What About What Offends God?

Genesis 40:1 “And it came to pass after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.

Genesis 40:2 “And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers, and against the chief of the bakers.

Genesis 40:3 “And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard, into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

You’re offended, I’m offended, everyone’s offended… Right?

Someone is always offended, but meanwhile, lost in the litany of offenses is the fact that the Bible teaches us that God gets offended also… and seeing as he is God and we are man, shouldn’t what offends God be the most serious thing to consider and remedy?

There was a man in the Bible called Eli, read about him early in 1 Samuel, and he had two sons, and his lads were using, or rather abusing, the religious office they held… and they used their position to indulge in adultery and make easy money… just more worthy worship leaders hey!

But we read that Eli was concerned about their behaviour, and he protested his boys behaviour in saying this to them “If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him: but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall intreat for him?” He was hoping they’d get it… but they didn’t, because they don’t.

Eli’s logic was pretty sound. He was saying to them… if you were just wronging your fellow man or they wronged you, you both can appeal to a higher power to sort you two out… but if you wrong God… who’s going to reconcile you to God and make you two “cool”? What chance do you have if you offend the highest power there is?

And we know Jesus did and does reconcile God and man and solve our offences, but boy, to be in trouble with God… to have offended Almighty God, “the God in whose hand thy breath is” … does that not make you tremble? … but for many it doesn’t move them a muscle. As the Bible says “there is no fear of God before their eyes”

If you read your Bible, you’ll find God has a lot to say about offending, and offenses, pretty great to view the issue through the Biblical lens don’t you think? We are suffering from a great poverty in sound doctrine these days as we go away from what the Bible says into opinions and philosophies of man. I don’t expect you to care what I think, but conversely is also true (don’t be offended!)… but we should all care about what God says.

… We are in a nation obsessed with being offended… a nation that is more and more offended by the true God, the Lord Jesus Christ “and they were offended in him”. People are offended by the laws of God, the ways of God, the word of God, the preaching of the cross… and we are well on our way to muzzling or even criminalizing any conduit or opportunity to being offended by the preaching of the cross. People do not want to hear that God is not ok with their sin “lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

I know you think otherwise, but whenever your idea of Jesus clashes with what the Bible, written by his apostles (that were there and you and I weren’t!) wrote, and they wrote under inspiration of the Holy Spirit with perfect accuracy… the Bible teaches that people were offended by Jesus Christ as he even asked them “doth this offend you?” People were offended by when he did his miracles, why he did his miracles, who he did his miracles upon, and how he did them. They were offended by what he preached “The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” They’re his own words, why would you take some second rate opinion of someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about over the words of Christ?

Look, even his own disciples were offended by Jesus in the end, as he said the night of his betrayal “Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night…” And people were so offended by Jesus Christ that by the time he was lifted up on the cross… he was completely alone and forsaken… and nothing has changed “this same Jesus” is still just as offensive to this world today.

And I know you think churches are a place where you should never be offended, and Christian love is offense free… but that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says the preaching of the cross is offensive to this world. They will never like it, they will never receive it, they will not want to hear it. A preacher of God’s word who does not offend your flesh and your sin and your pride and your selfishness and your greed and your lust is no man of God. If preaching Christ does not offend your sin serving, sin loving life “then is the offense of the cross ceased”. … We are literally choking to death on offense free Christianity which is both gutless and powerless to see anyone saved and reconciled to God based on truth, and a true love, not the fake love but Christ’s love.

You can even see if you are truly saved by how you fall on this offense issue. If God’s word offends you, if someone preaching the truth of Christ offends you, that’s a sign of a spiritual problem within. It really is quite amazing to see so many church going professing Christians who are so offended by God’s word, which they should and would love if they were so “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”

… Enough about us being offended. Do you want to find out what offends God? Read the Bible, he will tell you, so you need not guess. And the Bible tells us that it is our sin that offends God and causes our separation from him, going all the way back to the garden of Eden “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”

You can read about our offences and how those offenses are reconciled in Jesus Christ all through the book of Romans. But today I want to focus on how the Bible lays this out in a nice little picture early in the book of Genesis, in Genesis 40, where in the middle of the story of Joseph, we read about a butler and a baker who offended their lord, the king of Egypt (as quoted above). And Pharaoh the king chucks them into prison where Joseph already is. Fun little fact, before you realized you were in trouble with God, God already knew and had provided for that long time in advance! That’s how big a God he is.

The story is the gospel in a nutshell, and is based around the fact they had offended their lord as we have THE Lord. When someone has offended you it’s pretty hard to get past it isn’t it. Sin causes a big old problem between us and God that is not easily bridged. And seeing as he is God and we are not, it’s more pressing on us to resolve it. See, we were created for God, he does not exist for us. It is our privilege to serve him and find identity and purpose and mission and work and life and meaning in him. As in this story, so us.

But their offense caused a big problem. It separated them from light, from hope, from purpose, from truth… and soon, from life itself. This is how big a issue this offending God thing is. Our wrong may go back to all Adam’s fault in Eden… but it’s also in our own life, we need not look too hard into our lives to see sin that lies within our heart, our motive, our imagination, our reason… it has permeated every fibre of our being and the fabric of our life. And it’s caused a problem between us and God as their offense caused a separation between them and Pharaoh “But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.”

The butler and the baker show the state of man in sin. Cut off. Going nowhere. In prison. You are not a free man or woman, if you sin, you serve sin. Their whole life revolved around service to Pharaoh, but like man in the garden of Eden created for God’s pleasure and fellowship with God… you lose all of it when you sin against God, when you “offend” him. Because he ain’t cool with our offenses, even if you’ve decided he must be because of your misconceived image of him.

This story is about offense and restoration and how that will happen. It shows that not us, but God is at the centre of the universe, of purpose and meaning. And it seems so random, a butler and a baker… I mean what is all that about… but it shows us an amazing truth, which is that there are only two types of people in this world. …For soooo many beliefs and offenses in this world, yet in the end it boils down so simply… you’re either saved or not “He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life”.

Thank God old Joseph was down in the prison with them to tell them about how to get saved, as he waited on them and ministered to them. He pictures our Saviour, though royalty as Joseph was, yet becoming the least of the least, Jesus Christ came to serve, he made himself of no reputation, he was found in form as a servant, he didn’t stand afar off, he took all the sins of the world upon himself. He washed his own disciples feet. He hung butt naked on the cross for my sin. A King laying down his life for his servants. What kind of leader does that? You complain about your leaders, we’ve never had a leader like that and never will. There is none like unto our Jesus. What a Saviour!

I’m not going to go through the whole story though I would love to. But this is what happened in this story… they get chucked in jail… and time is ticking down fast to when they will stand before Pharaoh again. Did you know the Bible teaches that you will stand before God? You have a date with the Creator that you have offended! That’s worse than an appointment with the dentist! If you don’t like facing someone you’ve wronged or who wronged you… how will standing before God at the end of a Christ rejecting sin loving life go? The Bible says cursed is every man that hangeth on a tree, and we know the baker ended up hanged, because he faced his Lord without ever having trusted in Christ, without Jesus having taken care of his offense. He thought he could cook up something better to please Pharaoh… he couldn’t, because “without faith it is impossible to please God”.

You can read the rest of the story and glean some truths from it yourself, my goodness it’s a marvellous picture of salvation, the Bible always points us to the glorious salvation and hope in Jesus Christ… of whom the Bible writes “Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification.” Jesus literally came into this world because we were so offensive to God. And it was just one sin that was enough to be so offensive God… how much moreso our deluge of personal sin against God? “For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Perhaps you thought oh, that’s cool for you… but I’m not sharing this because it’s my truth, but because it’s the truth. Even though one was saved and one was lost, the Bible makes it clear they had offended “their lord”. Even if you don’t attribute any of God’s grace you receive to God, he is still God and his good graces to you still come from him. There is only ONE Lord. We all answer to the same Lord. He is your Lord and my Lord. Either in salvation or perdition. It just comes down to whether you’re right with him or not. And I want you to be! Because I love you and want to see you enjoy the eternal life that Jesus freely gives.

…Notice how it says they had offended… past tense… not were going to. Because you already have offended God. Even if you were going to try to do better it would already be too late. And many people say “God is my judge” and think the judgment of God is not yet passed and something to be negotiated at a later date… but it already has been! If you do not have Christ you do not have life. And it’s not “TBD” to be decided if you’re right with God… you are not right with God already! Jesus didn’t come to condemn us … because as he said in John 3… we are already condemned. He came to save from that condemnation and wrath which the Bible says already abides upon us!… because of our offensiveness to God.

Look, my aim is not to be offensive, there is no badge of honour in being offensive. I do not seek to offend. I have written this with best intentions. But I must tell the truth of God’s word, with the intention of seeing you saved “Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.” because I want the best for you, to have forgiveness of sins and eternal life… a free gift courtesy of Jesus Christ hanging on the cross, bearing all our offensiveness, so we could be accepted by God. God gave us heaven’s best, VERY best… there is nothing more precious, in a world obsessed with preserving value in silver and gold… there is nothing more precious than the most valuable commodity of all… of eternal value… the blood of Christ. Trust in Jesus Christ. Jesus still saves, Jesus saves!

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