Joseph and His Brothers
Transcript
It's good to see you all this morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. Grab a Bible and go to Genesis chapter 42. If you grab one of our blue Bibles, that'll be on page 21. We've been walking through the book of Genesis.
We are now in the section on Joseph, and so we are talking specifically about Joseph. We've been following along with his story. We have, today we're going to kind of finish this story up. So usually it says a number and then like a colon and then a few other Numbers. And that's chapters 42 through 47. So today we've got a lot of work to do, but we won't read all of it.
Some of it will be summarized. I would encourage you to read all of it. But we are going to be kind of finishing up, in large part, the Joseph story. And then next week we will look at Jacob blessing his sons. And then the following week we will kind of end Genesis, see the kind of the summary idea of Genesis and how that's not just the summary idea of Genesis, but in some ways it summarizes the entire Bible. And then we will close Genesis, not to open it again for quite a while.
And thankful for the time we've spent in it and thankful to be talking about something else. So we've been walking through it. I think it's been really good, but we are walking in Joseph and his story right now. And we're going to see that Joseph's, a lot of his storyline, a lot of what we've seen God at work in is kind of coming to a head. It's kind of coming to the intense part of his story is going to kind of play out today. And so we're going to get to look at that together.
So let's pray and then we'll start reading. God, we thank you for your word. Lord, we thank you through how you have revealed yourself. That your word and what we have is that we might see you and know you. To know what you're like and to know how you respond and how you act and what you desire from us and for us. And so we pray that we would grow in that today.
That through your Holy Spirit we would see more clearly who you are and what you're doing and what you have done. We love you and we praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. So if you look at chapter 42, we're actually going to read the two verses right before that. 41, 56 and 57. So it says, So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians.
For the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe over all the earth. And so we start off with Joseph in this position of leadership, in this position of power. But that's not how his story began. That's not how it played out. He has, he's Jacob's son.
He was the second youngest. He was the firstborn son of Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife. And he has a one younger brother named Benjamin and he has 10 older brothers. And so because he was the firstborn of Jacob's favorite wife, he was treated differently. He was given a magnificent set of clothes. And it's a big deal.
If you read throughout the Bible, it'll say things like, and then they gave them gold and a change of clothes. And we, we take for granted having a lot of clothes, but they didn't. They had the same clothes and they would wash them and they would clean them. They wear them all the time. And so he gets nicer clothes than the rest of his brothers. And he then has these dreams that his brothers are going to bow down to him.
And he announces them to his brothers and his brothers dislike him. They're not happy with him. And so his 10 older brothers, at some point he goes out to, to see them in the field and they decide, let's kill him. So his 10 older brothers grab him. He's 17 years old. They throw him in a pit because the oldest brother, Reuben says, let's not kill him.
And his plan was just put him in the pit. And Reuben was thinking, I'll come save him later. Reuben's looking for an opportunity to do that. He doesn't get that opportunity because another one of the older brothers, Judah says, let's not kill him and have his blood on our hands. Let's sell him as a slave and have cash on our hands.
And so that's Judah's plan is let's make some money out of this. Let's not just get guilt, but let's get money. And so they pull Joseph out of the pit. They sell him into slavery. And so he is taken down to Egypt. They take his coat of many colors.
They kill a goat. They pour blood on it. They take it to his dad and they say, isn't this Joseph's? Can you identify this coat? His dad says, surely he's been torn to pieces by some wild animal. That was their plan.
Then we follow Joseph. He goes to be a slave in Egypt and he is an excellent slave. He has a good attitude. God's with him. He works hard. He's diligent.
He becomes second in charge over this entire household. And this is going well for him as well as being a slave can go as well as his life. Who's gone from the pit to slavery has been turned upside down as well as it can go. But his master's wife lays eyes on him and then begins to attempt to seduce him. She begins to pursue him. And Joseph spurns her advances.
He does not have he doesn't want to have anything to do with that. He tells her explicitly no. He listens to her daily. Try this. And he says no. And eventually she just had enough.
She grabs him and he just dips out of his clothes and feats don't fail me now takes off. And so she takes his clothes and she tells her husband she lays up next to him and says, this is Joseph's and he tried to assault me. He tried to rape me. And so her husband is captain of the guard takes him right then and throws him in jail. So he goes from most beloved son to pit to slavery and now to prison.
And in prison he could be angry. He could be bitter. He's not. He works hard. He the Lord is still with him. The Lord blesses him.
He becomes second in charge of the prison. And so as as high a ranking position as a prisoner can have, he has it. He cares for the people well underneath under him. And there comes a time when there's the cup bearer and the baker from the king are both in prison and they both have basically nightmares, really vivid dreams that stress them out. He sees them in the morning. They're in prison.
And he sees them and says, why do y'all look sad? Notices their facial expression and cares about them. They tell him his dreams. He interprets them because he's already had dreams and seen that his brothers are going to bow down to him. He interprets these dreams. He says to one of them, you will be lifted up back to your place.
And he says to the other one, you will be lifted up and hanged. And he tells the one who's going back to his position, just don't forget me. And that guy says, I sure won't. And then promptly does. Until several years later, the pharaoh has a dream and he says, oh, you remember when I was in prison? There's a little Hebrew guy who can interpret dreams.
Let's go get him. So they go get him. And in a day, he goes from prisoner to second in charge of Egypt, from prison to palace overnight. And that's where we pick up with him now. Second in charge over Egypt. He was able to interpret the dream that there was going to be five years of plenty, seven years of plenty, seven years of plenty.
Seven years of famine. And they're now into the famine. And so everybody's coming to Egypt because they were able to prepare. And because Joseph led well, they were able to prepare. Everybody's coming to Egypt. And now we're going to see where the story gets interesting.
Chapter 42, as if it hadn't been interesting so far. When Jacob learned, so that's his daddy, that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, why do you look at one another? And he said, behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there that we may live and not die. So 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother. So that's his younger brother, the youngest one of the family. And Joseph's only full brother. All the other ones are half brothers with his brothers. For he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus, the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came for the famine in the was in the land of Canaan.
I love how this starts. Jacob says a really good dad phrase. Why are you all sitting around looking at each other? Don't just sit and stare at your brother's face like y'all somehow going to, that ain't going to accomplish anything. Get up and go to Egypt and get us some food. Don't just sit here.
Go get us some food. But he doesn't send Benjamin. He sends his 10 older sons. These are the 10 sons who threw Joseph into the pit. So Joseph is now about to get to stare face to face with those who harmed him.
And Joseph is no longer in the pit. Joseph is the one they have to come get food from. Joseph is in a position of absolute power in Egypt. So let's see what happens. Now, Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land.
And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them. But he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. Where do you come from? He said. They said, from the land of Canaan to buy food.
And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, you are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said to him, no, my Lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man.
We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies. Okay, so he sees them and he recognizes them. Now, this makes sense because he gets some context. First of all, they showed up. They were older, so they would have already looked a little similar.
He said he was 17. At this point, he's 32. So he's made a big jump from 17 to 32. You can look considerably different. But his brothers were all older than him.
They're just that same distance, and I can't do math quick. So that amount of older. And he sees them all together, though. He gets some context. So maybe if it was just one, it might have been harder to recognize.
But when all 10 of them walk in, he's like, oh, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, Reuben. I know these people. They don't recognize him, but also he is now in a position of authority in Egypt. He has an Egyptian name. He is speaking Egyptian. And there's a good chance he no longer looked like a Hebrew.
They would have changed his hairstyle. He would look Egyptian, most likely. So they walk in. He recognizes them. They don't recognize him. They all bow to the ground, and I bet a cold chill shot through Joseph because he was like, oh, the dream.
Oh, I knew it. So they all bow down, and he recognizes them, but he speaks roughly to them. And you want, we'll see in a second why. There's 10 brothers. Joseph has 11 brothers. And so he doesn't make himself known.
He speaks roughly to them. He calls them spies. And he said to them, no, this is verse 12. It is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see. A weird phrase for us. It just means you've come to spy out how defenseless we are.
And they said, we, your servants, are 12 brothers, the son of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is no more. But Joseph said to them, surprise! No, he didn't. But Joseph said to them, it is as I said to you, you are spies.
By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you and let him bring your brother while you, the rest of you, remain confined. That your words may be tested whether there is truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh. Surely you are spies. And he put them all together in custody for three days.
So he immediately just, they're arrested. And he says, I want to see your younger brother. Because in Joseph's reckoning, it seems logical that he's thinking through, okay, I was favorited. I was treated differently among my brothers and they hated me for it. And when I was removed from the picture, there is a really good chance that my father began to dote on Benjamin above and beyond anything he ever did with me. And if my brothers were willing to sell me into slavery or kill me, then there's a good chance, potentially, they've killed Benjamin.
He wants to see Benjamin. He doesn't show up with the ten. He wants to see him. They say he's alive. They say his dad's alive. He says, all right, I want to see him.
Also, he is displaying his absolute authority over them. These are ten men that he just, throw them in jail. Now, this is the moment that some of us have been dreaming of in our own lives. To stand face to face with those who have harmed us. With those who have done more in our lives to destroy our lives than anybody else. That his brothers were able to just take him and in a moment, from being a 17-year-old with a lot of life in front of him, were able to just snatch that away from him and send him off to be enslaved in Egypt.
They derailed his life. As much as anybody can derail a life, they did it. And now he's in a position of power. And this is what some of you rehearse in your mind. Ooh, one day. One day they'll see.
One day I'll get to show them. One day I'm going to show up to my high school reunion. One day she's going to come crawling back to me. One day I'll be in the position. I'll have the job. They'll see that this will work out.
And then I'll be able to tell that guy, I'm going to open my own business. I'm going to put them out like this. We rehearse this in our minds. And so if Joseph had been doing that, now it is. Here it is. Laid out in front of him, teed up.
One day I'll be in a position. One day God will let that dream come true. You will bow down to me. And I will have absolute authority. He could have been holding on to this vision that God had given him as a tool for striking his brothers down. He arrests them.
And let's see how this story continues. It says, So he swaps it. A minute ago it was one of y'all can leave. Nine of you have to stay. Now it's nine of you can leave.
One of you has to stay. And we'll verify that this is true. It says, And they did so. Then they said to one another. So they said, Okay, we'll do that.
Then they said to one another. In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother. In that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us. And we did not listen. This is why this distress has come upon us. And Reuben answered them.
Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood. They did not know that Joseph understood them. For there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and wept.
So he hears his brothers begin to speak to each other in Hebrew. And what they say is, No, we deserve this. It's caught up to us. The guilt of our brother has found us out. Meaning that they understood and carried for this amount of time this guilt towards their brother. This sin that they had committed.
And they look at each other and go, No, it's caught up to us. And it's this idea of like God ordained karma. That they've done this and eventually it will catch them and that God will make it catch them. And they said, Because we listened to the distress of his soul and didn't listen to it. We heard it, but we didn't listen. And you can imagine Joseph standing there looking at his brothers and hearing them speak in Hebrew to one another about him and how they were wrong and how they were guilty for what they had done.
And remembering the moment when they were pulling him out of the pit and he had been pleading, calling out them each by name. Naphtali, don't do this. Naphtali, do you hear me? Gad, don't do this. Reuben, is Reuben there? Don't do this.
Reuben, you can lead them. You can change this. Judah, Judah, is it you? Can you? Just crying out to him and being pulled out and seeing enslavers that they're now going to sell him to and actually searching the face of his brothers and seeing which ones would make eye contact and look cold towards him. And which of them wouldn't even look at him and which of them has he pleaded with them?
Don't do this. And his soul was in distress and they didn't listen. And here's him speaking about it and it says he weeps. Now we don't know at this point. Why? Is he weeping because he's angry?
Is he weeping because he remembers the hurt of that moment? Is he weeping because he longs for his brothers and he's glad to see that they at least feel guilt? Is he weeping because it's just all the emotions tied up in seeing them and seeing that they've carried this with them? Because this is part of what we want when we want to exact revenge on somebody is we want them to see what they've done wrong. We want them to know it prior to bringing the hammer down. They did not know that Joseph understood them for there was an interpreter between them.
And then he turned away from them and wept and he returned to them and spoke to them. And he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to replace every man's money in his sack and to give them provisions for the journey. This was done for them. Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed.
So he not only gives them the grain they paid for, he gives them their money back and he gives them provisions on top of it. They just load them down. He sends them off. At this point, we're like, what is he doing? Is he just being kind to them? Is this part of his plan?
What's happening? Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed. And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of his sack. And he said to his brothers, my money has been put back here in the mouth of my sack. At this, their hearts failed them. And they turned trembling to one another saying, what is this that God has done to us?
So they're leaving thinking, let's go get Benjamin and we'll come back. And then on the way, they realize, wait, wait, my money's here. Meaning the Egyptians are going to think we stole. How did this happen? How did we get in a situation where now he thought we were spies and now we've proven dishonest? It says their hearts failed them and they think God did it.
God is orchestrating this to harm us. They go home. They find out that everybody's money. This is the rest of the chapter. I'm just going to explain it. They find out everybody's money is back in their sack.
And they stress out about it. And they tell their father, Jacob, we have to go back with Benjamin. Because we've got to get Simeon set free. And Jacob says, no. Now he loves Benjamin.
It's possible he doesn't fully trust his other sons. We don't know. But he just says, no, like I can't give up Benjamin. Reuben, the oldest, actually looks at him and says, kill both of my sons if I don't bring Benjamin back. And Jacob says, no, if anything happens to Benjamin, my gray hairs will go down to Sheol in sorrow. He just says, it'll kill me.
If he dies, I'll die. So move to chapter 43. Now the famine was severe in the land. And when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go again and buy us a little food. But Judah said to him, the man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.
That again, I love Jacob in the story. It feels like a very fatherly thing to do, to be like, no, we ain't doing that again. I ain't ever having that. Maybe this is just how my house worked. And then they go on. They run out of food.
He comes back and says, go back there and get me some food again. And they're like, what? Well, you don't remember? You don't remember the conversation we had? And so that's what Judah says. He says, the man told us, you're not going to see me.
You're not seeing my face. This is verse three. Unless your brother is with us. If you will send our brother with us, we'll go down and buy food. But if you won't send him, we will not go down.
For the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. And Israel said, why do you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? And they, he says, why on earth would you have told him that Benjamin exists? Why has that even come up? Go buy grain, hand them money, come back with grain. Why is this difficult?
Why are you showing up and telling them your life story? What, what on earth? Have you ever even been to a store before? Y'all are 10 grown men. What are y'all doing? That's kind of what he's saying.
And they're like, he asked us a bunch of questions. That's their answer. He said, do you have a father? How old is he? Is he still alive? That he asked, do you have a younger brother?
How are we supposed to know as soon as we said we had a younger brother, he was going to say, well, I want to see him. We thought it was weird. And then it turned out bad for us. So turn, turn, I'm sorry. If you have a blue Bible, turn the page. If not, just keep following along.
We're 43 still. So he says, Judah tells his father, hang it on my head. If Benjamin doesn't come back, I'll be held responsible and I'll bear the guilt forever. Now, a couple of things have happened since last time. Last time, it was Reuben, who Jacob does not have the best relationship with because Reuben actually slept with one of Jacob's wives. We're going to see that show up more and when he blesses him, which the word bless sounds nice.
It's not much of a blessing. Reuben says, hang it on my sons, not on me, which is an interesting thing for him to say. And maybe he thought that was weightier, but he says, you can kill my sons. Judah says, hang it on me. And the other thing is now they don't have any grain. So they're out of food.
So he says, let the guilt fall to me if Benjamin doesn't come back. And if we had not delayed, we'd have already gone and come back twice. So verse 11, their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man and a little balm and a little honey and gum and myrrh and pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks.
Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise. Go again to the man. May God almighty grant you mercy before the man. And may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
So he says, we got to have food. Take the food that we do have, the nice things that we do have, some of the, at least some of the stuff that we have. They need grain, but at least some of the stuff that we have. They need a staple crop and none of that was growing. So they said, take some of this as a gift and may God bless you in it.
So the men took this present and they took double the money with them and Benjamin and they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, bring the men into the house and slaughter an animal and make ready for the men are to dine with me at noon. The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph's house. And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house. And they said, it is because of the money which was replaced in the sacks the first time that he's brought us in so that he might assault us and fall upon us and make us servants and seize our donkeys.
So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, oh, my Lord, we came down the first time to buy food. And when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was each man's money in the mouth of a sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put our money in our sacks. So the steward, it says he replied, peace to you.
Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in the sacks for you. I received your money. And then he brought Simeon out to them. So, OK, so what happens is they show up. They think, OK, we got Benjamin.
We'll show him Benjamin. We'll get Simeon. We'll buy some grain. We'll pay them back if they want us to pay them back. And we'll get out of here. They show up and a guy comes over and says, the Lord of the place, which whatever his Egyptian name was, Zeph, Hefoph, Muflef, Muflef.
From last week, he wants you to come to his home. And so they're like, uh, so they show up at the house and they're like, this isn't this can't this isn't good. Right. Like, why does he want us to go to his house? They're standing there talking. They're like, it's got to be the money.
He wants to get us in his house. Then he's going to attack us. They're going to enslave us and keep our donkeys. And so they said, let's go tell him. So they walk up to the door.
They don't go inside. And they're like, we brought the money back. You guys don't even we don't need to go in there. We have all the money. And the guy says, I had your money last time. Which means a couple of really cool things about Joseph.
One, he just paid for their grain. He gave them their grain back and blessed them by giving them their money back. He wasn't going to charge them. They're his brothers. He does that. He also didn't just be like, well, I'm the I'm in charge of this.
So here's some free grain. He paid for it. So he pays for it. The guy who's handling it gets the money and he sends their money back. And they say, just come on in. And then it says, Simeon was brought out to them.
So Simeon comes out. I'm sure he's excited because it's been the amount of time it took them to completely run out of grain and decide we're all going to starve to death. Simeon's been there a while. I assume he was really happy. But part of me thinks he walked out like this.
And they were like, yeah, your dad didn't want to send Benjamin. He was like, yeah, OK, that makes sense. It's good to see y'all. Thanks for coming back. Nice to see you, too, Benjamin. Took your sweet time.
So it says they brought Simeon out to them. Then he brought Simeon out to them, 24. And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water, and they had washed their feet. And when he had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that he should eat bread there. So they're taken care of.
They're tending to their donkeys. They're letting them wash their feet. They're hanging out. And all of a sudden, they hear that Joseph's coming. And so they pile up all the little pistachio nuts and, you know, 10 men trying to make something look real nice. We don't know how nice it looked, but not that nice.
And they piled it up. And they were like, yeah, put some gum and some balm there. That'll be sweet. And then we'll be like, here's our present. It's good to see you. And so they pile it up.
So then when he comes home, they could give him his present. When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground. He inquired about their welfare and said, is your father well? The old man of whom you spoke, is he still alive? They said, your servant, our father is well, and he is still alive. And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves.
And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother, Benjamin, his mother's son. And he said, is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? And then he said, God, be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph hurried out for his compassion, grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. So that had to be weird for them.
He says, is this your brother? May God be gracious to you, son. Now, I don't know if you've ever seen somebody start to cry and try to stop it. But their face looked weird. I don't cry very often, but when I am going to cry, I try to stop it and it does not go well. I've done this before.
I start getting like the yips. I'll be like, like, I just, I can't. My face starts doing like this. I remember my brother on his wedding day, he would like look around people and then he would turn and go like he was just trying to tighten his face and do a little knot. So I'm assuming he looks at me and says, is this your brother?
May God bless you. And just took off. They were like, this man's on something. I don't know what, what this is. And also, if you go weep somewhere, that takes a little bit. I don't know how long it takes you to weep.
A couple minutes. I don't know. I don't know how long, you know, he goes and weeps. He then it says he washes his face and he comes back. He looked different. You don't weep and just bounce back from that.
So when he walked back, they were like, something's going on here. I'm sure when he took off, they thought, oh, this is the time they jump out and get us. You know, he confirmed that he was here and now we're trapped. He comes back. He's wept and cleaned his face. So then verse 31, then he washed his face and came out and controlling himself.
He said, serve the food. They served him by himself and them by themselves and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews. But that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table.
And Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were married with him. That means they got tipsy. All right. Picture this for a second. The Egyptians know that Joseph is Hebrew.
So they're not going to eat with him. He eats by himself. So the Egyptians eat by themselves. Joseph eats by himself at multiple tables at this place. This is apparently pretty extravagant set up. And all of his brothers get to eat by themselves and they sit in birth order.
And Joseph has all this food brought out. First of all, these men are starving. They came to the place where they thought, if we don't go, everyone dies. So is it okay if we risk Benjamin because he's going to die here or there? Like, can we go? Everybody's going to die if we don't.
So they go. They're starving. All this food is brought out because Egypt is doing well because God ordained that it would be through Joseph and the planning that was going into this. And then, this is my favorite part, he piles up food for all of them that they're amazed. And he gives Benjamin five times as much. Which, if you've ever eaten and you're thinking, like, I think your piece of chicken is bigger than my piece of chicken.
Like, KFC did it to you on purpose. Like, you know, you open yours up and you're like, all right, I'll eat this. And then you see somebody else, they ordered the same thing. But it's like, no, that chicken was healthier. It worked out. I don't know why they gave me the sad chicken.
I think we accidentally got our boxes swapped. Like, you ever had that? Five times as much. It'd be like, if you sat down, I don't know what they had, like Egyptian chicken. And so, like, this guy's got a chicken leg. And then they just keep piling stuff.
Like, you got a piece of cake, they give him a cake. They give you a drumstick, they give him a whole chicken. Five times as much. So they're piling this up and they're like, did they think we sat in reverse order? Obviously, I look older than him, right? Like, Ruben's on the other end going, why are they, what is happening here?
And you know, they probably look at him like, everybody's got to just eat what they were given and be respectful. But I wonder if they were like, Benjamin, can I have some of that? And Benjamin was like, I don't want to be rude. I think I'm going to have to eat this whole cake. You know, I haven't eaten in like a year. I think I'm going to have to just eat this whole chicken.
I don't want to offend anybody. I hate to end up in prison. All right, so they do that. Chapter 44. Then he commanded the steward of his house, fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry.
Put each man's money in the mouth of his sack and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now, Joseph said to his servant, up, follow after the men. When you overtake them, say to them, why have you repaid evil for good?
Is it not from this that my Lord drinks and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this. So he gave him his cup that they're going to accuse. They're going to say he practices divination with. Now, we don't know if that was just the accusation, if it was made to seem even more powerful, if he actually did practice divination, he lived in Egypt and had taken on some Egyptian practices. You're not supposed to practice divination.
But we don't know. But that's part of the story. So it's a way to kind of fortune tell or whatever. When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. And they said to him, why does my Lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing.
Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. And how then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house? Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die. And we also will be my Lord's servants. And he said, let it be as you say, who is he who is found with it shall be my servant and the rest of you shall be innocent. So he goes.
And can you imagine the integrity they have that they just say, no, no, no, no. We didn't take anything. And if you find it, kill that one and we'll all be slaves. They just were like, we didn't do this. And he says, fine, but we'll, we'll be a little more fair about it. We'll just make him a slave, whoever it's found with.
Then each man quickly, this is verse 11, 44, 11. Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground and each man opened his sack and he searched beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they tore their clothes and every man loaded his donkey and they returned to the city. They didn't just say, well, Benjamin, sorry, buddy. They all said, oh no, it can't be Benjamin.
They tear their clothes and they just get back on their donkeys and they all go back. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground and Joseph said to them, what deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination? And Judah, and this was all through a translator. So he would have said really aggressive things.
They looked at him and they looked at the translator and the translator would say it. And then he would look at him and aggressively say things again. They would look at the translator like that and then say, oh, that sounded worse than the first one. And so they would listen to it. Practice divination. Verse 16.
And Judah said, what shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also in whose hand the cup has been found. But he said, far be it from me that I should do so.
That's Joseph responding. Only the man in whose cup and whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father. Do you see what's happened? Joseph. Took the same 10 brothers.
Put him in a situation where they can sell Benjamin into slavery and walk away. They can get rid of Benjamin. He can be a slave in Egypt and they can walk away. So Joseph just says, no, he'll stay and be a slave. Y'all are free to go. Then Judah went up to him and said, oh, my Lord, please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's ears and let not your anger burn against your servant.
For you are like Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servant saying, have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, we have a father, an old man and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead and he alone is left of his mother's children and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.
And we said to my Lord, the boy cannot leave his father. For if he should leave his father, his father would die. Then you said to your servants, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again. When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him the words of the Lord. And when our father said, go again and buy us a little food, we said we can't go down unless our youngest brother goes with us. And then we will go down for we cannot see the man's face unless our younger brother is with us.
Then your servant, my father said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons, one left me. And I said, surely he's been torn to pieces and I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to shield. He says, now, therefore, as soon as I came to your servant, my father and the boy is not with me. As soon as I come to your servant, my father, the boy is not with me. Then as his life is bound up in the boy's life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die.
And your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to shield. For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, if I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life. Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father. Joseph tees it up for the older brothers to be able to walk away and leave Benjamin there to have him be a slave in Egypt.
And Judah comes and says, I can't, I can't go back. I can't go back without Benjamin. I'll take his place. I'll be a slave in Egypt. Benjamin's got to go home. I'll be a slave in Egypt.
Benjamin's got to go home. I'll take his place. I've already made a pledge. I'm not doing it. I'm not going back. I'm not going back again and telling my father that his son is dead.
I've seen that once. I don't want to see it again. I'm not doing it. Chapter 45. Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him.
And he cried, make everyone go out from me. So he yelled this in Egyptian. His brothers don't understand. He just yells, get out of here. And all the Egyptians leave. So no one stayed with him.
And when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. Judah says what he should have said so many years ago. He swaps places with Benjamin.
Judah fights for Benjamin's life. He fights for what is right. He does what he should have done. He's the one earlier who was saying we're guilty. And they all agreed. And then Judah, all the brothers walked back broken hearted.
And Judah just says, you can't. We can't lose Benjamin. And when he says it, Joseph just can't control it. And so he yells, get out of here. Everybody runs out but the Hebrews and the Hebrews are looking at him. And then in Hebrew, he says, I am Joseph.
And they didn't know what to do. He starts weeping. And he says, is my dad alive? They didn't answer. They just stare at him. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please.
And they came near. And he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years. And there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Go, hurry up and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph. God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me.
Do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me. You and your children and your children's children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have. There I will provide for you. And there are yet five years of famine to come. So that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty.
He said, now your eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You speak in Hebrew. That is my mouth that speaks to you. Hurry up and bring my father down here. Verse 34. Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept.
And Benjamin wept upon his neck and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After this his brothers talked with him. He has them in the palm of his hand to do them harm. And he just wants to hug them and welcome them and draw them near and care for them and provide for them. And he says, I'm your brother who you sold into slavery. And we would want to.
You would want to think that what would follow that sentence is I'm the one you sold into slavery. And now you'll pay. I'm the one that was in the pit and I've waited for this moment my entire life. But he says, I'm the one who you sold into slavery. Do not be distressed. God has worked in this to bring about provision for you.
You didn't send me. God sent me. And there's hope for you because of it. Now, what happens is they go get his father. His father comes back. They weep.
They hug. He settles them in the land of Goshen. He cares for them. His father actually gets to meet Pharaoh. They bless them. They put him in a nice land but not where the Egyptians are.
And then all of Egypt becomes extremely wealthy because they're the only people that have food for the next five years. And the nation of Israel is cared for, protected, and lives in Goshen. God even tells Jacob, don't be afraid. Go down there. I'm at work in this. Now, when we read stories in the Bible, so often we want to see what are we supposed to learn from them?
How are we supposed to act? What did they do wrong that we shouldn't do? What did they do right that we should do? We want to read this story and you could say, when you have the opportunity for revenge, don't take it. When you have the opportunity for revenge, don't. We could put you in the place of Joseph and we could talk through that.
But the problem is with this story is that we're not Joseph. We're his brothers. And Jesus is Joseph. We're the ones who did not want a king, did not want someone we had to bow down to, who actively opposed him. Jesus comes and proclaims a kingdom and humanity rises up against him to destroy him, to cast him out, to kill him. And then he rises, not from a prison, but from a tomb, not to an earthly palace, but to an eternal throne.
And one day everyone will stand before him and have that moment where he says what Peter said about Jesus in Acts chapter 2, which is, Jesus whom you crucified, God has made him both Lord and Christ. Everybody will have someday when they stand before Jesus and see the king who has absolute power over everything. And we'll be like the brothers that our hearts fail us because we know our sin and we know what we've done. But Jesus is better than Joseph. He says the same thing. Wasn't just your sin that sent me here.
It was the father who sent me here so that he might make provision for you. Wasn't just your sin that sent me here, but I came here to pay for sin so that you might have life, that you might have forgiveness, that you might have freedom, that that's the hope found in Jesus. That he is the one who dies, that he might welcome and love his brothers, that he wants to wrap his arms around us, welcome us. That when he looks at his brothers and they're standing back from him and he says, come near to me. It's me. It's me.
He weeps and he hugs them. And that's what Jesus does for us. That Jesus wants you to know your sin. He wants you to see it. He wants you to feel it. He wants you to know your guilt.
But not for condemnation. Not so that you might feel terrible. Not so that you might be crushed by it. But so that you might be free from it. Matt's going to come back up here. As we close out our time, I want you to see this.
He wants you to see your sin. Not for vindictiveness. This is one of the things that people go with the Bible, you know, it just says, it comes out and just says I'm a terrible person. It's like, yes. Yes, it does. It cosigns that you're terrible.
But for your redemption not to crush you. So that you might see it and then it might not weigh on you. That your guilt might not find you out. That he wants you to see your sin and he wants you to turn from it. Just like Judah and them. They changed how they were.
They wanted to turn from this. They knew that they had been guilty and they weren't going to repeat it. He wants you to turn from it and he wants you to come to him so that he can forgive you. So that you can find grace. And reconciliation. That he can welcome you.
Do you know that that's Jesus' response? That he can't control himself. But he overwhelmingly wants to wrap us up. Have us close. Draw us near. Forgive us.
Reconcile us. And he says the same thing. God sent me before you to prepare a place. He sent me before you for provision. Not for harm. For good.
Not for destruction. I'm the one whom you destroyed. But not so that you might be crushed by. But so that you might be saved. That's Jesus. And that's our hope.
That's the only hope we have. That we might see our sin. That we might repent of our sin. And that we might in Jesus find the one who paid for our sin. And who welcomes us back. And prepares a place for us.
That we might have life. And protection. And provision. The goal in this story is not just to be like Joseph. But to be the brothers.
Others who don't deserve anything but condemnation. And who receive everything because of the grace of someone else. Because someone else was willing to suffer. And someone else was willing to carry the penalty on themselves. That Joseph with joy can look at his brothers and say, No, no, no, no, no, no, no. God did this.
God put me in the pit. God sent me to prison. God elevated me out of slavery and out of prison to here. So that he might bless you. And that Jesus looks at us and says the same thing. So many of us think that we come to Jesus.
And he's like, Alright. Alright. It's about time you saw how terrible you are. Now go sit in the corner and think about it. And if you keep it together, then maybe. We feel like maybe he saves me.
But I'm kind of in the back of the group. And I'm not really as welcome as the other ones. Or maybe he saves me. But he's still holding this sin against me. Or maybe he would save me. Or he did save me.
But I've continued to sin. I've continued to be broken. And so now he's going to take it back. And that's not what he does. He says, No, I went to the cross for you. God sent me there that you might be welcomed.
And you might be loved. And you might be grabbed. And hugged. And wept over. And cared for. If you have never placed your faith in Jesus.
I want you to see your sin. And know how terrible it is. I want you to feel the guilt of it. But I want you to turn from it. And take it to Jesus. Who forgives the worst of sinners.
And brings hope in the darkest of places. And joyously welcomes those who've harmed him. In a moment, we are going to take communion together as a church family. Which is where we celebrate and remember that Jesus' body was broken for us. And that his blood was shed for us. And we take bread.
And we're going to dip it in juice. To remind ourselves of his body and his blood. And to remember what Jesus has done. And that we need the gospel. And that our hope is in him. And when you do that today, I want you to remember that, yes, our sin sent him to the cross.
But God sent him to the cross. So that we might be provided for. And that is his provision. His body and his blood shed for you. That you could be welcomed. That our hope is in him.
And our life is in him. If you are not a believer, we would encourage you to place your faith in Jesus. And then take communion. And if you are not a believer. And have not placed your faith in Jesus. We would ask you to not take communion.
Because that is something for believers. Let's pray. God, we thank you for your grace. That you save sinners. And that our hope is in you. The one who suffered and died in our place.
That we might be welcomed when we don't deserve it. And that you go to great lengths to orchestrate. Us seeing our sin. And being able to repent. And being able to be welcomed. And that you have prepared a place for us.
That you have gone ahead of us to bring about life. And may we place our faith in you. And find our hope in you. As you redeem and you reconcile broken situations. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.