A Strange Vocation

Coming up next on renewing your bind with RC scroll Pierce Joseph God's anointed man in Egypt and he's working as a slave, but God is with him and he is exercising his slavery to the glory of God complain about whose job the hours due to long pauses that all mankind. What we may not like stress and pressure the workplace should not actually design work, not as punishment but part of our calling as his image and we see that clearly in the way Joseph responded to his difficult: we continue with our study of the life we recall Joseph said provoked the rage and jealousy of his brothers by telling them his dreams that would indicate that at some point in the future they would bow down before him and they were also jealous because their father Jacob had given special favor to Joseph, particularly in the giving of this multicolored coat and in our last session we saw how the brothers conspired together to do away with Joseph and they settled on the plan of selling him to a caravan of merchants who were traveling south toward Egypt and so the 37th chapter of the book of Genesis ends only with this footnote.

In the last verse now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and Capt. of the guard come back to that verse in the moment, but only mentioned that suddenly there is an intrusion into this narrative of the life of Joseph in the text of Genesis for the entire 38th chapter of Genesis turns the attention away Doug verts. The narrative from the story of Joseph to the story of Judith and Tae Moran and that scandalous action and we wonder why the author of Genesis interrupts this narrative with this intervening story I read you a brief footnote from the new Geneva study Bible on chapter 38 reads as follows. The shattered covenant family began to intermarry with the curse of Canaanites and risk the loss of their distinctive identity. God met this threat by sending Joseph ahead of them into Egypt where they were to be segregated. There he preserved them until they had become a great nation and the iniquity of the Amorites was full that the bizarre episode of Judah and Taymor should contribute to the genealogy of Jesus Christ is a vivid demonstration of God's grace. There's lots of irony here in that story of Judah and Taymor. But at one of the things that's fascinates me is the pattern again we see here and if we remember the opening chapters of Genesis. After the original fall in Eden, the expansion of sin is then marked by the first homicide, which also was fratricide, in which Cain killed his brother Abel and then we see that the descendents of Cain expand evil exponentially through their line, but the replacement son to Adam and Eve, whose name was Seth spawned a list of descendents who were godly. They were the sons of God that we've talked about in the past and so we see two lines in the early chapters of Genesis 1. Following the pattern of Cain and his wickedness and the other one. Following the line of Seth in godliness, but then what happens. The two lines get together and intermarry and when that happens, God's sight sees that everyone was doing what was good in their own eyes and the world was filled with evil and God decides to destroy the whole of humanity. Save for one family that is to be preserved as the root or the remnant out of which redemption will come and it is the family of Noah and you see the same thing is taking place here.

Jacob had been an heir to the covenant of Abraham had been part of that group of people who were separated from the world and now his son intermarry's with pagans and as a result of this, the family structure of Jacob is starting to fall apart and it in the first incident of the destruction of this sacred family comes once again with what was perceived at least by Jacob know he doesn't understand it as such. But by an apparent act of fratricide, which wasn't fratricide, but it was still a heinous crime against one of the members of the family who is sold in to slavery and so there they are in Canaan and there already becoming unholy and so God is working in his providence to separate this family into a distinctive environment where they will have their own little environment in Egypt in the land of Goshen. As a consequence of all of these events that are taking place now while having said that, by way of background, let's look at what happens after Joseph is sold to the Ishmaelites or the Midianite traders. They then take him to Egypt and they sold him in Egypt. Not one of the details that we need to understand here in the providence of God is. It just so happened just at the right moment that this caravan passed by and I like to play the game often of what if suppose those traders hadn't come by, and Joseph had not been sold to them what would've happened to the rest of redemptive history will look more that when we get to the end of Joseph's life. But it's also significant that that caravan happened to be traveling south right on the north. They were on their way to Egypt, not on their way from Egypt and it's because of this minor detail that the Jews ended up in Egypt and in bondage. In the first place. Had Joseph been sent to the South now skews me of Joseph had been sent to the North instead of the South. There never would've been the migration of the family of Jacob into Egypt, which set the stage for their enslavement there and the later Exodus so significant in passing that this caravan was going south rather than north in any way were told in the last verse of chapter 37 that the Midianites would paid money to the brothers of Joseph turned around and sold him to Potiphar. Now tradition for the merchant is the buy low and sell high. You can be sure that they were looking to make a profit in this exchange and I don't know if they want to the slave market and sold Joseph to the highest bidder, but we do know that he was sold to a man of great importance and great status in the Egyptian government and a man obviously of significant wealth. Potiphar was in charge of the palace guard of the Pharaoh might be likened to the head of the Secret Service or the head of the FBI or the head of the CIA some office similar to that in our own country as the captain of the guard. The name Potiphar is Egyptian and it means he whom raw has given and raw, of course, was the son God of the Egyptians, for now we move over to chapter 39 after this interlude regarding Judah and Taymor and pick up the Joseph narrative again at the beginning of chapter 39 while Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar and officer Pharaoh Capt. of the guard and Egyptian bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. Verse two is very significant. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian now keep in mind that Joseph is being removed not only from his family.

He's being removed from his homeland and he's being removed from the presence of the worship of Yahweh. He is being transported into a foreign country.

And yet, though his brothers aren't with him and his father isn't with him and his mother isn't with him were told that the Lord is with him that the Lord goes with Joseph, even down into this pagan land of Egypt, and we are told in the same breath that Joseph was a successful man. Now obviously we see that Joseph has a vocation.

He is a man who is gifted of God in certain skills and areas of ability. He is obviously an exceptional administrator and an exceptional manager and he is put in the position of management in the house of this high ranking official of Egypt so we can think of Joseph as being relegated to the role of galley slave or field slave in Egyptian.

He is purchased and is put to work in a responsible position and he's obviously manifesting skill and ability which skill and ability comes from God, not just mention this in past that Joseph's vocation at this point in life is for all outward appearances, a secular vocation and in our culture. We've lost the very sense of vocation and the word vocation comes from the Latin word that means to call and so often today in the Christian world. The only vocation we recognize as a divine calling is a call to the ministry of some sort. This is one of the important concepts that came out of the Reformation of the 16th century that the reformers reminded the church that every believer has a vocation and God calls men and women to tasks that are not always outwardly overtly religious now. Ultimately, nobody in the book of Genesis has a higher religious calling and Joseph has his vocation is of crucial importance to the work of the kingdom of God. But for most of his life.

That vocation is worked out in a secular arena and he is obeying his call. He is using the gifts that God has given him. Isn't it interesting that in the New Testament when the gifts of the spirit are enumerated. One of those gifts that this Holy Spirit of God endows on people is the gift of administration every organization the church business team, a sports team has to be managed so that it allocates its resources in a productive way. And those people who have those gifts are extremely important for the well-being of whatever the enterprise is every organism that isn't that which is a living thing also must be organized or it will not survive. And I say this because we have a tendency to downplay the importance of organization of management of administration. I learned that the hard way when we started legionnaire ministries 25 years ago and was just the couple of ministers that got together and were engaged in the teaching enterprise. I had no idea what it took to get a teacher in front of a classroom of people with a blackboard in a building takes care of the buildings, who takes care of the grass who takes care of the budget. All of those things we were complete novices at and we found very soon that if we were going to be effective in ministry. We had to learn something about administration and we had to get advice and counsel ultimately hire people who were gifted in these areas where we were completely on skill and I mentioned that because we have a tendency to use a double standard in the Christian community as if the only viable religious activity is that those who are actively involved in preaching and teaching and evangelism and so on and forgetting that none of that can be done, or at least be done prudently and effectively without somebody administering. I remember the first time I was in Minneapolis Minnesota. I was visiting the Billy Graham headquarters at that time and at the time George Wilson was the Executive Vice President of the Billy Graham organization and he was for decades and he took those of us who were there throughout the whole operation and I saw a fleet of trucks in the Back Bay of this building and I said one of those trucks and uses those trucks are to deliver decision magazine somebody remained. Why don't you just send them in the mail that he said well if we send them in the mail than the magazine drops at one time during the month in one place in the country and another place somewhere else in a different time and we want everybody who's involved with decision magazine to receive their magazine the same day.

So they trucked them themselves. The various drop-off points across the country. I was amazed want to their computer room in the whole is just one huge room with a giant computer and George showed me how they handle that and at the same time Billy wasn't there some words Billy and he took me to Billy's office and he said Billy's in here about one or two days a year. Billy's out preaching based studying Billy's preparing himself to do the ministry and what we're doing here is to make that possible, but nobody sees what goes on behind-the-scenes and what a Herculean effort was involved in managing that ministry as George Wilson so excellently did for so many decades. While here's Joseph God's anointed man in Egypt in a real sense of peace. The advanced man that God sends down in Egypt to prepare the way for the migration of his entire family into the land of Egypt, and he's working as a slave, but God is with him and he is exercising his slavery to the glory of God. He is exercising his gifts in obedience to his master who owns him. And yet at the same time he is fulfilling his destiny under the providence of God.

Again we see a link with Jesus, who was sent into this world who suffered humiliation but whose meats and his drink was to do the will of the father no matter what circumstances he found himself in, and the father was with him. So God is with Joseph, and Joseph prospers at least part of her prospers because of Joseph. In this environment that we notice in verse three that we read these words and his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his site and served him.

Then he made him overseer of his house and all that he had. He put under his authority. So it was from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake and the blessing of the Lord was him all that he had in the house and in the field. Thus he left all that he had in Joseph's hand and he did not know what he had. Except for the bread which he thanked so part of her sees a good thing he is aware of Joseph's gifts and he becomes convinced that the God of the Hebrews is with Joseph and everything that Joseph puts his hand to prospers and who reaps the benefit Potter for this becomes very significant in a very short period of time when Joseph runs into problems in this house problems that could've ended in Joseph's execution but at this point at least Potter for is a happy camper.

He is the happiest slaveowner in all of Egypt because the his servant Joseph has the Midas touch, and he's making all of the affairs of this official prosper and so he is pleased indeed. And notice that he continues to increase the responsibilities he gives to Joseph so first he makes him overseer of the house and then he puts everything everything that he has all his possessions under the management of Joseph and entrusts his mouth and his home hands of this effort is said that a Christian employee should be the best worker in the company. Joseph had every opportunity to wallow in self-pity and complain about his lot in life. But we see in him an incredible example of what it means to live on our vocation for the glory of God. Glad you joined us today for the Saturday edition of Renewing Your Mind and we Webb in the week by week were making our way through RC Sproul series the life of Joseph would like to send you the complete 20 part series. Just contact us today with your donation of any amount to legionnaire ministries.

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Let's return to Dr. Sproles lesson on Joseph for a final thought is rarely easy for us to see how God is using our labor for his providential play and it's not by accident that the question that I hear more often than any other question from Christians is what is God's will for my life. More often than not, that is a question of calling a vocation. The Christian should by his very Christianity be eager to serve God, but the question we face so often is how can I best serve God. I remember meeting with the man whose name you would recognize if I mentioned it, who was extremely wealthy and who was extremely dedicated to Christian ministry.

He came to me and sought my counsel. He said RC I'm thinking of leaving my business and going into the pastoral ministry. What do you think they think God is calling me to that move sit down now. But I sure hope not. He said why do you say that I said because right now you are financing all kinds of vital ministries around the world and if you leave that in going to the ministry Brett to find a way to finance you write out your contribution is so vital to the kingdom of God. I'd hate to see you depart from it may be God's call in your life to do that.

But as I said, I can only hope that it isn't what he came to the conclusion that it wasn't but few of us ever had that opportunity to see what kind of a contribution the exercise of our secular vocation may be making to the kingdom of God for next Saturday. Joseph will face a difficult temptation.

His ability to resist could be an inspiration to us all. We hope you'll join us again next week for Renewing Your Mind