Genesis 43 is about Benjamin
being sent down into Egypt and Jacob didn't want him to go. And Judah says in verse 8, and Judah said
unto Israel, his father, send the lad with me and we will arise
and go that we may live and not die, both we and down also our
little ones. I will be surety for him, but
mine hand shall thou require him. If I bring him not into
thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Eternally. I want you to think
about the Lord saying that for you. And we were just listening to
that song. He cares. And I thought he does. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned at this second time. And their father, Israel
said unto them, if it must be so now, that I have to send my
beloved Benjamin down, do this. Take of the best fruits in the
land in your vessels and carry down the manna present, a little
balm and a little honey, spices, myrrh, nuts and almonds and take
double money in your hand and the money that was brought again
in the mouth of your sacks. Now, do you remember when they
returned and they found out that the money they had given for
the grain was returned to them? It was all in their sacks. They hadn't paid a thing and
they were concerned about that. They didn't know how this took
place. Take double money in your hand and the money that was brought
again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand. Perventuary was an oversight.
Perhaps this was just some kind of mistake. We don't know how
this took place. Take also your brother. and to
rise and go again into the man and God almighty, give you mercy
before the man. Jacob knew God. And I love the way he says this.
God almighty, give you mercy before this man. You see the
King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. As the river of waters,
he turneth it whither so ever he will. And it's good for us
to always remember that this man, they were so afraid of was
in God's hand and he can move him in whatever way he's pleased
to move him. And you know, he can do that
with everybody in our lives. God Almighty, give you mercy
before the man that he may send away your other brother. Remember
Simeon had been held there while they came back and Benjamin.
And if I be bereaved of my children, I'm bereaved. And the men took
that present and they took double money in their hand and Benjamin
and rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. And when Joseph saw Benjamin
with them, Oh, what a sight that must have been. This is my brother. Oh, he was so overcome with this
sight. And when Joseph saw Benjamin
with him, he said to the ruler of his house, his main servant,
bring these men home and slay and make ready for these men
shall dine with me at noon. They're going to be brought into
my house. They're going to eat with me. And the man did as Joseph bade,
and the man brought the men into Joseph's house. And the men were afraid. Something's
wrong in this picture. And I know why they were afraid.
He tells us. The men were afraid because they
were brought into Joseph's house, and they said, because of the
money that was returned in our sacks at the first time we were
brought in, that he may take occasion against us and fall
upon us and take us for bondmen in our asses. He's doing this
just to take everything that we own. No, he wasn't. Nothing, but mercy, nothing,
but grace, nothing, but favor was involved. But you see, as
a man is, so he thinks others to be. And they just assumed
this is what he's going to do to us. They didn't even have
a clue as to who he really was. And all they could think of is
how he is going to take advantage of us, take our stuff and make
us slaves. Verse 19. And they came near
to the steward of Joseph's house and they communed with him at
the door of the house, the steward. And they said, Oh, sir, we came
indeed down the first time to buy food. And it came to pass
when we came to the end that we opened our sacks and behold,
every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money
in full weight. We brought it again in our hand. And other money have we brought
down, remember double money. We're going to pay twice the
original fee. Boy, they were trying to cover
their bases, weren't they? And other money have we brought down
into our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money
in our sacks. Now the servant replies, peace
be to you. Fear not your God and the God
of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. I had
your money and he brought Simeon out into
them. And the man brought the men into
Joseph's house and gave them water and they washed their feet
and he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the present
against Joseph came at noon for they'd heard that they should
eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they
brought him the present, which was in their hand into the house
and bowed themselves to him, to the earth. Now you reckon
he was thinking about that dream he had 20 years earlier. I guarantee
you he was. God said, this is what's gonna
happen. He sees his brothers in the dirt at his feet. And he asked them of their welfare and said, is
your father well? The old man of whom you spake,
is he yet alive? Remember they told him, we have
a father and a brother still in Canaan. And he knew who these
men were. And he loved his father. Remember
he was his father's favorite. He wouldn't find out how he's
doing. And they answered thy servant,
our father's in good health. He's yet alive. And they bowed
down their heads and made obeisance. That means they worshiped just like the dream said they
would. And he lifted up his eyes and
saw his brother, Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, is this your younger
brother of whom you spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious
unto thee, my son. Could you ask for anything more
for somebody than that? God be gracious to thee, my son. And Joseph made haste for his
bowels did yearn upon his brother and he sought where to weep.
And he entered into his chamber and wept there. I can just see
this, him running away from them almost and getting into his chamber
and just weeping with joy, seeing his brethren that he'd forgiven. Isn't that glorious to think
about that? He forgave them. He hadn't told
them yet. but it had already been done
and how he loved Benjamin. Verse 31, and he washed his face
and went out and refrained himself and said, sat on bread, set the
table. And they said on for him by himself
and for they by themselves and for the Egyptians did eat with
him by themselves. Because the Egyptians might not
eat bread with the Hebrews. So that's an abomination on the
Egyptians. Things haven't changed. You got
one group feeling themselves to be superior to another group.
We have that right here. And they said before him. The
firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to
his youth, and the men marveled at one another. He set them down
according to their age. He knew the age of every one
of them, and he set them down according to their age. And I
believe at this time, I don't know how else to say it, they
were freaking out. What is going on? They still
have no idea that this is Joseph. And he took and sent messengers
unto them from before him, but Benjamin's mess, messes, not
messengers, messes, food. He took and sent messes unto
them from before him, but Benjamin's mess was five times as much as
theirs. You reckon they were jealous?
Yeah, I guarantee you they were. And they drank and were married
with him. Now remember all of these historical
narratives are given for one purpose, to teach the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have no other purpose than
that. Now I love the way this begins
with Judah being surety for Benjamin. The Lord Jesus Christ, before
time began, said of my hand, shall you require to all of my
hand, I will be surety for him. If I bring him not back into
heaven and set him before you, let me bear the blame forever. Verse 11 and their father, Israel
said unto them, if it must be so now do this. If we got to
send him down, I guess he trusted you. You'll remember he didn't
trust Reuben. Reuben said, bring him down with
me. He said, he's not going down
with you. He knew Reuben unstable as water. Thou shalt not excel.
But he, when he heard what Judah said, he said, okay, if I have
to, I'll send him down. We're not going to get any food
if we don't. Take of the best fruits in the
land, your vessels, verse 11 and carried the man, a present,
a little bomb, a little honey, spices, myrrh nuts, and almonds,
and take double money in your hand. And the money that was
brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in
your hand per adventure. It was an oversight. Take also
your brother and arise and go into the man and God Almighty,
give you mercy before the man that he may send away your other
brother, Simeon and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children,
I'm bereaved. Whatever happens is gonna happen. You know, that's a good attitude.
The Lord's in control of everything. Whatever happens is gonna happen. And the men took that present
and they took double money in their hand and Benjamin and rose
up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. And when
Joseph saw Benjamin with him, he said to the ruler of his house,
bring these men home and slay. Now that's an important part
of the message. Bring these men home and slay,
slay an animal for the meal and make ready for these men shall
dine with me at noon. They were going to have communion
with one another. This was an intimate dinner.
This wasn't to scare them, but I think it's so important that
God, the Holy spirit adds this for this to take place. There
has to be something slain. You can never get away, and we
don't want to get away from the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why can God have communion with me? Why does the Lord say, come
unto me? Why does he say, come to me and
I'll sup with you? For one reason, because of the
blood of the lamb slain. There is not going to be any
communion without the slaying of that animal. And you know
when an uninstructed religious person hears something like that,
they think, why all this blood? Why all this slaying? It seems
almost barbaric. and they don't understand that
God is just. No, that blood doesn't do anything.
It's just animals blood, but it pictures the blood of the
coming son of God. And the blood of Christ is everything
in our salvation. There is no communion. There
isn't any eating dinner. There isn't any true fellowship
apart from that. Verse 17, and the man did as
Joseph bade and the man Brought the men into Joseph's house and
they were afraid. They didn't say this is great.
They were afraid. And I know why they were afraid.
The issue of the money, their money had not been received. There's something going on here. We're going to get in trouble
because he didn't accept our money. God never accepts your money. He doesn't need your money. These fellows were afraid because
this is what we were hoping was going to get us food. And it's
been rejected. They were afraid seeing their works were not accepted. Their payment was not accepted.
Joseph sent it back. He doesn't want their money and
what they were hoping in. Their money to get them this
grain and this food to keep them alive, it's been given back to
them. And they think, he's going to
make us slaves. And you know, that's the way
people think of God. He's going to make slaves of us. He's going
to take what we have and he's going to make us slaves. That's for men's ridiculous views
of who God is. I mean, you thought things like
that before. We sure have. That's what they thought. He's brought us in that he may
seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for
bondmen and our asses. And they start trying to, uh,
influenced the steward of Joseph's house. They came near to the
steward of Joseph's house and they communed with him at the
door of the house and said, oh sir, we came indeed down for
the first time to buy food and it came to pass when we came
to the end that we opened our sack. This was on their way home
after they had already received the food and paid the money to
get all the food. When we came to the end, they
got to the hotel that night, opened their shacks, and all
of our money was there. It was all returned. In full weight. We brought it
again in our hand. Just in case this was an oversight,
we weren't trying to get away without food. We brought the
money again. And other money have we brought down in our hands
to buy food. As a matter of fact, we read where it was double money.
Wasn't it? We're going to pay double to show that we're, this
is going to be fair and square. We, we want to pay for this now. Salvation is by grace. It's not by what you pay. What if. I don't know what my
house is worth, but what if out of the goodness of my heart,
I gave you my house and all of my everything. I gave it all
to you and you alone. Now what if you said, I don't
want to be indebted to you. So here's a dime. That way I won't be indebted
to you. How am I gonna feel about that? I'll tell you how I'm gonna feel.
I'm gonna say, you don't get it now. You've demonstrated very much about
yourself. But what an insult it is to God
to try to pay for his salvation. Do you think anything you have
or anything you've done is worth what he did? The Lord's not gonna
take your money. It's an insult to present it
to him. And Joseph's not gonna take their money. Now look what
the steward says. And this is a great outline for
a message. And he said, peace be to you. No doubt they were trembling
with fear. They didn't know what was going to take place. Peace be
to you. Fear not. Your God and the God
of your father have given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. I received
your money. This is all done by way of justice,
by complete fairness. I had your money. The money you
have is what God gave you. Now here we have the gospel. It begins with this message,
peace. It begins there. Not here's what
you need to get straightened out and then No, it begins with
the message of peace. What did the angel say at the
birth of the Lord? Peace on earth, goodwill toward
men. When Peter summarizes preaching
to Cornelius and the people in his home, he said, we came preaching
peace by Jesus Christ. He is Lord of all. The gospel begins with an announcement
of peace. It begins with peace. Now men think about what they
need to make peace with God. When we hear the gospel, we find
out that God has made our peace. We find out that Jesus Christ
has made our peace with God. It's an announcement of peace.
It's not an offer of peace. You know, I've, I've heard preachers
say, God offers you peace. God offers you the forgiveness
of sins. God offers you names, all the different things. God
never offered anything. That's blasphemous. God gives
peace. God gives his grace. He doesn't
offer it out there. God doesn't offer you forgiveness.
You know the very thought of offering you forgiveness? He's
never offered it. He forgives! He doesn't offer
forgiveness, he forgives. That's who he is. And this message
of the gospel begins with Peace. And do you know you're not going
to have any true conviction of sin until you find out He made
your peace. When you find out He made your
peace, that's when you'll find out something about sin. You're
gonna see what he had to do to make your peace with God. That's
what's going to show you how bad sin really is. When you hear the gospel, before
you hear the gospel, you're thinking about what you need to do to
make peace with God. When you hear the gospel, you
find out God's at peace with you. Colossians 1 20 says, having
made peace through the blood of his cross, not making peace available, not
offering peace if you do your part, having made peace through
the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile all things to Himself.
By Him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven, and you that were before times alienated and enemies in
your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the
body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight. Now that's peace. He came preaching peace. He was
delivered for our offenses, raised again for our justification.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Now the peace he's speaking of
is not the feeling of peace. It's the fact of peace. Now I
love the feeling of peace, don't you? I wish I could put it in
a bottle and have it all the time, never worry, never think
of anything. I love the feeling of peace. I love the feeling
of knowing God's reconciled to me and accepted me. But let me
tell you something I like better than the feeling of peace, the
fact of peace. He's at peace with me through
his son. Now that's the announcement of
the gospel. Peace. Peace. Be. To you. Fear not. Truly, there's nothing to fear. Fear not. If you have peace,
there's nothing to fear. If God be for us, who can be
against us? Look what he says. You're God. You're God. I shall call his
name Emmanuel, God with us. Not God against us, God with
us. I'll be to them a God and they
shall be to me a people. Your God. The covenant God, the God of
your fathers has given you treasure in your sacks. That's what I
entitled this message, treasure in your sack. Well, what all treasures do we
have in this sack? I love the scripture. We have
this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. Now you think of the treasures
in your sack, child of God, God put them there. You didn't earn
them. He put them there. Of Him are
you in Christ Jesus. That's why you're in Christ Jesus.
And you think of the treasures you have in your sack right now.
You've been chosen of God. What a treasure. You've been
redeemed by the blood of Christ. What a treasure. You have the
forgiveness of all your sins. What a treasure. Something even
better than that is you have complete justification. That's
why you're forgiven. You stand before God having never
sinned in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why you're forgiven. You have His Spirit within you. You have the gift of faith. You
believe the gospel. You have the gift of repentance.
You're in a continual state of repentance toward God and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. You have a new heart that he's
given you. You've got the promise of him preserving you. Now unto
him that's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless
before his presence with exceeding joy. To the only wise God, our
Savior. Oh, what treasure we have in
our sacks. And God put them there. You see,
this was done in a way that honors justice. The price was paid. The price was paid. I've got
the money you gave originally. God put this treasure in your
sacks. I think this is interesting.
They were scared to death about the treasure in their sacks.
That was what was going to get them in trouble. No, God put
this treasure in their sack. I had your money. And he brought
Simeon unto them. Remember Simeon had been in jail
the whole time they'd gone back home. And he said, you're not
getting Simeon out unless you bring Benjamin with you. And
that's why they brought him. And the man brought the men into
Joseph's house and gave them water. And they washed their
feet. And they gave their asses provender. Don't you love the way the gospel
always washes our feet? Our feet get dirty. The gospel washes our feet. And
they made ready the present against Joseph. Came at noon. for they'd heard that he should
eat bread there. They didn't know they were going
to eat bread there too, but they were bringing their present unto
Joseph. But do you know that this word
present is the word offering? Offering. What did Abel offer unto God? The more excellent sacrifice. And when we come, We come with
this present, but it's not something we've produced. We come looking
only to the blood of Christ as to why we would be accepted. Verse 26, and when Joseph came
home, they brought him the present which was in their hand into
the house and bowed themselves to him to the earth. Now, one
thing that they were well aware of The only way they were going
to have food is if this man gave it to them. They'd starve to
death. They wouldn't have anything unless
he gave it to them. So what did they do? They bowed
themselves to the earth. There wasn't any cocksure boldness. No, they bowed themselves to
the earth in fear, knowing they were in his hand And if they
were gonna have anything, it would be Him giving it to them.
And that's the way you and I come to the Lord. We come with boldness. Don't miss that. We come with
boldness. Sometimes the way people use
begging, begging the Lord for this, begging for the Lord for
that, it's almost like it's presenting that He's unwilling to do something
unless we beg enough. That's not so. We come with boldness. But we come with humility, bowing
ourselves to the earth and worshiping. They did obeisance. Oh, may the
Lord enable us to come to Christ just like that. Not in a cringing,
fearful, unbelieving way, to come with boldness because of
the blood of his son. Scripture says, let us come boldly
to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace
to help in time of need. We come with boldness, but we
come with our faces in the dirt. There is no other way to come.
You remember the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
That's not the way the publican prayed. And when Joseph came home and
they brought him the present within their hand, they bowed
themselves to him, to the earth. And he asked them of their welfare
and said, is your father well? The old man of whom you speak,
is he yet alive? And they answered, thy servant,
our father is in good health. He's yet alive and they bowed
down their heads and made obeisance. They actually worshiped. And he lifted up his eyes and
saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, is this
your younger brother of whom you've spoken to me? And he said,
God be gracious unto thee, my son. You know what I want more than
anything else? It's for God to be gracious to me. You know what I want second most? For God to be gracious to you
and hot to I want it more for you than I want for myself, I
realize that. But what a desire, God be gracious. You know, that's somebody, it's
the same word that's generally translated loving kindness. God
have mercy upon me according to thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercy. Somebody once said that's
the Old Testament word for grace. God be gracious to you, my son. And Joseph made haste, I think
of the Lord, his bowels yearning upon his brethren. Isn't that
beautiful? And Joseph made haste for his
bowels did yearn upon his brother and he sought where to weep and
he entered into his chamber and wept there. And he washed his
face and went out and refrained himself and set on bread. Now I would, I love to think
of him saying, Reuben here, Simeon here, Levi here, Judah here,
on down the line, calling their names and setting them by their
birth order. And they still at this time do
not know who he is. And they said before him, the
firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to
his youth. And the men marveled at one another." You know, I think it's interesting
how the Egyptians, even at that time, wouldn't eat with the Hebrews. It was an abomination. Joseph
was a Hebrew. You know what I would have done
if I was Joseph? I would have said, eat with me right now or
die. If I had that kind of power,
he had that kind of power. And he could have done that,
but you know what? He didn't. It's interesting, isn't it? He
didn't. And he took and sent messes unto
them from before him. That's portions of food for the
feast. But Benjamin's mess was five
times as much as any of theirs. Now that word five, number five,
numbers always mean something in the scripture. And five is
known as the number of grace. The argument for that is the
tabernacle. Everything in the construction of the tabernacle
was divisible by five. Even the tabernacle itself, it
had five skins over it. There were five different threads
in the veil, all representing some portion of the divine glory. How many stones did David have
in his bag? You'll remember in the great
chain of salvation, count, whom he did foreknow, then he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, then he also called. And whom he called,
then he also justified. And whom he justified, then he
also glorified. Benjamin got the mess of grace,
five times the size of everybody else, the gift of grace. Now, like I said, were the brothers
jealous? Well, would you have been? Yeah,
but it's part of the story. Well, we'll pick up Lord Willen
with chapter 44 next week. There are two powerful gospel
messages in that story. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. And we ask in Christ's name, that by your spirit, you
would speak peace to our hearts. Lord, it won't do any good if
somebody else tells us peace, but if you speak peace to our
hearts, we'll have peace. Lord, we ask that we might fear
not. We ask that we might see the
treasure in our sacks came from you. Bless this message for the
Lord's sake, as we look forward to this coming week, we ask that
you would give us the grace to walk with you as Enoch did. We ask that we might be enabled
to move with fear as Noah did. We ask that we might be enabled
to bring the more excellent sacrifice as Abel did. Bless us, oh Lord,
for Christ's sake, in his name we pray, amen.