Grace for the Guilty

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Grace for the Guilty

Genesis 42

June 25, 2023 • Jan Vezikov • Genesis 42

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Heavenly Father, we thank you that you, the great God of the universe, holy, perfect, you demand absolute perfection and holiness from us. And Lord, we thank you that you offer us grace to do that which you command us to do. You call us to repentance and we can't repent apart from your grace. You call us to faith in Christ, we can't do that either apart from your grace. You call us to live a life of love toward God and toward people from the heart, and Lord, we can't do that apart from you. Lord, today convict us of sin. Reveal any guilt that we are still carrying from our sin. And I pray, Lord, don't just relieve us of that guilt, but remove it from us. Eradicate it from us so we as your children can live lives of good conscience.

Lord, bless our time in the holy scriptures today. Holy Spirit, we pray, minister to us, reveal the words to us, reveal the words that you would have for each of us individually. And Lord, magnify your son Jesus Christ through the preaching of your word. Jesus, we thank you that you provided a way for us to be reconciled with the Father, for that sin to be removed, for that guilt to be assuaged. And we thank you that for those who are in Christ now today, there is no condemnation. Zero whatsoever. We believe that. We love that and we receive that word. Bless our time in the holy scriptures. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

We're continuing our study through Genesis 37 through 50. We've entitled it Graduate Level Grace: A Study in the Life of Joseph. Today, we're in Genesis 42 and the title is Grace for the Guilty. Why do we call it Graduate Level Grace? Well, we need grace as much today as we did the very first day that we trusted in Jesus Christ. We need grace to be justified of our sin, but we also need grace to be sanctified then also shaped by God to be ever more useful. In his confessions, Augustine wrote around the year 400 AD, he said, "God, give me the grace to do as you command and command me to do what you will." What he's saying is, God, you can command whatever you want, but unless you give me the power to do it, unless you give me the grace to do it, I can't do it. But if you give me grace, you can command whatever you will of me. Meaning we're incapable of obeying God's commands, of doing God's will unless He grants us the ability to do so.

Jesus commanded us, repent and believe. How? By God's grace. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. How? By God's grace. Marry this person, raise these children. Do your job as unto the Lord. How? By God's grace. God's grace is God's unmerited favor, but it's also fuel. Grace saves us and it sanctifies us. It trains us, it hones us, it strengthens, it grows us, and grace graduates us. And we see the same grace, it's on every single page of this narrative of the story of Joseph. This is the supreme lesson which meets us and impresses us at every stage of his history. He was a man of God and he walked in the presence of God knowing that he needed the grace of God. Everything he did, he did under the conscious realization that he's living under the watchful eye of God who loves him and will carry him through no matter what. In seasons of adversity, 13 years in prison, sold by his brothers into slavery, doesn't know a person in Egypt. In adversity, he trusted his God and waited for God's timing.

And then last week, we learned that God raised him up. By God's grace, now he's second in command to only Pharaoh. And in prosperity, Joseph did not forget his God. No, he leaned upon his God and found his grace sufficient. His heart wasn't tried by humiliation nor his head turned by exaltation. He didn't let the disappointments of life break his heart, nor did he allow the victories of life go to his head. He's even-keeled, composed knowing that God is sovereign. So before the Lord exalts Joseph to this position of importance, He prepared him with discipline. And this discipline did not feel like grace. But then again, what does grace feel like? If you think about what does grace feel like?

Well, what did it take for grace to be procured by God, for grace to be offered to us? Well, grace took a bloody cross, a crucifixion. That's how grace was procured. So sometimes, yes, grace comes as soothing balm to our soul, but sometimes grace comes as surgical tool slicing us open to cut out the rot. In moments which might feed human pride and self-sufficiency, what do we need? We need grace, God's grace to humble us, to keep us simple, to keep us faithful. Because Joseph walked with God in the darkness of prison, he's ready for the spotlight of the palace and that's where we find ourselves. And what kind of man is he when his brothers who sold him into captivity stand before him, bowing down before him. He holds all the power to do whatever he wants with them. What does he do? Well, we see a tender heart. How does his heart remain tender despite the hardness of the obstacles around him? Well, it was God's grace. So God's grace to Joseph made him a gracious leader, ready to forgive those who wanted harm for him.

As we walk through the text together in Genesis 42, four points to frame up our time. First, your sin will find you out. Second, the slow burn of a guilty conscience. Third, now there comes a reckoning. And for fourth, the Father who won't sacrifice His beloved son. First, your sin will find you out. It's a biblical principle. Numbers 32:23. "But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out." We worship a holy God and God is omniscient. He sees anything and everything and it's against His holy character to allow sin to go unpunished. Your sin will find you out.

Luke 8:17, the words of Christ. "For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light", either in this life or when we stand in the judgment before Christ. So this is exactly what happens. Joseph's brothers, 10 of them, they sold him to captivity and in their minds they already think he's dead. That's the lie they told their father, Jacob, that your son was eaten, torn apart by wild animals. And for two decades, they lived with this guilt that they had murdered their brother. Later on, in the same text, twice they say the brother who was no longer with us, the brother who was no more, they thought Joseph was dead. And here, God reveals their sin and makes them reckon with it on a glorious stage. And thanks be to God that He included this narrative in scripture for us to see, for the world to see for time immemorial.

Remember, Joseph is out of prison. He's appointed to second in command only to Pharaoh. God has given him incredible wisdom for not just to interpret Pharaoh's dreams but also put a plan in place to capitalize on the abundance of seven years. So he's second in command, he's shaved dressed, married, he's got two sons and he's been busy capitalizing on seven years of bountiful harvest in preparation for the seven years of debilitating famine. So that brings us to Genesis 42. We begin with verses one through five.

"When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons, 'Why do you look at one another?' And he said, 'Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.' So 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brothers for he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan."

The famine had engulfed all the earth in including Canaan. So God sends of famine in order to awaken the brothers, in order to get them to act and to do something with the guilt that is upon them. Their father looks at them and says, "Why do you look at one another?" And he sounds exactly like my dad, my dad's Slavic. This is exactly how he parented us. Very direct. "Why you look at one another?" That's what Jacob is doing. And what is he saying? He's not just saying, you guys are lazy bums. He's saying, we got to protect our household. We got to provide for our household. You have children and you have wives, you have cattle, you have to provide. Now go and do something or else we're all going to die.

Jacob heard that there was grain for sale in Egypt and he has no idea, absolutely no idea how that grain came to be. He has no idea that God had been working behind the scenes for over two decades, 13 years that Joseph was in prison, the seven years of abundance, that's 20. And time has passed with the famine. So God has been using this, overriding the sinful intentions of the brothers, the slave traders, Potiphar and Mrs. Potiphar, the forgetful butler. God was busy turning their evil into good and to shape Joseph and place him in the number two spot. Why were the brothers just sitting around? They too must have heard that there was grain for sale. Everyone heard. No one was prepared for this famine, not one of the countries. How could you be prepared? You'd have to know the future in order to build the infrastructure to farm, to gather, to store, to distribute all the grain and mountains and mountains of grain it was. And in famine that grain was as good as gold.

Why were they sitting around knowing this, that if they went to Egypt they could solve all their problems? Well, because even the word of Egypt, the thought of Egypt sent a shutter down their spine and sent a cold sweat down their back. Every time they thought of Egypt, they couldn't but remember the anguished cry of their brother, Joseph, right before they sold him to the Midianites and he was sent to Egypt. Now, imagine their trip to Egypt. Imagine the silence, the deafening silence as they're all thinking the same thing, recalling the events of 20 plus years ago. Now, they're traveling the same path as Joseph did except he was in chains. Jacob, we see, hasn't changed much. His favoritism has only grown as he poured out his love on Benjamin, his youngest son, perhaps overcompensating for having lost Joseph.

He wants to protect him and fear that harm might happen to him, perhaps because he never trusted the brothers, perhaps because he didn't believe their lies and the story that they told him. And later in the text we see that he did blame them for the death of Joseph. The fact that he kept Benjamin behind must have stung their consciences. It had to have. And we don't know much about Benjamin's character just yet, but Joseph's brother, we know a lot about. They were sinful. They were wicked, violent, lust-driven men. Sons two and three, that's Simeon and Levi, were guilty of premeditated genocide in the slaughter of the unsuspecting Shechemites. Son number one, Rubin, committed incest with his father's concubine in an attempt to secure ascendancy over his father. And next, all 10 of the brothers beat Joseph, stripped him, threw him into a pit with violent rage and then sold him into slavery.

Son number four, we read in Genesis 38, was Judah, who impregnated his daughter-in-law, Tamar, who had disguised herself as a Canaanite prostitute. The family was not just dysfunctional, this is a family of egregious sinners and these were the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This is supposed to be the family of God, the chosen people of God. God was going to bless all the families of the world through this one family. The Messiah, the promised conquerer of Satan, he was supposed to come from this family. And as you read this narrative, you're like, "What? These people, these wicked sinners?" Well, yes, all of that will come true, but God first has to do spiritual surgery upon them.

These men, who are guilty of sin and had attempted to hide it for 20 years, just imagine doing that, all 10 of them maintaining the same story for two decades. These men were guilty and the time of reckoning has come and it's time that they were confronted with their sin, deal with their guilt, repent and seek forgiveness from God, from Joseph, and also from their father, Jacob. They did everything they could to forget their sin, but they couldn't. They tried to live as if nothing had happened, thereby searing their consciences all the more. And now it's time, by God's grace, their consciences are awakened by the light of God's providence.

Point two is the slow burn of a guilty conscience. God has given every single one of us a conscience. This is great proof of the existence of God. And the conscience is given to us to guide us between choosing good and evil. The conscience serves as a witness to what we already know about God's law that's written upon our hearts. It's like an independent witness within, examining and passing judgment on one's conduct. Sometimes the conscience is seared through sinful living licentiousness. Sometimes the conscience is seared through legalism where we bring in manmade rules that then inform our conscience, that then sears our conscience from what is true according to God's work. Therefore, it's important, friends, to educate your conscious, to inform your conscious, to make sure your conscious is calibrated to the law of God, the word of God and nothing else.

First Timothy 4:1 through five, for example. "Now the spirit expressly says in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is made holy by the word of God and prayer." Romans 2:14 through 16 testifies to the fact that God's law, his commandments are written on our hearts. Verse 14, "For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they're a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus."

So the conscious is like an internal sensor that goes off when it senses that we're moving away from God's will. It beeps and then it beeps again. It's like when you're not wearing a seatbelt in your car and it beeps and it beeps and it beeps. After a while, it just stops beeping. And that's how the conscience works. That's the searing of the conscious, burnt to the point where it's not effective anymore. And at that point, the conscience needs to be awakened by the power of the Holy Spirit. It's only the Holy Spirit that can bring a person to a realization that we have sinned. Our conscience is defiled. We need a cleansing. We need the guilt removed. Titus 1:15 through 16, "To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They're detestable, disobedient and unfit for any good work."

Joseph's brothers grew up in a Christian family, so to speak, a family of believers. They're supposed to know God, they're supposed to represent God to the world. And maybe that's how they even presented themselves, but their works, their life denied the fact. With their mouth they espouse that they love God, but their hearts are far from him. So Genesis 42, verse three. "So 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt." And it's fascinating that the text does not call them Jacob's sons. The text calls him Joseph's brothers. Why? Because the relationship between Joseph and his brothers is in focus in this chapter. So the brothers make the trek across the Sinai and down to the Nile Valley.

Verse six, it says, "Now Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him and their faces to the ground." Never in their wildest dreams or in their worst nightmares, would they imagine that they would meet Joseph again. They thought, and just in all probability, that he was dead. And if he was alive, most likely is just an obscure slave. But meet Joseph, they certainly did. And when they met him, they didn't recognize him. He was virtually unrecognizable, beardless, clean-shaven, likely dressed in flowing white linen, decorated with gold, speaking Egyptian. And so they did what all the foreigners were doing. They bowed themselves before this man, to the ground, faces to the ground. It was a sign of subordination, of course, and the only means of surviving the famine.

I think this is a scene that Joseph had visualized in his mind a thousand times plus over the course of the last 20 years. Why? Because he had been given a prophetic dream years before that he had shared with them and with their father. This is the dream that kicked off the narrative in Genesis 37:5. "Now, Joseph had a dream and when he told it his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, 'Hear this dream that I have dreamed. Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.' His brothers said to him, 'Are you indeed to reign over us or are you indeed to rule over us?' So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words."

So the first dream had come to pass and Joseph knew it was from God the whole time, that dream actually sustained him through his darkest years. Now, the prophetic dream was happening in reality in real time. His brothers come here looking for grain and they, like the sheaves of grain in the dream, bow down before Joseph's sheaf. He is indeed reigning and ruling over them however much they hated him for it. Genesis 42:7. "Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them. 'Where do you come from?' he said. They said, 'From the land of Canaan to buy food.' And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him."

He recognized them immediately. How could he not? He had seen their faces emblazoned on his mind and his heart and nightmares for years. He remembers them. And then there's 10 bearded brothers speaking Hebrew. How often do you see that? Time had left its mark on them as on him, but he still recognized them. Joseph didn't show any outward emotion, goes about his job with stoic precision and all the power is absolutely in his hands. He has all the leverage to do whatever he wants. If he says, "Dance", they're going to dance. If he says, "Jump", they say, "How high, sir?" Not only does he have the power to withhold grain from them, he has the power to take their freedom and even their very lives. So he begins to interrogate them, speaking roughly as the strangers, verse nine.

"And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them. And he said to them, 'You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land.' They said to him, 'No, my Lord, your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies.'" It says that Joseph remembered the dreams, plural. There was a first dream, but there was also a second dream. And in the second dream, his dad was included, meaning that his whole family would come down, bow down before him. So he knows that this isn't the full revelation of God just yet. In Genesis 37:9 through 11, the second dream, "Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, 'Behold, I've dreamed another dream. Behold the sun, the moon, and 11 stars were bowing down to me.' But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, 'What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?' And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind."

So this part of the interrogation, Joseph knows the whole story, it has not been completed. He interrogates them, accuses them of espionage, on mission to find weak points in the defense in Egypt. And by the way, this was a legitimate concern. Egypt had all the grain in the world of that time. Obviously, there were threats to them. So he accuses them of this. They try to remove doubt and in doing so they divulge more information than they should have. In Genesis 42:11, they say, "We are all sons of one man. We are honest men. Your servants have never been spies." And the irony, of course, isn't lost on us. These men were not honest, although they claim to be so. And here you got to pause and say, what is Joseph doing here? Why is he testing? Why is he speaking to them as strangers harshly? Why this tone, Joseph?

Well, it's because he's testing them to see if they have changed, to see if their hearts have been awakened by the spirit of God. Were they the same lying, conniving, callous, jealous, murdering sinners that they still hate him? And he's wise in doing this because of his position of influence and also he's figuring out how much am I going to help this family? He could have just said, okay, I don't trust you guys. I'm going to send grain to you and to your households and that's it. That could have been the end of the story, but it's not. He understands there's more. Genesis 42:12, "He said to them, 'No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.' And they said, 'We, your servants, are 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this day with our father and one is no more.' But Joseph said to them, 'It is as I said to you, you are spies.'"

I think here Joseph's cool, icy persona, complexion, projection I think here begins to melt a little bit. They don't just say there's 10 of us. They don't just say there's 11 of us, 10 living and one still at home, Benjamin. No, they say 12. And I wonder how Joseph felt when he heard the number 12, that they considered that the family was still intact, not withstanding their brother's death. Perhaps it's a hint here of an improvement in their spiritual condition. And then they say one is no more. Are their consciences becoming awake, unseared, coming back to life? They give Joseph more information about their family to establish credibility. And Joseph continues to accuse them like a seasoned interrogator. When the accusation doesn't stick, he just progressively repeats it louder and more emphatically till the person cracks. It is as I said, you are spies.

And I think Joseph here is having a little fun because he remembers back in the day, the brothers, what do they accuse him of? What do they call him? They called him a spy. "'Did you come here again to spy on us, to bring a bad report of us to our father?" And here Joseph turns the tables. Genesis 42:15. "By this you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you, and let him bring your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there's truth in you. Or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.' And he put them all together in custody for three days." He puts them in prison, in the pit, in the dungeon. I wonder if it's the same prison that he was in just to give them a taste of their medicine. He does enslave them for three days, but he's not doing it to enslave them. He's giving them time to think. He's giving them time to think about their guilt, to experience the guilty conscience.

And three days in an Egyptian prison would've been plenty of time to come to their senses, think things through and talk things over. What were they talking over? Which of us is going back home to Canaan to tell dad that we had lied for two decades? Who's going to go back and tell him that, no, Joseph is actually alive, he wasn't torn by wild animals. He was sold into captivity by wild animals, the brothers themselves. And not only that, they would have to convince Jacob to let Benjamin go to Joseph. Who's doing that? They would've probably all preferred to stay in prison to the thought of that task.

And this is point three. Now there comes a reckoning. Verse 18. "On the third day, Joseph said to them, 'Do this and you will live, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households and bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die.' And they did." So Joseph proposes a new plan, probably because he understood how emotionally daunting and painful the first one would be. Plus, Joseph did care for them. And here we see Joseph's heart toward them, his real heart toward them.

He knew that if one of them goes back with a sack of grain or as much as he could carry, that's not going to hold the family over for much time. So he comes up with a new plan, leave one brother here, the nine of you can go back. Just make sure you come back here with Benjamin. Though they don't deserve this grace, Joseph says, "I fear God." This Egyptian standing before them proclaims the name of God and that he doesn't just worship God, he fears God. God had extended grace toward Joseph. Now Joseph is extending grace toward the brothers.

The way in which God is associated with the life of Joseph is paramount to the narrative. At every single most important juncture in Joseph's life, he brings in the name of God. Why? It shows us that he was a God-centered man and that he knew that everything in this world is controlled by God. And if he is to make the right decision, he has to lean upon God. For example, when Potiphar's wife tried to seduce Joseph, he said, "How can I do this great wickedness?" Against whom? Not Potiphar, God. "Do not interpretations belong to God?", he said to the cup bearer and to the baker in prison. When he stands before Pharaoh, he says the same. And he says, "God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. God will shortly bring it to pass." And when he has a son and he remembers God and he remembers the pain of his past, he says, "God has made me forget the pain of my father's household."

Everything in Joseph's life was guided and controlled by the thought of God. Not one of the brothers has thus far mentioned God, but this Egyptian seemingly is talking about God. One brother was supposed to remain and here's the big test. Was the talk of the 12 brothers just that? Was it talk, or would they really come back for their brother, Simeon? The thought of their brother remaining in prison breaks their heart. They understand the pain and anguish that their father would feel hearing that Simeon was left in prison. And hear these words that erupts from a broken heart, these anguished words pouring from a guilty conscience beginning in verse 21.

"Then they said to one another, 'In truth we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us.' And Reuben answered them, 'Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy? But you did not listen, so now there comes a reckoning for his blood." In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother, they say. Not the dreamer, not Joseph. No, this is our brother. Time does not blot out the guilt of sin, nor does time have any power over the conscience. And God, in His great providence, brings these men face to face with their sin and its due punishment. And isn't it fascinating how God does this, how God forces them to face the reality, to reckon with their sin?

God brings them to Egypt on the same path that the Midianite merchants walked with Joseph. They were together in a strange land. They were in the power of a stranger whose force was infinitely greater than their own, which in turn may have had the effect of reminding them. Oh, remember that time when Joseph was defenseless, when we had all the power over him? And how do we use that power, used that power to harm him even though we heard the anguish of his soul. We see the elements of true repentance here. They say, "In truth, we are guilty." We are guilty. There's no question that we're guilty. Guilty for what? Guilty for the sin of attempting to murder our brother. We saw the distress of his soul. They remember that moment and they say, "This is why this distress has come upon us."

Joseph learned here that Reuben had not consented to the sale and Joseph also learned that they had been haunted for years by his cries. And they knew that they were guilty, deserving of death. God had written this law on their hearts, on each of our hearts. Thou shall not murder. That's written on every single one of our hearts. We can all agree upon that. If you murder, an image bearer of God, you deserve the condemnation of God. We all know that. Thankfully, not many of us are murderers here in the room, but Jesus did say in Matthew five, in the Sermon on the Mount, "Whoever hates a brother in his heart, whoever hates another human being in his heart has already committed murder." Hatred in our hearts toward another human being is commensurate to murder. Genesis 9:6, "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image." So God has them reckoned with their guilt in this moment of honesty and true guilt is grace when it brings us to repentance.

And Joseph's brothers here are wracked with guilt and they are now prepared for repentance. In verse 23, "They did not know that Joseph understood them for there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and wept. He returned to them and spoke to them and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes." Joseph sees that they've been anguished by their guilt, they've acknowledged their sin. "Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy?" They've sinned against him. He hears their acknowledgement that he hears that they know they deserve a reckoning. They know they deserve to pay for their sins. And Joseph's so moved by this confession, this is all he wanted to see. He's been begging for this moment where these brothers finally understand the egregious sin that they committed against him.

He's so moved by their confession that he goes into a side room and he weeps. He couldn't contain his emotion anymore. He weeps. Although they did not weep the moment that they sold him, they sold him to captivity. They put him in that pit before they sold him to captivity. And as he's crying out in that pit, "Brothers, don't do this to me, don't kill me." They sat down for a meal. They sat down to enjoy a meal that he had brought them from Jacob. Incredible callousness, just indifference. At that moment, they were dead to God. God was dead to them. God's law to not murder my ... No, no. Their jealousy and their hatred were God at that moment. And now, these same men, two decades later, are repenting, seemingly remorseful. Joseph weeps here and there would be more tears when he first saw Benjamin in chapter 43. And when Judah offers to take Benjamin's place, in chapter 45, and finally when he meets his father in chapter 46, he weeps on his father's neck.

The first great revelation of his tears here was that Joseph knew that these brothers were changing. The last thing that they see, what they see before they leave, they see Simeon bound before them probably in chains. Why? This is all part of the test. Is their repentance over having sold Joseph into slavery true? Will they come back for Simeon? Will they come back for their brother? Will they show him sympathy? Genesis 42:25. "And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain and to replace every man's money in his sack and gave them provisions for the journey. And this was done for them." And this here is an indication of his true feelings toward them. He had all the reason the world to bring down vengeance upon them, to have revenge upon them, just like he could have brought revenge upon Potiphar or Mrs. Potiphar or even the cup bearer for forgetting Joseph.

But you see none of that, you see no desire for vengeance or revenge in his actions in his heart. And yet he still does probe them. He does test. He puts the money in their sacks. Why? Because he wants to know, will they be happy with the money instead of Simeon? Not only did he return one of them individually, but he returned all of their money. Will they be fine keeping the money and leaving their brother? Verse 26, "Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed as one of them opened his sack and gave his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the mouth of the sack. Then he said to his brothers, 'My money has been put back. Here it is in the mouth of the sack.' At this, their hearts failed them. They turned trembling to one another saying, 'What is this that God has done to us?'" Not what is this that the second in command in Egypt has done? No, they understand that it's God in control of every single detail that has transpired in this narrative.

They understand that God's arresting hand is upon them. For the first time in the narrative, they mention God. Their guilt leads them to God. That's the goal. Their awareness of God and their awareness of his holiness, their awareness that they've sinned against the holy God, that is what is awakened in them. They have a terrifying awareness of the divine and they're reading providence correctly. Yes, we are guilty before God. Initially, they realized they had sinned against Joseph. Now, they realize they've sinned against the living holy God of the universe.

If you fear God over the penalty that your sin deserves, which you should, well, friend, the very second you begin to feel that fear of God, that I am guilty, not just guilt, I'm guilty because I've transgressed the law of God. I've sinned against God. The very moment you begin to feel that, that is God's grace. God does not give that to every single human being. To awaken you from your spiritual death, to give you spiritual life, and we were dead in our sins and trespasses, He made us alive. That's a miracle of the Holy Spirit. Godly fear and godly grief over our sin should lead us to repentance before God.

Second Corinthians 7:8 through 13. St. Paul writes, "For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. At every point, you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. So although I wrote to you, it's not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. Therefore, we are comforted."

Friends, perhaps you're in a situation, circumstances in your life where you clearly feel the arresting hand of God's spirit convicting you of sin, where things begin to happen in your life where you say, yes, I deserve this. I deserve this for the sins I have committed. Well friend, that's God's gift. And let this awesome awareness lead you to repentance. That's the whole goal. God wants to you to come to Him in contrition of heart, beg for forgiveness, and ask for grace. Fear alone, like guilt alone is of little use. In fact, it can be debilitating. But godly fear is a fear that God blesses, for He comes to those who fear Him. To understand that you deserve eternal condemnation for your sins, for having transgressed the perfect law of a holy God. And when you feel that fear, friend, that's grace.

We sing this in the great hymn, Amazing Grace by John Newton. It goes like this, "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear the hour I first believed." Look, Joseph Joseph could have forgiven his brothers the very second they showed up. He could have said, "Fellas, it's been too long. Come on in. Let's enjoy, party, grain. Forget the grain. We're going to have cows, fat, sumptuous, pleasant looking cows." No, he allows them to feel to awaken their consciences so that they repent. It's God's gift. A lot of people, they want the grace to relieve the guilt before you've actually experienced the grace that leads us to fear God and tremble at His holiness. Grace teaches us to fear and grace relieves that guilt.

Point four is the Father who won't sacrifice His beloved son. Genesis 42:29, "When they came to Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them saying, 'The man, the lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. But we said to him, 'We are honest men. We have never been spies. We are 12 brothers, sons of our father. One is no more and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the lord of the land said to us, 'By this, I shall know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households and go your way and bring your youngest brother to me then I shall know that you are not spies but honest men and I will deliver your brother to you and you shall trade in the land.'.

As they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob, their father, said to them, 'You have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more. And now, you would take Benjamin, all this has come against me.' Then Reuben said to his father, 'Kill my sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you.' But he said, 'My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he's the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.'"

The gray hairs are an indication of the toll that Jacob's grief and sorrow had taken upon him at the loss of Joseph. And he says that if Benjamin dies, that's it. I'm dead. And here we also see that Jacob has blamed the brothers for the death of Joseph. "You have bereaved me of my children. You are responsible for Joseph's death as much as Simeon's imprisonment." Did he believe their story over these decades? No, he did not. He watched them. He listened to them. No, he knew exactly what happened. You did it. You sinful, wicked men. You killed my son. And here, the oldest, Reuben, felt his father's pain and made an absurd promise. "Kill my sons if I don't bring your son back." But nothing could lessen the pain of losing a son. Jacob says, 'All this has come against me." Jacob is wracked with sorrow and he's so wracked with sorrow, he's become self-centered.

He suffers from main character syndrome, as it's known, where everything that's happening around him, he says, how is it impacting me? And everything going wrong in the world is going wrong against me. He's stuck in his selfish pity party. And he couldn't even imagine that, God, yes, despite the suffering, he has been working behind the scenes to provide salvation for the family. And finally he says, "My son shall not go down with you." Jacob had loved his son, Joseph, above all the others. And then with Joseph gone, most likely he just poured out all of that love on his son, Benjamin. Would he risk the life of his beloved son, Benjamin, in order to save Simeon, in order to save the other nine? Would he give up his son to save the family? For whom? Who's asking this? The wicked, sinful brothers, selfish, proud, self-absorbed, violent murderer, sexually deviant.

You want me to give up Benjamin for one of you? Of course, he wouldn't. As he looked at them, "Judah, would I give up my son, Benjamin, for you? Reuben, would I give up my son, Benjamin, for you? No, of course not. I love him more than I love any of you." Of course, he wouldn't. They don't deserve it. They're sinners. They're wicked sinners. And then, friends, this is what makes the gospel so powerful. It makes the gospel so awesome, so amazing, so shocking, so provocative, so scandalous that the God of the universe, the perfect loving Father, there's never been a greater father than Him. He gave up His perfect son, beloved son, who had never sinned. He said, "You go, I'm not just going to protect you from them, I'm going give you up." And that's what happened on the cross. On the cross, whose wrath is Jesus Christ bearing? The son of God, in whom the Father delights.

Well, at that moment, Jesus Christ was bearing our sin, our guilt, our condemnation was upon Him. That's all the Father saw as He was pouring out His wrath upon the son. Romans 8:31 through 32. "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He now also with Him graciously give us all things?" Not only did God the Father, not spare God the Son, but it says that He gave him up for us all. God the Father gave up God the Son, to save us from our sins and to cleanse our guilty conscience. So this is why grace is to teach us to fear. Because when you see the cross and you say, "Oh, this is what it takes for my sin to be forgiven, this is what it takes for my guilty conscience to be cleansed." It takes the death of the beloved Son of the Father. And the Father did that for us.

So friends, this is the great news. If you're not a believer, if you're new to the faith, you don't know where you stand before God, this is the great news. Whatever guilt you feel right now, that's God's grace. Whatever conviction you feel, that's God's grace for whatever sins you've ever committed. And if you are a believer and you're still carrying around your guilt of past sins, today, receive grace. Let that grace not just relieve you of the guilt, but let that grace completely remove it. Look to the cross of Jesus Christ today. See the love of God the Father for you, and see the hatred, the wrath of God for sin. And thank God that He had made a way for us to be saved.

A lot of people ask, well, how do I pray? How do I receive Christ? How do I become a Christian? And usually, people come up with some kind of manmade prayer, pray this. Jesus, I repent of my sins, forgive me, et cetera, et cetera. I think one of the greatest prayers of repentance in all of scripture is Psalm 51. In Psalm 51, we see the psalm of a man who knew God's will. It was a man after God's own heart. It was a man who actually committed murder to cover up the adultery that he had committed. And then he was brought to reckon with his sin when the prophet Nathan comes to him and calls him out. And by God's grace, David does repent. He bears the consequences of his sin, but he does repent. And this is his prayer of repentance. And if you're not a believer, even if you are, meditate on this text and pray often.

And I'll close with this Psalm 51. "To the choir master: a Psalm of David. When Nathan, the prophet, went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly for my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgments. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken, rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. And take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgresses your way and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and contrite heart. O God, you will not despise. Do good in Zion in your good pleasure build up the walls of Jerusalem; then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered up on your altar."

Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you that you, a holy God, a just God are also a merciful God. We thank you for your long suffering and your loving kindness. Lord, we thank you that you have provided a way for each one of us to be reconciled with you. And Lord, we thank you for the grace that you offer us the very moment that we repent. And we thank you for the grace you offer us on a daily basis as you tell us to follow you. Lord, if there's anyone here who is not yet reconciled with you, I pray, Lord, convict their hearts and draw them to yourself. And I pray for us as believers, I pray, continue to make us people who are sensitive to your spirit and sensitive to your guidance. Continue to inform our consciences with your word and continue to make us a people who serve you from a good conscience. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name, amen.

Forgive from the Heart

August 20, 2023 • Jan Vezikov • Genesis 50

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com Heavenly Father, we thank you for your holy scriptures. We thank you for the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, we come to the end of it today. A book that begins with a garden and perfect peace, with Adam and Eve walking with you in the cool of the day. It ends with two deaths. It ends with two coffins. And we pray that today you remind us that because of our sin, because of our rebellion, we are sinners by nature and by choice. Death is in the world and death will come to each one of us if the Lord should tarry. And Lord, I pray you make us the people that meditate upon death. As hard as it is, it is an important spiritual discipline to think about. How do we want to be remembered? What kind of legacy do we want to leave? And Lord, we thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We thank you that your son lived the perfect life, walked with you perfectly, never sinned, fulfilled the law of God from the heart. You loved God, and you love neighbor, Jesus, so much so that you offered yourself up on the cross in order to redeem us. And we thank you Jesus that you did not stay dead and we thank you that through your resurrection, you have conquered Satan, sin, and death. And in your death, we see the death of death itself. And make us a people who trust in your word and recognizing that when we believe in you, repent of sin, we are granted eternal life. It's eternal life that begins now and continues through all of eternity. And Lord, we thank you for the lessons that we have learned from the life of Joseph, from the life of Jacob, as we remember their faith and their faithfulness, we also recognize that there were times when they were faithless. And still because they were yours, because they were your elect, you remain faithful to them. And Lord remain faithful to us. We trust in that promise and give us grace. Grace to have our sins forgiven and grace to then extend forgiveness to others when they sin against us. We thank you for the reminder of how important unity is in the church of God and I pray that you unite us, recognizing that the blood of Jesus Christ and the unity that he gives us triumphs over anything that could potentially divide us. We pray that you bless our time, the Holy Scriptures, Holy Spirit, we love you, we welcome you, and we pray that you deepen our love for you as we meditate upon your word. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series called Graduate Level Grace, actually ending it today. A study in the life of Joseph. Today we're in Genesis 50. Next Sunday is our annual vision sermon. So if you are looking for a church, if you are church shopping, definitely come back next week and we, by the power of God, hopefully will show you of the importance of a gospel proclaiming church, a faithful church in a place like Boston. And then after that, we will start a brand new sermon series through the Gospel of Mark. We're calling it Kingdom Come: The Gospel of Mark and the secret of God's kingdom in which we'll meditate. And what it means is that Jesus is king and what it means that we are part of his kingdom, that we have been transferred from the domain of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved son, and what it means to be kingdom minded. Today the title of the sermon is Forgive from the Heart. The Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, begins with life. God creates life and he creates humanity and everything is perfect and shalom. And then the Book of Genesis ends with death, two deaths actually, the death of Jacob and the death of Joseph. And you say, what happened? It started in such a promising way and such a promising note and it ends with death. And the answer is sin. The answer is, rebellion and rejection of God's reign and rule ushered in death. And Jacob here we're told is buried in the Promised Land as a testimony to the promises God has made in the past. And Joseph's body is put in a coffin in Egypt as a testimony to the fact that he believed that God would bring his promises to pass in the future via the Exodus. And both these godly men die in the Lord, which is a great blessing. Revelation 14:13 says, "And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them." Blessed is to die in the Lord. To die as a believer. Blessed is to die well and to have your funeral be a celebration of your life. Blessed it is to live in such a way where people do want to come to your funeral, and people do have many a good thing, a blessed thing to say about your life. My wife and I, we took a vacation, a trip last summer to Vail, Colorado. And my goodness, it was incredible. Vail is so beautiful. And we're sitting on the porch outside of the hotel room and we have this incredible mountain view and everything's perfect, the food was perfect, the views were perfect, everything's perfect. And when everything's perfect, the Slavic in us, we come from a Slavic background, the Slavic in us wants to be reminded that there is pain in the world. And we decided it would be wise to partake in one of the most painful exercises you could possibly partake. And my wife asked me, she said, "And when I die, what will you say at my funeral?" And then I was like, hold on, I got to think about it. And then as I'm thinking about it, I'm like, okay, what would I say? Many a good thing. I'm going to save it till her funeral. And then I said, "What are you going to say about me at my funeral?" And it was so beautiful and so heart-wrenching, heartwarming, we're just weeping. We're just sitting here and beautiful, weeping. But it was a wonderful reminder of the fact that we will die. And then if you reverse engineer how you want to live in order to be remembered in a positive way, well, how should you live? And I've done many a funeral and I will tell you it's a world of difference when the person that dies dies in the Lord, than a person that had nothing to do with God or there was no evidence of faith in God. People kind of say the same stuff, but you know it comes from a different place when the person was truly a believer secure in the hands of God. What do people say at funerals? Well, the person is now in a better place. If you're a believer or not, everyone says the same thing, even at an unbeliever's funeral. No one wants to say, "Yeah, this person was a pagan and wicked had nothing to do with God." No, they say, "They're in better place." Well, we are to prepare in life for death in order for those words to be true. In the Book of Numbers, Balaam was hired by Balak to curse Israel, but he ends up blessing them, and this is what he says in Numbers 23:10, "Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his." Let me die the death of the upright. In chapter 48, we saw Jacob's greatest act of faith, as singled out in the Hall of Faith Hebrews 11, when he blessed the sons of Joseph, when he crossed his hands, which is an incredible example and actually prophecy of the cross of Jesus Christ. But in Hebrews 11:22 in the Hall of Faith, it says that what Joseph does in this chapter was Joseph's greatest act of faith. Hebrews 11:22 says, "By faith Joseph, at the end of his life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his bones." Joseph, on his deathbed, spoke of the exodus, of the promises of God concerning the exodus, and he demanded to be buried back in the land of Canaan, although he realized it's going to be centuries before the people of God are led out of Egypt. From all appearances, Joseph had at this time by the end of his life, already been an Egyptian through and through. He was an Egyptian from the day of his captivity when he was 17 to when he was elevated to prominence in the Egyptian court at age 30 and he married an Egyptian woman, followed Egyptian laws, carried an Egyptian name. But his dying words show that he had been a stranger in the midst of it all. His citizenship was not in Egypt, it was in heaven. Though he ruled in Egypt, Egypt did not rule in him. He was in the world, but he was not of the world. No worldly influence or power or authority or success distracted him from his faith in God. And as truly as his fathers who would dwell in tents, he too felt like he had no continuing city here. He continued to believe in God and his promises, and he continued to look by faith into the future. Before we look at Genesis 50, just one verse right before to set the context. Jacob on his deathbed blessed his sons, and then Genesis 48:33, it says, "When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and he was gathered to his people." Jacob's body was still in the room, but his soul was gathered to the people of God and he was reunited with his fathers. As Jesus said, "Before Abraham was, I am." And then the Pharisees were like, what are you talking about? That's blasphemy. And he said, "Have you not read? God says I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God is not the God of the dead but of the living." Three points to frame up our time as we walk through the text, a father celebrated, a family reconciled, and a promise believed. So first of Father celebrated. Genesis 50 verse one. "Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him for seventy days" Before Jacob took the trek to Egypt with all of his family, he asked God, "God, are you going with me?" And God met him and said, "Fear not. I will go with you and I will bless you. And your son Joseph is going to close your eyes in death." The other brothers were certainly present at the deathbed of Jacob and they too grieved the death of his father. But Joseph's grief is highlighted here. His love for his father is highlighted here. His affection for his father. He's weeping over him. Why? Because first of all, he stood closer to his father than the other brothers. And also he is experiencing a pain accentuated by the fact that he had lost years of relationship with his father. There's grief, but then there's restrained, godly grief. Joseph is weeping, and after he is done weeping, he then goes into action. Why? Because his grief is like that of a believer. We grieve but not like those without hope. Joseph knows that he too will go to be with his father in the presence of God, just like Jacob did. Joseph here is 56 years of age when his father Jacob died. If you remember, he was 17 when he was sold into captivity by his brothers. And then he was 30 when he rose to prominence in power and in Pharaoh's Court. And then there were seven years of plenty and then two years of famine. And at age 39, his family moved to Goshen. And then Jacob spent 17 years, the last 17 years of his life, with Joseph, just like Joseph had spent the first 17 years of his life with his father. It says that the Egyptians wept for Jacob for 70 days. And this is really important because the Egyptians wept for Pharaoh. When a pharaoh would die, the king of Israel, the Egyptians would weep 72 days. So here we have a feeble shepherd who was revered almost as highly as royalty. Why? Because of his son. Because his son saved the people. And the people recognize that apart from Joseph and his wisdom that God gave him, they would've ended up dead. And sometimes fathers provide for their children early on and sometimes children ended up providing for their parents. I tell my girls this, I have four daughters. I remember when my oldest for the very first time, she was like nine, she washed my car. And I was so pumped and I was like finally, a little ROI. A little return on investment. But we do. We pour into our kids and as we raise the children and recognize the children by God's grace will care for us in our old age. There is no burial recorded in scripture quite as honorable as this with such a wealth of detail. And Joseph commands the physicians, it says, to embalm his father. Not the mortuary priests. His wife was part of the priest cast in Egypt, but it's not the priest that come in and do the embalming. No, it's the doctors, the physicians. Why does Joseph do this? First of all, he wants everyone to know we're not doing this for religious purposes. There's a practical purpose here. The practical purpose in embalming Jacob is to transport his body into Canaan, the Promised Land, just like Jacob had commanded Joseph and the son. So the pagan embalming procedure is used by the Lord God here. So Jacob and Joseph are the only two Israelites of whom the scriptures tell that they were embalmed, not for religious value, but strictly for feasible transportation. Genesis 50 verse 4, "And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, "My father made me swear, saying, "I'm about to die: in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me." Now therefore, let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, Go up, and bury your father, as he made you swear." Joseph being the wise administrator that he is, he understands how the political court works. Although he's second in command to Pharaoh, he understands authority. He understands he's in authority, and he understands he's under authority. So he doesn't want to pull rank. And he understands that Pharaoh would be apprehensive about letting such a trusted official go with his whole tribe, his whole family back to the land of Canaan. Especially given that Joseph knew sensitive information about Egypt and the inner workings, and such clandestine information would be very valuable to the enemies of Egypt. So Joseph understands he needs Pharaoh's clearance, so he asks. Joseph is given his request to go back, and on top of that, he's given a large entourage to escort Jacob for the internment. It's a massive funeral entourage. Hundreds of people made up the retinue. In verse 7 it says, "So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. The text emphasizes that the children, the livestock, were left in Goshen, to emphasize the fact that they felt so secure in leaving the children, the little ones in Goshen. That's how much God had blessed the people of Israel. He'd given them security, he'd given them land. And we see the entourage led by Joseph, and it's almost a mini rehearsal for the ultimate homecoming of the children of Israel out of Egypt via the exodus. And actually the route they took was the same exact one as Israel would take centuries later after the Exodus. In verse 10, "When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days." The Egyptian custom of those days were where when you get to the place of burial, the point of burial, you take another seven days of lamentation. So we're up to 77 days that people lamented the death of Jacob. And this is important. I think this is important for us because we live in a society that idolizes youth and we don't respect people in their older age and we don't think about honoring them and their death. We don't think about honoring them after their death. And this morning my dad, he sent me a text message, iMessage from Estonia, he's in Estonia right now, my country of origin, and he's there with my mom. And he takes a pilgrimage almost every single year. And every time he goes to Estonia, he goes to the cemetery where his mom is buried and where his grandparents are buried. And they take care of their little plot of land, put flowers there. And I remember when I was younger, I was like, that's kind of silly because they're in heaven, right? We believe that they're in heaven, their souls are in heaven. But he's doing it as a way to honor them. Honor their remembrance, and honor their sacrifice for him and for us. And this is important, I think it's important for us to really celebrate those who came before us and to honor them and their death and honor them after their death and the memory of them. And this is what the Lord Jesus told us in the celebration of the last supper. He said, "Do this for what purpose? Do this in remembrance of me." Every time we take the cup and the bread, we're remembering the death of our Lord Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and resurrection. Verse 11 of chapter 50, when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, "This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians," and therefore the place was named Abel-mizraim. Abel-mizraim means mourning of Egypt. Verse 12, "Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them, for his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Efron the Hittite to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father." So Jacob's sons take over here in the very final and most intimate part of the service. They are the ones that bury their father. They are the ones that lay him in his final resting place for his body. And the emphasis in the text is his sons, all his sons are unified in that. They obey the commandment of their father. Perhaps for the first time, all 12 of them are unified in obedience of their father. We see them as submissive, dutiful, faithful. They're truly changed men. And then that whole family goes back to Egypt, goes back to Goshen. And now the question is, well, how then will they live? Now that Jacob's influence as the patriarch, as the loving father on all 12 sons. Are they going to live in unity and reconciliation? And the text says yes. Point two is the family reconciled. Verse 15, "When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, "It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him." So they sent a message to Joseph saying, "Your father gave this command before he died: Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you." And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father." Joseph wept when they spoke to him. So the brother is realizing their father is dead, understandably they're worried. And they're wondering, was he nice to us just because of dad? He's been benevolent to us, but is the benevolence just a mask for malevolent intent? Was he really just harboring resentment and biding his time? So they sent a message to Joseph. They don't go personally just yet. First they want to test the waters. Who do they send? Most likely they sent the youngest son Benjamin because he was loved by both sides of the family. And when Joseph hears this message, he weeps. Why does he weep? Because if these words are true, that Jacob said this, then he's weeping over the fact that his father Jacob did not trust him, did not trust his intentions, did not trust his words. If it's not true, if Jacob did not say this, then Joseph is weeping over the fact that his brothers still don't trust him. And there was no ground for mistrust. Joseph's forgiveness had been without condition. To have his sincere motives questioned was painful, especially after 17 years of care and provision. And you got to stop and you got to wonder, why would they question Joseph after 17 years of his love toward them and word indeed? Well, most likely they're projecting their own guilt on him. Most likely they haven't dealt completely with their guilt and their sin. And most likely they're thinking, okay, if we were sold into captivity by Joseph, and if we were in power over him, and now that dad's not here to protect him, what would we do? And in their sinfulness, they think, you know what? We would probably make him pay for his sins. And that's why it's so important in this message. They say, "Please forgive the transgression." They use the word transgression. They use the word sin, and they use the word evil. They recognize that they've transgressed, not just against God, but against his brother. They've sinned, not just against God, but against their brother. They've committed evil, not against just God, but his and their brother. And what do they call themselves? Forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. For the first time the text tells us that they confess allegiance to the God of the universe. He's our God, not just the God of our Father. They repent and Joseph is weeping. So they got the message that Joseph is weeping. In verse 18 it says, "His brothers also came and they fell down before him and said, "Behold, we are your servants." But Joseph said to them, "Do not fear for am I in the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today. So do not fear; I will provide for you and your little ones." Thus he comforted them and he spoke kindly to them. Their sorrow and their repentance is genuine. It's sincere. That's why they come on the heels of the messenger and they offer themselves to Joseph as slaves. And we got to pause and just say it's incredible how God worked in this family, how he's been growing this family. We see spiritual growth and maturity. We see the brothers humble themselves before their younger brother, a sibling they once hated. And they confess their sin and wrongdoing and they prostrate themselves before their brother just as Joseph once dreamed. Why is this emphasized in the last chapter of the book? Well, because finally this family is healed. Finally, this family is united. Finally, this family understands the grace of God. I don't know about your family situation, your family of origin, your current family. But I will tell you this, that apart from grace, you cannot have a true united loving relationship that's going to last the test of time. We need grace. Why? Because we're all sinners and we sin against one another. The forgiveness of Joseph gives is a full forgiveness, and it reminds us of the forgiveness of Joseph's antitype, the greater Joseph, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. And we can be assured of this, that when we repent of our sins and trust in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven completely. The forgiveness is permanent. And we are forgiven for the penalty of our sins forever. For those who are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation. And when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross and he bore the sins of sinners, he satisfied the divine justice for those for whom he died. Consequently, heaven can bring no new charges against those for whom the Lord has paid a full debt. God does not require the debt to be paid twice. The saved are safe and secure thanks to the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But there are seasons when we doubt this, are there not? Are there seasons in your life, dear believer, when you wonder, did Jesus completely forgive me? Am I truly secure in the hands of God? Or have I lost my relationship with God? And those seasons, for the true believer, those seasons are helpful, because those seasons cause us to wonder, why? Why do I have these doubts? The scriptures are clear that those who believe in Jesus Christ have eternal life immediately. It begins now and continues through return. Most likely we have those doubts because there's current sin in our lives. And then we've got to pause and say, what do I do? Well, you've got to repent of that sin and turn from it and turn back to the Lord. Go back to the cross of Jesus Christ. And we through our life of obedience of faith are to confirm that our election is true. And Joseph says, "Do not fear for am I in the place of God." Do I have the right to judge you? I'm not God over you. I have the power to judge you, but I don't have the right to judge you. And he reminds them that God is the ultimate judge and all wrongs are to be righted by him. Friend, when you are wronged by someone, what is the first inclination of your heart? Most likely it's to seek vengeance. And the Lord says, "No, no, no. When you're sinned against, remember vengeance is mine. I will repay," said the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 5:15," See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. "Joseph continues says, "As for you, you meant evil against me. But God meant it for good." And here we have a classic statement on the doctrine of providence and specifically God's concurrence. And that doctrine means that God can override, he chooses to override the evil consequences of the wicked to bring about a blessing. And the holy God overrides our sin while simultaneously remaining unsullied by it. One commentator says that God handles sin sinlessly. What could I do to interfere with God's plan even if I desire to do so is Joseph's sentiment. God is the ultimate governor of the universe. And it was the similar sentiment of Joseph back in chapter 45 when the brothers started the process of reconciliation in Genesis 45:5. "And now do not be distressed 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 yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and the ruler over all the land of Egypt." You sold me, but it was God who sent me. God is a holy God, he's not the author of evil. He's holy, and therefore no holiness proceeds from him. But God does determine that evil exists in the universe in order to accomplish a greater good that would exist if he had not determined that evil should exist. Why? To manifest His glory through justice and grace, god determines that sin exists in the universe. And to really grasp this, it's important to meditate on the question, who crucified Jesus Christ? Who crucified our Lord and Savior? If you look at John 18 where Jesus is in the garden in Gethsemane, he told his disciples to pray, stay awake, be watchful. The flesh is weak but the spirit is strong. And the disciples fall asleep and then the soldiers are there. And then Judas points out who Jesus is. And Peter out of nowhere is awakened. And then Peter takes out a sword and he attempts to cut off the head of one of the servants that came. And he was still asleep, a little groggy. He missed the head and only nipped the ear. And then Jesus healed the guy. And then Jesus said in John 18:11, "Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath. Shall I not drink the cup that the father has given me?" Well, who crucified Jesus Christ? Oh, it was the father's plan. The Father gave him the cup to drink. What was the cup? Is the cup of suffering and the wrath of God. But then in Acts 2 after the day on the day of Pentecost when Peter gets up and he preaches the first evangelistic sermon, 3000 people got saved. But this is what Peter preached. He said, "Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know, this Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it." And then later in the text it says that the people heard this and they recognized their responsibility. They were cut to the heart and they say, "What do we do?" And Peter said, "Repent and believe in Jesus Christ. There's no question about the responsibility of wicked men who put our Lord to death." They're responsible for their actions, but it's simultaneously true that God predetermined that this wickedness should take place. So God's providence is over everything, even over evil, and he has the power to turn the greatest evil into the greatest good. How do we know this? Well, because what was the greatest evil in the history of the universe? The greatest evil was wicked men putting the son of God to death. And then that greatest evil God transformed into the greatest good through the resurrection of our Lord so that anyone who trusts in the Lord will be saved and preserved and given life, just like the good that came out of the evil of Joseph's brothers selling him was the preservation of God's people. Third is a promise believed. This is Genesis 50 verse 22. "So Joseph remained in the Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years." Now, this is important because between verses 21 and 22, 54 years intervene of the brothers living together. They all remained in the Egypt, he and his father's house. And again, the emphasis is on the whole family. They've been healed, they've been united, they're living in shalom. They're living in complete reconciliation. Why is this important? Because of so many brothers and family members that couldn't get along in the Book of Genesis. Adam and Eve's children, Cain and Abel, couldn't get along, couldn't get reconciled, and Cain kills his brother Abel. Abraham has two sons, Ishmael and Isaac, who did not dwell together. Isaac has two sons, Esau and Jacob, and they parted forever. So the book of beginnings ends with Jacob's 12 sons, who are mired in conflict, in a personal relational conflict, and now they're living together in unity. There's no disunity, there's no division, there's no dissension. They've forgiven one another. They saw healing and now they're loving one another and loving neighbor as self. Psalm 1:33 says, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity. It is like the precious oil on the head, running down on the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down on the collar of his robes. It is like the do of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord has commanded the blessing, life forevermore." We know what it means to not get along with others, to be at odds with others, even with Christians. Especially Christians, dare I say. We've sinned against others and others have sinned against us. And that's why it was so important, at the Last Supper, Jesus Christ, this is his final charge to his disciples before the crucifixion. What does he do? He gets on his knees, he takes a basin on water, he takes a towel, and he starts washing the feet of his disciples. What is he doing? He's saying, this is love. Love is getting on your knees and washing the filth of your brothers. Recognize there is filth and recognizing that it needs to be cleansed and recognizing there needs to be humility for this to happen. For true love and true community and true spiritual family to be established. And then he says the following in John 13:34, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." Jesus is saying, this is how important love in the Christian community is. The watching world wants to know, do you believe? Do you truly believe what you say you believe? Do you truly believe in grace? Do you truly believe that your sins are forgiven? Is your heart transformed, so now you forgive one another? This is the greatest apologetic. The world sees this. The world is moved by this. Because there's nothing outside of the Christian Church that comes even close to this kind of community. And that's why this is the greatest point of attack of Satan. If Jesus is saying that unity is the greatest apologetic to the watching world, when brothers and sisters love each other in the church, what's Satan want to do? He wants to kill that apologetic, he wants to kill that testimony, by causing disunity in the church. And we are to be reminded that the blood of Jesus Christ, which unites us, has a unifying power that is stronger than anything that will pull us away from God or pull us away from another. And I say that because there are seasons in life where our love for one another is put to the test. I don't like watching the news. It's all terrible. I've unplugged from the matrix. I'm not on social media. And I'm hearing rumors of another lockdown coming. I don't know, rumors. When I heard that recently, it just took me a flashback back to 2020 and 2021 and the strife within the church. And I just want to say to you, dear church, just recognize that the unifying power of the blood of Christ, which washes us from all sins, which recognizes that we are all degenerate and we're all disgusting before God, we're all depraved in our sin. We are all wrong somewhere. And just putting down our own ambition, our selfish ambition and saying, you know what? My love for my brothers and sisters is a bond that is greater than anything else that could divide us. And the watching world, I'm telling, the watching world finds that incredibly meaningful and powerful. In Genesis 50 verse 23, "And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Machir, the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own. " The age to which Joseph attain shows us how the span of human life was slowly shortening. Isaac lived 180 years, Jacob, 147, and Joseph here 110. Perhaps it's the hardness of life. Perhaps something was already changing because of sin in the world, changing in the environment. But during these years, he was blessed with seeing his grandchildren. In verse 24, "Joseph said to his brothers, "I'm about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of the land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." And then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, "God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin In Egypt." I die, but God will visit. Joseph doesn't expect his brothers to bring him, as soon as he dies, to bring his coffin or his sarcophagus back to the land of Canaan, most likely because he realized that the political circumstances have changed. When Jacob died, Joseph was in a position of influence to bring him out. And by the end of Joseph's life, Israel doesn't have the same influence in the court of Egypt. He was put in a coffin in Egypt. This is how the Book of Genesis ends. The book opens with life and it ends with death. It opens with a garden and ends with a coffin. Why? Because of sin. Sin entered the world. And as the decades and centuries wore on, the became heavier and the mummy case must have begun to symbolize the futility of the hope. Joseph promised us that we will leave. Abraham was told that we will leave the captivity and land of Egypt, and there he lay for over 300 years until the last day finally when his hope and confidence long deferred was vindicated. The God who makes promises, fulfills his promises. And scripture says that Moses, as he's leading the people of Israel out of Egypt, he remembered the words of Joseph and they carried out his coffin. And then actually for 40 years, the coffin accompanied the people of Israel wherever they went until finally in the days of Joshua, the bones of Joseph were buried in Shechem. Each of the testaments, the Old Testament and the New Testament, ends in hope, with reference to the future. The Old Testament ends with the hope of the Messiah coming, the king of kings, the one that will save, the one that will redeem. The New Testament begins with the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the king of kings, and the New Testament ends with the second coming of the Messiah. Scripture speaks of the death of a believer as sleep. When a person sleeps, they are alive, they're resting, and they expect to wake up. But scripture doesn't teach soul sleep, it teaches body sleep. The body is in place, wherever it's buried or cremated, and the spirit goes to be with the Lord. So the person is alive, resting from his labors, awaiting and awakening. Body left here, soul in the presence of God. And then those who sleep will be awakened, that's their bodies being resurrected with Christ in a glorified sense. Perfect bodies that will not die. 1 Thessalonians 4:13 comments on this, "But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this, we declare to you by the word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not proceed those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words." So the body shall be raised from the dead. It shall be made like the Lord Jesus Christ's own glorious body, and shall rejoin the spirit in the resurrection. How can we be sure of this? How can we be sure that there is a resurrection? How can we be sure that our bodies will be resurrected and we will spend eternity with God? Well, we can be sure of this because we have no idea where Jesus Christ's body is now. Actually we do. It's not buried here. If Jesus Christ's glorified body is in heaven, now see it the right hand of God. And this is profound. If you study any other world religion, you realize that the followers of that world, they know where the founders are buried. They know where the body is. Just like Abraham and Jacob, they wanted their descendants to know where the bodies are so that they will be remembered. Jesus didn't leave his body. And this is the beauty of Christianity. And this is one of the great proofs for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. If Jesus truly remained dead, then his followers would do everything possible to know where his body was buried to revere him. No, thankfully we don't have Jesus' bones. We have an empty tomb. The tomb is empty. And I love the fact that the tomb of Jesus Christ was where? What was the location of the tomb? It was in a garden. I love how God does that. Genesis begins with a garden and it ends with a tomb. And then when Jesus Christ comes, he fights Satan in the garden Gethsemane, where he's tempted to not take the cup of God's wrath. And then he finally says to the Lord, "Father, not my will but yours be done." And then he goes in the arduous journey of the cross and the Via Dolorosa and he takes the cross upon himself and on the cross he takes our sins upon himself. He suffered. He was crucified. And he was buried in a tomb, in a garden. And God is saying that there's a place of death, but it's a place of resurrection and it's in a garden. And I love when Mary goes to see Jesus on the resurrection Sunday. She sees him, but she mistakens him for what? She mistakens him for whom? She mistakens him for a gardener. I love that. I love that. A resurrected Jesus, he's mistaken for a gardener. Why? What's he doing? I don't know. He's probably weeding the garden around the tomb and he's like, oh, no one's taking care of this place. But it's a sign to us that God, through his resurrection of his son, that's the validation. That's the proof that we too by faith in Christ will be resurrected. Jesus Christ says to the disciples, "I go and I prepare a place for you, a truly Promised Land for you," in John 14. And he says, "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I'm going. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes through the Father except through me." This is an implacable truth of the universe, that the only way we can go to God, be reconciled with God, is through Jesus Christ. He is the way, he is the truth, and he is life itself. Joseph looked to the exodus. He looked forward to the exodus. And why was that important? Because the people of God were redeemed out of captivity and they were saved from the angel of death because of the blood of the Passover lamb. On the night before they were redeemed and brought out of the exodus, they took a lamb and they slew the lamb, and then by faith they painted the blood of the slain lamb over their door and were delivered from death and then from Egypt. And all of this was to point to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ is the one that leads us out in the new Exodus. 1 Corinthians 5:7 says, "For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed." So the people of Israel, they had to act upon their faith. Do we believe the words of God when he says that you have to kill a lamb and you have to paint your doorway with the blood? Do we believe it? Then you have to act on it. We have to do it. And then they were saved. In the same way, how can we be redeemed from our sin through the blood of the lamb of God? You have to believe it, and then you have to act upon it. How do we act upon it? We repent of our sin. Lord, we have transgressed. We have committed evil. We have committed sins. Lord, that sin, that evil, the penalty for all of that was laid upon you. That's why you were slain. So we believe and then we reorder our life around that belief. Bible trivia question, did Moses ever see the Promised Land? Oh, look at you good Bible scholars. God prevented him from seeing the Promised Land because of his stubbornness and sin. But then on the Mount of Transfiguration in Luke 9, it says, "Moses met with Jesus." Where? In the Promised Land. And what do they talk about? Luke 9:28, "Now about eight days after these sayings he took with him Peter and John and James and went up on the mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. And behold, two men were talking with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was about to accomplish in Jerusalem." And the word for departure in the original is Exodus. What did Moses want to talk about with Jesus? He wanted to talk about the Exodus. Moses, the great Moses who led the people of God in the exodus through the Red Sea that was parted, wanted to talk with Jesus Christ about the new exodus that was going to be accomplished in Jerusalem where on the cross, that we are led from the captivity to our sin. From condemnation for our sin, we're led through the Red Sea of the blood of Jesus Christ that was poured down on the cross and by grace through faith. When we repent of sin, the Lord forgives us and he frees us. Praise be to God. And as we await in faith and hope of our exodus to the Promised Land, we too, by God's grace, are reminded from this text that we are to seek to live in harmony and peace with one another, forgiving and being forgiven. Matthew 6:14, Jesus says some incredible things. He says, "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." It's incredible because he's saying, this is how fundamental forgiveness is in the Christian life. If you truly believe that you have been forgiven by God, a holy God, an eternal weight of penalty, well, how will you not then forgive those who sin against you? Matthew 18, it says that Peter came to Jesus and he said to him, and I'll close with this because these are some weighty words. He said, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times? And Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times." Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master awarded him to be sold with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, "Have patience with me and, I will pay you everything." And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him saying, "Pay what you owe." So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you. He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. And when his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant. I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart." If you truly understand how much you have been forgiven by God at the cross, how could you withhold forgiveness from another? So meditate on the words of Christ from the cross. Father, forgive them, for they do not what they do. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for a blessed time in the Holy Scriptures and the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings. Lord, we thank you that because of your son Jesus Christ, we have access to grace. And Lord, I pray that we never take your grace for granted. And as we receive your grace, I pray it transforms us to be a people who are quick to forgive when others sin against us. And Lord, continue to bless this church, continue to unify our hearts, to bring us into cohesion around your will for us. And we do pray that as we love one another, because you have first loved us, the watching world will be mesmerized. How is it that these people truly love one another? And I pray that you give us grace to then deflect all the glory and honor to you and say, it's only because of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and whose name we pray. Amen.

The Greatest Act of Faith

August 6, 2023 • Jan Vezikov • Genesis 48

Audio Transcript: This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com Heavenly Father, you are blazing in your holiness, and we thank you that you are tender in your love, and we thank you for the holy scriptures in which you reveal your will to us, and we thank you that you reveal yourself to us. Lord, as we meditate on a text of one of your saints approaching death, I pray, Lord, minister to us, remind us that we are mortal, that we will die, but it's not our souls that die, it's just our bodies. Lord, I pray that as we meditate on death, that you give us an extra portion of the Holy Spirit to think about these things seriously and sober-mindedly, so that each one of us is prepared today to meet you. For those who do not yet know you, Lord, I pray give them a desire to know you, give them a desire to know if these things in the holy scriptures are true, give them a desire to know is Jesus God, and give them the desire to wrestle with you, Jesus, to wrestle with your claims and to wrestle with your person. I pray that as they do, that you meet them, and that you bless them, and that you walk with them. For those who are not yet Christians, Lord, save them today and usher them into your kingdom by giving them the gift of the new birth. We pray all this in Christ's name. Amen. We are continuing our sermon series called Graduate Level Grace, A Study in the Life of Joseph. We are nearing the end of it., As we near the end of it, the story goes from Joseph primarily to now Jacob. The title of the sermon today is The Greatest Act of Faith. The narrative here shifts from Joseph to his father, Jacob. The text slows down, and it does so deliberately to focus our attention on a man's last days. We've seen the life of Jacob, and we've learned many truths, and now we get a glimpse into how he prepares to die. The lesson here is that we ought to think about death. Do you think about death? You should. Few things in life teach us how to live in a more profound way than meditating upon death. Once in a while, the Lord reminds you that you're going to die. Sometimes it's through a near death experience. This week, or it was last week, I was on Bible Gateway. On Bible Gateway there's the Google Ads, and they target you. They're always kind of funny for they think they got me with this ad. They didn't get me. But then I'm preparing this sermon on death and the ad that comes up, I see this gentleman in the ad, I'm like, "What are they trying to sell me?" Then at the bottom I see it's an ad for Depends. It's a product called Depends. If you don't know what Depends are, you're lucky and probably young. Now I'm getting targeted with these ads. Unfortunately, with every day we are getting closer to death and we are to prepare. Ecclesiastes 7:1-4 says, "A good name is better than precious ointment and the day of death than the day of birth. It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting. For this is the end of all mankind and the living will lay to heart. Sorrow is better than laughter. For by sadness of face, the heart is made glad. And the heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth." And as Jacob approaches his death, we see that his faith is never stronger. It actually grows. How he behaves himself in this chapter, what he says, what he does, the posture of heart, this text is marked as his greatest act of faith in all of scripture. Why do I say that? Because of what Hebrews 11 says. If I was writing Hebrews 11, the Hall of Faith, this is the greatest saints and the greatest act of faith. If I was writing that chapter about Jacob, a little paragraph about his greatest act of faith, what would I choose? What act would I choose? Most likely it's that one occasion where he wrestles with God and it says that he wrestled with a man who then it turns out to be God. Theologians call this a Christophany, an appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. He wrestled with Jesus Christ and he wouldn't let go and they wrestled all night. If you know anything about wrestling, it's exhausting. That's why most matches are six minutes. He's wrestling all night. He's saying, "Lord, I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." I think the Lord was letting him win. I think that's what was happening. Then the Lord Jesus just touches his hip, bop, something happened and then the rest of his life he walked with a limp. He had the blessing of wrestling with God himself. Or was it the occasion where he has another vision in Bethel where he sees a staircase between heaven and earth and he sees angels ascending and descending on the staircase of God? The Lord had some incredible moments with Jacob to test his faith, to grow his faith. But in Hebrews 11, the act of faith that is pointed out, that is singled out as the greatest act of faith in Jacob's life was this Hebrews 11:21, "By faith Jacob when dying blessed each of the sons of Joseph bowing in worship over the head of his staff." Perhaps we wouldn't have chosen this incident, but God, the Holy Spirit did. Why is this his greatest act of faith? Well, what is faith? Hebrews 11:1 says, faith. Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the conviction of things not seen. The conviction that the most important things in life, the most meaningful things in life are not seen. The most important things in life are spiritual, they're invisible, they're immaterial, and in many ways they are future things. Jacob's greatest act of faith comes in his last days. This is a great vision for life, knowing that if the Lord is giving me life, today could be the day of my greatest act of faith. You may have peaked physically, but certainly while you're still alive, you have not peaked spiritually. II Corinthians 4:16, "So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day." May this be true for you and for me. The context of our chapter here in Genesis 48 is that prior to coming to Egypt, Jacob stopped in Bathsheba and he worshiped and he made sacrifices to the Lord. He was wondering, "Lord, are you with me? Are you going to Egypt with me?" The Lord appeared to him and said, "Do not fear. I will go with you and Joseph will close your eyes with his hand as you die," a tender promise there. And three times in these last chapters, Joseph comes to the bedside of Jacob. Today. We're looking at the second such occurrence. Jacob is facing death, but he's not doing it with fear. He's doing it with faith. Three points as we walk our way through the text. First, the greatest act of faith is sharing the faith. Second, share the faith by sharing your faith. And third, salvation is by grace through faith. First, the greatest act of faith is sharing the faith. By sharing, I mean doing everything you possibly can to transmit the faith, to compel, to persuade, to teach, but then also to live it out. Because faith in many ways is taught, but also in many ways it's caught, like in the parable of the great banquet, the Lord says, "Go out to the highways and the hedges and compel people to come in that my house may be filled." This is what the Lord Jesus Christ told us in the great commission, "Go out and make disciples of all people." I had a conversation after one of my sermons recently and I was asked, "Are you trying to make America a Christian nation?" It was a very loaded question. I said, "Look, I'm trying to make people Christians and people from all nations. That's my job. We are called to convert." She said, "Are you trying to change people's minds about..." "Yes, oh yes. Yes we are. Yes, that's our mission, that's our job." She's like, "But don't they get offended when you're telling them they're wrong?" I'm like, "At least they're paying attention. Now we can start a relationship and actually deal with the things that cause offense, but this is our job." Why do we do this? Because we care for people's eternal destinies. We care for people's eternal souls. We want people to live an eternal bliss and glory with the Lord Jesus Christ forever. This is what the text shows us that Jacob does with his sons and what they do in Egypt. Genesis 48:1-4, after this, Joseph was told, "Behold your father is ill." So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and it was told to Jacob, "Your son Joseph has come to you." Then Israel summoned his strength and sat up in bed and Jacob said to Joseph, "God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, Behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply, and I will make of you accompany of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession." It says He summoned his strength and he sat up in bed. He rallies his strength. It's a dose of fresh strength that comes with purpose. He knows he's got to get up. He knows he's got to do this thing that the Lord is calling him to do, to bless Joseph's sons. The first thing he remembers is that God appeared to him. "God almighty appeared to me," he says. Loses the old name for Bethel. And God appeared to Jacob twice in Bethel, 20 years apart. The first time when he was leaving the Promised Land, and then when he was coming back to meet with Esau. God appears to him twice. And then he says, "God Almighty appeared to me and he blessed me." In his last moments, in his last days, he wants to be remembered for what? For this. For God. For his relationship with God. He's saying, "Son, whatever you remember of your father, remember God Almighty. May God Almighty appear to you. May God reveal himself to you. May God bless you." And you can feel the authenticity of Jacob's faith in his voice. It's almost palpable as he's trembling, the gravitas, the seriousness. How does he want to be remembered by his grandsons? Like this, believing, worshiping, prophesying, praying over them, blessing. He's loving, he's affectionate, he's personal, he's tender. This is the greatest legacy that we can leave to our children and then to the people around us. The greatest legacy that we can leave, the greatest inheritance that we can leave, be a father or a mother to our children, or just as a believer to those who are not yet Christians, it's the knowledge of the Lord. Children, I want you to know God. I had a personal relationship with God. You too can have a personal relationship with God and this is the best thing for you. The greatest thing you can do for your children is to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. The greatest thing you can give them is teaching them that God is the greatest blessing. A relationship with God is the greatest blessing. So to worship him, to glorify him, to thank him is the greatest blessing for our souls. Scripture teaches us that whoever doesn't provide for his household is worse than an unbeliever. And yes, that has to do with material provision. We are to provide for the bodies that God has entrusted to us, but how much more so is it imperative to provide for their souls? Why was this event considered Jacob's greatest act of faith? Because he believed and he believed so authentically and sincerely that his faith was transmitted to the next generation. It was transmitted to his sons and then it was transmitted to his grandsons. What's fascinating here is that Ephraim and Manasseh, the grandsons of Jacob, they didn't receive a direct revelation from God. God did not speak to them. No. This is how God chose to reveal himself to them through the testimony of their grandfather. What's fascinating is that God does not speak out loud audibly for another 400 years after Genesis ends, until he finally speaks to Moses in the burning bush. So Jacob is transferring the promises of the covenant to his son and to his adopted sons, both with his words and with his life. Psalm 78:1-7 says, "Give ear, oh my people to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old, things that we have heard and known that our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord and his might and the wonders that he has done." He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers to teach to our children, that the next generation might come to know them and might know them and the children yet unborn and arise and tell them to their children so that they should set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments. One of the beauties of sharing your faith is once you start speaking your faith out loud, you begin to realize your gaps in knowledge or your gaps in faith. The more you share your faith, the better you become at it because God gives grace of knowledge to those who share. This is a promise that's given to us in Philemon that we can know God deeper, the things of God in a more profound way and the path to that profound knowledge of the faith, that depth of faith is sharing our faith. Philemon 1:4-6, "I thank my God always when I remember you in my prayers because I hear of your love and of the faith that you have toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints. And I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective for the full knowledge of every good thing that is in us for the sake of Christ." Well, you can't share what you don't have. So if you are to share your faith, you got to say, "Do I really believe this? Am I living as if I believe this? And why does he have to pray for effective sharing of your faith?" Because sharing your faith is more effective when your faith is real. So he's praying for their faith to be ignited in such a way that they can't but share it. And as they share it, the more you share your faith, the deeper and fuller your knowledge of every good thing becomes the more effective you are. We are to share our faith at every opportunity we can and we are to use... In Genesis 48:5-6, the text continues. "And now your two sons who were born to you in the land of Egypt before I came to you in Egypt are mine. Ephraim and Manasseh shall be mine as Ruben and Simeon are. And the children that you fathered after them shall be yours. They shall be called by the name of their brothers in their inheritance." So Joseph comes in with his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh is the oldest. He says, "Your sons, Joseph, are mine." In what sense? In the sense that he's just their grandfather? No, because then he wouldn't have to say it. That's just understood. No, he says, "Now they're mine in the same way that Reuben and Simeon are mine." Reuben and Simeon are his real biological children, but in a sense Jacob displaces them with his grandsons. Why did he do that? Because of Reuben and Simeon's sins against their father. I Chronicles 5:1-2 comments on this, "The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, for he was the firstborn, but because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph, the son of Israel, so that he could not be enrolled as the oldest son. "Though Judah became strong among his brothers and the chief came from him, yet the birthright belonged to Joseph." So here, Reuben and Simeon through their sin, have squandered the blessing of the birthright and they squandered the blessing of their father. There's many a lesson here. The very moment you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and you repent of sin, he forgives you for the penalty of sin. But often in life there are sins that when you commit you will bear the consequences of that sin for the rest of your life. Through sin, we do squander blessings. That's what happened with these guys. Therefore by adopting them, Jacob is making them leaders in the tribes of Israel. Therefore, there were not just 12 tribal figures in Israel, there were 13 because Joseph is given two places as his great honor with Ephraim and Manasseh. Then Levi was the tribe that belonged to the Lord and they ministered in the tabernacle. So the land was divided amongst the 12 tribes, which included the sons of Joseph. Joseph's two sons here, their dad's still alive, they're introduced into the heirship of their father, Joseph, who's still living. They become joint heirs with Joseph. This is very relevant to us because the moment you trust in Jesus Christ, he becomes your Lord and Savior. We become joint heirs with Christ. His inheritance becomes our inheritance. His righteousness becomes our righteousness. We share as the sons of God and the firstborns right in the privilege of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what is Jacob doing? He's imputing something to the sons of Joseph, and this is how grace works. We repent and we turn from sin and we trust in Jesus Christ and his blood sacrifice on the cross in our stead, substitutionary atonement the moment you believe you become joint heir and you are adopted into the family of God. This is exactly what happens when sinners through faith are counted reckoned righteous by virtue of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're adopted into the family of God. God is our father. Jesus is our older brother with his righteousness, inheritance imputed to us. This is important to know, that just by virtue of you being a human being, that's not enough to be a child of God. We do not enter the kingdom of God through natural birth. Therefore, there are human beings who have not yet trusted in Jesus Christ. They're outside of the kingdom of God and they are not children of God. This for many people, this comes as a surprise because we've been taught God loves everybody and you don't have to do anything about it. You're just a child of God. That's not true. If you're living as an enemy of the cross, by not trusting that Jesus Christ had to die for your sins, that this was absolutely necessary for your salvation, you are not born again. And if you're not born as a child of God, a scripture says that you are child of the enemy. Jesus even said to the Pharisees, "Your children of Satan," harsh words to melt hard hearts so people repent and turn to Christ. Jesus is clear about this in John 1:11-13. "He came to his own and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." Imagine that. No matter what your family status, no matter what kind of family, faith background you have, no matter what your pedigree religiously speaking, no matter what you have done, no matter the sins that you have committed, no matter how you much you've transgressed God's law, no matter how much you've spat at the honor of God, the very moment you come to Lord and you receive him, "Yes Lord, I receive your grace. Lord, forgive me. Pardon me, Lord. I repent of my sin." The very second you believe in him, receive him, you will be born again. That's the promise of God and you're born into the family of God. Genesis 48:7 continues, "As for me, when I came from Paddan to my sorrow, Rachel died in the land of Canaan on the way when there was still some distance to go to Ephrath and I buried her there on the way to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem." Joseph, the firstborn of Rachel, is standing before Jacob and reminds him of his mom, Rachel. He includes a comment here. Then verse eight, when Israel saw Joseph's sons, he said, "Who are these?" Joseph said to his father, "They are my sons whom God has given me here." And he said, "Bring them to me please that I may bless them." Now the eyes of Israel were dimmed with age so that he could not see, so Joseph brought him near and he kissed them and embraced them. I love that verse, that very end, just to see this man, this great man of faith, him in his most intimate moments. What does he... He's affectionate. He's affectionate with his children. He's affectionate with his grandchildren. Here just a word of reminder, in particular dads are... And to anyone to whom this perhaps doesn't come naturally, do you hug? Do you embrace? Do you kiss? Do you bless your children? This should be the natural rhythm of your lives. I have four daughters. It's so easy to be tender with them. They're so sweet. My third daughter is eight. Ekaterina is her name. We call her Ekat. She texts me sometimes from her mom's phone and she said, "Dad, this is Ekat." I know it is Ekat because she's got the emojis, what are they called? She got that game going. She's a little kissy and she always includes a dog at the end because she's trying to get a dog from us still. And then I respond with what? I heart it and I send little kissy things. But this should be the natural rhythm of our lives to love and to love tenderly and to love affectionately. This is a reminder that grandchildren are a blessing. Proverbs 17:6 says, "Grandchildren are the crown of the aged and the glory of children is their fathers." This was a blessing upon Israel. Psalm 128:6, "May you see your children's children. Peace be upon Israel." And then verse 11 of Genesis 48, "And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face and behold God has let me see your offspring also. Then Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the earth and Joseph took them both, Ephraim on his right hand toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel's right hand and brought them near to him." What's Joseph doing? Joseph understands how hugely important this moment is. Jacob, as the patriarch of the family, is also the priest of the family. His blessing is important because it's effectual. Ephraim, the younger son, he directs toward Jacob's left hand. Manasseh, the older son, he directs toward Jacob's right hand. Throughout scripture, the right hand is considered the place of honor and the place of greatest blessing. That's why Jesus Christ, the resurrected Christ, right now is sitting at the right hand of God the Father. Verse 14, "And Israel stretched out his right hand and laid it on the hand of Ephraim, who was the younger and his left hand on the head of Manasseh crossing his hands for Manasseh was the firstborn." Now this right here throws Joseph for a loop. We'll get to what he does. What's happening is that Jacob is breaking societal norms. The firstborn who's blessed by the right hand gets a double share of the inheritance. For example, Joseph got the double share of the land by virtue of the fact that he got the blessing that should have gone to Reuben or Simeon. And Judah got the double portion of authority while Joseph got the double portion. That's supposed to go to the oldest. The oldest gets a double portion. Everything that the other children get, the oldest is supposed to get double that, double share of the inheritance. But Jacob here crosses his hands, and the Hebrew it's sakal, to lay crosswise. Joseph isn't happy about this, but he waits to interject knowing how solemn the moment is. This brings us to point two, share the faith by sharing your faith. Verse 15, "And he blessed Joseph and said The God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walk, the God who has been my shepherd, all my lifelong to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys and in them let my name be carried on in the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." So he's blessing the sons of Joseph, but the text tells us in verse 15, "He blessed Joseph." He blessed Joseph by praying a prayer of blessing upon the sons of Joseph. What's the text communicating? It's communicating that the greatest blessing he can give Joseph is to bless his grandchildren because the greatest blessing a parent can receive is to see their children being blessed by the Lord. Does this sound like a man who thinks death is the end? No. He knows that God is going to be with them after he passes on to be with his fathers in heaven. This whole prayer is full of hopeful immortality. The prayer is triple pronged. It's a triune blessing. He talks about God and then he talks about God, and then he talks about the angel. He mentions three persons, the God, the God, and then the angel, which is Christ. In verse 16, he uses the singular. He says, "You," singular, "God bless these boys." This isn't a full revelation of the trinity, but it's certainly in accord and consistent with the trinity. First, Jacob calls the Lord his shepherd with emphasis on the Lord's holistic provision. As a shepherd, he knows intimately, in depth he understood what it means that the Lord has been shepherding him. He knows the Lord as a good shepherd has been with him in good times and has led him through the valley of the shadow of death. This is how the psalmist speaks about our relationship with the Lord. The question as we read this text is, is God your Lord? Is God your shepherd? Do you follow Jesus Christ as your shepherd where he tells you what to do, understanding that everything he tells us is for his glory and our good? Psalm 23, "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. He restores my soul. He leads me in path of righteousness for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me and your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever." Jacob hasn't been the best sheep. He's been stubborn in many ways in many seasons of his life, but he knows, "The Lord, the good shepherd has been with me." He says the angel, "The angel who redeemed me from all evil." Who's he talking about here? "The angel that redeemed me." Well, how can an angel redeem? The only way redemption was done is through a blood sacrifice. What is he talking about here? Well, this is a prophetic text about Jesus Christ. The word for redeemed is the same word that's used in the context of the kinsman redeemer, Goel, in the story of Ruth and Boaz. He says, "I have lived an evil life in many ways, but Jesus Christ whom I wrestled with, he tamed me." "He broke my hip. The rest of my life, I was walking with a limp as a reminder of the fact that he is God and I am not." In many ways he wrestled with Jesus Christ in the same way that we are called to wrestle with Jesus Christ. If you are not a Christian, if you're not sure what you believe or if you are a believer, I am just telling you most of the people in your life are not believers. We're going to finish this sermon series and then we're going to do a one week of vision, Lord willing, and then we're going to start a sermon series through the Gospel of Mark. We're calling it Kingdom Come, Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom. The intention of that whole series is we want to introduce people to Jesus Christ, to his teaching from the holy scriptures, present it as best as we can that there is reason to believe. And then give people an opportunity to wrestle with Christ yourself. If you want the greatest blessing in life, and that's to know God and be known by God and to have all your sins forgiven, the responsibility is on you. It's not on me. It's not on Christians. We do the best we can and we share our faith just like Jacob is sharing his faith. Remember 17 years before this text, he met with Pharaoh and Pharaoh said, "How many are the days of your years?" And he said, "The days of my years have been evil and few." Even to Pharaoh, he was already sharing his faith. "My life has been evil, Pharaoh, but I have been redeemed by the angel who is Jesus Christ. I have wrestled with him. I have known him, and I have had my evil in my sin redeemed." When you do that and when you trust in the Lord, and when you believe that Jesus took your evil upon himself in order to redeem us, in order to give us grace, well that puts everything into perspective. He does share his faith here. As we share the faith, we are to share our faith and share the moments in life where, you know what, this was evil that I did. I have transgressed God's law, but God saved me. God gave me grace. And because God gave me grace and I'm so sure of it, he's redeemed me. He's taken off the shame. He's taken off the guilt. He's given a new purpose in life. He's done that for me and I am more wicked than you could ever imagine. He can do that for you as well. That's what he's doing. Then point three is salvation is by grace through faith. Verse 17, "When Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, it displeased him and he took his father's hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. And Joseph said to his father, Not this way, my father. Since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head." Well, this is the law of primogeniture, it's called. It's the cultural norm that the oldest was supposed to be more blessed, but Jacob himself broke that manmade law by supplanting Esau, Ishmael, and we see the other examples. Ishmael was the firstborn, but it was Isaac through whom the seed would come. Reuben had lost the blessing of the firstborn. Judah is the one through whom the seed will come. And so here, Ephraim is firstborn. His firstborn rights among the tribes Israel are over that of Manasseh. Ephraim was blessed. The successor of Moses, Joshua, came from Ephraim, which is a big deal. But why does he do this? Why does that happen and why does that happen in scripture all the time where it's like this guy is expected to be blessed above and beyond and then God just crosses his hands? Well, the point is that nature does not necessarily inherit the things of God. We don't inherit blessing through our physical body or through the things that are physical. If the oldest always necessarily inherited the blessings, we might get the idea that blessings come from our nature. God reverses things over and over and over again to remind us that if God is going to bless people despite their sin, it has to be by grace and by grace alone. The first Adam was rejected while the last Adam, Christ has the firstborn rights by virtue of a saving work on the cross. We're not blessed because we do good works or hold some high position in society. We're blessed by God's sovereign grace. If we're blessed, we're blessed because God chose to bless us. In I Corinthians 1:26, "For consider your calling brothers, not many of you are wise according to the worldly standards." Not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. And because of him, you are in Christ Jesus who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption so that as it is written, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. Praise be to God that Jacob crossed his hands, and praise be to God that God the Father sent his son Jesus Christ to go to the cross. That's the ultimate cross of blessing. Whereas like Jesus, you did not deserve our curse. You did not deserve to die like that. You did not sin. We sinned. I deserve to be on that cross, not Jesus Christ, the blameless Son of God. But God crosses everything at the cross. He takes our curse so that we could have the blessing of God. It's so good because it's true. All of this is true. God, so to speak, crosses his hands and bestowing his blessings, giving them to those who in our eyes are least worthy of them and least likely to receive them. God is responsible for the blessing of man and he blesses sovereignly. Joseph says, "No, no, no. Father, no. Father, do I have to remind you I am the vice president of Egypt? Father, not like that." That's what he's saying. "It's not fair." That's what Joseph is saying. "This isn't fair, this isn't the way." But the Lord doesn't do what we deem fair. He does what his will determines should be done and whatever his will determines should be done is right. What's right? What's fair? It's what God decides. This is one of the reasons why Jesus gave us this parable in Matthew 20 where he talks about grace and that the owner of grace, that's God, can do whatever he wants with grace. Matthew 20:1-16 says, "For the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. And after agreeing with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And going about the third hour, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and to them he said, You go into the vineyard too and whatever is right I will give you. So they went going out again about the sixth hour and the ninth hour he did the same thing. And about the 11th hour, he went out and found others standing and he said to them, Why do you stand here idle all day? They said to him, Because no one has hired us. He said to them, You go into the vineyard too. And when evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, Call the laborers and pay them their wages beginning from the last up to the first. When those hired about the 11th hour came, each of them received the denarius. And now when those hired first came, they thought they would receive more, but each of them also received a denarius. On receiving it, they grumbled at the master of the house saying, These last worked only one hour and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat. But he replied to one of them, Friend, I'm doing you no wrong. Did you not agree with me for a denarius? Take what belongs to you and go, I choose to give to this last worker as I gave to you. Am I not allowed to do what I choose with what belongs to me or do you begrudge my generosity so the last will be first and the first last? Do you begrudge my generosity?" That's exactly what Jacob is saying, "I am giving out the blessings." By the way, he was filled with the Holy Spirit as he was doing it. H chooses to bless the younger over the older. Verse 19 of chapter 48, "But his father refused and said, I know my son. I know. He also shall become a people and he also shall be great. Nevertheless, his younger brother shall be greater than he and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations." Perhaps this is why this moment is considered Jacob's greatest act of faith because he hears the word of God. He hears God speaking in his heart and he acts on the basis of it even in the face of displeasure-filled counsel from his prime minister son. Verse 20, "So he blessed them that day saying, By you Israel will pronounce blessing, saying God make you as Ephraim and as Manasseh. Thus, he put Ephraim before Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, Behold I am about to die, but God will be with you and will bring you again to the land of your fathers. Moreover, I have given to you rather than to your brothers one mountain slope that I took from the hand of the Amorites with my sword and with my bow." You in verse 21, "God will bring you out of Egypt." That's plural. Joseph and all of his descendants will come out. This land that he's giving him was the land of the Shechemites. Jacob had purchased a plot of land from Shechem and he now bequeaths this to Joseph and his sons. He promises that "God will be with you. No matter what happens, Joseph, when I pass, in the same way that God has been with me, may he be with you and your children and your children's children. May God be with you." This is what makes heaven heaven. It's the place where God will be our God and we will be as people and in fellowship. It begins here. "I will be your God and I will be with you, my people here on earth." Isaiah 59:21, "As for me, this is my covenant with them says the Lord. My spirit that is upon you and my words that have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth or out of the mouth of your offspring or out of the mouth of your children's offspring, says the Lord, from this time forth and forever more." As we close and as we transition to Holy Communion, a question before us is do you fear death? That's really a good test of how strong your faith is. Do you fear death? I was at my gym last Saturday, it was like 95 at 9:00 AM and it was a hundred percent humidity. I go to this old school boxing gym where air conditioning... I asked the guy one time, "Is there air conditioning?" And he just laughed in my face. It was one of those places on a Saturday workout. It was a 90-minute workout. This guy that shows up regularly and we know each other, he's like, "Dude, after work, I almost died. I think I almost died. That was the closest I've ever been to death." I just looked at him. Any opportunity I have to Jesus juke someone and bring in the gospel, I do it all the time. I said, "Well, good thing I'm ready to die." I said it like that in a way that caused him to pause. He's like, "What do you mean?" I was like, "I am ready to die right now after this workout. That would be easier I think than driving home after this thing." He's like, "What do you mean? Do you go to Valhalla?" Because he thinks I'm a Viking. Long story. I call him the Italian Stallion. He calls me the Vike. That's true Brother Lilo. I was like, "No, because I believe in Jesus Christ." He's like, "Believing in Jesus Christ keeps you from dying?" I was like, "In a sense. Death is just a transition." It's just a corridor for the believer in Christ. You just transition from living here and now to living in the presence of God. And the promise is given to us that when we believe in the gospel that we can have eternal life that begins now. Why can we believe in that promise? Because Jesus Christ on the cross, he didn't just vanquish sin, he also vanquished death. In the death of Christ we see the death of death itself. I'll close with this and then we'll transition to Communion. I Corinthians 15:50-58, "I tell you this, brothers, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." "Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised imperishable and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, the movable always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain." Every first Sunday at Mosaic, first Sunday of the month, we celebrate Holy Communion as was commanded to us by the Lord Jesus Christ, for whom is Holy Communion at Mosaic? Holy Communion is for repentant believers in Jesus Christ. If you have not trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, we ask that you refrain from this part of the service. It'll do nothing for you. Instead, meditate on the gospel. If you even today repent of your sins, you are welcome to partake. If you have not received the elements, please raise your hand and one of the ushers will hand them out. In the meantime, would you pray with me over Holy Communion? Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love that you lavished upon us and sending your son Jesus Christ. And Jesus, we thank you that you lived the life of perfect obedience to God, the Father and everything, and you loved God and you loved neighbor as yourself perfectly. And you loved us so much so that you gave yourself as a blood sacrifice for our redemption. We thank you Jesus, that you didn't stay dead, but you conquered death itself as you triumphantly rose from the grave on the third day. We, Lord, repent of our sins corporately, and we repent of our sins individually. Lord, forgive us. Forgive me. Lavish your grace upon us and upon me. Lord, continue to sanctify us by the power of the Holy Spirit and draw many to yourself. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. There's a top and a bottom lid. If you take the bottom lid off the bread is there. On the night that Jesus Christ was betrayed, he took the bread and after breaking it, he said, "This is my body broken for you. Take, eat and do this in remembrance of me." He then proceeded to take the cup and he said, "This cup is the new covenant of my blood. Take, drink and do this in remembrance of me." Lord God, we thank you for your promise where you said that to all of those who come to you, with humility and contrition of heart, though our sins are like scarlet, you will make us white and pure as snow. Lord, I pray that you give each one of us that purity of heart. We thank you for the promise that those who are pure in heart shall see God. We pray for the gift of purity of heart and we pray for ever deeper revelations from you and revelations with you. Continue to bless our worship service Lord, and fill our hearts with joy, and help us sing with everything we've got to the God of the universe who's worthy of our worship. We pray all this the beautiful name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Wise & Innocent

July 30, 2023 • Jan Vezikov • Genesis 47

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston, or donate to this ministry, please visit http://mosaicboston.com Father, we thank you for the gift of holy scripture in which you reveal to us your mind, your will, your purposes. Lord, you long to bless us, and I pray that you make us a people that long to be blessed, and care about your blessing. We thank you for the greatest blessing that we can have as a relationship with you, to be reconciled with you, to have our evil redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, we come to your holy scriptures with trembling, and contrition of heart, recognizing that this is the posture of heart that you bless. And Lord, we fear you, and we recognize that to fear you is to love you. And to love you is to fear you to stand in awe, and reverence before your glory, your majesty. And Lord show us that the beginning of wisdom is to fear you. We are people who are naturally inclined toward evil, and folly. And Lord, as you redeem us from our evil, we do ask that you also save us from our folly, and make us a people who are good, but also who are good at life guided by your wisdom. Holy Spirit, we pray that you bless us today with your presence. And also, Lord, take these words, and apply them to each one of us specifically only as you can. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series called Graduate Level Grace Study in the Life of Joseph. We are today in Genesis 47, and the title of the sermon is Wise and Innocent. A few years back, the Brookings Institute named Boston as one of the knowledge centers of the world. And by this they mean that Boston is full of very intelligent, highly productive people, talented, and they come here to get more knowledge, and that knowledge is taken to the world. Knowledge is great. We're told knowledge is power, we're told, and scripture agrees. Proverbs 18:15 says, "An intelligent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge." But acquiring knowledge for the sake of knowledge is never enough. What do you do with that knowledge? That's what matters more. Can you skillfully execute upon this knowledge when necessary in the real world, and real time with real life consequences, and implications? And it doesn't matter how great of a game plan you have, if you can't execute in the real game, well then, it meant nothing. So, scripture does call us to knowledge, but to something more than just knowledge. It calls us to wisdom. And if knowledge is power, then what is wisdom? Well, wisdom is a superpower. In Matthew 10:16, Jesus tells his disciples before sending them out to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. He says, "Behold, I'm sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." Wise and innocent. And Joseph is marked by this razor sharp discernment, and strategic execution. The great Puritan, Thomas Watson. He said that, "The godly man acts both the politician, and the divine. He retains his ingenuity, yet does not part with his integrity." And one of the beauties about wisdom is you can grow in wisdom how through practice, and through training. Hebrews 5:14 says, "But solid food is for the mature for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil." And in our text today in Genesis 47, we see Joseph exercising this divine wisdom, and he does so in order to provide in four points to frame up our time as we walk through the text together first, Joseph provides for his family. And by doing so, Pharaoh is blessed. And then Egypt is blessed, and Israel is blessed. First, Joseph rides for his family. With shrewdness, and wisdom, Joseph sets out to accomplish his objective. His objective as his family moves from Canaan, his father, and his brother's multitude of people, hundreds. His goal is to provide prime land for them so that they can continue to prosper despite the famine that's still in the land. And in Psalm 105, 16 through 22, it's a Psalm that comments on the story of Joseph. It says, "When he summoned a famine on the land, and broke all supply of bread, he" that's the Lord, "Had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters; his neck was put in a collar of iron; until what he had said came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him. The king sent, and released him; the ruler of the peoples set him free; he made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possessions to bind his princes at his pleasure, and to teach his elders wisdom." So, meaning all the suffering that Joseph went through, he went through with a purpose. God gave him a purpose to teach wisdom to whom? To Pharaoh, to Pharaoh's court, and then also the elders of Israel. Wisdom comes as a gift from the Lord for all who ask humbly. Scripture says, "Is there anyone lacking wisdom?" Well, just ask of the Lord, Isaiah 30:21, "And your ears shall hear a word behind you saying "This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right, or when you turn to the left." And this is what Jesus promised. He's a good shepherd. And he said, "My sheep hear my voice." And Jesus' voice teaches us how to follow God's moral law but also how to walk in wisdom. Psalm 25, eight, and nine, "Good and upright is the Lord; therefore he instructs sinners in the way. He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way." To get the context of Genesis 47. I'm going to read the paragraph right before this is Genesis 46:31, Jacob, the brothers are before Joseph, and Joseph has a game plan, and he's coaching them. He's coaching his family's audience before Pharaoh, here's what you say, here's what you don't say. Here's how we are going to present ourselves in order to get what we want. Genesis 46:31, Joseph said to his brothers, and to his father's household, "I will go up, and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, 'My brothers, and my father's household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. And the men were shepherds for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks, and their herds, and all that they have." "When Pharaoh calls you, and says, 'What is your occupation?' You shall say 'Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth even until now, both we, and our fathers in order that we may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians." There are five more years left of the famine. And Joseph is thinking not just about himself, not just about his immediate family. He's thinking as a provider for his extended family. He understands that God has put him in this position, and God wants him to use his power, use his position in order to bless others. And he begins to think about the wider family, and he's thinking as a patriarch, and this is how a patriarch thinks, not how can I be most comfortable? Not how can I live a comfortable life, and have people serve me? No, a patriarch thinks how comfortable can I become with discomfort to serve as many people as possible? How can I leave a lasting legacy? How can I serve my family, and my descendants for generations? How can I provide for their needs both materially, and spiritually? And even with Joseph's approval, he knows that he could have just given them Goshen, and you guys can have that land, but he also understands that taking these men who are of fighting age, bringing them into Egypt is going to raise eyebrows, and it's going to give ammunition to Joseph's enemies in Pharaoh's court. No, he needs to get clearance from the very top, from Pharaoh himself. He needs Pharaoh to speak, and say, "Yes, you can have this land." It's only with the king's word that Joseph could protect himself from the charge of nepotism. So, he has the foresight to anticipate this, and craft a strategy with the proper precautions. So, he wants to focus on the fact that Egyptians did not like shepherds. Shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians. Why? Because they probably felt that they were part of an impure cast. So, here you got to pause, and say, "Why would Joseph lead with this very unflattering information?" Here's my family, and their shepherds, which are an abomination. Won't people say you're from this family, you're related to these people? Well, he realized this was the best move to get the best land for his family, and also they'd be living in this land with autonomy which would allow them to grow their families, and grow their faith in the Lord. So, Joseph here he is taking a massive risk, and he's going out on a limb, but he's doing it because he understands he needs to provide for his family. So, that brings Genesis 47 verses one, and two. "So, Joseph went in, and told Pharaoh, 'My father, and my brothers with their flocks, and herds, and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen.' And from among his brothers he took five men, and presented them to Pharaoh." Which five did he pick? Most likely brought Benjamin. Which six did he overlook? We're not told. Most likely operating out of wisdom, he's bringing the most unintimidating looking guys before Pharaoh, and he does say, "This is my father, and these are my brothers." He's not ashamed of his family. He proudly introduces them to his boss, which is very much like Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ our Lord, and savior, scriptures tells us he's our older brother, and as our older brother who welcomes us into the family of God, he provides adoption for us by his blood. Well, Jesus is unashamed to call his brothers, Hebrews says, Hebrews 2:10, "For it was fitting that he, for whom, and by whom all things exist, and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies, and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he's not ashamed to call them brothers saying, 'I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise." Joseph tells Pharaoh, they're already in the land of Goshen. He has them camp out in the prime real estate, which is really smart. They're already there, and the text continues. Verse three, "Pharaoh said to his brothers, 'What is your occupation?' And they said to Pharaoh, 'Your servants are shepherds as our fathers were.' They said to Pharaoh, 'We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants flocks for the famine severe in the land of Canaan. And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.'. "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Your father, and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father, and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock." Pharaoh asks about the occupation question just as Joseph had anticipated, and the wisdom, Joseph has been studying his boss for nine plus years. He anticipates the moves, and they say we've been shepherds for generations. Yes, it's an abomination in your eyes, but we've been doing this for years, and the emphasis here is on sojourn. We've come to sojourn, meaning there's no talk of permanence. This is temporary, and just as Joseph needed him to do, Pharaoh confirms publicly, Israel can have the best of the land. Not only that, he goes beyond, and he says, "If you know anyone that could take care of my animals, my livestock, you can put them to work", which is just incredible favor from the Lord. Especially, as you read at the end of the chapter, the people of Egypt, and the people from of all the other countries, they ran out of money, currency. So, they start bringing their livestock, and their animals to Pharaoh, which meant this was a wonderful work opportunity, and this is how the Lord often works with us. Not only does he long to bless us, he longs to bless us in a shocking way, a way that's unexpected. For example, Ephesians 3:20 verse 21. "Now to him who's able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask, or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church, and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." More than we can ask, or even think, or even imagine. In Genesis 47:7, "Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh." The blessing isn't recorded, but most likely it's a customary greeting before a king, something like long live the king, which is partially perhaps why Pharaoh asks Jacob's age. But here you see this contrast. A simple, old shepherd is standing before a powerful Egyptian monarch, and spiritual gravitas meets political gravitas. Yes, Pharaoh is an incredible person of power, but Jacob is an incredible person of spiritual power, and the character of the saint surely made an impression on the king. Although Jacob didn't have a crown of gold, he had a crown of glory. You say, "What's a crown of glory in scripture?" Well, Proverbs 16:31, gray hair. "Gray hair is a crown of glory. It is gained in a righteous life." Our culture idolizes youth, and dishonors people in their old age. And this is wrong. Leviticus 19:32 says, "You shall stand up before the gray head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord." My grays have been coming in around my temples. I keep it nice, and short. In my beard, they're coming in. I don't have a full crown of glory just yet. So, you don't have to stand up completely in my presence, but maybe a head nod, or something. But we are to respect older people, and we do pray for the Lord to continue to send us older people to teach us wisdom, and teach us the ways of righteousness. And you see what dignity now marks Jacob, what a contrast from the day when he bowed himself seven times before Esau. But here there's no cringing, there's no fawning. He carries himself as a representative of God. He carries himself as an ambassador of the most high. He is a son of the king of kings. And in fact, the scene actually conveys the impression that Jacob is actually greater than Pharaoh no matter how great Pharaoh is, because who's doing the blessing? It's Jacob. And Hebrews 7:7 says, "It's beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior." So, the feeble patriarch blesses the mighty monarch, and in verse eight it says, "Pharaoh said to Jacob, 'How many are the days of the years of your life?" How many are the days of the years of your life? Not just how old are you, not just how many years have you lived? What an interesting turn of phrase. How many are the days of the years of your life? The emphasis here is on the individual days that go up, and that make up the total of your life. It's a great way to think about life. Why? Because today is all we have. Today is all we're given. Someone said days are long, and years are short. So, we are to think about daily. Today, am I living for the glory of God? Today, am I serving God, loving him, and loving people? I had a brother come up to me after the service, this was his second service ever. Second time in church ever. He came up, and he's like, "I could've gone to the club last night. Instead, I stayed home, and read chapter 47." Much better use of your time, brother, much better use of your time. Genesis 47:9. "And Jacob said to Pharaoh, 'The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. They have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning." And you see this phrase repeated sojourning. What does that mean? It means a pilgrimage. Jacob understood that life is a journey. It has a beginning, and it has an end. And for the people of God, every single moment that we're alive is a moment of sacred significance. As a matter of fact, everything in a believer's life is sacred except for sin. Sin is the only thing that a secular in the life of believers. Do you view your life like this? It's a pilgrimage. Hebrews 11:13 through 16, "These all died in faith not having received the things promised, but having seen them, and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers, and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they're seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for he has prepared for them a city." Philippians talks about our citizenship, Philippians 3:20, "Our citizenship is in heaven. And from it we await a savior of the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself." The apostle Peter in First Peter 2:11 says, "Beloved, I urge you as sojourners, and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable so that when they speak against you as evil doers, they may see your good deeds, and glorify God on the day of visitation. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to the governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil, and to praise those who do good. For this is the will of God that by doing good, you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a coverup for evil, but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the emperor." And this is exactly what Jacob is doing, what Joseph is doing, what they're emulating. Jacob says, "Few have been the days of my years, and they've been evil." Why use the word evil? Well, he's emphasizing that his life has been hard in many ways. From his flight to Mesopotamia, from his brother Esau, his miseries at the hand of Laben, he wrestled with an angel, and then scripture says that it was actually God himself most likely Christophany. He wrestled with Christ, and Christ touches his hip. And then the rest of his life he walked with a limp, the rape of his daughter, Dinah, which led to the bloody revenge by Simeon, and Levi, and his beloved Rachel's death, his eldest son's power seeking incest, and his favorite son's apparent death. Evil have been his days, he says, and few. At 130 years old, he says, "Few are my days." Well, Abraham lived 175 years, Isaac 180 years. Few, and evil was the unadorned truth. Martin Luther said the theologian was made by three things, oratio, meditatio, and tentatio. Oratio is prayer, meditatio, meditation on God's word, and tentatio means trial. And what he meant was that theologians are made by praying, and meditating God's word, and then also through pain, and suffering, and afflictions that give you a perspective on life, and God. And this characterized his life. I wonder, do you have a vision for long life? Do you have a vision to live a long time, a healthy life? And if so, to do what? Is it to just enjoy your retirement, and your twilight years? Or is it to care for people, care for your family? Is it to care for God's family? I have not given this much thought in my twenties, and my thirties, but I'm 40 now, and now I'm giving this more thought. And I do have a vision for a long life. And I like Caleb in the Bible. Caleb in the Bible, he goes to see the promised land when he's 40. And then God made the people of Israel wander in the desert for 40 years for disobeying him, and disbelieving. And then Caleb at 85 goes to Joshua, and says, "Hey, man, I'm going to take that mountain over there, and I'm going to lead the charge myself." And Joshua's like, "What are you talking about?" And Caleb says, "I am as strong today at 85 as I was at 40." So, I'm actually working out more now because I'm 40, and this is the benchmark I got to at least maintain the benchmark so that at 85, Lord willing. But there is something about a purpose like when you have a vision to live a longer life, you care for yourself, you care for your body. The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. But you got to make sure it's not just selfish, because living for yourself is never enough to make the impact that God has for us. Ephesians 5:15, "Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise, but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil." What a great filter for our calendars, and what we do with our time. Is this the best use of my time? Genesis 47:10, "Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from the presence of Pharaoh." Do you think Jacob's blessing on Pharaoh was meaningful to him, to Pharaoh? I think so. Here stands before him, an aged saint who walked with the Lord faithfully in worship, and service for years. He didn't do it perfectly. He's a sinner. He's lived evil days. He knows. But scripture teaches that the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Meaning the more you grow in righteousness, and experiential righteousness, the more powerful your prayers become. The King James says, "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much." And as Jacob prayed over Pharaoh, no doubt Pharaoh has never heard a prayer like this, a prayer to Yahweh. Pharaoh received that blessing, and he was blessed. Pharaoh first blessed God's people with his generosity speared Joseph promoted him, and then personally invites the family of Joseph to Goshen, sends them grain to preserve them, wagons, to transport them. And when they arrive, they're receive royally. Pharaoh blesses the people of God. And God in return blesses Pharaoh. Genesis 12:3, God promised Abraham, "I'll bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I'll curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed." Text continues, Genesis 47:11. "Then Joseph settled his father, and his brothers, and gave them a possession of the land of Egypt, in the best of the land in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents." In the Hebrew that were dependents is little ones according to their little ones. Joseph provided. And that's the emphasis on the text. And this should be the ambition of every godly person in particular godly men, men as heads of household to provide for your family, and to provide the best that you can for your family, which is actually an outward working of our faith. First Timothy 5:8 says, "If anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever." Well, what's the connection between provision, and our Christian faith, where our Christian faith at the heart of it is a father who provides. God, the Father provides us with life, and he sustains us, and he cares for us. He sends Jesus Christ to procure salvation for us. God is a God who provides, and therefore his children, believers are to be people who provide, who receive his blessing, and become conduits of blessing so that the blessings that we receive are cascaded to the people around us, and beyond. So, in the throes of a deepening world, starvation, God prospers his people. So, Joseph provides for his family. And then we see that Pharaoh is blessed. This is point two, Pharaoh prospered as Joseph affects this plan that nationalizes the land, the livestock, and then turned Egyptians into tenant farmers. Genesis 47:13, "Now there was no food in all the land for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt, and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, and exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt, and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph, and said, 'Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes for our money is gone.' And Joseph answered, 'Give your livestock, and now we'll give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.' So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year." "And when that year was ended, they came to him, in the following year, and said to him, 'We will not hide from my lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my lord's. There's nothing left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we, and our land? Buy us, and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh, and give us seed that we may live, and not die, and that the land may not be desolate". Tenant farming becomes the norm with Pharaoh providing the seed, verse 20. "So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy for the priest had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh, and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land." So, in short order, all of Egypt except the pagan clergy were serfs. So, Pharaoh becomes greater than he could have ever imagined. Prospered thanks to Joseph. Point three, Egypt is blessed, blessed in terms of what? Well, they were on the brink of starvation, and now they're provided for. So, Genesis 47:23. "Then Joseph said to the people, 'Behold, I have this day bought you, and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land, and at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own as seed for the field, and as food for yourselves, and your households, and as food for your little ones.' And they said, 'You have saved our lives. May it please my lord we will be servants to Pharaoh.' So, Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt. And it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth; the land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's." They said, "You have saved our lives may please my lord, we will be servants of Pharaoh. You've saved us, therefore of course we will serve you." And they understood this in political terms, and they understood this in real life. And how much more so does this apply to us as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, you saved us. Jesus, you paid it all. Jesus, of course to you, I owe everything. And this is how the great saints talked about the relationship with the Lord, the Apostle Paul. In his letters, he introduces himself I Paul in Apostle. And then he says over, and over, "I'm a doulos", and the Greek is, "I'm a slave. I'm a slave of Jesus Christ, and I serve him willingly. Why? Because he served me. He saved me." The royal serfs are taxed 20%, which was normal percentage back then, and 40% was not uncommon in Mesopotamia. The happy result of all of this was that Egypt thrived, the coffers were overflowing, bolstering the economy, and the people didn't complain about it. Joseph was Egypt's national hero. Without him, they'd all be dead. Joseph was led by the Lord. And scripture does teach that the closer you walk with the Lord, the more the Lord reveals his mind to you. The closer you walk with Christ, the more Christ reveals his mind to you. Well, what's Christ's mind like? Well, he's all knowing. And the Colossians Two, one through three comments on the treasures of wisdom found in Christ, "For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me face to face, that their hearts may be encouraged being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding, and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden, are the treasures of wisdom, and knowledge." And the emphasis here is on the mystery. And that it is hidden. It takes effort. It takes work to study God, study his scriptures, and to walk with him. And if you study the gospels, you see that Jesus Christ applied this shrewdness, this wisdom in particular with his enemies. And he had many enemies. Enemies came to him, and they said, "John the Baptizer, you got to stop him. What is he doing? He's proclaiming the kingdom of God." And Jesus says, "Is baptism of John, of God, or of man?" Well, if they said of man, then all the people would've rejected him, because they saw the power of God. And if you say from God, well then you can't argue against that. Remember when the woman who was caught in adultery was brought to Jesus by the Pharisees? What does he say? He who is without sin cast the first stone, and they all walk away. Incredible wisdom. When the Pharisees came to him, and they questioned his divinity. And Jesus said, "Look at Psalm 1:10. What does David the Psalmist write as he is inspired by the Holy Spirit? He writes, the Lord said to my Lord, sit my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." And Jesus said, "How is David's son also David's lord?" And in that text he reveals the Trinity, the Pharisees when they came to him, and said, "Should we pay taxes to Caesar?" They want to catch Jesus so that Caesar, and the Roman authorities would arrest him. And Jesus said, bring me a coin. They bring him a coin. And he says, "Whose inscription is on this coin?" And they said, "Caesar's." And Jesus said, "Well give onto Caesar, what is Caesar's onto God? What is God's?" And the inscription, and the Greek his, icon image. So, this coin has the image of Caesar, give that back to Caesar, and whatever has the image of God, give that unto God, and he's calling them to obedience, or a question about the Sabbath. Can we do good works on the Sabbath? And Jesus said, "Which of you who has a sheep if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will not take hold of it, and lift it out?" And obviously we can heal on the Sabbath as Jesus did. Standing before Pontius Pilate, "Are you the king of the Jews?" And Jesus said, "You said that I am the king of the Jews." Leaving Pilate silent. Incredible wisdom as we study Christ, as we study how we operate, and as we walk with the Lord daily. Point four is Israel is blessed. This is verse 27, Genesis 47, "Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it, and fruitful, and multiplied greatly." They settled, they gained possessions, and they were fruitful, and multiplied greatly. They were fulfilling the great mandate that was given to Adam in Genesis 1:28. And it was given as a blessing, and God bless them. And God said to them, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And then after God sends the flood, and then Noah, and his family come out of the ark, God repeats this, and he repeats this twice, in Genesis 9:1 "And God blessed Noah, and his sons, and said to him, 'Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth." And verse seven, "And you'll be fruitful, and multiply, increase greatly on the earth, and multiply it." God loves people, and God wants more people, more people who are created the image of God, and are redeemed by Jesus Christ, and are adopted into the family of God. I had a gentleman at the gym ask me, and he found out I have four. I shock people all the time. I'm like, "I have kids." They're like, how many? "There's four." And they say, "Four?" And I always say, "Four daughters." And they're like, "Four daughters?" Same conversation every time. And he said, "How much do kids cost?" And my response is, "Well, they cost as much do you spend on them? That's how much they cost." But the principle is that the Lord does provide. And one of the things I told them, I was like, "Look, how much do you spend on going out? How much do you spend on entertainment? Well, here's the beauty of having kids. You just don't have time to go out, and they become your entertainment. And then you're like, actually this is a much better investment of my time, and money." The Lord provides for them. And that's the emphasis of this text. Someone could have said, "Jacob, why are you procreating? Why are you having so many children? How are you going to feed them all? Especially when a famine comes." But you see how the Lord blesses them. And Israel's prosperity far outstrips that of the average Egyptian. It's astonishing, but the citizens of Egypt lost their money. They lost their cattle, they lost their land. And all the time the children of Israel are over in the land of Goshen. They don't lose their money, they don't lose their land, they don't lose their livestock, or cattle. As a matter of fact, they became more, and more fruitful while the citizens of Egypt became servants of Pharaoh. And that's God's way of taking care of God's people. What Israel experienced in Egypt was a forced foretaste of the ultimate blessings of Canaan when the land, and its fatness would be theirs. And here I do just want to pause, and apply this to us. Joseph used his power, and he used his influence to bless his family. And we need to think about this in terms of our immediate family, our flesh, and blood, but also in terms of those who are not yet our family, those who don't yet know Jesus Christ. The Lord teaches us that when we repent of our sins, we become part of the family of God. So, evangelism is welcome people into the family of God. Hey, I've been saved by grace through faith. I am now a child of God, not because of anything I've done, but because of the work of Christ. And so I want to tell you about grace. I want to tell you about the fact that Jesus Christ saves people if you just ask, and receive the gift. And Jesus does teach us to think about being good stewards of everything he has given us in order to help people meet the Lord in order to gain eternal life. And Jesus does it by sharing this parable that's very curious upon a first reading. But as we meditate on it, incredible spiritual truths. In Luke 16, "He also said to the disciples, 'There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was wasting his possessions. And he called him, and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Turn in the account of your management for you can no longer be manager. And the manager said to himself, 'What shall I do since my master's taking the management away from me, I'm not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do, so that when I'm removed from management, people may receive me into their houses. So, summoning his master's debtors one by one, he said to the first, 'How much do you owe my master?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of oil.' And he said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly, and write 50.' And then he said to another, 'How much do you owe?' And he said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him, 'take your bill, and write 80.' The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness." "For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails, they may receive you into the eternal dwellings."So, Jesus commends this manager for his shrewd use of the vanishing opportunity before him. The manager understands my window of opportunity is going to be gone soon. And he begins to give these people discounts on what they owed the master while he still had power to do so. And the lesson for us is our time is limited, our money is limited, and we need to be thinking like good managers, like good stewards of what God has given to do what? To love people. He says, "Make friends with your wealth." People love generosity. People love generous friends. And when we're generous with time, and money, that opens up opportunities to talk about more meaningful things, and talk about the things of God. And he says, "When your wealth fails, when your health fails, well what's left is eternal souls." And he says, we are to think about it like that. And here also as we're talking about resources, a few comments on work. Jacob's sons were shepherds ordinary working men. And although their choice of vocation seemed an abomination to the Egyptians, there was nothing unworthy about their trade, but there was actually honor, and glory in their toil. And the capacity, and opportunity for work is a gift from God, whether the work is mental, or manual. And I grew up with my dad who was, he started a painting business as an immigrant, and I remember he would drop me off at college in his painting truck, and it pains me to say this. I said, "Dad, can you just drop me off like half a mile away from campus? I don't want anyone to see that my dad, the painter is dropping me off at college", which is terrible. That's a terrible mindset where we do rank people's worth depending on what kind of work they do, if they work with their hands, it's almost as if they're lesser. And that's not true. Scripture actually tells us that we are to aspire to work with our hands. First Thessalonians 4:9 through 12, "Now concerning brotherly love, you have no need for anyone to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another, for that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers through throughout Macedonia. But we urge you brothers to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders, and be dependent on no one." So, we are to work, and we are to work, and think about working in a way where we are not dependent on other people. St. Paul funded his ministry by making tents, and this idea of being dependent on other people as the culture becomes hostile toward Christians, or to those who are faithful to the faith. Well, this idea of being dependent on someone for a salary, or for your livelihood, well this is a conversation that needs serious thought. Colossians 3:17, "Whatever you do in word, or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." In the verse 23 of that chapter, "Whatever you do, work heartily as for the Lord, and not for men. Knowing that from the Lord you'll receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ." First Corinthians 10:31. So, whether you eat, or drink, whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. Genesis 47:28, "And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So, the days of Jacob, the years of his life were 147 years." Joseph had spent 17 years with his father Jacob in the beginning of his life. And then Jacob spent 17 years at the end of his life with his son Joseph, and then in Genesis 47:29, "And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph, and said to him, 'If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh, and promise to deal kindly, and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burying place. He answered, 'I will do as you have said.' And he said, 'Swear to me'; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed." Jacob here binds Joseph doubly. Twice he says, "I want you to promise this." Why was this so important to Jacob be buried in the promised land, the land of Canaan? Well, there's a declaration of promise. He believed that God would bring them back, and he wanted his family already to see that. And this was the symbol Jacob going to die, and we're going to bring his body to be buried in Canaan. Jacob was a man who cared about God's blessing, not just on his life, but he cared about God's blessing on the lives of his children, and his children's children. And that's why he makes Joseph promise. Jacob from his early days knew that God's blessing meant everything to the point where he even connived a away to get his father's greatest blessing when he stole it from Esau. And the text tells us that Esau did not value God's blessing. And we as people of God, we are to value God's blessing. We're to long, "Lord bless me, Lord bless my family, bless my family's family. Lord bless us." Remember Jacob even wrestling with the angel who was God himself. And he says, "I'm not going to let you go until you bless me." So, we are to value God's blessing, and God's greatest blessing is redemption. God's greatest blessing that he offers us is a relationship with God, forgiveness of our sins. Here in this text before Pharaoh, he said, "My days have been few, and evil", but perhaps he had some years to meditate on that in the land of Egypt. And in the next chapter in Genesis 48, as he's blessing the sons of Joseph, verse 15, "And he blessed Joseph, and said, 'The God before whom my father's Abraham, and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day, the angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys; and in them, let my name be carried on, and the name of my father's Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth." Verse 16, the angel, that's the angel that he wrestled with. It was a God man, most likely Christ himself. He has redeemed me from all evil. Yes, there were days in my life he recognizes where it was evil, where I have done evil because I am evil, but he redeemed me. And that's the greatest blessing that Jesus Christ offers us. That when we come to him, and when we repent of our sins, when we acknowledge, "Lord, I have done things that are evil. I have transgressed your law. I have lived selfishly, I have lived as if I'm my own God. Lord, forgive me." John 10:10, Jesus says, "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. I'm the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." Not only is Jesus the good shepherd, but Jesus is also the only way to heaven. Jacob had another dream where he saw a staircase, and he saw the angels of God ascending, and descending. And then Jesus commenting on that dream says the following in John 1:51. "And he said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, you'll see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending, and descending on the Son of Man." Jesus Christ is the only staircase to heaven, the only staircase to God. The cross of Jesus Christ is the only means of attaining the greatest blessing that God offers, and that's himself. God offers eternal life, which is a relationship with him by grace through faith. As Joseph provided a place for his family in Egypt, Jesus provides a place for us in heaven. He told the disciples, "I'm going to go, and prepare a room for you." The wisest thing in the world you can do today is to accept the free gift of eternal life by repenting, and believing in Jesus Christ, and his sacrifice for you when he died for you, when he bled for you, when he was buried for you, when he was resurrected for you, when you believed that that's what he did for you, that your sins are paid for, your eternal life is secure. I'll close it with Matthew 11:28, an invitation from the Lord Jesus Christ. "Come to me all who labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle, and lowly in heart, and you'll find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Let us pray. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this invitation. We thank you for your shed blood on the cross. We thank you that you, you used your position, and your power, and your influence, and you used it to serve us.