Genesis chapter 42.
We left off at verse 23.
Joseph, in our last study, had been brought
out of prison, interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, is set
as prime minister over the entire land of
Egypt, given an Egyptian name, Zaphnath-Penea, and
given a wife, Asenath, one of the daughters
of the priest of On, Hierapolis, and he
now has governed Egypt under Pharaoh through seven
years of incredible prosperity, storing grain, it finally
says, like the sand of the sea without
number.
And then the seven years of famine began,
and evidently two years into this famine, Jacob
said to his sons, go on down to
Egypt to buy grain.
Egypt was known for being productive even in
times of drought, because they had developed a
system of irrigation because of the Nile, and
even when the Nile was low, they had
a series of buckets, and they would use
a treadmill and pedals, and they would raise
buckets of water and dump it into their
canals, irrigation, and Egypt was known for producing
crops even when there was drought.
So go down to Egypt and buy grain.
But don't take my son Benjamin with you.
He sends down the other ten.
Of course, as they come down, it says
Joseph recognizes them.
They don't recognize Joseph.
They haven't seen Joseph for 20 years, since
they sold him into slavery.
He was 17 then.
He is 37 now.
He is dressed like an Egyptian.
He is speaking Egyptian.
He is an Egyptian garb.
And as they come to buy grain, Joseph
speaks to them through an interpreter.
He has interpreters there that speak different language
because he's doing business with all nations of
the world.
One of his interpreters now speaking Hebrew to
his ten brothers, and Joseph had accused them
of being spies.
They said, no, we're not spies.
He said, yeah, why are there ten of
you?
And they said, well, we're all brothers.
We have one father back in the land
of Canaan.
And he says, is that all?
And he said, well, we have two brothers.
One of them is not, he says to
Joseph as he's standing there.
And the other one, our youngest Benjamin, is
back home with our father.
And Joseph says to them through the interpreter,
well, I think you're spies.
And the way that I'll know that you're
honest men is I will keep you all
in prison here, and I'll send one of
you back to fetch this younger brother.
And if he comes back and I see
that your story is true, I'll know that
you're honest men.
He puts them in the prison for three
days, and they're in there stewing in their
guilt for three days.
Shakespeare said that suspicion haunts the guilty mind.
And these men, after 20 years, are still
troubled about what they'd done to Joseph, how
they had lied to Jacob and said an
animal had torn him apart.
And he brings them out three days later,
and he says, he says, go back to
your family.
Take your grain because I fear God through
the interpreter.
I will keep one of you here instead
of nine of you.
And then when you come back with your
brother, the one that I keep shall not
die.
And as he said that, then the brothers
turned to each other and started to argue
and not knowing that Joseph understood Hebrew.
And they're saying this is because of what
we did to our brother.
When he was crying to us out of
the pit, we didn't hearken to him.
We didn't listen to his voice.
Ruben chimes in again and says, I told
you guys not to do that to the
lad.
You know, again, somebody saying, I told you
so after 20 years, you know, I told
you not to do that, you know, and
then, you know, he's and it says, Joseph
now at this point is overwhelmed in his
heart.
And that's where we had left off.
Verse 23 of chapter 42 says they knew
not that Joseph understood them, for he spoke
unto them by an interpreter and he turned
himself about from them and wept and returned
to them again and communed with them and
took from them Simeon and notice he bound
him before their eyes.
So Joseph breaks down as he listened to
this conversation, his own brothers talking about what
they had done to him, not knowing that
it was him that was listening and it
breaks his heart and he has to run
to another room and he's weeping there and
he composes himself.
He comes back then and he takes Simeon
and makes them watch as he puts the
shackles on, binds him in front of them
and then takes Simeon away to prison and
sends them now back to Canaan.
Verse 25.
Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with
grain to restore every man's money into his
sack and to give them provisions for the
way.
Thus did he unto them.
Now he knows there's five more years of
famine and these guys are going to be
back and they loaded their donkeys with grain
and they departed about 250 miles from Memphis
to Hebron.
And as one of them opened his sack,
the idea is his personal sack to give
his ass, the donkey in the inn.
He saw his money and behold, it was
in the sack's mouth.
He said unto his brethren, my money is
restored and lo, it is even in my
sack.
And their heart failed them and they were
afraid, saying one to another, what is this
that God is doing to us?
Now again, these are guilty men.
If you find a sack of silver or
a sack of gold and say, oh no,
God's getting me, you're really guilty.
Most people would find a sack of silver
or a sack of gold and say, oh
God, you're blessing me, Lord, a sack of
money, how much you love me.
These guys find the sack of money and
say, what is God doing to us?
He's getting us.
We're not like that at all.
Suspicious of God's blessings.
And they came to Jacob, their father.
Now imagine them in their journey, on their
donkeys, talking about what is this?
I can't believe the money's in here.
What are we going to tell them about
Simeon?
This guy wants us to bring Benjamin back.
Dad's never going to let us bring Benjamin
back.
And one of them's going to be saying,
yes, Simeon's going to rot in Egypt.
Dad's not going to send Benjamin.
You can imagine.
They came unto Jacob, their father, in the
land of Canaan.
They told him all the things that befell
them, saying, the man, from now on that's
Joseph, they call him the man, the man
who is the Lord of the land spake
roughly to us.
He yelled in Egyptian and the interpreter interpreted.
They didn't know what he was saying, but
the idea is he was not a happy
camper.
And he took us for spies of the
country.
We said unto him, we are true, are
honest men.
We're not spies.
We're twelve brethren, sons of our father.
One is not, and the youngest is this
day with our father in the land of
Canaan.
And the man, the Lord of the country,
said unto us, hereby shall I know that
you are honest men.
Leave one of your brethren here with me.
Take food for the famine of your households
and be gone and bring your youngest brother
unto me.
Then shall I know that you are not
spies, but that you are honest men.
So will I deliver you, your brother, and
then you shall traffic or do business in
the land of Egypt.
The idea is it came to pass as
they emptied their sacks that behold, every man's
bundle of money was in his sack.
And when both they and their father saw
the bundles of money, they were afraid.
All of them chips off the old block
here.
And Jacob, their father, spiritual giant, Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.
Jacob, their father, said unto them, me have
he bereaved of my children.
Joseph is not.
Simeon is not.
And you will take Benjamin away.
All these things are against me.
Now, you know, this is a guy who
God has appeared to and spoke to.
We often think, well, if God would just
appear to me, I wouldn't have any problems
anymore.
Just kind of appear in my bedroom, talk
to me for a little while, and I
wouldn't have any problem doubting after that.
Jacob's life is filled with doubt.
God had appeared and spoken to him.
Everything is against me.
And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay
my two sons, if I bring him not.
And his kids must be thinking, oh, great,
Dad, thanks.
Reuben says, Slay my two sons, if I
bring him not to thee.
Deliver him, Benjamin, into my hand, and I
will bring him to thee again.
Most scholars feel Benjamin around 21 years old,
somewhere around 9, 10 years younger than Joseph.
And he said, My son shall not go
down with you.
Notice, that's singular.
Jacob says, My son shall not go down
with you.
For his brother is dead, and he's left
alone.
He's the only son I still have.
Now, the nine brothers must feel like, what
are we?
Dirt.
What do you mean?
You've got one son.
You know.
He alone is left, and if mischief befall
him by the way in which you go,
then shall you bring down my gray hairs
with sorrow to the grave.
Dad saying, Simeon can rot.
You're not taking Benjamin back down there.
Now, 43 says, The famine was sore in
the land.
It came to pass when they had eaten
up all the grain, which they had brought
out of Egypt.
Then their father said to them, Why don't
you go down a little and get us
some more food?
Now, it's good for Simeon.
I don't know how long it took him
to eat all the grain, but Simeon's been
waiting in a prison down there for everybody
to get back and see him.
And they were just enjoying themselves, and they
ate all the food until it was gone.
They're not going back to Egypt for Simeon.
They're going to get more food.
Why don't you go back, he says, and
get more food?
Now, this is an amazing passage to me,
because the Holy Spirit records this argument.
It's a family argument.
You read through this.
It's amazing.
Now, Jacob, who put his foot down.
No, you're not going back.
Now, the food's gone, so he's changing his
tune.
Why don't you guys go back down there?
Now, Judah, this is just like a father
and son.
Judah spake to him and said, The man
did solemnly protest to us, saying, You shall
not see my face, except your brother is
with you.
If you will send our brother with us,
then we will go down and buy you
food.
But if you will not send him, we
are not going.
For the man said to us, You shall
not see my face, except your brother be
with you.
Jacob says, Why did you even tell the
man that you had a brother?
They said, The man asked us.
How are we supposed to know?
You know, you read through this passage.
It is a family argument.
It's incredible.
Go buy food.
Dad, the man said, We ain't seeing his
face again unless we bring Benjamin.
Now, if you send Benjamin with, then we'll
go down.
If you don't send him with, we ain't
going down there.
Because the guy said, We can't see him
without him.
Why did you even tell him you had
a younger brother?
Didn't you learn nothing from me?
I'm one of the best liars that ever
lived.
Why did you even?
You know, it's a family trait.
Why did you spill the beans?
They said in verse 7, Well, the man
asked us straightforwardly our state.
He said, He asked us about our family.
Is your father yet alive?
Do you have any brothers?
And we told him according to the tenor
of the conversation.
How are we supposed to know?
The guy was going to say, Bring your
brother down.
And Judah said to Jacob, Israel's father, Look,
send Benjamin with me.
We will arise and we'll go that we
may live and not die.
Both we and you and our little ones.
Dad, we're all going to die anyway.
What's the sense of keeping Benjamin here?
He's going to die.
We're all going to die anyhow.
This at least maybe there's a chance this
way.
I will be surety for him.
Now, Judah's a nicer guy than Reuben.
Reuben said, Kill my two sons.
Judah says me, you know, I'll be surety
for him of my hand shall thou require
him.
And if I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me
bear the blame forever.
For except we had lingered, surely now we
had returned to say we could have been
down and back by now.
Dad, if you'd let us go.
Their father Israel said unto them.
Now he puts the old Esau plan into
action again.
If it must be so now, then do
this.
Take the best of the fruits of the
land.
They have dried fruits.
It's a drought.
That's all they have in your vessels and
carry down the man a present little bomb,
a little honey, spices, myrrh, nuts and almonds
and take double the money in your hand
and the money that was brought again in
the mouth of your sacks and carried again
in your hand preadventure.
It was an oversight.
Maybe it was a mistake on their end.
Take also your brother and arise and go
unto the man and God Almighty give you
mercy before the man that he may send
away your other brother and Benjamin.
And if I be bereaved of my children,
I'm bereaved.
Case, a Ross, a Rob, the man of
faith here.
They kill him.
They kill him, you know.
And the men took that present.
They took double the money in their hand
and Benjamin.
They rose up and they went down to
Egypt and they stood before Joseph.
Now Jacob, by the way, is left alone
to wrestle again.
And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he
said to the ruler of his house, bring
these men home and slay and make ready
for these men shall dine with me at
noon.
Now, Joseph's heart must be pounding.
You haven't seen Benjamin since he was maybe
seven years old, 20 some years later, says
to a servant, take the guys in my
house, kill a fatted calf, make some ribs
and barbecue.
They're going to eat with me.
Now the men were afraid because they were
brought into Joseph's house.
These guys now, if they were taken to
prison, I would understand they're taken to a
palace.
They're afraid.
These guys are afraid of everything.
They said it's because of the money that
was returned in our sacks.
The first time we were brought in that
he may seek occasion against us and fall
upon us and take us for slaves and
our donkeys.
Then they came to the steward of Joseph's
house and they communed with him.
Now this was the guy that had been
the interpreter.
He speaks Hebrew and they come and they
begin to talk with him.
And they said, sir, no, we indeed came
down the first time to buy food.
Now they're pleading their innocence with this guy.
And it came to pass when we came
to the end that we opened our sacks
and behold, every man's money was in the
mouth of a sack, our money in full
weight.
And we have brought it again in our
hand and other money have we brought down
in our hands to buy food.
And we don't know who put the money
in our sack.
So he's, you know, they say to the
guy, look, you know, we're not sure what's
going on here, but we just want you
to know, you know, the first time we
came, we came to buy food.
We didn't want to steal.
And on the way back, we found everybody
found the money that they had paid for
the grain in their sacks.
We don't know how it got there.
And now we're back again.
We bought the old money with, and we
brought new money.
We're not here to grub food.
We don't know how any of this happened.
Now, he said, this is Joseph's servant speaking
to them in Hebrew.
He says to them, you see the word
peace there in the text in the Hebrew,
he says to them, shalom.
They're all freaked out.
And an Egyptian's witnessing to them now.
Shalom be to you.
Fear not your God and the God of
your father have given you treasure in your
sacks.
I'm the one that had your money.
And he brought Simeon out unto them.
So, so this guy says to them, shalom,
he gives them a Hebrew greeting peace.
And he says, your God and the God
of your father's has given you your treasure
in your sacks.
I'm the one who had your money.
I put it in there.
God's given it to you.
They bring Simeon out to see his brother.
Simeon said, where in the world have you
guys been?
What'd you do?
Wait till your food ran out to come
down here again.
Yeah, but we were fasting and praying Simeon
asking God that he would let you go.
And the man brought the men into Joseph's
house and gave them water, washed their feet.
And he gave their donkeys spavender.
And they made ready the present for Joseph
because he was coming at noon for they
heard that they should eat bread there, eat
food there.
And when Joseph came home, they brought him
the present, which was in their hand into
the house.
They bowed themselves to him to the earth.
So you imagine now, uh, these 11 guys
are all in their faces before Joseph.
And he asked them of their welfare and
said, is your father?
Well, the old man of whom you spoke,
you spoke, is he at alive?
They lift up their heads off the ground
and they answer, thy servant.
Our father is good in good health.
He is yet alive.
And then they'd put their heads back down
on the ground again.
He's trying to talk to them.
They have to keep looking up and answer
and putting their heads down.
And Joseph is worrying.
Maybe he's thinking, I hope I didn't kill
dad, making them bring Benjamin down.
You don't break his heart.
Is this old man you were telling me
about still alive?
Is he still healthy?
And they lifted up his eyes and he
saw his brother, Benjamin, same mom, the one
brother from Rachel, same mother, his mother's son.
And he said, is this your younger brother
of whom you spake unto me?
And he said to Benjamin, God be gracious
unto thee, my son.
And Joseph made haste.
He begins to break down for his bowels
did yearn upon his brother.
And he sought where to weep and he
entered into his chamber and he wept there.
Isn't it interesting how God takes note of
this?
Psalm 56 says, Thou tellest all my wonderings
that you have kept all my tears in
thy bottle.
Are they not written in thy book?
How God's word is wonderful over and over
tells us of Joseph's broken heart.
And he wept there.
Now, what must he have been thinking?
I mean, Joseph now sees Benjamin.
He must be in his room weeping.
Oh, God, how I've longed for this for
years.
Lord, how do I handle this?
What is my next step?
God, are they as jealous over Benjamin as
they were over me?
Verse 31 says he washed his face, no
doubt his mascara was running, freshened himself up.
The Egyptians sometimes wore that stuff on their
eyes, you know.
And he went out and he reframed himself
and controlled himself and said, set on bread,
put out the meal.
And they set on for him by himself.
Joseph sat at his own table and for
them by themselves, the 12 brothers, the 11
brothers sit at their own table.
And for the Egyptians that were part of
his court, they sat at a separate table,
which did eat with him by themselves because
the Egyptians might not eat bread with.
Now, the King James says Hebrews, the word
is Haburi, which means nomads or shepherds.
That's where the word Hebrew comes from, from
Haburi, which was the Egyptian name for shepherd
or for nomad or for wanderer.
Because that every shepherd is an abomination unto
the Egyptians, they raise their crops there in
Egypt, they raise their flocks there.
This was a city with architecture and engineering
and technology that we still really don't understand
today.
There is in the Cairo Museum, a a
cobalt piece of of meteorite that we can
hardly cut today, finely carved.
I believe it's a cat or very intricate.
They have no idea, no idea how they
carved it.
There is a top to a sarcophagus that
had broken off and they put it in
there.
You can still see the cut.
And the only thing we can reproduce it
with today is a laser.
I have no idea how the Egyptians did
it in the hieroglyphics.
They find they had a single pill for
an amoeba that people still get from the
Nile today that is deadly that we can't
treat.
They had a single pill that got rid
of it.
The Great Pyramid in Giza.
Again, they look at that.
There is a share.
The one shaft goes one hundred seventy five
foot underground, two hundred fifty foot up.
And in the entire length from one end
to the other, it's a quarter inch off.
We would be hard pressed to duplicate it
with a laser today.
So this is a society and a civilization
and a culture that is very, very advanced.
And they disdain shepherds and nomads and people
that wandered like the Bedouins, even in the
hieroglyphics.
When they drew a picture of a shepherd,
often he was crippled.
He was dirty.
They disdain them so they wouldn't eat at
the table with them.
So they set three tables, one for Joseph
to eat by himself, one for his those
nobles that worked in his own court, his
palace, and the other one then for the
eleven brothers.
Now it says this.
And they sat before him, the first born
according to his birthright.
They set the first plate for Reuben and
the youngest according to his youth.
And the men marveled one to another.
What it says is they set them down
at the table according to the order that
they were born in, from Reuben down to
Benjamin, from the oldest to the youngest.
And it says they sit at the table
and they look at one another in amazement.
Henry Morris, the scientist from the Creation Investigation
Institute, has written a commentary on Genesis, says
the odds of placing those eleven brothers according
to their age perfectly is 40 million to
one.
It's exactly 39,917,000 to one that
you would get it right the first time.
And they sit down at the table and
they look at each other in amazement.
How in the world did he know this?
And then he took and he sent messes.
That's their meals.
Messes.
If you have small children at home, you
know that.
He took and sent the messes under them
from before him.
But Benjamin's plate, his setting, was five times
as much as any of theirs.
And they drank and they were merry with
him.
Now, amongst, what he's doing is he's setting
aside Benjamin as a noble.
Among the Spartans, they would take a prince
and give him a double portion.
The Cretans would give fourfold to a prince
as he sat at the table.
And the Egyptians would give a fivefold place
setting to royalty, to a prince.
So I think Joseph is doing this to
see their reaction to Benjamin.
Are they envious?
He gives them each, you know, their setting
and a fine meal, I'm sure.
But he sets before Benjamin fivefold.
And it says the brothers then go on
and they eat and they drink.
And evidently there's no animosity.
It says they're merry with Joseph eating and
drinking.
And he commanded the steward of his house
saying, fill the men's sacks with food as
much as they can carry and put every
man's money in his sack's mouth.
And put my cup, the silver cup, in
the sack's mouth of the youngest of Benjamin
and his grain money.
And he did according to the word of
Joseph that Joseph had spoken.
As soon as the morning was light, the
men were sent away and their donkeys.
And when they were gone out of the
city and not yet far off, Joseph said
unto his steward, now get up and follow
after the men.
And when you overtake them, say to them,
wherefore have you rewarded evil for good?
Is not this it which my Lord drinketh?
Haven't you taken the cup that he drinks
out of?
And whereby indeed he divineth, ye have done
evil in so doing.
So, you know, the Egyptians often would take
a chalice, a silver cup.
They would put water in it.
Rarely put blood in it.
Most of the time water.
Sometimes they would stir silver or gold that
was powdered into it or drop oil in
it.
And it was, they treated it the way
a fortune teller treats a crystal ball.
That by looking into it, they could divine
and tell the future.
Now Joseph obviously believes in the one true
living God.
He's not doing that, but he wants his
brothers to still be convinced that he's an
Egyptian.
So the servants now overtake them and say,
okay, what are you guys up to now?
You know, we send you away.
We're good to you.
I give you a good meal.
And one of you guys has stolen my
master's cup, the one he divines with.
And what is this you've done?
You're rewarding evil for good.
Verse six says, so he overtook them and
he spake unto them these same words and
they said unto him, wherefore sayeth my Lord
these words?
God forbid that thy servant should do according
to this thing.
Behold the money which we found in our
sacks mouths we brought again.
In other words, if we were thieves, why
would we have brought the money we found
the first time back to Egypt?
We brought it again unto thee out of
the land of Canaan.
How then should we steal out of my
Lord's house, silver or gold with whom so
ever of thy servants that be found, let
him die.
And we also will be my Lord's slaves.
So search our stuff.
If you find it with one of us,
kill the one who's got it.
And the rest of us will be your
slaves.
He said, now also let it be according
to your words.
He with whom it is found shall be
my servant and you shall be blameless.
Then they speedily took down every man's sack
to the ground and opened every man's sack.
And he searched and began at the eldest
at Reuben and left off at the youngest.
And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.
And they then rent their clothes and loaded
every man his donkey and returned then to
the city.
Now the guys could have split.
They could have gone back to Jacob without
Benjamin.
And we're beginning to see that their character
has changed.
Now, instead of letting a son of Rachel
go to Egypt without them being so as
Joseph was sold into slavery, they all turn
around and go with him, putting their own
lives on the line.
And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's
house, for he was yet there.
And they fell before him to the ground.
Joseph said unto them, what deed is this
that you have done?
Don't you know that such a man as
I can certainly divine?
And Judah said, what shall we say unto
my Lord?
What shall we speak or how shall we
clear ourselves?
Notice God has found out the iniquity of
thy servants.
They are so guilty about selling Joseph in
the Egypt.
Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we
and he also with whom the cup is
found.
Joseph said, God forbid that I should do
so.
But the man in whose hand the cup
is found, he shall be my servant.
And as for you, get up and go
in peace to your father.
Bless you guys.
Kind of a person do you think I
am?
And Judah came near unto him and said,
Oh, my Lord, let thy servant, I pray
thee speak a word in my Lord's ears.
Now he gets close to Joseph and he
kind of speaks to him privately.
Let not thine anger burn against thy servant,
for thou art even as Pharaoh.
My Lord asked his servants saying, have you
a father or a brother?
And we said unto my Lord, we have
a father, an old man and a child
of his old age, a little one, and
his brother is dead.
Now he's whispering this in Joseph's ear.
I mean, this is amazing, an amazing story.
And he alone is left of his mother,
of Rachel, and his father loves him.
And thou sayest unto thy servants, bring him
down unto me that I may set my
eyes upon him.
And we said unto my Lord, the lad
cannot leave his father, for if he should
leave his father, his father would die.
And thou saidest unto thy servants, your youngest
brother come down with you, you shall not
see my face again.
And it came to pass when we came
up unto thy servant, my father, we told
him the words of my Lord.
And our father said, go again and buy
a little food.
And we said, we can't go down if
our youngest brother is not with us.
Then will we go down for we may
not see the man's face except our youngest
brother be with us.
And thy servant, my father, said unto us,
you know that my wife bear me two
sons.
And the one went out from me, and
I said, surely he is torn in pieces.
Now, by the way, this is the first
time Joseph is hearing the alibi that his
brothers gave to Jacob twenty some years before
this.
Now Joseph hears what their excuse was for
the first time.
He said, my father Jacob said, surely my
son Joseph was torn in pieces, and I
saw him not since.
Joseph's heart is breaking as he's listening to
this.
And if you take this also from me,
speaking of Benjamin, and mischief befall him, you
shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow
to the grave.
I will die.
Now therefore, when I come to thy servant,
my father, and the lad be not with
us, seeing that his life is bound up
with the lad's life.
You know, my father is a son of
his old age, and my father's very life,
the reason he stays alive, is bound up
with the life of Benjamin.
It shall come to pass when he seeth
that the lad is not with us, that
he will die.
And thy servant shall bring down the gray
hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow
to the grave.
For thy servant became surety for the lad.
I put my own life on the line
unto my father, saying, If I bring him
not unto thee, then I shall bear the
blame to my father forever.
Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant
abide instead of the lad a slave to
my lord.
And let the lad be up with his
brethren.
For how shall I go up to my
father, and the lad be not with me,
lest perhaps I see the evil that shall
come upon my father.
And now Joseph is convinced at this point
in time.
What Benjamin, you know, Joseph had been thinking,
how could brothers sell a brother into slavery?
You know, what kind of heart, you know,
and how often he probably thought about that
when he was in the dungeon.
Now he's finally hearing Judah, and Judah is
the one who said, sell him into slavery.
Judah is the one who didn't care back
in chapter 37.
Judah is the one now who says, no,
take me, let me be the one in
the pit.
Let me be the one sold into slavery,
so that my brother can live and my
father doesn't receive any more heartache.
And this is what exactly, you know, this,
it's the heart of God being reflected, because
that would be the heart of God reflected
in in his son as he came, that
that he would come and become a slave
that you and I might be set free
from Egypt and from Satan, from death and
from sin.
And Joseph, as he hears this, this is
what he's been longing to hear.
And he's ready now to reveal himself.
Then Joseph could not reframe himself before all
of them that stood by his servants and
his royal entourage.
And he cries now, no doubt in Egypt,
in Egyptian, he cried, cause every man to
go out from me.
And you can see all the nobles running
out now.
And they're thinking, I don't know what he's
saying, but he's mad.
And there stood no man with him, just
Joseph face to face with his 11 brothers,
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
And he wept aloud.
He breaks down in front of them, weeping
again, the spirit takes note.
And the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh
heard, so he is so loud in his
weeping now that his own servants in his
own palace are listening.
They didn't have storm windows like we do
today.
And it says all the way in Pharaoh's
palace, they could hear Joseph weeping.
And Joseph said to his brethren in Hebrew
now, finally, I am Joseph.
Doth my father yet live?
And his brethren could not answer him, for
they were troubled at his presence.
Terrified is the word in Hebrew.
Speechless, awestruck as they stood there looking at
him.
And Joseph said to his brethren, come near
to me, I pray you.
And they came near to him and they
came near.
And he said, I am Joseph, your brother,
whom you sold into Egypt.
Now Benjamin is hearing for the first time
what really happened to his brother, whom you
sold into Egypt.
Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with
yourselves that you sold me hither, for God
did send me before you to preserve life.
And again, I look at this and I
think, isn't it remarkable?
Be not grieved nor angry with yourselves.
I think, you know, so much of the
time if somebody just back bites us or
talks about us or somebody comes to us
and said, well, this person told me that
you said this when you heard that I
said this, and pretty soon we're already ready
to kill somebody.
Let alone actually taking us, throwing us in
a pit, selling us into slavery, lying to
our family that we're dead and gone, twenty
years of our life ripped away from us.
And what comes out of Joseph's mouth is,
be not angry or grieved with yourselves.
And again, we don't find, we don't find
in his hundred and ten years of life
recorded a bitter or a vengeful or an
angry word recorded.
And it is so incredible.
And I think so often we are angry
or grieved with ourselves.
We do something and we fail.
And if we're young Christians, you know, we
put our Bible on the table, we let
it fall open, and it always falls open
to the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit or
Hebrews six or Hebrews ten, and we're going,
you know, I'm lost.
I'm beyond, you know, and we read in
the scripture that God has forgiven us.
We find it so hard to forgive ourselves.
We can read the words that are written.
And some other Christian will come around us
and they're condemned.
We minister to them.
Well, don't worry.
It's His grace.
He loves you and they go away blessed.
And we're still not believing what we just
told them.
And if that's you this evening.
Now, let me tell you something.
If you are presently in sin, transgression, rebellion,
if you are presently living in sin knowingly,
you are in rebellion.
And I pray that God chastens you.
We're not cutting you any slack because God
doesn't.
You know, you're God's kid.
You don't get away with it.
Unbelievers get away with all kinds of stuff.
God's kids, if you haven't noticed, don't get
away with anything.
But we're talking about here, someone who's done
something in the past, someone who's regretting it.
Someone, one of God's dear children that is
that is after years, sometimes still not forgiving
themselves, still grieved with themselves, still angry with
themselves, still carrying guilt that they shouldn't be
carrying.
Because the Bible clearly says that if we
confess our sins, he's faithful and just to
forgive us and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness.
And yet you and I both know Christians
that are kind of, you know, Eeyore Christians.
You guys watch Winnie the Pooh, don't you?
Eeyore Christians.
Well, I know that's what the Bible says,
but I don't see how God could love
me.
And I keep doing the same thing over
and over, you know, and just I do
that once in a while, but just for
an hour, then I come back again.
Now, it's important.
Look, the reason that this story is recorded
with so much detail, 25% of the
book of Genesis about the life of Joseph,
more than far more than any other character
in the book, far more than Abraham or
Noah.
And that is because Joseph most closely parallels
God's dear son who would be sent into
the world, who would be rejected by his
brethren, came unto his own, his own received
him not, to the Jews, sold into slavery
as it were, handed over to Pilate and
to the chief priests, thrown into the dungeon,
crucified as it were, then brought out of
the dungeon to a place of glory, resurrected,
the power of the Father, given a Gentile
bride, and one day still to be revealed
to his brethren, as it says in Matthew
23, henceforth, you shall see me no more
until you say, blessed is he who cometh
in the name of the Lord.
Zechariah 12, 10, they shall look upon me
whom they have pierced and mourn as one
mourns for an only son.
And the heart of God toward us this
evening is be not grieved nor angry with
yourselves.
You may have done something in one way,
but God's providence and sovereignty overrides, and how
we can turn those things around.
And my encouragement to you is if you
are carrying guilt for something that's in your
past, before you leave this evening, take it
off your back, drop it on the floor,
it'll roll down the front here, the floor
is slanted, and it will disappear forever.
Take it off.
Give it up.
Don't sit around for the rest of your
life and say, I don't deserve to be
saved.
Let's settle that.
You don't.
I don't.
Don't for the rest of your life say,
I'm not worthy.
You're not.
I'm not.
Revelation chapter 5 says, the angel searched in
heaven, on the earth, and under the earth,
and John wept because no man was found
worthy.
Now, when I first realized that, that was
a tremendous relief because I thought for sure
I had to be.
I was the one guy they were all
looking for.
None of us are worthy.
No flesh will glory in his presence.
All that has been accomplished has been accomplished
at heaven's expense.
God only desires that you walk in faith,
that you confess when you make a mistake,
that you leave then the weight of your
guilt with him.
Now therefore, be not grieved or angry with
yourselves that you sold me here for God
did send me before you to preserve life.
What a remarkable perspective.
For these two years have the famine been
in the land, and yet there are five
years in which there shall be neither earing
nor harvest.
And God sent me before you to preserve
you a prosperity.
The idea is as a nation, a people
in the earth, and to save your lives
by a great deliverance.
So now it was not you that sent
me here, but God.
And he hath made me a father to
Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and
a ruler throughout all of the land of
Egypt.
How incredible that he is able to lift
his eyes above his present circumstances and to
bring it into perspective of eternity and spirituality.
I think as we, you know, do we
treat people who have offended us in a
tremendous way this way, or are we just
holding on?
You know, I know for me, there's some
people in the past that have hurt me
and I, and I, okay, I've forgiven them
and I believe I put aside and all
of a sudden if I hear their voice
or I see their face, all of these
old feelings can come flooding back again.
And I look at Joseph without a New
Testament, without an Old Testament, without church on
Sunday, without the fellowship of the saints, without
all the advantages we enjoy.
There's nowhere in the Bible record that God
ever appeared to Joseph.
He appeared to Jacob.
He doesn't appear again.
So he appears to Moses, the burning bush.
Joseph had no appearance of God in his
life.
He had the instruction of his father, Israel,
but how remarkable he is able through the
dreams I believe that God had given him
to look around and say, Lord, you're on
the throne.
Nobody could mistreat me.
And my life is not my own.
As Paul says, our life is not our
own.
It's bought with a price.
And he said, I'm crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live.
Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
In the life I now live in the
flesh, I live for the Son of God
who loved me and gave himself for me.
It's not my life anyway.
How can anybody injure me?
I don't have a life anymore.
And Joseph is looking at life that way
at this point in time.
Wasn't you?
What you did wasn't right.
Joseph's not saying, oh, it's fine and dandy.
Anytime you have a bad day, sell one
of your brothers into slavery.
He's not saying it was good or it
was fine or it wasn't wrong.
He's just saying God was overriding in all
of these things.
And now because of the way it's all
turned out, don't be angry or grieved with
yourselves.
It wasn't you that sent me here.
It was God that sent me here to
preserve life, to be a father to Pharaoh
and all of his house.
Haste ye, go up to my father.
Hurry up, go get dad and say unto
him, thus saith thy son, Joseph.
And imagine, you know, the last time Jacob
saw them, they said, the man, the man
down in Egypt said, bring Benjamin.
We're going back to see the man.
You know, now they're going to come back
up to Canaan and look into Jacob's face
and say, thus saith thy son, Joseph.
That's incredible.
Say to him, thus saith thy son, Joseph.
God hath made me Lord of all of
Egypt.
Come down unto me, tarry not.
Thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen,
about 900 square miles, Goshen.
Thou shalt be near me.
Do we want the people who have stabbed
us in the back to be near us?
Not me.
Somebody stabs me in the back.
I say, okay, Lord, I'll forgive him.
I can't forget.
So make them at least 3,000 miles
away from me.
And Joseph says, be near unto me, thou
and thy children, thy children's children, thy flocks,
thy herds, and all that thou hast.
And there I will nourish thee.
You know, this is remarkable.
It isn't just that he's forgiven them.
He wants them close.
And the people that have mistreated him in
the greatest way, he wants to nourish them
and to bless them.
There I will nourish thee.
And yet there are others who have not.
There are five years of famine.
Lest thou and thy household and all that
thou hast come to poverty.
Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of
my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth
that speaketh unto you.
Speak in Hebrew, no interpreter.
And you shall tell my father of all
my glory in Egypt and of all that
you have seen.
And you shall hasten and bring down my
father here.
And then, and how long I would love
to have seen this, he fell upon his
brother Benjamin's neck and wept.
And Benjamin wept upon his neck.
Moreover, he kissed all of his brethren and
wept upon them.
And after that, his brethren talked with him.
Maybe the first time in their lives.
When he was seventeen and they were back
in Canaan in chapter thirty-seven, it says
they detested him.
His ten older brothers hated his guts.
He realized they may never have looked into
his eyes and talked to him before this.
And there was lots to catch up on.
They probably said, where did you get that
name, Zaphnath Penea?
My wife's name is Azenath, but my kids
are Manasseh and Ephraim.
Oh, forgetting and fruitful.
And just he must have asked them, what
is going on?
How amazing.
And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's
house.
By the way, it was heard all the
way here in Calvary Chapel tonight.
This is such an amazing story.
It said it was heard in Pharaoh's house
saying, Joseph's brethren are coming.
It pleased Pharaoh well and his servants.
Joseph was loved.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, say unto thy
brethren, this do ye.
Load up your beasts and go and get
you into the land of Canaan and take
your father and your households and come unto
me and I will give you the good
of the land of Egypt and you shall
eat the fat of the land and thou
art commanded this do ye.
Take you wagons out of the land of
Egypt for your little ones and for your
wives and for your father and come on
down.
Also, regard not your stuff.
It's hard to do, isn't it?
Regard not your stuff.
Because we insure our stuff these days.
Regard not your stuff for the good of
all the land of Egypt is yours.
And the children of Israel did so and
Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment
of Pharaoh and he gave them provision for
the way.
To all of them he gave each man
changes of raiment.
But to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of
silver and five changes of raiment.
And to his father he sent after this
manner, ten asses loaded with good things of
Egypt, ten she-asses loaded with grain and
bread and meat for his father by the
way.
I just can't imagine.
Dad, Joseph's alive.
These ten donkeys are for you.
You know, here they come out of Egypt
with wagons and chariots and loaded.
All the people of the mainland must have
looked and thought, what?
And around them is drought and disaster and
famine and suffering and here they come.
How incredible.
And they went up out of Egypt and
came up out of the land of Egypt
to Canaan and to Jacob their father and
they told him saying Joseph is yet alive
and he is governor over all the land
of Egypt.
And Jacob's heart fainted just like mine is
reading this.
It stopped.
He did a Fred Sanford.
You know.
Here's the man of faith and he believed
them not.
Because they were all chips off the old
block.
You can't believe their first story most of
the time.
And they told him all the words of
Joseph which he had said unto them and
when he saw the wagons which Joseph had
sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob
their father revived.
And Israel said, it is enough.
Joseph my son is yet alive.
I will go and see him before I
die.
What an incredible, incredible story.
Let's stand.
You know, I know it was hard for
those brothers to receive the forgiveness that Joseph
freely gave to them.
In fact, as we read through now, 17
years after this, when Jacob dies and he's
taken back up to Egypt and buried in
the cave of Mephila, then the brothers say,
now that dad is dead, Joseph is going
to get us.
Still guilty and still not believing that forgiveness
can be offered so freely when it's divine.
When it's heaven's forgiveness.
And if you don't know Jesus Christ this
evening as your personal Lord and Savior, you
know, you need to discover that heaven's forgiveness
is given freely.
In fact, the Bible says where sin doth
abound, grace doth much more abound.
If you're a murderer or a thief or
a druggie or abortion, whatever you've done, it
doesn't matter.
The one that we're speaking of will wash
you and cleanse you of all of your
sin forever and make you his son or
his daughter.
No strings attached.
I know it sounds too good to be
true.
It is too good to be true, but
it is true.