Hope Dashed

Would you take your Bibles today and turn to Genesis chapter 39. Now in the Sundays allotted me to preach, I've decided that I'm going to finish the story of Joseph. And so from 39 through chapter 50, each month as we go through this, we're going to see God at work through the life of Joseph. If you will, follow along with me as I read, beginning in Genesis chapter 39, verse 21.

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

Sometime after that, 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 chief 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've had dreams and there's 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 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 the interpretation. The 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 is 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 have 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 the interpretation. The 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.

Father, help us to approach the text here, not as just a story, but as a revelation of you, an understanding of ourselves, that we might serve Jesus better. Lord, make this more than a story I pray today. Use the living word of God in the lives of your people here and we'll thank you in Jesus name. Amen. Joseph is in prison. He's been unjustly in prison because of the false accusations made by his master's wife.

As the curtain opens on the scene realize that by this time Joseph has been away from his home and his family for about 10 years. some of those years as a slave some as a prisoner now if you were in his situation how would you feel if you were in his situation how strong would your faith be now if you're wondering why we started this story at verse 21 then let's review what we learned this last that we've learned Our narrator has structured the story around Joseph's experience of an exalted position only to experience humiliation. He begins as a favored son and ends as a slave. His master makes him the chief steward of the house that is in charge of all his assets, all of his belongings, all of his property, only to throw him into prison.

Now I want you to notice the structure of this narrative. Look at chapter 39, verse 2. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master His master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord caused all that he had all that he did to succeed in his hands So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him and made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.

And then drop down to chapter 39 verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Now, when you read those, he follows these statements by rehearsing all the success that Joseph experiences because of the Lord's blessings. So you might consider this, if you will, kind of like the story from heaven's perspective.

Okay? Now look at chapter 39, verse 7. now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance and after a time his master's wife caught cast her eyes on Joseph and said lie with me compare that with verse chapter 40 verse 1 sometime after that so and after a time and then sometime after that followed by a narrative of what happens to Joseph you can almost look at this as the story from earth's perspective so you have the story from heaven's perspective and then you have the story from earth's perspective but then we're not just reading a story here are we this is the narrative of God fulfilling his promise to Abraham in his covenant with him this is the word of God addressed to you today so that you learn about this God and how he works through his people and then God intends to give you hope and to change you through the record of Joseph's experience. All that is going on in this text.

And as the story unfolds, Joseph begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel. That's what we have to grasp. As this narrative opens up in prison now, you see that Joseph begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Things begin to go his way. He increasingly gains hope. Hope mounts as he gains position, serves some notable people with connections, and even gains their confidence.

So let's explore what God says in this story. See hope grow because of God's covenant faithfulness. See hope grow because of God's covenant faithfulness. Joseph experiences unparalleled success because of God's loving faithfulness or his faithful love. Just like before, God gives him favor in the sight of the warden so that he's now given charge of the entire prison and he runs it and the warden has such confidence in him, he lets him do what he wants to do.

He knows he can have that kind of confidence in the daily operations. And all of this comes because of God's covenant faithfulness or because of his his loving faithfulness look at verse 21 what does it say but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the warden this is the Hebrew word chesed it is the idea of of combines the notions of love and loyalty. Love and loyalty.

It grows out of the covenant that God has made. It touches relationships on the human level. That word is used about human beings who are in covenant, right? And love and loyalty flows between them all. Good acts of service, acts of love and service happen because of that covenant. We are bound together.

You see it in marriage, right? We're bound together by covenant I have promised to love you and be loyal to you all the days until I die so you see that in human covenants but it also relates to the covenant between man and God having entered into a covenant relationship with his people God binds himself to act toward them in certain ways and he is utterly faithful to that commitment absolutely faithful he will always be faithful in his love. Now recall again that God made a covenant with Joseph's great-grandpa, Abraham, to make his name great, to protect him, to give him a land, to bless all the nations through his seed.

The covenant was Joseph's as part of Abraham's family. He could look forward with confidence that God would fulfill these promises. And he was part of that seed that would bless the nations. Could he have a part in that here in Egypt? Could he be a part of that? And he must have figured that Yahuwah would show chesed to him in fulfilling the dreams that he had.

Remember the dreams that he had years before when he saw his parents and his brothers bowing down before him in those two dreams that he had. Do you remember? Was God going to fulfill that? Was he going to be faithful to accomplishing that which he revealed to him? And so Joseph gains hope because he believes in God's unbreakable commitment to his promises.

Now, sometime during his years in prison, two highly placed royal officials arrive in the prison because they've committed some kind of offense against Pharaoh. One of them is a cupbearer. Now the cupbearer, and you don't read about cupbearers just in the Bible. You read about them all through history, especially ancient history. What in the world is a cupbearer?

Cupbearers started out tasting the king's wine to make sure it was good. Only the best for the king. And then it took on the greater responsibility of making sure it wasn't poisoned. That he had stewardship of all the wine, and he was the one in charge of it, and he was the one who would make sure that it wasn't poisoned. And because of that the cupbearer had to be a man of impeccable loyalty to the king To be a cupbearer meant that you occupied a position of impeccable loyalty to the king His life was in your hands And because of that familiarity and trustworthiness and loyalty, cupbearers became some of the closest advisors to kings in the ancient world.

You might say he was the closest advisor, much like a president's chief of staff, right? I don't know if you've ever understood this. You can watch West Wing and see it in action. You've got the president in the Oval Office, and then you've got the chief of staff in the office right next door. It's the chief of staff that organizes all kinds of things.

It's the chief of staff. In my view, the chief of staff is like the second most powerful man in the country, all right? And so a cupbearer was that kind of a person. And now you have the official baker to the king, to the pharaoh. He has the responsibility for pharaoh's food, which is another trusted position. Both had close access to the king.

Both could play a sinister role in any kind of conspiracy, but both could have incredible influence with that center of power. So these are two powerful, influential men who are now in prison. And so they arrive at the prison awaiting their sentence. Now the captain of the guard, who is the warden's boss, assigns Joseph to be their attendant. He's going to be their personal attendant.

Now you say, wow, what's the big deal? They're just fellow prisoners. I don't know. Let's just say you were made the personal attendant of some mafia boss. Do you think maybe if he was freed that there might be some influence for your good there? Good relative term there, but for easy going for you in some circumstances, definitely.

Again, this is another step up for Joseph. Here's a chance to gain some influential friends. Then another opportunity for hope presents itself. These two officials each have had a dream. In Egypt, it was the common belief that dreams were predictive, and a whole industry grew up around interpretation of dreams. There were the soothsayers, the dream interpreters, who were very powerful men, who were people who could interpret your dreams.

I was going to say books were published, but that can't be true. There wasn't publishing yet, but there were resources, books, if you will, that were written on how to interpret dreams. But these men are troubled because as prisoners they have no access to any of those resources. None at all. They want to know what these dreams mean. You see, in the life of the Egyptians back then, and many ancient Middle Eastern people, dreams were absolutely important to understand.

And so God gives another opportunity to build Joseph's relationship with these power brokers. Now, look again at Joseph's faith. I'm looking here. I'm sorry if I'm looking in the wrong chapter. All right. So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, and he relates that dream.

No, I'm sorry, look above. They said to him, we 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. He has confidence in God that he can give them their interpretations because interpretations come from God. He knows that it belongs to God and not to learning and manipulation.

He has hope because he knows God is sovereign and can give anyone he chooses the gift of interpreting the dream. And notice in verse 14, he says to the chief cupbearer, when it is well with you, when it is well with you, he has absolute confidence that his interpretation is true. He has no doubt whatsoever that God will accomplish this when it goes well with you.

All right? Now, what are those dreams? Well, the cupbearer has a dream in which he says this. These vines grow up. It buds. It grows into grapes.

I squeeze the grapes into Pharaoh's cup, and I give him the cup. And Joseph says, well, he's going to lift up your head. Now, that's a way of saying that the king will pay special attention to you. from the custom. It comes from the custom that everyone before the king would bow down with their faces to the ground. Now look, you've got to understand something about kings back then.

Kings had absolute power. There was no parliament. There was no congress. There was nothing that had to approve of their decisions. If they said, you die, you died. No courts.

None of that. They had absolute power. Okay? And so he says he's going to lift up your head. It's a special way of saying he's going to pay attention to you. It comes from the custom of bowing down with your face to the ground and the king, if you will, lifts your face.

That is, he's going to choose you. He's going to single you out. He's going to give you special permission to lift your face. And he says, Pharaoh then will restore you to your position of trust and power. And Joseph is so confident that this would be fulfilled that he pleads with the man to remember him. Now he's knowing that the Pharaoh's closest advisor is going to be elevated or put back into his position of incredible influence to the king.

And he pleads with him, please do not forget me. here another brick in building up joseph hope this man can relieve my suffering This man can relieve my suffering because he will most certainly regain his position of power and influence Now it appears that the baker is a little bit hesitant. But having heard the positive interpretation of his colleague's dream, he says, interpret my dream. Interpret my dream.

And so he dreams that he's got these three baskets on his head, food baskets, cake baskets. And at the very top, the birds are swooping in and they're eating all the food out of the top basket. He says, what does it mean? Can you imagine? God gives Joseph this interpretation. He says, yeah, Pharaoh's also going to take special notice of you. but not the kind you want.

He's going to separate your head from your body. Did you see that in our text? It says, in three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you. Right? And then hang your body for the birds to eat. What is he telling him?

He's going to separate your head from your body and then he's going to impale you. Now, this might help you understand some of the things that the Bible talks about when it talks about being hung. That typically means not hanging by the neck. It means being impaled. And so he was going to cut off his head and impale his body for the birds to eat. Now, what you have to understand is this is a shameful, defiling death.

What are Egyptians known the most for? when I say Egyptian what do you think you think mummies now why is that because the Egyptians were crazy about proper burial this was absolutely essential to them you had to preserve the body for the afterlife nobody know what yeah I mean this is big this is a big deal you know you're not going to have a proper burial. You're doomed. You're cursed in their view.

So one last ray of hope shines on Joseph. Every detail of his prediction comes true. Did you see that? Every detail, every detail comes true. Now, I don't know about you, but can you see his hope gradually getting stronger and stronger there's light at the end of the tunnel i've i've connected to this really god's been faithful to his promises all along um and and now i've gained by god's providence i've gained access to some very powerful individuals who can get me out who can relieve the suffering can you see his hope building everything looks favorable there's light at the end of the tunnel.

He's made influential friends. He served them well. His interpretation was a hundred percent accurate. And there was one powerful friend who had the influence to deliver him from his suffering. Can you see his hope building here? Well, what happens?

You see hope dashed by man's unfaithfulness. okay you see Joseph was hoping for faithful service from the cupbearer I want you to look at verse 14 when Joseph says to him only remember me when it is well with you and please do me the kindness to mention this to Pharaoh and so get me out of this house now that word kindness you know what it is? I've told you the Hebrew word for faithfulness. It's chesed.

Okay? That's the word used here. Please be faithful to me. Please be faithful to me and get me out. All right? He says, remember me when you're restored and show me chesed be faithful to me by mentioning me to pharaoh and getting me out of this suffering but this powerful friend proves what unfaithful verse 23 yet the chief cupbearer did not remember joseph but forgot him he did not remember joseph He didn't just forget.

He proved to be unfaithful. Now, here's an interesting thing. When you look at that word remember, it doesn't mean merely that he forgot. It's got to mean more than that. To remember when it's used is used not so much in the sense of, oh yeah. For example, you remember Noah?

It says in Genesis 8 verse 1, but God remembered Noah. and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him on the ark. And God made a wind to blow over the earth, and the water subsided. Did God suddenly say, oh yeah, oh yeah, those folks down there are getting tossed around that ark. Oh yeah, I need to do, no. What does remembered mean there? And you see it in the next book, in Exodus 2.24.

And God heard their groaning, the children of Israel, he heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. Did God kind of say, oh yeah, those people down there, yeah. Oh yeah, those guys, oh, you know, I forgot about them. No. What does the term remember mean? It combines the ideas of faithful love and timely intervention. and timely intervention because of a promise made.

And so he proves unfaithful. The cupbearer proves unfaithful. He doesn't remember, right? He doesn't remember. He chooses to forget. Now, can you see what the writer communicates here by using this term?

Your hope in God is in God, who will always prove faithful to his promises, but men often dash our hope through unfaithfulness. You have God remaining faithful, but man proving to be unfaithful. And dashing our hopes. Now imagine Joseph in prison. His hopes are as high as they possibly can be. His life has been a succession of pits since his brothers had put him in that cistern.

Now he's dizzy with joy at the prospect of the Lord's providence providing a way out of this misery. at last someone who can deliver me from this pit. By the way, look at verse 15. You see, what does he call prison in verse 15? I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit. Isn't that interesting? It's the same word used of the pit, that is, of the cistern that his brothers put him into.

I've been put in this pit again. right? Remember me. Get me out. But then I suspect there must have been the slow dawning realization that the cupbearer was not going to follow through. Had forgotten him. There'd be no faithful remembrance from him.

His hopes had been raised only to be painfully dashed once again by this cupbearer. but not only the cupbearer what does it look like what else does it look like it looks like god has been unfaithful in the end was god proving unfaithful to his covenant and the promises he's made to joseph was was god not proving faithful could not god have brought him to mind through some sort of providential means could couldn't that have happened earlier just like his providence in arranging their meeting in the first place Now Joseph thoughts are not recorded for us here But you know what I wonder this is where authority ends I wondering now but Joseph is not some cartoon character He a real person I wonder if he had thoughts like we find recorded in Job chapter 7 Right? Has not man a hard service on earth? And are not his days like the days of a hired hand?

Like a slave who longs for a shadow, and like a hired hand who longs for his wages? so I am afraid so I am allotted months of emptiness and nights of misery are apportioned to me when I lie down I say when shall I rise but the night is long and I am full of tossing till the dawn my flesh is clothed with worms and dirt my skin hardens and breaks out afresh my days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and come to their end without hope Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt that way? Joseph is not some kind of a superhero.

He's a flesh and blood kind of a guy, just like you. Have you had those kinds of thoughts? It seems that God's been good to you, proving himself faithful, and then suddenly, suddenly, your husband proves unfaithful. your co-worker stabs you in the back your spouse dies does God seem faithful then to you be honest have you ever had those thoughts do you then doubt the faithfulness of God your hopes are raised over and over again and you freely praise God for his goodness but then tragedy strikes and all your hopes are dashed do you think God is unfaithful has God been unfaithful to Joseph has he been unfaithful to Joseph now just put yourself in his spot at this time in his life what does it look like has God been unfaithful we all know that God will keep his covenant promise and he will use Joseph's imprisonment and man's unfaithfulness to actually fulfill his covenant promises and God not only accomplishes the grand purposes revealed in that covenant, but also the particular promises he makes to Joseph.

But then he doesn't know it. But you know that God will use all of that to prove himself faithful. Now, what do we have to think here? We too often put our hope in wrong objects only to have those hopes dashed in painful ways Have you ever experienced that Your hopes are sky high and then they are dashed obliterated and it looks like there no hope for you.

All of us, in one way or another, have been there. And here's the deal. your hope will never be disappointed if you believe that God will always be faithful to you in fact God will remain faithful to you no matter what man does God will remain faithful to you how do you know that's true how can you say that with confidence you could say to me okay he was faithful to Joseph back then there's the story but how do I know God's going to be faithful to me. Can I tell you how you're going to know?

You know it when you look at Jesus. You know it when you look at the Lord Jesus Christ. Who were the most hopeless people at one point? You remember? All his followers. They had put all their hope in Jesus, and then he got killed, crucified, accused as a blasphemer.

They were absolutely without hope. he was the one who's going to redeem Israel and it didn't work their hopes were dashed in fact one of their own number proved to be an unfaithful imposter right? a man came and destroyed it all with his unfaithfulness it seemed that God wasn't keeping his promise didn't look like that was the God of covenant loyalty and love the unfaithful actions of a man had destroyed all their hope but that's not the end of the story is it? it's not the end of the story God used the unfaithfulness of one man to fulfill his promise of salvation and God did prove faithful to his promises and he did accomplish the deliverance of his people how do you know in the very pits of life when it looks like there is no hope at all when the tragedies of life come your way where are you going to put your hope what is going to ground you in this hope it's got to be Jesus if that's what happened to him and God proved faithful even in the darkest darkest days of human history then he will come through with you he will always be faithful to you Have you ever sat with someone whose all of a sudden life has changed radically Right Life has changed radically And you going to go talk to them What are you going to say to them? And they're hopeless. And it's your friend.

What will you say to him? What will you say to her? Are you going to tell her God's faithful? How do you know that? is he going to be faithful to her in this incredible distressing situation yes how do you know because God was faithful in Jesus you can count on God being faithful to his promise you have Jesus as the guarantee that he will never fail to accomplish his purposes of good for you thank you father Lord we need to be constantly reminded that this was not written for people of ancient times but as you said in your word these things are recorded for us on whom the fulfillment of the ages has come you wrote this with the 21st century in mind so God help us to accept it as thus help us Lord to look at this narrative not just as a story, but as the living Word of God that shows us in real life what Your faithfulness will look like.

Help us, Lord. Help us, Lord, to put our hope in You and to remember that You will always remain faithful to Your people and You guarantee that with Jesus. Thank You for such a wonderful guarantee. Thank you that because of Jesus, not only will you give us hope in what's going on in our life, but you give us hope of a life that is free of all tragedy, that is free of all sin, that is free of anything, any weakness, anything that would rob us of hope. that we will have a life someday of unbelievable, unutterable glory and joy.

And we know that because you guarantee it in Jesus. So God, help us to be people of hope even when hope seems illusory. In Jesus' name, amen.