Neil and I were talking at the men's barbecue yesterday about how God puts His word together so much. When you study God's word, you're just amazed at how many things go together. I think it is fascinating to see that, especially when you see that the whole scripture is focused on Jesus Christ. Certainly all those passages, the New Testament, the gospels, and the epistles are all reflecting on Jesus. But it's really interesting to see the Old Testament passages that reflect Christ. When we see those, it just gives us such an amazement about God's word.
The Bible even reveals some of those things in the Old Testament that are types of Christ or that we see Christ in the Old Testament. You know the story in the wilderness where they were complaining, so God has these servants come and there's all this plague that's bothering all these people and people are dying. So Moses was given instruction to put the pole up with the serpent on it, and the scriptures say when they looked at that then they were healed. You couldn't say to your wife, “Hey, go out and look at the look at the brass snake on the pole for me.” You'd have to go out and look at it yourself, and you would be healed. Now Jesus takes those same words from the Old Testament and in John 3…this is the same one with John 3:16 in it and right before that He says that like the pole in the wilderness was raised up, so the Son of Man is raised up so that we can see Him. So you look at Him and salvation is pictured there in John 3, taking this whole illustration from the Old Testament. Which we wouldn't have known in the Old Testament about this, except that we're taught about it in the New. But there's this picture of Jesus Christ right there in that story in the wilderness.
The story of Noah and the ark and how there were some people who got on that ark, they chose to get on the ark, and they were saved from the judgment that was there, and they were protected in safety. So Peter takes that story of Jonah, lifts it up in 2 Peter 3 and he talks about the ark and the saving of people is like salvation for us. He's taking this understanding of what's taking place in the Old Testament and bringing it into the New. It's really a fascinating thing.
In fact, if you study the Old Testament, you become amazed at so many pictures of Jesus. It starts in Genesis 3 where we have the promise that someday the seed of the woman (who would be Jesus) will crush the serpent's head. A picture of Jesus that's yet to come. Certainly in the law when we see the design of the tabernacle, we see the clothes that the priests had, the works that the priests did, we see the sacrifices that were taking place, all of that are pictures of Jesus Christ. And when you go and study those Old Testament passages, you go, wow, this is really interesting how Jesus is portrayed in the Old Testament, although you wouldn't know it then. But we understand and we see it in new ways because we now have the New Testament. So when Jesus says He fulfills the law, it's just this fulfillment that's so big and broad.
What does that do for us when we recognize that Jesus is pictured in the Old Testament? I think it does one thing that it gives us this amazement for God's word. We go, “This is an amazing book.” Secondly, I think it gives us an appreciation for Jesus Christ Himself, that He's the center of the whole Bible, but He's the center of our lives. He's the center of the universe. Colossians says that He holds all things together, all the atoms are held together. He holds all that together. Jesus Christ is the center of everything. I think what that does is it motivates us to say I want Jesus to be the center of my life. I want everything I do to wrap around the Lord and what He's doing.
Well one of the things that we see as scholars study the scripture is they look at Joseph himself, and they say Joseph is a type of Christ. There's so many parallels between the life and work of Joseph and Jesus Christ that it's just uncanny. After you start looking at a lot of these things, you start to say, wow, this is a really an interesting type of Christ.
For example, just think back through the life of Joseph, he was the one that was beloved of the father, which reminds us of the time God spoke at the baptism of Jesus and said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” When he went to his brothers, his brothers plotted to kill Joseph. They were going to their plotting to figure out how can we get rid of him? How can we kill him? In the same way, His brothers (the Jews) plotted to kill Jesus.
When Jesus was on the cross between two thieves and to one of them He says, “Today you'll be with me in paradise.” It just reminds us as we're in the study of Joseph, he's in prison with two criminals, two guys that were put there, the cupbearer and the baker. The cupbearer is restored back to his place. What an interesting parallel between the stories and the things that are happening in the life of Joseph and the things that happen in the life of Christ.
When Joseph becomes the second in command, everybody's bowing down to him, not only in Egypt where we see his brothers bowing down to him, reminding us of Philippians 2. Because in Philippians 2 it says about Jesus that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.
Now in the story of Joseph, not all of the things in the life of Joseph are similar to the life of Christ. And some of the imagery is tighter than others. I read one article this week that demonstrated sixty different ways that the life of Joseph is similar to the life of Christ. I would say some of them are easier to grab than others. But the point is, when we study the Joseph story we are drawn to remind ourselves about what Christ has done in our lives as well. So there's some imagery there that we'll be drawn to today, I think again, as we look at this story.
As we pick up the story and Joseph, you can turn in your Bibles with me to Genesis 43 picking up at verse 15. Now the brothers had already been due to Egypt and they'd gone back, and now they'd run out of grain, but now they have to go back again. But Joseph had told them that it was necessary for them to bring back Benjamin, but dad wouldn't let him go. So finally he says, “Okay, you can go. We're going to trust El Shaddai.” We talked about that late last week. We'll all trust El Shaddai to take care of the situation. So he sends Benjamin with them. Remember, they had their money put in their sack, so they're sending double the money back. They also prepare a present that they're going to take back. All of that's mentioned in verse 15. Pick it up with me in Genesis 43.
Verse 15 says – So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them, and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. So this is their second trip down to Egypt. They're standing in before Joseph.
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 our sacks the first time, that we are brought in, so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys.” You see, Joseph had put all their money back in their sacks. I think it's part of this integrity test that he was doing to measure their integrity.
Surely you must have come across a time in your life where you found some money. Raise your hand if you found some money at some point on the ground or somewhere. Right? Okay. Whenever you find money, you have to ask yourself, “Is this my money? Can I keep it?” So I'm riding my bike down the road and I see a $10 bill on the ground. I go, “Whoa! Ten bucks. God has provided me with ten bucks.” I put it in my pocket, don't even think about whose it is or anything. It’s mine. But if I would have been driving along and I find $10,000, that's a different question. I'd have to ask some different questions. Not like, how can I hide this money? But as a question like, whose is this? Or should I call the police about this? You see, it's an integrity test at that point.
I think that's what Joseph is doing here. He's putting this money in their bags. And they're perceiving him and, oh no, we're going to look like thieves. How are they going to handle this situation? So now they feel guilty, they're coming back, and this is what they're going to do.
Verse 19 says – 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 his 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.” He replied, “Peace to you, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.” Then he brought Simeon out to them. Remember, he's the brother that was in slavery waiting for them to come back. I wonder what Simeon’s thinking about all this. I mean, how come these guys took so long? Where you've been all this time? You’re leaving me in prison here. 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 they should eat bread there.
So there’s a picture of compassion that Joseph is having for his brothers by getting them all ready for this meal. Getting their feet washed, making sure their donkeys are taken care of. And so now they're at the house waiting. So they're waiting for the presents. The first thing they want to do is give this present.
Verse 26 says – 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. And 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; 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 said, “Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? 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.
I mean the emotion that's going to build in this story is very significant to the development of the story. Because you've got Joseph's emotion is really intense in this story. And the brothers, their emotion is really intense too. We're going to see even more intense in a few moments. So there's all this emotional tension and then he's going to reveal himself today. We're going to see that. And that's going to be this pinnacle moment. I can hardly wait to get there. But we've got a little bit more to do. I just want you to see the emotion is pretty great.
Pick it up at verse 31. It says – 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, for 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.
Now the interesting thing about this is that obviously Joseph knows who they are. They don't know where he's getting the information. One of the things he's revealing to them is I know a lot more about you than you think. He lines them up and seats them according to age with the oldest one first. He's going to start with Reuben, then Simeon, then Levi. He's going to go right down the list until the very last one, Benjamin, is there around the table. You can imagine them all being seated in order, and that's why it says they were so amazed. Where's this guy getting all his information? How does he know all this stuff about us? And so they're surprised.
And then it says in verse 34 – Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him.
This is an interesting story. I can't imagine what Benjamin does with five plates of food. Everybody gets a plate of food, but Benjamin gets five plates of food. It reminds me of going to a smorgasbord and taking more than you really can eat because your eyes are bigger than your stomach. You know when you load up, you’ve got all this food, and you go, “Why did I get all this food?” He's got five plates of food sitting in front of him, obviously an honoring way that Joseph is trying to treat his brother, the only brother that he has that's of the same mother. Remember, Jacob had four wives and the boys came from all of these. But Benjamin was his only true brother. Wow.
Well, we’ve got to go on. Let's go to the next chapter in chapter 44. It says this: Then he commanded the steward of his house, “Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry (he’s taking care of them), and 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.” Here we go, another test. He’s going to send them away. Are their hearts really changed? I think he's trying to measure them. Are these the same guys that sold me off into slavery? Are these the same guys that wanted to kill me? Are they the same guys that had to report back to Dad and say that he was killed by wild animals? Are these the same guys that were selfish? I think that's the question that's being asked.
I think that young people, children are put in testing situations regularly. Can you go and take out the trash and do it completely? Can you? Can you clean your room and do it without stuffing everything under the bed? You know, I think there are these integrity tests. I think there's this question, is this person changed? Is this person a responsible person? I think that's what Joseph is asking here and testing them with.
So verse 3, you can imagine the drama that's going to take place now. 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 steward, “Up, follow after the men, and 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 these things.’”
Now I don't think Joseph actually practiced divination. He's the one who said that dreams come from the Lord. So he's very interested in getting information from God. So having a bowl or a cup, where you're looking at the water and achieving some kind of a message is not something that Joseph would do. But he's challenging these guys and saying, “Why did you take this cup?” That's what's being said here. Remember that cup is in Benjamin's bag. So they're saying, why did you take the cup?
Verse 6 – When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. 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. 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.” He said, “Let it be as you say: he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent.” 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. You can feel the emotion like oh no. What happened here? We’re going to be perceived as thieves here. This is terrible.
Verse 13 – Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. So this is bad news. They don't know what to do. I'm sure they're very afraid about what's going on.
If you've done something wrong, that's one thing. But if you haven't done anything wrong and somebody is after you and the cops stop you on the road, and you haven't done anything wrong and they're dragging you in, you're going, “What is this? What's going to happen here?” So that's what's taking place. They're taking them back to the city.
Verse 14 – When Judah… Now Judah is singled out here. I'm going to make reference to that in a moment. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. 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 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 Joseph said, “Far be it from me that I should do so! Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father.”
I think Joseph's on a rescue mission to rescue his brother to make sure his brother's safe from the rest of these guys. We kind of measure are these guys changed? Are these same bad guys that I knew earlier on in life that we're always picking on me and looking for trouble?
Verse 18 starts this way. Then Judah went up to him and said… Now let me just draw a parallel here between the life of Christ and Joseph. Remember, if you go back in the story into chapter 37 with Joseph, do you remember that they were going to kill him? But Judas says, “Hey, let's not kill him. Let's sell him into slavery.” So Judah sells him into slavery for twenty pieces of silver, betrays him in that way. And what's very interesting is his name Judah, Yehuda, is exactly the same name in the New Testament pronounced Judas, Yehuda, who sold Jesus for thirty pieces of silver. Now I can't explain why there was twenty pieces of silver in the Old Testament, thirty pieces of silver in the New Testament except for inflation or something. But the point is, you've got Judah’s name in both places. Judah becomes the key role player here in this story.
Verse 18 – 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 servants, 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.’” Remember Joseph’s listening to Judah make this plea. This plea that Judah makes is going to touch Joseph and it’s going to convince Joseph that Judah is a changed man.)
It continues as Judah’s making his plea. “Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 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 my lord. And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest 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 has 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 Sheol.’
Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us (if I go back to the father and the boy is not with us), 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 Sheol. 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's listening to him. And as Joseph's listening to Judah, he sees a changed man. Judas says I am willing to go into slavery in Egypt, instead of being able to go home and leaving my brother here. Remember, before he was saying we're going to sell our brother to back in Egypt. We're going to sell him to the slave traders, the Midianites going down there. He is a changed man. And this is, I think, what Joseph is looking for. This is why all the pressure, the tests are there. You see, whenever we experience pressure in our lives, it reveals our true character in any of our lives. And they have a lot of pressure going on here. Judah is responding in such a humble way, repentant, a broken way. Joseph sees his brokenness. It's a window into the family dynamic. He recognizes that Judah is not the same guy.
I just want to enter chapter 45, the first few verses because we've got the emotion so high, we’ve got to see this initial part of his revealing himself to his brother.
Genesis 45:1 says – Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, “Make everyone go out from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He’s going to be all alone with his brothers. And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
When I hear Joseph weeping so everyone can hear it, I think about the time where Jesus Christ Himself was in the triumphal entry on His way to Jerusalem and He pauses there and the scriptures tell us He wept over Jerusalem. Why was He weeping? Because He looks at the city and realizes these people don’t know who I am. They don’t recognize what they’re about to do to this person, me, the Christ. They don’t understand the importance of this. They’re missing out on so much significance here of what God is doing in His world. So that same crying that Jesus is doing over Jerusalem is the same kind of crying that Joseph is doing. He just feels so overwhelmed with emotion that these guys do not realize the big picture of the Bible, the big picture of life, the big picture of what God is doing here. They don't realize that God has brought me here. He's going to say some of that here.
So then get this. Here we are. We're at that moment that we've all been waiting for. Verse 3 says – And Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! (Just imagine. Just imagine the situation.) Is my father still alive?” He asked them a question. But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. I bet they were. I bet they're just ready to take all this in. They're so surprised by what took place here. They don’t get it. They don't understand it. It takes a while to sink in.
I don't know if you've ever had a surprise, like even a surprise birthday where you come there, everybody says surprise, and you're going I don’t know what we’re saying surprise about. This is really… How do I figure this out. And finally, it comes to you. That's what's happening here. They have no idea. It's just so overwhelming to them.
Verse 4 – 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.
What Joseph is saying here is that guys, you don't have to be upset. God has a bigger picture here. And He sent me here to prepare a place for you, so that you can come to this place, so that you can live here. It just is so reminiscent of John 14. You know the passage in John 14 where Jesus is with His disciples and He says to them, “Hey, I'm going to go away.” And they are all upset about this. And Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do not be afraid. I'm going away to prepare a place for you. In my Father's house are many mansions. And if I go away, I'm going to come back and receive you unto myself, that where I'm going, you can be with me also.” It’s just so interesting. Here Joseph is saying, “God has prepared a place for you. I'm here helping to do that. And it's ready for you. And it's all set up. Come on, enjoy this special place. I just want you to know how God's putting all this together.” It's just a very interesting passage to see what Joseph is saying to his brothers and how it relates to even what Christ does for us in our lives.
And notice, he ends in verse 5 (we just read this), he says – God sent me before you to preserve life. In the same way that before Joseph was even going to Egypt, before they even sold him into slavery, he had dreams, he had this information that predicted in this whole process. He didn't know what it meant then at the time, but God was in control, had planned the solution, even before the problem manifest itself. That's what took place. In the same way, God has given a solution. Before His creation even started, God designed Jesus Christ to be the solution for us so that we preserve life. That's what it says. So we can have life and not death.
God has designed this whole plan of Jesus Christ to be the pinnacle of the Bible, certainly, but to be what we need each one in our own hearts, in our own lives, to be able to receive God into our lives, and to make Him the center of our lives. This is so big, this is so powerful, that we all need it personally. I believe that God takes each one of us on a personal journey to reveal that to us so that we can see, yes, Jesus Christ needs to be at the center of my life.
But let me tell you about two men that He did this with. Because Jesus met these two guys after the resurrection on their way down to Emmaus. Do you remember that story? This is in in the end of the gospel of Luke. They're on their way down to Emmaus, seven-mile journey. They're walking along and Jesus shows up, just kind of appears there. He says, “What you guys talking about?” Because they're really upset. “Didn't you hear what happened in Jerusalem?” Jesus says, “Like what?” They're going, “You haven't even watched the news? You don't know what's going on? Jesus Christ was crucified there.” And so Jesus took the scriptures (this is what it says) and starting at Moses and the prophets, He really revealed everything about the Christ and how He would come.
Can you imagine being in that story? I'm sure Jesus told them now there was this time in the Old Testament, you remember when the pole was on the end and that brass serpent was put up there and everybody who looked got saved. That was a reference to Jesus being put up on that cross that you just experienced last Friday. That's the story. Do you remember in the Old Testament, you have the ark and everybody in the ark got saved? Well that's a picture of Jesus and how when we accept Jesus, we get saved. He says let me tell you about the law and the sacrifices in the prophets and how they're predicting Jesus Christ coming. These two guys on the way down to Emmaus are taking it all in. They're just engrossed in that fascinating Bible story.
They finally get to the place where they're going to eat dinner. So they sit down and eat, and Jesus prays, and then disappears. Wow. And at that moment, they got it. At that moment, it came to them. They got the message. They said oh. They say, “Didn't our hearts burn within us when He was going along on the road? I get it now. This makes sense.” So right then it changed their lives. They turned around and went the seven miles back uphill (uphill now) to Jerusalem to meet the disciples and tell them everything that they learned. This is revolutionary for them. Because now they got to see that Jesus Christ was central in the whole Bible. He's central, not only in this day, this crucifixion, but He's central to their own lives. And it changed their lives.
I want to encourage you to ask the question, do you get it today? Do you get it? Because when you get it, then you walk away saying, “Wow, I need Jesus Christ in my life.” Oh I know the world has all these ideas. And there's all these kinds of things going out there and self-help books and all kinds of things that try to organize the world. But there's nothing that can replace Jesus Christ in our lives. When we understand that, we get it, then our eyes are opened up and we say, “Oh, I get it.” I can imagine those brothers. “Oh, I get it. I get it. It's not just feeling guilty here that our brother is alive. But oh, I get it that God has done this thing. Now we're able to come down here and be preserved and get food and eventually come and live down here. I get it.” God is so big when we get it.
I trust that God will do something in your heart. Because here I think we’ve got to ask this question. Where is it in our lives that we don't get it? Because I think there's some times that our emotions usually tell us where it is, where we follow the emotions down into that hole in our lives and we go, “Oh yeah, that's an area where I really haven't gotten yet that God is in control of that part of my life, that experience in my heart.” When we do that then, wow, it touches us and we say, “You know, it's all about the Lord. I need Him in my heart. I need Him. I just can't do this by myself. I can't solve these problems. I can't address these challenges. I need Christ in my life.” And that's what God does in our lives.
Is there something God's pointing in you and your heart right now where you're saying, “Wow, I need Christ in that part of my life. Yeah, I'm a Christian. I've accepted Jesus into my life. But I brought Him into this part. I just need to ask God, ‘Lord, would you help me in this area of my life? I want to trust you to do that in my heart today.’”
Would you stand with me? In just a moment, we're going to sing a song.
Right now I'm going to allow the 10-14 year olds to go out that big barn door with Dan, and you guys can interact out there about the sermon a bit. So head out there with Dan. He's got some things he wants to debrief with you about this sermon today.
But the rest of you, would you just ponder, what's God doing in your heart and life? Maybe you want prayer right now. Maybe you're just going to sit and listen to this song, and maybe God's going to do something and speak to you while you're in the midst of this song. This is a do business song with the Lord. It's time for us to come before the Lord and do business based on what we've heard. If you want specific prayer in your life for some area of your life, we've got prayer counselors up here. Come on up and we'll pray for you this morning and ask for God's grace to come in. Maybe you're praying for yourself, maybe you're praying for a need that you have in someone else's life. You're burdened about this, but you want someone to join with you in prayer. We'd love to pray for you today. Let's sing this song and worship the Lord and enjoy Him.
