by Angus M Gunn
(Published in "Toward the Mark" magazine, Vol. 10-1, 1981)
A God Ordered Life
by Angus M Gunn
(Published in "Toward the Mark" magazine, Vol. 10-1,
1981)
|
"You
meant evil
against me;
but God meant
it for good."
(Genesis
50:20)
God
is always
right. That is
perhaps the
simplest way
of describing
the term, The
Righteousness
of God.
Joseph's story
tells us how a
man came to
know that
righteousness
in a very
personal way.
In the record
of Genesis we
have the
beginning of
God's great
promise in the
life of
Abraham and
then the line
of promise
coming through
Isaac and
Jacob, but
Joseph comes
on the scene
without
anything other
than the fact
that he was
his father's
favourite son.
He is not
specified to
be in the line
of promise,
but comes on
the scene
without any
credentials.
He has no
special place
in the line of
promise, but
appears just
as one of
many.
Nevertheless,
before we
finish the
book of
Genesis, he is
seen to be the
saviour of the
entire people
of God.
He
is a
magnificent
picture of
Jesus Christ,
perhaps more
vividly so
than any other
Bible
character we
might study.
In the course
of his
lifetime he
went through
enormous
sufferings for
no apparent
reason. His
life is shown
to be a
beautiful
clean record
of
faithfulness
to God, and
yet he really
had to go
through the
mill. We may
well ask why
this had to be
so.
The whole destiny of Israel, the whole promise to Abraham and his descendants, hinged on the faithfulness of this one man. That is exactly the story of Joseph and shows him to give a picture of the Lord Jesus Himself. There are many little things in Joseph's life which make him like Jesus Christ. He is the beloved son of the father; he is the person who is hated by his brothers. He is sold for silver, just as Jesus was sold, and is later stripped of all he has and later found in the company of two malefactors, one of whom was saved while the other was lost. This reminds us of the fact that Jesus was crucified between two thieves, one of whom was saved while the other was not. Many other details of Joseph's life correspond with the story of the Lord Jesus. Joseph was full of wisdom, he knew the future; full control of the world was given to him and he alone could succour and feed the starving multitudes. In Joseph's life we see mirrored characteristics which were found in their full perfection in the Lord Jesus. It is significant that in Genesis more space is given to him than to any other except Abraham. If Joseph's life points on to the Lord Jesus, we may be sure that it is given to us not only for that purpose but also to illustrate for us how God works in every life which is committed to Him and which He plans to conform to the image of His Son. We therefore consider Joseph's story in order to learn more of God's ways in His dealings with us. God's Overruling The
first thrust
of the message
is that God is
in sovereign
control of the
ways of such a
man: his is an
ordered life.
For years it
seemed
otherwise. He
was hated by
his brothers,
he was sold
into slavery,
he was falsely
accused and
cruelly
forgotten, yet
when his
terrified
brothers came
to plead for
mercy, he was
able to say to
them: "Do not
be distressed,
or angry with
yourselves,
because you
sold me here;
for God sent
me before you
to preserve
life" (45:5).
What is more,
he was able to
affirm: "So it
was not you
who sent me
here but God".
It
took time for
Joseph to
appreciate how
marvellously
God had
ordered his
life. He was
hated, he was
sold into
slavery by his
brothers, he
was thrown
into prison
because of the
lying lust of
Potiphar's
wife and,
being there,
he was
forgotten by
the one man
who ought to
have spoken up
for him.
Finally,
however, he
was
exalted
to the throne,
and then he
was able to
understand
what had been
God's purpose
in allowing
all those
sufferings and
wrong
accusations.
He was able to
compass the
whole of those
painful years
with the
explanation
that they
represented
the divine
programme for
his life. "As
for you", he
frankly told
his brothers,
"you meant
evil against
me; but God
meant it for
good...". God
did more than
permit it; He meant it!
There was
never a moment
when He was
not in full
charge.
Man's
Co-operation Unlike Joseph, we
are not yet privileged to see the end of God's
dealings with us but, as we look back over all the
evil and hurtful things which have happened to us,
things which were hard to understand and difficult
to forgive, we may perhaps lose all our bitterness
and questioning if we are able by faith to affirm
that it has all been a part of God's perfect plan.
We get the victory if we really believe that God is
always right. It may help us to do this if we
consider the contribution which Joseph made through
it all. It was two-fold:
1. Commitment to what was right So far as the record goes, we are not able to fault Joseph. At the beginning of his life he was associated with his brothers who were a devious bunch, but he would have nothing to do with their bad ways. He reported their behaviour to their father, which made them hate him, and he also told them his dreams. We might say that this was rather foolish, but at least it shows that he was open and transparent. He retained that attitude all through, never deviating from a life of simple commitment to what was right in God's sight. He did this to such effect in Potiphar's house that he was entrusted with rule there where he doubtless learned lessons on the language and general comportment which were essential in his later vocation. For the moment, however, further sufferings awaited him by reason of his simple integrity, but he maintained that integrity even amid the injustice of his prison life. When at last he confronted his guilty brothers, his behaviour did not spring from any personal pique but only to be sure that there really was a different spirit among them. 2. Vision The other feature of his whole life can be described by the one word, vision. At the beginning he had a vision of the whole purpose of God for his own life and, as he suffered under God's hand, he came to see how that vision had been worked out. When his brothers came down to Egypt he was able to see how wise God had been to send him there first: "God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance" (45:7). Increasing vision showed him that the personal element was insignificant compared with God's purpose to keep His chosen people alive and even to bring them down to Egypt. At the end of his life, many years later, he disclosed that he was looking beyond the 400 years' story of Israel in Egypt, so that he could speak positively of the exodus and give commandment that his bones should accompany God's people when they went back to the land. He saw not only the immediate, but the ultimate of God's purpose for his life. All this helps to remind
us that if we are wholly committed to what we know
to be true and have a vision which is larger than
our own well-being, God can do for us what He did
for Joseph — make every circumstance and happening
of life contribute to His divine purpose. Romans
8:28 is absolutely true. "We know that to them that
love God all things work together for good, even to
them that are called according to His purpose". The
Righteousness
of God Joseph shows us
that no harmful thing which comes to us can
interfere with the outworking of God's will for our
lives, provided that we are not found in a way of
deliberate disobedience. We live on the basis of
God's righteousness. Of course, the beautiful thing
about Joseph's life as it is recorded for us is that
he did not make any mistakes. We cannot claim to
have such a record, and because we do blunder we are
prone to be discouraged though we are not really
surprised by calamities which we feel we have
brought on ourselves. What does perplex us, though,
is when we have no sense of having done anything to
deserve them, we yet have to suffer wrong and
injustice. It was so with Joseph, and it was then
that he learned to triumph by faith. We have his
story so that we can get the victory by faith. There
is no need for us to be thinking hard thoughts about
those who have wronged us. To hold a grudge is
something inwardly destructive; its bitterness eats
into us and diverts us from God's purpose for our
life. Never mind our puny righteousness. Let us find
our rest in the rightness of God's ways with us and
get on with His business and purpose.
Authority
for God When
the brothers met Joseph in Egypt they were
powerless before him for in him they came face to
face with the righteousness of God. It was no
longer a matter of Joseph's goodness, whether what
he did or experienced was right, but he now knew
the righteousness of God. This is what came to him
during those years in Egypt. His first son, who
was born before the years of famine, was given the
name of Manasseh, for he said: "God hath made me
forget all my toil, and all my father's house"
(41:51). His early dreams had gone down the tube.
All the hopes of his life had gone. He had come to
an end of himself. All that related to his old
life — however good
it may nave seemed — had had to go down into a
grave so that he would live on a new and
resurrection basis. He had had burned into the
depths of his being that there is another
righteousness which alone can conquer the power
of evil. |