Genesis chapter number, we'll look at chapter 42 tonight. We're in our learning from the life of Joseph series. And we'll try to pick up chapter number 42. Now, if you've been with us here, most of you have, what's going on in this story is that the famine has hit and people are struggling to eat. and they can't find it in the places that they live. And of course, because Joseph interpreted the dream and Pharaoh submitted all that authority to Joseph, they were able to collect corn and wheat and other things, have corn and silos. Many areas where 1 5th of the land was dedicated to that growth, to those crops. So we come up to chapter number 42 and remember that we've been focusing on Joseph a lot, but he's got brothers back where they grew up in Israel and they are affected by this drought as well, this famine as well. And so in chapter number 42 verse one, now when Jacob, this is their dad, been a long time since we talked in these fellas, since we've seen them. Now, when Jacob saw there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why do you look? I love this phrase. Why do ye look one upon another? You ever see somebody looking at one another? Nobody would do the work, but they just looking at one another. Well, his sons are just looking. He said, why do ye look one upon another? They're just looking around. I'm hungry, complaining. Everybody want to look around at each other and complain, but nobody wants to do nothing. And Jacob says, why do you look one upon another? I always think about that and laugh when I hear that. These people are people just like you and I, and they were definitely spiritual victories in many of their lives where they recorded in the Bible. There's also records of their spiritual defeats and how they didn't do well. And so he tells them, why you look you one upon another? And he said, behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. Because they were getting ready to starve to death. They couldn't grow anything because the famine was so bad. So verse three, and Joseph's 10 brothers went down to buy corn in Egypt. Maybe you've done the math, but he has 11 brothers. Benjamin is a younger brother. Now there's some who believe that he did not know he had Benjamin as a younger brother and some of the storyline and I've seen some of that before, but we do know that his brother was born and the mother died giving birth. And so Benjamin was the last, the youngest brother. And when Joseph was gone and all that attention was shown, you know, remember the coat of many colors and all the jealousy that was there, Benjamin probably became the new precious kid on the block. Not a song, not a group, amen. He became the new focus in Jacob's life. And so he wasn't gonna send him down. So to make a little bit of a abbreviated thing, the Bible says, Verse four, but Benjamin Joseph's brother Jacob sent not with his brethren, for he said, let's pure adventure mischief befall him. Because he felt like mischief had happened to Jake, to Joseph. And of course, we all know watching the story, Joseph's alive and he is the governor. In verse six, the Bible says Joseph was the governor over the land. But they think Joseph's dead and gone, sold as a slave and his body was worn out because most slaves died within just a little short time, a year or two of usage in their bodies. but he ended up becoming a slave in more of a less harsh environment. But then he went to prison, all those things, they don't know any all about that. And so Jacob's like, you're not taking Benjamin. We got a Benjamin here in the church. I'm sure he was probably named somewhat connected to that in mind. I believe Benjamin means son of my right hand, as there's an interpretation of that scripture. And, um, He's the youngest brother. And he said, mischief may befall him. So the sons of Israel came to buy corn in verse five. And then verse six, the Bible reminds us that Joseph was the governor of all the land. And he was that sold all the people. He sells it, he distributes it. And here his brothers have to come to where he is to buy from him. And it reminds me of Now, the dream that he had in chapter 37, it's been a while since we were there, but I'll read these to you. This is verse eight. And his brethren said unto him, shall thou indeed reign over us or shall thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hailed him yet more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream and told his brethren and said, behold, I have dreamed a dream more. Behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars, every brother. made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and his brethren, and his father rebuked him, said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to the earth? And his brothers envied him, but his father, the Bible says, observed the same. And here's the moment that this is going to happen, where this dream is going to come true. So Joseph is the governor of all the land. And the Bible said Joseph, his brothers come in verse six, and look at verse six, bottom part. Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. This is the only place in all the land around them that has food, and people are starving, and they know that this is the only place you can buy the food, and you don't come in there acting like they owe you a favor. You have to bow in submission. You have to have respect, and they're bowing down to the earth, to the governor of all the land. Who is that man? That is Joseph, this dream has come true, has been fulfilled. They don't know it, and we'll even find later on in the chapter, in verse nine, look real here. The Bible says that his brothers did not know him. Verse eight, Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew him not. He recognized them, because remember, he was 17 years old. As a 17-year-old young man, listen, I know I'm getting older, but as a 17-year-old man, I remember a lot of faces and a lot of people when I was a teenager. You go back when I was three or four years old, I hardly don't remember very many people. Not too many. Remember my mom and dad and sister? I remember a few. There's a lot of people I don't remember. But when I was 17, I remember a lot. He remembered his brothers, and he recognized them. And when those older brothers who had aged almost how many years? Anybody remember? The lucky number? 13? 13 years can age a person. A young teenage person would now be almost in their 30s themselves. Those who were older than Joseph would be in their 30s and 40s. A lot of years and hard times, but he still recognized him behind the wrinkles and behind the burning of the sun. He recognized him and he knew it was his brothers that he had not seen in 13 years, but they knew him not. They didn't even know who he was. Now Joseph obviously was dressed as an Egyptian. He would have probably been very cleanly shaved. A lot of that culture influence comes from the Egyptian culture. He might've had painting on his eyebrows and things, maybe some other markings. He of course had the necklace and he had the ring and he had the garb and maybe even some kind of a thing that he wore on his head, but he definitely recognized them as they did not recognize who he was. Notice in verse nine, Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them. This maybe implies to me that he might have almost forgotten them. He went through a lot. You remember those two years where he was hopeful to get out of prison, but he stayed two more years? That's a long time to feel forgotten and forsaken. And now he remembers, at least the Bible says it here, that he remembered the dreams which he had dreamed of them and set unto them. And this is where I want you to understand and learn a lesson here. I believe Joseph struggled with revenge. I believe he struggled what we might call retribution. I believe he struggled in reacting to what he saw. Can you imagine seeing these brothers who threw you in a pit, sold you as a slave? Now, I know he doesn't know that they plotted. I mean, they put together a plan to say that he was killed by a beast. They slew an animal, put blood on his coat, and tried to fool his dad. And they have fooled his dad for years. His dad still believes Joseph is dead. And he sees those guys. You ever see those moments sometimes and say, you, you. Boy, what a struggle here this would have been. I don't think I would have passed the test too well. Now we know he struggles because there are some things he does to mess with them. And I get it. Now the Bible says, he cries out in verse nine, he said, you are spies. Now can you imagine all these people standing in line to buy groceries? And here comes these 11 brothers, not from Egypt, from another land, from the area of Jerusalem, the Canaan land area where they've lived. And Joseph, the land governor, the number two guy under the Pharaoh. I mean, right now, Joseph is probably the most popular person in all of Egypt. And he says, you are spies. Everybody's going to pay attention. Everybody's going to go, what's going on? Spies? He said, you are spies. To see the nakedness of the land are you coming? You're coming to see how vulnerable we are. You're coming to see how the drought has affected us. Cause you know if there was a powerful nation that felt like they could take a shot at this, they could go and attack Egypt and their weakness and take all this food. And right now food's more valuable really than money. Cause it won't be long, I'm not gonna get a deep, I'm not doing a verse by verse to this scripture. There's going to come a time people are going to sell their own families, their own bodies as slaves to buy the food. They're going to sell their land and have nothing else. And then they'll sell their body as service unto the land of the government of Egypt. That's how harsh this gets. You say, I'd never do that. Well, then you die. And some people were willing to do that not to die. And he accuses them of being spies, but he knows them. He recognized them. So I believe he's struggling here with this revenge issue, this retribution. And so they begin to say, nay, nay, my Lord, we're here to buy food of thy servants have come. And so it goes on down there back and forth with a little banter here. And in verse 14, Joseph said to them, this is it that I've spoken to you, ye are spies. Hereby ye shall be proved. By the life of Pharaoh, ye shall not go forth hence except your youngest brother come hither. Because they were trying to explain some things to him and obviously he knows about Benjamin. And so he wants to pull a little persuasion here. We gonna put you guys in jail until your younger brother is produced to prove he's real and you're not lying and you're not spies. And I'll gather from this even later, we'll kind of abbreviate some things. Sometimes we say too much. Open your mouth and say too much. And his own dad, their own dad's gonna get on to him. Why'd you even tell him he had a younger brother? He said too much sometimes. Doesn't mean you should lie. No, no, no. But sometimes you just need to keep your mouth shut and wait till somebody asks the question. Maybe wait to see where this goes. But we know that right here, Joseph is struggling with revenge. But then the Bible says, in verse 18, he puts him in a ward, which is like a prison, an inner ward of security. And I believe the Lord starts bothering him about it a little bit. This is his brothers. He puts them in there three days. And then the Bible says, Joseph said it in the third day, verse 18, this do and live for I fear God. I believe he had a fear of God come upon him and he realized he needed to back off of this retribution and this revenge. And he says, if you be true men, verse 19, let one of your brethren be found in the house of your prison, be bound, excuse me. Go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified and ye shall not die. And they did so. So they're all gonna leave. Now he gives them, the Bible goes on to tell us this here. Let's back up, verse 21. They said one to another, They're speaking to each other, and you're probably whispering a little bit, Brother Matt. They live in a different language. They don't think he knows this language. They think he's just Egyptian. They don't think he knows Hebrew. And they're back and forth. And one said to another, we are very guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul. Who are they talking about? They're talking about him. And they're talking and they think he can't hear them or understand them. We saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear. This proves he cried out from that pit, begging them to get him out, and they refused. They rejected him. They refused to help him. Boy, that stuff can bitter and eat up your soul and make you so angry. And if he had lived every day thinking about that, there'd have probably been no chance for them. But God still was working in his heart. I know he's struggling with this retribution, struggling with this revenge. but here they openly admit it. And then Reuben says in verse 22, spake I not unto you saying, do not sin against the child. And Reuben did try to stop them. He tried to go and deliver him, but they sold him. So they're arguing back and forth. And the Bible says in verse 23, they knew not that Joseph understood them. This is a powerful thought here. I always wish I could learn. to speak fluent Spanish, and I could understand what they're saying in a Mexican restaurant, because I think they're talking about me sometimes. I do. And I'm just kidding a little bit. But sometimes they're laughing or whatever, and I see them looking around, and I say, I sure wish I could go, como estas? And I could just throw it out there, and then, oh, you know what we're saying. But I can't do that. But Joseph could. And Joseph's acting like he don't understand them. He's acting like he's focusing on other things as well, but he does understand him, and they did not know it. And here's why he hid it. He spoke through an interpreter. Boy, that's pretty wise, isn't it? He has an interpreter speaking, and all the while, he knows what they're saying better than the interpreter is. And the time they interpret it back to him. So he's manipulating these boys. He's putting them through the wringer a little bit. That's why I believe he's fighting the revenge. He wants to really lay it on them. He'd love to put them all in jail and rattle them over real good. that he's backing off a little bit. I believe he's struggling with that. We've got to be real careful how we react in a time of bitterness, how we react when the tables are turned, how we act when the tables are turned. affect how God gives us authority, what God blesses us with, what God will open the door. Can he trust you when the tables are turned, or will you be worse than the ones of how they treated you? I've seen some people when the tables were turned, they were worse to the people that treated them bad. I've seen it. It's like, you've gone too far. This is crazy. And I know in my own heart, I've thought of things sometimes, boy, one of these days. Gotta be real careful allowing that stuff to fester in our heart, in our life. They didn't know that he knew what they were saying. He used an interpreter. And the Bible says in verse 24, he turned himself about from them after hearing them talk about how they mistreated him and how Reuben tried to help him and how they're bothered by it. He turned from them and wept. First time you ever hear about Joseph crying, weeping like this. This broke him and bothered him. And he returned to them again and convened with them and took from them Simeon. So he takes one of the brothers, Simeon, hold Simeon, put him in jail. You other guys go back, you bring your younger brother, Benjamin, and you prove that you are not spies. Then in verse 25, the Bible says, then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn. He gives them all corn to restore every man. And the money they brought to buy corn, he put back in their bags. And they all go back home. And then the Bible says, let me think about where I want to get to. As one of them, they all added their asses with corn and departed then. So they're going back home, verse 26, and as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender, which means he's gonna feed his beast, provender means like providing a portion of food, in the end, they stopped somewhere along the way in the long travels, he aspired his money, which means he saw money in the sack, the money they had bought the corn with was replaced And it was in his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren, my money is restored, and lo, it is even in my sack. And they didn't rejoice and shout and have a time. Their hearts sunk, their heart failed. They thought, we are in so much trouble. It looks like we have stolen the corn. Our brother's in jail, and now we've stolen it. And their hearts failed. And they were afraid, saying one to another. Look at this, verse 28. What is this that God hath done unto us? Now this reveals to me, they have a guilty conscious about what they did to their brother. Even though it was wrong and it was evil and they probably tried to put the 13 years behind them and try to go on, now it seems like it's in their face again and they don't really realize how much it is in their face. Their brother's standing right before them. But they believe God is doing this to them. this to them. God sent Joseph there and God puts all this together. God knew about the drought. He knew about the dreams. He knew about what we would call the famine or the draught. So the Bible says in verse 29, they came unto Jacob. So when they get through travel, they come home. They come to Jacob, their father, into the land of Canaan. And they told him all that befell him. That's a lot to tell. Well, we got there and he called his spies. Then he threw us all in jail. And then three days later, he takes us out of jail. And then he puts Simeon back in jail and tells us to bring Benjamin back here and prove that we're not spies or we're all gonna die. And then he gives us corn and he puts the money back in the bag and now we're a bunch of thieves. And this is a pretty interesting story to recap. And Jacob's probably wishing he'd never sent these boys, I don't know. So they begin to tell all this to Jacob. They said, the man, verse 30, The man who is the Lord, who is this Lord of the land? This is Joseph. He spake roughly to us and took us for spies of the country. So it's proved he spoke hard to them and roughly. I believe he's struggling with this revenge. We said unto him, we are true men. We are no spies. We be 12 brethren, sons of our father. One is not. Who's the one that's not? What does that mean? It means he's dead. That's Joseph. That's how they discussed this with Joseph. Can you imagine somebody talking about you being dead and you're standing right there? You probably want to say, I'm not dead. I'm the governor of Egypt. You boys are in trouble. That's what I'd want to say. I wouldn't have handled this too well. I think this story would have been real short. I don't know how that, I don't know what, I might've put him in jail for 13 years. I don't know. I'm glad there's a lot of grace here. And it reminds me sometimes how ungracious I can be, even in my spirit and my thoughts. The Bible says that he spoke roughly to them and they kind of recap what they told them. And in verse number 36, Jacob their father said unto them, me have you bereaved of my children. Joseph is not, Simeon is not. He knows Simeon's in jail, but he's almost categorizing Simeon as being taken from him like he died just like Joseph did. And he said, and you will take Benjamin away. All these things are against me. And Reuben spoke unto his father. He said, slay my two sons, kill my two boys, If I bring him not to thee, deliver him into my hand and I will bring him, give me Benjamin, I'll bring him back and you can take my boys and kill him if I don't bring him back. I mean, this is a passionate dialogue going back and forth here. And he said, my son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is left alone. If mischief befall him by the way in which he go, then shall you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. You're gonna kill me in not taking Benjamin. So chapter 43, we get to the point and the Bible says, and the famine was sore in the land. And it came to pass when they had eaten up the corn, which they had brought. Notice it didn't say bought because they didn't pay for it. They brought out of Egypt. Their father said unto them, go again, buy us a little food. And Judas spake unto them, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. They know if they showed up without Benjamin, it's done for them. And Jacob kind of was ignoring it after their bellies got empty again and the food ran out. He said, You guys go buy a little bit more corn. Did you forget your sons in jail over there and we can't go back? He did not want to deal with the fact that he'd have to send Benjamin, because that was his youngest son of his old age, and Joseph was already gone. Verse 4, if thou will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou will not send him, we will not go down. For the man said unto us, ye shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. Remember, Israel and Jacob are the same man. Y'all remember that? It's the same person. He was named Jacob, his name was changed to Israel, and it was prophetic of him being the father of the Jews, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the 12 tribes come from Jacob, and that's where the nation gets its name, Israel. And it said, Israel said, wherefore dealt ye so ill with me as to tell the man whether ye had yet a brother? That's how I read it anyway. And maybe you read it really quietly. I don't think he was quiet. I think he was mad. I think he's very irritated and upset. Why did you even tell the man you had a brother? They said the man asked us straightly of our state, of our kindred, saying, is your father yet alive? Have you yet another brother? Now, why would he ask them such questions? Because he knew he knew all that stuff. He's interrogating. He's manipulating. He's They're playing checkers and he's playing chess. Y'all heard that phrase, that's a new popular phrase. And we told him according to the tenor of these words, could we certainly know what he would say? Bring your brother down. So you can tell they're kind of fussing at each other and there's a lot of tension going on here. So we'll go down to verse 14. Israel finally gives up. He tells them to take some things with them that they have, what little food they have, they're taking a little bit of it with them. He's gonna take double the money, the money that was sent back and the money they needed to pay for the next amount of corn. And then verse 13, he says, take also your brother and arise and go again unto the man. And God Almighty give you mercy before the man that he may send away your older brother and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. You know the word bereavement, connection to death. He said, if my children are taken, then they'll just have to be taken. He feels like there's no other move left. He has no other hope left. So the Bible says the men took that present. They took the double money, verse 15, and they went. So we pick up with verse 16, when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said unto them, they stand before Joseph there, he said to the ruler of his house, bring these men home and slay and make ready for these men shall dine with me at noon. So they tell him you are invited to the governor's house to eat lunch. Isn't that what you do at noon? Okay, I'm just making some of y'all still awake and still with me. I know some of you, I left you in Egypt, and now we're back in Egypt, but I think we've lost you somehow. The Bible said, as they offered that, the man did as Joseph bade, verse 17, and the man brought the men into Joseph's house, and the men were afraid. His brothers were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house. And they said in verse 18, because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time we were brought in, that he may seek occasion against us and fall upon us. What he's saying, he said, they're bringing us in this room and they're gonna jump on us. They're gonna fall upon us. They're gonna attack us. There's a lot of stuff going through these fellas' head. They're rattled. And Joseph's enjoying rattling them. Now that's why I'm saying you gotta be real careful. You can get real bitter and you can start being abusive. You can start being worse than the people who attacked you. You can start being more manipulative than the people that manipulated you. You can get power put in your hand that God wants you to use and you abuse it. And you almost become worse than the people who hurt you and attacked you. Who had more power in life to hurt? His brothers or Joseph? Joseph did. Now they used their little power they had and they abused him and they sold him and they lied and they deceived and they cheated and they have done all kinds of wrong, but he has so much more power. He could take every one of their lives, every single one of them. So they're afraid, they think they're going to get jumped on. In verse 19, they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and steward means he's a servant that works for Joseph. And they communed with him at the door of the house and said, oh, sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food. So this is a servant working for Joseph who comes into the room, so to speak, and they're like, no, no, no, no, we just come out here to buy food and we didn't do anything wrong. They're just nervously rattling on to someone who does not care and give a nickel about it. We tried, it came to pass, we were at the end, we opened our sacks and there's the money and there's the corn. This guy's like, he probably don't even understand what they're saying. And he's like, these guys are rattled. Our sacks are full of money and we brought it again in our hand and we got other money and we got these sacks. And he said, peace be to you, fear not. Your God and the God of your father have given you treasure in your sacks. And of course, this is response. He said, I had your money and he brought Simeon out unto them. and the man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water, washed their feet, and gave their asses provider. This is one of the first statements are the words of grace and the words of peace and God's effect on this thing. So one of the first times you really hear God's influence in this story concerning the lives of his brothers, because they've been running around and getting rattled and scared. Peace be to you. So they get their feet washed. Now, you might not appreciate that. You guys are wearing kicks and sneakers and all kinds of stuff. You got new shoes and stuff. We don't wear sandals a lot like they did. And if you do, you didn't walk through dusty, dirty roads all the time. And it was very common to come into the places and get your feet washed and get them cleaned up. They're getting treated now less like prisoners at this point. getting cleaned up and getting ready to enjoy a little bit of this peace that they hope they have. And they made ready, verse 25, made ready the present against Joseph came at noon for they heard that he should eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present which was in their hand in the house and they bowed themselves to the earth. You notice that? Here they are bowing again, just exactly like the dream said. He asked them of their welfare. He said, is your father well? The old man of whom you spake, is he yet alive? Understand, he doesn't know. They answered, thy servant, our father, is in good health. He is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and he saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son. And he said, is this your younger brother of whom you spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And in verse 30, the Bible said, Joseph made haste. He ran from the room, for his bowels did yearn upon him. His heart was churning within him. He was so emotional, and he sought where to weep. He's looking for, he's the governor of the land of Egypt. He'd never seen him cry. Nobody that works for him has seen him cry until he's in contact with these strange 11, these now strange 10 to 11 men. So what's going on here? Why is he breaking down like this? Man, he's been working too hard. What's going on? He's looking for a place to weep. He entered into his chamber and he wept there. Can you imagine him crying? The type of weeping he did, thinking about, I'm seeing my brothers again. They tried to kill me. My dreams are coming true. Here they are bowing to me. I have ability. My dad's still alive and here's my younger brother. He washed his face and went out and refrained himself. And the Bible said he set on bread. That doesn't mean he sat on a loaf of bread. That means he set it out. If you're still with me and paying attention, just trying to keep you stimulated. And they set on for him by himself. He sat at a separate place. and for them by themselves and for the Egyptians, which did eat with him by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews. There was a racial division. These Egyptians looked down upon the Hebrews and they did not associate with them. It was an abomination. We hear a lot about abominations to the Israelites in the Bible. Well, the Egyptians had abominations and one of them, you don't eat with the Israelites. Guess who's an Israelite? Joseph. All this time, he's now the leader of all the land. It's amazing how God is working all these pieces together. Now, I want you to notice this. I think it's kind of interesting. He sat before him, the firstborn, verse 33, according to his birthright. And the youngest, according to his youth, and the men marveled at one another. Why do you think they marveled? He knows how old they are and when they were born. And he's got them sit down in the stages of their birth. Benjamin all the way down to Judah, all the way down. And they're looking at him. The lights are turning on. There's something really weird about this. Something strange. And he took and he sent messes under them. A mess means a big pile of food. But Benjamin's mess was five times. Showing some extra love to his younger brother here. And he's sitting there, I mean, he's got food frog legs and ain't no telling what's going on, Chad. There's food everywhere. And they're all looking, why has Benjamin got five plates and we got one? And they drank and were married with him. First time they fellowshiped in 13 years. I'll just back up and say this. It may be the first time they fellowshiped since he was a little boy before they began to be envious and jealous of him. It's been a long, long time. Now the Bible said in verse four, chapter 44, he commanded the steward of his house saying, fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry, put every man's money in his sack's mouth, put my cup, he had a silver cup that was his cup. How many of you got a Stanley cup or some little special cup that you like to drink out of? I know some of you do, raise your hand. Okay, some of you do. Some of you're not admitting it. He gets this silver cup and he puts it in the sack. He hides it in there, he's planting this, silver cup in the sack. He puts it in the youngest. Benjamin and his corn money. And he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. And as soon as the morning was light, I mean, as soon as the sun comes up, verse three, the men were sent away, they in their asses, and they were gone out of the city. And not yet for all, Joseph said unto his steward, up, follow after the men. And when they doth overtake them, saying to them, wherefore have you rewarded evil for good? So they're just trotting along on their animals. thinking things are so much better now and this is coming together. And then here comes the police. Here comes his people after him, pursuing them. And so they say the statement. In verse five, is this not which my Lord drinketh? Is this not the cup, or this not which my Lord drinks out of? Is this not which the Lord, my Lord drinketh? And whereby indeed he divineth, yet, You have done evil in doing so. And he overtook them and he spake unto them the same words. And they said unto him, verse seven, wherefore sayeth my Lord these words? God forbid that thy servant should do according to this thing. Behold the money, look for it, which we found in our sack. We brought it again, which they did. How then should we steal out of the Lord's house, silver or gold, thy Lord's house, silver or gold? Now look at verse nine. If you find it on Donny, I know that's not what this says, but this, I want you to feel this. With whomsoever of thy servants it be found, both let him die. That's how confident they are. Nobody took anything. We didn't steal nothing. We are still scared. We barely, we're just barely feeling like we got this. And then he says, and we also will be my Lord's bondman. We will all become your slaves. and you can kill the one who has whatever it is you're after. And he said, now also let it be according to your words. We're gonna do exactly the way you said it. He with whom it is found shall be my servant, and ye shall be blameless. We're gonna do it according to your words, but according to our way. They speedily took down every man his sack to the ground, opened every man's sack, and he searched, and look at this. If this was a movie, this would be so suspenseful here. They went right to Benjamin and found it. But they go to the oldest one first. I kind of sense Joseph might have said something about that. He said, this one guy, he's just an ugly looking guy. He's my oldest. He's the ugliest. The ugliest one of them all. I want you to start with him. That's the way brothers would talk about brothers sometimes. He tells them, start with the oldest. And they started the eldest. The search began. and left at the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Now, who is Benjamin again? He's the one that Jacob, the dad, is worried about losing, the one he was more worried about losing because he already lost Joseph. And now Benjamin's got this cup hiding in his sack. And I'm sure he's looking around like, I didn't do nothing. I didn't do this. I don't know what's going on. And whoever your stupid brother is, excuse me, I shouldn't say that word behind the pulpit. Whoever your dumb brother is, he said, if you find him, you can kill him. And we'll be your slaves. I'm glad they didn't take him up on that bargain. That's not much of a bargain. The Bible says they found that cup in Benjamin's sack. And in the Jewish culture, when they got upset, they would rip their clothes in mourning and in shock. and brokenness, and some of their guys were just ripping their garments like, not like they're gonna fight everybody, but like they're so angry, they just begin to mourn and rip their clothes. The Bible said they rent their clothes and laid every man his ass, and they all had to pack up and return back to the city. The Bible said that Judah and his brethren came to Joseph's house, for he was yet there, and they fell before him on the ground. And Joseph said unto them, What deed is this that ye have done? What ye not that such a man as I certainly divine? He's saying, I know things, I can find out things. And Judah said, 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. Now what iniquity do you think they're talking about? It's not about stealing the stuff because they didn't steal it. They don't, listen, I don't, I know Benjamin knows he didn't do it. I think they're talking about killing their brother, selling their brother. I think this is the iniquity that's ever before them. It has not been reconciled. It has, it's just now coming to a point where they're having to think about it and deal with it. God has 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. He said, God forbid that I should do so, but the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant, and as for you, get you up in peace unto your father. He said, I'm gonna keep Benjamin and send the rest of the boys back. And they don't wanna do that, cause they don't wanna see their dad. They don't wanna face Jacob. Can you imagine coming back till we got the corn? Well, where's Benjamin? Well, about that, we lost him. They kept him. They don't want to face their dad with that. That was the very thing he said was going that they could not do. The Bible says in verse 18, then Judah came near unto him. Judah gets real close to him. Oh, my Lord, let the servant, I pray they speak a word into my Lord's ears and let not that anger burn against thy servant, for thou are even as Pharaoh. He said, You're just like Pharaoh. We realize you're just as powerful as Pharaoh is. My Lord asked his servant saying, have you a father or a brother? That's what you asked of us. We said unto my Lord, we have a father and an old man, a child of his old age, a little one, and his brother is dead. And he alone is left of his mother. And his father loveth him. And thou saidst unto thy servants, bring him down unto me, that I may set my eyes upon him. And we said unto the Lord, the lad cannot leave his father. For if he should leave his father, his father would die. He's trying to explain that we go back without Benjamin. It's going to kill my father. It's going to kill him. So they tell this and he's trying to convince him of this. And in verse number 26. He says, and we said, we cannot go down. If our youngest brother be with us, then we will go down, but we may not see the man's face, except our youngest brother be with us. We cannot go back to our dad. We cannot go and see his face. If our brother's not with us, they're almost saying we won't even go back home. If we can't take him with us. Joseph's experiencing a love for his youngest brother. He's seeing love from his brothers towards his youngest brother. He never received from his brothers to himself. He sees their, I believe Brother Don, he sees their hearts a little different here. I believe he sees there's a repentance, there's a brokenness about what's going on in their heart, in their life. In verse number 31, he said, it shall come to pass when he see if the lad is not with us, that he will die. And thy servant shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father's eye. If I bring him not unto thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Remember, he promised his own two sons. He can kill them, take them. Now Jacob wouldn't want that, but that's how passionate he was. Verse 33, he says, now, therefore, I pray thee, let thy servant abide instead of the lad. Let me stay here. He's saying, let me take his place. Boy, Joseph's seeing something he's never seen from the spirit of his brothers. He says, for I shall go up unto my father and the lad be not with me. As per adventure, I see the evil that shall come upon my father. The Bible says verse two, verse one of chapter 45, and we'll stop here. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him while Joseph made himself known under his brethren. He revealed who he was. We'll pick up with there next Sunday night. You're paying attention, maybe you have. Well, you can read ahead. You can read ahead. We had to stop. It's getting a little late. We'll stop and pick it up. And there's a lot left. There's 50 chapters in the book of Genesis and the most of it from chapter 37 to chapter 50 is about Joseph's life. That's why he's one of my favorite characters. There's so much stuff to glean from here. I relate to him as teenage years. I relate to him as a 30 year old man. I can't relate to Jacob being 110 years old, but one day I might. But I relate to a lot of stuff here. There's a lot going on in the story. And he reveals himself, and we'll see what goes on there. And we'll see how this story will end. Hopefully we'll get it done next week, but possibly it might take a little bit better. I really thought about skipping some of this, but I thought there's so much content, so much meat on the bone in this part, that if we didn't do it, some of you might not understand it and might not connect it. Because it is quite a story that lays out here. There have been movies, I think DreamWorks made a movie called The Life of Joseph, Prince of Egypt, I believe they did that. There's movies about it. Not in every course, every cartoon or every movie is accurate. Many times they mess up things. But you need to know your Bible when you watch something like that to see where it varies, where if it's close or if it's pretty right. And you can enjoy it maybe with that, but you better stick to what the Bible says because the movies aren't the authority, the word of God is the authority. But it's a great, great, great story. Father, we ask you, Lord, to help us as we continue on with this. We thank you, Lord, for your spirit guiding that this would be recorded as Moses put it in the book of Genesis. While you allow it to be recorded, that we could see back to what took place in the life of Joseph. May we apply as we learn from these brothers, we learn from the dad, we learn from Joseph, or may we apply these things to our life. Help us to learn some lessons, Lord, through this book, through these chapters. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.