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God is Working His Purposes Out

What do you think is the most widely accepted religious thought in the UK today? One strong contender would surely be the idea that good people go to heaven. With such a belief many of our contemporaries simply assume that they will be numbered amongst those good ones. I guess most if not all of us would like to think that we are more good than we are bad!

If this idea were true then what on earth are we to make of so many parts of the Bible where it is made abundantly clear to us that the people being described are anything but good?

Here in Genesis ch.37 we are continuing to trace the line of God's chosen people. There is no way in which we could entitle a sermon on the events of this chapter "Happy Families" or something similar. This chapter is simply too sad for that. Let's now take a closer look.

First we must be clear that this sorry chapter is all about how one particular family struggled to get along.

As Moses wrote this chapter he loaded it with words that have to do with family life:

Father is used 11 times – Mother just once – but brothers (pl) 18 times with brother (sing) two more times. Son is used 8 times and boy twice.

And family is something with which we all have to deal. Unlike other sets of relationships we have no say in the matter – we don't choose the members of our families, we are stuck with them!

But being given a certain set of family members does not mean that there is an inevitability to all of our family life and experience. No, we are free to choose how we will relate to the other members and indeed we are responsible for our behaviour towards them.

Look briefly at the problems that beset this family.

û  What a sorry catalogue of errors is recorded for us in this chapter.

û  We have the unwise and flagrant favouritism of a doting father.

û  We have unkind tale-bearing.

û  We have growing resentment turning into hatred and becoming ever more sinsister.

û  We have unwise boasting and repeated talking.

û  We have hatred hardening into jealousy.

û  We have the heinous crime of fratricide being seriously contemplated and planned.

û  We have callousness pushed to its limits.

û  We have flesh and blood ties giving way before temporary financial gain.

û  We have lies and heartless deception.

It is Joseph who will be the major character dealt with in the closing chapters of the Book of Genesis and he has an important role to play in the accomplishing of God's plans. So Moses begins to draw our attention to him.

His was an inauspicious beginning is carefully laid out for all to see as he dominates vv.2-17 as the main actor. The second half of the chapter sees the focus shift to his brothers while himself Joseph becomes something of a silent sufferer vv.18-35.

As we're introduced to Joseph he is an immature 17 year old. He is described as a boy, a lad (the NIV is rather too generous in calling him a young man) v.2 and towards the end of the chapter he is referred to as a boy, a child v.30.

TellTale :

The first thing we learn about him is that he is a tell-tale: that is he is a person who heedlessly or maliciously reveals private or confidential matters. In v.2 we read "he brought a bad report" about his brothers to his father.

We don't such tale-bearers do we? It isn't pleasant when they tell the truth but there is also the suggestion here that Joseph didn't simply tell the truth, he embellished it, exaggerating or at least misrepresenting the mistakes his brothers made. Why do I say that that? Well the word that is translated "report" already contains the idea of something being wrong but Moses adds in the word for bad as well. The report brought while it brought news of bad behaviour was itself a bad report.

The young Joseph we meet here in ch.37 was not a likeable character. He was a fool who didn't act wisely at all! The fact that Joseph didn't stay that way should be an encouragement to us all.  

Favouritism :

Jacob had of course sown the seeds of family tension by his flagrant favouritism of this son of his old age. His preference for Joseph was so obvious and in-your-face that it provoked the hatred of his other sons for Joseph. It's bad enough when sibling rivalry is based upon suspicion of favouritism but here the favouritism was visible and tangible – every day the brothers could see Joseph parading around in the special clothes his father had given him. There is even the suggestion that this special garment indicated that Jacob intended Joseph to be his heir and to rule over his family!

How unwise such behaviour was and is! How insensitive and foolish Joseph was to seem to take such pleasure in wearing it in his brother's company!

Jacob's foolish favouritism and Joseph's immature sense of his own importance combine to cause simmering resentment within the family. His brothers know their father's preference for Joseph and they hate him for it – they can't speak a kindly word to him, no friendly peaceful word at all!

Maybe it would asking too much of a 17 year old, and a young 17 year old at that, to know how to handle such a situation. Joseph didn't know how to handle it and as we'll soon see his future behaviour only served to exacerbate the situation!

Pride :

We come now to the matter of Joseph's dreams and the way in which he handled them.

Now throughout Genesis dreams are seen as a means of divine revelation and although that is not specifically stated here subsequent events show that it was the case here too.

Joseph has two dreams – later on we'll discover that the repetition is a sure sign that God will accomplish what has been revealed.

And what does Joseph do with his first dream? He finds his brothers and tells them about it. Those brothers who already dislike him intensely are not rendered any softer by Joseph's recounting of his dream and they hate him all the more!

Now we could argue that Joseph wasn't to blame for having the dream in the first place and that would of course be true. But he seems to take real delight in telling his brothers about it all. Doubtless he had understood it in just the same way as the brothers did – and how we like to think ourselves important. Joseph gloats! Do you see that in v.8 where we're told they "hated him even more for his dreams and for his words."? It would seem that Joseph went on and on talking about it!

Then he has another dream v.9. It's very like the first. And what does Joseph do? Has he learnt that it might be unwise to speak again to his brothers of his ruling over them? Is he under any obligation to talk? But talk he does and this time he even succeeds in provoking a rebuke from his doting father. His brother's hatred for him deepens and darkens – jealousy now takes over the kind of jealousy that is only inches away from bursting out in violence.

Foolishness :

Was it another mark of favouritism that Joseph wasn't working with his brothers in the fields with the flocks that had been led away to graze near Shechem? But now Jacob decides to send Joseph to find out how things are going with his brothers. He did this because Shechem was a dangerous place for his family cf. ch.34:30. But was it wise to send a telltale on such a mission? Didn't he know the tensions that existed within his own family?

And wasn't it foolish of Joseph to go off to his brothers wearing that garment they hated so much? Wasn't it likely to be like a red rag to a bull? Wasn't this unwise in the extreme so many miles away from the protection of his father's house?

Opposition to God's will :

The focus now shifts to Joseph's brothers. They spot Joseph coming? That long-sleeved, many coloured coat was a dead giveaway – they've time to plot against him and their thoughts are wicked. The suggestion is made to kill Joseph. Do you see the link back to his dreams? If we kill this dreamer then his dreams will come to nothing!! But wait a moment – dreams come from the LORD so to desire the dreams to come to nothing is to desire that God's will fail!

Weakness/cowardice :

Reuben, Jacob's eldest son, the one who would bear the responsibility, intervenes to save Joseph's life. But he is not upfront enough. He stops murder but doesn't confront the attitudes that would have led to it. Joseph is stripped of his hateful robe and thrown into the pit – providentially Joseph is safe there is no water in this pit!

Callousness :

Having thrown Joseph into the pit his brothers sit down to enjoy a meal together as though nothing at all had happened. How hard the human heart can be!

While Reuben's absent a caravan train passes by and Judah thinks it'll be more profitable to them to sell their brother so off goes Joseph into slavery.

Lies and Deception :

But a new problem has to be faced: what are they going to tell the old man back home? It doesn't take them long to work out a solution but oh how cruel it is. They take a goat and having killed it they pour some of its blood on Joseph special coat – they send it to Jacob asking him to identify it and to draw the only conclusion he can.

There is real painful irony here. Years before Jacob had deceived his own father with goatskins on his neck and arms and now it is his turn to be cruelly deceived by means of a dead goat!

What a mess! What a succession of poor sinful behaviour! What were the people of God for whom Moses was writing to make of it all? What are we to make of it all?

The scene looked so black didn't it! Where was God while all this was going on? There was no mention of Him at all in this chapter and He appeared to all intents and purposes to be absent. It can appear to the people of God at times. Harsh and destructive persecution and the people of God cry out in the dark and God doesn't seem to care. Is He not interested? Is He not concerned? Can He do nothing when the wickedness of sinful men seems to rule the roost?

The very last verse of our chapter brings a flicker of light and with it a glimmer of hope. Joseph is brought safely to Egypt. The promise announced via the dreams has not been extinguished. Where there's life there's hope we say! And God has His man in place. Oh yes he'll remain hidden away from view for years yet but when famine strikes a saviour will be ready to intervene on behalf of the people of God!

The message of this passage is that God uses the evil deeds of Joseph's brothers to begin fulfilling his plan revealed through Joseph's dreams – Joseph will be made a ruler!

If such was the case in Joseph's day then the people of God of any age should take heart: God can use even the evil deeds of men to fulfil His plan of salvation!

Jesus was not like the young immature Joseph. He came into the world quietly to serve and not to Lord it over His people. He didn't flaunt His specialness as did Joseph and as He grew up He could never be accused of being an unlikeable character. Instead we read that "Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favour with God and man." Lk.2:52. And yet when He came to His own His own wouldn't receive Him. Jn.1:11.

As we read through the gospels accounts of the life of our Lord Jesus we find that any number of unholy alliances were formed against Him. Sadducees and Pharisees united in their attempts finish Him off. Herod and Pilate became friends as together they sought to have done with done with Him.

Truth and uprightness were unimportant – all that was necessary was to get rid of this man.

What does it matter if the witnesses were false and bribed after all they provided a means of doing away with Him? 

Sin and wickedness met Jesus at every turn and yet this was powerless to prevent the progress of God's will and purpose. "Jesus (was) delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God," even if He was …crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men." Acts 2:23.

What will you do with such a God who will not allow anything to thwart His purposes? And His purposes are only good!! That is the amazing thing. Oh yes, it would be easy enough to understand if God were purposing evil then who wouldn't want to try to frustrate His plans but His plans are so generous! He purposed to save His people through Joseph and He did so. He purposes to save all those sinners who will trust His Son by sending His Son to be their Saviour.

Will you not stop trying to work against Him, stop trying to hold Him off at arms length and call upon the Name of the Lord and be saved? May it indeed be so.

Amen.