Let’s have another word of prayer.
Lord, as we continue in Thy presence, we do reflect back on what our brothers shared at the beginning and are just ever so rejoicing that You have gone before. Lord, we thank You: You have gone before us, and You have given us Your Word. We thank You for the eternal nature of Thy Word. We thank You for Your living Word, Lord.
And we thank You, Lord, that as we come to consider Your Word, even at this moment You have gone before us. Lord, we would put aside other things that would distract. We stand under the mantle of Thy covering, to be hidden in Christ, that we could enjoy, behold, and really take in the beauty and majesty of Yourself.
Lord, we desire that this Word would be a living Word within our lives. We are not here just to learn about You, Lord. We are here to encounter You and allow You, in a very living way, to touch our lives and continue Your glorious work of making us captive more and more unto Yourself, Lord.
We thank You that You have set us free from the bondage of sin and self. And Lord, we want to use our freedom not for ourselves, but to give ourselves unto You, that we would be bondslaves of the Most High God. In Thy precious name we pray. Amen.
Lord willing, this morning and next week, we would like to look at some of the lessons we can glean from the life of Joseph. Whenever we start touching Joseph’s life, he has such a broad and fruitful life that there will be more about his life that we do not talk about than we will talk about.
But I would pray that, as we touch some of the nuggets, items, and issues within his life, it would stimulate us all in a greater way to go back and look at Joseph’s life. He is one of those precious ones in Scripture where the Holy Spirit chose not to record any sin that was in his life.
Now, we know Joseph was a sinner because of his great father, Adam. But the Holy Spirit chose not to record that, and to show us more and more of how the Lord was dealing with him.
We also want to use these times because, in February, only a few days away, our foundation series will be looking at this whole matter of forgiveness. If there is one person who had to learn forgiveness, and then see forgiveness displayed in his life in a living way, it is Joseph.
We see forgiveness displayed in his life, not just that he forgave, but that the fruit of his forgiveness was restoration and the preserving of a family that was totally destroyed. Joseph was raised to power, and at that moment of power, if Joseph was just in himself, he had all the authority to get any revenge that he desired upon his brothers and anybody else who had done him wrong.
But the Lord had done a work within Joseph’s life so that he did not seek revenge; he sought restoration.
There is a phrase used over and over in Joseph’s life that was one of the key phrases within that. It is what the Holy Spirit has chosen to testify of Joseph in the Book of Acts. If you look at Acts 7, there are a couple of verses there on Joseph.
It is precious how, in the New Testament, when the Holy Spirit summarizes one’s life, He picks these little nuggets and gives forth a great testimony. In Acts 7:9-10, it says:
The patriarchs, moved with jealousy against Joseph, sold him into Egypt: and God was with him.
The patriarchs were Joseph’s brothers. They became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him. That precious phrase we see all throughout Joseph’s life. Over and over it records, whether he was in a prison or whether he was in a palace, God was with him.
Brothers and sisters, we have that same assurance. Because of the price our Lord has paid, because He has gone before us, we are reminded every week at that table: God is with us. He will never leave us or forsake us.
This was one of the foundations within Joseph’s life that allowed him to go through life, not just somehow, but triumphantly in the Lord. We see within Joseph’s life that the circumstances and situations he found himself in did not control his life; he ruled over them by the grace of God.
He was betrayed by his family. He was faithful to a master, and it ended up getting him in prison because of his master’s wife. But he did not allow any of that to develop bitterness. He did not allow it to bring forth a spirit of revenge or offense.
In the midst of that, Joseph, as he knew the reality of God being with him, triumphed over all those circumstances. Brothers and sisters, even though the particular circumstances we are in might not be the same as Joseph’s, we all have circumstances in our lives that try to rule us.
We have circumstances, heritages, and various things either within our background or in our present condition that try to make us slaves to them. But Joseph, because of his victory in life and knowing the Lord, did not allow those things to rule over him. He ruled over them by the grace of God.
I think, in the days we are living in, circumstances and the battle will continue to intensify. There are many things we can learn from this dear one as we press on toward the mark.
As we look at these verses, we see that Joseph’s dear brothers, out of jealousy that we will touch on later, sold him into Egypt. But it is precious how the Holy Spirit records Joseph’s testimony in the Book of Psalms.
If you look at Psalm 105, the psalmist gives an overall history of the nation of Israel. There are a few verses there that deal with Joseph. In Acts, it records how the patriarchs sold him into Egypt, but in Psalm 105 we see who sent Joseph into Egypt.
In Psalm 105:17-19, it testifies:
He sent a man before them;
Joseph was sold for a servant:
His feet they hurt with fetters:
He was laid in chains of iron,
Until the time that His word came to pass,
The word of the Lord tried him.
Some translations read that his soul came into irons. It was far more than the physical affliction of fetters and irons being around his ankles. His soul was brought into torment. There was an internal torment that he went through, until the time came that his word came to pass. The Word of God tested him.
That is an interesting verse. Who was it that sent Joseph to Egypt? It was God. Who was it that tested Joseph? Who was proving Joseph, or who was being proven to Joseph? It was the Lord. Joseph was tested by the Word of God.
What was the Word of God that Joseph was tested by? It was those precious dreams that he had. Most of us are familiar with the story of Joseph. As a young man, he had dreams and told them to his brothers: one day he would rule over them, and they would bow down. The brothers only increased in jealousy.
Joseph had this dream that he would be ruling. You wonder what he thought of that dream when he ended up in prison, when everything was going the wrong way. “Lord, You gave me this dream.” Do we ever find ourselves where the Lord has given us a word, and yet it seems like everything in life is going against that word?
What are we going to believe then? Are we going to believe the circumstances of life and what we see going on, or are we going to believe the reality of the Word of God that was spoken to us? What do we hold on to?
When the Lord is so precious to speak something to our hearts, if it does not get worked out right away, do we just let it go and fly away and say, “It must have been my imagination”? Or is it rooted and grounded within our hearts in such a way that, as we go through the process, the Lord brings that word to birth at the proper time?
The word that God speaks to us quite often will seem, as we go through the testings and the maturing process, to be delayed. Some of us on this earth are a little further along in the maturing process. But we thank the Lord that, in His spiritual maturing process, we are going from strength to strength.
I am glad the Lord’s maturing process is not like this physical maturing process, because I just get weaker and weaker. We meet dear ones we have seen years ago in Brazil, and they have pictures. “Oh, behold, Mac was a lot smaller then. He had a different size pants. His hair was a little different color.”
Naturally, we mature and we kind of fade away. We were talking Friday night about the seasons of life, and a dear brother in the Lord reminded me that I was in the winter season. It is good to think about forgiveness. I love you, Michael. Could not resist.
But in the Lord, as He is maturing us, it is going from strength to strength. There is a strength and a strongness in Him that we know as we have experienced some things that we did not know before.
As the Lord speaks something to our hearts, do we allow the process of His life within us—the working of the cross—to bring that word to reality within us? Or, if it gets tough, do we just let that word fade away? Praise God, Joseph held on to that word and entered into a glorious life.
Continuing in Psalm 105, verse 20 says how the king sent and released Joseph, and the ruler of peoples set him free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions, to imprison his princes at will, that he might teach his elders wisdom. His father Israel came into Egypt; Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
I love how verse 24 sums this up:
And He increased His people greatly,
And made them stronger than their adversaries.
Brothers and sisters, as we go on in the Lord, as the Word of God is proven to us and as the Lord meets us, there is a being made stronger than our adversaries. Joseph knew in himself that it was not himself that got him out of prison or made him stronger than his adversaries. It was that phrase: God was with him.
Because God was with Joseph, Joseph was stronger than his adversaries. As we see in the end, the nation of Israel actually plunders the rich nation of Egypt. These people are made stronger than their adversaries.
At times, as we look around today, it seems like the adversaries of Jesus Christ are stronger than those following Him. But the Lord in this hour desires that we would experience the victorious life of our Lord Jesus Christ within each one of our lives individually and together, so that we too could be made stronger and experience the reality of being stronger than our adversaries.
These days, as we have said, the battle is great, and the battle will intensify. But praise God, we are on the Victor’s side. He has already won the victory, and we can enter into all the goodness of Him.
As we look through Joseph’s life, we want to allow him to encourage us. Again, not just to learn lessons about the history of Joseph, but Joseph is in Scripture for us so that we can learn and glean from one who has gone before us.
Turn back to Genesis 37. This is where most of the things of Joseph start.
One of the reasons we are looking at Joseph is because, as I was just before the Lord, it seemed like Joseph was a perfect picture bringing together many of the things we have been considering lately.
As we are going through this foundation series, why are we doing that? We have a desire that the life of Christ would be realized within us. We are not just going through lessons to acquire knowledge about baptism or to acquire knowledge about the new birth.
We are going through this so that we could see the life we have within us, that life would be realized and expressed, and Christ would be formed within us. We see within Joseph that, as he went through these lessons, to use a New Testament term, Christ was formed in Joseph.
Joseph is a beautiful picture of sonship—one brought to a place of maturity, of sonship, of allowing the Lord to control his life. This is what we are looking at in the days we are living in.
We see within Joseph one who was faithful in all the trials of life, and how his sorrows in his life were turned into joy. As we know from the Scriptures, He was made perfect through sufferings.
Brothers and sisters, this is one of the teachings that the world, and even the religious world, is trying to steal from the Lord in His precious truth. Many are trying to rip out from the Word of God the necessity and the way the Lord uses suffering for His good.
There is a little phrase used quite often: pain is inevitable, but misery is optional. We will all have pain, but misery is optional because misery is a choice.
We have the pains of life. We have been sharing the last couple of weeks and praying on Wednesday nights for some of our elder saints. Many of us have parents who have either gone to be with the Lord or are in very bad shape. There is real pain there.
We have children who are choosing not to follow the Lord, doing other things with many other interests. There is pain there. We have job situations where Pharaoh wants more and more bricks, and we are not given any straw. There is pain there.
There is pain in marriage relationships. There is pain in relationships among brothers and sisters. But what are we going to do with that pain? Are we going to turn that pain into an idol and use it as an excuse not to go on?
Or are we going to say that greater is Christ within me than he that is in the world inflicting this pain? Pain is there; misery is optional.
We never see Joseph wallowing in self-pity and misery. If anybody had a right to wallow in self-pity and misery, Joseph had a right. But he chose not to.
I remember DeVern Fromke saying that, as you go through life, you will find you have a right to wallow in self-pity and all. He said, “Brothers and sisters, we never have a reason.” I think that is what he said. Is it the other way around? He flips it around. At least you all are listening.
But we do not have that reason. Joseph knew that. And Joseph, because he knew God was with him, somehow had the dream that captured his heart and carried him through.
That dream which the Lord gave him carried him through the misery. There was an end in view. He did not understand all of that at the beginning, but praise God, as he yielded to it, he started to get glimpses of it. It became more and more of a reality until he saw it brought to fruition.
We see within Joseph one who was dealt with not because he did anything wrong. As we said, it was not an issue of right or wrong. There is no sin mentioned within Joseph’s life, but the Lord and the Holy Spirit chose not to record that.
We know it was because Joseph was the wrong person: he was born of Adam. Earlier last year, we looked at how the Lord trained David’s mighty men. That was a motley crew, and all of their garbage was laid before us.
It is almost like, from the other side, we see one who had a nice home and no problems being brought in, and the Lord was training him in the same way. It is not our environments or the situations in which we find ourselves. It is the life of Adam within us that the Lord is dealing with, that it would decrease and we would increase.
It is also interesting within Joseph’s life that it is not recorded that there were any personal encounters between him and the Lord. With Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there were many conversations and dialogues. Even after Joseph, with Moses, you have those personal encounters with the Lord recorded.
But there are none with Joseph recorded. Yet we know, as it testified, God was with him. Joseph had a hidden life. There was a life of personal devotion, daily devotion, that hidden life where he knew his Father’s heart. He knew what the Lord’s heart was, and that was directing him in all of his affairs.
We also see through what we could call Joseph’s death that salvation came to his family, the nation of Israel, and the world. That reminds us of Someone else, does it not? Joseph is a beautiful picture of Christ.
Joseph was faithful day in and day out. Jim shared last week how our life is not segmented. Joseph lived one life. He did not have a secular life and a religious life. He did not have a life in prison and a life with the Lord, or a life in Potiphar’s house. It was one life.
Brothers and sisters, this is what the Lord is calling us to in this hour: to come into the reality of seeing Christ as our life. We live this every day. We are in His life.
We should not segment our lives further between individual and corporate. It is one life. We can distinguish it for fellowship, but it is one life we live. Everything we do as an individual affects the Body of Christ.
Joseph, in his daily faithfulness, impacted what we could call a picture of the Body of Christ back then. We have to have our eyes opened to see that everything we do impacts our brothers and sisters. This is the reality of being one.
We can distinguish, but we cannot segment. “This is my individual life over here, and now this is my corporate life over here.” No, it is one life we live, and we live it unto the Lord. The Lord is calling us in this hour to live one life wholly unto Him and see the fruit of that life.
We see an aspect of the fruit of that life manifested in Joseph in this whole matter of forgiveness. Joseph learned forgiveness. It is precious how, when he named his sons born in Egypt, his first son, Manasseh, was named, “The Lord has made me forget”—made me forget the pain and the agony.
His son Ephraim meant, “The Lord has made me fruitful in my affliction.” Brothers and sisters, are we fruitful in our affliction? Are we waiting for the good days to come before we can bear fruit?
Joseph bore fruit in the midst of great affliction. I believe the days we are living in, the Lord is calling us to be a fruitful people in the midst of much affliction.
The actual story of Joseph starts back in Genesis 30. There we see, in the wonderful mercy of the Lord, that God remembered Rachel, his dear mother. Rachel had been barren, but the Lord in His mercy remembered her prayers.
In Genesis 30:22, it testifies how the Lord remembered Rachel. Joseph ended up being the son of Jacob’s old age. The other ten sons had already been born, and Joseph was number eleven. Benjamin later became number twelve.
Soon after Joseph was born—actually, about ten years later—his mother died, and he was raised by Leah. Joseph was really the combination of Rachel and Leah raising him, allowing, hopefully, the best of both of them to characterize his life.
It is precious how the Lord had chosen Leah. Jacob chose Rachel, but the Lord had Leah in mind. Leah ended up raising and nurturing Joseph for a great part of his life.
Because Joseph was the son of Jacob’s old age, there was a lot of favoritism shown to Joseph. Because of this favoritism, the brothers became jealous. In Genesis 37, we see one way Jacob showed his favoritism: he gave Joseph a coat of many colors.
It was a coat of honor. It showed, “You are really the firstborn, even though you are number eleven. Your ranking in my heart is above all the others. You are my firstborn, the one that I really love.”
You can imagine how the other ten were feeling. Jacob was always perhaps babying Joseph and taking care of him. Joseph got the little extra portion at mealtime and everything. The other brothers were out having to work and labor, while Joseph, because of his place of prestige, was exempted from the little things.
It is natural for the youngest one to get spoiled. It just happens in a natural way in families. The parents with number one can be tough. You come to number five or six, and it is, “Ah, go ahead, you can do it.”
With the first one, the spoon—or the pacifier—drops on the floor: “Oh, we have to clean it. We have to sanitize it and get another one in.” By the time number five or six comes along, that pacifier drops on the floor, you wipe it off and stick it back in. You just keep going.
Joseph, in a very natural way, was somewhat spoiled and naive. But there is a little glimpse, even at the beginning, of how a character was being formed within him.
One day Joseph was out caring for the sheep with his brothers, and he saw that they were not taking such good care of them. It says he went back and gave a bad report to his father.
You have to think, “Was Joseph a snitch? What was he doing this for?” Stop and think about it for a minute. What could Joseph gain out of doing that? He had everything. There was no self-gain in that.
His father already loved him. He was ranked above his brothers. He was not reinforcing his position at all. It was not done for selfish or personal gain.
Joseph had a love for his brothers. He wanted his brothers to be set free from their evil ways. He saw the harm that the way they were acting was doing to them. Out of love for his brothers, he wanted them to be set free, and so he went to his father.
When you are the youngest one, peer pressure can start to come in. You want to be accepted by the older ones. I can remember, back many centuries ago when I was young, that when you were a freshman in high school, you wanted to be accepted by those seniors.
It is amazing how you would compromise and do anything to be accepted. There is this natural desire for acceptance. But Joseph did not allow even that natural desire to be accepted by the older peer group, the in-group, to rule him.
He knew within his heart that what they did was not right. He loved them in such a way that he went to his father and gave that report. We see that character and quality of not going along with the crowd.
It cost Joseph something. It cost him in his relationship with his brothers. Their jealousy grew. But it did not cost Joseph anything with the Lord, and it did not cost Joseph anything with his father.
Whenever we make choices, when we are confronted with issues of compromise, peer pressure, and going along with the circumstances of life, it will cost us something. It may cost us something with the world. It may cost us reputation. It may cost us friends.
But it will never cost us anything with the Lord. We only gain and experience more and more of His wonderful life. That is what Joseph was encountering here.
In Genesis 37, Joseph had two dreams. In his naivete, he shared them with his brothers and his father: “One of these days, all of you are going to bow down to me.” You can imagine how that made them feel. It is recorded that they hated him and became more and more jealous.
But somehow this dream had gotten within Joseph’s heart. You wonder, when you think about dreams and Joseph, whether Jacob ever shared his dream with Joseph.
In Genesis 28:15, Jacob had a dream, and the Lord said, “I am with you. I will keep you. I will bring you back to this land. This is your land. Even though you are going away, I will bring you back. You are fleeing because of your actions, but I will bring you back.”
You wonder whether Jacob shared that with Joseph. He was his favorite son; he probably did. Then Joseph has these dreams of how one day these ones will bow down.
At this point in his life, it was just a dream. Using terms of today, it was a vision that Joseph had. It was truth, but there was no reality of it within his life. Yet he had this truth within him.
Brothers and sisters, quite often when we talk about this whole matter of vision, we might not understand it, but there is truth related to it. There is something God is trying to show us that we might not fully comprehend now. We might not have a clue what it means, but there is truth within it.
How did the reality of Joseph’s dreams get worked out? It was through obedience and suffering. It was through obedience and the way of the cross.
When we talk about the Lord showing us His heart and a vision for His people, the reality of all that is worked out in the same way in our lives: through obedience and the working of the cross within us.
This vision, this dream that Joseph had within his heart, sustained him his whole life. Brother and sister, do we have something within our heart that is sustaining us in life?
We might not understand it fully. Joseph did not have a clue what this meant. But there was something about the reality of it. That seed was there, and he held it within his heart.
As the Lord speaks things to us, are we faithful to hold them within our hearts, meditate upon them, and allow the Lord, in His wonderful timing, to bring forth the reality of that?
We see this reality manifested later in Joseph’s life. Brothers and sisters, the Lord is looking within all of our lives for the reality of His heart to be made manifest.
Fortunately, we have this Book. We know the end of the story. One day it will be. But how are we going to be found cooperating with Him now, allowing Christ to be formed within us and that character to be truly manifested?
Praise God, Joseph was willing to go through the training and maturing process. The Lord is looking for ones in that same way.
One of the keys within Joseph’s life was that spirit of obedience. In Genesis 37, beginning in verse 12, Joseph’s father Jacob comes to him and says, “Your brothers are over in Shechem taking care of the sheep. Go check on them for me.”
Immediately Joseph says, “I will go.” That so blesses me. Joseph did not sit there and say, “Now, Dad, wait a minute. These guys do not like me. Why are You sending me out there? They are going to think I am a spy. Send somebody else. Send one of Your other servants.”
He did not try to rationalize or get out of it. He said, “Father, You are asking me to go; I will go.” Boom—he went right away.
It is interesting that, as he goes out, he gets to the place where his father sent him. He gets to Shechem, and lo and behold, they are not there.
What does Joseph do then? Does he say, “Well, Father told me to go to Shechem. I went to Shechem; they were not there. I am going back”? No. He sought them out.
Joseph went out to seek and find those that were lost. He kept looking for them. He asked, “Where are they?” Then he heard, “They have gone to Dothan.” That is not Alabama, but they had gone to Dothan.
From Joseph’s home to Shechem was about sixty miles, and from Shechem to Dothan was another thirty miles. This was an effort for him. He kept going until he found them.
Why was this? Because he knew his father’s heart. He could have obeyed his father’s words, gone to Shechem, not found them, and gone back. He could have kept what we could call the letter of the law.
But he knew the spirit of his father’s heart, his father’s care for his brothers, and so he kept going. As Joseph knew his father’s heart, it brings us to the question we have to ask ourselves: Do we know our Father’s heart?
Do we know not only His Word, but do we know our Father’s heart and His desire in the hour that we are living in? Joseph had such a relationship with his father. He spent time with him. They shared together. He knew his father’s heart.
He went beyond the letter and outward compliance with his father’s request to fulfill the desire of his father’s heart. That is one who is truly being brought unto sonship. That is one willing to go through the training.
It cost Joseph the extra time to go that little bit further. What was his wonderful reward for being faithful to his father? He finds his brothers, and what kind of reception does he have? They totally betray him.
We know how they saw him coming and said, “Oh, here is that dreamer.” They made plans to kill him. Fortunately, Judah intervened, and they only threw him in the pit. Then the Ishmaelites came along, and they sold him to them. He was sent over into Egypt.
One of the tragic verses about the brothers is that, while Joseph was in the pit, they sat down to eat.
Later, we will touch on how they heard Joseph crying out for his life while they were sitting there eating. Jealousy makes us blind in many ways. It makes us blind in our eyes, feelings, emotions, and whole thought process.
Jealousy is a treacherous thing. None can stand before jealousy. Jealousy gripped these brothers so much that they basically allowed their brother to go to death.
Jealousy blinded these brothers so much that they did not even care about their father. They knew their father loved Joseph. They went back and showed their father the bloodied garment, suggesting Joseph had died and been killed by an animal. Jacob could not be consoled.
The brothers knew that, but they did not care at that point. Jealousy was blinding them.
But praise God, even in the midst of that, it testifies that the Lord was with Joseph. Joseph was stripped of his coat, stripped of that coat of many colors, but Joseph was never stripped of his character.
Even though he was stripped naked and put on a slave-trading block for sale as a slave, there was a character within him. Imagine him standing upon that slave-trading block. How does this relate to this dream? This dream of ruling, of them bowing down to him?
The outward circumstances were against him. Many times, as we walk by faith in this life, outward circumstances will be totally contrary to what we are seeing. But praise God, we do not walk by sight; we walk by faith.
We walk by faith in the One who has loved us and called us unto Himself. Joseph kept going on.
When we come over to Genesis 39, Joseph was sold into Potiphar’s house. As he was there within Potiphar’s house, it testifies in verse 2 that the Lord was with him. As the Lord was with Joseph, He made Joseph prosper.
This is a beautiful picture to me of how Joseph, in his obedience, was faithful in the small things. Here is Joseph, a slave brought into Potiphar’s house. Did Potiphar immediately appoint him over the house? No.
Joseph was probably a young kid at this time, a little teenage kid. Maybe he had to clean out the horse stalls, clean out the barn, take the trash out, sweep the floor, and do all the seemingly insignificant tasks.
But Potiphar noticed that no matter what assignment Joseph had, he was faithful to it. He was faithful in small things.
Whatever he did, as it says in Colossians, we could say Joseph did it to the glory of God. Whether he was taking the trash out or washing an animal, we do not know what he was doing. But in the small things, totally unseen by many, he was faithful.
This is the challenge many of us have: being faithful in those small things. We can love to be faithful in the big things when we are seen and people give us recognition. But how about when nobody sees us?
You are in your room by yourself. The door is shut. You say you are doing your homework. Nobody sees a thing. How faithful are we then?
You are in your work cubicle, in your little office or wherever, totally by yourself. You say nobody is watching. How faithful are we?
That is where the training within Joseph was occurring. He was faithful. As he was faithful, Potiphar noticed it. He saw how everything Joseph did was blessed, how he himself was prospering, and how he was enjoying the goodness and blessing of Joseph’s faithfulness. So Joseph was raised up.
Joseph was there, and the Lord was with him, causing him to prosper. How did the Lord reward Joseph? What did Joseph’s faithfulness to Potiphar get him? Along came Potiphar’s wife.
Just as the Lord did not shield Joseph from the pain of his brothers, the Lord did not shield Joseph from temptation. Potiphar’s wife was there plotting how she could get Joseph. She set this trap for him.
Joseph, for many days, tried to stay away from her and avoid her because he knew what was going on. One day she had the trap set and sprang the trap. Joseph fled from it.
Again, Joseph lost his coat, but not his character. He was stripped and left his coat, but not his character, because he chose to flee from that temptation.
Brothers and sisters, as we face temptations, there are times we resist them. We see Joseph trying to resist her. But there are times we just flee.
There is that precious verse in 2 Timothy 2:22:
Flee youthful lusts: but follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
The safest way of fleeing temptation is fleeing with them—staying in fellowship and allowing brothers and sisters who have this heart to go with us, walk with us through the temptation, and flee from it with us.
Too often, sometimes we try to flee from things and just stand on our own. But we flee and run into the arms of fellowship. We walk with our brothers and sisters as we flee.
Do we know that there is only one temptation that can master us? There is a temptation out there that will master each and every one of us: the temptation we choose to yield to.
As we face temptations, God has provided the way of escape. The only way we fall into temptation is when we choose to yield to it. God will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear.
We have a victorious life within us. When we fall into some of the temptations in life, it is only because we chose to yield to that temptation.
Sometimes we might not say that we are choosing to yield, but we choose in this way: “I can handle it. I can handle it.” As soon as we say that, we are defeated.
We must recognize that we cannot handle temptations. But there is a life within us that has overcome that temptation and provides the way of escape. May we not be those who are falling into temptations, but fleeing.
We see again how Joseph, when he fled this temptation, ended up in prison. What did Joseph’s great faithfulness get him? He ended up in prison.
He was faithful to his master. In every way, his house was prospering. What did it get him? He ended up in prison. Again, this was not a nice little prison. It was a filthy place.
We read later how Joseph was put in charge of the prison. But at first, what do you think he had to do? Maybe he had to sweep out the cells, go through and do all the menial tasks, and carry out whatever had to be done.
We do not know what the bathroom facilities were like there. Maybe the first one, the low man on the totem pole, had to clean out the bathrooms. But Joseph was faithful there.
As God was with him, Joseph ended up prospering even in the prison. Joseph’s love and faithfulness to his father got him betrayed by those closest to him. His faithfulness to his master got him betrayed by his master’s wife.
He went through the suffering of being disgraced. But in this, we see Joseph learning more and more of the wonderful character and nature of our Lord—Joseph decreasing and our Lord increasing.
Quite often, we see different ones in the Lord. If we look back through history, we see those who have had to go through sufferings, and we say, “They are such servants of the Lord. Why are they having to go through that?”
We think of all the time John Bunyan had to spend in prison at Bedford. We think of Amy Carmichael having to be bound to her bed because she fell in a hole that someone had dug carelessly.
We think of Madame Guyon, who was faithful, and yet because of her faithfulness in training different ones, including Fénelon, she ended up in prison.
I am always touched by the beautiful little poem Madame Guyon wrote while she was in prison. She was in the Bastille prison in Paris. If anyone has ever been there, it is just an unimaginable place—a dark, dingy hole underground.
But she was there in this prison, and she wrote this poem, picturing herself as a little bird:
A little bird am I,
Shut out from fields of air;
Yet in my cage I sit and sing
To Him who placed me there.Well pleased a prisoner to be,
Because, my God, it pleases Thee;
Naught have I else to do,
I sing the whole day long;
And He whom most I love to please
Doth listen to my song.He caught and bound my wandering wing,
But still He bends to hear me sing.
O, it is good to soar
These bolts and bars above,
To Him whose purpose I adore,
Whose providence I love;
And in Thy mighty will to find
The joy, the freedom of the mind.
She was a prisoner, but she was freer than anybody else around her. That is why we sing that song, “Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free.”
Different ones, as they have gone through suffering, may look at the outward circumstances of life and say, “That is not fair.” But if you talked to them, they would not trade it for the world. It is a treasure.
I think if we interviewed Joseph, he would not trade that time in prison for anything he went through, because he learned the Lord. In the midst of that prison, Madame Guyon knew freedom. She was soaring within her spirit to the clouds above.
Brothers and sisters, when we find ourselves in the circumstances of life, the very same God who lifted Joseph’s spirit out of that prison, who lifted Madame Guyon’s spirit out of that prison, is living within us, desiring to burst free.
The problem is that instead of allowing Him to make us captive, we make ourselves captives. We make ourselves captive to the circumstances of life.
But if we can see the wonderful victory we have in Him, we can be set free and triumph in a marvelous way over what outwardly looks like a tragedy, to behold the beauty of the Lord.
This is what Joseph was beholding as he was in prison. He was in horrible circumstances and situations, yet in the midst of that the Lord came in and strengthened him.
In Psalm 105, we saw how the Word of God was testing him. His soul was within irons. I am sure the enemy was there challenging him relentlessly: “You remember that dream? God was going to raise you up. You remember that dream?”
“Remember someone told you God has an eternal purpose. Remember, God is going to do this. God is going to build His church. All of these truths are out there, and here you are sitting in this prison. You are a nothing. That is all a lie. Just give in. Go along with it. Do your own thing. Give up on those dreams. Give up on that hope set before you.”
But there was a reality gripping Joseph’s heart. Brothers and sisters, as we look around the church today, it almost seems laughable that God says, “I will build My church,” and that it will be a spotless bride without spot or wrinkle.
We can almost laugh at the Lord for saying that. “Who do You think You are? That must have been a long time ago. What are You going to do now? You are not going to do that. You must have another plan.”
No, brothers and sisters. The same truth and reality of what God has purposed throughout these centuries, He is going to bring about. We have a choice in the day we are living in: to walk by sight or to walk by faith.
We thank the Lord that there is a life of His faith within us. As we yield to it, it strengthens us and allows the reality of what He is after to blossom forth and impact our lives.
Joseph was not able to make it through that prison because he had mental knowledge in his head of what God wanted. Joseph had it within his heart.
He said, “God wants this. I remember my father Jacob had a dream that God was going to bring the people back. He was going to take this nation of Israel, watch over them, bring them back, and make them fruitful in this land. God is going to accomplish that.”
The same promise that God has put within our hearts—that He will build His church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it—stands, even though everything outwardly says that is impossible.
Given the outward condition of the church, we walk by faith and not by sight. We believe Him who has called us, and He has called us with purpose unto Himself.
We simply take another step of faith every day, desiring to be obedient unto Him, not knowing what circumstances or what may lie ahead.
Joseph was faithful in whatever day he was in. As he was faithful that day, God led him to another. May the Lord help us in this hour to be faithful in whatever circumstances or situations we are in.
It is precious that, in the battle Joseph was going through, he did not allow bitterness to capture his soul. We do not see within Joseph any roots of bitterness coming out. There was hope and joy.
As Joseph was faithful within the prison, we are thankful to the Lord that the Lord raised Joseph up. It testifies that God was with him, He prospered him, and Joseph was put in charge of all the prison.
As he was there serving, two of the king’s chief servants were sent to prison for something that had happened: the baker and the cupbearer. Joseph was put in charge of them to care for them.
It is so precious how, one morning, these two woke up and had a different expression on their faces. Joseph noticed that.
That always touches my heart. Here is Joseph, unjustly in prison, yet caring for others. Sometimes, when we are going through something, we are so self-absorbed that someone can be dying right next to us and we do not even see it.
Joseph noticed that their expression had changed, and he said, “What is happening? What happened last night?” They told him their dreams.
Joseph interpreted their dreams. We see how Joseph had matured and grown. When he had his two dreams, he did not know what they meant. But now he had grown in the Lord so that he could interpret, and he said it was God who gave him the interpretation.
He told the baker, “I am going to be faithful. I am going to tell you what this dream means. You are not going to like the answer.” The baker would be taken out and killed. The cupbearer would be taken out and raised back up.
Joseph did not have counsel for them or advice on what to do, but he could interpret the dreams.
It is interesting here, and you could say this is one of the little glitches you can see within Joseph’s life. What does Joseph say to the cupbearer? “When you get out, remember me. I am here unjustly. I was kidnapped and put here.”
He does not mention Potiphar’s wife. In fact, there is never any indication that Joseph was vindicated concerning the whole Potiphar situation. But he says, “I am in this jail unjustly.”
That must have been a surprise to them, because they apparently did not know that. What that speaks of is that Joseph was not murmuring.
Sometimes, when you are in a situation and going through something, you murmur here and there, and everybody knows. Joseph did not murmur about his brothers. He did not murmur about Potiphar’s wife.
He just said, “Remember me when you get out. Put in a good word for me with Pharaoh—that I am here unjustly.”
You can imagine Joseph going back to his cell, getting everything ready, putting it in his suitcase, and saying, “Tomorrow I am getting out of here. The cupbearer is going to put in a good word with Pharaoh for me, and away I can go.”
Day one goes by. Nothing happens. Joseph says, “Well, he was probably really excited about seeing his family and friends. He will remember me.” Day two goes by. Nothing happens. Day three. Two years later, Joseph is still there.
But I think, in one way, Joseph probably learned more in those two years than in many of his other years of suffering, because he learned a great lesson: not to put any confidence in man.
He learned to wholly trust upon the Lord and not put any confidence in man. It was a great test, because hope deferred makes the heart sick.
Joseph was going through these struggles. The Lord was training him more and more. Again, there was another opportunity for bitterness and resentment, but we do not sense this within Joseph.
In the sovereignty of God, after two years Pharaoh had two dreams. The Lord brought Joseph to the cupbearer’s mind, and he remembered Joseph. Lord willing, we can take that up next week.
As we look through some of the training Joseph went through, we can see the circumstances the Lord put Joseph in. He was tested by the Word of God. He did not get offended at man, and he did not get offended with the Lord.
He allowed the Lord to train him in such a way that he could rule and be placed in a place of authority. Joseph was later put in a place of power and authority because he had first learned to serve.
He had learned to serve in the small things without any guarantee of what the future might hold. When he went into Potiphar’s house and started serving, there was no career path set before him.
There was no promise that, if he served and did this, he could go to this level, then this level, then this level. When he went to the jail, there was no career path to become the number-one prisoner.
No, he was there and he was faithful. There were no guarantees of what would happen or what would be the fruit of his service. But he knew God was with him, and God would be faithful.
In that, he allowed his faithfulness to God to hold him, and the vision the Lord had given within his heart held him through all the trials and things he encountered.
We will touch more on this next week, Lord willing, but through this also, the Lord was working within Joseph so that, when Joseph saw his brothers, he had already forgiven them.
As we heard a couple of weeks ago, the forgiveness process with Joseph’s brothers did not start when he saw them. He had already forgiven them.
We have heard on forgiveness a couple of weeks ago, and as we consider it, there are many things we can be learning.
As you see, we have had to go over Joseph’s life in a broad-brush way. If you have an opportunity this week, start in Genesis 40 and read to the end of Genesis, so that you will be familiar with the story and refresh yourselves on how the Lord used Joseph to restore his brothers, save the nation of Israel, and save the world.
As we look back at Joseph, he was in an impossible situation in himself. Just like us, brothers and sisters, in ourselves we are in an impossible situation.
But thank the Lord that He has loved us. Even as our brothers shared at the start of the time this morning, our Lord is before us. He is before the throne as that great High Priest. He is walking before us.
The Lord walked before Joseph through that prison, and He walks before us every day. He is before us with His eyes upon us, strengthening us and enabling us to go through in the victory of His life.
As we have touched on a couple of these points from Joseph’s life, may the Lord use them to strengthen us to continue on in the hour that we are living in—to be faithful right where we are.
May we have a hope that is not fading, but a hope growing brighter and brighter of His soon return and of the accomplishing of all that is within His heart. Let us pray.
Lord, we do thank You for the way that You have first loved us. Lord, we thank You for the examples of ones who have allowed You to meet them in the midst of totally overwhelming circumstances.
Lord, we thank You for the provision of life that we have in Christ Jesus. We want also to be found cooperating with You, that You would have Your way within our lives.
May we not be found going against You, but be found cooperating with You, Lord.
Lord, we thank You that You have set us free from the bondage and tyranny of self, of sin, and of this world. But Lord, again, we do not want to use that freedom to make ourselves slaves to ourselves.
We offer ourselves to You, that we could be bondservants in our Master’s house. In Jesus’ name. Amen.