Fatherly Failures and God’s Mercy

Photo by Kelli McClintock on Unsplash
We have come to the final turn in our story of Genesis. We’ve been on quite a journey. We have seen how God has been faithful to three generations of Abraham’s family, and now we turn the corner to see how the story of Genesis concludes. 
At first glance, it would seem that now we are going to look at the life of Joseph as the main character going forward, but that would be a mistake. For sure, Joseph is going to be featured prominently in the chapters to follow, but the story really is about three men, not one. By keeping that fact in mind, we are going to have a much better idea why God includes the details that He does in the upcoming chapters. 
Today, we are going to take an overview of the section ahead of us, and because it is Father’s Day, we are going to look at it through the lens of three fathers, Jacob, Judah, and Joseph. They are going to compare and contrast in general, and we will see deeper details as we much through in the coming weeks. We are going to look at two points today that while addressing fathers in particular are nonetheless applicable to everyone. Fathers have a deep impact on their children yet Our impact is not beyond God’s mercy and control.

Fathers have a deep impact on their children 

Let’s take a look at our first father, Jacob/Israel. In contrast to what we saw last week, Jacob is not a mighty conqueror. Here he is living in tents, traveling around Canaan. He isn’t conquering Canaan. He is just living his quiet life, waiting on the Lord. In this moment, it looks like things are finally at peace. We’ve found a place to settle for the most part. The people of the land aren’t trying to kill them. He has his sons; life is good. 
Yet Jacob has this nagging sin that keeps coming up, one that he learned from his father, favoritism. Isaac wanted to bless Esau instead of Jacob as God had told him, and this, at least in part, led to the consequence of Jacob having to flee the land. Now, we see Jacob doing the same thing. He’s been doing this for a while, as we noticed his making sure Rachel and Joseph were the last to be threatened when Esau was coming up. Jacob could have always said, “Well, someone has to be last in line,” but now it is pretty undeniable. He literally made an expensive and obviously better coat that he didn’t make for the rest of his sons. Hard to get any clearer just how Jacob feels. 
Now, in comparison to the other things Jacob has done, this would fit on many people’s scales as lesser. Certainly, most of us would think the lack of response when his daughter was abused by the locals would be the main thing keeping him up at night. With a dozen sons, one would think that at least a couple of them he’ll be closer to than the others. 
Yet this seemingly small sin sets the stage for the rest of his brothers hating him. Now, this doesn’t mean that the brothers are not responsible for their anger. They are. What they are doing is sinful as well and don’t get to blame their father for their sin. They are still choosing the wrong reaction to their father’s sin when they could have chosen the right one. Nevertheless, Jacob isn’t an island. His sins have an effect on his children. His sin is helping set the stage for what comes. 
Have you ever caught yourself talking and hear one of your parents come out? The way you hold your steering wheel, some of the attitudes you hold, or even some of the things you say you have picked up from your parents. It isn’t something you set out to do; it just happens. Its even scarier being on the other end of the relationship and watching it happen to you. I’ll hear my children complain in a certain way and recognize myself. If they can pick up how I talk, they can pick up how I sin. They are still responsible for sinning, yet I acknowledge my part in shaping how they sin. 
You may say, “Well, Mark, that’s inevitable. I’m a sinner, too.” And I would agree with you wholeheartedly. But doesn’t it give you another reason to cling to God harder? The point isn’t to pressure you into sinlessness, because that won’t happen. It isn’t to make you paranoid, but it is meant to make you prayerful and humble. You have an effect positive and negative, so take that into account. 
You know how we rightly treat pregnant women with care because there are two lives in her frame? What happens to the one has an effect on the other. Do you think about your spiritual life that way? Praying for two, as it were? Even if you don’t have children, your life has an effect on others. Pursue God with other souls in mind, not just your own. 
Now, you may tell me, “Look, I’m way past paranoia. I’ve messed up so badly, there is just no hope of positively affecting my children or family.” 
For you, let’s look at our next fatherly failure, and critically important character in the rest of this book, Judah. 
His story we aren’t as familiar with because it doesn’t make a good children’s Bible story. After all, he is the one who comes up with the idea to sell Joseph. Granted, the others wanted to kill Joseph, but Reuben got them to the point of just throwing him down into a hole. It was Judah who decided to make a profit off of his brother. Can you imagine how calloused you have to be to sell your brother? I mean, what are you even going to buy? Not only that, but they all kept the ruse going for twenty years never telling their grieving dad what happened. At least he could have been given some hope to go look for him. 
Not only that, but we get another uncomfortable chapter in chapter 38 all about Judah’s family sexual misadventures. It includes his own relationship with his daughter in law. Though he just thought she was a prostitute, it doesn’t redeem the act all that much. 
We might conclude that such a man as Judah might as well just give up. He’s too far gone. From our perspective, yeah, that would be it. And yet, and yet by the time we get to the end of the book we will see Judah utterly transformed. The one who once sold Joseph into slavery becomes willing to sell himself into slavery in order to spare his father. 
Never discount the love and grace of God. Not only did He change Judah like that, He also blesses the line of Judah with the Lion of Judah. That’s right, Jesus is going to ultimately be born from Judah. Never think that God is done with you. He might have you in different work, but He’s never done with you. That doesn’t mean that consequences from the past suddenly go away. Our sins do, as we saw earlier, cause real problems. But failure doesn’t have to be final. Look to the God who rescues. Look to the God who transforms. Again, transformation doesn’t work overnight. If you’ve been a jerk to your kids for years, don’t expect that going to church one Sunday fixes you or the relationship you have with them. God doesn’t guarantee to fix all your problems right here, right now, but He is the only place of hope. 

Our impact is not beyond God’s mercy and control. 

We can see this second point most clearly in the like of Joseph. Jacob unintentionally favored him into this mess. Judah intentionally sold him into this mess. Joseph, of all people, could have grown up to be an incredibly bitter man. It wasn’t even like once he got to Egypt things improve. Yes, he got to be the head of the slaves, but he was still a slave. And after doing the right things for years, doing one more right thing got him sent to prison. 
Yet God never left him and gave him the strength of character to honor him no matter the circumstances. That is God’s grace. That isn’t simple maturity. God was with Joseph, and despite all that his family had done to him, God overruled them. Though they meant evil, God meant it for good. 
That shows to us that God can use not only our faithfulness but our failures for His purposes. That doesn’t mean we just sit back, sin, and let God sort it out. Sin always has negative effects on the user. But yet even despite the sin, God will use it to do amazing things. I mean, could God have gotten Joseph in control of Egypt in some other way? Of course he could have. He used a small boat in a river to deliver Moses into the royal family. Yet God is showing here that He isn’t dependent on faithfulness. He loves to use it and often does, but He will work despite your efforts just as easily as through them. 
So where does that leave us? Anyone who has done anything in life for any length of time has a few things that they regret. You are allowed to feel bad about your sin. You should. You should grieve those things that have offended God and man, but don’t fall for the lie that those things are now more powerful than God. Have hope that God is bigger than your sin. Again, this isn’t meant to minimize sin. I know everyone in the following chapters will have wished things went differently. Yet because we serve a sovereign God, we can know that God is able to work all things for our good and His glory. Your sin is horrible, but the cross really does wipe those things from your record. You don’t have to make an identity through them. Judah could have worn the badge of sibling seller and adulterer, yet he is the grandfather of Royal David’s Son, Jesus. And no matter what label the world might want to cling to you, Jesus’ forgiveness allows you to become a child of that Heavenly King. 
So if you are here today thinking that you don’t see a way back from your failures, you’re right. You are on your way forward from your failures with Christ’s righteousness covering you. You might feel enslaved to your old life, but Christ can set you free. 
In your own way, you can be study the life of Joseph to see what God can do within the limits imposed by sin. We might have thought that the best Joseph could do was just make it through the day. For him, following after God, he will be the best slave and then the best prisoner for God. If you have gotten cut off from family, done seemingly irreparable damage, start living every aspect of your life for God’s glory. And maybe after a while, people may see your change. God may be at work in their own hearts. The span of time we will cover to get to from a coat of many colors to reconciliation with the family is twenty years. You might have to wait and serve God just as long. Some won’t get to see the effect, but God is good and can do a lot with a little and even less. 
Go from here ever more dependent on that God. Rejoice in what He has done in your life, and trust Him for whatever lies ahead. 
Practically, if you’ve failed a lot or a little, repent and just start doing. Don’t announce to people what you are doing. Just do it. Apologize where you have been wrong, and take steps to make it less likely to happen again. I know that I get more prone to anger when I haven’t slept, so I need to work on getting to bed on time. If you notice a consistent pattern in your life, try to trace it back to something that you can solve for.