Turn to Genesis 45. Genesis 45 entitled the message tonight, The Great Reveal. Have you heard of those reveal parties for the baby that's going to be born? It's kind of a bigger thing than when I was born or First first married, you know, they do the balloons. You're gonna you know have the balloons This is a giant party just more another reason to eat cake and ice cream. That's that's great Have a party for that, but then they have the streamers and the colored powder. Is it gonna be purple or pink? Not purple. Is it pink or blue? not that reveal, but the you know what it's gonna be and the husband, you know, they do all kinds of different things to be able to make it fun. They put it on Facebook and send you the video and you're supposed to ooh and aah. But they knew the secret already or at least whoever was supposed to have given the secret, the mom or the dad or the best man. I don't know how it works. We've never been to one. But it's a great thing to do because it's just a secret that now is known. Well, we have a great reveal in Genesis 45. A secret that we know because we're the readers. We stood back and as the omniscient reader onto the text here with Moses, we know the story and how it's been working and how it's gone. But when it's on the brother's side, when it's on Jacob's side, when it's on Benjamin's side, we don't know the story and this person that we have had this run-in with, the CEO of Egypt, who's caused us such a pain in the neck the last few years, in these last few events, to worry us to death. But in Genesis 45, Scripture says in verse 1, Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all of them that stood by him. He cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, when the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I Am Joseph. Does my father still live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near me, I pray you. And they came near, and he said, I am Joseph. I mean, this is one of those things that just They never thought it was going to come out this way. They knew something was strange, something was weird about this guy. They had had this meal with him, and there was this strange bond with him, but they never in their wildest dreams would have thought. Judah had just given this long speech in the previous chapter. The longest speech in the book of Genesis. Not by Abraham, not by Jacob, not by Isaac, not by Noah or Adam. Of all of these characters in the book of Genesis, Judah gives the longest speech in the book of Genesis. Face to face, Joseph and Judah, or Pharaoh's second in command versus Judah. Two mountaintop men in the story of the nation of Israel, head to head, toe to toe, face to face. Judah with courage. Judah is showing some great courage here in the previous chapter to stand up to this man who is the most powerful man on the earth, the second most powerful man on the earth. But in the face of losing his brother Benjamin, in the face of losing his word that he gave his father, and in the face of losing his father to grief that he would die, Judah does the brave thing. He does the hard thing. He stands up to this man who is getting ready to take their brother and possibly their dad's life. He does the courageous thing. He does a brave thing. Judah stands up with humility. He says, my Lord, nine times. He says, your servant, ten times. Judah does not lose his place in all of this. He doesn't see himself as equal with Joseph. He knows his place. He's brave, he's courageous, but he knows he's not in charge and he is under the mercy of someone else. Judah has learned to submit to authority. Judah has learned his place. Number three, Judah has done this with confession. He had previously said in the previous chapter 44 in verse 16 that God has found out their iniquity. God is the one who has brought them to this point. And now he's open and honest, no longer hiding his sin, but confessing his sin before this leader that they are guilty, they have done wrong. Judah does not overlook the fact that they are guilty. They need forgiveness and they have been wrong. He does this with kindness. No, no, we love our father. We love our brother Benjamin. We are in this together. We're not going to leave him. We're going to go back together and we're going to face this no matter what we do. We're going to face this together. No longer are they hating and jealous of their brother. No longer are they hating and jealous of their father's attention. They love them both. and they thank God for both of them. Bruce Waltke says this in his commentary, Judah's speech proves beyond doubt that the formerly hateful, selfish brothers are now motivated by love for one another and have integrity within themselves and with one another. Judah stands up with courage, humility, confession, with kindness, and with great sacrifice. Take me instead. Verse 33 of the previous chapter, I will go. I will die. I will remain behind. Take me as a substitute. I will pay Benjamin's price. I will do the hard thing. I will suffer death, if that's what it means. Let him go free. I know you found the cup in his bag, but pretend that it was my bag. I'll play the guilty party, punish me in his stead. Now both Joseph and Judah are a type of Christ in this story. Joseph, a type of Christ in the previous chapter, chapter 43, by being the deliverer and the redeemer who shows his brothers love and kindness and mercy by bringing them to his table and taking his food to their table and showing them kindness and hospitality in his home when they did not deserve it. And then Judah is showing a type of Christ in chapter 44 when he says, take me instead. I will stand and take Benjamin's punishment. He is the ultimate example of what Christ would do on the cross. That was where we left off last week. Now, as we come into this chapter, into this great reveal chapter, Joseph can't hold it any longer. In fact, the way the verse reads is he could no longer refrain himself. He could not stand it any longer. He is so overcome by joy and compassion and relief. He's been waiting for this moment for years. Over 20 years. Joseph is probably about 40 years old at this point. For 20 years Joseph has been waiting to hear these words. Have they grown closer to the Lord? Have they confessed? There are no longer the same men that they once were, and now in the face of such courage, and sacrifice, and love of Judah's great, courageous, sacrificial speech, Joseph can't stay silent anymore. Rube says in his commentary, the imperial power broker who has controlled the course of events in this whole chapter With only an occasional and very private lapse of sudden loss of control of himself, the man who had been able to keep separate his family life and his national world can now no longer control himself. The scripture says, and he wept aloud. The surprise and awe within these first few verses of this chapter. I am Joseph. I mean before Joseph tells him the secret, he sends everyone out of the room and then he just sobs. He loses it. And he cries. Imagine these brothers as everybody's dismissed out of the room and then right in front of them he just starts to bawl and lose control. A man who seemed to have everything put together is now right in front of them just wailing. So much so that the scripture says even the house of Pharaoh hears it. Now does that mean that he's crying so loud that it's echoing down the road? Or does that mean in the verse, which I sense that it feels this way, is that Egyptian servants in Joseph's house are so disturbed by what they're hearing, they run and send messengers to Pharaoh and say, something bad is going on at Joseph's house. That's why later in the story, when Pharaoh finally hears that this story with Joseph and his brothers is a good story, not a bad story, The scripture says Pharaoh is pleased. He's worried. I mean, this is his second in command. How can he lose control like this? But can you imagine the awkwardness of the brothers standing there? The Egyptians prized themselves in being cool in the heat of the moment, being in control, and not showing emotion. And now Joseph, in divine emotion, is weeping like a baby. Imagine the moment of shock that felt like when these boys hear the words, I am Yosef. The scripture says here in the verse, in verse 3, it said, they were troubled. I mean, that's how they felt. Moses says, you want to know how it felt? They were so perplexed that they did not even answer him because they were shaking in their boots or shaking in their sandals. The word troubled here means to shake. It means to be terrified, to be disturbed inside. It can be translated as the word vexed. Psalm 6 in verse 2, David writes, for my bones are troubled, my bones are vexed. David is so overwhelmed by the situation that his bones ache and shake. Jeremiah 51 and verse 32 uses this for a soldier in battle that is terrified of the enemy. Running the other way, completely frozen in his foxhole because of the overpowering scream of the enemy towards him. He's terrified. And that's the way the brothers feel here. Like soldiers in battle with a foe that is far bigger and stronger than they are. They are completely terrified. They are afraid of Joseph now in a different way. They were afraid of him before. Now they're afraid of him. for a different reason. Not only is this the most powerful man in Egypt, but this is the same person that we mistreated, made fun of, mocked, and threw in a pit, and sold to the Ishmaelites many years ago. They are blown away by this reveal. And they are afraid. Notice what it says in verse 4, And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into slavery. You see, Joseph wants them to come near. Remember, he had all the Egyptians to go out of the room. It's just he and these 10 boys, 11 boys. And He's standing there with them and then He reveals Himself in the sobbing, the weeping, probably could barely even get the words out. That's why He's got to say it again the second time. They don't move from their spot of where they are. Probably in disbelief that they can't believe their ears of what Is this really true? And so Joseph says, come near. And the word that is used, come near, is not the normal word for meaning someone to come. You know, you're at the other side of the auditorium, you say, hey, will you come here? This is actually a word that is a little bit more intimate than that. It actually means to touch, to kiss, to feel. It's a very, it's more of an intimate word. Joseph is probably telling them, come here, feel me, see me. Maybe he had a bite mark from Judah on his arm when they were fighting as little boys. And he said, look. I don't know if I believe this or not, but Chuck Swindoll believes that this may be possibly the way the term is and there could be some connection to this that he reveals to the fact that he is uncircumcised. which by, or he is circumcised, which by means would completely take it out of any doubt that this was their brother. He says here, come near and look, I am Joseph. Verse five, he says, please don't be, therefore be not grieved and angry with yourself. Don't be grieved and angry This word grieve means to be worried or in pain. He could tell that they were afraid. Don't be angry. This means to glow or to get hot. Don't be mad. You see, they could have been mad that he had strung them along. They could have been, you know, all these things that are going through. And he said, it was you the whole time. You put the money back in our bag. You put the cup back in our bag. You sent us back home. You had us at your table. And you didn't reveal to this before now? Joseph says, don't be angry. Joseph is showing a great measure of grace in telling them this. He could send them to jail. But he tells them, you don't have to be afraid. Everything is okay. You see, Joseph is able to tell them this. Don't be grieved. Don't be afraid. Don't be angry. Because Joseph has already forgiven them. He has no hard feelings. He has no bitterness. He has no reason for revenge. They don't have to worry about what's coming next, because Joseph has already dealt with his attitude towards them long before. The only reason that Joseph could say, you don't have to worry, don't be grieved, nothing's gonna happen to you, it's all okay, is because Joseph and God had already dealt with the hurt of the past that these men had done to him. He's been waiting to reveal himself to them the right moment. He just didn't know if they were at the point yet. He didn't know if their heart had changed. He didn't know if they were in the right place. Listen, you can't have peace with your brother or sister in Christ if you are harboring bitterness. You can't tell them, being honest, you can't tell them, well, it's okay, don't worry about it. When in fact, inside your heart, you're still holding grief. You've done that before. He said, oh, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. And he said, oh, no, it's all right, you didn't hurt my feelings. And he'd go back home and he'd say, did you hear what you did? They hurt my feelings. Did you slide to them? But if you can honestly say, it's all right, you don't have to be afraid, I'm not gonna get back at you, you don't have to worry about it, I've forgiven you. And Joseph truly means it, because Joseph has already wrestled with God with this issue long before He brought this reveal to them. He and God had already dealt with that. Let me give a word to those who struggle with receiving forgiveness. Some people struggle with guilt and shame because what they have done. And someone has forgiven them, but they can't forgive themselves. Or maybe God has forgiven you, but the sin that you did is just continuing and the devil continues to put that on you. And you just don't feel like you can get the forgiveness. So you've got to keep working at it. You've got to keep beating yourself up. You've got to keep trying to find it. And you never feel the burden weight of being forgiven. Can you imagine these boys here have to be reminded all the way in chapter 50 in the last few verses when Jacob finally dies, they're worried that Joseph again is going to come back at them because the dad is dead. That's someone who struggles with being forgiven. When God has washed away our sins, Don't allow the sins of your past to come back and weigh heavy upon you. If he has cast them from the East to the West, and you've truly had forgiveness and asked for confession, and you've brought it before the Lord, or you have asked someone and they have given you forgiveness for that, then leave it behind. Go forward and find the peace of a new lease and a second chance. You must realize that when you come to God in true confession, God is willing and able to forgive you. Don't live in the past, let him forgive. Sometimes that can be difficult in a husband and wife relationship when you've blown it. And the other, the spouse has offered forgiveness and yet that spouse still lives with that guilt and that shame. The devil can eat away at both parties on either side of this forgiveness scenario. Proverbs 28 verse 13, Solomon says this about forgiveness and about sin. He that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but whoso confesses and forsakes shall find or have mercy. So Joseph is offering to these men mercy. Forgiveness. It's okay. Come give me a hug. Let's weep and let's cry. It's me. I'm Joseph. Notice he says twice in verse 4, whom you sold. Look again in verse 5. You sold me hither. You say, hold on a second, I thought he forgave him. How's he bringing that back up again? I mean, I imagine those words cut to these boys like a hot knife to butter. And that's not the words they really wanted to hear right after he says, I am Joseph, the one you sold in the Egypt. But Joseph doesn't mean this. Notice Joseph does not mean these words to cut, but actually to soothe. He reminds them of their deeds. You sold me, yes. But notice the next phrase. He says in verse five, don't be angry, don't be grieved that you sold me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve your life. Look down at verse seven. God sent me before you to preserve you. Look at verse 8. So now it was not you that sent me here, but God. Jacob's reliving the past, but he's living the past from a different perspective. I know what you did. You sold me. You had your part. But you don't have to worry about that anymore. I'm not worried about it. You don't have to be worried about it. Because in actuality behind your deeds, there stood a bigger person, a bigger divine plan you didn't know about and I didn't know about until just recently. God sent me here. Three times Joseph points out the powerful sovereign plan of God. Joseph has a divine perspective. He has learned to see things through God's eyes. He knows God has a bigger plan. Remember the story of the butler and the baker while he was in prison? Oh man, how in the world did I end up down here? I did everything was right. I told the truth and now Potiphar and this wife has sold me. Joseph didn't have one bad attitude. He was put in a place, he showed his integrity and he realized, oh, God put me here because there's gonna be two men that are brought in here so that I can interpret their dreams. So that one day one of them can go out and Pharaoh's gonna have a dream and he's gonna be at the right place at the right time to tell Pharaoh that I'm in prison and he knows right where I am and where to get me. Joseph has put all these pieces together because Joseph has seen how God has worked. This verse is the overall theme of Joseph's life. From chapter 38 to chapter 50, this verse here, what Joseph just revealed to his brothers, you sent me here, but actually it wasn't you, it was God. Three times. This is the heart of what God was doing in the life of Joseph. Joseph has found God's perfect plan and he understood it. You know, some people, like Job, have to live their whole life and they never see the divine perspective. They just have to trust God. As far as we know of from the text of Job, we don't know if Job ever knew the backstory of what the reader knew when you read through the book. That there's something evil going on with the devil. There's a bigger plan. There's a testing of God. We don't know. Job, we don't know that Job knew that. And for some people in the scripture, God chooses not to tell them the plan of their life from a big picture. Why they had cancer. Why they lost a loved one. why their child died, why they were in this accident. Sometimes in this life you don't see the picture but for some, like Joseph, you step back in those times of suffering and you look back and God reveals to you the purpose and the plan. Now Joseph was in a divine plan to rescue. He was going to be a deliverer for the nation of Israel. God was doing something and Joseph saw that and he's 40 years old and he realizes Oh, God had a plan all along. And now I know exactly why I'm here. I'm here, second in command, in charge of all of the food in all of the known world so that my brothers and my dad can be saved during this time and they can have a land and a purpose. I see it now. And Joseph has realized that perspective. Waltke says this, God directs the human maze to achieve his goal and set his purposes. And that's exactly what man is. Man is a human maze, are evil devices. You did this, but God did that. You know, this comes up again at the end of the book. Look at Genesis chapter 50. Can we just run to the end? And I know it's probably on your mind already. I already alluded to this at the end of Jacob when Jacob dies and it's just Joseph and the brothers and they run to Joseph saying, Joseph, will you please forgive us and maybe you didn't and don't throw us away and don't give us to Pharaoh and don't feed us to the lions. That's all in my own reading. At the end of verse 17, and he wept when they spake unto him those words. And his brethren also went up and fell down before his face, and they said, Behold, we are thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Don't be afraid, for I am in the place of God. For as for you, you thought evil against me, but God meant it for good. to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. You know, this is interesting. The word thought here in the Hebrew is the word purpose or plan. It means to plot or to plan, to devise a scheme, to forecast a work. It is spoken of a workman who pulls out a piece of paper and draws out the plans for a building that he's going to build. You men have planned my demise. You purposed my death. You meant for me to be a slave. It was in your evil minds and evil plans to harm me and to hurt me. He uses the word evil here. It was evil. Their motive was murder. But God took your evil plans and he scribbled over the top of them and he changed them to fit his divine plans. You see, God planned and purposed this as well. He says, basically, while you were at your work desk making a mess of things of my life, God was at his divine work desk painting a beautiful picture of grace and love. Joseph points his brothers to an almighty God who took their evil and made it for his good. Why? Why would God do that? Why would God do it that way? Well, Joseph tells them, he told them in this verse, you saw it in this verse, but he told them twice in the verse before in chapter 45. Go back and look at chapter 45 verse 5. He said, for God did send me before you to save life. to preserve life. Verse 7, God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity. So three times, verse 5, verse 7, to save your lives. Not only did God did this for me to work in my life, but God put me here to work in your life. I am here to rescue you. We have a wonderful God who can take our mistakes and our messes and make something beautiful out of them. Even your mistake, Judah. You have no idea what God is going to do with your seed. You remember that debacle that you had with Tamar. How terrible a mess that was. Incest. Oh, God can take that and map it out in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew chapter 1. and paint a beautiful picture of God's sovereign grace. Only God can do that. Only God can take a cross, three nails, a crown of thorns, and a terrible scene of death and suffering and make a beautiful picture to hang on our wall and decorate our auditorium. Only God can take something so terrible and work out His grace in His plan And we hang our cross around our neck. And we sing praises to what God has done. Interesting phrase here, the posterity that he mentioned. It's the Hebrew word that can be translated, remnant. The word used here by Joseph is a picture of a group of people who are on the edge of annihilation. He brought me here. God sent me to Egypt. to preserve and to save a group of people who are almost exterminated. That's what Joseph is using this term. That's what a remnant means. A small embryonic nation of less than a hundred people on the verge of extinction and Joseph said, God sent me here to keep that remnant alive. That statement pictures the entire history of the nation of Israel. See, God's bigger plan for history, God's people always come to the brink of extinction. Just in time, God sends a savior to bring them out. The word here, a great deliverance, the word great here means miraculous. Moses is writing in the story, Joseph is saying, God did this supernaturally. Like Noah on the brink of annihilation and extinction as fire or as water comes raining down upon the earth and it was by a miracle that God saved those eight people. Like the Jewish people that are running out of Egypt with Pharaoh's army marching on to them and the Red Sea in front of them and they're getting ready to be annihilated. And it is God by a great deliverance parts the Red Sea so they can walk across on dry land. Like the nation of Israel on the brink of annihilation by the hands of evil Haman. God providentially rescues them in the night by a lady named Esther. Like the Messiah being threatened by evil King Herod. And God in the night in His providence, in His miraculous protection of His holy family, saves them. And the story goes on. Read the book of Revelation. The nation of Israel comes to the point of complete annihilation. God will not forget His remnant. And that starts all the way back in the story of Joseph. God has been continuing to bring about, verse 8, it was not you but God. This is a sign of great maturity in this statement. Not you, but God. He's the one that made me a father to Pharaoh. You see the words as he says here for these two years in verse 6, The famine has been in the land and yet there are five years left of this and neither earning nor harvest. God's the one that sent me before you, verse eight. So now that is not you that sent me here, but God. And he made me a father over Pharaoh. He made me a Lord over his house. He's the one that made me a ruler throughout Egypt. God did that. You ever been ripped off before? You ever been mistreated before? You ever been abandoned before? You ever been hurt by someone before? You have people with motives to hurt and break you and tear you to pieces? And then look them in the face and said, you meant it for evil, but God. Waltke states this, the believer can count on God to bring to pass his good pleasure regardless of what people's intentions are. Before we move on, I want you to see this in the New Testament in the book of Acts. Turn over in the book of Acts chapter 7. That's probably all the time we have left in this, but Acts chapter 7. This story comes up in the New Testament in one of the greatest sermons in the New Testament. In Acts chapter 7, in the middle of Stephen's message to the religious leaders in Jerusalem, he retells their history. And in verse 9, he says, end of the patriarchs. He's talking about the brothers who were moved with jealousy and envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him. And God delivered him out of all of his afflictions. God did that. And God's the one that gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And he made him governor over Egypt and all of his house. And now there came a famine, a dearth over the land of Egypt and Canaan. A great affliction. And our fathers found no substance. But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, He sent out his father first, his father's first, our father's first, and at the second time, Joseph was made known to his brothers. And Joseph kindred was made known unto Pharaoh. Then sent Joseph and called his father Jacob to come, and all his kindred threescore and 15 souls. So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers. In the story of redemption that Stephen tells and teaches, he goes through this, he tells the story about Joseph and how God put Joseph in the right place at the right time to rescue our fathers. And that became the source and the seeds that was laid down for him now to point the way all the way through the Old Testament to Jesus. who was sent. Now, Joseph has done this and has come to this place in his life because obviously he has got a divine perspective. He's learned to look at things the way God sees them. And I don't think God wrote it on the wall. I don't think he was laying at night one day as second in command in his little pharaoh palace and all of a sudden God wrote out, you are here to deliver your family. I think he went all the way back to 17 years old when he had those dreams. I think he replayed those memories in his mind, and he's replaying the story of his family coming back and coming here, and he's feeling all of the hurt and the pain that has happened in his past, and then he realizes, God, all of that, they meant for evil, but you had a divine plan, and you're painting a beautiful picture, and I'm gonna be the Savior. I'm the hero, but it is sad that the hero had to go through so much suffering. And that's often the case, and that's what Jesus Christ did for us. Before he could be our savior, he had to suffer and die for sin. Before Joseph could come to the point that he could rescue his brothers and his father, he had to first suffer the affliction that was caused by the very people that he would die for or that he would give himself for. Father, I pray as we close tonight, Thank you for this beautiful scene of reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers. Lord, they are completely blown away by what they're hearing and what they're seeing. And it's just gonna get even more overwhelming when Pharaoh comes out and loads them up with riches and clothes and food and wealth to take back, showers them with blessing. And isn't that like you? to pour onto us we don't deserve a love while we were yet sinners. Thank you for that and thank you for the purposes that you have. Sometimes we may see it and recognize it and sometimes we may not see it. Sometimes it's just by faith we just continue to walk and we don't see the picture. We may not see the picture of what you're doing in our life until we get to heaven. But Lord, I pray that you would help us to walk by faith and remember that there's always two sides. There's a horizontal side of our life and our suffering and how things are, and then there's a vertical side, and you see things, and you're not messed up by the evil motives and plans of people. You can still use, and your grace is still sufficient in time of need. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, God bless you. You are dismissed.