25-1102p - Detailed Summary

Steve greets the congregation and introduces the evening’s topic: showing God’s divine intervention in providence in Joseph’s life, portraying Joseph as a pawn in God’s hand. The reading is identified as a prophecy, and according to Moses in Deuteronomy 18, prophecies must come to pass or the prophet speaks presumptuously. God has spoken to Abraham multiple times, assuring him of His presence, promising to curse those who curse him and bless those who bless him, and that he need not worry about his path or contacts. This promises divine intervention in providence and salvation. Steve urges the congregation to cement this concept in their lives, as God is working in everyone’s lives to enable eternal presence with Him in heaven.

God desires that none should perish but all come to salvation and cleansing. This applies to everyone who has ever lived or will live, as God works in their lives to draw them to Him. Steve is convinced of this and directs attention to Acts 17, where Paul addresses the Athenians about an unknown God for whom they have ignorantly erected an altar. Paul wants to inform them about this God.

Paul is invited to the Areopagus and addresses the Athenians, noting their religiosity and observing their objects of worship, including an altar inscribed “To an unknown God.” He proclaims that they ignorantly worship this God. The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth, not living in human-built temples nor served by human hands as if needing anything; instead, He gives life, breath, and everything else to all. From one man, He made all nations to inhabit the earth. This highlights God’s divine intervention and interaction with His creation, influencing people in every way. He marked out appointed times in history and boundaries of lands so that people would seek Him, reach out, and find Him, though He is not far from any. In Him, we live, move, and have our being, as some poets have said, and we are His offspring. Paul emphasizes God’s involvement in the world despite appearances otherwise.

As studied in recent classes, after Adam and Eve ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the first prophecy in Genesis 3:15 foretells reconciliation. God tells the serpent that He will put enmity between it and the woman, and between their seeds; the serpent will bruise the heel of her seed, but her seed will bruise the serpent’s head. This is the first indication of God’s plan to reconcile humanity through the seed line of Jesus. This seed line is recorded in Genesis, Matthew, and Luke, showing how God divinely intervened to ensure specific individuals were in it. Steve focuses on how God intervened to fulfill the prophecy about Abraham’s seed being in a foreign land, as part of the plan for salvation through Christ.

God needs to move Jacob, now called Israel, to Egypt, but Jacob refuses to leave the promised land given to his forefathers Abraham and Isaac, and promised to him personally by God. This land is to be deeded to Abraham’s heirs and seed line, so Jacob is firmly settled there, believing in the promise with all his heart, mind, and strength. Through divine intervention, providence, and preservation, God will accomplish this. Steve encourages examining one’s own life—marriage, children, job—to see God’s hand guiding toward heaven. God ensures the path to heaven and the fulfillment of the prophecy and seed line.

To get Jacob to Egypt, God uses his son Joseph through divine intervention and providence. The story begins in Genesis 37, where Joseph, at 17, tends flocks with his brothers, sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, and brings a bad report about them to Jacob, essentially tattling, which angers them. This hatred is compounded by Jacob’s favoritism toward Joseph as the son of his favorite wife Rachel, shown by making him a beautiful coat. This cements the brothers’ jealousy and anger. With 12 boys total, 11 are against Joseph, hating and despising him. While tending flocks, Jacob sends Joseph with food to check on them, but first, Joseph has two dreams. In one, 11 sheaves bow to his sheaf; he tells his brothers, who interpret it as them bowing to him and react angrily, refusing the idea. God uses this hatred, jealousy, strife, anger, and other people to accomplish His purpose and preserve the plan.

Joseph dreams again, this time of the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowing to him. He shares this vision with his father, who responds with incredulity and mild rebuke, asking whether he truly expects his mother, father, and brothers to bow before him. Jacob declares such a thing impossible.

The brothers, already inflamed, react with open scorn. In Genesis 37:8, they challenge Joseph directly: “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” Their hatred intensifies because of both the dream and his bold retelling of it. God orchestrates Joseph’s removal from the family through this very hatred, using human spite as the vehicle to propel him anywhere but home toward his ultimate destiny.

The brothers pasture Jacob’s flocks near Shechem. Jacob dispatches Joseph to check on their welfare and the flocks’ condition. Joseph obediently sets out. As he approaches in the distance, the brothers spot him, their immediate reaction revealing deep-seated contempt—the sight of him is the last thing they wish to see.

In Genesis 37:19-20, they mock him as “the dreamer” and conspire to kill him, cast his body into a cistern, and claim a wild beast devoured him, sneering that this will settle his dreams. Reuben intercedes, urging them to throw him alive into the pit instead. The brothers strip Joseph of his multicolored coat, slaughter a goat, dip the garment in blood, and present this fabricated evidence to Jacob, who recognizes it as his son’s and concludes Joseph has been torn apart.

A caravan of Ishmaelite traders approaches. The brothers sell Joseph rather than kill him, profiting while ridding themselves of him. The speaker underscores God’s providence moving Joseph exactly where intended. The Ishmaelites transport him; Midianite merchants sell him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer and captain of the guard. Joseph functions as a divine pawn; the speaker wonders how Potiphar’s wife later acquires the coat.

Genesis 39 opens with Joseph bought by Potiphar. “The Lord was with Joseph,” enabling prosperity in his master’s house. Potiphar observes divine favor in every task, elevating Joseph to personal attendant. Despite betrayal and enslavement, Joseph refuses victimhood, harboring no bitterness, anger, or vengeful scheming. The speaker marvels at his even-tempered resilience and admires a character who neither complains nor retaliates.

Prosperity continues until Potiphar’s wife fixates on Joseph’s attractiveness, pursuing him relentlessly and demanding he lie with her. One day she clutches his garment as he flees, leaving the coat with her. Armed with it, she fabricates a vicious lie, accusing Joseph of assault. God paradoxically employs this sin to maneuver Joseph into Pharaoh’s prison—the next station for his ascent.

Potiphar, enraged, imprisons Joseph among the king’s captives; God wants him in Pharaoh’s correctional system for future prominence. Even in confinement, “the Lord was with Joseph,” granting favor with the warden. Joseph oversees every prisoner and operation; the warden entrusts all because the Lord guarantees success. Joseph emerges as the model prisoner—unbroken, diligent, composed—never surrendering integrity or faith despite betrayal, enslavement, and false imprisonment.

Genesis 40 introduces Pharaoh’s offended cupbearer and baker, confined under Potiphar’s authority and assigned to Joseph’s care. After a period, each dreams on the same night with unique significance. Joseph notices their downcast faces and inquires. Learning of uninterpreted dreams, he declares, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

The cupbearer recounts a vine with three branches rapidly budding, blossoming, and yielding grapes squeezed into Pharaoh’s cup. Joseph interprets the three branches as three days until restoration. Emboldened, the baker shares three baskets atop his head; birds devour the top basket’s baked goods for Pharaoh. Joseph forecasts that in three days Pharaoh will impale and behead him.

To the cupbearer, Joseph explains the symbolism and pleads, “When all goes well with you, remember me… mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison.” He voices his only recorded complaint: “I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.”

Joseph utters no tirade or prolonged grievance throughout his trials; the only complaint recorded is his brief mention of being forcibly taken and unjustly imprisoned. He remains confident that God is with him. Events unfold as predicted: on Pharaoh’s birthday, the cupbearer is restored to his position, but in Genesis 40:23, he completely forgets Joseph.

Through divine intervention, providence, and preservation, God keeps Joseph in prison for one explicit reason: to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. No other purpose exists for his confinement, and God uses Joseph as a pawn in this process.

The ultimate objective is to bring Jacob and his family to Egypt, making God’s prophecy come to pass. Only God can ensure a prophecy’s fulfillment, and with Joseph now positioned to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, the plan is halfway complete.

Pharaoh dreams of seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Joseph not only interprets these visions but provides Pharaoh with a detailed strategy for storing grain during abundance to survive the coming scarcity.

The plan delights Pharaoh and his officials. In Genesis 41:37-41, Pharaoh asks if anyone like Joseph exists—one in whom the Spirit of God dwells—and immediately appoints him ruler over all Egypt. He places his signet ring on Joseph’s finger, clothes him in fine linen, adorns him with a gold chain, and parades him in the second chariot while people shout "Make way!" Pharaoh declares that without Joseph’s word, no one in Egypt may act.

Pharaoh renames Joseph (possibly Zaphenath-Paneah) and gives him Asenath, daughter of Potiphar the priest of On, as wife. Genesis 41:46 reveals Joseph is thirty years old—meaning he has endured thirteen years of trials to reach this divine appointment.

The seven years of plenty arrive, and Joseph’s plan results in grain stored in overwhelming abundance. Once these years end, the predicted seven-year famine begins, shifting the narrative to Genesis 42.

The famine ravages Canaan and the known world. Jacob learns grain is available in Egypt and, in Genesis 42:1-2, rebukes his idle sons, commanding them to buy food to survive. Ten brothers travel to Egypt, but Jacob keeps Benjamin home, fearing harm.

Joseph, now governor, oversees grain sales. Upon arrival, the brothers bow facedown before him, unknowingly fulfilling his childhood dream of sheaves bowing. Dressed in Egyptian garb, Joseph recognizes them instantly but disguises himself; they do not know him.

Speaking harshly, Joseph demands their origin. They reply from Canaan to buy food. Though recognizing them, he accuses them of being spies scouting Egypt’s weaknesses. They protest, insisting they are honest sons of one man.

The brothers explain they were twelve, the youngest remains with their father, and one is no more. Joseph insists they are spies and demands the youngest be brought as proof. Initially, he imprisons all for three days, then adjusts: one brother stays in prison, the rest take grain home but must return with Benjamin to avoid death.

In Genesis 42:21, the brothers confess among themselves they are punished for ignoring Joseph’s pleas when he begged for his life. Their past consumes them; they interpret current distress as divine retribution. The speaker notes this is a common human reaction—attributing suffering to punishment for prior sins—and uses a computer analogy: one trigger instantly revives buried guilt.

Reuben reminds them he warned against sinning against the boy, but they refused; now they must account for his blood. The brothers’ guilt erupts like a computer retrieving old files at the slightest prompt.

Unheard through an interpreter, Joseph turns away and weeps, then returns. He binds Simeon before them, orders their bags filled with grain, secretly returns their silver, and provides journey provisions. On the road, they discover the silver and fear a setup.

Back home, the brothers report to Jacob. The famine persists; grain runs out, and Jacob demands another trip. The brothers refuse without Benjamin. After resistance, Jacob relents.

In Genesis 43:15, the brothers take gifts, double silver, and Benjamin to Egypt. Seeing Benjamin, Joseph orders his steward to prepare a noon meal at his house. The brothers, terrified, suspect the returned silver from the first trip has led to a trap.

The brothers express concern to Joseph’s steward about the money found in their sacks, fearing they might be accused of theft and enslaved along with their donkeys. Joseph arrives home, inquires about their father’s well-being, and shares a meal with them.

In chapter 44, Joseph devises a plan to retain Benjamin by hiding a silver cup in his sack. When the brothers leave, they are pursued, the cup is found, and Benjamin is taken prisoner while the others are sent back to Joseph.

In chapter 45, Joseph clears the room and reveals his identity to his brothers, weeping loudly enough for the Egyptians and Pharaoh’s household to hear. He asks if his father is alive, but the brothers are terrified and silent. Joseph invites them closer, confirms he is the brother they sold into Egypt, and urges them not to be distressed or angry with themselves, explaining that God sent him ahead to save lives.

Joseph realizes he was part of God’s plan to preserve a remnant and save their lives during the famine. He notes two years of famine have passed, with five more to come, and God made him ruler of Egypt. He instructs them to hurry back to their father, inform him of Joseph’s position, and invite the family to live in Goshen where he will provide for them to avoid destitution.

The brothers return and persuade Jacob that Joseph is alive and ruler of Egypt, inviting him to Egypt to survive the famine. Jacob sees the wisdom in moving, recognizing divine intervention and providence in Joseph’s rise and the events leading Jacob to leave Canaan.

In chapter 46, Jacob sets out, offers sacrifices at Beersheba, and receives a vision from God assuring him not to fear going to Egypt, promising to make him a great nation there, accompany him, and bring him back. Joseph’s hand will close his eyes. Jacob and his entire family, with livestock and possessions, travel to Egypt.

The narrative lists Jacob’s offspring. Pharaoh, out of love for Joseph, welcomes the family and grants them the best land in Goshen near the delta. This is strategic because Egyptians despise shepherds, so the family presents themselves as cattle herders. They live favored until a new Pharaoh arises who knows nothing of Joseph. This exemplifies divine intervention.

The speaker urges recognition of divine intervention in lives, citing examples like Morley and Carol. He emphasizes opening eyes to see God’s hand, praising and thanking Him, especially with Thanksgiving approaching. He shares a story of angels collecting “please” and “praise,” noting abundant pleas for healing, jobs, and protection, but few thanks. God desires gratitude for salvation and provision, as Jesus taught not to worry about needs.

The invitation is to come to God through Jesus, who reconciles and atones for sins via His sacrifice on the cross. To be disciples, one must believe, follow, and be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God offers reconciliation, urging acceptance. The session closes with a call to stand and sing a song of encouragement.