In this sermon on Genesis chapters 40 and 41, Chuck Misler explores the story of Joseph and his interpretation of dreams for the butler and the baker. He highlights the significance of the elements of bread and wine in the story and draws parallels to the Passover. Misler suggests that Joseph may be seen as a model or type of Christ, although some scholars may disagree. He encourages listeners to be open to the possibility of the Holy Spirit using puns, subtleties, and rhetorical phrases in the Bible.

Welcome to the 23rd study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler. The subject of this tape, Genesis chapters 40 and 41. Let's summon our teacher. And it ain't me. Let's open with a word of prayer. In fact, let's stand up and summon the one who's going to make this hour worthwhile. Heavenly Father, we do just pause in joy and praise of Thee. We thank you, Father, for your word that you have given us, both its joy, its comfort, and its mystery. We thank you, Father, for putting these treasures here for our enlightenment. And we just pray, Father, that you would just open our hearts and minds and understanding to those things which you placed here for our learning. And we pray, Father, that you would just send the Holy Spirit to show us Jesus Christ, in whose name and authority we pray. Amen. If my memory serves me correctly, we had gotten to the end of chapter 39. And just by way of recap, briefly, we are in the study of Joseph. One way to outline Genesis would be to take the first 11 chapters to be the pre-Abraham issues, the pre-Israel issues, Adam and the whole beginnings, and a lot of other issues, Noah and all that. But the first 11 chapters is one sort of section. From the call of Abraham on, chapter 12 on, we have the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and of course, Joseph, except there's so much on Joseph, that we would consider that almost a third section of the book. In fact, there's probably more written about Joseph than any other single person in the scripture. Very interesting. He's also, of all the so-called types or models of Jesus Christ, and there are many in the scripture, he is probably, to the extent that he is a type of Christ, and that's something you have to come to your own conclusion on, but if he is, he's probably the most detailed one. I think we experienced in Genesis 22, the most dramatic one with Abraham, Isaac, and all of that. In some respects, it's a very relatively brief, crisp, thorough, rich area. Joseph is more extended, a lot of detail. Whether or not he is a model or type of Christ, I really leave it for you to draw your own conclusions. I should say candidly that many scholars feel that the scholars that get, you know, see them as a big type of Christ, get all, you know, there's some guys who are a good count of scholars, think they're all getting carried away with it. In fact, many of the things in the outline, you may think, well, that's sort of pushing a point, and maybe it is. There's also, maybe, some of you that'll see all kinds of things that are in the outline. Praise the Lord, that's neat. Every time I go through, I find a few more, and so you sort of get. Those of you that really want to get into this more, in the bibliography, the reference by Arthur W. Pink on the beginnings in Genesis is the one that sort of, you know, goes at it this way. Pink sometimes sees things when they may not even be there, so he tends to lean out in the left field side of typology, and maybe, in the minds of many, I find him a delightful author in Genesis, one of his better things, and so much of what I'm dealing with here, and this particular story of Joseph, is indebted to Arthur W. Pink's work. At the same time, I've added a lot of things, and so if there's some of them that are a little flaky, you can attribute that to Chuck Nestler, not Arthur W. Pink, but anyway. Okay, Joseph, of course, was one of the youngest sons, and one of the two sons of Rachel. In some respect, pampered by his father, given special privilege, saw these dreams, told his brothers. Brothers got kind of frosted by the whole proceeding, and I suggest that their upset and envy and problems with his dreams were in part because Joseph recognized the dreams were prophetic, not just some little thingy happened. By the way, I had a dream the other night, more than that, and in any case, of course, out of envy, the brothers conspire to get rid of him, and the plot to kill him is changed to putting him in a pit for a while, and then selling him to a caravan that ended up selling him into slavery into Egypt, and convincing the father through some chicanery that he had actually been killed. So the father thinks there's only 11 brothers left, one dead, but meanwhile, Joseph is in slavery and in Egypt, and put under Potiphar, the officer. Potiphar's household prospers under Joseph as a key slave, and Potiphar obviously must think pretty well of the guy. He's doing well by him. Potiphar's wife approaches him, and Joseph refuses to be enticed into that trap, and gets thrown in prison, and that's where we left it last time, just by way of quick review. The interesting thing, personal opinion, not scripture, just personal opinion, is my perception of the story, personally, that Potiphar did not believe his wife. This whole story that he tried to lay with me, instead of the other way around, is something that I suspect Potiphar has the measure of his gal, can sort of psych that out. But furthermore, I think Potiphar would have him put to death if he felt there's any substance to the story. They put people to death in those days for far less, particularly a slave, and the fact that he's thrown into prison suggests that Potiphar officially had to take some action, save face, whatever, but in fact had his private view of what really went on, but couldn't prove it, and even if he could, there is, after all, images to be maintained. So it's my personal suspicion that not only is Joseph in prison on a trumped-up charge, but officialdom, perhaps, can murmur in quarters and probably figure out what really went on. In any case, now in prison, we have a very interesting situation. The same thing happens. Joseph is under the jailer there, and the jailer prospers, and he perceives that Joseph is kind of a cool dude, that he's a good trustee. The last verse of chapter 3, Now the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him, and that which he did the Lord made to prosper. In other words, he gave everything to Joseph to do. Joseph emerges as sort of an internal trustee, number two guy in the infrastructure within the prison setup. That's where we left it. We now get into a fascinating little chapter where Joseph has two companions in prison. They both have a dream. He interprets the dream, and that has a profound influence on his future. So as we read, and I take for granted all of you do your homework and read, of course, carefully these chapters before we get to Monday night, so I know you're way ahead of me. However, we'll go through it anyway by way of review. This episode in chapter 40 brings the narrative along, because these two guys have a dream, and Joseph interprets the dream, and that starts to introduce this whole idea in the narrative of these dreams being prophetic, and Joseph being given a gift of the Spirit, namely the interpretation of these dreams. It has an influence later. You may ask yourself, you know, there are a lot of ways this could have happened. Daniel was under the court as an educated favored slave, and Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, and no one could interpret it. Daniel was brought forth and interpreted the dream, and it was a very key part of Daniel chapter 2. All of you being here in this study are, of course, diligent students of prophecy, so you've been through Daniel 2 and 7, I know. But it's interesting, why did the Holy Spirit bother to sort of give us a foreshadowing? You know, whenever you see a plot in a theater, or in a movie, or something, and you sort of see a little setup, you can sort of sense that that plot element is sort of a hint of something bigger coming, right? Why are these two guys thrown into prison and given this episode where Joseph interprets this? Yes, two years later, this one guy remembers it and calls attention to Pharaoh, but there are lots of other ways that Pharaoh could have heard about this guy in prison that, you know, has this gift. Why are these stories here? Let's approach the text with our usual suspicious nature, recognizing that this text is part of an engineered message system, in which every subtlety, every detail has been foreordained by the Holy Spirit for our learning. And if this is here, it's here for a reason. That's our proposition. Romans tells us that all things are written before time for our learning, all things. And I'm going to be an extremist and say every comma, every number, every place name, every subtlety is there for a mystical purpose as well as a historical one. That's my proposition for you to challenge and think about and so forth. If you carry away nothing else from our time together, I hope you'll, first of all, tune yourself to being sensitive to these things, and be alert to at least the possibility that the Holy Spirit is skillful in exploiting what you and I might call puns or subtleties or double entendres or other rhetorical phrase you could use to say two things at the same time. Let's see what happens in chapter 40. Familiar story, came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of Egypt, that must be a pretty heavy guy, the butler of the king of Egypt, pointed by the crown, and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with two of his officers against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers. And he put them in prison in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. What an interesting coincidence. Now, I have to believe that an organization as sophisticated and as widespread as the Egyptian court structure had a lot of prisons and places that you could go for a penalty or punishment. And so it's not casual that the two of them happened to be in the same place. So that isn't something obvious. But let's move on. And verse 4, and the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them, and they continued a season in prison. And here the plot thickens. Verse 5, they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt who were bound in the prison. And Joseph came into them in the morning and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad. Interesting situation. These two guys are in prison, and both of them, the same night, were troubled by apparently a particularly perturbing dream. We all have dreams, and sometimes they're vivid enough or strange enough, they sort of bother us at breakfast, they quickly dissipate. I don't think most of us get hung up for the day because of some weird dream, except in general. These two guys, both the same time, are wrapped around their axle on this one. Verse 7, he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with them in prison of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sad today? And he said unto them, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Interesting, interesting phrase. Do not interpretations belong to God? Now, I don't know if that was specifically put into the scripture to keep the Freudians out of the act. I really don't know that. But anyway, Joseph goes on, Tell me then, I pray you. Very interesting thing. Do not the interpretations belong to God? Interesting theological comment in the first place. But what is Joseph going to do? Tell me the dream. Overtly or subconsciously, he's putting himself in the position of a priest, isn't he? Interesting thought. But anyway, verse 9, And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was set before me, and in the vine were three branches, and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth, and clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation of it. Now, by the way, this position of Joseph intrigues me, because as you will gain insight from Joseph, he was a faithful guy. He wasn't cavalier or casual. Faithful guy. He was obviously, indeed, he was brought up under Jacob after his conversion. He was young, and his household experience was post-conversion, if you want to use that, when Jacob got his new name and all that. So you get the impression that Joseph is quite apart from the other brothers who slaughtered the men of Shechem, who were incestuous murderers, treacherous characters. Joseph seems to be, you get overtones of his whole narrative, very parallel to Daniel. He's in adverse circumstances, but he remains faithful. You don't get the emphasis you do in Daniel with this business of kneeling three times a day and so forth, under the Mosaic idea. How we always kneel to Jerusalem at the time of the evening oblation, you read in Daniel. What makes that impressive is there was no evening oblation. That was 200 miles away, 70 years before. But as far as Daniel is concerned, he knelt to Jerusalem at the time of the evening oblation. There was no temple, it was in rubble, and that was a generation before. But Daniel was very much on God's clock, as far as his routine is concerned. Joseph, he doesn't go quite that strongly, but you do get the impression, as you get to know Joseph, he's a faithful guy. He uses the word God again and again and again and again. It's your own assignment to see how many times and in what context. And if that maps out into an outline or a structure, don't be surprised. But moving on. Notice what he also does, though. He acknowledges that the content of what he's dealing with is God's. And he charges right in and says, oh, by the way, guys, here's the interpretation of it. That's gutsy for him, because he understands what he's doing. But Joseph said unto him, this is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days. And within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place, and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner when thou wast his butler. Period. That's the end of what the Lord told him to say. He adds a little commercial in verse 14. But in other words, this is good news. Hey, fellow, what that means is, in three days, you're going to be restored back. You're going back to the palace. You're going to be back in your own job. You'll get back your super robes, and you'll be doing exactly what you did before, and you're going to live happily ever after. That's a cool deal. And I assume his client was pleased at the result of his investigation. But verse 14, he then tags on the commercial. But think of me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. He's in prison. You're going to win, fellow. When you go back there, terrific. Think of me. Get me out of this place. I couldn't help but read verse 14. Think of Balaam. Yes, he's a prophet, but he tries to get a little leverage out of the opportunity. Incidentally, it doesn't work, because when this guy goes back, he forgets all about Joseph. It isn't until two years later, when God's appointed time comes, that this all serves. So Joseph's attempt to do his own thing didn't work. Remember that. Remember that. Okay. Now we get to phase two. Oh, excuse me. I didn't finish it. It's actually a two-verse commercial. For indeed, Joseph says, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. Okay. Now, in other words, we got the interpretation. We got this little two-verse tag thing. Look out for me, fellow, when you get up there. Verse 16, Baker, who's listing all of this, thinks that's a pretty good deal. Hey, this guy got his dream interpreted, and it sounded great. Maybe he can do something for me, wouldn't you? Right? Baker says that when Chief Baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph... Now, I sort of get the impression that if the thing had really been grim, and Joseph says, hey, what about your dreams? He says, well, mine's all right. Don't forget. Don't worry about it. But this one came out pretty well. So anyway, the Baker saw that the interpretation was good. He said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and behold, I had three white baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all manner of foods for Pharaoh, and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation thereof. Ready for this? The three baskets are three days, just like the other one. Sort of get the impression the same architect drafted both of them, right? Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and hang thee on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off of thee. I don't know what his client's reaction to that was. As I often mention to you, I think this would make a terrific dramatization. You know, Hollywood fell in love with David and Beth Sheba, Samson, you know, Delilah, and so on. Joseph is a real oversight. This could be terrific if it was done well. Anyway, I love to see that scene, he receiving that particular viewpoint on his dream. Now, it came to pass on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday. Now, how interesting. Three days away was Pharaoh's birthday. And he made a feast unto all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and the chief baker among his servants, and he restored the chief butler upon his butlership again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted him, and yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. In other words, okay, they both got their thing. It came true, exactly what Joseph said. The one restored to office, but the baker got hung, just as Joseph had said. And then that one little postscript, that the butler, even though he restored to office and everything's going great, that's just like it, you know, when you're on the rise, you reach the top, you know, you forget who your friends are. Who Joseph who? You know. But anyway, he forgot him. And it's going to be two years before we get into chapter 41, so that gives us a little chance to stop and take a look at 40 again. Did you notice the two elements introduced here with Joseph? Bread and wine. Does that sort of grab you? Grabs me. How many times is the word cup mentioned? Four times. How many cups in the Passover? Four. Those of you who studied Exodus and understand the prophecy of Jesus Christ understand that there are four cups in Passover, right? The third cup is what? Cup of blessing. Which is the one that was administered to the Lord's Supper? It's a little quiz we're throwing in here, extra credit. Third cup, cup of blessing. Did you know the Passover the Lord offered was incomplete? Did you know the fourth cup is still yet to be drank and when will he drink it? With us. With us. After the third cup, he instituted the Lord's Supper, they sang the psalm and they left. The fourth cup is still there, okay? Cup of redemption, right? Cup of redemption. Four cups, very, very interesting situation. Something else fascinates me. What were the things that were attacking the bread? Birds. I don't know if they're the same birds that Matthew 13 talks about, but in Matthew 13 they are the instruments of Satan. And if you you accept what theologians like to call the principle of expositional constancy, then these idioms have some, not inviolate, but some consistency of use throughout the scripture. So the birds there are kind of interesting and you can, if you want to do a study sometime, I'd love you to go through and do a study on birds. Start with the raven that Noah sent out that did not come back, that was able to live in the thing and go right on through the birds. The birds that feast on the flesh in Armageddon, the birds that are eating the bread in the baker and the birds that pick the seed out from the ground in Matthew 13 that are the instruments of Satan. You can play with that one and it's interesting and so forth and find out those are the same birds that make their residence in the mustard tree and shouldn't and stuff. And that's the whole thing. If you're curious about all that, get the tapes on Matthew 13 and or the seven letters to seven churches in the Revelations series. You can chase that stuff down and see if that's sort of interesting. Okay, in your outline that you will pick up later, I'll just pick up a couple of things here. Chapter 39, we pointed out how far we've gotten with the parallels here. We had talked about the fact that, backing up now, how Joseph was, way back we talked about how his blood was presented to his father and so forth. It was a goat, a scapegoat if you will. We discovered how he became a servant, how he prospered as a servant, how his master was well pleased with him. He was made a blessing for others, a good person, well favored. He was sorely tempted but he sinned not in contrast to Genesis 38 where Judah was in a real mess. He also was falsely accused but made no defense, which is interesting. It was also interesting that Potiphar's wrath was not against Joseph. He says wrath was kindled but doesn't say against whom, interestingly enough. He was cast into prison without a verdict and each one of these things have a version. We could turn to John 18, 38 and think of somebody else that was cast into prison without a verdict. We can go to Isaiah 53 verse 7 and think of somebody else who was accused but made no defense on his behalf. And we also know who suffered even though he was innocent. We can turn to Acts 7, 9. Here's Stephen's summary of Christ's suffering and so forth. Isaiah 53 covers that adequately. But not to back up too much, we also notice how Joseph in prison suffered at the hands of Gentiles. Kind of interesting observation. And yet he won the respect of his jailer and the parallel I draw there is the centurion at the cross. But now in chapter 40, in the first three verses we discover that Joseph was numbered among the transgressors. He was counted with two other malefactors. And we're going to also discover that Joseph was the means of blessing to the one and judgment to the other. And the means of blessing involved the cup. And I could stretch it and call it a cup of blessing. But you can also notice that the bread was the one associated with the judgment. This is my body which is broken for you. Furthermore, the feast of unleavened bread speaks of his judgment. Also notice the form of execution of the malefactor. He was hung on a tree. What does Galatians 3.13 tell you about something that's hanging on a tree? Cursed. Interesting. Does that appropriate the Egyptian concept to the Mosaic concept? Probably. Does it matter? I don't think so. Any more than it matters that the Roman soldier weaving the crown of thorns and putting it on Christ's head had any idea that he was fulfilling destiny since the creation where God had established the thorn as a symbol of the curse and that that curse was born on the brow of Jesus Christ. And being born on the brow of Jesus Christ was implemented by a Roman soldier who probably, obviously, was doing it through mischief or ridicule or whatever. I'm sure he had no theological background in mysticism which said, hey, that's going to be a symbol of the curse. And I'm sure he had no background that that same thorn bush, the acacia bush, was the burning bush in the desert in the hands of a living God and it being on fire but not being consumed attracted Moses and thus was a model of grace. I'm sure that escaped notice as far as the Roman soldier was concerned. Yet he was the instrumentality. So therefore, I wouldn't make a big thing about the Egyptians hanging him on a tree except it is interesting that it ties to Galatians 3.13 for those of you that want to tie that into a big ribbon. In chapter 40 we also notice that Joseph knew the future and knew that the knowledge of the future was of God. His predictions came true and also he had a desire to be remembered. I can remember somebody else who had a desire to be remembered, right? This doing remembrance of me. Do what? Bread and wine. Oh, interesting. It's amazing what coincidences we can contrive here. I have to call your attention though, now let's get back to the narrative because we'll jump into 41 but notice what's happened to us here. First of all, there is a fascinating parallel between Joseph and Daniel. By means of chapter 41, Joseph is going to interpret a dream for the king and rise to number two in the realm and the realm is the world by the way. Daniel does the same thing twice. He does it on Nebuchadnezzar interpreting the dream in Daniel chapter 2 and he also rises to number two under Cyrus, or actually under Darius the Mede as a surrogate of Cyrus the Persian in chapter 7, 8, 9, whatever. It's interesting that these two guys have lots of things in parallel. Neither one have any evil spoken of them. Does that mean that Joseph was a good guy and never sinned? Wrong. But it served the Holy Spirit's purpose not to record any of the negatives. There's a couple of places you look at Joseph and he ain't perfect. You know, this business of putting his own little commercial in there doesn't impress us too much in terms of his walking by faith. And later on he also gets a little upset with Jacob as Jacob reverses the blessing. We'll see that in Manasseh and Ephraim. So if I was going to score the two, I'd put Daniel a notch above Joseph because Daniel comes out with a really clean bill of health. But they're both professional executives so I won't be picky picky. Chapter 41, verse 1. This is a very, very exciting chapter and I think we'll make it. It came to pass at the end of two full years that Pharaoh dreamed. Interesting comment because that's quite a while. Think about it. Being in prison, innocently. You're in prison, you're unjustly accused for two years. You're forgotten. You've been sat there to rot. Two years go by. But Pharaoh dreamed and behold he stood by the river and behold there came up out of the river seven well-favored cows and fat-fleshed and they fed in a meadow. And behold seven other cows came up after them out of the river ill-favored and lean-fleshed. And by the way, we're going to find out from Pharaoh's description of this, it was even worse than that. They were the ugliest things he'd ever seen. I mean they weren't just sickly cows. They were so grim that it got Pharaoh unglued. There's something more, the language apparently doesn't do it justice because Pharaoh's comments cause us to go back and think about that. Anyway, they came after the ill-favored, ill-favored and lean-fleshed and they stood by the other cows upon the brink of the river. And all the ill-favored and lean-fleshed cows did eat up the seven well-favored. Now cows are not carnivorous. They can't be. They don't have two sets of teeth. Are there cattle ranchers here? You know why cattle ranchers don't like sheep on their land? Because the whole way they graze. Cows have just, you know, they almost gum it, right? The concept of cows, to anyone who knows about cows, and obviously they would, they're an agrarian society. We're not because we're far removed from that, but they are. The concept of cows getting carnivorous is itself strange, okay? But obviously we're dealing in the eerie symbology of a dream anyway, but just to try to dramatize what is strange about this. Anyway, they stood up by the other cows and the ill-favored and lean-fleshed cows did eat up the seven well-favored and fat cows. So Pharaoh awoke. He was really upset by this. It wasn't just some crazy dream as we sort of get, you know, because we're, we just do, but it's upsetting. He slept now. He woke. He was distressed and he went back to sleep. And he had a second dream. Behold, seven ears of grain came up upon one stalk, full and good. And behold, seven thin ears and blighted with the east wind sprung up after them. And the seven thin ears devoured the seven fat and full ears and Pharaoh awoke and behold, it was a dream. You know, it came to pass in the morning that his spirit was troubled and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, Gene Dixon and Edgar Cayce and everybody, and all the wise men thereof. And Pharaoh told them his dream, but there was none that could interpret them unto Pharaoh. Then spoke the chief butler unto Pharaoh saying, Oh yes, I do remember my faults this day. Pharaoh was angry with his servants and had put me in a prison in the captain of the guard's house, both me and the chief baker. And we dreamed a dream and one night, I and he, and we dreamed each man according to the interpretation of his dream. And there was there with us a young man, a Hebrew servant to the captain of the guard. And we told him and he interpreted to us our dreams. And each man according to his dream, he did interpret. And it came to pass as he interpreted to us, so it was. Me he restored into mine office and him he hanged. In other words, what he's saying, he's just recounting to Pharaoh the whole incident. Now we have this dream and the interpreters and perhaps more important, it came about just as this interesting character, this Hebrew servant, had foreseen. Well, this obviously intrigues Pharaoh, of course, it would naturally. In verse 14, And Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they brought him hastily out of the dungeon and he shaved himself and changed his raiment and came in unto Pharaoh. Now, that's interesting. Historically interesting and it's going to be interesting in some other ways, probably. You probably got it. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have dreamed a dream and there is none that can interpret it. And I have heard say of thee that thou canst understand a dream to interpret it. And Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, It is not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Boy, you read this and it just has interesting, interesting overtones compared to Daniel chapter 2, right? Daniel, same thing. Nebuchadnezzar has this dream, the polymetallic image and all that. And he calls all the wise men in, can you interpret it? And he wouldn't tell what the, you know, Nebuchadnezzar was a little shrewder. He wouldn't tell what the dream was. I had this dream. You tell me what the dream was and what it means. I said, Hey, fella, that's kind of, that's kind of rough. And because I'll furthermore give you a professional incentive program. If you don't tell me what it is, I'll make your houses a dunghill and tear you up into pieces and stuff. And they said, Hey, that's a little unreasonable. Nebuchadnezzar says, Yes, but I'm king. Nebuchadnezzar believed in the golden rule. He that has the gold rules. And so, so, uh, and of course they couldn't do it. And so they heard about Daniel, Daniel, you know, anyway, Daniel gets introduced into the situation and Daniel does the same thing. He says, King, you have spoken right. There is no man on the earth that can tell you the dream. And in fact, he says, neither can I, but God can give the glory to God. Daniel did. Joseph does very interesting, interesting situation. Interesting situation. We are going to see in our lifetime, people do supernatural things. And how would you tell what it's all about by who gets the glory? Not by the validity of the supernatural event. You gals, you have a son, the son dies. The guy's introduced into your bedroom and says, Hey, I'll raise him from the dead. And he does. You probably won't care how he did it. You'll be so thrilled to get your son to question. Ask him first how he did it and to see who gets the glory. And if it isn't Jesus Christ, watch out because we are going to live in an era. If we understand our prophecies, right, which were the entire world is going to be deceived. All the smart guys with the 17 PhDs are going to be snowed completely by a leader doing signs and wonders. The term in the Greek is the same as the words ascribed to Jesus Christ, signs and wonders. Are some of them counterfeit? Maybe theologically, but you'll never be able to tell. Indeed, the very elect would be deceived if it were not for a supernatural intervention. How do you tell what's the yardstick by who gets the glory? That's what Joseph takes care of right up front, right up front. Okay. God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Verse 17 and Pharaoh said unto Joseph in my dream, behold, I stood by a bank of river and behold, there came up seven cows, all flesh and well favored and they fed in the meadow and behold, seven other cows came up after them poor and very ill favored and lean flesh, such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness. I don't ascribe the clumsy language to Pharaoh. This is the King James English. I think Pharaoh said it. All right. And the lean and ill favored cows did eat up the first seven fat cows. And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had not eaten them, but they were still ill favored at the beginning. So I will. The point is these lean scrawny, ugly things, not only eat the fat ones, but they don't get better. You see what point Pharaoh's making is what bothers him. The whole thing just doesn't, you know, if you sort of saw them, these scrawny ones eat the other ones and then, you know, look a little more healthy or satisfied or something different. They're just as scrawny, just as ill favored at the end as they were in the beginning. Now Pharaoh, you know, he's troubled by this. And I saw in my dream and behold, seven ears came up on one stalk, full and good. And behold, seven other ears withered thin, blighted with these twins sprang up after them and the thin ears devoured the seven good ears. And I told this unto the magicians, but there was none that could declare it to me. And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh is one. Now we've got two dreams. There were two episodes, but they're one. And that's God's, that's always his way. Daniel has chapter two and chapter seven. In Daniel chapter two, we see man's view given through Nebuchadnezzar, man's view of all of Gentile dominion from Nebuchadnezzar to the ten nation confederacy to arise and control the world economically. Daniel chapter two, man's view of Gentile dominion, bright, shiny, man's view. In fact, even in the form of a man. Later on in Daniel's life in Daniel chapter seven, as he's an older man standing by the river, he sees the same subject matter, Gentile dominion from Nebuchadnezzar all the way through to the ten nation economic confederation. Except he sees it as God sees it as a series of voracious beasts, one devouring the other. Same subject matter. We've all studied Daniel two and Daniel seven, that whole thing. Interesting. You can go through prophecy after prophecy after prophecy, it's always double. There's always an intersection of two themes, two messages that often use different symbols but point to the same thing. And here is, this is the point Joseph's making. The dream of Pharaoh is one, God hath shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years and the seven good ears are seven years. The dream is one. The seven thin and ill favored cows that came up after them are seven years and the seven empty ears of corn blighted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken of the Pharaoh, what God is about to do, he showeth unto Pharaoh. And we're reminded of Amos 3.7 that surely God will do nothing but that which he reveals to his servant the prophets. And that is a wild verse of scripture. Because that not only says that God will reveal what he's going to do, it says something far more profound. It says that he will do nothing but that which he has revealed. Which says that if you search diligently enough the scripture you'll find everything. It wouldn't surprise me at all if this mystical structure we have in our laps lays out everything. I mean everything. But that's a hypothesis yet to be proved. I'll leave it to the student to verify that. Verse 29. Behold, there come up seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt and there shall arise after them seven years of famine and all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt and the famine shall consume the land. And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following for it shall be very grievous. In fact one might say there wasn't a famine before or since. I'm getting ahead of the story. And for that dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice. Now here's an interesting opportunity where the scripture comments adjectively on itself. Every once in a while you get an insight from scripture as to how we should understand scripture. Right? Here's an interesting thing. For that dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice it is because the thing is established by God by the mouths of two witnesses the law says. Right? That gets ordained in Leviticus some years later. But the principle is introduced from the beginning. And God will shortly bring it to pass. Verse 33. Now therefore let Pharaoh, now we shift. The interpretation is finished. Now we're going to get words of wisdom or counsel from Joseph to Pharaoh. Joseph shifts gears now. He's given you the data. Now he's going to shift and give you what to do about it. Now therefore let Pharaoh seek out a man discreet and wise and set him over the land of Egypt. That word discreet. I did find some interesting things about that word discreet. I generally try not to get too derailed here but you might find this interesting. The word discreet of course is the past participle of discern. In the King James version it's the only place it occurs in the Old Testament. But the Hebrew word from which it's translated is translated elsewhere in the Old Testament as follows. Attend, consider, be cunning, diligently, direct, discern, eloquently, feel, inform, instruct, intelligent, look well to, remark, perceive, be prudent, regard, skill, teach, think, give understanding, view, deal wisely. It's a strong word okay. So Joseph is suggesting seek out a man discreet and wise. Now see I mentioned that because when you and I say pick out someone discreet that means don't tell on the boss if he's doing something on the side you know. I mean that's the word discreet tends to have you know strange overtones the way we tend to use the word. That's not what he's talking about here. This is a very strong emphatic term. So you got a man discreet and wise and set him over the land of Egypt. So you got a man discreet and wise and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land and take up a fifth of the land, a fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. And let them gather all the food of those good years that come and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh and let them keep food in the cities. By the way to save you a lot of pencil work don't assume it's linear. Don't assume that the fifth of seven years will make up the seven missing years because that assumes that they're only twice as good. All right I just thought I'd save you that because I spent a lot of time before I realized that we jumped to a linear assumption. It's a very non-linear story that you'll see. All right just as an aside. Anyway getting back to this. And let them gather all the food of those good years that come and lay up grain under the hand of Pharaoh and let them keep food in the cities. And that food shall be for storage in the land against the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt that the land perish not through the famine. Makes sense doesn't it? Made sense to Pharaoh too. And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all the servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants can we can we find such a one as this is a man in whom the Spirit of God is? That's a remarkable insight. You wouldn't think that the leader of the Gentile world probably unsaved would be charismatic would you? A man in whom the Spirit of God is. This is the first mention of the indwelling Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. So if you want to get into a big study sometime of the Holy Spirit I suggest you start in Genesis chapter 1 verse 2 where the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and see what he did there. And but you certainly want to pick up this little interesting place. In whom the Spirit of God is. I think that's kind of neat. And you also want to pick up the gifts of the Spirit in Exodus 28 which is needlework and Exodus 31 which is all the other kinds of crafts. So if you're leading you know gifts of the Spirit don't overlook Exodus 31. It's always fun to perturb people make these little lists of gifts of the Spirit because there's always a few you know bricklayers and stone cutters and things. Do you have the gift of stone cutting? No I don't really. Anyway okay. Verse 39. Verse 39. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph for as much as God hath shown thee all this there is none so discreet and wise as thou art. Thou shalt be over my house and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. We'll get the impact of that sentence. Joseph is now prime minister of Egypt. Vizier is one of the oriental terms if you really know what that word means. But I think the word that comes closest to what you and I might relate to is prime minister. He's not the ruler. King still rules. He's still got full sovereignty. However he appoints all the executive actions under a professional administrator. In this case Joseph. According to thy word shall all my people be ruled. Only in the throne will I be greater than thou. Okay. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph see I have set thee over all, not half or most, all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand. And that's the way you sign documents. You impact the engraving on that ring on the seal and that was the symbol of authority. When a thing was sealed by that you knew it was from the boss. And he arrayed him in vestures of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. It was implied by the tone of the text that these are symbols of authority. Indeed they were. And he made him ride in the second chariot which he had. That's to let all the people know where he stood. It's implied here as a major key procession throughout the land of Egypt where Pharaoh demonstrates to all his realm that the number two chariot was Joseph. And they cried before him bow the knee. And he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph I am Pharaoh and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in the land of Egypt. We might pause here and sort of capture a couple of perhaps obvious obvious obvious things. We know Romans 8 28 promises what? All things work together for good to them who love God. To them who are the called according to his purpose. Joseph called according to his purpose? You bet. Did his little commercial message with the butler get him anything? Uh-uh. When the two years were up which I suspect may have been just long enough for God to point out hey it's my my scenario my little schedule okay and by the way Joseph I know you got the little chart on the wall of your prison which has the little timeline and this is going to happen here and all it's wrong it's my it's not for you to know the times and seasons they're in my power interesting um it's interesting that he is in prison by the hand of God and Joseph understands the entire problem we're going to be fascinated to discover that later on we're talking to his brothers he doesn't hold them accountable for selling him into slavery he says God did it interesting interesting insight okay we certainly know that that he was that Joseph was delivered from prison in due time and so was somebody else john 20 acts 2 talks about another one who was delivered in due time and certainly he was delivered by the hand of God right be hard to visualize anyone else taking credit for Joseph getting out of prison and given put before pharaoh um he was delivered by the hand of God and so is somebody else with whom we have to do he is also seen here as the revealer of secrets and boy could we go into verses on that one he certainly is revealing secrets to pharaoh you might i don't want to get ahead of the story but maybe it'd be a good you might turn to genesis 45 we'll get into some of this later but just might notice verses uh verse 5 now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me here for God did send me before you to preserve life why was Joseph sent to Egypt by God to get the whole nation there to get the whole nation there we're going to get into that a little more in a minute but seen as a revealer of secrets and so forth is is the theme i was really trying to establish and we'll see that more and more as we go and we'll see that again in verse 45 here in a minute um okay just to just to finish my little outline joseph warns of danger jesus christ did that too in matthew 24 and 25 he urged provisions pharaoh heeded joseph's provisions and saved egypt jesus christ warns of danger and urged provisions right in luke 21 and 22 matthew 24 and 25 mark 13 and 14 the olive discourse that applies to us are you taking advantage of his provisions are you taking advantage of our joseph's provisions think about it if uh god had given pharaoh these dreams and joseph interprets it for pharaoh but pharaoh hadn't bothered to take advantage of the information where would egypt have been in the mess another joseph has come warned of danger told us the future revealed the secrets and told us how to deal with it are you dealing with it are you dealing with it that's what the gospels are all about in chapter 41 we also see i'm going to suggest to you that joseph's role before the pharaoh is as a marvelous or wonderful counselor i'm also going to suggest that his counsel was commended to her as officers he was exalted and set over all the egypt he was seated on the throne of another of another he was exalted because of his worthiness he was invested in positional insignia his authority and glory were publicly testified to and each one of these things of course has new testament parallels something else he also received a new name you know somebody else is going to receive a new name right oh by the way one of the things you notice they cried before him bow the knee bow the knee there's somebody else who we know in the scripture is the one before whom every knee shall bow right before whom every knee shall bow i missed that in my list here that's interesting so it's 102 or three or four whatever okay um moving on to verse 45 pharaoh called joseph's name zaphonath pania and i find two authorities that try to ascribe a meaning to that phrase one is revealer of secrets the other one is savior of the world and um revealer of secrets is the more conservative of the two perhaps and if we look at isaiah chapter 46 10 i'm sure i'm not misleading you here 46 10 is a verse that you all know but when you need it you can never remember where it is declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and i shall do all my pleasure god knows the end from the beginning how often we say that authority isaiah 46 10 and of course i quoted amos 3 7 already in that vein which now leads us to another observation in verse 45 pharaoh called joseph's name zaphonath pania and he gave him a gentile bride asanath the daughter of padiphara the priest of an and joseph went out over all the land of egypt and joseph was 30 years old when he stood before pharaoh the king of egypt and joseph went out from the presence of pharaoh and went throughout the land of egypt now this it's very it would be very glib and comfortable for us to just sort of rest on the idea oh isn't that interesting um joseph got a gentile bride she's obviously gentile bride she's egyptian and certainly indeed i would not detract from the idea that the one of whom joseph appears to be a type jesus christ also takes to himself a gentile bride terrific but i want to alert you to the possibility that that may not be the intention of the of the parallel okay because interestingly enough the holy spirit has put this ahead of his announcement that joseph was 30 years old oh he made a big thing well maybe in luke jesus christ was 30 years old when what started to happen went to his ministry and who did he minister to israel first right and it was after the rejection that a lot of other things happened now it's just possible that asenath even though she's a gentile i'm being a little cute by calling her gentile sure you know but that asenath represents another bride or wife it's not bride by the way it's wife and who else is a wife israel exactly and furthermore um she isn't called to be separate until after she leaves egypt where does israel become the wife of jehovah or yawa in egypt turn to jeremiah 3 i'm not going to insist upon this or push it too hard but those of you that are serious students the word may want to challenge some of these things and chase them down to give you a few places to start on this um you might turn to jeremiah chapter 3 you really want to read the whole chapter but let's just pick out verse 14 where god says turn oh backsliding children say it the lord for i am married unto you married unto you and i will take you one of a city and two of a family will bring you to zion skip down to verse uh 20 surely as a wife treacherously departed from her husband so have ye dealt treacherously with me oh house of israel say it the lord okay um and and and we could go on there's a lot here by the way verse 17 is a fancy a fancy one at the time when they shall call jerusalem the throne of the lord and all the unto it and so forth it's interesting verse but let's let's skim to uh ezekiel 16 i realize it comes as a shock to many of you to discover that ezekiel has more than two chapters 38 39 but it's uh there is ezekiel 16 again the word of the lord came unto me saying verse 2 son of man caused jerusalem to know her abominations and say thus saith the lord god unto jerusalem thy birth and nativity are of the land of canaan thy father was an amorite thy mother a hittite oh that's interesting turns out if you retract that back it refers to their being born in egypt that's for that nativity and the day that was born the navel was not cut either as a washed water cleansing and so forth it goes on uh those of you that are interested in that whole idea of israel being the wife of jehovah the whole book of hosea is that kind where hosea is instructed to marry a heart you know a harlot put her away and and bring her back and the whole relationship that hosea does with with his wife is an object lesson that god uses to talk about israel um and we might oh yeah jeremiah 2 2 verse chapter jeremiah 2 to go and cry on the hearing of jerusalem saying thus saith the lord i remember thee the kindness of the of thy youth the love of thine espousals when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown and so forth well you can wrestle with that further if you want we'll move on now if you view typologically speaking um joseph's wife as asanath then you take great interest in the fact that she had two sons with joseph right manasseh and ephraim forgetting and faithfulness well now that's interesting israel breaks into two camps doesn't it the nation israel breaks into the house of israel the northern kingdom and the southern kingdom if you say well that's the 10 tribes and two tribes wrong because the faithful of all 10 migrated south okay the lost 10 tribes is a myth easily disproved from scripture uh you can find the scripture on that second chronicles 11 mentions that and so on and i won't get into that tonight point is though certainly the northern kingdom which we call the house of israel as opposed to the whole nation went into slavery under the assyrians substantially before judah why because they left god things went from bad to worse and then worse worse sir and um so uh and jeremiah 31 34 well let me back up uh the other the southern kingdom was more fruitful the kingdom of judah it of course goes into babylon but comes back and all this and so so you could you can if you're going to push the point and maybe pushing it too far but it's just thought that you have those that situation but it's interesting then if that's the case if in fact the concept here of the wife is israel then matthew 22 verse 2 may have some more meaning for us and i'll just skim ahead and pick it up for you matthew 22 is the story in which the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who made a marriage for his son and sent forth the servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding but they would not come who was bidden to the wedding israel he came unto his own john says but his own received him not verse 4 and again he sent forth other servants saying tell them who are bidden behold i have prepared my dinner the oxen fatlings are killed and things are ready come into the marriage they made light of it went their ways one to his farm another his merchandise the remnant took his servants and treated them shamefully and slew them what israel do the prophets slew them remnant and the king heard of it and was angry and sent forth his armies and destroyed those murderers and burned up their city he sent it to his servants the wedding is ready but they who are bidden are not worthy go therefore into the highways and as many as he shall find bid to the marriage and so the servants went out into the highways and gathered together all as many as they found both bad and good and the wedding was furnished with guests did the guests earn the right to be at the wedding no interesting who is at the wedding feast the church the king came in to see his guests so everything gets into this other thing he did not have the right garment was that clothed in righteousness whose righteousness the guests know well you can work on that one many are called but fewer chosen interesting how did you get to the wedding because you were called wrong so as israel called because you're chosen before the foundation of the world some of you in this room tonight may not have accepted jesus christ if you do you are foreordained before the foundation of the world well how do i know very simple accept jesus christ then we'll know you were found you know okay um don't from what i've said get the impression that god has set aside israel obviously that's what paul talks about romans chapter 11 and he set aside israel until until the fullness of the gentiles become in the church is complete then he's going to resume dealing with israel and if you want old if you want new testament reference to that the whole book of revelation deals with that essentially chapters six on but the old testament jeremiah 31 verses 31 through 34 ezekiel chapter 16 particularly verses 16 62 and 63 hosea chapter 2 particularly verses 19 through 23 and isaiah chapter 54 5 through 8 for the tape and it'll be in your notes when you pick it up and that's when god again will deal with israel he says so in the old testament and in the new and he is consistent same yesterday today and forever let me try to get back to chapter 41 i think we can make it all the way to the end um joseph was 30 years old when he stood before pharaoh how interesting who else was 30 years old when he began his ministry your first guest doesn't count okay all righty we're on verse 46 genesis chapter 41 verse 46 we eventually always do get back to genesis and chapter 41 verse 46 he was 30 years old jesus was luke 323 for that reference okay and he went out from the presence of pharaoh he went out on his mission from the king's presence all the father sent me to do i did he says in his prayer to the father later jesus says that joseph went out from president pharaoh and went throughout all the land of egypt and in seven plenteous years of the the earth brought forth by the handfuls he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of egypt and laid up the food in the cities and the food of the field which is round about every city laid he up the same joseph gathered the grain as the sand of the sea very much until he ceased numbering for it was without number joseph and unto joseph were born two sons before the years of the famine came oh that's interesting before the years of the famine came who asked him at the daughter of pot of her uh priest of on born to him and joseph called the name of the firstborn manasseh for god saith he hath made me forget all my toil in my all my father's house forgetfulness is what manasseh means and the name of the second he called ephraim for god has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction and the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of egypt were ended and seven years of famine began to come according as joseph had said and the famine was in all the lands and in all the land of egypt there was bread and when all the land of egypt was famished the people cried into pharaoh for bread and pharaoh said unto all the egyptians go unto joseph and what he saith to you do and the famine was over all the face of the earth all the face of the earth think about it and joseph opened all the storehouses and gave no sold shrewd guy joseph sold unto the egyptians and the famine was severe in the hand of egypt in the land of egypt and all countries came unto egypt to joseph to buy grain because the famine was so severe in all lands and among those of course is one particular land land of canaan where a guy by the name of jacob lived with his 11 remaining sons now the amazing thing is you will find scripture that says that the entire famine throughout the entire world was brought about to accomplish one thing to get to get a guy and his 11 sons to move to egypt and incidentally that's scriptural this is all engineered to cause that to happen you think that's strange do you know that god had a roman administrator have everybody in the known world go to their hometown to be registered simply as a way to get a carpenter and his espoused wife to move south about 30 miles i hate to think of what that bill cost all the people of the earth to be taxed when and what to accomplish a very simple thing so that two people carpenter's wife would go down to bethlehem for a while at a kind of an inconvenient time because she's about to have birth interesting just so that micah 5 2 would be interesting and i'm only being a little bit flippant that's really what he did so his word will not be broken we'll talk about his word being broken when we get genesis 49 this is rich material we spend many you know much much dealing with the possible parallels but i i will give you the outline so that you can you can chase these down yourselves because that's the value of it because they may not be valid you have to sort of see it yourself and if you do fine if not good but certainly we see joseph was sent forth on his mission from pharaoh's presence you can draw a parallel there in luke 3 and matthew 4 service was active and itinerant throughout all the cities matthew 9 35 says that they went to all the cities exaltation was followed by a season of plenty and it was also the exaltation was also followed by a season of famine now we've got a few minutes you might dwell on this a little bit the exaltation of joseph was followed by a season of plenty speaking by analogy what does that probably refer to what is the um the season of plenty what is the season of plenty when is the season of plenty harvard well maybe i'm not sure harvest is right term could that mean right now right now now is the time of salvation right you are instructed in john 12 to bring forth much fruit and so forth second corinthians 6 2 and so forth now is the time of plenty and from god's point of view from spiritual point of view from resourceful point of view because the relationship the availability of the holy spirit to you right now is so unique that it blew the mind of people like paul and others who knew the old testament david could pray soundly so it's sound theology take not thy holy spirit from me the old testament you read the holy spirit coming and the lord take it away right take it away from saul whatever that's not that's not new testament doctrine right what does that mean you mean it's different theology no there's a very very unique availability to us of the holy spirit that was not available before and the day will come it'll be different when he that is hindered takes out of the way there's a very special thing right now you can get for the asking and it is so phenomenal it is so incredible that those that were students of the word particularly old testament could not get their minds around what paul was saying that he is the earnest of our inheritance that he is irrevocable that he's given and we by whom we are sealed unto the day of redemption incredible utterly incredible is that always going to be the case no that's what second thessalonians 2 is all about and he that hinders shall be taken out of the way is that good old testament doctrine absolutely we'll get into that in a minute this period it will be followed by a period of famine a period of famine you might you know i mentioned romans 11 25 right israel has been blinded in part until the fullness of gentiles become in you can chase romans 11 the whole chapter yourself especially relative to israel jeremiah 30 speaks of the time of jacob's trouble what is the time of jacob's trouble it's what what daniel in chapter 12 verse 1 called a time of trouble such the world had never seen at that time nor ever would see again that's what daniel talks about in daniel chapter 12 verse 1 jesus christ quotes daniel three times in matthew 24 and one of those is that quote from which we get this cute little title the great tribulation how long is the great tribulation three and a half years good for you most of us speak of the seven year period the seventh year daniel is a great tribulation wrong the great tribulation the last half of that the last half of that you like to stick labels on thing call the first day and half the beginning of sorrows or something but um in fact it may be a false peace a false prosperity but it's the second half that jesus christ labels for us in matthew 24 by quoting daniel 12 1 now mark 13's count of that 19 and 20 says that no flesh should be saved but for the elect's sake those days should be shortened i mean if there were those did not be shortened there would be and uh and mark deals with that but rather than go after each one of these let's pick up a few interesting ones turn to amos again we talked about amos 3 7 very key verse you all should students of prophecy should know and uh amos turn to get turn go to daniel turn right a couple of chapters and uh jose joel amos and uh take a look at chapter 8 chapter 8 we'll talk about famine we're going to talk about a worldwide famine but it ain't the kind you're thinking of amos chapter 8 verse 11 and 12 amos chapter 8 verse 11 behold the days come sayeth the lord god that i will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water but of hearing the words of the lord and they shall wander from sea to sea and from north even to the east and they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the lord and shall not find it that's harry can you imagine that that's what revelation talks about darkness days of darkness well i won't beat that to death but that's that's it that's part of your prophetic scenario you take isaiah 55 6 is another passage but let's skip that one for now because of time let's just turn to jeremiah chapter 8 jeremiah says the harvest is past the summer is ended verse 20 and we are not saved interesting it's interesting passage in here before the cry of the daughter of my people because of those who dwell in the far country is not the lord and zion is not her king with her why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images and their foreign vanities the harvest is past the summer is ended and we are not saved can you think of any more desperate plight than that imagine us having a meeting saying hey by the way guys the harvest is over the harvest is over and we're not saved would that shake you up right that's exactly what the thessalonians saw when they read the second letter that was a forgery that paul wrote second thessalonians to set aside there are three letters of the book three letters of thessalonians thessalonians one as you all know thessalonians two which apparently we infer was circulated as a forgery so that's the only second what we call second thessalonians probably a third letter actually written by paul he therefore signs it in a big hand and up front he says don't be upset by this by that or by a letter as if from us and goes to set up set out some doctrine what was it that they were so upset about that the second letter to thessalonians sets aside they thought the harvest was passed and they were not saved and when you understand that and read second thessalonians you understand why i'm a pre tribulationist because what paul was really doing is reminding them of that whole scenario that's controversial not many good scholars would disagree but as an aside i thought i would throw it in just to stir things up we see joseph dispensing to a perishing world isn't that interesting joseph is dispensing bread to a perishing world he alone could dispense the bread of life you notice by the way he was a savior to all peoples do you notice this that joseph didn't just save the egyptians do you notice that it says that the famine was in all the lands but on the land of egypt there was bread and when all the land of egypt was famished the people cried and so forth and it says verse 57 and all countries came unto egypt to joseph to buy grain because the famine was so severe in all lands interesting thing that the holy spirit makes a point here if you're going if we're if we're if we're valid in drawing an analogy that's an if you have to but if we are it's interesting that joseph is seen as a savior not just to certainly he was or even just the egyptians but to all lands did he do anything for those that didn't come to egypt to buy the bread i don't think so you have to go there to collect you have to cash a check to get you know you got to appropriate that blessing to yourself there's another kind of bread that you will we should study in exodus called manna what's it that was the hebrews description what's this stuff manna that's never what god called it except in one place and for a very special reason he always called it something else the bread of life and it was very very interesting it fell at night mysteriously and it wouldn't save you couldn't get some for your neighbor hey i'll go monday night and get the notes for you i'll waste your time you can watch the game or something fine that isn't the way manna worked you went out in the morning and gathered it and what you didn't eat that day spoiled you had to go out each day for yourself to gather manna except on saturday or except a friday excuse me on the sabbath day the day before the sabbath twice as much fell and that particular time it wouldn't spoil but there's a lot of interesting things about manna as a bread of life you have to gather it for yourself you can't do it for your friend your neighbor your son your daughter your husband you have to do for yourself and you didn't do it uh for the season had to do it every day every day do you gather your bread every day every word that proceeds out of the mouth of god do you do it every day i'm at one against vows i happen to believe the teaches us in a thousand ways never to make vows but if i were to make a vow there's only one that i would encourage you to do and that's to vow to spend some some minimum amount of time five minutes something in the word every day that's one vow that you also will break and not keep and thus get yourself in trouble if that's why i don't recommend you make vows there are other teachers by the way go through that whole thing they'll get a stadium full of six thousand people have to make a vow to read the word five minutes a day that makes me very nervous because of what not because it is a good idea because of what the scripture says about vows however if you're going to do one that comes close to being you know just a vial you can make about that's got you know five minutes 15 minutes something something every day you can't save it up you can't read twice as twice as much on tuesday to make up for wednesday it doesn't work if the model in exodus is right but i'm off the subject save you all the people's something else i should point out to you it's interesting the thrust of the story implies that there was enough grain in egypt to supply the need unlimited resources to meet the need and we took it phisians chapter 1 2 3 colossians chapter 2 romans 10 so on you can find plenty of verses to say that another bread dispenser with whom we have to do has unlimited resources to meet the need okay now we run our out of our time but we're going to go through this whole thing again for the next couple of chapters and you'll find it kind of interesting probably three chapters but i'd like you to read chapter 42 43 and 44 and you'll see of course obviously what happens is jacob sends an entourage to go to because they're starving too and here there's food in egypt so hey go see what you can do and of course uh joseph's the big gun up there and up come these uh this uh you know uh contingent from canaan and he recognizes them and those are those characters you know it sold me my brothers for kind of a lot but they don't recognize him he's got the robes the whole thing and it's been quite a while you know it's interesting situate one of the most fascinating interpersonal situation you imagine because he's you know these guys are awed by you know the king you know i mean here's the number two guy of the world you know and we're starving and he's got all we need no we have to and they go there uh joseph i'll let you draw your up to because he doesn't let them know he who he is at first and he puts them through some interesting circumstances he hard times him in the way he contrives he shakes them up he ends up they buy some grain and he and they go back he sticks their money back in their sacks and so that night when they go to take a little feeding to find their money there and they're panicked because now they think they're going to be accused of stealing you know he puts the heat on him and uh then then he even plants later on his chalice in one of them and ranges for the smuggling you know the whole thing the whole routine is weird it's interesting from a human point of view because you see joseph you know it'll make a fabulous movie because here's here's joseph you know putting it to these guys they're shook and he's sort of playing a little bit you'd think at the same time i'm going to suggest to you that it's not frivolous he isn't just you know uh toying with these guys i'm going to suggest to you that there's a sequence there and he may himself not have realized what he was doing but there's a scenario that takes place between him and his brethren to what he's doing back and forth that i think we'll study because it's i'm going to suggest to you that you can look at this scenario what follows two different ways i'll mention this so you can sort of wrestle with it during the week one is dispensationally relative to christ needs in israel the second one is christ and the believer you can look at it dispensationally and you can also look at it evangelically you know the the brethren are self-righteous they want to pay for their food he never accepts payment he provides the food but he never accepts payment until they do one thing acknowledge their guilt then he reveals himself think about it okay dispensationally some other things happen and it has implications on israel and if you want to you can touch base in zechariah the study of zechariah we touched on this whole idea that there's prerequisite conditions on coming jesus christ that's for israel to request him to come so we'll get into some of that too maybe chapters 42 and 43 and so forth and the big chapter we're working to over 43 through 48 will be this joseph this dramatic episode of of his dealing with his brothers and finally revealing himself and and then arranging for jacob and the rest to come and live under the uh this favorable pharaoh and all this and um then we're going to get when jacob is an old man he's going to make a prophecy chapter 49 he prophesies over each one of the sons and the prophecies are weird and but they forecast what happens to the tribes that will be a whole study in its own right and we'll also get this whole business of monastery from what that was all about in subsequent times but with a little luck we probably knock off a good chunk of the rest of joseph next time let's stand with a word of prayer and then you can get a copy of both the bibliography for the whole book and the uh the notes and those of you are listening from tapes i'm going to assume that copies of these are also available from firefighters for christ for those of you that are listening to the tape and would like a copy of these bizarre notes that are made reference to and also a bibliography for your own study let's close with a word of prayer heavenly father we just praise you that you reach so far that we might be redeemed we thank you father you've revealed this to us that we might get a glimpse of the glory that is jesus christ we pray father that this week that you would just give us an appetite for these things a hunger for these things that you would just give instill in our hearts a passion for you by truth that you would lead us through the leading of the holy spirit to those portions of scripture that we can appropriate to our lives that we might be profitable servants of yours that we might just be closer into fellowship with you and more responsive to your specific will for our specific lives that we might discover that specific unique ministry you haven't for each and every one of us that we might indeed be fruitful branches of the line and we just commit all these things before you to the glory and in the authority of jesus christ amen this concludes the 23rd study in the book of genesis conducted by chuck misler the notes and outlines mentioned by chuck misler in this tape are or will be included as part of the genesis tape study series the three handouts are the genesis bibliography joseph as a type of christ and jacob prophesied to his sons the 12 tribes of israel these handouts as all things are gifts to you from our lord and savior jesus christ may god bless you and richly reward you during your study of his word