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Scripture: Genesis 45:1-15

Introduction

  • Reading from an article on NPR.com “From Kabul to Virginia: An Afghan family is starting over in America” from January 25, 2022:

Outside of her apartment window in Kabul she could see snow-capped mountains. Now, when Kamila Noori looks out of her window all she sees are office buildings and parking lots.

Noori was a prominent Afghan judge, now she’s in a foreign country — a country she doesn’t know, where she doesn’t speak the language and where she and her family have to start over.

  • Today I am focusing on just one of our families who we provided book bags to, and frequently see in our clothes closet – a family of Afghan refugees.
  • I don’t know anything about them personally – only that they inspired me to this message
  • With the hundreds of people we served last Saturday, we tend to lose sight of their individual stories.
  • Not to be political in any way, I must say I was very moved when Governor Youngkin, who was then just candidate Youngkin, used his campaign headquarters to gather clothes for the Afghan refugees gathering at then Fort Lee.
  • We had changed over the clothes closet season and usually we sent clothes to Bland, but Covid19 shut that down and instead, I delivered 1000 lbs of clothes to Youngkin’s team.
  • They made sure the clothes got to Fort Lee and to the people who needed them.
  • Last week we talked about the ingredients God is mixing up here at Biltmore. This week we are focusing in just one ingredient – DIFFERENT PEOPLE with three points:
  1. Not what you may think
  2. God knows the need
  3. Needs are Urgent

1. Not what you may think

  • We see people with need; people who are struggling; people speaking different languages
  • Looking again at our example person who could easily be one of our customers:

The Mohib family is highly educated. Not only was Kamila Noori a respected judge who sentenced terrorists to death — including Taliban fighters — her husband worked as a prosecutor for the attorney general’s office.

One daughter became a doctor. Another one worked as a lawyer and son Masih got an IT degree.

  • They left all that life behind in the blink of an eye.

“I remember the food that we left on the stove,” Noori said through an interpreter. “We just packed small bags with clothes and necessities.”

  • Now think back to our story from Genesis. The scene is a family of brothers come to ask Egypt for help because there was famine in their land, and they were starving.
  • This wasn’t their first trip to ask for food, but it was the first time they learned the true identity of Joseph.
  • All they knew was that he was the right hand of Pharoah and had limitless power.
  • What they didn’t realize was that he was their own brother whom they had nearly killed and then sold into slavery as a young man.
  • Just like our Afghan friends: we don’t know who they really are – or were in Afghanistan
  • It must be a horrible feeling to have to swallow all your pride to go from educated professional to homeless, penniless, refugee living in a crowded, cheap hotel.
  • This is where Jacob’s family found themselves as they stood before their brother, Joseph.
  • Here is the most important lesson from today’s message. Listen to Joseph in verse 5:

And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

  • This is the message: don’t worry, God has sent us to help.
  • That is the message we need to send in everything we do because that is why we are here.
  • We need to understand and be sensitive to the fact that we don’t know why people are here asking for help. We must only stay focused on why WE are here.

2. God knows the need

  • We know that God has a heart for those in need no matter who they are.
  • In our Wednesday night Bible study, we are reading in Isaiah how God would pour out His wrath on the people of Israel and yet show compassion on the needy in Isaiah 25:4:

You have been a refuge for the poor, a refuge for the needy in their distress,

a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat.

  • God knew that there would be a famine in the land Canaan so He put Joseph way out ahead of it in Egypt.
  • Joseph went through years of prison after being falsely accused by the wife of Potifer.
  • All he did was refuse her advances and remained righteous, but it was his word against hers.
  • Despite all that, Joseph remained true to his faith in God.
  • As he confronted his brothers with the truth of his identity, he gave God all the credit:

“So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God“, he said. “He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.”

  • Clearly, God was working His plan all along.
  • But look how many years it took Him to get ready.
  • Joseph was 17 years old when his brothers sold him into slavery.
  • Joseph interpreted dreams of Pharoah and was put in charge of all Egypt when he was 30.
  • Just as he predicted from Pharoah’s dream, Egypt experienced 7 years of great harvests.
  • But after that, a period of 7 years of famine began in Egypt and all around them.
  • Two years into the famine, is when the reunion with his brothers occurred.
  • And let’s not forget how the brothers became angry and jealous of Joseph.
  • It started with Jacob showing favor for Joseph by giving him a coat of many colors.
  • Then goes on with Joseph bringing back a bad report about his older brothers.
  • The real zinger was when Joseph had a dream that in the future his brothers would bow down to him.
  • That was the last straw for the brothers, and they first conspired to kill him, but instead in Genesis 37:38:

So, when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

  • God knew the time would come that Joseph needed to be in place to perform the mighty works he needed to do, but He took 13 years to prepare.
  • When we wonder what’s taking so long, remember God is building something in His own time according to His perfect plan.

3. Needs are Urgent

  • God may take His own sweet time getting things lined up, but the needs are urgent.
  • The people who are coming to us need help now.
  • The urgency comes from the world – circumstances dictate the urgent need.
  • Going back to our friends from Afghanistan, the urgency came from a sudden change in their government.
  • America had been fighting a war in Afghanistan for years but there was huge pressure in America to get out of the war.

It’s a story repeated by tens of thousands of Afghan nationals who had to leave their home after the Taliban took control of the country in August. The chaotic scenes at the Kabul airport, where people desperately tried to secure a spot on an evacuation flight, caused a public uproar around the world.

  • The rapid pull out of American military support allowed the government to collapse.

Noori and her husband, Mohibullah Mohib, managed to get their family out safely. And after nearly a week of travel, they arrived in the United States. They were safe, but they lost everything else.

  • The family had been living a progressive lifestyle in which the women were valued and accepted working in professional careers – something the Taliban government persecuted

On the day that Kabul fell into the hands of the Taliban, the family went into hiding. It was a decision that potentially saved their lives, because, as relatives later confirmed, an angry mob was looking for them.

“They were shouting and yelling, ‘She put us in jail for 20 years, for 10 years. Where is the judge? And where is the prosecutor?’ ” Noori said.

  • The urgency in Egypt and Israel was starvation. There had already been 2 years of famine and 5 more years were expected based on Pharoah’s dream.
  • Joseph spells it out in verse 9:

Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay.

  • As you can see, in both of these stories, the world dictated the urgency.
  • In the Afghanistan story, the urgency came from a shifting political culture.
  • In the Bible story, the urgency came from a seven-year famine.
  • Regardless of the cause, otherwise successful, self-sufficient people suddenly had needs.
  • For us, it means we can never judge a book by its cover.
  • We could be providing emergency food and clothing to someone like Noori who was previously serving as a judge.
  • Sometimes we are standing between a person and dire consequences.
  • In verses 10 and 11, Joseph provides a solution for his family:

You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me—you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have.  I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise, you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.

  • We should never underestimate the value of the service we provide.
  • We shouldn’t question why people come to us because it is God who is sending them.
  • Joseph made it very clear that God was behind everything he could do to help his family.
  • When all is said and done, Joseph demonstrates one of the greatest gift we can give: a hug.