Are We Living In The Last Days?
Are we living in the last days? Are we at the end of the age? That is a 2,000-year-old question, and people are still asking it today. I get that question a lot. That’s because people look at the events that are taking place around them in the world today and they have a sense that we are heading toward some sort of cataclysm.
Even people who don’t consider themselves religious are talking about the things we are seeing take place and wondering, “Where is all this heading?”
How can we have confidence that the confusing and unnerving events we are seeing take place in the world today are not surprising God at all? In fact, He has already seen it and He has already told us in His Word what will happen in the last days.
From a human perspective, it seems as if everything is falling apart. If you had no other way to look at the direction things are going you might say that. But from the divine perspective, everything is falling into place under the providential, mighty hand of God.
What is God’s providence? Here is a good working definition:
Providence: That continued exercise of God’s grace and kindness by which in His wisdom and power He preserves and governs and is operative in all that comes to pass in the world and directs all things to their appointed end.
As we are trying to discern if the events that are taking place all around us today are connected to the prophetic Word of God and the things that were prophesied to take place in the last days, can we take comfort that God is in complete control? Are there examples in history that show us that God is operative in all that comes to pass in the world and directs all things to their appointed end?
The answer is that there are many examples in biblical history. One, in particular, stands out to me as a prime example of the sovereignty and providence of God, that He causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). That is the story of Joseph.
The Toldot of Jacob (i.e., what became of Jacob) is Joseph. We are introduced to Joseph in earnest in Genesis 37:2.
The main theme in the life of Joseph is the providential hand of God upon Joseph in the events and circumstances of his life and in the preservation of God’s covenant people.
The story begins with Jacob’s sons tending the flocks in Shechem.
Jacob sends Joseph to check on his brothers and report back to him.
First, we have to know something of the background of the relationship of Joseph to his father Jacob, and then to his brothers.
Important points to understand:
Joseph is a 17-year old boy
He was the object of his father’s special favor…
He was the object of his brother’s hatred…
He was the object of God’s providential care.
So, Joseph is sent to Shechem (v. 14). He ends up in Dothan (v. 17).
Before we go any further remember Joseph is 17. Do you remember what it was like to be 17? As he approached his brothers who had moved on to Dothan
V. 18 says they saw him in the distance and they plotted against him to kill him.
Picture this in your mind’s eye. Joseph had gone some 50 miles from Hebron to Shechem, only to discover the brothers had moved another 15 miles to the region of Dothan (WHICH IS TRADE ROUTE TO EGYPT) - PROVIDENCE. After sixty-five miles of hard hiking through the hilly territory, he finally sees his brothers in the distance, and they in turn get him in their sights. V.18 When they saw him in the distance….
Here comes the dreamer they said – the kid with the coat. And they plotted in treachery to kill him.
The irony of this is surely not to be missed. As they sit watching the appearance of Joseph, they are plotting to kill the very person without whom they will be unable to live.
You see, God is purposing to take him into Egypt so that in the time of famine they will not die in the famine, but they will be the recipients of God’s providential care and through the life of the very one they are trying to kill. So as he comes across the horizon they plan to kill the only one who can save them.
V. 21 Reuben intervenes. He proposes that they not kill Joseph, but throw him into a pit for the purpose of rescuing Joseph and restoring him to his father.
V. 23 So they stripped Joseph of his robe of many colors and threw him into a dry cistern. They were going along with Reuben without knowing he was trying to rescue Joseph. Reuben exits the scene temporarily.
As far as the brothers were concerned 17-year old Joseph was left to starve and dehydrate to death.
V. 25 They sat down to eat…Then all of a sudden they see these Ishmaelite traders coming on their way to Egypt.
V. 26 Introduces us to Judah’s intervention…Traders come by
V. 27 Judah suggests they not kill Joseph, but let’s make a few bucks and sell him to the Egyptian traders.
V. 28 They take action. Midianites came / the brothers pulled him up out of the cistern / sold him for 20 shekels.
V. 30 By the time Reuben comes back Joseph is gone by the time Reuben comes back (V. 30).
What does this look like from Joseph’s perspective?
He had to feel horrible.
That may go without saying – maybe. But let’s not let our familiarity with the story dull our sensitivity. This is a 17-year old boy. I bet if anybody asked the question, “Hey Joseph, what was it like when you were 17?" He probably would have had a lot to say about what his life was like.
Hey, Joseph, you remember when you were 17?
“Oh yeah! That’s when my dad sent me to Shechem. I was supposed to be gone for a few days and come back. I went there and I was gone for 20 years."
That’ll leave an imprint.
“When I got to my brothers I thought they wanted my coat. I found out they wanted me.
“Couldn’t believe they hated me that much. They threw me in the pit. I cried from that pit. I cried for mercy, I cried for my life. I cried and asked them to help me.
“At one point they pulled me out and I actually thought I was going to be okay, but they actually pulled me out to tie me on the back of a smelly camel, and shipped me off to Egypt. And I cried on the back of the camel.
“As they were taking me away I remember looking back and I wondered if my dad would find out and come or send someone to rescue me.”
“Because I wanted to go home. All I wanted to do was just go home. But nobody came and I didn’t go home – and I was gone.”
Now you say….aren’t you reading a lot into this? No, not at all. Was Joseph really that distressed? It doesn’t say that. It doesn’t say it in chapter 17, but it does say it in 42:21:
The brothers are talking to each other in a different context and they are saying, “Surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we wouldn’t listen.”
SO, back to chapter 37.
VV. 31-36 Brothers go back to their father full of hypocrisy and deceit.
A deception they will maintain for some 20 years.
They are weaving a web in which they will tie themselves up and trap themselves.
This whole story is moving to the conclusion in Genesis 50:19.
We must understand that even in the exercise of his brothers’ hatred God was working.
God was providing for Joseph in the intervention of Reuben so as to prevent his death and put him in the pit.
It was God’s intervention that enabled Reuben’s brothers to comply with the proposal.
It was not by chance that a caravan of Midianite merchants arrived at just the right time. They were there by divine appointment.
It was the Providence of God that determined that they ought to buy him.
It’s the Providence of God overruling their response.
It was divine Providence that inspired the thought in Judah.
And it was the divine Providence of God that enabled the brothers to go along with it.
If we asked the brothers, why did you sell Joseph into slavery they would have said to be rid of him and his lousy dreams.
If we asked the Midianites why did you buy him they would have said to turn a profit. And that is all of it.
And yet in each case, in order to serve themselves, both the brothers and the Midianites did a great service to Joseph because their selfish interests became in God’s Providence instrumental in saving Joseph’s life and in saving the lives of the very brothers themselves.
As we look at the example of God’s providence in the life of Joseph, we can learn some things about trusting God in the circumstances we are experiencing in our world today.
I believe many people today are losing hope because of the circumstances around them. From a biblical perspective, I believe it is very hard to live without hope. I’m not talking about everyday hope. For example, we hope things will go well. That the job goes well. That I get a raise. If I’m sick, I hope I get well. Those things are knit into our DNA so we can get through whatever ordeal we are going through.
And what coexists with our hope is ignorance of the future. If we knew what was coming we wouldn’t have any need for hope. We would know what was going to happen. In this context, I’m just talking about life, not eternity. We have to have hope that something is going to get better.
Proverbs 13:6 says, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” We can’t live without hope.
Looking at the life of Joseph, I’m sure there were times when he hoped he would get out of the pit, out of the dungeon, and see his father again. He didn’t know what his day-by-day future held, but he knew he could trust the God who held his future. Even when he could not see the hand of God, he knew he could trust the heart of God.
Out of all this, there are lessons to be learned, not the least of which is Rom 8:28. Just as it was true for Joseph, it is true for us today.
“We know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28)
In learning that, we might learn:
That the center of God’s will for us may be right in the middle of the storm.
If God is for us who can be against us.
God will accomplish His purposes even though it might appear for the time being we are strapped to the back of a smelly camel & we’re going in the wrong direction.
