For today? You know, last year, of course, the conference theme was, again, God’s eternal purpose by way of the cross. There was a good response to it, and so they said, “Could we do this again?” Well, what the brothers decided to do was go back and take up some of these simple but crucial matters regarding the world, sin, and the law. So they sort of went back to elementary things, and I went the wrong way. I went into what I guess you could consider deeper things.
The way of the cross always will be dealing with our sin life. That was a great message this morning. I do not know how much you can appreciate it, but I have heard a lot of messages before, and that was one of the clearest, most economical, most accurate messages on this matter of the old man that has ever been recorded or heard in the history of mankind.
Now, I have read hundreds of sermons—Keswick sermons—that talk about that very thing. I went to seminary myself and had professors talking about that thing. That was the clearest teaching on that matter you will ever hear. So I hope next year, when the transcript comes out in English, that you take that as your possession. Even if you do not understand everything that was said right now in your life, you will come back to that and one day find yourself running down the street telling everybody, “You are dead! You are dead!”
That was a great exposition on this wonderful matter. Now, I am going the other way, and I am trying to talk about the cross in some of its deeper matters and issues. We find those issues coming up as we walk through the sojourn, which is where we began last time when we looked at Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
We are going to continue the sojourn in just a minute, but first I would like you to turn to a Scripture, please. It is in the Psalms: Psalm 105.
Psalm 105 is talking about our great God and His sovereign actions. Nobody can stop Him. He leads His people. He knows what He is doing. When God moves, things happen.
Psalm 105 is one of those historical sketches in the Psalms that talks about the history of Israel as God moved them along toward His purpose. It talks about this particular moment in time, in Psalm 105:16-22:
He called for a famine upon the land;
He broke the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them, Joseph,
Who was sold as a slave.
They afflicted his feet with fetters;
He himself was laid in irons:
Until the time that His word came to pass,
The word of the Lord tested him.
The king sent and released him,
The ruler of the peoples, and set him free.
He made him lord of his house,
And ruler over all his possessions,
To imprison his princes at will,
That he might teach his elders wisdom.
Lord, we come to You today and thank You for Your precious Word that is our road to wisdom. As we are gathered today, we pray that You will capture every heart, make us attentive to hear Thy voice, and open by Thy Spirit our understanding of the way of the cross.
We thank You for our gathering together. We pray that it will be redemptive and serve Your higher purposes and goals. So we come to You and ask for Your help by the Spirit to convey simple things. We thank You for everybody who is here today, and we pray that all will be able to comprehend more of Your perfect ways. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Sometimes it would almost appear that God’s sovereign action leaves us out of the picture, because God moves and overrules. Many times, as you look at the people in the Old Testament, they almost look like chess pieces on a board that God is moving around.
But even though one side of the truth is that God is sovereign, that He will accomplish His purpose, and that He will find vessels to accomplish His purpose, on the other hand, down here on earth, as far as you or I are concerned, He is looking for a heart.
We have some 150 people here, or at least supposed to be here. I think twenty of them are in bed right now. But however many people are here, God is looking for some hearts. All of you probably are not ready, but He is looking for some people to call and take into His higher purposes and ways.
It is a high way. God’s ways are higher than our ways. They are hard to understand. But God has a plan for us, and He will not push us into that plan unless He sees a heart that is willing to go. So I pray that as we study in these days these simple lessons from the lives of the patriarchs, you will sense in your heart a willingness to go with the Lord wherever He leads.
Today, we are going to look again at this matter of the sojourn. We are looking at the cross and the perfecting work of God—not just that initial work, the deliverance from the world and all of this, but the perfecting work of the cross in our lives. Today’s subject is sojourning unto sonship.
Yesterday, we looked at sojourning and defined a few things. Just in case there are a few people who were not here last time, let us lay some basic groundwork. Sojourning is a Bible word used to describe the journeys of the patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and others—and subsequently the nation of Israel as it moved in God’s purpose here and there, not always sure where they were going or why they were going, but with God leading them toward an end.
It is a journey away from what once was home. When God starts us out on the journey, you know what? You never get back home. Even when you go home, it is no longer home. Something has been removed, and you are now a pilgrim.
Actually, you do find home in the midst of a sojourn. Where is that? Every time you touch the house of God—God’s home—you feel at home. So we learn in this to be at home with God.
A sojourn is a temporary settling in a place that is not your own home. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived for a number of years in various cities and places, but they did not call them their home. They were just passing through on this temporary sojourn through the land.
It is a journey where the pilgrim is utterly cast upon God, who then begins to lead. Many people want to know, “How does God lead in my life? How can I know God’s will? What will God do?” You know what? He gets you in a sojourn where you do not know what to do, and then He begins to lead.
The only way He can give us that mental lobotomy is because otherwise we all think too much. We craft our own way. We scheme. We decide what we are going to do. So God lays the traps for us, brings us to the end, and then begins to lead in His perfect way.
One of the great songs David sang was, “As for God, His ways are perfect; His word is tested and true.” He was speaking about this perfect way of God at the end of his life, when he was confessing freely that his life and his way were anything but perfect. He made so many mistakes, but even his life was taken hold of by God. Even in his great mistakes, he could say, “I have seen God’s ways. They are perfect.” It is because he had been on his sojourn.
The sojourn is also a New Testament definition speaking of Christians. We have all heard this before: as Christians, this world is not our home. We are on a heavenly way. We are in between here and there. The Lord is taking us toward His heavenly goals.
In three passages in 1 Peter, he specifically speaks to the sojourner about watching out for the world’s entrapments, because your sojourn can be delayed or waylaid by the world. There are precious brothers and sisters who, at twenty-eight years old, were wholly given to God. But somewhere in the middle of their business, work, and everything else, they got caught up in the world. They have been on a side path.
It is interesting, but humbling, to see some of these same brethren come back at fifty years old, with those years of life sort of wasted. They come back to serve the Lord and find that the Lord opens up a way of purpose for them again. The sojourn is toward purpose. It is not just rambling around.
We saw seven principles along the sojourn:
I love that second principle. The Lord says, “Okay, saint, which way are you going? North, south, east, or west?” You say, “Hmm, let’s see.” It is like Tom Hanks at the crossroads after he got back from being stranded on the island: “Which way am I gonna go?” God says, “Just choose a way.” You say, “I am going to go that way,” and you start driving that way, and He meets you on that road. But if you had gone this way, He would meet you on that road. He is just looking for you to get out on the road so He can meet you.
Faith is just theoretical except when we are walking it out. If the Lord is not with us, the devil eats us up. That is where we find out that God is true and can be relied upon.
The sojourn teaches us that the true nature of blessing is spiritual. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob all testified in their lives that it was the presence of God that was their blessing.
There is a famous saying: “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament. Adversity is the blessing of the New Testament.” Well, that is true to some degree, because in the Old Testament you gain land and an inheritance, while the New Testament speaks about spiritual things. But those who have been in the sojourn in the Old Testament realize that it is not the things that give the blessing; it is the Blesser Himself. In understanding that, you have understood what life is all about.
The cross is continually at work in the sojourn, decreasing us and bringing us to the end of ourselves. At the same time, in that sojourn, we really come to know the Lord of mercies. How merciful He is. The more we go through, the more we see His mercy.
The seventh principle of the sojourn is that a unique testimony is established as the treasure is revealed in the sojourner’s life. You will have a testimony different from my testimony, and so forth. That is what God wants in the way of fullness: God having worked and filled all of our lives with His presence and blessing in such a way that each person can uniquely testify as a different stone in the building of God—a beautiful diamond, ruby, or emerald.
In the last six months, I have been studying the book of Genesis, and the patriarchs have been in my heart and mind. As I get older, I do not like to skip around so much. I like to keep my thoughts in what God is showing me. So I am going to be talking about Joseph the patriarch, as he goes on his sojourn unto sonship.
Joseph’s sojourn is one of the favorite stories of the patriarchs. The story is very detailed and wonderful to read. First, it explains why we have Exodus. If you do not have the Joseph story, there is a disconnect from Genesis to Exodus. But it also gives a detailed picture of a chosen, righteous man blessed and exalted by God.
It reveals the overruling providence of God in achieving His purpose. Even though Joseph was thrown into a hole and left for dead, God had better plans—plans for His purpose which were realized through Joseph.
It also provides one of the most significant types of Christ in the Old Testament. Joseph is such a picture of Christ Himself. When you see Joseph in his sojourn, you see Christ in His sojourn in many parallels.
Joseph’s sojourn was similar to the other patriarchs in these respects: his sojourn began when he went away from home, even as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did. His faith was tested through his trials. Would God really be there? Would God deliver him? Would his dreams come true?
All those years of testing were trying. The Word of God was being tried in the life of the one who believed it. The principles of the cross were working in Joseph’s life to perfect him. He was decreasing. He was being humbled. In this humiliation, he was learning the ways of God.
Joseph came to know the God of mercy through his sojourn, even unto glory and leadership in Egypt. But Joseph’s sojourn is unique from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in several ways.
Unlike the others, who met God many times, there is no record of Joseph having specific encounters with God. We should not misinterpret that to mean Joseph did not know God. As a matter of fact, there is more evidence to show that Joseph had day-by-day contact with God, unlike Jacob, who had frequent visits with Him.
Secondly, the work of the cross in respect to sin is not in view with Joseph. Now, with Jacob, the guy was such a sinner that everybody would say, “Yeah, Jacob deserves that. Crush him, Lord, crush him. He is such a sneak. He is such a supplanter. He is such a tricky guy. God has got to crush him.”
We understand that the cross is crushing, removing sin, and delivering us from the self-life. But Joseph’s life is not like that. You are hard-pressed to come up with any sin Joseph committed unless you want to start making them up. That does not mean Joseph was perfect. He was a sinner like everybody else. But God wrote the story to show us another angle on the life of the sojourner.
Here, the cross is doing its perfecting work in terms of character and purpose upon the man of God. It is not so much deliverance from sin and all these things, but this perfecting work of character and purpose that God is accomplishing through Joseph. Here is a whole other angle on the cross.
Especially if you are a young person here, you probably feel—and rightly so—that if God is going to deal with you, He will have to primarily deal with you regarding sin. You still have temptations, sins, failures, and all of these things. God is going to have to deal with us the rest of our lives. We never get away from the power of sin. It is there waiting. If we are not in Christ, under His blood, and walking by the Spirit, sin can raise its nasty head and do a number on any one of us.
So the cross is always going to be a trimming factor, a bringing-us-to-the-end-of-ourselves factor, and a means of deliverance from sin. But have you ever thought that the cross might work on you not because of sin so much, but in order to perfect you?
Perfection is not when you are sinless. Well, no, you are not sinless. But you may not have any conscious problem with sin right now, and that does not mean you do not need the work of the cross. The cross did its work on Jesus, the Son of God. The cross did its work on Paul and Peter. The cross must do its perfecting work on us as well.
Though no encounters with God are specifically mentioned regarding Joseph, there are indications that Joseph had a heart for spiritual things from his youth. Joseph was special.
I do not know how many of you were raised in a family of twelve, but Joseph had twelve brothers and a sister, actually. He was second to the youngest. But right from the get-go, he was special. Some of you have a brother or sister and you know they are special—or put it the other way around: you know you are not special. However you want to look at it.
But Joseph, from the very beginning, was spiritual. There was something in his heart that was for God. As a young and impressionable boy, he saw Jacob transformed at the River Jabbok, and he saw the new Israel begin to emerge. He saw his father in a transformed state.
He remembered his family’s journey to Bethel. That is home. On Jacob’s sojourn, the one thing God told him all the time was, “Get back to Bethel.”
Brothers and sisters, just as an aside, though you sojourn through a lonely place and are sometimes lonely and afraid, whenever you truly touch God’s house, it should feel like home. It is that house being prepared in heaven that we are able to touch here on earth. God does not leave us homeless upon this earth. He gives us His presence and He gives us the house of God to make us feel at home.
When Joseph got old enough to begin to shepherd, he shepherded just like his ancestors in the land of Canaan. He even reported his brothers when they were unrighteously doing things. It says he gave an evil report regarding his brothers.
Now, we do not know what that evil report was, but it was not one of these, “Nah, nah, nah, nah, I’m going to tell. You shot a stone at one of the sheep.” It was not like that. Joseph was a righteous man, and he wanted to shepherd righteously. When he was with some of his brothers, they were either selling some of the sheep to make video-game money or doing something, and Joseph went back with his righteous heart and reported it to his father. That was one reason he was out of favor with his brothers.
When he started receiving dreams, he thought they had spiritual significance. He took them seriously. A lot of people do not take anything seriously, but not Joseph. He had a heart for God, and he was going to check out and report these dreams.
First of all, we notice that Joseph was the beloved of Jacob. It says literally in Genesis 37:3 that Jacob had grown to love Joseph more than the rest of his sons. “Had grown to” carries the sense of a progressive understanding. Jacob grew more and more to love Joseph.
This was not only because Joseph was the son of his old age and the child of Rachel—do not forget Benjamin was Rachel’s child as well, though he was a little boy. There was something special about Joseph. Jacob obviously felt a kinship with Joseph’s spiritual life.
The one great mistake Isaac made, Jacob’s father, was that Isaac had no eye for which one of his sons had a spiritual heart. Isaac frankly liked Esau more because Esau went out, hunted game, and brought him good meals. His god was his belly, as it were.
But Jacob, having gone through all that himself, became aware that Joseph had some special deposits, some special spiritual dimension to his life. Jacob felt kinship with it. So let us not completely say Jacob was just an old, stupid man who preferred one son over the others. It was deeper than that.
Some Bible scholars believe that the many-colored, beautiful coat Joseph was given was not merely a child’s coat from a doting father. Rather, it was a sign that Joseph was to be the firstborn, the inheritor of the birthright, the priest of his family, and the head of his home. By the age of seventeen, Joseph was already wearing this coat.
God began revealing secrets to Joseph in dreams. God gives vision and promises to those with a heart for Him. Every child of God should have spiritual dreams, a spiritual desire, some spiritual vision of something to take place. That is a wonderful thing: a dream of being involved in something great that God is doing.
Do you have such a dream? If you have a heart for the Lord, the Lord wants to reveal something of His purpose in these dreams. To Joseph was revealed such a dream.
Many people say Joseph had the dreams but should not have shared them. I completely disagree. Some people say Joseph was being smart-alecky, going to his brothers and saying, “Hey, I had a dream, and you were bowing down to me,” as if he were some kind of wise guy.
But Joseph was taking his dream seriously, perhaps not understanding exactly what it meant or how it could be worked out. Nevertheless, he shared these things by faith. It was a good thing he did, because when he was going through the testing, it says the word tested him. He held on to those dreams and promises even through the tough times. “God gave me those dreams,” he could say. “I believe somehow they are going to come to pass.”
It was also necessary to tell those dreams beforehand. Could you imagine if Joseph had not shared his dreams, and then, after everything was over, his brothers were bowing down to him in Egypt? Joseph could say, “You see, this is the dream I had when I was sixteen years old.” They would say, “What are you talking about?” But Joseph spoke the word of faith about this dream years before it happened. When it happened, it vindicated that these dreams were indeed a gift and promise of God’s purpose.
But, of course, he told his brothers the dream, and it says they hated him. The more he told them the dreams, the more they hated him. They could not stand his guts. They did not like Joe one bit. They wanted to do him in.
Joe’s sojourn began unceremoniously when his brothers took him and decided they were going to kill him. That is a tough way for your sojourn to begin. I hope none of you start out your sojourning in the ditch. But that is what happened to Joseph.
The sojourn did not begin because Joseph was eager to see life over in Seattle or some foreign place like that. It was not started because his mother and father died and he had to move. It was not started because God gave him a vision and said, “Go to the land of New Jersey.” No. He wanted to stay at home. He was only seventeen, and his brothers took hold of him and started him on the sojourn.
They stripped him of his glorious robe and determined to leave him to die in the ditch. Judah, being a good Jew, got the idea that it would be better to sell him off. They sold him to Midianite traders who came along, despite the fact that Joseph was crying, “Oh no, please do not do this! Please let me go!” It says they ignored him.
They left him in the ditch, sent him off with the traders, and ate their little Styrofoam-box Chinese lunch after saying a blessing.
Having sold him off, they deceived their father. They thought, “We will take Joseph right out of the way. We will bring home his bloody coat, and that will be the end of Joseph in our life.” But what it did was cause Jacob to basically die, because he mourned the loss of this spiritual young man. He could not be consoled or comforted.
Added to the sins they committed against Joseph, these sinful, terrible, vengeful brothers added this sin: they also destroyed the life of their father in the process.
Joseph began his lonely sojourn, cut off from family, cut off from anybody he knew, cut off from anybody who spoke his language.
All of this was caused by sin. Why did Joseph’s sojourn begin? Because of the sins of others. It actually started at the family level, where the wives could not get along, spat, and fought like cats. Then the boys came along and fought with one another.
The sons of Bilhah, Zilpah, Leah, and Rachel were at each other’s throats all the time, vying, competing, and carrying on. There was so much strife in that family. It was the seedbed for this terrible act.
The prejudicial love of Jacob also contributed to these things. It is interesting that Isaac preferred Esau over Jacob, and then Jacob came along in the next generation and did the same thing. A parent who says, “I like this one better than that one,” can cause envy and problems with the other children.
But, of course, the primary sin involved in the beginning of Joseph’s sojourn was the hatred, envy, betrayal, and revenge of the brothers. It fell upon Joseph. That is why he is a picture of Jesus.
As we saw in Psalm 105, Joseph was sold as a slave. His feet were afflicted with fetters. At some point while he was in prison, he was actually bound in chains. He himself was laid in irons until the time his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. The Lord had given him dreams to hold on to, and it was tough.
What should we call this sojourn? How about the sojourn of the garments—the four garments?
You could look at Joseph’s sojourn in terms of these four garments, because they were the different phases of his life.
Already in the story of Joseph, we can see the type of Christ. He was envied and rejected by his own. The prophetic dreams of his destiny were contested by those who tried to destroy him. He was betrayed and sold for silver. The one thought dead was alive. Forgiving love was the key to victory. Those brethren who rejected him were disciplined in a sojourn of repentance. Men’s evil plotting was overturned by God for the salvation of many.
In all these ways, Joseph’s story is similar to the story of Jesus in a sojourn. Why was Jesus persecuted, maligned, and tortured? Because of the sins of men.
I am going to call this sojourning unto sonship. You are a child of God, and God wants to grow you up and make you a responsible member of His family. He wants you to become a son.
It is like God has a carpenter’s business, and He wants to add another son to it. That is you. You need to grow up. You need to mature. You need to become responsible. You need to develop character. When we are children, God begins this work of the cross and leads us in a sojourn that brings us unto sonship.
The cross must deal with and perfect Joseph’s character, ministry, and faith through suffering. If you serve the Lord, the Lord will give you a cross in that serving. Deny yourself, take up the cross, and follow Him. That involves some suffering when you serve, and that suffering is part of what perfects you in your service.
The eventual destiny of power and authority that would be Joseph’s could only be given to one who had learned to be a servant of others. If the Lord gives power and authority to those who do not understand servanthood, that power is corruptive and used wrongly. Joseph had to be built by the power of the cross into servanthood before these things could be properly given to him.
The gifts and attainments—the ability to have dreams, interpret dreams, and attain unto the throne—are granted to a son to be used for bringing many sons to glory. It is not about our own glory or attainment. Rather, the Lord wants us to become sons in order to bring other sons to glory.
We understand the work of the cross on Jacob. But do we understand that we may be taken through a sojourn of suffering and testing because of others? Do you think God would put you through suffering because of others? Is that possible?
How about for the sake of others? Will God take you through experiences of the cross for the sake of others? You are fine. You are doing fine. But suddenly something is laid upon you that involves suffering, denial, and dealings, and it is for other people’s sake. It is not even for your own sake.
Here is where our self-centered world is dealt a blow. God is looking for sons who are willing to sacrifice for the sake of others. One of the greatest needs in the body of Christ today is for people to forget about themselves. There are larger issues involved.
Paul said in Colossians 1:24:
Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you,
And fill up on my part that which is lacking
Of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh
For His body’s sake, which is the church.
Paul was going through afflictions. He was imprisoned when he wrote this. These afflictions were laid upon him because of his ministry to the church. In order to fill up that which was lacking, he was serving extra hard and laying down his life for others.
Of course, we know that only the Son of God could suffer redemptively on behalf of sinners. You and I cannot suffer redemptively and save others by our lives. But still, sonship in Christ will involve suffering because we are identified with Christ as witnesses, because our lives will be expended for others in loving service in the body of Christ, and because our hearts will suffer intercessorily for the sake of all men.
Imagine this: maybe you are eighteen, maybe you are twenty-four. Imagine coming to the place in your spiritual life where you suffer and pray for friends and colleagues who are lost and going to hell, who have no purpose and no hope in this world unless you share the gospel with them. Something has to be laid upon God’s children who do not care whether their friends have any destiny at all.
There is a maturity that actually cares for sinners. It is a growing-up experience. We suffer because co-working with Him according to purpose involves even greater sacrifices of love and life.
I think of missionaries and people who came to retirement age and, instead of retiring, sacrificed the rest of their lives to go back into some inhospitable place and preach the gospel. That is what I am talking about. God may want your life and your sacrifice as a son who has grown up and now has a chance to lay down his life for others.
Those destined for sonship must be perfected by way of the cross.
And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
If so be that we suffer with Him,
That we may be also glorified with Him.
— Romans 8:17
If we endure, we shall also reign with Him:
If we deny Him, He also will deny us.
— 2 Timothy 2:12
This is what Paul told Timothy regarding the life Timothy had ahead of him. Behind everything is the merciful hand of God, who uses a chain of providential events to raise His child into sonship.
First, Joseph’s faith was tested through the sojourn in Potiphar’s house. The traders took him into Egypt, dumped him off, and sold him in the marketplace. Potiphar took him to be a slave, probably thinking he would clean the bathroom and things like that.
There in Egypt, Joseph was far away from the people of God and far away from the worship of God’s people. Now he was in Egypt. He could have started a whole new worldly life, a life full of Egypt’s goodies.
But it says he got to Egypt, and because he was sojourning, the Lord was with him. That is what it says in Genesis 39:2. He began serving in Potiphar’s home, and the Lord was with him. Everything Joseph did turned to gold.
His stock portfolio went up. Somebody started cleaning out the gutters around the house. Joseph just took over the house, and next thing you know, he was so important that Potiphar said, “Hey, I am going to go play golf every day. Just make sure everything is cool.”
Because the Lord was with Joseph, and Potiphar could see the Lord was with Joseph, he was raised up. Even though he had been thrown down, because he was a son, he rose back up. Like cream, he rose to the top of the milk wherever you put him. He became head of the house, and everything prospered. Everything was put in Joseph’s hands.
Until Potiphar’s wife said, “Hey, can I be put in your hands?”
Joseph said, “How could I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” So he said, “Nope,” and ended up in jail.
He could have said yes and had an intriguing life—“Quick, he’s coming home!”—hiding underneath the drapes, all that excitement that goes with sinfulness. “Oh, it is so exciting.” And then have his head cut off one day when they found out.
But Joseph remained faithful. Because Joseph remained faithful, he was rewarded. Potiphar’s wife said, “This man tried to sleep with me, and I took his coat as proof.” What could Joseph say? It was the Hebrew slave against Potiphar’s wife. Whose word was going to be accepted?
So Joseph was thrown in the clink. There is test number one. What a sojourn: from the ditch, now to the house, and now to the jail.
Joseph’s faith was tested through his sojourn in prison. He got down into this prison, a rat hole, suffering away there. He was in chains and probably there for several years, because the total of his suffering before he was raised up was thirteen years.
How long he was in Potiphar’s house and how long he was in jail, we do not know exactly. But he was in jail at least two years. He was in there a long time.
All that time, he could have been asking, “Were my dreams empty? Was it just a figment of my imagination? Would I ever be vindicated against my brothers, or against Potiphar’s wife? I have not done anything wrong, and here I am going through all this persecution.”
But it says, “The Lord was with Joseph.” That is why it is not good to be a child of God, because He keeps raising you up so people notice you. If the Lord were not with you, you would just look like every other schlub—one of those rats on the floor of the cell.
But Joseph was raised up. Next thing you know, he became head of the whole jail. The jailer said, “Here are the keys. I have cable television in the other room. Just take care of the people. Feed them. Make sure everybody is happy.” Joseph said, “Sure.” He was learning how to serve. He was being faithful in his service.
Then came the day when two men had dreams, and Joseph saw his opportunity to get out of jail. The baker and the cupbearer both had a dream on the same night. They dreamed of female Legos.
The next day, the baker and the cupbearer were a little spooked, if you know what I mean. They said, “We each had a dream, and there is no one to interpret it.” Joseph said, “Tell me the dream.”
The cupbearer’s dream was about three vines and Pharaoh’s cup. Joseph said, “This is what it means: the three branches are three days, and in another three days Pharaoh will lift up your head by restoring you to your position.”
Then Joseph said, “Please, please, be sure to remember me when things go well for you. Keep faith with me by reminding Pharaoh about me. Get me out of this place.” The cupbearer said, “Sure, sure, sure. Here is my card.” Well, his card did not do much good in prison.
The baker had a dream as well, but it was not so optimistic: three baskets with bread on them, but birds came and ate the bread. Joseph said, “Hmm, not so good, bro. The three baskets are three days. In another three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head too and hang you on the gallows.”
Here is the faith of Joseph: he did not say to the baker, “Now remember me before Pharaoh,” because he knew it was no good. He made no request.
Of course, those days came, but the cupbearer forgot about Joseph. Are we surprised? Joseph waited in vain for two years and never heard a word.
Joseph’s exaltation would not come by the favor of a man, but by the hand of God. When God raises a person up, He does it by His own ways.
The time spent in trials in Egypt was about thirteen years, because Joseph was thirty years old when he came to the throne. Why do God’s heirs and children have to go through so many wasted years?
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.” If David was God’s beloved son, if David was the man after God’s heart, why did God allow him to go through so many trials, persecutions, and pursuits by King Saul?
We think if God loves us, He is always just going to take care of us. But if God loves us, He wants us to be perfected into sonship. So we go through difficult times.
But the time came. After thirteen years at the bottom of life, God lifted Joseph up.
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God,
That He may exalt you in due time.
— 1 Peter 5:6
And the God of all grace, who called you unto His eternal glory in Christ,
After that ye have suffered a little while,
Shall Himself perfect, establish, strengthen you.
— 1 Peter 5:10
Joseph had been through three trials: betrayed by his brothers, accused by Potiphar’s wife, and forgotten by the cupbearer.
How did the tide of events in Joseph’s life change? God did it sovereignly by giving Pharaoh a disturbing dream.
Pharaoh had two dreams in the same night. The first was about fat cows and skinny cows. Then he saw a dream about fat grain and skinny grain. He woke up in the morning and summoned the wise men. He said, “Tell me the dream. What is this all about?”
Egypt had magicians, astrologers, and people who studied all about this kind of thing. But the wise men were useless. They were useless. It was because God had hidden the meaning within the dream. Nobody could figure it out.
Then the cupbearer suddenly said, “Oh, oh, oh, oh!” Pharaoh said, “Cut out with the ‘oh.’ What are you trying to say?” The cupbearer said, “There was a guy down there with the rats. I think I did not do right.” Pharaoh said, “What about him?” “He interpreted my dream, and it came to pass exactly.” Pharaoh said, “Go get him.”
Joseph interpreted the two dreams and gave Pharaoh wisdom as well. All that trial, all that hardship, chains, and suffering had done something in Joseph. What had it done? It made him a servant of God.
Pharaoh said, “What do my dreams mean?” Joseph said, “It is not in me to know the dreams, but God will give Pharaoh the meaning of the dreams.” That is humility. Joseph saw that he had simply been given a stewardship and a gift by God.
He did not say, “I have the gifts. I have the dream. But first I want to sign a contract.” No. Even though he was in jail, and for all he knew could be thrown back into jail afterward, he was willing to help Pharaoh and interpret the dreams, just as he had been willing to serve and help the men in jail.
After the dreams were given to him, Joseph said, “God has shown Pharaoh His plans.” Again, he did not say, “God has shown me.” He said that God had given Pharaoh the dreams because He wanted to show Pharaoh that something tremendously important was about to happen. What a servant he had become.
Pharaoh said, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the Spirit of God?” He said, “Forget the magicians. This man has the Spirit of God.” Pharaoh gave Joseph a signet ring, royal attire, a gold necklace, and the second chariot. Everybody had to bow the knee when he went by.
Joseph was exalted in all Egypt. Wherever he went, people bowed down. How did he administer with all that power? Did he rub the Egyptians’ faces in the dirt? No. He used his power to serve and save Egypt from famine.
God wants to give His children authority and power when they have learned to use it to serve.
Joseph lived in Egypt and raised his sons. But had his dreams become a reality? No, not yet. Had he served the purpose of God in his life? Only the first part. God had prepared and perfected him unto sonship, but Joseph’s sojourn had to continue in order to fulfill God’s full purpose for his life.
Why did God bring Joseph to such a position? Was it simply a reward for going through all the pain and suffering of the past? No, it was much more than that. Joseph first had to go through the sojourn of the cross in order to become a glorious son. He had to be perfected in service, character, faith, and confidence in God.
But still, his dreams had not come to pass, because only God could bring those dreams to pass. God had chosen Joseph to be a vessel for bringing his brothers, father, wives, and children into sonship.
God has blessed a number of you. Some of you are quite young and still in the initial stages, but others of you God has really blessed. You have attained to things in the blessing of God, the knowing of Him, and the trusting in Him. But my burden is to see such people willing to lay down their lives for God’s fuller purpose.
Many need to come to glory. Many of God’s children need to be helped in this purpose of coming to glory. Joseph was chosen as a vessel to help bring his brothers to glory. Only God can bring somebody into sonship and glory, but God uses vessels in the church, in His house, who have wisdom and a servant’s heart to help people come to such a position.
At this stage—Joseph upon the throne, second in command to Pharaoh—we could liken his life to Jesus at the Mount of Transfiguration. Jesus had personally been approved by God, and now the glory of God was shining through Him because He was a perfect man. He was sinless. He was a servant. He was beloved of God.
Yet Jesus said, “I must go to Jerusalem,” in order to bring many sons to glory. There comes a choice in a person’s life: are you simply going to settle down and enjoy life, when there are still many sons and many children who need to be gathered, helped, lifted, and brought to maturity?
This is the point Joseph was at. His sojourn continued as he brought his family into sonship. That is an incredible job.
Meanwhile, while Joseph had gone through tests and trials and come out in brilliant glory to attain his position in Egypt, what had happened back home in Canaan? There was a family of thirteen siblings: independent, jealous, unsubmissive rebels.
Reuben lost his primacy through lust. He was the oldest son and supposed to be the priest of the family, but Reuben slept with one of Jacob’s wives. He was untrustworthy.
Simeon and Levi were untrustworthy because they were vengeful, reactionary, angry men. They destroyed the whole city of Shechem because of what had happened to their sister.
Judah was in danger of assimilation into the Canaanites. Judah left the family, went down to Canaan, met a friend, married a Canaanite woman, and had children who also married Canaanite women. The only way God could stop Judah’s assimilation into a Canaanite life was through severe judgment upon his sons.
Jacob himself was half dead with grief and sorrow. What a family.
Jacob’s sons as a whole had little spiritual maturity. They were drifting apart and might not be able to stand against outward enemies after Jacob’s death. Jacob, for all his shortcomings, was the head and patriarch of the family. What would happen when he died?
This family of Jacob’s is just like the family of God, as far as I can see: people who are carnal, people who are fighting, people who are worldly, people hardly in shape to be called sons.
God’s whole purpose rested on these twelve sons gaining an inheritance in Canaan. Every one of the sons had to be included. God was not going to say, “Okay, Joseph, you come with Me into the promised land, and the heck with the rest of them.” God wanted to bring them all in. How was He going to do it? Look at this bunch. They seemed fully unfit for such a calling.
But God took this family, having dealt with Joseph, and began their sojourn unto sonship. It was a downhill slide.
God would take this ratty, broken-apart, dysfunctional family and take them through the mill with experiences of struggling, suffering, and finally forgiveness. God brings His independent ones into the house and breaks them together by His mercy.
The result is an experience in which every member experiences the ways of the cross and the mercies of God. The resulting testimony is that, through all the struggles and failures, God meant and used it for good.
Do not be surprised if the fellowship where you are, your youth group, or wherever you are, goes through extremely difficult times. It may be God’s sojourn for His family corporately, so that they begin to learn how to come into sonship, purpose, responsibility, and calling.
Jacob’s family now began the sojourn, and God used Joseph to help in this recovery of Israel and the family. Only God can do God’s work. Nobody can bring people to glory by human hands. But Joseph was a vessel.
As Christ is pictured in Joseph’s life and in his dealings with his brothers, we see the wisdom of Joseph used in dealing with the brothers and bringing them to glory. We will see four stages of the sojourn in bringing the family to glory.
How did the sojourn begin for the family? Famine. It is interesting how we like to stay in our little ruts, and God has to blow us out with some kind of crisis.
The famine drove the sons, who had heard a report that Egypt had grain, to go up there on the first visit. This first stage had a purpose: before people can be brought into maturity, responsibility, and sonship, their conscience has to be awakened.
Many Christians live such a worldly life that they do not even have a conscience anymore. It has been seared. But God, through His process, will restore a conscience to them.
Joseph and his brothers sovereignly met after twenty years. It had been thirteen years of trial, then seven years of prosperity, and now they were in the famine. Joseph looked completely different. He was clean-shaven like the Egyptians, wore Egyptian clothes, spoke Egyptian, and had grown into fullness of stature. His brothers did not recognize him.
But they met after twenty years. How did that meeting come about? It was God’s arrangement. The brothers came just when Joseph happened to come around the corner. There were different granaries in the land, but Joseph was at the right granary at the right time. It was all the sovereign arrangement of God for a meeting in that place.
Joseph recognized his brothers. His brothers bowed down, and bingo—his dream. I do not know what he thought about his dream twenty years before, but when he saw his brothers bow down, it did not make him proud or make him feel better than his brothers. It made him worship God inside. God, all along, had meant what He said.
Sometimes you have to wait twenty years to see God do what He says He is going to do. But when He does it, it brings glory in your life.
Joseph recognized the moment. He went and cried in the other room. He was crying with a desire to embrace and reveal himself to his brothers, but his brothers were not ready. Joseph was ready; his brothers were not ready. Jesus is ready to reveal Himself to us. We are not ready.
It would be ill-advised for Jesus to reveal Himself to His children under the wrong conditions. So Joseph treated his brothers harshly, which they could not understand. They had simply come up to buy grain, but Joseph said, “You are spies! You are spies!”
He was speaking in Egyptian—really tough Egyptian. The translator told them in Hebrew, “No, no, no, we are not spies.” Joseph could understand everything they said, but they could not understand what Joseph was saying.
Joseph accused them of being spies, and they said, “Why is he treating us so harshly? What did we do?” Finally, Joseph said, “Put them in the clink.” They were thrown into the dungeon for three days. Maybe they were getting a little taste of something Joseph had gone through in the past.
In the cell for three days, they began to search their hearts. When they came out, Joseph said, “Here is what I am going to do. I am going to take this man.” He chained Simeon up and said, “Take him away. Simeon is my hostage until you bring back Benjamin.”
When that happened, the brothers said to one another, not thinking Joseph could understand them, “We are being paid back for the sin we committed against our brother. We saw him in the ditch crying out, and we turned a deaf ear to him. Now this has fallen on us.”
Their consciences were finally poked. Can you imagine? For twenty years they had let that thing lie dormant. At first they were saying, “What did we do wrong? We are innocent.” Suddenly, this twenty-year-old sin came out: “Yeah, how about this?”
Reuben, in his usual pass-the-buck fashion, said, “Yeah, I knew. I knew we should not have done it.” Too late now.
Joseph sent them away with their bags. Along the way, they stopped to feed the animals. When they opened a sack, their money was in the sack. They said, “How can we go back now? We cannot go back. We have the money in the sack. We can never explain. We are in such a mess.”
Then, for the first time, they said, “What is this that God has done to us?” For the first time they thought maybe God was dealing with them.
At first, you think, “That is not fair. Everybody goes to school and gets a nice teacher, and I get Mrs. Frankenstein. Why is this happening to me? My parents are like two other monsters. Why has this happened to me? I am so innocent. What have I ever done?”
God puts the screws on until your conscience is awakened, and you begin to say, “What is God doing to me?”
The second sojourn takes us a little deeper. Jacob said, “Go back and get a little food, and take your brother. As for me, if he gets killed, that is it. I am dead meat anyway. Just go ahead.”
The first sojourn was, “La da da da, we are tripping down the road to get food.” Not the second one. This famine brought the stakes much higher.
Their consciences were still bothering them. The money found in the sacks bothered them even more. The fact that Benjamin had to go back, and that their father might go into the grave, made this trip really heavy. The brothers went back with their heads down, hoping things would work out.
When they returned, Joseph said, “You are back. This is your brother Benjamin? Let’s have a party.” They said, “A party? I thought we were going to get smunched.” But they had a party.
Joseph saw them all eating there. They were eating Lego pudding and all kinds of stuff. The men were surprised that they each had a name card in Hebrew according to their age. Benjamin was specially blessed with five times as much steak. They wondered about that.
Joseph sat apart because he was an Egyptian, and Egyptians did not eat with Hebrews. After it was all over, Joseph went into the bathroom and cried. Then he came back. All their sacks were filled, they had wine, and they were making merry. They thought, “We thought we were going to get it, and instead we were shown mercy. Whee! Let’s go.”
They got about ten miles outside the city. Then came the third stage of the sojourn, the devastating judgment. Joseph’s servant came out and said, “Who stole the cup of the powerful man?”
When the cup was discovered in Benjamin’s sack—which had, of course, been placed there—the brothers did not beat Benjamin up. They would have beaten Joseph up twenty years before. But something was being forged in that family.
All the brothers tore their clothes and went back to Joseph. They all took responsibility, because this was the end. Oh, the devastating consequences—how it worked on their lives.
When they came back, they did not know what to do. Then Judah stepped forward. Judah was deeply sinful and had gotten involved with the world in Canaan, but Judah repented. Straight-out repented.
He came before Joseph and pleaded with him. He said, “I make no excuses for what has happened, because it is because of the sin we committed years ago to our brother.” Then he said, “Would you please take me instead of Benjamin?”
“Could I tell you why? My father is going to die if Benjamin does not come back home. Even if my father did not die, I could never live there knowing that Benjamin was here and I promised to bring him home. Please, take me, and let Benjamin go.”
Judah acknowledged in his long confession and repentance that Jacob loved Rachel’s children the most, including Joseph. He only pleaded for mercy on behalf of his brothers. He interceded for his father and brothers and put himself in harm’s way. That is repentance. He came clean.
His conscience brought repentance. God wants to stir our conscience, but if we do not come to repentance, we cannot come to sonship. Until we see the utter, disgusting sinfulness of our lives, we cannot come to sonship.
Judah fessed up, stepped up, and took responsibility. That is why Judah became one of the two great leaders of Israel, the other being Joseph—the tribe of Joseph and the tribe of Judah.
How does the Lord capture His children and lead them to sonship in the end? We have talked about pressure, conscience, and repentance. But how does God really capture us and bring Judah, Levi, Simeon, Reuben, and the others into sonship? He reveals Himself.
That is what Joseph did: he revealed himself. This cartoon has a lot of truth in it. It says, “No more frightening family disclosure has been uttered since Darth Vader proclaimed, ‘Luke, I am your father,’ in a galaxy far away.” Joseph might as well have been Darth Vader to them.
When Judah repented, Joseph could not stand it any longer. Wisdom’s restraints were broken by a flood of tears from a longing heart, and he said, “Ani Yosef.” That is Hebrew for, “I am Joseph.” He said it in Hebrew.
When he said it, they were devastated in their hearts. “I am Joseph. How is my father?” Suddenly, they knew. It was a blinding-flash revelation. It killed them on the spot. They did not know what to do.
“Ani Yosef.” They could not believe this was Joseph. “No, this cannot be Joe. Wait a minute. What happened twenty years ago?” It was just too much.
Then Joseph said, “I am your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Come closer.” But they could not. They were paralyzed with grief, remorse, and fear. What would this man do? All they had to do was think, “What would I do if my brothers had done this to me?”
Their whole life was flashing before them as Joseph was revealed to them, even as when God reveals Himself to us.
But Joseph would not leave it there. He would not leave them hanging, half dead and paralyzed with fright. Joseph revealed the divine overruling to them.
How could they ever be reconciled, having done this? Is it enough merely to say, “Oh, gee, I am sorry”? Or is it enough for Joseph to say, “Well, I forgive you, and you can be my slaves for the rest of your life”? No. How could they ever be reconciled?
Joseph lifted them onto another plane. He said, “You meant this for evil, but God meant this for good. You sold me into Egypt, but God sent me to Egypt to save many people, especially to save our own family. God did this. You did not do this. You thought you were sending me, but God sent me.”
He wanted them to see it on a bigger level. Joseph had seen that higher purpose in what God had been doing. Imagine going through thirteen years of torture, pain, and persecution and being able to forgive. How can you do that? By seeing God’s larger purpose.
Joseph saw that God had set him upon the throne for that very time—to save his family and use him. God captures our hearts by showing us His leading in the past and overruling our mistakes for good.
Again, we see the principles in everybody’s sojourn. We see a merciful God. I do not know how these brothers finally started speaking or even breathing, but it began to dawn on them that God had done a tremendously merciful thing. He had spared their brother and made him a savior.
What a reconciliation there was at that moment.
The brothers still did not know what to do, so Joseph took the initiative and kissed each one of them with a restoring kiss. First he went to Benjamin, because Benjamin was innocent. Benjamin had not stolen the cup. Benjamin was probably frightened to death.
Joseph went over, wept, kissed him, greeted him, checked out how he was doing, and asked what baseball team he was rooting for. But then Joseph rushed over to those who had thrown him in the pit, those who had turned a deaf ear, and those who hated his guts. One by one, he hugged them, kissed them, and talked to them. Finally they all came around.
The point is that we often think the Lord is harsh in His ways because we do not see that, actually, in the back room, He is crying for us. He longs to really get to know you. He longs to really talk to you. But until you do business with Him, He cannot.
Behind the harsh dealings of the cross, there is a God who loves you more than you have any idea. He is waiting for such a moment to reveal Himself.
Then Joseph said, “Now, brothers, I have something for you to do. Go back. Hurry up. Go back.” They were all standing around awkwardly, and he said, “Go back and tell Dad and the family that I am alive. Tell them I am the second most powerful person in the whole world. Start there. Testify of my glory.”
Suddenly these guys were in business. These undeserving twerps, who should have been thrown in a cell for thirteen years as payback, were given a commission and a job to go and talk of the glories of the son.
Then Joseph told them to gather the family and bring them under his rulership. Suddenly Judah, Levi, Simeon, and all these men had a job to do: gather the family all together. Joseph made them coworkers in his larger purpose for the family.
This is exactly how the Lord calls you and me. It is not because we are worthy. It is not because we have done anything worthy. But He captures us, and in our guilt and shame He says, “It is okay. I knew about it. I have forgiven you. Now go. Talk about the glories of the Son.”
Stop messing about yourself. Stop feeling bad about what you have done, and tell everybody that He is fine, glorious, and resurrected. Go and tell, as coworkers.
The practical application is that God longs to reveal Himself to His children, but we are not ready. The life of God’s family is full of strife, and our sins have greatly affected the whole.
When the veil is lifted and we see our condition, we realize that we always feel innocent. When we do something wrong, even against a member of the body of Christ, we simply say, “Oh, God, forgive me,” as if it were a small thing.
But all the strife and envy in Jacob’s family was preventing them from coming to sonship. Many times the greatest sins we commit are not great sins in themselves, but in their effect—in how much they have hurt brothers and sisters in the body.
When we come in repentance and take full responsibility, God can bring about recovery, restoration, and reveal His further purpose.
In the fourth stage of the sojourn, the brothers gathered all their family, and they all came up into resurrection ground and lived in Goshen. Because they were shepherds, the Egyptians did not want to go anywhere near Goshen.
There they were, sojourning in a place where they were protected by God. They were blessed as they were protected by Joseph, and Goshen became rich and prosperous.
Next time we will look at a sojourn into darkness. But before we leave this topic, I want to make an appeal.
There are people in this room right now who really have a heart for God. You really love God, and you want to be all that God wants you to be. I tell you that God will lay a cross upon you and take you through some things that will prepare you to help others come through some things.
He will take you on a sojourn that will prepare you to help others as they go on a sojourn. God has a purpose that we all come to sonship and glory. The way He will do this is by way of the cross.
Lord, it seems so strange to define Your love in terms of the cross. But sometimes those upon whom You lay a heavy cross are those You truly love the most.
Thank You for my dear brothers and sisters here. Many of them are just taking this into their memory bank as information. One day, make it real.
For those who are veterans, and those who are even now warring for their souls through a sojourn unto sonship, O God, hold them to the promises. Keep them aware of the Lord being with them.
We thank You, Lord, that You are doing a work in these end days, wanting to bring all Your dear children out of infancy into full responsibility.
O Lord, we glory in the cross by which the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world. Thank You for this work You are doing in our lives. We praise You. We thank You, in Jesus’ name. Amen.