Read Part 2

(8/4) We are continuing in part 3 of our series, "A Bigger Story," and as we get into it, I am realizing that it is more to the story than I had initially anticipated. In fact, it just keeps stretching out, longer and longer as I am digging into the Scriptures and studying this amazing summary given by God’s servant Stephen. And so, he is summarizing the story of Israel’s redemptive history and even his summary is the longest message recorded in the book of Acts.

I think it takes a little bit of living, a few laps around the block, before you begin to realize that you don’t know as much as you thought you knew, and that there is so much more to the story than you have seen or experienced. But the truth is that today, we live in a culture where so many of us have become confused because of the social media platforms on our phones. In other words, we get confused by snaps, stories, soundbites, and clips, because they are really just scenes in a bigger story.

The problem is that many people go through life with the mindset that they know the whole story when they have only seen a scene. For example, if you had seen Jacob’s son Joseph in the Old Testament, and one scene he would have been trapped in the bottom of an empty well, but in another scene, you would have found him in prison, and in another scene, you would’ve found him in a palace fulfilling his calling. That’s why it is so important for us to understand that whatever scene you find yourself in today, whatever season you find yourself in, you can’t give up on your story, because a scene is just a layover and not your destination.

If you could turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter 7, we are going to pick up where we left off last week in verse 8, looking at the response of Stephen after the Jewish leaders had accused him of blaspheming God, blaspheming Moses, blaspheming the law, and blaspheming the temple. In other words, they had accused him of disrespect, showing contempt, or a lack of reverence for God, Moses, the Law, and the Temple. Now, for those Jewish leaders, those things had really become idols in their lives, because it was all about religion and not about relationship, and so Stephen begins to reveal to them the mysterious plan of God because the Holy Spirit wanted them to see the big picture.

Last week, Stephen spoke about Abraham, the father of faith, and this week he is going to introduce us to the rest of the family. Now, up to this point God had not given Abraham anything, not even one square foot of ground, all he had was a promise from God. But now as we continue the story in verse 8, God began giving, and Stephen says,

"Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs" (Acts 7:8).

"Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace" (Acts 7:9-10).

Now, I’m going to stop there, because there is just so much more to the story, and that is all we will have time to cover today. As we are introduced to Joseph, it is like walking in at the end of the movie, and we have got to realize that there is a whole lot more to the story. Some of you are familiar with the story of Joseph, and Stephen’s audience knew the Scriptures, they knew the background, but I want to dig deeper and encourage somebody today as we look at Joseph’s trauma.

And so, we’re going to look at the journey of Joseph so that we can better understand the journey that we are on; because there may be some of you who barely made it here this morning. In other words, you are trying to work things out in your life, and it has just been one thing after another, and you may be feeling like the journey is too much for you. But I want to encourage you today, giving you some principles from the Scriptures, because the Bible tells us in Proverbs chapter 19, verse 21,

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21).

In other words, you are getting free counseling today, because it is the grace of God and the word of God that I’m giving you. There are many illustrations of this in the Scriptures, but may be no better example of this than the life of Joseph. And so, let’s go to the book of Genesis, chapter 37, for the rest of the story. Genesis chapter 37, beginning at verse 3, the Spirit of God tells us,

"Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him" (Genesis 37:3-4).

And so, Joseph’s brothers despised him because of the favor of his father and they were reminded of it every time they saw him walking around in his multicolored robe. But then, to add insult to injury, rubbing a little salt on the wound, verse 5 says,

"Joseph had a dream" (Genesis 37:5).

He had a dream, but he didn’t keep it to himself, he went to his brothers and said, "Listen to this dream I had, I had the craziest dream last night,"

"We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it" (Genesis 37:6-7).

"When he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more" (Genesis 37:5).

"His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said" (Genesis 37:8).

And so, it is in that context, with Joseph’s brothers jealous of him, hating him more and more, that one day they saw him coming across the field towards them. They knew it was him because the special robe that his father had made for him help them to identify him from a distance. And so, they quickly devised a plan to get rid of this dreamer. Verse 23 says,

"When Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe — the richly ornamented robe he was wearing and they took him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it" (Genesis 37:23-24).

Now, they had planned to leave him in the well to die as they sat down to eat their meal that day. But suddenly they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites, a group of Midianite merchants on their way to Egypt. Judah recognizes that there could be some financial gain in this for them all and so they decided to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites.

Pulling Joseph back up out of the well, back up out of that empty cistern, they sold him for 20 shekels of silver and the Ishmaelites took Joseph to Egypt with them. They told their father Jacob that Joseph had been killed by wild animals and they gave him his bloodied, torn, and tattered robe as evidence.

"Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard" (Genesis 37:36).

And so, as we move from one scene to another to another, we recognize that even in the betrayal of his brothers, that which was so painful for Joseph, that it was the sovereign hand of God moving him to Egypt. In other words, things were good for him at home with his father, his life was comfortable, but sometimes God allows things to happen so that you will move into the purpose he has for you.

And so, it had to happen, whatever you are going through, it wasn’t meant to harm you, it wasn’t meant to break you, it was meant to be God’s vehicle of transportation to get you where he needs you to be. As the Bible says,

"Many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21).

And Joseph ends up in this guy named Potiphar’s house because of the trauma of his brother’s betrayal, it was there in Egypt that things began to look up, because Genesis chapter 39, verse 2 says,

"The Lord was with Joseph and he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master" (Genesis 39:2).

And so, things were improving for Joseph, in spite of the fact that he had been betrayed by the people closest to him and sold into slavery, it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. And even though he had been a prince among his brothers, loved and distinguished by his father, it was through a painful season of trauma that God was taking him from the field and the tents of his father to the palace of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. Verse 3 tells us,

"When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did. Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned" (Genesis 39:3-4).

Verse 6 says, "Now Joseph was well-built and handsome," and before long Potiphar’s wife began to look at him lustfully, "She took notice of Joseph and said,"

"Come to bed with me!" But he refused" (Genesis 39:6-8).

In other words, he deliberately and wisely avoided her daily advances by refusing to be around her. To put it in our own language, he didn’t look at it, he didn’t click on it, and he didn’t entertain it.

There are some of you give yourself too much credit, because you think, "I am an adult, I can watch it, I can handle it." But the Bible says, Joseph told her,

"My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her" (Genesis 39:8-10).

What do you do when nobody is looking? I believe the answer to that question is more important today than it has ever been before.

Joseph had integrity, but his integrity didn’t get him a promotion, instead watch what happened in verse 17. Potiphar’s wife lied about him and said,

"That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me" (Genesis 39:17).

In other words, she claimed that Joseph tried to come in and fool around with her. But she said,

"As soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house" (Genesis 39:18).

And so, Joseph is in trouble again, but this wasn’t intended to destroy him, it was simply the vehicle that would take him where God wanted him to go. We know that because the Scripture says, "many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21). And so, when Potiphar heard the story his wife told him he was furious and the Bible says,

"Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined" (Genesis 39:20).

Now, you might think that Joseph would give up, this might be the last straw, but he didn’t concern himself with what should have been or what could’ve been. He simply determined to be very intentional in the moment no matter whether he was in Potiphar’s house or in the king’s prison and he seized every opportunity to do what God had placed before him.

I want to encourage each one of you, wherever you are right now, it may feel like the lowest point in your life, but I want you to start being very intentional in asking God, "What do you want me to do here?" You see, I believe for many of you, God is just hoping to get your attention, and he is waiting for you to invite him back into your situation. You see, God is always there just like he was with Joseph in the bottom of a cistern, in Potiphar’s house, and even in prison the Bible says,

"The Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden" (Genesis 39:21).

And so, the Lord made Joseph a favorite of the prison warden and before long the Bible says in verse 22,

"The warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison and he was made responsible for all that was done there" (Genesis 39:22).

And so, even in prison God was able to promote Joseph and verse 23 says,

"The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did" (Genesis 39:23).

And so, in one scene Joseph was thrown down, and in another he is locked up, but every time he overcame the trauma without falling into despair. Even though he had been stripped of his robe, thrown into a pit, separated from the love of his father, sold into captivity, sold once again to Potiphar, falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife, arrested and thrown into jail, the Bible says,

"Two men, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt who were being held in prison had a dream the same night" (Genesis 40:5).

Being under Joseph’s care, he noticed their sadness and agreed to interpret their dreams because he understood their dreams had come from God. Interpreting the dreams of the two servants of Pharaoh, one was favorable and the other was not favorable, but both of them were released from prison and the interpretations came true.

Two years later Pharaoh had a dream, his mind was troubled, but no one could interpret them for him. Then the cupbearer remembered Joseph and said to Pharaoh, when I was in prison there was a young Hebrew there who told us what our dreams meant and everything happened just as he had predicted. Immediately, Pharaoh sent for Joseph and he was brought from the prison to the palace to stand before Pharaoh and interpret his dream.

In verse 16, Joseph replied,

"It is beyond my power to do this, but God can tell you what it means and set you at ease" (Genesis 41:16).

Joseph told him the meaning of his dreams and the practical application of his dreams and Joseph suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his officials. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph,

"Since God has made all of this known to you… You shall be in charge of my palace and all my people are to submit to your orders" (Genesis 41:39-40).

Joseph was thrown down and raised up, locked up and then exalted, and he prospered because God was with him. No matter what circumstance or situation he found himself in, he remained faithful, he was successful, because his trust was in God alone.

Even though there were so many times, so many scenes, where it seemed like the dream was just a dream, it didn’t seem like things were going in the right direction, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails. And the Pharaoh said to Joseph in verse 41,

"I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt" (Genesis 41:41).

Joseph is a great example for us because even though it was a long and difficult journey full of personal pain and trauma, he remained faithful and made it to the purpose of God for his life. Even though he was stripped of his robe, thrown into a well, sold into slavery, falsely accused and locked up in prison, he eventually made it to the palace and saw the fulfillment of the dream.

And so, we will get into more of that next week, but right now I want to encourage you not to quit when you feel like you’re falling, when you are down in a pit with no way out, stripped of your dignity, falsely accused, locked up in prison, because, "many are the plans in a man's heart, but it is the Lord's purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19:21). And so, you can still get to the purpose of God for your life if you have ears to hear and you receive this word. If this is moving from your mind to your heart, I want you to remember that God is with you and he has plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Read Part 4

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