Let us turn now to Genesis, returning to the 41st chapter this morning. And I'll read for our scripture the 37th through the 45th verses of chapter 41 and then chapter 42 verses 1 through 24. Chapter 41, verse 37. So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, in as much as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word. Only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.' And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and he clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck, and he had him ride in the second chariot which he had, and they cried out before him, bowed the knee. So he set him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh also said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zapnath-Pananiah. And he gave him as a wife Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, priest of On. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land. Chapter 42, beginning at the first verse. When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, why do you look at one another? And he said, indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down to that place and buy for us there that we may live and not die. So Joseph's 10 brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, but Jacob did not send Joseph's brother, Benjamin, with his brothers, for he said, lest some calamity fall before him. And the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed, for the famine was in the land of Canaan. Now Joseph was governor over the land, and it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth. Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them. Then he said to them, where do you come from? And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him. Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them and said to them, you are spies. You have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said to him, no, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. We are all of one man's sons. We are honest men. Your servants are not spies. But he said to them, no, but you have come to see the nakedness of the land. And they said, your servants are 12 brothers, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan. And in fact, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no more. But Joseph said to them, it is as I spoke to you, saying you are spies. In this manner, you shall be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place until your youngest brother comes here. Send one of you and let him bring your brother, and you shall be kept in prison, that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you, or else, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. So he put them all together in prison three days. Then Joseph said to them the third day, do this and live, for I fear God. If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house, but you go and carry grain for the famine of your houses and bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die.' And they did so. Then they said to one another, we are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear, therefore this distress has come upon us. And Reumann answered them, saying, Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy? And you would not listen. Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us. But they did not know that Joseph understood them. for he spoke to them through an interpreter and he turned away from them and wept. Then he returned to them again and talked with them and he took Simeon from them and found him and bound him before their eyes. Then Joseph gave a command to fill their sack with grain to restore every man's money to his sack and give them provisions for the journey. We look at these passages in Exodus and we've been in the passages in Genesis and we've been in Genesis for quite a while. The book of Genesis is one of the, and all the books of the Bible have different emphases and so forth, but Genesis is, of course, the first book, first and gives us the record of the creation, and it gives us the record of the covenant, the first promises of God to His people, and it addresses the matters of our sinfulness, and it speaks of the matters in which God treated with the men and women of the world, blessing those who were in covenant with Him. And of course, cursing those who were not. We see that brought forth within, for an example, the Great Flood. We see it also in the Tower of Babel. We see it in other areas that God's protecting his chosen ones as we go through the book of Genesis. And in this particular section of Genesis where we read about Joseph's rise to power, And actually we begin to look and see and we can observe as we come through these passages beginning at chapter 37 and then continuing up to these chapters which we read this morning and even going beyond that, we can see how the life of Joseph changes. First of all, he goes from riches to rags. Remember he was the favorite of his father and Jacob had a tunic made for him of many colors and he more or less pampered Joseph. And then he sends Joseph out to go see how his brothers are doing and we remember how Joseph came back and gave not a very good report as to what was going on with them, and the brothers were angry at that. And then when he got that red, that many-colored tunic, they were angrier yet. And then when he told them, as a young man, and at this time what's taking place shows us a young adolescent 17 years old, it's what we read over in chapter 30, is it chapter 37, I believe, the very first verse, it says that, 37, now Jacob dwelt in a land, yes, this is the history of Jacob, Joseph being 17 years old, 17 year old boy, young adult, adolescent, whatever. And remember Joseph has these two dreams and he's with great pride tells them to his brothers, sort of a boast. I had these dreams, I've been able to interpret them. And in those dreams, what I'm seeing is, well, dreams of sheaves in the field, and these 11 sheaves bow to this other sheaf, and he says, well, it's the 11 of you, and I'm the great sheaf. And then later, he has another, similar dream, and in this one he sees the sun and the moon and 11 stars and so forth, and then he says they all bow to him. And when we approached that text, I don't know how long ago, but a number of weeks ago, I said that probably it was unwise of Joseph to approach it in that matter, not much tact, and so forth. And I would hold to that presently. But when we begin to see the progress that Joseph makes in life, we begin to see the hand of God upon him. and his protection over him, and we begin to see Joseph mature. And we say he matures in the faith. And basically that's the way our lives are lived. You know, the Apostle Paul speaks about those who are basically fed pablum. and then they grow into where they can eat the meat and so forth. And this is the way we live within our lives. We come, we hear the word of God, we have a very, very, very small knowledge of it, and we grow. We grow as we hear the scriptures, as we hear the word of God proclaimed, we grow as we have our devotions day by day, and we come to the word, and we begin to mature spiritually, just as we mature as far as our growth in life is concerned and through our ages. And the scripture speaks about those things, you know. We get wiser as we get older. I'm getting real wise. And, you know, you keep going on, and there's a truth to that. You learn a lot of things by experience. You learn how to avoid things. You learn that, well, that was a dumb thing to do, and I won't do that again, and what have you. And Joseph goes in that manner as well. Now, as we look with respect to these texts, we find that Joseph certainly, back in the 37th chapter, we read of the things that take place. He was hated by his brothers. The brothers also were maturing, but they were maturing in their anger. They were maturing in their hatred. We read in 37 verses 3 and 4, their hatred became so strong. And basically it grew to the point where they conspired against Joseph to kill him. And we read that in the 18th through the 20th verses. And it was Reuben's level-headed intervention that prevented that. So Reuben was maturing as well. He said, well, wait a minute. That doesn't sound like a very good idea. And we could see an observation from the Genesis account is that Joseph's history is one of going from riches to rags and then rags to riches, bounces up and down. And as we look through these passages, we find there's something interesting with the bounces up and down. We find that in those bounces that, for an example, Joseph's clothing changes. He has that beautiful tunic that's stripped away from him by his brothers. He's placed into a pit. He goes down into a pit. And he's only raised up when the Ishmaelites happen by, and they figure, well, here's a good opportunity. Let's sell him off as a slave, and which they did. Joseph comes up from the pit by the help of his brothers, because the pit was deep enough that he couldn't climb out of it. And we find that he's now a prisoner. on the prison clothes. He goes over into Potiphar's household, but there he changes clothes again, He returns back to riches because he has a prominent master and he has a prominence within that household. He's the master of all things. He's the steward of Potiphar's house. Then we find again he's stripped off of his garment by Potiphar's wife, Potiphar. And she accuses him of, he came in to basically rape her. And so he goes back from those nice clothings that he had from Potiphar's household and that position which he had, back into the prison pit. And we read about his dreams, not his dreams, the dreams of those prisoners that he's in charge of, the butler and the baker, the two servants of the pharaoh. And those dreams we read that the butler sees three branches in his dream. And the baker sees three baskets in his dream, and so forth. And Joseph interprets the dream. And he tells them, he gives good news to one and some bad news to the other. And he says, well, to the butler, you're going to be restored. You're the cupbearer, the king. And there apparently was an investigation that went on that cleared this man that he was not the man who had done the thing wrong. But the baker, he says, well, you're also going to be lifted up, uses the same term for both men, but one's lifted up to be exalted, the other one's lifted up that his head's going to be lifted off. He's going to be hanged, and he was, you see. Now, as we look at this, we see the interesting background leading to Joseph's life in Egypt was at first was a bounce back up to a certain amount of riches owing to God's favor toward him expressed in Genesis 39 verse 2. The Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man. Basically, that's how we have a successful life. If we are in union with Christ, we have a successful life. We have a successful life whether we're a street cleaner or whether we're a hedge fund manager, whatever, whatever it is that we do or whether we're in prison innocently. or even not innocently, if we have come to Christ. We have a successful life. A Christian does not leave this life unsuccessfully because he will be exalted. when Christ comes to take us to himself in eternity wherein we will reign with him over all things for eternity. Now we notice with Joseph, Joseph becomes very exalted in the course of his life. First of all, he becomes very humiliated. That is to say, he bears the burden. He bears the burden of being in prison as a result of his innocency. He bears the burden of the hatred against him by his brothers. But we find that the Lord was with him, and the Lord made all he did prosper in his hand. He prospered in the household of Potiphar for a time, then he becomes humiliated. by the false accusation against him by Potiphar's wife, Potiphar. Then he's exalted again after he's in prison for a while. But while he's in prison, he's still successful. He's still seen to be one who can be trusted and he's given charge over the other prisoners. And then we read of the story of the butler and the baker. And the butler and the baker, they get out of the prison for a time, both of them. Remember I preached on the third day a couple of weeks ago and Easter rose around and the resurrection being on the third day and so forth. And I said, the third day has some significance within the scriptures. But in that dream that Joseph interprets, he says, on the third day, this is going to take place. On the third day, the butler's going to have his job restored back to him as a cupbearer of the king. And on that third day, the baker is not going to be so happy because he's not going to be around. And so we look at this and we see here on the third day, well, what was the third day? The third day that he's speaking about, was going to be the birthday of the pharaoh, and the pharaoh is going to have a festive occasion for his servants. And he's going to bring these two men forward, and he's going to basically tell them what Joseph told them. And remember, Joseph asked the baker, the butler, excuse me, well, when you appear before the pharaoh, remember me, remember me. Well, unfortunately, the butler, for some reason, possibly just the reason of humanity, first of all, being, well, he was perhaps so exuberant of the fact that, well, he wasn't going to lose his head, he was going to get his job back. He concentrated on that and the excitement and then forgot to say anything about Joseph. Or maybe it was just the fact that like men and women sometimes are, they focus upon themselves and they thought, well, that was not, so it's an important thing to mention anything which Joseph had done. But whatever the case, what we see is that third day was very important. important to Joseph, important to these men, because Joseph's going to be in prison for at least two years more. And so we look with respect to Joseph's imprisonment and Joseph's sentence and we say, well, how is this? This was a serious accusation that came against Joseph by Potiphar, the wife of Potiphar. because rape at the time of Joseph's life would have been dealt with by the sentence of death. That's how serious it was. And so we look at Joseph's sentence and we would think, well, I wonder how long that sentence was. And we don't have anything in Scripture that tells us how long Joseph's sentence was to be in prison. But what we do know is that apparently Potiphar, even though he was angered when he heard what his wife said, that Potiphar somehow or another may have gained from the hearing maybe of some of the other servants and so forth within that household, that Joseph never did anything like that. But in order to save face in a prominent household, he had to have Joseph sentenced for some period of time. And as I said, I wouldn't want to try and guess as to how long. Maybe for life. Maybe for a span of 10, 15 years. I have no idea. But what we do know is that Potiphar apparently saw through Potiphar's statements. And we also see as we come through these chapters how in his exultation that Pharaoh sees in Joseph something very great, something so great that he gives him the name Zapnath-Pananea, which means basically—anybody know? God, what? It says to us that God knows and God, where is it? I have it written down so I wouldn't forget it. And somehow I've forgotten it. God speaks and he lives. God speaks or God has spoken and he lives. Pharaoh sees something in Joseph that he gives him this name. He gives him this name probably for two reasons. Number one, he sees this work in Joseph. by some power, because Pharaoh didn't worship God, but he sees something, some power in Joseph from some outside force. Well, the Spirit of God is not a force, the Spirit is a person. and he certainly was working within the life of Joseph, and it's acknowledged and recognized by Pharoah. But he gives him an Egyptian name so that he would fit in well with the Egyptian people. That's the whole idea between this, to remove that Yosef, or Yehosef, the Hebrew name, and give him an Egyptian name so that they would have a more welcoming attitude toward Joseph. And then we see that Pharaoh really elevates Joseph. In as much as God has shown you all this, that is all this wisdom that Joseph has, there is no one as discerning and as wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word. Only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. And then Pharaoh took a signet written off his hand, and he put it on Joseph's hand, and he clothed Joseph in garments of linens. By the way, Joseph, when he came out of prison, when Pharaoh brought him up out of the dungeon to appear before him, Well, Joseph shaved and he changed his clothes. And now Pharaoh again comes and he gives him clothes of fine linen and he gives him his signet ring. And that's the seal, you see. That's so that any document whatever proclamation or what have you, Joseph can seal that and that's the law of the land. And so we look with respect to this, Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand, he put it on Joseph's hand, he clothed him in garments of fine linen, put a gold chain around his neck and had him ride in the second chariot which he had. Pharaoh has one chariot, Joseph has the second chariot and they go through the roads of Memphis and the people see it and they bow down before him. He becomes the prime minister, we speak of it often times, probably something on the order of the grand vizier of the land of Egypt. He has the power to do what he wills to do. You know, we speak of Joseph being a type of Christ from time to time, and that's true. There's a lot of things we see in Joseph's life that are similar to the things we see in Christ's life. One of the things is when he was sold to the Ishmaelites, the Ishmaelites, paid 20 shekels for him. That's similar to what the price was when Judas betrayed our Lord, only that was 30, 30 shekels or 30 pieces of silver. And we see in this particular portion of the Scripture the exaltation of Joseph. And we recognize the exaltation of Christ, the exaltation on that third day of his resurrection from the dead begins and then goes up to the ascension of Christ into heaven and the sitting at the right hand of God. So that Christ is the ruler over all the world, over all the universe. And that's an exaltation that reflects in the life of Joseph. And Joseph begins to do what we'll speak about in the next week. He begins to bring about the reconciliation of his family. That's what Christ came to do for us, you see, to bring reconciliation to us. The reconciliation of God to man. Sometimes we get reconciliation turned around, we think that we We reconcile ourselves to God. No, we don't. God reconciles himself to us. And that's through the death of his son in making a satisfaction for our sins. The exaltation of Joseph. It's a beautiful account. And it's a wonderful expressions that are given by Joseph in his maturity. He no longer says he doesn't come before Pharaoh and bring, when Pharaoh has his dreams, he doesn't say, well, I can interpret these dreams. No, he says, God's given me the interpretation of these dreams. That glory doesn't go to me. I'm not boasting in it. It goes to the Lord. You have a knowledge of Christ? Praise the Lord. You believe the scriptures, the Word of God? It belongs to the Lord. Your trust and faith is in Him? That's not by your wisdom and knowledge. That's by the power of the Lord at work within you, by the application of the word to your life through the Holy Spirit. And we shall also share in that exultation when we reign with Christ throughout all eternity. Amen. Let us look to the Lord in prayer. Our blessed God and our Father, we ask that you would seal to our hearts your word. Yeah, seal to our hearts that redemption that we have in Jesus Christ. And we ask our Father that you would seal to our hearts the fact that we are called by your name and that we are called to do your will. And we pray that you would work within us by the power of your spirit to serve you through all the days of our life. with joy and with gladness and with the focus upon Him who has saved us from our sins through His atonement on the cross. Yea, our blessed Savior Jesus Christ, whose name we pray. Amen.