The Bible to Genesis 45. Genesis 45. As we look at the first few verses of this on Sunday afternoon, as Joseph at last reveals himself to his brothers, we're going to kind of track back over that tonight as we look at this particular chapter. And finally, the lost brother is found. here in the psalm, or I keep going to psalm, Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45. Now, when Joseph understood here, he gave his final test to his brothers there in chapter 44, as he would put his divining cup in the sack of Benjamin. And, of course, he sends them out, accused them of thievery, and they find the divining cup in Benjamin's sack, and they come back, and Joseph declares he's going to make Benjamin his servant, and the rest of them go home. Of course, Judah stands up and says, no, you don't understand. I can't allow you to do that. That would kill our daddy. We've already lost one brother. And even before he does this, he declares, this is because of our guilt. This is because of what we've done to Joseph. Because we sold him into slavery. Because we did such a wicked deed against him, God is showing himself in this. He is punishing us in this. And so then he comes to Joseph and says, listen, You can keep me as a slave. I'll stay here as a slave, but please let Benjamin go home. And Joseph could not contain himself at that point when he saw truly his brothers had changed. In all of these tests he gave them, they continued to show that they had changed. They were repentant about the sin that they had brought against Joseph. Though they had not told anyone, though they had kept it to themselves, they had not told their father, as far as we know, about this. Jacob thought he was still dead. He thought he was killed by a beast. So they hadn't told their father what they had done, but they were extremely guilty because of what had happened there and what they had done to their brother. So they recognized they had performed this awful deed. So these 22 years now have passed. In this fit of absolute hate for Joseph, they conducted this awful deed, even entertained the thoughts of murder before they carried out the deed of selling him into slavery. But after all of these years, they spent many years in remorse over their sin, many years guilty. over that sin and the weight was no doubt heavy upon them because they had not told Jacob what they had done. There's always that reality, there was always that hint, no doubt, that was laying in the back of their minds, our brother is somewhere in slavery, in Egypt, and Jacob's saying he's dead, my son is dead, my son is dead. And they know he could possibly still be alive. He could be still servant in Egypt somewhere. And so this weight of this sin was heavy upon them. And when Joseph knew their hearts were changed here, When at last he saw this in chapter 44, he could not contain his emotion, and he reveals himself to his brothers here in chapter 45. We read here in verse 1, it says, Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. They were all in the next room, and they could hear Joseph weeping before his brothers there as he stood with them. It says, "...Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph." Here again, all the previous times he had spoken with him, he had spoken to them through an interpreter. And so all they heard was Egyptian, and then they would hear the translation given to them. Here, Joseph speaks to them in their own tongue. They hear his voice at last, and the cadence of his voice, and he says, I am Joseph. Does my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him. for they were troubled at His presence." No doubt they were in awe right now. They were in quite a state of astonishment. They were guilty already about Joseph being sold into slavery. They were already angry with themselves. They were overcome even with their own sin because of it. Even in this very situation that they are standing before Joseph in even now. And here Joseph says, It's me, I'm alive. Is my father yet alive? And Jacob, or Joseph rather, verse 4 said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. So He reveals Himself. And after He reveals Himself, He goes from verse 5 down through verse number 8 here, and He tells them of of his faith in what God had accomplished here, in the wonderful sovereignty of God. And even though they had done this wicked deed to him, he declares to them here how God is in absolute control of every bit of this. Every detail was what God had purposed to work in Joseph's life. what God had allowed to come into this place here in Joseph's life in order to accomplish these things for His people. And so he understood that though their deed was evil toward him, It was God that had worked and moved every detail. Notice what he says here in verse 5. He says, Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest. And God sent Me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth and to save your lives by great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent Me hither, but God, that He had made Me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt." It was God who had worked. It was God that had moved and put Joseph in the place where he was at to save Israel alive, that the covenant promises that were made to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob would be fulfilled exactly as God had promised. Now, in chapter 44, as his brothers come back down to receive the food, they understood the dire state that they were in. They understood. In fact, that's what Judah would say to Jacob there. They let us take Benjamin down. If we don't go down, we're all going to die. We're all going to die. He has to go down with us. We have to go get this food. There's no other place. There's no other provision for us. We have to go to Egypt to get it. They had to come to Joseph to receive that food. Because that's what God had established. That's what God had set forth. This is the place, the man that God had put in place in order to preserve His people alive. And so they had to come to Joseph. They had to go down to him. That's what God had determined to accomplish through this. God would use a Hebrew boy in a foreign land to save all his people alive. Verse 9, he says, Haste ye and go up to my father and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not. So he sends them home to get Jacob to reveal to him that Joseph not only lives, not only is Joseph alive, but he's in control of all of Egypt. Twenty-two years, Jacob has thought his son was dead. And the message that's being delivered to him now is that he is second in command of all of Egypt, ruling over the affairs of Pharaoh. And so he sends them to go fetch him quickly and to bring him down. And he says there in verse 10, And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. He gives them a place in Goshen. Now Goshen is in the northeast corner of Egypt. It's up in the Nile River Delta there. It's a good place to tend flocks, and that's exactly what Joseph was expecting his family to do, was to come and tend their flocks there in the Nile River Delta there. And it would be there that they would remain until they would leave out of Egypt Those several years later, after coming out of captivity and out of their slavery there, when Moses would come and deliver them back to Canaan, it would be Goshen where we would find them. It would be Goshen where Moses would come and bring them out and bring them back into the Promised Land again. So this place is the place that was given to them by Joseph. that they might be able to live in the land and have the food there to be provided for them. In fact, he says there in verse 11, "...and there will I nourish thee. For yet there are five years of famine, lest thou, thy household, and all that thou hast, come to poverty." So Joseph says, I've moved down here, moved to Goshen, I'll give you Goshen there, and there I'll be able to provide for you for the next five years of this of this famine, I'll be able to give you all the food that you need there. In verse 12 he says, And behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, and it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. They're still in a state of astonishment here. They're hearing what he's saying, but they're overwhelmed at what's happening here, what's taking place. Their minds are racing. What's going to happen to us now? I mean, He's telling them what He's going to do for them. He's telling them what's going to take place. He's telling them the reason that God is putting them there. The reason is to save them alive. And yet they are in their minds racing already, wondering, okay, what's He going to do to us? What kind of punishments? Are we going to die now because of what we did to Joseph? And so these things are already going through their minds. They're already worried about what is happening. And they are still in an astonished state here as they hear their brother talking to them, even in kind of a state of unbelief as Joseph tells them there in verse number 12. He says, look, you're looking at me. You know it's me. Look at Benjamin. Benjamin recognizes, he knows it's me. Look at him. He knows it's me that's talking to you. He knows it's me, Joseph. So he says, Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And ye shall tell my father of all my glory and of all that ye have seen, and ye shall hasten, bring down my father hither. They were to assure Jacob when they went, when they were to go and tell him this message, they were to be able, they were to have enough assurance in themselves that when they come and told Jacob, that Jacob would believe them, you see. That Joseph was alive, that Joseph was the one that was in control of Egypt at this point. And so he says he fell upon his brothers, brother Benjamin's neck and wept, And Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them. And after that, his brethren talked with him. They wept and rejoiced together. And Joseph spent time talking and communing with his brothers face to face. Joseph had forgiven them. He had forgiven them of this great evil. that they did to him, a great evil that they felt very guilty about. Joseph had forgiven them of this wicked deed, recognizing that his brothers were just pawns in the story. But this was the work of God. That God had established this. That God had worked this. That God had allowed this to happen in Joseph's life. To put Joseph where he was at in order to save the people of Israel alive. Had he not been sold into slavery, had he not been put where he was at, had he not gone through the things that he endured in Potiphar's house, and then being cast into prison, and then from prison brought into Pharaoh's house, made second in command of all of Egypt, had these events not happened in Joseph's life, there would have not been provision for the children of Israel. God worked it all. to bring that to pass. And Joseph recognized that. Joseph saw that. I don't know when he saw that. I don't know exactly when. Did he see it when he was in Poticker's house? Probably not. He still said, I'm going to honor the Lord. I'm going to serve Him. I'm not going to do this great evil against my God. And so he still sought to honor the Lord. He probably didn't see it when he was in Potiphar's house. When he was in prison, did he see it there? Probably not. Because even when he interpreted the dreams for the baker and the butler, he told them, hey, remember me when you get a chance to come before Pharaoh. Tell him about me. I don't want to be in this place. So he probably didn't recognize it then. Maybe he was getting some hints about it though because everything he touched, God blessed. Everything he touched, God blessed. And so maybe he was getting some hints about what God was doing or at least God was working something But here, when at last he's able to come into Pharaoh's house and interpret Pharaoh's dream, and Pharaoh said, you're the one that's going to be in charge of this. I'm putting you in charge. You're going to take care of this. You're going to make sure that we collect the necessary grain in the seven years of plenty, so that in the seven years of hungry, we can have food to eat. And so he puts Joseph in charge of it. Maybe that's where Joseph recognized, Lord, what are you doing? Lord, what are you working here? Somewhere in this process, maybe it wasn't until he saw his brothers, maybe it wasn't until he saw them, but somewhere in this process, Joseph come to the realization, God has worked this. God has brought this in my life. God has allowed me to go through these things. He's allowed me to take part in this, to have these things come in my life in order that I might be able to deliver my family. That I might be able to feed them, to provide for them when they cannot provide for themselves. And in that very process, God is fulfilling the very promise that He gave to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, to accomplish for them those covenant promises that He had made. And He did so through this man Joseph. Verse 16. It says, And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come. And it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye, lay in your beast, and go get you into the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land. Pharaoh, rather, tells Joseph exactly what Joseph had already said. Yeah, that's a good idea, Joseph. Yeah, bring them down here. And we'll give them a place here among us. We'll give them a place that they might be able to be provided for. This particular Pharaoh, Joseph said as he was describing to his brothers there what God had worked, he said God had worked it out in such a way that he was made a father to Pharaoh. And it's believed that this particular Pharaoh was a young man, he was much younger than Joseph. And so Joseph was indeed not only second in command of Egypt, but in fact a great counselor to this particular pharaoh. It's believed his name is Sinusert III. Sinusert III. And he was reigning in Egypt from 1878 to 1841 BC. 1878 to 1841 BC. And so this Pharaoh here was very dependent upon Joseph and the work that Joseph did. Just as the case was in Potiphar's house, just as the case was Joseph in the prison and the captain of the guards there, so it was literally over all of Egypt. The whole nation became dependent upon Joseph because everything Joseph touched, the Lord was blessing. Because the Lord was providing for His people. The Lord was accomplishing salvation for them. Physically speaking, He was providing for them the food that they needed to live. And so, Pharaoh here offers them also a place that they could come and dwell among them. He says there in verse number 19, He says, now Baalar commanded this, do ye, take your wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your father and come. Also regard not your stuff for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of raiment. It's like, just one more time. Just one more time, I'm gonna test my brother. Just one more time. And he gives them all changes of raiment, but to Benjamin, he gives him silver, he gives him five changes of raiment. Here he lavishes Benjamin, his younger brother, with these gifts. And to his father he sent after this man ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, ten she-asses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way. And so he sent his brethren away and they departed. And he said unto them, See that you fall not out by the way. See that you fall not out By the way, it's an interesting phrase there, as they're on their journey home. He begs them to hurry. And he says, don't be sidetracked. And it alludes here to their guilt. Don't be slowed down by the guilt that you're feeling the closer you get today. Because what were they gonna have to do? They're going home and telling their dad, Joseph is alive. Joseph is down in Egypt. But what else are they going to have to do when they give him this message? They're going to have to tell him they're the ones that did it. They're going home to confess to their father, Daddy, 22 years ago, when we gave you Joseph's coat with the blood smeared on it, and we told you that the beast ate him, We sold him into slavery down in Egypt. And that's where he's at. He's alive now. But he's now the second in command of all that. They were going to be working this out as they're on their journey home. And so Joseph tells them, don't be slowed down by this. Don't be slowed down by this. Just hurry. Go get dad. Don't be slowed down by this guilt. And so he says there in verse 25, and the Bible says here, and they went out or went up rather out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan and to Jacob their father and told him saying, Joseph is yet alive. And he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. And so seeing the gifts that Joseph had sent to him, Jacob believed the words of his sons and he would make the journey to Egypt. In fact, that would be where Jacob would spend the rest of his life. He would die and they would bury him in Egypt. And when his children would come out of Egypt, they would bring his bones with them. There in chapter 46, it tells us there about Jacob's journey down into Egypt as he goes and tells us about the expansion there in chapter 46 of his family while in the land. The Bible tells us that after Joseph dies, there in the book of Exodus, that after Joseph dies, there arose a Pharaoh. that did not know Joseph. And from that point, the children of Israel that had expanded greatly in the land of Goshen during their time in Egypt would become slaves of this particular Pharaoh. And there they would stay for those four generations until Moses would come and deliver them out by God's command and bring them back into the land of Canaan. But here is the good time in Egypt. This is the time of plenty in Egypt as they are going down to celebrate the life of Joseph and to live out their days there until the Lord would bring them into the place of captivity. So we see God's blessing on Joseph and allowing the people of Israel to live at this time to fulfill the promises that he had given to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. All right, let's all stand and we'll be dismissed tonight.