When I See No Way Out

I invite you to turn in your Bibles this morning to Genesis chapter 40. Genesis chapter 40. And we're continuing our study, if you're a visitor this morning, in the book of Genesis. We're really in the heart of the story now of Joseph. And in this particular scene, he is in prison in Egypt. So let's give our attention to the word of the Lord. Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the cupbearer and the chief baker. And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. And one night they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream. And each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, Why are your faces downcast today? They said to him, We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me. So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Then Joseph said to him, this is its interpretation. Three branches are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office. And you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me when it's well with you. And please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews. And here also I've done nothing that they should put me into the pit. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream. There were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is its interpretation. Three baskets are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh from you on the third day which was pharaoh's birthday he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants he restored the chief cupbearer to his position and he placed the cup in pharaoh's hand but he hanged the chief baker as joseph had interpreted to them yet the chief cupbearer did not remember joseph but forgot him may the lord bless the hearing of his word the bible has a lot to say you know about affliction and about trial joseph has entered into this period of trial that we discussed last time the bible's not been silent about this all over especially in the new testament it gives us a lot of perspective about trial and affliction for Christians. You know Romans 5 that it says that we should even then rejoice in sufferings knowing that it's producing something. It's producing endurance and endurance character and character hope and that doesn't put us to shame. You'll remember from James chapter 1 that he said, count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and it says this and let steadfastness have its full effect let it have it that you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing so i am to view trials i am to view these things in a certain way as god telling us and believe that he's working his desired effect in us. He just said that. You have to let it have its desired effect. And the scriptures encourage us when the Lord puts us under testings that we should understand that in the whole picture, it's a light affliction, which is but for a moment, working in us an eternal weight of glory. That's a difficult pill to swallow when I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. That's a really difficult pill to swallow. To call something that major that we just read a light affliction? Remarkable, isn't it? There are some trials that people go through and you just don't see any end. You just don't see any end at all. Even with the death of a loved one, there is some amount of closure with that, isn't there? There's a period of mourning. We never truly get over it if it's a spouse. But you move on. You have to move on. You have to move on. But with other trials, there are those that you sit stuck and you see no way out. And you ask God, you ask God, you say, well, the Lord, help us. Help me, please. And nothing. Nothing. Everything we believe about God's goodness and presence and help is really put to the test when none of it seems to be true. None of it at all. And the endless monotony of trial, the endless road that we seem to be on where you just can't get out, the prospect that it will never end, the prospect that it will never end seems to lead someone at some point to a breaking point and absolute despair. I think about that. where they feel they can just no longer maintain. That kind of trial, where there's no light at the end of the tunnel, is set in front of you this morning. Did you notice how it began and how it ended? Nothing's different for Joseph. Nothing of the whole scene changed that awful circumstance. And I'm used to constantly preaching about, and this is where the interesting challenge came in this week, I'm used to constantly preaching about how people fail in trial. I'm used to that. I'm a sinner. I connect with that. I know that. But then I come to Genesis 40, and I have a radically different presentation of somebody who handled it. I don't know if you could handle it better than this. It's remarkable. It's a close to perfect presentation of how to deal with trial. what's the message then here you know you think about it what is the message that the lord has when you have this kind of presentation because if you're like me you know you know you fall apart in the least of afflictions and we identify with judah way more than joseph often because this this is this is a pretty radical response to trial it's a lot more challenging for me as a preacher to look at a figure who does it right and then to try to challenge you with how you are to identify with him when it really isn't your often experience and then you say well what is god's purpose in this what is god's purpose the first has to be that joseph was a sinner right joseph was like one of us joseph was not perfect joseph was a sinner how could he handle a situation like this the way that he did you come up with what you come up with is god has the power to preserve doesn't he god has amazing power to preserve you know you sing about this in the songs you constantly ask god for this he will not let your foot be moved he who keeps you will not slumber behold he who keeps israel will neither slumber nor sleep the lord is your keeper the lord is your shade on your right hand the sun shall not strike you by day nor the moon by night this the lord will keep you from all evil he will keep your life and you and you ask the question do you believe that do you believe that well we can learn a lot this morning of what his keeping power looks like as we look at joseph respond to these afflictions. But when it's all said and done and we've made the end of Genesis 40, you and I both know that there's another story being told. And we can't neglect that story. That a faithful son is coming at this point in history and he would undergo a suffering and a trial like nobody else. And in that life, we find life. And that's where I want to get this morning. That's the goal of this sermon. The last scene, the text was communicating something to us about the presence of the Lord through this whole Joseph ordeal. Chapter 39 said five times that the Lord was with Joseph. Did you catch that? I mean, that is a really wonderful chapter to show the Lord's presence in affliction five times. But what we studied last time was that Joseph had entered into this, this time of trial. And it's a trial like we haven't seen yet. I mean, it's remarkable. The last scene showed us under the greatest amount of pressure that Joseph would not sin against the Lord. Potiphar's wife threw herself at him. And day after day after day, and he wouldn't do it. He would not do it. And you stopped and you reflected upon what drove Joseph. And the only answer you get is the love of God. It wasn't a fear of hell. It wasn't a fear of judgment that motivated Joseph's obedience. It was an understanding of how good God had been to him. How could I do this evil and sin against this God who's been like this to me? I could never do that. I could never treat him that way. And that drove him an understanding of grace and gospel and love. And it's that message, that's why it has to be preached consistently, that keeps you, keeps you. Well, as we open chapter 40, we ask, how much can a man take? How much can a man take? How much harder is this going to get for Joseph? I want you to look down at verse 41, chapter 41, verse 1. Then it came to pass, or after two whole years. So, two full years since when? Well, that would be since the butler was restored, or the cupbearer. And if you look at verse 36, we read that, look down at verse 36 of chapter 41. 1. Joseph is, well, that's not the verse, but it is. Just trust me here. I don't know. I'm 46. Thank you. Joseph is 30 years old at this point. 30. Now, you do the math. He was sold into slavery at 17. So that means that the slavery ordeal was 13 to 14 years of his life. That's a long run. That's a long run. Remember Psalm 105 said that Joseph was sold as a slave. They hurt his feet with fetters. He was laid in irons. until the time that his word came to pass. The word of the Lord tested him. The entire ordeal was a long test for this man. And the path of it, as we study it today, the trajectory of it, it has gone from bad to worse. Despised by his brothers, hated by his brothers, threw him into a pit. They sold their youngest brother to Ishmaelites. They sold him to people outside of the covenant promises, to those who hated anything having to do with the Lord. He's taken by force in chains to Egypt and things seem to go well. And the minute he stands for righteousness, he is hurled into a pit and he is falsely accused. And that's the opening scene of Genesis chapter 40. This is where he is. This is no thug. This is no thief. There's nothing to which this man could have been accused for which. And look at the affliction. And do you think God came alongside to Joseph in the jail and whispered to him, hey, don't worry. I'll get you out of this. Let me tell you when. None of it. At some point you give up, don't you? One year passes. One year, another, another, on and on and on and on. You're 10, 10 years in this. And it's challenging when we have this really strong view of the sovereignty of God and what we believe about God, that He's directly involved in everything. I mean, we're told to believe His grace. We're told to believe His goodness, and yet nothing, 14 years. This is a really challenging circumstance, isn't it? And then we see all that's happening and we think, well, he's the one in control of king's hearts. He is the one who holds hearts in his hand. The imaginations of men he uses to fulfill his design. He turns it and twists it. And God, great in his power, the king over all, and look at the state of things today. I mean, just last night, another one beheaded. is there any time you begin to doubt the love of God? I guess I would say, here it is. You talk to those in affliction. And what do they experience? What are the emotions? When there are no answers and it seems endless and there's no light at the end of the road, I would say that there's one major word that would define their circumstance. What would the word be? How would you describe somebody's circumstance like this? There's a very powerful word in verse 3 that I believe captures it. It says the prison was a place where Joseph was confined. The word means tied up, harnessed. It's a powerful word. When you talk to people in trial when there's no way out, I don't know a better word to describe exactly what they're experiencing. It's confinement. They have no air. They can't breathe. Everything about life feels constricted. Jonah in the depths described this. Remember, the waters closed over me to take my life. The deep surrounded me. Weeds were wrapped around my head. The bars closed upon me forever. My life was fainting away. That was the experience in the confinement. Where's the breaking point to all of this with Joseph? Where's the breaking point? When does this stop? It can't continue like this. and then you have the issue of response to all of this the benefit that we have in looking this morning at genesis chapter 40 is is for us to open up our eyes and look and see how this servant went through it and what he did and all along the way what has the lord been teaching us what has the lord been showing us if at any point it could be said that a man was abandoned by god here it is and yet 39 kept saying over and over and over, no, he was with him, I'm with him. The Lord kept communicating that because he knows exactly what people feel in confinement. Not true. I'm present. To which you say God's goodness is never ultimately been measured by the appearance of outward circumstances or what we face or the trials and afflictions. His love is not witnessed in a pain-free life that we're all striving for. The Lord is using the terrible, murderous actions that have gone on in this book to send Joseph ahead to be the deliverer. Now, we know that. You know that. He didn't know that. And Joseph, you know, you look up. When you study the life of Joseph and you think about him, you realize there may seem to be no end out of trial. But one thing that we begin to learn here in the midst of it is, look up and see what's happening around you. Things are happening. Things are moving. Look up outside of your immediate affliction. Things are moving. The world is moving. It's going somewhere. You think all the craziness right now that's happening in the world to which I've had more of you tell me, we've never seen it this bad. Do you think God's not shaking up nations right now? Do you think God's not twisting and turning events right now in history, in front of you? When you look at the struggles going on in the earth right now in front of you and you see the wars and the rumors of wars, don't you see the kingdoms raging? And don't you think, what we think, everything's going wrong right now, doesn't it tell you that things are happening? Look up. Look at what's going on all around you. It's moving. And what is the single great message that all of this moving and all of these things that are happening, what is it telling you? It's going somewhere. All of it's going somewhere. And as Christians, you know where it's going. It's going to the end of all things. In the midst of what seems to be no way out for the Christian, in the midst of what seems to be no answer, everything else is moving in this chapter. And that's a huge encouragement to us. It helps us process a little bit differently what's going on right now in the world, doesn't it? We feel trapped as Christians. We don't know what to do, but everything's moving. And the kings and the kingdoms of this earth can't stop it. They can't stop one problem after another. He's working. We read that sometime after this, this situation was moving. This cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt, and Pharaoh was angry with his two officers. Who do you think is working here? I mean, it's all the Lord. And the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined. These two royal figures are cast into prison with Joseph. You tend to think of them as common servants, don't you? Like the head cook and the head waiter. These were great positions in ancient Egypt. These are the guys that tested the food for Pharaoh, you know, to make sure there was no poison in it before. They oversaw all the pagan worship festivals of the Egyptian gods. They oversaw the bread and the wine for Pharaoh. Trust me, a big deal. And these guys were really royal figures in Egypt. whatever happens here, both are convicted of some crime and Pharaoh hurls them in his anger into prison and on his watch, notice this, both of these powerful figures are cast there and in the course of this, they each have a dream. Now in Egypt and in the ancient world, dreams were big. It connected you, they believed with the other world. You know what the Egyptians believed about the other world. When they came in pairs, they believed that this was absolutely certain It was going to come to pass. And this is exactly what happens with these dreams. You'll notice that they are distressed over it. But the text is focusing on Joseph. Two things are said about him. In verse 4, the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them. What a strange word that is then said. And he served them. What do people do under this kind of pressure? They cave. Suffering brings isolation. You look at the path of people suffering. What is the path they go in their confinement? It's isolation. They want to be isolated. They withdraw. They want to be alone. They want to deal with it themselves. And imagine the anger that could build in the heart. And the Spirit inspires something powerful about Joseph. All interests are cast aside, and he's serving them. If you look at people in affliction, you'll know how they're doing by the way they relate to their brethren. Is it a withdrawal? or does their affliction take them to help others in their afflictions, which is the best way forward? One pastor said, response to ongoing suffering in us reveals a lot about our own hearts. Verse 7. Why are you sad? Says Joseph. Who's asking who? Why are you sad? Who cares about who? Well, they're terribly afraid because of what they believed about dreams. And they know they're guilty of some crime. They're unable to discern their future. They're unable to know what's going to happen to them. And what does Joseph say? Why do you look so sad today? And they said, we've each had a dream and there's no interpreter of it. Listen to this. Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me. Look at the confidence of this man. Look at the trust in this man. No harshness, no bitterness. The chief butler begins. A vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches, and it was as though it had budded, and its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. Then Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed Pharaoh's cup in my hand. It's a fascinating dream, and Joseph gives a straightforward interpretation. Three branches of three days. Within three days, Pharaoh's going to lift up your head and restore you to your place and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner when you were his butler. Chief Baker hears the interpretation and he heard it was a good interpretation. He goes, well, tell me mine then. You know, there were three white baskets on my head and in the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh and the birds came and ate them out of the basket on my head. And Joseph gives a plain meaning of the dream. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree and the birds will eat your flesh from you. He speaks the truth. He's a prophet. So what happens? The scene ends anticlimactically. In other words, everything happened just as Joseph said. They're both restored for a moment. The one is restored, the chief cupbearer, to Pharaoh's favor, and then the other one is to Pharaoh's curse. What's so moving is what Joseph had asked this cupbearer. Would you do me one favor? When you get out and you're restored, would you remember me? Would you remember what has happened here? And when it's well for you, do this kindness for me. Tell Pharaoh about this so I get out of here because I was unjustly, I was unjustly stolen out of the land of the Hebrews and I've done nothing. I've done nothing that I should be put in this pit. And the end of chapter 40, how does it end? Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him. Two more years. Two more years. And you stop and you say, how could that be? How could you just forget? You don't just forget somebody like this. There's more to it than that. How can you forget somebody who's done this kind of thing? In other words, you just forgot somebody who's helped you and loved you like that. The word here is not just a mere slip of mind. The word here implies a moral lapse. He intentionally forgot Joseph. And I thought, why does the scene end like that? Why does Genesis 40 end this way? And whoever, when they worked on putting chapter breaks and putting chapters in, understood that there's a break here. They were correct. Why a break here? And I thought about that, and I came up with this. This has always been the saints' struggle on the earth. This has always been the patience of the saints in their struggle on the earth. That's exactly what many of you face in experience. And when you look at Joseph, when you study his life, when you study chapter 40, you should say, there was an end to this. We know it. It wasn't forever. But it all moved to God's appointed end. And we've seen the end intended by the Lord. We know the end intended by the Lord. James 5, you've heard of the steadfastness of Job. And you've seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. So remain steadfast in it. Don't lose heart. You've seen the end and purpose, how he sent Joseph ahead to be the Savior. And this story then is really telling us the story you've heard all your life. The reality is what? All humanity is guilty before God. And it all awaits not Pharaoh's judgment, but God's judgment. And what did God do? Oh, He did something just overwhelming. He sent His beloved Son into this cursed world. And He came here. His righteous servant. His pure servant. We treated Him awful. And we gave Him no place to lay His head. Isn't that exactly the whole ministry of our Lord? He had no place to go. And then we confined Him. We bound Him. And what was the truth of His life? The truth of His life was the Christ, the Son of Jacob, came as a servant. And His whole time on earth, they all hated Him. They punched Him in the face. And what was His great care the whole time? The Son of Man did not come to be served, but He came to serve. He didn't care about Himself. He cared about you. and for what did they want to kill him what did jesus say they wanted to kill him because he spoke the truth he spoke about the judgment to come and the way of salvation listen to first peter for christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us to god isn't this the story being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not obey. However, we take that last line. The message is clear. In the most difficult sufferings that anyone has ever had to undergo, the suffering of the Son of God, the suffering servant that all the Old Testament proclaimed, the hardest sufferings of life, what did he do in the midst of those sufferings? He preached. And this suffering servant in the heart of his affliction cared, loved, embraced. Cared about those in their afflictions. Denied himself. Became a servant. And said, this is the testimony. God has given us eternal life. This life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I've written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. That's His revelation. And you know from fulfillment, as Christ is among sinners, not just among, when He was rendered guilty and nailed to the cross, when He was confined to the cross, two common criminals were put next to Him. And I don't believe that this is any kind of allegorizing or anything. It's the story. Two common criminals were put next to him in the confinement. Then one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him. Saying, if you're the Christ, save yourself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God seeing that you're under the same condemnation? We're both thrown in here. And we indeed justly. For we receive the reward of our deeds. But this man, now think of Joseph. He's done nothing. It's a story. You know this story. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember me. jesus says assuredly i say to you today you'll be with me in paradise isn't that awesome two criminals hung next to our lord telling us that all the world's guilty before god and what happened to the chief cup bearer or baker that he was hung that's not a reference to hanging by a rope by the way the word here is interesting it's a public display of a corpse he was made a curse publicly because he had no one to undergo the curse for him oh but this jesus became the curse and the other one was spared who believed because jesus drank the cup the wine press of the wrath of god what's about to happen to joseph he's about to be raised to the right hand of pharaoh now call me what you will i don't know how else isn't that the story raised to the right hand of pharaoh exalted over all and what's going to happen with joseph the whole thing foreshadows the the death in the prison the death and the confinement and the resurrection all the way to the grave all the way back up of christ where the son of man would be exalted and then intercede for those whom he's going to bring back to himself lord remember me when you enter into your kingdom joseph's going ahead God, would you remember me because unless you forget, if you forget me, I'm not going to make it. Is that your cry? Can't you pray that today? Lord, remember me in your kingdom. We forgot him. The story tells us that. We forgot him when we said crucify him, crucify him. But the Lord wants you to know, and this is where it all comes together this morning, in your deepest afflictions, in your deepest woes, He doesn't forget you. Just as God remembered Noah, just as God remembered His servant Abraham, even though we didn't regard Him and we forgot Him, He will indeed remember us on the horrid day of judgment of all who look in true faith and believe in His Son. he'll remember. And he desired for you to know that belonging to him, you now are privileged, and this is the message, to carry about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. You're privileged. But in that, he's not absent from you. That's what he's been telling us. And he's told us that the pathway to glory is the pathway of suffering. This light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working in us an eternal weight of glory. Far and exceeding weight of eternal glory. That gives you a lot of purpose in life. When you feel confined. When you feel the monotony of it all. It gives you a lot of perspective this morning. To remember what the Lord said, I want you to wait on me. Things are moving. If you don't believe it, look around. Lift up your head. Look at the state of the world. It's all moving, beloved. And soon he's going to be here. And he went ahead just like Joseph. What did he tell you in John 14? I'm going to bring you to where I am. What's going to happen to the brothers? They're all going to go to be where he is. That's the story. And he will deliver you out of all of your afflictions. That's the message of the Christian gospel. And the Lord wants you to see that it's all over the pages of Scripture. So I closed this morning with where I entered into that atheist pastor's comments. If you read the Bible, you know, it would leave everyone in trouble. Really? When Jesus looked at Martha and Mary and the death of a loved one, he asked them a simple question. Martha said, I know that my brother will rise at the resurrection of the last day. Jesus said, everyone who believes shall live even though he dies. Here's my question. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? Amen. Heavenly Father, we're grateful for a text that so displays the person and the work of our Lord. And forgive us that we are often weak and even embarrassed to tell this story from all the Scripture. What a terrible testimony. That you did give your best. You gave your beloved Son. And we might live. And that in Him, in that life, we have life. So that in all of our afflictions, which seem to be never-ending, you've shown us on the pages of scriptures the end intended by you and for that your praise is on our lips and in our hearts this day may you be magnified among your people in jesus name amen