Alright, turn this on. We're going to cover two chapters today, so do not neglect yourself to the public reading of Scripture. It's going to be a lot to read, but this will be the best thing that I say today. Make the public reading of Scripture great again. That's what we're doing right now. Genesis 43 and 44, and then I'll explain why we're going to cover both. So this part of Genesis has been hard to know where to stop, because when you read it, you don't really want to, even today, we'll stop and be like, ah, he's about to say, I'm Joseph, but we've got to cut it off somewhere. So, all right, I'll read Genesis 43 and 44. Now the famine was severe in the land, and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go again and buy us a little food. But Judah said to him, The man solemnly warned us, saying, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food, but if you will not send him, we will not go down. For the man said to us, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. Israel said, Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? They replied, The man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, Is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? What we told him was in answer to these questions, could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down? And Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you, and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety. From my hand you shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice. Then their father Israel said to them, If it must be so, then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man. A little balm and a little honey, gum, myrrh, pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double the money with you and carry back with you the money that was returned to the mouth of your sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise. Go again to the man. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man. And may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. So the men took this present, and they took double the money with them and Benjamin. They arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Bring the men into the house, and slaughter an animal, and make ready, for the men are to dine with me at noon. The man did as Joseph told him, and brought the men to Joseph's house. And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house and they said, it is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us his servants and seize our donkeys. So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, oh my Lord, we came down the first time to buy food and when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. So we have brought it again with us, and we have brought other money down with us to buy food. We do not know who put the money in our sacks." And he replied, "'Peace to you. Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money.' Then he brought Simeon out to them. And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water, and they had washed their feet, And when he had given their donkey's fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard that they should eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with him, and bowed down to him to the ground. And he inquired about their welfare and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive? They said, Your servant, our father, is well. He is still alive. And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. Then he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber, and he wept there. Then he washed his face and came out, and controlling himself, he said, served the food, and they served him by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs, and they drank and were merry with him. Then he commanded the steward of his house, fill the men's sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of his sack. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, with his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph told him. And as soon as morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. They had gone only a short distance from the city, and Joseph said to the steward, up, follow after the men when you overtake them, say to them, Why have you repaid evil for good? Is it not from this that my Lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this. When he overtook them, he spoke to them these words. And they said to him, why does my Lord speak such words as these? Far be it from your servants to do such a thing. Behold the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house? Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die. and we also will be my Lord's servants. He said, let it be as you say, he who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent. Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack, and he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. And then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded up his donkey, and they returned to the city. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there, and they fell before him to the ground. Joseph said to them, what deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination? And Judah said, what shall we say to my Lord, and what shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also, in whose hand the cup has been found. But he said, far be it from me that I should do so. Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father. Then Judah went up to him and said, oh my Lord, please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's ears and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servant saying, have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, we have a father, an old man and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him. We said to my Lord, the boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. Then you said to your servants, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again. When we went back to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord, and when our father said, go again, buy us a little food, we said, we cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down, for we cannot see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. Then your servant, my father, said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me, and I said, surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol. Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, then as his life is bound up in the boy's life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. And your servant will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, if I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life. Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father. Thank you for listening. All right, let's pray. Our Father, thank you for these two chapters and this whole story. Thank you for what it teaches us and points us forward to Christ, who gives us the bread from heaven, not far more than Joseph gave. We have something greater than Joseph is here. And as we'll see today, something greater than Judah is here. So help us to see the breadcrumbs along the way of your revelation that eventually we read in 5020 what God, you meant for evil, God meant for good. And then eventually we see that in Acts chapter two and Acts chapter four, that all the evil that man intended, you meant for the ultimate good. So we thank you, we receive these things as your word today. And we pray that you would apply it to our lives and help us to encourage each other with this story and how it might help us this week in our own lives. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, thank you for listening. Did anyone fall asleep? Still what? I was thinking about, I mean, when Paul tells Timothy, you know, do not neglect the public reading of Scripture. Never apologize for reading too much Scripture. All right, I always like to start with the question of anything that caught you by surprise or anything that you want to make sure we get to, and then we'll look at the handout just to make sure we see the big picture. Go ahead. Don't ask about Joseph's divination. See, I knew you were going to ask about that. All right, so I have one thing to say. See, I know you're sure. I knew you were going to ask about that. OK, again, I know this is probably not one of the major details of the story, but I'm confused about when they're eating. Yeah, he's by himself. I mean, we don't have a picture of it, but as far as I can tell, He's by himself at his own table as the ruler. And they're by themselves, and what proximity they are to him. But it says at one point they take food from his and take it to theirs. So there is a separation because of the abomination of the Hebrews and the Egyptians being together. Which comes up again later when they eventually come and they said that they're shepherds and they're an abomination. And he's still playing the part of an Egyptian. because there's been an interpreter between them. I think that's what's going on with the divination part. It's just part of his ruse, part of his plan. You can read Calvin's commentary for an alternative. He thinks that he actually did practice divination. I just don't see it in the text and I just like Joseph too much to conclude that. I think it's part of the plan for him still putting on the persona of an Egyptian. I could be wrong. I agree with you though. You agree. Tree, alright, me and Tree, we take Calvin all day long. But yeah, I think that's the seating arrangement. The interesting thing about that part, you know, we got so much verses today, we're not going to, can't go verse by verse, but since you brought that up, I think the most, they stare at each other in amazement. And it's not said for sure here how they were seated. But I think, y'all tell me if y'all read it this way, I think either Joseph or one of them sat them in order, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and they're sitting around looking like, what is going on? I think that would be, that's far more likely than they sat down in order of their own birth. You know what I mean? I think that would be, Reuben's like, all right, I'll sit here. Reuben, Simeon, you come here. Levi, I think Joseph sat them down in order and that they're marveling like something's going on here. All right. Go ahead. Yes. Anyway, I think it's interesting because I was reading this this morning, just in terms of the fact that the brothers would come in and they would see the Egyptians fight. and the brothers, and then the Egyptians by themselves, but they did that because the Hebrews, like you said, were loathsome, but yet the brothers don't have a clue about that dynamic, the fact that Joseph is actually one of them. It's a Hebrew, and that, anyway, that's just kind of ironic. It is, it is. And all this time, the one question I read, and having read this so much the last few weeks is, why does Joseph delay so long before, I mean, we're almost there, we're just, what, three verses away when he's like, I'm Joseph! And I think one reason why he's delayed so long is he's bringing them to true repentance, and to give us a picture, for all Bible readers for all time, to see a picture of true repentance. And especially it's highlighted in the character of Judah. He's emerging as the leader at the end of this narrative. Joseph's going into the background and Judah's emerging as the surprising leader, right? We'll look at that in a minute. But you all know Christ is the lion of the tribe of Judah, right? He eventually comes from Judah's line. So we'll look at that at the end. And what might be going on here with him covenanting with his father at the beginning of the chapter as a pledge of safety for the boy to bear his sin. Yeah, there you go. Where does this end Sunday school? I'm nervous teaching in front of a woman. Okay, so try to keep it a little organized here. Any other thoughts and then we'll look at the outline because we read a lot and Ms. Linda read this morning, so that's good. I encourage you all to. But I know we got a lot going on during the week, so I just want to make sure we see the big picture at first. The reason I included both chapters is when I read it, I noticed at the beginning Judah began to emerge as the leader in the family. And I want to talk about how this chapter relates to chapter 38 in a minute. So I took that away to be thinking about that. That's the Judah Tamar chapter. So he begins to emerge as the leader, and then you can't miss it, at the end of 44, it's the longest speech of anybody in all of Genesis. I think that's right. No one talks for this length of time in all the book, and we'll look at that. So he emerging as the leader in point one and five on your outline. And then in the middle is the climax, at least one of the climaxes in this narrative, and that's the meal that they have with Joseph, which is what we've been talking about. And then on either side of that, numbers two and number four are the journey to Egypt, and then on number four I have the journey from, which I marked out, and then back to Egypt. They think they're going back home, and then they end up back in Egypt. And it's the test, right? Joseph is testing them, and his whole intention is to move them towards true repentance. And we're gonna see things today where he He orders, you can see his plan, he's trying to recreate what happened in chapter 37 with Benjamin this time. So he's isolating Benjamin with the silver cup and all this, and he's saying, now you guys can go home to your father in peace, but I just want Benjamin. And so I think he's trying to recreate chapter 37, and what they did to him, and saying, have you truly repented? Are you gonna be willing to forsake Benjamin like you did me 22 years ago, or has there been true repentance? Are you willing to, and Judah is the answer, are you willing to put your place in him and bear his guilt? So I think that's the big picture of what's going on. You've got Judah emerging as a leader, which when Jacob comes to Egypt and he blesses the sons, chapter 49, verses 8 to 12, Judah's blessing, we know for sure in the latter days the Messiah will come from Judah. The king is going to come from him. The scepter shall not depart. You might think it would be Joseph, but he fades into the background and gives way to Judah. The first thing I wanted to look at, if there's no more questions, Do you remember chapter 38? Can anybody remember? What did we read there, and how much time did we say passed in chapter 38? It seemed like, remember, the chapter I preached on, 37, and then 38 seems just kind of out of place, doesn't it? We kind of asked the question, why this break in the Joseph narrative? Why did he get sold into slavery and then we have to read 30 verses about Judah falling into sin and adultery and all this evil and the judgment of God, but it was marked by his repentance at the end. So what do you think is going on there? Now that we've come a little further, what do you think the role of chapter 38 is in this story? That's a difficult question, but put your thinking caps on. And y'all understand the question. There's a chapter 37, Joseph, the narrative begins. He's sold into slavery. And then 39 is when he's in Potiphar South. He's running away from his wife. I can't do this sin. He ends up in prison. But between those two chapters, you get about 20 years of Judah's life. which is when he goes up, and we argued whether or not Tamar intended to look like a prostitute or not, but he slept with her, and then at the end of the chapter, remember, it was marked by his repentance. He said, she is more righteous than I, and he did not know her again. So he actually repented, which means, I always tell you, we tell the girls, repent, and then they run the other way. That's true repentance. So what do you think? Why is chapter 38 there now that Judah's being brought back up? Maybe it's just on the character change, the beginning of the character change. Yes, yeah. And the timing of it, too, I think is interesting. Why would I say that? Now, we don't have any specific time markers here, but we can get pretty close, I think. Because 38.1 tells us it happened at that time that Judah went down from his brothers and did what he did in the chapter. So about the same time as Joseph is going off into Egypt, Judah's going and intermarrying with the Canaanites. And remember, his two sons are put to death. He's scared that the third one might, and so he's not obeying the Levirate marriage law, or at least the custom, and then he sleeps with Tamar and all this. It takes about 20 years. So why do you think the timing might be important, too? Is it mirroring the time Joseph was in prison? Yes, yes. So this is, if we had a timeline, you could picture, you know, 37, let's do Joseph up here. I think this is right for y'all, right to left. And then Joseph starts, and then you come down here to Judah, and you go all the way to the end of the story. So you've got about 20 years. I mean, people argue in commentaries, but it has to be enough where he takes a wife He has the three sons, he gives them to Tamar, at least the first two, and you remember the story. So most people would say maybe about 20 years. So you've come all the way here. And then in chapter 39, you go back up here to Joseph's story, and now you're gonna watch what's been going on with Joseph, even though you know where Judah ends up. Does that make sense? So I think, why do you think that's important? Now, and I think Tree's getting to the point is, when we see Judah today, he's a changed man, isn't he? What is there so different about him today that, and even things that we read in chapter 38, any specific key words that would tell us, oh, now I know why 38's there, and specific words that were used, and how he is now changed for the better. He's actually repented and going the other direction. Is there anything that jumps out to you? Well, I think in chapter 38 it does say, she's more righteous than me. Yes. Yes, so you know at the end of that, which, let's say 20 years just for, We don't know for sure, but remember his confession, she is more righteous than I am, and he doesn't know her anymore, doesn't have sexual relationships with her anymore, so he actually repents. It'd be one thing to say that and then just continue living, but he actually repents and turns the other way. Now in the chapter today, I say, and he's emerging as a leader, what marks of his character do we see which are worth imitating in his life? A man who's been changed by repentance and finding forgiveness in God's favor. What do we see in his life today? It's at the beginning and it's at the end of what we read. It might not be a comparison that you might intend to make, but if I'm not mistaken, didn't Reuben offer up his sons, but Judas offered up himself? Yeah, good. So we saw Reuben kind of make that rash vow. Remember at the end of last week, he was like, you can kill my sons. We're like, what's he saying? And they're going to make a rash vow today when they say, whoever's bag you find the cup in, you can just kill that person. I think Robert mentioned this one week. It feels like in the Old Testament, vows were just kind of thrown around. You're like, whoa, calm down. Poor Benjamin, now he's under a death sentence because of your vow. But yeah, Judah offers himself, and that's getting to what I'm getting at. Any specific words that jump out? that he offered, try not to give it away. Go ahead. It seems like in 38 he was redeemed. Redeemed comes to mind. It's like he was saved. He had a repentant heart and he turned from his sin, turned to the Lord and now he is willing to redeem his brother. I don't know if redeem is the right word, but he's willing to Yes. Yes. That's good. Remember in 38 when Tamar said, what will you give me to have intercourse? And what did he say? Yeah, she said, if you give me a pledge until you send it, what would the pledge be? Your signet and your quartz? And then what we just read in our chapter today, he's pledging himself, right? I think that word is supposed to key us in. Whoa, he's changed. He's now willing to risk his own life to bear. Now, the ESV says bear the blame. It's the word sin. I don't know. I guess blame is okay. Translators are smarter than we are. But when I read it in Hebrew, I thought bear the sin. Here's Judah, from whom the line of the tribe of Judah comes, pledging his own life in covenant with his father at the beginning of the chapter, and he's willing to, instead of the boy, that's what he tells Joseph at the end, therefore let your servant remain instead of the boy. So, I'll just read what I wrote. He's willing, just as he promised, to bear the sin in Benjamin's place, and he's willing to intercede on his behalf, even though Benjamin doesn't deserve it. Isn't this a wonderful picture of Jesus? the one who was not only willing, see Judah doesn't go through with it, but he's willing to bear our sin as our substitute, and Jesus actually did that. He constantly lives to make intercession on our behalf, Hebrews, a lot of this is Hebrews. And why, why is that the case? Because God loves us, Romans 5a, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, God showed his love for us. And he's full of mercy and compassion towards sinners like Judah, who messes up royally in chapter 38, but knows where to find repentance. Same place David did, right? He knows the one place to find repentance. So just like Judah, like me and like you, we can be confident that Christ has covenanted with his Father before the foundation of the world to be our surety, our pledge. that as far off track as we get, if we are faithful to repent, not just at the beginning of the Christian walk, but the whole life. It's not just a sermon I listen to. Repentance is not just the door, it's the wall in every house. It's every wall. It's not just the entrance or the first of Luther's 95 theses. So that's what I see big picture going on with Judah as he's emerging, is we're getting a picture of God covenanting the father with the son to save a people for himself, he will bear their sin in their place, even though they don't deserve it. And where Judah doesn't go through with it, right, because Joseph reveals himself, Christ actually goes through with it. He bears our sin in our place on the cross, and we do not deserve it, right? It's a free gift. So that's the picture of the money, right? The money keeps getting put in their sacks, right? You can't buy this. And Joseph has given us a picture. That angle of Christ is you can't buy it, right? So Isaiah 55, come and eat and buy with no money, right? It's free. It's all of grace. So that's the big picture of what I think is going on with Judah at the beginning of the end. But does that, can you think of any other, does that raise any other thoughts or questions in your mind? It seems very Last Supper-ish. Last what? Last Supper-ish. Yeah, the meal. Yeah. Yeah, are there any clues or just... Well, you know, there's the money part where Judas betrayed with money. Yeah. You got the twelve, which you got the twelve. You got somebody sacrificing themselves for the good of someone else. There's just a lot going on in there that just kind of feels like shadows. I think so. One of the things I've learned studying Genesis is There's no one character that fills out the whole picture of the Christ to come. And I think sometimes you can get caught in that and you just think, well, wait a minute, who's the type of Christ? Is it Judah or Joseph? And you read commentaries and they argue with each other and it's like, it's not Judah, it's Joseph. I just think it's both. Both of them are giving us different pictures of the diamond as you turn it around, and Joseph from one angle, Judah from another angle, and we're getting a fuller picture of really who God is, right? And that he's full of mercy and compassion. That's one thing that we see in Israel at the beginning, his prayer that God would have mercy, right? That the man would have mercy on him. So, all right, that's what I see going on at the beginning and the end. I know we're kind of out of order, but that's the picture I see of Judah in the passage. And if we just look at the beginning, at your handout, that first section there, It looks a lot like where we started last week, right? That they don't have any food. Now to me it's interesting when they say they're gonna take this present up, they list a bunch of food that they're gonna take to Egypt. But it's like delicacies, right? Stuff that my grandmother would have lived on. I think she ate chocolate pie. That's all she ate in like the last 10 years of her life. You see these people, like Japanese people that lived to like 120, they're like, what did you do? And they're like, I just ate chocolate. Like, what? So that's what it seems like. All they have in Egypt is just some pistachio nuts, gum, myrrh, honey. So they pack up all this stuff. Now, what does this remind you of? Israel, who is, what's his other name? Jacob. Does this remind you of another chapter that we've read before, talking about character? Specifically, that he's offering, he's got this present. He thinks this present is really important. You've got to take this present to the man. But he also has a prayer, really briefly, but if you look at... This is what's bad when I don't read it in this same Bible. I don't know where it is on the page. Fourteen, yeah. Thank you, Lenny. His prayer, may God Almighty who is how he's been revealing himself to him, right? Chapter 28, chapter 32. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, which is so, you know, as readers, we're like, that's so interesting. He's saying the man, and it's Joseph, before the man. So does that remind you of anything? He's got his present that he's really concerned about. It's gotta just be just right. Gotta take this amount of nuts and all this. And then he's got his simple prayer. Does this remind you of anything? Yes, yes, it's exactly the same, isn't it? It's the same strategy that he had when he went to meet Esau. Remember, he sent, I think it was like 550 animals ahead, and Esau was like, what in the world is all this? But in that story, remember, what actually delivered Jacob was his prayer. Remember, it was chapter 32, at the beginning of there, he cries out to God, and he says, please deliver me from the hand of my brother. You've made all these promises to me, and it just doesn't look like they're gonna happen. And so he takes matters into his own hand with the present, which ends up being just completely unnecessary. And did you notice in this chapter today, is the present really even mentioned other than when they think verse 26, they give it to him, but it never comes into play, does it? But what actually does come into play? Israel's prayer. There's a specific place. Remember when he goes out to weep, look at verse, So the second time, I think the second time where he goes out to weep, verse 30, after he sees Benjamin, God be gracious to you, my son. And then Joseph hurried out, verse 30, 43-30, Joseph hurried out for his compassion grew warm for his brother. Now, ask the ESV translators why they did this. But the word compassion there is the same word that Israel prayed for, that the man would have mercy on you. So you can translate it mercy or compassion. But there's the answer to his prayer. Israel, the man of faith, as much as he's struggling, and he thinks the whole world's against him, right? He keeps saying, all this has come against me. You know, Romans 8, 28 is really easy to believe, but in the midst of a famine, sometimes you say some things that you don't actually believe. And I think that's where Israel is. So he prays, may God Almighty, he resigns. That's the word I used, Israel's resignation, right? He's holding on to Benjamin, holding on, holding on, and then Judah, Interestingly, also held on to one of his sons. You remember, was it Shelah, the third one? He had Ur and Onan, who God killed. And then remember Judah, he held on to that third son so much. And then he realized that that was sinful, right? He was disobeying God's law. And so I think what's going on is when he tells his father that, you're holding on to Benjamin. Do you know what just happened to me? Remember the timing, the timing's pretty close. And I wonder if they had that conversation is, I held on to Sheila, that's a boy's name, not a girl. I held on to Sheila and that was wrong and I repent. Now please do not hold on to Benjamin. And that's when Israel resigns and he gives us his prayer, right? He has faith and he prays for mercy. And that prayer is actually what gets answered in verse 30. Joseph runs out and he's overwhelmed with mercy and compassion that he's about to show the brothers, but not yet. Now, why do you think this, let's zoom in on the meal for a minute. We've done the seating arrangement. What do you think's really going on here in this meal? Why in the world, I asked the girls this, why is Benjamin given five times as much as everybody else? They're all seated there in order of birth, and Joseph's taking the food to them, and then he goes to Benjamin, he takes his food, and he goes back, and he does it five times. Yes. I think that's what I think. So I think I think he's as much as he can. He's trying to recreate Chapter 37 to see if they truly repent. And so he said, remember, remember me? I don't say this, but in his head. Now, I was I was favored, like you said, in Chapter 37. Remember, that's one of the first things we read in the Joseph narrative is 37 three. Israel loved Joseph. more than any of his other sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors, and we remember all the problems that caused. And they were jealous of him, and that's why he's here. So I think he's trying to recreate that, and he just keeps piling food on top of Benjamin and looking at him. Is this jealousy gonna crop up in your heart again like it did in chapter 37? or have you actually repented? Now, he's been testing them along the way, right? And they've come pretty close, right? And where could we show somebody that, that the brothers, their conscience is starting to awaken to what they did so long ago, right? Sometimes you might think that someone could forget a sin or it might not affect them, but if they're a Christian, It will always stay there, right? Because God has given us his spirit to convict us of sin. And so where have we seen the brothers in the narrative start to awaken to the idea of, I think God has found us out. Have we seen that anywhere? Go ahead, ladies first. When Joseph told them to bring their youngest brother back, they were trying to say, no, please. Yeah, if you look at 42, 21, remember they were in prison for three days, and that's what we discussed last week of, why did he put them in prison for three days? And I think he was awakening their conscience, right? They were being unjustly treated just like he had been for the last 20 years. And he put them in prison in verse 17, this is chapter 42, and then look at verse 21. They said to one another, in truth we are guilty concerning our brother. Joseph, right? They bring it up. Maybe they hadn't talked about it in 20 years. In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us and we did not listen. That fills out the picture of 37. Joseph was like screaming to him out of the pit and they didn't listen. And that's why this distress has come upon us. So eye for eye, tooth for tooth, that's what they're recognizing is we deserve punishment for our sin even though it's been a long time ago. And Reuben pipes in, he's an interesting character. I told you this. I told you not to sin against the Lord, but you didn't listen to me. And then his words are very important. So now there comes a reckoning for his blood. And then if you look at verse 28, this is when they're going back and they open up the sacks and they find the money. And then look at verse 28 in chapter 42. At this their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another, saying, what is this that God has done to us. So they're beginning to awaken to this idea that God has found out their sin. Now, I wanted to read you a quote from... Let's see if I can find it. Meredith was with me last night. I was trying to listen to this sermon. It's so old, and the audio quality was terrible. I had to listen to it so many times to actually get what the guy was saying. But I was so moved by it, and I thought, I've got to get this down on paper. Where in the world is it? All right, we'll edit this part of the audio. Sorry, it's so good, I gotta find it. Oh, my papers are out of order, that's why. There's five. What'd you say, Todd? I know. All right, this is a sermon by Stuart Olyot. And if you go to the Google Drive, I said he preached, and then there's a link, so you can click on it and make sure I've transcribed this correctly. So he says this, and this was so good. What he's getting at is what actually is true repentance, and why has Joseph gone to such great lengths to see that the brothers actually are gonna go the other way, that their minds actually have been changed, and they're not putting on a show. So Stuart Oyo said this, in a previous chapter, Joseph saw his brothers admit their guilt. But admitting guilt is not repentance. In a previous chapter, Joseph watched his brothers break their hearts with sorrow. Some of these verses we've been looking at. But breaking your heart with sorrow is not repentance. In a previous chapter, Joseph watched ten men who were haunted by something which they had done years before. But to be haunted by something you've done years ago is not repentance. In a previous chapter, these brothers had expressed that their consciences that God had known all about their crime all along, but to be conscious that God knows all about your sins is not repentance. In a previous chapter, these brethren had been overcome with the awareness that their sin would at last find them out, but to know that you cannot get away with your sin is not repentance. In a previous chapter, these brethren had admitted that one day they would be the victims of the righteous judgment of God. but to know that God will judge you for your sins is not repentance. None of these things are true repentance. I just thought it was, it's a good reminder to know, now I'm gonna ask you the question, and he continues in his sermon, what actually is true repentance? If none of those things, acknowledging your guilt, right, these are all leading up to it and parts of it, knowing that God's gonna judge you one day, but what actually is true repentance? Yeah, turning away and going the other way right you're you're driving to When I first got my license and I you know, you get in your car and you I think we're going we're going golfing with my roommates brand-new car 16 and I was going like you don't know the roads. I don't know the roads You just grow up and that's why I asked the girls sometimes when we're going down. I said, you know where we are like I If we just like, if I just like died in the car, would you know, like, where, you know, would tell us what here's where we are. And they know their address and other phone number, but do you know where we are literally in the world? And I just got on the interstate and I started going like towards Tuscaloosa. And, you know, we didn't have GPS, you know, none of that. And we were supposed to be going to Columbiana. And I was like, I asked Ryan, who was with me, I said, where are we? He said, I don't know. I said, I don't know either. So, now, I'm telling you, it's a silly story, and then we actually ended up at Columbiana, we played golf, it was an all-day thing for $20, we played all day, we got in our car, and we went home, and it took us even longer to get home, because we got lost again. Now I'm saying that is true repentance would be when you kind of get, you're going down the wrong way and you realize it, you admit it, and you're like, this is wrong, is to actually turn around and to go the other way, to actually have a change of mind. That's what the word repentance reads, right? Metanoia, to actually change your mind. That's why the mind's so important in the New Testament, is for God to give us the mind of Christ. And so we say, not only do I admit this is sinful, but I actually want to not do it anymore. I want to go the other way. I think that's why Judah here is an example of that, and why I think all the key words of chapter 38 are reemerging, but with a newfound, a good aspect to it, especially the pledge, right? He pledged all of his stuff for the price of sinning and committing adultery, and now he's pledging his own life for the sake of his brothers. I'll pause there. I've said quite a bit. Any thoughts? Raising any other questions or other parts of scripture that we could encourage each other with? Yeah, I'm highlighting Judah here a lot just because he talks the most. The only thing, it's a good question. I have two thoughts. One is that Simeon, it's kind of interesting, he's kind of just passed over, but at one point, Another thing we need to look at is when the steward says, peace to you, you know, God did this. And then he just says he brings Simeon out. And I wonder, in Simeon's life, he's been in prison for two years. I just wonder, I don't know. But all we know from the other brothers is, I think at the beginning of the chapter, remember they said, was it 43... 43.7. And that's the only time, I think, where they kind of pipe in. The man questioned as carefully as they justify themselves. But I don't know. I would like to think so. I think they're, especially Reuben's been highlighted as one who, even from the beginning, remember, he was conspiring, or his plan was to come back and get Joseph out, remember? Which is also interesting because he's one that's also fell into grievous sins. Grievous, not grievous. I remember he slept with Bilhah, his father's concubine. So yeah, a lot of these people that have messed up gravely are really the ones that have shown the biggest change. So it's always, it's a good reminder in our own lives, right, don't write people off who have committed great sins because we're all equal in that we need the same Savior, the same repentance, right? And any one of us could fall into an awful sin, but the true mark, that's what I'm trying to get at, is not just acknowledging that, oh, that was bad, it's actually changing and turning and going the other way. All right, so we're getting close to time. I know it's hard to go through this verse by verse today, but I hope some of this has been helpful. Are there any parts of the chapter that you want to zoom in on and focus on or any I've got a couple, but I want to ask you all. Take this cup from me, and the cup was given. The cup part, or? Yeah. Jesus praying about, you know, take this cup from me, but, you know, your will be done. And the youngest was given a cup. Okay. I didn't think about that. Yeah, sometimes the I like, I'll be honest, I like Spurgeon's preaching, and sometimes I think he takes the allegories a little too far, but I'm not saying that's what you're doing, but sometimes I, like we read, I think Christy mentioned this last week, the three days in prison, and you wonder, is that in relation to the three days? And sometimes the New Testament surprises you, and it tells you, now Jonah was in the belly of the whale for three days, so also will the Son of Man be in the belly of the earth for three, you know. So, but yeah, when I see certain things like this, When I start to piece it together, I think, maybe there is something there. And I just, I don't think we're gonna get to heaven one day and God's gonna say, you just had the typology a little off. You know, so I kinda, I lean, I'll just be honest with you, I lean towards looking for Christ as much as I can in the Old Testament, like Spurgeon. Yeah. Well, more of on the, not necessarily, It is I'll think more about it the divination stuff I started going down that track and I just thought If I take the class down this track, I think I'm gonna do a disservice to the passage. Honestly, because I just don't know. I read one commentary, and I think Matthew Henry, he translates it entirely different. So when you read his translation of this, it has nothing to do with Joseph practicing divination. I can't remember what he says, but when I read his translation of it, I thought, Where was the part on divination? And he had just translated it completely different. You can look that up later, but I'll think more about the cup thing. That's interesting. Any other parts that y'all wanna look at in particular? I've tried to give you the big picture of what I think is going on, but I always like looking at the interesting verses and asking hard questions. If you don't, I have one for you. See, that's the risk you run of not asking the questions. You're gonna get a hard question. All right, what do you make of this interaction with the, in my translation, the steward of the house, whoever this guy is, not named. And the brothers, this is when they're waiting for the meal. This is at the end of chapter 43, middle to the end. They're waiting for this meal to happen, and they're terrified, right? They don't... The chapter begins with famine, and it ends with a feast, right? It's just a remarkable change, and they have no clue what's coming. They're terrified, and then the last verse is they're just so happy, right? So, what I'm talking about is right before that, right before the switch from famine to feast and from fear to joy, is they're still terrified. The guilt, right, is still in their consciences, and they tell the steward, is it verse... 2019, they went up to the steward and they said, oh my lord, we came the first time, and then they explain what happened with the money. What do you make of the steward's reply in chapter 43? He replied, peace to you. Do not be afraid. God, your God, and the God of your father has put the treasure in your sacks. I received your money. And he brings Simeon out, he releases the prisoner to him at that point. That one just caught me, when I read that, I thought, wow. That's not what they expected to hear, right? Especially from an Egyptian, if he's an Egyptian. Yeah, I think he probably is, yeah. What does he say? I think he's probably relaying Joseph's message to them. Peace to you. Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks. I received your money. Now, I don't think, y'all tell me what you think, I don't think he's saying, Actually, the money y'all brought is actually just right over there. So I think a miracle happened, and then there's two things of money. I don't think he's saying that. Does anyone, y'all think that could be true? I don't think he's saying that. I think he's relaying a message of Joseph, is that God has done this. God is at work. I think he's trying to increase their awareness of God is at work in this, and you need to continue your thought pattern down that track. Even though you didn't talk that way to your dad at the end of last chapter, you left God out. You need to continue thinking down these terms. God has done this for you. But specifically, I wanted to hone in on, they had no inclination that they were about to have peace proclaimed to them, right? To me, does this remind you of anything else later in the scripture when people have peace proclaim to them. I keep thinking Psalms 23 when you're saying that. Okay, yeah. Because, you know, you're going from, oh, fear no evil, and then my cup overflows. Every time you're talking about going from famine to peace, from fear to peace, I see Psalms 23. Psalm 23, yeah, from the low to the high, where God is with me in all these cases. My cup overflows before my enemies. Yeah. Can you think about the New Testament? I was, yeah, where are you at? I'm in Jesus. Mm-hmm, yes, and John. I pray, Father, says, peace be with you. Yes, remember there, after the resurrection, they're in the, I forget whose house, and Jesus is just like, there? And what's he say? John 20, I think it's John 20. Peace to you, right? He breathes on them, received the Holy Spirit. And they're there, just terrified, right? No expectation. of a proclamation of peace from God. And it's the same sort of thing, Todd's almost there in Romans, at the end of Romans 4, he was delivered up for our trespasses and he was raised for our justification, right? So he's just been raised for our justification and he goes and he proclaims peace to them. Now what is the next verse in Romans after 4.25? How does Romans 5 verse 1 start? Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. And then after that, that's the famous part where you learn, oh, suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope will not put us to shame because God has poured His Holy Spirit into our hearts. And I think all of that is the New Testament kind of wrapping up of what we've been studying here. They come in fear and trepidation. They're on their way towards repentance. And when they're finally getting there, we have done wrong. God has found us out. We deserve punishment. And they hear a proclamation, peace to you, what they did not expect and what they did not deserve. So that's another aspect, I think, of Christ and the gospel that I see in the passage. I also suppose that when he says, I received your money, maybe Joseph paid for it. Otherwise, that would have been corruption of some kind. So maybe, yeah, maybe there was a replacement. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I wrestled with it. I don't know. I would be pretending if I said otherwise. I don't know. But it's a good thought. Any other questions? We're about out of time, but I hope this has been helpful. Any other thoughts? Can you kind of explain what, like, at the very end, it said, bring down my gray-haired cares with sorrow to shield. I don't understand what that really means. Yeah, so verse 44-29. Because that's what he told them, right, at the end. He's repeating what he said at the end of chapter 42. I just don't understand what that phrase means. I think it's just a phrase of, you're going to bring me down to death, to corruption, and this will be the end of me. The shield's not hell, it's just the place of the dead. Just the place of the dead. Like the next verse, his life is so bound up in the boy's life that if Benjamin dies, he's just gonna go into the grave. Like, that's the picture of it. Yeah, I wouldn't read it as, I'm gonna be separated from God in hell or anything like that. It's just, I'm gonna go to the place of the dead. That's what we do. Do they understand it as the same thing, though? I don't know how they understood it. I mean, we could look at other places. That's for a different day, but I think they're, that's one of the hardest questions, right, in the Old Testament, is what is there What is their understanding of the resurrection or the afterlife? Now, I think they knew more than we give them credit for sometimes, Abraham especially, that he's looking for, Hebrews 11, he knows about heaven. He had God with him. Maybe there were other things that he had told him that's not here. And also interesting things like Melchizedek. I mean, what kind of priesthood is that? But when he comes and he blesses Abraham, I think he understands there's something There's something beyond what God's even doing through my seed, right? There's this Melchizedekian priesthood. We're gonna produce priests. This'll be a good ending for today. But the priest actually comes from the tribe of... Yeah, the priest Judah. So I think Abraham's starting to realize, yes, the priests come from Levi, right? But Hebrews makes such a big point that when Christ is named a priest, Hebrews 7, 13, for the one of whom these things are spoken, Jesus, he belonged to another tribe, not Levi, from which no one has ever served at the altar, for it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah. And in connection with that tribe, Moses didn't say anything about a priest. So that's kind of your answer to your question. I think they were putting pieces together and I think they understood more than we give them credit for. And Melchizedek is the perfect example. There's this other priesthood, what in the world? And I think Abraham understands that God is gonna be God to him forever. Like when Moses is at the burning bush and God says, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. He's not the God of the dead but of the living. That's how Jesus explains it in the Gospels when they're asking about the resurrection, right? And he said he's the God of Abraham who lives. So I think, I don't know, I tend to think they knew more than we give them credit for, but that's a hard question. All right, we got to wrap up. I'll pray for us. Father in heaven, thank you for these two chapters today. It's our daily bread. Help me to keep working hard and bringing the best I can here. Pray for Everyone who is here today and those who weren't, we pray that our worship service will be a good time of worshiping Jesus for all He's done for us. We pray this in His name. Amen. Thank y'all for listening. You gotta ask good questions.