The Blessings of Righteousness - Pastor Tom Loghry
After Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, he first prospers and then finds himself in more trouble. But through it all, he holds fast to his faith in God and holds true to his character, and God blesses him for it.
Transcript:
Good morning. The scripture reading today is Genesis 39, 1 through 5. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man.
And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him, and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and became his personal servant. And he made him overseer of his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.
It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned The Lord blessed the Egyptians house on account of Joseph Thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned in the house and in the field.
Most kids like Legos, some adults like Legos too. No glue is required, you just stick bricks together, and an endless variety of creations can be brought forth. While there are some true creatives out there who can imagine all the pieces required to bring a certain idea to life, most of us require instructions to bring anything very impressive to life.
Now, I have a creation here that my son built. He built this TIE fighter. Pretty, pretty cool, right? Um, it always impresses me when he puts together these things. I didn't have that kind of patience when I was a kid, to follow the instructions. I was too eager to get to the playing. Um, Now, I don't think it's any knock on him to say that he couldn't have done this without following the directions.
I think he would say the same thing himself. Um, and like I said, I, I know I certainly couldn't. Without following the instruction manual, he wouldn't have experienced the joy of creating a machine that looks just like the spacecraft on television. Without attending to each direction, he, and any of us, would only experience frustration if we tried to take shortcuts.
Now, thankfully, kids are sometimes blessed to have a father, grandfather, uncle, or maybe a mom or aunt as well, who will step in to set things right, ensuring he won't give up, ensuring the creation will, in fact, come to life. I think the process of putting together Lego creations captures some of the dynamics we see in the Old Testament.
Yes, there is a steady hand, the hand of God, working behind all things, so that even evil cannot help but work toward the good that God intends. Nothing stops his plan. Every blessing he promises is firm. But when human beings do walk in his ways, when they follow the instructions, we see that they are especially blessed, even as they walk through valleys. And we see this clearly in Joseph's story. But before we turn to him directly, Genesis gives us a bit of an interlude regarding Judah, who's one of Joseph's brothers, his half brother, and his family. A series of events transpires that will figure into God's redemptive work.
In the text, we find here striking contrasts with what we will see in Joseph's life. Now, there are some kind of like mature themes in this chapter. And so, because we are kind of focused on Joseph really this morning, kind of combined with those two considerations, I'm going to offer you a summary. But I do want to invite you to open up to Genesis 38, as we kind of summarize what transpires there.
So in Genesis 38, we'll look at first verses 1 through 12. We learn that Judah married a Canaanite woman. Now, not exactly great. Not because God is racist. God is not racist at all. But we must remember that God's intention is to form a distinct people. And we also must remember, at this time, ethnicity and religion are very tightly bound together. So by Judah marrying a Canaanite woman, he's inviting foreign religious influences into the life of the family. Now, it doesn't get into all of that in this chapter, but that's just something to keep in mind. Not great. He has three sons named Er, Onan, and Shelah.
Er marries a woman named Tamar, but he is struck dead because of his wickedness. And so the duty expected at this time was that a younger brother would marry the widow, so that the name of his older brother may be carried on into the future. This was the practice known as Levirate marriage. We see instructions about it in Deuteronomy 25.
And so it was just expected that this is what the brothers would do for each other should one of them pass before the other, and before a son could be born that would carry on his name. Now, Onan's not exactly thrilled about this duty. Because, again, it's strange to think about because it's just so foreign to the way that we think about things.
If he was to have a child with Tamar, that child, to their understanding, wouldn't be his. It would be his son's brother. His brother's son, rather. And that son would carry on his brother's name, not his own name. And so, Onan avoids completing his marital duties. Doing that which would be sufficient for Tamar to actually become pregnant. And so, God punishes him with death.
So now, Judah has lost his son, Er, and his son, Onan. And he only has one son left, Shelah. Now he tells Tamar, I will have Shelah marry you. Because this is, again, this is the expectation that this widow is supposed to be taken care of. And So that she would be able to bring forth these children for the older brother.
And this is something that Tamar's desiring for herself. It's not, again, such a foreign concept to us. We would kind of think like, well, you know, maybe she doesn't want to marry any of these brothers. But no, she really does desire a husband herself. And Judah tells her, no, you're, okay, you will wait for Shelah.
I will marry him to you. But instead of actually following through on his word, what Judah does instead is marry his son off to someone else. There's a little bit of fear operating in Judah's mind here, because he's like, Okay, my oldest has married this woman, my second has married her and died. And so he's like, well, I don't want my youngest marrying her.
Now, it had nothing to do with the woman. It had everything to do with the wickedness of these men. But that was Judah's thinking. Well, Tamar, as a result, takes matters into her own hands. And she deceives Judah into believing that she's a shrine prostitute. Now, an idea of shrine prostitute is just something that's also foreign to us.
This would have been a pagan practice where, in order to promote fertility in the land, women at temples would have offered themselves to men. Very wild, very out there, but the practice of that time, and she took advantage of that practice by presenting herself as a shrine prostitute and approaching Judah.
And Judah obliges, and he ends up, ends up that she becomes pregnant with his two sons, Perez and Zerah. Now this becomes significant much later on in the biblical narrative, because when we look at the genealogy of Jesus, we see that he's descendant from Perez so, you think about all the messiness of what's going on here.
Jesus bloodline runs through this, this messiness.
His family line runs through this messiness. Now, eventually, you know, she's, she's concealed her identity. Judah didn't know that this was his, his daughter in law. Um, but he had left with her his staff and also a seal, a kind of a seal that would have been functioning kind of as his signature. Now, when it became obvious that she was pregnant, they were prepared to stone her saying well, that's it, you were supposed to yeah, you you've you've been sleeping around that kind of thing, but then she produces his possessions and this leads Judah to admit in 38:26 that she, Tamar, is more righteous than I since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah.
Now, this is important because again, Judah is going to be a significant figure moving forward. He ends up becoming the leading, the leading brother. You think about the tribe of Judah from whom David comes from. And of course, Jesus. We have one last little note here in this, in this chapter where it's noted how Zerah initially was the one that was being born and then his, the other brother, the other twin brother, Perez, kind of like pulls him back in and he comes, he emerges first.
And, and so this is just kind of playing into a general theme that we're finding in these chapters of younger brothers emerging above older brothers. And that's relevant in the case of the story of Joseph, because remember, he's had these dreams. He's had these dreams where his brother's sheathes bow before his sheath.
Where the sun, moon, and stars all gather and worship him. Bow before him, that is. Not worship, bow. So now we turn from this troubling episode of Judah and look at what transpires in Joseph's life. Now remember, at this point we're in Egypt, so he's gone from all the way up here, now he finds himself in Egypt. And first, we, we look at verses 1 through 5, which Rena read for us.
You'll recall that the way that he ended up in Egypt was that he was sold, effectively, effectively to the family's cousins, the Ishmaelites. And that he was purchased as a slave by Potiphar, who is a captain of the guard. Pharaoh's captain of the guard, and and he was living as a servant in Potiphar's house.
Now, despite his circumstances, which seem obviously less than ideal, he goes from being a favored son to now he's a servant in somebody's household, he prospers. He enjoys success, favor, so that eventually Potiphar puts him in charge of everything in his household. And the reason that's identified here is found in verse 2. It says, it was that, it was because the Lord was with Joseph. It was because the Lord was with Joseph that he prospered. Now this is a theme that we see running throughout Genesis with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's because of God's abiding presence that blessing is enjoyed. And not only is Joseph blessed, But in fact, all of Potiphar's household is blessed.
Everything that belongs to Potiphar. And this goes right in line with what God promised in Genesis 12: 3. That others would be blessed through this, through this family.
And so as Potiphar raised him up and blessed Joseph, he just increased further blessing in his household.
This brings to mind uh, what the psalmist writes in Psalm 1, 1 through 3. Blessed is the one who does not walk and step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers.
Now, the thing that's interesting about this is, we think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had moments in which they weren't always walking in the ways of the Lord. Or sometimes they went off a little bit. We haven't seen that with Joseph. And in fact, what we're going to see here is that he is in fact walking in the way of righteousness.
He is walking in the ways of the Lord. But it's interesting just to note this paradox. The paradox of enjoying God's blessings. And I think it's a paradox that we all experience in which we can enjoy God's blessings even in less than ideal circumstances. Think about it. These verses are talking about how blessed Joseph is.
But remember, he's still a slave. He's still a servant. But God is still blessing him even in the midst of hardship. And God is ready to do the same for us in our own lives as we're going through hardship. He doesn't promise that He'll take away the hardship. But He will bless us in the midst of the hardships that we go through.
Now, the thing is, is Joseph's enjoying all these blessings and he's thinking, Well, who knows what this is gonna, you know, where this is gonna take me. Things seem to be just getting better and better. Well, eventually some trouble emerges that seems to bring everything kind of crashing in. So looking at verses 6 through 9.
It says, again, just kind of continuing the positive themes here. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care. With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, Come to bed with me.
But he refused. With me in charge, he told her, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. 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?
So, everything's going well for Joseph. He's been put in charge. He's been put in charge. Potiphar trusts him implicitly. But then, an occasion in which Joseph might violate that trust emerges when Potiphar's wife notices, hey, this guy looks pretty good. He's pretty handsome. And in short, she wants to cheat on him.
Cheat on her husband with Joseph. And it's at this point where we just see Joseph's noble character just step right into the spotlight. He says to her, How could I possibly do that? Your husband has trusted everything to me. He's not looking over my shoulder with all the things that I, I do. He's like, no, you take care of it.
It's all good. The one thing that he's withheld from me, and all his goodness has just been you. And then he says this in verse 9. He says, How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? Notice Joseph's insight here. He recognizes that this would not merely just be a sin against his master, who's been, who's been good to him.
He recognizes that this would be a sin against God. And that is the true reality of all sin, is that whatever harm we may cause someone else, ultimately our sin is against God. Because we are failing to be the sorts of people that He created us to be. We are not our own. Our being comes to us because God brought us into existence.
And so we owe all of ourselves to God, and we are to reflect His righteous character. And when we sin, we are depriving God of the life that we should live unto Him. David in Psalm 51 verse 4 recognizes this. He says, Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
So Joseph has taken this bold stand, he says, No, I'm faithful to your master, I'm faithful to my master, your husband, and I'm going to be faithful to God. And we think, that's great. Should be all set, right? He just, he just took this bold stand. Well, Potiphar's wife is not easily deterred. We read and continue in verses 10- 14.
It says, And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her, or even be with her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, Come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. And continuing on. Says she said to them, Look! This Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.
She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the story. That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I cried for, cried, screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. I think what we've seen these verses here is just a very accurate example of the nature of temptation.
How nice would it be if just temptation only If we only encountered temptation once. And that was it. We took our one stand. We're good. Smooth sailing from here. But that's not how temptation works. You see, the devil is very much interested in seeing you stumble. He's very interested in seeing you not offer your life unto God in the way that you should.
And so, with Potiphar's wife, we see that she came to Joseph again and again, day by day.
What's interesting is to see the way in which Joseph responds to this temptation. We've already heard him articulate the reason why he's not giving into this temptation. What's notable is the actions that he takes here. Notice that it said that he even tried to avoid being with her during the day. He didn't want to be in her presence and have that temptation gnawing at him.
And ultimately, when she found the set of circumstances where she thought, Now I've got him. No one else is in the house. What does he do? How does he respond? Anyone? Yeah. He ran out of the house. He ran away. He fled temptation. He didn't stand there. He didn't say, okay, I'm going to have a debate with you about this.
It's like, listen, there's no persuading this woman. There's no getting, the only way I can get away from this temptation is to run. It's to flee. And his actions line up perfectly with the wisdom of scripture. In Proverbs, and then in Paul's words to Timothy. Proverbs 1: 10, it says, My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them.
You know, be resistant, like Joseph. Proverbs 4, verses 14 through 15, Do not set foot on the path of the wicked, or walk in the way of evildoers. Avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn from it, and go on your way. And Paul, writing to Timothy, says, Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
You see, sometimes we try to be too tough, I think, when it comes to temptation. We put ourselves in circumstances in which we are inviting failure. The best thing that you can do is, when you can, is to simply flee temptation. The other thing we need to do, though, besides just fleeing temptation is to do what Paul tells Timothy, which is pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.
You can't just avoid that which is bad and expect to succeed. You must pursue that which is good. Ultimately, you know, what's, what's so incredible about, that we see here in the case of Joseph is he doesn't have all the benefits that we now enjoy today. We have been united with Christ. The person of the Holy Spirit dwells within us is making us into new people so that sin no longer holds power over us.
We need to lean into that if we're going to succeed, if we're going to hold off temptation. Without it, if we're putting ourselves in bad circumstances, if we're not feeding ourselves with God's word, we will fail. We will not stand in the day of trial.
Now, Joseph is so committed here that even as she's pleading with him and grabbing on him, he's like, I don't care. I'm out of here. And he leaves his cloak behind. Now we don't know what else is wearing. Maybe, maybe he had to run away naked. Who knows? But he was just, I don't care if I lose my cloak, I'm leaving that.
Well, unfortunately for him, he's like, I'm just trying to be, I'm so desperately obedient. I don't care about the cloak. Well, the cloak ends up producing problems for him. At this point you have to imagine Joseph's just like, I'm, I'm done with clothing wear, man. My, this, this nice coat that my father gave me got me thrown in a pit and sold off to slaves, as a slave.
And now this, this cloak is being used against him to tell a very different story than what transpired. He left his cloak behind because he was so desperate to get out of the situation. Instead, what the tale that Potiphar's wife spins is, well, he was really trying to, you know, tempt me, and he only ran away when I started screaming.
And, you know, he already had his cloak off and stuff, and so that's why I have it here. So terrible.
This puts Potiphar in a very difficult position when he hears this story from his wife. We continue on in verse 19. It says, When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, This is how your slave treated me, he burned with anger. Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him. He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 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.
It's interesting to wonder whether Potiphar truly believed his wife. Some commentators have suggested that he may not have truly believed his wife. It says that he was angry. We wonder, why was he angry? On the surface, it seems like he's just angry at Joseph. And maybe he did believe some of what his wife had said.
But apparently, he, he wasn't. He either didn't believe his wife, to some extent, or he really loved Joseph, despite even what he was told that he tried to do. Because, what we would have expected to happen would have been that he would have had Joseph executed. Joseph is a mere slave in that society. To do something like that, yeah, off with his head.
Instead, he's thrown into prison. He's thrown into prison along with the king's prisoners. So these are more like political prisoners. Guys who've kind of received kind of a softer sentence than off with their heads.
And as he is in prison, once again, verse 21, it says, the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. And so even in prison, Joseph, he enjoys favor from the warden. And he's put in charge of the other prisoners. And he's enjoying success in prison. So once again, we see this paradox of blessing. God allowing Joseph to go through these terrible trials.
It just keeps like, it seems like it just keeps getting worse for him. In some really, you know, vivid sort of ways. Concrete ways. And yet, every step along the way, the Lord is with him, and he's able to enjoy God's blessing even in those difficult circumstances. Now, it is no surprise that Jacob's family is blessed.
We know what God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised to bless them. Very often we've seen how they've been blessed despite their sinful circumstances. In the case of Joseph, we see a striking difference. While his forefathers often reacted impulsively in the face of fearful circumstances Joseph exhibits none of that.
He is courageously righteous. Despite being a slave. Despite being thrown in prison. He is resolute in his faithfulness to God. He is not deterred. He is not swayed. In his example We see a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus was blessed. Jesus was also obedient to the point of death on a cross. He was a man familiar with sorrow and pain, and yet he was also blessed.
Joseph was taken from the favor of his father and cast into prison. But even there, he was met by favor. Jesus Christ, the Beloved Son, was sent by the Father from Heaven to make his bed in a cold tomb. But even the grave could not conceal him from the Father's favor. He arose. We have here in Joseph both example and encouragement.
When temptation calls upon you and I, we are invited to join Joseph's reply. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? We are invited into his passion for obedience. We are likewise encouraged. We are encouraged that blessing will be found. Even in hardship, God will give us everything we need for the journey in a lasting joy that no resort to sin could ever provide.
How can I say this? I can say this because God is with us just as he was with Joseph and he has promised never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Let us pray.
Dear Father, We do thank you for your faithfulness. And we see your faithfulness again and again in the pages of Scripture as we look at the line of Abraham. As you're working out your redemptive mission, Father. We thank you, Father, for the example that we have in Joseph, who leaned into your abiding presence by responding with faithful obedience.
By doing what was right by fleeing temptation. Father, help us to do the same. Help us to be courageously righteous. Give us the wisdom to flee and avoid temptation when it arises. And Father, give us the strength to stand when we must face it down. Fill us with righteousness, Father, as we devote ourselves to the wisdom of your Word.
Strengthen us, Father, by the work of the Holy Spirit who is making us more and more like Jesus Christ day by day.
Give us comfort, Father, even through our trials, knowing that even when things get very low, that you are with us and that you are bringing us forward from the depths of the grave, the new life, which is ours in Jesus Christ. We give you praise in his name. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)