Biographical Sermon on Joseph, Job and John
by Maylan Schurch
Bellevue Seventh-day Adventist Church 5/16/2020
©2020 by Maylan Schurch
To watch the entire worship service, go to the link just below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBd2qeWXizA
To see other services, go to “Worship” and then “YouTube Channel.”
Please open your Bibles to Genesis Chapter 39.
How’s your temperature this morning? I’m not talking about your body temperature. I’m talking about your “cabin fever” temperature. If cabin fever is a real thing, maybe that fever has a temperature!
Are you feeling lonely at all? I suppose it depends on your personality. I think that, over the years, I’ve told the following little true story two or three times, but maybe it’s not been recent enough.
Maybe a decade and a half ago, the conference invited any pastor who wanted, to come to a prayer retreat at Sunset Lake Camp. I signed up to go, and when we all got there, we discovered that this wouldn’t be another of those retreats where you listen to a lot of speakers and come away with a notebook full of information.
Instead, this retreat very wisely contained large blocks of time for prayer, and most of these were times when you could wander off by yourself, strolling up and down the Sunset Lake trails, totally alone.
I was actually okay with this, because I’m a bit of an introvert. So I happily crisscrossed the camp, looking at all the natural beauty, and thinking of things to pray about, and praying.
At one point I stopped at the old restroom up among the old hill cabins. Another pastor came in, and when he saw me he brightened up eagerly, and we got into conversation. I said, “Isn’t this nice, the way we all can have a lot of time alone?”
He said sharply, “No!”
I glanced at him in surprise, and repeated, “No?”
“No!” he said again, and a wild look came into his eyes. “There’s nobody to talk to up here! I’m going crazy!”
I don’t know how your particular personality is handling this crazy time when we can’t get too close to each other. Now, whenever Shelley and I go for a drive, we think wistfully of bookstores we are coming near. We know that, so far, those bookstores are closed, unless you want to order a book and have somebody wearing a mask and gloves hand it out to you. We’re looking forward to when our library can open again.
This week I was thinking about people in the Bible who faced loneliness. And of course, when you come to think of it, God is the ultimate Lonely One. He created us to live with Him, speak to Him, walk with Him, listen to what He had to say. And suddenly He became quarantined from us, and has been for thousands of years. But according to Jesus, the Father still wants to come close.
So I thought to myself, “How did Bible people handle loneliness?” And there was no shortage of loneliness in the Bible. If you were christened with the name of the Bible character, or if you’ve named your children after Bible characters, there’s a good chance that those were occasionally lonely people.
And the main reason most ended up lonely was because they bucked the culture. Vast crowds of people were hurrying along in one direction, and the follower of God went the other way. Abraham was a prosperous farmer in the Babylonian city of Ur, but God called him away to Palestine.
And you could go one by one through the Bible heroes and heroines, and those of you who responded to our question of the week have mentioned several of them, including – I think – most of the ones I’ll be talking about this morning. Think of the loneliness Noah faced, and Elijah, and Daniel, and John the Baptist, and of course Jesus. Even popular people like David were lonely from time to time, as they resisted taking the dishonorable way.
This morning I like to look at two Bible people, to see if we can find out how they dealt with loneliness. (Two was all I had time for. Maybe I’ll talk about more lonely people next week.) Today’s sermon title is “Doing Loneliness God’s Way.” Both of the people I’m going to mention, I believe, “did loneliness” in a way that God deeply appreciated. Even though Jesus is not one of those I’ll be mentioning, Jesus also “did loneliness” God’s way.
And as I looked at the lives of both of this morning’s people, I discovered some encouraging ways they dealt with loneliness, very practical ways. So let’s take a look.
Genesis 39 introduces us to a young man named Joseph, at a devastating crisis in his life. His older brothers, who were very jealous of him, had plotted to murder him, but eventually sold him to a caravan of traders going to Egypt.
As you’ve driven around the Puget Sound area recently, have you spotted those square yard signs honoring high school seniors? We have one or two in our neighborhood. Just a few blocks from where we live, there are actually 2 yard signs side by side, honoring the same senior boy. One is a sign prepared by the school and says the name of the school and “2020 Senior.” The other sign, right beside it, was probably created by the family, and it honors the young senior for being the captain of his school’s soccer team.
Can you imagine how horrible it would be if this young senior, whose name is Eric, were suddenly sold into slavery and taken to a foreign country? That’s exactly what happened to Joseph, at probably about the same age.
So here’s where we pick up the Bible story.
Genesis 39:1 [NKJV]: Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. And Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.
So, Joseph is no longer a free man. He’s not serving an internship there in Potiphar’s house. He doesn’t have vacation time where he can go back and see his family. He is now owned by Potiphar, and that’s that.
And that is loneliness, loneliness which I hope you nor I ever feel. But Joseph was living through it. But since we know his name, and since a lot of us name our kids after him, he dealt successfully with that loneliness somehow.
So, how did Joseph “do” loneliness? He did it God’s way. But first let’s take a look at what he could’ve done instead. Joseph could have become very bitter. He could have said, “My God deserted me, so I’m deserting Him. He didn’t keep up His end of the bargain, so I’m going to feel free to ignore His commandments and anything else He has said.”
But Joseph did not deal with loneliness by becoming bitter. So what did he do? Let’s pick up the story at verse two.
Verses 2 – 6: The LORD was with Joseph, and he was a successful man; and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian. And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and served him. Then he made him overseer of his house, and all that he had he put under his authority. So it was, from the time that he had made him overseer of his house and all that he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the LORD was on all that he had in the house and in the field. Thus he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand, and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate . . . .
If you’re taking sermon notes, here comes Sermon Point One. How did Joseph handle loneliness? (By the way, both of my sermon points, no matter who they talk about, are going to begin with the phrase “Totally trusting God . . .)
Totally trusting God, Joseph used his talents for the work at hand.
Of course, we won’t know what was really going through Joseph’s mind until we interview him someday in heaven. But it’s very clear that he looked at the work he had to do, and he decided that even though he wasn’t paid a penny of salary for it, he was going to do that work in the best possible way.
Which, of course, is the way God is dealing with His own loneliness for us, isn’t it? He continues to provide for us, listen to us, respond to our prayers, provide us our needs.
And Joseph did things God’s way in another fashion, which I hadn’t picked up until I read through the story this week. Let’s pick up the story with the last sentence of verse six.
Verses 6 – 7: . . . Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. And it came to pass after these things that his master’s wife cast longing eyes on Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.”
Now, watch very carefully what happens here. Watch for something I hadn’t spotted until this week. Joseph could, of course, have considered agreeing with Mrs. Potiphar, and doing as she suggested. But in his response to her, it’s almost as though he is wondering if she has gone crazy. Listen to what he says.
Verses 8 – 9: But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house, and he has committed all that he has to my hand. There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
Here comes what I discovered this week, something I hadn’t really picked up on. The slave Joseph was not a “silent believer.” In other words, he did not conceal that he believed in the God of his fathers. How do we know this?
First, verse 3 does NOT say, “And his master saw that this was one highly-organized and supremely-motivated young man.” Instead, it says, “And his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD made all he did to prosper in his hand.”
So Potiphar clearly understood something about Joseph’s God. And Mrs. Potiphar does too. I believe we know this because of the way Joseph mentioned God to this woman. He said, “How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
It’s like Joseph was saying, “You know what I believe, and who I believe in. I’ve made it very clear that I am a believer in the God of heaven. So why could you possibly think that I would do something that the God you know I believe in would not want me to do?”
Totally trusting God, Joseph used his talents for the work at hand. And this trust in God was so total that even though God had allowed him to become perhaps eternally lonely, eternally separate from his loved ones, Joseph refused to disobey what would later become Commandment Seven.
How did Joseph get to be such a loyal truster of God? The Bible doesn’t give any details beyond that Joseph was raised in a family whose ancestors had put God to the test and seen Him come through for them. Joseph knew those stories his father and mother had told him so well that, even though there wasn’t such a thing as the 10 Commandments yet, Joseph knew emphatically what was right and what was wrong.
Okay, how can we deal with our loneliness the way Joseph did? Well, I know of people in this congregation who are using their sewing talents to make masks for people, hundreds of masks. I know of other people who, very safely and very social distance-y, drop gifts off at other people’s houses. I know people who are talking to each other in Zoom meetings. The Sojourner Pathfinder group has been meeting by Zoom for several weeks. A couple of people in our church have started a church newsletter. These people are dealing with their loneliness the way Joseph did.
What is your “work at hand”? Can you cheerfully spring to the task of doing that work, and can you do this while totally trusting in God?
And incidentally, could you do this even if your loyalty and faithfulness to God landed you in prison? This happened to Joseph, it happened to Jeremiah, it happened to John the Baptist, it happened to Jesus, and Peter, and Paul. How far does your loyalty to God stretch? If it stretches all the way, then you are another Joseph.
For the next Bible person who I think dealt with loneliness God’s way, turn to the book of Job, chapter 1. When Shelley put out our question of the week—“Who is someone you find in Scripture who ‘got the glooms,’ several of you responded with Job’s name.
What’s so powerful about Job’s experience is this. Why did Joseph become lonely? It was because of the brutal jealousy of his brothers. Joseph knew why he had been sold into slavery, and he may have known how fortunate he was not to be murdered.
But Job has no clue why he is suffering. In fact, that is one of the main themes of his book. His friends think they know why he has been so badly treated. Job doesn’t agree with them, but he doesn’t know either. There’s nothing in the book of Job that I know of, nor in the rest of the Bible, that tells us that God finally let Job in on why he was suffering.
Let’s read a little of this awesome story.
Job 1:1 – 4: There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. And seven sons and three daughters were born to him. Also, his possessions were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very large household, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the East. And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
Here’s something very rare in the Bible pages – a very rich person who is also very righteous. Job feared God, and shunned evil. He was blameless and upright. He had what seems to have been a large and happy family. What a witness to the true God he must have been!
But Job is about to suffer what must be the most forlorn and jagged loneliness ever. This man will lose all his possessions, all his children, and even the loyalty of his wife. He will eventually lose his health.
But Job will stay fervently loyal to God. How did he get to be this way? Job was the richest of the rich, the happiest of the happy, and from there he was thrown onto an ash pile, wincing as he gingerly picked at his painful boils with a bit of broken pottery.
I mean, what kept him so faithful? Why didn’t he go ahead and “curse God and die,” which his wife contemptuously advised him to do?
Well, we know that, in spite of all his riches, he was “blameless and upright.” He also “feared God and shunned evil.” But watch what else Job does – and maybe this was something that also helped fortify him for the heart tearing loneliness he had to go through. Let’s start with verse four again.
Verses 4 – 5: And his sons would go and feast in their houses, each on his appointed day, and would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. So it was, when the days of feasting had run their course, that Job would send and sanctify them, and he would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings according to the number of them all. For Job said, “It may be that my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did regularly.
My eyebrows have always gone up a bit whenever I’ve read what Job did here. There’s nothing, anywhere else in the Bible, that says that you can offer sacrifices for somebody else’s sins, especially when they have not personally repented. That just ain’t the way it works.
But Job did it. After every one of those parties his kids had, he would get up early in the morning and offer burnt offerings for each one of them. And he did this just in case one of his children might have “sinned and cursed God in their hearts.”
I think this is really important. What we do about our beliefs not only shows how firmly believe them, but what we do about our beliefs reinforces those beliefs in our minds. Job’s faith doesn’t seem to have been merely a vague head-nod in God’s direction once every Sabbath morning. Instead, Job’s faith was an active one, where he got personally and regularly involved.
Over my decades of pastoral ministry, I have discovered that the people who are generally the most faithful to God are the ones who are active for God, unselfish for God, interceding with God for others.
Now we need to continue the story of Job. I won’t read through the first chapter here, but if you know the story, you realize that there are vast issues at stake. There is some kind of meeting in heaven, and Satan arrives at that meeting, and immediately accuses God of treating Job as a favorite. Satan insists that if God withdraws His protection from Job, and if bad things happen to Job, then Job will immediately turn traitor.
And there, in front of all these other “sons of God,” whoever they were – perhaps representatives from all over the millions of galaxies God created – in front of all these other beings, God needs to demonstrate that there is a human being who is so unselfish, so God centered, that in Job 13:15 he will eventually mutter through clenched teeth, “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.”
Satan does his absolute worst. God does not allow Satan to kill Job, but a number of times, Job himself expresses how he wished he had never been born, how the grave would be a quiet place, and similar expressions.
So how does Job work through his terrible loneliness? Remember, Job does not know why he is suffering the way he is. He has no clue. He just knows, somehow, that no matter what happens, God is trustworthy.
And chapter 1 is not the end of Job story. The book of Job continues for a total of 42 chapters, and Job does a lot of talking, a lot of processing, in those chapters. Job could have clammed up, gone silent, let bitterness burn in his belly. But Job talks. I would say this is what we could put into Sermon Point Two.
How does Job deal with is loneliness?
Totally trusting God, Joseph used his talents for the work at hand. And, totally trusting God, Job talked out his feelings.
Isn’t that the way God deals with His own loneliness? Just as Job could’ve gone silent, God could have gone silent too. Instead, the Holy Bible you may be holding in your lap, or which reposes in many versions within your smart phone, that Bible has roughly 750,000 words in it. That’s why the pages have to be so thin, and the print so small. That’s why there normally are two columns per page, because with the tiny print, your eye would lose its place once it got to the end of each long, thin, single line.
In talking out his feelings, Job was doing the right thing. God Himself constantly urges people to “come now and let us reason together.” The book of Malachi, for example, is one long dialogue between God and His unfaithful people.
So how can you and I put this to work? How can we talk about our feelings? Well, you obviously can’t, and shouldn’t, do this with just anybody and everybody. You should talk primarily to God. Many of Job’s speeches were probably meant for God’s ears as well as the ears of his friends. And trusted friends who are good listeners are wonderful.
Some people write God letters in a journal. Sometime ago, back when we could go to places like that, I visited a thrift store and found a black journal I like. Somebody had bought it, written a few lines in it, and gotten rid of it.
What I’ve been doing occasionally is to write three pages at a time of letters to God. I started doing this in January, and I’m halfway through this book. I don’t do it every day, but whenever I feel I need to talk something out to God, that’s where I go.
And talking to God was how Jesus dealt with what must have been His own staggering loneliness from time to time. All along that three-and-a-half-year road to Calvary, He prayed. He prayed so powerfully that His disciples begged Him to teach them how.
And Jesus even prayed on the cross. “Father, forgive them,” He said, about not only those who had condemned Him to death, but for all the rest of us whose sins weighed Him down and would crush the life out of Him.
Joseph suffered under the burden of slavery. Job suffered under the burden of bereavement. Jesus suffered under the burden of our sins—suffered so horrendously that He asked His Father why He had forsaken Him–suffered so that our burdens could be lifted off us and we could be free.
Aren’t you happy for that?
Would you like to resolve in your heart, and ask the Holy Spirit to empower that resolve, as we move from the Sabbath into the week ahead? Raise your hand if that’s your desire.