Okay, open again, if you would,
to Genesis chapter 37. The name of the message is Kept
by God. Kept by God, Genesis 37. We'll continue our study in the
life of Joseph. And what a wonderful study to
go through, looking at his life and seeing many times how he's
a picture of Christ. And then many times how he's
a picture of us, too, as we go through various things that occur
in this world. Genesis chapter 37. Last week
we left off at verse 11 where we saw Joseph had dreamed two
dreams in which he saw his brethren and his father and mother bowing
down to him. And today we're continuing chapter
37 looking at the life of Joseph. Again, which we've seen various
pictures of Christ. Now in our past studies we've
seen that Joseph has typified Christ by his love for righteousness. and his hatred for sin. He went
to his father and told his father of the evil deeds that his brethren
had done. And we also saw that Joseph's
brother had a hatred for him, as they knew that Joseph was
loved more by Jacob, Israel, than they. And they saw that
Jacob had made Joseph a coat of many colors. And this This
made them resentful. This made them resentful because
it was an emblem of Jacob's love for Joseph. And it was ever before
them, the fact that he loved him more than them. And they
resented him, they hated him. And let's never forget that all
these things happened to Joseph all according to the sovereignty
of God, all according to the will of God. So with that in
our minds, let's read verse 12 of Genesis chapter 37. Genesis
chapter 37, verse 12. And we see the scripture declares,
and his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. Now it was a common practice
during this time, it was a common practice during this time to
take your sheep out to pasture. grazed them, as a lot of the
herds were very large, and so they took them out to graze in
various areas. It was a common practice of the
shepherds. And we see here that Jacob's flock is grazing in Shechem,
which was a Middle Eastern country located at the border of Ephraim
and Manasseh. It lay between Mount Ebel on
the northwest and Mount Gerizim on the southwest. It was also
a city of refuge that's mentioned in Joshua chapter 21, verse 21. So let's continue reading in
verses 13 and 14 with that in our minds. And Israel said unto
Joseph, do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come and
I will send thee unto them. And he said, here am I. And he
said to him, go, I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy
brethren and well with the flocks. and bring me word again. So he
sent him out of the vale of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. So we
see that Israel was concerned about his sons. He was concerned
about his sons and about his flocks. He may not have heard
from them for a while, and he wanted to know how they were
and to see if they were well, he sends Joseph to see where
his brother Now we know that Joseph's brethren hated him.
We know that from the text. And we know that Joseph pictured
Christ in this way because our Lord was hated without a cause,
wasn't he? He was hated without a cause while he was here on
this earth. And remember that all this is
coming to pass by the providence of God, by God's sovereign hand.
Always remember that. And it was Joseph's father that
sent his beloved son. Oh, it was the Father that sent
the beloved Son to His wicked brethren. It was God who sent
His Son to die for His elect, for His elect. The Word became
a man, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, to save us from
our sins, sent by the Father. And look at verse 14, and we
see that Israel sent Him out of the Vale of Hebron And he
came to Shechem. John Gill brings forth that this
is about 60 miles away from where they were. That's a long walk. That's a long walk. I mark the
equivalent from Almonte here, and it's like walking from Almonte
to Bert's Run. It's about how far it is. And
that's just outside of Saginaw. That's a long walk. So he didn't
just do it in a day. It took him a while to get there.
Took him a while to get there. And we know he's walking, because
a man finds him wandering in a field near Shechem. Look at
verse 15 to 17. And a certain man found him,
and behold, he was wandering in the field. He's looking for
his brethren. Obviously they're not in the
field they're supposed to be in. And the man asked him, saying,
what seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren.
Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. And the man
said, they are departed hence, for I heard them say, let us
go to Dothron. And Joseph went after his brethren
and found them in Dothron. So Joseph comes to the place
where his brethren are supposed to be, and they're not there.
And he's wandering around in the field looking for them. And there's a man there, he's
probably working in the fields, who tells Joseph where his brethren
are. And remember, all these things are falling out according
to the sovereignty of God. According to the sovereignty
of God. Let us remember that it's the will and purpose of
God that the Lord Jesus came to this earth. The Father sent
the Son, didn't He? Sent Him on a mission. And the
Lord Jesus Christ was on a mission, and He came to this earth, and
He was despised and rejected by men. But he came here to redeem
his people from their sins. And it's the responsibility of
God's preachers to proclaim the wonderful gospel of salvation
in and through Christ. That's the responsibility of
the preacher. And this is all also by the will
and purpose of God. God sends his preachers where
he wants to send them. And we preach and proclaim the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, all according to God's will.
All according to God's will. Christ is our God, isn't He?
Christ is our Lord. Christ is our Master. Christ
is our Savior. Christ is our life. Christ is
our hope. Christ is our salvation. Christ
is our doctrine. All our doctrine centers on Him.
It all centers in Christ. And Christ is the message of
every sent preacher of God. we preach Christ and him crucified. That's who we preach. And it's
all according to the will and purpose of God. So Joseph was
sent to go and find his brethren by the Father. The Lord Jesus
Christ was sent by the Father to redeem his people from their
sins. And this again was all according
to the will and purpose of God, to accomplish his eternal purpose.
Joseph, as we read, Joseph will be sold into slavery. He'll be
sold into slavery. Again, let us keep in mind, now
that's, and think of this, too. That slaver caravan wasn't passing
that field right there where Joseph sent them to, no. It was
passing the one in Dathron. So where did Joseph have to go?
He didn't know. He's out there looking for his
brethren. And a man tells him, they're over in Dothron. Oh,
well I'll go there then. He has no idea what's waiting
for him. But see the other thing is, the Lord knew what was waiting
for him when he came to this earth. And he willingly came. He willingly
came, beloved. He willingly came. Dathron was about five or six
miles from Sechem, so he had some more walking to do. And
Dathron was full of fertile valleys and plenty of water. So Joseph
goes to find his brethren in Dathron. And again, remember
at the beginning of the series I said about types. Type can
only be taken so far and then it starts to break down. We see
that Joseph, again, was sent by his father to his wicked brothers
to do his will, but again, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent by
the father to his wicked brethren, right? Because we're all dead
in trespasses and sins in our natural state, but the difference
where the breakdown occurs is Joseph, again, had no idea what
was waiting for him, but our Lord knew exactly what was waiting
for him. See, there's the breakdown in
the type. He knew what he was waiting for, why? Because he's
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, remember that?
So he already knows what the mission is. He already knows. He knew exactly what was waiting
for him. And he came to do the Father's
will. He knew, what did he come to do? He came to die, didn't
he? The Lord Jesus Christ came here to die. To die for his people. He knew it was the only way that
his bride would be saved. He knew of that. He knew that
he'd suffer at the hands of wicked men, some who were his brethren,
because they were saved. Some of them were saved at the
day of Pentecost, remember? Oh yeah. And remember our natural state.
It's our sins that put Christ on the cross. So he knew. He knew he'd be nailed to that
cruel cross, beloved. He knew it. He knew he'd suffer the full
wrath of the Heavenly Father as a substitute for our sins,
for the sins of all his people, he knew it. And yet he came willingly
to do the Father's will. Willingly. Now let's read verses
18 to 20. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near unto them, they conspired against
him to slay them. And they said one to another,
behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we will say, some
evil beast hath devoured him, and we shall see what will become
of his dreams. So Joseph's brethren recognized
him from far off. And what do they do? They don't
say, oh, Joseph's coming. No, they conspire against him. Remember, God sees everything.
And God hears everything. There's nothing you or I think.
There's nothing you or I say to other people that God doesn't
see and hear. Nothing. Nothing at all. Nothing at all. But here they
are, they're thinking, ah, they're just talking amongst themselves.
They're conspiring amongst themselves. And they recognize him from afar
off. You know, they probably recognize him because of his
coat of many colors. Because that would set him apart, right?
He'd be wearing that. And they know they hated him.
And in their hearts, we see in our text that they conspired
against him. To slay him, their own brother. To slay their own
brother. They said, behold, this dreamer
cometh. You can just hear the hatred in their voice. Behold,
this dreamer cometh. This reveals the hatred in their
hearts over the thought, and remember what the dreams exposed,
that he would be reigning over them. All right? So they see him coming and they're
like, now this dreamer. Because the dream talked about
him ruling. Talked about him being over them
all. Reigning over them all. And he's the younger brother.
He's not the youngest, but he's the second youngest. He's the
second youngest. So this hatred is exposed right
here. And think of this, not only did
they have a hatred for Joseph, but they also probably had a
resentment for their father. Because they knew that the father
loved Joseph more than them. And so we see here they plot
to kill him. They plot to kill him. And then they plot to fabricate
a story that an evil beast had devoured him. They're already
conspired exactly what they want to do. But see, nothing escapes
the eye of the Lord. Nothing escapes the eye of the
Lord. Now think of this too, the unbelieving
Jews had the Old Testament scriptures during the time of our Lord's
incarnation, didn't they? They had the Old Testament scriptures.
And the Old Testament Scriptures revealed our Lord's coming. They
revealed that one's coming afar off. Didn't they? They revealed that one's coming
afar off. They revealed that there was one sent by the Father
coming. And these unbelieving Jews, they
saw and they witnessed the miracles which our Lord performed, and
they witnessed how He always gave glory to the Father all
the time. And He proclaimed that He was
sent by the Father, and those miracles proved that He was who
He said He was. They proved it, but yet they
did not believe Him. And they plotted to what? They
plotted to kill Him, didn't they? They conspired one with another
to kill Him. And you had groups that were
hating each other, the Sadducees and the Pharisees, and you had
them getting together and plotting against our Savior. Look at that. They plotted his
death. Now we know that some of the
unbelieving Jews were saved, we know that, because they were
the sheep of God. They were born again by the Holy
Spirit of God. They're washed in the precious
blood of the Lord, of the Lamb. Turn, if you would, to John chapter
10, but we also know from the Scriptures that some of them
were not the sheep of God, because our sovereign Redeemer proclaimed
that. He proclaimed that right to them. John 10. Look at verses 24-30. Then came the Jews round about
him and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Verse 24. Verse 25, Jesus answered
them, I told you, and ye believe not the works that I do in my
Father's name. They bear witness of me. They
bear witness of who he is. They bear witness that he's God
incarnate in the flesh. But ye believe not, because you're
not of my sheep. Wow. I remember hearing one preacher
say, that's like the bony finger of election pointing right at
them and saying, you're not mine. My goodness. As I said unto you, but ye believe
not, because you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear what? My voice. We hear the voice of the shepherd
through the preaching of the word, don't we? And it brings
us great comfort, beloved. I know them and they follow me.
And that's Gnoska, he knows them intimately, because they were
given to him by the Father before the foundation of the world,
because they're his bride. He knows them intimately. And they
follow me. We'll see that in our lesson
today, that the Lord calls two of his disciples, and they drop
everything and follow him. Beloved, it's an irresistible
call. It's an irresistible call, they follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life. The Lord gives us eternal life
in and through him. And they shall never perish.
What wonderful word there. Shall never perish. What wonderful
words. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father which gave them me is greater than
all. And no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand.
I and my father are one. So the wicked hearts of these
unbelieving Jews devised evil against God's beloved son. They
conspired, they plotted together just like Joseph's brethren did.
They plotted together the death of Jesus. And all the while, we know that
they didn't want him to reign over them. That's what natural man's state
is. I'll not have this man rule over me. Just like the Lord, speaking
in a parable in Matthew 21, 38, he said, this is the heir, come,
let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance. Let's go back to Genesis chapter
37. We'll look at verse 20 now. And remember that Joseph's dreams
had him reigning over his father, mother, and brethren, and we
see now they seek to kill him. In verse 20. To thwart his dream. They're gonna... This is natural man's attempt
to thwart the will of God. Look at this. They don't know
that's what they're trying to do, but they're trying to do
that. Look at this in verse 20. Come now, therefore, let us slay
him and cast him into some pit. And we will say some little piece
had devoured him and we'll see what will become of his dreams. Oh, my. Look at verses 21 and
22, and Ruben heard it, Rubens, the oldest brother, he heard
it. and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let
us not kill him. Some commentators think that
Reuben was a little far off and probably didn't hear them conspiring.
We don't know that, but we do see that Reuben delivered him
out of their hands and said, let us not kill him. And Reuben
said unto them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit. There
was a pit nearby that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon
him that he might rid him of their hands and to deliver him
to his father again. So his, Reuben's plan was to
deliver Joseph out of the hands of his brethren and deliver him
back to his father. We see that in the text here.
Again, he was the oldest of Israel's sons. And he must have heard
them plotting applauding his death, and he said, let us not
kill him. Reuben didn't want any bloodshed.
He didn't want them to kill him. He wanted them to cast him into
the pit. And then, as I said, it looks
like he had the intent of delivering him back to his father. We see
that in the next few verses, too, when he returns, and he's
absolutely distraught over what they've done. But let's look
at verses 23 to 28 before we get there. And it came to pass, when Joseph
was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his
coat, his coat of many colors that was on him, and they took
him and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty, there
was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread,
and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and behold, a company
of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery
and balm and mirth, going to carry it down to Egypt." This
caravan wasn't passing the original field, was it? But this caravan's passing the
field in Dathron. And the Lord's gonna have Joseph
go to Egypt. But if that caravan wasn't passing
over there in Shechem, he has the brethren move to a field
over in Dathron, right where that caravan's gonna go by. all
according to God's will, and all according to God's purpose.
Now the brethren, they want to thwart the dreams, don't they? They want to kill them. But no
one can thwart God's plans. Absolutely no one. No one. Look, and they sat down to eat,
and then the caravan came by, and look at verse 26, and Judah
said unto his brethren, if we slay our brother and conceal
his blood. Come and let us sell him to the
Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our
brother in our flesh." His brethren were content. All of a sudden there's a change
of mind. The restraining hand of God is
at work, beloved. The restraining hand of God is
at work. Then they were passed by the Midianites merchantmen
and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph
to the Israelites for 20 pieces of silver and they bought Joseph
unto Egypt. Now the brethren probably thought,
we're rid of this dreamer now. That's probably what they thought,
right? You sell someone into slavery, chances are you're never
going to see him again. Never. People went off, the Romans
would capture, go and invade nations and they'd make slaves
out of some and take the young men and script them into their
armies, but make slaves of the adults. And those folks went
to places they had never seen again, some of them, from their
family members. Never again. So they probably
thought, we've washed our hands. He's gone. He's gone. But never lose sight as we look
at these verses that our great sovereign God is orchestrating
all these events. He's orchestrating all these
events. Do you know that He orchestrated the events where you would be
at the exact moment when you heard the gospel preached? He
orchestrated the exact place where you would be born? He orchestrated
by moving your grandparents and your parents to a place where
you would be where you would grow up, he orchestrated where
you would move to, he orchestrated you coming into a church and
hearing the gospel preached and proclaimed, and he opened your
ears and eyes all by his divine will and power. Isn't that beautiful? That's what our Lord does. That's
what our Lord does. And so we look at these events
and say, oh my. And could you imagine Joseph?
Could you imagine what Joseph's thinking? That we see that all
these events are occurring to accomplish God's eternal purpose.
Joseph's wicked brother had no concern for him. They wanted
to kill him. And then we see the restraining hand of God at
work, don't we? And now they're like, well, maybe we'll just
sell him to the Midianites. Never forget who's orchestrating
all this. Whose hand is upon all this. Our great God used
Reuben too. Think of this, our great God
used Reuben. He restrained. He used Reuben to restrain his
brethren. Throw them in the pit, don't kill them. Okay, and they
throw them in the pit. Now Reuben's not with them at
this time when they sell Joseph to the Midnights. So again, we
see God's restrained hand again at work. They cast him in the
pit that Reuben had pointed out. But before doing that, they stripped
Joseph of his coat of many colors. They hated that coat, beloved.
They hated that coat. Probably just as much as they
hated him. Because it was a reminder of
the father's love for Joseph. And they didn't destroy it, but
they used it later to deceive their father. And notice the callousness of
the brethren. They cast him into a pit where there's no water.
It had to be hot. No water. And he'd just sit there
and eat. Notice the callousness of his brethren. They act like
there's nothing wrong. Their brother's over there in
a pit. And they act like there's nothing wrong. They're just caring
about their business. Eating and drinking. Sounds like folks today, eh?
Eating and drinking, just carrying on, callous to the things of
God. They didn't offer Him any food
or water. They had no care for Him. No care for Him. But notice God's providence at
work. Again, His purpose will always be accomplished concerning
the... And here comes, concerning His will and purpose, look at
this, here comes a company of Israelites from Gilead with their
camels. They're bearing spice and balm
and mirth, and where are they going, beloved? We know what
happens. They're going to Egypt. They're
going to Egypt. And we know that it was God's
purpose, what, to send his people to Egypt, don't we? We know that
as well. It was God's purpose to send
his people to Egypt, and then he would deliver them from Egypt.
So here we see the very first part of his people, right? the will and purpose of God being
worked out because Joseph goes there and then what happens with
Israel later on? He hears that his son's alive
and he brings everybody down into Egypt. And they're there
for a while, aren't we? They're there until the determined
time when God would deliver them by the hand of Moses. See, so
we see God's eternal purpose being worked out here, being
worked out here. And we know that it was God's
purpose that Joseph would be exalted the prime minister over
all of Egypt second, and that his brethren would bow down to
him. We'll see that later on during the seven years of famine.
So our great God sends this caravan of Israelites to carry Joseph
down to Egypt. And note what Judah proclaims.
Judah said in verse 26 and 27, Judah said, what profit is it
if we slay our brother and conceal his blood. Come,
and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hands be upon
him, for he is our brother in our flesh, and his brethren were
content." Well, there's been a lot of change here, hasn't
there? Oh my. And the brothers' justification
in doing this wicked deed is that they believed they'd be
justified in selling Joseph to the Israelites because they'd
spare his life. And this shows you what's typical
of every evil, sinful heart. Self-justification. Self-justification. They all
have the same sinful, evil heart. They're in full agreement to
do this together. And it's the same evil nature that all of
us comes into this world with. It's exposed right here. And
we see that this caravan of consisted of Midianites and Ishamites,
and this has often occurred that traders would group up together
to avoid robbers or wild beasts, as a larger group was usually
avoided by both, was usually avoided by both. And this caravan
draws closer to where Joseph and his brethren are, and Joseph's
brethren lifted him out of the pit and sold him for 20 pieces
of silver. Sold him for 20 pieces of silver. And the Israelites,
for 20 pieces of silver, take Joseph and take him into Egypt. Now remember our dear brother
Joseph wasn't riding in an air-conditioned car, was he? No. It was hot. He'd already been in a pit with
no water. He was now a slave to be bought
and sold. So imagine what the things that
were running through his mind, his own brethren did this, why?
Could you imagine? You'd be like, why? Why'd you
do this to me? He had no idea. Why? And he had no idea what awaited
him in Egypt, did he? Egypt's a picture of the world.
See, our Lord knew what awaited him in Egypt. But Joseph had
no idea what awaited him in Egypt. No idea at all. His mother had died giving birth
to him, to his younger brother Benjamin, and he probably thought
he'd never see his father or his beloved brother Benjamin
ever again. That's probably what was running through his mind.
But remember, Joseph's an object of God's eternal love. He's one
of the Lord's sheep. He's born again by the Holy Spirit
of God, and our great God is always with his sheep. It might
seem sometimes to the natural man that God has turned his back
on Joseph, but just like the case of Job at the latter end
of Joseph, the latter end of Joseph was better than the beginning. We'll see that later on in our
studies. We'll see that come through.
Now all the elect of God go through trials and troubles. Brother
Scott Ritchin used to say the believer's either going into
trouble, in trouble, or coming out of trouble, and that's so
true. It's so true. But what comfort we can find
from these scriptures like this, knowing that our God works all
things out for his glory and for our good. Remember this,
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared
with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Remember that. So where was our great God when
all this happened to Joseph? Where was our great God when
we go through things? Where's our great God when we
go through things? Where's our great God right now? Well, He's in the same place
right now as He was when Joseph went through all
these things. He's in the same place as He always is when we
go through things. And He's in the same place right
now. He's ruling and reigning on His throne. He never changes. He never changes. And our sovereign,
majestic God is ruling and reigning upon the throne of grace right
now, working all things out according to His eternal will and purpose.
We don't have to stress out about things going on out there in
the world. No. He's working all things out
according to His will and purpose, beloved. This work is His work.
Right? It's His. It's God's work. And
He keeps it going, and He provides, and it's amazing. We just marvel
at how good He is to us all, that we can come and we can gather
together and we can hear the gospel preached and proclaimed.
It's wonderful. It's amazing how the Lord knits
our hearts together in love. Now we can often change the tide.
How often do we think we can change the tide of something
by our own strength? How often do we think that? Oh,
we think that often, don't we? But we are taught here in the
scriptures, and we're taught by things in our own lives that
we cannot do things in our own strength. We cannot do things
in our own strength. Joseph could do nothing about
the situation he was in. Could he? He's sold into slavery. He has no, he can't do anything
about the situation he's in. And who knows what he thought
about his brothers at this time. They turned against him. But
remember what Joseph said later on in Genesis chapter 50 verse
20, and this is only by the grace of God. He said, but as for you,
you thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good to
bring it to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. So let us, when we're going through
times of trial and tribulation, let us lean on the great refuge
of our souls, knowing that our God is in full control of our
lives, just as he is in full control
of Joseph's life, of every one of his sheep. Praise be to God. Heavenly Father, we thank you
again for allowing us to look through thy scriptures. and wonder
of wonders, Lord, as we see how you protect your sheep and watch
over them, guide and direct us. Lord, we love you and we praise
you. We thank you for saving us. We thank you for regenerating
us, that we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We thank
you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, for your goodness, mercy, and
grace towards us and through Christ Jesus, our Lord. Glory
to you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.