Our first story of exile is one of the greatest stories in
the Bible, the story of Joseph. This is an amazing tale in intrigue, drama, and
reconciliation. In this sermon we will only have time to focus on a few aspects
of the story, but I encourage you to read (or re-read) the whole story
yourself. Our focus will be on answering three important questions that help us
navigate our own exiles.
QUESTION 1: WHY WAS JOSEPH IN EXILE?
· Joseph was sold into slavery by his envious
brothers. (Genesis 37)
Joseph was the favorite of Jacob’s twelve sons. Jacob
famously demonstrated his preference for Joseph by giving him a fancy coat (the
Hebrew could be translated “coat of many colors” or “coat with long sleeves”).
This angered Jacob’s brothers. It didn’t help that Joseph was a tattle-tale, or
that he kept having dreams about how his brothers would bow down to him one
day. And so Joseph’s brothers attacked him one day, and sold him into slavery,
beginning Joseph’s exile.
· Joseph was thrown into jail by his master’s
deceitful wife. (Genesis 39)
Joseph was sold to an Egyptian named Potiphar, who made him
a house slave. Unfortunately, Joseph caught the eye of Potiphar’s wife, who
tried to seduce him. Joseph refused, and so Potiphar’s wife claimed he tried to
attack her. Joseph was thrown in jail, deeper into exile.
·Joseph went into exile because of the evil
actions of others.
There are many different reasons why we end up in exile. As
we look in scripture, we find people going into exile as punishment for their
sins. Other people are called to follow God into exile. Some are sent into
exile because of the sins of their nation. Joseph is one of those people who
are sent into exile by the evil actions of other people. The Bible is very
clear: Joseph is in exile because of the sinful decisions of his brothers and
Potiphar’s wife.
Why is this important to recognize? Because I think too
often we get caught up in trying to figure out why God decided to send
us into exile. Personally, I think “Why did God send me into exile?” is not a
very fruitful question. Unless God specially reveals the answer to us, there
really is no way of us to know: did God make this happen, or did God allow
this to happen? Even in the story of Joseph, we do not get that answer.
What we know is that these bad things happened to Joseph because of the bad
decisions of Joseph’s brothers and Potiphar’s wife. Rather than asking, “Why
did God send me into exile,” I think there is a more fruitful question we can
ask:
QUESTION 2: WHAT WAS GOD DOING IN JOSEPH’S EXILE?
The Book of Genesis is not very clear on whether God made
or allowed Joseph to go into exile, it is very clear that God
used Joseph’s exile to accomplish something incredible.
· God trained Joseph for the job he was destined
to do (Genesis 39)
While Joseph was enslaved in Potiphar’s house, it says “The Lord was with Joseph... So Joseph found
favor in [Potiphar’s] sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his
house and put him in charge of all that he had.” (Gen. 39:2, 4, NIV) Later,
when Joseph was in prison, it says “But
the Lord was with Joseph... and the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge
of all the prisoners who were in the prison.” (39:21-22). Even as Joseph
was at rock bottom—an exile, a slave, and a prisoner—God was using that time to
prepare him for a job he was going to do later. I don’t want to spoil the
ending yet if you don’t know the story, but suffice it to say that Joseph is
going to be glad that he learned how to run a nobleman’s household and a royal
jail later on in the story!
This happens to us a lot, and we can only tell in hindsight.
For instance, I spent ten years working in electronics retail before I became a
pastor. I sold cameras and computers and software for a living. By the end I
definitely felt like an exile. But I can tell you, all that time with
electronics has really prepared me for doing church under a quarantine!
Remember, I’m not saying that God sent me into ten years of retail specifically
to prepare me for this crisis—but he definitely used it to prepare me, and I
can only see that now!
· God maneuvered Joseph into the right place at
the right time. (Genesis 40-41)
God also used Joseph’s exile to make sure he was in the
right place at the right time to fulfill God’s plan. While Joseph was in
prison, he met two men prisoners who had worked for the king. They both had
dreams that terrified them, and Joseph was able to interpret them for him
(Remember, I’m skipping a lot to stay focused on our questions. Go read the whole
story yourself!) One of those men was released from prison and returned to
serve the Pharaoh. One day the Pharaoh had some terrifying dreams of his own,
and the former prisoner remembered Joseph. Pharaoh summoned Joseph, and he was
able to interpret the dream: seven years of famine are coming, so make sure you
stockpile grain now to be ready!
Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph’s insight that he
appointed Joseph as his second-in- command (remember when I said he would need
training in running institutions?). Joseph went from rock bottom—an exiled
slave in prison—to the very pinnacle of the Egyptian Government—because he was
in the right place at the right time.
This also happened to me in my journey to the ministry.
After seminary I was in a rut—back in my hometown, living with my parents, in
the basement—but if I hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have made the connection
with Enterprise Christian Church through my parents that got me into the
ministry, and ultimately here to Turner! There was no way for me to know what
God was positioning me toward, but even in the most isolated, aimless time in
my life, God was positioning me to fulfill his plan.
· God took evil human actions and made good out of
them. (Genesis 42-45)
So what was God doing here? Well, again I want to make a
distinction. I think that too often Christians want to tell people who are in
exile, “God did this to you because of x.” Perhaps the worst case of this logic
is when a Christian told a family, “God took your child because he needed
another angel in Heaven.” When we say, “God made this happen for x
reason,” we speak more than we know. Maybe God made it happen, maybe God
let it happen. The Bible doesn’t really focus on causes. The Bible
focuses on the fact that God takes evil actions and makes good out of it. Why
did this virus happen? I don’t know. But I know that the virus is bad; the
suffering it causes is bad; and God is capable of making good out of a bad
situation.
You see, a couple years into the Egyptian famine, Joseph’s
brothers came to Egypt looking for food. Long story short, Joseph tells them to
bring the entire family of Jacob down into Egypt so that he can take care of
them. The whole family is saved from starvation because Joseph is the
second-in-command of Egypt! Later Joseph explained to his brothers how this
happened: “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to
accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.” (Genesis 50:20,
NIV) The brothers acted out of evil intent, but God used it to do something
good! Paul says something similar in Romans 8:28: “And we know that in all
things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called
according to his purpose.” Notice Paul doesn’t say, “God causes all
things for the good of those who love him;” he says, “God works in all
things for the good of those who love him.” God is in the business of making
good things out of bad, and he is using your exile to accomplish good things
for his Kingdom!
QUESTION 3: HOW DID JOSEPH FOLLOW GOD IN EXILE?
The last important question we have to ask is, how can we
follow God in exile, if exile—by definition—means we don’t know what he’s
doing? Joseph had no idea that God was going to make him a ruler of Egypt so he
could save his family from a famine. How did he follow God during his
exile? In my opinion, the key to following God in exile to make ourselves available
to God’s will, instead of being an obstacle to God’s will. Joseph
did this in three ways.
· Joseph was diligent in his work.
Joseph had every reason to rebel against his masters and
jailers. He had every reason to refuse to work, to do a terrible job, to be a
pain in the neck to everyone he dealt with. And if he had, he never would have
become head of Potiphar’s household or head of the jail. He never would have
found himself before Pharaoh. But Joseph was diligent, even in tough and unfair
situations. Paul may have been thinking of Joseph when he gave these
instructions to slaves in the church in Colossae: “Whatever you do, work at
it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since
you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is
the Lord Christ you are serving.” (Colossians 3:23- 34, NIV). We work
diligently because we know that wherever we are—and why-ever we are there—God
is working through us, and we labor for his purposes and his kingdom. And so we
continue to work diligently wherever God has put us—even if “working
diligently” means diligently staying at home.
· Joseph maintained his integrity.
I can imagine that it would have been easy for Joseph to
justify giving into Potiphar’s wife’s seduction. It would be a great way to get
back at his master. It certainly was no worse than everyone else had done to
him. His brothers had sold him as a slave—what’s a little adultery compared to
that? It would have been so easy for Joseph to give in. And yet, if he had, he
would have lost his integrity. He would have failed as a representative of God
in Egypt. He may not have ended up in jail—where he needed to be to meet
Pharaoh—and if he had, it would have been because he deserved it as an
adulterer. So often we are tempted to give into temptation during our exiles,
and to justify it because of our own struggles. “It’s no worse than what other
people have done to me.” “I really need this right now.” And so on. But during
times like this it is more important than ever that God’s people maintain their
integrity. A hurting world is looking to us for answers, and we need to be able
to point them to God. This is why Peter tells us, “Live such good lives
among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your
good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12)
· Joseph was compassionate instead of bitter.
As I read the story of Joseph, I think the hardest thing
Joseph has to do comes at the end, when he shows mercy on his brothers. Joseph
spent years in exile, slavery, and prison because of their sinful crimes
against him. He had lots of time to become bitter and hateful.
He could have let them starve. He could have thrown them in
jail. He could have sold them as slaves. And if he had, he would have failed to
fulfill God’s mission to save his family from destruction. He would have become
part of the problem instead of the solution. We are so often tempted to let
bitterness poison our hearts during exile. We become angry at those we blame
for our suffering. We begin to think on revenge, on justice, on hurting others
like they hurt us, on giving them a taste of their own medicine. But if your
goal is to be available to God’s will rather than an obstacle, keep this in
mind: bitterness is never part of God’s plan. Bitterness will never lead
you to fulfilling his design for your life. God’s way is a way of compassion
and love. And when we become consumed by bitterness, we become obstacles of
God’s plan. Imagine what would have happened if Jesus had become bitter on the
cross. He certainly had reason to be bitter! But instead he forgave his
executioners, and he died for their sins—and ours—and God raised him from the
dead because of his faithfulness! Paul summarizes this principle nicely in
Romans 12:21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with
good.”
CONCLUSION
We all experience times of exile, and they are never
pleasant. Sometimes we are tempted to pretend that Christian life is always
easy, but it is not. If nothing else, Christians always live the knowledge that
this is not the way the world is supposed to be. It can be so much better, if
we could just live according to God’s authority and design. But we as we travel
through this world as sojourners and exiles, we can have hope, because we know
that God is still at work in the exile. A pastor friend of mine is fond of
saying: God does not waste suffering. He always uses it: to prepare us,
to position us to do his will. Whatever you are going through, God can and will
make good out of it according to his amazing plan. That’s what God does!
Stay healthy, and stay hopeful. Go in peace to love and serve
the Lord!
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