"Trusting God with Your Life" Genesis 50 Pastor Allan Wooters, D.Min.
Over the centuries, in times of crisis, the greatest minds have wrestled with the question “Where is God?” We might not be asking such a question at present but other queries have surfaced: Why me? Why now? Why this? This final message in our series on Joseph confronts head-on these questions. Take a moment to read verses 15 – 26 of Genesis 50.
What an incredible ending to the saga of Joseph! There’s plenty of drama but that’s not the point of the narrative. Joseph’s response to his brothers and his confidence in God is central. Joseph learned early on to trust God with his life. We might be tempted to say he had no choice. Once sold into slavery what else was he to do? Where else could he turn for help? True, but some walk away from God in times of severe trial. Joseph did not run. Joseph could have turned to his own resources. He could have embraced the gods of Egypt. He didn’t! What a great example for us! It is a reminder that we too can keep trusting God with our lives. But the issue is, how? How do we trust God? The simple yet correct answer is that such trust is a choice. But we need to break such a choice down a bit more. Let me get right to this and say that first, we commit to trusting God in our present situation.
Commit Your Present Situation to the Lord
What is apparent is that Joseph’s brothers didn’t trust God. They had shown signs in earlier accounts of coming to trust God but here that trust has evaporated. Instead they are plagued by guilt and fear. They turn to lying to Joseph, concocting a story of how Jacob had told them to tell Joseph to forgive them. How dumb could they be? Don’t you think that if Jacob wanted to be sure Joseph had forgiven them, he would have talked to Joseph himself? He had about other matters of importance. This lie was self-serving and gives clear indication that these men didn’t trust God in this matter at all. Fortunately for them, Joseph did trust God.
His response to his brothers was shock but also grief. “And Joseph wept when they spoke to him,” v.15. Then, as his brothers literally grovel at his feet, he seeks to calm their fears, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place” (v.19)? Joseph had no desire to play God. He certainly was in a position to be “god” in their lives if he chose to do so. He had been hailed as the savior of Egypt, and in fact the world. And he had earned it. And more, at that very moment he may have had more actual power than Pharaoh. Thus, to play God in his brothers’ lives and administer a little “divine justice” in behalf of God could have been tempting. But Joseph had a clear view of who God was and he trusted God. He had no desire to be God in their lives.
The truth is every person is trusting something or someone with their life. They may be trusting their own resources, abilities, brilliance, or strength but they are trusting something. Some will trust “the universe” making it out to be a godlike entity. But this “universe” ideology is just the old astrology papered over with a new name. It’s the Greek idea of fate, or a pagan worldview of the stars determining our situation in the present. But all such things are useless.
This time of crisis has reminded us of how powerless we are and how much we need God. I know for most of you this isn’t news. But we need the reminder to keep trusting God in this present time. We can wake up every morning and say, “Lord, I give you this day!” Think through what your day looks like and give it to God. When some issue arises, give it to God and you will find help. So, keep dedicating the present to the Lord. But there’s another dimension to trusting God. That dimension is our past. We are to trust our past to God.
Commit Your Past to the Lord
This factor is seen in vs.19 – 20. Brothers worried that Joseph would bear a grudge (v.15). The brothers were still living in the past. Unlike Joseph, they had not settled their sin with God. So, they battled fear. Had they lived like this since coming to Egypt? Were they haunted by their past, unsure that any day Joseph might seek revenge? See how a guilty conscience tortures its victims! How it robs us of peace!
But Joseph had no thoughts of revenge. Long before his brothers cowered before him, Joseph had come to terms with his past. He had been hurt deeply. He felt the betrayal, the loss, all of it. But he knew a God who was Lord over it all. And he chose to keep his eyes on God. When his brothers sold him out, literally, he stayed focused on God. When Potiphar’s wife lied saying Joseph had tried to sexually assault her and he landed in jail, his words and actions show he still trusted in God. Joseph had seen many good things come to him by the hand of God and so he was able to let go of the past.
Are you hanging on to something in the past that hurt you deeply? We all have such hurts and when something awakens that memory it can hurt all over again. But in that instance, we have a choice. We can replay the hurt, feel the grief, the anger, the sadness all over again, or we can choose to give that matter to God. “But Allan, when the hurt comes back again does that mean I haven’t really given it to God?” No! It means you’re human. It means we simply give that past hurt to God all over again. Every time the pain of the past grabs our attention, we give it to God again. And after a while, the pain becomes less and less. Plus, we can start to see what good things God has brought to us because of our past and we start to see it is good.
Now, giving our past to God isn’t easy to do. We still have questions. Of some experiences we’ve had we don’t yet see any good that has come from them. But the way of peace is to give it all to God, to recognize that we don’t see the full story of our lives yet, but God does. And knowing He loves us enough to send His one and only Son to die for us, well, that’s enough for us to trust. Give God your past! But now, one other factor must be mentioned on learning to trust God. It is that we trust our future to Him as well.
Commit Our Future to the Lord
Note v.24: “Joseph said to his brothers, ‘I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.” How could he be so sure? It’s not that he’s a prophet. No. It’s that he knew God had never let him down so he could be 100 percent assured that God would provide for any future needs. And history affirms that God kept His promise to the letter.
Given what we know of God, trusting God for the future is a no-brainer! As I shared in last week’s message God knows the future and He also controls the future. This being Palm Sunday reminds us that in the future Joseph didn’t see, God brought about the salvation of all His people in Jesus thus taking care of us not only materially and emotionally, but above all spiritually.
Trusting God is a choice but let me share with you one way that you can be reminded to do this even at times when you’re not even thinking about it. This help comes by way of a story I read which may or may not have actually happened, but it could have to be sure. It involves a woman named Arlene. Arlene and her husband were invited to a fine restaurant by her husband’s boss. She was nervous. He was the boss after all, and he was incredibly wealthy. In addition, the restaurant was a fine-dining affair, something she had never experienced. As they arrived at the restaurant, they saw the boss pull in as well. They met in the parking lot and started toward the door, the boss and his wife walking slightly ahead of Arlene and her husband. He stopped suddenly, looking down on the pavement for a long, silent moment. Then the boss reached down and picked up a penny.
He held it up and smiled, then put it in his pocket as if he had found a great treasure. Arlene was surprised. How absurd! She thought. What need did this man have for a single penny? Why would he even take the time to stop and pick it up?
Throughout dinner, the entire scene nagged at her. Finally, she could stand it no longer. She casually mentioned that her daughter once had a coin collection and asked if the penny he had found had been of some value. A smile crept across the man’s face as he reached into his pocket for the penny and held it out for her to see. “Look at it,” he said. “Read what it says.” She read, “United States of America.” “No, not that; read further.” “One cent?” “No, keep reading.” “In God we Trust?” “Yes!”
He explained, “And if I trust in God, the name of God is holy, even on a coin. Whenever I find a coin, I see that inscription. It is written on every single U.S. coin, but we never seem to notice it! God drops a message right in front of me telling me to trust Him. Who am I to pass it by? When I see a coin, I pray, I stop to see if my trust is in God at that moment. I pick the coin up as my response to God; that I do trust in Him. For a short time, at least, I cherish it as if it were gold. I think it is God’s way of starting a conversation with me. Lucky for me, God is patient and pennies are plentiful!”
What a great habit to adopt don’t you think? I need the reminders to trust God and you do too. God is patient and good. We can always trust Him.