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Preacher: Ross Macdonald
Scripture: Genesis 43:15-34
Well this morning we look to complete chapter 43 really as the first part of At least three messages, maybe four will just sort of see how things go and we get there when I arrived this morning after mentioning last night that the Focus would be on reconciliation in this chapter Tony asked.
Are you sure we're just finishing chapter 43? It doesn't seem like reconciliation is really the theme until the next chapter. Maybe even chapter 45 and I assured him. This is just part one. And so I assure you Reconciliation is something that will be before us for several weeks and we really want to lay the groundwork today I hope in some helpful ways even practically for us to be thinking about reconciliation in terms of scripture in terms of the gospel in terms of how Genesis and this very ending narrative with Joseph and his brothers is sort of a microcosm of the Bible as a whole and God's Interactions with us through Jesus as a whole and I hope there'll be all sorts of practical ways that we can relate Reconciliation to our own lives and our own relationships, which is certainly something we'll begin to do this morning.
So we're looking at reconciliation as we complete chapter 43 up to this point. We're reminded that Joseph when he sent away his brothers from the first time they stood before him Had arranged for their money to be returned.
So not only did they leave Egypt with food and grain to bring back to their families in Canaan. But they also left with their money and that of course as soon as they discovered it at the at the first Campground in one of the brothers sacks.
That was a cause of great fear among them and then when they returned home and they emptied out the sacks in front of their Father they were all terrified. This has been something that has been Consuming their minds perhaps giving them night sweats and night terrors.
And now they're having to confront their fear as they make their way back to Egypt. But we noted last week that God's grace has been evident in the lives of these men. We saw it Albeit foolishly in the life of Reuben.
We've certainly seen it in the life of Judah. We look forward to seeing that again next week. But really among all the brothers in their honesty in their integrity. Even in the speed they make to return to Egypt for the sake of their father and their families.
We see that these are changed men. God's grace has not been idle. It has not been in vain. Joseph of course has been working out almost maneuvering to bring about these changes that there might be a Reconciliation between him and his brothers as we saw so significantly in the last chapter He remembered the dreams and ever since he remembered the dreams He's very wisely and graciously moved in ways that would expose his brothers in their guilt before him.
So that he could meet them in their guilt with terms of peace and reconciliation. Reconciliation. The brothers are terrified. They don't understand that such kindness the returned money was a kindness meant to lead them to repentance.
They relate their circumstances, of course to God's providence and even though they're afraid they can't deny that. It's something that God has done to them. Remember what they said at the campsite. What is this that God has done to us and that's something that's reverberating into their minds.
Even as they return to Egypt, what is this that God is doing to us? What will happen when we arrive here? I can imagine them. Let's just pray again. All right another five feet.
All right.
Let's just stop and pray again as they get closer in that fateful meeting is about to happen. They must have really understood what it means to pray without ceasing. But they rightly understand that God is at work in their midst.
They've been wrestling like their father with the difficult providence of God. And really as we consider they're wrestling with the providence of God it it begins to move that wrestling toward Reconciliation when God brings his people along a path that causes them to wrestle with him.
It always has the greater design the greater end of bringing about Reconciliation of establishing a relationship and a communion between God and his people and that's what we'll begin to see this morning so beginning in verse 15.
The men took that present you remember the honey the myrrh the balm the almonds and the pistachios. I love pistachios and now I feel validated biblically. This is a very biblical nut to enjoy. Almond second-best pistachios clearly the cherry on the top of this tribute gift.
They took also the double money in their hand and they arose and went down to Egypt and they stood before Joseph. They waste no time going down to Egypt. It's emphasized in the Hebrew through an adverbial construction and I think that's significant because they're afraid but as soon as they've actually Persuaded their father to release Benjamin to them.
They waste no time. They immediately travel down to Egypt. So you again see something of their integrity that they don't dawdle. They don't maneuver. They don't try to find a different way. They know that they have to face down their great fear.
And as soon as they get Benjamin, they rush down toward Egypt. We remember that the pressure of the famine has really brought about these providential Circumstances in their life and it's the pressure of this crisis the pressure of their need that is driving them into God's plan for repentance and restoration.
You can picture them once they actually arrive in Egypt. They're arriving as Canaanite strangers. Hebrew strangers from Canaan into this grand empire. That somehow has floated through the famine because of the wise Viceroy who controls the storehouses.
They're there with their donkeys and they're guiding them down the narrow streets past all the grand architect architecture symbols of imperial pomp and circumstance. Darting in and through the hungering crowds that are gathering in their lines to be able to receive their dole of grain for the day.
They're making sure they have their money and then double and they're preparing. Perhaps trembling as they begin to step forward one by one minute by minute closer and closer to that distribution center of grain.
Jacob meanwhile is back in Canaan. He watched until he couldn't see them cross the horizon. He's been beseeching the Lord for them ever since God have mercy to them. What he said to them is what he's praying for them.
God have mercy upon them be gracious to them protect them. Move in this man's heart. Let this ruler be merciful to them. I pray that it was just simply an oversight a mistake. Let there be no consequences to the money that they returned with and and so they're praying like their father is praying.
And they finally as we see in verse 15 stand before.
Joseph.
Aways off they see him. He sees them but Lord of the land the keeper of the storehouses little do they know he also has been waiting for their return and I imagine he also has been praying for them. I Think we can say that because of the instruction He gives to his steward as we'll see in a moment and what the steward says in response to them.
The steward seems in on the whole story and so surely Joseph like Jacob and like these brothers have been praying for God to be merciful and For God to be gracious and for God to move in their hearts.
Little do they know that he too has been waiting for their return in order to move forward with his plan praying for them hoping. Verse 16. Joseph sees Benjamin with them and he says to the steward of his house.
Take these men to my home. Slaughter an animal. Make ready. It sounds like the prodigal's father doesn't it? Go get the fatted calf. Get ready for this feast. These men will dine with me at noon and then the man did as Joseph ordered and the man brought the man into Joseph's house.
So as the brothers draw near and the lunch line to the sight of Joseph. He sees that they were true to their word. He notices that they have returned with Benjamin as he had ordered them to do lest they Abandon Simeon to an uncertain fate and they would not do that to poor old Simeon.
And so he recognizes that they have changed they they abandoned him 20 years ago. But they would not abandon Simeon. They've returned with Benjamin and Joseph has been longing to see his kid brother. And as he sees him, he immediately rejoices and before they even can come before him in audience.
He starts preparing the feast they have come and they've said nothing. They haven't had the opportunity to sit before him and when he sees them from afar, he's so joyful. He says prepare the feast. It really is Luke 15 here in Genesis 43.
It's the prodigal father as it were seeing the lost one from afar and inwardly rejoicing. The ones have returned. I thought they would be lost. So they've passed this first reenactment. They've retrieved their brother Benjamin and in doing so they've retrieved their brother bit Simeon and the sight of Benjamin as we'll see Overwhelms the heart of Joseph.
It's probably a good thing that he removes himself. He gets too close to Benjamin. He might blow the whole thing. Immediately burst out and reveal his true identity. But he knows God's grace has been working in his brothers and because of that he desires to bring Lavish kindness upon them in the same way.
He sees God is bringing lavish kindness upon himself. These men will dine with me at noon. When he first saw his brothers probably a year and a half maybe two years before this He spoke harshly with them.
He didn't know how to handle that encounter but even as we worked through that we saw that he began to soften to them and then as they parted ways he himself I Think we can say tenderly bound Simeon and he spoke and conversed with them and he gave them provisions for their journey home.
He really let them depart in peace and now we see him even being more compassionate more Sensitive and tender toward his brothers. These men will dine with me at noon what seemed impossible for 20 years is now a lunch date a lunch plan and This is a marvel of God's grace.
We know it also just perhaps it's present here in some ways to remind us of the ironic reversals of God's Providence. Joseph had come as a slave and yet working diligently with integrity and honesty. He was blessed by God and that blessing made him a steward over Potiphar's household.
Well now he's been so blessed and exalted by God that he himself has a steward and he tells that steward What to do and how to act and so we see this Picture as it were of the way that God has reversed the situation of Joseph from steward to now commanding a steward.
Verse 18. The men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house and they said It's because of the money which was returned to our sacks that first time. That's why we're being brought in so that he can make a case against us and and seize us make us slaves even take our donkeys.
So the steward acts according to Joseph's command. The brothers are brought out of the lunch line. You can come here with me. Everyone say hey, no cutting. No fair. No, no. No, this is under orders. This is under orders from Zapnat Panea.
You dare not question him and they're ushered off into his personal home. As soon as they're brought into the home all their fears as they return to Egypt become so powerful and they begin to Imagine the worst they think this is a setup.
This is an ambush. He knew we were coming now. He's got all of us and we we know from the story, right? We know from the roundhouse that was in Potiphar's house. It seems that Egyptian officials always had a dungeon in their basement.
So they're thinking we're in the house and we're gonna be brought Downstairs not to the dining room, but to the dungeon and so they're beginning to think the worst. They've been wrestling with Providence.
They rush down to Egypt. They recognize God's hand is at work in them and in their midst even as they were beseeching their father to release Benjamin. They recognize that that God is moving and he's doing something and they're facing their fear.
But when it comes to the height of facing their fear They imagine the worst like Peters trembling steps on the waves. They begin to sink and the mantra that always comes with an anxious imagination Begins to plague them.
It's because of the money. It's because of the money. It's because of the money. We're gonna be slaves. That's that's the whole setup. Now. All of us are gonna be thrown down into the pit with Simeon.
Well, ironically in some sense it is because of the money. But not in the way they think in fact the exact opposite of how they're thinking. Please notice this. They interpret Joseph's desire to bless them as a secret plot to destroy them.
These brothers have become so fearful in light of their wrestling with the difficult providence of God. That they interpret something designed to bless them as though it were something designed to curse them.
Brothers and sisters when we are working through difficult providence in our lives We are prone to this same fatal mistake the difficulty of the wrestling that which Causes us to face the fear causes those fears to to seep into our Imaginations and they become very fanciful and they have a certain effect a certain control over us.
And as we turn those fears and those anxious thoughts over and over in our minds we begin to see that difficult providence not as a means to God's blessing, but rather as. Surely this is because of something I've done.
Surely. This is a punishment. Surely God's about to pull the rug out from under me. Woe is me. I am being cursed. I am being punished. I am going to perish. That's how these brothers feel and They couldn't be more wrong.
They are 180 degrees wrong about the entire scene. But this is what happens when we wrestle with difficult providence in our lives. We forget to look at what God has promised and how God has moved in his providence and our Anxious thoughts begin to have a grip upon us rather than casting our cares upon the Lord because he cares for us.
We are blind to the way that he cares for us and we begin to think the most Irrational thoughts about what he might be doing in a particular season in our life. There's a poetic irony in their fear. They're afraid that Joseph is going to make them slaves.
They're the ones that made Joseph a slave. You know, this is I'm getting what I dished out. This is karma. This was coming to me. I knew I couldn't escape it. I knew this day was coming. And we begin to view our Heavenly Father as though he were retributive.
So we look at the very design of blessing as though or a design of destruction. Look at their fears just look at their fears. He wants to take us as slaves with our donkeys. Remember we said the the camels that have been passed down ever since Abraham.
That that first fleet of Ferraris that Pharaoh released all the way back in in Genesis 14. Maybe those have been since traded off or at least they weren't brought down into Egypt. They brought their trusty old donkeys and now in the time of famine two years in.
These beasts of burden are very precious indeed. And they think we know what this is all about as they're walking through the Empire. With all its magnificent buildings and palm trees with with all its encrusted jewelry, I believe National Geographic is having a Sort of multimedia display of King Tutankhamen's tomb and I think they're doing it in Boston.
I think it'll probably go down to Providence, Rhode Island. If you were to go to that. Maybe you'd get some sense of what these brothers were seeing as they walked through the streets of the Egyptian Empire.
Especially as they were brought into Joseph's home and they're surrounded by utter splendor clear architectural symbols of wealth and of power and in their anxious fears they think he wants our donkeys.
He has fleets of chariots with the best-bred horses in the world and they think he's trying to trap us to get our donkeys and The governor over all the land who has at his disposal the Egyptian military and every servant you could imagine a Servant to bring the salt a different servant to open the salt a different servant to pour the salt.
He has that kind of power and prestige and they think he must want us to be slaves. And he wants our donkeys too. Oh, I can't let Buster go, you know, hee-haw. It's completely irrational.
Completely irrational.
Their fearful imagination has taken them beyond reason. He is the Lord of the land with grain houses at his disposal if he doesn't need anything. It's them in Fact it's a waste of his time To even give them audience.
It's a waste of his time To even bring them into his home. They're blind to what's in front of them. But the steward is graciously bringing them in and they can only think the worst. They're unable to see the goodwill that he's shown them.
They forgot that when he sent them away He gave them every kind of provision for their journey. He changed his mind Rather than keeping all of them. He said no. No, you've got families to feed. Just just leave one brother here and I'm gonna give you everything you need to return home.
Those provisions that Graciousness it was all forgotten and even as they come here and they have no reason to fear the worst. They're fearing the worst. And so we see again this Irrational anxiety that grips people when they're wrestling with difficult Providence.
They become blind to how God has moved blind to what God has done. Blind to the circumstances right right in front of their face and they're completely irrational. Verse 19. When they drew near to the steward of Joseph's house They talked with him at the door of the house and they said Trump, you know, it's like we're not going in there.
Hold on. Let's just talk about let's talk about this. Let's talk about this. I'll just come in. Oh, hold on. Hold on.
Let's talk about this and.
Finally they they burst out into confession. How are you gonna bring it up? Yeah. Oh by the way. It may seem to you like we stole all our money last time. We were here. How do you drop that bomb into the situation?
So before they even enter the threshold they burst out into confession verse 20. Oh, sir This is an entreaty. It really shows you just how desperate they are. Oh, sir. We indeed came down the first time to buy food, but it happened when we came to the encampment.
We opened our sacks and there each man's money was in the mouth of his sack our money in full weight. It's on you know, really I think was about half. Wasn't it half Reuben? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was definitely just half of our money.
That was returned. They're open about it all our money full weight. We have brought it back in our hand. We've brought it down with other money to buy food. We don't know who put the money in our sacks.
It's sort of their Hail Mary. It's just this is what happened. We don't know how it happened. And here's how we're trying to respond to it. And they're afraid of the worst. But as we said despite their fear despite their panic God's grace has not been idle in their lives.
They face down their fear when they have every bodily reason every thought of their Anxious imagination is pressing them to conceal or to run. You can picture at least some of them kind of getting to the door and looking like is there a gate open if I make?
A break for it, you know, where am I gonna go? How fast is my donkey? But they don't they they confess they give an honest report. All they can say is what they say. We don't know how it got back. So we've brought it back.
We don't know how this happened. Notice that there's these dramatic evidences of grace in these brothers lives. We again see honest Integrity. We see the very things that Joseph was testing. Remember what he said to them in the first encounter.
We will see whether you were honest then. They've come back now and they've passed this test. They're honest men. How have they become honest men? They have been afflicted by famine and by fear and because they have been afflicted by Deprivation by something being taken from them by a lack of comfort a lack of security.
They've been afflicted. And because they've grown fearful. They feel like they have no control over the situation. They feel utterly Incapable of handling the stress and so they've been made needful dependent I'm sure prayerful.
And in light of that famine and that fear God has made them fruitful. What kind of fruit has God grown in the season of affliction and fear? Humility honesty. Integrity. Adam Clark commentator from a few centuries ago.
He says afflictions from the hand of God and under his direction have a wonderful tendency To humble the soul if men knew how gracious God's designs are when he sends afflictions. No murmur would ever be heard again.
If.
We knew God's gracious design when he sends affliction. When he brings us into circumstances that cause us to be fearful if we knew his ultimate design We would never murmur. We would never buck. We would never resist the work that he's doing in our lives.
But it's because we're like these brothers gripped by anxious concern imagining the most Irrational things that were blind to his providence and we begin to murmur and complain and become Fatigued by the way that he's moving in and through us.
So one question to ask yourself this morning is has the providence of God brought you to a place of humility. I'm even getting the violins and chorus here. This is wonderful. Has the providence of God Brought you to a place of humility.
Now, that's the first step. There's many a man that have been humbled by their sins. But that's not enough. I think you could view it. I'm no green thumb, but humility would be Preparing the soil and if all you do every year is go out and and trudge up all the soil and Move those rocks out of the way and get it nice and ready and then you go job.
Well done. We're gonna have a great winter. It's like oh, wait a second. You didn't plant anything. Nothing's growing. What was the work of being humbled if there's not fruit? And so there needs to be fruit that grows out of that humility and we see that out of their humility.
They're becoming men of integrity men of action. Men of honesty and this is the fruit that is growing out of their humility. It's not enough to be humbled by afflictions. God's design never ends with humility.
Humility is the beginning of what God wants to do in your life. Now, of course these brothers have confessed it and they don't know what's coming. Maybe they have good reason to think the steward is gonna be slack-jawed and outraged.
He's gonna call for guards to surround them and he wait till my master hears this. Their stomachs must have been in knots. They have no idea if it will be a response of wrath. Verse 23 he says Peace be with you.
Do not be afraid. I can only imagine in that scene that they didn't even hear that. When he said kind of like yeah, I know peace be with you don't be afraid and they it probably just went right through them and they're like and and we really don't know and we're willing to do anything and Peace be with you.
Don't be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. So the response is almost angelic in the way it greets them. Angels often come to God's people saying peace be with you.
Do not be afraid and this angelic response is probably the last response. They were expecting to hear. They probably thought surely there's gonna be a lot more explanation. Maybe Interrogation under duress.
Maybe we'll be on the torture rack. Maybe we'll be imprisoned. There's going to be some consequence. The last response they could have ever thought was peace be with you. Do not be afraid. This probably as often when the angels come and say don't be afraid.
What's the natural response fear? That's actually when you become afraid. And I can imagine that they went from a certain fear to entirely different kind of fear. They said what is God doing to us the first time they were afraid you can only imagine the response now.
What is God doing? Their greatest fear. From the time they fed their donkeys on the first way home all the way up until this moment. The fear that was plaguing their thoughts giving them nightmares. Stealing sleep from them causing them to panic and and have to gird themselves to be able to confess is now with this phrase.
Effortlessly graciously.
Immediately removed. It's such such a beautiful picture of what happens in the dynamics of a of a guilty conscience making confession to the Lord. And the thing that was Plaguing and clinging and stealing sleep and and causing the the fearful imagination to run rampant is.
Immediately comforted God's grace had moved in these brothers to To deal honestly and have integrity and face their fear. And if there's ever been a fitting illustration of John Newton's words from amazing grace it is here it was grace that taught their hearts to fear and Grace their fears relieved in the words Peace be with you.
Do not be afraid. More than ever they connected Honesty and integrity and humility to God's blessing. If only God's people could learn to connect the virtues of the Christian life To the response of God's blessing in this way.
They had likely been praying and praying and praying throughout the lead-up to this moment. What a reassurance for them to hear your God and the God of your father has given you treasure. They knew that they put their trust in the right place.
They were clinging to God trying to be honest and walk in integrity before him. They put their trust in him and because they did that they were relieved of this fear and they were given peace. They were given the greatest comfort they could have ever hoped for but more than that God in that response Reminded them of it your God and the God of your father has given you this treasure.
There's a testimony in the stewards response to them and it must have struck them again. God is at work in the midst of this. And if there can be honesty here, are there deeper things in my life that God would want me to be honest about?
Deeper nightmares deeper fears deeper guilt in One sense they probably feel like the only crisis in their life has it now been taken away. When in fact God has a design to go much deeper still. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure.
Read between those lines. Why would this Egyptian steward be able to testify about not only their God? But the God of their father. Doesn't that sound like Joseph had been speaking of his God and the God of his father in the land of Canaan that he had been Establishing and an understanding of the true and living God within his household.
That's what John Calvin says about this. I think he's right. The steward does not say what we might expect an Egyptian to say. The God of the land of Canaan has given this to you. You know, your regional God has blessed you.
That's how a pantheist was would sort of a panentheism sort of understand it but to the peculiar God of their father Which brings up? Relationship and Covenant and so Calvin says I do not doubt that Joseph though.
He did not openly correct Everything that was superstitious through outside, you know outside of his house at least in his own house. He established the true worship of the one true God and he always held fast to the covenant Which he had heard as a boy from his father.
And so he connects the fact that the steward knows this to the way that Joseph has been operating these 20 years never Abandoning never forgetting the covenant that God made with Abraham and Isaac and his father Jacob and Then if they were lacking any Comfort Simeon is brought out to them.
And I can't imagine it would seem entirely Incongruent if the way that Simeon was brought out was anything less than the same grace That they had seen in the stewards response. They might have thought when they finally retrieved Simeon after perhaps a year However long it had been that he would have been emaciated and changed Unrecognizable Scars and wounds eating rats and he would have been thrust out like a cobble of bones before them but he must have come out like a featured guest from the house of Joseph and When he's brought out we don't have the encounter in the text, but you can imagine when that Brother that had been left behind in the pit in the proverbial death in their mind When he was brought up out of it and they were brought together it must have been quite a reconciliation.
Must have been quite a reunion as they embraced and maybe even wept over each other in light of what God had done to get them to that place and It's a microcosm of gut of what God wants to do between them and Joseph.
So you have a miniature display of the coming reconciliation of chapter 45 verse 24 The man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water and they washed their feet and he gave their donkeys feed and they Made the present ready for Joseph's coming at noon.
They heard that they would eat bread there and when Joseph came home They brought him the present which was in their hand into the house and they bowed down before him to the earth so all the.
Hospitality a.
Privileged guest could expect is being shown to these brothers. They went in fearing the worst and at every turn they're being blessed and rewarded they're being graciously treated. Their feet are being washed.
They're been being shown lavish kindness in a time of famine and even their precious donkeys are being watered and fed. And they hear that this master is coming at noon. And so they get ready their little gifts.
They arrange their their honey and their myrrh and their balm. Maybe snack on a few pistachios as they get it all set up and when he finally comes They pay their tribute to him. It's a modest tribute not very impressive to the Lord of the storehouses, but We know who the Lord of the storehouses is.
He's not some detached Arbitrary CEO, he's not someone that's unimpressed and things aren't worth his time.
It's his brother and.
His brothers render this tribute to him out of their need and That must have been so touching for Joseph to receive that humble modest gift knowing it came From the fingers of Jacob and the brothers that had once thrust him away from them gifts in the ancient world gift as a concept throughout scripture is so significant, especially when we talk about reconciliation, there's Perhaps something that I'll go into a little bit more in the coming weeks tremendous book called Paul in the gift by a Researcher named John Barclay and he spends so much time talking about the significance of gift as a concept throughout the Bible and the way Gift as a metaphor as a concept for the gospel is one of the primary ways that Paul Discusses or presents the gospel in his letters and so to think about the significance of this small tribute a Tribute that would have been customary a tribute that almost would have been required if you're going into The presence of someone so great and yet it's so much more significant than any servant in that house might have understood.
It really is a tribute that brings about peace. And in the same way Paul then could think of laying down our bodies on the altar as a gift. We need to start thinking about Reconciliation in these ways.
Well, anyways, I don't want to go too far into the next two weeks. When they give their tribute they bow down before him. This is Stepping forward in fulfillment to Genesis 37. They they bow down again prostrate before the earth.
Verse 27. He asked them again about their well-being in the Hebrew text. He asked them about their Shalom about their their peace. Peace can mean it's a sort of Swiss army knife word. It has all sorts of connotations, but it's used here in a significant way.
They're of course seeking peace in the largest sense of that peace and Joseph asks about their peace and Then he says is your father at peace is your father? Well The old man of whom you spoke is he still alive and they said Your servant our father is in peace is in good health.
He is still alive and they bow their heads down and they prostrated themselves. So again, we see glowing through this dialogue. Joseph's natural concern he's patient because he knows that God is is patiently bringing these brothers toward reconciliation and he's content to wait to Reveal his full identity until they're in a place to bring about that reconciliation.
But at the same time his heart weighs heavy because his father is aged. So the first thing that he says to them Essentially is your is my father still alive? Am I going to be able to see him again? That's his foremost concern and must have been another Gracious response when he found out that his father was alive and in good health.
We're reminded again of this larger plot in the chapters the reconciliation of the household of Jacob the son Who was once cast down into the pit of death being raised that he might once again return to the side of his father.
In the most direct fulfillment of Joseph's dream. They again bow their heads and they prostrate themselves. They lay out completely flat before him. This is showing honor. This is showing obeisance to him in the Hebrew.
It just simply says they bowed and then bowing bowed themselves. So we don't translate those redundancies into English. But it's a way of emphasizing just how humbled they were before their brother and it's meant to again Emphasize.
God has brought this dream to fulfillment. The brothers have all come and bowed down in genuine honest humility before the Authority and the blessed status of their youngest brother Joseph. This humility came again from God's affliction and God's relief.
He brought Affliction into the brothers lives because of the crisis because of their fear and then when the stewards spoke words of peace to them. They were relieved and just like affliction humbles a believer.
So does relief from affliction? They're they're doubly humbled if I could put it that way. Never a good thing when the blind men are healed and they don't even return to the one who healed them. Believers are doubly humbled when God brings relief.
They pray for contentment and they're humbled when God sees it fit to bring a thorn into their side. They're humbled and they pray Lord give me patience to bear with it. Humble me Lord. That's why you've given me this thorn and if God sees fit to remove that thorn they ought to be doubly humbled.
Now I'm really humbled Lord. You didn't need to remove that but you did. They honored the Lord of the land. Not only to show him respect. They honored the Lord of the land not only to show him gratitude.
They honored the Lord of the land because they needed him. If they weren't reconciled with him They would perish and their families would perish. They bow before him because they need him when we gather before the Lord in worship brothers and sisters.
It's not just out of the respect or the duty and it's not even enough to say it's gratitude.
It's need.
Lord I need you.
I.
Need you in my life. I Need your presence and your power. I Need your grace and your mercy Lord. I need you and that's why I come and bow before you. It's not a tribute. It's not an afterthought. It's not some way of baptizing my ambitions for the week Lord.
I'm coming and I'm bowing because I need you. I'm coming to be reconciled to you because I need you and unless I'm reconciled to you I perish. So this is why we come and worship the Lord and we see that again with these brothers.
Now the attention shifts toward Joseph. He lifts his eyes verse 29 and he sees Benjamin. I Love that Moses says his mother's son. We of course know who Benjamin is but it's a way of again showing the significance of this reconciliation.
Out of all these stepbrothers. Here's his full-blood brother. He's 16 years apart and he was 17 when he was cast into the pit the last time he saw Benjamin. He was a he was an infant. He was less than one years old and he sees his younger brother.
His mother's son his full-blood brother. And he says is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me? And then he says God be gracious to you my son. And his heart yearned for his brother. And so Joseph made hay sought somewhere to weep and he went into his chamber and he wept there.
It's such a powerful scene. The drama of the scene begins to accelerate as soon as Joseph finally gets a chance. You can imagine he couldn't gaze at him for too long. There was too many other things to address.
He didn't want to draw too much attention to himself. But as soon as he finally casts his eyes intently upon Benjamin and he says is is this Is this your youngest brother that you brought to me notice?
They don't reply. He wouldn't even hear it if they did. He knows who it is. And he says immediately God be gracious to you my son.
His.
His affection begins to churn within him. We're reminded that of course, it's his mother's son. It's it's his brother and so he speaks warmly. Personally, he he invokes God's blessing upon his brother.
God be gracious to you, which is exactly how he had been praying for Benjamin all along. Perhaps Joseph would have known all these 20 years. That Jacob was so in love with Rachel that if Joseph was torn from his father.
Then Benjamin would fill that vacuum in that void and perhaps he had prayed God spare him protect him. Let not my brothers lay a hand against him. He had been praying for God to secure him and if he's going to be cast away into the pit.
Then at least let him take on that covenantal mantle. Let the blessing of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob fall upon Benjamin. And when he sees him He says God be gracious to you my son. And his heart begins to to burst within him.
And how awkward would this scene have been when immediately abruptly he starts running off to the side? It's not what a dignified man does. A Man of authority every move is calculated. That's especially true in antiquity.
Even if you were just a speaker on the local corner outside the temple trying to gain an audience every single move Was calculated the way you moved your hand or slapped your thigh. It was almost robotic and cyborg like it was a way you Demonstrated your authority and your wisdom.
So for Joseph up to this point. Everything is very calm. Calculated. He has a cool demeanor. He's the one in charge. He's asking the questions and now he bursts out of the room. The servants must have been looking side to side he goes and he buries his face in his bed and he pours his heart out and The trauma of 20 years begins to flood out as it were into his bed.
His heart yearned. It's such an evocative phrase in Hebrew. It's not used very commonly. It could be translated because of the the verbal root his heart began to boil. Sort of boiled over. Have you ever tried to warm up milk on the stove and you forgot to keep an eye on it?
You look one second. It's flat and then you you blink and it's it's a explosion of milk. It's boiling over. That's the idea. His heart begins to boil over. The same expression is used in first Kings three when when two mothers come before wise King Solomon one had in her sleep rolled over and killed her infant and so had taken the other and.
And that child's mother knew it belonged to her and now Solomon has to deal between them and so they come before him and they plead for justice and they're both claiming this infant is mine and Solomon and his wisdom says I know what must be done.
By the way, I just say as a caveat probably not the best story to share with your your three-year-old. Got a lot of questions about Kings cutting babies. From Sophia, so just a caveat for young parents, maybe skip that one for a few years.
Well, anyways Solomon in his wisdom says divide the baby give each mother the half.
And.
The true mother.
Her heart.
Boils over. Let her have him. Let her have him. That that affection that urgency it's Uncontrollable. And that's how Solomon's able to identify the true mother. His affections were boiling over because of the love he felt for Benjamin.
Benjamin had been separated from him. His own brothers built this division the separation between him and his kindred. And now that he's able to look upon him in love his affections boil.
Over in.
Hosea Chapter 11 when God begins to describe his relationship to Israel We find the same term that God uses to apply to the way he feels about his people. So it's.
Sort of.
Anthropopathic as we would say it's Cast in human like terms, but it's cast in those terms for a reason when Israel was a child I loved him out of Egypt. I called my son as They called them they went from them and they began to sacrifice to bales burned incense to carved images.
But I taught Ephraim to walk Taking them up by their arms. They didn't know it was I who was healing them. I drew them with such gentle cords with bands of love and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their Neck, I stooped over to feed them.
You see this parental imagery. The child just ignorant sort of wandering around complaining and crying out for the needs of the day. They're ignorant to the love and the care and the concern that the father feels toward them.
I trained them to walk. I carried them. I stooped over condescended to feed them. I Bandaged up their cuts and scrapes. They were oblivious to all of this. They went after their own will. Verse 7. My people are bent on backsliding from me.
This is what God is saying through the Prophet Hosea to the people Though I was this father to them. My people are bent on backsliding from me. That's a little bit more Than prone to wander, isn't it?
I've always respected that line in the hymn. I'm thinking about it now. It's not prone to wander bent to backslide. That's what God said bent toward backsliding. Though they call to the Most High none at all exalt him.
What's coming with that kind of prophetic denouncement and. And therefore you will be cast off entirely forever. If ever there was love it will be as though there never was love. I have not known you nor will I be moved an inch when destruction comes upon you.
I will plug up my ears to your house because I have decided for wrath to be upon you and I will be satisfied. Yay, I will delight in the wrath. I bring to you. Is that what Hosea 11 goes on to say, how can I give you up Ephraim?
How can I hand you over Israel? How can I made you like Adma? How can I set you like Zeboiim my heart?
Boils.
Within me.
My sympathy is stirred. I will not execute my anger. I will not destroy Ephraim. I am God not a man. The Holy One in your midst. God uses this imagery to say the affection that he has toward his people is.
Like a man unable to restrain or control the power and the vitality of Affection it is so fervent that it changes everything in the relationship. So the same way that Joseph feels in a human way toward Benjamin.
There's only a pale faint shadow of how God feels through Christ for his people. Brother or sister. Blood-bought brother or sister. Do you know that your father's heart boils over toward you? Benjamin doesn't even acknowledge that love.
He doesn't recognize it. He's ignorant to it. It has not been revealed. But Joseph's heart is all the same. We are largely ignorant To the father's love for us. My heart boils within me the same tenderness the same depth of love.
Here with the Covenant keeping God. So he rushes out of his room. He's he's burst into his bed all of the emotion all of the the grief, but also the joy.
The.
Astonishment of the fact that he's looking at Benjamin eye to eye and then he washes his face. It must have been quite some time for him to recompose and we read. He restrained himself and as abruptly he left he comes back and says serve the bread and He arranges the table.
Egyptians sit to themselves Hebrews sit to themselves and we read it's an abomination for Egyptians to sit with Hebrews. So they sat before him according to this order the firstborn According to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth all in order all of these brothers in order before.
So they look around in complete astonishment not just. Most likely because of all that has taken place. Surely that's part of it. But how does this man? Know who is the oldest and who is the youngest and every single brother in between?
They're looking and they're saying how can you take a bunch of bearded Hebrews and figure out who was born when and arrange the seats in that order. They're completely astonished. Did did Simeon Simeon?
Did you know I never said anything? How does this man know this about us what else does he know about us? Again, they're meant to interpret What is God providentially doing in their lives, what is he wanting to address in their lives?
So he arranges them at a distance due to this custom and we read about this. It doesn't seem to be a social prejudice. You get a bit of that in chapter 46. The Egyptians just simply hate shepherds and migrant shepherd like people are an abomination to the Egyptians but here it seems to almost have more of a Ceremonial function that that the way the dynamics were set up you you would not eat with strangers very similar to the Jew Gentile Dynamics that were a real issue in the early church.
Jews would not sit and eat with Gentiles. But here comes this gospel of reconciliation and how are you gonna work this out in practice? Even Barnabas can be led astray because of the power of this custom.
One of the things that strikes me about that is I think it's recorded. It's not necessarily needful information. Moses in my mind is beginning to work out Reconciliation as we move from chapter 43 to 44 and then 45 being the the climactic moment of reconciliation.
And to say they sat at the table. It's like oh, yes, this is wonderful reconciliation, but it's at a distance. They're not able to eat together. And I think Moses wants that information to be there because there's sort of an.
Unclean.
Dynamic to them being Hebrews and Joseph being clean and shaven as zap not Panea at the other end of the table. Literarily, it's saying they're not yet fully reconciled. They're at the table together because God is moving forward in this way, but they're not yet fully embracing one another.
There's a distance between them and what is that distance there? Most likely again cultic or ceremonial the the Hebrews are viewed as unclean and these brothers spiritually speaking are unclean. Because there has not been repentance.
They're not able to fully reconcile with Joseph. So Moses again is highlighting there must be repentance before there can be genuine reconciliation. Even though God's grace is at work moving us ever closer toward it.
Joseph takes the servings. This is finishing out the chapter now verse 34. He takes the servings to them from before him and we read that he gives Benjamin five times as much as anyone else it would have been common for a Significant guest to maybe receive double portion.
If you really wanted to put on the show, maybe you'd triple that portion. He gives five times to the youngest. Now this of course coming out of that heart boiling over scene surely is a pledge of his unique love for Benjamin.
The one brother who he never really had any relationship with at all for 15 years of his life. Benjamin wasn't even alive. Now he's with his brother and he wants to truly be gracious to him and truly bless him.
That's part of it. But again reconciliation has not yet come. There's still a separation. We still have some work in Joseph's plan. Notice this reenactment is coming again. Now. He truly blesses and bestows all kinds of favor on the youngest.
You wonder if this is a provocation. Is Reuben gonna be like. You know, you you know the order right? I'm the eldest. You know, I'm the firstborn. You know, in fact, I don't know if it was just a mistake from the waiter.
But you actually gave the least among us the most. I think you want to move up the other direction at the table. You see I'm the firstborn. This is a provocation to test in their humility in their honesty integrity.
Are they begin to go back to their vomit? Are they going to begin to go back to their old ways and begin to have jealous feelings toward the youngest? To begin to distance themselves and cool their affections toward him.
You can imagine Benjamin his eyes are so wide and he's probably a lot like his brother Joseph. Guys. Isn't this amazing take a selfie with me? Look at my servings. Put it next to yours. Yeah, put it next to yours.
He's giving them an opportunity to test whether or not they've actually changed in this regard and. So it's very significant. That the whole text ends in this chapter with they drank. They all drank. They all together.
Drank and were married with him. See the brothers have genuinely changed. The fact that Benjamin receives five times as much though he's the least in their eyes. Does not in any way prevent them from being married from rejoicing with those who are rejoicing.
They've passed another test of the work of grace that God is doing in their lives. Spiritual change overtaking these brothers. The bread has been served and even though Benjamin has a stack five times as high they rejoice with him.
They're in awe at what God has done. The bread and the wine are flowing freely and they're becoming merry. They're growing merry the wine making their hearts glad. The providence of God making their hearts glad.
But as we head toward chapter 44, we'll immediately see as Relaxed and as merry as this mealtime may be. God is not done dealing with them yet. There's deeper work to do because the basic problem of reconciliation has yet to be dealt with and God always has deeper work to do in the lives of his people when the basic problem of Reconciliation has yet to be dealt with.
So application. I Know we don't have too much time. So I will be brief. Famous last words, right? You've heard that so often that it's meaningless.
As.
We approach this theme of Reconciliation my biggest hope is that we begin to see if there's any central priority to the way we Understand God's redemptive work in light of the whole scope of Scripture and of history and of creation.
It must be Reconciliation. We technique we as As Protestants the cross for interesting historical reasons and I think very biblical reasons the cross has always been front and center to the way we understand Explicate and even experience the gospel of God's grace and we are cross-centered.
And we don't mean that to exclude other aspects of the gospel. We're cross-centered and that already presupposes the resurrection on the third day. But if there's not a cross there is no resurrection if the cross wasn't efficacious.
There's no resurrection if there's no resurrection even our faith is in vain. We're fools to believe it. So the cross and the resurrection are a package deal. You have what we call a synecdoche. Meaning you use a small part of something to describe the whole.
It's like saying I see a sail on the ocean and you Use the word sail to define the whole boat. You're using a part to define the whole when we say cross. We're using that as a small part of the whole event of the passion the cross meaning the life and the death and the resurrection and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, but even saying that much we often can reduce the gospel to a transaction between us and God and that lends into a way of thinking about the whole scope of of God's Creation and God's promises and somehow the heavenly call is just the the finality of this transaction.
Someday he's just gonna zap us up and that's gonna be that cream cheese clouds and harps for eternity. Well, we've been spending a lot of time in Genesis looking at the tectonic plates of covenant and seed and land and The gospel promise that runs a scarlet thread through the whole of the serpent crushing seed that by the Abrahamic promise enters in the fullness of time as a slave to the law.
Lives the life that Israel could not live that the first Adam failed and as the last Adam crushes the serpent's head that the Original design of the paradise communion with God and his people may never again be vulnerable or threatened.
There'll be a land in Which God will dwell with his seed the seed of Abraham. Because of the faith in the work and the grace of the serpent crusher so we're looking at these large tectonic plates and we're trying to reformulate the way we think about in the gospel and As we do that through the lens of reconciliation.
We can finally begin to get a little bit closer to texts like Paul in Colossians 1 saying through the death of Christ. God has reconciled all things to himself.
All things.
Wasn't this just a transaction? Aren't we just zapped up into heaven. Isn't just about my guilt and my private experience of God. You mean there's something to say about seed and land and covenant and cosmos?
You mean there's something to say not only about creation but new creation. What does it mean for time and space that God reconciles all things to himself? Through the death of Christ. This is kind of where we're going as we close out Genesis.
So I'm trying to give you some appetizer. Reconciliation is bigger than you may realize. Reconciliation in fact may be one of the best ways to understand the whole scope of God's work in and through.
History.
God and God alone designs the way of reconciliation. God and God alone initiates Reconciliation between sinners and himself between a fallen people who are born at enmity against God. He is the one who then initiates designs of reconciliation toward them.
Providentially moving them along those pathways. It's everything we've seen with Joseph's brothers. They are not the ones that initiate reconciliation they are not the ones that have moved in a way that they might be finally reconciled to their brother and Reconciled therefore to God.
It's it's Joseph. Typologically speaking. It's the Lord who brings about reconciliation. Who takes the initiative and does the work of reconciliation. A PT Forsyth really interesting Anglican. You know often quoted.
But rarely read and I've been trying to make it a point to read more of PT Forsyth. I would highly commend his his work to you older about a generation ago. He discusses in a book Paul's presentation of reconciliation.
He says Reconciliation as the way we understand Paul's display of the gospel. This is what he says on this interpretation of the work of Christ. The whole church rests. If you take faith away from this center you drive the nail into the church's coffin if You take reconciliation out of the equation.
The church is dead. Now quite literally here in Genesis 43 if you take reconciliation out of the equation the church. All 11 members of it are dead. The church is at this point in history the household of Israel.
If they are not reconciled they perish. Reconciliation is the very center of the gospel. I use those words decidedly and cautiously. Reconciliation is the center of the gospel. Now Joseph displays I think at least four key aspects of reconciliation.
We're just going into this. This is just part one. There's gonna be a lot more that we build on top of this. But just looking at our text here and saying what are some applications for us? I see four keys that Joseph Understands are necessary for there to be reconciliation.
The first key is trust.
Trust.
Peace be with you. Do not be afraid. Joseph knows that because of the offense because of the guilt Fear and anxiety are gripping his brothers. And though he can talk with them and and give them many provisions and send ten of them back home on that first trip Though they they have no reason to think anything fearful or threatening is coming their way.
He knows that they they have no trust toward him and where there's no trust there can be no reconciliation. And so Joseph very purposely moves in ways to to build their trust not only in himself But also in God's providence.
He wants them to recognize the way that God is moving in their midst that trust must be there in order to bring about reconciliation. Those who seek God's blessing Will inevitably be forced to turn from their ways.
You must choose light rather than darkness. You must choose honesty rather than concealing or covering your sin. What does it take to do that?
Remember we said, you know use a synonym for faith and think about it in terms of trust. We know this even in confessing our sins to one another. If there's anything that prevents us from confessing our sins to one another as brothers and sisters It's trust.
If I expose this how can I trust that you won't look at me differently forever? How can I know that this won't be an entry into all sorts of of gossip and judgment? How can I trust you? How can I know that you'll actually not be scandalized and outraged but you'll actually still love me and look at me.
Through the gospel.
And not through your reaction not through.
Not through.
Your feelings of distaste or disgust. How can I trust you and we have a hard time. Being open with each other in the same way that we have a hard time being open to God. God knows it all and we still find it hard to trust him with our guilt.
How can I know that this is the time you won't show mercy, but this is the time you'll punish. How can I trust you? Those who seeks God seek God's blessing will turn from their way and it takes trust for them to turn from their way.
Trust to not conceal their guilt. Trust to seek after the light that exposes them that that feels so threatening. But remember what we said the very thing that feels threatening is actually the thing designed to bless you.
What the brothers were terrified about was actually the thing that was going to relieve them and that's what it is in terms of trust. When Joseph's brothers were first brought into that home, they were terrified they imagined the worst.
But instead they found the blessing of God because he is trustworthy. Joseph understands they must trust him before they can be brought to a place of reconciliation. Now, let me say this. It doesn't end there in chapter 45 in every way literarily, they've been reconciled in every way we can see evidence of the Union they have but In chapter 50 When their father Jacob dies all of a sudden that fear comes back.
What if he was just being kind to us because they didn't want he didn't want to hurt his father. Now that dad's dead. He's gonna come after us. Even then they're feeling vulnerable even then trust is threatened.
So you need trust. It's a key to reconciliation and Joseph knows that. Secondly, you need grace. Probably the most obvious. Sometimes the most obvious things are the most difficult. He says to his youngest brother God be gracious to you my son.
He can say that because he recognizes God has been gracious to him. It's because he understands that God has been gracious to him. That he knows how he ought to be gracious to his brothers. Though there is not yet reconciliation Joseph shows grace.
Joseph does not speak harshly with them. Punish them make them labor in fear and terror until they finally are reconciled from the very beginning. He restrains himself and controls himself and he begins to move toward them in grace.
He deals Graciously with them. He's trying to to knock down these barriers of Separation and pain and guilt and he's trying to knock them down by overtures of grace. There is a hope in the way that he's dealing with them graciously.
Would say.
He would have a hard time dealing with them graciously If he didn't have a hope that that grace would somehow be effective in their lives and in their relationship. Now that doesn't mean as a believer that you're somehow off the hook if you're say that person's hopeless.
Well, first of all, nobody's hopeless as long as they're breathing, you know, the Lord sits in heaven. But secondly you are commanded to be gracious toward all what I'm saying is Don't do that gritting your teeth.
Which always prevents you from actually being gracious and your grace is a blanket. But it's a cold wet blanket that slaps on to the person. How then can you be gracious to those that have so wounded you?
Unfairly treated you.
Used you.
How can you be gracious without gritting your teeth? Well, look at Joseph and recognize there's a hope in his grace there's a hope in his grace and If you're seeking to be an ambassador of reconciliation if you recognize 2nd Corinthians 5 This is the ministry God has entrusted to you.
Then whenever you deal with people you're gracious because there's a hope inside your grace. I Hope my grace will make a difference. I hope it will move them. I hope it will stir them. I hope it will begin to bring about reconciliation.
Remember that the kindness of God leads to repentance and Now third key desire. So we have trust grace the third key desire. His heart yearned for his brother. There has to be a desire. For reconciliation.
Notice that it's not the first thing because rarely does desire for reconciliation come first. In fact the very people you need to reconcile with. Usually you come begrudgingly out of duty rather than desire.
Well, I know as a Christian I'm not supposed to feel this way and I know I need help with this and it's been a struggle and I guess yeah I just finally want to get through this. It's like that's wonderful.
Amen, and you've come to the right place. Now if you keep working in this way, God will grant you a desire for reconciliation. Desire does not come first. There must be trust. There must be grace and that leads in some ways toward desire.
Think about it in terms of our relationship with God. We're naturally afraid of approaching God. We naturally do not desire him when we are guilty. We like Adam hide behind the foliage in the garden. We recognize that God knows all that he has all power and yet we still find ourselves paralyzed by fear.
We have no desire that we might go to him. So how good how does God move toward us? What does God do to try to build that desire for reconciliation into our lives? We read it in Hosea 11. He stoops to feed us.
He picks us up trains us how to walk. He wraps bands of love around us. He removes difficult yolks from our neck you see. He deals graciously with us and the net effect of that as we begin to desire him.
We trust him. We know that he's been good. We know that he's faithful and merciful and soon that that trust and the acknowledgement of that grace it it gives way to desire. These brothers do not know who is before them and they don't know that Joseph's heart has been so boiled over for Benjamin the overflow of that is causing Joseph to desire Reconciliation toward them as well.
This is God's kindness and God's grace. It encourages people to draw near to him and I say that even this morning. Because it's one thing to come to church sometimes you come to church and you're more distant to God than you were when you were at home and You're just sitting in a room.
You're not actually coming into God's presence. Do you recognize the kindness the graciousness? Do you know that God is trustworthy and faithful. Coming physically and sitting here is not drawing near to him.
It's a good place to begin to do that, but it's not the alternative. Sitting here is just the beginning. You have to deal with him and ask him that as you humble yourself and confess your guilt before him as you cleanse your hands and purify your hearts and draw near to He will draw near to you.
And why does all this come about Moving toward trust because of how God is moving because because of his faithfulness in the past that that that trust that is Just filled with evidence of grace and graciousness in the hope of grace and how that builds a desire into us.
What does all of that lean toward the fourth key at least for this morning?
Communion. Communion.
These men will dine with me.
Joseph says.
Everything that God does in and through the work of reconciliation has as the goal of that reconciliation.
Communion.
The ending of.
Scripture.
Corresponds to the very beginning the crisis the deprivation the famine the exile of the garden. God who desired to create a people that he might be with them is now having because of sin a Communion broken from them throughout scripture and the centrality of the work of Christ.
He brings about Reconciliation why. So that he can once again commune with them? So now that imagery of God dwelling with his people in the land becomes the wedding feast. The marriage supper of the Lamb God Communing with his redeemed because they've been reconciled to him by the blood of the Lamb the whole chorus of revelation.
Corresponds to the way the sacrifice of the Lamb has restored communion between God and his people. They will dine with me Jesus in a microcosm much like this. Gathering his disciples before a table much like this.
So actually not a lot like this, but you understand what I'm saying.
And he says.
How greatly I've desired to eat with you. How greatly I? have desired to sup with you to commune with you. It's the end of Everything that I've been doing ever since the fall. It's the restoration of everything I intended when I undertook creation.
All that I have done is Reconciliation. That there might be communion and I have greatly desired to eat with you. And Joseph must have remembered what it was like when he was screaming up the rocky ledge.
To know that his brothers were all gathered around eating a meal so callously ignoring his cries. But unless he had been cast into that pit crying out Why have you forsaken me? Why have you forsaken me?
They could never have a communion a meal quite like this. I see in this passage a Reflection in striking ways of what we're doing. Shortly the communion the Lord's Supper. It's what we do every Sunday, and it's so similar to what we see here.
The Lord of the land desiring to be reconciled. Desiring to commune with you with his people.
Yet we are so ignorant to the design of reconciliation. We come with the fears of the moment the the loss and the needs of the crisis. And that's all we bring to this meal. We say Oh Lord, you know. Struggled with this and this was my great fear and you've relieved to that fear now I can have peace now I'm Mary at the table, but they don't recognize.
That's not enough for the Lord of the land. Maybe that's enough to get us through this sort of temporary holdover. But until that blessed Son is fully revealed to them and not eating at a distance across the table.
But eating arm-to-arm and face-to-face reclining like the beloved disciple on his side until there's communion like that. The work of reconciliation must continue and So we do these earthly communions week by week with that same sense of distance.
We're not able to see him. He's not fully revealed to us. This is just a temporary picture that awaits the full feast of reconciliation a communion that this is always pointing toward the communion that is the very end of God's historic work of Reconciliation.
We can eat merrily and we can have peace. But this meal is not meant to send us on our way. So much as we eat and we drink in the hope of the revelation of the Son of God. This is pointing us toward a greater communion to come.
Why does God put the brothers through such a prolonged? Providential rollercoaster. Why so many ups and downs why so many difficulties? Why the crisis and the needs of the hour? It's all so they will be brought through that kindness and patience and wisdom to repentance.
Repentance is the fruit of God's work of reconciliation. God's work of Reconciliation the way it leads to repentance is always to bring about communion. God's not some vengeful dictator that just wants people to feel bad about their sins so they can go away with some status of being forgiven.
He.
Wants his people to acknowledge their sins and their guilt so that they can be restored to him. So there can be communion with him. No wonder we can see as many Christian interpreters throughout church history have seen in Joseph a type of the Lord Jesus.
The journey he took from his humiliation to now his exaltation and That journey that he took has only caused his heart even more to boil over to commune.
With his own.
Here as Jeremiah Burroughs says and I close with this Here we see the infinite love of God Pleased to think of us poor creatures from everlasting and to make it his supreme work to reconcile us to himself.
Here is the foundation of every sweetness and comfort of every mercy of God To those who have been reconciled to him by the blood. It is the fruit of God's eternal love for us. Amen father we thank you for your word.
We thank you for these themes that we see not only in Joseph's life here and at the end of Genesis Lord, not even just in the book of Genesis but in all of Scripture. Lord, we recognize we have in Scripture a testimony to your great work of reconciliation that began with the promise in Genesis 3 15 and Continues to this very day with the spirit Bringing the light of your grace and the hope of the gospel into the lives of those Who are enemies to you?
Persecuted you to death that you might expose our shame and our guilt by the cords of your love and your graciousness bring us to a place of repentance that this work of reconciliation would bear the great fruit of a communion with you and that your great boiled over desire To be with us and bless us with every affection in a new heavens and new earth would correspond to our ever Increasing delight in your love that you would give us as your people a greater hunger a greater thirst to Commune with you beyond the supper that we're about to take Looking forward to the full revelation of the Son who loved us and gave himself for us These things we pray in his name.
Amen.