Genesis 41. Again, we didn't get through this chapter last week, and hope we can tonight, maybe even into chapter 42. Genesis 41. I'm just going to pick up the reading at verse 45. Genesis 41, and reading from verse 45. It says, And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Sathnath Paneah. And he gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, priest of On. And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. And Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. So that gives us the mark in Joseph's life. Remember, he went down to Egypt at 17 as a slave. So he's 13 years in slavery, almost half his life up to this moment. And then he will live in Egypt from the age of 17 all the way to 110 years of age. So the vast majority of his life will be in Egypt, away from his home country, separated from his kith and kin in that sense. Verse 46, And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt, And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities, the food of the field, which was round about every city laid he up in the same. And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea very much, until he left numbering, for it was without number. And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bare unto him. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house. And the name of the second called he Ephraim. for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction." The seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt were ended. The seven years of dearth began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the dearth was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph what he saith to you, do. The famine was over all the face of the earth. And Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph, for to buy corn, because that the famine was so sore in all lands." Now, at the end of Joseph delivering the interpretation of the dream, Pharaoh looked at him, and he immediately discerned that the man who could discern the dreams and understand the dreams, that God had given him such wisdom, was the man to carry out the practical implementation of the dreams. And this is in many ways remarkable, because Joseph's a slave, he's a foreigner, he's a prisoner, He's from the lowest part of society. He's not educated, really. He came down to Egypt just a boy and just worked in Potiphar's house and then a few years in the prison. And yet Pharaoh looked at Joseph and immediately discerned there's something different in the life of this young man. And he says to his servants in verse, can we find such a one? as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is. And we've noted this before by Joseph. When you walk with God and the power of God is in your life, others notice. Potiphar noticed. Joseph's brothers noticed he was different from them. Jacob noticed that this boy was different from all his other sons. And now Pharaoh, in his first meeting with him, immediately discerns this man is different from all the rest. There's something special about this man. And all through the life of Joseph, you'll never see Joseph advertise for a job. You'll never see Joseph play politics or take advantage of his gifts and his talents to get ahead. If you were to look through the rest of scripture, you'll find this is not the only example. of such humility. Daniel, if you remember, was one of the most talented young men of his generation. He was chosen by Nebuchadnezzar as the cream of the crop of the Jewish population, a young man who was no blemish, very handsome, but incredibly capable intellectually. And on top of that, God gave him great spiritual gifts of being able to understand dreams and being wiser than all the wise men of Babylon. So he was a brilliant, talented young man. But you never see Daniel applying for a job. You never see Daniel playing games to get ahead. He just always kept serving the Lord, or God put him, and God brought him up the ladder of success. Same with Ruth. When she was saved and changed, never once did she go around the fields of Boaz trying to get an advantage over anybody else. trying to promote herself, trying to flirt with any of the men. She just kept on serving the Lord just where God put her. And as she was humbled, and she was gracious, and she had the heart of a servant, others began to notice, and God began to move in her circumstances and in her life. And here's Joseph the same. just faithful, never drawing attention to Joseph, and always pointing to Joseph's God. And we noticed this last time throughout his conversations, not just with Pharaoh, but with others, but remarkably with Pharaoh, because as we pointed out, Pharaoh was considered to be a god. He was worshipped as a god in Egypt. And Joseph was very straight with him. Joseph's not divine. Joseph has no special powers. But Joseph, God has special powers. And he makes it clear to Pharaoh that God is telling him, Pharaoh, what God is about to do. You're not in charge of this world, Pharaoh. God is. And when he finished speaking like that to Pharaoh, Pharaoh immediately discerns, I can't let this young man go. I need to have him beside me, a man in whom the Spirit of God is. And you know, often politicians do not promote the best people. We have a new president in the United States. What a hoo-ha! There has been. I was watching it last night or early this morning. Didn't intend to watch it. Woke up and stupidly put the television on. Then got addicted to see who's going to win. But once you saw it, and they're all now gathering around the new President-elect, and everybody's trying to get an advantage, to get a contract, get a position, be close to him, knowing that he has patronage. And sometimes not the best people get the jobs. And often the best candidates are overlooked. And Joseph here, he not only doesn't seek to get himself a position, he doesn't even seek to get himself an advantage. He doesn't say to Pharaoh, well, I've done my job in giving you the interpretation. Now, could you just do something for me? Could you let me go home? Could you free me? Because I want to go back to my father's house. But Joseph has learned in these 13 hard years, years that the psalmist said tried him, tested his soul, that the best thing to do is wait on God. And very patiently, Joseph just waits, and Pharaoh immediately speaks and says, there's none so discreet and wise as thou art. And you know, Pharaoh didn't even wait before offering Joseph the job. He said to him, thou shalt be over my house, verse 40, according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled. Now this was very controversial. Because Pharaoh is effectively putting a foreigner over the Egyptian. And he goes on to say to Joseph, I'm giving you a blank check. You're going to be ruling over all my people, including all my wise men, my magicians, including my own family. He says to Joseph, only I will be greater than you. I'll be second, you'll just be second to me. Now that's some promotion, isn't it? That's some power he has vested in Joseph. He doesn't even say, well, let's give this six months and I'll just put you into a management position and we'll see how it goes. No. He immediately appoints Joseph to the second most powerful man. And let me emphasize once again, this is the world's most powerful empire. It is the world's greatest civilization up to this point in history. The people that Joseph is going to be placed over, many of them are incredibly intelligent people, incapable people, ruthless people, powerful people. And Joseph's just 30 years old. He's never held such a position before. I know he was in charge of Potiphar's affairs, but that would have been like running a little spa and then suddenly being put as the CEO of Marks and Spencer's. It was just a world of difference between the two positions, wouldn't it? He's now ruling the mighty Egyptian empire. And furthermore, not just ruling it, he has the responsibility of ensuring that the empire is saved from this famine to come. that he has to implement this scheme to save the life, not just of Pharaoh and his own life and his family's life, but of all the Egyptian empire, their lives are going to be in Joseph's hand. That's some responsibility. That's some pressure to live under. And again, as you read through this, you'll notice Joseph never complains. He doesn't say, well, I think this is too much. Could I not just go home? I've already told you what the dream means and you'll find someone capable surely, Pharaoh, in your empire. Maybe I'll come for the first year, but let me go after that. No, he doesn't complain, doesn't negotiate, doesn't try to get an advantage. He just takes upon him everything that Pharaoh asked him to do. Now that's the heart of a servant, isn't it? 13 years before this incident, if you remember, Joseph's brothers stripped him of his clothes, humiliated him, threw him into a pit to die, and then sold him as a slave when it suited their pockets. And now 13 years later, God has taken him from the pit and closed him in a royal rope and honored him not just above his peers, but honored him above all the civilization of this world's greatest empire. Now what a turnaround there has been in the life of Egypt. Now remember, Joseph has been tested in poverty, in servitude, but now he's going to be tested in wealth, and in power, how will he react? Will he be proud? Will he take advantage? Will he say to himself, well, I'd like revenge on Potter for his wife for lying about me. I'd like to see her humiliated. I'd like to see her put in jail for a year or two to taste what I had to go through. No, there's not a complaint. There's not even a hint of revenge in Joseph's response here. He just immediately accepts, this is God's will. This is the opportunity that God has placed before me, and I must carry it out. Now, I wonder as he accepted this position, Was he thinking in the back of his mind about the dreams he had down in Canaan? Those two dreams that God gave him about one day he would be an authority over all his brethren? I don't know. I'm sure he did think about those and thought to himself, maybe this is God's way of fulfilling these dreams. We just don't know. But whatever it is, Joseph got stuck into the work without complaint. Now, I mentioned to you last time, there is a hint, more than a hint, of the difficulties that he faced. He felt the pain of those 13 years. He felt the humiliation of those 13 years, because if you remember, in verse 51, when he had his first son, he called him Manasseh. And he called him Manasseh, he says, for God hath made me forget all my toil, all the difficulties, So Joseph, he was not just this person who was a workaholic and just liked to keep himself busy. He felt the pain, the humiliation of being a slave and having to do someone else's beck and call at all times and having no rights and be treated like an animal. He had his dignity. He felt the pain, he felt the loneliness, felt the burden of responsibility. It's not nice having to work so hard to get nothing for it. In fact, they end up being thrown into prison. And Joseph says, it was a toil. And then when his second son was born, in verse 52, he calls him Ephraim. He says, for God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. Oh, this was, don't get the impression that these 13 years that Joseph was working in the prison and working in Potiphar's house were easy. They were tough years. They were hard years. And Joseph acknowledged that later here in life. Now, Pharaoh then were told, changes Joseph's name, verse 45, and called him Zaphnath-Paniah and gave him an Egyptian wife. Now, why did he do that? Well, I think it's obvious that he did that to show his respect for Joseph and to show his people that Joseph is accepted into Egyptian society, that he's part of them to honor Joseph. It's almost like bestowing citizenship on him. And he gives him this Egyptian wife. And some people ask, well, why did Joseph marry her if she was a pagan? Well, we can only assume, we can only assume because of Joseph's character, that she must have been influenced to godliness through his example. And if you notice, when he comes to name the two boys, there doesn't seem to be any objection by her. And when his family eventually leave Egypt, Ephraim and Manasseh, their descendants all come out of Egypt So we can only assume that somehow Joseph and her bonded together around the things of God, and Pharaoh recognized and gave her to him as a wife. And just as Joseph had predicted, the seven years of fruitfulness came upon the land of Egypt. And Joseph worked hard in those days. gathering up the food, so much so that it says in verse 49 that he wasn't able to number any more. But then his children are born, and Joseph's beginning to settle down. And the first son, Manasseh, he calls him Manasseh, he says, because he wants to let everybody know that God has enabled him to move on from his past, the bitterness of the past. And he's just letting us know, even in naming his son that, that Joseph is not a bitter man. He's also letting us know that in the midst of his busyness, in the midst of his success now, incredible success, that he hasn't forgotten God. Notice how he begins the naming of his son. He says, and Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God. See that? It's not a coincidence. Here it goes again. God's been brought in to his conversation. Not just in the workplace, but he's bringing God into his home, into his children's lives. And he wants them to be known, not by Egyptian names, but by names that honor the work of God in his life. And he says, God hath made me to forget all my toil and all my father's house. Someone once said this, a man can never be fruitful until he allows God to deal with the memory of the past. You know, there are Christians, professing Christians, and they carry around bitterness from their childhood, from their marriage, or some other relationship from the workplace. And they carry that bitterness and that anger deep in their hearts for years. Well, let me put it bluntly. If anyone had the right to be bitter about his upbringing, it was Joseph, wasn't it? I mean, he grew up in a home where his father had all these wives and didn't seem to really take much care of the children. The boys ran wild. His brothers were particularly wicked and vicious and ruthless. And that wasn't just directed at Joseph. They were mass murderers. If you remember, in the book of Genesis, Levi and Simeon committed mass genocide. against a group of men who one of them had harmed their sister, taken advantage of their sister. So this was the home he grew up in where his father was inconsistent. His father was very passive. The mothers all fell out and rivaled one another. And yet Joseph wasn't bitter about it. Didn't blame God for it. He didn't turn his back on God for it. And then if that wasn't bad enough, he became the object of hatred of his brothers, not because he had done anything wrong, but because they were jealous of him. Yet he doesn't complain. And then he sold as a slave, trying to do a good thing, tried to honor his father's commandment to go and visit his brothers And then after he worked himself up in Potiphar's house to be head of the house, and that must have taken many years of effort and integrity, he finds himself in prison, again for doing the right thing. Yet he says, I'm not a bitter person. I'm not angry with God. God doesn't explain it. As far as we know, God says nothing to him all those 13 years. that he's not an agent. And yet Joseph says, God hath made me forget. I've allowed God to erase the tape in my memory. And sometimes you have to accept this. You have to ask God to do that. Maybe there's someone here. There's something of your past in your memory, and maybe a relationship, maybe a family incident. And there's no wounds that are deeper often than family wounds. of the past. Well, you have to do what Joseph did. You have to go to God and say, God, just take that away. Now, Joseph didn't forget what had happened to him, because later when his brothers came, he'll use the memory of that to deal with those brothers the right way, handle them the right way. But he doesn't allow it to become a bitterness in him. You've heard me say this before. When difficulties and challenges and trials God brings to your life, you can either be bitter or you can be better. You can learn from it to become a better person, or you can wallow in the memory of it and become a bitter person. Ruth and Naomi both lived at the same time, both were widows, both lost their husbands, both were caught up in a famine, Both had to leave Moab and go back as penniless widows to the land of Israel, to Bethlehem. But one of them came back bitter, Naomi. And the other came back what? Better, Ruth's. One came back complaining about God, don't call me Naomi, call me the bitter one, Mara, for the Almighty have dealt bitterly with me. Whereas Ruth came back, with the name of God on her lips in praise, and out into the fields to serve him with the glory of God in her life. And you and I will all go through hard times as individuals, as families. But we have to understand, how do we come out of it? Do we come out bitter or better? And certainly, Joseph, he's a wonderful example of deep suffering. I don't think there's anyone in this room would dare to stand up and say, I have suffered more than Joseph. Because I don't think we have. And yet he says, God has made me forget all of these things. And then the second son's born. And he says, he calls him Ephraim. And he gives him this title. He says, for God, again, God's brought into the conversation. It shows you even after the birth of the first child and all the excitement, no doubt. Remember, Joseph's had no family for many, many years. He's never seen flesh and blood for many, many years. This is his first born, this boy Manasseh. Well, here's a second one. Oh, I've done all that before. No big deal. But no, he's still bringing God into it, still thinking about God's working in his life. And he says, I'm going to call this one Ephraim. He says, for God hath caused me, God has worked again in my life to make me fruitful in the land of my affliction. Now, Joseph had a lot of scars and wounds, physically probably as well as men, but he got rid of them all, at least in his mind. And when you're able to get rid of the bitterness, you can then become fruitful. You can then become useful in the work of God. Now, you can't reverse the order. You can't be a fruitful child of God and a blessing to others unless you first deal with the bitterness of the past. And Joseph here, what an example he gives to us. And then it says, in verse 56, the famine came, well, 55, sorry, and all the land of Egypt was famished. And the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. That always happens, you know, nothing's changed. Whenever there's a crisis, whenever there's a problem, what does everybody do? They say, what's the government going to do? What's Stormont going to give us? What's Westminster going to do for us? And that's the way people look at those in authority over them, in terms of governmental powers. The unsaved in particular, that's all they're interested in. Who will give me the most will get my vote. Who will promise me the most will get my favour. And these people hit the famine, clearly had made no preparation themselves. enjoyed the seven years of plenty. But now the hard years have come. They turned to Pharaoh and they said, give us bread. And you can almost see their desperation. So they cried to Pharaoh for bread. And Pharaoh must have been delighted to say, go unto Joseph and what he says to you, you do. Joseph will take care of it. Joseph opened up the storehouses and sold the food to the Egyptians. Now, you notice he didn't give it away. It's very wise, Joseph. He knew that if you give people too much free, that soon they'll begin to treat it with no respect. But he made them pay for it, because he wanted them to learn accountability. It's one of the reasons why Joseph is such a wise man. In fact, a lot of governments could learn a lot from Joseph. There's a lot of parents, married couples, could learn a lot about running a household from Joseph. Because if you remember in the good years, what did he set aside? 20%. during those seven years. And then when the hard times come, he makes sure it's accountable. Discipline. There's no chaos. And this is going to be a difficult thing to do, because when people are starving, there can be anarchy. They can riot. They can go insane. And Joseph is very wise how he handles this, very careful how he handles it. And not only does he make Pharaoh wealthy, and some people believe, by the way, that after these seven years of famine, the riches of Egypt, why Egypt became such a wealthy civilization in history, was because of the wealth that Joseph accumulated in this period for Pharaoh. Because you notice in the last verse, it says, all the countries came into Egypt for to Joseph for to buy corn, because the famine was sore in all lands. So he not only made Pharaoh wealthy and Pharaoh's estate wealthy from selling the surplus to the Egyptian people, But he increased the wealth of Pharaoh by trading with other nations, and no doubt the price would have been at a premium. And Joseph now has become a great blessing to Pharaoh, because not only is he going to preserve the life of Pharaoh and his family in this famine, he's going to preserve the life of Pharaoh from rioters, anarchists, desperation of hungry people. And even just as, I suppose, as significant to Pharaoh, he's going to make Pharaoh wealthy. So, Joseph's going to be an incredible blessing to this man. Now, if you remember, way, way back in Genesis chapter 12, God had promised Abraham that his descendants would be a blessing to all the other nations. Now, you have to say, Up to this point in history, from Abraham to Joseph, most of his descendants weren't much of a blessing, weren't much of a help to the other nations, weren't much of a testimony to the other nations. But now, for the first time, we have a descendant of Abraham who has been a spiritual and a physical blessing to the pagan nations of the world. fulfilling that promise God made in Genesis chapter 12. But having waited 22 years, no doubt Joseph wondered, how will God fulfill the two dreams that he gave me all those years ago at 17 down in Cana? Maybe the devil came to him and said, they'll never be fulfilled. You'll never see your brothers again. You'll never see your dad again. He's probably dead. He's an old man anyway. Having waited twenty-two years without a hint that he's going to see his brothers again, God's going to send a famine to the land of Canaan. because God's going to bring his brothers down to the land of Egypt. Because, you know, when God makes a promise, God knows how to keep the promise. All these centuries, God has made many, many promises. And with this, I close. Well, I'll get into this next chapter. God has made many promises to the Jewish people. And some of them seem promises that could never be fulfilled. I sometimes think, we forget there are people in this room here tonight who were born into this world when the Jewish people were scattered to every corner of the earth, who were born into this world when what is called today the land of Israel was a desert, was a wasteland, was a mosquito swamp, infested swamp. And the Jewish people were scattered to every corner of this earth and speaking all kinds of different languages, German and Russian and South American. Some spoke Chinese, Indonesian and African languages, European language. And they didn't speak the Hebrew tongue. And yet after nearly 2000 years of scattering them across the earth, The amazing thing is, in 1948, God took that scattered race of people, he kept them as a distinct race of people on the earth, and he brought them back to their ancient homeland. And he not only brought them to their ancient homeland, he gave them the city of Jerusalem to control. And he restored onto them the Hebrew language. And what language do they speak in Israel today? They speak Hebrew. Just as the Bible said, they would be speaking their own language. Because the Bible promises when Jesus comes, he's coming to the Mount of Olives. He's coming to the city of Jerusalem. He's coming to the place that he was crucified and ascended from. He's coming back there, and when he comes back there, the Jewish people will be there, speaking their own mother tongue and in unbelief. And here we are, 2024, after 2,000 years of wanderings. 2,000 years of all the pogroms and the Holocaust and the persecution, driven from country to country, scattered over the face of this earth, God has kept his promise in a wonderful way. Of course, the best days is yet to come for the Jew, as well as the worst days, because during the Tribulation, when they face their greatest persecution, the Bible promises that Jesus Christ will come back and open their eyes spiritually and save a nation in just 24 hours, spiritually save a nation in 24 hours. So the God who promises to do something is the God who always is able to deliver. And Joseph, we're going to see next time, may have wondered, how is God going to keep this promise to me? Well, God's going to show Joseph exactly how he will keep his promise to fulfill those two dreams and all the promises in them, 22 years previously. But we'll see that next time. Let us pray. Father, we thank you. for the story of Joseph. Thank you for what we have learned from it already, gleaned of the workings of God and the blessings of God and the power of God and the promises of God. We thank you for Joseph, that he never wavers, never doubts, never complains, never plays games, never twists the truth, but he's always consistent. always honoring God with his life and his words. And even in the home as well as in the workplace, he's a man of God. He's a servant of the Lord. And Lord, we are reminded that he didn't have a Bible. He did all of this without any fellow believers to encourage him, to pray for him, and to pray with him. And Lord, we feel even guilty and convicted when we see what a man he was in such circumstances. We ask these things in Jesus' precious name. Amen.