If you take your Bibles and please turn with me to Genesis chapter 45. Our text this morning will be Genesis 45 verse 16 through chapter 46 and verse 30. Genesis 45 beginning in verse 16, hear the word of the Lord. Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers have come. So please Pharaoh and his servants well. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this. Load your camels and depart. Go to the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your household, and come to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. Now you are commanded, do this, take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, bring your father, and come. Also do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. Then the sons of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them carts according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. Then he sent to his father these things, ten donkeys loaded with good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. So he sent his brothers away, and they departed. And he said to them, See that you do not become troubled along the way. Then they went up out of Egypt, and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father. And they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he is governor of all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart stood still, because he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. Then Israel said, It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac. Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here I am. So he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again, and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.' Then Jacob arose from Beersheba, and the sons of Israel carried their father Jacob, their little ones, and their wives, and the carts which Pharaoh had sent to carry him. So they took their livestock and their goods, which they had acquired in the land of Canaan, and went to Egypt, Jacob and all his descendants with him, his sons and his sons' sons, his daughters and his sons' daughters, and all his descendants he brought with him to Egypt. Now these were the names of the children of Israel, Jacob and his sons, who went to Egypt. Reuben was Jacob's firstborn. The sons of Reuben were Hanak, Palu, Hezron, and Carmi. The sons of Simeon were Jemuel, Jaman, Ohad, Jachan, Zohar, and Shal, the son of a Canaanite woman. The sons of Levi were Gershon, Kohath, and Merari. The sons of Judah were Er, Onan, Shelah, Perez, and Zerah. But Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. The sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul. The sons of Issachar were Tola, Puva, Job, and Shemron. The sons of Zebulun were Sered, Elan, and Jalil. These were the sons of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob and Paddan Aram with his daughter Dinah. All the persons, his sons and his daughters, were thirty-three. The sons of Gad were Ziphion, Haggai, Shunni, Ezban, Eri, Erodai, and Ereli. The sons of Asher were Jemnah, Ishuah, Isul, Beriah, and Sarah, their sister, and the sons of Beriah were Heber and Malkiel. These were the sons of Zilpah, whom Laban gave to Leah his daughter, and these she bore to Jacob, sixteen persons. The sons of Rachel, Jacob's wife, were Joseph and Benjamin, and to Joseph in the land of Egypt were born Manasseh and Ephraim, whom Esnath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of Aon, bore to him. The sons of Benjamin were Bilah, Bekir, Ashbel, Gerah, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Mupim, Hupim, and Ard. These were the sons of Rachel who were born to Jacob, fourteen persons in all. The son of Dan was Hushim. The sons of Naphtali were Jazil, Guni, Jezir, and Shelem. And these were the sons of Bilah, whom Laban gave to Rachel his daughter, and she bore these to Jacob, seven persons in all. All the persons who went with Jacob to Egypt, who came from his body, besides Jacob's sons' wives, were sixty-six persons in all. And the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two persons. All the persons of the house of Jacob, who went to Egypt, were seventy. Then he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out before him the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen. So Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. And he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. And Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive." Let's pray. Our Father, we would pray for the outpouring of your Spirit, not only upon me as I preach, but upon your people as they hear. Father, would you stir up holy affections in every heart that's here, not just for those who believe in you, but Father, for those who don't believe in you. Would you stir up holy affections by showing them Christ and showing him how beautiful and wonderful and gracious and loving Jesus Christ is, that they would be drawn to him irresistibly with cords of sovereign love. that you would show them their need of Christ and grant them grace to be drawn near to Him. And we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen. The book of Genesis is all about origins and about laying foundations for everything else that's to come. The four major themes of the Bible, all throughout it, are creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. And all those themes you will find in Genesis either explicitly spoken about or prophesied to come in the future. Genesis is, to the rest of the Bible, what an acorn is to a mighty oak tree. In small compass, every single thing that's going to grow in that oak tree is found in small form in that acorn. And that's exactly how the book of Genesis is. And I have said before you over and over again that the central theme of Genesis, and indeed the theme of all 39 books of the Old Testament, can be summarized with three Ps. Promise, propagation, and preservation. all having to do with the promise of the Messianic seed, the propagation of that seed, and then the preservation of that seed. Consider all three very quickly here, because it has everything to do with our text. First of all, there's promise. The promise of the Messianic seed. When the first couple fell into sin. Before God cursed them, He first cursed the serpent, the devil. And in cursing the devil, He gave hope to all of humanity. Because what He said to him in Genesis 3.15 was this, "...I will send the seed of the woman. You will bruise his heel, but he will crush your head." There's several things foreshadowed in all of that. Number one, there's the first foreshadowing of the virgin birth. There's going to be one who's going to come who's a seed, not of men, but of women. A seed of the woman's going to come. So there's a hint of the virgin birth. Christ's sufferings upon the cross are hinted at. You shall bruise his heel. But then the fact that Jesus was not actually the one defeated upon the cross, but rather He made a public spectacle of Satan and his hosts, is foreshadowed by the fact He will crush your head. He will trample your foot underneath His feet. And so this was the promise that was given, the promise that I will send a Redeemer to deliver you from sin and the tyranny of Satan. But then there's the propagation. Where would it come from? Where would the seed come from? It couldn't come from every nation. It couldn't come from every family. Through whom would the Messiah come? And so we find God doing a strange thing. He comes to an old man, a 75-year-old man living in Ur of the Chaldees, a man who was an idolater and worshipped the moon. And he appears to him and says, get out of this land, out of your father's household, to the place I'll show you. And he makes him a fourfold promise. First of all, you're married to a woman who's barren and is past the age of childbearing, but I am going to give you more descendants than there are stars in the sky or sands in the sea. So first of all, I'm going to give you seed. Secondly, I'm going to make of that seed a great nation. Third, I'm going to give that nation a promised land. And the fourth thing is this, in your seed, singular, in a specific descendant of yours, all families of all nations will be blessed." In other words, there will be representatives who place their faith in Jesus Christ and receive eternal life from every skin color, every culture, every ethnicity, every culture. There will be representatives of all of them who believe on Jesus Christ. It will not be just Abraham's physical descendants. There will be people from all nations. I trust you've been using our Harvestfield Prayer Guide to pray for the nations, and now are you struck by the fact? We're praying for people who are preaching Jesus Christ and Him crucified in the Caribbean, in South America, in Texas, in Oklahoma, in South Korea, in Africa, in New Zealand, in Europe. We're praying for people all over the world. is this, but God being true to His promise, in your seed all families of all nations will be blessed." The fulfillment of the missionary enterprise is the fulfillment of God being true to His covenant with Abraham. So there's the promise made. But then it goes beyond this. We find the seed is the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and even by the end of the book we're going to know even which tribe. The Messiah is going to come from the tribe of Judah. So that's the promise and the propagation of the seed, but then you have the preservation of the seed as well. Ever since the fall of man, there have been two spiritual families living on this earth. There are those who, by nature, are the sons of the devil, and those who, through the grace of adoption, are the sons and daughters of God. And they are at enmity with one another. The world always persecutes the church. It's been true ever since Cain slaughtered Abel. And that those two spiritual families are found under the same roof very often in the same physical family, aren't they? But this persecution takes place, and what have we seen? That no sooner has God made the promise than Satan is seeking to destroy it. His sons are doing his will. And so what happens? Cain slaughters Abel. Ishmael persecutes Isaac. Esau plans to murder Jacob. And we find this over and over again, how God is having to spare the Messianic seed from enemies without. But we've also seen something else. He also has to save the seed from within. Because problems rise up from within. The adopted sons of God looked upon the unregenerate daughters of men, lusted after their outward beauty and didn't care about their inward beauty, and they made harems for themselves. They became polygamists. And as their children were born into this home, these wise led the sons of God away from the faith. They led them into apostasy, into idol worship, and the earth was full of violence, and God had to destroy the earth with a flood. But the promise of the coming Messiah had not yet been fulfilled. So he made his covenant with Noah, and he preserved his seed upon the ark. Then the world came out and was repopulated. But we've seen it even in the life of Abraham. Twice, Abraham almost sold his wife to two different pagan kings. Then there was the whole thing where he was trying to help God out, and he marries Hagar and has Ishmael, and we know how that all turned out. And then we have all the problems and the compromises that we see in Isaac and in Jacob. My point is this. God didn't have to only preserve the Messianic seed from the enemies without. God didn't just save the patriarchs from their sins. Very often, God had to save the patriarchs from the patriarchs. And there's nothing different to the present day, is there? Because to the present day, the world persecutes the church. and it's always trying to come in and influence us. Either it doesn't like our message and therefore wants to silence the voice of the messengers, or it does this, it tries to infiltrate the church. Satan's always trying to infiltrate the church from within by sowing tares among the wheat. False brothers, false converts who don't really know the Lord and love the Lord among God's people who cause discord and division. And then, even for us who are truly regenerate, We have to deal with our own pride, our own pettiness, our own jealousies, our own tendencies that destroy and disrupt the unity of the church. And my point is this, brothers and sisters, let's never forget that in this present age we are always the church militant. We don't get to be the church at rest until we stand before Christ complete in glory. But right now, we are at war. And we will be at war until the day that we die or Jesus comes back. And let's remember it and let's not be unaware of Satan's devices because his tactics haven't changed, but they keep on working. And so let's be mindful of these things and be vigilant to guard them. Well, everything I've just told you has everything to do with the text in front of us this morning, and I hope it will be very obvious by the time we get to the end as to why. So we're going to navigate the passage under four headings. First of all, we see in the text a royal invitation. Actually, it's even a royal command, as we will see, but a royal invitation. Secondly, we see a divine sanction. Third, we see a growing seed. And fourth, we see a joyful reunion. So first of all, a royal invitation. Remember last week that when we talked about Joseph revealing himself to his brothers, he sent all the Egyptians out of the house and he made himself known to his brothers, but he did so as if all this flood of emotion that he'd been holding in for such a long time could not be held in anymore. And it bursts out, and he cries, and he wails openly, and he's so loud when he cries that even the people outside can hear him crying, and they can even hear it down over at Pharaoh's palace. Everybody hears and knows what's going on, and so we come to verse 16, and Pharaoh now learns what the cause of the commotion was. It says, "...it was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brothers have come." And then notice the latter part of verse 16, "...so it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well." God had given a good name to this foreigner, Joseph. And because of his good name, not only Pharaoh, but all his servants rejoice with him that he's reunited with his family. And so then, Pharaoh doesn't wait for Joseph to invite Jacob and his family into Egypt. He takes the initiative himself. And notice it in verse 17 to 20, because he's very generous and he's very gracious. Pharaoh has a private conversation with Joseph, and he has a message for Joseph to send to his brothers. Say to your brothers, do this, load your animals and depart, go to the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your households and come to me, and I'll give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you'll eat the fat of the land." Now, notice what he's doing. He's saying, we'll give you the very best land. Now, they're going through a famine. There was no fertility in the land at that time, but once the famine was passed, this was the place that was going to generate the most crops. This is a place where you can feed and water your animals. This is Pharaoh himself taking the initiative to give the very best of the land and the very best of the food to a group of foreigners. A bunch of Hebrews. And then, not only is he doing this, he's not just saying, I'm inviting you. I'm absolutely insisting you cannot take no for an answer. I'm giving this as a royal decree. You have to come here and live with us. If you don't, you're being defiant of my authority. So, listen to me and be the recipient of my generosity. Notice verse 19. Now you are commanded, do this, take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives. Bring your father and come. Also, do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours." I'm even providing the means for you to transport them here with wagons and camels and horses and all the things you need to get them here safely. Now, I see two things in this. First of all, notice that because God gave a good name to Joseph among those who are without, his family was blessed because of it. because he had a good name with Pharaoh and his servants. But the second thing, God preserved Joseph's good name by moving Pharaoh to be the one who took the initiative to invite Jacob to come. Technically speaking, Joseph had the authority. He could have said, I'm going to give you the best of the land. But had he done so, he would have been open to the charge of being partial. Of showing partiality to the Hebrews by giving them the best of the land, and showing prejudice to the native Egyptians by giving them the worst of the land. But here it is, it's not Joseph doing it. There's no charge of nepotism here. Pharaoh's not only saying, this is a good idea, you should come. He's saying, this is my royal decree. You have to come. I'm giving you a commandment. I'm not taking no for an answer. You've got to do this. And this protects Joseph from the charge of favoritism. Well, in verses 21 to 23, Joseph obeys Pharaoh. And then he adds some generosity of his own. He gives to them the carts according to the command and gives them provisions for the journey, enough to go there and come back. He gives them all changes of garments to his brothers, which was a very big deal. And he gives five times as many changes of garments to his brother Benjamin, who is his only full-blooded brother. And also, of all the brothers, he was the only one innocent of wrongdoing against Joseph. Yeah, maybe he's showing some partiality, just like Jacob had done. But nonetheless, he is lavishing this upon Benjamin. And he also gives him 300 pieces of silver. Certainly, it's just giving him a nest egg for his future and his posterity. And so he sends to his father, Donkeys are loaded with treasure and with food to eat. There's 20 donkeys actually, 20 male donkeys, 20 female donkeys, all sent back to give provision. But then notice verse 24, because there's something very precious in verse 24. He has counsel to his brothers before he sends them away, and it's this. See that you do not become troubled along the way. The word troubled, as it's used here, means don't argue with one another. as you travel back to our father Jacob. I see compassion in Jacob's exhortation, because he's walked a mile in their sandals, or maybe two miles in their sandals, because he understands what's going to happen. Remember the first time that the ten oldest brothers came to Egypt. They didn't know that Joseph could understand their speech, because he spoke to them through an interpreter in Egyptian. They didn't know he was fluent in Hebrew, because they didn't know it was Joseph. But as they're speaking to one another, remember, he threw them into jail, said, you're spies in the land. Three days later, he set them free. And when he set them free, they began speaking with one another, and they said, it's because of what we did to our brother 20-some years ago. that all this has befallen upon us. Justice has caught up with us." And they didn't know that he understood their speech. But remember what happened? Reuben immediately spoke up and said, I told you to be careful how you dealt with our brother, and now look, this calamity has come upon us. Now I'm having to pay for your crime. And Reuben was right. He wasn't wrong in what he was saying. But the point is, the reality of understanding their guilt caused bickering between them. Now think about it. They're going back now to Jacob, and they have great news. Joseph, your son, is still alive. But there's an implication that comes with that message, as joyful as it is. We've known about it for 22 years. We showed you the garment that was torn and was bloody, but the truth is we did that. We falsified the evidence. We sold him into slavery. And while you've been mourning for 22 years, we knew about it the whole time. Now, every single step that takes you back to the land of Canaan, you get to anticipate that. Am I about to be on the receiving end of my father's wrath? Because of this. And what would be your disposition of sinners as you're going back? You know, Reuben says, I tried to tell you not to do this. Nobody else says, you're right. But you know, it was really Judah's idea. And they're going to start blame shifting and bickering. And what Joseph is saying is, don't beat yourself up because you sold me into slavery, because it wasn't you that sent me here, it was God. And this is not a time to be divided and arguing. This is a time to be united and rejoicing as you head back there. He's showing compassion to the men by assuring them you don't need to be beating yourself up on the way home. You don't need to be arguing with one another as you go. But as we come to the end, or to verse 24, we have something of a problem. Because Pharaoh has given a commandment, not a request, that Jacob and his family move out of the land of promise and come to the land of Egypt. If you remember some years back, his father Isaac had also been going through a famine. But during that time of famine, God specifically gave a commandment to Isaac, do not go down to Egypt. Remain in the land. Trust me that I'm going to provide for you, but do not go down to Egypt. Over and over again, we've seen the patriarchs remaining in the land of promise. And here's the question. By obeying Pharaoh's command, was Jacob disobeying God's command? And so what happens next makes sense to us as we think through that. So what we've seen thus far is a royal invitation. What we see next, chapter 45 verses 25 through chapter 46 verse 4, is a divine sanction. A divine sanction. Verse 25. They make their way from Egypt, go up to the northeast, come to the land of Canaan, and they arrive in the home of Jacob, their father. Now remember, when Jacob had sent them out, he sent them out very reluctantly, because they had to take Benjamin with them. And if you remember, Simeon was locked up in a prison. And he had said, I've already lost Joseph. Now I'll never see Simeon again, because he's in some awful prison somewhere. And if you take Benjamin and something bad happens to him, that's going to be bad too, and you'll just put the final nail in my coffin and put me in my grave. Well, how relieved he must have been, and it's supposition, I suppose, speculation, but I think it's good speculation. I'm sure he'd been very anxious, waiting the arrival of his sons coming back, that he must have had some sleepless nights as he tossed and turned, worried about the fate of Benjamin. But here they come back, and they come into the house, And when they do so, there's Simeon, a free man. And there's Benjamin, safe and sound. And so that must have relieved him greatly. But nothing, absolutely nothing could prepare him with what they're about to say next. Because notice what they say, verse 26, Joseph is still alive. And he's governor over all the land of Egypt. And basically, it just about gave Jacob a heart attack. His heart stopped inside of him. Andrew Fuller says it this way, it's like when water hits fire. That would have been the effect of this news. Have you ever seen nature documentaries where you have a volcanic island, and lava is rushing down the slope, and it hits the ocean? And you see what happens. Immediately, it flash-boils the ocean and immediately superheats it. And so, the water's churning and boiling, and then you watch as the steam hisses and goes up and fills the entire air with smoke. That's kind of the effect of this news upon Jacob. He has reason to doubt whether or not these men were telling him the truth because, let's face it, they weren't exactly the greatest men of integrity. And so he said he's alive after realizing he's been dead for 22 years. Jacob could say, I saw the evidence. I held in my hand his garment, I saw the blood, I saw the tears." As far as he's concerned, Joseph has been dead for 22 years, his body has returned to dust, he's never going to see him again, and now suddenly, he's been carrying this, it's like carrying a backpack, this 250 pounds of load for 22 years, and suddenly that load is taken off of you, and your body just doesn't know how to handle the absence of weight anymore. So he's in shock. But then he sees evidence that's different, that proves that what they're saying is true. First of all, they say, these are the words he told us to tell you. And then secondly, come outside, Dad. Look at the carts. These are the ones that Pharaoh and Joseph sent. And these men had been accused of being spies, and now they got all this stuff. They couldn't have made that up. And his heart revives, the Bible says, and he believed them. And he says in verse 28, it sounds kind of morbid, but it's not. It's enough that Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. Well, here's the thing. He didn't expect he was going to see him at all. And he says, before I die, I can die a happy man because I'm going to see my son again. Now, he would actually live for 17 more years. But nonetheless, he's saying, I can die a happy man. My eyes are going to see a sight I never thought I would ever see. Well, then in chapter 46, verses 1 to 4, they start making the journey. And as they do so, they stop in Beersheba, which was the southernmost border of the land of Canaan. And it's interesting that he stops here. This is about 20, 25 miles from his home as he was journeying southwest. But it's interesting he stops here because, if you remember, Abraham had built an altar here and sacrificed to the Lord and called upon the Lord here. And then later, his son Isaac did the same thing. He built another altar and called upon the name of the Lord. And so Isaac pauses here. And before he leaves the land of Canaan, knowing that he's supposed to remain there, and he calls upon God. He offers a sacrifice to him and calls upon his name. Perhaps he used his grandfather's altar or his father's altar. But whatever the case, he makes sacrifices to him, and doubtless he's crying out to God and saying, Father, you know Pharaoh has commanded us to come, but do we have your blessing and your permission to go to Egypt? And so it's in the middle of the night, after the sacrifices are over, as Jacob is sleeping, that God wakes him up and calls out his name, Jacob. Jacob. And he says, Here I am. And he says to him these several wonderful things. First of all, remember who I am. I am God, the God of your father. Do not fear to go down to Egypt. I command your father Isaac not to go, but I'm telling you it's okay. You have my blessing to heed Pharaoh's command, for I will make of you a great nation there." What is he doing? He's reiterating the covenant he made with Abraham. I will make of you a great nation. And then notice verse 4. I will go down with you to Egypt." That's a beautiful thing. When you leave the land of Canaan, I'm not going to stay behind and let you go by yourself. I'm going to go down to Egypt with you. I'm going to be with you wherever you go. Have you ever noticed in the Great Commission that Jesus gives us these commands, Go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, It's kind of scary to think about making a disciple of all nations when the nations are cannibals and pagans and all kinds of people who want to kill you and butcher you and do all kinds of horrible things to you. It's a scary thought, isn't it? But then he adds this promise, and lo, I am with you always. even to the end of the age. As you go, you're not going to go by yourself. My Spirit will go with you. My Spirit will go before you. It's scary enough to think about making Christ known to the world that's hostile to the gospel, but to have the blessing that God's presence is always with us. If He didn't tell us that His presence was with us, we shouldn't go. Just like Moses. He said, go down, Moses, take the people down to the Promised Land, but I won't go with you. And Moses says, if you're not going to go with us, don't send us. Even so, he says here, Jacob, don't be afraid. I'm going to go with you. You go to Egypt, it's going to be a holy place because I'm going to be there with you. I will make the place of your habitation holy. And then he says, I will surely bring you up again. Now, it's interesting. I will go down with you to Egypt. I'll surely bring you up again. Now, Jacob never entered the land of Canaan again except as a corpse. He never came back as a living man. He died in Egypt, was embalmed there, and then was buried in the cave of Machpelah. But what he's saying is, your descendants will come back here. Now this is echoing what God himself had already said. Remember what God said in Genesis 15 to Abraham when he made his covenant with him. He says, know that your descendants will be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years and I will deliver them with a mighty deliverance and bring them back here. What's he doing here but several hundred years later reiterating the same thing to Jacob, that I am going to be faithful to do everything I've promised to do. You may never have heard me say this before, but because God cannot lie, He's always true to His Word. Whatever He has promised to do, He will perform. And everything He has prophesied will come to pass. And what are we being told but that very same truth here? And then notice the last thing that He says in verse 4. I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will surely bring you up again." And then he says this, "...and Joseph will put his hand on your eyes." Now you're thinking, what does that mean? What it means is, when you die, Joseph's going to be standing beside you, and he's going to put his hand on your eyes and close your eyelids. Now, at first you may think that sounds morbid. It actually is not. Because here's the thing. Here's a man who believed Joseph was dead for 22 years. And now there would be a natural fear that, what if I see him again, but then I have to attend his funeral? What if I still have to bury my son? What God is saying to him is this, I want to assure you of something, you're receiving your son as if he were coming back from the dead, and he's going to die after you. He's going to outlive you. You don't need to be afraid or worry that you're going to lose him again, because you're never going to lose him again, ever again. He'll be beside you, and he'll close your eyes. He'll lead your funeral. He'll bury you. He's going to outlive you. What a sweet thing to comfort the heart of Jacob. So what have we seen? We've seen a royal invitation, and now Jacob has received a divine sanction. It's okay. Listen to Pharaoh. Go into the land. The third place we see a growing seed. I will not reread the genealogical table for you. Let's admit and be honest that when we read the genealogical tables, it's not exactly our favorite part of Scripture reading, particularly when there's chapter after chapter after chapter of them. But they're there for a reason. The Spirit of God never wastes words. There's a purpose behind them, and don't miss the purpose. What is this log of these 70 people but a testament to God's faithfulness? Let's notice three things about them. First of all, they're divided into four sections. First of all, you have the children and grandchildren of Leah. Then the children and grandchildren of Zilpah, Leah's maid. Third, you have the children and grandchildren of Rachel. And finally, you have the children and grandchildren of Bilhah, Rachel's maid. That's how the pattern is laid out. The second thing I would remind you of is this. Remember where these 70 people came from. Abraham had been 75 years old, his wife was barren, and she had gone through menopause. She was past the age of childbearing, and God says, kids, you're going to have a baby. And then he made them wait 25 years from the time he gave the promise to the time he fulfilled the promise. Abraham was 100 years old, Sarah was 90, not exactly the time that women give birth to children, and yet she gives birth to Isaac. And yet, after he's been 100 years old, God has fulfilled the promise, but all he has is one child to show for it. And now here we are, five generations in, and there are 70. 70 who came from an infertile couple. Clearly, it's God's miraculous work that's brought them into existence. Now, 70 people isn't exactly enough sand to fill a seashore, nor is it enough stars to fill a sky. But what you're supposed to come away with is this, there are 70 stars shining in that firmament that were not there before. And there are 70 grains of sand on the seashore where there were none before. What is it that God is being faithful and true to His promises? But the third thing I would set before you is this, the number 70 magnifies the fact that God's eyes are most particularly fixed upon His chosen people. Think about all that we've studied and all we've learned about how many pains God took, as it were, to put Joseph ahead of the covenant family 22 years in advance. Takes him through slavery, false accusation, in prison terms, all the things He had taken him through. But why did He do it? He did it to preserve Israel and to preserve its seed, the Messianic seed. He's done all this. But here's the thing. He's done it in advance before there was even a problem. About 30 years ago, my dad found a little sign at a yard sale and he bought it for me and gave it to me and I still have it somewhere in my house. I was a single man at the time. But it says this on it. It says, God has a solution planned before you even know you have a problem. And it's true. And this is proof positive that God was planning something before Israel and his sons even knew they had a problem. They didn't know it, but Joseph's being sent out ahead to preserve them. And my point is this. God sent him ahead not to preserve the millions of the Gentile nations, but to preserve 70 people. because they were his chosen people. My point being, God always has his eye most particularly fixed upon his church. That his providence, whenever he moves, is ultimately for the good of his church. He is working all things for our good, and he most particularly has us in view. It's not the many, but the few that he's looking at. He knows what's going on with the many as well, but most particularly he has his eye fixed upon his people. So, we've seen a royal invitation, a divine sanction, a growing seed, forth and finally a joyful reunion. Finally, after 22 years, Jacob and Joseph are reunited. Now in verse 28, Judah, who had made himself surety for Benjamin, is given the honor and the privilege of leading the family back into Egypt to take him to the land of Goshen. And so Joseph makes ready his chariot. And he comes in his royal apparel to meet his father whom he has not seen in 22 years. Now think about this in several ways. Sometimes I wish I could have been a fly buzzing around to watch the reunion here. Because for Joseph's part, when he became a slave and then became a prisoner, For him, he's like, I'll never get out of the land of Egypt. I'll never see my father alive again. But even after his circumstances change and he's no longer a slave, now he's a great ruler, his father was an old man. Maybe he's going to die before I can see him. Then on the part of Jacob, he thought his son was dead for 22 years. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing short of a bodily resurrection here. That he's seeing someone he thought dead for 22 years and never expected he would see him again. And the Bible says they saw each other, and they fall upon each other's neck, and they embrace, and they weep, and they weep for a good long time. They're just gonna live in the moment for a while, as if, I've lost you for 22 years, and I'm never gonna let you go again. And so we find father and son reunited at last, and the joy that they shared with each other, And Jacob ends by saying, I can now die a happy man because my eyes have seen you. There's two applications I'm going to make this morning. Usually, I try to make very practical applications. Here's what this person did, go and do likewise. Or here's what this person did and don't go do likewise. Here's the specific things you should do. Here's the imperatives the text is telling us about. This morning, I'm not going to give you any imperatives. I'm not going to tell you, go home and do this. I'm just going to give you two indicatives. I'm just going to tell you two things that are true. Two things that we can derive from the text that we should drive home. Normally I wouldn't do that, but I'm going to do that this morning. Why? Because my prayer to God is this. Father, may you send your Holy Spirit to stir our hearts up with holy affections. to reignite holy love in us for you. And my prayer is not just for those of you who are in Christ. I'm praying that for you who are outside of Christ, whoever you may be. Father, would you show people how wonderful your Son is, so that they are irresistibly drawn to Him with cords of love, because He's so gorgeous, He's so beautiful, He's so lovely. So, two indicatives. First, the Lord Jesus Christ is a fulfillment of every Old Testament messianic expectation. I began my message this morning by reminding you that the central theme of all 39 books of the Old Testament is the promise and the propagation and the preservation of the Messianic seed. Even God's dealings with Israel, when they go into captivity, then he brings them out of their captivity, then he brings them into captivity again to Babylon, but brings them back into Jerusalem. Why? So the Messiah could be born. It was said in ancient times that all roads led to Rome. In the Bible, in all 66 books, all roads lead to Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's where their theme is going. And so, this promise begins with the promise that God would send the seed of the woman to defeat the serpent of old, the devil. It ends by telling us where that Messiah is going to come from. We know this from the book of Genesis. He will be the son of Seth. Adam's son. He'll be the son of Noah, and the son of Shem. He'll be the son of Heber, from where the Hebrews got their name. He'll be a descendant of Terah, He'll be the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And by the end of Genesis, we're gonna know he's gonna be the descendant of Judah, for he is the lion of the tribe of Judah. Jesus Christ is the promised seed of the woman. Jesus Christ is the seed of Abraham in whom all families are being blessed and will be blessed. Jesus Christ is both the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ is the King of Kings. He's the Lord of Lords. He's the Prophet of Prophets. He's our Great High Priest. He's our Mediator, the only Mediator between God and men. And He is the Judge of all the nations of all the earth, because the Father has committed into His hand all the judgment. And furthermore, He's my Lord. He's my Savior. My name is written in scars. I'm not worthy to have my name written upon Him. My name is written in His hands and His feet. He's my surety. He's my Savior. He is the lover of my soul. No one on earth can love me the way He loves me. He's my intercessor, my dearest friend, the champion of my heart. And if you're in Jesus Christ, he's yours. All those things are true of you, too. You may say, where are you getting this from the text? Well, I see something here. Jacob gave words to Joseph. He said this, Now let me die, since I have seen your face. And I am reminded of someone, another old man, who lived many centuries later, who one day went into the temple in Jerusalem, and God had made him a promise, you'll not die. until you see the Messiah. And one day, as an old man, this young married couple comes in, and they're holding a baby son. And he takes that son into his arms, the baby Jesus. And what does he say to him? It sounds a lot like what Jacob said to Joseph. Lord, now you're letting your servant depart in peace, according to your word. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all peoples. A light to be revelation to the Gentiles. Most of us here are Gentiles. He is the light of the Gentiles and the glory of your people, Israel. Jesus is the fulfillment of every expectation that the Old Testament ever gave. And he far exceeds the expectations, doesn't he? The promise delivers far greater, the fulfillment is far greater even than the expectation ever could have been. And if you're in Christ, that's who Christ is for you. We have a glorious Savior. Spurgeon, there was a group of men visiting England in the 19th century, and they were American ministers. They wanted to hear these famous preachers that they'd heard about and read sermons they had read in the United States. They wanted to hear them for themselves while they were on vacation. So on a Sunday morning, they went to this one church, and this man preached. And he was a very good preacher, a very gifted preacher. 3,000 people were in his church. They said, wow, what force of personality he has, how his personality dominates the entire service. And they walked away and said, what a wonderful minister so-and-so is. That night, they went to the Metropolitan Tabernacle. There were 5,000 people there. The building was considerably bigger. Charles Spurgeon went up to the pulpit, and he started to speak and to lead the service in his wonderful British accent. They said pretty quickly, we forgot all about how many people were there. We forgot about the size of the building. We actually even forgot about the eloquence of Spurgeon's preaching. And so we walked away and we said, what a wonderful savior Jesus Christ is. And brothers and sisters, that is what we should go away with today. What a wonderful savior Jesus Christ is. The second indicative, then, is this. The joyful reunion of Jacob and Joseph pales in comparison to the far greater reunion you and I will have with those who have died in the Lord when Jesus returns to this earth. From Jacob's perspective, Joseph had been dead for 22 years and he received him, as it were, back from the dead. And what a joyful reunion it was, but it was a joyful reunion that had to be tinged with sadness because the day would come 17 years later when Jacob would die. And Joseph would have to bury him and mourn the loss of his father. And then, after that, some years later, Joseph himself would die. And yet, when people die in the Lord, as Mrs. Annette Norton did earlier this morning, as my father did two years ago, When we receive them back, we don't have to worry about another funeral. We don't have to worry about something else. I have told you before that the last time I ever spoke to my father was on Friday, September the 7th, the year 2018. Him and my mom had been keeping our two daughters that week while Angela and I were out of town. I spent two hours with him, talking to him, laughing. We laughed and we cried as we shared our joys and anxieties and fears and just different things. But it was a very, very sweet time. And I hugged my dad, hugged my mom. They were standing outside with us. I put my two daughters in my truck. And a thought occurred to me, because David Vinson had said to me several times during the year before, he would say to me, treasure every moment you have with your parents, because you don't know how much longer you have with them. And his words went through my mind. And I thought, I need to hug my dad one more time. And I turned around, he was standing on the sidewalk, and I put my arms around him and held him. I told him I couldn't ask for a better father. He said, I couldn't ask for a better son. We embraced each other and got in the car and drove away. Two hours later, I received a phone call that he had had some sort of cardiac event, and that was the last time I ever spoke to my father. Now, the reason I emphasize that is this. There've been times in the last couple of years when sometimes I thought I would do just about anything. Travel back in time to that day. And what I would do differently is simply hold on to them a little bit longer. And I'm sure that I know that many of you have lost loved ones in the Lord too. friends and brothers and sisters and grandparents and all kinds of people who you've lost in the Lord. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. But the truth is we can never go back to the past. But I've got the best of good news for you. We have something in our future. We're going to see them again and we'll get that hug. and talk about something incredible, it's gonna be far greater than what Joseph and Jacob experienced. Because when we see each other, we won't see each other with the expectation that 20 years from now we may have to bury them again. Instead, we'll embrace them, we'll weep, and then God himself will wipe away every tear from our eye. They'll be with us perfect for all of eternity, and we'll get to join our voices together before the throne and sing the song of Moses and the Lamb. And there's no funeral homes, and there's no doctors, and there's no funerals. None of those things, because when we go to heaven, death is no more. Our final enemy will be defeated. So what we see in the reunion between Jacob and Joseph is just the tiniest little foretaste of a far greater reunion that is to come when God's people will be forever together in that day. This is the story of creation, fall, redemption, and new creation. What a blessed hope we have because of the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, a hope that does not disappoint. Let's pray. Father, stir up holy affections in us, for you, for your Son. Bless us, Lord. Comfort us. Encourage us. Stir up the holy embers of holy love. That we might love you more. That we might love your word more. That we might love this world less. That we might love ourselves less. That we might love others more and consider them more important than ourselves. and that we might love lost people who don't know our Savior and who are headed for judgment. I pray for anyone here who's outside of Christ. Would you this very day grant them grace and they might repent of their sins and even repent of their own righteous acts and put their faith wholly upon Christ that they might be saved. And we ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.