Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - God's Power Over Leaders | Torah | Genesis 41:1-36

Episode Date: April 11, 2022

Do you have the courage to take a stance against political powers? Does God want Christians to oppose leaders? Can God work through leaders that aren't following him? Keith shares the answers as he looks at Joseph and Pharaoh in Genesis 41:1-36. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Genesis 41:1-36 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life. In the time it takes to get to work. I'm Keith Simon. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. As I record this, Vladimir Putin has unleashed his Russian army on Ukraine, and as a result, there's death and destruction everywhere. People are fleeing. It's incredibly sad. Other people are without food, water, electricity, the basics to live. The American president, Joe Biden, is working with other world leaders to stop the Russian aggression. Now, a look back in history tells you that this is not necessarily a unique moment. There have been many similar moments.

Both President George H.W. Bush and his son, President George W. Bush, stood toe to toe in the Middle East with Saddam Hussein and the Taliban. Or go back to World War II, where FDR and Churchill opposed Hitler. world leaders demonstrate their power through military wars, economic plans, and social policy. In the United States, presidents have a lot of power, but not unlimited power like leaders in history. Think back to Pharaoh. He had the power to enslave the Israelites. Or think of Nebuchadnezzar, who ordered everyone to bow down to a golden image of himself. Or think of the Persian king, King Darius, who demanded that no one pray to any God but to him. When you look through history, it's easy to conclude that normal people like you and me are at the mercy of kings

and presidents and rulers and generals and CEOs. They are the ones with all the power. So with that in mind, consider Proverbs 21.1. It says the king's heart is like a stream of water directed by the Lord. He guides it wherever he pleases. The king's heart is like a stream of water. It's like putty in God's hands. What's remarkable about that, is that when the book of Proverbs was written, approximately 900 BC, the most powerful person in the ancient Near East was the king. And God says the king's heart is putty in God's hands. God directs the king. The king reports to God, for God alone is the one who has ultimate authority. If you live in a democracy like I do, and probably most of the people listening to this do,

it's easy to say God has all the power. But what if you were called before the Egyptian Pharaoh and had to speak the truth to the one who really was all-powerful. Would you do it? For Joseph, that wasn't a hypothetical question. Let's dive in to Genesis 41. It starts out this way. When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream. He was standing by the Nile when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, Ugly and Gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank, and the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek fat cows. Then Pharaoh woke up. He fell asleep again and had a second dream. Seven heads of

grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted, thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up. It had been a dream. These two dreams freaked Farrow. out. So he called all of his magicians and interpreters and wise men together to ask them, what did these dreams mean? But none of them could answer him. Now, look, it's possible that the wise men knew what the dream meant, that they knew the dream meant bad news for Pharaoh, but they didn't want to tell him something that he didn't want to hear. They were scared of the person in power. Well, the cupbearer who had double-crossed Joseph in prison felt guilty. So he told

told Pharaoh about the guy in prison who interpreted his dream for him. Pharaoh sent for Joseph, the guards gave him a shave and shower and took him before Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph in verse 15, I had a dream and no one can interpret it, but I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph replied, I cannot do it, but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires. That sentence, I cannot do it. It's all one word in Hebrew. It's like Pharaoh says, I heard you could interpret my dream. And Joseph says, nope, no way, not me, not a chance.

Only God can do that. Now, this took a lot of courage for Joseph to say because Pharaoh was considered to be a God. So by telling Pharaoh that only the true God can tell him the meaning of his dream, Joseph is putting Pharaoh in his place. So Pharaoh tells Joseph the dream, and Joseph tells Pharaoh that God has revealed to him in the dream what he's about to do in Egypt. Isn't it cool that God can even work through pagan kings like Pharaoh? Well, here's the meaning of the dream, as Joseph tells this to Pharaoh. He says, in verse 29, seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt,

but seven years of famine will follow them. Then all the abundance in Egypt will be forgotten and the famine will ravage the land. So here's what Joseph told Pharaoh. Look, the future of Egypt is not in your control. Pharaoh doesn't know the future. He can't determine the future. That only belongs to God. Kings do not make history.

They only serve history. When Jesus stood before Pilate, Pilate said to him, You won't speak to me. Do you not know that I have the authority to release? you and authority to crucify you? And Jesus answered, you would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given to you from above. So Jesus puts Pilate in his place. Pilate thinks he is all-powerful. Pilot thinks he controls Jesus' life. And Jesus says, no, any power you have has been granted to you from God. He's the one in power. So Joseph goes on to tell Pharaoh that he should appoint someone

to oversee food distribution so that the nation won't run out of food when the famine hits. Verse 39, Pharaoh says to Joseph, since God has made all this known to you, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You will be in charge of my palace, and all the people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you. Now, I'm fascinated by two things in this story. First, like I've already said, this chapter reinforces the truth that every king reports to the king of kings. Every human king is accountable to king Jesus. The second thing I'm fascinated by in this chapter is how Joseph calmly speaks truth to power. I'm sure that Joseph was tempted to moderate his views, to say the acceptable thing, to tell

Pharaoh what he thought Pharaoh wanted to hear. Many Christian leaders lose their courage when they stand before political power in the form of the president. Before Charles Colson became, a Christian. He was one of the top aides to President Nixon. For his behavior in the Nixon White House, Colson would spend time in prison where he began a relationship with Jesus. He was reflecting back on the years before he was a Christian, back when he had all kinds of power in the Nixon White House. And here's what he said. He said, sure, we used the prayer breakfast and the church services and all that for political ends. One of my jobs in the White House was to romance religious leaders.

We would bring them into the White House and they would be dazzled by the aura of the Oval Office. And I found them to be about the most pliable of any of the special groups that we worked with. When Christians stand before political power, all of a sudden they lose their courage. All the sudden they lose their conviction. All the sudden, their motives start to change and start to reveal that they're more interested in keeping power themselves than speaking truth to power. The only reason that you and I

won't cower before an earthly power is because we know that the real power is in heaven. Joseph was confident that he knew the true God so he was able to speak truth to Pharaoh. When you and I are secure in our relationship with the one true God, the creator of all that is, the one who tumbled the walls of Jericho and parted the Red Sea, the one who spoke the world into creation, the one who raised Jesus from the dead. When our relationship with him is secure, when we know we worship the king of kings, then we are freed up to be people of conviction, to not worry about how we will be treated by the earthly powers. Our courage comes from knowing the real power is in God. The real power is in heaven.

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