Abraham's Bosom vs. Sheol

Let us pray Lord God bless your word wherever it is proclaimed.

Make it a word of power and peace to comfort those not yet your own and to confirm those you have

brought to saving faith.

May your word pass from the ear to the heart from the heart to the lip from the lip to the life as You have promised

your word may achieve the purpose for which you send it all of this through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

All right last week We well actually the past

few weeks.

We've been studying the story of Joseph and one of the things we have been doing is

noting that in the story of Joseph what we are seeing is

if you would almost address rehearsal for the incarnation humbling

exaltation of Christ and We last week we

ended with the great reveal.

Joseph's brothers came from Cana and they

have they had been dealing with Joseph and they had no idea that it was Joseph and

We noted the fact that as part of the big reveal the thing immediately leading up to this

was Judah's great well Substitutionary

plea the idea being this is that we know that the Lion of the tribe of Judah

is Christ and He does his substitutionary work and that's a big motif in

Scripture that Christ dies in our place.

He takes our sin upon himself and Judah in type and shadow does this?

Regarding his brother.

But let's return back to Judah's Statement and if you if you're

if you're paying attention Joseph hasn't yet revealed who he is.

Judah is making a plea.

They've been brought back.

They that that you know, his chalice was found in Benjamin's sack and you

know, Benjamin is going to be held accountable for this theft and

Judah steps forward and it says this verse 18.

Judah went up to Joseph and said, oh My lord, please let your servant

speak a word in my Lord's ear and let not your anger burn against your servant for you Are like Pharaoh

himself?

My lord asked his servant saying have you a father or a brother?

We said to my lord.

We have a father an old man a Young brother the child of his old age.

His brother is dead and he alone is left of his mother's children and his father loves him.

Then you said to your servants bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.

We said to my lord the boy cannot leave his father for if he should leave his father his father would

die.

Then you said to your servants unless your youngest brother comes down with you.

You shall not see my face again.

When we went back to your servant my father.

We told him the words of my lord and when our father said go again buy us a little food.

We said we cannot go down if our youngest brother goes with us.

Then we will go down for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is With us a little bit

of a note here.

Okay in the ancient way of thinking seeing someone's face, especially if they're a ruler.

Yeah, it's it's a fascinating thing.

Is is that if a if a ruler's face?

You see it and it's good.

Well, you have blessing in favor.

If he is not in your favor and against you you can't even see his face.

There's a interesting thing here and in scripture.

You're familiar with the the the blessing that I give the benediction with each service.

May the Lord bless you and keep you.

May the Lord make his face.

To shine on you and be gracious to you.

All right in the Hebrew.

This is the face -to -face thing in in the eschaton.

We will always see Christ's face.

We don't see his face right now, do we?

So this is kind of an interesting motif that the ancients pick up.

But it's also very vital in understanding God's favor.

What does Christ say about the angels?

They always see my father's face.

Christ says of the angels they always see his face.

We do not see his face.

God is hidden if you would.

So for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.

Then your servant and my father said to us.

You know that my wife bore me two sons one left me and I said surely he has been torn to pieces.

And I have never seen him since if you take this one also for me

and harm happens to him.

You will bring down my gray hairs in evil to shaol.

Shaol in the Old Testament is the place where you go when you

die.

Shaol had two compartments and I say had it doesn't currently have to it only has one had two

compartments.

One was called Abraham's bosom.

Remember the story of the rich man and Lazarus when he dies he goes to Abraham's bosom and.

They're the righteous those who have faith are and then the other.

Compartment is a lot like the warm -up band for hell.

It's the best way I can put it.

Okay, people are in agony.

They're in flame.

That's the idea.

He's.

Technically no.

Hades and Shaol are the same.

All right, and as we get into the New Testament revelation.

Regarding what's coming?

All right we understand that Hades is is is synonymous with shaol and

If you die and you end up in Hades, that's you know.

The same place is shaol those who currently die in the Lord.

They are with the Lord in his presence.

They are with him in heaven, which is an odd place for us to be.

No purgatory, there's no such thing as purgatory and to which we could all say amen.

You all understand the you know, kind of the Roman Catholic doctrine of purgatory its basic premise is

this is that in this lifetime you're supposed to really work hard at your

Sanctification to the point where you can get to sinlessness and if you don't.

Well, then you're not ready to be in God's presence because God cannot be in the presence of evil so

you end up in purgatory and purgatory is almost identical to hell.

Where you kind of burn off the dross of your sinfulness and once once the cleansing

is complete in the fires then and only then are you able to Go into

heaven.

Here's the funny thing the answer is there yes, they have what's called the Apocrypha now as Lutherans.

We can read the Apocrypha and say there's some interesting things in there.

But not even the Jews of Jesus's day considered the Apocrypha to be scripture.

All right, and so in the book I forget if it's first or second Maccabees.

So I'm a little rusty on my Roman Catholic theology here.

It's in the Maccabees.

Here's where they get the doctrine of purgatory from that when the Maccabees Came back from fighting a battle

and they had lost men in battle it says that they went and offered sacrifices

on behalf of the men who died and So therefore awful if you can offer

sacrifices on behalf of the person who died.

Then they extrapolated from that all this other stuff.

Now my grandfather died on March 11th 1988 March

11th 1988 and For the first couple years after his death my

grandmother would pay money to have masses said for my grandfather and

as as she can afford them and the purpose of that was to Help

ease his sentence in in purgatory so If you remember what starts

the the the Reformation is the posting of the 95 thesis.

And what's the thing that initially sparks Martin Luther to nail the 95 thesis to the

door of the castle church at Wittenberg?

It's the sale of indulgences, you know Tetzel was out raising money for st.

Peter's in Rome and The pontiff the Pope had issued a special

indulgence where you could literally no joke.

You know If you had relatives who were in purgatory.

You can purchase these you can purchase these indulgences and take millions of years off of their time in

purgatory.

No, the scriptures do not teach this doctrine and the ancient church knew nothing of it.

It's not Catholic.

It's Roman.

It's not universal.

It's Roman.

And so here's the idea scripture says and this is where it's very helpful.

When Christ returns the church is caught up with Christ in the clouds and what does it

say about.

The Christians, huh.

No, no.

No, I'm talking about the day that Jesus.

Yeah, we'll be with God.

Hang on a second.

I'm looking for something see if I could find it in my New Testament really quick here.

Ah.

Here it is.

First Corinthians 15 once Corinthian.

1 Corinthians 1552 is our verse, but let's get it a little context and this is very

helpful for us first Corinthians 15.

So it is with the resurrection of the dead what a stone is perishable.

What is raised is imperishable.

It is sown in dishonor.

It is raised in glory.

It is stone in weakness.

It is raised in power.

It is stone a natural body.

It's raised a spiritual body if there is a natural body.

Thus it is written the first man Adam became a living being.

The last Adam became a life -giving spirit.

But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural and then the spiritual.

The first man was from the earth a man Of dust.

Second man's from heaven as was the man of dust.

So also are those who are of the dust as it is in as is the man of heaven.

So are also those who are of heaven just as we have been have borne the image of the man of dust.

We shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.

This is referring to Christ.

So this is where important theology comes into play and that is is that Adam the first

Adam made from the dust?

He sins we are just like him.

Christ is the second Adam and the resurrection of Christ.

He is the firstborn of the new creation and What Christ is?

We will be when we are raised again.

Does that make sense.

That's Paul's argument.

So I tell you this brothers flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

But hold I tell you a mystery.

We shall not all sleep but We shall be all changed

in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet for the trumpet will sound the dead Will be

raised imperishable and we shall be changed.

Notice how quickly we go from perishable to imperishable how quickly.

Twinkling of an eye.

I don't know how long it takes for your eyes to twinkle.

I have never done any of the mathematical measurements on eye twinkling, but I assume that it's a pretty brief

moment.

So in the twinkling of the eye, we will all be changed.

For the trumpet will sound the dead will be raised imperishable.

We will change this for this perishable body must put on the imperishable this mortal body must put on more

Immortality.

When the perishable puts on the imperishable the mortal puts on immortality.

Then she'll come to pass the saying that is written death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh death.

Where's your victory?

Oh death.

Where is your sting?

So the idea is this Scripture does not teach that you have to if you die

without achieving sinless perfection in your life.

Like anybody can do that anyway.

That somehow you have to go and go through a fiery cleansing process.

Whereby all of your you know, your sinful nature is finally done away with all of that happens in the

twinkling of an eye.

Literally.

Exactly.

Exactly.

So and in the Roman Catholic system then who are the Saints?

The Saints are those who in this lifetime achieve that sinless perfection.

Oh.

And it gets really interesting.

Yeah, that's right after they're dead they have to perform three miracles but here's here's the idea is that the Roman system.

Their way of looking at salvation is like a banking system.

No, I'm not joking.

It's they call it the Treasury of Merit so the idea here is is that by

achieving sinless perfection and Getting to the point where your good works are no longer necessary for

you those extra good works that super -irrigation of good works gets put into what's called the Treasury

of Merit and this is the bank account from which the Pope is able to Withdraw indulgences

from to help people get out of purgatory quicker.

He's sitting there where does the Bible teach any of this answer.

It doesn't this is pure man -made Mythology.

Oh, yeah, they've made a lot of money and they still continue to make a lot of money with this Treasury of Merit.

Psalm 62.

Psalms 62 the last verse.

Once I'll read the last two once again, God has spoken twice.

I've heard this the power belongs to God and that to you Oh Lord belongs steadfast love for you will render

to a man according to his work.

Is that what you were thinking?

Yeah.

They do matter.

So, but let me help you.

Hold on, but this is what I was thinking.

I understand that works too bad that.

The other people could get twisted if they did not understand that.

You would if had you been in Aletheia you may have.

Actually, you know ask the question right after the sermon.

I.

Get.

Let me answer it.

Let me answer the question biblically.

Here's where you have to be a careful exegete.

You have to be a careful exegete and let the exegete somebody who reads out what Scripture says.

You have to you have to pay attention to what how the Bible teaches us to understand it.

I'll give you a cross -reference.

This is the gospel of John chapter 6 Verse 28 they and they the Jews said to Jesus

what must we do to be doing the works of God?

Got your interest.

All right, so Jesus answered him.

This is the work singular of God That you believe in him

whom he has sent.

So God does render according to your works.

If you believe that you are saved by your Doing the law

by your works of the law by your obedience to God you will perish because the one

who believes in the one whom the Father has sent has the forgiveness of sins in a right standing before God and

Has been regenerated and does good works because they are a Christian.

Uh -huh,

and

and

this is one of the reasons why over and again the New Testament hammers on that.

Yeah and we heard it in the epistle text today not because of works done by us and righteous and even this and this is where

the greater breath you have of understanding of the whole book and How

the old and the new work together and the terms that the scriptures define?

Don't approach it acting like you understand how this works, but approach it and say Lord teach me.

Then you'll see that God's Word teaches you to rightly understand it so that when we see something like Psalm

62 verse 12, we we don't sit there and go.

Oh, oh, oh.

Pull out the scorecard.

I'm way behind.

I'm never gonna be saved.

Yeah.

Because here's another song Psalm 32 Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven

whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

For when I kept silent my bones Wasted away through my groaning all the day long for night and day your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

And then when you ever see this word in the Psalms sellah, you know, it means

pause stop.

Think about what you just read.

It's like it's like a speed bump.

All right.

Let's slow down.

Take that again night and day.

Your hand was heavy upon me.

My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

I acknowledged my sin to you and I did not cover my iniquity.

I Said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

That sound familiar in our confession of sins at the beginning of the service.

Part of that's taken here.

Salah.

So let everyone who's godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found.

Surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him.

You are a hiding place for me and you preserve me from trouble.

You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

I Will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

Be not like a horse or mule without understanding which must be curved with bit and bridle.

Or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

Be glad in the Lord and rejoice.

Oh righteous and shout for joy all you upright in heart.

And so here's what God's Word over and again teaches.

God is merciful slow to anger abounding in steadfast love forgiving

iniquity and then he instructs us in the way that we should go and

We go that way because we are forgiven and we listen to his instruction because we

are loved.

We don't do these things in order to be loved.

We do them because we is loved.

Bad grammar on purpose.

They are important and and this is where we would pay attention to James.

Just as the body that is not breathing is dead.

Faith without works is dead.

There's no such thing as a Christian that doesn't do good works.

There's no such thing as Spiritus.

The hymn night writer wrote in that hymn you all love to sing because it has ten stanzas.

Good works cannot avert our doom.

They help and save us never.

Works work to show that faith is alive.

That's one of the thing if scripture points to this so we should we shouldn't shy away from this concept.

Now do they do a perfect job of showing that?

No, and the reason being is because oh, man.

Even our best good works are just soiled with sin.

He said they're going why.

I feel great about that, but man, I could have done that better.

So the idea then is this and notice the admonition from the Lord do not be without understanding on these things.

We as Christians must know the whole breadth and the whole counsel of the Word of God so when we see

works come up and we see God's Word admonishing us to works and saying that we will be Held

accountable by our works or that God remembers them and rewards them.

We don't sit there and go and then so ah, I'm no longer saved by grace.

I'm gonna dive into the works pool and start getting busy.

Saving yourself by your works is well.

Like if you lived in Southern, California holding your breath and swimming to Catalina underwater.

Good luck.

You know if you come up for a breath you lose.

That's what it's like.

But the one who is forgiven Breathes all the way to

Catalina and beyond if they want to doesn't matter get in the pool and start swimming.

It's lots of fun.

The water is great.

So all of this because we talked about shale.

Cool.

Yeah, all right, so your loss where it's the GPS a.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think that I think that is a.

I think saying he descended into hell can be confusing.

Yeah, I know I understand that and and and and here's the funny thing if we were using a different Lutheran

hymnal it would say descended into hell and.

This is where it's the job of the pastor to actually make a distinction because if you really want to get technical Christ

descends into shale, which is Hades.

He does not descend into hell hell in the truest sense because when we think of hell.

What do we think about day of judgment?

Okay, we think of the lake of fire.

You know the devil and his angels are tossed into that thing, right?

Right what.

Okay.

No, no, no, he in fact Jesus is descent into Hades.

He's not there to put to be punished for sins.

There's only a few scant tiny Microscopic references

to Jesus's descent into hell.

Do you know why he went and we'll call it Hades.

It should be correct.

Say that again, Maryland.

That's part of it, yeah, what's the other part?

Proclaim his victory.

That's right two passages of Scripture.

Mention this.

I think one is in first Peter.

The other is in Ephesians if I'm doing this from memory, right and the first Peter passage talks about how he

goes to shale to preach to the prisoners there and the purpose

of his preaching is pretty much basically say I won you lost.

You didn't believe in me.

I Won, that's what he goes there to do.

It's a it's a vindication story and I think it's in first Peter 3 if I'm not mistaken.

Give me a second here to pull this up first Peter 3 18 Christ also suffered once for sins the

righteous for the unrighteous.

That he might bring us to God.

Being put to death in the flesh made alive in the spirit in which he went and proclaimed and that's the Greek

word Caruso, which means to preach its preach preach proclamation to proclaim or preach

to the spirits in prison because they formerly did not Obey when God's patience waited in the days of Noah

while the ark was being prepared in which a few that is eight persons were brought safely through water so

part of.

The reason Jesus descends into Hades and I know we say hell and I think that's a little bit confusing.

I think it's a little theologically muddied.

It's supposed to work the opposite way.

Yeah, you know because like I said when we think of hell we think of the lake of fire.

In the day of judgment, that's what we think of when we think of hell.

Hades is the temporary place.

It's a holding tank.

It's a lot like hell.

But it's a holding tank.

So Christ goes there and he proclaims to the spirits in prison.

Now remember prior to Christ's descent there was two compartments there and the other compartment

contained those who had faith in Christ.

What does scripture say happened to them and Marilyn actually brought this up.

Let me see if I can find it.

Yeah, here it is.

Ephesians 4 grace was given to each one of us verse 7 according to the measure of Christ's

gift.

Therefore it says when he ascended on high he led a host of captives and he gave

gifts to men.

All right, so this is kind of the second part of it and and after this scripture doesn't really say anything.

So Christ descends into Hades.

He says to the people who didn't believe in him.

I Won it's to proclaim his victory and then all of you here who've trusted in me

until I came and bled and died for you.

We're out of here.

And now we are Temporary home after our death is not

Sheol.

It's heaven, right?

Yeah.

I'm so glad I can twist you all up.

Yeah, well now now, okay, so currently when somebody dies and they do not have

faith they go to Hades and They await the judgment and they're held in punishment until the Day of Judgment.

Those who have faith in Christ they're with Christ in his presence in In heaven, right and

scripture says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord

because.

Okay, you have physical bodies.

We're still we're still awaiting the new ones.

I don't know if you've noticed the one about about the one you have.

It's getting worse.

Yeah mine, too.

Okay.

Yeah, we're all heading there.

We're on our way out there.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, we're suffering from a terminal illness called sin and so we're all

dying but For us when we go to be with the Lord in heaven.

We're human beings.

We were never created to be disembodied spirits for eternity.

Spirits that don't have bodies are called angels.

We're not angels we're human beings.

So the idea then is this is that when Christ returns in glory to judge the living and the dead like we read in 1st

Corinthians 15 we're called out of the grave and We're resurrected.

It's gonna be a great place to be right there on that day.

All the Saints come flying out of their grave.

And this is one of the reasons why one of the reasons why we we bury people facing a particular way.

The reason why we bury him facing east is because Christ is in Jerusalem when he comes back.

So when he calls everybody from the grave, they're gonna come out facing Jerusalem.

Do you know that.

Yeah, exactly.

It's a longer to look.

Okay, so Scott we're gonna bury you facing west and when we come out we're gonna say turn around dude there.

Right, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, I would wouldn't be awful like on the very first day right out of the resurrection.

You're gonna have to get directions from a woman where Jesus is.

I'm just saying yes, every time I'm in a car and I'm lost.

She wants to tell me where to go and it's like

Yeah.

Okay, so Abraham's bosom is paradise that's the other term for it where the Saints are.

So the thief on the cross dies just a few hours after Christ dies, you know.

So he's he's actually his death is hastened by the breaking of his legs and he asphyxiates and he dies.

Christ is still down in Sheol.

And so that guy shows up.

It's like hey, I told you be with me here so Sheol the two compartments Abraham's bosom, which is also called

paradise and.

Then Christ takes that thief on the cross and there's no longer on the cross with him when he ascends.

He leads captives in his train and now he's in the heavenly kingdom awaiting the resurrection.

Yeah.

Yeah, this is the picture that scripture paints now there's I'm gonna touch on it on a real quickly

a false doctrine regarding Christ's descent into Hades.

If you've listened to Joyce Meyer or Kenneth Copeland

or.

Well, yeah, I don't know see might actually teach it here's what they teach they teach that

Christ descends into hell and the purpose of him being in hell is

In order for him to continue his suffering for our salvation.

I know it's like there's one really clear passage that comes to my mind.

Jesus is there hanging on the cross and he cries out it is finished

to tell us die.

So he ain't got no more suffering to do.

He if their doctrine were correct, then Jesus should have shouted almost there.

Just a little farther.

Are we there yet?

Oh.

That's when the soldier the soldiers at the foot of the cross recognized that Christ was the Son of God

because he dies of his own accord and He died quickly

it's like it's like he was totally in control of his death and the soul and the soldiers that are are Stationed there at the

cross one of them recognizes truly this man was the Son of God.

They see that his you know, his his control over his own death as proof that he is

Exactly who we claim to be the Son of God.

So we did a little s catalogical.

You know jaunt through shale Hades in a little bit of hell.

Good.

No, that's okay.

Let me remind you of the rules for Sunday school they are ask Questions

lots of them if you have one don't hold back.

Yeah, exactly.

Yes pulling out a machine gun, yeah, huh.

Okay.

All right.

I you know, I you're right.

I don't.

You're you're famous on at least 34 continents.

All right.

Let's come back to our text.

Let's come back to our text.

So Judah is doing his substitutionary work.

He's speaking to Joseph and he's talking about his father Yaakov or Israel

and how if anything happens to his son Benjamin it would bring hit the hairs of his head

down to Sheol.

Judah continues now therefore as soon as I come to your servant My father and the boy is not with us.

Then as his life is bound up in the boy's life as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us He will die and your

servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant.

Our father with sorrow to Sheol for your servant has become a pledge of safety for the boy.

To my father saying if I do not bring him back to you.

Then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.

He's going to bear the blame.

Substitution here now therefore.

Please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord.

Let the boy go back with his brothers for how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me?

I fear to see the evil that would find my father.

Chapter 45.

Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him.

He cried make everyone go out from me.

So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud.

So that the Egyptians heard it in the house of the Pharaoh heard it and Joseph said to his brothers

Ani Yosef I am Joseph is My

father still alive.

His brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence

so first.

Inclination on the part of the brothers is oh we are so hosed here.

Oh We're dead oh Boy, we oh, you know, this

is like when the you know, how's that song go from stick?

Oh Mama, I'm in fear for my life from the long arm of the

law.

Exactly and see if you don't listen to it.

I'll sing it to you.

Yeah.

Yeah, she volunteers.

I've heard it many times.

I haven't memorized pastor you don't need to sing it ever again.

Yes, the Lutherans do believe there are Saints.

A little bit of a side note.

Everybody who is a penitent believer in Christ is a saint and that's what scripture teaches.

Saint by the way, the Greek word is hoggy oz it means somebody who's holy.

The hoggy oid plural are the holy ones and how are we made holy?

By Christ he shed blood.

Yeah, they do and they ought not.

Because I as we covered a couple weeks ago.

There is one mediator between God and man the man Jesus Christ.

So I don't need to pray to st Teresa Pope John Paul the second or anybody like that

or Anthony or even foe Saints like st Christopher who never existed.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's a waste of time and it takes your focus off of

Christ.

Yep, so let's now let's

come back to this.

I'm with you.

I'm with you.

We prayed to Christ the God -man.

All right.

So Joseph asked is my father still alive?

His brothers could not answer him.

They were dismayed at his presence.

So Jace Joseph said to his brothers come near to me, please.

And they're checking him for knives and things like that, right?

They came near he said I am your brother Joseph whom you sold

into Egypt and now.

Do not be distressed or angry through cells because you sold me here for God sent me

before you to preserve Life for the famine has been in the land these two years and there are

yet five years in Which there will be neither plowing nor harvest and God sent me before

you to preserve for you a remnant on earth.

And to keep alive for you many survivors.

So it was not you who sent me here, but God.

He has made me father to Pharaoh Lord of all of his house ruler over all of the land of Egypt.

Hurry.

Go up to my father and say to them thus says your son Joseph

God has made me Lord over all of Egypt.

Come down to me.

Do not tarry.

You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me you and your children and your children's children.

And your flocks and your herds and all that you have there I will provide for you for there are yet

five years of famine to come so that you and Your household and all that you have do not come to

poverty.

And now your eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt and of all that you have seen.

Hurry and bring my father down here.

Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and he wept.

Benjamin wept upon his neck and he kissed all of his brothers and wept upon them and after that his

brothers talked with him.

We noted last week that this Since he's a type and shadow of Christ shows Christ's great

love for you because God the Father sent Christ ahead to

save us and we Betrayed him for 30 pieces of silver.

We had him crucified and what we meant for evil God has turned for good and worked for

our salvation.

What they meant for evil by selling their brother into slavery.

God has worked for their salvation.

You see how the theme works.

It's wonderful.

So when the report was heard in Pharaoh's house Joseph's brothers have come it pleased

Pharaoh and his servants and Pharaoh said to Joseph say to your brothers do this load your beasts go back to the land of Canaan

take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you

shall eat The fat of the land and you Joseph are commanded to say do this.

Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your

father and come have No concern for your goods for the best

of all of the land of Egypt is yours.

The sons of Israel did so Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh

gave them provisions for the journey.

To each and all of them.

He gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin He gave three hundred shekels of silver.

Five changes of clothes, by the way clothes were quite expensive back.

Then you couldn't go to Walmart to purchase them.

So when you hear about clothing, you know as if that's a big deal.

Well, it was a big deal.

So to his father he sent as follows.

Ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt.

Ten female donkeys loaded with grain bread and provision for his father on the journey.

Then he set sent his brothers away as they departed.

He said to them do not quarrel on the way.

So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob and they told him

Joseph is still alive and he is a ruler over all of the land of Egypt and his heart became

numb.

For he did not believe them.

This smacks of the truth.

He doesn't immediately rejoice he goes.

What.

No, you're lying.

But when they told him all the words of Joseph Which he had said to them and when he saw the

wagons that Joseph has sent to carry him The spirit of their father Jacob revived

and Israel said it is enough.

Joseph my son is still alive.

I will go and see him before I die.

What a great reunion.

How many years did he suffer and believe that his son was dead?

21 22 years.

It's a long time.

Israel took his journey with all that he had.

He came to bear Sheba offered sacrifices to God the God of his father Isaac.

And God spoke to Israel and visions of the night and said Jacob.

Jacob He said here I am.

And then he said I am God the God of your father.

Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for there.

I will make you into a great nation.

I myself will go down with you to Egypt and I shall also bring you up again

and.

Joseph's hand.

Shall close your eyes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he's working salvation here.

No, notice that Jacob doesn't say I've been calling for 22 years.

You could have picked up the phone a little bit earlier and told me what was going on, right?

I kept texting you and you never answered.

None of that.

God is God.

His ways are not our ways.

So then Jacob set out from bear.

Sheba the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father.

There are little ones and their wives and the wagons the Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

They also took their livestock and their goods which they had gained in the land of Canaan and came into

Egypt.

Jacob and all of his offspring with him his sons and his sons sons with him his daughters

and his sons daughters all of His offspring he brought with him to Egypt.

Now.

Here's a weird little archaeological note.

There was no Instagram at that time.

In order to take a photograph somebody would have to paint it in hieroglyphs on a wall.

There is a hieroglyph in Egypt of this event.

The children of Israel coming into Egypt.

I am not joking.

Somebody took the time to chisel an Instagram photo and put it up on a wall in Egypt.

All right, I should bring that in and show it to you.

But this event is actually recorded in Egyptian history in hieroglyphs on a wall we've got it

a little bit of a note.

Now these are the names of the descendants of Israel who came into Egypt.

Jacob and his sons Reuben.

Jacob's firstborn the sons of Reuben Hanak Palu has Ron and car me the sons of Simeon

Jamuel.

Jamin, what a great name.

He's jamming.

He likes to dance Norwegian style anyway,.

Oh had Yakhim Zohar and Shaul Shaul that's an interesting way

name the son of a Canaanite woman the sons of Levi Gershon Kohath Marari

the sons of Judah er Onan Shala Perez and Zara.

Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan and the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamel.

So by this time er is dead.

Onan's dead.

We heard about that Perez is alive and His sons are Hezron

and Hamel.

Kind of tells you how long they've been there, right?

Yeah, and the the idea here behind these names.

This does this is the exact opposite of a long time ago in a galaxy far far away.

That's mythology, right or this is not once upon a time.

This is human history.

That we're talking about here.

This is human history.

And when you start to see it as human history.

It's going to start messing with you.

And the reason why is because if this is human history, I can trace back descendants all the

way back to who?

Jesus but farther back all the way back to Adam and if I have that list and I know how

long they lived.

That tells me how old the earth is.

It was the earth a bazillion years old.

No, it's a little longer than that.

It's not millions.

It's thousands 2016 since Christ's

death and resurrection.

Yeah, right right, so start working the math and it's gonna fly

in the face of modern interpretations of science one of the reasons why

scientists will say well the earth has to be this has to be old is Because the universe is

expanding and we by seeing light.

From bodies out in the heavens, right that are a bazillion light -years away.

How did that light get to us if it didn't travel that long to get here

answer?

God can make light do whatever it wants to do.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's a whole other story.

It's a whole other story.

So I won't read the whole list here.

But this list tells us we're dealing with human history not with myth.

All the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt verse 26 who were his own descendants not

including Jacob's sons.

Wives were 66 persons in all Beth

Sons wives, okay his own descendants total descendants not including

Jacob's sons wives so excluding the women were 66 persons in all

the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were to.

All the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were 70 70 total.

He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him to Goshen.

They came into the land of Goshen.

Then Joseph prepared his chariot went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen.

He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and he wept on his neck a good

while.

I mean this has all the hallmarks of a great story a Great story including the great

reunion at the end now type and shadow type and shadow.

Joseph has died and he's risen again.

You want to know what this pictures something that still hasn't happened yet?

This pictures our great reunion with our loved ones on that day when Christ returns

in the new earth.

We're all gonna have a good cry.

And a good laugh.

Oh.

And there's a big party coming to.

Don't worry about what you're gonna wear.

Your clothes are provided.

So Israel said to Joseph now, let me die.

Since I've seen your face and know that you are still alive.

Joseph said to his brothers and his father's household I will go up to Pharaoh and tell tell Pharaoh and will

say to him my brothers and my father's household.

Who were in the land of Canaan have come to me and the men are shepherds for they have been keepers of livestock.

And they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have.

When Pharaoh calls you and says what is your occupation?

You shall say your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even now until now.

Both we and our fathers in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen for every shepherd.

This is fascinating is an abomination to Egyptians.

Okay.

Now that's not exactly a throwaway line.

It's culturally true at the time but from Moving forward.

Okay at this point in the story Egypt is kind of a stand -in for heaven.

The Great Reunion death resurrection, we're all back together and then united together again and

salvation has been worked.

Moving into the book of Exodus Egypt turns into the ultimate

symbol of idolatry and evil so it changes a little bit and Then

moving from beyond that as you get into the latter part of the Old Testament Egypt kind of

disappears and then the ultimate Pinnacle of evil is Babylon.

So there's a little bit there's always kind of a little bit of a changing of the symbols and in this symbol

this is starting to begin to open up the changing of what

Egypt is.

Representing that every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.

Think of Jesus our Good Shepherd.

Just kind of tuck that away.

This starts to put those seeds in your mind that there's more coming to the story.

It's like there's going to be a sequel or something there will be a sequel and So

we will end there today and we will pick up at chapter 47

next week.