Would you turn now, please, in God's word to Genesis chapter 46? I invite all to turn to Genesis chapter 46. That's on page 50 in your pew Bibles. This evening, we're beginning halfway through this chapter, beginning in verse 28, and we're gonna read it through verse 27 of chapter 47. Recall a week ago, the last Lord's Day, we saw that Joseph and his family were given every material blessing they needed to make the trip from the famine in the promised land to Egypt. And now they affect that by Joseph bringing his family to the land to be settled there. So follow along now as we read Genesis chapter 46, beginning in verse 28. He, that is Jacob, had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel his father in Goshen. He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. Israel said to Joseph, now let me die since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive. Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and will say to him, my brothers and my father's household who were in the land of Canaan have come to me. And the men are shepherds for they have been keepers of livestock and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have. When Pharaoh calls you and says, what is your occupation? You shall say your servants have been keepers of livestock from your youth even until now, both we and our fathers, in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen. For every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, my father and my brothers with their flocks and herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. They're now in the land of Goshen. And from among his brothers, he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, what is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. They said to Pharaoh, we have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. And now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, how many are the days of the years of your life? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. They have not attained the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt and the best of the land and the land of Ramses as Pharaoh had commanded. And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents. Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, give us food. Why should we die before your eyes for our money is gone? And Joseph answered, give your livestock and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to him, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent. The herds of all our livestock are my Lord's. There's nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh, and give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you and you shall sow the land. And at the harvest, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh and four fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your household and as food for your little ones. And they said, you have saved our lives. May it please my Lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. Then Israel settled in the land of Egypt and the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. This is God's word, may he bless it in its reading and its preaching this evening. Let us pray. Lord God, we give you thanks for your word. We praise you that you have spoken to us. We praise you that you have recorded faithfully the history of your deeds for your people, and indeed for even the nations, as we see in these pages this evening. May they point us to our Savior and King, the Lord Jesus, in whose name we pray, amen. Surely you know what a privilege you've had to have the Reverend Dr. Eric Watkins with you this weekend. I enjoy the privilege of sitting in on a few of those sessions as he spoke to you about the topic of evangelism. And of course, as he made so clear for us, one of the things we must do when we consider evangelism is to have a crystal clear view of the world, of the need of those around us, and the ways in which they are adrift, the ways in which the gospel comes and speaks to them and their lives. And I hardly need to rehearse for you the ways in which indeed our culture is a drift, whether it would be political realignment caused by waves of populism or economic inflation and distress caused by waves of stimulus spending or medical professionals who, on the whim of a child, mutilate and maim a girl who decides that she's a boy or vice versa. Matters of serious import in a world that does not know what is up and what is down. On a far more trivial note, even as I was reading this week, as spring training was beginning, you know, Major League Baseball, the sport without a clock, is instituting a pitch clock. It's nothing sacred in this world. But the good news, whether it is trivial or of utmost importance, is that in a world that is adrift, it's at sea. We have a Christ, we have a King, we have the Lord Jesus Christ who is our intercessor, who stands for us, who is our Savior, who stands in our place. And therefore we must rely on Him and Him alone. We have a Christ who is our intercessor, who is our Savior. We can and must rely on Him alone. In our text from Genesis this evening, we have two main points, two main ways in which scripture points this out for us. We begin with Joseph first settling the Israelites. We see that going up through chapter 47, verse 12. And our second point, he then saves the Egyptians. beginning in verse 13 and going through verse 27. So that's a very simple outline this evening, settling the Israelites and saving the Egyptians. This first half, act one of our text has three scenes. It begins with this reunion between Judah and Joseph. We know that the family is coming down to Egypt with lavish provision and they need a place to live. And that will unfold over these three scenes, the first one being this reunion between father and son. Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to scout the travel route to Goshen. With Joseph's assistance, verse 28 tells us, and we read in verse 29 that Joseph mounts on his chariot and rides out to meet Jacob. And in that verse, verse 29 to verse 30, the pathos is palpable, isn't it? as father and son are reunited. We saw how Joseph presented himself to his father and fell on his neck, an idiom for an embrace of tenderness, of such relief. Remember, Jacob has had shock after shock. First, it was the shock of hearing that his son was dead. His son was ripped to pieces by wild animals. But then he had the shock of learning years later, decades later, that no, in fact, his son was alive. And oh, if that weren't enough, his son is ruling in the stead of the king of Egypt. The pharaoh of Egypt has placed your son that you thought was dead. And now they are united. And Jacob, or as Israel, as he is called in verse 30, what does he say now? Now let me die, since I have seen your face and know that you are still alive. I mean, put yourself in either's shoes. Put yourself in Jacob's shoes. Put yourself in Joseph's shoes. You didn't know if you're ever gonna see your father again. I mean, imagine you were in prison in Egypt. You had been sentenced to presumably a lifelong stay at the prison of Pharaoh. And now you are riding a chariot and meeting with your father who you thought would never see you again. Your father who says, now I can die in peace. He's kind of reminds you of Simeon, doesn't he? And Luke, when he finally sees the Christ, he said, now I can die in peace. The Lord has been good. This is our first scene. The family makes their way down to Goshen. You may wonder where Goshen is. You've probably heard that name all your life, not quite sure where it is. You can imagine Egypt in your head, the western two-thirds of the country desert. Then as you travel east, you get to the Nile River. Then you have a smaller stretch of land before you get to Sinai. And that strip of land between the Nile and the Sinai was Goshen. It would have been the first land that Israelites surely entered as they came across the northern fork of the Red Sea into Egypt, the land of Goshen, the land that we're not quite sure what the name means. It perhaps means cultivated. But you can imagine, it's between the Nile River and the Red Sea. It's well watered. Most of Egypt is not. This is some of the prime land in all of Egypt. It's cultivated. It's good for growing crops. This is where they will settle. So our second scene, the scene shifts, as now the brothers are reunited yet again with their brother, and they're brought before Pharaoh. Beginning in verse 31, Joseph tells his brothers he'll go to Pharaoh, he'll tell Pharaoh that they've arrived. Verse 32, he'll tell them that they're shepherds. And we'll notice that Joseph instructs their brothers, beginning in verse 33, what they are to say, doesn't he? As they come into the presence of the king. When Pharaoh calls them and asks their occupation, they are to say they are shepherds, verse 34. And so as we turn to chapter 47, Joseph does so. He goes before Pharaoh. He introduces the brothers as he said he would. Pharaoh calls them, asks them their occupation. The pharaoh gives him permission now to live in this lane of Goshen that we've just described. Pharaoh goes ahead and gives that permission in verse six. He even gives him the best of the land and offers him a job, doesn't he? He says, you can even shepherd and take care of my flocks and of my herds. And you're probably wondering, what's all this about shepherds? And why is Joseph so insistent that his brothers tell Pharaoh that they are shepherds, that their fathers were shepherds, that they brought all their shepherding accoutrements with them, including the animals? Why is it so important that Pharaoh know that they are shepherds? Especially if there's an abomination to the Egyptians. You may think, well, if it's an abomination, shouldn't they hide it? Shouldn't they keep it secret? But no, actually verse 34 of chapter 46 tells us, doesn't it? He tells him this, in order that you may live in the land of Goshen. So by pointing out that they and their families have always pursued this occupation that is anathema to the Egyptians, Joseph and their brothers, they ensure their separation from the Egyptians. They ensure that they will be kept together as a people. They say, yeah, your shepherds stay over there, stay in the land of Goshen, stay away from us. He doesn't want the promised people, the promised seed, the covenant bearing people of God to lose their identity as they go down into the land of Egypt. His focus is on their preservation of the line of, well, of Adam, of Seth, of Enoch, of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. That line of promise that it would be preserved. And this is how it is going to take place. And finally, the third scene is now Jacob before Pharaoh. We've seen the father and the son reunited, we've seen the brothers come before Pharaoh, and now Joseph brings his father. Talk about another scene he never would have imagined in his life. Bringing his father, who was from Canaan, from a lifetime ago for Joseph, and Pharaoh, now his boss, the wealthy, most powerful man in all the world. And now he brings his father before this man, beginning in verse seven. You notice he blesses Pharaoh when he enters Pharaoh's presence, verse seven. You notice he blesses Pharaoh's name as he's departing his presence in verse 10. Why is our writer, why is Moses, why is the Lord so keen to highlight this beginning and end of this scene? What was that promise? When Abraham first heard the Lord's call that through him nations would be blessed. And now Jacob, the one who says he's had a life that's been a few and evil years is now blessing. Pharaoh, the one who from a worldly perspective had every blessing on this world, but he is blessed by the promised seed of the Lord. That is not only a blessing there, but it's also going to foreshadow the second point of our sermon this evening. So he and Pharaoh, as I just mentioned, they discuss his age. Then again, in verse 8 and 9, we don't particularly know why Pharaoh wants to know his age. Perhaps he's impressed by his age. Perhaps he's surprised that Jacob the age that he seems to be. Jacob says, yes, I've lived 130 years. Now his grandfather, Abraham, lived 175. His father, Isaac, lived 180. So that's why Jacob says, I've lived only 135 years. He seems to highlight the negative, doesn't he? He says, few in evil have been the days of my life. And yet, he has been blessed, hasn't he? Yes, he has been a blessing, has he not? Jacob knows that from the perspective of someone like Pharaoh, his life has been difficult. His life has been hard. Think of the strife between he and his brother, Esau. Think of back in chapter 38, the great sin of his son. Think of the schism with his parents when he had to flee. Because he didn't pull the wool over his father's eyes, he pulled the wool over his arms and then pulled the wool over his father's eyes. But he has yet been one who has been blessed. And he will be blessed further as the text continues. Because why? Well, Joseph settled his father, verse 11, gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses. That's the same land as Goshen. This is probably an explanation given by Moses for his own generation or as an editor collected this text to point out the land later known as Ramses was also the land of Goshen. We know it's obviously great land. It was named for the greatest of all of Egypt's pharaohs. There's so much In these three scenes in which we could focus, we've seen this reunion, we've seen the blessing, we've seen the way in which the Lord has continued to work in this family that's been dysfunctional in so many ways for the past 10 chapters. But I want to home in on this. As we read these three sins, I want to home in on the role of Joseph as his family has been settled here. Think of what Joseph has been about in these verses. Verse 31, he tells his brothers he'll go to Pharaoh and speak on their behalf. On verses 33 and 34, he gives them the words to say before the king. 47 verse one, he does so. He goes before the king and speaks on their behalf. Verse two, he presents his brothers before the king. Verses five and six, he receives Pharaoh's words on their behalf. Verse seven, he brings his father to the king. Verse 11, he settles the family. Verse 12, he provides them with food. In other words, what is Joseph doing here? He's interceding for his family before the king and providing for them all that they need. Out of the king's own bounty, he provides for his people. And in so doing, friends, he is clearly a picture of our Lord and our Savior, that one who will come from this line that is preserved because of all that he does. Our Lord, what does he do for us? He goes not before the king of an earthly, temporal, now gone dynasty. He goes before the king of the universe and speaks on your behalf. Our Lord Jesus now stands before the king of all the worlds and says, this is my family, my Beloved, my chosen people. He brings you before the King's presence. He says, out of the King's bounty, I will bless you. Do you think that you, on your own, could go before the Lord and say, Lord, look at me and get my act together, get my life cleaned up. Would you please hear what I have to say? Would you please accept me? far be it from us to think that we have any right to go before the king of all the universe. We have one who has blazed the trail, who has opened the pathway, who has brought us with him behind the curtain to stand before the king and said, these are my people and I will bless them. To give us the word of the king, to bless us with the very words of God himself. Think of what Joseph has done here. He's not merely done what was necessary to secure the food that will save his family. He now actually goes about the business of providing it for them. Friends, do you realize the privilege that you have in Christ? You have one who goes before you to the king. All your status before the Lord is a gift from that intercessor, from that one whose blood cleansed the holy places of heaven, that you may stand before your King, that he may bless you, that he may give you the best of the land. What is true in the Old Testament in earthly, in earthy, in this world terms, it's true in the New Covenant of the heavenly realities. Because of Christ. Because of that one who bridges the earthly and the heavenly realities. So the question we ask ourselves, is this just merely an interesting factoid, is it an interesting connection, or is it my only confidence? Is it my only hope? Is it my only thing in which I can stand again in this world that is adrift, a world that is at sea, a world that thinks, despite all these things, that yeah, we're actually probably doing okay? Do you rely on that intercessor, on that one who will stand, and does stand, even now, who takes your prayers, who takes your confession of sin, who takes all that you are and presents it. And when the king looks at you, he sees that intercessor. The pharaoh of Egypt would never have called a bunch of shepherds into his presence on their own. They're anathema to him. What are they doing there? They're an abomination to the Egyptians. It's only because of Joseph that they are there. And it's only because of Joseph that they are blessed, that they are provided for, that they receive the fat of the cultivated land, the well-watered land. In the next half of our text, the Egyptians are giving up their land. Here, people of God are receiving land. It's a gift because of their one who stands before the king That is, Joseph settling his family. But the text goes on and we see, as we begin in verse 13 of chapter 47, that Joseph is not done. Not really does he settle his family, but he actually saves the Egyptians. The family worked not just with a family, but with an entire nation, and an entire nation of Gentiles at that. It seems that in verse 13 that the text probably takes a step back. Perhaps it's not sequential, but it's giving us a wider angle lens of all that Joseph has done over the years to provide for the people of Egypt. This is probably so partly retrospective, but continuing up to the present day, that present day, we can run through the narrative relatively quickly. The famine, of course, is bad. Verse 13 tells us, very severe. But we know that Joseph has stockpiled food. We'll remember his dreams. We remember his elevation to the highest point in the land to do the work of stockpiling food, but the money runs out to pay for it, verses 14 and 15 tell us. So the people exchange livestock that year, verses 16 and 17 tell us, but only enough for one year, verse 18 tells us. So they exchange land and even themselves for food and for seed in verses 19 to 23. Pharaoh gets it all. except for the land of the priests who don't need to sell, verse 22, because they're provided for out of the sacrifices that are given to them. Joseph institutes a 20% tax moving forward once conditions allow sowing and reaping again, beginning in verse 24 through verse 26. And perhaps we wonder, why do these people gladly accept these terms? Why do they do so? Review verse 25, if you would. It's very simple. You have saved our lives. You have saved our lives, they say to him. Oh, we'll gladly become servants of the king because you have saved our lives. Now this text has been one of the most discussed texts over the centuries of interpretation. There's again, if we had time, so many things we could look at. Some people have used this as a pro-socialism text. Some people have used this as an anti-socialism text. Some people have used this as a pro-slavery text. Some people have used this as an anti-slavery text. Some people have used this text to see what a good level of taxation might be. Some people have used this text to show what an onerous level of taxation might be. There's so many ways you can use this text to pursue your own socio-political agenda. You can make it say whatever you want if you twist it based on your own priors. But as the text does, let's take a step back. and consider what the full flow of this narrative is seeking to impart to us. The very knob, the heart of the kernel of this text is what? The seed of Abraham blessing the Gentiles. Is it not? Remember what they say, you have saved our lives. The seed of Abraham, the promised line of God's vehicle for bringing blessing to the world is bringing salvation to what was once the wealthiest, most powerful, most prestigious, most proud nation on this planet. Joseph has brought salvation to Israel, as we know. Perhaps that's one reason why the text emphasizes this other name of his father. But he doesn't stop there, does he? He brings blessing to the world. And again, friends, and as so doing, what a wonderful picture, what a wonderful foretaste of his great, great, great, great, great, great nephew, the Lord Jesus. For when the Lord came, he came to Israel first. But did he stop there? No. I haven't done a 23 and me test. I don't know how many of you have done, but I would wager that there aren't many descendants of Abraham according to the flesh in this room this evening. And yet each one of you, Lord willing, has come with the express purpose of calling out to the God of Abraham, of calling out to the God of Jacob, of calling out to the God of Isaac, because the Christ has come to bring blessing to the nations. We are a long way from Goshen here in Chicagoland, are we not? We are even further from the promised land, may I dare say, and yet The blessing of God has extended even to you. In Genesis, make no mistake, it is a temporal salvation. It is a blessing with a lowercase b, if you will. But again, what does the Old Testament show us again and again in a way that is going to be expanded and blown up in a spiritual and eternal and worldwide way in the New Testament, but the blessing of salvation to the Gentiles. To the world, our seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ has brought us life. All we have to do is give him our very selves. He takes ourselves, and he does with us as he pleases, and that's a good thing. Because our king is a good king in God. We are not, remember, we are not the Jews. We are the pagan nations. who have been won over by the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why in Galatians, when Paul considers the blessing, the promised blessing of Abraham back in Genesis chapter 12, he says this, in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. It's not like this was a plan B of the Lord. This was there all along, that you, that you in this congregation, that Lord willing, your children and your grandchildren would know the promised blessing, the promised salvation of the Lord. Don't allow the fact that maybe you've been a believer all your life or you heard this gospel all your life, don't let the stark amazement of that be lost. That what would you have to do with the blessing of a man who lived over 3,000 years ago? And then ultimately the blessing of a man who lived 2,000 years ago and yet still lives. That one who we just spoke of as our intercessor, the one who is bringing blessing to the nations. Think, if Joseph can go before the king of Egypt, that it is nothing for the Lord to go before the kings of all the earth and claim his people as his own. Say, they are mine. I have bought them, not with livestock, not with money, not with selling their land in exchange for food. I have bought them with myself, that my blood may purchase people from every tongue, tribe, people, and nation. In a very small way, to undeserving pagans, that happens in Genesis 47, but in a very large way to undeserving pagans. It's happened to me, and my family, and you, and to yours. So ultimately our response is no different from the Egyptians in verse 25, is it? We come before Christ and we say, what? You have saved our lives. May it please my Lord, we will be servants to the King. Christ, you have saved my life. May it please my Lord, we will be servants of the King. Let us pray. Lord, as we think of the ways in which you have brought the blessing of Abraham even to us, it seems nothing short of miraculous, but we know that's exactly what it is. Through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, through the miraculous work of the Spirit in our hearts, you have brought us to you, that we might be saved, that we might be blessed, that we may have life eternal. Lord, we thank you that we could come to you and pray to you through Christ, the one who stands on our behalf. May we always remember that we must hide ourselves in him, that it is only in his work, only in his merit, only in his mediation that we are anything before you, but in him we are everything. May this gospel grip our lives and our hearts as we seek to serve him, our king, in whose name we pray, amen.