Mature Faith (Genesis 50.21-26)

(Part 2 of 2)

What we have just witnessed is a phenomenal act of faith on Joseph’s part. He didn’t just see the evil situations he had been subjected to, he saw them with the eye of faith, and he saw the purpose of God through them. He had ended up in Egypt through the evil machinations of his brothers, yet because he was in Egypt, he saw that God worked in his life and he ended up saving the whole nation of Egypt and all my family besides. So, what people do to you cannot thwart the purpose of God in your life. Let’s see what his response to this is. What will he say to them in return? Verse 21 tells us his reply. 

So then, don’t be afraid. I will provide for you and your children.” And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

(Genesis 50: 21)

He not only didn't retaliate, also he didn't punish them, he did the exact opposite. He showed kindness and said, “I’m going to provide for you and all your family”. So instead of retaliating he was kind and forgiving to them, in fact he was the opposite of hostile towards them, he showed them favour. What I believe this passage is meant to teach is that by seeing things from God’s point of view and trusting him we can experience good in our lives in the midst of evil. And we can also be instruments of Gods love goodness and peace to others as well. Each sentence in Joseph threefold reply is the pinnacle of the Biblical response of faith to the evil of men. To leave the righting of any wrongs to God, to see his Providence, reverses the effects of any possible malice of evil that might rise out of a situation. And not to repay evil with evil but to repay evil not only with forgiveness but also with practical affection. That is what verse 21 teaches. Verse 21 represents the pinnacle of faith, and it teaches us three things.

First, that’s mature faith is a faith that can say, I’m going to let God set things right.

Secondly, I am going to see his providence even in the ill will and malice of other men and woman

And thirdly, to not repay evil with evil, instead I’m going to repay evil with kindness.

If you’ve ever been mistreated or had evil done to you will know how hard this is. You will know that takes faith.  It takes an outstanding type of faith, a mature faith. That is why I believe that the New Testament holds this situation up as an outstanding example of faith. This is not ordinary faith. I’m calling this story the same as I think the bible does a wonderful example of mature faith. It takes mature faith to trust God when everything looks like it’s against you. It takes a mature faith to trust God to bring good out of evil, having the spiritual maturity to know if you just trust in him, he will do it.

A famous Dutch sculptor went to Rome work there because of the quality of the marble available there. When he finished his piece he prepared his work for shipping, he put old hay and straw in the crates to protect his artwork. The day his work arrived back home he was not at home. After uncrating the statues, a resentful servant deliberately scattered the packing material over the well tilled garden hoping that the seed would take root in the fertile soil and spoil his garden. Instead, it turned out that hay and straw contained a rare exotic plant native to Rome, and it sprang up everywhere. The story that was written in 1775, and it says that since that day some of Hollands most beautiful flowers are offspring of those seeds. The servant scattered the straw and scattered the hey with ill intent, expecting it to ruin the garden, but what he didn’t know is that God would use it to grow some beautiful flowers. 

That’s the faith of Joseph, he looked at the situation, and he didn’t see the evil. He saw the hand of God. The rest of the passage tells us about his death and it's the postscript to the main message. The first part of the message tells us how he treated his brothers with discernment. The rest of the Book of Genesis tells us about his death and burial

Joseph stayed in Egypt, along with all his father’s family. He lived a hundred and ten years  and saw the third generation of Ephraim’s children. Also, the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph’s knees.

(Genesis 50: 22-23)

110 years seems like a long time to us, does it not? But again, if you put this story in the context of Genesis, you will recall this is a relatively short time compared to his forefathers. All those guys live hundreds of years, but as we progressed through Genesis, we saw that the life expectancy decrease. So, he only lived to 110 years, however, he lived long enough to see the next, generation arrive. The next verse tells us that he saw his kids, and his grandkids, so he lived long enough to see the third generation of his family, his grandkids.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, “God will surely come to your aid, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” So, Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt.

(Genesis 50 24-26)

So, Joseph died being 110 years old, and they embalmed him and put him in a coffin in Egypt. These closing words are significant because contained within them is the promise that the same God who appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and who promised those three patriarchs the land is the same God is going to appear again in the future to their offspring. God is going to visit again in the future, and he’s going to give the land that he promised to their forefathers.  Again, this is an act of faith, he’s believing that. God is going to fulfill a promise through his descendants.

Now, I mentioned earlier that this is mentioned in the New Testament. Look at Hebrews Ch 11.

By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.

(Hebrews 11: 22)

It referring to Genesis Ch 50. So, here in Hebrews it confirms for us in that what Jacob did in chapter 5o was an act of faith. Clearly this is an act of faith, I am believing God promise for the future. 

Some say Jacob’s life could be divided into two parts. In the first part he asked and tries to discern of what God was doing in his life. But the second part of the passage has to do with what he believed God was going to do in the future. In the first part of the message, he believes God is working in his life now, and in the second part of message he believes that God is going to continue working through his family in the future. Commentators on this passage said Jacob probably could have been entombed in a pyramid or there’s some other grand burial site in Egypt, but he chooses the promises of God over the privileges of the world, and that is a great model for all believers. He wanted his family place him in a modest tomb in the promised land which they did. The put him in a cave/tomb in the parcel of land that his grandfather had bought and given to them.

The expression of Joseph and Jacob’s belief in the promises of God provides a fitting climax for the Book of Genesis and marks the beginning of the history of the nation of Israel. This verse contains the first reference to three patriarchs together. Wow. He believed God. He believed God and believed the promise, he didn’t get to see the land God promised in their possession yet. But he still believed it and as a real-world symbol and ongoing testimony of that belief, he wanted to be buried there. Take me back to the land we have been promised and bury me there. Which they did. 

Alright, let me sell all this up. I think what’s going on here is that Joseph has exhibited what I’m calling a mature faith. He trusts the Lord to fulfill his promises in this life under all circumstances and into the future. Let me repeat that. Mature faith will always trust the Lord to fulfill his promises regardless of the circumstances of your life. It’s embracing the truth that he will fulfill his promises in the future, even when we can’t see them yet. So, when you are struggling with the worldly circumstances you find yourself in, instead of murmuring and complaining and griping and being discontent, mature faith says, God is in control, and I’m going to trust in him. Mature faith accepts that even if what has happened to you is evil. God can bring good out of it. That is about as profound a truth as you can choose to build your life upon. 

One commentator, I read, said, those who trust the Lord to bring about his promised blessings in his own inscrutable way, will be able to demonstrate their faith through the adverse circumstances of life. 

If believers wholeheartedly trust in the sovereignty of God, even death will lose its power over them. Do you hear that, it even gives us the power to face death without any fear. Persecution and antagonism would fade into something that can become part of His sovereign plan. 

As Christians, at heart we have a simple faith. Trust Jesus Christ for the gift of eternal life. A simple faith, trust the Lord for the easy things, A simple but mature faith says, I’m going to trust the Lord no matter what happens.

In the book of Daniel three Hebrew teenagers who refused to conform were thrown into a fiery furnace and still were able to say, “God will deliver us”. But if not, we will trust him anyway”. We’re going to trust God to fulfill his promises regardless of the circumstances, regardless of how bad, wicked, evil, harmful, hurtful things look. We are going to trust the Lord because he has promised to work together all things for good.

Years ago, there was a man named Sydney Greenwich who was a godly man, an official in the Salvation Army. One day while working at an outreach to the homeless a drunk man threw a brick at him, hitting him in the head. As a result of the injury, he was unable to communicate properly for 18 months, unable to preach for a year and a half. It was during this time of recuperation and began to write the articles that formed the basis of his book, “A help to holiness”. That book turned out to be his best read and most helpful Christian works of the time, read by millions in the early 20th century. His wife remarked. Had there been no brick? There would have been no book. She was convinced that the Lord had allowed the tragedy of his head injury so her husband would have time out to write that book.  She kept the brick and wrote on it these words from Genesis 50: 20

“As for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good”.

If there had been no brick, there would have been no book. As we close the book of Genesis, we can be thankful for this final perspective on a life well lived, a life of faith. I hope that God will allow us to absorb it and use it to develop a mature Christian faith that says, no matter what happens, we’re going to trust in him. In Jesus name…. Amen.