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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospel of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

Alright, we’re going to talk about today, Joseph. Joseph. We kind of going through some of the Old Testament fellows and the Bible and you can’t give you all the details because you never get through the Bible. Maybe not in your lifetime. So we kind of hit high spots and then hopefully create an interest where you’ll go back later and during the week you’ll read more of the stories in between and so I just try to kind of give you some kind of a guideline.

But what I wanted to do today and starting off, I wanted you to see that God had a plan. See, God already knew what God was going to do and it’s amazing how God does it. And if you were Joseph and he hadn’t told you anything, it might discourage you a little bit. And yet behind the scenes, God was working. So take your Bible and turn to the book of Psalms, a hundred and fifth Psalm. You say, well, what in the world are you going to find out about Joseph and a hundred and fifth Psalm?

I knew you were going to ask that, so I’m going to show POLITICO. So in the hundred and fifth Psalm and while you turn into there, before we get started, let’s have a word of praise, shall we? Our Father, we do thank you so much for giving us a great week, opportunities and the privilege of serving you. We ask now, Lord, your blessings upon the study of your word and Father for the study of Joseph that we can see and understand just a little bit more about how you work in his life and also in ours and to believe it, to trust it.

In Christ’s name we pray, Amen. God is rehearsing some things that he had done for the nation of Israel. Tell him how you got started. Always remember where you came from. He tells them all the things that He did working behind the scenes to protect Israel. He calls He and made a promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. So I want you to look there where He says in verse 11, look in verse 11, saying unto the will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance.

God owns the earth. He owned the land of Canaan. And can’t God give whatever He wants to whoever He wants? It’s His. That’s what He says. So then He says in verse 12, when they were but few men in number, ye very few strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people, and verse 14, he suffered no man to do them wrong. He wouldn’t permit it. Yay, he reproved kings for their sakes, talking about Israel and Abraham and Isaac and what God did protected them because Jesus was gonna be born of this line.

So God had to watch over and preserve these individuals and what people said and so forth about him, he had made a promise that I’ll bless them, blessed the I’ll cursed in that curse you. And so God, God was working. Look what he says. He says in verse 15, saying, touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm. Hmm. So this is why it’s a warning. God says, leave my man alone. And verse 16, moreover, he called for a famine upon the land.

He break the whole staff of bread. Gotcha. He did all of that. Because it’s his world, but God works behind the scene. All you see is a famine. You see a tornado, a hurricane. You see this and that and the other. But are we supposed to believe that God is in charge? He’s on the throne. He knows what’s going on. Well, the Bible says he does. And so God has a perfect will of his own. And he doesn’t tell us everything.

God, no doubt. If these things are true, he is working in your life, but he doesn’t tell you anything. everything that he’s doing. He’s doing things that causes you to learn certain lessons that maybe you don’t wanna learn. He doesn’t always ask us. You wanna know this, you wanna know this, and God puts you sometime in places where you are forced to learn. Sometimes he creates things that happen in your life that forces you to pray to him. God gets you in certain positions, places, so that you might be the testimony or witness to somebody.

Just say just the right thing to somebody. Don’t believe that nobody knows I’m alive. God does, and nobody knows where God does, and God is working, but the quote he says. In verse seven, he sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, women. Didn’t God know that he was gonna be sold? He knew that in advance. Did he know how his brothers were going to treat him? God uses the envy of those brothers.

He even used Jacob, his daddy’s comments. He even used Joseph’s, given an evil report about those brothers. When you had a brother and sister, did you like them being tattle pails? You do something wrong. I’m gonna tell you, I’m gonna tell you, I’m gonna tell you, you better not tell them. I’ll get you. And so nobody appreciated a tattle tale, tattle it on you. And most people don’t even like it today, do ya? You tattle tale. And so it means somebody squealed.

And so Joseph did some of that. And you said, well, I didn’t know he did that. Well, doggy. Well, see that in just a minute. But the Bible says God sent a man. But how did he send him? Look what God did in the life of Joseph to get him where he wanted him to be. God wanted Joseph in Egypt.

And God was gonna create a storm. And buddy, did he ever. And then you have Jacob, his dad, and his brothers, years later, coming down into Egypt. God had already prepared a place for everything they would need to grow into a big nation. God says, look what He says. He says in verse 18, whose feet they hurt with fetters, He was laid in irons. God took them from a pit, put them into a prison, and later on put them into a palace.

I mean, God did that. But look what he says. But see, God doesn’t force people to do what he wants them to do. He will make you wish you had of, but you can always rebel against him. See, there’s time then God can use people’s rebellion to him to show his wrath upon. And God can use you as an instrument of mercy and grace if you serve him. So God can use all kinds of people to accomplish his purpose.

God can even take the wrong that you do and use it for something. Have you ever had a kid mess up and you say, I’m going to teach you a lesson. I’m going to make an example out of you. I don’t want to be an example. And because of what you did to this one sent a warning to the rest of them. When my two sisters got whooped by Mr. Pellegrine up in Manor, Pennsylvania, when they went to Manor High School, when they were in junior high, it sent a message to me, yank it, you better behave yourself, don’t make Mr.

Pellegrine mad. And lo and behold, it wasn’t long before I was taken to the boiler room and he cleaned my plow. I mean, I had big old tears. I thought I was being murdered. I still think I was I think I died that day. But you’d be surprised. God works. Look what else he says. In verse 19, until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. You’re always being tried, tested. That’s why in the New Testament you’ll see a scripture that says, the trial of your faith, been much more precious than a golden silver, though it be tried with fire.

Maybe found in the praise, honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. So God says we’re all being tried. Your faith is on trial. You say I love the Lord. And God will test that and see whether you do or don’t. I’ll be willing to do anything you want. You’d be surprised. Some people, they dedicated their lives to the Lord years and years and years ago, and they forget all about it. Somebody didn’t forget. And that’s God. And God sometimes will have a way of reminding you.

But I love it down through here because he goes down and he makes some strong statements how that he brought him up. See there in verse 23? Israel also came into Egypt and Jacob sojourn in the land of him and he increased his people greatly, made them stronger than their enemies and then looking for 25. He turned their hearts to hate his people. God made Egypt. Hate his people. But God will allow them and how they think and accomplish his will because God will let you love and hate according to your choice.

But God will use it for his honor and glory. And then he talks about all the things that he did. And then in verse 26 he sent Moses. And Moses was used by God to bring him out. Now go back there to the book of Genesis chapter 37. Genesis chapter 37. So as you read the story of Joseph, I wanted you to see God working behind the scenes. God allows things to happen. And you wonder why does God allow this?

Because you, God may have a bigger plan. And God can use the rebellion of other people to teach you and drive you closer to the Lord. Look what He says in verse 2. Verse 2. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph been 17 years old. So you He was just a teenager, 17 years old, feeding the flock with his brethren and the lad was with the sons of Billhead and with the sons of Zilpa. His father’s wives and Joseph get this brought unto his father their evil report.

We don’t have down what that evil report was, but evidently it’s a possibility. Joseph had something to tell about his brothers. Now do you think that is going to set very well with his brothers? So little by little, the things that happened created a problem. Now does God know this problem exists? Yes, envying was terrible. So it says there in verse three, it says, now Israelutm, Jacob loved Joseph more than others all of his children. See anything wrong with that?

You see anything wrong with that? So daddy is doing a no-no. You shouldn’t try to convince one child, you love that child more than the other children. What does that create? When I knew, when I knew my dad loved my sister more than he loved me, I didn’t like my dad because I knew what my daddy was and I knew my sister would play up to my dad. She could get him to do anything she wanted. She was only a year and a half older than me but she could manipulate my dad and all she had to do is say Yankee and he’d take his belt off and buddy he’d tear me up.

It didn’t have to be true. I didn’t even get a defense. It was just if my sister said it, I’m guilty. And buddy, I got a lot of weapons that I never deserved. But you know, my sister, I led her to the Lord. Later, she’s in heaven now. I’m glad she’s in heaven. When I get up there, she’s not going to be mean to me anymore. And I’m not going to be mad at her anymore. No, Lord can change all those things.

But now notice what he says here, verse three, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. Oh boy, something special. Would that create bitterness and anger and envy in his brothers? It did. And verse four, and when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, what did it say? They what? They hated him. But remember, God has a plan. God wants to take His people and get them down into Egypt so that they can have the best of the fertile land and they can grow there and become mighty.

And then when God is ready, those people in Egypt will turn against them. But remember now, they’ve got to go into a desert. So they begin to have to work hard and make things without, you know, grass or making bricks. Don’t you know that these people that were slaves, they must have been in pretty good shape. Physically, they had to work hard and they’re in good shape. And then when they went into the desert, it says their clothes never wore out.

Can you imagine your wife wearing the same dress for 40 years? Honey, I’ll get you another one when that one wears out. Wearing the same shoes, the Bible says that. 40 years. But God had to get them in shape. And then they left and then for Ben’s slave, he had them spoil the Egyptians. He made it so bad they were willing to give them silver and gold and all kind of precious stone just to get them out of there.

So they left and they were finally paid for all those years of labor. And God used all of that because he had to have gold and silver for the temple that was going to be made. So they left rich. God had a plan. It was all about his people, Israel. But now God’s got to get him down there. But why don’t God, okay, I want you down here, pick you up, but God doesn’t go against you. Well, he lets you make decisions.

And because of their hatred, which if they were spiritually minded, they could have overlooked that. And they didn’t have to get better just because daddy loved him more. But you see, God used their wrong decisions to accomplish His purpose. God doesn’t make us do things that are wrong. God allow us to do things that are wrong, but He can use that. You may have to pay a price. God may have to chase in you. Because of what Jacob did and causing his brothers to hate He didn’t sow, and yet maybe Joseph hadn’t done that much bad.

They just told him what they did and gave an evil report. It wasn’t a good one. But you think, after all of those things that have happened, here’s Jacob. Did he ever pay a price for his bad decision? about 25, 30 years, you know, he mourned for his son. He mourned because he thought he was dead. He thought he was dead and his brothers wouldn’t tell him the truth. And he mourned. He said, I’m going to go down to the grave in mourning because of this.

So he says they’re and verse four of the last part, and they could not speak peaceably unto him. Joseph dreamed a dream and told it to his brothers, and they loved him yet the more. Is that what it says? No, they hated him the more. He had a dream. Wait a minute. He had a dream. Who gave him this dream? God. Didn’t God know if he gave him this dream what Joseph was going to say? And if he knew what he was going to say, didn’t he know how they were going to feel?

But that doesn’t mean God did anything wrong and gave him a dream because the dream was true. And the problem that Joseph had, if they really didn’t like, Joseph believed the dream. He’s telling the story, a dream about what’s going to happen. And so he dreamed this dream and verse six and he said to them, here I pray this dream which I have dreamed for behold, we were binding chiefs in the field in low. My chief arose and also stood upright and behold, your chief stood around the body and made obeisance to my chief.

In other words, they bowed to mine. He may not have understood what in the world the dream meant, but it’s simple that his brothers did. See there in verse eight, his brethren said to him, shout thou indeed rain over us, or shout thou indeed have dominion over us, and they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreams another dream, make it a little bit worse. And now that was with the brother. Now let’s add mommy and daddy in here too.

And he dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brother and said, Behold, I have dreamed yet another dream. Behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me, bowed to me. And he told it to his father and his brother and his father rebuked him and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brother indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

Well, let me ask you a question. Did they? It was years and years later. But they couldn’t see how in the world do you think that’s ever going to happen? That’ll never happen. So a way to keep that from happening is the brothers begin to talk. And when they begin to talk, they thought bad things, said bad things, and we’re going to do something bad. What did they decide to do? Not just sell them, they’re going to do something else before that.

They were going to kill him. Now you imagine they hated him that bad that they were willing to kill, 11 of them willing to kill Joseph. You see what they would have done then? Look down there in verse 11. And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the saying. So now they had gone to get something to, you know, watch in the flocks in different places in the second. So he, Daddy tells his son, he says, go up there and see how they’re doing.

And so he’s sending him some stuff there. And he says in verse 14, he said to him, go, I pray they see whether it be well with thy brethren and with the flocks and bring me word again. So he sent him, now wait a minute, does God know where the brothers are? Yeah. Does God know what the brothers are going to plan on doing to him? Yeah. And God lets Jacob tell him to go see his brothers. The? Why would God do that?

I mean, God’s letting this happen. Have you ever thought that if you love the Lord and you want to serve the Lord, why does God allow you to go through all that suffering and pain as a result of somebody else’s bad decisions? And you suffer the consequences. The Lord does tell you think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try us as though some strange thing has happened to you. And then he also makes a statement It’s better to suffer for well-doing than for wrong-doing.

If you’re at least if you’re gonna suffer, let it be because somebody else did you wrong, not because you did wrong. You just gotta keep doing what’s right and trust the Lord to bless you. So anyway, when he got there, he didn’t know exactly where they were and so somebody had to tell him and they said, Well, what are you saying? He said, oh, they went to another place, Dotham. So he goes over there and looking verse 18, and when they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him.

And they said, one to another, behold, this dreamer coming. I preached to sermon years ago, have a dream. That was before Martin Luther King, to have a dream and a dream big because God’s a big God. But sometimes God will kind of give you an idea of what he wants you to do. Sometimes he never tells you anything and he just works in your life and brings people in, problems, all kinds of stuff. You just keep doing right and trust the Lord to put you where he wants to let happens to you.

I’ve seen some people, something happens to them and they become bitter. They get bitter because look at this, I gotta go through or live with it. I don’t have money, I don’t have this, I don’t have health. Doesn’t God know that? Doesn’t God allow some of these things? Now if it’s decisions you made that were wrong decisions, you can always say, Lord, I was wrong, and would you forgive me? But always be checking your attitude. Your attitude can do you in, and God can, and you’ll rob yourself of peace and joy and so forth.

And you’ll have a, you’ve heard about Jonah. He said, when you get down in the dumps, when you get down in the mouth, remember he came out all right. But sometimes you’re gonna get down, down, down. He should say, you know what? Where did your long-range or take his garbage? Doo-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum-dum. This way they stay out of the dump. Where is he? Well, he’s done in the dumps. But now they’ve conspired, let’s kill him. But there was one, Reuben, he said, let’s don’t kill him.

Let’s put him in a pit because he had plans that he’ll come back later and get Joseph out of there. But the thing is that they agreed to do that, so they didn’t kill him. But evidently, Reuben was doing something else in verse 24, and they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty and there was no water in him. They sat down to eat bread, and they lifted up their eyes and looked and behold, a company of Ishma lights came from Gilead, just a coincidence.

They were going to kill him. Now if they had killed him, wait a minute, God had a plan. God was going to send a man down into Egypt. God said he did it. He sent him down there. But he’s using, look at the circumstances to get it done. And so they put him in a pit. Well, he’d have died there. So far they didn’t kill him. Now that he’s in a pit, they didn’t kill him. Ishmaelites came by. Hey, let’s sell them.

So they sold them to the Ishmaelites. And they were on their way. So in verse 26, and Judas said unto his brother, what prophet it is, if we slay our brother and conceal his blood, come let us sail him to the Ishmaelites and let us not have our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh and his brother and we’re content. Isn’t that wonderful? This sin is not as bad as the other sin. You know, they put him in a pit.

He would have died naturally. Somebody else had done it, or he had just started death. But at least they didn’t kill him. So that’s not as bad as actually killing him. So each time Well, one sin is not as bad as the other sin. So they have a less sin now. So they’re just going to sell them. Well, isn’t it possible if they could have killed them? He could have taken them down into Egypt and they could have killed them.

And look at all the things that happens to this poor fella. And what great wrong had he did he deserve to die? Did he deserve this treatment? I don’t think so. But look what had happened to him. So you’ll notice there in verse 28, then they’re passed by a median night merchantman, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit, sold Joseph to the Ishmaelite for 20 pieces of silver. You know, that sounds a little from me, you don’t it?

Somebody being sold of their own brethren, sold for a price. Do you remember a story about Judas if I heard of him before? Who betrayed the Lord and sold him for some silver? Just a coincidence. This is just a story that teaches. It’s a type of Jesus Christ who is betrayed by his brothers. And coming to his own people. But he’s going into another land. And one day we’re going to be taken to another land. Jesus Christ, you can follow stories through the Old Testament.

And you can see Christ here and Christ there and so forth. There are times in which to teach by. So it’s an interesting thing. Well it’s a new month and that means a new offer to those who support Bibleline. And this month we have something really special for you, the brand new book by Greg Steer, the founder of Dare to Share Ministries, called Gospelize. What a fabulous book written about the model for evangelism according to the book of Acts.

Reagan is a way of teaching some profound truths in simple and easy to understand ways with practical examples that you can use immediately. I could not put the book down and when I finished it, I wanted to stop everyone on the highway and tell them of the free gift of salvation. And this life-changing book is yours for a gift to Bibleline in any amount. Our mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Don’t forget to include your mailing address as well.

God bless you and thank you again for supporting Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us. The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now, a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound and we will be changed. Cut up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believe in that the Lord is coming soon.

Just keep looking up.