The Rise of Judah

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Genesis 43.
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For several chapters we have been focusing on the life and the works of Joseph.
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Yet if you recall, early on in the Joseph narrative, I made the point that these chapters are not really about Joseph, even though he seems to be the one who is the focus.
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But actually there is one who is in the background.
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There is one who is really the key to the narrative.
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And it is not Joseph, but it is Judah.
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In fact, we are given a hint to this in Genesis 38, when after we have the beginning of the Joseph story, we have an entire chapter where Joseph is not even mentioned, but we go and we see Judah leaving his family, going off, spending time with the Canaanites and his friend Hira, and all of the events that happened with the birth of his three sons, the death of two of his sons, and then his incident with his daughter-in-law.
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This whole event which seems to come out of nowhere and seem to have no place, and yet as we have said, all of that is happening in the background of the Joseph narrative.
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And someone may wonder, well why in the world is that important? Well today we are going to begin to see the importance of this person, Judah.
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Because we are going to see him rise to the leader of the family.
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And that is why the title of today's sermon unintentionally looks like a movie title, The Rise of Judah.
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That's what we are going to look at today.
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Let us stand.
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We will read chapter 43.
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Now the famine was severe in the land, and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go again and buy us a little food.
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But Judah said to him, the man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.
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If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy food.
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But if you will not send him, we will not go down.
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For the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.
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Israel said, why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? They replied, the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? What we told him was an answer to these questions.
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Could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down? And Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you, and also our little ones.
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I will be a pledge of safety for him.
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From my hand you shall require him.
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If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.
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If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice.
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Then their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this, take some of your choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man, a little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds.
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Take double the money with you.
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Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks.
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Perhaps it was an oversight.
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Take also your brother and arise, go again to the man.
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May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin.
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And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
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So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them and Benjamin.
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They rose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.
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When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, bring the men into the house and slaughter an animal and make ready for the men are to dine with me at noon.
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The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph's house.
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And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house.
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And they said, it is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in so that he may assault us and fall upon us and make us servants and seize our donkeys.
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So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, Oh, my Lord, we came down the first time to buy food.
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And when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was each man's money in the mouth of the sack, our money in full weight.
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So we have brought it again with us.
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And we have brought other money down with us to buy food.
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We do not know who put money in our sacks.
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And he replied, Peace to you.
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Do not be afraid.
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Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you.
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I received your money.
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Then he brought Simeon out to them.
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And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there.
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When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed him, bowed down to him to the ground.
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And he inquired about their welfare and said, Is your father well? The old man of whom you spoke, is he still alive? They said, Your servant, our father, is well.
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He is still alive.
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And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.
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And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son.
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Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep.
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And he entered his chamber and wept there.
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Then he washed his face and came out.
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And controlling himself, he said, Serve the food.
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They served him by himself and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.
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And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth.
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And the men looked at one another in amazement.
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Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs.
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And they drank and were merry with him.
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Father in heaven, thank you again for your word.
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May we hear it now.
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May you write its eternal truths upon our heart.
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In Christ's name, amen.
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Last week at the end of the message, we had studied chapter 42, and if you remember, we didn't give a whole lot of attention to the last few verses of chapter 42.
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And that was intentional because in today's message, I want to show the connection between the end of chapter 42 and chapter 43.
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Because in the end of chapter 42, the brothers are back in Canaan.
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But they're minus one brother.
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They have come back and left Simeon in prison in Egypt.
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Joseph said, do not return unless you bring your youngest brother with you.
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And he kept Simeon as collateral.
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Now oftentimes I think there's great confusion about what Joseph is doing here.
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I think sometimes people think Joseph is being intentionally harsh with his brothers as a way to get back at them for the sins that they had committed against him.
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And as I mentioned last week, we would all understand that if that were the case.
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If this were just Joseph showing off his power and showing off his authority and punishing them for having punished him, that would make sense to all of us and we would all say, hey, an eye for an eye, that's what they deserve, no problem.
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But we have to read deeper than that.
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We have to look more closely at the motivations of Joseph because the motivation of Joseph does not seem to be to punish his brothers, but rather to bring his brothers to the end of themselves so that they will find at the end of themselves their need for repentance.
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Understand this.
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This is the way God often works with us.
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He will bring us to the end of ourselves so that we will find there not self-reliance, but reliance upon him.
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We will find in him our satisfaction rather than trying to find it in ourselves.
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So in a sense, these brothers are being tested by Joseph.
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They are being put through a test.
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And here's the test.
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Bring your younger brother back to me.
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You came without your younger brother, go get him and bring him back.
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Now you have to think, why would he want the younger brother brought back? Well a few reasons come to mind.
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Number one, this is his only full brother.
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This is the only brother who is the son of his mother.
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Rachel only had two children, Joseph and Benjamin.
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He wants to see his full brother, the brother whom he loves.
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But also, it is likely that he wants to ensure that his brother has not been mistreated by the other brothers because after Joseph was sold into slavery, his father was convinced that he had died.
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What happened to the father's favoritism? It transferred.
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It went from the son who was the favored son, who was Joseph, the oldest son of Rachel, and it transferred to the youngest son of Rachel, who was Benjamin.
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And so Joseph, knowing that, is saying, I want to see him for myself.
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I want him brought back here.
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I want to see if he has been mistreated.
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But also there is another test.
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Do you love Simeon enough to come back? Think about that.
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I'm keeping as collateral one of your brothers.
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You were willing to sell me and you were willing to put me into slavery.
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You were willing to see me be taken away.
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Are you going to be willing to let him stay in slavery as well? Are you going to allow him to stay in prison? Or are you going to come back for him? So the brothers go home.
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And the brothers say to their father, we have to return.
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We have to take Benjamin.
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We have to go so that we can get Simeon back.
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And Jacob is angry.
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Jacob at the end of chapter 42, he says, no.
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He says, you will not take my son back.
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And by the way, he pretty much says, you won't take my only son.
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But you got to think the other ones were like, what's the deal? But he talks to Benjamin as if he's the only son he has left.
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You're not going to take the only son I have left.
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And as I said earlier in the service, in chapter 42, verse 36, Jacob sort of laments.
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He says, all of this has come against me.
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All of this is, I'm being punished.
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I'm suffering.
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Everything in the world has just come against me.
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He's sort of that, oy vey, woe is me.
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I think about it this way.
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Jacob does not understand at this moment that God is orchestrating everything that's happening for his salvation.
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Because the purpose in all of this is to save them from the famine and to bring them together in Egypt.
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According to the scriptures, the Bible says God sent Joseph to orchestrate all of this to bring about their salvation.
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It says that in chapter 45.
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It says that in chapter 50.
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In chapter 50, at the end of all this, Joseph looks at his brothers.
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He says, what you did to me, you meant for evil, but God meant it for good to save many people alive.
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God has orchestrated this from the beginning.
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Jacob is the patriarch of the family.
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He should know God.
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He should know that God is working.
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But instead of saying God works all things together for the good of those who love him, he says, oh, woe is me.
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All is against me.
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Can any of us relate to that? We all say, we believe, Romans 8, 28.
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All things work together for good for those who love the Lord, until something bad happens.
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And then when something bad happens, we become like Jacob, the perpetual sad sack, who says, oh, woe is me.
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So one of the brothers tries to step up and be the hero.
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And his name was Reuben.
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Reuben was the leader by age.
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But he was not the leader by action.
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In fact, I want to point out something to you.
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Reuben has three major failures in the Bible that a lot of people don't even realize.
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They read through, they don't even realize the fact that Reuben, who is the firstborn son of Jacob, the firstborn son of Israel, has three major failures in his life, all of them demonstrating that he's no leader.
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The first one was when he slept with his father's concubine.
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See, the reason why he slept with his father's concubine, because that was a way of him trying to usurp his father's authority.
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He was trying to put him in the position of leader.
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It didn't work.
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He tried to get to the position of leader in an ungodly way and it didn't work.
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The second time we see him fail as a leader is when Joseph is in the pit and he says, I'm going to save him because I want to get some favor with my father.
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And he tries to save Joseph and he fails then too.
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He's unable to convince his brothers to turn the brother back over, but instead he gets sold into slavery.
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So we see him fail with his father's concubine.
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We see him fail to save Joseph from the pit.
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And now he goes before his father and he says, Father, let me take Benjamin back to Egypt.
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And I tell you what, if I don't bring him back, you can murder two of my sons.
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What a deal, right? I mean, what are you saying? Reuben is not the leader.
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Reuben is not the one called by God to lead.
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Reuben is not gifted to lead.
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Though he is in the place of the family position of leader, firstborn, he is not the one who is to lead.
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So, who would be next? Well, the next two in line are Simeon and Levi.
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And guess what? They ain't fit to lead neither.
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Simeon and Levi are violent men.
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Simeon and Levi found out their sister Dinah had been raped, and so what did they do? They convinced the people of the town to be circumcised just so that they would be weak enough to be able to commit mass genocide against the Shechemites.
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They murdered every man in the city and took all of the goods as plunder for the rape of their sister.
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I preached on that text, and we talked about the fact, hey, some of us, we understand, justice needed to be served, but at the same time, it was overwhelming in their violence, willing to kill every man in a city.
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The streets ran red with blood.
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And later, when Jacob is doling out the blessings at the end of their life, he's not going to fail to remind that these are violent men.
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These are men of violence.
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So, we come to son number four.
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And I have to say, there is a part of us that should say, it shouldn't be Judah either, because he's not a good guy either.
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Judah was the one who had the idea to sell Joseph into slavery in the first place.
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Hey, let's not kill him, let's sell him, then at least we'll go home with some silver in our pockets.
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Then, he leaves the family and he goes off into Canaan, he gets a best friend named Hira, and the two of them become all into revelry, doing all kinds of stuff, and one of the things that he does is he ends up sleeping with a woman that he thinks is a prostitute, it ends up being his own daughter-in-law, and he ends up siring two children through his daughter-in-law.
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So, right away, I want to be clear.
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Judah has his own issues.
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I'm not here today to sing the praises of Judah, yet.
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Because all of these men are sinners.
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All of these men are responsible.
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All of these men are broken before God.
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But what we are going to begin to see, is we are going to begin to see God working, particularly in the life of Judah.
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We're going to see part of it this week, and next week we're really going to see the shining moment in Judah's life, where he offers himself up as a substitute for his brother.
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Picture the Lord Jesus Christ, who offers himself as a substitute for us.
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Now, let's just quickly begin looking at the text.
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There's two parts to today's text, we'll bring it up on the screen.
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First, we have the debate with Jacob and Canaan, and then we have dining with Joseph in Egypt.
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So, we begin with the debate with Jacob and Canaan.
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It says, in verse 1, it says, Now, the famine was severe in the land, and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said, Go again, buy us a little food.
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Now, here's one thing we don't know.
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We have no idea how much time has passed.
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We know this, enough time has passed, that all the food they brought back with them is gone.
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So, Simeon has been languishing in that jail this whole time.
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In fact, if we get to chapter 45, we're going to see that this is two years after the start of the famine, which means it could be that it's been almost two years since they first went and came back.
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Who else spent two years in jail waiting for somebody to come get them out? Joseph.
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Remember, Joseph had interpreted the dream of the cupbearer, and he said, Remember me when you go back before the Pharaoh? And he went before the Pharaoh, and he forgot about him, and for two years he languished, and as I said, I remember in the sermon, I said he's probably, Joseph is probably looking like, Are they coming today? No, they're not coming today.
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He goes back the next day.
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Are they coming today? No, they're not coming.
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And Simeon's in that same state.
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He's in jail.
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He says, The brothers, are they coming? No.
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And here's the thing.
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Had there been enough food, they would have left him to die.
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The only reason they go back is because they're starving.
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They don't go back to retrieve him.
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They go back because they're hungry.
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So verse 3, it says, Judah said to him, The man solemnly warned us.
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Notice, they don't know it's Joseph.
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They don't know who this guy is.
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They just know he's the guy in charge.
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He's the man.
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Like we say, who's the man? Joseph is the man.
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The man solemnly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face again unless your brother is with you.
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And Israel begins this lament.
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Why did you tell him you had a brother? Why did you do this to me? Why did you even have to bring it up at all? And they're like, How are we supposed to know? He asked us if we were spies.
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And we said, We're not spies.
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We're the son of one man.
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We have children.
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And we have another brother.
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So Jacob is asking the question in verse 6, Why do you treat me so badly? And they're saying, We didn't do this on purpose.
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Verse 8, we see Judah stand up.
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Judah rises at this point and begins to show himself a leader.
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Now remember, he's a third son.
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Fourth son, sorry.
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Fourth son.
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But he begins to stand up and show himself a leader in the home.
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Send the boy with me.
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We will arise and go that we may live, both we and you and also our little ones.
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Notice what he's saying.
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If we don't go, we're all going to die.
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There's no food anywhere to get.
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We can't go to another country.
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There's nowhere to go.
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There's one place.
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God has ensured there's one place for us to get food.
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That's the only place we can go.
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And we're going to arise and go so that we will live and not die.
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Verse 9, And I will be...
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And here's a translational thing.
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In the ESV it says, I'll be a pledge.
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In the King James Version it says, I will be a surety.
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Honestly, what he's saying, he is saying, I will be a substitute.
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From my hand you shall require him.
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If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then I will bear the blame forever.
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So Judah is saying to his father, I am going to put myself in his place.
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Now here's the really powerful thing.
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Next week, that's going to happen.
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Because next week, Benjamin is going to be accused of being a thief.
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And when he's accused of being a thief, Judah steps in and says, Take me instead.
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So these are not just vain words.
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He is saying the truth.
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I will be his substitute.
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This is the guy who left his family.
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This is the guy who went into revelry.
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This is the guy who slept with his daughter-in-law.
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You might say he didn't know.
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No, he thought she was a prostitute.
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So don't try to clean it up.
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It was bad.
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This is that guy.
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And now he looks at his father.
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And he says, To save our people from death, I will be his substitute.
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I will be the guarantee.
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If he doesn't come back, you can blame me forever.
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There's a Jewish Christian commentator.
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He's got a place in Israel where he teaches.
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He's a Christian Jew, and he teaches in Hebrew to Messianic Jews.
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It's really neat to hear him teach because you can hear him teach in Hebrew.
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But he also does an English lesson that you can listen if you don't understand Hebrew, which I don't.
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So I have to listen to the English.
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And he makes a really neat point about this section.
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He said, If you think about it, Joseph is a picture of Christ.
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And Christ tells us there is only one way for deliverance, and that is through trust in him.
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And it's only those who come by that one way who will be delivered.
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There's no other way.
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There's a narrow road.
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There's a singular path.
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There's only one way of salvation.
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And he said, Think about it from this perspective.
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Judah is recognizing there's only one way to be delivered, and that's to go and do what that man said to do.
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We can't do it.
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We can't go to another country.
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We can't go without Benjamin.
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We can't expect anything else.
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There's only one way, and it's the way that man said.
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So that's the way we're going to do it.
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That's a powerful thought, just to think there's one way, and it's that way, the way that that man has commanded.
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And then I love verse 10.
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He says, If we had not delayed, we'd already be back twice.
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Now, I don't think that that's as sarcastic as it comes across in English, but it may have had some sarcasm in it.
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You know, Dad, if you'd already let me go do this, we could have already come back two times.
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We'd already made multiple trips if you'd have just let us do this.
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And that did make me think about something.
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I think about the fact that, you know, we are so good at putting off what God commands us to do and delaying our obedience to God.
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And the reality is we waste so many opportunities when we delay our obedience to the Lord.
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He said, If we would have gone, we could have already been there and back twice.
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But we've been sitting here in disobedience for this, however long it's been, two years maybe.
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We could have already been back twice.
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Verses 11 to 12.
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Jacob really becomes Jacob in this moment.
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And what I mean by that is Jacob says, Okay, okay, okay.
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If you're going to go, we're going to send a gift.
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And the reason why I say that is because you remember last time Jacob had a problem with someone.
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It was his brother Esau.
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And what did he do when he met his brother Esau? We're going to bring a gift.
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We're going to try to placate this man.
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So he does the same thing.
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He says, Okay, if you're going to go, you are going to go with a gift.
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And what's interesting is they're in a famine, but it's a gift of food.
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But none of it's staples, right? It's all like extra stuff.
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It's nuts.
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It's honey.
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It's stuff you can't live on that, right? That's the toppings.
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That's not the staples.
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We need grain.
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But we'll send him some toppings.
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We'll send him the best we got.
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And we'll send double the money.
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Because for some reason, you guys came back with the money.
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We have no idea why.
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You're going to go with double the money.
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You're going to go with this gift.
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And we see in verse 13 and 14, he says, Go take your brother.
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And he offers a prayer.
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Jacob, the patriarch, offers a very short and simple prayer.
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Something I need to learn how to do.
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He says simply this, May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man.
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May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man.
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And may he send back your other brother and Benjamin.
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But as for me, if I am to be bereaved, I am to be bereaved.
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He's trusting in the will of God.
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He's realizing that God is putting him in a place where he can't go left or right.
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He's only got one direction he can go.
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And that's the way that God wants him to go.
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And he's saying, you know what, if this is going to be the end, if this is the bereavement, if this is the last time I'm going to see Benjamin's face, if that's what it means to save this people, to save us, because if not, we're all going to die.
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I'm going to watch Benjamin starve unless I starve first.
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So if I'm to be bereaved, I'll be bereaved.
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So the brothers go.
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Judah is, by the way, Judah is able to do what Reuben couldn't.
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Reuben tried to convince his father to let him go, and his father said, No, I will never let him go with you.
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But Judah is able to do what his brother couldn't.
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And now the brothers are before Joseph in Egypt.
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It says in verse 15, So the men took this present.
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They took double the money and Benjamin.
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They arose and went down to Egypt.
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And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal, and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon.
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And the brothers are scared to death, y'all, because they don't expect to have dinner with this guy.
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The very best they can hope for is when they come into town with their brother, he looks and he goes, Okay, I guess you're not spies.
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Here's your brother back.
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Take some food and go.
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They do not expect that they're going to be put into his home and treated as a guest.
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And again, I'm not, I don't want to dive into the position of allegory.
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But if we think about it, again, Joseph is a picture of Christ.
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We have no right to sit at his table, and yet he welcomes us in.
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Even though, for all intents and purposes, we are his enemies.
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And Joseph welcomes them.
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And he says to his steward, Go slaughter an animal.
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Go make way.
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Go make the meal.
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We're going to eat together.
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The men were afraid.
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And this is what, I think this is funny.
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I don't know why, it just struck me as funny.
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Verse 18, it says, The men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house, and they said it is because of the money, because they think that he thinks they're thieves.
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It's because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that he's brought us in so that he may assault us, he may fall upon us, he may make us servants, and he may steal our donkeys.
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I don't get that last sentence.
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It's like everything else, like he's going to assault us, he's going to put us into slavery.
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Oh, and we're going to lose our donkeys.
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I get it in a sense.
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This is their, this is a, speaking of their, what they own.
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He's going to take everything we have, basically.
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Even our donkeys.
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But it's just so funny that that's what they mention.
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He's going to enslave us.
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He's going to beat us.
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And he's going to steal my donkey.
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So they go into the steward of Joseph, and this steward is awesome.
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I wish I had a, I guess I could, but I'm not going to do it.
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But a whole sermon on this guy.
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Because this guy is like an anomaly.
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It says the steward of Joseph's house went and spoke with him at the door of the house, and spoke with the brothers, and they said, you know, oh Lord, we came down the first time to buy food, and when we got on the way back, we found out the money was still in our sacks.
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And this guy, he says in verse 23, he says, hey listen, peace be to you.
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The translation of that, by the way, in Hebrew is shalom.
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Now I don't know if he said shalom, but wouldn't that have been cool if he did? Because, I mean, he lives in whose house? He lives in Joseph's house.
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You think he's heard about the God of Scripture? You think he's heard of the true God? You know who did hear of the true God? Pharaoh.
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Joseph was brought before Pharaoh, and he wasn't afraid to tell Pharaoh about the one true and living God who was able to interpret dreams.
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You think he was afraid to tell his steward about the one true and living God? No.
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So there's a good chance this man has heard of the living God.
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There's a good chance this man knows the living God, because the very next thing he says, he says, your God, the God of your father, has put the treasure in your sacks.
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He speaks of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as if he knows the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
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At least he knows of that God.
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It's an amazing reality.
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And then he brings Simeon out to them.
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And they go into the house.
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He gives them water to wash their feet.
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And they prepare for Joseph's coming.
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Joseph comes.
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They bow down to him.
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And by the way, this, I said last week, we saw a fulfillment of the dream.
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We didn't see a full fulfillment.
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We saw a partial fulfillment.
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Because last week, there were only ten brothers who bowed down to Joseph.
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But the dream said there were going to be eleven sheafs that bowed down to one sheaf.
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There were eleven stars that bowed down.
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Right? And by the way, later his father will even come before him.
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And we will see the fulfillment, the full fulfillment of the second dream.
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But for now, we're seeing this dream be fulfilled.
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These brothers come in.
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Joseph is there.
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He comes in.
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They bow before him.
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We see the fulfillment of Joseph's dream.
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And he begins to talk to them.
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Is your father doing well? Is your father still alive? That old man you told me about, is he still alive? Again, remember, he knows who he is.
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They don't know who he is.
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Why is this guy asking about our dad? Why does he care? And he said, is this the youngest brother of whom you spoke? And then he says this strange little phrase, God be gracious to you, my son.
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He speaks to Benjamin differently than he spoke to them.
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Remember how he spoke to them? You are spies.
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Not you, but you.
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He gets right down.
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You're spies.
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But when Benjamin comes in the room, he doesn't make any accusations.
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But instead he says, God be gracious to you.
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And he speaks to him in a loving way.
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You've got to think, the other brothers, they're still face down by the way.
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If you read the narrative, they're prostrate.
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That means face on the ground.
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And he walks over to Benjamin, and he says, God be gracious to you.
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And the word here is Elohim.
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It's the generic term for God, but it would still be the word for God.
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God be gracious to you, my son.
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You've got to think, the brothers are like, what's going on? Why does he care? Why does he care about our father's well-being? Why does he care about our youngest brother? Nobody at this point has said, I bet that's Joseph.
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They're not there yet.
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They have no idea what's going on.
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And Joseph runs out of the room, and he cries.
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And the text tells us, we don't have to wonder why he cried.
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It says in verse 30, it says, Joseph hurried out for his compassion, grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep.
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Now remember, this is the second weeping of Joseph.
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There's going to be three.
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And I don't make a big deal out of this, but some people, oh, man never cries.
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Listen, when God breaks our heart, or God moves our heart, and we shed a tear, that is not emasculating.
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We are not called to be stoics who never show an emotion.
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Sometimes people say, oh, Pastor Keith, you get so emotional when you preach.
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You better believe it, because I'm preaching the word of the living God.
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This is the most important thing in the whole world, is what we're doing right now.
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If this can't stir the emotions, if this can't stir the heart, I don't understand.
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And if you don't like me doing it, wait until Brother Andy preaches.
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He really gets into it.
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He loves to preach the word.
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Brother Mike, we loved to preach just a few weeks ago.
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Brother Mike shed a tear in the pulpit.
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And, man, my wife and I talked about it on the way home.
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As beautiful as that is, it's not a shame to shed a tear.
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And Joseph goes away by himself, because he's not ready to reveal himself yet, but his emotions almost spill the beans.
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So he divorces himself from the situation.
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He goes off into his anteroom, and he's able to clean himself up before he goes back out.
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And he goes back out, washed and cleaned, and they sit down to eat.
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Now, verse 32 talks about a customary distinction.
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It says that they serve Joseph by himself, probably because he's in a position of leadership.
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He probably has his own table, his own entourage.
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And then they seat the Egyptians separate from the Hebrews.
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Some people say it's because the Egyptians and the Hebrews ate differently.
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They said the Egyptians used seats and Hebrews reclined when they ate.
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I don't think that's the reason, because I don't think the Egyptians would have set up a special reclining place for them.
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I don't think that's it.
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I think the reason here is that the Egyptians saw themselves socially above the Hebrews.
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We see this later when Joseph introduces his brother to Pharaoh.
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He talks to him, and he talks to him and says, listen, they don't really like shepherds around here.
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That's a lower class.
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That's a lower status.
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So there's a status distinction, and there's a religious distinction.
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The Egyptians saw the worship of the Hebrews as an abomination.
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I'll give you a Bible verse for that.
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You don't have to turn there, but Exodus 8, verse 26, when Moses is speaking to the Israelites, he says it would not be right for us to do so for the offerings we sacrifice to the Lord our God are an abomination to the Egyptians.
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So the Egyptians saw the Hebrew worship as an abomination.
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So there is a separation, a distinction between the Egyptians, between Joseph, and between these brothers.
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In verse 33, and they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, the youngest according to his youth, and the men looked at one another in amazement.
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Why are they amazed? How does he know who's the oldest? How does he know who's the second in line, third in line, fourth in line? There's 11 of us and we've been sat in order.
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How does he know? Why does he care? All of this has brought absolute befuddlement and confusion.
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In verse 34, last verse, it says, portions were taken to them from Joseph's table.
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Joseph's table, food was taken, and it was taken to their table, feeding them from the master's table.
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Again, an interesting picture.
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But, Benjamin was given five times as much.
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Now, I put a lot of thought into that, maybe too much, because I got to thinking, ain't no way he can eat five times as much, especially since he's the youngest, but it's a picture here.
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It's a picture of Joseph's favor.
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He's already said, God bless you, my son.
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He's showing him favor, but he's also offering an opportunity for another test.
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Remember the first test.
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Will you go and bring him back? Will you come back to retrieve Simeon? That was the first test.
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Here's the next test.
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Will you see my brother receive favor and hate him like you hated me? Remember, Joseph received favor.
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He received his father's ornamental garment.
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He received a position in the house and his brothers hated him.
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So, Joseph hands to the youngest brother five times the amount.
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Will you hate him like you hated me? But there's no indication of that.
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In fact, the text ends, this chapter ends in a weird spot.
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Part of me really, really wanted to go to chapter 44, but we're not.
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We're going to end right here.
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It says they drank and they were merry with him.
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Literally, they got a little drunk.
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In fact, I'll quote Bruce Waltke.
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It says they drank and got drunk.
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As noted, what does it say? As W.
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Brown argues, it means they drank and became fully fooled, fully content.
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So, they had a meal with Joseph.
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They filled themselves with food and with the wine.
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They drank, ate and were merry.
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And you would think this would be the part where Joseph would then say, guys, it's me.
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Because this is the high note.
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We're eating, we're drinking, we're merry.
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This is the part that we would think this is the part where the story should end.
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I take off my mask.
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I show who I am.
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Everybody hugs it out and we're good.
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But there is still an issue.
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They still don't know who he is and moreover, they have still not come to the end of themselves.
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And I want to say this.
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This almost was the title of the sermon, but I changed it.
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What they are doing at this moment is feasting without reconciliation.
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They're sitting at his table, but they are not reconciled to him.
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What they have right at this moment is a false security.
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Because the next day, when they go to leave, they're going to be on their way home and they're going to look behind them and they're going to see dust kicking up in the distance.
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And they're going to say, what is that? And as that dust gets closer and closer, they're going to realize they're being tracked down by the servants of that man.
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And he's going to come and he's going to say, one of you is a thief! And they're going to again cry out, we are not thieves! We are honest men! And as their sacks are sought, they will find that silver chalice and it will be in the bag of Benjamin.
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And they will find themselves at the end of themselves.
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This dinner is not the high note we think it is.
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Because they are feasting without reconciliation.
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The story is not over.
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And as I wrote that, I couldn't help but to think how every single week people do that in church.
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They feast without reconciliation.
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They come to the table of the Lord, but they're not truly reconciled to God.
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They come to the house of God, but they are not truly part of His family.
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They enjoy the fellowship of the church, but they have not been made right with the Holy God.
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There are so many people in this world who have a false security.
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They go to church, they eat the bread, they drink the cup, but they do not know the Lord.
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They have not repented and they have not come to the end of themselves and sought the Lord for salvation.
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I did it for years.
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I was saved when I was 19, but I began eating this table when I was 9 years old.
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I received the sign of baptism, though I was not saved.
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And I began to eat this bread and drink this cup in an unworthy manner and I did so for 10 years.
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And we do it every week.
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By God's grace, I didn't die the very moment it went in my mouth because I was eating unreconciled.
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And I think about that.
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I think about just the weight that we hand you every week.
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Some churches do it every month.
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Some churches do it every three months.
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Some churches do it every year.
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Some churches don't remember the last time they did it.
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But we place this before you every week and we say, be reconciled to God.
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And if you're not, do not put this in your mouth.
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Beloved, are you reconciled to God today? Do you know that by your recognition of your sin, that you have repented and trusted in the finished work of Christ, that you are not trusting in yourself, but you are trusting in what He has done for you? That's what it means to be saved.
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You've stopped trusting in yourself.
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You've stopped trusting in your goodness.
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Here's the thing.
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When it says examine ourselves, it doesn't mean examine how good you are because you ain't ever going to be good enough.
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It's saying, are you trusting in Christ? Because if you're trusting in your goodness, you're going to be disappointed on judgment day.
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Trust in the righteousness of Christ and be reconciled to God.
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And if you're not, when you see this cup and this plate pass by, don't you touch it, but ask yourself why.
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Why am I unreconciled with my God? Father, I thank You.
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I thank You that we can be reconciled to God through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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But Lord, I know that there are so many who live with false security, just like I did for 10 years, not realizing I was still in my sin and still desperate for a Savior.
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I pray, O God, that there are men and women in this room, boys and girls, young or old, Lord, that they would recognize their need for a Savior, that they would call out in repentance, that they would receive the gift of reconciliation.
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And Lord, desire to follow after Christ in baptism and receive of His table and be fed from His table.
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As the brothers were fed from Joseph's table, let us now be fed from Yours.
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In Jesus' name.