In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of unity and worshiping God together. He highlights the need for reconciliation and redemption within the family of God. The preacher uses the story of Joseph and his brothers to illustrate the consequences of their past actions catching up with them. He also references the story of Jehoshaphat and the victory march to show that sometimes God's solution may not align with traditional methods. The sermon concludes with a call for individuals to examine their hearts and allow God to reveal any hidden sins or divisions.

I don't very often announce a title for what I'm going to say but I want to speak for this morning on why God refrains himself, why God refrains himself. We claim ourselves, you know, coming together with great anticipation and hope and many have a certain key to the situation. Oh, maybe there is some situation in the past that I remember where this key seemed to work and so, well, we'll try and get that key and we'll make it work again. And we try to reproduce past blessings and many are confident, well, you know, if you just do this we'd get it. If you just follow this route we'd get it and we've got formulas and they're so simple because you can turn to the scriptures and you can find formula after formula and we try that and seemingly there's a little blessing comes out of it and then there's disillusionment sets in. And I believe that the word that came yesterday morning not just because I heard it yesterday morning but it's something that's been very real to me for a number of years and more so of late that we are in a new day, a new era of the church. There's a change, there's a transition. God wants to do a new thing and therefore the old ways will not suffice, even if they're scriptural, will not suffice. If it's just a case of finding the scriptural method, I could call in a hundred people here and you could all come up and give me a different scripture as to the proper method. So I read in the time of great distress, in the time of Jehoshaphat, when the enemies of God had surrounded them and they cried unto God and the solution was, the eventual solution was, go forth against the enemy and stand still and see the salvation of God. You don't need to fight. And so they sent singers before the army and they praised the name of the Lord and saw their enemies defeated. And so someone would come along with that solution. Let's have a victory march. But that victory march was born out of distress. It was born out of a situation of utter helplessness and hopelessness. When the king and all the people gathered together in the streets of Jerusalem and sought the Lord earnestly. And that great king lifted his eyes to heaven and he says, Oh God, we have no power or might against this great company which cometh against us. Neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon you. And so they sought the Lord earnestly. And having sought the Lord earnestly and waiting before the Lord, not knowing what to do, no one coming forth and saying, let's have a victory march. No one coming forth and saying, let's do this or that, because don't you remember how they marched around the walls of Jericho? The walls fell flat, so let's march. You can't duplicate God's methods and God's ways. You can't reproduce them. God doeth new things. Principles of truth remain eternal. But the way and the manner in which God moves is always different. So let's remember that. They didn't know what to do. They confessed it. They admitted it. And they stood there helpless before their enemies. How many hours? I do not know. The spirit of prophecy came upon a certain Levite and he stood up and said, Thus saith the Lord, you're going to find the enemy down in a certain place. Go down there and you don't need to fight in this battle, for the battle is the Lord. Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord. And so then they had their victory march. God is waiting for a further commitment from his people. We like to send up the smoke screen, like Brother John Follett used to say. We've got all kinds of means and things that have been established in our past way of worshiping God. God is calling his people to a deeper commitment, a commitment we have not known or recognized or believed and we don't want to hear. And until we come to that, we're not going to see the unveiling of God's mighty hand in the midst of his people. So God refrains himself, not because he doesn't want to reveal himself, but because he must in order to bring about that reconciliation in the family of God for which his heart has been longing. Don't think for one moment that God is trying to hide himself. It seems that way. Many a time God's people have cried out, O God, almighty Lord of Israel, why hidest thou thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior? Why are you hiding? Come forth and show yourself. We need you. You're hiding from us. Why is God hiding? God does hide himself. He hides himself for a purpose. All the while he's hiding. His heart is longing, desiring, anticipating, longing for that day when his people will seek him with all their hearts. Because God desires to draw nigh to you far more than you desire to draw nigh to him. He wants your presence far more than you want his presence. God needs your presence as much as you need his presence. Don't think of God as the one who sits up there in the heavens alone and by himself and having everything and needing nothing. And we, the poor creatures, are always standing in need and we've got to somehow twist his arm in order to make him come forth and bless his people. God needs you and I. That's why he made us. He made angels, he made cherubim, he made seraphim, he made multitudes of the heavenly hosts to glorify him and to do his bidding as they go without sleep or rest day and night to do his will. He doesn't need you and I for service. He needs you and I for fellowship. And God can only have fellowship with the people who are akin to himself, whose nature is like himself. And for that reason he made a man in his image. Because no matter though he had made thousands and ten thousands of angels and angelic hosts and creatures of all kinds, there was none in his image and likeness and therefore he remained, as it were, the Lord of his creation, the sovereign Lord and creator of all things, but with no true fellowship in all the works of his hands. So he had to make one in his image. A man. He forfeited that image. We know the story. But God had not given up. For mystery of all mysteries we can't understand, we don't try to understand all the implications of it. God knew before he made man that he would sin and had already prepared redemption, knowing that in the fullness of redemption God would find the delight of his heart, which he did not find in fullness when he made the first man. He knew he would fall, he knew he would sin, but he also knew that in the fullness of redemption man would arise and satisfy his heart and he would be able to rest, find the rest that he only found in type and shadow when he made the old creation, when he rested from all his works. He found the rest in his Son and he said, on more than one occasion, Thou art my beloved Son in whom I delight, or more literally, in whom is all my delight. He found the fullness of his rest and his delight in his Son. Someone asked me last night, does God get weary? I said, yes, God does get weary. Because the prophet said that God said he was weary. God says, I'm weary with you. God says through Malachi, I'm weary with your words. You've wearied me with your words. When we try to flatter God, God says, I'm weary with your words. When you say it doesn't matter whether we're sinless or not, it doesn't matter, the Lord delighteth in us. That's what Malachi said. And it's all through the church. Forget about this doctrine of God bringing us unto repentance and unto perfection and unto the fullness of Christ. God delights in his people the way we are. God says, I'm weary with your words. God cannot find rest until he rests in a people who are made in his image. So he's tired, he's weary. But he's doing something about it. He set in motion everything that's necessary for the reconciliation of the family of God that he might come and take up his habitation in a temple in the earth. He found it in his son, in glorious fullness. But somehow, though he found glorious rest in Jesus, his heart longed for a greater enlargement of that rest. And that's why Jesus went away, that he might bring forth many other sons in his image and likeness. That the rest and the delight that he had in his son might be multiplied ten thousandfold. That he might receive not only the glory that he received from Jesus, but the manifold glory of all his people. As Paul says, that we, the body of Christ, should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted in Christ. The mystery of redemption, it staggers our imagination as God begins to reveal it. That he needed you, he needed you and I. That he might get rid of his weariness and his tiredness and find rest in a people who are constantly refreshing and delighting his heart. And therefore he waits and waits and waits patiently for the precious fruit of the earth. That in the fullness of the harvest he might walk into his garden and partake of his precious fruits. And that's what this story of the body of Christ is all about. Oh how it's perverted. Come on everybody get together and forget your doctrines and just worship the Lord and praise God and have a happy time and get away with all this division. God wants to reconcile the family of God through redemption, through cleansing, through sanctification, through commitment, through sacrifice. That the sons of Levi might offer unto the Lord a sacrifice that's pleasing in his sight. And that the praises of Judah might ascend as a sweet incense unto his nostrils. He wants a family. He found one beloved son but he says I must have a family like them. He's so precious. Something like when Rachel, the barren woman. We spoke of the barren last night. Now God chooses the barren when he wants to do something special. Rachel brought forth her Joseph and she said when he was born he will add there will be an increase. There must be another one. Like Brother Leelowen used to say I just love that one so much I've got to have another one. Jesus, God loved him so much he says I've got to have others like him. Satisfied, yes, totally satisfied with Jesus but he loved him so much oh I want many more like him. And so he has a vast family but he's not going to be content, he can't rest until they're like him. The same commitment, the same love, the same desire to do the Father's will that Jesus had. And so the Spirit of God is not pleased in this day and hour when we say it doesn't matter whether God's people are doing good or bad, God delights in the man away. Sure he loves us but whatever the Spirit of the Lord is saying in the earth we better take sides with what the Spirit of God is saying. And the Lord God comes in the scene and says I want to reconcile my family until all iniquity is purged from them, all evil is driven away, a total commitment has been made in order that I might find a greater rest in my people we better begin to hear the word of the Lord and find God's way of entering into it. Instead of trying to reproduce something that was used in the past by way of bringing down the presence of God in our midst. Why hidest thou thyself, said David, O God of Israel, the Savior? Why are you secluding yourself? Why are you hiding yourself? He's hiding himself like the bridegroom in the songs of Solomon. Not that he doesn't want to come forth and lavish his love upon his bride but because he wants his bride to cleanse herself and put on those beautiful garments, dedicate her heart unto him that there might be a true communion and fellowship with the one whom he loves. And all the while he hides himself, he's longing for his people and weeping over them and desiring that they might be drawn nigh unto him. And so God has a family, a well beloved family but like the family of Jacob it must be reconciled totally unto him not only once for all by the blood of his cross but by the washing of his spirit in this day and hour. Because the spirit of God came into the earth and to abide in this temple to fulfill what God accomplished at the cross. Certainly we must always glorify the one who died for us on the cross but we must also recognize that in the consummation of the work of the cross there is to be a people cleansed by that blood that was shed on the cross. And committed unto the dedication of that one who died on the cross and washed in the cleansing of the blood which is available to you and I as we partake of the spirit and drink of that spirit and walk in the spirit. For just as they made that holy water in the Old Testament by taking a vessel full of living water or running water and taking a dove and slaying it and collecting the blood of that dove in this vessel of water. So the water and the blood agree says John and it is the spirit that bears witness because the spirit is truth. And I believe that when Jesus died on the cross through the eternal spirit he offered himself without blemish unto God. As Jesus was dying on the cross the spirit of God was absorbing into his being the precious ingredients, the cleansing, the power, the efficacy of the blood of the cross. So that the Holy Spirit has absorbed the efficacy of the cross in his blood and you wonder at your bondages, you wonder at your uncleanness, you wonder at the corrupt mind that you have. It is because the body of Christ is not so bathed in the spirit of God that the ingredients of the blood of Christ is continually washing and cleansing. There is no easy solution. I know it is in the blood and I know it is in the spirit. But until the spirit of God flows through his people we are not going to experience the fullness of the cleansing of the blood of Christ because the efficacy of the blood is in the spirit. He has absorbed it in his own being just as the water, that living water received the blood of that turtle dove of old. God wants to release this cleansing stream upon his people. The cleansing stream I see, I see. Oh now I know it cleanseth me. It cleanseth me, yes, cleanseth me. It cleanseth me. I forget the exact wording of it. Dear dying Lamb, thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. One of the old songs of the church we used to sing, I was brought up in Pentecost, till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. And now God is coming into his people and saying I want this to be real in the lives of my people. That the blood of Christ shall so cleanse and purge us that the church of Christ will sin no more. We are considered to be heretics and they have sung this song for 50, 60, 70 years in all areas of Christendom, evangelical areas. The time comes when God wants his people who have embraced truth to begin to enter into it. And when he does and when that time comes there is a new way open up which God opens up. And carefully and by his own divine wisdom ordains and orders everything for the purpose of bringing into being that which he has declared. And God has set in motion all that is necessary to reconcile the family of God and to cause the love of God to flow through his people. And you and I are going to have to stay out of the picture and let God do what he is doing and just cooperate as he makes his way known. Joseph was the key to the whole situation, type of Jesus. The key to the reconciliation of the family of God. He had a dream, he had a vision. He saw himself in the place of rulership. He saw himself exalted. I don't believe that he was over-exalted. In those tender years he just had a dream. He couldn't help dreaming, he dreamed it and told his brethren. But because he told his dream, because he told his vision, his brethren hated him and they envied him. They envied him. But the family continued to live on in peace and in oneness for many years. The glorious family of Jacob. The family through whom God had ordained to bless all nations. Living together in Hebron, that wonderful place in Canaan. A choice part of Canaan. The family of Jacob, all the sons dwelling together, working together, working in the fields together. Eating around the same table, enjoying the fellowship of one another. But there was no true reconciliation in the family of Jacob and God was going to bring it about. I don't care how many buildings you can fill with people singing the same songs and praising the same God and lifting their hands and dancing before the Lord and making a big noise unto the Lord. There's no reconciliation, there's no union there. The people are still filled with envy and jealousy and pride. And if there's a big church rises here, there's sure to be another people trying to outmatch them. You build a church like that, we'll build a bigger. Envy and jealousy is rampant in the body of Christ. There's no real unity there. God's going to bring it about. It took the death of Christ, it took the betrayal of Jesus to do it, but He's going to do it. You know the story that Joseph was sold into Egypt as our Lord was. John the Beloved says that our Lord was crucified in Egypt. People say, don't spiritualize the scriptures, you better spiritualize the book of Revelation or you'll be in all kinds of trouble. Jesus was crucified in Egypt and in Sodom, the Bible says. Because Egypt speaks of the world system, Sodom and all its corruption. That's where Jesus was crucified. Joseph went down into Egypt, suffered for no cause of his own. Suffered reproach, hate, misunderstood. Cast into prison because he was innocent and because he was righteous. Hated because he loved God, hated because he served God, hated because he did righteously. His feet they hurt in fetters of iron, he was laid in iron. His feet they hurt with fetters of brass, he was sold as a servant. But the Bible says God sent Joseph there. It was God that sent his son. Did God manipulate things so that people would crucify him? No, he just manifested the light into the world. He just sent one in whom was the fullness of light and love and truth. Everything that pertains to God's holy nature. Because of that, immediately there was rejection, confrontation. Darkness can't stand the light. You and I think we've got peace and contentment in this land because of democracy. It's not right, it's because we don't have the glory of God. It's not because you're living in a democracy, it's because we're living in compatibility with the world. But God, in causing Joseph to go down into Egypt, was setting the stage for the reconciliation and the purification and cleansing of the family of Jacob. You know the story how through the dreams in the prison house, that Joseph's name became known up there in the house of Pharaoh. How when Pharaoh was troubled with dreams which he could not interpret and his wise men couldn't interpret, they called in this one in whom they recognized the spirit of wisdom and discernment. He made known unto Pharaoh the thing that had come to pass. Joseph said unto him, there's a famine coming in the land. Seven years of famine. But before that, there'll be seven years of plenty. In the seven years of plenty, we must gather up all the fruit of the land so that in the seven years of famine, we'll be able to survive. Joseph became known as the savior of Egypt. Zephnath-paneah, savior of the world. But another meaning of the word is the revealer of secrets. For not only does God have a deliverance for the world, but he has a deliverance for his people. And a cleansing for his people. And it wasn't just for the salvation of Egypt that Joseph was raised up. He was raised up in order to reconcile the family of God which was very precious in God's sight, even the family of Jacob. But separated from his brethren in order that he might do it. Forget all these easy gimmicks you got for bringing together the body of Christ. A bunch of people getting together and worshiping God together is not the reconciliation of the body of Christ or the joining of the body of Christ as far as the scriptures are concerned. Just an accumulation of people. God had begun to set in motion the ways and the means whereby the family of Jacob would be reconciled as the holy family of God. And the first thing on God's agenda was a famine. And the time was at hand when God was going to send a famine upon the church. And they're going to try with all the past gimmicks and means that they've used in order to try and force God to come down into our midst and to show himself. And God's beginning to hide himself. He's sending a famine. Not of bread and water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. In order that through that means God might draw together the people of God and cleanse them and purge them that the family of Jacob might become the true Israel of God. And so the famine hit Jacob and his family. And they heard there was corn in Egypt. And he said to his sons, go down into Egypt. I hear there's corn in Egypt. And so they went down, but he says, Benjamin, you must stay here. Because I lost Joseph. And if I lose Benjamin, I'll go down to my grave in sorrow. And they came and they stood before Joseph, who was the ruler of Egypt. And said, we've come for bread. There's a famine in our land. And Joseph knew them. I think it was twelve years before he was a little lad. They didn't know him, but he knew them. And he disguised himself and hid himself and obscured the real Joseph. And spoke to them as a rough dictator. And said, you're spies. You've come to spy out the nakedness of the land. And they said, oh no, my lord, we are true men. We be no spies. And he told them the story of his family. And all the while Joseph was refraining himself. One or two occasions he had to go out in another room and weep and cry. Wash his face, come back in, put on that stern look and talk to them again. Earlier days as I'd read the story of Joseph, I couldn't help but feel, Joseph, you're a little conceited. Here were your brethren coming hungry and now because your dream was fulfilled you talk to them like a cruel dictator and just start to rub it in. And I really used to think, Joseph, why did you act like that? I didn't know then that he was a prophet. Moved of God and acting out the word of the Lord according to the will of God. That all the while his heart was breaking while he was doing it. Heart was breaking while he was doing it. Those prophets would stand before Israel and pronounce them so severe judgments. Isaiah, Jeremiah. The princes came to the king and they said, you've got to do something about this Jeremiah. He's just pronouncing such evil judgments against us. They put him down in the dungeon on one occasion and put him in prison. And all the while Jeremiah's heart was breaking, lamenting over his people. When the judgments came to pass, we're told he walked out of the walls of Jerusalem and sat in the hillside and cried and lamented and wrote the book of Lamentations which we have in the scriptures. How are the sons of Zion comparable to fine gold likened unto the dust of the street? The daughters of Zion weep and lament. The enemy has come in. Oh, read the book of Lamentations. There's a prophet of God whose heart was turned unto God and who loved God and his people with all his heart. Lamented over the desolation of God's people. Where are those prophets in the midst of God's people who are crying and lamenting for the desolation that's in the church rather than trying to cook up something wonderful in their midst when God says there's desolation in the land, there's desolation in the church. The enemies at the gates were not able to resist the invasion unless God's people find God, ignore it all and try and cook up a big happy service. God's calling his people to a deep commitment and a deep repentance. Well, he says, if you're a true man, and if what you say is true, you have a younger brother at home, you tell me. You go on back home, take food for your family, and when you come back the second time, bring your younger brother with you. Otherwise, you cannot see my face again. God was arranging all that. Joseph was the key, now Benjamin becomes the key. Not Benjamin, Simeon. Because he kept Simeon as a hostage. He says, I'll keep this lad here until you bring, he didn't say Benjamin, until you bring your younger brother back. Because he spoke to them in the Egyptian language, and then the interpreters interpreted to them in their Hebrew, whatever they used. He could have said very clearly, I'm Joseph, your brother, glad to see you. Forget all the past. Let's just be one big happy family again. Like they're saying in the church today, forget all those differences. God hasn't forgotten. God wants to dig deep these days into the hearts of every one of us. That all those hidden things which we brushed under the carpet, so long ago that we've almost forgotten it, and we say, oh, we're true men, we love the Lord, and they did, they loved the Lord, but the day is at hand when God would bring to light the hidden things of darkness, when he sendeth forth the word of the Spirit as a sharp two-edged sword, that it might cut asunder soul and spirit, and reveal the thoughts and the intents of the heart. Because we don't know our hearts as God knows it. I think they thought they were telling the truth when they said we'd be true men. I think they meant it. I think they were sincere. God says, I've got to root out all that envy, all that jealousy, all that conceit, all that desire for preeminence and for honor and for glory. Took it all out of Joseph. I'm not saying there was any in Joseph, but he so disciplined him that there could be nothing of it in him. Took it all out of Jesus. There never was any in Jesus, but he so disciplined him that it never could arise in him either. And so Jesus came from heaven to earth to learn discipline, take upon himself the form of a man that is a man he might learn obedience, not because he was disobedient in heaven, but he was untested, untried. He had to come to earth to be tested and tried. You think you go to heaven to be made perfect? Jesus came from heaven to earth to be made perfect, that the captain of our salvation might be made perfected through sufferings. He emerged triumphant, conqueror, overcame the world, but he wants his brethren to overcame as he did. And so Simeon is kept as a hostage so that he'd be sure that Benjamin would be brought the next time. So Simeon becomes the key. Simeon means hearing, hearing. There's a people in the land who have become the key to what God is doing in this day and hour because they've heard the voice of God. But because they've heard the voice of God, they find themselves in captivity. Also for no cause of their own. Just as Joseph was taken into captivity for no cause of his own, so there's a people who are so delighted in hearing the words of the Lord and following in his ways that they've been taken into captivity. And Simeon couldn't understand it. He had done nothing wrong. I'm a hostage. Not that he was mistreated. He had good food. He was looked after. But he was a prisoner. He was confined. A lot of God's people can't stand the confinement. Sure we heard from God, why am I confined? They used to minister far and wide, freely. Doors were open ever and now they're confined. They can't go anymore. Got the same God, the same gift, same ministry. But they can't travel like they used to. They can't be as active as they used to be. They're in ward. Because they've heard the word of the Lord. They think they're a prisoner to circumstances. God help us to understand that if we find ourselves in any kind of captivity, that we're prisoners of the Lord. Paul found himself in a prison in Rome. He says, I'm a prisoner of the Lord. He never once mentioned Nero in all the New Testament. You've got to turn to the writings of Josephus or somebody else to find out who it was. He was a prisoner of the Lord. He rejoiced in his bonds because he realized that God put him there. And though many to this day will blame Paul for not having received the advice of the brethren to keep the unity, I suppose, do what the brethren say, I've heard ministers say, God led me to do a certain thing and my brethren says don't do it, I wouldn't do it. I won't. God tells me to do a certain thing and I know it's God, I want to do it. I'll check myself. I'll examine my heart. My brethren say it's wrong. I better check my heart. But if God makes me to do it, I must do it. There are followers of William Branham in the earth today who won't listen to any other message than what comes from William Branham. Infallible voice of God. They can't hear the voice of God for themselves. And William Branham told me personally in an interview I had with him at one time when I was greatly troubled, I'm saying these things to you, but he says if God shows you something else, you do what God says. Even a prophet of God can be wrong. He told me that personally, yet his followers are almost idolizing him and won't listen to any word that doesn't come from the tapes of William Branham. I didn't mean to mention that. We can't idolize God's men. We can't do that and God won't stand for it. They speak with the word of God, but when their work is finished and God takes them, don't begin following a dead prophet. Get to know the Lord and you'll follow him whether there's prophets or no prophets. Apostles or no prophets. Get to know the voice of the Lord or you're going to be in trouble in this day and hour. So the time came and the food petered out. It's nice when God gives us a fresh supply. This is good. We've had a little bit of a renewal. In fact, this whole charismatic thing is called a renewal. It's not a renewal. It's a new thing that God's doing. But you get a little added blessing once in a while. Lasts you for a while. Better go down there and get some more corn, boys. And they said, well, we'll go. We would have gone long before now. But we told you when we came back, we can't go back unless we take Benjamin. You release Benjamin, we'll go. If you don't, we'll stay here. Reluctantly, Jacob had to give in. Take him, he says. Me, have ye bereaved of my children? Joseph is not and Simeon is not. And now you will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. He didn't know Romans 8, 23, is it? Whatever. He didn't know that. We know it. But we're just as bad as Jacob. That all things are not against us. That all things are working together for good. To them that love God, to them that are called according to his purpose. He didn't know that verse. We know it. But we act far worse than Jacob did. Let's recognize, not saying that good is evil or evil is good. But just that man who follows God and does his will to him. All things work together because he loves God. What's God doing? He's reconciling the family of Jacob. He's reconciling the family of God. He's taken his Simeons into captivity. Now he's bringing his Benjamin into captivity. Benjamin, son of God's right hand. Now he's coming down. And he's going to be taken captive. And they stand before Joseph. And Joseph's heart yearns over them. I wish somehow we could see the Lord Jesus standing in the midst of his people. Yearning over us. Still speaking roughly. Still speaking like a dictator. Still speaking through an interpreter. No open vision. No open manifestation of his presence. Because he's refraining himself until the family of God is reconciled. Until he's brought us to repentance. Until he's cleansed us. Until he's taken away all that envy and all that desire for honor and all that desire for glory. They envy Joseph because of his dreams. Do you envy someone when they receive something you don't have? They receive a greater gift, do you envy them? A greater ministry, do you envy them? They build a bigger church, do you envy them? Oh, how deep-rooted is that envy in the hearts of God's people when God wants to root out all that selfishness. We delight when we see someone else honored. We delight when we see the feeble members of the body of Christ honored. We delight when someone receives something in the spirit or something in the natural better than we've got. God has to rid that envy from the family of Jacob or there will be no unity in the body of Christ. This superficial unity that men call unity is not the unity of the spirit. Nor will we have it until God has cleansed his church. Joseph asked them of their welfare, of the welfare of their father. Is this the young lad you spoke of? Blessed them, gave them food, sent them home. But he worked in subtlety. I saw a poster one time, God is subtle, I didn't like it. You know, it doesn't seem right to use that word for God. But there's a sort of a subtlety in God's dealings. Paul says, being crafty I caught you with guile. Being crafty I caught you with guile. Not that he intentionally was full of guile. But in the ministry of the spirit, God will do many things to sort of catch you and you're not aware of it. Let's go down and hear this man that's speaking down there at this home in Portland. You get caught, eh? So you casually go to hear someone and you get caught with a word. God has caught you and you didn't want to, you didn't want to get caught. You didn't want to come to that kind of a commitment. You got caught. But God did it, you see. And so he had the family of Jacob, his brethren, right where he wanted them. He was going to work out something to root out all the envy, all the hate, all the deceit, all the lies. Where's your younger brother? He's gone. He's dead. We got a younger brother, he's still home with his father. Well, maybe, I guess they assumed Joseph was dead, but you know, it's so long ago. You know, we'd be true men. He's in our midst. So he plants a silver cup in the bag of Benjamin, sends him on home. And then when they're outside the city walls, he says, go now and chase them. And open the sacks, start with the oldest one. And leave Benjamin to the last. I think he might have revealed a secret to his steward, I don't know. So very dutifully, he overtakes them. And he says, you've gone and stolen something from my master. That's not being fair. And they were being judged wrongly. They were being judged wrongly. But they have to know that, because that's what they did with their brother. So they've got to experience that. Rest assured that no man gets away with anything. That as you mete it out to others, so shall it be meted out to you. And so it caught up with them. And so they start with the oldest of the family and open the bag and close it. And open the ten bags and the eleventh one. And the boys all the time standing there. I told you, we told you we're true men. We wouldn't steal anything. We brought back the money you put in our sacks last time. You're going to steal your master's silver cup. And standing there, you know, quite contented. Nothing will be discovered in the open Benjamin sack. And there's the cup. Benjamin knew he didn't put it there. The boys knew they didn't put it there. Frustration? Couldn't believe it. And so he says, pack up your bags, come on back. And so they come back and they stand before the Lord of the land and bow down before him. Just as Joseph saw in his dream. All the while, Joseph's heart breaking. He longed to go to them and throw his arms around them. But God must complete the work before he can do that. He wants to lay bare all the secret workings of our heart. That there be nothing within us that would refrain God from lavishing the fullness of his love and grace upon us and through us. He wants to make sure that the commitment that he hears is not only in word but indeed also and in truth. He accepts the commitment that we make, I know he does. We say it from our hearts, but we don't know oftentimes what we're saying. And so the Lord waits and waits to see.