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How to handle hatred

Genesis 37 - Summary and Observations

(Part 3 of 3)

Now, if you have been listening, as over the last few months as we went through the life of Jacob up to this point the keyword that has been used consistently to describe events in his life was deception and that’s what did his sons do here, they deceived their father, and so Jacob become the victim of a deception himself perpetrated by his own offspring. Jacob started out in his own adulthood; he is deceiving his father. 

The same thing has happened to him now, the deceiver gets deceived. It was Jacob who made his father think that he was Esau and stole the birthright. Then his brother Esau threatened to kill him, so he left town. He headed east and met Laban and then he got deceived and ends up having to work for him 14 years so he could marry the woman he loved. He was deceived again when he married the older sister when he thought he was marrying the younger sister. So, the conniver gets deceived. What goes around comes around. He deceives Laban again and then returns/escapes to his homeland, and then after 10 years living in Canaan this happens to him. So, what do we make of this story surrounded the events relating to the mistreatment of Joseph and the misleading of Jacob into believing he has been killed? Let me make a couple of observations 

Firstly, Joseph was Jacob/Israel’s favorite, you might say he was chosen by the father to be his favorite. One of the observations I was making is very, very simple.  The chosen are often hated. The favored of God are often hated and, in some cases, very often they are hated just because they are chosen. I think that’s one of the profound spiritual truths of the Bible and particularly demonstrated teachings of the New Testament, remember how Jesus said you have not chosen me, I have chosen you, and then he also says that if they hate me, they’re going to hate you. The world hates Jesus Christ have you figured that out yet? Willful, sinful people hate him, they don’t want to have anything to do with him, and they certainly don’t want anyone to tell them how the should live their lives when it comes to personal morality. For 2000 years humanity have trying to kick him out of any form of public discourse, especially where there are seats of power or influence. There have always been concerted attempts to remove God from the public sector of life. And by being identified with Jesus Christ, people will hate you, it just goes with the territory, and I think that this story illustrates that. 

But although that is true, I also think there’s two other things here that are even more significant for us.  One is this, God is always providentially working. Sometimes God works supernaturally, He just does a miracle, bam, it’s instantaneous. Other times he works providentially, it’s not as dramatic, it’s not as instantaneous, but he still brings about his purposes in the lives of extraordinary people in ordinary ways. The idea of providence is the concept of God working through natural means. Where God works behind the scenes, and in the lives and circumstances of people’s lives to bring about his plan, and that’s what’s going on in this chapter. I’ve already hinted at what’s coming, there is a devastating famine on the horizon. At this early point God is already planning and preparing to feed this family and keep His plans for the nation of Israel on track.  He’s already preparing that when this famine that he knows is coming arrives, he will have put in place somebody to provide food for not just this family but remember they are the early nation of Israel. That’s the Providence, the providential working of God.

This story indicates the fact that often God is working in the everyday, you may not see it, you may not feel it, you may not understand it, but God is still working. God is working behind the scenes; God may be putting things into place that you could never imagine, things that you will only find out about later.  Now let’s probe that a little bit. What does he have to do to get this done? We can see here what he’s going to have to do is get Joseph to Egypt because He’s going to have to get Joseph put in charge so that when the famine comes and the family flees the drought and goes to Egypt, Joseph is going to need to be in a power position to feed the family. Alright, how does God get that done? How is he going to get Joseph into a position of influence in Egypt? I mean, he gives a Joseph a really hard time involving the open hostility, no hatred of his brothers. They really hate him. They hate him not just because of the dreamer, but because he’s the father’s favorite. They almost killed him but at the last minute they decide to sell him into slavery instead. God used their hatred and their deception to get his will done. Does that boggle your mind? God used the hatred; God used the envy and their jealous of other to fulfil his purposes here.

Turn with me to Psalm 76.  This is an incredible truth that a lot of times gets passed over. 

“Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise, and the survivors of your wrath are restrained.

(Psalm 76: 10)

This is a fascinating verse. People can get angry; they can be filled with hatred and jealousy. Envy and God will still turn things around and use that for his praise and to accomplish his will. Incredible. It tells us similar things several times in the New Testament as well, for example.

“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son”.

(Romans 8: 28-29a)

Now, that verse does not say all things are good. Was it good that Joseph got thrown into a pit? No. Was it good that he was hated? No. Was it good that he got sold into slavery? No. We haven’t heard the rest of the story yet, it gets worse, he ends up in prison, he actually gets framed for something he didn’t do, is that good? No.  But what this verse says, it is that all things work together for good, not that all things are good. Now, what’s the good? What’s the good going on here? If you look at this passage in Romans 8 carefully, what you will discover the good is that we be conformed to Christ through these difficult circumstances. God allows all these devastating things to come into our life and if we respond properly, he will use them to conform us to the image of his son. He will use them to make us a little more Christ like, a little more like Jesus.

My points are simply these, firstly, the chosen are often hated because they’re chosen, and secondly, God works providentially behind the scenes works to accomplish his will. I started out asking us a few days ago when we began our look at chapter 37 is how do you handle all of this stuff that life can throw at us?

Let me make a third and last observation. If you look at this story in the narrow shorter term you will see nothing but heartbreak and if you too are going through a hard time in life and you look at what’s going on in your life in the short term, you may see nothing but the problems you have. But if you take this story in Genesis and look at it in the context within the whole of the narrative of the Book of Genesis, then what you will see that is in the long term these individual pieces, that were truly painful, turned out to be used of God for his purpose. 

So, if you miss everything I’m saying today, here the one thing that I believe that it is important you get a handle on. The way to handle hatred, the way you handle envy, jealousy or even being mistreated, even the way you handled the bottom falling out of your life is to place it in the wider context. The way to handles any form of suffering in your life, is to place it within the wider, higher, greater plans of God for your life. Did the bottom fall out of Joseph life? Absolutely.  How do you handle it? Well, if you look at the immediate, you will only see problems. God says we sometimes need to step back and get the big picture and see what God can use it for, what is that God wants us to learn or get out of the situation. What is the purpose God is calling us to find?

That’s the point if we too had all that happened to Joseph in this chapter happen to us in our life, we might indeed have justification to feel depressed. He ends up being as sold a slave into Egypt, but if you see this chapter in the context of the story of his entire life, you can see God uses this to prepare him for future service. That was God’s purpose and he hinted to him ahead of time what the purpose was by giving him a dream. He said here I’m going to give you the dream. You’re going to have authority over and even feed these scoundrels. He tells him ahead of time what’s going on, though at that point he didn’t understand it, and that is often what we experience also. So, when you’re going through the kinds of things I’ve described over these last few episodes. If you look at the immediate, you’ll see the problem, but if you back off and respond properly, you’ll see what God wants to do in your life through these difficult circumstances. God in fact may speak to you through your circumstances. Probably not in a dream, more likely in his word, because in his word God has fully revealed what he is doing and what he is going to do in your life and also how this is all preparing you for future works of service. To enable you to become “conformed”, to be more like Christ and to put you in a position where you can serve.

So that’s how you handle the situation. By seeing the ultimate purpose behind these things ass conformity to Christ and equipping for service. Ironically, by selling Joseph into Egypt, his brothers actualized the dream they sought to subvert. That’s the providence of God, people who serve faithfully as unto the Lord sometimes experience severe persecution, but God will preserve them so that they can still fulfill their God given purpose.

I’m saddened that people who serve faithfully as unto the Lord often experience suffering or even persecution, but God will preserve them so that they can fulfill their God given destiny. So don’t look at the chaos of the moment, get the big picture, the long term is that God can use it to prepare you to fulfil your purpose and the destiny he has for you.