Old Testament Scripture: The Missing Piece

We recently began a sermon series entitled Old Testament Scripture: The Missing Piece? This title is intended to have a double meaning. First, I don't think I myself as a pastor have focused on the Old Testament enough and by doing so we miss part of God's scripture. In fact I went back and looked at all the sermons I have preached in the Gap and Iredell over the last two years to see how many times I used the Old Testament as the primary scripture text. Out of 91 sermons I preached only 10 of them used an Old Testament as the primary text. I'm not great at math but I know that's less than 10%. So obviously I haven't focused on it enough. Second, there are certain Old Testament Passages that when we focus on them we miss certain aspects of the passage. I think we miss things primarily because of what we learned about those passages as children. All those stories we learned in vacation bible school and Sunday school that focus on the fun part of the story. For instance in the story of Joseph when I asked pastor friends of mine what they first remembered and what first came to mind they remembered "the coat of many colors" or "the technicolor dreamcoat" or that Joseph was an interpreter of dreams. As for Jonah, they remember the whale. And for Moses, they remembered the ten commandments and leading his people out of Egypt. When we focus on these parts of the stories we miss a piece of the story which is in my opinion more important.

Today: a quick look at Joseph. If we only focus on the "coat of many colors" or his interpretation of dreams then we miss a more important part of the story. A little backstory, Joseph was the favorite of their father and his brothers were jealous of him. I see Joseph as a bit of a "know it all, smarty pants" type who rubbed his brothers the wrong way, including sharing a dream where the images of his grains stalk was taller and his brothers grain stalks were bowing down to his. They were angry and said: "will you really be our king and rule over us?" This made them hate him even more. His brothers plot to kill him and lie about it but ultimately sell him into slavery. Years passed as he was a slave, wrongfully imprisoned, and then he became the right hand of the pharaoh. And then Joseph's brothers come to him (not knowing he is their brother) for help during an extreme famine. After some waffling about how to handle his brothers we have these words from Joseph which I see as the most important part of the story when he makes himself known to them:

Genesis 45:4-8

⁴ Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. ⁵ And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. ⁶ For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. ⁷ God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. ⁸ So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. 

There are two important takeaways from Joseph's words here. First, he recognizes that it wasn't his brothers who sent him there but that "God sent me before you." Joseph goes through many trials and tribulations because of his brothers betrayal but realizes that because of that and because of God's protection that he was there at that moment to preserve his brothers and many others in their time of trial. Second, it shows the power of forgiveness in Joseph. He had every right to be angry and don't forget he doesn't forgive them right away. He doesn't reveal who he is to them right away. In fact, he sets up his brothers by planting stolen goods in their bags of grain as they are leaving. So know it all Joseph tortures his brothers a bit while he is struggling with how to respond. But ultimately he responds with love and forgiveness.

What I now know and take from Joseph's story is not that he had a nice coat. What I remember about Joseph is that he accepts where he is and what he can do and gives credit to God for the position he is now in so that he can help people. And he is able to overlook and forgive his brothers who were willing to kill him when they were younger. If we could understand and enact those two things in our lives wouldn't we be much better off? That's a rhetorical question-of course we would. So I encourage you, wherever you are, to look for why God has put you there at this time and in that place. And I encourage you to show the power of forgiveness by forgiving those people have wronged you. And just think, when you forgive someone else you are also lifting an unnecessary weight off your shoulders as well.

Grace & Peace

Kevin