Through Suffering In this Lenten episode of In Light of the Cross, we continue tracing the biblical story to see how it points to Jesus, focusing today on Joseph as an imperfect type of Christ. We note how God flips the world’s expectations and we push back on readings that make the story about personal success or “following your dreams,” emphasizing instead that God is the hero: Joseph prospers because God is with him.

We walk through Joseph’s suffering—betrayed by his brothers, enslaved, falsely accused, imprisoned, then raised to serve Pharaoh—and how God uses it to save Egypt and Joseph’s own family, culminating in forgiveness and “you meant evil, but God meant it for good.” We reflect on restored relationships and on suffering as real evil that God can still use redemptively, and we close with the Lord’s Prayer.

00:00 Lenten Series Setup

00:51 Pause and Invite Spirit

01:21 Joseph in the Promise Line

03:11 Not Self Help God the Hero

05:15 Josephs Suffering and Rise

06:23 Gospel Threads Forgiveness

07:47 Restored Family and Hope

10:50 Application Restore and Endure

13:40 Closing Prayer Lords Prayer

welcome back to another episode of In Light of

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The Cross, this Lenten season.

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We are considering every day how the cross

shapes our understanding of the world in

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which we live, the time that we occupy

and everything we've been exploring.

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How, when you understand the cross, it

really helps us understand all of what

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God is doing throughout scriptures.

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And so we've been walking through

the biblical narrative a little bit

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at a time to see, how these stories

really point forward to Jesus and

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the work that he does and his death

and resurrection on our behalf.

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So last week we looked at the stories

of Adam and Noah and Abraham and Isaac.

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And today we're going to be looking

at the story of Joseph and seeing how

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he is some kind of type that points

to Christ, although imperfectly.

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So let's begin here.

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Just with a time of pausing.

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After this, we will continue the

rhythm of reflection and then

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application anding, but let's just.

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Set aside this time now and invite

the Holy Spirit to transform

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us during this devotional.

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So this story of Joseph?

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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What a great story.

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Nathan Beasley: Joseph

is, in the lineage of.

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Adam and Seth, and then down the line

a number of generations to Abraham.

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And of course Abraham was given the

promise that all nations would be blessed

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through him, and we are anxiously awaiting

the fulfillment of the promise given to

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Eve that though the serpent has caused.

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Sin and brokenness in the world.

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There will be an heir who

will crush the serpent's head.

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Daniel Jepsen: Right.

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Nathan Beasley: And we've

wondered, is Noah that guy you see?

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Nope.

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Noah's not that guy.

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Is Abram that guy?

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Nope.

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Abram's not that guy.

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Isaac?

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Not yet.

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How about one of Isaac's kids?

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Jacob or Esau?

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Jacob?

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No.

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And then Jacob has 12 sons.

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Yeah.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah, Jacob's 12 sons.

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The second to the last is Joseph.

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So of course in the ancient world,

the hierarchy was the firstborn had

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all the prestige and all the rights.

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He was the one.

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So right from the beginning, we see God

use someone who in worldly perspective is

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not gonna be at the top of the totem pole.

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Nathan Beasley: Hmm.

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But actually at the bottom.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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, Nathan Beasley: It totally flips that, uh,

that I believe it's called primogeniture

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principle, that the firstborn is the

one who receives the inheritance.

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I've impressed.

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Yeah.

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Well, thank you.

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That's why they pay me the big bucks.

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Daniel Jepsen: That's right.

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Yeah, so, and if you know the story a

little bit, you remember that, uh, Jacob

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was the father whose name was also Israel.

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God changed his name to Israel

at a very particular point.

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And Joseph was Jacob's

or Israel's favorite son.

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And of course he gave

him that special coat.

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And if if you ever heard or watched the

musical Joseph and the amazing technical

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or dream coat, they got everything wrong.

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But more especially they, and

most of the sermons I have heard

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on Joseph get it all wrong.

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Nathan Beasley: How so?

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That's a bold statement.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah, it is.

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Very often, like, well, in that Joseph

and the amazing technical or dream

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code is basically follow your dreams

and your dreams will, will come true,

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which, uh, fits so much along with our

Disneyfied culture today, but that is

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absolutely not what the story's about.

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And like so many sermons I've heard

it's not about, getting ahead.

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Uh, showing perseverance, like, like

Joseph did, respecting your authority

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and working through them, and God will

bring all the good things outta bad.

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It's not about that at all.

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It's not about Joseph.

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It's about God.

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God is always the hero of the story

because he's the one working in

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this world to bring about the good.

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Joseph is a beneficiary of that.

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He is not that great in himself.

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In fact, it says twice at very particular

points in Joseph's story, the reason

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he succeeded was that God was with him.

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Nathan Beasley: Mm.

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Daniel Jepsen: So when the author says

that, that's an interpretive remark from

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the author of the book through the Holy

Spirit showing us what this is about.

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And when that's repeated.

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He's like, guys, get the picture here.

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This isn't about how to get ahead

or how good of a guy Joseph was.

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This is about God's faithfulness in saving

his people through people like Joseph.

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Nathan Beasley: So already, just in what

you're explaining, you see, this, tapestry

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of human sin and brokenness, but you

see God's faithfulness that God is with.

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Joseph, and then as Joseph is living

and working and responding in his

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own faith to God, God is using

this to craft this story of Israel.

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Daniel Jepsen: Exactly.

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And through Israel, Jesus, and us.

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Nathan Beasley: Wow.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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So couple key things about the story.

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Of course, Joseph is sold by his

brothers into slavery in Egypt.

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They're jealous of him.

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They sell him into slavery.

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And he's, he's there for about 14

years, if I remember the details.

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And during that time, he is first serving

in a man named Potter's household.

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He's a powerful Egyptian, uh,

he's an official and he's falsely

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accused by photographer's wife.

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He's thrown in the dungeon

unjustly, and he's forgotten there.

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At least it seems like he's forgotten.

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God remembers him.

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And at the right time, God causes

circumstances that not only get him out of

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the dungeon, but lift him to the palace.

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And so in that role as as Palace

advisor, then second to the, the

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Pharaoh as it were, he institutes

a policy because of a coming.

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famine that God revealed

to him in a dream.

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institutes a policy of saving some

food, every year leading up to that and

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is able to save the people of Egypt.

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But also through that he's able

to save the people of the area,

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including his own family that

doesn't even know he's still alive.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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So you see some, some theological threads

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Daniel Jepsen: here?

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Yes,

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Nathan Beasley: we do.

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To unpack,

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Daniel Jepsen: right?

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Yes.

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He is the one who.

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Undergoes deprivation and

suffering for the good of others.

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Nathan Beasley: Mm.

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Daniel Jepsen: So in that way, again,

he's pointing the head to Jesus.

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The story is not about how

good of a guy Joseph was and

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how smart he was to get ahead.

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God is saving his people, and he

would do that through someone who

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has to undergo suffering for them,

pointing head, of course, to the cross.

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And then at the end you see

Joseph forgiving his brothers.

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And he utters those, those famous words,

you meant it for evil, but God meant it

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for good, for the saving of many lives.

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And that's really not a bad

summary of the whole Bible story.

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Satan meant things for evil,

but God used it for good.

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People have meant things for evil.

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But God's gonna weave each one

of those into this beautiful

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story of how he uses it for good.

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God is able to recognize that

things are evil, things are wrong,

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things are sinful, things are

not what they're supposed to be.

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They're broken, and yet still use

those things for his good purpose.

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Nothing is outside of his power

and his wisdom and his providence.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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I love the, the climax of this story here.

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I mean, we've been exploring

how since Adam and Eve sin.

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There's just so much brokenness.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Nathan Beasley: And even within

Jacob or Israel's family, I mean, the

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dysfunction is, so, before Benjamin

Joseph doesn't have any full brothers.

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We talked about the deception of

his father-in-law, Labin yesterday.

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Um, and there's this

reunification of Israel.

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I mean that's, that's

what, how the story ends.

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Joseph is reunited with his.

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Brothers,

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Daniel Jepsen: right.

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Nathan Beasley: With his father and they

come together and not just the family

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of Israel, but like you said, beyond

that whole area, Egypt into Palestine

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and Canaan and all these places.

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God has used Joseph in this really,

really beautiful and powerful way.

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It's, um, okay, here's another big word.

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It, it kind of is an eschatological focus.

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It's a picture.

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Eschatology is just the, the, the theology

of what's to come in the future, and

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we'll get into that in later episodes.

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But this is painting kind of a picture.

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It's a foreshadowing of what's to

come in Jesus as he absorbs the sin

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of the world into himself and provides

salvation for the entire world.

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And then also, ultimately

when he comes again

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. Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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I'm really glad you brought that out.

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'cause I had forgotten

about that aspect of it.

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The restoration of bright relationships.

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the family broke down.

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I mean, brothers trying to.

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Kill each other and eventually

decide, okay, well we'll just

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sell him in slavery instead.

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I mean, how much worse does

family breakdown get than that?

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Um, and yet it's restored.

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Nathan Beasley: Yeah.

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And, and, and Joseph is not innocent here.

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I mean, the way that the story is

told is that as a young man, I mean,

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it's a pretty arrogant thing to tell

your brothers of the dream and your

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father of the dream that they're

gonna be bowing down to you one day.

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You know?

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Especially when they're already adults.

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They already hate you because

of your father's favoritism.

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Maybe if you get a dream about how

they're gonna bow down to you might

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be good to keep that to yourself,

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Nathan Beasley: you know?

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Yeah.

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But you see this, work of God

that is, um, undoing these

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different dimensions of brokenness.

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You know, we've talked about

sin is breaking a command and

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it's severing the relationship.

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it's siding with the enemy and

it's forfeiting the good life.

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And then here through Joseph, we get a

little bit of a taste, though imperfect

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and incomplete of those things,

undone Joseph's faithfulness to God

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ultimately, as he, doesn't give into

the temptation of Potiphar's wife and

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as he's faithful in prison and those

kinds of things, that the relationship

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with, with God and with others.

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is restored and leading back

into some, sort of restored life

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in fellowship with each other.

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Daniel Jepsen: Yeah.

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Yeah.

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That idea of restoring relationships,

that's beautiful, isn't it?

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Nathan Beasley: Amen.

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Daniel Jepsen: So, I think we're a

time of application or contemplation.

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It might be good.

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To just think about a couple things here.

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Number one is that

restoration of relationships.

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Are there relationships in your own

life that you would want God to restore

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through what he's done in the cross?

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We may not be able to make that

happen, but we can pray for it and

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we can seek God in the midst of

that and ask for that to happen.

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if there are some things we

can do to make that happen.

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Let's put it in our mind that that's

a very precious thing as part of

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the gospel story is the restoration.

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And then I, I think the other part to

contemplate, you get a two for today.

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the other thing to think about is how

suffering is not the end of the story.

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Suffering is in God's eyes

and God's plan and purpose.

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redemptive, it's purposeful.

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It brings about good things.

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It doesn't mean it is good.

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what Joseph went through was an

evil, but God still used it for good.

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So if you think of Joseph's life,

it's almost like there's three stages.

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There is his youth where he grows

up with his family as a favorite

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of his father, and presumably that

was probably a pretty good life.

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And then there's that, that middle part.

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Where he is unjustly accused and he is

rotting in a prison and it says Joseph

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is forgotten, he's not forgotten by God,

but he's forgotten by those in authority.

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And then there's the restoration

to a new kind of life.

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And maybe we're in stage two, as

it were, we're we're feeling the

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sufferings, maybe a brokenness of

sin of our own or someone else's.

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Maybe it's just the brokenness of

old age and you feel forgotten.

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Feel like God's not helping

and no one else really cares.

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But we have to remember that these

stories point, they symbolize that God

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will work these things for our good.

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There will be a restoration

in a new kind of life by God's

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grace, by his work in the cross.

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So maybe we can endure a little more

by understanding and interpreting

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our dungeon times in that way.

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Nathan Beasley: let's spend a few

minutes here just reflecting, applying,

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contemplating God's work in the midst

of the pain, and pray for patience in

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the midst of that difficult time that

we can see our present circumstances and

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even our futures in light of the cross.

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Daniel Jepsen: And let's

conclude with the Lord's Prayer.

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Again.

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Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name.

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Your kingdom come, your will be

done on Earth as it is in heaven.

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Give us today our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts as we

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also have forgiven our debtors.

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And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

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Nathan Beasley: Amen.

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Amen.

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I.