A PASSOVER DURING A PANDEMIC - September 6, 2020

Exodus 12:1-14

The Passover Instituted

12 Now the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: ‘On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household. 4 And if the household is too small for the lamb, let him and his neighbor next to his house take it according to the number of the persons; according to each man’s need you shall make your count for the lamb. 5 Your lamb shall be without[a] blemish, a male [b]of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight. 7 And they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses where they eat it. 8 Then they shall eat the flesh on that night; roasted in fire, with unleavened bread and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. 9 Do not eat it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roasted in fire—its head with its legs and its entrails. 10 You shall let none of it remain until morning, and what remains of it until morning you shall burn with fire. 11 And thus you shall eat it: [c]with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord’s Passover.

12 ‘For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night, and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the Lord. 13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.

14 ‘So this day shall be to you a memorial; and you shall keep it as a feast to the Lord throughout your generations. You shall keep it as a feast by an everlasting ordinance.

The passage I read for you is the Lord telling Moses and Aaron how to celebrate the Passover, a festival practiced yearly in Jewish households along with Christians who also practice these customs. The Passover is annual and in certain books of the Bible the passage of time is marked by Passovers. That is how we know Jesus earthly ministry was three years, because the Gospel According to John has Jesus celebrating Passover three times. Passover also called the Feast of Unleavened Bread, is mentioned in many books of the Bible, Exodus, Numbers Deuteronomy, Joshua, 2nd Kings, 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Ezekiel, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. The Passover, is also where we as Christians get communion from. The Lord’s Supper or Last Supper as we called it was Jesus having a Passover meal with the disciples. The bread we eat is like the unleavened bread the people of God ate, and the cup we drink from was the third cup of a four cup meal in Passover, the cup of deliverance. This story focuses on Moses role in the Passover. Moses is important to our people I am reminded of the spiritual, “Go Down, Moses,” because the plight of the Hebrew people in the Bible has similarities to the plight of the African Slaves and their descendants. Also Harriet Tubman, the great liberator of slaves — she was called “Moses.” There is a lot of foundation in Exodus to our modern day. Scholars say that some of the traditions practiced in the feast of unleavened bread we practiced by some other religions at the time and as with other times this claim is made I say the same thing, I’m not concerned with who did it first, I am concerned with who did it best. In the text the Lord is telling Moses and Aaron how to celebrate Passover but there is one tiny problem, the people of God are in bondage.

I read chapter 12 before preaching but the story starts a little earlier than that, everything was all good in Genesis, Joseph saved the Egyptian kingdom during the famine, the powers that be loved Joseph and his people, Joseph’s people the 12 sons of Israel became the Nation of Israel and the 12 tribes and there came into power a Pharaoh that did not know Joseph. He didn’t care about what Joseph had done for the country, he just viewed these people as a threat and decided to deal harshly with them.

Exodus 1:8-14 NIV Says

8 Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt.9 “Look,” he said to his people, “the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. 10 Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.”

11 So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor,and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread; so the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites 13 and worked them ruthlessly.14 They made their lives bitter with harsh labor in brick and mortar and with all kinds of work in the fields; in all their harsh labor the Egyptians worked them ruthlessly.

Then the Pharaoh wanted the midwives to kill the Hebrew boys when they were born to further weaken the people of God, because attacking the male children would insure that the name and heritage would not continue. I think about this passage when I see what is happening to our black boys in school, hit with harsher punishments, athletic prowess valued over academic achievement, young children charged as adults when their white counterparts are given the benefit of the doubt. That pharaoh had a plan in place to try to eliminate the Hebrew race but God saw differently and the midwives allowed the male children to live. Because of that we are met with Moses, a leader for the people, the one to help the people of God get free.

Pharaoh was still determined to oppress the people of God, I find Pharaoh interesting in the text because if Pharaoh was here today, somebody might want to call Pharaoh racist, and Pharaoh might say he can’t be racist, because he has Hebrew relatives. Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s house with him, but yet he is attacking the Hebrew people with systematic oppression. Hebrews made that economy what it was, Hebrews helped them through the drought but yet and still they are being oppressed. Forced to make bricks without straw, pastor what does that mean, well in making the bricks back then, they were made out of clay, and you put the straw in the middle so that the clay would hold up and the bricks be stronger. Well making bricks without clay would be like making concrete today without rebar, its not going to be strong enough to hold up anything. Pharaoh is punishing them but is also punishing himself because everything built with those poor standards is not going to last. If you plan to run anything, lead anything solely on I hate the other people it will not last. The Egyptians put quotas on the Hebrew people and then when the Hebrews did not make the quota they beat them and kept the quotas high. There came a plague in the land, which is a common theme in the Old Testament, whenever there was a crooked or evil king, there seemed to be plagues right behind them. Whenever leadership was unethical the land that leader controlled suffered. 

There were plagues over the land before the plagues Moses had told Pharaoh to let his people go. Pharaoh would not, politicians are funny when it comes to free labor huh. So the plagues came. First the water turned to blood, then there were frogs, then lice and gnats, then flies all over the place, then people had boils, that was followed by hail, which was followed by locust, then darkness, those nine plagues had hit the land and Pharaoh would say that he would let the people go, lying to get the plagues to stop but would then go back on his word and keep the people oppressed. Making it worse, funny thing about the Hebrew in the Old Testament whenever you see someone’s heart hardened, that was something we would call today a hard head. Someone that is stubborn, we call children repeatedly misbehaving hard headed. Can you imagine that for a second, a hard headed ruler of a country in the middle of a plague constantly lying and making things worse? Bring plague after plague on the people, damaging the land? All these plagues coming, nine of them so far, and plague number 10 is going to be the death of the everyone’s firstborn. God has told them it is about to get worse before it gets better and here is what you need to do. 

Start working while it is still bad. 

The first thing that makes me happy about this passage even in the midst of all this suffering is that the word of deliverance came to the people of God while they were still in bondage. They were still in the middle of the plagues but God had told them how they were going to be protected. You have to see your way out of a situation before you can ever actually get out of the situation. What if the people of God had said, I want to see if it works for my neighbors first before I try it myself or what if they had said, we have never done it this way before, why are trying to change things up now? That kind of thinking is one of the reasons churches, business, and other organizations are failing now. If you do the same thing over and over you are going get the same results, God is her showing these people what to do get a miracle and they have to do it while they are still suffering. The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, not a committee meeting nor case study. We have to be willing to step out on faith while things have not improved yet.

Start working with the community. 

The text tells them to get an unblemished lamb, less than a year old, take the blood from that lamb and spread it on the doorpost, if you can’t get one on your own go in with your neighbor. Uh oh, there goes that community thing again. A lamb is a precious commodity in the community, more valuable than older sheep because there are still potential future money to be made off the lamb if you let it grow older and use its wool. That is why the text said if you can’t get one, go in with your neighbor, we have to be willing to work together even when times are bad if we want to accomplish work for the kingdom. Every time God does a miracle in the Bible there are instructions and this time he says if you can’t follow the instructions on your own get some help. Now is not the time to be prideful, now is not the time to be stuck and say well we can’t do it by ourselves so we just won’t do it at all. Get some help. I weep for churches that don’t want to work with their communities, that don’t want to work with other churches, that are more concerned about their church history than learning their neighbor’s story. We have to be willing to work with others, that is the only way we survive.

Start working and be ready to move. 

The text tells the people to wear certain gear while they eat and not to waste anything, they have to be ready to move. The people of God had to have their belts on and walking staffs ready to go, because after this last plague the environment would not be one the people of God wanted to stay in. Roast the food instead of slow cooking, eat is all, what you can’t eat, burn up. We don’t have time for the bread to rise, nor leave leftovers. This is not a sit down meal where we sit around talking until the restaurant closes. We have to be willing to move when God tells us it's time to move, we have to be willing to go when God tells us it is time to go. Now is not the time to hold on to things we really have no control over anyway God says go, it's time to go! God gives us instructions before the miracle, not because he needs our help, no, no, no. God gives us instructions so that we can participate in our own deliverance. God knew who his people were, God didn’t need blood on the doorpost for that. This was for the people to once again do what God asked them to do. I ask my children to do things sometimes that I know they cannot complete by themselves. I want to see the children make an effort, and if they make an effort, I will do the rest. I could absolutely do it, but they would not appreciate it as much. If they do the work, then later they want to do more, and more, and then when they do more, I do that much more for them. Are we willing to participate in our own deliverance our are we willing to just let the church and the work of the kingdom die by the wayside? 

I am happy at this text even in the midst of the death and destruction and plagues, and horrible plagues because even will all that going on, there is still grace. The people of God did not earn their salvation in this trial, God gave it to them. This was the grace of God keeping them through oppression, slavery, beatings, this was the grace of God keeping them through Water turning to blood, frogs, and lice, gnats, flies, pestilence, boils, hailstorms, locusts, darkness, and the death of the firstborn. That same grace kept our people through slavery, and reconstruction, and Jim Crow, and the new Jim Crow, kept us through segregation, and police brutality and dog whistling language, and will keep us through this pandemic. The people of God are being oppressed and the only thing that is protecting them is the blood of the Lamb. They are using lambs during the passover but there is another lamb that blood was used to save us. Blood spilled on Calvary that we can have life and have it more abundantly. The Lamb who was slain Jesus Christ son of the living God. We don’t have to worry about death passing by our house anymore because the blood of the final lamb was shed for us and gives us just the protection we need. 

Verse 1:

What can wash away my sin? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

What can make me whole again? 

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. 

Refrain:

O precious is the flow 

that makes me white as snow; 

no other fount I know; 

nothing but the blood of Jesus.  

ROMAN HOSPITALITY - August 30, 2020

Why We March

NEW THOUGHTS FOR A NEW AGE- August 23, 2020

Romans 12:1-8

Living Sacrifices to God

12 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Serve God with Spiritual Gifts

3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.

In my closet I have a shirt I like, red, faded, it is from a camp I chaperoned for Youth Ministry almost 20 years ago, but that shirt had Romans 12:1-2 on the front like a baseball logo and it said be transformed. I like that shirt, I like those verses, I like this book of Romans. I remember getting a kids illustrated bible and at the beginning of the book it had cartoon drawing of kids and they said read the whole Bible kids, start with Romans. Romans? Romans isn’t the beginning of the Bible its in the middle. But Romans has so many important verses to our faith all in one book. It is in Romans that we learn that God loves us, that we are justified by faith, that we are sinners saved by grace, that the Holy Spirit dwells in us, that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. Romans is what Augustine read when he heard a voice tell him to “take up and read,” Martin Luther used Romans on his insight into God’s righteousness, John Wesley was reading a passage from Romans at Aldersgate when his heart was "strangely warmed."

I like Romans. Written by Paul to the churches in Rome, 1:7 tells us this. Paul is writing to churches in Rome, while the people are being oppressed. There is a tense political climate in place, Paul writes this letter around 10 years before a revolt against Rome. Somewhere between 55 and 58 AD. The people of God, don’t like how the government is treating them, and they fight back. Can you imagine that? Speaking up against the unfair treatment by those in power instead of saying keep politics out of it? I digress….for now. Paul is dealing with all of this and preparing to make a trip and writes a letter with all of this going on. What I read before starting the sermon is a pivot point in the text. Chapters 1-11 of Romans cover dogma and doctrine, but 12-16 cover ethics and behavior, 1-11 here is what you need to know and 12-16 is how you need to act now that you know. Even though the Roman Empire is oppressing those who believe in God, the government is demanding your loyalty, that is why Jesus is Lord is such a scandalous term at the time. Because the people expected you to say Ceasar is Lord, Ceasar was supposed to be you savior, Ceasar was supposed to be your all in all. They wanted you to worship your government, that is a popular way of thinking that the world, literally meaning this age in the Greek wanted the people of God to conform to, trying to beat them into submission into a mold that fit what they wanted to have. Paul tell them not to conform, don’t let them put you into a box but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. We ought to be like the people Paul was talking to and change the way we think as well. We have to change the way we think about being the body of Christ in this world, this day an age and we have the perfect opportunity to do it today. 

This is an unprecedented time, with new things going on, a great opportunity to do things differently but as one of my colleagues Robert Johnson said, the church is fighting to do the same thing over and over. the Bible says to be transformed, that word for transformed is used other places in the Bible 

Mark 9:2

2 Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them.

2 Corinthians 3:18

18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

They all have this in common, radical change, a re-centering of ourselves, and some long hard work. This is not done overnight, but just because it doesn’t happen overnight doesn’t mean we don’t do the work. Martin Luther King said

"Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability; it comes through the tireless efforts of men [sic] willing to be co-workers with God, and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the forces of social stagnation. We must use time creatively in the knowledge that the time is always ripe to do right." - Martin Luther King Jr.

We have to be humble, not think of ourselves more highly than we ought, we are all sinners in this world saved by grace. We cannot earn our way to heaven it is a gift of God’s love, unmerited favor, Paul received that grace and speaks to us about it. Paul tells us that Jews and Gentiles are a part of God’s kingdom and we have to do this in community. One body but many gifts, community, gifts of service in ministry, and gifts of financial support. It is all work, and we are called to do a new work, with a new mindset, to help make new disciples of Jesus Christ. What has happened in the past or did not happened we must move past and forge forward with a new mind in a new age, because new people need to learn about this Jesus Christ as we have.  

More Than a Throwaway - August 9, 2020

Joseph Dreams of Greatness

37 Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. 2 This is the history of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers. And the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age. Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

Joseph Sold by His Brothers

12 Then his brothers went to feed their father’s flock in Shechem. 13 And Israel said to Joseph, “Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.”

So he said to him, “Here I am.”

14 Then he said to him, “Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well with the flocks, and bring back word to me.” So he sent him out of the Valley of Hebron, and he went to Shechem.

15 Now a certain man found him, and there he was, wandering in the field. And the man asked him, saying, “What are you seeking?”

16 So he said, “I am seeking my brothers. Please tell me where they are feeding their flocks.”

17 And the man said, “They have departed from here, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’ ” So Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

18 Now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to kill him. 19 Then they said to one another, “Look, this dreamer is coming! 20 Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit; and we shall say, ‘Some wild beast has devoured him.’ We shall see what will become of his dreams!”

21 But Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, “Let us not kill him.” 22 And Reuben said to them, “Shed no blood, but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him”—that he might deliver him out of their hands, and bring him back to his father.

23 So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. 24 Then they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty; there was no water in it.

25 And they sat down to eat a meal. Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites, coming from Gilead with their camels, bearing spices, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry them down to Egypt. 26 So Judah said to his brothers, “What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? 27 Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.” And his brothers listened. 28 Then Midianite traders passed by; so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. And they took Joseph to Egypt.

throwaway

n.

Something designed or likely to be discarded after use, as a free handbill distributed on the street.

n.

A child or teenager who has been rejected, ejected, or abandoned by parents or guardians and lives on the streets.

My wife and I used to watch a TV show regularly called NCIS, one of the main characters, Gibbs often says that there are no coincidences. If some events seem to be related, or part of a bigger plan that is because they are. That being said, there are times in my life where I wonder where I would be if I or some people around me made some different decisions. What if my mother never transferred from Missouri University to Lincoln University in Jefferson City? What if my parents never got a divorce? What if I did not quit football in college?  What if I didn’t change my major from electrical engineering to Business Management my junior year? What if I never went to Prairie View A&M University for college? What if I did go, but right after I graduated, moved back to Indianapolis Indiana to work?  My life would be much different I assume, those are all major changes that would affect the lives of other people greatly. Some people would not have been born if people did not cross paths. I also think about smaller what if situations as well. When I was in seminary there was a class I could have taken a year earlier than I did, Immigration and theology, but at the time, I did not see how I could drive back and forth to Dallas on Saturdays while working a full time job and pastoring a church, fast forward a few years later and I end up doing it twice a week. It's just a class, but that class potentially gets me out of seminary earlier, which gets me possibly commissioned earlier, and ordained earlier. But I get ordained earlier I don’t have the same career path of churches I get appointed to. Sometimes a seemingly meaningless event can have a great impact for years to come. Even though I think about what ifs every now and then, I believe we all have free will to make our own decisions in life,  I truly believe that I am where I need to be when I need to be for God’s plan in my life. 

The text says that Joseph settled in the land of Canaan, the land his grandfather Abraham settled as an immigrant that was able to grow in the land, have Isaac. Isaac was Abraham’s promised child from God. God told Abraham he was going to have a child when he was old. Abraham in his old age along with his wife Sarah thought that God meant for Abraham to get Sarah’s handmaid Hagar pregnant because Sarah was too old for childbirth. Abraham and Hagar had Ishmael, but he was not the child of promise, that child would be Isaac born a year later. Sarah would kick Hagar and her little boy Ishmael out of Abrahams house eventually and they would have to fend for themselves. Sarah did not want any competition for Isaac. Isaac who would later have Esau and his twin Jacob who would later be called Israel. Israel would have 12 sons, one who he loved more than others Joseph because Jacob/Israel had Joseph in his old age. I say Jacob/Israel because I notice that Genesis goes back and forth calling the man Jaco in some verses and Israel in others. Some scholars say that is because multiple people wrote Genesis. I believe it speaks to the dual nature of humans. Jacob means supplanter, heel grabber, trickster. But Israel refers to a nation. Jacob got his name changed after wrestling with the angel, Jacob was his past, Israel was his future. He was no less Jacob, and no more Israel. We are no less our past or no more our future on the inside. We just can’t let our past be all that we are. Here in Genesis 37 the story is transitioning from individuals to a nation. The text literally means the generations of Jacob. Jacob has 12 sons, the 12 sons will form the 12 tribes of Israel, that will make up the nation of Israel. God told Abraham that he would bless him and make his name great, that he would have more offspring than the stars in the sky, the dust in the ground, Abraham was going to have a lot of children. Abraham would have Isaac, Isaac would have Esau and Jacob. Jacob would become Israel had 12 sons, one of the youngest was named Joseph. 

Joseph got a coat of many colors from his father, it was ornate. The Hebrew is interesting because the words that are used to literally describe Joseph lean toward  calling him a pretty boy almost. The words describing his clothes and appearance let us know he was good looking and well dressed. Joseph was the favorite of Jacob and the other brothers did not like that. The text says the brothers hated Joseph, some translations say that the brothers could not speak a kind word to Joseph. Josephs older brothers mocked him and used sarcastic language toward him. The brothers called Joseph “that dreamer" Joseph had dreams that showed him and his brothers that Joseph will be elevated above his brothers and no older child wants to hear that the younger child is going to be their boss. The brothers hated Joseph and plotted to kill him. Sometimes those people we think are going to have our best interest at heart will do us the dirtiest. And it hurts worse because you have your guard down. Family spats are bad, church spats are bad, job spats are bad, relationship spats are bad. Why because you get comfortable around the people, show how you really feel, let your guard down and when you get hurt, the pain is much deeper because you were not prepared. When you know the pain is coming, you do things to prepare yourself for the pain so it doesn’t hurt as much, but if your guard is down the pain hurt even more because you did nothing to prepare for it. 

Josephs brothers were tired of growing in a household where they knew that their father loved one child more than the other. Jacob was Isaac’s favorite and Esau was not, they had trouble. Esau wanted to kill Jacob at one time. Now the following generation, Joseph is the new Jacob and the other sons have become Esaus and they want to kill their own version of Jacob. The brothers see Joseph coming and they plot to kill him. The brothers were already where they were not supposed to be, Jacob sent them to Shechem, to work, and didn’t send Joseph. Jacob sent Joseph to get them and they were miles away from were they were supposed to be in Dothan. They are more than 60 miles from  where they are supposed to be. So the Joseph is coming and the brothers are plotting to kill him, they end up taking his robe, and throwing him in a pit. The text doesn’t specify who exactly wants to kill him and those who claim to plan to get him later don’t verbally say what they are doing is wrong, they just want to have a secret plan to get him later. Being quiet while someone else is plotting against you is just as bad as someone plotting against you. 

Joseph is being plotted on and his oldest brother Rueben says don’t do it, Reuben’s name means vision. When Joseph is in the pit, his older brother Judah chimes in and says don’t kill him. Judah’s name means praise. So when Joseph’s life is on the line. Reuben says don’t kill him, when Joseph’s life is on the line again Judah says don’t kill him. Jospeh is in trouble and the things that are keeping him alive are vision and praise. You may be at a low point in your life, not knowing how you are going to get through but when you get into those times remember Joseph Reuben and Judah, sometimes you have to see your way through a situation, and praise your way through a situation until you get out of the situation. 

Joseph needed help, and he got help from some people trying to do harm and some random events that worked out for his good. The brothers were over 60 miles from where they needed to be, after tying Joseph up, putting him in pit. The brothers start to have second thoughts about what they plan to do. The brothers are sitting down to eat, and they see a caravan passing through and decide to sell Joseph to those Midianites, those Ishmaelites...

Sometimes things done years ago pop back up in a way you never thought. Abraham was 86 when he had Ishmael a year later Isaac was born, Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob and Esau were born, Jacob was in his 70s or 80s when Joseph was born and Joseph was 17 years old when he had the dreams that made his brothers plot to kill him. So something that happened three generations, maybe 130-140 years ago can come back and be the path to greatness the changes the lives of an entire nation. Joseph was going to have some more trouble to go through but in the end he would be an advisor to pharaoh, and help everybody get through a famine and turn the nation of Israel into a great nation. He would be able to say with all these different things going on, what you meant for evil God worked It out for my good. 

Genesis 50:20

20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.