Would you turn back to Genesis
37? Lynn and I are going to take
a few days this week to celebrate our 40th anniversary. 40 years
of pure marital bliss. Being married to somebody like
me, what else could it be? Everybody knows better than that,
I can see. But Aaron Greenleaf will be bringing
the message this Wednesday night. Verse three of Genesis chapter
37, I'm preaching on the betrayal of Joseph. Now Israel loved Joseph more
than all his children because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a coat of many
colors. And when his brethren saw that
their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated
him and could not speak peaceably unto him. Now this increases
their hatred and Joseph dreamed a dream and he told it his brethren
and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, here I
pray you this dream, which I have dreamed, for behold, we were
binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and also
stood upright. And behold, your sheaves stood
round about and made obeisance, worshiped my sheaf. And the brethren
and his brethren said to him, shalt thou indeed reign over
us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated
him yet the more. for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream
and told it his brethren, said, behold, I've dreamed a dream
more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars worshiped
me. And I have no doubt that the
sun and the moon refer to his mom and dad. and that the 11
stars refer to his brethren, but he is still saying, all of
the created universe is gonna bow down and worship me. And he told it to his father
and to his brethren, and his father rebuked it. and said unto
him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and
thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to
thee, to the earth? Well, yeah, they will. And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed the saying. And his brethren went to feed
their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Do not thy brethren. Now remember, these are the brethren
that hated Joseph. Joseph knew of their hatred to
him, very clearly. And his brethren went to feed
their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph,
Do not thy brethren. Feed the flock in Shechem, come
and I will send thee unto them. And he said, here am I. This
expresses his willingness to go to these men who hated him. Verse 14, he said to him, go,
I pray thee, see whether it be well with thy brethren and well
with the flocks and bring me word again. So he sent him out
of the veil of Hebron, and that word means communion and fellowship. A place of safety and security
and rejoicing. Unto Shechem, the place of the
burden. Shoulder the burden is what the
word means. Now he's to leave the presence
of his father, his favor, he's going to go to his brethren who
hated him, and he's gonna bear a burden. Verse 15, and a certain man found
him, and behold, he was wandering in the field, in faithfulness, looking for
his brethren. And the man asked him, saying, what seekest thou?
And he said, I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they
feed their flocks. And the man said there departed
hence, for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. And Joseph
went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. And when they saw him far off,
now I'm sure that Joseph had been disgust during this time. And his dreams, his presumptuous
dreams had been brought up. And they talked about how wrong
he was and how despicable he was in thinking that he would
be their Lord and that they would bow the knee to him. And I'm
sure they had a lot to say about their little brother Joseph,
don't you? We're already told they hated him. And they hated
him yet the more, and they hated him yet the more. And on some
levels, you can see why. How would you feel if your little
brother came up to you and said, you're going to bow in the dirt
at my feet. And the sun and the moon and
the stars are going to bow down and worship me. If you heard
your little brother say that, you would be infuriated. And they were. They hated him. Verse 18, and when they saw him
afar off, even before he came near unto them, they conspired
against him to slay him. Here's our opportunity. He's
away from our father. We've got him to ourselves. We
can put him to death. That is how bad they hated this
man. They wanted him dead. And they said one to another,
behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him and cast him into some pit. And we will say, they
come up with their alibi, some evil beast hath defiled him.
And we will see what shall become of his dreams. And Reuben heard. He was the
firstborn. And he delivered him out of their
hands and said, let us not kill him. Reuben's the only one who
didn't want his death. This one who Jacob said was unstable
as water, well, he didn't want Joseph put to death. And so he
sought a way to keep this from happening because he knew exactly
what his brother's intentions were. And Reuben heard and he
delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him.
And Reuben said unto them, shed no blood, but cast him into this
pit that's in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him that
he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father
again. That was his purpose. He wanted
to deliver him from his murderous brethren and bring him back to
his father, Jacob. Verse 23. And it came to pass when Joseph
was come unto his brethren that they stripped Joseph out of his
coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. You know, every
time they saw him in that coat, it irritated them. This is the
coat our father gave him to show us that he's the favored one.
Oh, how they looked forward to this opportunity to strip this
coat off of this one they hated. And they took him and cast him
into a pit, and the pit was empty. There was no water in it. We
don't know how deep the pit was, but he couldn't climb out of
it. And they sat down to eat bread. This gives us some idea of the
cruelty of these men. They cast him into a pit, and
we know that at this time, from verse 21 of chapter 42, and this
is when they thought they were in trouble, they said one to
another, we're verily guilty concerning our brother, and that
we saw the anguish of his soul, and when he besought us, and
we would not hear, therefore this distress come upon us. They
said, what goes around comes around, Lord's getting us. But
evidently, while they were sitting there eating supper, he was crying. Didn't bother them. Let him suffer
in the pit without water. And they sat down to eat bread,
and they lifted up their eyes and looked. And behold, a company
of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery
and balm and myrrh going to carry it down to Egypt. Now before
I go on reading, some 200 years before this took place, God appeared
to Abraham, in Genesis chapter 15, and he said, know of a surety,
your seed is going to a strange land, and they're going to be
persecuted, they're going to be mistreated for 400 years,
and afterwards, I'll bring them out. Now this is how they go
to that strange land. This is how Joseph goes to Egypt
according to God's purpose. Now one of the glorious things
about this story and about every event of life is God controls
everything. And it's not difficult. He doesn't
have to scratch his head to figure out how to bring all this to
come to pass. He's God. He's omnipotent. He's omniscient. He knows all. He's all wise. He's omnipresent. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? No. And this was his way of sending
Joseph to Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren,
verse 26, They saw these merchants going down to Egypt, and Judah
said to his brethren, what profit is it if we slay our brethren
and conceal his blood? This is not going to benefit
us financially. Let's make us a little cash on
this deal. And we can sell him for the price
of a slave, and we won't be guilty of killing him either. This is
a good deal. I don't know whether that's worse
than killing him, but that was his idea. Come, let us sell him
to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he
is our brother in our flesh, and his brethren were content,
they were satisfied. That sounds good. We'll sell
him as a slave, we'll make some money, and we'll come up with
our alibi, with our father. Then there passed by Midianites,
merchant men, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit
and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And
they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned unto the
pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit. And he rent his clothes. Remember, he's the one who wanted
to keep this from happening. And he returned unto his brethren
and said, the child is not, and I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat that
they despised so much, and killed the kid of the goats,
and dipped the coat in the blood, and they sent the coat of many
colors, and they brought it to their father, and said, have
we found? No, now, whether it be thy son's
coat or no. Now, they knew exactly whose
coat it was and how cruel this was to their father. And he knew and said, it's my
son's coat. An evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent
into pieces. And Jacob rent his clothes and
put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many
days. And all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him. Now that's an interesting
picture, isn't it? We want to comfort you. Well,
you're the ones who sold him into Egypt. How phony. How heartless. And all his sons and his daughters
rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, for I will go down
into the grave unto my son mourning. I'm never gonna get over this.
The only thing that would comfort him is if Joseph was restored
to him. Little did he know, 15 years
later it would take place. Thus his father wept for him
and the Midianites sold him into Egypt under Potiphar, an officer
of Pharaoh's and captain of the guards. Joseph goes from being the father's
favorite and the comforts of his father to being sold as a
slave into a land that he didn't know one single person. How horrible that must have been. How he was wronged. You've been wronged before. I've
been wronged before, but never like this. How he was wronged
by his brethren. Now this story is a beautiful
type of the gospel. It really did happen. This is
a historical event. This isn't just some literary
device. This is a historical narrative
of what actually took place Joseph was sent by his father for the
welfare of his brothers, his brothers who hated him. What do you think of? Christ
was sent by his father for the welfare of his brothers who hated
him. And notice this is very important.
Christ was sent by his father for his brethren. Joseph was
sent for his brethren, wasn't he? His brethren. Christ was sent for his brethren. The Lord Jesus Christ did not
come for all of the sons of Adam. He didn't come in a generic sense. He came for his brethren. Now I want you to think of the
intimacy of that term, brethren. Whom he did foreknow, speaking
of God the Father, toward the elect, whom he did foreknow,
them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren."
All of God's people are eternally his brethren, eternally united
to him. Now the reason We want to make
a point of this, as the scripture does, and this is a reminder
to us that the work of the Lord Jesus Christ is not in vain.
Everybody he comes for, he saves. There will not be anybody in
hell that's one of his brethren. It's not gonna happen. He came
for his brethren, and Joseph did so willingly. He said to his father when his
father told him to go to his brethren, remember these guys
hated him and he knew it. They couldn't speak peaceably
to him. They didn't have anything good at all to say to him. And
he said, hear my father, hear my. I want you to think of the
willingness of the Lord Jesus Christ to come to save his brethren. people like me and you. The Lord Jesus knew of our hatred
of him, and yet he came for us willingly. And he knew all that
that entailed. He still said, lo, I come. In
the volume of the book, it's written of me. I delight to do
thy will, O God. He came so willingly. He said, no man taketh my life
from me. I'm not a victim. I have power
to lay it down. I have power to take it up. This
commandment have I received of my father. Everything he did,
he did willingly. Verse 16, and he said, I seek
my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they
feed their flocks. And the man said, their departed hens. For
lo, I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. And Joseph went
after his brethren, the same ones who hated him, and found
them in Dothan. And when they saw him afar off,
even before he came near unto them, they conspired against
him, to slay him. And they said one to another,
behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now, therefore, and let
us slay him and cast him into some pit, and we will say some
evil beast hath devoured him. We'll see what shall become of
his dreams. Now, what I want to remind you of, here's what
I'm guilty of. Here's what you're guilty of,
the murder of the Son of God. That puts my sin in perspective.
If anyone says, well, I'm not that bad, you're worse. You're
guilty. I am guilty of murdering the
Son of God. My sins were the reason of his
death. God the Father killed him. He
was no victim. God the Father provided him as
the sin bearing substitute, but my sins, that's why I died. And somebody says, well, I'm
not like those brethren. I don't hate the Lord Jesus Christ.
You might not hate the Christ you've made up that you feel
comfortable with, that you've got in your back pocket and you
can manipulate him and get him to do this and get him. But that
Christ is non-existent. The Christ of the Bible is the
one who Verse eight, and his brethren said unto him, shalt
thou indeed reign over us, or shalt thou indeed have dominion
over us? That's the Christ of the Bible,
the one who reigns over you right now, and has complete dominion
over you right now, and you're in his hand, you will bow to
him, either now willingly or sometime unwillingly, but he's
your Lord. He has dominion over you. You
are in his hand. Your eternal destiny is up to
him. You have no control. Now everybody's by nature a control
freak. We like to think we can control
something, but you and I can control nothing. We are in his
hand. And my dear friends, that's a
good place to be. That's the only hope, me and you have, really.
He can be pleased to extend his mercy to us. Lord have mercy on me. That's
the only response. But they, Conspired his death. They hated him because of his
dreams. This is the universal hiss of mankind We will not have
this man reign over us Verse 21 and Reuben heard it
and he delivered him out of their hands and said let us not kill
him and Reuben said unto them shed no blood but cast him into
this pit and that's in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him that
he might rid him of their hands to deliver him again to his father.
Now, this pit represents the pit Christ went
into in his death. Now what all happened during
those three days, we don't know. But I know this, he never went
through the process of decay. And I know that when he died,
all of the elect were justified. But this pit with no water, what
is one of the sayings of the Lord from the cross? I thirst. This pit with no water. And it came to pass, verse 23,
when Joseph was coming to his brethren, that they stripped
Joseph out of his coat. I'm sure with mocking and taunting,
where does this get you now that you're away from our father?
What good is this coat going to do you now? They stripped
him of it. And I don't know how to say this.
I say this with fear and trembling. But when the Lord was nailed
to that cross, he was stripped of his coat. He was stripped
of his righteousness when he was made sin as the sinner's
substitute. Do I understand that? Of course
not. Do I believe it with all my heart? He was stripped. He was stripped that we might
be clothed. Verse 24, and they took him.
They cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty. There was
no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread. How hard-hearted are you and
I? We can hear the gospel, it means
nothing to us unless God the Holy Spirit makes it known to
us and we'll sit down and eat bread, have a good time. And
they sat down to eat bread and lifted up their eyes and looked
and behold a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels
bearing spicery and balm and myrrh going to carry down to
Egypt. And Judah said unto his brethren, what profit is it if
we slay our brother? and conceal his blood. Come let
us sell him to the Ishmaelites. They sold him for the price of
a common slave. Do we know someone else who was
sold for 30 pieces of silver? The Lord Jesus Christ. Come let us sell him to the Ishmaelites
and let not our hand be upon him. We'd only be guilty of that.
That kind of makes me think of the Pharisees when They didn't
want to be, they didn't want to crucify him on the Passover
day. They didn't want his body to
stay there unless they'd be defiled. Well, they can kill the son of
God, but they're going to make sure they're not defiled. You
know, that's the way these people are. We're going to make sure
we're not guilty of his blood anyway. We'll just sell him and
get rid of him and he'll be sent to Egypt. And his brethren were
content. Then there passed by the Midianites,
merchantmen, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit
and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And
they brought Joseph into Egypt. And Reuben returned into the
pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit. And he rent his clothes,
and he returned to his brother and said, the child is not. And
I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat and killed
a kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood. Do you remember John's vision
of Christ in John chapter 19? where he saw one in a vesture
dipped in blood. And he had written on it and
on his thigh this name, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. A vesture dipped in blood that
he still wears. And they sent the code of many
colors, and they brought it to their father and said, this have
we found. Know now whether it be thy son's
code or no. And he knew. I don't know how to say this,
and I'm speaking about things that I really can't enter into,
but I know that are so. Was the Lord unmoved by the suffering
of his son? Did he cease to love him at that
time? Oh, I think of the father pouring
his wrath on his only begotten and well-beloved son. I don't even know what to say
about that. Other than God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have eternal life. He never stopped being Lord of
Lords and King of Kings, Even while he was on the cross, he
died as a king. Everything that took place, took
place because of his direction, because of him causing it. Christ was stripped that we might
be clothed. Amazing love, how can it be that
thou, my God, should die for me. The love of the father to
give his son. The love of the son to give himself. What justice God displayed in
not letting sin go unpunished. What love he displayed in giving
his son. Verse 35 and all his sons and all his
daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.
For he said, I will not go down. I will go down into the grave
and to my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him. But he didn't know. He didn't
know his son would be returned to him. And the Midianites sold him into
Egypt under Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh's and captain of the
guard. Now let me close by making a
bunch of statements that are connected together that I believe
will bring this whole story into some understanding. If Joseph's family was not so
messed up they would have never sold him. If they did not sell him, he
wouldn't go down to Egypt. If he didn't go to Egypt, he
would not be sold to Potiphar. If he were never sold to Potiphar,
he would never be accused of rape by Potiphar's wife. If there was no accusation of
rape, he would not be thrown into prison. If he were not thrown into prison,
he would never meet the butler and the baker. If he never met
the butler and the baker, there would be no interpretation of
their dreams. If he didn't interpret the dreams
of the butler and baker, they wouldn't be able to tell Pharaoh
of this one they met in prison who interpreted their dreams. If he would have never interpreted
Pharaoh's dreams, he would never have been the prime minister
of Egypt. If he were not the prime minister
of Egypt, He could not wisely prepare for the famine that he
found out was coming through those dreams. If he'd not prepared
for the famine to come, his family, all of his brothers, would die
of starvation. And Judah would have never been
survived, the one through whom the Christ would come, the Messiah. But everything did take place
according to God's perfect providence. And they're gonna find out that
everything they did, God was using for their salvation. Now let me read a couple of passages
in Genesis 45 once. This is when Joseph makes himself
known to his brethren. They didn't know who he was until
this time. Genesis 45, then Joseph could
not refrain himself before all of them that stood by. And he
cried, cause every man to go out for me. And there stood no
man with him while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud and the Egyptians
and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said, and his brethren,
I am Joseph. Can you imagine how they felt? Does my father yet live? And
his brethren couldn't answer him, for they were troubled at
his presence. Here's what they thought. Time's
come for us to pay for what we've done. We're gonna get killed
out of all of this. What goes around comes around.
We are in big trouble. And Joseph said unto his brethren,
come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said,
I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. He hadn't
forgotten it. He brings it up, doesn't he?
I remember what you guys did. Now, therefore, be not grieved
nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither, for God did
send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath
the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years
in which there shall be neither earing nor harvest. And God sent me before you in
all your wicked, treacherous plotting and conspiracy to kill
me. God was in control of all of
it. God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in
the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now,
it was not you that sent me hither, but God. Remember, he's the first cause
of everything. And he hath made me a father
to Pharaoh, and the Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout
all the land of Egypt. Years later, chapter 50. This
is after Jacob's death. And they think, uh-oh. Our dad's
been our only buffer. Now that he's gone, Surely Joseph
will get us now. Verse 15, and when Joseph's brethren
saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will prevent
your hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which
we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto
Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died saying,
so shall you say unto Joseph, forgive I pray thee now the trespass
of thy brethren and their sin. For they did unto the evil, and
now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the
God of thy father. You know, I don't believe Jacob
ever told him that. Maybe he did, but I think they were just
making up something at this time to save their skin. Maybe he
did, but we're not told where he did. And this seems the way
these fellas think. And Joseph went and Joseph wept. When they spake unto him, and
his brethren also sent, and fell down before his face, and they
said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear
not, for am I in the place of God. But as for you, you thought
evil against me. There's no way you can justify
your actions. Your intent was evil, but God
meant it unto good. to bring to pass as it is this
day to save much people alive. Now, therefore, fear you not,
I will nourish you and your little ones." And he comforted them
and spake kindly unto them. You know what he did? He preached
the gospel to them. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. Lord, by your grace, we know
this is your word. How we thank you for the portrait
you've painted for us of your son in this man, Joseph. How we thank you for him whom
Joseph represents, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Lord, we ask in Christ's
name that you would speak comfortably and in kindness to each one here
and reveal yourself to us for Christ's sake. And as we prepare
to observe thy table, Lord, please, by your grace, enable us to do
this in remembrance of him, in remembrance of his being our
surety before time began, in remembrance of him living a perfect
life, keeping your law, in remembrance of him dying as the sin bearing
substitute taking our sins upon him and his body being broken
and crushed under your wrath. Enable us to remember him in
his resurrection being raised for our justification. Enable
us to remember him in his ascension back into your presence as our
great high priest and intercessor. We thank you for him. In his
name we pray, amen.