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All right, well, let's open in a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and as we look to it tonight, I pray that you would show us something that we need. Lord, we are so thankful to live in a nation where we are free to gather.
Lord, I pray that that would continue. I pray that our religious liberties would endure, and that you would bless all those who are faithful in attending for the ministry of the word, and I pray it all in Christ's name, amen.
All right, Genesis chapter 45.
God restrained himself before all those who stood by him. Make everyone go out from me. So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Does my father still live? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence. Please, come near to me.
So they came near. I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt, but now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.
For these two years, the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting, and God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by great deliverance.
So now, it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Hurry, and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt.
Come down to me, do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your children's children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty, for there are still five years of famine.
And behold, your eyes, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin will see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen, and you shall hurry, and bring my father down here.
Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. And after that, his brothers talked with him. A report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house.
Joseph's brothers have come.
So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. And Pharaoh said to Joseph,.
Say to your brothers, do this, load your animals and depart. Go to the land of Canaan, bring your father and your households and come to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.
Now you are commanded, do this, take parts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, bring your father and come. Also, do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.
Then the sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them cuts according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments. But to Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments.
And he sent to his father these things, 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt and 10 female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. So he sent his brothers away, and they departed.
And he said to them,.
See that you do not become troubled along the way.
Then they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father.
Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.
And Jacob's heart stood still because he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived.
It is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.
All right, so you'll remember from last week, in chapter 44, ended with, well, it kinda ended in an unfortunate place, right? The story was just getting good, and then the chapter ends. And just an interesting piece of information.
So why would they do, why would one chapter end in a place like that? So as most of you know, the scripture, when it was originally written, was not divided into chapters and verses. So the chapter divisions did not get inserted until the year 1227, so that's fairly late.
And then the verse divisions did not get added until the middle of the 1500s. So as far as the chapter ending there in 44, you'll have to talk to that guy, if and when you see him in heaven, okay? But chapter 44 ended with Judah interceding for his brother Benjamin.
So Joseph's silver cup had been found in Benjamin's sack, and of course, Joseph was the one who put it there or had it put there on purpose to do what? To test his brothers, right? He's testing his brothers all the way along.
He wants to see how they would react and to see if they're still the same men that they were back when he knew them last. So look at what Judah says in the previous chapter about Jacob, their father, Genesis 44, verse 34.
For how shall I go up to my father if the lad, Benjamin, is not with me? Lest perhaps I see the evil that would come upon my father. So Jacob, or excuse me, Joseph, in hearing this, he just can't keep it back anymore.
He can't restrain himself anymore. And it says that he orders everybody out except his brothers, and he's weeping, and he says in verse three, I am Joseph. Does my father still live? But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his presence.
So that's the New King James version, they were dismayed. Do you have anything else in another Bible translation? Any other word than dismayed? Troubled. Troubled. Okay. Terrified. Right, this is the idea.
So they were afraid, they were terrified. And you can imagine some of the thoughts going through their head. It suddenly dawns on them that Joseph, this is him, and he's been orchestrating this all along.
So their first thought is, uh-oh, what's he gonna do? Like he's obviously been messing with us, they might think. But do you remember the book of Genesis? Remember when it closes in chapter 50, after Jacob, their father, dies?
Because this is a long-lasting thought. So at the end of all this, once their father dies, you remember the first thought that comes into the brother's head after? You know, the worry's gone. Yeah, now that our father's dead, now is Joseph gonna seek revenge?
Like they're worried about this all along, and probably for good reason. He certainly had the power to do that. They would have deserved it, you could argue. So this is a real concern. So Joseph helps to try to reassure them.
In verse four, Joseph said to his brothers, please come near me. So they came near. Then he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
For God sent me before you to preserve life. Now, there's no record of God telling him this. It isn't recorded that God explained all of this to Joseph in a dream that this, you know, the reason why this happened, Joseph, just letting you know, is to preserve the family and to preserve their life.
You know, did God tell him that? Again, there's no evidence, but Joseph recognizes it. I think he sees what happened. He can look back, and believing in God and in God's providence, he recognizes what God was doing in all of this.
So this is what we would call providence, right? This is a term that people used a lot a couple hundred years ago and going back. It's not a term that is used a whole lot in our time. So what is divine providence?
God's mercy. God's mercy. Provision. Provision. All right, so divine providence can be defined different ways. Here's one definition, has been defined as God's foresight. If you look at the word like pro, providence, V-I-D, like you think of video, like it's sight.
So foresight is one definition. God's foresight in care, in upholding, in ordering the events of history. Tied in very closely with God's sovereignty. So this is the idea that God not only knows all things, God not only knows what's gonna happen ahead of time, God is involved, and he is working all things out according to the counsel of his will.
So Joseph recognizes that all of this is happening for a reason according to God's will. So this is the providence of God or the sovereignty of God. But remember, on the free will side of things, because that's something that comes up when talking about this, on the free will side of things, God did not force the brothers to do this, obviously, right?
God didn't put it in their hearts to sin so he could bring about this result. The brothers sinned. They acted according to their own sinful will. But Joseph will say to them in chapter 50, verse 20, this well-known statement, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
So God didn't make them do it, but they did it, and God was involved, and can we understand it all? No, but this is the hand of providence that's guiding human history. So Joseph realized all this is working together for good.
Verse seven, and God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God. Now, that's an amazing statement, isn't it?
Because it was them who sent him. They sold him to the Midianites, and that's how he got there. But he says it was you, right? But he says, no, it wasn't you. He's looking at the big picture. It was God who sent me here.
All right, any questions or comments so far? All right. I'll save mine until. All right, you'll save yours until after, good. Verse eight again. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
So this statement that Joseph is a father to Pharaoh, a lot of Bible commentators believe that, because Joseph has been in Egypt, what, 22 years, I think. So a lot of people believe at this point, a new Pharaoh had taken the throne who was a lot younger.
So if that's the case, he probably would have leaned on Joseph and his experience and expertise. So if that's the case, Joseph was like a father figure to Pharaoh, which really only makes him more powerful in that regard.
So the family, this now, this position of power that Joseph has, this allows him to save his family by moving them all down to Egypt. That's the plan where there's plenty of grain. Now this statement, verse seven, God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth.
Once again, this goes back to chapter 12 and chapter 15 of Genesis. What are the two, same event, really, just two different ways where God's addressing it. What events happened in chapter 12 and 15? God is giving to Abraham the covenant, right?
So this goes back to the Abrahamic covenant where God promised to Abraham that he would make him a great nation and that his descendants would be so great that they could not be numbered. They'd be like the stars in the sky.
Obviously that cannot happen if they all die of starvation. Now they're a pretty small group at this point. It's Jacob, his 12 sons, his daughter, and they have some servants, but they're a fairly small group.
They can't grow and multiply to be like the stars of heaven if they all perish. So Joseph recognizes this is God intervening to fulfill and bring about, make sure that his promise comes to pass. So this is, a lot of things have happened to bring them to this point.
A lot more things are gonna happen. Abraham and Sarah miraculously had the child of promise. Isaac and Rebekah had the twins. And once Jacob was born, throughout his life, we just see one event after another where God is revealing things to Jacob, changing his name to Israel, reaffirming the covenant to him.
So no doubt, Jacob, and again, this is not a thing that's recorded, but certainly Jacob would have told these things to Joseph. Back when he was younger, before he was sold into slavery, I'm sure Joseph knew all about the covenant and all about the history with the family and what God promised to do.
So Joseph plans to bring the family to Egypt and saving their lives, it helps to fulfill the promise of God in the Abrahamic covenant. Because remember, it's in Egypt that they really began to multiply.
They're a small group now, but once we get into the book of Exodus, one of the first things we read is that they had grown so big that Pharaoh is now, the Pharaoh, hundreds of years later, was now really worried that they're larger than us and they're more mighty than us.
And of course, being in Egypt will set up the events that we read about in the book of Exodus. How another thing with the sovereignty of God, how Pharaoh, the most powerful man on earth at that time, what does God do?
You know, he raised Pharaoh up to show his power. So God is going to use Pharaoh and the nation of Egypt to exalt his name throughout all the earth. And that wouldn't have happened if Joseph never got sold by his brothers.
I mean, you think of just the chain of events, just the coat of many colors. If Jacob never gave him that coat, which we kind of look at as maybe not the greatest idea with favoritism, but I mean, really without the coat of many colors, there may have never been an Exodus.
So you just think of all these things that had to happen to bring about God's will. But of course, God is working in and through it all. So we call that what? What's the word? Providence. What would people today call that?
Luck, right? Yeah, people say, well, yeah, just kind of worked out that way. It's luck, it's a coincidence. And if you don't believe in God, then yeah, that's all it can be. It's just a random series of events.
But it's also God's foreknowledge. Yeah.
Is interspersed in all of this. Right. Yes, but if you do believe in God and his providence and foreknowledge, then we see what's going on, but obviously you need to have faith to recognize that. Dennis.
Just reminds me of another thing with the Jews, with the children of Israel. They weren't supposed to be like the nations around them. God was to be their king, their ruler, their leader. But then what happened?
They said, no, we want a king, we want a king. So they really went against what God wanted. But then what turns out as a result? We have a covenant with David and a whole kingdom promise that God starts with, he worked with it.
He just, and again, turns it out for his glory in the end. So it's incredible.
Yeah, that's a good point. And Romans 8, 28, that in God works, all things are good, right? Yeah, we kind of look at that from our perspective. Well, how can you use this? How can you use that? But if you go back in the Bible, you can see example after example, how all things really do work together for good to those who love God and those who are the called according to his purpose.
All right, so between the famine and Jacob's old age, Joseph says in verse nine, hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son, Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt. And obviously the term Lord doesn't always mean like Lord God.
So sometimes it just means an important person or a powerful man, yeah. So he's made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near to me.
You and your children, your children's children, your flocks and your herds and all that you have, there I will provide for you, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty for there are still five years of famine.
So Joseph is acting as the savior, right, to the family, the savior from a physical viewpoint. Marcus.
You say you think this is like 20 years that Jacob believes that his son is dead? Yeah. 20 years?
I think 22. Yeah, that's a long time. Okay. So you can just imagine the hurt and of course imagine when he finds out that no, actually he's alive and how that must have affected him. So we see how Joseph's brothers have gone through a lot.
They've been tested. The things that have happened have caused them to recognize their guilt. So this has all been very difficult and now Joseph has a command for them to carry out. Look at verse 13. So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt and of all that you have seen and you shall hurry and bring my father down here.
So here's the thing. While they are delivered from the famine, that's good. While they are sent back with this great news to tell their father, there's something that's not really addressed. Once they go and tell their father, hey, Joseph's alive, he's gonna think to himself.
Yeah. Wait a minute. You brought me the coat that was covered in blood. Now, I suppose they still had an out. Well, we just found it and I think they must have had to tell their father and confess to him all that they did.
Maybe not. The Bible doesn't record that. Maybe Jacob is so overjoyed he doesn't ask. Maybe he doesn't wanna know, but I tend to think they had to tell him and that has to be weighing on their minds.
I'm sure your sins will find you out. Yeah, right.
Your sins will find you out. Good point. But here we see this moment of reconciliation. Over 20 years or about 22 years have passed, whatever negative things Joseph may have felt, and again, we don't really see an insight to Joseph's feelings.
If he did have any hard feelings, doesn't say it, but naturally he must have had some feelings like that. But all of that seems to be gone at this point. Verse 14, then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept and Benjamin wept on his neck.
Moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. And after that, his brothers talked with him. So this is a sweet, sweet moment. And the only thing that can prevent the reunion, the only thing that can prevent the family moving down into Egypt would be Pharaoh.
I mean, he's the only one more powerful than Joseph. So that's the only possible problem, but we see that in verse, well, Pharaoh doesn't mind. Matter of fact, Pharaoh is very pleased. Verse 16, when Pharaoh hears about it, he's very happy about Joseph's brothers coming down and he gives them everything that they need, offers them the best of the land.
Verse 20 says, also do not be concerned about your goods for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. And then, you know, this is amusing. Once again, Joseph, he gives them the provisions for their journey and then verse 22, he gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments, but to Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments.
So what do you make of that? Why do you think he did that? Yeah, Benjamin is the only innocent one there. And you can say, and you know, today we think that people need to be fair and everyone has to have the same amount, right?
This is just sort of the way people think these days, that it's the same outcome for everybody. Everyone should have the same. So this kind of thing, a lot of people think this is not right, this is unfair.
This is unfair for Joseph to give all of this to Ben. It's not, equity is the word, right? It's not fair. Well, Joseph has the prerogative to do this, doesn't he? It's his stuff. It's his silver, it's his clothes.
If Joseph wants to give Benjamin, who was the only innocent one, if he wants to give Benjamin all of this, does he not have the right to do it? You remember the parable that Jesus told about the workers who went to work, they agreed for their pay early in the morning and then he hired some more, and then he hired a few more at the last hour.
And the ones that were hired early on in the day when they saw what the people got at the end, we're gonna get a lot more. And then, no, you all get the same. And they were angry, and what did the man say?
And this is Jesus saying it, essentially. He accused them of having an evil eye, right? So what you got is fair. Matter of fact, what the brothers got was more than fair. If they got what they deserved, they'd all be in a world of hurt.
So they got grace, they got more than they deserved. So the fact that Joseph gives Benjamin all this extra.
It is his only brother from the mother. Yeah.
But if we see this, if we see somebody getting more than us, the temptation is to, oh, that's not fair. I wish I had that.
But we should. Yeah, Raymond got more than he could.
But we should be able to rejoice that they are blessed with all of this. Not usually the way, the first instinct that people have, but we should. So it's not an issue of fairness. Again, if Joseph was fair, and he really gave out justice, what's just, they'd be in prison or dead.
Is it also a sign to his dad? Yeah. That this is the veracity of this whole thing? What verse? He recognized his brother. You gotta.
He created a lot of jests. Okay. So he says in verse 22, or verse 24, look at it. See that you do not become troubled along the way. So he's trying to encourage them, trying to reassure them. Do not be afraid.
Do not become troubled. Who knows what they might have thought or started arguing about, but don't do that. But Joseph, as a type of Christ, what did Jesus say to his disciples many times? What does Joseph say?
Do not become troubled, right? And what did Jesus say? Let not your heart be troubled. Let not your heart be troubled. Fear not. Do not be afraid. So he sounds like Christ here. And again, Joseph is their savior, physically speaking, and his kindness towards them and his words do not become troubled.
Along with their obvious repentance, I think part of what Joseph is trying to get across is that while what you did was wrong, you know that, don't dwell on it. He said something to this effect a little earlier on, like forget about it.
You know, God was in this, God sent me. He doesn't want them to dwell on their sins. He's forgiven them. So he doesn't want them traveling back to their father, beating up on themselves. I mean, they've kind of been through what Joseph wanted to put them through, I guess.
And just to kind of apply that today, listen, we've all done things that we wish we didn't do. And maybe we paid the price for those things, but you can't dwell on it. And you can't be one of those people that, well, you know, God's forgiven me and these people have forgiven me, but I just can't forgive myself, right?
I remember R .C. Sproul told a story of a woman that he visited and that was the situation. Something happened and she thought that everyone had forgiven her. She just couldn't forgive herself. And he kind of took a dangerous approach.
And he said, you know, you need to get over yourself, basically. You know, if God has forgiven you, look, God says in his word that he'll forgive you. Do you believe that? Well, yes, but no. Do you believe that?
Because when you don't forgive yourself or you don't allow God to forgive you, whatever that means, I mean, you're only hindering your Christian walk. So don't dwell on it. Verse 25, then they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob, their father.
And they told him saying, Joseph is alive and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart stood still because he did not believe them. And you can understand that. But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father revived.
Then Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son is still alive and I will go and see him before I die. So now he's basically saying, great, now I can die in peace. Whatever happens to me from here on out, this is all I needed to hear.
So this is really a beautiful story of reconciliation. And reconciliation was possible because of two things, two things. Number one, the brokenness of the brothers, the brokenness of the brothers and the suffering that they went through.
They recognized what they did was sinful and they suffered for it and it led them to repentance. So that was necessary. And then number two, the suffering of Joseph. Joseph, like Christ, suffered and then triumphed.
And because of his love for them, after seeing their repentance, Joseph, again, as a type of Christ, he shows mercy and saved his brothers not only from death, his mercy saved Israel, the man. So wonderful picture of Joseph as a type of Christ.
