Hope Dashed

Take your Bibles now, and let's turn to Genesis chapter 39. Our text for this morning is chapter 39, verse 21, through the end of chapter 40. You follow as I read. 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 his 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 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 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 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. And 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 its 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. In the uppermost basket, there were all sorts of baked foods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. 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.

And 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. let's pray open your word to us now Father these are not mere empty words these words are life these words reveal you these words expose our hearts these words are intended to give us hope do that today we pray reveal yourself to us in your full majesty of faithfulness so that we will be people of hope we thank you in Jesus name Amen Joseph is in prison he's unjustly in prison because of the lying accusations of his master's wife and as the scene opens as the curtain opens on this scene realize this Joseph has been separated now from his home and his family for 10 or 11 years it has been that long that he has been in Egypt part of that has been as a slave the rest as a prisoner.

Now if you were in his shoes, how would you feel? How strong would your faith be if that was the case with you? Now if you're wondering why we started this story at chapter 39 verse 21, which doesn't at first seem to make sense, let me remind you of something that we learned last week. You remember that our narrator has structured the story of Joseph up to this point by showing that he is exalted first and then humiliated.

He has been given the place of honor as the favored son in the family and then he's sold into slavery. As a slave, he's advanced, he's been placed in the position of chief steward of the household, which means the slave that is in charge of everything, the slave that Potiphar made, that Potiphar gave him to look over all his property and all his assets. He was elevated to an extraordinarily powerful position.

But because of Potiphar's wife's lies, he then falls again and is humiliated, enters a state of humiliation. Now we also need to notice the structure of this narrative, okay? 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 compare that now to verse 21 of chapter 39 But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

You will note that he says these two things. The Lord was with him, the Lord was with him, and then what follows these statements are an expression of all the success that Joseph has experienced. You see, that's the same in both narratives, in both scenes. So that it's like giving us the story from heaven's perspective. And then, look at chapter 39, verse 7.

And after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph. Alright? Chapter 40, verse 1. Sometime after this, the cupbearer, the king of Egypt, and his baker committed offense against the Lord, the king of Egypt. So what we have there is that same expression. And after a time, and sometime after this, followed by a narrative of what happens to Joseph.

Kind of like giving us a story from Earth's perspective. So these are two scenes, both parallel. Exaltation, the Lord is with him, the Lord grants him success. Humiliation, same thing in the next narrative. The Lord is with him, the Lord grants him success. He finds favor.

Then humiliation again. And so that's why our story is divided the way it is. But then, we're just not reading a story here. This just isn't a class in Hebrew literary devices, is it? He structured this narrative in a way so that we would see God's work. God's work in fulfilling the covenant He had made with Abraham.

This is the Word of God addressed to you today. As you learn how God works in and through the lives of His people, This narrative God intends to use to give you hope and to change you as you see how God works through the experience of Joseph. Now as the story unfolds here for us in this chapter, Joseph begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel. things begin to go his way and he increasingly gains hope hope mounts as he gains position of authority in the prison it grows as he meets and serves notable people with connections and he even gains their confidence it all comes together when everything that he says comes true Everything is going Joseph's way.

His hope continues to build. He sees the light at the end of the tunnel. His suffering may come to an end. And this story advances by showing us everything going Joseph's way. And then what happens to him? Now let's explore what God has to say to you in this story.

First is this. See hope grow because of God's covenant faithfulness. See this hope grow because of God's covenant faithfulness. Joseph experiences unparalleled success because of God's covenant faithfulness. Now note, just like before, God gives him favor in the sight of the warden. So much so that the warden gives Joseph charge of the entire prison.

And just like before, he is so trustworthy that the person who puts him into that place of authority no longer pays any attention to it. He pays no attention now to the daily operations of the prison. You have to see here that it's almost a word for word. If you would just circle the words in chapter 39 at the beginning of that story, and then in verse 20 at the beginning of this story, you're going to see the words are almost exact, showed favor. granting success, all these things.

But notice this in 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. All of this comes about because of God's covenant faithfulness. The ESV, which is what most of you have, has translated that steadfast love. Throughout the Old Testament, the English Standard Version translate this Hebrew word by steadfast love.

The Hebrew word, and I don't like you normally doing this, but this is a good Hebrew word for you to learn if you can say it. It's chesed. The Hebrew word chesed. What in the world is chesed? That word combines the notions of love and loyalty. It's used in relationship to humans.

It's used when it talks about human relationships. bound together by covenant if people are bound together by covenant if you're part of a covenant community you love your neighbor through acts of love and service and because you're bound together by that covenant you are obligated to give your neighbor love and service it's part of the covenant you have committed yourself to serving your neighbors with love and loyalty and service. That's how it's used on the human level. But it also relates to the covenants that God has made with us as well, with man.

Again, having entered into a covenant relationship with His people, God binds Himself to act toward them in a certain way. He is utterly faithful to that commitment. That is, by covenant, He has committed himself to be loyal to you, to love you, to serve you. Okay? And so what this is saying then is God showed chesed covenant faithfulness to Joseph Now that word steadfast love is a good word It a good translation It doesn quite catch it all Steadfast love is part of it He loves you Why Because you so lovable No.

Because by covenant, he's committed himself to love you. Right? Isn't that what we do when we get married? You know, I've done this service so many times, I'm so nervous I can't remember the words right now, but we say things like, I promise to love you, to abandon all others, and in good times and bad times, I'm going to be faithful to you. That's a covenant.

That's covenant faithfulness. That's steadfast love. I'm going to love you even when I don't feel like it. Right? Those of you who are married, you single people don't get it, but those of you who are married know what I'm saying. I'm going to love you even when I don't feel like it today.

I'm going to love you. All right? And so there's this, God has bound himself by covenant to be loyal, loving, and serving, and to love you because of that covenant, and to serve you. And he is utterly committed to doing it, and God cannot go back on his word. So that's why he experiences this success, because of God's covenant loyalty to him, God's covenant faithfulness, God's covenant love.

Now recall, if we're going to see this, we have to remember that God made a covenant with Joseph's great-grandpa Abraham. You remember? The whole story of the last part of Genesis is about God keeping that covenant, keeping the promises he made to Abraham to make his name great, to protect him, to give him a land, and to bless him with a seed, or to give him a seed that would be a blessing to all the nations.

Now that covenant was Joseph's covenant as well. It wasn't just Abraham's. It was Joseph's. He's part of Abraham's seed. That covenant was made with him as well. And he could look forward with confidence that God would fulfill those promises.

And he was part of that seed that would bless the nations. Is it possible? Is it possible that he could have a part in blessing the nation of Egypt as God fulfills His covenant. And he must have figured that Yahuwah would show chesed to him in fulfilling the promises, the particular promises that he had made Joseph. Not just the broad, wide covenant with his family that he would fulfill, but the promises he had made to Joseph in those dreams in which his family would bow down to him.

Surely God would show his faithfulness, remain true to his promises to me that in some way, some fashion, I don't know how I'm going to rule. I'm going to occupy a place of ruling in some fashion. He didn't know what that was going to look like yet. And so Joseph gains hope, I think, because he believes in God's unbreakable commitment to his promises.

That's why he's succeeding. He is succeeding because God has this unbreakable commitment to his covenant with his family and to the promises he's made to Joseph. That's why he's succeeding. Now, sometime during his years in prison, two highly placed royal officials arrive in prison because they have committed some offense against the pharaoh. We don't know what they are, but we do know this.

One of them is the cupbearer. Now, all the way through the Old Testament, you read about these cupbearers, right? Nehemiah is a cupbearer to the Persian emperor and so forth. What in the world is a cupbearer? Well, the cupbearer originally was responsible to see that the wine on the king's table was good stuff. And so it was his job to taste it.

All right? that developed in which the cupbearer took on greater responsibility making sure the wine was not poisoned now how do you think he made sure the wine was not poisoned how would you like that job right doesn't sound like a i don't care how much you pay me i don't want to taste wine to make sure it's not poisoned right but that's what the cupbearer did and thus the cupbearer had to be someone of impeccable loyalty to the king. Fully trusted. Completely, fully trusted.

Because this guy could eliminate the king if he wanted to, right? He is completely trustworthy to the king. Impeccable loyalty to the king. And because of such familiarity and trust and worthiness, trustworthiness and loyalty, the cupbearer achieved tremendous political power. Because he was so trusted by the king, he was so close to the king that he became the king's closest advisor.

Much like our president has a chief of staff that works in the office next to him in the White House. His closest advisor. That's what the cupbearer becomes. He's the king's closest advisor. Now the other official is the chief baker. He has the responsibility for Pharaoh's food.

Another trusted position. Both had close access to the king. Both could play a sinister role in any kind of conspiracy. Or both could have incredible influence with the king. we're not just talking here about a couple of guys one guy who bakes bread and the other guy who puts wine on the table we're talking about people who are loyal to the king people of great influence with the leader of the nation that who arrives at prison to await their sentence Now you read in chapter 40 that the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined appointed Joseph to be with them and he attended them.

They continued for some time in custody. The captain of the guard is not the same person that we read in the former chapter, the keeper of the prison. The keeper of the prison works for the captain of the guard. And by the way, I'm not sure, but that's the title given to Potiphar. And this could be Potiphar, who's the captain of the guard. Now, you know, he's not in the household of Potiphar.

If it is Potiphar, he's in the prison that is part of Potiphar's house. But anyway, this captain of the guard, the chief guy, the guy in charge of prisoners, makes Joseph the attendant to these formerly influential men. Now you may be saying to yourself, big deal. What's so big about that? What's the big deal about that? They're just fellow prisoners.

Well, if you were assigned to share a cell with a mafia boss in prison, do you think there'd be some advantages to that? Yeah, there would. You bet there would. You know, you're going to get good treatment. And who knows? He's got communications outside.

Who knows what's going to happen if he gets out? Same thing here. Again, this is another step up for Joseph. Here's a chance to gain some influential friends. Right? Hope starts to build.

I've been put in charge of the prison. and now I'm given the responsibility of attending these powerful people. And then another opportunity for hope presents itself. These two officials each have had a dream. Joseph arrives for work one morning, and he sees that they're troubled. Do you notice that? 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 Custian's master's house, why are your faces downcast today? Joseph noticed that they weren't looking too happy. And here's the reason why. In Egypt, it was a common belief that all your dreams were predictive of something. And so a whole industry grew up around dreams.

There's a whole industry in our culture devoted to making you feel good. You can get People Magazine with ten ways to make you happy and good housekeeping. We've got a whole bunch of people devoted to making you feel good. Well, in this culture, there was a whole industry growing up around interpreting dreams. Books had been written. There were expert interpreters that you could go to.

In fact, the king had in his court interpreters of dreams because that was important, especially for the king. But these men are troubled. You know why? Because as prisoners, they have no access to dream interpreters. They think they're in trouble. We've had this dream that's telling us something, but we don't know what to make of them.

We don't have access to the interpreters. What are we going to do? It's telling me something. What's going to happen? And here you see that God gives Joseph another opportunity to build his relationship with these power brokers. He's confident, and again you see his faith.

He knows that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God and not to learning and not to manipulation, not to those who have the science of interpreting dreams. It belongs to God. and he has hope because he knows that God is sovereign and he can give anyone this gift that he chooses. It doesn't require going to dream school to learn all the ins and outs of what the symbolism of the dreams mean.

He understands that the interpretation of dreams belongs to God and he can give the person the ability to interpret those dreams to anybody he wants to. And Joseph knows that. but I want you to see something here in verse 14. A little phrase here in verse 14. Only remember me when it is well with you. Remember me when it is well with you. Do you know what that says?

Joseph has absolutely no doubt whatsoever that this is going to come true. Do you see that confidence there? He doesn't say, hey listen, if I'm right, and this turns out the way I've said, could you remember me? He says, no, when it's well with you, this is going to happen. This is certainly going to happen. God's going to accomplish this.

Well, the cup bearer, of course, had this dream of the three branches and the producing grapes. He squeezes the grapes, puts wine in the cup, hands it to Pharaoh again. and Joseph says Pharaoh is going to lift up your head now what does that mean that was a way of saying that the king will pay you special attention it grew out of the custom because people would come before the king and put their faces to the ground right you weren't allowed to look up you put your face to the ground and the only way you could lift your head is if the king would give you special permission to lift up your face. You see?

And so it came to mean that the king is going to pay attention to you. And Joseph said, Pharaoh is going to restore you. He's going to pay special attention to you. And he's going to restore you to your former position of influence and power. Right? And Joseph is so confident that that's what's going to happen, that he pleads with him to remember him when he is restored to that tremendous position of power.

Here's another brick in building up Joseph's hope. This man can relieve my suffering because he will most certainly regain his position of power and influence. Can you see that? He's so convinced that he's going to be in a position of power, he says, look, remember me, okay? There's a glimmer of hope, a ray of hope here that he's going to get out of prison.

Well, at this point, of course, as you read, I love this. In verse 16, when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream. Now this guy's hesitant to tell his dream. We don't know why. Maybe he really did something against Pharaoh. And so he sees that the cupbearer gets a favorable reading, and so he says, okay, let me tell you my dream.

Because he's thinking, all right, here's my way out. And of course he has this vision of the three baskets on his head, and the birds are getting to the king's food. and he does nothing, by the way, to get rid of them. And so Joseph says to him, yep, Pharaoh's also going to take special notice of you. And in English they've captured the play on words here.

Do you see that? In verse 19, 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. Yep, Pharaoh's going to take special notice of you too, but not the kind of notice you want. In fact, what he's going to do is hang you. Now, again, let's dive into this just a little bit. Whenever you read about someone being hung on a tree in the Bible, it's not talking about hanging them.

With a rope. It's talking about hanging them by impaling them. So when you read about Haman in the book of Esther, he's hung. You know what it means? He's impaled. When you see that Judah was hung, and you remember you read in one, it says Judah hung himself.

And then in another you say, you read another gospel account, and it says, and Judah's intestines spilled out all over the ground. And so some people said, how in the world do you lose your intestines when you're hung by your neck? And so they came up with all kinds of ways that that could happen. But it's missing the point. To be hung means impaled. And so when it says that Jesus was hung on a tree, what is that saying?

He was impaled. All right? So what Joseph says here is, Pharaoh is going to impale you. And he's going to leave your corpse exposed so that the birds can eat your flesh. This was a shameful, defiling way to die because you know what the Egyptians thought. You remember, the Egyptians made a big deal about proper burial.

They're the ones who produced mummies, right? They're the ones who said, man, you've got to really preserve the body because that's necessary in the afterlife. They had a culture that was devoted to proper burial. So to have your body hung out for birds to eat is the worst thing that could happen to you. You see? Well, one last ray of hope now shines on Joseph.

You know what it is? all of it came true. Every last thing he said came true, just like he said. No book and no soothsayer could have told him that. And he did it by God's help, the God who is faithful to him. So here's what we have. We have everything looking favorable.

There's light at the end of the tunnel. He's made influential friends. He served them well. He's interpreted their dreams. His interpretation was 100% accurate. And there is one powerful friend who had the influence to deliver him from his suffering.

That is the place where Joseph finds himself now He is in a perfect place to be relieved from his suffering But what do we see You see, hope dashed. Hope dashed by the unfaithfulness of a man. You see, Joseph was hoping for faithful service from the cupbearer. I think that this whole story hinges on one word. Look at verse 14. I think this is key in understanding that this is all about hope and faithfulness.

In verse 14, here's what Joseph says to the cupbearer. Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me, circle that word, kindness, to mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. You know what that word kindness is? It's chesed. It's chesed. God has granted him success because of his covenant faithfulness, right?

And he's experiencing all this hope because it looks like God has been faithful to him. And then suddenly, and so he says to this man, you show chesed to me. You show chesed to me. You be faithful to me. and you mention me to Pharaoh. Remember me when you're restored and show me chesed by mentioning me to Pharaoh so I can get out of this prison. But this powerful friend proved unfaithful.

Verse 23 takes Joseph from this place of great hope and shoves him right down again. All of a sudden, boom! He's at the bottom again. Forgotten. Right? verse 23 is the punch of all of this. God's been faithful, but this man proves unfaithful.

What happens? Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Now, he did not remember Joseph. Now look, he did not just kind of forget about him. Oh, oh, Joseph? I think that was the guy knew in prison.

No! He's saying he was unfaithful to Joseph. This is not like, you know, you forget what you learned in chemistry in high school, like, and that's how he forgot Joseph. No! This is someone being completely unfaithful. Why do I say that?

Do you remember what we, do you recall what we learned about that word remember way early in this book? when that term is used often times. Turn back to the story of Noah. Turn back to the story of Noah in Genesis chapter 8 verse 1. Genesis chapter 8 verse 1. But God, remember the story here is Noah and the ark is being tossed around by this incredible storm and all these waves and everything else.

And it says and he's been on this for 150 days and it says in chapter 8 verse 1 but God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. It's not saying that for 150 days God was busy with other things and suddenly said, oh yeah, that's right, that ark down there, I forgot about that. I better, no. What does it say?

He remembered. It means that he was loyal. He remembered his promise. God remembered Noah. He remembered what he had said to him and he causes the wind to blow and the waters to subside. He's being faithful.

He's remembering. That is, he's proving to be faithful to his covenant. You see the same thing in Exodus chapter 2 verse 24. And there's a whole bunch of places this term is used this way, but here's just another example. And God heard their groaning. Talking about the children of Israel groaning under their Egyptian overlords.

And God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. It's not that God forgot about it for 400 years. It's that he's going to remember, he's going to be faithful to that covenant. And so that idea of remember combines the ideas of faithful love and timely intervention. I'm going to be committed to you and I'm going to intervene.

I'm going to remember. I'm going to intervene when it's necessary. Now can you see what the writer is communicating by the use of this term? Your hope is in God who will always prove faithful to His promises, but man often dashes our hopes through his unfaithfulness. You see? God was faithful This man is unfaithful God seems to give him success This man dashes all his hopes Everything was coming together for Joseph and now nothing Imagine Joseph in prison, his hopes as high as they could possibly be.

His life had been a succession of pits since his brothers put him in that cistern. And it's really interesting. And we don't have time to look at everything in this passage. I wish we did. But verse 15 is interesting. 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.

Now wait a minute. He's not in a pit, is he? No. He's in the captain of the guard's house property. In a pretty good position. He calls it the pit.

It's the same word used of the cistern that his brothers threw him into. What's he saying? My life has been for the last 11 years a succession of pits. I've been in the pit. I'm suffering. Please, please remember with me.

You see, he's dizzy with joy at the prospect of God's providence now delivering him from his misery. But then there must have been the slow, dawning... Can you imagine this? Waiting day after day after day. And the slow dawning realization that the cupbearer had forgotten him. There would be no chesed for him.

No faithful remembrance. He's alone. No word coming. Forgotten. By a man who is disloyal to him. his hopes had been raised only to be painfully dashed once again by this cupbearer. But only the cupbearer?

Only the cupbearer? What about his God? In the end, is God proving unfaithful? In the end, isn't that what it looks like? what about his covenant and his promise to Joseph could not have God brought him to mind to that cupbearer providentially he brought them together couldn't he do providentially something so that the man would feel some sort of pain of conscience and say you know what I need to be faithful to my friend where is God in all this now Joseph's thoughts are not recorded for us.

But have you had those kinds of thoughts? Have you had those kinds of thoughts? God, you said you'd be faithful. It doesn't look like it. God, I've worked hard here at this place and my co-worker has stabbed me in the back and as a result I'm out of a job. Where's your faithfulness, God?

Aren't you going to be faithful to me? You know, we like to praise God for his goodness when everything's going well. But when things go, when things turn south, we start to question the faithfulness of God. How many times have I sat with a person who has experienced the worst kind of unfaithfulness possible? Where this person has stood with his spouse and before God and a whole crowd of witnesses has made the promise.

I will be faithful to you. I will abandon all others and I'll be faithful to you and no one else will enter into this sphere. Only to have that person prove unfaithful. God, where is your faithfulness in all of that? Your hopes are raised over and over again. And then tragedy strikes.

Do you think that God is being unfaithful? Had God been unfaithful to Joseph? You know, God's going to keep his covenant promises. And he will use Joseph's imprisonment and that man's unfaithfulness to accomplish exactly the fulfillment of those promises he'd made to Abraham. and God not only accomplishes the grand purpose revealed in that covenant but also the particular promises he had made to Joseph God is not unfaithful But it looks that way When you hit verse 23 where God This man has proved unfaithful and now here I am.

My hope evaporates. You know, we too often put our hope in the wrong objects only to have those hopes dashed painfully. but your hope will never be disappointed if you believe that God will indeed remain faithful. He is utterly committed to being faithful to His people. Utterly committed to that. You say, well, how can you know that? Okay, so it worked for Joseph.

How can you know that? I'll tell you how I know. It's the same place we go all the time. You see, this book was, this itself was written according to the Bible in the New Testament. This was written to point us straight ahead to whom? To Jesus.

I know that God is utterly committed to being faithful to you and to me, his people, because of Jesus. Do you remember what happened? His followers had their hopes completely dashed. Do you remember when the disciples are completely hopeless? Do you remember on that walk of those two disciples along the Emmaus road that Jesus was talking to them and they essentially said, we have no hope because we believe that this one who is crucified is the one who would redeem Israel.

And now, it's nothing. Their hopes were dashed. And do you know why? Because one of their number proved to be unfaithful. Right? His name was Judas. he proved to be an unfaithful imposter.

And it seemed that God was not keeping His promise. It seemed that He was not the God of covenant loyalty. It seemed with the nefarious, the evil, wicked plans of this unfaithful man that everything was derailed. That wasn't the case, was it? Just like with Joseph. the unfaithfulness of that man turns out to be the salvation turns out to be the means of the salvation of a people and the same thing with our Savior.

The unfaithfulness of man seemed to doom all our hope but that very act of unfaithfulness brought about the fulfillment of God's covenant promises of saving a people for Himself. God is utterly committed to His promises. He is unbreakably committed to those promises. God did accomplish His purposes. And the promises that He makes to you, the promises of joy, the promises of hope, the promises of an abundant life, even in this world where everything is broken and we're suffering, he'll keep those promises.

He will. He's faithfully committed to it. You can count on God being faithful to his promise, even when it doesn't look like it. You can count on the faithfulness of God because you have Jesus as the guarantee that that is how he works. Father, thank you for your word. We look at these narratives in the Old Testament and we are awed by the revelation of Your character in them, even in the real life situations that we find.

And so we thank You now that You are faithful to Your people. You've entered into a new covenant with us and You have promised us many things. And when it seems like it's not coming true, we know that you are committed to fulfilling every promise you've made. Thank you for your faithfulness. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.