Since debuting in 1997, an American talk show broadcast on the ABC called “The View” has become a noted opportunity for celebrities to air their interesting and often provocative perspectives on contemporary issues. The show was created by Barbara Walters and Bill Geddie, and has taped more than 3000 shows. The View has openly illustrated the key truth that a person’s perspective profoundly color how they all the hot button issues of life. As of 2011, Whoopi Goldberg moderates discussions while the rest of the panel consists of Joy Behar, Elisabeth Hasselbeck, Sherri Shepherd and, Barbara Walters which wraps the attention of viewers for a 14th season.
Why mention this sow? Because “the view” we have on the world determines our responses to trying moment. Our perspective matters. The question is, do you know what your perspective is? Even more to the point: Do you know what a godly perspective entails?
Let’s explore that… As we finish the map book that we have been following called Genesis, we follow Joseph and his brothers to the end of their story. Jacob has died, and the text highlights two kinds of sons that he left behind. Both were part of the family of blessing – people we would call “believers” today, but only a small minority of the family had a healthy and mature believing perspective on life. What does that mean?
There are people who always seem to be tossed about in uncertainty. They feel victimized by life’s trials, beat up by the tough turns in the road, and generally fearful about even the good things that have happened to them. Yet, there are others who are able to stand up and take even the toughest of circumstances and come through with confidence and peace. On closer examination, it is clear that the peace is not derived from an easier set of circumstances. What is their secret? It is in their perspective on life. The mature believer views his or her life as an opportunity for God to work through them – not as an opportunity to live for themselves.
The Setting (Genesis 50:1-13)
Before we can dissect the perspectives and pull out principles of a Godly perspective, let’s first look at the setting to help it all make sense. People don’t talk in a vacuum. They live in the currents of everyday life. We have feelings, hopes, dreams, disappointments and memories. Believers have them just as powerfully as non-believers.
It was a time of emotional pain (50:1-3). Psychologists tell us there are 7 Stages of Grief…
1. SHOCK & DENIAL- We react in numbed disbelief, a muted shock provides emotional protection in order to avoid the pain.
2. PAIN & GUILT- As the shock wears off, it is replaced with almost unbearable pain. Often people try to avoid it or escape from it with alcohol or drugs. Guilty feelings or remorse are normal and life feels especially chaotic and uncertain during this phase.
3. ANGER & BARGAINING- Rising frustration gives way to anger, and a lashing out or laying of unwarranted blame for the death on someone else is not uncommon as your mind seeks a place to put the emotional stress. Some attempt to bargain for a way out of your despair (“I will never drink again if you just bring him back”).
4. “DEPRESSIVE” REFLECTION- Just when you think you are getting past the pain, a period of sad reflection may overtake you. Encouragement from others is not helpful to you during this stage of grieving as you finally realize the true magnitude of your loss, and it depresses you. The temptation to isolate yourself, reflecting on things you did with your lost one, can become imbalanced.
5. AN UPWARD TURN- Slowly life begins to reshape and becomes a little calmer as the depression begins to lift.
6. RECONSTRUCTION- As emotional functions are restored, you again find yourself seeking realistic solutions to problems posed by life without your loved one. You will shape answers to practical and financial problems, etc.
7. ACCEPTANCE & HOPE- Finally, you learn to accept and deal with the reality of your situation. There is no instant happiness and many never fully return to the person that existed before this tragedy – but you begin to find a way forward day by day.
I mention these stages because they are not only thoroughly documented in literally thousands of case studies, but because they help us set the pain of this passage very well. Look closely at Genesis 50 and how it opens, and imagine that Joseph is caught up in a storm of grief.
Genesis 50:1 Then Joseph fell on his father’s face, and wept over him and kissed him. 2 Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 3 Now forty days were required for it, for such is the period required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.
It was a time of vulnerability (50:4-6). There is no question in my mind that Joe struggled to reign in his emotions but also his EGO. He needed to go to Pharaoh and gain permission to follow through on what his father made him promise to do. The sharing must have been a deeply emotional event…
Genesis 50:4 When the days of mourning for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, “If now I have found favor in your sight, please speak to Pharaoh, saying, 5 ‘My father made me swear, saying, “Behold, I am about to die; in my grave which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.” Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father; then I will return.’” 6 Pharaoh said, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.”
Melvin Newland wrote an interesting perspective:
- Go to the religions of the East, & they will say that you are in a cycle of reincarnation, & you’re being punished in this life for some sin in a previous existence. But if you can find out which one of the thousands of gods you have angered, you may be able to appease his wrath & lessen your punishment.
- Islam offers a different answer, “Allah has willed it, & you must learn to accept his will without question.”
- In the west, some respond to tragedy by shaking their fists toward heaven & saying, “God, if you allow such things to happen, then I reject you. I curse you, & I don’t ever want to have anything to do with you again!”
- Maybe some of you have read Rabbi Harold Kushner’s book entitled, “Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?” It became a best-seller. And he gives a different answer. He says that “God is limited in His power, & therefore He is not a participant in our lives. Instead, He is a spectator watching us with interest.” He says, “God wants to see good things happen to His people, but He is not always able to arrange it.” His conclusion is that God is not all-powerful, & we ought to understand that & love God anyway, & forgive Him for His shortcomings. Now that is an interesting twist, isn’t it? The Rabbi says that it is our turn now to forgive God for His failures.
It was a time of responsibility (50:7a). Though Joe was very healthy in Scripture when we see his way of framing problems, he was just an ordinary man. He knew loyalty and he followed through – keeping his promise dutifully.
Genesis 50:7 “So Joseph went up to bury his father…”
It was a family time (50:7b-8). Even though the entire family came into Egypt, the area where the shepherding family of Joe was not near the Prime Minister’s residence. We have nothing in Scripture about the boys spending quality time together. The chances that the shepherds and the executive branch of government got together regularly were slim to none. Now with the journey ahead, the family found itself thrust together – this time without dad to hold everyone “in check”.
Genesis 50:7”b …and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt, 8 and all the household of Joseph and his brothers and his father’s household; they left only their little ones and their flocks and their herds in the land of Goshen.
It was a public time (50:9-12). Joe wasn’t like you or me. His pain was public spectacle. He had as much privacy as the recent royal wedding. Dad’s death was in the Pithom Chronicle on page one above the fold.
Genesis 50:9 There also went up with him both chariots and horsemen; and it was a very great company. 10 When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and sorrowful lamentation; and he observed seven days mourning for his father. 11 Now when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a grievous mourning for the Egyptians.” Therefore it was named Abel-mizraim, which is beyond the Jordan. 12 Thus his sons did for him as he had charged them;
It was a memory time (50:13). A long journey together with the family back to places they haven’t seen in years was bound to produce memories – both good and bad. Joe hadn’t seen the land since he was whisked away into slavery. That memory on the road that long ago brought him in after the cruelty of his brothers was bound to churn up old feelings in the heart.
Genesis 50:13 “… for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field for a burial site from Ephron the Hittite.
There was a particularly memorable scene from the movie “Forrest Gump.” Forrest’s lifelong friend Jenny had grown up in a home where she was abused by her father. He had left his mark on Jenny in a horrible way, profoundly affecting her life choices. And now, years later, seeing that house – the house where she grew up – that house from which she ran to an even more destructive way of life – seeing that house brought back painful memories. The hurt hadn’t gone away. The wounds had never fully healed. And Forrest appropriately comments, “Sometimes there just aren’t enough rocks.” If you have ever returned to a place and threw rocks at it – even in your heart – you understand the feeling. It isn’t the right thing, but it is an understandable reaction.
The Problem (Genesis 50:14)
The external influence for peace was gone (50:14a). If dad was the reason, the reason was gone. There was no reason for pretense in the relationships. Some people stay together for the children, but often later in life, siblings attempt to get along for the parents.
50:14 After he had buried his father…
The men felt particularly vulnerable (50:15). They were on Joe’s turf – Egypt. They were guests in a foreign land that he – to a great extent – controlled.
50:14b…Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.
The Two Kinds of Brothers (Genesis 50:15-26)
Some brothers were Fear Filled: Some people act badly because of fear. They see their lives as subject to so many forces beyond their control…
Pressed by Projection: The brothers never could believe that Joseph’s forgiveness was real, because their hearts weren’t really changed. 50:15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him!”
Operating in Deception: The brothers lied about Jacob’s words out of fear for their future. Within the lie was the confession “they did you wrong” in hopes that might appease Joseph. 50:16 So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, “Your father charged before he died, saying, 17 ‘Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.”’ And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.”
Living out Weakness: The brothers fell down and trembled over what they thought the next moment would be like. They didn’t act in love to serve, they acted in fear to survive. 50:17b“…And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. 18 Then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, “Behold, we are your servants.”
One brother was Faith Filled: He acted out of confidence. They are not controlled by fear. They see their lives as subject to a God who has all things in His firm control…
Pressed by Pain: Faith filled people hurt that others don’t see life clearly. They are worried and hurt about what they think will happen to them. They – as immature believers - don’t understand the purpose of life, and so they don’t truly enjoy it. 50:17b“…And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
Operating in Perspective: Joseph was able to forgive because he saw God’s hand in his life more than the hands of his brothers. Joseph expressed this lifelong attitude that helped him through his struggles. (Gen 45:7-8). This view of sovereignty was healthy – I am responsible for my choices and God has approved all the rest! 50:19 But Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in God’s place? 20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive. 21 “So therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
One biographer on the life of Robert E. Lee tells how after the Civil War was over, General Lee visited a Kentucky lady who showed him the remains of a large old tree in front of her house. She cried bitterly that its limbs and trunk had been destroyed by Union artillery fire. She looked to Lee for a word condemning the soldiers of the North or at least sympathizing with her loss. After a brief silence, Lee said, “Cut it down, my dear Madam, and forget it.” Get rid of all bitterness. Let it take root and it can poison the rest of our lives.
Matthew Rogers wrote: “God never puts a stamp of approval on evil and sin. What Joseph’s brothers did was wrong. However, as Joseph looks back on his life, he sees it is no accident that he is where he is. Even in the midst of all the bad that happened, God used it for good. In fact, he used Joseph’s life to save many other lives. His brothers intended to harm him, but God intended it for good….”
Living out Faithfulness: Joseph was as good as his word to care for his family. For years he kept up all that he promised, and relied on God’s promises for his family in his absence.
50:22 Now Joseph stayed in Egypt, he and his father’s household, and Joseph lived one hundred and ten years. 23 Joseph saw the third generation of Ephraim’s sons; also the sons of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were born on Joseph’s knees. 24 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which He promised on oath to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob.”
Offering Hope: Joseph lived out the truth of his values and never forgot where he came from. He wanted to be a part of God’s promises to his family, and hoped that would come to pass.
50:25 Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, “God will surely take care of you, and you shall carry my bones up from here.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of one hundred and ten years; and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt.
Again from Matthew Rogers: “Live by promises, not explanations. I’m pretty sure that at the bottom of a pit, Joseph wasn’t fully aware of God’s overall plan for his life. After being thrown into prison for something he didn’t do, he still probably didn’t see the whole picture. But he lived by promises, not explanations.”
Some people are acting badly because of fear. When we open our hearts toward them – we change the story! The mature believer views his or her life as an opportunity for God to work through them – not as an opportunity to live for themselves.
