I am Pastor Nathan, and today we're going to
be focusing on Genesis 37, but it's going to
be a Thanksgiving message. This week, many of
us are going to be sitting around Thanksgiving
tables, and depending on our family culture,
the food we're going to have could be a whole
lot of different things. For my family, it's
usually turkey, mashed potatoes, and more carbs
than any human should possibly consume. But,
you know, there might be laughter and football
games and kids running around and then the afternoon
food comas. But for some of us, this week is
looking forward to tension, unspoken stuff, maybe
the chair that's empty at the Thanksgiving table,
maybe the conversations that we've all been avoiding.
for months. And, you know, holidays like Thanksgiving,
they all have a way of bringing our family stories
to the surface, right? Because we're supposed
to get together as families, and families don't
always have the most peaceful, the most perfect
unity. And so, you know, things like old sibling
rivalries might be the tension that you're looking
forward to. Maybe it's parents who favored one
child over the other. Maybe it's wounds that
haven't healed. And maybe it's just you're bracing
this week as we're entering into this Thanksgiving
week. You're bracing for who's going to be there
at that table and how that's going to be. Or
maybe for some of you, it's who's not going to
be at that table, you know. The story of Joseph,
as we've begun last week, and we will be continuing
through the end of the book of Genesis, the story
that started here in Genesis chapter 37, it's
not the Hallmark movie family story either, right?
Very few of us have that Hallmark movie family.
This is a family. that has a history of just
really terrible, horrible things, lies, deceptions,
sexual assault, murder. I mean, all kinds of
terrible things have happened in this family.
And Genesis 37 is where the slow -burning dysfunction
just explodes. It just finally erupts. And, you
know, we're going to see a father who has foolishly
favored one son over the rest of his sons. A
father who then wraps that child in this royal
robe that just communicates that he's my favorite
and the rest of you are not. We're going to see
ten older brothers who are just simply sick of
the favoritism. sick of being treated like less
than their brother, sick of being reminded that
they are less loved than one of their other brothers.
And then we're going to see a naive teenager
that we were introduced to last week named Joseph,
who is sent out alone, wrapped in this coat.
And he's going to be sent to observe and report
on his brothers, which was the very thing that
got him in hot water with his brothers, or at
least boiled everything over to begin with. You
know, at the end of today's chapter that we're
looking at, Joseph will have gone from beloved
son, favorite of the father, in this beautiful
royal robe to bloody and bruised and just crying
out from the bottom of a cistern. He'll go from
being the favorite of the family to chained to
a caravan bound to Egypt, having been sold into
slavery by his brothers for 20 pieces of silver.
And we'll end this chapter with a dad who will
be at home holding the bloody shredded robe that
his favorite son once wore, believing a lie that
his son is indeed dead. A father who is now saying
that I will never be okay. I'm going to mourn
until the day I'm dead. Now on the surface, the
story that we're looking at seems to be one where
envy and jealousy and evil wins. And it's going
to look like Joseph's story is over before it
even begins, right? What a fantastic Thanksgiving
message. But God wants us to see today and then
through the story of Joseph that he is sovereign
even when people are hardened in their sin. Even
when people are hardened in their sin and make
worse, terrible, evil, wicked decisions, God
is still sovereign even in that. That God is
quietly working. even when he appears silent.
Joseph's life shows us how to live with the real
hurts that we all have without being chained
to victimhood, which is something I believe the
devil tries to get us chained to to ruin our
lives. And so it's very important this week that
we have this message because, you know, like
I said, we're all going to be at the table later
this week with people who hurt us. We may be
at the table with people that we have hurt. We
may be at a table where there's empty chairs
because someone has passed away, or maybe we
drove someone away from the family with how we've
treated them. And, you know, all of the if -onlys
and what -ifs or the why -did -they, all of those
things are going to be very close to the surface.
And so my encouragement for all of us today is
pay close attention. Pay close attention to what
God is saying today because today's message,
I believe, is going to answer the question of
what does all of this have to do with my family
and my hurts and my Thanksgiving table? And it's
also going to ask each one of us the question
that will we let our past define us? Will we
let our family's history define us? Or will we
trust God, the one who could take any evil, any
wickedness, and weave it for good? But before
we get into that, we want to spend time worshiping
him. Because true thankfulness comes from just
praising God. A part of why we worship him is
to say thank you. Thank you for who you are.
Thank you for what you've done. And even learning,
as hard as it is, to say, God, thank you for
where I'm at right now. Because I choose to believe
that you are sovereignly present, you are sovereignly
working, even through the pit that I find myself
in. Let's pray. God, we love you. Lord, we're
so thankful to you, who you are, what you've
done, what you're doing. God, the reality of
your sovereignty really is something beyond our
understanding, and yet, God, this story that
you've given us of this man, Joseph, Lord, the
bulk of this book of Genesis, Lord, you've given
over to him that we would learn these very important
lessons. And God, one of those lessons is to
know what you're doing even through the dark
stuff. That when evil is perpetrated upon us,
God, that we would be able to acknowledge the
hurt, Lord, the hurts are real. Acknowledge the
wrong, name it, Lord, because wrong is wrong,
but in the midst of it, Lord, to find a way through
the power of your Holy Spirit to trust you. to
know that you're going to work good even through
this. Lord, today there may be some here that
are those that have wounded others, caused divisions
in the family, are holding on to old wrongs or
old jealousies, Lord. And today, God, you want
to point that out so that we give it up, so that
we nail those things to the cross. Lord, that
as we remind ourselves of what you've done, And
God, really take a moment to say thank you for
what you've done in our lives and how you reconciled
us to you, Lord. That we would enter into Thanksgiving
week and the Thanksgiving events that we might
be attending here later on this week in celebration
of this holiday, Lord. We would enter into those
things free from envy and jealousy. Free from
fear and worry. Not without hurt, Lord. But with
a hurt that we've placed into your hands, trusting
for your resolution. But God, we just want to
start by praising your name. Because that is
the beginning of everything. That is the beginning
of our healing. That is the hope we have. You,
God Almighty, Jesus Christ, the Savior of our
souls. Lord, we love you and we thank you. It's
in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Okay, we are in
Genesis chapter 37, verses 12 through 36. We're
going to be finishing the chapter today, and
really this is a chapter about envy. Envy and
jealousy and what that can do in our lives. It's
also a chapter about how we respond to such things
and what our perspective should be, you know,
because envy and evil... They can throw us into
pits, and we could end up in pits that are just
hard to deal with and pits of despair and pits
of depression, but we can't forget that God's
hidden hand is still at work, and that's the
hardest thing to cling to in the pits of despair
and difficulty is that God is still working,
and we saw this last week as we started the life
of Joseph here, but, you know, Regardless of
that truth, real wounds, real hurts are real.
And they really hurt. We've all been wounded
in one way or another at times in our life by
one thing or another. And it hurts. And, you
know, sometimes the truth of like, yeah, God's
working through it. Well, great. But it still
hurts, you know. And, you know, that's just the
reality of things. We can't forget that in Christ,
we are not sentenced to lifelong victimhood based
upon the things that have happened to us in our
life. It's very, very important to understand
that because victimhood is as much a bondage
of shackle as anything else is. That in Christ,
we are not sentenced to that. It's the Holy Spirit
in our lives. That works as we learn to yield
to him and trust him. That allows us to trust
our sovereign God even when nothing makes sense.
And that's really one of the ongoing themes throughout
Scripture. And we see that specifically in Joseph's
life. And so if you'll read with me starting
in verse 12 of Genesis chapter 37. It says, Now
this is referring to Joseph. It's his brothers
as we were reading last week. Verse 13, Israel
said to Joseph, your brothers, you know, are
pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready, I'm
sending you to them. I'm ready, Joseph replied.
Then Israel said to him, go and see how your
brothers and the flocks are doing and bring word
back to me. So he sent him from the Hebron Valley
and he went to Shechem. A man found him there
wandering in the field and asked him, what are
you looking for? I'm looking for my brothers,
Joseph said. Can you tell me where they are pasturing
their flocks? They've moved on from here, the
man said. I heard them say, let's go to Dothan.
So Joseph set out after his brothers and found
them at Dothan. So after the beginning of this
chapter where we're introduced to Joseph, he's
a young man. He tells on his brothers who had
done something disobedient, causing his brothers
to hate him. And then his dad rewarded Joseph
with this beautiful royal coat, this robe that
really signified you're special, and they aren't.
And that just infuriated the brothers anymore.
And then Joseph had these dreams of his family
bowing down to him and shared these dreams with
his brothers and his father, and that just made
the brothers hate him thrice, right? They were
just done with him. This section picks up where
the brothers had left. They had left Hebron and
gone north to Shechem. Now Shechem was the place
that... that Jacob, when he was bringing his
family back to the promised land, when he finally
entered the promised land, he stopped in Shechem
instead of going all the way to Bethel. And that
is where the fruits of bad decisions and halfway
obedience really plagued his family. It was where
their sister Dinah got raped. It is where they
responded with murderous vengeance and slaughtered
all the men in the town. And so it's really a
place that's a dark spot on the history of the
family. But this is where they choose to... go
back to. Now, I can imagine some time has passed
here, but the memory of this genocide had not
faded yet. I mean, something that big and that
massive would linger among the people. And so
I asked myself the question, I'm like, why did
the brothers go back there? 50 to 60 miles north,
that is a long way to drive all the flocks of
sheep to graze. That's an extreme distance. Why
would they go there? Now, perhaps it was to simply
get away from Joseph and their father and his
favoritism. I think we all know what that's like
at times when we're exasperated by our parents
for one reason or another and we want to leave.
You know, when 2010 -ish, 2011 around there.
I was doing young adults ministry at Hosanna,
and I was living in a house back here that was
the house Pastor Gary, our founder, had grown
up in. And I got to kind of live in this house
and then rent out all the rooms to young adult
men, you know, that were kind of like, I'm an
adult now. I want to move out and get away from
my parents, right? And they didn't all sound
like that. It was just usually like, hey, we
want to take that step. And I was kind of a first
place for guys to land, right? to get that first
opportunity. They're on their own and they're
in their own place. And so, you know, this might
be what was going on with the brothers here.
Perhaps, you know, it's just a simple, it's tied
to the fact that for them, the last time they
were in Shechem, they felt powerful. They felt
important, right? They were the ones who slaughtered
all the people. Everybody was afraid of them.
And so they go up to this area and it tells us
that dad knew that and he sends Joseph up there
to go with them. Now Joseph, I would imagine,
had picked up on the fact that his brothers were
kind of mad at him. You know, hatred, hatred,
hatred. Didn't talk to him anymore. And he was
pretty aware of their attitude. But everything
that had happened in the family at this point,
had led to this very deep division within Israel's
family. And that is something God loves to do
in, God, Satan loves to do in families, divide.
He wants to divide families in any way he can,
and this is what has happened here. Now, Joseph
maybe was like, you know, I mean, I know they're
mad at me, but they can't be that mad at me.
After all, we're brothers. I love them. They've
got to love me. It doesn't tell us all that,
but... But he goes. Now, father sends him away.
You know, he's called Israel here. He's going
to be called Jacob again. And we kind of see
this back and forth in his naming that when he's
doing something that's kind of supposed to be
the right godly thing, he's called Israel. And
then when he reverts back to his old nature,
he calls him Jacob again. And so, but right here,
he's like, hey, go check on the kids. You know,
I'm concerned about your brothers. I'm concerned
about their welfare. But he sends him still wearing
this coat. And he sends him to go do the very
thing that the brothers hated him for to begin
with. Go observe and report. Go see what your
brothers are doing and tell me all about it.
And I think it was a little short -sighted of
Israel to do that. But he still sends Joseph
there. And God's allowing all these things to
play out as we're going to see for his own purposes.
Joseph here, we see again a picture of Jesus
here where the father said, go to your brothers
who hate you. I want you to obey me and do that.
And Joseph just simply says, I'm ready. He doesn't
argue. He doesn't say, Dad, but they're mad at
me. Is this safe? He just does it. And Joseph
is a picture of Jesus Christ in Scripture. And
we see that when the father sent Jesus the son
to this earth to come here and live a perfect
life and then to die this horrible, just, just.
devastating death on the cross, Jesus went. Now,
we know Jesus had his moment in the garden where
he's like, hey, Dad, are you sure, right? But
it tells us in Scripture that he went as a lamb
to the slaughter, that Jesus ultimately knew
what was in front of him, went to a nation of
people who hated him and rejected him, and yet
he did it anyways out of his great love, right?
Now, we see that obedience here in Joseph where
he just said, Dad, I'm ready. I'm going. Let's
do this. And so he arrives in Shechem. and the
brothers are gone. And so it tells us that he
is wandering the field there in verse 15, right?
A man found him wandering the field. The idea
is that he's wandering this area around Shechem
where this massacre took place some years prior,
and he's looking for signs of his brothers, right?
Where are they? Are there any tracks? Are there
any signs of their passing? And then guess what?
A nameless man just so happens to find him in
the field. You know, we all have those just so
happens moments. And we were talking about last
week a lot. What may be coincidences to us from
our perspective are not coincidences with God.
Did God make the man show up? Did the man just
happen to show up by his own choice and God's
working through that? We don't know the answer
to that question. But the point is, is when we
see the broader story, we see God worked through
all of this. And this is just another picture
of that sovereignty of God in the everyday decisions
of us living our lives. And so he just happens
to show up, happens to see Joseph wandering the
field, happens to know exactly where his brothers
went, right? What are the odds? Well, with God,
nothing's impossible. And so they went to Dothan.
And so he points them to this town that's about
10 to 15 miles north of Shechem. Dothan, the
city name, it means double cistern because there
was a lot of cisterns in the area. And these
are kind of like wells. We would call them wells
today. But we'll talk more about that when we
get to it. But the idea is that Joseph, who's
just following his father's commands, just being
obedient, just really going about his life, doing
what his dad asked him to do, is now finding
himself stepping right onto the highway of redemption.
And what I mean by that is the... town Dothan
sat right on this main caravan road, this road
that ran all the way from the north and went
all the way down to Egypt. It was where traders
often went up and down, and it's going to be
the exact road God uses to get Joseph to Egypt,
but that's in a future story. On the surface
here, everything just looks so ordinary, right?
Just everyday life. But again, behind every coincidence
is God's hidden hand of providence. The stage
is being set. God is working behind the scenes
to fulfill the plan that God came up with before
time existed. Before the universe existed, God
knew that this was going to be happening in Jacob's
family. And so God is weaving his will through
it to bring his purposes to plan, which is ultimately
to get Joseph to Egypt, to have Joseph rise up,
to save everybody, to be a picture of Jesus,
and then it's through that line Jesus Christ
comes and everything that God planned. That is
one of the seeds under this that we need to hang
on to. God is sovereign. He's always sovereign.
He always will be sovereign. And yet, there is
this thing we have called free will, which is
us stuck in a linear time frame where cause has
effect and decisions have consequences. And we
think, man, if I didn't decide that, or what
if I didn't do that? What if I didn't take that
job? What if I moved or didn't move? And we think
that things can be absolutely ruined by us. We
think that we have power over our own destiny.
The reality is God is sovereign. He works in
our free will. How? I don't know. Let's ask him
when we get there. But it's what the Bible teaches.
And so, you know, too many of us live in that
land of what if. What if I took that job? Sometimes
it's what if the doctor caught it earlier? Sometimes
it's what if this or that didn't happen in my
family. And, you know, Genesis 37 is just here
to remind us that God allows every human choice.
But he moves in and through all of it to work
his divine will. And so life and decision, it
may look random to us, but your Father in heaven
knows exactly what Dothan he's trying to get
you to. And so everything that happens along
the way, we have the opportunity to go, oh, no.
Had I just made a different decision? And oh,
no. And the encouragement in Scripture is for
us to step back and say, God is sovereign. God
knows every decision I'm ever going to make.
So the decision I made, God's going to work through
that. Now, what happens? We don't know, but God
does. We move on here to verse 18 where he finally
arrives to his brothers. It says they saw him
in the distance, and before he had reached them,
they plotted to kill him. So now we know the
extent of their hatred, right? They want to murder
their brother. Now, it doesn't tell us exactly
what they noticed, whether they recognized his
walk or not, but I kind of see the picture in
my head that they saw that stinking coat. That
wretched robe, right? I mean, the older translations
of Scripture or in other mediums and stuff, they
call it the coat of many colors, right? The idea
is that it was scintillating, right? Maybe it
was bejeweled and sequined, you know, and caught
the light. But I kind of see here that they saw
in the distance and they went, oh, no. It's him.
And that stupid robe. I mean, their hearts already.
simmering with years of resentment from the favoritism
and all this. I mean, it finally just boils over
and explodes. All that favoritism that their
father showed towards Joseph, this stupid coat
that screams out, I'm chosen, you're not. And
then his ridiculous dreams, us bowing down to
him, that's it. That's it, we're taking him out.
Their heart posture is anger on their part, but
what they don't understand is Satan is trying
to use it to thwart God's plan. Right? And so
they're like, kill him. Not rough him up. Not
bully him. You know, not treat him like a younger
brother, but kill him. Now I think, why do they
go to that extreme? I mean, of course, hatred
could get that bad. But I think what happened
was the last time they were in this area, Murder
was their solution. Last time they were in Shechem,
the solution to the problem was murder, slaughter,
kill everybody. And so it's just this place,
you know. We go back to the places of our old
life. We go back to the circumstances of old
decisions. And sometimes we find ourselves thinking,
oh, yeah, that stupid decision, it seems to make
sense now. Let's do that again. And so they want
to murder him, verse 19. They said to one another,
oh, look. Here comes the dream expert. So now,
come on, let's kill him and throw him into one
of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal
ate him and then we'll see what becomes of his
dreams. I mean, envy, jealousy, hatred, it's
just fully gripped their heart, right? They're
fully gripped by it and unknowingly, they're
planning to kill God's word by killing God's
chosen instrument. You see, We can all suffer
from envy and jealousy, even those in the church.
But the issue is, what are we going to let that
envy and jealousy do to us? Are we going to deal
with it in a godly way, or are we going to let
it poison us to the point where we do something
or contemplate doing something we never thought
we would do? We all find ourselves in these situations
of struggling with, you know, Why did they get
that? And why didn't I get that? And how come
they got the promotion? And how come they got
the raise? And how come, right? We deal with
that. I'm doing the right stuff. How come I'm
not the one getting blessed? And what happens
is we might then try and find ourselves coming
against those that we envy, those that we have
jealousy against. But do you have any idea what
God is doing in their life, why God might be
blessing them, using them? Do you have any idea?
No, you don't. And so this idea of getting in
the way of God's will is what you risk when you're
going to respond in envy and jealousy to something
God's doing in somebody else's life. Now we'll
talk more about that in a little bit, but verse
21. When Reuben heard this, he tried to save
him from them. He said, let's not take his life.
Reuben also said to them, don't shed blood. Throw
him into this pit in the wilderness, but don't
lay a hand on him, intending to rescue him from
them and return him to their father. Now, Reuben
being the oldest, he was the firstborn son. He
was thus... He was probably most likely of being
held ultimately responsible if they returned
and they're like, oh, Joseph's not with us, right?
He was the one that would probably get the brunt
of the consequences of that. And so now we know
that this is the same Reuben who had already
disgraced himself in the family by sleeping with
his father's concubine, an act of him trying
to usurp control of the family. And so Reuben
is the eldest son who's already on thin ice with
dad. His relationship with his father is already
troubled and rocky, and so he just outright says,
we are not going to murder Joseph. We can't do
that. Now, that's right. Good job, Reuben. You're
finally kind of being a leader amongst your brothers.
You know, that is a good call. But instead of
going all the way with his stance for what is
right, instead of saying, this is wickedness
you guys are contemplating, we're not going to
do any of that. We're not going to throw him
in a pit. We're not going to. He is our brother.
Instead of being the guy that says, look, we're
a family who believes in the almighty God, and
so if God is blessing him, who are we to say
anything about that? We should celebrate with
him and praise God for what he's doing. Instead
of all of that, he says, let's not murder him,
let's not shed blood, but yeah, let's still throw
him in the pit. This is a moral compromise on
Reuben's part. It's a moral compromise because
He cared more about what his brothers thought
about him than he did about the ultimate righteousness
of the situation, what was right and what was
wrong. His whole let's not throw him into the
pit, this wasn't ultimately about the right thing
and saving his brother. Reuben's like, I'm already
in trouble with dad. I don't want to make it
worse. I don't want to shed blood, but he's kind
of clothing this in his like, no, guys, this
is wrong. He's trying to take this moral stance
here, but it's really ultimately selfish. It's
a compromise. Outwardly, he's going to kind of
go along with the plan. Inwardly, he's like,
I'm going to do the right thing. And even the
right thing is more about smoothing things over
with dad than saving his brother. But what this
is a picture of is half -hearted righteousness.
You see, when wickedness is determined, half
-hearted righteousness doesn't stand a chance.
When evil and wickedness is determined to do
a thing, we combat that with true and full righteousness.
We stand for godly values. We stand for godly
things. We don't kind of half -heartedly go in
with it. This is what it looks like in our culture
and the church today. Abortion is murder. The
Bible says that from the very moment of conception,
That baby is a child. Even if it's one cell,
God knows that person. And yet there are places
in the church where they go, well, yes, it's
wrong, but let's compromise. Let's find a place
where we could be okay with the murder, but ultimately
we're going to say, yeah, it's wrong, but, and
they compromise on the morality. Ultimately what
happens is the evil still happens and the wickedness
still happens. We're called to be righteous people
in the Lord. We're called to stand for what is
right, not to be halfway righteous. And when
our righteousness that we exhibit in our workplaces
or homes or families or wherever we're at, when
the righteousness we exhibit is more about ultimately
how we look to them and how we fit in, and it's
more about how we are affected than truly what
is right. We lose our ability to truly influence
those around us. And this is what Reuben's doing
here. Hey, guys, we can't do that, but yeah,
okay, okay, we'll throw him in the pit. Evil
still happened. We're all susceptible to it,
as I was saying. It shows up in the church way
more than people would expect, right? Inner flinch
we get when someone else is recognized or raised
up or used more than you, right? Why are they
used? I'd do a better job. When someone is raised
up in leadership, promoted, gifted, blessed,
and when you ask that inside question, why them
and not me? Why do they get to have that gift?
Why do they get to serve that way? I should,
right? That's the envy and the jealousy that
the devil plants into our hearts, and envy rarely
remains small. If we don't take that stuff and
nail it to the cross and not compromise with
the things that we should be standing firmly
against, that envy grows teeth. That envy grows
effect, and it might not lead to Digging an actual
pit and throwing your brother into it. But how
many of us have dug emotional pits for people?
And we've emotionally tossed them away. Said,
no. I mean, you're not dead to me. I didn't murder
you, but I have bad comments about you. I give
you the cold shoulder. I undermine you when I
can. You know, if you have envy and jealousy
in your heart, you need to ask God to reveal
that to you. To show where you've been like,
oh my gosh, I have been distancing myself from
my brother or sister in the Lord because I'm
envious of something they have. And maybe I've
done something I really shouldn't have done to
them. Something that was kind of wrong, but I
compromised a little and justified it in a way
to hurt them or to bring them down a peg. If
you're dealing with any of that, say, God, show
it to me very clearly. Call it what it is. Identify
it. And then bring it to the cross before it
grows into something that leads you to do something
you would never, ever think you would do to somebody.
So verse 23. When Joseph came to his brothers,
they stripped off Joseph's robe, the long -sleeved
robe that he had on. And then they took him and
threw him into the pit. The pit was empty without
water. They sat down to eat a meal. Why did I
stop there? Well, he arrives. Their hatred now
becomes physical. The word stripped there, when
it says they stripped off his robe, that is a
word in the Hebrew that gives us the picture
of their hatred. It's the same word used to rip
the skin off an animal if you were skinning it.
For those of you that are hunters, you might
be familiar with that. Those of you that have
watched YouTube and seen that, you're familiar.
And if you don't know, it's a very violent process.
It's a violent process. As much as I like to
say that the meat just ends up at the meat store
and that's where you get it, no, it comes from
animals that get slaughtered for our benefit,
right? Well, the whole process of skinning is
brutal. Brutal. And this is the word that is
used here to describe... The violence with which
they strip off the robe. You know, it wasn't,
oh, thank you for arriving, Joseph. May we take
your coat and hang it up for you? He shows up,
brothers, how are you guys doing? Boom, accosted.
Manhandled. This robe, I mean, and then you think
about all that the robe represented to them.
I don't think they were at all careful. They
hated this robe and what it represented and the
one that was wearing it. And so they strip him
and it says they threw him into this pit. That
word threw, again, it's not the word for, oh,
here's a little rope ladder, brother. They threw
him. They literally shoved him into a hole and
he fell into this pit. Now, when it says pit
there, what it's referring to is a cistern. A
cistern are these like deep, like kind of bottle
-shaped. openings that are carved into the stone
and plastered so that they hold water. They would
hold rainwater, they would hold runoff, and they
were placed all over the place for caravans and
people traveling that, you know, if you found
a cistern, great, you had water. And the idea
of water was life to people, right? If you didn't
have enough water, clean water, you would die.
So traveling from place to place, it was a big
deal to find a cistern. And it was a huge project
to make a cistern, to literally carve into the
rock this big old bowl and then to plaster it.
It was usually months and months and months of
work to make a cistern that would hold water.
Thus, when a cistern would crack, And the water
would leak out. It was an incredibly heartbreaking
moment for people because the thing that is meant
to be a source of life for us is no longer a
source of life. And I was expecting it to be
here when I got here. So it tells us that they
threw him into this pit and it was empty without
water. The idea is that he fell some distance,
upwards of 10 to 15 feet, down into this rock
hole and just slammed against the bottom. Now,
when a cistern would crack and leak, as I said,
it was a horrible thing for people. And a cistern
without water carried symbolism within the Old
Testament. For example, in Jeremiah 2 .13, God,
speaking of the people of Israel, said this,
For my people have committed a double evil. They
have abandoned me, the fountain of living water,
and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns
that cannot hold water. Now symbolically, Israel,
the nation Israel, were supposed to be the representatives
of God to the world. They were literally... Not
literally, symbolically. To be the ones that
said, hey world, here's the cistern. It's full
of water and refreshment. Come to the cistern
and get that which will give you life. This is
the source of life. But what Israel did throughout
the Old Testament, instead of that, is walk away
from God, start worshiping false idols. And so
he says, one, you turned away from me, right?
You abandoned me, but then you dug cisterns for
yourselves. You went and dug your own religions.
That are cracked. They don't hold water. So you
point people to the cistern and they go, it's
empty. There's nothing life -giving here. And
so that was the symbolism here that Joseph is
now sitting in the empty cistern that his brothers
tossed him into. No water. No life. No way of
escape. Bruised. Probably beaten, scared for
sure, and from above, his brothers could hear
his cries for help. And we know this because
later on in Genesis 42, 21, the brothers say
this. Obviously, we are being punished for what
we did to our brother. We saw his deep distress
when he pleaded with us, but we would not listen.
That is why this trouble has come upon us. So
here's their second youngest brother, stripped
of his robe violently, thrown into this pit.
And then the darkest verse of this whole chapter,
in my opinion, they sat down to eat a meal. While
their little brother's in there crying out, pleading,
possibly injured, they go on about their day
like nothing is wrong. They go on with their
life. And maybe you have found yourself in a
pit, right? A deep pit, a deep, dark place. And
maybe you're in there and you've been pleading
and you feel like nobody is paying attention.
That as you cry out, everybody around you is
just going about their lives like nothing is
wrong. And you're like, why can't you hear me?
Why aren't you responding? I'm here. I'm in this
pit. And these pits we can find ourselves in,
they have many names. It could be abuse, betrayal,
diagnosis, prodigal child, ministry wounds, church
hurt. But we find ourselves in these places where
we feel like we're alone and I need help and
please. But everybody's just going to breakfast
and going to lunch and going about their day
and doing their thing. You know, the loudest
question from the depth of these pits is often,
where is God? Where is he? You see, Joseph didn't
have Romans 8 .28, right? Joseph couldn't sit
there in this pit and go, all things work together
to good for those who love God. He didn't have
that. His perspective was that I'm done. Everything
I know is gone. My future is dark and I'm in
this pit and my brothers are just going on and
they're not hearing me. They're not responding.
Where is God? He's absent. He's silent. But that
is not biblical truth. God's apparent silence
is not his absence. You see, in fact, centuries
later in this same town of Dauphin, there was
a young servant who was serving a prophet. And
he was scared because the enemy was coming against
him. And he's like, I, where's God? And God would
open the eyes of this young servant in this very
place, and this servant would see the hills filled
with horses and chariots of fire. And that was
there during the story of Elisha the prophet.
Where's God? Elisha said, God, can you open his
eyes? Oh my goodness. God's power, God's armies
are surrounding us. The enemy has no chance.
It's that same presence and that same power of
God that was there with Joseph. God is everywhere
at all times. He is present with you no matter
what the pit is. He is there with you and his
power is there. His presence is there. Just because
he's silent doesn't mean he's not with you. That
power, that presence was there with Joseph just
as it would be centuries later in Elisha's day.
He just couldn't see it. And that's often our
problem. We look around and we go, all I see
is the empty cistern. All I could see is the
hole up there that I can't get to. And we have
the choice in those places to say, I am alone.
God is gone. Or we say, God is here. God is present.
His power is here. I don't understand why, but
he let this happen. Can I find peace in that?
As hurt as I am. As the wounds, they sting. But
can I find solace in the truth that God's presence
is here? And if God allowed this to happen, there
has to be, based upon the testimony of the word
of God, good on the back end of this. And so,
verse 25 again. It says, when they looked up.
From their meal, there was a caravan of Ishmaelites
coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying
aromatic gum, balsam, and resin going down to
Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what do we
gain if we kill our brother and cover up his
blood? Come on, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites
and not lay a hand on him for he is our brother,
our own flesh. And his brothers agreed. When
Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled
Joseph out of the pit and sold him for 20 pieces
of silver to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph
to Egypt. And so this is another example of,
wow, what are the odds of a caravan of traders
just so happening to arrive at exactly the right
time that this is all going down? It's God's
hand of providence. But... It gives Judah an
idea. Wow. We won't have to kill him. We won't
be as bad as we could be. Gosh, we're going to
find the moral high ground here. Let's not kill
him. Let's just sell him into a lifetime of slavery.
Man, we're good brothers. At least he's alive.
We didn't murder him. They make themselves feel
better by choosing the lesser evil. Guess what
a lesser evil is? Evil. Now, it calls this caravan
of traitors, Ishmaelites and Midianites. They're
called both here. What's really interesting is
that both are descendants of Abraham. So Joseph
is being handed from one family to the other
family, if you will. But what the brothers of
the covenant are doing are handing him over to
the brothers outside the covenant. Which is a
very interesting tactic and something that the
devil is trying to do in erasing God's plan.
Ishmael came through Hagar, Midian came through
Keturah, and both of these clans intermarried
over time, and so they kind of effectively became
one people. So they're just interchangeably called
Ishmaelites and Midianites. It's the same group.
But imagine Joseph's hope as they pull him up
out of the pit, right? He's crying out. Please,
guys, please. And then finally the rope comes
down. They change their mind. Wow. God has shown
up. Thank you, God. You are here to rescue me.
And then they pull him up, hand him over to this
caravan of strangers. For 20 pieces of silver.
And then what happened in most times is that
the slaves would be tied by rope to the back
of the caravan or the back of a horse and forced
to walk. Oftentimes they were also forced to
carry heavy loads. And so, you know, if anybody
had the case for victimhood, it was Joseph. Right?
I mean, Joseph. We look at him and go, yeah,
bro. I mean, you have the case for it. He started
his day as the robed favorite. And he ends his
day as a... Slave on the way to a foreign slave
market in a land he's never been to. Falsely
accused, violently abused, trafficked against
his will, stripped of his family, his culture,
his language, his clothes. Yeah, he has been
radically sinned against by his brothers. Radically.
And I would add that he's been sinned against
by his failed father who said, you know, I think
it's a good idea to send Joseph up there wearing
this robe to check on his brothers and tell me
all about it. We all carry wounds and they're
very real. We should be honest about those things.
Minimizing doesn't help us. You know, whether
we had irrational parents, again, abuse, betrayal,
violations of trust, genuinely wicked and evil
things done to us, those are real. Those are
real. The feelings are real. The Bible never
trivializes wounds. but it refuses to let them
be our ultimate identity. Joseph's story, it
says evil is real. Evil happens, but it is not
the ultimate thing. You may have scars in your
life, but in Christ, you are not a prisoner of
what happened to you. Your scars don't define
who you are today. If anybody could want to give
up and say my story's ruined and I'm going to
play the victim for the rest of my life. Why?
Because real, real things happen to me. It would
be Joseph. Everything is their fault. None of
it's my fault. Yeah, quite literally. And yet
as we read Genesis, we're never going to see
Joseph curl himself up around the... The lifetime
identity of poor me. Never. He grieves, yes.
He cries, yes. He wrestles, yes. But he refuses
to live a life chained to victimhood. Now, that's
going to play out over the rest of Genesis, but
let's move on here in this story. When Reuben
returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not
there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his
brothers and he said, the boy is gone. What am
I going to do? So they took Joseph's robe and
slaughtered a male goat and dipped the robe in
its blood. They sent the long -sleeved robe to
their father and said, we found this. Examine
it. Is it your son's robe or not? That's pretty
pathetic. I believe every stitch of that robe
was burned into their brain. I mean, I believe
they knew this robe backwards and forwards because
all that it represented in their hatred. And
yet, oh, dad, we found this. I mean, cowards,
absolute cowards. A vicious animal. Oh, wait,
is it your son's robe? His father recognized
it, and he goes, it is my son's robe. A vicious
animal has devoured him. Joseph has been torn
to pieces. Then Jacob tore his clothes, right?
Now we're back to Jacob again. He put sackcloth
around his waist. He mourned for his son many
days. All his sons and daughters tried to comfort
him, but he refused to be comforted. No, he said,
I will go down to Sheol to my son mourning. And
his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites
sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaoh and the captain of his guards. So
Reuben returns to the pit like he had his plan.
I'm going to get the brother. I'm going to go
make things right with dad. Brother isn't there,
tears his clothes in anguish. That was a sign
of great contrition in the culture. But even
here we see he's mostly worried about himself.
If he was genuinely concerned with Joseph, why
didn't he go after the caravan? He did not. Mostly
worried about himself. And so the brothers, they
prep their deception. Kill a goat, dip the robe
in the blood, take it back to dad, play stupid.
Now the irony is really thick here. Because in
the beginning of Jacob's life, we read that he
used goats and clothing to deceive his father.
You remember that? Took goat skins, wrapped them
around himself so when the father felt him, he
goes, oh, you're Harry Esau. And now here we
are years later, his sons do the exact same thing
to him. Use goats and garments to deceive him.
You see, we have to understand. That our choices
have consequences. Now, again, when God gets
involved, changes our eternal destiny, we're
saved, yes, our eternal destiny is secure, but
we still have to understand that choices have
consequences here on earth. And that's why we
need to be well -read and well -studied and know
the Lord's character so that when we make decisions,
we're going, I'm making the best decision I can
based upon what I know is right. But we also
trust. that God has taken all of that into account
to work his will. But we still do bear a responsibility
for our own free will. Jacob's grief is just
massive. Nobody could comfort him. He says, I'm
going to die mourning for my son. I'm going to
go down to Sheol. He says, I am never going to
be okay. And he's believing a lie here. He's
believing in untruth and I believe the reason
he's called Jacob again instead of Israel is
because Israel should have gone, oh my gosh,
I gotta, Lord, I'm coming to you in prayer and
is this true? Did it really happen this way?
God, I trust you and even if this is the worst
possible outcome and my son is indeed dead, God,
help me find the strength to trust your sovereignty
and your providence and all this. That's not
what he does. He assumes the worst and immediately
says, All life is over. The sky is falling. And
then we just get the meanwhile, which is the
to be continued, right? Joseph now finds himself
in the heart of the most powerful world superpower
of the time. Lost his family, lost his coat,
lost his freedom, but he didn't lose his character.
And that's what we see through the rest of Genesis.
That who he was was consistent regardless of
his circumstances. That God is positioning him
for a future that nobody could imagine. Now,
as I've said, real life, it's unfair. Real families
can be messy, real wounds and hurts. They leave
scars that will carry with us for the rest of
this life here on earth. But above all of those
things is a real God. A real creator whose providence
is bigger than human evil. A real God whose grace
is deeper than any pit. A real God whose arms
are strong enough to hold you, no matter how
deep the waters are or how deep the hole is.
You see, I read a story about a dad with his
three -year -old standing in the shallow end
of a pool. The kid couldn't swim, and the water,
even in the shallow end, was deeper than the
kid. So it was like a dangerous situation for
the kid on its own. Now, there at the shallow
end, the kid felt safe, felt secure, was like,
I'm good, this is great, my dad's holding me.
But then the dad just slowly started taking steps
toward the deeper side of the pool. And the kid
started getting nervous. Eventually, the water
touched his feet. Oh, no. Came up his legs a
little bit. And the kid, he started to panic,
right? Started to fear, was freaking out. And
the truth of the matter is, is on his own, that
kid would have drowned in any part of that pool.
Whether it was the shallow end or the deep end,
on his own, drowning was a surety for that kid.
The reality was is that he was always and only
saved because he was in his father's arms. That's
why he was safe. But as the pool got deeper,
those father arms became a little bit less secure
to him and he started to flip out. When we feel
like we're in over our heads and we feel like,
oh no, oh no, it's not because the water's gotten
so deep that God isn't there anymore. It's that
we already learned how to trust him in the shallow
end. Now God wants us to learn how to trust him
in the deep end. If you're the brothers today
in this story, as I said, ask the Spirit to show
you where the envy and the jealousy has been
poisoning you. Confess it, name it, bring it
to the cross, you know, because the reality is,
if you're having envy or jealousy for a brother
or sister, whether it's biological family or
Christian family, why do they got the blessing?
Why are they getting promoted? Why are they getting
recognized? The reality is, is all of us are
headed for glory. All of us. Comparison is pointless.
We're all gonna stand before God equally in his
glory, loved as his beloved children. What we
should do is when our brothers or sisters are
blessed by the Lord, we should celebrate with
them. I'm so happy for you. Praise God what he's
doing in your life. Hey, I need a blessing like
that too. Can you pray for me? But this isn't
gonna turn into why do they have it and I don't
because that envy is just gonna. It's going to
poison you. It's going to wreck the relationships.
Trust God's providence in all those little details,
right? The nameless man in a field who just happens
to show up with the right information. A random
caravan arriving just at the right moment. It's
God. So tomorrow, this week, Thanksgiving dinner.
When something just happens to show up and wow,
what a coinkydink. Step back and say, Lord, what
are you doing? Help me to see it. Ask the Spirit
to help you see your Shechem moments, your Dothan
moments, and those moments even when God is absolutely
silent. Ask him, say, hey, Lord, it would be
cool if you opened my eyes, but I trust that
the horses and chariots are surrounding me right
now. And if you want to show me, that'd be pretty
cool, right? But bring all that guilt and grief
to the cross. Some of us are Joseph in the story.
We've been wronged. We've been sinned against
greatly. Some of us, as I said, are the brothers.
We're guilty of causing deep wounds. And we haven't
rectified that. Some of us are like Jacob. At
the end of the story, living under a lie, instead
of going to God and we're believing the worst
case scenario, it's all done, the sky is falling,
and we're mourning when we shouldn't be. Jesus
is enough for all three of those situations.
Mourning is real. Grief is real. But Jesus bears
the wounds of the abused. He bears the wounds
of loss. But he also does something that we may
not like. He paid for the sins of the abuser.
He paid for the sins of the one who's wronged
you. And he's the truth that breaks the power
of all lies. So as we head into Thanksgiving
today or this week, as we look forward to whatever
family events or we're not looking forward to
family events that are coming, you may not be
able to change your past or what has happened
in the family. You may not be able to change
who you're going to be sitting across the table
from this Thanksgiving, but you can decide. Whose
hand your story is in? You can decide that. Joseph's
life reminds us that what others meant for evil,
God is able to weave it for good. That in Christ,
we are not defined by our wounds, but by his
love. Are you going to let the wounds define
you and who you're going to be at Thanksgiving
this year? Or are you going to say I'm defined
by the love of Jesus Christ? That's the question.
So bring him your envy and your grief and your
what ifs and your why thems. Bring it all to
Christ and trust that even in the pit, you are
held by a sovereign Savior who loves you more
than anything you could imagine. Amen? Let's
pray. Father, we are so thankful. Lord, we can
be more thankful. We're weak. But God, right
now, we want to proclaim our thankfulness to
you and what you've done in our lives. Lord,
this week especially, as everybody's thinking
about thankfulness, Lord, we know it's not something
we only do once a year, but there is a special
focus this week, God. And Lord, all of us are
going to have opportunity this week to... to
do the right thing or to not do the right thing.
Lord, some of us this week are the Joseph, and
we don't want to go to Thanksgiving because we've
been wronged by someone that we're expecting
to see there. And Lord, the hurt is real. The
wounds are real. The wrong is indeed wrong. But
Lord, I pray for those that are there, God, that
they would, through the power of your Holy Spirit,
to be able to step back and say, God, I believe
you are sovereign, and I believe you allowed
those things to happen, and God, what do you
want to use me to do? Lord, some of us here may
be the brothers, and we are the ones guilty of
wronging someone that we're going to see this
Thanksgiving. Lord, I pray for those that instead
of hiding the guilt and living with the secret
and pridefully demanding that they did nothing
wrong, that they would hear you. They would hear
truth. That instead of being halfway righteous,
Lord, that they would embrace full righteousness.
That they would, like the brothers here did later
on, say, we did this. And that they would ask
for forgiveness and pursue love and unity. Lord,
I pray for any in here today that are like Jacob,
who have been living under a lie. Maybe it's
a lie that they are forever just going to be
a victim and they can't do anything about that.
Maybe the lie is that the sky is falling and
the end of everything is here, Lord. And God,
I pray that they would just realize the truth,
that you are God. Nothing is final until it is
final. And Lord, you are working through our
lives until the day we stand before you. So God,
I pray you would free those that may be living
under a lie. I pray that you would free those
that have been chained to victimhood. That instead
of sitting across the table this Thanksgiving
and festering in their victimhood and letting
anger and envy and hate just stir up in their
hearts, Lord, that they would step away from
that and say, I'm not a victim. I'm a child of
God. Yes, something bad happened to me. Yes,
it was terrible. Yes, it hurt. But Lord, you
would remind them that you took horrible wounds
for them. That they would find an impossible
ability through the Holy Spirit in their life
to forgive. And that you would set them free
from all of it, God. Lord, whatever pit we find
ourselves in today, I pray, God, that as we trust
you, that we would be able to even sit in that
pit. Through this week or whatever it may be,
God's saying, Lord's with me. But God, if it
is your will to pull us up out of those pits
and set us free from those things this week and
through our family events coming up, Lord, we
ask that you would do that and that you would
be so greatly glorified in all of it. We love
you. We thank you. We thank you for your protection.
We thank you for your providence. We thank you
for the strength you give us in our grief. We
thank you for the hope you give us in our despair.
Lord, bring peace where peace needs to be brought.
It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.