Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/Sermons/zz20090118.htm
THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION Genesis: Explaining The Foundations Of History Part VII: Explaining God's Plan To Bless Men Regardless Of Apostasy AA. Handling Traumatic Injustice By Focusing On God's Viewpoint (Genesis 37:12-36)
Introduction: (To show the need . . . )

After delivering last Sunday morning's sermon out of Genesis 37:1-11, I heard 3 people in our body tell me of trials of great injustice they were facing much as Joseph faced the hatred of his brothers.

I know that others in our body face similar injustices, but many other people in our country and world face it as well (as follows):

(1) According to Marilyn Elias' story, "Economy prompts more calls to suicide hotlines" in the January 12, 2009 issue of USA Today, p. 6D, "Many mental-health crisis and suicide hotlines are reporting a surge in calls from Americans feeling despair over financial losses."

One poignant realm of concern involves "callers with mental health illnesses" who "say loss of insurance and cutbacks in public health programs are preventing them from getting medications." (Ibid.)

When we recall that the economic meltdown was fueled by wrongs by business and government leaders, that means some folk are facing mentally traumatic fears and crises due to financial wrongs.

(2) The January 15, 2009 Waterbury Republican-American, p. 5A ran an Associated Press story by Julie Hirschfeld Davis titled, "Obama stands by Treasury nominee" to report how President-elect Barak Obama's nominee for Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Timothy Geithner, owed $34,000 in taxes to the Internal Revenue Service from several years ago. Mr. Geithner paid his dues in November, and the matter has been termed an "'innocent mistake'" by the President-elect!

Timothy Geithner had the legal insight to know how to avoid punishment by the IRS, but "regular" Americans who owe $34,000 in back taxes and lack such expertise face painful punitive repercussions, and to think that Mr. Geithner will now head an agency that collects our taxes smacks of a glaring double standard to the American people!

(3) However, millions of people around the world face far greater, traumatic injustices: in the USA Today issue cited above, an article appeared on page 9A by Tom Krattenmaker ("'Life' movement evolves") stating that after drugs and arms dealings, "the third-largest criminal enterprise in the world" is "slavery." "Advocacy groups estimate that about 27 million people are enslaved today in brothels, sweatshop factories and private homes." (Ibid.)

Thus, we may ask, "If one faces traumatic injustice, how does God expect him to HANDLE it?!"

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

Need: "How does God expect us to handle a traumatic injustice?!"

1. From the HUMAN perspective, Joseph faced a TRAUMATIC INJUSTICE at the hand of his hateful brothers, Genesis 37:12-36:
1. Jacob sent his son, Joseph to Shechem to meet his brothers and report on the welfare of their shepherding work there, Genesis 37:12-14b.
2. He did not find them at Shechem, but a man there directed him to Dothan, so Joseph went and found them there, Genesis 37:14c-17.
3. When his brothers saw Joseph approaching, they spoke of killing him, but the oldest brother, Reuben persuaded them to throw Joseph into a cistern so he might later deliver him back to his father, Gen. 37:18-22.
4. The brothers stripped Joseph of the coat Jacob gave him and cast him into a dry cistern (Gen. 37:23-24). Their hatred is seen in their eating a meal while listening to Joseph's anguished appeals, 37:25a; 42:21!
5. After Reuben temporarily left his brothers, a caravan of Ishmaelite traders approached, so Judah convinced his brothers not to kill Joseph, but to sell him as a slave to these traders, Genesis 37:25b-28.
6. To Reuben's grief, by the time he returned, Joseph had been sold as a slave and was on his way to Egypt, bound at the feet with shackles and at the neck with an iron collar, Gen. 37:28-30; Psa. 105:18 ESV.
7. Joseph's coat was then dipped in the blood of a goat and shown to his father to make Jacob think an animal had slain him, Genesis 37:31-33.
8. Jacob was so upset at his son's presumed death that he was unable to be comforted even by the other sons, Genesis 37:34-35.
9. Joseph was then sold to Potiphar, captain of Pharaoh's guard, 37:36.
2. Yet, in GOD'S view, this tragedy NEEDED to occur for ISRAEL'S FINAL GOOD, and He TURNED it into TRIUMPH for JOSEPH:
1. The sale of Joseph to Egypt had to occur to save his family and Israel:
1. God had told Joseph's great grandfather, Abraham, that his seed (as Jacob's family) would go into a foreign land, be enslaved there and return (as Israel) to possess the Promised Land, Genesis 15:13-16.
2. Joseph's sale into Egypt moved him closer to ruling there, a step needed for him to bring his father's family into Egypt to save them from a great famine in line with God's Abrahamic Covenant that directed that Israel be preserved, Gen. 37:36 with 45:4-11; 15:16.
3. Joseph's elevation to power over his brothers so he could save them from famine was needed to reconcile Jacob's sons with Joseph so as to preserve the nation Israel for God to redee m out of Egypt!
2. The sale of Joseph into slavery by his brothers made him a wise ruler:
1. Genesis 42:21 reports that when his brothers were betraying him, Joseph had trusted them and begged them to release him.
2. However, realizing as he was sold that he could not trust them unless they were first tested, when Joseph met his brothers again, he tested them before revealing his identity, Gen. 42:7-9; 50:19-21.
3. Joseph thus showed a growth in wisdom essential for leadership.
3. Joseph's sale into slavery was turned by God into triumph for Joseph:
1. The cities of Shechem and Dothan mark the important sites in the events surrounding the betrayal of Joseph, Genesis 37:13-17.
2. In contrast, these cities later came under the rule of the tribe from Manasseh, Joseph's eldest son, and Joseph's mummy was buried in the plot near Shechem that Jacob bought from a Canaanite, Ibid., map 4; Gen. 41:51; Jos. 24:32. Now, Israel's tribal boundaries were set by casting lots (Jos. 14:1-2), and since God controlled the lots (Pr. 16:33), He gave Joseph's seed RULE of the land where he had been betrayed in HONOR and TRIUMPH for JOSEPH!
3. Even God's triumph for Joseph over his betrayal became applicable to a later generation at a later crisis in that same place of Dothan:
1. A thousand years after Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery at Dothan, the prophet Elisha there asked God to open the eyes of his servant who feared the army that had surrounded them in the city to kill Elisha, and that so this servant might see the hills around Dothan were full of God's protective army of angels, 2 Kings 6:13-17; Zon. Pict. Ency. of the Bible, vol. Two, p. 157.
2. The opening of the servant's eyes to trust in God's rule over an entrapping army, an event followed by God's giving Elisha rule over that same army (2 Kings 6:18-23), recalls God's triumph for Joseph eventually to rule over his once entrapping brothers!

Application: If facing traumatic injustice, (1) may we trust in Christ as Savior to be God's child and come under His care, John 1:11-13; Romans 8:32. (2) Then, may we CEASE trusting in sinful man who can do us great injustice (Jeremiah 17:5-6), but (3) rely on God (Jeremiah 17:7-8) (4) and His Word (God's dreams in Joseph's case, Genesis 42:7-9) instead, and (5) wait for God's final deliverance!

Lesson: Though his brothers' betrayal emotionally crushed Joseph, he later saw the event from God's view as being necessary for the survival his family and later for Israel, and God turned his trial into a great triumph!

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

(1) Last Monday on my "day off," I became unusually but highly motivated to perform a preparatory study for this message.

Accordingly, without my wife's knowledge, I used some of my "Monday time out" away from the house to come to the Church and do some preliminary research on the Genesis 37:12-36 passage for today.

Then, Tuesday morning at our breakfast table before coming to my office here at the Church, I told Nadine the fruits of my preliminary study, explaining the lesson I had never before noticed: I had learned of the two different Bible events that had occurred at Dothan a thousand years apart that were similar in lesson application. I told how these events direct us to look at traumatic, entrapping injustices done unto us from God's perspective rather than from our usual, human and hopeless view so we might hope in God's eternal plan and Word rather than viewing our unjust trials in anguished hopelessness!

Nadine patiently listened, and then explained that she was going to meet with someone later that day who was facing a big unjust trial from others, and that she would use this insight to direct the party to trust in God's eternal viewpoint instead of the hopeless human one!

I was surprised at her response, and realized how important this lesson will doubtless be for people in our body today, or even for those in the world who might later read it on our Church's web site!

(2) On Thursday evening, I counseled a party at the Church who is facing a traumatic injustice, and I actually brought these sermon notes up on the monitor and read applicable points for the party!

The party noted that in the family Bible reading time, they had just come to Genesis 37 in their own trek through the Bible, and found it to be very applicable in the matter at hand!

Thus, this message is for today!

So, may we face traumatic injustice by (1) SHIFTING our TRUST from OTHER PEOPLE who can do us GREAT INJUSTICE to (2) TRUST in GOD and HIS WORD that we might adopt GOD'S VIEWPOINT instead of MAN'S HOPELESS one, and so (3) wait for GOD'S deliverance!

It worked for Joseph in handling his brothers' traumatic injustice done unto him, and it worked for Elisha and his servant who faced a threatening injustice by a hostile army at the same place of Joseph's betrayal a thousand years later!