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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 41:1-41

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Well, I remember a time, must have been about nine years ago, where I was doing pulpit supply up in Maine.
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And I had to wake up quite early to make it up there to preach at a small little
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Baptist church. And the beginning of their service that morning was much like the beginning of our service this morning.
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They had some audio issues getting the mics going, but unlike our service, they never prevailed.
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And so I was told disconcertedly, you're going to have no amplification during your sermon.
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And I thought, well, throughout most of preaching history, there's not been amplification. I'm the man for the job.
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And then 15 minutes into preaching, I strained so hard that I lost my voice and had a hard time making it to the amen of that message and was never invited back.
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So thank the Lord for provisions like microphones. We want to continue our study of the narrative of Joseph's life here this morning.
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And we're beginning chapter 41. You'll notice we cut short at verse 41. I want to spend some time in these first 41 verses, looking at Joseph's character and applying from the examples we see in his life and in his conduct.
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And there's perhaps more application beside that. Next week, as we finish out chapter 41, we'll look at it more typologically.
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That is to say, we will see more of the significance of how Joseph is presented symbolically as the forerunner of the
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Lord Jesus in his very exaltation throughout chapter 41. So I hope that will hold you over until next week.
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Really, that's the meat of chapter 41. We're not going to quite get into the details of that glorious typology this morning.
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Up to this point, Joseph has been experiencing God's blessing, though he's been on the roller coaster of fortune.
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He's gone from a place of honor and status within his household to being thrown into the pit by his own brothers and then dragged into slavery.
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But as he devoted himself to God and submitted to God's providence in his life, he then found in Potiphar's household a place of favor once more.
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But as a result of Potiphar's wife, he was pulled back into another pit, this time the
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Egyptian prison. And here in this chapter, after a number of turns of providence have been worked out over these prevening years, we see
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Joseph once again restored to a place of exaltation, the greatest exaltation he could possibly have imagined.
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Last week, we were introduced to the butler and the baker. This is all pretext for chapter 41. They had troubling dreams.
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We read in verse 8, we each have had a dream and there's no interpreter of it. And Joseph said to them, the interpretation belongs to God.
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And that was the emphasis last week. Even though Joseph is in prison, even though Joseph's life and hope have been in shambles over these years, his words tell us everything about his faith in God.
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The same dream that I had had all those years ago, over a decade ago, when
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God said that my family would come and bow before me, that I, though youngest among my brethren, would indeed be the covenantal heir of the promises, that dream belonged to God.
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The interpretation of that dream, whatever it looks like in this prison cell, still belongs to God.
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So Joseph knows that the same God who would be true to his revelation to the butler and the baker would be true to the revelation concerning him.
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The interpretation belongs to God. And of course, the fulfillment came to pass.
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Within three days, the butler, the cup bearer, he was restored to Pharaoh's right hand.
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He was once again able to place the barefoot Merlot, or whatever Pharaoh drank in his day, back into Pharaoh's hand.
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And of course, the baker was hanged. His head was lifted off, even as Joseph had sternly told him would take place.
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We close chapter 40 with these words, the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
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For two years, we read in verse 1, Joseph has been forgotten. It came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream.
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The wheels of providence begin to slowly turn, but it's taken two years. Now, we've just flipped the page, as it were.
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We've read in a span of one second that Joseph was forgotten, and then Pharaoh had a troubling dream two years later.
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In passing by the sentence, we pass by month after month after month of hope, despair, pain, and confusion.
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We have to be careful when we read narrative that we don't flood past the details.
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Realize that for at least the first several weeks, Joseph was hoping that at any moment, the servants of the cupbearer would come to that prison cell and say, you know,
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I told Pharaoh just as you asked me to, and great news, you're going to be freed from this place. But those servants never come.
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That freedom never comes. For two years, Joseph's hopes begin to wither and die as he waits by faith upon the
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Lord to move. For two years, he's waiting on the Lord. Be slow to take that in.
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For two years, he's waiting upon the Lord. In one way or another,
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Joseph is trusting in God, but as we've seen from Psalm 105, God is testing Joseph.
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And even when Joseph applies wisdom and he begs, remember that fourfold plea from last week?
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Please remember me. Please get me out of this house. He still has that pleading sense of urgency, though it's dying the death week after week, month after month, of a two -year imprisonment.
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And yet he's trusting in God. It must have been discouraging for him to trust in God over two years.
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But God's providence was working other things into his life, into his character, into his faith, working other things outside of the prison cell, among the kingdom, among the harvests year after year.
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God's providence was at work in ways that Joseph could not understand. And so it is to the believer here this morning, waiting upon God for what seems like an unbearably long time.
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But God's providence is at work not only in you, shaping and preparing you for His calling upon your life, but working things around you and outside of you so that you might walk before Him and bring glory to His name.
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We see that waiting is a common theme in the Christian's life. Waiting has been a common theme in the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph.
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Waiting is a calling for the Christian. God appoints us to wait and to wait and to wait upon Him to act and to move, to deliver, to strengthen, to sanctify.
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And so we see in Joseph that there's an absolute dependence upon God, and that absolute dependence is testing his faith, producing resolve and perseverance, developing his character as a man of God, but also causing him to endure the pain of waiting upon God.
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Now, Pharaoh has this troubling dream. We read, continuing verse 1, Behold, he stood by the river.
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Suddenly there came up out of the river seven cows, fine looking and fat, and they fed in the meadows.
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Then, behold, seven other cows came up after them out of the river. The river is always the
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Nile, as far as an Egyptian is concerned. It's the river, just like we have the waterfall in Hubbardston.
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Ugly and gaunt, these cows come up out of the river on the banks, and they eat the seven fine looking and fat cows.
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That's enough to jar Pharaoh out of his sleep. There's this grisly scene of this rather pleasant scene.
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It could have been something that a romantic painter made in the 19th century, fine looking, fat
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Dutch cows eating on the grass of the meadow by the Nile, but then arise these zombified, grisly, gaunt looking cows, and they begin to cannibalize their own.
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Pharaoh is awoken by this disturbing dream. We remember that the
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Nile is significant because it's Egypt's lifeblood economically. This is what makes
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Egypt such a great world empire. Indeed, it is the world empire of its day.
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It's able to flex and crush the vassal kingdoms under its domain, and that's uniquely tied to the prosperity of the
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Nile River, all of the nutrients and fertility that flow from that water source.
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Pharaoh, maybe he wakes up, walks around a bit, gets his little eye mask back on, settles back down into sleep, and dreams a second dream.
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Seven heads of grain come up out of one stalk, plump and good, then behold, seven thin heads, blighted by the east wind, spring up after them, and the seven thin heads devour the seven plump and full heads.
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So again, Pharaoh is jarred awake. The details are so vivid, so gripping, so parallel, that he knows this is something significant, and I must have the interpretation of it.
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The east wind would have been something known to the ancients. That's speaking of what they call the soraka, the sort of North African wind that takes all of the heat and dry climate of Arabia down toward the
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Mediterranean, and that could dry out a harvest season over the span of weeks, if not months.
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And so the east wind was something they normally had to contend with, but what's the significance of the east wind here?
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Pharaoh seems to recognize that something about the prosperity of his empire is at stake.
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The river is there, and with it what you would want the river to produce, fine grain and fat cows, but instead there's blight and famine.
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There's carnage and destruction. Egypt was the breadbasket of the ancient world, not only in the days of the patriarchs, but even down to Roman times.
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The Roman Empire was basically fed by the grain of Egypt. Paul in Acts 28 hitches a ride on an
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Alexandrian grain freighter that ends up sinking because of the route it takes, but these large grain freighters, these ancient cargo vessels, would have made the run from Alexandria, the port of Egypt, toward southern
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Italy throughout the years. And of course this grain made
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Egypt this prosperous empire, and Pharaoh knows if my grain and my cattle are threatened, then my power and my dominion are threatened.
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So indeed he woke, he knew this dream had come to him, verse 8, in the morning his spirit was troubled.
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He sent and called for magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Magicians here, of course, is not some
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Broadway act with white gloves and rabbits coming out of hats. This is actually probably a technical term, maybe poorly translated magicians.
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These are a certain class of priests that were trained in the arts of divination according to Egyptian religious ritual and mythology.
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And so these priests come, all the wise men come to Pharaoh's court, and he can find no one to interpret these parallel dreams.
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Pharaoh is troubled. If we put Christianese on that, Pharaoh is convicted.
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He feels weighty. He feels that something is wrong. He feels distressed in his very soul, and he gathers every counselor he can find that's an
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Egyptian, and there's no Egyptian to answer him. Arthur Pink in Gleanings in Genesis, he says, we're shown here that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.
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All of Egypt's wise men can do nothing to explain an iota of these dreams to Pharaoh.
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Egypt, of course, stands as a figure of the world in Scripture. It takes on aspects of Babylon in the prophetic literature, but Egypt, even sort of projecting toward eschatology,
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Egypt is the serpentine empire, the evil empire of the world as far as biblical reflection is concerned.
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So think of Rome, Babylon, Egypt as of a piece. These are the fallen kingdoms under the men who are swayed by the serpent.
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Egypt has wise men, has priests in all manner of ritual, and yet they can produce nothing of wisdom, nothing of guidance, nothing of truth.
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It's all smoke and show. The people are idolaters. They don't know
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God, and as Scripture declares, it is only in His light that we're able to see light.
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And so all of the wise men of the fallen world, that is Egypt, all of the priests of our modern day pretend to have light to offer, and yet there's no light to be shown from them.
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Apart from Him, there is nothing but darkness morally and spiritually.
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And we see that here in Genesis 41. Impotent priests, impotent wise men, ignorant, darkened, unable to interpret.
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That is still the case today if we feel the same way. Pharaoh understood something that precious few in this life come to realize.
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The wisdom of the world is morally and spiritually bankrupt. Only in the light of God do we see light.
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Only by beholding the light of God's truth and God's wisdom, by applying
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God's way and will to our lives, are we able to ascertain God's guidance and the meaning of all things in our lives, whatever so comes to pass.
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We're going to circle back to the wisdom of Pharaoh in this very regard shortly, but I just simply want to make the point.
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All of the wise men of Egypt, all of the wise men of the fallen world are able to convene and gather and search their books and have the conference tables with coffee on the run, and they produce nothing of value to Pharaoh's crisis.
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But here comes the Hebrew who has the wisdom and way of God instilled in his life, and he uniquely alone is able to give an answer to Pharaoh.
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Do you recognize the morally, spiritually bankrupt wisdom of the world around us?
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The chief butler spoke to Pharaoh saying, I remember my faults this day. Now, that's often been treated as though he's remembering, oh,
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I promised this guy something, or at least he begged me, and I just am remembering it now, and I remember my fault.
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That doesn't really seem to be what the cupbearer is saying. He doesn't actually ever confess that Joseph begged him to tell his story or anything.
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He seems just to pass it off as, I know a guy. He says, I remember my faults this day almost as I remember the offenses that caused you to put me into the prison cell, and when
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I was in that prison cell, this is what happened. Verse 10, when Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, again, that's most likely
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Potiphar. Both me and the chief baker, we each had a dream in one night, he and I.
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Each of us had dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now, there was a young Hebrew man with us there, a servant of the captain of the guard.
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Remember, Joseph had been Potiphar's servant even still, and we told him he interpreted our dreams for us.
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To each man, he interpreted according to his own dream, and it came to pass. Just as he interpreted for us, so it happened.
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He restored me to my office, and he hanged him. This ungrateful memory comes back into view.
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It had been there in the memory bank, but it took two years to surface. Notice the cup bearer doesn't immediately jump to Joseph.
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It's only after he sees every wise man and priest of Egypt come in and have nothing to offer that he sort of begrudgingly goes, all right,
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I do know a guy. He finally sees his opportunity. You get the sense he really doesn't want to bring a
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Hebrew slave out of prison and kind of tie his reputation to Joseph.
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So it's sort of a last resort. I know a guy, and maybe this will come through.
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Whatever else he had forgotten about Joseph, he clearly forgot the begging, the fourfold plea.
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He does remember this. Joseph is a Hebrew. He says, we met a
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Hebrew youth. There was a young Hebrew. Clearly, Joseph had been testifying about the fact that he was a
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Hebrew. That was something that left an impression upon the cup bearer's mind. Remember that at this point,
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God had uniquely revealed himself to the Hebrews from Abraham moving forward, according to the covenant he had made with Abraham.
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And so Joseph is the Hebrew, the man of God who's walking in this Abrahamic promise.
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The only place that God is actively identifying and revealing his presence is to the
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Hebrews. His hand, his guidance is upon the Hebrews. The cup bearer and Pharaoh have no idea that history is revolving not around the might of the
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Egyptian empire, but about the tent of this young Hebrew prisoner. The household of this young Hebrew prisoner, who
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Pharaoh doesn't have a concern to know, is actually the guiding point of all that's unfolding in history at this point in time.
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It's just like Augustus Caesar reigning over the world empire of his day.
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And in the backwater town of Bethlehem comes the whole meaning of history, unbeknownst to him and to most
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Roman senators well past the beginning of the early church. They didn't even know what a
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Christian was or who Christ was until about the turn of the first century. You even have
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Pliny the Elder, he can't even spell Christ correctly in Latin. There was some instigation of Crestus, whoever that is, and yet all of history does not revolve around the might of empire, but the might of God's kingdom.
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We see here that the only place Pharaoh can have wisdom and understanding regarding his crisis is from a young Hebrew youth that has been utterly discarded by the machinations of the fallen world.
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He alone has revelation from God, though nothing in his life seems to show that forth. He's not driving a
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Bentley, he's not naming it and claiming it, he's a prisoner suffering, forgotten for two years.
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And in Joseph's life we see the scriptural principle, the secret of the Lord belongs to those who fear him.
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Joseph fears God. We're going to see it in more ways than one. We see the same thing in the days of another fallen empire,
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Babylon, when another king was troubled by something he could not understand, and the answer for Nebuchadnezzar was found in Daniel, a man who fears
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God. And then Belshazzar again, unable with his companions to understand what was scrawled upon the wall until they call in the aged prophet to reveal it.
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The secrets of the Lord belong to those who fear him. So Pharaoh sends for and calls
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Joseph up out of the prison. You can only imagine what this would have been like for Joseph when that gate swings open or the rope is let down the hole, whatever the roundhouse might have looked like, and all of a sudden he's thrust up out of his grave clothes.
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He must have looked almost unrecognizable, and they shave him and they put appropriate clothing on him and they thrust him into the royal presence of the
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Egyptian king. It's amazing, isn't it, that Pharaoh is so desperate that he calls for this
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Hebrew ex -con to come out of prison and stand before him. Joseph must have been as bewildered as the cupbearer.
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You're actually going to try this? You're actually going to follow through? Now there's probably an application here about shaving, but I'm just going to leave it alone.
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It seems to be the Hebrews like their beards and the Egyptians like to be shaved, and what we make of that, of spiritual significance, we'll leave for another day.
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But notice that Joseph appears before Pharaoh as an
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Egyptian ought to appear, as the tomb paintings. If you've ever been to the
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Museum of Fine Arts in Boston and you go to the Egyptian exhibit, you'll see how court officials looked in their shaved appearance, shaved heads, often only having, if anything, a small amount of facial hair, if that at all.
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And so, of course, Joseph is conforming to practice that he might appear before this ruler, and yet Pharaoh is eager to listen to this young Hebrew, eager to hear what this young Hebrew has to say.
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This political leader is eager to hear the words that attend this young man of God, eager to hear the wisdom and guidance that may come from his lips.
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Look at what he says in verse 15. I've had a dream and there's no one who can interpret it, but I've heard it said of you that you can understand a dream to interpret it.
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Pharaoh knew that this dream was a revelation. He knew that there was something significant, something troubling about what it entailed.
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He could not understand it and no Egyptian he knew could understand it. He was a lot like a person who opens up the scripture and they have no idea what they're reading, but they're troubled by it.
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Their spirit is gripped by it and they're eager to understand it. The Ethiopian eunuch, do you understand what you're reading?
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How can I? I can't find anyone among my friends, among my circle, who's able to explain this to me.
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Can you interpret it for me? It's the spiritual blindness, the spiritual darkness that God uses his people to shed light upon.
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Notice that Pharaoh asserts Joseph has the innate ability to interpret. I've heard it said there's no one but you who can understand this dream to interpret it.
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If ever there was a moment for Joseph to act like an Egyptian, he's already shaved and dressed like one.
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Why yes, Pharaoh. Why yes, in fact, I do have this ability and I'm willing,
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I'm willing to offer my services to you for a small price of liberty and fortune.
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He has every opportunity to say, yes, I have this gift and now I'm going to maneuver and manipulate with this gift that I have that I can finally get out of prison.
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I can finally actually be free. Maybe I can even have a little place for myself on the banks of the
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Nile. Joseph doesn't do that at all. Please notice that the same urgent begging he had had two years prior, get me out of this house, please, you have his ear.
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If he shows you favor, if this comes true, remember me. He's eager, but he's not so eager that he resorts to self -reliance.
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He really sees himself as in the hand of God and so he's not willing to manipulate his circumstances.
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In fact, the first word in the Hebrew text that he says to Pharaoh is a negation.
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Al in Hebrew, no. Here he is as an Egyptian. If ever there was a temptation to bend the knee and say, yes,
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I do have this gift and this is all that I ask. Instead, he says, no.
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The Hebrew corrects, almost rebukes Pharaoh. No, not in me.
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God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Joseph immediately says,
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I do not have this gift of interpretation. I'm not like your wise men and your priest. You see,
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I have faith in God, the living God, and God is able to tell me what he has shown you.
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God is the one to whom this dream belongs. It's true of me in my life.
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It's been true of the butler and the baker and Pharaoh. It's even true for you. He completely, as it were, moves the focus and the possibilities that come with that focus off of himself and on to God.
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It's as if Joseph desires Pharaoh not to know Joseph, but to know God. This belongs to God.
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God must have the glory for this. If there's anything you must know about this, it's not my words, but what
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God is doing in your life and in your kingdom, Pharaoh. He's shaven, brought before the ruler of the world, finally out of the pit of suffering and despair.
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If ever there was a moment, if he couldn't be tested by the affliction of those years, maybe he'd be tempted by the potential glory of manipulating these circumstances, but he doesn't.
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The young Hebrew instead chooses to glorify God. If this is the only phrase I get in front of you,
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Pharaoh, this is what I'm going to say. God will give
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Pharaoh an answer of peace. The word there, shalom, in Hebrew, so enigmatic, has so many angles and shades of meaning.
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Perhaps the best translation would simply be, God will answer Pharaoh's welfare. He's not saying it's definitely going to be an answer of peace toward you, but more like, you know,
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God is going to tell you how it will fare with you. God will tell Pharaoh's welfare. God will answer
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Pharaoh's health, Pharaoh's prosperity. You see, Egypt is viewed as the possession of Pharaoh because it's under his authority.
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Beginning in verse 17, Pharaoh says to Joseph, behold, in my dream I stood on the bank of the river.
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Suddenly seven cows came up out of the river, fine looking and fat. They feted the meadow and behold, seven other cows came up after them, poor, very ugly and gaunt.
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Such ugliness as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt. Egypt doesn't have gaunt cows with their ribs poking through their skin.
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Egypt is abundant, prosperous. The Hannafords and the
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Walmarts are always full. And the gaunt and ugly cows ate up the first seven, the fat cows, and when they'd eaten them up, no one would have known that they had eaten them for they were just as ugly at the beginning.
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And so I awoke and also in my dream I saw suddenly seven heads come up on one stock, full and good.
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And behold, seven heads withered thin and blighted by the east wind sprang up after them. And the thin heads devoured the seven good heads.
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And I told this to the magicians and there was no one who could explain it to me. Again, the narrative is stressing there's no one, no one, no one in all of Egypt, no one who has wisdom and truth, no one but those who wait by faith upon the
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Lord. No one but Joseph, who's walking in the way of God, is able to discern what is true, what is right, and what is coming.
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Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do.
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The seven good cows are seven years. The seven good heads are seven years. The dreams are one. And the seven thin and ugly cows which came up after them are seven years.
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And the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind are seven years of famine. This is the thing which
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I have spoken to Pharaoh. God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Indeed, seven years of great plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt.
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But after them, seven years of famine will arise and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
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And the famine will deplete the land. So the plenty will not be known in the land because of the famine that follows it.
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For it will be very severe. And the dream was repeated to Pharaoh twice because the thing is established by God.
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And God will shortly bring it to pass. Notice how many times
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Joseph brings reference to God. This is what God has shown you. This is what
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God is about to do. This thing is established by God. God is about to bring it to pass.
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Joseph comes as the prisoner slave before mighty Pharaoh. And he speaks as John Knox to the
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English queen. This is what God requires of you. This is what
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God has shown you. This is what God is about to do. The famine will deplete the land.
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Again, probably not the best translation. It's a PL. It's intensive. It's like devastate the land.
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Destroy the land. That's the imagery. The severity will be such that all of the abundance will be forgotten.
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No one will be able to say, do you remember how good 2019 was? It will be utterly corrupted and destroyed.
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Famine is coming, Pharaoh. You will have seven years of plenty.
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But the famine that is coming, the destruction that is imminent, will be such that it will be as if you've never had a harvest.
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Your empire is about to be destroyed. Your whole land is about to be devastated.
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That's what Joseph says to Pharaoh. You know, we say the word famine. We read it off the page of Genesis 41.
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We really don't know what we're talking about. Even in parts of the world today where they experience famine, they couldn't experience it in the way that an ancient did.
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Not with bags of UN rice. Famine would have brought about a complete breakdown of society.
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Children and the elderly starving and dying first. Eventually, men begin to rob, kill, steal.
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The society completely breaks down such that there can be no law, can be no order, can be no domain, no dominion.
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Property is lost, people are lost, the nation is lost. Famine would destroy everything that Egypt had been.
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God is bringing this upon Egypt. But he's bringing it upon Egypt, not for the sake of Egypt's destruction, but rather for the sake of his people's salvation.
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The church, not present in Egypt, but still dwelling as it were around the tent of Jacob, that is the church of the day, with Joseph perhaps far removed from it.
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But it is the household of Jacob that is God's church, as it were, in the land.
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God's church resides uniquely upon the household of Jacob. And God is bringing this judgment upon the evil empire all so that he can save his church.
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He can save the household of Egypt. Because if it weren't for Genesis 41 and all that God has been doing leading up to it, all of the household of Jacob will perish in the land.
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There will be no grain that they might live. Their lives would be cut short. The promise that God had made of the serpent's seed being crushed by the seed of the woman, the seed that comes from Abraham, that itself would be cut short.
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In other words, God is intending through this famine judgment that his own people, his own covenant might be saved.
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Do you know that that is still the case here this morning? As we dwell in the midst of the evil empire, the empires of this fallen world,
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God brings judgment upon them that he might save his church and carry forth his covenant promises.
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Everything that God has done in history, through history, in and through his
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Son, is uniquely designed to bring about the salvation of his covenant people.
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You have it here in shadows in Genesis 41 -50. We have the reality of it that we're living out even today.
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This is what God is doing in the world. Notice that Joseph is able to declare these things forthrightly to Pharaoh.
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Do you notice there's no sense of his knees buckling? He's not intimidated. He doesn't pull back. He doesn't say things that court priests would want to say, things that are soothing and encouraging to Pharaoh.
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All of that had fallen flat. Joseph comes with all of the integrity of a prophet.
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He has a character that is spotless. Because he has not compromised himself, he's able to stand and speak.
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Frankly, brothers, if Joseph had compromised himself with the wife of Potiphar, I don't think he would be standing before Pharaoh.
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He would not have had the integrity to be able to stand and speak, thus saith the Lord. If you don't have integrity in your life, if your conduct is not blameless, you will not have the character of Joseph to speak unto nobles and kings and the cultural elite and say, thus saith the
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Lord. You just won't have it. You'll be far too compromised to even care. He's able to say these things and not shrink back.
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He's able to speak of God's judgment and give testimony to God. He does that that he can provide a way of escape in a way that brings forth
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God's blessing. He applies wisdom. Notice in everything that Joseph has said, he gives the revelation of God because it is sure, it is established twice.
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Not only because it's sure, but because it demands a response. Joseph is more than the revealer of the dream.
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He's also, as it were, the wise prophet, the herald, the preacher, the ambassador. And so he goes from interpreting the dream to a lot more than interpreting the dream.
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He goes to applying wisdom to what Pharaoh ought to do now. Now he's well beyond a court magician.
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Or, you know, here it is and that's my time. Thank you very much. He doesn't leave. He then spends verse 33 and following saying, this therefore is what you need to do,
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Pharaoh. He becomes, as it were, a preacher, a shepherd, a counselor, an advisor, an ambassador.
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The vision is sure, Pharaoh. And because God is doing this shortly, it demands a response.
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It demands a response. As God's word always does. This is a revelation of God.
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These things are coming to bear. It demands a response. The things that God repeats in His word are meant to strike us and strike us and move us to a response.
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The gospel is repeated more than twice because it demands a response.
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God's word is given to us as not only a revelation, but as something to respond to in wisdom and repentance that we might be a doer of the revelation rather than a hearer only.
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Pharaoh in his household and his kingdom is spared because he was a doer of the word rather than a hearer only.
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He didn't say, well, I'm glad I know what that means now. I'm gonna ride the wave for seven years and then I think it's time to retire to a different part of the world.
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He doesn't do that. Look at what Joseph says, verse 33.
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Now, therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. I don't think
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Joseph at all is wink, wink, nudge, nudge pointing to himself. For Joseph, that's like out of the question.
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So please keep that in mind. He's saying, you need a man. He needs to understand these things and you need to give him authority to act upon it.
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And he's not assuming that's going to be him fresh out of the orange jumpsuit of the Egyptian penitentiary system.
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Not exactly worthy of being the right hand man for Pharaoh, some Hebrew slave. Let Pharaoh do this.
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Let him appoint officers over the whole land to collect one fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven plentiful years and let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming.
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Store up all of the grain under the authority of Pharaoh. Let them keep the food in the cities. Then that food shall be as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which shall be in the land.
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That the land may not perish during the famine. And the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all of his servants.
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We see that though God is sovereign and this judgment is unavoidable, that does not mean to sit on your hands and wait for it to come.
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Joseph, because he's walking in God's wisdom and way, recognizes this is the time to respond.
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This is the time to act. The revelation was given by God so that you would prepare and prevail.
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If God did not want you to react to this, He would not have given you the revelation. If God wanted to bring destruction upon Egypt, He would just bring it.
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He would not give you this revelation, this warning of the judgment to come, and then time to prepare for it.
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And the same is true here this morning. Everyone in this room is accountable for the revelation of God that they're hearing.
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When we like John the Baptist say, flee the wrath to come, it's a revelation from God that is sure and it demands a response and you are now given the time to respond wisely to that warning.
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The worst thing that Pharaoh could have done here is say, well, maybe, maybe not.
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Well, we'll see. Well, maybe later on, some years from now, I'll get around to it.
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To whom much is given, much is required. God has given a revelation that it might be responded to.
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Joseph's wisdom has shown to be that which is from above. The advice is good in the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of all of his servants.
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They recognize here is a wise man. Here's a man upon whom the
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Spirit of God is resting. Notice Joseph's first exhortation, first advisement.
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Very significant. Some of us have been having breakfast working through a book on manhood, the way that God has designed and ordained and uses manhood.
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Notice here the answer, let Pharaoh select a wise man and set him over the land of Egypt.
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Here is a crisis. Here's a need. What you must do is find a man who is wise, who is full of the
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Spirit, who's able to act on these things and give that man authority to act upon these things.
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An answer must be found in a man. A man who will exercise authority and walk in integrity and act in wisdom.
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A man who will be humble enough to understand that though it could not be, famine would come after such prosperity, yet he's sober to the truth of the revelation and he acts wisely and in accordance with it.
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This has always been God's way of answering things and needs in the world.
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Men of conviction that will rise and act. Men of integrity that will lead. Jesus comes and He calls twelve men and He calls them for this very reason.
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He gives them the revelation of God and then He gives them authority and they go and they do the work according to that revelation.
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And they build the foundation upon which the church is being built century after century. You see the same dynamic here.
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This is God's design. Pharaoh knows that you must have authority, but beyond authority, you must have faith.
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You must have someone who truly believes what the revelation has said. It must be a man who understands that when food abounds, famine is creeping around the door.
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And it tends to be when things are prosperous and abundant, everyone is caught flat -footed when those times of desperation come.
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Could that be us in the year 2022? We're not used to, you know, we're not used to going into the grocery stores and seeing so many empty aisles and we think surely this is a blip.
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Surely this is a one -off. These are just hiccups in the global supply chain. We ought never to rely upon ourselves.
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We ought never to rely upon the wisdom of our blind leaders who are collectively darkened.
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In fact, we ought to call them to be like Pharaoh. Pharaoh does everything you would want a political leader to do.
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Look at what he says in verse 38. Can we find such a one as this man in whom is the Spirit of God?
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And Pharaoh said to him, inasmuch as God has shown you all this, now he's mirroring the testimony of God.
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If God has shown you all this, there's no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over all of my house.
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And all my people will be ruled according to your word. Only in regard to my throne will
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I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, see, I have set you over all of the land of Egypt.
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If the cupbearer was shocked that Pharaoh would call a prisoner to come before him. Can you imagine the cupbearer's response now?
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This prisoner, oh yeah, I know this guy in prison if you'd even care to talk to him. Now has authority over that cupbearer.
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Joseph must have been shocked to the core. They say a picture paints a thousand words.
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Can you imagine what a photograph of this moment would contain? He had come out of the prison and he knew he was standing before this
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Egyptian ruler, the ruler of the greatest empire at this point in world history. And you can almost sense it.
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He was bracing himself. God, I trust you. God, be with me. God, answer and reveal these things to me.
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But more than anything, God, give me a testimony for you. May I recognize that whether I'm in the prison or whether I'm in the throne room,
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I'm ultimately your servant and I'm serving you. So let me be faithful to you before I address anything else.
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And he does that. He testifies to the Lord. And the Lord exalts him.
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Joseph truly was seeking God's kingdom and righteousness. And now look at what has been added to him.
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If ever there was a living illustration of 1 Peter 5, 6, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
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You're in the roundhouse. You don't see how his promises are true. You don't see how someone who's beloved and chosen by God could have this kind of year by year suffering.
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And yet you're walking by faith because you trust him. You know that he's good. You know that he has control.
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And because you've humbled yourself under the mighty hand of God in due time, he has now exalted you.
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And there's times in the Christian life where that may be true for a season. You humble yourself for a season and then
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God exalts you. He brings you out of that trouble. And in fact, that trouble becomes a blessing in your life.
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And sometimes that's the arc of the whole life of the Christian. The whole life of the Christian is one of humbling and patiently enduring suffering.
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And then they're exalted in due time when they go to stand before the Lord. So whether it's microscopically, as it were, in seasons, or it's the arc of the whole life, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.
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Seek his kingdom and righteousness first. All these things will be added to you. Do not fret.
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Do not eat the bread of sorrows. Do not toil with anxious toil. He gives his beloved sleep.
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Pharaoh not only testifies of God, he recognizes that Joseph has the spirit of God upon him.
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Have we ever seen a man like this upon whom is the spirit of God? Joseph stands out from everyone else in Pharaoh's court.
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The decorum, the sort of majestic posture of these officials, their training, their education, their cultural sophistication.
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And here comes in this freshly shaved and thrust prisoner who knows what his physique looked like.
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It must have looked like a POW pulled out of the Burmese jungles and put before the Queen of England. And here he stands, and yet even
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Pharaoh recognizes the spirit of God is upon this man. There's something immaterial about it.
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There's no description to fit it. It defies understanding, and yet it's plainly visible. The spirit of God is upon this man.
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Notice that Joseph doesn't say, well, do you mind if I just, do you mind sitting here? Let me get the smoke machines going, and we're going to have a little message here.
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Let me get my Air Force Ones on. All right, now you're really going to see the spirit of God. There's no showmanship.
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He doesn't say, let me just, before I give the revelation, I would say a little prayer for you. Do you mind if I hold your shoulder? He doesn't do any little things to connote something that would be spiritual in our eyes.
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He simply stands before him, and his character is enough. His simple answers and his rigidity toward the
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Lord is enough to say the spirit of God is upon us. I've never met someone like this in my court. No one stands before Pharaoh like this.
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There's an aura to his presence that transcends his bodily weakness.
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We have really nothing that would make us think Pharaoh was so struck by Joseph, and yet he was struck by Joseph.
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I hope you've known people in your life as a Christian that have that kind of aura. I hope there's people among us that have that kind of aura, that they need to say very little, they need to do very little, and yet you know somehow the spirit of God rests upon them.
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You know somehow that they're proven, that they've been tested, that they see the face of God.
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I remember this was several months ago. I can't remember if I ever shared this.
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I know I've shared it to some people, but there was a, I was part of this program that lasted a year, and it ended with a banquet, and the banquet was organized so that the donors could come, and I thought it was going to be a group of people that had hodgepodged and put together the funds for the program, but in fact it was just a couple.
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It was just a couple, and they did not want their names to be known. They said, you know, you can call
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Mr. B and Mrs. B, and they didn't make that, because their chief concern was that God would be glorified, and the director was there preparing everything for us to have a dinner together and a time of sharing, and the director said, you know,
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I went out to eat with them last night, and I'm just so happy that you'll be able to meet them.
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These are incredible people, and so now it's like, oh, what do, you know, you start imagining what they're going to be like.
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They're going to be, you know, seven foot tall and, you know, glowing, and what are these people going to look like, and they walked in, speak very broken
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English. They were exchange students from South Korea, and so the whole time they're having trouble, but their older son is there with them, and he's able to kind of help and translate where he can, and so you couldn't see it in their words.
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You could only see it in their posture and their warmth and the way they looked at people and the way they deflected any undue attention upon them and the way that they would much rather have passed out of there and not be known, but it was almost a stipulation that they had to be there and they had to be honored, and you could just say, here is a couple upon whom the spirit of God is resting.
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This is incredible, and I don't think I've ever been in a room quite like that where the atmosphere was changed by them.
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Before I even knew, as a number of people were there, who it was, there was just something different about this man and his wife, and that's what
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Joseph has. That's what it looks like when you've been tested by affliction and you've been found faithful.
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That's what it looks like when for a decade you've been living by faith, though things in your life are often imploding.
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You're letting the furnace of affliction have its perfecting work in your life, and the result of coming out of that is, oh, there's so much more dross to consume, but everyone else around you is going, do you see the glow of that refining fire's work?
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The spirit of God is upon them. Pharaoh is so struck by this man that he says, you will be at my right hand and now you are given all authority to act according to your wisdom and what seems right to you.
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All of my people are now your people. Your word is now their word and all will be done according to your dominion.
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Pharaoh wisely, wisely recognized, if this man has the spirit of God upon him, then the best place for my kingdom to be is in the hands of this man of God.
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Pharaoh recognizes there's no Egyptian to be found in his land that could give competent guidance and wisdom in a time of crisis.
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And so what does Pharaoh do when Pharaoh is confronted by the revelation of God? He bows to it.
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He submits to it. He believes the revelation of God through the mouth of Joseph and he obeys the revelation of God.
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Don't you long for Pharaohs in our own day, global leaders and politicians to be like this?
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To be so struck by men and women of integrity who do not compromise and their lives are not complicit with the fallenness of the world?
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Such that Pharaoh can say, this is completely unprecedented, but you Hebrew prisoner,
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I want my whole kingdom and governance to be subject to your guidance from the revelation of God.
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This is the church in seed form guiding in wisdom from God's revelation, the empires of fallen man.
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All of this is established by God. The most trivial, most unimportant, most unlikely circumstances from that prison cell two years ago have now brought
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Joseph to a vice regency over the kingdom of Egypt. God's finger was guiding providentially every detail of Joseph's life and Joseph never lost faith in that guiding hand.
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Do you know, brothers and sisters, that the same is true for you here this morning? If you belong to Jesus, if you by faith belong to the
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Lord, that His hand is upon you, His spirit is attending you and every detail of your life is subject to Him.
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That which will test you, that fiery trial which is to try you, He's designated it toward this end.
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That you might be exalted in due time in such a way that He will be honored and He will be magnified.
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That it was not from your manipulation, your reliance, your maneuvering, but it's by His hand,
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His grace, His ever -repeating mercies morning after morning. Do we walk by faith that God is establishing
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His work, His will in our lives and in the world around us? Are we trusting in that?
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Do we trust that God is establishing all things under His omnipotent hand before we ever dare call the world around us to bow like Pharaoh beneath the almighty hand of God?
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We as Christians, we as the church, we as believers must make sure that in our lives we are bowing beneath the almighty hand of God.
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It is only when we understand and live out a humble, submitted life to God's rule that we can call other people to do the same.
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It's as we do this and as we repent of not doing it that we're calling other people to do the same.
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Do you see the hand of God? I know there's people in this room that have been weary from being tested.
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Maybe they've had the equivalent of a roundhouse. Do you trust the hand of God?
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I mentioned just a few weeks ago from that Puritan who I still can't remember his name, but in his journal when he talked about some of the hardship he was facing and he always attributed it to the hand of God.
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He didn't have this little flow chart where all the blessings correspond to God's hand and all the difficulties and afflictions correspond to the devil.
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He understood that whatever the devil is restrained or unrestrained from bringing to pass, it's
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God's hand that blesses and takes away. It's the hand of God and the name of God that appoints both blessing and abundance and affliction and desperation.
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And so he could say things like, God's hand is heavy upon my wife this season. And you need to be able to say by faith,
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God's hand is heavy upon me. But I trust Him. I will lie down in peace and sleep for You alone,
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O Lord, make me to dwell in safety. Psalm 4, 8,
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The fear of the Lord leads to life and he who has it will abide in satisfaction.
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Proverbs 19, 23. We learn this from the life of Joseph. In Genesis 41, we even see the greater son of Joseph yet to come.
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He offers the same thing. Remember when the disciples are being storm -tossed by worry. We're about to drown and see we're perishing and you don't care.
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And remember he offered that. Why were you afraid? Why weren't you trusting?
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Don't you know my Father's hand is good? Fear not, little flock.
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It's His desire to give you the kingdom. Will you seek the kingdom first and His righteousness?
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All the things that consume you in worry will be added to you. So where are you not seeking the kingdom?
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Where are you not seeking the righteousness in your own life? The way that God would have you live and act and be.
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We see in Joseph a resolve that he would seek God's kingdom, God's righteousness, and trust in His life and in His health and in His prosperity.
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Everything else would be in God's hand. And it's because he submitted himself to God's hand in that way that he's been exalted here in Genesis 41.
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Come to me, Jesus says, all you who labor and are heavy laden, I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and,
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I'm sure the ladies know it, learn from me. So where we're not seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness, if we're looking to Joseph as an illustration or as an exhortation in this regard, it's only meant to point us even more so to the
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Lord Jesus. Learn from me, Jesus is saying. Does the yoke of your life, whatever that yoke may be full with, does it feel too heavy to bear?
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Do you not have peace? Do you not have rest? Are you heavy laden? Jesus says, learn from me. Take my word into your life.
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Walk in my way. Follow my example. Seek after my spirit.
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What a powerful witness Joseph is for these very reasons. So how are we going to walk by faith in what
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God has established? Three things. Briefly, we're coming to a close.
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Three things. How we trust God, how we walk by faith in what He has established.
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Whether He's establishing the roundhouse or the vice regency, whatever He has established, we walk by faith.
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You wonder if Joseph, in the back of his mind, he's going, you know, it's been such an up and down. If this is as high as I'm getting now, how low am
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I going to have to go after this? He still has to walk by faith. Three things.
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First, we must understand God's purpose in us, through us, and beyond us.
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This is not some easy little thing, oh yeah, got it. This is really something to sit down, maybe even this afternoon.
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You can write this out on a post -it note and just spend some time staring at that post -it note and saying, do
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I understand where I am, where I've been, what God is doing in me, what
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God is doing through me, and what lies ahead of me? What is this all for?
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Why would God allow this? What would God call me to? What would God seek to do through me?
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What has He made plain? What are His priorities? How am
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I doing with God's priorities in my life right now? Priorities of marriage and children and brothers and sisters and a lost and dying world around me to things that are uniquely tied to God's priorities.
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How am I doing with them? Do I recognize God's purpose in me? Do I see God's hand working through me in these very things?
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Do I understand beyond me and beyond these priorities and beyond my home and church, the point of it all?
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Where is this all going and why does this all matter? Joseph had never lost sight of the covenantal promise of God.
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He didn't know how A was going to get to Z, but he knew the land still belonged to the Hebrews and he might be in Egypt, but somehow
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God's covenantal promise would show true. In other words, it wasn't just what God's doing in me, in the roundhouse or in the throne room, through me being able to deliver my people and even some of the
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Gentiles from despair and destruction, but beyond me, the covenantal promise that is passed down through Abraham even to me.
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These thoughts, this meditation and reflection, responding to these questions will break through the storms and waves of the day and of the season.
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We need to be well acquainted with our finitude. We need to see ourselves as a vapor of life.
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We need to have high thoughts of God's eternal purposes, our high and fixed eternal calling, and let that guide us through some of these reflections.
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So first, we must understand God's purpose in us, through us, and beyond us. Secondly, we must counsel ourselves with the
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Word. Not in a self -serving kind of way, not like a vitamin you take each day, but you counsel yourself with the
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Word so that you can be better equipped and have a greater desire to know and serve the
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Lord. What shines through Joseph's reaction is that he's always seeking to serve
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God and testify of God. It's because he knows God and he wants more of God.
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The throne of Egypt is not enough. It's not my be -all, end -all. It's not what I want.
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I want God's face, God's purpose, God's calling, God's destiny. He would rather have that than anything this world could offer.
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We have to counsel ourselves with the Word out of a desire to please and serve the
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Lord, not out of needs, felt needs for the day, which again is like a vitamin way of reading
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Scripture. Really interesting, the impact of private devotional reading in the past 200 years of church history in the
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West. To think through what has the effect been due to the widespread availability of print literature that we can now have a
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Bible in front of us instead of having to gather and hear the Word read much like we read it before the sermon.
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We all stand up and hear large portions of Scripture together. But what happens in 200 years when that's reduced down to little booklets and large passages are reduced down to little verses?
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What happens is, and seminary professors talk about this all the time, students have all sorts of Scripture memorized and they have no idea how to fit it together.
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They don't know how to systematize it. They don't know how it fits into biblical theology. They don't know how the narrative proceeds.
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They just have vitamin verses. So we actually have to counsel ourselves with the
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Word not to get our vitamin C hit, spiritually speaking, but actually to plug ourselves in to God's work in the world.
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What is He doing? What has He revealed? How can I act and respond accordingly?
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It may take years of planning and toil to be able to respond in the way that God would have me respond.
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But I'm not just nitpicking and cherry picking to get through the day. Do you see? Third and last.
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So first, understand God's purpose in us, through us, beyond us. Especially beyond us.
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Second, counsel ourselves with the Word. Not have a desire to serve ourselves, but to serve the
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Lord in the biggest entailments of serving the Lord. Third, we must guard against any plans which have an end in themselves rather than in God's glory.
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Now, God is glorified in all manner of things. God was glorified in Joseph serving prison trays in the roundhouse for two years.
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The key is that whatever you're doing, whether you eat or drink, you're glorifying God. Seeking to glorify
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God. Seeking to acknowledge and thank and enjoy and testify of God in whatever you do.
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If whatever you're engaged in, whatever you're partaking of, does not have an end in glory to God, then it's not something worth partaking in.
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It's most likely something that's preventing you from glorifying God. Something preventing you from redeeming the time.
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So there's a vast variety of things that we can do. Again, even eating and drinking is a way we bring glory to God.
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But the key is it's fixed as our purpose in life. To know and to glorify and to enjoy
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God forever. So look at your life and say, God, where am
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I? Where have I been? What's Your purpose in me? What are You doing through me? What's Your goal beyond me?
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Help me to understand where this is going. I want to be oriented toward that. Is there anything as I'm reflecting on these that I'm not bringing glory to You?
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In fact, I'm robbing glory from You. In fact, I'm just serving myself in my immediate comfort.
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And this is more about me than it is about You. Is there anything that's preventing me from redeeming the time because the days are evil?
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Is there anything that's robbing me of sanctification that You would be bringing into my life otherwise? Am I giving myself over to endless binges on Netflix or YouTube or video games that are just a complete mind mush waste of time?
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Am I redeeming the time? Because even though I'm 17 or 30, like Joseph, I'm a man of God and the
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Spirit of God is resting upon me. Guard against any plans, any activities, any endeavors which have an end in themselves and not in God's glory.
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What will that look like for you? You could do no better than what
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John Newton describes. The Word of God dwelling richly in them, preserves them from error, becomes a light to their feet, a spring of strength and comfort by treasuring up doctrine and precept and promise, by meditating on examples and commands in Scripture, their minds daily comparing themselves by that divine rule to their walk.
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They grow in a frame of spiritual wisdom. Joseph has spiritual wisdom. They acquire a gracious taste.
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They're able to discern ahead of many others what is right and what is wrong. And they have a certain degree of certainty in everything they judge.
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And they're seldom mistaken because their main influence is a love for Christ and He rules in their hearts and in everything they have a regard to the glory of God.
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It's always the great object in their view. Don't you want that?
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Don't you want that satisfaction, that peace, that glory, that aura?
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God is able to make all grace abound to you, Paul says, so that always having all sufficiency in all things, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
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May that God of grace, as Peter says, who called us to his eternal glory by Christ after you have suffered for a little while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
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Amen. Let's pray. Father, thank
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You for Your Word. May we be not hearers only, but doers. May we submit ourselves to Your almighty hand that in everything we might testify of You, of Your goodness, of Your mercy, of Your presence and Your love.
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Help us, Lord, not to stray to the right or to the left, but to walk with our eyes fixed upon Your promise no matter how our lives may implode in every other respect.
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May we walk by faith and trust in You. Show us, Lord, the way
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You're moving in us and through us. Reveal to us what lies beyond us, Lord. Let us walk in wisdom according to Your Word.
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Not with snippets, not as a token and then shifting all the attention back to us for the rest of the day, the week, or the season.
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But, Lord, may everything we do in abundance or in poverty, in affliction or in health, may it all be done with an eye to Your glory.