Go back to Genesis 47. Going through the book of Genesis
to me has been like walking through a museum where every picture
is Christ. That's what it's been like for
me to go through this book. The title of the message is presented, blessed, and nourished. That pretty much explains us
in Christ. He's presented us through the
Father spotless. We are blessed in Him with all
spiritual blessings, and we are nourished. We are fed by Him
and in Him daily as we pass through this life. Now, Israel has come into Egypt,
and he is directed to go to the land of Goshen. I never really
gave much thought to Goshen until the last few days, and there's
some interesting things, I think, in comparison to Christ. Goshen, the land of Goshen, and
the Lord Jesus Christ, what a type. But he is directed to go to Goshen
by Joseph over in chapter 45, I believe it's verse 10. And then we will see in this
chapter how Joseph presented his brethren to Pharaoh, blessed
them and nourished them. And with the Lord's help, we
will apply this to the Lord Jesus Christ and how we are blessed
in him and taken care of in him. Verse 1, Then Joseph came and
told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brethren and their flocks
and their herds and all that they have are come out of the
land of Canaan, and behold, they are in the land of Goshen. Joseph
intercedes for his family. He intercedes for Israel and
his brethren before Pharaoh, even as Christ, our Lord, intercedes
for us. I can't comprehend that. I have
to say I can't comprehend that the Lord Jesus Christ, God in
the flesh, intercedes for me. How powerful is that? How comforting
is that? I mean, I'm just a worm, and
that's what we are. We're just worms. And yet He
intercedes for us, thinks upon us. I believe it was David who
said, Thy thoughts to us cannot be reckoned up in order. His
mind is never off from us. His thoughts are never off from
us, as though we were the only ones existing. But I know something else that
jumped out here at me. Joseph now, in all his glory,
in all his splendor, you can imagine this is the most powerful
man in the land of Egypt other than Pharaoh. And really, he
said he was as a father to Pharaoh. In other words, he was above
Pharaoh. He knew, Joseph knew that God put him even above Pharaoh
at this time. Because he had all this power
and position. And he's not ashamed to call
them to own them as His brethren. He's not ashamed. I want you
to look over in verse 34 of chapter 46. Let me go up to verse 31. And
Joseph said unto his brethren and unto his father's house,
I will go up and show Pharaoh and say unto him, My brethren
and my father's house which were in the land of Canaan are come
unto me. He intercedes for them. And he does that in the first
Then the men are shepherds, for their trade hath been to feed
cattle, and they have brought their flocks and their herds,
and all that they have. And it shall come to pass, when
Pharaoh shall call you, and shall say, What is your occupation?
That ye shall say, Thy servant's trade hath been about cattle
from our youth even until now, both we and also our fathers,
that ye may dwell in the land of Goshen. For every shepherd
is an abomination unto the Egyptians. They're shepherds. And these
brethren of his are an abomination. They are the scum of the earth
to the Egyptians. And he's not ashamed to say,
this is my family. This is my family. He's not ashamed
of it. Even though they were shepherds.
Christ is not ashamed to own us as His brethren, bone of our
bone, flesh of our flesh. He's not ashamed to own us, even
though we are sinners by nature and by trade. We trade in sin. He's not ashamed of us. Look
over in Hebrews chapter 11. In Hebrews chapter 11. Look in verse 16. Or let's look
in verse 15. And truly, if they had been mindful
of that country from which they came out, they might have had
opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better
country, that is, and heavenly. Wherefore God, God Almighty,
is not ashamed to be called their God. He's not ashamed to be called
the God of sinners. Shepherds. You know, shepherds
were considered in that day to be the lowest of the low. They were thought to be marauders,
thieves. That's the way they looked upon
shepherds. But he says here in Hebrews 11 and 16, God is not
ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared for them
a city. Joseph is not ashamed to say,
this is my family. This is my family. And notice
Joseph did not try to hide what his brethren were. He didn't
say, now, when you come to Pharaoh, you tell him this or that, but
don't tell him you're shepherds. No, he didn't do that. He said,
when Pharaoh asks you what your occupation is, you tell him the
truth. You tell him what you are. You're shepherds. You're
an abomination. Just as we confess that we are
sinners, ungodly. ungodly. Our Lord never tells us to hide
what we are, and He never tries to hide what we are. Just going
through Genesis, look at the things that's written about Abraham,
things he did, and Isaac Jacob, and then David, and Samson. I mean, the Lord did not hide
Sins of His servants. And Joseph said, now when Pharaoh
asks you, you tell him. You tell him what you are. Shepherds.
We confess what we are by nature. Sinners. Sinners. That's what we are. Then Joseph
presents his brethren. In verse 2, he took some of his
brethren, even five men, and presented them unto Pharaoh.
The five represent the whole family. He didn't have to bring
all 66 of them. He brought five of them, and he presented them
to Pharaoh. They didn't present themselves
without Joseph. That would be a disaster. But
if Joseph presents them, all will be well. All is well. See, Joseph brings his five brethren
in, but he presents them. He speaks to Pharaoh first. He speaks to him. I want Christ,
this was my first thought when I read this, I want Christ to
present me to the Father. I want Him to present me and
I want Him to represent me before the Father. That's what I want.
If He does that, if the Lord will do that, all will be well
with my soul. It will be well. And they were
accepted. Joseph presented them, and they
were accepted. But I tell you this, they were
accepted for Joseph's sake. If it wasn't for Joseph, those
shepherds wouldn't be allowed, and they would not be allowed
in Pharaoh's presence. They're an abomination to the
Egyptians. They would not have been allowed.
Even as we are accepted and forgiven for Christ's sake, it's for Christ's
sake that we are accepted and forgiven. You take Christ out
of the picture, And no one is accepted. No one can be accepted
of God. No one. Not apart from Him. We
are an abomination to God apart from Christ. The one that makes
these five men, that family, accepted is Joseph. It's Joseph. It's Christ who makes us accepted.
It says God has made us accepted in the Beloved, but not outside
of Him. Not apart from Him. Accepted in Him. You take Christ
out of the equation, you take Him out of the picture, and there
is no acceptance. And Pharaoh said unto his brethren,
What is your occupation? Joseph knew that he would ask.
He knew what Pharaoh would ask. And they said unto Pharaoh, Thy
servants are shepherds. They owned up to it. They knew
exactly what Pharaoh thought of shepherds. They knew what
the Egyptians thought of shepherds. Thy servants are shepherds, both
we and also our fathers." Pharaoh asked him, what's your occupation?
He said, well, we're shepherds. We're shepherds. An abomination
to the Egyptians. We know what we are. We know.
We will be made to confess what we are in God's sight. ungodly, the publicans smote
upon his breast and he said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And notice here that they confessed
that not only were they shepherds, but their fathers were shepherds.
Their fathers were shepherds before them. We came, they said,
we came from shepherds. Oh, I tell you, we are not only
sinners, but our whole family is sinners. We came from the
whole family of sinners. Our origin is sin. David said,
I was born in sin and shepherded in iniquity. That's my origin. All the way back to Adam. Sin. Sin on every turn. Not just me. They said, my whole family are
shepherds. Whole family. And they said moreover
unto Pharaoh, Wilt thou sojourn in the land where we come? For
thy servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine
is sore in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, we pray thee,
let thy servants dwell in the land of Goshen. You know, that was the best land
in Egypt. That ran along the Nile River.
But when the Nile River overflowed, it did not overflow the land
of Goshen. And it was the most fertile land
in Egypt. And guess who got it? A people
that was nothing but an abomination to the Egyptians. Now that's a work of grace. That's
a work of God. When we stand in glory, sinners
saved by grace is what it's going to be. Sinners saved by grace.
Trophies of His grace. It's going to be amazing that
those who inherit glory who inherit the new earth were by nature
an abomination. Boy, in Christ we're not. In
Christ we're made, what does the Scripture say? A new creature. They said, We have come to live
in Goshen, for the famine is sore in the land of Canaan. We
pray Thee. We are at Your mercy. They didn't
demand it. They humbly bowed before Pharaoh
and said, we are at your mercy. Let us dwell in the land of Goshen. We come to the Father in Christ
and we pray for mercy. We pray for forgiveness. And
we pray, Lord, let me dwell in the land of Christ. The best. Abide. Abide in Him. Notice to whom Pharaoh speaks.
He speaks to Joseph here in verse 5. And Pharaoh spake unto Joseph,
saying, Thy father and thy brethren are come unto thee. They've come to thee. Christ said, Come unto me, all
you that labor and heavy laden. I'll give you rest. He said,
Your family has come to you. And that's what we do. We come
to Christ. We come to Him for all that we need. We come to
Him for mercy. We come to Him for forgiveness.
We come to Him for everything that we need to stand in God's
presence. Salvation is Christ. It's Christ. It's not coming
to Christ. It's Christ. Now come to Him. Come to Him. He said, your brethren
have come to you. And through Joseph, Pharaoh gives
the best land to his brethren. The best. The best. The land of Egypt, he said, is
before thee. In the best of the land, make
thy father and brethren to dwell, abide. In the land of Goshen,
let them dwell. You know what one of the terms
for Goshen is? Land of heroes. Let them dwell. Let them abide. And if you know of any man of
activity among them, then make them rulers over my cattle. Why
is so much made out of the land of Goshen? Well, here's the reason
why. And Goshen has spoken of several
times throughout the Scripture. It is a type of Christ. It is
a type of Christ. It was the best land in all of
Egypt. It was the most fertile land.
We could say the most blessed land. And especially at that
time of that famine. Everywhere else was nothing.
You'll see as we go on through here, people sold their land
and sold themselves everything to Pharaoh because they didn't
have anything. But the people of God who lived in Goshen, they
didn't have to do that. The grass was green, the cattle
were fed, and they had bread. It was the best land to abide
in in Egypt. Christ is the best abiding place. He is the best abiding place
in heaven and earth. Where would you rather abide
at? Is there someplace you would love to dwell? Well, for the
believer, it's in Christ. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me dwell there. He's the best land. He's the most fertile. All the blessings of God are
in Him. That's why the Lord said in John
15, Abide in Me. And if you'll notice here also, it
was given to them as a gift. They didn't purchase one inch
of it. For Joseph's sake, they were given Goshen. For Joseph's sake. I want you
to listen to these Scriptures. I'll read them. I've got them
written down here. In Romans 6.23, For the wages
of sin is death, But the gift of God is eternal life through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5.17 For if by one man's
offense death reign by one, much more they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus
Christ. And Romans 5.15 But not as the
offense, so also is the free gift. For if through the offense
of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift
by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ hath abounded to
many." You notice here how that the gift of God is directly connected
to Jesus Christ. Outside of Him, apart from Him,
is nothing but wrath. But in Christ, everything that
God has to give, and He gives it as a gift, but it's in Christ. And if I have Christ, I have
it all. I have it all. Notice this about the land of
Goshen. All and only the elect dwell there. The gypsies didn't
dwell there. The elect of God dwelt in Goshen.
All God's elect dwell in Christ right now. Even the ones that
have not yet been born, they even now dwell in the Lord Jesus
Christ. All the elect of God dwelt in
the land of Goshen. What a type of Christ. But here's
something that we're really just It stood out to me. None of the
plagues over in Exodus, none of the plagues that fell on Egypt,
none of those plagues fell on the people of God in Goshen. None of them. Turn over to Exodus
chapter 8. Let me show you this. Exodus chapter 8. Look in verse 22. Then we'll go to verse 21. Else if thou wilt not let my
people go, behold, I will send swarms of flies. Now in my margin
it says a mixture of noisome beasts. Whatever that was, it
was a mixture of noisome beasts. God said, I will send swarms
of flies upon thee, and upon thy servants, and upon thy people,
and into thy houses. And the houses of the Egyptians
shall be full of swarms of flies, and also the ground whereon they
are. And I will sever in that day the land of Goshen in which
my people dwell, that no swarms of flies shall be there. They're over there swatting flies
and just, I mean, just what a mess. But not in the land of Goshen.
To the end that thou mayest know that I am the Lord in the midst
of thee. Now, I want to show you something. Turn over. You
see that word sever? And I will sever in that day
the land of Goshen. Now turn over to Exodus chapter
11. I'll show you what that word
means. In Exodus chapter 11, look at verse 7. Well, look at
verse 6. There shall be a great cry throughout
all the land of Egypt, such as there was none like it, nor shall
be like it any more. This is the firstborn going to
be killed. But against any of the children of Israel shall
not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, that you may know
how that the Lord doth put a difference That word sever, where he said
he was severed, it has the same meaning as this. The Lord doth
put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. It is a land of distinguishing
grace. That's what Christ is. God has
shown us mercy and grace in the Lord Jesus Christ, just like
He did the children of Israel in the land of Goshen. Now, I'll turn back to Exodus
chapter 9. In Exodus chapter 9. In verse 23, And Moses stretched
forth his rod toward heaven. And the Lord sent thunder and
hail, and the fire ran along upon the ground. And the Lord
rained hail upon the land of Egypt. So there was hail and
fire mingled with the hail, very grievous, such as there was none
like it in all the land of Egypt since it became a nation. And
the hell smote throughout all the land of Egypt, all that was
in the field, both man and beast, and the hell smote every herb
of the field, burned it all up, and broke every tree of the field.
Only in the land of Goshen, where the children of Israel were,
there was no hell. The hell of God's wrath did not
fall on the people in Goshen. In Christ, we are safe from the
wrath of God. Scripture says He has saved us
from the wrath to come. It fell on Him, but it's not
going to fall on us. And He says here, He said this
hell burned up everything, but it did not fall in the land of
Goshen. And then let me show you something
else here. It's where the Passover was killed. In the land of Goshen, the Passover
was killed and the blood was put on the door. Christ is our
Passover. Christ is our land of Goshen.
In the land of Goshen, there was blood, there was atonement,
there was satisfaction. In the land of Goshen, outside
of that, destruction. But I'm telling you what, all
these plagues are going on. And all this destruction is going
on from God against these Egyptians. The land of Goshen was at peace.
They were at peace. And when darkness filled Egypt,
it says the worry could be felt. Let me turn over to Exodus chapter
10. Look in verse 21. Verse 21, And the Lord said unto
Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven, that there may
be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may
be felt. I've never seen or been in that
kind of darkness where you could almost feel it. And listen, here's
how thick it was. And Moses stretched forth his
hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the
land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, and
neither rose any of his place. They couldn't even move. They
couldn't even function. Not at all. But all the children
of Israel had light in the land of Goshen, in their dwellings. Isn't that something? They had
light. It was light. There was darkness
so thick that they couldn't even move. But right here in this
little land of Goshen, this real fertile land, The people of God
had light. It was daylight. Isn't that something? Listen to these scriptures. John
8, 12. Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light
of the world. I'm the light. The people of
Israel had light in Goshen. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness. that believes on me, abides in
me, trusts me, shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life." You're not going to walk in darkness. The Lord
said in John 9, 5, as long as I'm in the world, I am the light
of the world. And then in Goshen, to wrap this
up, in Goshen, the children of God were placed
Let me go back here where I'm at. Go back to verse 10 and 47. And Jacob, and this is something
here, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh didn't bless Jacob. That's
not going to happen. You see, Pharaoh is a prince.
He is the king, the most powerful man in the land. But Jacob is
the prince of God. Israel. That's what he's called,
Israel, Prince of God. And he blessed Pharaoh. Isn't
that something? He's the one who's going to do
the blessing here, not Pharaoh. And Joseph placed his father
and his brethren and gave them possession in the land of Egypt,
in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had
commanded. And Joseph nourished his father
and his brethren and all his father's household with bread
according to their families. Joseph placed his father, and
there's three things I wrote down, well, four things. Placed,
possessed, possession, nourished, and according to their families.
Let's look at those four things real quickly, and I'll close.
God placed, and you know, Joseph said, God sent me here before
you to save much people's lives. And through the providence of
God, he placed And that word placed means to sit down. It also means this, to marry. It has the meaning of a marriage. God placed. He married them in
Goshen. Oh, I tell you. Here's how we come to be in Christ.
Here's how we end up in Christ. Of Him, over in 1 Corinthians
1.30, of Him are you in Christ Jesus. God put us there. God put us there before the foundation
of the world. In time, He makes us a new creation
in Him. Grant us faith, repentance, and
we come to know Him. But how did we get there? God
put us there. Joseph placed his father and
his brethren. He set them down. He married
him there in the land of Goshen. And it was given to them as a
possession. They didn't rent it. They did
not just like squatters, you know, take over. It actually became theirs. The
land of Goshen actually became Israels. It belonged to them. It was given to them as a possession. It was theirs. What's the Scripture
say? All things are yours in Christ. All things are yours in Christ,
and Christ is God's. The Scripture says we are joint
heirs with Christ. Whatever He has, we have. And that can't be counted. His righteousness is mine. It's mine. His atonement is mine. Eternal life is mine as a possession. I possess it. I have it as a
possession. He that hath the Son hath life. You possess it. And everything we possess, we
possess in Him. And then it says nourished. He
nourished them there. He took care of them. That's
the first thing we think of. But you know what that means?
He nourished, it means to keep in. They were kept in the land
of Goshen. We are kept. by the power of
God through faith in Christ. We are kept in Him. Now, if God
didn't keep us, we would leave. We would. We'd leave. But He
keeps us, and He keeps us in Christ. In Him. Kept by the power of God through
faith. In the Lord Jesus Christ, the
best place. The best place. Listen to Jude
1.24. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling. He's able to keep you from falling
away into apostasy. He's able to keep you from falling
and present you faultless. See, we're presented. The Lord
Jesus Christ has presented us to the Father. These are my brethren. Faultless. Faultless. And it says, before the Prince
of His glory with exceeding joy. We're not going to be trembling
and scared, but with exceeding joy. And then it says, He nourished
them and He fed them with bread. They were fed with bread. God
the Father has fed us with the best bread. The bread from heaven. The bread from heaven. But here's
something that's really sweet. According to their families.
You know what that means? According to their tripping ones. It means He took care of those
Like a little toddler, you had to trip and fall trying to learn
to walk, but they took care of him. He nourished him, took care
of him, even the tripping ones. Even the ones that fall and falter,
he still keeps and takes care of them. Those who trip. That's what it means. According,
it says, or as little, as a little child is nourished. According
to the little ones. According to the tripping ones. I tell you what, we are accepted
in the Beloved. We are blessed in Him. We dwell
in the best land. We dwell in Christ. He's the
best. He's Goshen. He's Goshen. All the blessings of God are
in Him. In Him we have wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. He's the most fertile land, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we are kept in hand and nourished,
even the tripping ones.