It's Not Fair // Defining Moments, Part 2

If ever any one ever had an unfair life – it was Joseph back there in the old testament. One step forward, two steps back seems to be the story of so much of what he went through … sound familiar? Yet in the end, he came out in front. At the end of the day, what others meant for harm in his life, God meant for good in the lives of so many others. Hmm.

 

It’s Not Fair

One of my favourite sayings when I was a young lad growing up, was "It’s not fair!" I just hated things that weren’t fair. When my parents made a decision between my sister and me – whether I had to clean up or she had to clean up and the lot fell to me, I’d say, "It’s not fair!" I remember a soccer game in the park – with one of my teachers, Mr Moore, who I really liked and he made a bad decision against my team – "It’s not fair!"

Sometimes I was right, it wasn’t fair and other times it was just the way I saw things – my perception, maybe from my selfish position but one of the things I really, really hate in life is when it’s not fair. Although, well, I’d have to qualify that – I’m a human being after all – I hate "not fair" when I am on the losing end of an unfair transaction. You know, funny, but I don’t mind so much when I am on the winning side. That’s pretty natural. "Not fair" only really upsets us when we lose.

We are continuing our series today called "Defining Moments” Things that we do or things that happen to us in life that seem to change the course of our lives and last week we looked at Abraham – the defining moment for him was when he responded to God’s love and just believed the unbelievable promises of God. He just stepped out into the impossible promises of God and because of his simple child-like faith, imperfect as it was. I mean God overlooked, indeed, God compensated for all of Abraham’s blunders.

Today we are going to take a look at the life of a man called Joseph because if anyone ever lived a life where he was unfairly treated, it was definitely Joseph. So many things that happened to him were just so incredibly unfair. Really – we will look at that in a moment – and yet there was some real defining moments along the way for Joseph.

It’s really important to look at this story! We are going to discover something about ourselves and about God. It is so easy to look at defining moments from a human perspective but we need to look at them "top down"; from God’s perspective as well. I know we are going to be blessed as we go in search of some of the defining moments in Joseph’s life.

Now who was Joseph? Last week we talked about Abraham who was the father of the whole nation of Israel and he had this son he called Isaac. Isaac had a son called Jacob and Jacob was actually renamed by God and called Israel. And Jacob or Israel had twelve sons, one of whom was Joseph. Now he was the youngest at the time this story begins and he was pretty much dad’s favourite.

If you have got a Bible, grab it – open it up with me at Genesis chapter 37, verse 2:

Joseph being seventeen years old was shepherding the flock with his brothers. He was a helper to the son’s of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives and Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel who was Jacob, loved Joseph more than any of his other children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than all of the other brothers, they hated him and they couldn’t speak peaceably to him.

Once, Joseph had this dream and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said, “Listen to this dream that I just dreamed: there we were binding sheaves in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose up and stood upright and your sheaves, they gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.” His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed going to reign over us? Are you indeed going to have dominion over us?” So they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words.

And he had another dream and he told this to his brothers as well saying, “Look, I have had another dream: the sun, the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Well, you can question Joseph’s maturity at sharing those dreams with his brothers. As we can imagine, they were none too impressed – I wouldn’t be, you wouldn’t be. "Little brat – dad’s favourite – this kid needs to be taught a lesson." So the brothers plotted against him – first they wanted to kill him – "Well", they thought, "that’s a bit over the top", so instead they threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery.

Have a look – Genesis chapter 37, beginning at verse 23:

So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe; the long robe with the sleeves that he wore, and they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it, then they sat down to eat and looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels, carrying gum, balm and resin and they were on their way, carrying it down to Egypt.

Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him, for his is our brother; our own flesh. So the other brothers agreed. When some of the Medianite traders passed by, they drew Joseph up, lifting him up out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty pieces of silver and they took Joseph to Egypt.”

And these other brothers went back and told their father that Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. How do you think Joseph felt? It’s not fair! I mean, his own brothers! Okay, maybe he did rub them the wrong way. Okay maybe he was dad’s favourite but his own brothers? I mean that is so unfair. Isn’t that so often the way – our own brothers and sisters; those who are closest to us; those who should love us the most; those whom we trusted – they are the ones who treat us unfairly?

It’s one thing to be treated unfairly by an associate or even an enemy; you almost expect that but by his own brothers – sold into slavery; into a completely uncertain future; completely lost his freedom – come on, let’s walk a mile in Joseph’s shoes right now.

He is a slave in that caravan, being taken down into a foreign land; into Egypt to be sold into goodness knows what; no future….. I don’t know about you, but I would have been tempted to react pretty badly to that. I would have been tempted to be bitter and to swear an oath that I would never, ever forgive my brothers. It would have been so easy for young Joseph to have bitterness and un-forgiveness in his heart – don’t you think?

Let’s bring this right close to home. People who have treated us badly and us unfairly, how have you and I responded? We seem to take their failure, their bad behaviour as our license to behave badly, don’t we? How many of us have got un-forgiveness in our hearts? How many of us are carrying a knot of anger in our hearts that’s robbing us of life?
We will look at Joseph’s life in a moment and we are going to look at the defining moment in his life, when life was just so unfair.

 

From Bad to Worse

Sometimes it seems that life is one step forward and two steps back. I mean, young Joseph was dad’s favourite; he had great dreams of success for the future, then he is sold into slavery and he is down in a slave market in Egypt, purchased by a man called Potiphar. Have a look at it: Genesis chapter 39, beginning at verse 1:

Now Joseph was taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of the Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph and he became a successful man. He was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph found favour in his sight and attended him.

Potiphar made Joseph the overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he had made him overseer in his house and all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in the house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge and with him there, he had no concern for anything but the food that he ate. Now Joseph was handsome and good looking.

WOW, things are on the up and up again. What could have been terrible instead ... God puts Joseph in a place where He can use his gifts and his abilities and God blesses Joseph. The word "Joseph" means to be "a multiplier" and that is literally what Joseph’s gift was. We see that throughout the story of his life – it is one of the things that Joseph was really good at – being a multiplier.

Now you might be thinking, "Well, Berni, now things are going well for young Joe. All that temptation to behave badly, that’s all gone away", but you would be wrong! Because one of the things that we love to do is to get some recompense out of life. When we have gone through bad times we can still have bitterness in our hearts.

It would have been easy for Joseph to have bitterness in his heart and then the good times start to flow and we decide "Well, it’s time to make hay while the sun shines. I am going to get something out of life; I’m going to get some recompense. I’ll show those rotten brothers – I’ll take whatever I can and have whatever I can have. I’ll show them!"

Ever experienced that in your heart? Sure you have, so have I and that can be the time of such a great fall. Sure enough, Joseph had exactly that opportunity now that he was on easy street. We are going to have a look at this because I think this is the defining moment of Joseph’s walk. Genesis chapter 39, beginning at verse 7:

And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Sleep with me”, but he refused and he said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here my master has no concern about anything in his house. He has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in his house that I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

And although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to sleep with her or to be with her. One day however, when he went into the house to do his work and while no one else was in the house, she caught hold of his garment saying, “Sleep with me,” but he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. And when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled outside, she called out to the members of her household and said to them, “See, my husband has brought among us a Hebrew to insult us. He came in to sleep with me and I cried out with a loud voice and when he heard me raise my voice and cry out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.”

Then she kept his garment by her until his master came home and she told him the same story, saying, “That Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us, came in to insult me but as soon as I raised my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled outside.” When his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, saying, “This was the way your servant treated me,” he was enraged. And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the King’s prisoners were confined and there he remained in prison.

Do you see what happened here? See, I think that this is one of the defining moments in Joseph’s life. Bad things happen and he had a chance to make amends; he had a chance to take whatever he wanted, in particular, to taste this forbidden fruit. Potiphar’s wife kept tempting him and he could easily have said, "Yea, go on, Joseph. Come on, you deserve this! After all, look at what you have been through. Come on!" You know what I am saying!

And in the defining moment Joseph said “No!’ He refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, with me here my master has no concern about anything in the house. He has put everything in my hand. How then could I do this great wickedness?” Joseph said, "No" over and over again.

It’s a powerful thing to say, "No" to temptation when life has been unfair - to say, "No" to temptation when we can come up with every reason and every excuse to say, "Yes, come on!" And to make matters worse, Joseph’s right doing is rewarded by jail – that is sooo unfair! Do you get it?

Right, must be time to behave badly again! But no matter how badly people treated him or life treated him, Joseph remained true to himself. And here is the "top down" view; here is God’s view of this defining moment – God saw that and honoured it. Let’s pick it right up in Genesis 39, beginning at verse 21:

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love. He gave him favour in the sight of the chief jailer. And the chief jailer committed to Joseph’s care all the prisoners who were in his prison and whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The chief jailer paid no heed to anything that was is Joseph’s care because the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made it to prosper.” Do you get it?

Why do you think that these defining moments are hidden? We think that these temptation decisions are hidden from the world and when we have had a tough day or when people have been horrible to us, we are just so tempted to make amends by doing something wrong. The defining moment in Joseph’s walk is that Joseph said, "No" to that temptation.
Now I want you to hold that thought because we are going to have a look at what all this means to you and me, next.

 

Do Not Grow Weary

There is quite a bit more to Joseph’s story. He spent another two years in jail…..two years! I can’t begin to imagine that – it was so unfair. And finally, because he had a gift of interpreting dreams, he found favour with Pharaoh. And one thing led to another and Pharaoh made Joseph Prime Minister over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself; over the whole nation.

And then famine hits the land and because of Joseph’s wisdom and insight from God, he, as the leader, caused Egypt to store up enough grain for the coming famine and so people from all around Egypt came for food – in fact, all round the known world. And all of a sudden Joseph’s brothers came down from the land of Canaan, down to find some food in Egypt as well and Joseph recognised them, although they didn’t recognise him.

Aw, he struggled with that! What a temptation! Finally, there was Joseph, just like in those dreams he had when he was a young man. There was his brothers bowing down to him; now he had them; now he could take revenge. You can read the whole story in Genesis chapters 40 to 44. It is really worth a read.

What would Joseph do? Well, let’s take a look – Genesis chapter 45, beginning at verse 1:

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me!” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers couldn’t answer him and they were so dismayed that they were in his presence. (Wouldn’t you be?)

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me,” and they came closer and he said, “I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt and now don’t be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in this land for two years and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors, so it was not you who sent me here, but God; He has made me a father to Pharaoh and the lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”

What an amazing response? Grace, forgiveness and the knowledge that all along, through all the unfair things that happened to him; through all the bad things that happened to him, that what had happened to Joseph was part of God’s plan. Talk about defining moment! That defining moment happened for Joseph when he was sold as a slave, wrongly accused, thrown into jail, left there to rot and the temptation in all of that was for Joseph to shout, “It’s not fair!”

That’s the temptation; to turn to sin; to wallow in filth that we have been thrown in and I have no doubt that Joseph struggled with that. He was human after all but what defined him was not the unfairness that the world threw at him, but the decision just to get up every morning, to be Joseph, to honour God.

The Apostle Paul, centuries on, said it this way:

Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for you will reap whatever you sow - if you sow to your flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the spirit you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap at harvest time if we do not give up.

Unfair things happen to us every day and sometimes what we want is, "God, just give me an easy ride." In fact there is a great poem here that I want to share with you. It’s a poem by Adrian Plass – have a listen – it goes like this:

When I became a Christian I said, “Lord now fill me in.
Tell me what I will suffer in this world of shame and sin.”
Then God said, “Your body may be killed and left to rot and stink,
do you still want to follow Me?”I said, “Amen, I think!

I think, amen! Amen, I think, I think I say "amen"!
Look, I am not completely sure. Can we run through that again?
You said my body could be killed and left to rot and stink,
that sounds terrific, Lord. I’ll say "amen" I think!”

“But Lord, look there must be other ways to follow You,” I said,
“I really would prefer to end up dying in my bed.”
“Well, yes”, He said, “You could put up with sneers and scorn and spit,
do you still want to follow Me?” I said, “Amen, a bit.”

“A bit "amen" – "amen", a bit. A bit, I say ‘amen’.
Look, I’m not entirely sure. Can we just run through that again?”
You said I could put up with sneers and scorn and spit
– oh, yea, I’ve made up my mind – I say "amen" a bit.”

Well, I sat back and thought a while. I tried a different ploy –
I said, “Now Lord, the Good Book says that Christians live in joy.”
“That’s true,” He said, “You are going to need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow,
so do you still want to follow Me?” I said, “Amen – tomorrow!”

“Tomorrow, Lord, I say it – that’s when I’ll say "amen".
You see, I’ve got to get it clear. Let’s just run through that again.”
You said, I’ll need the joy to bear the pain and sorrow –
well, yea, I think I’ve got it straight. I’ll say "amen" tomorrow.

He said, “Look, I’m not asking you to spend an hour with Me,
a quick salvation sandwich or a cup of sanctity.
The cost is "you" not half of you but every single bit.
Now tell Me, will you follow Me? I said, “Amen! No, I quit!

“I’m sorry Lord, I’d like to follow You
but I don’t think religion is a very manly thing to do.”
So He said, “Forget about religion then and you think about My Son
and you tell me if you are man enough to do what He has done.

Are you man enough to see the need? Are you man enough to go?
Are you man enough to care for those who no one wants to know?
Are you man enough to say the things that people hate to hear
and battle through Gethsemane and loneliness and fear?

And listen, are you man enough to stand it at the end,
the moment of betrayal by the kisses of your friend?
Are you man enough to hold your tongue? Are you man enough to cry?
And when the nails break your body, are you man enough to die?

Are you man enough to take the pain and wear it like a crown?
Are you man enough to love this world and turn it upside down?
Are you man enough to follow Me – I’ll ask you once again?”
I said, “Oh Lord, I am so frightened but I also said, "amen".

Amen, amen, amen! I said, “Lord, I am so frightened but I also said, 'amen'.”

You know, as I look back on the story of the life of Joseph, my heart breaks for that man. He went through so much – the betrayal of his brothers; sold into slavery; thrown into jail for doing the right thing – left there to rot; he went through so much. And it would have been so easy and tempting just to act badly; just to respond; just to have anger; just to lash out. Come on, that’s what we want to do!

But do not be deceived. Because God is not mocked for whatever we reap, we sow! If we sow in the flesh, we will reap corruption in the flesh, but if we sow in the Spirit we will reap eternal life from the Spirit.”

Here’s the punch line.

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we will reap at harvest time if we do not give up. So whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all and especially for the family of faith.