Hello and welcome to our broadcast today. We're in the third message on Joseph was with his brethren. Stay tuned for our broadcast. Well, we're into chapter 37 of the book of Genesis, and from here on the book gets a little more positive. We have seen 36 chapters of the results of sin, and now we are looking into the life of Joseph, and Joseph is a tremendous type of Christ that we find in the pages of the Old Testament here. As the story progresses, we see that Joseph was with his brethren. He ended up in the pit, and that wasn't very nice. They sold him into slavery, but he ended up coming from the pit to the palace, and we're looking at the journey in between. As he leaves, of course, he is no longer with his brethren, and that is exactly what needed to happen. As we get to the end of this story, you'll see that when his brothers came back and they were apologizing for what they did, Joseph said to them, and he was then about 30 years old, where now in the story as it starts off he's only 17, but when he was 30 he said to them that they meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. God needed to get Joseph away from those misfit brothers of him, and get on with the purpose that he had for his life. Sometimes we don't like that valley in between the pit and the palace, but if we will just trust the Lord, as did Joseph, we'll find it turns out a lot better. Now this story is tremendous, tremendous lessons here for us on how to handle the situations that Joseph had to handle, and he was only 17 years old. So let's read the first few verses. It says here in in verse 2, that these are the generations of Jacob, Joseph being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilphah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto his fathers their evil report. now israel now that's of course jacob his name has been changed to israel here it says now israel loved joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors and when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him and joseph dreamed a dream and he told his brethren and they hated him yet the more And he said unto them, Here, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For, behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and, lo, my sheave arose, and also stood upright, and, behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheave. And his brethren said unto him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us, or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. And he dreamed yet another dream, and told his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and to his brethren. And his father rebuked him and said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed these sayings." Now what we're dealing with here is a 17-year-old young fella dealing with rejection. His brothers reject him, his father rejects him, he could run to his mother for a little bit of comfort, but she's dead. She died back here in chapter 35. And Joseph is very, very much alone, and he is rejected. Well, you want to be like Christ? Isaiah 53.3 says he was despised and rejected of men." Well, that's what Joseph was like, very much like Christ. Now, we read in 2 Timothy chapter 3 and verse number 12, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. What is the context of that verse? Well, it has to do with the last days. In verse 1 of 2 Timothy chapter 3, it says, in the last days perilous times will come within our local churches, is what the context here says. Men are going to be loving themselves. They're going to be covetous. They're going to be disobedient. They're going to be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. They're going to have a form of godliness. They're going to deny the power thereof. just all leads to the fact that there will be no persecution for these Christians of this day and age in which we're living. And that's exactly where we are. We're living where we give us a comfortable pew, preach only those smooth things. Let's not get any of that persecution that all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer in the last days. That's what the Bible says. I didn't write that. That's what the Bible says. Well, Joseph, he was just living godly, and he wasn't out preaching like some redneck preacher. He was just living godly, and he was suffering persecution. And so it says very plainly, 2 Timothy 3.12, all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. How's the persecution? Well, I'm not having any trouble. Well, maybe you're not living godly. Well, we see here that rejection for Joseph was a stepping stone, it was not a stumbling block. A stepping stone, the dictionary says, is an undertaking or an event that helps someone to make progress toward a specific goal. God had a specific goal for Joseph, and as I said, he's going to get in the pit, and he's going to end up in the prison, and then he's going to end up in the palace, and these were all stepping stones to the end result. Now, Joseph, just a teenager, and I hate that phrase, just a teenager, especially a teenager, 17 years old, and he had this figured out. I've met a lot of Christians who are 57 years old who haven't figured this out yet. That rejection here was simply a stepping stone. It was not a stumbling block. For Joseph, the purpose of God was stronger than his desire for approval. And we all have a desire for approval. We all want to be approved by everybody. We all want to be accepted. Well, if you're going to live godly in Christ Jesus in this day and age in which we are living, you are not going to be accepted by most people. And so these rejecters, they were simply for Joseph a confirmation that he was on the right path. Jesus said, if ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because ye are not of the world, therefore the world hateth you." John 15, verse 19. He went on to say, in verse 21, these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, for his name's sake. You don't have to get out there and get arrogant, and all you have to do is just say that I believe in Jesus Christ and preach what Jesus preached. And I don't mean preach and get up and thump the pulpit. I'm talking about just being a testimony for Jesus everywhere we go. Well, if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you're not of the world, therefore the world will hate you like they hated Joseph. And these things will they do unto you for my name's sake. They hate Jesus. So if you're going to promote Jesus, they're going to hate you. It's just that. Now, what we need to do is expect persecution from those who reject the teachings of Christ. It's just that simple. Expect it. He had rejection here all the way through chapter 37. They were spurning his proposals. What was Joseph doing? He just went out there to try and help them, just make sure they were okay. He had a heart of love. No, they just rejected him. like they did with Jesus. Well, in verse 4, we see his brother, his family, everybody around him hated him. They could not speak peaceably unto him, it says here. They could not speak peaceably. What is peaceably? To be peaceable is to be free from conflict. So everywhere he went, in his home, imagine coming home every day and you expect you have some fellowship with your own family. No, Joseph, young fella, no fellowship, no friendly associations. All he has is rejection. We need to thank God, you know, we got homes where we can have some fellowship with our parents and fellowship, husband and wife, and we can go to our churches and have some friends there and have some fellowship with people and some friendly associations. Things are peaceable? No, not for Joseph. He had nothing. He had no one. He was strictly and completely in a pit as we get to the next part of this chapter, all by himself, and he had done nothing wrong. They could not speak peaceably unto him. Rejection. Well, they did that with Christ. You know, when he was here, you want to come along and heal our sick people? Well, thank you very much. Yes, we'll follow you. Multitudes of people followed him. And in John 6, the Bible says that multitudes were coming, and they said, what must we do that we must work the works of God? And he told them, and the Bible says, and they followed him no more. And in fact, in John 7, right at the beginning of that chapter, they were getting together to figure out how to kill him. Oh, yeah, we love it. We love it when you heal our sick people, Jesus. You just healed our sick people, but don't you go preaching those sermons and telling us how we ought to live. Oh, no. And that's all. that Joseph was doing, not necessarily preaching, you know, and yelling at anybody, just the life he was living. And, you know, we are the only Bible most people are going to read, and they're reading Joseph's life, and it was a tremendous point of conviction for them. And so, we see here that in verse number 11, all his brothers envied him. They envied him. What is envy? It is a resentful feeling that is aroused by something that somebody else has. Well, what did Joseph have? Well, he had a testimony that was a major conviction to his brothers. And so it says they envied him, but notice verse 11 says his father observed the saying. Now this word has been translated, wait, seven times. What it does, it has a connotation of the fact that his father had some perception about what was going on, and he's just thinking it through. It was like when Mary got the message from the angel, and it says she pondered these things in her heart. Same thing. Jacob's looking at this, and he says, I don't understand this thing. I'm not going to be bowing down to Joseph. But he will be, and we'll see as we get to the end of this story. But because he does have some communication with God, unlike those other 11 brothers of Joseph, Jacob has some communication with God, and he says here he observed these things. I'll just wait and see what God is doing here. Well, in verse number 12, we read, his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. Now that's hard to believe they would go up to Shechem. Why would they be there? That is the place where two of those boys went in and slaughtered all the men in that city because the fact that their sister had been raped. Well, one fellow was guilty of that, not all the men, but they'd gone in there and they'd slaughtered them all. That's not a very smart place to be taking your flock of sheep. Well, Israel heard about that, or Jacob as his name used to be, and it says in Israel, verse 13, said unto Joseph, Do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come, and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Here am I. And he said to him, Go, I pray thee, and see whether it be well with thy brethren. Now here he is, he's a young fella, and Jacob is getting concerned about the fact that they're up there near Shechem, and he says to his son, I think they're in trouble up there, you can go and check that out, will you? And what did he say? Immediately he answered, here I am, here am I, send me. This is exactly what happened when the Lord looked and saw some despicable people called human beings in this world, and they're in trouble. And he sent his son, who came and died for us, and he immediately said, yes, I'll go. Now, this trip for Joseph was 50 miles. This wasn't just, hey, over the other hill here. He said, I want you to go and check out on your brother. So what do we have? We have a concerned father. who is concerned about these wayward people of his sons. What is that? It is absolute mercy is what it is. And so what's he do? He sends his special son, his only beloved son, he sends him, and Joseph goes very willingly, and he says, here am I, send me, I will go. And what is this a picture of? First John 4.10 says, herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be a propitiation for our sins. And so here he goes, seeking the welfare of his worthless brothers, and that's exactly what Christ did. He came to seek the welfare of us, and we will see that as Joseph came, he was rejected, And as Jesus came, he was also rejected. Well, we're out of time again. Hear that music back there? That means I gotta stop. So I'm gonna stop. Tune in again tomorrow, and we'll carry on in this story of Joseph. We'll try to make it plain, and we will try to make it simple.