Does suffering take you by surprise as a believer? Does it seem unfair or contrary to faithful living?
Some people assume Christians are surrounded by a supernatural bubble that protects us from pain and trials. But today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg explores the reality of following Jesus. I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 40. And let's read together from the first verse if you follow along as I read.
Sometime later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt. offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. And put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them.
After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men, the cup-bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison. Had a dream. the same night and each dream had a meaning of its own. When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected.
So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, Why are your faces so sad today? We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.
So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, In my dream, I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine, In front of me were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and put the cup in his hand. This is what it means, Joseph said to him.
The three branches are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cup-bearer. But when all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness. Mention me to Pharaoh. and get me out of this prison.
For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I've done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon. When the chief baker Saw that Joseph had been given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, I too had a dream. On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh. But the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.
This is what it means, Joseph said. The three baskets are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift off your head and hang you on a tree. and the birds will eat away your flesh.
Now, the third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cup-bearer and the chief baker in the presence of his officials. He restored the chief cup-bearer to his position so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation. the chief cup bidder, however.
did not remember Joseph. He forgot him. Amen.
Now we come this morning to Genesis chapter 40. As we continue our series in the life of Joseph. Every A number of people have said to me that Joseph appears so far almost superhuman. Almost beyond the point of identification, that his reaction to these daunting circumstances is such that many of us find ourselves saying, While I am a long way removed from Joseph and his ability to respond to the events that have unfolded in his life, and I can certainly identify with that.
However, If not before, this morning we're given an insight into the nature of Joseph that will help us to see that he is very much a man. That obviously has never been in doubt, but we may have tended to give to him more of an elevated position than he would ever think of for himself or desire. We have been focusing very much on his integrity and at the same time his efficiency. Able to carry out these various responsibilities with tremendous aplam. Able to handle all kinds of different and diverse factors of life.
with great clarity and usefulness. And yet, this morning, what we are confronted with is not his integrity or his efficiency, but it is in large measure his human frailty. His human frailty, his willingness to accept circumstances, which he so clearly did. did not, as we find out in this chapter, prevent him from trying to change them. Joseph was not a fatalist.
Joseph was not going around singing, K Sarah, Sera, whatever will be will be. He recognized that while a man's heart devises his way, the Lord directs his steps. He recognized that ultimately all of his days and all of his decisions were under God's providential care. But he recognized also that God had given him a mind with which to think. that he had given him the ability to take initiative, that he had made him influential in different ways.
And so it is that he is not unwilling to take the initiative in relationship to his circumstances and particularly in trying to change them.
Now, you can see this if you allow your eye to cast itself down on verse 14. He gives the news to the cupbearer that within three days his circumstances are going to be rectified, he'll no longer be in jail, his head will be lifted up, and he will be restored to freedom and to usefulness. and the prospect of his immediate discharge from the jail Obviously, it triggers in the mind of Joseph his own personal interest in being liberated from this dungeon. And which normal man would not think along those lines. To be given the ability to give a word of prophecy concerning this individual and the fact that he will be out and enjoying the sunshine without somehow thinking how much he would enjoy that would be to be less than natural, less than normal.
And so, in his humanity and in his normalcy, look at what he says. When all goes well with you, verse 14, remember me, show me kindness, mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison. Because the facts, he says in verse 15, are as stated. I was forcibly carried off. Even here I haven't done anything wrong.
And I don't deserve to be in this dungeon. And the cupbearer must have looked at him and said, Well, you certainly have a point there. He would have understood Joseph's request very clearly. Straightforward to the point. Remember me?
Show me kindness, mention me. Do what you can to get me out of this jail. It was an appeal to human kindness. It was a very normal thing from one man to another. We won't come close to getting to the end of the story, but just cast your gaze to verse 23 and look at what a rascal this cupbearer was.
The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph, he forgot him.
So Joseph was opposed, imprisoned, maligned, misunderstood, slandered, falsely accused, and wrongfully persecuted. Apart from that, you could say he was having a very nice time. And it may be that some of those words seem to fit your bill this morning. How has your day been? How has your week been?
Do any of these words fit you? Opposed, imprisoned, maligned, misunderstood, slandered, falsely accused, wrongfully persecuted. In this respect, as in many others, Joseph was a foreshadowing of Jesus who was to come. And this morning, I'm going to draw your attention to a number of places in the New Testament, probably to 1 Peter more than anything else.
So, if you have one of those little. You know, ribbons in your Bible, now you may want to flip it over and turn it into 1 Peter.
So as we go back and forth, you'll be able to turn to it. 1 Peter chapter 2. Concerning the Lord Jesus. We read In verse twenty-two, Of Jesus, he committed no sin. and no deceit was found in his mouth.
When they hurled their insults at him, which were unjustifiable insults, he did not retaliate. When he suffered unjustly, he made no threats. Instead He entrusted himself to the to him who Good judges. Justly Mm-hmm. As I began to study Genesis 40, and as I began to think about the events unfolding between 39 and into 40.
I was struck by the fact that the experience of Joseph in terms of unjust suffering. is an experience with which Any true believer will become familiar. There will be seasons in our lives where, similarly, we find ourselves on the receiving end of accusation. Slander. Maligning Imprisonment of some form or another.
It may happen in our homes. In our school, In the context of our everyday work, and it may even happen within the framework of the church. And the one thing which makes it so difficult to deal with is the fact of its injustice. I mean, even when we have acknowledged all of our wrong and all of the contributory elements of our own lives and lifestyle, still, no matter how hard we try to look at it in another way, when we lay it all out before as objectively as we can, we say, you know what? I have been taken here against my will.
I have not done these wrong things. And I don't deserve to be in this dungeon. He had no right to say that. She had no right to think that. They had no right to do that.
And here I am. It is a downright injustice. That is exactly what Joseph is saying in describing his circumstances. And so I paused in my notes and I said, okay, what do we need to note here about unjust suffering and the response of a person to unjust suffering? Because if we take it that we're all going to suffer unjustly, then it would be good at least to know how we should approach it when it comes along, especially if we made a hash of it so far.
Because there's more to come. and we can at least get ready for the next onslaught.
So four things about responding to unjust suffering. The first thing is this, do not be surprised. When you suffer, unjustly. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 12. That is exactly the phrase which Peter uses in writing to these scattered believers of his day.
He says, I don't want you to be surprised. At the fiery trial that is coming upon you. The painful trial, it says in the NIV, I think fiery in the authorized version. Don't be surprised at this, he says. You're suffering as though something strange were happening to you.
The Gentiles, especially, were not familiar with the idea of suffering because you were religious. They had an approach to religion which was fairly tolerant, as we'll see later on. And consequently, the idea of being a religious person and being a good person and then suffering because you were. It just wasn't in their computer program. And so Peter writes to them and he recognizes the sense of surprise which may well accompany this experience, and he says, I don't want you to be taken off guard by it.
You should recognize that this is going to happen. In much the same way that a father will sit down with his children before they go off to college or make their way in the world and will say to them, Now, you should recognize that this will happen, that these things will be in front of you. And when they do, I want you to remember that I told you this. I want to remember that I prepared you for it. And so Peter, pastoring as it were, those to whom he writes, writes out of the love of his heart and he says, make sure that suffering, especially unjust suffering, does not take you off guard.
You see, the great temptation is to regard suffering as a strange misfortune. To regard suffering as totally out of step. with whatever following Jesus is really about. And if that was a concern in first century Cappadocia and Bithynia, the area to which Peter was writing. It's surely a concern in 20th century Cleveland to whom I am speaking.
Because the same perspective is pervasive today. That many people are living with the mistaken notion that all will be well.
Now that I have made my commitment or I have endeavored to follow after Jesus. Because after all, we've said to ourselves, there is that Romans 8:28 verse, all things in all things God works for the good of those who love Him. And we have made that equal our benefit, and our blessing, and our health, and our security, and our freedom, and everything else, frankly, we want it to be. We've made the whole package and put it all together in a bundle. And so, anybody who is living with that notion of what it means to be a Christian.
is going to be surprised by unjust suffering. Because from that perspective, suffering has really no place in our theology at all.
Now, the question, of course, is: how can you possibly arrive at such a conclusion? The idea that because you follow Jesus Christ, all will be well. The events of the week that has just passed deny that. The facts of life do not substantiate it. and the words of Jesus, nor the example of his followers.
Give no credence to it at all. For example, think of the life of Jesus himself, John chapter 19, Jesus in the context of Pilate's Hall. and the interrogation that was taking place there with Pilate. Where did we get this idea that service for Christ is an insurance policy against trial, pain, and persecution? Where did we find that we had the right to go to bed angry because we lost our job or because our health was failing or because everything didn't work out?
Where did we get this idea that the Christian life was a bargain? You know, I do something good for you, God, and then you do a couple of good things for me. And I don't expect you to let your side of the bargain down. Wherever we got it from, we didn't get it from the Bible, we certainly didn't get it from the pages of the New Testament. John chapter 19.
Jesus before Pilate, actually at the end of 18. Pilate says the first of a number of times Concerning Jesus, 1838, he goes out to the Jews and he says, I find no basis for a charge against him. I find no basis for a charge against him. Pilate was convinced of one thing, two things. He was convinced that the opponents of Jesus were trying to manipulate the circumstances against him.
And he was convinced that Jesus was not guilty of the accusations. Therefore, any suffering which Jesus would experience would be unjust suffering.
Now despite that fact, he says, I find no basis for a charge against him. And then the opening verse of chapter 19, then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged.
Now, is there some kind of non Sequential thought in this? I find no basis for a charge against him, should then be followed by.
So Pilate took him and released him. But no, I find no basis for a charge against him.
So Pilate took him and had him flocked. Verse six. As soon as the chief priests and their officials saw him, they shouted, Crucify, crucify. And Pilate answered, You take him and crucify him. As for me, I find no basis for a charge.
against him.
Now, Peter writing of this back in the verses that we were at before in 1 Peter chapter 2 and in verse 20. Ask the question then of the believers. How is it to your credit if you receive a beating for doing wrong and endure it? At school in Scotland, we got belted with a leather belt. The teachers carry the belt, the men at least, carry the belt in their jacket up over their shoulder like this.
As a kid, you learn to look very carefully at situations. And particularly, if the guy was right-handed, you always checked over his shoulder in his suit or coat. to see if the telltale two-inch lump was there over his thing. Because that was where he went. to pull the implement of destruction.
and to beat you on your hands held out in front of you like this.
Sometimes once, mostly twice, a lot of times four, and on bad days, six.
Okay?
Now if you'd been a total pain If you'd been deceitful, If you'd been corrupt, And you got belted. Nobody commiserated with you. Because they understood the cause and effect. You violated the command. You were punished for doing wrong.
You deserve it. Let's get on with life. But on the few occasions When an injustice was done, And you were belted. For something that was caused by another. The sense of support and camaraderie in the class was almost palpable.
Because they recognized the injustice. in the punishment that had taken place. And every mind recognizes the injustice in the punishment that took place in relationship to Jesus and in the punishment which was going to take place in following Jesus. 1 Peter 2, 20b. But if you suffer for doing good and you endure it, this is commendable before God.
To this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. Turn back a couple of pages to Hebrews chapter 11 and the great heroes of the faith, the great picture gallery of those who are following Christ. And as he goes through and identifies different portraits by name, He eventually comes to a more generic statement regarding a great glut of people who had suffered unjustly for Christ. Not because they had done bad things. but because they were committed to doing good things.
Not because they had brought down upon themselves rightful justice. But that they had brought down upon themselves the bowls of human wrath. And loved ones, this morning, let us make sure that we understand this. We do a great disservice to the Bible and to all who have gone before us. To continue to perpetrate this silly and false idea.
That because we live and are privileged to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, that somehow or another all of this stuff about unjust suffering has to do with another day and another time that is far away from us. After all, we're Americans, you know. Our democracy is unimpeded. Our right to enjoy ourselves all of the time is an inalienable right. And especially now that we have baptized Christianity into it, we have made it some soft soap, shilly-shally little deal where the average teenage kid wants nothing to do with it.
Where an intellectual mind in the mainstream of educational research regards it as a triviality, and while people with hurting hearts want to know how it would ever be that any of these Christians could ever have anything to say to them, when after all, all that we have there to portray is that we are powerful and we are effective and we are healthy and we are wise and we know everything. No, we don't. We're the scum of the earth. That's what Paul describes himself as in 1 Corinthians 4. He says, we are as ministers of the gospel, amongst other things, the off-scouring of pots when you go to put them in the dishwasher.
Where did we get the idea? Where did we get a Christianity where Jesus does all the dying? Where do we get a Christianity where Jesus is the only one that bears a cross? A Christianity where Jesus is the only one who wears a crown. I tell you what, we didn't get it in the New Testament.
Bye. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. We'll learn more about responding to unjust suffering tomorrow. You know, it's pretty obvious that we live in a world that values achievement and wealth. and by the end of the day most of us learn the same thing, that our accomplishment, our riches, offer very little in the way of lasting satisfaction.
Thousands of years ago the writer of the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes came to the same conclusion he had everything money could buy, and pursued every promising experience, yet ultimately he remained unsatisfied.
So what did he discover that offered lasting fulfilment?
Well, that's the subject of the book we are recommending to day, Alistair's newly released verse by verse study guide through the book of Ecclesiastes, titled Chasing the Wind. The study guide is yours when you donate to Truth for Life today online at truthforlife.org slash donate. Or you can call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lepine. We're glad you've studied the Bible with us today.
It's only natural to want to seek revenge or vindicate ourselves when we've been wronged, but God's Word teaches a completely different approach. We'll hear more tomorrow. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Yeah. Where the Learning is for Living.
