Don’t Get Offended Genesis 50:15-21
A farmer owned a mule that was very important to him because it was a good
plowing animal. The mule got sick one day, and the farmer called in the veterinarian.
The vet looked the mule over, and then gave the farmer some extremely large pills. The
vet said,“Give the mule one of these pills three times a day, and he’ll recover.” The pills
were so huge the farmer asked how he was supposed to get them down the mule’s
throat. “That’s easy,” the vet replied, “Find a piece of pipe wide enough to fit in the
mule’s mouth, and put the pill into the pipe, and then blow into the other end. Before
the mule knows what is happening, you’ll blow the pill down the mule’s throat and he
will swallow the pill.” It sounded easy enough, but just a few hours later the farmer
walked into the veterinarians office looking horribly sick himself. The vet said, “Sir,
you look terrible. What happened?” And the farmer replied, “The mule blew first!”
That was no doubt a very bitter pill to swallow. And perhaps there might be one or
even a few of you who are dealing with your own bitter pills in life. Perhaps someone
tried to blow a bitter pill down your throat this week, and if they did, how did you
respond? If you have been genuinely mistreated, had your feelings hurt, disappointed,
betrayed, or insulted, should you be provoked? Do you have a right to be offended by
the misdeeds of others. In answer, let’s look at the life of Joseph, the favorite son of
Jacob. In this message entitled Don’t Get Offended I’d have us consider: 1) There will
be offenses in this world 2) Remember that God is in control and that He has a plan,
and 3) If we want to stay in the will of God, we need to submit to that plan.
I. Offenses we encounter in this world. Joseph was Jacob’s eleventh son. He was
despised by his older brothers because his father adored him and favored him and had
set young Joseph apart by giving him a coat of many colors. God gave Joseph two
dreams. In the first he saw bound sheaves in a field. His sheaf arose and stood upright
while his brother’s sheaves bowed down to it. In the second dream he saw the sun,
moon, and eleven stars (representing his father, mother, and brothers) all bowing down
to him. When Joseph told these dreams to his brothers, needless to say, they did not
share in his enthusiasm. It was a bitter pill for them to swallow, and it provoked them
into hating Joseph all the more.
Shortly afterward, his ten older brothers went to feed their father’s flocks in the
field. Jacob sent Joseph to see how they were coming along in their work. When the
older brothers saw Joseph coming, they conspired against him saying, “Here comes that
dreamer. Let’s kill him! Then we shall see what shall become of his dreams. He says
he is going to be a leader over us. Well, let him try to do that when he is dead!” So they
took Joseph and threw him into a pit to die. They took his coat away, tore it, and
stained it with animals blood to convince their father that Joseph had been devoured by
a savage beast. After they threw him into the pit, however, they saw a company of
Ishmaelits on their way to Egypt. Then Judah said, “Hey, wait a minute, guys. If we let
him rot in that pit it will not profit us. Let’s make some money and sell him as a slave.
That way he will be as good as dead and will never bother us again! And we can divide
up the profits!” So they sold him for 20 shekels of silver. Joseph had offended them for
the very last time, so they betrayed him and stripped Joseph of the two most important
things he could have had at that time: his inheritance and his family. Keep in mind
these were brothers who did this to Joseph-the same father, same flesh and blood.
Now as Americans and Germans, our culture is so different that it is hard for us
to understand the severity of what these men did. Only killing Joseph would have been
worse-or would it? In biblical times it was very important to have sons. A man’s sons
carried the name and inherited all the father’s name and inheritance. They blotted
Joseph’s name out, completely stripping him of his identity. All that was familiar to
Joseph was now gone. When a person was sold as a slave to another country, he would
remain a slave until he died. The woman he married would become a slave, as well as
all his children.
It would have been hard to have been born a slave, but it was indescribably
worse to be born an heir of wealth with a great future only to have it stripped away. It
would have been easier if Joseph never knew what could have been. It was as if he were
a living dead man. I’m sure that Joseph was even tempted to wish his brother’s had
killed him. The point is that what Joseph’s brothers did to him was as evil as it was
cruel.
Now if you read Joseph’s story in Genesis, you probably already knew the
outcome. It is a very inspiring story when you know the ending. But that is not how
Joseph experienced it. It looked to him as if he would never see his father or his
God-given dream fulfilled. He was a slave in a foreign nation. He couldn’t leave Egypt.
He was the property of another man for as long as he lived. Joseph was sold to a man
named Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard. He served him for
about ten years. He never had word from his family in all that time, and he knew that
his father believed he was dead. Their lives had gone on without him. Joseph had no
hope of a father’s rescue. But as time went on, Joseph found favor with his master and
was treated very well. Potiphar set Joseph over his household and all he had.
But at the same time that conditions were looking up for Joseph, something very
wrong was brewing in the heart of his master’s wife. She had cast her eyes on him and
wanted to commit adultery with him. She tried every day to seduce him and tempt him,
but he refused. One day she was alone with him in the house and cornered him,
insisting that he lie with her. But he refused and ran out, leaving his robe in her clutched
hand. And when he did this she was shamed and screamed, “Rape!” For this, Potiphar
had Joseph thrown into prison. Now Pharaoh’s prison was nothing like our
country-club prisons like we have today. There was no sunlight or workout areas, just a
sunken room or pit void of warmth and light. Conditions ranged from crude to
dehumanizing. Prisoners were put there to rot as they survived on bread and water-just
enough food so they could survive and suffer. In fact, Psalm 105, which is reputedly by
Joseph, tells us of his suffering in prison, and how his feet hurt with fetters as he was
chained in irons. He was put in that prison to die. He had little or no hope. Things
could not have gotten any worse, for Joseph had gone about as low as anyone could go
without being dead.
Can you hear his thoughts in the damp darkness of that dungeon? “I served my
master with honesty and with integrity for over ten years. I was more faithful than his
wife. I stayed loyal to God and to my master, fleeing sexual immorality. And what do I
get for it? A dungeon! The more I try to do what is right, the worse it gets! How could
God have allowed this? Could my brothers steal my promise from me too? Why hasn’t
this mighty, covenant God intervened on my behalf? Is this how a loving, faithful God
cares for His servants? Why me? What have I done to have deserved this?” There is
nothing in the Scriptures that suggest that Joseph thought such thoughts, but he was
after all, human. What thoughts would we have thought had we been in Joseph’s place?
However limited that freedom was that Joseph experienced in his life, he still
had the power to choose his response to all that had happened to him. Would he
become offended and bitter toward his brothers and eventually bitter toward God?
Would he give up all hope of the promise’s fulfillment, robbing himself of his last
incentive to live? I imagine it never crossed Joseph’s mind until it was all over that this
was God’s process to prepare him to rule. How would he use his future authority over
these brothers who betrayed him? Joseph was learning obedience by what he suffered.
His brothers were skillfully wielded instruments in the hand of God. Would Joseph
hold fast to the promise, seeking God for his purpose?
Perhaps when Joseph had his dreams he saw them as a confirmation of the favor
on his live. He had not yet learned that authority is given to serve, not to set you apart or
to boss others. Often in these training periods we focus on the impossibility of our
circumstances instead of upon the greatness of God. As a result we get discouraged,
and we feel compelled to blame somebody. So we seek out the one we feel is
responsible for our despair. When we face the fact that God could have prevented our
whole mess-and didn’t-very often we want to blame Him.
How often do we hear people fall into the trap of assigning blame? “If it
weren’t for my husband, I’d be a missionary by now! If it weren’t for my parents I
would have had a normal life. They are to blame for where I am today. How come
others have normal parents and I don’t? Of my Mom and Dad didn’t get divorced I
would have been much better off in my own marriage.” If it weren’t for my wife, we
wouldn’t have all this financial trouble.” And on and on we could go with the endless
list of blaming everyone else for the problems we have and imagine how much better
off we would be if it had not been for all those around us. It’s all their fault, we think!
II. God, however, is in control. We look at Joseph’s situation and might be able to
identify with him, especially when we have been “stabbed in the back by someone.”
We expect that God will come to the forefront and rescue us. When that doesn’t
happen, sometimes we are apt to think of the scenario in heaven like this. God looks at
the Son and the Holy Spirit looks at the Father and says, “Did you see what I just saw.
Joseph’s brothers just sold poor old Joseph into slavery. What in the world are we
going to do now. Look at what they did! They have ruined our plan for Joseph. We had
better think of something and something quick-do we have another plan? The Holy
Spirit and the Son just sort of shrug. That might be stretching it a bit, but that is what
many Christians think about what goes on in heaven. They may not admit it, but in
effect, this is what they do. Therefore, they make themselves the savior of the whole
world, rescuing people out of their problems and trying to fix things for other people
because they can’t trust others to do it right and they certainly can’t trust God to work it
all out. But in truth they think so little of God that they imagine God saying to Jesus,
“Jesus, Jim just got fired from his job because a fellow believer lied about him-can you
believe that? Do we have any other positions for poor old Jim down there? Or- “Jesus,
you know that Sally is 35 years old and she hasn’t been married yet. Are there any
available guys down there for her. The man I wanted her to marry dumped her for her
best friend.” I know this sounds absurd, but in reality this is what many of us think.
The way we react insinuates that this is the way that we really feel about God.
How do you think Joseph would have fared in our churches today? If he were
like many of us, do you know what he might have done or tempted to do? “Just wait
until I get my hands on them! I’ll kill them, I’ll destroy them for what they did to me!
They are going to pay! But you know, if Joseph really had that attitude, I believe that
God would have left him in that dungeon to rot! Because if he had been released from
prison with that attitude, he would have killed the heads of ten of the twelve tribes of
Israel-including Judah, from whose lineage Christ would have descended. Imagine
that! Yes, the ones who treated Joseph so wickedly were the patriachs of Israel! And
God had promised Abraham that they would bring forth a nation. Through them the
Lord Jesus would eventually come. Joseph stayed free and clear from offense, and the
plan of God was established in his life and in the lives of his brothers.*
Could it get any worse? I remember a guy in a movie I saw one time who said,
“It could be worse, it could be raining...” Joseph probably may or may not have seen
the humor in that, but prison was a time of sifting for him. At the same time, however,
it was also a time of great opportunity for Joseph. There were two prisoners with
Joseph, and both of them had vivid and very disturbing dreams. Joseph interpreted their
dreams with amazing accuracy. One man was to be restored as Pharoah’s cupbearer,
while the other was to be executed. Joseph asked the one about to be restored to
remember him when he regained Pharoah’s favor. The man retired to Pharoah’s
service, but two years passed with no word from him. It was yet another letdown for
Joseph, another opportunity to have been offended.
But God always has a plan. The time came when Pharaoh had a very alarming
dream. None of his magicians or wise men could give him the explanation. It was then
that the restored servant remembered Joseph. He shared how Joseph had interpreted his
and his companion’s dreams in prison. Joseph was brought before Pharoah, and he told
him what the dream meant-a famine was coming-and wisely instructed him on how to
prepared for the crises. Pharaoh immediately promoted Joseph to second in command
over all of Egypt. Joseph, through the wisdom God had given him, had prepared for the
severe famine that was coming. Later, when this famine spread to all the known
nations, Joseph’s brothers had to come to Egypt to buy food. If Joseph had held
anything in his heart against his brothers, that would have been the time to carry it out.
He could have thrown them in prison, or tortured them or even killed them and no one
would have blamed him because he was second in command in Egypt. His brothers
were of no concern to Pharaoh.
But Joseph ended up giving them grain for no charge. Then they were given the
best land of Egypt for their families, and they ate of the fat of the land. To sum it up, the
best of all the land of Egypt was given to them. Joseph ended up doing what Jesus tells
us to do in Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that
curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use
you, and persecute you;” God knew what Joseph’s brothers would do before they did
it. As a matter of fact, the Lord knew they would do it before He gave Joseph the dream
or before any of those boys were born. To go one step further, look at what Joseph said
to his brothers when they were reunited: But now, do not therefore be grieved or
angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to
preserve life. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are
still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent
me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by
a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God..(Gen
45:5-8).
Who sent Joseph? His brothers, or God? Even Psalm 105 :16-17 says16:
Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of
bread.17: He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: So
from the mouths of two witnesses we see that it was God who sent him. We need to
remember friends, that no mortal man or the devil himself can supersede the plan of
God for your life. IF you lay hold of this truth it will set you free. But there is only one
person who can get you out of the will of God, and that is you.
Many people I have known, including myself, have served the Lord faithfully
and have come into difficult life situations because of being mistreated, maligned, or
misrepresented by either wicked men or carnal Christians. We can certainly not
minimize the fact that they have been mistreated. They have been treated unjustly. But
to become offended would only fulfill the enemy’s purpose of getting them out of the
will of God.
III. The way to keep from being offended and stay in God’s will is to submit to
God’s plan. My dear ones, if you stay free from offense, you will stay in God’s will. If
you become offended you will be taken captive by the enemy to fulfill his own purpose
and will. The choice is yours to make.
President Ronald Reagan once told the story of a shoemaker who was making a
pair of shoes for him when he was a boy. The cobbler asked young Ronald if he wanted
a round toe or a square toe. Ronald shrugged and said he didn’t know. So the cobbler
told him to return in a day or two and let him know. A few days later the cobbler saw
young Reagan on the street and asked him what he had decided. Reagan was still
undecided. The cobbler said the shoes would be ready the next day. When Reagan
came in to pick up the shoes, one had a round toe, and the other one had a square toe.
President Reagan said, “looking at those shoes taught me a very important lesson. If you
don’t make your own decisions, somebody else will make them for you.”
The decision we need to make is to stay free from offense. And James:4:7 tells
us how to do that: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. Submit means to submit to the plan of God, not our plan. So many get
sidetracked because they don’t submit to God’s plan. They think they have to come up
with the plan, or they do nothing at all and in effect they submit to the devil’s plan. We
need to remember that nothing can come against us without the Lord’s knowledge of it
before it ever happens. If the devil could destroy us at will, he would have wiped us out
a long time ago because he hates us with a passion. What should we do when we are
offended? Resist Satan’s plan by choosing not to be offended, and submit to God’s
plan. You will never go wrong. . The dream or vision will probably happen differently
from how you think it will, but His Word and His promises will not fail. We only risk
aborting God’s plan by our own disobedience.
