If you will take your Bible and turn with me to Genesis chapter 46. I have been chomping at the bit to preach to you from the Word of God. It's a glorious thing that my job is I get to study the scriptures, to prepare to feed God's sheep, and I'm looking forward to preaching to you this morning. Genesis chapter 46, beginning in verse 31, and we're going to go all the way through the end of chapter 47. Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and say to him, My brothers and those of my father's house who are in the land of Canaan have come to me. And the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock. And they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all they have. So it shall be when Pharaoh calls you and says, what is your occupation, that you shall say, your servant's occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers, that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. And Joseph went and told Pharaoh and said, My father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. And indeed, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock. Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, How old are you? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their pilgrimage. So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh. And Joseph situated his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. Then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with bread, according to the number in their families. Now there was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence, for the money has failed? And Joseph said, Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock if the money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses and flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year. When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is gone. Our Lord also has our herds of livestock. There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our lands. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate. Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he moved them into the cities from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their lands. Then Joseph said to the people, Indeed, I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth of Pharaoh, four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones. So they said, You have saved our lives. Let us find favor in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh's. So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen, and they had possessions there, and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years, so the length of Jacob's life was one hundred and forty-seven years. when the time drew near that Israel must die. He called his son Joseph and said to him, Now if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. You shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place. And he said, I will do as you have said. Then he said, swear to me, and he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed." Let's pray. Father, we would ask that the Holy Spirit would be our teacher, that you would give unction and power, light and heat to the hearts of your people. Open our eyes to see wonderful things from your word. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. On July the 20th, 1969, the lunar module of the Apollo 11, known as the Eagle, landed upon the surface of the moon. Six and a half hours after its landing in a place called the Sea of Tranquility, the astronaut Neil Armstrong came out of the capsule. walked down the outside of the steps, stood on the bottom rung of the step, and planted his feet firmly upon the ground of the moon. It was in that time that he uttered the famous words, that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Nineteen minutes later, astronaut Buzz Aldrin also came out and became the second man to walk on the moon. I was alive when this took place, but I have no memory of it because my mom was five months pregnant with me at the time. But that was July the 20th, 1969, 51 years ago tomorrow. is the anniversary of the moon landing. But while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were walking upon the face of the moon, there was a third astronaut, Michael Collins, who did not get to land upon the moon. In fact, this was his second and final trip to the moon. The first one he had taken in Apollo 8 and then Apollo 11. But he was in the command module orbiting the moon while the men stayed for about 22 hours on the surface of the moon. He was there for 22 hours and it's been said that he was probably, up until that point in history, the most lonely and isolated man in all of history. Because think about it, he was 250,000 miles away from the Earth, and he rotated around the moon something like 27 times, and for 47 minutes of each rotation, he was in complete radio silence when he was on the dark side of the moon. As a matter of fact, NASA released a statement that said this, quote, not since Adam has any human known such solitude as Mike Collins is experiencing during this 47 minutes of each lunar revolution when he's behind the moon with no one to talk to except his tape recorder aboard the Columbia, end of quote. Now why am I telling you about the moon landing besides the fact that its anniversary is tomorrow? Actually, believe it or not, I chose this illustration and then realized this was almost the anniversary, after I've chosen the illustration. But why do I tell you about it? And, excuse the pun, but what on earth does it have to do with our text? Well, it has a lot to do with our text because Michael Collins described the surface of the moon in a way that few men can because there's only a few people who've been that close to it to see what it's like. As he described the cold, desolate surface with its rocky outcroppings and its deep craters, he used words like this. It's an intensely unwelcoming and forbidding place. Formidable. utterly silent. It hung ominously in the void. It was a distinctly forbidding and an inhospitable place." In other words, the moon is a place that men can visit and even for a little while walk upon. But it's not a place that we can live because it is lethal to human life. All it takes is one tear in your spacesuit, and your blood will instantly boil, and you'll die a horrible death, but you won't feel much for very long because you'll die quickly. It's not a place that can sustain life. And as I read our text this morning, what is looming large in the text is a theme that we've seen already in Abraham and in Isaac, and now we see it again in Jacob, and that is the fact that we are strangers and pilgrims in the place that we live. We don't belong here. The places where Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived were places that were prone to famine. We've seen famine recur in every generation. And they were surrounded by pagan inhabitants, some of whom would just assume slit your throat as look at you. It was a very hostile place, a place that you would not want to live, and the Bible itself tells us that their wanderings in the Promised Land and their wanderings in Egypt were a metaphor for the Christian life. Because, brothers and sisters, we are strangers and pilgrims living in a strange land ourselves. We live in a culture that is not hospitable to God's people. A culture that increasingly is moving towards throwing us to the lions. A place that is not reconciled to our God, and therefore is not reconciled to us or our message, and would just assume silence our message by silencing the messenger. We live in a place that we don't belong. Michael Card once wrote in one of his lyrics this way, we belong to eternity, but we're stranded in time. We belong to some other place. We are citizens of a different kingdom. We belong to an entirely different age. And that theme is pressed upon us as we search through this text, as I hope you'll see in just a moment. So, as we navigate the text, I'm going to throw out three breadcrumbs to you, like Hansel and Gretel, help you to follow where we're going. Three markers along this journey of this text. I see, first of all, a gracious provision. Secondly, a desperate people. And third, a solemn vow. A gracious provision, a desperate people, and a solemn vow. First of all, a gracious provision. By the time we come to verse 31 of chapter 46, Joseph has finally been revealed to his brothers. They know who he is. He sent them home with Pharaoh's commandment, come and bring your family here, bring your father and your brothers, and I'll give you the land of Goshen, the best of all of Egypt, to live there. They've come back. They've informed Jacob. Jacob has come back. He's been reunited with his son. And so now it's time to settle them in the land of Egypt. Remember what happened as Jacob had left the land of Canaan. His father Isaac had been forbidden by God to leave the land of Canaan during a famine during his lifetime. So he pauses at Beersheba, which was at the southern border of the land of Canaan. Several things there that he must be doing. For one thing, Pharaoh's commanded me to go into Egypt. Has God given me the permission to go? Am I violating God's command if I go there? Also, certainly by offering sacrifices before he left, he was signifying something. I may be stepping out of the land of promise, but I'm not leaving the God who gave me the promises. But God gives him his blessing. He says, don't be afraid to go down to Egypt. Live there, because I will bring your descendants back into the land. But Joseph will close your eyes. He will outlive you. You won't have to mourn his death ever again, as you did for 22 years, because he's going to outlive you. Well, that's where we are when we come to our text. And so, now it's time for Joseph to show honor to his father by providing for him and for his brothers. And so what he tells them, beginning in verse 31, is, I'm going to have a conversation with Pharaoh about you, and tell him you're here. And when I tell them you're here, I'm going to tell them you're shepherds. And when you stand in front of him and he asks you what you do for a living, you also tell them, your shepherds. And if you'll notice, he says a very strange thing at the end of verse 34. He says, when they ask and say, your servants, occupation has been with livestock from our youth even until now, both we and also our fathers, that you may dwell in the land of Goshen. And now he tells them the real reason that he's telling them to say, your shepherds. For every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. Does that strike you as a little bit counterintuitive? You're going to be social rejects when you tell them that you're shepherds, and so that's what you should tell them you're going to be. Now, think about his brothers. They knew how to do more things than just raise sheep. Now, they certainly were skilled shepherds. It was not a lie to say that. But they were also men skilled in agriculture, weren't they? They had raised crops in the land. Why didn't he say to them, hey, tell them that you're really wonderful at raising crops, and if you'll employ us, O Pharaoh, then we'll put our botany powers to the test, and all of Egypt will come to fear our botany powers. because we're so good with the land. We have green thumbs." But that's not what he told them to say. Tell them you're shepherds because they don't like shepherds. They hate them and they'll isolate you and put you away and isolate you from them in a land all by yourself. Kind of seems strange, doesn't it? Why would you volunteer to be a social outcast in Egypt? Well, I'm indebted to several commentators who pointed this out. But here's the thing, despite the fact that Pharaoh was extending such gracious hospitality to Jacob and his family, we must never forget that we are God's people. that while we live in the world, we're not to be of the world. And here's the problem. If the brothers had settled in and had a trade that was more socially acceptable, the problem is they would blend in with Egyptian culture, which was, as the text is going to remind us, an idolatrous culture. The purity of God's worship would be sacrificed. Some of these brothers had just recently come to faith. I mean, they're babes in Christ, if that much. And to guard the purity of their worship and to guard the purity of the gospel, they had to be very careful lest the lawlessness and the idolatry of the surrounding culture infect them. And if it infects them, they will ultimately be led to apostatize the faith. They had to make a clear line of demarcation to put it another way, between the world and the church. And so Joseph's counsel to them is, accept a lower status. Accept a lower position because it's going to be best for your souls. That's what he's saying. Take the lower place. Yeah, doubtless, because of their connection to Joseph, and because Joseph was the second highest ruler in all of Egypt, these men could have become rich. They could have become social megastars, really, in the day, celebrities. And while that may have been good for their outward prospects, it would have been horrible for their souls. And so he says to them, take the lower place. Take something that the world is going to regard as despised because it will protect you. And, by the way, it will also protect the messianic seed in these days. So he says, take the lower place. Now, as you can imagine, I'm going to come back to this in the applications at the end. But I just press it before you right now that sometimes it is better to take a less paying job because it's better for your soul than it is to take a higher paying job that's not good for your soul. Because at the end of the day, you can't take any of this with you. It's one thing to be rich in material goods, it's another thing to be rich in heaven, and which is more desirable. Well, in chapters 47, verses 1 to 6, Joseph selects five of his 11 brothers to bring him before Pharaoh. And they come, and they say exactly what he tells them to say. They come in before him, and he says, what is your occupation? What do you do for a living? And they say, we're shepherds. Not only are we shepherds, but we come from a long line of shepherds. It's kind of like saying we come from a long line of bachelors. In other words, this is not going to make him socially acceptable. And so they say, the crops have failed in the land of Canaan because of the severity of the famine. So please let us come here where we can feed our sheep and our cattle. And so Pharaoh actually offers some of them a job. Some among them are really, really skilled. Then let them tend to my flocks, to my herds, and to my cattle. In verses 7 to 10, it would seem that Joseph's five brothers leave Pharaoh's presence. And Joseph has the privilege then of introducing the king of Egypt to his father, and his father to the king of Egypt. So Jacob comes before the presence of Pharaoh down in verse 7. And it's very intriguing to see the kind of things that Jacob says here, because he really says a lot. He says a mouthful in the things that he says next. Because notice the first thing. There's bookends to his statement to Pharaoh. And I should note that what we really find him doing here is letting his speech be seasoned with salt. He's pointing this pagan king to his God by doing two things, by glorifying God and by abasing himself. And we'll see that as we go. The first thing you notice is there's bookends. Verse 7 and verse 10 say the same words, Jacob blessed Pharaoh. He pronounced a benediction over him at the beginning of his conversation, then he pronounces another benediction over him at the end of his conversation. Now you say, what's the point? The point is, who is he calling upon to bless Pharaoh? The God of heaven. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Away with your false gods, Pharaoh. There's one God in heaven. And I'm invoking His name to bless you." What was the intention but to turn his eyes, the eyes of Pharaoh, towards the living God? But then, Pharaoh asks the question. Here's this old, withered, wrinkled man, gray hair everywhere, and he looks very old, and he asks him, how old are you? And he answers, 130 years. 130 years. He has another 17 years to live in this life. But it's interesting how he answers him. The days of the years of my pilgrimage. Notice that word pilgrimage. He uses the word pilgrimage twice. He uses it at the beginning. He uses it at the end of a speech. Again, this idea, I don't belong here. I'm not a citizen of this world. I belong somewhere else. There's someplace else that is really my home, where my citizenship is. We're going to see later in Hebrews 11 refers back to this very statement to say that the men confessed, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, they confessed they were pilgrims. They were strangers, sojourners, just traveling through this present age, but not really belonging to it. And that's what he's saying to Pharaoh here. I belong to the age to come. And then he describes two things about his life. Few in evil have been the days of the years of my life." Translation, I'm a pilgrim and frankly, Pharaoh, I don't like it here. Because it's a cursed world, it's a sin-cursed world, it's a fallen world. He's really saying a lot in that one statement. I've had a very hard life. My brother Esau conspired to kill me. I had to flee for 20 years from the presence of my father and mother, hiding from him in isolation. I was under the employ of my father-in-law, who changed my wages 10 times and made me work really hard, but then was constantly being deceitful with the way he handled me. When I finally took my wife and children and left him, he formed a posse and came to kill me and his daughters, but God intervened. He said, then I've got my sons, Simeon and Levi, murdered an entire city, which made us odious to the surrounding nations. Then my other sons lied to me that Joseph was dead for 22 years. I've had a very hard life. Now, he doesn't say all those things, of course, but that's what he intends to say. This present age is not easy. Brothers and sisters, there's a man named Jay Adams who once wrote, he said, it doesn't take us long as Christians to figure out we just don't like it here. And it's true, isn't it? We see the corruption of our society. We see their hedonism, man, here lately especially. It's like we're on a sprint rushing on to hell as fast as we can go. We see the horrible things around us, the godlessness of our culture. We see the compromises being made by so many who profess to know the name of Christ. And it grieves our hearts and the people who sin against us and betray us and wrong us. And the older we get, the more the Lord uses this to cut the strings that hold our heart to this world, and make us long for the world that is to come. It's the cry of the Scriptures, even so, come Lord Jesus. Don't you just long for Him to just come back and make everything right, and to set everything right, and to set us free from all this sin-cursed world? But it's not just the sins about me that Jacob talks about. It's not just the fallenness around me. Notice what he says. He says, "...they, that is, my years, have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their pilgrimage." He says, it's not just the sin of the surrounding culture that bothers me, it's the sin I find inside my own heart. He is here, as it were, lamenting, I was a liar and a deceiver, full of myself as a young man. I came to know the Lord late in life, I deceived my father, I deceived my brother. I treated my wife Leah horribly and neglected her. Obviously, I have not been the best father to my children that I should have been. I've shown partiality when I shouldn't have. He's saying, my grandfather Abraham, he was the friend of God and he walked with God and his faith was worthy of emulation. And my father Isaac was also a man of God. And I've come to know the Lord too, but here's the thing, I've never attained to the sanctification that my forefathers came to. I've never made progress in holiness the way they did. And in some ways, yes, it's a sad admission. It's a sad way to come to the end of your life. But in another way, I see something very comforting in it. Because think of how proud and arrogant Jacob had been at the beginning of his life. And look at the change now, because what's he saying? I regret the sins that I've committed. I feel remorse over these things. I'm ashamed of the things I've done against God and the things I've done against my fellow man. He's feeling a sense of shame. His relationship to sin has changed. Jacob now is a very different man than the one we first met in the pages of Genesis, isn't he? It's amazing what wrestling with the God Incarnate all night will do to a man, and how it changes him. Because when he encountered the Incarnate God and wrestled with Him all night, he came away a different man. Not only did he walk with a limp, but God had broken him, He had changed him, and by faith, He had apprehended the coming Messiah. And we see the difference. And the truth is, isn't it different for you that you've met the Incarnate God? Everything changed when you met Him, when He subdued you, when He broke you over your sin, and when you laid a hold of Him by faith, everything changed. Your relationship to sin changed. And if you're here and you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, I urge you to begin wrestling with God incarnate. Wrestle with him in prayer. Say to him, lay a hold of him and say, I won't let you go until you bless me with forgiveness and eternal life. And don't let him go and keep on wrestling until the Holy Spirit himself gives you peace that you're reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Wrestle for your never-dying soul, even as Jacob did. Well, verse 10, Jacob blesses Pharaoh for the second time and departs from him. Well, then verses 11 and 12 show us how Joseph follows through with Pharaoh's orders. It's interesting to note, again, Joseph was not the one who said, hey, go live in the land of Goshen. Here's Pharaoh himself giving a commandment, go live in Goshen. This helps clear Joseph of the charge of being partial to his own family and prejudicial towards the Egyptians. Oh, look at him. He used his position to get the best of the land to the Hebrews and to exclude the Egyptians from it. But that's not it because Pharaoh himself has ordered that it be done." So, verse 11 is all about real estate. He establishes them in the land of Goshen. Verse 12 is all about groceries, because He makes sure they have an abundant supply of the things that they need. So, what have we seen but a gracious provision? In the second place, we see a desperate people. I'm not going to take a whole lot of time here. But God has provided for His chosen people. You notice that the Israelites are living in the land, and they're being given groceries free of charge. Meanwhile, the Egyptian culture has to pay for their groceries. But here's the thing. God had watched over his chosen people, and therefore, the Egyptians are spared as well from the famine as a secondary aspect because God's people have been blessed. They're getting the secondary blessings from it. Well, what we see is four basic stages here. First of all, we see the Egyptian money and the surrounding nations, their money fails. They give all the money they have to buy bread. And that lasts them for a year. But then they come to the end of that year, and they don't have any more money. And so they say, well, Joseph, we'll tell you we don't have any money to buy grain, so we'll sell our cattle to you. So he buys their cattle from them, and he takes that, and that feeds them for another year. Well, then the next year comes along, and they don't have any cattle left to trade. And they said, all we have is our land and our bodies. So buy our land from us, that we may have some money to buy bread, and we'll give up our liberty. You can make us the indentured servants of Pharaoh in order that we may serve him." And they figure this way, well, we can keep our freedom and die this year, or we can make ourselves indentured servants and survive, as we're provided for by Pharaoh, and so they do. And so he takes it from them. and takes them and moves them into the land of Egypt. But notice verse 22. Again, here's this reminder that we are pilgrims and sojourners. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them, therefore they did not sell their lands. Interesting, these priests are not priests of the Most High God. These are priests who serve the gods of Egypt. Pharaoh still had a place in his heart for them, and he makes sure they're taken care of so that their idolatry can continue. It's a reminder to us of why did Joseph tell his brothers, tell them that you're shepherds, because then you'll be a social outcast. Why? Because he was trying to protect their souls from the idolatry. And we look at the subsequent history of Israel. Isn't it true that whenever they were around idolatrous people, they were always tempted to go after their gods? And so we're reminded of that very fact here. The fourth step we have here is that Joseph imposed a 20% annual federal tax upon all the Egyptians and all the indentured servants. This had worked well in the seven years of plenty, taking 20% of the grain, one-fifth of the grain, and setting it aside, preparing for days when there would be a shortage. So now what does he do? He makes it a law on the land that this is how things will always be, that there will always be this 20% taken away. And so what do we see here? We have seen a gracious provision, a desperate people. Third, we see a solemn vow, a solemn vow. And this is verse 27. Verse 27 and 28 are sweet because they tell us about two things. First of all, they tell us about a gracious God, and they tell us also about a godly son. Verse 27, so Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt. Notice he doesn't use the word Jacob. He uses the word Israel again. He invokes his covenant name, and for good reason, as we will see. So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen. Let me just note it here. Have you noticed how many times in the last several chapters the name Goshen keeps coming up? There's a reason for that, as we'll get to in just a moment. In the country of Goshen. And they had possessions there, and look at what it says next, and grew and multiplied exceedingly. What is the Holy Spirit trying to tell us? God made His covenant with Abraham. Here was this old man with a barren wife, and God says, I'm going to multiply your descendants. The Israelites had come into Egypt as 70 people, but now that they're in the land, what begins to happen? They begin to multiply. In other words, what's the text telling us? It's telling us that the firmament of the heavens is beginning to fill up with stars. Greater than the number of stars in the sky, so will your descendants be. The seashore is being filled up with pebbles of sand, because God is being true to His promise. You might say that because God cannot lie, He's always true to His word. Whatever He promises, He will perform. Whatever He has prophesied will come to pass. We've seen it over and over and over again. You think God's trying to tell us something? To trust Him when He makes a promise. Verse 28 hints at Joseph's godliness. Now you say, why? Because Joseph's not even mentioned in verse 28. But notice what it says. Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the length of Jacob's life was 147 years. You say, where's Joseph in that? How do you see a godly son in that? Well, he was able to be in the land because of the provision that Joseph made for him. The commentator pointed out that Jacob nurtured Joseph for 17 years. He fed him in his home until he was sold into slavery. And now that he's reunited with Joseph, Joseph gets to return the favor and feed his father for 17 years. Point being this, the commandment to honor your father and mother requires you to respect and obey them while you're young, and then it requires you to take care of them when they are old. And what do we find Joseph doing but obeying God's command to honor his father and mother by taking care of them? And then in verse 29, Israel realizes that the time is coming for him to leave this present age, for him to die. So he calls Joseph and asks a very strong favor of him. "'If I found favor in your sight, then do something. Swear an oath to me. Make a covenant with me. Do not bury me in the land of Egypt. Take me back to Canaan after I die, and bury me in the cave of Machpelah with my fathers." What's the message? I don't belong here. I belong in a different land, in a different place, because here I'm just a sojourner. Bury me in the cave of Machpelah with Abraham and Isaac. Put Jacob there as well, that we may all be buried in the same place." Do you see over and over again how the text is emphasizing the fact we are strangers in a strange land? There's four applications I want to make from our text this morning. First of all, let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how to answer each one. Trust you recognize the best applications are the ones that are direct quotes from the Bible. You can't dispute them then, right? Colossians 4.6, that's a direct quote. Jacob was brought before Pharaoh. And what did he do? He abased himself, he humbled himself before Pharaoh, acknowledging his shortcomings, but then also blessing him, calling down, invoking God himself to give a blessing to him to exalt the Lord. He minimized himself and exalted and magnified the Lord. Brothers and sisters, what else are we supposed to do when we're around people who are lost? We rub shoulders with them every day or during the COVID virus, we stand six feet away from them every day. But whatever the case, we have no shortage of lost people around us in our workplace, in the grocery store, in our neighborhoods, in our families, everywhere we go. And you may not always be able to share the entire gospel start to finish with someone when you're around them, but you can fill your language with God-centered speech. Just try to tell them things about your God and point them to your Savior. Maybe you say, well, I'm not a good teacher, I'm not a great theologian, I'm not particularly articulate. Well, just be like the former gathering demoniac. And you notice I said their former gathering demoniac, because he was a demoniac, but after he met Jesus, he was a demoniac no more. Just as a man who's a drunkard meets Jesus, and is a drunkard no more. And an adulterer meets Jesus, and is an adulterer no more. But what did he say when he wanted to go with Jesus? He wanted to be with Him. Jesus said, no, stay here. But go tell everybody what great things God has done for you. And it tells us He went through the Decapolis, the ten cities, telling everybody who would listen, listen to what great things Jesus has done for me. And in your speech with others, drop those hints about what Jesus has done for you. And you say to yourself, well, does it make any difference? Well, you don't ever know what difference it'll make. Perhaps that little seed falling upon their heart will be watered by the dew of the Holy Spirit in ways that you never could imagine. And the taproots may begin going down into their souls in ways that you never could have thought. And sometimes you'll find that when that same person begins to go through hard times and go through a crisis, guess whose counsel they want. The person who took the time to show a little bit of interest in them and to point them to Christ and to speak of spiritual things. And they come to you asking you about things and you're able to give them the entire gospel. At any rate, sow your conversation liberally with the gospel. Point to Christ and say things of Him every time you're out and about. Jacob did. Let's follow his example and do the same. Secondly, Remember that you're strangers and pilgrims wandering through this present age. Your home is elsewhere, your citizenship belongs to another world and to another country. I began my sermon this morning by telling you about Michael Collins and how he looked at the moon as an inhospitable place, a place that wasn't capable of sustaining life, a place where we are only visitors and strangers and pilgrims. Even so, isn't that what the text is telling us this morning? Why else does Joseph say, tell Pharaoh that you're shepherds because that's socially unacceptable. And that will keep you isolated and make a clear line of demarcation between the church and the world. Jacob comes before Pharaoh two different times. He says, I'm a sojourner. I'm a pilgrim. I'm on my pilgrimage here. I'm a stranger here. Pharaoh's supporting of the idolatrous priests is another reminder. Finally, Jacob taking the initiative to say, don't bury me here in Egypt because I don't belong here. Take me where I belong and bury me in the land of Canaan. The Holy Spirit himself gives his own infallible commentary about this in Hebrews chapter 11, so if you would turn there with me. Hebrews 11, verses 8 to 16. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out not knowing where he was going. By faith he dwelt in the land of promises in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky a multitude, innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore. These all died in faith, not having received all the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." This is not a reference to the very thing that Jacob said to Pharaoh. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. And truly, if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, that is, Ur the Chaldees, they would have had opportunity to return. But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them." Do you see what the text is saying to us? It's telling us that the promise of land was not about real estate in Palestine. Yes, God did give real estate in Palestine, this much-coveted, fought-over piece of land, to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob's descendants, just as He said He would. But what the text is telling us is that Abraham discerned something, and so did Isaac and Jacob, that that was just the type and the shadow. It wasn't the reality. The substance and the reality was, this is real estate in heaven. This is, I am promising you an inheritance in the new heaven and in the new earth. And yeah, it's great to inherit Jerusalem as a city, but there's a far greater city who is not made by man, the New Jerusalem, where my saints dwell. And what it was saying was, by giving you this inheritance, I'm giving you eternal life. You don't belong here. You don't belong in this present age. And brothers and sisters, it's so very important that we remember that. Because if you forget it, You'll start to love the world and the things in the world. You'll start to imbibe their philosophy. How the world is always trying to press their garbage and their wisdom upon us to say, blend it with your gospel. And that way they'll dilute it. The world's always pressing into the church this way. And we have to be aware of it and not allow the battery acid that they're throwing on us to start corroding us. We have to recognize that their wisdom is not the wisdom from on high. As Paul says, if the rulers of this present age had heavenly wisdom from on high, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory, would they? But we have a wisdom given to us by God Himself. And we have to remember that the philosophies of the present age are of no use to us. That we have the pure word of God, why would we go elsewhere? And we need to be careful lest anyone deceive us. Lot's wife was a woman who forgot that we're supposed to be citizens of another kingdom, and she began to love Sodom and Gomorrah. And you remember what happened when it was time for Sodom and Gomorrah to be destroyed. She was taken out. They were told, don't look back. But she coveted what was there. She mourned the loss of the things of the world, and she turned around and she looked, and she perished with Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's given to us as a perpetual reminder. Of course, our Lord Himself said, remember Lot's wife. Don't pant after the things of this present world. Remember, you belong to the age that is to come. Third application, derived from the second application, is this. It's sometimes prudent to take a lower station socially, and even to accept a job with lesser pay, when doing so is more profitable for your never-dying soul. Now, I'm not saying that's always the case. But the question is, what is best for your soul and the souls of your wives and your children? That's what you have to take into account. Joseph deliberately told his brothers, tell Pharaoh that you're shepherds, because I know that shepherds are despised by this culture. but that will protect your souls from the corruption of the surrounding world. It will make a distinction between the church and the world. It's amazing how many times you hear of men taking a job in another state, which in itself is not sinful or wrong, but they say, well, it's a lot better pay, a lot better benefits, the retirement package is really good. They take it, accept the job, move to the place, and only then do they start saying, well, I wonder if there's any churches around here that are helpful. And the problem is, we're making the wrong priorities, aren't we? You may prosper outwardly in that place, but what if you don't hear the gospel preached in its purity and in its power, and your wife and your children don't hear that? Why does it mean so little that we don't even think about this? Is there a place where our souls will be fed and will be warned about the danger of the wrath that is to come? Will we be pointed to Jesus Christ? Will the gospel be preached to us? That should be my first concern. And if there's a barren place, a place where there is no place where I can be ministered to and have my soul fed, then perhaps I need to say it's best not to take the job. Again, going back to Lot. Lot looked with his eyes, and he lusted after the fertile land of Sodom and Gomorrah. And he pitched his tent close to it, and next thing you know, he's living inside of it. Next thing you know, he's running for city council. But look at the effect upon his family. As a result, he lost his wife. He lost his two son-in-laws. His two daughters lost whatever virtue was left in them. And Lot lost his dignity. All because he chose a place to live that was not good for the souls of his family, but was good for their pocketbook. Sometimes it's better to say, let me take a little less thing, a less pay, a less benefits, because it's better for our souls. Because at the end of the day, we need to be rich with God, whether we're rich on this present age or not. So what is our priority? What matters to us most? Well, let's take heed to Joseph's example. I will take a lower social station that I might be protected. Fourth and final application is also derived from the second application, that we're not citizens of this world. God is the refuge of his church when his wrath falls upon the world. God is the refuge of his church when his wrath falls upon the world. Now certainly we see how God provided for the chosen people by the bread. But there's something else I see here. Goshen is mentioned over and over and over again. Moses wants you to get that in your head. And remember, where do the Jews live? Oh yeah, the land of Goshen. And I tell you what he's doing, he's setting us up for the sequel to Genesis, which is the book of Exodus. Because 400 years after Joseph, after the people have been enslaved, God sends a deliverer in the form of Moses, and you know the story. God poured out His wrath by 10 horrible things that hit the Egyptians. And all these terrible plagues of everything, all the water being turned to blood, and hell, the size of a house falling upon people, and all these terrible things going on. Frogs, they're in everything. You bake your bread and there's frogs looking at you. All these horrible plagues. And yet, over and over and over again, the text will say, but in the land of Goshen, there was not so much as a dog barking. There's all this turmoil going on in the world, and the church is having all this peace. As a matter of fact, in the Passover, God says, I'm going to send my destroyer, this angel of death, and he's going to destroy every firstborn. And you remember the story. There was not a single house in all of Egypt that was unaffected. Somebody lost somebody everywhere. And the sound of their grieving and their wailing and their mourning comes up before the Lord. But then, in the land of Goshen, it's silent. Everybody's inside eating the first Passover. Why? Because God said, I'm going to send the angel of death, this destroyer, he's going to destroy all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, but you're to slaughter a lamb, a male lamb at twilight, and take its blood and paint it on the doorposts and the lintel of your front door. And when I pour out my wrath and I see the blood of the spotless lamb on your doorpost, I'll pass over you. and you'll be safe." It's hinting at something, isn't it? When it tells us about the land of Goshen, God's chosen people are safe when the wrath of God is poured out because the blood of the Lamb is upon them. And, of course, you know what He's setting us up for. It's not to tell us about the blood of lambs, but to tell us about the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. What he's telling us about is there's a day of wrath far greater, far more terrible than anything that ever happened to Egypt. There is a day of judgment in our future. There's a day of wrath. And you know, every second of every clock that ticks by is bringing you that much closer to the day of judgment. It is irresistible. You can't stop it. The day has been set in stone. It's coming. There's nothing you can do to avoid it. You're going to stand before the presence of Jesus Christ as He sits upon His judgment seat, and we give an account to Him for everything we've ever done in the body, whether it be good or evil. Every last one of us is headed for that day of wrath. And for the world, it is going to be a day of wrath. It's going to be a day of being poured, of having God's wrath poured out upon them, that's going to last for all of eternity. The problem is, when you stand before God, His ball must be upheld. His righteous requirements of all the precepts He ever gave have to be fulfilled in you. And you're powerless to do that, by the way. and you've already broken it so many times without number. The reality is it requires perfection of you inside and out, and all of us fall woefully short of that. Furthermore, you can pay for your own sins, but it will take you all eternity burning in hell to do it. That's what it will cost you if you pay for your own sins. In other words, the debt will never be paid. It will never be satisfied. You'll be in the fire that never quenches. It can be quenched, cannot be extinguished, being eaten inside by the worm that never dies. That's what you're going to face if you have to pay it on your own. Or, you can repent of your sins. And you can forsake your own good works and all your trust in how morally upright you are. And you can put your faith in Jesus Christ alone. And trust Him to do for you what you can't do for yourself. to give you His righteousness because He's the only man who ever lived who did perfectly obey God's law and fulfilled His righteous requirement. And then He suffered under the penalties of the law when He died upon the cross and satisfied the wrath of God for everyone who would ever believe on Him. And if you put your faith in Him, He'll take away your sin and give you in its place His righteousness and give you a home in heaven, eternal life. That is what's being pictured in the Passover. That only those who have the blood of the spotless Lamb over the doorpost of their hearts, that is, Christ's blood over their hearts, are those who are going to be spared from the wrath that is to come. Today, Christ is set before you as a Savior. Tomorrow, He may come to you as your executioner. Therefore, repent while there's time. Scriptures say, seek the Lord while he may be found, which clearly implies there will come a day when he cannot be found anymore. But today is the day of salvation. Today, you can be reconciled to God through Christ. He is there for the taking. He is there offered freely. You come without money, without price, don't try to dress yourself up and prepare yourself for Him, because you can't prepare yourself for Him. As the old hymn says, the only fitness He requires is to fill your need for Him. You need a Savior desperately, and you have a great Savior for your need. And you come to that Savior as a sinner, as you are, saying, please have mercy upon me. Because there's mercy to be found in Jesus Christ. We have such a hardened culture. A culture, someone has described it as trying to sow the good seed of the gospel. It's like throwing a seed on a concrete floor. That's what it's like sharing the gospel here. But don't be swept away with this wicked generation. turn from your sins, turn from your righteousness, put your faith in Christ alone, that He might save you. He's a wonderful Savior who saves sinners like me and saves sinners like you. He delights in saving sinners. I've told you before, Jesus delights in saving sinners more than sinners delight in being saved. Come to Him because it's His great joy and delight to save sinners. There's more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 that are already His. So turn and flee to Christ this very day that you might be saved. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for being our God. We thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ and for how you call sinners to yourself. Thank you that the ministry of the gospel is called the ministry of reconciliation. You give us a relationship with God through the merits of Christ. And so, Lord, I pray for any here who don't know you, that you would save them and draw them close to yourself and have mercy upon their souls. For us who know you, help us, Lord, to remember that we are but strangers and pilgrims and wanderers through this present age. And we ask it in Jesus' name, amen.