Date: 22 September 2024, 9.30 am
Speaker: Ps Luwin Wong Sermon Text: Genesis 37:2-36
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TRANSCRIPT
There is a new corporate buzzword these days. “Failing upwards”. It’s the idea that failure should be interpreted positively, as a measure of success rather than a source of disappointment. So, apparently failure is being celebrated nowadays. Whole books have been written on the subject.
There is FailCon, a one-day conference celebrating failure, it began in San Francisco, and has expanded to over 7 countries. The keynote speakers at Failcon had to have suffered major failures in their career. Tech entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are looking for examples failures to put into their resume as their hunt for investors for their start-ups.
Your failures, they say, if seen in the right light, will not define you, but actually propel you upwards and forwards, towards greater things.
So, failure is celebrated these days. Failure is now being sought after. Failure is now regarded as something positive. This movement comes a bit too late unfortunately, or I wouldn’t have had to study so hard at SBC. Go to the BOE after 4 years and say, I got some good news and some bad news.
Bad news is I flunked out of college, didn’t manage to graduate. But good news is that I failed New Testament survey, and I also failed my preaching module, and a bunch other subjects. So, every cloud, as they say, silver lining.
That wouldn’t cut it, would it? Failing upwards sounds really nice and positive, but when you think about it, it doesn’t make sense. You don’t always get to recover from a failure, you don’t always get another chance to try again, failures don’t always propel us forward, sometimes, they keep us down.
For the vast majority of people, the vast majority of the time, it just isn’t true, you don’t fail upwards. You simply fail. We know this all too well. You fail your exams, you don’t graduate. You fail to meet the timing, you don’t get to go to the Olympics, you fail the interview, don’t get the job.
Yes, of course, you may learn and grow from your failures, but to say that failures to moving upward is a bit of a stretch in most situations for most people.
If the concept of failing upwards sounds a bit like positive thinking gibberish invented to sell books and conference tickets, it’s probably because that’s what it is.
What the research shows is that failing upwards is not a standard occurrence, but a privilege of the rich and the powerful.
Take for example, the case of local doctor who failed to fulfil her bond requirements with MOH. After a year as a houseman, she decided it was too much of strain physically and mentally and she so she quit, chalking a debt of about $400,000. She had told her parents of her plans to break her bond and they were supportive of her decision.
She now does freelance medical work and is much happier mental and healthier physically than she was in her first year as house officer with MOH, and so hers would be a classic case of failing upwards.
So it is possible to fail upwards, you just need to have the right kind of parents. Parents who love you, support you, and more importantly, have the ability to mitigate your setbacks and set you up for success.
Then you are able to live life positively, because even if you fail, you only fail upwards.
For those of us who do not have that privilege, it seems that our lot in life is to contend with the anxiety of failure, because we have no guarantee of failing upwards. We fear our failures might bring us down and keep us down, that things can go from bad to worse. And there is no way of knowing if we can recover from the next setback.
Perhaps that is descriptive of your life right now. Anxiety is ever-present cloud that darkens your field of vision when you gaze upon your future. You worry about tomorrow, and the uncertainties of life in this fallen world. Perhaps you fear that the trajectory of your life is defined by your failures, and so you’ll never head upwards. Perhaps you feel that discouragements and disappointments of life have dug for you a pit so deep, there is no escaping it. You feel like you’re down and out, with no way up.
If that is the way your life is going today, friends, the story of Joseph paints a different picture. It tells us that the Christian life is not defined by discouragements and disappointments nor by our fears and failures. It assures us that our life stories as Christians is not defined by the problems that we face, but by the promise that we have from God. It tells us that the Christian has a heavenly Father who has the power to guarantee our success, so that even when we fail, we fail upwards. Even when we’re down and out, we are always going up.
Let’s pray, and we’ll get into the text.
Heavenly Father,
Through your Holy Spirit, in you Holy Word, help us to see what a privilege it is to have you as our Father, that we may live our lives in your power, and rest our hearts upon your promises.
In Jesus name,|Amen.
Joseph’s story begins this way:
GEN 37:2-3 2 These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
Two things to note here:
Tension exists between Joseph and his brothers owing to their sinfulness.
The first thing we hear of Joseph doing in his life was that brought “bad report” of his brothers to their father Jacob. Which casts Joseph as a faithful son, and his brothers as less than stellar characters. A good vs evil contrast and tension is hinted at, right off the bat. Which Joseph as the protagonist and his brothers as antagonists.
2. This tension is exacerbated by Jacob’s favouritism towards Joseph.
The original audience, and even the modern reader would be well familiar with the Jacob’s own family drama, which developed as a consequence of parental favouritism. Jacob not only failed to recognise the pernicious effect of parental favouritism between siblings, but he actually made his favouritism of Joseph obvious to all. It was made explicit for all to see, for he made a robe of many colours just to single Joseph out as his favourite son. It was so much in your face, that it was uncomfortably on the nose.
Let’s not forget, that by this time, the brothers would have been old enough to reflect on the past and come to some realisations.
I am referring to the time when Jacob returned to Canaan and Esau approached to meet him. Remember what Jacob did?
GEN 33:1-2 1 And Jacob lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, Esau was coming, and four hundred men with him. So he divided the children among Leah and Rachel and the two female servants. 2 And he put the servants with their children in front, then Leah with her children, and Rachel and Joseph last of all.
There is a popular show, Attack on Titan, in which the basic premise is this: there is a throng of mindless Titans seeking to devour human beings wherever they can find them. So the human survivors, the remnant of humanity, build themselves a city with colossal walls capable of keeping out the Titans.
The walls of the city was structured like this: in three concentric circles. So in the event that the Titans breach the outermost wall, there is still the second wall to defend the people within. And then there’s a third wall. And right smack in the centre of civilisation is the castle where the royal government lives.
So if you’re living here, at the fringes of the outermost wall, you know where you stand in the social hierarchy. You are Titan food. And that, of course, wouldn’t make you feel very good. With social stratification comes social tension. Class consciousness engenders class conflict.
And that’s the situation Joseph’s brothers found themselves. Remember, the text opens with “He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives.”
This is a reference to the 2 female servants. When it was reported the Esau was approaching with 400 men, Jacob assumed it was an episode of Attack on Jacob, and he divided his family into three rows. Bilhah and Zilpah and their sons were in front. Followed by Leah and her sons, Jacob, Rachel and Joseph were right at the back, at the place of greatest security.
Jacob regarded the life of Joseph’s brothers as less valuable than Joseph’s life. That is a sure source of tension between the brothers.
3. This tension has the potential to turn deadly.
The discerning reader would not casually dismiss the gravity of the tension brought about by Jacob’s favouritism. In Jacob’s own story, a jealous brother sought to kill him. There is no indication things would be different here. In fact, it primes the reader to anticipate it.
This tension has the potential to turn deadly.
But before we get there, the story introduces us Joseph’s dreams, which will play a vital role in the development of his story, not least in his relationship with his brothers.
GEN 37:5-8 5 Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. 6 He said to them, “Hear this dream that I have dreamed: 7 Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?”
So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.
GEN 37:9-11 9 Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?” 11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
In these verses we have the content of the Joseph’s dreams, the cause of the dreams, the consequences of the dreams.
The content of his dreams is straightforward.
Joseph, the favoured son of the father will be exalted above his family members, who will one day bow down before him. Joseph will ascend, he will be exalted, he will be lifted up.
Now, the cause of the dreams.
The narrative reports Joseph’s two dreams consecutively, both of them with a similar theme. Why? It’s two show that the first dream is not borne out of an overactive imagination, nor was it case of Joseph eating too much rice over dinner and ended up dreaming of grain. But that the cause of these dreams are divine. The source of these dreams is God.
A bit further down the story we will read this.
GEN 41:32 32 And the doubling of Pharaoh’s dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.
What these means is that these twin dreams of Joseph are not mere dreams, these are divine revelations, more than that, they are divine promises to Joseph.
This thing is fixed by God, God will bring it about. In other words, we know, from the onset, how things will turn out for Joseph. We know what sort of future awaits him. We can be certain of the trajectory of his life.
No matter what happens, whatever may come, regardless of the events that transpire, we know that Joseph will be exalted, and his family will bow down to him. This thing is fixed by God, and God will bring it about.
Because, as we have seen in Genesis, over and over again, God always keeps his promises, he always fulfils his word.
From now on, Joseph’s story will not depend on the circumstances he finds himself in, will instead be defined by the promise that God has given him.
The consequence of his dreams.
His brothers who hated him, now because of his dreams hated him even more, and were jealous of him. Jacob however, kept the saying in mind. Because Jacob knew from experience that God spoke to men through dreams. God revealed himself to Jacob at Bethel in a dream, he rebuked Laban in a dream. Jacob knew that Joseph’s dreams could every well have been from God.
But his brothers, simply hated him for it, and were jealous of him because of it. And as we know, from Cain and Abel to Esau and Jacob, a brother’s jealous and hatred can easily turn into murder.
GEN 37:12-14a 12 Now his brothers went to pasture their father’s flock near Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.” And he said to him, “Here I am.” 14a So he said to him, “Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.”
The last time this happened, Joseph brought a bad report about his brothers to Jacob. His brothers, who hate him and were jealous of him. Which means, this scouting trip as is neither neutral nor amicable. There is tension inherent in this situation. Joseph is being sent into enemy territory.
GEN 37:18-20 18 They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. 19 They said to one another, “Here comes this dreamer. 20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.”
They said to one another. Here comes this dreamer… we shall see what will become of his dreams.
By calling Joseph as “the dreamer”, the brothers unwittingly but accurately identify Joseph with his dreams. They were right in doing so. What they were wrong about is ignoring the reality that God is the source of the dreams, and therefore, it was in their power to prevent his dream from being fulfilled.
20 Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits…and we will see what will become of his dreams.”
Their words were laced with irony. They mean to say, his dreams will never become reality. The real irony is that we will, in fact, see what will become of his dreams, as God sovereignly acts to realise them.
GEN 37:21-24 21 But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, “Let us not take his life.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him”— that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. 23 So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. 24 And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
We will see two developments that thwart the plan of the brothers and progress the plan of God for Joseph. First, Reuben’s conscience would not allow him to follow through with the brother’s plans. He just so happens to be firstborn of Jacob, the eldest brother amongst them, so his words carry some weight.
So instead of killing him, they threw Joseph into a pit. Well, not a great place to be in, a pit. But he’s not dead. He’s alive, that’s better, but not by much. not at this point. But they intended to kill him nonetheless, the new plan was to leave in the pit for dead.
So, it seems like the brother’s plan has only suffered a blip, and Joseph’s dreams are going nowhere.
Until we come to the following verses:
GEN 37:21-24 25 Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. 26 Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And his brothers listened to him. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
The brother’s plans changed once again. This time, Judah came to his aid. And they decided that selling out their brother was better than killing him, because his sale would reap them some financial gain.
So, slavery is better than being dead, and better than being in a pit, but only marginally I suppose. He’s still being sold into a foreign land as a slave. Away from his family, away from everything he as ever known. His dreams still far from being realised.
And for all intents and purposes, by all appearances Joseph is dead to his family.
GEN 37:29-33 29 When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes 30 and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is gone, and I, where shall I go?” 31 Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. 32 And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.” 33 And he identified it and said, “It is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces.”
GEN 37:34-35 34 Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. 35 All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, “No, I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning.”
Thus his father wept for him.
As far as Jacob and his sons are concerned, Joseph is dead.
And for all intents and purposes, according to all appearances, Joseph is dead. The brothers’ plan is winning while Joseph’s dreams are waning.
Until we come to the concluding verse.
GEN 37:36 36 Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
Joseph wasn’t just sold to Egypt. He was sold to Potiphar. Who’s was he? He’s an officer of Pharoah. What kind of officer? The captain of the king’s guard.
A high ranking, well trusted, officer of Pharoah.
All of a sudden, it all makes sense. If Joseph was to become greater in status than his family, we would have to leave his family. Had he stayed under Jacob’s roof, as his second youngest, hated by his older brothers, it is hard to imagine how might ascended and surpassed them all.
But in Egypt, with Potiphar, close to Pharoah, we can discern an opportunity for Joseph’s ascendancy over his family.
In other words, the brother’s plan is not all as it seems, and at the close of the chapter, we have come to see glimpses of that Joseph’s dreams are coming true after all. We are seeing, as his brothers said, what will become of his dreams.
There is reason to believe that though Joseph was cast down into the pit, and sold out by his brothers into Egypt, that he was nonetheless moving up in the promises of God.
Friends, has life ever cast you into a pit? Darkness surrounds, there appears to be no way out. You’re scared and you’re alone, and fear you will never emerge from this terror. The walls seem to be closing in, and circumstances, by all accounts, is beyond your power to escape.
And promises you read in the Bible, of your blessing in Christ, of your position in Christ, they seems so distant, so far removed from reality, you’re almost tempted to think it fiction.
Now consider this. If happened to be passing by Dothan in those days, and you heard a teenage boy wailing, crying for help, and the cries led you to a pit, and you see Joseph at the bottom of it. And you heard stories of Joseph and his dreams.
And you asked Joseph, “Joseph, why did God put you here in this pit?” How would he have replied, he would have said, “God didn’t put me in this pit, my evil brothers did?”
And you ask, “Joseph, what about your dreams, what’s going to happen to you dreams?”
Do you think he’ll say, “You’re right, my dreams from God, I guess I’m right where I’m supposed to be, I guess this is pit a blessing in disguise after all. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord!”
Of course not. He’ll say something like, “My dreams, my dreams are just that, dreams, figment of my imagination, wishful thinking. Look at where I am? I’m going to be left here for dead. My dreams are gone, my dreams never come to pass. They were nothing more than silly dreams”.
Joseph would not have known, not would he have imagined, that being thrown into a pit, till traders passed by, and then being sold to slavery in Egypt is precisely the way his dream is coming true.
He will not know it, he will not see it, he will not realise it, until many years later, when he stood as the second-in-command in all of Egypt and his brothers bowed down before him.
If you are in a pit, today, right now, the story of Joseph speaks to us, saying: “There is hope yet, the dream can still come true, the promises God remains alive and well. The circumstance will not determine your story, God’s word alone will.”
And God has decreed that all who are in Christ, are heading up.
So no matter what your facing, no matter what you’re going through, regardless of how dark the night, or how deep the pit, your present circumstances will not have the final say, God has the decisive word.
And he has said, that we shall we lifted up. Our destiny is eternal glory.
EPHESIANS 2:4-7 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
God has raised us up. It’s past tense, it’s done deal. Our future is already determined, we are raised up with Christ, and seated with him in the heavenly places.
ROMANS 8:28-30 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.
Friends, family of God, our destiny is glory. Again, in the past tense. It’s done. We don’t have to wonder what will happen to us. It has already happened. Our future glory has been accomplished by God.
How can we be sure of this? Because of Joseph’s example? Yes, but not Joseph’s, but that our Saviour Jesus as well.
PHILLIPPIANS 2:5-11 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Coming down as a man, lowering himself as servant, sold out by Judas Iscariot, crucified by his Jewish brethren, dying on the cross, going down to sheol.
This was the precisely the way Jesus overcame his enemies and became King. The going down of Jesus Christ was reason has highly exalted him so that every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth, bows to him.
The Christian is one who may be down and out, by in Christ, is always going up. Our destiny is not reside down in the pit but to rise up in his promises of God.
The night may be dark, the pit may be deep, but stand tall. Stand fast. Stand upon the promises of God. Maintain your trust, direct your prayers, continue to hope in the one is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.
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