MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
TEXT: Genesis 41:41-57; 42:1-5
By August 24th, we will have finished preaching through the Book of Genesis. We have seen that Genesis’ first 11 chapters focus on events prior to the giving of God’s covenant to Abraham – events such as Creation and the Flood. But we also saw that, starting in Genesis 11, the focus shifts to Abraham and his family and remains with them for the rest of the book. To Abraham and Sarah, their son Isaac and his wife Rebekah, their son Jacob and his wives Rachel and Leah, God gave an eternal covenant. That family line needed to be preserved for through it the Messiah, Jesus, would eventually come to earth to bless all people. Now, to Jacob, his wives and their maidservants were born 12 sons, the forerunners of the eventual 12 Tribes of Israel. God renamed Jacob “Israel”, and the eventual nation was named after him. When we got to Genesis 39, we arrived at the concluding story in Genesis; that of Joseph, the 11th of Jacob’s 12 sons, who became a ruler in Egypt, a dramatic event that would save his starving family back in Canaan. Joseph arranged for them to move to Egypt where they would be safe and well-fed. Joseph had them settle in an isolated region known as Goshen, an area in the north-eastern part of Egypt, close to the Red Sea, an important advantage centuries later for when the Israelites centuries would free from Egyptian slavery, led by Moses, escaping through the Red Sea on their way back to Canaan. Today’s passage brings us to the first part of Jacob’s family move to Egypt, a move that saved them, preserved the family line that would inherit God’s covenant, and keep alive God’s covenant. God was in all the details of Joseph’s life, and we will see that today and then in his family’s move. God was behind the scenes arranging all those details.
To start today, remember that 13 years before Joseph became a ruler in Egypt, God had revealed to him in two dreams that he would indeed become a ruler, but over his entire family. His 10 older brothers hated him gloating over God’s revelation and so they ambushed and kidnapped him, selling into to a travelling caravan of Ishmaelites and Midianites, who were their third cousins, who then sold him into slavery in Egypt. Joseph righteously served God in the household his master and slave-owner Potiphar, only to be accused of a crime he did not do – the attempted rape of Potiphar’s wife – & he ended up in prison. Thru it all, God was in the details. Joseph saw that and fully trusted Him. God is in the details of your life – do you see that? In your good & bad times, God has been and is with you. Do you trust Him?
So, the last time I preached on this topic, we stopped where Egypt’s Pharaoh also had two dreams, but he hadn’t understood their meaning. When his court magicians could not interpret his dreams, Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer – whose own dream Joseph had, 2 years earlier, correctly interpreted – recommended to Pharaoh to bring in Joseph to interpret his dreams. So, Joseph was hauled out of prison, brought into Pharaoh’s court. There he told Pharaoh that, though only God could interpret dreams, he would ask God for help understanding Pharaoh’s dreams. God then revealed their meaning to Joseph: Egypt would shortly experience 7 years of bumper crops, followed by 7 years of famine. Joseph proposed that during those 7 years of plenty, Pharaoh take a fifth of all the grain grown and store it away so that people would have food enough to eat during the later 7 years of famine.
Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” (Genesis 41:39,40)
Joseph had a spiritual power from God which no one else had. Pharaoh recognized that. God was in all the details of Joseph’s life, starting with that earlier revelation to Joseph that he would become a ruler.
So, Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus, he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.” Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt. (Genesis 41:41-45)
The Canaanite slave had become a ruler in Egypt! God had been in the details all along! When Pharaoh promoted Joseph, he gave to him
A ring symbolizing Joseph’s authority to act as Pharaoh himself.
This ring was Pharaoh’s signet ring giving Joseph the power and authority to act in Pharaoh’s name, on his behalf. Pharaoh gave him
Robes which identified him as a ruler of the land.Joseph had lost the “amazing technicolor” robe given to him by his father; a robe which had showed his pre-eminence in his family. He had that robe for only a short time before his brothers stole it, ripping it apart and deceitfully splattering animal blood all over it, implying it was Joseph’s blood. Joseph had another robe given to him when he was Potiphar’s slave, but he lost that robe when he ran from Potiphar’s wife as his robe slipped away as the woman grabbed it in her sexual advance. That robe had identified him as a slave. Pharaoh gave Joseph new robes made from expensive linen, robes identifying him as the ruler. He held onto them for the rest of his life. Pharaoh also gave him
A gold chain which told everyone who saw him that Joseph was a man to be revered and respected.
When Joseph passed by, everyone was to bow at his feet. Pharaoh also gave to Joseph, that former slave,
A chariot. Only the powerful had chariots.As Joseph rode along in his new chariot, watching the people bow at his approach, he must have given praise to the Lord for His grace and protection for he knew that God had been in the details. In addition,
Pharaoh gave Joseph a new, Egyptian name – “Zaphenath-Paneah”, a name which meant, “the God who speaks and lives”.
This new name linked Joseph’s ability to be interpret dreams to God and divine revelation. A name change signified a significant shift in status in that culture. By renaming him, Pharaoh not only proclaimed his ability but also granted him a new identity in Egyptian society. It was important that Egyptians viewed him as one of their own. Finally,
Pharaoh gave Joseph a new Egyptian wife – “Asenath, daughter of Poti-Phera, priest of On”.
Joseph didn’t ask for a wife. Despite being given a wife who was not a worshipper of his God, YHWH, Joseph did not stop worshipping or serving his God – our God. It doesn’t appear that his new wife stopped him from worshipping and serving YHWH God, unlike family members who had been led into false worship by their Canaanite wives. Pharaoh probably reasoned in his pagan logic that Joseph should have a religious wife, in keeping with Joseph’s religious bent. Joseph’s wife’s father was a priest of On, but that word, On, referred to the city in which he lived, not to a god. The city of On was later renamed “Heliopolis” and it was the second most important city in Egypt, after Memphis where Pharaoh lived. On was a center of worship for the sun god Ra. Historians have concluded that Joseph’s father-in-law was an influential man in the land, for the priests in On were part of Pharaoh’s inner circle, his council of advisors. The marriage of Joseph into that family was thus a political move, cementing Joseph into a position of power in Egyptian society. God had been in all the details of Joseph’s life up to that moment. Now with the authority, position, and placement in Egyptian life, Joseph began his reign as ruler over Egypt.
Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from Pharaoh’s presence and traveled throughout Egypt. During the seven years of abundance the land produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea; it was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. (Gen. 41:46-49)
Joseph had the smarts to carry out the plan God had given to him, to store away 20% of the grain grown in each of the 7 years of bumper crops, to ensure that the people would have food enough during the following 7 years of famine. Here is the key to understanding the whole of Joseph’s variegated life: in later chapters we will hear Joseph telling his brothers that though what they had done to him had been intended for evil, God meant it for good. He was confident in that.
Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” The second son he named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” (Genesis 41:50-52)
The first-born son’s name, Manasseh, sounds like the Hebrew word “nashah” for “forget”. Joseph couldn’t have literally forgotten his past troubles, but he would not let them weigh him down or stop him in his life. Too many people are not like Joseph; they let past events weigh them down, preventing them from fulfilling their God-given potential.
The second-born son’s name, Ephraim, sounds like the Hebrew word “phara” for “twice fruitful”. Joseph thanked God for what He had done for him, blessing him with two sons, as well as everything else. Our attitude regarding what has happened to us in the past must be like Joseph’s. The apostle Paul, in his New Testament letter to the Christians in the Greek city of Philippi, later wrote on this matter, ‘Brothers and sisters, here is one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things.’ That is an attitude for us to emulate. Neither Joseph nor Paul would say we shouldn’t reflect on past troubling events, but we mustn’t dwell on them or stay there. Rather, we should turn bad into good, rid ourselves of any bitterness or malice, and see how our past experiences can shape our thinking, attitudes, and behaviour for good going forward. I don’t want to diminish the pain of people’s past experiences – they are often tragic and painful – but we can live in the joy of God’s abounding grace and not in the pain of the past. We really can! A crucial point of salvation is that we are new creatures in Christ, “the old is gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). When life is painful, we can choose to “forget” the past and be fruitful for God in the future – or not! Make the wise and better choice! Let your past be used by God, certainly, but don’t get stuck by it for Jesus is in all the details of your life. Earlier, we sang, “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus”. As you do that, Jesus, the one who started your faith journey, will perfect it. Now, returning to Genesis 41:
The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.” When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere. (Genesis 41:53-57)
Famine has been a reality throughout human history. Way back in the 1930’s – the so-called “dirty thirties” – Western Canada experienced multiple years of famine, where the wheat crops were minimal and hills of sand blew right through the single-pane windows of farmhouses, making them constantly dirty and life uncomfortable. My dad, who was a young boy back them, once observed his dad and two of his farmer brothers meeting with the banker who had come to collect their mortgage payments, for they were in danger of losing their farms if no payment was made. The three brothers pulled, between them, $5.00 out of their pockets and gave it to the banker. The banker accepted that $5.00 and didn’t default on their mortgages, allowing them the dignity of not losing their farms. Those were really tough times! Maritime fishermen from Atlantic Canada famously and generously sent tons of frozen cod in railway cars to the starving farmers out west but people out here such as my grandmother didn’t know what to do with the brine-covered, salty, and frozen fish from the Atlantic Ocean. Grandma tried steaming it, baking it, and broiling it, all to no avail. It was rock hard and inedible. Finally, she threw it out into the side yard snowbanks. What she and the other farmwives had not been told was that one needed to let the fish soak for three days before attempting to cook it. When the warm spring weather came, those fish were still there, still frozen, rock hard and so smelly that even the farm dogs wouldn’t go near them. My point is that the farmers of the Prairie provinces truly needed help during those years of drought and famine but so did the people of Egypt during their 7 years of famine. Therefore, they went to Joseph for help and were given food enough to survive. But, once word got out to the people in neighbouring countries, you can imagine that those people also came to the only country that had food, Egypt. Meanwhile, back in Canaan…
When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?” He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. So, Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also. Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So, when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. (Genesis 42:1-6)
There were likely many locations in Egypt at which to get grain and food, but God in his sovereignty arranged that Joseph would just so happen to be checking in on the particular site, on the particular day, where his brothers from Canaan had arrived at. God was in the details!
Well, we will leave Joseph’s story at this point for today, but I want you to recognize fully that all along, God had been working in the background to accomplish His purposes in the lives of Joseph and his family. YHWH God’s covenant with Abraham’s family needed to be preserved, not just for their sake but for the sake of the entire world, culminating in the birth of Jesus, the Saviour, the Messiah, many decades later. God worked everything out. Do you see that? The same God then is the sovereign God today who is still in control. Will you trust him in every detail of your life? Will you respond in faith to what He has done and is doing with and for you? God is in the details! Even when you can’t see or understand what He is doing, He is at work for your benefit. Your primary duty in all the situations and circumstances of life is to seek for ways to glorify Him even as you patiently wait for Him to accomplish His purposes in your life. Let us pray…Amen.
