In this lesson, we examine what trials Joseph went through in Egypt, how Joseph responded to those trials, and how God worked a great and compassionate plan through it all. We also take time to note how we can follow Joseph’s example in our own lives.
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but you looked at the life of Joseph the some of the early events that happened in his life and how we can see that God is Sovereign through them so one of the biggest lessons from last week I think one of the biggest themes was seeing how God orchestrated so many events that when you look at them kind of in a vacuum they didn’t seem like much and it wasn’t just in Joseph’s lives but it was in the life of his grandparents and his parents and his siblings and his aunt and uncle you know there were so many um events in lives of so many people that had to be tweaked in such a way for Joseph to be led to Egypt and one of the one of the things that came out when I was listening I don’t know who said it but someone made a comment to Dave I’m just talking about the fact that even though God orchestrated some of the things that or some of the things that he orchestrated were sinful um or working through the sins of people it doesn’t mean that those people are free of guilt so for instance uh Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery because God used that to bring him to Egypt that doesn’t mean that now they’re free and you know they have no guilt and the biggest examples I think you can see of that in the Bible are when countries uh Assyria or Babylon are mentioned by God as his devices you know he I forgot the term that he used for the king of Assyria I think he called him my servant so saying that these people are my servant because they’re doing my will but then he in a generation or two generations after punishes them for their sins against Israel or or Judah so we see that even though God is working through these events or even with Judas you know between Jesus we see that that God is working through these events that doesn’t mean now that those people are free of guilt because we just because we serve a sovereign God doesn’t mean that when we sin or When unbelievers sin and something comes out of it that we see it as a blessing it doesn’t mean that the person who sinned is now free whether it’s us or anyone else so that’s just something that came out of that but I think it was at the very end of the um lesson last week so you know Dave didn’t get to really talk about it a lot all right so this week we’re going to talk about Joseph in Egypt and we have a lot to cover it’s chapters 39 through 50.
so we’re finishing up Genesis or at least with this theme so before we go to that and everybody has this handout it’s basically going to walk us through a section of it and we’re actually I want us to complete it together rather than taking time apart and doing on your own because we won’t have time so before we begin the lesson let’s go to the Lord in prayer our father and God we just want to thank you for um you being sovereign and us being able to trust in that and rest in that truth I thank you God that you loved us so much God that you worked out events in our lives and the lives of our parents and people we didn’t even know to bring us to a point where we would hear the gospel and we would believe it and come to faith in Christ so I thank you God for doing that and I thank you God for bringing us here today to hear your word and I pray God that you will just help us have a discussion that would honor you and that will bring us all uh closer to Christ and cause us to hate sin more and to trust in you more in Christ’s name we pray amen thank you Okay so the first thing that we see we’re going to look at verse unto me chapter 39 and should actually grab a Bible because I’m going to have to do a lot of the reading so I’m stealing someone’s problem all right just to get it on the recording but everybody turn to Genesis 39. and we’re going to start with verses one through six but we’re going to end up going through the whole chapter so Genesis chapter 39 verse 1-6 says now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and potiphar an Egyptian officer of pharaoh the captain of The Bodyguard bought him from the ishmaelites who had taken him down there and the Lord was with Joseph so he became a successful man and he was in the house of his master the Egyptian now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord calls all that he did to prosper in his hand so Joseph found favor in his sight and became his personal servant and he made him overseer over his house and all that he owned he put in his charge and it came about from that time he made him Overseer in his house and over all that he owned the Lord blessed the Egyptians house on account of Joseph thus the Lord’s blessing was upon all that he owned in the house and in the field so he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge and with him there didn’t there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate now Joseph was handsome and forming appearance so if you look at the the sheet that the handout the way that is broken up is there was a circumstance or situation that Joseph was in we look at his response and then we look at the result based on how he responded so what would you say the circumstances of what we just read the first six verses here in very simple terms small enough that it can fit in that box damn okay so Joseph is a Slave and he finds favor in his master’s eyes then he wouldn’t say anything different in that okay good you shouldn’t see anything different I don’t want anybody to create anything elaborate um so he found himself in slavery and he was enslaved in a foreign land after being kidnapped and sold into slavery by his brothers so what was his response to being in slavery oh what did he do I mean what does it say from the tech state that he did I mean yes yes so just to repeat it for the recording um he must have put forth his best effort so he didn’t just serve he served excellently because it says that all that he did was was blessed the Lord was with him all that his master had was blessed as well so it wasn’t just that he said I am here okay I guess if I don’t want him to kill me I better do something but that he worked with excellence and so what was the result damn okay so it’s massive Trust of him and gave him a lot of power and responsibility so and just keep in mind we’re looking at the life of one person I’ve Just Seen Joseph use so many times as almost like a road map in a sense looking at his life and everyone in a bad situation says well my life has to improve Uncle Joseph and from a worldly standpoint that isn’t always the case your life won’t improve in that sense but being faithful to God means that you’re going to have God’s blessing but it may not look like it did in Joseph’s case but anyway we’re still called to be faithful in whatever situation that we’re in um so what did potiphar notice about Joseph just from here it’s stated in verse two and then it says in verse 3 potiphar actually noticed it about him the Lord was with him and that’s that’s very important it just struck me that you know we know a couple times is going to say that the Lord was with him but it says in verse 3 now his master saw that the Lord was with him that this pagan man saw that the Lord was with Joseph and to me that’s just an amazing statement and it’s a testament to how Joseph behaved how he conducted himself and how hard he worked and the Integrity that he had in what he did and we’ll see that a little later on so it’s not just us filling in too many blanks it’s us you know seeing the pattern of his life okay in the next section uh we look at kind of a famous story where we look at Joseph being tempted in verses 7 through 19 and we’ll see how he handed handled that so Genesis chapter 39 verse 7 and it came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph and she said lie with me but he refused and said to his master’s wife behold with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in the house and he has put all that he owns in my charge there is no greater no one greater in this house than I and he has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife how then could I do this great evil and sin against God and it came about as she spoke to Joseph day after day that he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her now what happened one day that he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the household was there inside and she caught him by His Garment saying lie with me and he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside when she saw that he had left His Garment in her hand and the fled outside she called to the men of her household and said to them see he has brought in a Hebrew to make us to make sport of us he came into me to lie with me and I screamed and it came about when he heard that I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside so she left His Garment beside her until his master came home then she spoke to him with these words the Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came into me to make sport of me and it happened as I raised my voice and screamed that he left his garment beside me and fled outside verse 19. now it came about when his master heard the words of his wife which he spoke to him saying this is what your slave did to me that is anger burned all right we’ll stop there so again looking at your the handout that you received what’s the circumstance here what’s the situation that Joseph finds herself in Craig so he’s falsely accused his master’s wife tries to seduce him and we’ll actually see what his response is um so he was falsely accused but what happened why why did he find himself in that position so you falsely accused I think would would probably be the result he was falsely accused and put into prison but even the circumstance before that is that he was under this great temptation that she wanted to seduce him that she tried and look at verse 10 how often did it say he had to deal with this temptation every day so every day he’s coming to work and he has this woman who technically has power over him trying to seduce him and every day he has to turn her away until it just boiled over into this his response was what they uh yes so he his response he didn’t just say no but he said no because he didn’t want to sin against God Rob you know right so Rob was just noting how incredible it is the fact that he was faced with this temptation every day and then when it finally came to a point where she just grabbed him and said all right you’re doing this that he was able to just run he didn’t think about it he didn’t weigh his options he just ran and it showed that really shows us that the Lord was with him and you know I think for all of us we want to have this type of reaction when Temptation comes we don’t want to have to think about it and say should I do it if I do it I might get caught and if I get caught this might we want to just run we want to immediately have this type of response I thought someone was raising a hand um so the response is that he refused her and he stated that he didn’t want to sin against God um you know and I love that and I love even even you know the words of David when he sinned and he confesses sin to God and said it is against you that I have sinned you and you alone you know wasn’t just the people that he sinned against obviously people were involved and they get sinned against and and people get hurt by our sin many times but we know ultimately we’re sinning against God whether there was another human involved or not there’s always sin and there’s always someone being sinned against so every sin every time we sin we sin against God no matter if we’re doing it alone or hurting other people in the process and the result Craig said he was falsely accused and so what happened okay so he was thrown in prison and to me that that shows God’s hand in all of this because I don’t I don’t know too many husbands who are in the positions of power like this to come home and their wife would say this man tried to rape me this man you have complete power over this man who you could kill and not be prosecuted no one would care because he’s your property and instead he said okay I’m gonna throw them in prison I mean that shows God’s hand in all of this because I don’t know how many men who would have left them living you know if this this happened so to me that really shows God’s God’s hand in all of this okay so the next section is just the the short section of of here of the remaining part of the chapter um starting at verse 20 so Joseph’s Master took him and put him into jail the place where the king’s prisoners were confined and he was there in the jail but the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and gave him favor in the sight of the chief Jailer and the chief Jailer committed to Joseph charge all the prisoners who were in the jail so that whatever was done there he was responsible for it the chief Jailer that did not supervise anything under Joseph’s charge because the Lord was with him and whatever he did the Lord made to prosper okay so filling out this the handout again we’re in the third row so what was the circumstance here okay okay so we see now he’s he’s in jail he’s in this special uh prison which is in the next chapter we see is going to be very important um that he’s here and he’s given this this charge now where he is given an opportunity to serve um his other prisoners whether the coal prisoners I guess you would say um so what was his response we have to kind of assume a little that it was the same type of response that he had in the first uh circumstance when he was serving potiphar so I would assume that he served with Excellence for the same reason that we said he did in the case of serving potiphar is that the Jailer saw his service he saw his integrity and then said wow I can trust you with everything that’s been entrusted to me and the result of him taking this partial command and doing so well with it he was put in charge of everything he’s been in charge of the full prison so he was thrown in prison although he was innocent that he responded by serving with integrity and then because of that he was put in charge of the entire prison and I wish we could spend more time with this but since we have 11 more chapters to cover we kind of have to move out of this but the theme that we should see even though we can’t examine all the details is how God is Sovereign God is at work and the Lord is with him through all of this and causing these things to happen giving him the strength to work with integrity and also resist temptation so going to now Genesis 40.
starting at verse 1. then it came about after these things the cup Bearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord the king of Egypt and Pharaoh were furious with his two officials the chief cupbearer and the chief Baker so he put them in confinement In The House of the captain of The Bodyguard in the jail the same place where Joseph was in prison and the captain of The Bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them and he took care of them and they were in confinement for some time then the cup Bearer and the baker for the king of Egypt who were confined in jail they both had a dream the same night each man with his own dream and each dream with his own interpretation when Joseph came to them in the morning and observed them behold they were dejected and he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in confinement in his master’s house while your face is so sad today then they said to him we have had a dream and there is no one to interpret it then Joseph said to them do not interpretations belong to God tell it to me please so the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him in my dream behold there was a Vine in front of me and on the vine were three branches and as it was budding its blossoms came out and its clusters produce ripe grapes now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup and I put the cup in into Pharaoh’s hand and Joseph said to him this is the interpretation of it for three branches or three days within three days three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office and you will put Pharaoh’s cup into his hand according to your former position it’s gonna be a form of custom when you were in his cup Bearer only keep in mind when it goes well with you and please do me a kindness by mentioning me to pharaoh and get me out of this house for I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and even here I have done nothing that they should have put me into the junk the dungeon when the chief Baker saw that he had interpreted favorably he said to Joseph I also saw in my dream and behold there were three baskets of white bread on my head and in the top basket there were some of all sorts of baked food for pharaoh and the birds were eating them out of the basket of my head then Joseph answered and said this is the interpretation the three baskets are three days within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head and you will hang and will hang you on a tree and the birds will eat your flesh off you thus it came about on the third day which was Pharaoh’s birthday that he made a feast for all his servants and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief Baker among his servants and He restored the chief cupbearer to his office and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand and he hanged the chief Baker Justice Joseph has interpreted to them yet the chief cup Bearer did not remember Joseph but forgot him in verse 1 of the next chapter now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream and behold he was standing by the Nile okay so what’s the circumstance here what’s what’s the situation Joseph finds himself in what does he asked to do Ken real simple just a few words Shea okay so he Joseph was still in prison here and remember he is in charge now and as he goes to to serve these two officials they say we had a dream and they um and Joseph has to interpret the dream so what was his response right so he before he interprets the dream he tells them that it’s really God who gives the interpretation if there’s interpretation to be had then it’s God who’s going to provide it and I think that’s very important even today for us to to remember that um so I love that he said that it’s it’s like before where he said you know if I sin I sin against God and if I’m going to be able to interpret your dreams it’s going to be because God gives me the interpretation and what’s the result he interpreted the dreams for them and we see that they come true so the dreams come true and then what happens with Joseph just from what we read did anything happen no why not saying so the cup ever forgets him and now he has to sit in jail for two more years and that’s why I wanted us to read to verse 1 of chapter 41 so we could see that he was left there for two years Danny your life well so just to repeat for the recording or to summarize um you know Danny’s pointing out that you know it’s amazing to look at Joseph’s character and to see that he was so responsive and so willing to serve these prisoners who were under him and who at the time had no status you know because they offended pharaoh and now they were thrown in prison and he wanted to serve them just because he wanted to serve them not because he thought he could get something out of it when he realized what was going to happen with the cup Bearer that was only the time we asked for something but it’s great to see that and he should be a model for us when we’re looking we’re going through life and we’re in positions to be a blessing to people and we see people who are suffering or struggling people who are downcast or you know people don’t really pay attention to that that should be part of our Focus especially you know as Believers and you know we have the spirit of God the Lord is with us always the way that he was with Joseph so we have to remember that that we’re even empowered and we’re called or commanded to do these things and Joseph is a great example of it actually working out okay so the last row on this uh sheet is going to guide us into the next section um of Joseph’s life so right now he’s in jail um and we’re going to start at verse 14.
what happens in the in the verses before that is excuse me Pharaoh has a dream and his magicians and wise men can’t interpret the dream and then the cup Bearer remembers and says oh man there was a guy who interpreted my dream in prison you know forgive me I forgot about him so they take Joseph get him out of prison and clean them up and then they bring them before fat room all right so verse 14 actually we could see him being cleaned up verse 14 then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon and when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes he came to pharaoh and the Pharaoh said to Joseph I have had a dream but no one can interpret it and I have heard it said about you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it Joseph then answered Pharaoh saying it is not in Me God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer so Pharaoh spoke to Joseph in my dream behold I was standing on the bank of the Nile and behold seven cows fat and Sleek came up out of the Nile and they grazed in the marsh grass and low seven other cows came up after them poor and very ugly and gone such as I have never seen for ugliness in all the land of Egypt and the lean ugly cows ate up the first seven fat cows yet when they had devoured them it could not be detected that they had devoured them for they were just as ugly as before then I awoke I saw also in my dream and behold seven ears full and good came up on a single stalk and low seven ears withered thin and scorched by the East Wind sprouted up after them and the thin ears swallowed the seven good ears then I told it to The Magicians but there was no one who could explain it to me now Joseph said to Pharaoh Pharaoh’s dreams are one and the same God has told to pharaoh and he what he is about to do the seven good cows are seven years and the Seven good ears are seven years the dreams are one and the same and the Seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them or seven years and the seventh thin thin ear scorched by the East Wind shall be seven years of famine it is as I have spoken to Pharaoh God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do behold seven years of great abundance are coming in all the land of Egypt and after them seven years of famine will come and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt and the famine will ravage the land so the abundance will be unknown in the land because of that subsequent famine for it will be very severe now as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice it means that the matter is determined by God and God will quickly bring it about and now let Pharaoh look for a man Discerning and wise and set him over the land of Egypt let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land and let him exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance then let them gather all the food of those good years that are coming and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh’s Authority and let them guard it and let the food become as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine which will occur in the land of Egypt so that the land may not perish during the famine now the proposal seemed good to pharaoh and to all his servants verse 38. then Pharaoh said to his servants can we find a man like this in whom is a Divine spirit so Pharaoh said to Joseph since God has informed you with all this there is no one so Discerning and wise as you are you shall be over my house and according to your command all my people shall do homage only in the throne I will be greater than you and Pharaoh said to Joseph see I have set you over all the land of Egypt Okay so what’s the circumstance what did Joseph have to do here why was he called out of prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dream because none of the wise men none of the magicians were able to so the circumstance he was called to interpret Pharaoh’s dream what was his response especially in verse 16.
so God will give the interpretation that it’s not Joseph’s doing in fact I was kind of lazy and I just drew an arrow from the box right above when he was interpreting the other dreams you know for my response because he had the same exact response that it’s God’s doing it’s not me that has this magical power on my own I’m Conjuring up interpretations it’s God who is working through me and so what was the result the last time he interpreted dreams he was forgotten and left in a dungeon for two years so what happened this time after he interpreted these dreams yes so Farrell gave him command over the land of Egypt and he’s so he’s now the second in command in Egypt after going through what he went through and you saw God’s hand in all of it even in his interaction with pharaoh and I love that he was so strong in his faith that he stood to pharaoh who was seen in Egypt as God and he stands as God he stood and said this interpretation is coming from God God is the true God is giving this to you you know as this man who was weak and sending messages across the land and try to find someone to interpret his dream who calls himself God Joseph stands to him and says the true God is going to interpret this dream for you he’s the one who gave you the dream so that you can act so yeah and Bill was just noting that you know his interpretations of all these dreams came true and and the Bible says in Deuteronomy and Jeremiah um that that’s the mark of a true Prophet that what he speaks comes true everything that he speaks comes through and that if he speaks something false one time you are to disregard him and actually and you’re just Stone them kill him but he’s seen as a false prophet Hermano um yeah yeah and just put a recording he’s saying Romano noted that Joseph stood faithful to God even while in prison instead of growing bitter that he was forgotten in prison for two years that he stayed faithful and kept trusting in God and it’s easy for us because we get the bird’s eye view I mean we get to see we get to flip through and see everything that happened I mean Joseph is in this he’s in the moment we’re looking down and saying okay Joseph just stay faithful because as soon as I turn the page you’re second to the king you know but this wasn’t just turning the page for for Joseph this is him going through day after day sitting in prison thinking that his one chance to get out was squandered because someone forgot about him and went back to his normal life you know and many times I think that we or at least I I look at these people and because I know the end I kind of have a bias if they have a moment of doubt you know in the middle of their life or while God is working through something because I see the end and we get to see everything that happened but technically God has given us the end already we know what’s going to happen we know the end of our story we don’t know every step of this life but we know where God is bringing us and we know what God has taken us so why not exhibit that same faith that you know we think that these people should have because we get to see their their their life in full while they’re walking through it Steve for some reason so um yeah having moved in it says I think Proverbs the king ‘s heart is like channels of water and the Lawrence trusted your interpretations and uh we can’t doubt the Lord moving people and interruptions like that right right and Danny thank you so trying to summarize these two comments I’ll start with Danny’s just you know seeing God’s sovereignty and seeing Joseph trusting in God’s sovereignty and you know again this is like a model for us so seeing God work and knowing that he’s working through all of these circumstances that even when we even if we were to sin God is still working for his glory through that and oh and I’ll just add all that we can do is control our responses we can’t control these outside things so we respond in a Godly way to whatever situation we’re in and we have to trust that God is working working in them and you know Steve just noted that it was amazing to see that Pharaoh trusted Joseph and that that Joseph had to seem not only trustworthy but believable when he interpreted these dreams and it’s a it’s amazing because when he’s a foreigner and two he just came out of prison and he might have known why he was in prison you know when he got him out who was this man why is he here in the first place and you know they might have even told the story but he still trusted him enough and we see that God was even working in the heart of pharaoh to be able to trust this foreign prisoner so much that he just gave him control of his kingdom Okay so we have to move on had some questions but you know we really have to get through uh the rest of this um okay so there’s no more handouts for this but we’re going to move on to chapter 42 and we want to look at Joseph’s interactions with his brothers because this is really what all of this is working to you know we’ll see why Joseph was was put in Egypt and ultimately how this led to where we are today and we see God working through all of this and that’s really said the theme of this entire quarter is that is that God is Sovereign he’s working through these events we’re not just reading history absent of God and saying oh God saw something happen and then he reacted this is that’s not the God we serve we serve a God who was in complete control and we see that clearly through scripture and especially through what we’re going to go through so Genesis chapter 42 we’re going to read verses 1 through 15.
and then verse 21.
Genesis 42 verse 1. now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt and Jacob said to his sons why are you staring at one another and he said behold I have heard there is grain in Egypt go down go down there and buy some for us from that place so that we may live and not die then ten Brothers of Joseph went down to buy green from Egypt but Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers for he said I am afraid that harm me befall him so the sons of Israel came to buy Grain among those who were coming excuse me from coming for the famine was in the land of Canaan also now Joseph was the ruler over the land he was the one who sold to all the people in the land and Joseph Brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground when Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them but he disguised himself to them and spoke to them harshly and he said to them where have you come from and they said from the land of Canaan to buy food what Joseph had recognized his brothers although they did not recognize him and Joseph remembered the dreams which he had about them and said to them you are spies you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land then they said to him know my Lord but your servants have come to buy food we are all sons of one man we are honest men your servants are not spies yet he said to them no but you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land but they said your servants are 12 Brothers in all the sons of one man in the land of Canaan and behold the youngest is with our father today and one is no more and Joseph said to them it is as I said to you you are spies by this you will be tested by the life of pharaoh you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here in verse 21.
then they said to one another truly we are guilty concerning our brother because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us yet we would not listen therefore the distress has come upon us Okay so out of the 12 Sons how many of them went down to buy green 10. okay and why did Benjamin stay behind damn and so his father was afraid something will happen to him if you remember he only had two sons through Rachel it was Joseph and Benjamin so something in his mind something already happened to Joseph he’s been without Joseph for a very long time I think well at this point 30 at least 39 years it’s been excuse me not 39 uh through my head 22 22 years at least that he spent he’s been in Egypt at this point because this was two years into the famine and he was 30 years old when he was made um the vice president if you will of Egypt so this is nine years because it was seven years of good of seven years of plenty of abundance so he was at least 39 years old here and he was 17 when he was sold into slavery all right so that’s all the numbers so he’s been without his son for 22 years and he says okay I don’t want to lose the only other son from my dead wife you know because Rachel had died actually given birth to Benjamin so he keeps Benjamin behind so when Joseph saw his his brothers and saw them bowing down before him what did he remember great so he remembered his dreams that he had that his older brothers would serve him and he remember that was a big commotion there because he actually told his brothers these dreams and you know they got even more upset at him because of that and because Joseph didn’t want to just say hey I’m your brother what did he do what did he accuse his brothers of accuse him of being spies thank you um and then finally what why did the brothers think they were in trouble why do they think they were going through this you know technically in this situation they were innocent they weren’t spies they were just coming to buy Grain because their father sent them but this happened instead they were accused of being spies and they possibly might lose lose their life because they know that their father doesn’t want to send the youngest brother so why did they think that they were facing this situation right verse 21 they remember what they did to Joseph and they think that that this is kind of payback that that God says okay you you know caused Joseph to go through this distress and now I’m going to bring that same distress on to you so that’s what they thought was happening Okay so now we kind of quickly have to go through foreign tour of everything that happened from here through verse through chapter 50.
Danny did you have a comment s yeah right yeah that’s a great point just just noting that the last time Joseph saw his brothers they sold him into slavery and he doesn’t know what they did from there they could have killed uh their father they could have killed his little brother you know they could have done anything at that point he doesn’t know the state that they’re in he doesn’t know that they’re all still living with the father getting along and they’ve all built up a family he doesn’t know that he doesn’t know where they are right now mentally and he doesn’t know where they are spiritually so he has to be wise in how he interacts with them until he finds these things out and he then knows how to proceed Okay so in chapter 42 and we’re going to see them going back and forth now and it’s kind of when you look at it kind of like sandwiched together it’s almost like like a comedy you know like you really see okay they had to go here and it’s like wait no he left money okay we have to come here no what about the cup or you have to go here please Dad please let us take Benjamin and you know just it’s just back and forth and back and forth so the first thing that we see is the 10 Brothers and this is kind of what we just read the 10 Brothers going and they take money to Egypt to leave Benjamin behind then in order to get out of this situation they go back and it’s only nine of them because in verse 24 um Simeon is bound and Simeon is forced to stay in Egypt so then the nine brothers go and they take grain Joseph then gives them back their money secretly has their money put in into their um into their bags and still gives them the grain that they came to buy in the first place so they bring that back in Genesis 42 26-38 and this may be something good to take notes on if you want like a kind of bird’s eye view of how this is going so Genesis 42 1-23 is the first time they go to Egypt and then they’re sent back and that’s verses 26-38 then they finally convince uh Israel to send Benjamin at first he says no Reuben tries to get him to to send them and this isn’t um Genesis 43 11-34 so we see he doesn’t Reuben says okay we got to get Benjamin Benjamin has to come back with us or we lose Simeon and this man is going to kill him and he thinks that we’re a spies and we’re not going to even be able to go back and buy Grain later on and that’s really where it comes down to Jacob says go back and get grains how can we go he said if he sees us again without our little brother he’s going to kill us all and simeon’s already there bound and so that doesn’t work with Reuben but Judah is finally able to convince him um and then Jacob says take all the money that was returned to you let’s assume that it was returned by mistake and then take extra money because I want you to still go and buy Grain so that’s when the 10 Brothers this is now Benjamin goes back Simeon is still in Egypt um then they’re all reunited uh Joseph sees his little brother Benjamin and he is barely able to you know contain himself this is in Genesis 44 verses 1 through 15.
um then he sends them back so now you have 11 Brothers going back to um to Canaan from Egypt they have their money but then Joseph slips his cup into Benjamin sack and that’s where everything happens and then he says in it actually want us to read that chapter 44 verses 1 through five I believe um chapter 44 verses one through five then he commanded his house Steward saying fill them in sacks with food as much as they can carry and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack and put my cup the silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest and his money for the Grain and he did as Joseph had told him as soon as it was light the men were sent away with their donkeys so they were with their donkeys they had just gone out of the city and were not far off when Joseph said to his house Steward up follow the men and when you overtake them say to them why have you repaid evil for good is not this the one from which my Lord drinks and which he indeed uses for divination you have done wrong in doing this verse 6. so he overtook them and spoke these words to them and they said to him why does my Lord speak such words as these far be it from your servants to do such a thing behold the money which we have found in the mouth of our sacks we have brought back to you from the land of Canaan how then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord’s House in verse 9. with whomever of your servants it is found let him die and we also will be my Lord’s slaves okay so now we see this turn of events where Joseph sends them away but then says okay this is how I’m going to bring them back and reveal myself to them I think he he and as Danny said he had to play this wise get information from them they had disclosed that their father was still alive he was able to see Benjamin alive talk to him so in verses 16 through 34 this is when they come back and Joseph had not revealed himself yet and he is threatening them as if he believes Benjamin is a thief and that’s when Judah intercedes and we really see Judah you know take over between him convincing his father in the first place to let Benjamin come and now he comes here and he stands up he’s the one who goes to Joseph and he confronts Joseph and he says look take me you cannot kill the youngest and he once he sees that so that excuse me that Judah is now fighting on behalf of his brother this is one of the brothers who sold him into slavery but he is now standing with his youngest brother and saying that I will take the fall for him I mean I don’t know about me if my little brother went and stole a company you idiot why would you take the cup you know you’re on your own you know that’s kind of that’s kind of the human response is to just say hey you did this you got yourself to the situation but that’s not what Judah did and Joseph saw that and then that’s when if in Genesis 45 1-20 Joseph finally reveals himself then he sends the brothers back um through verses 21-28 of this same chapter he sends his brother all the brothers back he gives them gifts and he says okay go get Jacob now go get my father they go to Jacob and in Genesis 46 verses 1-27 we see the interaction uh between the sons of Jacob and Jacob and they you know tell him everything that happens they bring him back and then he actually comes back and sees his son who he thought died 22 years or more maybe even more than 22 years ago at this point so that was a lot but we all we see how God is working through all of this and we see the little things that happen and we see even how the character changes of the brothers um in their conversations with each other and you know even the guilt that they expressed and the fact that they knew they did wrong and they weren’t trying to justify themselves anymore even in their private conversations about what happened they had other private conversations like this is this is what’s going on God is paying us back for what we did to our brother we knew it was wrong we knew it was evil and they didn’t think that Joseph could understand them in their language but he could so he sees all of this and we get to see God really working in in the hearts of some of them and then Genesis 46 28 through 47 6 we see them settle into the land of Goshen then from Genesis 47 29 through 49 33 we see um Israel’s death and we see his final words and him blessing his uh Sons or blessing and also you know prophesying about things that would happen and examining their character um there are two passages that want us to look at very quickly and just kind of compare them to really look at how Joseph handled this situation and then we’re going to close Genesis chapter 45 Verses 4 through 8.
well Genesis 45 Verses 4 through 8.
says then Joseph said to his brothers please come closer to me and they came closer and he said I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life for the famine has been in the land these two years and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting God sent me before you to preserve you preserved for you or Remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great Deliverance now therefore it was not you who sent me here but God and he has made me a father to pharaoh and Lord of his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt the turn of Genesis 50 starting at verse 15. Genesis 50 verse 15.
we’ll go to verse 21. when Joseph’s brothers saw that the their father was dead they said what if Joseph Bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which he did to him so they sent a message to Joseph saying your father charged before he died saying thus you shall say to Joseph please forgive I beg you the transgression of your brothers others and their sin for they did you wrong and now please forgive the transgression of the Servants of the god of your father and Joseph wept when they spoke to him then his brothers also came and fell down before him and said behold we are your servants but Joseph said to them do not be afraid for am I in God’s place as for you you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring this bring about this present result to preserve many people alive so therefore do not be afraid I will provide for you and your little ones so he comforted them and spoke kindly to them and so we really see Joseph’s heart towards his brothers and that’s something that we really need to mimic and one of the verses that was noted in in the chapter in the Answers in Genesis Book was we can’t look at it but Romans 12 verses 17-19 so you know look at that when you go and study this at home just look at that and look at what our response should be look at how we’re supposed to respond to evil and when we’re trusting God and trusting in God’s sovereignty we’ve realized that it’s not just God taking something bad that happened and trying to make good out of it but that he’s actually doing these things in our lives he’s causing these things to happen to bring about um our sanctification and ultimately pointing to his glory so don’t forget the memory verse which is Genesis 50 verses 19 through 20. we don’t have time to go through it now but um I hope you all have that it’s a new King James version I think we’re going over instead of the nas which is what we’re normally using and if anyone wanted to actually take notes on the timeline the way I presented it that kind of quick jet tour then I have it here so you can come up so let’s go to the Lord in prayer our gracious God we know that you are Eternal we know that you are sovereign we know that you not only control everything but that you are so loving and passionate that you work everything for our good help us God to see that help us to rest in your love to rest in your sovereignty and help us God to rest in the fact God that you’ve promised to conform us to the image of Christ I pray God that as we grow we will hate sin we will love you and that we will grow in Christ’s likeness and I pray God that you’ll bless our service I pray God that you will even bless the food that’s been prepared in the back and God that you will be glorified by all that we do and we will rejoice that we get to meet together with our Brothers and Sisters in Christ and to worship corporately and to pray corporately and I just pray God that you will begin to change our hearts God in Christ’s name I pray amen