The last couple of weeks we've been studying in Genesis and the emphasis has been upon God's establishment of his covenant with Abraham and then how that was then given to Isaac and then to his grandson Jacob. Now, the Abrahamic covenant is critical to understanding of the rest of the Bible because it is through that covenant that God is going to fulfill his promise of a future Redeemer. Remember back in Genesis 3.15, in the midst of the curse upon the serpent, because of its role in deceiving Eve and the subsequent fall of man into sin, there was hope given as well because there was one who was going to come, the seed of the woman that will crush the serpent's head. a future redeemer that is going to triumph over the usurper, Satan. It is in the Abrahamic covenant that it is then traced, so it's very important we understand that. Well, this morning our focus switches a little bit to the preservation of that covenant as it is now passed down to Jacob's sons. Remember, Jacob is renamed Israel, talking about the same person. His twelve sons, and preserving them in the midst of an evil place, because it was evil where they were, we saw some of that last week. allowing them to grow and in the midst of famine. We're going to start off with Genesis 37. We're going to cover chapter 37 through 50 today, so we are going to go a little fast. Now, as we pick up the story in Genesis 37, we find Israel is back in the land of Canaan. He is living in the southern area of Hebron where Isaac had been living just before he died. Now as we begin, we find that Israel's favoritism for Joseph, the first son of his favorite wife, Rachel, Remember, she had died giving birth to Benjamin on the way to Hebron near Bethlehem, and that's where she was buried. But this is his favorite son because Rachel was his favorite wife. And that favoritism causes an underlying conflict between the brothers. Look there in verse 3. It says, Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a very colored tunic. His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. Now, it didn't help that Israel also used Joseph as the tattletale. Go check up on your brothers and tell us what's going on. Verse 2 gives an account of that. When he was 17, he went and checked on them, brought a bad report about them. Now you've got a little brother who's a tattletale. It doesn't help. Any of you who have grown up in a family where favoritism was shown, you remember the feelings. You know what it was like. Magnify that times 11, because that's how many brothers there are. That's how much hatred there was towards Joseph, I'm sorry, times 10, Benjamin was younger. He was hated by them. Now their hatred only grew when Joseph had a dream and told them about it. Look at verse 7. It says, Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheave rose up and also stood erect. And behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheave. Well, they understood the implications. That Joseph, second youngest in the family, he's going to reign and rule over them? Uh-huh. Not in your life. They're not going to let that happen. Greater hatred towards him. Then Joseph had another dream. This time he told his brothers and his father, verse 9. Lo, I have had still another dream. Behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars were bowing down to me. Again, they understood the implications. But this time, even Israel is wondering about this and rebukes him in verse 10. What is this dream that you have had? Shall I and your mother and your brothers actually come bow ourselves down before you to the ground? What's this about? Now his brothers just became more jealous, but Israel kept the saying in mind. Now a day finally came when the brothers could take action upon all their jealousy. Israel had sent Joseph all the way up to Shechem, where the brothers had been passing the flock. And again, check on them, check on the flocks, and come back and bring me report. Well, it turned out they weren't at Shechem. So he's wandering around and finally finds out from a guy that they had gone up to Dothan. Now as he's going there, before he even arrives, his brothers recognize him coming. And they start plotting. What can we do to this, and they refer to him as the Dreamer. They don't want that dream to come true. They're not real happy with him. They hate him. Well, their first plan was they were going to murder him. And then say that a wild beast had killed him. But Reuben, he's the oldest, he intervenes and instead he got them to throw him into a pit. His intention is that at some point he would come back and rescue him. That's there in verses 18 through 24. For some reason, we're not told in the text, Reuben leaves. for a while. And while he is gone, there is a band of Ishmaelites that come through in a caravan. They are taking things down to Egypt for trade. Gum, balm, myrrh. Judah comes up with a new plan. Verse 26 says, What profit is it for us to kill our brother and cover up his blood? Come, and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and not lay our hands on him. For he is our brother, our own flesh, and his brothers listen to him." Now, whether this was Judah's plan to actually save his life, or Judah just was interested in money, we don't really know. But God used it to preserve his life. And they did sell him 20 shekels of silver. That's the average price of a slave at that time. And Joseph is taken down to Egypt. Now Reuben comes back and he's beside himself. What's he going to do? What is he going to tell his father? They come up with a plan. There's nothing else he can do about it now. They're gone. So they took his very colored tunic, they dipped it in the blood of a goat, and they sent it to their father telling him this. We found this. Please examine it to see whether it is your son's tunic or not. Israel looks at it. He says, it is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Joseph surely has been torn to pieces. They deceived him purposely by setting it up so he would come to a wrong conclusion and then not correcting it. Israel, of course, then tore his clothes in his grief. He put on sackcloth in mourning and he refused to be comforted. Our text tells us that they tried to comfort him, but what could they do? to comfort him when they were the liars and the ones who brought this all about. The only way they could comfort him to say is, no, he's still alive, we sold him to Egypt. But they didn't want to deal with that either. So they left their father in mourning over this. Meanwhile, Joseph is taken to Egypt and he is sold to a man named Potiphar. He is the captain of Pharaoh's bodyguard. Now understand, their intent was evil. That's all through this, we're going to find this. Their intent was evil, but the Lord was with Joseph so that he became a successful man anyways. It didn't take long that Potiphar recognized the Lord was with Joseph and he was prospering because of Joseph. That resulted, Joseph was soon elevated, he became the personal servant of Potiphar. the overseer of his house, and everything was put in his charge. In fact, if you look there in Genesis 39.4, it states this. So he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge, and with him he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. Man, Potiphar had it easy, didn't he? I don't have any concern about what I eat, because this guy's taking care of everything. Now, at the same time, for Joseph, if you have to be a slave, well, this is a pretty good position. If you're going to be a slave, this is good, but there's also danger present. Potiphar's wife is not a good character, and she set her desire on Joseph because the text tells us he was a handsome man. And she kept making advances towards him, but his good character is demonstrated there in verses 8 through 10. He says, Behold with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. He has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?" Now note carefully that last statement because it reveals that Joseph's actions are governed by his belief and relationship with God. It's not just that he sees this as a wrong thing to do, it'd violate his math, he'd get in trouble. That's not his motive. His motive is, this would be a sin against God, therefore I'm not going to do this. But a woman rejected can be dangerous. A day came when no one else was in the house except her and Joseph. She still had her eye set upon him, and she actually grabbed him. And his outer coat came off. She wanted him to commit adultery with her. He did what we should do. The New Testament tells about that. Flee youthful lust. Run away. You don't stay there and think you can handle it. There's better valor. Get out of the situation. And he did. So he fled the house. Well, now she's hurt. And she seeks revenge. So she lies about him and makes up a story that Joseph had come in to make sport of her. And it only left when she was screaming And the garment was proof of what she was saying. Of course, when Potiphar is told this, he is very angry. And Joseph, the righteous man, is thrown into prison. He's thrown into prison. Now, Joseph now has been on the receiving end of someone else's evil intent again. And yet, the Lord is with him and extends kindness to him in prison. And in this case, the Lord gives him favor on the side of the chief jailer. So Joseph ends up being in charge of all the prisoners. This is almost a repeat of what happened in Potiphar's house. He was in charge of the house and now he's got a whole prison. He actually has more responsibilities. Verse 21 says, the chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper. Now, it's interesting here as well, as Joseph, as a young man, had no experience in managing anything. Now he managed the household and whatever Potiphar had, and now he's gained management of a whole jail. He's learning a lot of skills that are going to come in valuable later. In the midst of the evil intent, God is working in Joseph, brings him kindness, and is teaching him skills he's going to need to succeed later, even in the midst of a bad situation. Now it came about that the cup bearer and the chief baker for Pharaoh offended him and they are thrown into prison and they are there for some time. Each of them on the same night had a dream. Now we have dreams and we don't think a whole lot of it. They did. In ancient Egypt they believed that dreams were extremely important because they determined your future. So there was a whole class of, for lack of a better word, they were professional dream interpreters. They're magicians is one word that's used for them. Conjurers, but they had documented dreams and what had happened and they came up with this whole system of what dreams meant. Well, these guys are in jail. Professional dream interpreters don't come to talk to jailbirds. There's no one to interpret. Now they're very upset. And so the next morning when they get up, the text says they are sullen. They are downcast and they appear dejected. And so Joseph asks them, why do you appear so sad? And they say, well, we've had this dream and no one is here to interpret it for us. Joseph responds and says, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me the dream. He's telling them very clearly here. I can't interpret it, but if you tell me and I do interpret it, it's because God has given it to you. I have a God that's greater than the one you serve. Tell me the dream." So they do. The chief cupbearer then tells Joseph about it and he interprets it and says, Pharaoh is going to restore you to your position within three days. And Joseph makes one request of him, there in verse 14. Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by mentioning Pharaoh and get me out of this house. For I was in fact kidnapped in the land of the Hebrews, and even here I've done nothing that should put me into this dungeon. He may be in charge of the jail, but that's not where he wants to be. He knows it's not right that he is there. So he sees a way out. Now the cupbearer is important. He's got the ear of Pharaoh all the time. Just tell him, you work something out, get me out of here. Now the chief baker sees this was a good interpretation and says, okay, good. Then I'll get a good one too. So he tells him his dream, but it's not good. The interpretation is in three days, Pharaoh is going to execute you. Three days later was Pharaoh's birthday and everything Joseph said came exactly true. The cupbearer was restored and again was serving Pharaoh and the chief baker was executed. Two years Joseph stays in prison before finally something comes about and the cupbearer mentions him to Pharaoh because Pharaoh has two dreams and he is very distraught about them. He calls all the magicians, all the conjurers, all the wise men of Egypt. They all gather because of course this is Pharaoh, this is very important and none of them can tell him what this dream means. Two dreams. Neither one. They don't know what it means. Only at that time did this chief cupbearer finally remember and tell Pharaoh about how he, Joseph, had correctly interpreted his dream and the dream of the chief baker. Well, Pharaoh then sends for him. So they clean him up. You're going to go into the Pharaoh's present. You've got to be right. So they clean him up. They put on ice clothes and stuff. Send him in before Pharaoh. Verse 15, chapter 41. Pharaoh says to him, I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it. I have heard it said about you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph then answered Pharaoh saying, it is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. So again, we see Joseph is careful to point out God is the only source of true dream interpretation. God is the one that gets the glory. That tells us about his character again, too, doesn't it? You know, a situation he could elevate himself is, no, God is the one, period. Well, Pharaoh then told Joseph the dreams, and Joseph then interpreted them as follows. Look at Genesis 41, verse 25. It says, Now Joseph said to Pharaoh, Pharaoh's dreams are one and the same. God has told Pharaoh what he's about to do. The seven good cows are seven years. The seven good ears are seven years. The dreams are one and the same. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven thin ears scorched by the east wind shall be seven years of famine. It is as I have spoken to Pharaoh, God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. Behold, seven years of great abundance are coming to all the land of Egypt. And after them, seven years of famine will come and all the abundance will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will ravage the land. So the abundance will be unknown in the land because of the subsequent famine, for it will be very severe. Now, as for the repeating of the dream to Pharaoh twice, it means that the matter is determined by God, and God will quickly bring it about. Now, he could have stopped there, but he went on. He gives advice to Pharaoh. He tells him to look for a man discerning and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land, and let him exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance. Then let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh's authority, and let them guard it. And let the food become as a reserve for the land for the seven years of famine, which will occur in the land of Egypt so that the land may not perish during the famine." It was a good plan. Interesting, the tax rate is only 20%. Without 20%, they're going to get enough to last the full seven years of famine. Now, if the people had bothered to listen to Joseph, they should have figured, well, maybe I better set some aside too. We're going to find out they don't. One of the reasons for government is forcing us sometimes to do things we don't want to do, but we need to do. In this case, the forcing of savings of the grain so they would save themselves during those lean years. Now, Pharaoh liked the advice. So he put Joseph in charge saying this, since God has informed you of all this, there is no one so discerning as wise as you are. Pharaoh got it pretty quickly. Joseph has got to be the one who's going to be in charge of this. And again, I'll point back, now he's in charge of the whole land. The train he got in Potiphar's house and then in the jail were the management skills he needed now to take over the nation. Now, Joseph has only been in Egypt for 13 years. He's now 30 years old. He is second in command of the nation. Only Pharaoh is greater than him. In addition, he was given Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, a priest of On as his wife, and now things were looking good for him. That's a lot for a 30-year-old man. Second in command of everything. Well, Joseph did carry out the plan. He stored a great amount of food during the years of planning. The text there says it couldn't even be counted anymore. It was so much that they had saved up. Also, he had two sons during that time, Manasseh and Ephraim. But when the years of famine came, he was able to provide. And so it flew not only to the Egyptians, but to other nations around that were also affected by the same famine. One of the areas affected was Canaan, where Jacob and his sons lived. Genesis 42 records that Jacob sent his sons, except Benjamin, down to Egypt to get a little food. Now, when they come, Joseph recognizes his brothers immediately, but they don't recognize him. Remember, he's dressed in Egyptian guards. He had been sold as a slave. You don't expect to go to Egypt and find some guy to be your brother who's in charge of everything. That's the last thing they'd expect. Also, Joseph is going to be speaking Egyptian. In fact, he plays that up and doesn't let them know that he knows their language. So, they actually have an interpreter between them. So, he knows who they are. They do not know who he is. Well, they come before Joseph and they bow down, fulfilling the very prophecy that had been so many years before. They bow down before him. He begins to question them. The text says, harshly. He asks where they came from. He starts accusing them of being spies. He questions them further. What about your family? Now, this wasn't for a purpose of revenge. If he wanted revenge, he could have taken it out immediately. He is going to test them. What kind of character do you men have now? It's been 20 years. Has anything changed? Now, the third day after they were in jail, Joseph revealed to them that he feared God, and there is the God that they serve, in order to test them. He takes one of the brothers, and it's Simeon, because he is the oldest that had not been part of the conspiracy. He throws him in the jail and says to the others, you can go. Take your grain, but you can't come back unless you bring Benjamin. Now that upsets them. Look at verse 21. The brothers then said to one another, Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen. Therefore, distress has come upon us. And Reuben answered him, saying, Did I not tell you, Do not sin against the boy, and you would not listen. Now comes the reckoning for his blood. They're speaking in Hebrew. Joseph understands. They don't know he understands it. So he's seeing that there is remorse now on their part towards the sin they had done. And this is when he finds out Reuben had tried to save his life. And that is why he picks Simeon to be the one who goes to prison. So the other brothers head back to Hebron. Simeon's in jail. What they didn't know is that Joseph had taken their money and put it back in their grain sacks. When they get back to Hebron, they have problems. First of all, what are they going to explain to their father? How are they going to explain this? Simeon's in jail down there and we have to bring Benjamin back. And of course, Israel's not going to let Benjamin come back. That's his favorite son. He's firmly against it. Even when Reuben declared he'd put the life of his own two sons as collateral, he resisted. But then I have to save on Reuben's right half. Yeah, this is really a test. Here's my two grandsons. You can kill them if Well, grandpa was going to kill his grandsons because his other son died. That's ridiculous. But that was collateral. He says no. Then they found the money in their sacks of grain. They got an additional problem. How did they go back because they know they're going to be accused of stealing? Well, the famine continued on and it forced them to go back. Israel was still resistant, but Judah explained that unless they took Benjamin back with them, they couldn't purchase anything. So he placed himself to surety for the life of Benjamin, and Israel reluctantly let Benjamin go. But he also sent with his sons double the money, as you pay him again, tell them you found it, but pay him double, and also take best products of the land that we have. In this case, a little balm, honey, aromatic gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts, almonds. Now remember, a famine doesn't mean there's nothing. It just means there's little. In this case, it was a severe famine, so they had very little. But what little did they have? They didn't send us a gift. That's a way to hopefully please this ruler and gain some favor from him. But when they arrive in Egypt, Joseph has them brought to his house. Now that makes him even more afraid. They're thinking, the text tells us, because of the money. He knows about this. And he's bringing us here and he's going to get on to us about it. So they take the house steward aside and they tell him what had happened with the money. They say, look, we've brought you double the money to give to you. And the house steward assures them, verse 23, it says, Be at ease, do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure and your sacks. I had your money." So this calms them down. They then bring out Simeon out to them, and they prepare a meal to eat with Joseph. Now Joseph arrives, he greets them, of course he asks about the welfare of their father, and he's coming down, and here's Benjamin. And he's deeply stirred at this. He pronounces a blessing on him, but he can't hold it emotionally. He actually has to excuse himself. He goes to his private chamber, and there he weeps. has to regain control of himself and wash his face before he can come back. He's very emotionally moved at seeing his youngest brother. Well, then he seats the brothers in order from first born to the youngest. Now, these are not young men. These are guys in their 40s and 50s. And you generally cannot tell birth order when everybody is, you know, a few months apart to maybe a year apart and they're that old. Can you put them in order? No, he puts them all in exact order. Now these guys are wondering, what kind of guy is this that has done this? What's going on here? It's all for a purpose. The next thing that Joseph does is he gives portions of food from his own table to them, except for Benjamin, and he keeps five times as much on Benjamin's plate. There's a purpose in that. He wants to find out, are his brothers still going to be jealous of Benjamin? Now remember, Benjamin is the loved one by their father, so the same situation he had been in. Are these men still jealous and hateful and spiteful because of dad's sin and taking it out on Benjamin? That's why he does it. They just feast and drink, they show no jealousy at all. But he's got one more test for them. Joseph has his house steward fill up their sacks and has his silver cup placed in Benjamin's sack. The next morning they start back for Hebron, but Joseph only lets them go a little ways before he sends his house steward after them and then accused them of taking his silver divination cup. They, of course, denied it and then said this in verse 9, with whomever of your servants it is found, let him die and we also will be my Lord's slaves. So they're very adamant. We don't have anything to do with this. Of course, the servants start searching. He purposely starts from the oldest. The last one is Benjamin and, of course, the cup is there. Now these men are broken because they know they're in big trouble. Again, this is a test. Joseph wants to see what are they going to do on behalf of Benjamin? He's in trouble. What is going to be their reaction? Well, the first thing they do, verse 13, is they tear their clothes. Then they are brought back before Joseph. They fall to the ground before him. And Judah spoke up for the rest of the brothers, saying this, What can we say to my Lord? What can we speak? How can we justify ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Behold, we are of my Lord's slaves, both we and the one in whose possession the cuff has been found." They're not abandoning the digimus time. Judah's speaking for all of us, we will stay in this together. We will all be slaves. Now he says, no, only the one with the cuff is going to be a slave. The rest are free to go. Judah then speaks up again and explains the situation. Starting in verse 18, O my Lord, may your servant please speak a word in my Lord's ears, and do not be angry with your servant, for you are equal to Pharaoh. My Lord asked his servant, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, We have an old father and a little child of his old age. Now his brother is dead, so he is alone and left with his mother, and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him. But we said to my Lord, The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. You said to your servants, however, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again. Thus it came about that when we went up to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord. And our father said, Go back, buy us a little food. But we said, We cannot go down if our youngest brother is with us. We will not go down, for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. And your servant, my father, said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons, and the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn in pieces, and I have not seen him since. And if you take this one from me also, and harm befalls him, you will bring my gray hair down to Sheol in sorrow. Now therefore, when I come to your servant, my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad's life, it will come about when he sees the lad is not with us, that he will die. Thus your servant will bring the gray hair of your servant, our father, down to Sheol in sorrow. For your servant king became surety for the lad to my father, saying, If I do not bring them back to you, then let me bear the blame before my father forever. Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave of my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how shall I go to my father if the lad is not with me, lest I see the evil that would overtake my father? They're changed men. These aren't the men that threw him into slavery 22 years earlier. They had passed the test. They are not going to abandon Benjamin to save themselves. And Judah, additionally, is offered to be the substitute for Benjamin out of compassion for his father because of the harm it would do to him. Joseph's brothers are different men than the ones that sold him to slavery 22 years earlier. Well, after having everybody else leave, Joseph now revealed to his brothers his real identity. You can only imagine the shock. The text says they were speechless. They were dismayed. And Joseph responded by comforting them. You can imagine the shock in several ways. First of all is, they can't believe it's her brother. And then it's, it is her brother. Now what's he going to do? Because he could do really anything he wanted. What's he going to do? Joseph comforts them, and in doing so, he explains the providential rule of God in the lives of men. Look at Genesis 45, verse 4 rather. I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt, and now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. So there's no words minced here. You guys did this. You sold me into slavery. Look at the next phrase. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years. There are still five years in which there will be neither plowing or harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me a father to Pharaoh and a lord of all his household and ruler of all the land of Egypt. Hurry, go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not delay, and you shall live in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me and your children and your children's children, your flocks, your herds, all that you have. There I will also provide for you, for there are still five years of famine to come." lest you and your household and all that you have be impoverished. Behold, your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth which is speaking to you. Now you must tell my father of all this, my splendor in Egypt, and all that you have seen, and you must hurry and bring my father down here.' Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and he wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept on them, and afterward his brothers talked with him." It's a reconciliation. All that Joseph has been through has not produced in him anger towards his brothers. He is not seeking revenge. He is not bitter. He is clearly seeing God's hand in it, even though he suffered so much in this time. And he relied on God. And that's how he conquered that. Therefore, go get Dad, bring him down here, and I will provide for you so that we do not become impoverished. The text goes on and says Pharaoh was pleased when he heard news about Joseph's brothers. He ordered wagons, anything they needed to go get Israel and their families and bring them down. And so they did return. And when the sons of Israel returned to tell Jacob that Joseph was alive, he's stunned. It says he did not believe them until he saw all these wagons in order for them to go back. And then he understood. Joseph was still alive. Now, Israel's a bit pessimistic. The text says, I will go see my son Joseph and it's enough and then I'll die. So he's still pessimistic, but he's going to live a little longer than that. Genesis 46, they set out for Egypt. And when they got to Beersheba, there Israel offered more sacrifices. And God spoke to him in the night vision saying this, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go to Egypt, for I will make you a great nation there. I will go down with you to Egypt. I will also surely bring you up again. And Joseph will close your eyes. You will see him. He is the one. You will die in his presence. That was comforting to him. And so the house of Israel with all their descendants came to Egypt with their livestock and property. And Joseph had them settle in the land of Goshen, that's the Delta area of the Nile, because that was a good area for livestock, for all their flocks and herds. He went up there when he came to meet his father. And the text tells us that he and his father then wept together for a long time. Joseph then brought Israel and five of his brothers before Pharaoh and told them that they were shepherds, and Pharaoh gave them the best of the land and also put them in charge of his own flocks. He trusted them that much. Now Jacob is 130 years old now. That's when he goes down there. And being the older man, he is the one that blessed Pharaoh upon meeting him. And so they settled in the land of Goshen. Now as the years of the famine wore on, Joseph did continue to provide for his brothers. and all their families. Pharaoh provided for all the priests. These were the only two groups that ended up owning anything when the famine was done because everything else was sold so they could get food. Pharaoh ended up owning everything except what the Israelites had in the land of Goshen and what the priests had because they were provided for. Now after that happened, Joseph moved the populations around the established cities and then rented out the land to tenant farmers at a 20% tax rate. But the people were very grateful because they understood Joseph had saved their lives. Now Israel's family, we're told, continued to grow and prosper in the land of Goshen. They acquired property, they became numerous, and Israel lived to be 147 years old. So 17 more years he lived down there. And before he died, he had Joseph swear to bury him at the cave of Machpelah in Canaan. He also blessed each of his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they would be counted as his own sons. So that's why when you read an accounting of the tribes of Israel, you don't find Joseph. You find Ephraim and Manasseh that are counted double for Joseph. That's the blessing he gave them. Genesis 49, Israel then summoned all his sons to pronounce a blessing upon them. The particular blessing was prophetic of what the future would hold for them and their descendants. Reuben was first born, but he did not receive the rites of the firstborn because of his sin. Simeon and Levi, because of their anger, would be scattered among their brothers. Levi eventually becoming the tribe of priests scattered throughout Israel. Simeon basically being absorbed by Judah, his land was mixed in with Judah's. And then an important part of this, verses 8-12, is concerning Judah. The scepter will not depart from Judah. That is the royal line. We'll find tracing through that as we continue through our study in the future. It is through Judah's line that we'll eventually find the Redeemer. Zebulun would be an important trade route. Issachar would become an industrious and hardy tribe. Dan would be wayward in need of salvation. Gad would be exposed to invasions which would make them valiant fighters. Asher would dwell in a rich agricultural land and so be the source of good food. Naphtali would become quick and agile in his military endeavors. Joseph would grow and prosper by God's blessing despite the hostility shown against him. And Benjamin would become known for his archers and slingers. Well, after giving these final instructions for Bero beside Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Rebekah, Israel dies at 147. Well, they embalmed Israel. They mourned him for 70 days. The Egyptians as well mourned him. Then Pharaoh granted Joseph's request and the whole entourage went up to bury him. Included not just Israel's immediate family, those old enough to make the journey, but also said the elders of Pharaoh's household and the leaders of the land of Egypt. They all went too. And after they arrived, they mourned there for seven more days with such great and sorrowful lamentations. The text tells us even the Canaanites took note of it. And then they all returned to Egypt. So he was greatly honored, even by the Egyptians. Well, upon their return, Joseph's brothers once more became fearful, thinking, all right, dad is dead, now what's he going to do? He probably was just nice to us because he didn't want to get dad upset. And so they come before Joseph and they begin to plead for his forgiveness for their transgressions from so many years before. You see, though Joseph had forgiven them earlier, they didn't believe it. Look at verse 19. This is Joseph's response. Do not be afraid, for am I in God's place? Again, he's direct. As for you, you meant evil against me. It's not mincing words. God doesn't do that with us either, does he? We need to recognize our own sin, and God is going to spell it out for us. We have violated his commandments. We have not done what he says we need to do. We have sinned. We don't get around that, and yet God works even in the midst of that. You meant it for evil, he says, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive. Yes, you meant this as evil, but God had a plan even in the midst of your evil. And he goes on, he says, therefore, do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones. And so he comforted them and he spoke kindly to them. Joseph understood it was God that had sovereignly chosen Abraham and then Isaac and then Jacob. through which the covenant would come. He also understood that God in His sovereignty had preserved them and even used their evil intent to bring about a blessing. That is one of the most important lessons for us to learn from this and apply to our own lives. Too often we use Romans 8.28 as a cliché, but it is true. God does indeed work together all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Even the nasty stuff, the stuff that people do against you, that it's evil, it's wrong. God still is able to work through that to bring about a blessing if we'll let him. But we have to follow him. That's what Joseph's life teaches us. He recognized God not only chose who the covenant would go to, he preserves it. He's made promises to you as a believer. He will keep his promises. Well, Joseph lived to be 110 years old. He lived to see the third generation of Ephraim's sons. And when he was about to die, he reminded the house of Israel that God will surely take care of you and bring you up from this land to the land which he had promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That's verse 34. He had them then promised that they would carry out his bones and bury them with his fathers. And as Moses is writing this account, they have Joseph Bones with them, and they are taken back to the land of Canaan, where they will eventually bury him. You see, God is true, and he keeps his promises. If we learn nothing else from this whole section of scripture, we should understand that. God is more powerful than any situation you will ever face. And no matter how bad the circumstances seem, how wrong someone has done you, Whatever their evil intent, God is more than able to still bring a blessing out in the midst of it. But we need to look for His hand and follow that example of Joseph. Let's pray. Father, we are again very grateful for Your Word. And Father, though there was so much in this text, this overwhelming example of Joseph's life and this truth is one that we do need to apply. Forgive us for how often we don't trust you, that when people do evil against us, we get more caught up with thinking about revenge or somehow trying to get even or complaining about it than looking to see what you might do in the midst of it and then walking with you. Father, we understand clearly from the text that Joseph was not happy about being in jail. He wasn't happy about being in slavery. But he did understand that you were with him in the midst of it, and that you would bring something about, though he did not know what it was at the time. Father, we desire that same kind of faith, to walk with you in such a way that though we do not know the future, and present circumstances can be dire, that we can still trust you, knowing that your plan is greater than anything we can imagine, and that you will glorify yourself in us as we walk with you. Father, we desire to learn this lesson so that in daily life we will be like Joseph and quick to give praise and glory to you and point others to you that you are the only solution to their problems. In Jesus' name, Amen.