One of the most amazing teachings of Scripture is that God is the sovereign Lord of history. While speaking to Athenians at the Areopagus, the Apostle Paul says, in Acts 17:24-28, “24 The God who made the world and everything in it—he is Lord of heaven and earth—does not live in shrines made by hands. 25 Neither is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives everyone life and breath and all things. 26 From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. 27 He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
As I scan the headlines, I wonder what the future of our nation will be. Tectonic forces are shifting the foundations of our own culture. Morally, Politically, Culturally, Spiritually—this country is virtually unrecognizable from just decades ago. We all hold our breath, as wars break out all around the world. The titans are rumbling. Russia-Ukraine. Iran-Israel. China-USA. Against this backdrop are all the challenges we are facing personally. Think about all the turbulence you have right now, in your life.
What does it mean that God is sovereign over heaven and earth? That he fashioned our very lives and put his breath in us? That God ordains the boundaries of our lives, the times in which we live, even the very place we live? What does it mean that through his power, God is orchestrating everything about our lives that we might seek him, reach out to him, and find him!
The harder things become in life, the further we feel driven from God, the angrier with God we become. What if this is wrongheaded? What if the hard things in your life are meant to bring you to God? What if your circumstances, the awful season you may be going through in your life, what if this cultural moment—these godless times… are to cause you to seek God, reach out to him, and find hope in him? Are we drawing nearer to God or pushing him farther away?
This morning, I want to look at the story of Joseph in the Bible. First, let me set some historical context. When Adam and Eve turned away from God, God announces his sovereign plan to them. He tells Eve, that through her offspring, God would crush the head of Satan, and though Satan may strike back, Satan would not prevail. Last week my father-in-law preached on Abraham. God expressed the same to Abraham. That though God was ripping Abraham away from everything he'd ever known (sending him to a distant land), God would bless him—and through one of Abram's offspring all nations on earth would be blessed.
We really dug into this a few years ago, but when you read Genesis (and the whole Old Testament) there is this obsessive expectation that God is going to cause some child to be born who would cement Satan's defeat and establish God's Kingdom forever. Adam and Eve failed, would Cain and Abel? Abel looked like a child of promise until Cain killed him. Lamech came along, but he was filled with murderous vengeance. Then God gave Eve a third son named Seth. Seth looked promising but he wasn't “The One.” Seth had son named Enosh, and Genesis 4:26 says of him, “at that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” And some time later a man named Enoch was born of Seth's lineage. Genesis 5:24 says “Enoch walked with God, then he was not there because God took him.”
And from Seth's lineage would come Noah. As the world plummeted in wickedness, Noah preached righteousness and found favor with God. Noah was a godly man, but he wasn't the One. Noah had three sons, but one became cursed. Eventually God brings forth Abraham and renews his promise. All nations would be blessed through Abraham's child! So, Abraham wasn't the guy. Abraham had a son Isaac, Isaac had two sons named Jacob and Esau. Esau was a disaster—Jacob was a deceiver. Jacob would have twelve sons. Surely one of them would be a Christ, messiah figure. But no!
One of Jacob’s sons was Joseph. Jacob favored Joseph to a fault. In every family, there is always one who is highly favored. This past week we kids moved our mother to Springfield. Mom has faithfully watched my sermons online, from afar, but now she will be here every Sunday. I already have to be careful what I say with Lara sitting out there, but now mom is out there too! In our family there was clearly one of us four children who was highly favored. Three boys and 1 girl. I won't say her name, but one of us got the coat of many colors, and much favoritism. I was one of the forgotten middle children. I was the resentful brother sent out to work the fields and tend the chores.
We can pick up Joseph's story in Genesis 37. Joseph loved by Jacob more than all his other sons. Born to his father in old age. His brothers hated him, they couldn't speak peaceably to him. Resentment oozed through their every word. Joseph once had a dream in which his brothers’ sheaves of grain bowed down to his sheaf of grain. God was showing Joseph that one day he would reign over his own brothers. He also had a dream in which the sun, moon, and eleven stars would bow down to him. Joseph wasn't being pretentious—these were God-given revelations. Still, Joseph's father rebukes him; this roiled his already jealous brothers. They hatched a plot to kill him, but opted to sell him into slavery.
There is always a temptation to moralize these Old Testament stories. We can easily put ourselves in the shoes of everything in Joseph's life. What was it like to walk in Jacob's shoes? The Bible doesn't pull any punches in its descriptions of Jacobs life, faith, and character. What's it like to live in the shadows of resentment, like Joseph's brothers? They all had different mothers, statuses. What's it like to walk in Joseph’s shoes? To have all the hopes, expectations, dreams of a Father hanging over you? To be hated by your own brothers?
But what if God is sovereign? What if your family, much less your very life and breath, wasn't an accident? What if God ordained who your parents were, your brothers and sisters (or none of the above), where you grew up, where you lived, the decades in which you were born and came of age? I can look at our family, and I have a sense of the good and evil afflicted our family over generations. My grandpa on my dad's side was an abusive, violent alcoholic. My mother was adopted, and never knew her father, nor the back story of his birth. Our family was at times ripped apart by sin. There was pronounced anger, resentments, all of that in our family. But I can look at all that happened and say confidently… God was sovereign.
There is a song lyric we sometimes sing, that God is never going to fail us. My definition of success or failure is Acts 17:27, “He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” If you feel God put you in the wrong or bad family, I'd urge you to consider story of Joseph. I can tell you that everything that happened in my life brought me to my knees. The pain wasn't wasted, I reached out and found God, and found him to have been near me even in those moments I felt abandoned.
Maybe it isn't your family, but it’s your circumstances that you question God's sovereignty over? You got a Bible. This week start reading at Genesis 27. It would be pretty spectacular if your life had as many detours as did Joseph. Hated. Sold into slavery. Joseph was wildly successful in everything he ever did—he was a “successful man” in worldly respect. Trusted. Respected. But then he was falsely framed and accused of having adultery with Potiphar's wife. Thrown into a dungeon, to waste away. Joseph never used his circumstances as an excuse to turn away from God. When dreams were brought to him. When challenges were given him… he sought out God, reached out, and found God was near!
One of the things I notice about Joseph, and again not to moralize, Joseph had the long view in mind. He was trusting God not for second, or minutes, or moments but over the span of years and decades. It isn't my intent to march through the decades of Joseph's life this morning and visit every story. But he lived a kind of Romans 8:28 life, “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.”
I think of Paul's self-reflections in 2 Corinthians 11. “I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. 24 Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, 26 I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. 27 I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. 28 Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 29 Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?”
God’s is just as sovereign in the good as in the evil. His purpose prevails no matter how dark the dungeons in which we find ourselves. I thought about something as I read Joseph's story. Have you ever heard the phrase “hindsight is 20/20?” Hindsight is when you have the privilege of looking back over all the junk you’ve experienced in life, and identity how God walked with you even though at the time you couldn't see it. God was with me during that injustice, that attack, that dark period of life, that dungeon. Joseph didn't just have the privilege of hindsight, he also had the privilege of foresight. God revealed to him ahead of time that God would cause his enemies (even his own brethren to bow down to him). Here is what struck me. If you would open your Bible, not only will God speak to you, but he will give you the privilege of hindsight and foresight! Hindsight—God will show you how in everything he's been working for the good of those who love him. Foresight—God has promised that your story and mine ends gloriously with Satan's head being crushed, God's Kingdom prevailing, and Christ Jesus reigning.
Wrong family, wrong circumstances. What if God didn't make a mistake? What if Acts 17:27? “He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
I just want to end with an invitation for you to read Joseph's story. Our concerns aren’t limited to our families, or circumstances, but indeed the nations. The best part of Joseph's story is how God kept promoting Joseph from darkness to light, from dungeons to thrones, from groanings to glory. From the vantage point of foresight, Joseph had God's word (revelation) to guide him. He knew how his story would end. He knew God would prevail. We should have this same confidence in politically tumultuous times. From all appearances it seemed the Abraham promise would be crushed. They all leave the promised land, move to Egypt, and come under Pharaoh. How many times would Israel find itself exiled to a foreign land, under foreign power, doubting its identity? Foresight… God tells us in his word from beginning to end every knee will bow, every tongue will confess Jesus as Lord. Foresight… God has forthtold the future to us just as Joseph.
But Hindsight. We get these joyous moments of reprieve when God opens up a window and shows us his glory. God showed Joseph that despite all the evil his brothers intended, God intended it for the good of nations. Joseph was an early foretaste of God delivering on his promise, that indeed all nations could be blessed through a child. But that child wasn't Joseph. That child would be Jesus, …
Genesis 45:4-8, Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 5 And now, 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. 6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. 7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
Genesis 50:18-21, His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. “We are your slaves,” they said. 19 But Joseph said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 21 So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.
What if we consider all that is wrong in our world… God is not author of evil. But he is sovereign over it. Acts 17:27? “He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”