Good morning, thank you all for working through Genesis. Today we read chapters 39-41, which focus on Joseph.
Sin of others
We had already read his story of being sold into slavery and ending up in Egypt. As a young man, he attracted the interest of Potiphar’s wife, which led to trouble.
Sometimes other people’s actions will affect us. It was not Joseph who was sinning. Instead, it was Potiphar’s wife who lusts after the strapping young man and she attempts to seduce him.
Filled by the Spirit, Joseph resists the temptation of the flesh, but her sins still ensnare him as she holds his cloak while he runs naked from her chamber. Knowing she would have to explain the boots under the bed, so to speak, in this case a man’s clothing in her chamber, she invents this deceitful tale. It gets her out of trouble, but places Joseph in prison.
Gifts from God
Sometimes it takes extreme circumstances for us to recognize a gift or talent the lord has given us. The first few times I preached, I had written sermons and had weeks to prepare them. It was only because I could not dismiss them I knew I had to push myself out of my comfort zone and stand before the congregation and preach.
After my third true sermon, my pastor and his wife got sick with Covid while returning from a planned one week vacation. I was thrust into a situation where I had to let the Holy Spirit provide me with messages for two additional sermons with no lead time.
During this time, the power of God overwhelmed me, as I felt it working through me. I was hooked and knew I would need to continue to serve the Lord.
Later, when my pastor suffered a stroke, I had to step up and write sixteen sermons in eight weeks. From these my first book, “Moving Ahead: How To Make America Godly Again, came to life.
Foreshadowing
There are so many great lessons from the story of Joseph, but what spoke to me this morning was the foreshadowing of Jesus we see within the Cupbearer and the Baker.
Though the Cupbearer felt the weight of guilt, Joseph’s understanding brought him absolution. He delivered the wine to the Pharaoh.
When we partake of the Lord’s Supper, aka have Communion, we share in the wine. It represents the blood of Jesus, which was shed for the remission of sin. Not Jesus’ sin, He had none. But for our sins.
After three days, reminiscent of the three days Jesus spent in the tomb, Pharaoh forgave the Cupbearer, and they restored him to his position.
The Baker was not so fortunate. His guilt brought upon him the punishment he deserved. When we have Communion, the bread represents the Body of Christ, which was broken for us. They pierced him for our transgressions, as prophesied in Isaiah 53.
When I eat the cracker that represents his body, that I can hear the sound of that breakage. We need to be broken to come to Christ.
They do not forgive the baker; they impale him, and he dies. He gets what he is due.
Why the difference?
Both waited the three days, so why were the outcomes so disparate?
Jesus offers forgiveness to all, and we all need it. Romans 3:23 assures us we are all sinners. Romans 6:23 tells us we all deserve the fate of the Baker.
I can only postulate that, being the first to hear Joseph’s interpretation, the Cupbearer repented and sought the Lord’s forgiveness. He put his faith in Joseph’s words, and God credited it to him. He found salvation through grace.
No entitlement, only grace
Assuming that the Baker then was assuming he would get the same, so he was callous and did not repent. He felt entitled to forgiveness, rather than seeking it.
Nothing is owed to any of us. There is no obligated for God to forgive anyone. God offers forgiveness only by His grace.
God is faithful, however, and assures us that if we trust in Jesus with all our heart and soul and mind, He will forgive us. We need to repent. Perhaps whatever the sin was that the Baker had committed was something he was not willing to turn from.
Two outcomes
In this storyline, we see that there are always two outcomes to sin: life or death.
From scripture, we can trust we have the option to choose life. Repentance is a gift from God. We must desire it more than the sin which imprisons us.
Today, I encourage each of you to ask what is holding you prisoner? Are you willing to seek repentance and trust in the Lord for forgiveness?
We see in these chapters that God will forgive us and set us free if we can move past our love of the sins that bind us.
