Title: Looking with Eyes of Faith
I recall as a young adult when my mom got a new pair of sunglasses.
They were her first pair of polarized sunglasses.
And she would ride in the front passenger seat and go on and on about how vibrant everything looked.
She would gasp at the clouds and all the layers of colors in the trees.
Eventually, we began to talk about mom’s “magic sunglasses.”
This morning, we’re talking about - Looking with Eyes of Faith
We’ll see how Joseph and his father, Jacob looks at situations that we experience too -bad past experiences
and death -and hopefully we can learn to look with eyes of faith as they did.
We’ve come a long way in our study of the life of Joseph.
Our main character went from the second youngest who was considered pest by his brothers to the second
ruler of Egypt who provided for his family’s survival.
God made it known that He would be the one directing this rescue mission through His agent Joseph.
He made this clear by giving Joseph dreams of his family bowing down to him in the future.
And we’ve seen that prophetic picture played out multiple times in the recent chapter.
In fact, we’ll see it one more time this morning in last chapter of Genesis.
But before then, we’ll observe the passing of the last of the Patriarchs of the people of Isreal
So, we turn to the last verses of Genesis 49 at verse 28
28 All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing
each with the blessing suitable to him. 29 Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered
to my people; bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, 30 in the cave
that is in the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with
the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife, and there I
buried Leah— 32 the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob finished
commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his
people.
This brings us to Genesis 50.
1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. 2 And Joseph commanded his
servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Forty days were required
for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
4 And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If
now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me
swear, saying, “I am about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall
you bury me.” Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.’ ”
6 And Pharaoh answered, “Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear.” 7 So Joseph went up to bury
his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of
the land of Egypt, 8 as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father’s household. Only
their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. 9 And there went up with him
both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company.
10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a
very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days. 11 When the
inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is
a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.” Therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim; it is beyond the
Jordan.
12 Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, 13 for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan
and buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the
field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. 14 After he had buried his father, Joseph returned
to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
The next verses tell of Joseph’s brothers’ fear of things after Jacob’s death.
15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “It may be that Joseph will hate us and
pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father
gave this command before he died: 17 ‘Say to Joseph, “Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and
their sin, because they did evil to you.” ’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the
God of your father.”
With the death of their father, Joseph’s brothers got a little nervous that Joseph might’ve been nursing a
grudge
They got scared that Joseph was being nice to them out of reverence to their father Jacob.
Now that Jacob is dead, they’re worried that Joseph might have been planning to take vengeance on them.
The general consensus is that Joseph’s brothers made up the story about Jacob’s final wish that Joseph
forgive his brothers.
The fact that this came as a message from the brothers highlights just how concerned they were about the
deep-seeded anger Joseph might’ve been harboring.
17b Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 His brothers also came and fell down before him and said,
“Behold, we are your servants.” 19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As
for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be
kept alive, as they are today. 21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he
comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
We’re not sure why Joseph wept as he did.
It may be that he regrets that his brothers would’ve been thinking such dark thoughts about him.
It may be that he feels for his brothers and the fear that they’d been feeling.
It may be that he’s overcome by the significance of the moment and what he has the privilege to tell them.
The theme of verse 20 should seem familiar as our theme for this series has been based on Joseph’s
response.
This morning, we’ll be unpacking these ideas in greater detail.
22 So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. 23 And Joseph saw
Ephraim’s children of the third generation. The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as
Joseph’s own.
24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land
to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel
swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.” 26 So Joseph died,
being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
These verses close the book of Genesis.
It’s been said that the book of Genesis opens with an immortal man who is in a perfect land.
And it closes with a man in a coffin with the hope of returning to the Promised Land.
The next book of the Bible opens 400 years later with the people of Israel enslaved, crying out for
deliverance.
And so will begin their Exodus from Egypt back to the Promised land as a nation of at least 3 million.
Pivot –
And so, we turn to learn from these closing verses of Genesis and the life of Joseph.
First, from Joseph’s conversation with his fearful brothers, I want to challenge you when -
1. LOOKING BACK, TRUST THAT GOD WORKS TOWARD HIS GOOD PURPOSE.
19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, you meant evil against
me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.
21 So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones.” Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to
them.
Joseph’s brothers were worried would stop providing for their needs or do worse to them.
They knew that they’d seriously wronged their brother and that he held all the cards in the relationships.
With a word, they could be hung out to dry and turned into public enemies along with all of their children.
The source of Joseph’s humility is key.
He recognizes one thing. -He’s not in the place of God.
He doesn’t sit on the judgment seat and decide who should pay for their deeds -and neither do we.
He calls out their past motivations for what they were -they did what they did to cause evil harm to him.
He recognizes that they wanted to kill him or cause him to disappear.
But he recognizes that God was at work in unmistakable ways
Joseph benefits in his perspective from an avoidable truth.
God used him in Egypt to save countless people and to keep his family alive and thriving.
His statements are similar to what he told them in -
* Genesis 45:7–8a 7 And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep
alive for you many survivors. 8 So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
Apply -
The question that Joseph asks is one that we should ask ourselves often.
It’s a question that would serve us well when we’re angry about how we’ve been treated.
I hope we’ll think of it when we want to make others pay for what they’ve done.
The question: “Am I in the place of God?”
Like Joseph, our faith can transform the way that we think about and respond to people that have hurt us in
the past.
All of us came into this world experiencing disappointment.
How would we have described our first bad experience?
“I was at a place in my life when I had everything that I needed.
I was in the perfect environment with everything that I needed within reach.
I had no want of food or comfort.
I could do my favorite activity, which is water aerobics -that is until my living situation got a little cramped.
Then one day, with no warning, I was tossed out into the coldest, loudest place I’d ever experienced.
My food supply got cut off and I think somebody slapped me on the backside.”
I know this is a lighthearted example and it doesn’t compare to the evil that some of you have experienced.
But I don’t think any of us were sold into slavery -though it does happen.
While Joseph was able to see the great good that God intended from these evil actions, we have to look at
the situation with eyes of faith.
We have to apply the truth that God causes all things to work together for the good of His children.
Is there an experience in your past that makes you mad to think about how you were treated?
Can you trust that God allowed it to take place for His good purposes?
Can you forgive those who’ve hurt you, knowing, in faith, that God was at work even in their mistreatment
of you?
Even though something is grieving & painful for us, this doesn’t mean that God wasn’t involved and that He
wasn’t grieved as well.
God can allow something to happen to us that grieves Him very much.
If you have a hard time believing that God could allow something to take place even though it grieves Him,
would you think the same thing about the sacrifice of Jesus?
Isaiah 53:10a tells us “it was the will of the Lord to crush” Jesus
And we know that it was only through the sacrifice of Jesus that God could be glorified in our salvation.
There is glory juice that God squeezes out of us only through suffering.
And there’s qualities that God squeezes into us only through suffering.
Walking in faith, we can look back on painful experiences, trusting that God works toward His good purpose
Our passage also gives us examples of faith looking forward, and from it I challenge you while –
2. LOOKING AHEAD, TRUST THAT GOD WILL KEEP HIS PROMISES.
The death of Jacob and Joseph are described in our passage this morning.
It may seem insignificant other the fact that Jacob is the last of the Hebrew Patriarchs.
But the significance is also found in the faith of both these men that God will keep His promises.
So, first let’s look at how -
2A. JACOB TRUSTED THAT GOD WOULD KEEP HIS PROMISES.
29 Then he commanded them and said to them, “I am to be gathered to my people; bury me with my
fathers… 31 There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife,
and there I buried Leah— 32 the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites.”
As I said before, as he neared the end of his life, Jacob could’ve asked to have a pyramid or a Sphynx built
in his memory.
Instead, he commanded his sons to take his body back to the Promised Land
In Genesis 23, Abraham dies in the land that was promised to him and his descendants.
This is Jacob’s family plot.
And He wants to be buried among his family members.
More importantly, Jacob is showing his stalwart faith and hope that God will keep His promise.
God had promised to give the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob the land of Canaan.
And Jacob was looking in faith to that future day.
He wanted to be buried where his future descendants would dwell.
You know, We don’t hear anything about or from Joseph for the next 60 years.
It’s not that he’s not doing anything significant.
We can assume that he’s working in the government of Egypt and is well known by the Pharaohs because
we’re told that this changed in Exodus 1 -a Pharaoh reigned that didn’t know him.
We can assume that he continued to take care of his family as he had promised.
I think the lack of information about Joseph at this point in his life tells us what God wants us to learn about
from this chapter - reconciliation, recognition of God’s sovereignty, hope for the future fulfillment of God’s
plan.
Similar to his father, Joseph makes a request on his deathbed too, as we see that -
2B. JOSEPH TRUSTED THAT GOD WOULD KEEP HIS PROMISES.
24 And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land
to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” 25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel
swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.”
Joseph might’ve been anticipating what’s coming for his people.
It’s what the next book of the Bible opens with
* Exodus 1:8–10 8 Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to
his people, “Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us. 10 Come, let us deal shrewdly
with them…”
This led to the children of Israel being enslaved for the next 400 or so years.
But Joseph confidently tells his family that “God will visit them and bring them out of this land to the land
that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.”
Then, like his father, Jacob, Joseph makes his family swear that they would take his bones with them.
In his final moments, he was dying in faith, knowing that God would keep His promise to lead His people
back to the Promised Land.
Hebrews 11 is known as the Hall of Faith, giving us examples of how OT saints walked by faith.
Interestingly, last week’s and this morning’s passage contain the examples that Hebrews 11 gives of the
faith of both Jacob and Joseph.
And both have to do with their faith that God would return His people to Canaan, as He promised to do.
we read in –
* Hebrews 11:21–22 21 By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, bowing in
worship over the head of his staff. 22 By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of
the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones.
As I mentioned last week, Jacob blessed his sons in faith as he spoke of how they would be as tribes of
people in the land of Canaan which God had promised to His people.
And this morning, we’re reading about how Joseph makes his family promise to take his bones with them
when they return to Canaan.
On the authority of the scriptures, we can say that Joseph is standing in faith on the promises of God.
One of my family’s favorite movies is Napoleon Dynomite.
In the movie, there’s a character named Uncle Rico.
And uncle Rico is a humorously pitiful character because he’s living in the past.
By the past, I mean that he’s dwelling on his days as a high school backup quarterback.
When talking with his nephew Kip, and he starts reminiscing.
Back in '82, I used to be able to throw a pigskin a quarter mile…
Yeah. If coach would've put me
in fourth quarter, we'd have been state champions, no doubt.
No doubt in my mind.
You better believe things would have been different.
I'd have gone pro... in a heartbeat.
I'd be makin' millions of dollars and livin' in a big ol' mansion somewhere.
You know, soakin' it up in a hot tub with my soul mate.
Uncle Rico is the prime example of a person living in the past because his mind is stuck in the past.
I heard recently that when people die, they’ll either be looking back on the past longingly or looking ahead
with faith.
They’ll either be looking back on their life and wishing they could turn back time or they’ll be looking ahead
expectantly for what they’re looking forward to on the other side of death.
This will affect how we age as well.
We might look back of the short years that we have to live on this earth and wish we could live them again.
Or we might look ahead expectantly to the long eternity that we have to spend with God and His people.
Of course, the main difference in these perspectives is whether a person has trusted in the person and work
of Christ for their eternal salvation.
But even those of us who have our eternity secure as a part of God’s family, can get stuck in the past.
We can sacrifice the joy that we should have in looking ahead because of believing that life is truly found in
what this world has to offer.
What are some promises that you cling to when the future seems bleak?
If you can’t name any of God’s promises for your future, might this partly explain fear or worry in your
heart?
I hope that our time in God’s Word this morning has encouraged you to trust that God will keep His
promises.
And that you will glorify Him by looking ahead to eternity with joyful expectation.
