Turn back with me tonight to
the book of Genesis, chapter 42. The last 13 chapters of the book
of Genesis bring forth the story of Joseph. That's a fourth of
the book. A fourth of the book, which speaks
of Joseph. And I know as we read through
these chapters, we see the providence of God especially. And as we
do, I cannot think of any words better to express our amazement
at the providence of God in the lives of his children than those
words of the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 11, when he said,
Oh, the depth of his riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. We're to see God's providence,
and we do in these chapters, but more than this, we are to
see the many typical lessons that God has for us here. Those
lessons that picture Joseph as the Christ, as the Savior, as
he is the one that God provided to save the Israelites, his family,
Jacob and his brothers. Let's begin reading and read
through verse 20 tonight. Now when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why do you look
one upon another? They had no corn. They had no
wheat. They had no bread. Why are you
looking upon one another as though somehow you're going to come
up with wheat? Why look you 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. And Joseph's ten brethren went
down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother,
Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he said, lest peradventure
mischief befall him. And the sons of Israel, that
is the ten brothers of Joseph, Jacob's ten sons, lest Benjamin
The sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came, that
is, among people from all lands that came to buy corn in Egypt. They came. For the famine was
in the land of Canaan. And Joseph was the governor over
the land, and he it was that sold all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and
bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren,
and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake
roughly unto them. And he said unto them, Whence
come ye? And they said, 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, and said unto them, You are spies. To see the nakedness of the land
you are come. And they said unto him, No, no,
my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all
one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants
are no spies. And he said unto them, Nay, but
you see the nakedness of the land. But to see the nakedness
of the land, ye are calm. And they said, Thy servants are
twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan.
And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one
is not. And Joseph said unto them, That
is it that I spake unto you, saying, You are spies. Hereby
you shall be proved. By the life of Pharaoh you shall
not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and you shall
be kept in prison. that your words may be proved
whether there be any truth in you, or else, by the life of
Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And he put them all together
into war three days. Joseph said unto them the third
day, This do, and live. For I fear God. If you be true
men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your
president. Go ye, carry corn for the famine
of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me. So
shall your words be verified, and you shall not die." And they
did so. Last week, I brought this thought
to us, and that was the exaltation of Joseph. The exaltation of
Joseph, we began in verse 39, if you want to turn back there,
chapter 39, in verse 20, we began with his humiliation. That is,
the humiliation of Joseph, being falsely accused and put into
the prison. Joseph's master, that is Potiphar,
took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's
prisoners were bound, and he was there in prison. That's where
we began last Sunday evening. We saw Joseph at his lowest point. That is, he was falsely accused
by his master's wife, and the master put him in prison. and the humiliation of Joseph. What a picture of the eternal
Son of God, the eternal Son of God, who is always shared with
the Father and God the Holy Spirit in all the glory of heaven, and
how he made himself of no reputation and came into this world as a
man. He humbled himself. He became
a servant. that he might save his people,
that he might obey his father and do the work which the father
gave him to do, but then he has been exalted, we read in Philippians
2, and we see the same thing about Joseph here. We began with
him at a very low point, at his humiliation, and that's where
When we think about the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this
world as a babe, he humbled himself, the scripture says. But where
is he tonight? Where did Joseph end up? If you
look in chapter 41, this is where we closed last time. In verse 55, we say that he's
the master, he's the governor over the food in Egypt. When all the land of Egypt was
famished, The people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said
unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph. Go unto Joseph. If you want bread, you've got
to go to Joseph. And men and women who desire
to be saved must go to Christ. He's the dispenser of God's salvation. He is God's salvation, just as
Joseph was. Now we begin tonight, verses
1 and 2 of chapter 42, with Jacob hearing a message. It says when Jacob saw that there
was corn in Egypt. Now how did he see? He didn't
have extra powerful eyes that he could look over out of Canaan
into the land of Egypt and say, hey, there's corn over there,
there's wheat over there, there's storehouses full of wheat. But
it says when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, how did he
see this? He heard, as verse 2 tells us. He said, that there is corn in Egypt. He had heard that there was bread
in Egypt. The message, the gospel comes
to us by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. We know that this bread in Egypt
is of type, is of picture to us, of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is the Bread of Life. I want you to keep your places,
but go with me to John chapter 6. John chapter 6, the Lord Jesus
confesses himself to be the Bread of Life. I want to point out just a few
things here that we read about the Bread of Life. That's the message of the gospel.
And the first thing I point out to us here in verse 33 of chapter
6 of John, for the bread of God is he which cometh down from
heaven and giveth life unto the world. The bread of life is the
bread of God. There is no other bread of life. There's no other bread of life
The bread of God is the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is the bread
of life that God appointed. If you look there in verse 27
of that chapter, chapter 6, he told these people who had
come to seeking him, actually, but they came seeking for the
wrong reason. They were in But the bread that they were
interested in is the bread that sustains physical life. That
is, the bread that we eat every day. That's the bread they were
interested in. They had witnessed the Lord Jesus
Christ feed thousands of people with just a few loaves of bread
and a couple of fish. And they were interested in that
bread. And so many people, that's all
they're interested in is the things of this world, this life. But we know that there's another
world, and there's another life, a life to come. And our Lord
tells these people now, labor not, notice verse 27, labor not
for the meat which perishes. That's what you're working for,
that's where all of your attention is, for the things of this life,
for the things of will be done away one day. And
a great fire, the world and the heavens are all going to be consumed.
And so many men and women, and we're all guilty of it apart
from the grace of God. Our Lord said, Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things, that is,
the food and the shelter, the raiment, all these things shall
be added unto thee. for our bodies, but the same
thing is true of our souls. Our soul needs bread, and our
soul needs a robe of covering. Remember when Adam disobeyed
God, the first thing he really And God prepared him a robe,
didn't He? But here, labor not for the meat
which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life, which the Son of Man, that is Christ, who is God-man, the
Son of Man shall give unto you. Now notice, for Him hath God
the Father. In other words, God has appointed
one man, one mediator between himself and us, just as Pharaoh
appointed one man to dispense the corn, to dispense the wheat. Go to Joseph, he said, those
that came to him, famished. Go to Joseph. Savior. He's the Savior of the
world in the sense that doesn't mean that every person who comes
into this world is saved. We know that. But every person
who is saved in this world, no matter where, is saved by Him,
because He's the only Savior. A person who comes from whatever
continent, There's only one Savior. There's only one that God the
Father has appointed and has sealed. Notice something else
here in verse 32. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth
you the true bread from heaven. You see, the true bread salvation
is a gift, isn't it? The true bread my Father giveth
you. By nature, man is proud, sinfully
proud. And the last thing he wants to
do is to beg. The last thing he wants to do. Have you ever begged? I remember
one time in my life, I was a young boy, that I considered that I
begged from someone, from some man. I think I've told you that story
before, so I won't tell it to you again. But I needed a nickel. I needed a nickel to get on the
bus and get a transfer to get on another bus to get home one
night. I had the money, but I had lost
the money, and so I begged. And I went up to the man and
asked him, Sir, would you give me a nickel? And thank God he
did. And I told that story to Jim
one night, and he said, Did you pay him back? And I said, No,
but if I could find him, I sure would. if I knew who it was. But man, we don't like to beg,
do we? We're proud. We're self-sufficient. I'll take care of myself. I don't
need anybody. And so man doesn't go and ask
for mercy. He's ashamed to beg. And he thinks he'll work for
salvation. Make up whatever he needs. He'll take care of it. But you'll
never be able to do that. And no one else can do it for
you. The bread of life the Father gives. Gives. And then something
else in verse 51 of chapter 6. The bread of life is living bread. I am the living bread, which
came down from heaven. He's the living bread. And he's
also, in that verse, we see the bread, the living bread, which
gives eternal life. I am the living bread, which
came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The bread of life is living bread,
and the bread of life gives life. Now, we have bread when we eat
our meals, we eat our food every day. That bread sustains our
life. But there's no physical food
that can give life. You can take a loaf of bread
and lay it down on a dead man and a corpse. It's not going
to give him life. Yes, bread sustains life, physical
life. But you see, the living bread,
the Lord Jesus Christ, He not only gives life, but He sustains
our spiritual life because He is our life. He is our life. What does it mean? What did he
mean here in this text when he said, if any man eat of this
bread? And then he says, the bread that
I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the
world. What does he mean by eating his
flesh and drinking his blood? Well, when he said, I am the
door, By me, if any man enter in, he shall go in and out. He
shall find salvation and go in and out. When he said, I am the
door, no one imagines him as a physical door. What we know
from that is he's the only way to God. He's the only way to
the Father. He is the bread of life, and
we must eat his flesh and drink his blood. We know that that
is by faith. It's not physically eating. He's
not telling his disciples we've got to be cannibals. The law
of God forbade cannibalism. No. about spiritually, his body,
his sacrifice that he gave. We trust in his suffering, dying,
his blood to atone for our sins, to reconcile us unto God. That's how we eat His flesh.
While I'm preaching, God's people here are eating His flesh and
drinking His blood. That's what we're doing. As we
hear of Him, that's what we're doing. We're eating His flesh
and drinking His blood. By faith, looking to Him, trusting
in Him, has all our salvation. Now turn back with me to Genesis
42. So I said we began tonight with
a message. Jacob heard that there was corn
in Egypt. Now, why was that of any interest
to Jacob? Why was that of any interest
to Jacob? There was corn in Egypt. He didn't
live in Egypt. He was in the land of Canaan.
And how many times did God tell Israel the land of Canaan was
a land of milk and honey. A land of milk and honey. Why
would he be interested in this message? There's corn in Egypt. Well, if you look back in chapter
41, just before this, in verse 56, we read, "...and the famine
was over all the face of the earth." See, the famine wasn't
just in Egypt. It was there, but it wasn't only
in Egypt. It was not confined to Egypt.
In fact, this verse tells us it was on the face of the earth,
all the face of the earth. The need for bread is not confined
to one nation or one nationality. Sin, like this famine, has covered
all the face of the earth. There's no land, there's no nation
where sin has not come. From the most primitive societies
to the most advanced societies, it's kind of like this COVID,
this virus that is taking the lives of so many people. Is there
any country today where that has not entered? When I see the
maps, it looks to me like it's gone everywhere. Now it started,
it had an original place where it started, just like sin. Where did sin begin? Well, the
scriptures tell us, doesn't it? It tells us that it began with
one man. For by one man. Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. How did sin come to me? How did it come to you? By that
one man. Because that one man was our
head. He was our federal head. Not just of you and I, but of
all the peoples of the earth. He was our representative. He
was the first Adam. People say, I don't like that.
I do. I do. And if you ever understand the
gospel, you will too. Because I praise God for that.
Because, you see, if I could become a sinner by the work of
one man, I may become a saved sinner by the work of the second
man, the second Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this message
to Jacob, there's corn in the land of Egypt. That was good
news. It was good news. He had a need. He had a need. He needed food for himself. He
had a large family. He had a need. At the birth of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the angels told those shepherds who were
out watching their flock that night, For unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And
that was good news. It's been good news ever since,
that God sent a Savior into this world. Now, when we think about
this, what is going to bring Joseph's brothers, all 11 of
them eventually, what is going to bring them down to him, and
all of them bow down to him? Now that's what his dream revealed. Look with me back in chapter
37, Genesis chapter 37, and verse 7. This is what Joseph had dreamed. How's this going to be accomplished?
Verse 7 said, For behold, well let's read verse 6, And he said
unto them, Here I pray you this dream which I have dreamed. For
behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, That is, the wheat
that they harvest, binding those together. And, lo, my sheep arose,
and also stood upright. And, behold, your sheep stood
round about, and made obeisance to my sheep. was obviously from God, and Joseph
knew that. I'm sure over the years, now
Joseph is about 40 years old now. Remember when he was sold
he was 17 years of age, but that's how much time more or less has
transpired since he was sold in the They don't recognize it. We'll
see that in just a moment. But what's going to bring them
down? And how's that dream going to
be fulfilled? It's going to be fulfilled because
they're going to come to have a need. A need of bread. And we saw last week in the message,
it was God. That verse in Psalm 105 and verse
16 tells us God called for a famine in the land. Someone told me they were talking
with a person, this has been back a couple of years ago, and
this person was being influenced by teaching that is not true,
but they were saying that these seven good years, God, God brought
those seven good years. Well, if God brought the seven
good years, you must recognize He also brought the seven The Word of God tells us that
God, the Lord, He called for the family upon the land. They're
going to come down because they are going to have a need. The
Lord Jesus Christ said, all that the Father giveth me shall come
to me, every last one. There's not going to be any missing
mansions in heaven. There's not going to be any extra
rooms there. All that the Father giveth me,
he said, and when did the Father give his people to him? Before the foundation of the
world. All that the Father giveth me
shall, not maybe, not perhaps, no, they all shall come to me. But what will cause those that
the Father gave to Christ to come to him? They will be made
to feel, to know they have a need. You know there's an old saying,
you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.
And I was talking to a father this morning about one of his
children. He's so concerned about, and
rightly so, her soul. And he realizes as we talk, you
can't give a person a need. You can bring them here to do
service. You can preach the gospel to
them. You can witness to them. And we should. You can give out
tracts. But we don't have the power to
give a person a need. Only the Lord can do that. And
you know he's sovereign in that work. He's sovereign in that
work. But they must be made to have,
to feel their need. And only the Lord can give man
need, hunger, for the bread of life. Most people are not interested. That's the reason you see so
much entertainment that goes on in what they call places of
worship today. Why? because people want to be
entertained on their way to hell. They don't have a need. They
don't need to hear about Christ. They don't need to feed upon
the bread of life. No, no. They need to be entertained. And they have itching ears, as
the scripture says, and they heap to themselves. Teachers
have itching ears. Always trying to come up with
something new. And you see, I'm old enough,
I've seen a lot of this new stuff come down the pipe, as they say,
over the years. And, you know, they'll come up
with something new and it attracts the crowd for a while, and then
someone else will come up with something else that's more exciting. made to feel a need, need for
Christ, need for the bread of life. It's Christ and Christ
alone. I remember one of the first English
martyrs who was burned at the stake. Those were his last words. Christ, Christ alone. Christ, Christ alone. He is the
bread of life. Have you ever been made to feel
your need, to know your need, so that you look out for the
bread of life, for salvation, for forgiveness, for reconciliation
with God? Now notice, and I'll be brief
on this, but second, we learn that Joseph knew his brethren,
but they didn't know him. verse 8 of this chapter, chapter
42. And Joseph knew his brethren,
but they knew him not. As I said just a moment ago,
time had passed. If they had come into Egypt knowing
that that's where the Midianites, to whom they had sold Joseph,
was carrying him, they may have thought, well, we may run into
him there. He'll probably be a slave if
we save him, you know. How's he going to treat us? What
is he going to think? But they sure didn't expect to
see him as the governor. They didn't recognize him. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am the good shepherd and know my sheep. They didn't know him,
but he knew them. Listen to what the Lord told
Jeremiah. The prophet, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew thee. He knows His sheep. We come into
this world, we don't know Him. These brethren, they didn't know
Joseph, but Joseph knew them. And the Lord Jesus Christ knows
His sheep, and He knows all about us. And He knows where we are
at all times. His eye is continuing upon His
people. Now, Joseph, we see, knew them,
and he would reveal himself to them, but in his time and in
his way. He recognized them, but he didn't
say, Hey, boys, I'm Joseph. I'm your brother. Oh, no. He
would eventually. He's going to reveal himself
to them, but as I said, he's going to do it in his time and
in his way. And that's one of the truths
of the gospel that is offensive to the lost land, that salvation
comes by revelation. It comes by revelation. As the
Apostle Paul wrote, so then, it is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven because thou hast
hid these things from the wise and prudent, and revealed them
unto babes. And when Paul gives his testimony
in Galatians chapter 1, he says, But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me. that I might preach the gospel
among the healed. It comes by revelations. God reveals. God reveals to us
our need, and God reveals to us if He is pleased to do so. He's sovereign in this, we know. Joseph knew them first, and just
like Christ knows His sheep first, they will come to know Him. John
tells us we love Him. But why do you, if you love Christ
tonight, why do you love Him? Because He first loved you. And
if you know Christ tonight, why do you know him? Because he first
knew you. Knew you from before the foundation
of the world. Now I want to close with these
three thoughts. Joseph, as I said, they didn't
reckon, they came in, wherever Joseph was, in some kind of a
marketplace, and no doubt many people were coming. There was
a lot of traffic there, buying and selling and all of that.
But they didn't recognize Joseph. But it may well be that Joseph
this day was dressed in a garment very much like that garment that
his dad, Jacob, had given him. because you will remember when
we studied that passage of scripture, I said it wasn't a coat of many
colors. It wasn't a patchwork coat. It
was a coat that governors used for the most part. It was white,
it was a flowing robe, and it had embroidery work of gold around
the arms and probably around the neck to reveal that this
is somebody. The same, he was dressed in the
same type of coat that his father had given him, the same type
of coat that they took and they dipped it in that goat's blood
and sent it to his dad and said, hey, you recognize this coat? Knowing full well what they had
done. The second thing, Joseph accused
them of being spies. accusing them of being spies.
Is that what they accused him of? You remember back there,
and you have to go back and read that, but Jacob had sent Joseph
to check on his brothers, and before that, he had brought an
evil report of his brothers. And when he came that day, did
they accuse, did you come to spy on bad conduct to our Father. I believe Joseph realized, you
see, think about it, this is one family in all the earth that
had the truth. They're the only family, they're
living in a land of pagans, and here they are, the one family
that had the truth about God, that had been revealed unto them,
the promise had been given unto them. of the seed of Christ who
would come and bruise the head of the serpent. The promise that
was given to Eve, first of all, and then to Abraham, Isaac, and
now Jacob. And they were not living. Their
conduct was not becoming of those that had this great treasure.
And Joseph, I believe he reported that back. to Jacob, his father. Did they accuse him of coming
to spy? Well, now he accuses them. That's
what you've come into this land to do. You're spies. Now, we
know he had a motive. He wanted to find out about his
younger brother, Benjamin, and if his father was still alive. But he put them in war. That's
the third thing. He put them all in some kind
of a prison, just like they And then on that third day, and
when we think about the third day, I've got to think about
the resurrection of Christ, don't you? That third day when he let
them loose and only kept one of them as a hostage so that
they would bring Benjamin with them when they came back to buy
corn. And remember this, all of this
was a fulfillment of a prophecy that God had given to Abraham
years before of how his family would go down into Egypt. And
in Egypt, they would become a large family. Seventy of them are going
to go down there, but when they come out, there's probably over
a million. This is all in God's providence. fulfilling God's purpose, fulfilling
God's will. The God of the Bible is a God
who worketh all things after the counsel of His will. I don't
care how small it is. I don't care if it's a fly, and
it's flying around my head. Thank God there's not one here
tonight. But the smallest insect to the largest thing that happens
in this world. Who's in control? God is. And God is working all things
after the counsel of His own will. And it's all for His glory. Everything is for His glory.
Let's sing a hymn. Son of my soul, number 77.