Thank you for tuning into our Podbean subscription. We hope that you enjoy the message and we trust that God will speak to your heart. If you would like to sew into the ministry of rebirth, please feel free to do so. You will find our banking details along with our pay-fossing in the sermon description. Now, let's get straight into this week's message. ♪ Great is thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Morning by morning you mercies, I see ♪ ♪ All I have needed thy hand as prophine ♪ ♪ Great is thy faithfulness ♪ ♪ Lord, I look to thee ♪ He is a faithful family. We serve a faithful, faithful God and we can stand firm in that promise knowing that he does not change. There's no shadow of turning or any variation in the father that we serve. So we stand firm on those promises. I know some of us, our fathers have let us down, our mothers have let us down, boyfriends, girlfriends, husbands, wives have let us down, but our God is faithful. And every morning we wake up, we are assured with a guarantee that the new mercies have risen and he is as faithful as he was yesterday. He changes not the same yesterday, today and forever. This is the God that we serve, family. So I just want to say that God is good today. God is good, he is faithful, he is awesome, he's majestic, he's timeless, he's matchless, he's divine in his actions. This is the amazing, amazing God that we serve who is true to his word. True to his word, when he promises you something, when he promised in his word, he will deliver. And we stand firm on that. And I think God has just confirmed in the song we heard now in the offering talk that we had now, even to the worship songs that God is faithful and that just set deep in my heart. And I just want to encourage somebody today that no matter what we're facing today, God is faithful. So this morning family, I've been tasked with closing off just this part of our series, which is the Book of Genesis. We've been looking initially last year, or I think it was the beginning of the year, it has to be where we looked at the first half of Genesis and just to remind you that Genesis can be divided into two halves. First, we have the creation narrative running all the way up to the patriarchal history where we have the fathers of our faith, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and I'll be closing off with Joseph, even though we don't say the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. However, Joseph does have a very, very, very strong part to play in closing of the Book of Genesis. And I'm hoping to show you that today. So when we often read scripture, we overlook some details. When we read books, we overlook some details, and on a second inspection, when we read a scripture, sometimes there's words that pop out at you, or certain contexts that pop out in you, like I didn't realize that is what the scripture was saying. And when we read the Book of Joseph, very familiar story, very familiar story that we've learned from Sunday school, up until now even, and even times I'm guilty of this where the point of the story, what is the purpose and the point of the story of Joseph? Where does it fit within this narrative? And when I met my wife, this was something that I had praised before. You know, spirits of Joseph, you've got this excellence, and if you are faithful to God, God will elevate you. And this is a story in the narrative that we glean from the story. From Sunday school, if you are faithful, God will take you from nothing and put you in the palace, and elevate you to a point where you are, you are in the heights of the heights. And this is the story, and this is the essence of what we teach our kids about the Book of Joseph. In essence, what we believe is adults. But I want us to look at it from fresh eyes this morning. Let's pretend that we've not read the story of Joseph. Let's pretend that this is the first time that we're hearing it. Let's look at scripture through fresh eyes. And one thing that this journey of expository has taught us as Bible scholars, all of us. It is not just the ones who stand at the pulper, but all of us, I think we've learned this lesson, is that as you go through scripture, you've got to unlearn a lot of things that you thought you knew in the past. We are on a journey of unlearning every doctrine, every passage of scripture. We are forced to go through it again and say, the scripture is not actually saying what we thought it said all this time. And this, I want to challenge us this morning in the story of Joseph just to re-look at the story and understand that there's more to the story than just God will take you from the pits to the palace and elevate you. And we can say, mama, we made it, look at us now. I'm the second in charge in the most powerful nation on earth. Joseph's history, just to give you a quick background, we're gonna look at a passage of scripture later after verse 40, but Joseph's history, Joseph is the faithful son. He's hated by his brothers. We understand that from the story. His brothers put him in a pit and sell him into slavery. He goes from the pit to part of his house, from part of his house to prison, all because of his faithfulness. He's elevated from prison to the palace as far as right to end man. And now he's number two in charge of the most powerful nation in history to date. He is second in charge in the most powerful nation to that point. And if you go and look at Israel's history dates back, not Israel, sorry, Egypt's history dates back, this goes back to a very short time between Adam and the start of the Egyptian Empire. So Egypt has a very, very, very long history, which is why that is one of the nations in the Bible that God chooses to focus on. One is Babylon, you'll find Babylon in the New Testament, you'll find them in Revelation, but also Egypt. Egypt is a central focal point for the history of Israel. And up to this time, Joseph. So Egypt is the most powerful nation that the world had ever seen. And this is the way that we tell our children the story. Here he is with power and position because God blessed him, full stop. We stop there, and that is not the point of Joseph's story. It is almost the exact opposite. Almost the exact opposite, and you'll find this in the narrative and the writing style. Oftentimes, we look at the writing style of certain authors and we look in fiction and we look in public history and you'll find that there's a certain style that certain authors have. Paul is a very specific way. He has an argumentative, defending the gospel way of writing. You can look at Paul's writing and say, this is Paul's handwriting. He wrote this, he penned this. And Moses gives subtle clues. We don't often study Moses' literary style, but when you see how Moses puts clues and goalposts and signposts throughout his writing, Moses was a author of author. You think Shakespeare was good. Go and read Moses' writings. And it's not very poetical sometimes, but the little clues and the subtle details that he leaves was gives us insight into this. So let's look at some background first, before we jump into Joseph's story. We mention now that Genesis can be divided into two separate categories, right? You have the history, sorry, the creation narrative and the patriarchal narrative, but I wanna look at a different way of dividing Genesis. There are a number of ways that we can divide Genesis, but one of the ways we've done in the series, as I mentioned, but another one is to divide it by scenes. If we divide it by scenes, it's called a Tolodoth. This is called basically Tolodothist generations. So it can be divided into generations. So we see this phrase, Tolodoth, 11 times in the book of Genesis, 11 times. And every time we see this phrase, the story takes a different time. In Genesis, chapter two, verse four, we see the generations of the heavens and the earth. In five, verse one, we see the generations of Adam, and Adam begot, and Adam begot. And we see the generations of no way in six verse nine. Then we see the generation of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Jaffith, and those three split up and they're going to different parts of the world. And then you see the generations of terror in 1127. In 25, verse 19, you see the generations of Isaac. And then in 36, verse one, you see the generations of Esau. These are all the Tolodoths that the Bible's mentioning. And there's only one more Tolodoth that divides the divisions of, or the generations of the book of Genesis. And the last key character in Genesis is not necessarily Joseph. The last key character that we see, or the last Tolodoth, or the generations of, is the generations of Jacob. And based on the literary structure of the book of Genesis, the story of Joseph is not about Joseph, it's more or not Jacob. So we find three reoccurring themes in the book of Genesis. Three reoccurring themes that we see very often, and this is what I'm talking about in terms of Moses' style. He repeats these key themes. And if we track it, we can actually see these themes reoccurring throughout the book of Genesis. And these themes are land, seed, and covenant. And we'll see these three themes popping up from the beginning of Genesis right through to the end. We first see in the creation accounts, you see land. God creates the heavens and the earth, you see land being created. Secondly, Genesis one verse 11, you see seed. Then God said, let the earth bring forth cross the herbs that yield seed, the fruit tree, that yields fruit according to its kind, who seed in itself on earth. So he talks about seed there. And lastly, you see the covenant that he creates with Adam, the first covenant. And that's the Adamic covenants, or basically the covenants of works. And the Westminster's Shortacaticism, 12, calls it the covenants of life. So you see land, you see seed, and you see covenant. He makes it covenant of works with Adam, you'll... And then we see the four. Man is then kicked out of that land, out of the Garden of Eden. There's another covenant established, and in that covenant in Genesis three, there's a promised seed. You will bruise his heel, and he will crush your head. The seed of the woman will come forth. So we see land, we see seed, and we see covenant repeated again. Genesis 12, the covenants, he says to Abraham, get out of your country, get out of your land, from your family and from your father's house, to a land that I will show you. And I will give you, I'll make you a great nation. Land, seed, covenant. We see this theme repeated over and over and over this. Moses is trying to teach us something, and Moses is giving us a sign. And this, in essence, is the gospel message. You see the gospel hidden so deeply. We talk about this all over time. I mention this to my wife all the time. If you do not see the gospel in any of the stories or summons that you're reading, then we've missed the point. You will find the gospel in the most obscure corners of the Bible, from Habakkuk to Zephaniah, to those books that we even hide from numbers, you'll find the gospel message deep. Last week, I was so blessed by Pastor Bevins, just the exhitation of Jacob wrestling with God and how God submitted himself. It is such an amazing analogy of the gospel, which I've never seen before. The gospel is hidden in every obscure corner of the Bible, from this minor prophets, to the major prophets, to the Psalms, to the Proverbs, right through to the actual gospels. Have you ever heard a message on the gospel being preached and no gospel is being preached? How do we miss it when we're talking about the relationship of Judas to Jesus, which we should be talking about Jesus? The Bible is chock full of gospel. The gospel is a central focus even from that first prophecy that you will strike his heel and he will crush your head. The first proclamation of the gospel message you see it there and Moses is teaching us something. Moses is giving us the gospel here. So we find that he says this to Abraham, leave your father's house, go into the land that I'll show you. I'll give you land and I'll give you seed and I'll make a covenant with you. And then we see that promise seed continues to move forward through to the promised land and that is theirs by covenant. So let's read the accounts of Joseph in this new light. Joseph has dreams. Joseph is a dreamer. We see Joseph having three pairs or three sets of dreams. He has three sets of two pairs. I don't know how to do that, Matt, but basically he has three times two dreams. And the first pair he shares with his brothers. We remember the story. I hope he'd been reading this account, but the first sets he shares with his brothers and he says, lesson brothers, I've had a dream. I've had two dreams and his brothers hate him because of his dreams. They despise him because of his dreams. He's already despised because he's the favorite son. Now, I don't know who comes from blended families, adoption, all of these kinds of things. Even in my family, my sister despised me growing up because I took a shine. I came in now. This little boy is now coming to take all of the limelight that I had. And sometimes you get despised just by the virtue of being born. And this happens in families. You can even be from the same parents. And sometimes just you despise because you take in somebody's shine. And David is despised because he's the favorite son. Remember, his father didn't have one wife. He loved one wife more than he loved the other. And Joseph is the son that comes from the favorite wife. And just by the virtue that Jacob openly showed this. Show this to the other kids. It's like, Daddy, sometimes my sister would come home from grandparents. And there was also a bit of favoritism there. And she'd come home with a new skateboard. This girl got a skateboard. I've been walking on my bare feature. And you come home and kids show off. It's like, nah, nah, nah, nah, I have a skateboard. You have nothing. And then you come home in the '80s. You have those viewfinders. We put the little slots in. And you can see the moon. And then you can see all of these things. I've got this thing you don't. And every toy that you came home with, you can't buy two skateboards, at least for both the kids. But these are the kind of things that happened to Joseph. And he had lots of brothers. It wasn't just brother and sister. But this jealousy there. In the jealousy, they decide to kill him. They make a plot to kill him. They decide that they're going to sell him into slavery. All the course of these dreams that he has, if you remember the dreams that you're going to bow before me, the stars in the moon and all of those things. The second sets of dreams that he has interprets the dreams of Pharaoh servants. He's in prison. Pharaoh servants give him the dreams. And he interprets it for them. The first dream was an excellent one. The second one, not that good. He says, you're going to get your job back. And you're going to lose your life. And it happens. Prophecy. The third sets of dreams, then Pharaoh has two sets or two dreams. The king servants then come out of prison. They remember that there's somebody who can interpret dreams in prison. They bring Joseph before the king or before Pharaoh. And the dreams about healthy corn and the sick corn and the healthy cows and the sick cows and the healthy corn eat. You guys remember that? And it's interpreted, in essence, to say that there will be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. And in that, we see also that Pharaoh-- he advises Pharaoh to store up all of the grain for seven years, seed. And that's where we pick up our account today in Genesis 41, verse 37. So if you have your bibles with us, hopefully a physical Bible, you'll turn to Genesis 41, verse 37. And we'll be reading from this point now after this retelling or recounting of the dreams of Pharaoh, seven years of plenty. And like my sister Burns was mentioning now, planning for the future is important, guys. This is not something that we say, money is evil. The love of money is the roots of all evil. We plan for the future. So whether we are saving 1%, 10%, 50%, we have to be wise. And I just want to echo what Benice has said now. Josephine has wisdom and planned for the years of luck. We don't know what tomorrow will hold. Plan for the years of luck. There's a basic principle in financial management. And as I say, with the phase representatives, you work on the supervision. I'm not giving you financial advice. But they say at least start with six-month savings. Look at all of your expenses. Look at everything you spend on your home loan, your groceries, whatever it may be, school fees, et cetera. And plan at least for six months if tragedy strikes. That at least you can cover six months. And then plan for a year. And then plan for two years. Eventually, we can get to seven years. Use the wisdom of God given to us, even in scripture. Let us plan financially to make that happen, even if you can say for one month worth of savings. That space you for one month. Use the wisdom of God. Amen. So let's read this like people who have never read this before. And in doing so, we will see the irony as we read. And more importantly, we will see the author's intended point here. Is Moses telling us, be like God, be like Joseph. Come from the pits to the palace. God blesses you. You're shining, main character. Or is there something else that he's teaching us here? Let's start with the irony in verse 37. Verse 37 says, so the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh. And in the eyes of all his servants, the Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find such one as this a man in whom the spirits of God? The irony first. His brother is hating because God gave him a dream. In purpose, that dream rightly, in a sense, he's giving them the word of God. They not only don't believe him, but they hate him because of the word of God. He now stands before a pagan king who gets this the word of God via a dream. And the pagan king believes him. His brother's plots are killing him. You see the irony. The people of God should have believed him, but don't. Moses is pointing out something here. One dream, you have one outcome. The next dream, you have different outcome. The pagan sometimes, you'll find that those in the house of God are despising you, but those in your workplace, the Muslims, the Hindus, the atheists, those are the ones who are giving you. Pastor Beev gave us the prophecy of an atheist who said, you're going to start the church. Those in the church don't believe in him. Sometimes those in the fellowship, those in your family don't believe in you. Jesus even said that opposition will come from your own household, from your own household, others believe in you. But those, your family and friends, you start a business, those don't support you. Sometimes your own family will turn against you. And those, even furthest from the covenants, are the ones who believe in you. So we're seeing an irony here. Verse 39 says, "The infaraoh said to Joseph, 'Inasmuch as God has shown you all of this.'" Is he talking about Yahweh here? We need to understand this here. Did he get a revelation that Yahweh has shown you this? No, Pharaoh thought himself as a God. Remember, just as Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Il in North Korea believed themselves to be God. The three, those three, they are the clearest gods in North Korea. Pharaoh himself declared himself as a God. Ra, Amund, Ra, all of those, they are parts of that pantheon. Pharaoh thought himself. He said, "God has shown you this." Is he talking about Yahweh? No, he's not talking about Yahweh. He's saying that this is divine and this is supernatural. Yes, but this is not Yahweh. He showed this to you. He does not believe in Yahweh. So, and he says, "There is no one discerning and as wise as you." So, verse 40, he says, "You shall be over my house." So let's look at something. "Every house that Joseph served in prosperity, prison, administratively running like clockwork. Partipha's house, running like clockwork. Every house that Joseph served, crossbed." Whose house should Joseph have been prospering? Jacob's house. He should have been serving his father's house and prospering his father's house. He was in the wrong house. Verse 41, "And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'See, I have set you over all of the land of Egypt. The themes of land seat covenants. What land was Joseph supposed to be in before he was sold to slavery? He was supposed to be in the promised land of Canaan. In the overarching story of the Bible, the theological opposites of Israel or Canaan is what? Is Egypt's? I approach behold, I'm the Lord God who approach you out of Egypt, out of like eagles, wings approach you out of Egypt. The theological opposites of Israel or Canaan at this point was Egypt. He was in the wrong land. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, right? That's verse 41. Verse 42, "Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and he clothed him in garments of fine linen." How was Joseph identified in the beginning of the story? The coat of many colors by his coat that was given to him by his father, Jacob. He was in the wrong house, in the wrong land, wearing the wrong robe. And essentially now he has the wrong father. Verse 43, "And he had him ride in the second chariots, which they had, and they cried out before him, 'Boudini, another irony here. His brothers wanted to kill him. The rather would kill him than Boudini. But a pagan king now says Boudini and all the Egyptians gladly bow before him. Moses is painting a picture of irony here. There's contrast between the promise people and the enemies of God. The enemies of God are obeying him or listening to the word of God. Wrong land, wrong coat, wrong, everything. Verse 44, "Fero also said to Joseph, 'I am Pharaoh. Without your consent, no man may lift his hand or foot in all of the land of Egypt.' And Pharaoh called Joseph's name, Zaphneth Panea. He had a covenant name, which identified him with the covenant people of God. It is strange that we read the story differently in other parts of the Bible when we go look at Daniel's story. We go look at the Babylonian accounts in the Book of Daniel, Daniel, Ananiya, Mishael, and Azariah. We don't even remember those names. We remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. More frequently than we remember these names. And we say, do we say praise God in that situation? They enslaved for 70 years. We don't say praise God. Their names got changed. Glory, Hallelujah. But no, that's a tragedy in this account. But in this account, he gets a new name Zaphneth Panea. Joseph was his covenant name. So it is an insult to the people of God taking their covenant names and affiliating them that affiliated them with Yahweh and giving them pagan names that point to pagan gods. His name, Joseph, pointed to Yahweh. He's now named Zaphneth Panea, which is pointing him to foreign gods. The author, Moses, for all accounts is not indicating that this is a good thing. We're reading the book of the story of Joseph and you think all of this is good because he's elevated because we look at materialism. He's second in charge prime minister. But no, there's a different intent from the author. 45B says, and he gave him a wife, Azanath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of on. He had the wrong wife. Not only is she a pagan, but she's a daughter of a pagan priest. I've seen friends marrying Muslim ladies changing their names. Now you are Mohammed and you see this travesty and this tragedy of you changing your name from Christian, ironically, to a Muslim name. And we see this happening even in today's time. But not only are you marrying somebody foreign, you are now marrying a priest of somebody who's foreign. The travesty, not because of race, ethnicity, I'm in a mixed cultural relationship. It's not race, ethnicity, but because of the etyology, what they believed, what they held true. Why is the problem in other parts of the Bible and we proclaim, yes, your kids can be just like Joseph. Is this something that we would want for our kids and we proclaim this as something that is virtuous and something we should ascribe to? If you're faithful, you can end up in the wrong land with the wrong robes, the wrong house, with the wrong name and the wrong wife. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. No. So Joseph went out in verse 45. Joseph went out to all the land of Egypt. Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. And Joseph went out of the presence of Pharaoh and went through all of the land of Egypt. Now in the seven years of plenty, the crown brought forth abundantly. So he gathered up all of the food of the seven years, which was in the land of Egypt. And he laid up food in the cities. He laid up in every city, the food of the fields, which surrounded them. Joseph gathered very much grain as the sea of the sand. See what Moses is pointing out here? Why would he use this phrase? Because if you remember the account of Abraham, he said, "I will make you like what?" Your descendants like the sea of the sand. This specific repetition is using specific words to point out the attention to something. That this was not a good thing. He says, "He laid up the grain like the sand of the sea." He said, "To Abraham the same thing." Your descendants would be like the sand of the sea. Moses is making a point here. And this is why I say, "Look at the detail in it." Verse 50, "And Joseph and to Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, whom as in at the daughter of Potipharah, pleased of own, bore to him." Joseph called the name of the firstborn, Manasseh. The God has made me to forget all my toil and my father's house. And the name of the second son, the name Ephraim, for card has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my flictions. The names of his sons point to a proper reading of what the points of the early paragraphs I was making. Firstly, notice that he gives his sons Hebrew names. Not Egyptian names. Right? This is important because it's covenantal. Seed, land, covenant. Not just that they were Hebrew names, but the meanings of those names. So you picture somebody walking up to Joseph and he's like, "Hey, Zephineh, Paneha, how's it going, bro?" See that you've got a new son, congratulations. You know, but I noticed, like, what's his name? It's like, no, it's Manasseh. It's like, that's an Hebrew name, isn't it? It sounds Hebrew and it says, "Yes, it is." And it's translated into, "For card has made me forget my toil and all my father's house." And in essence, if I were to transcribe that, I would say, that the name basically means that I'll let all of that stuff go. I let it all go. So that person has everything conversation with him. Zephineh, Paneha, you know, once you're sold into slavery, bro, like, what's the story there? I let it go. But they abandoned you. Yeah, I let it go. They never came to find you. Nobody came looking for you. It's okay, I let it go. You were in a pit. I let it go. It wasn't a hug like I let all of that go. You were almost falsely accused, trying to do the wife of your master. A little of it go. All of these things that happened to me, I've let them all go. And this is what he's saying. He made a covenant name which identifies to the covenant keeping God of Israel. Yahweh. Joseph held on to that. Joseph came to be identity. He chose to be identified with the covenant people of God as opposed to being identified with enemies of God. Pharaoh can rename me, but he won't have my son. He will not rename my son. The destiny that my child has is to be aligned with the God of the covenants. I remember the promises that were made to Abraham. You can understand that these things were passed down orally. There wasn't books and libraries to go and research what was the covenant. But you realize these things were passed down. That you know that your grandfather took your father into the bush and he was going to kill him, but God spared him and gave him a ram. And this is an example of the gospel message that he's going to supply you every need. He's going to do these things for you. And this is the message that was passed down. The covenant is for you and your generation through you. The world will be blessed, etc, etc. These things are passed down. There's a covenant. Covenants were taken seriously. The covenant gave us the covenants when he took us through Abraham's story. Covenants were dead serious. Dead, dead serious. That if it's an agreement between you and God. And that's why we don't take marriage lightly also because it's a covenant. Covenant before God, between us and between God. So Joseph chose to be identified with the covenant, keeping God, the covenant people of God. And not to be identified. I didn't give them Egyptian names. This he grew up there. You know, you find those guys who go to America for two weeks and then you have the accent. So you go to some foreign country and you find kids that's understandable. You ten years old. Later on you're speaking with American accents understandable. You adopt to the culture. You adapt into society. And you know, you might name your son Jamal after it's like what? But this is how it goes when you move to a foreign land. Joseph was a very young man when he went there. But he still kept his identity. I lived in a foreign land there like you still sound like you from the birds. Like, I can't shake it. I can't shake it. Sometimes things are so deep inside of you. Just like how this was so deep inside of Joseph. The covenant was strong inside of Joseph. And he identified himself by naming his son. And I want us to understand the name Manasseh says he's caused me to forget all of my toil. All of my trouble. All of my worries. And my father's house. Some of us need a Manasseh. Family, I want to repeat that some of us need a Manasseh. I let it go moments. Joseph was saying that I've let it go. Some of us are holding on to things right now that are identifying ourselves not as the redeemed people of the covenant of God but as damaged people. Whenever we talk about ourselves, we talk about ourselves in a damaged context. I'm broken. Because my parents never do XYZ. Because so and so broke my heart. Because I was bound by some substance. You identify yourself with the sin rather than the redeemed qualities of God. We need a Manasseh to say I let this go. Let that thing go. I had a conversation with my mother because I was very angry and putted towards my father at some point. My father was an abusive man. He drank. He beat my mother to a pulp very often. I had to be pushed through burglar guards and I had to run. Don't know where I'm running at five years old. Six years old. Seven years old. For many years I grew up wanting to kill him. I had a Swiss Army knife and I'm like one day I'm going to go and he's sleeping. I was a five, six year old and I'm a killing. I had thoughts of murder at a very small age. I hated my father and I grew up with this bitterness inside of me. And when I was a teenager and my father passed away at the age of 16, I'd say to my mother and she always spoke positively of him. Oh, he wasn't such a... I'm like, probably we were there. No, no. You know, sometimes you just like the justification. And sometimes when you look back, you look through rose tented glasses. It doesn't look as bad as it was. But I held on to the bitterness because I didn't love him like my mother loved him. I didn't have the same, same, you know, covenantal love that she had for him. So she'd always say glowing reviews. You know, your father done this and he done that. All the good memories that I don't recall. And I'm like, no, no, no, no. He doesn't deserve forgiveness, et cetera, et cetera. And she says, son, let it go. Forget about it. How long are you going to hold on to the scratch? The man is long gone. You're holding on to things in your life that you're supposed to have forgotten and forgiven and let go because these things are like poison inside of your heart. This is what Joseph was saying, that I felt such hatred towards my brothers at some points. I hated them for what they'd done. I hated the prison I was in. I hated Potiphar, but I let it go. It caused me to forget all of my troubles. And we will be adults. And you find 50 years old, 60 years old, 70 years old, still harboring bitterness. Oh, my mother didn't hug me in the twenties. It's long for me. You need to forget and let it go. This is what my mother told me. Leave it. Leave it in the past, son. And we sang the song that I'm leaving yesterday behind and I'm looking forward to tomorrow. We need to let it go because healing starts by forgiveness and forgiveness. I've forgiven my father even though it's difficult. It is difficult daily. I remember the things that happen and I try and be a better father because of it. But I see it coming out and I'm like him sometimes. I'm like, oh, I understand now being an adult is tough. The challenge is the difficulty is the pressures. I can see why. And I miss his father and I understand that sometimes it's passed down generationally. So that is the view that Joseph has. He says later, some of us having this manassa moment, somebody broke your heart. Some of them let you down. Some of them didn't hug you enough. Something happened to you in your past. Somebody touched you in a proclic. Somebody done something to you and we need to let it go. Let it go, family. But if you think the name of his first son is powerful. And that guy who was talking to him didn't get the message. And I see him again. He's like definite penehouset. I see you've got a second son. And we need to understand that his second son then his name is Ifram. And Ifram is, for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my afflictions. The place where he was hated. It's like, Joseph, the place where you were hated. They tried to murder you. They tried to throw you into a pit. They sold you into slavery. Would that not be the land of your affliction? He had much more profits in the land of Egypt than he did in that land. But he says, no, this is the land of my affliction. Egypt was the land of his affliction because I am a part of the covenants of God. And anywhere that is outside of the presence of God is the land of my affliction. This is the mindset of Joseph. Joseph is a Hebrew of Hebrews. He is a lover of God. I mean, to turn away from the things he did, part of his wife is enticing him nine times out of ten men who have fallen. Joseph says, I will not sin against God. It's a mindset of a man who wants to be in the presence of God. He says, no, that is not the land of my affliction. This is the land of my affliction because anything outside of the presence of God is the land of your affliction people. Spend time outside of the presence of God and you will be miserable with all of your riches. You'll be miserable with all of the pleasures of this world. It is the land of your affliction because when you are outside of the presence, for those who have tasted the goodness of God, being in his presence, taste it and see that the Lord is good and his mercies endure forever. Step out of it, backslide. Be out of his presence and you will be miserable, the land of your affliction. Joseph is saying that this is the land of my affliction because I'm outside of the covenant. I'm outside of the land and I'm outside of the seed. Joseph is saying that I don't care how wealthy this land appears to be. I don't care what wealth they have outside of the presence of Yahweh. I can't be outside of his presence. That is the land of my affliction. Hebrews 11 verse 10, for he was looking forward to a city that foundations whose designer and builder is God. Joseph wanted to be in the presence of God with these people. And until we get to that point, until we get to that point, this is not our home. And I've mentioned this from a pulpit before, but family, this is not our home. We need to realize that we were born for another world. We were born for something better than this and my back attests to every single day that there's something better coming. We don't care how blessed and how high things get you. When the lots of that feeling, I can imagine of winning the lots of you will dance. You will backflip, you will drive, but wait a while. You guys watch it, show I blew it. I love watching those clips just to see I wasted my money. I squandered it because the heart is wicked and deceitful above all else. The eyes are never satisfied with seeing one that lots of it will never be enough. This is not our home. We are pilgrims passing through. We pitch our tents and we pick it up and we move on. This is not our home. Until we get to that place, our best day will pale in comparison to one day in glory family. I promise you that no eye is seen, no ears heard, no enter into the hearts of man what God has planned for us. We don't understand how massive and how great it's going to be being in his presence. We are citizens of the neutral slim. And this is not the neutral slim. The neutral slim maybe is somewhere close to anodeo, but we will wait and see when it comes down. But this land is the land of our flichens. But be very careful, Joseph was living in the same conditions as we living in the same tensions, same temptations, same difficulties. This may be the land of our flichens, but we must do everything in our power to be a blessing to this land. Because it is where God has placed us right now. Your job, the job that you hate, that you wake up cludgingly to say, "Ah, again, work." That's a partner that you have that is on your neck. That's an area that you're in. Whatever it is, wherever God is placed, you're placed there, you'll be a blessing to that workplace. You encourage somebody, you speak life into situations. That partner of yours, you uplift them, you speak positively of them in public, whatever God has given you. Whatever God has given you, that's old car that you have. You drive that thing with pleasure because God has blessed you with it. We count our blessings and name it one by one. This is not the land that we have promised. This is the land of our flichens, but God has us here for now. And Joseph was in that place and he decided to make that place home for that moment to realize that the future is coming. So we read the story, be faithful and God will elevate you, but Joseph doesn't even read the story that way. Joseph says, "My sons, look at the names of the sons." And oftentimes we look at Zimbabwe names, good enough and love more and very literal names straight forward. And Joseph is doing that in the sense where he's saying, "Listen, land of my flichens and all of these things." And he's saying, "Joseph has not even written the story that God has elevated me to last number and I've made it." And I'm sure my brothers could see me now, see me shining, I've got the nice clothes and I've got all of the things. Mama made it, I've arrived. Joseph doesn't even read the story like that, but we tell our kids to the version of this. This Joseph, be faithful. God will take you from the pit to the palace. Full stop, but no. So what is in here since the point of Joseph's story? I'm so glad you asked. Genesis 45. Here's what happened to Joseph. So we get to chapter 45, some time has passed between chapter 41 and 45. So Joseph, so Joseph's brothers fly out of food in their land. This famine, obviously we understand where the famine came from. They hear that this food in Egypt. They come down to Egypt to negotiate for food. Joseph then recognizes his brothers. He sees his brothers, his brothers don't recognize him. So he decides that he's going to test his brothers. He's going to put them to the test. And Joseph tests them not just in jail because that's something out of that. I'm going to show you guys now. I'm going to make you spit. No, he tests them because firstly, basically two tests he gives him. The first test is tied to the very reason that Joseph was sold into slavery. One of the reasons that they hated Joseph was because Joseph was the son of the wife that Jacob loved, as I mentioned. Two sons that come from that wife that made him the favorite son, favorite son, as I mentioned. Jacob was a terrible father, guys. He made it known to everyone, like I said, like he made it known it. I love this lightly more than I love these 11. This wife, I love more than I love your mother. Your mother is right, but this one, this one, this is my favorite. He made it known he was evidence about it. He was a terrible father and a terrible husband. This is my favorite son. You guys are right. Yeah. And I'm sure it must have come out in it. Why can't you be more like Joseph? Look, he cleans his room. Look at you guys. Pick up your shoes. Joseph does things the right way. And that happens in our families. We have our favorites because one is smarter and one is not as smart. And then it's like, can't you be like so and so. Can you imagine Jesus's brothers? James and these guys are like, Jesus is perfect. Can't you be like Jesus? Everything is done, right? Must have been tough. That's why I never believe in him. He's like, hey, go do your miracles. Do your miracles outside? Are you boring us? And it must have been really tough. But you see the same type of thing, right? And we see this in our family. So imagine how much more I struggle with one child. Imagine having 10 kids at one time. It's like this is going to be favoritism. So Joseph likely assumed that they've done the same thing to his younger brother. Do you have other brothers? Yes, we have one more, but we left him at home. They would likely have assumed that they would have done the same thing because it's also my mother's child. And I know why you guys done this to me because I'm the favorite son. So he tests them to see if their characters have changed. By keeping one of the brothers there and to see if they're going to abandon him. So he's like, let's see if you guys have changed your hearts and change your characters. Then the final test, Joseph plants goods in them. He hides some valuable stuff from them to see if they're still and basically says they're still in them. And then he takes Benjamin. He says, I'm going to keep Benjamin aside to see if he's going to run away. And one of the brothers distinguishes himself as standing ransom and saying, take me instead. And chapter 45 goes on to read. Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all of those who stood by him and cried out. Make everyone go out for me. No one stood with him while Joseph made known to his brothers. And we're allowed and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Does my father still live? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed. Can you imagine? This is like quote outs. Years later into the act is like they must have been stunned. So they came near. Then they said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you're sold into, sold into Egypt. But now do not therefore be cleaved or angry with yourselves because you sold me. God has sent me before you to preserve life. For those years of famine has been in the land. And they're still five years in which neither plowing or no harvesting. For God has sent me before you a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by correct deliverance. So now it was not only not you who sent me here, but God. And he made me a father to Pharaoh the Lord of his house and ruler of all of Egypt. The point of Joseph's story is this. God sent me here to save you. But it's more specific than that. Seed, land and covenant. Remember our three themes. Now before we go into that, we can't miss this. But I mentioned that the gospel story can be cleaned from every corner of the Bible. There's what you call in theology, shadows and types. Shadows and types you don't find Jesus in the Old Testament because he was not born. But what you do find are shadows. You know what a shadow is? Something that costs a light over into the Old Testament and types. Like we find Melchizedek is a type of Christ. You find the often is where you appeared in the form of a man and the form of an angel. But here they are over sixty comparisons between Joseph and Jesus. And I find this really amazing and we may know this. We may not know this, but there are sixty similarities between Joseph and Jesus. Joseph is a type of Christ. He is a shadow of Christ. And if you're looking for Christ's look at his life, you'll find some of these examples. Joseph was a shepherd in Genesis 37 verse 2. Jesus we find is the good shepherd. Joseph spread this plot into killing. Jesus is the truth plotted to kill him. Joseph was taken out of the pits alive in his body. Jesus was resurrected out of a tomb alive in his body. Joseph was sold for the price of redemption. 30 pieces of gold I believe it was. Jesus in essence also was sold for 30 pieces of silver, which was the price of a slave. Joseph's blood was sprinkled. So they sprinkled his coat with goat's blood to make it seem that he was thrown apart by animals. And it was presented to his father. So, likewise, Jesus is our scapegoat and his blood is presented before the father has a sin offering. Joseph was solely tempted by part of his wife and did not sin. Likewise, Jesus in the wilderness was tempted and did not sin. Joseph was jailed between two prisoners. Jesus was crucified between two prisoners. Joseph alone was seen dispersing bread to a perishing world during his famine. Jesus is the one who dispersed bread into a perishing world by himself. We find many, many of his similarities. You go find parallels and it's so amazing to see just the similarities between the two. But Joseph is a type of Christ and we get a shadow and a view of who the Messiah was. How did the Jews miss this today? I don't know. It is so evidence that Christ was the one prophesied from the Old Testament to the new. So, the point of Joseph's story was that, right? That he was sent by God to Egypt to save their lives. So, let's look at this. The fall of man happens in chapter 3 of Genesis, right? We know the story. The fall of man mansions and then there's a covenant promise in 3 verse 15. And the promise comes in the form of a curse. So, man is cursed, but that is also the covenant. The curse of the serpent, he says, "I will put ammunity between you and the woman, and the seed of the woman will bruise your head and you'll crush your head." God then makes this promise that somebody is coming to undo this curse. So, you are under a curse now, but there is somebody who is going to come who is going to undo this curse for you. The next chapter we find the first murder in the Bible, the seed of the serpents, Cain kills the seed of the woman able. And why do I say Cain is the seed of the serpent? Because if you look at John chapter 3 verse 12, it says, "Do not be like Cain, who was of the evil one?" The promise seed now is dead. Cain enable. The promise seed is dead. God then intervenes. And I think we've mentioned this also from the pulpit. You see the gospel clean from every corner of the Scripture. And you'll find that in the genealogy of Adam to Noah, you find seven generations. Go look at what their names mean. Adam means man. Seth means appointed because he was appointed for the one that died. And it goes on and goes on to give you the gospel message. That man was appointed, but it goes on to say that even the name Methuselah, the name Methuselah means that when it arrives, that will basically mean the end. So when Methuselah died, that the day that the flood started. And Noah's name ends rest, that we will end rest. You see the gospel message even outlined in the names of the genealogies of Adam to Seth, to all of the names leading down to Noah. And we find that. So we look at the name of Seth. The promised seed is dead. Chapter five, there are ten generations between Adam and Noah. Through the Godly line of Seth, the promise has been preserved. Seth is not the promised seed. Promised seed. You find Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and Jeffth. Shem now is the promised seed. And eventually we get down to Abraham, if you want to do a fast forward write down. Abraham has two sons, Isaac. Isaac is in the promised seed. We gleaned this from our previous messages. Jacob is then noted as a promise seed. Jacob is 12 sons. And we ask the question, who is the promise seed out of these twelve? It's a lot to glean from. Because of such a large portion, focuses on Joseph's life. I mean, you go and look at every other son. You find small pieces of scripture dedicated to Joseph. He has dedicated chapter upon chapter upon chapter. And you may think that Joseph is a promise seed. But then you go and look at the generations of Joseph. You find Manasseh and Ephraim as the two tribes, but you don't find a tribe of Joseph. He at least expects a tribe of Joseph, but his sons are dedicated to tribes. Joseph is there to preserve the promised seed. And who is the promised seed? We find this and pass a biv. So eloquently gave us this description and I want to reiterate it. But Judah is the promised seed. You find that when his father is pronouncing blessings over all of the children and says, "You blessing to you and he says, 'Bless it to Judah.' And the scepter will not depart from you until Shiloh comes." Talking about that the seed, the promised seed, ultimately Jesus Christ is going to come from your lineage. Judah says to Joseph, "This will kill my father in your sins." 44-29 says, "But if you take also this one away from me, and calamity befalling, if he dies, you shall bring down my grave here with sorrow to the grave." This is what his father is saying. It's like he was missing. It's the end for me. I can't take it again. I can't take it if another one of my favorite sons is gone. So Judah is saying, "If you take this child, take me as a ransom instead." So in essence, Judah is saying Judah, who is the promised seed, offers himself as a substitute. In the place of the one whom his father loves. We find the gospel message here so, so, so deeply shining through. Then we find Judah has another son that identifies himself as a promised seed. We've got to go down a few generations now. The promised seed one day, and this promised seed is David, in essence. We know the King David comes from the lineage of Judah. The Lion of Judah, that's where we get it from. The Lion of Judah, Lamb of God. The promised seed one day is in the valley, and a giant is now challenging Israel and says, "Send me one who fights with me in a battle of champions." I hope you haven't watched, but Game of Thrones, you get sort of that battle of champions. You send a champion and you'll be off. I can't fight that much, but I'm a saint. Keenan I might be a half-year-old. Go fight the enemies of God for me. And in essence here, this is a battle of champions. Send your best fighter. We'll send our best fighter. Goliath is standing nine feet. I think nine feet tall is massive, massive, massive man. And David says that I'll represent the people of God. You send someone else and somebody represents the people of God. So King David, before he's King David, goes down into the valley and faces Israel's enemy. As Israel's covenant represents itself, and while he's in the valley, he defeats the enemies of God on behalf of all of Israel, which means that Israel is victorious. Because all of Israel is in him, and the promised seed wins the victory. King David. Then we have the greater David, who is Jesus himself, identifies himself as a promised seed to which all of the promised seeds point towards and what Judah and David done in one foul swoop. They stood, represented, so they stood as a sacrifice, as a substitute on behalf of others. He also offers himself up as a substitutionary. It's holding sacrifice for the sons of whom the Father loves. So through him dying, with death on the cross, he goes into a valley just like David, defeats the enemies of God, and on behalf of those who have faith in him. So Joseph didn't go into Egypt so that we can tell our children. Be faithful, and you'll be rich and famous. Joseph wins into Egypt so that Judah, the promised seed, wouldn't starve. So that David, the promised seed, could be born. So that Jesus, the promised seed, could save these people. Do we understand the mathematical equations? They say Lotto is something like 500 million to one or some crazy odds, which will win it. The odds of you alone being born. Look at the science behind it, and now we talk into adults here. But a man's seed, there's 200 million sperm cells that enter into the womb. Of that 200 million, you've got to swim through canals and to get to that egg. And out of 200 million, one makes it. The chances that you are born, that means your parents would have had to know each other on that specific night, at that specific moment. Because if it is the next day, some other child will be born. Ask the twins, two different fertilizations, for you to be born, for you to stand here today. It is 200 million to one, but then add the odds of what night that happened. If your wife had an egg when it's specific night, there's no crumble. The chances of you being born, it goes exponentially, 200 million multiplied by millions, multiplied by millions that your parents have to look at each other from across the room. It's the end. [laughter] To approach, to talk, to date, to court, to provide the ring, to wait, and do all of these things on a wedding night, or whenever it happened, you came about, or if they never met locked eyes across the room. No crumble. Consider the odds of Jesus being born. Consider the odds of Judah, meeting up with the ZZ's daughter-in-law. It's very less obvious things the Bible tells us details. He slept at his daughter-in-law, who is in the genealogy. There's prostitution to Jesus' genealogy. Rahab, the prostitute, the world of Jericho. Jesus, great, great, great, great, great, great. For Jesus to be born, you think of the odds of you being born. Think of the odds of Jesus being born. It is exponentially crazy. Joseph came into Egypt for that very reason, so that Judah wouldn't starve, so that David could be born, so that Jesus could be born. For that specific purpose. This is the point of the story of Joseph. It's not a moralistic, materialistic view point, but it is the heart of the gospel. It is the providence of God. And now, in a talk just very quickly about the providence of God, we look at the providence of God, and we see that he used famine. He used slavery. He used prison. Now look at your life, and see the heartbreak. See the hurts. See the abuse. Father beating our mothers, alcohol, all of these different things, whatever is your story. Look at how God used that providence. I am a man standing here today because of the things that happened to me. God's providence was in the alcohol abuse that I had to drink and go through things and realize this is not the life for me. I had to go through all of these things, these bad relationships, because there was no man in my life to teach me on how to do things. There is no grandfather, my grandfather's absence as well. My uncle is gay. There is no even positive man to show me how to stand as a man. It is difficult. But in the providence of God, in the providence of God, through all of that difficulty, I am a father of a daughter, and a husband to her wife. And I have to stand as a man and say, listen, this is how it's done as a man. I have got to lead a family when I don't know even how to do it. Read a book or something, I don't know. But this is the providence of God, no matter what you are going through now. We look back at our past and say, ah, you know, I am because. But now the things we are going through now, the things that are so difficult now, we don't see the end of the tunnel. But we need to understand the providence of God is in the slavery. It's in the pits. It's in your family not coming to look for you. That would have broken many of us. Smaller things break us today. We are soft, soft, soft people nowadays, but look at what Joseph went through. Family couldn't even send you a WhatsApp dog, not even. But even come and try and throw a stone, nothing. But there was no, there was no attempts. Yeah, you were sold like your own brothers, your own brothers. I'm kind, but a skateboard. This man's family sold him into slavery. So let's look at it from that point of view. You are in the pit, Joseph, so that I can save you, Israel. You are going to be a slave in part of his house, so that I can save you. You are going to prison, so that I can save you. You are going to Egypt, so that I can save you. Because, providentially, every last part of this was necessary. It is a province of God that gives us hope that in our darkest days, since... I don't know what we are going through here. I don't know all of your circumstances. I don't know what we are all dealing with. But I do know this. That God always saves his people. Always a starter of singing creates thy faithfulness. God is faithful. God always saves his people. You might have to go through slavery, you might need to go through. Part of his house, you might need to go through the prison. Whatever the equivalent of that is. The money problems, the children problems, the marriage problems, whatever it is that we are facing today. I don't know the specifics. But I know this, that God saves his people. Always. He changes, not he is faithful. The same yesterday, today. Do you realize what that means? I woke up in a bad mood and my wife had to cheer me up this morning. It's like, I don't want to today. God doesn't wake up in a bad mood. No matter what you are feeling today. No matter what you are going through. God's feelings towards you are the same. He loves you with an untying love. There is no dip, no height, no demons, no angels, no distance that can separate you from the love of God. There is nothing that can separate you, not a hell or a high water can separate you from how deeply loves you. How deeply loves you. So in closing, I want to encourage you. Fleet to Christ. Tronia to him, no matter what situation you are in. It can be the worst thing that you are going through. It can be the best of your times in your life. Fleet to Christ. Hide yourself in him. Put your faith in Christ because he is the one who is only guaranteed to never let you down. Remind yourself of God's providence and all of the things that have happened in order for Christ to be born, let alone to die for sin and be raised on the third day. And if God did this in order to rescue the sons and daughters whom he loves, how much more can we trust him in the middle of difficult circumstances? God loves us so much. He will move mountains, mountains, mountains to be with you. Have things been bleak lately? Have things been hard lately? Have things been tough lately? Yes they have. But God is good. God is good. Don't forget that wherever we are in the good times in the pad, this is still the land of our affliction. And we are not home yet. So what we do is make ourselves as home as much as we can, which is exactly what Joseph did in Egypt. And so God reveals through his providence what he is accomplishing through your darkness. And so that, and so we see it. Just say, Manasseh. Let it go. Let it go. That's my encouragement for us this week. So we read the book of Joseph a little differently than we may have read. It's in the past. But we understand that God has caught us. God has caught us no matter what. Draw closer to him. Draw an eye on him and he'll draw an eye on you. That is my encouragement this morning.
