Episode Transcript
We take our Bibles and turn to Genesis chapter 41, please.
Genesis chapter 41.
I'm going to check in here and make sure that everyone's hearing me okay.
I hope you're hearing me okay online this morning.
Hello, Lakes, the Great Lakes.
Hello, Brother Danny Deets.
Okay, good.
He says they're hearing us okay.
Wonderful. Thank you both for that response.
Makes me feel great.
Genesis chapter 41.
Hello, Gail and Phil.
Yes, he is.
Good morning, Chris.
We miss you here.
Sitting right here where I would normally be seeing you.
I miss seeing you there.
But I'm glad to see you online.
I hope you get to feeling better soon.
I'm going to shut this door.
And good morning to whoever just signed in.
I see another person coming in there.
We finished up last week with Pharaoh and Joseph, remember?
Joseph is about to stand before Pharaoh.
I told you last week, if you'll remember, being a picture of Jesus,
Joseph was his father's beloved son.
He was sent unto his brethren.
He came unto his brethren.
His own brethren rejected him, sold him into slavery.
He was for the price of a slave, just like Jesus was when he came.
Falsely accused, punished for a crime he didn't commit.
And ultimately, though, I told you last week that Joseph's going to come out of prison
and he's going to stand before Pharaoh and continue to be a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And all of this is very important because - let me find my pointer.
I just had my pointer a minute ago.
Hang on.
It's not official if I don't have my pointer.
I'm the only one that can lose something so quickly.
Oh, here it is.
I marvel at how I can lose something.
Yeah, I do.
I do.
All right.
So back here in the time of Abraham, if you'll remember, God told Abraham that their seed
would be a stranger in a land that was not theirs and they would serve the people of
that land for 400 years.
This is what we're going to be looking at today.
Right now, the people of Israel, the sons of Israel, are all in Canaan, the promised land.
Egypt is way over here.
When they sold their brother Joseph, he was taken - he's now in prison in Egypt.
All right.
All the other sons of Israel are still back here in Canaan.
But God told Abraham that his seed would be a stranger in a land that's not theirs.
So we're going to have to get them from here to here where they're going to serve the Egyptians.
All right.
All of this is taking place here.
So let's go ahead and look now in Chapter 41.
We're going to see what happens.
Joseph is in prison and Pharaoh has a dream, verse 1.
"And it came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed, and behold, he
stood by the river."
So Joseph's been in the pen now for at least a couple of years.
"And now Pharaoh dreams, and in his dream he's standing by the river."
Verse 2.
"And behold, there came up out of the river seven well-favored kind in fat, fleshed, and
they fed in a meadow."
So there's seven nice, fat cows.
And they're feeding in a grassy meadow.
What a beautiful sight.
And I'm sure Pharaoh was enjoying this.
"And behold, seven other kind came up after them out of the river."
Well, now cows don't come out of the river.
But in this dream they were, which made it even more perplexing.
"Ill-favored and lean-fleshed and stood by the other kind upon the brink of the river."
So now we've got seven skinny, scrawny, unhealthy-looking cows that come up out of the river, and they're
standing by these beautiful, fat, healthy cows.
Verse 4.
"And the ill-favored and lean-fleshed kind did eat up the seven well-favored and fat
kind."
So Pharaoh awoke.
That is a gross dream.
Chris, I wish you were here because I'd love to hear your response to all of that.
But that's a gross dream.
These seven skinny cows start eating these fat cows, and they eat them up.
And the seven skinny cows don't get fat when they eat them.
They're still skinny.
Alright?
So let's go ahead and look here.
Pharaoh wakes up because he's like, "Oh, what in the world is this dream?"
Well, he finally shakes it off and goes back to sleep.
Verse 5.
"And he slept and dreamed the second time."
Chris says, "Yum."
Alright.
Yeah.
Now, we do like eating our cows, don't we?
"And he slept and dreamed the second time, and behold, seven ears of corn came up upon
one stalk, rank and good."
Now, if you have seven ears of corn on one stalk, you're really, really well off.
Okay?
I've never had seven ears of corn come up on one stalk.
But these are beautiful, fat ears of corn on one stalk.
Verse 6, "And behold, seven thin ears blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.
And the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears.
And Pharaoh woke, and behold, it was a dream."
So he's like, "Wow."
He knew this was not just an ordinary dream.
There's a repetition.
Seven fat, seven lean.
The lean destroys the fat, consumes the fat.
In the same thing, basically, with the corn.
Pharaoh wakes up.
It's a dream, and this dream is on Pharaoh's mind.
Verse 8, "And it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled.
And he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt."
Now, these aren't people with a sleight of hand, or at least a mag, they could have been.
But these are folks that they look to like black magic, that they look to for help.
He calls all of these people, and he says, if you'll look with me, in verse 8, "All the
wise men thereof in Pharaoh told them his dream, and there was none that could interpret
them unto Pharaoh.
Then spake the chief butler unto Pharaoh, saying, 'I do remember my faults this day.'"
In other words, "Ah, you know what?
I was wrong.
There was this man named Joseph.
When I was in prison, he interpreted dreams.
I should have told you about him a long time ago, and you know what?
Maybe he can help you."
So let's go ahead and look here now, verse 14.
"And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they brought him hastily or quickly out of the
dungeon, and he shaved himself and changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh."
He got all cleaned up.
He comes in unto Pharaoh, verse 15, "And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, 'I have dreamed a dream,
and there is none that can interpret it.
And I have heard say of thee that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it.'
And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, 'It is not in me.
God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.'
Joseph quickly gave God all the credit."
That's what we should do, isn't it?
Verse 17, "And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, 'In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of
the river.
And behold, there came up out of the river seven kind, fat-fleshed and well-favored,
and they fed in a meadow."
And so Pharaoh's telling him the dream.
We don't have to read it again.
We remember what Pharaoh dreamed.
Verse 22, "And I saw in my dream, and behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and
good."
Now he's going on to the ears.
Verse 24, "And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears, and I told this unto the
magicians, but there was none that could declare it to me."
Verse 25, "And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, 'The dream of Pharaoh is one."
In other words, it's the same dream.
Whether it's cows or corn, it's all the same message.
He says, verse 25, "God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do."
The seven good kind are seven years.
So we have seven cows.
And since it's the same dream, seven ears of corn, and this represents seven years.
Since the cows and the corn are both fat, the first seven are both fat, God is showing
Pharaoh there's going to be seven years of plenty.
Plenty of rain, plenty of corn, plenty of grass for the cows to eat.
Man, it's going to be good for seven years.
Good agriculture, a lot of cows are going to be giving birth.
It's going to be great.
All right?
Now let's go ahead and look here.
Verse 27, "And the seven thin and ill-favored kind that came up after them are seven years,
and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine."
All right?
So here's the thing.
The next seven cows that come up are representing, or in corn, they're representing seven years
of what?
Famine.
No rain, no growth.
And what does famine do?
Well, when you eat up what you stored up, that's what's happening when the seven thin
ears are eating up the fat ears.
You're not getting ahead, you're just getting by and you're consuming what all has been
grown before.
All right?
So verse 28, "This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh, what God is about to
do, he showeth unto Pharaoh."
All right?
"Behold, there came seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, and there
shall arise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the
land of Egypt," or consumed.
"And the famine shall consume the land," verse 31, "and the plenty shall not be known the
land by reason of the famine following, for it shall be very grievous.
And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice.
It is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass."
Now therefore, now this is going to be Joseph's advice to Pharaoh.
Joseph says, "Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over
the land of Egypt.
Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part
of the land of Egypt, in the seven plenteous years, and let them gather all the food of
those good years that come and lay up corn unto the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep
food in the cities.
And that food shall be restored to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall
be in the land of Egypt, and the land perish not through the famine."
All right?
So in other words, instead of having a whole bunch of abundant corn and thinking, "Man,
let's sell this corn.
This is going to go on forever, and let's eat it up and waste it, and everything's going
great for us."
Instead of doing that, take a portion of it and put it in silos, store it up like you've
never stored before.
That way, when the famine comes, we'll still have something to eat.
Get you a wise man, set him over all of this task, set him over the land of Egypt, and
get this done so you can survive.
Verse 37, "And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh."
Makes sense to us, right?
"And in the eyes of all his servants."
And Pharaoh said unto his servants, "Can we find such a one as this is?
A man in whom the Spirit of God is?"
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, "For as much as God has showed thee all this, there is
none so discreet and wise as thou art."
In other words, "Who am I going to put over at my magicians?
They didn't know what to do.
They didn't understand the dream.
God's given you the understanding.
Who better to put in charge of Egypt than you?"
Now who's behind all that?
God is.
Verse 40, "Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people
be ruled.
Only in the throne will I be greater than thou."
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, "See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt."
And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand and arrayed
him in vestures of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck.
Now back then, a king would have a ring.
It was a signet.
And if you placed an order, if you gave an order, a decree in the land, they could stick
that ring, put it, or you know, like they melt wax and put it on the decree, and they
stick that ring and then it puts the king's seal on there and it authenticates the decree.
Pharaoh takes his ring off, gives it to Joseph.
He was over Potter's house.
He was over the prison, and now he's over the entire land of Egypt.
And he goes from being a prisoner for a crime he didn't commit to being a ruler over all
the land.
Watch this.
He says, he says here in verse 40, "Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word
shall all my people be ruled."
That is what happened to the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see?
He was punished for a crime that he didn't commit, that we committed.
He was then brought up out of the dungeon, so to speak, out of the tomb, and now he is
seated at the right hand of God.
And according unto his word, God's people are ruled.
He's going to come back one day.
The Bible calls him the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
He's God the Son, and positionally God the Father, just like Pharaoh and Joseph, God
the Father has put all the authority into the hands of the Son.
The Bible says it please the Father that in Him that is in Christ should all fullness
dwell.
Absolutely remarkable parallels that we see here, and we're not finished yet.
Look here now in verse 43, "And he made him that is Joseph to ride in the second chariot
which he had."
Kind of like Air Force 2.
"And they cried before him that is as he's riding through the chariot."
Sometimes crying, "Bow the knee!"
And he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Isn't that something?
Here they're calling, "Bow the knee!"
You know what the Bible says about Jesus?
Every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess that he is Lord to the glory of God
the Father.
All of this is an amazing picture of the coming Savior, and it still gets better yet.
Let's continue to watch here now.
Verse 45, "And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath Penaiah."
Jonathan that'd be a good name for one of your kids one day if you were to ever have
a son.
"Zaphnath Penaiah.
And he gave him to wife Essenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An, and Joseph went
out over all the land of Egypt."
Now what's happened?
Now that Joseph is brought up out of the dungeon, he's ruling over the land, and until his brethren,
the Jews, accept him as their king, he gains a Gentile bride.
See what's happening here?
What happened with Jesus?
The Jews, his own brethren right now, has rejected him as their king.
And what has Jesus done?
The church is his bride.
Jesus has now gained a Gentile bride while he's waiting on his children, his brethren,
to come back to him and accept him as king and bow the knee.
Amazing, amazing prophecy here in this book, and it still gets better from here.
Alright, now watch this.
Eventually here's what's going to happen.
With this seven years of famine and then being so close to the land of Canaan, guess what's
going to happen to Joseph's brethren who rejected him?
They're going to get hungry, and the only place around to get bread is going to be right here.
Right here.
Do you remember Joseph's dreams?
That his mother, his father, and all his brethren eventually bowed the knee to him?
Yeah.
Do you know who Mary and Joseph bow the knee to?
They bowed the knee to Jesus, just like Israel and his wife bowed the knee to their son in
the end.
It's absolutely fascinating what we see here, and still it gets better.
So let's look here now in verse 55.
"And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.
And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, 'Go unto Joseph what he saith to you, do.'
And the famine was over all the face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses
and sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt."
Watch this carefully now.
"And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn, because that the famine was
so sore in all the lands."
Amazing.
It says the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.
Where did Pharaoh send them to?
He said, "You go to Joseph to get bread."
Not only did they cry to Pharaoh to get bread, but who else came to Joseph to get bread?
Every other country around.
Do you remember what God said to Abraham?
In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed.
Here's what we see here, Joseph being a type of Jesus.
Spiritually speaking, because there's a great spiritual lesson here, in the New Testament,
John chapter 6, Jesus told us, "I am the bread of life."
The whole world needs bread to live.
We are dying in our sins.
Our souls are condemned by the laws that we've broken.
There's a grave waiting on every one of us.
The food that we eat here on this earth, the physical food, it may sustain our physical
life for a while, but it will not sustain our life forever.
We need bread that we can eat that can overcome this physical death and give us everlasting
life.
All the world needs bread to live, and Jesus has bread to give.
That's what we see here.
All the world, all the nations around them needed bread to live, and only Joseph had
bread to give, but people who came to Joseph got that bread.
Those who did not come to Joseph went without it.
There was no other person to get bread from, but Joseph, there was no other person to get
salvation from, but Jesus.
He is the bread of life.
One day, the Jewish people, they will have to recognize that their only hope for eternal
life is in the one they rejected.
When they crucified Jesus, do you know what they said?
His blood be upon us and upon our children.
To this day, their children are still suffering the curse they placed on their own offspring.
One day, their children, just like the people who sold Joseph for the price of a slave,
those who traded in Jesus, sold for a price of a slave, crucified him for a crime they
knew he did not commit, one day, their offspring are going to bow the knee to Jesus, and they're
going to receive the bread that he came to give them, and they too will live forever.
Those who reject him will not, but eventually the nation of Israel will.
Let's look here down at chapter 42.
Now, when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, "Why do
ye look one upon another?"
He said, "Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt.
Get you down thither and buy for us from thence, that we may live and not die."
Here's the thing.
It's the same thing here.
You have people who are dying in their sin, and yet they will not accept Christ as their
Savior.
I talked to a man this morning typing on Facebook who wrote and said, "I'm condemned in my
sin, and there's nothing I can do about it."
So sad.
He's wrong.
I want to look at him like Joseph looked to his brother and said, "Why do you stand
around and look at each other for?
There's bread down there.
Go get it.
Why are you doing standing around when there's a cross where Jesus died so you can live?
Go to that cross and get the bread and live forever.
Accept what he's done for you, and you will be saved and live and have everlasting life."
And so look here now in verse 3, "And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt,
and Benjamin, Joseph's brother Jacob, sent not with his brethren, for he said, 'Let's
pray adventure and mischief befall him.'"
So the youngest of the boys, Benjamin, he didn't sin.
There's eleven boys left, Joseph being the twelve, making the twelve tribes of Israel.
He did not sin.
The youngest boys, he thought, "I don't want anything to happen to my youngin'.
I'll sin these other ten boys.
They can bring back enough food for us."
And so eventually here's what happens.
To make a long story short, they go down to Egypt.
They see Joseph.
When Joseph sees them, of course Joseph has changed.
It's been years since they've seen him.
He looks different.
He's dressed up in the Egyptian garb.
He rules the land.
And by this time, he's learned Egyptian language.
So he speaks in the Egyptian tongue to his brethren and makes himself strange to them,
acts like he doesn't know them.
And when they come, he accuses them of being spies.
Well, of course, that made them very uncomfortable.
He gave them what they wanted, but here's what he told them.
He said, "Is your father alive?"
Like he's questioning them to check out their story.
Yes, he's alive.
On the inside, Joseph's thinking, "Thank God my dad's still alive."
"Now, is this all the brothers you have?"
And they said, "Well, one of them's dead."
They's talking about him.
He thought, "Yeah, you think I'm dead."
And then one of them is still back with daddy.
Daddy wouldn't send him.
He didn't want anything to happen to him.
Now, Joseph loved his little brother Benjamin.
So Joseph said, "All right, you take this corn, but here's the thing.
When you run out of corn and you come back for more because you're going to need more,
I'm not giving you anything unless you bring back that little brother Benjamin with you."
So they go back home.
Everything's great.
The world's great until they run out of food.
And their dad says, "Go get some more food.
They're in Egypt."
And they said, "Daddy, remember," and they told us we couldn't go unless we brought back
our little brother Benjamin.
And daddy said, "Oh, boy.
I've already lost Joseph.
I don't want to lose Benjamin, too.
But if you don't eat, you're going to lose all of them."
So he said, "Okay."
Reluctantly, he sent Benjamin back with the rest of them.
And when Benjamin comes back with him, Joseph still makes himself strange to them.
They don't recognize him.
Let's pick up here in this part of the story.
Verse 8 of chapter 43.
"And Judah said unto Israel, his father, 'Send the lad with me that is, send Benjamin with
me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, and both we and thou and
also our little ones, because they have children, too.'"
Verse 9, "And I will be surety for him of my hand shalt thou require him.
If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever."
So he says, "If anything happens to Benjamin, daddy, just let me bear the blame.
It will be on me.
But send Benjamin with us so we can live.
For except we had lingered surely now, we had returned the second time."
He said, "Daddy, by now we wouldn't have been waiting.
We would have already been back with food."
Verse 11, "And their father Israel said unto them, 'If it must be so now, do this.
Take of the best fruits in the land, in your vessels, and carry down the man of present,
a little balm and a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds, and take double money
in your hand."
In other words, take twice what you need.
"And the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks carried again in your
hand, peradventure it was an oversight."
That's another part of the story that we haven't read.
Verse 13, "Take also your brother and arise.
Go unto the man."
Go see the man.
Here we go now.
"And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother
in Benjamin.
If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved."
In other words, if they die, they die.
What else are we going to do?
Verse 15, "The men took that present, and they took double money in their hand in Benjamin,
and rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph."
Just like everybody one day is going to have to stand before Jesus.
"And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, 'Bring these
men home and slay, and make ready, for these men shall dine with me at noon.'"
Now watch what's happening.
This man was rejected by his own people, but when they stand before him in the end, he
doesn't say slay them.
He says, "Make a great feast.
These men are having lunch with me today."
Do you see the mercy and the grace that Joseph had toward the brethren when they came back
to him?
This is the mercy and grace that Jesus is going to have toward the Jews when they come back
to him.
This is the mercy and grace that he has toward us.
The Bible says, "When we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of
his son."
He died for his enemies, and here stood Joseph in the position of power.
But Joseph came not into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved.
Isn't that beautiful?
Do you see how this is going here?
Absolutely marvelous.
Let's look back at where we were.
Man, I'm having such a good time, I don't want to stop.
Verse 17, "The man did as Joseph bade, and the man brought the men into Joseph's house."
Yes, Joseph is a man's man.
"And the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house, and they said,
because of the money that was returned in our sacks of the first time we brought in,
and that he may seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for bondmen in our
asses."
They're thinking he's going to make slaves out of them.
"And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door
of the house and said, 'Oh, sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food.'
And it came to pass when we came to the end that we opened our sacks, and behold, every
man's money was in the mouth of his sack."
Do you know what that means?
When they paid Joseph their money for their food the last time, Joseph slipped it back
into their sack, and they went home.
Do you know what that means?
They bought their bread for free.
It's the same way with us.
Every man needs bread to live.
Jesus has bread to give, and the bread Jesus gives is a free gift to those who will receive
it.
Absolutely amazing.
Watch this now.
Verse 23, "And he said, 'Peace be to you, fear not.
Your God and the God of your Father hath given you treasure in your sacks.
I had your money, and he brought simian out unto them.'
And the man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water and washed their
feet, and he gave their asses provender," or that means he fed their donkeys, "and they
made ready the present against Joseph came at noon."
They got everyone ready for Joseph coming at noon, "for they heard that they should eat
bread there."
There they are eating Joseph's bread together with Joseph.
You remember what Jesus said?
For those of you all who remember, at the Last Supper, he said, "You take, you eat
this bread, you drink this wine.
I'm not going to drink it with you until I drink it with you in the kingdom."
This is them coming back, being restored, and having fellowship and feasting on the
bread that Joseph, their king, has to give them.
One day that's what we're going to do too.
When we take the Lord's Supper, you know what we're doing?
We're saying we are saved because we have eaten the bread that our Savior, King Jesus,
has given us to eat.
Look here now if you would.
When Joseph came home, verse 26, when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which
was in their hand into the house and bowed themselves to him to the earth.
The prophecy was fulfilled.
They all bowed the knee to Joseph.
Every knee shall bow.
Every tongue will confess.
Here they bow themselves to him to the earth.
And he asked them of their welfare and said, "Is your father well, the old man of whom
you speak?
Is he yet alive?"
And they answered, "Thy servant, our father is in good health.
He is yet alive."
And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance, just like the dream.
And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, "Is
this your younger brother of whom you've spoken to me?"
And he said, "God, be gracious unto thee, my son."
Here he is speaking sweetly to his little brother.
When Joseph made haste for his bowels did yearn upon his brother, and he saw it were
to weep, and he entered into his chamber and wept there.
When he saw Benjamin, he was about to burst out in tears, so he ran out of the room real
quick, went to his bedroom, and cried, and cried, because of the love of seeing him come
home.
Verse 31, he washed his face.
That means he got over himself, cleaned himself up, and went out and refrained himself and
said, "Set on bread or set the table."
And they set on for him by himself and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians,
which did eat with him by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the
Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians.
Well, they were wrong for that.
And they sat before him the first-born according to his birthright, and the youngest according
to his youth, and the men marveled at one another.
Hang on a minute.
How do they know which one of us was born first down to the last?
They're not figuring this out.
Notice now that this whole time, while they were in their rejection of Joseph, Joseph
was made strange to them.
They did not recognize their king for who he was.
At this time, those who rejected Jesus, who were living in Israel, do not recognize their
king for who he is.
You see?
Same thing.
But when he returns, when Jesus comes home, like when Joseph comes home, when Jesus comes
back, he will reveal himself to the Jewish nation, and they will bow the knee and eat
bread with him.
Notice this now.
Verse 14.
Joseph let them go, and then as they began to leave, they were accused of stealing money.
So they brought them all back to Joseph.
And this is when Joseph is going to reveal himself to them.
Watch now.
And verse 14, 44-14.
And Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell
before him on the ground.
And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done?
What ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine?
And Judah said, What shall we speak unto, my Lord?
What shall we speak, or how shall we clear ourselves?
God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.
Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.
Then he said, God forbid that I should do so.
But the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant.
And as for you, get you up in peace unto your father.
What Joseph did, he slipped a cup into Benjamin's pouch.
He says, Whoever the cup was in their pouch, he'll be my slave.
And you all go back to daddy.
He's going to test them out, see if they'd be willing to give Benjamin up.
Watch what happens now.
Then Judah, that's the one who told daddy that he would make himself responsible for Benjamin.
Then Judah came near unto him and said, Oh, my Lord, let thy servant I pray thee.
Speak a word in my Lord's ears and let not thine anger burn against thy servant, for
thou art even as Pharaoh.
My Lord asked his servant, saying, Have you a father or a brother?
And we said unto my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a
little one, and his brother is dead.
And he alone is left of his mother and his father loveth him.
And thou setst unto thy servant, bring him down unto me, that I may set my eyes upon
him.
And we said unto my Lord, The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father,
his father would die.
And thou setst unto thy servant, except your youngest brother come down with you, you shall
see my face no more.
And it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant, my father.
We told him the words of my Lord, and our father said, Go again and buy us a little
food.
And we said, We cannot go down if our youngest brother be with us, then we will go down,
for we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be with us.
And thy servant, my father, said unto us, You know that my wife bear me two sons.
And the one went out for me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces.
I was talking about Joseph.
And I saw him not since.
And if you take this also from me, and mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs
with sorrow to the grave.
Now therefore when I come to thy servant, my father, the lad be not with us, seeing that
his life is bound up in the lad's life.
It shall come to pass when he seeeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die.
You see what he's saying?
He's saying, I can't do this.
We can't go back.
And so he basically says, Make me your slave, and let my little brother go.
So my father won't die.
Joseph sees the compassion in Judah's heart and voice, willing to be his slave and let
his little brother go.
Chapter 45, then Joseph could not refrain himself before all of them that stood by him,
and he cried.
Cause every man to go out from me.
In other words, everyone get away.
Leave me.
And there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren.
Now Joseph makes himself known unto his brethren.
Jesus is going to do that one day.
He's going to make himself known unto his brethren.
Look now, verse 2, and he wept aloud in the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph.
Boy, don't you know you could hear a pin drop then.
Death my father yet live and his brethren could not answer him for they were troubled
at his presence.
Oh boy, he's going to get us.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, watch this now, come near to me.
Come near to me.
It doesn't matter what you've done in your past, whether you've betrayed Jesus, denied
Jesus, blasphemed God, no matter what you've done in your past, no matter how big of an
enemy you were to God, when you come before Christ, Jesus' words to you are, come near
to me.
Now those who reject him as savior, his words to them will be depart from me.
But those who are willing to bow the knee and accept what he's done for them on the
cross, his words are, come dear to me.
Watch this now, verse 5, and we'll stop.
Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God
did send me before you to preserve life.
Don't be angry, Jews, that you crucified me.
Don't be angry that you had me down across because God sent me there to preserve your
life.
And now he says, come unto me.
All you who are weary and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.
So what happens is Joseph sends chariots down to Canaan, tells Daddy the good news, your
son's alive.
He rules over the house of Egypt.
Israel could barely believe his ears, but when he saw the chariots he knew it was true.
And now all, just like the Beverly hillbillies, they loaded up the truck and they moved to
Beverly, all right?
They all loaded up in the church and they moved to Egypt and now Abraham's seed is in
a land that's not theirs.
And next week we'll see how they came to be in bondage to that land and what God did to
get them out.
It's another amazing story.
With that we'll go ahead and stop and go next door.
Thank you all for watching.
Love y'all and we'll see you next week.
