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"God Intended It For Good"By Dr. Mickey Anders
First Christian Church
Pikeville, Kentucky
January 18, 2004
Text: Genesis 50:15-21
One of my favorite jokes comes from my Boy Scout days back in the fifties when the last page of Boys Life magazine always had jokes on it. I still remember this one.
Unluckily a man fell out of an airplane.
Luckily, he had a parachute.
Unluckily, the parachute did not open.
Luckily, there was a haystack below him.
Unluckily, there was a pitchfork in the haystack.
Luckily, he missed the pitchfork.
Unluckily, he missed the haystack.
I have that feeling about Joseph's life and sometimes about mine. As we have read through the Bible this week, we have found that Joseph certainly knew about life's ups and downs. We found that Joseph seemed to have more than his share of both.
Luckily, he was the favorite child of his father.
Unluckily, his brothers had sold him into slavery.
Luckily, he rose through the ranks and had a prestigious position for a slave.
Unluckily, he was wrongfully accused of sexual harassment and thrown into prison.
Luckily, he made some good connections in prison by explaining dreams.
Unluckily, his friend promptly forgot him.
Some time later Pharaoh had a dream, which could not be interpreted. Luckily, his friend remembered Joseph's talent for interpreting dreams. Joseph successfully interpreted the Pharaoh's dream about the coming famine and was placed in command of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself.
Pharaoh's dream had warned that seven years of famine would follow seven years of plenty. It was Joseph's responsibility to make sure that the bounty from the first seven years was stored so that it could be adequately distributed during the lean years.
It was in the middle of the famine that Joseph's brothers made their trek to Egypt to buy grain for the family. Little did they realize that the brother they had sold into slavery so many years ago would now be the one responsible for saving the nation of Israel from starvation. Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
It was then that Joseph decided to get his revenge. Joseph played a number of tricks on his brothers, each successive trick making them feel more and more indebted to Joseph and to Egypt. They were cruel tricks because they caused the imprisonment of one brother, the threat of slavery for the other brothers, and additional grief for his parents.
Joseph was getting his revenge for the trouble his brothers had caused in his life. But Joseph realizes that revenge is not bringing him any satisfaction at all. He sends everyone away and then he weeps loudly. He can hardly contain himself as he reveals his identity to his brothers.
Joseph calls his brothers closer to him, and tells them things that only their brother Joseph would know. Joseph forgives them, attempting to remove their guilt by trying to convince them it was God that sent him to Egypt, not them. It is only after Joseph breaks down, kisses each of his brothers and weeps upon them that the brothers feel any sense of ease. Then they start to open up a little and talk with Joseph.
Again, Joseph broke down and wept, and that's when he said something that I have been wrestling with for a long time. He said to his brothers, "Do not be afraid! Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today" (Gen. 50:19-20).
And we are left to struggle with the question, "Was Joseph lucky or unlucky? Was it a bad thing that Joseph was sold into slavery in the first place or was it a good thing?"
I think this is so important because it's a question we often ask about events that happen in our lives. We are just like Joseph with ups and downs, but we are prone to make quick decisions about whether a particular event was good or bad.
For Joseph, the situation was certainly bad because the brothers meant only to harm him. Out of their extreme jealousy they first wanted to kill him, but then settled for selling him into slavery. It was not an act of generosity. I think Joseph says it well in Genesis 50 when he says, "you meant (it) for evil."
But it was a good thing as well. Looking back, Joseph finally realizes that if his brothers had not sold him into slavery in Egypt, he would never have risen to such a significant position of power, and the family would have all starved during the famine. And it would have changed the Biblical storyline. There would be no descendants as numerous as the sands of the sea, no slavery in Egypt, no Passover, no Ten Commandments. So we must conclude that it was according to God's good plan that Joseph was sold into slavery. Right?
Well, I must confess that I struggle with this issue. But this week I found a wonderful story that has helped me to understand Joseph and to understand my own life as well.
In Max Lucado's book, In the Eye of the Storm, he tells an old Portuguese parable that goes like this:
Once there was an old man who lived in a tiny village. Although poor, he was envied by all, for he owned a beautiful white horse. Even the king coveted his treasure. A horse like this had never been seen before -- such was its splendor, its majesty, its strength.
People offered fabulous prices for the steed, but the old man always refused. "This horse is not a horse to me," he would tell them. "It is a person. How could you sell a person? He is a friend, not a possession. How could you sell a friend?" The man was poor and the temptation was great. But he never sold the horse.
One morning he found that the horse was not in the stable. All the village came to see him. "You old fool," they scoffed, "we told you that someone would steal your horse. We warned you that you would be robbed. You are so poor. How could you ever hope to protect such a valuable animal? It would have been better to have sold him. You could have gotten whatever price you wanted. No amount would have been too high. Now the horse is gone, and you've been cursed with misfortune."
The old man responded, "Don't speak too quickly. Say only that the horse is not in the stable. That is all we know; the rest is judgment. If I've been cursed or not, how can you know? How can you judge?"
The people contested, "Don't make us out to be fools! We may not be philosophers, but great philosophy is not needed. The simple fact that your horse is gone is a curse."
The old man spoke again. "All I know is that the stable is empty, and the horse is gone. The rest I don't know. Whether it be a curse or a blessing, I can't say. All we can see is a fragment. Who can say what will come next?"
The people of the village laughed. They thought that the man was crazy. They had always thought he was a fool; if he wasn't, he would have sold the horse and lived off the money. But instead, he was a poor woodcutter, an old man still cutting firewood and dragging it out of the forest and selling it. He lived hand to mouth in the misery of poverty. Now he had proven that he was, indeed, a fool.
After fifteen days, the horse returned. He hadn't been stolen; he had run away into the forest. Not only had he returned, he had brought a dozen wild horses with him. Once again the village people gathered around the woodcutter and spoke. "Old man, you were right and we were wrong. What we thought was a curse was a blessing. Please forgive us."
The man responded, "Once again, you go too far. Say only that the horse is back. State only that a dozen horses returned with him, but don't judge. How do you know if this is a blessing or not? You see only a fragment. Unless you know the whole story, how can you judge? You read only one page of a book. Can you judge the whole book? You read only one word of a phrase. Can you understand the entire phrase? Life is so vast, yet you judge all of life with one page or one word. All you have is a fragment! Don't say that this is a blessing. No one knows. I am content with what I know. I am not perturbed by what I don't."
"Maybe the old man is right," they said to one another. So they said little. But down deep, they knew he was wrong. They knew it was a blessing. Twelve wild horses had returned with one horse. With a little bit of work, the animals could be broken and trained and sold for much money.
The old man had a son, an only son. The young man began to break the wild horses. After a few days, he fell from one of the horses and broke both legs. Once again the villagers gathered around the old man and cast their judgments.
"You were right," they said. "You proved you were right. The dozen horses were not a blessing. They were a curse. Your only son has broken his legs, and now in your old age you have no one to help you. Now you are poorer than ever."
The old man spoke again. "You people are obsessed with judging. Don't go so far. Say only that my son broke his legs. Who knows if it is a blessing or a curse? No one knows. We only have a fragment. Life comes in fragments."
It so happened that a few weeks later the country engaged in war against a neighboring country. All the young men of the village were required to join the army. Only the son of the old man was excluded, because he was injured. Once again the people gathered around the old man, crying and screaming because their sons had been taken. There was little chance that they would return. The enemy was strong, and the war would be a losing struggle. They would never see their sons again.
"You were right, old man," they wept. "God knows you were right. This proves it. Your son's accident was a blessing. His legs may be broken, but at least he is with you. Our sons are gone forever."
The old man spoke again. "It is impossible to talk with you. You always draw conclusions. No one knows. Say only this: Your sons had to go to war, and mine did not. No one knows if it is a blessing or a curse. No one is wise enough to know. Only God knows" (1)
In Genesis 50:19, Joseph asks in part, "Am I God to judge...?" His story should cause us to ask, "Who are we to judge?" Jesus says the same thing in Matthew 7:1-2, "Do not judge, so that you may not be judged." (Matt 7:1).
Who are we to judge if any given event in our life is an "up" moment or a "down" moment? And really what difference does it make when we decide? What we interpret as a curse may, in the end, lead to a blessing or vice versa. I believe this story and Joseph's story tell us that our best response is to leave the judgment of the future in God's hands.
John Claypool has a famous sermon in which he tells how the famous preacher Frederick Buechner got his start in life. During the depression when Buechner was ten years old, his father got up early one Saturday morning, shut himself in the garage, turned on the car engine and had died before anybody knew what was happening. It was a tragic event that shaped young Buechner for many years.
He went on to get his schooling and college. While studying in New York City, he started attending church for the first time in his life. He heard the famous preacher George Buttrick at Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church. After a few Sundays, he had quite a dramatic religious conversion that would shape the rest of his life. And it was not long before he found himself studying in seminary. At the age of twenty-seven, he encountered the Holy Scripture for the first time.
"He was amazed at the Bible for two reasons. First, he noted the unbelievable earthiness and honesty of the Bible. He had seen quotations from the Bible during his education, but he had no idea that the Book was as true to life as he found it to be. There was no attempt to gloss over the brutalities and cruelties that make up the human story. Even the greatest heroes, like Abraham, Moses and David, were depicted as the flawed and failing persons they sometimes were. There was something else even more astonishing to him than all this earthiness, and that was the fact that in this utterly honest account, the worst things were never the last things!" (2)
I think this is a great lesson from the Bible, and it seems to be true all the way through – the worst things are never the last things. Rather than spending our time worrying about what events in our lives are good and what are bad, we should put our trust in God and God's plan for our lives. I hope we can all learn to affirm with Romans 8:28, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose."
Endnotes:
1) Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm, pp. 144-147
2) "The Worst Things and the Last Things", Trinity Episcopal Church, New Orleans, Louisiana, September 23, 2001, http://www.trinityc.net/john_claypool_sermon.htm.