All right, in Genesis 42 beginning,
like I said, this lesson covers about four chapters, and obviously
I'm not going verse by verse, which I never intended to through
Genesis in these lessons on Christ in the Old Testament. But I wanna
just hit the highlights. What we have in these chapters
is the story of God's providence through Joseph in bringing his
father, Jacob, and his brethren, the sons of Jacob into Egypt,
bringing them to himself. And you know the story of Joseph,
how in growing up, his brothers became jealous of him because
he had a special place in his father's heart. He was the firstborn
of Jacob and Rachel, and Rachel was the wife that Jacob loved. The other boys were born of Leah
and handmaids, but they were still Jacob's sons, but he had
a special place for Joseph, and they were jealous. They were
jealous because of the gift that God had given him of dreaming.
interpreting dreams. You remember the dream that he
had of his brothers bowing before him and they hated him for it
and so how they connived and they sold him into slavery and
here he comes down to Egypt. All that story we know and then
through God's providence Joseph became what you might call the
prime minister of Egypt. second-in-command to Pharaoh.
And it's because there was a famine in the land. Pharaoh had had
a dream. Joseph interpreted and showed
Pharaoh there's going to be seven years of plenty, harvest, fruitful,
and seven years of famine. And he told Pharaoh, he said,
you need to find somebody who's wise and who's fit and who's
able to prepare for this so that the nations could survive. And
that's what happened. In verse 57 of chapter 41, right
before we hit these chapters, it says, and all countries came
into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn because that the famine
was so sore in all lands. So this famine not only hit Egypt,
it hit all the nations around it, all the lands and all people.
And you know, whenever we see things like this, we can make
a spiritual application. And certainly a famine, a physical
famine on earth is what we might call a picture of the famine
of sin and depravity that we have within our souls naturally.
There is a spiritual famine. You know, sometimes the Bible
speaks of a spiritual famine in the land. That's a famine
of the word of God. Nobody's preaching Christ. Nobody's
preaching the gospel. And we have some people preaching
the gospel in, for example, in the United States of America,
but there's so few. There's a lot of religion, a
lot of false gospels, but so few preaching the true gospel.
And so a famine of the word of God. But this could be indicative
of the famine of sin and depravity that exists naturally in all
people without exception who are born of Adam. And you can
look at it this way. There are three segments, or
three aspects, let's say it that way. Three aspects to the problem
that we have that shows us that we have to be saved by the sovereign
mercy and grace of God in Christ, that we cannot save ourselves.
The first one is our fall in Adam. We're ruined by the fall. Romans 5.12 says that all sinned
when Adam sinned. He's the representative of the
whole human race. And we fell in Adam. Adam, the
representative man, fell, and we fell in him. And so that's
the first thing, ruined by the fall. The second thing is, what
did we fall into? We fell into a state of sin and
depravity. You can say it this way, a state
of spiritual famine, or a state of spiritual death. And we're
born dead in trespasses and sins. And then thirdly, we have all
sinned. The Bible says in Romans 3.23,
for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. No
exceptions among men. And so there's the three aspects. Now what that shows us is that
there's a spiritual famine in our souls naturally. By nature,
we're sinners. And this applies even to God's
chosen people, even God's elect, naturally, because God's elect
have to be saved by his grace. We have to be reconciled to God
by the death of Christ, whereby he established righteousness
that God has imputed to us. And by nature, we're alienated
and enemies in our minds by wicked works, the scripture says in
Colossians 121, but we're reconciled to God through the death of Christ
from whom we gain spiritual life and spiritual fruitfulness. So sin brings that spiritual
famine. The righteousness of Christ brings
spiritual life and fruitfulness. And so the salvation of God's
elect is illustrated in these verses, in these chapters here,
by Joseph's dealing with his brethren, the natural sons of
Jacob. The Lord says over in Malachi
chapter three and verse six, he says, for I am the Lord, I
change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Now
that verse refers not to the natural sons of Jacob that we're
going to be reading about here, but to the elect of God in Christ. Christ identified the elect,
God's chosen people, whom he chose before the foundation of
the world and gave to Christ. Christ himself identified them
as his brethren. And so, for example, over in
Matthew chapter 12, when Christ was speaking to his mother, or
to some people of the gospel, and he was in a house, and his
mother, Mary, the mother of his human nature, and his half-brothers
were outside, and somebody said, your mother and your brothers
are outside, and they wanna talk to you. And you remember what
he said? He said, who is my mother? Who are my brethren? those that
do the will of God, those who believe the gospel. That's what
he was talking about. The Bible says that Christ is
the firstborn among many brethren. And one of my favorite passages,
I refer to this a lot when we talk about salvation, justification,
and the brethren. In the title of this message,
Grace for the Brethren, we're gonna see how Joseph was gracious
towards his natural brethren. But the mainstay of this lesson
is grace for spiritual brethren in Christ. And over in Hebrews
chapter two and verse nine, let me just read this to you. It
says, but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the
angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor,
that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man or
every one or every brother, really, And that's not talking about
that Christ tasted death for all people without exception.
If he did, all people without exception would be saved. But
that's not what happened. Who are the every man here? Who
is everyone that he's talking about? Verse 10. For it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons unto glory." Sons of God, children of God, male and
female, Jew and Gentile, whom God chose before the foundation
of the world and gave to Christ to make the captain of their
salvation, that's Christ, perfect or complete through suffering.
That is, he completed the work by his sufferings. He's not made
perfect morally. He always was perfect morally.
He didn't have to be made so but he had to complete a work
and the perfection here is talking about his finished work. He says
it's finished. then look at verse 11, for both
he that sanctified, that's Christ, and they who are sanctified,
that's the many sons, are all one for which cause he is not
ashamed to call them brethren. And that's an amazing verse in
and of itself, that he's not ashamed to call sinners like
us his brethren. We're ashamed, aren't we? Because
of what we are and what we've done, but he's not ashamed. And
verse 12 says, saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren,
the elect of God. He's going to declare his name
through the preaching of the gospel. And they're going to
come to know him in the midst of the church while I sing praise
unto thee. Now that's what's going to happen
back here in Genesis when Joseph reveals himself to his brethren. And so we see here that the grace
of God is for his brethren, all for whom Christ died, all whom
he brings to believe in him and to walk by and in the grace of
God are his spiritual family, made so by the grace of God.
Well, look at Genesis 42, look at the first two verses. He says,
now, when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said
unto his sons, why do you look one upon another? And he said,
behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down
thither, go there and buy for us from fence that we may live
and not die. Now Jacob heard some good news.
There's a famine. We're gonna starve, you see.
But I've heard some good news. What is that good news? There's
corn in Egypt. Now we can liken that to the
good news of the gospel. preached to weary, hungry, dying
sinners. We don't have to, listen, that's
what the gospel is. It's good news for those who
are in spiritual famine. I'm a sinner. And in order for
me to be saved, that sin issue has to be taken care of. How
is it going to happen? Well, the only right way, the
only true way, the only good way is the gospel way. And that's through the blood
of Jesus Christ on the cross. The gospel shows me that I'm
a sinner and sin demands death and famine. But the gospel also,
and you might say, well, that's bad news. Well, the gospel also,
it doesn't stop there. It goes on to show me the good
news that in Christ, by the grace of God, I can have righteousness,
which demands life and demands fruitfulness. So we don't have
to continue in our spiritual poverty and our hunger and our
death and famine. There's life, there's mercy,
there's grace in Christ Jesus. He's the bread of life. He's
the water of life. The Bible says, blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall
be filled. And here's the point. This is
God's promise to his people. And here's what we know about
God. He's always faithful to his promise. He never goes back
on his promise to save any sinner who desires salvation his God,
God's way, his way. And we know that by nature, this
is part of the spiritual famine. We don't want salvation God's
way, we want it our way. But God gives us a desire for
his way. And he's always faithful to fulfill
his promise. And we know that God is powerful
enough to fulfill his promise. He can do what he says he would
do. He sent his son into the world as the surety, the substitute,
and the redeemer of his people. And he went to the cross and
he satisfied the justice of God and established a righteousness
whereby God could be just to justify the ungodly. And that's
what God's promise is. And all those promises of God
are in Christ, yea and amen. And so we know that our Lord's
grace is sufficient to save to the uttermost all who come to
God by him, by Christ. Now we see there that Jacob,
in verse two, it says, go down there and buy for us from them.
We see that Jacob, he sent money to Egypt to buy corn, but now
God's grace is not sold to his people. It's free to all who
come to Christ for salvation. But there is a price. And the
price was the price that Christ paid. As our sins were imputed
to him, he paid the debt of our sins. And his righteousness is
freely given to us. And I always think about that
passage in the book of Isaiah. I'll just read this to you. It's in Isaiah 55. I thought
I had it marked, but I don't. But it's in Isaiah 55 showing
the call of the gospel. Verse one, ho everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters, he that hath no money. Come ye, buy and
eat. You're gonna buy it, but you
don't have any money. So what are you gonna bring? Bring the
blood of Christ. That's the redemption prize.
Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money, without price. It's free. Now go back to Genesis
42, look over at verse four. Now Jacob sends 10 brethren down
to Egypt, but there's one that he didn't send, and that's Benjamin,
verse four. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother,
Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he said, lest peradventure
mischief befall him. Now Benjamin had a special place
in Jacob's heart. Benjamin was the second one that
was born to Rachel. And Benjamin, you remember when
Joseph was gone, he'd lost Joseph, the son of his love, and now
he had Benjamin. And I'm sure Jacob loved these
other boys, but just make no bones about it. Jacob had favorites,
Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph's gone. In Jacob's mind,
Joseph is dead. Now he's not dead, but in Jacob's
mind, he is. And so he's got Benjamin, and
he's not gonna let go of Benjamin. You remember when Benjamin, he's
the youngest, when Benjamin was born, Rachel died in childbirth. And that's, you can read about
that in Genesis 35, 18 and 19. And Rachel named him the son
of my sorrow. But then Jacob gave him another
name, and that was Benjamin, and that's the son of my right
hand. So that's Benjamin, the son of Jacob's right hand, the
son of his love. And basically it's almost like
Jacob was saying that Benjamin's going to be the one who receives
the blessing that would have been given to the firstborn.
That's Reuben, but Reuben had forsook that because of his sin.
Simeon was next, he forsook. Those other boys were not in
line for it. So here it was going to come
to Benjamin. But as I said, in Jacob's mind, Joseph was dead.
But here's Joseph, or Jacob, he says, go down, the 10 of you. He said, why do you, back up
in verse one, he says, why do you look one upon another? Why
are you waiting? Go down, there's an urgency here, see? There's a famine and we're gonna
starve. You get down there, why are you waiting? Don't stand
there looking at each other. Go down, but Benjamin's not going
with you. And so there's an urgency in
the gospel. Don't put this off till tomorrow. That's what he's
saying. Do it today. Now is the day of salvation.
We're not promised one more day in this life. Our death may come
at any time. So don't tarry. This is an urgent
command. Christ is the wealth of God's
grace. Come to Christ and believe on
him. And so all of them went down except Benjamin. And so
they're going down into Egypt and they're going to come to
see that Joseph is not dead and things are gonna be revealed
to them. Things are gonna be opened up to them. They're gonna
be brought by Joseph to confess their own guilt. Look over at
verse 21 of Genesis 42. Here they come down and they
see Joseph All right, and they're confused
here. And he says, it says in verse
21, they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning
our brother. They recognize, they didn't really
know him at first. until he revealed himself to
them. And he says, we are very, very guilty concerning our brother
and that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us
and we would not hear. Therefore is this distress come
upon us. And Reuben answered them saying,
spake I not unto you saying, do not sin against the child.
You would not hear therefore behold also his blood is required. And verse 23, they knew not that
Joseph understood them for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
So what's happening here is they go to meet Joseph. Joseph recognizes
them, but they don't recognize him. And he accuses them of being
spies. Now this is the second in command
to Pharaoh. And he recognized them, he knew
who they were, and he accuses them of being spies. And so they
say, well, the reason God's bringing this upon us is because what
we did of our brother Joseph. But they don't know that Joseph
is the one who's accusing them of being spies. But in essence,
their sins got to be revealed to them. These proud brethren,
they've got to be humbled before Joseph. Over in chapter 44 and
verse 14, I know I'm jumping ahead. It says in verse 14 of
chapter 44, and Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house
for he was yet there and they fell before him on the ground. That's what this is coming to. evidence of genuine repentance. And I'll tell you, there's a
great picture of God dealing with his people that he saves
by grace here. He reveals our sin and our depravity. As I said, the gospel shows us
that we're sinners, that if God were to give us what we deserved
and what we've earned, it would be nothing but death and hell.
He shows us that there's no way that we can get ourselves out
of this mess of sin and death by our works, but he also shows
us the righteousness which Christ has come to establish on the
cross. So we confess our sins to him
and we bow before the Lord God. He shows us our need of his grace
and brings us to beg for mercy, like the old publican. God be
merciful to me, the sinner. And that's what this is coming
to. Go back to chapter 42, look at verse six. It says, and Joseph
was the governor over the land, and he it was that sold to all
the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed themselves down before him with their faces to the earth.
You remember Joseph's dream about his brother, his brothers? How he said, you'll bow to me?
And they hated him for it. Back over in Genesis 30 says,
Joseph's dream was given to him by God to show how he would be
their Savior to whom they would bow. That's what happened here. And that's a great picture of
Christ to whom all his people bow as their Savior from sin. We bow to King Jesus, our Lord
and our Savior. And the thing about it is, as
I said, Joseph, they don't know him now, but he knows them. Look
over in verse seven. He says, and Joseph saw his brethren
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them and spoke roughly
unto them. And he said unto them, whence
come ye? And they said, from the land
of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew him not. That is the way in our salvation.
God knows his people. The Lord knoweth them that are
his. The Bible says that our names
were written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation
of the world. But we're born, fallen in Adam,
into a state of spiritual famine and death. We're sinners and
we don't know Him. We don't know God. We don't know
God as the God of all grace. We don't know God as a just God
and a Savior. We don't know Christ. until he
reveals himself to us, according to the covenant promise. Now
from Genesis 42 verse nine, all the way over to chapter 43, what
we see here is Joseph's plan. He devised a plan to save his
family from the famine and bring them to himself in Egypt. And
over here, look at chapter 42, verse 25. It says, then Joseph
commanded, he's sending them back to their father. And it
says, Joseph commanded his servants to fill their sacks with corn,
to restore every man's money, the money they had given to buy
food, into his sack, and to give them provision for the way, and
thus did he unto them. And isn't that the way the Lord
does us in salvation? is grace in salvation. It shows the abundance of it.
He gives us everything we need and more in Christ. Where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound. It's free to sinners
in need. Now Joseph's plan, which we see
in these verses, you read the whole thing, it involved one
thing though, bring Benjamin back with you. And so they went back and they
told their father what happened. And they said, we need to take
Benjamin back, but Jacob refused. Jacob refused. And if you'll
look over in chapter 43, we're going to see a very significant
highlight of these chapters. And that's when Judah, now Judah,
We know about Judah, we're gonna see about him later on in Genesis
49. Judah, you remember, is the tribe,
the son of Jacob, the tribe through which Christ the Messiah would
come. The scepter will not depart from
Judah until Shiloh comes. Well, Judah convinced Jacob to
send Benjamin to Egypt with them because he was willing to be
surety for Benjamin. Look at verse eight of Genesis
43. Judas said unto Israel, his father,
that's Jacob, send the lad with me and we will arise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. You see that? What a concept. The truth of the suretyship of
Christ for his people is one of the most foundational and
essential of gospel truths. What is a surety now? Remember,
a surety is one who stands responsible for the safety and well-being
of another, another person or another group. A surety is one
who stands responsible and the surety agrees to personally fulfill
whatever conditions are required to ensure the safety and the
well-being of the ones for whom he stands. Whatever it takes
to save and preserve this person, I'll do. That's what the surety
says. And so before the world began,
The Lord God devised a plan. Remember, Joseph devised the
plan here now. Well, before the world began,
the Lord himself devised a plan to accomplish his goal of saving
his family, his elect, his brethren, and bringing them to himself.
You can read about that in so many passages. One I've got marked
in your lesson is Ephesians chapter one. Before the foundation of
the world, And in the everlasting covenant of grace, God the Father
appointed God the Son to be surety for his chosen people. The Son
agreed to be their surety and to do for them what was required,
to save them and bring them to eternal glory. And what this
required is for Christ as surety to pay our sin debt to the justice
of God by his own death. That's what was required. Our
sins were imputed, charged, accounted to him, and he had to come to
earth, this sinful earth, and die on that cross to redeem us
from our sins. Our sins imputed to him. His
righteousness is imputed to us. He gains our demerit, we gain
his merit. And this required him to be the
substitute to fulfill the righteousness of the law by his obedience unto
death as our substitute and redeemer. That's why he had to become incarnate.
That's why he had to be made flesh and dwell among us so that
he could die. That's why he had to keep the
law. He was made of a woman. He was made under the law to
redeem them that were under the law. And so the assurance of
our whole salvation was and is in Christ our surety. That's why we emphasize the doctrine
of imputation. To deny imputation is to deny
the suretyship of Christ. Did you know that? There are
people today who call imputation a legal fiction. Oh no, it elevates
Christ in our minds and hearts as our surety. Just like Paul
illustrated in the book of Philemon when he told Philemon, if Onesimus
has offended you or done any wrong, put it on my account,
I'll repay it. That's what Judah is saying here.
I'll be surety for Benjamin. I'll make sure that he comes
back or else I'll die. Well, Christ did die as the surety
of his people. And we see that. over in chapter
43 beginning at verse 15 and all the way over to chapter 44
to the end of it. We see the account of Joseph
meeting his brothers the second time and Benjamin was with him. Joseph sent his servant to fetch
them. They were afraid, but you know,
the servant himself spoke peace to them. Look at chapter 43 and
look at verse 20, 23. Joseph sent for him, he sent
a servant. And the servant says, he said in verse 23 of 43, peace
be to you, fear not. Your God and the God of your
father have given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money
and he brought Simeon out unto them and the man brought the
men into Joseph's house and gave them water and they washed their
feet and he gave their asses provender. The servant speaking
peace to them, giving them comfort. And that's like a gospel preacher
preaching the gospel to God's people. Peace be still. To who? Not to everybody without
exception, but all who are looking to Christ. Gospel preacher. And then in chapter 44, we read
of Joseph's scheme to bring his whole family to Egypt. What he
did, he placed his own personal silver cup in Benjamin's sack. and accused him of stealing and
insisting that Benjamin be held. And this is where Judah spoke
up as surety for Benjamin. Look over in chapter 44 and verse
32. I know I'm skipping all over this, but we're hitting the highlights. He says, for thy servant, Judah
saying to Joseph, for thy servant became surety for the lad unto
my father, saying, if I bring him not unto thee, then I shall
bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let
thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman to my Lord. So, and let the lad go up with
his brethren. For how shall I go up to my father
and the lad be not with me, lest peradventure I see evil that
shall come on my father? Judah said, if I don't bring
Benjamin back, my father will just die. So let me be a bondman. He said, you know what a bondman
is, don't you? Somebody owes a debt. Well, our debt, our sin
debt, was placed upon the account of Christ before the foundation
of the world, the sin dead of God's people, his brethren, grace
for the brethren, you see, and his righteousness to us. And
so he says, I can't go back to my father without him because
he'll die. And what he's doing, he's interceding here for Benjamin. Well, who is our intercessor?
Christ is. He speaks for us as our surety.
He stands for us. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. Our sins cannot be imputed, charged
to us. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justify. We cannot
be condemned because Christ died and is risen again and is seated
at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession
for us. Well, over in chapter 45, just a few points, Joseph, here reveals himself to his brethren. And he spoke peace to them. That's
what he said. Verse one of chapter 45. Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by
him. And he cried, cause every man to go out from me. And there
stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. How does Christ make himself
known to us? by the Holy Spirit in the preaching
of the gospel. He'll teach every one of his
people his name, to know him. Joseph, verse two, wept aloud.
And the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph
said unto his brethren, I'm Joseph. Doth my father yet live? And
his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me. I pray you. And they came near.
And he said, I'm Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Verse five says, now therefore
be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither,
for God did send me before you to preserve life. God did, you
see what Joseph's saying there? They schemed and connived and
cheated and lied. to send him down, but he said
it was God who did this, and we're gonna talk more about that
later. This is the work of God. Christ coming to this world,
living under the law and dying on the cross is the work of God. Peter said that in Acts chapter
two. We did it with wicked hands. Later on, Joseph's gonna tell
his brethren, he says, you meant evil. So you're not excused for
that, but God meant it for good. And here's what he's doing. He's
showing grace to those who deserved it not, because that's the nature
of grace. That's the way God saves his
people. Grace for the brethren. Okay.