June 21st, 2020 Sermon. Grace, Benson, and Grace, Vail. Genesis 37. The Sun Bows Down. The only 2 things you can take with you after this life is over are: relationships you have invested in; and the character that you yourself possess. This is true both as a great potential for lasting relationships and character, or the lack of relationships that last, aloneness and bitterness; combined with a flawed, warped, perverted character which has to still be endured for all eternity. This is what is at stake in the day to day seemingly benign events and decisions and actions and attitudes that shape our relationships and our characters. Today we consider a story of a family in which relationship formation and personal character formation were in danger of going very wrong. This is the story of a family. A unique family, every family is unique. If we all spent time talking to each other about the family we grew up in, there would be plenty of good and bad. And sometimes the bad seems to be more powerful than the good. If you think your family is messed up, and beyond God’s ability to help and use anything in your family for good; just let me tell you about Jacob’s family. One father, Jacob. He wanted one wife, he ended up with 2. After his favored wife could not bear children and his unfavored wife could, he ended up with 4 mothers for his 13 children. And when the 13th child was born, the one mother out of the 4 that he really loved died in childbirth. So, 13 children, 4 mothers, 1 deceased, 2 wives, but down to 1. The opportunity for rivalry and argumentation and strife was ripe, and affected the family. It started with Jacob’s favoritism. Israel, also called Jacob, loved Joseph more than his other children, because he was the firstborn son of his favored wife Rachel. Is that ok to love one child more than others? No it’s not. It’s natural to love your children in different ways, it takes a different shape and form based on how unique each child is; but to say and to operate saying, “I love this one more,” is wrong. With Jacob, it wasn’t even something he tried to hide. Not just an internal affection for Joseph, he made outward signs of his favoritism with the robe. Jacob was blind to the way his favoritism was poisoning his family, dividing them. Not just harming his others sons, bit no help for Joseph either. Jacob was in danger of favoritism ruining his character and relationships. Joseph was only 17, so we can’t totally assign fault and blame with him. But what’s very likely to happen to a 17-year-old who wear’s more elaborate clothing as a clear sign of a father’s favoritism, and then brings bad reports about his older brothers to his father? He probably should have known better. When he had those dreams of sheaves of grain bowing down to him, it might have been wise not to broadcast that to his brothers. And when the next dream of the sun, moon, and stars bowing down to him, that’s clearly implying superiority, for a 17-year-old among grown men. Again, we can’t say he was guilty of sin necessarily, but the way the story is told implies that his relationships and character was in danger of being puffed up with pride. But if there is clear wrong and clear guilt to assign in the story, it is in the 10 brothers. They hated their brother and could not speak a kind word to him. That is clearly not ok. Hatred is never justified. Their hatred said more about their internal workings and less about their brother or father. They became resentful against what seemed like an unfair situation. They allowed their resentment to be someone else’s fault not their own. Later it would turn murderous and dangerous and violent and love-less. The rest of the story goes that after considering murdering Joseph, they instead sold him as a slave and lied to their father and told him a wild animal had killed Joseph. They allowed their resentment to produce horrible actions and lies. Their relationship didn’t get better, and their character was in danger as well. Now at this point, I want to ask a question: Why did God allow this all to happen? For example: why allow the dream to come to a young man who was not mature enough to know what to do with
it? And with such an overt message, their sheaves gather around and bow down to yours. And then even the sun, moon and stars bow down. Can you just see Joseph, wearing his special robe, the brothers think, here he comes again, the tattletale, the favorite? And Joseph naively thinks he can just share that kind of dream and not get an incredibly negative reaction. Why not include in the dream, by the way Joseph, don’t mention this to your brothers, they will only hate you more. And maybe don’t flaunt your robe, and maybe even talk to your dad about his favoritism. And try to see the good in your brothers even though they aren’t kind to you. None of that. Instead, the dreams came, and almost like Joseph going to his brothers and pouring gas on the fire of their anger, until it would flare up and burn him and take away everything he held dear. Why would God allow any of this? A few reasons. First, Joseph, as well as his father and brothers, needed character formation, and relationship rescue. Quick version of the rest of the story. After being sold into slavery by his brothers, Joseph was later falsely accused by his slave master’s wife and ended up in prison though innocent. Terrible thing to go through. Even later, though, he ended up helping the King of Egypt, Pharaoh, most powerful man in the world; and as a result Joseph was made 2nd most powerful man in the entire world. He predicted a 7-year famine, prepared ahead of time for it, and when the famine hit, Joseph’s 10 brothers came to Egypt to get food. He tested them, but ultimately forgave them. And his brothers and father came and lived with him in Egypt. Joseph near the end of his life looked back at it all and said to his brothers, what you did, selling me into slavery, you meant for evil; but God meant it for good. So much good came out of the evil intentions of his brothers. Not only the saving of an entire nation and major segment of the world’s population would from massive prolonged famine; but the healing of Joseph’s pride. He had all the power in the world to punish his brothers, instead he forgave them, welcomed them, shared his prosperity with them. It was the mercy of God that allowed a series of events to unfold which saved Joseph from pride, it wasn’t easy for him at all in slavery and prison. But God led him to a place where his character was refined by suffering, where his relationships were cleansed of the poison of pride. In mercy, God allowed a series of events to unfold in which Joseph’s 10 older brothers, men who would be leaders of families and tribes with so much potential for good or bad to come from their leadership, he allowed the events to unfold that would lead them to humility, repentance, a knowledge and admission of just how wicked and evil they had been, and a desire to have that sin forgiven. They would become much better leaders and men of God as a result, though they had to carry around a heavy load of guilt to get there. In mercy God allowed a series of events to unfold which would allow Jacob to go from a father blind to how his favoritism was poisoning his family, God took the favored son away, so that the poison of favoritism could go with it. And the price for Jacob was heavy deep grief, he thought his son was dead, for anyone who’s been through that, there is almost nothing worse than that grief. Jacob went through it for a time, but in the end God gave his son back to him, and his family would later be united, but the poison of favoritism would not be an issue, and Jacob was saved from his poor leadership ruining his family and was gifted a greater version of the family he actually wanted. And by the way, the dream did come true. When his brothers came to Egypt and did not recognize Joseph though he recognized them, they bowed down to him. Only now it was safe to do so, because his character had been crafted through those years of hardship into a person who could handle brothers bowing down to them without using that power to harm, but to love and forgive.
One more result of the dream and the series of events that unfolded as a result: God was also arranging people groups to fit his grand design of crafting a people that many years later would birth the savior of the world, Jesus. This is how the people of Israel ended up in Egypt, so that God could rescue them out, and make them his own special people, that they would bear the promise and birth the savior who would rescue not only one family, but all families from things like favoritism, pride, resentment. It was part of the plan that has resulted in you being born in your time and place and be able to hear about a source of relational healing and positive character development which can last forever. It all works together. Time to apply the dream story and the larger story to ourselves. First we need to answer hard questions. Where have you displayed favoritism? Are you willing to own that, and apologize to the favored and to the unfavored? To at the least own up to it, and then also to try to make it right as much as you can? Are you able to be humbled and eyes opened to your blindness to the ways you’ve mistreated people? Where have you been prideful like Joseph? Are you willing to accept that a large portion of the hardship that God allows in your life is necessary because without it, you’d go off the deep end of selfpromotion and self-exaltation? Are you willing to admit, those who God loves, he humbles? Those he loves, he disciplines, and discipline is not pleasant at the time, but later it produces a harvest of righteousness? Can you say to God, whatever you think necessary to allow into my life, I can face with confidence that you are a loving father? Where have you been resentful like the brothers? How can you get honest with yourself and admit, the real problem is not the other person, or the structure of reality itself, or God; the real problem is you are not able to handle the fact that other people will be comparatively more successful in some domains of competence than you, and that’s ok. How can you admit that the dangers of pride, favoritism, and resentment threaten to ruin your relationships and character like Joseph’s family? Now God invites you to let go of pride, favoritism, and fear. But we now it’s not that easy. We struggle to let go even when we know it’s damaging us. So what power can we find to help us? The only power to overcome these dangers is the other son God sent who endured hardship unspeakable in order to rescue a family from the poison of sin and resentment. God sent another son ahead of his family to rescue from a famine that would utterly starve the rest of the group. In Joseph we see a preview of Christ. The famine Jesus rescues from is the eternal hunger for meaning and identity that will be endured by all who spend eternity in hell. The cost was not 17 years of slavery and imprisonment; the cost was to experience a version of hell itself when nailed to a cross. What put Jesus there was a combination of the eternal plans of God to rescue his eternal family. But also was the resentment and hatred of a portion of his own family. Judas betrayed him, like Joseph’s brothers sold him. His own people rejected him. When Joseph shared the dream of the sun bowing, he didn’t recognize, he was signing his own slavery papers. The brothers were responsible, but his dream played a key role. When Jesus would share his true identity, he knew that he was signing his own death papers. Jesus didn’t come right out like Joseph did and say the sun will bow down to be. But Jesus hinted at it. Whenever Jesus hinted at his true identity, it caused his enemies to hate him so much they put him to death. But that is why Jesus came. Not to be a God who says, you all need to go through suffering to refine your character, but I’m untouchable when it comes to suffering. In Jesus God became able to suffer, willing and wanting to suffer not just a comparable version of hardship, but the very worst kind of suffering ever endured by a human. Take what happened to Joseph, the grief endured by
Jacob, the guilt felt by the brothers, then add all the family strife and innocent suffering and guilt ridden consciences; all the pride, resentment, and blind favoritism ever committed by every person. That’s what Jesus endured. And yet, he came out of it all, sparkling like gold. With relational healing that this world cannot match. With a character development tool which the wisest of this world will never come close to duplicating. Jesus is the reconciler of all reconcilers. Even people like the 10 brothers, like favoritist Jacob, like prideful young Joseph, they are right now are right now living with Jesus, one day their bodies will rise; and they’ll live forever as a perfect family. You can include your family in this as well. Even the mother who you feel was cold or vindictive. Even a father who did unforgivable things to you; even a brother or sister who sold you for a price, such a person has forgiveness available in Christ. That does not diminish the wrong done to you, but it does provide a place where it can be actually dealt with. And for you, if you are a father who knows you’ve done wrong, if you’re a sister or brother who regularly regrets the way you treated a sibling or tore them down with your words; Jesus is a relationship healer. It starts with you being reminded that he reintroduces you to his father and your father, healing your broken relationship with God. But then that relational healing extends to be available to affect healing in human relationships. You may not get to the place where Jacob and his brothers did, not in this life. But let me say this; think of the person who you have been hurt by the most. Then think of the person you have hurt the most. If you 3 end up in heaven; you will look back and say: “God has worked together all things, all thing for good. This is a good place to be.” And the joy you have will surpass the joy of Joseph and his brothers. That’s what Jesus is able to do. Second of all, Jesus’ willingness to be sold into death for you, to go there for you; along with his ability to rise again victorious means you have a place to take your pride, resentment, favoritism; and not only find forgiveness, but healing. In place of resentment, Jesus produces love. In place of favoritism and pride, he produces humility and a desire to help others. Your character will shine for all eternity because of the character of Christ which is yours now through faith, and one day will become even more fully an expression of who you are. He typically accomplishes this character transformation involving suffering like Jesus, like Joseph. Remember an ounce of sin will harm you infinitely more than a thousand pounds of suffering. Jesus is proof of that. When you suffer, when you’re dreams cause problems in the moment, remember, God is always to be trusted, and if he’s trusted part of that is to obey him. Do not let hardship convince you it’s ok to be resentful, prideful, favoritistic. Instead ask him to make you humble like Christ. Happy for the success of others, no favoritism at all but instead taking the words and actions of others in the kindest possible way. Finally; your dreams will come true. Every one of them. Even the ones that you’ve given up on. Joseph had to wonder as he stood on the slave sale block; what in the world was with that dream. There’s no way the sun will ever bow to me. He had to wonder as he waited in prison, why did I ever have that dream. But in his time, God allowed the dream to come true. For you it may not be in this life that God makes some dreams come true. But in Jesus, every good desire will find fulfilment. He can repay in full everything that you feel has been taken from you in this life, he will give you what you’ve always desired and even more. What could be better than the sun bowing down to you? How about this; hearing Jesus say, well done, my servant, my friend. Come enjoy your place in my kingdom. The deepest dream that God has planted in your soul will come true.