I was privileged to speak during the Sunday morning service at my church this week while our pastor was on a mission trip to Uganda. The following was the message that I shared.
“A Boy with a Special
Coat, A Girl with a Special Problem”
Genesis 37:1-4
Mark 5:21-24
I have thought much lately
about the care and provisions that God extends to His children. Over the last
couple of years I have seen brothers and sisters in Christ suffer the loss of
loved ones, struggle through other difficult personal trials of their own and
struggle in their hearts while they pray out of love and concern for those they
care deeply for.
And time and time again,
not always in the same way, in fact, perhaps never in the same way, I have seen
God graciously bestow His loving care. I’m sure that if we went around the
sanctuary this morning we would hear testimony after testimony about how you
have seen God do the same.
As I speak this morning
about this matter of God’s care, I want to be clear that my intention is not
necessarily to focus on the recipients but the giver or provider of the care.
This can be a difficult division of thought because to some degree the two go
hand in hand. But let me say that it is you and I who are dependent upon God
and His character if we are to ever be privileged to rejoice in Christ and have
hope for the care that is ours in Him.
To say that the Bible is
full of examples of God's loving care would be perhaps one of the greatest
understatements ever made. Through both Old and New Testaments we find a
multitude of scripture that provide for us countless examples.
Something else I have been
considering recently is the vast amount of practical lessons that are seen in
the Bible stories that God has preserved for so many years that we can learn
and teach from.
The title of my message
this morning is "A boy with a special coat, A girl with a special
problem". You may be wondering what these two Bible stories have in common and I will simply say what ties them together is God, God and His wondrous ways. They are just two biblical accounts of the wonder of God's sovereign care and oversight.
So the first passage of
scripture that we read from this morning (out of Genesis 37) is the beginning
of a lengthy story of God’s sovereign oversight of Joseph and how He would use
him to care for his people. Right or wrong, Jacob's
favoritism towards his son Joseph would prove very problematic in Joseph’s
relationship with his brothers. As it still does today, jealousy can create
great difficulties between siblings and relationships in general.
Most of you are quite
familiar with the story. In an apparent demonstration of his love and
favoritism for Joseph, Jacob gives him a
varicolored tunic (or coat of many colors as it is often referred to). The
scripture says this gift, in addition to Joseph having given his father a bad
report about his brothers, resulted in their hating him and an inability for
them to speak to him on friendly terms.
As these sort of feelings
often do, unchecked they continued to fester. When Joseph shared some dreams he
had with his brothers, the scripture tells us they hated him even more. His
dreams spoke of a subservient role that his brothers would have under him one
day and their jealousy and hatred grew.
On another occasion Jacob
asks Joseph to go and check on his brothers who are shepherding their father’s
flock and to bring a report back to him regarding the welfare of both his
brothers and that of his flock.
Neither of them is aware
of it at the time, but this will be the last time they see each other for many
years. But God will be sovereignly caring for both of them and accomplishing
His will while using the circumstances of the relationships that have developed
between Joseph, his brothers and their father.
We ought to take a moment
and say, “praise God”, for His ability to do this. To use the thoughts,
intentions and actions of men, whether noble or ill advised, to accomplish His
perfect will. Ours is indeed the God who “causes all things to work together
for good”! Some of you have heard me say this before but I think it is a truth
worth repeating. “Things” in and of themselves cannot, and in a sin affected
world, would not work together for good. It takes the Creator’s hand to “cause”
them to do so. Praise God for His grace to do so.
By the time Joseph meets
up with his brothers to check on them and the flock, even when they had seen
him “afar off”, the scripture says, they were plotting to kill him. It seems
evident that they had continued to feed the anger and jealousy they felt
towards him while they had been shepherding together. Reuben, Jacob’s eldest
son is then used by God to preserve Joseph’s life and talks them into not
taking his life but suggests throwing him into a pit where he would himself
return and rescue him and return him to their father. So Joseph is thrown into
the pit by his own brothers.
Ultimately his brothers,
apparently unknown to Reuben, and at the advice of Judah, sell him to some
Midianite traders who were traveling by on their way to Egypt. They decided to
put the blood of a goat on Joseph’s varicolored tunic and present it to their
father when they returned home in order to trick him into believing that Joseph
had been killed by wild beasts. Obviously, a very cruel thing for them to do to
their brother and to their father.
It is interesting to note,
that back in Genesis 27, we read that Jacob himself had used the skin of a goat
to trick his father Isaac into thinking he was his older and hairy brother Esau
in his effort to steal his brother’s blessing and now his own sons were using
the blood of a goat to trick him into thinking that his son Joseph was dead.
“God is not mocked” the scripture says, “whatever a man sows, this he will also
reap.” Perhaps Jacob was experiencing this.
As the story continues,
Joseph is subsequently sold by the Midianites to Potiphar, the captain of the
bodyguard of Pharaoh. Unfortunately, we don’t have time for the whole detailed
story. A key part of the story however, that I don’t want to miss, is that we
are told that the Lord was with Joseph and so he became a successful man.
True biblical “success”
for you and I is measured in accordance with God’s ways and not the ways of
men. But the truth that Joseph experienced seems to remain, the success we
desire is that which comes when “the Lord is with us”. Success in ministry,
success in our marriages, our families, our churches, and so on.
Later, Joseph is falsely
accused and jailed. He continues to receive wisdom from God to interpret
dreams, interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh’s chief cupbearer, his chief baker
and ultimately, after spending a significant period of time in jail, he
interprets the dreams of Pharaoh himself. Released from prison, at the age of
30, Pharaoh puts him in charge of all of Egypt. Only Pharaoh himself has more
authority.
Pharaoh’s dreams, as
interpreted by Joseph, come to pass with the 7 years of plenty and the 7 years
of famine. It is during this time of famine that the dreams Joseph had once
shared with his brothers some 20 years earlier come to pass as his father Jacob
sends his sons to Egypt to purchase grain.
By this time Joseph
appears to have been 39 years of age when his brothers bow before him and he is
reunited with his father and family. (30 when appointed by Pharaoh, 7 years
plenty and 2 years into the famine.)
The sovereign care and
providence of God is quite dramatic and clearly seen throughout this entire
story that covers several chapters of scripture.
And what about the
perspective that Joseph conveyed to his family and God uses to speak to us
these hundreds of years later?
In Genesis 45:4-8 we read
the account of Joseph disclosing himself to his brothers;
“I am your brother Joseph, who you sold into Egypt. Now do not be
grieved or angry with
yourselves, because you
sold me here, for God
sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years,
and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor
harvesting. God
sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you
alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it
was not you who sent me here, but God;”
Oh, that we might have the attitude and
perspective that Joseph expressed “as the Lord was with him”. Having already suffered the loss of his mother
following the birth of his younger brother and then separated from the love of
his father 17 years of age. Sold by his own brothers as a slave. Jailed without
cause for a couple of years of his life.
And yet he tells his brothers not to be
grieved or to be angry with themselves for what they had done. (As Bob Rodgers
spoke with the men about yesterday morning at men’s bible study, a spirit of
forgiveness had set Joseph free from the bondage of anger and bitterness that
could have been his for the having.) But as the Lord was with him he chose to
see things from the Lord’s perspective.
It was God who had sent Joseph into Egypt
before his brothers. He had simply used his brothers to accomplish His perfect
will. And Joseph reminds us that we can and should look at the bigger picture
and not just the immediate circumstances. He saw himself as having been sent by
God to preserve life. To be even more specific, he had been sent ahead to
preserve the very lives of the ones who had mistreated him.
We see a similar attitude expressed by the
Apostle Paul (in Philippians Chapter 1) where Paul is expressing his desire to
depart this life and be with Christ, which was for him, that which is described
as being “very much better”. But again, seeing the bigger picture, he said,
“yet to remain on in the flesh is more necessary for your sake”.
There are many lessons
that we can learn from as we consider the life of Joseph and so many others but
I must go on.
The second passage of
scripture that we read this morning was out of Mark Chapter 5 where we find the
story of the synagogue official seeking the Lord’s healing of his daughter.
Mark 5:21-24:
"When Jesus had crossed over again in the
boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered around Him; and so He stayed by
the seashore. One of the
synagogue officials named Jairus *came up, and on seeing Him, *fell
at His feet and
*implored Him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death; please come
and lay Your hands on her, so that she will get
well and live.” And He went off with him; and a large crowd
was following Him and pressing in on Him.”
So we have a man,
described as one of the synagogue officials, coming up to Jesus, falling before
Him and earnestly imploring Him to come and lay hands on his “little daughter”
who is described as being at the very point of death, that she might get well
and live. I will also describe Jairus as a father who desperately wants his daughter,
his only daughter according to Luke’s Gospel, to live.
Again, most of you may
remember the story. There is another healing that takes place while Jesus
travels to Jairus’ home when he heals the woman who had suffered with a
hemorrhage for 12 years that no one else had been able to heal but only make
worse. It is interesting to note that this woman had suffered with her problem
the entire lifetime of Jairus’ little girl. She touches Jesus’ cloak and is
healed immediately.
Jesus continues on His
journey to Jairus’ house. In each of the three Gospel accounts found in
Matthew, Mark and Luke, we read various assertions as to the little girl’s
state. In the beginning she was said to be dying, to be at the very point of
death or to have died already. By the time Jesus reaches her home we read that
she is presumed to be dead and that some are suggesting that the Teacher should
not be “troubled” any longer.
I have to take a moment
and say that any advice to not “trouble” the Lord Jesus should be ignored. I would
go so far as to say that it is the deception of Satan that you not trouble Him.
Whether in a loud voice or a whisper, do not believe the lie that it is ever “a
trouble” to Him when we come to Him with our concerns.
We should have that same
sort of attitude which was expressed when Jesus asked the twelve a question
after we are told that many of His disciples had withdrawn and were not walking
with Him anymore after He had taught some difficult matters for them to
receive. In John 6:67 Jesus asks them, “You
do not want to go away also, do you?” And Peter responds on their behalf in verse 68-69
saying, “Lord, to whom
shall we go? You have words of eternal life. We have believed and have
come to know that You are the Holy One of God.”
If we don’t go to Jesus,
where will we go? If we don’t have Him to go to, who will take His place?
Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is no trouble to Him, go to Jesus!
In the three Gospel accounts
Jesus tells those who are present at the house that the little girl is only
sleeping.
In each account it says
that Jesus went into where the girl was lying and took her by the hand. Mark’s
Gospel records Jesus as having taken her hand and saying to her, “Talitha kum”
or “little girl, I say to you, get up!”
Let me suggest that it doesn't matter if she was dying, at the point of death or dead. In Luke Chapter
7:11-15 we read this spectacular account of Jesus’ interaction with a dead man:
”Soon afterwards He
went to a city called Nain; and His disciples were going along with Him,
accompanied by a large crowd. Now as He approached the
gate of the city, a
dead man was being carried out, the only son of his
mother, and she was a widow; and a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. When the Lord saw her,
He felt compassion for her, and said to her, “Do not weep.” And He came up and
touched the coffin; and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young
man, I say to you, arise!” The dead
man sat up and began to speak.”
No request for healing.
Just out of the deep well of compassion that belongs to Christ, He does
something incredible. There is no mention here that the man is just sleeping.
Jesus speaks to a dead person and Jesus quickens the dead person to respond.
Praise God that Jesus
speaks to the dead. You and I were dead in our sins and trespasses the
scriptures says and yet the One who spoke to the dead son of the widow at Nain,
has spoken to us and quickened us to respond. Praise God!
I share the story of
Jairus’ daughter because it speaks of a tremendous truth for us to learn and to
remember. Let me read the rest of the account found in Mark 5:35-48.
"While He was still speaking, they *came from the house
of the synagogue official, saying, “Your daughter has died;
why trouble the Teacher anymore?” But Jesus, overhearing what was being spoken,
*said to the synagogue
official, “Do not be
afraid any
longer, only believe.” And He allowed no one to accompany Him, except Peter and James and John the brother of James. They
*came to the house of the synagogue
official; and He *saw a commotion, and people loudly weeping and wailing. And entering in, He *said to them, “Why make a commotion and weep? The child has not
died, but is asleep.” They began laughing at Him. But putting them all out, He
*took along the child’s father and mother and His own companions, and *entered the
room where the child was. Taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). Immediately the girl got up and began to walk, for she was twelve years old. And
immediately they were completely astounded. And He gave them strict orders that no one should know
about this, and He said that something should be given her to eat.”
Did you catch that? After doing all that the
girl’s father and mother could have been hoping for at the moment, giving their
little girl life, we are reminded that the Lord’s care does not end there with
the giving of life. “Something should be given her to eat” He said! That is
incredible to me.
I find the same principle
incredibly true for my life and yours. He has done all that we could have hope
for in giving us eternal life, abundant life with Himself. And yet there is not
a day that goes by that He is not concerned about all the needs that we have.
Yes, God cares for you. He
cares for me. Peter was inspired by God to admonish us to cast our cares, or our
anxieties, on Him and that we do so, on the basis of the truth that He cares
for us. To the extent that we allow the of God to apply this discipline to our
lives, we will grow in our understanding and appreciation of the depth of His
care.
He inspired Paul to write
to the troubled church in Corinth and the churches in Galatia who were struggling
to hold on to truth because He cared for them.
He tells us to walk in a
manner worthy of our calling because He cares for us.
He tells us to not forsake
our assembling together because He cares for us.
He speaks of His concerned
that we not partake of the Lord’s Supper in an unworthy manner because He cares
for us.
He warns of being
conformed to the world and admonishes us to be transformed by the renewing of
our minds because He cares for us.
He tells us not to love
the world, nor the things in the world because He cares for us.
He tells us to fix our
eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith; to keep seeking the things
above where Christ is, because He cares for us.
He tells us of the blessed
hope of our Savior’s return because He cares for us.
I suppose I
could go on but I hope the point has been made. He cares deeply for you and I.
We ought to respond with a heart full of gratitude, minds eager to know Him and
vessels desirous of serving Him.
A brother in
Christ recently sent out an email that was a reminder of a verse we find in
Luke 12:6-7 where Jesus said the following;
"Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before God. Indeed, the very hairs of your
head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.”
As believers in Christ, members of His body,
we are the children of God. Heirs of God the word says, fellow heirs with
Christ. May we rejoice each day in the relationship
we find that we have been graced to have with God in Christ.
As there is
a story of Joseph’s life, a story told of Jairus’ little daughter, the story of
the son of the widow at Nain, a story of the Apostle Paul and many others, so
there is a story of your life and mine. As your story is lived, or perhaps one
day remembered by others, God’s sovereign care will no doubt be interwoven in
the details of your life for others to see and to give Him the glory. Amen
