Well, we come to Genesis 42,
and it runs through to Genesis 45. Alienated brethren reconciled,
because you know that God has a family. God has a family, and
Christ has brethren, loved with an everlasting love from before
the beginning of time, whom in time, in the middle of time,
when the fullness of the time was come, He came and redeemed
with His precious blood from the curse of the law. But at
the moment, as they live, they're alienated from Him. Children
of wrath, even as others, it says in Ephesians, until the
Holy Spirit comes and gives spiritual life. You must be born again.
You must be born again. The Spirit comes and gives that
spiritual life. and that ability to do which
the natural man cannot do, which is to believe the gospel of grace. You hear it, and you believe
it. It rings so true that Christ has taken your place under the
curse of the law, and has redeemed you from it with his precious
blood. He has answered every demand that law could make, but
he needs to call you. He needs to call you out. The
family in all the earth, He needs to call you out. You know the
psalm we read, Psalm 107, they wandered in a wilderness place,
they wandered and He calls them and they come from the north
and the south and the east and the west. Oh that He would call
some today. God still has His people yet
to be called out in this world. They're His family, they always
have been. They've been justified from all eternity by the Lamb
that was slain from the foundation of the world. But they must come.
They must come, they must believe, they must embrace the Lord Jesus
Christ. You know, I've said several times
that this creation is the canvas on which God paints the account
of redemption. Its sole purpose of creation,
its sole purpose, this is a profound thought, its sole purpose is
that three hours on the cross of Calvary 2,000 years ago, when
there was darkness over all the earth. When there was darkness
because there, the Redeemer, the Messiah, the Christ, died
to redeem his people. That three hours is what this
creation is all about. There, offended divine justice
was satisfied by Christ's precious blood. You know this creation,
it's pictured in Revelation as a seven-sealed scroll unfolding. This is the unfolding of world
history because it is the plan of God to accomplish the redemption
of His people. It is the plan of God for His
kingdom to be triumphant. And it unfolds through history,
with empires, with powers, all in the providence of God, to
the end that the kingdom of God Not of this world. The Kingdom
of God shall be triumphant. There's a promised seed. which is Christ. Promised to
Eve, the first woman in the Garden of Eden after the fall, the promised
seed will come, but that promised seed must come from a chosen
family, from a chosen line. Not from anywhere in the world,
but from a chosen line. And all the way down history
is satanic opposition. He has a rival kingdom, the kingdom
of this world, the kingdom of Antichrist. And he sets out to
destroy Abraham's family, because it's from Abraham that the Messiah
will come. So Satan sets out to destroy
Abraham's family, and if he does, there will be no Messiah who
will come. The seed will not come, and redemption
will not be accomplished but God. How often do we read, but
God, in the Scriptures. But God orders all things for
triumph of his kingdom. So to set the scene, we're thinking
about the time about 4,000 years ago, 2,000 years before Christ
came, there or thereabouts. Egypt is the great empire of
the time. Why were there great empires?
You know, there was Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, the Chaldeans, the
Medo-Persians, the Greeks, and then the Romans. Those were the
great empires of the ancient world. Those great empires, do
you know what they were? They were Satan's attempt to
reunite the world in godless opposition to God, following
Babel. You know what happened? Before
Babel, the world was united. It was a single, united kingdom.
And they said, let's aspire to heaven. Let's build us a tower.
And God came down and confounded the languages, because there's
no way that God can allow any access to the Tree of Life except
through that which Christ has accomplished in His Kingdom,
in His purpose of grace, in His righteousness. So Satan kept
trying to reunite the world with these empires, and Egypt was
the first one. There were the other nations,
I know, the world was overpopulated, it was covered with people, the
nations of Gog and Magog, as they're called in Ezekiel and
then in the book of Revelation. The nations of the world scattered
abroad, but do you know there was one family, one family. There was Jacob and his 12 sons
and their children, that had come From Abraham, the promise
of God had been given to Abraham that the seed of the woman, the
Christ, the Messiah, would come from that family. They knew God's
purpose of grace. They were the only family in
the world that knew God's purpose of saving grace. And even in
that family, most of them, the ten older brothers, most of them
lived more like Satan's servants than God's servants. Joseph brought
their evil report to his father. They lived more like Satan's
servants than God's. But from them, and specifically
from Judah, as we'll find at the end of Genesis, from Judah,
one of the sons would come, the Messiah. The scepter shall not
depart from Judah until Shiloh come, until the Messiah comes.
And he would come and redeem his innumerable multitude, the
elect of God, from every tongue and tribe and kindred, and take
them to glory, that they might be with me where I am, is what
Christ prayed in John 17. How would God restore? and preserve
them for the accomplishment of his purposes of grace, how would
he do it? Well here, God ordained a famine. He ordained a worldwide famine. And He made the chosen family,
these brothers, feel their desperate need. Their desperate need. They're going to starve. They're
going to die. There's absolutely no way. They can't go down to
the supermarket. The things that we take for granted
today, they just were not there. There was a severe famine. And
they're all going to waste away and die soon. God made them feel
their desperate need and made them come to Joseph, though they
didn't know it. They didn't know it was Joseph,
the brother that they'd so spitefully betrayed and so dreadfully treated,
that they might come to him for salvation from starvation. So
the physical pictures the spiritual. There was a physical famine.
It was a sore famine, the scripture says. It was a severe famine. and it pictures the famine of
spiritual life in this world, because of sin, because of sin.
In chapter 41 and verse 57, we read, all countries came unto
Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn, because the famine was so sore
in all lands. It was a worldwide famine, and
it's picturing sin. which is a world-wide picture
of spiritual death. Romans 3.23, all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. There is none righteous,
no, not one. They've all gone out of the way.
Lying is in their lips. You read that account in Romans
chapter 3. All have sinned. Romans 5 verse
12, Wherefore, as by one man, that is, Adam, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men. Why? Is that not unjust? No,
for all have sinned. Which one of you, child of Adam,
Sinner, fallen sinner. Which one of you says it's not
fair that I should be counted a sinner, just because Adam was
a sinner? But the fact is, you are a sinner.
You commit sins all the time. All have sinned. All are children
of wrath, even as others, in their natural state. Every single
one, without exception. All without hope and without
God in this world, as Ephesians 2 says. All without hope and
without God. Without hope of what? eternal
life, without hope of forgiveness of sins, without hope of standing
before that judgment seat of Christ, and not hearing words
of condemnation, without any hope in this world, because they're
without God, and they're without Christ, and they're without the
knowledge of saving grace, and the experience of saving grace.
The famine that kills eternally, yes, a famine of bread kills
the body in time, but the famine that kills eternally is spiritual. If you were to look at Amos chapter
8 and verse 11, I'll look at it for you. Behold, the days
come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land.
Now listen, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a
famine of hearing the words of the Lord." That's a dreadful
famine, to not hear the words of the Lord. That is to be truly
starving, truly malnourished, a famine of God's Word. We read
Psalm 107 earlier, in verses 4 to 6, it describes the people
that God has determined to save, the sinners that God has determined
to save. As they are in their natural
state, they wandered in the wilderness. In a solitary way, they found
no city to dwell in, no city that they could call their home. They were aliens in this world,
hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Hungering and
thirsting for righteousness, said Jesus in the Sermon on the
Mount. Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness.
Why? Because they shall be filled.
Hungering and thirsting constantly, being filled constantly. This
is the message of grace. Then they cried unto the Lord
in their trouble, and he delivered them. out of their distresses.
And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go
to a city of habitation, to that city that Abraham sought. He
looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Down in verse 17, fools, because
of their transgression, sin, this is the plague, sin, and
because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhorreth
all manner, hates all manner of meat, and they draw near unto
the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in
their trouble, and He saves them out of their distresses. He sent
His Word. This is the bread from heaven.
This is the manna that came down from heaven. This is the Word
who is Christ. For all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge are in Him. He is made unto us wisdom from
God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. He sent His Word
and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for His goodness and His wonderful works to the children
of men. Do you know that that's your
state, naturally, as a sinner? Do you know that you are, as
God's Word tells us in the early chapters of Genesis, you are
made in the image of God? You are not just a highly evolved
animal, a highly evolved amoeba, or anything like that, not in
the slightest. God created you. God made you. And he made you
in his image, as a thinking being, as a feeling being, a being of
emotions, a being of reason, a being to wonder why things
are as they are. You are made in the image of
God, for eternal communion with God, but you are alienated by
sin. Your sins have separated between
you and your God. You're starving for want of spiritual
truth. You are barred access to the
Tree of Life, for you haven't found the way, for there is only
one way. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life, to the Tree of Life. He is the only way there. He is the only way of access.
There is none other, not other religions equally, not in the
slightest, no, not at all. In Genesis 42 and verse 1, we
read this, Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt,
Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look one upon another? And
he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt.
Get you down thither, and buy for us from thence, that we may
live and not die. The famine was in that land too.
The land flowing with milk and honey, as was promised later,
was actually suffering the same famine sent by God. The dream
of Pharaoh that he couldn't understand, the seven fat cattle coming up
and being eaten by seven thin cattle that came up out of the
waters, and the seven fat ears of grain being eaten by the seven
withered and wind-blasted ears of grain, picturing, as Joseph
interpreted, by God's grace upon him, he interpreted the dream,
that there will be, because all things are in the hands of God,
God's not looking into a crystal ball to see, oh gosh, that's
what's going to happen, He ordains it! Everything happens as he
ordains it for his purposes. He causes all things to work
together for good to those who love God, who are the called
according to his purpose. He does it, everything. The heart
of the king is in the hands of God. The heart of the king, everything. He orders it for his own purposes. He ordered this famine and Jacob
becomes aware that there's a famine and that there's the possibility
of finding food in Egypt, so he sends his sons down. Him and
his family, we read later on when they come down into Egypt,
there's 70-odd souls amongst them, the women and the children
and the grandchildren. Jacob and about 70-odd people
about to die without any hope, but there's food in Egypt, and
he's heard about it. And God had raised up Joseph. God had raised up a saviour to
accomplish his saving purposes. The brothers who spitefully and
evilly sold Joseph into slavery would have killed him, would
have killed him if one of them hadn't persuaded them, let's
make some money and sell him to these Ishmaelite slave traders.
The brothers intended evil to Joseph, but as he says to his
brothers later, you intended it for evil, but God intended
it for good. Good to the chosen family. Christ
has a family, an elect family, chosen in Christ from before
the foundation of the world, redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb, redeemed, you know, the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world in the justice of God, but of course He had to
come in time, when the fullness of the time was come, and pay
redemption's price at Calvary, with His own precious blood,
that He might tear that veil of the temple from top to bottom,
making access into the Holy of Holies. This family of Christ's,
chosen before the foundation of the world, United with him
then, are born not knowing it, and grow not knowing it. They're
ignorant of it, until the light of God's truth shines into their
hearts, to give them the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God, where? In the face of Jesus Christ.
So Jacob says, go down to Egypt. Go down to Egypt. There's nowhere
else. There's nowhere else to go. He
says, go down to Egypt. They're made needy. They feel
their need. They went because they had nothing
to lose. If they stay where they are, they're going to die. They
might get set upon upon the way and robbed and killed. The Egyptians
might treat them dreadfully, but they've got nothing to lose.
For if they stay where they are, they'll certainly die. They needed
corn. We all need spiritual food. We all need righteousness. Follow righteousness, without
which, peace with all men and righteousness, without which
no man shall see the Lord. Would you see the Lord? Yes,
you would. That's eternal glory. If you would see the Lord, you
must be righteous. You must be as righteous as God. Where are you going to get the
righteousness which God requires? We need it. There's a hunger
for it. We need it. Redemption's price must be paid. The price of freedom from the
curse of the law must be paid. We must be made to feel our need. We sang just before, didn't we,
in 723, let not conscience make you linger. Nor of fitness. Are you good
enough to come to God? Nor of fitness fondly dream.
All the fitness that God requires is to feel your need of Him.
That's what He requires. To feel your need of Him. And
He is the one who makes you needy. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. But few there be that feel it. Few there be. All have sinned,
but few there be who God brings to feel the fact that they're
sinners. You know, you can see somebody who's starving, and
if he's starving and ravenous to get some food, that's a healthy
sign. But the one that is most pitiful is the one who is starving
for true food, and yet he has no hunger for food. He feels
no hunger. That man is going to waste away
and die. There's little hope for that man. So it is with spiritual
food. The man who has no desire to
be reconciled to God, to have the righteousness of God, to
have qualification for God's kingdom, to have the blessing
of knowing what it is to pass from this life into eternal glory,
Having no thought of that, that man is lost. That man is in an
eternally perilous condition. Well then, they come, they come
down to Egypt, and in verse 6 of chapter 42 we read this, Joseph
was the governor over all the land, and he it was that sold
to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth.
No doubt God providentially arranged it. I mean, the logistics of
it would be that Joseph would have a great army of servants
who would be doing his bidding and implementing his policies.
But God ordained it that when these brethren came down, it
was actually before Joseph, the head, the boss of the whole operation
that they came. They bowed themselves down before
him with their faces to the earth. They saw this regal character,
and they knew what they were. They were beggars for food, and
they bowed themselves down. What did Joseph dream in the
providence of God? that he told to his brothers.
He dreamed that they would bow down to him. And they didn't
know what it meant, and they hated him for it. But here it
is, whether they liked it or not, God has brought them to
the point where they bow down before the brother that they
hated. And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself
strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them. probably spoke
in the Egyptian language, not in their Hebrew language. And
he said unto them, Why have you come? And they said, speaking
through an interpreter, From the land of Canaan, to buy food.
And Joseph knew his brethren, But they knew not him. And Joseph
remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, those dreams
of them bowing down before him. And he said to them, You are
spies. You are spies. That's what you've
come for, to see the nakedness of the land you have come. You're
planning a raid to steal all our food. They said, no, no,
we've just come to buy food, we're your servants, we're all
one man's sons, we're true men, thy servants and no spies. Joseph
knew them, but they didn't know him. So when chosen sinners,
dead in their sins, hear of Jesus, they don't know him at first.
Perhaps you, someone out there, is hearing of Jesus Christ for
the first time, other than His name being a curse, a swear word. Here is the only one, Christ
is the only one, Christ Jesus is the only one who can supply
all of your need, your spiritual need, your need of peace with
God, of reconciliation to God, of cleansing from your sins that
would separate you from God for eternity. Righteousness that
you need is in Him, but you don't know who He is, just like Joseph's
brothers didn't know their own brother. You come to God as the
Egyptians went to Pharaoh crying for food. The Egyptians, when
the famine started to bite, they go to Pharaoh, give us some food,
and Pharaoh says, go to Joseph. You come to God, pleading, Lord,
show me, I know you are God in heaven, and I need to be reconciled
to you, and I need to have peace with God. And what does God say
in his word? Go to Jesus. Go to the Lord Jesus
Christ, there is nowhere else. Okay, let's go, they say. Let's
go, there's nowhere else we can go. So they go down, and God
providentially arranged for them to come right where Joseph was. Is God providentially arranging
for you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and see him? Then they
tried to buy, they tried to buy. Look at verse 10. They said unto
him, the brothers said to Joseph, Nay, my lord, but to buy food
are thy servants come. Do you know if this picture salvation,
which it surely does, do you know the message of scripture
from start to finish is this, that salvation is not for sale. It is of grace, not of works.
lest any man should boast. Not of money, not of purchasing.
Isaiah 55, ho, everyone that thirsteth. Come to the waters,
come, buy wine, buy milk, without money and without price. Without
money and without price. John 7, 37, on that great day,
that last day of the feast, Jesus cried out on that great day,
come to me. and I will give you living water. Come to me. Revelation 22 verse
17, nearly at the end of the Bible. Come, take the water of
life. freely, freely, freely, without
charge. Salvation is not for sale. Do
you know how you can tell mere religion? Religion peddles life,
spiritual life, eternal life, at a price that you pay. That's what they do. You look
at it, however orthodox they sound, you will find in amongst
it, they are peddling Eternal life, but at a price that you
pay. A price that you pay. Whatever
that might be. Whatever it is. Think of characters
in the scriptures. Naaman the Syrian in the days
of Elisha. Naaman the Syrian came seeking
healing for his leprosy, for a little girl, a little Israelite
slave girl that they'd taken, was in the house of Naaman and
his wife, and she'd seen the leprosy on Naaman, and she said,
oh, that my master would go down into Israel where the prophet
is, and he would heal him. And so Naaman goes, but he takes
with him the price of his healing. He takes great gifts to give
to the king of the land, and great gifts to give to the prophet,
as if The grace of God can be purchased with money or with
effort. In the parable, the prodigal son thought he could only return
to his father, his father who was so desirous of his return. But he thought he could only
return to his father by offering himself as a hired servant. I
will earn my place in the household. I will earn the servant's place
in the household by the works that I do, is what the prodigal
thought. The Philippian jailer in Acts
chapter 16 cried out, What must I do to be saved? What must I
do? We see, we all think that we
must do something. No, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled without
payment from themselves. But these brothers of Joseph
clung to their own righteousness. Verse 11, we are all one man's
sons. We are true men. We're not spies.
We're not as bad as some, but we're better than most. Isn't
that what so many people say? I rank myself against others
and I think I'm pretty good. We may be coming to buy food
without which we shall die, but we're honest and respectable,
our money is good. Have you come to Christ? to have
your own goodness topped up with his righteousness? We're going
to sing a hymn, a rock of ages, in which it says, nothing in
my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Nothing, nothing. We are the circumcision, the
true people of God, who worship God in the spirit, who rejoice
in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. So Joseph
puts them in prison for three days, These brothers with whom
he's seeking to be reconciled. He puts them in prison for three
days. Verse 17, he put them all together into the ward three
days. And he said to them the third day, this do and live for
I fear God. If you be true men and then,
you know, so it goes on. God intends good to his sinful
family. chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, destined for eternal glory, for heaven, just as Joseph
intends good eventually to his brothers. But before exalting
them, he abases them. He puts them down low. Before
liberating them, he imprisons them. He's making them know what
they are by nature. where they stand. He slays them
before he makes them alive. You come expecting liberty from
famine in your own strength. We are true men, we're honest
men. But God graciously locks you
up to strip you of self-confidence. so that you can only cry to Christ,
Lord save me. Like Peter walking on the waves
when he got out of the boat, full of confidence and then he
starts to look at things around and he begins to sing, Lord save
me, Lord save, you can only cry to Christ. And they're made to
confess in verses 21 and 22. They said one to another, when
they're there in the prison, they said one to another, we
are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the
anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. Therefore
is this distress come upon us. They're made to confess. They're
no longer clinging to their self-righteousness, we are true men. No, they're
confessing their lies. They lied to their father. They
lied about the money they got. They lied, their deceit, their
evil intent, their guilt before true justice. They're confessing
it. Many become aware. Don't just
think that becoming aware of your true state is enough. You
know, it says in Revelation, as the end approaches, that the
plagues come and the people are aware of what's going on, but
they repented not. You know, the message of the
gospel You beware, you take heed how you hear. It's a message
of life unto life to some, but it's a message of death unto
death to others. It has the stench of death about
it to others. These are made to confess their
sin. So, they get a measure of peace, verse 25 of chapter 42,
"...Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and restore
every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for
the way." And off they go. Look, we haven't got time. Read
the story for yourself. I would imagine many of you already
know it. It's a totally endearing, lovely
story, how he keeps them, not knowing who He is, and not knowing
the grace He intends to them, as He providentially deals with
them, till they come to that knowledge of their need and of
who He is. You know, in the same way, they
get some relief, they get some food, and they go home, and it's
for a season, and for a while, and they... They get some peace
from it, just like religion. False religion gives its adherents
a sense of peace, a temporary sense of peace. But then that
peace is shattered. Look at verse 27. One of them
opened his sack to give his ass, Provender, food in the inn, and
he aspired his money. It was in the sack's mouth. And
he said, my money's restored. It's even in my sack. And their
heart failed them. That temporary relief, we're
going home with food, that temporary relief was shattered. Food for
a while was what they had. Jacob had lost Joseph, and now
one of the brothers was told, they said they had to leave Simeon
behind. and go home and bring the younger brother, Benjamin,
back before they could have Simeon back. And so Jacob has lost Joseph
and Simeon, and he won't allow Benjamin to go. When they get
back, they tell him what needs to happen, and he says, there's
no way Benjamin's going down with you. But God keeps the famine
going. Chapter 43 and verse 1, the famine
was sore in the land, and they ate up all the corn that they'd
got from Egypt. Their temporary relief was at
an end, and their father said, go again, and they said, we can't.
The ruler down there won't let us. Simeon's down there, but
he won't let us go back unless we take Benjamin with us. He
won't let us go. God keeps the famine going. He
will not let them find satisfaction for their hunger until eventually
they know who Joseph is. So God's elect must find no spiritual
satisfaction until they find it in Christ and Him alone. He
draws them back. He draws them back. God draws
his people to himself. Blessed, Psalm 65 verse 4, blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causes to approach unto thee
that he may dwell in thy courts. You know, I often quote Psalm
110 verse 3, he makes his people willing in the day of his power.
Those who by nature are unwilling, He makes willing. But they still
retained their legal spirit. In chapter 43, verse 11, their
father Israel said unto them, It must be so. Go and take the
best fruits of the land, and take a present with you. Go and
earn it again. Go and earn it. Verse 15, And
the men took the present, and they took double the money in
their hand, and they took Benjamin, and rose up and went down to
Egypt. In verse 16, when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said
to the ruler of his house, bring these men home, and slay, and
make ready, for these men shall dine with me at noon. Joseph
showed them he had provided all they needed. They didn't need
to bring a present. They didn't need to bring anything, nothing
in my hand I bring. He has provided all through the
blood of His cross. Come, for all things are ready,
is the bidding to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Christ has
made full provision for that marriage supper. All is provided,
all things are ready. The banquet of eternal grace
is furnished with redeeming grace. Wedding garments are provided
for the guests, provided by the gracious salvation that Christ
has accomplished. They're made by Him who has made
sin for them, they are made the righteousness of God in Him,
to clothe them. Their sins are paid for by redeeming
grace. This is where God brings His
people to. And finally, Joseph is finally
revealed. Look in chapter 44, and as I
say, read it for yourselves. Judah said, in verse 16, Judah said, what shall
we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? You see,
they dine and then he sends them away, but has his servants put
his special cup, Joseph's special cup, in the sack of guess who?
Benjamin. So that Benjamin be brought back.
Oh no, the most dreadful thing. So in verse 16, Judah said, what
shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall
we clear ourselves? God hath found out the iniquity
of thy servants. This is true confession, isn't
it? Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also,
with whom the cup is found, and Benjamin, who will break my father's
heart if he doesn't go back. And he said, God forbid that
I should do so, but the man in whose hand the cup is found,
he shall be my servant, and as for you, get you up in peace
to your father. Judah came near and offered himself
as the substitute, as the surety, for Benjamin. Let Benjamin go,
but keep me. You must do that. You must do
that. Then in chapter 45, turn over
to chapter 45. right at the start of chapter
45. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all
them that stood by him. And he cried, cause every man
to go out from me, all the Egyptians. And there stood no man with him,
while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren, just Joseph
and his brothers. They were brought to bow before
Joseph, but he finally reveals who he is. And that is what the
Lord Jesus Christ does. To those he is not ashamed to
call brethren, those who were chosen in him before the foundation
of the world, those whom he redeemed by the blood of his cross, those
whom the Holy Spirit makes alive to spiritual truth, those whom
he calls by the preaching of the gospel of his grace, Christ
reveals himself. in all of His glory, in all of
His redeeming grace. He is not ashamed to call them
brethren. He calls them no longer servants, but He calls them friends.
You are my friends, John 15, 15. Hosea 2, 14, Therefore, behold,
I will allure her. This is God, Christ in God. speaking
about drawing his people, I will allure her and bring her into
the wilderness and speak comfortably to her. God speaks comfortably. He speaks words of salvation,
words of soothing, words of balm. And note, there is no intermediary. There is no priest. There is
no preacher or pastor. There's just Joseph and his brothers.
And when you come to know Jesus, there's just you alone with Christ. who will reveal himself to you
by his word, and he will speak, and he will assure you, yes,
you are mine, yes, I have redeemed you from the curse of the law.
There's no intermediary. There's only Joseph and his brothers.
There's joy. There's weeping. There's warmth.
There's welcome. In verse 5 of chapter 45, Joseph
says to them, For God did send me before you to preserve life.
Forgiveness is assured. The big picture is gradually
revealed in verses 7 and 8. God sent me before you to preserve
a posterity in the earth, to save your lives, that the Redeemer
might come from that family. So now it was not you that sent
me, Hither, but God. The big picture, you know. The
big picture is revealed in salvation. Christ is made unto us wisdom
from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption.
All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hid in Him, and
nowhere else. Get wisdom, says Proverbs, where
will you get it? It's in Christ and Him alone.
There is provision, verses 10 and 11, You shall dwell in the
land of Goshen, and you shall be near unto me, you and your
children and your children's children, your flocks and your
herds, and all that you have, and I will nourish you there. This is what Christ says to the
people He has redeemed from the curse of the law. There are yet
five years of famine. Go and get your families, bring
them down here. Come down here so that you don't die of starvation
there. There's a nearness, Christ comes
near and his people come near to him. And then he says, go
and get them and bring them. You know, these were 11 brothers
there, because there was the 10 and then there was Benjamin
also. They were down in Egypt, but there's 60 odd more, Jacob
and the rest back at home. and he commissions them to go
and tell the rest of the family, bring them down too, and so does
Christ. To those he saves, to his disciples
that he saves, he says in Matthew 28, verse 18 to 20, go therefore
into all the world and preach the gospel. You preach it, you
declare the truth, the Spirit of God will call them. I am with
you always, even unto the end of the world. The commission
is there. Go and tell the rest of the family, and bring them
too. Jesus is reconciled to his brethren. He is revealed to them. He makes
himself known. They're brought low. They bow
before him. They know their true state. But
oh, he puts such warm, welcoming arms of brotherly kindness and
friendship around them, just as Joseph did with his brothers.
Amen.