Turn if you would to Genesis
chapter 46. Now in our study of the life of Joseph in the
last few weeks, we've seen how Joseph has revealed himself to
his brethren. They did not know who he was
when they first appeared before him. And then when he revealed
himself, oh my, they knew who he was. They knew who he was.
And what a clear picture that is, how the Lord Jesus Christ
reveals himself to us, to his people. And last week we looked
at how Israel, Jacob took a journey down to Egypt. Let's read verses
one to seven of Genesis chapter 46. And Israel took his journey
with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices
unto God, unto the God of his father Isaac. And God spake unto
Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob.
And he said, here am I. So take note of the next two
verses, the promises of divine presence. the promises of divine
presence and protection from our great God. And notice we
see three times God tells Israel in the next two verses, I will,
I will. And remember, who's saying I
will is God Almighty, right? It's Jehovah, the self-existent
one. And our Lord, beloved, our Lord
will never leave us nor forsake us, never. his people, never. And this is true of God's people
of all ages. This is not just a promise to
Israel, but this is what God says to his people. Says this
to his people. And he said, I am God, the God
of thy father. Fear not to go down into Egypt,
for I will there make of thee a great nation. And then look
at verse four. I will go down with thee into
Egypt. Never forget the Lord's with
us. Never forget he's right. He's with his people always He
goes before us beloved. He goes before us. I Will go
down with thee into Egypt. I will also surely bring thee
up again Well, he's going to be with us isn't he all through
this life all through and then he's going to take us to glory
below for I will There make of thee a great nation. I will go
down with thee into Egypt, and I will also surely bring thee
up again. And Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. Joseph's
going to close his eyes in death. And Jacob rose up from Beersheba,
and the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, and their
little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had
sent to carry him. And they took their cattle and
their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came
into Egypt, Jacob and all his seed with him, his sons and his
sons' sons with him, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and
all his seed bought he with him into Egypt. Now Jacob was 130
years old when he made the trip from Canaan down to Egypt. And
we see there's no mention made of his wives. We know that Rachel
had died giving birth to Benjamin. And some commentators believe
that Leah is not mentioned, nor his two concubine wives, Billa
and Zilpha, because they had probably died by this time as
well. And take note, all of Jacob's sons, their wives and all their
children, are not only mentioned in verses 8 to 27, the names
of the men are recorded in the verses that follow, so that we
see in all, counting Joseph and his two sons, 70 Israelites,
all of Jacob's sea, come down to live in the land of Egypt.
And always keep in mind that this was ordained by God. This
was God's eternal purpose at work. He had told Abraham before
Isaac and Jacob were born that his seed, Abraham's seed, would
go down into the land of Egypt and become slaves to the Egyptians.
But they would be delivered by the mighty hand of God. And we
see then that Jacob's son took all their cattle, their livestock,
and their worldly possessions, all that they could carry, and
they went down into Egypt. Now verses 8 to 27 give all the
names of Jacob's son and grandsons. I'll leave that to you for reading,
if you'd like. And we'll study verses 28 to
34 of Genesis chapter 46, where we will see Jacob and Joseph
reunited face to face, face to face. Let's look at verse 28 to 34. And he sent Judah, Jacob being
sent Judah, or Israel, sent Judah before unto Joseph to direct
his face unto Goshen. And they came into the land of
Goshen. And Joseph made ready his chariot
and went up to meet Israel, his father, to Goshen, and presented
himself unto him. And he fell on his neck and wept
on his neck a good while. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art
yet alive. And Joseph said unto his brethren
and unto his father's house, I will go up and show Pharaoh
and say unto him, My brethren in my father's house, which were
in the land of Canaan, are come unto me. And the men are shepherds,
for their trade hath been to feed cattle. And they have bought
their flocks and their herds and all that they had. and it
shall come to pass when Pharaoh shall call you and shall say
to you what is your occupation then ye shall say thy servant's
trade hath been about cattle for our youth until now both
we and also our fathers that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen
for every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians what a day What a day it will
be for we who are the born again people of God. What a day it'll
be when we see our Lord face to face. What a day that'll be. It'll be a day of immeasurable
joy. Face to face. Face to face to
see him. To see him who died on Calvary's
cross for us. Face to face, what a day that'll
be to see our Redeemer. To see the one who's loved us
from eternity, to see the one who's loved us so much that he
went to the cross and died for us, purchasing his blood-bought
bride. Look at verse 28, and he sent
Judah before him unto Joseph to direct his face into Goshen,
and they came into the land of Goshen. We see that Jacob sent Judah
to represent him. Jacob sent Judah to represent
him and his family before Joseph. Again, all this was according
to the sovereign purpose of God. As of all the sons of Jacob,
Judah was the one who was best suited to be Jacob's representative. Judah had a more gentle love
and spirit about him, as we've seen in our studies. Listen to
what John Gill brings forth about him. Judah had endeared himself
to Joseph by his speech to him, in which he discovered so much
affection, both to his father and his brother Benjamin, and
was upon all accounts the fittest person to be sent to Joseph.
Remember, Judah was the one who said, keep me. Keep me. Don't bring my father down to
the grave by keeping Benjamin. And it was Judah that spake,
if you turn over a couple chapters to verse 16. Look at Genesis
chapter 44, verse 16. And Judah said, What shall we
say unto thee, unto my Lord? What shall we speak? O how shall
we clear ourselves? God hath found out our iniquity
of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants,
both we and he also whom the cup is found. Oh my. So Judah was the spokesman
for his brethren, even then. And Judah was sent to Joseph.
He was sent to Joseph to direct his face on the Goshen. That
is to inform Joseph of Jacob and his family's arrival. And
not only would this announce that Joseph Now it's to Joseph
that Jacob was entering into the land of Goshen, but it would
also give Joseph the needed time to prepare the right place in
Goshen for Jacob and his family to dwell. And note, they came
into the land of Goshen. John Gill brings forth that this
was the first land of Egypt on their way from Canaan, the nearest
to the land of Canaan. And one can only imagine how
Israel felt as he waited for that exciting moment to finally
see his son again. He thought he was dead. For years
he thought he was dead. And what an exciting, the excitement
would be building up inside him. It being the first time in many,
many years that he would get to gaze upon Joseph, all the while again thinking
that his son had been ripped apart by wild animals. Over 22 years had passed. Could you imagine not seeing
your son for 22 years, or your brother, or your mom and dad
for 22 years? thinking they were dead and all
the time they were alive. 22 years had passed since they'd
last seen each other. And they were soon to see each
other face to face by the divine sovereignty of our great God.
So imagine the excitement, imagine the joy that was bubbling up
inside of Israel. In not just his heart, but in
Joseph's too. In the anticipation that they
would see each other face to face. They probably couldn't
wait until the time that they would see each other face to
face. Let's read verse 29 with that
in mind. We see Jacob and Joseph, they
meet face to face for the first time in over 20 years. And Joseph
made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father
Togoshin, and presented himself unto him. And he fell on his
neck and he wept on his neck a good while. They wept. Tears
of joy, beloved. Tears of joy. Joseph had his
chariot ready to go. He had his chariot ready to go,
beloved. And we see that he traveled up
to where his father was in Goshen. And think upon this, beloved
of God, when our Lord allows us the honor of meeting together
for public worship, it's like a family reunion, isn't it? We
get together. We're family in Christ. We're
one in Christ. We're here for the furtherance
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's like a family reunion. And even though it's only a week
in between, or a few days in between when we meet midweek,
it's still a great blessing to see God's people, isn't it? We
desire and we look forward to gathering together. It's our
oasis. Because we're gonna look at this,
this is the inn. We're gonna look at this morning's
message. The Lord's brought us to the best inn. And that's the
church where we can hear the gospel preached and proclaimed.
And you know why we have to keep hearing the gospel? I was talking
to young Jacob about this this week. You know why we have to
keep hearing the gospel? Because we so soon forget his
blessings. He was like, Wayne, all these blessings I have in
my life and all these blessings I have every day. And I said,
we're so forgetful, aren't we? That's why, beloved, we as God's
sheep have to keep coming to hear the gospel, to be reminded,
isn't it? It's the same message just coming
from different texts, beloved. Right? It really is. The message
is all about Christ. But that's what we as God's people,
that's what we desire to hear. Right? And God sends a man to preach
and proclaim the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and He gets
filled studying and the Lord's people get filled and edified
and built up through the preaching of the word and reminded once
again of the great things that the Lord has done for us. It's
wondrous. And we never grow tired of hearing
it, do we? We never grow tired. It's like,
I want more. Oh, and it's wondrous. It's wondrous
each time we hear it. Each time we hear it, it's wondrous.
So Joseph, he had his chariot ready. He was ready to travel. And again, think of the honor
we have of meeting every week. We meet together each week, and
we speak face-to-face. I saw John and Tim sitting there
earlier today just chatting. And isn't it wonderful? You get
to meet face-to-face and talk. and fellowship. We fellowshiped
earlier. We'd just get to sit and talk.
How was your week? Well, it was great, right? And
we, every week. But then what's most important
and why we're here is the preaching of the gospel, preaching the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we want to hear,
too. So what a blessing it is that not only do we get to meet
face to face, but we get to hear the gospel preached and proclaimed
every week. And can you imagine, I bet you
that chariot didn't even come to a stop. I bet you Joseph leapt
out of that chariot. I could just see him. Doesn't
say that, but could you, you know. That's just my own speculation,
but I imagine he, I would have jumped right out of there. Oh
my. My oh my. And then could you
imagine when he first laid eyes on his father? When he saw his
father. Could you imagine, could you
imagine Israel? Laying eyes on Joseph. Could
you imagine? Oh, they've been weeping tears
of joy. Tears of joy. And them tears,
they'd just flow, wouldn't they? They'd just flow. Israel thought
his son was dead Israel thought his son was dead now. He finds
out he's alive and now he has the honor of seeing him face
to face embracing him Embracing him. Oh My oh my beloved And
and could you imagine Joseph? Joseph's very thankful to our
great God that his dad didn't die. I that he gets to see his
dad face to face. Oh my. And we see that the words they
spake to each other are not recorded. Are not recorded. But we know
from the text that their emotions were flowing. Their emotions
were flowing. Joseph fell on Israel's neck
and wept. Just wept on his neck and it
says for a good while. You ever seen someone you haven't
seen in ages? My, you go see them and you're
weeping with them and tears of joy. Oh my. Your hearts are overflowing with
love for each other. Oh, they embraced each other
for a good while. They were filled with a love
that only a father and son could know, could possibly understand. Now, beloved God, let us never
forget that this was recorded for our learning. This is recorded
for our learning, to manifest our Heavenly Father's love for
us. His love for us. Have you ever thought about the
love the Lord Jesus Christ has for you, the love the Father
has for you? It would bring tears to your eyes. Love with an eternal
love, unmerited, undeserved, Loved by the Father freely, sovereignly. My. Imagine what a day it'll be when
we see our Savior face to face. The moment we breathe our last
breath here. Imagine what that'll be like. When we're ushered into glory.
And when we see the one who was pierced for us. when we see the
one who gave his life for us, when we see the one who has loved
us with an eternal love, imagine what a day that will be for us.
Oh my. Look at verse 30. And here Israel
said unto Joseph, now let me die since I have seen thy face,
because thou art yet alive. Thou art yet alive. We see that
Joseph rejoiced to see his son. whom he had thought had died.
He'd been deceived by his other sons. He'd been deceived by them. And we see in this verse, in
these verses actually, that Israel was expressing great joy at seeing
his son Joseph. And we see that he brings forth
with his words that should he have died right then, he'd have
been filled with joy at the sight of seeing his son. seeing his
son who he thought was dead, but he was yet alive. He was
yet alive. And you know, Joseph and Israel
had another 17 years together by the grace of God. Isn't that
wonderful? By the grace of God, they had
another 17 years together. And what a joyful, do you think how joyful that must have been?
That must have been sweet times. Must have been very sweet time
for them to have together. My. Oh, we see the. The words here
of Jacob. Now, let me die since I've seen
my face because thou art yet alive. And we're reminded again of a
man who we read in scripture, turn, if you would, to Luke.
chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. We're reminded
of a man in scripture. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2 verses 29 to 32. A man named Simeon. This is a wonderful portion of
scripture. Lord had told Simeon he wouldn't
die until he saw the Lord's Christ. Look at this, verse 29. Lord,
now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word.
According to what you said, Lord. For mine eyes have seen, what? Thy salvation. His eyes, beloved,
have seen the salvation of the Lord. He's gazed upon the Messiah. He is gazed upon the Messiah,
beloved, which thou hast prepared. It's all planned and purposed
by God before the face of all people. A light to lighten the
Gentiles, praise be to God, and the glory of thy people Israel.
So that's Jew and Gentile right there. That's Jew and Gentile. A light to lighten. The Gentiles
and the glory of thy people Israel and it's all prepared by God.
And remember to this meeting this meeting between Joseph and
Jacob or Israel is a divine appointment. It's planned and purposed by
God. Right. Lord's taking his people
down to Egypt. We're going to deliver them with
a mighty hand. Now let's read verses 31 to 34
of Genesis chapter 46. Genesis chapter 46 verses 31
to 34. Joseph said unto his brethren
and unto his father's house, I will go up and show Pharaoh
and say unto him, my brethren and my father's house, which
were in the land of Canaan are coming to me. So Joseph's gonna
go before them. Who went before us, beloved?
Who's in glory right now before us? The Lord Jesus Christ, our
heavenly Joseph. He's gone to the king, hasn't
he? And he's mediating for us. Oh my, what great pictures we
see in Scripture. I will go up and show Pharaoh
and say unto him, My brethren, my father's house, which were
in the land of Canaan, are come unto me. And the men are shepherds,
for their trade hath been to feed cattle. And they have bought
their flocks and their herds and all that they have. And it
shall come to pass, when Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say,
What is your occupation? That ye shall say, Thy servant's
trade hath been about cattle from our youth even until now,
both we and also our fathers, that ye may dwell in the land
of Goshen. For every shepherd is an abomination unto the Egyptians."
So when we consider these verses spiritually, these verses teach us of the
separation of God's people from the people of the world. Turn,
if you would, to 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians, look at this. 2 Corinthians. There's definitely
a separation between God's people and the people of the world.
2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6, verses 14 to 18. Look at these words. 2 Corinthians 6 verses 14 to 18. Speaking of God's people. Be
ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. So that's a
warning. That's a warning for God's people.
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Baal? Or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel, which is an unbeliever? And what agreement
hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the
living God. As God hath said, I will dwell
in them, and walk in them, And I will be their God and they
shall be my people. Wherefore, look at this, come
out from among them and be separate. Say it the Lord and touch not
the unclean thing and I will receive you and I will be a father
unto you and you shall be my sons. And daughters say, the
Almighty. So we see a separation there
between God's people and the people of the world. And it clearly
says, be not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. The
unbeliever will never add anything to the believer, but he or she
will take away from the believer. It happens. Look at that. Be
not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship
hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light
with darkness? So in these verses of Scripture, even in Genesis,
back in Genesis, in the verses of Scripture, we see where Joseph
told his brethren that he would go before them and speak to Pharaoh,
and speak to Pharaoh on their behalf. And we see that he instructed
them as to what they should say and how they should conduct themselves
before Pharaoh. Now, Pharaoh had already accepted
Jacob and his family for Joseph's sake. And Pharaoh had already told
Joseph that his family could dwell in the land of Goshen.
But now that they had arrived, it was needful for Joseph to
speak to Pharaoh again, informing him of the things concerning
his father Israel and all his family. And it was necessary
for Israel and Joseph's brothers to appear before Pharaoh to speak
for themselves. And we see that shepherds were
an abomination unto the Egyptians. They were an abomination unto
the Egyptians. We'll look at that a little bit
more next week, where we see Joseph's brothers, they do not
try to hide the fact of their occupation, because Joseph told
them, don't hide, don't hide what you are. They openly confessed
to Pharaoh that they were shepherds, and we see that they do it willingly. Now consider this, beloved of
God, and consider this. Consider the separation, right?
The Egyptians, the Israelites are told to go
to the land of Goshen. They're gonna be given the land
of Goshen to dwell in. They are separate. They're still in Egypt,
right? They're still in the nation of
Egypt, but they're separate from the Egyptians. Ah, we're still
in this world, beloved, right? Which Egypt's a picture of, but
we're separate. We're separated by God. We're an ekklesia, which means
a called out assembled. A called out assembled. That's
what we are, the beloved, is believers. We're called out in
the world, aren't we? We're still in the world. We
still have to deal with the world. We still have to deal with our
own sin. Right? But praise be to God, we're saved. We're called out. We're a called
out people. by the Holy Spirit of God, born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, granted faith to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And yet we still live in the
land of Egypt, don't we? We still live in this world,
beloved. Oh my. And consider this again, as I
mentioned earlier, our heavenly Joseph, he's already entered
into the presence of the king. He's already entered into the
presence of the king. to appear in the presence of
God for us. For us. He's already pleaded
our cause before God Almighty. And our Heavenly Father has already
accepted us in Christ. In Christ. Oh my. Even though He knows that all
of us are in our unregenerate state and abomination to him,
right? Yet we are accepted in the beloved.
We're accepted in the beloved. My. And each of each of God's
people by God given faith must bow down to God, our father,
right? We bow down to God, our father.
My. And we confess, what do we confess?
We confess that we're hell-deserving sinners, don't we? We confess we're hell-deserving
sinners, but God's had mercy on us in Christ. Oh my, and we
confess that everything in us in our natural state is an abomination
to God. We're just sinners to the core.
Somebody doesn't admit they're a sinner who confesses to be
a believer, then they got a problem. Because we're sinners. We're
sinners. Now we're saved sinners. Praise
be to God. Oh my, it's wonderful. And no
wonder the apostle Paul wrote this, for I know that in me,
meaning his flesh, dwelleth no good thing. That's the saved
man writing that. Dwelleth no good thing. For the
will is present with me, but how to perform that which is
good I find not. For the good I would do I do
not, but the evil which I would not, that I do." That's a man
with a civil war going on, isn't it? Just like us. And he turns
right to Christ, doesn't he? He says, I have victory in Christ.
Victory in Him. You know, God strips us of all
our sinful, foolish pride, doesn't He? Oh my, he gives us a new
heart that moves us to humble ourselves before God, to bow
our knee before God. We, in our natural state, we
said, we're not gonna have this man rule over us, and now we
say, oh Lord, oh Lord, you are king. And we bow to him, willingly,
don't we? Willingly. With a true, sincere,
heartbroken confession before him, we cry out with the publican,
God be merciful to me, the sinner. We cry that out to our Heavenly
Father. Look at verse 6 of this Genesis. Turn, if you would, over to Genesis
chapter 47. Look at this. We'll look at this
more next week, but look at this. Genesis 47, verse 6. The land of Egypt is before thee.
In the best of the land make thy father and thy brethren to
dwell. in the land of Goshen. Let them dwell, and if thou knowest
any man of activity among them, then make them rulers over my
cattle. Oh my. Think upon this, beloved, before
we can worship God in peace of conscience and liberty of heart,
we must know upon the authority of God's word and by the power
of the Holy Spirit of God that the entire question of our sin
The entire question of our sin is forever settled by the blood
of the Lamb, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right? Trusting only in Him as our divine
sin offering. And we must know that all the
demands of our soul, all the demands for the ransom of our
souls, and all the necessities to redeem our souls have been
forever Forever, forever fulfilled in the sacrifice of Christ. Fulfilled,
Lord. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made you free. And be not entangled again in
the yoke of bondage. Galatians 5, 1. Stand fast in
the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free. And oh, how
this gives us peace. And the enjoyment of that peace
as we walk through this world. We worship our great God. Our
Savior is the perfect sacrifice. The perfect man. Praise His mighty
name. And He gave His life. If you're
one of His people, He gave His life for you. Praise His mighty
name.