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Taking Care of Business
Sermon 15
February 16th, 2010
When you hear the names: Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, T. Boone Pickens, Rupert Murdoch, what do you think of? Greedy, arrogant, cruel, evil? Do you picture Gordon Gekko? Most of us have a negative perception of those individuals, simply because they’re successful businessmen. We’ve been indoctrinated by both Hollywood and socialism in our educational system that big business, making money, corporations are evil.
This was highlighted in a recent USA Today editorial entitled, “Hollywood’s Business-Bashing: Biting the Hand that is you.” In his op-ed piece, Michael Medved, points out that two of the front-runners for this year's top Oscars – Avatar and Up in the Air – both go out of their way to portray corporations as greedy, cruel and destructive. In Avatar, a rapacious U.S. company hires brutal ex-marines to slaughter peaceful aliens who stand in the way of the exploitation of a rare mineral on a distant planet. George Clooney's conscience-free corporatist in Up in the Air travels the country for a greedy firm that helps gutless bosses fire their employees, that is, until he himself becomes a victim of potential cost-cutting. And one of the year's most acclaimed documentaries, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story, gleefully slams the free-market system as both corrupt and doomed.
The Jews of Jesus’ day thought that prosperity and spirituality were inseparable. Today it’s often the opposite. We’re frequently told that building a business, prospering or making a profit while there are others who have less than we is morally wrong. We Americans are guilt tripped because we’re prosperous while much of the world lives in poverty. Now some of this guilt may be well founded but not necessarily all of it is. Many of our strongly held beliefs in regards to business are simply unbiblical, yet they just seem so spiritual and make us both feel and look good. Anyone who challenges our thinking is not going to be very popular. Frankly, I’ve agonized over the task that’s mine today in explaining and applying this text in Genesis 47, not because it’s unclear, but because it runs counter to the grain of the teaching in many Christian circles.
Let me bring any of you who may have missed our series thus far up to speed. Joseph is one of the four great patriarchs of Israel (Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph). As a young lad of 17 he was sold into slavery by his own brothers because of their jealousy at their father’s favoritism. He was carted off to Egypt, sold to a top government official, framed for rape and thrown into prison. But due to his faithfulness and God’s sovereign good pleasure, Joseph was given the ability to interpret some dreams that Pharaoh had. Pharaoh is so impressed that he elevates Joseph to the position of Prime Minister at the age of 30.
The dreams of Pharaoh contained a prediction about seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine. Because Pharaoh is awed with Joseph’s ability to discern the meaning of his dreams, he gives Joseph the task of saving enough grain during the seven plentiful years to provide food during the lean years. When the famine arrived, just as predicted, it affected not only Egypt but the entire Middle East, including Palestine, where Joseph’s brothers still lived with their father.
We’ve been following this fascinating account of how his brothers came to Egypt looking for food and how that led to forgiveness and an incredible family reunion. Today’s text moves our attention off of Joseph’s family and focuses on the larger picture of how Joseph helped feed Egypt and the surrounding nations. Please turn to Genesis 47:13-26 (p. 37).
This portion of Genesis 47 is a problem for many believers. Joseph’s actions don’t fit our preconceived notions very well, for he sold grain to starving men. Not only did he accumulate all the money in the land, he also gathered up all the cattle and the land…and even the people were enslaved. It appears on the surface that Joseph has a dark side. I mean, how could a man who, up to this point has a flawless record, suddenly be so greedy and insensitive?
Our problem is that we approach Scripture with our own preconceptions and read our Bibles through the glasses of our preferred economic/political system. Our politics and view of economics must bow before the authority of God’s Word. The Egyptians, like much of today’s world, knew nothing of democracy. Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). It’s also refreshing to see Joseph and later, Daniel and Nehemiah, participating in godless governments and yet maintaining their godly integrity. What a challenge to us to live in a godless world, both political and economic, and serve our Lord as salt and light. We want to consider this passage very carefully. It will help us gain a proper perspective on money, work and business from a Biblical worldview as we observe Joseph Taking Care of Business. If you’re taking notes, let me suggest several principles from Genesis 47:13-26. And as we work through these, ask yourself, “How do I measure up in these areas?”
Principle #1: Work is part of God’s plan for us. Many believers have an unbiblical idea that they can’t serve God where they work. They say things to the effect of, “You don’t know where I work. You don’t know my boss. You don’t know the kind of people I have to work with. You don’t know the power struggles that go on, the flirtations, the cursing. You don’t know the dirty stories told, the pornography passed around.” Tell that to a Joseph, or a Daniel, a Nehemiah or a Lydia.
Most of us are either employers or employees. Our major mission field is our place of employment in which God has placed us. Sadly, too few believers see that how they work at their place of employment is an act of worship to God. That’s because…
a) Our work is a revealing indicator of our character. It’s not our Sunday morning behavior that demonstrates the depth of our Christian faith to a lost world; it’s the way we behave on our job. If you ask a person who works alongside of you or under you or over you or on the same team with you about your Christianity – that person will not talk about your life on Sunday, they’ll talk about what you’re like to work with or to work for, day after day, all week long. Your attitude and actions on the job display your character. Negative traits quickly come to the forefront: laziness, deception, dishonesty, anger, greed, discord, gossip, pettiness, disloyalty, impatience – you name it. On the bright side, of course, positive traits are also on display: dependability, punctuality, honesty, flexibility, lightheartedness, congeniality, commitment, teamwork, enthusiasm, loyalty, diligence, encouragement, support, generosity – to name just a few.
Consistently, Joseph is known for his character both on and off the job. These aren’t his affairs he’s managing, they’re Pharaoh’s. Someone said, “Business is a lot like the game of tennis. Those who don’t serve well end up losing.” That’s certainly true when it comes to our work.
b) Our job is a demanding arena of pressure. In today’s economy just to stay competitive, there’s a demand for more and more production from less and less employees. We all feel that pressure. It’s estimated that there’s 40 hours worth of incomplete work just sitting on most people’s office desks.
Many of us know well the kind of pressure that taps, saps and drains our energy, demanding our best efforts. Few have that satisfied feeling of clocking out with their work completed. Uncertainty about the economy and our job’s future add to our stress. Then, there are mounds of paperwork, unmet deadlines, unanswered e-mail, etc. and you feel you’ll never catch up. Not to mention, the pressure of working with people. Many fellow employees bring their domestic dramas through the door with them. There’s pressure from pettiness, immaturity, anger, profanity or gossip. There’s the pressure of being the one who has to put out the fires because even those little brush fires must be quickly contained before they grow into forest fires.
Many work for unscrupulous bosses who don’t even know how to spell ethics. But in today’s economy your options are limited for another place of employment and you feel the continual pressure to compromise your convictions. Remember, it was the boss’s wife who attempted to seduce Joseph. Talk about pressure!
c) Work is an exacting test of efficiency. Most of us feel either inadequate or insecure and work has a way of highlighting our soft spots. Are we well organized? Good time managers? Decisive? Can we think outside the box? Do we meet deadlines? Maintain our budget? Accomplish our goals? Are we punctual? Do we do sufficient follow up? Are we willing to be held accountable? Do we foresee potential problems and weaknesses before they happen?
Joseph’s life is marked by excellence. His assignment was to store up enough grain to last through seven years of famine, and then oversee its distribution. Not only did he manage Egypt’s entire economy and serve Pharaoh, but he had the added pressure of taking care of his own family unexpectedly in the midst of this national crisis with their unresolved conflicts. Eventually, he establishes the whole clan in Egypt without sabotaging his own job and relationships. Joseph worked where we have worked. Work is part of God’s plan for us.
Principal #2: Plan for the future. In the early 1980’s a group of American businessmen went to Japan for a series of seminars from the leaders in Japanese industry. They heard from Japan’s top executives. One of the keynote speakers was the eighty-eight year old president of Matsushita Electric. After his speech he was asked the question "How long-term are your company’s goals?" The answer was "250 years." "What do you need to carry them out?" To which the president replied, "Patience."
Everyone needs a set of basic goals, yet most of us are seat-of-the-pants, one-day-at-a-time operators. Our goals are fuzzy, our plans for achieving them non-existent. Goals don’t have to be elaborate, just realistic. Someone said, “A goal is a dream with a deadline.”
Too many of us drift through life. We don’t look down the road at what might be coming. That’s our problem in America today. Our political leaders exhibit an almost total rejection of the principle of delayed gratification. It’s rare to find a legislator who regularly practices any significant degree of self-control regarding the spending of our money, taxpayer money. But I don't entirely fault our elected leaders, I fault the American people. We choose to send those characters to Madison and D.C. to represent us. Everyone wants their piece of the pie and as long as our representative is bringing home the bacon to our district, most of us are willing to keep sending them back to represent us.
That's one of the reasons the Joseph story is so refreshing. He exhibits the leadership and the courage to institute a plan of forced savings for an entire nation. Joseph insists the nation set aside huge amounts of grain for seven years. Turn back to 41:46-49 (p. 32). It’s not meant to be taken literally that Joseph "collected all the food produced in those seven years." If he did that, no one would have had anything to eat. But he collected all the extra food; all that which exceeded what was grown in a normal year. Even that’s amazing, most people when they discover they have more than what they expected, they spend more.
Joseph undoubtedly faced opposition for doing this. Can’t you hear some of the politicians of his day saying, "Let's sell this extra food and use the proceeds to cut taxes or build new schools or upgrade our military?" Rarely, do you hear anyone seriously suggesting that government should save something for a rainy day or even pay down debt. Rainy days do come, as you know. You can count on it. They sure came to Egypt. Famine arrived with a vengeance, just as Joseph had said that it would. But Joseph had prepared for the future. He’d disciplined the country in the present so they’d be ready. It was delayed gratification and it’s the best way to have what you need when you need it. It's the best way to enjoy some extras without mortgaging your future. It's actually the best way to enjoy almost anything because the longer you wait for it, the more enjoyable it will be (or in some cases you'll discover you didn't need it in the first place).
Delayed gratification isn’t just an economic principle; it’s a spiritual one too. It's God's way and always has been. For example, He calls upon us to delay gratifying our sexual urges until after marriage so that the real fullness and satisfaction God intended can be realized. Listen to how Moses got in the Hall of Faith and ask yourself if this isn't speaking about delayed gratification (Hebrews 11:24-26): “By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward.” Is sin pleasurable? Is it gratifying? Sure it is. But it's only gratifying for a short time. Moses chose delayed gratification, actually eternal gratification instead. And Joseph practiced delayed gratification as a business and political leader.
Apparently, the Egyptian citizens did not prepare for the future. Their dilemma was of their own making. Joseph neither created the seven years of plenty nor the seven years of famine. He predicted both and proposed a program to deal with them. It’s my contention that the dire poverty of the Egyptians was a dilemma of their own making. No doubt Joseph informed the general populace of the coming famine. That would secure their cooperation in carrying out the plan he’d proposed to alleviate the devastation of the coming years of drought during the prosperous years. Joseph accumulated one fifth of the crops of the land during that time. That left four-fifths of a bumper crop for the Egyptians. Shouldn’t they then have been storing up grain for the future famine as well as Joseph? It seems that they thought the years of plenty would go on and on, and spent their excess profit. They seem to no more have expected the famine to come than the people in Noah’s day looked for a flood. They had all the info yet had failed to prepare. No wonder they didn’t complain about Joseph’s handling of this matter and heralded him as a savior. Joseph was just as godly of a man here as he’d been elsewhere. He wisely had prepared for the future. His laying up stores of grain made it possible for him to save his nation from disaster.
Do you plan for the future? Many believers drift through life and hit their forties, fifties, sixties without any concept of where the finish line is for them. I’m not talking about heaven, but rather the sum total that God wants to see accomplished by the end of our lives. Have you asked the Lord what He wants to do with your life? How He wants to use you? How He wants to invest you for His glory? Friend, start small but start today. Ask one simple question: What one area in my life, if changed, would strengthen my relationship with Jesus Christ? Then, focus on growing in that area for the next six months. Let me give you one more: Ask the Lord to lay one person on your heart that you’ll consistently pray for and seek to win to the Lord this next year? Principle #2: Plan for the future.
Principle #3: Prepare for the inevitable tough times. National Geographic once carried an article, “Fearful Famines of the Past.” In a severe famine in Italy during the 5th century, desperate people flung themselves into the Tiber River to escape the terrible pangs of hunger. In one 11th century famine a single loaf of bread sold for the equivalent of $45; five bushels of grain sold for $250, and one woman gave a necklace worth $2500 for a mere handful of flour. One leader had a stable with 10,000 horses and mules that was ultimately reduced to three scrawny nags. Finally, in desperation, the people resorted to cannibalism.
Good times are always followed by lean times. Famine always follows feast. The market goes up and then goes down. We have the bulls and the bears. At the end of the booming post World War I decade came the crash of 1929. Though our government does its best to shield us from similar disasters, the economy always has cycles…always has and always will.
We find terrible famines previously in Genesis; one during the lifetime of Abraham (Genesis 12) and another during Isaac’s life (Genesis 26). Eventually, each of us will face tough times and big problems. Dr. J.A. Hadfield, noted British psychologist, commenting on this said, "When people run up against life and find it too much for them, one swears, one gets a headache, one gets drunk and one prays." So when life gets hard, what do you do? Do you give up? Swear? Do you lash out in hostility? Do you try to find someone to blame? Do you give in to bitterness? Do you run away? Do you hide behind some illness? Do you drug yourself? Or, do you pray? Do you consider the problem prayerfully and then listen for God? That’s what Joseph did and it worked. What a great lesson to learn from Joseph: the art of listening to God!
I don’t know what the future holds for you, I do know tough times are coming. Suffering is inevitable because our world is contaminated by sin. It may be the loss of a job, or the loss of a loved one. But tough times are coming and you must have a theology of faith in God even in the midst of the suffering. We must prepare for the inevitable tough times.
Principle #4: Submit to authority and practice accountability. Want to know one of the easiest things to do? Give away someone else’s stuff. It’s easy to be generous with that which is not yours. When I was in roofing, it was easier to sell a roof to a building engineer or general manager, than it was the owner. They were spending someone else’s money. Vs. 14 says, “Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace.” Joseph takes the money to Pharaoh. He doesn’t take it home and put it in his safe.
As we read this, we could easily think – “they’re starving, why doesn’t Joseph just give them food?” Because it wasn’t his to give. He’s a man under authority. Neither the grain nor the gain belonged to Joseph, but to Pharaoh. Joseph can’t be condemned for selling the grain rather than giving it away. It wasn’t his to give. All the profit was Pharaoh’s. Joseph’s actions did not bring him personal gain at Egypt’s expense. His duty was to further Pharaoh’s interests, and this he did very well.
As #2, it was his job to further Pharaoh's interests…not the people's interests, not even the interests of immigrants from Canaan, but Pharaoh's interests. As long as Pharaoh's interests were not in conflict with the laws of God, Joseph was perfectly within his responsibility, even obligation, as a believer to do so. Joseph did not give grain away, he sold it, and the money went into Pharaoh's coffers. Verse 14 indicates that not only was Pharaoh getting very rich but also that Joseph wasn't skimming off the top. All the money came to the palace.
There's a lot of corruption in American business and politics and sports. The greater the amount of money being transferred, the greater the corruption (witness the aftermath of Katrina and the rebuilding of Iraq as two notable examples), yet, next to most 3rd world countries the U.S. is in the minor leagues when it comes to corruption. There are many countries where you can't get anything done without a bribe. Joseph acts with integrity and is accountable for the huge amounts of money he’s handling.
By the way, if you’re still troubled by the fact that Joseph sells this grain, keep in mind that he undoubtedly bought it in the first place. Private citizens should have stored up grain too, so they’d have what they needed and wouldn't have to use all their money to buy grain from the government. They just didn't do it, so let's place responsibility where it truly belongs.
Principle #5: Act with integrity. If you’ve been following the news of the Illinois gubernatorial race, then you know that the winner of the recent primary for lieutenant governor, Scott Lee Cohen, stepped down from the race after it came out that he’d been previously arrested for domestic abuse and had failed to pay back taxes and child support. Every day we learn of some form of corruption in either politics or the business world. That’s why verse 14 is so refreshing, “Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh’s palace.”
Joseph conducts Pharaoh’s business with integrity. He’s handling huge amounts of money. He’s in an unchallenged position of authority and only accountable to Pharaoh. If he’d skimmed profits, no one would have probably ever known. Not only does he not take advantage of the situation, he’s careful to treat people with dignity and his job with integrity. Remember Joseph had been a slave. He’d been at the bottom. It’s not uncommon when someone rises from such a lowly position to make those who were once above them pay for mistreating or snubbing them in the past. Not once does Joseph abuse his power, not once! Integrity is to personal character what health is to the body or 20/20 vision is to the eyes. Someone with integrity has nothing to hide and nothing to fear.
We’re in the tax season. A person of integrity doesn’t fear an audit, they have nothing to hide. While they’ve taken legitimate deductions, they’ve reported all of their income. Mark it down. In times of economic difficulty, it is more and more of a challenge to live with integrity. Recently, I read of
Tim Jones, a parish priest in England who said, “When people have been let down so very badly by the rest of society…my advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift." He went on to urge the poor to steal from "large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us" rather than from family-run stores. In this minister’s mind, stealing is excusable when you’ve been mistreated economically. It’s not! We’re to live with integrity in spite of the circumstances and even if everyone else is doing it.
Principle #6: Respond with innovativeness. Joseph faced extreme difficulties. It's during those times that people look for great leaders, creative leaders and competent leaders to solve huge problems. Churchill did that for England during the dark days of World War II, and Joseph did it for his nation. He built granaries all over Egypt then devised a way to dispense the grain. And it must have taken quite a bureaucracy to dispense such huge amounts of grain to the whole nation, plus foreign countries. He devised a system of payment, first involving currency, then livestock, and then the land. Just imagine how this was done without riots or chaos! It’s evidence of Joseph's competence and creativity. He must have set up amazing systems for all these transactions long before they were needed. What he did had never been done before! Great leaders are innovative. They’re willing to take risks and try what’s never been previously tried.
Sadly, some folk are so negative, so restricted in their thinking that they’re “creativity killers.” God wants us to be creative and innovative. He gave us our minds for them to be used.
One problem we have with this account is that Joseph allows them to sell everything that they have, including themselves into slavery just to survive. We won’t understand this if we look at it through modern eyes. First, we must remember that slavery was better than starvation. Secondly, Joseph is acting on the behalf of Pharaoh, not doing this for himself. He’s a man under authority who must act within the law of the land and its cultural mores. Thirdly and most importantly, the slavery the Egyptians submitted to was not the harsh and unfair kind which we know from our own nation’s history. Slavery doesn’t have to be cruel and harsh, although it can be, just as a dictatorship doesn’t have to be harsh and repressive (as when Christ will reign over the world). The slavery Joseph instituted was more like the arrangement a “sharecropper” makes with a land owner and still does even in our own nation today.
Slavery to these Egyptians meant the non-ownership of their lands and a 20% tax on their production. Most of us would love to only pay 20% in taxes. When you add up all the taxes an average American pays; sales, gas, income, FICA, property tax to name a few, it’s estimated most of us pay 40% of our income in taxes. The Egyptians got off pretty easy. Add to that, the average tax of the ancient world was around 33% with some as high as 60%. In light of this, Joseph’s actions are highly commendable and merciful…and the people knew it. No wonder they said, verse 25, “You have saved our lives…May we find favor in the eyes of our lord; we will be in bondage to Pharaoh.” The public approval rating of Joseph was 100%! He’s Egypt’s national hero. They’d all have been dead without him and they knew it!
It was no small feat for a politician to please the one over him while at the same time having his constituents thank him while he sells them into slavery and institutes a 20% tax hike! Joseph did what few have done: he was a skillful politician and administrator while at the same time he was a man who put first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. He was truly a blessing to others.
That’s what God wants you to be in your world, whether at work, in the neighborhood, or at school. He wants you to seek the best interests of your employer and fellow employees at work. He wants you to be His channel for blessing to those in your neighborhood, or your fellow students and teachers. You can only do that if you maintain your integrity through a close walk with God. You do it both through your words and your deeds.
Conclusion: Do you really like your job? How many of you look forward to going to work on Monday mornings because you really miss seeing your boss? How many of you miss your fellow workers so much that you can hardly wait to get back and see how they’re doing?" If you answered "Yes" to any of those questions, you’re in the minority. Surveys reveal that 65% of American workers are unhappy with their jobs. Many go to work simply because they have no other choice. "I owe, I owe, so it’s off to work I go." They’d probably tell you that they are unhappy with what they do because it is the same old routine day after day, and their life seems to be a meaningless merry-go-round with no real purpose to it.
As believers, we're to be different. The message from Joseph’s life is that we’re to be God’s person whether a slave or a supervisor. We’re to be different and yet blend into society. Don’t give in to their way of doing things. Joseph didn't. Daniel didn’t. They went so far, and then they said, `This is as far as we can go.’" There were prisons and there were lions’ dens. But God saw them through all of that, and He’ll see us through too.
If you have God’s message in your heart this morning, carry it to your workplace tomorrow. We must have a Biblical worldview and see our workplace as a sacred place, where we can serve the Lord and where we can be witnesses of our faith with those who don’t know Jesus.
We don’t preach a "social gospel," but we do preach a gospel with social implications. If you’ve been raised with Christ to walk in newness of life, it must make a difference in the way you work. Christianity isn’t just for the pew. It’s for the workplace as well. And if you allow Christ to be seen in your life from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, then the people you work for and work with won’t have such a hard time accepting what you claim to believe on Sunday!
Justin Martyr wrote in the second century, "Our Lord urged us by patience and meekness to lead all from shame and the lusts of evil, and this we have to show in the case of many who have come in contact with us, who were overcome and changed from violent and tyrannical characters, either from having watched the constancy of their Christian neighbors, or having observed the wonderful patience of Christian travelers when overcharged, or from doing business with Christians."
What he’s saying is that many people became Christians during the 2nd century as a direct result of seeing how Christians operated in their place of business. As people "do business" with us, may they indeed be impressed with the evidence of Christ in our lives.
