The text today, Genesis chapter 41, verses 46 through 57. Genesis 41, 46 through 57. We'll begin reading at verse 38. This is God's inspired and inerrant word. It deserves your careful attention. Then Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in whom is a divine spirit? So Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has informed you of all this, there's no one so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house and according to your command, all my people shall do homage only in the throne. I will be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's, and clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put the gold necklace around his neck. And he had him ride in his second chariot, and they proclaimed before him, Bow the knee! And he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, Though I am Pharaoh, Yet, without your permission, no one shall raise his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt." Then Pharaoh named Joseph Zathanath-Paneah and gave him Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, the priest of On, as his wife. And Joseph went forth over the land of Egypt. Now, Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. And during the seven years of plenty, the land brought forth abundantly. So he gathered all the food these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and placed the food in the cities. He placed in every city the food from its own surrounding fields. Thus, Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he stopped measuring it for it was beyond measure. Now, before the year famine came. Two sons were born to Joseph, whom often off the daughter of part of their priest of on board to him and Joseph named the first born Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all my trouble in all my father's household. And he named the second Ephraim. For he said, God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. When the seven years of plenty, which had been in the land of Egypt, came to an end and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said, there was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. So, when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph. Whatever he says to you, you shall do. When the famine was spread over all the face of the earth, then Joseph opened up all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians. And the famine was severe in the land of Egypt, and all the people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the earth. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Amen. Amen. Let's go together once more before the throne of grace to seek God's blessing upon the preaching of his word. Let's pray together. God of Abraham, God of Isaac, God of Jacob, our God. We bless your holy name for the grand scheme of redemption revealed for us in Holy Scripture. We praise you, O Father, we bless your name that you have shown yourself to be the all wise God of heaven and earth, the creator and the Redeemer. And so now here, O Shepherd of Israel, who leads forth Joseph like a flock, the one enthroned above the cherubim, shine forth in our midst. O Lord, our God, restore us. Cause your face to shine upon us, and we shall be saved. And cause your Holy Spirit's illumining power to be at work in the midst of the congregation, so that we might understand your word and cause your spirit to dwell now upon the one who preaches that your word might come forth in the demonstration of the Holy Spirit's power, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. The Bible is a book about the history of God's dealings with man, not a collection of stories, not a book redacted. That is not a book that was first written and then edited over the years, but a book that God has written through many authors, used many men, written about many characters and many events designed to teach us how God acts, how he works, how he cares for all his creatures, but more specifically, how he cares and acts and works on behalf of his own people. But though the Bible is a book written by many authors about many characters and many events, But ultimately, the Bible is a book about Jesus Christ. Ultimately, it has one author, the Holy Spirit, who in its historical narratives, its prophetical writings, its poetry, the Gospels, the Epistles, has revealed His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. God, through the Holy Spirit, has revealed His Son and God has revealed how He has worked and acted and cared for His people through that one individual and the one event of the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should never read or study the Scriptures. without asking the question, how does this section of the Bible reveal to me the person, the nature, the character of Jesus Christ? That's the way God has intended us to read the Scriptures. And one of my goals of preaching through the narrative of Joseph is that you will never read this narrative again or any section of the Bible without considering that question. How does this section of Scripture, how does this passage, how does this character, how does this event reveal the person and work of Jesus Christ? Now, among the characters of the Bible, among the events of the Bible, we've said that Joseph preeminently serves as a type or a picture of Jesus Christ. Not to exclude Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. Not to exclude Noah or Moses or any of the other characters of the Old Testament Scriptures. But preeminently, in the shadows of the Old Testament, God has determined to use Joseph as a very clear picture to us of the Savior. Of what the Savior has done. Of how God has appointed the Savior in His mediatorial work. as the preeminent one over all of his people. We've already noted that in Joseph's circumstances, in his servitude in Egypt, his imprisonment and in his exaltation, we see a picture of the humiliation and the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we have in this text As we took it up last Lord's Day first, we noted that Joseph, or rather the bread in those storehouses of Egypt, is a grand demonstration of the way God has provided for His people bread in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life itself. And as we take up The text again today, we want to continue in that in that track. That's where we're going today. We want to see how God continues to reveal how the person and work of his son. And so our theme this morning is that God is fulfilling the word of prophecy given through Joseph of seven years of abundance and seven years of famine, as well as fulfilling his word to the patriarchs, fulfilling his word of covenant to the patriarchs. He's doing that on one level, we've said, but he's also showing us a picture of man's spiritual state and showing us the picture of Jesus in the person of Joseph as the people cry out for bread and are sent to him. In the first place, last Lord's Day, we began by seeing that what God is doing here is fulfilling his prophetic and covenantal word of promise in this narrative where Joseph is exalted and where Joseph begins to go out into the land. Through Joseph, he fulfilled that prophetic word that there would be seven years of great abundance in the land and seven years of famine. It came to pass. Our text tells us that it happened because that was a divine word spoken through Joseph. Furthermore, God is on another level, revealing himself as the one who fulfills his promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is fulfilling his covenant. He's preserving his people. And we saw that the language of the text is reminiscent of the language that God uses in the promises of covenant, especially in Abraham and in Jacob, that there is this word abundant or sometimes translated plenty. It found in in the the promise to Abraham, as well as this word fruitful. God made Joseph fruitful. He gave him children in the land of Egypt, in his captivity, so to speak. And so God is revealing, God is tying us back then to the patriarchal promises and showing us that he's keeping that promise by preserving his people in the midst of that famine. On another level altogether, God is preserving the line of the Savior. Interestingly enough, the main character of this grand demonstration of the Lord Jesus Christ in types and shadows is not the one who would carry on the royal line of the Savior. That's Judah. Judah comes into the picture later. But of course, we see even in that, that God was preserving His line. God was preserving the line of Judah, the line of the Savior, that He might fulfill those covenant promises. God is keeping His promise. He's giving us a picture of man's great spiritual need and the remedy. for that need. That's the second thing we saw last week. God is giving us here a picture of man's great spiritual need and the remedy for that need. The seven years of abundance. We also tied this language, the language that Moses uses here in our text. We saw in verse forty nine, Joseph stored up the grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea until he stopped measuring it. Great abundance The word here is multiplied, it's the word you find translated multiply elsewhere. And then in 52, this word fruitful also is repeated. We see it first, rather, in the creation account where God tells man to go forth, to multiply and to be fruitful. So God is taking us back, in a sense, to creation and to the garden. and showing us man's original state, that pristine state in the garden, where man was created in knowledge, righteousness and holiness, and where, in a sense, man walked in his own righteousness because God made him righteous. All of his affections, all of his desires, All was to God, and he walked in sweet fellowship and communion with God. That's what's pictured in those seven years of abundance. But then in the story, those seven years of abundance were swallowed up by seven years of famine, even as the curse has, in a sense, swallowed up those seven years of great abundance. Man fell into a great a great state of spiritual famine. And that famine is evident anywhere you go in the world today. You can see how that famine, that spiritual famine, that spiritual hunger is evident in the nature of men and women and children. The world looks for that. The solution to that spiritual hunger in many different places. The world looks for it in wealth. The world looks for that to fulfill that great need, that spiritual void by the pursuit of power, by the pursuit of happiness, pleasure, recreation. All kinds of other things. But what we find revealed in the text is very profound. Because the people in the land of Egypt could not be satisfied by anything else but bread. Had you offered them wealth? Had you offered them great pleasure? Had you offered them great wisdom and knowledge? They would have considered you as a mocker. You're mocking us in our need. What we need is bread. You see, that's what the world needs. That's what man needs. Ultimately, his need can be met nowhere else and nothing else can satisfy that deep spiritual need, but the bread of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. As we continue in our text this morning, we want to see that not only has God given us a, not only has he shown to fulfill, to be true to his promise, not only has he shown us a picture of man's spiritual state and how he's met that in the bread of life, the Lord Jesus, But we want to see more fully how God is progressively revealing the person and work of Jesus Christ. In the first place, he does so in the timing of the commencement of Joseph's office. Thirty years is a significant... We really glossed over this last Lord's Day. We didn't even really deal with it. But you notice in verse 46, that Moses makes a point to let us know that Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. That's a very significant number. As it turns out, David, whom we might also say was the greatest among the kings as one who foreshadowed Christ took his office at the age of 30 years old. As it also turns out, the Levitical priesthood took up its work at the age of 30 years old. You remember that in the Chronicles when the Levites are numbered, they're numbered from age 30 and up. That's because the Levites, the priestly caste, of Israel did not take up their work until they were 30 years old. And as it turns out, Luke tells us that Jesus was 30 years old when he began his ministry. That's exactly the way Luke puts it. Jesus was 30 years old. And so what God is doing here is showing us right at the outset, a very clear picture of Jesus. Nothing in God's Word is incidental. The details of the histories of the patriarchs, all of the details of the history of Israel, none of these things are incidental. The Holy Spirit is pointing us to Joseph as a unique type of Jesus Christ. But secondly, we see that God progressively reveals the person and work of Christ in the political relationship between Pharaoh and Joseph. You notice how the people go to Pharaoh. They're hungry for bread. They're famished. Famine has ravaged the land. And they go to Pharaoh. They cry out to him, give us bread. But Pharaoh doesn't answer them directly. He doesn't meet that need himself. He says, go to Joseph. I've appointed him. Joseph stands as the mediator between Pharaoh and the people of Egypt. So also there is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. Joseph was that mediator. Jesus is the mediator. All appeals must go to Jesus. All appeals to the Father must go through Jesus. All the riches of the storehouses of Egypt were placed in Joseph's hands. The man that he delighted to exalt and honor. before whom all were to bow the knee." You notice how, as we read in the context of our text this morning, how that's emphasized all that Pharaoh did for Joseph, even though he was the king and Joseph was only the prime minister. Second in the land, yes, but Pharaoh was the king, the one who had great power, the one who was omnipotent in that land. And yet all these things he did for Joseph, clothed him in royal attire, gave him his signet ring, caused him to ride in the second chariot, all would bow the knee before him. All these things, you see, point to that unique relationship between the father and the son. The father is the one who has decreed our salvation, the son who has executed the work of the cross, the work of atonement on our behalf, our mediator before God. And so all appeals then to God must go through Jesus. Isn't that what the Bible very plainly and clearly teaches us? All the treasures of grace are placed in his hands. He's the administrator of the everlasting covenant. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, but by me. I'm the door. If anyone enters through me, Jesus said, he shall be saved. Nothing is clearer in the Bible than that we have no interest whatsoever, no salvation, no grace, no communion with God. unless it's through the sun. It's through Christ's pardoning blood that sinners draw near to God. It's through his righteousness that we have peace and acceptance with God. It's in Christ's name that we offer our prayers to the Father. These famished Egyptians passed by Joseph. They didn't recognize that he had all the granaries under his seal and in his hands. They went to Pharaoh to get what they wanted, but they didn't get it from him directly. And so there are those two who go to the father for pardon and peace and acceptance to try to meet the famished need of their souls. And what does the Father do? He says, go to Jesus, my Son. I have exalted Him. All authority and power in heaven and on earth have been given to my Son. There are so many people in the world today who go to the Father, Don't recognize that Jesus is the one who has been given all these things. All spiritual blessing. Every spiritual blessing is found in Jesus Christ. All of your needs are met in Jesus Christ and come through him. Have you gone to Jesus? That's the question. as you've sought pardon and peace, as you've sought to find acceptance before God, as you're looking for the righteousness that you need, without which you cannot be accepted before God. Have you gone to Jesus? Have you begged God to show you mercy through the Lord Jesus Christ? That's the first and greatest question. But then believers also fail to recognize that Jesus is the spiritual Joseph of the church. Christian, doesn't this give you a much clearer picture of why it is that you ask in Jesus' name? Sometimes we utter that expression so thoughtlessly, tacked on to the end of a prayer. In Jesus' name, amen. What does that mean? It means we're recognizing the mediatorial role of Jesus Christ. It means that the floodgates have been opened up and great spiritual blessing is poured out upon us because of the work of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has opened up that way into heaven. And so we're coming through His mediation. I've told you many times the significance of what took place at one of the events surrounding the cross when the veil between the holy place and the Holy of Holies was torn in two. That Jesus and His death has opened up a way to the Father. And so we come through Jesus. He's our mediator. And you remember at one point in His ministry, When he was dealing with his disciples, he said to them. Until now, you've asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive. That your joy may be made full. Not only do I hope that you never read the story of Joseph, the narrative of Joseph again without seeing Christ, or the rest of the scripture. But I hope that you never pray in Jesus name again without recognizing that we do so because Christ is the one through whom we bring our requests and through whom God has supplied all of your spiritual needs. In that relationship between the political relationship between Pharaoh and Joseph, then. God is picturing the relationship between the father and the son, the mediatorial relationship that Jesus has with his people. But then in that relationship as well, we have a foreshadow of the divine decree of redemption through Jesus Christ. In anticipation of the coming famine, Pharaoh by Joseph's agency, stored up an abundant supply of bread in the granaries of Egypt. The precious gospel truth illustrated in this action is that God, from all eternity, decreed to provide redemption through his son in the covenant of grace. Redemption, brethren, was not an afterthought on God's part. God knew from all eternity that man would fall. He knew that after these years of great abundance in the garden, that a spiritual famine would come over the land, and that there would be a need, that the curse that accompanied that spiritual famine must be removed. And He knew that there was a man He knew that this second person of eternity from all eternity would be the one to meet that spiritual need to become a curse for man's sake, to become sin itself, in order that they might be redeemed from their sin. And so, in the councils of eternity, God devised this grand plan for salvation and laid up a heavenly granary a bread of life that would meet the famished condition of fallen man. Inexhaustible riches, inexhaustible stores of pardoning, justifying and sanctifying grace were all treasured up before the foundation of the world in anticipation of the ruinous state of famine into which God. Not only knew man would come. But for ordained that that state should come about. For God, for man, and so Peter could preach on day of Pentecost after all that the disciples have been through. After everything that the Savior endured. And if they witness with their own eyes, Peter could say. that Jesus was delivered up by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God. All of the covenant blessings that you and I enjoy are anticipatory. Everything that God gives to us has already been anticipated before the foundation of the world. And so are all of our needs, all of our appeals, so we can have great confidence that no new emergency, no new circumstance, no new affliction will overtake us that has not already been anticipated and provided for in the fullness of Christ and for which God has stored up abundant blessings. And so, as figuratively those seven years of abundance come to an end in your circumstances, when the time of famine comes, you can be confident that there's nothing new. God isn't surprised when affliction comes upon us. God isn't surprised when we face difficulties, because He's ordained it, He's anticipated that need, and He's supplied for that need before the foundation of the world. And He's done all this through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's made Christ preeminent before the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the waters, Before a single atom was formed, before a single star shone in the heavens above, grace and glory in great abundance were laid out for us in the granaries of heaven. That's a wonderful thought. And if that doesn't thrill your soul, I simply don't know what would. That you have a God who has anticipated all of your needs, spiritual as well as physical, and determined to supply for them through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're to go to Jesus then. We're to go to Him. We're to reach the Father through the Mediator, through the Son. God has given us this glorious picture of our communion with Jesus Christ. Indeed, our communion with Him through the Lord Jesus Christ. So that we might be all the more at, all the more compelled to run to Jesus any time that a need arises in our lives. Where do we go now when famine comes? What's the first place, the first thing that you do when a need arises? Do you fret? Do you worry? Do you become anxious? When a physical need arises, a temporal need, when you're faced with affliction, when you're facing great temptation, where do you go? To whom do you run? God tells us over and over again in the Scriptures, we must go to Jesus. And so he's given us a picture. He hasn't just said it once in one way. He says it over and over and over again. Go to Jesus. Before the foundation of the world, God has done this. It's captured well in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, where he writes, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, chapter one, verse three, who's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and blameless before him. God has in the first place in our text, shown that he keeps his word, the word of promise to his people, the word fulfilled through Joseph, the word of the covenant to his people, the preservation of his people and the line of the Savior, Jesus Christ. And he's given us a picture then of our spiritual state. He's shown us, he's reminded us, Moses has reminded us of the pristine state in which man existed in the garden. He's shown us the great famine that came over the world spiritually. And then he has progressively revealed to us the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why you ought to be reading your Bible. You ought to be reading them yearly, if possible. That's why the elders continually encourage you to read through the Scriptures in a year. That's why at the beginning of the year we set the Bible reading calendars. And whether you use that calendar or another calendar, it doesn't really matter. But you ought to be reading through the Scriptures yearly. And if you can't read it through in a year, then take two. But Seth, engage in some kind of plan where you read through the scriptures periodically. Wasn't it OK just to read little snippets here and there for my private worship and my daily devotions? I'm not saying that's wrong. What I'm saying is you don't get the big picture. book written by a fairly well-known reformed theologian called He Gave Us Stories. The point of the book is that God has revealed Jesus in stories. God has revealed his son in the narratives of the Old Testament scriptures. That's the theme of that particular book. And so if you read snippets here and there of the scripture, you don't get the broader picture. God has a broader counsel than what we get merely in the New Testament Scriptures. God has revealed to us throughout the Old and New Testament Scriptures the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so make it a point to look for Jesus in the Scriptures. To see His glory and His beauty and His majesty in all the Scriptures, that you might understand the whole counsel of God. Look for Jesus everywhere you turn, on every page. But read that in the whole counsel of God, because God has given us stories. May He continue to reveal to us as we work our way through this story of Joseph, and as we read the Scriptures, may He continue to cause us to revel to take great encouragement and strength in the revealed person and work of Jesus Christ, so that we will, in all circumstances of life, find fellowship with our Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Let's pray. O Lord, our God, there is no one like you in the heavens above or on the earth beneath who has kept covenant and shown loving kindness through his only begotten Son to those who walk after him with all their heart. O Lord, continue to show us the Savior. Continue to cause us to fall all the more in love with him to marvel at your great plan of redemption. Reveal yourself, O Lord, to ignorant minds. We confess that we so often overlook the great truth that you have shown us in your word and that our minds are so dull. And so unless we are given eyes to see and ears to hear. O Lord, we will continue to languish. And so help us, we pray. Give us grace so that we might more fully understand Your Word. And give us diligence and consistence in reading and studying it. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen.