Joseph's Dream


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Joseph’s Dream Jonathan Rue Genesis 37:2-11 08.16.09

Well, we’re starting a new series tonight called, “Living the Dream: The Story of Joseph.” SLIDE: Living the Dream Series Graphic So for the next 5 weeks, we are going to look at the life of the quintessential dreamer in the Bible, the person of Joseph. We read about Joseph in the Old Testament book of Genesis. And Joseph wasn’t just a dreamer in the sense that he had ambitions for his life. We often refer to things that we want to do in life as our “dreams.” But Joseph didn’t have dreams for his life, Joseph actually received dreams from God while he slept. He was given insight into what God had in store for his life. But that is when began to get interesting, because the next long season of his life looked dramatically different than the dreams that God gave him. It wasn’t like God showed him his future a day before it happened. God showed him a glimpse of a far off future, before which would lie pain, suffering and hardship that Joseph had never thought possible. To give a quick overview for those that are unfamiliar with the Joseph story, It’s the story of a spoiled-brat tattletale to whom God gives a really big dream. Then everything falls apart and Joseph’s dream crashes and burns as he is betrayed by his own family and becomes a slave in Egypt. Yet after years of faithful service in slavery, Joseph is eventually appointed to the second highest position of leadership in Egypt—Pharaoh’s right hand man, and he is reconciled with his family. His dream finally comes true. And so this is a story of God working in the background, behind the scenes, in secret. It’s not the same story as the later exodus out of Egypt where God does tremendous signs and wonders that all of the people of Egypt are forced to deal with. The way God relates with Joseph is in hidden ways, in unexpected ways, in slow, patient ways. Yet, nevertheless, God is at work in Joseph’s life, shaping his story to the fulfillment of God’s purpose in his life. This is a relevant story for us today because God so often loves to work in hidden ways in our lives, as he shapes and directs us toward his purposes. So for the next 5 weeks, we will be looking at the essential parts of the Joseph story and tonight we begin with the dream. I’ve called tonight’s talk, Joseph’s Dream. Let’s Pray. 1

TITLE SLIDE: Joseph’s Dream Jonathan Rue Genesis 37:2-11 08.16.09 Living the Dream Series Well, if you have ever read the book of Genesis, you will remember the names Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These guys are commonly referred to as the “patriarchs”, because they were so foundational to the rest of the story of God through the people of Israel. They were literally the fathers of the whole nation of Israel, as Jacob had 12 sons, most of whom became the heads of the various tribes of Israel. Well one of Jacob’s sons was Joseph. The story of Joseph spans Genesis 37 to the end of Genesis, chapter 50. So it’s the last major story in the book of Genesis. And we’re dividing it up into 5 major movements of the story. But I do recommend that you read the story as a whole this week or next week. But today we’re focusing on chapter 37, verses 2-11. Now, one thing to be aware of as we read this story is that Jacob and Israel are two names of the same person and those two names are used interchangeably in this story. SLIDE: Genesis 37:2-11 (TNIV) This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

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9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind. So here we have a picture of a totally dysfunctional family. And I love how honest the Bible is about the problems in Jacob’s family. The fact that the Bible is so open and honest about problems of even the greatest heroes is a testimony about the truthfulness of scripture, about the historical accuracy of scripture. See, this is totally different than the way that ancient literature was written. In ancient times, you would never disclose the faults of a hero. Biographies and myths and stories always portrayed the hero in a positive light. But not the Bible. The Bible is honest because it is truthful about the heroes: they had problems just like the rest of us! And here in this story, the hero Jacob and the hero Joseph are both shown in a negative light. As we approach this story, I want to focus first on the person of Joseph who receives dreams from the Lord. What sort of man is Joseph the dreamer? SLIDE: Joseph the dreamer Why did he receive these amazing dreams from God? Why is he singled out? Is it because of his inherent integrity and goodness that God searched the land and found the best candidate to give these dreams to? Well, first of all we see that Joseph is a tattle-tale. SLIDE: Joseph is a tattle-tale We see this in verse 2. SLIDE: Genesis 37:2 (TNIV) Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now this doesn’t make clear whether the brothers were actually doing something wrong or not, but in either case, Josephs is a tattle-tale. He gives a bad report about his brothers. He tells on them. He runs to daddy and tells on them. Now when I was a kid, I wasn’t allowed the do this. My parents would get upset at my 3

sister and I if we told on one another. I remember vividly one night brushing my teeth with my sister in the same bathroom. She had her mouth full of toothpaste spit and she looked down at my hand resting on the counter and she spit it all out on my hand. So I go running to my mom and dad and I tell on her and they got upset at me for telling on her. So, Joseph is a tattle-tale and secondly, Joseph is spoiled. SLIDE: Joseph is spoiled We see this in verse 3 and 4. SLIDE: Genesis 37:3-4 (TNIV) Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made a richly ornamented robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. So, Jacob loved Joseph more than all of his other sons, and he loved him in a very public way. Now this is not the model for how to parent your children. If you pick up a book on parenting these days, you’re probably not going to read about how you should pick out one child to be your favorite and lavish gifts upon them, and totally neglect you’re other children. But Jacob singled Joseph out by giving him this richly ornamented robe. Now this has been popularized as a coat of many colors, a multi-color, or Technicolor dream coat. But, the text doesn’t say that. Later manuscripts, the Greek and Latin translations of the original Hebrew manuscripts added that extra detail in. But, most scholars today think that the coat has special sleeves, had full length sleeves that signified supervisor rather than laborer. So Joseph is spoiled. He gets special treatment and because of that, his brothers are jealous of him and the text says they hated him. Thirdly, because Joseph is spoiled, he gets a big head from it. SLIDE: Joseph has a big head We see in verses 5-8 that even though his brothers hated him, he still has the nerve to gloat to them about his dreams that he gets. SLIDE: Genesis 37:5-8 (TNIV)

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Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” 8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Joseph is clueless about the context here. He has such an inflated view of himself because of his father’s love and his special treatment that he gloats to his brothers and make them hate him all the more. Well, back to the question about why did Joseph receive the dreams. Was it because he was just a special person? It seems from the text that the answer to that is no. That there wasn’t anything in Joseph that made him a special candidate to be picked by God to receive these dreams about what God would do in his life in the future. But, before he received the dreams, he was a tattletale, he was spoiled which gave him a big head, and still God gives him this dream. And the point here is that God gives dreams to people that don’t deserve them. SLIDE: The point: God gives dreams to people that don’t deserve them Some of you don’t feel like you have a big dream and you think about what God has for you in the future and you’re insecure about that. You don’t feel like you measure up to the great dreams and callings that God has on other people’s lives. But the great news about Joseph’s story is that God hand selects Joseph, not at all because of how great he is or how much he deserves to be picked out, but that God does it out of his kindness, out of his love, and out of his sovereignty. So, we don’t have to work and try to earn ourselves a great dream from God. That’s what the scriptures call ambition and that is not a godly attribute. Ambition is when we try to manufacture some big dream ourselves instead of allowing God to give us a dream. Well, next I want to look at how Joseph handles his dream. Does he handle his dream with tact and wisdom. Well, later on down the road, Joseph is going to display a lot of wisdom and integrity, but initially he misunderstands some things about his dream. And about how to handle that dream. SLIDE: Joseph’s misunderstanding of his dream

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And the first way that he misunderstands how to handle this dream is that he focuses so much on this dream that it makes him blind to his present circumstances. SLIDE: His dream made him blind to present circumstances And so even though his present circumstance was that his brothers hated him, that his brothers were jealous of him, and that he was almost the youngest out of 12. There was only one brother younger than him. Still, he just boldly boasts about these dreams that he had that his brothers are going to bow down to him and that his parents even are going to bow down to him. You know, in that circumstance, it probably just wasn’t the wisest thing to blurt that out in front of your brother and your dad. I mean, not only did the brothers who hated him hate him even more because of it, but even his father that loved him more than all of his other sons, his father still rebuked him. SLIDE: Genesis 37:10 (TNIV) When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you? Now this is such an easy trap for us to fall into, that a dream can make us blind to our present circumstances. When we feel like we’ve heard something from the Lord about our future, there’s a temptation to live as if it’s already happened and we’re already there. Example: you think that God has called you to be a person a great wealth, yet you’re currently broke and living with your parents at age 30. Don’t go out and spend up your credit cards now, because you’re sure that God’s told you that you will have money one day. Bad idea. Now God does call some people to wealth, so that they can give their money to kingdom ministry, but it’s probably not you. And you should never borrow on future inheritance from the Lord. This is what is called “living by prophecy”, and it is always a bad idea. The way that we view prophecy here at the Vineyard is that you should always test it, and put it on the shelf. So you still live in the reality of your life but are always looking for the confirmation that the prophecy is true. You don’t actualize it if doesn’t fit your circumstance at all. Always live out of where you are now, toward the direction of what you believe that God has called you into. So you believe that God has called you to be a doctor, don’t start operating on people in your basement. Start helping people in practical ways, go to medical school, and realize it is going to be a long, long time before you become a doctor.

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This patience for the slow process of a dream is the second thing that Joseph misunderstood about his dream. He didn’t understand that his dream did not come with a timeline. SLIDE: His dream didn’t come with a timeline

God revealed something to Joseph about the future, but Joseph had no idea the amount of humiliation and pain and suffering that was about to come his way for years before this dream would come true. He didn’t realize that he had to go through a process of becoming the man that could govern Egypt before he was released into the fulfillment of becoming the governor of Egypt. There is always a process that God takes us through so that we can become the person that can handle the calling that he gives us. And so the point here that we can take away from Joseph’s misunderstanding of his dream is this. That having a dream is not the same as having the wisdom to handle your dream. SLIDE: The point: having a dream is not the same as having the wisdom to handle the dream That God will sometimes reveal a dream, reveal a calling on your life, reveal something that he wants to do through you in the future or place a burning passion or desire in your heart. And he’ll do that when you are in your infancy stage in terms of maturity and wisdom. That he doesn’t require a person with great wisdom and maturity to receive that kernel of a dream of what God wants to do with them. But it’s great to be aware of that. That if God has called you to be in a position of great influence, you don’t have the knowledge and wisdom that it’s going to take to be in that position yet. If God’s calling you to the mission field, but you’re still living in Westerville, Ohio, you probably don’t have the wisdom and resource that you need to be able to be effective in another culture. If God’s calling you to be a father one day or a mother, if God’s calling you to be a husband or a wife one day, but you’re still living at home with your mom, don’t pretend that you have the abundant wisdom of people that have been married for 30 years. There is a humility that is always needed whenever we have a dream from the Lord, whenever we have a sense of what God wants to do with our lives in the future. We always need to have humility and recognize that we aren’t there now. And that there is so much that God wants to do in our hearts, in our character, in our faithful devotion to him, before he releases us into his dream for our lives. Well I want to stop for a moment and talk about the different types of dreams. 7

SLIDE: Types of dreams And first of all, a dream as we commonly use the phrase today refers to something that I want. SLIDE: A dream is something that I want So, I have a dream of one day owning a sailboat. I have a dream of living on the ocean. I have a dream of beating Tiger Woods in a game of golf. Now I don’t know that any of these dreams are dreams that God has for me. They’re dreams that I have for me. But a dream from God is something that God wants for me. SLIDE: A dream from God is something God wants for me Big difference. Our dreams are not always God’s dreams. Sometimes our dreams are heading in exactly the opposite direction of God’s dreams. Now I want to clarify what I mean by dream here: what God gave to Joseph was a revelation of Joseph’s “calling”, which came through the communication vehicle of a dream. This is God speaking about what His will is for Joseph’s life, before it comes to pass. This is different than saying “I have a dream”, though the two can be very interrelated. Because God can communicate calling through any number of ways, other than actual dream in the night. When Martin Luther King Jr. said the words “I have a dream,” about abolishing racial segregation, the words were no less true because he hadn’t had a literal dream at night about racial equality. God had imprinted that message on his heart and ending racial segregation in our country was God’s calling over Dr. King’s life. So I think it is a fair question to ask “what’s your dream?” meaning what is the thing that you feel God has called you to work for and try to see happen? Now this sounds like a simple designation, but it can be incredibly difficult to figure out the difference between these two. But, it’s desperately important that we do. SLIDE: The point: It’s important to figure out the difference We have to know the difference between what our dreams and our desires are for ourselves, and what God’s dreams and God’s desires are for us. Because we don’t want to spend our lives pursuing the wrong dreams. And though I haven’t been a pastor for very long, I’m surprised by how often I have conversations with people who tell me about their dreams. And they have such certainly that their 8

dream is from the Lord, that it’s what God has for their lives, but I find it often curious how wonderful those dreams are for that person. How much success and money and power is wrapped up in that dream. And I think one of the great challenges of life is discerning what is God’s dream for my life versus what is my own dream. But there are some things we can discover from the Joseph story that help us to discern what a dream from God looks like. What are the signs that a dream is from God? SLIDE: Signs that a dream is from God See, Joseph got an actual dream that came to him as he slept. This is one way that God speaks to us. That he can communicate to us through dreams in our sleep. Now we all dream and some of us dream a lot and remember a lot of that stuff. Some of us hardly ever do. I have a very hard time, personally, remembering my dreams. And a lot of our dreams are just crazy. They’re just weird, random, sci-fi movies that play in our head. I’ve got a recurring dream where I run off of a mountainside and I take a big jump and I’m able to fly. I’ve got another dream where I’ve had very often, that I’m being attacked by somebody, but I can’t move very fast to defend myself. It’s like I’m in slow motion. It’s a terrible dream. So, most of our dreams are just odd manifestations of our creative imagination. But, ever so often, we get a dream that we think might be God communicating with us. It’s one of the platforms that God speaks to us through. So, how can we tell that a dream is from the Lord? Well, the first thing that God does with Joseph is that he reiterates the dream. SLIDE: God reiterates the dream The same dream comes in two different ways. So the first dream is in verse 5. SLIDE: Genesis 37:5-7 (TNIV) Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” And the second dream, which says almost the identical thing, but in a different way, comes in verse 9.

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SLIDE: Genesis 37:9 (TNIV) Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” And this pattern is repeated when Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh in chapter 41. Pharaoh has two dreams which Joseph interprets in chapter 41, verse 25 by saying, “the dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh was he is about to do.” So the two dreams of Pharaoh are the same dream. God is reinforcing what he’s going to do. And he does this in our lives. God is not going to communicate some massively important calling or dream to you only once. The more important something is to communicate, the more that God is going to confirm that and underline that in several different ways. So, if you have a sense that God is calling you into something and you have a dream about it and then somebody gives you a word about it, and then you’re reading a scripture and feel like the Spirit of God speaks to you through God’s word, these are ways that God is multiply confirming something that he’s calling you to do. That’s how God works. The second sign that a dream is from God is if we need God’s help in order to do it. SLIDE: God’s help is necessary If you’ve got a dream that it’s absolutely impossible to do on your own, that there is no way in the world that you would ever be able to do that, that is a good chance that it could be God. Because the dreams that God gives us, the callings that God has on our lives are bigger than we are. They require God’s help. And this is great news because it lifts a burden off our shoulders. See the burden of ambition is that if I don’t get out there, if I don’t pull myself up by my bootstraps and make it happen, then nothing will ever happen. But, when we recognize that a dream that comes from God requires God to bring fulfillment to the dream, then we can find great comfort and encouragement in this great truth of a story of Joseph that SLIDE: The point: If a dream is from God, He will do it God does not give us a dream and leave us on our own in order to fulfill it. So that we would have to live every moment of our lives striving after what God has for us. That is not how God works. And the best part of the story of Joseph, the greatest encouragement contained in this story is the truth that God is working in the background of life even when we can’t see it. Even though Joseph’s life 10

blows up, even though everything goes terribly wrong and it seems like God has left him, it seems like his dream has died, God is still at work. God is still with Joseph when Joseph is sold into slavery after his brothers betray him. God is still with Joseph as he’s working for Potiphar as he’s thrown in prison. God is still with Joseph until he is elevated to the second highest position in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh’s right hand man. It’s almost as if God is telling us through this story that it doesn’t matter what we do and what others do, God is going to do what God is going to do. He will fulfill his dreams for our lives. See we often think of a dream like God giving us a destination and maybe a road map for us to follow. And we’re supposed to get into our car and drive to that destination on our own. But in reality when God gives us a dream, it means that He let’s us in on the destination, but he know how we’re going to get there, and he is the one driving. He’s driving, but he’s inviting us into the car with him. That’s the picture that the story of Joseph paints for us. God will do it. My favorite old testament scholar, Walter Brueggemann, says this. SLIDE: “The theme of the Joseph narrative concerns God’s hidden and decisive power which works in and through but also against human forms of power. A ‘soft’ word for that reality is providence. A harder word for the same reality is predestination. Either way God is working out his purpose through and in spite of Egypt, through and in spite of Joseph and his brothers.” –Walter Brueggemann God will do it. There is nothing that can stand in the way of God fulfilling what he has for our lives. Romans 8:28 says this SLIDE: Romans 8:28 (TNIV) And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. There is nothing that can stand in the way of God’s purpose moving forward through your life. The only thing, in fact, that can stop that is you. God has given us the power to resist his will, to say no to his will. To say, God I don’t want your dream. I reject your dream. But what we don’t have to worry about is accepting God’s dream and then just not being good enough to make that dream happen.

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Joseph’s Dream Jonathan Rue Genesis 37:2-11 08.16.09 Living the Dream Series Joseph the dreamer Joseph is a tattle-tale (v. 2) Joseph is spoiled (v. 3) Joseph has a big head (v. 5) The point: God gives dreams to people that don’t deserve them Joseph’s misunderstanding of his dream His dream made him blind to present circumstances (v. 8-9) His dream didn’t come with a timeline The point: God gives dreams to people that don’t have the wisdom to handle them Types of dreams A ‘dream’ is something that I want A dream from God is something God wants for me The point: It’s important to figure out the difference Signs that a dream is from God God reiterates the dream

(v. 5,9)

God’s help is necessary The point: If a dream is from God, He will do it

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