Book of Genesis - Ch. 44, Vs. 1-34 (05/06/2001)

Park Meadows Church

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Bill, tell us kind of where we are. We're in Chapter 44, the first one.

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We just finished dealing with the brothers. Had to return the second time to the children.

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And he's in that bedroom. They're sitting in the back with extra things. That's in Chapter 44.

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Have you finished? Yes. Well, they have returned the second time.

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Benjamin is with them. They convinced their father that unless Benjamin went, there was no need to go in.

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So Joseph made them a believer, didn't he? Spoke very, very strong, very hard to them.

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He was a stranger to them. And that man, they said. So, Chapter 44, rather short, but we're going to see what happens.

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Joseph tests their love for Benjamin. He wants to see if they will treat

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Benjamin as they did him 20 years before.

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And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill them in sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth.

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He did this before. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest and his corn money.

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And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. Now he's setting them up for yet another disappointment.

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Anybody in the position of Joseph must be able to divine, quote, unquote.

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And he's going along with that. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses.

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And when they were gone out of the city, and yet not far off, Joseph said to his steward,

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Up, follow after the men. And when thou dost overtake them, say unto them,

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Wherefore have you rewarded evil for good? Is not this it in which my

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Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? Ye have done evil in so doing.

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What did the boys think at this time? Burge? I don't know if they knew what to think, because they'd already been through this same deal once before.

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And they came back, and he let them go. All right, the same deal going, with what added,

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Clarence? Well, with the silver cup. All right. Yes. His silver cup.

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And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words. And they said unto him,

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Wherefore sayeth my Lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing.

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Now, every day we get the newspaper, do we not? Those of you that subscribe to it.

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Is there a horoscope in it? Yes.

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All right. How many of you read the horoscope? Anybody?

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Put up your hand if you do. Put up both hands and leave.

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Horoscope, what? You should ask how many do. That's what you should ask.

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Well, I didn't want to embarrass you. To do so reveals what about you?

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About them? It indicates that you're willing to dabble in it.

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Maybe you don't believe it, but you're willing to play with it. What is it?

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Witchcraft. Witchcraft. What's wrong with witchcraft? It seems innocent enough.

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Just read your horoscope and see what it's going to be. Well, it reveals the sad spiritual condition of the people today when they do such things.

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Behold the money which we found in our sack's mouth we brought again unto thee out of the land of Canaan.

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How then should we steal out of the Lord's house silver or gold?

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What do you mean? We're not thieves. We've told you that from the beginning.

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With whomsoever they knew they did not have it to this degree. With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die, and we also will be my

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Lord's bondsmen. Now, did they believe that they did not have it?

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Well, go back to the first.

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And he commanded the stewards of the house, say, fill the men's sack with food as much as they can carry.

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And in the youngest one, so they were all lined up different.

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Benjamin's was this sack and this sack and this sack and so forth. They did not inspect.

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They didn't look to see if that's what had happened. They took for granted that the sack contained food.

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Russell, would you have looked? Maybe you would since they sent you money the last time.

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I would have looked. They didn't.

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I don't know whether it was trust or an oversight. And he said, now also let it be according to your words.

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He with whom it is found shall be my servant and ye shall be blameless. And they speedily took down every man his sack to the ground and opened every man his sack.

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And he searched and began at the eldest and left at the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

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Just as much surprised as anything. They wouldn't have made the statement previous to that if they had thought that they might have stolen it.

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Then they rent their clothes and laid it every man his ass and returned to the city.

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I can just see them going back. Nothing to say.

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Nothing they could say. They were caught with the goods. They didn't know how it got there. Judah and his brother came to Joseph's house for he was yet there.

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And they fell before him on the ground. Again his dream comes true the second time.

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Joseph said unto them, what deed is this that ye have done? Won't ye not that such a man as I can discern, can certainly divine?

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Now he's playing the part. We know that. But Clarence, do they know that?

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No. And Judah said, what shall we say unto my

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Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves?

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God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also with whom the cup is found.

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There's no mention of killing. There was at the beginning. You cannot judge a man by what he has done in the past.

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And he said, God forbid that I should do so. But the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant.

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And as for you, get you up in peace to your father. Now, he knows the cup was found in Benjamin's sack because that's where he put it.

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He knows that Benjamin is his full brother. That's why he insisted that he be brought down.

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He also suspects that his father, being yet alive, would demand that they bring him back.

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But they can't do that. Here they're commanded to go and to leave

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Benjamin. Then Judah came near unto him, and he said, O my Lord, let thy servant,

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I pray thee, speak a word in my Lord's ears. And let not thine anger burn against thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh.

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You're second to Pharaoh only. Now, religion does not destroy good manners.

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Judah was a rather manly person here. We're seeing the real

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Judah, by the way. My Lord asked his servant, saying, Have ye a father or a brother?

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Now, Judah's going to spend the rest of the chapter in his plea. And a most eloquent plea that you will ever read anyplace.

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Have you a father or a brother? And we said unto my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one.

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And his brother is dead, a little one, how old was he? Thirty.

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A little one, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him.

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And thou saidst unto thy servant, Bring him down unto me, that I may set my eyes upon him.

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And we said unto my Lord, The lad cannot leave his father. For if he should leave his father, his father would die.

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And thou saidst unto thy servant, Except you bring your brother, except your youngest brother come down with you, you shall see my face no more.

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Do we have a brother that sees the father's face?

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Can we look upon the father without the brother? No way.

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And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant my father, we told him the words of my

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Lord. And our father said, Go again and buy us a load of food. And we said,

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We cannot go down. If our youngest brother be with us, then we will go down.

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For we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be with us.

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And thy servant my father said unto us, Ye know that my wife bear me two sons.

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And the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces. And I saw him not since.

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Did you find in the story any place in history where the boys confessed to their father what they had done with Joseph?

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Even here in repeating it to the stranger, they mentioned not what they had done.

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And if ye take this also from me, and my mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.

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Now Jacob's not yet completely trusting his boy, trusting God. Now therefore, when

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I come to my servant my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life, it will come to pass when he seeth that the lad's not with us, that he will die.

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And thy servant shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant our father with sorrow to the grave.

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He'll kill him if he's not there. He'll just let out die. For our servant became surety for the lad unto my father, saying,

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If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever.

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Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad a bondman to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren.

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What's he pleading Joseph to do? Virge, take me instead of the young man.

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For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad be not with me? Lest peradventure

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I see the evil that shall come upon my father. They all passed the test.

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They all, without knowing it, passed the test. Joseph is satisfied.

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We'll get into that next week. But he's satisfied now that they have passed the test.

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They're who they say they are. They still don't know who he is.

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But that's coming. Anything you'd like to ask. Jesse, dismiss us please.