WEBVTT 00:00:00.313 --> 00:00:03.607 Let's ask the Holy Spirit's grace on the reading of God's Word. 00:00:06.592 --> 00:00:12.982 Oh God, by your Holy Spirit, tell us what we need to hear and show us what we ought to do 00:00:14.493 --> 00:00:16.928 to obey Jesus Christ our Savior. 00:00:17.806 --> 00:00:18.099 Amen. 00:00:20.553 --> 00:00:24.772 A reading from Genesis 41:41-52. 00:00:28.146 --> 00:00:34.634 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt. 00:00:35.999 --> 00:00:41.235 Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. 00:00:42.328 --> 00:00:47.628 He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. 00:00:48.672 --> 00:00:55.627 He had him ride in a chariot as his second in command, and people shouted before him, 'Make way!' 00:00:56.864 --> 00:01:00.252 Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. 00:01:01.519 --> 00:01:09.438 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in 00:01:09.614 --> 00:01:10.271 all Egypt. 00:01:11.378 --> 00:01:19.281 Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, priest of On, 00:01:19.409 --> 00:01:20.306 to be his wife. 00:01:21.413 --> 00:01:23.737 And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt. 00:01:25.164 --> 00:01:30.245 Joseph was 30 Joseph was 33 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 00:01:31.191 --> 00:01:39.158 And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt during the seven years of abundance; the land 00:01:39.287 --> 00:01:40.569 produced plentifully. 00:01:41.852 --> 00:01:48.873 Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. 00:01:49.931 --> 00:01:54.070 In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. 00:01:55.324 --> 00:01:59.839 Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain, like the sand of the sea. 00:02:00.707 --> 00:02:04.973 It was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. 00:02:06.659 --> 00:02:14.199 Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphar, 00:02:14.586 --> 00:02:15.445 priest of On. 00:02:16.708 --> 00:02:24.005 Joseph named his first the firstborn Manasseh and said, 'It is because God has made me forget 00:02:24.730 --> 00:02:28.229 all my troubles and all my father's household.' 00:02:29.991 --> 00:02:37.857 The second son he named Ephraim and said, 'It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my 00:02:37.857 --> 00:02:38.443 suffering.' 00:02:40.038 --> 00:02:41.307 This is the word of the Lord. 00:02:51.850 --> 00:02:52.528 The lights come on. 00:02:52.592 --> 00:02:54.464 I need to say a word about my appearance. 00:02:55.093 --> 00:02:57.223 I know some of you are thinking this is marital difficulties. 00:02:59.822 --> 00:03:01.015 In Lois's defense, 00:03:03.127 --> 00:03:06.384 do not compare your wife's cooking unfavorably to your mother's. 00:03:08.800 --> 00:03:10.557 Chicken dumplings is chicken dumplings. 00:03:10.671 --> 00:03:12.735 No matter who lovingly gives it to you. 00:03:14.317 --> 00:03:22.142 And when your wife tells you that she's been working out every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, you might want to check to see if it's yoga or taekwondo. 00:03:23.782 --> 00:03:27.824 I know this is better advice to young husbands who are away on retreat right now. 00:03:28.211 --> 00:03:33.906 There is a second possibility: successful surgical removal of skin cancer. 00:03:35.390 --> 00:03:39.862 And I have a favorite explanation. 00:03:39.910 --> 00:03:40.910 Hockey season has started. 00:03:42.410 --> 00:03:46.393 You spend your retirement the way you want to, I'll spend my retirement the way I want to. 00:03:49.632 --> 00:03:55.255 In telling the story of Joseph, it takes up the final quarter of the first book of the Bible. 00:03:56.330 --> 00:04:00.627 The book of Genesis begins with the creation of all things and ends with the death of Joseph. 00:04:01.673 --> 00:04:07.205 According to the Bible, the story of of Joseph is the last story of all the first stories. 00:04:08.426 --> 00:04:14.128 In this sense, it's unique but becomes a paradigm for many of the stories that follow. 00:04:15.429 --> 00:04:20.537 Jeff, two weeks ago, taught of how it reenacts already the story of Adam in the garden. 00:04:21.356 --> 00:04:25.918 Where Adam failed in matters of obedience and integrity, Joseph succeeds. 00:04:26.753 --> 00:04:30.565 Joseph is the first story of what integrity looks like east of Eden. 00:04:31.913 --> 00:04:34.838 The story of young Joseph is a model for our youth. 00:04:36.530 --> 00:04:41.395 Last week, Elizabeth taught us how this story is like the greatest story, the life of Christ. 00:04:42.023 --> 00:04:46.202 Joseph's pit to palace, Christ's death to resurrection. 00:04:47.370 --> 00:04:55.049 And Elizabeth beautifully shared with us how the Joseph story is her story, from her youthful wondering and wandering to being 00:04:55.065 --> 00:05:03.042 assured of the goodness and guidance I hope to persuade you that the Joseph story is the story of 00:05:03.299 --> 00:05:10.541 all the people of God, each of us individually and all of us together, in every century and in every place. 00:05:11.729 --> 00:05:16.931 This last story of the beginnings is the first story of all that follows. 00:05:17.911 --> 00:05:21.652 It's the story of life and ministry in exile. 00:05:24.190 --> 00:05:29.492 I feel a need to warn you of something about Joseph at this sermon's beginning, maybe even apologize for it. 00:05:30.456 --> 00:05:35.966 Perhaps you, like I, were raised on the Joseph story as exemplary of godliness from beginning to end. 00:05:36.947 --> 00:05:40.802 "Be like Joseph" ended every Sunday school lesson I had on him. 00:05:42.248 --> 00:05:49.930 Yet the Bible tells us this Joseph story in such detail and at such great length that it might serve as a cautionary cautionary tale as well. 00:05:51.041 --> 00:05:56.627 There is a "do not be like Joseph" in the Bible and in the sermon. 00:05:58.060 --> 00:06:01.624 I know right now some of you are looking at me as if I just told you there's no Santa. 00:06:03.653 --> 00:06:05.103 But I encourage you to listen to the end. 00:06:06.053 --> 00:06:10.113 Joseph's last move is perfect, perfectly perfect. 00:06:10.194 --> 00:06:12.531 It's one of my favorites in the whole Bible. 00:06:13.873 --> 00:06:17.077 His own life becomes a cautionary primary tale for him. 00:06:18.153 --> 00:06:23.259 He learns, he repents, he changes, he finishes strong. 00:06:24.736 --> 00:06:31.994 The story of Joseph is told 2 more times in the Bible in near complete similarity— Daniel and Esther. 00:06:33.086 --> 00:06:37.373 The heroes are new, yeah, and they're in faraway places and over 1,000 years later than Joseph. 00:06:37.903 --> 00:06:45.867 Yet the circumstances and challenges of their lives are so parallel to Joseph's, that reading their stories is like hearing the story of Joseph told 3 00:06:45.867 --> 00:06:46.316 times. 00:06:47.392 --> 00:06:52.691 Jewish parents have told these stories to the children in their home for 2.5 millennia now. 00:06:53.558 --> 00:06:57.829 Christian parents, including mine, probably yours, for 2,000 years now. 00:06:59.258 --> 00:07:01.730 My mother's favorite story in the Bible is Esther's. 00:07:02.806 --> 00:07:04.765 It was the story of her life, she's sure of it. 00:07:05.552 --> 00:07:09.164 It was the story which she referenced more most often when teaching me. 00:07:09.690 --> 00:07:13.297 These three stories are among the most repeated stories in the world. 00:07:14.435 --> 00:07:20.976 Each of the three heroes—Joseph, Daniel, Esther—is a story told of a youth far from home—Egypt, Babylon, 00:07:21.088 --> 00:07:23.557 Persia—who will never get home. 00:07:24.776 --> 00:07:26.186 They all have modest beginnings. 00:07:26.924 --> 00:07:29.633 Joseph is enslaved when a boy, imprisoned as a young man. 00:07:30.226 --> 00:07:33.722 Daniel is captured and taken to Babylon and put into service as a youth. 00:07:34.397 --> 00:07:38.154 Esther is a village girl, an unwelcome foreigner in a hostile environment. 00:07:39.037 --> 00:07:41.590 All three have plots against them to take their lives. 00:07:42.168 --> 00:07:49.522 All three because foreigners in a foreign land, people of God among a people hostile to the people of God. 00:07:50.598 --> 00:07:51.336 That's universal. 00:07:52.220 --> 00:08:00.004 Then because of their acts of competence and usefulness, in incidents showing remarkable bravery and wisdom, with 00:08:00.004 --> 00:08:04.058 decisions based on clarity of mission and identity in God. 00:08:05.276 --> 00:08:12.551 After affirming their individual identity as the people of God, they are promoted, each of them, to the highest offices of the land. 00:08:13.609 --> 00:08:21.525 They finish their days at the right hand of power—Joseph with Pharaoh, Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar, Esther with Xerxes. 00:08:22.519 --> 00:08:26.305 These are the greatest powers of their generation: Egypt, Babylon, Persia. 00:08:26.851 --> 00:08:34.526 In all three stories, unpredictably and stunningly, our three heroes become the second most powerful person in the world of their generation. 00:08:35.682 --> 00:08:39.343 No wonder hopeful parents retell these stories to their children. 00:08:40.419 --> 00:08:43.052 I told them to my three with hope. 00:08:43.951 --> 00:08:45.396 My hope has not been disappointed. 00:08:46.841 --> 00:08:50.293 These are stories not just of human heroes, of course, but of God. 00:08:51.111 --> 00:08:53.726 So of course there's pattern and power in them. 00:08:54.625 --> 00:08:56.999 The reversal of fortune is flabbergasting. 00:08:57.914 --> 00:09:00.673 This is God's providence on dramatic display. 00:09:01.845 --> 00:09:05.358 We learn today's circumstances are not final. 00:09:06.257 --> 00:09:08.663 God's purposes are ultimate. 00:09:10.107 --> 00:09:11.840 Let's consider the story of Joseph first. 00:09:12.514 --> 00:09:15.097 At the beginning of today's chapter, Joseph is imprisoned. 00:09:15.593 --> 00:09:15.996 imprisoned. 00:09:16.174 --> 00:09:17.029 Say the word twice. 00:09:17.626 --> 00:09:24.465 It's a double defeat and desperation, though his one reasonable hope for release has recently failed. 00:09:25.418 --> 00:09:30.001 The cupbearer, a former fellow prisoner, with Joseph's help has been restored to royal service. 00:09:30.921 --> 00:09:37.409 Though grateful in having heard Joseph's plea to be remembered, he has forgotten his faithful prison helper. 00:09:39.019 --> 00:09:40.564 He remembered not Joseph. 00:09:41.186 --> 00:09:42.858 the Bible sadly says. 00:09:43.936 --> 00:09:51.616 The next book of the Bible, Exodus, will introduce the slavery of the people of God at its start with 00:09:52.232 --> 00:09:55.478 Pharaoh who remembered not Joseph. 00:09:57.166 --> 00:10:04.782 When we read this, think of the thief dying on the cross who with his last breath, in his final desperate hope, says to the 00:10:04.782 --> 00:10:09.096 Savior, Remember Remember me when you come into your kingdom. 00:10:10.640 --> 00:10:14.009 The cupbearer at the center of the kingdom very late remembers Joseph. 00:10:15.127 --> 00:10:16.002 We'd lost hope of it. 00:10:16.860 --> 00:10:22.405 At the end of this chapter, Joseph is the most powerful man of his time, second only to a very grateful Pharaoh. 00:10:23.362 --> 00:10:28.498 Most of what he did up to this chapter, our Sunday school teachers rightly told us, was good and godly. 00:10:28.932 --> 00:10:33.547 He trusted God, he fled sin, he was useful to all of all about him. 00:10:33.547 --> 00:10:40.100 Yeah, we may need to forgive him blurting out his self-serving dreams a little too often, and in his youth probably gloating over his brothers. 00:10:40.197 --> 00:10:40.470 Yeah, yeah. 00:10:41.337 --> 00:10:47.409 But after his unforgivable treatment at their hands, we're no longer going to hold him reliable for further accusation. 00:10:48.806 --> 00:10:50.364 The boy is gifted. 00:10:51.473 --> 00:10:53.545 It is his usefulness that strikes us. 00:10:54.268 --> 00:10:59.164 His father was the first to identify his gifts, placed him above his brothers, all older. 00:11:00.235 --> 00:11:05.670 Potiphar, his master, recognizing the same gifts, places him in charge of his large estate. 00:11:06.270 --> 00:11:10.623 The warden of the prison sees the same gifts and promoted him similarly. 00:11:11.300 --> 00:11:13.396 Joseph does well wherever. 00:11:14.186 --> 00:11:18.372 The gifts are of God, and Joseph is persistent and excellent in the use of them. 00:11:19.329 --> 00:11:20.594 The boy just keeps on going. 00:11:22.165 --> 00:11:29.848 My Father, wondering sometimes if I I had enough get-up-and-go, would quote Churchill to me: "If you find yourself going through hell, 00:11:31.213 --> 00:11:31.746 keep going." 00:11:33.474 --> 00:11:41.254 My mother, seeing that there was a quit-too-soon in me, quoted the Apostle Paul to me: "Do not grow weary 00:11:41.511 --> 00:11:42.057 in well-doing." 00:11:44.724 --> 00:11:51.174 Far, far away from father and mother, he will never again see his mother or live again in his His childhood home, 00:11:52.350 --> 00:11:59.856 alienated from his brothers, brothers which betrayed him, beat him up, threw him in a pit, left him for dead, sold him as a slave, falsely 00:11:59.856 --> 00:12:07.754 accused of attempted rape, disbelieved by the one man who had trusted him, tossed into another pit, this time a state prison, probably 00:12:07.786 --> 00:12:09.212 a place for political prisoners. 00:12:09.730 --> 00:12:13.456 He is now forgotten there by the only living friend he has in Egypt. 00:12:15.070 --> 00:12:22.696 Rather than giving continued exemplary service to others in the pit, if this were my my story, the word pouting would appear 00:12:22.745 --> 00:12:23.384 prominently. 00:12:25.270 --> 00:12:32.612 My heroes: Eric Liddell, the Olympian, Chariots of Fire fame, who as a missionary to China, 00:12:33.400 --> 00:12:40.568 while sacrificially serving others with his gifts, dies in a Japanese World War II prison camp of a brain tumor, 00:12:41.150 --> 00:12:43.847 exasperated by malnourishment and overwork. 00:12:45.007 --> 00:12:52.315 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor pastor and writer, is executed in a German World War II concentration camp while 00:12:52.315 --> 00:12:54.819 sacrificially serving others there to the end. 00:12:56.322 --> 00:12:59.245 They were told the Joseph story in their youth. 00:13:01.067 --> 00:13:03.018 Young Joseph is heroic. 00:13:04.172 --> 00:13:05.163 Tell it to your children. 00:13:06.610 --> 00:13:07.602 Live it as an adult. 00:13:09.790 --> 00:13:13.841 But it's the adult Joseph who causes us some pause. 00:13:15.316 --> 00:13:18.090 When Joseph interprets dreams, he reads dreamers. 00:13:18.266 --> 00:13:22.290 I think part of Joseph's gift is knowing people uncannily. 00:13:22.995 --> 00:13:25.624 He reads the will to prosperity in the cupbearer. 00:13:26.041 --> 00:13:28.542 He read the surrender to adversity in the baker. 00:13:29.167 --> 00:13:37.086 He now reads the fear and need of Pharaoh, a very flawed Pharaoh, a pagan, prideful Pharaoh, self-serving, sacrificing 00:13:37.198 --> 00:13:38.689 others to his own whims and wants. 00:13:39.042 --> 00:13:39.283 Pharaoh. 00:13:39.588 --> 00:13:40.582 This is what pharaohs do. 00:13:41.112 --> 00:13:42.780 The Bible's not impressed with pharaohs. 00:13:43.839 --> 00:13:46.486 Joseph reads Pharaoh when interpreting his dreams. 00:13:47.385 --> 00:13:49.069 Again, he's analyzing the dreamer. 00:13:50.256 --> 00:13:52.887 Freud knew this of Joseph and wrote of it. 00:13:54.123 --> 00:13:59.240 And he plays into the flaw, all of its pride and self-centeredness and brutality. 00:14:00.540 --> 00:14:07.031 Sadly, disappointingly, Joseph plays to the evil in Pharaoh. 00:14:08.722 --> 00:14:16.700 The plan is to sell food to the people of Egypt for a price in the lean years, food Pharaoh would confiscate without price in the fat 00:14:16.814 --> 00:14:19.324 years, then sell it back to the growers. 00:14:20.680 --> 00:14:23.771 This enriches Pharaoh, this impoverishes his people. 00:14:24.962 --> 00:14:26.636 Welcome to ancient government practice. 00:14:27.860 --> 00:14:29.969 First, the people paid for the food with money. 00:14:30.130 --> 00:14:34.774 The Bible The Bible tells us when the money ran out, the next year Joseph said, "Well, then give me your livestock." 00:14:35.415 --> 00:14:40.641 When the livestock was gone, the next year they said, "We have nothing left to give but ourselves and our land." 00:14:41.042 --> 00:14:44.296 Well, "Bondage to Pharaoh is better than death," they said. 00:14:44.649 --> 00:14:50.420 So the Bible says Joseph bought all the land in Pharaoh— all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. 00:14:51.206 --> 00:14:54.909 And the Bible says Joseph reduced the people to servitude. 00:14:56.336 --> 00:14:57.450 of Egypt to the other. 00:14:58.854 --> 00:15:02.632 This is still enforced today, the Bible says, when this story was written. 00:15:04.896 --> 00:15:08.465 Nothing says slavery quicker in the Bible than Egypt and Pharaoh. 00:15:09.499 --> 00:15:16.517 Here in Joseph's hand, with Joseph's plan, is its enhancement, if not its establishment. 00:15:18.226 --> 00:15:21.674 This is the part of the story that is meant to trouble us. 00:15:23.006 --> 00:15:23.455 deeply. 00:15:24.836 --> 00:15:31.628 You do not need to read Tel Aviv political science professors like I do to become convinced of this. 00:15:32.880 --> 00:15:34.229 Just read the story of Joseph. 00:15:35.433 --> 00:15:42.434 The grandest story in the Hebrew Scriptures is God's miraculous deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt. 00:15:43.863 --> 00:15:47.315 Joseph had conspired with Pharaoh in its promotion. 00:15:48.650 --> 00:15:52.232 A later Pharaoh will need to drown to get rid of it. 00:15:54.037 --> 00:15:54.651 Be troubled. 00:15:56.139 --> 00:15:56.818 What has happened here? 00:15:58.063 --> 00:16:01.717 We rightly exalt in the early story of young Joseph in Egypt. 00:16:02.848 --> 00:16:06.899 We now rightly lament the latter story of older Joseph in Egypt. 00:16:07.609 --> 00:16:08.303 We are troubled. 00:16:09.288 --> 00:16:14.955 The trouble is, after the while, Joseph is in Egypt, 00:16:16.711 --> 00:16:19.127 then Egypt is in Joseph. 00:16:21.130 --> 00:16:27.447 The self-serving, prideful Pharaoh has found his mirror in Joseph. 00:16:28.726 --> 00:16:31.911 He bribes him with power and position and prosperity. 00:16:32.784 --> 00:16:39.042 The boy who dreamed of everyone bowing to him has willingly partnered with the king who thinks all by right should bow bow to him. 00:16:40.085 --> 00:16:40.916 The two are a pair. 00:16:42.560 --> 00:16:45.374 Joseph has out-Egypted the Egyptians. 00:16:46.840 --> 00:16:47.357 Consider further. 00:16:48.231 --> 00:16:56.086 Next in the story, as just read by Greta, Joseph takes on an Egyptian name, marries an Egyptian, becomes a 00:16:56.086 --> 00:17:03.388 member of an Egyptian priestly family, buying in therefore to their religion, and names his children with Egyptian names. 00:17:04.559 --> 00:17:09.596 The first, the name The name of his firstborn is May I Forget My Father's Household. 00:17:10.695 --> 00:17:14.635 The name of his second is May I Relish the Land I Now Live In. 00:17:18.693 --> 00:17:23.186 Through adversity, Joseph is pitch perfect. 00:17:25.334 --> 00:17:26.141 In prosperity, 00:17:28.951 --> 00:17:30.065 he fails miserably. 00:17:32.052 --> 00:17:34.271 I was raised with this, and there's a great wisdom in it. 00:17:35.226 --> 00:17:35.793 It's helped me. 00:17:36.700 --> 00:17:41.134 Don't doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light. 00:17:42.741 --> 00:17:43.127 Fair enough. 00:17:44.509 --> 00:17:45.297 May I offer: 00:17:46.920 --> 00:17:49.026 don't doubt in the light 00:17:51.604 --> 00:17:53.639 what God has shown you in the dark. 00:17:57.183 --> 00:17:58.939 Joseph saw it 00:18:01.050 --> 00:18:04.160 in the dark of the pits into which he was thrown. 00:18:06.570 --> 00:18:07.490 He lost sight of it 00:18:09.328 --> 00:18:10.570 in the light of Pharaoh's palace. 00:18:14.369 --> 00:18:20.084 The words Joseph in Egypt in the reading Greta just offered to us are together in almost every sentence that follows. 00:18:20.748 --> 00:18:22.572 They are identified with each other brother now. 00:18:22.636 --> 00:18:23.758 They're almost interchangeable. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:28.886 Most tellingly, when his brothers come to Egypt and meet him, they do not recognize him. 00:18:29.366 --> 00:18:33.116 Not once in the first meeting, not in the second meeting, not in the third meeting. 00:18:33.453 --> 00:18:34.030 It's their brother. 00:18:34.815 --> 00:18:35.648 Yeah, he shaved. 00:18:36.033 --> 00:18:39.606 No males in the ancient Near East shave except Egyptians. 00:18:39.959 --> 00:18:41.882 Yeah, he probably wore makeup. 00:18:41.962 --> 00:18:43.981 Elite Egyptians men did often. 00:18:44.430 --> 00:18:45.936 Yeah, and he was speaking Egyptian. 00:18:46.593 --> 00:18:54.275 But how clean-shaven can one be, and how much eyeliner can one put on, and how effectively can you change your 00:18:54.275 --> 00:19:01.546 voice that in private company, 3 separate times, not one of your 10 brothers recognize you? 00:19:03.404 --> 00:19:04.324 You're a different person now. 00:19:06.131 --> 00:19:06.954 You wanted to be. 00:19:08.245 --> 00:19:11.037 The Bible wants us to know the very sad truth. 00:19:12.037 --> 00:19:18.158 Joseph no longer identifies himself as is Hebrew, in the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, his father. 00:19:19.354 --> 00:19:24.540 Joseph thinks he is zephanath-paneah, a prime minister and a man created by Pharaoh. 00:19:25.758 --> 00:19:29.088 His job description, his advantage, his privilege has become his identity. 00:19:30.350 --> 00:19:34.972 The story of Joseph in Egypt has now become the story of Egypt and Joseph. 00:19:37.205 --> 00:19:44.562 Contrast this with Daniel and Esther, also also youths in royal service in foreign lands and poised next to the ruling king. 00:19:45.572 --> 00:19:53.273 Daniel, in direct violation of a newly dictated law meant to entrap him, prays, windows open for all the world to see, 00:19:53.642 --> 00:19:57.652 3 times a day facing Jerusalem where reside the Hebrew people. 00:19:58.631 --> 00:19:59.850 Daniel belongs to God. 00:19:59.914 --> 00:20:00.781 Let the whole world know. 00:20:01.502 --> 00:20:03.251 No one mistakes him for a Babylonian. 00:20:04.101 --> 00:20:06.861 Saved by God in the lion's den, he is hero hero to us. 00:20:07.600 --> 00:20:11.437 Hero for having identified as one of the people of God no matter the consequences. 00:20:12.256 --> 00:20:19.915 The 3 Hebrew children, friends of Daniel, resist the assimilation from the beginning by refusing to eat the king's meat while committing to 00:20:19.979 --> 00:20:21.232 work in the king's service. 00:20:22.163 --> 00:20:30.159 Esther 2, at the right moment, a heroic moment, when the whole empire is poised to slaughter the Hebrews, announces she is Hebrew. 00:20:31.379 --> 00:20:34.013 This is the brave this moment in the Scriptures. 00:20:34.612 --> 00:20:37.818 A member of the people of God, belonging to God. 00:20:38.984 --> 00:20:40.879 No one mistakes her for a Persian now. 00:20:42.562 --> 00:20:45.622 In doing so, she saves all the people of God that day. 00:20:46.367 --> 00:20:52.458 2,500 years later, the Jewish people gladly celebrate her heroism and God's deliverance. 00:20:53.821 --> 00:20:54.567 See the contrast? 00:20:55.703 --> 00:20:58.056 Daniel and Esther publicly identify as the people of God. 00:20:58.180 --> 00:21:01.818 A child of God belonging to God, Joseph assimilates. 00:21:02.974 --> 00:21:04.098 No one knows his identity. 00:21:05.398 --> 00:21:06.534 Has he himself forgotten? 00:21:08.300 --> 00:21:10.461 But God is good. 00:21:11.800 --> 00:21:19.624 With the appearance of his brothers, he eventually— takes a while— breaks down, reveals his identity to 00:21:19.721 --> 00:21:22.303 them, and eventually to his staff, family, and Pharaoh. 00:21:22.964 --> 00:21:29.016 With the appearance of his elderly father Jacob, he reestablishes his Hebrew ways and means. 00:21:29.731 --> 00:21:30.512 God is good. 00:21:32.323 --> 00:21:39.986 At the end of his life, the reigning prime minister of Egypt, Joseph, long the second most powerful man in the 00:21:39.986 --> 00:21:47.906 world, his name and the word Egypt having become identified, makes his heirs promise that he 00:21:47.970 --> 00:21:50.285 will not be buried in Egypt. 00:21:51.661 --> 00:21:56.584 Egypt, but in the land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 00:21:58.746 --> 00:22:06.609 During the Exodus from Egypt, 400 years later, crossing the parted Red Sea, the 00:22:06.609 --> 00:22:11.523 people of God carry the bones of Joseph home. 00:22:13.904 --> 00:22:15.545 Joseph leaves Egypt. 00:22:17.364 --> 00:22:20.878 Egypt has left Joseph. 00:22:21.314 --> 00:22:22.329 And that's the point of the sermon. 00:22:23.586 --> 00:22:24.747 It's not an easy thing to do. 00:22:25.630 --> 00:22:26.937 It requires heroism. 00:22:27.098 --> 00:22:32.068 I think we are, as Peter says, sojourners, temporary residents here. 00:22:32.988 --> 00:22:34.182 Our citizenship is in heaven. 00:22:34.940 --> 00:22:37.136 We have great responsibilities here, to be sure. 00:22:37.669 --> 00:22:41.608 Ask Joseph, Daniel, Esther, prime minister, chief civil servant, queen— never number one. 00:22:41.800 --> 00:22:47.023 one, two— never one, often two— always to be in service of another. 00:22:47.921 --> 00:22:52.376 Ask the prophet Jeremiah: seek the peace and prosperity of the city, he preaches. 00:22:52.872 --> 00:22:55.356 This one, this one for Jeremiah was Babylon. 00:22:55.452 --> 00:22:55.629 Really? 00:22:55.693 --> 00:22:57.183 That's the city I'm supposed to help out? 00:22:58.160 --> 00:23:00.772 Pray for the earthly city, the nation, and the empire. 00:23:00.901 --> 00:23:08.677 Whatever city you're in, ask the Apostle Paul: pray for the king, submit to authority, ask the Savior, render unto Caesar the things that 00:23:08.677 --> 00:23:12.567 belong to Caesar, and to God the things that belong to God. 00:23:12.631 --> 00:23:17.118 To be clear, time and toil, grit and gifts may be given to the king, 00:23:19.396 --> 00:23:20.555 but we do not give ourselves. 00:23:22.909 --> 00:23:23.689 We belong to God. 00:23:26.142 --> 00:23:27.603 Choose to serve in whatever career. 00:23:28.440 --> 00:23:36.256 Teach in the schools, practice law in the courts, invent in the labs, heal in the hospitals, join the Navy, run for election, elected office, accept the appointment, go to 00:23:36.256 --> 00:23:36.738 seminary. 00:23:36.786 --> 00:23:38.086 Apparently they admit just anyone. 00:23:38.568 --> 00:23:41.683 Be a skilled worker, be a leader of workers, work. 00:23:42.566 --> 00:23:43.867 My dad approves of that statement. 00:23:45.312 --> 00:23:48.989 Serve well, gladly, with every gift God gives you. 00:23:49.487 --> 00:23:51.702 Persist, pursue excellence. 00:23:53.003 --> 00:23:59.978 Choose to serve the city, in the city of God's choosing for you, and by doing so, serve its people and your God, 00:24:01.130 --> 00:24:03.760 but do not become the city. 00:24:04.961 --> 00:24:06.697 Your citizenship is not there. 00:24:07.750 --> 00:24:09.005 Do not assimilate to it. 00:24:09.649 --> 00:24:11.870 Do not identify with it or as it. 00:24:13.415 --> 00:24:14.349 This is a long lesson. 00:24:15.418 --> 00:24:17.012 Every day you make decisions about it. 00:24:17.801 --> 00:24:20.844 It may take a lifetime for any of us to perfect the learning of it. 00:24:21.826 --> 00:24:24.241 Joseph is early in the history of the people of God. 00:24:24.322 --> 00:24:25.774 We gotta— Give them that. 00:24:26.882 --> 00:24:28.182 Daniel and Esther, much later. 00:24:28.905 --> 00:24:31.843 In the early years, the pagan gods still influenced the Hebrews. 00:24:32.357 --> 00:24:34.524 Sometimes they yearned to go back to Egypt. 00:24:34.910 --> 00:24:37.672 Faith and faithfulness were new and still being formed. 00:24:38.217 --> 00:24:45.780 In the latter years, like with Daniel and Esther, monotheism is established, the law guides, faith and faithfulness are better formed. 00:24:47.193 --> 00:24:50.051 Daniel and Esther have Joseph as a cautionary tale. 00:24:50.115 --> 00:24:50.629 It helps them. 00:24:52.132 --> 00:24:52.958 It helps us now. 00:24:54.091 --> 00:24:59.970 It is difficult to avoid Joseph's error when young and on our way up. 00:25:01.150 --> 00:25:06.464 We grasp when faith and faithfulness are long known and practiced. 00:25:07.125 --> 00:25:10.736 We can better discern and devote ourselves as the people of God. 00:25:12.054 --> 00:25:17.155 The promise of the City of God becomes more powerful the closer we get to it. 00:25:18.830 --> 00:25:20.671 Age has some spiritual benefits. 00:25:21.942 --> 00:25:22.578 So in the meantime, 00:25:24.610 --> 00:25:26.547 tell these stories to your children. 00:25:27.693 --> 00:25:30.130 Tell them they are the people of God. 00:25:32.051 --> 00:25:35.891 To him and him alone do they belong. 00:25:37.570 --> 00:25:41.013 Retell these stories to yourself and each other. 00:25:42.401 --> 00:25:44.150 You are the people of God. 00:25:46.044 --> 00:25:47.486 We belong to God. 00:25:49.769 --> 00:25:52.151 Get into Egypt wholeheartedly. 00:25:53.933 --> 00:25:55.258 Get Egypt out of your heart. 00:25:57.020 --> 00:26:00.423 Every story in Genesis reminds us that we are east of Eden. 00:26:01.736 --> 00:26:03.940 Egypt is not the garden, it's not home. 00:26:05.233 --> 00:26:06.161 Another awaits. 00:26:07.268 --> 00:26:08.775 We so Sojourn toward it. 00:26:10.629 --> 00:26:15.030 Live your life in service to that city and those resident there. 00:26:16.790 --> 00:26:24.479 Identify as a resident of another city, which, as the Bible said, is not made with human hands, whose 00:26:24.609 --> 00:26:26.325 builder and architect is God. 00:26:28.253 --> 00:26:33.596 You will enter it when all the people of God are carried home. 00:26:37.311 --> 00:26:37.753 Let us pray. 00:26:43.180 --> 00:26:43.437 Teach us 00:26:46.693 --> 00:26:49.819 neither to doubt in the dark what we have seen in the light, 00:26:51.342 --> 00:26:54.254 or in the light what we have seen in the dark. 00:26:57.539 --> 00:26:58.086 Give us this 00:27:00.824 --> 00:27:01.483 that we know 00:27:03.395 --> 00:27:04.745 that we belong to you 00:27:09.180 --> 00:27:10.001 and seek no other.