Genesis 42 Famine and the Family

Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Mattawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service. This message is by Lead Pastor Don Filsack and is a part of the series Beginning with God, Walking Through the Book of Genesis.

If you would like to contact us, please visit us on the web at recastchurch .com. Here's Pastor Don.

Worship, the Word, and the Big Story of Genesis

Well, good morning, Recast Church. Welcome. I'm glad that you've gathered together on this amazing morning to worship God. I hope that's been your intention in your heart, not just to check a box, yes, I attended church this week, but that it's got something to do with your relationship with God.

I'm guessing it does on a Sunday morning like this, where you could be outside doing all different kinds of things. I'm glad that you have seen fit to gather together to worship Him. I'm Don Filsack. I'm the Lead Pastor here, and I am very glad that you have chosen to come here this morning.

And be sure to fill out the connection card that you received when you walked in. I recognize that some of you, this might be your first time here, and if you're willing to share your email address with us and turn that in in the black box on that connection card, then we'd ask that you please also take one of those free coffee mugs back there, just our way of saying thank you.

We recognize that it can be a little bit dicey to come and check out a new church for the first time, and so we're grateful for you taking the time to come out and join and check things out here at Recast Church.

Also, any offerings that you would choose to give, go in the black box back there. An envelope has been provided. We don't pass an offering plate here. We want it to be between you and God if you choose to give.

And so the envelope is there, but there's a place to recycle that right next to the black box. If you're not going to be using that envelope this morning, then we can just recycle that and use it again next week.

And we have been very blessed that God has just continued to provide for this ministry from day one, over and above what our monthly need is, just through that little box back there. So we are just very grateful for the generous gifts that have kept this ministry going.

And then remember that anything that's marked expansion fund, whether that's in the memo line or on the actual envelope, the giving envelope, will go towards our eventual goal of building a building on the property that we've already purchased on East McGillan.

So we have a fund that is rolling over with savings there towards eventually building a building, and we're grateful for God providing that as well. Shifting gears to kind of head into the text, and as most of you that attend here know, I like to introduce the text before we come to a set of worship, and part of the intention might be a little bit mysterious.

Like a lot of people, I've actually heard people say recently, okay, you get up and you talk, and it's like I feel like I've got all kinds of things spinning through my mind, and maybe we should sing a couple of songs first, and then jump into the text and read that, so that I get a little bit of time to process.

And I just want to point out, it's kind of like a cart and the horse kind of thing, in the sense of I want to make sure that our worship, the songs that we sing, are actually informed so that our worship is flowing out of the knowledge of who God is.

And I think sometimes people see singing songs as preparation from hearing from the word, and I would suggest that it kind of cuts the other direction, that hearing from God's word prepares us for worship, because how do you worship that which you do not know?

And so we come to the word to say, who is he? And then in knowing who he is, we can exalt and rejoice in that. And so that's part of the motivation in this. And so I'm going to introduce the message in Genesis 42, and I want to start off just by saying Recast Church was started as a church that's seeking to find more worshippers for God.

That's actually our purpose statement. Not many people know that that's our purpose statement, but it's seeking more worshippers for our God, and that's what we're about, that's what we exist to do. It is our belief that God has a big story that he is working out through human history, and Recast is a part of that story.

It's certainly a fraction if you think about all the centuries and a couple millennia of church history. We have a small fragment of that, and then you go all the way back into the Old Testament history, and now you're talking millennia upon millennia of Old Testament history that God was working out his plan, and so there's this big scope, big picture of what God is doing.

And to make sense of some of the things that we see in the Old Testament as we've been going through the book of Genesis, we sometimes need to back up a step or two and take a broader look at history so that we take in, and it's not just the Old Testament, but any portion of scripture that we're reading to put it in its context of the overall flow of what God is doing historically down through his plan, ultimately leading to the return of Jesus Christ.

So as we march through the book of Genesis, so far we've seen the creation of the universe there in those first couple of chapters. We saw the origin of sin through Adam and Eve that broke the relationship between humanity and God.

And from that original sin up to our current point in history, where we live here today, where I'm standing in Matawan, Michigan, every person down through the ages has been born with a natural bent towards rebellion against God.

As cute as those little babies are, they have a natural inclination. I heard somebody else preaching recently just saying, all of us are like the seagulls in Finding Nemo. Our natural tendency is to shout, mine, mine, mine, mine.

And we don't have to train our kids. I mean, how many of you trained your kids to say mine? You trained them. You were intentionally getting them at a young age to be self-centered and focused on their own needs.

And none of us did that, right? But it's our natural bent and tendency to focus on ourself. Every human has been born with a do-it-my-way attitude. But one of these do-it-my-way guys in history was singled out by God.

In the book of Genesis, he was called to follow God, to leave his pagan, idol-worshiping family and move to Canaan. A step of faith to actually go and act out something in demonstrating that his belief and trust was placed in God.

And this man was none other than Abraham, the ancient father of the Jewish race, the ancient father of the Jewish religion. And we learned a lot about Abraham and his family through several chapters in the book of Genesis.

But the most important thing about Abraham was not what he did, according to the text, but it was all coming down to a promise that he received and believed, a promise that was given by the Almighty. God promised Abraham to make him a great nation, to make a great nation from his offspring.

He promised to give Abraham's offspring, their descendants, a great land. And last and most importantly, he promised to send one through the line of Abraham, a descendant of Abraham, to be the ultimate blessing to all peoples of all time and all nations on the face of the planet.

And we know his name to be Jesus Christ. But that promise was then passed down from generation to generation. From Abraham, it went to Isaac. From Isaac to Jacob. And from Jacob, we're gonna see it go to Judah in just a few chapters in Genesis.

But the very plan of God then, at the point in history where we're looking in Genesis 42, has been tied to this dysfunctional, jacked up family. And we've been hearing story after story after story through the book of Genesis, explaining and expressing to us in very clear terms how utterly messed up this family that God chose really is.

They behave very poorly in the book of Genesis. Are you guys with me on that? Have you been tracking, have you been following these sermons, have you been listening in? If you've been listening in, you've been seeing the heirs of Judah, the brothers of Joseph betraying him and selling him into slavery.

We've been seeing mess after mess. And so I set all of this stage just to remind us that the promise of God hinges on the survival of these people. He has made a promise to them to carry his plan forward through these messed up people.

We know the story has shifted to primarily focus on Joseph here at the very end of the book of Genesis. And we know from last week that a massive famine is about to strike the whole world in the text.

And the promise of God requires that his people make it through this famine alive. And God is going to do some radical things, some out of the ordinary things, in order to accomplish his purpose to make sure his promise is fulfilled on planet earth.

And so I want you to open your Bibles, if you haven't already, to Genesis 42. You can open up your app and navigate there. Or if you don't own a copy of the Bible, there are Bibles available. If you just raise your hand, if you don't have one in front of you, it's beneficial to have a Bible open in front of you so you can just follow along.

And Mark has some, there's some back there on the table. And if you don't own a copy of the Word of God, and you don't have a phone that you can download an app for it or whatever, just take one of those Bibles.

We want everybody to have a copy of the Word of God available to them. But follow along as we read Genesis 42, the very words of God to us here this morning, Recast Church. Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt.

He said to his sons, why do you look at one another? And he said, behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die. So ten of Joseph's sons went down to buy grain in Egypt.

But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers, for he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them.

Where do you come from, he said. They said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.

And he said to them, you are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. They said to him, no, my lord. Your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man. We are honest men.

Your servants have never been spies. He said to them, no, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see. And they said, we, your servants, are 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan.

And behold, the youngest is this day with our father and one is no more. But Joseph said to them, it is as I said to you. You are spies. By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.

Send one of you and let him bring your brother while you remain confined that your words may be tested whether there is truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And he put them all together in custody for three days.

On the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you will live for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households and bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die.

And they did so. Then they said to one another, in truth we are guilty concerning our brother and that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.

And Reuben answered them, did I not tell you not to sin against the boy but you did not listen? So now there comes a reckoning for his blood. They did not know that Joseph understood them for there was an interpreter between them.

Then he turned away from them and wept and he returned to them and spoke to them and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to replace every man's money in his sack and to give them provisions for the journey.

This was done for them. Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack.

He said to his brothers, My money has been put back. Here it is in the mouth of my sack. At this their hearts failed them and they turned trembling to one another saying, What is this that God has done to us?

When they came to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them saying, The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. But we said to him, We are honest men.

We have never been spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father. One is no more and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the lord of the land, said to us, By this I shall know that you are honest men.

Leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households.

And go your way.

Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men and I will deliver your brother to you and you shall trade in the land. As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack.

And when they and their father saw the bundles of money,.

They were afraid.

And Jacob their father said to them, You have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more and now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me. Then Reuben said to his father, Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you.

Put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you. But he said, My son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.

Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt for Grain

Let's pray. Father, I'm grateful for your presence here with us for the power of your spirit to convict and to change and to transform and to convict us of where we are wrong and ultimately through your word to show us what is true of you.

And Father, I pray that as we have an opportunity to worship you now, to stand and sing praises before you that you would move in our hearts. Father, I recognize that even now it is hot in here and I don't know if it's just me up here, but Father, there's so many distractions that could war with us this morning and could try to draw us away and draw our attention away from who you are.

So Father, I pray that we would be able to focus on you and see who you are. Father, it's a tendency in our minds and in our hearts to invent a God who is much like us. And I pray that we would see you majestic, glorious, full of grace indeed, but also full of justice and truth.

And it's in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, that I pray.

Amen. Amen.

Thanks a lot to the band for leading us in worship this morning. I encourage you again to have your Bibles open in front of you to Genesis chapter 42. I think it's beneficial for you to have a Bible open to that text so that you can kind of see as I walk through that I'm actually...

You ought to be testing me, by the way. I am not infallible. I can make mistakes. And so knowing and actually seeing the text and wrestling with that for yourself as part of this whole process would encourage you to get as comfortable as possible.

Remember if you need to get up and stretch out in the back at any time or get more coffee, probably not likely as warm as it is, but maybe some more juice or even just get a drink of water. And just for your information, the restrooms are out the door to the end of the hallway.

Men's downstairs. Men's upstairs. Women's downstairs. Get that right one of these days. And you'll see the sign, hopefully. But just, again, whatever it takes to keep your focus on the Word of God as we dive in here.

Last week we saw Joseph re-power. Many of us know the story. It seems to be a pretty culturally understood story. I still think that a lot of people who were not raised in church would still have some notion of Joseph.

There have been some big time musicals that have been produced on the life of Joseph and things like that. So I think there might be some working knowledge out there of who he is. We saw him raised to second in command over all of Egypt last week.

This amazing turn of events. And one morning before lunch, he went from prison to the Grand Vizier over all of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. Joseph, remember, this is Joseph who had been deceptively sold into slavery by his brothers.

Joseph who had been falsely accused of attempted rape. Joseph who had been imprisoned. But the text has been abundantly clear over and over again stating that God was with Joseph. God interpreted dreams through Joseph.

And by the end of our text last week, it was obvious that God was going to be using the plans of Joseph in Egypt to save Egypt and virtually the entire world from a devastating famine that was going to strike the Middle East.

Our text starts out right away with Jacob sitting back watching the tube and a commercial for grain sales in Egypt comes on. Now, it doesn't literally say he was watching TV, but he finds out that they're selling grain down in Egypt, okay, and it's on sale.

And as the patriarch of the family, he obviously still holds a level of authority in his family, even over his married sons. Now, most of his sons by this point in history are already married. We saw Judah was already married and had children, and that was earlier in the text.

So he commands them to go down to Egypt and buy grain, and lo and behold, they go down to Egypt and buy grain. They obey their father. Now, his statement in verse 1 is intentionally funny in Hebrew. Stop standing around just looking at each other.

Like the images of these sons who have no food, they have no means, they have no seeds to plant, and they're just kind of standing there like kind of slack-jawed with a little drool coming out of their corner of their mouth.

Are you going to do something? Are you going to do something? And he said, stop looking at each other and get your rear ends in gear, get down to Egypt and get us some food, okay? There's grain for sale down there.

But at the end of verse 2, we see that this isn't all just humorous. It's not all just funny, but there's actual danger involved in this. The family of God is at this point in history at risk of dying by starvation.

This famine is not just some minor thing, some small, localized, you know, the grocery store ran out of food and they've got to get to the next town or something. If they want to live, if God's promises are going to be fulfilled in His people, and God is going to be proven to not be a liar, then they need grain from Egypt in order to survive.

So his 10 sons head off to Egypt without the 11th. And obviously the 12th is in Egypt, and we know some things as the narrator has informed us. We know that Joseph is indeed still alive, but you've got to remember that his brothers and his dad at this point believe him gone, dead to them.

But the 11th son, the youngest, Benjamin, is left at home because Benjamin was too precious to be risked. There are indications in this text and all throughout, really, Genesis that the family of God struggles with a primary sin of favoritism.

This is an issue in the life of these people, favoritism. He has lost his favorite son, Joseph, Jacob has, who was born to his favorite wife, Rachel. And he doesn't plan to lose his second favorite son who was also born to his favorite wife, Rachel, and that is the youngest, Benjamin.

Imagine what this communicates to the 10 sons that he sends to Egypt. You guys go, but Benjamin's too precious to send. I can't let go of him. I'm afraid something bad might happen to him. What does that communicate to them?

They're expendable to Dad, right? Who really cares? Does anybody care about us? What about us? And by the way, in case you think I'm being harsh or too hard on Jacob, by the end of the text, the favoritism is going to be explicit.

Right here it's implied, but by the end of this text, he's going to outright declare, I have no other son but Benjamin. He's that harsh in his favoritism. And by the way, as I go through this, feel free to write down notes.

Feel free to take some of these things on for yourself, even if I'm not applying it. Be listening for the Spirit's voice in your life about how you are treating your family, how you are treating siblings, how you are treating your children, those of you with children.

And think about how there are ways that we, unintentionally even at times, communicate favoritism. Now, what is completely impossible, and I've mentioned this before, is the notion that we're going to be completely equal with every single one of our kids.

But being a student of your child and understanding how God has made them, what they are wired... Different kids need different things. Those of you who are parents, raise your hand if you've identified that.

And being fair doesn't always mean that every kid gets exactly the same thing, but it means that they have their emotional needs met in your household. And so thinking that through, it's very clear that this is a messed up family.

But the sons of Israel show up among the rest of the nations. Their title has changed from verse 1 now down to verse 5, and they are called the sons of Israel. And they are there looking for famine relief down in Egypt.

Nothing is mentioned about their trip. We don't really know what that looked like. It was probably about a week, a week-long journey to get over to Egypt from where they were at in Canaan. But we know that the author wants to highlight to us that these guys actually represent a nation.

They show up among the nations. And they are not just Jacob's sons like they were in verse 1, but in verse 5 they are the sons of Israel going to get grain to save their people. There's significance in the title shift that we see in the text.

So Joseph's brothers enter into his presence to buy grain. There's going to be all kinds of irony in this text. This is a very well-written text with all kinds of twists and turns, and some of the statements that have a double meaning in them are pretty significant.

Remember that he's in charge of the grain distribution in all of Egypt. As a matter of fact, in verse 6 he's given two different titles. One is governor, and many have actually translated that vizier.

If you understand exactly what the structure of Egypt's Egyptian dynasty was like, that would be the title that this governor could be translated that. But he's given another title that's significant.

And you might not see it as a title when you first read verse 6, but he is called the one who sold. Now would that be significant during a time of famine? The one who sold grain? How many of you think that that elevates him on the face of the planet at this time?

He is the one who sells grain. Now think about what that implies as far as the power and authority that Joseph possesses during this era. The one that Joseph wants to die during this famine will die. Are you hearing what I'm saying?

He has that kind of authority. The one that Joseph wants to suffer during this famine will suffer. The one he wants to bless will be blessed. The one he wants to have food will have food. The one he doesn't want to have food will not have food.

Full stop. Are you getting what I'm saying in this? He has authority to raise up nations or to deny them, and now his brothers are coming into his presence. How many of you might, if you just thought of this in terms of a Hollywood movie, you might see this ending differently?

Those of you who know how the story is going to end, how many of you might expect that maybe his sons don't make it through this, I mean his brothers don't make it through this scenario? How have they treated him?

These are the ones who threw him in a pit, beat him, threw him in a pit, and sold him into slavery. And now they come groveling before him at a time where he has absolute authority. Their life is in his hands.

What you know of human nature, can you imagine an outcome that might not result well for these brothers? So he has a significant level of authority at this time, and it's important for us to understand that what he has, what his responsibility is in this responsibility of selling grain, he has the ability to say no to them.

Ten of his eleven brothers come into his presence, and immediately they bow in his presence. Now at first glance you might think this is a fulfillment of the dream that he had. Are you recalling at this time when you see ten of his brothers bowing before him Imagine that he had these dreams, literal dreams, not like a passion or a drive or a vision that his brothers would bow before him.

How many of you know that that's probably not a great dream, a great Martin Luther King Jr. kind of, I have a dream that my brothers are going to bow down before me. That's not good, right? That's not a good dream.

But this is an actual fell asleep one night, woke up in the morning, remember this thing that was given to him in the night. So he had that dream, and at first glance you might go, this is a fulfillment of that dream, but not quite.

How many of his brothers are bowing before him? And then how many in his dream? Ten are there now, but how many were in his dream bowing before him? Eleven. All eleven of his brothers bowing before him along with his parents.

He had had that dream, but it has not, this is a partial fulfillment of that. But as he counts, he only sees ten. Ten bowing in his presence. This is one of the best written pieces of irony in all of Scripture.

He recognizes them, but they certainly don't recognize him. I mean, consider the fact that he's been all Egyptian'd up. Okay, so I mean, he's bald, he has no hair, he has no eyebrows, he has no hair on his neck, nothing.

I mean, on his arms he's been completely removed of all hair, probably shirtless from the, he has no shirt on, and then he's wearing the linens and the gold chains around his neck from the Egyptian authority that has been given to him.

And so, he probably doesn't look a lot like the last time his brothers saw him. Not only that, but twenty years have gone by since the last time that they saw him. And then context might not necessarily click in their minds.

They, by the way, didn't know where he ended up. I mean, think about it, they left him way up in the north of Israel with a bunch of Bedouins, Ishmaelites, who were traveling west. They didn't know where he was going to eventually end up as a slave.

So, they have no reason to anticipate that Joseph is now a ruler in Egypt. Many people are really quick to dismiss Joseph's harsh treatment of his brothers. I think that a lot of Sunday school teachers and in Sunday school programs and stuff, it's very quick to go, oh, well, you know, he's kind of, he's just testing them.

He's just, he's just trying to figure out whether they've changed their attitudes or not. And again, I think so many people want to airbrush their spiritual heroes. They want to airbrush the people in the pages of Scripture to remove all of their blemishes and their problems because in our heart we want to believe that there is a person who is upright and good.

And there is one. His name is Jesus Christ. But aside from him, none of these people in Scripture are without their fault. None of them are made out of different stuff than you or I. And I believe he proves that here.

Remember that we are reading a text that shares with us the story of David and Goliath alongside of the story of David and Bathsheba. And I don't think that that, it shows us that the text is not going to shy away from a mildly vindictive brother who has come into power.

And that's what we've got going on here. How many of you think you might be moved to a smidgen of get back at them in this scenario? Raise your hand if you just think you could see that little bit of streak in your heart.

A lot of us are being honest right now and some of us are kind of just not engaged. Some of us are, you know, dealing with the heat and all that. But I think all of us, we recognize that we might be tempted if somebody stole 13 years of our lives to be moved to some level of I've got authority over them now.

I've been placed in power. They don't even know who I am. But boy, can I stick it to them. And I think there's some of that that's going on here. He definitely plays a game with them. He speaks, according to the text, he speaks roughly with them.

He is not kind to them. I do believe that Joseph is actually wise in the things that he says. He's measured in and working through something. And he has purpose. Like in verse 7, he asks a question. He asks it roughly.

He asks it sternly. But he verifies that they are indeed from Canaan. He's got purpose here in that he wants to make sure he's got the right people. But in the end, he definitely plays a game with them.

He toys with them, which I believe is an abuse of his power. Even though, in part, what we see him do is an attempt to see if they have changed their ways at all. I think that part of this is an intentional test.

Part of this is a desire for him to see. Have they moved on from their ways from the time that they left him for dead in a pit? Or were going to leave him for dead in a pit and then eventually sold him into slavery?

So he speaks roughly to them. He is very aggressive towards them. He does, however, have an intention of testing them in this. But that doesn't mean that everything he does in this text is permissible.

That it's advisable. That it's good. He starts right away accusing them of being spies. Egypt is a nation with grain during this era. How many of you think there might be some threat of people breaking into their granaries and stealing stuff?

I would imagine that they're on code red alert for invasion during this era. In a famine, people would readily kill for food. And so he accuses them of looking for weaknesses in Egypt in order to attack and come and take grain.

And he is persistent in his accusations. Does he know who they are? Did the text already tell us he knows who they are? Does he really, genuinely believe that they are spies?

No.

But he's aggressively accusing them. And they, surprisingly, for once, they tell the truth. I think it's funny because in the text, even in the Hebrew language, there's indications that they're flummoxed and flustered.

And in the words, the words just come out like a fire hose. They're two different types of people, really. Some people, when they get nervous, they talk too much. Some people, when they get nervous, they shut down.

And we have a pretty good indication of what Joseph's brothers are like. When they get pressured, they talk a lot and they share all. They're in Egypt for food. They're honest men. They've never been spies.

They are twelve brothers, but one is still home and one is no more. And they're just, no, no, you have to believe us. You have to believe us. We're not here to spy. In the middle of the self-defense, ironically, they refer to Joseph as Lord, which I imagine might have been a little enjoyable to Joseph, to have his brothers there calling him Master, calling him Lord.

But also in the middle of this defense, a couple of things stand out. Possibly the most ironic statement is that these guys actually outright say, We are honest men. We are honest men. Do you hear the irony?

Do you hear how saturated that is with irony on the part of the narrator who has already informed us how dishonest these guys are? They are declaring before the only person who can independently verify that they are fake.

They have been living a lie for thirteen years, and they declare to him, We are honest men. And he's the only one on planet Earth who can utterly vouch for their complete depravity. Who can say, No, you are liars to the core.

You are anything but honest men. Joseph's brothers lie about their honesty. Do you hear something of the human heart in an individual who can lie about their honesty? And in this statement, we are honest men, we see a picture of the nature of our own hearts.