Let's be turning to Genesis chapter
41. Joseph has the authority of Pharaoh
to build out the storehouses and to fill them up against the
day hunger, the time of famine that's coming. And so today,
at the end of this chapter, is where we'll be, and we'll see
that Joseph, he lays up all that's necessary. He puts in the storehouses
everything that is necessary against that coming day of judgment,
when the famine comes. and the people are hungry and
have no food, that's when Joseph will then open the storehouses
and give to the people out of the storehouses to satisfy their
hunger. So he lays it up in preparation
for what the people need to give them salvation, to save them. And so at this time, when in
these first seven years, this seven years of plenty, It's a
good time in Egypt. It's a good time. The people
are planting, they're sowing, and they're reaping abundant
harvests, big, large harvests of food. And it says in verse
47, and in the seven plenteous years, the earth brought forth
by handfuls. And that's just a way to say
that there was an abundance. You know, some years when you
plant a garden, there's too much rainfall, like this year is pretty
tough. Other years, there's too little
rainfall. Some years you get diseases,
you're battling diseases in certain plants. There's blight and all
kinds of, there's rots and dark spots on the bottom of them.
Other years there's bugs and infestations and pests eating
your tomatoes and things like that right off the vine. But
that wasn't happening now. Everything was coming to full
term. good fat harvests, and they were
bringing it in by the handfuls, just reaping in abundantly. Verse 48, Joseph gathered up
all the food of the seven years, a complete time of perfect time,
all that was necessary, to lay up everything that was needed.
For seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up
the food in the cities, the food of the field, which was round
about every city, laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered
corn, as the sand of the sea, very much until he left numbering,
for it was without number." And so the people here, they're looking
at this and counting themselves blessed. I don't know what Pharaoh
or Joseph or somebody said. If any announcement was given
to the people or somewhat of an announcement, I don't know
what they did know or didn't know. But while they're enjoying
their harvests, And Joseph's taking 20% and he's laying it
up in the silos. The picture here is that Joseph
is laboring diligently. The people are enjoying themselves
and Joseph is laboring diligently to lay up in store all that's
needed against that coming day. When these seven years of plenty
come to an end, whether it be 70 or 80 years for us, We have a day coming when we'll
stand before the Lord in judgment, and we need a provision of righteousness
for ourselves. Well, that's the picture here.
Joseph is laboring diligently. He's ensuring that the storehouses
are built. When the food is harvested, he's
making sure that the grains are properly dried sufficiently so
they don't mold in storage. And he's laying them up. He's
putting them up there in the storehouses. And additionally,
everything's above board. The people can see it. It's all
transparent. They see exactly what he's doing.
He's not hauling the grains away to another city. Wherever that
food was grown in the areas around about, he put it in the silos
of that city. And you think about just the
trust and the confidence that those people had. You know, when
there's times of famine in the world today, when the people
find out that the government's still letting that food that's
grown there be shipped out, they get angry. And they start making
a ruckus about it. Well, all that food wasn't going
anywhere else. It was being stored right there before their eyes.
They could see it all. And it speaks to the testimony
of our Lord. When he came in the flesh, it
was a time of abundant religion. There was lots of religion. There
was an abundance. You could go to any corner into
the synagogue that was there, and you could hear the law read,
and you had abundance of religion. There was teachers, and there
was phylacteries, and people walking around in robes, and
everybody looked religious, and everybody was happy. But our
Lord Jesus Christ was laboring. He was suffering and bearing
the load to lay up in store, in the storehouses of grace,
an abundance of things that the people need for their salvation. He did that. He did that for
his people. We see a picture in Joseph, and
the scriptures tell us that our Lord went about the cities and
the villages teaching in their synagogues, preparing them. laying up in store in their hearts
and minds preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He was healing
every sickness and every disease of the people. And all that time,
he's laying up, as it were, a righteousness for his people, bearing our sins,
bearing our iniquities, bearing our infirmities for the people
in order to fill the storehouses of grace that we would survive. His people would survive the
coming judgment day. And so during that time of abundance,
our Lord's laboring, laboring to satisfy the just demands of
the law, which was against us, to put it away. Paul wrote to
the Galatians saying in Galatians 4 verse 3, even so we, when we
were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world,
except we don't really know the breadth or the depth or the height
of the righteousness that God requires. We come forth in ignorance
and with no understanding, in darkness, shut up in prison. We don't really understand how
holy and righteous God is. And we think that the little
things we do is good enough. It's going to survive the day.
It's going to survive the blast of the fiery furnace. We'll be
all right. We'll be all right. It's like
the Israelites who made a covenant with death and said, we're all
right. We've made a covenant with death.
We've taken care of these things. We'll be good. No, we won't.
No, we won't. We need a perfect righteousness
of which we know nothing about in ourselves. And so thankfully,
one who does know what we need, one with wisdom that far exceeds
our wisdom, the wisdom of God, the wisdom of understanding,
he came and labored and laid up in store the grace we need
and and the full sufficiency of a perfect righteousness that
we need to stand before holy God and so in the fullness when
the fullness of time has come God sent forth his son made of
a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law that we might receive the adoption of sons praise the Lord
we would be adopted into the family of God and not because
of something we did, but all because of what our Savior did
in grace and in mercy for us. And so, as the provisions made
by Joseph were both necessary and sufficient against that day,
and he had the authority of Pharaoh to do it, it pictures Christ. This is a picture of what our
Lord would do when he came. Peter, when he was preaching
to Cornelius in Acts 10, the Gentile, he said how that God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth. He was anointed with the Holy
Ghost and with power, meaning he had the authority to do what
he was doing, who went about doing good. and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him." It was
all above board, all perfect under the law, all just and righteous
and holy, and filling the storehouses for the people against that day,
for our salvation. Now, during this time of plenty
in the land, while Joseph's laboring diligently for the people, we're
told this in verse 50 and 51. And unto Joseph were born two
sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath, that's his
bride, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bear unto him. So the famine had not yet come.
This is still in the time 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." Now, these toils
here that Joseph was bearing, this is going back to the time
when he was a son in Joseph's house with his brethren, and
this is going back to how they hated him. They couldn't even
stand to hear him talk. They despised him and rejected
him. And these toils of Joseph were
occurring about 1,700 years, 1,700 years before Christ came,
a good amount of time. And we've seen how everything
that Joseph endured, there's a correlation to our Lord and
what he suffered, the toil that he labored and what he did for
his people. And so it's outlining all that
our Lord would endure as well for the people. Let's go over
to Isaiah 53 for a bit. Let me just show you a few scriptures
here. Isaiah 53, and we're gonna pick up in verse three, where
we see something of what Joseph endured for us. Isaiah 53, verse 3, he is despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised and we esteemed
him not. And looking at Joseph, 1,700
years before our Lord. And then hearing Isaiah record
this, and this is about 1,000 years after 900, 1,000 years
after Joseph, about 700 years before our Lord would come, and
he's writing this. And we see how There's these
scriptures are telling us of Christ, therefore telling us
of what he would suffer for his people to give us an understanding.
Cuz it's so hard for us to enter in to what Christ did for us. It's hard for us to really enter
in the suffering that he bore. But for whatever reason, we can
understand a little better when we think about Joseph. and how
his brethren just mistreated him, and wouldn't hear him, and
just hated him, and were jealous of him when he spoke, so that
finally he goes out under the word of his father, obediently
to seek the welfare of his brethren, who then seeing him afar off
say, we should do this kid dirty. We should really teach him a
lesson. And they threw him in a pit. And they didn't kill him,
but what they decided was, hey, the Ishmaelites are coming by.
Let's sell him into slavery. That'll be good. That'll show
him. And while I'm sure he was protesting, brethren, what are
you doing? He gets up out of the pit, and he sees the Ishmaelites,
and he sees the last of the pieces of silver being dropped into
Judah's hands. And off he goes in shackles.
wearing irons. I mean, how cruel against his
cries for mercy. Brethren, don't do this. Don't
do this. And yet they sold him off to
shut their ears, close their bowels of compassion against
him. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten
of God, and afflicted. God doesn't care for him. God
doesn't hear him. And it pictures the rejection
of our Lord from Israel, who rejected him, even though he
went about doing much good. and bearing the infirmities of
the people, and laboring for our good. And so then we see
Joseph. He's in Egypt. And he's laboring
diligently. And what happens? He's doing
good. And an adulterous woman accuses him of adultery. And
Joseph goes to prison when she should be the one going to prison.
She should be the one put to death for her adultery. She's
the one committing the crime, and yet she's accusing him of
committing it. And what happened to our Lord?
He was faithful in all he did, and yet he was charged with blasphemy. And who was blaspheming? Not
Christ. The Jews were blaspheming. They
were the ones guilty of the crime, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. And the point is, he suffered.
This is a picture of his suffering for us. He's bearing the suffering
we deserve for our iniquities, for our sins, for our transgressions,
for our trespasses against God and all things. And yet he's
the one bearing the suffering, not us. You see that picture
there? He's the one suffering in the
stead of his people. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes we are healed. And so everything that Joseph
went through, all that he suffered, all his toils and his laborings,
has brought him right to where he needed to be. That's the other
thing we see here. everything necessary that needed
to occur for our salvation, Christ was put perfectly where he needed
to be. And we see with Joseph, who all
these things worked out perfect, that this man with this wisdom
was cast into prison where he would interpret the dreams of
the baker and the butler so that when this all occurred, Pharaoh
would hear from the butler, hey, there's a man that can tell you
everything about what you just dreamed. He'll interpret it for
you perfectly. You'll understand the mysteries
of God. And that's what we're hearing,
that there's a savior. The Son of God come in the flesh
and He makes known, He reveals to the people the mystery of
God. That there is coming a day of
wrath against us for which our righteousness will not endure
that day. We're gonna perish in the way.
We're gonna die of starvation for righteousness against that
day. But there's a man, there's a
God-man mediator whom the Father had sent and wisdom and righteousness
to justly lay up for us, who justly laid up for us in the
storehouses the measure of grace that we need, the perfect amount
of grace that we need to endure that coming day of famine, of
judgment, of fiery judgment, which will test our works. And our works will be found to
be wood, hay, and stubble. And we all know how quickly that
stuff burns. It won't last. A perfect judgment,
seven years of judgment, perfect, a complete judgment, they won't
endure it. But he who brings the gold and the silver and the
precious stones, the Lord Jesus Christ, that endures. That's
what we need is his righteousness. And so our Lord did this. We
see in verse 6 of Isaiah 53, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so we can't save ourselves. We can't work a perfect righteousness
to endure that. But the Father has provided the
Savior. The Savior that we need, we need
a perfect salvation, and Christ provides that. So, our Lord Jesus
Christ is the faithful one. Now, at the end of Isaiah 53,
it says that, like Joseph here, where Joseph says, I've forgotten
everything. In other words, I see now what
the Lord has done. And I see the benefit and the
exaltation of my God and what he's done here to put me here
so that all my toil, all my suffering is nothing in comparison to what
the Lord has done here to save much people alive. And so it
is that our Lord says the same thing in Isaiah 53, 10, he shall
see his seed. He knows You, who are His beloved,
His chosen, elect sheep, given to Him by the Father before the
foundation of the world, so that He willingly went to that cross,
being rejected of the people, and went to that cross, nailed
to a Roman cross, bearing the sin and the shame of his people,
laboring and suffering what we deserved, and put it away perfectly,
satisfied the justice of God so perfectly that we go free. He bore it to set his people
free and to give us an inheritance in himself to satisfy us against
that day of famine and judgment. And so he seized the travail
of his soul, verse 11, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities." And so Joseph here, he sees it, and Joseph called
the name of his firstborn Manasseh, for God said, he hath made me
forget all my toil and all my father's house, no comparison
of the two. And then Verse 52, in the name
of the second son, he sees the prosperity of his labors. His
second son he calls Ephraim, for God hath caused me to be
fruitful in the land of my affliction. And so there's no comparison,
and he sees the prosperity of his labors. He sees it's fruitful.
It's accomplished what I was sent here to do, to save much
people alive. And Joseph, having accomplished
that work, all that he said now comes to pass. And we read in
verse 53 and 54 back in Genesis 41. And the seven years of plenteousness
that was in the land of Egypt were ended. There's coming a
day. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after that, the judgment. Plenteous years are going to
come to an end, and then we're going to stand before the Lord.
And the seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph
had said, and the dearth was in all lands. But in all the
land of Egypt, there was bread. And this is where we, brethren,
now, when we're brought into that dearth, when the Lord mercifully,
graciously, on this side of eternity, makes us to feel the dearth,
the famine, the emptiness of ourselves and our works now,
to know our need of grace, our need of salvation, our need of
His sufficient Savior. He makes us to know that. And
so we now are made to see in grace the fruitfulness, the plenteousness
of His sufferings and what He has laid up in store, in the
storehouses of grace for the people. And so a famine approaches. The night's coming when all that
you've gathered up is all that you're going to gather in, is
what you've gathered sufficient to endure the night. There's
a day coming when we need a perfect righteousness. Is your righteousness
perfect? Are your works sufficient? Is
your religion going to save you? Is it going to withstand and
stand up against the all-knowing wisdom of God, who sees the heart,
who knows us through and through, who knows what we've done, what
we've said, what we've thought, what we've done? The Lord knows. There's a coming day. Is your
righteousness the righteousness of Christ, who said, I go to
prepare a place for you? I've prepared a place, a sufficient
place, a place that the sinner runs and hides under the protection
of his wing, under the protection of him and his righteousness,
of his spirit, of his glory and power. Or is it something that
we've made? We don't want what we've made.
We've got to go to the rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, be hidden
in the cleft of the rock, in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Only his righteousness is sufficient
against that day, because we're told the Lord cometh out of his
place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their sins and
iniquities. But the call of Christ goes out,
come, my people, enter into thy chambers. The chambers that you
haven't prepared but what I've prepared for you, enter into
them and hide thyself for a little bit until the indignation of
God be overpassed. And then we'll come out in the
righteous light and warmth and healing and grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So let me just show you a few
of these fruitful blessings which are laid out here in the rest
of this chapter that show what our Lord's death and His righteousness
and His life accomplishes for his people, to satisfy our hungry
souls here. So first we're told that there
was a dearth in all the lands. And a dearth means there's a
scarcity, there's a lack of something. In this case, specifically, there's
a lack of food. And when there's a lack of food,
it becomes precious, it becomes costly, because you can't just
go to the store and get it. It becomes very costly, very
expensive, of which poor people like us don't have the means
to get. There's a dearth in all the lamb. And it's a picture of the dearth
of righteousness. It's a picture of that dearth
of oil in the lambs. When the bridegroom cometh, behold,
he comes. And you go out to meet him. Well,
wait a minute. Where's my lamb? And where's
the oil? I don't have the oil. And now it's precious. Now you
see, I should have done something about this sooner, right? There's
a dearth of light, there's a dearth of understanding, there's a dearth
of righteousness, there's a dearth of wisdom, there's a dearth of
spiritual life, but we're told that in the land of Egypt, there's
bread. There's bread. I think it's a
picture of what we read in, I think it's Revelation 11, where we're
told that our Lord was crucified in the city of Sodom in Egypt,
right? There, where our Lord was crucified,
there's bread. Go to Him. Go to Him that was
crucified on the cross, bearing the sins of His people, the shame
of His people, to put it away. And He was buried, and He buried
our sins away. And He rose from the dead. Go
to Him. He's got the bread. Go to him. There's bread there. There's bread to satisfy your
hungry soul. Next we read in verse 55. 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." And so here we see who cries, who cries for this
bread? The famished soul. It's a mercy. If you find that, I know it's
a fearful thing, when we're made to know our sin, and when we're
made to know our insufficiency. that our works don't please God
the way we thought they did, and that, no, it's not just religion
that saves us. It's not religion at all. It's
Christ that saves. We need him. And when he makes
us to feel a hunger in our soul, a hunger and thirst for righteousness,
that's when we cry out, Lord, I'm starving. I feel the pangs
of my hunger. I feel the insufficiency of what
I've done. I see my sin. I see my nakedness. Lord, have mercy on me. That's
a mercy. Just him stirring up the heart,
making us feel the hunger that is in us by nature, that we were
dead to. We didn't realize. We didn't
know. But he makes us to feel our hunger. And then we cry. And it says that they cried out
to Pharaoh to help them. And Pharaoh said, don't come
to me. Go to Joseph. Go to Joseph, whom
I've appointed, whom I've given to make provision for you. Go to him. Go to Him. And so
we see there spiritually that until a sinner feels the pangs
of hunger, suffering for righteousness, that they can't make themselves,
that's when we'll go and cry out to the Lord. And when we
cry out for His mercy, in His mercy, He directs us to Christ. He turns us to the Lord Jesus
Christ. He, by His Spirit, guides us
and brings us under the preaching of the gospel, where the bread
is, where the gospel is declared, to hear clearly who the Savior
is, and to not confuse you with works and burdening you with,
well, but you better, and you better do this, and you better
get that right. Well, we keep preaching, giving you the bread
to feed you your portion of me in due season, the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up and to give you all that
you need for that day, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he does
this. And everyone that asks, receives.
Everyone that seeks, finds. Everyone that knocks, the door
is open. It's his word of promise, because he's the one that stirred
you up. He's the one that gives it to you. And so what he starts,
he finishes. It's his word of promise there.
And so they were sent to Joseph, exactly what the father does.
And then additionally, we see, who did Pharaoh send them to?
Joseph, one man. There's one Savior, one Savior
in all the world, Just as we see with Joseph, there's one
Savior. There is one name under heaven, given among men, whereby
we must be saved, the Lord Jesus Christ. He and he alone is the
bread of heaven. And that's who the Father sends
us to, to our spiritual Joseph, Jesus Christ the righteous. Then
we see verse 56, 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 of Egypt. And so to meet this time of famine,
Joseph opened all the storehouses. And so our Lord Jesus Christ,
for the hungering and thirsting soul, opens the storehouses of
his grace from the provision that he's laid up for us, that
he toiled and labored for, where we were sitting there, fat and
sassy, just eating and eating and eating. Ignorant of these
things, he labored, he toiled, he laid up, he made provision
for everything we need out of his grace. And now in grace,
he makes us to feel that hunger, makes us to know our need and
brings us to him, to Joseph, to our spiritual Joseph, to open
these storehouses whereby he gives us his spirit. to reveal
these things, to make known to us what he's done, to take the
things of Christ and to show them unto you. And his blood
cleanses our wounds and washes us of the filth of our sin. And
He gives us the understanding of the mystery of God, to know
this is what God's been saying to us the whole time. This is
the promise of His grace. Ever since we fell in the garden,
this was already prepared. He already made provision for
us in eternity by the Lord Jesus Christ, and now He makes it known.
He's bringing it to pass and making it to known, so that God
in grace and mercy, by the grace of Christ, makes us to forget
our sorrows and makes us fruitful by the Lord Jesus Christ. In
the land of our affliction. In the land of our affliction,
we're made to know these things. And then finally, verse 57. And
all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn, because
that the famine was so sore in all lands. And so none were excluded. All came to Joseph. And God made
sure to make it so severe that the people came. And that's what
he does. He'll make it severe. to bring
you to Christ. He'll make it so severe so that
you will come and hear him. And all countries came into Egypt
to Joseph for to buy corn. He traded with them. What do
we trade? He takes all our sins, and we
take all his righteousness, right? Our sins are laid on him, and
we come away with the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's a great trade. for us. That's wonderful. That's gracious.
That's merciful of the Lord. So in closing, do you feel the
famine that the Lord has laid to your heart? Has he made you
to feel hungry and thirsty for righteousness? Do you believe
the witness that God has given of his son, of his sufficiency,
that he's been given for our life against that day? and that
he is salvation. He is the savior. If you hear
it and believe it, go to Christ. Go to our spiritual Joseph. Cry
out to him. Seek him. His storehouses are
full of the grace, the provision of God for us against that day. Amen.