The Sovereignty of God in the Patterns of the Torah Pt 2

The Sovereignty of God in the Patterns of the Torah Pt 2

Joseph’s story of God’s Sovereignty: Genesis 50:20 As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

• God’s Perfect will vs God’s Permissive will.
  • Biblical Support: Romans 12:2 encourages discerning “God’s good, pleasing and perfect will” through transformation and renewal of the mind. It’s about aligning with His sovereign plan, where nothing is added or taken away—it’s complete and goal-oriented.

  God’s Permissive Will

  • Definition: This is what God allows or permits to occur, even if it’s not His ideal or preferred outcome. It accounts for human free will, sin, and circumstances, where God doesn’t directly cause events but lets them happen, often using them for good or to fulfill His broader purposes. Permission doesn’t imply approval—God may grieve it, but sovereignly incorporates it.
• Joseph’s profound humility and quiet submission to God’s will—exemplified by protecting the Holy Family without seeking recognition—point to greater truths regarding faith, service, and divine providence. His life highlights that true greatness comes from obedient stewardship in the unseen, trusting God’s plan over personal comfort, and serving others. 

Trusting in God’s Larger Purpose: Despite facing betrayal, slavery, and imprisonment, Joseph remained faithful, believing that God works behind the scenes to turn evil into good, ultimately for the salvation of many.

Genesis ends with the story of Joseph, which repeats the same pattern, but this time the pattern is defeated in Joseph.

• • Echo of Shame: Joseph is stripped of His covering and clothing by his brothers, left for dead. 
  • Echo of Sexual Sin and Generational echo: Joseph has his garment torn from him by Potiphar’s wife, who seeks to sleep with him. 
    • This is another example of a generational attack on God’s promises to bring about a chosen people that will introduce the Messiah to the world. 
      • Joseph’s sons in the Old Testament were Manasseh (firstborn) and Ephraim. They did become tribes because their grandfather Jacob adopted them as his own, 
    • We are adopted by God: Adoption by Jacob: Before his death, Jacob declared that Ephraim and Manasseh would be treated as his own, similar to Reuben and Simeon, effectively promoting them to direct heirs.
    • The Two Tribes: The Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh each received territory in the Promised Land.
      • They are part Jew, part Gentile
      • Both Jews and Gentiles receive the promise of God
  • Garment Echo: Joseph is attend for and covered by God –  Pharaoh gives him fine linen/robes (Gen 41:42), symbolizing God’s covering and reversal of shame.
  • Echo of Water and Chaos: – Nile dries. The famine was caused by low, irregular Nile floods for seven years, likely due to reduced rainfall in the Ethiopian highlands.
    • There is the potential for death in the whole region, and people will die if God’s word is not heard through His Evangelist Joseph. – Mirrors preaching the gospel to all creation,baptizing, teaching them to obey all I command. 
  • Echo of the Spirit: Genesis 41:38-40And Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find a man like this, in whom is the Spirit of God?” Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.
    • In creation, preceded light from darkness, order from chaos, Taho va Boho. 
    • In Noah, a fruitful life from death,  rest, and order from the chaos, wisdom, and direction from the void.  Eventually worship altar is built.
    • How is this seen in Joseph?
  • Garden Mandate Echo: “Be fruitful and multiply: Joseph: No direct command, but fulfillment! In Egypt (exile/chaos), Joseph’s family “were fruitful and multiplied exceedingly” (Gen 47:27)
  • Echoes the Gospel preached by the church for the saving of the world. 
    • Joseph is called by Pharoah In Genesis 41:45, the Egyptian name Zaphenath-Paneah ( upon promoting him, meaning “savior of the world”
    • Ephraim and Manasseh’s adoption “grafts” them directly into Israel’s root, prophetic of how Gentiles (like their Egyptian mother) are incorporated into God’s people. 
      1. This foreshadows the gospel’s universal reach: the Messiah crushes the serpent not just for Israel but for all nationsblessed through Abraham’s seed (Galatians 3:16).
    • Sovereignty of God: In essence, Manasseh and Ephraim represent God’s sovereign orchestration—turning Joseph’s suffering into salvation, multiplying the covenant community, and advancing the promise of a victorious seed.
  • Echo of Redemption; Symbolic Names and Themes: Joseph names his firstborn Manasseh (“causing to forget”) because God helped him forget his past hardships, and the second Ephraim (“fruitful”) because God made him prosperous in affliction (Genesis 41:51–52). 
    • These reflect redemption: forgetting pain leads to fruitfulness, mirroring how God’s plan transforms curse (from Eden’s fall) into blessing

Question: What is different from Joseph’s story about the typological echoes mentioned above?

Lessons from Joseph: Dying to Self and Typology of Christ

Understanding “Dying to Self”

• Core Concept: Dying to self is not erasure or disappearance; it’s restoration and revelation of your true self as God intended.
  • Scripture (e.g., deny ourselves) invites laying down false layers from pain, fear, pride, trauma, and survival.
  • Biblical Promise: “Whoever loses their life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25).
  • Outcome: Alignment, power, clarity, wholeness—not emptiness or weakness.
• The Counterfeit Self (What Must Die):
  • Shaped by wounds instead of wisdom.
  • Driven by ego instead of obedience.
  • Striving for approval instead of resting in identity.
  • Reacting in fear instead of responding in faith.
• The True Self (What Emerges):
  • Who God formed you to be: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).
  • Shedding what doesn’t belong allows what God planted to grow.
  • Freed to live as your truest self in Christ—creative, joyful, lovable, even in imperfection.
• Common Misinterpretations:
  • Past View: Becoming an empty shell, void of uniqueness or personality.
  • Corrected View: Dying to untrue selves (e.g., the “perfect” self that never makes mistakes, is never anxious, or never lets others down).
  • Process: Acknowledge broken parts, grieve them like a death, embrace them for freedom, and let go of distortions.
• Distinction from Self-Rejection:
  • Self-denial ≠ , self-rejection; God treasures your divinely created uniqueness.
  • God reshapes you into your renewed-in-Christ self: not selfish, not self-centered, not envious.
  • Quote (Evelyn Underhill): “We mostly spend [our] lives conjugating three verbs: to want, to have, and to do. Craving, clutching, and fussing, we are kept in perpetual unrest.”

What Dying to Self Looks Like in Practice

• Key Behaviors to Release:
  • Insisting on your own way.
  • Seeking admiration or giving unsolicited advice out of self-importance.
  • Trying to make a good impression.
  • Obsession with self (wanting, having, doing).
• Benefits and Examples:
  • Contentment even when overlooked (e.g., not mentioned in a testimony after mentoring someone—honor others above self, Romans 12:10).
  • Security in God’s love without public recognition; reliance on God’s approval.
  • Deeper companionship and partnership with God.
• Next Steps: Start Small:
  • Ask God daily for ways to deny self (e.g., skip sweets/junk food, avoid defensiveness when ridiculed, don’t buy unnecessary items like a new phone).
  • Outcomes: God meets needs; freedom from self-focus; more time/resources for others (Matthew 6:33).
  • Builds character: Trains selflessness in small ways for bigger faith struggles.

Additional Insight on Prayer

• Prayer is not getting God to do your will; it is aligning in obedience to do His will.
• Note: While lists vary (60–100+ parallels), core pattern: Beloved son rejected, suffers unjustly, exalted to save many—previews the Gospel (suffering precedes glory; rejection leads to redemption; God’s purposes prevail).

Biblical Foundation of Typeology in Joseph– Why We Call Them “Shadows”

• Colossians 2:17 (NIV)
  “These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”
• Hebrews 10:1 (NIV)
  “The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves.”

Key Idea:
The Old Testament is full of shadows (types, prefigurations).
Jesus is the substance/reality.
Joseph’s life is one of the clearest and most detailed “biographies of Jesus written before He was born.”

Quick Examples of Other Shadows

• Isaac → Willing sacrifice by father (Gen 22) → Jesus offered by the Father (John 19; Heb 11:17-19)
• Adam → First man, fall → Last Adam, redemption (Rom 5:14; 1 Cor 15:45)
• Moses → Deliverer from slavery → Deliverer from sin
• David → Shepherd-king → The greater King
  (and many more!)

Joseph – The Greatest Shadow of Jesus

30 Powerful Parallels
(Organized as a clean comparison chart – easy to screenshot or print)

Core Pattern (the “Joseph Template”):
Beloved son → Rejected → Suffered → Exalted → Saves many (including enemies) → Brings all under one rule.

Conclusion (from the message)
The shadows in the Old Testament are beautiful…
But Jesus is the Substance.
If the shadow is this glorious, how much more the Real One!
Every page of Scripture is shouting: “Come to Jesus!”