Genesis 50

Faith in response to evil

On the evening of 13 November 2015 seven ISIS terrorists attacked seven

strategic locations in the city of Paris. Using AK 47’s, hand grenades and suicide

belts, they managed to kill 130 and to injure 368 people. The attacks were the

deadliest on France since World War II.

It was a terribly evil act and it sparked worldwide mourning and fear.

And it raises the question: where was God on 13 November 2015?

What was God doing?

And of course this isn’t the first time that this question’s been raised. It’s been

raised repeatedly throughout history. It was raised after the holocaust. It was

raised after September 11th. It was raised after the Tsunami in 2004.

Whenever there’s an event of great evil or of terrible suffering, this is the

question that gets raised. Where is God? What is God doing?

And more personally, this is a question we’ve probably all asked in our own

lives as well. When we suffer. When something bad happens to us. We might

not ask it verbally, but deep in our hearts: where is God? What is God doing?

And this morning I wanna suggest to you that the way you answer this

question will have a massive impact on how you live your life and especially on

how you respond to bad things that happen in your life. You see, this isn’t just

an academic question. It isn’t just a question you need to answer when dealing

with the objections of an unbelieving friend. The answer you give to this

question will have a massive impact on the way you live your life.

And I wanna present you with three possible answers you could give to this

question. Where is God during suffering or evil? Here three options you can

choose from.

Option 1. God is uninvolved. Either God doesn’t exist. Or if He does exist then

this is one area of life that’s outside of His control. After all God is good. And so

surely He can’t be involved in suffering or evil. That’s option 1. He’s

uninvolved.

Option 2: God allows suffering and evil. So God is involved in suffering. But He

only allows it. He doesn’t initiate it. He doesn’t cause it or stand behind it in

any way. He simply allows it. And then He uses it. He responds to it and

transforms it and use it for good. That’s option 2. God allows it and He uses it

for good.

Or option 3, you can go even further and you can say God does have an

initiating role. In other words, He doesn’t just allow suffering. He doesn’t just

use it. He even intends it. In some way He stands behind it. And He brings it

into people’s lives to accomplish His good plan. That’s option three. God does

have an initiating role.

Well this morning I want us to see how Joseph would answer that question.

Which option would he choose?

This morning we come to the end of the book of Genesis. And this ending is a

bit like the ending of a TV series. You know those series where you start

watching. And you just can’t stop. You watch one after the other. And you end

up watching right through the night. How do those series keep you so hooked?

Well at the end of each series, they bring to an end the story of that episode.

But right at the end they also introduce some new plot or some new tension

that needs to be resolved. And so you can’t stop watching. You must see how

the new plot gets resolved. Well that’s exactly what happens at the end of

Genesis.

As you might expect, Genesis ends with the death of two of our main

characters:

Jacob dies at the end of chapter 49. Then Joseph dies at the end of chapter 50.

The accounts of their lives come to an end.

But at the same time, this final chapter introduces the great plot for the next

episode.

And you can see it if you compare what happens when Jacob dies with what

happens when Joseph dies.

Before Jacob dies he gives instructions about his bones. You can see it in

chapter 49 verse 29. Basically he tells his sons: don’t bury me in Egypt. You

must take my bones back to the promised-land, the land of Canaan. And so in

verse 33. Jacob dies. He gets embalmed. And then there’s a massive procession

from Egypt to Canaan. Jacob gets buried in the promised-land.

Now jump to chapter 50 verse 24. Look at what happens when Joseph dies. He

also gives instructions about his bones. He also wants his bones to be carried

to the promised-land. And so he also dies. He also gets embalmed. But look at

verse 26. Where does his body get placed?

Verse 26.

“So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed

him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.”

Joseph’s body remains in Egypt. You see, Joseph didn’t tell his brothers to

transport his body immediately. He told them to do it when God comes to

their aid. Look at verse 25.

And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, “God will surely

come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.”

And so that’s the plot that makes us wanna keep reading the next episode.

When will God come to His people’s aid? When will Joseph’s bones be taken

home? You can read it all in the next episode: the book of Exodus.

But the important thing to notice here at the end of Genesis is Joseph’s faith in

God.

Even though he’s been living most of his life in Egypt. Even though he’s

married an Egyptian woman. Even though he’s prospered greatly in Egypt. He’s

become powerful and successful. In spite of all this, he knows that Egypt is not

his home. He wants his bones to be carried to the promised-land. In other

words, that’s where his home is. That’s where he belongs.

And that’s a great example for us to follow. In fact of all the great acts of faith

in Joseph’s life this is the one chosen in Hebrews 11 for us to follow. Look at

Hebrews 11 verse 22. This is the chapter of the great OT hero’s of faith. And

this is the verse that speaks about Joseph. Verse 22.

“By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the

Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions about his bones.”

You see according to Hebrews this is a great example of faith. And just like

Joseph we also need to find our home not in this world, but in heaven.

And that might not be too hard when life’s tough in this world or if we

despised and unpopular and unsuccessful. Those things might make us long to

leave this world and to go to heaven. But it’s not that easy to have that longing

for heaven if we find ourselves in a position like Joseph was in Egypt. When we

actually having success in this world. And we prospering and growing in power.

Then it’s very tempting for us to find our home here in this world. And so we

need to learn from Joseph. Even though he was successful in Egypt, he didn’t

see it as his home.

But this morning I wanna focus most of our time on the little section between

Jacob’s death and Joseph’s death. Verses 15-21. These verses deal with the

question we raised at the start. And they show us how Joseph would answer

that question. How does Joseph understand the activity of God when it comes

to evil?

You see, Joseph might have prospered at the end of his life. But before that he

was a victim of terrible suffering and evil:

Hatred from his brothers. Almost murdered by them. sold as a slave. Cut off

from his family. Left alone in a foreign land. Unjustly condemned. Thrown into

prison for a number of years.

That’s a pretty bad list of suffering he’s endured.

And its hard to imagine how you can go through suffering like that without it

breaking you down. Without you being overcome by it. And becoming evil

yourself. And full of bitterness and revenge.

Just think of the effect it has on you when you have a bad day. When

everything seems to be going against you. When people treat you badly.

Doesn’t that make you more likely to despair and to give in to temptation and

to become bitter and irritable and to lose faith in God?

The amazing thing about Joseph is that he goes through all this terrible evil and

yet he isn’t overcome by it. Instead he overcomes evil with good. He rises up to

become the deliverer of all Egypt. He refuses to take revenge on his brothers.

He accomplishes an incredible amount of good. And so I dunno about you, but

I wanna learn from a man like this. I wanna know what this man has that

enables him to respond in this way. Whats going on deep in Joseph’s heart?

And so that’s what I wanna focus on for the rest of our time. Right at the end

of Joseph’s life we get an inside view into his heart. This is what he believes.

And this is what enables him to respond to evil in the way he does.

We pick up the story in verse 15.

Jacob’s died. And now suddenly Joseph’s brothers are afraid. Maybe Joseph

was just being kind to them for the sake of their father. Maybe he just didn’t

want his father to see him take revenge on his brothers. But now that their

father’s dead. Maybe now Joseph will take his revenge. And so look at what

they do. verse 15. They come up with another deceptive plan. Verse 15.

“When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “what if

Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to

him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions

before he died: “This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your

brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.’

Now please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.”

You see this is what guilt does to a person. It makes it difficult for a person to

receive love. Even though Joseph has already expressed his love and

forgiveness to his brothers, they still not able to recieve it. They still struggling

to accept it. And this is something we all struggle with as Christians. Even

though God has expressed such incredible love and forgiveness to us. Sending

His own Son to die for us. You can’t get a more powerful demonstration of love

than that. He’s given us promises of forgiveness and love. And yet we still

struggle to trust that this is true. That’s why in Ephesians 3 when Paul prays for

us to know God’s love he prays that we will have power to be able to grasp it.

You see, as guilty sinful people, unless God works in us with power we wont be

able to grasp his love.

Joseph’s brothers still don’t accept his love.

And so look at how Joseph responds.

“When their message came to him, Joseph wept.”

It hurts Joseph that they still don’t trust him. That they still feel the need to

deceive him and manipulate him to secure his love. He weeps.

And then in verses 19 to 21 he reassures them again. And he does it with two

of the most profound and wonderful statements of faith that you’ll find in the

whole of Genesis.

And these are the statements that take us deep into Joseph’s heart. The truths

that have enabled him not be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with

good.

And the first one is in verse 19. He refuses to take God’s place. i

Joseph’s brothers come in. They throw themselves before him. They offer to

be his slaves. Look at how Joseph responds. Verse 19. But Joseph said to them,

“Don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God?”

In other words, the reason Joseph gives for why he won’t take revenge on His

brothers is that it’s not his place. He doesn’t have the right to do it. Only God

has that right.

As Romans 12 verse 19 says: “Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room

for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the

Lord.

The right to avenge belongs only to God.

And that’s very different to how we naturally think. We think if someone’s

done something to us, then somehow that gives us an excuse or the right to

take revenge. We have the right to get even. But according to Joseph, that

place doesn’t belong to us. It belongs only to God.

And there at least two reasons why this right doesn’t belong to us. Firstly, we

don’t have the innocence. We all sinners. We’ve all harmed others ourselves.

And so we ourselves deserve to be judged. What right do we have to judge

others? Only God is perfectly innocent. And so only God has the ultimate right

to take revenge.

Secondly we don’t have the knowledge.

When someone hurts you and you wanna take revenge, and you think about

how to repay them. At that point you presuming to be able to discern what

that person deserves. But you don’t know what they deserve. You don’t know

what they’ve suffered in their lives. You don’t know what influences have

affected them. You don’t know what their deepest motivations were. Only God

has this kind of perfect knowledge. And so only God is in a position to judge.

And so this isn’t our place. We don’t have the purity. We don’t have the

knowledge.

Joseph avoids God’s place.

But that’s not the only reason why Joseph avoids revenge. Its not simply that

he cant take revenge cause its not his place. Its also that he doesn’t want to

take revenge because he’s no longer filled with anger. His anger towards them

has been removed. And its been removed by a positive perspective that he’s

gained on their actions. And you can see that perspective in verse 20. This is

our key verse this morning. We’ve seen how Joseph avoids God’s place. Now

we see how he assumes God’s perspective. Verse 20

You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what’s

now being done, the saving of many lives.”

You see, this is the perspective Joseph takes on evil. He recognizes the good

hand of God behind it.

And so this brings us back to the question we raised at the start. Where was

God on the 13th of November when gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130

people in Paris?

Which of the options we presented best describes God’s involvement.

Option 1. He was uninvolved? It was something that was out of his control.

Option 2. He was involved simply in that He allowed it to happen and He used

it.

Or Option 3. God played an initiating role. He didn’t just allow it. He even stood

behind it in some way. He intended it.

And hopefully by now you can see that the third option is the best one. God is

involved in evil events in this world. And He doesn’t just allow them and use

them. He even stands behind them. He intends them. Look at verses 20 again.

Notice the repetition of the word, intended.

“You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”

You see, that’s a stronger word than allowing. God didn’t just allow these

things to happen to Joseph. And He didn’t just respond to them and transform

them and use them so that they ended up producing something good. No. God

actually stood behind them in some way. He intended for them to happen.

And this isn’t just something we see in this verse. We also see it in other parts

of the Bible. Look at Isaiah 45 verse 7. It should be up on the screen. Its God

speaking. And He says,

Verse 7.

“I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster.”

Again its words like this, “I intend”, “I form” “I create”. Its words like this that

suggest that God does more than just allow bad things to happen. God doesn’t

just respond to bad things and fix them and use them for good. He does more

than that. He even stands behind disaster. He intends it. He creates it.

And I’m not saying its bad to talk about God allowing evil events or using them.

There is truth in those statements. But I just want you to see that the Bible

isn’t ashamed to go further. The Bible feels free to use words like intended and

created.

And so maybe you saying: hang on hang on. Doesn’t that mean Gods guilty of

evil? If God intends for evil things to happen? Doesn’t that make Him guilty?

And the answer is no. Because God’s intentions are always for good. Just like

we see here with Joseph. God intended all the events that happened to Joseph

to accomplish something good: so that thousands and maybe millions of

people could be saved. When God stands behind evil events, He always stands

behind them for good.

Or maybe you saying: okay, well then if this is all part of God’s good plan, then

doesn’t that make the brothers innocent? They were simply accomplishing

God’s plan. They were His instruments. They were simply doing what God

intended.

And again the answer is no. They are still guilty of evil. Because of their

intentions. As Joseph says, you intended to harm me. Their intentions were for

evil. They did do an evil act.

And so this isn’t easy for us to understand. But I hope you can see according to

Joseph there are two causes that stand behind every action in this world.

Firstly there’s the cause in the realm of human responsibility. Human beings do

make real decisions and they’ll be held responsible for those decisions and

actions.

But secondly at the same time there’s also the cause in the realm of God’s

sovereignty. Behind all the human decisions and actions stands the sovereign

will of God. Nothing happens in this world outside of His sovereign will.

And so any action: even where a human might be doing something evil. God

also stands behind that action. But in that event, He is doing something good.

And if you still doubting this I wanna take you to the most powerful

demonstration of this truth in the whole Bible. The crucifixion of Jesus

You see, what would you say is the most evil act that has ever been

committed? Even more evil than the holocaust. More evil than the September

11. More evil than the Paris attacks. Surely the most evil act in the history of

the world was when God Himself came into the world and we killed him. And

we killed him in the most cruel and painful way. Surely this was the most evil

act in the history of the world.

But at the same time, what would you say is the most wonderful and glorious

act that has ever been committed? Surely as Christians we would say the

greatest act of love and self-sacrifice. And the act thats brought the greatest

amount of good to people in the world. It would have to be Jesus’ death on the

cross.

And so dyou see, it’s the same event. The most evil act that’s ever been

committed. And the most wonderful act that’s ever been committed. It’s the

same event. And in that one event we see man doing his worst and at the

same time we see God doing His best.

You can see this in Acts 4 verse 27. Also on the screen. Notice the evil intention

of man. Verse 27.

“Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the

people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, Whom

you anointed. There’s the evil intention of man. Now look at the good

intention of God. Verse 28. “They did what your power and will had decided

beforehand should happen.”

You see, God didn’t just allow the cross to take place. It wasn’t His plan B in

response to man’s wickedness. This was God’s plan from before the creation of

the world.

And so this is the same truth that we see in Genesis. Just like Joseph, Jesus

would also be able to say to those who killed him: you intended it to harm me.

But God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the

saving of many lives.

And so this is the truth that Joseph recognizes in our key verse this morning.

And I think this truth more than anything else is what enables him to respond

to evil in the way that he does. This is what enables him not to be overcome

with evil, but to overcome evil with good.

And in the same way, if we can really grasp this truth and let it sink into our

hearts, it can do the same for us.

I wanna close with three ways that this truth can transform us.

Firstly, it’ll restrict our fear of evil

Sometimes people speak as though there’s this battle going on in the world

between two equal and opposite forces.

Its a star wars view of the world. There’s the good force. And there’s the bad

force.

And some people think of God and the devil like that. They equal and opposite

forces. And when good things happen, that means God is winning. When bad

things happen, that means the devil is winning.

But what we see here is that even the evil work of the devil is under the

sovereign control of God. The devil cant do anything outside of God’s plan.

And so although we must be aware of the devil and we must be alert to his

danger. At the same time we don’t have to be gripped with fear of him. He

isn’t an equal and opposite force fighting against God. And he will never gain

the upper hand. Everything he does is under God’s good and powerful control.

The same thing could be said of ISIS

or of Richard Dawkins

or of any movement that seems to be gaining power in the world and that

seems to be threatening Christianity. We mustn’t be gripped with fear. It’s all

under God’s control. He even stands behind it. And He’s working it all for good.

Secondly this truth will keep us from despair.

One of the biggest causes of despair for Christians is that we interpret God’s

love for us according to our circumstances.

In other words, if life is going well, then God loves us. He’s with us. He’s being

good to us.

But if life is going badly, then God is against us. He’s abandoned us. He doesn’t

love us.

That’s the natural way for us to think.

And it makes us very vulnerable to despair. Because at some point for all of us

life will go badly. We’ll fail an exam or we’ll lose a job or we’ll lose someone we

love. And then we’ll feel very insecure. And we might just despair.

But if we can really grasp this key truth this morning, then we can escape this

insecurity. We can be confident of God’s goodness to us irrespective of our

circumstances.

Listen to this quote from Charles Spurgeon. He said: it is impossible that any ill

will happen to the man beloved of the Lord. Ill to him is no ill. But only good in

a mysterious form.”

That’s a great quote. And it comes from this key truth.

If we belong to God, then people might intend to harm us. We might face

terrible suffering and evil. But behind it all God is working for our good.

And thirdly, grasping this truth will enable us to love our enemies.

That’s exactly what it does for Joseph. He reassures his brothers. He speaks

kindly to them. He shows love to those who harmed him.

And in the same way if we are being harmed by someone. But we can look

beyond that person and all the pain and the hurt they causing. If we can focus

and really believe in the good hand of God behind it. If we can keep our minds

fixed on that perspective. Then that’ll be an amazing source of strength and

security for us. We wont have to minimize the bad things they’ve done to us.

But we also wont be overcome by them. And we’ll even be able to respond

with love.

And so maybe you’ve never met this God Who’s so sovereign and good? Then

you missing out on the most wonderful relationship.

Maybe you have met Him. But you haven’t allowed this truth to sink deep into

your heart?

You missing out on a powerful resource in your life.

Don’t miss out anymore. Receive God. Recieve this truth. Meditate on it. And

let it transform your life.

Lets pray

i Listen to what Tim Keller says about this:

He says: this is the great irony: the fastest way to become like Satan is to try to be God. The fastest way to become like God is to refuse to be God.

I think he’s right.

If you try to be God. Put yourself in His place. Think that you have the right to do what only God can do, then that’s the fastest way to become like Satan.

But if you refuse to be God. If you let God be the authority in your life. Don’t try to seize His rights and his power and authority. Then that’s the fastest way to become like God.

And its quite amazing that Joseph recognizes this. He’s someone who’s risen remarkably to a position of great worldly power and authority. And often when that happens to a man, its very tempting for him to assume the place of God. To start acting as if he’s God. But Joseph avoids that place. And that’s what prevents him from taking revenge.