Turn to Genesis 41. I titled the message, Go to Joseph. Go to Joseph, or I could say
go to Christ. It is evident that Joseph was
worthy of the position that he held. He was the wisest in the
land. He was a man of integrity. Christ is worthy. He's worthy of the position that
the Father has put him in. He is the wisdom of God. All
things have been put into the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to give a few parallels
between Joseph and our Lord as we look at this chapter tonight.
Now, I'm not going to give all the parallels. I believe A.W. Pink gave a hundred parallels.
We won't do that tonight. But we'll give a few. But first,
let me say, and this has been on my mind as we have been going
through Genesis here and since we've been looking at Joseph. Let me say that Joseph is a good
example for all who believe God. Joseph is a sinner. Let us not
forget this. Joseph is a sinner saved by grace. Yes, he is a type of the Lord
Jesus Christ, but he's not Christ. He's not Christ. He's a sinner.
He's a sinner like you and I, chosen in Christ. I know you have noticed over
the last couple of weeks or so how that he has conducted himself
in adversity as well as in prosperity. He
conducted himself in a very gracious manner. He was a good servant in the
house of Potiphar as well as in the prison. He
knew no change, did he? He was the same. When he was
servant in Potiphar's house and over all that, and when he was
cast into prison, he was the same Joseph. He was the same
obedient servant. He bowed, and this stood out
to me as I thought about Joseph these past few days. Joseph bowed
to the sovereignty of God Every time. In all situations, Joseph
bowed to the sovereignty of God in whatever came his way. He
bowed to it. And also this, let us not forget
the providence of God in the life of Joseph. Here's this shepherd
boy. He's at home watching sheep and
his father calls him and says, I want you to go check on your
brethren. And he does. And you know the
story as we've gone through it. They see him afar off. They plot
his death. They want to kill him. They put
him in a pit. In a pit. Wherein it says there's
no water. No water. No comfort. None whatsoever. And I'm sure Joseph in that pit
could not See the hand of God in it. How can good come out
of this? How can this pit be of God? And then they take him out of
the pit and they sell him to some Ishmaelites. And he goes
down to Egypt and they sell him to Potiphar. You see, none of this, Joseph
knew none of this. You and I have the advantage
of reading the story. But all of this is just, he's
living it day by day. And he's sold to Potiphar, and
then his wife lies on him, he's charged with sin that he didn't
commit, and he's cast into the king's prison. Surely, how can
this be of God? How can this be of God? How can
any good come out of this? And then he's in prison for a
good while. He tells the butler and the baker their dream. And
then he tells the butler, remember me when you come before Pharaoh
when you are restored. And the butler forgets him. For
two years. For two years. How can this be
of God? And then Pharaoh has a dream. And the butler remembers a Hebrew. A young man. A Hebrew man. And
he brought out of prison to the throne. And this man, this man
is the greatest in Egypt besides Pharaoh. Now, you think he could
have had any idea of that in the pit? Or in the prison? We can learn from these things. We can learn from these things. That Romans 8.28 is true. All things work together for
good to them that love God, to them who are called according
to His purpose. I have learned this. I have learned
this through reading the Scriptures and my own self. Whatever it
is that comes my way is part of the journey home. And this
is part of our journey of being glorified in the end, just as
Joseph. Well, it says here, at the end
of two full years, you see, trials must run their course. For them
to have their effect, they must run their course. They have their time. Our Lord
said this, and he said this several times, mine hour has not yet
come. They wanted to kill him. I don't
know how many times they wanted to kill him. But he said, my
hour has not yet come. And I thought today, we all have
our hour to be tried. We all have it. And we all have
our hour to come out of it. Only God knows the hour. Only
he knows the hour. So we get into this story here.
Pharaoh dreams two dreams. And God shows Pharaoh what he's
about to do. And what a mercy. What a mercy. Here is a Gentile king, a heathen
king, and God reveals to him what he is about to do. That
he's going to bring this famine on the land. And so what Pharaoh
does is he calls in the magicians. And the wise men of Egypt, the
wisest, the most educated, you have to realize at that time
Egypt was the most educated cultured people on the earth at that time.
So he calls in his magicians and all of them and he tells
them the dream. They can't tell him anything.
They can't tell him anything. And that's because the wisdom
of this world proves to be foolishness when it comes to interpreting
the Word of God. It proves to be foolishness.
He calls in the best that he has, and they're not able to
interpret it. The Scripture says, In his light,
in thy light shall we see light. Christ is the only one. He's
the only one who can reveal the secret things of God. He said,
as I hear, I speak. The words that I speak to you
are not mine, they're His that sent me. And that butler, he heard about
Pharaoh's dream. And he remembered Joseph. You
see, it's time. The hour has come now. It's time
for him to be glorified. It's time for him now to come
out of the prison. And so that butler remembers
a dream and he says, I remember there's a young Hebrew. And if
you'll notice all the way through Scripture, because this represents
Christ, every time God gave a dream or a vision to like Pharaoh,
Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, It was always a Jew who gave the
interpretation of it, every time. Because our Lord, when He came
into this world, He came into this world as a Hebrew, a Jew. They represented the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so He said, there's a Hebrew. There's a Hebrew that
I met in prison. And He was able to tell me the
dream. I dreamed a dream. The butler
and the baker, the baker dreamed a dream. And he told us the dream,
and it happened just like he said. So Joseph, there starting
in verse 14, he's brought out of prison before Pharaoh. And he stands before Pharaoh.
And it says here, and I thought about this just before coming
over here. I didn't dawn on it until I was
reading it again. It says that he shaved He cleaned up. He changed his arraignment. He
took a bath. And then he stood before Pharaoh. Our Lord was
raised from the grave. This is like Joseph coming out
of prison. Our Lord was raised from the grave. And He ascended
to the Father, the right hand of the Father. And there was
not a smell of sin on Him. There was not a trace of sin
on Him in any way, shape, or form. He put it away. He put
it away. When they said, Joseph, the king,
the king requires your presence. The king has called you out of
prison. The first thing he did, and it
said here, it says that they made haste. They did it quickly.
Our Lord was only in the grave three days. It was, I mean, he
was not there long. His body, he said he saw no corruption. He wasn't there even long enough
to do that. And it says Joseph shaved and
cleaned up. And I tell you, that just to
me speaks of Christ rising from the dead without a trace of sin.
You know, before that, when He went to the cross, the Scripture
tells us He was made to be sin for us. It says our sins and
our iniquities were laid on Him. He bore our sins in His body
on the tree. But now when He came out of that
grave, there was not even a smell of it. He put it away. He put it away. And then He goes before Pharaoh,
and Pharaoh reveals everything concerning his dream to Joseph. Just as the Father has revealed
everything to His Son. And then the Son reveals everything
Everything that the Father has revealed, that the Father has
given Him to reveal. He's the interpreter. He's the
interpreter of the mind and will of the Father. No man knoweth
the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will
reveal Him. And it says also here in 37 through
39 that Joseph pleased Pharaoh. Pharaoh, when he saw Joseph,
and you know, As we looked at earlier, Joseph was a handsome
man. He was a handsome man, and we
see here he was a wise man. None wiser than Joseph. And when
Pharaoh heard him, saw him, looked upon him, he was pleased with
Joseph. But you know where I'm going
with that. God the Father said, this is My beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. He said, This is
my Son in whom I am well pleased. He's never said that about anybody
else but his Son. Now, he's pleased with everyone
in his Son, but he said, This is my Son in whom I am well pleased. And then Joseph is recognized as being the wisest of all. Joseph
interprets the dream. And you notice here, Joseph said,
let Pharaoh, let Pharaoh choose out the wisest man and put him
over the land of Egypt. And he told him how to do this.
Joseph didn't say, well, Pharaoh, won't you put me over this? Won't
you put me over this and I'll take care of it. Christ never
put Himself in the position that He's in. The Father put Him there. Behold mine elect whom I have
chosen. The Father chose Christ and put
Him in that position as the Redeemer, as the Savior, as the Mediator,
as the High Priest. He took not on Himself the offices
that it was given to Him. The Father gave them to Him.
The Father chose Him to Him. Even as Joseph, he didn't say,
Pharaoh, look at me. No, he didn't do that. And Pharaoh
recognized him as the wisest of all. Even as Christ is recognized
in the Word of God as the wisdom of God. He's made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And then Joseph was placed, Pharaoh
placed him over all the house. All the house. And according to Joseph's word,
let me find this in verse 40. Let me see, verse 40. Thou shalt be, let me go back
to verse 39. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
for as much as God hath showed thee all this, there is none
so discreet and wise As thou art, Joseph." It's evident. It's
evident. It was evident when they heard
Christ speak that there was none as wise as He. They said, never
a man spake like this man. Never a man spake like this man.
And He says here, Thou shalt be over My house. According unto
Thy word shall all My people be ruled. According to Thy word,
Joseph, If Joseph said, go, they were to go. If he said, come,
they were to come. Whatever he said, they were to
do it. Pharaoh said, you're over all
the Egyptians, all the land of Egypt, and your word is law. My people are ruled by your word. Are we not ruled by the word
of God, the living word and his written word? You can't separate
it. Joseph is placed over the whole house of Pharaoh, and according
to his word shall my people, he says, be ruled. And this applies
to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is over the house of God. Who rules us? Who are we ruled
by? Well, I can tell you this. Well,
Christ rules over all. We know that. But especially
the house of God is ruled by the Lord Jesus Christ. We are
ruled by His Word. How many times does He tell His
disciples, keep my commandments? If you keep my commandments,
it applies to Him. And then Pharaoh, look here,
and Pharaoh said unto Joseph, see, I have sent thee over all
the land of Egypt. You're over all of it. Christ
is over all that the Father owns. I mean heaven, earth, hell, the
universe, Jesus Christ is over every bit of it. And Pharaoh
took off his ring from his hand and he put it upon Joseph's hand
and he arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, silk. There was
none arrayed like Joseph. And he put a gold chain about
his neck. The Father has glorified the
Son. We saw that here just a couple
of weeks ago. The Father has glorified the
Son. There is none compared to Him. There is none compared to
His glory. He said, Father, I will that
they be with me where I am that they may behold my glory. The glory I had with you before
the world was. Pharaoh exalted Joseph before
everyone. He arrayed Joseph before all
of them. And there was none like Joseph
in all the land. None arrayed like him. My hero
right there was Pharaoh. And what he said was law. And I want you to notice this. evident in him being a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ in verse 43. And he made him to ride in
the second chariot which he had. And they cried before him as
he went by, bow the knee. Bow the knee. When he went by,
they said bow the knee. And he made him ruler over all
the land of Egypt. over here, over in Philippians
chapter 2. Let's read this again. We've
read it so many times, but I like reading it. In verse 9, Wherefore God also
hath, chapter 2, Philippians chapter 2 verse 9, Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which
is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow at things in heaven, things in earth, and
things under the earth. That every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And when Joseph went by, they
said, bow the knee. Oh, what a type of Christ he
is. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee
shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. You know what that is? I wrote out by that verse here,
absolute power. Here is a shepherd boy, he was
a shepherd boy, he was a young man, he was in a pit, despised
by his brother, ended up being sold into Egypt, being put in
prison, And now he's exalted to the throne, and now Ebeneez
is going to bow, and this man is given absolute power over
all. That is Jesus Christ. That's
what God the Father has done with Jesus Christ. Absolute power. Our Lord said, All power and
all authority is given to me in heaven and earth. It belongs
to me. It's given to me. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name
Zath-Nath-Paniah. You know what that means? Over in the margin it says, a
revealer of secrets. And truly Christ is the revealer
of the secrets of God. He's the one who revealed redemption
in His fullness. That's how we understand redemption
through Him. We understand how God saves sinners
through Him. That's how we understand it.
But you know what the Egyptian meaning is? of Zaphnaphaneh,
Savior of the world. That's the Egyptian name. That's
the Egyptian meaning of Zaphnaphaneh, Savior of the world. That's the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Savior of the world. He's not going to save everyone
in the world. Just like Noah didn't save every animal, But
He saved the animal kingdom, didn't He? Christ is going to
save the world, even though He's not going to save everyone in
it. But He's the Savior of the world. And all of this points to the
Lord Jesus Christ. And then in verse 46, And Joseph
was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of
Egypt. How old was our Lord? How old was He when He came in,
came into his earthly ministry in preaching the gospel. He was
thirty years old. Thirty years old. And Joseph
went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all
the land of Egypt. It all belonged to him. He had
power. He had absolute power over all
of it. He had absolute sway over the whole thing. It was his. Complete dominion was his. And in the seven plenteous years
the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food
of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid
up the food in the cities, and the food of the field, which
was round about every city, laid he up in the same." In other
words, it happened just like he said it would. Did he not
tell Pharaoh, this is what's going to happen? Has our Lord
not told us in His Word exactly what's going to happen? You know,
when He revealed to Pharaoh, when He revealed what was going
to happen, He revealed that there's going to be seven plenteous years.
But Pharaoh, there's also going to be judgment. There's also
going to be judgment. He didn't hold back the truth.
He didn't smooth it over. He didn't try to make it You
know, being afraid of Pharaoh might not like the interpretation.
He told it just like it is. And it happened. It happened
just as He said. And our Lord has given us a book
here we call the Bible. And it's going to happen exactly
as He said. Exactly. And then he says here, he gathered
up all the food, in verse 28, and then in verse 49, and Joseph
gathered corn as the sand of the sea. Oh, the blessings. The blessings of our Lord are
without number. One writer said that the seven plenteous years
here, they likened it to the covenant of grace. And all the
blessings were in that covenant. And all of them were at the disposal
of Joseph. And it says here, and Joseph
gathered as the sand of the sea very much until he left numbering. Oh, the blessings of God cannot
be numbered. What we have in Christ cannot be numbered, cannot
be reckoned One of the elders in this psalm just says that
all his blessings and mercies cannot be reckoned up in order.
Can't do it. Can't do it. For it was without
number. Without number. And unto Joseph were born two
sons before the years of famine came, which was Ashenath, the
daughter of Potipharah, Priesthood on, barren to him, and Joseph
called his name of the firstborn Manasseh. Forget him. That's
what I mean, forget him. Forget him. God said this, I'll
remember thy sins no more. I'll remember them no more. I
can't forget them, but God forgets them. For God said he hath made
me forget all my toil and all my father's house. And the name
of the second called he Ephraim, for God hath called me to be
fruitful in the land of my affliction." Heaven is going to be populated with
a people that cannot be numbered. fruitful. The fruit that will come out of the work
of Christ will be numberless. And the fruit
is you. You who believe the gospel. You
are the fruit. You are the fruit. It caused me to be fruitful in
the land of my affliction. In the land of my affliction. And
then the seven years of Plenteous that was in the land of Egypt
were ended. In the seven years of judgment,
and the seven years of Dareth began to come according as Joseph
had said. As Joseph has said, and that
Dareth was in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt,
where Joseph was, there was bread. Bread. You know what you and
I have here every week? Out there is a famine. I mean,
honestly, a famine of the Word of God. There's a famine out there in
the world, but right here, We have the bread of heaven every
week. We truly do have the bread of
heaven every week here. And when all the land of Egypt
was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for
bread. And Pharaoh said unto the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph. They were looking to Pharaoh.
Crying for mercy, crying for help, crying for food. And he
said, you go to Joseph. I put it all in his hands. And what he says to you, do it. Christ said, no man comes to
the Father but by me. He that's heavy laden, he said,
come to me. I'll give you rest. Come to me. Go to Joseph. Go to the Lord
Jesus Christ for mercy, for forgiveness, for help, for grace, for mercy. Go to Him. God has invested everything
in that man, Jesus Christ. It's all in Him. And the famine
was over all the face of the earth. I thought about the fall
of Adam. The fall of Adam has affected every square inch of
this earth. The fall affected the whole human
race. But look, all is not lost because a wise man, a worthy
man was put over the storehouse, the storehouse of grace the storehouse
of the covenant of grace. And Joseph opened all the storehouses. You know, this is going to last
for seven years and people are coming. We might run out. No, no, no. He's never going
to run out. He never runs out of grace, mercy,
forgiveness. Never runs out. Never runs out. Joseph opened all the... He's
the only one who could. He's the one who had the dominion
over it. He's the one who had the authority over it. He's the
one who had the power over it. And he opened a storehouse and
he sold them to the Egyptians. And you know what he did, as
we'll find out? They gave their land, their possessions,
everything for what? This bread. They handed everything
over. Joseph Through his wisdom and
through his work here, Pharaoh ended up owning everything. It
all belonged to him. I'll tell you this, when the Lord saves a man, when
the Lord saves a sinner, that sinner is absolutely willing
to give everything over for the bread of heaven. Really? You're willing to give it all
over for him. to have the bread of heaven, because it's that
song you sing, Mike, from time to time, give me Christ or else
I die. Give me this bread or else I
die. Give it all up for Him. And all countries, all countries,
all of them, All the countries came unto Egypt
to Joseph. To Joseph. You see, all the countries
were blessed because of Joseph. But you know why Joseph was sent
there? Because there were 70 people.
There were 70 people whom God had chosen to save. There were
70 Israelites. There were 70 Hebrews that God was going to bring into
the land of Egypt where they were bred. All these countries
were blessed. All these countries were fed.
But the whole purpose, and I'm going to close with this, the
whole purpose of bringing Joseph from keeping the sheep when he
was just 17 years old to the pit, to the prison, to the throne,
and to be an overall was to save Jacob and his family. This world benefits by our presence. Do you know why the wheat grows
and the corn grows and the apples and the bananas? Do you know
why they grow every year? Because of Christ and His people
that are still on this earth. That's why. Okay, bye.