and Joseph, the life of Joseph. Let's go Lord in prayer. Gracious
Heavenly Father, oh we come before Thee. We know as we read in the scriptures
that You are an absolute sovereign God in full control over all
things. And we know that even before
we knew You, You were watching over us as your sheep. We were
lost and we had no care for you, but yet you cared for us and
you've loved us from eternity. What an incredible thing to know
and to have revealed to us. We pray that you would bless
the words as they go out, and the message this morning, oh
Lord, that would comfort your people. That we would be, that
the preaching of your word would cause us to look to thee, Lord
Jesus, and to thee alone. And we love you because you first
loved us, in Jesus' name, amen. Today we're gonna look at Joseph
before Pharaoh, or continue our study in the life of Joseph.
And as I said, I've been very blessed personally by this study.
As I see the hand of God all through Joseph's life, protecting
him and guiding him all through his life. And to know that he
does that for every one of his sheep is just absolutely incredible. Absolutely incredible. So let
us take comfort in the fact that this is what our great God does
for every single one of his sheep. Take comfort in that if you're
a sheep of God. He hasn't just been watching you since He saved
you and regenerated you. But He knew you in your mother's
womb. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that incredible? It's just
absolutely incredible. He knew us when we were off doing
our thing, when our mouths didn't praise Him at that time. But now our mouths have been
turned to praise, haven't they? Our lips have been turned to
praise. And it's absolutely wondrous. Because it's what the Lord's
done. Wonders of wonders that God would love and care for such
a sinner as I. Wonder of wonders. The other
day I was lying in bed when I woke up and was struck by the fact
that Joseph was in a high place of favor with his father. Right? So much so that his father gave
him a coat of many colors that distinguished him from his own
brethren. And then he was taken and thrown
into a pit and sold into slavery. Then he was cast in the prison
after he was wrongly accused falsely accused, he was cast
in the prison and then we're seeing next week actually that
he was raised up to be second in command over all of Egypt. And I couldn't help but think
what a picture of our Savior. The Word of God. The second person
of the Trinity. He was in glory. Loved by the Father, One with
the Father, angels bowing down before him. Before he came here, he was worshiped by all the angels. And what condescension, think
of that, what condescension. He comes from that high position.
And he comes down to this earth. to redeem his people from their
sins. To live a life as our substitute
and then to die on Calvary's cross as our substitute. And
then what happened? He rose from the grave. And he's
seated at the right hand of the Father right now. In glory, honor,
and power. And I was just struck at how
the Old Testament again pictures Christ in types and shadows. And He's the substance, always
remember that. The Old Testament pictures and
types are shadows, but He's the substance. He's the substance. Let's turn to Genesis chapter
41. Genesis chapter 41. Last week
we looked at the first 16 verses where we saw Joseph bought from
the prison before Pharaoh. Two years after he had the butler,
the cheap butler had been restored. We'll read verses 14 to 36 now,
but we'll stop for comment on some of these portions. Verse
14, Then Pharaoh sat and called Joseph, and they bought him hastily. Again, that means very quickly,
they ran. They ran in Hebrew. Out of the dungeon, and he shaved
himself and changed his ramnet, and came in unto Pharaoh. And
Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I have dreamed a dream, and there is
none that can interpret it. I have heard say of thee, Thou
canst understand a dream to interpret it. Again, as we looked at last
week, Pharaoh brings forth that Joseph's reputation has preceded
him with the words, I have heard say of thee. His reputation has
preceded him. Now, for some man, that would
puff him up right there on the spot. He'd be like, oh, really? You heard of me? But note, in the text, Note in
verse 16, Joseph's statement. And Joseph answered Pharaoh,
saying, it is not in me. God shall give Pharaoh an answer
of peace. So we see Joseph's wonderful
answer to Pharaoh. And remember, he's sitting before
the king of Egypt. So most men who would stand before
a king, if he said, well, I've heard of you, they'd be like,
oh, yeah, the king's heard of me, right? But look at Joseph, he says,
it's not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. He
gives all the glory to our great God, beloved. He's given him
all the glory. He don't want none. Joseph doesn't
want any. And this is taught to every born-again,
blood-washed believer that we have absolutely nothing to glory
in but the Lord Jesus Christ. Every believer is taught this.
that we have nothing to glory in except Christ and Christ alone,
our great Savior and our Redeemer. And God's people are quick to
echo what's here before us, the words of Joseph. It's not in
me. It's not in me to save myself. I can't save myself. I can't
save you. But I can proclaim one who can save all who come
to him, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we give him all the glory.
We draw our attention to Christ, our Savior. to Christ our Savior,
and that's what Joseph's doing here. And we give a faithful
testimony, we are his people, we give a faithful testimony
of him, of his power in our lives, and the fact that it's he who
saved us. See, Joseph's saying, this is not of me. These interpretations
is not of me. It's God. It's God. So we've been taught as believers,
And we know that salvation is of the Lord, so we echo the words
of Joseph, it's not in me. It's not in me. It's by the grace
and mercy of our Heavenly Father, because we know that if He hadn't
chose us, we'd never choose Him. So wonder of wonders, our great
Creator, the Word of God, the Son. God the Son became a man
so that He could obtain eternal redemption. for his elect. And it's God the Holy Spirit
who quickens us and gives us eternal life. How? Under the
preaching of the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Again,
that's why it's so important to be under the preaching of
the gospel. And the salvation of God's elect was purposed by
God for the glory of Jesus Christ and for his glory. And it magnifies the sovereign
grace of God, doesn't it? The fact that salvation is of
the Lord magnifies the sovereign grace of God. Just magnifies
it. Absolutely magnifies it. Puts us right in the dust, doesn't
it? Puts us in the dust. And we give praise to his mighty
name and we give God all the glory, saying salvation is of
the Lord and him alone. And we ought to give praise to
our great God, because he's the only one who's worthy. He's the
only one who's worthy. So we see then that Joseph brings
forth that he cannot interpret these dreams by any power or
virtue or art of his own. That's what he's saying. He says,
it's not me. It's not me. Because he's just a man, just
as Pharaoh's musicians are. They're just men. And he broadly
proclaims that he can only give an interpretation by inspiration
from Jehovah, the one true God. And in doing this, he directs
the honor away from himself. Because remember, Pharaoh said,
well, I've heard of you. He directs the honor away from himself.
No. No. And he directs it to the one
true God. He gives God the glory, and he proclaims before Pharaoh
that his God is the only one true God, and that he's the only
one who can interpret his dreams. What did our dear brother Paul
say? When he wrote to the Corinthian
believers, he said this, but by the grace of God, I am what
I am. That's what Joseph's saying, same kind of thing, it's not
me. Paul went on to say, and his grace which was bestowed
upon me was not in vain, but I labored more abundantly than
they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. It's all of God. If we have any
gifts, anything, any abilities, It all comes from our Lord. We
give Him the glory. We give Him the glory. And we
can do nothing without our great God. We're taught that in John,
right? Because John says of the king, our master's words, he
says, without me you can do nothing. And we're being taught that,
beloved, as we journey home. Because that's where we're heading. We're heading home. This world is not our home. We're
just passing through, aren't we? So as we're heading home,
we're being taught, through all different situations, that without
Him, we can do nothing. And then we see His incredible,
amazing provision, and the fact that He watches over us all the
time. Let's continue in our text, where
C. Farrell will tell Joseph his dream, Verse 17, And Pharaoh said unto
Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the
river. The river here is mentioned as the Nile River, which was
the lifeblood of Egypt. And John Grell brings forth that
he stood upon the river in his dream so he could have full sight
of what was going to be presented to his view. Verse 18, And behold,
there came out of the river seven kine, fat-fleshed and well-favored,
and they fed in a meadow. Now kine in in the text there,
in the Hebrew, is cattle. He's a cow. So we can read that, there came
up out of the river seven cows, fat-fleshed and well-favored,
and they fed in a meadow. And behold, seven other cows
came up after them, poor and very ill-favored, verse 19, and
lean flesh, such as I have never seen in all the land of Egypt
for badness. Now cattle that he saw in verse
19 there were thin and skimpy, drained of their flesh and strength,
as if some disease had come upon them. Either through want of food or
just a pestilence. And we'll see though what is
the cause of their leanness. And Pharaoh had never seen this
in the land of Egypt. The land of Egypt was well known
in ancient times for producing really good cattle. So he'd never seen anything like
this. He'd never seen anything like this. They were famous in
the ancient world for good cattle. Let's read verses 20 and 21.
And the lean and ill-favored cows did eat up the first seven
fat cows. And when they had eaten them
up, it could not be known that they had eaten them. but they
were still ill favored as at the beginning, so I woke." So
they ate the other cows, the fat and lean ones, but they didn't
change, they were still sickly. There was no change in them.
Now this was a very strange and surprising end to Pharaoh's dreams,
that the animals should devour one another. Cattle don't eat
cattle. It was a very strange thing to
see. Especially tame cows. They won't
eat other cattle. So for him to see this in his
dream, that their own species should eat another cow, he'd
never seen anything like it. So it was very strange. Very
strange. And he awoke with surprise at
such a strange sight in his dream. Now Pharaoh will tell Joseph
of his second dream. After the first dream, he fell
asleep again. Many of us do that, don't we?
We wake up, you ever wake up and want the dream to continue,
but it don't continue? It doesn't do that, but sometimes
you're hoping it would. But he fell asleep again though. He was shook up when he woke
up the first time, and now he's finally gonna get some sleep
again. And here tell Joseph of the second dream. After the first
dream, he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And this dream
was similar to the first one, but again, Pharaoh did not know
what the first dream meant. He didn't know what the second
dream meant, and neither did his magicians or his wise men.
They had no clue, no clue. And I saw in my dream, and behold,
seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good. Now these ears
of corn, seven ears of corn in the scriptures declare, come
up with one stalk. They were abundant. This is a
good harvest. This is an unusual harvest, several
commentators said. They didn't usually get seven
ears of corn on one stalk. Now they may do that nowadays,
but back then they didn't get that. Very uncommon, even to
fruitful countries. North Africa was known as a very
fruitful area, and Egypt, and they vied with each other. for
fruitfulness of their products and stuff that they grew, but
this was very, very unusual. One commentator brings forth,
it said that the people of Barbie, which is the people of North
Africa, the Berbers who vied with Egypt for fruitfulness,
now it would happen that sometimes one stalk of wheat would bear
two ears, just two. Well, each of these ears would
often shoot out a number of lesser ones, thereby affording the most
plenteous increase, but never seven ears. Seven ears. So what Pharaoh saw in his dream
is not the usual harvest during the time of Pharaoh. Let's read
verses 23 to 24. And behold, seven ears withered
thin and blasted with the east wind sprung up after them. And
the thin ears devoured the seven good ears, And I told this unto
my magicians, but there was none that could declare it to me." Well, note in verse 23 that the
next seven ears of corn are withered, which means to blast, in the
Hebrew, or to shrink. Thin, crushed and thin in the
Hebrew. Blasted, scorched, scorched. John Gill brings forth that this
implies that the ears of corn were small and had no grains
of corn in them. Nothing but husk and chaff. Nothing
there. No moisture in them. They were
laid up, burned up, blasted with the east wind. And we're going
to find out why. We're going to find out why.
So in verse 24 again, the thin ears devouring the seven good
ears, similar to the first dream. And Pharaoh proclaims that in
this verse that none of his wise men could interpret this. Not
one of them. Not one of them. They didn't have a clue. They
didn't have a clue. They couldn't declare the meaning
of these dreams. But we know who could declare
the meanings of these dreams. He who knows the end from the
beginning. He who knows all things. Now let's read verses 25 and
32. And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh is one.
God hath showed Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven
good cows, kine, are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven
years. The dream is one. And the seven thin and ill-favored
cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven
empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of
famine. Behold, there come seven years
of... Oh, sorry, verse 28. This is
the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh, what God is about
to do he showeth unto Pharaoh. Now remember, again, God knows
the end from the beginning. He already knows what's going
to happen, beloved. He already knows what's going
to happen at the end. The end there is He knows the end, when
there's no more. He's planned and purposed this
to occur, we're going to see later on in our study, for Israel
to be brought down into Egypt, just as the Lord told Abraham
that his people would be in bondage. This is all the beginning of
that. This is all the beginning of that. And there shall rise
after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty shall be forgotten
in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall consume the land.
Verse 30. And the plenty shall not be known
in the land by reason of that famine. Following for it shall
be very grievous. And for that the dream was doubled
unto Pharaoh twice. Look at this. It is because the
thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it
to pass. Look at that. It's because the thing is established
by God. Hadn't even happened yet. Hadn't even happened yet. It's
established by God. He knows the end to the beginning. It's all been established. Isn't
that incredible? And that's the God who keeps
us. That's the God who saved us. What comfort we can glean
from that, eh? In the trials of life. What comfort
we can glean. All this is being planned and
purposed by God and Joseph is telling Pharaoh that his dreams
are about an upcoming 14 years. And note what Joseph proclaims
to Pharaoh. He proclaims about why the dream
was doubled unto Pharaoh twice. It's because the thing is established
by God and God will shortly bring it to pass. So verse 32 there
declares that this was established by God. It's a firm decree of
His. It's a firm decree of His. It's sure. And it will most certainly
be accomplished because God will bring it to pass. He'll bring
it to pass. Or make haste to do it, in the
Hebrew. And as one commentator brings
forth, from the harvest of this, the then present year, that's
the beginning of the seven years. Seven years are plenty, I reckon,
from the harvest of that year. And again, Joseph is bringing
forth that the manner is determined by God. It's determined by God. Now think of this, too, in the
time frame, okay? Now, knowing that there's seven
years of plenty and seven years of famine, we need to keep that
in our minds because Joseph's brothers are gonna show up during
the famine. So there's all that time that's
passed, too. See, when you start to look at
the life of Joseph and how many years he spent in Egypt, he was
17 when he was there. And we'll see, he's 30 when he
stands before Pharaoh. We saw already two years had
passed when the baker forgot him. I mean, the butler forgot
him. Baker lost his head. He wasn't
doing no talking. But the butler, yeah, he was
the one who mentioned him again two years later. But this is incredible. This
is incredible. Our great God, what He says will
come to pass. And Joseph begins bringing forth
the matters determined by God. God will quickly bring it to
pass. It's all about here. And we see
God's power and His sovereignty brought forth as the Egyptian
magicians and by association the Egyptian gods, right? Which
were false, they had no ability to interpret this dream. Now
think of that too. The magicians were tied with
their gods. They had no way to interpret
it. Because they're just false dumb idols. But the great God,
the one true great God gave the interpretation of these dreams
to Joseph. And then think about how The Egyptian gods had no ability
to stop what was to come to pass because they're false gods, right?
And then think about how our great god Jehovah used the plagues
in the book of Exodus to show how the Egyptian gods were false
gods. Each plague, you read those plagues, each plague was against
one of the Egyptian gods. Showed their utter inability
because they're false idols. So we see here in the text, we
see, and we've seen in the life of Joseph, haven't we? We see
God's sovereign plan unfolding to bring Israel down to Egypt. Joseph's the forerunner of them
coming to Egypt. Now he didn't know that. He didn't
know that. He had no idea, but he is. Oh, it's incredible. Think of
how the Lord worked in your life, brought you to the place where
you were to hear the gospel. May have moved your miles. May
have moved your grandparents. And don't just take it into your
life, take it back to your grandparents and your great-grandparents.
And they're moved to be at the place where they settled so that
you could be where you were to hear the gospel that was ordained
by God for you to hear. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
wonderful? And it really shouldn't be a
surprise to us because the Lord numbers the very hairs on our
head. But we're still in awe of it, aren't we? We're in awe
of it. It's amazing. And you know what? Don't ever stop being in awe
of it. Don't ever stop being in awe of our great God and what
He does. Because it's a great comfort
in times of sorrow and struggles, knowing that our God's in full
control. So we see God's sovereign plan unfolding in our text that
we've looked at, in the whole study of the life of Joseph so
far that we've looked at. Let's look at verses 33 to 36
now. Now therefore, let Pharaoh look
out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of
Egypt. Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over
the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in
the seven plenteous years, and let them gather all the food
of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand
of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities, And that
food shall be for store to the land against the seven years
of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land
perishes not through the famine. So we see here Joseph given wise
counsel to Pharaoh. He's given wise counsel. And
he's given it of the understanding that God has given him of Pharaoh's
dreams. And he says that something should
be done to prepare for the abundance. You're going to have an abundance
of seven years. And you're going to have a severe famine for seven
years. Notice the verbiage he uses here.
He used to be a man of good judgment and conduct. Now, it cannot be
consistent with the great modesty of Joseph that he made himself.
He's not promoting himself. You notice in the text, he's
not saying, well, you can hire me, Pharaoh, and I'll do it for you.
He's not saying that. No, he says, get yourself a man
of discreet and wise and set him over the line. He's not volunteering.
No. And Gale brings forth that he
would not have ventured to give any advice at all until it was
first asked by the king, who was so well satisfied with the
interpretation of his dreams, thought him a proper person to
consult with the affairs of this upcoming situation. Gale believes
that Pharaoh probably asked him, well, what should we do about
this? What should we do about this? And in verse 33, let Pharaoh
look out a man, discreet and wise, and set him over the land
of Egypt. So that's a man who's discerning and wise. And notice
he recommends this person who would be appointed to be set
over the land of Egypt in verse 33 as well. And he says, let Pharaoh do this.
Let Pharaoh do this. Let Pharaoh take this action
because he's the sovereign king. He's the sovereign king over
all of Egypt. Only he could do this. Only he could do this. And next he suggests that whatsoever,
or whoever Pharaoh chooses, that he's to let him appoint officers
over the land. He's to appoint officers over
the land. Look at verse 34, let Pharaoh
do this and let him appoint officers over the land and take up a fifth
part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years. So
the man that he chooses should have officers underneath him
to manage that which needs to be done with the corn and the
grain. Let the prime minister or the
governor appoint men who would take a fifth part of all the
corn in the land of Egypt during seven years of plenty. And because
there's seven years of plenty, there'd be a lot of food, a lot
of extra food, a lot of extra crops. And Joseph says, let Pharaoh
do this, but let it not be done. Several commentators were saying
that he's not telling Pharaoh to do this by force, he's telling
him to do it from him. Like, okay, you give me a fifth
and I'll give you money for it. And the Egyptians would see that
as wise, a wise leader. And again, Pharaoh could purchase
it in a time of plenty very cheap. If there's an abundance of it,
it wouldn't cost hardly anything at all for him to purchase that.
It'd be cheap, and then he would be purchasing off the people,
not taking it off them, too, so they'd be more willing to
give it. If they're gonna get money back,
they'd be happy to do that. So it would be easy, therefore,
to accumulate a large store, or stores, definitely talking
about stores, all over the land of Egypt. And remember, there's
to be seven years of planting. So there'd be lots of extra corn,
more than usual, an abundant harvest. And then there'd be
seven lean years. And then they could sell it back. Those who were purchasing it,
they were purchasing it from, would come, and we're going to
see that later on, and purchase it right back from them. And then the nation would survive
the famine. Note the words of verse 35 and
36. And let them gather all the food of these good years that
come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them
keep food in the cities. And that food shall be forstored
to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall
be in the land of Egypt, that the land perish not through the
famine. Notice in verse 35 again, under
the hand of Pharaoh, Calvin brings this forth. Prosperity so intoxicates
men that the greater parts make no provision for themselves against
the future, but absorb the present abundance by intemperance. Joseph
advises the king to take care that the country may have its
produce laid up in store. The common people would also
form themselves to habits of being frugal, when they understood
that this great quality of corn was not collected in vain by
the king, but that a remedy was hereby sought for some unexpected
calamity." So the people would see that
Pharaoh was wise in doing this. He was preparing for the famine. And Joseph brings forth that
this famine would occur in chapter 36 or verse 36, that this famine
would occur, but has already brought forth the cure. So in
verse 36 there, and that the food shall be for store to the
land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in
the land of Egypt, that the land perish not through the famine.
So he's already told him that a famine is going to occur, and
then he gives him the cure for that. And He gives him the cure
for it. Store it up. Store it up. And again, when Pharaoh told
his dream to Joseph, take note that Joseph didn't hesitate to
give Pharaoh the message from God. Let us make a spiritual application.
As Joseph typified Christ, it was the Spirit of God in Joseph
that enabled him to give Pharaoh the true message of God. and what he was about to do.
And this is obvious to the born-again, blood-washed believer, because
we believe what God says. We believe what God says. What
God says, he means. And what he says will come to
pass, and we believe that. We believe that. It'll come to
pass even if someone don't believe it, because God said it. It's a fact. So the message that
Joseph gave the Pharaoh concerning the next 14 years to come, and
they came to pass just as Joseph said they would. It's a message from God. Now
consider this, that our Lord Jesus Christ knows all things,
and God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to Joseph, and
to Joseph, and Joseph was quick to relay
that message to the Pharaoh. He added nothing. He left nothing
out. Now we looked at last Sunday that Paul didn't hold anything
back, remember that? When he preached the Gospel,
he didn't hold anything back that was profitable to his hearers.
He preached Christ. Our Lord, He's the only one who
can reveal the Scriptures to us, isn't He? He's the only one. He's the revealer of all truth.
No one else. No one else. And so it is with God's preachers.
We know the message that God has recorded. on the pages of
Holy Scripture by God's grace and by the regenerating power
of the Holy Spirit, only because God's revealed it to us. In the
heart of the Gospel is redemption, and the essence of redemption
is the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. And those who preach
this truth preach the Gospel. Preach the Gospel. And like Joseph, God's preachers don't hold back.
No. We may introduce our messages
with preliminaries, which are helpful in laying a foundation
for our messages. But by God's grace, as soon as
we read our text, we point our hearers to Christ. And we say, look what God's done. I can't save you, I can't save
myself, but I know one who can save. So we preach Christ. We preach
that Christ is the creator, the second person of the Trinity.
We honor Him. We honor God the Father. We honor
the Holy Spirit of God, for they're all one. They're all one. We
preach that Christ was sent to this earth by God the Father
to do His will. And His will will come to pass,
just as we're seeing in our text. His will will always come to
pass. We don't know what it is. You want to know what the will,
I like what Brother Norm said, you want to know what the will
of God was? Look in the newspaper and see
what happened yesterday. That was the will of God. Isn't
that incredible? Whatever comes to pass is God's
will. Whatever comes to pass. What
was the will of God for your life yesterday? What happened
yesterday? We don't know the will of God in our lives today,
do we? But we will find out tomorrow. It's true. God's amazing. And Beloved, He watches over
His sheep. He protects us. And sometimes
His will for us is very hard, what we go through. Sometimes
it's very difficult. But we keep going to Him, don't
we? We keep clinging to Him. And we know it's working out
for our good, but more so for His glory. For His glory. And there'll be one day when
we will struggle no more, we will battle no more, we will
not be weary anymore, because we will see Him who has redeemed
us with His precious blood, face to face. Face to face. And oh, what a day that'll be. Glory to His name. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your goodness and mercy and grace to us. Thank
you for allowing us to gather together and to hear thy word
preached and proclaimed. Lord, we see thy sovereign hand
at will and at work, your sovereign hand and your sovereign will
being worked out in Joseph's life. And next week, Lord, we'll
see him raised up to the second most powerful man in all of Egypt.
And we know it's all by your wise decree and all by your doing.
It's absolutely incredible. Glory to your name, Lord, in
Jesus' name, amen.