In this sermon, Chuck Missler discusses the events that take place in Genesis chapters 42 through 45. He begins by highlighting the significance of two verses that summarize all of history. He then focuses on the predicament faced by Joseph as he recognizes his brothers who have come to Egypt to buy grain during the severe famine. Joseph tests his brothers and reflects on the dreams he had as a young man. The sermon also touches on Jacob's mentality and the prophecies given to him by his grandfather.

Welcome to the 24th study in the book of Genesis conducted by Chuck Missler, the subject of this tape, Genesis chapters 42 through 45. Okay, let's stand and open with a word prayer. Father, we just praise you. We just pause in the week's affairs and the hassle of going to and fro to just spend an evening with you, Father, asking you in the authority of Jesus Christ to send your Holy Spirit as you said you would, to teach us indeed to open our eyes that we might behold Jesus Christ, open understanding that we might behold thy precious truths. And Father, we would also ask that in the joy of your word and in these treasures you might also illuminate to us those very specific challenges and opportunities and that unique ministry you have it for each and every one of us here tonight. Father, we know that we're here tonight by divine appointment, by your hand, by we also know, Father, that you have a specific thing to accomplish tonight and we would just ask you in the power of your Holy Spirit to let it be so. For we ask all these things that Jesus might be glorified, in whose name we do pray. Amen. Okay, we are in the last lap of the book of Genesis in a sense. We've been through the 11 chapter, mystical, murky, intriguing, but shadowy kinds of first 11 chapters, beginnings. Then we've been plunging right into the history of the nation, starting with Abraham in chapter 12, carrying it through Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph is a continuation of that, but we've separated it both in emphasis but also in style of approach. And we are in a narrative that has at least several aspects, but and as we have in the book of Genesis emphasized what some people call classically, if you want to be stuffy and erudite or bookish about it you'd call it typology, but certainly the Holy Spirit has intended certain models. We are approaching the book on the basis of its inerrancy and its detailed engineering by the Holy Spirit for our learning. And in many of these examples of where the Holy Spirit has has engineered the text to be a type or a model of something larger, the narrative is rather scant structurally, just a just a vaguest hint. Joseph is an interesting study because it is so incredibly detailed. We know more about Joseph, there's more details about Joseph than almost anyone in the scripture. But secondly this drama is really fabulous and we're about to plunge into that part. I believe we left off last time at the end of chapter 41 and we'll pick up the narrative there. We have here the story of Joseph, perhaps pampered by the old man as a youth, but nevertheless being a product of the conversion experience of Jacob. So although he's the younger, he also endured a household where perhaps the spiritual tone may have been a little different, in contrast to his elder brethren who were treacherous, incestuous, murderers, and a pretty rough lot. But anyway, they of course sell him into slavery. The caravan sells him into Egypt and he finds himself in the household of one of the key officers and through a court intrigue gets cast into prison where the Lord seasons him. It's interesting how the Lord seems to do that with all his great leaders. For Joseph it was in prison, for Moses it was on the backside of the desert, and you can draw your own list of men that God has used and the time that they put into were on the shelf, getting ready for the right time. And Joseph spends his time in prison, about two years and some, and is called forth out of the incident of Pharaoh's dream, very analogous as we mentioned to this story of Daniel, who also rises to power by God's intervening on behalf of a Gentile ruler in the interpretation of a prophetic dream. And that of course is pretty explicit in what went on before. And the dream was not interpreted, but Joseph's counsel to Pharaoh as to what to do about it was so conspicuously competent that Pharaoh goes the next step and appoints him prime minister, as we would call it, of Egypt. And we're going to be intrigued with how Joseph handles this. You and I as victims of a liberal press and establishment would probably have taken advantage of the thing a little differently. Joseph is a conservative and uses the opportunity in the stewardship of his master by entirely overturning the economy of Egypt, setting up a feudal system that was to endure thousands of years, and to the benefit of Pharaoh, and to set the stage for the nation. And we'll we'll see that happen. But we're also confronted with this fascinating scene, the scenario that God established where his brethren are going to be introduced in the scene. And we left the chapter 41 where Joseph is indeed installed in power, and indeed it comes about as the first part. You recall the dreams now. There were two sets of dreams. And one with the cows, the fat ones that came first, and then they were superseded by the lean, ugly, gaunt ones. And then also the same equivalent thing with the ears of corn, the healthy ones consumed by those that came up later. And both saying the same thing, namely that there was to be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of famine, and the obvious suggestion by Joseph that Pharaoh brought that taking advantage of the years of plenty to store, set up a reserve for the seven years, seven bad years following. And the leverage and power that gave Pharaoh was exploited by Joseph on Pharaoh's behalf. And we should be sensitive to that as we unfold the narrative. Now what I suspect Joseph had no insight into at this point is that this was all engineered by God for some very specific purposes. In fact, it pops into my mind, let's turn to Ephesians 111. We have here a verse that refers to Jesus Christ, but it makes a remark that we might be very sensitive to. In Ephesians chapter 1 verse 11, Paul reminds us that in whom also we have obtained an inheritance. Who's he talking about? Pharaoh? Joseph? Who are we talking about? Jesus Christ, right. I want to make sure your sense of fact, we've sort of changed subjects here. But I'm looking for a particular phrase that is very provocative. Anyway, Paul goes on, in whom we have obtained an inheritance. Being predestinated according to the purpose of him, of whom? God, God the Father. The purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. Do you notice it says worketh most things? Well your Bible doesn't say that. Good, good. I want to see if you're paying attention. Purpose of him who worketh all things after what? The counsel of his own will. Now we're confronted headlong into the mystery of the sovereignty of God. But I want you to recognize just how far he will go to work things after the counsel of his own will. He actually put a famine on the known world. Put people into starvation. There were probably hundreds of thousands of people that may have died of starvation in a worldwide famine. So much so that all the nations, all in the rhetorical sense that were in view of the writer, at least maybe it's all exclusively, we're not sure of that. But in any case, they come to Egypt because they heard there's bread there. That's a heavy trip. Why did God allow the famine to endure? To move a father and 11 sons to Egypt. That sounds preposterous. You can find scripture on that. I'll leave you, go dig that out. I'll tell you another thing that's preposterous is that God would put it in the heart of a Roman administrator to have the known world travel to their home of register, to their birthplace, in order to register for a census. Why did God do that? In order to get a carpenter and his espoused wife to move 30 miles to Bethlehem at a particular time. Sound insane? Absurd? Ridiculous? It's what Paul calls in Corinthians the foolishness of God, which is wiser than men. But be sensitive now. God is going, it would seem to our naive way of understanding, the long way around the block to accomplish his end. But nevertheless, that's the way he has ordained it for our learning. We now find Joseph as prime minister of Egypt and chapter 41 closed with the verse that all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was so severe in all lands. This wasn't a local thing because the Nile was acting up or poor weather in Egypt. Quite the contrary, that's where they had grain. But all the known world was suffering famine. You and I don't really understand famine. Something we read about. We see a poster now and then for some appeal. But I suspect a very small percentage of this room could speak firsthand of the kind of thing we're really talking about. Now chapter 42 opens up with an interesting verse. Now in Jacob we're shifting now the focus of our horizon back to Canaan. Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt. Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look upon one another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Get you down there and buy for us from there that we may live and not die. Now it could very well be that Jacob had a lesson in prophecy back in chapter 15, but he forgot about that. Let's just turn to chapter 15 and remind ourselves what it was that Jacob should have remembered. Verse 13. God said to Abraham, Know ye for a surety that thy seed shall be a sojourner in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them. And they shall afflict them four hundred years, and also that nation whom they shall serve I will judge. And afterward they shall come out with a great substance. And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace, and thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come here again, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. You recall when we went into that promise. This was given to Abraham during the giving of the covenant. Abraham obviously mentioned to Isaac. Isaac passed it on to Jacob. So it's something Jacob should have learned. I wonder how often that's the case now. I suspect I tend to read the forthcoming narrative as something that Jacob isn't necessarily sensitive to Egypt. You would think that with that background, of course it's a couple generations back. It was his grandfather that happened to have had that experience. He may or may not have remembered it. Could very well be that the family was divided. They were probably, you know, post-Egypt and pre-trib Egypt and stuff like that. So he probably argued about that as to what's happening. But when they pick up the paper and see that Iran is no longer pro-West and they've got these problems, you sort of wonder. It wasn't that long ago we were running around with these TV things saying that Iran won't be pro-West anymore. I don't think we had any idea they'd be holding some of us hostage and things. But the point is, as we see things move towards Ezekiel 38, it takes something very tangible perhaps to rattle us to realize that there's a very close intimacy with what scripture says with what's happening in the world right now in a scenario sense. In any case, let's get back to Jacob. Jacob is here in Egypt and he's calling his own family to the attention of the fact that he hears everybody else is traveling to Egypt to get bread. Why don't we do the same thing? Verse 2, he says, I've heard that there is grain in Egypt. Get you down there and buy for us from there that we may live and not die. Now notice this isn't just a casual thing. Hey, the prices are better, the quality is better. It's a question of survival. It's a question of survival. And Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he said, lest perhaps mischief befall him. That's a fascinating little one-liner, is that Benjamin, of course, was the other son of Rachel. There's only two, Joseph and Benjamin. And of course, Jacob assumes that Joseph's dead. And so he's very anxious not to lose the other son of Rachel's. So he holds Benjamin back. But it's also, you can't help but wonder if Jacob's perception of his ten sons is something less than, you know, Eagle Scout, you know. They murdered the men of Shechem. They, capable of incest, capable of just a whole, you make a whole list. And also it was under their protection, that's in quotes, that Joseph fell to mischief. And you can't help but just maybe surmise. It could be just a taint of fear or suspicion in Jacob's withholding Benjamin from the trip. But in any case, the ten go on. Verse five. The sons of Israel came to buy grain among those that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over the land, and it was, and he it was, that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. Now you can sort of picture the scene, throne room type of deal. And he's receiving them officially in court, if you will, various groups from various lands. You can just sort of, you can visualize what, how Hollywood would lay that out. It's probably reasonably valid imagery, I think. And you can visualize him in his royal, I shouldn't say royal, because the throne was withheld, but certainly in his garments of rank. And you can imagine these various ambassadors coming from various places to negotiate a commercial purchase of grain, and being confronted with whatever the trappings of office were. Certainly that's not the kind of place that you might recognize someone from some 30 years before, or whatever it was, whatever duration was. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, obviously. He had the advantage. They were dressed as he remembered them, in the, in the, presumably in the nomadic dress of the tribes of Canaan. They were obviously at a disadvantage, because here he is out of context, older, probably changed considerably, and certainly dressed in a, in a unique manner. Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but he made himself strange to them. We're going to find out later that part of what he did is he continued to speak to them through an interpreter. Okay? He made himself strange to them, and spoke roughly to them, and said unto them, From where come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them. Can you imagine him standing there? Can you just, you really have to, we're going to get into some of the other mystical things of the scene, but the first step is to really enjoy, get a grasp of just the, the, the straightforward human predicament here. Here's Joseph, and in the assembly of strangers passing, he recognized this group, this ten from Canaan. Can you imagine the self-control it took to say, you know, not to say, Wow, you know, and can you imagine as he's using the delay of the interpreter to put them on the spot, keep the heat on. His mind can't help but go back to his youth when he saw the dreams, the earlier dreams, as a young man, where he had the sheaves, he had the strange dream where the sheaves bowed to the one sheaf, and he mentioned his brothers and got them upset. And the other dream where the stars and the moon were even made obeisance to one of the stars, and that even got his dad, Jacob, upset, if you recall. All this must be going through his mind as they come before him. And he said to them, Ye are spies, to see the nakedness of the land ye come. Really puts them on the defensive, you know. They said, No, there's a Geneva Convention. No, no. And they said to him, Nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spies. And he said to them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye are come. So he just sort of gets on that kick and keeps the heat on. And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. See, there's ten of us. There's twelve altogether. One is still with his father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto them, That is it that I spoke unto you, saying, Ye are spies. Hereby ye shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth from there, except your youngest brother come here. Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested, whether there is any truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely ye are spies. Now it doesn't, I don't think it mentions exactly what the penalty for being a spy was, but I suspect it was, you know, something like death or worse. And so they're shut. And he put them all together into prison three days. Now I wonder why three days? Now yes, we can get mystical, prophetic, but that's not what I'm referring to. I'm speaking just the humanistic level. It's from this little remark that I presume, it's just a conclusion on my part. It's not scriptural necessarily, it's just an inference I draw. But I sort of jumped to the conclusion that he was in that pit three days, when they had this conspiracy against him. And if that's true, then it has some interesting significance. I can't prove that. It's just an inference I draw, I might be wrong. I wonder why did he have them in prison three days? And my thinking from what we'll see unfold here is he's putting them through a particular little ritual that has some ulterior motive. And part of it is to sort of pay them back. So they're in prison three days. Verse 18, Joseph said to them the third day, this do and live for I fear God. Now that remark must have been an incredible tension reliever. Not that they were being removed from prison. This is the first mention of God. They hadn't mentioned God, but he does. Can you imagine being in a strange land and being subjected to some alien authority? Not knowing what the cultures are, what the taboos are, what's befalling you. And then to hear the manager, the administrator, the big gun say, I fear God. Doesn't that tell you volumes about what you might expect? You suddenly sort of relax. Hey, we're, it's going to be all right. Now what's interesting, and I'll leave it to an assignment for you to do for yourself, is count the times that Joseph mentions God before they do. They finally do. But that's part of the whole crisis that he builds up here spiritually. If ye be true men, Joseph says, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye, carry grain for the famine of your houses. But bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, ye shall not die. Aha, there is, excuse me, there is the penalty for being a spy there. You shall not die. And they did so. His first proposition, hey, we'll keep you all, we'll send one back. But after three days in prison, he turns it around the other way. I'll keep one of you as a hostage. And the rest of you take the food, go back home, but you bring your younger brother. Prove that your story is true. Strange scenario really, isn't it? Why is Joseph making such a big thing of this brother that's left home? Now obviously on the one hand you can say, gee, it's his favorite brother, it's his brother of his own mother, and it's, you know, that's a big deal. He's anxious to see Ben. You'd think there'd be an easier way, wouldn't you? If, you know, stop and think about it. If you were Joseph, could you resist the opportunity to say, hey guys, it's me? Right? Now if you bore them ill will, you could do all kinds of things. First of all, you could have left them in prison until they rotted. Or you could have, or you would have found it irresistible to let them know who you are, but not let them know your demeanor. By the way, I'm Joseph, think about that. Right? And just leave them alone for a while to think about it. That's probably what I'd do. Or something. But you notice what he does? He does not let them know who he is, and yet he puts them through a very strange set of circumstances. And you can attempt to explain those circumstances several ways. You can probably reason from that infer what's in his mind as to what he thinks he's doing with these guys. He puts them through quite a little drill. And part of it is sort of to make a point. We'll try to see what his point is as far as he might understand it. I'm going to suggest to you that what the Holy Spirit has in mind, whether it's by leading here or just engineering the circumstances, has several other implications. And that's by way of the outlines that you have. Verse 21, And they said one to another, We are verily guilty, this is another saying to them, they're saying among themselves privately, We are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore is this stress come upon us. It's interesting, they have no reason to associate Joseph with their guilt as to how they dealt with him as a young man. But they find themselves in this predicament, in this alien land under the control of this apparently hostile administrator, and being accused of being spies, so they know they're in serious trouble. And even though they apparently have no reason to link Joseph, the prime minister, with Joseph the brother that was sold into slavery, it's clear they're getting convicted that this grief has come upon them because of their guilt. It's an interesting thing, isn't it? And that's apparently exactly what Joseph is taking advantage of. And he is going to put the heat on them until they confess their sin. And he goes through quite a rigmarole, a strange rigmarole, until that happens. Verse 22, And Reuben answered them, saying, Spoke I not unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear? Therefore, behold, also his blood is required. And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them by interpretation. See, while they're sort of caucusing there at the foot of the steps before the, that's the way I visualize it at least, they're mumbling, they assume he can't understand because they've been carrying this whole dialogue on with a, you know, what would it be, Canaanite to Egyptian translator, not knowing that he, of course, could understand what they were saying. But it's also, you get a couple other insights here, you recall it was Reuben that talked them out of killing Joseph. He cooked up this pip idea, you can infer from the text, that his plan was to come back later and free Joseph. Because he loved Joseph? Probably not, because he didn't want his old man on his back. Okay, because he was the oldest and responsible. And of course, now he never misses a chance to say, I told you so. Verse 24, And he turned himself about from them, and he wept. That is, Joseph, he understands what's going on, he understands what they're saying. But he, of course, is in an administrative, cold, administrative position. He turns himself, hides, so that they do not sense his compassion. This really, he really is moved by this, he wept. Then he returned to them again and spoke with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound them before their eyes. And Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with grain, and restore every man's money into his sack, and give them provision for their way, and thus he did them. Now they paid for the grain, but he instructed the servants to fill the sacks with the grain. But without their knowing it, puts their money back in the grain. Now why did he do that? Why would he do that? Well, you know, there is, you know, he certainly, he would have been perfectly justified keeping the money, because everybody else in the world is paying for their grain. Why should they be any different? In fact, you could argue that he might get in trouble with his boss, the Pharaoh. Why is he showing favoritism to the family? Of course, no one knows his family yet, that comes later. Why would he bother? Was it a gesture of friendliness, and so forth? Quite the contrary. When they discover their money is in the sack, they get shook. They don't understand why, but they know they're going to get in trouble. You know, I'm reminded of some of these plots, you know, there's the Charlie Varick thing, where a little small-time hood knocks over a small bank, and ends up, he and his partner discover they've got ten million dollars. His partner thinks it's a great idea, but, you know, Walter Matthau and the thing get shook, because he realizes that that wasn't bank money, that was a drop for the mafia, and he now knows the hood's after him. You know, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing, right? And, of course, the whole plot line, you know, this theme is often, we see that often in literature, where you get something you think is good, but there's so much of it, it's a tip-off, that, hey, something's really wrong. And that's sort of the gist you get here. When they later open their sacks, discover the money, they're not pleased. They're both puzzled and terrified by it. Because they're messing around, you know, with the big boys, Egypt. And, you know, you get the impression, just the tone of this, the Egyptians didn't mess around. So, anyway, Joseph arranges his servants to have the money put back in their sack, verse 26, and they loaded their asses with the grain and departed from there. Verse 27, they get ready to feed the animals. They stop along the way, and I bet you it's quite a trip to Canaan. So, as one of them opened his sack to give his ass fodder in the inn, he discovered his money, for, behold, it was in the sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren, My money is restored, and, lo, it is even in my sack. And their heart failed them. They didn't say, Oh, neat, we got a bargain. You know, they don't understand it, but they're terrified. Their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us? Now, this is the first mention of God by the brethren. And I'd argue that it's an adversative type of, you know, What has God done to us? They really sense that it's a frame. That's what I would infer, just reading this. But, anyway, they head home, and they came to Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them, saying, The man who is the lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country, and we said unto him, We are true men, we are no spies. We are twelve brethren, sons of our father. One is not, and the youngest is this day, with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the lord of all the country, said unto us, Hereby shall I know that ye are true men. Leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone, and bring your youngest brother unto me. And then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are all true men. So will I deliver you, your brother, and ye shall do business in the land. And it came to pass, as they emptied their sacks, that, behold, every man's bundle, This is all going on by explanation of the old man. When both their and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. Now see, Jacob has the same reaction. They're a little shook up by this. Jacob, their father, said unto them, Me have ye bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away? All these things are against me. So Jacob's a little unenamored. Now what you can discover here is that he'll leave Simeon there to rot. Verse 37. Reuben spoke unto his father, saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee. Deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. He said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is left alone. If mischief be fallen by the way in which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to sheol. Jacob wants no part of it. There's also an interesting value judgment here. He likes Benjamin better than Simeon. Now he didn't say that, but it's a simple equation, you know. Benjamin I got, Simeon's gone. I should reverse it? Benjamin I love, Simeon I... You can spend some time on this thinking about it. Families, I guess, you know. It's an interesting, interesting predicament. It's even more interesting if you try to analyze Jacob's mentality, especially knowing the prophecies that his grandfather told him. But let's move on. Chapter 43, verse 1. And the famine was severe in the land, and it came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt. Okay? The grain's gone, and we suddenly start feeling guilty about Simeon, right? Keep those cards and letters coming, Simeon. It came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said to them, Go again and buy us a little food. And Judas came and said, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. By the way, one other thing. I have no idea how long the grain lasted. I have to believe it was more than a couple of days. Because a trip like that's a pretty hairy trip, and I have to believe that the whole... Well, you had a series of donkeys, obviously, with sacks of grain. How long it lasts a family of ten brothers, I have no idea. But I tend to infer that this was quite a time. Simeon is saying, I wonder if I'll ever see those guys again. In the vernacular, it was probably a little stronger language than that, but I won't go into that. In any case, Judas recounts to Jacob the predicament they're in. They can't just go back and buy grain, because they've got this business of the younger brother. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down. For the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. And Israel said... Isn't that interesting? Isn't that terrific? I've gotten you sensitive to that, haven't you? You've learned something. You may not learn anything about Genesis during the study of Genesis, and that's fine, as far as I'm concerned. If you get sensitive to the way the Holy Spirit deals, and you get sensitive to that, that's exciting. You'll carry away tools that are every bit as important as the rest of it. And that's exciting. Anyway, Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me, as to tell the man whether ye had a brother? What did you tell him we had a brother for? Natural response. And he said, The man asked us carefully of our state, and of our kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And we told him according to the tenor of these words. Could we certainly know that he would say, Bring your brother down? Even in the stilted King James, it's very difficult not to try and do a dialect deal on this, isn't it? I'm very terrible at that, so I won't try. It's interesting. Judah said unto Israel, his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live, and not die, both we and thou, and also our little ones. That's Judah counseling the father. Hey, man, we're starving. Not only us, you, our father, and our little ones. They have families. They're married. They started the tribes, and they're all starving. So Judah says, Hey, man, let's go. I will be surety for him, that thou be pledge. Of my hand shalt thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Now you can argue that you're not supposed to make yourself a surety. It's over. I agree. At the same time, you have to have respect for Judah. Because he's standing up to be counted. Hey, I'll be accountable. I'll be responsible. And in the context of what's being said here, I think that's not a casual gesture. Except we had lingered, surely now we had returned a second time. That may give us some sense of the travel. Is it a month's worth of rations? I don't know. And their father Israel said unto them, If it must be so now, do this. Take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man a present, a little balm, and a little honey, and spices, and myrrh, and nuts, and almonds. Now I have to admit, I don't understand how they get all these things if there's a famine. I can only assume that there was kept in reserve some of the niceties in store. And obviously Israel is making he remembers another time when he was sending gifts ahead for meeting Esau. Gee, it worked then. Maybe it'll work here. Verse 12. And take double money in your hand, and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand. Perhaps it was an oversight. You sort of have a feeling that's just perhaps, but it ain't likely. They really don't know how to deal with the fact that the grain was free. Aha! Boy, did a lot of lights go on there, right? There's some things that are so priceless you cannot buy them. There's some things so priceless you cannot buy them, and as long as you try, you're not going to make it. I got everyone's attention. Verse 13. Take also your brother, arise and go again to the man, and God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. And the men took that present, and they took double the money in their hand and Benjamin, and rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. I think the best thing to do, we can come back and try to put this in some spiritual perspective. Let's just continue with the narrative so we see the tempo of what's happening here. And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, Bring these men home and slaughter an animal and make ready. These men shall dine with me at noon. Now we read that, and it's very easy to miss the important part. There were probably very few living souls that were granted the privilege of eating with Joseph. Treat him on an equal level with Pharaoh or that senior. You know, you don't visit Pharaoh and say, hey, by the way, let's have dinner. If you're a Catholic, you go visit the Vatican. You might have an audience with the Pope. That's a big deal. You wouldn't say, hey, by the way, can we have dinner at your house tonight? The idea of Joseph preparing a meal that they're going to eat with him was a high, unique honor. Which is probably further going to unglue them. And it does. He handles it with a great, great, great flair. It's kind of fun. The man did as Joseph ordered, and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. Now bear in mind, this isn't his location of state. It isn't down at the office, you know, throne room or whatever. It's at home. And the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house, and they said, because of the money that was returned in our sacks, that the first time we brought in that he may seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for slaves, and also our assets. I didn't mean it that way. Come on. You know, I am so flippant, I will be accused of that. Verse 19. And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they spoke with him at the door of the house. And said, O sir, we came indeed down the first time to buy food. It came to pass that when we came to the inn that we opened our sacks, and behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, and our money was full weight, and we have brought it again in our hand. The other money we have brought down in our hands was to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in the sacks. And he, that's Joseph, said, Peace be to you. Fear not. Your God and the God of your father hath given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. Now, can you imagine? Can you imagine these guys being in Egypt and hearing words like this from the Prime Minister of Egypt? That your God and the God of your father, you wonder where did he get this rabbinical background? Has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. The scriptures do not record Simeon's first remarks to his brother. And the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and gave them water, and washed their feet, and he gave their asses fodder. And they made ready the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there. See, even in the tone, you can get the sense that this is an event eating at Joseph's house. And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into the house, and bowed themselves to him to bow themselves to him to the earth. There is the fulfillment of the prophecy of those two dreams. How interesting it must have been for Joseph to see that, behold it, and keep it to himself at the moment. Verse 27, And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well? The old man of whom he spoke, is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant our father is in good health. Thy servant our father. Boy, they really put it right there, okay. Is in good health, he is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads, and made obeisance. And lifted up his eyes, and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste, for his heart yearned over his brother, and he sought where to weep. And he entered into his chamber, and wept there. In other words, he absents himself from his guests. Because he cannot control himself upon seeing his younger brother. And slips off into his chambers, presumably as some pretext, and comes in gloom, and weeps. Regains control of himself, and of course returns. You get a lot of insight into Joseph. Verse 31. And he washed his face, and went out, and controlled himself, and said, Set on bread. And they set for him by himself, and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians, who did eat with him by themselves. Because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. You get the picture? In other words, yes, even though it's a Hebrew set up as the prime minister, he ate separately. You know, I don't know what kind of analogy to draw. I suppose it's something like having a Negro elected the governor of Alabama, but still they use, you know, they eat separately or something. In other words, the point is, even though he's an authority, the Egyptians despise the Hebrew. There's an ethnic slur, a prejudicial thing here. So even though he was a rank, they sat separate tables. Interesting, isn't it? It's hard for us to really try to absorb all of that. But here now, they have sort of three groups. They have Joseph, they have his brethren, and they have the other Egyptian entourage that are of rank, less than Joseph, but still fed separately so as not to mix with the Hebrews. Which is interesting that there's that establishment there, even though, what are Hebrews? Strange, isn't it? It must have been even stranger to the ten, or now eleven, brothers. Isn't that interesting? Verse 33, and they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men marveled to one another. To give you an idea, visualize this. Here are the bunch, right? And they're being ushered in to a dinner of state. And it's apparently either placemats or instruction, because they each had a specific place to sit. And as they sit down, they have to be flabbergasted, because they're in order. In case you're wondering about that, that's one chance in 39,917,000 of being right. If you take them at random. If you're a guest, if you bring you and your ten brothers to guests at my house, and I happen to have you seat you in exact order of birthright, yes, I can probably guess a few, because you can judge age a little bit. But not perfectly, not ten of them. And if you took them as a random sample, it's over one in 39 million, I believe. If you want to fool around with the factorials, you might find I made a mistake. Incidentally, I made a mistake, because I figured ten, not eleven. So that's right, it's worse than that. I quickly did the ten factorial thing, and that's... Anyway, so they have to be murmuring to one another like who set the placemats, you know. Verse 34, and he took and sent messes, that's in the army sense, unto them before him. But notice this. But Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. You'd think they'd get a clue, wouldn't you, right? And they drank and were merry with him. And he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. Again, he pulls the same stunt. He slips their money back, and this time it's double, isn't it? He slips it back in the sack. Again, he pulls the same stunt. He slips their money back, and this time it's double, isn't it? He slips it back in the sack. But put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest, and his grain money. And he did according to the word that Job had spoken. Obviously, the servants are doing this, you know, offline, while they're eating or getting ready to go or whatever, because they don't realize this until later, you'll see. So he plays the same stunt again, puts the money in the sack, secretly, covertly, furtively, and takes his cup and plants it. He frames Benjamin. As soon as morning was light, the men were sent away. This is obviously done at night. The men were sent away, they and their donkeys. And when they were gone out of the city and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward, Up, follow after the men, and when thou dost overtake them, say unto them, Wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? Is not this in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? I mean, which he tells fortunes with. I mean, this is interesting conduct. Ye have done evil in so doing. And he overtook them, and spoke unto them these same words. And they said unto him, Wherefore sayeth my Lord these words? God forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing. Behold, the money which we found in our sacks mouths we brought again to thee out of the light. See, they're all saying, how could we? They're being overtaken. How? We wouldn't steal. The money we found the last time, we brought back, right? How then should we steal out of the Lord's house silver or gold? And whomsoever of thy servants it be found, let him die, and we also will be thy Lord's slaves. And he said, Now also let it be according to your words. He with whom it is found shall be my servant, and ye shall be blameless. Now see, the servant modifies, softens the whole deal according to what his master told him. And they speedily took down every man's sack to the ground, and opened every man's sack, and he searched, and he began at the eldest, and ceased at the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. That has to have spoiled Benjamin's day. They tore their clothes, and loaded every man his donkey, and returned to the city. And Judah his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell before him on the ground. In other words, they won't let him take just, you know, Benjamin. They all come back. And Joseph said to them, What deed is this that ye have done? Know ye not that such a man as I can certainly divine? That is, you know, see these things? And Judah said, What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? How shall we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Isn't it an interesting position for Judah to take? Think about that. Don't take that for granted. He's not arguing the case, Hey, we're innocent, and so forth. He's doing exactly the opposite. Hey, we're innocent. We didn't steal your thing. Judah is looking beyond that. Of course he knows they didn't steal that thing. But he sees the whole thing as retribution for their iniquity. What iniquity? They didn't steal the money. That was a frame, right? What is Judah burdened with here? Is it just a ruse? Is he just taking a position to hope as a negotiation with Joseph? Don't think so. He sees it in what some of us might call a fatalistic or retributive sense. God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also with whom the cup is found. And he said, God forbid that I should do so. But the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant, and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. Then Judah came near to him and said, O my Lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my Lord's ears. And let not thine anger burn against thy servant, for thou art even as Pharaoh. My Lord asked his servants, saying, Have ye a father or a brother? And we said unto my Lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little one, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother, and his father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servant, Bring him down unto me, that I may set my eyes upon him. And we said unto my Lord, The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. And thou saidst unto thy servants, Except your youngest brother come down with you, ye shall see my face no more. And it came to pass, when we came up unto thy servant, thy father, we told him the words of my Lord, and the father said, Go again, and buy us a little food. And we said, We cannot go down, if your youngest brother not be with us, for we may not see the man's face, except your younger brother be with us. And thy servant, my father, said unto us, Ye know that my wife bore me two sons, and the one went out from me, and said, Surely he is torn in pieces, and I have not seen him since. And if ye take this also from me, and mischief befall him, ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to show. Now therefore, when I come to thy servant, my father, and the lad is not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is not with us, that he will die. Bear in mind, Jacob's old. In fact, he's got just a couple of chapters before we see a very, very dramatic scene in which at the peak of his faithfulness, he takes charge of his death, and gives a chapter of prophecy that we'll study with great care. And thy servant shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to show. For thy servant, that is ye know me, me Judah, became surety for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide, instead of the lad, a slave to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father, and the lad is not with me? Lest perhaps I see the evil that shall come upon my father. Then Joseph could not control himself, before all who stood by him, and he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. What he means by that is everybody else. So you get the impression it's a whole very ceremonial environment, and he sends away all the Egyptian servants and so on. Cause every man to go out from me, and there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. In other words, the brethren are still there, and Joseph is still there, but all the rest are excluded. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. Get the picture, they've all left the room. In the house is Joseph and his brethren, but outside they hear him wail. They hear him, he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh. Now you don't get the impression that Joseph's house is necessarily part of Pharaoh's, it's a separate building. But the house of Pharaoh heard Joseph wail. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Can you imagine this scene? I am Joseph. Can you imagine? Can you imagine the feeling, the stunned awareness of the brethren as to what the impact of those words are? You're the one that we sold into slavery, what was it, twenty, thirty years ago? And you now are ruling the world? Awesome! It's just, Scripture doesn't elaborate, you don't need to. You can just think about that, visualize the impact on the brethren to discover not only is Joseph alive, he's ruling the world for all practical purposes. Does my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were terrified at his presence, no wonder. Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me here, for God did send me before you to preserve life. Now isn't that an interesting insight? Isn't that an interesting insight? You notice that Joseph does not reveal himself until they confess their sin. Moving on, verse 6. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall neither be plowing nor harvest. The world is at its knees, and it's only two years into the seven. There's five years left of famine, guys. That's why I'm here. God sent me ahead, to see that you guys would be fed. That's what he's saying. Verse 7. God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, or literally to make you a remnant, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me here, but God, and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt, come down unto me, tarry not. And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. And there will I nourish thee, and there are yet five years of famine, lest thou and thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty. You can think that if there's two years of famine, there's been seven good years, that's nine years, plus the two years he was in prison, that's eleven. And we have no idea what other length of time, so you know it's something more than eleven years, more like maybe fifteen or twenty, since he was sold down. So you can fill in the rest of it yourself. And behold, your eyes shall see, and the eyes of your brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. See, he's speaking directly in their native tongue. That itself has got to shake them up. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, and ye shall haste to bring down my father here. Twice, in verse 19 and verse 13, he tells them, not only do this, hurry, hurry. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked with him. And the report thereof was heard in the pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come, and it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye, load your beasts, and go, get you into the land of Canaan, take your father and your households, and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. You can find scripture, it's the best of the land incidentally. And now you are commanded, This do ye, take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Regard not your furniture, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of the pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, and five changes of raiment. And to his father he sent after this manner, ten asses loaded with the good things of Egypt, ten she-asses loaded with the grain, and food for his father by the way. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed. And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. Interesting little admonition there. After the spirit of the moment's gone, and they're on their way, that they don't lose their nerve, which of course they are likely to do, as they really realize the predicament they're in, as it all sinks in. Hey, the guy we sold, that's got to be a little rough. Why did he change his mind? Anyway, they came up out of the land of Egypt, came into the land of Canaan, unto Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive. He is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart faded, for he believed them not. Isn't that interesting? Jacob believed the lie, that he was dead, and didn't believe that he lived. Interesting, huh? Some of you are way ahead of me. And it told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph my son is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. So it ends chapter 45. Now, as you probably gathered, it obviously is a very dramatic story. In fact, it's amazing to me that this hasn't been the subject of one of the, at least to my knowledge, one of the Ten Commandments kind of epics. You'd think that DeMille, before he died, must have had this on his agenda, I would think. But in any case, let's back up now. In our little outline, and I think most of you have a copy of the outline by now, so I can just talk directly from it. We can look at the story of Joseph and his brothers several ways, not just one. And one way to look at it is Joseph and his brethren, in a dispensational sense, that is, where they represent the people and he represents the Messiah. And see what it says. First of all, it's interesting. These observations are just observations. And you'll have an Old Testament, you'll have a reference in Genesis and some other references. For example, the first thing that's interesting is that the brethren are driven out of their own land. Out of this whole scenario, they're driven out of their own land. And those of you that want to see the analogy, you can look at Deuteronomy 28, we won't take the time now. They're driven out of their own land into where? Into Egypt. What does Egypt represent typologically? The world, right on. We also notice that Joseph, initially, was unknown and unrecognized by his brothers. Another comes and he came unto his own and his own received him not. Right? You find that in John chapter 1, verse 11, but you also find Paul treating the whole thing in the Book of Romans, particularly verse 25. We notice, though, that his brethren were seen and recognized. And you look at Jeremiah 16 and Hosea 5, 3 you see his examples where God, obviously, recognizes Israel. Their plight is visible to him. Okay? Even though they may not recognize him, he sees them. Now there's another interesting thing here. We also see Joseph, in a sort of special way, punishing his brothers. That's a strange idea, isn't it? And yet if you turn to Hosea chapter 9, I'll take a few of these to give you the flavor of what I'm driving at. Hosea chapter 9, verse 17. I outlined highlights here for those of you that want to do this later. You don't have to. You can just get the outline and follow it. Hosea makes, there's many places you could pick. I just picked this one. My God will cast them away because they did not hearken unto me. They shall be wanderers among the nations. Now we've had a proverb in our language called the wandering Jew. We speak of the diaspora. Why is there a diaspora? Who sent them out? God did. According to the Old Testament. This is Old Testament. Okay. This is long before. Long before the Romans destroying Jerusalem. Long before the Balfour Declaration or anything else. Shall be wanderers among the nations. Okay. What about Jesus Christ directly? Let's turn to Matthew 23. Just before the Olivet Discourse. Let's take it from verse 34. This is when he says, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, and so on. He really lays it on. But he gets down to verse 34. Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets and wise men. Who's sending unto you? Wise men and scribes. And some of them ye shall kill and crucify. Some of them ye shall scourge in your synagogues. And persecute them from city to city. That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth. From the blood of righteous Abel. Unto the blood of Zechariah the son of Berechiah. Whom ye slew between the temple and the altar. We covered that when we studied the book of Zechariah. Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation. Upon what? You mean the blood? He's pronouncing judgment. On whom? The world in general? No. On who? Israel. Israel. Jews. Right. Exactly. Heavy trip if you're not used to that. Then we have two verses. A few verses. Three verses. That summarize all of history. That summarize all of history. What's all history about? You've got libraries. You know, Will Durant's done his thing. And on and on. You've got the Book of the Month Club. You get three verses. Did you know that? These three verses. 37, 38, 39. Jesus Christ summarizes all of history. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them who are sent unto thee. How often I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathered her chickens under her wings, but ye would not. That's the purpose of all history. To gather thy children. That's the purpose of history. What's the tragedy of all history? Thy would not. Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. But there is a triumph of all history. Verse 39. For I say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Isn't that exciting? And that leads right into the Olivet Discourse. When they say, hey, how will we know? And he tells them. But notice the prerequisite condition to the second coming of Jesus Christ. I shall say unto you, I shall say unto you, ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And we find that passage in Hosea where they have to confess their iniquity. Which iniquity? Their rejection. And when they do that officially, he'll return a third day later. According to at least one scenario. It's a controversial area, but we covered that in the Zechariah study if you're interested. The last couple of tapes in the Zechariah study digs into all of that. Moving along. Okay, we have Simeon. Just a couple of observations. Simeon was the murderer of the Shechemites. And he's the one, by the way, that his father, when he does prophesy in chapter 49, about whom he has nothing good to say. And we generally, there's a tradition, we're not sure, but there's a tradition at least, that Simeon was the ringleader of the whole thing against Joseph. So it's kind of interesting that he's the one bound and put in the tank for a while while they let their grain run out. Anyway, getting back to the other thing. It's interesting that Joseph made known to them a way of deliverance through substitution. And you can dig that out and draw your own analogy. You also know that Jacob knew the prophecy of Egypt. You can tie that in if you like. It's interesting that even though Joseph sends his brethren, okay, he makes provision for his brethren while they were in a strange land. And it might be of these, I'll pick a few to look at. Let's take a look at Ezekiel 11. Ezekiel 11. And there's just an abundance of references on this that you could take, but I tried to pick a few that were... Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord God, although I have cast... This is verse 16. Although I have cast them far off among the nations, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come. So while they're dispersed and while they are... He has his hand upon them, he also doesn't leave them without provision. Interesting. Now there's another thing that's interesting. If we look at... It's always... If you want an interesting commentary on the Old Testament, look at Stephen in Acts 7. Little hint that... Stephen in Acts 7, in his presentation there before the Sanhedrin, Stephen gives a summary of the Old Testament. But what's fascinating, if you study Acts 7 carefully, Stephen's rendering of the Old Testament, the familiar Old Testament narrows, includes things we didn't know. So he had sources, apparently. They're not available to us, but since they're in the Scripture, we treat them with authority. And there's just a lot of little subtleties you find us digging into so frequently. But it's interesting, in verse 13, Stephen makes an interesting little point. Verse 12 says, When Jacob heard there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers first. And at the second time, Joseph was made known to his brethren. And Joseph's kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. And so forth. He goes on to recount the story, right? It's strange that the Holy Spirit selected that little fact to call our attention that it was the second time that Joseph... Remember the first time they came, he was hidden to them. They didn't recognize him, right? Did you know that's true of Moses? Did you know that? Remember when Moses killed the Egyptian? And the Hebrew says, Who made you to rule over us? When Moses appeared the second time, he was their leader, their deliverer. Remember Joshua? First time he appeared to the people, he was with Caleb, right? He gave his report. Let's go in and conquer the land. Hey, no way. We're like grasshoppers before their sight, right? First time Joshua appears publicly, he's rejected. Second time, of course, he was accepted. Same thing with David. First Samuel 17. Now, what's interesting, of course, what's far more significant, you're way ahead of me. There's another one that Joseph is a model of who the first time is rejected by his brethren. When do they recognize him? Second time. Interesting. Now, I may be making something of nothing. If so, let's move on to other things. If this interests you, you can find some of the background references in the handout, but if you don't have it, I'll give you a copy of it, and you can do your own study. The challenge, by the way, there's 102 or 103 or whatever examples here of parallels that Joseph might be a parallel or a model or a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Some of these you may say, yes, so I can try. Fine, scratch those off. But how many can you add? Just going through this review the last couple of nights, there's two or three things show up. I forgot what it was that caught my attention, the fact that Hosea, chapter 11, verse 1, has a prophecy. It's out of order, but just for fun, let's go to Hosea chapter 11, verse 1, because there's some interesting aspects here. Hosea chapter 11. Reading the book of Hosea, we look at chapter 11 and verse 1, it says, When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. Okay, that sounds pretty good. What's Hosea referring to? He's obviously referring to that Israel was born, where? In Egypt. Israel has its beginning, in a sense, from the Exodus. That's why he numbers the Passover. The nation hasn't even been born in the ecclesiastical sense. It's born in Egypt. I've called my son out of Egypt, it says here, right? Now, if I was to say to you that that verse is messianic, you'd say, you're nuts. There's nothing messianic about that. There's no reason to infer that that's messianic. Hosea, in the exegesis, is that he's talking about Israel's historical birth as a nation in Egypt, as per Exodus, etc. You can find a lot of scripture to back that up. You're out of your mind. You're getting mystical, you're a nut, and all is fine, except I have one guy that'll defend me. He's a guy by the name of Matthew. You turn to Matthew 2, and Matthew throws you a real curve. In Matthew 2.15, it comes just after Joseph and Mary are warned and dreamed to flee into Egypt because Herod's going to slaughter all the babies, right? We all know the story. The wise men show up and ask Herod, Herod pretends to be interested, and they, of course, they go from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, find him there, but being warned and dreamed to go another way. Herod realizes he's double-crossed, but he's got to kill this kid because he's regarded as the king of the Jews, and he's a threat. Herod is not Jewish. He's an Idiot man. He's from Edom. Descendant of Esau. The whole Masada fortress was built because of his paranoia from Cleopatra, right? And so on. You know the story. Well, the point is, what's his approach? Slaughter all the kids, two years and under. God warns Joseph and Mary, a dream, get out to Egypt, until we take care of Herod. And later on, when Herod dies, they come back. Notice, though, verse 15, Matthew tells us, and they were there, that is in Egypt, until the death of Herod. Why? That it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. And you may say, good heavens, what's he referring to? It turns out, he's referring to Hosea, chapter 11, verse 1. And you go back to Hosea, chapter 11, verse 1, and I defy you to find that as being messianic, unless you're a mystic. And you may think that some of this reasoning is a little far-fetched in the literalness. Jesus Christ says, Not one jot or one tittle shall pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Crossing the T and the dotting of the I in the Hebrew sense. Not one jot or one tittle shall pass until all be fulfilled. And you're trying to tell me that buried in Hosea's rhetoric about Israel is a messianic glimmer that took Joseph and married to Egypt simply so that God could say, Out of Egypt have I called my son. Jesus predicted there's a contradiction in the scripture. Jesus is supposed to come out of Nazareth, the branch, the pun in Isaiah, right? Oh, but he's supposed to be born in Bethlehem. That's Micah 5, 2, right? Hosea says he's going to come out of Egypt. Right, right on. All three are true. All three are true. So I'm mentioning this if it wasn't for Matthew's illumination of that. There's no way you could get that out of Hosea. But recognizing that Matthew authenticates that as being messianic, it is not that Egypt's that big a deal. The point is it should tune you to the fact that God deals in some very subtle puns. Little details that are prophetic, are messianic. That's why Jesus Christ could say, The volume of the book is written to me. He said that in Psalm 40, I believe. All right. Let's move on. The brethren do something else. They confess their guilt in the sight of God, right? I can't resist turning to Hosea 5. Hosea 5, we'll take verse 14 and 15 as just a thing. He says, For I will be like a lion unto Ephraim, and like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will take away and none shall rescue him. Verse 15. Notice what the Lord says. I will go and return to my place. In order to return to my place, I must have left it. So I've left my place, right? But I'm going to go and return to my place. For how long? Till they acknowledge their offense, singular, and seek my face. In their affliction, they will seek me early. And here's what they'll say. There's a quote now. Come, let us return to the Lord, for he hath torn, he will heal us, he hath smitten, he will bind us up. After two days, he will revive us, and the third day, he will raise us up, and we will live in his sight. And this gives rise to the belief among some scholars that from the time that Israel as a nation acknowledged the rejection of their Messiah and petitioned his return, on the third day he will return. Three times when the Pharisees asked for a sign, it was after Matthew 12, that's when they rejected him. Matthew 13 on, he speaks only in riddles, parables, so that the hearing, they won't understand. Only his own will understand. Matthew 13, the whole kingdom parable thing. From that point on, he speaks in parables, so they wouldn't understand. That's what Matthew 13 says. Every time they ask for a sign, he says, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. There will be no sign given this generation, but the sign of the prophet Jonah. As the Son of Man spent three days and three nights in the valley of the whale, so shall the Son of Man spend three days and three nights in the valley of the earth. And most of us assume that that refers to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and it does. Some scholars believe it's got a double fulfillment. But the other occasion that it will be fulfilled is that it's on the third day of that petition that he returns to rescue the nation in Edom, described in Isaiah 63, where he comes with his bloodstained garments for having fought for them, and when they fled to Basra or Petra, as you will. Those of you interested in that can get into the Zechariah tapes, but moving on. We find the brethren confess their guilt in the sight of God. We find that the brethren were initially troubled at his presence, and we see the same thing in Zechariah 12.10. And, gee, we could go on. We see that Joseph is revealed as a man of compassion. He wept seven times. If you list the times he wept, he wept seven times. Always an interesting number. Okay. Jesus Christ wept twice, but he also displayed compassion on five other occasions. Revealed to Judah and brethren before the rest of Jacob's household, obviously. Now, it's interesting that he was revealed to Judah and his brethren. Turn to Zechariah 12.7. Those of you in the Zechariah study obviously remember all of this, but for those of you that don't, I thought we'd look at this again. Zechariah 12.7. The Lord also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah. And so forth. You can study that whole passage. It's going to be hard. I'll try to stay out of Zechariah. We'll never make it tonight. Okay. We notice then, of course, that Jacob was sent for. The brethren go forth and proclaim his glory. You can take this from the outline. I won't try to put it all on tape because I'm assuming that everybody that is on the tape list will also get a copy of the notes. Now, something else. I'd love to ask you a question. When Jesus Christ comes back to the earth, he comes back with his armies, right? We all know that, right? The army is divided into three categories, right? Infantry, right? Cavalry, right? And armor, right? How does his army come back? On horses. You're saying it's cavalry. Terrific. Isaiah 66, verse 15 says it's in chariots. I just thought I'd mention that because I think he has us go first class. Now, I wouldn't quarrel with trying to describe the difference between armor and cavalry in today's army because even though they use those classic definitions, today, if you saw today's army, you see mechanized infantry, right? And obviously, you see mobile tracked armor. And you also see what they call cavalry and it's also motorized vehicles. And I'm not up to date on current army tactics to understand the difference, but I do know that the classic definitions are still held even though they're all motorized. But I do notice that chariots would probably cover all categories. So you might find it fun to see Isaiah 66, verse 15. For behold, the Lord will come with fire and with his chariots like a whirlwind to render his anger with fury and rebuke the flames of fire and so forth. So those of you that are making up charts and studying the end times and all that stuff, you've got two choices. You can go through these verses and start making your charts or you can just wait a little bit and see what happens. He settles the brethren in a land of their own and we'll discover when we get to chapter 47, verse 6. You learn something about the land of Goshen and it says that, 47, verse 6, the land of Egypt is before thee, the best of the land, make thy father and brethren to dwell, the Pharaoh says, right? The best of the land. So that's interesting, especially if you're looking at the typology. He also says, I want you to dwell near me. You can look at John 17 and see what that means. Deuteronomy 33 and Romans 8, 28 and so forth. Okay, we've got time to... And of course the brethren prostrate themselves before him as a representative of God and that's interesting, before whom every knee shall bow. We learn in Philippians, I believe it is, and so on. Now there's another way we can back off. We sort of looked at how Joseph is a model or a foreshadowing, at least in a few ways, of Jesus Christ relative to Israel, right? Came into his own, his own received him, now his own... There is another way that we can look at his brethren and Jesus Christ and that's what is called in the outline, evangelically. Put the brethren in the position of the believer. And the first thing you discover is that the brethren dwelt in a land of famine and they were concerned that had they not been dealt with, they would have died. It's interesting to notice that the brethren needed bread and they tried to pay for it and they would not. And as long as they tried to live in their own self-righteousness and pay for it, they got nowhere. It wasn't until they were broken and confessed their sin that he reveals himself to them. Isn't that wild? Think about that as to where you're at. Are you still trying to pay for the bread by what you can do? By your effectiveness in your walk? By the trip you're on, whatever it is? And there's plenty of them. Satan serves up a real menu. Legalism and all its variations. We're all guilty of it. We're trying to pay for the bread. We can't get used to the idea. We don't get comfortable with the idea that it's by grace that we're saved. He refuses our money. He'll provide what we need for free. What is his requirement? That we take it that way. We confess our sin and recognize who's providing it. You cannot contribute one thing to the cross at Calvary. It's all been done. Until we understand that, we're in self-righteousness and the end thereof is the ways of death. And we can see that same model here. They assumed a self-righteous attitude before the Lord of Egypt and so forth. Interesting enough, of course, he's cast into prison three days. Were you cast into prison three days? I hope so. Unless you were cast into the grave at Calvary's cross, you will have no part of him. You have to appropriate that for yourself. There are two deaths, the first and the second death. You've got to get the order the other way around and make that death on the cross yours. If you've done that, you'll live. If you don't, you won't. That's the whole story. That's what it's all about. That's why he died. That's why we're here tonight. And that's why God went through all this trouble to communicate that to you. Okay, the brethren are smitten of conscience. He makes known that deliverance is by the grave. And it's interesting that he refuses payment. They continue to manifest a legal spirit. It's interesting that they even try to pay double. That doesn't work. It's also interesting that their delay in understanding and accepting all of this does nothing more but deplete their resources. They go back to Canaan. They don't respond to what they're supposed to do and all they do is run out of food. Notice, though, that the depletion of resources has got one of God's strongest tools. There are ministries around here, probably, I have none in particular one in mind, but there are ministries around here who God probably is trying to shut down. Do you realize that God's will may be manifest that way? Somebody rings your doorbell and says, Hey, I've got this Christian thing I'm trying to do. It doesn't mean that God requires you to give him a check. Pray about it. Pray about it. I tend to be, I cheat myself. I don't give to a ministry unless I already see that God's blessing it, so I know the Lord's hand is in it, so I know that my check is going to piggyback what he really wants to do. So I'm not the first round investor in a ministry. I'm the second, third round financing and saver. I see a ministry, the Lord's really blessing, I figure, terrific, I'll send my check there because then I can get, you know, that'll appropriate to my giving. There's a gift, there's a trick to giving, you know. So, anyway, I got off the subject. Okay, the brethren die with him. Joseph's determined to bring his brethren to the light. Brethren take their true place before God. After acknowledging their, they acknowledge their iniquity, their true relationship to the Lord, then he makes himself known. Okay. Something else that's interesting, he has every man leave except, it's a very private thing, the priests are gone. We're going to learn something very, very interesting. It won't be tonight because we've run out of our time. As we go, that this is a warfare. It's an invisible war, and the opponents are the priests of Egypt. As Joseph's power increases, we're going to be fascinated to discover how he uses that power. He doesn't give the food away, he sells it. And he takes their cattle. He sets up the whole structured system for Pharaoh because he's being a diligent steward to his boss. And this whole thing increases Pharaoh's power in Egypt. But there's one group he doesn't touch, the land of the priests, the Egyptian priests. There's a warfare. And God is going to show himself strong against whom Exodus tells us, against the gods of Egypt, and the ten plagues, and the fleas, and the frogs, and all that are their gods they worship. Yes, they're real fleas, but there's a point if you understand the Egyptian structure, the ecclesiastical structure, that's what he was doing. Just as he does in the bowl of judgment's revelation. Where's the seventh bowl poured on? The last bowl, what's it poured on? The air. Why? Because the prince of the power of the air. And that's the climax to the whole scene. Seven seals, seven trumpets, seven bowls. So where are the bowls poured out on? Satan's throne, ultimately. Okay. Anyway, we'll get into that next time. But the... Well, we've really gone through... The rest of this I'll let you just go through the outline. And that takes care of the guts of the outline. We'll touch on it more as we go forward, because we have... We got through the end of chapter 45, right? Next time we'll try to take chapter 46, 47, 48. And if we have time, 50. Okay? Because I want to set aside... I want to set aside chapter 49. Well, we're going to discover next time... Of course, they bring Jacob there, and there's a whole narrative issue we'll deal with, as we did this last time. And we'll tie some of these ideas together, perhaps, and get into some of it. But Jacob then does... There's two interesting things that happen, one of which we'll cover next time, one we'll hold for a special setting. One thing he does, he blesses the two sons of Joseph. Joseph has two sons in Egypt, Manasseh and Ephraim. And Jacob adopts those sons as his own. He doesn't just bless them. There's an adoption proceeding involved. Why? So there's 13 tribes. You all thought there were 12 tribes in Israel. Wrong. There's 13. And we'll talk about that. But the way he blesses them is very, very interesting. And we'll talk about that. And that's an easy thing to cover. But the one thing I'd like to sort of set aside... We may be able to tie together the rest of the book, narratively speaking. But we're going to hold out one thing, and that's chapter 49. In chapter 49, Jacob, on his deathbed, knowing he's on his deathbed, takes charge and gives a prophecy on each of the 12 tribes. And I'll mention it now, so those of you who want to look ahead can see. Chapter 49, verse 1, Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you what shall befall you, when? In the last days. And he gives a prophecy of the 12 tribes of Israel and their riddles. And we won't be able to unravel all of all the riddles. But we'll give you enough to give you a leg on. And you'll see, in each of these prophecies, there's an impact on the Old Testament history of that subsequent... the subsequent history of that tribe. You'll discover it has a New Testament implication. There's really sort of... In general, there'll be three possibilities. The Old Testament chronology of that tribe, the New Testament impact, particularly the life of Christ, and what some of these tribes show up in very interesting ways. And, of course, at the end times. And we're going to discover that the curse on the tribe of Dan, the apparent curse on the tribe of Dan, didn't start in Revelation 7. It started in Genesis 49. But there's so much in that study that I'd like to take that separately, if you will. So what I think we'll do, the Lord willing, is to see our way through the rest of the book of Genesis in the narrative sense. What happens when we move down to Egypt and all the rest of it. And we'll just sort of hold Chapter 49 out as a special little study. And we'll get into that specifically following. Okay? And so those of you that want to dig into that can. No, seriously. Let's stand for a closing prayer. Heavenly Father, we just praise you that you are so abundant to us. We thank you, Father, that you have provided for all our needs. We ask you, Father, to increase in us an appetite for these things. As we go forth, Father, we just pray that you would draw us into that portion of the word that meets our immediate need. We ask you, Father, as we go forth this week, to just increase in us a hunger for these things. Let us show forth Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen.