Book of Genesis - Ch. 42, Vs. 29-Ch. 44, Vs. 18 (11/20/2016)

The Physical Famine and the Deeper Spiritual Famine

Major religious themes. I was trying to think of the word that he used and I thought it was either doctrine or themes. But there are certain themes that are throughout the Bible. We go to them over and over and over again.

We're going to kind of think about what these themes are as we search for Jesus in these two chapters. So that's where we're going. I'm going to start on Genesis 42, verse 29. The brothers have just come back from Egypt and they've brought their corn back and they dumped it in front of their father and lo and behold all their money is in the mouth of every bag.

Now they had already looked a little bit earlier. We started earlier. We're making room for, we normally start about 10 after, making more room for Brother Goldman when he gets here. I lost track of my place.

49. Oh, I was just telling about what has happened to the brothers. They've gone down to Egypt. They've gotten their corn. They came back. One of them opened his bag in the inn and found the money there.

You'd have thought they would have all checked their bags, but no, they didn't. They just went on home. And when they dumped the bags out in front of Jacob, all the money was returned. So that's what they've told their father.

And so they told him of all that had befell them when they were down with Joseph. And then go down to the last verse, 42, verse 38. And he, this is Jacob speaking, said, my son, he's talking about Benjamin, and he said, my son Benjamin shall not go with you for his brother Joseph, the man they were talking to but didn't know, is dead and he is left alone if mischiefs befell him by the way in which you go, then you shall bring down on my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

So that's where we left off last week. The very last chapter, 42, we saw Jacob declare that he would not allow his youngest son to go down to Egypt to serve as proof of the son's intent. See, Joseph accused them of being spies.

And they said, no, no, no, no, we're true men. They denied that they were spies. Well, they weren't spies, so it was reasonable to deny it. And he said, well, you're gonna have to bring proof next time you come.

When you come again, you're gonna have to bring your younger brother with you or I won't talk to you. Well, Reuben said he would stand good for Benjamin. And Jacob said, no, my son's not going with you.

That's the last of 42. Now in 43, the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass when they had eaten up the corn, which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, go again and buy us a little food.

Brother David, it is extremely hot up here. I mean, it's just like a furnace right on my face. I'm sorry. Oh, is that what, is that what it is? Okay. I'll, okay. It's, I just knew it's going to get worse and worse.

Whether you could come back here and stand behind me and hold you and hold your hands over my forehead, because it's not my hands. It's not my hands that are cold. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's already a lot better.

It's not blowing on my face now. I'm sorry. Yeah. I actually, I actually kind of stalled twice already. Okay. So, so Jacob has now told his sons, go again and buy some food. And the reason for that is there's famine in the land.

There's a feminine, there's a feminine, there is a physical famine. That's what Jacob is speaking to. But more importantly, there is a spiritual famine. Remember when he, when Jacob came out of the land of his father-in-law and his wife, where the Lord told him to go.

He said, go to Bethel. And he said, go to Bethel and build an altar there and dwell there. So Jacob went eventually to Bethel and he built an altar and he stayed there a few days. And then he headed out.

Jacob said, God said unto Jacob, arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there and make there an altar unto God that appeared unto thee when thou fled us from thy face of Esau, thy brother. This is right in the very beginning, but that's not where Jacob is now.

Jacob left Bethel and they journeyed from Bethel. This is 3516. You don't need to go back there either. 3516. And they journeyed from Bethel and Jacob came into, unto Isaac, his father in Mamre, which is in the city of Arba, which is Hebron.

So he is now living, dwelling in Hebron. He's elect. When was he elect? When was Jacob notified that he was elect? Well, I guess you could say that. That's the first time he was at Bethel, when he dreamed of the ladder.

But the next time he came back to Bethel is when the Lord laid his hands on him and changed his name. So either at the first time when he, well, he was elect the whole time, wasn't he? He was elect the whole time, but he knew he was elect probably when he saw the ladder and for certain when God changed his name to Isaac.

Not Isaac, to Israel. We know that for sure. He's elect right enough, but he's out of fellowship. He's not dwelling in Bethel where he should be. He's down in Hebron. He's not so far that he couldn't go back, but he's far enough that he didn't.

Now I want you to consider some names as we go forward. And this is why I kind of shuddered when I called him Isaac. Jacob when he's out of fellowship. Israel when he's in fellowship. Use that as kind of a landmark.

It's not all the time. It's not right all the time. It's not always the way, but it's enough of the way that you can get a clue as to where Israel is with respect to God and where Jacob is with respect to God by the names that Moses calls them.

So let's keep that in mind as we go. Not always correct, but enough to create a pattern. Right now, Jacob is not concerned about the spiritual famine, only the physical. So what did he say? Go again and buy us a little food.

He didn't say let's get on our wagons and head up to Bethel where we ought to be. He said go down to Egypt and get some food. Judah is going to tell him that that's easier said than done. Verse three.

And Judah spake to him saying, the man did solemnly protest unto us saying, ye shall not see my face again except your brother be with you. Judah just reminds him of the condition set upon the return to buy food by the Egyptian.

What did the Egyptian say? If you don't bring your brother, I'm not going to even look at you, much less sell you any food. And who was the Egyptian that said this? Joseph, the brother that they didn't recognize.

And then he goes on to say, Judah goes on to say, if thou will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food. But if they will not send him, we will not go down. It's a waste of a trip. For the man said unto us, you shall not see my face except your brother be with you.

And Israel said, wherefore dealt ye so ill with me as to tell the man whether you had yet a brother? What did you, what did you tell him? If you didn't, why did you tell him? Why did you tell him you had a brother?

If you hadn't told him you had a brother, he wouldn't have demanded to see him. Well, consider what might have happened had he said, I have no brother and I have no father. Well, he would have had, he couldn't have said that because he would have had a father who might have been dead.

If my father was dead and we have no younger brother, Joseph would have known. Now, I'm a little unhappy that that was Israel there, but it's going to, but he's going to kind of change his color as we go through this story.

And I suspect that he was identified as Israel there in that verse because of where he's going, not where he is. But right now he's not dealing with the problem, is he? His first reaction is not to deal with the problem.

What's his first reaction? To blame his sons. If you hadn't told him, he wouldn't have known. Now, before we go any further, I want to look at some of the major themes of the scripture. Tell me one, John.

A major theme, a major topic that the Bible talks about as we go throughout the Bible. Salvation and, break it down for me into pieces. I'll give you one and you give me the other two. Justification. I can, and you'll be just as, you'll be just as, oh sure, I know this.

Glorification. Glorification. Now, when we went through this years ago, a couple of books ago, we talked about the major, the four major pieces of salvation. I said four, didn't I? Because there is one more.

There is the growth period between the time that you're working on your separation and you're getting ready to be prepared for what God has for you. So, I put in one more, confirmation, conforming to being like God or like Jesus.

So, that salvation is one major theme in the scripture. Another major theme. Anybody think of another major theme? Love is a major theme. And you should look for love as we go through the rest of this passage.

And I'm going to tell you this, I wasn't looking for love as I went through this passage, so I'm going to have no references at all to it. But you look for love. The what? Deceit. Let me broaden that.

What other kinds of bad things are there? Pride, murder. I mean, just generally, the general depravity of man. Jealousy. Man is by nature totally depraved. There is none that doeth good. No, not one. Another major theme is election.

Those are the things that I had mentioned in my notes that I wanted to kind of have you have in your mind. I didn't have love in there, but love is a good one because you're going to see examples of love, aren't you?

You're going to see where love comes into this passage. But I wanted to bring those up before I went any further. So, I broke my story up. They have told the, they're telling Jacob, Judah is telling Jacob the reason why they're not going to go get the corn unless they send Benjamin with them.

So, here we go again. Verse 7. And they said, the man asked us straightly of our state. Now, they're explaining now why it is that they told, they're answering the question that Jacob proposed. Why did you tell him in the first place?

And they're saying, the man asked us straightly of our state and our kindred saying, is your father yet alive? What were we to do? Tell him no. And have you another brother? Could we certainly know that he would say, bring your brother down?

Now, that's a reasonable response, but there's more to it than that. And Ron, this is what I was kind of smiling about. Consider what might have happened had they said, I have no other brothers. And he knew they didn't.

In fact, I tell my students all the time. When one of them does something and like, I see a piece of chalk, we don't see chalk anymore. I see a marker go flying across the room. And I say, John, did you throw that piece of chalk?

And they will say, no, not me. And then I say, just because I asked the question, doesn't mean I don't know the answer. Do you want to reconsider your answer? And that's what would have happened had they said no to Joseph, wouldn't it?

He might have said, you want to try that again? Then what happened to him? Because I know you have one. Okay. Now Judah said unto Israel, his father, send the lad with me and we will arise and go that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones.

And I will be a surety for him. What's a surety? A promise, a pledge, a protector in a sense, a down payment and exchange. And exchange like a bartering. It's like when you buy your house, you get a mortgage.

They don't just say, well, I'll lend you a hundred thousand dollars to buy your house. They say, what do you have that I can get if you don't pay it back? They ask for something in exchange if they are unable to perform their obligation.

So Judah is saying to Israel, I will stand for Benjamin. If I don't bring him back out of my hand, shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before me, then let me bear the blame forever.

For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned this second time. So he's telling you, we're already late in coming back. If you can imagine, I don't know how many people were in Jacob's family.

I know that Abraham had enough to arm how many men? Was it 400 servants? He had enough to field an army of 400 servants. Israel had a lot of wealth as well. Jacob I'm sure did too. In fact, one of the things that was said about Jacob and Esau, they were too rich to live in the same land together.

So Esau went one way and Jacob went the other. That also happened with Lot and Abraham earlier on, that they had so much between them that they couldn't live in the land together. So if you got all these people and you sent 10 brothers down to Egypt to get corn and they had 10 donkeys apiece, that's only 100 donkeys.

That's only 400 bags of corn if you have four bags on a donkey. That's only one bag per person. Wouldn't last forever, would it? And Judah is telling him, if we hadn't delayed trying to decide whether to send Benjamin back or not, we'd have been gone already.

Now what happened when Reuben offered to guarantee Benjamin safety back in 42? He said, no, I'm not going to let Benjamin go. That was the last thing he said in chapter 42. My son Benjamin is not going to go with you.

But now the famine has lingered on. Now they're all hungry again. And the stress of the famine and the potential death of all, if they waited much longer, is beginning to wear on Jacob or Israel. And their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, now do this.

Take the best of the land in your vessels and carry down the man a present, a little balm, a little honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds. Why do you think he said a little? They didn't have much. But no matter how much they had, they could have had stacks of gold 20 feet tall, and they still would have had to spend it to buy the bread, wouldn't they?

What they had was not worth anything. So send him down something. Send him down a little to show our good faith. And take double the money in your hands. And the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand.

Peradventure, it was an oversight. So he's telling his sons, okay, take twice the money you took the last time, and then take back all the money that was in the sack, and give that to the Egyptian when you get there.

Maybe it was a mistake that the money was in the bag. Now, Arthur Pink said this, how like the soul that has begun to be exercised before God, uneasy and conscious, discerning more and more the vanity of the world, the sinner redoubles his effort to please God.

He turns over a new leaf, and he seeks harder than ever to win God's approval. Now, Brother David, what do you have to do to win God's approval? Okay, let me give you my answer. There is nothing that you can do to win God's approval.

You either have it or you don't. And what great major biblical doctrine is that? That's the doctrine of election. Right here it is in this story, doubling their efforts to try to win the approval of God when they already had it.

Yeah. Now, should they? Was it a bad thing for them to redouble their efforts? No, it's good. But because they bring three times as much to Joseph... See, in this picture, Joseph is acting as, let's say, Jesus.

And they're coming back to win the approval of Jesus, and they bring three times as much stuff. Are they going to reach the approval or gain the approval of Joseph by bringing him three times as much stuff?

Do they have his approval? Do the brothers have the of Joseph? Oh, but they do. They have the approval of Joseph. They've wronged Joseph. They sold Joseph into slavery. When they visited Joseph, the first time he looked at them, what did he know?

He knew who they were. He tested them to see if they were the same as they had been. But there's one thing he knew from the beginning. He didn't question it at all. They were his brothers. They had his approval, not because he brought them three times as much stuff as he brought the first time, but because they were still his brothers.

And that's something that we can consider, too. When we work as hard as we can work trying to please God, does that make us not be saved? I know that Brother David talked about this a couple weeks ago.

A person goes down to the altar and he says, I have now accepted Christ and I'm going to do these things to make myself better. I'm going to follow Christ. But does the fact that he thought that he had something to do with his salvation mean that he didn't have it?

It doesn't make him any less saved. It does not make him any more their brothers. It doesn't make him any less their brothers. They are his brothers. Had they brought nothing back, they'd have gone back to the same amount of corn.

He needed to understand how God used him. And in a physical sense, he had to know more than Jesus had to know because Jesus already knows. When I walk up to Jesus and I say, Lord, give me this thing or let me do this thing or help me to see something.

He already knows my heart. But Joseph had to find out. He was looking forward to bringing his family together as one in his family. Yes. So at this point now, Jacob has been kind of described now as Israel.

He is in a better standing. What's he standing now? He's standing now as he knows that he needs to please and he's doing what he can to please. That's a good thing. It's a good thing to know that you need to please.

It's a good thing to know when the Lord invites you into his family because you were always part of his family and he lets you know that you're part of his family. It's good to want to please him and to want to do things that you should do.

That's our duty. That's what we should do. But that's not what made us in the family. The brothers were just as much a part of his family when they sold him into slavery as they were when they took three times the amount of monies down to Joseph.

They were still just the same amount of brother. And so it says, take also your brother and arise and go again unto the man and God Almighty give you mercy before the man that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin and if I am bereaved of my children I am bereaved.

So he has settled himself to accepting whatever the Lord has for them. God Almighty give you mercy before that man that he may send you away with your other brother and with Benjamin. But if I be bereaved of my children I am bereaved.

That's right. And whether he gives us or takes away he's the Lord's. He is the Lord. Jacob, what did Jacob pray for? In this prayer what did Jacob pray for? He prayed for mercy. Did he get mercy? But he also got more than mercy didn't he?

He got blessing. He got grace. He got mercy. He got a gift that was not earned. He got a free gift. He got an unmerited blessing. He got grace. He got what? He got God. Not so long ago our church prayed that God might grant mercy on this nation.

And we've seen that mercy granted. What is yet to be seen is are we also granted grace? And we'll see over the next few years. And the men took that present and they took double money in their hand. Well now that's a little bit deceptive.

Not double money. Three times the money. Double the money to buy new and the old money that was returned to them to return to Joseph. So they're bringing two extra sets of money along with the one that they had.

So it's three times the money. They're taking a pile of money and Benjamin. And a rose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them he said to the ruler of the house bring these men home and slay and make ready for these men shall dine with me at noon.

And the man did as Joseph bade. And the man brought the men to Joseph's house. Now what do you think the brothers thought? We're dead. Verse 18. And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house.

And they said because of the money that was returned in our sack at the first time we were brought in that he may seek occasion against us and fall on us and take us for bondsmen and our asses. And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house and they communed with him at the door of the house.

And said oh sir we came indeed down at the first time to buy food. And it came to pass that when we came into the inn. They're already explaining away what happened the last time. They're saying we're going to bring you we're going to bring you some money back that was found in our sack.

And we don't know how it got there. And we can't and it came to pass when we came to the inn that we opened our sacks and behold every man's money was in the mouth of his sack. Our money in full weight and we have brought it again in our hand.

And other money we have brought down in our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. And he said peace be unto fear not your God and the God of your father hath given you treasure in your sacks.

I had your money. And he brought Simeon out to them. So that's the steward of the house. They say hey we brought the money back. And the steward says I don't want you talking about I've got your money.

Your God must have put it there. Now if they had been cautious enough they would have thought what do you mean our God? How do you know our God and the God of our father? That's another clue that the brothers didn't yet know what was going on.

It's a clue that although they were elect already they didn't know it. They were afraid they're being called into Joseph's house to be killed. And the man brought the men into Joseph's house and he gave them water and they washed their feet and he gave their asses providers.

So he fed their donkeys and had them wash up and go in to meet the Joseph. And they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon for they heard that they should eat bread there. So what are they doing?

They're getting their myrrh and their balms and their almonds and all the things they brought to Joseph as a gift. They're getting ready to give it to him when they meet him for lunch or dinner whatever it was.

And when Joseph came home they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house and they bowed themselves to him to the earth. It just keeps getting better and better doesn't it? Just every time they see Joseph they bow down.

And they were so resentful of that earlier on. That's why they're having to do it over and over again. Yeah and so what did he do? He asked them of their welfare. How are you doing guys? And he says is your father well?

The old man of whom you spoke? Hey listen this is the right-hand man of Pharaoh. These are 10 guys that came in to buy bread. Do you think he had remembered them? Do you think he had remembered any other 10 guys that came in?

But they didn't think about that. The old man of whom you spoke he didn't even remember the conversation. Is he yet alive? And they answered, thy servant our father is in good health. He is yet alive.

And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance once again. And he lifted up his eyes. This is Joseph. And he saw his brother Benjamin his mother's son. And he says is this your younger brother of whom you've spoken to me?

The one that you didn't deny existed? And then he spoke directly to Benjamin. And he said God be gracious unto thee my son. And Joseph made haste for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. And he sought where to weep.

And he entered unto his chamber and he wept there. He had had all he could take. He had to go because he was about to break up in front of him. He didn't want to do that. His testing is not yet over. But he had he had to get himself together and get prepared.

He was about to cry. So he went into the chamber and cried. That's why I know that Virgil that he had already accepted his brothers. He did it just as long as he could. He went into his chamber. He wept there.

And then after he wept he washed his face and went out and refrained himself. He had cried the other time too. Yes sir. So this is the second time he's cried over his brothers. But this time he had to this time he had to come back and meet him.

So he washed his face and came back in and got ready and said set on the bread. And so the servants come in and they set up three tables. They set up one for Joseph by himself and for them by themselves.

The brothers a table for themselves and for the Egyptians which did eat with him by themselves. So he's got three tables. He's got his table. He's got his table for his brothers and he's got the table for the Egyptians because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews for that is an abomination unto them and to the Egyptians.

Now that's going to that's going to lead to something later on when the Pharaoh eventually invites the whole family of Jacob into Egypt. He can't leave them there in Egypt with everybody else. So what does he do?

He sends them off into a part of Egypt that is the very very best part of Egypt to live in so they can live apart from themselves and also apart from the Egyptians. And that kept the family of Jacob together and he kept them separate from the Egyptians.

And they sat before him the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth and the men marveled at one another. What were they marveling about? Okay I guess they marveled a little about that.

That would have surprised me. He put them in order. He put Reuben here and I forget Simeon or Levi. Simeon or Levi. Levi or Simeon. Judah right on down through the brothers and Benjamin at the other end.

He had them in order. They said how could he have known the order? All we do at breakfast we had breakfast this morning and I sat where I always sit and Georgette sat where she always sat and everybody sat where they always sit.

Yeah so they were they're sitting down like okay where should I sit? If I go to somebody's house and they invite me to eat I say well where do you want me to sit? And they said well you sit here and I sit there.

But he didn't they didn't ask and he didn't tell he just said you here, you here, you here, you there and they looked around and said this is the way we always are. I thought that's great just like they were at home because he knew something they didn't know that he knew.

They should have expected something by now but they didn't. That's right that's absolutely true and he he will put you where he wants you to be and he wanted Joseph to be a slave for a long time. He wanted Joseph to be a prisoner for a long time.

It's only now that Joseph is the head man in Egypt before he was and by the way at this point he was the head man in Egypt because the old pharaoh has died and he is there is a younger pharaoh in place.

So that the younger pharaoh is like totally relying on Joseph and he is even more important than he was in the in the beginning. But in any case he took and sent messes unto them from before him but Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs and they drank and were merry with him.

Now let's think about that a minute. Normally who gets the most? The eldest son gets twice as much. The eldest son is over here he didn't get twice as much. Who got more? The youngest son. He didn't get twice as much.

He got five times as much. If any of you have had dealings with dividing up of estates among families if the estate is not divided exactly exactly exactly even somebody gets mad and it's all things that are given to them.

It's nothing that they earned and yet they get mad that one gets more than another. In some cases they have to sell the property take the proceedings from the property and divide it up and get equal amounts because they can't decide they can't agree on splitting the land and say you take this portion and you take that portion.

I mean it is a it is in our nature to be greedy in our nature to resent the fact that hey the natural way of dividing this up is Reuben gets twice as much and all the rest of us get the same amount and we're all happy that's what it's always been but that's not what was here.

Five times as much. Don't you think he was checking to see if there's any resentment of the brothers toward Benjamin? That's what I think. That was the first test. Benjamin was given five times as much were there going to be any signs of resentment?

I guess. I'm going to go a little bit further because we've got a little bit more time and I will not get all the way through the end of 44 like I had intended and that never happened so I apologize to you but I didn't get through a whole chapter.

I mean that's like a we're ready for 41 what? 44 what? And he commanded the steward of his house saying fill the men's sack with food as much as they can carry and do what? Put every man's money in the sack's mouth.

They're still not going to do anything to earn that food. He's going to see to it that they do nothing. So now the stage is set for the final test. Now okay the brothers didn't resent Benjamin but this is a greater test.

The test now is will the brothers defend Benjamin at the risk of their own life? That's the test that's being set here. Not that they get not that they put the food in front of them in order and gave Benjamin five times as much to see if they were resentful.

What's going to happen now is he's testing to see if they will defend Benjamin at the risk of their own safety. So let's go and see what happens. And put my cup the silver cup in the sack's mouth of the youngest.

And his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. So every man's got his money back in the mouth of his sack and Benjamin has his money and Joseph's silver cup. And as soon as it was the morning was light the men were sent away they in their asses.

So you can go home now take your food to your father and the family. And when they were going out of the city and yet not far off Joseph said unto his steward up go after the men and when thou dost overtake them say unto them wherefore have you rewarded evil for good.

Is not this which is in is it is not this it in which my lord drinketh and whereby indeed he divineth you have done evil in doing so. So they're going to go out they're going to find the cup and he says when he finds the cup tell him wherefore have you rewarded evil.

Wherefore have you returned evil for good. Joseph did good unto you he fed you he treated you right he gave you the corn and you steal his cup. And he overtook them and he's spoken to them these same words.

Now what do you think they thought? They said hey we didn't take his cup we didn't take his money the first time. And they said unto him wherefore my lord these words. God forbid that thy servant should do according to this thing.

Behold the money which we found in our sack's mouth we brought it again to thee out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out of our goals thy lord's house silver or gold. We just proved our honors honesty by returning the money from the last time.

We wouldn't have taken the silver and the gold we could have just kept the silver we had. With whomsoever of thy servants it be found both let him die and we will be the lord's bond servants. So they kind of upped the ante didn't they?

They said you go ahead and look there's no way we took the the money in the uh or the silver cup. Go ahead and look and when you find it which you won't because we didn't take it. We'll be the lord's bondsman and the one that took it he can die.

Well that's more than the uh servant had been instructed on. So he says now also let it be according to your words he with whom the it is found shall be my servant and ye shall be blameless. So they're off the hook.

He is saying we're going to search the bags and when we find the silver cup the one that's got the silver cup will be the servant and the rest of you go away. We we don't believe that anybody else had any part of it you can go your way.

So all they have to do when they find the cup is say Benjamin you're on your own buddy you shouldn't have taken it we're going to take our stuff and go to dad. That's pretty that's a pretty uh uh stiff uh difference between being a servant for the rest of the life and the and the killer and the uh uh thief being a bond servant uh being killed or the thief being a bond servant and them going free.

That's a pretty big choice. Yeah that's right and and Judah is going to make a protestation about this a little bit later. Uh he's going to ask a question and uh it's going to be exactly that but let me see if I can get there and he said now also let it be according to your words with he with whom it is found shall be my servant and you shall be blameless.