Sermon Video: Joseph: In Charge of the Whole Land of Egypt

In a fairly rare biblical narrative in which each person does the right thing {The baker confesses his mistake and tries to make amends, Pharaoh listens to God's warning and acts accordingly, and Joseph once more acts by faith to become the man his journey has prepared him to be}, the chapter tells of the intersection of a regional crisis of epic proportions with the personal vindication of one man after long suffering.

In the end, Joseph's elevation to leadership in Egypt reminds us that we all need to be ready, willing, and able when an opportunity to serve is shown to us.

Sermon Video: Joseph: Faithful in the Small Things - Genesis 40

This portion of Joseph's life is a familiar one when we consider the Hero's Journey.  Joseph is in the process of becoming the man whom God was able to use to save his people from famine.  He learns not only faithfulness in his difficult situation as someone unjustly imprisoned, but also to trust God to do something he's never done before: interpret dreams. 

The key for Joseph: When he recognized God's hand at work in the dreams of the cupbearer and baker, he chose to act by faith.

Sermon Video: Joseph: A Faithful Slave - Genesis 39

Genesis 39 conveys the story of the first ten years (appx.) that Joseph spent in Egypt as a slave.  While far from the life he had been living, or could have wanted, Joseph was faithful in the little things nonetheless.  The LORD was with Joseph, blessing him in his circumstances, although not removing him from them.

One such circumstance was the unwanted advances of Potiphar's wife.  To these, Joseph responded with maturity by refusing to betray Potiphar's trust and refusing to sin against God.

In the end, Joseph's integrity cost him as Potiphar's wife used her power over him to punish his refusal with a false accusation.  Yet, the LORD was with Joseph, even in prison where he remained faithful.

NOTE: The story of Potiphar's wife has bee used egregiously by some commentors as a cudgel against those who make an accusation of sexual abuse.  This is NOT what the text is teaching because Joseph was not a man with power over a women who has been accused of abusing it, he was the powerless one.  The story is about abuse of power, not gender.

Sermon Video: Judah and Tamar: "She is more righteous than I" - Genesis 38

As the text of Genesis often reveals, family drama is at the heart of the moral choices of Abraham and his descendants.  In this episode, Jacob's 4th son Judah chooses to marry a Canaanite woman with whom he has 3 sons.  Nothing seems amiss until the eldest boy is full-grown and himself married to a woman named Tamar.  At this point, three men in succession treat Tamar woefully: Er, her husband whom the LORD puts to death due to his wickedness, Onan, whose greed prompts him to sexually assault Tamar, and Judah, the father-in-law who more/less abandons her for years on end.

Ultimately, out of desperation, Tamar acts in a way that reveals Judah's own hypocrisy and culpability, something he only sees at the last minute before further injustice occurs.  The story of Judah and Tamar thus ends with a warning against self-righteousness and hypocrisy, a reminder that our actions have consequences.

Sermon Video: Joseph: An inflated ego and jealous brothers - Genesis 37, by Pastor Randy Powell

The last section of Genesis focuses on the family of Jacob, primarily the interactions between his favorite son, Joseph, and Joseph's 10 jealous brothers.

In chapter 37 we see the seeds sown of what is coming through Jacob's clear favoritism, Joseph's "tattling" on his brothers to their father, and finally Joseph's foolish decision to tell his brothers about not one but two dreams in which they bowed down to him.

With anger at Jacob's favoritism, and jealousy stoked by Joseph's apparent arrogance (or at best cluelessness), the brothers' desire to do something about it simmers until opportunity arrives.  That opportunity is the arrival of Joseph, alone, to visit them.

The hearts of Joseph's brothers were set to murder, but providential grace gave them an opportunity to choose a lesser evil by selling him into slavery.