by The Rev. Johnny Kashung
SCRIPTURE READINGS Genesis 37:23-27; 50:15,19-23a
Transcribed from the sermon preached on JANUARY 9, 2022
When we read Genesis 37, we saw that Joseph came from a very messed up family. Sometimes we use the phrase 'dysfunctional family.' Joseph’s family problem was one man who has 13 children from four wives. They have sibling rivalry in their family. Especially when Daddy picks out one of those sons and so obviously or openly makes him the favorite over the others.
From this text, we understand that Joseph’s brothers are managing the livestock. These were agricultural people and a big part of their business was to manage huge flocks of sheep and goats. Joseph’s brothers were looking after the flocks in a far place while Joseph stayed at home wearing a nice coat, but sometimes Joseph comes and checks on his brothers. So, according to Verse 4 the brothers start attacking him. Here are some points in this chapter showing why Joseph’s brothers hated him.
Verse 2 ... Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father
Verse 3 ... Jacob loved Joseph more than all his children
Verse 5-8 ... Joseph’s first dream: Your sheaves gathered around my sheaves and bowed down to mine
Verse 9-11 ... Joseph’s second dream: the sun, moon, and 11 stars are bowing down to me
But all these events in story of Joseph’s life point toward the person and the work of Jesus Christ.
Joseph has a dream that one day his brothers will bow down before him. And then one day when Joseph went out to fields to meet up with his brothers where they were grazing the flocks, the brothers decided to kill him. But one of his elder brothers, whose name was Judah, convinced his brothers to not lay a hand upon their own brother. First, they dropped him down into the pit, intending to leave him die. A short time later they had a better idea. They decided to sell him to a caravan slave traders (Ishmaelite). But that was just a beginning of Joseph’s troubles. The traders sold him to an Egyptian army official named Potiphar. Joseph put his head down trying to work hard for his master to get through his life, but Potiphar’s wife took an interest in him.
When Joseph rejected her advances, she accused him of attempted rape, and Joseph was sent to prison. Joseph has fallen from the favored son of a successful herdsmen in Canaan to a slave imprisoned in an Egyptian prison. Joseph’s life has become a nightmare.
Genesis records that in prison, the Lord was with Joseph and remained loyal to him. He caused the jail commander to think highly of Joseph. Joseph was given responsibility of supervising and caring for his fellow prisoners, and his ability to interpret dreams ultimately brought him to Pharaoh whose troubled dreams no one else could interpret. Joseph interpreted pharaoh’s dream about the famine and the distribution the grain to all people who come for the food.
One day Joseph’s brothers came from the land of Canaan to buy food and knelt before Pharaoh’s official not realizing that this official was the brother they had sold into slavery 22 years earlier, the brother, who had already foretold that they would bow to him. But at the end Joseph forgave his brothers and saved his family as well as the future of Israel by providing not only grain but land in the fertile delta region of Egypt. Joseph never did bad things to all his brothers.
Joseph’s stories teach us that, somebody may plan bad things for you and me but if we trust God or hold with God or do right thing, God’s promise never fails in the end, and it will produce something good from it. This is what God does with painful things in our life if we continue to trust in God or have faith in God in the bad or good situations in our lives.
This chapter is a display of God’s providence. The life of Joseph is not really about Joseph, but the life of Joseph displays the redemption of God to the world. Sometimes what God is doing to you is not about you but is about God trying to do his work through you. And sometimes God is using you for a greater purpose of Himself.
Here, in this Joseph story, Joseph went through from pit to the prison and to the palace. In this story we learn all things work together for good things. Everything that happens to Joseph in not good for him, but God wants to show his redemptive work through this Joseph story. We all have our own stories of the pit and prison. But if we keep our faith in God and if we trust in God, God will be there for us. We need to hold on to God; we need to listen to the word of God so that God will restore us in a greater life.
Joseph has been rejected by his brothers; perhaps you may have been rejected by your family, community, friends, sold out, mistreated or accused of things you have not done. Maybe you have known that your life will never get any better or maybe your dream was shattered; yet despite everything, Joseph continued to trust God and sought to do right thing.
Three Crosses Illustration: 2000 years ago, at Calvary cross : 3 men, 3 crosses, 3 different hearts, 3 different responses, 3 different decisions.
One was cross of Rejection.
One was cross of Reception.
One was cross of Redemption.
Even though they mock to that cross …
When thieves saw Jesus… Here is Jesus… Half-naked, beaten, bloody, dying on a cross and the thief calls him Lord… the thief trusts Jesus, and he is doing right things at his last hour of life….
At this moment, what kind of throne did Jesus have? … His throne is cross and shame…
What kind of scepter did Jesus Have? … His scepter was a bloody nail…
What kind of honor did Jesus have? … Mocking and spat in his face by the people.
The thief was hanging on the cross as a sinner in the morning, but he is going to die and go to heaven or paradise with Jesus as a citizen of heaven. This is how Jesus repays or restores, if we walk with him, when we trust him, when we keep our faith on Him.
In this chapter, there are too many parallels or typologies side by side that we can see between Joseph and Jesus.
Jacob loved Joseph more than any other sons. Genesis 37: 3-4
This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased. Matthew 3:17
Jesus and Joseph were sent as messengers to their brothers and to the world.
Because Joseph’s father showed him favoritism, his brothers treated him with hatred, remorse, and violence. They stole the coat off his back threw, him into a pit, and then sold him off to strangers. Genesis 37: 23-27
Jesus having done nothing wrong, was delivered into the hand of Pilate and then was beaten, mocked, and crucified. He too was stripped of his clothing. Matthews 12:40 Jesus also was thrown into a tomb, a Pit of sorts. Matthew 27:28
Joseph’s brothers sold him to the Ishmaelite for twenty shekels of silver, and Joseph was taken to Egypt Gene 37:28. Similarly, Judas asked the chief priest what he will receive if he delivers Jesus to them and they paid him thirty pieces of Silver. Matthews 26:15
Both Jesus and Joseph were treated as commodities and discarded by people that were supposed to care for them. But both displayed how much God loved the world.
After Joseph’s brothers threw him onto the pit, Judah suggested that they sell him to the Ishmaelite. So, they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit Genesis 37:28. After his crucifixion, Jesus was raised on the third day in accordance with the scripture I Corinthians 15:4.
They were both brought low but were delivered by God from the pit. God used their situations for a greater good -not just for physical deliverance and God restored.
I do not know how God is working when our dreams get shattered. This is something I have thought about in my life when things did not come at the way I expected. How hard it is to trust God in that moment when our dreams seem to fall apart in our life. But let’s not forget that God is working through it all. I cannot tell you in detail; but I do know that God is working. Let’s not give up, when our life seems to be on a steady downward spiral. So, like Joseph hold on. Keep trusting and continue to do what is right. God specializes in redeeming and producing a blessing and good from our unjust suffering. Joseph lost everything; God put him in the palace. Jesus is going to restore, repay and bless you for everything you lost in our life more than what we deserved. Amen.