Well, let's go to the book of
Genesis this evening, and we're going to Genesis chapter 39. And I hope to cover the entire
chapter. You know, the life of Joseph,
it can be described as a life from riches to rags to riches. His was a life of ups and downs. And, you know, it may have seemed
to him, as we come to chapter 39, because he's now been brought
into Egypt and to live a life of servitude, it may have seemed
to Joseph, this seems very inconsistent with that which was revealed
to him in two dreams. In those dreams, the Lord made
known to him that he would be put in a position of authority
over his family, and that others would bow down to him, even his
father and his mother. God said to Joseph, you're going
to be exalted. Little did he realize, I suspect,
that the road to exaltation involved the road of, well, humiliation,
I guess we'd call it. He had to be brought low before
he could be brought high. And here in Genesis chapter 39,
we're taught several lessons, certainly moral lessons And we
would do well to pay attention to the moral lessons that are
learned here. There's some spiritual lessons
that need to be taken away from this passage of Scripture also,
but here's the real purpose of this portion of Scripture, is
to reveal to us that glory of our Savior as he humbled himself
and he came into this world in order to save us from our sins.
If Joseph's story is the story from riches to rags to riches,
that's certainly a picture of our Lord Jesus. Because he was
rich in all things. He's God over all, blessed forever. All things belong to Him. The
riches of all creation, that's His. The riches of providence,
that's His. He's the King of the universe.
He spoke everything into existence. And the Scripture says, by Him
all things consist. He's rich. And yet we read in
2 Corinthians 8, though He was rich, yet for Your sake, my sake,
for the sake of all of His people, He became poor. There was a reason
for that, that we, through His poverty, would be rich. Rich in grace. Rich in God's
salvation. He who owned all things, he humbled
himself. That which happened to Joseph.
Significance, certainly, for Joseph. There's no question about
that. But nothing, nothing compared
to our Lord Jesus. And as we go through this, it
isn't Joseph, really, that we want to focus on. And I think
Many times as we go through the story of Joseph, we're kind of
tempted to just focus on that one man. But really, the Spirit
of God is not teaching us about Joseph. The Spirit of God is
teaching us about that one whom Joseph prefigured, even our Lord
Jesus Christ. I believe there are four reasons,
at least four reasons why the Spirit of God directed the path
of Joseph into Egypt. As you know, he has been sold,
of course, by the Ishmaelites into servitude in Egypt, into
the house of Potiphar. I think there are at least four
reasons why God directed the path of Joseph into Egypt. Number one, it fulfilled his
promise to Abraham. And for a reference on this,
if you want to go back and read it at your leisure, it's Genesis
chapter 15, verses 13 and 14, where the Lord says to Joseph
that your seed will be taken into servitude, that is, into
Egypt. And they'll be there over 400
years. So one of the reasons that this
happens, and Joseph, and remember, Joseph is, he's the head of the
family. He's the one who received the
birthright over Reuben. Reuben didn't deserve it, but
Joseph did. And so Joseph became the priest
of the family. He became the one in the family
who would lead them in the worship of God. And now he goes into Egypt. But this just fulfilled God's
Word. That which God speaks always
comes to pass. Always. Another reason that This
is set forth and God directed the steps of Joseph into Egypt
is that God chose Joseph to protect and to provide for this little
family until they became a great nation. Joseph, in the purpose of God,
he winds up in Egypt. And he winds up in Egypt because
that's where God has purposed that Israel will wind up. For it will be in Egypt that
God will bring to pass the miracle of redemption. Make sure you
understand this. Really, Egypt in and of itself
was insignificant to God. They're nobody to God. In fact,
the Lord will later say of Pharaoh, for this purpose I raised you
up that I might make My power known in you. The Lord didn't
care anything about the Egyptians. Their only significance in all
of this is that's where God is going to put Joseph, that's where
God's going to bring the family of Jacob, and that's where Israel
is going to become a great nation. And God used Egypt. Even as He used that evil Pharaoh,
and then after God used him, He just tossed him aside. And
we've said before, God uses everybody. And He uses the Egyptians, especially
the Egyptian leaders, who though ungodly, and though meaning to
punish Israel and be ruthless, ruthless masters over them. Yet Israel will go into Egypt
because that's where God ordained for them to be. They've got to
go there because that's where Joseph is. And then here's another reason
I think that Joseph was taken into Egypt. This picture of our
Lord Jesus who himself was taken into Egypt when he was just an
infant. Hosea 11 in verse 1 says, when
Ezra was a child, then I loved him and I called my son out of
Egypt. But you get to the New Testament,
specifically into the book of Matthew, the second chapter,
the Spirit of God used that, not with reference to national
Israel, but with reference to our Savior. You remember the kings visited
Jerusalem? They're looking for that one
who is the king of kings. We're looking for the king of
the Jews. This greatly disturbed Herod
and he gets some of the Jewish leaders together and says, well,
where is the king of the Jews going to be born? They said,
Bethlehem. So he tells these three kings, well, go into, if
indeed there were three of them, go into Bethlehem and find him. You tell me where he is then
and we'll all worship him. Of course, Herod wanted to kill
him. And so then the angel of God came to the kings and said,
don't go back, tell Herod where he's at. And then the angel of
God told Joseph and Mary, specifically Joseph, New Testament Joseph,
not Old Testament Joseph, told Joseph, you take this little
infant, you take him and his mother into Egypt. And we find in Matthew chapter
2 that they stayed until after the death of Herod. They went
to Egypt, quote, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken
by the Lord to the prophet Out of Egypt have I called my Son. This is all about our Lord Jesus. And fourthly, it would be in
Egypt, which is a picture of the world. Almost everybody would
agree with that. Egypt is a picture of the world. It would be in Egypt that Joseph,
he would save his family physically. This is where it's going to happen.
It's not going to happen in the land of Canaan. In fact, Jacob
and the rest of the family, and in all there's only 70 of them
in the end, at least at the end of Genesis, they're all going
to come into Egypt. And Joseph would save them physically. But that's just a picture of
our Lord Jesus. You see, our Savior, He came
into this world into servitude. He came to serve Jehovah. And He humbled Himself. My, what
a stoop! Oh, how low He came! And He lived
in this evil Egypt. Egypt to picture the world. He
lived in this world for the good of His people. And then He took our sins in
His own body on the tree, and He died to redeem us in this
Egypt. You see, that's where in this
world, in this great Egypt, this is where the great drama of redemption,
God ordained that it take place here. It didn't take place in
heaven. Though it was purposed in heaven,
it took place right here in this Egypt of this world. It's what
God ordained. It's what God purposed. And just
like Joseph wound up in Egypt in order to be the Savior physically,
of His family, our Lord Jesus came to this world to be the
Savior, spiritually and eternally, the Savior of all of His people. So remember this as we continue
to look at the life of Joseph. I know there are moral truths to be picked up from this,
and we appreciate those. We appreciate the lessons in
morality, and as I go through this, you'll see if you're not
familiar with this story, most of you are, but we'll see how
Joseph did not yield to temptation. And he's a good example of us
to rest in the Lord and to believe the Word of God and to resist,
resist the devil and he flees from us. But it's much more than
that. Much more than that. This piece
of history is given to us in order to show us our Lord Jesus,
our Savior. And if we read this only as a
bit of physical, literal history, we've missed the real purpose
of the passage. We've got to see Him who is our
Savior. Who entered into this world and
who, though rich, He became poor. in order to make us rich in His
grace by His death. And then He went back to glory,
the exalted Son of God. Well, realizing these things
then, I want to simply read the verses together and I'll make
a few observations. Look at verse 1. And Joseph was
brought down to Egypt. Who brought him down? Well, the
Ishmaelites, sure. And ultimately his brothers,
because they were the ones who were going to sell him into slavery,
at first wanted to kill him. Reuben said, no, let's sell him.
But it was really God who brought him. God brought him down to Egypt,
just like God brought his son down into this world. And Potiphar,
the officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard. In Egyptian, he
bought him out of the hand of the Ishmaelites, which had brought
him down thither. And the Lord was with Joseph.
And he was a very prosperous man. And he was in the house
of his master, the Egyptian. Here's the title of the message,
Joseph in Potiphar's house. and he becomes a servant, literally
a bondservant. What a stoop from being the favorite
son of Jacob, having a coat of many colors, beloved above all
the other brethren of Jacob, now Joseph has become a servant. And this man's lineage, I remind
you, is Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. He has a royal lineage. But look how God in His purpose
brought him down. Underline those words in verse
1. And Joseph was brought down. Who brought him down? God did. Because God's the first cause
of all things. And who brought our Savior down?
God brought Him down to do a work. To do a work He couldn't do up
there. To do a work that He couldn't even do by the word of His mouth. God could create all of the universe
by speaking the word of creation. But He couldn't save us that
way. In order to save us, he's got to bring him down. Christ had to be brought down,
thither, right down here to do the work of redemption. This,
I tell you, this bringing down of Joseph was nothing compared
with the voluntary servitude of our Savior. You see, not only
did God bring the Savior down, He wanted to come. He was willing. With Joseph,
he's been cast into a pit and the Ishmaelites come by and say,
hey, let's get that guy. We can make some money on him
selling him in Egypt. This is not Joseph's idea. But
He goes into Egypt having been brought down by the Ishmaelites
and ultimately by God. But our Lord Jesus, He knew exactly
what He was doing in fulfillment of His covenant obligation. The
Father brought Him down. And He said as He came into this
world, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. He's Jehovah's faithful servant. Notice this, secondly, as we
look at the second verse alone, the Lord was with Joseph. The
Lord was with Joseph. As I said, Egypt is a picture
of the world, we know that. A world that is at enmity with
God. And yet, Though this world is
at enmity with God, as the Lord's people are in this world, He
is with us. The Lord was with Joseph. Oh
Joseph, he's not exalted anymore. Forget about this favorite son
business, and of course the coat of many colors has been splashed
with blood of wild animals. But this is what is significant
as far as you and I are concerned with regards to Joseph. God was
with him. You who are the people of God,
He is always with you. And oh, how much more so was
that true with Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. Joseph is in Egypt, just like
our Lord was in this Egypt of this world. But he was always
under the protection of God. And when our Lord was opposed
by his enemies who sought to kill him, Luke chapter 4, He
came to Galilee, the Nazareth there. He preached a message
on sovereign grace. Grace that does the job. Grace
that saves. Distinguishing grace. When He preached that message,
they were ready to kill Him. How come they couldn't get their
hands on Him? The Father protected Him. God was with Him. It wasn't
His hour. And we read several times of
our Lord Jesus, His hour was not yet come. It wasn't the time
for Him to die. Our Lord Jesus is that man who
is Himself God. Emmanuel, God with us. The incarnate God, one with the
Father, full of grace and truth. The Lord was with Him. And the
Lord was in him. He was God. So we read in John
1.14, and you've read it a hundred times or more, and the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, tabernacled among us, and we
beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. He dwelt among us. The word dwelt
was so often put in that word tabernacle. We could say it this
way, he pitched his tent here for a little while. That's what
he did. That's what he did. He pitched
his tent here just for a little while. Until he did the work
God gave him to do. And having finished that work
of redemption, He folded up his tent and he went back to glory.
And he entered into paradise above. And there he is. There he sits. The King of kings
and the Lord of lords. Look at verse 3. His master took
note of him and he saw that the Lord was with him. And that the
Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. We do believe in the prosperity
gospel. That is the very truth of God
prospers. The purpose of God prospers in
the hands of Jesus Christ. It's got to. He shall not fail. He's God Almighty. Whatever God
sets out to do, you know He's going to do it perfectly and
successfully. God's purpose prospered in His
hands. Turn with me over to Psalm 1. Psalm 1. A good bit of the time
when this psalm is addressed and read and spoken of, application
is made to the people of God. And certainly there is some application
here that can be made to you and me who are the sons and daughters
of God. But ultimately, this passage
of Scripture only fits one man. That's all. That's Christ Jesus. Look at this, verse 1. Blessed
is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. But his delight is in the law
of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And
we want to be that way, but we don't meditate on the Word of
God day and night. Only one man does that and did
that. That's the Lord Jesus our Savior.
Look at verse 3. And he shall be, he shall be
like a tree. What kind of tree? One that is
planted, established by God, by the rivers of water that bringeth
forth his fruit in his season. His leaf also shall not wither,
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The purpose of God. Isaiah 53 says, the pleasure
of the Lord shall do what? Prosper in His hand. We'll go back to our text. Notice
what it says next. In verse 4. And Joseph found
grace in His sight, and He served Him. He served willingly. He served readily. He served
cheerfully. And he served faithfully. And here's what Potiphar did.
He made him overseer over his house. And all that he had, he
put into his hand. Everything Potiphar owned, he
said, hey, you look after all of it. This is Joseph rising up from
his servitude because he's a man respected by Potiphar and a man
in whom the Lord was present. The Lord was with him and gave
him favor in the eyes of Potiphar. Therefore, Potiphar made him
overseer of his house. And I'll tell you what, our Lord
Jesus came down here, God's faithful servant. He was faithful to serve
Him day in, day out, perfectly, always. And then served Him as
He went to the cross of Calvary. Died for the sins of all of the
elect that God gave Him, the covenant of grace. He satisfied
God's justice. God exalted Him. And God put
Him in charge of everything! It's all His! It's all in His
hands. God put His glory in the hands
of Christ. He trusted Christ with His glory. He trusted Christ with His people
to save them, to justify them, to redeem them, to bring them
safely home to glory. In fact, He trusted Him with
all the world. All the world is yours. Fulfill
my purpose. He trusted Him with all things. Our Lord is trustworthy. He's
trustworthy for the Father, and you can trust Him too. Yes, sir, you can trust Him too. And then watch this. Look at
verse five. And it came to pass from that
time that he had made him overseer in his house, and over all that
he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house, not because
of who Polyphor was, but for Joseph's sake. And all the blessing
of the Lord was upon all that he had in the house and in the
field. Even so, we're blessed with all
spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ. In Christ. In verse 6, he says essentially
the same thing. He left all that he had in Joseph's
hand. And he knew not all that he had
save the bread which he did eat. He'd come in and there'd be food
on his plate. That's all he needed to know.
He just trusted Joseph with everything. And I'll tell you, God loved
you to such an extent, He gave you to His Son. He trusted your
everlasting welfare to Christ Jesus, to your Shepherd. You are safe. You are safe. It says in verse 6 there at the
end, Joseph was a goodly man. He was a goodly person and well-favored. Oh, not good in himself. We know
better than that. But he was good in Christ. And
he was well-favored. God graced him in Christ. And then we get to verses 7 8 and 9, and here we see that when
tempted to sin, Joseph proved himself to be a faithful man,
true to his master in all things. And it came to pass after these
things, that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and
she said, lie with me. But he refused, and said unto
his master's wife, behold, my master wanteth not what is with
me in the house, and he hath committed all that he had to
my hand. There's none greater in this house than I. Neither
hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because you're his
wife. How then can I do this great
wickedness and sin against God?" He was tempted and he stood up
to the temptation. And of our Lord Jesus, it is
said He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He had to be without sin. He
had to be the perfect sacrifice because Leviticus 22 and 21 says,
it shall be perfect to be accepted. The Lord would not accept an
imperfect sacrifice. He goes into that in the book
of Malachi. You got a lame lamb? Offer that
to the governor, he says. Don't you bring it to me. If
you want me to accept it, it's got to be perfect. Christ had
to be perfect even when He was the sacrifice. Even when laying
down His life for us, He had to be perfect. Otherwise, there
would have been no salvation and redemption for us. The idea
that He became a sinner when He died, it's foolish. It's just ridiculous. The Scripture
says it shall be perfect to be accepted. If He was not the perfect
sacrifice, His sacrifice would not have been accepted. How do
you know His was a sinless sacrifice? Because God accepted Him. That's
how I know. No sin in Him. In Him was no sin. Even when
He bore our sin, He wasn't contaminated with it. You say, Jim, I don't
understand how that can be. This salvation is not according
to logic. It's not according to our human
reasoning. These things may not be able
to be comprehended in our minds, and indeed they're not. But I
do know this about God. He had to have a perfect, sinless,
blameless, spotless sacrifice. And that sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus met the bill. It was exactly what God demanded. And let me just make this observation
here too. The world has a very dim view
of what sin is. Would you agree? Sure. It'd have
to. It has a low estimation of sin
except when it interferes with the welfare of society. Society gets a little upset then.
Here's an illustration. What's going on over in Russian
Ukraine right now. Here's a man, a bloodthirsty
tyrant. And most all the world says,
what an ungodly man he is. Look at this wickedness. Look
at this sin. Yep, it is. It's a horrible thing
that he's doing. But those who see the sin in
what that man's doing fail to see the sins in themselves. Because the sins in ourselves
don't affect society in general. So we don't mind standing up
as judges and, hey, I'm opposed to what he's doing too. And my
heart is moved by the results that I see on television. But that's just one man's wickedness. What about a whole world of wickedness? And people forget about that.
But God doesn't. God doesn't. The only wickedness
He's forgotten is the wickedness of His people that's been paid
for by the blood of His Son. Yield not to temptation. Don't
give in. But remember this, it's not your
not giving in to temptation that saves you. It's the perfection
of your substitute. Tempted in all points as we are,
yet without sin. Look at verse 10. It came to
pass as she spake to Joseph day by day that he hearkened not
unto her to lie by her or to be with her. And it came to pass
about this time Joseph went into the house to take care of some
business and there wasn't any of the men in the house with
him. He's in there by himself doing the books. And she caught him by his garment
and said, lie with me. and he left his garment in her
hand and fled and got him out. He did the right thing. It came
to pass when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand
and was fled forth that she called unto the men in her house and
spake unto them saying, He hath, that is my husband,
hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us. He came in unto
me to lie with me and I cried with a loud voice. It came to
pass when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried that he
left his garment with me and he ran out. He fled and got him
out. And she laid up his garment by
her. Until his lord, her husband, Joseph's master, came home. And she spake according to all
these words, saying, The Hebrew servant which thou hast brought
unto me, he came in unto me to mock me, and it came to pass,
as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with
me and fled out. And it came to pass, when his
master heard the words of his wife, when she spake unto him,
saying, After this manner did thy servant to me that his wrath
was kindled. And Joseph's master took him
and put him into prison, a place where the king's prisoners were
bound. And he was there in the prison. But even there, God preserved
him. Because he had a work to do still.
This is not over for Joseph. I know he has been falsely accused. But this is not the end. Our
Lord Jesus, He was falsely accused. There at His religious trial
before the Sanhedrin, while they couldn't find anybody to testify
against Him. Until finally they went out and
paid two men to lie. They came in and then they said,
well, let's crucify Him. And they locked our Lord up as
it were. Took Him away to be crucified.
But look at verse 21. The Lord was still with Joseph. Hey, He said, I'll never leave
you nor forsake you. and showed him mercy, gave him
favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper
of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were
in the prison. And whatsoever they did there,
he was the doer of it. Rising again out of the ashes,
as it were. And the keeper of the prison
Looked not to anything that was under his hand. Because the Lord
was with Joseph. And that which he did, the Lord
caused him to prosper. Prosper. Now he's in prison. Of our Savior,
it is said, he was numbered with the transgressors. and he was oppressed, and he
was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth. In those accusations
of Potiphar's wife, Joseph didn't open his mouth. Man, I'd have raised sand, wouldn't
you? Yeah, would stand our ground. I had my rights, even as the
head of the house here. No. No. He believed in the providence
of God. Our Lord Jesus stood before that
civil tribunal, and then the religious tribunal didn't open
His mouth. Why not? This is the will of
God. It was for this purpose He had
entered into the world. to give His life a ransom for
many. Let me give you a last reference. Turn to Psalm 105. Look at Psalm
105. And I'll begin reading at verse
16. Psalm 105 verse 16. Moreover, God called for a famine
upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread.
He sent a man before them. Joseph. But I want to read it
this way. He sent a man before them. Christ
the Lord, who was sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters.
He was laid in iron until the time that His Word came. The
Word of the Lord tried Him. The King sent and loosed Him.
Even the ruler of the people and let him go free. And see
if this isn't true of our Lord Jesus. Verse 21, He made Him
Lord of His house. Don't you love that? He made
Him Lord of His house and ruler of all of His substance. That's
somebody who's greater than Joseph. That is our Lord Jesus Christ. And for you who are the people
of God, remember, as the Lord was with Joseph,
even there in the prison. So, He's with you. The Lord Jesus,
after His resurrection, told His disciples, Lo, I am with
you always, even unto the end of the age. More than that, we
do not need. And with less than that, we could
never be satisfied. But if He's with us, and He said
that He is, oh, how blessed we are. Lord, all things are in Your
hands. Do with me, do with this whole
world whatever pleases You. I am very confident of this.
No matter what happens, You're with Your people. Does that help
you? He's with you. He's with you.