The Christ Church Wednesday Bible Study Group is studying God's providence or divine providence in the lives of David and Joseph and how we can apply His providence in their lives to our lives today.
The providence of God is the governance of God by which He, with wisdom and love, cares for and directs all things in the universe. Divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. He is sovereign over the universe. He is in control of the physical world. He is in control of the affairs of nations. He is in control of human destiny. He is in control of human successes and failures. He protects His people.
Last week in Session 28 we looked at how we should respond when we are rewarded for righteousness. We will learn that lengthy afflictions need not discourage us, bad memories need not defeat us, and great blessings need not disqualify us from service.
This week in Session 29 we are going to see how our consciences, which God gave us can, can cause us problems when we try to suppress it. We will also see that God will somehow bring some stuff to the surface for us to deal with that will activate and revitalize a conscience that has been seared.
If the conscience is “seared”—literally “cauterized”—then it has been rendered insensitive. Such a conscience does not work properly; it’s as if “spiritual scar tissue” has dulled the sense of right and wrong. Just as the hide of an animal scarred with a branding iron becomes numb to further pain, so the heart of an individual with a seared conscience is desensitized to moral pangs.
For our study we are using Great Lives: David: A Man of Passion and Destiny, and Joseph: A Man of Integrity and Forgiveness by Charles R. Swindoll. To study along with us you can purchase the books by clicking the Links here or the images after the notes.
The providence of God or divine providence is the governance of God by which He, with wisdom and love, cares for and directs all things in the universe. Divine providence asserts that God is in complete control of all things. He is sovereign over the universe as a whole, He is in control of the physical world, He is in control of the affairs of nations, He’s in control of human destiny, He’s in control of human successes and failures, He protects His people. Through divine providence God accomplishes His will.
Last week we talked about Joseph finally reaping the rewards of his trust of God and how we look at and respond to people who God has blessed tremendously and how a person who has faced undeserved difficulties should respond to show that they trusted God in those difficulties.
Paul was a person who trusted God in all circumstances, good or bad.
Philippians 4:10-14 NIV I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Yet it was good of you to share in my troubles.
The Bible tells us how we are to respond to people in good or bad times too.
Romans 12:15-21 NIV Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
Joseph is an example of how we should respond when we are super blessed by God, either materially or spiritualy. Joseph who went from prison to Prime Minister of Egypt in an instant didn’t get all full of himself. He knew that it wasn’t because he was such a good manager and administrator, and he was, it wasn’t because he was able to interpret Pharaoh's dream and give him good counsel as to how to manager the food supply during a terrible drought and he did. Joseph gave all the credit for his promotion to God.
Genesis 41:15-16 NIV Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” “I cannot do it,” Joseph replied to Pharaoh, “but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.”
25 Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, “The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
28 “It is just as I said to Pharaoh: God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.
32 The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.
Because he understood that God was in control of everything that had happened to him, Joseph was able to put the bad stuff behind him with God’s help as evidence by the names he gave his two sons.
Genesis 41:50-52 NIV Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On. Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, “It is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household.” The second son was named Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.”
In naming his sons as he did, Joseph proclaimed openly that God had made him forget all his troubles, even those in his father’s household. Above and beyond that, God had made him fruitful in a land and in circumstances that had brought him nothing but trouble.
By naming his first son Manasseh, Joseph was saying, “Godhas made me forget.”, all the bad stuff. By naming his second son, Ephraim, he was saying, “God has blessed me beyond measure in a place that once seemed to bring only suffering.”
He is giving God all the credit. God has taken away the weight of all the bad stuff and replaced it with joy. God made him forget the pain, the anguish of what had happened. We know the memories are still there, but the pain and anguish are gone by the grace of God.
Today we are going to see how our consciences which God gave us can, can cause us problems when we try to suppress it. God will somehow bring some stuff to the surface for us to deal with.
Ok Joseph is the Prime Minister of Egypt he has gone on with his life and now there is a famine that effects that whole geographic are not only Egypt.
Genesis 41:57 NIV And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
That includes Joseph’s family back in Cannan, his father, Jacob, and his brothers and their families. They had heard that there was food in Egypt that they could buy so Jacob sent everybody but the youngest son to buy some food and bring it back.
Genesis 42:1-4 NIV When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you just keep looking at each other?” He continued, “I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die.” Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph’s brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him.
Now we are going to see how God has worked this whole thing out. Remember Joseph is the guy in charge of the grain and who can get it.
Genesis 41:57 NIV And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere.
So Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt to buy grain. They went down with no thought of their long lost brother; they just went to buy food. As for as they, and Jacob, were concerned Joseph was gone and just a memory.
Joseph knew nothing about his family. Surely, in unguarded moments, alone with his thoughts, he must have wondered about their welfare. Was hisdear father still living? Were the brothers all alive; were they well? Had the famine taken its toll on them?
His main activity at this time was seeing that the people were qfed, and overseeing the distribution of the food in storage to many outside Egypt who came with hope for relief. Lo and behold, here come these guys from Cannan and they are sent to the Prime Minister to ask to buy food from their brother.
Genesis 42:5-7 NIV So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also. Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”
Joseph recognizes them but they don’t recognize him and he obviously knew they didn’t recognize him and to further Joseph’s hiding his identity from them he spoke harshly to them.
Now remember from last week with God’s help Joseph had gotten past the pain his brother’s had inflicted on him so he was not bitter however he could play with their emotions. We know he wasn’t bitter because in his position he could have had the executed, but then he would not have been able to find out about his other brother and his father. He now remembered the dream that he had more than 20 years prior.
Genesis 42:9 NIV Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”
They may have panicked when Joseph accused them of being spies and they gave him information that really piqued his interest in this family that he had been taken away from.
Then there was this dialogue in which they gave Joseph more information about his family.
Genesis 42:11-15 NIV We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.” “No!” he said to them. “You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” But they replied, “Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.” Joseph said to them, “It is just as I told you: You are spies! And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
So Joseph proposes that one of the brothers goes back to Cannon and brings the youngest brother while he holds the other nine. Then he changes his mind and holds only one of them and lets the other nine go but they must bring the youngest back if they want to see their brother and buy more grain.
Genesis 42:16-20 NIV Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!” And he put them all in custody for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, “Do this and you will live, for I fear God: If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households. But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified and that you may not die.” This they proceeded to do.
Now we want to get to the key message in this session and that is that memory the stuff we have done in the past never goes away and the way that our conscience works is that we ofen say that “what goes around comes around” some people call it karma but I call it God working through our conscience to bring to us things we need to address head on. Chuck calls it activating a seared conscience.
Let’s look at what the bible says about a seared conscience.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 NIV The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.
The conscience is the God-given moral consciousness within each of us (Romans 2:15). If the conscience is “seared”—literally “cauterized”—then it has been rendered insensitive. Such a conscience does not work properly; it’s as if “spiritual scar tissue” has dulled the sense of right and wrong. Just as the hide of an animal scarred with a branding iron becomes numb to further pain, so the heart of an individual with a seared conscience is desensitized to moral pangs.
Joseph’s brothers have determined to kill him. Can you imagine how far they must have fallen into sin to simply contemplate killing their brother? Now they have moved past thought and are ready to take action—they are actually going to kill their brother!
But both Reuben and Judah have second thoughts: maybe they shouldn’t actually kill their brother. Instead, Reuben suggests they simply torture him in a pit for awhile before bringing him back home, and Judah suggests that they sell him into slavery so they can at least make some money off of showing mercy to their brother.
Did you catch that? Compared to the rest of Joseph’s brothers, Reuben and Judah actually think that they are showing mercy to Joseph… by throwing him in a pit and selling him into slavery! That’s how badly their consciences have been seared! They are committing horrible atrocities against their own brother, and they see it as mercy!
When we don’t honor God as the Lord of our lives, we too are susceptible to committing sinful acts. The more that we give in to our sinful nature, the less evil these acts appear to us.
And yet, many of us can commit certain sins without even feeling guilty about it. When we don’t see anything wrong with breaking God’s Word, violating His commands, and rebelling against His lordship through sin, we are in trouble. When we think that it was just a quick look at something sexual, it was just a small lie, it was only a little greedy or selfish; when we think that we deserve that new toy, or we’ve earned this or that right; when we give in to pride or vanity or gluttony because everyone else is doing it, we are only demonstrating that our consciences are seared.
When your conscience is seared it has no moral compass and it needs to be activated. That’s what happened to Joseph’s brothers when they were in jail. They thought that this is happening to us because of what we did to Joseph. Joseph could understand them because, unbeknown to them he was a Hebrew and could understand them and it broke his heart.
Genesis 42:21-24 NIV They said to one another, “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 would not listen; that’s why this distress has come on us.” Reuben replied, “Didn’t I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn’t listen! Now we must account for his blood.” They did not realize that Joseph could understand them, since he was using an interpreter. He turned away from them and began to weep, but then came back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes.
So what do we learn about activating and revitalizing a seared conscience?
The first step toward activating a seared conscience is taking responsibility for one’s own personal guilt. The brothers did not blame their father for being passive. They did not blame their brother Joseph for being proud or arrogant or favored. They did not diminish the wrong by saying they were too young to know any better. They used the right pronoun when they agreed together, “We are responsible! There is no one else we can blame!”
The brothers’ crime was now more than two decades old, but they still felt the distress of it. Time doesn’t erase distress. We have evidence of that in our own lives. We Know from experience the inescapable reminders of our guilt. The emotional entanglements brought about by the consequences of our own sin can be so devastating that we become physically sick, which is precisely what happened with David following his adultery with Bathsheba and his murderous plot to have Uriah, her husband, killed. Remember his heartsick admission?
Psalms 32:3-4 NIV When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy on me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.
Often when we are struggling with our own guilty conscience we don’t or can’t take advantage of the grace of God in forgiving us. Joseph’s brothers weren’t able to accept the grace that Joseph showed them by not only giving them the grain needed for their families but giving it to them free of charge.
Genesis 42:25-28 NIV Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man’s silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left. At the place where they stopped for the night one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack. “My silver has been returned,” he said to his brothers. “Here it is in my sack.” Their hearts sank and they turned to each other trembling and said, “What is this that God has done to us?”
When God activates a seared conscience we begin to gain a different perspective. Sometimes we become victims of the kind of treatment we have meted out to someone else. When the harm, the hurt, or the pain that we brought on someone else is visited upon us, something begins to change inside us. God begins to break through our hardshell and soften our hearts that have become calloused.
The passing of time does not erase a guilty conscience. The ache lingers.
God also activates a seared conscience when we are recipients of undeserved expressions of grace. Joseph’s brothers deserved no grain. They deserved no money. They deserved punishment, perhaps even imprisonment, for what they had done to their brother. Instead, they wound up with freedom, a full sack of grain, and all of their money returned.
How grateful we should be that the tell tale heart is still at work. It is God’s work of convicting us, bringing us to repentance. His Spirit does not stop working with us even when we stop being interested in Him. It represents the central-most placein our lives, where He is leading us back into harmony with Himself. Your response—your choice to obey His voice—will change the rest of your life.
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