Coming soon, several Sundays from the end of our "Stages of Grief" series - we will be studying the Joseph story as a whole congregation. To this end, we include this edited account from Rev. Cairns Henderson on why we are given the Joseph story and how it can lift our thoughts to the Lord's hopes for all of us.
"You know that the angels in heaven have a Word, and in their Word [the Joseph story] is not a story about Joseph at all. It is a wonderful story about the Lord Himself, a story which tells how the Lord was received when He came into the world. It tells how the Lord was rejected, how He suffered temptations and how He made
Himself the Lord of heaven and earth, conquering the hells setting the heavens in order, and forming a new church in the world through which all people might be led in the way of heaven.
All these things (and many more) this story tells as the angels read it in their Word. And it is in connection with the Lord that we would have you remember Joseph's words to his brothers: "You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good, that I might save this great people alive." That was why
Joseph's brothers had been allowed to sell him into slavery. When the Lord was put to death, it was meant for evil.
But the Lord knew that only in that way could He become our Savior, could save us, not from the death of the body through hunger, but from the death of the spirit which comes when the bread of heaven can no longer be received.
So although [the hells] meant it for evil the Lord meant it for good. The older you grow the more will you understand how great is the Lord's love for us: that He was willing to be born on earth, to suffer, to die, to rise again, and forgive all His enemies. You will understand why the angels rejoiced when His great work was ended, why they had that great joy which they make us feel on the day in which the Lord rose from the tomb as King of kings and Lord of lords.