Stand Before God And Man With No Deception Series

Stand before God and Man with no Deception

A. Come clean then be consoled

B. God’s providence provided to Israel

C. Jacob’s Joy

Boy, the gimmicks we see today to get people to do things.

I don’t know, I almost thought when I came out to Dillingham and Bristol Bay that we wouldn’t see the gimmicks any longer.

How surprised I was to see them, but with something else added. Here we have an advertised special, if you go in and have a problem with the vendor—they often will tell you to go to the other places and get it if you don’t like their price or service. The problem I know and they know---are that there are no other vendors or service providers any closer than Anchorage.

I have never enjoyed being around monopolies. As a fisherman and trapper in Louisiana, I knew that the buyers of our fish and hides would always make the money. We would go out in the cold and weather to catch their products, but they were the ones who always made the money. I didn’t like it as a child, and I don’t like it as a grown man.

My bible tells me that I should be transparent—doing good always to bring glory and honor to God. I know several Christians have a problem with doing good to people who do bad to you. Our glorious example of Jesus Christ gives us a perfect example in his being taken, brought before the Religious leaders of the day and the Roman leader of Jerusalem on false charges, beaten, ridiculed, then put to death on a cross.

We will see Joseph give us an example of this love. We have walked with Joseph as he tested his brother’s hearts after all the years he has been away. Finally, feeling that he knows that they have changed and feel bad for their offenses against him, he confesses who he is and consoles his brothers.

A. Come clean then be consoled

Genesis 45:1-8 (KJV)

Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him; and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. [2] And he wept aloud: and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. [3] And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. [4] And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. [5] Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. [6] For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. [7] And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. [8] So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

We will remember that Joseph let Judah go on, and heard all he had to say. Joseph found his brother’s were humbled for their sins towards him, for Judah had mentioned him twice in his speech. They were respectful to their father, and very defensive and caring of their brother Benjamin.

Now they were ripe for the comfort which God designed, by making himself known.

“Joseph could not refrain himself” Joseph is so overwhelmed at his brother’s cares and concerns over Jacob, Benjamin, and there feeling towards the wrongs do to him that he has to tell them.

Can you restrain yourself from proclaiming God’s goodness to you and your family, church, and community?

We should come before Christ and God likewise. I am so awed by the magnificence of all that God is accomplishing about me, that I cannot refrain from coming to Him with all.

Joseph ordered all his attendants to withdraw. In like manner, Christ makes himself and his loving-kindness known to his people personally, out of the sight and hearing of the world.

Are you partaking of this glorious offering of personally communing with Christ continually?

Joseph shed tears of tenderness and the strong affection he felt towards his family, throwing off the superiority with which he had behaved toward his brothers.

This shows a representation of the Divine compassion of God toward returning repentant sinners.

“I am Joseph, your brother.” This would humble them even more for their sin in selling him, but would likewise encourage them to hope for kind treatment.