If you will turn in your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 42. Genesis 42, our text is going to be the entirety of this chapter this morning. It's the beginning of the journey of Joseph being reunited to his brothers, a journey that will take all the way through chapter 45 before he's finally revealed to them. So obviously the Holy Spirit believes this is important, and therefore we should believe it's important too. Genesis 42, beginning in verse 1. When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? And he said, Indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live and not die. So Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, Lest some calamity befall him. And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land, and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, Where do you come from? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them, and said to them, You are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said to him, No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. We are all one man's sons. We are honest men. Your servants are not spies. But he said to them, No, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said, your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more. But Joseph said to them, It is as I spoke to you, saying, You are spies. In this manner you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh you shall not leave this place unless your younger brother comes here. Send one of you, and let him bring your brother. And you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested, to see whether there is any truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh. Surely you are spies. So he put them all together in prison three days. Then Joseph said to them the third day, Do this and live, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house, but you go and carry grain for the famine of your houses. And bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified, and you shall not die. And they did so. Then they said to one another, we are truly guilty concerning our brother. For we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear. Therefore this distress has come upon us.' And Reuben answered them, saying, Did I not say to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy, and you would not listen? Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us. But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. And he turned himself away from them and wept. Then he returned to them again and talked with them, and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man's money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey. Thus he did for them. So they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there. But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment, he saw his money, and there it was in the mouth of his sack. So he said to his brothers, My money has been restored, and there it is in my sack. Then their hearts felled them, and they were afraid, saying to one another, What is this that God has done to us? And they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan, and told him all that had happened to them, saying, The man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country. But he said to him, We are honest men, we are not spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of our father, one is no more, and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the lord of the country, said to us, By this I will know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers here with me. Take food for the famine of your households, and be gone. And bring your youngest brother to me, so I shall know that you are not spies, but that you are honest men. I will grant your brother to you, and you may trade in the land. Then it happened, as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly each man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. And Jacob their father said to them, You have bereaved me. Joseph is no more, Simeon is no more, and you want to take Benjamin. All these things are against me. Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. Put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is left alone. If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit this morning. that you would speak to the hearts of your people and draw many to yourself. Father, if there's anyone here who doesn't know the Lord, we pray this very day you would call them effectually to Christ and save them and take out their heart of stone, give them hearts of flesh, take away their sin and in its place, give them your righteousness. And for those of us who are in Christ, bring conviction as we need to be convicted, but also comfort us and encourage us and draw us near to yourself. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. As we have studied the life of Joseph, we have had abundant opportunity to see the truth of the words that man's mind plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps. Last week, in Genesis chapter 41, we saw how Joseph became the second highest ruler in all of Egypt, and by that, because Egypt was the greatest and mightiest nation on earth at the time, he became the second most powerful man in all the earth. But it's strange, isn't it, how the Lord works? He moves in mysterious ways. Who would have ever thought that the straight path to becoming the second-highest, most powerful ruler in all the world would be by being sold into slavery, then thrown into prison, falsely accused of a crime you did not commit? And yet it's just like God to forge His leaders in that way. As a matter of fact, isn't that typical of the economy of God's kingdom? You want to be a great leader? Become the servant of all. Would you like to obtain a crown? Then you must endure a cross, an instrument of torture that always manages to kill its victim, by the way. Take your cross and follow me, and then you'll have a crown in heaven. So it's very typical of the way God works, though not the way that we typically would think. Well, as we come to our text, a minimum of 20 years have passed since Joseph last saw his brothers. There were 13 years of serving as a slave, followed by seven years of plenty. By the time we get to the beginning of chapter 45, at least two years of the drought will have passed. There'll be five years left to go. So it'll be 22 years from the time that Jacob last saw his son Joseph to the time he's reunited with him. Joseph had been a 17-year-old youth when his brothers had last seen him. He is by now a 38 or 39-year-old man. And as we come to this text, it is important for us to remember the wickedness of his 10 older brothers. Let's be reminded of that because it's important as we consider how Joseph is dealing with them. They had hated Joseph for two reasons at least. One, he was his father's favorite. There was a tendency in Joseph, a sinful tendency, to show favoritism. Joseph was the firstborn son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel. And he preferred him above all the rest, and the rest of the men knew it. and they hated him for it. But Joseph didn't help his own cause because when God gave him two prophetic dreams, he bragged, you're going to bow down before me someday. I'm going to be a mighty ruler over you. And they chafed at that and said, you'll never rule over us. We're not going to bow down to you. Well, when Jacob sent his son Joseph to check on his brothers in the land of Shechem, when they saw him coming, they conspired together, let's murder him and throw his body in a pit somewhere. Reuben intervened and he said, don't do any harm to our brother. Rather, let's put him down in this pit and see what we should do about him. And then he steals away stealthily, apparently looking for a means to deliver Joseph back to his father. But in the meantime, As Joseph is crying out from the pit, they can hear his cries and his sobs. He's terrified and anxious and fearful, not knowing what his brothers intend to do to him. They're so callous and they're so hardened that they throw a big supper together and they have a big party. They're making merry in the light of his distress. Their eyes showed him no pity and no mercy. But then a band of Ishmaelites come through and they sell their brother as a chattel slave to them, sending him off to Egypt. And then Reuben comes back. Apparently they never make him aware that Joseph is still alive, but he assumes that he's dead. They don't correct him or help him understand, but they do concoct a story. They take his robe of many colors that Jacob had made for him, they tear it apart, and they dip it in goat's blood. And then they bring it to Jacob, and very cruelly they say, Do you know whose this is? And let him draw his own conclusions. And he begins to weep and to mourn over the loss of his son Joseph. And he cries out, and he says, It's my son. He's been torn apart by wild beasts. And they sit there watching him drown in his mourning. And they do nothing. As a matter of fact, do you realize these 10 brothers would go for 22 years letting their father believe that his son was dead? Of all the cruelty that they exhibited, in my mind, that's the cruelest thing they did of all. That's how bad things were. And now, in God's providence, Joseph is reunited with his brothers. He's a man of almost unlimited authority and power, who literally has the authority to command them to bow down before him, and then call for their heads to be lopped off while they do so. How is he going to receive his brothers? Well, the Lord has much to tell us here, and I believe what we're going to see. The central thing we're seeing, the explanation behind Joseph's strange behavior, is that he was testing them to see if they felt guilty over their sin, if there was remorse over the way they had treated him. And not just remorse, but it is their repentance. Has God changed my brothers over the course of the last several decades? So I'm going to preach this first part of the story, chapter 42, under three headings. First of all, Israel sends his sons to Egypt. Secondly, Joseph sends Israel's sons back to Canaan. And third, Israel refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt. So first of all, Israel sends his sons to Egypt. The famine was not isolated to the land of Egypt. It was a worldwide famine. So every nation was being affected by it, not just Egypt alone. So it comes into the land of Canaan. Several commentators point out an obvious fact, but it's important for us to think about. Isn't it fascinating that God commanded Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to remain in the land of Canaan, and yet all three men experienced severe famines while they lived there? What a test of their faith this would be. God has promised to sustain us, to give us a future generation, to give us seed, to make of us a great nation, and yet He puts us in a land, tells us to stay there, and the land is unable to sustain us. In order to obey God's command, they had to believe God's promise, didn't they? Because trust and obey always go hand in glove. If they did not believe His promise, they would not have obeyed His command. Within the first year or so of the famine, Jacob recognizes and discerns that there's grain to be found in Egypt. The Israelites did not lack money, they just lacked the food. But here's Egypt, they have the food, we have the money, we can go get it. So he looks around at his sons, who apparently know that there's food in Egypt, and he says, what are you sitting around staring at each other for? Get off your hands, get off your fanny, saddle your donkey, and go to Egypt. Because otherwise we're going to perish, we're going to die here. Don't just sit here waiting around for something to happen. Matthew Henry makes the insightful comment, quote, Masters of families must not only pray for their daily bread for their families and food convenient, but they must lay themselves out with care and industry to provide it. When Jesus tells us in the Sermon on the Mount not to worry about the things that we are clothed with or what we're going to eat, He doesn't mean sit on your lazy boy, wasting away your times in slothfulness and idleness, waiting for manna to fall from heaven, nor for the government to give you a handout or the church to give you a handout. What He's saying to us is this, get busy. When you say, give me this day my daily bread, you're also saying, God, I'm willing to work if you'll provide the work for me to do. We are to be aggressive and we're to be diligent in providing for our own families. As a matter of fact, the word of God tells us that a man who does not diligently and aggressively seek to labor to provide for his family is actually worse than an unbeliever. And so it's imperative for us to do these things. Jacob says to his sons, We have the means to relieve our anxiety and our hunger. You've got the money. Egypt has the food. Snap to it. And so the oldest ten make the journey to Egypt, but Jacob does not permit his youngest son, Benjamin, to go with them. A part of Jacob's favoritism towards Joseph was the fact that he was Rachel's son. Benjamin is the other son of Rachel. and apparently has become Jacob's new favorite now that he believes Joseph is dead. And so it's perfectly understandable that thinking that Joseph had perished, he wants to be more protective of Benjamin. But there's something else about his reluctance to send Benjamin that we should recognize, something that comes out clearer at the end of the chapter. And that is that Jacob did not trust his ten older sons. that even though he had believed the idea that somehow Joseph had been torn apart by wild beasts, there seems to be some underlying suspicion that foul play was involved, that he suspects that his brothers had something to do with Joseph's death. He can't prove it, but it's a suspicion. And at the end of the chapter, that comes out very clearly. Derek Kidner says of this, under a father's eye, their crimes might be covered up. but not their character. He knows something about their character and so he doesn't trust Benjamin with them. Now notice verse 5. The text says, And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. It's interesting, do you note the Holy Spirit is very specific. He invokes his covenant name of Israel. He doesn't say Jacob's sons, he says Israel's sons journeyed. Why does he use the name Israel right here? We have to remember where that name came from. It was given to Jacob as the sun was rising after he'd wrestled all night with the pre-incarnate Son of God. And while he's wrestling with him, he says, your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel shall be your name. He gives him a new name, and we've considered at the time when we were studying that, that this meant many things. It was a reminder of God's covenant with Abraham, because God said to Abraham, I will make of you a great nation. Now that nation has a name, Israel. But it's a reminder of God's covenant promises, I will be with you, I will watch over you, I'll be your protector, and I will give you this land, and I'll give you descendants more numerous than the stars in the sky. So what the Holy Spirit, I believe, is doing here by invoking the name of Israel as they journey, if you don't know how the story ends already, He's saying they're going in the midst of a land, the promised land, that can't sustain them. They're traveling to Egypt. But God is saying, I've got this. I am remembering my covenant with Abraham, and this is going to turn out successfully. I'm going to take care of my chosen people. So He's reminding us of God's covenant faithfulness by invoking the name of Israel. Then verse 6. They arrive in Egypt, and Joseph was the governor over the land, and it was he who sold grain to the people. Notice the end of verse 6. It's almost understated in the way it says it. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. What's amazing is, 20 years earlier, when they heard the prophecy that they were going to do this very thing, they scoffed and said, you will never rule over us. But now they don't even know who they're bowing before. They're bowing before a man who, to their mind, is a perfect stranger, a Gentile ruler of the Egyptians, and they're fulfilling prophecy that they said they would never ever do. And the point I would emphasize to you is this. When God makes a decree, that decree is immutable. And not only is it immutable, it has omnipotent power behind it. Men and devils can rage against it, they can fight against it and say, no, it will never be, but what God has purposed to happen is going to happen, and it doesn't matter how much resistance is in His way. Because when God decrees something, it will surely come to pass. Here they are, bowing down before their brother that they swore they would never do, and they're not even conscious that they're doing it. They're fulfilling prophecy unaware. Even so, when the Jews and the Gentiles conspired against Jesus Christ, they said, we'll get rid of this public nuisance once and for all. We will crucify Him. He's in our power to do whatever we want to do to Him. They had no idea that as they did what they did, they were fulfilling God's decree. Even in their sin, they were fulfilling centuries-old prophecy, because Jesus is the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world. They were accomplishing God's eternal purposes, but they thought they were resisting God. Well, what are we being told here? We're being told that the truth has been set before us over and over again, because God cannot lie. He's always true to His Word. What he has promised, he will perform, and what he's prophesied, he will always bring to pass. Now in the following verses, we find Joseph recognizing his brothers, but they don't recognize him, and he uses the cloak of anonymity to test them. And the questions that rise up in our minds are these, is Joseph being vindictive? Is he taking revenge on his brothers for the sin they had committed against him? Because he treats them harshly. He has a stern face and a stern veneer, and he continues the deception of letting them believe he's someone else than their brother. Is he being vindictive here? As I've thought about it, as I've looked through the Scriptures, and I think you'll see this in just a moment, I don't believe he's being vindictive. I really don't. I think behind his stern gaze, beats a compassionate heart that longs for his brothers. But he is putting them to the test. The reason I say that is, first of all, if he really wanted to take retribution on them, he had the power to do it. He could have delivered them up to torturers. He could have put them in prison for years and then had them beheaded. He could have extracted all he wanted to from them, but he doesn't. As a matter of fact, what we see is that power and authority is very restrained in what he does. Furthermore, while he's keeping this visage outside that looks real stern, do you notice how he provides for them abundantly and doesn't require them to pay him for it? And as we're going to see, he goes even above and beyond what they had requested. We'll see that in just a moment. Furthermore, down in verse 24, and then we'll see this recurring throughout the coming chapters, the outward exterior, the hardened exterior, continues to crack. and to break, because his heart breaks inside of him as he's with his brothers, and he has to excuse himself because he loses it royally, and has to gain his composure and come back and keep the veneer in front of them. But nonetheless, he's testing them. He's testing to see, have they changed? Are they different men than they used to be? Is there any evidence of remorse or brokenness over sin? Is there any evidence or any fruit of repentance? And so I believe that's what we find him doing in the text before us. How does he keep the veneer in front of them? Well, they're looking at him. He's 20 years older. He was a 17-year-old youth when they saw him last time, so his visage has changed a little bit. He's clean-shaven. which is the tradition of the Egyptians, not the tradition of the Hebrews. He's dressed in royal apparel and he's a ruler, a mighty and powerful ruler in all of Egypt. That was the last thing in the world they would have expected to find because somewhere, somehow, he's washing some floor as a slave somewhere. So they don't recognize him and Jacob uses that to his advantage. Well, notice how he tests them. He asks them, first of all, he speaks roughly to them, sounds real gruff on the outside. Verse 7, where did you come from? And they say, from the land of Canaan, that's where we're from, and we've come for a purpose, we're here to buy food. And he recognizes them, but they don't recognize him, and he remembers the dreams which he had dreamed about them. And so here's where the test begins. He says, you are spies. You have come to survey the nakedness of the land. In other words, you are men who are part of a military contingent. You've come here as a prelude to invasion to see what our weaknesses and our vulnerabilities are. Now Joseph knows that they're not spies, but he's testing them. And notice how they respond. No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. That's the only reason we're here. We need groceries. We are all one man's sons. In other words, we're not part of a militia. We're part of a family. And that's why we've come. And then notice what they say in verse 11. Because it's going to be repeated five different times in the text. The text is obviously trying to tell us something here. It says, We are honest men. Do you realize they've just perjured themselves? These are not honest men. These are the same men who deceived the men of Shechem. He said, we'll allow you to marry into our family if you're all circumcised, and they set them up for the slaughter. These are the men who've been lying to their father for 20 years about the death of Joseph. We're honest men. Well, this isn't going to go well with Joseph's heart. He knows what they really are. How do you know a liar is lying? His lips are moving, right? And so these guys are lying, they're perjuring Silver, and they're, we're honest men. Your servants are not spies. Well, that's true. But he says to them, No, you've come to see the neckiness of the land. Verse 13, Your servants are twelve brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more. You catch something. They've just lied again. They've told the truth that they're 12 brothers and their father's still alive. The youngest is with our father, but one is no more. Joseph was alive the last time they saw him. They're telling Joseph the same lie they told Jacob. So far, they're not doing Sahat, passing the test, are they? They're being tested about their integrity. They're insisting we are honest men, but they're not. No, actually, we sold our brother to slavery, but we're not going to tell you that. But Joseph knows, of course, the entire deception. But he says this, it is as I spoke to you, verse 14, saying, you are spies. In this manner, you should be tested. I'll see whether or not you're men of integrity. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place until your youngest brother comes here. So send one of you, and let him bring your brother, and the rest be kept in prison. So here's the proposal. There's ten of you here. Let nine of you be put in prison. Let one of you I'm getting this mixed up here. I'm getting this flip-flopped. It says, I'm right, send one of you and let the other nine stay in prison that your words may be tested. Do you realize the brilliance of the test? Your fate as nine brothers will depend upon the integrity of the one. just as the fate of your other brother depended upon how you reacted. And then he throws him in prison. He puts him in prison for three days and three nights. Now think about this. To be found out as a spy was a capital offense. You could be put to death for being a spy in the land. Because it's an act of treason. It's an act of war. So these men get to sit in prison not knowing what this ruler is contemplating or thinking for three days and three nights. He's letting them suffer for a while and work through and face their anxieties. I suspect these were three sleepless nights for them. I suspect that's what it was. But then notice, you say, why isn't he being vindictive there? Well, perhaps. But notice what he does in verse 18. He relieves their anxiety in a very unusual and unexpected way. Verse 18, Joseph said to them the third day, Do this and live. And notice what he says next. For I fear God. That was the one thing these men never expected to find in an Egyptian ruler. I fear and I serve the same God of your fathers. I serve the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And by saying this, what's he saying? He's saying to them, I understand that there is someone over me, that the eyes of God are in every place keeping watch over the evil and good, and someday I'm going to have to give an account to Him of how I treat you. That relieves their anxieties to some degree that I'm not a man who doesn't fear God, I do fear the Lord. So he's giving relief to their burden. And so then he says, again, in verse 19, if you're honest men, as you claim, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house. Notice he's flip-flopping the arithmetic. First of all, it was nine of you stay in prison, one goes out. Now it's one of you stays in prison and the nine go out. But again, see the brilliance of it. One of your brother's fates is in your hands. just as one of your brother's fates was 20 years ago. Go carry grain for the famine to your houses. That tells you something of his compassionate heart. He can't keep them in prison forever because his father is going to starve. And so I need to send food back to him and to my brother Benjamin. And then bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die. See, there's again the allusion to the fact that being a spy was a capital offense, and they did so. Well, then verse 21, here's another part of how Joseph had kept his anonymity. He spoke to them, not in the Hebrew tongue, but in the Egyptian language. He's learned Egyptian, and he doesn't speak in the Hebrew tongue. He's speaking in a Gentile tongue, and that's something they would not expect their brother to do. So they don't know, as they speak in his hearing, that he understands the Hebrew they're speaking one to another. And what they say here in verse 21 is very, very instructive. Because remember, 20 years earlier, when they had thrown Joseph into the pit, they didn't care. They had been callous, acted like they didn't care. They threw a party, they had dinner, had a big supper together, had a big feast while he's suffering. Did their conscience bother them at all? Well, here it's revealed. Notice, first of all, the very first words, we are truly guilty. We are guilty as charged. We have sinned. There's freedom in calling sin, sin. Whether it's in others or whether it's in yourself. We are guilty. It tells you that for 20 years, They've carried this. Their sin has been ever before them. However much they've tried to hide it, conceal it, it's there. It will not go away. Their conscience will not give them peace. Twenty years without peace in their conscience they went. When they could have been freed by simply confessing and acknowledging and bearing the consequences of their sin. But we are truly guilty concerning our brother. For we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear. We showed him no mercy when mercy was exactly what was called for." It says, therefore, this distress has come upon us. They interpret their present difficulty on the basis of God giving retribution for a sin they had committed 20 years earlier. Now, that tells you something else about their confession. They are, one way or another, saying our punishment is just. We are guilty, therefore this has come. As we're going to see in just a moment, whenever someone is truly repentant, they recognize their guilt, they recognize they have no excuse for their guilt, and they recognize that if God would punish them for it, it is a just punishment. It's not God being mean. It's not God being cruel or harsh. It's God giving us what we deserve. And they're acknowledging that. Well, Reuben pipes up and basically says, I told you so. He says, did I not say to you, do not sin against the boy, and you would not listen? Therefore, his blood is now required of us, and his complaint is just. I tried to tell you 20 years ago, and you didn't listen. But notice the pronouns. I spoke to you all. and you didn't listen, and now this punishment has come upon us. I am having to bear the consequences of your sin because you wouldn't listen to me." We don't sin in a vacuum. Our sin has a way of affecting others around us too, doesn't it? But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter. And notice verse 24 is the first place the veneer begins to crack. And he turned himself away, literally went out of the room and wept. Why? Why does he weep now? because they don't even know their brother is in the room with them, and yet they've acknowledged their guilt. He sees their consciences have been troubled, and they recognize this as God's testing and punishment of them for their sins. He has to collect himself, says, keep it together, man, and he walks back into the room, keeping his countenance hidden, And so they agree to what he's told them to do. And he binds Simeon in front of them and has him put in prison. Well, what have we seen thus far? We've seen that Israel sent his sons to Egypt. But what we see next is Joseph sending Israel's sons back to Canaan. It says, verse 25, and here again we see something of the compassionate heart of Joseph. He gave the command to fill their sacks with grain, that's what they've come for, to restore every man's money to his sack. He does this stealthily, they don't know, they won't discover it until later, but he's not requiring them to pay for grain like he's requiring everybody else. He's giving them provision for free, without money and without price. And then notice the third thing. and to give them provisions for the journey." They didn't ask for that. They asked for grain, which they were willing to pay for. But he also provides for them and for their donkey so that the journey will be safe for them on the way back. Do you see he's going above and beyond what they've asked him to do? Again, evidence of his compassionate heart that he's wanting to be restored to his brothers. Well, they're on their way back home. They encamp on the way, because it was a several days journey. And one night as they're encamping, one of them opens his sack to give his donkey some grain. And as he does so, there's his money in the sack. And he's astonished and tells the other brothers, look, my money has been returned to me. And notice in verse 28 how they respond to it. Then their hearts failed them, and they were afraid, saying to one another, what is this that God has done to us? It was done as an act of kindness by Joseph, and ultimately by God himself, to return the money. But because of their guilty conscience, they interpret God's providence as his punishment. God is punishing us. Now, why would they say He's punishing us? Think about it. They've been accused by Joseph of being men who lacked integrity. Now they are liable to the charge, you stole your grain. You're thieves. See, I told you, you weren't honest men. It makes them liable to being accused. Even though they had paid for the grain, it makes them liable to be accused. Look, you took away the money and took away the grain as well. So then they come back to Jacob. And they tell him the whole story. In verse 30, the man who is lord of the land spoke roughly to us, took us for spies of the country. And notice that from verses 31 to verse 34, the phrase, honest men, recurs three times. We said to him, we are honest men. Jacob must have been going. Well, you got yourself off on the wrong foot there, right? We are not spies. We are 12 brothers, sons of the Father. One is no more. The youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan. Again, they've lied, perpetuating the lie to Jacob. Then the man said to us, the Lord of the country said to us, by this I will know that you are honest men. There it is again. I think the Spirit's trying to tell us something about integrity here. Leave one of your brothers here with me. Take food for the famine of your households and be gone. Bring your youngest brother here to me. If you're not spies, I'll know that you're honest men." There it is again. "'And I'll grant you a brother to you, and you may trade in the land.'" Now, verse 35, they already knew the money had been returned to one of the brothers. Now, verse 35, they learn all of them have had their money returned. It happened as they emptied their sacks that surprisingly each man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid." Now we're all liable to the charge that we stole this and we're not men of integrity. So Israel sent his sons to Egypt. Joseph sent Israel's sons back to Canaan, finally. Israel refuses to send Benjamin to Egypt. Simeon will remain a prisoner in Egypt if the men do not return back there with their brother Benjamin. And furthermore, Jacob's family will starve because the grain they have is going to run out again, and they're going to have to get more grain. Well, it's really in verse 36 that Jacob's suspicions about his sons comes to the surface. Notice what he says, "'You have bereaved me.'" Not a wild animal bereaved me. You have bereaved me. I can't prove it, but Joseph's disappearance has something to do with you. You have a hand in this somehow. He can't prove it, but he makes the assertion nonetheless. Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more. My old eyes will probably never see him again. And now you want me to send Benjamin with you? Not gonna do it. lest he die as well." Well, Reuben speaks up, the only one who had acted honorably in the case of Joseph. And he speaks up and he makes a very strange and really what strikes me as something of a rash claim. Kill my two sons if I don't bring them back. Well, really? Jacob's going to kill his own two grandsons? I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen. But what he's saying is, I will put up my sons as surety to guarantee the safe return of Benjamin, put him into my care. But listen, in verse 38, Jacob said, My son will not go down, and that's final. He goes on to say, His brother is dead, and he's left alone. Now that phrase, he's left alone, is very telling. He has ten other brothers. How could he be considered left alone? Again, it's pointing to Jacob's sinful tendency to show favoritism. He alone of my favorite wife is the only son I have left of my favorite wife. And he alone. So he's putting him in a whole different category than the other ten brothers. The very thing that kind of got this whole mess started in the first place. But he says, if any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. I almost died when I heard the news that Joseph was dead. Now this will put the final nail in the coven. You will put me in the grave. I'm going to die if something happens to Benjamin. And so he refuses. Well, what applications can we make from the text we've seen this morning? There's three things. First, men who lack integrity must go to great lengths to persuade men that they have it. Notice again how often the emphasis is on the idea, the phrase, honest men. Verse 11, we are all one man's sons, we are honest men. Verse 19, if you are honest men. Verse 31, we said to him, we are honest men. Verse 33, by this I will know that you are honest men. Verse 34, you are honest men. I think the Spirit of God is trying to tell us something. He's trying to tell us that the issue of their integrity was the issue that was on trial. And they're not doing super hot in passing the test. First of all, they say our brothers no more. They say that to Joseph, they say it again to Jacob when they know that's not true. Furthermore, Reuben has to go out of his way to say, well, kill my two sons if I don't bring Benjamin back, then you'll trust me. The man has to protest too much. You ever thought about when Jesus says that we're not to swear oaths and vows? He says that in the Sermon on the Mount. He does not mean that swearing an oath or a vow is always sinful or wrong. We find that from the rest of the New Testament, places where Paul himself will speak oaths or make oaths. As a matter of fact, do you realize if you are forbidden to make any oaths, none of you in this room could be married? because you swear oaths to one another, because you enter into a covenant when you get married. You couldn't testify in a court of law because you have to swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but an oath. You take an oath of truthfulness in a court of law, and that's not sin. But what Jesus is saying is, if you perpetually, in order to get other people to believe you, have to constantly swear oaths and make promises, it does not speak well of you. Because your yes should be yes and your no should be no. And if you're a Christian, you should be able to say something to somebody and they can set their watch by you because they know that you're going to tell them the truth. And yet, how many men of integrity are there in this world? Think about it. If you commit to tell someone, I'm going to be in a certain place at a certain time. they should expect to see you at that place at that time. And if you're providentially hindered, you're in traffic, and you're backed up, or something happens, an emergency takes place, they can expect, because you've given them your word, you're going to call them, you're going to text them, you're going to let them know that you've been delayed. Because you're a man, you're a woman of integrity. If you sign your name to a document, your honor, is upon that document. You've put your name upon it by which you're saying, this document fairly and accurately represents what I truly believe and what I've agreed to do. You ever thought about this? When you sign a check, you're giving your word. You're saying, you can count upon this, you can take it to the bank, that there's going to be money in the bank to take care of this check and cover the amount for which it is written. I put my name to it. Now, it's one thing for us to make a clerical error, and a check bounces because we made a clerical error. It's another thing to go on knowingly writing bad checks. That's why it's actually an offense. You can be arrested for writing bad checks, habitually. Because you're putting your name on there. If you're writing your name to a check that doesn't have the money to back it up, you're perjuring yourself. You're saying there's money to take care of this when there really isn't. If you tell a story, people should be able to count that you're reporting the events of the story, the details of the story, with as much accuracy as possible. If you turn in homework or take a test and give it to your instructor, they should have confidence that you haven't stolen someone else's answers, that this truly represents what you know, not what your neighbor knows. Otherwise, you're lying. And if you are an habitual liar, and I mean not all of us have had struggles, we've looked back and realized we weren't as accurate as we could have been, or we weren't as trustworthy or truthful as we should have been, that's a common affliction for all of us, isn't it? Because we're sinners. But I'm saying if you're an habitual liar who's constantly misleading and misguiding people, then you need to stop calling yourself a Christian and call yourself what God calls you, a liar whose part is in the lake of fire. Because liars will not have any inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven. Because when the Holy Spirit takes residence in someone's heart, He turns us into men and women of integrity. Can men trust Your Word? Are you a trustworthy person? You know, trust isn't something we owe each other. It's something that's earned by being trustworthy. You know, only a fool goes on trusting somebody who habitually lies to them, right? And so, are we men, are we women of integrity? At this point in their lives, Joseph's brothers professed to be men of integrity, but they weren't. God was still working on them. I don't know that they were regenerate yet, but God was working on them. Second thing, repentance begins with sorrow and brokenness over your sins and an acknowledgment that were God to punish you, His punishment would be just. Here the brothers, there is some signs of hope in them. The first sign of hope is we are truly guilty. It's when they acknowledge that they are sinful and they deserve the punishment that comes their way. This is the first sign of hope we have for Joseph's brothers. because they're recognizing their sin. And my children, as we've raised them, the thing that I really think is part of the sign that they're turning a corner and we're beginning to see our prayers answered for their souls is when they're not sorry about their sin just because we caught them, but when they come confessing their sins because they can't be at peace with them even when they're in private. And that's when I begin rejoicing, saying, thank you, Lord, that you will not let their conscience get away with their sin, even when they could have gotten away with it. I begin to praise God when I begin to see that. Here's a sign of hope. They can't be comfortable with sin. It's what God does to us when he brings us to salvation. He begins to make us uncomfortable with sin. He causes us to begin hating the thing that we used to love. Now we loathe the sin, and it grieves us, not just because of the consequences, but because we've offended a holy God. We've offended our Creator, we have provoked Him to anger against us, and that makes us mourn, and that makes us grieve, and we begin to loathe the stuff inside of us. And we say, if the bottom of the floor opened up and God swallowed me into hell right now, that's not Him being vindictive, that's what I deserve. That's why Jesus spoke about the publican and the Pharisee. The Pharisee stood and said, I thank you, O God, I'm not like other people. I tithe, and I'm not like this old hideous tax collector over here. I'm not like this IRS agent over here. Look at me and how holy and righteous I am. And yet the publican knew he had nothing to offer to God. As Jonathan Edwards says, you contribute nothing to your salvation except the sin that made it necessary. And he knows this. And he can't even lift his eyes to heaven, his countenance. He feels ashamed, so he can't even lift his eyes up to God. And he looks down, and he beats his breast, and he cries out, Oh God, have mercy upon me, a sinner. I can't claim any righteousness. I'm just asking you to be merciful to me. And Jesus said, this one went away justified, declared righteous in the sight of God, rather than the other. I ask you, if you're here, do you know Jesus Christ? And if you don't know Jesus Christ, Has God broken you over your sin? Has He begun to convict you? Do you recognize that if He's cast you body and soul into hell, He's giving you what you justly deserve? Do you acknowledge that? And if so, it doesn't stop there. If it's really godly sorrow, reduced by the Holy Spirit, it leads you somewhere else. It leads you to forsake your sin. It leads you to say, I no longer want sin to be my master. I want Jesus Christ, the Lord, to be my master. I want to serve Him from now on. And there's a turning that takes place. I'm no longer following sin, and I am going to follow God. I'm going to invite the Lord to be the ruler of my life, to take everything and be my master. Has God brought you to that place? Let me tell you, there is no other hope for you outside of Jesus Christ. And there's nothing more important than that you find peace with Him. If God is doing a work in your soul, it will drive you to cry out to Him, to have mercy upon you, and not to give Him rest until you have rest in your soul. So the Spirit of God Himself gives you the confidence, the assurance that He has taken up residence in your heart, He's forgiven you, and you're right with God. To have peace with God is the most important thing. We have so many distractions in a prosperous country, don't we? So many entertainments we can delve into. So many ways we can get our minds off of serious things. The problem is, at the end of the day, do those things really matter? What really matters is that you're dressed in the righteousness of Christ, forgiven of your sins, made right with God, to be able to stand before the judgment seat of Christ as one who is a guilty sinner, and yet hear Him say, Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. The only way to hear that is not through your own works. The only way to hear that is through faith in Jesus Christ. So if you're here and you're outside of Christ, I exhort you, fly to Christ. Acknowledge your sins. I dare you. I triple dog dare you. I say, go home, say, God, show me my sins. I dare you to pray that. Show me my sin. Show me what I deserve. I dare you to. And then say, show me your Son. Show me the Savior of sinners, and grant me repentance and faith, that I might flee to Him." Third and finally, dare to believe that what God has promised, He is also able to perform. Did you notice how many of God's promises are being fulfilled in our text this morning? It starts off with Joseph's brothers bowing down before an Egyptian ruler. They swore 20 years earlier they wouldn't do it. Now they're doing it, not even conscious they're doing it, but it was fulfilled just as God had said, because God cannot lie. Jacob is living in the promised land, but it's unable to sustain him. But God has reminded, has told him, promised him, I'm going to take care of you in the promised land, trust me. And so we don't read that the sons of Jacob went to Egypt, we read the sons of Israel went to Egypt. A reminder, a cue to us, I've got this. I'm going to sustain you in the midst of a famine." Why? Because God cannot lie. There's another prophecy being fulfilled here. Do you see it? I haven't mentioned it this morning, but do you see it? Hundreds of years earlier, literally way back, Genesis chapter 15, God made His covenant with Abraham and He said to him, know that your descendants will be slaves in a foreign land. They will be enslaved there for 400 years and then I will bring them out by a mighty deliverance. What's He doing here? The whole way they go into that foreign land is being set up right here. What God had promised to do, He performed. Now here's my point this morning for all of you who are in Christ. We have a Bible, a complete book, that is a complete record of how God made promises and how he fulfilled every one of the promises he made, without fail. And the fact that he, in the past, has fulfilled his promises is the assurance to you he's going to fulfill all his promises in the future. because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I remember one time we had some financial leanness. We didn't know how we were gonna pray, how God was gonna provide for something, and I was anxious, and my oldest son was a little fella, and I was anxious, and I expressed it to my children, and we prayed for God to provide for the need, and he looked at me and said, well, Dad, God's always provided for us before. I don't think he's gonna change tomorrow. Hush, I'm supposed to be the spiritual one here. But of course, was it true? Yes. And did God provide? Of course He did. Because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. I keep bringing up this promise, but let's remember it, because it's fleshed out in Joseph's life. God promises in His Word, and He cannot lie, all things are going to work together for your good. Maybe you're going through a circumstance right now that's so hard and so difficult and so trying that you're thinking to yourself, I don't know how on earth this could ever work out for my good. The good is to make me more like Jesus, but right now, to be honest with you, the attitudes that are coming out of my heart are telling me how unlike Jesus I am. I think I'm becoming less like Jesus rather than more like Jesus in the trial. Anybody else been there before? How in the world could this turn out for good? Let me be cynical and bitter and jaded about my circumstances because there's no way." Through the eye of reason, we would conclude that. But through the eye of faith, we say, I don't know how this is going to turn out for my good, but God knows. And He's promised it will. And because of that, I can dare to believe. There's a great old song, Faith, Glad Faith, The Promise Sees. and looks to God alone, laughs at impossibilities, and cries, it shall be done. It's going to happen because God has promised it's going to happen and God cannot lie. Or how about this? I've mentioned to you many, many times in recent days, Jesus is coming again. Do you ever feel like it's just never going to happen? What's all the waiting for, Lord? Please, could you come today? Yesterday would be even better. Could you please come and just relieve us of these circumstances? Take care of all the sin in my heart. Get rid of all this conflict and all the struggles and all the turmoil, and let's stand before you and let it all be over. There's days we long that way, that God would just go ahead and just take us home. So all this present distress can be done away with, and we think to ourselves, sometimes perhaps skeptically in unbelief, is He really ever going to come back? And yet, what does God's word say? It says he's coming back. He promises to come back, and he will. There's an old song by Michael Card that I love what he has to say, because it captures exactly what I'm trying to tell you. He says, soon the circle of glory will be placed upon his brow, and he'll come to reign forever, though it may not seem so now. And our time of tears and trouble will seem only like a dream as we stand before the glory of our Savior and our King. Doesn't that express the sentiment that all of us feel? That it doesn't seem so, but it's going to happen. And because I believe that, I can have hope in the midst of hard circumstances. I can endure persecution knowing that this is just momentary light affliction in comparison to the greater weight of glory that will be revealed. We have a complete record of God being faithful to His promises, which gives us the assurance He's going to be faithful in the future. And therefore, we should be a people full of joy. Not full of cynicism. Full of joy. Because our future is bright. We have hope. I mean, it just gets better after this life. It just gets better. It may get worse before it gets better, but it's going to get better. And that's what God assures us of. Don't let unbelief keep you from the joy of your salvation. Remember when David said that in Psalm 51? Restore unto me the joy of your salvation. He had lost the joy of his salvation. Maybe he had even lost the assurance of his salvation. But his phrase tells us something. Salvation is meant to be enjoyed. We're supposed to enjoy eternal life. We're supposed to enjoy being reconciled to God. We're supposed to enjoy being able to call Him our Father. We're supposed to enjoy these things and we're to be people full of joy because we have every reason to be joyful. Because look at our future. Look at what awaits us in the future. And as we get our minds fixed upon that, as we become more and more heavenly-minded, it helps us to endure the trials of this earth. So, brothers and sisters, don't cut yourself off from the blessings God has for you by your own unbelief. Dare to take God at His word and believe it and embrace it with your whole heart, because He's always proven Himself to be found faithful. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. We pray, O Lord, you'll help us to repent of unbelief in our own hearts. Draw us close to yourself, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.