Main idea: What does great person of faith look like at his death?
Dan Jarms 0:21
Well, good morning, brothers and sisters. Good morning our guests. Thank you for joining us this morning. And if you did run and you are here, you're amazing. It's great to see you. If you if you're visiting with us, we love to have new visitors. I would indeed love to to meet you, get to talk to you after the service. We are in the we are in the last chapter of the book of Genesis. So just a little heads up, what's coming next. Next week, Brian Sayers is going to be preaching on on motherhood and potential motherhood out of Ecclesiastes next week. So for Mother's Day, he's going to be doing that, then we're going to have a two week emphasis on the Great Commission. We are sending off a family and one of the missions organizations he's going to be with. They're going to come the first week of that. I'll preach the second week. But we need to keep resetting our church's vision on the Great Commission, sending missionaries to reach the world. So we'll do that, and then at the end of the month, we're going to start in the book of Ephesians. And we'll probably take four, six chapters. We'll probably take as long as in Ephesians, as we did in Genesis. So it's much shorter book, but it's very pithy. We're going to have a lovely time, wonderful time in that hopefully you have been encouraged in our time with Genesis. Hopefully it's been transforming for your life, seeing God in all His glory for that the summertime, we have something Weber with this year called Summer Sunday school, and we have been looking for a way to address a number of topics that don't normally come up in consecutive exposition, that is preaching through books of the Bible. So sometimes things happen in our culture, and some of you are saying, why don't we talk about them? Well, this is time we can do that. So we're John Gardner is going to open that up. I think it's the week after Father's Day. We're going to open with a Christian nationalism. Nothing like, you know, small topics like these are all like, really engaged topics, something about hyper headship, often being called biblical patriarchy today, later on in the year, I'm going to do a couple of times in the end times, because we all know there is a lot of confusion and debate about end times. I'll clear it up in two weeks, two weeks. But what you'll do, and there's, there's not a particular order for these, they're all essentially kind of one off situation. So if you miss one, no big deal. You'll just, you'll be able to get the recordings and listen in, but you come first hour, go to summer Sunday school down in the college room, and then you can come and join us second hour here. So we just want to get a chance to equip and think and then have ways for us to be interactive about it. Sermons aren't easy to do that with. So that's coming up. I'm really excited about our about our summer together. It will also be a really good chance for people who are new to have a place to meet people. So summer Sunday school, first 15 minutes, will be fellowship snacks, getting to know each other, lecture time and post time. It'll be a really good opportunity for you at all levels. Let's stand for the reading of God's word Genesis, 50. We finish the life of Joseph. Today, we finish the life of Joseph, and what a what an example he has been as we have studied through the book together. Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. And so the physicians embalmed Israel. 40 days were required for it. That is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him 70 days. And when the days of weeping for him. Were past. Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the year, years of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan. There shall you bury me now? Therefore let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, Go up bury your father, as he made you swear so Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers and his father. Household, only the children, their flocks, their herds, were left in the land of Goshen, And there went up with him, both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of a Tod, which is beyond the Jordan. They lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation. And he made a mourning for his father seven days when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of a Tod, they said, This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. Therefore the place was named Abel mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him, as he commanded them. For his sons, carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of memory, which Abraham bought from the field with the field from Ephron, the Hittite, to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you, and now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are Your servants. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for Am I in the place of God as for you. You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph remained in Egypt. He and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years, and Joseph saw ephraim's Children of the third generation, the children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were counted as Joseph's sons, Joseph's own. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of the land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old, they embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. This is the word of the Lord God. And Father, we look to you today full of praise and thanksgiving in the book of Genesis, we have started with you being the creator and sustainer of all things. And we thank you for apple blossoms and spring trees. We thank you for coming summer, for the seasons in which you provide all that we need. We, thank you that you are an enduring and patient creator. We have all sinned, Adam and Eve sinned, and you have demonstrated a sovereign grace, promising one day to give a Head Crusher, a destroyer of Satan, and he has come. You have given us the world and your son. We praise you and thank you, and you have given promises that came true are coming true and will come true. We have been rejoicing in those we do again this morning, we do look to this passage, asking that you would continue to teach us and imprint on us truths from Joseph's life, from your scripture and your promises, Father, it's a week that many in our nation pray for the nation. The seventh is the national prayer day. We pray today for our country, and we pray that there are there are many today who have pursued a religion because God makes a country great, in which their end is a great country, not a great God. We are swimming in such kind of thinking. But God, what we pray is that we would be a great country because we humble ourselves before your sovereign grace and will that we would humble ourselves before your word, do that kind of work by your grace. In our president, his cabinet, in the leaders in Congress, local government, state government, bring about a powerful, humbling work in our land. And may you be great. Eight that would make us a great country. Your Greatness proclaimed. And so I pray for that, and we pray that you would be at work in our region, our city. I think of the northwest of Spokane. I think of Driscoll Avenue Baptist Church. I think of Morning Star Baptist Church. Think of three crosses and Princeton Avenue, all within a mile of each other, Northwest. And I pray for faithfulness to proclaim the scriptures. The whole scriptures. Help them do expository preaching, not man centered preaching. May we proclaim you as you are, and in doing that, you are drawing so many in our city to you. We're watching it. We're hearing testimony of it. Continue to draw many to yourself for your glory in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. Well, some, some funerals have caught the attention of the world. Our seniors might remember JFK, his funeral, the unforgettable picture of his son saluting his casket, little boy, I saw it in the history pictures because I'm not quite old enough to remember that other Gen Xers may remember Princess Diana's coffin, and young William and Harry walking behind the procession, most of us remember Queen Elizabeth and the millions of mourners lining the street in London. The scene in Genesis, 50 dwarfs these celebrations the nation mourned for 70 days, two days shy of what a Pharaoh would get, the nobility and military of Egypt escorted Jacob to a site 300 miles north, not far from the Jordan River, where they mourned on a unknown threshing floor of a Tod, and they mourned so loudly that the Canaanites noticed it. Then they laid Jacob's body to rest in the land of promise with Abraham and Isaac. Jacob was certainly a man of faith, and he passed on his faith to his son, but the title of the message is the death of a great man of faith. And I'm not referring to Jacob. We saw his death last week. I'm referring to Joseph in this passive passage, Joseph passes off the scene. Joseph was so beloved in Egypt, the nation mourned with him as if Jacob was his their own father. They had such an affection for him. Joseph is included in the hall of faith in Hebrews 11, and if there was an exemplary man of faith in the Old Testament, worthy of study and emulation. Joseph is going to be a man. He and Daniel have some of the most significant places in biblical history when it comes to the nations. And so for the big idea, I want to ask it differently here. I want to do it differently this week. I want to ask a question, what does a truly great person look like at death. When you die, will you be considered a person of great faith? In chapter 50, I find seven qualities of Joseph's faith worthy of our imitation. So whether you're 17, which Joseph was when he started this journey. That's where we picked up in his life. Or 87 any of these, just one significantly applied, pursued, would be a great testimony to your faith at your death. To my fellow gray beards, take more than one of these. For those of you are new with us, we have a little group that I started. It's a prayer group. You get texts. You qualify for getting the texts if your beard would be gray. You don't have to have a beard, but it would be gray. And what we're saying to our older men is, please pray for things that are more significant than our lives, and pray for things beyond us that God would carry on his work through the next generation. Here is a brilliant example from the scriptures of a person's faith that we could emulate. So I want to look at seven marks of these. They're outlined in the notes, seven marks of a person of a great person's faith at their death. Let's take a look. Number one, resolute obedience. Resolute obedience. One of the key marks in Joseph's life was resolute obedience. From chapter 37 we see Joseph the. With an obedience to God and to the Scriptures. He believed the promises handed down from Abraham Isaac through Jacob, and he acted on them. Where does this start when we think of Joseph's character and life, how he how he stood in his faith against incredible suffering, how he didn't not take upon himself too much credit in his time of success. Where did he get this faith from? Well, it was handed down to him from his father, grandfather and great grandfather. Back in Genesis, 15, six, there's a hallmark. Where does resolute obedience come from? Resolute obedience comes from the work God does in us. Genesis, 15 six, Abraham had a great fear. He's promised that he's going to be the father of a great nation, and he doesn't have any children. And God meets him in a vision and tells him he's going to have, he is going to have a family as large as uncountable, as the stars in the sky. Here's Abraham's response. Abraham believed the Lord, and it was counted as righteousness. Abraham, like every other person in the world is made right with God, before God by trusting God, God's promises and God's work, not by trusting in themselves. Abraham had nothing within him to give him children. He had to trust God for God's work. This goes on throughout the scriptures, if we look back at 4815 if you want to just flick back there and look at this, Jacob, late in his life, is talking to Joseph, and he says, The God before whom my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, walked, the God who has been my Shepherd all my life, long to this day, Jacob had walked with God. What is the key to a resolute obedience. It's trusting in God, being made right by God and walking with him. 4821 he charges, Joseph, behold, I'm about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. He instilled a hope of the future into Joseph's life, Joseph continued to trust those promises. Now for us, in our time, we live under the loving lordship of the Promised Messiah that started all the way back in Genesis three, where the coming Messiah would be the Head Crusher, the one who is going to destroy satan and his work, the seed of Abraham, the seed of Judah. We have followed this through. He is the one that we put our faith in. It is through His life, death, resurrection, that we find forgiveness and hope. I know there are still some I talk to you from time to time who imagine like me, like a former Catholic. Certainly I need Jesus' death. For me, I need grace. But I I kind of get to the end by working as well. So there's this mix of, yes, Jesus did some things for me, but I still have to do my part. I want you to make sure it's clear in your mind how this is set. How are you guaranteed eternal life? And then how do you properly work out resolute obedience? After Ephesians two, eight through 10. Says it this way, For by grace, you have been saved through faith. This is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God. How did Abraham come to believe God worked it in him, not as result of works, so that no one may boast, For we are His workmanship, created in Christ. Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. Joseph is an illustration of good works prepared beforehand by God. Works during times of injustice. Works in times of rescue, true saving faith. Works. James is going to say something like this, Faith without works is dead. And the picture, as we enter into this section, is of a son tender to his father. Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. I was reminded in between hours, Joseph does a lot of weeping, so I am off the hook. He arranged the preservation of Jacob's body. He requested Jacob to be buried, just as He promised. He. Joseph showed 93 years of faith filled obedience, and what you see at the beginning of chapter 50 is a readiness to obey the promises and the command of his father leads to number two. He's a man who keeps His promises. He's a loyal man. He is one whose word means something. Joseph had taken an oath earlier on. He was he was called at the end of chapter 48 to take an oath and promise to bring Jacob's back body back to Canaan. And so he's making good on this promise. Verse four, we see what happens. Joseph is a brilliant politician. He understands his culture that he's in. We've watched it throughout, how he navigated the cultural differences between Egyptians and Israelites. Now he understands that no servant of Pharaoh gets to come into Pharaoh's presence mourning, so he sends for permission. Certainly he has shown up in Pharaoh's presence more than one time, but culturally sensitive when the days of weeping were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes. Please speak in the ears of Pharaoh saying My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan. There, shall you bury me? So he asked, Now, therefore, let me please go up and bury my father, then I will return. Pharaoh was pleased to answer the request. It's consistent with how Pharaohs think of their fathers. Egypt is THE LAND OF HONOR to the dead. When a pharaoh died, the next Pharaoh would initiate a building project, a tomb and temples built pyramids built honoring one's father and grandfather was part of the culture. He was pleased to answer the request. And you have, you have to have this feeling that Pharaoh is like, well, this is typical Joseph. This is typical Joseph. He's honoring his father. So he asked leave for it proverbs. 15 four talks about what a great man is like who pleases the Lord. 15 four says he who swears to his own hurt and does not change even when it's costly, even when it's costly, a man of faith makes a promise, sticks with it, even when it's costly. Do you think carefully about your promises, about your commitments? When our kids were little, they would regularly remind us when we promised something, Mom and Dad, you said, if we did this, we would go get ice cream. I I mean, one thing I would love to see in an ongoing way, and I do see it in many ways, is husbands getting help and wisdom when they're in conflict with the wife. Here's the pretty standard situation, a wife talks to somebody else's wife and labors over how her husband and she are having difficulties. She gets help, and he's glad for it. I'm glad she's getting help because she needs it. When he made a vow that he would wash his wife by the water of the word that he would lead her spiritually and help her spiritually. I would love to see men say, are we struggling, honey? I'm going to get some help, because that's the vow that I made to you. I promised God that I would help us both grow together. I'd love to see something like that. You would love to see something like that many, many of our men do. Just think, through your life, the commits, the commitments that you make, following through, what that would mean for the household that you're in, the family and friends, that you have the generation to come. Joseph kept his promises through the suffering, through the success. It leads to a similar number three, faithful in calling. You see him resolutely obedient. He swore an oath. He's carrying it through. You know, dad's dead. He doesn't have to do any of it, but he's made a promise. Number three, He's faithful to his calling. This is an elevated situation for Joseph. Joseph is clearly called to leadership four different times in the whole story, each time he's faithful all the way back in 37 his father dons the robe on him, puts the multicolored robe. On him. He is now going to take the place of first born, and even though his brothers hate him for it, his father tells him to go check on the well being of your brothers. Will they reject Him, sell him as a slave? Was his faithfulness over well, no, he had had these visions in chapter 37 where he was going to rule over his family one day, but they reject him. He's sold as a slave. He's purchased by Potiphar, and soon he's set in charge over the household. Now, how does Joseph get these places? Well, if you look back at 39 and 40, the Lord was with him. Joseph has an unusual story where it is patently obvious to Potiphar, the jailer, to Pharaoh, that God is doing some special work in him, but he's faithful with the work. He's framed by Potiphar, his wife falsely accused of trying to rape her, so he is put in prison. But pretty soon in prison, He's faithful, and he's put in charge of the prison. He interprets two dreams, the bear, the baker and cupbearer. He's caring for them, but he's forgotten, and eventually he's called up by Pharaoh, interprets his dreams and put over the whole land. At every turn, he has in mind what is best for Pharaoh and best for the nation. And when his family rejoins the picture, he is constantly seeking what's best for his family, best for Pharaoh, and you find very little of what's best for Joseph. In spite of suffering and sadness, in spite of success, he never took his mind off his calling and his role in chapter 47 he was praised by the people after the year six of famine, 13 years after interpreting the dream, the people only have their bodies and their land left, and they say, we'll give you ourselves as slaves and our land to you. Please give us food and he does. Do you know what they say to him? They say you have saved our lives. May it please, my Lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. Better is a living servant with a modest tax than a dead freed man. Joseph's a hero to the nation. And here, then back in our passage, Pharaoh gives this his blessing to this great retinue of nobility and military he he has a military attachment, assigned horses, chariots, armed guards. The nation mourns for 70 days with Joseph, 40 days for the embalming. We didn't go into the details of embalming, but just imagine you take out all the squishy parts of your body, and then you put a bunch of chemicals on your body, and you turn the body into a jerky in the sun that's embalming, wrap it up, keep it that's 40 day process, and the nation mourned another Thiry, which was Two days shy of what a Pharaoh would deserve. He is indeed a faithful son and a faithful steward. And here's the question, as you reflect back on Joseph's life, because you, as you track your life, suffering difficulty comes. You may be in the prison stage of your suffering. You might be in the slave stage, the prison stage, you might be in the success stage. How are you going to be faithful in the role God has put you in, whether it's suffering or success, sickness, health, poverty, riches. What's the most pointed area of suffering in your life? How are you thinking about faithfulness? How are you thinking about being a blessing? As we look at his life, first, he had faith in God, who promises and that that led to earthly actions or resolute obedience. He honors his own promises. He's faithful to his calling. Number four, he's humble before God. Is one way we could describe Joseph, humble before God, but the. Particular way that I mean it is that he would not take revenge, even when no one would think to stop him. Joseph refused to play God. You can see what he thought of God's goodness and sovereignty by how he treated his brothers. When we get to this section in Genesis, you might say that this section that has this highlight about what God is doing through the evil in Joseph's life, it could be a theme to the whole of the book of Genesis. What man means for evil. God means for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive or saved. You could just summarize all of Genesis in that, but there's a really particular application in the section. Let's unpack it here. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. When they got back home and they looked around and they said, we have a new reality. Father is gone. How is Joseph going to treat us now? Fear gripped them. Later in the little section, Joseph has to tell them, do not fear. Fear gripped them. They worried that Joseph would exact justice on them, now that their father was gone, now that dad is dead, who is here? Maybe all of this 17 years in Egypt was just for dad. They sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave this command before he died, say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. Every reader asks whether they're telling the truth or not. Did Jacob really command this? Or is this a lie? They're telling the truth or not? It's hard to imagine that Jacob didn't have some conversation with Joseph about all that had gone on. Perhaps it was. There are several factors Joseph in chapter 46 when he finally reveals himself to his brothers, he essentially says, don't beat yourself up too much over this. God has been in this all along. There was no attempt by Joseph to force reconciliation or forgiveness. Nothing formal had been required or sought, perhaps. Now the brothers are finally saying, well, we need to say something. They go immediately to Joseph, now themselves. First, they send a letter. They follow it up immediately by going in person. And they come in person, says, Now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. And here's the first recorded request for forgiveness and circle the last phrase, they are servants of the God of your father. There is both a spiritual and genetic bond. We're your brothers, and we all are servants of Yahweh, the God of your father, the God who made promises, the God who is preserving. There is a spiritual unity. It says this, Joseph wept when they spoke to him, What do you make of all this? There certainly had to be joy and relief that the brothers finally asked for forgiveness, maybe the flood of relief the union was now spiritual and real. Perhaps that was what was so emotional. There certainly had to be compassion on Joseph's part. Joseph understood power. He had essentially absolute power in the land, especially power over his brothers. They were now the vulnerable people there may have been as well a deep sorrow. I mean, perhaps he said in his heart, after all this time, you still don't believe that I want the best for you. I mean, how disappointing he could have disappointed. He could have felt these are enough reasons to bring Joseph to tears, and maybe there is a mix of all of them. One of the things I love about biblical narratives is they don't give us all those details. They force us to think and process, re examine the passage, but we see some. Thing from his brothers. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are Your servants. The dream he had 34 years earlier was true. He would be the ruler over his brothers. He was the ruler over his brothers. And finally, after 34 years, we see this willingness, this humility in his brothers, to bow down to Joseph, his brothers were bowing, but to Joseph. But Joseph said to them, Do not fear for Am I in the place of God? I mean, of course, I'll take care of you. And this is probably the most significant sentence in the section, especially coming at the end of Genesis. Remember at the beginning of Genesis, Genesis three, Satan tempts Adam and Eve with the idea that if they ate from the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, if they ate from the fruit, they would be what like God. They would be equal to God. Here is Joseph at the end of the book, with the fruit of justice or vengeance, refusing to take the place of God. And what a turnaround in the story. There is one in Israel unwilling to take the place of God. This is why Joseph was a humble man all the way to the end of his life, he refused to take the place of power over his brothers to bring justice. The greatest of all men of faith remain humble before God by not taking the place of God in the various places of their lives. I mean, no more important places this scene than at the crucifixion of Jesus, Christ. Joseph is a small type. We'll get to that in a second of what's to come. Acts 223, through 24 we have referred to it a handful of times through our study of Genesis, about Joseph talking about the principle that, as you mean evil against me, God means it for good. The ultimate version of this is in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to his brothers. His brothers rejected him. The nation rejected him. The nations in Rome, as Rome, rejected him. Says this, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God. God had a plan. You crucified and killed by the hands of lawlessness, lawless men. God raised Him up losing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it. You want to talk about you meaning it for evil, but God meaning it for good. Joseph preserved his own family and Egypt and many Canaanites to live again another day. The evil that he suffered was so that people could live another day, what Jesus suffered on our behalf was the wrath of God, God's justice on behalf of sinners so that we could live for eternity. It's these kinds of truths that made the Apostle Paul be able to look back at another one of these familiar verses we've looked at many times in these 13 chapters, we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose, what does a great man look like? What does a great person of faith look like? He is, as Jesus says, the servant of God and the servant of all. Do you want to die a great man? Refuse to take the place of God, in revenge, in control, in expectation, refuse to take the place of God and selfish ambition. Joseph was a humble man before God. He had one of the greatest positions in government known in history, and he was a humble man. Before God number five, he returns good for evil. He returns good for evil. You see this resolute obedience. You see a faithfulness to His promises. You see a faithfulness to his calling. You see a humility, refusing to take the place of God, and He returns good for evil. This is how it evidenced itself. We don't necessarily need a lot here. His bitterness was all gone. Having the role of family leader and Prime Minister was not an opportunity for self promotion or insensitivity. It was to care for all those who are under his charge. Again, verse 20, as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. Do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus He comforted them and spoke kindly to them. He returned good for the evil that his brothers had exacted on him. He returned good decades later, returning good in a continual way all the way to his death. Who has hurt you, who has hurt you? You know it's not always appropriate to care for or serve someone who's deeply hurt you. It's not always appropriate. Some people are in situations where being near them is still like the early years of Joseph's life with his brothers, but when it's appropriate, will you still compassionately care for and serve them when it's required? Will you serve someone and love someone and care for someone who has given evil to you. Number six, he instills faith, resolute obedience. He keeps his promises. He is faithful to his calling. He's a humble man before God, and it shows up before his brothers. He returns good for evil. And number six, he instills faith. He instills faith. Joseph got to see his grandchildren, perhaps even his great grandchildren, and he charges them to believe the promises and act on them. Verse 24 Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob, he is reminding his children and his grandchildren he had remained in Egypt. He lived to 110 he got to see ephraim's children to the third generation, his great, great grandchildren. He elevated one of them as an adopted son, one of the sons of Manasseh, just like Jacob had done to Ephraim and Manasseh. And he can tell he's about to die. And he instills in them the promise, the same promise passed down from Abram, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And he reminds them, their bones went back. My bones need to go back. He's treated like the Egyptians. He dies. His body is prepared. He is embalmed. He is put in a coffin. And there is a sacred promise by the Israelites to Joseph to take his bones back the casket in Egypt was a physical reminder of the promises of God still to come. Verse 25 Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, take an oath. Says, God will surely visit you and shall carry up my bones from here, they all knew the promise given to Abraham that the family would eventually arrive in Egypt. After 400 years, they would be enslaved, and then God would visit and rescue and show grace, and he would bring them out. And when that great 2 million to 3 million nation of Israel came out of Egypt, there on a cart. It's the coffin of Joseph. He has instilled hope in the promises of God. They needed to show an outward sign of commitment for an inner faith and hope. And here's the reality. He by his life, by God's word, by a personal call to faith, he set out to instill trust in the next generation. And again, I want to remind the fellow gray beards, don't, don't miss this. You at your unless you're like, 25 and you're prematurely gray, that's fine with me, if you want to hide it like, you know, dress fine like do that, but like, when you get to a certain point where you feel old and your your face looks old and the hair is gray, you should look at the hour clock of your life that that, that hourglass, you should recognize that it's far past half and is running out soon. What are you doing by life, by God's word, by personal influence to instill faith and hope. I mean showing up is always key. Thinking about where God has put you seeking to do what you can do. Remember that the one life changing thing you have at your disposal, the only life changing thing you have in your disposal, is God's word, used by His Spirit to transform the lives of the people around you down to the next generation. We have such a strong commitment to it. We have a children's ministry. I think the lesson is on Rehoboam and Jeroboam today. If any of you don't know what those stories are about, they're not the pretty stories of the Bible, two unfaithful servants in Israel, a civil war, but we keep teaching our children what's in the Scripture. I know a lot of lot of dads. Dennis Doherty always leads a Father's Day Trip, and they go camping, and the dads are assigned a devotional somewhere in between, it happens all over the church. Yesterday I got to see this picture. My wife took the picture of all the little girls at the table at the women's event. You know, all dressed and here, Mitzi is encouraging them to find places to serve in the church using their gifts. My sweet little Remy is like, I have the gift of art. I could have a girl over, and we could study a verse together and do art. All right, that's great. I mean, they're doing it. I want to just get it into your home. I want you to think about this. I think of the gray beards and the dads, usually, here's the job of the moms. The moms are reading the books. Moms are doing things I would love the dads to be thinking about the birth of a new baby and the little board books they're going to buy for their daughter or son in law to read with the new baby. You know the board books that you can chew on like they don't understand the words for years, but you open up the pictures, and you start reading to them, and they start chewing on them, and you have a you set, you set a course for their life that whenever they're with grandma or grandpa, they're they're hearing about the great promises of God. I mean, you could talk to Joe. You could go to our little library. Here's 10 questions, Thiry devotions for kids, teens and families. This big book by Stephen Nichols, the church history, which could talk about faith of those in between Jesus and us today. RC Sproles, the donkey who carried a king, talking about the triumphal entry like these are just some of those books. You should have a collection of those that sit out on a coffee table. And if you say you're not a reader, perfect, I don't read, well, great. Take a kid's book. You don't have to read, great. So that when the kids come over and people come over, there's always something around, and it really doesn't just apply. I would love grandfathers to do this. Usually the grandmothers do this, but the grandfathers should put some money in the budget to buy little things like that, have them out unavailable. I think the greatest impact I was talking to my team this week, the greatest impact, are those families that had grandparents who read them Our Daily Bread five minutes and just passed on the faith. Now it doesn't just have to be grandmothers and grandfathers. You could be an auntie who has the board books at home and when your nephews or nieces show up, or when you have it, and you don't even have to be that. Maybe you're maybe you're the babysitter for a growth group. You come with a little backpack filled with books and tricks and ideas and coloring sheets, things to do, to point for five minutes at the scriptures. If you're a nanny. You might have a little pack of things, coloring sheets and whatnot, whatever kinds of things, but get the word of God and the Word of Promise planted in the hearts of the next generation and the next generation and the next generation. Ian, so Joseph made the sons of Israel swear
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going to bring the bones back, because the promise was certain for Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, they knew it wasn't just to Israel that their bones were going back to but resurrection and the land and the kingdom under a future Messiah. You and I have resurrection, a land and kingdom and Messiah in our future too. I How to Be faithful. Finally, Joseph points us to Christ. He points us to Christ. The greatest of all the things we've seen about Joseph's life is how he prefigures or prepares us for Christ. Lots of people have noticed the parallels or previews of Joseph. Joseph was beloved by his father, rejected by his brothers. Jesus was beloved by his father, rejected by his brothers. Joseph was sold off to slavery, thought as dead. Jesus was really killed, crucified and came back from the dead. When Joseph was treated evilly, he returned good. Jesus much greater after his resurrection, for those who had sinned against him and put him to death, he forgave their sins and offered them the kingdom by character, by life, by faith. Are you pointing people to Jesus Christ by character, by content, by life and life's choices. Are you pointing them to Jesus Christ? It will probably show up most powerfully when you refuse to return evil for evil, and you choose to return good for evil, it will show most powerfully over decades of faithfulness, how is your life pointing to Christ by your trust and your actions, the one who was tempted in all ways and yet did not sin, who sympathizes with your weakness, who has paid for your sins by His death On the cross, if you haven't trusted him yet today, start by making an impact in the next generation by bowing at Jesus' feet, so to speak, like Joseph's Brothers, bowed at Joseph's feet in submission, surrender and trust to Jesus and His grace. What do you want said about your funeral? About you at your funeral? Any one of these would be a great testimony to God's work in your life, Father, thank You for this precious word. Thank you for our Lord Jesus. We thank you that, as we have been in Genesis, we see how badly we needed you, Lord Jesus, and you have come, the father couldn't give a greater gift than you. And you are our gift. Now help our faith grow and flourish and make an impact on the next generation in Christ's name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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Main idea: Focus on promises kept now gives joyful endurance for promises kept later. ...