Growth through Trials - Genesis 37-50

Joseph's life shows what God does through our trials.

I. Test of Family, 37:1-4

A. Blended family (Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah) – train wreck of a family
B. Favorite of his father – brothers were devalued and overlooked (“It’s all about Joseph”)
C. Special coat, special problems
D. Pride: Joseph WORE the coat—precocious tattle-tale, proud and insensitive
E. Biting sarcasm, insults, debilitating put-downs and angry hurtful words were probably the norm (v.4)

II. Test of Dreams, 37:5-11

A. Prophetic? Yes—wise to reveal? Probably not.
B. Did not require an interpreter – the brothers got it (37:8)
C. Like a game of Jenga, each action destabilized the home relationships, fellowship fractured, hatred escalated
D. The last dream including his parents and brothers sent his favored status swirling down the vortex of fraternal betrayal
E. Jacob, the original dreamer-schemer took it all to heart (37:11), but didn’t foresee the personal psychic trauma that was ahead.

III. Test of Betrayal, 37:12-36, 39:1-41:9A. Betrayal by his brothers, 37:12-36

1. Shechem:a. Abraham’s first altar
b. Jacob removes idols while fleeing from Laban
c. Joshua 24:15, “Choose this day whom you will serve … as for me and my house. We will serve the Lord.”
d. Sychar – Samaritan woman at the well (John 4)
e. A place of crisis and decision: “Crisis doesn’t make a person. It reveals you for what you are. You don’t know who someone is until adversity comes. It shows the cracks, and the cracks are where God leaks through”—L. Sweet.2. Treachery:a. Coat story part 1: “They saw him from afar.”
b. Reuben intervened: “God cannot be thwarted.” God’s sovereignty is the theme.
c. Coat story part 2: “An animal has torn him”

B. Betrayal by Potiphar’s wife, 39:1-23

1. From favored to object of human trafficking – “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.”
2. Potiphar: captain of Pharaoh’s body guard
3. Joseph distinguished himself and was promoted: “Bloom where you’re planted.”
4. Joseph was propositioned and refused (Hebrews 11:25-26)
5. “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”
6. No good deed goes unpunished. Doing right does not ensure smooth sailing.
7. Joseph bloomed … again (this time in prison).

C. Betrayal by Butler, 39:24-40:23

1. Butler and Baker dream
2. Back to work/off with your head
3. Butler forgets (v.23)
4. Joseph served two more years in prison un-vindicated (R.T Kendall, “Learning to trust God”)

IV. Test of Prosperity, 41:10-50:26A. Test with Pharoah’s dreams, 41:1-57

1. Butler remembers his faults
2. Joseph glorified God translated the dreams and was rewarded with a cabinet position
3. Joseph bloomed
4. At 30 years of age Joseph said, “God has made me forget all my toil and my father’s house.”

B. Test with Brothers, 42:1-50:261. Test with money, 42-43

a. Verse 6 – Joseph’s dream was fulfilled: “The atrocious barbarity of his brethren had been the means of bringing about they very issue they had planned to prevent” (JFB Commentary). IRONY!
b. “Fate or karma has caught up to us” (42:21-23)
i. Reuben’s offer (42:37)
ii. Judah’s offer (43:8-9)
iii. Jacob’s bribe (43:11-12)
c. Joseph’s cat and mouse game (43:16)

2. Test with cup, 44

a. Joseph’s trap (44:1-32)
b. Judah’s proposal (44:33-34), (See 37:26)

3. Test of safety after Jacob’s death, 45-50

a. Joseph’s initial forgiveness: “And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance” (45:7).
b. Joseph’s final forgiveness: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive” (50:20).
c. “God had been as watchful in His hiddenness [from Joseph] as in any miracle” (D. Kidner).
d. “You do not have to sit outside in the dark. If, however, you want to look at the stars, you find darkness is required”—Annie Dillard.

Conclusion – Epilogue

1. Joseph’s family relocated to Egypt
2. 400 years, plagues, Passover, Exodus
3. God in the big picture
4. 1 Peter 1:6-7, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ.”