His Blood on Us and our Children

We're going to start at the tail end of Genesis chapter 45 for our context today and continue looking at the story of Joseph.

Joseph has revealed himself to his brothers. His brothers have gone and reported to his father that Joseph is still alive. And now we're going to continue to pay attention to what is going on in this text as it relates to Joseph pointing us to Christ.

And in this next part of the text, we're going to see that Joseph's wisdom,

Joseph as Christ, ends up saving the whole world. And you have to kind of put that in quotes. Kind of the whole point is because this is a salvation story from beginning to end that typifies

Christ. But let us pray. So for our context today, we're going to go back in the story a little bit so we can pick that up, keep fresh in our minds what is going on in this text.

And then note as we get into the latter part of the story of Joseph, the resolve is rather fascinating.

And again, it's pointing to Christ saving the world. But here we go. Genesis 45, verse 25.

So we get the story of the brothers who go to tell their father Israel, Jacob, that Joseph is alive.

So they went up out of Egypt, came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. They told him Joseph is still alive. He's ruler over all the land of Egypt.

His heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father

Jacob revived. Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.

Chapter 46. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba, offered sacrifices to the

God of his father Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, Yaakov, Yaakov.

And he said, here I am. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation.

I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close your eyes.

We noted last time that God had been silent the whole time Joseph has been down in Egypt.

God hasn't spoken to him a word, not even a whisper, not even like, don't worry, it's all going to be okay. It's not as bad as you think. Wink, wink.

Nothing like that. And now God speaks to him, and we get a promise of God that while the children of Israel are in Egypt, the

God is going to make a great nation out of them. And so we're already beginning at this point to begin to see some of the important themes and theological foundation laid for what's coming, the pinnacle story, and I mean this, the pinnacle story in all of the

Old Testament, the story of the Exodus, which is the one that helps us understand rightly the predicament that we find ourselves in and how to find

Christ in the midst of us being born in slavery to sin, death, and the devil. I'm getting ahead of myself, so we continue.

So Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones, their wives, in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

They also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob and all of his offspring with him, and his sons and his sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all of his offspring he brought with him to Egypt.

Now I'm going to skip the list here of the names, and we're going to continue then, verse 26, all the persons belonging to Jacob who came into Egypt who were his own descendants, not including

Jacob's sons, wives, were sixty -six persons in all, and the sons of Joseph who were born to him in Egypt were two.

All of the persons of the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were seventy. He had sent Judah instead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen.

Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father, in Goshen. He presented him to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.

Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.

Those of you familiar with the historic liturgy, this should remind you of a particular part of the liturgy.

It's akin to it, and has its fulfillment, if you would, in the New Testament.

The Noctimitis, that's right, that's right. You familiar with the Noctimitis? The Song of Simeon. When Jesus is presented in the temple, right?

I see this is all the more reason to figure out a way to see if we can weave some of these things back into our worship. Let me find it real quick.

Luke 2 .25, here's the story. So Jesus is born, Luke 2 .22, When the time came for the purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present

Jesus to the Lord, as it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male who first opens the womb shall be called holy to the

Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to what is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle doves or two young pigeons. Now in this particular case, this sacrifice tells us that Jesus' parents were poverty -stricken.

They did not have a lot of money. This is the sacrifice of those who are poor. Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was

Simeon, and this man was righteous and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the

Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ. Isn't that interesting? You kind of see the motif there.

It's similar to Jacob and Israel. He came in the Spirit into the temple, and when the parents brought in the child

Jesus to do for him according to the custom of the law, he took him up in his arms and he blessed God, saying, Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace according to your word, for my eyes have seen your salvation, that you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the

Gentiles, and for glory to your people Israel. And this is immortalized then in the historic liturgy, in what's called the

Naftimides, which is a post -communion canticle that the church has sung for millennia. Lord, now you let your servant go in peace.

Your word has been fulfilled. My own eyes have seen thy salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of every people.

Does this sound familiar to any of you? No? Yeah, you. Yeah, Thor, while you're visiting. There's several different settings for the

Naftimides itself. And so the idea is that these words become one of the ways in which the church sings itself out of the church.

So the idea is that we've now had the Lord's Supper. We've now feasted on the body and blood of Christ, given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins.

And so we, along with Simeon, can say, Oh Lord, now you let your servant depart in peace according to your words. My eyes have seen your salvation.

And in this case you can say, My lips have tasted it, that you have prepared in the presence of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and for the glory of your people

Israel. And it's just wonderful. It's absolutely a wonderful part of the liturgy. So you'll see then, notice how

I'm drawing the connection, Joseph and Jacob. So the motif then is, Now you let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive.

Joseph, who is a typological stand -in for Christ, notice the theme then. This takes us right to Simeon's song, which is almost identical in word and verbiage.

And now how the church takes up these words in her worship and sings them as part of her worship. I have seen your salvation.

I can depart in peace. Yeah, it is. It is. It is absolutely very appropriate.

So Joseph said to his brothers and his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and I will say to him,

My brothers and my father's household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come up to me. And the men are shepherds.

They've been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks with their herds and all that they have. When Pharaoh calls you and says,

What is your occupation? You shall say, Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now. We, both we and our fathers, in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the

Egyptians. I just think that's a fascinating line. They're an abomination. The world hates those shepherds. Ah, shepherds.

And those sheep, oh, they're dumb anyway. Yeah, they are. 47.

So Joseph went in, told Pharaoh, My father, my brothers with their livestock and their herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan.

They are now in the land of Goshen. And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers,

What is your occupation? They said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. They said to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks for the famine is severe in the land of Goshen.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land.

Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh.

And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, Now this is an interesting exchange. How many are the days of the years of your life?

Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojourning, that is not a throwaway word.

Sojourning. We are all sojourners in this life. The only two things you can count on for sure are death and taxes.

So you're going to have to pay all the way through the time of your sojourning. And so notice Pharaoh asked,

How many are the days of your life? His response, The years of my sojourning, my short brief time as I pass through this life, are 130 years.

Few and evil have been the years of my life. And they have not attained the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.

A little bit of a historical note. This is one of those markers in scripture. Remember when we read in the beginning of Genesis how long people lived?

That guy lived how many hundreds of years? Methuselah was how old when he died?

What? And so after the flood, you note, people lived 500 years, 400 years, 300 years, 200, now he's at 130.

Humans' life spans are coming down, down, down, down. So we know this historically of what's going on here.

But notice the words. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. And I've made this point, and I'll continue to kind of hammer on it, is the

Bible does not teach you to apply certain principles and spiritual technologies in order for you to have victory in your life.

We all have a cross that Christ lays on us that we have to carry. And so our life, like Jacob's, and Jacob stands as an example to us of one who suffers through his sojournings.

And in the midst of his sufferings, his faith in the Lord is not shaken, and he hangs on to it. After he wrestles with God, his father dies.

Rebecca's nurse dies. His favorite wife dies. You see how this all works, right? Joseph goes into slavery.

He doesn't hear anything from God. And his life is mean. What he goes through is evil.

And the only thing he has in the midst of all of this is the Lord. And so the idea then is that we don't peddle victory technologies here.

We preach the truth. And that is we're all sojourners. The days of our sojourning are short, few, and if they seem mean and evil and awful and just, it's like as soon as you get past one horrific thing, something else just seems to crop right up.

Welcome to planet Earth under the curse. This is what Christ is saving us through. He's not promised to save us from it.

So the person out there telling you, oh, if you have Jesus, you're the head and not the tail. You are gonna go from victory to victory.

No weapon formed against you will prosper. You should be experiencing the victorious Christian life. Hide your wallet.

They're selling you something. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojournings.

So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled 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 Ramesses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents.

Now there was no food in all of the land. The famine was very severe. So the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine.

Joseph gathered up all of the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain that they bought.

And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan, all of the

Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone. Joseph answered, give your livestock and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone.

So they brought their livestock to Joseph. Joseph gave them food in exchange for horses and flocks and herds and donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year.

And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent.

The herds of livestock are my Lord's. There's nothing left in sight of my Lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land, by us and our land for food?

And we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh and give us seed that we may live and not die and that the land may not be desolate.

So Joseph bought all of the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. For all of the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them and the land became

Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them.

Therefore, they did not sell their land. Now, we as Americans, we see this and we sit there and go, could you imagine being brought to the point where you're going to sell yourself to the

United States of America? We say government exists by the people for the people. This has got everything backwards from what we're used to as Americans.

And what's going on here? What's going on here? Everybody is being physically reduced to servitude, total dependence on, well, we're gonna say

Christ. And I'll say that because Joseph is the one acting on behalf of Pharaoh. He's the one doing all of this.

And so Pharaoh is the stand -in for, in this case, for God the Father. Joseph is the stand -in for Christ.

And so now all this picture then shows us how we are all utterly dependent.

And when God takes everything away from us, all we have left is his mercy, is his grace, and whatever his desires are.

If Egypt wanted to be Hitler, he could have. I mean, if Pharaoh wanted to be like Hitler, he could have done that, right? But remember,

Joseph is a stand -in for Christ. So then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have this day bought you.

I've bought you. Those are some loaded words right there. Yeah.

People of Kongsvinger, saints of Christ, you have been bought by Christ.

So I love this. I have bought you. Everything you have is mine. Everything you are is mine.

This is theologically rich. I bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Let me say it this way. Jesus has bought you and everything that you have.

He's purchased and redeemed you for God the Father. See how it's working now? You can start to see it. Now, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land.

And at the harvest, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh. Four -fifths shall be your own. Oh, that's a heavy text. This is more than a tithe.

At the harvest, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh. Four -fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your household, as food for your little ones.

And they said, you have saved our lives. May it please my Lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.

You see the salvific theme here? You've saved our lives. You've purchased us.

You've saved us. And now we get what the whole story has been about the whole time. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt.

It stands to this day, at least the time it was written, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's.

And I would say, yeah, that's because they were pagan idolaters anyways. They're outside of all of this. Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful, and multiplied greatly.

And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years.

And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me.

Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place. He answered,

I will do as you have said. And he said, Swear to me. And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.

Next chapter. After this, Joseph was told, Behold, your father is ill. So he took with him his two sons,

Manasseh and Ephraim. And it was told to Jacob, Your son Joseph has come to you. Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed.

And Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me,

Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you. And I will make of you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession.

And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine.

Now this is fascinating here. When you read all of the ancient lists regarding the tribes of Israel, is there a tribe of Joseph?

No, there is no tribe of Joseph. There are the half tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. So something's going on here.

Joseph's legal standing with his father, it's as if his death and resurrection, you have to kind of put that in quotes, has somehow exempted him, put him outside, whereas his sons now are grafted back in.

Does that make sense? So now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine.

Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine, as Reuben and Simeon are. Fascinating. The children that you fathered after them shall be yours.

They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance. As for me, when I came to Padan, to my sorrow,

Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way. When there was still some distance to go to Ephrath, I buried her there on the way to Ephrath.

That is Bethlehem. Now the second time we hear of the place where Christ is born.

So when Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, Who are these? Joseph said to his father, They are my sons, whom

God has given me here. And he said, Bring them to me, please, that I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age, so that he could not see.

So Joseph brought them near him, and he kissed them and embraced them. And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face, and behold,

God has let me see your offspring also. Then Joseph removed them from his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the ground.

Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand, toward Israel's left hand, Manasseh in his left hand, toward Israel's right hand, and brought them near to him.

So they're being brought to Israel by order of their birth. The firstborn is supposed to get the blessing, right?

So Israel stretched out his right hand, laid it on the head of Ephraim, who was the younger, and his left hand on the head of Manasseh, crossing his hands.

For Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph and said, The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the

God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys.

In them my name be carried on, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.

When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him, and he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head, and Joseph said to his father,

Not this way, my father, since this one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head. But his father refused and said, I know, my son,

I know. And he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations.

So he blessed them that day, saying, By you Israel will pronounce blessings, saying, God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh.

Thus he put Ephraim before Manasseh, to be expected in some senses, right? Because of Jacob's own history.

But he's acting prophetically here. God is no respecter of persons, and God is not bound to follow the rules of man. So Israel said to Joseph, Behold, I'm about to die.

But God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you, rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope, that I took from the hand of the

Amorites with my sword and with my bow. Now this right here, if you were paying attention during the sermon today, and I know you were all taking copious notes.

When we were in the Gospel of John chapter four, and the woman at the well in Samaria at Sychar, it was

Jacob's well there, and it noted that the place where she was, was near the plot of land that Jacob had given to Joseph.

Here is where we know about that. This is where it's mentioned. It's in this chapter right here.

I've given to you, rather than to your brothers, one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow.

And so that is mentioned. It was part of Samaria in Jesus' day. Next chapter.

So then Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may tell you what shall happen to you in the days to come. Now here comes a prophecy.

Assemble and listen, O sons of Jacob. Listen to Israel, your father. Reuben, Reuben's the one who slept with one of his concubines.

Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the first roots of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power. Unstable as water, you shall not have preeminence because you went up to your father's bed, then you defiled it.

He went up on my couch. Ouch. Simeon and Levi, our brothers, weapons of violence are their swords.

Let my soul come not into their counsel. Oh, my glory, be not joined to their company. For in their anger they killed men, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen.

Cursed be their anger, for it is fierce, and their wrath, for it is cruel. I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel.

Wow. This is quite the reading of a will, right? But notice he's speaking prophetically.

Judah. And we're all sitting there going, oh yeah, we know what happened to Judah. He slept with Tamar, an act of prostitution, right?

Judah, your brother shall praise you. And that's what Judah's name means, praise. Your hand shall be on the neck of your enemies.

Your father's sons shall bow down before you. Judah is a lion's cub. Now we got the first mention of the lion of Judah.

From the prey, my son, you have gone up. He stooped down, he crouched as a lion, and as a lioness who dares rouse him. The scepter shall not depart from Judah.

Clear prophecy about Jesus. Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah, and his throne will be forever.

The scepter, the rule, will never depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until tribute comes to him, and to him shall be the obedience of the nations.

And I think that's a better way of translating what's going on right there in the Hebrew. Binding his foal to the vine, and his donkey's colt to the choice vine, he has washed his garments in wine, and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

Hmm. Hmm. Does that sound like atonement, communion, kind of smooshed together?

It should. His eyes are darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk. Oh, so he uses those strips, okay.

Zebulun shall dwell at the shore of the sea, and he shall become a haven for ships, and his border shall be at Sidon. Wow, what a prophecy.

And I'm going to note something here. The skeptic would sit there and say, well, Moses is the one who penned this. Moses is the one who wrote the book of Genesis.

So when Moses pens these prophecies, some of this stuff has already taken place. Some of it hasn't. It's fascinating.

Issachar, strong donkey, crouching between the sheepfolds, he saw that a resting place was good, and the land was pleasant, so he bowed his shoulder to bear and became a servant at forced labor.

Dan shall judge his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan shall be a serpent in the way, a viper by the path, that bites the horse's heels, so that his rider falls backward.

I wait for your salvation, O Lord. It's interesting to note that Dan is one of the earliest tribes to go into idolatry once the children of Israel are established back in the land.

Raiders shall raid Gad, but he shall raid at their heels. Asher's food shall be rich. He shall yield royal delicacies.

Naphtali is a dough let loose that bears beautiful fawns. Joseph is a fruitful bough. A fruitful bough by a spring, his branches run over the wall.

The archers bitterly attacked him, shot at him, and harassed him severely, yet his bow remained unmoved. His arms were made agile by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob.

From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel, by the God of your father, who will help you, by the Almighty, who will bless you with the blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the brow of him who is set apart from his brothers.

Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey, and at the evening dividing the spoil. That's quite the last will in the

Testament. And you notice there, in the midst of it all, now we hear from God, to which of Israel's sons the

Messiah is coming. It is the Lion of Judah. All of these are the 12 tribes of Israel. And so you notice, 13 names, 12 tribes.

13 names, 12 tribes. When we get into the New Testament, there are 13 names of apostles, of Christ, and they are considered the 12.

Paul of Tarshish being brought in late. Kind of keep that in mind. That theme plays out again. All of these are the 12 tribes of Israel.

This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with a blessing suitable to him. Then he... Suitable to him. It's like, really, you've just blessed me with what?

Servitude, violence? It's interesting, right? Then he commanded them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the

Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which

Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite and possesses a burying place. There they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife.

There they buried Isaac and Rebekah, his wife. And there I buried Leah, the field and the cave that is in it were bought from the

Hittites. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people.

So here we find out that Leah is also already dead. Rebekah, yeah, she's dead.

Then Joseph fell on his father's face and he wept over him and he kissed him. Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.

So Joseph gets the Egyptian embalming technique.

He's mummified. Yeah, yeah, he's mummified. He gets the full -blown expensive burial. So, I mean, depending on where, depending on the condition in which his body was laid, it may be still in good condition today because there are a lot of mummified

Egyptians who we can still make out their facial features and their hair and stuff like that. And basically, if you're familiar with this particular embalming technique, it involved removing from the chest cavity all of the organs, getting all of the blood out, and then, this is a little bit gross, they used some kind of a device to scramble up the brains and then suck them out of the cavity.

Yeah, suck it right out through the nose. And then they put the body in some kind of a mineral that drew all of the moisture out of it.

Now, at the end of it, the body turns gray, kind of a charcoal gray color because of whatever this mineral is. But at this point, all of the moisture is gone and the body is, like, freeze -dried.

Yeah, it's not... Yeah, you were going to say something? Yeah, so again, this is when Jacob died, his fulfillment of when he had that vision of God and God said,

Joseph will close your eyes. Yeah. Joseph was there. Yeah. He died and took care of him. That's right. That's right. We just read that. Joseph is going to close his eyes.

Joseph is there when his father dies and he gets to close his eyes, just like God said. And so, yeah, absolutely fascinating.

Forty days were required for this embalming technique. So that is how many are required for embalming and the Egyptians wept for him for 70 days.

And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying, if now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh saying, my father made me swear saying

I'm about to die in my tomb that I hewed for myself in the land of Canaan. There shall you bury me. Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father.

Then I will return. Pharaoh answered, go up and bury your father as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father with him, went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household and all the elders of the land of Egypt as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers and his father's household.

Only their children, their livestock and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen.

It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atahd which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a great and grievous lamentation and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

When the inhabitants of the land of the Canaanites saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atahd, they said, this is a grievous mourning by the

Egyptians. Therefore the place was named Abel Mizarim. You can get the note on that. It means mourning or meadow of Egypt.

Mourning of Egypt or meadow of Egypt. It is beyond the Jordan thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them and his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, buried him in the cave of the field at Machpelah to the east of Mamre with Abraham, bought with the field from Ephron the

Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

And you notice all of this geographical and historical detail. All of this says this is not mythology, this is history.

Now this is fascinating. Next part. So Joseph's brothers, they are as guilty as sin.

They are just as guilty as sin. And so this whole time that they've been in Goshen, their father has been alive, their thinking is this.

The only reason why Joseph hasn't pounced on us, taken everything from us and thrown us in prison is because dad is still alive.

As soon as dad's gone, we are so dead. How dead are you?

So dead. So their guilty conscience is at play. And here's the best way

I can put it, is that we have this same temptation. And the devil plays on these fears.

You call yourself a Christian? I remember what you did when you were in college or when you were in high school or when you were a young person or whatever.

And you sit there and the devil sits there and goes, do you really think that God forgave you for that? If people knew that you had done that, what would they think of you?

And so you're all worried. It's like, oh, if my past ever gets out, I'll never be able to run for president. No, actually, you probably could nowadays.

Something different there. Things have changed a little bit in that category. Joseph can have 80.

Oh, yeah. And see, here's the thing. A good way to put it is that Scripture says that as far as the east is from the west, so Christ has cast our sins from us.

He remembers our sins no more. And we sit there and go, really? God has like self -inflicted amnesia? And we kind of doubt it, right?

We kind of doubt it. And this little story here reminds us, no, when

Christ, the mercy is real. It's not pretend. It's not faux. And as far as the east is from the west, your sins are removed from you.

God no longer sees them attached to you at all. And when he sees you, he sees you as forgiven.

And his mercy is without strings. Does that make sense? So when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may well be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.

So they sent a message to Joseph saying, and they're lying through their teeth, your father gave this command before he died. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's what he said.

Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket. Yeah, here's what he said. Yeah. Uh -huh.

Please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of your servants, of the

God of your father. And here's Joseph's response. He wept. He wept.

This absolutely just killed him because he was not harboring any unforgiveness at all.

Joseph wept when they spoke to him. His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. Joseph said to them, do not fear for I, for am

I in the place of God. As for you, and this is the best, I love this statement in scripture.

As for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good to bring about that many should be kept alive as they are today.

So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. And thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

And so the idea is this. You think about Christ. You think about Christ.

What did we do to him? What did we do to Jesus? We crucified him.

Now how can I be so certain that we are the ones who did this? I mean, I know, well, Don, you're pretty old, but...

I'm a former leopard. Yeah, yeah, you're a former leopard now with the balding thing going on here. But I don't think you're that old.

Okay, all right. I didn't think you were that old. Dave, how long you been around? We're all descendants of Adam. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're all descendants of Adam.

But how can I be so sure that we had something to do with Christ's death? Mm -hmm.

Okay, yes, he took our sins, so our sins are laid upon him. So we know that. Let me find a passage.

That's two. Yeah, it's four. I'm gonna go with four here. But I'm gonna note this. On the day of Pentecost, Peter says to the crowd, you crucified

Jesus and killed him by the hands of lawless men. And he says in verse 36, whom you crucified.

So notice, 50 days after Christ's death and resurrection, on the day of Pentecost, Peter addresses a crowd of people that has gathered from around the world, and he says of them, you crucified

Jesus. You did. None of them said, nah, we weren't there. And I'm gonna show you this in Acts 4.

And I know for certain now that it's there. Here's what it says in Acts 4. As they were speaking to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the

Sadducees came upon them greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them, put them in custody until the next day for it was already evening.

But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of men came to about 5 ,000. On the next day, their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem with Annas and the high priest

Caiaphas and John and Alexander and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, by what power or by what name did you do this?

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said, Then rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you and all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ whom you crucified, whom

God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. And so you're going to see this in the New Testament preaching.

Because our sins are on Christ, and it doesn't matter if you were there when Jesus was crucified, it doesn't matter if you were sitting in the crowd that day saying,

Crucify him. You are held responsible for his death. Does that make sense?

And let me find another passage. Matthew 27. I'm going to look a little bit farther down.

Jesus stood before the governor and the governor asked him, Are you the king of the Jews? Verse 11, You have said so. But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he gave no answer.

Then Pilate said to him, Do you not hear how many things they testify against you? But he gave no answer, not even to a single charge, so that the governor was greatly amazed.

Now at the feast, the governor was accustomed to release for the crowd any one prisoner whom they wanted. And they had then a notorious prisoner called

Barabbas. And I've noted this before, an important little piece of theology. Barabbas is, it literally means son of the father.

That's what his name means, son of the father. Fascinating. So when they had gathered, Pilate said to them, Whom do you want me to release for you?

Barabbas, the son of the father, or Yeshua, who is called the Christ, or you can say the Messiah. For he knew that it was out of envy that they had delivered him up.

Besides, while he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent word to him, I have nothing to do with that righteous man. I've suffered much because of him today in a dream.

Now the chief priests and elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to destroy Jesus. The governor again said to them, Which of the two do you want me to release to you?

And they said, Barabbas. Pilate said to them, Then what shall I do with Jesus, who is called the Christ? They all said, Let him be crucified.

And he said, Why? What evil has he done? And they shouted all the more, Let him be crucified.

That's you. That's me. So when Pilate saw that he was gaining nothing but rather a riot was beginning, he took water and he washed his hands before the crowd saying,

I am innocent of this man's blood. See to it yourselves. And all the people answered, very important statement,

His blood be on us and on our children. Then he released for them

Barabbas and having scourged Jesus, delivered him to be crucified. So in Acts 2,

Acts 4, even if you weren't physically present for the crucifixion of Christ, you are held responsible for it. Let his blood be on us and on our children.

And you think about it, that blood cuts two different ways. If you are penitent, trusting in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, that blood is a blessing and is your salvation.

You persist in sin and unbelief, that blood becomes guilt. Guilt that leads to eternal damnation.

Does that make sense? And so we see here in this text the same theme. As for you, Joseph says to his brothers, you meant evil against me but God meant it for good to bring about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

What we meant as evil against the Son of God, God has worked so that many people will be kept alive eternally.

So do not fear. I will provide for you and for your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

So note this. When your conscience gets the best of you and the devil and your own sinful flesh is reminding you of all the sin and evil that you have committed and reminds you that because of your sin, you are responsible for the death of the

Son of God, then know this, that what you meant for evil God has worked for your salvation and for your good and that Christ no longer holds any of these sins against you and that he will care for you forever and ever in a new earth, world without end.

His mercies are literally, you can never get to the bottom of them, ever. And all of this is because of God's great love, great mercy, all portrayed in Christ, shown in type and shadow.

In the story of Joseph, for our comfort so that we know that we too are forgiven. And so when the devil tempts you to despair of God's mercy, say no, what

I meant for evil God has now worked for good. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. None.