Sermon - The Story of Joseph Pt 3

The Story of Joseph pt 3

Joseph in Prison

Genesis 40

Recap

We’re going through the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis. Last week we explored the two different reactions Joseph got from people in Egypt. He was a godly person plonked smack-bang into a godless society. Some people respected and admired him, treating him really well. Others were offended by his values and treated him badly. That’s what happens whenever you put a godly person into a godly environment. One or both of those reactions is to be expected.

I didn’t go over this too much last week, but I want you to know that the more different the person is to their environment, the greater the reaction will be either way. A person who is a little bit godly in an environment that is a little bit godless won’t stand out that much, and won’t get much of a reaction. A person who is very godly in an environment which is a little bit godless will provoke a lot more reaction, positive and negative. A very godly person in a very godless environment is really going to cause a stir! Philippians 2:15 puts it like this: You are to live clean, innocent lives as children of God in a dark world full of crooked and perverse people. Let your lives shine brightly before them.

Here’s what I find exciting. I don’t know if you’ve realised it, but Australia is becoming more and more obviously godless. Our values, attitudes and behaviours are becoming more and more opposed to what you would expect from people who know God and know God’s ways.

That’s a bit scary, because most of us want to fit in and be accepted. We just want to be free to get on with doing what is right without causing much of a fuss. But God is not interested in us fitting in. God is not interested in us being anonymous. He wants us to be salt and light in a world that needs to taste and see Him through us.

So the story so far is like this: Joseph, 17 years old, youngest and favourite son in a wealthy household. His brothers hate him and conspire to sell him into slavery. He goes to Egypt and becomes a trusted and powerful servant in a wealthy household. Then he refuses to sleep with his master’s wife, so she pretends that he tried to rape her and he is thrown into the Pharaoh’s prison.

Here’s what happens next:

Story

Some time later, Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer and chief baker offended him. ² Pharaoh became very angry with these officials, ³ and he put them in the prison where Joseph was, in the palace of Potiphar, the captain of the guard. ⁴ They remained in prison for quite some time, and Potiphar assigned Joseph to take care of them.

Have you ever had one of those “AHA!” moments, where you see something that you’ve never seen before? Christians should get these all the time, because God is always revealing stuff to us to help us grow and reflect Him more.

I had an “AHA!” moment preparing this sermon. Most translations don’t mention Potiphar’s name in this chapter, they just mention that the prison was in the house of the captain of the guard. Who was the captain of the guard? Potiphar!

Potiphar’s palace included a dungeon in which the most important prisoners were kept. Prisoners of royal significance. Not run of the mill criminals, these were the people who had received the personal displeasure of Pharaoh.

Isn’t it interesting that despite being turned against Joseph by his wife’s lies, Potiphar decides to keep him close by – in the royal prison in his own house – instead of doing whatever was standard practice for slaves who had broken the law (which I suspect would have been execution)?

Isn’t it interesting that Potiphar allows his wife’s alleged attempted rapist to be promoted in his jail to a position of responsibility?

Isn’t it interesting that when two senior officials get thrown in jail, Potiphar chooses to have Joseph take personal care of them? Now, remember that this was a position of trust. If either of these men were pardoned, they would return to positions where they would have influence with Pharaoh. Potiphar could not afford to have these men treated shabbily, even if they were in jail. If he did, you could be sure that there would be payback when they got out. This little paragraph shows that despite all that has happened, despite Potiphar’s loyalties and his actions, he actually still trusts Joseph. He’s made a big show of being furious and throwing Joseph in jail, but yet deep down there still seems to be a trust in Joseph and perhaps a curiosity about him.

Never think that when people seem to turn against you or when they treat you badly, that there isn’t something deeper going on inside them. Stand firm in your character and trust God – you don’t know what might end up happening. The Bible says that we should do good to those who mistreat us, and Joseph is an example of what that looks like. He is in Potiphar’s prison but he still is trustworthy and hard-working. He is a blessing to the one who has treated him unjustly.

⁵ One night the cup-bearer and the baker each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. ⁶ The next morning Joseph noticed the dejected look on their faces. ⁷ “Why do you look so worried today?” he asked.

Did you know that there are opportunities all around us to talk with people about what is going on in their lives? There are opportunities to shine God’s light into people’s lives if we will just pay attention to what is going on. Joseph looks and sees two men who are looking down and says “What’s wrong with you guys today, you’re looking worried?”

I want you to do something for me: Turn to the person next to you, and give them your best worried look. Take turns looking worried. Now give each other an impatient look. Now try a sad look. Now a confused look.

There’s two things that stand out to me about what Joseph does right here. Firstly,

1. He names the right emotion. I don’t know about you, but I could have easily mixed up any of those looks that you guys were giving each other a few minutes ago. Joseph had the ability to discern what they were feeling. Some people seem to be very good at doing that, but I have noticed that like most things, it is something that improves with practice. Joseph seems to be someone who pays attention to people, and how they are feeling. This is a bit different to the 17 year old “You guys will bow down to me one day” Joseph at the start of our story! (By the way, Joseph is about 28 years of age now).
2. He cares about how they are feeling. He asks them why they are looking worried. He is interested in how they feel and shows his care by inviting them to talk about it - and Joseph is a man!

Because Joseph is interested, pays attention and cares enough to ask a question, we have an opportunity for ministry.

⁸ And they replied, “We both had dreams last night, but there is no one here to tell us what they mean.”

“Interpreting dreams is God’s business,” Joseph replied. “Tell me what you saw.”

⁹ The cup-bearer told his dream first. “In my dream,” he said, “I saw a vine in front of me. ¹⁰ It had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon there were clusters of ripe grapes. ¹¹ I was holding Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I took the grapes and squeezed the juice into it. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

¹² “I know what the dream means,” Joseph said. “The three branches mean three days. ¹³ Within three days Pharaoh will take you out of prison and return you to your position as his chief cup-bearer. ¹⁴ And please have some pity on me when you are back in his favor. Mention me to Pharaoh, and ask him to let me out of here. ¹⁵ For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in jail, but I did nothing to deserve it.”

¹⁶ When the chief baker saw that the first dream had such a good meaning, he told his dream to Joseph, too. “In my dream,” he said, “there were three baskets of pastries on my head. ¹⁷ In the top basket were all kinds of bakery goods for Pharaoh, but the birds came and ate them.”

¹⁸ “I’ll tell you what it means,” Joseph told him. “The three baskets mean three days. ¹⁹ Three days from now Pharaoh will cut off your head and impale your body on a pole. Then birds will come and peck away at your flesh.”

²⁰ Pharaoh’s birthday came three days later, and he gave a banquet for all his officials and household staff. He sent for his chief cup-bearer and chief baker, and they were brought to him from the prison. ²¹ He then restored the chief cup-bearer to his former position, ²² but he sentenced the chief baker to be impaled on a pole, just as Joseph had predicted. ²³ Pharaoh’s cup-bearer, however, promptly forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.

So here we have two men who are ready to receive Joseph’s ministry. Joseph has been caring for them, has built a relationship with them. They have gotten to know his character. Now he has invited them to share what is troubling them, and they do.

What is the first thing that Joseph does? He points them to God. The literal sense of what he says is : “The meaning of dreams belongs with God”. The solution to your problem is with God. The answer to your questions is with God. Don’t look to me. Don’t look to anyone else, it is God who you need to deal with. But then he says “Tell me what you saw”. These men do not know God, they do not know how to find their answers in God. Joseph is ready to be the mediator. He will be the one who will ask God for the answer. He will be the one that God reveals the truth to, and he will share that truth with the two men.

When we did our study in 1 Peter we discovered that like Joseph, you and I have this role with people who do not yet know God. We are called a kingdom of priests, and our role is to be God’s ambassadors to the world.

Now, there are plenty of people who will tell others what they want to hear. Not many people would have problems giving the good news to the cup-bearer. Not many of us would be willing to give the bad news to the baker, and certainly not in the gorily detailed way that Joseph did! Joseph said what God put in his mind to say, and he did not water it down or change it to suit his hearers or to maintain his own popularity.

I was at Hillary’s boat harbour the other week, and I walked past a booth a number of times where you could go to get a “reading”. I caught a glimpse of some cards on a table, but regardless of the methods, there was someone in there who claimed to be able to give truth to people. You might expect to hear about your” past lives” or who you might fall in love with or what you need to do to find happiness in life, and reassurance that yes, you will find happiness and wealth as long as you do what the psychic tells you to.

Imagine if Joseph had a booth like that – he’d be out of business in a week!

People in our society have plenty of places to turn for the truth. I can just imagine a conversation like this…

“I went to see Madam Shining-Dawn on Saturday. She told me that I had been a courtesan in Venice in a previous life, which explains why I’ve always loved Italian food; and I do find the sound of lapping water very soothing. She also sold me some charms that I can wear to make men go crazy over me, and she assured me that they will bring Mr Right to my door in the near future. What did you do on the weekend?”

“I spent the weekend with my sister. She saw me checking my horoscope in the paper, and wanted to talk about it. She said that she believes it’s appointed for humans to live only once, and then to face judgment! She said that God finds my current lifestyle offensive, and has a much better plan for my life, but get this - I would need to ask for God’s forgiveness and submit to His control!”

“I hate that religious bigotry! Did you get mad at her?”

“I sure did! We had a fight about it and I left. The funny thing is though, that even though a lot of what she says just makes me mad, I sometimes wish that my life was more like hers. This stuff seems to really work for her, and sometimes I wonder if it’s better than what I’m doing.”

You can change the details of this story in millions of ways, but this is the sort of story that I want to see being played out in our community.

I want us to be people like Joseph who pay attention to those around us, care for them and are ready to minister God’s love and truth to them, whether it’s easy or not; whether it’s popular or not.

I want the people around us to see the sort of character that Potiphar and the two officials saw in Joseph. I want people to feel able to open up with us and share what it is that troubles them, confuses them, saddens them and so on; and to know that the only cure is found with God. The answers are with God.

But there’s something else we need to see in this part of Joseph’s story – sometimes the fruit of ministry is a long time in coming. We can shine God’s truth and love into people’s lives, and they can keep going as though nothing has happened. Then all of a sudden when the time is right, the lights will go on. God gave the cup-bearer the dream when he was in the right place to receive its meaning. The purpose of that dream though was not revealed until 2 years down the track, which we will find out more about next week. In the meantime the cup-bearer forgets all about Joseph, and Joseph stays in prison, perhaps wondering what God is up to and why life has turned out the way it has.

None of the ministry that this church has poured in to the lives of children, young people and adults over the years has been wasted. We haven’t always gotten it right, in fact, we have made plenty of mistakes between us over the years. But we have also shone the love and truth of God into many lives. When the time is right, it will be remembered. The seed has been sown, the foundation has been laid. In the meantime we wait, and pray, and work, and pay attention to see what new opportunities for ministry God is bringing our way.