Tag: God’s election

Scripture: Genesis 37:1-11

Video Link: https://youtu.be/f4wWy7Cf3JI

Structure:

• Introduction
• God’s election
• God’s revelation
• Conclusion

Introduction:

Good morning everyone.

In the early 1970’s the musical production, Joseph and the amazing technicolour dream coat was launched on stage. The story line is based on the account of Joseph in the book of Genesis. 

It must be one of the most popular musicals of all time. Something like 20,000 amateur productions have been performed throughout the past 50 odd years.

Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber took some liberties with their version, but we won’t hold that against them. It’s good to see a Bible story celebrated.

Today we begin a new sermon series based, not on the Joseph musical, but on the original story of Joseph in Genesis. From Genesis 37, verses 1-11, we read…

Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan. ² 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 an ornate 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. 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.

May the Spirit of Jesus illuminate God’s word for us.

If you didn’t know anything about the Joseph story, and all you had to go on was the title, Joseph and the amazing technicolour dream coat, then you might think it was a story about a dude called Joseph who had a coat which gave him special powers.

But really, the Joseph story is not about a coat and it’s not primarily about Joseph either. At its core, the Joseph story is about God and his hidden purpose.

Today’s reading highlights the twin themes of God’s election and God’s revelation. Sadly, God’s revelation and election are misunderstood by his people.

God’s election:

God’s election is a technical theological term that refers to God choosing a particular person or group of people for a particular purpose. To be elected by God is to be chosen for a purpose.

If you think of God as a carpenter and human beings as the carpenter’s tools, then God’s election is like the Lord selecting a particular tool to do a specific job. Maybe, at one time, he will select a hammer. But he won’t always select a hammer. Other times he will select a measuring tape or a scribe or a saw, depending on what he wants to achieve.

God makes people differently, each to serve a different purpose. Being chosen (or elected) by God does not make you better or more important than other people. Nor does it make your life easier. But it does give your life eternal meaning.

Earlier in the book of Genesis, God elected Abraham to serve the divine purpose of blessing the nations of the world. As part of God’s election of Abraham, the Lord made certain promises. Those promises, together with God’s election, were passed on to Isaac and then to Jacob. 

God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and Jacob became the founding father of the nation of Israel. Israel being God’s elect, his chosen people and the inheritors of God’s promises to Abraham.

Put very simply, God elected the people of Israel for the purpose of blessing the world. 

Jacob had four wives, twelve sons and one daughter. (He must have been exhausted.) These days we would call this arrangement a blended family. The twelve sons became the twelve tribes of Israel.

It would be fair to say, Jacob’s family dynamic was not that healthy. In fact, it was dysfunctional. There were rivalries and jealousies, secrets and lies, violence and cover ups. There wasn’t much love to go around.

God’s election is inscrutable. It is beyond our comprehension. If you are selecting someone for the All Blacks or the White Ferns, you pick the best of the best. More than selecting raw talent though, you pick people who work well together as a team.

But, from our limited human vantage point, it appears God’s election does not work like that. God’s election is not based on our virtue or competence.

Jacob’s family were not very good at being a family. They did not work well together as a team. And some of them lacked a moral compass. It is a testament to God’s wisdom and grace that he was able to use such a dysfunctional family to bless the world in a significant way.     

Joseph was Jacob’s second youngest son and he was Jacob’s favourite. Jacob gave Joseph a special coat to wear. We don’t know whether the coat was one of many colours but it stood out in some way, perhaps a bit like a korowai in that it was a symbol or mantle of leadership.

The coat sent a clear message to the whole family that Joseph was Jacob’s favourite to take over one day. The brothers hated him for it. Being elected the favourite tends to isolate you.

I’m reading Martin Seligman’s book, Flourish, at the moment. It’s about positive psychology and wellbeing. In his book, Martin writes about the Losada ratio.

The idea is that for organisations and teams to function well, people need to be saying at least three positive statements for each negative statement. Three to one is the minimum.

A ratio of five positive statements to one critical statement is better though.

For example, if you want a strong and loving marriage, you need to be saying five good things to your husband or wife, for every critical comment.  

That being said, critical comments still have their place. If there is no critique, then the positive statements tend to lose their credibility. The point is, for human flourishing we need to aim for a ratio of five positive statements for each negative statement.        

Three times in today’s passage we read how Joseph’s brothers hated him and they could not speak a kind word to him.

Joseph did not get a Losada ratio of five to one. He didn’t even get a three to one ratio. The negative comments he received outweighed the positive. Which was like pouring weed killer on the relationship.

Joseph’s mother, Rachel, died when Joseph was around six or seven, so Joseph was pretty much on his own in the family, except for his father and his younger brother, Benjamin. Life within the family was not easy for Joseph.

Which brings us to a sobering point. Election, being chosen or set apart for a special purpose, is not easy. Election has a way of putting a target on your back. 

Some might say that Joseph did not help himself in this regard. In verse 2, for example, we read how Joseph was working with four of his brothers and brought a bad report about them to his father.

Some commentators criticize Joseph for doing this, saying it shows he was a spoilt brat, a tattletale and unwise. But the text makes no criticism of Joseph.

Joseph’s honest report to his father is more likely a sign of his integrity. Joseph was not like his brothers. He was not inclined to deceit. He did not hide things. Joseph was an open book.

In talking about election, we must also talk about Jesus. As we will see throughout this series, Joseph points to Christ in many ways.

Joseph is like Jesus in that God used Joseph to save many people.

When it comes to God’s election, Jesus does more than Joseph though.

Jesus opens the door of God’s election to all people.

You see, God has elected one person, Jesus, to be the Messiah, the Saviour of the world. Therefore, anyone who accepts Jesus and is found in Christ becomes part of the elect people of God.

As I mentioned before, becoming part of the elect people of God does not make you better than others. Nor will it make your life easier (in this world). Being part of the elect people of God comes with the responsibility of serving God’s purpose. Obeying his will.

Some believe that God elects certain people for salvation and others for damnation. And they call that predestination. I don’t believe that. I believe God gives everyone a fair go.

It’s more like God is saying to humanity, if you want to become part of my elect people, then Jesus is the pathway. Jesus is the doorway for entry. Accept Jesus and you are in, you are one of the elect. Jesus is way, the truth and the life.

Now, at the same time, God is free. Free to help certain people onto the right path. Free to help certain people to receive Jesus. But God’s action in doing that does not exclude anyone else from coming to Christ.

You might wonder, ‘So what about those who are not in Christ? What about those who don’t accept Jesus? Perhaps because they did not have much opportunity. What happens to them?’

Well, Jesus taught that God treats everyone with justice and fairness. That means, at the end of the day when we face judgment, the least we can expect from God is fairness.

The measure you use for others is the measure God will use for you.

If you forgive others, God will forgive you.

Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.

These are the sorts of things the Lord said. Therefore, it is in our interests to be kind, forgiving, and generous. Of course, if someone is living their life like this, then they have accepted the way of Christ, even if they are not aware of it.

God’s revelation:

God’s election goes hand in hand with God’s revelation. Revelation is another technical theological term that basically refers to the way God reveals himself and his plan. Revelation is God’s way of communicating with us, in other words.

God can communicate in all sorts of ways. One way is through dreams.

In the ancient near east, people were inclined to believe that a dream was a message from the gods, like an omen or a prediction of things to come.

Let me be clear. Just because Joseph had a dream that came true, it does not automatically follow that every dream you have is a message from God about the future.

Current thinking tells us that dreams are our mind’s way of processing what has already happened to us, in the past, especially the recent past. Our dreams help to untangle knots in our thinking and feeling. Dreams are sort of like anti-virus software on a computer, identifying bad code and cleaning it up.

Or, to put it another way, dreams are the unconscious mind communicating with the conscious mind. For example, if we repress an emotion during the day,

that emotion is likely to pop up in a dream at night. Maybe a dream that gives us a good feeling, or a nightmare, depending on the emotion.

The other thing to understand is that dreams use symbols or picture language to communicate. It does no good to try and interpret a dream literally. You have to translate the images in your dream, according to what those images mean for you personally, or the dream won’t make sense.

What I’m saying here is most dreams are about your personal past, not the future. And most dreams are a message from your unconscious mind, not a message from God.

There are exceptions to this rule, however. There may be times when God plants an idea in your mind while you sleep. Sort of like the movie Inception.

With the benefit of hindsight, it appears God revealed something of his purpose for Joseph and Jacob’s family through the dreams in Genesis 37.

Joseph had two dreams which he shared with his brothers. In the first dream the brothers’ sheaves of grain bowed down to Joseph’s and in the second dream the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to Joseph.

Interestingly, Joseph does not offer an interpretation of his own dreams. He simply shares the dreams and lets his family draw their own conclusions. Sometimes we are too close to our dreams and we need the perspective of someone who knows us well, someone we can trust, to help us interpret our dreams.

Unfortunately, Joseph’s brothers did not really know him all that well and they were not trustworthy caretakers of his innermost thoughts. The brothers respond defensively, saying, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?”   

Joseph’s brothers question the revelation Joseph has received. They cannot accept it. Joseph’s dreams are dangerous. They threaten the status quo. They are an omen of upset in which the natural order of things is turned on its head. The young are supposed to serve the older, not the other way round.    

Sadly, Jacob’s family do not properly understand Joseph’s dreams or God’s purpose. In God’s scheme, the greatest is the servant of all and the one in charge does not lord it over the others. This is what Jesus taught us.

What Jacob’s family do not yet realise is that Joseph has been elected by God to save the family, more than rule over them. Had Joseph’s family understood the suffering Joseph would go through to achieve God’s purpose, they might have had a different response.

Although Jacob echoes his sons in publicly rebuking Joseph, privately the old man kept the matter in mind. We are reminded of Mary who, at the wonderful revelations surrounding Jesus’ birth, pondered these things in her heart.   

Jacob knew enough of God’s ways to not rule out the possibility that Joseph’s dreams would come true. Likewise, we should not be too quick to judge.

We should never say, ‘God cannot use me. I have nothing to offer’. Nor should we say, ‘God cannot work through this person or that situation’. God is free to work out his purpose however he wants. We need to let God be God.

God’s inscrutable election means we live with hope and possibility. We do well to ponder these wonders in our heart.  

Conclusion:

Just as God elects his Son Jesus to save the world, so too God reveals himself to the world most clearly through Jesus.

Jesus is the perfect image of God. Jesus shows us what it looks like to be human, as God intended. If we want to know God’s purpose, our best bet is to look to Jesus who embodies the truth and grace of God.

Let me conclude our message now with another way in which Joseph points to Jesus. The dreams Joseph had were similar to the dream God has given us. Similar, but not identical.  

Joseph dreamed that his family would bow down to him. Our God inspired dream is not that people would bow down to us, but rather that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow… and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 

When that happens, God’s kingdom will be realized in its fullness and we will have heaven on earth. No more injustice, no more war, no more loneliness, no more sickness or pain. That is the dream.

May the Lord strengthen our hope as we wait for the day of Jesus’ return. Amen.

Questions for discussion or reflection:

What stands out for you in reading this Scripture and/or in listening to the sermon? Why do you think this stood out to you?

• What do we mean by ‘God’s election’? Why does God elect people?

• How do we become part of God’s elect people? What are the implications of being part of God’s elect people?

• What ratio of positive to negative comments do you use in your conversation with others? What ratio of positive to negative comments do you receive? Does anything need to change for your relationships to flourish?

• What do we mean by ‘God’s revelation’? What are some of the ways God communicates with you?

• Have you ever had a dream you sensed was from God? If so, how did you know God was speaking to you in the dream?  

• Discuss / reflect on the twin concepts of God’s election and revelation as they relate to Jesus? How does Jesus fulfil God’s election and revelation?