20251102_IWillNotLeaveThee

[0:00] Okay, we left off with at verse 19. Genesis 39 verse 20 is where we'll begin.

[0:16] ! We left him with Potiphar getting furious. Now Potiphar's wife lies about what went on and Potiphar gets furious and that's where we will begin. So beginning with verse 20, what does Potiphar do with Joseph? He put him in prison. Now, what did he know about Joseph?

[0:53] Joseph, let's just rehearse this a little bit. What did Potiphar know about Joseph? Well, he was good in his business. Potiphar didn't even check on his business anymore. You remember, he said he only knew what was his to eat. He didn't even worry about anything because he knew that God was blessing him because of Joseph. So he knew that Joseph was faithful in his job.

[1:29] And he prospered because of Joseph. Right. Now, we don't really know how long Joseph served Potiphar before this occurrence. That's not revealed. But we know that it was long enough that he had seen his faithfulness. We know that he didn't worry about his business anymore. Now, he knew that Joseph was approved faithful servant to him, but it didn't figure in to Potiphar's rage, did it? So Potiphar let that go out of sight, if you will. So now, he puts Joseph in prison. So Joseph has been faithful to God. He's been faithful to Potiphar. He's now, he's in prison.

[2:43] I'm thinking, well, not me, but you are thinking, why me? What'd I do for this? It was right. I did right.

[2:58] So why is this happening? Well, how does Joseph get on in prison? Okay. In verse 21, we read that the Lord was with Joseph. What else?

[3:23] Right? Now, he, verse 21 says exactly what?

[3:45] The Lord was with Joseph and, what? Okay. And made him successful. Showed him mercy, and he made him successful.

[4:02] Now, I don't want a show of hands. I don't want to know. How many times when I pray, do I pray something along the Lord, Lord, be with me, or Lord, be with them?

[4:18] When is the Lord not with me? Every time.

[4:30] Now, if I have trusted Christ as my Savior, when is the Lord not with me? Never. Never. Never. What do I mean when I pray that, Lord be with me?

[4:49] Well, I'm kind of praying, am I not, for either success, or safety in my travel, or comfort in bereavement.

[5:03] is he there yes does he always give me success no did okay depend in god's definition always actually my prayer should be much of my time when things are easy my prayer should be lord help me see success like you do you know lord help me remember when days get dark what i know to be true right now when it's easy because days are going to be dark now so what's different here though yet have you ever heard you better not have heard it here i know you haven't but you've heard some places something along the line that if you have enough faith you're going to be healed or you're going to get your car is going to go 400 000 miles or in some extreme cases you're going to get a bentley you you've heard something along that line have you not now is that what god says for the church is it no does he promise success in business for instance never now even in the old testament and we need to be careful we do understand the difference in dispensations and here we're even pre-law but here god prospered abraham he prospered isaac he prospered jacob and he is prospering joseph right now now can i take that to say well then if i was doing if i was faithful to god i'd be prospering have you ever heard that taken out of its context and used that way didn't have enough faith or something goes well for you you must be living have you ever heard that one you must be living right now usually that's said by somebody who's not a christian but but what i don't want to happen here we can we are to learn principles from joseph's behavior but the principle i'm to learn is about faithfulness not about the success part because god is working a specific plan let's just review very briefly let's go back in the beginning god created the heavens and the earth he created the first man and woman who were named adam and eve god walked with them in the theophany

[9:06] they actually could hear him walking so he manifested himself in a body he talked directly to cain and abel didn't he he said he talked to cain he said hey cain where's your brother abel well i'm not my brother's keeper well yeah you are cain i hear his blood calling to me from the earth he spoke directly to cain and to cain he said look why is your visage downcast he said sin is crouching if you do well you'll be accepted if you don't sin is crouching at the door and its desires for you but you must master it now is that for the church no jesus christ took my sin so others are born to adam and eve many others and they are burying children and the lord we know walked with we know specifically because he says so expressly the lord walked with enoch because one day the lord and enoch were walking and enoch didn't come home what happened the lord took him he didn't kill him he just took him all right we know that the lord walked with noah and spoke directly to noah but it appears that noah is the last person who regularly walked with god now by walking with god i'm talking about the theophany he actually walked with i believe the pre-incarnate jesus christ who came manifest in the flesh but he was not yet born of the virgin yet okay here's the point of it it's good about the intimate relationship with god but did god walk with every man there were thousands by that time weren't there he didn't necessarily we aren't told that he manifest himself directly to every person we're not told that in fact we're told that about the flood we're told look the ideas of men's hearts were evil continually and so he wiped them out except for noah and his family the point of it is when i when i learn principles i have to be careful how i try to apply those principles and i have to be careful which principles are really carrying through that's by the way when the apostle paul will say i pray that you may discern those things which are excellent uh...

[12:59] which by the way that word actually is the word it's a cognate it's a word it's the greek word is the word from which we take the word differ which by the way is why stam called his book things that differ he it's taken from that verse so that word actually means those things which carry through which are transcendent so when i'm looking at the word of god i need to be careful that i'm reading it through the script through the glasses if you will that we get with the apostle paul through the the those letters written directly to the church and the teachers of the church so if i don't see it through the gospel of grace i'm going to misread it as far as application everything needs to be learned for our use it gives us hope we're told and it it gives us stability in this life and it gives us warnings that we shouldn't behave in certain ways but it's not marching orders for the church so what we read about joseph here are important lessons about faithfulness and diligence but they're not lessons to be learned that if you do this you're going to be blessed financially or some you're not going to wind up being prime minister because you're faithful that's not what that means so back to the point so god god was merciful by the way when is god merciful to me all the time does it always feel that way no it doesn't it doesn't always feel that way but when i need to when i question does god love me where should i look i should look at the cross for in this fashion god loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so i see things through temporal lies god sees eternity all at once and faith comes it faith is believing god and trusting him now sometimes in the flesh that gets pretty hard because sometimes he's a little late sometimes he doesn't show up well yeah he did and yeah the timing was perfect it just wasn't my timing that's right and believe it and trust him everything does work but god's perspective is an eternal perspective now i'm pretty sure that at this point joseph landing in prison probably isn't thinking that but let's go ahead so he's doing so well and god is prospering him so well what happens the jailer does what the jailer favors him and he does what here

[17:00] you're going to be in charge of the jail you're now in charge of the prison because it prospers under joseph's hand now it prospers under joseph's hand because it says that god made it do so this was god's doing now joseph was not only in charge of making sure the food was there and whatever they did but he was also in charge of the prisoners right do you see that one verse 22 okay and whatever was done in the prison what he was responsible for it okay now verse 23 tells us that the keeper of the prison the chief prisoner keeper did pretty much the same thing with the prison that potiphar had done with his house doesn't it said he didn't even look to it anymore that's joseph's business whatever he says we're gonna do that all right and what happened the lord made it prosper because god's setting up a plan here remember what he had said to abraham ah your people are gonna go they're gonna wind up serving in a country that's not theirs and then i'm gonna bring them out with great wealth god's setting this up so there's no indication by the way that joseph is thinking right now about those dreams he'd been dreaming before he got sold into slavery we don't know that but what we do know that he's faithful wherever he finds himself that part we do know he's being faithful now in this dispensation we are not promised we are not promised as the church that if we do if if I live the best

[19:44] Christian life that can be lived as far as living out work out your own salvation in fear and trembling right so if I do that I'm not promised that I'm going to be successful therefore I don't need to be faithful right is that what God says Colossians chapter 3 if you want to turn there to check on it verses 22 and 23 God through the apostle Paul says to the church servants obey in all things your masters according to the flesh that means the masters here on earth do everything you're told to do according to the flesh not with thy service as men pleasers not just in front of their eyes so that you look good to them but what do you remember with sincerity of heart fearing

[20:56] God now whatsoever you do do it heartily not as unto men but as unto the Lord so what I'm told in the church is I'm still to be faithful and whatever comes to my hand to do I'm to do it to the best of my ability because I'm serving Christ and so we're still commanded to be faithful I can learn that is that right yeah okay we did reset that that is correct so chapter 40 we're ready to go the butcher the baker the no it's not that it's the butler the baker and forgotten

[22:01] Joseph so let's go on to verse 1 of chapter 40 by the way Proverbs 20 verse 2 the fear of the king is as the roaring of a lion whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul somebody here has provoked the king so what are the details who provoked the king that is Pharaoh right now King James version will say butler the word has to do with drinking it is probably new American will say cup bearer that is the person who is responsible for bringing the drink to the

[23:06] Pharaoh I've heard that but I don't know just probably right in front of him to see okay I want you to take a drink of this I'm going to wait 30 minutes anyway but the reason it's an important position is because it's a very trusted position this is the person who's responsible not to get him killed so anyway they've offended Pharaoh so what does Pharaoh do right he was angry with them he throws them in prison where he throws them in the same prison so now they're under Joseph's care all right now they had dreams so um who's in charge

[24:24] Joseph is in charge and what happens okay they each had their own dream they had it on the same night so Joseph comes in in the morning what's he notice they're pretty unhappy all right and Joseph asked them why why do you look so sad today well I'm in jail that's one thing but no why are you so sad today what do they answer right we each had a dream and there's no one to tell us what they mean these must have been vivid dreams because they remember them okay what's

[25:37] Joseph's response to that interpretation belongs to God okay tell me your dream so they do let's look at the butler's dream we're at verse nine by now so the butler or the cup bearer what's he dream real quickly okay I go out into the vineyard I have a cup in my hand what do I do I squeeze the juice from the grapes into the cup and I gave it to Pharaoh all right how many branches three branches what's the interpretation of that dream in three days what you'll be restored how does the new

[26:53] American standard read that verse okay Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office and I chuckle because let's remember that as we go to the to the baker's dream all right by the way Joseph asked a favor what's he asked all right when it when it when this comes to pass and you're out of here would you tell Pharaoh that I'm not supposed to be here would you remember me to Pharaoh he said he said verse 15

[27:59] I was stolen this this interested me when I read it what does it say verse 15 I was stolen from the land of the Hebrews now wait a minute Joseph this isn't the land of the Hebrews yet but as far as God's concerned it is so Isaiah 46 9 by the way God had promised that to Abraham Isaac and Jacob he had promised the land in Isaiah chapter 46 God says this about himself I am God and there is none else I am

[28:59] God and there is no one like me declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure I find good comfort there so when God says that if you trust the Lord Jesus Christ his righteousness is applied to you and your sin to him he means it he means it I'm thankful for that okay so what the maker now might be encouraged by what he heard might he not he might be well what's the verse actually say he saw that what the interpretation of the butler's dream was a good one hey

[30:10] I like this all right his he had threes very similar I'm all hey so what's the interpretation I had three white baskets on my head and I had all manner baked goods in them and I was taking them to Pharaoh and what happened the birds ate it okay what's the interpretation no just because the butler's interpretation was good yours isn't going to be can you imagine sitting there and listening to this if this was my dream what's he say what does

[31:16] Joseph tell him okay read the verse exactly okay what does it say okay what does new American right okay what does new American standards say yeah King James will say lift up your head from off you so so that's not the interpretation

[32:20] I was looking for is it okay you're right it's going to be three days Pharaoh is going to lift up your head but he's not going to lift up your head to your office he's going to lift up your head clear off and then he's going to hang you now by the way does anyone wonder how's he going to hang him after he's cut his head off that's usually in the scripture when they talk about hanging it's not talking about hanging like we envisioned it in execution here it's talking about an impalement so they hang the body that's what happens much later on you get in your time machine remember the

[33:25] Philistines hanged Saul and Jonathan that's what they did they impaled the bodies and hung them outside as trophies look what's going to happen to you kind of a thing so this interpretation was not what I was looking for by the way I wanted a good one but I didn't get it so what happens did Joseph hear God correctly yeah in three days what what goes on yes Pharaoh throws a birthday party and he brings them both out of prison he brings them both to the party and then he does what well he restores the cup bearer to his office and the baker he has killed all right so

[34:42] Joseph heard God right now the butler then thanks Pharaoh and says by the way there's a guy in prison that told me that this was going to happen right no what happened yeah he forgot him he forgot him I want to be careful this this is not there there there is a lesson in here though for me sometimes what you've heard the expression probably that there are no atheists in foxholes what does that come from oh you've never heard that when your life is really really threatened even people even apostates will tend to pray and sometimes they'll make grand vows to god if you get me out of this

[36:13] I'll do this or that I'll any manner of things but then when I'm out of it when I'm out of the immediate situation my mind goes back to myself doesn't it that's the tendency for us so I do need to be careful of that and I'm not going to try to pursue any further because we need to we'll take up with Pharaoh next week God willing have a great week you