The Life of Joseph
Genesis 39:19-40:23
God hasn’t Forgotten
This summer we are studying the Life of Joseph
Joseph lived 4000 years ago
Abraham – Had a child through his with Sarah – Isaac
Isaac – had a son through his wife Rebecca – Jacob
Jacob – had 12 sons – one of them was Joseph by his wife Rachel
Rachel was Jacob’s true love but it was only after Jacob had 12 other children that Joseph was born
Joseph was loved by his father – favorite son
Joseph had dreams about what God was going to do in the future
His dreams revealed that at some point in the future Joseph would rule over his family.
That didn’t sit well with Joseph’s 10 older brothers
Jacob makes Joseph this fancy coat
That didn’t sit well with the brothers
They HATED him
One day – Jacob sent Joseph off on a journey to check on the brothers and the flocks.
When the 10 brothers saw Joseph coming towards them they decided to kill Joseph
The oldest brother, Rueben, was against the idea and persuaded the brothers to throw Joseph in an old abandoned well
Rueben was going to sneak back and rescue Joseph
While Rueben was away taking his turn watching after the flocks the brothers spot a group of Ishmaelite traders traveling from the N on their way to Egypt
The 9 brothers decide to sell Joseph to the traders who were always buying slaves to sell in Egypt
They agree and they sell Joseph to the band of traders
When Joseph arrives in Egypt and is taken to the slave trade he is bought by Potiphar
Potiphar was the 2nd most powerful man in all of Egypt.
The only one more powerful was the emperor – Pharaoh
Joseph faithfully serves as a slave and it is apparent to everyone around that God’s hand is upon Joseph
Because of Joseph God begins to bless Potiphar and all of his dealings
God blesses everything in Potiphar’s house and business
Eventually Potiphar makes Joseph the manager of all his affairs
God blesses Potiphar even more
The story takes a twist
Joseph was handsome, built and talented
Mrs. Potiphar began to take notice of Joseph – he was something that she didn’t have and she wanted
She began to try to seduce Joseph
Day after day after day – she entices him to sleep with her
Day after day after day – Joseph kept rejecting her
One day when no one else was in the house – she grabbed Joseph in an attempt to seduce him
Joseph does the right thing – he runs
Mrs. Potiphar has a tight hold on his cloak and Joseph leaves without it
Mrs. Potiphar has Joseph’s cloak
When Mrs. Potiphar realized what had happened and the situation she was now in
She blamed Joseph and accused him of rape
When Mrs. Potiphar told her husband what had happened Potiphar was angry with Joseph
Potiphar threw Joseph in prison
That is where we find Joseph
Live in the moment
You need to live in the moment.
Don’t spend your life in the past or the future – live in the moment
Google search of that phrase – 833,000,000 hits
Very first list is: How to Live in the Moment: 11 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow
Don’t get stuck on the past
Don’t worry about the future
Live for right now – you don’t want to miss today
To live in the moment means being present, conscious and aware of the present with all of your senses. – Urban Dictionary
“Living in the moment means letting go of the past and not waiting for the future. It means living your life consciously, aware that each moment you breathe is a gift.” Oprah Winfrey
Living ‘in the moment’ is best illustrated by the Costco way of life
Better buy it now, it wasn’t here last time and it most likely won’t be here next time I come.
Too often ‘Live in the moment’ is a mindset that gives people permission to do whatever they want to do
‘Live in the moment’ was not how Joseph saw life.
If Joseph was a ‘live in the moment’ man he would have jumped in bed with Mrs. Potiphar
No one will know --- She’s the boss --- This might help me get to where I’m destined.
He easily could have taken the - Proverbial – ‘Casting Couch’ – trading sexual favors for roles/parts – that is part of the Hollywood culture
Joseph was convinced that there was something else going on
God had given him a dream.
God had something in store for him.
What was happening to him – though difficult – was part of something God was doing.
God’s blessing was on his life – he was not going to risk that blessing for him and for those that he worked for
What, for a brief fling?
To live in the moment - without any thought to the future and future generations – is not how God planned for life to be lived.
Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. Before long, the warden put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners and over everything that happened in the prison. The warden had no more worries, because Joseph took care of everything. The Lord was with him and caused everything he did to succeed.
Some time later, Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer and chief baker offended their royal master. Pharaoh became angry with these two officials, and he put them in the prison where Joseph was, in the palace of the captain of the guard. They remained in prison for quite some time, and the captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, who looked after them.
While they were in prison, Pharaoh’s cup-bearer and baker each had a dream one night, and each dream had its own meaning. When Joseph saw them the next morning, he noticed that they both looked upset. “Why do you look so worried today?” he asked them.
And they replied, “We both had dreams last night, but no one can tell us what they mean.”
“Interpreting dreams is God’s business,” Joseph replied. “Go ahead and tell me your dreams.”
So the chief cup-bearer told Joseph his dream first. “In my dream,” he said, “I saw a grapevine in front of me. The vine had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon it produced clusters of ripe grapes. I was holding Pharaoh’s wine cup in my hand, so I took a cluster of grapes and squeezed the juice into the cup. Then I placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”
“This is what the dream means,” Joseph said. “The three branches represent three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift you up and restore you to your position as his chief cup-bearer. And please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place. For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison, but I did nothing to deserve it.”
When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given the first dream such a positive interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I had a dream, too. In my dream there were three baskets of white pastries stacked on my head. The top basket contained all kinds of pastries for Pharaoh, but the birds came and ate them from the basket on my head.”
“This is what the dream means,” Joseph told him. “The three baskets also represent three days. Three days from now Pharaoh will lift you up and impale your body on a pole. Then birds will come and peck away at your flesh.”
Pharaoh’s birthday came three days later, and he prepared a banquet for all his officials and staff. He summoned his chief cup-bearer and chief baker to join the other officials. He then restored the chief cup-bearer to his former position, so he could again hand Pharaoh his cup. But Pharaoh impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had predicted when he interpreted his dream. Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought. Genesis 39:19- 40:23 (NLT)
Now Joseph and Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker are all in the Palace Prison
Prisons were rare in the ancient world.
There is no record among the Hebrews of prisons.
There is no archeological evidence of a Hebrew prison
There was no provision made in Hebrew law – OT - for prisons.
If someone murdered someone they were to be executed.
If someone committed manslaughter – accident – they were to flee to a ‘City of Refuge’
Ultimately in ancient cultures people were either executed or paid a penalty for their crime (Eye for an Eye)
Egypt was one of the few nations in the ancient Near East that had prisons.
The main prison that Joseph was held in was called the ‘place of confinement.’
It was divided into two parts
Cell block – more like a modern prison – Maximum security – Every prisoner had separate areas
Barracks – dormitory type area – Minimum security – workers for the government projects
Prisoners in the Barracks were either their awaiting execution or they had been given a life sentence
At some point during Joseph’s days in prison the warden began to take notice of Joseph
Just like in Potiphar’s house – Joseph is given a certain amount of freedom and responsibility
Some scholars suggest that Joseph was given increased responsibility because Potiphar had mentioned Joseph to him.
Joseph was in Potiphar’s prison
Potiphar was the head of the palace guard and the chief executioner
The warden began to give responsibility to Joseph
Joseph proved trustworthy with his responsibilities and was given more responsibilities
Ultimately Joseph has no one over him except the warden
He was given responsibility over the entire prison
When Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker offended Pharaoh they were thrown into the same prison
The cupbearer and baker were part of Pharaoh’s immediate staff
We don’t know what they did to make Pharaoh mad.
It is possible that they were accused of some sort of a conspiracy
We don’t know how long that they were in prison
May be they were in prison only long enough for the charges to be investigated.
Whatever crime was they were put into the prison in the palace
They are not to be taken care of by just anyone in the prison.
They are put in the care of Joseph by … Potiphar
The cupbearer
The cupbearer’s job was sample everything that Pharaoh would drink and eat
If the cupbearer got sick and/or died – then a plot was a foot.
The baker
The baker’s job was to oversee all of the food given to the king
The cupbearer and the baker go to bed one night
The next morning Joseph notices that the cupbearer and the baker are both upset by something.
By this time Joseph had been around the two of them long enough to notice that something was wrong
He asked them about what they were upset about
During the night they had dreams during the night
In antiquity dreams were believed to be from contact with the spirit world
Once someone went to sleep their spirit contacted/met with spirits who told them about the future
One of the reasons for sleep was to contact the spirit world
Guilds of interpreters, who studied and specialized in the dream books, would interpret a person’s dreams.
Every king had his own private guild – ‘wisemen’ – who were the king’s specialists at interpreting dreams.
Since the cupbearer and the baker were in prison they had no access to the ‘wisemen’ that they were so used to working with.
Each of them had been sent a message from the spirit world via their dreams and they had no one in prison to interpret their dreams.
Joseph answers with simple conviction that interpreting dreams was not up to ‘wisemen’ but that it God’s business
He simply states: Interpreting dreams is God’s business
They each tell Joseph their dream
Joseph interprets their dreams
Joseph’s interpretation was that in 3 days their fate would be determined.
The cupbearer is told that he would be restored to his position of responsibility
The baker is told that he would be executed
Three days later, on Pharaoh’s birthday, Pharaoh summons the cupbearer and the baker to the palace
Just as Joseph had interpreted the dreams
The cupbearer is restored to his position in Pharaoh’s inner circle
The baker was executed
When Joseph interpreted the dream of the cupbearer he asked the cupbearer to remember him when he was put back in his position in Pharaoh’s cabinet
The record says: Pharaoh then restored the chief cup-bearer to his former position, so he could again hand Pharaoh his cup. But Pharaoh impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had predicted when he interpreted his dream. Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.
The cup-bearer forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.
This is the line that I’ve been thinking about …
The cup-bearer forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.
The position that Joseph found himself in isn’t all that uncommon.
I would be willing to bet that there are a number of people in this room that have at times felt like they had been forgotten
Work hard, do what is required of you, have a good attitude
Someone else gets to start the game
Someone else gets the attention
Someone else gets the promotion - position
Have you ever had that feeling?