Please take your copy of God's Word and turn with me once again to Genesis 41. We are carefully studying the progress of God's providence in the life of Joseph. Ever since the end of chapter 37, we have seen Joseph in what seems to be an almost unchecked free fall downwards. Joseph continues to fall from a difficult family situation where he was the favorite of his father, having lost his mother at a very young age, and was estranged from his brothers. His brothers plotted against him to kill him. They eventually settled on selling him into slavery, and they did that efficiently. He winds up in Egypt. He seems to have had a small uptick in his fortune when he is a slave in the house of a chief official of Pharaoh. and performs well and is honored by his master. But then things go south again when his master has eyes for him and sets her design on him. And even while he very scrupulously protects his own honor, he finds himself falsely accused of making unwanted sexual advances on his master's wife and winds up in a dungeon, a prison in Egypt, forgotten seemingly with no hope of parole. The only check it seems on the bad fortune that he's been undergoing is at least somehow he's not executed even though the crime he was charged with was a death penalty offense in the meantime he meets two high egyptian officials who themselves have been thrown into the dungeon because of their own crimes and they report to joseph there in the squalor of this prison dreams they've had, and since there are no Egyptian magicians available to them in the dungeon, they tell their dreams to Joseph and he interprets them brilliantly, giving all the credit to the sovereign Lord who gives and interprets revelatory dreams. He asks only one thing of them, that they'll remember him to Pharaoh, hoping for a release from this hell hole that providence has him in. But upon release, one is killed and one is restored, and he is immediately forgotten about. So when our text opens tonight at the beginning of Genesis 41, Joseph is now 30 years old. He's in the prime of life. He has spent the last 13 years in slavery or in prison. Life has definitely not turned out the way he'd planned. or expected when he was in the father's house. Let's seek the Lord's help now as we prepare to expound this text. Sovereign Lord, help us tonight to say just as Samuel of old said, speak Lord, your servant is listening. Tonight, Lord, we desperately need a powerful word from you. And as we hear, Lord, keep us from arrogance, which refuses to see our need of learning. Keep us from independence and not relying upon your perfect revealed wisdom. Give us concentration and discernment and remembrance. And through our hearing, may we and indeed your church be strengthened and preserved. We pray in the name of the great mediator of the new covenant, Jesus, our Lord. Amen. Look with me as we open chapter 41 at the first segment, the first eight verses at Pharaoh's dream. The most powerful man in the world at the time of our account was Pharaoh, the ruler of Egypt, the most mighty nation in all the world at that time. But just like every other man, Pharaoh grows weary and eventually has to sleep. and has dreams. And on this particular night that's documented for us in the first eight verses of chapter 41, he has a pair of powerfully vivid dreams, or more accurately, nightmares. Look at dream number one. As Pharaoh stands by the Nile for, that's fitting since all of life revolved around the Nile in Egypt. As he stands by the Nile in his dream, he sees seven fat well-fed cows. They climb up the riverbank and they're grazing in that rich, marshy delta land. And seven of the rattiest, skinniest, boniest cows you've ever seen follow them up from the riverbank and proceed to cannibalize them and devour them. Well, the dream is so startling that Pharaoh wakes up, the Hebrew tells us in verse four more, literally in a cold sweat. So he finally drifts back off to sleep but knows sooner is he asleep than he has a second dream. Same motif. And this time it's seven lush, ripe heads of grain gobbled up by seven scraggly heads of grain. Morning light gives him no comfort. He's deeply unsettled. Pharaoh is clueless about what's happening and he's disturbed. Verse 8 says he's troubled about it. And what's comical to you, let me just insert here as an editorial comment, What's comical to you, or should be humorous to you, is this. The pharaohs were considered to be deity by the people of Egypt, and their dreams were thought to be highly important and to have special credence. Well, some deity this is. He can't even interpret his own dreams. and he doesn't know the future. In other words, he has nothing approaching omniscience. He doesn't know what's going to happen to him or the nation. This deity has to go ask magicians what his dreams mean. And what the biblical writer is doing for you, very subtly, is he's drawing a contrast between the false gods of the nations and the living God who knows and reveals and controls the future. Or Pharaoh that morning, he calls an immediate staff meeting of all the magicians and wise men. These men had books of dream interpretation and priest craft. They were, to use our modern term, they were witches. But these men were all baffled and they can't even arrive at a sound interpretation collectively. All of them together can't come up with what these two dreams mean. Now the fundamental principles being shown here. that the wisdom of God cannot be understood by worldly men or worldly means. Did you hear that? One of the principles being taught us here is the wisdom of God cannot be understood by worldly men or worldly means. Look at how God works in the minds of men. He can fill one man's mind, Pharaoh, with a specific dream, and he can empty other men's minds so they don't have a clue what the dream means. In fact, if there's anything we should see from the first eight verses of chapter 41, it is how weak Pharaoh is. First of all, we see that he's impotent. He's shaken. A dream is enough to terrify him. And he's dependent. He needs his astrologers and magicians and butchers and bakers and his hangers-on. He needs this entourage. Well, notice what happens in the second context in verses 9 through 16. while everyone is stressing because no one can come up with an interpretation. In that moment, the butler, who'd been Joseph's fellow prisoner just two years earlier, has a flash of remembrance. And the butler begins with appropriate humility. He says in verse nine, oh, I remember my faults. Pharaoh, I forgot to tell you something a couple of years ago. These would be his faults against Joseph. And the butler recalls, while everyone is standing around upset because nobody can come up with an appropriate interpretation of Pharaoh's dream, the butler recalls, I know a man who can interpret dreams and he can do so quickly and correctly. God stimulated the butler's memory, not for the sake of Pharaoh, but in order that Joseph might be released from prison and further that in the time of famine, food might be supplied to God's people. Abraham's family. Sapphira calls for Joseph. Joseph prepares. I want you to stop and notice something interesting that happens in this narrative. Look at verse 14. This is in that second segment of our chapter where Joseph is being summoned to testify. Joseph prepares. He shaves, changes his clothing to meet the great king. Clothing, as you'll see, is one of those little interesting underlying motifs in the life of Joseph. First, where you remember the robe, which was a picture showing how much he was loved by his father. And next, a piece of clothing, again, was used as the condemning evidence by Mrs. Potiphar. Now, Joseph, once again, the text tells us, puts on appropriate clothing to meet with the great king. Now, do you notice something interesting here? This is one of those lesser to the greater issues. If Joseph takes so much care to approach an earthly king, and so would you. If you tomorrow had an audience with the president, I dare say that you would probably do what Joseph does here in verse 14. You'd probably shave, you might even take a bath and put on some decent clothing. But my friends, doesn't this say something about how we ought to approach the king? That if we will take that much care, and you would, and you should, if you will take that much care and preparation to me, with another earthly soul? How much more should we take care and prepare to meet our heavenly King each Lord's Day when we come with God's people? Well, now in verse 15, Joseph is ushered in. He's standing before the most powerful man in the world at that time. But you notice, he's not intimidated or fearful. He's interpreted dreams accurately before. You think of his own in Genesis 37, or the butlers and the bakers in Genesis chapter 40. And he's not shaky because he trusts in a sovereign God who controls all things. And I want you to stare very carefully at the first thing he says to Pharaoh. Look at verse 15 and 16. The very first thing that Joseph does when he comes in Pharaoh's presence is to correct him. Do you get that? The very first thing he says is, Pharaoh, you're wrong. You've got your facts wrong. Because Pharaoh says, I've understood that you're the interpreter and you're sort of the magic man. And Joseph's first words were, it is not in me. But God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. He's theocentric. The first thing that Joseph does, he wants to set the ground rules and say, Pharaoh, I want you to understand, I'm theocentric, I'm a God-centered man. I want to deflect all the attention from me and shine all the spotlight on, the word that's being used here is Elohim. He will not rob the glory from God. This is a man that understands soli deo gloria. This is, by the way, an act of heroic faith. This morning we saw an example in Peter's life of someone who's afraid to name the name of Jesus, but Joseph is just the opposite. Now you need to get a sense of who's in the room, because Pharaoh, all the retinue of court, all of the Egyptian astrologers and magicians are standing there, and in front of all of this huge entourage, of polytheistic idolaters, Joseph tells them all who can reveal wisdom and truth, the one true and living God, not Ra, not Osiris, not any of their pathetic false gods, only Elohim. Calvin says about this, he says, by this exchange, let us learn from the example of Joseph to honor the grace of God among unbelievers. And if they seek to shut the door against our piety, we should still endeavor all the harder to sprinkle some drops of it into their minds. One of the things we should see and admire about Joseph is his steadiness. Notice in this hour, what his attitude is. Usually if we have some setback or reversal, we're despondent and we assert that God has abandoned us and we grow bitter. And if we experience a reversal for the better, we become arrogant and forget God. It is the rarest of all Christians who can handle prosperity and keep their spiritual life on course. Joseph was one of those rare men. He never took his eyes off the sovereign Lord in good times and bad. And he never stopped attributing all the power and the glory to God. whether he was in the dungeon or in the palace. You remember his words in Genesis chapter 40 verse 8, where he said the exact same thing as he was standing in the dungeon to the butcher and the baker. He said, Oh, it's the Lord who can do this. And now in front of Pharaoh, as he's all cleaned up and he's with the elite of the elite, he's the same man. He says, Oh, it's the Lord who can reveal these things. Well, notice what his prophecy is in verses 17 to 32. Pharaoh restates the dream for Joseph. And he points out that none of his regular astrologers and magicians could explain it. And what's fascinating is the rapidity with which Joseph interprets the dream. Joseph speaks up at once without any hesitation. There's no shuffling or stalling, no incantations or spells the way that heathen court magicians would do to dramatize their office. Joseph's interpretation was immediate, explicit, and clear. No doubts, no hedging. He has a certainty. By the way, this certainty is the mark of all of God's prophets. He doesn't say, I'm going to give it my best guess here. Here's what I think is going to happen, but don't hold me to that. No, he speaks authoritatively. He's the mouthpiece of God. And Joseph tells Pharaoh this in his prophecy. The seven fat cows are the next seven years. And so the next seven years will be years of plenty and abundance. And the seven skinny cows are the next seven years, the following seven years. And they represent years of famine and scarcity. And the seven heads of grain are just a repeat of the first dream. In fact, Joseph tells Pharaoh in verse 25, the dreams really, Pharaoh, are one dream. And Joseph makes something very clear to Pharaoh. that his dreams deal with something that the sovereign Lord is about to do. Did you hear that? He says to Pharaoh, your dreams are about what God is doing. In fact, Joseph's interpretation is theocentric. It makes much of what God will do. Look at how often he repeats that. In verse 25, Joseph says, God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. In verse 28, God has shown Pharaoh what he's about to do. In verse 32, the thing is established by God and he will shortly bring it to pass. Joseph's interpretation announces to Pharaoh and all that are in the court that day, the one true God controls their existence. God is not only the revealer of dreams, He's the one who ordains the future and brings it to pass. And what we are meant to see is Joseph, the longer he talks, the gods of Egypt get smaller and smaller, and Jehovah becomes more and more exalted. Isn't it interesting that Joseph, who's had every dark turn of providence in the last 13 years of his life, now has the opportunity to speak to Pharaoh, and what does he want to talk about? The providence of God. Joseph also states a principle about divine communication. Look at verse 32, where he teaches us about how God communicates. When the Lord repeats himself, it's not for literary effect, but to emphasize that this truth is fixed and certain and nothing can alter it. Jesus does the same thing in the New Testament in texts like John 10, verse 7, when he says, Amen, amen, or truly, truly, verily, verily, I say to you, I'm the door of the sheep. When he repeats a word, that means I'm emphasizing this, its importance and its truthfulness. There's something else happening here. Pharaoh's dreams proceed from the compassion of God on the people of Egypt and the neighboring countries. There were about to be seven years of famine, but they'll be preceded by seven good years. And it is the mercy of God that this fact is revealed to Pharaoh in advance so that wise preparations can be made and the suffering of the seven bad years can be mitigated. Certainly God's primary purpose was to preserve alive that portion of the human race from which the Messiah would be born. But in the process, God shows mercy to whole nations. We'll look at what Joseph does in verse 33 and following as the wise counselor. He passes now from interpreting the dream to giving counsel. Now, do you notice something? He wasn't asked for this counsel. He was asked to do one function, and that is to interpret the dream. But Joseph is bold. And so he passes from interpretation to giving counsel. He's quick on his feet. He displays a sharp mind. He sees what needs to be done, and he proclaims it. And he proposes to Pharaoh a multi-pronged, really it's a four-point strategy. Look at what his strategy is. Step one, Pharaoh, here's the first thing you need to do. Find a man who displays two key character traits, wisdom and discernment. This will be a man who's capable of planning and carrying through national economic strategies. First step, Pharaoh, you got to find a man. Second step, put the aforementioned man over the whole nation. In other words, Joseph is counseling, Pharaoh, you need to appoint a famine czar. That's the office you need to create. Step three, Then let this man, Pharaoh, and I'm sure that people are writing this down as Joseph is saying this, because the wisdom, as you'll see, is brilliant. Step three, let this man that you appoint, let him appoint regional overseers who will be in charge of grain collection. And each year, one-fifth of everything that's grown should be stored away for the next seven years. Now the fact, do the math with me here, the fact that Joseph recommended that only one-fifth of the harvest be gathered in during the years of plenty shouldn't be seen as a weakness in his proposal. Don't think that Egypt will have no crops during those last seven years. They'll be lean years. These will be years when the Nile doesn't overflow and water the Delta as extensively as it did in the previous seven. So the crops will be limited in more so than normal or abundant years. At these times, the reserves will supplement diminished harvest. It should also be remembered that in a normal year, Egypt produced far more grain than was needed for the country's use. Egypt exported grain. And then step four of Joseph's plan, let these regional overseers create storage facilities in sort of county seat type towns. And this is so supplies will be easily accessible to people in each region and protected from public access or possible looting. Now Joseph is counseling Pharaoh to take on a national course of action on the word of one man. Now stop with me for a minute and think. One man who spent the last 13 years as a slave or in prison. One man who is a convicted sex offender. One man who's a foreigner. Now notice, Joseph is calling Pharaoh to action, not just passive hearing. He doesn't just give Pharaoh the interpretation of the dream and walk out and leave Pharaoh to say, hmm, that's an interesting interpretation. Now there's a brilliant analogy here to preaching. All of the Puritans say, do you notice what Joseph does? He gives the interpretation, then the application. He interprets the dream. Then he says, Pharaoh, let me give you the application. Here's what you need to do. All the Puritan thinkers on preaching says, this is how we preach. This is what we do with scripture. We interpret it and then apply. Notice as well that the knowledge of what God is going to do doesn't produce passivity, but it calls for aggressive action. The knowledge of God's purpose is not the end of human planning, but the beginning of it. The fact that God has set the future is a mighty summons to action. So what do you think is going to happen? Astounding. of all astounding results. In the next context, in verses 37 and following, we'll see the exaltation of Joseph. Pharaoh takes it all in and he does something amazing. He listens to counsel. That in itself is a rare thing. He listens to counsel. He listens to the counsel of Joseph and says, that's good counsel. Not only that, but now Pharaoh is becoming, under the influence of Joseph, he is becoming theocentric in his thought. Joseph doesn't say that Pharaoh should appoint a man full of the Holy Spirit, but Pharaoh gets it. He is the one now that sees that he should appoint a man in whom dwells the Spirit of God. Look carefully at this text. I want you to see perhaps the most amazing statement in verse 38. Pharaoh has heard Joseph's counsel and he decides that he needs to appoint just such a man that Joseph counseled. The Hebrew there is a man in whom dwells the Ruach of Elohim, the Spirit of God. He doesn't say, for those of you who are saying, I wonder what the original text says, I wonder what it says exactly. He doesn't say, let's appoint a man in whom dwells the Spirit of Ra or Osiris. But this pagan man who himself is worshipped as a deity says, I need a man in whom dwells the spirit of Elohim. Pharaoh concedes that Elohim, verse 39, is the one who's revealed all of these future events to Joseph. And so he recognizes that Joseph is God's prophet, the legitimate vehicle of divine revelation. This man who up until now has been viewed as a God by the nation of Egypt is now extolling the power and virtue of the triune God. And so Pharaoh appoints Joseph to be the vice president essentially with special duties concerning famine planning and grain distribution. And in that moment, notice all the perks and symbols of authority that are bestowed on him. Look carefully at verses 43, 45. Look at all the symbols of authority that Joseph is given. We're told in verse 40 that Joseph shall be ruler over everyone in the nation, directly under Pharaoh. That's repeated again in verse 41 and verse 43, so there can be no mistaking. And then in verse 42, Joseph is given Pharaoh's signet ring off his hand. He takes his own ring off and hands it to Joseph. Now, for those of you who don't know what this looks like, this would have Pharaoh's name written in hieroglyphics on it. And it was used to press Pharaoh's seal upon official documents, therefore delegating to Joseph the ability to operate with all the authority of Pharaoh. And then in verse 42, here's the clothing motif again. He's clothed in fine linen. In verse 42, a gold chain is draped around his neck. It's a symbol of royalty. In verse 43, he's put into what amounts to Air Force Two. He's given the chariot that's only second to Pharaoh's chariot. This is the limousine chariot. And then amazingly enough, look at verse 43. Runners will now go before Joseph's chariot, commanding all people to show homage to him. And they do this by crying out as they go. Bow of the knee. You remember in his early dreams that Joseph saw that his brothers were to bow the knee to him. But now all the nation of Egypt is going to bow the knee to him. And finally in verse 45, this is sort of the crowning achievement. Pharaoh gives Joseph an Egyptian name that means revealer of secret things. Now stop for a moment and consider the remarkable nature of God's providential timing. Joseph begins the day greasy, sweaty, filthy, probably in the dark, in a dungeon. And he ends the day as the prime minister of the most powerful nation on earth. And he does it all without sin or intrigue or manipulation. This is God's exaltation of his servant. Notice Joseph in action now as the wise administrator in verse 45 and following. Joseph, even though he's been astoundingly promoted, isn't puffed up with pride. He doesn't spend any time in self admiration, nor go about displaying his greatness or live the life of the indolent wealthy, but he at once rolls up his sleeves and gets to work. He immediately takes charge and familiarizes himself with the workings of Egypt. We read repeatedly, he goes and meets with regional leaders, supervises grain silo construction, and a hundred other details, we're told in verse 45, all over the land. Just like he had served Potiphar in his house and served the warden of the prison in jail, now he serves Pharaoh. He takes a general survey of the country in verse 46. We read, he went throughout all the land of Egypt. Then having ascertained the extent of the work, he puts his plan into execution, energetically and without delay. He knows, because he believes the word of God, that he has just seven years now, the clock's ticking, to gather up grain for the next seven years of famine. And notice what happens in verse 47. The bumper crops come in, just as Joseph said. The result in those seven years is a stockpile that's so great that we're told it's not even able to be measured in every city. Joseph's wisdom and skill in his work ethic is now apparent to everyone in the nation. He's vindicated as a true prophet. Everything he said had come to pass. But what the narrator does and what the spirit does is, for a moment, he takes the spotlight off Joseph, the public figure. and Joseph that everybody in Egypt sees and admires. And he shines the spotlight into Joseph's home for just a moment. Look with me there. We'll see it first of all in verse 45, where we find out a little bit about Joseph's marriage. We're told in verse 45 that Joseph's father-in-law is the high priest of sun worship. That's who the priest of on would be doing. He would be worshiping the sun. And so your red flag should probably start going up at this point and say, hmm, this doesn't look like a promising marriage for somebody who worships the true and living God. In fact, you would almost be tempted to say that Joseph is completely assimilated into Egyptian culture. He now has an Egyptian wife, an Egyptian father-in-law, an Egyptian name, he speaks Egyptian. But look inside Joseph's house. He fathers two sons, we're told in verses 50 and following. And what are the names of his sons? This is glorious. Not Egyptian names, but Hebrew names, Manasseh and Ephraim. He's hundreds of miles away from the land of Canaan, but he names his son Hebrew names. These boys are born in that first seven-year period of agricultural prosperity. And notice what the two sons' names mean. Oh, there is a wealth, a treasure of riches in these two names. The first son, he names Manasseh, that means making to forget. And what Joseph is saying is that God has wiped his memory clean of the last 13 years. The sale into slavery, all that business at Potiphar's house, the false charges, the bitter time in the dungeon, the being forgot. In other words, Joseph is saying, I'm not holding grudges, nor am I bitter or angry at God or anyone else. I'm not murmuring or grumbling. I have no resentment. And every time I say my son's name, I will remind myself and anyone who cares to listen of that truth, that God has made me to forget what's in the past. What a glorious name. But then it gets better with the second son. Second son's name is Ephraim. Ephraim, Hebrew, literally is doubly fruitful. And Joseph, when he looks back over the course of his life, he's still just in his early 30s, he's rejoicing in what God has done. The place of affliction has now become the place of blessing. And he says, if there's one word to characterize my life, it's fruitfulness. And so he names his two sons words that boast in what God has done. God has made me to forget the hard times, and God has poured out fruitfulness upon my life. In fact, later on in Genesis 49, when Joseph's father Jacob reappears, and he's about to bless Joseph at the end of his life, he says in Genesis 49, 22, Joseph is a fruitful vine. And notice something about these names. Look inside the home life with me. Joseph, by naming his sons Hebrew names, is asserting his covenantal heritage and identity. He's saying, we may live here in the midst of you people, But we're different. We may be in the world, but we're not of it. Even though there may not be a church for hundreds of miles, even though there may not be an assembly of the saints anywhere in Egypt, my home has now become the center of God's covenantal activity, because here we're boasting in what God has done. Now, if the chapter ended, with the account of the birth of Joseph's two sons, and the names and the reasons for the names, then the impression might have been created that Joseph was inclined to settle down there permanently in Egypt and forget his family back in Canaan. But that's not where the chapter ends. Look at how the chapter does end in verse 53 and following, especially verse 57, which brings Joseph's family back into the picture. In the last snippet of chapter 41, verses 53 and following, Joseph's story takes the turn for which we've been warned. Here comes those seven lean cows and those seven scraggly ears of grain. Prosperity ends and hard times set in. And the severity of the famine can be seen in the repeated use of the word all. Look how often it's stated. We're told in verse 54, the famine was in all lands. In verse 55, all the land of Egypt was famished. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, verse 56, the famine was over all the face of the earth. Joseph opened all the storehouses. And then verse 57, we're told again, all countries came to Joseph. The famine was severe in all lands. For seven years up till now, Joseph's energy has been poured into the purpose of gathering and storing food. His success has been phenomenal. Now he has to do that most difficult of career transitions. He has to turn all this creative energy to a totally different type of task. What he's been before as a builder, a manager, a stockpiler, now he has to turn into a minister of mercy and of distribution. And he waits, according to verse 55, until the Egyptians are starting to get hungry. Then he begins to sell, first to the Egyptians in verse 56, and then to those from foreign nations in verse 57. And because of Joseph's wisdom and compassion, once again, as we've seen over and over again through the book of Genesis, we see God's covenant purpose being fulfilled. You remember God's covenant purpose stated to Abraham back in Genesis 12, when he says, here's my intention. In you, all the families of the earth will be blessed. And we see Joseph living that out. He is being as God's covenant representative. He's turning outwards and being a blessing to the world. He doesn't save the blessing for himself, his household, even his nation. But we see all nations being blessed. That's always been God's covenantal intention. And the stage is set now, though Joseph doesn't know it. The stage is set by the end of our chapter for a re-encounter with his family. In verses 53 through 57, God shows us, even though Joseph is not shown yet, that he's willing to do unbelievable things to advance the good of his people. I want you to take this in for a moment. Genesis 41, God is telling you that he's plunged Egypt, and not only Egypt, but the entire Near Eastern world into a seven-year cycle of famine and starvation in order to bless the family of Jacob. God's people, His covenant people are the apple of His eye. History, and in this case, history of the nations, is merely a backdrop for God's plan of providence. And what you're seeing in the story of Joseph and what you'll see in the next few weeks is a picture of God's gospel providence, His evangelical providence, the way that God rules the world for the sake of His people. And when we read these last words in verse 56 and 57, we begin to suspect that God is up to something. with regard to the family of Joseph. He hasn't revealed it yet, but when we hear that the famine is severe in all the earth, that there may be more to this story than the simple exaltation of Joseph. And indeed, God is shaping world events, national economies, just to affect a family reunion. That's staggering, and that's God's gracious providence. It may be in glory before you ever know How often he's done that for you, for us. God rules the world for the good of his people and for his own glory. How do we apply this word tonight? Let me make several applications from our text to you from Genesis 41. First of all, this text shows who it is who rules the world. The future of the mightiest nation on earth was established without any reference to Pharaoh. Pharaoh doesn't even get to decide. He's irrelevant and marginal to the future of the kingdom of Egypt. Joseph calmly announces to Pharaoh in our text, the future is out of your hands. And Pharaoh can cause no future nor resist the future that God will bring. Kings don't make history. They only serve God's providential purpose. We hear this principle spelled out in John 19, when Jesus is standing before Pilate and Pilate says to him, are you not going to speak to me? Don't you know that I have power to crucify you and power to release you? And Jesus said, you could have no power at all unless it had been given to you from above. As senators and presidents rise and fall, don't forget who rules over them, the sovereign Lord. And that's what's being taught in our text. The second application we should see is this text shows us once again that it is usually God's method to prepare his servants by long waiting. In Joseph's case, he has to wait 13 years before he's elevated to kingdom usefulness. We live in the era of the instant and we forget that God does not. His ways are much slower than our ways. He puts a much greater value on proven character than we do. When the Lord even comes and takes flesh, he will wait until he is 30 before he begins his public ministry. This text is showing us that it is usually God's method to make us wait so that we might develop patience and humility. Another application is Joseph shows us a picture, a model of a man who loves something that you and I need to love more. He loves to confess his own inability. Think of it in Genesis chapter 40 verse 8, when the butcher and the baker, they want to exalt Joseph's ability. And he says, no, I don't have the ability, the sovereign Lord does. Now in our chapter in 41 16, the first thing that Joseph says to Pharaoh, it is not in me. That's a confession of his own inability. And by doing so, he loves to boast in God's ability. Distrusting your own ability is the precondition for all sorts of blessings in scripture. For example, it's the precondition for wisdom. In James 1, 5, we are told, if any of you at lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives all wisdom. liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But you notice what you first have to do before you get wisdom? You have to confess your own inability and say, Lord, I'm a fool by nature. I don't have wisdom. I need it from you. You're the only possessor of wisdom. What Joseph does is something we must be more gifted at, and that is to confess our own inability so that we might boast in God's ability. Another application we should see from this text is a glorious principle. is Joseph is the same man no matter what. Poverty nor prosperity changed Joseph. He knew who he was, and he knew who God was. He knew there was no power in himself, and he understood that the future was determined by God, not by human kings. It's one thing to continue to trust God when you're in the pit. Well, you have to trust God then. You have no place to look but up. During months and years in slavery and in prison, Joseph deepened in his sense of need and dependence upon God. But look what he does when prosperity comes. Well, that's usually the real test of a man's character. When everyone is bowing and scraping before him and saying, bow the knee in front of his chariot and telling him how wise and brilliant he is. That's when you start to lose all perspective. You start believing your press clippings and forget the Lord. I can tell you with great sadness over the last 24 years of several men I've pastored who began to prosper. They get a promotion. They have a new image to keep up. They have no time now for prayer meetings, for Bible study, or even worship for the Lord's people or the Lord's day. Life at the top with the beautiful people, the wealthy and the powerful, has ruined many a man, not Joseph. He never forgot who he was. He was a son of Abraham, a believer in Jehovah, and this proves that wealth and power do not have to dim our piety. He's evidence of that. Another application. This text, listen to me carefully, because some of you are grappling with this subject right now. This text teaches us how to treat unbelievers that have wronged us. It teaches us how to treat unbelievers that have wronged us. There is no hint whatsoever from the text that Joseph did seek or ever would have sought revenge against all those people who've been mistreating him for the last 13 or 14 years. Think of what he could have done now to Potiphar and his lying wife from his position as second man in the kingdom of Egypt. She had lied about Joseph and out of sheer spite, she put him in prison to rot the rest of his life away. He was a young man sent to prison. It wouldn't have bothered her if he had spent the rest of his life there and died in that prison. How satisfying in our flesh to imagine Joseph summoning her to the court. But he does nothing of the kind. Nor does he repay the cupbearer. for his inexcusable neglect of Joseph after Joseph had done him such a good turn. He exacted no vengeance against those who had done him such terrible wrongs. Instead, he entered his new situation, sought to serve the Lord in it as faithfully as he had served him in slavery and imprisonment. Joseph teaches us how to treat unbelievers who have wronged us, who simply don't seek revenge. But finally, as we've said each week, Joseph is a 3D, technicolor picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the lesser Joseph. And think of the greater Joseph, who he is a picture of. There are at least half a dozen points of identification and coherence just in this chapter with the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, we see it again, that the lesser Joseph is humiliated first, then he's exalted. Isn't that a picture of our Lord Jesus, who for 33 years is humiliated before his triumphant resurrection and ascension? Secondly, we see that this, the lesser Joseph, waits in obscurity. until he is 30 to begin his public ministry. So does the greater Joseph. We see that this Joseph, it is even said of him by pagan men that he is filled with the Spirit. The greater Joseph, of course, has the Spirit without measure. We see here that Joseph is a prophet, a prophet who will only tell the truth, The greater Joseph is the perfect and final prophet. This Joseph in Genesis 41 is the one before whom every knee in the nation of Egypt must bow. But the greater Joseph is the one before whom every knee will bow one day. This Joseph is the one, we're told at the end of the chapter, to whom everyone must go and get bread. Look at verse 55, where the nation of Egypt, when they are famished, And they're hungry and they cry out to Pharaoh and other nations do as well. Pharaoh wisely tells them, go to Joseph. Now, do you get the analogy? If they would have refused to go to Joseph, they would have starved to death. But isn't this a glorious picture of the Lord Jesus, the greater Joseph, who if you refuse to go to him, you will die in your sins. He is the bread of life. He is the one who can give you the eternal bread. And finally, Notice what Joseph does with everyone who comes to him at the end of the chapter. Whether they be Egyptians or foreigners, he turns no one away. And isn't this a glorious picture of the one who says in John 6, 37, the one who comes to me, I will in no way cast out. You see that Joseph is like a signpost pointing to the greater Joseph, the Lord Jesus saying, yes, the Lord is doing a mighty work here, but it's just a down payment, just a faint, dim shadow of what the Lord really has when he comes in power. The life of Joseph is meant to whet our appetite for the one who will come and be perfect, the only Redeemer of men. Let's pray together. Our Father, how we thank you for this picture. We thank you for this account of the life of Joseph. We see how the spirit of God can shape a man and mature a man. Lord, we pray that we would learn the lessons this text has for us, the patience of not seeking revenge, of understanding that you are the one who rules over the nations of the world. So, Lord, we pray that you would teach us and mature us by this your word. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.