In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Today's Old Testament reading is the conclusion of the true story of Joseph and his brothers. This is an extensive account, covering the last 13 chapters in the book of Genesis. Because of its length, we don't usually get to consider it here in divine service. But it is a very significant story, teaching us several important things. And so today I'd like to do something a little different. I would like to take about the first half of this sermon simply to retell the story before I then draw out its connection to Christ and the Gospel and our lives.

Joseph was the second youngest of the twelve sons of Jacob. Joseph became Jacob's most beloved son. Jacob favored him over the others, buying Joseph a special coat of many colors.

Joseph, therefore, wasn't too popular with his brothers, not only because of the favoritism he received, but because of his own behavior, as well, innocent though it may have been. For instance, when some of his brothers were slacking off in their duties of tending the flocks, Joseph gave a bad report of them to his father. Joseph also was given two special dreams by God which foreshadowed what the future held for this family. In one dream the brother's sheaves of grain were all bowing down to Joseph's sheaf of grain. In the other dream the sun, the moon, and the stars all bowed down to Joseph. When Joseph told these dreams, even his father rebuked him saying, "Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you?"

It finally got to the point when Joseph was a teenager that his brothers plotted to kill him while they were all out tending the flocks far away from home. They'd say that a wild animal attacked him and devoured him. Fortunately, the oldest brother, Reuben, stopped that plan and had them throw Joseph into a pit, so that he could come back later and save Joseph. Unfortunately, while Reuben was gone, some Midianite traders came by and the brothers got the bright idea of selling Joseph to them as a slave. They could make some money and be rid of their brother at the same time. They did so, and they brought back to Jacob Joseph's coat of many colors, ripped and stained with the blood of a goat. Jacob was convinced that his son was eaten by a wild animal, and he mourned over Joseph for many days.

Joseph was sold by the Midianites in Egypt, and he became a bondservant to a man named Potiphar, who was an officer of the Pharaoh and the captain of the guard. The Lord was with Joseph in Egypt and blessed all that he did with success. Potiphar noticed that the Lord caused Joseph's work to prosper, and so he made him overseer of his entire house. God blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.

Potiphar's wife, however, attempted to seduce Joseph to commit adultery with her. When her many advances were rejected, she finally accused him of attempting to force himself on her, and Joseph was thrown into prison. Joseph had fallen from favored son to servant now to inmate.

Still, he continued to trust in the Lord. The Lord gave Joseph favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison, and Joseph was made overseer of the prisoners. Even there, God caused what Joseph did to prosper. While in prison, Joseph had opportunity to interpret the dreams of two of the other prisoners, both of whom were once servants of Pharaoh himself. The former chief butler of the Pharaoh had a dream which Joseph interpreted to mean that he would be restored to his butlership. But the dream of Pharaoh's former baker was interpreted to mean that he would soon be hanged and eaten by the birds. Both of those things came to pass.

Then Pharaoh himself had two dreams which troubled him greatly. In the first there were seven fine and fat cows and seven ugly and gaunt cows. And the thin cows ate up the fat cows. In the second dream there seven heads of grain, plump and good. But there were also seven thin and blighted heads of grain. And the thin heads devoured the plump ones. None of the Egyptian wise men could interpret Pharaoh's dreams.

Then the chief butler remembered Joseph in prison and told the Pharaoh about him. Joseph was brought before the Pharaoh and asked to interpret the dreams. Joseph replied, "It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace." Joseph then went on to explain that the seven fat cows and the seven plump heads of grain stood for seven years of bounty that Egypt would experience. But they would be followed by seven years of famine which would cause the good years to be forgotten. Joseph told Pharaoh to select a man to oversee the storing up of grain in the seven good years so that the land would not perish in the seven bad years. And Pharaoh selected Joseph himself and made Joseph to be second in command in all of Egypt so that he could carry out this task.

The famine did come after the seven good years, and Joseph's brothers back in the land of Canaan were almost out of food. They heard that there was grain in Egypt, and so their father sent them there to buy food. They came to Joseph to get the grain and bowed down to him, not knowing who it was. Joseph recognized them, but they did not recognize him. They had last seen him as a teenager some 20 years earlier. At first, Joseph did not reveal himself to them. He spoke to them roughly and insisted that one of them stay behind until they brought back Benjamin, another brother whom they said was left with their father. (This was the younger brother of Joseph.)

After this trip and much anguish on everyone's part, Joseph had his brothers come to a special meal, and he finally revealed himself to them, much to their shock and dismay. They feared that he might seek some sort of revenge. But Joseph only longed to have his family restored to him and to see his father. Joseph said, "Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for . . . God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God."

Joseph's father Jacob was brought down to Egypt and reunited with his lost son, and all of the Israelites settled there in Egypt. After several years Jacob died, and Joseph's brothers still feared what he might do to them. Joseph said to them in the words of today's reading, "Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive."

Now, if you were Joseph, if you had been sold into slavery by members of your family and gone through a whole series of difficulties and trials as a result, what would be your attitude toward them? According to your flesh, your old Adam, you might be plotting over the years how you would get back at them if you ever saw them again. You'd harbor a pretty serious and angry grudge. That's how we are by nature, not wanting to be merciful but wanting to get even, not wanting to be forgiving but wanting to find fault in others, even if it's just a speck in the eye compared with our own 2 x 4's. I'm sure Joseph had to work through some of these sorts of thoughts and feelings.

But in the end he was merciful. He was merciful because the Lord in whom he trusted was merciful. He believed in a God who was slow to anger and compassionate to those who take refuge in Him. Filled with that forgiving love, it overflowed through Joseph to his brothers. He received them back with no penalty or retribution and even did good to them and their families and spoke kind and comforting words to them.

Joseph saw what only faith can see, namely that the Lord loved him and was with him even at the lowest points in his life. In fact he came to recognize that God was behind the low points using even those things to accomplish His good and merciful purposes. Remember what Joseph said to his brothers? "It was not you who sent me here but God." Only faith can say that. God caused this hardship. Now God is not the author of evil or sin or sickness or death. But in this fallen world He even uses such things for our good. Again Joseph said to His brothers, "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." He allows us to suffer illness or trials or hatred to kill our old Adam and to draw us to Himself ever more closely. He teaches us to trust in Him and to cling to nothing else for our help and salvation. He works all things together for the good of those who love and believe in Him, who are the called according to His purpose.

The ultimate purpose of Joseph's life was to keep alive the promise made by the Lord to his great grandfather Abraham. God had told Abraham that through one of his descendants, all the nations of the earth would be blessed. God used Joseph to provide food for the sons of Jacob, Abraham's descendants, the Israelites, so that out of Israel, many years later, the Messiah Jesus might be born.

The life of Jesus is foreshadowed and woven into this entire Joseph narrative. Like Joseph, Jesus was (and is) the beloved Son of the Father. After His birth Jesus, too, was forced to go down to Egypt with Mary and Joseph because of the treachery of Herod who sought to take His life. Just as the OT Joseph's purpose was to provide grain and bread, so Jesus Himself became the Bread of Life. Jesus went down into the pit of the grave and shed His blood for us in order to save His people from death. As Joseph was "dead" and then alive again to his father Jacob, Jesus is alive again literally from the dead to provide for us eternally in both body and soul and to speak to us words of comfort and reconciliation. Joseph finally revealed who he was to his brothers at a meal. So also on the road to Emmaus, two of Jesus' followers were kept from recognizing Him after His resurrection. But He revealed Himself to them at a meal, in the breaking of the bread, just as Jesus continues to reveal and give Himself to us here in the breaking of the bread, the Lord's Supper.

Living by faith in this Jesus, we don't seek vengeance. For we know that vengeance belongs to the Lord, and like Joseph we trust that He will do what is just and right in the end. And above all we know that Jesus suffered all the vengeance of the whole world's sin on the cross to take it away. Everything that you had coming, everything that anyone else deserves, Jesus experienced in our place to save us. Just as our Father is merciful to us in this way, we also now show mercy to others. The cross has absorbed all vengeance and has freed us to love and forgive even our enemies.

Joseph said to his brothers, "Am I in the place of God?" By that he was saying that he wouldn't take vengeance, which belongs to the Lord. But in a very real sense, Joseph was in the place of God. He stood in the stead of Christ, as an icon of Jesus in giving the forgiveness of the Lord to his brothers. So it is in the church still today, both for pastors and laypeople. According to my office I stand in Christ's stead as an icon of Jesus to give you the forgiveness of the Lord in the absolution. And you also stand in Christ's stead as an icon of Jesus to give the forgiveness of the Lord to your neighbor wherever God has placed you in this world. As a member of the body of Christ, you stand in the place of God to forgive and love one another. For Christ's dwells in you by your baptismal faith to be merciful just as your Father in heaven in merciful.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit