I'll ask you to take your Bibles
and turn with me to Genesis 37. Genesis chapter 37. I'd like to look at verses 18
through 22. The brothers of Joseph, because of Jacob's love for Joseph
and because of the God-sent dreams that Joseph has not only had
but shared with his brethren, caused his brothers to hate him. They hated him. But their hatred for Joseph speaks
not only of their personal resentment that they had toward their brother,
but it reveals the heart and that awful hatred of mankind
toward Almighty God because of man's fall in the garden. Every,
every person born into this world hates God. They hate him. The carnal mind is enmity. It hates God, that's the very,
that's the heart, that's the basis of sin. Man hates God. And these brethren of Joseph,
they've gone to tend some sheep in a place called Shechem. And
Jacob, their daddy, we looked at this, this is where we closed
last time. Daddy is going to send Joseph to go check on his
brethren, Jacob's sons, find out how they're doing, consider
what their state is, and bring me a report back. Let me know
how they're doing. And the very picture of beauty
of Christ is seen whenever Jacob told Joseph, his son, and Joseph,
you know Joseph knew his brothers hated him. They could not speak
peaceably to him. They couldn't do it. They hated
him so badly they had no peaceful word for him. They were just
sarcastic. They just hated him. And you know he knew that. He
knew that, and Jacob knew it. But look at the willingness of
Joseph. When his daddy told him, he said,
in verse 13, the last part of it, it said, Israel said unto
Joseph, do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? He said,
I want you to come, I'll send thee unto them. And here's what
he said, here am I, here am I. And you know, you think, of the
willingness of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know that the Lord
knew the attitude of his people. As they're born in Adam, he knew,
he knew, he knew. I mean, in man's fall, omniscient
God knows. But here at the command, everlasting
command of the Father, concerning that covenant of grace, that
he would send the Lord Jesus Christ into this world, call
his name Jesus, he'll save his people from their sins. And he
came into this world to seek and to save that which was lost. And he loved them, he loved them. And he knew, when he came into
this world, he knew the attitude that they would have toward him. But in sending those, that son,
Joseph, to go find out how those brothers
were doing. Look at the mercy of God. Moses said, show me your glory.
I will have mercy and compassion on whomsoever
I will. I'll have mercy. Here are sinners,
everlastingly loved of God, Now herein is love. Here's love. Not that we love him, but that
he loved us. All together unlovely is us. That's love. That's love. You
know, and I know, when someone is resentful toward us and they
can't have a peaceable word toward us, and they just, every time
you talk to them, it's just sarcastic. I just, I just rather not be
around you. Be honest with you. I'll just be honest with you.
I just don't want to be around you. Get the mercy of almighty
God, who predestinated, predestinated people unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will. And then entrusted the Lord Jesus
Christ, the willing servant, coming to this world, made like
unto his brethren without sin, laid down his life for him, died
for him, redeemed him. Spirit calls him out of spiritual
darkness. This is what John chapter 6,
verse 37 to 40, this is what the Lord said, The Father's sending
him into this world. Again, like I said, you have
to understand something. He didn't come into this world
and be surprised at how they were gonna act toward him. He
knew what they were gonna, he knew he'd come into his own and
his own would receive him. No, he knew that. John 6, 37
to 40, all that the Father giveth me, shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down
from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that
sent me. And this is the Father's will,
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
And this is the will of him that sent me. Every one that seeth
the Son, which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have
everlasting life. and I will raise him up at the
last day. So as Joseph was pursuing his
brother, and that's what he's doing. He's gone to pursue his
brethren, and he's going towards Shechem. Last Jacob heard, they
were going to Shechem. And so the scripture says in
verse 15, and a certain man found him. And behold, he was wandering
in the field. And the man asked him, saying,
what seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren.
Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man
said, they are departed hence, for I heard them say, let us
go to Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren
and found them in Dothan. Now, I read that past the scripture
last week. And as I began to think on that
passage of scripture, I began to see something that I thought
was a real blessing to me. You know that Joseph, without
hardly an exception, except for the one I'm getting ready to
bring out, is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a picture,
he's a beautiful picture of Christ. And as I told you last time,
we're gonna go, Lord willing, through the rest of this book
And it's going to be the story of Joseph and how Joseph, as
a picture of the Lord, delivers his people. And he was raised
up second in command in Egypt, and everybody had to come to
Joseph. And all his brethren are going to bow down to him,
just like Joseph's dream had set forth. But we find here,
Joseph is on his way as the willing, submissive son unto his father. And a certain man, now we're
not told who this certain man was. But from the scriptures,
we're looking at this book as a type. It's a declaration of
the gospel. If we look at it, it's only history
again. I've said that so many times.
If you just look at this as history, what difference does it make
if it's just history? It's just a story of a man and
his family. It just appeared as though they
were so dysfunctional, and it was just everybody was mad at
each other, everybody else, and they're just lying, cheating,
and they're gonna murder their brother. I mean, it's a bad situation,
but this is a story of how God saves his people. And here's
Joseph, and he's doing what his daddy told him to do. He's out
there, and he's going after his brethren to find them, and the
scripture says that while he's going, a certain man, found him. And behold, he was
wandering, that Joseph was wandering in the field. Now here's where
I saw Joseph as a picture of God's servants, the preachers.
He's always a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. But I can
never say of it, could I look that word up? That word wandering
right there, it means to err. It means to wander about, it
means to just He's out there in a field. Now he's doing what
his daddy told him to do. He's going after his brethren,
but in this spot, I saw a picture of Joseph out in this field,
wandering, walking in the light that he had. He's going after
his brothers, but he don't know where they are. And that certain
man there, I saw that certain man as a picture of God's spirit. And here's this certain man,
type of the Lord's spirit, and he gives direction, some guidance
to Joseph, this willing servant. And the certain man asked him,
he said, behold, he said, what seekest thou? What are you seeking?
And Joseph tells him, I seek my brethren. And you know, this
is what God's people are called to do. I'm walking in the light
that I have. This is the light that I have.
I am to seek the Lord's guidance. I'm to seek out a passage, pray
about it, ask the Lord's direction. Lord, give me understanding into
this. And what I'm doing, I'm looking, Brian, I'm looking for
God's sheep. That's what I'm doing. I'm looking
for God's sheep. I know that the Lord has a sheep. I know
he's got a people. But I don't know who they are.
Jacob, I mean, Joseph, he was wandering. And it does, it means
to err. What it meant that he was walking,
but he didn't understand. And I don't understand. I walk
in light that I have, but I see in part, I prophesy in part. I preach what I know. I walk
as I'm being directed, seeking the Lord's direction. And I'm
looking for the people of God. And the man told him, he said,
they've departed hence. I heard him say, let's go to
Dothan. And Joseph went after his brethren. He followed after
the light that he had. And those that are led by the
Spirit of God, they're the sons of God. There's times that we
seek the Lord's direction and we just have to believe that
God Almighty is going to order our steps, the steps of a good
man. They're ordered by the Lord.
So I looked at that passage of Scripture and I thought, what
a blessing. Like Joseph, I'm walking in the
light and you are too. You that know him, you're walking
in the light you got. But you don't know, I mean, we
don't know everything and we wait on the Lord to give us some
direction. So here is this willing son,
this willing son of Jacob and he's going after his brethren
and this certain man tells him, he said, Dothan and he went to
Dothan and he found him. God's going to cause his gospel
to cross the paths of his sheep. God may have to send a Philip
in the desert to cross the path of an Ethiopian eunuch that's
going to be out there. I wonder what, I wonder what
Philip thought when he just Went out into the desert. Felt impressed
to go out into the desert. God had sent him. Who are you
going to cross paths with? But he comes across this Ethiopian
eunuch. And the Ethiopian eunuch is sitting
up his chair and he's reading in the prophet Isaiah. And Philip asked him, do you
understand what you're reading? He said, how can I? Let some
man tell me. Explain it to me. No, I don't
understand it. Have you ever found yourself,
you read a passage of scripture, go over to the Proverbs and read
one of them. Read one of them, and then try to, but then if
by the grace of God, the Lord is pleased to give a man some
light on it, and he preaches the light he's got on it, and
you hear it explained, and you think, okay, yeah, I see that. That's it, this is, Joseph was
wandering, What are you looking for? I'm looking for my brethren.
I'm looking for my brethren. We're looking for God's sheep.
They're in Dothan. And he found them there. They're always found
there. But then it says in verse 18, and here he's coming after
his brethren for their welfare, for their good, sin of their
dad. And it says in verse 18, and
when they saw him afar off, even after he came near unto them,
I'm sorry, even before, He came near unto them. They conspired
against him to slay him. And they said one to another,
behold this dreamer cometh. I mean, can you detect the sarcasm
there? Behold this dreamer, my marginal
reading says this master of dreams. Come now therefore and let us
slay him, cast him into some pit. and we will say some evil
beast has devoured him, and we shall see what will become of
his dreams." Now, here we clearly see the animosity of all men. I mean, this is, I can tell you
this through the rest of this chapter right here, chapter 37,
that's what you're going to see on and on and on. You're going
to see that just the hatred and the resentment and the animosity
that these brothers have toward Joseph. And without a cause. Without a cause. That's what
said of the Lord Jesus. They hated me without a cause. What cause did the Lord Jesus
Christ give any of us to hate him by nature? Nothing. He did nothing. Nothing. What did Joseph do? He told them
what he dreamed. Told them what he dreamed. God
gave him that dream. He told them what they dreamed.
And they hated him. They hated him because of his dreams. They hated him because of daddy's
love for him. And they see him coming afar
off. As soon as they saw him afar
off, even before he came nearer to them. Now the thing I saw
in that was that they saw him afar off. even before he came near, that
is to recognize him. But you know what they saw? They
could see that coat of many colors. Because I can tell you this,
before this chapter's over with, they're gonna take it, they're
gonna strip him of it, they're gonna put blood on it, so he's
wearing it, he's wearing it. So here they see him, they see
him afar off, even before he came near, and they recognize
the coat, And that was the attitude of the Lord Jesus. Whenever he
was healing a man on the Sabbath day, Matthew 12, 14, the scripture
says, then the Pharisees went out and held a council against
him, how they might destroy him. All they wanted to do, was kill
him because of what he said. But yeah, which miracles he asked
him one time, which one do you want to stone me for? Oh, it's
not because of what you did, no, what you said, what you said.
You know why they hated him? You know why they hated him?
Oh, they saw him afar off. They conspired against him. They
said, behold it, the dreamer, the dreamer. Let's just take
him now and slay him, and then we're going to see the end of
verse 20. Let's see what will become of his dreams then. You
think we're going to bow down to you? You think that we, and
mom and daddy too, you think we're all going to bow down to
you? Who do you think you are? The attitude of man by nature
is this. I'm not going to have this man
rule over me. I'm gonna have my will, I'm gonna have my say.
That's the way all of us born in Adam, all unconverted, we
hate the Lord. And I'll tell you this, whenever I looked at this thing
in this light too, the scripture says they saw him afar off even
before he came near. Now again, what they saw, they
could see that coat But let me ask you this, you that know him,
think back on what your thoughts were. I can tell you, I've told
you, I've shared with you before what my thoughts were when I
heard of God's sovereignty before the Lord revealed himself to
me. I heard, I heard it, I heard it. I heard that God elected
a people. I heard that God has mercy on
whomsoever he will. People say, you know, that he
laid down his life only for the sheep. I heard that. And I'm
telling you what I thought about that as I saw him, perceived
him with old eyes, carnal eyes. I tell you what I thought about
that. That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard in my life.
When I would see him afar off, before he ever came near to me
in mercy, before He ever came near to me. They saw Him and
they had resentment toward Him. Because what I heard concerning
what these truthful men were preaching concerning what I heard
with an unrenewed heart angered me. It made me mad because it
put me in a position that I was very uncomfortable with. I didn't
like that. I didn't like what was being
said because you're telling me that what I was placing my trust
in was a lie. That's what you're telling me.
When they saw him afar off, even before he came near unto
them, they conspired against him to slay him. What he decided
they'd do, we're gonna kill him. Then we're gonna tell him at
a wild beast. We'll tell daddy. We'll tell
daddy that a wild beast got him. So here they're going to kill
him, but consider as a picture of Christ. Consider what the
Spirit of God moved on Moses to write in Genesis chapter 6,
5, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. They could not say one good,
peaceable, kind, considerate word about him. I couldn't. Hatred
had just consumed them. They were murderers. They were
murderers in their heart. Liars at heart. We'll kill him. We'll throw him in a pit. And
we'll say an evil beast got him. And we're done with him. When
they nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to the cross, Don't you know
that those that hated him wagged their heads? Saved others, can't save himself. How true, how true. Not redeem
his people, he's gonna die for them. But they hated him and
couldn't wait to nail him to that cross. But according to
the good pleasure of God, verse 21, 22. And I'll stop with this
second verse here. Reuben heard it. After they said,
we'll slay him, cast him into a pit, we're gonna say an evil
beast have devoured him, we'll see what will become of his dreams.
That'll end that, that'll end that mess, I'll tell you right
now. Heard it. He delivered him out of their
hands. And he said, let us not kill him. Reuben said unto them,
shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness,
and lay no hand upon him, that he might rid him out of their
hands to deliver him to his father again. Now, according to the
good pleasure of God, and remember, if we ever lose sight that we're
watching this beautiful type, of our precious Savior. We see
the resentment that Joseph's brothers has toward him. We see
the resentment toward the Lord Jesus Christ. We see this Joseph
searching for his brethren. We see God sent preachers searching
for his brethren, directed by the Spirit of God. We see that
they see him afar off. That's how we all saw him. And
he saw him afar off and he saw that coat and that coat right
there sets forth the love of the father and all the glorious
attributes given all power given unto the son that he should give
eternal life. Everything was bestowed upon the son and men
hated him right there. Let's kill him. Let's kill him.
Crucify him. Crucify him. But here's Reuben. He hears what's going on. And
he said, now wait. You know, let's don't kill him. Let's don't kill him. Let's just
take him and put him in a place, don't lay any hands on him. He
did that to deliver him, but you know, I think about how Reuben,
and there was no difference in Reuben. Reuben, he was one just
like him, but the scripture says, Proverbs 21.1, the king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. as the rivers of water, he turneth
it whithersoever he will. Reuben's thoughts exhibited a
desire to show some mercy toward Joseph, but obviously it was
the will of the Lord that turned Reuben's heart to save what he
said. God Almighty was going to send
Joseph into Egypt, he's gonna get there. Lord willing, we'll
consider everything he went through to get there. All the troubles
and trials, pictures of our Lord's suffering. Tempted in all points
like as we are. Wait till he gets into Potiphar's
house. You know what's gonna happen, but he's tempted in all
points just like yet without sin. But here we see the will
of the Lord. The will of the Lord preserved
Joseph. Wasn't Reuben. Reuben was the
means. Reuben was the mouthpiece. He,
the Lord, worketh all things after the counsel of his own
will. So it wasn't Joseph's appointed time to die. Let's kill him. Let's kill him. Take him. Tell him an animal
got it and it'll be done. was going to be sent as a picture
of our glorious Lord in the redemption and salvation of his family.
He must be exalted into the land of Egypt. His brothers are going
to have to come to him. They're going to bow down to
him, and they're going to receive sustenance for him. But likewise,
when the Jews would conspire to take the Lord up, turn to
John chapter 7. when they would conspire to take
the Lord and kill him. They wanted to kill him. Oh,
they just, they were looking for a good time. John chapter
seven, verse six to nine. The Lord's telling his disciples,
the world cannot hate you. Me, it hateth, because I testify
of it, that the works thereof are evil. Go ye up unto the feast. I go not up yet unto the feast,
for my time is not yet full come. When he had said these words
unto them, he abode still in Galilee. And then turn over to
John 8. John 8, verse 56 to 59. John 8, 56. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then said the Jews
unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen
Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. When they heard him say, I am,
they knew what he said. Before Abraham was born into
this world, I'm God. I am, that's what he told Moses.
You go tell Pharaoh, I am that I am. It's when the children
of Israel ask you, who sent you? Verse 59, then took they up stones
to cast at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple,
going through the midst of them, and so passed by. His time was
not yet come. His time was not yet come. They
wanted to kill him. They wanted to throw him off
a mountain. They wanted to slay him. They just, time after time,
and he passed by. His time was not yet come. He's
going to go to the cross. The scriptures are going to be
fulfilled. He's going to lay down his life willingly. No man
is going to take his life from him. I lay down my life. I have power to lay it down,
I have power to take it again. Oh, the blessedness of this glorious
type picture, this story, showing how God saves his people, delivering
his own through one that was hated by him, and all the while,
the willing servant that loved him, in obedience to his father's
command, to save his family. from what's going to be a desperate
famine. I pray God bless this to our hearts for Christ's sake.