Tony Evans - The Purpose of Detours (05/07/2017)
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Using Joseph's journey from favored son to Egyptian ruler, the preacher illustrates how God employs painful detours—family betrayal, pits, and slavery—to develop maturity and character, preparing believers for their historical destiny while providentially arranging circumstances for kingdom purposes.
Detours on the Path to Destiny
Detours. Detours are distractions from the original intended route that you had planned to go. When we get in our cars, we get in our cars with a destination in mind. We plan to go somewhere. We typically know how we plan to get there. Which highway we are going to take, which streets we are going to turn on to arrive at the destination that we are headed to. But along the way, on many occasions, we run into a detour. Something that takes us off of the pre-planned route that we had determined to use to get where we hope to go.
If you are a believer in Jesus Christ today, you have a destiny. Now, from an eternal perspective, we know what our destiny is. And that is to be in God's presence forever, worshipping Him and working for Him in that eternal state. That is our eternal destiny. We know that. But our concern or our focus is on the historical destiny that He has for you in this life. There is a destiny in the life to come. But I am talking about where He is taking you in the life that is. God has a plan for your life. A purpose for your existence. The reason why you were not taken to heaven the moment after you were converted is because there is a purpose on earth He desires you to fulfill.
So, part of experiencing your destiny is understanding your detours. When you look at scripture, it is full of destinies being reached through detours. When God told Israel He was going to take them to their destiny in Canaan, they had to cross the Red Sea. But when you read the scripture, He did not take them directly to the Red Sea. He took them down south, brought them back up before He let them cross the Red Sea. Took them on a detour. In fact, they wind up on a 40 year detour before the nation reached its destiny.
Moses was on a detour for 40 years. He knew what God wanted him to do. Thought God wanted him to do it at one time. God had to take him over 40 years before He let him do it. Took them on a detour to the backside of the wilderness. The greatest apostle in the New Testament, Paul, was taken on a three year detour to a desert where God took him off of the front page, took him into a detour, then brought him back before He let him fulfill his purpose.
So let me repeat. God has a destiny for you. A place He wants you to be. And there is no better place for you than His place destined to you. But you will not get there in a straight line. There is no individual in the Bible who illustrates this principle of detours and its relationship to destiny like the life of Joseph.
Genesis chapter 50. Chapter 50 gives you kind of a summary of the story. But Joseph said to them, that is his brothers, Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? You got a hint of destiny there. Destiny is being in the place God has for you. Am I not in God's place? As for you, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many alive. So therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. So he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
Please notice that phrase. As for you, you meant evil against me and God meant it for good. Watch it, watch it. That tells you something about destiny. It includes evil and good.
Joseph's Early Favor and Family Conflict
Let us go back to the beginning of the story. Chapter 37. We find in verse 2, Joseph was 17 years of age. So we got a teenager here. Where we are introduced to him in some detail. Joseph. He is 17. At 17 years of age, he is the 11th son of Jacob. 12 sons of Jacob came from four different women. So you have got all kind of dynamics as you got all these baby mama drama.
In the context of the chaos of the family into which Joseph is born. Joseph's oldest brother, Reuben, has sex with Jacob, his father's wife. Chapter 35, verse 22. Two of his brothers, Simeon and Levi, are mass murderers. Simeon and Levi are mass murderers. Chapter 34, verse 25. But it gets worse. Verse 3 says, Now Israel, that is Jacob. Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons. Joseph is his favorite because it came from Rachel. He loved him. Well, he loved Joseph more than all the sons because he was the son of his old age. And made him a varied color tunic.
When he made them this special coat, notice what happens. Verse 4, His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers. And so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. So now you got a sibling situation because daddy is playing favorite.
Now let me tell you why they hated him all the more. Not just because he got a pretty robe. That would have been enough of itself. But that is a robe that goes to the oldest son. Because it was the firstborn who was to be the most recognized. And the firstborn got a double inheritance. So they understood what this robe meant. This robe meant that he was going to be treated like the firstborn. Even though at this point he is the lastborn. And it says, And they hated him. And would not speak to him on friendly terms.
They talked about him. They degraded him. And there were sibling conflicts. And some of you know what it is like not to be able to communicate with brothers or sisters or siblings because of what went down with daddy and mama. That is the situation. It is a family disaster.
But it is not over. Because now Joseph has a dream. Verse 5. Then Joseph had a dream. And when he told it to his brothers. They hated him all the more. Okay. Now they already do not like you boy. But he now goes out. Has a dream. He says, Please verse 6. Listen to the dream I had last night. Verse 7. Behold we were binding sheaves in the field. And lo my sheaves rose up. And also stood erect. And behold your sheaves gathered around. And bowed down to my sheaves.
Now they already do not like you boy. And you going to tell them you had a dream where they bowed down to you. So what was their response? Verse 8. And their brothers said, Are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us? So they hated him even more. For the dreams he dreamt. And the words he told them.
But not only that. We are not finished. Verse 9. Now he had still another dream. This boy need to stay up. This boy having too many dreams. He had another dream. And he related it to his brothers. And said, Lo, I have still another dream. And behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.
He related this to his father, to his brothers. And his father rebuked him and said to him, What is this dream you have? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come and bow ourselves down before you to the ground? His brothers were jealous of him because he shared a dream.
Joseph has made three mistakes. Three very critical mistakes. Now we know his brothers got issues. His daddy has issues. But he has made three mistakes. Let me review Joseph's mistakes with you. Mistake number one. The end of verse two. And Joseph brought back a bad report about them to his father. He is a tattletale. He gone sneaking out. Let me see what the boys are doing. He is 17 years old. So we understand it. You know, he is immature. That is the first thing.
Second thing he did was tell his dreams to folk who do not like him. There is a third mistake he made. Sporting his tunic. Okay, watch this now. We read in the beginning of the chapter, He is taking care of flocks with his brothers. His brothers already do not like him and speak harshly to him. He is taking care of flocks with his brother. Now he gets suited and booted. He has got on this multicolored flamboyant tunic. Everybody else is riding up in a bike. He drives his car to the floor.
So watch this. Joseph has a dream. Joseph has also been given a gift to interpret dreams. So that is his uniqueness. To have a dream and to interpret dreams. Which is going to work well for him down the line. But Joseph is also immature. He is a tattletale. He does not know how to transfer information to whom about what and when. And he wants to rub this favoritism in the face of his brothers who already do not like him. He is immature.
So Joseph is going to have to grow up before he can realize his dream. Which means he needs a detour.
The Purpose of Detours
Here it is. The purpose of detours is to develop you for the destiny God has for you. While God is developing the destiny for when you arrive. God is doing two things at one time. He is developing you. Maturity. Through the things he takes you through. For the destiny. While he is working on the destiny for when you get there.
So I got to tell you the truth. Things may get worse before they get better. Because development is part of the process. See we want the destiny. God wants to make sure you are ready for it. Because the worst thing you can have is to be somewhere God wants you to be and not be ready to be there. Because then you will mess up the destiny.
I cannot give you your destiny if you will not allow me to shape your character. I cannot give you your destiny if you do not allow me to deal with your sins. I cannot give you your destiny if you do not allow me to promote your righteousness. I cannot give you your destiny if you do not allow me to mature you. So therefore, in order to give you your destiny, I got to detour you first.
You do not go from the ground to the store. You go through a process first of detour. And that means things may get worse before they get better. And they do get worse. His father sends him on a trip to see his brothers. He says, I want you to go check on the brothers. Because, verse 12, they are tending the flock in Shechem. So he goes looking for them. He goes to Shechem, he goes to Dothan, he is looking for them.
And when, verse 18, here it is, when they saw him from a distance and before he came close to them, they plotted against him to put him to death. They said, verse 20, let us kill him. Throw him into the pit. And we will say a wild beast devoured him. Reuben said, no, no, no, no, no. Let us, let us, let us, come on. We got to come up with something. Let us not shed any blood.
So it came about when Joseph reached, verse 23, his brothers, they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the very colored tunic that was on him. I told you he was wearing this thing. I told you. Now he is going to visit his brothers who are out with sheep, and he is suited and booted. He is wearing a suit, a royal robe, to hang out with some sheep and sheep herders. All right? He is strutting his stuff. Watch this now. And they stripped him of it.
What did they strip him of? They stripped him of something he held in high value. Because he is wearing this thing. It was given to him by his daddy. You see? Sometimes when God is taking us on a detour, he allows us to be stripped of things we love the most. Because when you are on God's design detours, things can get worse before they get better, especially when you are being stripped of something that you are wrapped in, that is covering you, that is close to you.
It says they stripped him of it. And they took him, verse 24, threw him into a pit. Now the pit was empty and without water. Oh no. Anybody here today in a pit? That is a hole you cannot get out of. That is a situation you cannot fix. He did not create the hole. He did not make the hole. But he was thrown into the hole. And it says there was no water. There was not anything to nourish him while he was there. There was no fuel for his well-being while he was there. It was a waterless hole.
In other words, it was a dry place. If you are here today and you want your destiny, I would not be being fair to the word of God if I did not tell you that there are going to be dry spots along the journey. There are going to be places where there are no filling stations, where there are no off-ramps for you to get something to drink, where there is going to be dry spots where nothing appears to be happening and you find yourself stuck in a bad place.
So I know what the dreamer is thinking. Here is what he is thinking. My dreams are shattered. I had these great dreams. I thought I was going to be something, be somebody, go somewhere, achieve something. And then I done gone from a royal robe to a hole. I am down to my underwear. Because I have been stripped.
This man has got to be disappointed. And maybe he is even disappointed with God. Because God, how could you let me be in this hole when you said you loved me? How can you let me be in this hole when you told me to trust you? How can you let me be in this hole with my own family members doing me in? How can you let me be in this hole with these folk treating me this way? How can you leave me in this hole?
And when you are in a hole and you have no way out, you feel like you are in a hopeless situation. You are on a detour. Because detours are designed to contribute to construction. Because God must address our character. He must mature us. If he is going to trust us with the destiny he has for us.
Okay? Let me close with this verse. Verse 27 and 28. Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. Look back at verse 25. Then they sat down to eat a meal and they raised their eyes and look. Behold a caravan of Ishmaelites were coming from Gilead with their camels bearing Aramaic gum and balm and myrrh on their way to bring them down to Egypt.
Verse 27. Come, let us sell them to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him for he is our brother in our own flesh. And his brothers listened to him. Then some Midianite traders passed by. So they pulled him up and lifted Joseph out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. Thus they brought Joseph to Egypt.
Joseph is in a hole. Some Ishmaelite traders come along and they say, you know what? Let us sell him. Let us get rid of him. So for some silver, they sell their brother, watch this, into slavery. He is a slave now. He is being bought and sold like cheap property. One minute, he is living large. One minute, he is in the White House. Now he is in the outhouse. One minute, he has got significance. The next minute, he is a nobody. All he is, is a slave. Sold like cheap labor.
Labor. He is up here one minute. He is down there another minute. And the man had a dream. About a destiny. And the last line I read of you said, and they took him to Egypt. Okay, I know you heard me, but maybe you did not hear me. It said, they sold Joseph out of the pit to slave traders who bought him. He did not have a chance to say goodbye to his daddy. He got ripped away from his family. Did not get to see his brother who would come later, Benjamin. He was sold like cheap property to slave traders who brought him to Egypt.
Now, why am I going through that? Because we started at the end of the book. And at the end of the book, chapter 50, it said, Has not God brought me to this place? The place he is in is Egypt. He says, God brought me here so that I could deliver you. So, God's plan for Joseph was to get him to Egypt so that he could fulfill his destiny.
But in order to get him to the last chapter, he had to back up here to the 17-year-old chapter. He had to strip him of his tunic, give him his dream, separate him from his family, sell him into being a slave so that they would go to Egypt so that God could fulfill his destiny.
So, you may be in a bad place right now, you may be in a pit right now, and there may be no water, no nourishment, no support. You may feel like you are the Lone Ranger by yourself, but I want to call on you in the middle of your pit to tell God you are available to the Ishmaelites. You are available even if you have to be a slave for God to take you from here to deliver you over there so that you wind up in this place.