Joseph's life demonstrates how one can overcome victimhood to become a victor by responding positively to difficult circumstances, mirroring God's faithfulness, personal fidelity, and forgiveness. The sermon traces Joseph's journey from being a victim of intrigue, injustice, and imprisonment to becoming a victor through God's overarching plan. The core lesson emphasizes that trials are not the problem, but rather our response to them, highlighting the importance of maintaining a vision of God's purpose. Ultimately, Joseph's story serves as an encouragement to trust God's sovereign plan, even amidst hardship, and to embrace forgiveness as a means of transformation and freedom.
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I've lost about an inch and I've just grown a couple of feet of the most, but hey, just great to see that energy still here in that dear brother. You know, I'm feeling at the stage in life where I'm much closer to the time when that gleam in my eye is just the sun hitting my bifocals. I sometimes think that it's my knees that buckle when my belt won't, and I'm certainly... Well, there are days when my back goes out more than I do, so I understand those things. But Ernest seems immune from all that, and that's amazing. What we're going to do Tuesday through Friday of this week is we're going to look at the first two books of the Bible.
Ernest had him one and two, and I thought, man, I hope he's not going to sing through the hymn book. But I'm going to do the first two books of the Bible. Just to encourage you in the morning, we'll look at some great truths from the first four chapters of Exodus. And at night, since I'm a scientist, and that reminds me, I have to warn you, I'm a professor of chemistry. This is not my refreshment while I'm preaching. I didn't bring my own Coca-Cola, but I sometimes do little experiments. So I'll put that there to remind me. Some of the friends from Guelph have seen these before. But we'd like to do some science a little bit, no quiz afterwards. And we'll do that at night as we look at the first six chapters or first few chapters of the great book of Genesis.
And I thought since we're going to, Genesis is so popular these days, PBS series, Time magazine covers. I thought since we're going to be looking at those chapters of Genesis, why not for the Lord's Day today, just pick up the great character in Genesis. And we're going to talk, I know you've had a lot of ministry over the years on typology from Joseph, but I'm going to talk practically about the life of Joseph today, just to get your thinking in Genesis, and then we'll get into some more details about those early chapters later in the week. So let's look at really what I'm calling the triumph of a victim as look at Joseph's life a little bit this morning. You know, I don't want you to think for a moment that those unfortunate things that happened to you in life never happened to the famous characters in the Old Testament.
We're going to see in Genesis three that what we call Murphy's Law, anything that can go wrong will go wrong, actually came in with the fall. And Joseph's an example of someone who had a very rough start in his family life. In fact, when you read from Genesis thirty-seven onwards, at the end of this great book, we'll start the beginning Tuesday, but at the end you read more intrigue than any modern TV soap opera. You remember his father Jacob... had even cheated Joseph's grandfather on his deathbed. And in turn, Joseph had actually been conned by his father-in-law into marrying the wrong woman Leah.
And even when he did marry the woman he loved, Rachel, Joseph's mother, the jealousy and connivance between these two ladies hardly made for a tranquil home. So Joseph didn't have a tranquil home life. I used to say about these two women in the kitchen, you know, that she's got her, it was a two-story house, actually. She's got her story, I've got mine. That's what would happen all the time. But seriously, you know, Joseph's with a family where infidelity and incest and intrigue stained the lives of his brothers, who turned out to be callous schemers, with no regard at all for Joseph.
And I want you to realize then that Joseph's family background, his roots were disastrous. We sometimes forget that. And if anyone could ever claim to be a victim of unfortunate circumstances, it was Joseph. And yet it turned out that Joseph in Scripture was not seen as a victim, but as a victor, because whatever his root His response was magnificent, and that's what we want to focus on today. You see, because of all the stories in Scripture, there could be none other than the great story of our Savior, the Lord Jesus. There could be none more inspiring than this story of one whose dreams actually came true, who knew triumph, who knew success, who knew recognition.
And my aim this morning as we explore a little bit of Joseph's life is simply this, that we will learn that whatever our roots, whatever our circumstances, whatever our experiences have been, we too can be transformed from being victims to victors by making the response to our circumstances that Joseph did to his. You see, because you know in life, it's never the trials that are the real problem. It's our response to them. That's the key, and that's what Joseph teaches us this morning. You know, how was it possible that Joseph could respond so positively to the intrigue, to the injustice, to the imprisonment that marked his early life?
I believe one reason is that Joseph had a real sense of God's developing purpose. And we're going to see a bit of that this week, because Scripture makes it clear that God is not capricious, that God actually implements plans in the lives of those that respond to him. The Word of God reveals a God who rules not just out there in the physical universe. I talk a lot about that in my ministry of outreach about the cosmos. But I want to see this morning that God rules by being involved in individual lives. And in fact, the story of the Bible, if you look at the overview, is a story of a God who implements his plans.
He implemented first the great plan of salvation. Of course, it made it possible for all of us to be restored to new life in Christ. And Joseph was able to respond positively to the many experiences of life because he captured, simply captured a vision of God's plans for him. He got the big picture. Sometimes we forget the big picture. And that's one of the problems with not being a believer. If you're not a Christian, you lack that focus. And I pray this morning, as we look at Joseph's life, you'll begin to get the big picture. And we're going to see this morning really three ways in which Joseph had a bitter root experience as a victim, but showed such a beautiful response as a victor.
We're going to see him first as a victim of intrigue, but a victor through God's faithfulness. We're going to see him as a victim of injustice, but a victor through his fidelity. And we're going to see him as a victim of imprisonment, but a victor by forgiveness. Roots of intrigue, injustice and imprisonment, but a response of faithfulness and of fidelity and forgiveness. We'll see that this morning. And my prayer is, as we look at his life, We will understand ourselves what it really is to catch a vision from God of his purpose, and to really dream of things that never were but will be in God's time and in God's way.
So let's look at these three responses of Joseph to his trials. First, as a victim of intrigue, but a victor through God's faithfulness. You know, there's so much in Joseph's life that assures us of God's good purpose. Even his birth was a testimony to God's faithfulness. Remember, Jacob, his father already had ten sons. And Rachel, his mother, was childless to the point of frustration. A breaking point was reached for Rachel because she was constantly provoked by her sister Leah's fertility.
And eventually, of course, as you know from the Scriptures, Rachel took matters into her own hands. She decided she couldn't wait any longer, and she proposed this plan whereby she could become a surrogate mother through Bilhah her maid. And as you know the Bible, this was history repeating itself, because as you look back in the Word of God, Jacob's grandfather, Abraham, had found himself in the same sort of plight with his barren wife, Sarah. And she'd used Hagar as a surrogate mother. And in that generation, the arrival of Hagar's unfortunate child had disastrous repercussions.
And yet here it is in another generation, his grandson, Jacob with Rachel, resorting to the same scheme for resolving their problems. They were ready to short circuit God's way. And let me say immediately this morning that God never needs our manipulation to bring about His purposes. And you should never allow frustration to push you into an experiment with an alternative to God's plan. You see, because it's always God's work done in God's way that produces God's blessing. And we need this morning to trust his faithfulness.
Don't feel that you need to short circuit God's plan. And that's particularly true, of course, with his plan of salvation. Let me mention the gospel this morning. Let me remember his great, let me mention his great plan where Jesus died to open the only possible way back to God so that through simple faith in him you could receive the gift of eternal life that he offers. Don't short circuit the plan and try to find life in any other way. So here was Joseph born, a son of promise, a son of old age, And His birth, you see, is a testimony to God's unfailing purpose.
And, of course, it prefigures the birth of our Lord Jesus, who was the ultimate Son of Promise, who's the real key to God's purpose, the only one that can lift us from our plight. It turns out in this story that through sexual sin, Ruben But Joseph's brothers forfeited their right to the blessings of the birthright. And so Joseph, in that great story, received the ornamental coat, the sign that the birthright was being passed to him. No wonder Joseph's brothers became jealous, especially... when in his naivety Joseph recounted his dreams and he actually reported back to his father some of his brother's questionable behavior.
And of course the fact that he had a doting father who actually showed him favoritism, a bad mistake for a father. That showed the seeds of intrigue that was a plague the life of young Joseph. And of course, as you know, the opportunity for revenge arose when his brothers were tending the flock out in the country, and they saw Joseph coming. And as we read the story, it unfolded like a drama that's better than anything you could ever see on TV. What a thrilling story. Rubin manages to restrain them from actual murder, and they throw Joseph into that empty well, and eventually they sell him to the camel train bound for Egypt.
You know that story. But you see here in Joseph's rife, one of those coincidences, as people would call them, that caravan of Ishmael merchants arrived just when his brothers were thinking of killing him. And as I think about that, I think about all the coincidences even in the universe that made life possible here on Earth, and we'll talk a little bit about that in the evening. Part of my ministry is to say to students on university campuses that our God, I say to the students, if you think of the creation like the big game of golf, that God got a hole in one every time, that everything's just right for life.
And I can say, looking up my own life, and many of you can say this morning, that you've constantly seen evidence of what we sang about God's faithfulness. And so it is that in all this intrigue we see God's faithfulness. These coincidences are not coincidences at all. But we see more than that. What we see is Joseph's trust in that. You see, Joseph hung on to his vision with faith. Yes, he was a victim of intrigue. But he showed in these early experiences his capacity to respond positively to difficulties. I mean, what could he do as he lay there in that waterless pit?
Gone now was the resplendent coat of many, many colors. Gone was that supportive, that doting father. Gone was everything. He was trapped. He was alone. Alone, except for the vision of God's purpose. Now remember that. You see, because God was going to bring tremendous blessing out of this, in spite of the evil of Jacob's favoritism, in spite of the brother's jealousy. These were the cause of Joseph's problem. But you see, as always, human folly is the cause of problems. But God's sovereign purpose is the cure.
Remember that. Human folly, the cause of problems. God's sovereign purpose, the cure. Because two generations earlier God had promised to Abraham, way back in Genesis, fifteen, thirteen, he'd said, My purpose will be fulfilled. And after being enslaved and oppressed, your descendants will come out with many possessions. And you know what Scripture says in Genesis fifteen? In the fourth generation, they shall return. Now, no amount of human intrigue could nullify God's purpose. You see, God's plan for the nation of Israel, it needed one faithful and compassionate and skilled person who God could place in a position of enormous power.
And so Psalm hundred and fifteen, verse seventeen says this wonderful verse. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. And here we have that confirmation that although the brothers acted out of envy and spite, God was overruling. You know, I want you to realize this morning that nowhere in Scripture is there any suggestion that if you remain in God's will, your circumstances will always be continual. Scripture doesn't say that. But what Scripture does make clear is if you remain in His will, then you can respond to circumstances so as to transform them.
There are so many scriptural examples that you know about that remind us that it's not the trial that crushes us, it's the poor response. Because you see, trial and difficulty in the end, they produce a response where we either become downcast and embittered or we grow and develop. And Joseph started from literally being in the pit. But whilst he was there in the darkness of that well, Joseph had that vision that God had given him, the vision that helped him recognize that though for the moment he was a victim, he would, if he remained faithful, yet be the victor.
He knew the dream. It had been given to him. And it's always true. And it will be and can be for you this morning. If you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior through his Son, and you remain faithful to him, Because you see, Joseph, Joseph was also, number two, a victor of injustice, a victim of injustice, I should say. But he was a victor through his fidelity. And let's look at that too this morning. You see, because Joseph showed his faithfulness in his difficulties. God promises to be with us in difficulty. And in God's good time, the vision that was in Joseph's head, it began to be realized in his life.
But understand it was still not an easy path to becoming a victor. Joseph wasn't whisked from the pit into Pharaoh's palace because he went from the pit into sorrow and servitude in a foreign land. And it must have been very difficult to Joseph to believe there was any purpose in what still appeared to be somewhat disastrous. Because he was a sensitive and an intelligent young man. And he had no illusions as to what he was when he was taken to Potiphar's house. He was a slave. And that was a dead-end job in those days. Boy, there was no promotion for slaves. But he had a job to do.
A job that didn't seem to have any future. And yet, that's when Joseph's fidelity shows himself, shows itself. You see, Joseph did that mundane job, and he did it well, and he was a success. And I want to say to any believer this morning that feels they're in a mundane situation, that God blesses us when we act positively in that situation. And Joseph was a success. In fact, we read in Genesis, verse three, that when his master... And this is the key. When his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, he put him in charge of his household. And it's very important to notice the explanation.
It was the presence and the gift of the Lord that were behind the dramatic turnaround in Joseph's circumstances. It was God's faithfulness. No wonder he's saying, great is thy faithfulness. So often, however, you know, when things go well with us and we do well, we can tend to forget relying on the Lord. That wasn't the case with Joseph. In fact, God's faithfulness was reflected by Joseph in his success by his fidelity, and we want to notice this. You know, it's not surprising that Satan's forces moved against Joseph because Joseph was going to play a key part in God's purpose.
And of course, as Joseph's fortunes improved, that's when the big test came, the even bigger test. And we need to understand that. Temptation came to Joseph suddenly and unexpectedly, and that's when we see his fidelity. You see, remember Joseph was a young man. He was away from home with all its restrictions. And suddenly, a powerful sexual temptation stares him in the face, part of his away. His attractive wife is alone. And this alluring and fascinating invitation comes to him to be partnered to her in fidelity. And it's pressed upon him.
You know, it's not unusual today for young people to face this kind of temptation so suddenly. And in fact, it's not only certain, but it's sustained. And that's how it was for Joseph. We read in Genesis, verse two, she entreated him day after day. Wonderful verse. He would not listen to her or be with her. How wise was Joseph in dealing with temptation. How determined he was in his fidelity. I mean, nobody would have seen it. But Joseph lived his life conscious of God's purpose and God's presence. And he had a sense of what was right.
And notice what he said. Joseph said, I thank God that that has given me everything else. It is only right, he said, that he should withhold you. Here again, you see, Joseph responded positively to a difficult circumstance. And his attitude was one of thankfulness for what he did have and acceptance for what he didn't or couldn't or shouldn't have. Because Joseph had a sense of what was right. And that's important to these days. There are so many older couples in happy marriages here.
And I think that's a tremendous example for another generation. Because in these days, the fidelity in marriage is rightly regarded. And we need to set that example. And we need to notice that Joseph recognized that the sin would be sin against God. And it says he resisted for the Lord's sake. And although temptation and opportunity came together, he said and noticed this, how can I do this wickedness against God? You see, Joseph recognized that sin, marital infidelity or any sin, is sin against God. And he made every effort to avoid part of his wife.
And when it became no longer possible, he ran for it. You know, I'm reminded in this incident that that temptation is not in itself sinful. Our Lord was tempted. It's falling that is sin. And we need to cultivate the habit at every stage in life of nipping temptations in the bird. Because, you see, we need to move before they can proceed to sinful actions. Because sin involves our emotions, it involves our mind, and it involves our will. You know, I often think that a good driver is not one who sees how close to the edge of the cliff he can go.
He's one who sees how far away he can stay. I remember that story of the little boy who was told clearly by his mother, you don't go swimming with your friends because you've got a cold coming on. And when she got home, she found him shivering in the porchway with his swimsuit and his wet towel. And she looked at him. But his explanation was simply this. He said, hey, I didn't mean to go swimming. I just took my swimsuit and towel along in case I was tempted. Hey, we need to avoid it. It's sin against God. I remember my little son, when he was a small boy, he brought all kinds of lumber from the building site near my house where they were building.
And he was building himself a little fort in the garden. And my father, a godly man, said, Adrian, should you take that stuff? And he simply said, hey, nobody saw me. And my dad said, somebody did. Because he always wanted to point that little grandson to the Lord. And I hope you do that as a grandparent. My son, bless him, said, ah, yes, but he won't tell. His concern was who would tell. You know, in Joseph's case, temptation and opportunity came together. But such was his fidelity to God and to Potiphar. that this powerful combination didn't overwhelm him.
And he tried to show to Potiphar's wife something that you need to show today. A message we need to re-emphasize, and that's fidelity in marriage. But you see, you know, Joseph was a man who showed fidelity, and yet he was a man who knew injustice. And it was such severe injustice that he went innocent to prison. Prison. The place where people become embittered and they plot revenge. That was the place where Joseph was able to demonstrate his last great thing, a victim of imprisonment, but a victor by forgiveness. Because of his unfair treatment, early in life, Joseph had no illusions at all about life's fairness.
He had experienced the truth, a reality that life isn't fair. Later in the week, I'll show you some little cartoons to illustrate my message. One of my favorite little comic strips was the Calvin and Hobbes. Many of you may have seen that about this terrible little guy, just like my grandson, always in trouble. And he was complaining when he had to go to bed early, when Dad said, go to bed, and Dad had to say, hey, Calvin, life isn't fair. And his punchline was, why is it never unfair in my favor? And of course, Joseph could have said that. You know, we need to accept that knowing God and following Him faithfully doesn't generally lead to worldly acclaim.
Now you'd expect folly to be what leads to imprisonment, and it does. But you see, here we find that fidelity too can bring this experience. And that's when you would have expected the seeds of resentment to flourish. But Joseph avoided resentment by keeping his focus on what? God's plan. Now I need to do this experiment because we'll run out of time and I've been warned about that. We've got a delicious lunch. Now this experiment may or may not work. Science is usually reliable but we had an interesting experience when my suitcase went through the customs and got jogged about.
I was somewhat nervous about all these things in it and this bottle happened to leak but we never know but I do want to illustrate the point I've got an ordinary old Coca-Cola bottle here, and if things work, we'll better transform it. And if they don't, we'll know how unreliable chemistry is. There we go. We'll pour this stuff into here. Hey, we might as well put it all in. There we go. And we'll get this black mess at the bottom. Now, I want you to promise you, listen to my message about Joseph as I shake this horrible black stuff in this ordinary old Coca-Cola bottle, but I have a little allegory for you as I do that, and we'll see if anything happens.
So you can watch that, but I promise, you want to promise me that it won't distract you as I shake it. I'm not leaving the singing. We'll leave that to Ernest to do. But you see, I wanted to point out that Joseph kept his focus on God's plan. You see, from God's point of view, Joseph triumphed. He was actually promoted to prison. He wasn't consigned there. It turned out that for Joseph, prison was the way up, the way to fulfill God's purpose. The sovereign plan of God was actually working out in this case. so that actually Joseph was to become a key figure in fulfilling God's plan.
You remember what we read in Psalm hundred and five? They brood his feet with shackles, his neck was put in irons, until what was foretold came to pass, until the word of the Lord proved him true. You see, Joseph's focus was not on the shackles, it was on the until. And it's so important in life when you're in difficulties to remember what our Lord Jesus said. You remember that great verse in John thirteen, verse seventy? He said, What I do now, you don't understand, but you will understand hereafter. There was a forward-looking aspect to that.
And Joseph's situation was was very bad and it remained unchanged. I mean, I put that black solution in an ordinary bottle to remind you how bad things were. And it continued day after day. Time passed. But you see, if Joseph's situation didn't change, he changed. And he experienced what Psalm sixty-six verse ten talks about. And here we'll get to my experiment. It says, For you, O God, tested us. You refined us like silver. You brought it into prison. You laid burdens on our back. And you might have noticed as I talked and shook that bottle that it's become now coated with pure silver.
That's a pure silver bottle. And of course, because silver doesn't react, that silver will remain to reflect the light of this room. And it will remain, of course, to pass to my children and grandchildren. It was an ordinary old... dirty old Coca-Cola bottle with some black guck in the bottom. But through the wonders of chemistry, we've managed to extract the pure silver and it's coated with a bottle. It's coated a bottle. And that's an allegory of what I want to tell you this morning. Let's leave that as a little symbol. We'll do some more experiments each talk, especially in the evenings as we get to Genesis. But this morning, I simply want you to go to that verse. You, O God, tested us.
You refined us like silver. You brought us into prison. You laid burdens on our back. But that was a moving situation. And rather than blaming God or becoming embittered by those who unjustly treated him, Joseph lived the experience of Psalm sixty-six. And he allowed the Lord to refine him. And you remember, if you know any chemistry at all, the instrument for refining is not the couch. It's the crucible. And you see in this, it's not the circumstances, but the response to the circumstances is a key issue. That's why when I go to the Philippines where my daughter is a missionary and I see the squatters in the urban poor area with absolutely nothing of this world at all.
They possess nothing. They have a shining faith in that hymn we sung this morning. I've seen them singing it in the squatter area. great is thy faithfulness, and they sing that line that brings tears to my eyes. All I have needed, thy hand hath provided. And that's when you know that knowing the Lord is a refining experience that makes all the difference. Joseph knew two years in prison between the interpretation of the Buckler's dream and Pharaoh hearing about him. He had plenty of time to plot and to resent and to grow bitter. He could have thought about his brother's actions, about the butler's forgetfulness, about Potiphar's wife's false accusations.
But you see, it turned out the delay, the waiting, the time when the bottle was being shaken, the time in prison, was a time God used to bring about a comparison in Pharaoh's thinking between Joseph and every wise man in Egypt. And so you read in the Word of God then. all God's timing that he brings about these transformations. Then, then Pharaoh called and sent for Joseph. And you know we read Joseph shaved, changed his shirt, and was brought out. And Joseph was sitting there in a state that was ready. You know, if he'd been bitter, if he'd been thinking about his circumstances, he wouldn't have been ready.
But just as when temptation came, so when liberty suddenly came, Joseph was ready. And Joseph's response, his forgiving heart, left him sitting not bitter, but ready. Oh, I hope you like that this morning. Joseph knew the door would open someday, and it will for all of us. And I just want to ask if you'll be ready to respond. I like to think, you know, I took early retirement, I've gone into the Lord's work, and I like to think that getting to my age, only in my sixties, that all I need is a clean shirt and a quick shave, and I'm ready to move into God's new day for me, because God always has one.
There are many opportunities in retirement to serve the Lord. And, you know, after the pathos and excitement, Of Joseph's life, he'd been stuck in the shadows. He was ready to respond positively to fulfill God's program. And it's such a blessing. We'll be going through it a little bit tonight. But in his family relationships at this point, Joseph was both loyal and loving. And in a society that was famous for its harems, Joseph stayed faithful to Asinol. And their marriage proved a strong foundation for the incredible work that God was going to accomplish.
And I want you to notice this, the success of his marriage. The first child born to this couple was named Manasseh, which means God has made me forget. What a blessing. And God used the joy of family fulfillment to help Joseph forget the hurts of the past. And then a second son was born called Israel. Ephraim rather, Ephraim, which means God has made me fruitful. And let me just say this. If we're ready to forgive, God can help us forget. But if we can't forgive, and if we can't get to that point where we can forget the wrongs of the past and we harbor something in our souls, then we're harboring the biggest hindrance to growth, and that's resentment.
You see, it was in the trials that Joseph grew, but it was in forgiving that he found he could forget. And in this, in this concluding moment, we see Joseph as a beautiful parallel of our Lord Jesus Christ. In this main characteristic that is our focus just now, his ability to forgive those that wronged him. Joseph showed so much of the Lord Jesus, but let me just say this. As they nailed him to the cross, he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And it's that forgiveness that's available to every one of us right now. It's that forgiveness that the Lord asks us to receive, so that the double burden will be lifted from you.
And as I conclude this morning, I want you to understand it was forgiveness that allowed Joseph to bring those brothers near and for them to be reconciled. And we'll talk about that tonight as we get to Genesis fifty that surveys all of this experience of Joseph, all those negative experiences that he had. But it records in the end this great verse, God meant it for good. And we see this morning the way in which the victim became a victor as from those bitter roots was born such beautiful fruit. Joseph was a victim of intrigue, but he was a victor through God's faithfulness. He was a victim of injustice, but he was a victor through his fidelity.
He was a victim of imprisonment, but a victor through forgiveness. And if you're discouraged this morning, I want you to remember God's control. All that he's given you, all the blessings you have here, all the blessings in other areas of your life, and remember the promise that in all circumstances, He will be with you and think of all that He's given you and be ready to step from discouragement into a new level of successful service to a new life of flexibility and freedom as you're controlled and blessed by God. If you're discouraged, remember God's control and let Him move you to where you will rejoice in His promises.
And you'll think more about what you have than what you don't have. May God bless you this morning and encourage you as we look at his word. Let's just pray. Father, we thank you for this great life. We have no many experiences in our own lives, but we thank you for your faithfulness. And we pray that we may experience your forgiveness and show our gratitude as we reach out and forgive others. Bless us and encourage us as we go through this day and through this week and grant, O Lord, that through your word we may be built up in the Lord Jesus for whom we give our morning praise and adoration in his precious name.