Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090111.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History
Part VII: Explaining God's Plan To Bless Men Regardless Of Apostasy
Z. Heeding God's Provision Of Insight For Handling Debilitating Trials
(Genesis 37:2-11)
    Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

    Both locally and internationally, people today face unfair trials that sap the energies and motivations of the inner man:

    (1) In the last four weeks, my wife and I have become aware of very unfair, draining trials several believers either have faced or are facing! One believer faced two such trials one day just this month.

    (2) Such draining trials occur on the international level, too. The conflict in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas is an example. The Palestinian organization of Hamas has been shooting missiles into Israel for months, so Israel started to retaliate on December 27th, 2008.

    Now, Hamas refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist as a nation, so it is dedicated to its destruction, The Economist, 1/3/09, p. 7. However, many of the Reformed wing of Evangelicalism also deny Israel's divine right to the Holy Land! "In 2002, D. James Kennedy, R. C. Sproul and dozens of others declared that Israel has no special title to land in the Middle East, having been replaced by the church. They claimed that all of God's 'land promises specific to Israel in the Old Testament were fulfilled under Joshua.'" (cited in Dave Hunt's article, "A Call to Repentance," The Berean Call, November 2006, p. 1)

    This belief came from Church Father Augustine's effort to blend Christianity with pagan Platonism. That led to a nonliteral, allegorical interpretation of Scripture where Old Testament Israel was believed to have been replaced by the New Testament Church (John F. Walvoord, The Blessed Hope and the Tribulation, 1976, p. 12-13; C. C. Ryrie, Dispensationalism Today, 1970, p. 95). Accordingly, the claim is made that there is no future millennial reign of Christ where Israel rules the world (the meaning of the term "amillennial"). This view came over into the Roman Catholic Church and was passed on to the Reformed wing of Protestantism, Ibid., Walvoord; Ibid., Hunt.

    Thus, Israel faces not only resistance to her existence as a State by the militant Islamic group of Hamas, but the denial of her divine right to the Holy Land by Christendom's amillennialists! It must be discouraging for those to whom God Scripturally promised the land of Canaan to be so opposed for their very presence in that land!



    Thus, we may ask, "How can I or a group of people handle unfair trials that sap the motivation of the inner man?!"

    (We turn to the sermon "Need" section . . . )

    Need: "If facing a debilitating trial in a vulnerable realm of life, what does GOD expect US to DO toward gaining victory over it?!"

  1. Joseph faced debilitating hatred from his brothers, Genesis 37:2-4:
    1. Jacob had assigned his son, Joseph to work as a "servant" to the sons of his concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah while they shepherded Jacob's sheep, Gen. 37:2a; H. C. Leupold, Exp. of Genesis, 1974, v. II, p. 953.
    2. Bothered that Jacob's interests were being hurt by how his other sons were shepherding, Joseph reported their wrongs to Jacob, so the other sons hated Joseph, Gen. 37:2b; Bible Knowledge Com., O. T., p. 87.
    3. Jacob also favored Joseph over his other sons since he was the son of his old age (Gen. 37:3b), so he gave Joseph a prized coat to signify his favored position, Gen. 37:3; Ryrie Study Bible, KJV, 1978, ftn. to Gen. 37:3. Such favoritism led Joseph's brothers to hate him so much that they could no longer speak peaceably unto him, Genesis 37:4.
    4. Also, God gave Joseph two dreams that predicted his future rule over his brothers and whole family, and when he told them to his family as God's reliable messenger, he was hated all the more, Genesis 37:5-11!
    5. So, paternal partiality and his own effort to be a reliable son and God's messenger left Joseph facing unfair, draining hatred from his brothers.
  2. This hatred would lead to much more unfair suffering for Joseph:
    1. Genesis 37:12-36 reveals Joseph's brothers would sell him as a slave to Ishmaelites who would in turn sell him to Potiphar down in Egypt.
    2. While upholding his integrity before Potiphar's wife, Genesis 39:1-20 reveals Joseph would be slandered by her and accordingly imprisoned.
    3. Genesis 40:1-41:1a reveals that though Joseph would do good in the prison, he would be forgotten, and need to stay there two full years!
  3. However, the insight in the dreams God gave Joseph was meant to cause him to hope in God's future deliverance in his sufferings:
    1. The first dream in which the sheaves of grain gathered by Jacob's brothers bowed down to Joseph's upright sheaf predicted his brothers' future submission to Joseph as their rightful ruler, Genesis 37:5a, 6-7:
      1. The bowing activity by the sheaves of grain in the first dream predicted the Genesis 42:5-6 bowing that his brothers would perform toward Joseph when they arrived in Egypt to buy grain.
      2. This event would lead to his brothers' repentance and reconciliation with Joseph where they could talk respectfully unto him in contrast to their previous action, Genesis 45:1-15 opposite Genesis 37:4b.
    2. The second dream where the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to Joseph predicted the future rule Joseph would have over Jacob's whole family, Genesis 37:9-10 with 47:5-6, 11-12:
      1. In Joseph's era, the celestial bodies symbolized rulers (Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T.), so Jacob understood Joseph's dream to mean that his father, Jacob (the sun) and his mother, Rachel (the moon) with his brothers (the 11 stars) would be subject to him, Ibid.
      2. This prophecy was fulfilled when Jacob's family came to dwell in Egypt under Joseph's rule given to him by Pharaoh, 47:5-6, 11-12.
    3. Thus, until his reconciliation and reunification with his father's family, Joseph had been given these dreams from God that he might hope in God's coming deliverance from his sufferings, and thus be ABLE to BEAR such unfair, debilitating trials! (Genesis 45:4-8)
    4. Amazingly, Joseph's second dream will yet give ISRAEL HOPE in GOD'S coming DELIVERANCE in the GREAT TRIBULATION in line with how they encouraged Joseph in his years of suffering !
      1. In the future Great Tribulation, Israel, the nation that came from Jacob's family, is identified in Revelation 12:1 by the symbols of Joseph's Genesis 37:9 family: a (a) woman (Israel) clothed with (b) the sun and (c) the moon at her feet (d) who is crowned with twelve stars (Israel's 12 tribes) travails to produce Messiah (Rev. 12:2-5), and is persecuted in the coming Great Tribulation Period (Rev. 12:6, 13-14); Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 957-958.
      2. This means that the Abrahamic Covenant awaits fulfillment after the Great Tribulation: it is not now being fulfilled by the Church as amillenialists hold, but it will be fulfilled in Christ's coming messianic kingdom through Israel as dispensationalists teach!
      3. So, like Joseph in his unjust, debilitating sufferings by hateful foes prior to his ruling over them, Jewish believers who will suffer in the Tribulation before ruling their foes in Christ's kingdom will hope in God's help by the symbols God gave Joseph, Dan. 12:1-4!
Application: If facing unfair, numbing trials, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior to be saved, John 1:12-13. (2) Thus under God's care (Rom. 8:32), may we heed relevant passages God gave when the trials FIRST BEGAN for HOPE in His coming deliverance!

Lesson: In view of Joseph's present and future sufferings and the future sufferings of Israel, the nation that would come from Jacob's family, God gave Joseph and later suffering Jews insight to hope in His deliverance!

Conclusion: (To illustrate the sermon lesson . . . )

Besides providing one of the best evidences in Scripture that the dispensational interpretation of Scripture we hold is correct, Joseph's second dream involving the sun, moon and stars that is recalled in Revelation 12 also corrects other errors (as follows):

(1) The amillennial belief system holds that the Revelation 12 woman symbolizes Israel in the Old Testament that produced the child, the Messiah, but that in the New Testament it changed to symbolize the Church as Israel allegedly thus became the New Testament Church, cf. The New American Bible for Catholics, 1970, ftn. to Rev. 12:1-6.

However, (a) the Church is not identified in Revelation 4-19 as the Church, so the Revelation 12 woman is not the Church! (J. Dwight Pentecost, Things To Come, 1972, p. 287) Also, (b) the Church did not produce Christ as the Revelation 12 woman did, but Christ the Church, and (c) the Church does not flee into the wilderness from Satan for 3 1/2 years like the woman in Revelation 12:13-18. (Ibid.) Thus, the woman in Revelation 12 is Israel, meaning the Church does not replace Israel in God's plan, and amillennialism is erroneous!

(2) Some claim the Revelation 12 woman was Mary who travailed in birth to produce Jesus, Ibid.

However, (a) Mary is never elsewhere persecuted in Scripture, (b) she never flees into the wilderness from Satan and (c) she is never helped for 1260 days like Revelation 12:13-16 predicts of the woman there, Ibid. That woman symbolizes Israel in the Great Tribulation.

In summary, the woman in Revelation 12 can only be Israel identified as the offspring of Jacob and his 12 sons who is seen in the symbols that recall Joseph's second dream back in Genesis 37:9. Thus, Israel and the Church are distinct entities in God's program, and the Abrahamic Covenant is yet to be fulfilled by the literal nation of Israel. Thus, our dispensational view of Scripture is the correct view!

(3) Finally, the fact that dispensationalism is correct and amillennialism errs means the nation Israel has every Biblical "right" to function as a State in the Holy Land!

So, (1) may we be encouraged that we have the correct view of God's Word as dispensationalists! (2) May we also look to the applicable passages of Scripture for hope if facing unfair, debilitating trials much as God called Joseph in antiquity and as He will call Israel to do in the days to come following the rapture!