WEBVTT 00:00:00.312 --> 00:00:04.643 Let us ask the Holy Spirit's grace on the reading of God's word. 00:00:07.256 --> 00:00:13.258 O Lord our God, your word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. 00:00:14.342 --> 00:00:20.457 Give us grace to receive your truth in faith and love, and help us to live always for your glory. 00:00:21.203 --> 00:00:22.971 Through Jesus Christ our Lord. 00:00:23.653 --> 00:00:23.945 Amen. 00:00:25.599 --> 00:00:29.862 A reading from Genesis 37:12-36. 00:00:31.169 --> 00:00:38.307 Now his brothers had gone to graze their father's flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, as you know, 00:00:39.205 --> 00:00:41.643 your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. 00:00:42.333 --> 00:00:44.257 Come, I am going to send you to them. 00:00:45.380 --> 00:00:46.824 Very well, he replied. 00:00:47.465 --> 00:00:55.421 So he said to him, go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks, and bring word back 00:00:55.501 --> 00:00:55.902 to me. 00:00:56.784 --> 00:00:59.334 Then he sent him off from the valley of Hebron. 00:01:00.553 --> 00:01:08.015 When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, 'What are you looking for?' 00:01:08.802 --> 00:01:10.795 He replied, 'I'm looking for my brothers. 00:01:11.550 --> 00:01:13.863 Can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks?' 00:01:14.988 --> 00:01:17.189 'They have moved on from here,' the man answered. 00:01:17.574 --> 00:01:25.093 'I heard them say, "Let's go to Dothan."' So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. 00:01:25.928 --> 00:01:30.732 But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. 00:01:31.696 --> 00:01:34.304 Here comes that A dreamer, they said to each other. 00:01:35.158 --> 00:01:41.905 Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. 00:01:42.775 --> 00:01:45.039 Then we'll see what comes of his dreams. 00:01:46.758 --> 00:01:50.600 When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. 00:01:51.359 --> 00:01:53.021 Let's not take his life, he said. 00:01:53.804 --> 00:01:54.868 Don't shed any blood. 00:01:55.720 --> 00:01:58.062 Throw him into the cistern here in the wilderness. 00:01:58.812 --> 00:02:00.194 But don't lay a hand on him. 00:02:01.382 --> 00:02:05.462 Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father. 00:02:06.603 --> 00:02:14.538 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornate robe he was wearing, and they took him and 00:02:14.570 --> 00:02:15.984 threw him into the cistern. 00:02:16.883 --> 00:02:19.582 The cistern was empty—there was no water in it. 00:02:20.594 --> 00:02:27.580 As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. 00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:34.000 Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt. 00:02:35.043 --> 00:02:40.869 Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? 00:02:41.463 --> 00:02:46.277 Come, let's sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him. 00:02:47.144 --> 00:02:50.675 After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. 00:02:51.397 --> 00:02:52.440 His brothers agreed. 00:02:53.676 --> 00:03:01.379 So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him 00:03:01.443 --> 00:03:06.194 for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. 00:03:07.606 --> 00:03:12.966 When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. 00:03:13.881 --> 00:03:17.267 He went back to his brothers and said, the boy isn't there. 00:03:17.877 --> 00:03:18.968 Where can I turn now. 00:03:20.218 --> 00:03:25.073 Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. 00:03:25.890 --> 00:03:30.537 They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, 'We found this. 00:03:30.970 --> 00:03:33.358 Examine it to see whether it's your son's robe.' 00:03:34.544 --> 00:03:37.845 He recognized it and said, 'It is my son's robe. 00:03:38.165 --> 00:03:40.553 Some ferocious animal has devoured him. 00:03:41.434 --> 00:03:43.662 Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.' 00:03:44.864 --> 00:03:50.795 Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days. 00:03:51.773 --> 00:03:56.406 All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. 00:03:57.304 --> 00:04:01.456 'No,' he said, 'I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave.' 00:04:02.449 --> 00:04:03.972 So his father wept for him. 00:04:04.870 --> 00:04:10.673 Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials. 00:04:11.086 --> 00:04:13.016 officials, the captain of the guard. 00:04:14.095 --> 00:04:15.517 This is the word of the Lord. 00:04:26.444 --> 00:04:34.157 If history teaches us one thing, a single truth, if we were to look over all of the course of human history, and it's this: 00:04:34.786 --> 00:04:37.442 we fail to take care of one one another. 00:04:38.750 --> 00:04:45.176 We fail to care for and keep the welfare of our brothers and sisters. 00:04:46.304 --> 00:04:53.793 A couple of statistics: there are 1.25 million people in prison in our own country 00:04:54.486 --> 00:04:55.727 according to the latest studies. 00:04:55.840 --> 00:04:59.630 That's about the same population as the country of Estonia. 00:05:01.162 --> 00:05:03.261 In the last study taken by the FBI, You know why? 00:05:03.758 --> 00:05:10.951 For every 100,000 people, there are 360 violent crimes committed against others 00:05:11.786 --> 00:05:15.174 and 1,700 property crimes committed. 00:05:16.603 --> 00:05:22.479 Those are the hard numbers, but you didn't need any convincing because you and I know the soft numbers when we look at our own hearts. 00:05:23.330 --> 00:05:27.552 How often is it that we are involved in gossip against someone who is not in the room? 00:05:28.564 --> 00:05:36.457 How often do we think that the most convenient way to solve an issue issue is to just remove a person from our life. 00:05:37.688 --> 00:05:45.381 How often have we held a grudge towards someone simply because they were treated better than us, and out of a sense of jealousy, 00:05:45.526 --> 00:05:47.572 we've hated them in our hearts? 00:05:49.016 --> 00:05:55.359 Have we ever made a friend with someone by belittling a common enemy of the two of us? 00:05:57.566 --> 00:06:05.412 And what if someone opened the history of my brain my brain and wrote a book with all of the things that I've thought about other people. 00:06:06.216 --> 00:06:09.627 That would be a bestseller, along with all of the tabloids. 00:06:11.210 --> 00:06:17.013 When it comes to taking care of others, even the most virtuous among us have shameful memories. 00:06:18.893 --> 00:06:23.809 The book of Genesis reveals this truth over and over in a constant cycle. 00:06:25.348 --> 00:06:33.256 When humanity was placed in the garden, though, they were given an explicit command to do two things: 2 things by God: to work the 00:06:33.256 --> 00:06:36.046 garden and keep the garden. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:43.403 And the New International Version gives us a great translation and a helpful translation. 00:06:43.984 --> 00:06:51.679 In Genesis 2:15, it simply says this: The Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 00:06:52.180 --> 00:06:55.387 The word to keep can simply be translated to take care of. 00:06:56.376 --> 00:07:04.224 And this is important to take note of because because just one generation after this command is given, what happens to Adam and 00:07:04.224 --> 00:07:04.914 Eve's kids? 00:07:05.749 --> 00:07:13.613 Cain and Abel show the very first instance of jealous anger and a failure to take care of one another. 00:07:14.559 --> 00:07:22.199 Cain is envious of his little brother, so he finds him in a field with no one looking and he murders him. 00:07:23.145 --> 00:07:25.674 His blood is covered with the ground. 00:07:26.872 --> 00:07:31.644 And when God finds Cain, God simply asks, "Where is your brother?" 00:07:32.291 --> 00:07:35.572 And Cain asks, "Am I my brother's keeper?" 00:07:36.601 --> 00:07:40.057 Or you can translate that, "Am I supposed to take care of my brother?" 00:07:41.761 --> 00:07:44.863 And the implicit answer is yes. 00:07:45.867 --> 00:07:49.413 That's exactly what we were commanded to do as humanity. 00:07:50.174 --> 00:07:53.320 We are to be caretakers and keepers of one another. 00:07:53.578 --> 00:07:55.708 So when someone is in trouble, you go after them. 00:07:56.338 --> 00:07:58.323 When someone is being bullied, you defend them. 00:07:58.516 --> 00:08:00.146 When someone is broken, you bind them up. 00:08:00.194 --> 00:08:02.227 When someone is naked, you clothe them. 00:08:02.292 --> 00:08:04.309 When they are thirsty, you give them drink. 00:08:05.946 --> 00:08:13.608 But as we read the chapters of Genesis, what is unfolded is one brotherly conflict after another, one failure 00:08:13.882 --> 00:08:15.809 of one brother to take care of his other brother. 00:08:16.701 --> 00:08:18.399 Over and over again. 00:08:18.880 --> 00:08:20.001 Cain kills Abel. 00:08:20.626 --> 00:08:23.863 Shem and Japheth are at odds with their brother Ham. 00:08:24.551 --> 00:08:26.538 Abraham and Lot quarrel. 00:08:27.115 --> 00:08:33.284 Jacob and Esau have not even come out of the womb yet, and they're fighting with one another. 00:08:34.742 --> 00:08:36.600 And now Joseph. 00:08:37.481 --> 00:08:40.429 It's like this lesson is cranked to 11. 00:08:41.054 --> 00:08:44.643 The scene is set and there is dramatic tension between 12 brothers. 00:08:44.804 --> 00:08:48.015 12 brothers from 4 different mothers. 00:08:49.091 --> 00:08:56.477 The father has chosen one to be the favorite and passed over all the other ones, and the symbol of that favoritism is an ornate, 00:08:56.878 --> 00:08:57.938 colorful robe. 00:08:59.206 --> 00:09:07.074 Not only that, but that favored son starts talking about the daydreams he's had, how his brothers and his mother 00:09:07.074 --> 00:09:09.113 and father will bow down to him. 00:09:10.944 --> 00:09:18.718 Oh, so the question lingers as we come to today's story: What are the 10 brothers going to do with their hatred of that 00:09:18.718 --> 00:09:19.089 younger one? 00:09:19.687 --> 00:09:20.446 How will they respond? 00:09:21.623 --> 00:09:22.284 How will they act? 00:09:23.236 --> 00:09:24.881 And will this cycle continue? 00:09:26.350 --> 00:09:28.675 What happens when they, like Cain, 00:09:30.225 --> 00:09:34.487 find their brother alone in a field with no one around? 00:09:36.053 --> 00:09:36.724 The scene is The sun has set. 00:09:38.134 --> 00:09:44.952 All of the brothers except for Joseph and his little brother Benjamin have gone far north to an area called Shechem. 00:09:46.894 --> 00:09:50.539 And Jacob calls Joseph and says, "Aren't your brothers shepherding up in Shechem? 00:09:50.636 --> 00:09:55.621 Go, I'll send you, and I want you to bring a good word back to me." 00:09:56.767 --> 00:10:00.710 And you go, "Oh, man, Jacob, you are so clueless." 00:10:03.109 --> 00:10:06.577 Do you have no idea what's going on with all of your sons? 00:10:06.625 --> 00:10:09.500 Do you understand what they're saying about your favorite son? 00:10:09.596 --> 00:10:17.480 You're going to send Joseph to go see how these brothers are doing and you want a word of peace, a word of shalom, to 00:10:17.480 --> 00:10:17.897 come back? 00:10:17.961 --> 00:10:23.453 That's precisely what earlier in the chapter we were told the brothers couldn't speak about Joseph. 00:10:23.565 --> 00:10:25.909 There was no good word that they could give about him. 00:10:29.309 --> 00:10:32.301 But suddenly we're met by a different character, aren't we? 00:10:33.652 --> 00:10:40.520 Because as Joseph starts moving towards Shechem, he becomes lost in a field 00:10:41.637 --> 00:10:43.548 and he's encountered by a man. 00:10:45.102 --> 00:10:52.983 Joseph is just wandering around, he's gotten lost, and not only is he met by a man, the text tells us he is found by a man. 00:10:54.167 --> 00:10:54.904 What are you looking for? 00:10:55.032 --> 00:10:55.609 The man asks. 00:10:56.491 --> 00:11:01.378 And Joseph replies, my brothers, please tell me where they are pasturing the flocks. 00:11:02.644 --> 00:11:07.243 The man replies, they have gone away, for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. 00:11:08.108 --> 00:11:12.082 And so Joseph went away and he finds his brothers about 19 miles north. 00:11:13.140 --> 00:11:14.294 Boy, he is really lost. 00:11:14.358 --> 00:11:16.088 They are not in Shechem, they are in Dothan. 00:11:16.441 --> 00:11:19.714 This is going to be quite a journey, but this stranger danger. 00:11:20.268 --> 00:11:21.914 This man knows where they are. 00:11:22.875 --> 00:11:25.009 What is going on, and is this important? 00:11:26.646 --> 00:11:31.840 Now, if we were picking up a newspaper and we were reading this, we might say, oh, this is just kind of a passing detail. 00:11:32.746 --> 00:11:37.644 And some commentators would say this has no relevance to the story at all. 00:11:38.868 --> 00:11:41.269 It happened, and so they decided to include it. 00:11:41.446 --> 00:11:48.116 Ah, but if you've been reading along in Genesis, have we ever encountered any other unnamed strangers, 00:11:49.415 --> 00:11:56.519 just disclosed as a man, who appears to a central figure in Genesis and has some 00:11:56.727 --> 00:11:58.635 important interaction with them. 00:11:59.934 --> 00:12:07.792 And we think of Abraham sitting at the mouth of his tent while Sarah is inside, and suddenly 3 strangers appear, simply called 00:12:07.792 --> 00:12:08.962 3 men. 00:12:09.957 --> 00:12:14.335 And after spending some time with them and dining with them, 2 of them leave, but one stays. 00:12:15.154 --> 00:12:22.684 And the next chapter, it's disclosed that that man is Yahweh, the Lord, appearing in an 00:12:22.716 --> 00:12:27.501 undisclosed, strange, anonymous figure of just a human being. 00:12:28.722 --> 00:12:35.899 Ah, and then we think of how Jacob's name was changed to Israel when he was about to meet 00:12:37.392 --> 00:12:38.532 his brother. 00:12:40.121 --> 00:12:47.356 He is suddenly encountered at night by a man out in the field who wrestles with him. 00:12:47.902 --> 00:12:55.281 And it's only at dawn that Jacob asks the name of the man and he says, Elohim, God. 00:12:56.645 --> 00:12:59.917 Only then does he realize that that man is God. 00:13:01.072 --> 00:13:08.742 But there's an even closer contextual parallel between what we have in Joseph and those other two stories, and it is this. 00:13:09.721 --> 00:13:17.328 All of these words pile up in Genesis chapter 21 in the story of Abraham's concubine, 00:13:18.066 --> 00:13:18.484 Hagar. 00:13:19.912 --> 00:13:24.823 Hagar has given birth to a son named Ishmael, and they are sent away. 00:13:25.048 --> 00:13:26.396 And listen to verse 14. 00:13:26.974 --> 00:13:30.536 How many of these words come back to us from the Joseph story? 00:13:31.628 --> 00:13:39.281 So Abraham Abraham rose early in the morning, the Hebrew word for that is shechem, it's the Hebrew 00:13:39.409 --> 00:13:47.271 verb for the name of this place where Joseph thinks his brothers are, and took the bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, 00:13:47.287 --> 00:13:54.539 putting it on her shoulder, also the word shechem, along with the child, Ishmael, 00:13:55.132 --> 00:13:57.699 and sent her away, exactly what Jacob did. 00:13:57.764 --> 00:13:58.829 what Jacob does to Joseph. 00:13:59.313 --> 00:14:06.643 And she departed and wandered, exactly what Joseph is doing, in the wilderness, or the field, of 00:14:06.724 --> 00:14:07.323 Beersheba. 00:14:07.889 --> 00:14:15.224 A Hebrew reader would go, whoa, this Joseph story is reminding us of Hagar, who in the wilderness was in a 00:14:15.224 --> 00:14:18.297 complete state of helplessness. 00:14:20.683 --> 00:14:22.864 She was no longer in Egypt where she was from. 00:14:23.607 --> 00:14:26.597 She was no longer with the people who had mistreated 00:14:29.091 --> 00:14:30.825 instead she's cast out in the wilderness. 00:14:31.830 --> 00:14:32.868 She's run out of water. 00:14:33.584 --> 00:14:34.556 She has very little bread. 00:14:35.562 --> 00:14:38.432 And she sets her child under a tree to watch him die. 00:14:40.301 --> 00:14:45.941 And the text tells us at that moment in the field, God hears the cries of Ishmael. 00:14:48.586 --> 00:14:53.820 And when he comes, he shows Hagar the source of water, the source of her sustenance, the source of life. 00:14:55.047 --> 00:15:02.485 So here in a familiar episode, Joseph has been sent from Shechem and is now wandering in the field. 00:15:02.791 --> 00:15:10.734 And what he doesn't realize is that his life and the life of everyone he knows is at stake because a famine is 00:15:10.766 --> 00:15:11.103 coming. 00:15:12.760 --> 00:15:20.389 And what the Lord does in this moment is he uses an anonymous figure, a stranger, a foreigner, a disguised way of 00:15:20.421 --> 00:15:28.266 deliverance and salvation to send Joseph to his brothers, to connect the dots 19 miles away, in 00:15:28.346 --> 00:15:36.304 order that Joseph eventually will get to Egypt where he has a dream, or I guess interprets a dream, 00:15:36.705 --> 00:15:39.640 about a famine, and the whole ancient world is saved. 00:15:40.956 --> 00:15:44.469 Now, unless this man meets him in the field, all is lost. 00:15:46.024 --> 00:15:47.943 Joseph's life, his brothers, everyone. 00:15:48.556 --> 00:15:49.991 The famine would have wrecked them all. 00:15:51.846 --> 00:15:52.524 Listen to this, though. 00:15:54.282 --> 00:15:58.526 In Genesis 45, Joseph is going to realize what God has done. 00:15:58.606 --> 00:16:03.604 He looks back at that man in the field, and this is what he says in Genesis 45:7-8. 00:16:03.989 --> 00:16:10.168 He said, God was the one who sent me before you, brothers, to preserve for you a remnant on earth. 00:16:10.276 --> 00:16:10.566 'On earth. 00:16:11.987 --> 00:16:15.167 It was not you who sent me here to Egypt, brothers of mine. 00:16:15.845 --> 00:16:16.297 It was God.' 00:16:18.686 --> 00:16:22.435 So imagine years later— by the way, spoiler— Joseph is going to survive. 00:16:23.033 --> 00:16:24.213 He's going to save the whole family. 00:16:24.816 --> 00:16:32.706 And one day he's going to sit down with his dad and tell him about the time he was wandering in the field and suddenly a 00:16:32.706 --> 00:16:40.176 man met him and he realizes that was the moment that all All of my life pivoted from God showing up as a 00:16:40.176 --> 00:16:40.759 stranger. 00:16:41.633 --> 00:16:47.926 And Jacob says, ah, that man appeared to me as well and he changed my whole life. 00:16:50.050 --> 00:16:57.585 Friends, there is a constant throughout the scriptures and especially in this story and it is this: God's guiding 00:16:57.923 --> 00:17:00.571 hand in the events of humanity. 00:17:01.173 --> 00:17:01.727 We call that prophecy. 00:17:04.548 --> 00:17:04.920 providence. 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:08.811 If you have ever read the story of Esther, God's name is never mentioned. 00:17:09.861 --> 00:17:17.704 And yet the story of Esther, if it teaches us one thing, it is that God is moving the events of human 00:17:17.704 --> 00:17:19.117 history according to his will. 00:17:20.256 --> 00:17:27.771 And the same thing is happening here in the story of Joseph where God is not so much in the foreground the way that he was appearing to Adam, appearing to 00:17:28.757 --> 00:17:29.788 appearing to Jacob. 00:17:30.754 --> 00:17:38.457 Now he is in the background, but this story is here, the man in the field, to give us some measure of confidence that God, 00:17:38.878 --> 00:17:46.277 although appearing as a stranger, is in control of all of the designs of what is happening in history. 00:17:48.261 --> 00:17:50.627 And this should come as a great assurance to us, friends. 00:17:51.738 --> 00:17:59.453 When God has removed himself from the foreground of our lives, our lives and we feel like we are wandering, we are wandering about, 00:18:00.494 --> 00:18:07.721 we are aimless, we don't know what God is doing in the face of all of the strange events in our lives, 00:18:08.987 --> 00:18:16.919 if you feel like you are without a purpose or a compass, if you feel like you are somewhere in life and you don't know how you got there and you 00:18:16.919 --> 00:18:21.714 don't know how to retrace your steps, that is exactly where Joseph is in this this moment. 00:18:22.785 --> 00:18:27.942 And the Bible describes every one of us as wandering sheep. 00:18:29.674 --> 00:18:30.562 We all have strayed. 00:18:31.950 --> 00:18:39.299 And yet, even in our helplessness and without hope in the world, as we were spiritually starving like Hagar, 00:18:40.827 --> 00:18:48.521 as we had no idea of the fate that awaited us as Joseph, God sometimes in mysterious is the 00:18:48.521 --> 00:18:51.886 man in the field who points the directions to us. 00:18:53.704 --> 00:18:56.885 See, sometimes God's guidance is disguised. 00:18:58.235 --> 00:19:05.978 Sometimes God looks like a stranger in a field, and we cannot know where God redirected our steps in an 00:19:06.125 --> 00:19:11.078 everyday casual encounter, but he is faithful to bring about his goodwill. 00:19:13.012 --> 00:19:20.660 The fact, though, that God directs us with strange means does not mean that we should go looking for God's 00:19:20.660 --> 00:19:22.723 guidance in strange places. 00:19:24.394 --> 00:19:32.333 God tells us that by reading and meditating on his word, by being in the fellowship and accountability of the church, this is where 00:19:32.397 --> 00:19:34.548 his will is normally disclosed to us. 00:19:35.231 --> 00:19:41.439 But this story simply reminds us that when we're not we are not expecting God to redirect us. 00:19:42.018 --> 00:19:46.587 He is doing so faithfully and sometimes without our knowledge. 00:19:48.301 --> 00:19:49.514 This means that God 00:19:51.148 --> 00:19:54.836 is keeping us when we failed to keep others. 00:19:55.014 --> 00:19:59.100 He is looking after us when we fail to look after others. 00:20:01.307 --> 00:20:03.882 So how do we respond to this, this providence of God? 00:20:05.928 --> 00:20:09.806 Well, first of all, at the very least, we just can respond by saying, "Isn't God amazing? 00:20:10.976 --> 00:20:18.747 Isn't God incredible that only he can take these terrible things happening in the world or these aimless things happening in my life 00:20:19.067 --> 00:20:24.002 and he's bringing them to perfect completion by his plan, his invisible hand?" 00:20:25.396 --> 00:20:33.128 But more personally, we ought to be encouraged when we read this to look back over the course of our lives and to say, our lives and say, 00:20:33.257 --> 00:20:38.093 where were the turning points where God appeared to me in a field and I didn't even really realize it? 00:20:40.644 --> 00:20:46.474 A friend of mine who served in the Navy now for years was telling me about when he was a young 00:20:48.278 --> 00:20:49.131 naval person, 00:20:50.683 --> 00:20:51.085 sailor. 00:20:53.644 --> 00:20:57.201 And when he was in Pensacola, he was taking an eye exam with an optometrist. 00:20:57.392 --> 00:21:00.219 Optometrist there, and he really wanted to be a naval aviator. 00:21:00.894 --> 00:21:06.212 And the optometrist that he would normally see was out on medical leave, so he saw a different optometrist that day. 00:21:07.337 --> 00:21:14.583 And the optometrist went over the scores with my friend, and he said, "Well, you don't qualify to fly the aircraft that you want to fly. 00:21:15.611 --> 00:21:19.579 Your scores for your eyes are not that good, so you can do these things." 00:21:20.431 --> 00:21:21.973 And so my friend went into that line of work. 00:21:22.021 --> 00:21:23.435 He's been very successful with it. 00:21:23.483 --> 00:21:23.933 He's an executive. 00:21:24.014 --> 00:21:25.535 executive officer on a carrier. 00:21:25.666 --> 00:21:26.958 It's pretty amazing. 00:21:28.254 --> 00:21:34.923 He told me that recently he was at his optometrist here in San Diego, and his optometrist said, "You know what? 00:21:35.035 --> 00:21:37.930 I was serving in Pensacola at the time that you had those exams done. 00:21:38.898 --> 00:21:40.512 I was out on medical leave at that time." 00:21:41.948 --> 00:21:45.133 He said, "If I was in the office and I saw these scores, I would have passed you." 00:21:48.207 --> 00:21:51.579 Now, that moment changed the course of my friend's life. 00:21:51.579 --> 00:21:52.801 And I said, "What did you think about that?" 00:21:52.866 --> 00:21:53.718 And he said, "You know what, Jeff? 00:21:54.233 --> 00:21:58.641 I wouldn't have changed a thing because I wouldn't have met my wife, wouldn't have had my daughter." 00:22:00.251 --> 00:22:04.652 Ah, sometimes God works through a strange anonymous optometrist. 00:22:06.895 --> 00:22:14.181 How often do we stop and look back over the course of our lives and say, "Wow, God, look how faithful you were even though you were disguised." 00:22:16.051 --> 00:22:23.835 Now this is of key importance that God is taking care God is keeping us because the next scene shows the failure 00:22:24.285 --> 00:22:27.930 of Joseph's brothers to take care of him, the utter failure. 00:22:28.379 --> 00:22:33.036 Joseph's brothers failed to look after their brother as his keeper. 00:22:34.304 --> 00:22:39.458 Two of his brothers especially come to the foreground here, Reuben and Judah. 00:22:40.325 --> 00:22:42.830 And Reuben is going to be sympathetic but weak. 00:22:43.858 --> 00:22:44.259 He is feckless. 00:22:44.324 --> 00:22:48.530 he doesn't have any effectiveness, although he shows himself to be sort of sympathetic. 00:22:49.237 --> 00:22:53.155 Whereas Judah, he's cruel and he's strong. 00:22:54.311 --> 00:22:59.497 So we get a weak and sympathetic brother and we get a strong but cruel brother. 00:22:59.690 --> 00:23:05.004 The brothers see Joseph coming from a long way off, and as he's coming, they're plotting. 00:23:05.454 --> 00:23:09.773 Verse 18, there's one thing on their minds: Joseph's dream. 00:23:10.760 --> 00:23:11.674 Here comes that dreamer. 00:23:13.470 --> 00:23:14.172 No one's around. 00:23:15.959 --> 00:23:16.764 You and I have been there. 00:23:18.046 --> 00:23:21.794 We're gossiping about someone because they've said or done something. 00:23:22.165 --> 00:23:22.811 Can you believe them? 00:23:23.930 --> 00:23:25.184 Where does she get off talking like that? 00:23:25.537 --> 00:23:27.256 Can you believe the nerve of that guy? 00:23:28.204 --> 00:23:34.686 And then before you know it, your conversation has bubbled over so you're at the point of taking action with that hatred. 00:23:36.073 --> 00:23:39.890 "Let's kill him and we'll blame it on a ferocious animal. 00:23:40.779 --> 00:23:44.901 Then we'll see what's happened to his dreams." 00:23:46.270 --> 00:23:50.957 Now, what the brothers don't know right now is that there's a cruel irony happening. 00:23:51.086 --> 00:23:53.678 We're going to blame it on a ferocious animal. 00:23:54.401 --> 00:24:01.442 When God talks to another brother who's failed to take care of his brother, Cain, he says, "You must beware of the enemy." 00:24:01.694 --> 00:24:04.358 Beware of sin because it is like a ferocious animal. 00:24:04.955 --> 00:24:07.394 It is crouching ready to pounce at you. 00:24:07.927 --> 00:24:13.768 And these brothers don't realize it, but they are becoming that ferocious animal by pouncing on their brother. 00:24:15.203 --> 00:24:16.155 But Reuben speaks up. 00:24:18.054 --> 00:24:19.699 And here is what we need to remember about Reuben. 00:24:20.651 --> 00:24:27.573 What we have just learned is that Reuben is the firstborn of Jacob's children, which means he is ordinarily entitled to the blessing. 00:24:27.674 --> 00:24:35.342 entitled to a double portion of the inheritance, but he's shown himself to be foolish because in 00:24:35.342 --> 00:24:43.316 some ridiculous action he decided it was a good idea to sleep with one of his father's wives, his father's concubine, 00:24:43.829 --> 00:24:44.230 Bilhah. 00:24:45.498 --> 00:24:49.140 And this was likely not simply an act of passionate lust. 00:24:49.846 --> 00:24:53.311 Perhaps it was a power play, a sort of "Who's your daddy?" 00:24:53.504 --> 00:24:53.953 move. 00:24:54.644 --> 00:25:01.612 By sleeping with his stepbrother's mom, he would exert some leadership over the next generation. 00:25:02.848 --> 00:25:04.261 But the whole plan backfires. 00:25:05.321 --> 00:25:06.911 Reuben is not the favored son. 00:25:07.087 --> 00:25:09.400 Clearly he's lost favor in his father's eyes. 00:25:09.833 --> 00:25:17.685 And he says to himself, maybe if I can rescue him from this empty well and take him back to his father, I can be seen with favor in 00:25:17.701 --> 00:25:18.889 my father's eyes again. 00:25:20.323 --> 00:25:21.372 Let's not take his life. 00:25:21.937 --> 00:25:22.760 Shed no blood. 00:25:23.325 --> 00:25:26.215 Instead, throw him into this empty well, this cistern here. 00:25:27.834 --> 00:25:29.061 But Reuben's plan will not work. 00:25:29.643 --> 00:25:30.709 He will come back later. 00:25:31.016 --> 00:25:35.023 Even though he was sympathetic in this regard, he is ineffective. 00:25:36.314 --> 00:25:38.952 He fails to take care of his brother. 00:25:41.174 --> 00:25:44.452 So Joseph, who has been trekking through the fields this whole time, he finally arrives. 00:25:45.960 --> 00:25:46.762 And he's jumped. 00:25:47.982 --> 00:25:53.776 As he's coming to check on their welfare, his 10 brothers give no word of peace. 00:25:54.226 --> 00:26:01.849 Instead, they ambush him, and he's stripped from his robe, the special gift that was made by his own father to show 00:26:02.331 --> 00:26:02.893 his favor. 00:26:04.080 --> 00:26:05.107 He hears the mocking. 00:26:05.461 --> 00:26:07.403 Let's see what becomes of your dreams now. 00:26:07.868 --> 00:26:09.024 Will we bow down to you now? 00:26:09.072 --> 00:26:10.163 Will you really tell us your dream? 00:26:10.244 --> 00:26:14.472 Please reign over us now that you are in this dry well beneath our feet. 00:26:14.972 --> 00:26:22.644 And after he is thrown into the cistern, his brothers in a cruel display of sick irony sit down 00:26:23.255 --> 00:26:26.279 to enjoy a meal of bread together. 00:26:28.463 --> 00:26:29.163 What are they thinking? 00:26:31.482 --> 00:26:34.681 Well, except for Reuben, they are all in the act of committing murder. 00:26:36.019 --> 00:26:39.121 Their intention is to leave Joseph there until he dies of dehydration. 00:26:39.240 --> 00:26:39.626 It's exaggeration. 00:26:41.091 --> 00:26:45.519 As a group, they are becoming Cain once again. 00:26:46.485 --> 00:26:49.366 Their brother's blood will cry out from the ground. 00:26:50.763 --> 00:26:52.659 And they're now mutually complicit. 00:26:53.173 --> 00:26:56.049 If one exposes the crime, they will all fall for it. 00:26:56.773 --> 00:27:00.734 And so what would they say to each other to make sure that nothing is exposed? 00:27:01.121 --> 00:27:03.541 Come on, Joseph got himself into this mess. 00:27:03.622 --> 00:27:05.703 He was the one separating and dividing our family. 00:27:05.804 --> 00:27:08.409 family, talking about lording over us. 00:27:09.728 --> 00:27:10.950 We're not our brother's keeper. 00:27:14.023 --> 00:27:16.075 But God will not let the crime go forward. 00:27:16.204 --> 00:27:22.862 Remember, he is orchestrating the events of all of human history. 00:27:23.895 --> 00:27:27.820 And so suddenly they hear the sound of a caravan of merchants. 00:27:30.936 --> 00:27:31.566 See, their plan 00:27:33.450 --> 00:27:38.523 was to leave their brother in the well, but God is going to act through a different brother, 00:27:40.058 --> 00:27:40.882 even more cruel. 00:27:42.224 --> 00:27:43.021 Judas speaks up, 00:27:44.544 --> 00:27:47.894 "Hey, what do we gain in killing our brother? 00:27:48.687 --> 00:27:49.966 What profit is there for us? 00:27:50.484 --> 00:27:51.067 What benefit? 00:27:52.248 --> 00:27:57.999 Ah, I say, rather than killing him and concealing our blood, we sell him to these Ishmaelites." 00:27:58.094 --> 00:27:58.495 to the Ishmaelites. 00:27:59.395 --> 00:28:04.346 And then he ends it this way: "After all, he is our own blood, our own flesh." 00:28:06.066 --> 00:28:07.127 There is no compassion here. 00:28:07.932 --> 00:28:15.689 The merchants are carrying gum and myrrh and balm, and soon they are going to be carrying a living being, just 00:28:15.998 --> 00:28:18.751 that has become another product in their inventory. 00:28:20.374 --> 00:28:25.195 Joseph's brothers agree to sell to the Ishmaelites, Who is Ishmael? 00:28:26.525 --> 00:28:27.728 Ah, son of Abraham. 00:28:29.010 --> 00:28:29.331 Hmm. 00:28:29.731 --> 00:28:34.557 And a little later in the chapter, these Ishmaelites are called Midianites. 00:28:35.679 --> 00:28:40.376 And in fact, at the end of the chapter, depending on your translation, it calls them Midianites. 00:28:41.851 --> 00:28:43.983 Are they Ishmaelites or Midianites or Midian? 00:28:44.256 --> 00:28:44.977 Midianites. 00:28:46.003 --> 00:28:53.955 Well, the purpose here is to show the children of Israel, Midian and Medan were also children of Abraham, 00:28:54.960 --> 00:28:56.823 children by another wife named Keturah. 00:28:58.102 --> 00:29:00.779 See, these are not strange people with a strange language. 00:29:01.069 --> 00:29:05.390 These are like third and fourth cousins of Joseph's brothers. 00:29:07.411 --> 00:29:14.309 See, we don't hear a word from Joseph in this entire story, but he is about to be trafficked by his own flesh and blood. 00:29:16.439 --> 00:29:20.204 When the merchants arrive in Egypt, he's sold to an officer of Pharaoh, 00:29:21.884 --> 00:29:29.266 and most translations render his title the captain of the guard, but his title literally means the chief executioner 00:29:29.925 --> 00:29:31.917 or the head of the slaughterers. 00:29:33.139 --> 00:29:40.222 Joseph silently goes from being a wandering sheep to a silent lamb led to the slaughter. 00:29:42.290 --> 00:29:48.402 And the brothers come back home and they stand before their father holding out a robe stained with the blood of a goat. 00:29:48.787 --> 00:29:49.958 And they don't make up a story. 00:29:50.615 --> 00:29:52.684 They let their father draw his own conclusions. 00:29:53.936 --> 00:29:55.379 "Examine this robe," they say. 00:29:56.245 --> 00:29:57.657 "Is it your son's?" 00:29:58.972 --> 00:30:00.496 They don't call him "our brother." 00:30:01.442 --> 00:30:02.389 They call him "your son." 00:30:03.704 --> 00:30:11.136 We're reminded of when Adam was asked what he did in the garden, and he doesn't refer to Eve, but to his son, 'as bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh' anymore. 00:30:11.589 --> 00:30:15.647 No, no, it's 'the woman, the woman you put here.' 00:30:17.490 --> 00:30:19.312 Joseph has been hated by his brothers. 00:30:19.585 --> 00:30:21.292 He's been gossiped about by his brothers. 00:30:21.356 --> 00:30:24.786 He's been jumped and held prisoner by his own family. 00:30:25.124 --> 00:30:30.205 He has had his life valued only as a profit that he would bring to others. 00:30:30.628 --> 00:30:37.577 He has been trafficked by his own extended family and now he has been disassociated by his brothers. 00:30:39.076 --> 00:30:46.964 And as readers of Genesis, we say, "This is not just a repeat of what has happened before, brothers hating brothers, family 00:30:46.997 --> 00:30:48.663 being torn apart by jealousy. 00:30:49.084 --> 00:30:51.576 This is the worst it's ever been." 00:30:52.967 --> 00:30:54.790 What hope is there in this story? 00:30:56.280 --> 00:31:00.223 And over the course of the world, we see that nothing has changed. 00:31:01.324 --> 00:31:06.907 See, our own life and our own context is just as violent a place as it was in the days of Joseph. 00:31:08.223 --> 00:31:15.956 It is just as common to see the same injustices done from one human to another in our age: ambushing, 00:31:16.213 --> 00:31:23.175 discrediting, abusing, abandoning, disassociating, objectifying the human soul, trafficking, 00:31:23.930 --> 00:31:24.443 murdering. 00:31:25.357 --> 00:31:29.785 This very day, there are older siblings who will sell their younger brother or sister 00:31:31.633 --> 00:31:39.313 This very day, the sinful heart still objectifies the soul of another and thinks, "Your life is worthless unless it is 00:31:39.490 --> 00:31:41.997 of some advantage to me." 00:31:43.186 --> 00:31:50.721 This very day, we find the easiest way to deal with people is to surgically remove them from our existence. 00:31:51.782 --> 00:31:55.927 And if necessary, we will enlist a half a dozen others in doing that. 00:31:56.072 --> 00:31:56.397 Doing so. 00:31:58.148 --> 00:32:00.078 Every age it is like this, friends. 00:32:01.544 --> 00:32:04.598 When will we ever learn to become our brother's keeper, our sister's keeper? 00:32:04.826 --> 00:32:05.006 When? 00:32:06.215 --> 00:32:06.982 What hope is there? 00:32:10.865 --> 00:32:10.881 Ah. 00:32:11.719 --> 00:32:16.201 Here's what we learned throughout the course of the Bible, and you're already seeing it here. 00:32:17.040 --> 00:32:21.289 The brutality toward Joseph points to the brutality toward another. 00:32:22.212 --> 00:32:23.560 The brutality toward Jesus. 00:32:24.699 --> 00:32:26.288 Jesus was the favored son. 00:32:27.428 --> 00:32:33.430 He rightfully was to have rule over all others, but his own family hated him. 00:32:34.329 --> 00:32:38.999 They hated his authority and they hated his kingship, so they plotted against him. 00:32:39.545 --> 00:32:41.439 They sold him for silver. 00:32:41.808 --> 00:32:43.959 They stripped him of his garments. 00:32:44.215 --> 00:32:47.088 They mocked him and his plans to rule over them. 00:32:47.474 --> 00:32:48.485 He was condemned. 00:32:48.774 --> 00:32:50.364 He was left for dead. 00:32:50.958 --> 00:32:54.972 But unlike Joseph, Jesus did actually die. 00:32:56.337 --> 00:32:57.750 And not just a physical death. 00:32:58.103 --> 00:33:05.955 He descended into the pit of God's rejection, the dry cistern absent of God's grace and 00:33:05.955 --> 00:33:06.260 life. 00:33:06.838 --> 00:33:14.372 And every time we act in violence toward neighbor, every time we fail to be the keeper of another, brother, every time we 00:33:14.809 --> 00:33:22.805 fail to seek their best interest, we're doing so toward God, or we're failing to do so toward God, because our brother and 00:33:22.805 --> 00:33:24.459 sister is made in His image. 00:33:26.223 --> 00:33:34.174 And Joseph's life is meant to point us to Jesus, but not only his brutality, not only the violence and his humiliation 00:33:34.597 --> 00:33:36.887 and his suffering, but also his triumph. 00:33:38.105 --> 00:33:38.641 His exaltation. 00:33:40.267 --> 00:33:46.538 See, Joseph will succeed in Genesis where all of the other brothers have failed. 00:33:47.344 --> 00:33:49.441 He will break the cycle of conflict. 00:33:49.861 --> 00:33:50.055 How? 00:33:51.571 --> 00:33:55.235 Not by taking vengeance, but by offering forgiveness. 00:33:56.860 --> 00:34:01.925 He will declare, "What you meant for evil, brothers, God meant for good." 00:34:03.066 --> 00:34:04.979 Jesus will say, "Forgive them, Father." 00:34:05.444 --> 00:34:05.605 Father. 00:34:06.188 --> 00:34:07.709 They don't know the evil that they're doing. 00:34:09.279 --> 00:34:13.017 God has done the same thing through his favored Son, Jesus Christ. 00:34:13.470 --> 00:34:21.284 His cross was so that God would not take revenge on all the brothers and sisters, but instead would issue forgiveness, 00:34:22.061 --> 00:34:23.616 breaking the cycle. 00:34:25.723 --> 00:34:30.181 And again, what humanity meant for evil, putting the Son of God to death on a cross, 00:34:31.744 --> 00:34:32.567 God meant for good. 00:34:35.391 --> 00:34:43.251 Do you want to change in order that from the heart you would truly take care of your neighbor, truly be the keeper of your brother and sister? 00:34:44.518 --> 00:34:46.369 Not just play-acting, but really change. 00:34:47.341 --> 00:34:54.795 Through trust in Jesus, we can finally have sincere love and brotherly affection for all people. 00:34:56.153 --> 00:34:57.556 This is what Paul tells the Romans in Romans 12:9-10. 00:34:58.397 --> 00:35:02.902 In Romans chapter 12, he explains what is possible through Jesus Christ. 00:35:03.431 --> 00:35:08.368 He says this: Love must be sincere. 00:35:09.683 --> 00:35:15.903 The word is anapokritis, hypocrisy, but it's got a negator at the front. 00:35:15.951 --> 00:35:21.354 It says love should be unhypocritical, genuine, sincere. 00:35:21.482 --> 00:35:23.213 It should issue from the very core of your being. 00:35:23.294 --> 00:35:23.534 your being. 00:35:24.273 --> 00:35:25.943 And through Jesus, you're able to do this. 00:35:26.360 --> 00:35:28.672 You hate what is evil, you cling to what is good. 00:35:29.267 --> 00:35:31.274 You are devoted to one another in love. 00:35:31.338 --> 00:35:34.051 You honor one another above yourselves. 00:35:35.111 --> 00:35:43.043 Christ's forgiveness so transforms your heart that you hold nothing back from truly taking care of others, 00:35:43.380 --> 00:35:47.924 from truly devoting yourselves to their welfare, from truly being their keeper. 00:35:49.710 --> 00:35:55.846 Brothers and sisters, this is God's will for your life, to be your brother and sister's keeper. 00:35:55.910 --> 00:35:56.137 Amen. 00:36:02.153 --> 00:36:03.207 O Lord, let it be so. 00:36:04.859 --> 00:36:06.250 We entrust ourselves to you. 00:36:07.592 --> 00:36:10.324 We confess ourselves as complicit in your death. 00:36:10.922 --> 00:36:17.046 Lord, we love to cover up our sin, and yet Our guilt cries out from the ground. 00:36:17.160 --> 00:36:18.296 We cannot keep it hidden. 00:36:18.880 --> 00:36:21.769 So instead, Lord, we come to you and we receive your forgiveness. 00:36:23.210 --> 00:36:27.201 And we pray, Lord, that you would give us hearts like Christ, hearts like Joseph, 00:36:29.314 --> 00:36:33.227 that with sincerity would be our brother and sister's keeper. 00:36:34.020 --> 00:36:39.787 Wow, Lord, you plan to do amazing things in the midst of this body of Christ and in the world. 00:36:39.884 --> 00:36:41.971 world through that good news. 00:36:42.147 --> 00:36:42.709 Thank you. 00:36:43.528 --> 00:36:45.648 We give you praise and thanks in the name of Jesus. 00:36:46.322 --> 00:36:46.708 Amen.