WEBVTT
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Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and our Lord and
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Savior Jesus Christ which we can say amen.
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Our text is from the Old Testament lesson but Joseph said to them
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don't be afraid
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am I in the place of God?
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You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish
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what is now being done the saving many lives.
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This is the word of the Lord.
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God is all powerful, God is good.
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These are statements that Christians generally accept but it comes and
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they come with complications.
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For example, if God is all powerful why is there injustice, poverty or
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evil?
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Especially if God is all good?
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This is the profound dilemma expressed in that term theodicy.
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Part of the problem is our perspective things we see as evil are
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usually just bad for us. We don't really know the deeper thing that is
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going on. But some questions are really unanswerable except by faith
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and we kind of have to live with these tensions.
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This was the question of Joseph's brothers although they were not
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aware that they were asking this question. Pharaoh was in the minds of
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the Egyptians, a powerful God and Joseph had become the image of
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Pharaoh.
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It was Joseph who spoke to the people. It was Joseph who heard the
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petitions. It was Joseph who organized the kingdom. It was Joseph who
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provided the famine relief. Pharaoh had picked well. He was the one
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that people talked to in place of Pharaoh.
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He was given all the authority in the land that Pharaoh had and the
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text says except for the authority of the throne itself.
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Genesis lays out a long series of events concerning the brothers and
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Joseph.
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First there were
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the dreams of the sun and moon and eleven stars and a second dream of
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similar import.
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And people could interpret these dreams pretty well.
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Basically, Joseph had an ungrateful role as prophet because he was
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basically telling to his parents and his siblings that they would bow
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down to him.
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Sounds terribly egotistical, but that was the dream.
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There was also the matter of being the favorite son which rankled the
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brothers no end and stirred their jealousy. The son of the favored
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wife, Rachel.
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So when the brothers saw an opportunity to end the favoritism they
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lowered him into a well and prepared to kill him.
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Reuben, who had been disgraced for sleeping with one of his father's
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wives Bilhah planned to rescue Joseph and return him to his father.
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This is the classic redemption by works approach but it was Judah who
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was the fourth son overall by Leah who suggested selling him into
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slavery to the Ishmaelites.
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Joseph rises rapidly in the house of Potiphar who is in charge of the
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royal guard and the prison.
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But after refusing the advances of Potiphar's wife she accused him of
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assault and he was thrown into the prison.
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I personally don't believe that Potiphar believed her but he couldn't
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do anything about it because I think if Potiphar had believed her
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Joseph would have been executed.
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Slaves don't get to touch the master's wife. There
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almost immediately, or pretty soon, Joseph becomes the chief prisoner.
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And it is from there that he is able to correctly interpret the dreams
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of the baker and the cup bearer, with the one being restored to office
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and the other hanged as predicted. Sometime later, Pharaoh is plagued
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by dreams that cannot be interpreted by the scholars of Egypt, and it
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is then that the cup bearer remembers his inadequacies.
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Today I am reminded of my flaws.
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In that he has forgotten his promise to Joseph to get him out of
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the prison. Joseph comes to the palace and correctly interprets the
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Pharaoh's dreams about the upcoming years of prosperity and famine and
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is immediately elevated to the one who speaks with all the authority
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of Pharaoh in all matters it except the throne.
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It is this famine that brings Joseph's brothers back to him in a
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series of events in which a silver cup is hidden in one of the
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brother's sacks Benjamin, who is Joseph's full younger brother.
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In the end, all of the brothers come with their father Jacob and their
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various family members to Egypt.
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It is the death of Jacob that triggers this anxiety passage by the
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brothers.
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The brothers did not initially know that Joseph was Joseph.
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They didn't recognize him.
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He did not speak their language to them.
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He talked through an interpreter.
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He put them through quite the wringer when he insisted that they
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return with Benjamin, now Jacob's favorite.
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And when the cup is found in Benjamin's sack, and when they have to
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return to beg for his life, only then does Joseph reveal himself as
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their brother.
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So now the question becomes does this powerful man the very image of
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Pharaoh a mask of god here
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and I'm talking about Joseph being a mask of Pharaoh as god finally
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take vengeance for their actions?
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Does he remember?
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Is he like David on his deathbed who says this person got away with it
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but you can do something about that.
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You take care of him, which David did.
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It is here that the plea comes from them lord have mercy upon us.
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And that plea is answered with the grace and mercy and
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understanding of wisdom and brotherly love. God has turned it all to
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good for you and for me and for the saving of many lives. And we see
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this in our catechetical petitions too. That God would bring us to a
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blessed end. That God would
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deliver us from the evil in our lives.
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That when we are not deserving of mercy, God would show himself a God
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of mercy.
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That when we are honest about what we are, God would be honest about
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what he is through Christ Jesus, a saving, loving, redeeming, caring
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God.
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And this is how it is with us and our powerful God.
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One can never be sure when he will break out and sweep away the
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wicked.
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I've got a clue for you.
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In this life, we all fall into that category with regard to our sinful
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nature and activities.
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Like Pharaoh
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without Joseph, there might be no grace, for the law came through
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Moses but grace and mercy
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and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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And in Colossians two, we read he is the image of the invisible God,
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the firstborn over all creation.
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Here we see that in the same way that Joseph represented the image of
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Pharaoh, so Christ is for us the image of the living God.
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By Jesus, we know clearly what God wants us to know about Him.
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That He is, in fact gracious and merciful, full of compassion and
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abounding in steadfast love.
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And Jesus has so much more in common with this foreshadowing in
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Joseph, in that He is burdened with our sins in the same way the
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brothers burdened Joseph with theirs.
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He is sacrificed unjustly on the cross for us.
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In the same way that Joseph is imprisoned, unjustly and raised from
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the dead in the same way that Joseph is elevated and sits with
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Pharaoh.
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When we, like the brothers, remember our sins iniquities and sorrows
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we can turn to Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith. Who, for
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the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat
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down at the right hand of the throne of God.
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Jesus is there with his grace
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mercy and peace for us.
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Just like Joseph was there for his brothers.
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It is He who shows us that our powerful God is in fact act a gracious
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Father to
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all who call Jesus Lord. Who loved us, to give the best for us, his
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only begotten son.
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Amen.
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And now may the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your
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hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
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Amen.