Turn with me again to Genesis
chapter 43. I was thinking about all that
Joseph did to break, to bring, and to convict his brothers of
their sin. Bring them to where He could
and would reveal Himself to them. It's just amazing. We've seen
that for several weeks now. Yet it's even more amazing all
that our Lord does and did to break and bring and convince
us of our sin and bring us to Him. I love what Paul wrote in
Galatians chapter one, verse 15 and 16. He said, but when
it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me. Separated by God's
grace before I was ever conceived, before I was ever born. And then
in time, God called me by his grace. Why? To reveal Christ
in and to me. And it's still amazing to me. In our lesson tonight, we'll
see one more thing that Joseph does to accomplish his will and
purpose concerning his brothers. We're gonna read a fair amount
of scripture tonight, so let's get right into it. Last week,
we saw that Jacob finally gave in and trusted his son Benjamin
into the hands of the surety Judah. And in Genesis chapter
43 here, verse 11, we read, and their father Israel, that being
Jacob, said unto them, that being his sons, if it must be so now,
do this, take of the best fruits in the land in your vessels and
carry down the man a present, a gift, a little balm and a little
honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds and take double money
in your hand. And the money that was brought
in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand. Per adventure,
it was an oversight." Now, Jacob tells them to take the money
that they took the last time and also take new money to pay
for what they were going to get this time. I was thinking to
myself, men and women by nature just, Don't want free handouts. It's much harder to receive than
it is to give, isn't it? Verse 13, take also your brother
and arise and go unto the man and God Almighty give you mercy
before the man that he may send away your other brother. And
that's speaking of Simeon who was still captive in Egypt and
Benjamin. And then in the margin here,
it's a little easier to read, but what Jacob says here is,
and I, as I have been, am bereaved of my children. Verse 15, and
the men took that present, that gift, and they took double money
in their hand. And Benjamin took him and rose
up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. And when
Joseph saw Benjamin with them, He said to the ruler of his house,
bring these men home and slay, slaughter an animal and make
ready for these men shall dine with me at noon. And the man
did as Joseph bade and the man brought the men into Joseph's
house. Now I want you to notice in particular
verse 18, and the men that being the brothers were afraid. because
they were brought into Joseph's house. What were they afraid
of? Well, you know, Matthew Henry
said this about this verse, and I find that so true. He said
that men and women who are convicted and feel guilty in their own
conscience of their sin always seem to think the worst about
everything. When men and women are truly
convicted of their sin, they always seem to think the worst.
Why is that? Well, I know how it is with me. They're afraid that they'll get
what they really deserve. I don't want what I deserve.
But remember that mercy is God not giving us what we deserve.
And I'm so thankful for that. In verse 18, and the men were
afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house. And they
said, because of the money that was returned in our sacks at
the first time are we brought in, that he may seek occasion
against us and fall upon us and take us for bondmen in our asses. And they came near to the steward
of Joseph's house and they communed with him at the door of the house
and said, oh, sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy
food. And it came to pass when we came to the end, and this
is speaking of when they were on their way back home the first
time, that we opened our sacks and behold, every man's money
was in the mouth of his sack and our money in full weight.
And we brought it again in our hand. They're paranoid about
this, so they immediately begin to make excuses as to why this
was the case. And then in verse 22, they say,
in other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food.
We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. Now, I want you
to notice here what the steward, the servant over Joseph's house
says in verse 23. And he said, peace be to you,
fear not. Your God and the God of your
father hath given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money."
And he wasn't lying there. He did have their money, but
he gave it back to them and he didn't tell them. And then he
brought Simeon out unto them. Simeon's been in prison all this
time, at least I think that's where he was. Now, I thought
about that verse here in verse 23, and boy, isn't that the message
that God's servants preach? Isn't that the gospel that the
Holy Spirit reveals? Peace be unto you. This is the
gospel of peace that we preach. Peace be unto you. Don't fear,
don't be afraid, don't be scared. We preach the gospel of peace.
Believer, your God has given to you a great treasure. That
treasure is Jesus Christ, and He's paid your debt in full. God has received full payment
for your sin. God's holy law has been satisfied. His holy justice has been appeased
for you. In verse 24, and the man brought
the men into Joseph's house and gave them water, and they washed
their feet, and he gave their asses preventer, they provided
the, the provisions for their donkeys, and they made ready
their gifts for Joseph, for they knew he was coming at noon, and
they heard that they should eat bread there. And when Joseph
came home, they brought him the present, the gifts, which was
in their hand, into the house, and bowed themselves to him,
to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare,
and said, is your father well? The old man of whom you spake,
is he yet alive? And they answered, thy servant,
our father is in good health. He is yet alive. And they bowed
down their heads and they made obeisance. And that's a gesture
of respect and reverence. In verse 29, and he, Joseph,
lifted up his eyes and he saw his brother, Benjamin. When I read that verse again
this morning, I was quite moved. Do you know why? Well, I couldn't
help but to think about Christ lifting his eyes upon me with
love and affection. Last week, I mentioned that Benjamin
was Joseph's only full-blooded brother. Rachel and Jacob only
had two sons, that's Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel died giving
Benjamin birth, if you remember. And at the time of last week's
study, I hadn't considered the significance of that, but I thought
about it a lot since then. Joseph and Benjamin had the same
mother and father, as I said. They had the same blood running
through their veins. They were equals. They were one. And what a picture that is of
Christ and His people. In Genesis chapter 35, Benjamin
was born a son of sorrow. Matter of fact, that's what Rachel
named him. She named him Benoni, meaning
son of my sorrow. And I was thinking about the
Lord Jesus Christ. He became a man of sorrows for
His people. Jacob, as you remember, changed
his name to Benjamin. Benjamin means son of my right
hand. To where was Christ our Lord
exalted? To the right hand of God, the
Father. Like Joseph and his brother Benjamin,
child of God, Christ and his people are one. One. What a glorious thought. His
righteousness is now ours. God's elect people are partakers
of the holy calling, partakers of the Holy Spirit, partakers
of God's amazing grace. In Christ, we're one. What He
has is ours. Partakers of spiritual things,
partakers of the benefit of God's mercy and grace, partakers of
Christ's divine nature. partakers of Christ's holiness,
partakers of His inheritance. I'm now a joint heir with the
Lord Jesus Christ. All that is His is now mine.
Do you suppose that after Joseph revealed himself to his brothers,
do you suppose that Benjamin ever wanted for anything? No, sir. And we'll see that Joseph
saw to it that Benjamin received more than the rest of his brethren.
May God enable us to believe his word. That's what this book
teaches. He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, for all his people, for all his
elect, how shall he not with Christ, with him, freely give
us all things, all things. And again, verse 29, and he,
Joseph, lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his
mother's son, and said, is this your younger brother of whom
you spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious
unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste for his
bowels, Joseph's compassion within, that's what that means, did yearn
upon his brother. And he sought where to weep and
he entered into his chamber and he wept there. Joseph was so
moved with compassion upon seeing his brother, to and for his brother,
that he had to get up and leave so that they wouldn't see him
weep. Many times in the scriptures
we read where our Lord being moved with compassion. moved
with compassion. My, isn't that amazing that God
would be moved with compassion towards the likes of you and
I. Verse 31, and he washed his face and he went out and he refrained
himself and he said, sit on bread, let's eat. And they sat on for
him by himself and for them by themselves and for the Egyptians,
which did eat with them by themselves, because the Egyptians might not
eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the
Egyptians. And they set before him the firstborn
according to his birthright and the youngest according to his
youth. And the men marveled one at another." Now they didn't
sit down this way on their own, he set them down this way. And
so much so that they marbled one another. They must have thought
to themselves, how did he know? How did he know who's the oldest
right on down to the youngest? Well, he's yet to reveal himself
to them. And verse 34 says, and he took
and sent messes unto them from before him. But notice this,
but Benjamin's mess, Benjamin's food was five times so much as
any of theirs. and they drank and were married
with him. You know, I hear people say things today like, you know,
God's not fair. Well, that's not God because
that's not fair. God has never claimed to be fair.
God shows favoritism and he has the right to. He has the right
to. And I believe that even Joseph's
favoritism here was a test to see how his other brothers would
react. Would they be jealous of Benjamin as they had been
of him? Oh, when his father gave him a coat of many colors, they
hated him. You can bet that Joseph was watching
them closely. He's keeping his eye on them.
How are they responding to this favoritism, this act of love
and compassion? May God enable us to be content
with what we have and not envy at what God has graciously given
others. We have Christ. How could we
ask for any more? Now, in chapter 44, verse 1,
we read, and he, that being Joseph, he commanded the steward. And
I don't know if you have a marginal Bible, but a steward here is
one that was over his house. And he commanded the steward
of his house, saying, fill the men's sacks with food, as much
as they can carry, and put every man's money in his sack's mouth. Now, I was thinking to myself
upon looking at this, what a vivid picture we have here of the Holy
Spirit. Christ sent the Holy Spirit to
be over his house. He commands the Holy Spirit to
do some things. The Holy Spirit fills a believer's
heart with food, the food of God's word. Christ said, I will
send the comforter. He's gonna comfort her. He'll
teach you all things. He'll bring all things to your
remembrance that I've said to you. And the Holy Spirit gives
the believer all that they can carry. And two things come to
mind there. First, David said in Psalm 139,
he said, if I could count God's blessings, but he couldn't, there
are too many. He said, if I could count God's
blessings, they'd be more in number than the sand. Blessings
more than we can carry. carry, all that we can carry.
And secondly, I thought about God being so faithful that He
will not allow or suffer His people to be tempted above what
they are able to carry. He gives us all we can carry,
but not more than we can carry. Just kind of threw that in for
you. And then the third thing, God will not accept anything
that we bring to Him for acceptance. That's been a theme over and
over, especially in this last couple of chapters. God puts
all our efforts, all our works, all our attempts to pay, represented
by the money Joseph's brothers brought back in their own sacks. You see, God's love, mercy, and
grace, and redemption, it's free. It's free. Come buy without money,
without price. Mr. Toplady wrote way back in
1763, and it's still true today. He said, in my hand, no price
I bring. We can't buy what God freely
gives us. We simply, to Christ's cross,
we cling. Now in these verses, we're gonna
see the gospel of substitution. We're gonna see something of
how the innocent one is found guilty, and the guilty ones are
allowed to go free. Look at verse two. Joseph said,
and put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest,
and his corn money. And he, being the steward, did
according to the word that Joseph had spoken. Now we're gonna see
In these verses before us, what may seem to be a bit deceptive
on the part of Joseph, but we've got to remember that all that
Joseph does here is for the good of his brothers. In Romans 8,
28. God does all things. He works
all things together for the good of his elect people, doesn't
he? Those who are the called according
to his purpose. Everything that Joseph does here
is according to his own will and purpose. And I immediately
think of Ephesians chapter one, verse 11. Now in our story tonight,
Joseph pictures God the father and Benjamin pictures God the
father. the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Joseph Stewart, the one
who's over his house, the one who I believe very well pictures
the Holy Spirit, does only according to the word that Joseph has spoken. That's very important. Everything
in this world happens according to God's will and purpose, according
to his omnipotent word. Whatever God says, it comes to
pass. So remember, this story's about
redemption. This story is about substitution. Benjamin is innocent. He had
no part in his brother's sin, his brother's sins against Joseph.
He wasn't there when they threw him into that pit. He wasn't
there when they sold him into slavery. And have you noticed
that really up until now, there's very little said about Benjamin.
Where was he all this time? Why, he was with the Father.
He was with the Father. And I can't help but to think
about that verse in Proverbs that says, then I was by him
as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, speaking
of the Lord Jesus, rejoicing always before him. Benjamin was
with the Father. Christ was always, in eternity
past, if I can use that term, was with His Father. Now the
innocent one, stay with me, Benjamin, he's going to be held responsible
for a wrong that he did not commit. That's what we have in these
verses tonight. Now listen to this statement
closely. I'm being very deliberate when I make it. Benjamin, the
innocent one, is going to bear the guilt of this cup, of this
cup. The guilty ones, Joseph's brothers,
are going to be set free. Now that's the gospel, that's
the gospel. Let's look at it, verse three.
And as soon as the morning was light, the men, the brothers,
were sent away, they and their asses. And when they were gone
out of the city and not yet far off, Joseph said unto his steward,
up, follow after the men. And when thou dost overtake them,
say unto them, wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good? And
in verse five, we see that Joseph instructed his steward to say,
is not this, speaking of Joseph's cup, is not this cup in which
my Lord drinketh, is this not his cup? And whereby indeed he
divineth, ye have done evil in so doing. Now many believe, let
me just say this because of that word divineth there, that simply
means telling the future. Many believed, and Joseph even
let them believe, we'll see this in a future study, that he used
this cup in the telling of the future. It had some kind of a
significance in that. And verse six says, he overtook
them and he spake unto them these same words. Isn't that what the
Holy Spirit does to God's people? He overtakes them and he speaks
unto them the word of God. In a sense, he arrests them This
steward did, like the Holy Spirit, arrest us by His grace. I remember
a song that Brother Ed Hale wrote years ago, when something like
mercy said, arrest that man. And that's what God's mercy does,
it arrests us. And in verse seven we read, and
they said unto him, wherefore saith my Lord these words? God
forbid that thy servant should do according to this thing. They
said, behold the money which we found in our sacks, Mouse. We brought again unto thee out
of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out
of our Lord's house silver and gold? Now here is what they're
saying. God forbid that we would do such
a thing. We brought back the money from the last time and
we brought double. Why should we steal silver and
gold from your master when we have our own silver and gold? And doesn't that picture man's
self-righteousness? And I'm telling you, they're
so self-confident of their innocence that they actually put a death
sentence on the one who has the cup. Now look at verse nine. with whomsoever of thy servants
it be found." Speaking of that cup, they said, one of you has,
that steward said, one of you has stolen my master's cup. And
he said, they said, with whomsoever of thy servants it be found,
both let him die, and we also will be my Lord's bondmen. If you find the cup among us,
Let the guilty one die, and in addition, all the rest of us
will become your prisoners. That's what they're saying. And
in verse 10, he and he, Joseph's servant, Joseph Stewart said,
now also let it be according unto your words. He with whom
it, that being the cup is found, shall be my servant, and ye shall
be blameless. He said, the one that's got the
cup, he's going to be a prisoner. He's going to be my servant.
But the rest of you are blameless. Did you hear that? I mean, did
you really hear that? The one that has the cup is guilty. The one that has the cup is guilty.
The others are considered blameless. That's substitution. And they're
so confident here of their innocence. We read in verse 11 that they
speedily took down every man's sack to the ground. They take
their sacks off their donkeys and they opened every man's sack.
And he searched and began at the eldest. The steward started
going through their sacks, starting at the eldest and left at the
youngest. And notice these words, verse
12. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Now let's talk about this cup
for a moment. This was Joseph's cup. It was a silver cup, denoting
great worth and value. I think about what is written
in John chapter 18. We're told of the cup of judgment. This was God's cup. whom Joseph
rightly pictures here. The night our Lord was arrested
and was falsely accused, tried, and punished, he accepted God's
cup. He knew that this was why he
came. In the process of his arrest,
you'll remember that Peter, he's trying to defend our Lord with
a sword. And he takes out his sword and
he cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant. And the Lord
Jesus looked at Peter and he said, put up your sword. Put
your sword up. And then he said this, this cup,
which my father hath given me, shall I not drink it? Shall I
not drink this cup? He had just told the soldiers
moments before, if therefore you seek me, he said, let these
go their way. Let these go their way. The cup
was given to Benjamin who represents the Lord Jesus Christ. It was
given to him by Joseph who represents God the Father. And this cup
our Lord was to drink was given to him by the Father. And this
is the cup of judgment. In Matthew's account of Gethsemane,
the Lord Jesus said, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even
unto death. He said, Terry, you hear and
watch with me. And he went a little while further
and he fell on his face and he prayed saying, oh my father,
if it'd be possible, let this cup, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou will. But see friends, it was not possible. It was not possible that this
cup of judgment to be taken away. Why? Because of His people. He drank that cup of judgment
dry for His people. And it was the Father's will
that He drank it. And he drank it dry, and it was
the Father's will that he appease the holy justice of God. Christ drank the cup of judgment
dry for us. Now, there's a cup that we drink
also, but it's not this one. We drink the cup of salvation.
David said in Psalm 116, I will take the cup of salvation and
call upon the name of the Lord. We drink a cup of joy. Psalm
23, you know the Psalm well. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over. We drink the cup of salvation.
We drink the cup of joy. We drink the cup of thanksgiving.
When we take the Lord's table, we drink the cup of thanksgiving. The Lord said this cup is the
New Testament in my blood. This do ye as often as you drink
it in remembrance of Me." It's thanking the Lord. It's remembering
Him and thanking Him for His broken body and His spilled blood.
Now, the innocent one, that's what we're talking about. The
innocent one is made to be guilty and the guilty are set free. The innocent one, the Lord Jesus
Christ was made to be guilty because he was made to be sin
for his people. He didn't have any sin or guilt
of his own. He knew no sin, the scripture
said. But he was made to be sin for his people. And in this,
he became guilty. And he alone drank the cup of
judgment for his people. He was the only one who could
satisfy justice and justify me. He's the only one that could
satisfy the justice of God and justify you. He was made to be
sin for his people because God's people must be perfect to be
accepted. We say that all the time. I'm
hoping that it'll penetrate through these thick heads of ours sometime.
The innocent one, the perfect one, took our sin upon himself. God's holy wrath, God's judgment
and justice, like a consuming fire, fell on him. It should
have fallen on us. Do you remember when Elijah challenged
the 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? He told those false prophets
to call upon their gods, and he would call on his God. And
he said, the God that answers by fire, let him be God. The God that answers by fire
is the true God. You remember the story, don't
you? It's in 1 Kings chapter 16. I'd recommend that you read
it again. So the prophets of Baal, they
prayed, all 450 of them. Boy, they put on a show. Religion
puts on a show, doesn't it? They cried very loudly to get
their God's attention. They even cut themselves until
the scripture says their blood gushed out. They prophesied and
they preached all day long. And there was, the scripture
says, there was neither any voice or any answer. If you'll remember,
even Elijah began to somewhat mock and make fun of him. He
said, well, maybe your God's on vacation. Maybe your God is
in the restroom. And when they finished with all
their hoopla, we're told that Elijah repaired the altar of
the Lord. You see, it hadn't been used
for a long, long time. And it came to pass at the time
of the offering of the evening sacrifice that Elijah the prophet
came near and he said, this was his prayer, he said, Lord God
of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, I've been Jacob. Let it be known this day that
thou art God in Israel, and that I am thy servant, and that I
have done all these things at thy word. He said, hear me, O
Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord
God, and that thou has turned their heart back again. And then
the scripture says, then the fire of the Lord fell. Oh, can you imagine what a sight
that was? and it consumed the burnt sacrifice,
and it consumed the wood, and it consumed the stones, the 12
stones that he put around that altar representing the 12 tribes
of Israel, and the dust, and it even licked up that water.
You remember they poured all those barrels of water around
the sacrifice, and it just sucked all of it up. All of it that was in the trench.
And when the people saw it, the scripture says they fell on their
faces and they said, the Lord, He is God. The Lord, He is the
God. And there was nothing left of
Elijah's sacrifice and offering unto the Lord. And when the fire
came down, it consumed everything and nothing was left. You remember
that? But there was another time when
the fire of God's wrath and judgment came down. But it wasn't on Mount
Carmel. It was on Mount Calvary. That
time, it was a different outcome. That time, the fire didn't consume
the sacrifice. The sacrifice consumed the fire.
Did you hear what I said? That time, the sacrifice consumed
the fire. And that was when Christ drank
the cup of God's wrath and judgment dry. Dry. Now God is no longer angry with
His people. God's judgment was exhausted
and extinguished on the innocent Son of God as He drank the cup
dry. And the guilty ones? All God's
elect found innocent. Let these go their way. Let these
go their way. They're made the righteousness
of God in Him. He was made to be sin for us
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Now here's the
lesson and here's the gospel. The innocent is found guilty
and the guilty go free. Now, we'll see next time Joseph's
brothers, along with Benjamin, they returned to Egypt. They
had no choice in the matter. They had to return. They were
arrested, so to speak. They're going to have to answer
to Joseph on this thing of the stolen cup. Now, I don't want
to get ahead of myself, but I do want to show you this. In verse
17, When they returned to Egypt, Judah is pleading with Joseph. Remember who Judah is? He's Benjamin
Surety. And he's pleading with Joseph. And they still don't know who
Joseph is. And Joseph says this, look at
it, verse 17. He said, the man in whose hand
the cup is found, he shall be my servant. Joseph knew whose hand that cup
would be found in. He's the one that told his steward
to put it there. You see, God determined whose
hand his cup would be in. Do you see that? Do you see the
picture here? God said, Jesus Christ, my righteous
servant, behold, my servant whom I uphold, mine elect. Christ
is God's elect. We're electing Him. Behold my
servant, whom I uphold mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. He said, I put my spirit upon
him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Now
let me ask you this. Do you believe that Joseph delighted
in Benjamin? Well, you know he did. He delighted in Benjamin. Well,
what about the sinful, wretched, devious, envious, and jealous
brothers? Look what Joseph says to them
in verse 17. And as for you, you wretches, get you up in peace
unto your father. Get you up in peace. Go on home
in peace. Go back to your father. The guilty
go free. The innocent one is condemned. The guilty go free. That's the
gospel. That's the good news of substitution
and redemption. And I tell you, God's people
are like Rebecca. We ask God's servant over and
over again, would you tell me one more time about the Son?
all that way home from that faraway land back to Jacob. I can just
see her and Eliezer by the fire. And she says, Eliezer, would
you mind telling me one more time about Isaac, the son? Tell me again how wonderful he
is. Tell me again about his eternal wealth and glory. Tell me again
how he was willing to sacrifice himself. Would you tell me one
more time? That's why we sing that song,
Tell Me the Story of Jesus. Write it on, write on my heart
every word. And I'm telling you, friends,
if you'll ask him, he most certainly will. He'll reveal himself to
you. To those who desire to know Christ,
he'll make sure that you do. He never turned a needy soul
down, not once, not one. What a story, huh? What a gospel! What a God! What a Savior! As
the Lord gives us eyes to see, we rejoice in the things of Christ.