Grist for the Mill

 Read Genesis 39

It’s not fair!  It’s not fair!

Did you hear me? IT’S NOT FAIR!

Had the story of Joseph taken place in this century,  Joseph might have been shouting, IT’S NOT FAIR! Millions would have been posting, IT’S NOT FAIR!

Surely, the treatment of Joseph by his brothers wasn’t fair. Yes, he was a tattle tale.  Yes, he shared some dreams with his parents and siblings about everyone bowing down to him, but surely that warranted a roughing up not being sold into slavery.

We begin the second leg of Joseph’s journey.  It takes place in Potiphar’s household. Potiphar was the captain of the Royal Guard.  It was surely a top posting.  It came with perks.  Potiphar surely had a good parking spot for his chariot at the Pharoah’s palace.

Potiphar was in a powerful position and he had a good income.  He had enough to purchase a Hebrew slave named Joseph.  We don’t know what he paid, but it was surely a bargain.

Potiphar saw that whatever it was that Joseph was working on or in charge of produced good fruit.  This Joseph character had the touch.  Everything he did produced great results.

One of the wisest decisions that Potiphar made was to put Joseph in charge of everything he had.  Somehow, Potiphar discerned that everything that Joseph did or supervised or influenced in any way was blessed by God.

Potiphar must have thought that he made the deal of the century when he acquired Joseph.  The only drawback was that Joseph was a looker.  He was a chick magnet and Potiphar’s wife noticed him and she wanted him in her bed.

Joseph resisted her invitations repeatedly until one day when there was nobody else around, she invited and he declined but she grabbed his robe.

Joseph ran right out of his robe and Potiphar’s wife cried rape.  When her husband came home, she told her version of the story.  Joseph was a slave and there would be no arraignment, no not guilty plea, no day in court to confront his accuser, and no dream team of lawyers to get him off the hook.  He was a slave.

Joseph was a slave.

Potiphar put Joseph in the Pharoah’s prison.  He surely could have killed Joseph without any consequence but surely Joseph had found favor in Potiphar’s eyes and there was surely some mystery about his success.  He must have some connection with some god.  I doubt that the Potiphar knew the one true God, but he could tell that the force was with Joseph in any case.

So, off to prison it was.

It’s not fair!  It’s not fair!

Did you hear me? IT’S NOT FAIR!

We don’t see Joseph complain. We see the same story retold but this time it is in the Pharoah’s prison.  The Lord was with Joseph in everything that he did and he was successful in all that he did.

The warden saw this and put Joseph in charge of everything in the prison.  The only thing that Joseph couldn’t do was go home.  He was in charge of everything within the prison and he was good at it.

The warden hit paydirt.  What a gift Joseph was to him. Do we understand how much of a blessing Joseph was to his seniors?

In the mid to late 1980’s I was stationed with the First Battalion, Sixth Marines.  I was the company commander for the Headquarters and Service Company, affectionately referred to as the Cats and Dogs.  I had Marines who took care of personnel records—the HR department in the civilian world.   I had cooks, truck drivers and mechanics, scouts, snipers, the intelligence section, the operations section, the supply section, the communication section, and more.

When we deployed for Europe and the Mediterranean, a platoon of tanks, a platoon of engineers reinforced by an AVLB, and some other Marines of assorted specialties were assigned to me. In all, I had 351 Marines and their toys assigned to me.

These Marines had about three dozen different primary missions and all of those collateral missions that are unavoidable.  While I loved commanding this company and loved my Marines, there was never a day without a dozen specialized headaches.

When you are in charge of the cooks, bakers, and candlestick makers as well as the tankers and engineers, the confounding factors increased exponentially. OBTW—these were Marines with loaded weapons who in addition to their specialized job were trained to kill the enemy.

Before I took this assignment, the colonel told me that I could stay as the assistant operations officer or I could command H&S Company. I took the command. It was a no-brainer, but there were days in the middle of the insanity that comes with so many confounding factors that I had to remind myself, I asked for this.

When we returned to the States, I was assigned as the Company Commander of Weapons Company.  Before I left the Headquarters and Service Company, my first sergeant was talking to me and said, “You won’t know what to do with yourself.”

I said, “What?”

He said, “It will all be done for you.”

He was right.  In my new company, I had a first sergeant and a master sergeant—these are senior enlisted.  I had the battalion’s most senior lieutenants and they were assisted by senior noncommissioned officers.

If I wanted something, it was done and done well, but I didn’t really have any day-to-day work. I didn’t need to give any orders.  Everyone knew their job and the job of their seniors and everything was done for me.

I felt as Potiphar must have felt.  I felt as the warden must have felt.  Everything was in good hands.

Just so you know, the battalion did deploy to Central America and I did have a few things to do.  The weapons company had developed an airfield seizure package and it was going to kick off the joint operation.

My company would seize the airfield. Our seaborne and heliborne forces would secure a perimeter around the airfield, and then the Air Force C-5s would start coming in with Army troops and equipment every 90 seconds. That was sort of fun.

It was the usual operation where the intel guys tell you there is no intel only a couple of 20-year-old photos of the airfield to be seized.  “We don’t know anything about this airfield” was the party line.  I think intelligence officers are lazy by nature.

I gave my officers the photos and told them to figure out what they could.  They came back to me within the hour and showed me a place on the runway that I had to look at with a magnifying glass. 

There in bold letters were the words, “See Bees Can Do.”

We had intel on this airstrip.  We had built it.  Somewhere we had all the specs on this facility and now the Intel Officer would have to get out of his do-nothing comfort zone and go find it.

All I had to do was hand the assignment to my officers and they were all over it.

You don’t get those situations too often in life.  Most command assignments have some tougher challenges.  You are short people or they are undertrained.  That creates frustration and more challenges, but when you get a command where everyone is the best of the best, you know just how blessed you are when you get these premier postings.

God had blessed Joseph with success in everything he did and his seniors noticed.  God was with this young man. The Egyptians likely did not know the one true God, but they knew Joseph had some extra help. The force was strong in this one.

Joseph was in prison but it would be a launching pad for his greatest promotion ever.  That story is ahead of us, but for the moment let us consider these thoughts.

At any point along the way, Joseph could have thrown a pity party. He could have cried out, “It’s not fair!” Joseph might have thought that things were not fair, but he didn’t give in and throw a pity party.

He could have thrown in the towel and have just given up.

He had these two dreams but they didn’t come with instructions.  All they had brought him so far was the scorn of his brothers and maybe a little of his parents. They got him sold into slavery and now he was in prison.

Had God sent him a vision of Joseph going to Nashville to write and sing Country and Western music, he had the life experience for a couple of albums already. He might have seen the logic in all of this.

But being sold into slavery didn’t seem to fit his vision.

Rising to the top of Potiphar’s household might have given him some hope, but it only took one woman scorned to see that status taken away.

And now prison, really?

We have the advantage of knowing the whole story but in the moment, it must have been a roller coaster ride of great falls and great successes, one after another. Joseph surely had no idea what was next, but he never lost hope.

He never gave up.  He didn’t cry, “it’s not fair.”  He did his best and the Lord blessed him with success.

Moment-to-moment the best that Joseph could do was stay faithful to God and do his best.  God had big plans for Joseph but Joseph lived moment-to-moment.

Sometimes as we have ups and downs, goals help us get through the day.  I’m going to be an engineer, a football player, own my own business, or be the new drummer for Limp Biscuit.

Sometimes it helps to press on toward the goal.

Whatever it is, sometimes goals are enough to get you through the tough times, but the tough times continue even after you reach your goals.

Sometimes focus helps block out the negative.  We can’t stop the negative stuff in our lives, but we can purposely become myopic and accomplish what we set out to do.

We can hone in on one thing and get it done and done right, but the craziness in the world continues once we have hit our target. The world stands ready to come at us from all angles once again.

You have heard the old saying live one day at a time.  If you ever saw the movie 28 Days, the is one line by Sandra Bullock that hits the target.  Confronting her counselor, she says, “Like 2 or 3 days at a time is an option.”

It’s funny, but it hits home.  How many of us try to live in the past or the future or in something other than the moment.

We all live moment-to-moment. Living 2 or 3 days at a time is not really an option and when we try to live other than in the moment, it’s frustrating.

So, what can we do?  Are we condemned to suffer the emotional ups and downs of the rollercoaster ride that makes up our lives? Must we endure the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune?  The year is half over and I have to catch up on my Shakespearean analogies.

So, what can we do?  We remain faithful to God.  We trust in the Lord.  We acknowledge that he does have good plans for us, and we live moment-to-moment doing the best that we can.

We should expect the Lord to bless us with success.

We don’t hold a pity party when things bottom out.  We don’t discard our faith when we are riding high. We don’t dwell on the tough times and we don’t lose touch with God in the good times.

As we grow in God’s grace, we learn to accept that:

God is sovereign.

God is good.

God loves us.

God is love.

God has good plans for us.

God has chosen us for his purpose.

God has commissioned us to share the good news of life in Christ Jesus with the world.

We are God’s trusted servants.  Don’t worry, I will preach the Parable of the Talents twice this year. I think that will make it 15 years in a row, maybe 16.  We are God’s trusted servants.

The best thing that we ever did was become a servant—a slave—for the Lord. It’s all about him and because we belong to him, love him, and have been called by him, he takes everything that happens to us and makes it work for the good.

There is a term that many authors use that applies to our Christian faith as well.  That term is Grist for the mill. Everything that happens to an author ends up somewhere in his or her writing.  It may just be an experience that becomes one-tenth of one percent of a character's makeup, but it’s still grist for the mill.

Likewise, for the man or woman who has professed Jesus as Lord and has taken on his yoke, everything that happens to us is just grist for the mill.  It all goes into our story of how we live out God’s plan.

In our lowest moments when things seem hopeless, think, “It’s just grist for the mill.”  Somehow, God will use this experience for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Don’t forget to praise the Lord when we are riding high.  Live the moment to the full, high or low, and give praise to the Lord and bring glory to his name.

The old catechism question was, “What is the purpose of humankind?” The answer was to bring glory to God and enjoy him very much.

We live moment-to-moment.  Living 2 or 3 days at a time is not an option. We should live in the moment, bring glory to God in every moment, and enjoy God very much in all of our moments regardless of where we are on the rollercoaster ride.

And just so I give the young folks something to Google later on, this ride of life that we are on is a EE ticket.

Live fully in the moment.

Bring glory to God in all of our moments.

Know that God will take all of those moments and use them for good in our lives.

Enjoy the ride.  Enjoy your relationship with God in every moment.

Amen.

What you intended for evil...

This has been a tough year for violence—senseless violence.  Just when you think it can’t get any worse, evil finds a way to do more and more.  In this post-modern century, evil is still at work in the word.

Evil is still at work in the world.   Don’t you just wish that you could turn back the clock to another time?

This morning, we will turn back the clock about 4000 years and introduce a man named Jacob.  He was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham.  God would call him Israel.  Read chapters 32 and 35 when you get a chance.

He had many sons himself, from 2 wives and 2 maidservants.  One of these sons was named Joseph.  The Vacation Bible School that just took place centered on this man named Joseph, his dreams, and his journey from prison to palace.

Joseph and Benjamin were the youngest children, born to Rachel, but it was Joseph whom was given a richly ornate robe.   Today we have come to call it his coat of many colors. 

His brothers were jealous.  Imagine hearing, “Dad loves you more” from 10 older brothers.  Benjamin was younger.  Perhaps this jealously would have just played out in wrestling matches and double dog dares, but Joseph had dreams and he shared them.

Sheaves of his brothers bowing to his own sheave and even the sun, moon, and stars bowing to him upset his brothers and even his father.  What are you saying here kid?  You will rule over us?  Is that it?

It seemed that everyone was upset with Joseph, but note verse 37:11.  Jacob kept the matter in mind.  That is, he pondered these thoughts of his young son as more than just the crazy rebelliousness of a young man.

The story of Joseph really comes into full swing when his 10 older brothers are tending flocks and Israel sends him to check on them.  He heads out to Scheckem and finds they are not there.  After some discussion with a local, he believes them to be in Dothan and sets out to find them.

The brothers saw him coming.  Perhaps this is the first known use of the overused saying, “They saw you coming.”  It fits.

They saw him coming and started plotting.  Among the schemes was an option to kill their young brother.  Reuben intervened and convinced them to throw him in an empty well.  Don’t think that Joseph was just going along with whatever his brothers decided.  He did pleaded for his life.

During this time when Joseph was in the cistern, Reuben went somewhere.  We don’t know exactly what happened next.  Perhaps it was Reuben’s turn to watch the sheep, but what happened next transpired without the oldest brother present. 

A caravan of Ishmaelites was headed their way.  The brothers had decided not to kill Joseph.  Even if they hated him, he was still flesh and blood kin.  They decided to sell him to the traders and received 20 shekels of sliver for him.

When Reuben returned he was furious.  Well, not upset enough to go after his little brother.  The question remains unanswered whether or not he took his cut of the 20 shekels.  That’s a good topic for Monday night Bible study.

In any case Joseph was gone and they needed a cover story.  Upset or not, even Reuben would be complicit in this.  They took his ornate robe—no way that was included in the deal—and ripped it to pieces.  They slaughtered a goat and dipped it in its blood.

This is where you get to scratch your head and think, “And out of these men will come the tribes of God’s Chosen People.”

They are each 2 shekels richer by selling their brother.

Surely the flesh of the goat didn’t go to waste.  They had a goat roast party to celebrate their ill-gotten gains.

Finally, they bring the pieces of robe back to their father presenting it to him in feigned innocence saying, “does this look like your son’s coat?”  It’s pretty good as far as criminal thinking goes.  If you let dad draw his own conclusions, you don’t have to get 10 stories straight.

The story shifts back to Joseph.  He was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.  I’m sure you are wondering the same thing that I am.  What was the price?  The wholesale cost was 20 shekels of silver; what was the retail price of the man who would ultimately save Egypt and God’s Chosen People?

We don’t get that answer but we do get this:  “And the Lord was with Joseph and he prospered.”

Joseph, at whatever price Potiphar paid, was a bargain.  He was successful at everything he did and pretty soon he was running everything that his master could put in his charge.

I can imagine hearing the captain of the guard talking at the officers club.  “You wouldn’t believe the deal I got on this Hebrew kid.  He is smart, industrious, and it seems like everything I give him to do he finds a way to make it work.  I think I made the deal of a lifetime.”

The problem was that Joseph was what we might call a strapping young man and it seems that Potiphar’s wife was something of a cougar.  Yes, she wanted him.

In an encounter where she grabs his robe and he runs away not wanting any part of betraying his master, she is left with his robe and he is fleeing the scene.  The script gets flipped and Joseph is branded the aggressor.

Welcome to the Pharaoh’s prison where we are told that the Lord was with Joseph once again.  He became the warden’s favorite and even made a couple of friends. 

These were the Pharaoh’s former cupbearer and baker.  Each of which would present Joseph with dreams and Joseph would explain them.

The explanation was good for the cupbearer and not so good for the baker, but Joseph asked that when the cupbearer was restored to his position that he put in a good word for him.

Here we see that Joseph is faithful to trust in his Lord but not stoic.  He tells the cupbearer that he got a bum rap.  He was brought to Egypt not of his own free will and once here committed no crimes.

Of course that story goes around a few hundred time a day in prison, but Joseph saw an opportunity to get his case before Pharaoh and he was proactive.

The cupbearer was restored to his position and immediately pleaded for Joseph’s release.  No he didn’t.  He forgot to mention Joseph for a full 2 years.

He didn’t remember of his own accord but because the Pharaoh had dreams and nobody could help him to interpret them.  But the cupbearer remembered Joseph.

The Pharaoh’s dreams consisted of 7 fine looking head of cattle coming up out of the Nile followed by 7 of the scrawniest cows you could imagine.  To top it off, the scrawny cows ate the big healthy cows.

He had a second dream involving grain that portrayed the same message—a message that it took Joseph to reveal to the Pharaoh.  Egypt would be blessed with 7 years of abundance that would be followed by 7 years of famine.

Joseph didn’t stop there.  He prescribed what must be done.  In every part of Egypt, 1/5 of the harvest must be collected and stored for each of the 7 years.  That is 20% of each year’s harvest was to be held back by the government to weather the lean years to come.

Joseph then told Pharaoh that he must appoint a wise man to oversee this most important project.  Pharaoh knowing of no such man among his counselors and commanders and seeing God at work in Joseph, appointed Joseph.

At the Age of 30, this man who was discarded by his own brothers, sent to prison without cause, and seemed to be forgotten was now in charge of all of Egypt—all of it.  Only Pharaoh himself would not be answerable to Joseph.

He was given an Egyptian name:  Zaphenath-Paneah.  We don’t know what the name meant at the time; perhaps it was “Revealer of Secrets” or  “God Speaks.”  He was given a wife.  He was in charge and over all things in Egypt.  Joseph did what he had always done because the Lord was with him.  He executed the plan that would save many lives.

Now we return to Jacob and his sons.  Famine has come.  They are hungry.  Egypt has grain so he sends all but Benjamin to buy grain.  There are stories within stories that transpire next until Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers.

We jump ahead somewhat to God’s chosen people moving to Egypt, being given land in the hill country of Goshen, and beginning to grow into the nation of Israel in this foreign land.

Jacob—Israel lived 17 years in Egypt with all of his sons as this young nation began to emerge.  Then at the age of 147 years, he died.  He had given instructions to his sons that he was to be buried in Canaan in the place that Abraham had purchased long ago.

The Pharaoh granted Joseph leave to bury his father—how could he not.  Joseph had saved a nation, actually two nations.   So Joseph and his brothers buried their father.

Reality sunk in for the brothers.  Dad’s gone.  Our brother Joseph is the most powerful man in the world.  We did him wrong.  Now we are surely going to pay for what we did.

These brothers longed for forgiveness but know at best they can only be slaves.  Long ago they sold themselves into slavery.  These men are without hope.  They fall down at Joseph’s feet declaring themselves to be his slaves.

But Joseph said, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good, and the saving of many lives which is being accomplished now.”

Make no mistake, these brothers acted long ago with malice aforethought against their brother.  They plotted his death but settled for selling him into slavery.

This was hate in action.

They did evil.  They did wrong.  They did it to their own brother.

But Joseph reminded his brothers that he was not God and he did not sit in the judgment seat.  For all that Joseph had been through he was now in a position to save many lives and many lives were being saved.  Joseph’s heart and mind were set on reconciliation, not retaliation.

He told his brothers that he would not only care for them but for their children as well.  We see wisdom and mercy and a heart of reconciliation in Joseph, but we also see that there is evil in the world.

There is evil in the world but God has not orphaned us to deal with it on our own.  In Joseph’s darkest hours, we note that the Lord was with him and he prospered wherever he was.

There is evil at work in the world today.  We hear about it more frequently across more media platforms every year.  It is there.  It is not going away in this age and we should not be surprised.

What is surprising is how many Christians forget that God is with us.  The Lord is with us and will prosper us.

The Lord has given us gifts and talents and special abilities that we are to put to use and then we are to trust in the Lord that he will work things for good for those of us who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Today, let us take a lesson from Joseph.  He was not stoic.  He didn’t go through life saying, “It’s nothing.”  He knew that he had been wronged.  He didn’t like it but he trusted God.

He made the most of every circumstance that was thrust upon him and the Lord was with him and what he did prospered.

We have been here many times before.  We don’t focus on the world.  We are aware of what is going on in the world but we focus on what God has called us to do and trust him to direct our paths.

We work at everything we do as if we are working for God and not for others.

We go into this dark and sometimes evil world as salt and light and love.  People need to taste the goodness of God in us.  We need to be a light in the darkness.

But we must trust God even when our circumstances seemed to be turned inside out and upside down.  We need to trust God and put our gifts and talents to use even when everything seems to be going against us.

It only took a moment for Joseph to go from the depths of prison to commanding everything in Egypt and in a position to save many lives, including those of his own family.  In a single moment everything can change.

For Joseph, Egypt, and God’s Chosen people acts of evil and hate had been stripped of their own selfish intent and replaced with God’s purpose.

The Lord was with Joseph and the Lord is with us.  We will not become discouraged even when evil seems to prevail all around us for the Lord is with us.

We will prosper in everything the Lord calls us to do.

Amen.