SOVEREIGN GRACE SAVES THROUGH SUFFERING

Genesis 45: 1-24

INTRODUCTION

The vast majority of human beings relate to the message about the person and work of Jesus Christ the way I relate to advertisements for medicines that treat allergies.  I am indifferent to them.  I do not have allergies and so I have no interest in medicines to treat allergies.  My friends who have allergies are very interested in this news about allergy medicine, in fact they would say it is good news indeed.  But I don’t think of this as good news, like thy think it is good news, because I don’t have allergies.   This is how most people view what Christians call the good news of Jesus Christ.  Most people when they are told that Jesus came to forgive sins so that those who trust him need not go to hell but can have an eternal relationship with God are indifferent.  They do not view their sins as being that serious.  Most either do not believe in hell or they think it highly unlikely that they will go there.  While most will acknowledge the existence of some god, very few think that the best thing that could ever happen to them is to be loved by him.  Most people think the best thing that could happen to them is to win the lottery or get a good job or buy a new car or find a good wife or raise good kids or stay healthy or enjoy retirement.

Frankly most people live the way that Joseph’s ten brothers lived for most of the twenty-two years after they sold him into slavery.  These brothers spent their time thinking about making a living, raising their family, having sex with their wives, how to improve their standard of living and how to spend their leisure time.  Their troubles revolved around relationship conflicts, illness, managing their herds and flocks and getting good help.  They did not know that there was a seven-year famine coming upon their land that would completely wipe them out.  They saw no need to prepare for this famine.  They certainly did not believe that their greatest needs were forgiveness, being reconciled to Joseph, their dad and God. As far as they were concerned, Joseph and their dad got what was coming to them.  There lives are better without Joseph around.  They had no interest in considering how God felt about their deed or what he might require of them.  Yet, as we have been following the course of these ten brothers’ lives we have seen how God inexorably brought them face to face with these realities.  He has forced them to look beyond the daily problems and pleasures of their lives and confronted them with their sin and with the justice of God against their sin.  At the end of chapter 44 all ten of Joseph’s brothers know that their biggest problem is their sin and God’s anger against them for their sin.  God has shown them they have the disease of sin and they are now ready to hear about his solution to their disease. 

We are going to see in chapter 45 how God brings these men to see that the salvation that He wants to give to them is better than anything and everything in the whole world.  He is out to show them, as he is out to convince us, that there is no better news than to discover that their despised brother is their Savior.  I desperately want you to hear what we are going to see in this chapter as good news.  God is offering you, this morning, life, not just living.  Please do not be indifferent to what I am about to tell you.  Please pay attention, for your own sake do not ignore what God is saying to you in this story.

MAIN POINT

God powerfully and successfully saves his people by…

I.  Terrifying us (vv. 1-4)

It would be hard to imagine a group of men more despondent and hopeless than Joseph’s eleven brothers at the end of chapter 44.  They know, without a doubt, that God has found out their sin and he, through this Egyptian prince is going to make them pay for their sin.  Judah has admitted that it would be right for him to be a slave for life in Egypt and has begged this prince to let his other brothers return to their father and just keep him in Egypt.  Now Joseph, the severe Egyptian prince, cannot hold back his love and concern for his family any longer.  He hears in the confession and plea of Judah that his brothers have finally accepted that their biggest problem is their sin and he sees that Benjamin and his father are safe from further harm from these men.  So he commands, speaking Egyptian, all of his servants to leave the room and to close the doors behind them.  Then he turns to his brothers and as his face contorts in joyous grief, great heaving sobs come forth from the center of his soul and he announces to his brothers that he is their brother Joseph.  After having listened as Judah expresses his concern for their father he plaintively asks, “Is it really true that my father is still alive?”

The terror that these brothers felt when Benjamin was taken from them and when they came and threw themselves at the prince of Egypt’s feet was nothing compared to the terror that now grips their heart.  As they gaze upwards from their prostrate position their faces are transfixed with fear.  They star dumbly at this most powerful of men and shudder at the thought that he is the brother they last saw screaming hysterically, pleading with them for mercy as the Midiantes carried him away into slavery.  They convulse with fear as they contemplate his power and their guilt before him.  They are completely defenseless and helpless before the person they have treated with the utmost contempt.  Then, to make matters worse, sobbing Joseph tells them to get up and to come near to him and as they do he tells them, “I am Joseph whom you sold into slavery.”

How can I capture for you the dismay that these men feel at this moment?  This is a thousand times worse than how the student as he cheats on his test feels when the teacher puts his hand upon his shoulder.  It is infinitely worse than how you feel when you see the flashing lights behind you when you know you are speeding.  It is more horrible than being stopped by security as you leave the store with a stolen item in your pocket.  It’s worse than your mom walking in on you as you read pornographic magazines.  There is no escape, no words of protest that can be uttered.  James Boice says this about this confrontation: “These brothers were wrong for over 20 years.  They thought their sin was forgotten and it would never be found out.  They had put Joseph in a pit, but God took him out of the pit and placed him on a throne.  They embittered their father’s life for twenty-two long years and cared not a wit for his anguish; but God caused them anguish instead and restored the lost son.  In this moment—to their dread—the brothers saw that sin is futile, that it cannot be hidden, that its consequences cannot be escaped, that God must judge it fiercely.” 

The famous English pastor Charles Spurgeon in preaching on this passage points out that these brothers exemplify what is true of every sinner that God has awakened to the reality of their situation.  He says, “To the awakened sinner, this also is a part of his misery, that he is entirely in the hands of that very Christ whom he once despised; for that Christ who died has now become the judge of the living and the dead.  He has power over every human being… Do you see this, sinner?  He whom you despised is your Master.  The moth beneath your finger, which you can crush and that cannot escape from you may well fear; but thus are you beneath the fingers of the crucified Son of God.  Today he whom you have despised has you absolutely at his will.  He has but to will it and the breath is gone from your nostrils and while yet in your seat you are a corpse.  And worse, at his will you are in hell amidst its flames.  Oh! What an awful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God for he is a consuming fire.”

My dear friends, how each of us has despised the great Son of God.  We have treated his life and suffering and death with indifference.  We find pleasure in his many gifts but no pleasure in him.  We act as though he has no right to interfere with our lives.  We ought to be as these brothers, struck dumb with terror that we each one are living in his presence each moment of our lives, completely dependent upon him for everything and yet treating him with contempt.  This sense of terror is a good thing.  It is an act of love on the part of God, for if we have no terror of him, then we will not make use of the provision he has made to escape his awful judgment.  It is God’s intention for us to feel our sin and his judgment upon our sin as our greatest problem so that we will joyfully receive the provision he has made for our sin.  What God has done to these brothers and what he wants to do to us is what every good doctor does.  He is describing the disease we have and all of its horrible consequences so that we will take the medicine that will save us.  God’s work of saving sinners begins with his bringing us to the point of despair, hopelessness and terror over our lost condition.  Every human being is going to feel the terror these brothers feel sooner or later.  This emotion will grip every human being who has not trusted in Christ when he returns.  In their terror, they will cry out for the mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the wrath of this crucified Christ.  I beg you to not wait for that day of terror but to face your sin and Christ’s anger against your sin now.  Come trembling with fear before him.

God powerfully and successfully saves his people by…

Ø      Terrifying us

Ø      And by…

II.  Sending suffering for us and to us (vv. 5-11)

I want you now to see the amazing love of Joseph, which is the love of Jesus, for these brothers, for us.  Joseph sees the shock written on his brothers faces and as he draws them near he tells them, “Don’t be distressed, don’t be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”  Five times Joseph tells the brothers that God is the one who brought him to Egypt and who made him Pharaoh’s chief advisor and ruler over his house and over all the land of Egypt (vv. 5, 7, 8 (twice), 9).  Notice verse 7.  He says the reason that God brought him here and placed him in this royal position was for the sake of his brothers and father.  God sent him ahead so that God’s promise to Jacob and his descendants would be fulfilled.  Beginning with Abraham God promised that the Jewish people would become a great nation with as many descendants as there are stars in the sky and sand on the seashore.  They are in the second year of a seven-year famine that God has sent upon the whole world.  In order to preserve his promise that Israel will be a great nation and through them, all the nations of the world will be blessed, God sent Joseph ahead.  It was in order to preserve the lives of these brothers that God sent Joseph ahead of them and made him ruler over Egypt.

But consider what this means that God did to Joseph.  God ordained that Joseph’s brothers hate him, beat him, and throw him into a pit.  It was God’s will that his brothers sell him as a slave to the Midianites.  God wanted him to experience the terror and grief of that attack and that betrayal.  God ordained that he be sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.  God intended that Potiphar’s lust filled wife seek to seduce him and then out of spite falsely accuse him of rape.  God ordained that he be thrown in prison by the jealous husband, his reputation ruined.  God ordained that he remain in the dank, dark prison in order to meet the Pharaoh’s chief wine taster and baker.  God ordained that the wine taster despise him and ignore him for two years so that he was still in prison when Pharaoh had his dreams.  In short, God is the one who caused all of Joseph’s suffering.  God sent a suffering brother ahead of them in order to preserve their lives.  Please don’t miss this, God did this to Joseph in order to preserve the lives of these murderous, treacherous brothers.  God sent this suffering so that his faithfulness to his promises would be guaranteed to these men.  (Please note that although the Scriptures teach that God is the author of Joseph’s suffering, the brothers are guilty of doing evil and will be judged by God for the evil they have done if they do not repent.  God is sovereign over human actions so that every human action perfectly fulfills his good and holy will and humans make choices for which they are responsible.)

God sent one greater than Joseph to suffer for you.  He did this to fulfill his promise to save his people out of all the nations of the world.  God sent Jesus, the suffering Son of God, ahead of you, to preserve your life.  He left the joy and glory of being heaven’s firstborn Son and was born as a baby to an unwed, peasant teenager.  He lived as an alien for 33 years away from his home and his Father.  He endured the contempt and indifference of people he made.  He was falsely accused, beaten, mocked, spit upon, murdered on a torturous cross and died alone.  He was abandoned by all his friends and despised by his enemies.  God is the one who sent him to do this and he sent him to do this for you. 

Jesus willingly endured all this suffering so that your life can be preserved and God’s promise fulfilled to you.  He wants you, like Joseph wants Jacob and his entire household, to come live with him, to be near him forever.  Joseph is pleading with his brothers and his father to come live with him, to be near him in the best land.  This is Jesus pleading with you to leave behind the pleasures of sin and of this world and come to him to live with him so he can take care of you.  Don’t you see that this “great deliverance” that Joseph was sent ahead to prepare was not simply escape from the famine but rather the greater deliverance from sin and its penalty.  Joseph used his power as the prince of Egypt to bring these brothers face to face with their sin and to create in them repentance and fear of God so that they would come and be forgiven and enter into God’s promise through his suffering for them, which God caused through their evil hands.  God has sent our suffering brother ahead of us, for us, to preserve our lives.

However, we not only see in Joseph’s words to his brothers that God sends Christ to suffer for us but we also see that God sends suffering to us for our eternal good.  Joseph stands not only as a type of Christ but also as a picture of the Christian life.  Joseph’s life illustrates what the New Testament says about the Christian life over and over again.  Consider this word from Peter as he addresses slaves who are Christians and who have cruel masters that beat them though they have done nothing wrong but have faithfully served their masters for the sake of Jesus.  Peter writes to them, “To this (getting beat up for doing good) you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps.  He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.  When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate;  when he suffered he made no threats, instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness.” 

We see in the suffering of Joseph the pattern for every true Christian.  God ordains that we suffer and the suffering he ordains is necessary for us to experience the glory of his salvation.  You see, without the suffering, Joseph would never have become the prince of Egypt and the agent of salvation in his family’s life.  Think with me for a moment what would have happened if Joseph’s brothers had not sold him into slavery.  What discord and bitterness would have resulted in Jacob’s family if favored Joseph and Benjamin would have been permitted to grow up together and come to dominate their brothers?  It is not hard to imagine the family splitting up and dispersing throughout the Middle East.  What would have happened when the famine hit?  Not only would Jacob’s family have perished but how many millions of other people would have perished because no one would have interpreted the dream and prepared for the famine?  By looking at the intricate way God worked out all the details of these lives, including suffering at the hands of evil people, we can have hope that God is working out all the details of our own lives for a great and glorious end.  We do not know the exact results that God is creating through our suffering, just like Joseph and Jacob did not know for 22 years what purpose their suffering was serving.  However, we do know that all the suffering is necessary for the glory that is coming.  Whether the glory is our own enjoyment of heaven or the salvation of others so they will join us in the joy we do not always know.  However, we do know that all the suffering is ordained by a merciful and loving God for our eternal joy, the eternal joy of all his people and for the glory of his own name.

As many of you know, one year ago today, my oldest son, Jared, shattered his skull in a skiing accident.  It is no accident that we are talking about Genesis 45 today, a decision that I made months ago without knowing what was in Gen. 45 and without remembering what today is.  While I do not know all of the grand and glorious outcomes God has ordained through this suffering, I do know that this suffering is God’s will for Jared and for us and that he has good purposes in it for the preserving of many lives and for giving a great deliverance.  There is a day of great rejoicing that is coming for Jared and for all who love the Lord Jesus Christ.  This suffering is as necessary for that joy as was Joseph’s suffering necessary for his family’s joy; as was Jesus’ suffering necessary for the joy of all his people.  Many days our family lives as Joseph, while a prisoner bound for Egypt or while in the dark prison.  It is painful, yet we know that there is a day of rejoicing coming that this darkness is creating.  “My dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you but rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”  My dear friends, I am telling you now, before the trouble comes, that it is God’s will that the trouble come so that when it comes you can stand.

We have to note one final thing that is so obvious in Joseph.  Consider what difference it made in his life to be absolutely convinced that God sent all the suffering he endured at the hands of evil people.  He knew that a powerful, wise and loving God was working out his salvation for all of his people, for the glory of his own name.  What difference did knowing this make?  He flourished as a slave and in prison because he knew God was at work.  He could see the hand of God in the dreams of Pharaoh and knew how to respond to what God was revealing.  He faithfully served God in a pagan culture because he knew that God was working out all things for the joy of his people and the glory of his name.  He patiently worked for the salvation of his brothers out of love for them and confidence that God could save even these hardened men.  Now, look at his joy, love, forgiveness, and passion for the welfare of these men.  There is no resentment, no bitterness, no desire for revenge, no anger with the brothers or with God because his assurance of God’s sovereignty over all the painful details of his life have freed him from these soul-destroying emotions.  The doctrine of God’s sovereignty over all things is not some ivory tower thing that should only concern theologians.  The knowledge that God is working out a plan for the salvation of his people and the glory of his name that encompasses everything that happens in the entire created universe is necessary for living the Christian life.  If you do not believe this, you will not live in hope, joy, and love.  Don’t you want to be free from resentment, bitterness and anger?  Don’t you want to be able to love those who harm you?  Then know that every evil that is done to you comes from the hand of your loving father for your good and rest in his wise providence.

God powerfully and successfully saves his people by…

Ø      Terrifying us

Ø      Sending suffering for us and to us

Ø      And by…

III.  Persuading us his salvation is better than the whole world (vv. 12-24)

Joseph is delighted that his brothers have repented and overjoyed that he can assure them that God is working to save them but his great concern is for his father and the rest of their family living in the famine ravaged country of Canaan.  Just as Judah’s willingness to become a slave was his concern for the well-being of his father, so now Joseph is eager to have his father and family restored to him and safe in Egypt.  However, he knows that convincing Jacob that the son he has presumed to be dead for the last 22 years is actually alive is going to be hard.  He also knows that convincing him to leave behind the land of Canaan, which is the Promised Land, to come to Egypt when God forbid his father Isaac to go to Egypt during a famine is going to require persuasion.  So he begins to lay the groundwork for persuading his father and family to come to Egypt.

In vv. 9-11 he gives to his brothers the gospel, the message of salvation they are to deliver.  Note what he says.  Jacob is to be told that Joseph, who was dead, is alive and exalted to the highest position in Egypt.  God made him lord of Egypt.  He has a place for him to live and for his entire family in the fertile plains of the Nile River.  He will be near him.  He will provide for him there so that the five remaining years of famine will not destroy him and his family.  That is the message, now how does he seek to persuade him it is true?

First, he has to persuade the messengers that he can be trusted, that this “too good to be true” news is true.  He first appeals to the verifiable testimony of their eyes.  “You can see for yourselves and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you.”  Just like Jesus with the twelve apostles, Joseph appears to the brothers and offers them many convincing proofs that he really is alive.  Here we have the appearance of Jesus to the disciples prefigured.  Listen and note the similarity between the appearance of Joseph to his 11 brothers and the appearance of Jesus to his eleven apostles.  “They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.  He said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts rise in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet.  It is I myself!  Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.’”  Chief among these proofs is greeting each of them by name, embracing and kissing each one and weeping over them.  Then he spent time talking with them.  What a conversation that must have been!  But the goal of the conversation was convincing the brothers that he was alive, that he could be trusted and that they could bring their father to Egypt to live in prosperity. 

Then notice what happens when Joseph’s servants, most likely at his direction, take news to Pharaoh that Joseph’s brothers have come to Egypt and that his father is still living in famine plagued Canaan.  Out of Pharaoh’s love for Joseph, he warmly welcomes the brothers who betrayed Joseph.  He promises to give to Jacob’s family the best land of Egypt and the best provisions in Egypt.  He sends royal, ox drawn wagons to carry the women and children and aged Jacob.  He tells them that they do not need to worry about packing up their stuff because when they get to Egypt he will replace everything with the finest that Egypt can provide.  Then Joseph gives to his brothers clothing and food for themselves and for their father to use on the journey there and back again.  While he gives each of the brothers a new change of clothes, he gives to Benjamin 300 pieces of silver and five changes of clothes.  He gives 20 donkey loads of grain and gifts from Egypt for his father so that his father will be persuaded to come to Egypt, to believe the promises and leave his life behind.  All that is done here is for persuading Jacob, his sons and their families to leave their life in Canaan behind and to come live with Joseph.

This is how the gospel of Jesus comes to us.  He commands us to leave behind our life in this world, to come follow him to a land where we can be near him and where he will provide for us.  He promises that there is nothing that we can lose in this world that he will not more than make up for in the next.  When Peter self-righteously asserts that he and the other disciples have left everything to follow him and then demands, “What will be our reward?”; Jesus says, “I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields and with them, persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life.”  There is no loss that anyone suffers in their service to Christ that Jesus will not more than make up for.  He appeals to you now to leave behind this world and its pleasures and trust his promise that to be near him and to live with him is better than possessing the whole world.  Give up your demand to have a spouse who treats you well, a job that is satisfying, children that make you proud, money in your retirement account, the right to relax on the weekend, the pleasures of drink or food or sex or drugs or stealing or working or shopping or hunting and follow Jesus to that eternal home that he has prepared for all who love him.

The last thing that Joseph says to his brothers, when he sends them off to their father is “Do not be stirred up to anger while you are on the way.”  Why would he say this?  He knows that once they are out of his presence and the shock and joy of his appearing has worn off, there will be many opportunities for them to become angry.  They could become angry as they think about how he deceived them and caused them such anguish.  They could become angry as they compare what he gave to Benjamin with what he gave to them.  They could become angry with one another simply due to the daily realities of living.  Here we have Jesus telling his disciples that the chief way that the world will know that he is alive and he is the Savior is by the love we have for one another.  The primary evidence that we are on a journey to heaven, to join our Savior in the eternal pleasures of living with him, is that we love each other and do not become angry with one another or with the troubles of our lives.  The absence of grumbling and complaining against other people and our circumstances is the chief evidence that we are stunned by the love of God and joyfully looking forward to our reunion with Jesus.  Jacob will be convinced to come to Egypt when he sees the transformed lives and relationships of these eleven brothers.

God powerfully and successfully saves his people by…

Ø      Terrifying us

Ø      Sending suffering for us and to us

Ø      Persuading us his salvation is better than the whole world