We'll continue our study in the
book of Genesis. Last study we left off in the
life of Joseph. Joseph's brothers were dining
with him, and they drank and were married with him. And this
is how the chapter left off, chapter 43. Today we'll see Joseph's
brothers tested by Joseph. And let us never forget that
we see in Scripture In the scriptures we see in the life of Joseph,
they're a revelation of what God has purposed to happen. Of
what God has purposed to happen. And Moses, by inspiration of
the Holy Spirit of God, wrote these historical accounts. But
he had no way of knowing what to write except by divine inspiration. Divine inspiration. And we're
reading just exactly what God told Moses to write, and the
purpose of what God decreed to happen is unfolding right before
our eyes as we go through this live Joseph study. And we know,
and we have seen these historical accounts, that they point us
to the Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, and the salvation
of His chosen people, His blood-bought people. If a man who is teaching
or preaching is not pointing us to Christ. He's not God's
preacher. He's not God's preacher. Let's
begin our study in Genesis chapter 44 where we read verse 1, And
he being Joseph commanded the steward of his house, saying,
Fill the man's sacks with food as much as they can carry, and
put every man's money in his sack's mouth. So Joseph's brothers
had been reunited with with Simeon, and they had received permission
to go back to their father from Joseph to the land of Canaan. And in this verse we see that
Joseph gave the command to his servant to fill his brother's
sacks with as much food as they could carry, with as much food
as they could carry, and then to put all their money back in
the sack again. And we see here a picture of
the spiritual feast that we have with Christ, beloved, Because what He gives us cannot
be purchased. What He gives us cannot be purchased.
It cannot be purchased with silver or gold. It cannot be earned
by the works of your hands. Thus the Scripture says this
in Isaiah 55, 1, Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the
waters. He and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat.
Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
So all this was given to Joseph's brethren, and they didn't pay
a cent for it. It all came from the mercy of
Joseph. Mercy of Joseph to them. So we
have a spiritual lesson here before us. Are not the ministers
and stewards of God's mysteries to proclaim, Ho, everyone that
thirsts, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come
ye, buy and eat, come buy milk without money and without price,
that's what we proclaim. Let's read verse 2 now. And put
my cup, the silver cup, in the sack, the sack's mouth of the
youngest, and his corn money. And he did according to the word
that Joseph had spoken. So we see here that Joseph has
his steward put his own personal cup in Benjamin's sack. It's a silver cup. It'd be worth
a lot of money. And he has it put in Benjamin's
sack. And this silver cup belonged
to Joseph. And absolutely no one had the right to that cup
but Joseph. But Joseph himself. No one had
the authority to command the servant to put Joseph's cup in
the sack but Joseph himself. Joseph's silver Cup is a picture
of the cup of salvation, beloved, which belongs to God alone, which
belongs to God alone. Salvation is of the Lord and
no one has the right, no one has the right to grant salvation
to anyone but the Lord. Christ our heavenly Joseph can
give his cup of salvation to whomever he pleases. It's his. He owns it. He owns it. And that silver cup belongs to
God. And He will put His silver cup
in the sack's mouth of individual earthen vessels as it pleases
Him. As it pleases Him. What is the
result of the cup of salvation that's placed in these earthen
vessels? Well, the psalmist declares this, I will take the cup of
salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Those who receive
this cup, the cup of salvation, We rejoice, don't we? We take
the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord, and
we never stop calling on him, do we? And that's found in Psalm
116, 13. And who is it that's commanded
the light to shine out of the darkness? It's God who's done
that for us, hasn't he? It's God who's done that. He
has shined in our hearts to give the light and knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure
at earth in vessels that the excellency and the power may
be of God and not of us, 2 Corinthians 4, 6 and 7. And so the power
of God, not of us. We have no power to save ourselves. We gather together to hear the
gospel proclaimed. We dine with Christ when we do
that, who is our heavenly Joseph. And we hear the wonderful gospel
truths proclaimed and enables us to forget what? All our worldly
problems, doesn't it? When we're here, we're not thinking
about things outside. Not at all. We forget our worldly
problems, and hearing the gospel fills our hearts with joy, because
it speaks of that which has eternal value. That which has eternal
value. Think of this also, that Joseph,
being directed by God the Holy Spirit, had his silver cup placed
in Benjamin's sack. Why? For the purpose of bringing
his brothers back to him. bringing his brothers back to
him. He was going to reveal himself, and we will see that in the next
chapter in our next study. He's going to reveal himself,
but they had not yet sincerely submitted themselves to his sovereign
authority. They needed to be further humbled
to the point where they saw that they were hopeless and helpless
before the monarch of Egypt. Little did they know that that
was their dear brother Joseph. And they needed to cry out for
sovereign mercy. They did not know that this Joseph
was the very one that they hated without a cause. The very one that they had sold
into slavery is the very one who's being so generous to them.
They had no idea. They did not know that it was
only he who could show them mercy. and they wouldn't know that it
was Joseph until he revealed himself. So what a picture of
Christ we have before us. What a picture of Christ we have
before us. It is the convicting power of
the God, the Holy Spirit, who brings us by faith, which is
given to us by him, that we come to the feet of Jesus Christ,
our Lord. We come humbly before him, don't
we? humbly before Him. We are bought to see our helpless
and hopeless condition before Him. And we see our need of sovereign
mercy when He draws us to Christ, don't we? We see our need of
sovereign mercy. And then what do we do? We humbly
bow before our great King. We submit ourselves to Him, don't
we? We submit ourselves to Him. By God's sovereign grace and
by the power of God, He reveals Himself to us as the only one
who can bestow His mercy on hell-deserving sinners. And again, it's He who
must reveal Himself to us or we'll never know Him. We'll never
know Him. If he does not reveal himself
to us, and if he does not draw the sinner to himself, the sinner
will never cry out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. They will stay dead in trespasses
and sins. But by God's sovereign grace
and his sovereign mercy, the Lord's people submit ourselves
to Christ, were made willing in the day of his power. And what do we submit ourselves
to? Who do we submit ourselves to? Well, the thrice holy God,
don't we? God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. We submit ourselves to the Lord
Jesus Christ and to His righteousness. His righteousness, alone for
our acceptance before God. In our natural state, we were
ignorant of God. We were ignorant of who he was.
We were ignorant of his righteousness that he requires for us to be
in his presence. We were ignorant of the word
of God. And what did we do? We did just like everybody else.
We went about trying to establish our own righteousness, didn't
we? That's what we did. And we had not submitted ourselves
to the righteousness of God. And that's true of every single
person in their natural state, whether they're a lost person
or a religious lost person. Every man and woman in their
natural state tries to go about establishing their own righteousness
before God. Let's read verse 3. As soon as
the morning was light, the men were sent away, They in their
asses. And we see in this verse that
Joseph's brothers were sent away and they were filled with temporary
relief. They'd probably be rejoicing. Now they're going back to the
land of Canaan. And they would have been in a
joyful mood. Their trip had been a successful one. They were probably
longing to be back to their homes and to their families. Verses
4 to 6 now, 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? Is
not this it in which my Lord drinketh, and whereby indeed
he divineth? he have done evil in so doing
and he overtook them and he spake unto them these same words. So we see here that Joseph gives
his steward specific instructions, doesn't he? Gives them specific
instructions on what to do and what to say. And this is exactly
what his steward did. This is exactly what his steward
did. Beloved of God, he would not have being a faithful steward
to his master if he'd not obeyed the commands that were given
to him, would he? And all this, now again we're
reading this, is all purposed, planned and purposed by God.
And we see this is purposed by Joseph now to bring his brothers
before him so he could make himself known to them. And Joseph's steward typifies
God's preachers. who are stewards of the mysteries
of God. And it's required that in stewards
that a man be found faithful. God uses whatever means he is
pleased to use to bring his loved ones under the preaching of the
gospel for this purpose, to reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to them.
to his loved ones, to his elect, to his chosen people, to his
redeemed, purchased bride. Let's read verses 6 to 12 now.
And he overtook them, and he spake unto them these same words.
And they said unto him, Wherefore saith my Lord these words? God
forbid that thy servants should do according to this thing. Behold
the money which we found in our sack's mouth we bought again
unto thee of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out
of thy Lord's house silver or gold? With whomsoever of thy
servants it is found, both let him die, and we also will be
my Lord's bondmen. And he said, Now also let it
be according unto your words. He with whom it is found shall
be my servant, and ye shall be blameless. Then they speedily
took down every man his sack to the ground, and opened every
man his sack. And he searched, and began at
the eldest, and left at the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. We see here in our text that
Joseph's faithful servant overtook his brothers, told them exactly
what his master had told him to say, accused them of stealing
Joseph's cup. We see that they proclaim that
they are innocent, even bringing up the fact that they had bought
back the money that they had found in their sacks in their
first visit. And they're using this as an
argument to prove their innocence. They were so sure of their innocence
that they made a very rash proposal in verse 9. Look at this. With whomsoever of thy servants
it be found, being the cup, both let him die, and we also will
be my Lord's bondmen. So they were so rash in what
they said, that they said, whoever you find the cup with, let him
die. Let us be servants to the Lord
of the Egyptians, which was Joseph. In verse 10 we see that the servant
said, Let it be according to your words. And he states that the blame
will only be on the one with whom the silver cup was found
again in verse 10. And he said, Now let it be according
unto your words. He with whom it is found being
the cup shall be my servant, and ye shall be blameless. And we see in verse 11 that a
search was made of the bags, beginning with the eldest, Reuben,
way down to the youngest, Benjamin. And we know from our studies
in the life of Joseph, that Joseph's brothers were not righteous men.
They were not righteous men. They were wicked. And we know
that God's purpose is being worked out right here before us, isn't
it? It's being worked out right here before us. These men would
be humbled before Joseph. Just like we're humbled before
the Lord Jesus Christ, our heavenly Joseph. Our heavenly Joseph. They would be convicted of what
they had done to Joseph. He was only 17 years old when
they sold him into slavery. And we will see that they will
have true repentance before him, and they will be afraid. They
will be afraid, too, for what they had done to him. And this is exactly what the
Holy Spirit of God does to all His chosen All His chosen blood-bought
children. He makes us aware that we have
absolutely no righteousness before God on our own. He makes us aware
of that. So we cannot use our so-called
good deeds to try to justify ourselves before God. Because
there's none that do it good, no, not one. And then He reveals Christ to
us in His righteousness, doesn't He? as our only hope before God. Is Christ your only hope before
God? Because if He's not, then you
have a refuge of lies. He is the only hope for the sinner
before God. Let's read verses 12 to 13 together. And he searched, and began at
the eldest, and left at the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's
sack. There it is. And look what they
do. Look at their response. And they rent their clothes and
laid every man his ass and returned to the city. We see in verse 17, in verse 12, I mean, that Joseph's
silver cup was found in Benjamin's sack. And then we see in verse
13 that they rent their garments and returned to stand before
Joseph. Now during this time when one
rented their garments, it was and still is an eastern token
of great distress. They were in great distress that
this was happening. Great distress. What could they
do? They'd been found guilty of the
charge against them. And note what's missing in the
text here. Note what's missing. They didn't rail on Benjamin.
You see that? They did not rail on Benjamin. They didn't look to him and say,
how could you do such a thing? You know why? Because true repentance
does not point out the finger in any direction but self. Each one of these wicked men
knew that their iniquity had found them out. And remember
earlier in our study, they believed that God was dealing with them
for what they had done with their brother. And not one of them is saying
to Benjamin, how could you do this? They might not have known if
Benjamin had stolen Joseph's silver cup or not, but they knew
that he had nothing to do with what they had done to Joseph. And we see here that they rent
their clothes and return to the city. Let's read Genesis 44 verse 14
and 15 now. And Judah and his brethren came
to Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell before
him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them, What
deed is this that ye have done? What ye not that such a man as
I can certainly divine? Note here that that Judah's name is mentioned
in verse 14 in his brethren. Now we know from our past studies
that Judah typified Christ's surety for Benjamin. And he typifies Christ as a spokesman
for his brethren. And we know that Christ is the
Lion of the tribe of Judah. That's one of his titles in the
book of Revelation. And again we see We've seen all
through this study and our studies in the scripture that all this
was purposed by God and planned by God and executed by God to
point us to the Lord Jesus Christ, our heavenly Joseph. It is he
who is our surety, isn't it? It is he who is our advocate.
It is he who is the very one who represents all his brethren,
his chosen people, who speaks on our behalf in the presence
of the Father. in the presence of the Father.
Salvation is a work of God we know from beginning to end. And
it is God Himself who humbles us before Him, who convicts us
of our sinful hatred of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Gospel before
we're even saved. And it's God Himself who moves
us to confess our sinful nature and our sinful deeds. It's God
who grants us repentance unto life when we're born again by
the Holy Spirit of God. It's God who gives us the gift
of salvation, faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
all God. He makes us will in the day of
his power by his almighty power. And he moves us to cry out, God
be merciful to me a sinner. And we see here a sincere confession
by Judah. Look at verse 16. And Judah said,
What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak, or how shall
we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants,
both we and he also with whom the cup is found. Now we see the tight breakdown
here as Christ is a sinless sacrifice. And Judah here proclaims he and
his brothers' sinfulness. When Christ our Savior was bought
as a lamb to the slaughter, he opened not his mouth. He was
the sinner's perfect substitute. He had no sins of his own. The
iniquities of his people were laid upon him, and he laid down
his life for them. He was cut off out of the land
of the leaven for the transgression of his people. Was he stricken?
The sinless, spotless Lamb of God died as the sinner's substitute. It's He who has redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And He shed His precious blood
for His people, didn't He? He purged away our sins from
God's sight forever. He did it all. And God places the silver cup
of his salvation in earthen vessels, beloved, enlightening our minds
to the glorious, glorious Christ-honoring truths. The gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the power of God into salvation to the Jew
first and also to the Greek. And again, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels, don't we? Oh, what a hope we have. Oh,
what a hope we have. that the excellency and the power
may be of God and not of us. Salvation is of the Lord from
beginning to end. Look at verse 17, and he said,
God forbid that I should do so, but the man in whose hand the
cup is found, he shall be my servant. And as for you, get
up in peace unto your father. Joseph said this to try their
affection to their brother Benjamin. to see whether they would leave
him to suffer the consequences of what appeared to be his guilt. He's testing them, beloved. He's
testing them. Now let's read verses 18 to 34
where we see Judah's affection for Benjamin manifested. And
for their father, his affection for his father, Israel, manifested
in such a way that it cannot be denied that God had bought
true conviction upon Judah's heart and granted him repentance
for what he had done to Joseph. Let's read verses 18 to 34. Then
Judah came near unto him and said, O my Lord, let thy servant,
I pray thee, speak a word in my Lord's ears, and let not thine
anger burn against thy servant. for thou art even as Pharaoh.
So he acknowledges, he's now acknowledging his sovereignty. My Lord asked his servants, saying,
have ye a father or a brother? And we said unto my Lord, we
have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, a little
one, and his brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother,
and his father loveth him. And thou saidest unto thy servants,
bring him down unto me that I may set mine eyes upon him. And we said unto my Lord, the
lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father,
his father would die. And thou saidest unto thy servants,
except your youngest brother come down, ye shall see my face
no more. And it came to pass when we came
up into thy servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord.
And our father said, go again and buy us a little food. And
we said, we cannot go down. If our youngest brother be with
us, then we will go down. For we may not see the man's
face, except our youngest brother be with us. And thy servant,
my father, said unto us, You know that my wife bear me two
sons, and the one went out from me.
And I said, Surely he is torn in pieces, and I saw him not
since. And if you take this also from me, and mischief befall
him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with soil to the grave.
Now, therefore, when I come to thy servant, my father, and the
lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's
life, it shall come to pass, when he seeth that the lad is
not with us, that he will die. And thy servants shall bring
down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with soil to the
grave. For thy servant Now Judas speaking
of himself here, for thy servant becomes 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,
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 the evil that shall come on my father. Judah hear pleas before Joseph. And this is a genuine plea, isn't
it? It's a genuine plea. It's sincere and full of love
and compassion for Benjamin and for Jacob, Joseph's father. And we clearly see by his willing
spirit to become a bondman for the alleged crime of his younger
brother so that Benjamin could go free. We see in verse 33,
Judah said, let me abide instead of the lad a bondman to my Lord.
Let the lad go up with his brethren. Remember again that Judah said,
I'll be a surety for Benjamin. Of my hand shalt thou require
him, if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee,
and let me bear the blame forever. We see here that Judah was true
to his word. He was willing to swap places
with Benjamin, wasn't he? He was, so that he could be set
free. and go to be with His Father,
who loved Him more than life itself. We see here in this verse that
Judah typified the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the eternal covenant
of grace agreed to be our blessed surety, the blessed surety of
His people for all His Benjamins, for all His Benjamins. Our perfect Redeemer was true
to His word, wasn't He? He became a man so that He could
swap places with us, which is substitution. That's substitution. And that's what Judah was saying.
I'll be assured. And the Lord Jesus Christ, He
bore our sins before God in order to set us free. so that we could go to be with
our Heavenly Father. He who knew no sin became sin
for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
He knew no sin. He came to save His people from
their sins. He became a man. He suffered and died in the place
of His people so that we would be the sinless sons of God. Christ is our surety, beloved. He's Jehovah. And He cannot fail. In the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ cleanses us from what? All our sin. All our sin. And Jesus Christ met all the
conditions of the eternal covenant of grace. In the place of His
blood bought people and we stand before God right now. In this
very presence. In this very time. We who believe
stand before God clothed in his perfect spotless righteousness.
What a Savior. What a God. Heavenly Father,
we thank you. We thank you for the scriptures
and how we can look into them and learn and see your hand at
work. We see your hand at work in the
life of Joseph. We see how you planned and purposed
all this to come to pass. And, O Lord, we can see ourselves
in the brothers. We've sinned against Thee, O
Lord. We've sinned against Thee, but our blessed surety, the Lord
Jesus Christ died in our place, died in the place of His people.
And now we are set free, clothed in the righteousness of Christ,
and one day we will be in Thy presence, O Lord, all because
of Thy mercy and grace. In Jesus' name, amen.