Joseph Series: Pit to Palace #3
Have you ever put your hope and trust in someone, only to be let down? Perhaps a situation was mishandled or you found some glaring inconsistency in him or her that you hadn't known about. What is the great temptation at a time like that? To quit! Before you do, let me ask you this: are you going to leave God because of what man does to you? If so then you're not worthy of Him. That's right. A true Christian loves God first and foremost, before any other person. A true Christian trusts God's providence before trusting any human being. Are you a person of faith or are you, really, when the chips are down, faithless?
Introduction
Charles Spurgeon once said of his life:
I bear willing witness that I owe more to the fire, and the hammer, and the file, than to anything else in my Lord's workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod. When my schoolroom is darkened, I see most.
In the two chapters of Genesis we are going to consider this morning concerning the life of Joseph, we find his schoolroom is darkened. God's workshop is open. Joseph is being shaped and tempered by God's tools. Out on the workbench are the fire of false accusation, the hammer of disillusionment, and the file of boredom.
Chapters 39 & 40 of Genesis tell the story. In these chapters we'll see how Joseph was imprisoned for something he didn't do. We'll see that, in spite of the injustice, God stuck with him through the ordeal. Then we'll meet two political prisoners who had some strange dreams, but played a key role in God's providence. We'll see what must have appeared from Joseph's perspective to be the bottom falling out of his life. Yet through it all, God was working out His great purpose.
Turn with me, please, to Genesis 39. We'll begin reading in verse 19 where we find
I. A False Accusation.
(Read v. 19-20)
In our last message we saw the background issues that led to Joseph's incarceration. Hated by his older brothers for things beyond his control, he was sold as a slave and taken to Egypt. There the Captain of Pharaoh's Secret Service bought him, a man named Potiphar. Joseph was faithful in the house of Potiphar and God blessed him. During the years he was there, the Captain put him in charge of everything he owned. All was well until Potiphar's wife took a special liking to Joseph and attempted to seduce him. Joseph politely declined at first. Mrs. Potiphar continued her pursuit. Finally, in a last ditch effort to get him to join her in unfaithfulness, with all the servants out of the house, she flung herself at him in a moment of unbridled passion. Joseph did the only right thing he could to avoid sinning under such circumstances: he ran. In the confusion of the situation, Mrs. Potiphar managed to grab his coat. It came off and was left in her hand as Joseph bolted to safety.
Later, when Potiphar got home, his wife lied to him, telling him that Joseph had assaulted her.
Whether Potiphar's anger, mentioned in verse 19, was aimed at Joseph or at Mrs. Potiphar, I'm not sure. I told you last time about the possibility that Potiphar was a eunuch, and that he may have had a very poor relationship with his wife. I cannot help but believe there was a potential that Potiphar might have doubted his wife's story. Perhaps she had tried this sort of thing before. I say these things because he could easily have ordered Joseph executed. After all, he was Pharaoh's chief executioner. He didn't kill Joseph, though. Instead, he put him in jail.
The place where Joseph was confined was probably not the customary dungeon far removed from view as you might expect. Rather, it was a compound right in Hieropolis, the city of Pharaoh. In fact, it was right in the same building as Potiphar's house. The word translated "jail" in verse 3 of chapter 40 is "sohar" and it means literally, "encirclement" or "round house." Joseph was contained in Potiphar's roundhouse jail where political prisoners were kept until Pharaoh decided their fate.
We learned last time something of the conditions of the prison. Psalm 105:18 tells us that, at least for awhile Joseph was shackled in iron manacles and chains.
I think it is significant to note that, through all of this there is not a hint of Joseph complaining or questioning God. Neither is there any evidence of bitterness over the mistreatment. The Bible, which is usually brutally honest and candid in reporting on the lives of its characters apparently, found none of these responses in Joseph. That is a powerful testimony in itself. I wonder if the same would be said of you or I in a similar circumstance?
I want you to note that Joseph has so far faced two of faith's biggest tests: Persecution and Enticement. But as we'll soon see, he wasn't out of the woods. He had yet to face two more trials of his faith: Boredom and Abandonment.
What we see next is that in spite of these results of a false accusation, God continued to be:
II. A Faithful God.
(Read v. 21a)
Haven't we seen that somewhere before? Yes! Back when Joseph was sold as a slave the same statement was made.
(Read 39:2)
Look also at verse 23.
(Read v. 23)
Three times in this chapter the writer of Scripture makes special mention of this fact. In the pit the Lord was with Joseph. On the auction block the Lord was with Joseph. Now, in the roundhouse jail, the Lord was still with Joseph.
I said it before, but it bears repeating: Unpleasant circumstances are not, in themselves, indicators of God's absence in our lives. Jesus has assured us, "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age."1
Not only was God present with Joseph, He also extended special kindness to him.
(Read v. 21-23)
So Joseph had the run of the jail. He was put in charge of all the prisoners. "Whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper."
I'm reminded of what is says in Proverbs 16:7: "When a man's ways are pleasing to the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him."
If you want God to bless you and open up doors of opportunity, do what Joseph did. Get sin out of your life! Say no to temptation and yes to God. That is the reason Joseph was blessed.
So, what sort of work did Joseph do there in the jail? Drop down to chapter 40, verse 4:
(Read v. 4)
"he took care of them." The marginal note in the NAS says, "He ministered to them."
I want you to notice that Joseph conquered another trial before it even became a factor. I'm speaking of boredom. Can you imagine what it would be like sitting in a cell hour after hour, day after day, month after month, having nothing to do? No radio or TV. No reading material. A person could go crazy!
Joseph, though, didn't become a victim of boredom. He looked around and found a need that others had and filled it. He showed concern for the welfare of the other prisoners to the extent that the chief jailer was able to trust him with responsibility.
There is a tremendous truth here. Some Christians today are bored stiff in their faith. It doesn't excite them. It doesn't challenge them. Sometimes they wonder why they ever became Christians in the first place. It takes more and more to move them into action. Sometimes, in their boredom, they turn back to the world for amusement and satisfaction in life. Yes, they continue to attend church on Sunday (they're afraid not to), but the things they really love for are not the things of Christ.
Question: How does a person get that way? Answer: By serving themselves and not others. Such people have never discovered the joy of serving others or the satisfaction of knowing they are doing the work of the Lord.
Joseph was the kind of man who did the Lord's work wherever he was. Two things resulted: 1) Boredom did not claim him and; 2) God was able to use him in special ways.
The very same blessings are available for us living today if we will realize this. Psalm 37:4 says, "Delight yourself in the Lord; And He will give you the desires of your heart." My friends, that is what being a Christian is all about! I fear that some of you know nothing of it. Listen to what James said in James 1:27: "This is pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father, to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world." Not a word is mentioned there about filling a pew on Sunday, yet that is the sum total of some people's assessment of Christianity.
If you are shackled in the jailhouse of spiritual boredom, the reason just may be that you are putting nothing into your faith. You're waiting for others to move you. You're a consumer but not a contributor. You see your part as showing up so others can serve you. The key that will unlock your prison is to begin to serve the Lord through serving the other people around you. If Joseph could find the work of God in that prison house, certainly you could find the work of the Lord in your realm.
The testing for Joseph was far from over. Circumstances in his life, from human perspective, were about to take a turn for the worse. What we see next in Joseph's story is that he became:
III. A Forgotten Prisoner.
It came about in the course of Joseph's ministering to the other prisoners that two political convicts of special significance were admitted to the roundhouse compound. They were officials in the court of Pharaoh.
(Read v. 1-3)
I think it is significant to note something at this point. It would be Joseph's serving these two that God would providentially use to deliver him from the prison.
It seems to me that this is often the way God chooses to work in our lives. He works through the actions of our faithfulness in serving others. When we don't know where the answer is going to come from, it has been my experience that it often comes from those we serve.
A certain young man who had just become a Christian was unemployed. He was worried sick about what was going to happen to himself and his family. Would they lose their home? Would they be forced into bankruptcy? He prayed and prayed but nothing changed. He went to the elders of the church for suggestions. They had no job leads for him, but suggested that he should at least be working for the Lord during this time of unemployment. Finally he consented and they sent him to the home of an 80-year-old widower who needed to have his roof patched before the coming of the rainy season. He went and did the work and in the process, got to know this man quite well. When the job was finished and the man offered to pay him, he declined and said he had nothing better to do anyway. When he arrived home that day his wife told him someone had called and asked to speak to him. She gave him the number and he returned the call. It was the son of that 80-year-old man who happened to be the owner of a local construction company. His father had told him what good work he did and could he show up for work at 6 a.m. the next day. His prayer was answered through his serving others.
Folks, such stories are not uncommon.
Joseph did not know the first day he ministered to these two that they were sent there by God to get him out of prison. He just knew that these men had special needs and that he could help them.
We aren't told in Scripture just what these two had done to offended Pharaoh. Jewish tradition says that they were accused of trying to poison the king. That is a reasonable conjecture because it was the baker who fixed the king's food and the cupbearer whose job it was to sample the food before the king ate it. They were two of Pharaoh's chief protectors, so it is reasonable that if evidence of intrigue were uncovered in the palace, these men would be first on the list of suspects. It would be Potiphar's job, by the way, as chief of security, to ferret out such assassination attempts. It is probable that Potiphar himself led the investigation and made the arrest of these two.
(Read v. 4)
Earlier I made the suggestion that perhaps Potiphar had not fully believed his wife's story about the alleged assault. We find in this verse further evidence of that conjecture. Potiphar is still putting trust in Joseph.
As Joseph took care of these two new prisoners, he must have learned their story. He probably learned what it was like in the courts of Pharaoh. Perhaps he even built a friendship with them. After all, it says they were there "for some time." All of this seemingly insignificant exchange, would ultimately prepare Joseph for the exciting future that we find so interesting to read about: his ascending to power in Egypt, his preserving the bloodline of the Messiah. At this point though, he knew nothing of all that. From his own standpoint, the whole flight of his life was grounded and going nowhere.
Remember that God doesn't typically make what He is doing in our lives clear to us as we are going along. Instead, He wants us to learn to trust Him in faith and obedience. "We walk by faith, not by sight," the scripture says.2 Perhaps Joseph realized from his childhood dreams that someday his family would bow down to him, but right now nothing seemed farther from the truth.
But someone says, "Well Joseph had his dreams to keep his hopes alive! What do we have?"
We have the Scriptures, my friends. In reality we have as much or more assurance of God's good intentions with us than Joseph ever had.
It wasn't long before some strange things began to happen to these two men.
(Read v. 5-7)
Verse 8 holds the answer.
(Read v. 8)
By the way, God has in times past spoken to men in dreams. We find such communication often mentioned, especially in the Old Testament. We need to realize, though, that God's primary method of communication today is not through dreams. It is through His word. We read in Hebrews 1:1-2: "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days God has spoken to us through His Son." There is a noted shift of means of communication between Old and New Testaments.
Anyway, in that bygone time, Joseph had the ability from God to interpret such dreams.
(Read v. 9-11)
There is the dream, now the interpretation.
(Read v. 12-13)
What a great message that must have been to the cupbearer! Perhaps the security investigation would prove him innocent of the charges.
At any rate, this set Joseph's mind spinning with possibilities. If the cupbearer would again be restored to Pharaoh's court, then that would mean that Joseph had a friend in the Oval Office, so to speak. Could the cupbearer possibly persuade Pharaoh to grant Joseph executive clemency? A very good possibility! Imagine Joseph's enthusiasm. "At last, God is going to come through! He is going to deliver me through this man! I just know it! Hallelujah!" So Joseph made a request of the chief cupbearer.
(Read v. 14-15)
Do you think Joseph wasn't feeling the sting of unjust treatment and false accusation? By his words here we see that he keenly felt the injustice of his being in jail. "I was kidnapped…I have none nothing that they should put me into the dungeon."
This whole exchange with the cupbearer was done with an audience. The chief baker was there, listening, and as he heard the favorable interpretation, he naturally, wanted to hear the interpretation of his dream.
(Read v. 16-17)
It sounded like reason for optimism to him! His dream was similar, at least in part, to that of the cupbearer.
Perhaps a look of astonishment or terror crept onto Joseph's face as he told the baker the interpretation of his dream.
(Read v. 18-19)
It happened that three days from then a feast was scheduled in honor of Pharaoh at which all his servants were present. It was the perfect time for him to announce his verdict in regard to the two suspected officials and that is just what happened.
(Read v. 20-22)
Wow! If word of this got back to the jail to Joseph, he must have been on cloud nine. Isn't it great when you can see God working in your life and see things happening? Your spirits are lifted. You have great anticipation of God moving in your life. Have you ever felt like that? Probably some of you have.
Now, have you ever had what occurred next happen to you?
(Read v. 23)
Can you imagine the disappointment behind that verse? As Joseph saw the two men disappear from the jail to return to Pharaoh's court, he must have thought "Wow! I'm about to be freed." He must have sat in his shackles for the next week or two expecting the keys to rattle in the door of his cell at any moment. Surely it was God's plan! Oh how nice it would be to return home to Hebron and once again see his father Jacob and his little brother, Benjamin. He just couldn't wait to be able to follow his father's sheep and smell the rich, fertile pastureland! Even living with his hateful brothers would be better than this!
But the rattle of the key in the door wasn't to come for another two years, as we will learn in the next chapter.
Have you ever been disappointed like that? You're just sure that God is going to move in your circumstances to make things better, but it doesn't happen. Some Christians become so disillusioned at times like that that they give up their faith. Really, they flunk the test. Did God get Joseph out of jail? Yes! But not according to Joseph's timetable. God had his own plan. It is going to be like that at times in your life and mine, too. Take note of it. Mark it down and learn the lesson!
There is another dimension here. To a degree, Joseph was putting his trust in man when he hung his hopes on the chief cupbearer speaking to Pharaoh, and man let him down.
Have you ever put your hope and trust in somebody and had him or her let you down like that? Perhaps they mishandle a situation or you find some glaring inconsistency in them that you didn't know about. What is the great temptation at a time like that? To quit! Before you do, let me ask you this: are you going to leave God because of what man does to you? If so then you're not worthy of Him. A true Christian loves God first and foremost, before any other person. A true Christian trusts God's providence before trusting any man as well. Are you a person of faith or are you, really, when the chips are down, faithless? Disappointments like this one in Joseph's life will tell it.
Some of you here this morning may be disillusioned with God or with the Church. If I may be so bold, let me ask you candidly, where is your faith? What kind of faith do you have? God's word says in Romans 8:28, "ALL things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose." Even disappointments work together for good if you continue to trust God.
Let me say it even more forthrightly. If you are the kind of person who is willing to pack it in and leave God when another person lets you down, then your days are numbered because at some point, it's going to happen. Satan will see that it happens because he has your number. He's found your off button and one of these days he's going to push it and you're going to leave - unless, that is, your true faith is in God and not in man.
Do you want to get a feel of what real disillusionment is? In your mind's eye, slip into Joseph's shackles for a week or two during that period of time when it began to dawn on him that he had been forgotten in spite of the kindness he had showed to the chief baker. Tests of faith don't get much tougher than that.
If you are disillusioned like that, I have a question for you: Will you stay or go away?
People, if you desire to live for God and go to heaven, then you must understand that Satan is going to play hardball for your soul. There is no question that it will happen. The only question is when.
Perhaps right now it would be wise to put everything you are doing in your life on hold for just a short period of time and ask this tough question: Am I counting on God or am I counting on man?
While you are considering that question, let me give you some Scriptural advice. You'll find this in Psalm 118:8…
"It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man."
It cannot be said any better than that.
Conclusion
Let me leave you with three thoughts that will help you guard your life against the disillusionment that comes when people let you down:
1. God's timetable is very different than yours.
Joseph wanted release now. God delivered him two years later. Joseph's timetable didn't match God's. Neither will yours some of the time.2. God's plan is more far-reaching than yours.
Joseph's plan would naturally center on getting released so he could go home. God's plan centered on preserving the bloodline of Abraham so that the Christ could be born.3. God will test your faith at times by making you wait.
We read in Psalm 105:17-19 these words:"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."
God will test your faith at times by making you wait! It's a part of His workshop - a part of the fire, the hammer, and the file.
View Other Messages in this Series
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.
All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
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