THE "HIDDEN" GOD (Where Is God When It Hurts?) (Gen 37:2-36)

Genesis 37:2-36; Key Verse: Gen 37:23,24

"...they stripped him of his robe...and threw him into the cistern."

Where is God when it hurts? 3 years ago, Arthur preached this Tim Keller sermon, The Hiddenness of God, on Nov 30, 2009. I am doing so again (with a shorter title "The 'Hidden' God"), because it deals with a problem very common to all men. The problem is best framed as a question: Where is God when it hurts so bad? The past 3 weeks (including today), we examined 3 key issues from Genesis that universally affects all people:

1. The (Unquenchable) Search for Love (Gen 29:15-35),
   
2. The (Absolute) Need for Blessing (Gen 32:22-32), and today,
   
3. A Biblical Understanding of (Unjust) Suffering (Gen 37:2-36).

The "Hidden" God. In the next 3 weeks (including today), we will study the Hidden God in Genesis chapter 37, 38 and 39.

1. The Hidden God in Joseph's Sufferings (Gen 37:2-36): Where is God When It Hurts?
   
2. The Hidden God in Judah's Sin (Gen 38:1-30): Man Schemes, God Reigns.
3. The Hidden God in Joseph's Temptations (Gen 39:1-23): Is Your Sin Against God or Man?

Is God incompetent? There is a T-shirt that says, "God works in mysterious, ineffective and breathtakingly cruel ways." Others say, “If God is really in charge of things, he must be really incompetent! Look at all the pain, disappointments and sorrows in my life. If God is really in charge of things, he must be incompetent!” This passage is probably the very best place anywhere in the Bible that addresses directly this thought: "God must be incompetent. Otherwise, why are all these bad things happening to me?"

Let the story draw you in. This account in Genesis is not a series of propositions, principles, or moral lessons. It is a story. It is the narrative of the life of Joseph. If you are willing, let the narrative draw you in, get involved in the story, and understand the narrative. Then you will be able to look at your own life differently. You will have a new perspective and a new understanding of your own life. This is a guarantee.

If you want to begin to get that understanding and perspective in your life, especially regarding the bad things that happen to you, notice three "hidden" things in Joseph's life:

1. The Hidden Depth of Sin (Gen 37:2-11).
2. The Hidden Purposes of God (Gen 37:12-36).
   
3. The Hidden Pattern of Grace (Gen 37:33-34).

I. The Hidden Depth of Sin (Gen 37:2-11)

Before and after a volcano erupts. What does this mean? If you have ever seen a picture of Mount Saint Helens before May 18, 1980, it is a beautiful snow capped mountain in Washington state. There is nothing that looks more permanent than a mountain. There is nothing that looks more stable than a mountain. Then look at this mountain again after May 18, 1980. As permanent and great as that mountain was, inside there was something brewing that was about to blow the top off the mountain.

Jacob's favoritism. It is the same thing with this large, prosperous, and established family of Jacob. But there was something deep inside that was about to blow the top off. What was it? Notice Gen 37:3a: “Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons.” The story behind Jacob's favoritism is convoluted and long. But in a nutshell, Jacob grew up desperately lacking the love and affirmation of his father, because his father Isaac overtly and clearly favored and preferred his brother Esau to him.

The idolatry of love. This resulted in Jacob's inner neediness, his inner lack of affirmation, which drove him in many ways. Most significantly, it drove him was to utterly fix his heart on Rachel. Rachel was a stunningly beautiful woman. Jacob looked at Rachel and says something like this in his heart, “If I had her, then finally that would fix my lousy life!” He did marry her, and he did fix his heart on her, and she had two sons who were the youngest of his 12 sons. Rachel bore Joseph and Benjamin, and died while giving birth to Benjamin. What we can see here, what the narrator telling us here, is therefore the oldest child of Rachel - Joseph - became the new emotional center of Jacob's life.

A good thing becomes a God thing. Jacob gave him - the text says - “a richly ornamented robe” (Gen 37:3b, NIV '84), or "an ornate robe" (NIV 2011). In other translations, it was “many colored” (Septuagint), “a coat of many colors” (KJV, ASV), "a robe of many colors" (ESV, HCSB), "a varicolored tunic" (NASB), "an elaborately embroidered coat" (The Message). The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain and hard to translate. This description of the robe is used in one other place in the OT. It describes the robe of princess Tamar (2 Sam 13:18-19). Many commentators have suggested it has something to do with royalty. By this regal apparel, Jacob may have been publicly designating young Joseph as the ruler over the family and over all of his older brothers. Jacob outlandishly and clearly favored Joseph in a way he did not do with any of his other sons. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt 6:21). In other words, Joseph had become the idol of Jacob's life, a “god” with a small “g” in Jacob’s life, the source, the central source of joy and love in his life.

The poison of favoritism. What happened as a result of this? It poisoned his entire family. This poison of favoritism seeped into all of his own sons. Favoritism has a long history in Jacob’s family (Isaac’s preference for Esau, Rebekah’s for Jacob, and Jacob’s preference for Rachel). In every case it created major problems. Jacob, of all people, should have understood this. His father loved his brother Esau more than him. While Jacob should have been sensitive to favoritism, he repeats the sin of his parents. What did such favoritism do to Joseph?

First, Joseph became a tattletale and a "liar." What happened to Joseph? He was a young man, just 17 years old (Gen 37:2a). Even though he is young, look at what he did. Gen 37:2b says, “he brought their father a bad report about them.” Commentators explain that the Hebrew word for “bad report” is a word that means a “false report,” a lie, or at least a misrepresentation of some kind. Here you have a kid who is turning into a liar. "The first revelation of Joseph's character suggests a spoiled younger child who is a tattletale." (Robert Alter, Genesis, 1996). "Although the narrator blanks the details, the word report (dibbah) by itself denotes news slanted to damage the victim (Prov 10:18)." (Bruce Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary, 2001). "The term dibbah 'tales' is always used elsewhere in a negative sense of an untrue report, and here it is qualified by the adjective 'evil' (cf. Num 13:32; 14:36-37). So it seems likely that Joseph misrepresented his brothers to his father..." (Gordon Wenham, Genesis 16-50, 1994).

Second, Joseph became insensitive and self-centered. Even more than his "lies" was his dreams. The first time he tells his brother the dream, it is pretty obvious what the meaning of the dream is (Gen 37:6-7). Understandably, his brothers are furious, as “they hated him!” (Gen 37:5,8) He gets another similar dream, and what did he do? He went right back and tells the dream to them again (Gen 37:9). What does this show about Joseph? We could think he was naive. But perhaps at the very least that he is a sociopath in the making. At the very least he is pathologically insensitive to the impact of his own words and behavior on other people. But at the very worst he is becoming an evil person. He is becoming an arrogant person. He is becoming a cruel person.

See Jacob - the Jacob who adores Joseph - Jacob had to “rebuke him” (Gen 37:10). What it means is that Joseph telling these dreams must have been incredibly hubristic, arrogant and overweening, that even his father who loved him, had to rebuke him.

The growth of hate. That’s Joseph's life. He was on a path to becoming a schoolyard bully. He was spoiled, selfish, insensitive, arrogant, shallow, maybe even an evil person. What about the brothers? Hebrew narrative is pretty spare. It does not say things unnecessarily, doesn't give unnecessary details.  But three times (Gen 37:4,5,8), it says: “Hate!” “Hate” is growing in them. That is the lava. It is going to blow the top off; this whole family will implode. What do we see? Underneath what looks like a really nice, big, prosperous family, there is the deep hidden depth of brokenness and sins that are going to destroy the family, if somebody doesn't deal with them.

Before moving on let me suggest that we can learn two practical matters:

First, the difference between Religion and the Gospel. There is not a page in the Bible that does not give us the contrast between traditional religion and the Gospel.

Traditional religion and the Gospel are two different things, and the Bible is constantly showing us that. The Bible is not a book about traditional religion, but about the Gospel. What does this mean? For example, what is traditional religion? It is saying, “Here are the rules for right living, the exemplars of right living, the heroes of the faith. Here are the stories of their lives. Now live like them, and God will bless you! Is there a problem? There isn’t anybody; there is nobody! Nobody is wearing a white hat. Rom 3:23 says all are sinners. There is no good guy in here. "There is no one righteous, not even one" (Rom 3:10). There is just brokenness upon brokenness; there is hatred; there is bitterness, there is pride everywhere. What does it mean? What are we supposed to make with these stories? What kind of story is this? How is it supposed to help me to live a good Christian life?

Traditional religion and the Gospel are two different things. The Bible is not mainly trying to show you how to live a good life. If it was, why would we be reading this story? Of course negatively, by way of negation, one can find some good ways not to raise children. Therefore, by inference, you can find some ways how to raise children. But did the author of this passage write this down so we can know how to raise our children better? No. The Bible's purpose is not so much to show you how to live good lives. The Bible's purpose is to show you how grace - God's grace - breaks into your life, against your will, and saves you from the sin and brokenness that you would never otherwise be able to overcome. The purpose of these Bible stories is not so much to show you how to live a good life. The purpose of the stories in the Bible - every page - is to show you how God's grace breaks into your life against your will, and rescues you from the sins and brokenness, which you would never see, would never be able to overcome.  That’s what you see on every page of the Bible. That is not religion; that is the Gospel!  

Religion says, “If you obey then you'll be accepted.” But the Gospel says, “If you are absolutely accepted, and you are only by God's grace - then and only then - would you ever begin to obey.” Religion and the Gospel are two utterly different things. Every page of the Bible alludes to this. Every page the Bible shows us the difference.


Second, you are NOT the result of your own individual choices. Modern western people do not want to hear this. They screen this message out. For instance, you know your parents’ sins, and flaws, and character flaws. You know how much it bothered you. You did not like them growing up. Guess where they are now? They are in you, even if you excessively did everything you possibly could do to be utterly different from them. In either case you are not the product of your own choices, just as Jacob's life was not the result of his own choices. You are not a self-made person. The things that have been done to you are every bit as important as the things that have been done by you, to make you what you are.

What does this mean? You did not get into your troubles through individual choices. You got into your problems, the problems in your life, the flaws and the bad habits, the things that are wrong with you, they didn’t get there through individual choices. You got them through relationships, through bad relationships, such as Isaac's favoritism toward Esau which caused Jacob to have a void in his soul. Therefore, you can only get out of it through relationships. We have problems; we know we do. We got things in our life, fears, pride, selfishness, resentments, and all these problems. What are we going to do about it? 

Does self help and positive thinking improve your life? If you are not a Christian, you buy self-help books, and you do the exercises in the back, which says, “Now identify what is wrong with you. Next, make an action plan. Now do it.” You can read, "The Power of Positive Thinking," or "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People." Perhaps, they might help to some degree. But our flaws, problems and sorrows did not happen through an individual action. It happened through relationships. We will never, even see our flaws except through relationships. The people around us can see us much better than we can. We do not know what is wrong with us. We did not get into what is wrong with ourselves through individual choices alone, and we are not going to get out through our individual choices alone. We need parties acting into our lives with remarkable love and grace. That is what will heal us. We need to put ourselves in communities where this can happen. Most of all, we need to be in a relationship with God. We need to have His power ricochet around in our lives, showing us what is wrong with us (because we do not know what it is), leading us on a journey (to deal with what is wrong with us). We did not get into our troubles through individual choices but mainly through relationships, and we are not going to get out any other way. That is “the hidden depth of sin”

II. The Hidden Purposes of God (Gen 37:12-36)

If we are going understand our own life better, we need to see the hidden purposes of God in Joseph's life. Under the surface of our lives is sin. But under the surface of our lives, God is also at work. Notice 2 things: the dreams and then the accidents.

1st, the dreams. These two dreams are pretty interesting. Let us put it in a historical context. The people here are living in ancient societies, which were incredibly and extremely hierarchical and patriarchal. The basic iron law of the social structure of the day was this: The younger always bows to the older! The older never bows to the younger. On the one hand it means the children always bow to the parents. No matter how old you get, you bow to your parents. So, children always bow to the parents; and the younger children always bow to the older children, especially the oldest. The oldest always received the lion's share of the estate and the wealth. That was the iron law of primogeniture (the right of the firstborn child/son). That was the iron law of that hierarchical society.

These dreams therefore, are radically, socially subversive. These dreams are words from God that says, “I'm going to bring into this family a salvation that absolutely turns on its head the values of the world.” God had a dream for the salvation of His family from famine, and from sin. But the dream was utterly different - completely, radically different - than what the society believed was possible. One of the reasons why the brothers, even the father Jacob was so absolutely outraged by the dreams, is that it is impossible! This could not happen. It is totally ridiculous, outrageous, maddening, impossible. It could never ever happen!  

But it begins to happen. How? Through a series of accidents.

2nd, the accidents. Why might we call it “accidents”?

In this chapter, the narrator describes a series of coincidences, which on the surface, look like chance happenings. Jacob decided to send Joseph to see his brothers, who were grazing herds at Shechem. But the brothers just happened to decide not to stay in Sechem but to go to Dothan, which is a very remote place, where whatever happened there no one would know.  Joseph just happened to come to a place where they had been, and just happened to run into a stranger, who just some days before happened to hear a group of people say they were going to Dothan. Then Joseph was just happened to run right into this stranger. Then when Joseph came, they grabbed hold of him. It just so happened that Ruben was there to save him from being killed, but happened not to be there to save him from being sold. The whole series of events all happened in a certain precise way.

Coincidence? But get this: If Joseph had not been killed, but also not been sold; or if Joseph had been killed, and therefore not sold; if Joseph had not been killed or sold…unless everything happened exactly the way it happened, just in that order, everybody dies. Because the famine is going to come, and Joseph has got to get himself to a place where he has power. The point is that every single little tiny detail; every one of these coincidences could not have been a coincidence. Because if any one of them did not happen, not only the whole family dies, but tens of thousands of other people will die by famine, and thus, the entire messianic line (and God saving the whole world) would die too.

Is God Really Absent? What does it mean? There is no mention of God anywhere here. God never speaks. God does not do any thing. God is never even referred to. God seems to be utterly, absolutely, completely absent. But that is the artistry of the author. Though God seems to be completely absent on the surface, yet He must have been managing down to the minutest detail of every little thing that happened: all the chaotic things, all the awful things, all the terrible things, all the things that seems to make no sense. Yet every single one of them had to happen. God was arranging things for the salvation of His family.

Is God's Redeeming Love Compatible with Unbearable Suffering and Injustice Happening to you? What do we learn here? Consider this proposition: God's wise redeeming love is completely compatible with terrible things happening in the lives of those He loves. God's wise redeeming love for us is compatible with terrible disappointments, and terrible things happening to us.

Stripped and Abandoned. Gen 37:23-24 tells us the brutal thing that happened to Joseph: “So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the ornate robe he was wearing—and they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty; there was no water in it.” The words “stripped” is a word, "a term also used for skinning animals" ( (Wenham, Gordon J. Genesis 16-50. Vol. 2 of Word. 1994.) It means they violently ripped off his clothes, and he was probably thrown naked into that cistern. The word “threw,” from “they took him and threw him,” is a word that has the meaning of to dump a dead body into a grave. It is the same word when Pharoah commanded the Israelites who were slaves in Egypt: "Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile" (Exo 1:22). If this Hebrew word is used with a person who is alive, it means to abandon them to death. Although it doesn’t say here, but in Gen 42:21 when the brothers were reminiscing, they said, "We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen." When they stripped him, and threw him into the cistern, Joseph must have cried. He screamed. He cried out. He asked someone to save him, “Don’t keep me in here! Help me! Get me out of here!” He cried to God. He cried to his brothers. He cried to the darkness, “Why, why?”

The Agony of Suffering in Silence. Look at how violent this was; how a brutal this was! They seized him. They stripped him. They threw him in naked; they abandoned him to die. He cries out, he screams, and nothing happens.

The Only Way to be Saved. If this had not happened, if it did not happen just like this, everybody would have been lost. Not only would they have been lost physically because the famines were coming, and all of them would’ve been wiped out, but they would have been lost spiritually because - as we are going to see - only because Joseph was rejected, only because Joseph was sold into slavery, only because all these awful things happened, will Joseph himself be saved from his pride that was turning him into a wicked person; only will the brothers be saved from the hate which was turning them into a violent person, and even Jacob would be saved from his idolatry of his favorite son Joseph. If all of these awful things that had not happened, there would not have been salvation.

Just Tell Me What My Problem Is, Instead of Putting Me Through Hell! Somebody might say, “Why? Wait a minute, wait a minute!” There are always people who have contrary thoughts with what the preacher says. They say, “Why does this have to be so brutal? I have another way God could have done this: some effulgent angelic being could suddenly appear! He looks at everyone. Everyone would be smitten to the ground. He says, ‘'I come from the Lord. You, Joseph, are a spoiled brat! You, brothers of Joseph have become bitter and hateful, and a murder is about to happen. I'm here to stop it. You, old man Jacob, you have become an idolater, and you have ruined the lives of all your sons. Don’t you see what are you doing?” Then everybody has an epiphany moment, saying, “I see. I see.” Then they hug each other with tears, saying, “I'm so sorry.”

Nobody Learns By Just Being Told. The fact is, if an angel shows up and tells you about your faults and problems, it won’t work. Nobody ever learned about their faults by being told, they have to be shown. Life has to show you. Nobody ever learns that "God loves you" by being told. They have to be shown.

Another Story in Dothan. Centuries later another remarkably similar thing happened in Dothan? In Joseph's time, Dothan was a remote place. In the time of the prophet Elisha, Dothan was a city. Elisha and a servant were in the city, which was surrounded by an enemy army. The army was going to capture them and possibly kill them. But Elisha cried out to God from the pit as it were, and God sent chariots of fire (2 Ki 6:17), a heavenly angelic army that came and blinded the offending army and everyone was saved (2 Ki 6:13-18).

Likely, we would say, “That's the kind of God I want! That's the power of prayer! That’s my idea of how prayer ought to work: You cry out from the pit: ‘please save me!’ Then chariots of fire, angels spring into immediate action!”

Why 2 Different Responses? But wait: same Bible, same God, same place, 2 people crying out similar prayers, “Save me, I’m about to die!” In one case: nobody comes, no chariots of fire, nobody! In the other case: chariots of fire!" Why?

A Simple Salvation and a Complex Salvation. Elisha’s salvation was a simple salvation. All Elisha needed was physical salvation. Joseph’s salvation was a complex salvation. If he had been saved from what he wanted to be saved from, he would have been lost in a more profound way. He had to actually be lost to be saved, and if he had been saved, he would have been lost. He had a go on a journey.  

God's Seeming Silence and Hiddenness is Not His Absence. In other words, God was caring as much for Joseph in His silence, hiddenness, and seeming absence, as He was caring for Elisha with all that immediate dramatic action. Do you understand that? God was caring for and working as much in Joseph’s life as in Elisha's. God's love was active in Joseph's life - in His hiddenness, silence and seeming absence- as He was in Elisha's life of dramatic action. Do you know that?

Peter and John the Baptist in Prison. Do you believe that? Once, Peter gets put into prison and everyone prays and the angel comes and opens the prison door. But John the Baptist gets put into prison and all his disciples pray and he is beheaded. Do you believe that God is working in both kinds of situations?

Think how strong you would be if you really knew that? In other words, if you believe that sometimes God doesn't seem to be answering prayer, but He is actually working out some other way, how strong you would be?

God Turns All Our Deaths into Resurrections. On Easter, we sing: Christ the Lord Is Risen Today: “Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia! Ours, the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!” Do you believe and know in the depth of your being from the narratives here, that God was working just as much lovingly in Joseph's life as he was in the Elisha's life; just as much working in his hiddenness as working in His dramatic intervention? If you believe this, you could really sing this verse: “Ours, the cross, the grave, the skies.” If you don't believe this, then this verse is weird. We sing, "the cross, the grave, the skies." The cross and grave are not my enemies anymore. The words mean, “Come on cross! Come on graves! The lower you lay me, the higher you will raise me! Suffering, come on!" There are 2 or 3 things suffering can do to me: 1) hurt me. But because I know what God is doing, I trust in Him. Then all you are doing by bringing suffering is 2) makes me richer, deeper, better, wiser, and ultimately happier person. Or the worst thing you can do is 3) kill me, take off my head, and you will make me happier than before. Because I have a God who turns all deaths into resurrections - literally as well as figuratively! I have a God, who doesn't create the pride, the evil, the cruelty we see here, but he arranges it, overwhelms it, overrules it, so that all the evil in this passage eventually destroys itself. I have a God, who turns all deaths in the resurrections! Come on, graves! Come on crosses!” (Rom 5:3-5; Jas 1:2-4) That's why Paul taunted death saying, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” (1 Cor 15:55)


Can you Persevere with Confidence and Assurance in Unbearable Suffering? Think of how strong you can be if you could. Or put it this way, God has a dream for His people. God has a vision for our glory, just like a dream for our salvation. But until it is all over; it looks stupid. Joseph has dreams and was told by everybody “that's ridiculous.” Then in the middle of God’s program for Joseph, it still looks ridiculous. It looks ridiculous to Joseph. It looks ridiculous to everybody. God has a dream for your future glory. God has a dream for his people. When you are in the midst of it, you never can figure out what is He doing. But God will not let anything kill the dream for your future glory, not even you. Do you believe that? Do you believe you really cannot mess up your life? Do you believe He works very often the most when He seems the most hidden? Do you believe that “in all things God works for the good of those who loves him” (Rom 8:28)?

If you really believe it, think how strong you would be. But someone says, “I'm having trouble, could you help me? How can I know that? How can I really know that?”

III. The Hidden Pattern of Grace (Gen 37:33-34)

The third thing we see in Joseph's life is not just the hidden depths of sins and hidden purposes of God, but the hidden patterns of grace.

Just 1 Sorrow is Enough to Completely Destroy Me. Years ago, a brilliant Christian, George Herbert, one of the great poets of the 17th century, applied the story of Joseph's coat to his own life practically. He wrote a poem called “Joseph's Coat.” The essence of what Herbert says in that poem is so germane, so relevant to this story and to us. In the poem he talks about suffering, and says that any suffering can completely ruin his life. It says, “If but one grief (or sorrow), among my many, had its full career; it would carry with it, even my heart.” What he means is that any suffering that comes to our life, any disappointment, any trouble can really destroy us spiritually. It can turn us to be hard, bitter, cynical, untrusting, and kill all our joy. It can make us a very bad person. Herbert says that "almost every grief, every suffering that comes in my heart has the potential to completely ruin and destroy me; it can potentially completely ruin my heart."

Do You Know How Much God Loves You? But, he says, when suffering comes into my life, I get something else. He says, “But God has spoiled suffering, and given to my anguish a joyous coat enticing it with relief.” In other words, Hebert says, “I'm suffering and it could make me a really bad person, but along with it God has given me a coat.” What does he mean? He is referring to the whole narrative of Joseph. Here Joseph's coat was a token of how much his father loved him. Joseph's coat was proof that his father adored him. Herbert is saying that “in the midst of my suffering God gave me a coat, a coat of His love. God gave me a token assurance of certainty that he utterly loves me." What was the result? The whole poem can be summed up as such, “Grief can ruin me but I got this coat! God gave me this coat: His assurance of love.” It is like saying, “Wounded I sing, tormented I write and rejoice.” What he sang was that when you mix one part suffering with one part deep assurance of the Father's love, you get a wiser, deeper, happier person. You get a person who understands people better, who can help people better, who understands their own hearts better and who can learn limitless patience in suffering.

Suffering Reduces the Assurance of Love. Suffering all by itself can ruin anyone. But suffering plus an absolute assurance of the love of God can turn us into something great. Some say, “That's nice, except that is not what happens is it?” Because when bad things come in your life, you know what happens: Even if you say “I'm not a Christian”, even if you say “I don’t believe in God”; when suffering come into your life, almost immediately you struggle with this thought: “Maybe I am not living right. Maybe I am not doing right.” When suffering come into your life, you have less assurance that God loves you. You feel like "God had abandoned me," so how the heck this is going to work?  It didn’t make sense.

How Do We Handle Suffering? Is Herbert is right in saying, "If I had a joyous coat, if I had the coat of the Father on me, then I can handle suffering." But how do you get it? The pattern of salvation in Joseph's life was so weird to his brothers. It is so against the world's thinking, because it points to the ultimate pattern of salvation.

Do you Know of One who Suffered for You? Centuries later another One came to his brethren. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him” (Jn 1:11). "He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain" (Isa 53:3a). He was sold for silver, and betrayed by the people closest to him. He was stripped naked, and abandoned to die, crying out in the dark, “Why?” And nobody heard him. Nobody came. No one answered. Not even God His Father who loves him. That was Jesus.

Why Jesus is the Ultimate Joseph? But there is a difference: Joseph is being turned into a savior, the only way God’s salvation would have worked; Jesus was being turned into a savior through weakness in suffering and rejection. Do you see that? Joseph can only save the community because unless being rejected by the community, he could never be their savior - though eventually he was - unless he was first lost, unless he was humbled, unless he was rejected, unless he was sold.  Joseph was being turned involuntarily into the savior for one human family. But Jesus Christ came, and the pit he fell into was vastly deeper. The cry of his dereliction was vastly greater. His nakedness and his sense of abandonment was infinitely beyond anything that Joseph went through. In other words, Jesus came voluntarily to be the savior of us all. Because when Jesus was on the cross, He wasn't just physically naked. He was stripped of His Father's love. Why? He was being punished for our sin (Isa 53:4-5).

I Deserve This Suffering. When suffering hits us, we will always get back in touch with the subliminal deep profound sense that every human being has. It is, "I really deserve some punishment for the way in which I have lived." No human being can get rid of that. It does not matter how much therapy or counseling or Bible study we go to. It is there. It is cosmic. It is part of "the image of God," part of who we are as human beings. When suffering comes, we default to losing any sense of God's love ... unless we see and know this: Here is The One who lost the Father's coat, so we can be assured that we have it. Here is The One who lost the Father's love, paying our penalty so we could know that - in spite of our imperfect life - God loves us. When I ask God to accept me because of what Jesus has done, I get the coat. I know He loves me. If you know that, that means if right now today you are in the pit and you are crying out in dereliction, you cry out "Why am I completely alone?" You are not. Christianity is the only religion that claims that God has suffered, that God has gone into that pit. That God is there. God has also gone in there in the dark besides you. He knows what it is like! He suffered with you. God suffered for you! He did! So you' are not alone. You can know, even in the midst of your suffering, that God loves you. That is what you and I actually and truly need.

Frankly, We Do Not Need Answers. Years ago when Tim Keller was a new minister out of seminary, he had his Bible, and his seminary notebooks. He used to visit people who were sick and in tragedy, who had just lost loved ones, and who were facing death. What did he do? Like all good seminarians, he gave them answers. He told them things. But there was a pastor in town, who was older and wiser. He said, "What you say will not amount to a hill of beans, unless they know you love them. They don't need your answers. They need you. They don't need your talking, they need your presence in times of tragedy."

What Do You Really Need from God? Answers? It would be pretty tough to even know why things were happening in our life. Many have said, "I want to know why this is happening to me?" Try to explain to a 3 y/o what it would take for her to to to college. Probably it is the reason why God does not tell us half the things we ask. How could we know? It would be too much for us to take in! We do not need an intellectual answer anyway. It would not help us. We need only to know that He is with us!

You don't need to know an answer. You need to know His presence. You need to know He is with you. The cross proves that He is. He is The One. He is the ultimate Joseph: "He came to his own, his own received him not," sold for silver, stripped naked, crying out in the dark, lost so we could be saved.

Practical Application: 

#1. Know, and not know what God is doing. Jacob in Gen 37:11 has the only balanced approach to this. Joseph said, "I know what God is doing. God is turning me into the prince." Having no idea exactly how hard it is going to be, he's filled with naïveté. On the other hand, the brothers said, "No way! This is stupid. It will never happen." In other words, Joseph represents the people who said, "I know exactly what God is doing in my life," and the brothers represent the people who said, "God isn't doing a thing. He has abandoned me. Everything is over."

If you think you know what God is doing in your life, put it on hold. As soon as you think, "God is doing this, so that eventually I will be able to do this, and then that," but when that scenario falls apart, you would say God is not working. Know that God is working. Just do not think that you know exactly what God is up to. Know, and not know.  Know that God is working. Know that God is there. Know that God's arms are under you. But do not ever jump to conclusions about exactly what God is exactly doing. That is the healthy balance! Don't be naive. Don't be so cynical. Know, and not know.

#2. Go get the coat. It takes Bible study; it takes prayer; it takes life of contemplation; it takes a decent life of discipline. No one ever gets that incredible sense of God's love all the time. We get it in periods. We get it in episodes. But even the memory of God's love sustains us. That is what we need. Go get the coat! Know and not know, regardless of what happens, or does not happen.

#3. It is never too late for God's redemption. Oftentimes, I think, "My gosh, I just did not do that right earlier. Now it seems too late. My bad habits are all in my kids. Almost all of them are sports fanatics. One or two of them seem kind of angry. Where did they get that from? Mainly from my wife?" But it is never too late for God's redemption. Look at Jacob's family, the family through which God will save the world. Look at it. They are all grown up, and they want to kill each other! It's never too late. It's never too late.

#4. God's silence is not absence. The gloom of the cross is that God was absent. He abandoned His Son to die alone in darkness. But God abandoned Jesus so that He can be with us as Immanuel (Mt 1:23). Jesus suffered with us, and for us. Then we can live life like George Herbert. The last two lines of his poem says, "I lived to show His power, who once did bring; first my joy to weep, but now even my grieves to sing." "I lived to show His power, who once did bring; first my joy to weep, but now even my grieves to sing." Even my grieves!

References:

1. Altar, Robert. Genesis: Translation and Commentary. New York: W W Norton & Company. 1996, 208-216.
   
2. Greidanus, Sidney, Preaching Christ from Genesis. Chap. 18. Joseph's Sale into Slavery (Gen 37:2-36). Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmas Publishing Co. 2007, 335-356.
3. Kidner, Derek. Genesis: An Introduction & Commentary. Downers Grove: IVP. 1967, 179-186.
4. Krell, Keith. Extreme Home Break-Up (Gen 37:2-36).
5. Duncan, Ligon. The Favorite (Gen 37:1-17).
6. Duncan, Ligon. The Lord Meant It For Good (Gen 37:18-36).
7. Keller, Timothy. The Hiddenness of God (Gen 37:2-13, 23-34).
8. With all this suffering, how could there be a God? Tim Keller.