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Every nation has heroes, people who rise to the occasion in times of crisis and carry the people through a difficult time. The history of our country, the United States of America, has had many presidents who we admire for their courage in leading the nation through murky waters.
We've had three different presidents who stand out from three different centuries. George Washington was a general who led the colonial army to victory in the war for independence against Great Britain.
He later became the president and set an impressive standard of what that position was supposed to be. Abraham Lincoln also comes to mind when we think about American heroes. The nation was on the brink of splitting between North and South over the issue of slavery.
He led the nation through the Civil War period and was influential in abolishing slavery and preserving the Union. In the 19th century, FDR was influential in giving people hope during the Great Depression and leading the nation through World War II.
It's interesting that historians almost unanimously rank these three presidents as the top three we've ever had. And you might ask, well, why? One of the reasons is that they rose to the occasion during times of great crisis.
James Monroe, it's interesting, I didn't even put this in the sermon notes, but James Monroe was considered a very strong leader, but there was no crisis. And so all these presidents dealt with a tremendous crisis and were wise and led the country through those times.
Now, in the history of the great nation of Egypt, as we've looked at through Genesis here, one of their greatest heroes was not a pharaoh. One of their greatest heroes was a young Hebrew named Joseph, the man from the offspring of Abraham, whom we have been looking at for months now.
We've already seen Joseph plan for the famine by stockpiling food during the seven years of plenty so that they would be ready for the seven years of famine. They have enough food for the famine, but what we are going to see today is that the nation runs out of food and money.
The stockpile is there, but the nation is going to run out of their own personal supply of food and they're going to run out of money. And so Joseph is once again going to be forced to rise to the occasion.
And so we're going to look at this today in Genesis chapter 47, verses 13 through 31, and we're going to see how he handles this crisis. So I encourage you to turn there with me. If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 48 and 49.
This sermon is titled Leadership Through Adversity. And our big idea, our proposition is this. As Joseph handles the famine, he teaches us how to please the Lord in our daily lives. And we're going to see two ways how in our text this morning.
The first way how is by providing wisely for the needy. And we'll see this in verses 13 through 26. But before we jump into our text today, let me give you a little recap of last week's sermon. We looked at Jacob and his family.
The nation of Israel relocate from their homeland in Canaan to a new land in Egypt. They joined their family member Joseph, who was the governor of that region. And what we saw is that Joseph desired to give them the land of Goshen.
And this land was given to them by Pharaoh. This way, the offspring of Abraham would be kept from morphing into another people group so that their line could remain pure and they would maintain their ethnic identity.
But what we zeroed in on in this text is the conversation between Pharaoh and Jacob. Jacob just arrived in Egypt. And as he met Pharaoh, he reflected on his life. Pharaoh asked Jacob how old he was, and Jacob responded that he was 130 years old.
And he said that his days were few, painful, and he described his life as a sojourn. He was just passing through. What we saw is that the author of Hebrews observed this from the text. And as the inspired writer of scripture, he wrote in Hebrews 11 .10 that each of these men, including Jacob, were looking to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
So Jacob knew that his life in this world was short and painful, but he also knew that something much better awaited him, namely to be in the presence of God in heaven. And what Jacob described about his life is what scripture describes about the life of a believer.
Life is short, often painful, and it's a sojourn. But just like Jacob, the believer should long for heaven. And if you belong to the Lord, the difficulty of life should make you homesick for heaven. We should have this hunger inside that we can't wait to be there.
So this was the first biblical truth we saw last Sunday from the conversation between Pharaoh and Jacob. The second biblical truth we saw is that you will be rewarded for blessing God's people. What we saw in the text last week is that Pharaoh treated the offspring of Abraham very well.
And what Genesis 12 .3 promises is that those who honor Abraham's offspring will be blessed. At this early point of Israel's history in Egypt, the Lord blessed Pharaoh and Egypt. They treated Israel well and therefore blessing came to them.
And we can learn from this, these blessing passages in Genesis. The Lord calls us to honor his people. And what I argued is that this still includes the offspring of Abraham, the 14 million Jews who still live in the world today.
And not only that, but to bless the people of God who do know the Lord right now. And that's your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. And to do this will lead to blessing for you. To dishonor God's people is to sin, but to bless God's people is holiness.
And the Lord will reward you for your obedience to him in this way. Now after that recap, let's look at the text this morning. And what we all see is that in Egypt and the surrounding region, the famine was very severe.
And all the people are going to look to Joseph to guide them through this. His leadership through this crisis is crucial. So let's begin by reading verses 13 -19. Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe.
So that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan. And 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 in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? For our money is gone. And 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 and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds and the 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 to him, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my Lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord, but our bodies and our land.
Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy 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 let's stop right there. Now what we see is that as Israel settles in the land of Goshen, the famine is still very severe. And not only does Egypt lack food, but the land of Canaan does also. And in order to care for the people of his land, Joseph needed to act.
And what verse 14 tells us is that Joseph gathered up all the money in Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain that was bought. The famine continued for such a time that no one had money left in Egypt.
The vast majority of the people would not have been wealthy. They did not have a stockpile of money laying around. And the famine obviously would have hurt the agricultural industry. So people did not make money and eventually everything ran out.
But as we learned in chapter 41, the supply of grain was not the issue. We saw Joseph's wisdom in that chapter when he stored up a large supply of grain during the seven years of plenty to last over the seven years of famine.
The problem was the lack of money to buy the grain. In verse 15, when each one came to Joseph, they cried out to him and said, Give us food, for we have no money to give you. These people were in desperation.
And this is where you need a good leader who cares about the welfare of the people and helps them out in the best way possible. Remember, the only reason they're in this position where they aren't going to die during this famine is because Joseph planned ahead during the seven years of plenty.
So he has food on site to give them. So the first thing Joseph does is, in verse 16, he tells them to give their livestock in exchange for food. You'll notice that he doesn't just say, OK, have food. He wants them to give something in return.
And this is a theme that we're going to see here of Joseph's wisdom and how he handles this. He doesn't just give away food. He wants something in return. And this is wisdom, as I'll show you here down the road.
Verse 17 tells us they listened to him and brought their livestock and received the food. But eventually their livestock ran out also. So in verse 18, they came to Joseph again and told him, we have no money and no livestock.
The people came up with a new idea. They knew by Joseph's first action that he wasn't just going to give them food. So they're thinking, OK, we have to do something to get this. And so what they do is, they say, buy us and our land.
And Joseph knew that they no longer had livestock, but they still had land. And so he was willing to go along with them in this plan. And he's going to do this, of course, in exchange for food, the food that they so desperately need.
And not only do they ask for food, you will notice in the text that they also asked for seed, as we see in verse 19. We can see why they would have asked for this, because the food that he gives them, it's only going to last for so long.
The famine is close to coming to an end here. And once the famine comes to an end, then they can use the seed to plant in the fields, and they will have crops going forward into the future. What verses 20 through 26 tell us is that Joseph went along with this plan.
So let's read this together in verses 20 through 26. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. 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. Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field, and as food for yourselves and your households, and 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. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth.
The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. So I'll stop right there. So not only did Joseph buy their land and make them servants, but he also made a law that one fifth of the crops would go to the Pharaoh, and four fifths of the crops would be theirs.
Now the position that Joseph put them in may sound harsh at first, but we need to think about this for a bit to see Joseph's wisdom in this, and also his generosity. Specifically, we need to think about how putting them back to work was a good thing for Joseph to do.
And maybe a little help in understanding this, let's look back at something that happened in the history of our country. And Elvin and Susan, you may remember this time a little bit. During the Great Depression, the economy was in a tailspin, and unemployment was very high.
This was, of course, in the 1930s. And this presented a huge problem, because much like the Egyptians in this narrative, people needed to put food on the table. And during the Great Depression, FDR established legislation known as the New Deal.
Organizations such as the CCC and the WPA put people back to work. Sometimes you see statues of remembering these days. And the main group of people who were put back to work were young men. Thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of young men were put back to work, and they were put back to work on environmental conservation projects.
I remember we were recently up at Gooseberry Falls right off the North Shore, north of Duluth, and there was a statue of a worker who worked on that park in Gooseberry Falls, which is interesting. And so people were put back to work.
They weren't just given food. They weren't just given handouts. They weren't just given stuff. They were told to work, and that's the way that they provided for themselves. Now, I'm not endorsing everything that FDR did during his presidency, but what he did, putting people back to work during very hard times, was a good thing.
Because not only did it put food on the table, it also boosted the morale of many. What Joseph is doing here is he is putting people back to work. You will notice that he is not handing out free food, but making them work for it.
Why would he do this? Joseph does this because it's the right thing to do. Scripture tells us this. The Apostle Paul wrote in 2 Thessalonians 3 .10 that if anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat.
And you may wonder, why is it wrong to continually give someone food and never expect them to work for it? And the answer is laziness is a sin. Proverbs 20 verse 4 says,. And it's fitting, by the way, that we have all that food on the back table that Jeff worked very hard for.
And we get to enjoy. Now to be lazy is to go against God's design for his image bearers and to neglect the responsibility before you to be productive. In the Garden of Eden, God created Adam to work the field, Genesis 2 .15.
And we know that work is good because he worked before sin came into the world. Sin didn't happen until Genesis 3. But in Genesis 2 .15, God planned that the man would work in the field. And working also makes you feel good, as I already mentioned.
Depression is much more likely to overtake one who is lazy than one who is productive. Now when FDR put those people back to work during the Great Depression, depression among the idle decreased significantly.
And we can draw the same conclusion from the Egyptians during these days. They would have felt much better about themselves. And they would have provided for their needs. Now some Bible interpreters have looked at this passage and said Joseph was wrong to buy their land and to make them servants working the land.
But one who comes to this conclusion is not reading this text very closely. What we read in verse 25 is the response of the Egyptians to the decision that Joseph made to buy all the land and make the people workers for Pharaoh.
What they said is this, What we can see is the people were overjoyed at what Joseph had done. This was a kind act done by Joseph, not a ruthless one. Letting the people keep four-fifths of what they made was generous.
A wicked ruler in this situation would have laid a huge burden on the poor. Maybe he would have taken half or more. Joseph only is taking one-fifth. And Joseph also did not foolishly just give the food away.
Because the whole nation would have been idle. Instead, they were made productive through this. So we can see Joseph's wisdom in how he handled this. Now the best case scenario is the people would have kept their land and prospered, but the famine called for desperate measures.
This was the best way to help this nation through the famine. Joseph knew that and he wisely handled it. He did not overburden them or just give them free food. Rather, he provided by feeding them through the means of putting them back to work.
Now there are a few applications for us here. And number one is something I'm not even sure I need to tell you. Since this church is such a group of hard-working individuals, the Lord calls you to be productive and you are.
And honestly, if there is a problem, and I wrote about work in my pastor's page for the month of September, and there's two poles here. There's where God wants us to be with work. He wants us to be productive.
But the two ditches we can fall in is one ditch is underwork, which is laziness. The other ditch is overwork, where you can neglect other responsibilities. And I think if we, since we're such a hard-working group, we're probably going to err more on this side than this side.
And so we just have to be aware of that and prioritize our work. Because if we're being overproductive to the point where we neglect other things, then that's not pleasing to the Lord. We should set aside time to read our Bibles, to spend time with family, to come to a Bible study, so on and so forth, the important things that God calls you to do.
But indeed, we should aim for productivity as Joseph led the Egyptians to be here. So we need to find that balance. The second application we need to see here is how to provide for those in need. We need to have wisdom in whom we provide for.
We should not provide for those who could work but refuse to. As 2 Thessalonians 3 .10 says, if you don't work, then you don't eat. It is true that there are times when someone can't work, and we should provide for those people, no question about it.
But that's a different story than what's being addressed here. Something other than that is what this text is focusing on, because all these people were able to work, and so Joseph is putting them to work.
So if someone can work, it may be right, it probably is right to get that person back on his or her feet to help them get back to productivity. Mark has a good quote here. He says, we want to give people a hand up, not a hand out.
So get them back on their feet and set them on the path of productivity. I quoted you, Mark, in a sermon. You must feel pretty good.
No, I'm kidding.
When Mark said that, I'm like, that is so good.
I love that.
So thank you, Mark. So if someone comes to our church and they are truly in need, and there is a plan to get them back on their feet, and we can see that this person is not taking advantage of us, because that happens, we should be willing and eager to help.
Romans 12 .13 tells us to contribute to the needs of the saints, and even when the opportunity arises, even if someone isn't a believer, we should look to help someone out if we don't think they're taking advantage of us in some way.
And the question we need to ask ourselves is, are we helping this person toward productivity? And we need wisdom in this. The Bible tells us to help, but we should only help those who are truly in need.
And we know that there are people truly in need. And, in fact, our leadership team right now is we're putting together a benevolent fund to help those who are in need. And so we need wisdom as we set up this fund to see how can we use these resources when problems arise.
So we need to pray to the Lord to give us wisdom, as James 1 tells us. We need to follow Joseph's example in this. He truly helped them by providing their needs and setting them on a good path through working and not overburdening them, through giving them work and not overburdening them as well.
So as Joseph handles the famine, he teaches us how to please the Lord in our daily lives. And the first way how is by providing wisely for the needy. The second way how that we are taught here, how to please the Lord in our daily lives through Joseph's example, is by doing good when no one is looking.
By doing good when no one is looking. So this is a little bit of a shift in topics here as we look at this text. But we'll see this in verses 27 through 31. And I hope that this will be very helpful as you walk with the Lord.
So in verses 13 through 26, we see the focus is on Egypt. Egypt, they're the ones who ran out of money. They were the ones who were in desperation and Joseph provided for them. Now the focus shifts back to Israel.
Remember, at this point, they're in the land of Goshen. This experience of crisis at this late point in this famine, in the last years of the famine, they're doing well because Joseph already provided for them.
As we saw in verse 12, remember in verse 12 it says, Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents. So they would have been fine through the remainder of the famine.
Now, if we look at verse 27, let's look at the focus is on Israel here. So Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it and were fruitful and multiplied greatly.
So that's the position that they are in. But the focus of this last point is verses 28 through 31. And what we're going to see in these four verses is that Joseph does something remarkable here. And maybe I shouldn't say remarkable.
It's what he should do, but we need to take note about what he did. So let's read verses 28 through 30 as we see the very end of Jacob's life and how Joseph is going to respond to a request from his father.
Verses 28 through 31. 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. So what we read first in verse 28 is that Jacob lived in Egypt for 17 years, from 130 to 147. So he lived out his days joyfully because, remember, he is reunited with Joseph, the son he thought was dead.
And when Jacob was 147, he knew that he was very close to the end of his life. We saw last Sunday that Jacob was looking forward to heaven, as the author of Hebrews told us in Hebrews 11, 9 and 10. But what we are going to read here is that as he was ready to go to heaven, he cared where his body was going to be buried.
So we just read this in verses 29 through 31, where he tells Joseph to swear to him to bury his body in the land of Canaan, the land of promise. And what Jacob does is he makes Joseph swear that he will bury his body in the same place Abraham and Isaac were buried.
And the way that this oath is made is the same way Isaac did with Jacob in Genesis 29. These things are so foreign to us, but what we see here is that the recipient of the promise or oath would put their hand under the thigh of the one speaking.
And so that's what we see here. Now as we think about this promise that Jacob tells Joseph to keep, this is a test of integrity. Jacob is going to die. He's very soon to die at this point. And he will soon be gone from the earth, and he will not know whether or not Joseph kept his word.
But, of course, it is still very important that Joseph keeps his word. This will be a test of integrity for Joseph. He swore to do it in verse 31. Now the question is, will he do it? Now if you shorten the word integrity, you get the word integer.
An integer is a number, and with numbers you have whole numbers. So if a person has strong character, he or she is whole, or we call that person wholesome. A good definition of integrity that I've heard said before is, who are you when no one's looking?
There's a famous basketball coach by the name of John Wooden. He said, your character is so much more important than your reputation because sometimes one's character isn't in line with their reputation because they can be different in private than they are in public.
Your character is who are you when no one's looking. Because anyone can put a face and deceive others into thinking that he or she is a good person. And you can maybe think of people where at some point the truth came out that someone was living a lie all of those years.
I remember several years back there was a pastor in the Twin Cities when I was at Mount Free Church. He pastored a church about probably 15 miles from us, and he was climbing the ladder of fame in the evangelical world.
He was hanging out with all the big-name pastors, and he was writing books, he was getting speaking engagements, and then the news came out that he was having multiple affairs. And there were red flags.
I think when people look back, there were red flags. But this man was a completely different person in private than he was in public. He was putting on a charade every Sunday. And one thing I pray for is, Lord, help me when I step into this pulpit on Sunday, help me to be the same person.
I'm going to sin. I know that. But can my wife listen to me when I preach? Because she knows me better than anybody. So those are the things. That's the test of integrity. Who are you when no one is looking?
In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached on giving to the needy, and he stressed the importance of doing it in secret. In Matthew 6, 3 and 4, Jesus said, When you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret, and your father who sees in secret will reward you.
The Lord sees everything we do, whether holy or sinful. At the end of the day, his opinion is the only one that matters. The Lord is our judge, and he will reward us if we are faithful. And to be a phony will not pass at the judgment.
No one can fool God. And true character, this is important to stress, true character only comes when you've been transformed by the power of the Gospel through Jesus Christ. This is a sermon that I can't just preach without mentioning the cross, where an atheist can sit there and nod their head.
You need the Gospel of Jesus Christ to have this power to truly live a godly life, to have holy character. In 2 Corinthians 5 .17, the Apostle Paul wrote, If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
The old has gone, the new has come. When you believe in the Lord, your aim becomes to please God, and you know that he is always watching. So it makes you careful how you live, whether people are looking or not.
Now as I mentioned above, Joseph has demonstrated strong character, and we have seen this as we have looked at his life in Genesis over the past few months. What we see here is he shows strong character with this promise to his father also.
Joseph will show himself to be a promise keeper. In Genesis 50, as we will see here in a few weeks down the road, he buries his father where Abraham and Isaac were buried, in Canaan, in the cave east of Mamre.
Jacob was not there to see him do this, but Joseph kept his word and acted faithfully. So who are you when no one is around? Do you keep your word when no one is looking? Follow Joseph's example in this.
The Lord is always watching. He will reward you for your faithfulness. So as Joseph handles the famine, he teaches us how to please the Lord in our daily lives. The second way how is by doing good when no one is looking.
So to summarize our sermon this morning, as we finish out chapter 47 here, as Joseph handles the famine, he teaches us how to please the Lord in our daily lives. We have seen two ways how in this text.
The first way how is by providing wisely for the needy. The second way how is by doing good when no one is looking. In Scripture, Joseph is the rare character where we can follow his example most of the time.
In 1 Corinthians 11 .1, the Apostle Paul wrote, Be imitators of me as I am of Christ. And what Paul is saying here is, as long as I'm following Christ, follow me. And if I don't follow him, then don't follow me.
And so we can follow Joseph's example as it's laid out here in the text today. And by God's grace, may we do that. May we be a church that lives this out. So now the next two Sundays, we are going to see Jacob bless his sons.
So we're getting to the end here of Genesis. We probably have about four Sundays left before we wrap up this book and move on to something else. So what we're going to do next Sunday is we're going to see the end of his life and the blessing he leaves to his sons.
And I look forward to opening the word with you. Let's pray together. Father in heaven, Lord, I believe the promise that your word does not come back void, but accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent out.
And so, Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit would speak to each one here today uniquely in how to apply the truth of this passage to their lives. And may we live this out, Lord. We can't do this on our own.
Lord, apart from you, we can do nothing. And so I pray, Lord, that each one would understand that we need your help to be able to live this out, to be able to grow in holiness, little by little and day by day.
Help us to become more like you every day, Lord, every week. And when we sin, Lord, may we not get so discouraged that we feel like giving up, but may we keep fighting to become more like you. And I pray for this in Jesus' name.
Amen.