Sermon series: Learning From The Saints And The Aints.

Subject: From the Pit to the Palace
Lessons from the life of Joseph

Scripture: Genesis 30:22-24
"Then God remembered Rachel's plight and answered her prayers by giving her a child. She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. "God has removed my shame," she said. "And she named him...Joseph, for she said, "May the Lord give me yet another son."

Truth moves from the theoretical into the practical when we see it lived out in the lives of men and women. So maybe...the easiest way to learn truth is to study the lives of great men and women who have lived and conquered...no matter what the obstacles were!
Jonah proved that...you cannot run from God! Sooner or later, He will catch you. He is the Hound of Heaven!
Peter teaches us that...we often hurt those who we love the deepest. He said he wouldn't deny the Christ, but he did. He said that he would be faithful if everybody else forsook Christ, but he failed miserably!
Paul's life proves that when you keep your eye on your goal, no matter the difficulties of life, ultimately you make it to heaven.
Through shipwreck, persecution, rejection hunger and misunderstanding, Paul never lost sight of his goal. And when he bid this old world good-bye, he could say: "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day; and not me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing." (2 Timothy 4:4-6)
Clarence McCartney, who pastored the First Presbyterian Church in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, wrote these words:
"The Bible is the supreme book on human personality. From Adam in the book of Genesis to Satan in the Apocalypse, its portraits are unforgettable.
It has been said: "Every man's life contains material for a great novel."
A portrait unforgettable...
A life with the material for a great novel...This describes the man we are about to study today...his name, Joseph!

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It is interesting to note that more space is given to Joseph in the Book of Genesis than any other character. Adam, Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, did not get the divine attention that Joseph did!
And we must not forget..."For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope" (Romans 15:4).
It is obvious that God has given us these Old Testament stories for our instruction and hope! Instruction for today, and hope for eternity.
1 Corinthians 10:6: "Now these things were our examples, and they are written for our admonition; upon whom the ends of the world are come."
And the lesson so vivid in the life of Joseph is...NO MATTER WHAT COMES OR GOES IN LIFE, KEEP FAITHFUL TO GOD AND HE WILL BE FAITHFUL TO YOU!
Dealing with the reality of circumstances beyond our control is a part of life that we must accept. Perhaps no biblical character does it more beautifully, more consistently, and more triumphantly than Joseph. His life is a fabulous drama! Each act of the play builds upon the other, and when the final curtain drops, we find ourselves singing the doxology in wonder and awe!
Joseph is probably one of the most loveable characters in the Old Testament. He ranks up there with Moses, David and Abraham. We shall observe, only a couple of times in his long life, that Joseph appears selfish and manipulative, but his track record is phenomenal!
It is easy to soar when lifted upon the wings of God’s favor. It is not difficult to run with the wind to your back. But the most trying discipline of all is to walk, to keep trudging along when the howling winds buffet and hurl us against the jagged rocks of crisis, when the bone-chilling blizzards of confusion blind us from the path and conceal our way, or when the drudgery of day-to-day life descends upon us like a thick fog, choking us with boredom.
Yet that is exactly what Joseph does! He never throws in the towel, but walks without growing faint or surrendering his faith, through some of the toughest and most tedious situations we can imagine.
Joseph’s life proved what Paul wrote in the Book of Romans. "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called accord-

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ing to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).
"In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps" (Proverbs 16:9).
To know the son, Joseph, we must get acquainted with the father...Jacob.
Genesis 27 gives us an important insight in Jacob’s life and character. In the closing days of his father...Isaac...it comes time to give the family blessing. This is a very important event! Esau was the oldest son and he should have received twice as much as any other child. That was his birthright. But Rebecca, his mother (Jacob’s wife), tricked her blind husband, and placed Jacob before him for the blessing! She covered him with skins of the goat so that when Jacob felt of him, he would think it was Esau who was a very hairy man. Now that Jacob had received the prized blessing, Esau was angry.
"And Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him; and Esau said in his heart, the days of mourning for my father are at hand; then will I slay my brother Jacob" (Genesis 27:41). When Rebecca, the mother, heard of Esau’s plans to murder his brother, she sent Jacob away to another country, never to see him again.
In this far away country, Jacob becomes rich and the husband of a number of wives. He also became the father of many children, twelve of them being men who became the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel. Joseph was one of these men. "And God remembered Rachel, and God harkened to her, and opened her womb. And she conceived, and bare a son, and said, "God hath taken away my reproach; and she called his name JOSEPH, and said, "The Lord shall add to me another son."
Jacob desired to return to his homeland with his family. So our story picks up in the 37th chapter of Genesis.
"So Jacob settled again in the land of Canaan, where his father had lived. This is the history of Jacob’s family. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he often tended his father’s flocks with his half brothers, the sons of his father’s wives, Bilhah and Zilpah. But Joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing.
Now Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other children because Joseph had been born to him in his old age. So one day he gave Joseph a special gift—a beautiful robe. But his brothers hated Joseph because of

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their father’s partiality. They couldn’t say a kind word to him.
Just a word concerning that robe...It was symbolic of royalty. It had long sleeves, hung low to the ankles and very elegant! It represented rulership and authority and it was Jacob’s way of telling his family that Joseph would receive the birthright blessing.
Another note! When it is said that Joseph was the "son of his (Jacob) old age, the meaning is that Joseph, even in his early years, displayed the wisdom of a sage, he possessed a broad knowledge of life far beyond his years!
Now that his father had given him the robe, he is hated by his brothers.
Verse 5 in our Genesis 37 text reads: "One night Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details to his brothers, causing them to hate him even more."
Joseph had two dreams! Dream one...Joseph is in the field binding wheat and his sheaf rose up and all the other eleven sheafs bowed to him.
Dream two...The sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed low before Joseph.
Verse 10 "This time he told his father as well as his brothers, and his father rebuked him. "What do you mean?" his father asked. "Will your mother, your brothers, and I actually come and bow before you?" But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father gave it some thought and wondered what it all meant."
Hatred’s explosion is just about to happen!
Here is the setting. His brothers have taken the flock to Sheckem and Jacob sends Joseph to see how they are doing. When they see him coming, they plot to kill him. The plot is changed when Rueben, his oldest brother, suggests that they just throw him into a pit. Rueben thought that eventually he would come back to the pit, release Joseph, and send him home to his father.
Verse 23. "So when Joseph arrived, they pulled off his beautiful robe and threw him into the pit. This pit was normally used to store water, but it was empty at the time. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they noticed a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking spices, balm, and myrrh from Gilead to Egypt.
Judah said to the others, "What can we gain by killing our brother? That would just give us a guilty conscience. Let’s sell Joseph to those Ishmaelite traders

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Jealousy! His brothers want to kill him. They finally agree to let him die and rot in a dirty hole. Plans change and they sell him for twenty pieces of silver, the price of a wounded, injured slave!
Oh! The cruelty to watch their little brother scream and cry as he is shackled to the long line of slaves and dragged through the desert sands on his way to Egypt!
They never forgot that sight. Listen to them talk to each other years later.
Genesis 42:21
"And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish on his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear; therefore is this distress come upon us.
And Reuben answered them, saying, "Spake I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child; and ye would not hear? Therefore, behold, also his blood is required."
Verse 29 "Some time later, Reuben returned to get Joseph out of the pit. [It is obvious that Reuben had gone away from the brothers for a while, during which time they sold Joseph.] When he discovered that Joseph was missing, he tore his clothes in anguish and frustration. Then he went back to his brothers and lamented, "The boy is gone! What can I do now?"
Then Joseph’s brothers killed a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the beautiful robe to their father and asked him to identify it. "We found this in the field," they told him. "It’s Joseph’s robe, isn’t it?"
Their father recognized it at once. "Yes," he said, "it is my son’s robe. A wild animal has attacked and eaten him. Surely Joseph has been torn in pieces!" Then Jacob tore his clothes and put on sackcloth. He mourned deeply for his son for many days. His family all tried to comfort him, but it was no use. "I will die mourning for my son," he would say, and then begin to weep.
Meanwhile, in Egypt, the traders sold Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Potiphar was captain of the palace guard."
Surely, as you read this part of the story questions come to your mind just like mine. Knowing that his sons hated Joseph, why did Jacob send him out to visit them alone and wearing the special garment that had aggravated them so much? One of Jacob’s trusted servants could have performed the same task. The answer is that the providential hand of God was working to accomplish His divine

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purposes for Jacob and his family, and ultimately for the whole world. "He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant" (Psalm 105:17). God had ordained that Joseph would go to Egypt, and this was the way He accomplished it.
In Egypt in which Joseph found himself was primarily a land of small villages inhabited by peasants who worked the land and raised grain and vegetables. It was also a country shackled by religious superstition. The people recognized at least 2000 gods, including Pharaoh, their king. The Egyptians were also great builders. They also studied the heavens and earth, and developed a solar year calendar of 365¼ days.
"The Lord was with Joseph and blessed him greatly as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did." (Genesis 39:2-3).
Observation! Joseph is a good example of a believer who trusted God and made the best of his difficult circumstances. God took note of Joseph's character and conduct and made him a blessing; and unknown to Joseph, God planned to fulfill the dreams He had sent him. "Do you see a man who excels in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before unknown men." (Proverbs 22:29)
The description of Joseph in Genesis 39:6 prepares the way for the episode involving Potiphar's wife. "Now Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man." "And about this time, Potiphar’s wife began to desire him and invited him to sleep with her. But Joseph refused. "Look," he told her, "my master trusts me with everything in his entire household. No one here has more authority than I do! He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I ever do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God." (Genesis 39:7-9).
Joseph has suffered in a pit because of the hatred of his brothers, but now he would face an even greater danger because of the lust of an evil woman.
When her advances and temptations were rejected by Joseph, she turned against him with vengeance.
Observation! No matter how much people talk about "love" and defend sex outside marriage, the experience is wrong, cheap, and totally against God's will.
Fornication and adultery change a pure river into a sewer and transform free people into slaves and then animals.

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Potiphar's wife probably arranged for the other servants to be out of the way on the day she launched her greatest attack, but at the same time she saw to it that they were near enough at hand for her to call them to see Joseph's garment that she had snatched when he made his effort to flee!
Self-control is an important factor in building character and preparing for leadership. "Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down, without walls." (Proverbs 25:28) Where there are no walls, anything can get in or come out. Joseph exercised self-control, but Samson used his body to gratify his own pleasures; and Joseph ended up ruling on a throne, while Samson ended his life buried in a pile of rubble (Judges 16:23-31).
Since Potiphar was involved in the Egyptian judicial system, we wonder why he didn't try to put Joseph on trial or even execute him. Surely in his heart, Potiphar knew Joseph to be innocent, thus he just had him thrown into prison instead of executing him.
Psalm 105 talks about Joseph! "He called for a famine on the land of Canaan, cutting off its food supply. Then he sent someone to Egypt ahead of them—Joseph, who was sold as a slave. There in prison, they bruised his feet with fetters, and placed his neck in an iron collar. Until the time came to fulfill His word, the Lord tested Joseph's character. Then Pharaoh sent for him and set him free, the ruler of the nation opened his prison door. Joseph was put in charge of all the king's household; he became ruler over all the king's possessions. He could instruct the king's aides as he pleased and teach the king's advisors." (Psalm 105:16-22).
In prison, Joseph is a success!
"But the Lord was with Joseph there, too, and he granted Joseph favor with the chief jailer. Before long, the jailer put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in prison. The chief jailor had no more worries after that, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him, making everything run smoothly and successfully." (Genesis 39:21-23).
Since the king's prisoners were put into this prison, Joseph met some men who held high positions in Pharaoh's government. One was the chief butler and the other was the royal baker!
Both dreamed a dream! Dreams played a very important part in the life of the leaders in Egypt, and the ability to interpret

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dreams was a highly respected skill.
Joseph interpreted the dreams of the butler and the baker and both dreams came true!
The butler was restored to his position, and the baker was executed. Soon after the butler was back by the side of the Pharaoh, he learned that his master had experienced a dream. The butler knows that Joseph has the ability to interpret dreams, so he sends for him in the prison and Joseph tells the Pharaoh that God will tell you the meaning of the dreams.
In the dreams, the Pharaoh was being warned of seven years of plenty, and seven years of famine for his land. Joseph recommends that during the seven years of plenty, supplies were to be stored from all the harvests so there would be plenty during the time of famine. Pharaoh requested Joseph to be the man in charge of this project. "Turning to Joseph, Pharaoh said. "Since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, You are the wisest man in the land!" I hereby appoint you to direct this project. You will manage my household and organize all my people. Only I will have a rank higher than yours." (Genesis 41:39-40)
The famine spread into the land of Canaan. Jacob learned that there was food in Egypt, so he sent his sons (the brothers that sold Joseph into slavery) to Egypt to buy food. "Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of the sale of the grain, it was to him that his brothers came. They bowed low before him (remember his dreams?), with their faces to the ground. Joseph recognized them instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger. "Where are you from?" he demanded roughly."
Joseph has them thrown into prison for three days. He held Simeon as hostage and sent them back home to return with Benjamin, the youngest son of Jacob.
Finally, after another visit, Joseph reveals his identity and sends for his father and his household to come and live in Egypt with him. "Then his brothers came and bowed low before him. "We are your slaves," they said. But Joseph told them, "Don’t be afraid of me. Am I God, to judge and punish you? As far as I am concerned, God turned into good what you meant for evil. He brought me to the high position I have today so I could save the lives of many people. (Genesis 50:18-20).
Ah! What a story...so filled with truths that all of us can live by. Stay true to God even when it is most difficult. Never compromise your commitment to God and righteousness. Always be ready to forgive those who hurt you most.