September 10, 2006 Sermon

Intended Consequences
Genesis 47:1-12

So Joseph and his eleven brothers have finally reconciled. It wasn’t easy. Years ago they sold him into slavery, but now the brothers must beg him for the privilege of buying enough food to survive one more year of a seven-year famine. They do not recognize him; he knows them only too well. In fact, he can no longer hold back his emotions. He reveals himself. After their initial fear (God help us! Number Two in Egypt is the brother whose death we faked!), they warm to his obvious joy. He implores them to retrieve their father, and to bring all their family, animals and worldly possessions back to Egypt .

Now the brothers know what Joseph has known for years: God has destined them to come to Egypt . The point of the Joseph story, of his entire life, is this: to get his people, the Hebrews, God’s Chosen People, out of the Promised Land. God had planned it to happen this way. This was God’s intended consequence of all the decisions and actions the people in this story have taken as they have lived out their lives. God intends all that happens. We live freely. We make our own decisions. We act independently of God’s control. But God has a plan. Pray that your choices might conform to God’s plan.

Thomas Jefferson defined Law of Unintended Consequences as, “the iron-clad law that every action we take will have unforeseen effects.” Some unintended consequences turn out to be blessings. In the 1920’s Alexander Fleming researched how to combat the flu. Somebody in his lab failed to clean a few petri dishes. Fleming noticed that the green mold growing in those dishes appeared to kill flu germs. He had “discovered” penicillin. More than twenty million people had died of flu in the ten years before his discovery. The unintended consequence was the saving of untold millions in the years to come.

Other unintended consequences turn out to be curses. Alfred Nobel invented not only dynamite, but a reliable way to explode it. Nobel was an engineer. He designed bridges and buildings. He meant only to build them quicker. In fact, Nobel became a millionaire many times over from his patents on dynamite and blasting caps. But people with less humanitarian goals saw other ways to use his inventions. The Law of Unintended Consequences decreed they would use them to destroy people and things more efficiently. The Nobel prizes are the inventor’s attempt to atone for the devastation his inventions made possible.

God gives us the freedom to act as we please. God knows the consequences of our actions, but does not make our choices for us. We can therefore say that God has no unintended consequences but we do. The story of Joseph reminds us how critical it is for us constantly to measure our choices against God’s will. If we fail to do so, we can create tragic unintended consequences.

Our chapter in Genesis opens with a dream come true for Joseph. Literally. He has long dreamed that his father and family would live under his protection in the land of Egypt . They have come. Pharaoh invites them into his presence. He asks them what they do for a living. They tell him they shepherd flocks. This happens to be true—and a wise answer. Joseph has counseled them to say it because the Egyptians believe sheep and goats are unclean. No one will bother them in this prime land that Pharaoh had given them. Once again Joseph plans two steps ahead of everybody else. Once again his actions advance God’s plan.

Joseph arranges a meeting between his father Jacob and Pharaoh. Pharaoh asks the obviously aged man, “How many are the years of your life?” Jacob tells him 130, but adds the curious comment, “few and hard have been the years of my life.” What could he mean? Genesis tells us that Jacob’s ancestors lived what we might consider an impossibly long time. Some say this means they kept time differently back then. Others maintain that the Bible means exactly what it says and they literally lived that long. The point for us (and for the story) is that Jacob had become so venerable that he blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh accepted the blessing. Perhaps not even Joseph could have predicted that.

Israel and Egypt have had an up-and-down relationship. Egypt , the greatest civilization of antiquity, took no notice of Israel until around 4,000 years ago. Since then the two have never been able to ignore each other. Mostly they have been enemies. But in this moment a Jewish Patriarch blesses a Pharaoh. Ultimately God would bless all humanity through Jesus, a distant descendant of Jacob. The path between these two events would include the Egyptians enslaving the Jews, the Jews escaping miraculously, and political gamesmanship between the two nations over two millennia. But God’s plan worked itself out in their common history.

In the end the Joseph story poses two critical questions for every person who reads it: What does God plan for you? What choices will you freely make to advance God’s plan?

In recent weeks we have spoken of how to know God’s plan for you. We have talked about Bible study, prayer and fellowship with your brother and sisters Christians as ways to listen for God’s leading in your life. All of this advice still applies. Still, no matter how much Bible reading, praying and fellowshipping we do, we often wonder whether we have understood God’s desires rightly. We can only keep trying to listen and then do our best to follow what we believe we hear God telling us.

Joseph was supremely confident that he heard and understood God’s plan. Very few of us feel so certain. We can, however, be certain of one thing: we make decisions, free choices, every day. We live freely. We act independently of God’s control. But God has a plan. We must do our best to make choices that help us follow the plan.

Some today say there is no God. There can therefore be no plan and our choices do not matter. To them I say God has worked through human choices since before recorded history. The Bible gives us examples, including the powerful story of Joseph. Take heart. Have faith. Seek the will of God and make choices that advance it.

Some say there is a God and God makes all the choices. Our choices therefore are illusions. We simply act out the parts predetermined by God. To them I say God has from of old played the part of the loving parent. Like any loving parent God often knows what choices we will make—and the consequences of those choices—yet does not choose for us. Joseph, his father and his brothers all make good and bad choices. Yet in the end, though they decide freely, their decisions advance God’s plan. Seek the will of God and the choices that advance it.

We live freely. We act independently of God’s control. But God has a plan. Choose to follow God’s plan.