From the Pastor's Study
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How do you think about God's promises? For Christians, they are the central hope of our lives, because God's promises can't be stopped even by death itself. Because of this, we want to be able to pass on these promises to our children, and a big part of our ability to do that is because of this passage right here. Abraham has been promised that there will be a seed that will bless the nations. Ultimately, that is Christ. The promise is going to outlive Jacob, and we will see the transfer of that blessing here. Now, our passing on of the blessing looks different. In this passage, the blessing comes ultimately from the Lord but only *through* Jacob. As we will see, the blessing is going to be extended to the rest of the nation of Israel with the tribes forming their own contribution to God's plan. Today, the blessing ultimately comes from Christ but is shared through every Christian that opens their mouth for the kingdom. We are to remember and pass on God’s promises. Genesis 47:29-31: Painful reminder of a Promise The passage opens with a scene that should remind us of the past. When we see Israel asking for an oath with his thigh, we are, of course, reminded of Abraham making his servant do the same in Genesis 24. His focus at that time was a marriageable wife for his son. But in this particular moment, it isn’t about a people but a place, a return of Israel’s body to the land of Promise. But here, I think we get to see a subtle reminder of another marking of God’s promises. The word translated “thigh” here in this passage is translated “hip” in Genesis 32:31 but it is the same word. This is the part of the body that God touched when He was wrestling with Jacob right before he was about to encounter Esau the next day. Because of this, Jacob limped for the rest of his life. I wonder if it was painful to lift up his hip to allow for this promise? Did he have to lift up the other leg because it was his “good one,” the one God didn’t touch? We remember that this event was also the place where Jacob got his name changed to “Israel,” the name that this land of Canaan will one day be known by. This is a powerful reminder of how faithful that God has been, and we have something to share in that. God no longer makes a permanent mark on our flesh that we can always see, but He has given to us a sign of His faithfulness: baptism. Baptism is God’s sign of His work of including us in His covenant. If you have put your faith in Christ, you can look back and remember your baptism. The fact that you were baptized means that you have heard the gospel, and at least at one point in your life, associated with a church that cared about your soul. That is a tangible expression of God’s grace to you. It is the same for infants who are baptized. Even though they aren’t able to express faith, that actually isn’t what the sign is for. It is God’s sign of God’s work on this child, and if a child is baptized then that means that at one point at least, that child’s parents were involved in a church and believed that God wants their child to believe as well and made vows to pass on to their child, as much as they are able, the faith that they have. If that is your testimony, you can look back to that baptism and say, “God is after me. He has blessed me with a background that not everyone has.” In this way, we are able to join Israel here in this passage. You have had a blessing, and it is time to pass that along. This is a great privilege and joy as parents to pass on the sign of this promise to our children as Acts 2 tells us it is for. Genesis 48:1-4: Strength Made Perfect in Weakness But so often, we feel weak to the task. We come to verses 1 and 2 and find Israel, the wrestler of God, sick in bed needing to summon strength to sit up. He is a physically weak vessel indeed, but he serves El Shaddi, God Almighty. Israel doesn’t have to be physically strong. He is only going to be a conduit of blessing, not its source. God’s grace is strong, yet it can be passed on even in weakness. And what a blessing he is passing on. Verse 4 gives us this word “multiply” which has been on the heels of the announcement of God’s blessing since Genesis 1. It was said of fish, birds, and Adam and Eve. And though it was said of Eve’s pain in childbearing, it will be relieved in the multiplication of children, as was said of Abraham, Issac, Israel, and even Ishmael. Now, we have see it come to fruition here in 47:27, and promised yet again for the last time in Genesis in verse 4. We won’t see it again until in Exodus 1:7. Genesis 48:5-7: The Lost Boys Gathered InWe have to look carefully at what Israel is doing here. As one can see when the tribes are given their allotments in the promised land, there is no mention of the “tribe of Joseph.” Instead, the inheritance is split into the two tribes who are represented here in Joseph’s two sons (with Levi not getting a portion in exchange for being priests makes the math of 12 work out according to Belcher). Israel adopts his grandsons as it were to give them a place equal to his full sons, in fact, it would seem according to 1 Chr. 5:1-2, they are actually getting the inheritance that Reuben and Simon would have been getting had they not dishonored their father in such a way. This implies that their behavior has impacted future generations (Matthews). Genesis 48:8-16: A Heritage of Blessing Verse 10 shows usJacob stepping into the role of Issac. How similar, and yet how different. He kisses and feels his grandsons, not because he suspects deception but because he is expressing love and gratitude that he has the chance to even meet them, much less pass the blessing of his fathers to them. Things are improving for the family. Now looking at the blessing proper, it is very simple. Jacob recalls the past provision of God to his grandfather, father, and now him. He thinks of God along Psalm 23 lines of being a shepherd. He has led him safely to this point, and now desires the same for his sons. Don’t be confused to the angel reference here. On scholar points to Genesis 31:11–13 “Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’ And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that mate with the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled, for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you. I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go out from this land and return to the land of your kindred.’ ”” This is like the Angel of the Lord that pops up frequently in the Old Testament. He isn’t an Angel but God Himself. Possibly the Pre-incarnate Son. Along with remembering our baptisms as a central reminder of the goodness of God, we do well acknowledge the other blessings of God’s providences. It can be easy for us to compartmentalize God as needed for our salvation but our other blessings come from elsewhere. But we have to intentionally notice them. Richard Pratt in his book Praying with Your Eyes Open, talks about an exercise he would do with a kids class for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. He would ask the kids to list all the things their parents did for them. It would start out slow, but soon the list would fill up hard and fast! Kids would begin to notice all the things that their parents did for them once they got past the initial, “Well, they give me food.” God does even more than bring you salvation. He gives you food, too. But even as I give strategies to remember God’s work to help pass on the blessing of Jesus, we are reminded that it is God who decides who, where and when He blesses. We are not in control of where, who, or when He blesses. Genesis 48:17-22: The Passing of Blessings Given We saw earlier that Israel crosses his hands before he blesses the boys. Joseph had set it up so that the right hand (a symbol of priority) would rest of the oldest’s head. That is the way things are done, after all. The oldest goes first! But God’s economy works different than ours. One commentator put it this way: “And is it not a perpetual encouragement to us that God does not merely crown what nature has successfully begun, that it is not the likely, and the naturally good, that are the most blessed, but that God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise…” (Dods, quoted in Ross, 695). In other words, God is never stuck playing the hand He is dealt. He can do anything with you, regardless of where you start. Can you sin your way out of some blessings? Yes, Reuben and Simon did, but God’s grace can meet you even there. It is possible for me to sin in such a way that I disqualify myself for pastoral ministry, but I would not be beyond the saving grace of God. As much as we would like to control what blessing we get, we can’t! Joseph tries to influence who gets the greater blessing by moving his father’s hands. But there is no accident here. Israel’s eyes are bad but not that bad, and he has intentionally decided that the youngest is to be blessed, guided no doubt, by God’s will. Far from this passing of blessing being just a good luck wish, this actually plays out in the rest of the history of the nation of Israel. Ephraim was the stronger tribe of the two. Interestingly, when Moses dies, the nation is led by Joshua who happens to come from Ephraim (Numbers 13:8). And when the nation of Israel splits into Judah and Israel, can you take a guess from which tribe the first king of the new nation of Israel, Jeroboam, comes from? Yes, once again the line of Ephraim, 1 Kings 11:26-40. These aren’t things that Jacob could have had any control over, but they are things that God absolutely controls. This is another way in which we differ from Israel’s position here in this text. We can shape our children’s direction but cannot make sure their destiny. We are in Joseph’s position here. He tried to make things a certain way to follow the conventions he knew to follow, and all he had to do was set his sons in the right place. He did that, but God had other plans. Manasseh was still a great people. They still got inheritance, but it was up to God. Application To quote again from Dods: “And in the case of much that we hold, dear, the same rule is seen; a pursuit we wish to be successful in we can make a little of, and are thrown back from continually, while something else into which we have thrown ourselves, almost accidentally prospers in our hand, and blesses us. Again, and again, for years together, we put forward some cherished desire to God’s right hand, and our displeased, like Joseph, that still the hand of greater blessing, should pass to some other thing.” (quoted in Ross, 695). That is a beautiful way of saying that as much as we would like to shape precisely what blessings we have in life, we can’t. But we aren’t here to be the captain of our destiny. We are here to follow the Captain of our Salvation. We can’t steer the ship of history precisely where we want it to go, we can only be obedient to our Captain. This isn’t a “let go and let God” approach to life. This is “follow precisely what God said, yet leave the results to Him.” He will often surprise you! Don’t assume anything for your children. Just because they are the firstborn doesn’t mean much to their direction in life. Just because they have started out life poorly doesn’t mean it must always be that way. God chooses who He is going to work with and how. That doesn’t erase your responsibility to raise them and correct them, but it does ease the reality that you are not in control in any final sense. Give your parenting mistakes to God, and grant your successes to the Same. At the same time, invest in your children with your prayers and teachings depending on your season. Your children have a mission that goes beyond themselves. They will have an impact and they will shape the future, just as you do.
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Last week, we saw that there is a certain restlessness amongst the people of God. The family of Abraham has been wandering the entire book of Genesis, knowing that they will eventually settle in the land that God has promised them. We also, in our own way, are wandering through a strange land waiting for our final, promised inheritance as well. But what do we do in the meantime? Are we just sitting around for 80 to 100 years just waiting to for our lives to really begin? How does God settle His people when they are waiting? God Faithfully Settles His separate people in a Strange Land Genesis 46:31-47:6Tearful reunion now settled, it was time to figure out next steps. What is life going to look like after happily every after? The strategy begins! But what is that strategy? Is it pretending to be something they aren’t like Jacob did to Isaac? No. Joseph isn’t telling them to do anything but tell the truth. We aren’t trying to trick Pharaoh into anything but simply identify what they need: a place with lots of pastureland for their animals to graze. Goshen is just such the place. Goshen was the most fertile pasture land in all of Egypt, which is how it gets its name. The word comes from the idea of “heart” (A Biblical and Theological Dictionary) or precious. This area is separate from the rest of the mainland of Egypt, so it will be the perfect spot for the flock. It will also be the perfect spot for the people as well. We can see from verse 34 that shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. The word for “abomination” is the same word we find for God’s view of homosexuality in Leviticus. We aren’t entirely sure why. When the Greeks come along, one writer notes that the Egyptians worshiped the cow, so eating it for its beef was very offensive (Matthews). That’s possible. But whatever the exact reason, their ending up in Goshen is going to be the best for everyone. The Jews won’t assimilate the Egyptian practices, because they will be living in their own, separate culture over in Goshen (Belcher). This is going to continue to be the case until they leave Egypt in the Exodus. Joseph is also making sure that Pharaoh knows that they are shepherds and want to continue to be such. These are not kings in the making (Matthews). This isn’t Esau’s family. These are humble shepherds who need a little space to practice their craft far away from the rest of the nations so offense isn’t created. In God’s faithfulness, it works! Pharaoh commands that they take up residence in Goshen, and he even offers them a job looking after the royal livestock! What a kindness of God. Really, not the kindness of Pharaoh, although he is kind here. This is the move of God. What king who has the world at his mercy doles out the best of his land to a wandering band of shepherds? Yes, it is Joseph’s family, but ancient kings aren’t known for their whimsical kindness to foreigners, particularly those who are culturally offensive. So all credit here goes to God. He has taken care of His people to lead them to here to literal green pastures. We note that Joseph doesn’t have to sell this to Pharaoh. They lead with the fact that they are different, even offensive, to the rest of the population, yet God moves in it. No scheming required. Now I mentioned that part of the advantage of their moving to Goshen was so that they wouldn’t assimilate into Egyptian ways of thinking. The Messiah is supposed to come from the family of Abraham, and it was important that they not get absorbed by another people and disappear. But how does this work today? Are we as New Testament Christians called to live physically separate lives from those in the world? Do we need to build our own communities in far-flung reaches of the country? Bring back the monasteries? Select the Benedict Option? I don’t think so. Jesus didn’t tell us to leave the world but to go out into it. Jesus Himself went to eat with sinners and tax collectors. However, in both of those approaches it wasn’t to become just like the world James 4:4 is very clear: “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” As is 1 John 2:15 “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” But the point is to disciple the world. Jesus ate with sinners to call them to repentance. We go out into the world not to learn from it but so that it learns God’s Word. That begins by being honest with what we believe. God’s people don’t have to apologize for being different. The things that we believe, that we proclaim out of God’s Word are very offensive to our world. The idea that there is only one way to heaven, the idea that God is in control of absolutely everything, the idea that men and women are different and even have unique roles to play in society and in the church. And that’s just the garden variety stuff of Biblical Christianity. We haven’t even gotten to the Sabbath or even the Trinity yet. We’re an odd bunch, but we don’t have to hide that. We shouldn’t. We do no favors when we try to hide who we are as a people united to Christ. But we shouldn’t be surprised by resistance to it. Jesus Himself embodied this perfectly and was killed for it. It is harder not to be worldly than we think. Even in the ways that present the truth we can fall into the patterns of the world. There is being offensive for the sake of the truth and being offensive for offensive sake. It is getting increasingly hard to tell the difference these days because of how much the way we talk has changed. Such a change has taken place through the Internet. The Internet rewards saying outlandish things in outlandish ways, but we are here to please the Almighty not the algorithm. Jesus was not in love with the world, and if we are going to follow Him in that, we are going to need to be more careful than ever. It is very hard not to be discipled by the Internet. Here in our passage, the Egyptians found the shepherds offensive, and the religious practices of the Egyptians were offensive right back to the Jews. However, once they were out of each other’s presences, the influence stops. Not so today. Today the world follows us home. If you check your phone within the first ten minutes of waking up (like apparently 80% of the US population), the world is the first thing to speak to you. Throughout the day, we apparently look at our phone 205 times. (https://www.reviews.org/mobile/cell-phone-addiction/). We have a great opportunity to be a blessing to the world. But we can’t be that if we don’t even truly know why we are a blessing. We are a blessing by bringing Christ to the world, as we will see more next week, but if we are consumed by the world, it is impossible to accurately, and dare I say winsomely, present the gospel to world. We can’t be drawn in by the world but neither can we be fully withdrawn from it, so what do we do? We abide in Christ. Recognize the world that you live in and seek out God in prayer and in His Word. It is so easy to assume that because we once knew something that it means we are still living it. I’ve been to seminary and I catch myself living opposite to the what I know. And when I see that, when you see that, run back to God. Remember, God has followed you into this world. Just like placing the people in Goshen, He has placed you here in this time and this place. While it is harder to avoid worldliness, it isn’t impossible. James said not to be a friend of the world well before the iPhone came out. The danger isn’t fully avoided by canceling your connections with the Internet. But you will find the closer you get to Jesus, the worldliness of the world doesn’t have the same shine. Being close to Jesus means you can look at the piece of technology in your hand and praise God that He made a world where you can assemble sand and silicone and make a device that allows you to see the other side of the world live. And then you can put it down because the Giver is more impressive than the gift. So what is our takeaway here? We are called to be a unique people in our world, as we always have been. Yet we are called to spread that uniqueness by proclaiming the gospel of Christ: full forgiveness of sin by repenting and turning to Christ, union with Him. So kids: That means for the most part we don’t act like the kids you see on the TV. Almost never are you going to see perfect examples in the movies and TV we see today. We take how we are supposed to act from mom and dad. Adults: be thoughtful about why you think the way you do. Not just what you think but how you think. Is this conversation, this way of moral reasoning, is this from the Bible or X? Can we minister on these platforms? Yes! Can we find good stuff on the Internet? Of course. Just make sure that this is the majority of your time. Our lives are going fast. The world is changing even faster. Yet the gospel of Christ is always needed. It doesn’t change. The good news is still good news, so don’t let it go to the back of your mind. 
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Do you feel unsettled where you are? That’s normal. There is a feeling of something missing here in this world. We aren’t settled here. We shouldn’t be. The world actually isn’t our home, and we are wanderers within it, journeying towards our final destination. Sometimes it can feel aimless, inefficient, and looping. A lot of “Why did we spend so much time there?” But we aren’t charting our own course. The Christian life isn’t a choose your own adventure. It is being led, no matter how much it doesn’t feel that way sometimes, by the Good Shepherd Himself. God is a journeying God, a God of the wilderness, the desert, the strange land far off, but not because He’s a gypsy. Not because He has commitment issues. It is because He is seeking the lost sheep, the wanderers, to bring them home. And He will wander with them all the way. Indeed, not all who wander are lost. In fact, only the wanderers after Jesus are saved. In this passage we will see that God leads His people on a journey home. God leads His people on a journey home Genesis 46:1The fun begins right in our first verse with the word translated “journey.” This word shows up 12 times in Genesis recording the movements of Abraham and Jacob. This is the last time it shows up in this book, and appropriately as this is wrapping up the final chapters. This family has a legacy of the lengthy journey and now Jacob begins the last journey of this book. It has been a long trip, but it is ending with a beautiful reunion of his family. However, we are going to make a quick stop along the way in Beersheba. If you don’t have your Bible atlas handy, I’ll just tell you that this is near the far southern border of Israel just before he leaves the country. It would be like saying that a person was on their way out of Alabama, God’s state, into Florida but they stopped in Brewton first. That’s right on the border. But this stop isn’t a mark of hesitation. This is the place that his father, Isaac, settled back in chapter 26, specifically in verses 23-25: “From there he went up to Beersheba. And the Lord appeared to him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham your father. Fear not, for I am with you and will bless you and multiply your offspring for my servant Abraham’s sake.” So he built an altar there and called upon the name of the Lord and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac’s servants dug a well.” Genesis 46:2-4This is a stop for worship and reaffirmation from God Himself. Isaac was told not to go to Egypt in Genesis 26:1-5. In fact, he is the only patriarch not to have the word “journey” describe his life. How can Jacob be sure this is the right path? God Himself affirms the plan to go to Egypt. It’s been the plan since Genesis 15. Can you hear the fatherly tone? I am the same God of your father. Don’t be afraid. Why? I will make you a great nation there. I have a purpose in this. I know you are going away from home, the very home I promised to give you. I’m going to build you into a nation just as I promised. Also, and this is the best part, I, God, will be with you. The language here is emphatic. God is wanting to punch the point home that He, God Himself, is going to go down with Jacob. He isn’t doing this alone. Further, He isn’t going to leave him there in Egypt. He promises, with the same punch of emphasis, I will bring you back up home. What a condescension! The God of the universe is going to move to Egypt with them? Following around 70 people?! But imagine the comfort of that. When you were a kid, having a trusted adult be with you in the dark is so comforting. I remember when Granger was young and moving into his own bed on the other side of the house wanted me to sit in his room while he would go to sleep. The call was always “sit ina chair.” Here God promises to sit ina chair, as it were, to lead them to Egypt and back home again. Do you know God promises to do the same for you? Psalm 23 calling the Lord “my” Shepherd doesn’t stop with David who wrote it. We all call the Lord our Shepherd who leads us through the scary places of cancer treatment, troubled marriages, painful bodies, and even the good, yet still hard journey of raising children. He is with you in all of it. He, Himself. Genesis 46:5-27And look at all who come with Jacob! This huge list of people are all the descendants so far! We could be forgiven thinking that it was still Jacob and his twelve sons because that is really all that have been mentioned so far, aside from Judah’s three and Reuben’s at least two. But now we find out that the family has grown! And depending on how you work the math, at least 70, and many more if you thrown in the wives are coming down to Egypt. Why the odd math? Well, we aren’t sure! It depends on whether you want to count the sons of Joseph or not, the dead sons of Judah or not, whether you include Dinah or not or whether you include God Himself in that count or not (Matthews)! There is a way in which that number makes sense, but there are a number of ways to approach it. The main point is that a decent sized family is coming into Egypt. But as we round the corner of the end of this chapter, we come to a most emotional conclusion to Jacob and Joseph’s story. Genesis 46:28-30There is a wonderful detail in Jacob sending Judah ahead to prepare Joseph for their immediate arrival. The one who originally sold Joseph from his father is going to be the one to lead him back to his father. There is such redeeming grace here, that I just wanted us to sit with that for a second. You just never know how God is going to conclude a story, and that has been the theme of Joseph’s life. Joseph, riding his chariot, comes out to meet his father and the grand reunion takes place. It is almost impossible to imagine the power of such a reunion after being separated for twenty years each unsure if the other was even still alive (Matthews). Jacob feels that he is able to die in peace knowing that his son is alive and is able to see his face. He’ll actually live for another 17 years, so there is plenty of time to catch up. This incredible story would have been amazing for the Exodus generation of Israel to hear. The next time we read the word “journey” that we saw in verse one is when they are on their “journey” out of Egypt as not only a family but a nation, exactly as God said. They would be reminded that the God who promised to bring them out has done so, and this journey into Egypt has not been a mistake or bad decision. Imagine those who had grown bitter in slavery thinking that God had forgotten them are reminded in this story that they were right where God designed for them to be. It is only by keeping their entire story in mind does this seeming Egyptian detour make sense. God has indeed been faithful to them, and He has been such for us. While God had come down with the Israelites to their journey in Egypt, God has come down to us in the person of Jesus Christ. It was a condescension that is infinitely more impressive that what we see in this chapter. It is one thing to bring your blessing presence to Egypt, which I know Jacob and family appreciated. But when Jesus came down to live with His people, He got sand in His feet. He felt hunger, fatigue, and pain, dwelling among us as one of us (John 1:1-14). He moved into the neighborhood, as Eugene Peterson put it. But Jesus didn’t come down just to be here. He didn’t dine with sinners so that they would stay right where they are. Like God promised Jacob, He is promising to bring these sinners home, to bring them up. He is the Good Shepherd leading them as He does so. He leads us to still waters and grassy areas along the way, but it isn’t the final destination. He ascended up to heaven to prepare a place for us, a home, where we will have to wander no more. The journey will finally conclude. He has gone on ahead to prepare and welcome us when we arrive. What will that welcome be like? There are a couple places in the Bible that hint to what it will be like. In Acts 7, we see one of the first Christian martyrs, Stephen, being stoned to death for his belief in Christ. As He is dying, he says that he sees Jesus standing at the right hand of God the Father. Now that should strike us. Why is Jesus standing? According to Hebrews Jesus sat down because the work was complete? So why is He standing here? Spurgeon I think has given the best answer in that Christ is standing to welcome one of His own home. I can only imagine that the standing doesn’t last long. The picture of the joy of God to welcome a sinner home is in Luke 15 when the father of the prodigal son runs which wealthy noble Jews never do (MacArthur) to embrace his son. I can imagine that the same anticipation of Joseph riding that chariot hard to meet his father paints a picture of the anticipation of Christ welcoming His own home. It isn’t death to die, but a welcome home. So where do we go from here? Well, we remember that we are in fact going somewhere, and it isn’t here as the world presently stands. You are on your way to a glorious place where God’s presence dwells with beauty and fullness. Along the way, we rest in the comfort of knowing that God is with us, that we make our home with Him now. The world is a hard place, a place of pain but not permanence. This, too, shall pass, all of it. And He is determined to pass through it with us. He has already endured the worst the world can throw, conquering even death itself. Now, we simply trust.“Keep close to God, and then you need fear nothing” (Joseph Eliot). Evil can’t ultimately beat someone on their way to heaven. Whatever you are being called to endure, whatever your Egypt is, God has raced out to meet you there. So stay close. He’s leading you home. And as we will be reminded in the Supper, He is with us all the way. 
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Some circumstances can seem impossible for God to work with much less bless through. The people of Israel needed to be reminded of this. Genesis was originally written to recently freed slaves, slaves who have known nothing but forced service for 400 years. They have just been let go, and are now wandering through the desert looking to one day enter the promised land. Now it is hard to have hope in a desert. There’s not much food or water. Everything is hard in a desert, and some might be tempted to believe that even God has a hard time working in the desert. Is He able to provide in hard circumstances? Joseph’s brothers are likely wondering this as well in this moment. They have been shocked to hear that Joseph has forgiven them, but as we will see from this text, the reason that they are about to be blessed is because God has been the one watching over them. We will look at some of these things as we look at our main point: God promises to provide for His people more than they could deserve to point to Himself. God promises to provide for His people more than they could deserve to point to Himself. Genesis 45:9-15Here we see Joseph, having just given us a masterclass in forgiveness, now shows us a great deal of generosity. Behind all the rest of this chapter is a smiling God, but you won’t see His name mentioned beyond verse 9 here. But when you hear what is being described you can see His fingerprints all over the chapter. Does anything sound familiar in verses 9-11? I think there are subtle notes of God’s promise to Abraham of a land, seed, and blessing. Even though they are going to have to leave Canaan, they are going to be provided the land of Goshen, apparently, a very nice place, as we will see in a minute. Further, there is the mention of children and grandchildren. The fact that there is land, that means that there will be space for descendants. They won’t be displaced to simply wander. They are going from one home to another home. Finally, there is the promise of provision, of blessing from Joseph’s own hand. Joseph is instrumental in providing food for the rest of the world, so they have been a blessing to the entire world. Now, they are getting some in return. All of this from a brother sold into slavery. All of this taking place in a foreign country. God is showing that He is able to provide for His people regardless of where they are. This doesn’t mean that this is the fulfillment of God’s promise. He hasn’t settled on plan B. It was always the plan to go to Egypt, but even there is a preview of what is yet to come. Canaan will still be the land of promise, but God can provide even outside its borders. It points to the fact that God is an international God and has something grand for His people yet. This is something that you can really see in our next section. Genesis 45:16-24One might say that all is well and good with Joseph providing for things, but what a wonder that Pharaoh himself provides in such an obvious way. He is pleased that Joseph’s family is moving in and he provides for all their needs along the way. He is sending them with twenty donkeys carrying treasures of Egypt as well as everything they would need in order to move down. He is basically telling them to just get in the car, don’t even bother packing. There will be better versions of everything when you get there. Notice this little word here in verse 18. “you shall eat the fat of the land.” Does that remind you of any other time that came up in Jacob’s life? It was when Isaac, his father, was blessing him back in Genesis 27:28 “May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine.” Notice the last line of that verse: plenty of grain. There are ten female donkeys loaded up with it! And those are meant to just be some snacks along the way to Egypt the only place on earth that has five more years of grain enough to feed the world! You want to talk about plenty of grain—this is almost ridiculous! And let’s not even get started on verse 29 that talks about ruling over brothers. Joseph, Jacob’s son, is second in command of Egypt and in charge of everyone’s food for the next five years. That’s a lot of power. All of this from God, far more than could be imagined. It’s the same God we worship. Now, we get to see the big moments like this and don’t get to appreciate the day by day struggles that they went through, but this blessing is the way that God loves to operate (Matthew 7:11). And He can use even foreign kings to accomplish it. After all, Proverbs 21:1“The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.” Never think that God needs something or someone in order to get provision to you. You never have to do something sinful in order to ensure God’s blessings come your way. God doesn’t need the supposed “right people” on your team in order to bless through it. He doesn’t even need you to be the best in order to be a blessing to others. You and those around you don’t have to be stars for God to bless through you. You just need to be surrendered to God. Be obedient to Him, and let Him work through you. God already has all your crazy all factored in. Genesis 45:21-24Incredibly, all of this blessing is coming onto this family that up until five minutes ago we didn’t even trust to not sell another brother. Even after all this, they have to be reminded not to quarrel along the way. Note the generosity of Joseph. Yes, he gives his full brother more, but he gives a lot to people who the last time they were all together he was sold. These seem like very undeserving people. I can imagine in their position, I wouldn’t want to accept this gift. I couldn’t possibly deserve that level of kindness after what I would have done. But I don’t have to imagine their position. I don’t deserve anything that I have here, much less anything that I will inherit in heaven. If I wait to feel worthy to accept these things, then all I will have done is grown in my pride. I was talking with a friend of mine over the weekend who’s dad did a lot of ministry in prisons. He would talk about every time his dad finished ministry for the day in the prisons, he would be so excited to see grace in action. He would do Bible studies with men who were murderers and the worst kind of criminals who know beyond all doubt that they are sinners and starving for grace. They know they need it and are so grateful for it. Watching it play out was so encouraging for him. A couple of his students, themselves prisoners, would turn around and lead Bible classes themselves in the prison. One class is led by two inmates, one white, one black, each one a former leader of a race-based gang. Now they teach together when in years past they would have tried killing each other. That’s happening right now in Bibb county. That’s our God! That’s your Father. No, you don’t deserve that kind of grace either, but that is what is on offer! Will you take it? Will you humble yourself and say, “I don’t deserve it, but I need it?” Let these examples of God’s grace walk past you to point you to God. That is what we see in this last section. Genesis 45:25-28Jacob hardly knows how to react to this kind of news. It is only when he has seen and heard the words and actions of Joseph does he believe and resolves to go see Joseph. The blessings have pointed beyond themselves to a son seemingly risen from the dead. That’s what your blessings are meant to do for you. All of them. From air conditioning to laughter around your dinner table, they are all meant to point you to Jesus. Jacob doesn’t stop at the donkeys and say, “Well, I think that we’ve got enough to carve out a spot for us right here, don’t you think? No! He says, “All of this proves my son is alive, let’s go!” His real treasure isn’t on the back of a donkey, its the one who sent them! If your possessions aren’t doing that for you, then you’ve missed the point. So it is no wonder that you aren’t satisfied yet with what you have. That was never the object’s purpose. It was always meant to get you to look up. 1 Timothy 6:17–19has some practical guidance for us: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” All of us in this room on the scale of most of the rest of the world are in the rich category. We all should be nearly delirious with joy that we have been born in the age not only of clean water and plentiful food but of air conditioning and ibuprofen. And we are told in what I just read how to react. We don’t become boastful of what we have, neither do we set our hope in it. What does it mean to set our hope on riches? I read a quote this week that said something to the effect of, “If you can end your day relatively happy having despite not praying at all that day, you are probably living a more secular life than you realize.” If I don’t feel the need to pray throughout my day, I’m probably too hopeful in how much money I have, how healthy my children are, and how competent I imagine myself to be. No, my hope should come from the Lord who has provided all of these things to me. Now the verse doesn’t stop there. It doesn’t say, “don’t set your hope on riches, and in order to do that, you need to get rid of it all.” That’s not what it says. It says to hope in God who gives you these things to enjoy. Enjoy—don’t trust in—but enjoy it. Treat your blessings like a delicious and healthy dinner made by someone you love. Savor the taste, sus out each note of flavor, knowing that you won’t be full forever afterward. Knowing that this experience doesn’t last forever. But neither of those realities ruin the dining experience. It’s just there to be enjoyed and to point to the one who made it. Of course, a good meal, a good blessing, is multiplied when it is shared. God gives us these things, as it says in verse 18, to do good works with them. Don’t let social media be the only way a blessing is broadcast. Let people find out how God has blessed you by the way you serve them with that blessing. And when you do those things, God is so good as to reward you anew in heaven. You make a blessing multiplier. All of it made possible by Christ’s work on the cross. This chapter of Genesis was paving the way for the ultimate blessing in Christ. His death on the cross paid for your salvation to go to heaven one day. This is a gift so great, that no circumstance could ever dull it. No matter what rolls past you, good or bad, you can look at the empty tomb and say, “Jesus is still alive, and I will see Him when I truly come alive in heaven.” So what should this change this week? Be grateful for what you have. Spend some time either literally writing it down or just sitting in a quiet place picturing in your mind all the blessings you have this afternoon. You don’t have to be ashamed of them. Enjoy them like a good meal. Then pass the plate around, let others enjoy your blessings on earth so as to make them treasures in heaven. 
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In the wake of the very public murders of Charlie Kirk, Iryna Zarutska, and Julie Gard Schnuelle, we took a break from Genesis to remind ourselves of the Kingship of Jesus out of Psalm 2. 
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Do you know how forgiveness works when there is some real offense committed against you? It’s one thing to forgive a misunderstanding or a hurtful action that was well-intended. What I want us to know today is how do we forgive someone when the offender did what they did in order to hurt you. There is hate in their heart towards you. What if they, I don’t know, sold you into slavery, on purpose? How do you find it in your heart to forgive things that actually changed the course of your life? That is what this chapter is going to be revealing to us today. What we are going to encounter is some deep theology about God’s control of all things, including His ability to work through human sin. This is where an understanding of these fine points will actually make a real difference in your life. Because unless you understand what God is revealing to us here, you are going to find it nearly impossible to forgive much less reconcile with your offender. Today we are going to see that you are able to forgive because God works through your hurts. God works through your hurts We pick up our narrative at the absolute climax of the Joseph/Judah arch. Judah has just completed one of the greatest story arcs so far in Genesis by being willing to sacrifice his life for his brother Benjamin. Genesis 45:1-3Joseph responds by telling everyone, except his brothers, to leave the room so that he can dramatically reveal who he is. His brothers are dismayed, or according to scholars, gripped with fear at this revelation. Just imagine the shock of everything you’ve gone through so far suddenly making sense, and then the horrible realization that the person you have sold into slavery now has the opportunity to do whatever he wants to in that moment. Few things can hardly compare. Staring into the face of someone who’s life you ruined—on purpose—now has the unquestioned authority to bring down the hammer must be terrifying. But imagine it the other way around. That’s what our movies do, right? The bad guy ultimately finds himself in the power of our hero who has all the power to exact his seemingly just revenge. We cheer those things. It happens even in our video feeds. We love scrolling through videos of people getting their just desserts: Rude people tripping after insulting someone, robbers banging their heads on closed doors. Some of us will nurse our own private grudges by imagining one day being able to get someone back to make them understand what it was like to be them. We are not a forgiving people. We want to be forgiven, of course. But we don’t like to forgive for a few different reasons. One could be because for some this means weakness. To forgive just means that you’re not strong enough to stand up for yourself. Another could be to forgiven means that person is no longer in your debt. You lose power over your offender by holding back forgiveness. For some, they’ve been so identified with their hurt that to forgive and let it go would be to let go their very identity. For so long they’ve held their status as “the person who was hurt” that to give that up would have them wondering what they would think about. We call that state of mind “bitterness,” by the way. But maybe we just don’t know how to get our hearts in the state necessary to forgive. We think that you have to be “forgiving person” like its a personality trait. Or we think that our situation is indeed so unique that forgiveness and freedom from that hurt is just impossible. How did Joseph get to this point? Twenty years of slavery caused by his brothers. He tells us exactly how he got to this point, and before you guess, no it wasn’t just that he got to control Egypt because of it. Joseph is able to forgive and reconcile with his brothers because of what he believes about God. Genesis 45:4-8Here it is, first Joseph calls his brothers close to him. A precious olive branch to help his brothers hear what he is going to say without the distraction of feeling threatened by this moment. We are also given the moment to sit up, come closer, listen to a man who hears from God and has, by any standard, experienced the pain of others actions. First, Joseph doesn’t deny what happened. He doesn’t lead with “Hey, what happened in the past doesn’t matter. We are going to forget all about it.” He doesn’t do that. I just want to highlight that, but we are going to get to the meat of his speech here first. Second, he tells them how to emotionally react to what he is about to say. He says, “Don’t be angry with yourselves.” Don’t be angry?? How is he able to say that? He has already acknowledged what they did. He isn’t trying to minimize what has been done to him. Instead, he is going to look behind their actions to see God. In the next phrase he says that God sent Joseph. This isn’t something that Joseph said thoughtlessly. He said it three times that God was the one who sent him to Egypt. He isn’t saying that the brothers were uninvolved, but he is saying that their actions weren’t ultimate. Their actions didn’t thwart God’s plan, but instead their actions advanced God’s plan. Notice how much agency is given to God in this moment. Joseph doesn’t say, “Yeah, you guys sent me to Egypt, but God was able to rescue that disaster and creatively come up with a counter plan to yours.” He doesn’t say that. He says that God sent him to Egypt, and it was the brothers sinful choice that was the very means of accomplishing that plan. This isn’t God just playing the hand He’s dealt. God’s holding all the cards. He’s dealt them exactly the way He wants. Now we have to be careful as we reason through this. The Bible is crystal clear that God does not sin: James 1:13 “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” 1 John 1:5 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.” Psalm 5:4 “For you are not a God who delights in wickedness; evil may not dwell with you.” Psalm 145:17 “The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his works.” Yet, as we will see, God is using the sinful actions of his brothers to advance His will. Genesis 50:20 “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” God meant it. John Piper comments on this section of Scripture and calls it the point where human will and divine will intersect. He says, “Their decisions were intended by them according to their sinful designs. But their decisions were intended by God according to his saving designs (cf. Isa. 10:5-7; Mic. 4:11-12).” (Providence, 427, emphasis original). He said in another place “…God’s intention in this sinful selling was very different. It was not sinful; it was saving. Their selling was driven by lust for ‘twenty shekels of silver’ (37:28). God’s sending was driven by love for his chosen people (39:21).” (425). That is our theology lesson, but what does it have to do with forgiveness? If you are hurting this morning from an offense committed against you, you are in the same boat as Joseph right here. That person in your mind right now meant it for evil. That person sent you into this painful part of your life to sell you out, but God behind that very person means that very same action for your ultimate good. “Well, pastor, I don’t see and can’t see how God is using this pain for my good.” Of course you don’t! You aren’t in chapter 45 of your life yet. It didn’t make sense to Joseph when he was sitting in prison falsely accused. Even if he did, it didn’t make the chains any more comfortable. But it makes forgiveness possible. He can look at their sinful actions in all their horror, not trying to minimize them, and yet see that they don’t have the final word. They can rage against him all they want, but they can only advance God’s will, which in this situation has lead to the saving of many lives, and keeping the Abrahamic promise alive. Now, you may say, “I still don’t see how this helps me forgive in my situation.” Some of your have gone through some unbelievably painful things. Things that I couldn’t repeat from here. Hearing this may have you shrinking back from God. “How could God possibly mean that for me?” If that’s where you are this morning, it is likely because you haven’t seen what God has done through it yet. It may be many more years yet. God’s purpose was just as sure for Joseph in chapter 37 when he was thrown into the pit as it is now in chapter 45 with all of Egypt under his thumb. Can you trust that God will do the same in your life? Can you trust God enough to say, “I know what that person did to me was awful. But because I know that God means that very action for my good (Romans 8:28), I can forgive them, even though I don’t know what that good is yet.” Let’s get practical for a minute as we wind down. What does it even mean to forgive? It doesn’t mean forgetting what has happened. Joseph clearly doesn’t forget that. Who could? It means that despite remembering what happened, you choose not to hold that against them anymore. You don’t define them by solely that hurt. That guy is no longer just “the one who hurt me.” He has done that, but behind him was a God who means what is best for me. That’s what we see here in this passage. The brothers did indeed sell Joseph. That is still historical reality, but they are still his brothers. They were the vehicles to send Joseph into this position. It’s hard to be bitter against someone for an action that God ultimately intends for good. It would be like being bitter against a surgeon for performing a painful but life saving surgery. Yes it hurts, and yes he is the one who inflicted the pain, but the end result is one of goodness. So whatever hurt you are feeling from others actions this morning, trace the intention of those actions past the one who did them. We are not excusing what they did. They chose to sin against you, and that will exact a cost on you and them (Ross, 673). We don’t have to sin, so we don’t get to say, “Oh, God will work it out in the end.” He will do that, but He doesn’t let sin go. These brothers carried their sin with them for twenty years and went through no little trouble here in these last four chapters. It didn’t have to be that way. God didn’t hold a gun to their head saying, “Sell your brother.” Yet, they freely chose to do it, but God was just as free to send His good will through the rotten and twisted pipe of their sin. You are not here by accident. You are not ultimately a victim of someone else’s will. Their wills will serve God’s. We see that nowhere more clearly than on the cross. The people sinfully desired the death of Jesus Christ. Yet this crucifixion was a prearranged plan. The ultimate betrayal, the ultimate crime, brought about the greatest good there ever was. And if our God is able to do that in that situation, just imagine what He might one day do through yours. So Kids, when your friends hurt, when you siblings are mean, know that God hasn’t forgotten you. You can bring the hurt to your parents. You can and should tell an adult you trust to protect you when necessary. You can tell your parents anything. But know that God loves you, and will take whatever hurt you have, and make good come out of it. That doesn’t make it right to hurt people. It doesn’t mean you have to keep getting hurt by the same person. But it does mean that you don’t have to be sad about it forever. Adults, I think you can pick up what I’m saying there. This isn’t an easy thing to do. Every situation requires careful thinking and wise navigation, which I and the other elders are happy to help you sail through. I can’t anticipate every situation from here. But what I can tell you is God means that very evil thing for good, because He is just that powerful, and just that good. 
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In a day and age with GPS, I’ve grown so used to it that using verbal directions given by someone else spikes my anxiety. You know those directions: keep going until you see the hot dog place, turn right at the gas station, and it’ll be the big building on your right. Can’t miss it (yes, I can)! If you see the grocery store you’ve gone too far! The longer I drive without seeing the hot dog place, the unrest in my soul grows steadily. But then! The joy when I see the landmark, just as my guide said, comfort floods my soul; I’m on the right track. How do you know you are on the right track with your Christian life? What are the landmarks that indicate you are indeed on the road of salvation? How do you know the faith you have in Christ is a real faith that is having an impact on your life? While there will be peaks and valleys, good days and bad days, looking at the whole of your life, do you see evidence of repentance from sin? Are you turning from sin to Christ? We saw Joseph not sin but what if you’re more like Judah? The passage that is before us gives us a remarkable demonstration of what it looks like to have repented. We will look at the person of Judah and see the remarkable change that has occurred in his life, and what we can expect from our own. Today we will see that Repentance requires you to change what you love and how you live. Repentance requires you to change what you love and how you live. Chapter 43:31-34 We pick up briefly looking at the last chapter, as Joseph begins the final test the night before chapter 44. They have been seated by age, but not portioned food by age. Usually, the oldest gets the honor, but this time it is the youngest. Benjamin gets five times as much food as everyone else does. It isn’t because he is a growing boy, as you couldn’t expect him to actually eat that much (I mean, *I* could eat five burgers, but that’s probably an area I need repenting in!). It was to show, in a very public way, who the favorite is. And in chapter 43, we don’t see any evidence of jealousy at this point. Despite the wine flowing freely, no jealousy comes out. We know, as Paul Tripp’s mother said, nothing comes out of the mouth of a drunk that wasn’t already there to begin with, so things are looking good so far. Chapter 44:1-13The real test starts in chapter 44. Joseph sets things up to put the brothers in the same position as chapter 37 when they sold him into slavery. Favored son of Rachel? Check. Financial reward for selling him out? Check. It is even a more ramped up version on their end, for as Matthews points out, they can claim total innocence in this matter. They can’t control what the Egyptian prince does. If there is ANY desire to get rid of Ben, this is their moment. The steward arrives, the accusation is made, the brothers are so sure of their innocence, that they will call death on the thief, and slavery for the rest if that cup is found. This shows us a couple things. One, the brothers are so confident in each other that even a little tipsy, they wouldn’t steal a cup. A big change from when they would sell their own brother for twenty pieces of silver. They are so confident in the change, they will make a brash oath like that. One scholar points out, that even the rash punishment they call down on themselves shows that they view each other as a unified group. If one goes down, they all go down together (Matthews). He also points out how they react when the cup is discovered: they tear their clothes! Only Reuben and Jacob did that when Joseph was gone. Now, they all grieve deeply that Benjamin might be held back in slavery (Matthews). Change has taken place. Chapter 44:14-20The most dramatic change however shows in Judah. When they all return to face Joseph, he is the spokesman for the group. The brother that abandoned the family in chapter 38 is now its leader. When Joseph offers to keep just Ben, Judah steps forward to plead with Joseph to let Ben go. Note how he goes about this. He doesn’t try in any way to defend. There really isn’t any point in trying. The question is so clear: “How can we clear ourselves?” and says more than Judah thinks Joseph knows. For the situation at hand, the evidence is impossible to escape. But that isn’t what Judah is admitting to here. He knows his actual guilt is selling Joseph, and he has never had to face punishment for it. He knows he didn’t steal the cup, but he figures that God is the one who put it in there, so he can finally face justice for Joseph. The word used there “clear” is the word for righteousness. Last time Judah spoke that word was when Tamar, his pregnant daughter in law, showed him his cord and his staff. He said, “She is more righteous than I.” He admitted he was a sinner then, and now he throws up his hands again at the impossibility of coming out of this situation righteous. It doesn’t look like it with the cup, and he is certainly a guilty man when it comes to Joseph. Judah thinks the man in front of him is unaware of what he is referring to, but this Egyptian prince knows exactly what Judah is carrying on his heart (Matthews). Chapter 44:21-32 Judah gives the longest sustained speech in all of Genesis to review all that has lead to this moment (Matthews). Notice how everything is about his dad. He paints the picture of how much Jacob loves Ben, which sets us up for the final moment, what we have been waiting this whole series to hear. Is Judah going to live up to the pledge that he said back in Canaan. Did he have good intentions but at the last moment will fail when courage is needed most? When the chips are down, what will he do? Will he sell his brother again? Chapter 44:33-34 The camera zooms in on Judah’s face as the orchestra runs up the chromatic scale stopping at the critical moment: He offers himself up for Benjamin. He knows what this means. He has twins at home. He will not see his father’s face, a face he has obviously grown to love. He will be leaving the family again to live with foreigners, outside the promised covenant of God, again, but this time not to pursue a forbidden woman, but to save the life of Benjamin and by extension his father. He has done his father’s will. He has fulfilled his pledge. He has demonstrated full repentance, and, though he won’t find out until the next chapter, been forgiven. This story is a beautiful picture of repentance. His actions are fully changed. He is not the same person he was before. The human trafficker is now willing to sell himself into slavery. How does such a change happen? It happens at the heart level. Do you notice how much he has changed towards his father? He, along with everyone else, watched his father tear his clothes and refuse to be comforted. He didn’t fall to his knees saying, “What have I done,” and speed off to go track Joseph down. He simply went off and spent that money. Sure, after a number of years, things are obviously different, but Joseph would have been so far away by that point, the assumption of death is just as likely. Judah is a changed man to not make such a mistake again, because he loves his father. The father that didn’t love him, is still loved by Judah. That is what motivates such action. We see this change most deeply in the question, “How can I go back?” in that last verse. Is that not what Joseph himself said when faced with temptation? Joseph’s loyalties were already decided, and now we can clearly see where Judah’s loyalties are as well. So what does this have to do with our repentance? Repentance begins in the heart. It doesn’t stop there, but it must begin there. If you try to repent of your sin without having a love for Christ, you are fighting an uphill battle. If you are still saying, “Why would I do that sin?” it isn’t long before you will be saying, “Why not?” If you have to argue the various reasons why you shouldn’t commit that sin again, “I’ll feel guilty” “I’ll get caught,” your loyalty is still wavering. When the question is “How could I,” your heart is being changed. This isn’t an instant process or particularly systematic one. You can find total victory in one sin that will be at the level of, “How could I even consider that?” and there will be others at the same time, that you would say, “Why not?” The key to repentance is having your heart changed. The things that you love, your affections must be changed, and that is a work of God. Repentance and faith are two sides of the coin where a turning to Christ is a turning from sin and this is both an event and a process. There is that point at your conversion where you see your sin and the grace that is offered to you in Jesus. Jesus, even better than Judah, offers Himself for your freedom, not just to be enslaved but to die on your behalf. You respond to that beauty and come to Christ, leaning the whole weight of your hope on Him and abandoning your love for sin. There is that initial moment of repentance and faith. And then there is the ongoing process. While you don’t get saved or convert over and over again, you continue the process of trusting Jesus more and warring against your sin more throughout your life. It is like throwing a rock into a pond. When you throw the rock in, it is in the pond, but the ripples of that rock continue to expand more and more into the pond. You don’t have to throw the rock again and again in for each ripple, but as time goes on more and more of the pond is affected by that one time event. When it first goes in, the outer edges of the pond are still, but that doesn’t mean the rock isn’t in there. Repentance is the work that God does inside your heart, which is why our catechism calls it a saving grace. It isn’t a work you do. It is a gift you receive. Now, how quickly that gift changes you depends on how much you fight. If you take your battles against sin seriously, you will use all the weapons that God has given you for that fight. You will run to your prayers, you will dive into His Word, you will attend the worship with His people, you will take seriously the Lord’s supper we are about to receive. These are given to you for your growth, so you can’t be surprised when you ignore these things and don’t grow. You don’t lose salvation, but you can sure lose your joy. And if it persists long enough, you may prove that you never had salvation in the first place. But if you grab hold of what you have been given, making use, consistently of these means, you will see deeper change and will be rewarded with greater assurance that you are His. Maybe you are here today feeling deeply unworthy of that grace. Look to the example of Peter. He denies Christ three times, yet is given the chance to repent by confessing his love three times to Jesus. Now, that rather minimal display is not what restored him, but the grace that He found in Christ. Jesus says, “You follow me.” Those words are spoken to you today. Do you love Christ? Do you want to? Do you want to want to? Ask for His help. Pray, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief,” and follow after him. Repentance and faith is the rhythm of Christianity, a process that will only be completed in heaven, when we all sit at Christ’s table. This is a wonderful moment we have here. The brothers in our passage ate with Joseph but not at the same table. It was a picture of a full restoration yet to come. At this meal, we dine with Jesus by faith, looking forward to the day when we will see Him in glory. So where do we go from here? Find your change from the source: loving Jesus. Kids, do you want to get along better with your siblings? Adults, do you need to ramp up the fight with your sin? Spend more time in prayer and in God’s Word. Fall deeper in love with Jesus, and your actions will show. 
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What are you waiting for in your life? Really sit back and think about it for a second. Maybe you are in the midst of a family situation or physical pain that you would say you are waiting for it to stop. Maybe you are waiting for kids to get a bit older, or have a bit more money in the old account, or hit a certain level of your career. Why are you looking forward to these things? If I could venture a guess, based on my own mind, we’re really looking for peace. It’s not really looking for nothing happening in our lives, just the ability to move through life only thinking about what is in front of you. The characters in our passage this story have many things occupying their minds. We’ve got a famine, a grave concern we’ve not had to feel; we have lingering guilt from a two decade’s old betrayal; we have a family conflict stemming from favoritism strengthened from loss; most severely, we have the crushing parental dread of a child potentially in harms way. Where on earth does this family find peace? They are so far in the hole. We can say that they need to trust God, and we find evidence here that they do, but it is pretty buried in a lot of other motivations? Can they find peace, and if they can, can we? Today, our main point is this: God can use even fear-filled obedience to bring peace to His people. God can use even fear-filled obedience to bring peace to His people. In these first ten or so verses, we aren’t seeing the ideal of unshakeable faith in this family, but there are some bright spots. If you remember from last chapter, we left Jacob refusing to let Benjamin go down to Egypt, effectively consigning Simeon to life-long prison in Egypt. However, some time has passed as they’ve gone through all the grain. He approaches the brothers to tell them to go get a little bit more food. But there’s a problem: they can’t get any without Benjamin coming with them! That old family wound again! Jacob’s fear flares into another wild accusation towards the brothers: the only reason he is in this position is because of their loose lips, certainly not his fearful hesitation! He blamed them for the loss of Simeon, so why not this? The men respond to this with the obvious truth that they are just as surprised as Jacob, but it is Judah who steps forward to actually solve the fight: he will personally offer his life in exchange for Benjamin. Judah is appealing to a couple things here. One, unlike Reuben, he puts himself at risk, not a grandson, and then subtlety in verse 10, tells Jacob that this could have been over with already. It has been such a delay, they could have come and gone twice. This is an appeal to pragmatism and personal emotional comfort of Jacob. What is missing here in this exchange? ANY reference to the promises of God! Has He not promised that Israel would be a great nation? That there would be descendants and a blessing protecting them from the nations surrounding them? Has not God already delivered Israel’s grandfather from the very country he fears to go? In Israel’s response, he relies on a few coping mechanisms to deal with the fear. He resorts to an old trick, send a gift. After all, it seemed to work with Esau (see chapter 33), so let’s do that with this “lord of the land.” Obviously, we will attempt to return the money, after all, maybe the whole thing is just a misunderstanding (a misunderstanding that happened with ten sacks that all happened to belong to the same family? A stretch—but whatever you have to tell yourself). These aren’t wrong things to do, of course, but they make a poor substitute for God’s promises. We are always looking for iron-clad guarantees on everything from shake weights to parenting, but there is no formula for making life the way you want it. In fact, the only real guarantee we have from the Bible is that there will be trials (James 1:2-4; 1 Peter 1:6-7). Yet even in the midst of trials, we can answer Gordon Lightfoot’s question: “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turns the minutes to hours?” by saying that it is in wave itself, for it sent by God’s own hand (Hebrews 12:11). Suffering refines the very faith it is attempting to break. We of course, wouldn’t choose that path which is why we try to grease the wheels as it were. What if I do make sure I read my Bible every day? What if I pray for an hour a day? What if I become a preacher, go to this parenting conference? Will that mean I won’t have to suffer? No. There is no formula to avoid suffering, because that is the usual way we are made more like Christ. More of us is painfully chipped and shaped away, as the image of Christ emerges. As an anonymous poet wrote in a piece called “The Sculptor” “‘Tis as the marble groweth less, the likeness growth more.” However, to his credit, we see the reason why he is called Israel rather than Jacob in verses 13-14a. He actually does offer up his son, and offers up a prayer for mercy. Keep that in mind, as we will return to this word later. It closes with a less than “heroic,” “if I am bereaved, I am bereaved” (Ian Duguid, ESV Commentary, 378). Kinda pessimistic resignation. Not exactly spotless faith, but it is obedient nonetheless. And perhaps a deeper faith than we think. As one commentator points out, when his sons disappear over the horizon, Israel is left by himself. No sons, potentially seeing them for the last time, means he is really going to have believe what God said about “descendants like the sand of the sea” (Duguid, 378). The story picks up with increasing drama as the brothers—all of them this time—make it to Egypt. Joseph sees that they have indeed followed through on bringing Benjamin, so it is time to move to the next phase of testing. He instructs his steward to invite them for lunch. Now, we might think this is a sure sign of favor, but the brothers aren’t so sure. For one, Egyptian officials kept dungeons in their houses, so going to the house wasn’t necessarily a guarantee of safety (Duguid, 379)! Second, they already suspect that God is after them for what they did to Joseph, and there is nothing like a guilty conscience to make one a little jumpy. They imagine all the possibilities: they will surely be beaten, enslaved, and even the donkeys will be taken! Does anyone think of the donkeys?? Trying to head off these troubles, they fall over themselves to present the money that they think this is all about, but the steward, in on the ruse, responds that the money must have simply appeared in their sacks as a gift from God. No need to worry. God is truly watching out for them in deeper ways than they could possibly imagine. Rather than being beaten, enslaved, and having donkeys confiscated, their feet are washed! Simeon is returned! Even the donkeys are fed! God has truly taken care of everything. But then, the music stops, the drama of the moment is tense as Joseph, the lord of the land, enters the room. Promises and prayers are answered in this moment. The brothers, all of them, bow. Chapter 37 finally fulfilled. But then, Benjamin and Joseph’s eyes lock. Joseph utters the words, “May God be gracious to you” and then leaves because compassion wells up in him so much he must run out to cry it out. Now, this part of Genesis is where Moses shows us his literary skill under the inspiration of the Spirit and a deep example of the benefits of deep Bible study. If you want to learn more, join us next week on Sunday night as we dive deeper into the topic. The word used here translated “gracious” shows up four times in Genesis. One of them is here, obviously, and two of those times follows the phrase “lifted up his eyes and saw.” The last time we saw this was when Jacob confronts Esau in chapter 33:5-6. You don’t even have to know Hebrew! It is a reminder how the last time Jacob thought his family was in threat and sent a gift on ahead of him. Esau embraced him and all was well. God does it again! But what about that fourth time? That showed up in the last chapter, where the ESV translators rightly translated the word “begged” referring to Joseph at the bottom of the pit. The very grace they denied him, he bestows! And it gets more! The word translated “compassion” is related to the word “womb,” one dictionary (BDB) called it “brotherly feeling.” The fact that Moses writes “mother’s son” sells that emphasis. Now, that isn’t the first time this word has shown up in this chapter. It shows up in only one other place in Genesis, in Israel’s prayer for “mercy.” It’s the exact same word! He has unknowingly prayed that brotherly feeling would be shown to Benjamin by his brother and God answers that prayer! Even in the midst of faith just strong enough to pessimistically trust his Lord. Peace is on its way. The word for peace, Shalom, shows up four times in this chapter (Duguid, 377), and God is well on the way to creating it. And it all starts because of the presence of Benjamin, who, so far, hasn’t said a word. Wouldn’t you love to go back in time and tell these brothers what is afoot? They’ve likely checked and triple checked that the double money and almonds were in the sack. They likely rehearsed what they were going to say to this lord of the land to convince that they are honest, when the key to everything is walking right beside them, Benjamin. What if you could tell them that this whole thing is a test meant to make them faithful, and the tester is their own brother who loves them so much he can barely look at them without tears? Would they not have entered that house hiding behind Benjamin? Would they have thought about confiscated donkeys? No! Double money and almonds were the very last thing on Joseph’s mind So why do we? Well, you might say, we don’t have the same guarantee. You’re right, we don’t, we have a better one! Your life is refining you to be more like Christ, and while you are called to live the way God calls you to in obedience to His law, that will not be what the Father is looking for on the day of judgment. When I stand before God on that day, I’m not pulling up my resume! I’m not bringing double coins, I’m hiding behind Christ saying, “I’m with Him!” Don’t come into God’s throne room bringing things you think He’ll be impressed by. That’s what the false converts of Matthew 7 say. “Did we not do such and such?” What does that matter? Did you know the Son, and more importantly, does the Son know you? Are you with Jesus? Are you united to Him? You don’t accept Jesus into your heart, He accepts you into His! Has He? That is the most important question you can possibly know the answer to. Literally nothing else matters. To literal hell with the things that you think impress God. It isn’t the sermons you’ve listened to, the Bible studies you’ve led, the prayers you’ve prayed, these things you ought to have done without neglecting faith in Christ. You aren’t saved by works of the law, but by the grace of Christ. Have you come to Him as a beggar, desperately realizing that standing in Christ’s throne room without His grace is mortal danger? Have you thrown yourself at His mercy? If you have, it is prayer that He loves to answer. He tells you to come to Him, and He will go with you. That is what will allow you into heaven. In the same way that the presence of Benjamin allowed the brothers to enter the house of Joseph, so will being with Jesus allow you into heaven. Now, lest you think that believing this sort of thing would make you sin more not less, let’s apply this logic to the brothers. Imagine yourself coming up to them while they are arguing back in Canaan about leaving with Benjamin. You step in and say, “Hey guys, listen, Joseph is alive. He is the lord of all the land. He’s the one who has provided the food you ate and the money back in the sacks. In fact, this whole thing is about trying to get you guys to get along and reconcile both with him and with each other. You still gotta go to Egypt to get the grain, but you don’t have to worry. Oh, he told me to give you this letter. He said it has everything he wants you to know.” Do you think for even a moment that they wouldn’t bring the almonds, too? in fact, I bet they pack up everything! “Joseph is alive and loves us?! After all we did? Don’t stop at the almonds! Bring the tents, the sheep! Dad, we’ll carry you to Egypt if we have to! We will live as kings in the most powerful kingdom in the world!” Would they not sing the whole way? Would they not have that letter memorized by the time they got there? What’s stopping you? Jesus, whom your sins crucified, is alive and loves you. He invites you this day to repent of your sin and turn to Him. Take the offer of grace, relying only on that. And yes, we gather together to worship Him on Sunday. Think you can make it? Kids and adults, that’s where you find peace. Everything you go through is from Jesus’ nail-pierced hand, and you are going to a place that this same hand is preparing. Along the way, there’s something you can do. Israel was old, unable to make the journey, but he could pray. The brothers were inexperienced, but they could walk. Benjamin was young and silent, but he could be there. Each one has something they could do, but even each one of those things was a gift of God’s grace, too. So, peace be to you, if you are walking in Christ. You just never know what He is up to. But as we will see in the chapters to come, He’s usually up to something pretty good. 
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How can we use our fear to grow spiritually? What do your fears tell you about yourself? Have you ever gotten an out of the blue or late night call from someone who doesn’t normally call you like that? There is often a sense of fear at least wondering what might be wrong or what might suddenly be expected of you. The cryptic “We need to talk…” text is even worse! The three dots means you did something! The worst case scenario is when you know, or at least are pretty sure you know, what those three dots mean. You know what you did, and now you have been discovered. Now, it is one thing to receive that communication from a friend or parent, but what if on the caller ID it read, “God”? What comes to your mind? “Did He see what happened the other night? What is He going to ask me to do? What topic do I need to make sure we stay FAAARR away from?” When we feel the twinge in our conscience, that is something like getting that phone call. Or when we feel our chest tighten up when thinking about a worry of ours, it is an invitation to consider what God might have to say about those emotions. Today we are going to consider our main point: God prods our fears to shape our faith. We are going to see these next few chapters develop our characters in some pretty profound ways. There will be many echos of what we have seen before in Genesis that will resolve in some interesting ways. I invite you over these next few weeks as new semesters start, as we approach the back half of the year, to consider along with these characters how God may be calling you to grow. This week, we will see how God lays His hand on them and in the coming weeks, we will see how God shapes them. God prods our fears to shape our faith Right at the beginning, we revisit Jacob, remember him? He has had quite a storied story, and at this point in the narrative, it has been about 10 or so years since we last saw him. What has changed, and what hasn’t? Well Jacob looks much less passive than in the past! Look how he takes charge over these sons! “Don’t just stand here” he says, in effect, “go get some food from Egypt.” Identifying needs and affecting solutions, this guy! He sends 10 sons down to Egypt so they can collect as much grain as they possibly can. In case there’s a per-person limit, Jacob will send as many resources as he can in order to care for his family. But there is one thing missing, conspicuous in his absence, there’s a son staying behind. Benjamin, the youngest son, Rachel’s youngest, brother of Joseph, is held back lest harm come. That’s a powerful fear. He is holding back another portion of grain, another back to pull a load, why? He doesn’t trust the other sons. In verse 36, when they’ve explained to him that they need Benjamin to go with them on a return trip, Jacob blames them for the loss of Joseph and Simeon (Matthews). The “you” is plural, which translated into our tongue is “Y’all.” “Y’all have deprived me of my sons.” Notice that he briefly imagines losing Benjamin saying that he is “the only one left.” As Matthews put it, “That Benjamin is “the only one left” states what the brothers had known all along: Benjamin was the only son who counted in their father’s eyes.” Favoritism has reared its ugly head again. He is being asked to give up his son—in his mind, his only son— whom he loves. Sound familiar? By the time we get to the end of the chapter, it isn’t looking like much has changed with Jacob. Sins like that have a way of hanging on, and there is often no shortage of reminders that they are there. While it doesn’t feel like it at the time, this is a mercy of God that He often won’t let you hold onto a known sin without reminder. Whether you use that reminder as mainly one of the grace of God or your failure is up to you. But this prodding of fears isn’t limited to just one main thing. This can be a multifaceted experience, even a group one, as we look at the rest of our passage. We are reminded of three key plot points in this section, Joseph is the governor of the land, the brothers don’t recognize him, but he recognizes them. He decides to make put them through a series of tests, but what is he looking for? One scholar points out that Joseph already knows they aren’t spies, but doesn’t really know if they are honest men. Is Benjamin really alive, or did Jacob’s favoritism claim another? For that matter, is Jacob himself still alive? There is really only one way to find out, and that is to ensure that they come down to Egypt. However, maybe a little testing, some refinement, might be necessary (Matthews). Joseph starts out by accusing them of being spies, which is an odd thing to claim. One scholar pointed out that they all came in a group together, ethnically different from all the Egyptians and anyone else who would be there, and were likely dressed similarly. If they were spies for some foreign government, they might be the worst spies you’ve ever heard of (but then again you HAVE heard of them) (Matthews). I think this is the first test in taking them through what he went through. He was likely accused of being a spy when he was sent to bring a report on the brothers. They maintain their innocence, while Joseph maintains their guilt, but offers a way to prove otherwise: send one of them back to bring Benjamin down while the rest stay in prison. A three day stay with Pharaoh’s Finest might help them sort out who is going and who isn’t (Matthews). After the three days, Joseph shows mercy: only one needs to stay, but the rest can go back bringing in the grain. They better come back, though, for that is the only way that they can prove themselves to be “honest men” and get their leftover brother back (v. 19). Mercy at the pit, more than his brothers showed—and they know it, because they remember it. The words are as profound as they are pitiable: “in truth we are guilty” Their consciences wouldn’t let them forget the sound of Joseph’s increasingly desperate voice for mercy. And if conscience forgot, Reuben sure didn’t. The brother’s reaction moves Joseph to tears. This, along with a few other instances of Joseph’s emotion, shows that Joseph isn’t doing this to be mean. He needs to know how the family is doing and how the family is behaving. And at the very least, the brothers show signs of remorse. He can tell these are true words, because he made them think he couldn’t understand Hebrew, the language they spoke with each other (v 23). He heard what was really in their heart because they spoke like they thought no one was listening. What do you say when no one is listening? What conversation is carried on in your mind that you think is hidden? That’s the real heart. Would you fear such things come to light? It points where growth needs to happen. He releases them from prison and sets about the next test. On top of the grain, he gives each one their money back. Not only is he providing for their next trip back for more grain, but he is setting up the acid test for the brothers. They have to come back with Benjamin in order to get Simeon back and thus prove they are honest men. How well is that going to go over when it is obvious that they didn’t pay? They kept records of things like that. We’ve found ancient receipts carved! They are going to have to go back to the man who obviously will remember them and look like dishonest men to get their brother back. Will they take such a risk? They feel their guilt so strongly, that when they find that first bag, they assume that this is the judgment of God. Ross put it this way, “The brothers, who knew they were guilty, could perceive that it was God’s retributive hand, for this was the second time they had come home with money, having abandoned a brother to prison in Egypt.” (653-4). When they get home, things go from bad to worse. One man’s money might have been written off as an honest mistake, but every single brother’s money returned? Shenanigans. We return where we started with Jacob. How on earth could you convince this man to send Benjamin now? He simply refuses. Reuben offers an obviously extreme oath that Jacob could take two of his sons if Benjamin doesn’t come back, and obviously Jacob doesn’t take that. What sort of consolation would that be to Jacob? Brave words, but words alone they are. And it is here that the chapter ends. It would appear that everything is the same at the end as the beginning minus Simeon. But God has moved, and we will see that development next chapter. Everyone’s fears are set up, identified. The brothers remember their guilt of past sins. Jacob is reminded of his favoritism, and possibly the actions of his grandfather Abraham. What did he do when confronted with the call to sacrifice his actual only son, Isaac, Jacob’s father. He might have contented himself with the word that was given to Isaac the last time a famine hit in Genesis 26:2. God had told Isaac not to go down to Egypt in the time of famine. Maybe he rationalized his obvious fears in religious language saying, “Well, I shouldn’t have gone down to Egypt in the first place! That’s what God told my father.” But of course, that isn’t what God told Jacob. Jacob can see what he must do, but at the moment, doesn’t have the courage to do it. No excuse will change that, and I think deep down, he knows it. What are you hoping God doesn’t notice? What fear are you not bringing to Him? Obviously not all fear is pointing to a need of spiritual transformation. We should all be afraid to walk blindly onto 280. Being afraid of a painful surgery is normal. So I’m not talking about that kind of fear, but you knew that. What is that sin you are keeping in the shadows that needs to be brought into the light? What thing are you running from that you know God has told you to do? Maybe it has been to be faithful with your finances. And I’m not just talking about tithing but using it responsibly. Or faithful with your time, your energy, your eating, sleeping, your prayer life. Those things that you say, “Yeah, I know, I need to do that.” If you have something you are saying that to, then God is highlighting exactly what you need to be working on. Now, you’ve got one big advantage over these brothers in that you know you have help. The brothers at this moment have no idea that the person giving them the test is their brother who loves them and who has every intention of bringing them redemption. The One giving you your test is infinitely more so. Jesus is closer than a brother, and a friend of sinners. You needn’t be afraid when He finds a fear. He’s just going about the business of refining you further. Kids, trust your parents. Bring them your fears, your questions. I know this is easier to do when you are younger and can’t manage a water cup, but even you teenagers here, practice opening up. Not just because your parents love you and want to help you, but you need to develop the habit of facing fears, and bringing them to someone who will help you. Adults, keep doing this. Don’t live life alone and afraid. God hasn’t called you to that life. In fact, He’s called you to exactly the oppostie in Philippians 4:6–7 “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Don’t just sit with your fears. Bring them to Jesus. If there is nothing you can do about them, leave them with Jesus. If they are a result of sin, embrace the opportunity to repent when fears arise and find the freedom on the other side. Jesus died to forgive all your sins AND build in you a holy life that brings peace. Don’t settle for less. 
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What is God doing? It’s a question we ask from time to time, and what we are really asking is how do we find out? How does God speak today? Joseph’s life is about to take a radical turn. God is about to reveal the reason why everything has gone the way that it has and give another generation deep confidence in his ability to work through all circumstances, including through some rare means. Central to this passage are these two dreams of Pharaoh and Joseph’s ability, with God’s help, to reveal the interpretations of them. We will see this pop up again in the Old Testament when we get to the prophet Daniel of Lion’s Den fame. These are the only two occasions where we will see a Hebrew practice dream interpretation, so this is a rare moment in Scripture (Matthews). Both times are strange visions with no real obvious interpretation. We know that God can speak very clearly, even with pagan rulers, through dreams. We have even seen that in Genesis when God warns Abimelech in a dream not to touch Sarah, Abraham’s wife: Genesis 20:3 “But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night and said to him, “Behold, you are a dead man because of the woman whom you have taken, for she is a man’s wife.” No ambiguity there, huh? God was able to protect Sarah even when Abraham wasn’t. So why not just do that here with Joseph? Couldn’t God have intervened on Joseph’s behalf through a very clear dream like that to Pharaoh? Couldn’t he have just spoken to Pharaoh plainly about a famine coming and, oh by the way, you need to use Joseph as your administrator? He could have. So why? Let’s explore that as we tackle our main point today: God’s control is comprehensive, and God’s control is good God’s Control is Comprehensive We open with Pharaoh dreaming a dream about cows and grain and the Nile river. For us today, if we were to have a dream like this, we would assume that it was nonsense and doesn’t have any real bearing on our lives, but that is not Pharaoh’s position on it. For the Egyptians, dreams were messages from the gods, so they took those very seriously—and in this case, he happens to be right. The subjects in these dreams are not random either. While we might not think much about cows, grain, and rivers, to the Egyptians, those were everything. They worshipped the Nile river, and when you hear about the importance of the river to the nation’s economy, you can understand where they are coming from. The Nile was the reason why there was usually grain in Egypt. You didn’t have to depend on the rains, because you could (usually) count on the river (Ross). If you could have a river, you can have grain, which means you can have livestock. Seeing diseased and thin everything isn’t just an economic crisis, but a crisis of faith as well because of their faith in the Nile. This would be like an American dreaming about a 1930s style crash of the stock market. It has downstream effects on every aspect of life. So Pharaoh wakes up and all the information he has is terrible things to come but no real understanding of when, why, or how to potentially set it right. He calls in his professional class of dream interpreters, his panel of experts, and, as usual with a panel of experts, they aren’t helpful. I remember seeing a cartoon of a man dragging himself through the desert, and upon seeing a table with people sitting behind it exclaims, “Oh, thank God, a panel of experts!” We are very quick to run to a panel of experts when we have a problem. Experts are great because at the end of the day, you just consult them, you don’t actually have to do what they say. They are there to give counsel, not commands. Turns out doctors know a lot until they tell us something that we don’t actually want to do. Suddenly that doctor doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’m all about listening to the Public Health people when they told me not to eat salad because of an E. Coli outbreak a number of years ago, but laughed at them when they said I couldn’t eat raw cookie dough because of eggs. They’ve got their expertise, but it’s my life. Expert advice isn’t divine revelation. And it turns out divine revelation not only correctly diagnosis my problem, but also commands I take His solution. I believe it was Mark Twain who said, “It isn’t the parts of the Bible I don’t understand that bother me but the parts I do understand.” It turns out that what Pharaoh needs isn’t expertise but revelation. Thankfully, there is one forgetful cupbearer, who suddenly remembers he knows a guy who has actually done this before. Suddenly, Joseph’s life is about to change very suddenly again. The two year wait is suddenly over, and he is hauled out of the pit, shaved, and given a new set of clothes (there’s that clothing theme again). Pharaoh starts the exchange by going over Joseph’s resume. He asks that Joseph confirm that he can, in fact, interpret dreams. Now what Joseph does next is absolutely everything you shouldn’t do in a job interview. The very first word out of his mouth is a single word translated here, ‘It is not in me.” In other words, “I can’t interpret dreams.” Yikes! Joseph! Here’s your shot! You thought getting the ear of the cupbearer would help you out, and now you’re standing in front of the king and the first thing you do is undermine confidence in yourself! What’s worse is that you then say that God is the one who will give the answer to revelation! This is a religious slap! Pharaoh is also supposed to be divine, a god among men. And here Joseph is reminding Pharaoh that his supposed divinity isn’t doing anything but that there is another God, the God of the Hebrews, the God of this until-five-minutes-ago prisoner is the one who holds the answer. Not only holds the answer, but is the one in charge of the food, the Nile, and Pharaoh can’t really do anything to stop it. Instant rejection on the job search website. But this is exactly how a worshiper of God can and should talk. Why? Because they serve a God fully in control. Joseph doesn’t have to cow tow to Pharaoh’s religious sensibilities. He doesn’t have to lie to exalt himself to get ahead. He knows that God has decided that he shall rule, and if God has confirmed that, nothing will stop it. One commentator put it this way talking about Joseph’s using the word “God” here: “He goes from the prison to the throne of the king and this is his first word. This speech is as pious as it is frank. He who is aware of God is humble and fearless at the same time.” (Benno Jacob, quoted by Ross, 641, emphasis mine). Pharaoh lays out his dream to Joseph as before and closes with the line, “And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.” I almost imagine Pharaoh gesturing to his panel of experts with disappointment. Joseph picks up and says, “God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.” Interestingly, the words “explain” and “reveal” are the same word but in slightly different forms here in these verses. It is almost to say, “Yes, the experts tried to reveal, but God is the one who is going to reveal.” Sure enough, Joseph lays out exactly what God is going to do. He is going to cause seven good years of harvest (read: the Nile is His instrument), and then He is going to cause seven years of severe famine. Not only is He going to do this, it is set, fixed, absolutely going to happen, which is why He said it twice. The Good News is, He is letting you know this so that you can prepare for it. Thankfully, Joseph, also has the step by step solution to weathering this famine. What a God! God’s Control is Good Now, did you notice that there is one glaring question that Joseph doesn’t give any elaboration on, and for whatever reason Pharaoh doesn’t ask? No one says why this is happening! And do you know what the answer is? To exalt Joseph to his high position, thus fulfilling the dream promise to him, bring his family back together to survive, thus keeping the promises to Abraham, which gives the Amorites time to repent of their sins before the Israelites come out of Egypt and take over their land (Genesis 15:6). God working, isn’t he? That’s some comprehensive sovereignty. Now, I know, we presbyterians just love talking about God’s sovereignty, as we should, but God being in control actually isn’t the comforting thing. It’s the fact that God is in control AND good. He is in control and keeps His promises. That He will fulfill His Word made to this seemingly random family in the middle East such that He will trigger a world-wide famine to ensure His purposes for them are fulfilled. That’s Who’s looking after you! And do you know what’s even better than that? He does this not for the powerful and noble, but the lowly sinner. Israel wasn’t an impressive nation. God, from our perspective should have invested in Egypt. But instead His eye was on its lone Hebrew prisoner. Just as He promised, He exalts Joseph over all of Egypt! Now, what does this mean for us? Well, we often want to consult panels of experts, too, don’t we? We want to find an interpretation of our lives that we like. Often the most consulted panel is a panel of one, ourselves. We can’t run our lives on the interpretation of anyone but God. All of us are just too small on our own. You’ve heard of that story of five blind men trying to describe an elephant, right? There is one who is at the trunk who says than an elephant is long and skinny, there’s another at the tail saying it is short and furry, while another is at the leg saying it is tall and thick. People use that illustration to say that no one has the whole truth, so just make it up as you go. Ironically, they think that they see. They say, “Oh, God is so full, so complex, that no one could possibly see it in all His mystery, so we won’t even try.” They’re correct in that we can’t understand Him without help, but unlike an elephant, God has spoken! He has spoken clearly here in His Word! We don’t have the excuse that God is too complicated to obey! He has revealed Himself right here. He gave Pharaoh a confusing dream and then sent someone to explain. God has done so again. He has spoken in the Old Testament, and then He sent Someone to fulfill it. Jesus Himself, THE Word of God, came and lived on this Earth. He didn’t just say more words, but demonstrated what love looks like. He left us with an example so high we could never reach it, which is why He died on the cross for your sin and mine. He isn’t just revelation; He is salvation! This is the reality you have to keep in mind when we say God is in control. The God who pays the penalty for sin Himself on the cross is the God who is bringing everything into your life good and bad. He doesn’t always explain why. He didn’t here with Pharaoh. But a God who doesn’t forget His promises, Who personally sacrifices for your salvation is up to something. We’ve got to trust Him. Kids, you get the best practice with this. Your parents love you more than you can know, and when they give you a “no,” it is for your good. You need to learn to trust that they are working for your good. That will teach you how to trust God’s good purposes for you. So parents, model that well. For the rest of us, don’t seek to interpret your life through the eyes of experts, or family, or culture. Interpret your life through the eyes of God. Your life isn’t just a set of data that you supply meaning to. God gives you the data and then tells you what it means in His Word. You don’t have to go around looking for other sources of knowledge. Don’t wait for dreams. God already wrote it down for you. And if you aren’t obedient enough to read, much less follow, a clearly written, often footnoted Bible with study notes, why do you think God should believe that you are going to listen to a dream? It’s right here. Am I saying you can’t ask for help from other godly people? Of course not. The Proverbs say that in a multitude of counselors there is wisdom, but that wisdom has to come from God’s Word. No, the Bible can’t tell you where to invest for retirement, but it will tell you how to view your money which will absolutely guide those decisions. Even the way you react to your life needs to be viewed and interpreted by God. We don’t react to our lives through complaint, as if a God who sacrificed His Son for me did not exist. |
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