Joseph in God's house

Now will you turn please to the book of Genesis in chapter 49. While you're turning I will add my thank you for all who have come, especially some who have come from a distance to be with us. Maybe for two reasons, it's always helpful to have an audience that's larger and they needed people to help finish up the extra chicken downstairs, so it's good you came and I appreciate that.

Now we're going to read a number of scriptures. We'll read them in the order in which they occur in our Bible, not necessarily the order in which we're going to speak of them, and just for sake of order. Now Genesis chapter 49 and verse number 22.

Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and aided him, but his bow abode in strength. And the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.

From thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel, even by the God of thy father who shall help thee, and by the Almighty who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of the womb, the blessings of thy father have prevailed. Above the blessings of my progenitors, under the utmost bound of the everlasting hills, they shall be upon the head of Joseph and on the head of him, the head of him that was separate from his brethren. Chapter 50, and just down to verse number 24.

And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die, and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land which he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died being 110 years old, and they bombed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Look in Deuteronomy and chapter 33. Now this is the blessing of Moses, the man of God. A similar blessing to Jacob's in Genesis, but we're just going to break in chapter 33 of Deuteronomy in verse 13.

And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be his land for the precious things of heaven, for the due, and for the deep that coucheth beneath. Look down the chapter now, verse 17. His glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of a unicorn.

With them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth. They are the ten thousands of Ephraim. They are the thousands of Manasseh.

Turn to 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles and chapter 5. 1 Chronicles chapter 5 and verse number 1. Now the sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn. But for as much as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel.

And the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. For Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler, but the birthright was Joseph's. Psalm 105.

Psalm 105 and verse number 16. Moreover he called for a famine upon the land. He broke the whole staff of bread.

He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters. He was laid in iron until the time that his word came. The word of the Lord tried him.

The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free and made him lord of his house and ruler of all his substance, to bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom. One final section. Hebrews chapter 11.

Well known, but we should read it. Hebrews chapter 11. Verse number 22.

Hebrews 11 verse number 22. By faith Joseph, when he died or when he was dying, made mention concerning the departing of the children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. Now we trust that God will add his rich blessing to his word.

It was just mentioned that perhaps I could clarify what I said about Judah and Benjamin, so let me just take a moment to do that before we even look at the subjects before us. What was mentioned in the last meeting was that when Benjamin was found to have the silver cup, Joseph said that Benjamin had to stay and the rest, as we mentioned, he said somewhat ironically, the rest gets you up to your father in peace. And at that moment, Judah steps forward and in an impassioned plea, Judah offers to be substitute for Benjamin, that Judah will stay and become a slave and that Benjamin should go free and return to his father.

Now on the one hand, that is another one of the pictures of substitution that are found in the book of Genesis. Genesis is an interesting book, giving gleams of Calvary truth. If you take your time and look at it, you will find that Genesis is full of fathers who had to know sorrow because of their sons.

Beginning with the first son, or the first father, Adam and his son Abel, and then you can trace on up Abraham and Isaac, and Isaac and Jacob, and Jacob and Joseph. You can trace fathers and sons and the sorrow of parting between fathers and sons and as well the truth of substitution that is found throughout Genesis. But what I want to draw from this is just simply this, that when Judah offered to be substitute for Benjamin, it seemed to develop a link, to form a link between those two tribes that carried on all the way through the division between the north and the south, the ten tribes and the two, and back then the restoration and so on.

Because from that time on, Judah and Benjamin always stayed together. So when the ten tribes in the north revolted under Ephraim, the two tribes that stayed together in the south were Benjamin and Judah. So that this sacrificial love that Judah showed towards Benjamin seemed to forge a bond that was permanent between the two tribes from that time on.

Now that's just in passing, and what is before us now is almost like a gathering up of a lot of loose threads and a lot of loose things that we have perhaps not touched upon in Joseph's life, and some that we have. So some of it will be repetitious, and some of it hopefully will have a fresh aspect to it. I just have five things before me in the time before us.

I want to talk about Joseph and the birthright. I want to talk about Joseph and the blessing. I want to talk about Joseph and his bones.

I want to talk with you together about Joseph and his bonds, and finally about Joseph and his bequest. Very simple, easy to remember, and you'll hardly need to write anything down. You can just keep it in your mind.

Joseph and the blessing. Joseph and the birthright. Joseph and his bones.

Strange thing. Talk about your bones. Joseph and his bonds, and Joseph and his bequest.

So, come then in your thinking, first of all, you don't have to turn to it, come then in your thinking, first of all, to 1 Chronicles chapter 5, but the blessing, or rather the birthright, was Joseph's. Joseph came into the good of the birthright. It is really a lesson all about character.

Now, some may think I'm riding this horse far too much this weekend, but that's what it's about. It's about character. It says he wasn't the firstborn, but inasmuch as Reuben defiled his father's bed, the birthright became Joseph's, and Judah prevailed above his brethren, out of him would come the king, but the birthright was Joseph's.

Here was a man, not a matter of gift, not a matter of eloquence, not a matter of his attainments in life, but because of his character, God said the birthright is his. But not only was it his, by right of his character, but what you see in Joseph is a man who lived consistent. His life was absolutely consistent with what God had placed upon him of this privilege of birthright.

Joseph lived throughout his life absolutely consistent with where God had brought him. Now really, that's what Paul urges believers, isn't it, when he comes to Philippians, to walk worthy of the gospel, that our lives might be worthy, might be consistent with what we have been called. So we have been called saints.

Is our life consistent? Been called believers. Is our life consistent? Been called Christians. Is our life consistent? Been called brethren.

Is our life consistent? Disciples, are we consistent? What marked out this man? What set him apart from all of his brothers was that God brought him to a position, to a blessing, to a birthright, and from that moment on his life was consistent with where God had brought him. So there was character, there was consistency, there was conviction. There was a man who lived his life absolutely confident in the word of God and in the truth of God.

We mentioned at one of the early meetings that Joseph differs so much from all the other patriarchs in the book of Genesis in that to him there was only afforded one revelation from God, one communication from heaven. As a teenager in his father's house, two dreams in which God communicated divine purposes for him and for the rest of his life he lived and his life was controlled and molded and shaped and preserved by one revelation from God that he received as a teenager. He was absolutely convinced that when God had revealed to him as a boy God was able to fulfill.

So there was a life that had conviction behind it. And we live in a society, now you don't need me to depress you with truth about the world in which we live, but whether it's politicians, whether it's leaders, whatever it is, conviction is a very rare thing. You know what I mean? We went through not a current presidency, we went through a past presidency where opinion polls determined what the president believed and what the president would do.

And of course now that we have a president who doesn't budge with opinion polls, he's looked upon as being stubborn and intolerant and narrow-minded. Because now I'm not getting into a political debate whether he's right or wrong with his decisions, but people do not like individuals who have convictions, who are absolutely convinced this is the right thing. Seems intolerant in our day.

Our day is a day of tolerance and you change your view depending upon circumstances and you just move with the flow. As believers that should never mark us. I'm not suggesting we should be thick-headed and stubborn and unwilling to consider other things, but when God has spoken, when God has revealed truth, when God has made clear his intention for us, then there should be absolute conviction that this is the pathway.

This is what God intends for us. One word from God should be enough. One word from God should be enough to mold us and to direct us.

And so here then we have Joseph and his birthright. Let me talk to you about Joseph and the blessing. We read together there in Genesis 49 the last words of Jacob.

Interesting, I just say this in passing, interesting study to look at the last words of different individuals in the word of God. We have at least Jacob and we have Moses and we have David. These would be the last words of David.

We have Joshua and we have Paul's last words to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4. So the word of God affords us a number of instances of people either on their deathbed or very close to it, giving us their final words. Something very significant about final words. Here then are Jacob's final words and he comes to Joseph and he pronounces a tremendous blessing upon the head of Joseph.

But what you'll notice is that the blessing hinged upon four things. Hinged upon a man who knew suffering. It hinged upon the fact that here was a man who knew sacrifice.

Here was a man who knew separation. Here was a man who knew submission. So now, let me just go over those again because you can say them very quickly.

It only takes a few seconds to go over those four things. But it takes a lifetime to live them and learn them. If you want to be a blessing to the people of God, now I'm not saying you have to suffer.

Some believers are called upon to suffer and as a result of their sufferings, as a result of their grief, as a result of their tears, they then have become a blessing to the people of God in different ways, in different spheres. So for some, the pathway to becoming a blessing is through suffering. That's certainly the case with this man, Joseph, we've been looking at.

As a result of what he suffered, as a result of what he endured, blessing came to his brothers and then to an entire nation and to an entire world. Because as a result of what Joseph suffered, Israel was preserved and from thence came, of course, Judah and the Savior. In fact, that's what really Jacob says here, from thence is the shepherd.

As he tells us here in verse number 24, By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob, from thence is the shepherd the stone of Israel. It's interesting, and again, this is just an aside, this isn't what's before us. Interesting that in Genesis 49, in Jacob's last words, Jacob gives at least five unique presentations of Christ that you don't find elsewhere.

The first time he's mentioned as the shepherd, first time he's mentioned as the stone, first time he's mentioned as the scepter, first time we have the word salvation in our Bible. Now let me just say something practical because I've got gray hair so I'm allowed to say this. Not like I'm preaching to others that are older.

I would love, I would love that as I grow older, I would have fresh impressions of Christ. Just as Jacob did on his deathbed. Jacob is giving fresh impressions of Christ when he's about to die.

What a way to go. What a way to go out of life, enjoying Christ. Not a grumpy, grouchy, miserable old man thinking, you know, what's going to happen when I'm gone, but just enjoying Christ and giving fresh revelations of Christ.

But now coming back then to Joseph, if I can, it meant first of all suffering, but maybe more realistically for most of us it is going to mean sacrifice. To be a blessing to the people of God, it is going to mean sacrifice. Sacrifice of time.

Sacrifice of very legitimate things that others can do and there's not a thing wrong with them. Nothing sinful, nothing evil, nothing wrong with them. Some things in fact very commendable, but if you're going to be a blessing, sometimes you have to say no.

Sometimes you have to have time where you can be alone with God, whether it's prayer, whether it's studying, whether it's getting ready for a Bible reading. It is going to mean you have to do things and spend time that perhaps others know nothing about. Time that could well be spent on a side interest.

Could be spent on some innocent past time. But your choice is between that hobby and time with the Word of God. Your choice is between that particular diversion and spending time visiting.

It's going to mean sacrifice. There is no other way. From Genesis to Revelation, if something costs you nothing, that's what it's worth.

If it costs you nothing, that's what it's worth. So what really is worth something is what it's going to cost you. It doesn't necessarily mean dipping into your pocket, though it's rare you can be a help without doing that.

Very few stingy people bring blessing to the people of God. So it's got to cost something. Time, energy, legitimate pleasures, hobbies, legitimate pursuits.

There needs to be this understanding that if I am going to be useful for God, if I am going to be a blessing, if from my life is going to be help for the assembly, help for the unsaved, help for others in some way, if God is going to work through me, I have to learn sacrifice in some sphere. Now, just a word of caution. God does not call upon husbands to sacrifice wives and wives to sacrifice husbands.

God calls upon a husband to sacrifice himself. So you still have responsibilities towards a spouse. It's not, well, I won't spend any time with my wife, I'll just come home from work, go into my study and study my Bible and get ready.

Now, it's sacrificing myself, not my wife. Sacrificing myself, not my children. And so it is a matter of recognizing that the pathway to usefulness for God is going to be through sacrifice.

But then the third thing that Jacob says about his son, Joseph, he says, upon the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brothers. Separate from his brothers. Now, I guess there are several ways we can understand that.

Joseph stood apart from them morally to begin with. He was separate from them. He did not go in with their ways, he did not go in with their vile talk, he did not go in with the dishonor they brought their father.

He was separate. Morally, he was pure and separate. He did not follow their example when it came to impurity in relationships.

He said no to a wicked woman. He was separate from all that. But then again, there is a sense in which he was separated because they rejected him.

They despised him and they cast him out. And then of course God separated him from them in Egypt for those many, many years. But whatever way we take it, however we want to look at it, there comes this great principle that my usefulness for God is not going to be measured by how close and how much I can be like the world.

How much I can be like the ungodly. It is going to be measured by the principle of being separate. Now, separation is not isolation.

Separation is not a holier than thou isolation that looks down on others and wants nothing to do with them and doesn't come near them. Joseph was available to people. He was available to a butler and to a baker.

Joseph was available to whoever needed help. He was an available man, but a separated man. And so likewise, in your life, your usefulness for God will hinge upon suffering, upon sacrifice, and upon separation.

Not again, isolation. But not taking character from the world in which we live. Not thinking like it.

Not acting like it. Not talking like it. Now, I don't mean that we have to stand out as oddities.

I don't think we should be drawing attention to ourselves by either extreme. But I do think that we need to have a clear pathway where we are not like the world in its ways, in its pursuits, and in its attitude. But then one final thing.

All of that would have been of little avail had this final item not been part of Joseph's job description, and that is submission. Not just was he a man that knew suffering, and a man that knew sorrow, and a man that knew sacrifice, and a man that had known separation, but he was a man that was marked by submission. Submission to the circumstances God brought into his life.

As painful and as difficult as they were, he was able to submit himself to whatever God allowed to occur. And to recognize that there is a hand that is in control, that is guiding, that is shaping, that will direct me, and that will eventually bring me to his purposes. I can leave it with God.

So, what then is the pathway for every believer? I think it's obvious that submission to circumstances that God allows. You recall, don't you, Acts 16, when Paul and Silas, they were seeking to turn, to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit suffered them not? What did they do? They were submissive. They had an exercise, a burden, and they wished to move into that territory, but the Spirit, in some way, we don't know quite how, the Spirit said no, and they just simply submitted themselves.

And then the door opens to go into Europe, and the Gospel is spread in Philippi and elsewhere, and a whole new area is opened up for the, a whole new continent, really, was opened up for the Gospel. Think of Samuel as he is laboring in the temple, in the temple precincts, and think of the iniquity and the wickedness that is endemic in that area. And as a young boy, he is just simply serving and submitting to Eli.

Doesn't criticize Eli? He has such tremendous respect for the man? We would have told Eli, Eli, what is wrong with you? Get your act together. But Samuel is seen submissive and working, laboring, just doing what God gives him to do, waiting God's time, submissive to circumstances, submissive to his environment, submissive to where he is placed. So that submission to things we have that God has not called us to control is vital.

When when John takes up his pen to write to Gaius in 3 John, he is writing to conditions that we would call, you'd hardly call it an assembly. Yet he doesn't tell Gaius to rebel, he doesn't tell Gaius to develop a group of believers around him to overthrow diatrophies, he just tells Gaius, just submit. You do what you can there.

You continue to seek to further the work of God to the very best of your ability, leave diatrophies to me. Now, we don't have apostles, so you'll allow me just to translate that into modern day words, just leave that to God. So that in every set of circumstances God expects submission.

Rebellion breeds rebellion. So that those who rebel to get their way will have to face rebellion against themselves in a future day. That's the history of the world, isn't it? That every tyrant that comes in on the heels of rebellion, he's going to face rebellion himself someday.

God doesn't put any value on rebels. And so there needs to be this great principle of submission. Joseph submitted himself to whatever God allowed, and he waited for God to work out his purposes.

And whatever set of circumstances he found himself in, he sought to the very best of his ability to serve God in that set of circumstances for God's glory. Joseph and his blessing, blessing as a result of suffering, blessing as a result of sacrifice, blessing as a result of separation, blessing as a result of submission. Let me come though to Joseph and his bones.

Now we didn't take time to read all of the scriptures that could have been read about this, because we turn to Exodus, at the time of the Exodus, we read that Moses took the bones of Joseph. And if we turned over to Joshua, is it tell us that they came into the land and they buried the bones of Joseph. And then of course the final record that we did read in Hebrews chapter 11 of Joseph when he was dying making mention concerning his bones.

So what lessons can we learn from the bones of Joseph? I think there are tremendous lessons. I want you to think first of all of the honor. The honor conveyed upon men who carried the ark of Joseph.

Actually just so I don't confuse you, that actually is the word that is used at the end of Genesis 50. They embalmed him and put him in an ark in Egypt. So if you want to get a trivial pursuit question, you could ask how many arks were carried through the desert.

There were really two arks. There was the ark of the covenant and there was the ark that contained the bones of Joseph. Now we don't know who carried these bones.

We know the Levites had to carry the other ark. Who carried this ark? We don't know. But I just want you to think of the honor.

The honor it must have been to men to have the privilege of carrying that ark. We're carrying a testimony to our Redeemer. That's what they were doing, wasn't it? He's our Redeemer.

He's our Savior. Joseph is the one who saved us from dying. God sent him before us to preserve us of posterity.

Joseph was our Savior. Imagine, we have the honor of carrying this testimony all the way through the wilderness. Now do you need me to apply that? Do you need me to connect the dots for you? What an honor we have as an assembly to bear testimony not just at a breaking of bread, but in all of our gatherings and in all of our functioning, to bear testimony to our Redeemer.

It's a tremendous honor. But linked with that honor was the harmony it demanded. The harmony it demanded.

Did you ever try to carry a piano down steps with two or three other men? You know what it's like. Wait, wait. Hold on.

Wait. Let me get my footing first. You go that way.

No, you've got to turn it this way. And you've got to work together, don't you? Well, imagine four men carrying the ark through the wilderness. They'd have to keep in step.

Have to have one goal. One might tend to want to walk a little faster than the other, and one might tend to be a bit slower. One might just have a different rhythm he wanted to get into.

Wait a minute. We have to be together in this. We're not going to compromise our principles.

We're here to carry the ark. We want to display the ark. And we all have the same destination that we're going to.

And we all have the same golden view. But you know, maybe we've got to compromise some of our preferences. You'd prefer to go a little faster.

You'd prefer to be in front rather than the back. Those are just preferences. Those aren't part of the script.

Can we maybe compromise some of our preferences? Just yield some of what we would prefer for personal reasons and recognize, well, here's what's vital. Here's what is essential. Here's what's scriptural.

So it would have had to promote a harmony with them. Because really what they wanted after all was make sure the ark is upheld. Make sure that it's traveling with us and it's moving with us and that the entire camp can see we're bearing testimony to a Redeemer.

Now there are many things in assembly life that require compromise. We don't like that word. It suggests that we're compromising truth.

But we never compromise principle. We never compromise truth. But if you really face reality, how many divisions and difficulties in assemblies are over truth? 99.9% are over personalities.

Personal difficulties. Personal issues between believers. We sometimes put a veneer of truth upon it to make it look good.

But the vast majority of times our difficulties are personalities. Personality differences. Difficulties coping with each other.

Preferences that we have and styles that we have. And we have difficulty and we somehow try to make them into major issues and scriptural issues when they're not. The recognition of harmony that do we all have the same goal? Is our goal really to uphold the name of the Lord Jesus and to bear testimony to him.

To bring honor to him as we carry his testimony to the world. That's what these men had to recognize. Harmony is essential if we are going to be successful in carrying this chest, this ark with the bones of Joseph.

And to do it in a way that is fitting to Joseph. First of all, it was an honor. Harmony was required.

But then also, I cannot help but think of the holiness it must have fostered in their souls. Holiness. Now why do I say that? Can you think of men carrying the bones of Joseph through the wilderness and it never dawning on them? Think of what our sin cost Joseph.

Think of what we did as a nation to Joseph. Think of what our fathers did to Joseph. Think of how we treated him.

Think of the years of suffering that he knew down in Egypt. Think of the dungeon. Think of the pit.

Think of the bondage he knew. That's what our sin cost Joseph. Maybe the men, as they were carrying the ark together, they would talk about what envy must have been like.

And what hatred for a brother must have been like. What hostility must have been like. And how Joseph must have felt it so keenly.

And as they would carry those bones on that ark, they would rise in each man's soul an abhorrence for sin and what sin had cost. We get a little taste of that, don't we, when we sit to remember the Lord. When we think of what our sin cost him.

Dear young believer, never, never begin to think that when the Lord Jesus died and suffered for sins, some of what He suffered was for you. All that He suffered was for you. It took a whole Christ for every one of us.

Don't ask me to explain it. It isn't as though one trillionth of what Christ suffered was because of you and one trillionth was because of me and when you add it all up, you get the totality of His sufferings and all the people that He suffered for. No.

It took an entire Christ to save one soul. Everything He endured, everything He suffered, everything He passed through was just because of you and just because of me. It's only because He was an infinite person that that could be true and I can't do the math.

I can't explain it to you. I can't add it up and give you a nice logical explanation but it took all of Christ just to save you and to make you the child of God you are today. So undoubtedly it would have fostered in their minds a deep sense of holiness and abhorrence for sin.

But linked with that side by side was not just the holiness but the humility it must have bred into them. The humility. Because they would realize what happened back there was what our fathers did but you know, we're really no different.

We're really no different. So when I read of what men did to the Lord Jesus, of men who in hatred and with malice inspired by Satan spit in his face, buffeted him, mocked him, scorned him, toyed with him like a cat would toy with a captured mouse. When I see all that I realize, you know, I would have done the same thing.

I would have done the very same thing had I been there. I'm no different. I am made of the same stuff as they are made of.

I would have spit. I would have mocked. I would have railed.

I would have blasphemed. I would have taken the scourge and applied it to his back. I'm no different.

That's me. And as those men would carry the ark, carry the bones of Joseph, it would undoubtedly create in their souls a deep sense of humility. We are no better than our fathers.

What a wonder that God has redeemed us. What a wonder that God has brought us out of Egypt. What a wonder that God has given us this privilege.

What a wonder that God has taken notice of us. When after all, all we are are individuals who are filled with sin and hatred and enmity against God. Likewise, bearing testimony for the Lord Jesus Christ, not only should it promote harmony and not only should it promote holiness, but should promote humility in us.

Humility to realize that we are no different from the men that impale them to a tree. But grace has saved us. Grace has changed us.

Grace has fitted us. Grace has blessed us so richly. And as a result then, we should be marked by humility in our dealings with each other, in our relationship with the Lord.

But one other thing that doubtless was fostered. There was an honor that was conferred. There was holiness that was being cultivated.

There was harmony that was being established as they would walk together. There was humility that was being developed. But I think also there must have been as they carried those bones, hope.

Hope that was strengthened in their souls. Centuries earlier, Joseph had said, God will surely visit you. And when he does, you carry my bones up hence.

The children of Israel must have many, many times when they were slaves in Egypt, wondered. Boy, Joseph said God was going to visit us. When's it going to happen? I wonder if Joseph knew what he was saying.

Maybe Joseph meant it symbolically in some way. You know, just symbolically and it really isn't literal. But when God moved, when God redeemed, and when God brought them out, and as they're carrying those bones to the wilderness, they would realize God has done the hard thing.

He has brought us out. Joseph said God was going to visit to bring us out so he could bring us in. So if God has done the hard thing in bringing us out, redeeming us, ridding us of the cruel bondage of the Egyptian might, it's going to be a little thing for God to bring us in.

So our hopes are confirmed. We're going in. God has said it.

These bones remind us. These bones are a witness, a testimony, an assurance that the God that brought us out is going to be the God that brings us in. And so likewise, when we gather on a Lord's Day morning, and we think of the fact that God has done the hard thing, He's redeemed us.

He saved us. Delivered us from this present evil age. God has done the hard thing.

We can be sure God will do the easy thing. Now that we are fit for heaven, no problem for God to take us to heaven. And so we're reminded by the Apostle in his expressions in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do show the Lord's death till He come.

God has done the hard thing. Now He can do the easy thing. You might say, taking us home to heaven is easy? Compared to saving us, yes.

It cost Him His Son to save us. That was the hard thing. It cost Him everything to save us.

That was the hard thing. Had to change us. Had to transform us.

Had to give us a new nature. Had to give us of His Spirit. That was the hard thing.

Taking us to heaven will be the relatively easy thing. In a sense, and I say it reverently, it will cost God nothing to take us to heaven. That won't cost God a thing.

But it cost God everything to do the hard thing. So, the bones of Joseph? Honor, harmony, holiness, humility, and hope. Let me talk to you though about Joseph then and his bonds.

Psalm 105 is a psalmic commentary upon the sufferings of Joseph. It tells us in Psalm 105, whose feet they hurt with fetters. And the version in the English Standard Version of that verse is, rather than he was laid in iron, let me give you a couple of versions because I like them all.

Mr. Newberry says the iron entered into his soul. The English Standard Version says, whose neck was put in a collar of iron. So, you can take your pick, but I think you can get the picture and you can see clearly.

Here was a man whose freedom, whose feet they hurt with fetters. His freedom was hindered, but not his fruitfulness. His liberty, but not his life.

He was able to serve God in the sphere in which he was found. The iron entered into his soul. His soul was grieved, but yet his soul grew amidst that set of circumstances.

But let me just take you to where I'd like to go with this for a moment. It's interesting if you take the different expressions that are used concerning Joseph's sufferings. We didn't read it.

When Joseph's brothers come back to, rather not come back, but came down to Egypt the first time, and Joseph imprisons Simeon to see if they are really true men and not spies, you recall that the brothers began talking amongst themselves. And what they said is, we saw the anguish of his soul. We saw the anguish of his soul.

When you come to Jacob, we read together in chapter 49, Jacob says the archers have sorely grieved him. Sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him. So the brothers said, we saw the anguish of his soul.

The father says the archers have hated him and sorely grieved him. Joseph says when he names his second son, this is the land of my affliction. I have known afflictions here.

But what I want to bring you to is God's commentary. Because the eye of God peers beyond all that brothers and father and even Joseph himself. And the eye of God says the iron entered into his soul.

God appreciated. God alone appreciated the true depths of sorrow that Joseph knew. In his years of suffering.

In his years of anguish. Now we could understand and apply that in two ways, both of which are profitable. Because if you go to Psalm 69, a psalm concerning the sufferings of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ says, Thou hast known my reproach, my shame, my dishonor, mine adversaries are all before thee.

Thou hast known. We can only know it a little bit. We can only measure it in part.

But God knows all that his son passed through. All the shame, all the reproach, all the dishonor. Only God can measure all of that.

In its fullness that his son endured. But could I just apply it in a different way for a moment. Apply it to individual believers.

Believers that know sorrow and that know grief. That know loneliness, that know heartache. That know loss.

That know tears. And just to remind you that while at times we as believers are very insensitive to each other, we can become very cold, very callous, very uncaring. We just sometimes don't think.

Get so absorbed with our own difficulties, our own problems, our own trials that sometimes we're very insensitive to each other. So that there are many, many believers who leave meetings such as this and go home to empty houses. Go home to lonely nights.

Go home to problems with children and problems in family life. Smile on their face when they're amongst the Christians. Warm handshake when you shake their hand.

And when you ask them how they're doing, they say fine because they know really no one wants to hear the tale of discouragement and woe they know. So could I just bring you to where Joseph is and remind you that while brothers and sisters may not appreciate, while others may not understand that there is one heart, there is one person who knows fully the grief and sorrow of every heart. One who alone is able to measure all the sorrow that every heart knows.

It's the only one. The only one that can accurately and carefully and fully understand. We live in a world that is full of sorrow and sighs and tears.

Sorrows upon the wind and sorrows upon the sea. A world that groans under the burden of the results of sin. But there is one heart that appreciates and understands all about it.

He knows and he cares. So here we find that Joseph, despite all of his grief and all of his bondage, Psalm 105 reminds us that God appreciated what he had passed through. So whatever it is in Christian life, while it is my responsibility as a believer to seek to appreciate, to be available, to minister to your hurts, to your needs, to your grief, to your sorrow, the flip side of that is, and this is hard to understand, but please try to understand what I am saying.

The flip side is, I should never look to you to meet my grief and sorrow. You should always look to the Lord. He is the only one that understands.

God will use other believers. He will use sometimes the most unlikely Christians to come and minister at times of need and at times of sorrow and at times of grief and at times of perplexity. He will use believers to meet my needs.

But I should never be looking to believers and expecting them to come to me and to... No, I always look to the Lord because He is really the only one that knows. And He will bring into my life that which is needed for comfort and that which is needed for strength. And so, on the one hand, as believers, we need to take a crash course in sensitivity to the needs, the sorrows, the griefs of other Christians.

But on the other hand, we need not to become self-occupied and looking for others to meet our needs, but to learn to depend upon a Lord who is able, through His Word and through His people, to minister to us and to meet our needs. Let me come then in closing to Hebrews chapter 11 and talk to you about Joseph and his bequest. It's both Genesis 50 and Hebrews chapter 11.

Let me just mention one thing. Again, it's not necessarily what I had in mind saying. It just comes to mind as I'm looking at it here.

And that is, it is interesting that when Joseph dies, his wording is so similar to what Jacob says when Jacob dies. When Jacob is about to die and he speaks to his sons, he says to Joseph, Behold, I die. God shall be with you and bring you again unto the land of your fathers.

Now Joseph is going to say almost the same exact words. Behold, I die. God will visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land and so on.

So what I learned there is this simple lesson. The way Jacob died influenced the way Joseph died. So both the way we live and the way we die can have a tremendous influence on coming generations.

But coming back then to just Joseph and his final words here as he is about to die, I want you to see a man with vision. A man with vision. He saw the future and he saw a better land.

Now I think one of our great needs as leaders especially is to have vision. To have vision. What are we looking for for the future for the assembly and what are we looking for for the future for our own lives and so on.

So vision is not a bad thing to have but the vision here that we are looking at in Joseph's life is a man who saw that God is going to visit you and bring you up and bring you in. He is a man that had vision for the future for the people of God. If you want to startle people ask them what vision do you have for your assembly five years from now? Most of us don't think that way.

We think about next Sunday or the next series of meetings but what vision do you have for your assembly five years from now? What would you like to see? What areas covered with the gospel and what teaching given and so on? Vision. There is nothing wrong with having vision, having goals that you can see that God is working towards. God gave this vision to or this goal mind, this mindset to Joseph that God was going to visit his people and deliver them and years from now they wouldn't be where they are now.

They would have advanced. They would have made progress in spiritual things. He was a man with vision and he had that vision even upon his deathbed.

He wasn't just thinking about himself. He wasn't just absorbed with himself. He wasn't just absorbed with his vision for the people of God.

Joseph and his vision. But his deathbed also revealed he had values and his values were this, I would rather be bones in a coffin than a mummy in Egypt. I would rather be bones in a coffin that will someday move onward to another land than be mummified and glorified and remembered here in Egypt.

You've all been to museums. You've all seen the mummies of Egypt and how they were preserved and how they were kept and how they were honored and how they were buried with tremendous fanfare and with tremendous expense and all that went with it. Joseph was second ruler in the land and he could well have been mummified and would have been mummified, I would gather, because of the importance of his position.

But he said, no, that's not what I want. I'm not looking for glory here in Egypt. I'm not looking for permanence here in Egypt.

I'm not looking to become an object for people to come and venerate here in Egypt. Don't mummify me. Just put my bones in a coffin and carry my bones up when God delivers you, when God visits.

He would rather be bones than be a mummy. Because, you see, linked with his vision and linked with his values was obviously a verdict that he passed. The verdict that he passed was, this is not my home.

This is not my home. God is going to visit. I'm going to a better land.

I am going to a different land. I am going to the place that God has promised. And so I would rather just be bones here because God has something better there.

We have become so earthbound, me, number one, no question, so earthbound, so tied to earth, so tied to things that carry meaning and value to us here. Joseph said, this is not my home. I may be second ruler.

I may have accumulated vast wealth and vast prestige and honor and power here in this land, but really this is not my home. And I want all Israel to remember for however long you are here, when they look at my bones, to remember we're going home someday. This is not my home.

We're going home someday. This isn't our home. Despite how attached we get to it, despite how linked we become to it, this isn't our home.

Joseph said, I would rather just be bones. I don't want glory here. I don't want honor here.

I don't want people venerating me here. I'd rather be buried there in the land linked with promise, in the place linked with all of God's purposes, in the place linked with all of the prospects we have as a people of God. We're going to a land where all of our prospects, all of God's promises, all of God's purposes will be fulfilled.

We're going home someday. And like Joseph, may we daily make pass the verdict upon earth. This really isn't our home.

We live here, we move here, we bear testimony for God here, but we're going to a different land. May the Lord help us and encourage us from these simple lessons from the life of Joseph. To learn lessons from Joseph's birthright, lessons from Joseph's blessing, blessing from Joseph's bones, lessons from Joseph's bonds, lessons from Joseph's final bequest.

Shall we speak to God in prayer?