Betrayal: The Bitter Sting of Joseph's Painful Providence

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0:28Father, you have slain many in this room today and they feel it. And the ones who know you by faith in your son and what he suffered on their behalf for their sins, know that it was a stroke of love toward you because it was a stroke of justice on him. And I pray that those who don't know that great transaction this morning would know it before the service is over. And I pray that those who do know it and aren't worshiping right now, who aren't feeling the joy of it, would be there before the final word is preached, before the final anthem or hym is sung. And I ask you to help me to that end now in Jesus great matchless merciful name, amen.

1:19For weeks now we've been seeing God's covenant promises march straight through the Book of Genesis, in the face of treachery and deceit, dysfunction, favoritism, moral failure, a threat of murder, even an act of murder. Now here in Genesis 37, God's promise of land in Canaan verse one, and God's promised seed to Abraham through the generations of Jacob. Verse two, appears to face the most jeopardizing threat, yet There is a conspiracy to murder among the sons of Israel against one of their own brothers. Verse verses 18 through 24, When these brothers saw Joseph from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death, they said to one another, here comes this dreamer.

2:29Now then come and let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits and we will say a wild beast devoured him then let us see what will become of his dreams. But Ruben heard this and rescued him out of their hands and said, let us not take his life. Ruben father said to them, shed no blood, throw him into this pit that is in the wilderness, but do not lay hands on him that he might rescue him. That is Joseph out of their hands to restore him to his father.

3:04So it came about when Joseph reached the brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the very colored tunic that was on him, and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty without any water in it. I wonder if we're in a habit of pausing and just sort of hovering over this text. I think our habit is more to just jump straight over it and get to the end of the account where we see the mighty hand of God exalting Joseph to the right hand of Pharaoh. But I wanna ask you to just pause for a second here this morning, hover over this text with me. Look at the absolute horror in Jacob's face. Feel.

3:48Feel his surreal shock. Listen to the cry of desperation ringing out from his voice for a moment. And we don't have to imagine all of this we're helped on it to some degree. When we go to Genesis 42, 21 years later after Ja, Joseph was raised to power and before he'd revealed this to his brothers, his brothers in his presence make this admission. Truly, we are guilty concerning our brother because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us. Yet we would not listen.

4:28I think you would agree with me that the bitter sting of bet betrayal is unique in that it, it assumes some measure of intimacy in, in an established relationship beforehand. It assumes that those who are now coming against you were formerly on your side or at least appeared to be on your side. And I'm gonna assume that more than one of you in this room right now is living with that bitter sting. In fact, there may be some of you here this morning that have been living with years of a bitter sting delivered against you by your own father.

5:09And if that's the case, I know that Father's Day can compound the bitterness of that sting. And let me just be among the first to say that whatever your dad may have done to disorder God's good design toward you is not your fault. And I'm terribly sorry that it happened to you. I also realized that Joseph isn't the other, the only one in this text that was betrayed. The sons of Israel also betrayed, undermined, and betrayed their own father. He just didn't know it. After verse 31 says, they took Joseph tunic and slaughtered a male goat and and dipped the tunic in the blood verses 32 through 35 say.

6:02And they sent the very colored tunic and brought it to their father and said, we found this. Please examine it to see whether it is your son's tunic or not. Then he examined it and said, it is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces. So Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourn for his son many days then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. A statement speaks to pain so deep, no human consolation can touch it. It shows up in Jeremiah's prophecy about the coming invasion of of Babylon against Judah and 5 86 BC and their deportation.

6:45And it's culminated in the slaughter of innocence in Matthew two. And here Jacob is feeling some of that same pain. And he said, surely I will go down to shale in mourning for my son. So his father wept for him. Please understand this morning it's not lost on me that some of you dads sitting here coming under the word of God to seek consolation or living with broken hearted losses over your children That just sort of sit, the pain of it just sort of sits on your heart like a dull ache and do what you may, it just remains. Pray, read, gather with God's people it lives on. I understand that, and I know Father's Day may be difficult for you and I'm sorry, but we're not without help.

7:51I think Genesis 37 on some level comes to the rescue first of all by warning us about the pathway that comes from nursing. A wound like this with bitterness and self pity in the very sons of Israel, recorded for us in Genesis 37, 1 through 11. And it seeks to rescue us from that by holding out the childlike faith opportunity, the faith that can be had, or the opportunity that can be had by a childlike faith to throw yourself at the mercies of God to bow before the wonder of his sovereign providence and prerogative. And so that's how I see this text breaking up into two halves, the bitter hatred of the sons of Israel in verses one through 11, warning us about that path.

8:57And then in verse 12 and following the imitation to come and bow before the wonder of our god's sovereign providence in prerogative. So here we are in Genesis 37, verses one and two. All of the dysfunction and favoritism that has been passed down through the generations is now completely exponential and, uh, the family of Jacob and has been for a while. This text, however comes and spotlights for us the favoritism in a massive way. Notice that Joseph here has pointed out to be 17 years old. That's a clue that Benjamin was still too young to be with his brothers pastoring the flock. Some estimate he might have been as young as 1-year-old, but nevertheless, the text more or less assumes that he was home with his father.

10:02And it sets the tone for the whole text here and what follows when verse two talks about the brothers, Joseph's brothers, along with the sons of Bil ha and the sons of Zpa. It is referring to Leah's sons, not Rachel's. So that what you have at the very onset of this text is Joseph framed as the youngest of all of his shepherding brothers pastoring the flocks, while at the same time being the very oldest son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel.

10:48Verse three instantly confirms this and gives us the reason behind it confirms that is Jacob's favoritism towards Joseph in the biggest broadcasted way. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was the son of his old age. And if you wanna look and see how obvious it was, clue number one, he enlisted him to be sort of the name taker there. That comes through in verse two to bring back a bad report a about his brothers, which you've already seen pastoring in the flock we're all older than him. That isn't set very well. But then beyond that, and even more obvious evidence to everyone around Jacob was in verse three where we're told he made a multicolored tunic for Joseph, typically this tunic would've been very expensive because the process of of dying deep colors into wool so that in the, in the wintertime it would hold in the warmth was very tedious and therefore expensive and, and often a symbol of nobility.

11:56And guess what? Verse four, Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than them. They saw it. And if your dad played favorites when you were a child, I'm guessing you saw it also, Hey, hey, dads fathers Beware, Beware of favoritism. It's usually more subtle than this. And oftentimes your children are perceptive and they'll detect it even before you know you're doing it. What this text shows us is that it takes something way less than the the bitter sting of, of Joseph's betrayal to leave a wound on the heart of a child, young or old. And if you were wounded by your dad's favoritism as a child, look, that's legitimate.

12:59That's real pain. And you don't have to be ashamed of it. But at the same time, let me, let me warn you this morning, the moment you or I begin to nurse a wound with self-pity, victimization, and bitterness, we risk the self-inflicted consequences of our own sin, not our dads. Look back at the text here in verse four, when, when Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than them, this wasn't, this wasn't only an or the organ organic eyesight of the, uh, physical eyeball. This allows for the internal perception and intent gaze of the heart. And I, I think it holds out a warning for us that what happens in these moments naturally is a rewinding of the game film, so to speak, playing the, the wound and injury of the soul over and over in the mind Until before you know it, this wound in the heart becomes a secret conversation you're having with yourself about how badly your dad wounded you or anyone else for that matter.

14:29It takes you down a path that begins to be so preoccupied with others offenses against you. You become desensitized to your offenses against God. And then if you stay on that track long enough, this, this churning of self pity by the, the, the wound delivered against you. So that, so that it begins to create bitterness in the soul eventually boils over into blame shifting. And that blame shifting once it's chased, after long enough rises to the level of retaliation and revenge even against people who have not legitimately wronged you. And even if it takes force to get there, look, in verse four, Joseph's brothers saw that their father loved him more than them.

15:29And look how the verse ends. And they hated him and could not speak shalom, literally is what it says to them. Could not speak to him on friendly terms, but they didn't give him the silent treatment. They just couldn't interact with him. They couldn't speak to him with authentic warm affections. This is how God is diagnosing the situation. This is his standard.

16:05And so you look at the text, you, you might at first blush think Joseph had committed some kind of wrongs against him. But I submit to you there's no evidence anywhere in this text, at least regarding this scene, that Joseph, Joseph wronged them at all. Yes, he's bringing back a bad report about them, but has that sin if your father's commanded you to do it. And it seems to be that was Jacob's custom down in verses 12 through 14 when he sends Joseph to his brothers at Shechem. He says, he says, are not your brothers pastoring the flock in Shechem? Come and I'll send you to them. And he said to him, I'll go then he said to him, go now and see about the welfare of your brothers and the welfare of the flock and bring word back to me.

16:54And isn't this interesting? Joseph's brothers were so embittered toward him that they couldn't speak shalom to him. But then in the Hebrew construction, using the same Old Testament idea of Shalom, Joseph inconveniences himself more than 60 miles by the time he goes to Shechem and onda them to verify their shalom. Notice beyond this, in the dreams of Joseph verses five through 11 here, how the churning bitterness boiling over and blame shifting is now rising to a whole new level. It's coming to a place of super concentrate immensely intensified Joseph here. He, he has, he has two dreams and they both are communicating the same interpretation that his own family, his entire family are going to bow down to him once he's raised up.

17:53The first one is done with sheaves of wheat and the interpretation is clear to his brothers. They say, are you actually going to reign over us? Are you really going to rule over us, Russ? And the second one depicts the sun, the moon and 11 stars corresponding with Joseph's dad and mom and 11 brothers. The significance of of this repetition is noted for us by Joseph himself. Later when he engages Pharaoh in Genesis chapter 41, verse 32 there, Joseph understood somehow God made it plain to him in this scenario, in in this situation in his day, that the repetition of the same interpretation of of two different dreams is an indication that the matter has been determined by God.

18:54And yet, look at how these brothers are responding against Joseph when he told them his dream. In verse five, that verse says that they hated him even more. And verse eight goes on to say, after hearing this dream that they hated him even more for his dreams and his words, they hated him for the content of his dream. And they hated him for the interpretation of the content. Even though I think the text is calling us to assume that his interpretation is from God and Jacob tell, tell, uh, Joseph tells us that later and it comes to pass. So look at how this is operating, this whole scene to expose the fast track of all of this bitterness in them.

19:44These guys in verse 11 now are just spring loaded to avenge themselves against their brother Jacob. First rebukes Joseph, understandably, this all seems too preposterous to be of God. And yet in verse 11, he kept the matter the saying in his heart that's in stark contrast to his brothers. They were jealous of him. You know, reading through the account, you can kind of get the impression that these guys had some shining moments. But I wanna argue against that. I I think these guys were the worst group of narcissistic buffoons at this point that you would ever wanna meet. I know that Ruben tried to intervene down in verse 21, and it sounds noble, but listen to who he is when you get to verses uh, 29 and 30, he makes a momentary departure from his brothers in the pit and he returns, he finds out that Joseph's gone.

21:00And what does he say in verse 30 to his brothers? The boy is not there as for me, where am I to go? No expression of love for his brother, no expression of honor for his father. It's just about me, me, me. And then of course Judah sounds very virtuous at first blush when you read his comments in 26 and 27, there he is recognizing that Joseph is the brother of their own flesh. But look at the overarching motive in 26. In 27, he's wanting to sell him for a profit, which is what they do.

21:48And so what, what's going on here? These guys, and you're not inoculated against this, nor am I, these guys have been so preoccupied for so long with their own victimization and their own woundedness that they're totally desensitized to their offenses against God himself. And so as a result, they, they are spring loaded to justify all of their revenge in the worst way. They're devaluing human life and they're, they themselves are reduced to callous fruit Beast. Look at this. They, when, when they, when Joseph reached his brothers, they stripped him of his tunic. Verse 24, they took him and threw him into the pit.

22:36In verse 25, they sit down to eat a meal. Whoa, That Is callous. And you know what? This is the down spiral, the natural down spiral of depravity in each one of us. If God just leaves us to, to that place, leaves us to ourselves feeling the woundedness, feeling the victimization, even if it's a legitimate wound. But there's a supernatural deliverance, there's a supernatural rescue. And it starts by turning to God and childlike faith through Jesus Christ, broken by your wound, noting that his wound has taken the biggest threat from you. And then bowing before the prerogative of God's sovereign providence when it doesn't make a hill of being sent to you.

23:40And this is where Genesis 37 12 and following, take us here in these initial verses, Jacobs sends Joseph to check on his brothers to check 'em. And when he gets there, he discovers they're gone. In the process of looking, a man finds him seemingly just some random man don't know that, but it appears that way and communicates to, to Joseph notifies him that he heard the brother say they were going to dotham Dothan. And so this is one of those favorable providences, right?

24:26It's uh, it's like pulling into a gas station when you're lost. And of course brothers, we don't, we don't ask for direction zoo. But pulling into a gas station, you're lost. And some bystander catches wind of it and he gives you direction and that's good. But what follows from here immediately is a pile on of provides that feel like anything but good.

24:54The kind of providences that follow, immediately shift the expectation of Joseph's divine revelation through dreams to a living nightmare. Just like that. The glory and thrill of, of daytime goes to pitch black night. And so here's what you have to understand to value and embrace and treasure the providences of God over Joseph's life, provides of God are simply the pathways he uses to bring us to his outcomes. Is that, is that a helpful definition? That's really simple, the pathways he uses to bring us to his outcomes. But here's the catch, Joe. God doesn't simply use the good gifts he supplies or the harmful desires.

25:48He withholds. God also uses the unwanted pain he inflicts. Suppose suppose a man is coming at you with a blade in his hand and an av vowed commitment to slice you open. I assume you're gonna fight or you're gonna run. And I'd say you better. But what if that man just happened to be a surgeon with a scalpel inviting you onto the operating table because you have a malignant cancer that's gonna take your life? Whoa. Now this is a game changer. Now, now the pain is necessary because a skilled, Loving, caring surgeon who's able to operate with great care and precision is aiming at your health.

27:00So Jacob finds himself in this place. Dream shattered has to be feeling some of that. I don't think he's lost sight of, of, of the dreams God gave him, seized by force, disrobed of his tunic thrown into a pit. But it doesn't stop there, right? I mean, step into Joseph's life for a moment and, and crawl around a little more, Walk around a little more, climb into his life and feel what he feels for 13 plus years. Every time Joseph might have imagined that his dream was about to be materialized and went from bad to worse. I mean, this starts right here in verse 28, right? These midianite traitors are coming through and the brothers have determined to sell Joseph to them.

28:02He doesn't necessarily know that he's down in the pit. I can imagine that when they're pulling him up, just maybe he expected he was going to be rescued and exalted as the dream said. But instead he was trafficked off to a far away country in a different part of the world. And once he gets there in Egypt and he's given favor under Potiphar's care and becomes responsible, takes charge of Potiphar's entire household, Potiphar's wife accuses him, falsely accuses him of scandal, and he's thrown into prison.

28:37And then in prison he meets up with a baker and a cup bearer and he gives a favorable, accurate interpretation of the cup bearer's dream, who was supposed to remember him. But then upon being released and being re being restored, he forgets him for two whole years. And again, I am imagining as, as I speak of this text that some of you are in that same place. There's been a medical diagnosis, there's been loss of money, loss of sleep, loss of time. There's another crisis. There's a loss of of a loved one. Two years passes by, five years, passes by and nothing's changing. It's been 10 years, man, mom's, dads.

29:26And that that dull ache that you just can't get rid of, it's still there and there's no end in sight. What do you do with that? Well, I submit to you that everything that has occurred in this scene in the life of Joseph was the painful providence that God himself had scheduled for Joseph's life, for the glorious outcome he was taking him to. And even for the outcome of his entire family. Think about it. The relocation from Shechem to Dothan provided a pit that prevented Joseph's murder. Verse 22, being at Dothan, Joseph's brothers had a clear view of this massive caravan of Ishmaelites in verses 25 and 27 in the Midianites in verses 28 36, which by the way, were also descendants of Abraham.

30:20And as a result, they could see this caravan very clearly, thousands of merchants and camels traveling along this well-known ancient highway that extended from Gilead along the sea coast all the way down to Egypt. I submit you this morning that everything about the bitter betrayal of of Joseph's brothers against him is the intended scheduled providence of God. And you may say to me at that point, how so? I just can't see that. But don't, don't you understand that's exactly the point. Joseph couldn't see it either. Joseph saw insurmountable obstacles piled one on top of the next, boxing him in with the dead end brick wall of impasse on every site.

31:08It wasn't just that the air was let out of the dream God had given him. It's that his dreams were now put into a place that they were impossible. It was a impossible to imagine them happening. If you're honest, and I wanna be honest with you 'cause I do this, our tendency is to survey and assess God or rather just assess God on the basis of our own limited imagination. We exhaust all the options of our own imaginations, then we conclude it's impossible. But folks, here's, here's how God operates in his divine providence is he's not interested in just setting up the obstacles and knocking them down so you can get by.

31:47He wants to set up the obstacles and knock them down in such a way that it provokes your spirit to unprecedented heights of joy for the glory of Christ and the joy of all peoples. God has solutions and God doing things that none of us can imagine right now in your darkest hour of your most painful season, think about Joseph's life first. If Joseph would ever be exalted the place of power and authority that God had revealed in his dreams, Joseph had to go to Egypt. Second, if Joseph would ever be equipped to reign with wisdom, once he was raised to the right hand of Pharaoh, Joseph had to arrive at Egypt through excruciating agony.

32:32You say, whoa, that sounds really weird. Yeah, the ways and thoughts of God are higher than ours and often very counterintuitive. If listen to Psalm 1 0 5 17, that text says that God sent Joseph before them. He, he was somewhat of a forerunner who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters. He himself was laid in iron irons. Literally his soul came into irons is the way that reads. If Joseph was going to be equipped, if he was gonna be fit to rule, he first had to have deep heart work in brothers and sisters. God's signature way of getting this done is pain. Your own experience has taught you that.

33:17And the word of God confirms it over and over again. We sung about it this morning. And so let me just kind of let me prepare you. If you have a deep wound through the stinging blow of betrayal and you're praying for forgiveness, don't be surprised if an avalanche of distress and hardship and pain comes your way. 'cause this is how God gets it done.

33:43Third, Joseph's resemblance to the unseen Christ may have been the providence that eventually broke the hearts of Joseph's brother. I say may have been because I don't have a guilt edge guarantee on on any of this, but There are a lot of resemblances between, uh, Jesus and Joseph. The Jews grew more and more hostile toward Jesus and his teaching. Joseph's brothers were jealous over him, especially after he revealed his dream. Jesus was re rebuked by Peter for his truth. Joseph was re rebuked by his father for his dream. The Jews conspired to kill Jesus. Joseph's own brothers plotted to murder him.

34:23The Jews disordered, or I'm sorry, disrobed, Jesus and Joseph's brother stripped away his tunic. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 measly pieces of silver. And Judah betrayed or sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver. And yet the outcomes seemed similar, at least parallel the Jews in Acts 2 37. Some of them were cut to the quick and cried out what must we do to be saved? And Joseph's brothers confessed in 42, 21 of Genesis, truly, we are guilty concerning our brother because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us. Yet we would not listen. So men, moms, dads, if that dull lake is still sitting on your heart, don't stop praying.

35:09Don't stop walking by faith. So fourthly, and maybe most importantly, fulfillment of God's covenant promises to Abraham depended on Israel. That is Jacob and his sons being relocated to Egypt. God promised Abraham in the Abrahamic covenant of Genesis 1531, that the sons of Israel, Jacob's, the descendants, God's people, Abraham's descendants would be in a land that was not theirs and they would be enslaved and oppressed for 400 years. I'm just asking you, how else does it get done? There's Joseph was the forerunner. He's sent ahead and that's part of God's plan to get the whole kit and caboodle there.

35:57How is that gonna happen? Unless God creates these provides, people don't just uproot their entire clan and relocate halfway around the world. So when it's all said and done, folks, this, this is where we land. We, we need someone infinitely bigger and superior to Joseph in every way. Joseph needs somebody infinitely bigger and superior to Joseph. This is why I think there were enough gospel contours in the Abrahamic covenant that Joseph wasn't looking at himself. If he'd been looking at himself for 13 plus years writing in a prison cell, he would've been bitter at his brothers, but he wasn't.

36:47And we know from Hebrews 11, he had faith. Yet the fact remains is we need today someone infinitely superior to Joseph. We don't need faith in his account, faith in his perseverance or his faith. We need one who wasn't spared like Joseph by merely having his tunic dipped in the blood of a goat. We need the one who, unlike Joseph, died for sins that were not his own. Joseph was dead and buried. Go read it. Genesis chapter 50. And we also need one who rose from the grave on the third day and whose bones didn't have to be transported from Egypt back to Canaan like Joseph Exodus 1319, And brothers and sisters, this is precisely who we have in the Lord Jesus Christ.

37:39He has risen, he reigns. And guess what? If you're born of God by the power of the Holy Spirit through Jesus, shed blood, he's resident within you. He's not reigning off somewhere distant in the third heaven. He's here in this room with us, reigning in your heart. And if you don't know him this way, you can have him this way by repenting of the down spiral of nursing wounds with bitterness and self-pity heave yourself on the mercies of God through Jesus Christ who suffered the mother load of wrath that your sins deserve and rose the third day to prove it and begin to rejoice. Because this and this alone is the power that will help you step into the Father's Day gathering this afternoon with that sting of betrayal still in your heart or that dull ache that you can't get rid of.

38:29This is the kind of power in this alone that will enable you to walk into a gathering where other people have lived a life of God's good gift and having exemplary dads and celebrate with them, rejoice with them. And so Father in heaven, this, this is our hope and expectation in all of of Joseph's exemplary faith. He still died because he was a sinner. He died for his own sin. He went into the ground and his bone saw decay. But your gift to us in Jesus Christ, the God man, is that the grave couldn't hold him down. He rose on the third day, he reigns. And it's this resurrection power we need, and it's this resurrection power that we taste in fellowship with the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

39:26And whose great name we pray. Amen.

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