Online Sermons
Lesson #4 - Mistreatment & Disappointment
Series: The Life of Joseph - A Tapestry of God's ProvidenceLESSON #4
Mistreatment & Disappointment
1. Have you ever felt victimized?
Life often comes with a boatload of inequities. Have you experienced events in life that seemed unfair to you?.
Why is that sometimes “bad things happen to good people” and “good things happen to bad people”?
As a young boy Joseph tries to be a good son, but he ends up being sold into slavery by his jealous brothers. – Gen.37
In Potiphar’s house, Joseph resisted the advances of Potiphar’s wife but ended up imprisoned. – Gen.39
It just doesn’t seem fair or right - - why wasn’t he rewarded for doing good (cf. 39:9 with 39:20)?
What is the typical human response to being mistreated?
Does Joseph ever display a desire to get even or enact revenge?
Read 1 Pet.2:20 / if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.
Do you find it hard to resist the urge to vindicate yourself? – cf. Rom.12:17-21
Is it difficult to “keep on entrusting (yourself) to Him who judges righteously”? – 1Pet.2:32
2. Why was Joseph imprisoned by Potiphar?
Was it not the result of false accusations leveled by a spurned woman? – Gen.39:12-18
How did Potiphar’s choose to deal with Joseph? – Gen.39:19f
3. What happened to Joseph while he was imprisoned?
While Gen.40:15 speaks of a dungeon (pit), Gen.40:3 indicates a “house arrest” - - or “jail”.
Did Joseph waste away or did he (with God’s blessings) excel once again? – Gen.40:4
Who were two of Joseph’s prison mates? – 40:1-3
What were the crimes (misdeeds) of the cupbearer and baker?
Why were they so dejected and downcast? – 40:6-8
4. According to Joseph, what was the meaning of the dreams of the cupbearer and baker?
What awaited the cupbearer? – 40:12-13
What awaited the baker? – 40:18-19
What was Joseph’s only request to the cupbearer? – 40:14
Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh…
5. How long did Joseph linger in prison?
Gen. 40:23 / yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Note 41:1 / at the end of TWO FULL YEARS…
Do you think Joseph wrestled with feelings of disappointment, resentment and even abandonment?
Discuss the value of the attitude expressed in Ps.119:71
Christian Reger was imprisoned by the Nazis in Dachau for four years (1941-1945).
He reflected on the words of Nietzsche, “…a man can undergo torture if he knows the why of his life”.
Reger stated, “But I, here in Dachau, learned something far greater. I learned to know the WHO of my life.”
