and ask you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to the book of Genesis chapter 42. Genesis
42. As we've gone through this book,
as through all the scriptures, we need to be reminded often
that this book is inspired of God. God moved, the scripture
says, on holy men. Men made so by the grace of God. And they pinned as the Spirit
of God moved them to pin. The Spirit of God who moved upon
these men to pen these words speaks only of Christ. That's what the Lord said. When
the Comforter has come, he will testify of me. The gospel is concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. And except we hear his glory,
his honor. praise being given unto him.
And we're not hearing the gospel. We may be hearing history. We
may be hearing truth. But he is the truth. And so as
we look at this chapter 42, Lord willing, I'm gonna try to finish
this chapter tonight. Deal in verses 25 to 38. But coming up
to this point, we're gonna start 25, just a second, but Joseph
has been continuing to wisely deal with his brothers. Now his brothers are types of
the church. And how Joseph, who is a type
of Christ, is dealing with them is the Spirit's way in which
we're taught. of our need. We're born frail
creatures of dust. There's nothing in us that's
good. And here's Joseph dealing with
his brethren. Now, a responsibility was at
first given his brothers to choose one from the group, one of their
own. And at first Joseph told them,
he said, one of you is gonna have to go back and get your
younger brother and bring him back to me. And he did that to
prove them. He's going to show them something.
And that burden, that responsibility, to actually be the one that would
have the burden laid upon him. It's laid on me. Get Benjamin, bring him back
here. If I don't bring him back here,
all of my brothers are gonna stay in prison. Joseph had told
him, he said, if you don't bring your younger brother back, the
rest of you's not getting out. You're not leaving here, I'll
tell you that. He had the authority to do that. Man is born captive
to sin. That's what's set forth. Man
is born, we're in bondage, bondage to sin, bound in trespasses and
sin. And so Joseph gives him at first
that responsibility, gives him three days in jail to think about
it. Three days to mull that over,
and that was a grief to him. But then the scripture says,
in verses 19, 20, Joseph told him after the third
day, verse 18, it says, he said, this do, and live, for I fear
God, and he said this, if you be true men, let one of your
brethren be bound in the house or your prison. Go ye carry corn
for the famine of your houses, your youngest brother unto me,
so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they
did so. Instead of nine of them staying
in jail, one's gonna have to stay in jail. And instead of
the men, the brothers, the 10 brothers deciding who would be
the one chosen, Joseph chose the one that would be. There's
a picture of the father choosing. the surety himself, that's the
picture. He's gonna teach you, he's gonna
prove, I'm gonna show you something. And we're learning something
here by watching this story, reading this story, we're learning
how God mercifully deals with his own. So one man's going,
and he chose Simeon, but the point of the matter was Joseph
chose him, took the responsibility off. Aren't you glad that God
Almighty does not lay the responsibility upon us to assure or procure
our liberty out of prison. We can't do it, man. We're taught.
We cannot do it. We're frail. We can't do it. But now, Joseph, he hears his
brother speak in their native tongue, admitting their their
guilt, sorrow for what they had done. They said in verse 21,
they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning
our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought
us and we would not hear. Therefore, is this distress come
upon us? The Lord is going to bring his
people to admit what we are. The Lord
said, when the Comforter has come, he will convince this world
of sin. And that's what we are. We're
convinced. These men were convinced of sin. They knew, they knew
that they were wrong. We treated them with disrespect.
He pled with us. We sold him. We sold him. The Lord came unto his own. And his own received him not.
See that picture? We read these scriptures. We
start, we look and we're looking for Him. We're looking for Him.
We're looking for Him. Always looking for Him. Bringing
out the Lord's glory. And as he told, listened to his
brothers in their native tongue, they were speaking again in Hebrew.
They were Jews. And they're speaking in their
native tongue. And Joseph understands them. He's a Jew. They don't
know Him. They didn't know Him like we
didn't know Him. But oh, how beautifully, how
wonderfully he could hear his brothers brokenhearted, and it
broke his heart. He went off somewhere by himself,
started crying, came back, and that's when he's gonna send them
out. Here we pick it up, verses 25, 26. Then Joseph commanded
to fill their sacks with corn and to restore every man's money
into his sack and to give them provision for the way, and thus
did he unto them. And they laded their asses with
the corn and departed thence. Now, although Joseph had spoken,
the scripture says, roughly unto his brothers, telling them, you're
spies. You placed them in prison to
prove them. That's what he did, to prove
them. He gonna show them. That's how the Lord proves us.
We're proven by trials and tribulations. This faith that has been given
us is much more precious than gold and silver. It perishes. God's going to prove it. He's
going to test us. You're going to be tried. Your faith is going
to be proven. That's what he's doing. He's
going to prove these men that they are truly his brothers to
whom he's showing mercy. That's what he's going to prove
to them. But oh, the pain that they went through. as Joseph
wisely, led by the Spirit of God, to prove these men. He's
gonna show them, he's gonna show them in time. You know this story,
but isn't it beautiful? Just take it easy, just look
at it, just walk through it, just see how the Spirit of God,
he's gonna reveal himself to them in a few chapters. Oh, what a beautiful, beautiful
picture that is, When Joseph showed himself to him, told him,
he said, I'm Joseph, I'm your brother. I couldn't believe it. I don't get too far. He sends
him on. And he'd spoken, he'd spoken
roughly to him. In this world, we're going to
have tribulation. We're going to have trials, we're going to
have trouble. He'd spoken, but he did it in the time of their
ignorance, all tempered with mercy. They
didn't know him. Nine brothers would be traveling
back home. One of them is going to stay
in prison with Joseph. He's proven to them, he's showing
them the need of a surety. We're seeing that too. You can
see that so beautifully. You see that and you think, I
can see Simeon as a picture of our Lord, the one who's the guarantor. He's going to guarantee, this
is why you stay here with me, you nine go back. I'll keep you. But it was kindness, it was kindness.
Now, they didn't see it. But here, they're gonna be traveling
through the land, it's strange to them. There's gonna be some
problems, and Joseph is going to make sure that they're taken
care of. He's sending them back. And I
can only imagine them going back home. We're gonna have to face
Daddy. We're gonna have to talk to Dad. And I'll tell you what
they did. And they didn't even know it,
but they had Adequate provision. Adequate. Oh, do we not see the
beauty of our Lord who ever provides for his own. I couldn't help
as I was reading that right there. Think of the beautiful story
of when Hosea was taking care of Gomer. He married a harlot. The Lord told him, he said, you
marry a harlot. And that's what our Lord did. We had forsaken Him. We were
unfaithful, disobedient. But the Lord had everlastingly
betrothed us to Himself. In the story of Hosea and Gomer,
and I won't go into it, I'll just make this point and we'll
go on. He kept bringing her provision after provision after provision,
laying it at her doorstep, providing for her, and all the while she
was attributing all of that stuff to her lovers, my lovers did
this for me. And all the while it was Hosea that was taking
care of her, because he loved her. Now here's Joseph, he sent
his brothers, and they're going out, they're going back home,
they're gonna go back to where their dad is in Canaan. And they've
got their bags, they've got their provision that has been given
them by Joseph. And he's sending them on, and
it says in verses 27, 28, as one of them opened his sack to
give his ass for a vendor, in the end, he spied his money. For behold, it was in his sack's
mouth. And he said unto his brethren,
my money is restored. Oh, it is even in my sack, and
their heart failed them. For they were afraid, saying
one to another, What is this that God hath done unto us? Now, I don't doubt their dad
had taught them who God was. Their dad's name is Jacob. Jacob
was loved of God, taught of God. The Lord had led Jacob. And these men knew something
of the providence of God. What's going on here? Joseph
had all their money. Now the other nine didn't know
it. It only speaks of this one right now. But all their money
was put back in the sacks with the corn, with the feed for the
animals. And this one opened his sack
and he discovered, my money's here. Here's the corn and here's
my money. And they were afraid. That's
why it says they were terrified. He opened his mouth and he spied
his money. And he said, here it is. And
his heart failed him. He could only imagine. He was
fearful. He didn't know what to think.
This ain't right. Something ain't right here. Joseph
was divinely moved to restore the money Now listen to this. I only know of 10 men. The scriptures only speaks of
10 men that Joseph did this for. Scripture's silent concerning
anybody. A lot of people came to Joseph
to buy corn. And I don't doubt for one second,
I'm not gonna go any farther than the spirit of God reveals.
We don't do that. But it tells us that there was
10 men, nine men, I'm sorry, going back. In a few minutes,
we're gonna find out that all nine of them had all their money.
I know of nine men that speak of the church, the bride. Nine
men that shows us in picture and type the marvelous truth
of deliverance from the bondage and the debt of our sin by the
grace of God. Let me tell you the picture here. The bread of life himself can't
be purchased with silver and gold. Our own works was bought
by faith. These men came to buy corn. That was an honorable thing to
do. But Joseph was gonna prove something to them. Your money
don't buy my favor. Your silver can't purchase your
freedom. Joseph took care of it. The Lord
will provide. The Lord provides. How do we
purchase from him? By faith, without money, without
price. Listen to this, we've heard this,
Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. or you're saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. But here's Joseph's kindness,
his provision. But Joseph's love was misunderstood. It was perplexing to his brothers. Just as the Lord's sovereign
ways, providential ways, are often to us the objects of His
affection. His kindness, His mercy, His
compassion is often misunderstood before, even before He's revealed
to us in Mercy, even after mercy, before mercy, after mercy. Often
we don't understand. Their money was there and somebody
would say, oh great, I got away with this. Look what they did.
He messed up. They were scared. They'd been
dealing with somebody that they knew meant business. The man
that rules there in Egypt to these fellas, he got one of our
brothers. We got to bring the youngest
brother back to him. Brother, if we don't bring him
back, that brother's in jail, ain't getting out. And they're
perplexed how like Joseph's brothers that we are, because of a proud
heart of self-worth and self-centeredness, a heart that thinks that we're
obligated to pay our own way. Not only for the things of this
life, but for life eternal itself. But the Lord will not allow his
own to continue in that thought. Joseph was going to prove them.
He's proven something. Every step of the way, he's proven,
proven, proven his faithfulness to them. And it's scaring them. We're frail. We're kids. And
just something happens, and it's not what we think it is. And
we're fearful. What if? What if this? Yeah, but what if? How'd that
money get there? I shouldn't have that. What if
he discovers back there? Their heart failed them. The
Lord crosses the paths of His people with ways that are not
our ways. That did not compute with them. How? Something ain't right. Something
ain't right here. If you go down and you're obligated
to pay your taxes every year, and you make out a check, and
you send it back, send it in, send it in to the IRS, And all of a sudden, you realize,
check, the money didn't come out of your bank account. Something
happened. You still got it. You still got
the money. I'll tell you what I'm going
to think. I better get on the phone. I better call somebody,
because something ain't right here. And this ain't going to
go well. And I don't think the IRS is
going to understand. I've never known them to be understanding.
That's my opinion. They scared them. I mean, they
were plexed. Something's wrong here. Oh, here's
Joseph all the while, showing mercy to them in ways that they
just don't understand. The scripture says in verses
29 to 34, And they came unto Jacob their father, unto the
land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them, saying,
The man who is the Lord of the land spake roughly to us and
took us for spies of the country. And we said unto him, we're true
men. We are no spies. We be 12 brethren, sons of our
father. One is not. The youngest is this
day with our father in the land of Canaan. And the man, the Lord
of the country said unto us, hereby shall I know that you're
true men. Leave one of your brethren here
with me. Take food for the famine of your households and be gone.
Bring your youngest brother unto me. Then shall I know that you're
no spies, but that you're true men. So will I deliver you, your
brother, and you shall traffic in the land. That's the rules. That's the way it's gonna be. This is the way that Joseph has
laid down the law. And here we behold the account
that was spoken unto Jacob by his sons concerning their time
in Egypt. And they rehearsed exactly what
had happened. Therefore, for Jacob and for
the nine boys, we see another trial now. It's going to have
to be endured. You know, doesn't it often happen that as the Lord
brings us through this land. We're walking through a land
that the Lord has promised and promised. In this world, you're
gonna have tribulation. You're going to have tribulation. And it's like these fellas, they
go from one trial and one tribulation to another, another chastity.
I mean, here they are. You seem like you get a break and the
next thing you know, here's another one, here's another one. That
is the way, that's the way of a believer. The Lord has promised
us, why? Why do we seem surprised when
things befall us? The Lord's way is such that he's
not going to allow his people to be without trouble, trial,
tribulation, chastisement. If you be without chastisement,
And here's, I've told you before, I'm not talking about sickness,
everybody gets sick, but I mean the chastisement of our soul,
in the cleansing of our ways, the washing of our feet. Let
me tell you something, when the Lord by his mercy and grace is
washing our feet and cleanses, he's revealing to us what we
are. And we see it, and it's a chastisement. It's like when Joseph was approached
by Potiphar's wife, Tried to seduce him. Remember his answer?
How can I do this? How can I do this to God? I can
do it to your husband. How can I do this to God? I can't
do this. No, it's a trial to God's people
always. And they're found to be in these
providential troubles. But what it does is it drives
us to Christ. It drives us to the Lord. David said, I've said so many
times, David said, it's good that I've been afflicted. It's
good, it's good. It's good that I've been troubled.
That I might learn of his statutes. Oh, how blessed we are. We tried
to be proven and delivered. I mean, we see the deliverance
of the Lord and we just, we thank you, Lord, thank you. Thank you
for your mercy. Rest assured, we're not going
to find in this world, I'm telling you, whether it's sickness, whether
it's age, whether it's whatever you want to call it, I'm telling
you right now, we're not going to find any undisturbed, continual
rest until we eternally rest in his presence. That's right,
Annie Neal. That's right. You're not going to do it. we're
going to be troubled. I'm telling you, every time I
get out of a chair now, I'm thinking, oh man, I used to be able to
get out of a chair easier than that. I think I'm starting to,
I think I'm starting to get older, I think. I mean, it's just, it's
just the weight of this, of this world. It's just, this is a place
of trial and tribulation. Tribulations though, that are
sent. from the hand of him that will
only do us good. Only do us good. All things work
together for good. Verses 35 to 38, it came to pass,
as they emptied their sacks, behold, every man's bundle of
money was in his sack. And when both they and their
father saw the bundles of money, look here, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said unto
them, me, have you bereaved of my children? You've made me childless,
is what that means. You've made me childless. Joseph
is not, Simeon's not, and you'll take Benjamin away. All these
are against me. And Reuben spake unto his father,
saying, slay my two sons. If I bring him not to thee, deliver
him into my hand and I will bring him to thee again. And he said,
my son shall not go down with you. For his brother's dead and
he's left alone. Mischief befall him by the way
in the which ye go, then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave. After Jacob's sons had told their
story and their stay in Egypt, we don't have to imagine what
was going on in the mind of Jacob. The Spirit of God moved upon
Moses to pin what was going through the mind of Jacob. His boys have come back, but
not all of them. One of them's gone, been gone for years, assumed
dead. He told his boys, You've bereaved of my children. All these things are against
me. I looked up the literal of what he was saying. It says they
all come upon me or because of me. Again, I'm not going to presume. I just wondered. I'll just tell
you this is just a wonder of my own thinking. Did he think
back of what had happened? when he received the blessing?
I don't know. But his wording is all these
things are against me and it means or come upon me or because
of me. Brethren, how ready have we all
been to think that same way in the midst of disappointments,
afflictions. I can assure you that it's not
because of wrath, all the wrath of God was spewed out for the
people of God upon the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of God's anger, all the anger,
the wrath of the law, the justice of God was spewed out upon him. Chastisements, trials, and corrections,
which are all for our good and mercy, God's mercy toward us. God corrects us. But there's no condemnation to
them that be in Christ Jesus. But Jacob is suffering. And the Lord is causing even
Jacob. Jacob's one of the Lord's only.
Jacob's suffering. These boys are suffering. They're
watching their daddy suffering. They're hurting now. This is
a mess. This is a mess. Then one of the boys, Reuben, spake unto his father, saying,
Slay my two sons. If I bring him not to thee, deliver
him into my hand, and I'll bring him to thee also. Jacob answered,
and he said, My boy ain't going. Now, I want us, in closing, I
want us to just consider very briefly, and I'm gonna end on
this, on that comment that was made by Reuben concerning, I
read many, many commentaries, and I looked to make sure I knew
what Reuben was saying, and here's exactly, he said just exactly
what you think he said. Slay my two sons if I bring him,
Benjamin, not to thee. Let Benjamin go with us. And
if I don't bring Benjamin back, you can kill two of my boys. And of all the writers that I
read, I can truthfully say, well, there's two opinions on what
Reuben was saying. Some say that it was one of the
most rash and improper things that could ever be said. I can
see that. Some say that Reuben's promise
was made from the heart of sincere commitment to his dad for Benjamin's
life and safe return even to the giving of his own sons for
failure. I can see that. But there's something that I
read in this that seemed in my heart, to bear witness to my
heart. And again here, the Spirit of
God doesn't say anything, doesn't condemn Reuben for what he said,
doesn't say that. But there was something that
said, not only right here, but in the next few verses. And all
I wanna do is I wanna just read the first 14 verses of chapter
43. I just wanna read them. And before
I read them, I wanna say this one thing. Whenever Reuben talked
to his dad and said, if I don't bring Benjamin back, you can
take two of my boys. There's four. You can take my
two sons, take two of my boys, and you can kill them. And with
that promise, Jacob said he ain't going. He ain't going. But then there was a promise
made, and Lord willing, I'll read this tonight, and we'll
close. Lord willing, I'll deal with these verses that I want
to read, but I want you to hear something. There was another
promise made. Jacob concerning the return of
Benjamin. And it was made from a man named
Judah, one of the brothers. And I want you to hear what he
said. And with his promise, Jacob said, take the boy. I'm going to tell you the conclusion
of what I'm going to say. Then I'm going to read scriptures.
Reuben, the first one, his promise to Jacob, his daddy, was to give
him the best that Reuben could produce. Reuben had two boys. He said, I'll give you the best
that I can produce. Jacob said, he ain't going. But
there was another boy named Judah. He said, I'll pledge myself. I'll pledge me. And Jacob said, you can take
him. And if you don't see the picture of the glory of Christ
in that, the best that a man can do ain't gonna cut it. But that pledge of himself, I'll
be surety for the boy. Now let's just read those first
14 verses, then I'll stop. Genesis 43, verses 1 to 14. And
the famine was sore in the land, And it came to pass, when they
had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their
father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food. And Judas
spake unto him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us,
saying, You shall not see my face, except your brother be
with you. If thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down
and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send him,
we will not go down. For the man said unto us, you
shall not see my face except your brother be with you. And
Israel said, wherefore dealt you so ill with me as to tell
the man whether you had yet a brother? And they said, the man asked
us straightly of our state and of our kindred, saying, is your
father yet alive? Have ye another brother? And
we told him according to the tenor of these words, could we
certainly know that he would say, bring your brother down?
And Judah said unto Israel, his father, send the lad with me.
We will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we
and thou, and also our little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we be lingered surely
now, we had returned the second time. And their father Israel
said unto them, if it must be so now, do this. Take the best
fruits in the land, in your vessels, and carry down the man a present,
a little balm, a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and
almonds. Take double money in your hand,
and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sex,
carry it again in your hand. Peradventure, it was an oversight.
Take also your brother and arise, go again unto the man and God
Almighty give you mercy before the man that he may send away
your other brother and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children,
I am bereaved. I pray God bless this to our
hearts for Christ's sake.