Chuck Larsen

Let me make another observation about the life of our favorite character: Joseph. He spent a lot of time in pits. His brothers threw him into a pit as they debated what to do with him. Potiphar’s wife lied about Joseph. He was arrested and thrown into another pit in Egypt. When Joseph pleads with Pharaoh’s cupbearer to remember him and inform Pharaoh of his innocence, he says, “here also, I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.” He was innocent in Israel and in Egypt. His brothers unjustly threw him into the pit back in his homeland, and Potiphar’s wife brought false charges against him, and he was thrown into another pit unjustly. There was no reason for him to find himself in these pits. But there he was! Joseph was in the pits! Joseph was left in this prison pit when the cupbearer failed to keep his promise! It appears that Joseph had been in Egypt for about 13 years, most of which was probably spent in the pit.

Most of the sermons I’ve preached on this portion of the life of Joseph had to do with being in the pits. I’m sure you’ve been in the pits! Maybe your job has you in the pits. Perhaps some broken relationship has put you in the pits. Perhaps guilt and despair have put you in the pit. Perhaps you’re in the pits, and like Joseph, you don’t even know why. Joseph could not get himself out of either pit. He was unable to help himself. The only thing he could do was trust God, be faithful in his duties, and wait. When God finally acted on his behalf, he became supreme ruler in Egypt, was given a wife and had two sons. He named his sons, “God has made me forget my hardship (Manasseh), and “God made me fruitful” (Ephraim). The point is God is the one who did it. Joseph waited on God when he was in the pit. He went about his daily life trusting God to act in His good time. So, what do you do when you’re in the pits? Wait. Just wait upon the Lord. As attractive as that message is, the story about Joseph and even the exact details of his life were not recorded in scripture, so I can find encouragement when I’m down in the pits. Yet, I still find encouragement personally but not nearly the kind of encouragement I get when I stand by my father’s gravesite and realize the pit is the pit of death. Joseph is about the one who is to come and save us from that pit.

Jesus himself said that the whole Old Testament, including the stories, are really about him. Jesus is the one delivered from the one pit, the grave; Joseph’s story foretells that. All who believe in him will also be delivered from that great pit. John 3:16 fits here: “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.” Pink wraps up my thought for me very well: “‘And they took him, and cast him into a pit; and the pit was empty, there was no water in it’ (37:24). We quote now from Dr. Haldeman: ‘The pit wherein is no water, is another name for Hades, the underworld, the abode of the disembodied dead of all the dead before the resurrection of Christ. ‘The pit wherein is no water’ (Zech. 9:11). ‘For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly, so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth’ (Matt. 12:40). It was here our Lord, as to His Soul, abode between death and resurrection.”¹ But Jesus was raised from the pit on the third day. Genesis 41:14 tells of Joseph’s deliverance, “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.” You and I will be cleaned up and given new clothes when we are ultimately delivered from the big pit! Now that’s exciting!

¹ Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 359.

If Joseph knew what God was planning, he would be a happy prisoner at this very moment. While he was slaving away, serving the other prisoners, as a servant of the captain of the guard, God was giving Pharaoh dreams. God prevented the interpretation of those dreams by any of the court wizards because there was an expert dream interpreter in prison that God had some plans for. Joseph had already interpreted the dreams of the baker and the cup-bearer. The baker’s head was cut off as Joseph said, and the cup-bearer was released from prison and promised to let Pharaoh know about Joseph’s unique gifts. But it wasn’t until the wizards in the court failed to give Pharaoh an adequate interpretation of his dreams that the cup-bearer remembered that there was a Hebrew man in prison who was pretty good at dream interpreting. God convicted the cup-bearer of his sin of breaking his promise to Joseph, leaving him in jail for as much as a couple of years. During those two years, while Joseph was still in prison, what was going on?

The cup-bearer was re-establishing himself in Pharaoh’s house, Joseph appeared to be languishing in prison, losing hope, but God was giving Pharaoh dreams. There were several dreams that the wizards could not understand nor interpret. God was convicting the cup-bearer of his failure to keep his promise to Joseph, and God was giving Pharaoh dreams! While Joseph languished, God already had a plan and worked out those details. Joseph didn’t see it at the time, but he continued to serve the chief of prison’s guard and just waited. Joseph expected to be released because he was innocent. Had the cup-bearer told Pharaoh about Joseph immediately, Pharaoh may have replied that everyone in prison claims to be innocent and just ignored the cup-bearer. But now, Pharaoh needed Joseph and his abilities. In God’s perfect timing, the cup-bearer was reminded of his sin against Joseph and brought the Hebrew youth to Pharaoh’s attention. No matter what situation holds you captive today, you can be assured that God is working out his perfect plan for your redemption at this very moment. Don’t worry, be happy, and wait on God.

Joseph interprets Pharaoh’s dream and predicts seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. He then recommends that Pharaoh find a qualified individual to manage the portfolio while things are good to make the lean times manageable. Genesis 41:39-41 then informs us that “…Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.  You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.’ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.’” Pink wraps up his discussion with this: “What a blessed change this was: from shame to glory, from the dungeon to the place of rule, from being a slave in fetters to being elevated high above all, Pharaoh alone being excepted. This was a grand reward for his previous fidelity and a fitting recognition of his worth. And how beautifully this speaks to us of the One whom Joseph foreshadowed! He was here in humiliation and shame, but He is here so no longer. God has highly exalted Him. He is “gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him” (1 Pet. 3:22).”¹

¹ Arthur Walkington Pink, Gleanings in Genesis (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2005), 377.

Joseph’s brothers sold him as a slave to traders on their way to Egypt. It was Judah’s idea to sell him rather than murdering him. The text makes it pretty clear that it was because of the profit motive most of all. Judah may have wanted to save Joseph’s life, but that’s just a guess. After Joseph was taken away, Judah’s life went downhill, but Joseph’s life went uphill. At the same time, Judah was negotiating sex with a cult prostitute in Canaan. The prostitute was Tamar, his daughter-in-law. The story shifts back to Joseph in Egypt. There we see Judah’s little brother resisting the sexual advances of his bosses’ wife. Tamar, Judah’s sexual partner, uses Judah’s staff and ring to convict him of his guilt in this affair. He repents and acknowledges his wrong and says that Tamar was more righteous than he was. It’s like having a blue dress covered with DNA evidence proving sexual contact. It just can’t be ignored.

Now we move to Egypt and see Potiphar’s wife falsely accuses Joseph of seducing her. She, too, brings evidence against Joseph. She has taken the garment he had left behind and used it as evidence that he had attempted to rape her. Interestingly, Joseph’s accuser presents proof of his guilt with Joseph’s garment. This is the 2nd time in Joseph’s life that the person he’s responsible to, first his father then Potiphar, is deceived about him by one of his garments. His brothers brought the coat of many colors to Jacob with blood on it to prove that Joseph had been killed by wild animals (or something!). Tamar uses her evidence to convict Judah of the truth of his guilt in her conception. Potiphar’s wife uses her evidence to deceive Potiphar concerning Joseph’s guilt. Judah appeared innocent until proven guilty. Joseph was sinless while appearing guilty.

Sometimes we care more about appearing innocent than we do about actually being innocent. Yet, while man looks at outward appearances, God always looks at the heart. In Joseph’s apparent guilt, the story includes three statements that say “and God was with Joseph.” In Judah’s report, the mention of God is totally absent. It’s more important to God for us to “be” innocent than it is to “appear” innocent. I like the way Susan Brayford concludes her discussion on Joseph’s story. She writes, “Despite the blaming and sarcastic tone of his wife’s accusation, Potiphar believes her version of the story and, because of his anger, has Joseph thrown into prison. Joseph’s real Lord, however, knows the truth and continues to work in the margins to secure a favorable situation for Joseph.”¹

¹ Susan A. Brayford, Genesis: Commentary, ed. Stanley E. Porter, Richard S. Hess, and John Jarick, Septuagint Commentary Series (Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2007), 407.

In Genesis 38, we read about Judah’s adultery with his daughter-in-law, who posed as a prostitute. The result of that illicit encounter was twin sons. One of which is Perez. If you look at Matthew chapter 1, you will see his name in the genealogy of Jesus. How strange is that? God chooses Abraham from amongst a city of moon-god worshippers. He chooses Isaac over Ishmael. He chooses Jacob, the deceiver, over Esau, and remarkably, he Chooses Judah over Joseph. I surely would have chosen Joseph, the most Christ-like figure in the Old Testament. But, no, God chooses Judah. Judah was the brother who decided to sell Joseph rather than kill him because there was no profit in murder. He was the brother who married the Canaanite woman. He was the father of two sons by her, Er and Onan, who were so wicked that God killed them. He was the one who negotiated a price with a prostitute for sex; he was the one who was willing to stone his daughter-in-law for immorality while he hid his role in the pregnancy. He was everything he shouldn’t be and nothing he should have been. On the other hand, Joseph was everything he should have been and nothing he shouldn’t have been. Yet God chooses Judah!

Now, let’s look at the women in the line of Christ. In Matthew 1, there are references to only four women in the line of Christ. One might not expect to find any of these women there. They are Tamar, whose story is told in Genesis 38, and who presented herself to her father-in-law as a prostitute to trick him into impregnating her. Rahab is the prostitute of Jericho, who hid the spies at the time of the Israelite conquest. Ruth, the Moabitess, was the descendant of the incestuous relationship between Lot and his daughter that took place in a cave after they fled unwillingly from the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. But, Ruth, the Moabitess, ended up with a book in the Bible named after her. Then we meet Bathsheba, the one who had an adulterous relationship with King David while her husband was out to war. Her name is not mentioned, but the text tells us that her son, Solomon, was born of her, the wife of Uriah! An interesting thing about the genealogy of Matthew is that it lists women at all. The Old Testament genealogies don’t include women. But the New Testament writers want us all to know that women count.

Why these women? Martin Luther said so that “no one should be presumptuous about his righteousness or wisdom, and no one should despair on account of his sins.”¹ But there is another critical condition applies to all of these women. They are all Gentiles! The lineage to Jesus from the earliest days does not include only Jews. You see, as Boice says, “… the church of Jesus Christ is called his bride, and that we, for the most part, are Gentiles.”² Boice continues with this and concludes, “I am glad these women are included. In Ephesians, Paul writes that the Gentiles were ‘foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world (Eph. 2:12). And so we were! But in the inclusion of these gentile women in Jesus’ family tree we discover that the mercy of God is not limited to one nation, but is for all who will identify with God’s work of redemption through the Savior.”² The New Testament writers tell us that we too are chosen to be children of God. You and I are often what we shouldn’t be and seldom precisely what we should be, but God still chooses us. How strange is that?

1 Luther’s Works, vol. 7, 11. See the ending of the previous chapter of this volume.

2 James Montgomery Boice, Genesis: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1998), 902.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins. It is seen as early as Genesis chapter 4 in the story of Cain and Abel. We see it in the lives of Rachel and Leah as they compete with each other for the affection of Jacob and how they compete with each other over their children. In Genesis 37 it raises its ugly head again. We see again how deep this sin goes as it is once again expressed by brothers against a brother. Joseph’s brothers did not share the favored place Joseph held in the heart of their father, Jacob. Their envy led to hatred. Genesis 37:8 tells us that the 10 brothers hated Joseph. They hated him even more because of the favor the father showed him in the coat of many colors – the symbol of God’s favor on his life. Verse 23 tells us the first thing the brothers did was “strip the coat off of him.” Hatred leads to overt evil acts. They plotted to kill him and threw him in a pit. Then, what’s even worse, the heartless nature of envy and hatred is seen in this phrase in Genesis 37:25-28, “then they sat down to eat.”  Guzik observes, “The heartless character of these brothers was clear—they could eat a meal with Joseph nearby in the pit. They could sit down and enjoy food while their hearts were bent on murdering their brother.”¹ It’s even worse when we remember that they sat down to eat the very meal that Joseph had been sent to bring them from their father. Where was their sense of decency? Where was their conscience?

Joseph pleaded with his brothers for mercy, but they couldn’t hear him. But they would hear his cries later. Guzik quotes from Barnhouse in his commentary concerning this. He writes, “Later, Genesis 42:21 described the conviction of sin they ignored at that moment. In that passage the brothers said: We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear; therefore this distress has come upon us. When Joseph was cast into the pit, he pled with his brothers, and they ignored his cries as they ate their meal.” Then he recounts the Barnhouse quote. “A physicist could compute the exact time required for his cries to go twenty-five yards to the eardrums of the brothers. But it took twenty-two years for that cry to go from the eardrums to their hearts.”¹

It’s only through the intervention of Judah’s greed, which is another one of those seven deadly sins, that they choose to sell him rather than murder him. Envy leads to bitterness, which leads to hatred, which if left unchecked, leads to evil deeds of various kinds. Evil deeds always go someplace also. They do not hurt that target but the shooter. Envy, jealousy along with a variety of other ungodly emotions are all boomerangs! They always come back to the one throwing them.  Someone once said, “Envy shoots at others but only wounds herself.” Envy creates Grinches. Dr. Seuss’ children’s book “The Grinch” illustrates a creature who can’t bear the sight of anyone enjoying himself without getting so mad it bites itself. Don’t bite yourself!

¹ David Guzik, Genesis, David Guzik’s Commentaries on the Bible (Santa Barbara, CA: David Guzik, 2013), Ge 37:23–28