From Pit to Palace
Genesis 32:22-32
In David Aikman’s book Great Souls: Six Who Changed the Century, he profiles six leaders of the 20th century who he argues triumphed over criticism, adversity and opposition.
Aikman writes, “I’ve always personally been inspired by the lives of great people. It is hard not to be engerized by the stories of how individuals have risen above adversity or suffering or impurity or have risen above the face of great temptation.”
Our reading this week takes us to the story of Joseph. In this story, we begin to see a great person like David Aikman writes about. This is God’s great person. We can see how this great story of Joseph can impact even our lives. It doesn’t take very much, even though our reading only takes us through Genesis 45 for this week. More space is given to Joseph than men like Adam, Noah, Abraham, and even his father Jacob. So in this, we begin to see that there is something that God wants to impact us with in the life of this great man Joseph.
When we examine his life, we see that Joseph becomes all too familiar with us. Joseph lived to glory God even though he was terribly mistreated, even though he lived high above the all too the common reaction of rage or maybe resentment or revenge. Joseph didn’t allow himself to be overcome by those kinds of things. He was God’s man. And in this man, Joseph, God’s man, hopefully we might be able to see some things that will be able to help us in our lives today. Joseph chose deliberately to overlook those unfair offenses, to overcome enormous obstacles and to model a virtue that is far fast becoming lost in this day and time. That of course is forgiveness. So allow this story to move you from pit to palace.
Joseph was able to overcome rejection. That’s the thing we begin to see in chapter 37. In the opening lines it tells us a little about who Joseph is. He is 17 and is one of 12 sons of the 13 children of Jacob. In verse 11 we see that his brothers are very jealous of him. Upon his father’s orders, Joseph sought to check on his brothers and report back to his father. When Joseph arrived the brothers took him and was about to kill him until the older son, Ruben, talked them out of it. Then Ruben went to do something else. The brothers threw Joseph into a pit. Travelers came by that were headed to Egypt and the brothers sell Joseph to these travelers. So if you can imagine, in some way, being rejected in that way. We may not have been rejected by someone selling us off, but selling us out. Maybe sometime in your life you felt some rejection from others. It may have come from siblings, parents, grandparents, and fellow workers. Rejection comes from all different areas. But Joseph had to deal with this. And if you could, imagine Joseph having to travel to Egypt after being sold by his brothers. You have to imagine he is feeling a bittersweet kind of thing. Thankful he is alive but bitter because he is rejected by his own kind.
In all of these things, we don’t know what Joseph’s been thinking except for the fact that when Joseph gets to Egypt, he prospers as a servant. It’s kind of interesting to see that in this kind of rejection that Joseph hangs together somehow or another. There’s something else that’s working in all of this. The obvious thing is rejection of his brothers. There’s something else that’s working in this passage. It has stirred me over the years and more so in the reading for this week. I wanted to share with you about how we can live better lives in the glory of God like Joseph did, being God’s man. There is a great need to overcome rejection.
The other thing that I see is, not as much a rejection as the brothers, but where the jealousy came from. The jealousy was implanted and even grown from his on father. In your reading this week you saw that Jacob favored Joseph. He gave him a coat of many colors, which was a tremendous example during that day and time of a rich garment. It probably went from the shoulder to the feet. The sleeves probably came down to the wrist. I mean, the garment would express privilege or royalty in a since of what Jacob could provide for his son that he loved or favored. Now begin to think about the brothers and their work out in the field and taking care of it. Even though Joseph did those kinds of things too. Can you imagine a shepherd trying to do his work in this big, bulky coat that Joseph had? It would almost say, “I’m privileged.” But Jacob’s favoritism towards Joseph allowed the brothers to develop this kind of jealousy. What I’m thinking is that even though Jacob would say “I love you, son”, in one since and in another saying “I’m really not involved in your life the way I should be”. I say that about Jacob for several reasons.
One reason is, when you go all the way back to chapter 34, Dinah, his daughter is raped. This is an awful thing that would happen to a daughter. When you read through this story and see how the brothers react to all of this, which remains unknown by their father. They set it all up and knew how to deal with the one that had rape her. Two brothers, Simeon and Levi go and they kill this family. In all of this, we do not find anything about Jacob being outraged or that he wants any kind of repentance from the person who has violated his daughter. Nothing is heard from Jacob, except for in verse 30. Jacob is upset about his reputation in the country might be spoiled because of what his sons did to this other family. That’s kind of sad. Isn’t it? Jacob is a passive parent.
Another example is in chapter 35. Reuben, his oldest son has a sexual relationship with one of his father’s wives. And in all of this we find nothing about Jacob becoming upset or any rebuttal from Jacob to his son Reuben. You might think he didn’t know about it.” But you go to chapter 49 when Jacob blesses his sons the very first blessing falls upon the oldest son. Guess what? Jacob knew. But why didn’t Jacob come and confront Reuben? Jacob seems to be silent when it comes to the hard things of his family’s life.
Then in chapter 37, Joseph has these dreams about his brothers, his mother, and his father. In verse 11 it says that his brothers were jealous but his father kept the matter in mind. Just maybe let it go. Just thought about it. The next thing we see is that Jacob puts Joseph in harms way when he sends him out to check on his brothers. I don’t know about you, but one of the hardest things to deal with in life is being rejected by a parent in some form or fashion.
Most of you know my story of being abandoned by my father. This has haunted me and tormented me for years. Rejection can play such a major role in who we are and what we can do and how it hurts us in our life. Whether it is rejection from a spouse, from a parent, rejection from a child, or from a friend or coworkers, it hurts. A parent who is passive tends to favor the child that is easiest to raise. You think about that and people you know, because they don’t want to deal with problems. And not dealing with it, Jacob in a since rejects his son in not being involved in his life. So Joseph not only has the rejection of his brothers and the jealousy to deal with, but also dealing with a father who is so passively involved in their lives. If Taylor Johnson were to do an analysis on this family, the outcome would be dysfunctional. That was this family.
But despite this dysfunctional family, Joseph overcomes and is able to prosper because God was with him. In Romans chapter 11, the first few verses, Paul lays out the argument to his Jewish brothers and sisters, “Will God reject you?” When you consider how God’s people have acted over the years and what God had to do in punishing them, God never really rejected them. He was their Father. Paul makes his argument that “God will not reject you.” He will not! The story that Jesus tells of the prodigal son (Luke 15) should demonstrate that to us. Even though the child rebelled against the father, when the child finally decided to come home, the father responded with love and acceptance. We can overcome rejection in our lives because we are God’s people.
Another thing that we find in Joseph’s life, in chapter 39, is temptation. When Joseph gets to Egypt he prospers as Potiphar’s servant in charge of his household. But not all was well. In the very next breath we find in all of this prosperity, temptation. Joseph had to overcome temptation. Temptation wears many faces, doesn’t it? It comes in a physical temptation, being tempted by the things of the world. It comes in a personal form such as fame and wanting to be known. It’s not that those things are wrong. But sometimes we’re tempted to do things just to get fame for ourselves. Another is sensual, which is the lust for another person. That’s the case with Joseph and Potiphar’s wife. The text tells us that he was handsome and well built. I mean this was some kind of guy. And Potiphar’s wife was just so inviting in wanting him to come to her, to lie in her bed. But Joseph over and over rejected that until one day, he rejected and she placed blame upon him. She told her husband that he tried to assault her. Joseph went to prison. But Joseph would not give in to the temptation of Potiphar’s wife first because of, as we find in 39:8-9, the trust that Potiphar had in Joseph. Secondly, in verse 9, we find that Joseph did not fall into that temptation because of his respect for God. “Will this allow me to sin against God?”
We begin to see what it takes to overcome temptation. Number one is to allow people to have trust in us. Don’t break that trust. Number 2 is to allow God to be invited into your lives and to look after us. God will not allow us to be tempted more than we can bear, I Corinthians 10:13. ‘He is faithful’, the scripture says. He allows a way for us to come out of a situation if we will just allow God into our lives. So Joseph overcame the temptations because he wanted respect from people and he wanted God to be a part of his life. He didn’t want to sin against God. The Lord was with Joseph, verse 2-3. That is as plain as it can be. We find that God was with him. And that God will be with you in helping us overcome temptation.
Temptation has such a wonderful voice. Temptation is not something that’s harsh. It’s beautiful. I can imagine Potiphar’s wife was beautiful and tempting and luscious. And Joseph, being young and away from his family and with all of the things that had gone wrong with him, could have easily fell into her arms for comfort. Sometimes in your life you can be drawn into those sweet-talking words like “If you really love me you will…” Or maybe fall into the temptation of, “Oh, I’m so lonely and God doesn’t want me to be lonely, so let’s … You know God would approve of us doing this before marriage.” “How can we get caught?” “It can be safe. Nobody will know.” It sounds so inviting. Doesn’t it? I mean if nobody’s going to know and it’s safe? But Joseph, Joseph didn’t. Joseph was God’s person. He allowed God to work in his life and God prospered him in all things.
That leads us to our next situation. Joseph not only overcame rejection and temptation but Joseph overcame setbacks. In doing the right thing, Joseph still suffered. Joseph was sent to prison because Potiphar’s wife falsely accused him. Potiphar sends him to Pharaoh’s prison. You know what? It’s an amazing thing to think about Joseph. We can gleam from the story of Joseph. We can see these things happening in his life and the lives of other great people, as David Aikman would say. We can learn about these things and read about them. We can learn from them when they did right or maybe learn from their mistakes. But what’s Joseph reading? Genesis is not written yet. What’s Joseph relying on in all of this? It has to be what he knows about God. Think about that. Joseph doesn’t know about what’s going to happen down the road. Joseph doesn’t know about the famine. Joseph doesn’t know about all of these other things. All Joseph knows is that he did the right thing and now he’s in prison. The setbacks that he has experienced would probably bring down most good men! Joseph didn’t buckle.
Don’t be confused sometimes in your life about the immediate results. You’re thinking, “Wow, I made the decision to do something right and I lost my job. I made the decision to do what was right and I lost my boyfriend or girlfriend. I made the decision to do what was right and … But, I didn’t expect this result. I didn’t expect to loose my job or this person as my friend. Or I didn’t expect these kinds of things to happen.” Joseph probably didn’t expect to go to prison. But he did. Sometimes we look for immediate results in doing something that’s right. Sometimes it just doesn’t happen. You might even ask, “Where’s God? I’m trying to do something that’s right. Where is He?” I’ll tell you where He is. He’s in verse 21 and verse 23 of Genesis 39. God was with him and he prospered even in prison. Joseph prospered because God was with him.
A man by the name of Christian Reager was placed in a Nazi prison because he stood up for his faith. He said “I though I knew who I was. A man can endure torture if he knows the ‘why’ of his life.” If I know what I’m going through and why I’m going through it I can probably withstand it. He said, “I learned a tremendous lesson while I was in prison. I learned a greater lesson that is to know the ‘who’ in my life instead of the ‘why’ in my life. Not why is this happening to me. But who is in charge of my life.” Joseph allowed God to be with him. You can overcome setbacks in your life. Things might not be real rosy for you right now. But you hang in with God and God will pull you through. I’m reminded of Jesus in the garden going to His cross. He looks at his disciples and they’re troubled about the things that He has told them. He says, “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me.” (John 14:1) God will pull us through.
Joseph not only overcame rejection, temptation, and setbacks but he also overcame revenge. As we near the end of this past weeks reading of chapters 42-45, we come to the story of where Joseph is the right hand of Pharaoh’s house. He’s in charge of the famine. It was his dream. God’s been with him and has prospered him. He’s put him in a high position. And in all of this power, his brother’s come to him, just like he had dreamed many years ago. They bowed down to him. And with all the power that Joseph had at this time, he could have taken revenge. Just think about where Joseph was. A snap of the finger, a spoken word, and it could have happened. But Joseph didn’t give in to revenge. He allowed God in his life to bring him to this point, to look at his brothers, to think about his father and to say, “It was not you that sent me here, but God”.
In your reading this coming week, Genesis 50, verse 20 is going to say basically the same thing. “It wasn’t you, but God that brought me to Egypt.” It reminds me of that great passage in Ephesians 4:32. When the apostle Paul talks about forgiveness and kindness. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ, God forgave you.” What a powerful story this is. It brings into our lives where we need to be today. In struggling with where we are with God. Joseph was on God’s great list of people. His life can impact us this morning in being able to overcome obstacles, to be able to overcome setbacks, to be able to overcome rejections, those things that keep us from being God’s person. Maybe there’s so much hurt in your life that you don’t see any way that God could be a part of it. God wants to be part of it. You may have been rejected. Jesus was rejected. But Jesus triumphed because He obeyed his Father’s will. You too, through faith, through repentance, through confession, and through immersion into Christ can become a part of God’ family. In God’s family, you’re accepted. In God’s family, you’re going to find the power to overcome the things that tempt you. In God’s family, you’re going to find that even in the setbacks, you’ll see God’s hand working in your life. In God’s family, because God forgave you, you’ll find the love you need to forgive others. God has the power to move you from pit to palace.
