That is the desire of our heart: that in all we do, He would be honored. And how it is in our life that every day we have those wonderful opportunities to honor Him.
You know, He arranges our lives in such wonderful ways that we find out, one way or the other, that we cannot live our own lives. But we have an opportunity to allow the honor of His life to come through, and what a blessing that is.
Let’s have another word of prayer as we continue in His presence.
Lord, we started this morning with that reminder of Your great love. Our brothers stood here impressed with the love of God for each of us. And Lord, we thank You that, as we continue, as we take of Your table, as we worship You, as we are in Your presence, Your love continues to capture us. We see more and more little glimpses of it, and we sit here today as the fruits of Your love.
Lord, we come here this morning and offer ourselves to You, that as we look into this love letter that You have written to us, we would open our hearts wide and give Your Holy Spirit free access for speaking and hearing. Lord, that we would not just accumulate knowledge, but would have that encounter with the very Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We bless You, Lord, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
This morning our brother started by reading out of Romans 5, and throughout our time of worship and at the table, different ones were reading and quoting various passages from Romans. So maybe we can look at another passage out of Romans to start our time, as we continue looking at some of the lessons that we can learn from Joseph’s life, as we started last week.
We said Joseph’s life is so full and so rich that we are only touching on a few of the nuggets within his life. Hopefully this could stimulate us all to go back and search the Scriptures even more, to learn more and more of the great testimony that Joseph had in his life: that God was with him.
As we look this morning, let’s look at Romans 8. Precious testimony here in Romans 8. Look at verses 16 and 17:
The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God:
and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ;
if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him.
In the spirit of looking at Joseph’s life, who was a child, it looked like he had lost his inheritance. But we see that through the suffering, the riches of his inheritance were made very real to him. Actually, through the suffering life of Joseph, not only Joseph but his brothers and his whole family entered into a rich inheritance.
We sit here today because there are different ones who have gone before us. There are ones that, you know, we are even here together, going on together, that we could all enter into the riches of our inheritance that we have in Christ.
The wonderful thing about the riches of the inheritance in Christ is that we do not have to wait to enjoy them tomorrow. We enjoy them today, because, as our brother reminded us, that work of justification has been done. As we enter into that, there is a richness of the life of Christ—the riches of the inheritance we have in Him, those unsearchable riches—that we enter into now.
We do not want to be those who have a tendency to put it off. You know, sometimes we meet believers and they say, “Oh, I’m just waiting to get to heaven. What a glory it will be.” It will be glory there, but praise God, we do not have to wait until we get there to enjoy the riches of all the blessings we have in Christ. We are heirs now, and fellow heirs with Christ—joint heirs together.
We see here at the end of verse 17 the path that the Lord has for us to truly enter into that glory. It is the same path that our Lord walked. He has gone before us, and He has made the way. Paul writes, “If indeed we suffer with Him, in order that we may also be glorified with Him.”
As we look at the life of Joseph, we see one who suffered greatly. But the suffering was not the end of his life, because we see also—and we will touch on it this morning—how he was glorified greatly. He entered into all of the riches that there were.
As we look at Joseph’s life, let’s turn back over to Genesis and look at Genesis 39. We have seen how Joseph, in the midst of many trials—in the midst of the trial of being betrayed by his brothers, and in the midst of the trial of being thrown into prison for standing for righteousness’ sake—had that wonderful testimony that God was with him.
Joseph enjoyed the riches of his inheritance as he was in that pit of despair that his brothers put him in. He enjoyed the riches of his inheritance as he was in that prison, because his eyes were upon the King and he knew the reality of God being with him.
Joseph is a wonderful picture of a young man being brought into manhood; or, to use a New Testament term, a young child being brought into sonship. That life of Christ was being matured, being perfected, growing up through the sufferings that he had to go through. There was a maturing process.
Sometimes the sufferings that we go through, and the hard times—do we allow them to be used to mature us, or do they just wipe us out? The Lord has a wonderful provision in everything we go through, of learning more of Him.
We saw in Joseph last week also how it was not an issue of sin within Joseph’s life, because there is no recorded sin in the Scriptures concerning Joseph. Now, we know Joseph was a sinner, but the Holy Spirit chose not to record it. It was not because of sins Joseph committed that the Lord had to deal with him, but because he was a sinner—of Father Adam, just like all of us were born that way. Because of that, there is a great work that needs to be done.
We also noted in Joseph’s life how, during the times that the Holy Spirit writes about Joseph in Scripture, there is no recorded personal encounter with the Lord. We know Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and others had these personal encounters with the Lord. We know that the Lord was with Joseph, but these personal encounters were not recorded.
What this speaks to us of is what we were sharing on last month: that personal hidden life, a hidden daily life devoted to the Lord. Out of that, Joseph knew his Father’s heart. He knew God’s heart. When he found himself in situations, it was not a matter of having to go try to recall or figure out what to do, but there was that intimate fellowship with the Father that said, “Joseph, it is time for you to flee now.”
Joseph knew his Father’s heart. And the question we have is: Do we know our Father’s heart in the days we are living in?
We also see within Joseph how, through the death of one, a family was saved, a nation was saved, and the world was saved. We see how Joseph is a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But, brothers and sisters, we also see how through our lives, ones around us are saved also. The impact that we have upon those we are close with—and ones we do not even realize—there is an impact of life there.
One of the reasons that we are looking at Joseph is because our topic for this month in this foundation series is forgiveness. We see in Joseph one who had reason to be bitter, to be discontented, and one who had so many reasons to seek revenge upon those who had hurt him and betrayed him.
But we see no seed or root of bitterness within Joseph—one who learned forgiveness. He not only learned it; we see Joseph testify of how the Lord had even enabled him to forgive.
When his sons were named, he named the first one Manasseh: “The Lord has helped me forget all my pain.” All the pain and affliction he had gone through were gone, because Joseph had forgiven those who had hurt him and betrayed him.
His second son was named Ephraim, that wonderful testimony of how the Lord had made him fruitful in the midst of all that affliction. He was fruitful in that land. Oh, how can we be fruitful in the midst of the trials that we are living in?
Joseph had those two dreams, and those two dreams were what held him throughout his life. I believe also the dreams of his father, the dreams of the ones before him—how the Lord had touched them—were made real to Joseph. But how was the reality of that dream, or that vision, made so real within his life? It was through obedience and suffering.
We could say it was through Joseph’s willingness to embrace the cross and not be offended at the testings that the Lord was putting him through. Because we will see today, as Joseph testifies to his brothers, who was it that put Joseph in Egypt? It was God who sent him there.
What was the main testing that Joseph was being tested by, as we said last week? The Word of God tested Joseph. It says there in Psalm 105 that while Joseph was going through all of those trials, his soul was in conflict in everything that he was going through. It was that Word of God being proven to him in a very precious way, that Joseph could enter into the reality of the call that the Lord had upon his heart.
We have to remember, too, as we are looking at Joseph, how he was betrayed by his brothers because of his love for his father. He ended up in prison because of a righteous act toward his master—again, not an issue of wrongs, but actually for being right. Joseph ended up being the one that was suffering.
We saw, too, how at several times Joseph was stripped of a coat. Outwardly, he was stripped of that beautiful coat that his father had given him. Then he got a nice coat when he was in Potiphar’s house, but he was stripped of both of those. Yet Joseph was never stripped of his character.
Brothers and sisters, things can affect us at times, but do we allow them to affect our character?
As we left Joseph last week, he was in prison. He had interpreted the dreams, and for the sake of time we are not going to go back over that. But let’s look at the end of Genesis 40 and the first verse of Genesis 41.
Joseph had interpreted the dreams of the cupbearer and the baker. These dreams had been fulfilled, and we know how Joseph had told the cupbearer, “Remember me when you are free.”
Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
And it came to pass at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed.
Again, we see Joseph. He had been faithful to those he was serving in the prison, and this one disappointed him so greatly. He had served these ones, and he said, “When you get out, you remember me.” Yet we see how the cupbearer forgot Joseph.
Joseph had another opportunity here to be offended again. Do we get offended when our service is not appreciated? Do we get offended when our service is forgotten?
Are we all good accountants, keeping track of all our service? “Look at all I did for that sister, and she totally forgets me. Look at how much I labored and helped that brother during that time. They came here in prison. I took care of them. I gave them good meals. I interpreted their dream, and he totally forgets me.”
Do we ever feel like that? If we are honest, we do. We all experience that. The only person who has not felt neglected in their service is one who has not served.
I remember, you know, it is interesting. It is like in a ball game. You play basketball, and I was never very good because by the end of the first quarter I was fouling out. But there were those who never fouled out because they never got in the game.
Praise God, we can foul out. Jim probably never fouled out. He was so good, so graceful around the court, and he could leap up and block them and never touch the guy. He never fouled out, but a lot of us foul out.
In this Christian life, we commit a lot of fouls. That is why we celebrate this Lord’s table every Sunday. It brings back to remembrance the precious work of the blood of the Lamb. It cleanses us of all those sins and unrighteousness, and we are so thankful for that.
Joseph had another opportunity to be offended, but praise God, he was not offended. He knew the Lord was with him. Through that extra two years—and I believe that was probably some of the most anguish of those two years—the Lord was doing a deeper and deeper work within Joseph’s life, because he continued to learn more and more of the Lord.
Maybe Joseph learned a lesson, and we can learn it too in times of trial. In the trials that we are going through, what is our goal? Is our goal getting out of the trial, or is our goal beholding the Lord? Is our goal seeing Jesus, or is our goal getting out of the trial?
Now, I know most of you love to be spiritual, but most of the time when something comes upon me, my first reaction is, “I want to get out of this.” I am sorry I am not more spiritual than that, but my initial reaction in most things is, “Lord, get me out of here. I do not like this trial.”
But what is the goal? What was the Lord trying to teach Joseph? The object was not for Joseph to get out. The object was for Joseph to see the Lord in the midst of it. In that, there was a freedom that Joseph came into in the midst of the prison.
As Joseph had learned that lesson, later on Joseph would be freed. Joseph learned that things work best according to the Lord’s timetable, not ours. Sometimes, in the waiting and the trials we go through, at that moment we do not see what they are for. But in that waiting, in that moment, the Lord creates opportunities which would not have been there before.
If Joseph had gotten out a couple of years before, he might not have been there to interpret Pharaoh’s dreams. If Joseph had gotten out of prison that couple of years before, he might not have been in a place to restore his family. The Lord’s timing is perfect. Would that the Lord be our patience, learning through the midst of it all that we can see.
As we come to Genesis 41, Pharaoh himself has two dreams. Joseph’s life has, we could say, three sets of dreams. You have Joseph’s two dreams; you had the cupbearer and the baker’s two dreams; and now Pharaoh has two dreams. Each one of them is impacting Joseph’s life.
Pharaoh shares his dreams with all the wise men around him, and nobody understands. But all of a sudden, the cupbearer remembers: “Ah, when I was in prison for what I had done wrong, I remember there was this young Hebrew lad there, and he interpreted our dreams, and they both came true.”
So they go down and say, “Find this guy.” They run down. Again, Joseph—they take off Joseph’s prison coat, dress him up real nice, and bring him into the king’s palace.
As Joseph comes into this palace, again Joseph was stripped of his coat but not his character. This is one of the biggest tests that Joseph encounters: the test of prosperity.
He has come out of prison. They have washed him up, and he is being hauled in to come before Pharaoh. But Joseph has that character of Christ within him.
Pharaoh tells Joseph of the dreams. Joseph interprets the dreams and says, “Your dreams mean that there are going to be seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. During those seven years of abundance, you need to store up all this grain in the cities, so that during the seven years of famine people can buy the grain and make it through.”
Pharaoh says, “Ah, such wisdom,” and appoints Joseph as governor over all of this project of gathering the grain. He makes him number two in Egypt.
As Joseph interprets those dreams, you can see in Genesis 41:16 that he interprets in a spirit of humility. He says, “It is not in me: God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.” Joseph is not taking any credit.
When Joseph came before Pharaoh, we have to remember—we know the story, so at times we can miss the picture of it—Joseph had absolutely no guarantee that, after he interpreted the dream, he was not going back to prison. There was no guarantee. It was not like, “Okay, you interpret this dream, and I am going to make you governor.” No. Joseph had no idea. There were no promises.
Joseph was always faithful right where he found himself. When he was in his father’s house, he was faithful, even though his brothers were jealous. When he was in that prison cell, he was faithful to care for the others. When he was in Potiphar’s house, he was not rationalizing and making excuses: “You do not understand my situation. This is not a good place to serve. I want to serve here.”
No, no. Joseph was faithful right where he was that day. That one day came when he stood before Pharaoh to interpret the dreams, and Joseph was just as faithful on that day in the presence of Pharaoh as he was the first day he was in prison, when maybe he was cleaning out the bathroom stalls.
It did not matter. The task was not the issue. The issue in Joseph’s life was faithfulness to the Lord right where he was. He served the Lord, and he allowed the Lord to get the glory in that.
As we see how Joseph interprets this dream, he is also very faithful in the interpretation. There is no self-serving in this. He does not try to paint some rosy picture. There is no manipulation; it is a total, honest sharing with Pharaoh, with no guarantees. But we see how, in that, the Lord honored Joseph.
From the depths of despair to the heights of glory. I really believe, at this point in time, this was probably, you could even say, the biggest test that Joseph faced.
It is one thing to have God with us in the pit. It is another thing to know the reality of God with us in the prison. But do we know—or do we even want, or do we need—God with us in the palace, when you have everything?
At this point in Joseph’s life, he had absolutely no physical needs. We could even say this reverently: Joseph had no need of God at this moment, because he had everything. Brothers and sisters, that is the greatest temptation we face: when we get in places where we do not so-called need the Lord. We do not think we do.
This is where we are challenged a lot in the United States because of our prosperity. There are so many alternatives, so many things that we can do.
This was the greatest challenge, I think, that he faced. But praise God, Joseph was faithful to the Lord in the midst of that. He served the Lord in that capacity in the same dependence as when he had gone through some of the training in the other places.
He did not use his position to get revenge. It would not even have been consequential for Pharaoh for Joseph to say, “Now look, Pharaoh, I am number two. There are a few people in my life that have done me wrong, and now I want to get even with them.”
Pharaoh might have said, “Great. For all you have done, just go ahead. What is one Potiphar’s wife? What is that cupbearer? He forgot you for two years. He ought to go back and pay two years in prison.”
There was none of this, because Joseph had not only had the spirit of not being bitter, but Joseph had already forgiven them. He had already forgiven them, as testified by the names we see of his children.
After this wonderful time, we see the seven years of prosperity, and then the famine starts. They had this wonderful seven years, and Joseph had stored all this grain and made all the provision for it.
Then, if we start in Genesis 42, we see the famine has started and we see how Joseph is restored with his brothers. Jacob is back in Canaan with his sons, and he says, “Go to Egypt and buy some food for us. Buy some grain for us.”
Jacob sends the ten sons, leaving Benjamin at home. The ten sons come into Egypt, they come before Joseph, and they do not recognize him.
Joseph is about thirty-eight years old now. The last time they saw him, he was about seventeen. So there was about a twenty-one-year difference. Plus, he was dressed like an Egyptian and everything.
They did not recognize Joseph, but Joseph recognized them. He sees them come in and bow down, and he remembers that dream.
What is Joseph’s reaction to his brothers? Does he throw it up in their face? “Look at you. Do you know who I am? Look at you guys bowing down.” He does not throw it in their face, because Joseph had forgiven them.
But now the challenge of the reality of forgiveness grasps Joseph’s life. It is easy to forgive ones that you never see anymore—ones that you do not have any personal encounter with, people that live in other places that you never see again. They have offended you and you forgive them, and you never see them again. So that forgiveness, in one sense, never gets tested.
But then there are those who are brought right back in your face, and the reality of that forgiveness gets lived out. Do you find at times that you say, “I have forgiven,” but then you see someone right in the face and all of a sudden the stuff starts swelling up within you? “Ooh, I remember all that stuff he did. I am going to get him now.”
Joseph could have said, “Wow, I have been made governor of Egypt, and here these ten brothers of mine are falling at my feet. I can set it straight now. I can get revenge. This is God ordering it so that I can get even.”
We can picture circumstances in our lives in such a way that we think God orders it for our good. No, whose good is this being ordered for?
Actually, we see that these next chapters are really for the brothers’ sake, so that the brothers can be set free from the guilt and power of sin. I love that hymn because it talks about not only the guilt of sin, but there is a power of sin that works within us. It makes us feel guilty about it, but there is a power that grips us.
As we go through these chapters, really these chapters are for the brothers’ sakes. We have to ask a question, because we are going to do a little change now. We have been looking so much at Joseph that we could learn the lessons from Joseph’s life. But as we come to these chapters now, who do we relate to the most?
Are we Joseph, with ones coming to us to repent before us and make things right? Or are we the brothers who have done wrong, and the Lord needs to be working within us so that we can come to that place of repentance and really be set free?
In these chapters, Joseph is primarily a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is primarily a picture of the Holy Spirit arranging and orchestrating circumstances with a desire to set the brothers free from the guilt and power of sin.
The objective here is not to prove that Joseph was right or that he suffered wrongly. The objective here is restoring the brothers. God has such a love for them—the same love He has for Joseph. In this, Joseph has such a love for them.
In our natural mind, we could say, “Well, Joseph, when your brothers came in, why did you not just say, ‘All is forgiven. Let’s go on as one big happy family’?” Why did Joseph not just say that?
It is because Joseph loved his brothers so much. He wanted them to be set free from the guilt and power of sin. Unless they were brought to that place of seeing what they had done, brought to that place of repentance, captured by the love of God, his brothers would never truly be set free.
They might have restored a superficial relationship, but the relationship God wanted was one with no barriers. There would be a full restoration. This was not for Joseph’s sake. This was for the brothers’ sake: for them to be free, to go on and be able to serve God as He had called them to serve.
We see the Holy Spirit starting to orchestrate various situations and circumstances to bring about the salvation of these brothers.
In Genesis 42, when they come to Joseph asking to buy grain, he says, “Why are you here?” They say, “We are just here to buy some grain.” He says, “No, you are spies.” They say, “We are not spies. We are honest men, twelve brothers.” “No, you are spies.” He throws them into prison.
What does that remind you of? Does it remind you of when Joseph went to his brothers, and they said, “Ah, here comes that dreamer. He is spying on us again for Dad. He just wants to see how we are doing so he can go back”?
Joseph said, “No, I was not.” They said, “Yes, you are,” and they threw him in the pit. He was led away by strangers.
The brothers find themselves in the same circumstance: falsely accused. They had not done anything wrong, and yet all of a sudden they are the ones in prison.
Praise God, out of this circumstance we see the Holy Spirit working within the brothers to start awakening their conscience. Their conscience had been dull. They had been trying to suppress everything they had done to Joseph for all these years, because we see in the Scriptures how the thought of Joseph was still with them. They just kept pushing it down.
That is the power of sin within us. There is a power within us that continues to bring agony even when time has gone by. Twenty years had gone by, and there was still agony there.
But we see, through the Holy Spirit in His great love orchestrating this, that the conscience of these brothers awakens and they start to see what they have done.
Look in Genesis 42:21:
And they said one to another, We are verily guilty concerning our brother,
in that we saw the distress of his soul, when he besought us, and we would not hear;
therefore is this distress come upon us.
They remembered how Joseph had pleaded with them, and it did him no good. All of a sudden, the Holy Spirit is bringing it back to mind: “Ah, you remember that picture of when Joseph was pleading with us?” They knew that what they did to their brother was wrong.
The Holy Spirit was orchestrating this to awaken that conscience that had been dulled. They were starting to see their sin. They were brought into a place of feeling sorry. There was sorrow and remorse there. But the question is: Is it a sorrow and remorse that is going to lead to repentance, or just a desire to get out of the circumstances?
Look over at Paul as he addresses this in 2 Corinthians 7. He talks about the difference between worldly sorrow and godly sorrow that leads to repentance.
As the Holy Spirit works within us, He orchestrates and brings us to a place where, yes, there is sorrow, but there is also that place of genuine repentance. Look in 2 Corinthians 7:9–10:
I now rejoice, not that ye were made sorry,
but that ye were made sorry unto repentance;
for ye were made sorry after a godly manner,
that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation not to be repented of.
Leading to salvation. This is what the Holy Spirit was working within these brothers: to lead them to salvation, that they could enter into the freedom that Joseph had entered into. They were in chains, in bondage, and the power of sin had a grip on them. The Lord, in His great love, was desiring that they be set free, so He was orchestrating this in their life.
So often, each one of us can relate to this. We find ourselves in situations and we are sorry about things. But as soon as that situation changes, we forget about it.
How many times have we found ourselves—I know I do—in a situation where I can promise this and promise that, but the circumstance changes and I totally forget about it? “Well, the Lord intervened, and so here I am. I am free.”
That is not sorrow leading to repentance. But there is a sorrow that works within us that brings about change, allowing Him to train us. We see how the Holy Spirit is orchestrating this within the brothers’ lives.
Joseph understands everything they are saying. They do not know it because they think he is an Egyptian, and he has been using an interpreter. But they do not understand that Joseph knows all things.
Sometimes, brothers and sisters, we are such fools. I should say “I,” because we say, “God, You do not understand these things.” We do not think God understands what we are going through. Oh, how He knows. He sees with that heart of love and says, “This is working out for your salvation, and you will see it one day.”
Joseph brings the ten out of prison and says, “Okay, nine of you go back. Take the grain and go back, and Simeon, you are going to stay here in prison.” In Genesis 42:24, it says they took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.
Right before their eyes, they see Simeon being bound and taken away to prison. Remember this, and we will touch on Simeon being bound and them not doing anything a little more later.
You wonder why it was Simeon. We do not really know, but there is speculation. Maybe Simeon was the ringleader. Maybe he was the toughest one.
Why would that be? Remember, when Jacob’s sons had a sister, Dinah, and some people from Shechem did not treat her too well, some of the sons went out and got revenge. Who was the leader of that? Who did Jacob rebuke first for that? It was Simeon.
Maybe he was the ringleader. If you look at Jacob’s blessing upon his twelve children, when Jacob gives his prophecy, his prayer, and his blessing for the children, nothing good is said of Simeon. Most of them have a little “oops,” a little bit, but Simeon—there is nothing good about him. So maybe he was the ringleader. Maybe he was the hard one, and because of that Joseph had him stay.
Maybe the other guys did not like him. They said, “Okay, Simeon, you can stay. See you later. We are going back to Pop.”
They all headed back to their father. We said that the Holy Spirit is working within this to see that they are brought to the true fruits of repentance. We already start to see it, because when these brothers were talking with Joseph, there was no lying. They spoke the truth. They did not try to deceive Joseph. They gave an accurate report about the family situation.
It is already interesting to note: How did they refer to Joseph? Did you note in Genesis 42:21 that they referred to him not as the dreamer, not as that kid, but as “our brother”? Our brother. There was that recognition of what they had done. The Holy Spirit was starting to say, “This was not just a nobody. This was our brother that we did this to.”
As they are sent back, Joseph’s steward puts the money in their bags. They start back, and lo and behold, they stop along the way at Wawa to get a coffee, and they open up their bags.
Now, that is going to drive people crazy listening to the tape who do not have a clue what Wawa is, and we are not going to tell them. So you thought I was going to be nice and tell the people? Nope. They have to come visit Richmond and see what Wawa is.
But as they stop there, they open their bags, and the money is there. They say, “Oh no, what has God done?” Look at the end of Genesis 42:28:
What is this that God hath done unto us?
They were taking it for evil, but actually it was the kindness of Joseph, who gave them their money back. What is it that the Lord uses so often to lead us to repentance? The kindness of God, as it says in Romans 2, leads to repentance.
But a guilty conscience often takes the kindness of God for evil. Ones reach out and try to display the love of Christ, but when you are guilty, all sorts of other motives can be plotted. “Oh, this is a plot of God to get us.” No, the Lord was just giving them their money back. There was kindness being displayed to them.
But there is an awakening of their conscience. This is the first time the brothers acknowledge God. They start realizing, “God is doing this.” There is this awakening going on within them.
They get back home, and they tell their father—because their father obviously sees there are only nine of them. They tell their father why Simeon had to be left.
We see another working of the Holy Spirit within these brothers because they give their father an accurate report. They did not try to demean Joseph, saying, “Well, there was this cruel ruler over there, and he was so tough, and he just had to take one of us.” They did not try to enhance the story. They told their father exactly what happened.
When Joseph was taken, they lied to their father. So now we see character starting to be worked within them, and the Holy Spirit doing a work. They tell their father exactly what happened. No misrepresentation. Through this, there is a seed planted that the Lord can continue to water and grow.
We also see Reuben a couple of times in Genesis 42. When they are in prison and starting to see how guilty they were, Reuben says, with his wonderful response as the older brother, “I told you so. I told you that you should not have done that.” He had tried to tell them not to do it to Joseph.
Then, when his father sees that they may have to go back to Egypt sometime, Reuben says, “Well, I will give you my two sons.” I mean, what kind of father? You have to wonder about Reuben. He is going to give his two sons and trade them for Simeon’s life. But no. We see how the Lord continues to orchestrate, even working within each one in such a precious way.
There comes a point in time when they run out of the grain they bought, and they have to go back to Egypt. This starts in Genesis 43. We see the precious way that Judah steps forward.
All these Judah, Jacob, and Joseph names are tough here to separate—all these Js. But Jacob is standing there and says, “I am not going to let Benjamin go. I cannot let him go back. I have lost Joseph. I have lost Simeon. Now I am going to lose Benjamin. I cannot do it.”
Judah steps forward and says, “I will be the guarantee.” Look at Genesis 43:8–9:
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.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,
then let me bear the blame for ever.
We see Judah starting to step forward for his brothers. Before, none of the brothers would step forward for any of them. They were so self-centered. They were all protecting themselves, just worried about their own lives.
But now Judah is willing to sacrifice himself for Benjamin. Steps are being made in this whole restoration process.
Then Judah gives, to me, one of the precious verses. It is just a little verse, but it speaks volumes. Look at Genesis 43:10:
For except we had lingered, surely now we had returned a second time.
That little phrase, “If we had not delayed”—brothers and sisters, when the Lord starts working upon our hearts, when the Lord starts arranging circumstances to awaken us to some sins, some things that we have committed, and areas where we need to be brought to repentance, when the Lord starts awakening us, do not delay. Run into the arms of our Beloved. He is there for us.
So often we want to wait and rationalize. “Well, it is not a good time. Maybe so much time has passed. Maybe they have forgotten about it.” It is amazing, all the rationalizations.
But when the Holy Spirit starts to awaken us, do not delay. Run into the arms of our Beloved and set that matter straight with those who may be involved in the particulars of your own lives.
May we learn these lessons as the Holy Spirit arranges each one of our lives too, as things happen. Remember, we are the brothers in this. We are not sitting here as Joseph. I am the brother. I am the one that has offended people. I am the one that has hurt people. I am the one for whom restoration needs to be made.
Would the Lord be working within all of our hearts? Not one of us can sit here and say that we have not offended or hurt someone. Praise God, He makes provision for us. When the Holy Spirit awakens that within us, let us not delay. Let us move on ahead and allow the Lord to do that mighty work.
Judah goes as a surety for Benjamin, and the ten brothers head back to Egypt. As they get to Joseph’s house, they speak to the steward and say, “Look, here is the money. Somehow it ended up in our sacks, but we are bringing it back.”
Again, they give an honest report. They are not trying to put a story on it or spin it in any way. They simply say, “It was in our sack,” and give an honest report to Joseph’s steward.
Joseph’s steward says, “No, no, no. It is okay. God put that in your sack.” We see how this spirit of honesty, where these deceivers had been working before, is being developed within them.
Joseph tells the steward to prepare a feast. They prepare a feast, and another one of these little circumstances comes out: Joseph sits them all at the table according to age.
They kind of look around. It says they sat there in astonishment. “Hey, we are all in order of age. You have Reuben here, and you have Benjamin here. Wow.” It is kind of like the Holy Spirit has some circumstances going on. Do we see the writing on the wall—what is happening here—or do we just say, “Boy, that guy was pretty lucky, wasn’t he? He figured that out.”
Then we see a test that Joseph gives. He feeds them all, and he gives Benjamin five times as much. Why does he give Benjamin five times as much? Just because he is his brother and he loves him that much more?
Well, I think the Holy Spirit was doing a little testing here. He wanted to see how the brothers were going to respond to Benjamin when he got five times more than they got. “Because I remember, as a child, when I got that coat and my father treated me better than them, they got jealous. Are they going to get jealous of Benjamin, or has that jealousy been dealt with?”
Benjamin’s bounty was for the brothers’ salvation, related to that spirit of jealousy within them. Praise God, they passed the test. We can see how they were set free. There is absolutely no display in front of Joseph of any jealousy of Benjamin.
Oh, how the Holy Spirit is working, bringing about this restoration. What a joy. Imagine the thrill that brought to Joseph’s heart. Do you know the thrill it brings to our Father’s heart, to our Lord Jesus’ heart, when He puts us in a test and, by His grace, we come through? There is rejoicing in heaven.
There was rejoicing within Joseph when he saw his brothers caring for one another.
The brothers are sent back after they get their grain. If we come to Genesis 44, we know there are some more tests going on here. In Genesis 44, Joseph has the silver cup put within Benjamin’s bag. They put that cup in Benjamin’s bag and send them on their way.
Again, they stop at Wawa—and lo and behold—no, they do not. That is wrong. I have to be accurate here.
Joseph sends out his steward and says, “Go get those guys and stop them. Tell them they have stolen my cup.”
The steward stops them, and they say, “How could we have stolen your cup? We are honest guys. We brought your money back. What do you mean, we stole your cup?”
They say, “Open all our bags, and whoever has it, they are guilty. They can just go back and be in prison.” So they go through them—Reuben opens his, Levi, Simeon—and they go on and on. Lo and behold, Benjamin opens his bag, and there is the cup.
What is the brothers’ response? Oh, how precious it is.
Remember, in times past those brothers would have taken one step back and said, “Ah, Benjamin did it. We are free. The rest of us are heading home. Benjamin did it.”
No. The Holy Spirit had been working within them in such a way that, if you look in Genesis 44:13, they all tore their clothes. They fell down in a spirit of repentance and agony. Oh, that it happened to Benjamin.
Benjamin, above all of them, was totally innocent of anything related to what had happened to Joseph. Yet these brothers were coming alongside, standing with Benjamin in this. They all go back and fall before Joseph’s feet.
It is so precious. We see Judah again making a wonderful testimony here. There are no excuses. Look at Genesis 44:16. Judah falls at the feet of Joseph and cries for mercy:
What shall we say unto my lord?
what shall we speak?
or how shall we clear ourselves?
God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants:
behold, we are my lord’s servants,
both we, and he also with whom the cup is found.
Brothers and sisters, when we meet and encounter the Lord, there is nothing we can say. We fall at His feet and accept His forgiveness. There is an acceptance of our guilt. They accepted responsibility for their sin. “We are guilty.”
What guilt are they even talking about here? “God hath found out the iniquity of thy servants.” It was still that guilt of Joseph eating at them, because they had not been guilty in this case. Benjamin had not been guilty. But they are falling at the feet of Joseph as the Holy Spirit has orchestrated this situation for their salvation.
Joseph sees there is care for Benjamin. They are in this together. So Joseph has one last test for them. He says, “Okay, I accept that, and I know that the other eleven of you are not guilty. You are free to go. I am just going to keep the one who had the cup. I am just going to keep Benjamin. All the others are free to go back.”
Joseph does this as one final test to see their concern for their father. Remember, when they sold Joseph into slavery, they had absolutely no concern for their father. They knew their father loved Joseph, and yet they sold him into slavery. They went back with that animal skin covered in blood.
It talks about the agony of Jacob’s life, the agony Jacob went through, and no one was able to comfort him. Jacob could find no comfort from them.
Now in this final test, how are these brothers going to respond? Judah steps forward and says, “No. I am the substitute for my brother Benjamin. If Benjamin does not go back, it will kill my father.”
Look over in Genesis 44:29–31:
And if ye take this also from me, and mischief befall him,
ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Sheol.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 seeth that the lad is not with us,
that he will die.
Judah was willing to lay down his life. The brothers were willing to come to a point of laying down their own lives so that they would not offend their father. It was a love for their father that had been restored.
In this, they pass this final test. Joseph sees how the Holy Spirit has worked within them to really set them free from the power of guilt, how they have accepted responsibility for their sin and confessed it. They are for their brother. They are for one another. They are for their father. They are for their family.
In Genesis 45, Joseph sees this genuine repentance and reveals himself. These brothers are in total astonishment, and Joseph fully restores them. Joseph applies that healing balm. He comes in and comforts them.
After he reveals that he is Joseph, at first they are kind of terrified. He says, “No, come near.” The Lord is always saying, “Come near. See how much I love you.”
Then we see what Joseph does in Genesis 45:14–15:
And he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck, and wept;
and Benjamin wept upon his neck.Moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them:
and after that his brethren talked with him.
There was that weeping, that pouring out of himself upon Reuben, upon Simeon, upon Levi, upon those brothers with whom he had been shepherding, who were so angry with that bad report. He embraced them. He was not ashamed to call them brethren.
Brothers and sisters, in the same way our Lord Jesus, when He sets us free, when He brings us to that place where we can truly enter into a spirit of repentance and go on and settle things, thank the Lord, our Lord Jesus is not ashamed to call us brethren.
The tragedy, brothers and sisters, is that so often we are ashamed to call one another brethren. At times, I am amazed how our Lord Jesus calls each one of us brother and sister, and yet within the body of Christ, we can barely utter that phrase to one another at times.
There is a work that needs to be done. As we look at these brothers and this story, we need to remember that we are not the Josephs. We are the brothers.
How do some of us feel about ones that have hurt us? Are we waiting for them to come and repent and change, to do all of their penance and everything before we can accept them? Do we have a criteria for them before we will accept and be restored?
Do we see how much God is for each person, each brother and sister within the body of Christ? Do we see God’s desire for restoration?
It was His desire. Steve read Romans 5:1. That is the picture. That is God restoring us to Himself. He took the initiative, and He is taking the initiative every day to bring about peace and restoration within the body of Christ.
Are we going to be those who are cooperating with Him? Or are some of us so focused upon our hurts? “I have been hurt. There is no way that I can get over this.” Are we so focused upon our hurts, or are some of us so focused upon being right, so focused on proving we are right?
Oh, brothers and sisters, I thank the Lord that when our Lord Jesus came to us, He did not approach us proving that He was right and we were wrong. He approached us in love. He approached us in that spirit of kindness that led to repentance. He showed us so great a love, and as we saw Him, that provoked a spirit of repentance within us.
Sometimes we can be so blinded. Our conscience can become so dull because we think we are right. We think time has passed. “Too much time has passed.” Oh, time does not wash away sins. The blood of Christ washes away sins.
This is tragic today within the family of God: one of the greatest, if not the greatest, cancers within the body of Christ is unforgiveness. I just personally have been touched and convicted of it.
Again, it is not a self-examination. Joseph, in the natural realm, was not arranging these circumstances. It is not you and I going around arranging circumstances to bring ones to repentance. It is the Holy Spirit. It is the Lord moving.
When the Lord moves, do we recognize those opportunities? Do we recognize the awakening of conscience? Maybe we have pushed it down. Maybe we have not thought of something for a few years.
That is why I appreciate it when our brother Jeffrey shared on forgiveness. There were things the Holy Spirit prompted him that he knew he had to go back and get right. Do we use the excuse of time and say no?
Brothers and sisters, as the psalmist in Psalm 139, David says, “Lord, search me.” Let the Holy Spirit do the searching and see if there is any evil way within me.
But praise God, it does not stop there. God is not interested in just showing us our evil ways. Yes, He wants us to see our evil ways. Why? Because He wants us to be set free, so that we can enter into the everlasting way.
So often we can focus upon not wanting to get self-introspective, but no, it is the Holy Spirit. If we give that Holy Spirit freedom, if we give Him that power to work within us, He will point out things to set us free.
Brothers and sisters, one of the ways we see in this Christian life how little we know of ourselves and of the Lord is when we are surprised at things the Holy Spirit points out within us. When the Holy Spirit points out something within us and we say, “Oh, how could I do that?” we do not know ourselves.
We do not know ourselves, but He knows us. He loves us so much.
One of the greatest displays of God’s love is bringing brethren, bringing each one of us, to a place of repentance. He loves us so much, He wants us to be set free. But as that righteous God, He is not going to just wipe it clean.
Just like Joseph did not just embrace his brothers and go on, he knew they had to be set free. Brothers and sisters, each one of us needs to be set free, that we can continue on in this day that we are living in.
Joseph had come to a place of seeing things from God’s perspective. After Joseph was revealed to his brothers, he tells them, “God sent me before you to preserve life.” Then they go back, get their father, and bring their father into Egypt.
There is nothing recorded of Joseph ever saying anything bad about his brothers to his father. It was not like, “Oh Dad, I am so glad to see you. These guys treated me so bad all those years ago, but now we are back together.” Nothing is recorded of that.
Because God had caused Joseph to forget his pain, he had truly forgiven. He was not going to throw anything up, even in his father’s face. He was not going to uncover.
To me, Joseph not speaking to his father about what those brothers had done is a living, precious testimony of what Peter speaks: how love covers a multitude of sins. That is the past. We do not need to bring it up. It is settled.
But some of us, brothers and sisters, as we live within the body of Christ and experience all the goodness and blessing of the Lord, the great provision that we have in Him, continue on like Joseph’s brothers.
After Jacob dies, what do Joseph’s brothers say? “Oh, now that Dad is gone, what is Joseph going to do to us? Let’s send him a message that Joseph’s dad said to forgive them.”
It broke Joseph’s heart. In Genesis 50:17, Joseph wept again. It was a weeping. It reminded me almost of the weeping of our Lord Jesus with the disciples, when He cried out, “You have been with Me so long, and you do not even know Me.”
These brothers had enjoyed seventeen years of Joseph’s bounty, all of his goodness, all of the blessing, with not one little iota or inch of revenge, getting even, or bringing up the past. But they had not entered into what our brother shared in opening the meeting. There was a glitch in their foundation on the understanding of being justified.
It is done. As one brother prayed, it is eternal. It is a once-and-for-all thing. But so many of us within the body of Christ can find ourselves going on with the Lord for so many years, and yet do we really know? Have we entered into the riches of all that He has done for us and the blessing that we have?
Joseph, in his great love for his brothers, does not fuss at them about it. What does he do? He reaches out. He says, “You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.”
Then, in Genesis 50:21, it says Joseph comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Joseph is the one they should have been comforting, but Joseph was comforting them, speaking kindly to them, drawing them on in a greater way.
It is a precious testimony as Joseph’s life ends. Joseph knew where his true home was. He says, “When I die, take my bones back, because I remember what Abraham said. We are going to be in this land about four hundred years, but this is not our home. We are going back.”
Just as he knew, in faith, the exodus of the people was coming, he also testified, “Take my bones back.” Joseph, in that testimony of faith, knew the reality of where his home was.
Our home is not here. Our home is in Christ. He is so working within our lives as He has this calling upon us to enter into all that He has for us.
Remember, as we see Joseph, the underlying foundation within Joseph’s life was the call that God had upon him. Brothers and sisters, the underlying foundation in our life is the call that God has upon us.
Sometimes, as we look around, we say it is impossible to forgive. But if we really see our Father’s heart, it is impossible not to forgive.
When we say it is impossible to forgive, it shows our lack of knowing the love of God, the love of Christ that we sing of. Because when we are captured by that love, all things are possible with Him.
How is the bride made ready? How is the hastening of our Lord’s coming prompted even more? It is by people who are willing to respond to the Holy Spirit, making things right within the house of God.
We talk about these being days of restoring and restoration. We restore not only related to truths and the teachings of the reality of who Christ is, but also that restoring of relationship. We forgive one another as God forgave us in Christ.
May the Lord help us. Let’s pray.
Lord, when we touch on this matter of forgiveness, I think we always just have to come back to a place of worshiping You and thanking You for so great a salvation.
We have been forgiven much. May we learn to forgive much.
In Thy precious name.