Well, hello everyone, and welcome back. This is our Daily Devotional for Tuesday, April 29th, 2025, and I am delighted to be with you today. I hope that it finds you doing very well and making your way through this week just nicely. I don't know what the weather is like where you are, but we got a little bit of pollen up here. Nothing like compared to South Carolina. Oh my goodness. I do not miss those pollen filled days, but still got a little bit of the old allergies working here. So I hope you'll forgive my, what can be incessant throat clearing, but hopefully. That is not gonna be the case this morning. I hope that you're enjoying our time. Beautiful, beautiful weather in the valley. When I woke up this morning, you could count the trees on the ridgeline of the Blue Ridge there. So anyway, wonderful, wonderful place to be this time of year. But it's good to be back with you, especially as we are making our way through the story. I've had some folks say to me, yeah, it's like a, Like an old time radio show and the rest of the story, right? It's like a, oh, what's the term for it? I can't remember the terminology used for it, but a running show, right? Sitcom, not sitcom, but different episodes, right? What does today's episode hold? Except this is not a story, it's not fiction. It is a historical account of what took place with Joseph and with all of Joseph's brothers. Do you remember where we were yesterday? where Jacob had determined in chapter 42 that he was not gonna send Benjamin no way, no how. He had two dead sons, as far as he was concerned. The first, of course, being Joseph, who he thought was dead, and then he thought Simeon was a goner, because he certainly was not going to be sending Benjamin. the son of his right hand, right? Talking about his wife and his beloved son. Wasn't gonna send Benjamin to Egypt. Then, of course, Judah was the one that spoke up. Judah not, he was cunning, right? He was wise, but at the same time, he wasn't sinful. He was the one that said, hey, listen, dad, I'm gonna bring him back to you, just like Reuben had done before. But this time, it's fascinating that it's Judah, the one who sold Joseph into slavery. or at least the one who had the idea to do that. He was the ringleader, wasn't he? But nevertheless, it's Judah that speaks up and says, hey, listen, hold me personally responsible, but I'm gonna bring Benjamin back to you, okay? And eventually they end up sending him because they've got to, they're going to starve to death. But as we saw yesterday, God never tells us to pray for a hole while leaning on a shovel. And you see Jacob, who is called Israel in chapter 43. Remember, that's the name that God gave him. It was Jacob in chapter 42 when he was showing a lack of faith. Now that his faith is perked up, he's called Israel, yet again. And he greases the wheels of progress with extra silver and gifts from the land and all that sort of thing. Jacob knows a thing or two about giving gifts. Remember what he did with Esau? Yeah, so these things come back around. Now that he's an old man, he's doing the same thing, but he's doing it with this unknown man. He doesn't even know who he is, much less does he know that it's his son, his long lost son, Joseph. As we read yesterday, we read about everything. We read about the feast where Benjamin was given five times as much as everybody else, and the brothers didn't make a peep. Joseph is testing them. They're showing themselves to not be the brothers he knew them to be. Instead, we see salvation. We see redemption. And if you doubt that, well, let me introduce you to Genesis chapter 44. And we see salvation and the Holy Spirit at work in the most unlikely of places. Let's pray and then we'll dig in and read. Our God and our Father, would you be with us now? Would you watch us? Would you guard over us? Because we're tempted to do a lot of things right now. One of them is to be cynical. In this time of ours where we find labels for people and we believe that people are too far gone, especially those that hurt us so much, The same thing could be said of Joseph's brothers, and yet we see your Holy Spirit intervene and bring change and bring newness. And we praise you that you are still the same and you still change people, all by the power of your Holy Spirit. It's our desire, Father, that we would be those people too. So please change us now by the power of your word, given to us, illuminated for us by your Holy Spirit. Help us to understand lead us to be convicted, and we pray it in Christ's name, amen. All right, so do you remember where we left off again? They were feasting, they were drinking. Chapter 44 says, Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house. Fill the men's sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's silver in the mouth of his sack. Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack, along with the silver for his grain. And he did as Joseph said. As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys. They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, Go after those men at once, and when you catch up with them, say to them, Why have you repaid good with evil? Isn't this the cup my master drinks from, and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done. All right, now, time out, time out, cool your jets. I know that I've said in the past that Joseph is one of the very few characters in the Bible to which sin is not ascribed. And y'all, realize what he's doing here. Is this deceptive? Yes. Is it a ruse? Absolutely. Is this the same thing as bearing false witness and lying? Y'all, no, it's not. And also, also, realize what we just read. People make all sorts of hay out of this. They say, ah, look, see, Joseph has become a good Egyptian. He's started practicing divination. No, he hasn't. No, he hasn't. Y'all, this is what he told his steward to say. This isn't an admission on his part of divination. If you think that, rewind to what Joseph has done all along. When there were times when a regular Egyptian would have practiced divination to divine meaning of, oh, I don't know, dreams, you don't see that from Joseph ever. In fact, what you see from Joseph is what he said to Pharaoh. I can't do it. I can't interpret these dreams, but God will. And that doesn't make him guilty of divination. And before you say, oh, divination is a real thing, it remains real to this day. The Bible says not to do it, that it's wicked, that it's an abomination. Don't practice divination. But also, don't do the other thing that people do with this and say, oh man, how archaic. How barbaric. Magicians, divination, it just shows how outdated and antiquated God's word is. What do these people, these barbarians, have to do with me? Y'all, okay, I'm not even gonna get into this fully today. I've already cracked the lid open just to touch on this. But realize that divination was and is a real thing. A lot of it is fake. A lot of it is parlor tricks, but if we were to fast forward to Exodus, Pharaoh's magicians really did turn their staffs into snakes. Now Moses' staff ended up eating theirs, but still, right? When it talked about Pharaoh's magicians, they were magicians, okay? Does that mean magic is real? Well, why would God outlaw and call something an abomination that doesn't exist? If God says it's real, and he says it's an abomination and reprehensible, then who are we to say it's not? But all of that being said, this is not an admission on Joseph's part of falling into Egyptian culture and being swayed by Egypt. He said, go tell them I said this. Why might he do this? Well, for the same reason that he understands their language, but he's been using an interpreter. This is all part of what he is doing to figure out who these men are. These men that sold him into slavery to figure out what he's going to do next. Remember, he's got sons, he's got a wife, one of the sons he named about forgetting. Manasseh makes him forget. Makes him forget what? The life that he left behind or the life that was stolen from him? Yes, probably. Joseph wants to see if they've changed, if they're different. And so, verse six, when he, talking about the steward, caught up with them, he repeated these words to them. But they said to him, why does my Lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that. We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold? from your master's house. If any of you, or if any of your servants is found to have it, he will die. And the rest of us will become my Lord's slaves." Now y'all, what we hear is confidence there. Confidence of innocent men. This is as God is my witness, but it's more than that even. It's a, hey, listen, anybody that stole, kill him. The rest of us are your slaves. Very well, then, he said. Let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave. The rest of you will be free from blame. Isn't that fascinating? The steward says, all right, just like you said it. And then he doesn't say what they said. Yeah, does this mean that he knows more from Joseph? Probably. Joseph gave him follow-up instructions and said, all right, now when they say something like this, this is what you do next. Or maybe the steward is just wise. I personally believe that the steward knows the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We know that because the steward previously references that, and it makes sense that he, being steward over Joseph's house, would come to know the Lord that Joseph loved and worshiped, okay? So, all of that being said, he's in, I believe he's in on it. Verse 11, each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest. Oh, the drama that builds up, right? And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. At this, they tore their clothes. Then they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city. Why did they tear their clothes? Instant mourning. Instant mourning. Verse 14, Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in and they threw themselves to the ground before him. Joseph said to them, what is this you have done? Don't you know that a man like me can find things out by divination? Y'all, this is where we're starting to get a little bit of a hint of what Joseph may be doing. We don't know the things that were said back when Joseph was having those dreams. We don't know what his brothers accused him of. Again, this is not Joseph saying, I practice divination. This is part of the ruse, okay? Verse 16, what can we say to my Lord? Judah replied. Hi, man. Y'all, Judah's an interesting character. Before, one of the things I prayed about was the temptation we face to believe that people are too far gone, that people can't be helped, that sort of thing. Judah is a prime example of God changing the unchanging. Think about the things that we've seen with Judah. Oh my, Judah. Worst of which, despite the whole Judah and Tamar episode, worst of which is that he was the one that sold his brother into slavery. He had the idea to not only be rid of Joseph, but to profit off of him, to treat him like property, to hate him so. And then we saw Judah and Tamar, where Judah grows convicted. He's embarrassed, he's shamed, but he grows convicted. Yesterday, we saw that Judah's the one that pipes in and says, no, dad, listen, I got this thing. Trust me, trust me. And he meant it. And now what do we see? What can we say? Again, verse 16, what can we say to my Lord, Judah replied? What can we say? How can we prove our innocence? God has uncovered your servant's guilt. We are now my Lord's slaves. We ourselves are the one who was found to have the cup. But Joseph said, far be it for me to do such a thing. Only the man who was found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace. Then Judah went up to him and said, please, my Lord, let your servant speak a word to my Lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servants, do you have a father or a brother? And we answered, we have an aged father, and there is a young son born to him in his old age. His brother is dead, and he is the only one of his mother's sons left, and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, bring him down to me so I can see him for myself. And we said to my Lord, the boy cannot leave his father. If he leaves him, his father will die. But you told your servants, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you will not see my face again. When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him what my Lord had said. Then our father said, go back and buy a little more food. But we said, we cannot go down. Only if our youngest brother is with us will we go. We cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. Your servant, my father, said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me and I said, he has surely been torn to pieces and I have not seen him since. If you take this one from him too, or if you take this one from me too, and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery. So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant, my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life, sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father. I said, if I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life. Now then, please let your servant remain here as my Lord's slave in place of the boy. And let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No. Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father. Y'all, I know I've just read a big swath here, but what I've just read is a story of redemption. Where we find Judah initially is selling a brother into slavery, putting himself first. But where do we see him just now? Don't we see him saying, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't take this younger brother into slavery. Very clearly, Jacob loved Benjamin more than the rest. But just like yesterday when we saw at the feast, he was given five times as much and there's not a peep from Judah. So it is here that though he knows he loves Benjamin, Jacob said, if he goes, I go, I'm dead. I cannot abide it. What does Judah do? Judah doesn't say, guys, guys, guys, now's our chance to get rid of Benjamin and then we won't have to put up with his garbage anymore. Instead, what we see from Judah is I cannot abide it. I cannot do this. He doesn't say again. You can't say that to Joseph. He believes that Joseph is dead, as far as we can tell, or that he's gone or whatever. He thinks Joseph is out of their lives completely, so he's not gonna say this to Joseph. But it's as if he's saying, I cannot do this again. I cannot bring this on my father again. And instead of saying, now's our chance to get rid of the little one that our father loves more than us, let's sell him into slavery, what we see from Judah is no. take me into slavery instead. And y'all, in this act, we see that Judah has come full circle, that Judah has the strongest faith of any of the brothers outside of Joseph. And it is for this reason that two things happen. Number one, Joseph doesn't get his own tribe of Israel, his two sons do, Manasseh and Ephraim. But with Judah, when Jacob is gonna be doling out the blessings pretty soon here, it is Judah that will get the greatest of all the blessings, for it is Judah and his line that will rule over the entirety of the nation. Why? I believe because of this, because of Judah and his salvation, because of how the Holy Spirit worked, because of how he's come back, because of his faithfulness, because of his courage, because of his willingness to say, no, take me instead, which is what any good King would do. But it's exactly what the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords did, you see. For though Judah is the greatest of his brothers and therefore would be blessed by being told it will be your line, Judah, that will rule over all the others. Judah would be the kingly line. It would be Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who would be the greater Judah, the lion of the tribe of Judah, as a matter of fact. And in such a more powerful way, having no guilt of his own, Jesus, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, would say, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't take them. Take me instead. Y'all, do you see the beauty here? Do you see the glory and the wonder? I hope you do. For in it, we get such a beautiful picture of who Jesus is. We see it from this fallen man, Judah. But also along with that, we see that God is able, I've been saying it all along, God is able to do immeasurably more than we could ever ask or imagine, even change people, the people that have hurt you the most, even change you, even change me. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this time that you've given to us and for this wonderful, wonderful story that's true. We thank you for Judah and his courage. We thank you for his redemption. He was only faithful because you were faithful to him first. Thank you for your intervention. Thank you for Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, the Lion of the tribe of Judah that, Father, though we had earned the wages of sin, he said, not them, take me instead. Give us grateful hearts and let us live out of that gratitude. Not to earn your favor, but because you've already given it. And we pray it all in Christ's name. Amen. Well, I'd like to thank you all for being a part of this time. Lord willing, we'll be back tomorrow morning at 6 a.m. Tomorrow's Wednesday. Love to have you tomorrow night at 645, but hopefully we will see you soon. Take care.