2/5 Sermon on the Life of Joseph, Part 4

At The Family Church here in Gainesville, Pastor Philip Griffin has an ongoing Sunday morning series titled Upcycling: Trash to Treasure and which examines the trials and triumphs of the Old Testament figure of Joseph, with the aim of deriving lessons we can apply from them to our own lives.  Today's sermon, When Life Isn't Fair..., focuses on the section of the story in which Joseph is wrongly imprisoned for attempting to sexually assault the wife of his master Potiphar...for which he is completely innocent.  The passages are Genesis 39:20-40:23, which you can read at the end of this article.  In looking at Joseph's response to his imprisonment, Pastor Philip states the importance of ministering to others where you are and to look for growth opportunities, even if you are, for a season, in a dungeon...even if it is a figurative one.  But while glorifying God through your adverse circumstances, realizing that your character is thus growing deeper roots that will ultimately make you stronger and more resilient in the long run, you still should not settle for remaining down in that dungeon, either.  And ultimately, after all is said and done, realize that life on this world isn't necessarily fair and that you shouldn't depend on fairness as a guide to how you react to others or choose to conduct your own life.  Instead, as our pastor stresses...accept that God is good, even through the storms...and that he is faithful and fair "even when others aren't"...

This message made an impact on me, as I could easily sink into an attitude of utter cynicism and even despair for the way I perceive myself having being treated in my past by others, especially as a child.  Yet here I am, with the choice to live in the present and rely on God for his true fairness.  You can see it for yourself by clicking on the following link to The Family Church Videos website on YouTube: [link]...

And here is that passage from Genesis 39:20-40:23, in the NIV and courtesy of Bible Gateway:

³⁹²⁰ Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison, ²¹ the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. ²² So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. ²³ The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

40 Some time later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. ² Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, ³ and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. ⁴ The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.

After they had been in custody for some time, ⁵ each of the two men—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison—had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own.
⁶ When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. ⁷ So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”
⁸ “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”
⁹ So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, ¹⁰ and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. ¹¹ Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and put the cup in his hand.”
¹² “This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. ¹³ Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. ¹⁴ But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness; mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison. ¹⁵ I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”
¹⁶ When the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, “I too had a dream: On my head were three baskets of bread.¹⁷ In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”
¹⁸ “This is what it means,” Joseph said. “The three baskets are three days. ¹⁹ Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head and impale your body on a pole. And the birds will eat away your flesh.”
²⁰ Now the third day was Pharaoh’s birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials: ²¹ He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand— ²² but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation.
²³ The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.