"A FAILING FRIEND BUT A FAITHFUL FATHER"
Genesis 40:1-9
The Living Bible translates Hebrews 12:11, "Being punished isn’t enjoyable while it is happening—it hurts! But afterwards we can see the result, a quiet growth in grace and character" (Hebrews 12:11). How true! Especially if the pain is undeserved, the result of misunderstanding, false accusation, and wrong judgment!
Take Joseph for example. As a 17- year old teenager he has been sold into slavery, forced to learn a new language and lifestyle, accused of attempted rape, and now finally dumped into prison. On top of all that, even though he is a model prisoner and has deserved an early release…the one man who could have made possible his pardon promptly forgot him!
What Joseph experienced hurt and hurt very deeply! He learned that people will certainly fail us but God will always be faithful. That’s what I want us to see today—that people will certainly fail us but God is absolutely faithful.
Sometimes that failure may come from people we call our family. Just as Joseph’s brothers mistreated him, abused him and actually sold him as a slave so people in our family can fail us. It may be your own brother or sister that has turned on you and used you. It could be your own father or mother. You may have been abused as a child for no fault of your own. You may be the victim of a misunderstanding and you find yourself abandoned by the family who has raised you and at one time demonstrated love for you. You may be the victim of a divorce. You may have been left abandoned by that husband or wife to whom you pledged faithful devotion and life long commitment. Now, because of a breakdown somewhere, you live a broken and fragmented life. You were failed. In the same way Joseph was hurt and shamefully abused by those of his own flesh and blood you may be so today! It happens in almost every family!
At other times the failure or mistreatment may come from people over whom we have no control. Joseph was the victim of this very reality. After being abandoned by his brothers he was then bought and sold, lied about and imprisoned by people and things he couldn’t control. There was a system of justice but not for him. Many times we become the victim of circumstances and people that we think should work in our favor but they don’t!
Things like "the system". That nameless, faceless "thing" that is the way life is supposed to be. It may be your work, school, health care provider, church, legal system or some other area. You trusted the system to do what it was designed to do but instead of working for you it’s ruining you. You can’t control it! You can’t stop it. It just goes on and on. The system you feel you have served and should serve you now uses you and abuses you and you feel mistreated!
Or how about "the body": It could be some life-threatening health condition or disease. That disease that you can’t stop or control is ruining your life. The life that was to be yours to enjoy and live and delight in is just a joke because "the body" has failed you and you feel abused or mistreated! Perhaps it’s "the job" that is making more demands on you than you think you can bear. You feel that they are trying to break you or use you only to make more money. It’s out of your hands! Somewhere up the ladder is a nameless or named face that is mistreating you and it hurts!
There are many others that are potential places for nameless, faceless failures-"the team", "the class", "the church", "the staff" or "the youth group". Any or all of those are places where you expected to be served or helped but you were failed.
There’s one more place where Joseph was abused and failed with which we can identify. One more place that failure and hurt can come is from the untrue accusations made by others. Remember that Joseph is suffering under a moral charge made against him by the wife of his master that has no shred of truth. It’s a lie. Now, because someone believed the lie, he is hurt, failed, mistreated by someone who is beneath his character. Have you ever been the victim of slander or rumor? It has destroyed you and hurt you more than you ever imagined! Why? Because your character is something no one takes away from you except through slander. A slanderous lie hurts deeply because it strikes at your most precious possession: Your character and integrity! What is tragic is that we will believe a lie or innuendo without giving so much as a thought to the truth! When we insinuate a lie it can never be withdrawn. Even when a person may apologize for a lie that still doesn’t stop the power of the lie. A lie will go where an apology can never go! We cannot retract the damage done when slander, false accusation is at the root!
You see, the story of Joseph is not removed from us at all. He was failed by family, nameless individuals and tortured by a lie. We have felt the same but just when you think the story might take a turn in a positive direction Joseph’s situation only gets worse. He is failed once again.
Why was he there? Remember it was the result of a false accusation! What happened while he was in jail? We read in Gen.39:21-23 that the Lord gave him inner peace and favor in the sight of the chief jailer! Joseph’s response worked on two levels, vertically in his relationship with God and horizontally in his relationship to people.
Joseph’s response to God vertically is described in Gen.39:23, "The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him; and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper." While the fact that God is continuing to bless Joseph is good this is really poor compensation for what he has been through. Why couldn’t God have stopped the lie of Potiphar’s wife before she spoke it! Why couldn’t he have made Potiphar believe the truth based on Joseph’s past character? So what is the value? It’s this: Joseph had no idea whether this time of unfair imprisonment would have any bearing on his future or not. He could not have known if this "side trip" was a detour or destiny! All Joseph was doing was being faithful to God regardless of the task! Day by day without concern for his situation Joseph was faithful, though hurt by people and life.
The detour no doubt worked further patience in Joseph that he was going to need for his next trial. It may have also given him further knowledge about Pharoah and the ways of the Egyptians. For us it shows us that God honors daily constant obedience especially when we have been unfairly treated. We think we will be obedient to God in the great brilliant moments of our life when in reality we have very few, if any, shining moments. Jesus only had one—the transfiguration. What honors God the most is obedience in the drudgery. Regardless of the task, He honors daily, constant obedience even in the times when are hurt the deepest!
The jail experience also prepared him horizontally—for a person to person relationship (40:1-19). We read in Gen. 40:1-3 of an event that seems totally removed from the story. What is so fascinating about this is that what may seem to be a series of unrelated events are really part of God’s whole plan. Who would have thought that a mistake by the butler and the baker could be a tool in the hand of God preparing the way for Joseph’s deliverance.
This is a reminder that everything in our life has a meaning. We just don’t know what small event or circumstance could be the turning point in our life! This was true in Joseph’s life as he noticed the expression of the cupbearer and the baker one morning. Gen.40:4-8 recalls their conversation. Notice that in the conversation with these two that Joseph shows a willingness to interpret their dreams. How easy it would have been for him to have rejected their dreams because of the seeming failure of his own. Yet, probably because he still believed in his own dream, he was anxious to interpret theirs.
One writer says that Joseph’s conversation with the servants was, "one of those perilous moments when a man holds his fate in his hands and yet does not know that he is especially on trial, but has for his guidance and safe conduct through the hazard only the ordinary safeguards and lights by which he is framing his life. A man cannot be forewarned of trial, if the trial is to be a fair test of his habit of life!" Joseph’s simple act of kindness became the one thing that changed his fate.
As the days passed, Lill continued to ride and her father continued to ask about her job-hunting. The questions became more demanding, and Lill knew she would soon have to knock on a door. On one of her trips, Lill saw a sign at the Carhartt Overall Company in downtown Detroit. "Help Wanted," the sign said, "Secretarial. Apply Within." She walked up the long flight of stairs to the Carhartt Company offices. Cautiously, Lill knocked on her very first door. She was met by the office manager, Margaret Costello. In her broken English, Lill told her she was interested in the secretarial position, falsely stating that she was 19. Margaret knew something wasn't right, but decided to give the girl a chance. She guided Lill through the old business office of the Carhartt Company. With rows and rows of people seated at rows and rows of typewriters and adding machines, Lill felt as if a hundred pairs of eyes were staring at her. With her chin on her chest and her eyes staring down, the reluctant farm girl followed Margaret to the back of the somber room. Margaret sat her down at a typewriter and said, "Lill, let's see how good you really are." She directed Lill to type a single letter, and then left. Lill looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:40 a.m. Everyone would be leaving for lunch at noon. She figured that she could slip away in the crowd then. But she knew she should at least attempt the letter. On her first try, she got through one line. It had five words, and she made four mistakes. She pulled the paper out and threw it away. The clock now read 11:45. "At noon," she said to herself, "I'll move out with the crowd, and they will never see me again." On her second attempt, Lill got through a full paragraph, but still made many mistakes. Again she pulled out the paper, threw it out and started over. This time she completed the letter, but her work was still strewn with errors. She looked at the clock: 11:55 - five minutes to freedom. Just then, the door at one end of the office opened and Margaret walked in. She came directly over to Lill, putting one hand on the desk and the other on the girl's shoulder. She read the letter and paused. Then she said, "Lill, you're doing good work!" Lill was stunned. She looked at the letter, then up at Margaret. With those simple words of encouragement, her
desire to escape vanished and her confidence began to grow. She thought, "Well, if she thinks it's good, then it must be good. I think I'll stay!" Lill did stay at Carhartt Overall Company...for 51 years, through two world wars and a Depression, through 11 presidents and six prime ministers - all because someone had the insight to give a shy and uncertain young girl the gift of self-esteem when she knocked on the door.
Joseph shows himself to be a friend by showing interest in someone else even though he has been hurt time and again. God tests his character and faithfulness one more time! We have no idea sometime how the pain of our adversity can serve others. We assume that our suffering is solitary and of no value to anyone! When all the while our pain may be the healing needed for someone else. Because Joseph risked relationship rather than rejecting his two unfortunate cellmates, God used him in one more step to his freedom.
After Joseph’s interpretation of the cipbearer’s dream (Gen. 40:9-13) he had every reason to anticipate that he would be remembered by the cupbearer and hopefully released. His appeal for justice in Gen. 40:14-15 is the most human side of Joseph we have seen so far. The pain of his imprisonment caused him to place his hopes and trust in a man. We also can get so desperate in our own situation that we can also make a butler a god! We grasp at anything to get us out!
Joseph’s hopes were excited, and rightly so. He knew he would be getting out because the cupbearer would not forget him. After all he had done in comforting the man during his ordeal, after all the patience and understanding he has shown, the man would remember. But we read, "Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him". How many countless lives could this verse been written about? How many of you are like Joseph forgotten by the ones you had helped but now they have forgotten you! You trusted them, you know that everyone also might fail, but not them!
Joseph is used and then forgotten. What hurts is that his being abandoned did not come from an enemy but from someone he had helped and trusted. That same feeling was felt by David when he said in the Psalms, "Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me."… "If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God" (Psalm 41, Psalm 55).
How many of you is this your story? If it has been someone who you knew despised you it would
have been different, but this is a friend. Someone who knows intimate things about you and now has used you! There is no pain deeper!
Joseph abandonment was not brief but lengthy – two full years. We like to think that our agony will be over soon and they will see how wrong they were. Things will be righted. They will understand! It won’t last long! That may be you today—hurt by a friend and the situation still has never been righted! It hurts, doesn’t it?
What is the cause of our disillusionment? We have made the mistake in putting our complete hope and trust in other people. In doing so we forget that our friends are sinners just like we are. Thinking that a friend is always going to do what is right and believing that with all your heart is foolish! We forget this so quickly and then when a friend fails us we are hurt and bitter against them all of our life. We should know better than to think a friend will never fail us! They will! They may not mean to, or they may mean to, but regardless, you will be terribly disillusioned if you put your complete trust and hope in other people!
There is a cure for disillusioned relationships and it is this: Putting your complete hope and trust in the living Lord! Psalm 118:8-9 says, "It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes." Why take refuge in Him? Because He is faithful – He will not fail! Deuteronomy 7:9 says, "Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands." This is an act of faith!
God will not fail us! He is a faithful Father! It may take years! We will see soon that from Joseph’s capture to his freedom is over 12 years. Twelve years before God has him ready to be used! These two years of abandonment by men remind Joseph that only God can be trusted! Sure it takes a long time for the plans of God to be accomplished—but not one of His promises has failed.
Later Joseph will say to the brothers that abandoned him, "God sent me before you to preserve life." In all of this there was another faithful hand moving life along a certain course and purpose! Place your complete hope and trust in God – He will not fail!
Conclusion:
Billy Graham's daughter Anne Graham Lotz tells in her book "Visions of His Glory" of a man she met in a country that is hostile to the gospel. She calls him "Professor Hill" but that's not his real name: "[Many years ago] he was serving on the staff of a church when he was turned in to the authorities by another staff member for preaching the gospel. He was imprisoned for 25 years, much of it in solitary confinement. During his imprisonment, the manuscript of the New Testament commentary that had been his life's work was seized and destroyed. When he was finally released from prison, the authorities declared him a `nonperson,' which meant it was impossible for him to find a job. He was effectively stripped of everything and lived in poverty. His testimony, as well as his life, seemed insignificant.
"Then the same church where Professor Hill had previously served and been betrayed reluctantly invited him to come back on staff because he was the only one the church could find who knew Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and English as well as his native language. The professor agreed, and when I had the privilege of meeting him 15 years later, he was still serving in that church alongside the same staff member who had turned him in to the authorities 40 years earlier!
"I looked at Professor Hill and knew I was seeing someone who had been afflicted, who was poor, who had been slandered by the religious community--yet he was rich! The smile on his face went from ear to ear! His eyes sparkled with the joy of the Lord! He told me of the peace in his heart, of his renewed sense of purpose in ministry, of the fresh vision he had for reaching his people for Christ! He was committed to being faithful to Christ, even unto death!" How was he able to respond this way? Because he knew his Father was faithful.
David wrote in the Psalms, "For it is not an enemy who reproaches me, then I could bear it; nor is it one who hates me who has exalted himself against me, Then I could hide myself from him. But it is you, a man my equal, my companion and my familiar friend, or a person you though you could trust." Does that say what you feel today? Have you been on the receiving end of a failing friend? Why not turn your bitter disillusionment over to a faithful Father? He has said, "I will never leave you or forsake you."
Sunday, September 12, 1999
Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Jonesboro, Arkansas