All in the Family- Joseph: Part 1 | Austine K

This message was preached  by Austine Kudalkar at Word of Grace Church on November 26th, 2017. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here.

As a church we’ve been going through Matthew 1 which talks about the Genealogy of Jesus Christ and we are just connecting the dots of the old testament to new testament. Isaac – the promised child. Jacob and his 12 sons

I want to tell you a bit of family background of Joseph.

Joseph father, Jacob loved Rachel and his intention was to only marry her but Rachel’s dad tricked him and got him married to Leah and Jacob was so shattered. Jacob worked more 7 years for Rachel and got married. Leah and Rachel were always fighting with each other for Jacob. (Jacob loved Rachel but Hated Leah)

Then they had children and Rachel and Leah also gave their Maidservant to Jacob as a wife to produce more children. Now Jacob has 4 wives and 13 children. One was a girl child.

Joseph was the 11^th son out of the 12 brothers. Jacob and Rachael’s first born. Joseph was raised in a very dysfunctional family. There would’ve been lot of friction between the wives and also the kids. While Joseph was still young his mother Rachael died. What a tragedy in Jacob and Joseph life and also in Benjamin’s life who was just a new born. When Rachael died Jacob’s first born son of Leah, that is Reuben had an affair with Jacob’s concubine, wife and slept with her and Jacob heard of that incident. It must’ve grieved Jacob and the maidservants sons when they heard about it. Simeon and Levi killed the men of this town called Shechem. It was a bloody family. Imagine, Joseph was raised in such an environment at home.

1. Joseph as a son in Canaan/Father’s house.

a)     Joseph loved by father and faithful to father

Joseph was 17 years old and was pasturing the flock along his half blood brother’s. Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. (Probably they were doing something bad) Joseph felt like that it’s much needed that his father should know what his sons are doing.

37: V.3 Jacob made for Joseph a robe of many colours.

v.4 “when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.

It’s not that Jacob didn’t love his children. It’s just that he loved Joseph more than all his sons.

b)     Joseph’s Dreams

v. 5 – 11 Binding sheaves and sun moon and stars bowing down.

Jacob rebuked him.

v.11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. (In the past Jacob had also seen dreams from God)

c)     Joseph hated by his brothers

Jacob asked Joseph to go and check on his brothers whether they were doing well.

While at a distance when Joseph’s brothers saw him coming they conspired against him and plot to kill him and his dreams.

To cut the long story short they took hold of him, stripped his clothes, and threw him into the PIT. , soaked his robe in goats blood to show it to Jacob that he was killed by an animal. Reuben tried and saved him from not being killed. Judah pitched to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. They sold him and Joseph was taken as a slave to the Egypt and they sold him to the Potiphar, an officer of pharaoh, the captain of the guard.

Q. Can anyone relate with Joseph’s dysfunctional family? Can anyone relate with Jealousy & hatred? Do you have any dreams which God has placed in your heart?

People may criticise you for your dreams but don’t give up on it.

2. Joseph as a slave in Egypt

a)     Faithfully Serving, succeeding and being an Overseer in Potiphar’s house

·       Genesis 39:2—6

 The Lord was with joseph and he became a successful man

b)     Joseph and Potiphar’s wife.

Ø  Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. Potiphar’s wife cast her eyes on him and said, “Lie with me”

·       V.9 Joseph said, “How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?”

She spoke to him day after day but Joseph refused to listen to her, to lie beside her, and to be with her.

(There was a great temptation and an opportunity to sleep with Potiphars wife but Joseph chose to honour God and not defile his master’s bed.)

One day Joseph went into the house to do his work and nobody else were in the house. (NO Whatsapp to communicate that nobody is at the office.) Except Potiphar’s wife. She caught him by his garment and said, “Lie with me.” ANOTHER GREAT TEMPTATION WHEN NO ONE IS AROUND. Jospeh didn’t give into it but left the garment with her and fled from the house naked.

To cut the long story short Potiphars wife screamed and informed others and informed her husband and showed him Josephs Garment. Potiphar got angry and put him in the prison where King’s prisoners were confined.

Q.Are you facing and temptations with sexual thoughts and have you ever wrongly been accused of wrong doing?

This is one of the good examples about Joseph that to flee from situations when any woman or men talk about to lie with them and to still be strong and not be discouraged when falsely accused.

c)     Joseph in prison and an overseer

39:21-23 The Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

Joseph’s attitude didn’t change when he went thru all the pain. He was hated and rejected by his brothers, they put him in the pit, sold him into slavery, wrongly accused of molesting a woman, and then thrown into the prison where king’s prisoners were confined. The situation kept growing worse from PIT to Slavery to Prison for just foe sharing the dream.

He maintained his attitude and kept serving faithfully and honoured God in all his doing and the Lord was with him in times of great pain and difficulty.

Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.