Edited transcript of sermon:
Let us now return to the scriptures that we read to Genesis chapter 39. And we shall read verses 21 through 23. Genesis 39, verses 21 through 23:
“But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy, and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand; because the Lord was with him, and that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.”
This passage contains valuable lessons for sinners who come and put their trust in Jesus Christ. We are told in the book of Acts that those who put their trust in Christ must enter the kingdom of God through much tribulation.
Here we have a man in much tribulation – he is in prison. And yet we read twice that the Lord was with him though he had no liberty – he had no freedom. He was in a very bad environment, as we would say today. He was in an environment that was pagan, hostile to the truth and he could not get away from this place, obviously. We have some place we can go if we really want to be alone. If we are really in earnest in seeking the Lord’s face, we can make time, we can find a place to seek the Lord in secret. But it is hard to say whether Joseph ever had that privilege when he was in prison.
So, he had many bad influences all around him there in the prison. The Egyptians were notorious idolaters. Yet there the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy. And in His good time, He brought to pass all that he had promised to Joseph. All these things are valuable lessons for those who put their trust in Christ and may be at this present time going through a period of tribulation. They are to look here and find instruction and encouragement.
The Church itself today is going through a period of great tribulation. That is true especially throughout the West. Not just our own branch of the Church, but in other branches too. Christians report challenges of various sorts. So, the Church itself is going through a period of great tribulation. And she can find her experience here in Joseph being in prison.
Many things were going against him. And yet the Lord was with him. Let us look in the first place at the promises that the Lord gave to Joseph. The Lord gives promises to all who put their trust in Christ. Then secondly, we would like to look at the providences – the providences that seem to be running contrary to the promises that Joseph was given. And then thirdly, we would like to look at the presence of the Lord that Joseph enjoyed. While he was experiencing these mysterious providences, he still enjoyed the Lord’s presence – even though the providences were all running contrary to the promises that he had received as a young boy, a young teenager. And so we would like to consider then in the first place
1. The promises.
2. The providences.
3. The presence of the Lord, which Joseph enjoyed.
Well, let us look firstly at the promises given to Joseph. These promises came to Joseph in the form of a dream. That was because the Bible was not yet completed. And so God spoke in times past in various ways and in diverse manners. As Paul says in Hebrews chapter one, He only speaks through His written Word now, but in the time of Joseph, He would speak sometimes in dreams.
And that’s how He revealed Himself to Joseph. He revealed to Joseph in these dreams that Joseph would enjoy promises of earthly blessing and honour. And not just earthly blessings, there was the Lord’s favour in it too – the Lord’s special gracious favour in these promises, sovereignly selecting Joseph and purposing to raise him above his brethren.
We know the story: he dreamed that his sheaf stood upright and the sheaves of his brethren bowed down to his sheaf. And then he dreamed another dream and the sun and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance or showed respect and obedience to him. This of course was foretelling the time when his father and his brethren would bow down to him when he was governor in Egypt. And so it was a promise of exaltation – a promise of high honour.
Now these promises were evidence that Joseph was not under the law, but he was under grace. Because when we are under the law, we are in a state of condemnation. “Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”
They that are of the works of the law are under the curse or under the condemnation. And so the fact that the Lord was appearing to Joseph and giving him these special blessings was evidence that he had been delivered out of the Covenant of Works. He had been delivered out of that fearful condemnation that all the children of Adam are under when they come into this world.
Now, some might say, Do not the wicked also enjoy the Lord’s earthly blessings? The answer is yes. But as we said, in these promises that the Lord made to Joseph, there was spiritual good in them too, because we were singing in Psalm 105, how when Joseph was in prison, “The word of the Lord tried him.” So when he was in prison and his feet were bound in the fetters, and his feet were hurt with those fetters, he was in pain there in the prison.
And the word of the Lord was trying him, testing him. There was this struggle between faith and unbelief in his soul or faith and sense. Faith was believing what the Lord had told Joseph in these dreams: “Yes, the Lord’s Word shall surely come to pass. He is a faithful God, he cannot lie.” That’s what faith in Joseph’s soul would be saying.
But his senses would be saying, “How can this be? It’s just one disappointment and one heartache after another. First sold into slavery, then falsely accused. And now in this prison.” And later on, forgotten in the prison.
So there was this battle between faith and sense. This is an experience of all the people of God in their own lives. It is the battle that the church is in in every age: the battle between faith and sense. The church has been given exceedingly great and precious promises. A glorious future awaits her. She has all these promises of preservation.
Sometimes even those promises of preservation are put to the test. The church is not just asking, “Will we be blessed and multiplied? But will we even be preserved? Will we survive all these storms?” The ship is covered with waves, to borrow the words from that time when the disciples were on the Sea of Galilee. It seems as if the ship is about to go down.
We read these promises that the Lord will build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail. We read about the Lord watching over His vineyard and watering it every moment, keeping it night and day. But the wind is in our face and there’s one challenge after another. Are we really going to be preserved? Our senses, our “common sense,” tells us that we can’t go on like this much longer.
But faith says, “No, He will watch over His Church night and day. He will water it every moment.”
Now, Joseph then was given these promises that he would reign over his brethren. And if you come to Christ, you too will have precious promises given to you. In fact, you will have promises that are far more precious than any earthly honour or blessing. And one thing that’s very important to remember about the promises in the word of God, is that you can only enjoy them in Christ. In other words, you have to go to Christ. You have to put your trust in Christ in order to benefit from any of these promises.
If we were to go to people who were openly ungodly as they were mourning over the loss of a loved one, then we would naturally sympathize with them and want to comfort them. But if we were to tell them – and they’ve given no evidence of any saving change and they’re living a careless, indifferent life – if we were to tell them, “The Bible promises, Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted.” We wouldn’t be applying the scripture correctly in that case.
Christ is speaking about those who are in a state of grace, those who are united to Himself. “Blessed are they that mourn,” especially they mourn over their sins with a godly sorrow. Only they shall be comforted. So how can we say that to someone who’s rejecting Christ, that they shall certainly be comforted? So that’s why we say that all the promises are in Jesus Christ and can only be enjoyed by believing in Jesus Christ.
But the point is this, if we do believe in Jesus Christ, then exceeding great and precious promises are made to us. We have the promise that we shall be kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth. And we have the promise that we shall as kings obtain the victory over sin. Sin will not have dominion over us, but we shall have dominion over it, and we shall fully conquer it one day.
We have the promise that we shall overcome Satan and the Lord will bruise Satan under our feet shortly. And we have the promise that we will overcome the world by believing that Jesus is the Son of God. We shall overcome the world.
The world might hold believers in reproach now and be very haughty and triumphant over the believers in the Church now. But we are told that if we put our trust in the Son of God, we will overcome the world, however unlikely that may seem at times.
And iniquities may be prevailing against us for a time, but by our God assisting us, we will rise up again. We will through the Spirit put to death the deeds of the body. We will through the grace of Christ obtain complete victory over sin. The wicked might be gloating now, but the promise is that one day the saints will judge even the angels.
What a wonder that will be. The saints putting their Amen to Christ’s judgments and Christ as it were, sharing the honour with them, judging the angels and putting their Amen to His judgments upon wicked men and wicked kings and wicked leaders. And those wicked leaders will be envying the weakest believer that ever lived. “If only we were one of them! If only we had been like Lazarus who spent his days in poverty, neglected by the rich man! Oh, if we could only trade places with Lazarus!”
That’s what presidents and prime ministers and kings and great men and wealthy men, will be saying at the last day. So we have all these promises, but it’s important to notice that this promise that was given to Joseph was not given to gratify his pride. He was ultimately going to be elevated to be a blessing to his brethren and provide for them in a time of famine.
Here is an important practical lesson. If the Lord in His goodness promises us some good that He may not give to others – some place of usefulness that He won’t give to others of His people – it’s not to gratify our pride, obviously.
It is to make us useful to these others. If He is promising to confer some special blessing upon us, it is so that we will be useful to these others who will not be given that same blessing. And so with every special blessing that the Lord may give to one of His people: the believer recognizes this is a special blessing, that He has not given this to all His people.
The believer should consider very seriously, “Well, with this special blessing comes a special responsibility. The fact that He has given me this special opportunity or this special blessing means I have a special responsibility to use it for God’s glory and the good of the church and the good of those around me.
That’s the improvement or the application that Joseph was to make. Joseph, we learned from Hebrews, had true faith. So he was a God-fearing man. That’s very clear in this chapter, which describes his resisting of temptation.
He had a deep fear of God and no amount of temptation or subtlety could conquer the fear of God in his heart. And so when he received these promises of exaltation and honour, he would have said to himself, “Well, this is a promise of blessing that I will have to use to the benefit of my brethren, not to lord it over them, but to benefit them.”
Now then we need to hasten on secondly to consider the providences – the providences that ran contrary to these promises. Almost as soon as these promises were granted to him, he began to run into all kinds of trouble. And so it is with the people of God. At the very outset of their Christian journey, they are given exceedingly great and precious promises.
We’ve only mentioned a fraction of them: victory over sin, over Satan, over the world; the honour and blessing that they will enjoy at the last day and so on. So many, many others that we could mention, but all these promises are theirs and will certainly be fulfilled.
There’s no doubt about it. The Lord will not fail in the least of the promises that He has made to every single one of His people. But almost at the very outset of their Christian journey, they run into troubles and providences that seem to be contradicting what the Lord has promised to give them.
That’s how it was with Joseph. As soon as he has these dreams and he tells his brethren about them, trouble arose. We do not believe that he was wrong in telling them because God was revealing himself to Joseph in a special way. And why would God reveal something and expect that it would be immediately concealed? Why would he reveal something and then tell Joseph to hide it? This was a blessing that was ultimately going to be for the good of all his brethren.
When his father Jacob had a dream, he told his family about it (Gen. 35:2-3). They knew by now that God was sovereign and was not obligated to distribute His favours equally amongst all His people. “Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated,” the Lord said. No doubt Jacob told his sons about all this when they were older, when they were old enough to understand. He told them about God’s sovereign grace choosing him instead of his brother Esau.
So there was no ground whatsoever for his brethren to take offense. God can do what He will with His creatures. But that by the way. The point is as soon as Joseph received these promises through dreams, he began to run into troubles. His brethren hated him, envied him, could not speak peaceably to him. They sold him into slavery. He lost his freedom.
He was, instead of moving upward – he was going downward. And then he went to Potiphar’s house and he seemed to be moving up, only to be cast down again, falsely accused, thrown into prison. His feet hurt with the fetters of the prison.
Everything was running contrary to the promises that God gave him. And so it is with the people of God often. So it is often with the Church.
The Lord gives His Church precious promises and then throws His Church into the furnace. Or He may at certain times seal and confirm and reassure His people that certain promises in the Bible are really theirs. Perhaps these promises are particularly impressed upon them, during a sermon or when they’re reading the Bible.
Or when they are at the Lord’s Table, a promise from the Scriptures is laid upon their heart and it gives them much encouragement. But as soon as that happens, then they’re thrown into the furnace. And why is this happening, we ask? Well, why did it happen for Joseph? One reason is, Joseph was going to be elevated to a position of great usefulness and fame and honour and wealth.
And before he could enjoy those blessings, he needed the grace of humility developed in his soul so that he would use his new position rightly so that it would not puff him up. He had to learn self-denial in a variety of different situations, because when he would be lifted up to be governor over all Egypt, it would be very easy to become self-indulgent and seek his own ease and his own pleasure. And then his elevation to the position of governor would just be harmful to him.
So important graces needed to be cultivated and developed in his soul through a long process of toil and hardship. And graces of faith and patience needed to be developed in his soul before he could become governor. As governor, he would have many demands on his time and many, many stresses and headaches associated with that position of honour.
Therefore, the grace of patience would be much needed. He needed wisdom too. And this is generally not something that the Lord gives overnight. Wisdom is something He gives through the Word and often through the school of affliction.
That’s where we learn wisdom. It’s often when we’re in a lot of toil or hardship or affliction that we begin to read the Word of God more closely. We begin to read it as a broken, poor sinner.
And that’s when we start to benefit from the Word of God more than when things are going smoothly in life. We read the Word of God and we might say, “Well, that was nice. That was instructive.” And we close the book. But when we’re going through times of suffering and trial, there’s portions of the Bible that stand out to us. And we say, “I never noticed that portion before.”
When Joseph was in prison, there was no doubt a time of self-examination. He would have hours, especially when his feet were bound with fetters, hours to go over his life from his youth, and think about how his father instructed him.
Then he would have time to think about his conduct. And perhaps at times, remember times when his conduct as a youth was wrong. “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.” Joseph was a child of Adam, just like anyone else. He had foolishness bound up in his heart. So it would be a time of self-reflection, self-examination.
When things are going well in life, we often, we don’t really reflect. We don’t really scrutinize our past conduct. But the Psalmist said, “I thought upon my former ways and did my life well try.”
That’s what all the Lord’s people need to do if they wish to grow in grace and they wish to be more useful to the Lord’s cause. You have to think upon your former ways. You have to remember the way the Lord your God led you. You must reflect upon past trials. What was the Lord’s way? What was the Lord teaching me in that? He does all things well. He never causes a needless tear.
“Why did He see that I needed to go through that? Why did He see that I needed to go through that trial and then that one, and then that one, and then that one? Was I really just a Job in all those trials and harassed and troubled for some mysterious reason? Or was it because there were some sin or some besetting sin in me, some flaw in me that was greatly hindering my usefulness? And so that’s why the Lord put me in the furnace.”
These are all questions that the believer must ask when God’s providences are running contrary to the promises. “The Lord has very wise and holy reasons for leading me in the way that He is. “So let me examine now my conduct. Let me examine how I was walking with the Lord. Or was I really walking with the Lord? Was I actually starting to drift from the Lord? And that’s why He threw me into the furnace.”
There’s a very striking proverb told by Solomon. He says, “Most men proclaim everyone his own goodness.” Most men proclaim everyone his own goodness.
We have a natural tendency to proclaim our own goodness – maybe not out loud, but when we’re going through our troubles, trials, and difficulties, we are saying, “What did I do to deserve that? I shouldn’t have had to go through that.” And we are proclaiming our own goodness to ourselves. So these times of providence are very useful for the believer becoming more acquainted with himself – getting more knowledgeable about himself.
Joseph had much time for self-reflection and he became more knowledgeable of his own heart. And this was very necessary preparation for becoming governor over Egypt. This is something that he had to go through.
He had to become more acquainted with himself. If a man is advanced to a position of usefulness, he will stumble very quickly and might do more harm than good if he doesn’t know himself. It is in these times of adversity and trouble that we learn about our weaknesses.
We learn about where we’re especially vulnerable, where Satan knows how to exploit a particular weakness, or a particular passion. And that is very valuable to be shown your own weakness so that you’ll be very watchful against it in the future when things are going better – more smoothly.
Well then, we need to hasten on and consider thirdly the presence that he enjoyed while in the prison.
No doubt the promises in these dreams gave him a lot of encouragement and kept up his hopes – kept him from totally desponding. But when he reflected on those dreams, he might well have said, “Well, the Lord was promising me something very wonderful there. There’s no doubt He was speaking to me there. But after all that’s happened in these last years, maybe I misunderstood exactly how He is going to fulfil it. Maybe it’s a promise of exaltation that will take place in heaven. Maybe I’ll have a special place of honour in heaven.”
We don’t know. We don’t know the thoughts that went through Joseph’s mind. We shouldn’t speculate, but we know this: The Lord had appeared to him just as He had appeared to his father, Jacob. And Joseph could say in prison, “The Lord appeared to me in a dream just as He appeared to my father, Jacob, in a dream at Bethel. He told my father, ‘I will not leave thee till I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.’ And the God of my father is my God too. And therefore my God, the God of my father, will not leave me until He has done all that He has spoken to me of. The Lord promised to be with my father everywhere he went. And I have taken that same God to be my God. So He will be with me in this prison.”
And that would become his plea and prayer when he was in prison. “Lord, be with me, as Thou wast with my father when he was in Laban’s house. And be with me now as Thou was with my father when he was meeting my Uncle Esau and 400 men with him. And Lord, give me signs that Thou art with me. What I need now is Thy presence. I do not know how long I will be in this prison. I do not know how long I will be in these circumstances where I’m around pagan idolaters. I’m locked in with them. I can’t get away from them. My environment could hardly be worse. I have no fellowship. I have no like-minded friends with me. I’m a Hebrew. Everyone else has their many gods that they worship. I can’t come and have fellowship with another believer. And we can’t talk with one another about Jehovah and the promises and the Messiah. I’m all on my own here in prison, surrounded by all these pagan, heathen influences. And I cannot get away from them.”
Yes, Joseph’s situation, his circumstances, his condition was far lonelier and far more difficult than our own in many ways. His was far more trying and tempting. He would be longing for those days when he was back home and conversing with his father, Jacob.
They both loved the same Lord and hoped in the same promises, believed in the same Messiah. They no doubt had sweet fellowship together. That was all gone now. He hadn’t seen his father in years. He had no fellowship anymore. He was all on his own.
And so what he needed more than ever was the Lord’s presence. “Lord, Thou wast with my father everywhere he went. And so be with me. Thou art the God of Jacob. And the God of Jacob cannot change. And give me signs, give me tokens that Thou art with me.”
And that is what happened in due time. The Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. So there were tokens or signs in his providence that the Lord was with him.
And we know the Lord was with Joseph because he didn’t sink down into despondency. He didn’t say, “Well, what’s the purpose of getting up off my prison bed again this morning? I’m in prison, surrounded by all these evil idolaters. I don’t even want to face them today. I’ve just had one setback after another. First sold as a slave, then falsely accused and cast into prison. Ah, what’s the purpose of going on?”
No, we find that he was very industrious. “The keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.” He was a busy man in the prison.
He was a busy man while he was waiting for the Lord to fulfil His promises. And here’s an important lesson for ourselves as believers and as a Church: we’re waiting and pleading and hoping in the promises. But let us be busy.
Let us be occupied in the Lord’s work while we are waiting on Him to fulfil these promises. There will be times when we’re tempted to say, “Is it even worth it? After all the disappointments I’ve had in my own life, after all these setbacks, after all the heartache that I’ve had in my life, what’s the point of going on?” Ah, then plead the promises of the Lord’s presence. “Lord, be with me as Thou wast with Jacob and Joseph and all Thy people in affliction and trouble. Be with me.”
Now you might ask, “How is the Lord with His people?” Well, it’s not some mystical force – some mystical feeling that people have, that leads them to think that the Lord is with them.
What happens when the Lord is with His people in a gracious way is, He sends forth His Spirit to strengthen them with might in the inward man. That’s how He is with them. He sends forth His Spirit to impress truths in the Word of God upon their soul.
And that encourages them. The Spirit of God works by and with the Word to comfort and guide and strengthen the believer in affliction. That’s what the presence of the Lord is. God the Holy Spirit working by and with the Word to strengthen the believer in the inward man. And that is why we are ever to keep close to the Word, read the Word, ponder the Word, pray over the Word, and plead the promises and plead the merits of Jesus Christ above all. Plead the merits of His blood!
“Lord, for the sake of the blood, be present with me, strengthen me with might in the inward man that I may persevere through all these difficulties.”
May the Lord bless His Word to us. Let us pray.
Oh Lord, may we wonder at this, that Thou art the same God still, the same faithful God, the same reconciling God, offering grace and mercy freely through Jesus Christ and in Him making exceedingly great and precious promises. Lord, bless these truths to us. Strengthen Thy people with might in the inward man and may others be encouraged to take Joseph’s God to be their God and their guide, even unto death. Do Thou wash away all our sins and take us to our homes in safety. All we ask is for Jesus’ sake, Amen.
Speaker: Rev Caleb J Hembd
Congregation Gisborne
Text: Genesis 39:21-23
Date: 14 June 2023
Series: