And we're going to go over into our Bible lesson in Genesis chapter 42. You have your Bibles turn over to Genesis chapter 42. One of my favorite stores, all-consuming stores, is Menards. Those of you that are maybe familiar with a little farther north than Kentucky line, there are Menards stores. It's kind of an everything hardware type store. I mean, anything that you need, you go into Menards, they have it. They have dog food. They have groceries. You know, they have furniture. We've got some furniture in our house that come from Menards. They got Christmas decorations, appliances. We got a refrigerator on sale from Menards. Wood, tools, pest control, toys. All right, toys is a big thing. We always go there during Christmas time because they would set up the toy trains. They had to set up the the model trains that were there and you could buy the different sets, even shirts. Some of the polos that the staff have a couple years ago I bought from Menards on sale and then we got them put our church sign on them. Even household items, cleaning items, I mean, all kinds of things. You know, this kind of Menards has it all. You can build your house and feed your dog and feed your family and furnish your house at the same time and buy your Christmas decorations and the toys for your kids all in one place. I mean, it's like a Walmart, a Lowe's, a tractor supply, a furniture road, and dollar store all wrapped in one, right? Even get some of the candy and even dollar, little toys that you had. This was, well, you know, the only thing you can't get at Menards is gas. They don't, they don't have a gas station at Menards. And you can't get a hot meal, all right? Anything, the food that you get there, you've got to go home and cook it up. But they offer 11% rebate. I'm not making an announcement or an advertisement for Menards. The closest one is Paducah. by the way. But every, you know, every, everything in the store, I think every other month is 11% rebate and it makes you think you're saving money. You're not really saving money because you got to go back in and spend 11% back into the store. So, I mean, but people, you know, people buy it. Well, in Egypt, in Genesis 42, Joseph is the manager and CEO of Menards in Egypt. Everything that anybody needs runs through his store. All of Egypt and in fact all of the known world around the Mediterranean world comes to Egypt to buy and sell. And this is amazing because just a few years before Joseph was on death row at the bottom of the barrel. in the prison, forgotten about, and now he's second in command of the largest nation on the planet at this time. And anybody in the world that needs food, around the Mediterranean, in fact, word is going to be advertised out all over the place, you're starving, Egypt has food. And so can you imagine all of the ships, all of the caravans, all of the people coming to this one location to find food. And God is the one that did that. God is the one that brought Joseph, took Joseph from the prison and he put him in the palace. Because God needed a savior. Joseph's name was called on God's role, and God's will, and direction, and everything that he has been through. All the pain, and the suffering, and the sorrow, and the abuse, and the lies about him. God was working behind the scenes, even through those terrible things, to put Joseph at the right spot, at the right time, to meet the right need in the world. Joseph is the prime example of Romans 8 in verse 28. For we know that all things work together for good to them who are called according to his purpose, right? It is for God's purpose and for God's pleasure that he takes all of the things in our life, that means the good and the bad, and he brings them about for the glory and the goodness of God. Genesis chapter 42 moves ahead in the story from chapter 41 at least seven years plus. If we look at the passage in Genesis 42, the scripture is going to open up. In fact, it opens up back, not in Egypt, but it will open up back in the Promised Land, back with the family of Jacob. Let's read a few verses here that we have tonight. And now, when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, Why do you look upon one another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt, Get you down thither, buy for us from thins, that we may live and not die. So Joseph's ten brothers went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob, sent not with his brethren, for he said, Let's preadventure mischief before him. And the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan as well. And Joseph was the governor over the whole land. And it was he that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw, or recognized his brothers, and he knew them. But he made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them, Whence come ye? And they said, From the land of Canaan, to buy food. And Joseph knew his brothers, but they did not know, or they did not recognize him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, You are spies. To see the nakedness of the land, you are come. To basically spy out the land. And they said unto him, No, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spies. And he said unto them, No, but to see the nakedness of the land, you are come. And they said, Thy servants are twelve brothers, and the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. Behold, the younger is this day with our father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto them, This is it that I spake unto you, saying, You are spies, whereby you shall be proved. I'll test you. By the life of Pharaoh you shall not go from hence, except your younger brother come here. Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proven, may be tested, whether there be any truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. And he put them all together in the ward for three days. And Joseph said unto them the third day, This do and live, for I fear God, If ye be true men, let one of your brothers be bound in the house of your prison. Go you, carry corn for the famine of your house. But bring your youngest brother back to me, so shall your words be verified and true and tested, and you shall not die, but you'll live." That's the opposite. And they did so. And they said one to another, we are very guilty. concerning our brother, and that we saw the anguish of his soul, and when he besought us, or when he pled with us, and we would not listen. Therefore is this distress or anguish come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Don't sin against the child, but you would not hear. Therefore behold also his blood, is now required. And they knew not that Joseph understood every word, for he spake unto them through an interpreter. Father, I praise you. Help us tonight as we look at these verses. We go through the story, give us wisdom as we look through this from your light in Jesus name we pray, amen. Seven years of plenty have happened in the land of Egypt. The greatest crop that Egypt has ever known. The right amount of rain, the right amount of sun, the right amount of growth in every field in Egypt. Imagine that. That's a miracle by God, right? I mean, even in a good growing time period of a place like Egypt that is vast and far and wide and a lot of fields, especially much of it being in the desert area. And yet God allows a super abundance. Remember the dream that Joseph interpreted. There will be seven years of plenty. I mean of abundance all throughout more than any time in Egyptian history there will be an abundance of food. God supernaturally supplied this. I believe this is a miracle by God to allow everything to be exactly right so that for seven solid years he brought a super abundant amount to Egypt because they were going to eventually for seven years feed the world. Now what wisdom did Joseph give when he said there would be seven years of superabundance. Save. Store. plan ahead, manage, be a good steward, control your spending, control the market, that means wisdom. What happens when a normal person gets a extra bonus of money? When the average person in America experiences an over, you know, a really good crop, a really good bonus, what happens to that person when they get that extra check or they get that extra crop? What normally happens? What do you do with it? You spend it, right? You go down to get another car, you go down to buy another TV, you go get another phone. That's what people normally do. You spend it, like one of my kids, that every time you give them a dollar, they want to go out and buy some candy with it. That's what they want to do. Another one of my kids has a little bit more wisdom. You know what they do to it? They go and hide it. They go and put it in their piggy bank because they got something big they want to buy later down the road, right? One has discipline, one does not have discipline. And Joseph says, you put somebody in power for seven years, that when the crops come in, more than what you need, they won't just eat it all up and give it all away, but they'll hoard it and they'll take it and they'll save it and put it in storehouses. Now here's a simple lesson with that, that maybe we missed over, but we should come to at this point. What do you do when God gives you more than what you need? I'm just talking about simply the bare bones of living. Sometimes God blesses us with extra. Yes, we should give. Yes, we should tithe. Yes, we should find areas by which we can be charitable. We can give to ministries and give to the Lord. A principle found in the Word of God is that we should plan ahead and save. Be good stewards with what God has given. A foolish person will spend all that he has just because he has it. But wisdom says, look ahead, save, and use your blessings wisely. Proverbs 6 and verse 6, go to the aunt thy sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise. Proverbs 10 verse 4 and 5, idle hands make one poor, but diligent hands bring riches. Proverbs 27, 12, a sensible person sees danger and takes cover, but an inexperienced person goes on and falls into punishment. Four things on earth are small, yet they are extremely wise. Ants are not a strong people, yet they store up their food in the summer. Proverbs 30. And then I think this is Joseph's theme verse for these seven years. Proverbs 21 20. There is treasure to be desired and oil in the dwelling of the wise, but a foolish man spins it all up. Joseph is acting upon wisdom here. Joseph says the wise person has a storehouse of treasure in his dwelling so that when he needs it he looks ahead of time. A foolish person is going to be constantly living from, you know, from hand to mouth with nothing to spare. Now I didn't know that the government would be shut down for three or four weeks during this time, but those of you who have a little bit of extra savings in your account, you're thankful that you did, right? But there probably, I would not doubt, there were many people who probably were just living from paycheck to paycheck and had spent everything they had, and they're in a very tight spot right now, and could be if it continues through. Wisdom tells us to foresee and look ahead and plan. So to think about that. Seven years of plenty have come, now seven years of drought. And everybody sure is thankful Joseph was in charge, right? And now enter the seven years of a worse famine that has ever come, it seems to the nation of Israel, but not our nation of Egypt, but not just Egypt, but all around the world. Look at what verse 57 says in the previous chapter, 41. And all countries came to Egypt to buy food, corn, because the famine was sore in all the lands. And so this just wasn't a famine in Egypt, this was in all the lands. And so chapter 42 opens up and I've just kind of put point one here, meanwhile back in Palestine. Verse 1, now when Jacob saw. Verse 2, now when Jacob heard. What did he see and what did he hear? There obviously was some kind of advertisement that was coming from Egypt all the way to Palestine saying, corn! You know, those neon signs that are on down to, you know, is it Buc-ee's? That says 553 miles to the next Buc-ee's, right? You see this, like, boy, they do a really good job. Well, Egypt probably started all of that. Somehow, Jacob, hundreds and hundreds of miles away, heard and saw that Egypt has corn. Word was spreading around. And interesting what he says at the end of verse 1, why do ye, talking to his sons, why do you look one upon another? One translation says, why are you staring at one another? This is a question that's asked by the father because, you know, he's sitting here watching these boys that they're just kind of fumbling their fingers together and they're just staring in each other's eyes. You see, they've tried to survive the famine themselves. They've tried everything. They've tried growing the crops. They're trying to go, you know, and going down to try working a little extra and everything they do is coming up empty. It's almost like Peter out on the Sea of Galilee, right? He's fishing, and fishing, and fishing, and they're pretty good at it. They've got sheep, they've got crops. They've been doing this for years. And then all of a sudden, anything they try, nothing is working. And they are at the end of their rope. And they're like sitting in the living room of their father, all 10, 11 of these boys. And they're just staring at one another because they don't know what else to do. You see, the crisis has now crippled them. They're hopeless. The Hebrew word indicates that their time of need, they just keep looking at one another. They don't know what else to do. Waltke says this, this still shows this family is dysfunctional. Point being, God has a way of bringing us to our knees. God knows exactly what we need to bring us to the place of the end of ourself where we have nowhere to go. These brothers are still hiding something. They've not had peace in years. They know that God has been distant. Every one of them except Benjamin knows that there's a skeleton in their closet and it has been hindering their relationship with God for years, over 20 years. And here they are now in the tightest spot they've ever been and their dad walks into the room and says, What are you just staring at one another for? I think it's also interesting that when we come back in chapter 42 of Genesis 42, we've been with Joseph for a while now, right? Why does the story go back to Palestine and start telling us what's happening in the living room of Jacob and his 11 sons? Haven't we moved on? Why are we back to Jacob again? Why are we back to these brothers? Aren't they rotten? Aren't they sinners? Didn't they try and kill? I mean, outside of Benjamin, okay, maybe we come... But the story's not about Benjamin. He doesn't come in until later in the chapter. He's not even allowed to go to Egypt. He doesn't even come out as a hero in this story. In fact, the two other brothers come out as heroes. Reuben and Judah come out in the story, not Benjamin. So why are we back to these brothers? You know why? Because God cares about the brothers too. God cares just as much about the heart of Reuben, and Simeon, and Judah, and Levi, and Benjamin, and Nathalie, and Manasseh, and Jacob, just like he does Joseph. God doesn't show favorites like Jacob does. So God is just as much going to be working through these boys in this chapter as he has been working in the heart of Joseph. God's not a God that shows partiality. And it will be through this chapter that God will reconcile and save Manasseh, Ephraim. The 11 brothers, Manasseh and Ephraim are Joseph's boys. But these boys here, Dan, and Zebulun, and Naphtali, and Reuben, and Simeon, and Levi, and Benjamin, he's going to save them. And he's going to use Joseph to do it. This story is about the 12 tribes of Israel, not isolated Joseph. It's about Jacob and his 12 sons, Israel and the sons of Israel. and how God protected them all, and God forgave them all, and this dysfunctional family who's selling one another into slavery, and abusing one another, and trying to attempt to kill one another. In this chapter, even the next couple chapters, God is gonna do a work in every one of their hearts, and bring them back to Him. Because God cares. All we like sheep have gone astray, and God loves them all. And He wants them all to find salvation and reconciliation. This whole chapter is about struggle. Struggle to survive. Struggle to find food. Remember Jacob says, go to Egypt so that we may live and not die. Right? struggle to find peace, this whole story is gonna be about guilt and shame and hiding in your heart and your soul and you just, you got all the food in the world and you're marching back to the promised land with all the corn and some extra silver and gold that's been stuffed in your bag by Joseph and yet you still inside your heart, you don't have peace. Something's just still not right, all right? Struggle with guilt. Struggle with family. There is an underlying struggle in the family for reconciliation. You see, sin has separated this family. They're not one big happy family. They haven't been. But I want to tell you at the end of this story, they will. There's going to be weeping and hugging. and kissing and enjoying another, and this family that was once splintered and divided by sin, by God's grace and by God's providence, He's going to bring this family back together where all of a sudden it's one of the most emotional scenes in the Bible. where these brothers, their eyes are open, and Joseph can't handle it anymore, and dad comes in, and Benjamin comes in, and 20 years of sins, separation, and divisiveness to a family to eat away, but because of God's grace and God's direction and working in hearts, he's gonna bring them back together again. This is a great story of reconciliation between brothers, between a father and a son, right? This is what God does. But you gotta follow God's directions first. There are some prerequisites that must happen before you can find peace with God. And we're gonna find that through these brothers in this story. And Joseph's gonna be the means by which this reconciliation is gonna happen. And God knows how to bring you to the end of yourself where you cannot go anywhere but up. And he will do this in this story. Look at verses 2 down to verse 5, there's the plan here. Do any of you see that there's an absence in these verses of Jacob and the brother? I mean here they are, there's nothing that they can do. They've tried everything, they're sitting in the living room and they're all staring at one another. Jacob hears that there's corn in Egypt and he makes a plan and he's like, what would you do if your family was in this situation and you're in the living room and you're at your wits end? Is your first answer to call up Egypt? It should remind us in Genesis chapter 12 that Abraham was in a similar boat. You remember a famine came to the land and Abraham was in the land and instead of doing the right thing, he did the wrong thing and he ran to Egypt right away. What does a Christian do when they've come to the end of their rope? Are you weary? Are you heavy hearted? What's the phrase? Tell it to Jesus. There's no prayer. There's no petition to the Lord. Jacob doesn't walk into the room and say, okay boys, come on, let's stop staring at one another and let's get on our hands and knees. Let's go out in the yard and let's make an altar to the Lord. Jacob knows how to make an altar. He's done it before. But it's ironic that that is the thing that's missing. in this story. Now if they, here, if they would have prayed to God, what would God have told them to do? Yeah, go to Egypt. So they'd end up doing the right thing, right? They'd still end up, because Egypt is where Menards is, right? Okay, Egypt is where Joseph is. He's in charge. God put him there for this reason. So God is still working despite The stubbornness in these boys' heart by turning to the Lord. You know, Abraham's servant Eleazar had, I think it's Eleazar, in a previous chapter, chapter 24, had more sense than these boys did when he was sent on a long journey to find a spouse for Isaac, right? He just prayed and prayed out to the Lord and said, I being in the way, the Lord led me, right? Great passage of scripture. And it's not even from a patriarch. It's from a servant who's following the Lord. He does more than these guys do. But the solution is Egypt has corn, Egypt has food. And I wonder in this part of the story, they don't know this, but I wonder who's in charge of the storehouse in Egypt. I wonder who's the one that we have to go to and we have to buy and sell to. Well, that doesn't cross Jacob's mind, doesn't cross the boy's mind. They just need food. Notice what it says in verse 3, and the Bible says, and Joseph's 10 brothers. You know what Moses does here? Remember Moses is writing this story. Moses says, Joseph's brothers. And in the next verse, he says, Israel's sons. Okay, you got this? There's Israel's sons, it's my boys, but then all of a sudden in verse 3, he says, Joseph's brothers. Because you know what's getting ready to happen in the story? There's gonna be a conflict. These two who have been separated for 20 years are gonna be standing, these two groups. Joseph and these 10 boys are enemies at one time with one another. They're gonna be, by the end of this chapter, standing in the same room with one another. Moses is saying, I'm giving you a hint. This is getting ready to come up. You know it's gonna come up because you know the story, right? But Benjamin doesn't go. Why does Benjamin not go? I'm not going to let him out of sight. When's the last time I sent my favorite son with these boys? What ended up happening there? He got eaten by a wolf, right? Pre-adventure, something mischievous may happen to him. That tells us that Benjamin has taken Joseph's place as the favorite in the home of Jacob, right? So when Joseph's no longer there, Jacob goes on to the next son of Rachel, and he's showing this favoritism. He's continuing on the line. Benjamin is the protected son. I wonder if he made him a coat of many colors. Scripture doesn't say, but it obviously shows there's some favoritism. Now this story will reveal that these, what kind of true character did these brothers have? Are they still the same they were 20 years ago? Jealous and envious of the favored son or have they changed? And this is an interesting test that's going to come into play because Benjamin is going to be the one they're going to be struggling back. Will they do what they did the time before? Ah, let that dreamer go. Who cares about him? We're gonna take him back to Egypt and drop him off there too. Or will these brothers have a change of heart? As this work in verse six, Joseph was the governor of the whole land. And in verse eight, it shows the fact that as Joseph's brothers come in and bow down before Joseph, Joseph realizes the dream is now, a portion of the dream is now fulfilled. Verse 7 here, and we keep moving in the story. Verse 7, the scripture says, now Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them. Imagine what is going on in his mind. Remember, this is a man who has left all the hurt and the sorrow behind. He named one of his sons. The Lord has caused me to, what? Remember? The Lord has caused me to forget. and in walks his ex-wife. No, no, no. In walks his ex-abuser. In walks the ones responsible for all of his pain and suffering for all of these years that he left behind. Don't miss the emotion and the real conflict in this verse. Joseph is not immune to the thoughts and feelings that you and I would have in that exact same moment when he looks up in the room and for the first time in probably 20 years, he sees the very people who has caused him all his grief. He's attempted to forget, right? He's made a decision. Notice he does three things in this verse. First of all, he makes himself strange to them. You see that? Now no doubt Joseph went in and he dressed to the nine as an Egyptian. This seems to me that Joseph could have been recognized by the brothers. Now if you have a translation it may translate this sentence in a little different way. that the brothers were strangers in the land type thing, I think is the way it's written. But several that I've studied here is that, this is an accurate way of this translation here, is that Joseph is the one who is being strange to them because it seems to be that they would have possibly recognized him. Or at least if he started speaking Hebrew, right? Which he knows he doesn't do. So he goes in and specifically probably puts on a little heavier makeup, maybe dresses, you know, maybe he had just an apron on and a robe on or something and he went back in and now he puts on a garment or clothing to make it harder for them to see and to recognize who he is. One translation says this, he pretends to be strange to them. He's playing a role. He will purposely not speak in Hebrew, but he will speak only in Egyptian because he's pretending. Side note, there is a part of this story about knowing and not knowing, recognizing and not recognizing, deception and not deception. Do you remember in chapter 37 the brothers brought to their father a coat that was filled with blood and said he had been eaten by a wild animal? The deceiving brothers deceived the deceiver. Now who's being deceived in this story? Joseph goes and pretends to be an Egyptian in front of them, comes back in, doesn't speak Hebrew in front of them, and he's playing a game in front of them, and he's deceiving them. And then there's going to be a whole conflict. Now, not in a deceptive way that we would think of lying, But you can work through that morally if you want to in this story. But I just want you to understand there's still some raw emotions going on with Joseph here. And we see that in the very next thing the scripture says, and he talked rough to them. What does that mean? The word rough here means the words harshly. In other words, he changed his speech and the way he dealt with people. The indication is that he didn't normally talk like this. I would go back to the fact that Joseph was probably a very kind, compassionate, good to work with, genuine, open, honest type of man. That's what gained him respect in all of Egypt. And now he changes the way he speaks and now he's rough and harsh and sharp. Normally he was kind and gentle and caring but firm, but now he's harsh. The Hebrew word actually means cruel. Heavy or severe? Now there's he doesn't normally talk this way. I wonder what the other servants around are saying What's what's Joseph doing? Why is he acting like this? He's just okay We've given out the thousands and millions and millions of people and now all of a sudden everything changes But here he changes the way he speaks to them now I write this down just gives it in my thinking do I sense a in this tone that Joseph is replaying his emotions and his feelings that he once had let go. Is Joseph having a hard time handling this situation? I mean we just spoke Sunday night and Timothy, don't rebuke an elder, don't use harsh words to strike a blow. And now we see Joseph talking rough with his brothers. Who are you? Where are you going? Where are you from? You're not from around here, you're spies. Waltke says this, he is punishing them by giving them a little dose of their own medicine. As they threatened him with death and imprisonment, now Joseph will threaten them with the same. He asked them direct questions, putting them on edge. Where are you from? He knew where they were from, but he's putting them on their toes. He's making them agitated. He's making them worried. You say, well, pastor, you're being a little hard on Joseph, aren't you? I mean, I don't believe that this is all there. You're just making this up. Joseph is a nice guy. He treats everyone with kindness. He is always filled with joy and has a smile on his face. He would never do that! Well, keep reading the story. Maybe you're the one that's probably making some things up in the text that's not there. Look at verse 9. The scripture says, And Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed of them. You hear it came back. Had Joseph forgotten these dreams? At this moment in the conversation, his past is now flooding back upon him. He had chosen to forget. He had chosen to move on. He had chosen to leave it all behind. And now in front of him are all of those memories. Maybe I think he's being tempted in this moment. Tempted to get back. Tempted to repay evil for evil. tempted to get revenge, tempted to show no mercy. You're spies. You've come here to rob us and steal from us and to take from our land. Joseph knows what type of brothers these are. They're cheats, they're stealers, they're immoral, they're murderers, they're liars. Look at what it says in verse 10, how they respond. And they said, no, no, no, Lord, but to buy food are your servants come. We are all as one man's sons, and we are true men. Right? Are these honest, trustworthy, true men? Who's pretending now? You know, Joseph knows. He's having a hard time, you know, seeing this situation. Really? You're honest, trustworthy, true men? Are you men of good report? Are you men obeying your father? Are you men who will do the right thing? You're hiding something. You know, that tells me about these brothers, they are still living a lie. They have still convinced themselves that after all of these years, they've gotten away with it. Nobody knows. Life is okay. Nobody knows what's back at home. Nobody knows what's on the computer. Nobody knows what's on my phone. Nobody knows. I've gotten away with it. It's okay. They are still fooling themselves about God. They are still running from the Lord. They are still living a lie. These brothers are still hiding things in their closet and pretending it's all okay. Nobody will know. Well, of all the people in all the world who knows the secret, He's standing right in front of him and they have no idea. Waltke says this, people who sell their brother and pretend that he is dead are not people to be trusted. So Joseph doesn't believe him in this story. So you've got this conflict between you're spies. No, we're not spies. We're brothers and they tell us the whole story. And then Joseph finally says, I don't trust you. So I'm going to test you and prove you. So he says here in this plan, send one brother back and all of you are going to remain in prison and bring me back that younger brother that you told me about. Why is Joseph doing this? Well, because he had a dream years ago when he was a teenager. And do you remember what the dream said? He had two dreams. One of the dreams was that all eleven of the brothers would bow and worship at his feet, would bow before him as leader. And all of them got mad. How many brothers are in the room at this point? Can anybody do math? Ten. Joseph knows There's one missing. The dream has not yet been fulfilled. Now earlier, 10 of them bowed before him, right? But one, his brother, Moses put that in there, he's got the brothers, and then he has Joseph's brother, who is his true brother, not half-brother, but his true brother from Rachel, he's not in the room. And Joseph says, God's not fulfilled his promise yet. So how am I gonna get Benjamin here? So he does this ruse in this story because Joseph knows the whole end of the story is not done until all 11 of them are in the room. Now that's just the one story. The next one includes the dad and that dream as well, but he's just focusing on the brothers. Joseph knows there's one more brother out there and so he makes this plan to get them all back. So in verse 17, he put them all in prison for three days. Now they're all in a tight spot. What do you think's going on in that prison cell for those three days? What do you think is going on, let's put it this way, what do you think is going on in the palace for those three days? Get out of the 10 brothers' head and get into Joseph's head. I want to tell you what's going on in both places. Struggle. The brothers are in a tight spot and they're struggling with the truth. And Joseph himself is being tempted, I believe in this place, and he's struggling too, what do I do? How do I know that? Because in verse 18, he has a change of heart. I'm talking about Joseph, look at verse 18. And the scripture says here in verse 18, and Joseph said unto them the third day, this do, for I fear God. If you are really true men, let one, Stay and be bound and you all can go home. You see him changing the story? The first time, the first day, he told them that all of them but one, one of them would go back, all of them would stay. Then he spent three days wrestling with himself and he comes back and he says, I fear God. He tells them he fears God. He's admitting Joseph is the first one in this chapter that brings God into the equation. He says, I fear God. He acknowledges to these men that he is a God-fearer and that he has been in this story in these verses now. And he's saying, I fear God. Joseph brings this up because Joseph has had to change him hard. He's been struggling. And instead of seeking revenge, Joseph has conquered the temptation and he is gonna let them all go home except one. One must stay and bring me back your youngest. Our time is going away here. And I like for us to see just what's going on with the brothers in verse 21. See what happens. And they said one to another, we are fairly guilty concerning my brother. They're talking about Joseph, not Benjamin. And that we saw the anguish of his soul. And when he brought us, when he besought us, we would not hear him. Therefore in this distress has come upon us. You know, They are innocent in the fact that they are not spies. However, they rightly connect their punishment and their guilt with their previous sin against Joseph. They know that God is dealing with them. This is the first time that they actually admit that they've done something wrong. They don't blame Jacob. They don't blame Joseph. They don't blame anyone else. They finally look inside their own heart and they feel the guilt. This is the first step in getting right with God. Admit that you are wrong. Notice there's a word play here that is going on with the word, we anguish. This tells us a little bit about what happened in the story. Joseph actually pleaded with them from the pit. And the scripture says they recognized they didn't listen. Can you imagine hear the screams of this teenage boy from the hole in the ground up to their brother saying, don't kill me. Don't sell me. What would dad think? And here they are. And now they are hearing the voice of what they think is a dead brother. 20 years before screaming out and Reuben will actually say his blood is on our hands. Interesting, the anguish of Joseph in the pit. Notice that they changed the word, or they used the same word, now they change places. The scripture says, the anguish of his soul, now the distress in our own soul. It's the same word that's used in both places. It's translated different in the King James. But the word anguish and distress is the same word. It means to be in a tight spot, to be in tribulation, to be in trouble. The brothers described their turmoil in their soul as the same spot that Joseph was in the prison. Now who is in the pit now? Who is in the tight spot now? Who is anguishing in their heart and their soul? I want to remind you, Joseph has been freed. Joseph has found freedom from his past. He has found God has given him peace in his soul. Now these brothers are reaping what they sowed. They are being tormented by their sin. There is no freedom to them. There is no peace. They're actually living in misery with unconfessed sin. This is what sin will do to you. Unconfessed sin and running from God will leave you feeling like you're in a pit of despair and misery. Guilt, shame, and torment. That's no place to live. There's no freedom in living for self. Look at these boys. And then Reuben speaks up in verse 22, I told you so. Now we're receiving exactly what we deserve. And we must give an account for his blood. Talk about the death of Joseph. Reuben as the eldest. Now meanwhile, in verse 24, we close with this. The scripture says here, and he turned, verse 23, And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter. He could hear everything that they were saying. And when he hears the conversation and he hears Reuben speak up, Joseph can't handle it anymore. You know why he weeps? In fact, he will weep three more times in this story. Four times, Joseph will lose it. The reason he weeps is because Joseph has been struggling this whole time with what to do. He's been wrestling this whole time with his emotions and with the Lord, and now all of a sudden when he hears the words and relives those memories, he can't help it, he weeps. Waltke states this, Joseph's tactics are very harsh, but his emotions are very tender. Moses here is showing us the graphic process of reconciliation. It is hard to forgive. Joseph said he forgave his brothers. He left it all behind until his brothers are standing right in front of him and he has to do something about it. He has to give them corn. He has to give them bread. He has to give them something to eat. And probably more important than that, he has to hug them around the neck and say, I forgive you. All right? Ex-wife, an abuser, someone who's mistreated you and done you wrong, Someone who offended you in the past and did it really well? You can say you can forgive him in your heart. Can you have a conversation with him face to face and offer forgiveness to them? That's what Joseph's in this spot. And interesting enough, Joseph picks up something in the story that he did not know. He did not know that Reuben was gonna rescue him from the pit. Did you see that? Joseph didn't know because you remember going back to the story, Reuben was gone as the oldest brother. And while he was gone, the brothers schemed and connived and sold him to the Ishmaelites. Reuben was the one that stand up and said, no, no, no, no, don't kill him. Don't kill him. Let's put him in the pit. And Reuben's intention was that when the brothers were away, Reuben was going to come back and rescue Joseph. Joseph now pretending to not understand Hebrew, just heard Reuben say, I told you so. I told you not to kill the boy. Now the blood of him is on your hands and look what we're going through now. I told you so. Now Joseph realizes, I had a brother on my side and I didn't know it. All these years, I've been mad at all 10 of them and I didn't know that Reuben stood up for me. I didn't know that Reuben was gonna come and rescue me out of that pit. I mean, what a shocking part of the story. He was carrying what he thought was the truth for all these years, and now all of a sudden he realizes, oh, there was a part of the story I didn't really know. I've been mad at him all along. Oh, I thank the Lord that I had forgiven him. Because I would have been mad at the wrong person. I've been holding a grudge at the wrong one. And now for the first time he realizes a part of the story that he didn't know about. And it's come back to him. You see, that's often the way sin will and grief and bitterness will. It'll keep you mad at people that you shouldn't be mad at. It'll keep you buried under things that you think are one way but actually are another way. That's the deception of the devil that brings into divisiveness to families and pulling people. Most fights among family members oftentimes are because of simple misunderstandings, right? between a husband and wife, or a lack of communication, or I thought you meant this, or I thought you meant that, and I didn't mean that, and it happens like that. And it's interesting, it's kind of a, it's a small portion of this story, but it is an interesting part as I read through it and realized that Ruben does end up in this story becoming a little bit of a hero of this, of a new detail. Just a small part. So interesting that he takes Simeon, He binds Simeon and he throws him into prison. You see Joseph does not hold the eldest brother responsible now for him being sold into slavery. So Reuben is off the hook. Who does that fall to? The second eldest. Who's the second eldest? Simeon. So Joseph knows the order. Remember later on in the story he's going to sit him around the table and he sits him around by birth order. He knows the next one in charge, okay, Reuben's off the table. Simeon, I'm gonna blindfold you and bold you and throw you into prison. Everyone else can go home. How ironic that it would be the next one. They're not picking up on the story yet, but there's a lot of good stuff here in this story. The struggle, I'm just talking about the struggle that is going on even in Joseph's heart as he's walking through this very real situation, but he's gonna test them because he wants to know, have they changed? Are they different than what they used to be? Do they love Simeon? Do they love Benjamin? Will they come back? Will they be honest? So he puts their bags with corn and then he returns the silver and the gold into every one of their bags. How's that gonna make them look when they get back to their father and they've got the corn and the payment? Makes them look like thieves, which is exactly what Joseph wants them to do. And what will they do with it when they return? Will they be honest? Will they bring the money back? Joseph knows exactly what to do to test them to see if they really will come to the place of confession. God is gonna use Joseph to bring these boys to a place where they say, God, we're sorry. And then the blinders are open and there he is, right? Father, I praise you, we close tonight. Lord, sometimes we step out of these stories and we just read past them and we don't put ourselves in their shoes. There's some difficult feelings that are going on here. There's some deep reconciliation that needs to happen with these brothers. And Joseph just doesn't come and right away he wants to know if they're truly mean business, if their heart has truly changed and will they turn to the Lord and will they make it right. And Lord, thank you for chasing us, putting us in tight spots to bring us to your grace and your forgiveness that you love us just as much as you love the next person. And your grace is sufficient and it's not partial. Help us to follow you and help us to deal with those difficult relationships that have maybe there's some bitterness and frustration and things that we can't let go. That's hard. And thank you that we have people like Joseph that can wrestle through that and make the right choice. In Jesus name we pray, amen. All right, God bless you, you are dismissed.