So Lord, may you graciously help
me, I'll turn your prayerful attention to the chapter that
we read, Genesis chapter 41, and the last part for a text
of verse 55. Genesis 41 and the last part
of verse 55. Go unto Joseph. what he saith to you, do. Genesis 41 verse 55, I'll read
the whole verse. And when all the land of Egypt
was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh
said unto all the Egyptians, go unto Joseph, what he saith
to you, do. Many of you remember when I was
with you a few weeks ago, we looked at this precious account
of Joseph who was hated of his brethren and loved of his father,
rejected of his brethren and sold into slavery into Egypt. who then was raised up to be
that deliverer of the whole region. The wisdom that God gave him
and the ability became a natural saviour for
the whole region and the surrounding countries around Egypt. And here I believe there's something
of a picture of what the Lord Jesus is to his people. How precious he is. Though he
was rejected, he came unto his own, and his own received him
not, yet he becomes precious. The Lord is my strength and song,
and is become. my salvation, become, and she
emphasised the word become. In other words, that that is
the work of God, to make Christ become our salvation. And Joseph
became the salvation, you see, of these brethren who hated him.
Well, when we spoke a few weeks ago, we spoke of Joseph passing
through those many trials in prison, revealing the dreams
of the butler and the baker, and then Pharaoh has these dreams,
and then The butler remembers Joseph in the prison, tells Pharaoh
and Pharaoh asks for Joseph to be brought before him and then
he is given that wisdom of God to speak those, to interpret
the dreams of Pharaoh. And Joseph then gives this strategy
to Pharaoh, tells Pharaoh what he needs to do. Look out a man,
discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. And then,
in the purposes of God, Pharaoh comes to the conclusion that
that man is to be Joseph. In verse 37 of the chapter that
we read, 41, Genesis 41 verse 37 and the thing was good in
the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. and
Pharaoh said unto his servants can we find such a man as this
is a man in whom the Spirit of God is you see the Spirit of
God they perceive that the Spirit of God was with Joseph and many
times we read that God was with him but the Spirit of God is
with him they perceive that and of course that was one of the
great truths about the Lord Jesus,
that he had the Spirit without measure. He was anointed with
the Spirit. And how Joseph here is a type
of pointing at the anti-type, the Lord Jesus, was one who had
the Spirit of God. And he spoke with authority.
You see, Jesus, when he was on the Sermon on the Mount, when
he came to the end of that sermon, they were, they were so surprised
because he spoke with authority. and not as the scribes and Pharisees.
And Joseph does not say, well, I think you could do this, or
you might do that, or perhaps you need to do that. He said,
this is what you need to do. There's an authority. And you
see, we have that in the Lord Jesus Christ, an authority. This
man spoke the truth. And Pharaoh says, and Pharaoh
said unto Joseph, for as much as God has showed thee all this,
and there is none so discreet and wise as thou art. Thou shalt
be over all my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people
be ruled. Only in the throne will I be
greater than thou. So Joseph was lifted up, you
see, from prison, a prisoner in Egypt, under allegations of
rape, to then be The second ruler of Egypt, and Egypt was the world
power at that time, a tremendous exaltation. And so we see in
this picture something, and of course a number of his brethren,
as far as his brethren were concerned as we go through the account,
they'd always come to the conclusion that he must have died. They'd
sold him as a slave and slaves didn't often live very long because
they were so mistreated, and in their view they probably died.
And of course, Jacob certainly thought that he died or had been
told that he died. And but you see, Joseph was yet
alive. There was, in a sense, something
of the resurrection here, a picturing of the resurrection, one that
was so low, was then risen to such a situation so quickly. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
see, I set thee over the land of Egypt. And he took off his
ring. A ring is often associated, you see, the signet ring. It
is an authority to sign letters. And Pharaoh gave Joseph that
authority. He'd just come out of the prison,
he didn't really know Joseph, but yet he gave such an authority
to Joseph. Promotion cometh not from the
east or from the west, but God setteth up one and putteth down
another. Joseph was set up by God, and
what a lift he had from being in the dungeon to being the second
ruler, and he was faithful to his God. And Joseph took off
his ring, sorry, Pharaoh gave him this ring, and then there
was this cry that went before him, bow the knee. He was to ride in this chariot,
and everybody was to bow down to Joseph. And how that was,
we read in the Philippians, and he hath given him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
shall bow. And you see here, this actually
took place in Genesis. But of course, really, in a sense,
with the Lord Jesus, this is actually yet to be revealed,
yet to take place. The whole earth is not bowing
to Jesus yet. There will come a time, and just
as certainly as these things came to pass in the life of Joseph
and his brethren, so certainly Christ will ultimately be seen
to be totally in control and totally in charge. And though
we see in our nation around us such an agreement to pull God
off his throne, to undo the basic truths of the word of God, and
to try and twist everything round that God has said. And yet, ultimately,
this truth stands, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall
confess. And as it came to pass in Joseph's
life, It will come to pass in the Lord Jesus that he will be
King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And that's something to lay hold
on. We can be so fearful with the power of the media and the
power of the society we live in. But ultimately, this is the
truth. Every knee shall bow. Every tongue
shall confess. And where was the Potiphar's
wife now? Where were his enemies now? You
see, they had to bow. They had to bow. The brethren,
they had to bow. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name
Zaphnath-paneah, which means a revealer of secrets. And he
was given this wife, Asheneth, a gentile wife. And we think
of the Lord Jesus as it were, he had that bride of Christ. She was to be of every kindred,
nation, tribe, and tongue. And we read in verse 46, Then
Joseph was thirty years old, when he stood before Pharaoh,
the king of Egypt, 30 years old. It's interesting that the Lord
Jesus, when he began his public ministry, was 30 years of age. He was just baptized and he was
going to begin that public ministry. He was going to serve. He came
as a servant king. And although we read that Joseph
was going to have the knee bowed to him, we don't read of Joseph
just living it up in that high position. He was put in that
position and he was going to use it for the good of the whole
nation, and indeed the good of his brethren. And Joseph was
30 years old, and when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt,
and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went
throughout all the land of Egypt, a position of power, a position
of authority. And what was he going to do with
it? And what influence was this going to have on his brethren?
Well, we read in the seven years of plenty, the earth brought
forth a handful and he gathered up all the food of the seven
years, which is in the land of Egypt and laid up the food in
city. So Joseph in these years, seven
years of plenty was really busy filling these grain stores with
grain so that in the years that were coming, which Was it not
God-given wisdom? They would have never known.
You'd just say, well, if you've got crops that are so plentiful
year on year, you'd say, well, we don't need great stores, because
every year is so plentiful. We don't need to store all this
grain. But God-given wisdom, with Joseph told them, yes, they
did. Because as much as there was going to be abundant harvest
for seven years, there was also going to be no harvest, or pretty
much nothing for another seven years. and Joseph gathered corn
as the sand of the sea, very much until he left numbering. It's interesting the way the
Bible puts things, for it was without number. As we think of
this corn that was gathered up as all the blessings that are
in Christ Jesus for his church, there comes a point you see that
they cannot be numbered. Physically, the Egyptians were
good at numbering things, but it's recorded here that they
were without number. They couldn't be numbered. And
how, when we think of what is stored up in Christ for his people,
it is without number. It cannot be numbered. The abundant
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the blessings that were down
to his people, down through a never-ending eternity of being with Christ,
which is far better. How can we put a number on those
blessings? Well, Joseph then was busy filling
these storehouses. And in verse 51, we read, and
Joseph called, sorry, we're told in verse 50 that he had two sons
born to him in the years of plenty. And Joseph called the name of
the firstborn Manasseh. For God said he hath made me
forget all my toil and all my father's house. You'd say that's
a strange name to call your son, forget, forgetting. You see,
we remember a number of times in the Word of God, we're told
to remember, thou shalt remember all the way the Lord has led
thee these 40 years in the wilderness. But here, Joseph is focusing
on this forgetting. Joseph was focusing on forgetting. What was he forgetting? Now,
as you go on in this account, it's very clear that he hadn't
erased from his memory bank his family or his sadnesses that
he'd been through. He was able to say later on to
his brothers, ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.
He had not lost the information about what those brothers had
done. So what was he saying then with his son Manasseh? For God,
Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God,
said he. See, everything with Joseph centered
around God, not himself. He hath made me forget all my
toil and my father's house. I believe here he'd forgotten
it was able to resolve the bitterness. The sadness, the deep grief that
it caused him in his father's house to be rejected by your
own brothers, have all 10 brothers of you ganging up on you and
selling you into slavery. You'd say, surely that's going
to cripple that man for the rest of his life. He's going to have
an inferiority complex for the rest of his life. That's going
to affect him the rest of his life. But it didn't. Because
God had made him forget his father's house and all his toil. You see,
God was able to lift him up and give him this. So every time
he saw his little boy Manasseh come to him, he was reminded
to forget. To forget these sadnesses. Not in the sense of deleting
a hard drive and never knew that it existed. I think perhaps this
is some insight into when we read that when the Lord forgives
our sins, he forgets them. Well, I remember no more and
he puts them as far as the east is from the west. But does that
mean that God doesn't really know what happened? Does it mean
that God doesn't really know what happened with David and
Bathsheba? But he's dealt with it, you see.
He's dealt with this. He's dealt with the anger and
the bitterness and the righteous anger of God against it. And
of course, he's dealt with it at Calvary. He's dealt with it
for his people in the beloved son. Manasseh, for God, saith
he, hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. And it's been pointed out that
you go from Manasseh to Ephraim. Manasseh, he was able to forget. And Ephraim, he was able to be
fruitful. And the two are not unrelated.
He was able to forget. You see, if you go around all
the time bitter because of something that's happened in your life,
some people that have been unkind to you, some circumstances that
have been very difficult, and Joseph had some difficult circumstances,
I'm not trying to belittle or undermine them at all. There
were very hard things that happened to Joseph, but God enabled him
to move on. And God enabled him to realize
that God was greater than all these things that come into his
life. And it's a wonderful thing in our lives You'll walk through
difficulties in your life and you'll have people against you,
you'll have people perhaps falsely accuse you, people that say the
wrong thing about you, which is not true. And what do you
do? Well, you can go around bitter
all the rest of your life and say, well, if it's because of
that person, therefore I've got a right to act in this way, but
Joseph didn't do that. Manasseh, for God hath said he
hath made me forget my toil in all my father's house, and the
name of the second he called Ephraim. For God hath caused
me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. Now that's
something else, isn't it? See, it's not just, well, all
these people have been unkind to me and these difficulties
have happened into my life, so I've just got to get through
somehow. No, Joseph goes beyond that. He says, God has made me
to be fruitful. I've borne fruit in those sorrows. The things that happened unto
me have fallen out rather to the furtherance of the gospel.
That's a different level, isn't it? It's not just a case of grin
and bear it. It's a case of God has used these sorrows for my
eternal good. For God has caused me to be fruitful. in the land of my affliction."
It's interesting that he doesn't say, when I was in the land of
my affliction, he's talking about it currently. You say, but he's
now the second ruler in the kingdom. He's not afflicted now. Joseph
still talks about it as the land of his affliction. He had a union,
you see, with his brethren, and he wanted union with his brethren,
and he didn't yet have it. He still was hated of his brethren,
he was still rejected of his brethren, he was still far off
from his brethren, and he felt it. You see, God has a love to
his people. He draws them, he wants them
with him, but yet, you see, they were yet far off. I seek my brethren,
and he was yet without them, for God hath caused me to be
fruitful. in the land of my affliction.
May that be if you're walking through difficulties in your
life and you say, well, all these things have come into my pathway
and it's not fair. These people have been totally
unfair to me. These circumstances have happened
and it's really, really, really bad what's happened to me. Joseph could have said that,
but he said, God, hath made me forget all my toil in my father's
house, for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of
my affliction. But then think of who Joseph
typifies. The Lord Jesus Christ. Where
was the Lord Jesus' land of affliction? It was this earth, wasn't it?
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, but it will be, it will be the song of the redeemed
throughout a never-ending eternity that we can sing of the fruitfulness
that came from the land of Christ's affliction. It was not just a case of the
Lord Jesus getting through his stay, on earth, it was of a case
of him bearing much fruit. And we think of Calvary, the
land of his affliction and the fruit that flowed from that affliction. You see, when Joseph was talking
to his brethren in Genesis 49, we have this, Joseph is a fruitful
bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches run
over the wall. The archers have sorely grieved
him. Don't think it was water off
a duck's back to Joseph. It wasn't just, well, you know,
these brothers, they don't like me, but I just carry on. He felt
it, but it didn't stop him being fruitful by God's grace. The archers have sorely grieved
him and shot at him and hated him, but his bow abode in strength. And the arms of his hands were
made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob. From thence
is the shepherd, the stone of Israel, picture of Christ in
the land of his affliction to be fruitful. And what fruit there
was, you see, he was building up these storehouses of grain
for those who hated him. When we were yet without Christ,
Christ, Christ died for the ungodly. He died for those who hated him.
And Joseph here was building up storehouses of grain, picturing
all the blessings that would flow to his brethren. And he
was doing it to those who daily were happy to be without him
and happy that he was no longer in their lives. Well, verse 53, and the seven
years of plenty that were in the land of Egypt ended, as Joseph
had said. Joseph, there was a truth, you
see, in what Joseph said. This was not just empty words.
There was indeed seven years of plenty, and there was indeed
coming seven years of famine. And you see, God was very merciful
to to Egypt, that Joseph was given this insight, and it's
the same. We think of Noah with his ark. God was given help for
Noah to build that ark, so that when the time came for the flood,
if the flood had come totally unannounced, then all of them
would perish. But you see, God knew that there
was a coming judgment. God knew there was a coming famine,
and he made a way of escape. And that's the gospel message.
He knows there's a coming judgment. He knows there's a day when the
Lord Jesus Christ will be the most important person in everybody's
estimation. Are you his or are you not? Are
you in Christ? How have we done on your behalf?
Or was it not? And that would be the one and
only important question. Have you an interest in the heavenly
Joseph? Or are you far off? And you see
this one whom they hated, despised, sold, lied about, and never wanted
to see again. It's a picture of the gospel. of the grace of God, how he was
busy filling storehouses of grace when they were busy hating him
and rejecting him. The seven years of Plenteous
ended and the seven years of dearth began. And then we read,
you see, and when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people
cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh doesn't have any
other answer than this. And Pharaoh said unto all the
Egyptians, go unto Joseph. No other solution. Go unto Joseph. What he saith to you, do. And
you see here that what we have, we think of it particularly at
the Christmas time often when we think of that lovely prophecy
in Isaiah 9. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder." You see the government for the whole of the land of
Egypt and the surrounding countries as well because they were dependent
on Egypt for corn as well. Everything was to one person,
that was Joseph. The government shall be upon
his shoulder. Joseph had failed on his calculations,
failed on what he'd said, then the whole region would perish. And if Christ failed on his accomplishment
that he accomplished in the land of his affliction, then the church
of God are finished. But you see Joseph didn't fail.
and the greater than Joseph didn't fail. He brought about, he accomplished
everything that was necessary for that salvation. Go unto Joseph,
what he saith unto you, do. And the famine was over all the
face of the earth, and Joseph opened all the storehouses and
sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in the
land. And all countries came unto Egypt,
to Joseph, to Baikon, because the famine was so sore in all
the land. So here we have the backdrop
of now, the tables are starting to turn. Now these brothers that
are back in the land of Canaan, they're getting on quite well
before. You see they're growing their own crops, they're satisfying
their own need. What do they need of their brother
in Egypt? What good is he to them? They can do without him. As far
as they're concerned, he's as good as dead. But you see, God
is going to turn things round, that those brothers far off in
the land of Canaan are going to absolutely need Joseph. And you see, that's the great
work, you see, of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit shows us
that we have a need of Christ. that all the storehouses that
he has stored up, in all his work that he's accomplished at
Calvary, we are vitally in need of. But you see, they didn't
think it to start with. And they come to start with thinking
that they can purchase that grain with their own money. They'll
do it all on a business transaction. They won't be at Egypt's mercy. They'll just do it with their
own money. They stand on their own feet. They don't need mercy. They just have some commerce
with Egypt, but that's all. But you see, God was going to
work and going to bring these these brethren to be utterly
at the mercy of Joseph. And you see, That's where God's
people need to come when they need mercy. It's not the fact
that, well, I'm quite rich and I can give this much to the cause
of God and I can pay my way through that. I can please God and God
knows that I've got a lot to give to him and therefore I can
pay him off. They couldn't do it. They couldn't
do it. In chapter 40, true now, when
Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his
sons, why do we look one upon another? And he said, Behold,
I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down there
and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. You
see, this was a matter of life and death. This was not a matter
of having the delicacies of the land. This was life and death.
If they continued in Canaan year after year without a harvest,
they would die. They needed to go to Joseph. They needed to go to Egypt. And
it's interesting here. Jacob can't understand his sons,
I think. Generally, the young people are
better connected with what's going on around the place than
the older people. Surely Joseph's brothers knew
that there was corn in Egypt. It didn't need Jacob to tell
them, did it? They would have known that there
was corn in Egypt. Why the reluctance? You see,
Egypt, Joseph, keep away. Surely wasn't there something
in their minds that said, we don't want to go to Egypt. Wherever
we get corn from, we don't want to get it from Egypt. Of course,
Jacob didn't have that. Jacob didn't understand the link
between Egypt and Joseph at this time. Well, in verse 3 of chapter 42,
and Joseph's 10 brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. To
buy, not to ask for, not to beg for mercy, but to buy. To buy. But Benjamin, Joseph's
brothers, Jacob sent not with his brethren, he said, lest peradventure
and mischief befall him. And the sons of Israel came to
buy corn. I think five times it says in
this chapter how they come to buy it. They were going to do
this as a business transaction. And you see when we come to purchase
salvation as a business transaction, we cannot. Grace is free. Those storehouses were to be,
yes I know to the Egyptians they were bought, but for Israel that
Joseph's Brethren, as you go through the account, they never
paid for this corn at all. Always the money was sent back
in the top of their sacks. They never paid it. Everything
was going to be at the bounty and the goodness and the mercy
of their brother Joseph. And Joseph's ten brethren went
down. And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among them that
came. And the famine was in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was
the governor over the land, and here it was that sold to all
the people of the land. Now here I think another way,
the Bible is written, it's strange the way it's written. You think
of it naturally, if you've got the whole of the land of Egypt
and everybody needing corn, could one person, Joseph only, sell
to all the people? And Joseph was the governor over
the land, and here it was that sold to all the people of the
land. You'd say, it's amazing that one person could do that
to all around the land. Surely it's not this also picture
and you see the Lord Jesus Christ. There was not many people to
go to if you were out of corn. There was one person. It was
Joseph. And we think of the heavenly
Joseph, he can answer so many prayers simultaneously, people
praying to him from all over the world. He can answer all
their prayers in an intimate and meaningful way. And Joseph
was the governor over the land. And here it was that sold to
all the people of the land. It's the way it's written. So
pregnant, I believe, in pointing to the greater than Joseph. Joseph
was a mere man, but the one he pointed to at was one who was
able to save unto the uttermost, one who was able to answer millions
of prayers simultaneously. And Joseph was governor over,
and here it was that sold to all the people of the land. And
Joseph's brother came and bowed down themselves. before him. So here we have the prophecy
of those dreams had come true. God is truth. You see God's word
is truth and just that this just as this prophecy came true that
the brethren bowed down to to to Joseph so the ultimate prophecy
will come through that every knee shall bow to Jesus You might
be sitting in chapel this morning, so I'm never gonna bow to Jesus
I'm gonna as soon as I get old enough. I'm gonna go my own way.
I'm not listening to this anymore Well the breath the brethren
thought they could sort Joseph out with his dreams They thought
they could see what would happen to his dreams. They'd sell him
off to Egypt as a slave He wouldn't last long there they thought
But you see, unwittingly, they were actually furthering the
very plan of God. And they were bringing to pass,
ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. Because Joseph
was to be in this position, you see, he's picturing one who would
be the king of kings and lord of lords, who every knee will
bow, and we need to lay hold of that. When we see the clouds
gathering against the church of God, there's so many things
spoken of that are so contrary to the word of God and to the
truth of God. That ultimately, God is God. And whatever the world do, whatever
unity there is amongst the nations, you look at Psalm 2, there was
such a unity there in Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and the
people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves,
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. Let us break their bands asunder
and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision.
And this, what we have before us in the account of Joseph and
his brethren, is the same proof that ultimately that will happen
in our lives. We will see all bowing down to
God. I don't know how it will all
happen, but that we know that it will. And may we realise that
that is the one that we need to honour. That is the one that
we need to spend our lives living to. This is the one who ultimately
is the one that we need to serve. And all the other idols will
be seen to be idols. There'll be seen to be vanity
and less than vanity and nothing. Well, they came. They came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
Prophecy had been fulfilled. God's word will stand. And Joseph
saw his brethren. He knew them, but made himself
strange or foreign unto them and spake roughly unto them.
He hid. his identity. He did not come
immediately clean as to who he was. And God does this sometimes
when we are seeking after God. You see, they were surprised. Why would this governor speak
roughly to them? Why did he not immediately show
them his love and mercy and grace? Well, you see, In Psalm 34, it says, the Lord
is nigh unto them that are of a broken and a contrite heart. You see, they hadn't got a broken
and they hadn't got a contrite heart. They were very happy with
themselves at this point. And he spake roughly unto them
and said, whence come ye? And they said, from the land
of Canaan to buy food. We don't want it on any mercy.
No, just to buy it. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the dream
which he dreamed of them and said, ye are spies. So Joseph
accuses his brothers as spies. And of course, if you're accused
as a spy nowadays, that's a very serious allegation and often
can result in death if you're caught spying for another country. It was a serious allegation,
ye are spies, but it's of course the allegation that they really
gave Joseph when he came to see how they did in the land of Goshen.
They treated him like a spy, spying out for his father, and
they basically wanted to kill him for that. Ye are spies. To see the nakedness of the land,
ye are come. And they said, nay, my lord,
but to buy food. They reiterate the fact that
why they've come. Are thy servants come? And now
they start to think, well, we'll give you some more information
to show our credibility. In verse 11, we said, we are
all one man's sons. We are true men. Oh, are you? True men. Thy servants are no
spies. See here, Joseph is, I think
it's picturing the work of the Holy Spirit that convinces of
sin. And Joseph was under God's hand,
seeking to convince these brothers of their sin. Not so he could
spread it on the front of the newspapers, so that all the Egyptians
could come along and say, oh, have you heard what Joseph's
brothers did to him? Had you heard how the governor
of the land of Egypt got to Egypt in the first place? That was
never the intention of Joseph. You see, that sort of exposure
of sin never is done in love to the person being exposed.
Never. But with Joseph, his exposing
of the sin of the brethren had a purpose of love and mercy for
those very brethren. And that is, I would say, totally
opposite to what you have in our media. In our media, when
somebody is being set before us with all the crimes that they've
done against us or against somebody, it's never with the intention
to build that person up and do them good, is it? It's never
with that intention. The person writing hasn't got
that aim. Joseph, you see, as he seeks to put his finger on
these things is seeking to do it for their good. And in just
the same way as our pastor was preaching last Sunday evening
on that woman by the well of Samaria, he said, go call thy
husband. And Jesus, you see, put the finger
on this woman's, one of the woman's sins of having five husbands,
and the one that she now had was not her husband. But he didn't
do it in a public audience so everybody could turn around and
tut-tut at her. He did it so that she could realise
that this man is the Messiah, and this is the one, and he did
that woman good. That woman went away loving the
Lord Jesus. When you write an account in
the local newspaper of somebody who's done something, is the
result that that person who it's written about goes out in love
to the person who wrote the account? I think not. You see, Jesus'
dealings with his people, he deals with sin that it may be dealt with properly,
not swept under the carpet, but dealt with. And of course, the
way really to deal with sin is to come to Calvary and to put
that righteous anger of God against sin on another, on his beloved
son. And you see, this is what Joseph
is doing. And they said, thy servants are
12 brethren. So now they give numbers. They
said, we're one of 12 brethren. And of course, this is going
to quickly expose them. The sons of one man in the land
of Canaan. And behold, the youngest is this
day with our father. They're talking about Benjamin.
And then what do they say in verse 13 of chapter 42? And one
is not. Oh, one is not. You're talking to the one that
is not. It's called Joseph, I'm Joseph. Do you see, they're exposing
their sin. And Joseph knew they were lying
at this point, didn't he? He knew they were lying. So Joseph
goes drilling further. And Joseph said unto them, that
is that I spake unto you, saying, ye are spies. Hereby you shall
be proved by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not go forth except
your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you and let him fetch
your brother, and you shall be kept in prison, that your words
may be proved, where there be any truth in you. Or else by
the life of Pharaoh, surely you're spies. And he put them all together
in war three days. Was that the very prison that
Joseph had been in? For three days to think about things? Oh,
they did some thinking then. This is some 22 years later than
they sold Joseph. But now they're doing some thinking.
And Joseph said unto them, the third day, this do and live for
I fear God. See, I don't know, it doesn't
seem that there was really godliness in these brothers of Joseph before
this time. They had been happy to deceive
their father and happy to pretend that it hadn't happened for these
22 years. If ye be true men, let one of
your brethren be bound in the house of your prison, and go
ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses. But bring your
youngest brother unto me, and so shall your words be verified,
and ye shall not die. And they did so. And then you
see we have this very interesting part in Genesis 42 verse 21. And they said one to another,
we are barely guilty concerning our brother. Do you see 22 years
of searing the conscience? Oh, we
won't mention that. We won't talk about that. But
22 years later, Joseph brought it to light. And you see, God
is able to bring our past transgressions Not so the public can tut at
us, but so that we become guilty before God. And this is a vital
importance, you see. They needed to become guilty
before Joseph. They needed to repent. And then
they would realize that actually Joseph was their greatest friend
and their greatest companion. And you see, there's a picture
here of sinners rejecting the Savior. We will not have this
man to reign over us. But you see here they come, that
famine. The famine caused them to come.
And you see, in our experiences, has there been a famine in finding
the world to satisfy you? Or you might say, well, the world's
got so many things to offer, so many pleasures. But it's a
wonderful thing if the Lord brings those a realisation of the emptiness
of all that this world calls good and great. A famine, a famine,
so that we cannot feed upon the foolishness of this world, the
lusts of this world, the pride of this world, but that we see
through it all and we see that this is empty. I need something
substantial. I need to deal with sin. I've
done this and I've got to get right with God. And you see,
it's a wonderful thing if we have to come to this one. Well, our text was go unto Joseph. This is the solution. Pharaoh
appointed all of Israel, all of Egypt, and of course the surrounding
countries, go to Joseph. That was the only solution. Government
was on his shoulders. You see, he was going to naturally
provide for their grain, but there's a picture here of something
of the greater than Joseph, who deals with his people in love
and mercy, and he's going to deal with them for their good.
He's going to expose their sin, not for the ridicule of the world
around them. And of course, when they came
eventually to be confronted that Joseph was their brother, he
to reveal himself to them all the Egyptians had to go out there
wasn't going to be the paparazzi taking photos of Joseph as he
as he makes himself known to his brethren no that was not
the point it was between them and him and you see Jesus deals
with his people personally to make them feel the exceeding
sinfulness of their personal sin, not to go tutting about
somebody else's sins on the front of the newspaper, their personal
sins, so the whole world is brought guilty before God, so that we
can seek our heavenly Joseph, so that he becomes exceedingly
precious. You see it was, he was in a position
of power. We read in Psalm 105 that he
could, just read that. The king sent and loosed him,
even the ruler of the people, and let him go free, and made
him lord of his house and ruler of his substance, to bind his
princes at his pleasure and teach his senators wisdom. Joseph was
in a powerful position. And what would he use that power
to do? Crush them? No, he didn't, you see. There's
a wonderful thing when you see the power of God. His ability,
his mighty hand. And yet he uses that power to
save his people from their sins. He uses that power to bring rebels
back to God. through the red sea of his own
blood. Well, may this then be precious to each one here. There is one solution. Go to
Joseph. Don't go anywhere else. Go to
your heavenly Joseph. This Joseph that we're reading
on, he's died. But the one he's pointing to
ever lives. He ever lives. to open those
storehouses of grace and to enable his people to live off of them
for eternity. And that's, you see, what a blessing
Joseph was to his brethren. He didn't hate them. He didn't
do any of these things against them. Because, you see, God had
given him this, Manasseh, for God hath made me forget my toil
in my father's house. He's forgotten the anger as it
were. The anger had been dealt with and how the anger of God
against his people has been dealt with at Calvary and therefore
there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
The fruitfulness of the land of the affliction of the greater
than Joseph has caused there to be a fountain open for sin. and for uncleanness. May the
Lord give you grace as he works in our hearts to see the preciousness
of Joseph. Go unto Joseph what he said to