Possession and Servitude

Seven together, Joseph has settled the entire household of

Israel in the land of Goshen, and last week we saw how God had been moving in

Jacob's life, bringing his faith once more to the forefront.

He had been a man who was so fearful of the outcome of his sons taking these

journeys back and forth to Egypt.

Apparently every time they came, they were always bearers of bad news, as always one of their brothers

was missing.

We saw that in God's good providence when the good news of Joseph's exaltation reached the ears

of Jacob, how his heart, indeed his faith, revived in the purpose and providence of God.

He traveled down toward Egypt, worshiping and sacrificing at Beersheba along the way,

dedicating himself to the purposes and the providence of God.

And then in Egypt, how he stood before Pharaoh, and though that would have been an impressive sight, it did not

take Jacob's breath away.

He seemed singularly unimpressed by the pageantry and the power of Pharaoh's

imperial court, rather was more interested in testifying about his fathers

and their calling as pilgrims and sojourners in this world.

So last week we saw that Hebrews 11 moment, really, where Jacob,

just like Isaac and Abraham before him, confessed that they were strangers and

pilgrims on the earth.

As the writer of Hebrews says, those who say such things declare plainly that they

seek a homeland.

So this morning we're going to look at the famine as it begins to unravel in the final two years from verses

13 through 31.

We begin in verse 13.

Now there was no bread in all of the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt

and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.

We really here begin with the judgment of God.

The famine, we note, was very severe.

The land of Egypt, the land of Canaan, languished.

The imagery is striking.

It's like a man fainting, you know.

The land is drooping.

It's as though the people are on the very brink of death and they're lying prostrate, waiting for that

inevitable end to come.

What is God doing in bringing this famine upon the land?

God is bringing judgment.

He's bringing judgment to the land of Egypt.

He's bringing judgment to the land of Canaan.

God has foretold this coming judgment, and as we look at this judgment, we

acknowledge that God is the one who has provided, and God is also the one who has taken away.

God is the one who gave corn supply in abundance for seven years, and God is the one who brought

famine and deprivation for the following seven years.

John Calvin says it's not for those who cultivate lands to trust in the land's abundance.

Rather, let them acknowledge that their provision doesn't spring from the bowels of the earth so much

as it falls down from the secret blessing of God in heaven.

There is no luxury so great that it cannot soon be exchanged for barrenness.

It is not so much that God will always send rain, but often sprinkles with salt.

Meanwhile, it's our place to turn by faith to the kindness of God who nourishes his own

people even in the midst of famine.

That's certainly something we see in chapter 47.

So God is bringing judgment upon the land.

We can't say, oh, here he is, this angry God of the Old Testament, this angry, judgmental, almost

schizophrenic God.

We can't ignore the seven years of blessing and abundance that have actually made way for Joseph to

provide for his people in the seven years of famine.

But what we see altogether is God moving through judgment ultimately for the sake of salvation.

God moving through judgment for the salvation of Jacob and his household.

God moving through judgment even 400 years later for the

salvation of his people in the book of Exodus.

And so you see even here the seeds of what God is doing in order to bring salvation

out of judgment.

And this is how God works throughout history.

God brings judgment upon nations, and through that judgment, he

secures and saves his people.

And so there's always the 7 ,000 that will not bend their knee to bail.

There's always those that God is feeding.

Though it may be by ravens, God nevertheless is protecting and providing and securing his people.

If not in this life, in the immediacy of the urgency of judgment, then certainly

securing them in their hope in the world to come.

This judgment of famine also brings us closer to the dynamics of possession.

And that's something that I think will guide us through these verses.

If we look at this theme of possession, what we see first is the Egyptians'

possession, which is their own land, their own produce, their own goods.

And that turns over to Pharaoh.

So we see Pharaoh's possession in contrast to Jacob, in contrast to Israel's

possession, which ultimately is the promise of God's possession.

So these four parts are gonna guide us through these verses.

The Egyptians' possession, secondly, Pharaoh's possession, third, Israel's possession,

and lastly, God's possession.

Verse 14, Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the

land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, and all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give

us bread, for why should we die in your presence?

For the money has failed.

And then Joseph said, give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock if the money is gone.

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks,

the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys.

Haven't you loved the stage presence of these donkeys so far?

Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.

So the famine had begun.

It had been rolling for several years now, and the people had been weathering the storm.

Maybe they had to make some trades, make some exchanges, get the old Camaro on the market, scavenge through

the old shoeboxes in their closet, what can they throw onto eBay, make a little extra cash, but for the most

part, over these five years, they've been able to sell and buy for food.

Then God dials up the intensity of the famine, and when he does that in these last two

to three years of the famine, all of the money begins to be spent.

All of the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan was brought into

Pharaoh's house.

So Pharaoh now is becoming enriched off of the poverty from this crisis.

John Gill points out that the Pharaoh here may have been one called Remphas, because a

later historian named Diodorus Siculus says he spent his time minding the taxes, heaping up

riches from all quarters, and left behind more than any kings that had reigned before him.

If this is Remphas, the same figure that Herodotus, a Greek historian, calls Rampsonitis,

Herodotus says he had the greatest quantity of money of any of the kings of Egypt.

So this well may be Pharaoh Remphas.

All the money that was exchanged by the peoples.

Eventually failed.

The currency imploded as far as the peoples were concerned, and that's a prospect we hear about

from time to time.

Different dynamics, we consider it in terms of hyperinflation, but the central idea here is the currency has

failed.

The currency has failed because they don't have it.

It's all now in Pharaoh's treasury.

We think of times when currency implodes, as with Venezuela more recently.

If you go back prior to World War II in the Weimar Republic, all of the money has

failed.

So the people that were depending upon the land and their ability to sell produce from the land in exchange for food

or to make trades with their livestock, now they no longer have money with which to obtain.

All of their money belongs now to Pharaoh.

And so when they come to Joseph, they exchange no longer money, but rather cattle, livestock in

exchange for food.

Hopefully next year will be better.

Hopefully we won't have to go to this extreme.

The same hand that dialed up the intensity of the famine, Lord willing, will dial it down.

But he does not, verse 18.

When that year ended, they came and said, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is gone.

My Lord also has our herds of livestock.

There's nothing left in the sight of my Lord.

But our bodies and our lands.

Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land?

Buy us and our land for bread.

And we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh.

Give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land may not become desolate.

So the time frame here says the second year, technically, when that year ended, they came to him the second year,

the next year.

That's not saying out of the seven total years, but rather the second year after they had sold their

money and then their livestock following.

So this potentially is the very last year of famine, which makes sense that they're asking for seed.

And Joseph is willing to give them seed because now it's time to sow.

Now a harvest will be successful that the seventh year of famine is coming to an end.

With nothing left to sell or trade, the people only have themselves and the land that they stand upon.

They offer their land in exchange for food.

And because it is their land, they essentially become slaves upon the land, serfs.

They're bringing terms of serfdom to Pharaoh.

We will be your tenants.

We will work the land that will belong to you.

If only you give us food in exchange for what had been our land.

In this very way, Pharaoh, through the agency of Joseph, gains the servitude

of the Egyptians.

Notice the irony here.

Their cry is, give us seed that we may live and not die.

That was the cry of Rachel in Genesis 30, verse one.

Give me seed, that is children, same word in Hebrew.

Give me seed or I will die.

Give me children lest I die.

And the Egyptians here are crying, give us seed lest we die.

Give us seed lest the land is desolate.

And this is again the outworking of this thematic focus of Genesis on land

and seed and God's covenantal purposes.

If you don't have seed, that is children, you cannot fulfill that dominion mandate.

Be fruitful and multiply.

What is God's design for the land and the seed?

That Egyptian mothers and fathers will bring forth generations to come and so will carry

out this creational mandate.

What is Pharaoh's purpose?

To take the land for himself and enslave the people.

That's how he will get dominion.

That was not God's plan for dominion.

This is the sinful corruption, the sinful perversion of the dominion mandate.

So it leads us to Pharaoh's possession.

Secondly, Pharaoh's possession.

Verse 20, Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh.

Every man of the Egyptians sold his field because the famine was so severe upon them and so the land

became Pharaoh's.

And as for the people, he moved them into the cities from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end.

So Joseph, summary statement, bought all of the land for Pharaoh.

If you missed it, it's repeated for emphasis.

Joseph bought all of the land for Pharaoh.

Through the judgment of this famine, Joseph's agency, Joseph's administrative skill

was used to enrich Pharaoh and give him unparalleled dominion throughout his lands.

Though he had been, in a sort of signatory way, the ruler over the land, he did not

possess the plots of land that were private property for the Egyptians.

Now that has changed.

Now Joseph, in managing the famine and the crisis and the food shortages, has given over the

land to his master.

People are being brought into the cities because the land has been bought for Pharaoh.

John Gill notes, no longer would they have posterity.

They had no notion of this being ours.

This was your great -grandfather's land.

And he farmed it, just like my grandfather farmed it, and I farmed it, and someday you and your sons will farm it.

By moving them into the cities, they no longer have a sense of posterity, of heritage.

And this removal also may have been used to prevent any sort of sedition or mutiny, right?

When you take people off of the land, they don't have that land to defend anymore.

They're being moved into the cities.

Likely it's easier to provide for them, but also it may be used to prevent sedition.

We think of, if you're familiar with the history of communist China and Mao

Zedong in 1958 through the early 60s, had what was called the Great Leap Forward.

Essentially the same idea.

We're going to industrialize the agrarian peasants, and vice versa.

We'll take the peasants out of their farmland, and we'll throw them into the factories.

We'll take the factory workers out of the cities and throw them into the farmlands.

What genius came up with this idea?

It was a complete disaster.

Estimates, very hard to obtain with any certainty, but estimates are about 20 million people died within

four years.

Mass starvation.

Machine workers don't know how to sow and reap in the land, and peasants don't know how to run machines.

But such was this view of equity that the Chinese communists were seeking to establish.

This is a land grab for Pharaoh.

Notice this applies to all except for the Egyptian priesthood, verse 22.

Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their

rations which Pharaoh gave them.

Therefore they did not sell their lands.

They had access to the king's table.

They didn't have to enter into serfdom, into servitude unto Pharaoh.

Now here we get some sense of the piety of Pharaoh, even if it's not a godly piety.

It's an ungodly piety, but you see still this idea that there's something sacred about

the divine.

And even Pharaoh, who's amassing all of this wealth and power dare not interfere with anything

that touches upon the divine.

Something that sadly we see less and less of as history moves forward.

We have men willing to completely abandon and neglect the sanctity of

God and his transcendence and that which is beyond man.

We see men rather becoming like God.

So we see piety here even though it's wrongly applied.

And then we have a summary statement, verse 23.

Joseph said to the people, indeed I have bought you and your land this

day for Pharaoh.

Summary statement.

Joseph says to the Egyptians, I have bought you and your land this day

for Pharaoh.

Look, here is seed for you.

You shall sow the land and it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one fifth to Pharaoh.

Four fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as

food for your little ones.

So they said, you have saved our lives.

Let us find favor in the sight of my Lord and we will be Pharaoh's servants.

And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day that Pharaoh should have one fifth except

for the land of the priests only which did not become Pharaoh's.

So Joseph has now procured all of the lands except for the Egyptian priesthood, all

of the lands for Pharaoh who had already taken all of the livestock and all of the money.

This is a total possession for Pharaoh.

And Joseph is the one who throughout this narrative has been the key figure to obtain

access to all of this property and all of this wealth.

Joseph is the one who could say uniquely, I have bought you for Pharaoh.

I bought your cattle for Pharaoh.

I bought your land for Pharaoh.

I am the one who has given Pharaoh unparalleled dominion over you.

How are we to understand that?

How are we to understand Joseph's actions?

Notice that the people are grateful.

They're pressed by this crisis but they're grateful.

They acknowledge that Joseph has saved them.

You have saved our lives.

If only we can find favor in your sight, we'll gladly become servants to Pharaoh.

How are we to understand Joseph's actions in light of the people's reaction?

One of the contrasts that is noticed is Joseph freely gives to his own.

He had settled his family in Goshen and of his own means he provides for them.

They don't have any of these harsh terms.

They don't have to come and barter for food.

Though they don't have land that's truly their possession, they don't have to sell their livestock in order to eat.

But when it comes to the Egyptians and the other Canaanites, they have to give away their wealth and their livestock and

eventually their land and themselves, all so that Joseph would feed them and they would become

servants for Pharaoh.

Before this day, with respect to their own property, every man had his field, his garden, a

vineyard to himself, but now all of that belongs to Pharaoh.

So how are we to understand Joseph's actions?

It's difficult, isn't it?

It's not straightforward.

Many have defended Joseph.

There's many sermons about principles of wise leadership that flow out of Genesis 47.

Someone defended Joseph that this is in fact one of the more godly responses that could have been given to the

crisis.

And one of the points of that defense is look at how the people react.

They say he's their savior.

They willingly, even gratefully, become servants to Pharaoh.

I understand that defense, but I think the text is not as easily

negotiated as that.

So let me show you an example of the defense from nonetheless John Calvin.

Why should it not be lawful to acquire land for the king at a just price?

To this may be added that Joseph extorted nothing.

He entered into a treaty with the people at their own request.

I confess indeed it's not right to take whatever may be offered without discrimination.

For if severe necessity presses, then whoever wishes by any means to escape it will submit to harsh

conditions.

But I do not defend Joseph on this ground alone that the Egyptians voluntarily offered their lands

as men who were willing to purchase life at any price.

But I say this ought to be considered.

He acted with equity, even though he left them with nothing.

It can't help, but again, all due respect to John Calvin.

Do you just notice that sentence?

Joseph acted with equity, even though he left them with nothing.

Amazing.

The terms could have been more severe if they themselves had been consigned to perpetual slavery, but

he now concedes to them personal liberty and only covenants for their fields.

So notice that Calvin remarks in part, the people were grateful.

That's not the sole ground for his defense.

But he says notice that the people are grateful.

That says something for the way that Joseph dealt with them.

Now we could reinforce that.

Not only were they grateful, there was no mutiny, there was no rebellion, there was no sedition.

They were not saying, hey, there's more of us than there are of them.

Let's tear down the strongholds and open up the storehouses for ourselves.

Maybe that was, again, part of the reason that they were moved in and out of cities.

It's interesting, though, when I think about, in our own neck of the woods, the very

rebels that were part of the rebellion against King George III

during the days of the War for Independence and how shortly after that victory, there were a

number of other rebellions from the very same rebels.

So George Washington, who had led the American rebels against the crown, ended up having shortly after

to put down rebellions like the Whiskey Rebellion in the 1790s or in our own area, Shea's Rebellion.

And so you have this idea that because we've now tasted something of freedom, we're unwilling to have any

undue yoke put upon us.

And even if you tax the goods that we trade like whiskey, we'll go to war, we'll pick up our muskets

again and do this all over.

And you have that in contrast to something like the regime of North Korea

and how when UN rice bags are doled out to people, how grateful they are

that the Kim Jong -un has seen fit to provide for my family this means.

Difficult to understand.

Ian Proven, who wrote, I think, a very helpful book called Seriously Dangerous Religion.

He's an evangelical Old Testament scholar.

He wrote this book to kind of say, you know, scripture likes to be more honest than we're willing to be.

Scripture simply puts it out there, this is what happened.

We can't assume that just because it's recorded, we are meant to defend it.

We are meant to say, this is how it should have been done, this is what should have been done, this was a good and godly exercise.

We've already seen throughout Genesis that is rarely the case.

Just because Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob do something does not make it right.

It's only when they're obeying the revealed will of God.

And this might be one of those instances where is Moses helping us see a darker chapter, perhaps a

lapse of wisdom in this man who, like Solomon, was filled with the spirit of God.

This is what Ian Proven says.

The people are grateful enough to be alive, but in truth, these are oppressive arrangements.

This is, in fact, exactly the sort of oppression from which God will shortly rescue the Israelites.

It's exactly the sort that the prophet Samuel describes when picturing the Israelites under a king who

treats them just like the other kings of the other nations.

Such oppressive societies bear no relation to the good society that God calls for throughout

the Old Testament.

And this is Ian Proven's conclusion.

Joseph cannot be assessed positively in his role producing this oppressive

Egyptian society.

Especially when we remember that as a descendant of Abraham, he was called to be a

blessing to the Gentile nation.

Taking that point, that we need not defend Joseph if Joseph is

not to be defended.

And we can be honest with what this leads to, which I think is part of the point.

Why does Genesis 47 exist?

In part, so we can get to Exodus chapter one.

Unless the succession of pharaohs across the next four centuries have this kind of

lust for power and dominion, have this kind of wealth unparalleled at their disposal,

would you get to the kind of oppression that would lead the Israelites to cry out from their bondage in Exodus one?

So notice the patient way that this narrative is beginning to unfold toward God's purposes.

Joseph is perhaps unknowingly setting up his own people needing deliverance

in four centuries time.

We can at least though with Calvin and others, we can at least appreciate some of the restraint of

Joseph.

So I'm willing to say he did not act with equity when he left them with nothing.

This was not good for them or for Pharaoh or for the history of the world.

It was only good because God, as he always does, as he did in Joseph's own life, works providentially

through the evil actions and activity of men in order to bring about his promised redemption.

So let's appreciate some of the restraint of Joseph.

For example, notice that as he's assisting the people in this time of crisis, he does

not resort to state welfare, a welfare system.

He gives them land that they must work upon.

They must yield crops from the land and only after that work and that production are they

to pay a 20 tax from whatever is produced.

If Joseph were a modern leftist politician, he simply would have sent checks into their mailboxes and said,

all is well.

You can trust that we've got your back.

Papa Joe is gonna take care of you.

There's a double entendre for 2022.

There's no government dole out here, right?

If you wanna eat, you have to work.

When you work the land, when the seventh year of famine is over and the Nile Delta begins to

saturate the soil with all the nutrients coming out of the Mediterranean and pretty soon you have the bumper

crops that you've been longing for for seven years, in that abundance, 20 will seem like nothing.

But you must work if you would eat.

And as you work on that land that now belongs to Pharaoh, know that your needs have been met and you're serving

the ruler of this land, but out of the generous abundance that you are

working, you are earning it.

And there's at least some dignity left in that.

It may not be the same dynamic that it once was.

This is your land and you have the title squirreled away in your closet for it.

But there's at least dignity to working with your own hands and providing for yourself, something that our

modern welfare state deprives people from, the dignity of work.

Calvin says, Joseph so conducted himself between the two parties as

greatly to enrich the king without oppressing the people by tyranny.

The people were oppressed by the crisis, no doubt.

And in some ways, Joseph is restraining outright tyranny.

And Calvin says, I wish that all governors would practice this moderation.

They would only so far study the advantage of kings as could be done without injury to the people.

There's a celebrated saying of Caesar that it is the part of a shepherd to shear the flock, not to tear off the

skin.

At this day, however, kings do not believe that they rule freely unless they not only flay their subjects, but entirely

devour them.

For they do not generally invest any with authority except those who are sworn to the practice of slaughter.

So much more does the clemency of Joseph deserve praise.

So Calvin sees the restraint of Joseph.

And I think we're right to see that.

Things could have been far more oppressive,.

Far more brutal.

The famine has left a lot of options off of the table.

What Joseph does is restrained, but I don't know that we can praise it.

Nevertheless, we have to be honest with what scripture says.

Psalm 105, in recounting this, simply recalls the fact that Joseph was

used to enrich the Lord of the kingdom.

Notice, they hurt his feet with fetters, that's his brothers.

He was laid in irons until the time that his word came to pass.

The word of the Lord tested him.

The king, that's Pharaoh, sent and released him.

The ruler of the people let him go free.

He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions to bind his

princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom.

So you see that even the nobility have been bound by Joseph's authority under Pharaoh.

That's just simply the description of scripture.

How does this relate by way of contrast to Jacob?

We have verse 27.

Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the country of Goshen and they had possessions there

and grew and multiplied exceedingly.

So notice the contrast between verses 13 through 26 and verse 27.

Verses 13 through 26 is the dwindling, the deprivation of the Egyptians and the Canaanites.

They've lost their money and their livestock and their land.

Give us seed lest we die is their cry.

And meanwhile, what is Israel doing in Goshen?

Israel is expanding, increasing, becoming fruitful.

Rather than losing their possessions, they're gaining possessions.

And so that's Genesis 47 verse 27 by way of contrast.

God has provided for his people in such a way that the famine has not hurt them.

They're already in seed form being brought out of Egypt as it were with many great possessions.

Habakkuk 3 verse 17.

Though the fig tree may not blossom nor fruit be on the vines, though the labor of the olive may

fail and the fields yield no food.

Though the flock may be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord.

I will joy in the God of my salvation.

That is a song that could have been sung by Israel in the land of Goshen.

Psalm 37 verse 16 and following.

A little that a righteous man has is better than the riches of many wicked.

For the arms of the wicked will be broken, but the Lord will uphold the righteous.

The Lord knows the days of the upright and their inheritance shall be forever.

They shall not be ashamed in the evil days.

In the days of famine, they shall be satisfied.

A song that could be sung by Israel in Goshen.

In the days of famine, they are satisfied.

Israel is dwelling in Goshen, secured and nourished by the Savior, who in

this instance is Joseph.

And this is what we read last week in verse 11.

Joseph situated his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the

best of the land, in the land of Ramses as Pharaoh had commanded.

So who has the possession of the land in Egypt?

Israel.

In total contrast to the Egyptians in Egypt who have lost possession within the land.

It's interesting to see this dynamic of possession in chapter 47.

The people of Egypt have now become the possession of Pharaoh.

Our land and we ourselves belong to you.

We are your servants.

Meanwhile, God is securing a possession for his people and in many ways aligning them,

allotting them possessions in the land of Egypt.

Notice what God had promised to Abraham in Genesis 15 verse 14.

The nation whom they serve I will judge.

Afterward, they shall come out with great possessions.

Remember when they are leaving from the land how they're taking jewelry and gold and all

of the precious possessions of the Egyptians on their way out.

Well, we see in seed form God preparing that, almost emblematically showcasing that that's what he

will do.

Genesis 17 verse eight.

I give to you and your descendants after you this land in which you are a stranger, all of the land of Canaan

as an everlasting possession and I will be their God.

So notice this possession of the land.

That's the key.

It's the key for Pharaoh.

It's the key for God.

Pharaoh now possesses the land in ways he had never before.

And Israel is in Goshen.

Maybe as they have a possession and they have possessions in that land, maybe they're tempted to turn their hope

toward Egypt, to get really comfortable and begin to set up their lives in Goshen.

I guess this is just gonna be our land flowing with milk and honey for decades and centuries, millennia to come.

But that is not what we see Jacob doing.

Jacob, as we see and as we will see, has completely the opposite thinking.

Give me all the possessions of Egypt.

That is not enough.

I want what God has promised.

I want the promised possession of Canaan.

Canaan right now is desolate.

It's completely barren.

There's nothing like he has in Goshen, eating quite literally off of the king's table.

But for Jacob, who's walking by faith, all that he wants is to be in the sense of

God's promise, in the promised land.

He wants the everlasting possession that was promised to Abraham.

Stephen in Acts chapter seven draws out the same thing.

God gave him, that's Abraham, no inheritance in it, not even enough to set his foot on.

But when Abraham had no child, he promised to give it to him for a possession and to

his descendants after him.

And God spoke in this way, that his descendants would dwell in a foreign land, that they would bring them into bondage and oppress them

for 400 years.

So that's where we are.

We're hovering between the tension of a possession of the land that they are now exiled from,

through the famine.

And yet they're in this very land where they're gaining a possession, knowing what God had promised Abraham.

We will be slaves, we will be in bondage, we will be oppressed for 400 years.

Really the summary of Stephen in Acts seven is where we are in verse 27.

When the time of the promise drew near, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and

multiplied in Egypt until another king arose who did not know Joseph.

So Joseph, as the wise administrator, can restrain the tyranny of this serpentine king.

But as the centuries roll by, there arises another Pharaoh who does not know Joseph, who does not

have a wise man of God to restrain the abuse of power and tyranny, but rather a

Pharaoh who has a hardened heart and will oppress the people even as plagues come crashing down upon his

own land.

And that brings us lastly to God's possession.

God's possession.

We read in verses 28 and following, Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years.

And the length of Jacob's life was 147 years.

When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, if I found favor

in your side, please put your hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me.

Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers and you shall

carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.

And he said, I will do as you have said.

He said, swear to me.

And he swore to him.

So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.

17 years of life dwelling in Goshen.

Interestingly, his time with Joseph ends as it had begun.

He had spent about 17 years with Joseph before Joseph was torn from him by his other sons.

And yet now that he's been reunited to Joseph, he has that same amount of time to spend with him before he is torn

away from Joseph by death.

His singular desire is when he dies that he would be buried in the land,

in the promised possession, that he would not be mummified and kept in some stone

pyramid in all of the pageantry of Egyptian wealth and splendor, but that he in

meekness would be buried alongside Isaac and alongside Abraham in the cave of

Machpelah near Hebron.

And this is an illustration that although Jacob had been given in a sense royal possession of the

land of Goshen, he does not want to live out his years faithlessly

depending upon Pharaoh and Pharaoh's court and on the possessions of the Egyptians, but rather he is seeking the

possession of God.

He is seeking the dwelling place of God.

He's seeking a city whose builder and maker is God.

He's seeking the everlasting possession that was promised to Abraham, his grandfather.

Calvin says, none of the wealth or the pleasures of Egypt could allure him to prevent him from

sighing after Canaan.

What a phrase, sighing after Canaan.

In the midst of famine, you can imagine as he was moving his way southward through the land on the way toward

Beersheba and he was just seeing failed field after failed field, crops drooping

over, emaciated children running alongside the carts.

Do you have any scraps left for us?

Like walking through the concentration camps in Poland.

And yet as he's sitting surrounded by marble and gem encrusted furniture

and ostrich feather fans are being waved over him by Joseph's servants and grapes and olives are at his command,

including perhaps trays of pistachios.

What does his heart long for?

Don't let me die here.

Bury me in Canaan.

I pronounce, swear to me, bury me in Canaan.

And then when Joseph says, I swear to you, he worships.

That is such a illustration of the faith of Jacob.

He worships because in joy, in thanksgiving, that's all he wants to hear.

That's all he wants across these years is that God's promise would be shown to be true.

Bury me in Canaan, bury me with my fathers who lived by faith according to the promise of

God.

Calvin goes on to say, with men of this world, indeed, earthly advantage would have prevailed, right?

Well, I'm in Goshen, this is what I really want.

Who wants those tents of Canaan anymore?

But such was the piety of this man.

The prophet of the flesh weighed nothing against the loss of spiritual good.

The prophet of the flesh weighed nothing against the loss of spiritual good.

Now, there's no possession quite like Canaan for the believer today.

Perhaps some Christians that I think misunderstand what the significance of the land actually is.

There's not a land that's located in that particular region in which we are commanded to

go in which we await the fulfillment of God's promise.

Scripture is very clear.

Paul in Romans 4 .13 understands that inheritance is now the world, the cosmos,

not a particular parcel of land that is given to the seed of Abraham who is the Lord Jesus

Christ, but rather the whole world is his inheritance now.

So there's no land that signifies or seals that coming kingdom, that heavenly country

that they saw from afar and welcomed and sought after by faith.

There's no temple today which signifies or seals the dwelling place of God with his people and the

Lord Jesus as our high priest.

There's always this now but not yet character when we look at these symbols and these themes that are

unfolding in the Old Testament.

We have rather by faith a land that we will inherit which is indeed a new

heavens and a new earth.

The dwelling place of God will be the whole of creation.

We will be with God.

There's a temple that becomes rather the whole world.

Full of God's glory.

John can say I saw no temple.

Where'd the temple go?

Where's that constriction of God's presence?

Oh John, this is the new heavens and the new earth.

There is no temple.

The whole earth is full of his glory.

Jacob knew that as much as he was in covenant with God, his sins had been forgiven.

He had been assured that like his fathers the day would come when the cry from heaven would break the tombs open and he would

rise into the promise that he had been seeking his whole long life.

The fullness of these blessings would be nothing less than the consummation that God

had promised in seed form back in Genesis three.

One day the serpent's head will be crushed and the various manifestations of his

power and dominion shown up in figures like Pharaoh will be brought underneath the

footstool of the seed of Abraham who will bring blessing to every tribe and every tongue.

He saw Hebrews 11, he saw from afar.

He welcomed it, he embraced it from afar.

And that's why he can say, swear to me, don't let me die here.

Bury me in the promised possession.

I await the promised possession of God, the consummation of all

that God has promised, the full redemption of God.

That's what he purchased by his blood.

That's the inheritance that we await.

And notice that we, just like Jacob, just like Jacob, we await the same.

Ephesians one, verse 13 and 14.

In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in

whom also having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise who is the

guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession

to the praise of his glory.

So we, like Jacob, have the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of our inheritance because we're

awaiting the consummate redemption of that purchased possession.

Now what does it mean that God has now, through his risen and exalted Son, the greater

Joseph, has now dominion over all of the earth, indeed beneath the earth, on the

earth, and in the heavens above the earth?

All authority has been given to the Son of Man.

What does it mean for us as believers that now God, in a way that Pharaoh could only

parody, that now God has everlasting dominion through his risen and conquering Son?

Well, it means that we are his servants, just like the Egyptians were the servants unto Pharaoh who had

dominion over all of the land.

We now, though we can only understand it by faith, we now are servants through the risen

Son who provides for us and secures us and exercises dominion over all of the land.

We have this enduring possession that we seek.

This picture is brought out progressively through the prophets.

For instance, Obadiah, chapter one, verse 17.

So the war with the Edomites is in view prophetically here, and yet God is assuring his people

of their possession, and particularly how he understands their possession.

On Mount Zion, there shall be deliverance.

There shall be holiness.

The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.

The house of Jacob shall be afire.

The house of Joseph aflame.

But the house of Esau will be stubble.

They will kindle them and devour them.

Do you see what God is saying?

The house of Jacob will have that possession, and the impact of their possession will be

the devouring of the enemy.

Zechariah, chapter two, verse 10 and following.

Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I am coming, and I dwell in your midst, says the Lord.

Many nations shall be adjoined to the Lord to that day, and they'll become my people, and I will dwell in your

midst, and you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent me to you, and the Lord will take possession

of Judah as his inheritance.

The Lord will take possession.

Think of Psalm chapter two, the royal messianic psalm, the imagery that this invokes.

I will declare the decree.

The Lord has said to me, keep in mind Psalm two, oft quoted by the early Christians, understanding

this kingship enthronement is ultimately about the messianic reign of the risen son.

That this psalm is now to be understood in light of what Jesus has done through his crucifixion and

resurrection.

I will declare the decree.

The Lord has said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you.

Ask of me, I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the

ends of the earth for your possession.

That is the Christian claim.

It has been for 2 ,000 years.

The risen conquering son has been exalted by his father, and the father

has said to his son, ask of me, the nations will be your inheritance, the earth

will be your possession.

So then we are his servants.

That possession leads to our servitude.

Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, to God the things that are God's.

We have a picture, don't we?

We have a picture of the Gospel in verse 25.

I'm shocked that Charles Spurgeon didn't preach a whole sermon on verse 25.

It's such a, this would be like Spurgeon's, you know, home run, instant.

This is a picture of the Gospel in verse 25.

You have saved our lives.

Let us find favor in your sight.

We will be your servants.

That's the Gospel.

You have saved us, we are yours.

You have saved us, look kindly upon us, let us serve you.

We gratefully serve you.

We understand what was at stake.

We know what you have saved us from.

We know at what cost you have saved us.

Please let us serve you.

Please let us serve you.

You have saved our lives.

You see, there's a spiritual hunger and a spiritual poverty that drives people to

that kind of profession to the Lord.

It's not the physical famine, but rather the spiritual famine in the soul where people realize I can't keep going this road

of death, this wide path of destruction.

I'm being consumed, I'm languishing, I'm being devoured alive, save me.

And when you encounter that salvation, your response will be the same.

Let me find favor in your sight that I may serve you.

I want to show my gratitude to you.

I never want to forget the way that you saved me and I want to give my life over to you.

Truly you are the possessor of all things and I am just a servant to you.

What can I serve you with but with what you provide?

Truly I am your servant.

So the problem with most of the world today is where we're Israelites dwelling in the midst of Egyptian society.

And in Egyptian society, people honestly think that they're free.

They don't realize just how in bondage they are.

The problem with the church is so often we feel like we're not free and we're in bondage when in fact we are the most free.

And that's the paradox of the kingdom, isn't it?

Paul says as much in 1 Corinthians 7.

That if you happen to be a slave and you're an early Christian in the church, Paul says don't let it bother you.

You can find a way to be free, seek that freedom.

But just remember this, that though you are a slave, you're actually free in the Lord.

Then he says and you don't happen to be a slave, you're actually the upper crust in Roman society.

Remember this, you actually are a slave to the Lord.

Kingdom paradox.

We are slaves but our yoke is light.

We are slaves but where the spirit of the Lord is,.

There is freedom.

We are slaves to the liberty and the peace and the joy of God.

But we often live like that's not the case.

We don't live like slaves of God.

And the Egyptians, they think that they're free when in fact they're the most enslaved of all.

It takes years to show that slavery.

It takes some time for a young man to become an old man and the chains of that bondage to begin to show through.

But we have this imagery.

We are God's possession.

First Corinthians 3 .23, you belong to Christ.

Sweet and short, you belong to Christ.

Deuteronomy 14, which Peter takes up in 1 Peter 2, you are a holy people to the Lord your God.

The Lord has chosen you to be a people for his own possession.

He has sought a people to possess.

Not in the cruel, harsh way of Pharaoh but in the way of freedom and joy.

How do we know that?

By the shedding of his own son's blood he possesses us as a people.

So we've talked about in years past the difficulty of this concept of being a slave, a servant.

Our translation happens to use the word bond servant because it somehow ennobles the idea of slavery.

Now I can understand the translator's decision because in many ways once we say the word slave we have an immediately

negative connotation that wouldn't have always been true in antiquity.

In the ancient world there's many ways that you can be a slave and that's actually a dignified status.

You might actually be a slave to a very important dignitary or royal figure and so you have social

standing above those people who are not slaves.

So we don't have that with Western chattel slavery and the sort of Atlantic slave trade.

We have immediately negative connotations to slavery and that's why we have to come up with words like bond servant.

But truly the translation, the word doulos in Greek, it's just slave, truly.

So if you can remember that it's not an immediately bad negative thing but it's also something positive that will help you

navigate what it means.

But even the idea of being a servant is something foreign to us in the West.

We live south of a state that has license plates saying live free or die.

Doesn't bode well for a Christian who's called to be a slave to Christ.

The problem is not that we are slaves but who we are slaves to.

Everyone's a slave.

Everyone's a slave but who are we serving?

That's the issue.

The people that are most enslaved to the beasts do not think they are enslaved.

And the way that Christians can resist the allure of all that glitters and is false is by recognizing

who they serve.

So Paul, though he has all sorts of authority as an apostle often in his letters presents himself as a slave.

I'm a slave to you, to the church at Corinth.

I'm a slave.

Particularly because the church at Corinth, they wanted someone impressive with a big resume.

They wanted someone that was powerful like the great orders in the market square.

And Paul says, oh, I haven't come speaking with great power and skill.

Actually came in weakness and foolishness.

I desire to know nothing among you but Christ and him crucified.

You forget, I'm just a slave.

The primary aspect of this metaphor of slave is belonging.

It's not just who we serve, it's who do we belong to?

Because a slave is a dependent.

A slave is one who serves out of the things that they are provided.

And so the relationship of belonging is more important than anything.

Deuteronomy 14, a slave can so enjoy his master and that relationship dynamic that he can

pierce his ear to the lintel and become permanent, become really a part of the family, a fixed

position.

It almost takes on this imagery of adoption.

All of that is included in this Christian theme, this Christian metaphor.

Who are we serving?

Who do we belong to?

That's the issue.

The new Italian prime minister, I was listening to a clip this week, Prime

Minister Maloney.

It's a really interesting trend in some of these European nations where the sort of far -right

nationalist parties are coming into unprecedented power in very secular leftist

societies.

And it was interesting to me that Maloney, in his very impassioned speech, you can watch it, it's been making its way around the airwaves,

it's only about three minutes long, and she talks about the way that

the leftist ideology is trying to sever the roots of identity and belonging.

And so even to the core of male or female, right?

You're just person one, person two, birthing parent, and so on.

And she was doing quite well in establishing, they're trying to sever who we are.

And we're losing our own identity as a people.

Again, you get this nationalistic claim.

And the problem, though, is then she went on to say, I'm not allowed to say that I'm an Italian,

a Christian, a wife, a mother.

She went down the list.

And of course, to great applause.

And I can say, God bless her and all that she's seeking to do, but there's a great danger in

beginning your self -identity with your nationality rather than your faith.

Italian first, then Christian?

There's a lot of people that have that kind of view that they come as allies, they come as sand bullets to us today in the

church.

And we speak the same Christianese often.

And we have the same values of sitting with Uncle Julio yesterday, bemoaning the state of our

current culture.

And it struck me that the commonality we have is a Christless commonality.

And you seem like we're seeing the same things, but for all different reasons.

See, I'm a Christian first.

My national identity only flows out of my identity as a Christian.

Whom do I serve?

Not some ideal of patriotic duty.

I serve the Lord Christ.

Every nation is like dust on His scales.

His kingdom is the only kingdom that knows no end.

So I might be very patriotic and have the same concerns for nationalism as someone like Prime Minister

Maloney, but I am a Christian first.

Far second, if it's even worthy of being called second, would be any other descriptor

for my life.

That must be how we understand who we serve.

We do not preach ourselves, Paul says, but Christ Jesus the Lord.

Consider us slaves for Jesus' sake.

Do we consider ourselves as slaves for Jesus' sake?

Not because we're bringing some message from a foreign heavenly realm into this fallen world

where there's nothing but the shadows and specters of pharaohs everywhere and we're saying, please be convinced

that if you believe this, you'll be taken out of this domain into some heavenly realm at the

very end of your life.

And just kind of ignore the world and circle the wagons in the meantime.

No, that's not what we're doing.

A lot of Christians that think that way.

Rather we say, we are ambassadors for the one who has the whole earth as his possession.

Bend the knee, kiss the son lest he be angry.

He has everlasting dominion and his judgment is coming.

His judgment is fixed.

You must repent of your sins now.

Flee the wrath to come because the Lord of glory will soon be revealed.

The rival kingdom has been decisively wounded

unto defeat as a result of the cross.

We're living in the millennia of the mop -up.

We're living between D -Day and V -Day as the famous illustration from Oscar Kuhlman shows.

Who do we serve?

Who do we serve?

You can become a slave in the ancient world by really three things, conquest, birth,

or debt.

Conquest, because you were invaded by another nation and they enslaved you as an able -bodied worker.

Birth, because your parents were slaves and you're born into that position of servitude.

Debt, something we're missing in our modern conception of slavery because you can't pay your bills.

And so, just like at the restaurant, you forgot your wallet and you go wash some dishes.

For a while.

You become a indentured servant for a little while.

Conquest, birth, or debt.

You know, if you're a Christian, all three of these apply to you.

You're a slave to Christ if you're a Christian because he conquered you by irresistible grace.

You did not seek him.

You would not seek him, but he conquered you.

By his light and by his mercy, he invaded your life.

He peeled back the scales that were over your eyes.

He took out that heart of stone.

He gave you a heart of flesh.

He conquered you.

And you're also a slave to him because you were given a new birth.

You were born into this new relationship with him as a new creation in him.

And your life now belongs to him.

Your life is, in fact, hidden with him who sits at the right hand of the father.

And certainly, as a Christian, you belong to him because of debt.

What is the closing line of the hymn?

Here, Lord, I give myself away.

It's all that I can do.

It's just like the Egyptians.

What can we do?

Our bodies, our land, our resources are yours.

Our labor is for you because you saved us.

If you are not a Christian, the reality of your situation is you have been born into bondage.

You've been pillaged by sin.

You've been laid waste by all of the destruction and all of the misery of your dominion.

You're drowning in a pit of this incalculable debt to God that can never be repaid.

That's your position outside of Christ.

But if you are a Christian, the Lord has set you free.

And for freedom, he sets you free.

And out of gratitude, you serve him.

Out of gratitude, you lay your life down upon the altar.

This is your reasonable service.

Do you see how important the status of a servant is?

And what I'm hoping we don't miss is our servitude flows out of the fact that God is the one

who possesses all.

Because he possesses all things, we serve him.

We are ambassadors serving him.

Because he possesses all things, all things will be ours.

We are going to be co -heirs with Christ.

And like the patriarchs, like Jacob here, at the end of chapter 47, we await the

fullness of that promised possession.

Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for your word, Lord.

Even the hidden, perhaps obscure aspects of your word,

like we see with Joseph here, Lord, trying to understand how he acted and the consequences of that action

centuries later.

We thank you, Lord, that whatever we can or cannot say about Joseph, we can recognize your hand of

providence, your sovereign control over all things.

That even in the days of Abraham, you had foretold what you were doing.

You did not withhold it from him.

We see that the slow, patient, generational wheels of your working, even in the days of the

patriarchs leading toward Exodus, Lord, may we see the slow, patient, generational working of your hand

in our lives.

And in our families, may we understand that because of the resurrection of the crucified son,

there's been a decisive defeat of our enemy, who now coils and writhes

about as his kingdom begins to fall down before the risen and exalted

son.

The Lord who possesses all authority under the earth, on the earth, and in the heavens.

The risen Lord who we are to proclaim as the king of all the land.

We serving him gratefully because he has saved our lives.

We willingly serve him.

Show us, Lord, ways that we're living selfishly, autonomously, independently,

rather than belonging to you as a slave and all that that entails.

May we not have the mindset that is so prevalent among far -right and nationalistic

ideologues, Lord, who walk by reaction rather than by faith.

May we live by faith.

May we lay our lives down upon your altar in service to you, knowing that you shall reign until the very

last enemy is brought beneath your footstool.

Help us, Lord, to worship your right and wait by faith, even as we see Jacob worshiping and

waiting by faith.

These things we ask in your son's name, amen.