“IN THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD…”
A sermon by Pastor John Glass, D.Min.


Have you ever awakened in the morning shuddering at the dream you just had? You shake your head and think, “Sheesh! That’s what I get for eating chocolate before going to bed. Never again.” Nightmares. Ever had one of those dreams you wake up from thinking, “Ooo; I’d love to go back to sleep right now.” Sweet dreams.

Joseph’s dreams. (Genesis 37) Dreams were nothing new to his family: father Jacob had a dream one night of a ladder stretching from earth to heaven, with the angels traveling up and down on it. (Genesis 28) I wouldn’t call Joseph’s dreams nightmares; they were sweet dreams: “This is what’s going to happen to you, Joseph; I’m going to make you a great man everyone will bow to, particularly your family.” A promise/prophecy.

The next thing that happens is he is sold as a slave by his loving brothers. (So much for his dreams.) Years go by; years of being a slave first and a prisoner second.
“Joseph, didn’t God promise in the dreams he gave you that you’d be great and everyone would bow the knee to you?”
“Yes.”
“So, what are you doing in here?”
“Taking care of prisoners.”
“Taking care of prisoners. Some kind of God you serve.”
“Oh, you can’t say that. God knows what he’s doing. At his time and in his way he’ll take care of it.”
“You really think so, don’t you. How many years have you been waiting?”
“A few. Yes, I think so. The dreams God gave me are promises that I will be in a position of a ruler. When the time comes it will happen.”
“You don’t doubt that?”
“Not a doubt in the world.”

“Butler?”
“Yes?”
“You’re being restored. Would you put in a good word for me and get me out of here?”
“Joseph, you got it.”

“Ah, Joseph?”
“Yes?”
“Do you remember those two fellows: the butler and the baker?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever happened to them?”
“Let’s see…that was about two years ago. The butler was restored, but it didn’t go so well for the baker.”
“Wasn’t the butler supposed to get you out of here?”

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“Well, you never know. He may have been unable to effect an appeal to Pharaoh on my behalf, or he may have simply forgotten.”
“Speaking of forgotten, it sure looks like Someone’s forgotten you. You’re still here. I wouldn’t think a God who keeps promises like that is worth worshipping.”
“But you’ve got to understand that God works on a different time schedule than-“
“Joseph!”
“Yes, Sir?”
“You’ve been summoned by the throne. I’m not sure what’s up, but you’d better get yourself presentable.”
“Right. Done. Ah, you were saying?”
“Hm…throne? Hold it for now. Keep me in the loop on what’s going on.”

I figured out one time Joseph was around 17 when his dear brothers got rid of him, and another 20 before the king had his dreams. If you have to wait 20 years – of slavery and prison – years for God to keep a promise, doesn’t that mean he doesn’t keep his promises – really?

What about this one: “Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it weren’t so would I have told you I go to prepare a place for you? If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again: and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3) What a promise! How many years have we been waiting? Does that mean it isn’t going to happen?

2 Peter 3.3ff. says in the last days scoffers will come, saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? Ever since our ancestors died everything continues like it was from the beginning of creation.” Notice v. 9: “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.” With this promise there is a clear element of delay. The parable of the rich landowner who went away for a l-o-n-g time. The delay is for the sake of saving people. Since that’s the case, it’s OK with me if God doesn’t keep his promises when I think he should. Notice v. 10: “But the day of the Lord will come…”

Abraham may have been called “father of the faithful” but he didn’t always exude faith. If we’d checked in with him at different points in his life we’d have found varying degrees of confidence in God’s promise to him of having children.

Genesis 15:
“Father Abram?”
‘Yes?”
“Are you ever going to have any children?”
“Why yes, my son. God brought me out of the tent just last evening and asked me to count the stars. Say, have you ever tried to do that? Imagine…that many children!”

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Genesis 16.
“Father Abraham, how’s the progeny department?”
“You again. Have you met Ishmael?”
“But Ishmael isn’t Sarah’s son.”
“True, but he is my son.”
“But is he a son of the promise?”
“My son, sometimes God needs a little assist.”

Genesis 21.
“Father Abraham?”
“Yes, my son?”
“I hear a baby crying; what’s going on?”
“Sarah and I are calling him Isaac.”
“Sarah? You mean Sarah has at last had a child? Is this the son of promise?”
“I’m a bit red-faced, but yes, this at last is the son of the promise.”
“My, you waited…let’s see, from Mesopotamia ‘till now…25 years! But didn’t you consider Ishmael…”
“As I was saying, I’m more than a little red-faced. I’ve learned that it’s up to God to keep his promises; he doesn’t need our help. We can’t do anything anyway.”
“Father Abraham, what do you think is coming in the future for these two sons of yours, one of flesh and the other of promise? What is God planning?”
“My son, he will let us know when the time comes.”
“You’re right. Just you wait, Father Abraham.”

When the knife flashed in the sunlight God knew he at last had a winner in Abraham: the man had real faith in him. “Because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will make your offspring as numerous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore…because you have obeyed my voice.” (Genesis 22.16-18) Even though Abraham’s faith quotient varied during his life, God still kept his promise, and his curriculum enabled Abraham to develop total faith.

Exodus 24.
“Mr. Moses?”
“Yes?”
“What’s going on?”
“The whole nation has just entered into a covenant relationship with God.”
“Wonderful. Oh, a covenant? What’s that?”
“That’s a legal, formal agreement between God and Israel. He promised that if we obeyed everything he said we’d be his “treasured possession.” We’re going to be a nation of priests.”
“Did everyone agree to this?”
“Why, yes.”
“Exactly what did they promise?”

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“Everything the Lord has spoken we will do. There was even a sacrifice offered. You should read the tables of stone sometime soon; quite impressive.”
“So, a covenant is promises, right? God promises you something and you promise him something.”
“You’ve got it.”
“Hm. Mr. Moses, how long do you expect the promises to be kept?”
“Why…I don’t know. Now, if you’ll excuse me I have an appointment on top of the mountain.”

Exodus 32.
“Mr. Moses?”
“(Sigh.) Yes?”
“You look pretty upset. So does everyone else. What’s happened?”
“Remember your question about how long I expected the promises to be kept?”
“Right.”
“Try a month! You know what they did while I was spending a month up there with God? They had Aaron – my brother! – cast a golden calf, and they worshipped the thing.”
“Where is it?”
“They just drank it!”
“Oh. Mr. Moses, do you think God will keep his promise longer than the people did theirs?”
“Let me put it to you this way. If you’re ever going to enter into a covenant – or anything – with God, don’t promise anything. Human promises are like puffs of wind across the desert floor. Now if you’ll pardon me I have to go back up the mountain.”

Hebrews 8.7-12:
7 For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no need to look for a second one.
8 God finds fault with them when he says:
“The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah;
9 not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,
on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
for they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
10 This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11 And they shall not teach one another
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or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.”

Whose promises is your religion built on?
Yours:
“God, if you’ll just forgive me this time I promise you it won’t happen again.”
“God, if you’ll just save my boy I’ll serve you the rest of my life.”
“God, I promise that I will…”
Or God’s?
“Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands…” (Isaiah 49.15-16)
Romans 4.16 “It depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham.”
“It is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as descendants.” (Romans 9.8)
“He believed the Lord; and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15.6)

Friends, it does not depend on our resolves, our promises, our intentions, our anything. It all depends on HIM: His promises. Your future is as incredible as even one of God’s promises!