Genesis 42:1-45:15 - God’s Plans & Human Evil
Main Idea: God will use every part of your story to accomplish His good will.
(Chapter 42) Joseph’s brothers buy food from Egypt due to the famine, and Joseph (unrecognized) holds Simeon in custody till they bring Benjamin back with them.
(Chapter 43) Jacob reluctantly sends Benjamin with the brothers after their food runs out, and Joseph shares a meal with them.
(Chapter 44) Joseph has Benjamin framed for theft, and Judah offers himself as a slave in his brother’s place.
(Chapter 45) Joseph reveals his identity to his shocked brothers, and encourages them that it was God’s plan for him to be in Egypt.
GOD’S PLANS IN HUMAN EVIL
He plans to be just, levying out right consequences.
He plans to be glorified, writing a joyful ending.
He plans to be good, bringing the right blessings at the right time.
HOW YOU SHOULD RESPOND IN LIGHT OF GOD’S PLANS
Fear choosing evil in your own life.
View your story through God’s eyes of hope and redemption.
Find ways to use your hardships for others’ good.
SERMON TRANSCRIPT (AUTO-TRANSCRIBED BY APPLE PODCASTS)
Turn over in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 42. Genesis 42. Two years ago, we started our first series in the Book of Genesis.
We went over Genesis 1 through 11, and we looked at the start of everything. Then in 2025, over the first, I think it was about three months or so, we walked through the life of Abraham in chapters 12 through 25.
Then last fall, we looked at the lives of Isaac and Jacob in Genesis 30, or sorry, 26 through 35, or six. And then this year, we have been, since we completed our study in John, we have now been walking through the life of Joseph.
We are now beginning our very final sermon series in Genesis. So you should feel very accomplished. If you have been here over the last two, two and a half years, you will have gone all the way through the book of Genesis.
Now, if you guys will remember from three weeks ago, so that was a long time, so I need everyone put on your thinking caps. We learned about Joseph. Now, let's just go kind of walking through, who was Joseph's dad?
I heard Jacob. That's correct. Gold stars for the Latia.
So Joseph's dad was Jacob. Now, was Joseph the only son that Jacob had? Nope.
Does anyone remember how many brothers that Jacob had? Had 11 brothers. And if you recall, Jacob had these 12 sons by four different women.
This is not good. This is not what the Bible prescribes. This is describing what happens when broken people do whatever they want to do in the world with whoever they want to do it with.
And did Joseph's brothers like him or hate him? Just shout it out. Yeah, they hated him.
He was the favorite of his father. Many of us remember even growing up in Sunday school, you have those little flannel graphs, and Joseph was given the multicolored robe. He was the favorite of his dad.
So it made his brothers hate him. As a result, they wanted to, well, let me stop before I get there. Adding to their hatred, Joseph was given some dreams by God about what his future and the future of his family would entail.
Do you guys remember what action was it that Joseph dreamt that first his brothers and then even his dad and mom, what was the action that he dreamed that they would do? Yeah, they bowed down. Now, his dad wasn't even on board with that.
He didn't think that he needed to be bowing down to the son. And certainly these half-brothers of Joseph, they wanted nothing to do with his dreamer. They hated him.
So as a result, one day as Joseph was going out, they were watching flocks in the various fields around Israel, and well, at that time, not called Israel.
But as they were watching their flocks, Joseph comes along, and from a long ways away, they see him, and they go, here comes that dreamer. And most of the brothers wanted to kill Joseph.
One of the brothers, Ruben, convinced them not to kill Joseph, but just to throw him into a deep, dry pit. So they throw him into this pit, probably a well that had dried up at some point.
And Ruben's plan was, okay, after the rest of the brothers are gone, I'll come back and I'll fish Joseph out of the well, and we'll be fine.
However, as Ruben was gone, Joseph's older brother, Judah, everyone say Judah, you're going to need to remember that name later.
Judah saw a pack of a caravan of both Ishmaelites and Metanites that were traveling, and they were actually on their way down to Egypt. And so Judah said, listen, if we kill Joseph, you know, we don't really get anything from that.
But if we sell Joseph into slavery, well, then at least we get some money for our trouble. And so at Judah's idea, they took Joseph out of the well, they sold him into slavery, and off Joseph went.
Where we pick up today is about 23 years or so after that. We've walked through the life of Joseph as he becomes a slave to basically the captain of the guards in Pharaoh's court, man named Potiphar.
And we saw that Joseph worked hard in Potiphar's house and made everything that happened in Potiphar's house to prosper. We read over and over again throughout the story of Joseph that God was with him.
And so God made everything that Joseph was doing, even though he was a slave, he was a hardworking, prosperous slave. Then Potiphar's wife attempted to seduce Joseph. He wanted no part of it.
And so she accused him of having, having made an attempt to abuse her. And as a result, Joseph was thrown into prison. For many of us, we'd say, all right, well, that's, you know, kind of it for my working hard, you know, serving God.
Like, obviously, it's gotten me no where at this point. But that's not how Joseph went. And even there in the prison, he was the best prisoner that you could ask for.
And the Lord was with him, and he caused Joseph to end up being basically the chief of the prisoners, not in a mob boss type way, but in a way that he cared for and talked with him, and versed with both the wardens and with the prisoners themselves.
And we saw some of his care that he had for other people, even while he was in prison. The one place that I'm sure many of you would go, is where, yeah, I don't really care about anyone else.
Like, I'm just trying to get through this time in my own life. Joseph was still concerned about caring for other people even there. Several years have gone by now, both in Potiphar's house and within the jail itself.
And now, Joseph is brought up to the court of Pharaoh, as Pharaoh has a dream, and he can't understand it, but he had a cupbearer who had been in the prison with Joseph.
Joseph, by what the Lord told him, was able to communicate to the cupbearer when he had had a dream that he didn't understand. And so the cupbearer then tells Pharaoh, I know someone who can help you out in this situation.
Joseph comes through the Lord's working in his life. He's able to tell Pharaoh what's going to happen. There's going to be seven years of plenty, incredible abundance, all of the crops that you could ask for.
It'll be wonderful. But after those seven years of plenty, there's going to be seven years of dreadful famine. And unless you prepare during the good years for those seven bad years, Egypt is going to die out.
This is going to be an atrociously bad famine, all in that section of the Ancient Near East. Pharaoh, here's this. Here's Joseph's idea of you got to prepare during the good times for the bad times.
That's a good general principle for us as well. Pharaoh goes, yeah, absolutely. And you know what, Joseph?
You're in charge of it. Go for it. And so Joseph is elevated now to a point where he's basically the second in command of this incredible ancient world empire.
But he's not doing it in such a way as to bring harm on other people. He's caring for other people and preparing for the coming bad times by doing good. This is where we pick up the story now in Genesis chapter 42.
Today, we're going to talk about God's plans and human evil. Now, you might notice on your handout, we're going from chapter 42 in verse number 1 to chapter 45 in verse number 15.
That's a kind of larger portion of scripture, but it's because all of these chapters have one central thought and idea.
It's one story that's being told together of how God brought Joseph's brothers who once hated him, who sold him into slavery, who wanted to kill him, how he brought them back into Joseph's life, and how Joseph responded to them, and how through all
of it, Joseph saw not just the evil that humans had done to him, and humans had done a lot of evil to Joseph, but what Joseph saw was God's plans even in human evil. We're going to see this today, that God will use every part of your story to
accomplish his goodwill. This isn't just something that goes for Joseph, you know, roughly 4,000 years ago.
This is the truth that you need for today, that God will use the good and the bad parts of your story, the people that you look back on and you go, man, that teacher so invested in me, that parent really loved and cared for me, he'll use the good
parts of your story and he'll use the bad parts, the abuse or neglect that you suffered. He'll use it in your story for his goodwill.
The times where you failed someone else, God will use that for his ultimate story, the goodwill and story that he's writing in your life and mine. Let's pray together.
We're going to dive into the story and then we'll see some things that we need for our life. Lord, we come to you today and we recognize that we are not the authors of our own story.
Lord, we came into this world into families, into countries, and cities, and towns, and homes that we did not plan, but you did. And Lord, you have put together every moment of our life so that we would be right here, right now on August 2nd.
Lord, help us to be able to see like Joseph saw, your goodness, even in human brokenness.
Lord, I pray that today, if there's anyone here that does not yet know you as their Savior, that today would be the day that as they recognize your plan for them, that they would want to know, worship, and follow you.
God, we pray all of this in the precious name of Jesus. Amen. I'm going to summarize these portions of scripture.
I encourage you read through these stories on your own. They are fantastic. It is amazing literature.
The moments of irony that are in there are so, so beautiful and enjoyable. But I don't want to put you guys through reading three and a half chapters today. So we're going to summarize much of what is going on.
11:08
Brothers First Encounter
So in Chapter 42, starting off in verses one through four, Jacob and his sons all the way over in like Palestine, Elisha, what would later be known as Israel and Judah, they are experiencing this heavy famine that has gone on.
So this is at least eight or nine years from when Joseph interpreted the dream for Pharaoh. Pharaoh put him in charge. Joseph went through the process of preparing for the bad times.
And so Jacob and his son, they hear that even though there is famine everywhere in that region of the world, there is food to be found down in Egypt. And so Jacob wants to send the brothers down there as a group, not just one person or two people.
That would be a really great way to get waylaid, accosted on the road if you only have a couple of people. The larger the group you have, the more safety there is. So Jacob wants to send his sons down to Egypt to buy food.
However, he says, I'm not sending Benjamin with you because his older brother Joseph is dead. That's what he thought because that's what the brothers had told him.
They brought Joseph's coat of many colors, all ripped and tattered and covered in blood. And they're like, we think a wild animal must have gotten Joseph. And so Jacob, for these many years, has thought that Joseph was killed.
And so he says, well, I'm not going to send Benjamin. Now, a lot of points if you can remember. Joseph and Benjamin's mother, does anyone remember her name?
It's the favorite wife of Jacob. Yeah, Rachel. And so this was Jacob's favorite wife.
It was the wife that he wanted to have, that he wanted to have children with. And so Benjamin is kind of that last part of Rachel's memory that Jacob has. Rachel, by this point, had already passed even before Joseph was taken.
And so this is like Jacob's last piece of his beloved wife. And so he goes, no, I'm not sending Benjamin down with you guys.
That to me is also a little insulting to all the rest of the sons, that dad's like, no, I can't send Benny with you because... Actually, we have girl locks in here. You have a baby Benny.
I don't know where the girl locks are. They're somewhere, right? Oh, there you guys are.
You guys have your grandbaby Benny, and it makes sense for him because he's a little baby. Because in this story, Benjamin is at least 23, 24 years old, so he is a young adult at this point.
And so Jacob goes, all right, the rest of you are expendable. But you know who is not expendable? Benjamin.
You guys know, is this how we should treat our kids? With that kind of like favoritism? No, not the way.
If nothing else, at the very least, the story of Jacob should communicate to you that you should have love and care for all of your children, not uplifting one and downgrading others.
So then in verses 5 through 26, Joseph, as his brothers get to Egypt, he recognizes his brothers, but they don't recognize him because Joseph, he walks like an Egyptian, talks like an Egyptian. I think there's an old song that might even say that.
So Joseph is not recognized by his brothers because he just looks like another one of the Egyptians with the hairstyle, with the facial hairstyle, all that kind of stuff.
I think I mentioned a few weeks ago, the hue ball look was very in during that time period in Egypt, and that was not what the Hebrew brothers would have looked like.
So Joseph recognizes his brothers, and he starts, it's a little unclear if he's testing them throughout the next three chapters or if he's just being mean. It's not directly stated. We can certainly forgive him if he's a little mean to them.
He accuses them of being spies, like right away. He's like, hey, no, you're just coming to spy out the land and figure out how you can take down Egypt. And they're like, no, we're all brothers from this one guy.
And we've got one of our brothers is back home, and one of our brothers basically isn't around anymore, doesn't live anymore. And so Joseph hears this from them. He accuses them of being spies.
He imprisons them for three days, actually still treats them nicely, kindly. They get food, all that kind of stuff as they're in prison. But then he takes their brother Simeon.
Everyone say Simeon. He holds Simeon as insurance that they're going to go back to Jacob and come back with Joseph's little brother, Benjamin. He's like, okay, I'll keep Simeon.
Simeon will be well taken care of. But you don't get Simeon back until Benjamin is here. Then, so right now, we could think, oh, man, Joseph's really just sticking it to the brothers.
Yeah, that's what they get. You know, justice for Joseph. But then Joseph, so they came to buy all this food from Egypt.
Joseph has all of the silver that they purchased the food with. He puts the silver back into their backs, like at the top.
So, on the road back to Jacob, from Egypt, the brothers, they open up the sacks to see, you know, the grain, the rice, all that kind of stuff. They open up their sacks, and all of the money is at the top. And they're going, oh, no.
Like, when we go back to Egypt with Benjamin to get back Simeon, because we can't just leave him there, like, they're going to go, oh, man, you stole all of this money from us. You didn't pay for the food, and now all of you are going into prison.
So, they're phenomenally scared. And even what they mention, I believe it's in verse number 28. The brother says, my silver has been returned.
It's here in my bag. Their hearts state. Have you ever had that moment?
You remember you accidentally left a child someplace? You left the stove on at home? Maybe you got that phone call, and your heart sinks.
This is that feeling for these men. And then trembling, they turn to one another and said, what has God done to us? So here they're thinking like, man, God is out to get us.
We just cannot win in this circumstance. Then in verses 27 through 38 in chapter 42, the brothers find their silver back in their bags and say, what has God done to us? They tell Jacob everything that happened and why Simeon is not with them.
But then Jacob absolutely refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt with them. And Reuben, the oldest son, he makes a great offer. He says, listen, dad, I offer up my two sons as collateral for Benjamin.
And if anything happens to Benjamin, you can kill my two sons. I want to ask you guys, if your kid was like, hey, you can kill two of your grandkids if my brother gets killed. Is that a good deal?
No, so Jacob totally shoots down Reuben's idea. He's like, that's a stupid idea. I'm not doing that.
He says, Simeon, like, basically, he can just live there. Like, he's expendable. It's fine.
I'm not putting Benjamin at risk.
18:25
Judahʼs Plea for Benjamin
Then chapter 43, at some point, all of the food that they had purchased from Egypt ran out. And now, I love what's... actually, Judas says it at the...
or sorry, Jacob says it at the beginning of chapter 42. He says to his sons, why do you keep looking at each other? It's start getting hungry, and you go, man, I bet, like, Roy would make a really tasty steak, you know?
We're just so hungry right now. And so these brothers, the famine is very severe. They use up all the grain they brought back from Egypt, and then Jacob's like, all right, go back and buy a little more food.
And they're like, listen, you weren't around with this, like, Egyptian official guy. He was really serious. You have to bring your youngest brother.
Otherwise, you're not getting anything. You're not getting simian back, none of it. So Jacob's, you know, kind of tossing this around in his mind.
So, and Judah, everyone say Judah. Remember, this is the dude that sold Joseph into slavery. And we also went through the whole message in Chapter 38 of all of the terrible, atrocious things that Judah had done within his family.
I'm not going to rehash all of that. You guys can look back at Chapter 38 if you want to read that. Judah was a bad person at one point.
But Judah, recognizing the need of his family, he offers himself as the personal guard and guarantor of Benjamin's safety, and Jacob accepts his offer.
So instead of Reuben being like, hey, you can kill my two sons if anything happens to Benjamin, Judah goes, listen, our family is going to die if we don't go down there.
And so I will myself be Benjamin's bodyguard, I'll be the one protecting and caring for him. And if anything happens to him, like it'll all fall on my head. Jacob accepts Judah's offer and they go down to Egypt.
Jacob also sends some extra gifts, balsam, honey, aromatic gum, resin, pistachios, almonds, I'm getting hungry, and double the silver as before. So apparently money wasn't really a problem for Jacob and his sons, but the actual food itself was.
And so he goes, okay, you came back with the money that you left with, so let's just send twice the amount of money as before. That way you can be like, listen, here's the payment for the last food you gave us.
Here's the payment for the new food that we are asking for. So then in verses 15 through 34, Joseph tells his stewards, that's like the guy that manages Joseph's household and stuff, he tells his steward to bring the brothers to his house for a meal.
And if the guy that just imprisoned your brother for a good amount of time, maybe a year or two, if he goes, Yeah, you guys are all coming to my house.
Are you thinking everything's hunky-dory or are you going, Man, he knows about the silver in our knapsacks and we are going straight to jail. So the brothers get very, very nervous.
So they tell the steward, Hey, we found the money in our bag when we were going back, like we didn't touch it, but we brought double as much that way you can you can have all the money that you're due.
Then the steward says, Oh, listen, we got your payment. God must have put the money back in your knapsack. What I love in this, they were scared about the money that they found.
And they said, What has God done to us? But God was working it so that they had enough, that they would be reunited and restored with their brother. He made it so that they lacked for nothing.
And he was watching out and caring for them. There will be times in your life and in mine where we get really scared of the circumstances in which we find ourselves.
Scared about a job, scared about a personal relationship, scared about something with our kids or with our parents.
I want you to know that even in the scary times, God is still looking out for you, just like he was looking out for Joseph every step of the way, just as he was looking out for these dumb, traitorous brothers. He is looking out for you and for me.
So the steward says, God must have put the treasure in the bags. The brothers bow before Joseph, which if you remember, that's dream number one, where all of the brothers bow before Joseph.
Things that God told Joseph 23 plus years earlier are finally now coming true. What are you willing to wait for to see God answer in your life? Maybe the salvation of a loved one.
Maybe the work that you're putting into, attempting to overcome a sin. Are you willing to have patience with God in the long haul to see what he will do? God told Joseph something would happen, and it didn't happen for over two decades.
But now it was finally happening. So as the brothers bow before Joseph, Joseph has to leave the room to weep when he sees his baby brother, Benjamin. And then at the lunch that they have, Benjamin is given five times more food than anyone else.
If I'm sitting there, they didn't have the story of Hansel and Gretel at that time, but I'm wondering like, what in the world is going on? Like why is this one youngest person?
Like nowadays we have the phrase the baby of the family, and we love the baby, and it's great. We have, I think, Mary Gunther, you're the youngest of your five siblings. And so, you know, it's all you're the baby of the family.
You know, we've got Evelyn. Oh, that's our baby. Not how it worked in the ancient eras.
Your oldest was the one that you're like, yeah, this is my pride and my joy. And the older you are, the better. The younger kids was just like, oh, yeah, that's a fun bonus.
That's someone to go out and watch the sheep, or that's someone to do this menial task or that. And so here, Benjamin is being greatly honored. So the brothers are going, what in the world is happening?
So then chapter 44, Joseph sends the brothers off again. And again, he puts the silver in their bags. He's going, you're not paying for this.
I'm taking care of my family. Sends the brothers off again. And Joseph has his silver cup put in the top of Benjamin's bag.
He then sends his steward to accuse them of stealing Joseph's divination cup, which they deny. They're like, listen, we didn't take anything. They didn't know everything the steward had been doing.
And they go, listen, you know, any one of us that would steal your stuff, that's a thief, and he deserves to die, and the rest of us will become your slaves. And the steward goes, listen, no, no, no.
Only the person that stole the cup needs to become a slave. And so then they open the bags, and lo and behold, baby Benjamin, the cup is there.
So then what happens is Judah makes his plea for this Egyptian official that he doesn't know is Joseph to not enslave Benjamin, and he offers himself in his brother's place in order to save Jacob's life, because if they come back again to Jacob and
they don't have Benjamin with them, like Jacob's just going to have a heart attack, he's going to die. He's going to die of a broken heart.
So Judah said, listen, for the sake of my father, for the sake of the promise that I made for him, I will become enslaved in this far away country. Just let my brother go.
Think about the start of Judah's story, where he enslaved Joseph in order to better his own standing with his father and lying to him. Now, Judah says, I will make the sacrifice. I will be enslaved.
I'm not going to sell others into slavery. I'm taking the place of a slave to care for my father, to honor my word to him, instead of lying to him. You see the wonderful transformation that has taken place in Judah.
He's no longer the same guy that we interacted with at the beginning of this story.
26:45
Josephʼs Revelation
Then chapter 45, in verse number 1, Joseph is so overcome with emotion at seeing the transformation in Judah. Think about it.
If your brothers or your sisters sold you into slavery 23 years ago, you have one particular picture of your family stuck in your brain, and you are remembering the harm that they did you for over two decades.
Your reaction, then, when they have totally transformed, they're no longer the same person, it breaks Joseph down. He sends out all of the Egyptians. He tells his brothers, I am Joseph.
Understandably now, they are super freaked out and terrified. They're not thinking, oh yeah, he wants to reconcile with us. They're thinking, man, now we're really in the dog house.
Joseph comforts them. He tells them not to be sad or angry with themselves because God sent Joseph to save lives, including their lives.
He tells them how God made him a ruler over all of Egypt and that they should bring all of Jacob's family down to the land of Goshen so that they can live through the remaining five years of famine.
He then hugs and kisses his brothers as he cries, and they talk together.
What I love in this story, like, it's a beautiful story of of reunion, of restoration, of forgiveness, of personal transformation, but what I love in this story is that we can see Jesus show up, like the kinds of things that Jesus does show up again
and again and again. Just like the brothers did with Joseph, we come to Jesus in desperate need, not realizing that He is our brother and our helper.
We come to Jesus intending to pay for the forgiveness and the life forever in heaven and all that we receive.
But instead, like the brothers who intended to pay, but got back everything, we come to Jesus intending to pay for all we receive, but we end up with both what we receive and what we paid, because He gives extravagantly and needs nothing from us.
The brothers tried to pay for the food, they got the food, and they got the pay. We need salvation. We get the salvation, but Jesus says, those good works that you have, if you will, that's cherry on the top.
That's nothing that I need from you. So you can do all your good works, but that doesn't earn your salvation with me. We come to Jesus fearing what he will take, just as the brothers feared what Joseph would take from them.
When in fact, Jesus' plan is to give us the gift of himself. At the end of Joseph's story, it's not how can I harm these men, how can I harm these brothers. It was, I want to tell them who I am.
We come to Jesus delaying our arrival, just as the brothers waited for a while because they were so scared about the silver still being in their knapsacks and not wanting to bring Benjamin. We come to Jesus delaying our arrival.
We don't surrender to Jesus because we're afraid, not realizing the incredible joy that he has and not condemnation as soon as we turn to him. We come to Jesus fearing his anger, not realizing that he sorrows for our souls and longs for restoration.
And we come to Jesus the lowest in importance like Benjamin, and receive extravagant love and honor.
I love that as we look at the story of Joseph and the way that he treated his brothers, maybe not the imprisoning for three days, maybe not the holding Simeon captive. You know, Joseph isn't Jesus, he's not perfect.
But I can see these beautiful pictures of Jesus and the relationship that he wants to have with us.
30:55
Godʼs Sovereign Plan
But what I want us to see today as we close out these chapters is that God has plans even in the middle of human evil. In chapter 42 and verse 28, chapter 43 and verse 23, God put the silver in the bags of the mat.
Now again, that wasn't like God snapping his fingers and stuff teleports from one place to another. God works through people. So God orchestrated it, that the silver went in the brothers' bags.
God caused Joseph to be merciful, to release the brothers. We read that in chapter 43 and verse number 14. God was gracious to Benjamin.
We read that in chapter 43 and verse 29. God exposed the brothers' iniquity. What they say as soon as Joseph's steward pulls out Joseph's silver cup from Benjamin's bag is, God knows what we did to Joseph, and now he is punishing us for it.
God here exposed the brothers' iniquity, that they recognized the wrong that they had done, and they repented of it. God sent Joseph into Egypt to preserve lives. We can see Joseph state that again and again in chapter 45 and verses 5, 7, and 8.
And then God put Joseph in charge of Egypt in chapter 45 and verse number 9. Kind of the central thought for all of Joseph's story is what we can read Joseph say. You're going to read here real quick from verses 4 through.
It says, Please come near me. And they came near. I am Joseph, your brother, he said, the one you sold into Egypt.
And now don't be grieved or angry with yourselves for selling me here, because God sent me ahead of you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will be five more years without plowing or harvesting.
God sent me ahead of you to establish you as a remnant within the land and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Therefore, it was not you who sent me here.
We started off by saying, you sold me into Egypt, and now he says, you didn't send me here. He says, but God, he's made me a father to Pharaoh, Lord of his entire household and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
We'll read in a few chapters as Joseph says, you intended it for evil, but God intended it for good. What I want us to see as we close today is God's plans in human evil. First, God plans to be just, letting out right consequences.
Judah and the brothers, they did not get away with anything. God knew, and if you will, God made them sweat a little bit. He put them through the ringer.
Judah got consequences for what he had done. You today do not need to fear that God will be indifferent to the evil that you have suffered.
God is fiercely just and he will exact appropriate punishment on all human evil, regardless of how rich, powerful, or secretive those that have done evil against you have been in this life. Are you asking the Lord today for his justice to take place?
Or are you trying to take matters into your own hands? I want you to ask yourself, do I believe that God will deal with the person or company that hurt me? And how should that affect my emotional energy towards them today?
God also plans even in human evil to be glorified, writing a joyful ending. God writes stories that point to his goodness, his sustaining, his victory, and his ultimate plans.
When people hear about Joseph, or Job, or Peter, or Augustine, or Adam Irim Judson, or Jim Elliott, they can't help but be amazed at the incredible stories that God writes.
And as I look around this room today, I am already amazed at the story that God's been writing in each of your lives. Can I ask you today, are you praising the Lord for your story?
Are you sharing the story of God's work in your life with other people around you? How will they come to know the Lord and His goodness without hearing His name?
Your story, whether you grew up religious, you grew up irreligious, you got saved at two, you got saved at 92. God wants to use your story. And it can be impactful in other people as you recount what God has done for you.
The psalmist would tell us, let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Who are you telling about the story that God is writing in your life? God also plans to be good, bringing the right blessings at the right time.
I love that the brothers came at the right time in the story, having been changed into the right people that they needed to be. God does the right things in the right time with the right people bringing the right responses.
And God's inherent goodness is something that ought to comfort our hearts in the face of this world's evil brokenness. Wrong will not always occur.
Joy and peace and love are the inheritance of God's people, and God will bring those things to pass in his time in our lives.
Do you believe that God will be good bringing the right blessings that you need at the right time in your life when he knows that you need it? And are you looking to how you can be a blessing to others this week?
Are you thinking how God can use you to bring goodness into other people's lives today, tomorrow, later this week? Who are you planning on encouraging, supporting, spending time with, giving a hug to or sharing a meal with?
Will you be a blessing to a person at the right time?
37:23
Living Godʼs Story
And how should you and I respond in light of God's plan? First, we should fear choosing evil in our own life. We look at the story of Joseph, we shouldn't say, oh yeah, I'm going to be like Judah and I'm going to sell my siblings into slavery.
That's what you get out of this message. You have been asleep the entire time. Fear choosing evil in your own life.
Recognizing God's justice, resolutely reject choosing evil against God and others within your own life.
Choose Joseph's route of loyalty, respect and obedience, instead of Judah's route of selfishness, immorality, and degrading of others in words and actions for his own desires.
What we saw in chapter 38 and chapter 39 was how Judah treated people and how Joseph treated people. The night and day difference. Fear choosing evil in your own life.
Some of us regularly mistreat and degrade others in our words, and we need to realize that God will hold us accountable. Certainly when we stand at his judgment seat, but he may also judge us this week or five years from now.
Realize that our constant insults of some other person's intelligence, insults of the choices of our spouse, or our ridiculing of another person at Tabernacle, it is an affront to the God who made that other person in his image.
We need to stop choosing evil in our words. Spurgeon remarking on this passage said, When his brothers stood before him, the cruel men who sold him, Joseph did not scold them, but he comforted them.
Making sweet excuse for them, he said, And God sent me before you to preserve you. So now it wasn't you that sent me here, but God.
How different that is from the spirit of those people who pry about seeking to discover faults, and when an imperfection in another person is noticed, they cry, Look, do you see that? I told you so.
Yes, it may be true that there are spots in the sun, but there are greater spots in your eyes, or you would see more of the light. Those who see faults so readily have plenty of their own.
May God make us blind to the faults of his people, sooner than allow us to have a keen eye for their flaws, and an inventive mind to assign ill motives to them.
As we think about fearing choosing evil in our own lives, let's ask, God, what choices did I make this past week that did not treat my family, my neighbors, my co-workers, or strangers with kindness or respect?
God, where did I choose evil this past week? But I notice there's secondly, we should in light of God's plans view our story through God's eyes of hope and redemption.
As Joseph looked at his past, he could have been filled with rage, resentment, bitterness, and all of us would understand.
Instead, he saw his past as God saving people's lives, God putting him in positions of authority, God working through others' evil choices to bring about ultimate good that no one could have intentionally manipulated on their own.
How do you view your life? Do you see your childhood as leading you to the kind of parent you became, or the kind of grandparent you are now? Do you see your job or jobs as having given you access to people that you wouldn't have met otherwise?
Do you look at your past with gratitude and hope, or with bitterness and anger? Do you genuinely believe that God is the sovereign Lord who makes beauty out of all our human brokenness?
I love this quote, Every experience God gives us, every person he puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only he can see. My favorite part about that quote is it's from Corey Tenbu, a Holocaust survivor.
Someone who went through the greatest atrocities of the last century and a half said, every experience God gives us, every person he puts in our lives, is the perfect preparation for the future that only he can see.
I want you to think over these last seven months, 2026. How would you describe the story to others, the way that Joseph described his story, of God working and redeeming and planning? What about the last six years of your life?
How would you tell that story, like how Joseph thought of his story? And then lastly today, find ways to use your hardships for others' good. Joseph used his hardship of slavery to make Potiphar's life wonderful.
He used his hardship of imprisonment to make the lives of his fellow prisoners and even the warden better. He used his hardship of being over 200 miles from home to save the lives of those in Egypt and the ancient Near East.
He used his hardship of being estranged from his brother and father for 23 plus years to rescue his family from starvation. Whatever your hardship, you can use it to benefit someone else. Think of Jesus, his hardship of being on the cross.
He extended forgiveness to the thief being crucified beside him, and even to those crucifying him, asking the father to forgive them on the basis of their ignorance. Of the song by I Am They, called Scars.
Waking up to a new sunrise, looking back from the other side, I can see now with open eyes, darkest water and deepest pain. I wouldn't trade it for anything, because my brokenness brought me to you, and these wounds are a story you'll use.
So I'm thankful for the scars, because without them, I wouldn't know your heart, and I know they'll always tell of who you are. So forever, I am thankful for the scars. I can see how you delivered me.
In your hands, in your feet, I found my victory, and so I'm thankful for your scars, because without them, I wouldn't know your heart. And with my life, I'll tell of who you are. So forever, I'm thankful for the scars.
Paul would tell us similarly in 2 Corinthians 1, God comforts us in all our affliction so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any kind of affliction through the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
God comforts us in a moment of hardship, in difficulties. And God says, use that to be able to help out someone else who is in that same circumstance. In what ways has your life been difficult?
Who are you helping this week or this month that is experiencing those same hardships? God didn't give you these difficulties just to make your life more.
He gave them to you so that you can use your hardships for his glory to bless and to help someone else. How will you do that this week?
As we think about this story, these chapters, I want you to realize that just as God had a plan, and all of Joseph's difficulties, God has a plan in your life, and he will use every part of your story, the good, the bad, and the ugly, in order to
bring about his goodwill. A glorious story that we go, wow, I love hearing what God did in the life of Bobby, or Jim, or Fay.
When you choose to look at your life through that lens, that same lens that Joseph did, because our God, Jesus, the one who died for us, he's the redeeming God who brings beauty out of our brokenness.
