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[0:00] Okay, so, let's rehearse real quickly. We're concentrating on Joseph now. We've been through the being sold to the Ishmaelites and going to Egypt.

[0:15] ! He was sold to Potiphar. Now help me out. What happened? What happened to Potiphar's house while Joseph was in charge? It prospered. Why?

[0:30] It says specifically, God was with Joseph and he prospered him. Now, that all turned out nicely for Joseph, right?

[0:43] Well, was he faithful? Was he faithful? Yes. Did he do the right thing? Yes. And so we know that the right thing happened.

[0:55] Well, now I'm getting tricky. Yeah, the right thing happened, but did it feel right? Doesn't look right to me.

[1:07] Was it fair in human terms? See, when God says my ways are not your ways, my thoughts are not your thoughts, you're right there, Lord.

[1:21] Because my thinking says, if you do the right thing, what? Good things. I think I already mentioned it.

[1:34] How many of you have ever heard when somebody escapes a near miss in traffic? Well, you must be, you're blessed or you're living right.

[1:48] You've never heard that one before? He must be living right. Now, is that true? Not at all. Not at all.

[2:01] Now, I'm happy when it does work out that way. Don't misunderstand me. I don't want to wreck. Neither does she. But what happens if it doesn't?

[2:21] Are Christians ever killed in accidents? Are there any Christians that are persecuted? You see, what about the Apostle Paul?

[2:31] I mean, to the Apostle Paul was given the revelation of the mystery which was hidden God's mind from the foundations of the world, but had not been revealed yet.

[2:51] And the Apostle Paul was faithful. So, he got all the perks, right? Well, yeah, if you count getting beat up with rods several times, perks.

[3:06] If you count being stoned, perks. If you count being shipwrecked, perks. So, no, it doesn't always happen that way.

[3:19] So, Joseph, it didn't work out so well for Joseph. What happened quickly? He ended up in prison.

[3:31] And in prison, he was placed in charge of the prison, wasn't he? Remember that? All right.

[3:43] And what happened with the jailer while Joseph was in charge of the prison? He prospered.

[3:57] Why? Because the Lord was with him. God has a plan that he's working out. Now, has he revealed it to them what this plan's going to be?

[4:10] No. He did tell Abraham that something was going to happen, but he didn't tell him how it was going to happen.

[4:23] So, in come the butler and the baker. They have a dream.

[4:35] What happens? What happens? Now, this isn't, you're not in the dentist's office. What happens? Okay, what was the good news?

[4:55] The cupbearer, the butler went back. What's the grimace for? Yeah, the other one was killed.

[5:06] Pharaoh killed him. Well, thanks, Joseph. That wasn't what I was thinking about. But, so Joseph asked the butler, hey, when you get reinstated here in three days, remember me to Pharaoh.

[5:26] Why? Well, I helped you out, but why did he, what did Joseph give as his reason for the butler giving him a good report to Pharaoh?

[5:41] I'm unfairly here. Remember? So, he says, I've been, I've been jailed unfairly. Was he telling the truth? Yes.

[5:52] He had been unfairly jailed. So, the butler promptly told Pharaoh, right? No, two more years.

[6:05] Two more years. So, Pharaoh has a dream, and the butler remembers now, hey, there's this Hebrew guy in prison. And, he rightly interpreted.

[6:23] So, Pharaoh calls Joseph in, and, I know where I'm skipping a whole lot. I realize that. But, Pharaoh calls Joseph in, and what?

[6:34] Well, first of all, Joseph rightly says something to Pharaoh. Pharaoh says, I hear you can interpret dreams.

[6:47] Right. He said, that lies with God. So, this is an example of God's timing, if not our timing, because it took the two years before they revealed to, because Pharaoh didn't have his dream yet, but it was, it was at that time.

[7:07] I, I remember a statement. This was years ago. 70-some year, 1970s.

[7:17] the, in the late 70s, the President's Council on Families, or something like that, which was, at that time, it was a misnomer.

[7:39] You know, they wanted to, even back then, the idea of homosexuality, and all that being normalized, was going on. One-parent families was going on.

[7:53] But one of the persons selected, was Jim Dobson. And he got butchered on that. And, he was sued, for some of the things he said.

[8:11] And he, just to this point, I remembered, I saw a bit, and he said, you know, I've all, I've, I've, seem to have, find, that God's always about three days late.

[8:27] As far as I'm concerned. And he was using that with Lazarus. What did Mary say, or, what, Martha was first. Mary said the exact same thing, by the way.

[8:39] But, what did she say, when Jesus came to Lazarus' tomb? See, when Jesus got the news, that Lazarus was sick, I'm sorry for the, sidetrack, but it's important to me here.

[8:53] Jesus got the news, that Lazarus was ill. And what did he do? He got up and went over, didn't he? He waited.

[9:03] He waited. He waited. Until, Lazarus died. Then he got up to go. Well, come on, Lord.

[9:16] Now, I've never done this. I've never thought this. But you have. When Jesus came down that road, and Martha met him, what did she say to him?

[9:34] Lord, if you had been here, come on, finish. My brother would not have died.

[9:49] He met Mary in the house with the other mourners. Mary said the exact same thing. Had you been here, now, are we ever tempted, well, I know I'm not, but you are, to think, this wouldn't have happened had the Lord been with me.

[10:13] Where were you, God, when this happened? But where was he? He was in the same place he always is.

[10:27] Everywhere. all at once. Now, in Lazarus' case, Jesus said specifically, it was so that the glory of God will be shown.

[10:40] He said, do you believe that he's going to live? And she said, yes, I believe he's going to live in the resurrection. Jesus said, he's going to live today.

[10:51] God's timing is certainly not my timing. And I'm grateful for that.

[11:04] Because God is infinite and I am finite. Very finite. God is not becoming.

[11:17] He is as he is in eternity. That's important. That's foundational.

[11:29] Because if he's not, then what he said may or may not be true. Everything happens for a reason, I just don't know it.

[11:48] He doesn't reveal everything. He doesn't reveal it. And he doesn't promise that I ever will know. When Job asked why, God didn't answer him, did he?

[12:04] He just said, Job, and Job had a reason. Job was trying to be righteous. And Job said, why, Lord?

[12:17] Why this? Oh, that I could plead my case before the Lord. And then God answers Job. And he doesn't say, Job, this is the reason I wanted to show Satan my power and glory and your faithfulness.

[12:37] He didn't say that. He said, where were you when I laid the foundation of the world? Where were you when I hung all the stars? Where were you when I hung the planets?

[12:49] The answer is, that's a rhetoric, those are rhetorical questions. God is saying to Job, look, Job, you're questioning me, but I'm God.

[13:04] I'm in charge. I created all this. The big question goes right back to this study in Genesis chapter 3, doesn't it?

[13:18] Did God really say that you're going to die? If you eat, God knows that if you eat of that, you're going to be like God, knowing good and evil.

[13:44] Well, they ate of it, and they did know good and evil, but they weren't like God. The temptation is always to doubt God, isn't it?

[13:59] In some fashion, to doubt his word and to doubt his character. So, yeah, his timing's not mine, and it's a good thing.

[14:13] because because even in this small room of this body of believers that love one another, if we were dictating what was happening in the world, how many different ideas might there be?

[14:33] Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.

[14:52] And Jesus would tell the teacher of the law, on this hang all the law and the prophets. He says, he said the basic thing, basic doctrine for theology is, God is God, you're not, get over it.

[15:15] And I need to do that. So, Joseph comes before Pharaoh. Pharaoh tells him the dream.

[15:27] What does Joseph do? He interprets the dream for him. And then he doesn't stop with interpreting the dream. By the way, the dream is seven years of plenty, and seven years of famine.

[15:45] And so, Joseph institutes in Egypt the 20% income tax. Well, I jumped the gun there.

[15:58] So, Pharaoh, Joseph makes a suggestion to Pharaoh. Hey, what you need to do, Pharaoh, if I may say so, what you ought to do is appoint a man of wisdom and integrity who will set up storehouses in all the big cities around Egypt.

[16:22] And during the seven years of plenty, you tax it. You store up that grain. So, when the seven years of famine come, you have stuff to eat and stuff to sell, by the way, which is where we're going today.

[16:41] So, what does Pharaoh do? You're the man, right? You're the man. So, now Joseph finds himself.

[16:52] He's been in charge of Potiphar's house. He's been in charge of the prison. And he goes from the prison to being in charge of Egypt. Right? Is that so or not so?

[17:08] And so, what does he do? He executes his plan. Now we come to the famine time, don't we? So, let's go with chapter 42. And this is Joseph's brothers buying food in Egypt.

[17:26] And this goes, this reiteration goes approximately through chapter 43, verse 14. But we're going to start with 42.1.

[17:43] This is the first trip. The sons of Israel go to Egypt for the first time. What happens? What did Israel say to his son after he's heard that Egypt has grain to sell?

[17:56] I like the phrase. What are you doing sitting around looking at one another?

[18:09] Go to Egypt and buy grain. So, what do they do? Are you sure? Ten of them went.

[18:23] Well, wait a minute. How many are there? Eleven at home. All right. So, who didn't go?

[18:38] Why? It makes me wonder, did Jacob really believe the story?

[18:51] Is this? I don't know. I don't know. But it makes me wonder a little bit. Because Jacob thought, what if something happens to Benjamin?

[19:07] Now, what's so important about Jacob and Benjamin? Or, Joseph and Benjamin? They were Rachel's children.

[19:21] And they were favored. They were his favorites because she was his favorite. And so, he says, you ten go.

[19:37] Ben's going to stay home. All right. We don't know. It doesn't mean Benjamin is a child. It doesn't even mean that he's a very young man.

[19:52] We don't really know. At this point, at the point that Joseph stood before Pharaoh, by the way, when Joseph, see, these chapters are moving pretty fast, aren't they?

[20:04] When Joseph went to Egypt, he was called by his brothers a child. He was called by, or at least Reuben called him a child.

[20:16] And he was called by the other part of the scriptures as a young man. When he stood before Pharaoh, he was 30 years old.

[20:30] So, it's moving pretty quickly here. So, here they go. Ten of them. They're going to head for Egypt. Were they the only ones going, by the way?

[20:49] See, not just from the family. It says, what does it say in verse five? They apparently went in a caravan.

[21:01] Do you see? What does it say? Yeah, they went with those others who were going to buy grain in Egypt. All right? But this is only going, we're not going to hear about all those others.

[21:15] We're only going to hear about the family here. here we come to verse six.

[21:31] Someone go ahead and read that verse if you would be willing to, please. Okay. Okay. This is the first one.

[21:56] Now, what was Joseph's dream? Yeah. Remember Joseph's dream? Now, I'm sure no one's thinking about that right now.

[22:11] See, Joseph doesn't look like a Hebrew now. What's he look like? He looks Egyptian. He's shaved. He's dressing like them.

[22:32] So... He's... Yes? Oh, yeah, they did. I skipped that part in the reiteration.

[22:45] That's back in the previous chapter. Pharaoh, when he instituted him into office, Pharaoh did two other things. He... At least two other things, besides giving him a big office and a big income.

[22:59] He changed his name, and he gave him an Egyptian wife. So... Yes. He did change his name. And we're going to see later...

[23:12] We're going to give a little spoiler. No, I'm not. I'm not going to do that. So... We're by verse 6 now.

[23:28] Did Joseph recognize his brothers? He recognized his brothers. Did they recognize him? Okay.

[23:41] He's not looking like them, and it says what? What? What? What? Okay, he disguised himself, or he made himself strange.

[23:51] He acted like he couldn't understand Hebrew. Right? He acted like he couldn't understand. So they have no clue to whom they're speaking.

[24:09] Now Joseph begins to remember his dreams. Right? Of what does he accuse his brothers? Now, I do not have any idea why he did this.

[24:22] Go ahead. I would think at least that. Right. Well, it's been over that because he was with Potiphar.

[24:35] He was in prison for a couple of years. So he hasn't seen them for at least 16 years and maybe more.

[24:48] Probably more in my mind. But, I mean, he's 30 years old now, so it might be as much as 24 years. For that matter, I don't really know.

[24:58] Well, right. Yeah, he's almost 40 now. Okay. So, they didn't recognize him.

[25:11] He remembers his dreams. What does he accuse them of? I don't know why he does this. Yeah. Now, he has a lot of people coming from a lot of places to buy corn in Egypt because Egypt's the one land that's eaten.

[25:27] This is a big famine. So, Egypt has corn to sell. Egypt's getting rich, by the way.

[25:38] And of all the people that come to buy corn, he says, you're spies.

[25:51] You look kind of shady, you Hebrew guys, you know. So, what's their response to that?

[26:05] I'm sorry. No, we're not spies. What do they say? We came to buy food. How do they defend it?

[26:17] Or how do they present themselves? Yeah, we're all brothers. And there would be 12 of us, but one stayed home and what?

[26:34] One is not. They're presuming him dead or they're at least saying he doesn't exist anymore. They don't know where he is.

[26:47] So, they certainly don't think that he's standing as prime minister of Egypt, do they? That's obvious that they don't think that.

[26:57] Okay, so their response is, hey, we're all one men's son. We're true. We're not spies. No, no.

[27:08] You're spies. You've come to spy out the land. You've got a nefarious plan up your sleeve. So, they profess they're not spies by telling him about their family, don't they?

[27:27] All right. How does Joseph tell them to prove it? Okay.

[27:40] So, what does he, what, specifically, what does he say he's going to do? I'm going to keep you in prison. All of you, but one.

[27:52] Right. He's not going to do that, but he, for some reason, he wants to spook them, I think.

[28:05] But he's, I believe he's preparing a test. Now, whether God gave him the test to prepare or whether this is his own idea, we are not told.

[28:17] But, he said, if you want to prove your truth, here's what you do. Nine of you are going to stay here in prison. One of you will go back, fetch the youngest brother, bring him here, and prove that what you're saying is true.

[28:35] Okay. So, he arrests them all, doesn't he? Puts them in prison.

[28:46] For how long? So, he lets them sit in the tank for three days. Then, what does he say?

[29:00] Okay. What's he say? Right. One of you stay here. All right.

[29:12] So, who does he keep? One. He keeps Simeon. All right. Now, he keeps Simeon.

[29:24] He loads them up with grain, and he gives his steward a very strange command here. What does he tell him? The steward, by the way, is the same thing as what Eleazar was to Abraham.

[29:40] He's the guy who is in charge of Joseph's house. Joseph is steward, is Pharaoh's steward of Egypt, the whole land. But Pharaoh's household has a steward.

[29:54] He has a servant who is his second in charge. He tells him what? Yeah.

[30:06] Okay. Give him the grain. Pack up bags of grain for him. And then, take each guy's cash and stuff it in the grain and hide it in the grain.

[30:18] Now, so what happens? Okay.

[30:37] Now, nine of them head for home. So, King James will say, at the inn, the word literally means lodging place, so it's a camp.

[30:52] It's probably not a hotel. So, where they stop, one of them finds something, doesn't he?

[31:06] What's he find? What's he find? He has, oh no. Now what?

[31:18] What's he do? Well, he panics and does what? He tells his brothers.

[31:30] And what do they do? They panic with him. Why? Why? They, and they have been.

[31:43] They have been set up. Now, they've been set up, but who do they say set them up?

[31:57] Right. So, did I? See what?

[32:09] Go ahead. Yes. Yes.

[32:20] Yes. You're right. I did miss that.

[32:32] I, I, uh, went right over my note on it. So, yeah, they did, they did, they're feeling guilty, right?

[32:45] They recognize their guilt, and they're, they're assuming God's judgment on them. This is why it's befalling us. Now, which kind of brings us back to the preliminary.

[33:08] Do bad things befall us because of sin? No? Yes. Okay.

[33:19] But not necessarily. And you're both speaking individually, aren't you? Why do I get sick? Because the world is falling.

[33:34] Why is the world falling? Because of sin. Romans chapter 8, who subjected all of creation to vanity until the consummation of the church?

[33:52] Who did that? God did that. God did that. Why?

[34:05] Because he's going to show his glory at the consummation of the church. When all the church is gathered and paraded before angelic beings, and then all of creation will be realized to be redeemed.

[34:29] So, all, part of why we get sick, yeah, bad things happen because of sin. But, like Jesus said, when, when asked about who sinned that this man was born, blind?

[34:46] Nobody. Well, did no one sin? That's not what he was saying. What he was saying is, the individual sin did not cause this blindness.

[34:58] He said, do you imagine, do you imagine that when the tower of Siloam fell on those people, that they were worse sinners, they were the worst sinners in all of Israel?

[35:11] Is that why they were killed? No. When those people were slaughtered, were they the worst sinners? No. So, in answer to the blind man, he said, neither this man nor his parents' sin caused the blindness, but that the glory of God could be shown to you.

[35:33] So, yes, bad things happen because of sin, because we're in a broken world. In the millennial kingdom, righteousness will be rewarded.

[35:50] And those who, the further you are from righteousness, the more trouble you're going to have. That's the way the millennial will work, but that's not the way it works today, is it?

[36:03] And in this day of grace, when something happens, it's not because of sin, if we're a Christian. Now, it will be, there will be consequence.

[36:18] That is, even, even for the Christian, if I do, if I go rob a bank, I'm going to get caught, I'm going to be incarcerated, or killed, but, okay, that's because there are some, that, that comes to the point where there are blessings for obedience.

[36:50] It kind of goes back to last week's sermon from Philippians, where, if you do these things, Paul said, he said, if you pour out all your requests to God, what do you get?

[37:07] The peace of God which passes understanding will do what? Keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Okay, then Paul says, whatsoever things you have seen in me, do these things.

[37:23] he said, the things that are lovely, the things that are of good report. Think about this stuff. That is, put that in your mind. Concentrate on that.

[37:35] And if you do what you see in me, the God of peace will be with you. There are blessings to come for obedience. I mean, life's tough enough.

[37:48] I don't have to be stupid. And if, as a Christian, I disobey the Lord, there are going to be consequences, aren't there?

[38:01] If I live a profligate life, not only for me are there going to be consequences, there are going to be far-reaching consequences. It will affect many more people than sin almost always affects more people than the sinner ever intended.

[38:19] almost always. Now, the Lord redeems that. I'm thankful for grace.

[38:31] We're secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. But in this life, eh, there are going to be consequences. So, they're right in saying, hey, we're guilty for our brother.

[38:47] this is why this has happened. They don't yet know exactly how it's happened or anything, but they're guilty. Now, I'm going to stop here with verse 35 or so to say, to ask.

[39:10] They get back to Israel now and they're with their father. What happens when the other eight open their sacks?

[39:29] they all find their money now. So, we're going to stop there although, yes, I did skip what Israel or what the sons and Israel commune.

[39:49]  commune. Okay, we're Simeon. Okay, we'll pick that up next week, God willing. Have a wonderful week.