We pray for the preaching of God’s word. Lord, the grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Amen. What an incredible scene. Pharaoh this year, the second in command of all of Egypt, has taken time to meet with these eleven sons of Israel. And as our text opens, we see Joseph is so completely overcome with emotion that he dismisses all others from the room. Weeping aloud in verse 2, he cries out in verse 3, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? And the brothers, we read, are dismayed. The term dismayed is often used in battle to describe the parallel rising in action of an army that’s being routed. But Joseph assures them of his kind intention, and he invites the whole family to dwell in Goshin to ride out these years of drought. And in this, we see the culmination, I think, of three gospel themes. One, that God has done the work to save Joseph. Two, that God has brought the gospel into the lives of his brothers, resulting in genuine repentance and reconciliation. And finally, that God has, through Joseph, preserved Israel and then through the nations.
Let’s look at each of these themes in turn. That God did the work of saving Joseph, Joseph himself attests to four times in these few verses. Verse 5, God God sent me before you to preserve life. Verse 7, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth. Verse 8, So it was not you who sent me here, but God. Verse 9, Tell my Father, God has made me Lord of all Egypt. With this realization, this admission of God’s sovereignty, this wasn’t simply something that Joseph acquired at the end of his life, looking back. It appears to be an understanding that Joseph carried with him throughout his life. A knowledge not only that God is sovereign, but that he is also good. This was gospel to Joseph. This was good news to Joseph that God saves. And note that God did not only save Joseph from actual death in at least two instances, but remarkably, God also saved Joseph from a life of the bitterness and revenge that we might have expected. In those early days of Joseph, we see a picture that might be one of naive arrogance, the giving of a bad report to his father regarding his brothers in 37: 2.
Verse 2. His dream sharing with his brothers in Genesis 37: 7, a dream that goes like this, Hey, guys, I had a dream. We were all working together in the field, and My sheep stood up and yours all bowed down to it. Or the dream to his parents in chapter 37, verses 9 and 10, where he says, Mom, dad, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me. But God wasn’t finished with Joseph. And somewhere in his training grounds between the pit his brothers threw him in and the prison that Potiphar threw him in, Joseph developed a deeper relationship with God. We see a glimpse of that relationship in Potiphar’s house, where to his master’s wife’s command of, Lie with me, he replies, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? Joseph knew what, sadly, many in our culture today have forgotten, that sexual relationships are only allowed within the covenant bonds of marriage between a husband and a wife. And Joseph paid for his refusal. In fact, scholars will generally agree that even the accusation of sexually assaulting a royal official’s wife would be cause for death. That Potiphar did not condemn him to die was a work of the Lord.
This is the second time that God saved Joseph from certain death. A first was in his sparing him from his brothers. God used Reuben first to delay that execution. The brothers you remember have said, Here comes the dreamer. Let’s kill him. Reuben first delays that by tossing him into a pit for discussion. But next God used Judah to suggest that instead of slaying him, they could simply sell him. God saved Joseph for his glory. Instead of being vengeful or bitter, chapter 45 in our text, we see Joseph full of life, giving glory to God, ready to forgive, gracious in his responses. There’s no harboring of resentment or bitterness or anger. There are other glimpses of Joseph’s knowledge and relationship with God. While he was in prison, for instance, in Chapter 39: 21, you would read, But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. If you have time, scholars point out that there’s nearly a point by point comparison between Pharaoh’s reception or Potiphar’s reception, rather, of Joseph in 39: 2-6, and the prison keeper’s reception of him in 39: 2-6.
20-23. In both cases, they remark that they can see the Lord with Joseph. In chapter 40, when Joseph hears of the dreams of Pharaoh’s Baker and cup bear, he replies in chapter 40, verse 8, Do not dreams belong to God? Please tell them to me. Joseph is placing himself in relationship to God. He’s saying, in a sense, Because dreams belong to God and because I’m in relationship to God, tell me your dreams, and I will tell you what he says. They do, and he does. There, as everywhere in Joseph’s adult life, he credits God, and he gives glory to God. To Pharaoh’s request for a dream interpreted that Joseph declares in 4116, It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. At the birth of his first son in 4151, he says, God has made me forget all my hardships in my Father’s house. At the birth of his second son in 4152, he says, God has made me fruitful in the land of affliction. This readiness to see all of life, including and perhaps especially the pits and the prisons as from God, enabled Joseph to be overwhelmed with joy and emotion at seeing his brothers, at hearing of his Father.
Joseph displays for us Christ-like attitudes. Joseph knew, like Christ, the pain pain of betrayal. Joseph knew, like Christ, the injustice of being falsely accused. And yet he sees no room for revenge. Joseph is driven by God’s providence, not by human malice. And finally, he repays his brother’s evil with kindness and forgiveness. He is driven by his understanding who God is. There’s a challenge here for each of us. But we must realize that we cannot, in our own strength, live out those Christ-like attributes. It’s only when we are in union with Christ, it’s only when we embrace the life-giving freedom of the good news of the gospel, it’s only when they recognize that it is God who has done all the work of saving us that we realize we have No room for boasting and no room for judging. When we recognize that God is both sovereign and good, that truth allows us to rest in whatever God brings into our life and enables us, when we’re looking at Christ, to respond with grace. And that’s exactly what Joseph did. Which is why we can also see the gospel through Joseph’s life into the life of his brothers, which results in repentance, forgiveness, and reconciliation.
Look how beautiful the gospel is and how it works itself out in their lives. We’ve already mentioned their early hatred of Joseph, which culminates in that initial plan for murder. But then, Judah asked this question. He says, What prophet is it If we can kill him and conceal his blood, the blood speaks again. And instead, they decide to sell him off to traveling merchants, and then they compound their sin by lying to their father and fabricating a story about his being eaten alive by wild animals. And then, in incredible irony, they stained his coat with goat bloods in an attempt to cover their sin. But this wasn’t the end of their sin. It wasn’t covered by their efforts. They had to lie again when they told their father the story. And then, though it’s not mentioned, you can imagine that there would be no question that the rest of their life with their father would be one in which they would need to be guarded. Lest they would accidentally tell the truth, or anxious, lest another one of their brothers might tell the truth. In any case, we know that this sin plagued them. For in their first journey to Egypt, when they were buying and selling grain, Joseph, unknown to them, began to test them.
Joseph called them spies and said, that prove to me you’re not spies by sending your younger brother Benjamin. And in 42: 21, we read, They said to one another, In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us. Reuben, in chapter 42, verse 22, who picks up that theme and he comments, So now there comes a reckoning for Joseph’s blood, end quote. If you have your Bibles open, if you’re looking at chapter 42, verses 22 and 23, you might notice that when Reuben makes that declaration, Joseph in 42: 23, he is also affected by his brother’s awareness of sin. And the text says, he turned away from them and wept. An awareness, an admission of sin is the first step towards forgiveness. And reconciliation. God is faithful to bring about his Holy spirit to convict us of sin. Jesus, in John 16, tells us that this is one of the roles of the Holy spirit in our life, to convict us of sin, righteousness, righteousness, and judgment. We see the beginning of that saving work in the life of the brothers.
Their sin is troubling them. The brothers respond, and they respond with trembling. In 42: 28, they say to each other, What is this that God has done to us? This awareness of sin moves them to a genuine repentance Which Chapter 44 details. Derek Kidner, the Old Testament scholar, remarks that you can see that their repentance is genuine by, one, their unity in 44: 13, two, by their frank admission in 44: 16, and third, by their repetition in verse 17. As a whole, the brothers tear their robes. They fall at their feet. They frankly confess without any explanation that God has found out the guilt of your servants. They make no excuses. They make no defense. They, feeling their guilt, fall at the feet of Joseph, who stands as a judge, and they place themselves at his mercy. Judah further illustrates genuine repentance when he makes an additional beautiful plea to stand as a substitute for his youngest brother, Benjamin, to save their father, Israel, from an additional heartache. One scholar notes, or many actually note, that Judah here is foreshadowing Christ’s substitution for us. And one scholar notes, Because Judah was willing to to suffer for a crime he did not commit, stealing the cup, the brothers were all forgiven for a crime they did commit, selling Joseph into slavery.
Jesus reminds us in John 15, Greater love has no one than this, that he laid down his life for a friend. And that is exactly what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us. And that is what Judah was offering himself to do. If you compare Judah’s behavior with Jesus, as it is referred to in 1 Peter 2: 22-24, a portion of that reads like this. He Jesus committed no sin. He did not threaten, but he continued to entrust himself to the one who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body on a tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. We are forgiven through the blood of Christ. We are forgiven. A song that we have just song clearly shows forth that gospel context. In our text, we see the fruit of God’s working in the brother’s life. They’ve acknowledged their sin. They fall at the feet of Pharaoh’s right-hand man. Then he reveals himself as the very brother that they betrayed. Hearing this word, they’re dismayed. But notice Joseph’s gentle invitation in verse 4, Come near to me. And notice how Joseph tells them the truth in verse 5.
Do not, he says, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into slavery. But again, notice how gentle he is in verse 5. Do Do not be distressed or angry with yourself. It’s a beautiful demonstration of the spirit of God at work. It’s a picture of the gospel at work in the brothers’ lives, and it should give us hope and encouragement as we pray for others that we know that are outside the family of God, that God is faithful. Keep Keep praying that God will send his Holy spirit to trouble their lives, to trouble their conscience. Consider the good news, for instance, of Genesis 50: 20, the verse printed on the front of your bulletin, What you meant for evil, God meant for good. For Joseph, we’re seeing how that works itself out. But for us, pray. Pray that God would take the evil, whether that’s ambivalence or apathy or rebellion in the lives of people close to you that you love, that you’re praying for, and that God would take that evil and turn it to his good, bringing them to a place where they, like the brothers, will call out, God has found out my guilt, and they’ll surrender to him.
In addition to the Holy spirit, God also uses you and I in their lives. And so lavish them with kindness. Speak truth to them graciously. Tell them what’s beautiful about God, what’s beautiful about the gospel. Speak to them gently about the destructive consequences of their sinful or selfish pursuits, but know that it is God who must do the work. Our confession attests to that. In chapter 14, the first paragraph, we read this, The grace of faith whereby the elect are enabled to believe to the saving of their souls is the work of the spirit of Christ in their hearts, and it is ordinarily wrought by the Ministry of the Word. And so be in relationship to God. Be in his word so that your very life reflects his word. And continue to pray. Pray that God is faithful to work through his word and with his Holy spirit in and through your life. God saves. He saves us and through us. He chooses to save those close to us. But we also see that when one has surrendered his or her life to the Lord, God is pleased to and he is faithful to use our life as an extension of his blessing to the peoples and even the nations around us.
Joseph realizes what God was doing through him, that it was an incredible thing. When he sees his brothers coming to buy food, he realizes this, so he expresses it in verse 5, God has sent me here before you to preserve life. There are five more years in which there is neither plowing nor harvesting. The immediate context, Joseph invites and instructs his brothers to return and to bring the Father Israel and the whole household to Goshin. In this way, Joseph will save the initial 70 in his father’s family. But Genesis 50: 23, we read that Joseph lived long enough to see Ephreum’s children to the third generation. Indeed, God blesses Israel with tremendous growth. Exodus 1: 7, attest to Joseph’s death, that at Joseph’s death, the people of Israel were fruitful. They had increased greatly, they had multiplied, they had grown exceedingly strong for the land was filled with them. I think that can be an encouragement to each of us in our own involvement with our families. Whatever your role is, as son or daughter, as mother or father, as grandparent, as sister or brother, whether we’re speaking of your legal family or your spiritual family, God can use you in that family to grow it as you live for his glory and simply exercise all the gifts that he has blessed you with.
But not only does God use Joseph to bless and extend and to deliver his family, but God also used him to deliver and save Egypt as an example, as well as any other tribe or family or clan or group that traded with Egypt for those years of drought. And so for you, God can use you outside your family. You can be a blessing in your workplace, in your neighborhood, in your community, in the same way that Joseph was, simply living your life with excellence, displaying and using the gifts that God has given you. Graciously speaking, truth when you have the opportunities and being a blessing. There’s a host of opportunities for us in Christ, for us as members of the church, to do that in our neighborhoods and in our communities. Formally, with some of our ministries like promise 117, feed the flat head, and informally, just by looking at the needs of what your neighbors might have or those in your workplace. In that way, in the same way that Joseph was beginning to fulfill God’s promise to Abraham that through him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, you as well can walk in that.
And indeed, in Joseph’s day, we saw that all those nations were blessed with food and provision, that the line of Judah, the line of the forgiven Judah, would one day come King Jesus, through whom all the nations would see their true blessing. But in our lives as well, through affliction, through adversity, in in the pits or in prison, God saves us. And through our lives, he saves those closest to us, and he saves those far off. The gospel is at work. The good news that our faithful God is good, that he brings salvation to us and then through us. All for the glory of our King Jesus. Let’s pray. Father, we give you thanks and praise that you have done it. It is finished. And we rejoice in that good work. Lord, I pray that you would use each of us as we evaluate our own lives. There are some that might feel that they’re in a time in a pit or in prison and need to be reminded that you are in control and you are good. Father, there are some of us that might be exhausted at praying for those who know you not.
And I pray that we would be a reminder that you are faithful, that your spirit will be faithful to convict those concerning sin, that you use us in ordinary ways to show the gospel in their lives. So, Father, I pray that we would be faithful in our prayers. And Lord, for each of us that we would consider how it is that we could display your goodness, your beauty, your faithfulness, the gospel in our lives, in a community, and in families that could need a bit of good news. And so we pray that we would be thoughtful and creative as we live out the truth that only you saved to the glory of your son, Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen. I’ll.
Discaimer: This sermon text was generated by an automated transcription service.