Separation and Testimony

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 46:28-47:12

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Well, I did not realize that there was a typo on the bulletin. We'll actually only be preaching up to verse 12 in chapter 47.
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I assure you the proofreader has been fired forthwith, and so we don't expect such mistakes moving forward, but it was nice to be already becoming familiar with where we'll be next week in chapter 47.
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But this morning we'll complete chapter 46 and go to chapter 47, verse 12, rather than 27.
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So, sorry for the typo on that. We left off with Jacob gathering all his household, loading the carts that Pharaoh had sent his way, bringing the
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Israelites—remember, Jacob's name is Israel, and so all that are with Jacob are the Israelites—being brought out of the land of promise, out of the land of Canaan.
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Remember, he came southward and worshipped at Beersheba on the way out of the land, so now he's in the southward part of Canaan, traversing over to the northern part of Egypt.
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And we read in Psalm 105, verse 23, Israel came into Egypt. Very significant for what
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Psalm 105 is recounting, the thought that Israel is coming out of the land of promise and being taken into the land of Egypt, and there
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God's promise, God's warning from Genesis 15 when He told Abraham that his descendants would become slaves for 400 years in a nation that did not belong to them.
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We're beginning to see the wheels of fulfillment move in that direction. As we come to the close of Genesis, things are moving so that we can begin the great exodus in the following account.
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We can imagine that on this journey into Egypt, every step of the way,
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Jacob's heart was bursting to see Joseph. It had been 22, 23 years since that fateful day when the bloody robe was thrust before his face, and he wept and was inconsolable.
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And as the years went by, we saw that the wound was still very fresh, it was very difficult for him to let go of Benjamin because of the great loss that he felt for his first son of Rachel.
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And now that he has news that Joseph is indeed alive and in this fact the Lord of the land, you can only imagine as he enters into that land how his heart is bursting with anticipation, looking forward to that embrace of Joseph.
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When he, being 130 years old, began to feel weak and thought, I should have never undertaken this journey, the thought of holding his long lost son must have reinvigorated his steps.
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So as we finish out chapter 46 and begin chapter 47, we're going to first look at the reunion.
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We'll see the reunion and then we'll see Joseph's commands beginning in chapter 47, and that really is a command of separation.
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And then lastly, we'll consider how that separation gives way to testimony. So that's the three parts that will occupy us this morning, reunion, separation, and testimony.
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So first, the reunion, beginning in chapter 46, verse 28. He sent
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Judah before him to Joseph to point out before him the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen.
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So the whole family is moving toward Goshen. This wasn't a new development. This was in fact
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Joseph's plan all along. If you remember, back in chapter 45, even before the great reveal,
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Joseph had in disguise told his brothers, you shall dwell in the land of Goshen.
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You shall be near to me, you and your children, your children's children, your flocks and your herds and all that you have.
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So if you trust me, you will end up in the land of Goshen, in this land of abundance.
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And true to his word here in chapter 46, we see that that is the case. Judah once again is singled out as the lead of the family.
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That's very significant to point out. It's unnecessary information for us to know that Judah was sent as reconnaissance into the land of Goshen, or to at least point the way toward Goshen.
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It's not a detail we need. All we need to know is that they entered into Goshen. So why is this recorded?
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Do you remember last week I gave the analogy of a symphony? And in Scripture with the book of Genesis, we really have the first movement within a larger symphony.
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And little details like this help us understand musical phrases that will reappear later on in the unfolding drama of redemption.
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Remember that it is from Judah's line that the serpent crusher, the promised seed, promised first to Eve in Genesis 3 .15,
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promised to Abraham, and ratified with Isaac and Jacob. It's from the line of Judah that the
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Messiah will finally come. And so it's significant that Judah is pointing out the way.
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Judah is leading the family toward the dwelling place where they will encounter the missing son, the beloved son.
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So typologically, we begin to see Judah literally pointing Israel toward the place where they can dwell with the
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Lord of the land. Just beautiful detail that comes out of the narrative. Remember that this is the greater story unfolding of God undertaking a plan of redemption.
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And it was by Judah's faith, just as it was by Abraham's faith, that this drama of redemption continues to unfold.
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Verse 29, Joseph makes his chariot ready, went up to Goshen to meet his father
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Israel, and presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while.
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Remember that Joseph is governor over all the land. Since the famine began, and even immediately before that,
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Joseph would not get in his chariot to meet anyone, unless it was Pharaoh. If you want to see
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Joseph, you get in your cart, and you come before him. He is the exalted
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Lord of glory. But here, Joseph prepares himself to go and travel to his pilgrim shepherd father.
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And in that way, out of reverence and honor, he's showing respect toward his father.
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It is not Jacob who must come in a cart before his son Joseph. And we'll see that he must actually get in a cart and be brought before Pharaoh.
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But that is not the case for his son. His son, though exalted, comes in reverence and presents himself before Jacob.
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That's court -like language of bowing yourself in a reverential way approaching the one who is exalted.
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So, Joseph comes before Jacob, and he sinks down to the earth. But you can imagine, the pageantry only lasts a moment.
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They immediately embrace. And I love little details like this. He falls on his neck, and he weeps.
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And Moses says, he weeps a good while. This is not a, hey, it's been so long, it's great to see you again.
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And, you know, a couple of wipes with the thumb. This is just a pour your heart out embrace.
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Something that you wish you could actually see. I wish we could be a fly on the wall to what that reunion actually looked like.
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As Joseph is weeping, of course, we can understand it's not just the joy of the present that is bursting within him, but it's also the pain of the past.
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All the turmoil of the separation from his father. These two decades plus of real pain and suffering have finally been brought to a place of reunion, of healing.
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The past pain, the torment of the night has given way to the joy of the morning. And how emotional this reunion is.
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Can you picture his father at some point finally pulling his head back from his neck after a good long while, and wiping the very tears from his face?
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So much of the Christian life on that great day will look like this very moment.
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When the turmoil of our suffering, and the way that we persevere by God's providential grace, and the pain of the night gives way to the joy of a glorious new morn, and the father himself wipes the tears from our face.
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Joseph's original dream has now been completed. His whole family has come before him.
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He is the exalted one. He is the Lord of the land in glory. And Israel, Jacob, seeing this for himself, verse 30 says,
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Now let me die, because I've seen your face, because you're still alive. Derek Kidner says this is the
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Old Testament's version of the Nunc Domitis. If you're familiar with that particular liturgical setting, it's beautiful to listen to.
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Many variations of it, you should YouTube it later on. I think it's a proper use of the Sabbath.
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It comes out of Luke chapter 2, where the phrase,
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Nunc Domitis, now let your servant depart in peace. What a statement.
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Now let your servant depart in peace. The Nunc Domitis there at the beginning of Luke is an even greater fulfillment of this very scene.
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Now that I know the Messiah has come, I can depart in peace. And here we see
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Jacob essentially saying the same thing. Jacob as Israel saying, now that I know my beloved son lives,
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I may depart in peace. Now that God has brought his fulfillment to pass, I can actually die.
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What a difference we see in Jacob. Ever since chapter 37, when he's spoken, when we have his recorded speech, it's always been full of bitterness and despair.
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Fearing, not only fearing, expecting the worst. Remember when all of his sons and all of his daughters came around him, he's trembling, holding the bloody coat of many colors, and they're trying to comfort him, and he refuses to be comforted.
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Just as he refused to be comforted when his beloved Rachel died on the way to Bethlehem. Remember when he said,
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I will go down to the grave mourning for my son. Bitterness, loss, a breach that could never be closed.
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That was chapter 37, verse 35. Remember when he said, my son shall not go down with you, as he clutched
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Benjamin tight, because his brother is dead, he alone is left. If anything should happen to him on the way, you will bring my gray hair down to the grave in sorrow.
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But now look at him. As a result of God's providence,
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God's grace, now I can die in peace. He went from fearing that his head would be brought to the grave in sorrow, to being filled with such hope, he knows that now he's ready to die, and he dies with peace.
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Now, God still has 17 years for him, as we find out in the next chapter, verse 28.
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But those 17 years are filled with the fruit of this peace and this hope. And we'll see that unfolding in the way that he gathers his sons, and even some of his grandsons, and he bestows blessing upon them.
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This is a man who has been reconciled to his long lost son, reconciled to his other sons, has been reconciled to God.
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And therefore now he is truly ready to depart in peace. What a portrait we have. Typologically speaking, it's our communion with the
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Beloved Son that will give us peace when we are facing death. There is no peace regarding death until there's communion, a relationship, a reunion with the
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Beloved Son. We see that in seed form here with Jacob, and we're reminded as believers that it's still true for us.
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Unless we have communion, unless we know the presence of this Lord of glory, there can be no peace as we encounter death.
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Peace and hope, when we stare down death, comes from knowing the Son, knowing that he lives.
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Only then can we say like Jacob, now as your servants we're ready to depart. We're reminded as Christians that how we die is just as important as how we live.
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In some ways, how we die is even more important than how we live. Because how we die encapsulates all that we have lived for and the way that we have lived.
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What was more important for the thief hanging next to Jesus was not how he had lived, but how he was going to die.
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That was more important. So we see already here the way that Jacob is filled with such peace and you can only imagine his faith now being so utterly brought up to admiration for what
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God has unfolded before him that now he's eager not only to bless his family, but even bless the
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Gentiles. And that will carry us into the next chapter. But Joseph is very wise as we move now into the separation.
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So that's the reunion. As we move now into the separation, we see Joseph has a very wise concern for his father and his brothers, beginning in verse 31.
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Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and say to him,
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My brothers and those of my father's house who are in the land of Canaan have come to me. And the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock, and they've brought their flocks, their herds, all that they have.
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So it shall be. When Pharaoh calls you and says, What is your occupation? You shall say,
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Your servant's occupation has been with livestock, from our youth, even till now, both we and also our fathers, so that you can dwell in the land of Goshen.
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For every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. Now we've said that this part of Genesis is moving us to see an intersection with wisdom literature.
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The way that Joseph acts is almost proverbial. Joseph is shown to be given godly wisdom.
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A Solomon before Solomon's time. I say that with significance for where we're going next week.
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Perhaps Joseph's moral lapse, a lack of wisdom on his part. But for here, for now,
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Joseph continues to be shown as wise, and he gives godly advice out of a godly concern for his family.
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Not only do their physical needs need to be met, and he'll meet those physical needs, as we see at the end of verse 12 in the next chapter, but he's more concerned about their spiritual well -being, their spiritual provision.
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So he must go before Pharaoh. He must advocate for them. I will go to Pharaoh, he says.
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I will explain that you are shepherds, and that therefore you are not to be mixed in to the
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Egyptian halls of pageantry and power and paganism. He has a godly concern that though he's in this place of exaltation, his family stays in the setting that God has allotted for them, and they're not led astray by all that they're beholding in the halls of Egyptian power.
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Some of us were talking yesterday morning about Rod Dreher's book, The Benedict Option. I perhaps would call this
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The Goshen Option, a physical relocation for the sake of separation. But as we'll see, that separation is meant to give way to testimony.
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Joseph is essentially telling his family, do not be distracted at all by what you see.
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Do not think that there's some nepotism at play here, that now you're going to be appointed the minister of finances, you'll be appointed the minister of defense, you'll all soon be shaved and dressed in ornate majestic robes, and you'll have power and glory just like me.
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No, no, no. You're shepherds. And you must tell Pharaoh that you're shepherds. And you must live like shepherds in the land of Goshen.
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Do not be led astray. Do not embrace these pagan ways. Remember who you are and the promises that God gave to you.
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In other words, embrace your low status, brothers. Embrace your shepherd lineage, brothers.
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You're coming into the land, and you're going to be an abomination to the Egyptians. So be an abomination to the
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Egyptians. Be separate from them. Why is it that the
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Egyptians had such a low view of shepherds? It's hard to say. Generally speaking, shepherds were always held in low esteem in ancient societies.
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There's always conflicts between sheep herders and cattle rearers because of the way that the grazing lands are allotted out, and wherever sheep graze, there's never anything enough for cattle.
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And so that might be something to do with the Egyptians who have stocks of cattle and they despise the shepherds and the way that the sheep graze and so spoil the lands for their cattle raising.
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It may have something to do, though this is unlikely, with the way the Egyptians had been expelled from the
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Hyksos rule. Those were shepherd kings that for a time were dominant over the Egyptians. But scholars point out that's most likely later than this particular period.
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The point is simply this. Shepherds are an abomination to Egyptians. Joseph knows this.
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Joseph is an Egyptian prince, and he says to his family, now that you've come to Egypt, you must live as shepherds.
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You must retain that separation that makes you the offscoring, the detestation, the abomination in the eyes of the
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Egyptians. He's more concerned for them to be separate than he is for them to be included.
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He's more concerned for them to be not only met with physical provisions, but more importantly, he's concerned for the sake of their testimony.
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We see the importance also here of Joseph as the representative. I will go up and tell
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Pharaoh. If Joseph would not go tell Pharaoh, Pharaoh would do whatever he wanted with this family.
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Most likely he would not allow them to stay as shepherds. Most likely he would say, no, it is not fitting.
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This is what I'm going to do for you. Be shaven, be dressed in these robes, come live here.
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He'd want to most likely be extravagant toward them and to bless them. And so Joseph trains them in how they must respond, but he does so as their representative and as their advocate.
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I will go up on your behalf. I will tell this to the great king of the land. The family has come into Egypt, notice, they still need
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Joseph to represent them. They've begun to walk in God's salvation, but they're only able to receive that salvation if they have an advocate, if they have a representative for them.
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They need the Lord of the land to represent them, to advocate for them on their behalf, out of the best interest for their immediate physical needs as well as their souls.
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And in the same way, that is true of believers. We enter into the outworking of God's salvation, but we can only receive that salvation, we can only be preserved in that salvation if we have an advocate, if there is a representative who stands before us, who pleads by His own precious blood on our behalf and has a concern for our welfare, both physically and spiritually.
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And so He secures our blessing, He preserves our salt and our light, He does so as our representative.
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If you were to remove Joseph from this equation, if the family was here without an advocate and as they began to multiply, you have different pharaohs in succession, what will happen?
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Well, what does happen? The Israelites become slaves. For 400 years they have no advocate, they have no representative, they can only cry out in bitterness until God raises up an advocate, raises up a representative in the form of Moses.
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And so you always must have this representative, this advocate that stands before God on behalf of the people.
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And is therefore willing to speak to power. I will go and speak to Pharaoh for you.
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Notice also, Joseph is enrobed with majesty and yet he's not ashamed to represent his family, though his family is an abomination.
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Here he is in princely glory, he's not ashamed to own his family. Here's my family, Pharaoh, get them away from me.
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This is my family, I represent them. These are my loved ones, they're with me.
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He's not ashamed to be identified with them. How much more so the Lord Jesus, who's not ashamed to be identified with his people.
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Though he's exalted and glorious, he's unashamed to stand before his father and to own us.
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Genesis 47, beginning in verse 1. Joseph went and told Pharaoh and said,
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My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds, all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan.
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Indeed, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.
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And then Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers.
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And they said to Pharaoh, We've come to dwell in the land because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan.
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Now therefore, please, let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. So they wisely follow their brother's command.
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They answer as they've been told. And we see them go even a little bit beyond what Joseph had asked them to testify.
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They say, Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. There must have been something going on in their lives as they left
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Canaan, and as they came to Beersheba, as they sacrificed and worshipped Yahweh, they must have been reminded, we're leaving the land that God had promised to our fathers, to us.
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And when Joseph warns them, You must dwell in the land of Goshen and live as an abomination to the Egyptians, they must have been reminded, like our fathers before us we must live, as pilgrims in a land that does not belong to us yet.
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We must live by faith in God's promise. So they're thinking of this heritage. They're thinking of this identity.
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Not toward the Egyptians, but toward Abraham and Isaac and their father Jacob. Both we and our fathers.
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And we continue, we desire to walk in the way of our fathers, faithful to their testimony.
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Pharaoh, verse 5, speaks to Joseph saying, Your father and your brothers have come to you.
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The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen.
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And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock. You see this lavish favor that Pharaoh has in reserve for Joseph.
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His desire is to bless Joseph, and therefore he will bless anyone who belongs to Joseph.
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The blessing overflows. Alright, fine, if you're going to reduce yourself just to be shepherds, then at least be chief shepherds over my livestock.
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He wants to get royalty in there somehow. We see something of this glorious abundance, this good desire of God, our king, always seeking to bless those who belong to the beloved son.
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It's in seed form, but we see it. Joseph's concern, of course, is the family must be separate.
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Imagine how obscure and pitiful these men looked when they were gathered before Pharaoh in what was detestable.
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Unshaved beards, not shaved like the Egyptians, standing before them in shepherds' clothing and all of the smells that come with shepherds' clothing, and they're standing before Pharaoh in all of his might and his glory.
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And yet they're confident. We're shepherds just like our fathers were shepherds. Let us go raise our cattle in the land of Goshen.
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There's a confidence in how they address Pharaoh. And I would say that confidence comes from knowing that they are truly separate.
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That confidence comes from knowing we are not meant to be Egyptians. Our destiny is not that of Egypt.
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It's that of Canaan and all that God had promised our fathers. So their confidence comes from not only desiring to be separate, but desiring to be separate like their fathers were separate.
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In other words, their identity is bound up with their heritage. Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers.
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They understand their identity in light of their heritage. It gives them a confidence to be separate.
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It gives them a desire to be separate. And believers also can become confident in the ways that we separate from a fallen world the more we look to our fathers in the faith.
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We have a great and godly heritage that stretches back over millennia. And we look to that godly heritage to understand the witnesses that surround us.
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The way that therefore we must come out from the world and be separate. There's a confidence, a holy confidence that comes when we recognize we're standing in a long godly train of the faithful.
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The more we think of our lives as just caught up in the present, the more we compartmentalize our faith.
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Oh yeah, we're just going to add Christianity onto our lives. We're just like anyone else except for what we do on the first part of a
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Sunday. The more we have that approach, the more disconnected we are from everything that we've been seeing in the book of Genesis.
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We won't be able to live lives confidently in separation. Most likely we will not be an abomination to the
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Egyptians because we're too busy compromising with them. We're too busy hiding our beards and painting our eyes and putting linen cloth around us.
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We're not willing to look to the heritage that we come from. A heritage which has always been a scent of death, a stench of death to those who are perishing.
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So where does that testimony begin to emerge? It comes from this confidence of the separation and that confidence also comes from this idea of heritage.
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That we're continuing on the work of the ministry. We're laboring for the faith that was once for all delivered.
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And that is the third point, the testimony. Beginning in verse 7, Joseph brought in his father
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Jacob and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, how old are you?
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And Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life.
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And they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
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And so Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh. You can picture the scene.
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Jacob likely still on one of the carts, too weak to move around, being brought and set before Pharaoh.
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Picture Joseph sort of picking him up and placing him before Pharaoh. And he's 130 years old.
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And don't think, ah, people lived long back then. Not at this point in history. 130 years is 130 years.
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So no wonder Pharaoh says, how old are you? He probably looked like a living mummy. How old are you?
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He must have been completely bewildered. 130 years have been the years of the days of my pilgrimage.
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130 years. This commanded respect. Especially in Egyptian culture, great age would have been a sign of great blessing.
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There was something so unique about Joseph that drew Pharaoh's admiration and desire to bless.
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And now he looks at a father who's 130 years old and he says, oh, no wonder. This whole family is so incredible.
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What a testimony that is. And so he's struck by this peculiar aged man.
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And he says, how old are you? It's almost a way of condescending down to him.
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The Pharaoh now addressing this elderly man in a very friendly, conversational way. Tell me, how old are you?
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There's something of reverence here that we've largely lost in our culture. Many cultures, honor -shame cultures in the world today still retain this idea of reverencing the aged, reverencing the elderly among us.
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In Western culture, especially contemporary Western culture, this idea has largely vanished.
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We get frustrated with the elderly in our culture. Let's marginalize them and put them to the side.
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They just slow things down. They're not with it. They're on the wrong side of history. They're so useless. What do they contribute? It's a complete reversal of the
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Fifth Commandment, a complete undermining of how God has designed us to look upon fellow image -bearers who have stomped on terror longer than we have.
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That commands respect, not because of what you've done or how much you've made, but just because you've lived long, and there ought to be an immediate reverence for that.
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Proverbs 16 .31 says, The silver -haired head is a crown of glory when it's found in the way of righteousness.
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In our culture, it's not viewed as a crown, but more of a curse, and we need to, as Christians, remember the significance of this.
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It really belongs to and flows out of the Fifth Commandment. That part of reverencing our parents, honoring our mother and father also, as we see in the way the catechism explains it, it's also a way of reverencing those who are before us, those who have authority over us, those who have lived longer than we have, who are above us in that sense.
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And we ought to, as Christians, preserve and promote that view of reverencing those who are aged.
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We see that even in Pharaoh. In a certain way, Pharaoh is reverencing Jacob. While Pharaoh is full of wonder, impressed, struck by what he sees in this 130 -year -old man,
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Jacob doesn't really seem all that impressed with Pharaoh. Jacob doesn't really seem awestruck by standing before this
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Egyptian king in all of his glory. He's able to speak quite frankly to him in a humble way, but Jacob is far more interested in giving a testimony.
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So he talked about separation. Separation here, giving way to testimony. He says, it's not just my life, my age, he talks about his father's.
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He's almost begging the question, tell me more about your father's. Oh, let me tell you about my father's. Let me tell you about my father
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Isaac. Let me tell you about my grandfather Abraham. Let me tell you, you think my family's amazing because you know
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Joseph. Let me tell you about my family's history. He considers his life, in light of the lives of his father's, and he compares his life as a pilgrimage.
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And then he considers his life as a pilgrimage, in light of their lives as a pilgrimage. In his own humility he says,
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I have not attained to what they have attained to. My life has not measured up and matched up to their lives.
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So notice what he says here. The days of the years of my pilgrimage, that already, what do you mean pilgrimage?
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I thought you were settled in the land of Canaan, but now you've come here because of the famine. Oh, no, no, no. Even in Canaan I was a pilgrim.
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In fact, even in Canaan my father was a pilgrim, and his father was a pilgrim, do you see? We've been pilgrims.
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We have not been settled in the land. It's almost saying we're looking for a city whose builder and maker is
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God. Few, he says, evil have been the days of the years of my life.
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That's a 130 -year -old man saying that. My days have been few. I haven't lived long enough.
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In fact, when I think about my short little life of 130 years, I realize it never has come close to that of my father or his father.
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Evil have been my days. Not just evil because of the things that happened during my life outside of me, but evil because of the things
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I did during my life. He considers his life in contrast to his father and his grandfather, and he can say few and evil have been my days.
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When I ran away from Paddan Aram, my brother was out to murder me because I had deceived him and I had robbed him of the blessing and how
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I so cruelly and spitefully treated him. A lot like how I sat by passively when
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I watched my sons do the same to one another and how I allowed my wives to have this conflict and I never acted on their behalf.
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I was always showing favoritism toward Rachel and Rachel's sons. I was never the peacemaker within my own home, not within my marriages, not within the relationships between my sons.
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And my own daughter was raped and then my sons mass murdered. The Shechemites, few and evil have been my days.
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But he's also, in a way, testifying to the faithfulness of God's promise.
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My life has not measured up to that of my father's. My pilgrimage has not been like the pilgrimage of my father's.
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My father's lived by faith in what God had shown them. I've been working at understanding what that looks like for me my whole long life.
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God has been faithfully untwisting. To this day, 130 years long, he's been untwisting his servant, the twister
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Jacob. He's testifying to the promise that God gave to his fathers just by referencing all of them as pilgrims.
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These, and the writer of Hebrews picks this right up out of Abraham in Hebrews 11. Of course, he goes on to describe
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Jacob, but I think it's sort of what we call a pericope that's summarizing or evaluating the whole.
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It's an evaluative pericope. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, that's true of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but having seen them afar off, they were assured of them, embraced them, confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
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Where is the confession that they're pilgrims on the earth? It's right here out of Genesis 47.
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It's this confession before Pharaoh. We are pilgrims on the earth. And the writer of Hebrews says, those who say such things plainly declare they're seeking a homeland.
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Jacob says it's not in Canaan as it stands now awaiting the seed. And it's certainly not in Egypt.
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We've been pilgrims and we're still pilgrims. Come, the land is before you, settle in Goshen.
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No, you don't understand. We're pilgrims. He's testifying. He's testifying before Pharaoh.
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Notice the contrast between Jacob and Joseph as we just take a step back and just consider the difference between Joseph and his father.
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When Jacob says, few in evil have been the days of my life, we recognize that so much of that is the evil that he brought about by his own actions and decisions.
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He, in a very real sense, made his own bed. Whereas Joseph experienced persecution and suffering.
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Evil was done to him rather than him doing evil. So already we see this contrast where Joseph, in a very different way, could say, few in evil have been my days, but it wasn't evil that he perpetrated so much as evil that he suffered.
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Evil that he endured. Whereas for Jacob, it was so much of the evil that he did. And therefore,
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Jacob was often blind and indifferent to seeing the hand of God and His adversity. All these things are against me!
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He's always crying out. Whereas Joseph can't but see God's hand moving through the suffering, moving providentially through the adversity.
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We see therefore Joseph eager to forgive, eager to be reconciled in ways that it's taken a long time for Jacob to get to that place.
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We see the difference between the father and the son. We also see that the father's restoration is bound up with the reunion of the beloved son.
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It's also interesting to see that for Jacob, the very things he tried to retain were the things that he lost.
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The very things that he held tightest to, Rachel and Benjamin and even Joseph for a time, were the things that were ultimately taken from him.
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But when he finally was willing to let go, as he did with Benjamin, he gained back more than he could have understood.
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He gained back Benjamin and his long lost son. He gained back his faith and his standing before God.
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He gained back the admiration of his sons and his household. He had been blessed.
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And as he stands before Pharaoh testifying, we see that now his desire is to further testify.
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What did God promise Abraham and Isaac and Jacob? That they would be a blessing to the nations.
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And what does Jacob do here? He blesses Pharaoh. Jacob invokes the blessing of God upon Pharaoh.
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He's thoroughly unimpressed by the pageantry of Pharaoh. He says, God is the one who has given you this position.
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May God continue to bless you. God is the king over all. God himself came to me when
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I was worshiping at Beersheba and reminded me that he is with me. He indeed reigns over all of the world.
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And so this testimony moves toward a blessing upon the Gentiles. Jacob is beginning to take another step forward in fulfilling the
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Abrahamic promise. And then as we finally read, closing out verses 11 and 12,
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Joseph situated his father and his brothers, gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses.
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That's how Moses' audience would have understood it when we turn to Exodus 1. The city of Ramses is built to be a storehouse while Israel is in the midst of their bondage.
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And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with bread according to the number in their family.
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So everyone is provided for. In the midst of five more years of famine, everyone, down to the smallest, is provided for by Joseph.
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All Israel is saved. So application. We've looked at separation.
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Joseph's heart is for his family to remain separate, and that separation is going to be a low status that causes them to be abominable to the mighty culture, the mighty empire that surrounds them.
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In many ways, they're living off the scraps that come from the Egyptian table, and yet they must recognize who the true provider and the true king is, and live in light of that.
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They must not only be separate, but they must continue to walk in their testimony. And that, to me, really helps us understand the significance of both separation and testimony.
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We will tend to go off the rails in either one or the other direction. If we don't get the balance between separation and testimony correctly, we'll either be all about separation or all about testimony.
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And here's what will happen. Separation without testimony means we draw up the drawbridge, we enclose ourselves in the monastic walls, we completely ignore the
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Great Commission, we have no interest in the triumphal process, the triumphal march of Christ's conquest, we're uninterested in the souls around us, we're only interested in being separate.
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And so we have no use, we're pulling the basket over our light, making sure nothing leaks through, the emphasis is all on separation, what's missing is testimony, being separate for the sake of testimony.
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On the other hand, if we're only interested in testimony and we don't have a right place for separation, then not only do we throw off the basket and let down the drawbridge, we throw away everything that makes us belong to God, everything that God calls us to.
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We think for the sake of testimony, we must shave and walk and dress and act and speak and be amused and entertained in the same way as the
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Egyptian overlords. And so all testimony without separation is simply compromise.
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And we must find the balance between separation and testimony. They need each other if we're to fulfill
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Christ's Great Commission. We must do so as separate ones, but we must be separated for the sake of our testimony.
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Separate and yet missional. Neither separate to be separate, circling the wagons, convincing ourselves of how great we are and why we'll never be like those pagans beneath us.
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No, no, no. We're the ones who are abominable in their eyes, but we're separate. We look to our heritage, we find the confidence of our
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Holy Fathers in the faith and we say, this is who we are. And as they walked, so we walk.
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And as they endured, so we endure. And as they were faithful and laid down a foundation for us to build upon, so we will be faithful and continue to lay down the faith once we're all delivered.
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Then we also, in that separation, understand it's all about being salt and light. We're being separate so that we can be salt and light.
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And you know what it's like when you've perhaps met people on one or the other side of this extreme.
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Met maybe godly families who have absolutely no interest in testimony.
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They're only concerned about separation. And then maybe you've met other people, and I tend to see more of these, who claim
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Christ and claim to believe in God and claim to be Christian and yet their life shows nothing of holiness, nothing of separation, not even conviction of sin.
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And it's rather frustrating especially when you're trying to evangelize someone and you have maybe a relative or so -and -so, yeah,
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I'm a Christian too, and it's kind of like, okay, they're not, but I'm trying to, okay, ignore that, and let's just, you and I talk.
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Because there's no separation. And so the testimony is, it's compromised, it's corrupted, it's false, it's a false testimony.
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You cannot have testimony without separation. Neither ought you have separation without testimony.
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The importance of separation runs throughout Scripture. Take heed to yourself, we read in Exodus 34, same thing in Joshua 23,
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Judges 3, it's throughout Scripture. Take heed to yourself, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, lest it be a snare in your midst.
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Joseph seems to realize, if you get mixed in to the Egyptian way of life, and you're no longer abominable to them, but you're actually acceptable to them, you're going to be so thoroughly compromised, it will be a snare in your midst.
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And a lot of that wisdom must have been personal experience from Joseph. As Zaphnath -Paneah, he knows just what compromise looks like, and how difficult it is to escape.
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And he says, don't shave, keep shepherding, go live in Goshen. You don't want any of this.
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Paul says to the church at Corinth, 2 Corinthians 6, you're a temple of the living God. God said,
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I will dwell in them, walk among them, I will be their God, they shall be My people.
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come out from among them, be separate, says the Lord. Separation is the therefore.
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This is what you are, therefore, this is what you must do. You're an abomination to the Greco -Roman context.
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Therefore, come out from among them, be separate, don't touch what is unclean. If you don't touch what is unclean,
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I will receive you. I will be your God. You will be My people. You will be My sons and daughters, says the
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Lord God Almighty. I should have just read that from its original context.
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And, you know, we tend to think, well, that was the Israelites, and they had all these weird customs and all these ways that they were physically and in their diet, and in every way they were separate.
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But Paul says, this is for the church. Be separate. Be Israelites.
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Be separate. You need to understand who you are, God's people, following God's ways, for God's purposes, a wholly separate people, a holy temple,
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God's own dwelling place, God's own special prized possession. If we're to be separate, therefore, we must beware of the desire of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, the pride of the life, everything that Egyptian vanity affairs dangle in front of us, everything that our flesh reels to, the very things that the
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Israelites, when they were freed, longed to go back toward. This is what Joseph is trying to separate his family from.
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Just focus on the livestock. Remember who you are. Don't lose sight of the fathers and their testimony upon your life.
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The problem is, our view of God is often shaped by the world rather than our view of the world being shaped by God.
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That's what makes separation so incredibly difficult. We're allowing the world and the concerns of the world and the affairs of the world to dictate how we ought to view the faith rather than the faith helping us to understand and apply and discern the way we're looking and observing and partaking of the world.
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Sometimes we think God winks at worldliness because we wink at our own worldliness.
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We think God overlooks sins and vices like bitterness or gossip or other besetting sins because we overlook them whenever we do them.
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In fact, we often only find them odious when other people are doing them. How dare you. We don't recognize that it's us who stands in the mirror.
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We have to remember God is a jealous God. Joseph is jealous for his family to not lose their
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Canaanite identity, to not lose sight of the promises that God made to their fathers. Joseph hasn't lost sight of that.
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Joseph has lived in Egypt by faith and now he's telling his family what they must do to live by faith in Egypt.
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Wisdom indeed. Don't be an adulterer with the world, he's essentially telling his family.
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Don't you know that friendship with Egypt is enmity with God? So live as an abomination to Egypt.
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Come out from them. Be separate. If you wanted to make yourself a friend of Egypt, you make yourself an enemy with God, brothers.
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So don't do it. Don't you know what scripture says? The spirit who is in us yearns jealously.
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The same logic that God gives his people in Deuteronomy 7, this identity, this refusal to have mixed marriages, spiritual adultery.
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We find Peter applying it, right? 1 Peter chapter 2. To you who believe
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Jesus is precious, but to those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone, a stone of stumbling, a rock of offense.
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They stumble, being disobedient to the word, to which also they were appointed. But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
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Chosen. Chosen. Royal priesthood. Holy nation. His own special possession.
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Identity. Confidence. Being willing to stand against the trend, against the allure.
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Being willing to be counted as an offense, as an abomination to the surrounding culture with all of its might, with all of its entertainment.
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No wonder Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress dances Christian and faithful through Vanity Fair. Every Christian must journey through Vanity Fair.
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Everyone feels the pulls upon the power of the Vanity Fair, not only in the entertainment and amusement that it offers, but also in the threats that subtly lurk behind everything.
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No wonder Christian and faithful are towed away. We separate from something to something.
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We were once fellow members with Egypt, once fellow members with the world, but the
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Spirit of God who yearns jealously, He separated. Now, like Jacob, now, like these brothers, we've become pilgrims and sojourners.
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Now, therefore, Ephesians 2, 19, you're no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
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You're separated to one or the other. You're separated from one or the other.
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You're either fellow citizens with the members of Egypt, or you've been separated from Egypt because you're a fellow citizen with the saints and members of the household of God.
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You cannot have it both ways. You're either of the world or of the body of the Lord. You cannot have it both ways.
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And so we really have to consider what separation means. If separation must be bound to testimony, this will have everything to do with our fellowship as a church, things that we were talking about yesterday morning for the few that were there, fraternity, mission.
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What does it mean to have separation? To be yearning, jealously to be separate in all that God has given to us in the way we live, act, spend, save, work, speak, think, move, maneuver, in every way to be separate, but to have a testimony because we're seeking to be missional.
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There's a fraternity that holds these things together lest we fall off to one side or the other.
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We're not meant to move to Vermont and never make an impact. We're meant to let the basket off of the light, to let the salt begin to permeate like leaven in the dough, and yet we can so easily be compromised.
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Churches, I think, generally speaking, are more interested in their testimony than in their separation, and for that reason, they have no testimony.
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They're more interested in not being abominable to the Egyptians, and so they look to say, how can we show ourselves to be agreeable, amenable, to all the concerns that people are having nowadays?
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How can we curtail the testimony that God has given us to make it more palatable and acceptable? We'll speak the language of Vanity Fair.
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That's how we'll do it. We'll have a testimony when we adopt the ways of Vanity Fair, the concerns of Vanity Fair, and speak the language of the people of the fair.
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Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress says, Christian was looked at so strangely because he didn't speak the language.
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He spoke Canaanite. So brilliant. He refused to live, to adopt the values, to think somehow he was creating a testimony by becoming an
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Egyptian. This is the fundamental mistake of so many churches. It could be the fundamental mistake of us.
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Are we closer to being more separate? Maybe, but another generation, it could be seesaw to the other side.
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We're more concerned about our testimony, but it's not a testimony that flows out of our separation, and therefore, it's no testimony at all.
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Jesus prays for his disciples. I've given them your word. The world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
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I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
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Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. The word makes us separate.
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We live by the word, and we are separate, and for that reason, we have a testimony. What will prevent us from having a separated testimony?
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Three things, and I'll be brief with this. Three things. Being simple, that will prevent us from being separated and having a testimony.
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Being simple, being slothful, and being presumptuous.
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So, simple, sloth, presumption. Simple. Proverbs 8 .5
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says, O you simple ones, understand prudence, you fools, be of an understanding heart.
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There's a need for wisdom. There's a need for discernment. There's a need for great care. Joseph shows all of that.
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Before his family even sets foot in Goshen, he tells them everything that they have to say to Pharaoh.
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He discerns. You must not be simple. Don't think that you're going to be able to maintain this way of life toward the
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Lord if you're so easily swayed by the power and prestige of Egypt. If you're not willing to be treated as abominable.
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So he's not simple. He says, you must understand. You must be wise. You must have a prudent way about the way you're living and setting up your family.
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The way the generations are going to flow from you. Don't be simple. Have understanding. Be wise.
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Don't be slothful. Ecclesiastes 10 .18 Because of much sloth, the building decays. And through idleness of hands, the house leaks.
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It was going to be work that they had to put their shoulders into even in the midst of famine, especially in the midst of famine.
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If they became idle, they would become dependent upon the storehouses of Egypt. And rather than being
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Israelites separated by God, they would become beholden and in bondage to the
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Egyptians. And sadly, that is the case. Presumption.
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Then they will call on me. That's the result. But I will not answer. Proverbs 1 .28 They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
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Because they hated knowledge, they did not choose the fear of the Lord. They would have none of my counsel. They despised my every rebuke.
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Therefore, they shall eat the fruit of their own way, be filled to full with their own fancy. For the turning away of the simple will slay them.
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The complacency of fools will destroy them. Complacency. Presumption. This will be okay.
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This will be alright. This and no further. This is okay. The way I'm living, the things
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I'm doing, this is all good. We can turn back. We can dial down if and when needed.
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That's presumption. It's simple. It's sloth. It's presumption. These are the things that prevent us from having a separated testimony.
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And I pull these things quite literally from Pilgrim's Progress. Do you remember, after Christian has found relief at the cross and the burden falls off his back, he finds at the bottom and a little out of the way, that's what
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Bunyan says, three figures. I'll just read from Bunyan here. I saw that in my dream, and he went on thus, even until he came at a bottom, where he saw a little out of the way, three men fast asleep with fetters upon their heels.
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The name of one was Simple, another Sloth, the third Presumption, hence the application.
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Christian, then seeing them lie in this case, went to them. If peradventure he might awake them and cried,
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You are like them that sleep on the top of a mast, for the dead sea is under you, a gulf without bottom.
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Awake therefore, come away. Be willing also, I will help you. Off with your irons.
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If he that goes about like a roaring lion comes by, you will certainly be prey to his teeth. With that they looked upon him and began to reply in this manner.
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Simple said, I see no danger. Sloth said, just a little more sleep.
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Presumption said, every vat must stand upon its own bottom. In other words, to everyone his own.
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That's your opinion. That's your perspective. I didn't have your upbringing. I didn't come from your background.
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To each his own. This is okay. And so they all lay down to sleep again as Christian went on his way.
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Do you remember when we were working through Philippians and we read Basics for Believers by D .A.
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Carson? He had this marvelous sentence in there. Believers do not drift toward holiness.
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Believers do not drift toward holiness. If we're called to be separate, we must not be simple.
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We must not be slothful. We must not be presumptuous. We must understand that the point of God's word is to separate us so that by God's word we can have a testimony.
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How will you avoid compromise in living like the
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Egyptians as you're living in Egypt? The answer, pure and simple as we close, is you must separate and testify.
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Neither one nor the other, but both. You must separate in order to testify.
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Live as free men, but don't use your freedom as a cover -up for evil. Live as servants of God, showing proper respect to all.
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Love the brethren. Fear God. Honor the king. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word.
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We pray that you would show us as a church body how we ought to be separate in ways that we are not currently.
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How our testimony may be corrupted or even unstarted because of ways that we've failed to come out from this world.
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But as we seek to come out from the ways of this world, may we never lose your heart for this world.
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May we separate for the sake of your mission, of your desire. Help us, Lord, to understand in our own lives, in our own homes as families, what separation in testimony you have in store for us.
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What that will look like. Where we need to be repentant, Lord, as you convict us. Where we need to be stirred and motivated, especially as we join together in fellowship toward these very ends.
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We pray that in all these ways, you would continue to work out this unfolding act of salvation and redemption, even as we see so many thousands of years ago in Genesis 47.
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Give us the faith and discernment and wisdom of Joseph and Jacob and his brothers and our fathers in the faith.