The name of the message is Meeting
the Governor. Now in our last study in the
life of Joseph, we looked at verses 56 and 57 of Genesis 41,
in addition to verses 1 to 4 of chapter 42. And we've seen how
that God in His providence, and by His almighty power, always
by His almighty power, has raised up Joseph from being a slave,
to being the prime minister over all of Egypt. And God, again,
by his almighty power, has bought upon the land of Egypt famine
upon the land, just as Joseph had interpreted in Pharaoh's
dreams. And our great God is now, first of all, he bought
seven years of plenty, just as Joseph had said would come. And
now they're in the midst of seven years of famine. And the purpose
of all this occurring, the purpose of having Joseph being sold into
slavery, raised up as the prime minister over all of Egypt, the
famine, the years of plenty and the famine coming. The purpose
of all this is to bring Jacob and his family down to Egypt,
just as God had said he would. And we see again that God's almighty
hand working to bring all this to come to pass. Let's read verses
1 to 11 of Genesis chapter 42. And the only way for anyone to
get the corn stored up in Egypt is to go to Joseph. Always remember
that. Anyone who wants corn during this famine, they must go through
Joseph. They have to. They have to. He's
the only one who can open the storehouses, which are all around
Egypt. And all must come through him
to receive corn. And we see in our texts here
that Joseph's brethren are sent down by Jacob, who had heard
that there was corn in Egypt. And they're sent down to purchase
corn in order for them to survive. In order for them to survive.
Let's read again verses 1 to 11. Now when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why do you look
upon one another? And he said, behold, I have heard.
So he had heard either through people who had come back after
purchasing corn from Egypt or traveling caravans that maybe
was going through the land of Canaan at that time. But he had
heard that there was corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and
buy us from thence, that we may live and not die. And Joseph's
ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin,
Joseph's brother, Jacob, sent not with his brethren. For he
said, Lest peradventure mischief befall him. And the sons of Israel
came to buy corn among those that came for the famine was
in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over
all the land. And he, it was that sold to all
the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
And Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them, but made himself
strange unto them and spoke roughly unto them. And he said unto them,
whence come ye? And they said, from the land
of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew him not. And Joseph remembered the dreams
which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, ye are spies,
to see the nakedness of the land, ye are come. And they said to
him, nay, my lord, but to buy food, for thy servants come,
are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons. We
are true men. Look at that. Oh, they're not
true men, are they? We know that from the past. They
claim to be, we're true men, thy servants are no spies. So
we see there in verses 3 and 4, Joseph's ten brethren went
down to buy corn in Egypt, but Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob,
said not with his brethren, for he said, let spare adventure
mischief befall him. So Benjamin, Joseph's youngest
brother, was not allowed to go down with the ten brothers. Jacob
did not let Benjamin go. He did not let Benjamin go with
his brothers. He was afraid that something
horrible might befall him, like what happened to Joseph. He went
about to lose Benjamin as well. And Joseph's wicked brothers
had put animal blood upon the coats of many colors to deceive
Jacob into thinking that Joseph was dead. And they let him mourn,
thinking that Joseph was dead, all the time knowing that they
had sold Joseph into slavery and none of them could console
Jacob's grief. So therefore he didn't send Benjamin
down. He didn't send Benjamin down
with his ten brothers for fear of losing him. And also remember
that all this is predetermined by God too. Remember that. It's
all coming to pass according to God's almighty will. And Joseph again was now exalted
to a position of authority over them. Over them. And they did not know it, did
they? They had no clue. They had no clue. And Benjamin
had no part in their evil design when they sold Joseph into slavery. And therefore, we can conclude
that his heart wasn't filled with hatred toward Joseph. And we'll see that later on when
they meet. Oh, they love one another dearly. They love one
another dearly. Now, one can look at any man
and find faults with him. Every son of Adam has faults.
But unfortunately, man is into hero worship And they lift up
men to a state where they can do no wrong, but sin dwells within
us all, doesn't it? It dwells within us all. And
even as believers, we as believers have to be careful not to fall
into hero worship, lifting one preacher over another or esteeming
oneself better than others. We all have to be careful. Paul
even dealt with that situation. Do you know that? Paul even dealt
with that situation over in 1 Corinthians. Listen to this. Now this I say
that every one of you say, I am Paul and I am Apollos and I am
Cephas and I am Christ. Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified
for you? Or were you baptized in the name
of Paul? I thank God that I baptized none
of you but Crispus and Gaius, lest any should say that I have
baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the household
of Stephanas. Besides, I knew not whether I
baptized any other. For Christ sent me not to baptize,
but to preach. He's sent to preach the gospel,
not with the wisdom of words, lest the cause of Christ be,
should be made of none effect. First Corinthians chapter one,
verses 12 to 17. So there's only one beloved. There's only one who is absolutely
sinless. Only one. All, all we men are
sinners. All we men and women are sinners.
We can find fault in every one of us. It's not hard. It's not
hard. And, and the only, and, and,
and Christ was hated without a cause. He's hated without a cause. Only
our Redeemer. And only in our Redeemer do we
find perfect character. Perfect character. Even Joseph
was a sinful man. Even Joseph was a sinful man.
So think upon this. In Christ's conduct, he was without
flaw. His doctrine was pure. He went about doing good. And
he alone upheld and obeyed and fulfilled the law of God in our
place. the place of his people, his doctrine was pure doctrine,
his kindness. He was kind, he was sympathetic,
and he was tender. He was tender. Yet even though
there was no cause for it, even though there was no cause for
it, the Lord of glory was hated of all men. In our natural state,
this is how we are. And so Joseph's brothers, they
hated him. They actually hated him without
a cause. I know that Jacob favored Joseph, but Joseph really had
nothing to do with that. He was just being himself, wasn't
he? And his brothers hated him without a cause. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, our God and Savior, is again hated by men without
a cause. And that's exactly who he saves, sinful men and women
who hate him. Oh, it's wonderful. And how does
He save us? Without a cause. Freely, doesn't
He? It's by His grace and by His
mercy. Is there any cause in us that the Lord would save us?
Anything? Nothing in us. We don't deserve
salvation. We don't deserve to be saved
by the Lord Jesus Christ, but God has loved us from eternity.
And we marvel in that. We marvel that He saved us by
His grace. And it's God and God alone who
must convict us of sin and the enmity that's in our natural
heart against him, against Christ, against his son, against his
gospel, before a godly soul will grip our hearts and make us aware
of how helpless and hopeless we are. When our great God reveals
our great need for Christ, that's how we feel, helpless and hopeless. And when the Holy Spirit's drawn
us to Christ, we're born again by the almighty power of God,
the same power, think of this too, The same power that raised
Joseph up to second in command over all of Egypt, the same power,
right, that had famine come upon the land, seven years of plenty,
seven years of famine, the same power is the same power that's
exercised in our salvation. Isn't that wonderful? God's almighty power. God's almighty
power. We say salvation's of the Lord,
by His power, by His might, and we rejoice, don't we? We rejoice
it's not dependent upon us, because we'd be in a world of trouble
if it was dependent upon us, and the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, how? By the almighty power of God. By the almighty power
of God, beloved. And then we see our need for
Christ, don't we? Desperately, we see our need for Christ. He
moves us by His saving grace to bow our new heart that He's
given us. A heart that hungers and thirsts
after righteousness to confess Christ. To confess Christ, just
like you said to your friend there. Salvation's in Christ
alone. No, there's no condemnation in
Christ. None. And they don't want to
hear it. They don't want to hear it. They
don't want to hear it. So Joseph, by the grace of God,
he knows that all this fell out. He knows that all this fell out
according to God's eternal purpose. He knew, he looks at the situation with
different eyes now. And knowing how men and women
feel and a natural man feels when they're wrong. What does
natural man do? And even believers sometimes,
we can get caught up in this. What does natural man do, or
believers sometimes, when we're in the flesh, what do we do when
we feel like someone's wronged us? We want to lash out at them,
don't we? It's normal. It's normal. But look at Look at God's almighty
grace at work here. Joseph sees his brothers, the
very ones who sold him into slavery. The very ones who sold him into
slavery. And the reason they did that is because Jacob loved
him more than them. Again, he couldn't help that.
He was just being himself. And look at this, Joseph, by
again, by the grace of God, knows that all this fell out according
to God's divine sovereignty and power. He's a believer in the
Messiah, beloved. He's looking. He's a believer
in the Messiah. He's trust in God. This is the
names of his children brought forth, remember? The names of
his children bring forth the fact that he's trust in Christ,
he's trust in God. He's trust in God. And by God's
mercy and grace, we see how he reacts. In our next few studies,
we'll see how he reacts to the very people who wronged him. It's pretty incredible. And again,
it's by the grace of God. The only reason if we don't lash
out at people who've wronged us is by the grace of God, beloved.
Because it's so natural for us to go, bam! It is. And to harbor that and to hold
on to that, no. No, we need to let things go,
don't we? We need to let things go. Look
at Genesis 42, verses 5 to 9. Look at this. And the sons of
Israel came to buy corn among those that came, for the famine
was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over
the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the
land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before
him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them. and spake
roughly unto them, and he said unto them, Whence come ye? And
they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew
his brethren, but they knew him not. And Joseph remembered the
dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Ye are spies,
to see the nakedness of the land, are ye come? We see there in
verse five that the sons of Israel, Jacob, came to buy corn. They
came to buy corn. For the famine was in the land
of Canaan. Remember, it was all over. The
famine was all through the known land, the world. It was a harsh,
harsh famine. And so they came to buy corn
in the land of Egypt. But they also came among those
who came from other lands, outside of Egypt. Because look at this,
it says there, and the sons of Israel came to buy corn among
those that came. for the famine was in the land of Canaan. So
they were one amongst, or they were a group of men amongst several
people, probably a lot of folks there that had come to buy corn.
Because they had heard that Joseph was the only dispenser of that
corn. And remember Canaan, remember this too, Canaan's known as a
fruitful land, right? It's known as a fruitful land.
It's known in scripture as a land flowing with milk and honey.
Oh, we see here that our Lord has withheld His blessings, causing
the land to become barren. See who's in power? See who has
all control? It's our great God, beloved.
And this shows God's almighty rule over all creation. He rules
over all the creation. There's not a bird that falls
out of a tree without Him knowing. The very hairs of our heads are
numbered, the Scripture says. Oh my, He's in control, beloved. And this shows His almighty rule
over all of creation. The Lord makes His clouds to
be His chariots. And yet, the old natural man
tends to take things for granted. Take things for granted. Not
knowing that it is God and His providence that sends His blessings
as it pleases. And He sends rain on the just
and on the unjust, doesn't He? He does. So we see that Joseph and his
brothers had come down to Egypt. We know that the famine was all
throughout the lands around Egypt. So probably for safety reasons,
they would have banded together with other groups going down
for safety reasons so that they don't get hit by marauders and
whatever money they're taking down. Or when they're coming
back, whatever corn they have doesn't get stolen on them. They
travel in a group. They travel in a group. They
had abandoned themselves together. And then they probably would
have broke up when they got to Egypt, broke up when they got
to their destination. They may have been traveling
with others from Canaan, or they may have been traveling with
others from another country. But we see that they all went
down to get corn in Egypt. And we see in verse 5 that the
sons of Israel came to buy corn among these other people. Again,
remember all the inhabitants of the land of Canaan would have
the same need as the Israelites. And as the Egyptians, they all
would have the same, they all needed corn. Because the famine
was harsh. It was harsh. And Joseph was
governor over all the land of Egypt. And he was the only one
who could dispense that corn. Dispense that corn. He sold the
people all over the land. We see that Joseph's brothers
come down and they bowed themselves. They bowed themselves before
Joseph with their faces to the earth. Let's read verse six. Let's read verse six here. And
we see, remember too, that the dreams that Joseph shared with
his father and his brothers, we know they were messages from
God, right? Well, we will see in our text
that it's about fourth that Joseph's brothers came and they what?
Bowed before him. They bowed before him. with their
faces to the earth. And so we see that these dreams
are fulfilled according to our Lord's purpose, according to
His will. And again, it's all by His almighty
timing. It's all by His almighty timing.
Look at verse 6. And Joseph was the governor over
the land, and he it was that sold to all the people of the
land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. Now, beloved of God. God had
exalted Joseph to the position of governor over all the land,
over all the land, as we see in verse six. And it was he that
was sold that it was he that sold to all the people of the
land. And Joseph's brethren came and they bowed down. Look at
that. They bowed themselves down before him with their faces to
the earth. Turn, if you would, to Genesis chapter 37. Now, this
was the meaning of Joseph's dreams when his brother Sheeves made
obeisance to Joseph Sheeve. Remember that? Over here in Genesis
chapter 37. Look at verses 7 to 9. Look at
this. The obeisance means they bowed
down before him. They gave him reverence, beloved.
They gave him reverence. Look at this. For behold, we
were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, was exalted
over them, and also stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood
round about and made obeisance to my sheaf. They bowed down.
What do we see happening in Genesis 42, beloved? They're bowing down
before Joseph, and he's on the throne of power, just like God
said would happen. And his brethren said unto him,
Shalt thou indeed reign over us? Well, he is now. He is now,
isn't he? They don't have a clue who he
is. Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? Oh yeah, he
does now. All by God's almighty power.
And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.
And he dreamed yet another dream. And he told it to his brethren
and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream. And behold, the sun
and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. That which God has purposed has
come to pass, exactly as Joseph has said it would. Obeisance in the Hebrew means
to prostate. It means to eat dust, which is
what they're doing. especially reflectively in homage
to royalty or God, to bow down, to crouch, to fall down flat,
humbly, to besiege or to reverence. And that's exactly what they're
doing. So we see then by God's divine
providence and power, by the almighty hand of our great God,
that Joseph's wicked brethren were made to bow themselves before
Joseph, to bow with their faces to the earth. with their faces
to the earth, proving that God had exalted Joseph to be their
ruler. And he alone could provide corn for them through the almighty
hand of God. Well, we can only receive corn
from our heavenly, our heavenly Joseph, can't we? We can only
receive bread from our heavenly Joseph, he who is the bread of
life, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're hopeless without him. We
come before Him when we're made willing in the day of His power,
and what do we do? We just bow down before Him, don't we? We
just bow down before Him. Oh my! And what we see with the
brethren here, bowing down before Joseph, that's our rightful position
before our Heavenly Joseph in the dust. And the preaching of
the gospel will exalt God to a high sovereign throne and will
put man in the dust. And that's what it does. But
this is our rightful position before our sovereign King, before
our Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's God who humbles
us to that point, isn't it? It's He who has brought us to
that point. Think of that. How? By His almighty power. And
by His will. by his will that he's brought
us to that point. Because in our natural point,
we won't bow before him. We'll say like in the gospel,
shall this man reign over us? And like the brethren there,
look, shall thou indeed reign over us or have dominion over
us? That's us in our natural state,
isn't it? But after we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God,
we bow down. We bow down before our great
king. And we won't even but lift our eyes, we smile at our breasts
like the public, and we say, oh God, be merciful to me of
the sin. And He is merciful to His people. And we still even
cry that even after we're saved, don't we? We don't ever stop
coming to Him, beloved. We keep coming to Him. We keep
coming to Him and coming to Him. Falling before Christ and begging
for mercy. Let's read verses 7 to 8 here. And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spoke
roughly unto them. And he said unto them, Whence
come ye? And they said, From the land
of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew him not. But they knew not him. Look at
that. Yesterday, we were at the DIA,
Detroit Institute of Arts, and they had a section there. One
of the sections was on Egyptology and all that. And it was fascinating
to go through that while we're studying the life of Joseph.
And to see, after having read and studied about the dress and
everything, to see how they were dressed and everything. And it
was fascinating to find pieces from this period, too, and look
at those specifically and go, wow, that was something right
there during the time of Joseph's, when Joseph was Prime Minister.
It was fascinating just to do that and to see the culture and
to see the different things. And like Vicki said, it kind
of, it brought it alive in the sense that you're seeing again
things right from that period. And we know, we know that this
all came about by the power of God. But notice here in the text
here, notice that Joseph's brother, and they didn't recognize him.
And this is what was really neat when we went there to see the
garb and all that they wore. They didn't recognize him, but
he recognized them. Now remember, when Joseph's sold
into slavery, he's a boy of 17 years old. When he stands before
Pharaoh, he's 30 years old. Then seven years of plenty have
passed, so he's 37. And then we don't know how many years
into the famine it is. So he's at least minimum 37 years
old. 37 years old now. And think of this too. He's now
second in command of all of Egypt. He's dressed like an Egyptian.
He's dressed like an Egyptian, beloved. He would have dressed
like a wealthy Egyptian in fine linens, and they wore ornate
jewelry. They wore gold rings and gold
necklaces. And his head would have either
been bald or he would have had a wig on, because they shaved
their head. And then they often, men and ladies, both wore wigs. And all the body hair they usually
shaved off, too, because they thought the body hair made them
unclean. So you couldn't even recognize
him. You couldn't even recognize him.
And also, his eyes would have been heavily lined with eyeliner. They put a heavy eyeliner around
their eyes. Both male and female did this. And gone, think of
this, gone were the shepherd's clothes. They were gone. Gone was the coat of many colors.
It's gone. Gone were the clothes he had
on in Potiphar's house. Gone were the prison clothes
that he wore. And now he appears to them as
Egyptian royalty. Garbed in the finest linen in
all of Egypt. Garbed in jewels and gold. With
heavy eyeliner around his eyes. They couldn't even recognize
him. And he spoke fluent Egyptian. He spoke fluent Egyptian. And
they did not know that he knew the Hebrew language, because
they didn't even know who he was. Now look at this. They spoke to Joseph through
an interpreter. Look at verse 23. And they knew not that Joseph
understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. So when they spoke Hebrew to
one another, They had no clue that he understood every word
they were saying. We'll look at that next week.
That's incredible. They had no clue. They had no
clue what he was saying. And so verse 23 there, it says,
They knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them
by an interpreter. Beloved of God, there would have been no
indication to Joseph's brethren, absolutely no indication to Joseph's
brethren, that this was their younger brother Joseph. They
would not have had a clue. They would not have had a clue. They did not know that this was
the very one who they had sold into, threw into a pit, sold
into slavery. As far as they knew, he was either
dead or off somewhere in somebody's house as a slave. They had no
clue where he was. And see in verse 7, they did
not recognize him. Look at it, and Joseph saw his
brother and he knew them, he knows them. Now think of this,
this is where it really, before we're saved, we don't know our
elder brother, do we? We don't have a clue who Christ
is. We may have heard him and we may have made in our mind
who we thought God was or who we thought Christ was, but it
wasn't the Christ of the Bible, was it? And we didn't know him. But when he reveals himself,
He knew us, though, didn't he? You see, he knew us. We're his
sheep. Given to him by the father from
before the foundation of the world, we had no clue about him,
but he knew us. Joseph knows who his brothers
are. Again, it's a picture of Christ. He knows he knows who
his brothers are. But look, he says, but he made
himself strange under them. You know, and at the time of
love, when it's our time, appointed by God for Christ to be revealed
to us, he is revealed to us. And we rejoice in the fact that
he reveals himself to us. But look at this. And he knew
them, but made himself strange to them and speak roughly unto
them. And he said unto them, whence come ye? And they said,
from the land of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew him not. Again, 13 years had passed Since
Joseph... John Gale says maybe about 13
years had passed since Joseph stood before Pharaoh and his
brethren, and he was cast into prison and everything that had
occurred. Again, this puts us around 37 years old. He'd be
around 37 years old, somewhere in that range. They wouldn't even recognize
him. They wouldn't even know. And here Joseph sits on the throne
before them. And unbeknownst to them, it's
their little brother. And he's now a prince. He's royalty. He's the prime minister over
all of Egypt. The only one he answers to is
the king, the pharaoh. And again, he's arrayed around
him. He's got an entourage around him too. they would have no clue who he
was. And Joseph remembered, look at
verse 9, Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them
and said unto them, ye are spies to see the nakedness of the land
or ye come. How little does the sinner think
in his first approaches to Christ when the Holy Ghost is leading
us and drawing us and showing us our need for Christ. How little
do we think that he's our elder brother, beloved. He's bone of
our bone and flesh of our flesh. But he's also governor, isn't
he? The Lord Jesus Christ is bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh, but he's also governor
over all. He's the Lord of glory. Oh my. Let us never forget the heart
of the Lord towards His people. Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 4. Let us never forget the heart of the Lord towards
His people. We fear His power, but let us
never lose sight of His love for us. We fear His power with
reverence. It's not a slavish fear. It's
a reverent fear. But let us never lose sight of
His great love for us, for His sheep. Hebrews chapter 4, verses
14 to 16. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities."
Oh, he was tempted in all points as we, but yet without sin. He's
the perfect, sinless, spotless Lamb of God. No sin. But it says here, He's tempted
like we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Our Lord loved us so much that
he left the glories and splendors of heaven and became a man. Bone
of our bone. Flesh of our flesh. Touched with
our infirmities. All right. He knows the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted as we are
yet without sin. Perfect, spotless, sinless. He knew what it was like to be
tired and weary. He fell asleep in the boat. Remember,
they're all like, what are you sleeping for? And he says, comes
up, and this huge storm, he just says, peace, be still. And the
storm just, it's like glass. He knew what it was like to be
tired and weary and thirsty and hungry. But he's God Almighty as well. And think of this, God's divine
justice is a frightening truth. I gotta finish up here quick.
God's divine justice is a frightening truth when it's first made known
to the believer. And by the convicting power of
the Holy Spirit of God, what happens when we see the justice
and law of God against us? We're gripped with fear, aren't
we? Oh, my. But then we learn, and we learn
that God must penish sin, that His holy justice demands the
soul that sinneth it must die, and the wages of sin is death.
Therefore Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God, dies in
the place of His people. What a great substitute. And
He does that because He loves His people with an everlasting
love. Everlasting love. And God's divine justice then
becomes a precious truth to all of God's born-again people. Because
we know it's the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that
has satisfied that justice in our place. My, what a great Savior.
Oh, what a great Savior our Lord is.