BACKGROUND:
After the important digression in the family history of Judah (chapter 38), the narrative returns to Joseph who had prospered under God and had become the attendant or steward over Potiphar’s household. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh. This Pharaoh was probably Sesostris II (1897-1879 b.c.). Joseph’s presence was also the means of God’s blessing on Potiphar.
Yet God tested Joseph with Potiphar’s wife to see if he was obedient. When she tempted handsome Joseph, he refused to go to bed with her for that would be a sin against both God and his master. He then deliberately and wisely sought to avoid her daily advances by refusing even to be around her. His refusal was strengthened because he was convinced that God had called him to a special task—he had seen evidence of that in his rise from slavery. If one is to fulfill God’s plan, he cannot sin against the God who will bring it about.
Potiphar’s wife, humiliated by Joseph’s refusal of her, fabricated a lie to accuse Joseph of assaulting her. She showed to her household servants and then to Potiphar the garment that Joseph left when he fled from her persistent advances. This was the second time Joseph’s clothing was used to bring a false report about him. In both cases he had been serving faithfully. But in both cases Joseph ended up in bondage.
Joseph prospered in prison by God’s favor. As a result, the jailer put Joseph in charge of the prison. Joseph had prospered under God in Potiphar’s house and was put in charge, and here again he prospered under God and was put in charge. Four times, this chapter affirms, the Lord was with Joseph - verse 23 is our memory verse this week. As you memorize it, be reminded that God is faithful. He will not abadon you - ever. He is always by your side.
This chapter shows that Joseph was a faithful servant of God. With the dreams of prosperity in his memory (37:6-7, 9) he remained loyal to God rather than yield to temptation at the first glimpse of his rise to power. Wise rulers recognize that allegiance to God is the first requirement of an ideal king. Israel too would learn that she should remain faithful to the Lord in spite of the consequences, which included the suffering of the righteous.
SO WHAT? (what will I do with what I have read today?)
So, Joseph gets the dream. Then immediately comes point number two. It always comes immediately when you get a God given dream.
#2. THE TESTING OF THE DREAM.
If it’s God given, Satan doesn’t want you to have it. It’s going to change the world. If it’s God given, God wants to test it so it can be strengthened and refined. From both sides you’re going to get testing of the dream. Dreams will always face tests. And Joseph's faced at least three of them.
1. Test of denial. You’ll face that. You’ll have people who say, “That’s not God’s dream for your life. Where do you get that?” The test of denial. Someone who just says, “That’s not true.” Why do people deny your dreams?
One, because they don’t have any dreams of their own. There are some people who don’t have any dreams and people who do have dreams frighten them. That’s why the brothers were so frightened. They had no God given dreams and here’s somebody who did and they realized what that dream meant. There are some people, when you share a God given dream, it scares them to death because they don’t have any dreams of their own.
A second reason is there are some people who don’t want a God given dream. It’s not that they don’t have a God given dream. It’s that they don’t want a God given dream of their own. The number one reason for this is disappointment. When you and I have been disappointed in a dream that we have and someone else comes along and shares a dream, our natural reaction to them is to put down their dream. Why? Because we’ve been hurt. We’ve been disappointed. It’s a natural feeling we have in our lives. We’ve got to watch out for that. I remember when Sharon and I were waiting for children and we’d hear that someone else, their God given dream for a child had come into their lives, the natural reaction, honestly, was not to rejoice with them. That wasn’t our natural reaction. The natural reaction was, “They obviously aren’t as spiritual as we are, don't pray as much as I do. So why is God giving them this dream?” This happens all the time. So you and I need to be careful not to quench others dreams when this happens. And we need to realize that other people who have been disappointed in life will try to quench our God given dream.
That’s why denial comes in. So often when you share a dream, instead of people being excited about it like you’d expect, they’ll try to quench it. That’s test number one.
#2. Test of doubt. It’s not just saying that it’s not true but saying, “I don’t know if God really wants this.” You can see in the reactions of the brothers and of the father and the family all the different expressions that doubt can take. Hatred to questions to rebuke. You’re going to face doubt whenever you have a God given dream.
The third test is the worst of all. It’s most unexpected if you’ve never heard anyone tell you this. If you have a God given dream, it’s really from God, most likely it’s going to face the
#3. Test of destruction. It’s going to look like that dream gets totally wiped out. There’s no way that it can come true. It happens to Joseph. 37:12 we hear the story. Joseph was still 17. His father sends him about 30 miles north to the fields of Shechem to find out how his brothers and the flocks are doing. The last time Joseph had gone out to see how his brothers were taking care of the flock he’d brought back a bad report to the father so the relationship isn’t going too well. And after two dreams the brothers are mad at him. They see Joseph coming from a long distance. As they see him coming, they say, “Here’s an idea. Here’s how we can take care of this problem. Let’s kill him. If we kill him the problem will be gone.” Then someone else says, “We can’t kill him. He’s our brother. Let’s sell him. Then we can make money out of this. That’s a lot better way to go.” That family had a few problems!
And they sell their brother as a slave. They take that multicolored coat, the richly ornamented robe that was the symbol of the fact that he was loved more than any of the others and they put blood on it and take it back to the father and they say, “Jacob’s dead. He’s gone.”
The family starts to disintegrate. We’re going to see what happened to this family because of thee actions. For now, we’re going to follow through on Joseph and what happened to him.
He’s sold into slavery. Remember, he’s had a dream. He was going to rise up above his brothers, above his father and mother. He was going to be a ruler. A great dream! Yet the first step in the fulfillment of this dream is he becomes a slave. Could anything be further from his God-given dream? Destruction.
Joseph is put in a place that seemed as far away from God’s dream for his life as possible. Does that make sense to you? It makes sense to God. It makes sense when you understand the life of faith.
Why do dreams face tests? To provide answers. When dreams face tests we find out whose dream it really is. When dreams face tests, we find out if it’s my idea or God’s will. How do our dreams past the test?
** When I face the test of denial, the answer is commitment. When someone denies the dream it’s an opportunity for me to express a new and fresh commitment to God and to that dream.
** When I face the test of doubt, the answer is scripture, God’s word. For Joseph God’s word was the dream, he had to go back to the dream again for God’s word. But we have a Bible to look at. We can look at this Bible to find the answers for God’s dream for our lives. Dreams are personal so when people react with doubt at our dream we often react with anger. One of the common things when people doubt our dream, especially if it’s someone important to us – a parent, brother, sister, close friend, pastor – is an angry reaction of “I’ll prove them wrong.”
What happens then is our dream turns into a vendetta. Instead of following God’s dream for our lives we’re trying to prove somebody else wrong. That’s no way to find God’s will for our lives. Instead of saying, “I'm going to prove somebody else wrong” or instead of allowing somebody else’s doubts to cause you to admit defeat and give up, there’s a better test. It’s the test of scripture.
God given dreams always have to past the test of scripture. What does God’s word say? Does it strengthen this dream or are there some things here that make me begin to doubt this is God’s dream for my life. When you take a God-given dream and you start to read through God’s word with that dream on your mind saying, “Lord, if it’s right, show me. If it’s wrong, show me.” When you start to ask people you respect who know the word, “Is this a God given dream, does it fit with scripture?” one of two things are going to happen. You’re either going to find out it’s not God’s dream or it is. And if you find out it is, the test of scripture does two great things. First of all it adds authority to your dream and it adds assurance to your dream. If you get God’s authority you know you have something to say. But also you know you have an inner assurance.
What if it doesn’t pass the test? Let’s say you’ve got a God given dream (you think) for fast food Japanese food. Nobody’s doing this. This is God’s dream for my life – sushi in a sack. A God-given dream. You’re thumbing back through the book of “Hezekiah” someday (I know there’s no such book) and you find a little known verse that says, “Thou shalt not sack sushi.” It’s there. It just flies out at you. What do you do? What do you do when your dream and God’s word don’t match?
We do what many of us do. We try to change God’s word. “It doesn’t really mean what it said. In the context that this was written, sushi was different in that day than it is today.” All these things we say.
If you have what you believe is a God given dream and you’re reading God’s word and He shows you clearly that it’s not His will for your life, what do you do? You fall on your knees and you praise God! You thank Him that He saved you from the hurt and the heartache that the dream would have taken you into. Praise Him for His word. Humbly say, “My ways aren’t Your ways. You have higher ways than I do. I need your direction for my life.” You should be more thankful than anything for those times in your life when God says, “That is not the way to go.” Think of the heartache He’s going to save you. Don’t try to change His word. Let His word change and mold your life. It’s tough when it’s a dream though, because dreams are so personal. But let His word change and mold your life.
** When I face the test of Destruction - what happens when it seems like the dream has been wiped out? Everything that you were building on to make this dream happen God knocked all the cards down. What do you do then? You ask yourself the question, “Am I willing to wait for the dream?” Then you ask, “How long?’ The answer is time. Usually God’s dreams take some time to fulfill. They’re not very often instantaneous things. They take time to fulfill. When it seems like there’s no possible way for this dream to happen in your life, God has you right where He wants you. That’s the very moment He can show us it’s His dream done His way in His power and no other way.
Ponder these things today. I love you guys. Stay faithful. Stay the course.
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