New Horizon 2025 Bible Reading Thursday 7 August 2025 Mr John Lennox - The test of witness, authority and power

 

NEW HORIZON 2025 BIBLE READING

THURSDAY 7 AUGUST 2025 MR JOHN LENNOX

 

THE TEST OF WITNESS, AUTHORITY AND POWER

 

Joseph is put under extreme sexual pressure. Notice where it happened – in his workplace. That is often where sexual temptation particularly for men happens. Where a young man perhaps comes into the office who is very beautiful and young and the CEO has a wife who is showing her age now and he ends up going off with the young woman and destroying the family and children out of utter selfishness simply out of his apparent need to satisfy himself sexually. In this current age we have seen a revolution in sexual dynamics so that sex is not simply something that is done, it forms people’s identities and there has been an extreme move to subjectivise people’s identity so it is what we feel and the normal norms completely disappear. This is a huge issue, but I want you to note that Joseph’s basic principle was that he wouldn’t sin against God and do this wicked thing. He still believed in objective norms of moral behaviour. That is the crucial thing and crucial lesson here. All sin is ultimately against God even though other people may be involved. She put the pressure on, Potiphar’s wife.

Chapter 39 verse 11 …

“But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, ¹² she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. ¹³ And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, ¹⁴ she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. ¹⁵ And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” ¹⁶ Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, ¹⁷ and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. ¹⁸ But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.”

¹⁹ As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. ²⁰ And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. ²¹ But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. ²² And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. ²³ The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.“

Joseph fled out of the situation and that’s the advice Paul gives to us in these kind of circumstances – “flee youthful desires.” There are some situations in life where the only way to deal with them is to get out. That has various ways of understanding – getting out may mean switching off a computer or not taking the next click which will lead you onto pornography. Most of us are only 2 clicks away from disaster, it is that close and it is all around us. The Lord encourages us not to take those steps and those clicks. He couldn’t switch her off but he could run. As he ran he left his garment. Once against we are faced with the question of garments and what they represent. They represented Joseph, he was a high official now even though a slave. His garment would have identified him immediately and so she and it’s interesting that she used the race card “This Hebrew slave.” She showed it to her husband when he came home. And one of the interesting things here is, normally the immediate punishment for adultery would have been death and execution. The very fact he didn’t do that is an indicator that he suspected that there might have been more to the story than his wife had told him. Joseph fled because he had a central focus outside of himself and outside of his world on God. The famous writer Nietzsche once said “Those who know why they live can endure almost any how. Those who know why they live can endure almost any how.” If you don’t know why you are living then under this kind of temptation you may wall fall to pieces. Why am I living? It was a big question for Joseph. His life had so many ups and downs already. His clothing is used to identify him. We have had this again and again in the story. Used as evidence because it was part of Joseph. It was used to construct a lie. It was used to construct fake news. And the tragedy of today is that our clothing or a picture of us and the tone fall of our voice are enough to created a deep fake image that can be used to represent us talking lies or saying anything that the manipulators want us to say. This is a primitive version of it. Using evidence it really was Joseph’s cloak. It identified him but then it was used to give fake evidence to the servants and to Potiphar as well. The situation is getting worse and worse and we need to understand what is happening with misrepresentation and faking of human personality. We have to face the fact that we have to recognise many of us fail where Joseph stood. David did too, he saw a beautiful woman and he fell for her. There is a lot we can learn from his story. David learned when he repented and admitted his sin that the Lord was prepared to forgive him. “Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven and whose iniquity is covered.” He had to learn another thing, that sin even if repented of and forgiven has consequences. Those consequences cannot be forgiven because they are in a different category. David had to live the rest of his wife, although forgiven with the consequences of that sin. We need to remember those 2 things. It is important to realise that there is forgiveness for sexual sin of this kind. Of course there are bound to be people struggling with these issues. The wonderful thing about the Christian gospel is a gospel of forgiveness. Christ died not just for my sins in the past but for all of my sins. Jesus Christ offers something that no one else offers me. He does not compete with any other religion. None of them offer me a forgiveness that I can know on this earth, a certainty of it because it does not depend on my works or efforts but what he did for me on the cross and his resurrection so that I can be certain that I will be with him one day in heaven. Wonderful news and anyone here can enter into it without further ado. There is a power to the message of the gospel and forgiveness. But all this lay in the future when we are thinking of the life of Joseph. The topic of forgiveness will feature greatly in what follows. Joseph ends up in the prison and what does he do? Does he moan? He continues to be a faithful servant. He was a slave to start with and rose to running Pharaoh’s entire estate, it must have been huge. Instead of complaining in the prison he sets to work to do what he can and in the end he becomes the end the prisoner who governs the prison from the inside. Translating this up to date would have been almost impossible to imagine. Joseph is running the place.

Chapter 40

Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. ² And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, ³ and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. ⁴ The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody.

⁵ And one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. ⁶ When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. ⁷ So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” 

Joseph was not bound up with his own feelings of irritation, of desires for revenge, not wound up in a high emotional tension thinking of how he could get his own back. He noticed these men were sad. It is so easy for us to become the centre of our own life, and we don’t notice when people around us are exhibiting signs of being sad. We get upset over the most trivial things. Can we observe and think of folks around us today that might be looking sad? By asking them he was inviting them to reveal the source of their sadness. Joseph had a wonderful pastoral heart. He had every reason to be shut up in himself and silent and not interested in anyone else because everything that happened to him was unjust, unfair, unreasonable, untrue and yet he noticed these men. And they told them they had dreamed. He said, well why don’t you tell me these dreams. It becomes fascinating – they felt there was some meaning in their dreams. Joseph’s reply “do not interpretations belong to God.” What did they make of that? Please tell them to me. They each told their dream. Joseph interpreted them immediately. He told the cupbearer would be reinstated in 3 days and the baker would be executed in 3 days. One was good news and the other bad news. He was faithful to the interpretation of both. Joseph had had dreams. Would you not have thought that when these men said we’ve had dreams he would have said forget it? Dreams, nonsense, I had dreams when I was a teenager they came to nothing, forget your dreams. He still believed his own dreams. They hadn’t been fulfilled his own dreams. But he still on to the fact that those words of God by dreams years ago, of the imagery he couldn’t understand. He still believed in them and could tell these men that their dreams were worth interpreting. So, he interpreted them. Very gently he said that when the cupbearer got his job back,

“Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. ¹⁵ For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”

Please remember me when you get out. And he got out and there’s a delightful little thing here that in the imagery of the dream he was squeezing grapes into Pharaoh’s cup. Why was he doing that? These ancient emperors tend to drink too much alcohol and one of the jobs of the chief cupbearer was to dilute it with fresh grape juice without being noticed in the hope of retaining of his alcoholic rages. Another mark of authenticity in the text because that is what exactly happened in the ancient world. So, Joseph is of course is still in the prison and the chief cupbearer goes back to his job. The chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him Can you imagine the day after Joseph interpreted the cupbearer’s dream and he had gone back to his job. Joseph is sitting in the prison wondering when the knock will come on the door. It didn’t come that day or the next or the next week but after 2 years of waiting that Pharaoh’s birthday occurred and he had a dream. It was then the cupbearer remembered what had happened in the prison. Would I have held out or would I have been screaming “how long Lord do I have to wait, how long do I have to put up with this, is there no justice and fairness in the world? I have stood for truth, for morality and this is what has happened. I have seen a glimmer of a door opening and it has been shut in my face and I am still in this prison.” He had held on but then Pharaoh dreams and the chief cupbearer gets very embarrassed and he has to go and remind Pharaoh of his sins. Not easy to do because he might have put him in prison again. He felt he had to do that and he goes and he tells Pharaoh about Joseph in the prison. He tells him the detail and Pharaoh’s dream is explained in the detail of chapter 41 verse 9

^“Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “I remember my offenses today. ¹⁰ When Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, ¹¹ we dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own interpretation. ¹² A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. ¹³ And as he interpreted to us, so it came about. I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.”

Pharaoh believed him and he sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit. When he had shaved himself and changed his clothes. Why did he shave himself? At that period in the Egyptian dynasties leaders didn’t shave. They were clean shaven. Most of the pictures we see the leaders had beards but this time they didn’t. Joseph is making himself ready to meet the emperor of the world, the then known world of Egypt. He changed his clothes and came in before Pharoah.

“And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” ¹⁶ Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”

All his life up to this point, all the depravation, suffering, all the misrepresentation, all the false accusation, all the life in prison, all of that is geared to these 10 seconds – will the Emperor listen. Now we begin to see how God is going to bring salvation through the Hebrews to the world. He is going to bring it through this young trained Hebrew who didn’t yet know what his own dreams meant. But he proved that he could interpret dreams and God would give the answer to some dreams. And so Joseph said that God would give a favourable answer. Pharaoh relates the dreams to Joseph. A double dream.

“Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. ¹⁸ Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. ¹⁹ Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. ²⁰ And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows, ²¹ but when they had eaten them no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. ²² I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. ²³ Seven ears, withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, ²⁴ and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.  Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one; God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.”

 

Pharaoh must have been terrified because the Pharoah was supposed to be the one that governed the inundation of the Nile, which was vitally important for the economy of Egypt. All of its agriculture depended on the River Nile and its flooding at the right time of the year. And the Pharaohs feared for their lives in case the Nile inundation would not occur at the right time and the idea of something coming out of the Nile that was not working properly. These thing cows that ate up the luxuriantly well-fed cows and the ears of corn similarly indicated that something was going to go desperately wrong with the Nile harvest and he was in charge. He was supposed to represent the God Happy who was the god of the Nile. He must have been devastated and Joseph starts explaining what God is telling him. A young Hebrew. Pharaoh recognised that the young man in front of him had access to knowledge that Pharoah himself and all his magicians had no access to him. The same thing happened with Daniel in front of Nebuchadnezzar. You can sense it as you read through the detail that Pharaoh is coming to a dawning realisation that he is standing before something utterly unique in his own experience and he is standing in front of an authority he does not begin to possess even though he is the lord of Egypt. It is a devastating realisation for a man with a kind of power an ancient emperor had. Joseph interprets the dreams, in terms of verse 29 …

“There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, ³⁰ but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land, ³¹ and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. “

He was asserting several things here to Pharaoh. There is a God that stands way above all the plethora of gods of the Egyptians, including the Nile itself and you, and he is going to bring it about. He is behind what’s going to happen. That raises all kinds of questions of course. We have to take those on board at some time or other. God behind history. And its spectacular when you think that God is moving in history and a whole land has got to be brought to its knees in order to bring 10 men to their knees. Those are God’s sense of proportion. We are not there yet. As Joseph starts to explain he goes on, he doesn’t stop.

Now therefore let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.”

 

Now Joseph has taken over commanding the emperor, without pause or hesitation. He is now running the show.

 

“Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years.”

 

Now he is taking over the job of minister of finance, chancellor of exchequer and suggesting what level of taxes are to be imposed. Joseph has been a steward in all senses, a man who understands the laws of the house but he understood finance because he’s been responding for paying the slaves under his command when he was running Potiphar’s house and clearly he understood a great deal of how economics works. There have been masses of literature written about the tax proposals that are made here by Joseph. Some people think they are extremely unfair because as you read down it ended up with all the grain and all the property belonging to Pharoah and that is not a very system in economic history. But the first thing that Joseph suggested was you gather the food, you tax it so that you keep a proportion back, build store cities against the years of famine. There’s a young man standing in front of Pharaoh, the land is full of plenty at the moment and he is claiming there is going to be 7 years of harvest and there will be 7 years of famine but you are only going to build store cities if you believe what he says. You wouldn’t do it otherwise. Pharaoh is pretty subtle, no doubt he is standing in front of all his ministers and they are wondering what he is going to do now with all of this, what are we going to do with all this. Is he going to run a consultation with us? We will set up a few committees and we will have a commission and we will report next year as to what we are going to do. He’s shrewd and he cuts through any other ministerial suggestions. And he said “since God has shown you.” What did he mean by God? What did he understand? Well he certainly must have understood enough that this God was above all other gods and totally different.

“Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. ⁴⁰ You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.”

There was no commission, there was no discussion, there was nothing. A direct command of the emperor takes a prisoner and puts him in charge of an entire nation immediately. Why did that happen? Because he believed God. God would use him to save a nation and his brothers. Behind this story there is a huge problem that has exercised people’s hearts and minds for centuries, it is the problem of unfairness, of good and evil. And although scripture does not go into at this point for a good reason precisely. The problem is this – God saved the Egyptians but he didn’t save everyone. When Jesus was on earth he healed many people, he cured many people but he didn’t cure everybody. And the same is true today. Some people pray and the Lord heals them, others pray and the Lord takes them to glory. It is a mixed bag and the thing that rises up in many human hearts is this. If there is a good God that is all powerful, surely he would solve the problems of the world and my problem in particular. Whatever worldview religion, philosophy we have it must take into account that what we see is a mixed picture. We see beauty and bombs in our world today and we have got to take account of that. No philosophy that doesn’t recognise that there is a mixed picture. And then we argue surely a God could should might and we never get anywhere. Have you ever a satisfactory answer to that question? The answer is no. When we try to solve a problem for several 100 years and fail we realise we are looking at the wrong problem. That is true here. There is another question we can ask. Its equally difficult, but gets us further. Granted that it is a mixed picture is there anywhere enough evidence that we can trust God with it? There is and it comes straight to the cross of Christ. Because if we ask about suffering and evil, the bible introduces us both in prophecy and living reality to a God who suffers. And if Jesus Christ is God we may ask a question – what is God doing on a cross? I remember standing in a synagogue in Budapest in 1943 there were a line of bullet holes at chest height around the backyard of the synagogue where the Nazi’s had murdered dozens of Jews. I had fallen into talking with a Jewish woman an architect from South America. I had been trying to translate the Yiddish which is kind of German into Spanish so she could understand the talk being given about the festivals about Jehovah. And that moved around the room I was adding a little bit to everything. We talked about the Passover, I talked about Israel being saved by the Passover. I added a little bit that Jesus turns out to be the Passover Lamb. In the middle there was a door and there was a photo montage in the door of the brutal experiments of Yosef Mengele in Auschwitz and the doorway was made to resemble the doorway of Auschwitz “Work will make you free.” I will never forget this young woman and she went stood in the doorway and raised her arms in the form of a cross. She stopped and she said “what does your religion make of this?” There was dead silence of course because she said it loudly. What would you have said? Many of her relatives had perished in the Holocaust and I course lifted my hear to heaven. I said I wouldn’t dream of insulting the memory of your loved ones and what I am going to say is going to be very difficult but you have asked me so try and come with me. You heard me say that Jesus was the Messiah. The hardest thing for you to even get your head around is his claim to be God incarnate. What is he doing on a cross and suffering? Surely this tells us if this is God, God has not remained indifferent to human suffering but has himself come part of it. There was dead silence and she began to weep and she said why has no one ever told me this about my Messiah before? It was very dramatic. You see at the cross love and mercy meet and we see a God who takes upon himself suffering. If he remained on the cross we would have never heard of him. But on the third day God raised him by his mighty power from the dead and that changes everything because it means that God has a solution, an ultimate solution to the problem of suffering and death. And it means that a good news can be preached that all those who face that it is in part their own sin that put Jesus on the cross, that he died there for them. That if they trust him they can receive in that instant a full and free pardon and be guaranteed that one day they too will be raised form the dead. It is the power of resurrection that shows us what the world to come is going to be like Our bodies decay and die. We might have to live with all sorts of disabilities but one day for the Christian they will be gone because Jesus will speak and give us all new bodies. There is no competition, no other religion offers anything like it. So its no offence if I receive from Christ that nobody else offers me. I have had that experience several times talking to Jewish people. There's something about lifting Christ up so that people can see him on the cross that begins to dissolve a lot of these deep problems that remain problems but the solution to them is not philosophical. But the real thing is not the philosophy of God but what God did in Jesus Christ on the cross. That is why I look at the story of Joseph. In one sense he prefigured some of this but not all of it because he is not Jesus and we need to come to that cross again because there we can find pardon, healing, restoration for the things that flood in our mind, the things we have done, the things we have never got sorted out but need to and repent to. It is the ultimate solution that God has done something that will eventually dissolve this universe and create another one. And I am going to be there thanks to the grace of God. Are you?  

A Strange New World - The Test of Moral Temptation - New Horizon 5 August 2025

 

NEW HORIZON 2025

BIBLE READING 5 AUGUST 2025 - JOHN LENNOX

“A STRANGE NEW WORLD”

The Test of Moral Temptation

Genesis 37 verses 1 to 11

“These are the generations of Jacob” – with these words we come to the last section in the book.

This is an account of the development and growth of hatred within a family, hatred that in the end that led to the brothers getting rid of Joseph. He was 17 and it is interesting that the Hebrew scholars point out “he was pastoring his flock with his brothers” is ambiguous. It can also mean he was “pastoring his brothers with the flock” In other words he was looking after them in some sense given that responsibility by Jacob. We saw how Israel that is Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons and made him this robe that distinguished him and they were constantly reminded by it of his superiority in his father’s eyes. And we find that not only did the father give him this coat but Joseph brought a bad report to his father about his brothers. Now here again is a topic of great deal of controversy. Was Joseph a tell tale, a snitch? That is the view particularly of some Jewish scholars. The curious things about that is that there is no other indicator in the entire story that Joseph had that kind of sneaky character functioning as a spy to bring a bad report to his father. Now, the interesting thing about this is, of course, Joseph was not sinless. He was not like the Lord Jesus and we must not presume that he was neither must we presume that he was necessarily a sneaky spy snitching on his brothers. “He brought a bad report” How do we understand that? What was the result of his giving this report – hatred. That brings us to a topic scripture does deal with – tale telling. I am sure we are familiar with that. From childhood it is very tempting for a favourite child to tell tales to enhance his position in the family pecking order.  Telling tales is a problem at every level of communal life, in families, in organisations, businesses, churches and the bible has a great deal to say about it.

Proverbs 11 verse 13 “A talebearer revealeth secrets; but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter.”

Leviticus 19 verse 16 “You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people and you shall not stand up against the life of your neighbour. I am the Lord your God.

You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.”

“Love your neighbour as your yourself” comes in the context of tale telling. Tale telling and gossiping have virtually unlimited capacity to destroy relationships and families and churches and organisation of any kind. Tale bearing is framed in the context of loving your neighbour as yourself. What is tale bearing? We constantly talk about other people. How accurate is our portrayal of other people in what we say. Paul warns us we will be judged as we judge others “with what measure ou measure, it shall be measured unto you.” A challenging statement. If you think of all my conversations and all the statements I have made about other people in the past week have they accurate, 100%, 80% or maybe over 50% or less. All those judgments I have made, critical judgments maybe of other people reveal what principles I use for making those judgment. Here is the challenging thing – there is a day coming when God is going to use my measuring  principles on myself. Suppose God were to step in right now and evaluate my life and analyse it on the basis of the principles I have used to evaluate other people in the past week, month or year where would I stand? It is a powerful corrective. Gossip, tale telling destroys relationships. There are many younger people who long for an older person that they can confide in who will not tell it. It is a serious flaw. It only takes a word or even silence or even a negation – you know the kind of thing where someone says ‘I’m not saying anything’. That is a damning a comment as giving detail. We desperately need it within our churches to be known as people of integrity who can keep a confidence particularly of young people who are afraid to talk to us because they are afraid we are going to snitch. So the challenge of us is absolutely is absolutely straight. The word of a tale bearer are wounds and they go down into the innermost part of the belly. It says they are gut wrenching, hurtful and difficult to repair. Here is something else that is a consideration. Remember when our disciples said to our Lord he should go up to the feast at Jerusalem and he said your time is always ready but my time isn’t yet because I testify of the world that its deeds are evil. Is that tale bearing? No. The challenge of the gospel is painful in part because it exposes the evil in our heart, it is to bring us to repentance because he loves us and he must do it. Remember the woman at the well how he did it with her. Talking to her very gently but very pointedly to bring up to the surface the truth of the fact that she had a series of serial marriages and hadn’t even bothered to get married on the last account. So the message we have to bring isn’t tale bearing but its stating a fact about human nature that we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That is a real problem when we are witnessing to people because we realise that part of our message is to bring out into the light of the day the fact that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So the Lord said ‘my time is not ready’. He had to choose it very carefully because part of his message had to do with what lies in the heart of human beings. The Lord pointed out that we have to deal with other people at this level but he was very clear in saying that before we point it out, the fault in someone else, we should take out the beam in our own eye and then we will see clearly to see the moat that is in someone elses eye. That is a powerful image. It is a beam versus a tiny speck of wood in the eye. We have to be so careful when doing counselling work. When we see something wrong with someone else we have to check ourselves in case there is a massive beam in our own eye that we can’t even see because it is so large. There are checks and balances in all of this. Of course the opposite of tale bearing is flattery. Here again Christians have problems. There is a danger among certain groups of people that they go so far in avoiding flattery that they have never learned to praise, never learnt to say thank you to people for their service done for the Lord. If you read Paul’s letters you will find he is constantly mentioning people by name. So they are there for the last 2000 years so that everyone can read how grateful he is for certain people for what they do. When was the last time that you said to a warm directed thank you to someone for what they have done. It is an oil that enables the Christian church to function much better. Avoiding flattery that will not get you anywhere but knowing how to praise and be genuinely grateful so that it encourages people in their ministry to the Lord. So first of all, Jacob gave his son this cloak and treated him as a superior child.

Secondly, he told his father stories about what they were up to. Reading later it is clear they were up to no good very frequently.

Thirdly the most telling of all he had dreams of supremacy over his brothers and even over his parents which in that culture would have been a horrendous thing to suggest. Joseph was 17 and in a way artless, he had a dream and it was important and told it without realising what its content was. The first dream concerned grain and a grain harvest. These were cattle men, had nothing to do with grain harvest. The grain harvest was grain harvest in Egypt. Then the sun, moon and stars bow down. It was Jacob, his wife their mother and the stars all bowing down to him. It was clear that this made an impact on Jacob. God does sometimes communicate in dreams. He did then and he does now. I have met quite a number of people particularly from a Muslim heritage have come to faith in Christ because of a dream. I have no reason to question those dreams whose result is in a clear cut conversion and a life for Christ. We have to be careful with dreams because it is one thing when God sends a dream, it is an entirely different thing when we try to conjure up a dream in our own thinking. In scripture God speaking in dreams and visions is very rare. Most of you Christians are here because of a dream. God gave Paul a vision in a dream of a man in Europe, in Macedonia asking him to come and help and he came and as a result Christianity reached Great Britain and Northern Ireland. We must not despise dreams God sends. We notice that Paul was careful to check up on the evidence that lay behind the dream. Here were 2 dreams and it is clear they originated in God. They were God’s word to Joseph in a form that he did not immediately understand. He would only understand it much later when it was fulfilled. Paul warns in Colossians 2 verse 18 against people who he says are puffed in up in their own minds who have not held fast to the head. Something’s going on in their head but they haven’t held fast to the head who is Christ. They are really seeing things but they are seeing things out of reality and out of touch with God. It is one thing when God sends dreams but it is completely different when people imagine that every dream they have has got to have some kind of spiritual significance so that they become unbalanced and become more interested in their dreams than in scripture. That can lead to spiritual and moral shipwreck. When in university there was a man who decided God was directing him in dreams. He sold his bible to a fellow student saying he didn’t need it because God communicated with him in dreams and visions and told him what to do. Very sadly this included telling him to leave his wife and his life ended in their complete spiritual and moral disaster. So it is very important to keep balance here. Now another consideration which is a much deeper thing – dreams occur in the Joseph narrative but what is striking thing is God could have saved many actors in this story from a great deal of pain and distress by sending another dream. God could have sent a dream to Jacob to tell him his son was still alive when his brothers sold him. He never did. God could have sent a dream to Joseph when he was in prison to tell him his father was still alive but he never did. And that raises some very interesting questions about the delicacy God deals with people even in dreams. Here at the start God sends a dream to Joseph and he told it to his family. If he had kept it to himself it is clear he might have saved himself a lot of trouble. But probably through innocent young naivety, he simply told it because he would have known from the stories of his family, his father and his grandfather that dreams had played a role, particularly in his father’s life on his first night out from home. So we can think about these things and the one blindingly obvious thing is that the basic thrust of the 2 dreams was very clear. They were both about people bowing down to Joseph. They predicted Joseph’s eventual rule over his brothers, his father and mother. An outrageous idea in the Middle Eastern culture. You can imagine that when Jacob said what he said it wasn’t in the most even of tones “Shall I and your mother indeed bow down to you?” But the dreams gave no indication about how and when these would be fulfilled. But they did make Jacob deeply thoughtful. Perhaps it reminded him on his first night out from home he dreamed a dream of a ladder that reached from by his shoulder up to heaven. And God made a promise to him to go with him wherever he went. Perhaps it was the memory of that led to Jacob storing this up in his own mind. It made the brothers madder than ever. It fuelled the flame of their jealousy and their hatred and the irony and the whole story is that their hatred and what it led to eventually spelt their salvation from salvation. They would never understand it until they willingly did what they swore never to do and that was to bow to Joseph. You can’t help thinking when you think of that projection into the future and them all bowing to Joseph of a greater than Joseph. “And he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even to death on the cross. Wherefore God has highly exalted him that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.” And because of that cross and the suffering of Jesus millions have bowed the knee. And out of those millions God has formed the Christian church. And many who comprise the church today first hated the fact that Jesus was special, that he made supernatural claims. In the end they claim to gladly bow because of who he is and what he has done. God spoke to Joseph in a unique way when he was young. We cannot necessarily expect that to happen to us. That is what happened to Joseph. But that does mean that God cannot speak to any of us. He has many ways to speak to us other than in dreams. He might well speak to you at this conference through his word and call you with unmistakable clarity.

Now the scripture goes on to tell that the brothers moved off pastoring their sheep to Shechem. And Jacob very foolishly sent him probably about 5 days walk. The impression is he went on his own and he was 17/18 at the time. A crazy thing to do because he was essentially an alien in the land and he sent him to see how the brothers were and bring back a report. He says so – verse 14. Joseph lands in Shechem and is wandering about, cannot find the brothers and a man he happens to meet tells them they have gone to Dothan – verses 17 to 27. What you are now beginning to see is the outcome of hatred and it is differentiated to a certain degree. The brothers begin to split off from one another in their attitude to Joseph. Reuben he wants to save the boy and he suggests putting him into a water cistern which was a deep hole in the ground that would contain a lot of water and would only have a relatively small entrance in the middle at the top so it would be impossible for anyone to crawl out of it in any way. And Reuben is interesting because he clearly didn’t keep watch and when he came back to the cistern, the text tells us that Joseph is gone. The brothers had already taken him out and sold him as a slave. Perhaps that is an indication of her character. He was labile, wasn’t consistent. Unfortunately he had a good idea, he wanted to bring Joseph back to his father but he missed it. He missed it by inconsistency. How much do we miss by being inconsistent particularly when other people rely on us to do a job and we don’t do it? So the brothers gang up on Joseph because of their hatred. It’s very curious to me and odd that Jacob who knew tht they hated Joseph would even send him there, would even risk it but he did and they in the end sold him and the cynical words of Judah – “What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his brother. Come let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother, our own flesh.” They did the next best thing to killing him, they sold him as a slave. Judah is showing the bare remnants of humanity and he stopped short of fratricide when he sees a way of getting rid of his brother without actually killing him. So Joseph becomes a commodity, a slave, one more in the countless line of men women and children who have been demeaned by their fellow men and consigned to the humanity of slavery. It will take amazing grace to rescue Judah and his brothers just as it took amazing grace to rescue the slave trader John Newton in 1748. The man who wrote the much loved hymn to celebrate that grace and who profoundly influenced through his preaching and friendship that wonderful liberator of slaves William Wilberforce. There is an interesting historical detail here – the price paid for Joseph to the brothers fit exactly with what is known from archaeology as the price of a slave at that time. It reminds us of another man Judas which is a Hellenised version of the same name Juda – Judas who betrayed the Saviour of the world for 30 pieces of silver. A Saviour who is known as the Lion of the tribe of Judah. But that sale was to ensure a death not to preserve a death. There are so many hints and forewarnings of what would happen again. The text tells us they stripped him of his lovely robe and they dipped the robe in the blood of a goat. They sent the robe of many colours to their father and said “this we have found, please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not. And he identified it and said it is my son’s robe. A fierce animal has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his garments and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his sons for many days. All his sons and daughters rose up to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted and said No I shall go down to Sheol to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him.” No there’s so many illusions in these few verses and we need to pick some of them up. This is the beginnings of years of deceit of the children binding themselves together to live by lies. Live Not by Lies is a work of Alexander Solzhenitsyn in 1974 just before he was kicked out of Russia having been a dissident “Therein we find neglected by us the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation, a personal non participation in lies. Even if all is covered by lies, even if all I sunder the rule, let us resist in the smallest way. Let their Rule hold not through me.” Do we participate in lies? Some of us have lived with lies for a evry long time and they are still there troubling us beneath the surface. The story of Joseph would encourage us to bring them to the surface and repent of them. The deceit is perpetuated by false evidence. They bring the coat that is dipped in the blood of a goat. They had no DNA sampling in those days. They had no scientific ability to separate and distinguish between the blood of an animal and a human being. Jacob was deceived by the blood of a goat. Does that make you think of anything? Years before this man Jacob had dressed up as a goat to deceive his father who couldn’t see. God will make us face the deceptions that we have perpetrated even though it may take years. That’s a humbling thing. “with what measure you measure it will be measured unto you.” Here it is being measured unto Jacob. His mother had dressed him in the skin of a goat so that his father who couldn’t see went by the next highest sense touch and touched him and what he felt was a goat. He mistook the goatskin for the skin of his brother Esau and he was decieved. He thought he had got away with it. Years later he is facing a deception that involves not a goat’s skin but a goat’s blood. It is immensely powerful as an illustration of the way God works behind the scenes. We talk glibly about God’s sovereignty and human responsibility but the way they intermingle and work, this is an example of it and it is extremely complicated. Live not by lies. We have seen Jacob called 2 things – Jacob and Israel. Yakov, Jacob means deceiver. His name was Deceiver. He lived by deceit. So Jacob the deceiver finds himself at the other end of a deceit. And what we are now seeing as Jacob starts to mourn the death of Joseph, his family is beginning to fall apart. He has lost one son. The next chapter of Genesis many people think it is interposed. The story of Judah – verses 1 to 9  of chapter 38. You can sense the pathos in the first words – “Judah went down from his brothers.” Not just geographical, it was in every other sense. And he doesn’t’ care tuppence for the family line. This was the family God chose to bring the Saviour into the world. We know the Saviour comes from the line of Judah. Here is the line the first born son dead because of sin, second one dead directly killed by God and the third son left. And Tamar the wife now bereaved Judah promises her his third son when he is grown up but he didn’t do it. The line of Judah is about to peter out. That is the pathos of this story. The whole purpose of what I call the seed project. Abraham seed Isaac who seed Jacob and on down. This seed project which would bring the Messiah into the world is in danger of faltering because of human sin. Here is this woman Tamar and the third son should have been given to her but wasn’t. What does she do? She dresses up as a prostitute and deceives Judah to sleep with her. An extreme ploy. Judah asked what he should give her and she asks for her staff, various things that identified him. When she becomes pregnant it is told to Judah who suggests she should be brought up and be burnt. Tamar said “the father of my child is the owner of this ID.” He couldn’t do anything. Jacob has been deceived by clothing dipped in blood. Recognise who are this – exact same phrase here. Clothing again is used to deceive Judah and he has to recognise the idea belonged to him. There are repeated ideas going through. The main topic is deceit.

When the Lord Jesus talked about his coming he warned his disciples that the greatest problem they would have to face is deception. We now live in a world where the capacity to deceive is beyond anything that has existed before in history. The capacity ability through AI to construct deep fakes has a potential to deceive not millions but billions and it scares the leading head of our secret agents of the countries of the world. It is interesting Jesus warns of deception – “many will come in my name.” We need to know about these things. Live not by lies. We are in a world that is living increasingly by lies

A Strange New World - The Word of the Lord Tested Joseph

 

NEW HORIZON 2025

BIBLE READING 4 AUGUST 2025 - JOHN LENNOX

 

“A STRANGE NEW WORLD”

The Test of a Dysfunctional Family Life

 

When you think of the biblical world there’s a number of people who found themselves moving from one world into a strange new world. Perhaps the first one who’s famous is Abraham. And God spoke to him with the words that are regarded by Hebrew scholars as some of the most important words ever spoken to a human. In Hebrew it is “Lech lekha” get going. And God soke to Abraham and told him to get going to a land that he would show him. They also mean go into yourself, go for yourself. And that ambiguity shows us that God is interested in a journey of many different kinds. We are all on a journey and we are on a journey that it is geographical components of course. But we have found that as a life goes on, we go more and more into ourselves and we learn about ourselves especially if we are followers of the Lord Jesus. Abraham didn’t know where he was going but we know he ended up in the land of Canaan. And as you trace down his descendants you discover then the member of his family often had to move to a strange new world. Joseph was taken by force and sold down to Egypt which was an utterly strange world. New language, new customs, new culture and he had to come to terms with it. Moses was born in a Hebrew family but rapidly adopted into the Egyptian royal family and as an adult he then had to reverse that and go from the cultured world of Egypt to stand with the Hebrews and lead them out of Egypt into a strange new world. And Daniel was taken from a tiny monotheistic culture in Israel and Judah and removed quite rapidly several 100 miles to Babylon, a new language, a new culture, a new legal system and he had to cope with that. All these people moved geographically in order to enter a strange new world. Now during my lifetime and yours something very different has happened. We have stayed in the same place and the culture has changed around us so that we find ourselves in a new world without ever moving from where we are living. And young people today have to got to cope with a world that I had no concept until 20 or 30 years ago. All of us have to get used to a strange new world. God is a God who speaks and is thrilling to be involved in a week where we are listening to the word of God. I find that absolutely thrilling when I pick up the bible and realise these are not just any words. This is God’s word and it is God telling a story. Now that’s hugely important. Many people today, in fact all of us I suspect are looking for a story that we can fit in to, a big enough story to allow us to be fulfilled in life, to allow us to develop and of course if we are Christians to allow us to flourish as we follow the Lord Jesus. And so when God tells a story, its different in a way from all other storytelling. And this story of Joseph is powerful in many ways, and its proportions are very interesting. The story of Joseph takes up roughly 30% of the book fo Genesis. The story of creation takes up 2 chapters out of 50 or may be 3, much less. Now of course as a scientist I wish it was the other way around. I would have liked a lot more chapters about creation. But then I’m not God and God thinks that we need to know much more about Joseph than we do about creation because Joseph in the story, a remarkable story of how God dealt with a human being. Now Genesis not only tells us the story, the rest of the bible gives us some indication what the story is about. Sometimes scripture comments on itself and in the book of Psalms you read something about what the story of Joseph is about. Psalm 105 is a historical psalm, it relates part of the history of the people of God, Israel and this historical psalm I want to break into it at verse 12

 

“When they were few in number of little account and sojourners in it. When they went from one nation to another from one kingdom to another people. He suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. When he called for a famine upon the land; he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant. Whose feet they hurt with fetters, he was laid in iron. Until the time that his word cam; the word of the Lord tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people and let him go free. He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance. To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt.”

 

There you see the story of Joseph is set into a much bigger story that starts at creation, that starts in a world that was beautiful, that was ordered, where everyone had enough food to eat and Genesis ends in a world that is broken, where there’s a famine, where many people did have enough food to eat. And the story of Joseph is how God dealt with that. And the strange thing that hits us right at the beginning is that God was behind the famine. Why would God be behind the famine? And that raises a huge question of life. Some of us have enjoyed relatively calm periods of life. Others have gone through severe trials and when we hear that God might be behind that side of life, it leads us to ask great questions. The story of Joseph will at least in part address some of those questions. It is the story that is deservedly famous. It is enthralled many children. Many children do not hear the bible stories because their parents don’t read them to them. But Joseph has inspired great literature, great art, great music. It’s one of those stories that goes on and on giving in terms of its meaning and content. But I want to focus on those words just read. “The word of the Lord tested him.” Now God created the universe, how? He spoke and it was done. God made human beings as moral beings. How? His word defined morality. In the day you eat of that tree you shall die. So creation is formed by God’s word. The definition of morality and ethics is formed by God’s word and it relates to God and what God says. And God keeps speaking. He is the God who speaks. What we read about Joseph and what we are to understand as a lens through which to look at his life is that the word of the Lord tested him. As a Christian believer I must expect the genuineness of my response to the word of the Lord Jesus to be tested. Most of us know what that means in our own lives. We are going to look at what it meant in the life of Joseph because there will be many points at which that will touch on our own experience. And there is a number of tests and as we go through these 5 sessions I want first to look at the test of dysfunctional family life.

 

Jacob, Joseph’s father had a very complicated arrangement in terms of his wives and children. It was the recipe for a psychological nightmare.

 

There is the test of morality – Joseph now a prisoner in Potiphar’s house and tempted by his wife. The test of morality.

 

Then coupled with that there is the test of injustice and endurance. He suffered not only the rejection of his brothers but in prison he suffered false witness and he was tested to the extreme in those situations.

 

Then there was the test of witness when he got the opportunity to witness to the most powerful man in the then known world, the emperor of Egypt. He was ready and knew exactly what to say to turn the world upside down and save it from famine. Therefore that meant he was now tested with his use of power  and authority. That is a very different test from the test of suffering, how do you handle power when you get it?

 

There is finally the test of forgiveness and reconciliation. How Joseph used his power as lord of Egypt to bring his brothers to honesty, to repentance, to forgiveness and reconciliation. I often call that part of the story an anatomy of forgiveness because it is one of the most brilliant expositions of what forgiveness really means and how it is related to repentance. In that story we have 2 major phases, first of all the testing of Joseph in terms of his training and character, building him up over a long period of time to be a man who was capable of using power not only to run Egypt and save it economically but also to bring his brothers to repentance and bring the family back together. So there was a painful period of training and then the skilful use of great power. Joseph had his glory days but not before he suffered. In that way we see a pattern. In order to handle power and know what it is for and use it properly people have to have suffered. Dostoevsky once said “I cannot conceive of a great person who has not suffered.”

 

The very first attack on God is the serpent enemy who said to the enemies “has God really said” and that is going to be the biggest attack that will come on your faith in Christ. “Has God really said?” Has he got it wrong in your case at least? And that is where the most battles will be because the enemy will do anything to unsettle our confidence in what God has said and make us wobble from it and try to knock us down. The word of God is the only offensive weapon we have been given according to Paul. It is the sword of the Spirit. So that if we can be rattled and shaken by experiences in life to shift us away from trust in the word of God then we will be ineffective and we will not be able to follow the Great Commission of Christ to witness to the world. God spoke in creation. He spoke to the first humans and he has been speaking in various ways in the book of Genesis up to this point. To Adam Eve, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But what is very striking in the story of Joseph is that there seems to be no record at all of God speaking to him in direct speech. In the 1^st chapter of Joseph’s story the word God does not appear. Yet God did speak to him as is obvious from what happened subsequently in 2 prophetic dreams when he was a teenager. No doubt he had heard many stories from his father Jacob and his grandfather Isaac about the exploits of their family and their dealings with God. Yet he himself appears to have lived a life trusting in God who was largely silent. The words of Psalm 105 form a very telling comment on his quiet yet deep rooted faith until what he had said came to pass. “The word of the Lord tested him.” This is very encouraging because sometimes we meet believers whose experience with God have been dramatic and apparently unmistakeable and many of us when we hear these dramatic experiences we feel I’ve never experienced anything like that myself so I must be inadequate. But we can get encouragement from the story of Joseph because the fact that he was used by God to achieve so much by God in later life may well be connected with his trust in God in the absence of the dramatic. That is very important. Experience of God is not necessarily dramatic or frequent. Joseph had these 2 dreams when he was a teenager and he held onto them. They appeared to be dreams where his brother and father and mother bowed down to him so that he had some kind of authority over them. He had no idea what they meant but he held onto it. The little, very little that he believed to have come from God he held onto it and we can do exactly the same. 2 dreams that is all he had to keep him going for quite a number of years of privation and difficulty. Testing is very important in the industrial world. If you think of the space shuttle and think of the metals and materials that is used in its building. Those are subjected to the most extreme testing so that they will stand up when they come into the condition of outer space. And that’s what happened to Joseph. He had a 13 year old ordeal of hatred, rejection, slavery, false accusation and prison before he suddenly found himself in a position where he could influence the entire world. Now what is very striking to me about this and very humbling imagine Joseph in this learning period. He used some of the stories no doubt that his father and grandfather taught him but he didn’t have a bible like you have. He didn’t know a thousandth of what we know about God and yet he held on. That is impressive to me. Do I hold on with all the knowledge, all the biblical books I have got and commentaries? He held on even though he had very little. And that lengthy time was a period of waiting on God. That is one of the big topics of the bible – waiting on God. I don’t like waiting. I remember when credit cards first appeared. There was one called Access – the strapline was “Access takes the waiting out of wanting.” We want but we won’t wait. God asks us to wait. If we have had to wait and are waiting at the moment, perhaps frustrated by waiting, just remember that is one of the great themes of the Psalms, that we should learn to wait on God and wait his time. There are many stories in scripture where people did not wait and it was a complete disaster and they missed out on what God had for them. Let’s now look at the book of Genesis. It falls into 6 main sections and it’s divided up in the manner of ancient literature by a repeated phrase – “these are the generations of.” That expression occurs frequently, usually at the end of a section. And without pausing to argue it these show us that there are 6 major parts in the book. The first 3 each of them explicitly mentions the creation of human beings as the pinnacle of God’s creation. The second half of the book has 3 major parts which can be very eaily summarised if we think of the statement “I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob.” The second half of the book, the first part ends with the death of Abraham, the second part ends with the death of Isaac, and the third and final part ends with both the death of Jacob and of Joseph. So it is easy to summarise. That second part deals with not only these people individually but with their families and their interactions with each other. God promises to Abraham at the beginning of the second part of the Genesis “In you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” But as you move through the story you have him wandering around from place to place, still just a tiny tribal group and no evidence whatsoever of how this small group could be a blessing to the whole world. But Joseph gives the turning point where all that changes. When Joseph steps in the court of Pharoah and takes over the government of the then largest empire, we begin to see how Abraham’s family will have a vast influence on the world. It is the first indication of the nations of the world being blessed through Abraham. Joseph therefore becomes a Saviour and he in the bible is a thought model for the greatest Saviour of all, the Lord Jesus Christ. The first Christian martyr Stephen made a speech about the history of Israel with a specific slant. And the point he makes in Acts 7 again and again that they were a nation that was always rejecting the Saviour that God had raised up. And in Acts 7 verse 51 he brings his powerful message to a climax. “You stiffnecked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears, you are just like your Fathers. You always resist the Holy Spirit. Was there ever a prophet your father’s did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the righteous one. And now you have betrayed and murdered him. You who’ve received the law that was put in effect through angels and have not obeyed it.” Stephen’s speech is a powerful lesson how time and again the nations patriarchs resisted the very men that God was raising up to deliver them. Stephen points out that God was with Joseph and yet he was rejected. God was with Moses and yet he was rejected. And now, having learned nothing from their history, Stephen’s audience showed the very same attitude by rejecting the very greatest Saviour of all, Jesus the Messiah. It was a devastation indictment and his message went home. And in a further rejection of that message that provide his point he was stoned to death. That application of the life of Joseph leads us to expect that in his life we are going to see certain patterns of behaviour that recur at a higher level in the life of Jesus our Lord. Like Joseph he came to his own and his own did not receive him. Like Joseph Jesus was rejected by his own people and taken for dead when he was sold into Egypt. So Joseph’s life is a foreshadowing of what would eventually happen, the Messiah who would suffer and one day take over the government, not merely of Egypt but of the entire world. And because of that the Jews noticed this and so some of them came to believe in 2 Messiahs, one in the line of Joseph who would suffer and one in the line of Judah who would eventually be king. Our Lord suffered before reigning, so did Joseph. Before he could reign he was severely tested and when he stood before Pharaoh his witness depended on 13 years of solid training. When Peter addressed the persecuted church who was suffering a great deal he talked about Christ and the sufferings he endured and the glory that followed them. Then he said very gently “God’s grace will exalt you after you have suffered a little while.” We are not promised anything different. After you have suffered a little while God will exalt you. And so Joseph at this level becomes the thought model to help us understand our own experience. To everyone there belongs a biography, there are reasons why we are who we are. And if the bible only told us stories of people who came from wonderful backgrounds, where they had their needs satisfied, well we would scarcely count it as credible. The bible talks about life as it really is, messy, petty, full of strained relationships, even murderous. And that was what life was like for Joseph. Growing up in a family where Jacob had 2 wives, 2 further surrogate mothers so that in the family there was one husband, 4 wives and 13 children distributed among them. They’re all the ingredients for a psychological nightmare. In Joseph’s case in Genesis the story beings in an interesting way. Genesis 37 we read “and these are the generations of Jacob, Joseph being 17 years old.” Now you go on and on about Joseph but Jacob is there in the background right to the end of the book. The book ends with 2 deaths – first the death of Jacob and then of Joseph. We are to realise it is the story of Joseph but also of Jacob. It is the story of how the life of Joseph brought massive lessons to his father who had made many of the same mistakes as the brothers had made. The narrative concentrates on 3 issues  that led to hatred in the family. So it is a study of hatred. First of all Jacob openly treated Joseph as his favourite son. Secondly Joseph brought a bad report about the sons of the 2 surrogate mothers. Thirdly Joseph had dreams of supremacy over his brothers and parents and he told them to his family. So the first topic is favouritism. Jacob loved Joseph more than his brothers. Reason given:  because he was born to him in his old age. He was the son of his favourite wife with whom he fell in love. He makes a colossal mistake by giving Joseph a magnificent multicoloured robe that none of his brothers had. He singled him out and all the rest of them I presume got cast offs. This brings us right down into contemporary families – being fair to children. Is it easy? Some of them grow up to be like us. We find it easy to love them. But others we discover not like us at all. We find it difficult to cope with them. How can you be fair to your children and treat them equally? Jacob didn’t walk the others down to the latest fashion emporium nor give them all Nike shoes and so on. It was Joseph who got the lot. And there he was walking with his brothers with this magnificent robe and it would have been extremely expensive and the others with their cast offs. It was a recipe for absolute disaster. It was worse because it wasn’t that Jacob favouritised 7 or 8 of them, he only chose 1.

The Final Invitation in the Bible

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SUNDAY 3 AUGUST 2025 pm - MR CALVIN STRIPP

REVELATION 22 VERSES 6 TO 21

THE FINAL INVITATION IN THE BIBLE

"And the Spirit and the bride say come and let him that heareth say come and let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely." verse 17

The book of Revelation is the final book of the bible. It serves as a culmination of God's redemption plan written by John as he was exiled on the isle of Patmos. It is a book of the majesty and mystery of God. There are visions of heaven and God's unfolding judgment which ultimately results in the triumph of Christ in a new heaven and new earth where God will dwell with his people for ever. It was written under a time of persecution, the Roman Empire. It is a book of comfort to Christians. The theme is of the sovereignty of Christ and the supremacy of Christ conquering all his enemies, being victorious including death, hell and Satan. It speaks of the eternal hope for believers. Take heed, calling for perseverance through trials. It often brings specific challenges to its readers. Very often Christians set aside Revelation saying it is too deep, too hard to understand. Some bypass this book altogether. We should embrace the whole counsel of God. The aim is always to exalt Christ and there is hope. Revelation is also an epistle and the letter begins with the identification of its author John. Then the intended recipients and blessing in grace and peace with God. It ends with the blessing of grace. In the last chapter verses 1 to 5 glorify the church of Christ. Verses 6 to 21 contain warnings and blessings found in Christ, blessings given to all of the Christian church.

In verse 17 we have the final invitation found in the bible. Firstly the generous proclamation. In this verse we have a word that is repeated several times - "come" It is not only mentioned here in verse 1 but also in verse 7 "behold I come quickly" and again in verse 12, then in verse 20 "surely I come quickly." Ecclesiastes 4 verse 12 says "a threefold cord is not quickly broken". Who is being asked to come - Jesus Christ. Early in the chapter he states "behold I come" and later "surely I come". The Christian is found in this verse. The Spirit refers to the Spirit of God. The bride is Christ's church. We are involved in the last chapter of the last book of the bible. We as members of Christ's church here on earth those saved trusting in Christ. We are saying with the Spirit "come, come Lord Jesus, come quickly, surely come Lord Jesus." Here Christ asserts his deity and equality with his Father in heaven. He came as a babe to the manger of Bethlehem, as a man despised and rejected of men, he lived a sinless life keeping every jot and title of the law perfect. He died that I might not see death. Isaiah 53 "for he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was on him and with his stripes we are healed." It is this Lord Jesus and the Spirit of God, those saved by grace are calling for Christ to come. Let me apply it - are we as God's people calling for Christ to come? Sometimes the Christian has the roots so deep in this world that they don't want the Lord to come, not just yet. "I am doing pretty well in life, in my business, in my education." That is not the context here. We are as Christians traversing through this world, we are stepping forward in this world to a better land. As we travel down that road, that narrow road we were taken from the broad road by grace but let us not be fixated by the things of the world. Are we holding onto those things, frivolous things loosely enough because we came into the world with nothing and when we go to meet the Lord we will go with nothing. He is coming again and he is coming quickly. He is coming as judge. Every man will give account of their work for him. The church calls for him to come quickly. It is interesting - it has the inference that there was that person who heard and their eyes were opened. God opened their heart. They too are saying "come Lord Jesus". The bride, the Church and the Holy Spirit and him that heareth say come.

It is also a personal possession - "and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely". The one who chooses. Are you going to chose Christ tonight? To take that step of faith towards him. He will meet you there. David Brown felt his name was so common. When he read the scriptures and it said "if David Brown should come" but then he realised it was not his name but rather "whosoever will" which included him. You have to grasp it. Our text declares "and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely." The invitation is here - "let him take the water of life freely" Will you obey today? The scriptures say "come". Christ is coming and he is coming quickly. So will you come and will you take the water of life freely? When you are offered a present at Christmas you take it. It would be offensive to refuse. Someone has went to the expense of buying and wrapping it - will you refuse it? No you will take if for your possession. This water whereby you will never thirst again. He wants no payment for it. No preparation, just come as you are. No recommendation from a third party. It is a gift. Isaiah 55 verse 1 "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." It is a free gift but you must be willing to take it. Will you take that free gift offered in the gospel? To drink of that life giving water? Will you step forward to know repentance? By his grace he will grant it to you. He will step forward and meet you and he will give that living water but you need to come as you are. Are you willing to come as you are? To take freely without money and without price? We are to grasp the possession through his gracious provision. To take the water of life, eternal life that we are offered. We are so preoccupied with living beyond the grave today. The films being released today are all about living on beyond the grave. As God's people we know that we will live for ever. In India it is all about reincarnation. They believe that you should do you best, stay where you are and try your best, give your money to the poor, pay into the temple and when you die you will be reincarnated. You might move up the caste system, you are a little bit richer. That religion is ingrained in people but here we are told to take the water of life freely. It is free, eternal life. we cannot attain to this through our own merits, our own righteousness. Like those in India seeking to work their way. We have it here in our own province. People going into their churches and paying every week. The reason they are doing it is they think they are paying their way to heaven. If you think that tonight that is not the case. It is only through Christ's righteousness. Isaiah 64 verse 6 "But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." We cannot work our way to heaven but this gracious provision says you are to take the water of life freely. No money. The price has been paid. it is not free because Jesus Christ paid the price on the cross by shedding his blood, laying down his life. He laid down his life for you at the cross of Calvary. It cost him everything for you to take freely. 

Let us guard against presumption. We always think we have more time. We want to engage with that free gift, we want to become a Christian, to be able to say that we are a Christian but not tonight, some other night. How many years have you been saying that? We have read that Christ comes quickly. He is coming. He is surely coming and yet you procrastinate. You think you have more time but you don't. James 4 verse 14 "for what is your life. It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away." The vapour from teh kettle will rise up and then evaporate. It is gone. That is just your life. it is a picture of it. It appeareth for a little time then it is gone for ever. "Him that heareth let him come." There was a picture painted of the drinking fountains on our streets many years ago. That water pumped up water to all who stopped and drank. Imagine anyone who cries out "I cannot drink from this water for I do not have enough money." That would be foolish for the water is free. The poor man comes an dhe drinks of that water. He drinks and is satisfied. The passengers go by in their carriages and as they approach the pump they cannot drink for the poor are there, the sick are there. They will not drink from a water that is free. They are dressed in beautiful clothes but will nto disembark from the carriage. They will stay in their carriages and pass by. They cannot be so vulgar to drink from the fountain. They will not drink from the same fountain. There are those rich in their own works, their own righteousness. They pass by the living water. They don't want to come the same way. To trust in Christ. The way others trust. They want a different way. I will not be saved that way but you see they are mistaken. That is the only way. I will not go to heaven the same way as the thief. I will not be saved that way. The proud boasters must live without the living water. "Whosoever will let him take of that water, let him drink freely." That water is offered to you in the gospel. What happens if it is your final invitation tonight? You reject Christ. Your life is but a vapour and he comes quickly.

Looking after the stuff

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SUNDAY 3 AUGUST 2025 AM - MR CALVIN STRIPP

1 SAMUEL 29 VERSE 8 - 1 SAMUEL 30 VERSE 10, 21 TO 25

"For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike." verse 24

Fearing the threats of Saul and failing to fully trust the Lord, David and his men sought shelter with the Philistines, Israel's enemy - chapter 29. Whenever Achish asked David to stay back from the battle, David was certain he would engage in the battle against the Israelites. He fled to that country and now he found himself in a predicament. Yet in this God providentially intervenes and steps into the situation. A difficult situation which could have become catastrophic. He steps in to prevent David going to war against his nation. By God's grace David is saved from raising the sword against his fellow brethren. As he returns to a different part of the Philistine country, to Ziklag where his wives, children and belonging are. As he approaches he sees the smoke. The place has been plundered by the Amalekites. We read that none were slain - verse 2. This is very important because the Amalekites were not known for their graciousness. There were a brutal people who engaged in war. The God of grace has overtaken the Amalekites in respect of not murdering any of these woman and children. it would have been quite a trophy to have put David's wives to death as well as the wives of his army but they took them captive. As we come into this chapter my focus today is on some of his army. As these 600 men travelled toward Ziklag he saw the city burned by fire. They raised their voices in lament in regard to having lost everything. Out of 600 men 200 felt faint and could not go on. Look at those 200 men and they are caring for the stuff. Verses 3 to 6 people lifted up their voices and wept. David's 2 wives were taken captive. We have the concern of David's army. Things were difficult. You can image these men having travelled into Philistia and then moving from the proposed battle with their brethren they travelled back to Ziklag. The devastation they find at this point through the Amalekites. The people raised their voices against David, they spake of stoning him. This was their captain, their leader, the future king of Israel. How did David handle this encounter? 600 men against him - verse 6 "but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Let us not underestimate this. David was about to die from a human perspective. These men are looking about for stones to stone him but again we see the providence of God. He intervened. That word "encouraged" in the Hebrew means to fasten on to, to fix oneself to. Although his men were against him, his wives had been taken and he is grieving for them, through the midst of this trial he fixed himself upon his God in this encounter. We learn a lot from his actions. Very often in the times of distress and adversity, when everything is against us, we acknowledge our total dependence upon God. God brought David to an end of himself. He was about to lose his life but he encouraged himself in the Lord. He didn't run from the Lord at this point. He turned and embraced the Lord. He put his faith in God. This encounter was extreme yet he fixed himself upon God. What an example David is to us. When trouble, difficulties and catastrophes come how easy it is to become overwhelmed. At times as a Christian in sorrow and grief these experiences these dark providences are very real to us. They attack the head and the heart. Emotions are in turmoil. Let us encourage ourselves in the Lord. These 200 men would have seen this. Some were involved in lifting the stones yet they would have seen that David encouraged himself in the Lord. David took hold of the situation and sought the direction that these men had gone in. When we are overcome, overwhelmed let us set our hearts on the Lord so we can see his direction under that dark providence. We can make some wrong decisions, knee jerk reactions and find ourselves in more trouble. The early context - he went in to the Philistines, got friendly with them, then he was going to go into battle against his own people but God stepped in. 

The experience - verse 10 "But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor." 200 stayed by the brook. We are not told why they were so faint. Maybe it was the pressure of the circumstances pressing in on them. God had saved them from the battle against their own brethren then when they returned to Ziklag and realised the catastrophe that everything was gone they were so badly affected. When they came to this brook they were faint. Notice it was not a river nor an opening into the ocean but just a simple brook. Such a small place to march across at this point but they couldn't do it. They were so faint that this is where they stayed. Not just one soldier or 20 soldiers or 50 soldiers but 20 of David's men. They couldn't go over that brook and they sat while the other 400 marched across and went into battle. The brook Besor means in our English 'cheerful.' They couldn't go over the brook so they stayed there. They couldn't go any further. The application for us - look at Matthew 9 verse 2 and the healing of the man with leprosy. Jesus dealt with the sins first then his suffering. He was told "Son be of good cheer arise." At times sickness and suffering can get on top of us. 400 went on but 200 couldn't. They sat by the brook Besor. Maybe today there is something bothering you. You are not cheerful. You cannot cross over the brook. Is there a temptation or some sin that needs to be repented of? The Lord says to you today "son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee." Repent of your sin, fix your eyes on him and cleave to him. In Matthew 14 verses 26 and 27 the disciples saw a vision of someone not realising it was Christ himself - he told them "be of good cheer it is I do not be afraid." There was the unknown in front of them. These were hardened fishermen but had never seen anything like this before. They cried out to Jesus who immediately spoke to them and told them not to be afraid. Don't be afraid of the unknown. Some of us are facing the unknown today and are afraid. You have never been here before at this unknown place but here you are at the brook of Besor. You cannot cross over because of the circumstances of the unknown in front of you, they have paralysed you. Your Saviour comes alongside to say to you "be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid." I hold that providence in my hand as he holds you in his hands. Although you don't understand the circumstances, the unknown but his love is enveloping you as his child. John 16 verse 33. The circumstances of life overtook David and his men. The circumstances of life can sometimes overtake the Christian. It is a curveball. At the last moment it just turns and hits you. Regardless of the curve ball, the circumstances you are in in the world, Christian, you will have tribulation - be not surprised whether it is in work, in the family - here is the encouraging part - "be of good cheer, I have overcome the world". Although we are faint today like the 200 men and you cannot cross that cheerful brook Christ says to you "be of good cheer I have overcome the world".

An enmity - verses 21 and 22 "And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David's spoil. And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor; and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him; and when David came near to the people, he saluted them." David returns with the 400 men, their wives and children and the spoil. In the midst of this scene then there comes an an enmity. David came to the 200 "and he saluted them." That is the 200 who didn't go into battle but as he saluted them the enmity came in. The 400 men wanted to send the 200 away into the wilderness, to certain death among the Amalekites and Philistines. They do not deserve this but David stepped in. In verse 23 he tells them that everyone gets the spoil, the blessing. Everyone gets to be involved in this. David saluted the 200 men who did not go into battle. Surely he was gracious in doing so. This word 'saluted' means he asked concerning their welfare as he came back. He had one thing on his mind. He asked after them. What grace and the greater David, our Lord Jesus asks after you today. As his child he salutes you, he asks after you too. Is there enmity in your family because you are a Christian? Jesus salutes you and asks after you today. He asks about your welfare. He tells the men everything will be divided equally.

There is encouragement. They got everything back - their wives, their children and the spoils. They did not miss out although they had remained at the brook. These 200 were instructed to look after the stuff, that was their task. That was just as important a task as the other 400 had. What was included in this stuff? Additional food supplies, weapons, tools, pots and pans. Stuff that was necessary. They couldn't do without it. David tasked these 200 to look after that staff. The menial tasks of life need to be looked after. The daily grind of your life needs to be looked after. The future king of Israel gave them a task to look after their stuff. Not everyone will be behind a lectern or on the mission field. We all have our own mission field - it may not just be on a foreign field. There is a mission field right where we are. Not everyone will be a preacher or an evangelist. Some are given the task of looking after the stuff - including those who pray. Are you looking after the stuff? Are you on your knees? That is also so needful. Don't become disheartened and discouraged. The end of this story was that this stuff was spread across the blessing. Those who look after the stuff both partake the same. God uses you in whatever capacity he has given you. Isaiah 40 verses 29 to 31 "He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Waiting time is never wasted time. The world expects you to be busy but there is also a time of waiting. This waiting is an active waiting not passive. The original root word of waiting means to look as you wait. You look, you expect, you hope. You are looking to God, you are expected to see something from God. The original meaning was to bind together or wrap together or twist. He forgives us for our sins when we are faithful and just to confess them before him.

"My Lord's words are true as to the tribulation. I have my share of it beyond all doubt. The flail is not hung up out of the way, nor can I hope that it will be laid aside so long as I lie upon the threshingfloor. How can I look to be at home in the enemy's country, joyful while in exile, or comfortable in a wilderness? This is not my rest. This is the place of the furnace, and the forge, and the hammer. My experience tallies with my Lord's words.

I note how He bids me "be of good cheer." Alas! I am far too apt to be downcast. My spirit soon sinks when I am sorely tried. But I must not give way to this feeling. When my Lord bids me cheer up I must not dare to be cast down.

What is the argument which He uses to encourage me? Why, it is His own victory. He says, "I have overcome the world." His battle was much more severe than mine. I have not yet resisted unto blood. Why do I despair of overcoming? See, my soul, the enemy has been once overcome. I fight with a beaten foe. O world, Jesus has already vanquished thee; and in me, by His grace, He will overcome thee again. Therefore am I of good cheer, and sing unto my conquering Lord."

C H Spurgeon's - Faith's Checkbook