God Intervenes for Joseph
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
How the words ring out with almost appalling sadness: "Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him."
1. Joseph had shown marked kindness to the chief butler, yet he forgat him. We stop for a moment to ponder the kindness of God toward us in Christ Jesus. This Scripture is most suggestive: "Therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee." Another Scripture just as wonderful is, "After the kindness of God our Saviour appeared."
This kindness of God toward us makes man's ingratitude and forgetfulness of Christ stand forth in strong colors. If. He had not loved us with so great a love it would have been different. If He had not demonstrated the deepness of His love and kindness by such overwhelming gifts of His grace it would not have been so marked when man turned His face upon the Lord.
Who is it that tramples the Son of God under his feet? It is even those for whom He died.
Who is it that forgets Him days without number? It is even those who have tasted most of His benefits.
2. Joseph had foretold wonderful things to come for the chief butler, yet he forgat him. With what resounding joy did Joseph's interpretation of the chief butler's dream come to him I He was assured of a speedy return to the favor of Pharaoh; his darkness was turned to light; his fear of death, to delight of life, and yet he forgat Him.
In the case of our Lord it was even far greater: Jesus Christ not only told of things to come, of life and light and love, but He made that blessed future possible by His own death for us, yet we forgat Him.
We too, languished under threat of eternal death, then He brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel. He went down for us into the pit, that He might lead its out into the light of life; He died that we might live; He suffered that we might sing; He pointed the way to the city of gold, where He is the light forevermore, yet we forgat Him.
One Scripture runs: "Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful."
3. Joseph had definitely requested of the chief butler that he remember him, yet he forgat him. How weary and how dreary were the two years which Joseph spent in prison! How oft did his mind go to the pledge of the chief butler to remember him, and yet he languished, forgotten in prison!
Did not the Lord Jesus say, "This do in remembrance of Me"? Yet, how often do we forget Him!
"Lord, help me to remember the sacred debt;
Oh, by the love that sought me,
Oh, fay the blood that bought me,
Oh, by the grace that brought me to the fold,
Lord, let me not forget,
Oh, let me not forget!"
How the words of warning ring out: "Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God * *. Lest, when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein * * then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget."
Thou chief butler, reveling in the plenty of Pharaoh's house, and basking under the smile of Pharaoh's face, hast thou forgotten the one who spake peace to thy soul? How plaintive the cry of the Lord, "My people have forgotten Me days without number."
Lord, if I forget Thee, may my right hand forget its cunning, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth.
I. GOD REMEMBERS JOSEPH (Acts 7:9-10)
1. Did Joseph feel forgotten of God? Joseph was seventeen when his brethren sold him into Egypt. He is now thirty. His years had, for the most part, been years of travail. For a while he had prospered under? Potiphar, but afterward, through no fault of his own, he had been cast into prison.
As he lingered in the prison the weeks went into months and the months into years with no seeming manifestation of God's thought or care. Perhaps, Joseph doubted, even as John the Baptist doubted during the days of his prison experience under Herod, the Tetrarch of Galilee.
We remember how our Lord as He hung upon the Cross said, "Why hast Thou forsaken Me?"
Joseph seemed alone, but he was not, for God was with him. Jesus seemed alone, and He was because for our sake the Father hid His face.
2. How God was working for Joseph. God had not ceased to move in His servant's behalf, even though His servant knew not either God's purpose or plan which was steadily moving on toward expression. When we sometimes wonder what lies ahead, and know nothing of the way, we can surely trust our Guide. We walk by faith and not by sight. We should wait upon the Lord and be of good courage.
There is a verse which says, "All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."
Joseph's prison experience is one of the "all things." Joseph knew not the how nor the why, but he did know how to trust in God.
God moves in a mysterious way His wonders to perform. He leads us through the valley in order to prepare us for mountain top experiences. He permits the rain to fall in order that He may strengthen, settle, establish, and perfect us against the day of some greater task. All the way, and at every turn, He is leading us to something better.
II. PHARAOH'S DREAM (Genesis 41:1)
At the end of two years Pharaoh dreamed that he stood by a river and behold there came out of the river seven well-favored kine which fed in a meadow. Following, there came also seven other kine, ill-favored and lean, and they did eat up the seven fat kine.
Pharaoh dreamed the second time and there were seven ears of corn rank and good. Following, there were seven thin ears which came up and devoured the full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke the second time.
1. The heart of the king is in the hand of God. Joseph had sought aid of the chief butler, but had long since despaired of any help therefrom. It was God and not man who delivered Joseph. However, God wrought His deliverance by means of a simple dream which He sent to the king of Egypt. Pharaoh, when he dreamed, did not pass up his dream as of no consequence. God would not let him shake it from his mind. Therefore, he called for the magicians of Egypt and for all of his wise men, but there was none that could interpret unto him.
Man's inability became God's opportunity. The chief butler was made to remember how Joseph had revealed unto him his dream, and also the dream of the chief baker. He remembered, likewise, that everything Joseph had said had been verified. Therefore, he related to Pharaoh the circumstances now two years past. Thus it was that Joseph was called and brought hastily out of the dungeon unto Pharaoh.
2. Joseph's deliverance assured. As the order came from Pharaoh that Joseph should be brought into his presence, he hastened to shave himself and to change his raiment. As this was going on his heart must have throbbed with wonderful anticipation. He was about to be delivered from the dungeon on the one hand and to go far beyond his former estate on the other hand. Thus it is that our God works in behalf of all of us. He takes us not only from the pit into which we had fallen, but He makes our standing more secure than it was before we fell. What we lost in Adam, we more than regained in Christ.
III. JOSEPH'S CONFESSION (Genesis 41:16)
As Joseph stood before Pharaoh and heard in detail the two dreams which had come to the king, he hastened to speak words of interpretation and of peace.
1. Joseph did not plead in his own behalf. It would have been natural for Joseph, standing in the presence of one of such matchless power, to have pleaded his own innocency and to have detailed his unjust sufferings. Of himself, however, he said nothing.
We are reminded of how Paul, standing before King Agrippa, pleaded not for his. own release, but how he rather preached the Christ and pleaded with King Agrippa to be saved.
As Jesus Christ moved among men He thought not of Himself but of. others.
2. Joseph did not plead any power in himself.
Pharaoh, said unto Joseph, "I have heard say of thee, that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it." Joseph meekly replied, "It is not in me." Here is the true Christian spirit. We should not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We have no authority nor power to accomplish anything. The souls saved, the lives strengthened and blest, are not the result of anything that lies within us. What we do is what He does through us. "Not I, but Christ." That should be the slogan of every believer.
3. Joseph gave honor and glory to God. He said to King Pharaoh, "God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace." The whole ministry of Christ Jesus on this earth was a ministry of magnifying the Father. He said, "I have glorified Thee on the earth." In this Joseph was like his Lord.
Let us also follow in the footsteps of this modest and God-centered man. Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, let us do all to the glory of God.
IV. PHARAOH TURNS TO JOSEPH (Genesis 41:14-15)
To us it is most wonderful that Pharaoh in his extremity turned to Joseph. In doing this he acknowledged that the magicians and wise men of Egypt could not help him. He found in Joseph what he could not find in them.
1. Thus does the sinner find in man nothing that helps him to know God. How many have tried the resources of men to attain peace to their sin-burdened souls! Yet they looked in vain.
We can almost see the great caravans of old in India as they press their way to some heathen shrine seeking peace. After all of the weariness of their journey is past, after all their tears and penance and loud wailings are over, they return the same unhappy and sin-laden sinners that they were when they went away from home.
We can see the masses who look to some man to absolve them from their guilt; they climb their lonely penitential way, and yet they never find their sins are gone, unless they look higher than mankind, to Jesus, our Savior.
The world and its false religions, the world and its pleasures and its philosophies cannot ever lead one sinner into the harbor of perfect peace and rest from the curse.
2. Thus does the sinner find only in God the One who can save. Joseph is the type of Christ. It is Christ who says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest"
Can you see the Lord Jesus as, on that last day, the great day of the feast, He stood and cried, saying, "If any man thirst, let Him come unto Me, and drink."
What the wise men and magicians cannot do, Christ can do. What the world of men cannot give, Christ can give. What the wisdom of this world cannot see, Christ can see and can reveal.
Joseph was not slow to unravel Pharaoh's dream. It was God who had given the dream, and it was God, who, through His servant, could reveal the dream.
V. JOSEPH TELLING THINGS TO COME (Genesis 41:25; Genesis 41:32)
With what quiet certainty did Joseph begin to make known to Pharaoh his dream. There was no spirit of guess, either as to the content of the dream, or as to its interpretation. Joseph spoke with authority. He plainly stated that God was showing unto Pharaoh what He was about to do. Thus it is today.
1. Christ, our Joseph, has told us the things which must come to pass with speed. When among men, the Lord Jesus did not hesitate to unveil the course of world events. He described with clearness the times of the end. He made known the conditions which would prevail at His Coming.
Wonderful, beyond explanation, are the words of our Lord through the Apostles. Pharaoh had no more of a faithful delineation of what was about to come to pass on earth than do we. Before out very eyes prophecy is fast being fulfilled.
Pharaoh was not left in darkness. He was a great Gentile ruler, and God showed him the things that would affect the whole world of his day. At this hour God is letting rulers and potentates in on what is now about to happen. Nations do not need to face the future blindly. The more sure Word of prophecy tells it all.
2. Christ, our Joseph, is giving words of warning, that due preparation may be made to meet the issues of the day. Joseph gave Pharaoh good advice. He told Pharaoh how to meet the issues of the approaching years of famine.
To be fore-warned should be to be fore-armed. Days of famine and wars and pestilence now lie again before the world. Where is the monarch who is wise enough to prepare against their arrival?
It is folly to deny that tribulation lies ahead. God's Word is true, and what He says is sure. Prophecy is "the more sure Word" that shineth as a lamp in a dark place, until the day dawn. God give us men in authority who see and act accordingly.
VI. WHAT LIES AHEAD (Genesis 41:29-31)
As Joseph detailed to Pharaoh the meaning of the monarch's dream two great things stood out seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine. The plenty was to be exceedingly great. The scarcity was to be just as great. In the famine the years of bounty were to be forgotten.
We would pause to study this condition of affairs and seek to know if there is any duplicate in. the lives of men today.
1. We have been living in the age of grace. A God of bounteous mercies is dealing with the world in all forbearance. The years have been filled with enough and to spare. The barns have been filled and the fields have groaned with plenty.
What has been the trend of the age? It has been to live up the bounties of our harvests without laying by in store against the days to come. Men have luxuriated upon the earth; they have lived in pleasure and have been wanton. They have nourished their hearts in a time when slaughter is drawing nigh.
The world has gone to the limit in feeding the lusts of the flesh.
2. We are approaching the day of tribulation. Even now the sound of coming thunders may be heard. In the distance storms are gathering. Clouds of judgment are forming.
Already there is a sense of fearful looking for of those things that are coming to pass upon the earth. Men's hearts are failing them for fear. Every time that some new move for peace and righteousness appears the populace begins to hope for better times. Hopes soon become no more than the colors of a soap bubble; they burst before the day has long gone.
Famine and pestilence prevail. Banks are closed; international problems hold the attention of the world. Will men be able to stem the tide of this deluge of unemployment that is gripping the nations? From whence does it all come whither will it lead? These are the queries on every lip.
VII. THE SWAY OF THE FAMINE (Genesis 41:56)
1. We have a famine that is earth wide. One of the things that stands forth in the light at this hour is the universality of the present day depression. No nation has failed to feel the grip of distress. The throes of anguish girdle the globe. National and international conferences have been the call of the hour. That famine of old was everywhere; the famine of today is everywhere.
2. We have a famine that entails much of suffering. The people of Pharaoh's day began to cry for bread. The last days, which we now are entering will find multitudes crying once more for the staff of life. Riots and near riots fill the air. Governmental revolutions are about to startle the world.
Christ said, "Then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be." Such foreboding of ill the world used to laugh off, but they cannot laugh now. The pressure of just such a time is already beginning to grip, and its reality cannot be denied.
3. Let us not be heralders of a false optimism. Joseph did not say peace where there was no peace. He did not cry a false hope. On the other hand Joseph gave a full and faithful warning.
Do preachers who know the message of God concerning the coming tribulation faithfully warn their people? There are many who are crying "Preach unto us smooth things." Shall we succumb to their plea, or shall we proclaim the facts? Joseph not only said that the famine was coming, but he also said, "The thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring if to pass." Thus, also, is the prophecy of the last days established. False Christs shall arise; the antichrist will come; there will be wars and famines and pestilences; and all of these will be but the beginning of sorrows. The picture is not a roseate one, but it is a true one.
AN ILLUSTRATION
God has a plan, and the details of that plan are not revealed, and so we are confounded by single items and incidents. In a certain room in Paris the observer sees a succession of frames, crossed with innumerable threads of varying color and size. Nothing meets the eye but a blur of tints and a confusion of outlines, And as the hand of the hidden workman passes the shuttle to and fro, the wonder grows as to what the result is to be. But the workman sees what is hidden from the observer. Behind the screen hangs the canvas of some great artist whose thought of beauty he is copying, and every bewildering thread, every shade and color, is producing some peculiarity of the marvelous original, and the completed tapestry will be the choicest treasure of a king's palace. The world is God's thought. Every man's experience is a strand in the great whole; but what the Divine intent is no man knows. We have only to wait and be confident. God can do no wrong. The confused colors, the snarled outlines, that so perplex us now, will by and by blend in harmony. Monday Club Sermons.