June 16, 2024: Message: Fathers, Trust the Lord Who is With You | Scripture: Genesis 39 | Speaker: Pastor Stephen Choy
Worship Songs: 10,000 Reasons | How Deep The Father’s Love For Us | Our God Will Go Before Us
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Introduction
If able, please stand with me as I read to you from Genesis 39. TWoL: 1 Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. 2 The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 His master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD caused all that he did to succeed in his hands. 4 So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. 5 From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had, in house and field. 6 So he left all that he had in Joseph’s charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.
Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. 7 And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, “Lie with me.” 8 But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. 9 He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” 10 And as she spoke to Joseph, day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or to be with her.
11 But one day, when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was there in the house, 12 she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. 13 And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, 14 she called to the men of her household and said to them, “See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. 15 And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.” 16 Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, 17 and she told him the same story, saying, “The Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us, came in to me to laugh at me. 18 But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.”
19 As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, “This is the way your servant treated me,” his anger was kindled. 20 And Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison. 21 But the LORD was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. 22 And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. 23 The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the LORD was with him. And whatever he did, the LORD made it succeed.
I’ve seen it done at other churches before where the presider will say, “may the Lord be with you,” and the congregation responds, “and with you.” It’s meant to evoke a blessing from God between a pastor and his people. Is that something we can attempt? May the Lord be with you.” [And with you.]
I wanted to start it off that way for us because that is what our text is about. The Lord being with his people. It bookends all of chapter 39: “The Lord was with Joseph.” But the reason why I chose this passage for today isn’t just to tell you, fathers, that the Lord is with you, but to reset your expectations of what it means for the Lord to be with you and for you to find success in him. See, I know being a father is hard, carrying out your ministry is hard, and I also know that when you succeed in that ministry, it’s very easy to get puffed up with pride in your success—you have Christian kids—your Sunday School class comes to faith, and you think, privately, secretly, “I caused that.” (Or it fails, and you think the Lord isn’t with me).
Now, most of us who are fathers, physically or spiritually, in this room know not to actually say or think these things out loud, but how often does our knowing actually correspond to our being and acting? How often do we say the right words whilst letting that pride or self-pity sit at the back of our minds, provide us with false assurance or doubt as to God’s being with us? I imagine all of us, fathers, mothers, children—all of us have felt this way at one time or another.
This is why the imperative that I want to drive home today from our text, particularly, for our fathers, young or old, is that you/we are to trust the Lord who is with you. This might be a phrase you’ve heard before—I hope it’s an imperative that you already know, but I want to give you two ways that you’re not meant to trust the Lord and then present you with the one way that you are. That’s where we’re headed this morning, and we’ll start in our first point: fathers, trust the Lord who is with you
1) Not by Envying or Expecting, for Yourself, the Success Others
What’s important for us to know in context here isn’t just that Joseph was the son of Jacob sold by his brothers into slavery (ch. 37), but that this story is the culmination of what Genesis is all about. See, a lot of people are right to say that this book has two beginnings. There’s Genesis 1, which talks about the beginning and establishment of humanity, and then there’s Genesis 12, which marks the start of God’s plan of salvation after Adam falls in Genesis 3, through his covenant to Abraham. Those are the two big stories that people generally say characterize this first book of the Torah.
What I want to do is reconfigure that understanding of this book, in that, instead of thinking of it as two big stories, think of it as one account of God’s covenantal initiative to make and keep a people for himself. The story of Joseph doesn’t start with Abraham, it starts with Adam and the covenant that God had with Adam—a covenant from God for Adam to live and prosper and multiply and grow in his fellowship with God if he obeyed God’s command—not to eat of the tree of good and evil, and if he disobeyed that same command, death would follow. And, as we all know, Adam disobeys the command bringing sin into the world, which means now there has to be a new type of covenant—one where sin is presumed in offering—one where, in order for God to make and keep a people for himself, someone will have to deal with that sin and death problem.
So, it starts with Noah, and he fails—he can’t live up to the hype of righteousness and break the curse of sin. That’s when Abraham comes along, and God makes a covenant with him, only this time, when the covenant is made in Genesis 12, 15, and 17, God makes a promise that if the covenantal partner fails—if Abraham fails—the one who will be the sacrifice—the one who will be responsible for keeping the covenant intact isn’t Abraham, it’s God.
This is what we see, specifically, in Genesis 15:17—God marks himself as the sole initiator, sustainer, and perfecter of the covenant. Why? Because God will be the one who makes and keeps a people for himself. Adam in a state of sinlessness couldn’t do it. Noah as one who was, at first, righteous in a sinful world couldn’t do it. So, instead of Abraham doing it, God says, “Through Abraham, I’ll do it myself.”
And this context is so important for Genesis 39 because, like I said, right at the start, we get what the entire passage is about. It’s not about Joseph’s success. It’s not about Joseph’s trials. It’s about the fact that in his success and trials, it is the Lord who is with him, and it is the Lord who helps him in his prevailing and in his failing. Genesis 39 is a display of God keeping his covenant promises intact to save his people who clearly cannot save themselves.
If you think I’m exaggerating this, just look how many times the word “Lord” is used in this text. Now, I can’t speak for all the translations, but if you have a CSB, NASB, NIV, or ESV, anytime the covenant name of the Lord is used (יהוה), it is put in capital letters: L-O-R-D. And if you’re a quick counter, you’ll see that the capitalized LORD is used eight times in Gen 39. Do you know how many times the covenant name of the Lord is used in other parts of Joseph’s story, not including when Jacob blesses his sons in chapter 49 (which, for those of you who don’t know, only appears once in that chapter in reference to Dan)? Zero.
Eight times it’s used in this singular chapter, and all eight times make it clear that it is the covenant Lord who accomplishes these things for Joseph—Joseph’s about to meet with a lot of success, but this text is about how the Lord gives it to him, and it’s the Lord who blesses others through him. Five of those eight times show up in the first five verses of chapter 39: (v.2) The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man. (v. 3) The master saw that the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord caused all that he did to succeed. (v.5) The Lord blessed Potiphar’s house for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had.
The Lord keeps his covenant: I will bless you, and through you, I will bless the nations!
And from this, we are to learn two very important things. The first is to ask that as the covenant people of God, are we envious when others succeed, and we do not? Fathers, in this room, especially, are you in competition with other fathers—trying to outshine them in how much money you make, how much you can afford for your wife and children, how much you boast either inwardly or outwardly in your accomplishments? Or perhaps, inside the home, are you envious and competitive with your wife, unwilling to lay yourself down for her and instead seeking to control and manipulate her so that your ego is assuaged? Or maybe, even worse, you compete with your own children, unwilling to let them outshine your accomplishments, knowledge, or abilities.
I’ve said this in weeks past, but in my own ministry, I look at what I do. I can see some of my gifts and abilities, and I am tempted to boast in them so much so that when another pastor begins to do better, draw in more people, hire more associates, take up more gospel-initiatives, I think, “how”? I read more books. I try to answer all the difficult questions as intelligently and coherently as possible. I love my people. I pray for my people. I pray for revival. And yet, that church is flourishing! That church is accomplishing my vision!
Yet, as I read this text, what dawns on me, and what ought to dawn on all of us, is that the Lord gives to some what he is pleased to give, and he gives differently in proportion to others. One commentator puts it this way: “we all know the parable of the talents. We all think of ourselves as the one with five talents, but someone’s got to be the two and someone else is the one.” And sometimes we ask, “why can’t I be the five and he be the one?” When the real question we should be asking is, “why have I been given one at all?”
See, the context of our passage in Genesis is so important when we realize that the Lord is with us when he shouldn’t be. The Lord shouldn’t have helped Joseph. Joseph deserved what he got without the successes. We deserve nothing good because we broke the covenant. We can’t carry out the commands. Yet, the Lord was with him in all that he did, and so too, the Lord is with us beyond what we deserve.
What’s more is that, if God has blessed us already with more than we deserve, then shouldn’t our posture be one of deep rejoicing and victory when others receive greater than what they deserve, even if what they’re receiving is more than us? As I look at these other ministries, these other families, these other churches, you know what I realized? I realized that I’m not serious about revival and growing our people if I’m unable to pray and glorify God for revival in that other church first. Why? Because success always and only comes from the Lord.
Sure, you might have nicer things than the guy next to you, but things, accomplishments, worldly boasts do not measure your success. The Lord does. Hezekiah was marvellously faithful and penitent until he had his health and riches, and when he became healthy and rich, what did he do? He took pride at the work of his own hands, and he showed his storehouses—he bragged to the Babylonians, and what did God do? He cursed Hezekiah’s house.
And fathers, what I want to ask you today, and really what I want to ask all of us here today, is whether we’ve come to appreciate that everything we have and are and everything that that other person has and is, do we realize that all of it comes from the Lord who is with you, or do we sit in our envy and our complaining, thinking that we deserve better?
Or perhaps, secondly, you really are in the gutter. Maybe things really aren’t going well for you at all. You’re overcome by your sin perpetually. You’ve lost your job. Someone in your family who you care for deeply has just professed to walking away from the Lord. Your child or your wife refuses to come to church. You feel like you’re in a pit. In that moment, is your expectation, when the Lord says that he is with you—do you expect him to suddenly make your situation better? Is your expectation that God is like some mystical fairy godmother or a genie who grants you wishes when your back is against the wall?
Maybe you’ll notice with me that Joseph doesn’t have an easy life. He finds himself in desperate straights here, again, being punished when it feels wrong for him to be punished. In fact, there are a lot of parallels between what we see happening here in chapter 39, and what happens to him in chapter 37—that story about Joseph and his multi-coloured coat.
In 37, he’s favoured by his father, just like he’s favoured by Potiphar in 39. In both chapters, he’s put over everyone else—he’s given a coat over his brothers with Jacob, and with Potiphar, he’s the master of all the slaves. In both chapters, he’s stripped of his outer garment. In both, that outer garment is used as an excuse to vindicate the wrongdoer—his brothers poured blood on his coat and said an animal killed him—Potiphar’s wife uses his garment to say that he tried to seduce her. In both, Joseph is obedient to his master—first to his father and then to Potiphar. And in both chapters, he’s thrown into a pit to rot.
In both, Joseph’s situation is dire, and his suffering is great. In fact, we’re told that Joseph, after he’s thrown into prison, those who are supposed to redeem him forget about him for a long while. And yet, even in the gutter—even in the pit, it says the Lord was with him.
What I mean in all of this is to say that I hope your trust in the covenant keeping name of the Lord is not dependent on how well God treats you in a particular moment, or how much he endows to you, or how easy your life is. No, I hope your trust in the Lord is based solely on the fact that he is with you despite you having once rejected him. You may not receive the same blessings as others, and your circumstances may not become instantly better in suffering, but I hope in those moments of envy and self-pity you remember that he is your covenant God, and he will do what is best for you, even when you don’t yet see it.
2) Not by Anticipating a Life Without Temptation
Joseph wasn’t married, but he had been placed in charge of a house—to run it, to provide for it, to ensure the safety and security of those who lived in it—to do so with integrity, as if the house were his own. And yet, even in his meticulous effort and great success in making that home what it ought to have been, despite his prodigious intelligence and, most importantly, his faith and fellowship in God, he always faced the temptation to sin.
I’ve heard it said this way, “sin, and in particular, sexual sin, is no respecter of persons.” It doesn’t matter who you think you are, how well you’ve set up your guardrails, how disciplined you are, how strong in your devotions and meditations you are, the temptation to sin will always darken the doorstep of your life. Just think as to how John says it, “if we go on saying we don’t sin—thinking there is no temptation that I need to fight and struggle with—we make ourselves to be liars, and thus, sinners.” Even the temptation to think there are no temptations in our lives—no real sins of threat—shows just how inherently insidious our sin is.
And Joseph was probably the greatest of the men depicted in Genesis—greater in character even than Abraham. This is why in Genesis 41:38, Joseph is the only one in this book recognized as being possessed with the Spirit of God. Yet, even this great man, could not escape the temptation to sin. And thus, fathers, for those of us who are placed in charge of a house—to run it, to provide for it, to ensure its safety—whether you do that at home, here at church, or both—it would be utter foolishness for any of us to think that we might be any different from him. Yet, how many of us live in drastically different ways towards our temptation than Joseph did?
And just so that you get what Joseph was dealing with, look at how prevalent, intentional, and weighty his temptations were. They were prevalent in that verse 10 tells us that Potiphar’s wife lusted so intensely after him that she spoke to him—she sought to entice and entrap him—not once or twice, but day after day—no relenting. No respite.
Yet, it wasn’t only prevalent and ongoing, it was intentional. Look at her words. There’s no hiding of what she wants. “Lie with me. Lie beside me. Be with me.”
Imagine the weight of what’s happening here. This is the most powerful woman that Joseph knows. He’s a smart guy. He knows that if he doesn’t listen to her, she could ruin his life: “If I don’t sleep with her, maybe I get fired, and if I get fired, this house falls into disarray, so I’m doing this to make sure that doesn’t happen. I’m doing Potiphar a favour.” Or, perhaps, he thought, “I work so hard, I give my whole life to this house, why shouldn’t I get to partake in the pleasure that it offers? I deserve this.” Or, maybe even, looking at the words she uses, he could have tricked himself: “she’s just asking me to lie beside her. I mean no one could accuse me of wrongdoing if I lie down on a bed. I work so hard. Maybe if I just put my head down on this pillow. Doesn’t mean I’ll actually sleep with her.”
How many of us are like this with our temptations? “I’m doing this for the greater good—my own greater good, my family’s greater good, my coworkers’ greater good.” Or, “I deserve this. I’m exhausted, and I should get to make a decision for myself—I should get “me” time. I’ve given so much for others, what about me?” Or, “what if I just take a peak, or if I just do this innocuous, innocent thing, it doesn’t mean that I’ll keep going and do that big bad thing, right?”
Yet this is exactly why the apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 5:8: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Be sober-minded, why? Because as soon as we start thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought—as soon as we start believing the lies of the devil—that we can play God, that we are worthy, that we are in control of the prevailing forces acting against us, that’s when he snatches at us, bites us, and before we know it, devours us—which leads Peter to say in verse 9 with all pleading and power: RESIST HIM!
Notice, Joseph doesn’t just linger there in the house before Potiphar’s wife, wondering if he should or shouldn’t do this. No, it says he flees sin. He resists it with all his might—all his power—all his wherewithal, even though he runs away wearing nothing at all. It is better to run away in that brief moment with nothing than to forever lose everything. And you know how he does it? He does it by placing his ultimate, true pleasure in the Lord, in having the favour of the Lord, in knowing his everything is in the Lord’s being with him.
This is what he says: “How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?” Remember, there is no law yet. Moses hasn’t received the ten commandments. Yet, Joseph knows in his bones that this is wrong. Why? Because he knows the covenant Lord who was with him. Let me say it this way, it’s because he understood covenant. He understood what was at stake between Potiphar and his wife. He understood what was at stake between himself and Potiphar who gave him all things to partake of in that house except for his wife. More importantly, Joseph understood what was at stake between him and his God, and to violate this woman who was covenanted to another would not only symbolize his rebellion against the covenant between him and Potiphar, but it would symbolize his distrust in his God to be with him and to help him even through the greatest of temptations.
In the same way, fathers, pay special attention to the covenants in your life and hold them with all dearness not only because they are precious but because they are given by God and because they symbolize your trust in him. Beware of the temptation of sin. Trust that the Lord is better. Trust that his plans for all that he’s given you to keep and protect is better than that sin that tempts you to trust in yourself, and as you trust him over yourself, know that he strengthens you to flee—to flee right to him—because he is always with you.
3) By Finding Your Sufficiency in God
Maybe, like me, you tend to think that something as brief as the phrase “the Lord is with you” means very little. Just look at Joseph. As he’s thrown into that pit, it seems like there is no one there for him. It seems like everyone has abandoned him. Naked he came into the world, and naked, it seems, he will leave it. What good is it that the Lord is with him?
And sometimes being a father feels like this. Sometimes it’s a lonely, thankless job. Sometimes the temptations are immense. Sometimes people offer terrible advice, and you’re just stuck in the grind of life without anywhere to turn. There are days where you come home from work, and you don’t want to see or talk to anyone. There are Sundays where you’ll come to church after the most horrendous, most difficult of weeks, and you won’t want to love on that brother or sister beside you.
And for some reason, we’ve conditioned ourselves to think that the reminder of the Lord being with us means hardly anything at all—doubting that his sufficiency is actually sufficient for whatever it is we’re going through. Right? Praying the Lord be with you, ______, what good is that?
Well, let me tell you how good it is. Because the pit, for us, is not the end of the story. No, because when the Lord says that he is with us, he means it. He meant it so much that, even as the most favoured Son, he obeyed his Father’s Word and came to dwell with lowly sinners. He meant it so much that, even when he had the whole universe at his fingertips, he came to serve the worthless. He meant it so much that, even when he had eternal, omnipotent life and was offered the world without suffering, he wasn’t only obedient to the Father, but he let us take his garment of righteousness, crucify him, take him from that cross, throw him in a pit, and leave him to rot.
And he does this so that when we bring that garment to our Father who is in heaven, even though we are the wrongdoer—even though we belong in that pit, we are vindicated. We are forgiven. We are made and kept as a people for God. We are given the Spirit of God to help. We are shown covenant, steadfast love.
Fathers, Christians, you may feel alone right now. You may feel like you’re at a loss, left in a pit, rotting away, but I hope you might find new life, new hope when you hear the words, “the Lord is with you.” They are not meaningless words. You are never alone. You never have to doubt. In fact, so great is his abiding fellowship and love with you through Christ that he gives you not only the power to persevere yourself, but he fills you with hope as you pray, “Lord, be with my kids who I know are entirely in your hands.” “Lord, be with my wife who I know I don’t deserve, yet you’ve called me to love.” “Lord, be with my church and with all your saints as we seek to glorify your name and your gospel.”
Trust in the sufficiency of God in all things because his all-sufficient Son who died on a cross to bring you out of the grave into eternal life with him—he is with and at work in you to do more and better than what you can possibly imagine.
So, church, let’s try this again, as I say to you these words this Father’s Day: “may the Lord be with you.” [And the church says, “and with you.”]
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