Making a Way: Pinnacle to Pit

Making a= Way: From Peak to Pit---Genesis 37:2b-13, 23-24

“Making Our Way through Troubled Times”= 212;remember that theme? It’s so las= t year now, I guess--everyone agrees that 2008 was troubled, but we’re all h= oping for a better 2009. Last Septe= mber, I began a series of messages based on the book of Genesis—a book that= ’s filled with stories of people going through difficult times.

We took a break for the Christmas season; but today, I= want us to pick back up where we left off in November by focusing on the patriar= ch Joseph. We find four individu= als in Genesis whom God uses to forge Israel into a people—His people. First, there’s Abraham, often called the father of our faith.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Then, Isaac, followed by the trick= ster, Jacob, and finally his son, Joseph.

The last 14 = chapters of Genesis weave in and out of Joseph’s story, occasionally interrupt= ed by the crazy actions of his dysfunctional family (i.e., any family that is = not functioning as God intends). I think we’ll all agree that our passage today points to some family dysfunctionality: Joseph’s brothers seize him, throw him into a ciste= rn, and then sell him into slavery.

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I’m ca= lling today’s episode in Joseph’s life “From Peak to Pit.” It will be followed by three other troubling times in his life, “From Pit to Prison / From Prison to Position / and From Position to Potential.” I hope you’ll be here for the whole series. So with that, let’s look at our text for today: Genesis 37:2b-13, 23-24a:

“Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the son= s of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and he brought their fat= her a bad report about them. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than= any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he m= ade a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind = word to him.

5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all= the more. 6 He said to them, "Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it."= ;

8 His brothers said to him, "Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?" And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to = his brothers. "Listen," he said, "I had another dream, and this = time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me." 10 Wh= en he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, "What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?" 11 His brothers = were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

12 Now his brothers had gone= to graze their father's flocks near Shechem, 13 and Israel said to Joseph, "As you know, yo= ur brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem. Come, I am going to send you = to them." "Very well,&= quot; he replied. (But things = did not go well for young Joseph, as we learn beginning with verse 23.)

23 = So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the richly ornamented robe he was wearing- 24 and they took h= im and threw him into the cistern…

Until this m= oment, Joseph had been on the mountain peak. He was the son of his father’s old age--the favored child, the baby of the family, pampered and preferred above all the others. Remember the coat of many colors&#= 8212;that was Joseph’s. None of t= he other children had one.

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Maybe you kn= ow this child. Perhaps you’re a= teacher and have him in your classroom. You have my sympathy. I do hope y= ou are not actually the parent of this child—if so, well…

At any rate,= Joseph had spent the first 16+ years of his life at the summit of favored-child status, but like Leonardo DiCaprio extended as if flying from the bow of the Titanic and shouting “I’m the king of the world”--like yo= ung Jack Dawson, Joseph was loving the cruise, but without realizing that his s= hip would soon be taking on water! Joseph’s own brothers would see to it that his boat would not float much longer!

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Do you ever dream?&nb= sp; Supposedly, we all do; but do you remember your dreams? I don’t remember mine very o= ften; and when I do, I usually wonder why. They don’t make much sense.

Well, young Joseph not only remembered his dreams, but= he told them to anyone who would listen. One dream had him and his brothers out in a field harvesting grain.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Remember? His sheaf of grain stands up, and = his brothers’ sheaves all bow down before Joseph’s sheaf. Don’t you know they loved th= at!

In another dream, the sun and moon and eleven stars fa= ll down before Joseph—hmmm: Dad, Mom, and eleven brothers—you can = see why these dreams didn’t go over too well. I mean, why couldn’t he just= dream that he had forgotten to get dressed before going to school, or that he was falling off a building—you know, dreams like normal people dream?!?

What’s so fascinating, though, is that before we= get to the end of Genesis, we learn that Joseph’s dreams actually come true. He accomplishes great things. God uses his life in remarkable ways—indeed, as a ruler in Egypt who is able to save his= family from famine.

But Joseph wasn’t ready for that yet—not a= ny where near ready…not yet. Joseph didn’t understand this, of course.&n= bsp; He was quite full of himself—very self-assured—and in no= way ready to let God have His way in his life.= So there would need to be some maturing before his dreams could be f= ulfilled.

We have no way of knowing whether Joseph was aware tha= t God was preparing him for something big. Do you think it ever crossed his mind to ask--say, when he was down = in that rain pit, that cistern—did it occur to him to ask, “What a= re you up to God; what are you trying to teach me; what are you preparing me for?”

Do WE ever think to ask those questions? We may find ourselves in the pits-= -the dark places of life. Perhaps = God includes stories like this in His Book so that we might at least raise the question—could any of these troubles be coming my way for a reason?!?= Or, what does God want to do in my= life because of this?

You know how I like Calvin and Hobbes. One day in the funny papers, young Calvin has a money-making idea. He turns a box upside down for a stand, wri= tes some words on it, places it out by the street and waits for some customers.=

No one comes. Before long, Hobbes, Calvin’s stuf= fed tiger, happens by and asks, "How’s business?" Calvin replie= s: "Terrible." Hobbes looks at the box, notices the words on the sig= n that explain what he’s selling: "A swift kick in the butt - $1.00.&qu= ot;

He sympathizes with Calvin’s lack of business: "Boy, that’s hard to believe," Hobbes says. That’s all Calvin needs to he= ar to launch him into one of his tirades. He throws up his arms in exasperation, and complains vehemently: &qu= ot;I can’t understand it. Ev= erybody I know needs what I’m selling."

Joseph was destined for great things, but he had weaknesses to overcome. Maybe God knew that Joseph needed w= hat Calvin was selling—before it was over, Joseph had received quite a few kicks to his backside!

His father Jacob had placed him up on the peak of favo= red status, but he craved the attention of his brothers, he pursued their accep= tance and affection--but he did so in all the wrong ways: showing up where he was= not invited, saying what nobody wanted to hear, and flaunting what no one else = had: that coat--that loud, multi-colored coat that just really got on His brothers’ nerves. He be= came the little brother from “you know where”—the little brother t= hat the others hated.

It’s noteworthy, I think, that the Hebrew word f= or “hate” occurs more in this chapter of the Bible, Genesis 37, th= an any other. And we’re to= ld here that even Joseph’s father got tired of hearing about his youngest child’s dreams. Jacob t= old his son to keep them to himself.

Later, as you know, Joseph would become a hero among G= od’s people. But for now, he still= has a long, long way to go—and a whole lot to learn in order to be ready for God to use him.

It’s a lesson that most of us have to learn at s= ome point—that whatever gifts and abilities we have are not for us alone. To be pleasing to God,= and to experience any personal happiness and fulfillment, we have to be good stewards of our lives, our resources and abilities so that the good of ever= yone is served—not just what we think is best for us.

When we understand this truth and live our lives accor= dingly, it brings people together and makes families and communities stronger. But the very same gifts and abilit= ies--if used only for ourselves, exclusively for our own benefit—they will ca= use jealousy, discord, and division. These = are hard lessons that Joseph has to learn.&nbs= p; And, honestly, they’re hard for us too.

So, on the way to learning these important life lesson= s, Joseph winds up in a pit--a cistern. This was simply a hole carved into the ground with a small opening at the top that gets wider underground—a shape which made it good for holding water--or people, for that matter—because once a person was i= n a cistern, there was no way to get out without someone providing some help fr= om above—no way to climb out on your own.

Of course, before long, Joseph’s brothers helped= him get out—but that was so they could sell him to some Ishmaelite slave trad= ers who came by on their way to Egypt. They didn’t know it at the t= ime, of course—not the brothers or the traders or even Joseph--but this wo= uld turn out to be a huge moment in God’s plans for Joseph’s life.<= /p>

Think about this: his brothers do this to Joseph for a= ll the wrong reasons—jealousy, hatred, greed. Their actions are inexcusable.

But there is this theme that runs all through Joseph&#= 8217;s story—and what a remarkable story it is of one troubling situation af= ter another—but this whole sordid story has one crucial underlying theme: that while others intend to do Joseph harm, God keeps turning their actions into something good—for Joseph’s life, and eventually, even for= the lives of these brothers who hated him so and who were so intent on doing him harm.

Only God can do this kind of thing in our lives. Does everything that happens happe= n for a reason? I hear that a lot, = but I’m not always convinced it’s true. But I do believe that God can make= a reason for everything that happens to His children. He will cause things that He would= not have chosen to put us through to still serve a purpose in our lives. You see the difference?

There are things that have happened in my life—a= nd in yours too, I feel sure—that we wouldn’t blame on God. We really don’t believe that= God willed these things for us—but now that they’ve happened, we tr= ust that God works to bring good from the bad, so that at least there will be s= ome purpose in it.

We do this with our own children. We would never touch their little = hands to a hot stove to teach them that it will burn them, but after they take ca= re of that for themselves, we want to make sure they learn something from it.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> At least, the painful experience c= an serve a purpose. Well, I beli= eve God does something like this for us—just as He did with Joseph.

And let’s give Joseph credit. As we’ve already noted, he h= ad a lot to learn. He had a lot of growing to do before God could use him as a leader in Egypt a= nd as a deliverer for His people. But Joseph went through one troubling experience after another, yet he keeps learning and growing and becoming a fit vessel that God can use when the ti= me comes.

As I reflect on what happened to Joseph on this occasion—and the other calamities that befall him that we will consid= er over the next few Sundays—it would have been so easy for Joseph to ma= ke excuses, to get bitter, to give up. If anyone ever had reason to blame his failures on a dysfunctional family, for example, Joseph did—but he didn’t.

Joseph’s story teaches us that whatever negative experiences we have in life—family or otherwise—God can enable = us to rise above them! God can s= till use us. He can still make our= lives count!

In one of Chuck Swindoll’s books, he quotes these words from Hudson Taylor: “It does not matter how great the pressure is. What really matters is wh= ere the pressure lies—whether it comes between you and God, or whether it presses you nearer His heart.” (Swindoll, = Grind, p.99)

Where are the pressure points in your life right now?<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'> Are you allowing them to come betw= een you and God / you and others? Or, are you reaching out to God and embracing Him as the only One who can use t= hat pressure and those problems, whatever they are, to help you grow and mature= and become better prepared for what God has in mind for your future?

There are always going to be troubling times, friends—as long as we live—there will be sadnesses and defeats, challenges and frustrations—and we have to decide what to do with the= m…or what we’ll allow them to do to us.

God is with us up on the peaks. But, listen, He’s just as mu= ch with us down in the pits, in the valleys. We may try so many things in an effort to get out—things that = are not helpful, maybe even harmful. The only good way out, though, is to reach up trustingly to receive help from a= bove--God’s help. Give Him a try!