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 we talked about Joseph's integrity. Joseph never used his position as prime minister to his advantage. He respected the authority of Pharoah in all of the dealings with the people of Egypt and his family. As a man, a leader of integrity he was now responsible for the futures or two nations, Egypt, and Israel. We continue this week talking about Joseph's integrity and how it helped him to be the great leader he was as he had the responsibility of guiding and ensuring the success of two nations, Egypt and his family which was to become the nation of Israel. We also see how God's providence in the lives of Joseph and his father Jacob intersect in Egypt.
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.
What’s the definition of integrity?
Dictionary definition: the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness.
A person with integrity behaves ethically and does the right thing, even behind closed doors.
Integrity is what you are when there isn’t anyone around to check up on you; it’s best demonstrated when nobody’s watching.
What are the 5 attributes of integrity?
follow a set of values, be honest, help others, lead by example, and take responsibility.
What is the difference between honesty and integrity?
Integrity implies consistent behavior, whether honest or not. Honesty implies being truthful (even if it is incorrect) about a subject at hand. Honesty, by definition, is to tell the truth and to be true. Integrity is having strong moral principles based on honesty and following those principles religiously.
Integrity is a character trait, a good character trait. One that is active all the time meaning at home, at church, on the job, wherever. A person on integrity is the some all the time one of the other dictionary definitions of integrity is
the state of being whole and undivided.
Because of his integrity and character Joseph was a fantastic model of a leader. It started when he was a slave,
Genesis 39:6-10 NIV So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master’s wife took notice of Joseph and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he refused. “With me in charge,” he told her, “my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?” And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her.
It continued when he was in prison after being falsely accused.
Genesis 39:20-23 NIV Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.
He had discernment and he was wise. He knew that the famine was not over and would last much longer. He knew that the people would not be able to survive without the help of the government. He had already made provision for that.
Genesis 41:33-36 NIV “And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance. They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh, to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held in reserve for the country, to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt, so that the country may not be ruined by the famine.”
Genesis 41:53-56 NIV The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and do what he tells you.” When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt.
Genesis 47:14-26 NIV Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.” “Then bring your livestock,” said Joseph. “I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.” So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock. When that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, “We cannot hide from our Lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there is nothing left for our Lord except our bodies and our land. Why should we perish before your eyes—we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die, and that the land may not become desolate.” So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh’s, and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other. However, he did not buy the land of the priests, because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land. Joseph said to the people, “Now that I have bought you and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. But when the crop comes in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four-fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.” “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our Lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.” So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt—still in force today—that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh’s.
What is striking is that Joseph did not abuse that power—not once! God had raised him up from slavery and he never forgot how marvelous a deliverance that was. To whom much has been given, much is required.
Make no mistake, integrity is tough stuff. Integrity does not take the easy way, make the easy choices, or choose the “pleasures for a season” path.
Joseph had character. That’s why he refused to compromise his integrity. He planned ahead with wise objectivity. He submitted to authority with loyal accountability. He arranged for survival with personal integrity.
When you exhibit personal integrity people trust you like the Egyptians trusted Joseph.
Genesis 47:13-15, NIV There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe; both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace. When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, “Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone.”
25 “You have saved our lives,” they said. “May we find favor in the eyes of our Lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.”
In every situation Joseph’s integrity remained in tact.
Integrity keeps your personal life pure and straight, regardless of the benefits and personal perks that might come your way through compromise. Integrity does not take the easy way, make the easy choices.
People with integrity have nothing to hide and nothing to fear. Their lives are open books.
Joseph is an example of a person with integrity, but Jesus is a better example. Joseph had integrity but he was a man man. Jesus is a better example because He is perfect because He is God.
The Oxford English Dictionary says that the word integrity comes from the Latin integritas, which means “wholeness,” “entireness,” “completeness.” The root word is integer, which means “untouched,” “intact,” “entire.” He or she is “whole”; life is “put together,” and things are working together harmoniously.
Jesus made it clear that integrity involves the whole of the inner person: the heart, the mind, and the will. A person with integrity has a single heart. He doesn’t try to love God and the world at the same time. A person with integrity also has a single mind, a single outlook that keeps life going in the right direction. They are not double-minded.
James 1:5-8 NIV If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Jesus also said that the person with integrity has a single will; he seeks to serve but one master. If you try to serve God and man, you do not have a single will you are double minded and will not succeed because you don’t have integrity. A person with integrity has complete uncompromising honesty.
Maintain Integrity Through all ups and downs of Life
Joseph although he was not prime minister of Egypt had not had a life without significant trials. His ups and downs were extreme like a roller coaster.
He was adored, protected, and pampered by his father up as he grew up in a hostile environment full of angry brothers. (Down) They threw him into a pit then sold him to slave traders, who carried him off to Egypt, where a high-ranking official named Potiphar purchased him. (Up) In this man’s household, Joseph was respected and promoted to head steward, given full authority due to the official’s trust. (Down) Soon he caught the eye of his boss’s lecherous wife. Obedient to his God, and determined to maintainhis purity, Joseph staunchly resisted her wiles and escaped her advances—only to hearthe cries of the woman as she screamed of sexual assault and attempted rape. As a result of her false accusations, he wound up in an Egyptian dungeon. (Up) But there, once again, he was trusted and respected. Though he did not harm but, in fact, helped others out, (Down) he remained forgotten for several years. (Up for good). Then, through God-ordained circumstances, he was lifted out of that place and virtually overnight elevated to the position of prime minister, Pharaoh’s right-hand man. Plus
after a separation of more than twenty years from his family in Canaan, Joseph is reunited with his brothers and his father. So, Joseph, as we all do throughout life, experience Despair. Triumph. Heights. Depths. Dreams.
But now Joseph is living large. Egypt is prospering, the famine is over, and his father and family are near him in Egypt. As we get to the end of our book, and we reflect on God’s providence in Joseph’s life let’s take a look at his father and God’s providence in his life and how they intersect.
I mentioned two weeks ago that we can’t forget the covenant that God made with Joseph’s great grandfather, Jacob's grandfather Abraham.
Genesis 15:12-16 NIV As the sun was setting, Abram fell into a deep sleep, and a thick and dreadful darkness came over him. Then the Lord said to him, “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions. You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. In the fourth generation your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure.”
So although Jacob and his family were going to Egypt God reminded Jacob that they would come back to the Promised Land and, in fact, he would come back himself.
Genesis 46:1-4 NIV So Israel set out with all that was his, and when he reached Beersheba, he offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in a vision at night and said, “Jacob! Jacob!” “Here I am,” he replied. “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”
Genesis 48:3-4 NIV Jacob said to Joseph, “God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan, and there he blessed me and said to me, ‘I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers. I will make you a community of peoples, and I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you.’
So Jacob and his family have been in Egypt 17 years and they had prospered as had the nation of Egypt.
Genesis 47:28-31 NIV Jacob lived in Egypt seventeen years, and the years of his life were a hundred and forty-seven. When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.” “I will do as you say,” he said. “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
Just as an aside Joseph’s family never planned to stay in Egypt.
Genesis 47:3-4 NIV Pharaoh asked the brothers, “What is your occupation?” “Your servants are shepherds,” they replied to Pharaoh, “just as our fathers were.” They also said to him, “We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan and your servants’ flocks have no pasture. So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen.”
Jacob knew that God has promised Cannan to his family, the Israelites. So, he wanted to be buried there on land that they had purchased for the family.
Genesis 23:3-4, 17-20 NIV Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, “I am a foreigner and stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.” So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city. Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site.
God brought us to Egypt so we could survive the famine, but I want to be buried in the land of our forefathers, along with Abraham, Isaac, and Leah.
Genesis 47:29-31 NIV When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph and said to him, “If I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried.” “I will do as you say,” he said. “Swear to me,” he said. Then Joseph swore to him, and Israel worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
Take me back there.
Don’t bury me in Egypt. Swear before God that will not happen.” And Joseph swore to keep this promise to his father.
Genesis 49:29-32 NIV Then he gave them these instructions: “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite, the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites.”
Joseph kept that promise, as we will see later next week, as we end our study with the end of the lives of Joseph and his father Jacob as we see how the providence God in the lives of both these men.
Bible Study Audio
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