing or their DNA for their mistakes and misfortunes God says we’re accountable for our actions we can’t just say well not my fault no God says you I’m going to judge you for what you decide to do nevertheless God has given and allowed the specific circumstances of Our Lives in order to bring about his good purposes in order to show forth his glory this is an amazing truth but what’s more amazing is that if you are a Believer if you’re in Christ This is not simply an abstract reality this is a promise that you can personally grab hold of God is working all things for his glory and you’re good your specific good your personal good if you’re in Christ you might not see how right now you might not see how for another 20 years you might not see how in your lifetime but based on what we’re reading here in Genesis 37 you can know that God is doing something good and perfect in your life so brothers and sisters let us not grow weary of doing good nor despair in horrifying circumstances like we see here for Joseph and like we saw with Jacob and the other Patriarchs God is accomplishing something great something perfect he’s doing that in and through our lives not just for us but for the generations after us we’ll see how this theme continues next week with God’s plans coming to fruition for Joseph but any comments or questions before we consider some final application questions yeah Rob OT yeah absolutely Rob just repeat your comment we see just how remarkable it is that God used all these things to bring Joseph to Egypt but that has Direct application for us when we see things that are difficult that are unexpected in our lives we shouldn’t complain we shouldn’t Grumble because we know something is true that is God is accomplishing a merciful and good purpose for us and for the world yeah really yeah yeah just repeat your comment Roy this is a direct preservation of the forefathers of Israel these 12 are these 11 Brothers of Joseph and Joseph himself are going to form the 12 tribes so it’s important that all of them survive the famine because they need to be the Patriarchs they need to be the ones that build the different houses of Israel yeah God is accomplishing that purpose other questions or comments hmm hmm what are the principles that are very abstract for me okay let me repeat a couple of your comments you’re making a note here that the evil that the brothers meant for Joseph or the evil that yeah in our memory verse the evil that you meant for me God meant for good that specifically refers to their selling him into slavery wanting to get rid of him and that is something condemned in the Old Testament law to to sell someone into slavery or to kidnap someone um and the yeah I’m right now I’m going to withhold judgment on slavery as a whole it certainly is true that the Bible does not promote slavery it is something that it just treats as a reality of the time I think that certainly in the Bible you see many abuses of slavery but you also have that that verse in them in the pentateuch that talks about how if there’s a slave that loves his master so much and he wants to stay with him forever he can have his ear pierced and he’ll be a permanent slave why would you ever want to do that well it must have been a good arrangement for a slave to want to do that so I’m not I’m not necessarily going to say that slavery is bad in all circumstances though the Bible doesn’t does not promote slavery and certainly kidnapping someone to enslave him which is usually how people ended up being enslaved or at least that’s many times how it’s happened throughout history that isn’t evil that has always been condemned by God the other thing that you mentioned bill um I forgot the second part of what you said what was the second part again right yeah right right yeah yeah yeah that’s a that’s another point that I wanted to repeat that is though God ordains and allows certain evils to take place even to allow slavery that doesn’t that doesn’t mean that he approves of it or to we know in this situation God is meaning evil for good but that doesn’t mean that God’s going to say well because I have a good purpose I’m not going to judge you for the evil that you did or because I have a good purpose it’s okay for you to do that and so it’s okay for others to do that no God says even though he allows evil he he uses evil to accomplish his purposes he says I’m still going to hold you accountable for what you did I’m going to judge you for the evil that you did that’s actually on display very very obviously towards the end of the Old Testament where God says I’m going to judge my nation with another Nation I’m going to cause that Nation to come and destroy Israel but then I’m going to judge that Nation for what they did to Israel it’s like what how what how can that be he says what they’re doing is evil I’m going to allow it because it accomplished my good purpose but I’m I’m a just God I’m not going to allow that evil to go um without its necessary Justice so those are valuable points Bill not not only to know that just because God allows it doesn’t mean he approves a bit but also specifically with slavery because God allowed that that doesn’t mean that he approves of it either other questions or comments okay let’s look now at a few other application questions if you have the workbooks you can turn to page 27 this is where we’re considered the four application questions that are listed there I’ll also post them on the slide question number one the account of the Patriarchs have a repeated theme of overturning this societal Norms with the birthright passing to the younger son and what ways is living as a Christian contrary to the Norms of society today what do you think yeah Craig um yes we are in the world not of the world overturning the Norms around us but can you give me an example of that simple things yeah yeah I mean that’s this is kind of a broad question and so we can have that kind of broad of an answer which is we don’t participate in the sins that are common in the world if you were in home groups this past week you know that in that section Philippians 2 it says do not Grumble or dispute with one another and by doing that you’re going to stand out as lights in the world because that’s what characterizes the world right that’s what characterizes most people complaining complaining about different things or grumbling against one another not maintaining Unity not giving interest to one another but chiefly giving interest to themselves and therefore they Grumble and dispute Christian is going to be different if they really belong to Jesus of course there are many other ways just believing in one true God believing that the bible really is the word of God believing that there is only one way to heaven and that is through Jesus Christ believing in Jesus Christ despite what the Pope says running from immorality removing entry every hindrance that causes you to stumble that is totally counter-cultural oh I’m gonna get rid of my computer totally because it’s that important to me that I don’t stumble reading and praying with your wife or husband oh who does that well Christians do dedicating time and money to serve others through the church that’s going to be different than the culture and many other things question number two in this series of events one Sid lent led to another to cover up what had become a cycle of sin how can we learn from this in order to avoid similar Cycles in our lives how can we learn from this yeah so one certain one one thing that we want to know is that because this is kind of how so it leads one sin leads to another we want to be careful to examine our own hearts that we’re not we’re not harboring any sin because it will lead to more what were you gonna what were you saying Shane and all the lies all of their sins culminating into God working out a great Act gotta see that as you you’re working through people’s lives in scripture I see that you work you work through you work through their sin I should better say you work in spite of their sin but I see that sin is is a significant event that yet when I pray to God I say don’t leave I don’t want to live like that that you’re going to use all of my sinful act into some creator that I don’t you know I know that you can work in spite of my sin but I would rather not that people what it seems like to be like a generational and um so I don’t know I just want to look at all this those things come to my mind and I know that they’re not okay yeah I appreciate those comments so just to try and briefly recap what you’re saying first of all we see God bringing about good purposes through people’s sins and yeah you said despite people’s sins but I I think it’s actually appropriate for us to say through that that it’s not like saying ah well this thing kind of gets in the way but I’m gonna just get my way through it it’s actually specifically accomplishes what God had intended how does that work with us personally we don’t we don’t want to say well God’s gonna bring about a good outcome from this sin so I’ll just keep on sinning and we know from Romans 6 that anyone who’s in Christ is not going to keep on sinning and he’s not going to say well if there if Grace May abound then I’ll sin on the war no that’s not consistent with what a Christian is his new nature he he doesn’t love sin anymore I think though that kind of that thought of despite despite what we do it does have something to do with our own experience because it is true that God’s Gonna accomplish his purposes allowing and using our sin or using our righteousness but we’re not going to be able to experience the blessing or the goodness when we continue in sin so I kind of think of that statement from Mordecai to Esther when he says if you don’t stand up and try and intercede for the Jewish people Deliverance will arise from another place but you’re just gonna go away you know I can’t remember if you said if you’re going to perish or something like that but basically you’re going to miss out on on what could have been for you so certainly we know that when we sin yes God has allowed it and God’s using it for a sovereign purposes but that’s not what we desire we want to enjoy God’s Sovereign purposes we can’t do that when we sin the second thing that you said I forget what it was can you repeat the second one ah okay yeah talking about the generational aspect of sin this is a good illustration I think of the concept of where God says those who hate me I’m going to punish to the second and third and fourth generation not completely that that illustration but we know from the other scriptures that God does not punish children for their father’s sins he says no each person is going to stand for his own sin he’s going to be accountable for his own sin and yet there is an effect of the sin of parents towards their children the children learn from their parents and this is true for all of you who are parents the way you speak to your children the way you act in front of your children they’re not just going to listen to what you tell them to do they’re going to look at what you do so if you say love the Lord with all your heart but you don’t love the Lord with all your heart and you show that in your life that’s what they’re going to learn they’re going to learn oh it’s not that important to love the Lord with all your heart all you have to do is say it it’s the same thing that we see on display here we see that I think we can say that that some of the things that Jacob’s sons are displaying are consistent with some of the the ways that Jacob himself was struggling though I think we should be a little bit careful to to not go so far as to say Jacob tricked his father and now Laban tricks Jacob and now his sons trick Jacob this is the this is um this is the this is karma or this is like the punishment that God had to give to Jacob I remember that for Christians are our sins have been paid for by Jesus I think we can apply that to to Jacob as well he’s part of God’s covenant of kindness It’s not necessarily true that God says well you sin in this way and even though even if you repent or even if you turn from that habit I still have to zap you I mean it’s just Justice no God doesn’t have to give Justice because it’s already been paid for in Jesus so it’s not necessarily true because Jacob tricked Esau and Jacob tricked Isaac that God says I’m going to ordain that you be tricked in the same way not necessarily it just happened that way is there a connection between the sons tricking him and his his deceit of his parents I’m not exactly sure we don’t know if Jacob Jacob certainly grew in faith I don’t know if that’s necessarily something that that his sons observed in him but we do know as a whole that the oftentimes the sin of the parents is emulated by the children and their children and sometimes in even greater ways as you were saying I think we have maybe time for one more question or comment anyone else okay well we’ll stop there or no I have some more application questions I forgot I’ll just go through these last two briefly what constellation do you find for your own life when you consider how God eventually used this horrible event in Joseph’s life to bring about a good end we’ve talked about this a little bit already but you should see direct application for you when you are experiencing somebody who harms you or somebody who means evil for you you can say well look at Joseph he didn’t see what God was doing at the time but he but God was doing it for a good end which is consistent with our with our last question too how could you use our memory verse to encourage yourself and others you should be able to say in your heart or even audibly the evil that you meant for me God means for good the circumstances hey these look like evil these look like they don’t help me at all but God is using it for my good and for the good of all people so we can we are meant we are meant to be instructed by this passage it was written for our benefit all right next week we’re going to look at the rest of Joseph’s life I’m actually not going to be with you I’m going to be away for a wedding but Khalif brother Khalif is going to be teaching the next Sunday school lesson so you can look forward to that let’s close in prayer father your purposes are magnificent and there are some we can go a little bit further in our understanding and and we can see that you do these things we can see that your ways are Majestic but we can’t we can’t ultimately comprehend this there’s just too many purposes intersecting but we can rest in what your word declares you are just you do not approve sin and yet you are sovereign nothing happens unless you allow it unless you ordain it you will hold every man accountable for his sin and yet you will use sin you will use difficult circumstances to accomplish your glorious purposes God we leave those things with you you are the king we we have no right to say God why did you do this how could you do this you don’t need to answer us you are God You Are Holy and as you say in your scripture shall not the judge of all the Earth do right you always do right oh Lord we thank you that you have opened our eyes to that thank you Lord that we can rest in your sovereignty that we can remember Joseph we can remember these Patriarchs just as Israel was meant to remember them and say God is accomplishing something great right now I don’t see it necessarily but I know it’s happening Lord we trust that for you we thank you for what you’re accomplishing in our church and in our service today pray that you would bring glory to yourself and that we could enjoy it not simply as we were talking about Lord not simply accomplish those purposes in spite of our sin not being able to take part and enjoying you Lord rather we can enjoy seeing your purposes come to pass and enjoy being part of how your purposes come to pass we thank you for that Lord in Jesus name amen