(Genesis) - Part 28 — Zac Poonen

God's Sovereignty Over Joseph's Delay

Let's turn today to Genesis chapter 41. In our last study we considered how God in his sovereignty allowed Pharaoh's chief cupbearer to forget the request that Joseph had made to him to please speak to Pharaoh on his behalf.

And these things are written for our instruction as we consider it. People promise to do something for us and they forget. We shouldn't get upset if we have learnt the lesson that the Holy Spirit wants us to learn from a passage of scripture like this.

Then we can believe in the sovereignty of God that all things indeed work together for good. Very few really live believing that even when someone has forgotten to do something he has promised to do for me, that God in his sovereignty is in control even there.

Think what rest can come to our lives brothers and sisters if we can just believe that God in his sovereignty has allowed him to forget. All complaining will be eliminated from our lives completely if that were the case.

What can evil brothers who are jealous of us do even if they sell us to the Ishmaelites? Only fulfill God's purpose. Evil women who accuse us falsely and get us put into jail, what can they do? Only fulfill God's purpose.

Nothing else. If the cupbearer had remembered as soon as he had got out of prison, if God had not allowed him to forget, what would have happened? Have you thought of that? Pharaoh would have probably released Joseph and Joseph would have gone back to Canaan to his father's house.

And that would have been completely against God's plan for him. God didn't want him in Canaan, God wanted him in Egypt. You see there that it is all fitting into God's plan even when someone forgets. Thus we come to chapter 41 and verse 1.

It happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream and behold he was standing by the Nile. This was the appointed time and God knows when to give Pharaoh that dream. God's got everything worked out.

And from the Nile there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and seven other cows came up which ate up these, the thin ones came up and ate up the fat ones. Then he dreamed a second time and seven years of grain came up, plump and good.

And seven thin years came up and ate up the plump grains. And in the morning his spirit was troubled and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and told his dreams but there was no one who could interpret it for Pharaoh.

Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh saying, I will make mention today of my offenses. You see this is the time that God is appointed and that is the time that God allows him to remember. It was not that he deliberately did not tell Pharaoh.

He had just plain forgotten. God had allowed him to forget because God had something better for Joseph. Because God wanted Joseph to be two more years in jail. Does that sound like something better? In God's perfect plan it is.

Just like it says in the book of Job chapter 23 verse 10, Job 23 10, the living Bible says he knows every detail of what is happening to me. Job lived before Joseph and if those words were written before Joseph's time it was certainly true in Joseph's case that every detail of what he was going through in prison God knew.

He hadn't forgotten and now God reminds the cupbearer. Then we see in chapter 41 verse 9 onward he explains how Joseph had interpreted the dream to him in prison and in chapter 41 verse 14 we see Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon and when he shaved himself and changed his clothes he came to Pharaoh and now we see the beginning of the unfolding of God's purposes for Joseph.

Perfectly according to God's timetable. He was 17 years old in chapter 37. Here we read he was 30 years old as we read later in the chapter. 13 years he had been through discipline. God had disciplined him in 13 years.

Many a time he may have wondered during those years whether God had forgotten him but God hadn't. God had a plan for Joseph's life which was made long before he was born. And no evil brothers, no evil Mrs. Potiphar, no forgetful cupbearer could frustrate God's purpose for Joseph.

Only one person could frustrate that. That was Joseph himself. If he had gone and fooled around with Potiphar's wife God's plan would have been frustrated. That's an encouragement to us brothers and sisters.

Other people, evil people, good people, nobody can frustrate God's plan for our lives but we ourselves can. And so we see 13 years of discipline and finally he comes to the place where God had planned for him right from the beginning.

God's Prepared Plan and the Prophetic Word

In Ephesians 2 .10 we read that God has a plan for our lives too just like he had for Joseph. It says in Ephesians 2 .10 we are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Therefore remember, and he goes on, beforehand, when did God make a blueprint for your life? Before you and I were born he made a plan for our lives. Before our parents were born, before Adam was created, before the worlds were created he made a plan, a blueprint, a perfect one.

You couldn't better that. There's no better plan that you can make than the one God's already made for you. And there are good works that he has planned in that plan like he did for Joseph. Those good works include be good to your jealous evil brothers, be good to those who accuse you falsely and put you in jail, be good to forgetful cup bearers because they are all fulfilling God's plan for your life.

Good works. It's only for such people, it's only through such people that God can fulfill his plan and purpose. I want you to turn to Psalm 105 and see something there. In verse 16 and 19 we saw this earlier too.

It says here he called for a famine upon the land and he broke the whole staff of bread. They sent a man before them, Joseph was sold as a slave. The thing I want you to notice here is that before the famine came God had already prepared a man who was going to be the solution to that problem.

One man, God sent a man it says. Now keeping that in mind we can look at Amos chapter 8 and verses 11 and 12 and see what it says there about the days coming says the Lord God when I will send a famine on the land.

Not a famine for bread or thirst for water but rather for hearing the words of the Lord. And people will stagger from sea to sea, from the north even to the east. They will go to and fro to seek the word of the Lord but they will not find it.

You see what it says? That there will be a famine of the words of the Lord. Not a famine of the word of God for the Bible will be distributed freely and in abundance. Millions of copies are given out all over the world every year.

But of the words of the Lord and the words of the Lord refer to the prophetic word. Not just to an academic knowledge of scripture. The prophetic word is that word which God speaks through his servants to a particular people at a particular time according to their need.

There will be a famine of that just like there was in the days of Eli. When it says in 1 Samuel 3 .1 the word of the Lord was rare and scarce. Eli knew what was written in the law. He knew God's word but he didn't have the prophetic word of the Lord and that's what it says here.

There will be a famine of the words of the Lord and people will travel from one church to another, from one conference to another and they will not hear the prophetic word of the Lord. So there's going to be a famine and those days are already begun I believe as we have approached the end of time.

What's God's solution to this? Men. In Eli's day God sent Samuel and he spoke forth the prophetic word of the Lord. And in our day God wants to send forth men. That is the function of the church to have men who have the prophetic word.

Men who are educated in the school of discipline and affliction, who've encountered evil jealous brothers and been falsely accused and been forgotten about by good kind cupbearers and who've loved all of them, been good to all of them and who've gotten education through it all.

Many are unwilling to go this way and that's why they can't have the prophetic word of God. I believe that it's important that we offer ourselves to God to be men like Joseph whom he can send into such a needy situation as we're going to face in the days to come.

Let's turn back now to Psalm 105. It says here that God sent a man, verse 17, Joseph was sold as a slave, they afflicted his feet with fetters, he himself was laid in iron. That's how he became the man God wanted him to be.

We're not talking here about dried up old sermons and the ramblings of preachers who get up who don't know God. Not people who've just gone and studied the scriptures in some bible school academically, but those who've had their feet in fetters, those who've had their mobility restricted, those who've been unjustly treated and those who've kept their mouth shut in injustice.

Like Joseph, he didn't complain about his brothers or about Potiphar's wife. That is an education. If we can get that education, then it says here, until verse 19, the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.

See, before we can give the word of the Lord to others, it's the word of the Lord here, not God's word, it's the word of the Lord, the same thing we saw in Amos. Before we can give the prophetic word to others, and I don't mean just publicly, even the sons and daughters themselves can prophesy, women can prophesy in the New Covenant.

In ordinary sharing in our homes, God can give us a prophetic word to others, brothers and sisters, but the word of the Lord has to first test us. Then we can have it to give it to others. And it says here in verse 18, in the margin of my Bible, it says, his soul came into iron, or put another way, iron came into his soul.

This is the whole purpose of affliction, that iron may come into our soul. The people could only put irons on Joseph's legs and tie him up in jail, but God used it to bring iron into his soul. You see, it is impossible to give the prophetic word of God if, first of all, iron has not come into our soul.

Our soul is initially like clay, easily impressed by worldly people and by worldly influences, but God has to make us strong to resist these worldly influences. Strong for him, iron has to enter into our soul.

The same experience that Joseph had, and it comes only through affliction, false accusation, misunderstanding, injustice, being forgotten about, and years going by. It doesn't happen overnight. It didn't happen to any man whom God trained in the scriptures overnight.

It took time. It took time for Joseph, it took time for David, it took time for Jesus Christ himself. Thirty years in the carpenter shop before he went forth into his ministry. That's really something for us to think about, dear brothers and sisters.

None of us have suffered perhaps even ten percent of what Joseph went through. Think of ten brothers turning against you. All your ten older brothers. Not one of the elder brothers is for you. And selling you off, jealous of you, and God uses it for his glory.

Or somebody falsely accuses you, unjustly, tells a lie about you, and you're locked up in jail for years. And you have no influence. And all of it unjustly. And he never opened his mouth, as far as he knows.

Scripture doesn't say that he complains. And iron came into his soul. If you want iron to come into your soul, you've got to keep your mouth shut. When your mouth is open, iron never comes into your soul.

We go through affliction, and all that affliction is wasted. Because I opened my mouth and justified myself. Because I opened my mouth and sought human sympathy and self-pity. Because I opened my mouth and accused the others who hurt me.

Instead of keeping my mouth shut and let iron enter into my soul. Think how much iron would have got into our soul, through all the years and experiences we've gone through, if we had kept our mouth shut a little more.

If we had humbled ourselves a little more. And stopped looking at Judah and Reuben and Simeon and Levi and Mrs. Potiphar and Pharaoh's cupbearer. And instead of looking at all of them, look at God and say, Lord, this is Your perfect will.

You know every detail of what's happening to me, I just want to praise You. If we had done that, there would have been some iron in our soul today. There would have been some backbone in our spiritual life.

That we could have stood up because we'd have known God in the school of affliction. And there would have been the word of the Lord in our mouth, instead of the husks that usually come forth from most believers.

Dear brothers and sisters, take it seriously. If we haven't taken it seriously till now, take it at least now seriously. That we shall really learn in God's school of affliction and keep our mouth shut and get iron into our souls.

God's Timetable for Spiritual Maturity

And then, there is a time limit. God doesn't allow it to go on forever and ever and ever. And when the time was completed, God's timetable, He's working according to a timetable. He's got a graduation day for Joseph to come out of prison.

And at the age of 30, Joseph graduates. That's a tremendous challenge. As I've mentioned before, David was ready at the age of 30. Jesus was ready at the age of 30. But we know that all of them went through a period of affliction and trial.

But the thing that stands out to me and encourages me and should encourage all of us is that God chose a young man to rule Egypt. He chose a young man, David, to rule Israel. Called when they were about 17 or 18.

Trained for 13 years in all types of difficult situations and submission. Unjustly treated. And then raised up at the young age of 30. Think of some 30-year-old brother. And you know what, when Joseph and David and Jesus were ready, 30 years, they were ready to enter into that ministry.

They didn't just drift along. So many people drift. They are 40, 50, 60. They're just drifting. They haven't taken seriously the word of God. If God called you when you were young, if God called you when you were 16 or 17, my brothers, I just want to tell you this.

The chances are that God probably wanted to give you a ministry by the time you're 30. Or certainly 35. These people, when they were 30, they came into a ministry. It's interesting to see that. But it was the result of iron entering into their soul.

And there we can see what a lot of wasted trials and afflictions there are in God's people. Things that could have made them rich have left them poor. They're 60 years old and they're poverty-stricken.

Instead of being wealthy. So, let's learn a lesson from these examples. Iron entered into his soul and one day in God's appointed time, he is brought. We can think of influence. What influence can you have to get the job that Joseph got in Egypt?

It's not influence. It's contact with God. It's a question of being humble. It's not influence that gets us a ministry in the Church. That's for Babylon and for Babylonians. In Jerusalem, it's God's anointing.

That's all. And you can't keep a good man down if God is on his side. Impossible. God will open doors that no man can shut. God opened doors for Joseph. Nobody could stand in his way. He didn't have any influence.

He didn't have any secretary to Pharaoh who would speak to him. In fact, the one who said he would speak to him completely forgot. It was God who had a plan for that man and fulfilled it. And this is a tremendous encouragement to us.

That you can be in the deepest dungeons thinking that everybody has forgotten about you. And if you're faithful there in the deepest dungeons, at the appointed time when the word of the Lord is fulfilled, He will take you out and bring you into a particular ministry.

But if you sit there and you complain and grumble and criticize, you'll probably sit there forever. And that dungeon need not be a physical dungeon. It's a dungeon that we make for ourselves. Of complaining and criticism and self-justification and sympathy and self-pity that makes this dark dungeon in which we live.

And we never come forth to fulfill that ministry in the body of Christ that God wants us to have. Take it seriously. So finally he stands before Pharaoh. And I mention this and I want to repeat it. That those who come into a ministry easily, like Solomon, Rehoboam, King Saul, without any affliction and difficulty, usually have ended up as failures.

And those who've gone through trial and submission to God's hand over them, like Joseph and David and Jesus, those who've been through the mill, they are the ones we see in scripture who really have accomplished God's purposes and who've gone on till the end, who've had iron in their soul.

So it's good, like the book of Lamentations says, when we are young, instead of trying to be a law unto ourselves, to humble ourselves and put our neck under the yoke, and wait for God to bring us into a place.

The world is full of people who are trying to push themselves into a place. And the church is full of people who are trying to push themselves into a ministry. They want to push themselves here and push themselves there.

There are self-appointed apostles travelling around trying to get everybody to accept them. What folly! What folly! Why not humble ourselves and say, Lord, I don't want to push myself anywhere. Let God push you.

Don't push yourself. Let God push you somewhere instead of pushing yourself forward. There's a tremendous lust in the flesh to push ourselves forward. Let God push you forward. Meanwhile, keep small thoughts about yourself.

There are tremendous lessons we can learn from these examples in scripture of how to be faithful, so that in God's appointed time, He can do something for us, in us and through us, for other people. Just like it was written about Joseph, He sent a man, it can be said about you and me.

God sent a man, because He knew there was a famine coming. And that is where we find the word of the Lord fulfilled, that I sought for a man and I could not find one. They were all full of complaints and criticisms and wouldn't take their training in the school of affliction seriously, and they sought their own gain and their own profit.

We can't send such people. Finally, Joseph stood before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh told a dream. And Joseph, verse 16 of Genesis 41, says, It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. Think of that.

Think of that attitude of humility. He could have said, Oh yeah, sure, I have a lot of experience in this area. From last 13 years, I have been interpreting dreams, my own and other people's. Think if he had come with that attitude like we find sometimes in some people.

They don't say it, because if you say it, you look proud, and then you lose your honor. But it's an attitude. It's an attitude. One brother who came here wrote to me and said that I know all about the problems that young churches have.

I said, Thank you, brother. We don't want any specialists here who know all the problems about young churches and how they can set them straight. We want brothers. You can know the theory and think that Joseph had an attitude which said, It is not in me.

It's not what we say, my brothers. It's an attitude. I'm not a specialist in anything. He's been interpreting dreams for 13 years, I know, but he's got a humility about him. That's the mark of a man of God.

He's got low thoughts about himself. God will give Pharaoh an answer. He gives the glory to God. That's the type of man whom God sends. Not specialists and experts who know how to, like Uzza, to stop the ark from falling.

And people come to you for advice. And maybe you have given advice, not for 13 years, maybe once or twice, and it's turned out well. What is your attitude when you give advice now? It's not what you say, my brother, sister.

It's the attitude. You feel, I'm quite a spiritual man, that I can give advice. There's a certain lust in our flesh that is satisfied when somebody comes and says, Brother, I want your advice. And though we act very humble, there's a certain lust that is being fed there if you're not careful at that time.

Oh, yeah, maybe he was blessed the last time I gave him advice. Garbage. Garbage that we accumulate. Thoughts about ourselves. That's why God can't send a man. If God sends a man, it'll be someone like Joseph whose attitude is, It is not in me.

So what if I said something to you last time that helped you? Doesn't mean that what I said this time will help you. There's nothing in me. Keep that attitude, my brothers, till the end of your days. Never become a specialist.

Never become an expert in anything. Bringing up children. Any experts here? Or some other area? Or any other area? Perfect husband or perfect wife? Be careful that you don't become a self-appointed expert and specialist to younger people.

There's a lust for brothers to be specialists and experts who advise the younger ones and sisters to be specialists and advisors to the younger ones. Those are not the people whom God will send. And you need to, if you are young, you need to discern that you don't go to such people for advice or help.

Because God will not give wisdom to such people. God doesn't send such people. He sends people who got a, really you are rooted and grounded in low thoughts about themselves. It is not in me. God will give an answer.

And that's the type of person to whom God gives wisdom. And you remember when we studied the book of Daniel. We saw how Daniel said similar words to Nebuchadnezzar. God will give. No doubt he had learned from Joseph.

And we can learn from Joseph and Daniel. And so Pharaoh explained his dream to Joseph and Joseph says to Pharaoh in Genesis 41 .25, Pharaoh's dreams are one and the same. God has told Pharaoh what he is about to do.

But all the magicians in Egypt could not explain. Here is a man. The magicians didn't go through false accusations and through being locked up in jail. They didn't go through the school of affliction.

The magicians came out of the Bible schools. They couldn't explain anything. But this man who had gone through affliction, he was the man who could interpret the word of God. And Pharaoh says, I told these magicians, but they couldn't explain it.

Interpreting God's Warning and Preparing for Famine

In Genesis 41 .24, Joseph says, alright, Pharaoh's dreams, God has told Pharaoh what to do. Both the dreams have the same message. He says, God, there is going to be seven years, verse 29, of great abundance in the land of Egypt and seven years of famine.

Famine will ravage the land and the abundance will be unknown. In those days of famine, it will be very severe. And as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it means that the matter is determined by God, verse 32, and God will quickly bring it about.

And now let Pharaoh look for a man discerning and wise and set him over the land of Egypt. And let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land. Let him exact twenty percent of the produce of the land in seven years of abundance and let him gather all the food in the good years.

Stir up the grain for the food in the cities and let them guard it and the food will become a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which occur in the land of Egypt so the land may not perish during the famine.

There we see Joseph not only having contact with God concerning interpreting God's word, but also having wisdom concerning the practical application of what shall we do if this is the word of God. So we see he not only interprets the dream, he says, Pharaoh, now you should appoint a man to save up when you get plenty so that in the time of famine you can fall back on that reserve that you have saved up.

And we can apply that in two ways, spiritually and physically, for we are spiritual beings and physical beings also. We are not angels, only spirit. We have got a body too, so we must apply it spiritually and physically.

First of all, spiritually. What shall we do in times of great abundance? Store up, because the time will come when there will not be abundance. That is why I always tell young people, before you are married, you have an abundance of free time.

After marriage and after you have children, you will have a famine of spare time. Go and ask any married person with a few children if that is not true. What should you do then in the times of abundance?

Most young believers have no time to seriously study the word of God and store up so that in the time of famine they can take out of that reserve that they have stored up in the days of abundance. They are poverty stricken in the time of famine.

If you were saved as a single person and God gave you seven years before you were married, my dear brothers and sisters, if you did not use those seven years, there were seven years of abundance here in Egypt, to store up God's word, you should just be ashamed of yourself.

Really you should feel ashamed of yourself. Then you can look out for days of tremendous scarcity and struggle and difficulty. You won't have a reserve. Those who have already gone past the seven years of abundance and are living in years of famine, you just have to make the best of it now.

But I can speak to those who are still in the years of abundance, who still have plenty of spare time. What do you do with that spare time? Do you get to know the word? That will mean a way that will make you rich spiritually that has an application.

Jesus said, the night comes when no man can work. Work when it is day, for the night comes when no man can work. And so we need to take that seriously. It has a secondary application also, materially.

We read in the book of Proverbs chapter 6, Proverbs 6 and verses 6 to 9. Go to the aunt, O sluggard, O lazy man, observe her ways and be wise. Who does not have any chief, that means he doesn't have an elder brother or anyone to exhort him, exhort her, but prepares her food in the summer when there is abundance.

Knowing that the winter will come when there will be a famine of food. Gathers up provision in the harvest. But what do you do? You lie down and you sleep, a little more sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest, and your poverty will come like a vagabond.

And your need like an armed man that will overpower you. There it says spiritually we need to make use of the days of abundance to store up spiritual wealth. Physically too, materially. I have always advised people who, when I say, learn to save a little money every month instead of spending everything that you get.

Here is where this word is really applicable. Go to the aunt. Not only you lazy man, but you stupid man. You say, O I will trust God. God will provide my need. And what happens to such brothers who say they trust God when their hour of need comes?

They have to go and beg and borrow. It's not trust in God. It's trust in good and kind brothers who will help me out of a tight spot. Now we can take a lesson for the future. When you get an abundance, suddenly you get some extra money that you didn't anticipate.

What is your attitude? Just enjoy ourselves now. Seven years of abundance. Let's eat, drink and enjoy ourselves. The word of God is go to the aunt, you foolish man. Go to the aunt. I find a lot of brothers, and I say brothers because they are responsible for family finances, who need to go to the aunt.

Sit down at home and watch the aunt for a little while. Learn something. That's what God's word says. Learn not to waste when you have an abundance. You say, O I can now spend it all. And then end up begging and borrowing later on.

No, my brothers. Learn to save a little. Be disciplined in your finances. So that when a time of need comes, seven years of famine will always follow the seven years of abundance. There will be times of abundance and there will be times of pressure.

That's the time when you need to have, when you discover whether you've been really wise in your times of abundance. It's very difficult to be wise in our times of abundance. Very few have wisdom there.

He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And we read further. The proposal seemed good to Pharaoh, who was thirty-seven, and to all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this, in whom there is a divine spirit or a spirit of God?

Joseph's Testimony, Christ's Authority, and Forgiving Enemies

What a testimony. It's amazing, this man Joseph. Though people hated him, falsely accused him, did all types of things. Like we say, you can't keep a good man down. You press cork or wood under the water, it keeps coming up.

And his brothers and Potiphar's wife all tried to get rid of him. They couldn't get rid of him. Because God was with him. When he's in Potiphar's house, Potiphar recognizes God is with this man. They put him in jail, the jailer recognizes God is with this man.

He stands before Pharaoh, Pharaoh recognizes that God is with this man. What a testimony. What a testimony. It's a tremendous challenge. At the age of thirty, at the age of twenty, at the age of twenty-five, that heathen people could recognize that God is with this young man.

That is the challenge that comes to us in your place of work. What is the use? People in your place of work thinking that you are a very humorous chap who can crack jokes and make them laugh. You might as well join the circus.

No. Is that our testimony? Or that people around us can recognize that God is with this young man. Most of us are much older than thirty. That God is with this man. That they see this something which cannot be explained humanly speaking.

People try to oppose him, but they don't succeed. That's always the case. If God is with you, the whole world can oppose you. You come out triumphant. There was a man, way back in the second or third century, who was a God-fearing man, who stood up for some particular truth of scripture, Christian.

And it wasn't a very popular doctrine, and he stood up for the truth. A lot of other half-hearted, lukewarm Christians around him came and told him, Do you know, I think his name was Athanasius, do you know, brother Athanasius, that the whole world of Christians are against you?

He said, That's fine. Well, I am against the whole world then. Didn't make a difference. He stood for the truth. The whole world is on the other side. We are welcome to be on the other side. I stand for the truth.

And God was with him. That's the type of man and woman God is looking for. Not these wishy-washy people who will just go with whichever is popular. No, those who will stand for the truth. Others will gradually recognize God is with this man.

You can't oppose him. No matter how much you oppose him, he just seems to come through. That's how our testimony must be. And we don't seek anybody's honor or approval or any such thing. And so Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has informed you all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are.

See how God can move, says the king. His heart is in the hand of the Lord. He can turn it whichever way he likes. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. And he took off his ring and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold necklace around his neck, made him ride in a second chariot, and they proclaimed before him, Bow the knee.

And he set him over all the land of Egypt. It's a very beautiful picture of how, you know, the life of Joseph is a picture of Jesus Christ, rejected by his brothers, the Jews, sold for thirty pieces of silver, falsely accused, crucified, that is like Joseph being put in prison, raised up from the dead, brought out of prison, exalted to be, Pharaoh was the second ruler in Egypt, exalted to be second to the father over all the universe, and that if, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow.

Every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. It's a very beautiful picture of Jesus Christ. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, it's in this connection I want you to see this beautiful verse, Though I am Pharaoh, yet without your permission, no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

I'll give a little testimony here. Way back in 1963, I had a very big problem, and that was to stand out in the street and preach. Because I thought with all my dignity and my position, it's so humiliating to stand in the street and preach the gospel, to stand there like a vegetable vendor shouting out gospel verses.