David, the man that God said
he's a man after my own heart, prayed this prayer. Be surety for thy servant for
good. I've entitled this message an
all-encompassing request. If He is my surety, I have all, all that God requires, all that
I need, and all that I desire. Be thou my surety for good. Now I can remember when I got
my first loan. I was 16 years old. I was going
to buy a Mustang, fastback. And my grandfather co-signed
for me. If I couldn't pay the debt, he
would take up the slack. He was liable as my co-signer,
but he didn't pay a penny. I made every single Now, I had
him as my backup, but I'm the one who paid. If the Lord Jesus
is my surety, that means he covenanted with the Father to shoulder all
the responsibility of my debt. The Father did not look to him
as a cosigner or as a sponsor or as a helper to make up for
my deficiencies, just in case I wasn't able to come up with
the goods. But he looked to him to assume and fully discharge
all my debts. When the Lord Jesus became surety
to the elect. The father no longer looked to
them. But he looked to Him for everything. Do you know that just makes me
feel good? All that God requires, He looks
to Christ for. He doesn't look for a thing out
of me. He looks to my surety. As my surety, he paid all my
debts, therefore I must be set free and enter the glories of
heaven. Now this is indeed an all-encompassing
request, and one can see why David made this request. Can you pray this prayer? Lord,
be my surety, for good. All that God requires of me,
He looks to His Son for. Indeed, He is the surety of the
better testament. Now, can you find it in your
heart by the grace of God to pray this prayer even now? And I mean you mean it. This
is what you desire. Lord, be surety for me for good. Now, the Hebrew word surety carries
with it two ideas, both of which are necessary for our salvation. The first definition of the word
is to braid, to intertwine. And he became braided with me. He became intertwined. What this
speaks of is union with the Lord Jesus Christ. He became intertwined
with me. He was made what I am to be. I'm made what He is. But the word also means to be
a security for, to bear responsibility for. And let me give you the
words our Bible translates from this one Hebrew word that'll
give us some idea of what it means and what David meant by
this request. It's translated, engage. Lord,
be engaged to me. It's translated, meddle. Remember
that scripture, meddle not with them that are giving it to change.
You ever heard somebody say, don't meddle in my business.
You know what my prayer is? Lord, meddle in my business.
Meddle in my business. Don't leave me to myself. It's
translated, mingle. Be mixed together. Be united
to me. And oh, how I can pray this prayer.
Lord, be mingled with me. Be united to me. Let me be who
you are, where you are, what you are. Be united to me. It's translated mortgage and
pledge. Lord, be my sin payment. Be my mortgage. Pay for my sins. And I like this. The word is
actually translated occupy. Occupy, Lord, occupy me. And what I thought about is I
thought about what if you were in a country that had a cruel dictatorship
that was just oppressing you and a merciful country. A powerful
country that could rid you of that Democrat came in and occupied
your country. Wouldn't you be thankful for
that occupation? Lord, occupy me. I'm in a cruel country. The flesh
oppresses me. Occupy me. And then the word
is also translated undertake. Undertake for me. Do something
for me, act for me, undertake for me. Turn back to Psalm 51
for a moment. This gives us some idea of what
David meant. I want you to notice all the
things that David asked the Lord to do for him and to it. And
when we ask the Lord to undertake for us, it's like, was it in
the study or? Yes, it was shunning, reading
about blind Bartimaeus. And the Lord said, what wilt
thou that I should do unto thee? Now, boy, there's a lot of things
I want him to do to me and to do for me, undertake for me.
Look here in Psalm 51. He says, have mercy upon me,
O God. He says in the latter part of
the verse, blot out my transgressions. Do something about my sin. Wash
me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. Look
down in verse 7. 7, Purge me with hyssop, and
I'll be clean. Wash me, I'll be whiter than
the snow. Make me to hear joy. I can't
hear joy unless you enable me to do it. That the bones which
thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins. Blot
out all mine iniquities. Undertake for me, Lord. Create
in me a clean heart. Mine's filthy. Undertake for
me, Lord. Renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit from
me. Undertake for me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Undertake for
me." Verse 14, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou
God of my salvation. Sins that deserve damnation,
undertake for me. O Lord, open thou my lips and
my mouth to show forth thy praise. Undertake for me. See, he's asking
the Lord to do things for him. Lord, be a surety for me. Undertake for me. And then there's
the word in our text, surety, bear the responsibility for me. Now, six times in the book of
Proverbs, we're warned about being a surety for somebody else. It is not wise to be responsible
for somebody else. You've got enough to deal with
yourself. You don't need to take the responsibility for somebody
else. But the word is first mentioned in Genesis 43, when Judah said
he would be a surety for Benjamin. And I pray that the Lord will
take this story and bring it home to our hearts and enable
us to pray this prayer from the depth of our hearts, O Lord,
be surety for thy servant, for good. Now let me read Genesis 43. Would you turn there? Verse 8, And Judah said unto Israel, Jacob
his father, send the lad with me. And we will arise and go,
that we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our
little ones. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him? If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever." Let me remind you of the events
that led up to this wonderful verse. Jacob had a favorite wife. Her name was Rachel. And she
had two boys, Joseph and Benjamin. And these two boys were Jacob's
favorite children. He made a shameless difference
between them and everybody else. And you can imagine the tension
that created in that family. Jacob greatly preferred Joseph. He greatly preferred Benjamin. The other fellows were just kind
of, they were nothing compared to these two boys. So can you
imagine how jealous these boys were of Benjamin? And Joseph. And can you imagine how they
probably resented their father that he made such a shameless
difference between these boys? Turn to Genesis chapter 37. And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein
his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. Verse 2. These are the generations of
Jacob. Joseph. Joseph, being 17 years old, was
feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons
of Dilla and with the sons of Zilpha, his father's wives, and
Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. Now, Joseph
was telling on his brothers. He was ratting on his brothers.
Now, that's the only blot, I think, in his character. Everything
else is just above reproach. But here he is telling on his
brother. So you can imagine. Did you ever
have a brother or sister tattle on you? You know how angry that
would make you. Now, go on reading. Verse 3,
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 they could not speak peaceably
unto him. Now, if you put yourself in there,
every time they saw him, it irritated him. It made him mad. They despised
Joseph. And if you were them, you probably
would have done the same thing. You put yourself in their place.
It would have been very difficult to deal with that. Verse 5, And
Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they
hated him yet the more. 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
to my sheaf, and bowed to me. And her brothers 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, and said, Behold, I have dreamed
a dream more, and behold, the sun, and the moon, and the eleven
stars made obeisance to me. Now can you imagine how that
infuriated them? You're telling me that the sun,
and the moon, and the stars are going to bow to you? And he told it to his father
and to his brethren, and his father rebuked him and said unto
him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and
thy mother and thy brethren and thee come to bow down ourselves
to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him,
but his father observed these things. Now you remember how
his brothers sold. He was coming to see about him,
had his coat of many colors on. They see him, and there he comes.
There he comes. And they say, we're going to
get rid of him. They put him down in a pit and
try to figure out what to do. And some Ishmaelites come by,
some merchants. And they sell Joseph to these
Ishmaelites. They strip him of his coat of
many colors. They kill a Goat dip the coat
in the blood and they come back to their father. This is so cruel. They said, here's your son's
coat. We found it. No, he feels like an evil beast
has slain his son and he thinks he's going to go to the grave
in sorrow. Look at verse 31. And they took
Joseph's coat and killed the kid of the goats and dipped the
coat in the blood and they sent the coat of many collars and
they brought it to their father and said, this is what we found
now. No, now, whether it be thy son's
coat or no." And he knew it and said, it's my son's coat and
an evil beast that devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent
and feces, and Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon
his loins and mourned for his son many days. And all the sons
and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused
to be comforted and said, for I'll go down into the grave for
my son mourning. Thus the father wept for him,
and the Midianites sold him into Egypt and parted for an officer
of the pharaohs and captain's guard. Now he sold into Egypt,
look in chapter 39. And Joseph was brought down to
Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard,
an Egyptian, brought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which
had brought him down hither. And the Lord was with Joseph. And he was a prosperous man.
And he was in the house of his master. The Egyptian, you know,
that's a blessing to think of the Lord. Even in our affliction
can cause us to be prosperous, and this is not talking about
material prosperity necessarily, but oh, that the Lord would prosper
us, cause us to honor him. He was with Joseph in an unusual
way and blessed him. Verse 3, And his master saw that
the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did
to prosper in his hand, and Joseph found grace in his sight. And
he served him, and he made him overseer over his house, and
all that he had he put in his hand. And it came to pass from
that time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that
he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptians' house for Joseph's
sake. And the blessing of the Lord was upon all that he had
in the house and in the field. And he left all that he had in
Joseph's hand, and he knew not aught he had save the bread which
he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person,
and well favored. Now here he is banished, and
the Lord has prospered." Potiphar's wife gets a crush
on him. And she asks him every day, come
lay with me, come lay with me. And he refused, and he refused,
and he refused. And she was a scorned woman,
so she accused him of rape. And he was thrown into a prison.
Now, talking about bad things happening, I mean, look at what
his brother did. Now this happens, and he's thrown into prison. Look in verse 20 of this same
chapter 39. And Joseph's master took him
and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners
were bound, and he was there in the prison, but the Lord was
with Joseph, and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight
of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison
committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the
prison, and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.
And the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was
under his hand, because the Lord was with him, and that which
he did, the Lord made it to prosper." So here Joseph is prospering,
even in the prison, the Lord blessing him in what he does.
Now, while he was in prison, he looked at a couple of men
who looked very depressed. The butler, And the banker, he asked
him, why are your accountants so sad? What's wrong with you?
He was a very sensitive man. Here he was in prison, and he
was concerned about these people. I admire him in that. He said,
what's wrong with you fellas? And they said, well, we've had
a dream. And we don't know what the dream means. And Joseph interpreted their
dream to him. The butler was going to be restored
back into office. And the baker was going to be
beheaded. That was the interpretation of
the dream. And he told the butler, he said, now when you are restored,
I want you to remember me. I interpreted this dream. And
of course, the butler agreed. The butler was restored and he
forgets. And there Joseph lies rotting
in the prison. Now during this time, while he's
still in a prison and the butler has been restored to his place
with Pharaoh, Pharaoh has a dream. Seven skinny cows eat seven fat
cows. And seven withered ears of corn
devoured seven fat ears of corn. And none of the wise men of Pharaoh
could interpret the dream. They didn't have any idea what
it meant. And the dream was repeated to make sure it was seen. Seven
skinny cows ate seven fat cows. And seven blasted, withered ears
of corn ate seven good, full ears of corn. And all of a sudden,
the butler remembers Joseph. Look in chapter 41, verse 9. Then spake the chief butler unto
Pharaoh, saying, I do remember my faults this day. So he tells him about a man by
the name of Joseph who could interpret dreams. So Joseph is
brought out of prison and brought before Pharaoh, and Pharaoh gives
him his dreams. He says, it's been told me you
can interpret dreams. He gives the dreams. I saw seven
Skinny cows eat seven fat cows. And I saw seven withered ears
of corn eat seven big full ears of corn. And I have no idea what
it means. What does it mean? And Joseph
interpreted his dream. He said that the seven fat cows
represented seven years of plenty. All kinds of food. The crops
are going to be great. And seven years of famine are
going to come right after that. And they're going to make you
forget those seven years of plenty. And the fact that it was double,
the seven withered ears of corn eating the seven fat ears of
corn, that lets us know that this is going to happen for sure.
There's no room for wiggling. This is what is going to take
place. But here is what you need to do. Look in verse 34. Let Pharaoh, chapter 41, let
Pharaoh do this. Let him appoint officers over
the land and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in
the seven plenteous years. And let him gather together all
the food of those good years that come and lay up corn under
the hand of Pharaoh and let them keep food in the cities. And
that food which shall be for the store to the land against
the seven years of famine which shall be in the land of Egypt,
that land, that the land perish not through the famine. And the
thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, in the eyes of all his
servants. And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such
a man as this, a man in whom the Spirit of God is? And Pharaoh
said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this,
there is none so discreet and wise as thee. Thou shalt be over
My house, according unto thy word, shall all my people be
ruled. Only in the throne will I be
greater than thou. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh
took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph's hand,
and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain
on his neck. And he made him to ride in the second chariot
which he had. And they cried before him, Bow thy knee. And
he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. 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." Joseph became
the most powerful man in the world. There wasn't anybody like
Joseph. And if you were going to eat,
you had to go to him for food. That's how powerful he was. Everybody, if you were going
to live, is up to him. If you were going to die, it
was up to him. He was the most powerful man
in the world. Now, chapter 42. And when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, the famine had struck where Jacob lived.
He said, why do you look upon one another? And he said, behold,
I've heard that there's corn in Egypt. Get you down thither
and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. And Joseph's ten brethren went
down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother,
Jacob sitting on with his brethren, for he said, lest perventure
mischief shall befall him. Now, do you remember what took
place? These Ten men who sold Joseph into slavery. Look in verse 9. They come before
him. They don't recognize Joseph.
They don't know he's their brother. They just see him as the king
of the world. And they're bowing before him. Verse 9, And Joseph
remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto
them, Your spies, to see the nakedness of the land, are you
come? And they said unto him, Nay,
my Lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all
one man's sons, and truly, thy servants are no spies. And he
said unto him, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land, you
are come. And to shorten it up, you read it on your own, but
what took place, he gave him food, and he said, You are not
going to get any more food. Unless you come with your little
brother, Benjamin. They told him they had a brother
by the name of Benjamin. They were trying to justify themselves,
saying we're not spies. We're all the sons of one man.
We have one brother at home whose name is Benjamin. We're not spies.
We're true men. And he said, I'm going to give
you food, but you're not going to get any more unless you come
back with your brother, Benjamin. Now look in verses 33 and 34.
They've come back to Jacob, to tell him about what
took place. And the man, the Lord of the country, said unto
us, Hereby shall I know that you are true men. Leave one of
your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your
household, and be gone, and bring your youngest brother unto me.
Then shall I know that you are no spies, but that you are true
men. So will I deliver your brother, and you shall traffic in the
land. And it came to pass, as they emptied their sacks, that,
behold, every man's bundle of money was in a sack. And when
they both, they and their father saw the bundles of money, they
were afraid. And Jacob, their father, said unto them, Me, have
you bereaved of my children? Joseph is not, and Simeon is
not, and you'll take Benjamin away? All these things are against
me. Now, Reuben speaks up. Remember what Jacob said about
Reuben? Anybody remember? Unstable as water, thou shalt
not excel. He knew Reuben. So he listened. to Reuben differently. Look in
verse 37. And Reuben spake unto his father, saying, Slay my two
sons, if I bring him not to thee, deliver him into my hand, and
I will bring thee to him again. And he said, My son shall not
go down with you. He would not let him go with
Reuben. He knew Reuben. My son shall
not go down with you. For his brother is dead, he is
left alone. If mischief befall him by the
way which you shall go, you shall bring down my gray hairs with
sorrow to the grave. Not going down with you. So some
time passes. They run out of food again. And
it's time to go back to buy some more food from Pharaoh. So we
look in chapter 43. And the famine was sore in the
land. And it came to pass when they'd eaten up their corn, when
they brought of Egypt, their father said unto them, go again
and buy us a little food. And Judah spake unto him, saying,
The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, You shall not
see my face, except your brother be with you. Now, if thou wilt
send our brother with us, we'll go down and buy thee food. But
thou wilt not send him, we'll not go down. For the man said,
You shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. And
Israel said, Wherefore dealt ye so ill with me as to tell
the man whether ye had a brother? And they said, The man asked
us straightly of our state and of our kindred, saying, Is your
father yet alive? Have you another brother? And we told him, according
to the tenor of these words, Could we certainly know that
he would say, Bring your brother down? 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
thou, and also our little ones. will be surety for him." Now,
do you remember what Jacob said about Judah? Judah is a lion's
whelp. Of what tribe did our Lord come?
The tribe of Judah. Judah said, I will be surety
for him. of my hand, shalt thou require
him? If I bring him not again unto
thee, and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever." Now, there are five characters
in this story. I'm going to be real brief. I
can't believe I don't have any more time than I do. But five
characters. Reuben, Judah, Joseph, Benjamin
and Jacob. Jacob represents the father. Benjamin represents the believer. Joseph represents the law. Judah represents the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Reuben represents man's religion. Now God the Holy Spirit contrasts
Reuben and Judah in this story and in them we can learn what
a surety actually is. Now remember how Judah guaranteed
to bring Benjamin home. Look back in chapter 42 once
again what Reuben said rather, verse 37. And Reuben spake unto his father,
saying, Slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee, and
deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again.
Jacob said, My son shall not bow down to you. He knew it. Reuben speaks with such pride
and such arrogance. False religion is always there.
There is no humility in it. He talks about what he will do.
I will bring him down. But Judah speaks differently.
Judah said unto Israel's father, send the lad with me and we'll
arise and go that we may live and not die, both we and thou
and also our little ones. I'll be surety for him of my
hand, shalt thou require him. Notice he didn't say out what
I'm going to do, but he said, if I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. Beautiful humility. Now, Reuben
had no sense of justice, did he? He said, if I don't bring
him, slay my two boys. Your grandchildren, you think
that's going to, will that satisfy justice? Slay my two grandchildren?
Did Jacob want that? Reuben had no sense whatsoever
of the justice of God, but Judah did. He said, if I don't bring
him back, let me bear the blame. Let me bear the blame forever. You know, man's religion does
not honor God's justice. There's not a respect for God's
justice. For instance, just the belief that Christ can die for
you. And you can end up going to hell anyway, even after those
sins have been paid for. You might have to pay for them
again. Where's God's justice in that? That's a complete denial
of the justice of God. The gospel magnifies God's justice. Now, man's religion, Reuben,
does not honor the character of the father. Reuben says, I'll
let you slay my two boys. What do you think of Jacob? I
mean, really, what do you think Jacob would get pleasure out
of killing your two sons if you don't bring him back to you?
What's this about? It's no real respect for the
character of the father, and man's religion doesn't honor
the character of the father. But oh, how Judah loved his father
and could not bear to see him in sorrow. Judah had an exalted
view of the love Jacob had to Benjamin. Look over in chapter
44. This is when he's come before Joseph. Verse 30. Now, therefore, when I come to
thy servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that
his life is bound up in the lad's life. It shall come to pass when
he see that the lad is not with us, that he'll die! And thy servant
shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with
sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety
for the lad unto my father, saying, If I bring him not unto thee,
I'll bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore, I pray
thee, let thy servant abide instead of thy lad, a bondwoman, a bondman
to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brethren. For how
shall I go to my father, and the lad be not with me? Lest
peradventure I see thee evil, that come of him my father."
Now, think about what he's saying about the father's love to Benjamin.
He says his life is bound up in that lad's life. And he would
be in complete sorrow and killing if we didn't bring him back.
And I want you to think about this. God could not deal with one of
his children being lost. His life is bound up in my life, he won't lose one of his children. You want to look for some significance
to your life, don't look at it in your job
or your relationships. That's so unimportant compared
to this. You see, man's religion has a
very low view of the love of God. Man's religion thinks if
God can love you, you can end up being damned anyway. God can
love you and you can end up being lost anyway. Salvation's up.
You want a low view of the love of God. It makes the love of
God utterly meaningless. But oh, the love of God. His love is bound up in His people. And Reuben takes less than full
responsibility. Now he says, if I don't bring
him back, slay my sons. He doesn't say slay me. He says
slay my sons. He does not take the responsibility. But Judas says, let me bear the
blame, the sin, the responsibility forever. I'll take the punishment. I'll abide in his stead. You see, Christ, Reuben was willing
to take the punishment. He didn't say anything about
the blame. Judah said, I'll take the punishment and I'll take
the blame. You know what this is? It's what
the Bible calls imputation. Imputation. Now, somebody called
me this week, a dear friend called me and said, can you tell me
just what the Bible means by imputation? That's a good question,
isn't it? What does the Bible mean by imputation? You know, it's translated by
12 different words in the New Testament. It's translated account,
conclude, count, charge, esteem, impute, number, reason, reckon,
suppose, think. What does it mean? In Romans chapter 6, verse 11, Paul says to every believer,
if you want to understand what impute means, here it is. Because
most of the time, what we think, the way we've got a wrong thinking
about this, when we think that imputation is God charging us
something, for instance, charging us for something we didn't do. That's really a wrong idea. It's
included in it, but it doesn't tell the picture. If God imputes righteousness
to me, it's because He makes me righteous, and therefore imputes
righteousness to me. That's why. He imputes righteousness
because I am righteous. God took away my sin. Christ
took away my sin. He gave me His righteousness,
and God views me as righteous because I am righteous. In the
Lord Jesus Christ I am. Now, here's the Scripture that
came to my mind, and I hope the Lord brings this in power to
each one of us. In Romans chapter 6, verse 11,
Paul said, reckon yourselves. That's the word impute. Impute
to yourself. Think regarding yourself. View
yourself. Regard yourself. Believe yourself
to be. Reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I want to ask you a question.
Would God tell you to reckon yourself to be dead and to sin
if you weren't? No way. God's just. And when he says
reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, there's only one
reason. You are dead indeed to sin. You have no sin. Sin has nothing
to say to you. It's been blotted out. You stand
perfect before God. Now, that's what reckoning is,
imputation, whatever you want to call it. Reckon yourselves
to be what you are, dead indeed to sin. But I don't see it. Believe it. But I don't feel
it. Believe it. Reckon yourselves
to be dead indeed to sin, but alive unto God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Judas said, I'll take the punishment. I'll take the blame. It became
his and his righteousness becomes mine. Now, let's remember, Joseph
represents the law. And here's what the law does
before the surety ship. Let's look back in Chapter 44. Verse 32. For thy servant became
surety for the lad. unto my father, saying, If I
bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my
father for ever. Now therefore, I pray thee, let
thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondman to my Lord. The Lord sayeth this to the law.
And let the lad go up with his brethren, set him free. For how
shall I go up to my Father, and the Lamb be not with me, lest
perventure I see the evil that shall come upon my Father?' Then
Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by.
He cried, "'Cause every man to go after 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 unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Doth my father yet
live? And his brethren couldn't answer
him, for they were troubled at his presence. I'm sure they were
scared to death. This is Joseph. This is Joseph. They thought
that he was going to kill them. 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 in Egypt. Now therefore,
be not grieved. nor angry with yourselves that
ye 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 the which there shall neither
be earing nor harvest, and God sent me before you to preserve
you a posterity in the earth, and to save you your lives with
a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent
me hither, but God." And he hath made me
a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and a ruler
throughout all the land of Egypt. Is there any doubt that God wrote
the Bible? Let's pray.