#12 Joseph Series - One Moment in Time

Dr. Ron Sumners

December 20, 2009

Genesis 45: 1-5

There are those moments in life when it seems that suddenly the clock stops and the action freezes. We know that as a result of what we are experiencing, things will never be the same again. 

I remember a Friday morning in March 1993. James Floyd, Chairman of the Pastor Search Committee, and I sat at breakfast as it began snowing. I agreed to allow the committee to submit my name to the church as a potential pastor.

It was the beginning of the blizzard of 1993 and also the beginning of a sixteen year adventure at Meadow Brook Baptist Church. It is a moment that is frozen in time for me.

I remember lying on a gurney in the emergency room of the Foianini Clinic in Santa Cruz, Bolivia as they performed CPR on me on November 14th, 2007. I was quite sure that it was my last day on earth. It is a moment frozen in time.

Sometimes these moments in time are tied to a particular event. Many of us remember where we were and what we were doing in November 1963 when the news came that President John Kennedy had been assassinated. Where were you in 1986 when you heard the news that the Space Shuttle Challenger, had exploded? I was in a meeting in the construction trailer as the new sanctuary neared completion on September 11, 2001. Members of the building committee and construction foremen watched a small black and white TV as the horror story unfolded. It is frozen in time; I will never forget it.

Joseph had such moments in his pilgrimage from Canaan to Egypt. When we get to heaven we can ask Joseph, “In all that happened to you on the journey of your life, what stood out most to you?” I think his answer might be the moment when he disclosed to his brothers who he was! This wonderful story is found in Genesis 45. It is one of the most dramatic moments in the entire Bible.

In the opening words of chapter 45 of Genesis, we see a powerful display of emotion from Joseph. Joseph had been struggling with his emotions from the moment he saw his brother in line to buy food. His emotions were especially strong when Benjamin arrived in Egypt and Joseph saw him for the first time.

Joseph had to run out and find a place to weep. He must have cried for quite a long time because he had to wash the tears from his face and get control of himself before he could come back out and say something as simple as, “Serve the food.”

There were, no doubt, other occasions not recorded in which Joseph had to let go and vent his emotions. He did manage to hold himself in check publically. But all of that was about to change. The dam was about to burst. Joseph could no longer control himself and demanded to be left alone with his brothers.

The doors had no sooner closed on the twelve brothers than Joseph lost all semblance of composure. He began weeping so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and someone even told Pharaoh.

It was in this setting that Joseph made the announcement, “I am Joseph!” He was weeping from a heart of tenderness and forgiveness, for Joseph had a profound understanding of God’s sovereign hand on his life!

But the brothers didn’t know all this yet. So being shut up alone with Joseph struck terror into their hearts. After all, this was the stern Egyptian official who had imprisoned Simeon and had held their lives in his hands for some time now. But as they stood wide-eyed, their palms perspiring, this powerful Egyptian prime minister began to weep. It was not a gentle sob but rather a wail that could be heard through the walls. And then Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers. It must have hit them like the proverbial “ton-of-bricks!”

It is interesting that Joseph made this revelation in private with his brothers. I think that Joseph wanted the time alone, but I also believe he was protecting his brothers. We wonder what Joseph’s servants might have done to the brothers if they knew how badly they had treated their master years before. 

Some might be tempted to use this occasion to “lower the boom” on these sorry fellows for the suffering they had caused. What a perfect time for revenge!

But Joseph didn’t do that. He had the attitude that the Apostle Peter later described as a love that “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). It takes great wisdom and spiritual maturity to pass over old wounds and wrongs and extend forgiveness.

As Joseph’s emotions burst the dam of his outward control, his brothers must have been stunned. And when he said, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” (v. 3), they must have been bewildered.

We can imagine one of the men turning to the others and saying, “Did you hear that? Did he just speak to us in our language?” Up to that point, all their exchanges had been through an interpreter. Joseph said, “Come close to me…I am your brother Joseph, the one that you sold into Egypt!”

They were terrified. They were in the presence of one who had the power of life and death over them; one, they had sinned against horribly over twenty years earlier. They had hated him with a passion, without just cause.

We can see them looking hard at Joseph as he took off the Egyptian headdress; they began to see the family resemblance. It was indeed Joseph! The shame of what they had done must have swept over them to say nothing of the terror at the thought of what he might do to them in reprisal. But Joseph had a far different purpose in mind.

Through the events of his life, Joseph understood that God sovereignly orders things in our lives as we are obedient to Him. 

We began this sermon series with the premise of Romans 8:28 as our guide, “All things work together for the good for those who love God and are called according to His purposes!” 

As Joseph called for his brothers to gather around him, he must have seen the distress and remorse and fear in their eyes. He said, “Do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”

What a powerful statement of divine providence! The truth of God’s providential care does not mean that every detail of our lives will fit into neat categories so that our days flow along smoothly. Joseph’s experience is proof that life seldom works that way.

But the Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes 3:1, “There is a time for everything, and a season for every purpose under heaven.” The writer is declaring the fact of the providential, overruling hand of God in all of life and in all human history. Joseph understood divine providence well enough to respond to his brothers the way he did. 

You remember that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery, in part, to prevent the realization of his dream that they would one day bow down to him. In order to ensure that day would never come, they took matters into their own hands and committed an evil act for which they were responsible. But God, in His overruling providence, used their evil behavior to bring Joseph into the very position of authority before which the brothers were obliged to bow!

Joseph arrived at the conclusion that his brothers’ hatred of him and his journey to Egypt were part of a larger plan, and he responded accordingly.

When people fall into bitterness and a desire for revenge they are forgetting providence – a view of God and His work that takes in more than the immediate circumstances. Joseph knew that God was not taken by surprise when his brothers stripped him of his coat and threw him into the pit.

Joseph looked beyond the actions and reactions of men when he told his brothers, “It was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” 

Neither you nor I can take our next breath without God’s enabling. Do we really think it’s because we own a post-graduate degree or because we are so clever in business that we enjoy the things we have? Ultimately, it is God who provides these things according to His grace and purpose.

Let me make a few points that may help our understanding here.

First, we must understand that the nature of sin is not altered by the use God makes of it. Divine providence does not mean we can just go out and sin because, after all, God is overruling everything to His glory anyway.

This is the faulty argument Paul demolishes in Romans 6 when he says, “Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound? God forbid!” (Romans 6:1-2)

Here is a second point to consider. The will of God never contains permission for us to do anything which runs contrary to His revealed will in the Bible. God’s will does not sanction our sin. Poison does not cease to be poison just because it may be a part of a medicine that heals. Poison is still poison – and sin is still sin for which the sinner is responsible, even though God may choose to use that sin for the unfolding of His plan.

This raises one more question. People often wonder why, if God is sovereign and in control of everything, He allows so much suffering in the world.

I took a whole course in my doctoral study on Theodicy, which is the study of a good God and an evil world. I would be foolish to think that I could deal with this question in a sub point of a single sermon. I believe that God knows what He is doing. He has dealt with sin at the Cross, and He is about to deal with sin when he banishes the Evil One to hell forever. But in the meantime, sin can be redeemed to serve God’s purposes. 

All the evil in what happened to Joseph was the responsibility of his brothers. However, God took their sin and used it for His purposes. John Calvin said, “Away then with this dog-like impudence which can indeed bark at God’s justice afar off, but cannot touch it!”

I do not want to seem unkind or over-pious, but I believe that there have been many books and philosophies written and developed over the past half century that are nothing but “dog-like impudence.” I believe they are expressions of the low view in which the greatness and wonder of God are held today. His purity and holiness are called into question because we cannot fit the immenseness of His Person into our puny minds. Since we cannot comprehend it; we must question and feel like we have complete understanding; which, of course will never be the case!

What are we supposed to think of all this? Where can we find security in a world that seems ready to erupt in massive conflict at any moment; a world where all the traditional stack poles like faith and the protestant work ethic, are being eroded by a vapid, insipid pluralism?

The Prophet Isaiah gives the answer, “Surely the nations are like a drop in the bucket, and they are regarded as dust on the scales.”(Isaiah 40:15)

Maybe you have been to a farmer’s market and bought fresh vegetables. Often, they will have an old scale to weigh the produce. It is usually covered with a veneer of dust. Many plants are covered with dust or dirt, like potatoes. Do you ask the farmer to wipe the scale and wash the potatoes before you have them weighed? Probably not, unless you are the world’s greatest miser! I knew a man who insisted that the produce he bought at the grocery store be weighed before it was put into the plastic bags. A year’s worth of bags would not amount to a nickel, but it was an issue for him. There is not enough dust or plastic to make a significant difference!

Isaiah says the nations of the earth are like dust in the eyes of God. We are preoccupied with the wrong thing. In the absence of an understanding of God’s providence, people live in terror of world circumstances or world rulers. But when we understand that God is ultimately in control of everything, even our own lives, and the terror is replaced by assurance!

If you doubt that, look at Isaiah 40:25, “‘to whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?’ asks the Holy One.” Do you want to have security in a world that is upside down and anxious and chaotic and extremely dangerous? Bow down before the One who has no equal; bow down to the wonder of God’s providence!

An awareness of providence enables us to treat others with humility – even those who have wronged us or injured us. When we recognize that God is ultimately in control of our circumstances, we can release others and their actions to Him and be free of the bitterness and resentment that rots the soul. Joseph’s profound understanding of God’s providence was the key to his attitude toward his brothers and toward life itself.

Do you believe that God is in control? If so, let go of your fear!