Joseph and Jacob – Together in True Ministry
Gen 46-50:14
Have you ever asked yourself – What does God consider true ministry?
I personally sometimes wonder, not judgmentally, but retrospectively, does God ever look at what is happening in the church today and say to Himself – wow, I don’t know what that was, but it certainly was not true ministry?
The airwaves are full of programs that are labeled as ministry, but could easily be confused as something else.
After watching or listening, the discerning Believer can’t help but ask, in the eyes of God, what is true ministry?
I believe if we want the answer to this question, we do not need to look any further than the book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, the book where true ministry is defined from the very beginning.
I believe this question is answered throughout the book; however, it is brought to a conclusion in the account of Joseph.
In studying the life of Joseph, we have learned that it is really an account of God. We have learned that God stretched and strengthened Joseph in order to use him in God’s plan of saving lives, building a nation, and ultimately redeeming mankind.
Once again, we will see Joseph as he is stretched by God, by everything that is involved with being reunited with his father as well as by having to continue to deal with the famine.
And we will see Joseph as he is strengthened by God, by seeing his father truly walk by faith in God.
Last week, we said that, as believers in Christ, God has divinely appointed us a place, a position, a people and problems as opportunities to serve Him. We concluded by saying that in light of this, God is to be trusted to divinely bring forth eternal fruit
This week, we will see God as He does indeed bring forth eternal fruit. We will observe as God brings Joseph and Jacob together in order to use them, their faith in Him, to continue to put into action His divine plan for both the immediate and distant future.
This morning, we have the privilege of seeing Jacob and Joseph – together in true ministry. By divine appointment, God reunites father and son to use them in His ministry.
If you take as a whole the chapters and verses we will study, I believe in them can be found the basis, the means, and the desired outcome of true ministry.
So this morning we want to carefully examine Gen. 46-50:14 in order to clearly understand the basis, the means, and the desired outcome of true ministry.
My prayer is that in the end we will all have a better understanding of what God sees as true ministry.
Due to this being such a large portion of Scripture, let’s begin with a summary of it.
Chapter 46 highlights Jacob and his family’s move to Egypt.
God reassures Jacob that the move is the right thing to do.
Then, a list of everyone who made the journey is given.
Finally, father and son are reunited, and they prepare to meet Pharaoh.
Chapter 47 gives attention to Jacob and his family as they live in Egypt.
Pharaoh gives Joseph and his family the best of the land.
Jacob blesses Pharaoh and then gets to see Joseph in action as Joseph handles with
great wisdom the remaining four to five years of the famine.
Jacob then lives in the land for an additional twelve to thirteen years for a total of
seventeen years.
There, Jacob’s family was fruitful and became numerous.
It came time for Jacob to die and he had Joseph promise that he would bury him along
side Abraham and Isaac.
Chapter 48 gives the account of Jacob blessing Joseph’s two sons.
He adopts them as two of his own, thus giving them inheritance rights.
He blesses the younger one as one who will be greater than the older one.
Joseph protests but ultimately trusts his father and God.
Chapter 49 shares Jacob’s prophesies concerning his sons.
He stresses that Judah will be praised by his brothers.
He also stresses that Joseph’s faithfulness to God would not go unnoticed.
Then, sadly Jacob dies.
The first 14 verses of Chapter 50 detail Jacob’s burial.
Again, in these chapters and verses I believe are found the basis, the means, and the outcome of true ministry.
I want to be careful here. I do not believe that these chapters were written to give us the basis, the means, and the outcome of true ministry.
I believe they were given so we could see how God in His sovereignty carried out His plan to redeem mankind.
From this, we can learn the above mentioned principles.
Let’s begin in 46:1-4 examining the question: What is the basis for true ministry?
Gen. 46:1-4
1 So Israel set out with all that he had, and came to Beersheba, and offered
sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.
2 God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, “Jacob, Jacob.” And he
said, “Here I am.”
3 He said, “I am God, the God of your father; do not be afraid to go down to
Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there.
4 “I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again;
and Joseph will close your eyes.”
This is repeated in 48:1-4. It is God making it clear to Jacob that he is indeed to go to Egypt.
To understand the big picture, to understand what God is really doing here, we must go back and read some other Scripture.
Let’s go back to Gen. 28:10-15. This is in reference to Jacob.
Genesis 28:10-15
10 Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran.
11 He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had
set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and
lay down in that place.
12 He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top
reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending
on it.
13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of your
father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it
to you and to your descendants.
14 “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will
spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in
you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
15 “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you
back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have
promised you.”
Now let’s go to Gen. 26:1-5. This is reference to Isaac, Jacob’s father.
Genesis 26:1-5
1 Now there was a famine in the land, besides the previous famine
that had occurred in the days of Abraham. So Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech
king of the Philistines.
2 The Lord appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; stay in the land
of which I shall tell you.
3 “Sojourn in this land and I will be with you and bless you, for to you and to
your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath
which I swore to your father Abraham.
4 “I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and will give your
descendants all these lands; and by your descendants all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed;
5 because Abraham obeyed Me and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes and
My laws.”
Finally let’s read Gen. 12:1-3. This is in reference to Abraham, Jacob’s grandfather.
Genesis 12:1-3
1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country,
And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will
show you;
2 And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name
great; And so you shall be a blessing;
3 And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse.
And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”
Gen. 12 is the origin of where we are today in Gen. 46. It is interesting to note that these verses are also quoted or referred to in the New Testament some 50 times. They are referred to as ‘the promise’ and it is shown that their ultimate fulfillment is through the person of Christ.
All of the verses we just read very clearly express two things.
First, they express the person of God.
The name in Hebrew used for God in each of these passages is God’s covenant or personal name, Yahweh. This is His personal name that implies relationship with man.
The second thing they express is the plan of God.
In each passage, God said, I will; I will; I will over and over again.
God was telling Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob what His ministry was going to be in and through them. God is in fact saying that His person and His plan is the basis of true ministry!
The basis for true ministry is God’s person and God’s plan.
God’s character is holy and in holiness he brought forth Adam and Eve to be with Him in the Garden of Eden, but they sinned against Him.
God’s character is faithful and in faithfulness he brought forth a nation and gave the Law so that mankind could live in proper relationship to Him, but mankind rebelled.
God’s character is just and in justice He sent forth His prophets, urging mankind to repent, but mankind did not.
God’ character is righteous and in righteousness he judged mankind, hoping to bring them back to Him, but mankind still did not listen.
God character is wrath and he poured out his wrath, only NOT on mankind.
God’s character is love and in grace – undeserved love – He poured out His wrath on His one and only Son, Jesus.
In doing so, He made a way for mankind to be forgiven.
God’s character is holy love; God’s plan is to redeem mankind.
Everything God does comes out of His character. At the heart of His character is one plan – for mankind to live in right relationship with Him.
Therefore, all ministry should be a reflection of His character and His plan.
All ministry should be based in God’s holy love and in God’s plan to redeem mankind.
All ministry should be based in the person of God and in the plan of God.
The basis of true ministry is God’s person and God’s plan.
True ministry is serving God’s person and God’s plan.
So – What is the means of true ministry?
The start to the answer of this question is found in 46:31-47:11 where the context is Joseph introducing his family to Pharaoh.
We will focus on verses 47:5-11.
Gen. 47:5-11
5 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your
brothers have come to you.
6 “The land of Egypt is at your disposal; settle your father and your brothers
in the best of the land, let them live in the land of Goshen; and if you know
any capable men among them, then put them in charge of my livestock.”
7 Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and presented him to Pharaoh; and Jacob
blessed Pharaoh.
8 Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many years have you lived?”
9 So Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The years of my sojourning are one hundred and
thirty; few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they
attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their sojourning.”
10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from his presence.
11 So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in
the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh
had ordered.
Here we see that God uses Pharaoh to accomplish His plan.
1. Pharoah gave them the best of the land.
2. Pharoah commanded that Joseph’s family stay in Egypt.
3. In reality, this was God at work, using Pharaoh, to make Israel into a great nation.
4. Keep in mind that Pharaoh did not believe in the God of Joseph. We can say that he was
faith-less.
The continuation to the answer of ‘what is the means of true ministry’ is found in 47:12-26 where the context is Joseph wisely and successfully overseeing the last five years of the famine.
We will focus on verse 12 and verse 25. Again, the context is Joseph continuing to oversee the famine as the Prime Minister of Egypt.
Gen. 47:12, 25
12 Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father’s household
with food, according to their little ones.
25 So they said, “You have saved our lives! Let us find favor in the sight of my
lord, and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.”
Here we observe God using Joseph to accomplish His plan.
1. In verse 12, Joseph is seen ministering to his family.
2. In verses 13-26, he is seen ministering to all Egyptians as in verse 25 they proclaim – you
have saved our lives!
3. Keep in mind, Joseph was very faithful, not perfect, but faithful.
The completion to the answer of ‘what is the means of true ministry’ is found in 47:27-28.
Gen. 47:27-28
27 Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt, in Goshen, and
they acquired property in it and were fruitful and became very numerous.
28 Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years; so the length of Jacob’s
life was one hundred and forty-seven years.
Here, God uses Jacob to accomplish His plan.
1. Jacob – or Israel – as a people became fruitful and multiplied, thus preparing them to
become a great nation.
2. This is because Jacob, in faith, obeyed God and went to Egypt.
3. This was not always the case for Jacob. Oftentimes he did not live by faith.
4. Keep in mind, Jacob was oftentimes unfaith-ful.
God used faith-less Pharaoh, faith-full (but not perfect) Joseph and often unfaith-full Jacob.
Do you see what God is doing here?
God is using mankind to accomplish His plan, but ultimately it is being done by His power.
God’s power is not limited by man. His power overcomes sinful mankind.
The means for true ministry is God’s power.
God can and does use whomever He chooses to accomplish His plan.
But I believe it is more accurate to say – He uses His power through man to accomplish His plan.
Simply put, man is the instrument of God’s power.
The means for true ministry is God’s power.
As Believers, God wants to use us as instruments of His power to accomplish His plan.
However, there are two problems.
The first one is that we have lost site of the person and the plan of God, especially the plan.
God’s original plan was and still is to redeem mankind. God said that He would bless Abraham and through him bless the nations. This was ultimately to be fulfilled in Christ. Through Christ, mankind is to be blessed by becoming children of God, and through His children, God’s blessing is to be passed on.
God’s original intent is to bless us in Christ so that we might share Christ with others so that others will be blessed as well.
Unfortunately, many in the church today have turned this around.
Today many think – God’s plan is no longer to redeem sinful mankind. God’s plan now is to make me comfortable. God’s plan now is to meet all of my needs so that I can live a stress free life. God’s plan now is to take care of me – to make me comfortable here, to keep me healthy here, to make me wealthy here, to keep me happy here – until I go to heaven and be perfectly happy with Him.
We have lost sight of the person of God. We have lost sight of the plan of God.
We have also lost sight of the power of God.
The second problem is that we have bought into the original lie that man does not need God, not even to accomplish God’s plan. Man can do whatever he sets his mind to by his own power.
We must go back to God – His person, His plan, His power.
We desperately need to go back to Genesis, back to the beginning, and refocus our minds on the person and plan of God.
We desperately need to get on our knees and start trusting in God to use His power through us to change the hearts of man.
If I did not hear it first hand from people closely involved, I would not believe the story I am about to tell you.
During my junior year of college, I had the privilege of going on a ministry trip to Guatemala. While we were there, we met a man who, as part of his ministry, would go to bars and try to witness to the people. This was a man who was very secure, strong and mature in his faith. He did not have any problems with the many temptations that are encountered at bars. He would go to a bar in his neighborhood and sit down next to someone at the bar and try to strike-up a conversation with them. He did not try and overpower them with the gospel. He would just start talking to them and see where the conversation would go. After several months of doing this, the bartenders got to where they knew this man and knew just why he had come to the bar. One bartender in particular did not like what he was doing and therefore would give the man a hard time whenever he went to the bar. One particular evening this bartender had a little too much to drink. The man came in and started to have a conversation with another man sitting at the bar. The bartender started yelling and screaming. He said to this other man – you don’t want to talk to this man; this man is going to feed you a bunch of garbage; he is going to tell you that you are a sinner; he is going to tell you that you need God; he is going to try and tell you all about this Jesus person; he is going to tell you that you need to trust in Jesus. And he continued to go on and on and on. In a drunken state, he was repeating all things pertaining to Christ that he had heard this Believer share over the last several months. Not wanting there to be any trouble, the gentleman who was there to share the gospel quietly calmed the scene and in the same way left the bar. About a week or two later, this Believer was back at the bar. That night, another man approached him and said, I just want you to know that a few weeks ago I was listening to the bartender yell and scream. I heard what he said and that night I placed my faith in Christ as my Savior.
It is God’s power that is the means for true ministry.
We are the instruments in His hand.
The means for true ministry is God’s power.
True ministry is serving God’s person and God’s plan, in God’s power.
So – What is the desired outcome of true ministry?
If you remember, in the first four verses of chapter 46 God reiterates to Jacob – I will be with you. This is repeated in chapter 48, where Jacob tells Joseph what happened.
Let’s now look to 48:12-22 and read as Jacob, or Israel, is about to bless Joseph’s two sons.
Gen. 48:12-22
12 Then Joseph took them from his knees, and bowed with his
face to the ground.
13 Joseph took them both, Ephraim with his right hand toward Israel’s left, and
Manasseh with his left hand toward Israel’s right, and brought them close to
him.
14 But Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the head of Ephraim,
who was the younger, and his left hand on Manasseh’s head, crossing his hands,
although Manasseh was the firstborn.
15 He blessed Joseph, and said, “The God before whom my fathers Abraham and
Isaac walked, The God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day,
16 The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, Bless the lads; And may my name
live on in them, And the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; And may they
grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”
17 When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on Ephraim’s head, it
displeased him; and he grasped his father’s hand to remove it from Ephraim’s
head to Manasseh’s head.
18 Joseph said to his father, “Not so, my father, for this one is the firstborn.
Place your right hand on his head.”
19 But his father refused and said, “I know, my son, I know; he also will become
a people and he also will be great. However, his younger brother shall be
greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations.”
20 He blessed them that day, saying, “By you Israel will pronounce blessing,
saying, ‘May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh!’ ” Thus he put Ephraim
before Manasseh.
21 Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with
you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers.
22 “I give you one portion more than your brothers, which I took from the hand
of the Amorite with my sword and my bow.”
Jacob is telling Joseph, God will be with you and with both of your sons, not as you expect, but He will indeed be with them both.
Jacob is saying, by faith, based in the person of God and the plan of God that God is indeed going to be with Joseph’s sons. Contrary to the customs of the day and contrary to Joseph’s thinking, Israel does this by faith according to God’s divine plan.
As mentioned earlier, Jacob has not always acted in faith. He has not always served God out of trust in God’s person and God’s plan. There were many times where he did things under his own power. Oftentimes, it resulted in people being hurt rather than people being drawn to God. Now, Jacob steps out in faith and blesses Joseph’s sons according to God’s plan.
Some of you are probably wondering – what makes you think this was done in faith?
Hebrews 11:21 highlights this one act of Jacob’s life as an act of faith.
What was the outcome of Jacob, in faith, serving God’s person and God’s plan in God’s power?
Joseph and his sons could know that God was going to be with them to use them throughout their generations to come.
This is reiterated in 49:22-26. Let’s read these verses.
Gen. 49:22-26
22 “Joseph is a fruitful bough, A fruitful bough by a spring; Its branches run
over a wall.
23 “The archers bitterly attacked him, And shot at him and harassed him;
24 But his bow remained firm, And his arms were agile, From the hands of the
Mighty One of Jacob (From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel),
25 From the God of your father who helps you, And by the Almighty who blesses
you With blessings of heaven above, Blessings of the deep that lies beneath,
Blessings of the breasts and of the womb.
26 “The blessings of your father Have surpassed the blessings of my ancestors Up
to the utmost bound of the everlasting hills; May they be on the head of Joseph,
And on the crown of the head of the one distinguished among his brothers.
Here in this prophesy by Jacob concerning Joseph, it is emphasized that God will be with Joseph. Jacob is telling Joseph – you and your sons will experience God’s presence in your lives.
Contrary to the past, the result of Jacob ministering now is people being drawn to God.
The desired outcome of true ministry is God’s presence experienced.
We cannot control the outcome of the ministry we do for the Lord. Only the Lord can do this. This is why ‘desired’ is emphasized.
I believe the best way to elaborate upon this is with two examples.
I have very good friends who are in ‘closed countries’ – in other words, closed to the gospel – serving the Lord by working to meet humanitarian needs. They are doing everything in their power to meet those needs. Their real desire in serving is for the Lord to use them and what they are doing to bring people to faith in Jesus as the Savior.
They want God’s presence to be experienced by the people they are serving.
One of my friends serving as mentioned above once had an interesting encounter with another group, Christian in name, which is serving in the same area as he is. This group has been there for hundreds of years. He decided to try and meet them to see if they might work together. He was a bit surprised when the leaders of the group told him – We are only here to meet humanitarian needs. We are not here to interfere with their religious beliefs. They said to the best of their knowledge in all the group’s time there, no one with the group had ever shared the gospel with the people they were serving.
Please do not misunderstand me, meeting humanitarian needs is good, but it should never been seen as an end in and of itself.
Jesus Himself asked – what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet forfeit his soul? On other occasions, Jesus asked, what does it profit a man to be healthy here, just to die eternally? What does it profit a man to have a perfectly wonderful, stress-free live here just to go live forever in a stress filled Christ-less eternity? Jesus emphasized over and over and over again that it is the eternal we must think about, not the temporary.
Jesus Himself said – I have come to seek and save the lost. Jesus did not come here simply to meet human needs. Jesus came here to meet man’s need for forgiveness, leading to salvation – eternal life with Him.
I am all for meeting humanitarian needs, but not as an end, rather as a means; a means to people having the greatest need they have met – the need for forgiveness through the person of Jesus Christ.
Again, what good does it do for anyone to live a wonderful life here, just to spend an eternity separated from God in suffering and regret and misery?
The desired outcome of true ministry is God’s presence experienced.
True ministry is serving God’s person and God’s plan, in God’s power, so that God’s presence may be experienced.
I will never forget one young lady who came through this church and is now living elsewhere. She came to church as an unbeliever and I had the privilege of sharing the gospel with her in my office. While she was in my office and I was sharing with her, this was her complaint, “I don’t care about the eternal. I don’t care about what’s in the future. I don’t care about what’s ahead. I want to know what God is going to do for me here and now. I want Him to take care of my life on this earth. Who cares about eternity. I don’t need to worry about that.” Those were her words to me. And then God grabbed her heart, and her heart became God’s heart. A few months later while attending the ALPHA course she place her faith in Christ as her Savior. She trusted in Christ as her Savior and she saw the eternal. Shortly after she became a believer, she was getting ready to go visit a friend in Europe. This friend had called her and said, “I’m having a really difficult time in life and I need some advice.” And she said to me, “To be honest, at first I was thinking, ‘What am I going to tell him? I don’t know what to say. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what I can tell him.’” But then she realized that now her life had been changed. Now that she knew Jesus, she actually had something to tell him. And she said, “I’m so excited because now I can go and give him advice. It’s not just advice for this earth, but advice for all of eternity. Now I have something to share with him that will be of true help to him.” And she went and she shared with him. Now, I did not hear the outcome. But what I find amazing and really confirming in my mind is how Jesus had truly changed her heart to see the eternal rather than the temporary. She saw the eternal and removed it from the temporary and realized that when a friend has problems, yes she can share and try to help him. Yes, that’s a good thing to do. But ultimately the best thing to share is the love of God in Christ Jesus, because that is the eternal. And so out of God’s person that she experienced, out of God’s plan that she now understood, in God’s power and so that God’s presence could be experienced, as I said, she went and shared with this young man.
I started by saying my prayer was for us to have a clearer understanding of what God sees as true ministry.
We have seen God reunite a father and a son. We have seen Joseph and Jacob – together in true ministry.
If we want to be involved in what God sees as true ministry, I believe we should ask ourselves the following questions –
First and foremost – am I serving the Lord? Am I actively involved in serving the Lord?
If the answer to that is no, then the next questions are irrelevant.
You need to be actively involved in serving the Lord. It is the call of every believer in Christ.
If the answer to that question is yes, then we need to ask ourselves –
Am I serving God’s person and God’s plan?
The basis of true ministry is God’s person and God’s plan.
True ministry is serving God’s person and God’s plan.
Am I serving in God’s power?
The means for true ministry is God’s power.
True ministry is serving God’s person and God’s plan, in God’s power.
Is my desired outcome God’s presence experienced?
The desired outcome of true ministry is God’s presence experienced.
True ministry is serving God’s person and God’s plan, in God’s power, so that God’s presence may be experienced.