Sunday, March 3, 2013
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Discussion Questions for City Groups
Below is the discussion guide for Genesis 41. There are two big ideas to think on for this week’s passage:
- There is a tension and harmony between God’s sovereignty and our responsibility …. in the everyday details for eternal purposes.
- And we are cleaned and clothed by God and for God.
questions:
- What is the wrong way to read and apply this story of Joseph to our lives? How should we understand and appy it?
- What is the crisis point here in the first verses? How do we see the sovereign workings of God in Joseph’s life and here in this passage?
- It’s often easier for others to see God’s purposes in our lives than it is for us to see them, especially in the moment. Why do you think this is?
- Joseph was never forgotten by God, but he was forgotten by the cupbearer. How is God remembering Joseph both in the cupbearer’s forgetting and in his remembering two whole years later?
- After years of monotonous routine and hard labor, Joseph is quickly whisked away to appear before the king. Joseph must be cleaned and clothed as an Egyptian before appearing before the Egyptian king. Relate this to how we are cleaned and clothed by Christ to come before God our King. We cannot clean and clothe ourselves to appear before God. Think of some New Testament verses that describe how we are cleaned and clothed by Jesus and share them with the group.
- How does Joseph both respect Pharaoh and reverence God?
- Joseph not only gives Pharaoh the interpretation of the dreams but also a proposal for the coming crisis. A lot of people can identify problems in this life, but there are fewer who propose action steps and solutions. Share a time when you were maybe given wisdom in someone’s critical situation, or when someone else shared wisdom to help your situation.
- Contrast/compare the visible hand of Pharaoh’s provision and the invisible hand of God’s providence.
- How have we seen Joseph not passive or fatalistic but faithful in personal responsibility?
- Why/how must we hold in tension the truth of God’s sovereign providence and the reality of human responsibility? How have we seen this in these past chapters?
- How are both self-resignation (acknowledge God’s providence but neglect personal responsibility) and self-reliance (trust in personal responsibility apart from God’s providence) both overreactions and unbiblical? Which is your tendency in sin?
- How does this chapter of God’s Word point you to Jesus?
- How does the story of Joseph teach to live the everyday? How does the story of Joseph teach us to ready ourselves for the coming Day of Christ’s appearing?