God's Plan: The Life of Joseph - Part 01

Liz Aiello: In spite of human weakness, God vindicates his servants. Join us as Pastor Al Runge uses God's word to discuss the life of Joseph today right here on Messianic Perspectives. Shalom and welcome to Messianic Perspectives, a daily program where we look into the scriptures from a distinct first-century Jewish point of view. I'm Liz Aiello. Today, we'll look into the life of Joseph from a distinctly Messianic Jewish point of view. Our Bible teacher is Pastor Al Runge. I'll be back at the end of the message with a special offer. And now, here's Pastor Runge.
Al Runge: I'm beginning a new series on the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob. Although he was imperfect as we all are, God's plan for his life was accomplished to save the entire seed of Abraham and Isaac. Have you ever asked yourself why does God use imperfect people to be a blessing? The answer is not complicated. Listen, if God did not use imperfect people, he would not use anyone. When I was a teenager, a new Christian, I thought that God could never use me because I was not perfect. And I said, "How could God ever allow me in the ministry to baptize anyone since I'm not perfect?" And God gave me an insight, and it's simply this: that if I had to be perfect to baptize people, then I would never be able to baptize anyone. In fact, no one would ever be baptized. In these messages, we want to see and investigate how God fulfills his plan for imperfect lives. Now, everyone is dysfunctional in some way. A few years ago, I took a class in marital counseling, and my Christian professor said every family is dysfunctional in some respect. There is no such thing as total compatibility between two imperfect sinners. Romantic love is temporary insanity. It is a delusion between two people who believe that they finally found the perfect spouse who will meet all their needs and bring them happiness. Billy and Ruth Graham were approached by their newly married daughter some years ago who thought she made a mistake in marrying her husband because he disagreed with one of her opinions. She sobbed, "I never saw you and Daddy argue." Her mother replied, "That's because your father and I made an agreement never to argue in front of our children." Both Ruth and Billy Graham admit that they are strong personalities and did not always agree on everything. Ruth Graham said, "If we always agreed on everything, then one of us would be unnecessary." Dr. Graham wrote, "We do not have a perfect marriage, but we have a very good one. It takes hard work to make any marriage work. It takes God's grace and the willingness to forgive and to be flexible." The Bible does not hide the dysfunctioning of God's children. For example, let's take Joseph's family. It was dysfunctional. It was true that even Isaac and his father had a dysfunctional relationship with his twins. He chose the older one to be his favorite son while he ignored the needs of Jacob. We can see how this favoritism went. When Isaac and Rebecca sent Jacob to his Uncle Laban's house to get a bride, wealthy Isaac did not give Jacob a bridal price as his father Abraham had done for his wife Rebecca. So Jacob had to work seven years for his bride. His Uncle Laban deceived and cheated Jacob by substituting Leah instead of Rachel as they had agreed upon. Jacob had to work an additional seven years for the one he truly loved. Isaac, Jacob's father, knew where his son was, but never once inquired about his welfare or offered to pay the bridal price to release Jacob from his promise of hard work. When Jacob later became a father, he acted just like Isaac by playing favoritism with his children. Jacob chose Joseph as his favorite son over his 10 other sons. In Genesis 37, verse 3, we're told, "Now Jacob loved Joseph more than all his other children because he was the son of his old age. He also made him a coat of many colors." And when his brothers saw that his father loved Joseph more than all of them, they hated Joseph and could not speak peaceably to him. Leah's 10 sons became especially angry because their father Jacob gave Joseph a special coat of many colors, signifying that he'd be the manager of his other brothers. A father's love is very important for his children. One Father's Day, I said to my congregation, "I want you to imagine that your father is sitting before you. I want you to speak to him and tell him, 'I wish you had told me that you loved me, that you approved of me, and that you were proud of me.'" I was not prepared for the emotional reaction of the congregation. Some broke out in sobs. Even senior citizens were trying to hold back their tears with coughs. Fathers are important to the lives of their children. And that continues through life, and that's why the Apostle Paul commanded Christian fathers in Ephesians 6, verse 4, "And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord." I remember times when I wasn't a perfect father, when I unintentionally hurt my children. I had been a believer for 60 years, and now I can see that there were times I failed my children. I remember one day when we lived in Vermont, my 10-year-old son David asked me to go fishing with him by the river. I said, "I'm sorry, son, but I have a ministry to do. I have to get to the church office." There really wasn't that much work waiting for me, but I wanted to be diligent in God's business. As I was coming home, I saw David riding his bike as fast as he could and waving a fish he caught. I saw the excitement on his face and heard him shout, "Dad, Dad, look, Dad, look at the fish I caught." I lost an opportunity that I could not regain, but I thank God that that taught me a lesson. My children and your children are God's business, and they have a priority on our time. One thing that helped in my relationship with my children was that they knew that I loved them equally and that I was willing to apologize and to ask for their forgiveness. I thought for a while that my son Peter and my daughter Robin were lost from the faith. Later, when they returned to the Lord, I asked them what brought them back, and they replied, "We always knew that you and Mom were genuine Christians and that you loved us." Over the years, I've had my critics, as well as all Christian leaders have, but my children knew me better than anyone else, and their faith in me certainly encouraged me greatly. I have sat by the bedside of many successful people in the eyes of the world. I never heard one of them say, "I wish I had made more money or obtained more fame." Many of them said, "I wish I spent more time with my children, with my family." Not only do our children need us, but we need them as well. We need their blessing as well as they need our blessing. There are those who blame all their personal troubles on their father's bad behavior toward them. Some people have trouble believing God and trusting him because of their earthly father, because they failed them. It is a mistake to compare our imperfect fathers with God, who is the perfect father to his children. Rather than comparing our earthly father with our heavenly father, we have to make a contrast because they are completely different. There is an important principle here. While our earthly fathers may fail us, our heavenly father will never fail us, as we can see in the life of Joseph. Our heavenly father is the perfect example of a good father. Listen to Psalm 103, verse 13: "As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear him. For he knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust." Let me say an encouraging word to all of us imperfect fathers. God still loves us. It is interesting that Jacob was an unwise father. God still loved him. Over and over again in the Bible, we read the Lord said, "I am the God of Jacob," and on one occasion, God said, "Jacob have I loved." What was it about Jacob that made him a man of God that God loved? Hebrews 11:21 reveals the secret of a relationship with God. Listen to this: "By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph and worshipped, leaning on the top of his staff." Not only did he bless Joseph and his sons, but he also blessed his other sons as well with his dying breath. Jacob finally at the end of his days came to a true faith in God, and through that faith was able to bless all his children. Faith in God is the key to divine blessing. An agnostic challenged me, "How can you say that by simply believing in Jesus, a person can be saved?" The answer is not complicated. Trust is the foundation of all relationships. By trusting God's son, we enter into a relationship with him. We may not have all the answers to all our questions, but we can choose to believe God, believe his son, and receive the Lord Jesus as our savior, and thereby we come into a genuine fellowship with God. Hebrews 11:9 tells us how Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as well as Joseph and the children of Jacob, accomplished God's plan for their lives, even though they were all imperfect beings. In verse 9, we're told this from God's word: "By faith Abraham made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise." All these people, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. God has prepared a city, the city of God, for us. God grants justification for frail, malfunctioning human beings like Jacob and his sons. I'm not seeking to justify the mistakes of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob with their children because I believe they could have done better. But God doesn't have any perfect saints in this life. But that's not an excuse to not work hard at your marriage. God's grace and help is available to his children. The question is, do you want to become a true child of God? The Bible tells us how to join the family of God in John 1, verse 12: "But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name." Many people avoid God out of guilt because they know they're imperfect human beings. The good news is that Jesus did not come to call the perfect or the so-called righteous, but the sinner to repentance. Yes, they had a lot of lessons to learn, Jacob and Joseph, but here's the wonderful thing: they trusted the Lord. In this message on the life of Joseph, we studied human dysfunctioning. In our next message, we're going to study human depravity and the grace of God. I know you will not want to miss it. God bless you until we have the opportunity to be together again.
Liz Aiello: Thank you, Pastor Runge. And thank you, listening friend, for tuning in today. Now, let me tell you about our special offer. It's the compact disc, which includes all of the programs in this current series of studies on God's Plan for Your Life. And it can be yours for a gift of just $6 or more to Messianic Perspectives. Just visit our secure online store at MessianicSpecialties.com to place your order. If you would prefer to order by mail, just address your request to Messianic Perspectives, PO Box 345, San Antonio, Texas 78292. To order by phone, use our toll-free order line. The number is 1-800-926-5397. And as always, when you're in touch with us, please mention the call letters of this station. If you're listening to our webcast or podcast, we need to know that too. I'm Liz Aiello. Join us next time, won't you, as Pastor Al Runge continues our series of studies on God's Plan for Your Life right here on Messianic Perspectives. Messianic Perspectives is sponsored by CJF Ministries of San Antonio, Texas, and is made possible on this station by the freewill contributions of our listeners in this area.