So Lord my graciously help me,
I would turn your prayerful attention to Genesis chapter 50 and reading
verse 17 as a text this evening. Genesis chapter 50 and verse
17. This is a message that Joseph's
brothers sent to him via a messenger. It doesn't seem that they actually
spoke these words themselves, they asked somebody else to pass
these on. Genesis chapter 17, so shall
ye say unto Joseph, forgive I pray thee now the trespass of thy
brethren and their sin for they did unto thee evil and now we
pray thee forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of
thy father and Jacob wept sorry and Joseph wept when they spake
unto him. That's Genesis chapter 50 and
verse 17. As the Lord helps me I'd like
to continue and come to the final a sermon really on this life
of Joseph here at Red Hill. And we were looking at Genesis
47. This chapter where Joseph presents
his brothers, he takes five men we're told in Genesis 47 verse
2, and he took some of his brethren, even five men. and presented
them unto Pharaoh. And we're reminded here, you
see, of the Lord Jesus, who is not ashamed to call his people
his brethren. Joseph was not ashamed of his
brethren. He could have been. He could
have been totally ashamed of them and disowned them. No, he
was not ashamed of his brethren. And indeed, he took some of his
brethren, we're told, even five men, and presented them unto
a pharaoh. You see, this is why it's so
important. And he presented them, you see, as honorable in that
sense. I know in one sense as shepherds
they were an abomination. But he doesn't say anything against
those brethren. He doesn't say these are the
ones that sold me into slavery. These are the ones that envied
me and hated me and could not speak peaceably unto me. He doesn't
present them to to Pharaoh like that. You see
he'd hidden their sin, he'd covered it, he'd dealt with their sin
and then he presents them as it were faultless. And you see
we're reminded of that lovely word in Jude, Jude 24. Now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. As it were, Joseph
was presenting these brothers that were so full of thoughts,
they could have said, well, we're, and indeed, if you look at the
text we've taken, they realize their great sin, and even 17
years later, they were speaking of it. But you see, Joseph presents
them faultless, and this is the great work of the Lord Jesus.
accepted in the Beloved. Why were they accepted as these
shepherds which were naturally an abomination to the Egyptians?
Because of Joseph. Why could they stand there? Because
of Joseph. Why could they go to the land
of Goshen? Why could they have flocks and
herds in the land of Goshen? Because of Joseph. And you see
that's for true Christians. We finish our prayers often with
for Jesus Christ's sake. It's all for his sake. If it
wasn't for him, we couldn't come. We'd have no acceptance. We would
just be an abomination, as it were, to God because we're sinners.
But you see, for Christ's sake, we're accepted. We're called
brethren. And in Romans 8, it says, there
is therefore now no condemnation to them. which are in Christ
Jesus. And these brethren, you see,
Pharaoh has them presented as without condemnation. And how
Christ presents his church without spot. And these brethren would
say, but we're very guilty. We've done all sorts of things
that are wrong and we're unworthy to be here. Nothing is said. Joseph presents these brothers
to Pharaoh as faultless. And you see, that's a picture
of what the Lord Jesus does for his people. He deals with sin. He exposes the sin, not to everybody
else, but to them, to bring the whole world guilty before God.
He causes them to have that repentance, and then he covers their sin
with his precious blood. And he presents them faultless
before the Father with exceeding joy. Well they come before Pharaoh
and he then appoints them this place in the land of Goshen.
Also Jacob comes before Pharaoh and it's Interesting here that
Jacob blesses Pharaoh. And when Melchizedek came, you
see Melchizedek blessed Abraham. And you see the less is blessed
of the greater. So here we have that really Jacob
comes in, this poor, this 130-year-old shepherd who didn't have great
riches in and of himself. And he blesses Pharaoh. You see
God's people. are a precious people. And in
that sense it's almost as if he was the greater than Pharaoh
in all his pomp and glory in that sense. Well, we read then
that Joseph placed his father and his brethren and gave them
a possession in the land of Egypt. And as we go through, we didn't
have time to read it. But as you go through the rest of this
chapter 47, you realize that Egypt loses its possession. All
the people have to sell, first of all, all their money for the
corn, and then they give all their cattle, and then they give
themselves. Everything comes back to Pharaoh. And how you see there's something
there of Hitcher, I think, in Corinthians chapter 15, 1 Corinthians
15 verse 28 says, And when all things shall be subdued unto
him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him,
that put all things unto him, that God may be all in all. And in a sense, in this figure,
in this type, as it were, Pharaoh became owner of everything because
of Joseph and because of his leadership. And yet you see while
Israel was, the Egyptians were coming in a sense to personal
poverty, everything was owned by Pharaoh. And yet we have the
Israelites prospering and being blessed. And if you look at that
in Genesis 47 verse 27, sorry, Genesis 47 verse 27, and Israel
dwelt in the land of Egypt. It was a place where there was
devastation for the Egyptians in sense of they were losing
everything apart from the food they had. They were still thankful
for what Joseph had done. In verse 25 it said, and they
said, Thou hast saved our lives. Let us find grace in the sight
of my Lord. We be Pharaoh's servants. So
all of Egypt became servants to Pharaoh. And at this time
you see, But Israel was free. Israel had a freedom. And we
read in Genesis 27, and Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in
the country of Goshen, and they had possessions. Egyptians had
lost all their possessions. How God prospers them, you see,
in this strange land. He's going to make of them a
great nation. And they grew and multiplied exceedingly. How God
is able to bless in the midst of difficulties. God is able,
the more they were afflicted, the more they grew. At this time,
they weren't being afflicted, but they did grow. And Jacob
lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the whole age of Jacob
was 140 and seven years. So we come. So it's interesting
in the life of Jacob. He had seven 17 years with Joseph
from Joseph's birth to when Joseph went off and got taken into slavery
in Egypt. And then he had 17 years with
Joseph at the end of his life again. So he had that time. with Joseph at his end, the same
length of time that he had at the beginning. Jacob giving commandment about
what should happen to him when he dies and he wants to be buried
back in in Canaan with his fathers and how this I want to pick this
up later, but it's so much that They don't get though. God blesses
them in Egypt. They don't become totally infatuated
with it they as it were enjoy it, but it doesn't become a a
god to them and that's very very important to use and not abuse
the world in which we're in. Well in chapter 48 we have that
occasion where Joseph It takes his brother, his son, sorry,
Ephraim and Manasseh, and they're blessed by Jacob. They're blessed,
and they're given, you see, equal status to one of the other brothers. So really, Joseph ends up having
a double portion. You see, if you look at the land
splitting up of Israel, the land of Israel, you have Ephraim and
Manasseh. and you don't have a tribe of
Joseph as such because the tribe of Joseph was represented by
the tribe of Ephraim and the tribe of Manasseh and they were
brought up as it were into equal status as one of the brothers,
one of Joseph's brothers. So there was a great blessing
there, a double portion as it were for Joseph. And of course,
we have that when the tribes were traveling through the desert,
through the wilderness, around the center of the ark and the
tabernacle. The Levites were there and then
they had the 12 tribes around it, which you could say that
makes 13. But you see, there was two tribes
of Joseph. So that makes 13. And that's
how that works out. So we have that blessing, and
then in chapter 49, that's when Jacob blesses all his sons. And perhaps we'll just look briefly
at what Jacob has to say about Joseph. Genesis 49 verse 22,
Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well. Here Jacob is on his deathbed,
he's only got a few more hours as it were to live and he says
these prophetic things. Jacob, that one who had a long
life and many difficulties that he passed through. Joseph is
a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well. And you see
this well, we think of how can we be fruitful is as we live
by a well, as we put down our roots. and find that strength
from the Lord Jesus Christ, that well of water, that Holy Spirit
that Joseph had. And that was such a blessing,
whose branches run over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved
him and shot at him and hated him. This, of course, had happened
to Joseph. They'd hated him, but he continued. But his bow, a bowed in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the
mighty God of Jacob. How Joseph was upheld in all
his afflictions and how this pictures what Christ would be
upheld. Behold my servant whom I uphold. And you see then, as I mentioned
earlier in this series, how that this then the two names that
are given to Joseph are so much lames applied to the Lord Jesus
Himcrah. himself from thence is the shepherd
the stone of israel and that theme of shepherd of the lord
jesus being a shepherd runs right through the word of god and another
theme runs through the word of god is the stone the rock that
god is that place of stability for his people and you think
of the whole region where joseph was the stability of the whole
region naturally speaking was joseph it was his wisdom you
see Joseph stored up all this corn. The Egyptians could have
stored it up themselves, couldn't they? They could have had personal
people who could have made their own stores in these years of
plenty, but we don't read of anybody doing it. all down to
Joseph's government. He purchased the corn no doubt
from the people at the going rate and put them all in these
storehouses and of course gave stability to the whole area in
this time when there was these seven years. of drought, from
thence is a shepherd the stone of Israel. And then he goes even
by the God of thy father who shall help thee and by the almighty
who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above and blessings
of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breast and of
the womb. The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the
blessings of thy progenitors unto the utmost bound of the
everlasting hills. They shall be on the head of
Joseph, And on the crown of the head of him that was separate
from his brethren. There was a separation between
Joseph and his ungodly brethren. There was a separation that God
had put. And God blessed Joseph and made him a great blessing. And may you realize that there
needs to be a separation between us and an ungodly world. a separation. Joseph knew that separation.
He felt painfully the pain of that separation. Whene'er they
meet the public eye, they feel the public scorn, and men their
fairest claims deny, and count them basely born. But Joseph,
his bow abode in strength. He was a great blessing. Well, then we come to this last
chapter, chapter 50, where we read that Jacob dies and is buried
back in the land of Canaan. And then after the death and
burial of Joseph's father, Jacob, we then come to the area that
we spoke of as a text. in verse 15 of Genesis 15, and
when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said,
Joseph will peradventure or perhaps hate us and will certainly requite
us all the evil which we did under him. They thought, well,
now that Jacob is died, now Joseph will take it out on us. And Joseph
had for 17 years been providing for them and blessing them, and
yet you see there's still that guilt. That guilt was working
away. Think of that in Psalm 20, 25.
It says, verse 6, Verse 7, it says, Remember not
the sins of my youth, nor my transgressions. According to
thy mercy, remember thou me for thy goodness sake, O Lord. You
see, we can get like that, can't we? We look at it, perhaps we
read it as an account and we think, look, Joseph's been so
good to these brothers for 17 years. Why should they suddenly
think that he would now do this to them? But look in your own
heart, child of God. Is not this sometimes what goes
through our minds? James was speaking in the opening
of the Sunday School regarding Christian going through the river,
going through Jordan, going through that last obstacle as it were.
before entering into the gates of the celestial city. And as
he went through that river, all his sins seemed to come before
him. And it seems that, yes, his friend
hopeful could go through, but he was going to, as it were,
drown in the river. He would never get through this
river. He would never get to glory. And you see, the Lord's
people, they need comforting at times. And these brethren
needed comfort, didn't they? They needed comfort because of
their sin came freshly before them. And they sent a messenger. It seems that they were too scared
to go to Joseph themselves. They sent a messenger, somebody
to represent them, somebody to go on their behalf. They were
too scared to go themselves, it seems. And they sent a messenger
unto Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died. saying,
so shall he sound to Joseph, forgive, I pray thee, the trespass
of thy brethren. And here you see we have a confession
which really is stronger than all the confessions that we read
of so far. They explicitly confess their
sin of what they did to Joseph, to him, more clearly than they
had done before. 17 years later, a sin that happened
39 years before, Forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy
brethren. They come with repentance. They
come with confession. And how are we to come? We're
to confess our sins. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Forgive, I pray thee, the trespass
of thy brethren and their sin, for they did unto thee evil. You see, confession is saying
about our sin what God says about our sin. Not saying, well, it
wasn't too bad and there was many excuses why I did it. No,
what we did was evil. For they did unto thee evil.
We pray thee, forgive the trespass of thy servant, the servants
of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept. when he spake
unto them. For 17 years, he'd been providing
for everything free of charge. And you see, but they lost sight
of, was this guilt gonna come now? Was it gonna come back?
Was Joseph eventually going to get them back for what they'd
done to him? Well, clearly it wasn't in Joseph's heart at all. He hadn't thought that they would
do this, I don't think. He hadn't expected them to come
to him like this. He thought, I've done everything
to show you my forgiveness and my love. But you see, they needed
reassurance. And how the Lord's people need
reassurance at times, don't they? They need to come and they need
to confess freshly. Remember not thou the sins of
my youth. And they need to remember that God is merciful and his
brethren also. You see, so this messenger came
and gave this message. And it seems that then the brethren
came close behind and then bowed down before Joseph and fell down
before his face. And they said, behold, we be
thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear
not. Fear not. Oh, there's fear nots
in the word of God. Fear not. Oh, they was full of
fear. They were terrified. Their father
Jacob was now dead. What would Joseph do? Would he
use his power? He had the authority to ruin
them totally. Fear not. Fear not. For am I in the place of God?
But as for you, ye thought evil against me. And now he gives
a beautiful summary of all that has taken place, the whole of
the sadness that had happened in his pathway. But as for you,
ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good. See, God had a purpose of good
in allowing him to be sold. And it's a wonderful thing if
in your pathways you realise that the difficult, the sad things
that happen in your pathway, God is able to use them for good. Not for you to spend the rest
of your life being bitter with somebody because of what they
did 20, 30, 40 years ago. Yeah, they may have done evil. They could well have done evil.
But look above it. God is above it. Nobody's done
any harm to any of us without God's permission, without God
knowing that they're doing it. God is in control. But as for
you, you thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good,
to bring to pass as it is this day, to save much people alive. There was a purpose of salvation.
And now, therefore, fear ye not. I will nourish you and your little
ones.' And he comforted them and spoke kindly unto them."
Think of that beautiful word in Isaiah chapter 40. Comfort
ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem that her warfare is accomplished, that her sin
is pardoned. You see the comfort that the
Lord's people need. Perhaps there's some here, you
need the comfort of your heavenly Joseph, that he has that thoughts
of love and mercy, and though we freshly see our sin, we need
to freshly come with confession, and he comforted them and spoke
kindly unto them. But then you see we read, and
Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his father's house. And Joseph
lived 110 years. Well, he came to the stand before
Pharaoh when he was 30. And now he's 110 years. That's
80 years later. For 80 years, it seems that he
was in public life in Egypt. A public figure in Egypt, you
might say, but Why didn't they go back after the seven years
of famine? When the seven years of famine, why didn't they go
back? But you see, it was God's purpose
to leave them in Egypt to bring them out with a great deliverance.
You see, this was going to be another wonderful type in the
word of God, how God was going to bring out Israel out of Egypt. And it wasn't going to be easy.
It wasn't just going to be Pharaoh tipping his hat and saying, yes,
well, nice to see you. It's been nice to have you. Now
you go. No, they were going to be coming to slavery. You see, Egypt represents in
so many things this world and the lusts of it, as it were.
And you see, when we see here at the end of Genesis 50, We
see that Joseph, I mentioned it this morning, had a great
concern that Israel would not become too comfortable in Egypt. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children
of the third generation and the children of Makar, the son of
Manasseh, were brought up upon Joseph's knees. They lived as
princes. They were in a privileged position.
They had the good of the land of Egypt. Joseph was in a high
position. He was in charge. Things were
going well. for for for Israel and the children
of Israel they were prospering and you'd say well the best thing
for us to do then is to stay in Egypt to be in Egypt that's
the best place for us but you see Joseph was a man of faith
he walked by faith and he died in faith And although everything
around his circumstances spoke of prosperity and blessing, to
be in Egypt, to stay in Egypt, he didn't see that. He realized
that God had made a promise that they would be brought out of
this strange country where they were strangers. And Joseph said
unto his brethren, I die. God will surely visit you and
bring you out of this land. You see, he doesn't say, well,
you know, you're so well provided, you've got all that you want
here below, just make this your rest. No, you see, Joseph was
pointing them to the fact that this was not their rest. Indeed,
they were to go back to Canaan and they were to be brought out
of this land. You see, there was a necessary,
God had told Abraham in Genesis 15 and verse 13, and he said unto
Abraham, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger
in a land that is not theirs, and they shall serve them, and
they shall afflict them. And that's going to be 400 years.
Whether the affliction was 400 years, I don't think possibly
it was. But there was an affliction,
and there was these 400 years. And also that nation whom they
shall serve will I judge. And afterwards shall they come
out with great substance. You see, this has been prophesied.
Abraham had been told it, and Joseph believed it. You see,
if we're to walk by faith, we believe what God says, not what
the surroundings say. Everything that surrounded Joseph
said, Egypt, that's the place for you. That's the place you've
been prospered. That's where you want to put
your tent stakes in. Egypt, that's it. Joseph said,
no, no. Interesting. When we turn to
Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11. is that chapter that speaks very
much. It says, now faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Well, for
Joseph, all they could see that was fairer was for them. They
were privileged. They were in a good position.
But Joseph had faith to believe the things that were not seen.
And you see, of all the pathway that Joseph was blessed with
and all the faith that Joseph had, we have one verse of Joseph's
life in Hebrews 11. And this verse says this, by
faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the
children of Israel and gave commandment concerning his bones. That is
the one verse that we have about Joseph in that Hall of Fame. This was the act of faith that
is recorded in the New Testament, the act of faith amidst his tremendous
unparalleled wealth and privilege and earthly blessings in Egypt. He didn't speak of making Egypt
his home. He didn't speak of the pyramids.
He didn't speak of the glories of the land of Egypt. It's interesting
because the very next verse goes on in Hebrews to say, by faith
Moses, when he was born, was hid three months by his parents
because they saw he was a proper child and they were not afraid
of the king's commandments. By faith Moses, when he was come
to years, one of my favorite verses I think in the Bible,
by faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called
the son of Pharaoh's daughter. And I saw such a parallel, actually,
between Moses refusing the good of the land of Egypt as a prince in Egypt. He turned
away from all that riches and desired more to be numbered with
the people of God. But actually, the testimony of
Joseph is the same. It's the same, isn't it? By faith,
Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children
of Israel. He's telling them that this is
not your rest. We're not going to stay here.
We're pilgrims and strangers. Don't make this your rest. But
you see, there was a time that God had appointed that they would
be in Egypt. There was a time that they would
be brought into a great nation and then it would be, and as
they grew day by day and year by year and as they got bigger
and then got into slavery because Pharaoh was oppressing them,
the possibility, the ability for them to leave Egypt got harder
and harder. It got more and more impossible.
showing that God needed to step in, you see, and to bring them
out of Egypt, to bring them out of that, serving the lusts of
the flesh and the pride of life. They needed to be brought out.
Another picture. of the great salvation that's so much talked
about through the rest of the word of God, how Moses brought
out the people out of Egypt. God could have brought them out
at the end of those seven years of famine, couldn't he? Could have sent them back to
Canaan, but he didn't. You see, we're told clearly why
that was in Genesis 15. But in the fourth generation
they shall come hither again, for the iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full. The wickedness of the people
of Canaan had not yet reached the level at which God was going
to exterminate from the land. It hadn't yet been reached. And
when it had been reached, then it would take place. and we see
this, you see, in our lives. There is a level, we don't know
how long the world will last, how much longer God will keep
it going, but there is a level, as it were, that God has in his
mind, and when that level is reached, it will be fulfilled
and time will be no longer. The church will be built, the
church will be complete, and the iniquity will be filled up,
and time will be no longer. Well, Joseph then, this one who
was 110 years old, and Joseph took an oath of the children
of Israel saying, God will surely visit you. But they say, we're in prosperity.
We don't need visiting. We're happy in Egypt. I think
they were quite happy in the land of Goshen. We're happy in
Goshen. God will surely visit you. and
ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died being 110
years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in
Egypt. He wasn't buried in a pyramid.
That coffin was there standing saying two things. First of all
that that that however much wealth and privilege you have in Egypt,
you're going to be moving away. As Joseph's coffin stood there,
it was a reminder that they were going to have to leave. This
was not the final resting place. They were going to be leaving
Egypt. But then as they got into slavery, then as it became more
and more impossible, they became oppressed and guarded, as it
were, made Egypt become bitter to them, they still had that
cough in there, saying, you're not going to be here always.
You're not going to be under this oppression always. God has
promised that you'll be brought out of this slavery. Well, there's so many precious
pictures in the Word of God. Joseph, that one who was everything
for his people, It was all because of Joseph that they could continue
living in the land of Egypt. And it's only as we have union
with Christ that we have acceptance with the Beloved, acceptance
before God. But you see, Joseph's era of
being the Prime Minister came to an end. It didn't last forever,
did it? And we end with Joseph in a coffin. But the one that Joseph was pointing
to, the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, has an unchanging priesthood. He never, he ever lives, yes
he did die. Just as Joseph went into that
prison and was hidden and as far as his brethren was concerned
he was dead. Christ laid down his life. And you see, as far as Joseph
was concerned, that precious seed of Joseph that was so precious
to Jacob, it was lost, wasn't it, as far as Jacob was concerned? He went, well, he thought he
was dead. That corn of wheat, as it were, died, as far as Jacob
was concerned. And how we've gone, Jesus speaks
about that, if a corn of wheat abide, not planted, it doesn't
bear any fruit, but if it goes in the earth and it seems hidden
and it seems lost, ah, then it will bear much fruit. And how
this hidden corn in the life of Joseph produced so much fruit. So much fruit and how the Lord
Jesus Christ in his laying down his life, going as it were that
corn hidden in the ground, buried for three days and three nights,
when he rose again, He came, he ever lives now. You see, there
came a time when Joseph died and then there was a pharaoh
that knew not Joseph and all their privileges quickly came
to an end. But not so with the heavenly
Joseph. He lives, you see, to always care for his people. He
won't die and leave them. But you see, Joseph then is precious
in the word of God, but we don't stop in Joseph. Joseph was pointing
to the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who would deliver his
people with a great salvation, a permanent salvation, an eternal
salvation. You see, these brethren died,
but you see, God's people will live forever. They will be with
him forever, and he will be the very centerpiece of glory, the
suffering Joseph, the sufferings of Christ. And they will be that
corn of wheat that's hidden in the ground. As far as the brethren
concerned, he was dead. As far as his father was concerned,
he was dead. But that corn of wheat grew up,
and oh, the fruit that came from that. Joseph is a fruitful bough,
even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run over the wall,
the archers have surely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated
him. But his bow abode in strength,
and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the
mighty God of Jacob, from thence is a shepherd. the stone of Israel
well these brethren they came and they said so shall you say
unto Joseph forgive I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren
and their sin for they did unto the evil one now we pray thee
forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father and
Joseph wept when he spake unto them the heart of Joseph of heart
of forgiveness heart of mercy heart of love the love of Christ
to sinners. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.