Joseph Part Two — Genesis 37-45

0:00 Why don't we start with a word of prayer? Father, we're grateful there is power in the blood. It's the only reason that any of us are here this morning. I pray, Lord, that you would speak through me and touch our hearts with your word. Help us not only to hear it, but to live it out, to apply it, to be doers of your word, spread the gospel in this community and in the world.

0:27 Pray in Christ's name, amen. So, after several weeks off, we are returning to our study in Genesis. Who gave the last message in Genesis? What? Nathan Morris.

0:45 That's right. That's right. It's Nathan Morris. He covered Genesis Chapters 37 through 39. And the title of his message was Joseph Part one.

0:55 So, today, I'm giving Joseph Part two. And we will leave it up to somebody else to give Joseph part three, four, five, six, etcetera. You know, I was listening to Nathan's message this week. I told him this back at the coffee time. I think Nathan should get a job as one of those people who records books on tape.

1:21 I was just driving along, listening to him read the account of Joseph and I was just getting so excited and so wrapped up in the story. So, maybe quiet Paul maybe Nathan could just be one of these people who reads the Bible and we can listen to that. Anyway, there were four points to his message, if you remember. I love you too, buddy. So, we're off to a bad start.

1:55 That's alright. There were four points to Nathan's message. Nathan, you can correct me if I've got these wrong, but the four points that I took away were that the story of Joseph is enthralling. It has suspense, drama, it has blood and guts. Point two: Joseph was a story about a family that was broken.

2:17 And it's about redemption. If we think back to some of the problems in the family of Joseph, particularly the sons of Jacob, polygamy, favoritism, envy, arrogance, anger, immorality, sexual sin, the list goes on and on. The family was messed up. Point three, Joseph is a story about God's sovereign goodness, and that is really the point that I am going to try and connect with this morning. It's a story about God's sovereign goodness.

2:47 And point four, that Joseph is really the story of Jesus. As I was doing research for this message, I read in a couple places that maybe the reason the account of Joseph is in the Bible is because Joseph gives us an example of a man that we are to imitate, or it gives us an example of how we are to respond in the face of temptation. And I suppose that could be true, but I think the reason that this story is in the Bible is because Joseph is an example of Christ. And that's the point we're going to try and focus on today. And if Joseph is an example of Christ, we also want to think about how his brothers, Judah and the others, maybe are an example of the church or of other believers.

3:35 We're going think about how Joseph could be an Old Testament type of Christ. We're going to talk about God's forgiveness and maybe in the end, we'll learn a little bit about how to forgive each other in a more godly way. So, Nathan said he was kind of leaving you in the middle of the story. It was like cliffhanger. It turned out to be quite a long cliff.

3:55 I mean, several weeks have been, we've been going over the cliff now, and so now we're going to see what happens here at the end. I am not going to try and cover Genesis 40 or 41. There is just too much content in here. Maybe one of these days, I will become the kind of speaker who can just cover large tracts of Scripture. I always prefer to have two or three verses to focus on.

4:19 So, if someone wants to catch us up with chapters forty and forty one at a later time, that would be fine. I will give you a brief summary, for those of you that have not read this in a while. Joseph ends up in jail because of some lies told by the wife of a man named Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials. So, Joseph is in jail, didn't do anything wrong, he's thrown into prison. While he's in prison, he meets these other two guys, a baker and a cup bearer.

4:52 Cup bearer. And he interprets their dreams and his interpretations turn out to be true. One of them dies, I forget which, the other one gets back into Pharaoh's court and forgets about Joseph. And so Joseph is still in prison. And a few years later, Pharaoh himself has a dream.

5:08 And Pharaoh says, I had this crazy dream. Nobody can interpret it. And somebody says, Oh, you know what? That reminds me. Several years ago, I knew a guy in jail who was able to interpret dreams.

5:18 So, the Bible says Joseph gets himself cleaned up, he goes into Pharaoh's presence, he interprets Pharaoh's dream, and Pharaoh is so astounded. He allows Joseph out of prison and makes him second in command over the whole nation. So, that's where I'm going to pick up in Genesis chapter 42. And I will give you, as Paul Harvey would have said, the rest of the story. And if you laughed at that, that means you must be older than me.

6:23 Then we will look at the recognition when Joseph finally reveals himself to his family. And finally, we will take a look at the application. What does this story mean for us today? I'm sorry, they don't all start with the same letter, but they do all kind of rhyme. So, let's pick it up in Genesis 40 two:one.

6:48 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, why do you just keep looking at each other? I think that's something my dad said to my brother and I when we were young. Why are you guys just sitting around staring? Why don't you get to work? Why do you keep looking at each other?

7:04 He continued, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die. Then 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt, but Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others because he was afraid that harm might come to him. So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also. This is the famine that Joseph had interpreted the dream of Pharaoh.

7:31 So there's going to be this famine. And it's not just going to be a famine in Egypt. This is going to be a famine on a large scale. So it has spread into Canaan. Verse six.

7:40 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized But he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. Where do you come from? He asked.

8:01 From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food. Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. A long time has passed since they sold Joseph into slavery. So, they don't recognize him. Verse nine, Then he remembered his dreams about them and said, You are spies.

8:20 You have come to see where our land is unprotected. No, my lord, they answered, Your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies. No, he said to them, you have come to see where our land is unprotected.

8:34 But they replied, your servants were 12 brothers, the son of one man who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one of us is no more. Joseph said to them, It is just as I told you, you were spies, and this is how you will be tested. As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place until your youngest brother comes here. Send one of your number to get your brother and the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see whether you are telling the truth.

9:04 If you are not, as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies. And he put them all into custody for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you will live. For I fear God, if you are an honest man, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back to your starving households. But you must bring your youngest brother to me so that your words may be verified and that you may not die.

9:29 This they proceeded to do. They said to one another, surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us. So the brothers clearly are connecting their current troubles with the one great and terrible event that has overshadowed their lives, and that is that fateful day when they sold Joseph into slavery.

9:59 And you can almost picture them in Egypt remembering that pit, the Ishmaelite traders, their brother Joseph off to the side crying out for mercy, and instead they sell him into slavery. And I think it's more than that the brothers are just upset at the results of their sin. They actually are aware that they are guilty before God of doing something wrong. You know, it's very easy for me to be upset about sin if it deprives me from something I want. Wow, I sinned and something bad happened, so I'm upset about my sin.

10:36 That's a totally different circumstance than understanding that I am a sinner in the presence of God, that I am guilty of despising and rejecting Christ. And it's only when that knowledge finally gets to my heart that I start to feel the pang of guilt, and that is what drives me to plead for mercy. It took me a long time to figure that out. I am almost ashamed to admit how long it took me to figure out that every time I sin, it is a sin exactly against Christ. Every time I speak an unkind word, every time I choose the pleasures of the world over the joys of heaven, it's just as much as if I'm spitting in the face of Jesus.

11:22 Every time I say ungodly things, I refuse to learn from preaching, it's like I'm a traitor to the Lord Jesus. And I might not feel the weight of my sins immediately, but once I reflect upon the fact that Christ loved me, that He gave Himself for me, that He chose me before He had created the earth and the stars, then kind of like Joseph's brother, I realize that my sins are intensely cruel. So, not only do the brothers have a recognition that they are guilty before God, but they're also afraid, if we were to peek ahead two chapters to when Joseph finally does reveal himself to his brothers, it says that they were terrified in his presence. Genesis 40 five:three, they're terrified. You know, Joseph is second only to Pharaoh in the land.

12:17 If he were to order them imprisoned or killed, nobody could stop him. So, their fate is in his hands. And, this is kind of how sinners are when we awake to our sins and realize, I am in the hands of the very Christ who I have been rejecting. Remember, it is Christ who is now the judge of the living and the dead. John five twenty two, The Father judges no man, but he has committed all judgment to the Son.

12:47 To the Son, that's right. Now, sometimes we don't like to think of Jesus as a judge. Some of us like this song, Behold He comes, riding on the clouds, shining like the sun, at the trumpet call. But He's coming riding in in judgment. Right?

13:03 He's not coming in to throw a party. Revelation six sixteen tells us that men will call to the mountains and the rocks, fall on us and hide from us, hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. So, the brothers of Joseph are both aware of their guilt and they are afraid. And that is the condition of many sinners before Christ. So that's the condition.

13:50 I'm Joseph. I'm alive. Let's rejoice. But he doesn't do that. What is he doing here?

13:58 Well, he holds Simeon hostage while the others go back to Canaan to get their youngest brother, Benjamin. So, they do this, and then they come back with Benjamin to Egypt. Now, pick it up in verse 29. Verse 29 of Genesis 43. Genesis 4three 29.

14:26 As Joseph looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son, he asked, Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about? And he said, God be gracious to you, my son. Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there. After he had washed his face, he came out controlling himself and said, serve the food.

14:51 They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that was detestable to the Egyptians. The men had been seated before him in order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest, and they looked at each other in astonishment. What are they astonished about? How does he know how old we are? These guys aren't kids.

15:16 We got a group of grown men together. They're being seated from the eldest to the youngest. They are astonished. Verse 34, when portions were served to them from Joseph's table, Benjamin's portion was five times as much as anyone else's. So they feasted and drank freely with him.

15:32 What is going on here? That is a question I will confess that I have asked God himself in my own life. What is going on? Have you ever questioned the activities of God? Why doesn't God just show up and reveal himself to me?

15:53 That's really what I want. Why is there all this rigmarole? And maybe you can even look back in your life and you think you have some proof that God is never going to bless you. In fact, if we look at our circumstances, it's not altogether clear that we are going to receive the blessing. I mean, look at these guys.

16:12 One of them has been imprisoned. They've been accused of being spies, they had to go back to Canaan, had to bring Benjamin back, which, by the way, would have been extremely difficult for their father Jacob. They're unable to see the true nature of Joseph. All they can see is confusion. Here's somebody getting five times as much food.

16:31 What is happening? And sometimes I feel like God is treating me like that. Sometimes I go to God and I feel like I have prayed to Him, but he is keeping my desires locked up like Simeon was locked up in prison. Instead of feeling his mercy, you know the verse that I sometimes hear when I am praying? It is not good to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs.

17:01 Those were the words of Jesus. And in my heart, I will confess I have sometimes questioned whether or not I am a child of God or I'm just one of the dogs. Sometimes God seems to shut his ears to my requests. Now, sometimes it is true, Jesus sees a sinner coming from a long way off, and he rushes to him and meets him on the way and throws his arms around his neck and kind of like the prodigal son. But Joseph doesn't do this.

17:35 In fact, Joseph knew that the sun, the moon, the stars had to bow down to him. Remember the dream? Remember the dream from his childhood? He knew that brothers had to bow down to him. And our Lord knows the same.

17:50 He knows that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and every tongue confess that He is Lord. And there may be sometimes when God has to deal harshly with us or we would never bow down in that kind of deep humiliation that his glory deserves. And what is he doing with giving Benjamin all this food? I don't think he expected Benjamin to eat five times as much food. This is puzzling to me.

18:21 So, in some of the things that I've read this week, they said that he is trying to figure out if there is still envy and hatred among the brothers. Will they turn in envy and hatred upon the youngest as they did upon him when he had the coat of many colors? God is still checking for envy and hatred in his community today. If there was a verse we could put, maybe on the sign out by the road, it could be one Corinthians ten twenty four, Let no one seek his own good but the good of his neighbor. The church is not a place for consumers.

19:08 This is not a restaurant. I'm not going to leave here and post a review on TripAdvisor. Well, the people were friendly, but the portions in the first service were really small. You know, we're not customers here. This is a place where we come to offer the sacrifices of God in service to one another.

19:31 And we ought to care more about our community than about myself. That's why in Revelation, I think one of the warnings to a local church is that the warning of losing their lampstand. Now, what does a lampstand hold? A lamp. A lamp, right?

19:52 Who's the lamp? The Lord. There are churches today that have lost their lampstand. Yet, they still meet. You could still go there Sunday morning, but they no longer have the unity that binds them together enough to hold on to the lampstand, and the light is gone.

20:15 So, we see two points here that Joseph's true nature is hidden from his brothers. And sometimes, God's true nature is going to be hidden from us. And second, Joseph is checking to see, are they still full of envy? Are they still full of spite and hatred? And God is still checking for that in our community today.

20:52 There's so much in these chapters that I just feel like I'm not doing an adequate job, but we're going to push ahead. Genesis 4four 30. So, what has happened here is that Joseph has said to the brothers, You guys can go. You can have all the food, but Benjamin is going to stay here as my slave. Right?

21:14 And Judah makes the following speech. Genesis 4four 30. So now, if the boy, if Benjamin, is not with us, when I go back to my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up in the boy's life, sees that he isn't there, my father will die. And we will bring the grey head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. I guaranteed the boy's safety to my father and I said, if I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all of my life.

21:54 Now then, please let me remain here as a slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No, do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father. What a change has come upon Judah in the span of many years. I mean, whose idea was it to sell Joseph into slavery in the first place?

22:22 It was Judah. And it wasn't like he was thinking, well, at least we'll preserve his life by doing this. No, no. He was thinking, we can get rid of him and make some money by doing this. So, he's the one who sold Joseph into slavery.

22:38 Once he had done the deed, Judah went to his father and without any record of guilt or remorse tells his dad, your son is dead and breaks his father's heart. Judah, whose own sons were so wicked that God had to remove them. Judah who decided it would be a good idea to visit a temple prostitute. Now, he is offering his own life in exchange for Benjamin. You know, the Bible talks about the lord will take away your heart of stone And what does He give you?

23:16 A heart of flesh. This is a picture of that right here. Whereas in the past, Judah willingly broke his dad's heart. He mentions his father 14 times in this little speech. What's happening is that God is working through the most corrupt branch of the family to rescue it and transform it so that the ultimate Redeemer will come through the descendants of Judah.

23:48 You know, Jesus is called the Lion of Judah. It's not the Lion of Joseph, the Lion of Judah. And I think Judah is a reminder to people who are struggling with, Why have I been a slave to sin for so long? Where is my life going? Will we ever get there?

24:09 Will the promises of God ever come true in my life? Who are we as a people? It might take several years, as it did in the life of Judah, to get those answers. But, we are a people of the promise. And, no matter how corrupt we might be, God is working to transform us into people who can be channels where Christ can flow to all the nations.

24:38 I firmly believe that. We are being threatened by enemies on the outside, by corruption on the inside, but the promise of God is not going to go out because God is working all things together for good. Joseph is clearly stunned by this turn of events. He is overcome with emotion. Genesis 45, Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants and he cried out, 'Have everyone leave my presence.' So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.

25:37 When they had done so, he said, I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. For two years now, there has been famine in the land and for the next five years, there will be no plowing or reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve a remnant on the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. It's kind of hard for me to imagine how the brothers must have felt when Joseph finally revealed himself to them.

26:20 This is the guy who they sold into slavery, who they dipped his clothes in blood, who they have been carrying on this deception about him being dead for, some people say, twenty years at this point. And what does Joseph do? Does he berate them? Does he chastise them? Does he punish them for their great sins?

26:41 Actually, the Scripture says that he draws near to them. He empties the room of all the Egyptians, and in the silence of an empty room, He embraces them and He weeps with them. This is another picture of what Christ has done for us. In fact, there are so many pictures of Christ in these verses. We only have time for a few.

27:04 First, Joseph reveals himself by name. He says, I am Joseph. And to each sinner, the Son of God reveals himself by name. I am Christ. I am the Savior.

27:17 I am Jesus. In that moment, you know, our souls are able to see not just the judge, but also the Redeemer. When we see Jesus, we see the wounds that our own sins caused. We see the crown of thorns that we put on his head. But, we also see the crown of glory that Jesus offers us.

27:41 And for each sinner, there could be a day when Christ speaks to them as if directly from the cross. Says, I am Jesus. Trust in me. Repent and be saved. I'm going to wash away your sins forever.

27:55 I will bring you safely, as someone mentioned this morning, I will bring you safely to your home. Second, so the first one is he revealed himself by name. Second, after he reveals his name, Joseph reveals his relationship. I am Joseph, your brother. And this is what Christ says to us as well.

28:17 Right? Jesus is our brother. The Son of God calls us as if we were his own family. And as our brother, he feels for us, he sympathizes for us, and he loved us before we even knew he existed. The best...

28:35 You know what the best proof of Christ's love is for you? It's that He has redeemed you with His blood. You know, this kind of love is a little bit like, you know, the love I have for Paul, for example. I loved him before he was even born. And one day he's going to say to me, Daddy, I love you.

28:57 And I will say, I love you too. I always have. I always will. That is the wonderful thing about being a parent. And Jesus loved us before we were even born.

29:13 And he wants to restore the relationship that sin has broken. Third, having revealed his name and his relationship, Joseph invites them to approach. He says, come near to me, I pray you. Some of us, maybe all of us at times, want to kind of hide away in the corner. We don't want to tell anybody the ache in our hearts or the desperation we are feeling over life's circumstances.

29:47 But Jesus says, come near to me, I pray you. Confess the sin. Ask for his pardon. Jesus holds you in his hands. You know, Spurgeon said, the hands and feet of Christ were nailed to the cross.

30:09 And he will not use those to push you away. Fourth, notice the consolation. He does not say to his brothers, I am not angry with you. I forgive you. He actually says something to them which is much sweeter for them to hear.

30:33 Do not be angry with yourselves. In short, what he's saying is, you know, it's ridiculous to think that I am angry with you. What is important now is that you stop being angry with yourselves and with each other. To those of us who are saved, the forgiving work of Christ is done. He is not angry with us.

30:57 His heart is softened for us. His death has covered our sins. The question now is whether I'm gonna allow my own anger, self hatred, guilt eat away at the rest of my life. We talked about this in the first service, that the nature of forgiveness, the message of the Gospel is that, yes, we have sinned, but Christ has died. We destroy ourselves and he saves us.

32:02 Do you notice how I avoided eye contact with any person while I said that? It is not easy for me to forgive other human beings. But once I have the love of Christ in my heart, I should start to forgive people the way that Joseph forgives his brothers. When the brothers arrive in Joseph's presence, who makes the first move toward restoration? It's Joseph.

32:33 He doesn't wait around thinking, Well, I'm willing to forgive them, but they must first ask for forgiveness. Right? I've heard people say, you can't forgive somebody who doesn't ask for forgiveness. I'm not really sure that's biblical. At the very least, we have an example here of someone who forgave those who never asked for it.

32:57 Joseph's brothers, they never get down on the ground and beg for forgiveness for selling them to slavery, but Joseph initiates both the reconciliation and he extends the forgiveness. When I sin, Megan can either say, you're sleeping on the couch tonight, buddy, or she can initiate forgiveness with kind words. I tried to think of a real life example of this, but I'm such a perfect husband that I couldn't come up with anything. The question is going to be, when somebody sins against me, how willing am I to forgive them? Am I only willing to forgive them if they come and track me down and drop their knees and sort of grovel on the ground in front of me?

33:50 And then I think, Okay, all right. Well, I'll forgive you. Or maybe I say, Well, I'll forgive you if you never do it again. Don't ever do that again. I forgive you.

33:59 Or maybe I pout about it for a while, right? Or I hold a grudge for twenty years before I finally, okay, I'll let it go and forgive you. Maybe I inflict revenge. There's all kinds of sad and pitiful things that we Christians do to each other when we ought to be forgiving. The message of Joseph, one message is that when we forgive, we're supposed to get close, draw near to the person who has hurt us, initiate the forgiveness out of love, reassure that person by your words and your actions that you've forgiven them.

34:38 Garth Brooks. I don't want to use country music as my example of how to live, but Garth Brooks had a song, which I thought was appropriate in this circumstance. I'll just read you the lyrics. We bury the hatchet, but we leave the handle sticking out. We're always digging up things we should forget about.

35:04 When it comes to forgetting, baby there ain't no doubt, we bury the hatchet but leave the handle sticking out. Yes, that was Garth Brooks. We leave the handle sticking out. How often do we sort of pretend to forgive somebody, but then we attach some conditions to it? That's like grabbing hold of the handle.

35:25 Well, this person has offended me. Hey, I forgave them. Yep. I just cannot let it go. But we're called upon to forgive unconditionally.

35:37 And God does the same for us in that while we were yet sinners, he sent his son to die on our behalf. He didn't wait until the whole world was crying out for forgiveness to say, okay, fine, I send a Savior. God initiates the reconciliation with us. And finally, something that helps me forgive others is the knowledge that God works in all circumstances. And in my opinion, this is one of the reasons why Joseph was able so easily to forgive his brothers.

36:50 Yes, He forgave me, but now He's going to deprive me of blessing because of the bad things I've done. So they sent word to Joseph saying, Your father left these instructions before he died. Yes, sure he did. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly.

37:13 Now, please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. When this message came to him, Joseph wept. You know, the brothers are trying to put on this kind of performance for him. I think when we do the same kind of thing for God, there's a part of God that is weeping as well. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him.

37:36 We are your slaves, they said. But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. Many of us have read Romans eight twenty eight.

37:57 Some of us have memorized it. God works together all things. All things work together for good, for those who love God and who are called according to His purposes. But you know what? When it says all things, it means all things.

38:19 Every instance, every moment of our life is working together for some purpose that God has. The evil that is in me, the wickedness that is directed toward me, all those things are working together for the good. And what exactly is the good anyway? What is the good working together for the good? That must be how I want life to turn out.

38:43 Wouldn't that be good? That's not what the good is. The good is how God wants life to turn out. And God is in the business of rescuing people and transforming people like Judah, like Abe, so that I can become a channel of blessing to the world. And that Romans eight twenty eight promise, by the way, is not for everybody.

39:08 It's for those who love God, those who have bowed the knee to King Jesus and are willing to follow Him. So knowing that God is in control is one thing that has helped me forgive other people. Knowing that no matter how bad the circumstances, God is using them for good helps me to forgive other people. Even the other person's sin is God's way of working something for good, and that helps me to forgive others. But mainly, we ought to be able to forgive others because Christ has first forgiven us.

40:29 I pray, Lord, if there was any part of the message today that was not from you, would just quickly disappear. And Father, we look forward to that day. We will stand before you in glory. And all the heartache and despair of this world has vanished. And we will rejoice with you in our heavenly home.

40:58 We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.