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Let's pray and then we will play Genesis chapter 50. Our Father, we give you thanks for the good gift of your word. Let our hearts and minds be still in thanksgiving and yet eager for your spirit to teach us.
I ask that you would bless everyone who has come out and we also ask a special blessing for those who would watch later online. Thank you for all that you've done in the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, and what you're doing in the lives of each one in this assembly and we pray it all in Jesus' name.
Amen. Genesis 50.
Fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 40 days were required for him for such are the days required for those who are embalmed.
And the Egyptians mourned for him 70 days. Now when the days of his mourning were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh.
If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak. In the hearing of Pharaoh, saying, my father made me swear, saying, behold, I am dying. In my grave, which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.
Now therefore, please, let me go up and bury my father and I will come back.
And Pharaoh said, go up and bury your father, as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers and his father's house.
Only their little ones, their flocks and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen, chariots and horsemen. And it was a very great gathering. Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan.
And they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad,.
They said, this is a deep mourning of the Egyptians.
Therefore, its name was called Abel Mizrael, which is beyond the Jordan. So his sons did for him, just as he had commanded. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephraim, the Hittite, as property for a burial place.
And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt. He and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.
So they sent messengers to Joseph.
Before your father died, he commanded, saying, thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you. Now, please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father.
And Joseph wept when they spoke to him, and his brothers also wept and fell down before his face. Behold, we are your servants.
Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God. But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. In order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now, therefore, do not be afraid.
I will provide for you and your little ones.
And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's household. And Joseph lived 110 years. Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. The children of Mekhi, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees.
And Joseph said to his brethren,.
We visit you of this land. To the land of which he swore.
To Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel.
God will surely visit you. Carry up my bones from here.
So, children 10 years old, and they abound him. And he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
All right, so chapter 49 ended with the death of Israel in verse 33, which says, and when Jacob had finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.
And now chapter 50 begins with Joseph, who was right there by his father's side when he passed. Verses one and two say, then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.
So the physicians embalmed Israel. So this is the first time in scripture that you see the practice of embalming a body. There's nothing said about this when Abraham was buried or when Isaac was buried.
And as you can imagine, it was customary in Egypt, because when you think of people dying in Egypt, what do you think of? Mummies, right? They embalm the body. And of course they had to, this was the plan to take Israel back to the land of Canaan.
And so it made sense on many levels. I'd just like to read what one commentator says about this and then make one point. John MacArthur says this about verses two and three. Joseph summoned medical men who were fully capable of embalming rather than the religious embalmers in order to avoid the magic and mysticism associated with their practices.
Usually in Egypt, mummifying was a 40-day process which included gutting the body, drying it, and wrapping it. Now, whether or not Israel and Joseph were actually made into mummies, that seems to be the implication.
It doesn't say that in the scripture, but we're kind of assuming that's what happened. Since they both died in Egypt, that's the custom of Egypt. It makes sense that that would be the case. Either way though, in the point of bringing this up, the body is treated with a great deal of respect.
Jacob is dead and yet Joseph, what does he do? He falls on his father's face and weeps and he kisses his father. The body is then treated with great care as was Joseph's. When Joseph dies, same thing.
His body's preserved, kept in a place where everyone knows where it is. 400 years later, they still know where to find it. And then Moses will bring Joseph back to the promised land. So here's the point.
Whether it's Jacob being embalmed or Jesus, when he dies, great care is given to the body. Of course, they were in a rush to bury Jesus and they wrapped his body, put it in the tomb. But then what happened a few days later?
The women came with spices and ointment to anoint the body. So great care and dignity and respect is shown towards the human body. In large part because the people of God, not only do we believe and did they believe in an afterlife, we believe in the resurrection of the body.
And because we believe in the resurrection of the body, the body is to be treated with great care and dignity. Some cultures have had the idea that only the spirit is good and that everything physical is evil.
I think the ancient Greeks had this idea. Spirit is good. Anything physical, which includes the human body, is evil, it's corrupt. However, what does the Bible teach? That God has created all things and then God made the declaration that it is good.
And even though the physical world, our bodies are under the curse, God will lift that and God will redeem his creation. So Jews, Christians treat the body one way and historically, pagan cultures have a very different approach.
What do pagan cultures do or what have they done historically? What's that? Right. In Eastern religions, they'll take a body and throw it on a fire and burn it. Matter of fact, there were some cultures where if the husband died, they would throw the wife on the funeral pyre and she would die because her husband died.
She had to die right after. Just terrible, terrible things that went on. So I'm not looking to make some big point about this, but it is something that times have changed. Historically, cremation has not been seen as a Christian practice.
Although I would hasten to add, it's not a matter of a commandment. There's no thou shalt do this or thou shalt not do that. Rather, it's a tradition based on what we see happening through the pages of scripture.
So Jews and Christians have historically buried their dead and pagans historically have burned or not treated the dead in the same way. All right, any questions or comments so far? Again, I think it's worth mentioning because of the dignity of humanity were created in God's image.
He's gonna redeem his creation. So in the resurrection of the dead, it all plays into that. So there's a long period of embalming and then mourning. And it says that the Egyptians mourned for how many days?
70. 70 days, that's a great honor. That's a long time for the Egyptians to mourn. So they mourned 70 days. This kind of thing was not uncommon when Moses, we may get to this eventually, when Moses and Aaron died, two different points, but how many days did the children of Israel mourn for them?
Less than that, 30 days each, which is still a fairly long time. When somebody very important dies today, they get what, a week? Maybe a little more, but usually it's a week. Let's look at verses four through six.
Now, when the days of his mourning were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the hearing of Pharaoh saying, my father made me swear, saying, behold, I am dying.
In my grave, which I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me. Now, therefore, please let me go up and bury my father and I will come back. And Pharaoh said, go up and bury your father as he made you swear.
So they have to go from Egypt all the way back to the land of Canaan, which I didn't look at how long of a distance that would have been. Does anyone know off the top of their head? Good guess, I suppose.
But this is a major funeral procession. You think of all the people that are going, so it's not only the family of Jacob, so the young people stay back with the livestock, but it's the family of Jacob, the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of Egypt, and verse nine calls it a very great or a very large gathering.
And why would Pharaoh allow the elders of Egypt and all of his servants to go on such a long journey? Because he loved Joseph. Yeah, because of Joseph. It wasn't so much for Jacob. I mean, Pharaoh really didn't know Jacob from Adam, I guess you could say, but it was all about Joseph.
So that tells us Joseph is still number two man in the kingdom. There's no evidence anything like that has changed. So it would have been, yeah, for Joseph's sake. Any hands? Okay. Look at verses 12 through 14.
So his sons did for him just as he had commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite.
How many times have we read this description? Yes. Just keep going through with all the detail. They don't want you to forget anything about it. Bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place.
And after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father. Okay, so Jacob is now gone. The funeral is over. Life is starting to go back to normal.
And all of a sudden the thought occurs to the brothers, huh, dad's gone. I wonder now if Joseph will seek revenge. Actually, I'm sure this thought had been on their mind ongoing for a while. So they felt safe while Jacob was alive.
Why? Well, when you consider everything that Jacob went through in his life, there was no way, even if Joseph wanted to, which he didn't, even if Joseph wanted to take revenge, he never would have done that.
And they know this. They never would have, he never would have done that while his father was alive because it would have caused that much more suffering for his father. So as long as Israel's alive, they know they're safe, but now he's dead and the thought pops into their mind.
So they're not so sure now. Look at verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him.
On the one hand, you can't really fault them for thinking this. I mean, people do that kind of thing. People in power act that way sometimes. So you can't really blame them in one sense, but then on the other hand, they're questioning Joseph's sincerity.
They're really questioning his character. Like is everything he's done, everything he said up until this point, has it all been a lie? Is he just acting? So in a sense, this is an accusation to some degree against Joseph.
Joseph has already forgiven them. He's bent over backwards for them, but they can think, well, this is all for dad's sake. He's not really doing it for us. He's doing it for Israel, which might've been true to a degree.
But look at verses 16 and 17. This thought is haunting them. It says, they sent messengers to Joseph saying, before your father died. So this, they're sending to Joseph. Before your father died, he commanded saying, thus, you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you.
Now, please forgive the trespass of your servants, of the God of your father. And then Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Now, any reactions on that? You think that's a lie? Oh, yeah. Who says that's a lie?
All right. Who thinks that no? Jacob actually told them, here's a message that you give to your brother after I'm gone. Any hands? Okay, well, the majority think that this is probably not true. So it stands to reason, you say, well, okay, why did Joseph cry?
Well, it doesn't tell us, but I think that he's probably hurt that his brothers still, after all of this, they still don't really trust him. So I think he's probably hurt about this. But most commentators, if you read, most agree that this is probably not true.
Number one, and we've talked about this before, number one, there's no evidence, nothing is said that Israel actually knew the details of what happened. I tend to think he did, but we're not really sure about that.
So he might not have even known. That's number one. More importantly, though, number two, if Jacob wanted to make sure that Joseph didn't do anything, who would he tell? Joseph. Yeah, he would tell that to Joseph.
Yeah, yeah. Because he knows Joseph isn't gonna lie to him. So if he has Joseph's assurance, then he's gonna feel better, he doesn't have to worry about it. For him to tell the 11 brothers, you tell him this when I die, it just doesn't add up.
So it's pretty suspect, I think. So the brothers then fall down, just in case, just in case he doesn't buy our story, you know, we better fall down and say, we are your servants. And notice what Joseph says.
Verse 19, Joseph said to them, do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? Am I in the place of God? There's a few ways that you could look at this, I suppose, that Joseph is saying, am I in the place of God?
Like, am I now your judge? In the Old Testament, there are at least a few cases where the Hebrew word Elohim, who knows what Elohim means?
Elohim is a plural for God.
Yeah, so Elohim or El is God. There are a few places where Elohim is actually translated judge. So this is connected, God and judge is connected, but they could easily say, well, actually, yeah, you are in the place of God.
You are our judge, because they know that if Joseph wanted to seek revenge, he could do it. With a word, they could all disappear like this, I'm sure. But when I read this, am I in the place of God? The verse that comes to my mind is Hebrews 10, 30.
This is also a quote from Deuteronomy. Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. So I think Joseph being the just man that he is, he doesn't feel that it's his place to seek vengeance on his brothers.
I mean, if anyone is gonna judge the brothers, he's forgiven them, number one, but if anyone's going to judge them or be in that position, it's God, it's not him. He's seen how God has worked all along the way.
He knows if God wants to do something, then God's gonna do it. Any other thoughts on that statement, Russ?
I was gonna say, the other thing that comes to my mind is how many times has the devil said to you, remember what you did wrong? Yeah. And what I have to remember is it's under the blood. Yeah, amen.
It's all been covered. Yeah, and I think they were sorry for what they did. So Joseph is not seeking revenge. It's under the blood, we could say, amen. Dennis.
I think the brothers are just, I suppose from a New Testament term, like they're just very carnal. They're just not thinking God perspective. Joseph's thinking God perspective. Right. So I just feel like Joseph is saying, am I in place of God?
God set this all up. God did all of this. This is his providence. This is, like, you know, I didn't know totally what was going on, but now I can see. So, yeah. Good.
Yes, Linda. In regard to the law, whether this was a lie or not, what made me think it was a lie was because they sent a messenger to give this information. They didn't face it out, just say, what that said is good.
That's good. You, go tell him.
No, I agree. I agree. Also, he says, well, I'm not in the place of God. I mean, that's, am I? It's a rhetorical question. No, I'm not in the place of God. Joseph already told them God's purpose in all of this was to save their lives.
So if Joseph kills them, then he's going against what he said was God's will, which was indeed God's will. Back in chapter 45, he told them, 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. So Joseph is not about to undo what God has done. Instead, he understands better than anyone else the providence of God through this whole situation. Jim, you had something?
Well, I was just gonna say, when the brothers decided that they were gonna come at Joseph with that thought pattern, it showed their character and their lack of belief in God and their relationship with God.
And I think somebody mentioned it a little earlier about that, but they just didn't have any relationship with God. And part of that is due to Jacob.
Right, actually, what did they say? Jacob was the leader.
He was the one that would walk through with God. So he should have made sure that the boys grew up as godly men.
Yeah, and you notice what they said to him? Now, please forgive us the trespass of the servants of the God of your father. Not our God, the God of your father. It's like David and Saul. You know, the Lord is my shepherd.
That's what David wrote. But Saul, when he talked to Samuel, you know, Samuel talked to your God as if there's no relationship between them. So yeah, that's good. Did I see another hand?
Kathy. So how old were they? Were they like in their 60s at this point? I mean, it seems kind of immature. I mean, that's what I'm assuming. They're not young. And it just seems kind of immature, you know?
Yeah. The way they're acting. Immature. Yeah, probably between 50 and 70. Yeah, by not facing him directly or just making it up. Making up a lot, you know?
Yeah. Sounds like something like teenagers would do.
Yeah, well, they're not spiritually mature. That's for sure. But yeah, I can see that. All right, so talking about the sovereignty of God and the providence of God, Jacob, or excuse me, Joseph, he sees God's hand in all of this.
And this, in verse 20, this is one of the greatest verses in all of the Bible for the sovereignty of God. Look at it. He says, but as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive.
So just to make a point about the sovereignty of God and the providence of God. Joseph's brothers were operating according to what we would say their own free will, right? From the time they were back with their father altogether when they were young, they chose to throw him in the pit, to sell him into slavery.
All of that was done of their own free will. We all agree with that? Yes. So they chose to do it. They knew it was evil. They chose to do evil. The Midianite caravan came through at just the right time.
Joseph ended up in just the right place, Potiphar's house. Potiphar had just the wrong kind of wife. Joseph ended up in jail, just so happens, right? With two officers of Pharaoh. They had very specific dreams.
God had just happened to give him the ability to interpret dreams and just go through the whole story, what was happening. This is what we call, not luck, it's called divine providence. This is God's hand just guiding history, guiding the whole situation, working behind the scenes.
So when we think of divine providence, it's an even greater miracle than the miracles you read about in the pages of scripture. When Moses, God threw Moses part of the Red Sea, that's nothing, just okay, the water parts.
But providence, God is working over time using the free will actions of man in every little thing he brings together to bring about exactly what he wants to happen. It's mind boggling, really. And this is how the apostle Paul can say what?
In Romans 8, 28. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God and to those who are the called according to his purpose. Without God's sovereignty, without divine providence, that verse makes people feel better, but how could that possibly be the case?
Because God's sovereign and because of divine providence. And then another example of this, Romans chapter 11, talking about Israel's disobedience. Paul recognizes that Israel was disobedient and because of that, the gospel went to the Gentiles, led to the salvation of the whole world.
And then Paul says, oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments in his ways past finding out. You know, we always say it and we always need to remember it that God really is in control.
You know, sometimes we say it so often, we can begin to take it, oh yeah, I know that. No, he is in control of everything, everything. Well, yeah, that's his point, how unsearchable, right? At his ways.
We did this many chapters ago, but because this is kind of one of the main verses on this subject, I just wanna define these two terms again, sovereignty and divine providence. So sovereignty is an attribute of God based upon the premise that God, as the creator of heaven and earth, has absolute right and full authority to do or allow whatsoever he desires.
You say, okay, is there a verse for this? Psalm 113, or excuse me, Psalm 115, verse three, our God is in heaven and what? He does whatever he pleases. So God has all authority. This is the sovereignty of God.
Yes, Russ. I was gonna say, go read Job. Book of Job. The Lord allowed things to happen to Job. Yep.
Yeah, and we get a little insight. Jim says it's God's working behind the scenes. The thing about the Book of Job is the curtain is pulled back and you actually get to see some of what's going on behind the scenes.
And it does make you wonder, obviously not that same exact situation, but what is going on behind the scenes? Things that do happen, I mean, we have no idea, but. I can't think in those terms, Mike. Right.
I mean, it's kind of impossible. All we can go by is what Scripture tells us. Right. And sometimes we have to, again, we have to read between the lines to understand what's happening.
Yeah, so the sovereignty of God. God is in heaven and does whatever He pleases. And then providence, does anyone remember the definition of providence? It's not something you would think. Providence means basically foresight.
And we've all heard of foreknowledge. But providence, meaning foresight, speaks of how God in His wisdom orders all events within the universe that the end for which it was created may be realized. So God in His power, God is upholding all things.
He's controlling all things. He is able to order all events without, as some people put it, violating man's free will. Again, God isn't forcing anyone to do anything. Or the common response to you saying people are robots or puppets and God's making, no, that's not what we're saying.
The devil made me do it. Yeah. You know, and this idea that God's ordering everything without violating man's free will. I don't even like to put it that way because it makes it sound like if God did that, He'd be doing something wrong.
You know, if God, let's say you were about to do something tonight and God forced you or went in and tweaked you, make you not do it. He could do that if He wanted. We just don't believe He is doing that.
Jim.
You probably have all thought of this or have heard it. We think in terms of time. Tomorrow, next month, next year, an hour from now. God is outside of time. He sees the beginning, the middle, and the end.
So what He sees is different than what we can see or that we do see. So when you think in those terms, it makes it a little more understandable about how God, and I hesitate to use this word, but orchestrates events.
Yeah.
Right, and that can be taken too far. But again, the brothers, they threw Joseph into the pit. They sold him into slavery. God did not make them do that. They chose to do that. But at the same time, God, you can say God ordained it.
Now, it's hard for us to understand, but I would just point to two passages in the book of Acts. You say, well, how do you know God ordained it? How do you know that God is ordering it? Well, in Acts 2, 22 and 23, it says, men of Israel, this is Peter speaking, right?
Men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs, which God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know him, that is Christ, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified and put to death.
So the people were responsible because they had the lawless hands. But it was determined by God. You say, yeah, well, it's just foreknowledge. That's what it says. It's just God just knew ahead of time.
Well, it says the determined purpose, but let's just cover one more verse from Acts. Acts chapter four, verses 27 and 28, referring to God the Father. It says, for truly against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel are gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.
Whose hand and whose purpose? God the Father's. Okay, so this is truly amazing because it shows us how big, how powerful, and how amazing God is. Amen. Herod was guilty. Pilate was guilty. The Jews were guilty.
The Roman soldiers were guilty. And just like Joseph's brother and his brothers and Potiphar's wife, what they did was evil, but God determined it. Well, he knew he determined it and he took it all and used it to bring about the maximum amount of good with Jesus dying for our sins, the salvation of the world.
So this whole topic, it just really, as Jim was saying, it just blows your mind. And if you say, well, I don't understand it, join the club, right? That's the way it is. That's why God is so great because you can't understand him.
Imagine if I worshiped a God that was like me, just a little improved. What? That ain't anything special, is it?
So, Russ. I was gonna say, the title given in Revelation for Christ is Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the end. Amen. I'll tell you a little story. Yeah. I was working. I was working 200 miles away from home, so I didn't go home except on the weekend.
And one night, I got out of work and I'm feeling depressed.
I grabbed my Bible and I just read the book of Revelation all the way through. And I got all done and said, ah, he knows the beginning from the end. What do I have to worry about?
Changed my attitude. Good. See, Revelation, it says there'll be a blessing, right? So I guess you got one. So in conclusion, Joseph tells them, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Verse 21, now, therefore, do not be afraid.
I will provide for you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spoke to them kindly. And then Moses finishes the chapter. He writes about how Joseph lived in the land of Egypt and he got to see his grandchildren, his great-grandchildren, his great-great-grandchildren.
And he lived to the ripe old age of 110. And before he died, he promised the children of Israel that God would bring them out of the land of Egypt, back to the land of Canaan, he says in verse 25. And Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel saying, God will surely visit you and you shall carry up my bones from here.