Fearlessly Courageous

7/21/2020
Desk of Dennis Piller

The story of Joseph is my most favorite in the Bible. Have you noticed that it rises and falls on the sins of his brothers and the sovereignty of God in the lessons about the ways God seemingly detours our lives?
One of the most famous sayings is:  “What you meant for evil, God meant it for good”. The YOU – could be anyone that does you harm including Satan.  Would you mind a bit of a bible study this week in three parts? 
But let’s start in Genesis 12. God had chosen Abraham from all the peoples of the world by free grace, owing nothing to him. Genesis 12:2-3 God makes him a promise:

“I will make you into a great nation,
    and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
    and you will be a blessing.[a]
3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
    will be blessed through you.”

This is the beginning of the people of Israel through which Jesus Christ, the redeemer, the son of God would come into the world to save us from our sins.

He makes a formal covenant with Abraham in Genesis 15:13-16   Then the LORD said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. 14 But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. 15 You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. 16 In the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”

Please don’t miss this.: God predicts a 400-year stay in Egypt and then a return to the promised land. Think of it, afflicted 400 years and still not inherit the land.  Notice verse 15: “the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet complete.”

How are we to understand that? Deuteronomy 9:5 gives Gods answer:  “It is not because of your righteousness or your integrity that you are going in to take possession of their land; but on account of the wickedness of these nations, the LORD your God will drive them out before you, to accomplish what he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”.
The conquest of the promised land is the judgment of God on the fullness of the
centuries of wickedness!
God says that his people will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, namely, in Egypt and they will be afflicted 400 years. So there is God ‘s plan for his pilgrim people and a kind of picture of our life on this earth until heaven. If God plans 400 years of affliction to his people in Genesis 15:13 before the promised land, we should not be surprised that he says to us, in Acts 14:22 
“strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” 

The bottom line is the prophecy was fulfilled through the spectacular sin of Joseph’s brothers.  

What does God want to teach us about his Ways and about his son in this strange sojourn in Egypt? The answer is that God fulfills this prophecy through sin.  He does this to preserve alive not only his covenant people of Israel but also the line from which the lion of Judah will come to save and rule the peoples. Huge things are at stake in the story of Joseph.

Jer 29:11 “For I know the plans that I have for you plans to bless you and keep you safe”. 
Listen again, the brothers meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Notice it does not say that God used their evil for good after they meant it for evil. It says that in the very act of evil…There were two different designs: 1 in the sinful act, they were designing evil, and in the same simple act, 2. God was designing good.  (I know that is hard to get your head around isn’t it?)  Check it out yourself.

Lastly what man designs- or the devil designs – for evil, God designs for some great good. That great good mentioned in Genesis 45:5 is “TO preserve life” – the life of the chosen people through whom the Savior of the world will come.

We shall see this great sin against Joseph was for God’s global purpose.  Just like the murderous sin against Jesus was also the saving sin for all mankind.

Tomorrow part two of three.  Don’t miss it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy9nwe9_xzw2 / 9:00
Oceans (Where Feet May Fail) Lyric Video – Hillsong UNITED

Condensed from the John Piper Book  Spectacular Sins.