Children often obey the Bible even before they know there is a Bible. Paul
said in I Thess. 5:21, "Test everything, hold on to the good." Babies are
testing everything by putting everything in their mouth, and as they get older
they begin to test adults. Our little granddaughter Kelly came up to me one
day and bopped me on the head with a plastic toy. It was so funny that I
laughed and so did everyone else in the room. That sounded like approval to
her, and she started hitting everybody in the head, and this was even more
hilarious. But then it dawned on me that we were in the process of training a
sadistic child. Our emotions were leading us to motivate dangerous behavior,
and so I stopped the laughing and we took the toy away.
It didn't hurt any of us, but the next thing she started bopping heads with
could be wood or metal, and the poor innocent child could be confused by a
severe scolding for what she had previously received approval for. It is so
hard to prevent your emotions from leading you to teach bad habits to
children. When I was 13 years old we had a neighbor in our duplex with a 3
year old girl who swore like a trooper. Her family thought it was just
hilarious, and I have to admit a cute little girl talking like a grown adult is
funny. But this child got so much approval for her swearing that she became a
foul mouthed kid who was repulsive to those outside the family. She tested the
family and said you are wonderful when you swear.
The point is, children are testing us all the time. They are saying things and
doing things to get our reaction. That is how they test all things. They learn
by this what is approved or not, and the limits of what adults will put up.
When you are a parent you are in school all the time, and everyday is test day.
Now testing has never been a popular part of education. We don't like tests in
school, or in life. A Sunday School teacher taught her class that God tests our
faith to give us a chance to grow stronger. A 7th grader said, "I thing
sometimes God over does it." Many feel this way about God's testing, but C.
S. Lewis pointed out that testing is not meant to be pleasant. Students always
complain about a test, and they ask what good will it do?
C. S. Lewis wrote, "But surely to demand that the test should do the boy
good is like demanding that a thermometer should heat the room. It was the
reading of the book which was suppose to do the boy good. You give the test
to find out if he had read it." The test itself can be unpleasant, but if you pass
the test because you have done what is required, then there are pleasant
consequences.
This is precisely what we see in Joseph's dealings with his brothers. He is
putting them to a test, and it is very unpleasant, for they are made to feel like
ungrateful scoundrels. Joseph has treated them to a royal feast and they
thank him by stealing his very special silver cup. We know it was a plant, and
that they are being framed, but they are feeling so shocked and so ashamed.
Have you ever left church with a hymnal, and when it dawned on you, you felt
like you had stolen it? Or have you ever opened somebody else's mail by
mistake and felt like you violated their property? If you have, you can feel
partially at least the depth of their humiliation and embarrassment when the
silver cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
Benjamin was the baby of the family, and now it looks like he is a common
thief. It would be like coming home after a great evening at a friend's home
and discovering your child has their remote control in his pocket. You know
you would call them immediately and explain what happened. The brothers of
Joseph would have set the record straight as well as they found the cup at the
end of the day, but Joseph sent the steward of his house to find it on them
before they did. This was the ultimate in embarrassment, and it was all done
deliberately to put the brothers to a test. If they passed this test which was so
unpleasant, then they would have future pleasure that would make the pain
insignificant in comparison.
Joseph had to find out if these brothers of his had changed. Were they still
the cruel and envious lot that had cast him into a pit and then sold him into
slavery? If so, they would gladly let Benjamin take the rap for his crime, and
they would escape with their own freedom. That was the test. Would they
forsake this baby brother and save their own necks, or would they really be
brothers to this favored one of their father, and stand by him in his hour of
trial?
It was an awful ordeal Joseph put them through, but it was worth it, for
Joseph learned that people can change. God knows this and that is why He is
long suffering and puts up with people for a long time. He knows people can
learn from their mistakes and stop making them. These brothers are not the
same as they were when they plotted and carried out the elimination of Joseph
from their family. They are a new breed, for now they are handed a chance to
get rid of their rival brother, but instead they stand by him, and Judah even
volunteers to take his place as a slave for life to win his freedom. It was a
cruel test, for it put these brothers through an emotional ringer that had to be
as intense as his own emotions when they rejected him. They were reaping
what they had sown. They had imprisoned him and sold him into slavery, and
now they are heading for jail and an apparent life of slavery.
They could not believe what was happening. They had just been treated to
the most lavish feast of their lives, and they were now heading home with an
abundant supply of food for their families. Benjamin had been treated special,
and now they find the stolen cup in his sack. From the peak of satisfaction
they are plummeted to the pit of sadness. This was the worst thing that ever
happened to them. If they return to their father without Benjamin, it would
kill him. The very thing they most feared had come upon them.
Benjamin, of course, was being framed. It was all a conspiracy planned by
Joseph to test his brothers. Joseph had learned by his troubled journey in life
that problems are designed to test us. Every problem is an opportunity, for
how you deal with it determines the direction of your life. If you handle the
problem wisely, you make progress in the direction God wants you to go.
Don't waste problems is the message the Bible teaches over and over. Joseph
has designed a problem for his brothers, because if they handle it right, he is
ready to change their lives for the good.
It looks like a dirty trick, but the fact is, it worked. They said we will be
loyal to our brother and we will stand together in this trial. We will not
forsake Benjamin. How could Joseph ever know they would respond this way
if he had never put them to the test? The lesson for all of us is to not jump to
conclusion about problems. Problems in life can be just like problems in
school. They are a test, and the goal is to find a solution. The problem is not a
hindrance to progress but a stepping stone to progress. If you deal with it
right, you get to go on to greater things, just like these brothers did. Problems
are to be seen as opportunities for growth.
Alexander Fleming was a bacteriologist, and in 1928 he had a number of
experiments going in which he was trying to find an answer for the deadly
infections that killed so many wounded soldiers, or crippled them for life. One
day he noted that a mold spore had gotten into one of his plates, and his
culture had been ruined. It was just another culture that had to be flushed
down the sink. Contamination of plates was just one of the problems scientists
had to live with. You just curse your bad luck and start over.
He had the plate in his hand and was ready to wash its contents away
when he noticed the mold growth had dissolved the microbes around it. In his
hands he held a problem that was a solution to the problems of millions, for
this was the beginning of the discovery of penicillin. It was a negative event in
a plan that was not going the way it was suppose to go. But it was one of the
most positive events in history, for the problem was the key to the very
solution he was seeking. Problems have such great potential for good that we
should be careful not to neglect or waste them.
Lavonne and I experienced the truth of this recently. We had to change
our health insurance policy, and they put a rider on it that did not cover
Lavonne's back problem. This was a serious problem for us, but what could
we do? On vacation we went to Dr. Kennedy's church, and the pews were
obviously designed by an expert in human torture. I was so uncomfortable,
and I was trying through the whole service to get into a position where my
back was not hurting. Lavonne was having the same problem and after
church she developed the most painful back spasm she had ever had. For 3
days she was in bed and finally got good enough to go to a chiropractor. But
during that 3 days I went to the library and checked out all I could find on the
back. I learned things I never would have had if I had not had so much time
to study the back. I learned things that will, in the long run, save us a lot of
money, and save Lavonne a lot of pain. It was a terrible trial, but it was worth
it because of what we learned. The problem produced the solution that will
give us victory over many others problems.
This is what Joseph's brothers were going through. Their problem looked
hopeless, but because they responded to it in the heroic way they did it led
them to the greatest blessings of their lives. It was terrible torture, but it
ended in tremendous triumph. They passed the test and proved to Joseph that
they were changed men who no longer solved problems by choosing the way of
escape and evil as they did with him. Now they chose the way of facing their
problem honestly and doing the right and noble thing.
Joseph was so impressed and moved by Judah's offer to take Benjamin's
place as a slave that he lost all control of his emotions. He wept so loud that
the whole neighborhood could hear him. The show was over; the mask came
off, and Joseph revealed himself as their brother. These men who raided an F
in his eyes had risen to an A+ and the testing was over. They graduated from
strangers to brothers of the most powerful man in Egypt. What a parallel we
see in Jesus and His disciples. They denied Him and forsook Him. They
deserved His judgment, but instead he reveals Himself after His resurrection,
and they are forgiven and restored to His fellowship as brothers of the Lord of
the universe. Forgiveness and grace is what we see as the dominant theme of
both Testaments.
Martin Luther was one of the few preachers of history who spent a lot of
time on these last ten chapters of Genesis. He said that people in his day
complained about God having all of this detail about this drama in His Word.
It seemed trivial and unimportant to spend so much time on Joseph and his
brothers. Luther scolded them and reminded them that all Scripture is
inspired of God and profitable. The details tell us that God works in details.
These details reveal that God never changes in His goals for man. No matter
how unworthy men are God's goal is to find a way to bless them. He is a God
of grace, and that is what we see in all these details. It is the thread that holds
them all together.
These brothers had to be brought to the point where they saw what they
really deserved in order to appreciate the grace of what they were finally
given. Luther wrote, "Had Joseph allowed his brothers to return to their
home without any further trial, they would have ascribed their good fortune to
their own worthiness and works, their own prudence and eloquence, and so
they would have been strengthened in their pride and self-trust. Therefore
they needed more humbling and chastening." They did not really steal
Joseph's silver cup, but they stole his life of freedom from him which was far
worse. They were despicable brothers, and they had to be brought to see that
before they could be blest.
Their testing made them see how awful they really were in selling their
brother into slavery. In 42:21 they say to one another, "Surely we are being
punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he
pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that is why this distress
has come upon us." They were ready to acknowledge that what they did was
sinful. In verse 22 Reuben says, "Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy?"
Testing was working, for any test is to make us do some self-examination. Am
I being tested, and am I facing this problem because I have violated God's
will?
We know the whole book of Job is given to tell us that suffering and trial
are not necessarily connected with sin at all. But this is not to lead us to
conclude that suffering is never the result of sin. It often is, and we need to
consider that as a possibility so that, like these brothers, we suspect that we
are being forced by our testing to confess the sins that make us worthy of
judgment. The testing Joseph put his brothers through brought them to
confess their sin and to repent. This made them sinners that he could forgive.
They are no longer a divided family pulled apart by jealousy, envy, and
strife. They are now a unity. This is the kind of family Joseph can be proud to
call his own, and that is what he does. The whole drama is a comedy, for it
ends with every one happy and delighted. What we need to grasp is that
comedy can be a real test. All of life is a comedy for the Christian, for we are
promised a happy ending no matter what. But it is important that we
recognize that there can be real trials in comedy. These brothers were living
in the promise land and they were starving. You can be where God wants you
to be and lack plenty. These brothers were the heads of God's chosen
people-the 12 tribes of Israel. They were still plagued by family problems of
parental favoritism and the green eyed monster of jealousy. Being God's
people does not shelter you from the problems of life.
These brothers had gotten off to a great start that morning. An early start
makes any long trip easier. When we left Florida we got up at 2:30 in the
morning and escaped all the massive traffic on I-95. It was great, and that is
the way these boys headed out of Egypt for home. But a good start does not
guarantee a good journey. We once had a good start for California and a few
hours out of the city our car developed heating problems that took several
hours to get fixed. These boys were soon stopped and accused of stealing. It
started to rain on their parade. The steward knew the cup was in Benjamin's
sack, but he did not go right to it. He kept the suspense going by starting with
the oldest brother and leaving Benjamin's sack till last. He did this on purpose
to build to a dramatic conclusion that shattered their confidence. The whole
thing is a comedy, but the point is, even in a comedy where all is going to be all
right there can be such ups and downs that you feel like you are on an
emotional roller coaster.
I know there is a lot of popular preaching that promises people a life free
of trial and tribulation if they follow Jesus, but I have to call your attention to
the fact that God's people in the Bible have never lived such a life. They have
always had trials and tribulations, and this is true even when they lived in
obedience. The brothers here deserved their trials, but Joseph was living in
complete obedience to God, and yet he had to endure some awful testing. The
way to look at life is to thank God for every day you do not feel the pressure of
the test. It is pure grace, but don't lose faith when the test comes and life has
one problem after another. You need to look at your life and see if God is
trying to tell you something, but you also need to just hang in there committed
to doing the will of God even if it hurts.
Commitment almost always hurts in some way. We see this as we meet
again around the Lord's table. Jesus was not one centimeter out of the will of
God. He was 100% on target, and yet he had to endure terrible testing. But
he endured it and passed the test for our sakes. By his death he secured for us
a place in the family of God. Joseph passed his test and reconciled his family.
Jesus passed His test and made it possible for all the rebel family of man to be
one again in Him. As you do this again in remembrance of Him, let us thank
Him for His passing the test of the cross, and pray that we too can be
successful in whatever life brings our way in passing the test.
