If you have your copy of the inerrant word of our creator, open it with me to the first book, Genesis and chapter 41. Chapter 41 of Genesis will be the first 14 verses will be our passage of perusal tonight. It is a very long chapter and I had every intention of attempting to to go through the entire chapter at a very rapid rate. But as I looked at it, I realized that that was going to be very difficult to do and do any justice to it that will satisfy my conscience. So the first 14 verses will set the stage. As I tend to remind you every time we come to this book, there was a lot going on in the world. But what was going on in this man's life is the most important thing in the world. There was a lot that was going on back home in Jacob's home and in Jacob's family back in the land of Canaan. They were growing. We read in chapter 38 some of what was going on in Judah's life. It was a little interlude in between the betrayal of Joseph and Joseph's arrival in the record of Joseph's arrival in Egypt. But then we come back to Joseph. No one knows it yet. The people in the midst of this record, the people that he is around, they have no idea how important a figure this seemingly common slave is and is going to be very soon. And we look at this and we wonder what is going on. Most of you are very familiar with this record and the history of Joseph and the history of God's people and the providence of God in Joseph's life. But we tend to say things like, looking at how God moves, we tend to make and hear statements like this. Well, the Lord works in mysterious ways. Well, they're mysterious to us because we don't see the end from the beginning. We don't see all of his plan. We don't know what he's doing. Now, in hindsight, we look back and we are amazed at what he did, even when we had no idea that he was doing anything. The significance of what was happening in our life, we were completely lost to what was going on. And that is true for all people. Other people like to look at life, and maybe the most quoted verse in the Bible, knowingly or unknowingly, people like to quote Romans 8, 28, that all things work together for good, and they like to stop there. They understand that things are working toward what is good, and you just have to keep the faith that everything's gonna turn out okay. The problem with that is the Bible says the opposite, everything is not gonna turn out okay for most people. Everything will turn out better than okay for believers. Everything will turn out in absolute moral and spiritual holy excellence. That is how all things will work out for you as a believer. But for the unbeliever, nothing will be good. Or people look at a time of difficulty and they say, well, it's going to work out all in good time. And we tend to just throw our hands in the air and say, well, you know, it's fate. It's destiny. It's destined to happen this way. The Bible has a different outlook. The Bible says that nothing is happening by chance, that nothing is random, that God is in control of all things. And that God is moving all things toward His planned and declared end. And we refer to that movement of God and God's hand in all things, we refer to that by the word providence. It's God's providence, what God is providing and how He moves through individuals' lives and how He moves through history. And we tend to look at, if we want to put ourselves, really you can look at your own life, but if you want to put yourself in the position of the people recorded in the Bible, people like Joseph, people like Jacob. How many years did Jacob spend in Laban's home before anything, any two good things happened to him in succession to one another? It seemed like he would take one step forward and two steps back for decades in Laban's home. And as he returns home, things begin to change. Well, I've titled these 14 verses in chapter 41 of Genesis this way, and I've tried to make this a bit of a play on words, because I want this to stick into your mind. When we speak of the providence of God, when we are in the midst of what is going on in our life, things seem to be moving at such a slow pace, we wonder, is it ever going to change? Think of Joseph's life as a slave. He's got these two dreams that he remembers, and there was some interaction between he and his dad and Isaac, that he knew about the visions and the dreams of Abraham and the visions and the dreams that Jacob had. He knew that God, he was, from the way the scripture declares it, he was not necessarily a rotten, spoiled kid trying to stick his tongue out at his brothers when he recounted his dreams to them. He was astonished by it. What can these dreams mean? Can it mean what it seems to mean? And then to have spent years As we find him in chapter 41, he is 13 years into his imprisonment. That's a long time. What were you doing 13 years ago? He has been 13 years into his imprisonment, and the 14 most important years of his life are right around the corner. Seven years of plenty, seven years of famine. He has no idea. We're privy to the rest of the story, but put yourself into his shoes here. Sense, feel, immerse yourself in the drama of the moment in Joseph's life. Betrayed by his family, sold to a foreigner. He was raised from Lowest no Egyptian speaking slave to the highest official in one of the highest of the home of one of the highest officials in all of Egypt and Then one day someone lied about him and he's back on the bottom lower than he was before Yet he never Gives up he had some bad days because he was human and but he remains faithful through it. But as we see what is going on and we get a sense of what is happening in his life, we recognize the agonizing rapidity of providence. The agonizingly slow way that things happen in our own mind, but the rapidity of what God does when he decides to move. That is what Joseph is experiencing here. We're going to see the distress of providence. We like to talk about providence and God moving when we want him to. The providence of God bringing good. Well, it comes in his time and sometimes his time includes a lot of bad before the good. I mean, if you wanna think about the distress of providence, think about the agonizing hours in the garden of Gethsemane. The agonizing days and weeks that he experienced traveling from Galilee down to Jerusalem through Jericho coming in that Monday into Jerusalem to the palm branches and praises to the king. And four days later hearing crucify him. He knew all of that was coming. The distress of providence. having to wait, we'll see the dreams of Pharaoh and then the dispatch of Providence. Let's look at the distress of Providence in the beginning of verse 1. The distress of Providence we find in And two ideas, the idea of Yahweh's plan and the idea of Yahweh's program. Yahweh's plan, look at this. It says, now it happened at the end of two full years. You know what? I've gotten ahead of myself again. Let's read the 14 verses in their entirety. And then we'll come back and pull them apart. Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream. And behold, he was standing by the Nile. And behold, from the Nile there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed in the reeds. Then behold, seven other cows came up after them from the Nile, ugly and thin. And they stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly thin cows ate up the seven sleek and fat cows. Then Pharaoh awoke. He again fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good. And behold, seven ears thin and scorched by the east wind sprouted up after them. And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke and behold, it was a dream. Now it happened that in the morning his spirit was troubled. So he sent and called for the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh recounted to them his dream. But there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh. Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh saying, I would bring to remembrance today my own offenses. Pharaoh was furious with his servants, and he put me in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, both me and the chief baker. And we had a dream on the same night, he and I. Each of us dreamed according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now there was with us a Hebrew youth. a slave of the captain of the bodyguard. And we recounted them to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us, to each one he interpreted according to his own dream. And just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me in my office, but he hanged him. Then Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph and they rushed him out of the pit and he shaved himself and changed his clothes and he came to Pharaoh. The agonizing rapidity of providence. There is something of a distress when it comes to providence because you and I are waiting You and I seem to be held in limbo at times. We don't know exactly what to do and we find ourselves either having to come up with our own plan or resting and waiting on the Lord's plan. Sometimes we have some options. Other times we have no option but to wait for the Lord. I think those are better times for us than having options because in having options, we have the ability to make a choice to mess things up. But when we have no option, And we're left in a position where we must wait on the Lord and trust in him to make his provision and his time. That is a very safe place for you and I to be. Joseph was in just such a place. Joseph had no control over his surroundings. Joseph was a slave. I find it remarkable that he is brought to these positions of prominence and he never tried to escape. That would seem the normal thing for any person to do, escape if you can, but Joseph did not. He submitted to the providential placing of God and served God with his whole heart where he was. There was a distress of providence having to wait on the Lord. It is Yahweh's plan. I find it interesting how it is stated here. It says, now it happened. It's almost as though it says once upon a time, or in the due course of time, just time passed and this happened. But the reality is that it happened at the end of two full years, but it happened just like the Lord planned it. God has a plan. It's one. It's one plan. He doesn't have a plan that he's working up as he goes along. There are times we have to shoot from the hip. There are times we have to fly by the seat of our pants, whatever that means. We just have to make it up as we go along. God never does that. Now, to you and I, there is something, well, if you're like me, there is something of an adventure to figuring it out as you go along and not having all of the answers up front. Some of you Lose your ability to breathe when you think about not having the answers that you would like ahead of time. Just go and find out. What do you mean? Let's just go and find out. God doesn't do that. He has a plan. And rest assured, His plan has never failed. And it is not going to fail. Because He is God. Remember what Job said. Our children sang about it this morning in the children's choir. Job has just lost his children. He's lost all of his livestock. He's lost everything that meant anything to him in his life except for his wife, and that's another discussion for another time. It says in chapter one of Job that Job arose, tore his robe, shaved his head, and he fell on the ground and worshiped. How did he worship? You mean he got out his banjo and played a tune and sang? danced around, got lost in the music. That happens sometimes. I don't know if it ever happened to a banjo, but you don't understand, he didn't have synthetic music, synthesized music. He fell on the ground and worshiped. This is how he worshiped. He said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked I shall return there. Yahweh gave and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. God did this and God did this for his reason and he did it his way and he's to be praised for who he is. That's at the beginning. When Job comes to the end of this horrendous trial in his life, horrendous by our estimation, this tremendous working of the Lord in his life, he comes to chapter 42 And he's been asking God, why is this happening to me? And God says, okay, let's ask some questions that really matter. Where were you, Job, when I created the heavens and the earth? Where were you when I put the mountain goats where they are? Where were you when they give birth? Do you even know where they come from? And he says, what about the dragon? What about the Leviathan? Then Job answers Yahweh and says, chapter 42, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Then he speaks of himself, who is this who hides counsel without knowledge? I have declared that which I did not understand, things too marvelous for me which I did not know. Job recognizes that God has a plan, and the reality is that even if he explained it to us, we wouldn't understand it sometimes. We demand answers. What answer can he give you? This is my plan. In Isaiah, God has this to say. Now God is in Isaiah prophesying what is coming to Israel and what will come to Israel. And what he said was coming at that time came exactly the way he said it. And what he said would be coming in the future will come exactly the way that he said it. And it has not happened yet. But this is what God says about it. In Isaiah 46. Speaking of God having a plan, it is his plan that he is working. Isaiah 46, he says, hear me, O house of Israel, all the remnant of the house of Israel, you who have been burdening me from birth and have been carried from the womb, even to your old age, I will be the same. And even to your graying ears, I will bear you. I have done it, and I will carry you, and I will bear you, and I will rescue you. To whom would you liken me? He asks. And make me equal and compare me to. that we would be alike. Those who lavish gold from the purse and waste silver on the scale to hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god and they fall down and indeed worship it. They carry it upon the shoulder and bear it. They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer. It cannot save from his distress. Remember this and be assured Cause it to return to your heart you transgressors Remember the former things long past for I am God and there is no other I am God and there is none like me declaring the end from the beginning How can he do that? How can he declare the end from the beginning because he looks down the corridors of time and just knows what's gonna happen He's a soothsayer He's a witch doctor. He's a gypsy. This is the woman with the crystal balls, a gypsy, is that? Yeah, oh yeah, he's a wizard. Really. He's declaring the end from the beginning. Ancient times, and from ancient times, things which have not been done. He says, I've already made declaration where I was absolutely right, and what I'm declaring now will be absolutely right. How can he do that? Because it is his plan that he is working his way. He says, my counsel will be established and I will accomplish all my good pleasure. This is Yahweh's plan. Yahweh has made a declaration. He has declared a plan. In Isaiah 55, he refers to that again. You're all familiar with these verses. He says, as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bare and sprout and giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so will my word be which goes forth from my mouth. It will not return to me empty. without accomplishing what pleases me and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. God has a plan that he has declared and a plan that he is directing. So when this says it happened, it's far more than coincidence. It's far more than just some happenstance. This is Yahweh's plan and his plan is going according to his program. He's given the plan, he's given the program, he is working it out. It says at the end of two full years. The last verse in chapter 40 says that chief cupbearer forgot Joseph. He forgot him for two full years. He's already spent 11 and now he thinks, oh, I've gotten a way out. Can you imagine how grateful this cupbearer was when Joseph gave him this good interpretation? How excited he was. Oh, I can't wait to tell Pharaoh, you're gonna be out of here in a week. I'm gonna do it. Then he comes out and he forgets him. Joseph seems to be stuck in a place that he does not deserve In verse 46, it tells us that he's 30 years old at this time Chapter 37 when all of this began it tells us he was 17. That's 13 years 11 years. He's already spent when he speaks to the cupbearer and there are two more years for 13 years in total waiting patiently and faithfully And god is accomplishing his plan all through it The distress of Providence is having to wait. The things are about to change for him. In verses one through eight, the remainder of verse one through verse eight, we see the dreams of Pharaoh. Last night, I had a very vivid dream. Had a couple of them, but one in particular woke me up, and I don't normally wake up for anything but the alarm. But I woke up from this dream and I was startled. It was vivid. And I woke up from it remembering, I hope that was a dream. And I kind of got my senses in a room and it was a dream. And I was able to go back to sleep. And I can't remember it today. That was last night. I don't remember it today. I remember being startled and thinking, I'm so glad that was a dream. And I don't remember it now. Now, some dreams are more memorable than others. I mean, you probably have a dream that you had at some point that you do remember, but you don't typically remember your dreams. But I promise you, Pharaoh never forgot these dreams. And Joseph had not forgotten the dreams he had back in Canaan either. So look first at Pharaoh's visions in 1B. It says that Pharaoh had a dream. Now he has two dreams, but it's in one night, so they refer to it as a dream. It was really the same dream in two different versions. It says he was standing by the Nile. Now, the Nile River is the lifeblood of Egypt. He's standing by the Nile River, and he sees, behold, seven cows come out of the river. Cows don't come out of the river. Cows are not aquatic. Hippopotami are aquatic. Is that how you say multiple hippopotamuses? Hippopotami? Think of it. These cows come out and it says they're grazing in the reeds. And I don't know that the reeds are necessarily grass, but this is his dream. It's a dream. So some of this stuff can be a little bit dream worthy. Then behold, seven other cows came up from the nile. It says ugly and thin in verse three, and they stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. In verse 19, it tells us as Pharaoh recounts his dream to Joseph, he says, these were the most alarmingly gaunt cows he had ever seen. So these cows were so thin, they looked like they were walking dead animals. They were so emaciated. It wasn't just that some were fat and these were less fat. These were so lean and gaunt. It's trying to depict something very clearly. And he woke up. It startled him. He woke up. The ugly cows ate the fat cows. That's pretty graphic. I mean, cows don't normally eat other cows, but That's what happened, and it startles them. Verse four, Pharaoh awoke. Verse five, he fell asleep again, and he dreamed again, and behold, a corn stalk came up. Now this is an agrarian economy, and growing crops was what they were known for. They're along the Nile River. They have figured out how to harness the Nile to get water miles away from the Nile to water their crops in the field. And if you can provide water when you need it, you can essentially count on your crops being good. because the right amount of water is much harder to come by than the right amount of sunshine when you're raising crops. So this stalk comes up, and it has seven ears on it. Behold, seven ears of grain came up on a single stalk, plump and good. If you've never, you've not spent any time around corn, you don't know how remarkable this is. Anybody know how many ears of corn a normal stalk of corn produces? Two. Are they the same? You've got one big and one small. Now if you go at the right time and break the big ear off, the second one will finish filling out and you can get two ears of corn. But you don't find a corn stalk that's got seven ears of corn on it. And if it did have seven, it would be a freak and you'd have one good ear and seven strange ears. But this says seven plump and full ears of corn came up. And it came up in an instant. And behold, verse six, seven ears thin and scorched by the east wind sprouted up after them. Same stalk. Same stalk. On one side, there's seven plump, full ears. On the other side of the stalk, there are seven ears that are emaciated and the east wind Look, our crawfish for 20 years in the east wind was my least favorite, well, my second least favorite thing in the crawfish pond. A raccoon, my least favorite thing in the crawfish pond. I have no use for them. They're not cute. Don't tell me they're cute. They're demonic. But an east wind would cause a crawfish pond to evaporate. The catch would evaporate there as well. But a scorching east wind would dry up a plant. It would not be a wind that brings rain. It's a wind that brings dryness. It dries up the ground, dries up the plant, dries up the produce, and it can ruin your crop. And it says that this is what these seven ears looked like. It just looked like they came up, and just before they could really begin to form and to fill out, they died and dried up. Verse seven, and the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. Then Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream. I don't know what it looked like that these seven gaunt ears came to life and ate the others, but that's what he sees happen. The poor and diseased cows and the poor and diseased ears of corn swallowed up the good, and they were still poor and diseased. When he recounts it to Joseph later, he says they devoured the seven good ones and they didn't change. This is alarming to him. And it's alarming to him because God is making it alarming to him. Providence is moving and it's moving very rapidly right now. Thus far in this record, it seems to be agonizingly slow. We see now that he's been 13 years under this. Some people can't keep a job for 13 years. And this guy has been incarcerated, he's risen to the top, and he's been cast down again, and he's been faithful for 13 years. And things are about to hit warp speed. Pharaoh wakes up and whatever this looks like with the cattle that they raised being a form of sustenance and the crops that they raised being their form of sustenance and he sees them being devoured and dried up, this would have been disheartening to say the least. That's Pharaoh's visions. Look at the beginning of verse 8. He's woken up from his dream. Now it happened in the morning that his spirit was troubled. You better believe it was. This is Pharaoh's vexing. He's vexed. What does this mean? I've had this dream. God is pressing this upon his heart and causing him agony over this. He doesn't know what to do. He doesn't have an answer in himself. So he sent and called for the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. I don't know what else to do. Bring everybody in here. Somebody tell me what this means. Somebody give me some relief. He's reaching a point of desperation. It's right where he needs to be to be willing to do what is coming. If somebody came to Pharaoh and said, hey, I'd like you to meet this prisoner. What occasion would Pharaoh have for speaking to a prisoner? None, until now. The rapidity of providence is putting him in a position where he will listen to anybody that can give him an answer. This is the moment that Joseph has been waiting for and he has no idea that it's happening. Let me see Pharaoh's vagueness at the end of verse eight. Pharaoh recounted to them his dream, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh. He has these dreams on his mind and he's trying to make sense of them, but it's almost as though it's clouded. It's vague to him. I don't understand. What does this mean? There's no one to interpret. So now Pharaoh finds himself in a place where there is a vacuum of information. When you have a vacuum of information about a particular situation, what do you fill the vacuum void with? You don't ever fill it with positivity. You always fill it with what you worry about may gonna be happening. It is, this vacuum of information is filled with negative speculation because all you can do is speculate. But he's seeing this and it ends very badly as the seven good are devoured by the seven bad and all that is left is the seven bad in the same condition that they were in before they devoured the seven good and he doesn't know what to do with this. What does it mean? It has to be bad, right? What do I do with this? And no one can give him any answers and he is just in a fog. And any answer seems absolutely vague to him at best. But here's where we see things in providence reach warp speed. We see the dispatch of providence. God's plan and his providence is dispatched, it is sent out to execute a plan. God has made some promises to some people. Make some promises to Abraham, same promises to Isaac, promise the same thing to Jacob. Joseph, no doubt, is very privy to what has been promised and what the expectations are. Joseph has had these dreams. And God is about to make good on all of that. for the next phase of his plan and the next move of his providence. In this dispatch of providence, we see a confession, a call, and a commencement. Let's look at the confession in verses 9 to 13. The memory of the chief cupbearer is just jogged. Hey, it's been two years. You know what? I remember something that happened a couple of years ago. Remember I told you that the cupbearer, the chief baker, would have been two of his confidants because the cupbearer is providing for him drink that is poison free. Well, you, Sinclair Ferguson said they would have been like a modern day hairdresser. They would have known all of his secrets. So the cupbearer is there and he's with him and he knows that he's troubled in his spirit and that there's no one that can interpret this. These things are bothering Pharaoh. So the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh and he says, I would bring to remembrance today my own offenses. And if we look at that, that sounds like he's saying, you know what? I have done Joseph wrong. That's not what he's saying. That's true. And he's confessing, yeah, I have a knowledge of this guy. I'm acknowledging that I forgot about this guy. But when he says, I want to bring to remembrance my own offenses, he's talking about the offense that he committed against Pharaoh, that Pharaoh forgave and put him back in his position. Whatever it was that he did that infuriated Pharaoh, look what he says in verse 10. Pharaoh was furious with his servants and he put me in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard, both me and the chief baker. He would have remembered that time. They were in there, they were probably in there for no less than a year and then Pharaoh brought them out for his birthday and he gave clemency to one and justice to the other. I remember my own offenses against Pharaoh. He said, I had a dream. Oh, we had a dream on the same night. Each of us had a dream and we dreamed and each dream had its own interpretation. So now he's at least acknowledging that he forgot about Joseph because he's recounting this time while he was there that he's never told Pharaoh up to this point. He's been with him for two years and he's never thought about telling him this for whatever reason. He says, but there was a Hebrew youth, slave of the captain of the bodyguard, and we recounted our dreams to him, and he interpreted our dreams for us. To each one he interpreted according to his own dream, and just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me in my office, but he hanged him. And he's saying that Joseph interpreted the dream and what he interpreted is exactly what happened. His interpretation exonerated me or gave me clemency. It delivered me from death, but it brought death to the chief baker. That's exactly what happened. He says he gave us predictions that were true down to the very individual words that he spoke. Not one of his words fell to the ground is how it would have been said in their vernacular. A confession, I know about a guy that I've not told you about until now. In this dispatch of providence, following this confession is a call in the beginning of verse 14. Pharaoh was so desperate, he hears about a slave that can interpret dreams and he is so desperate, he says, bring the slave to me. And Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph. Go get Joseph. Says they went in and they rushed him out. They rushed him out of the pit. He is down in, he's referred to the pit. It's referred to as a dungeon. He is in the prison. They went and they rushed him out of the prison. Now you've heard the feel-good story in America where a guy was destitute and had nothing, started a business, now he's a millionaire. He went from the outhouse to the penthouse. You've heard those expressions. Nothing compares to this. This is impossible to believe except that this is the providential plan of God, accomplishing God's purpose in what he's doing for Israel and what he is providing for them and for his name. And Joseph is called out of the prison. Go get him. Listen, when Pharaoh spoke, people started hopping. When he said, I want that guy here right now, he was there as fast as he could possibly be. He didn't say, okay, I've got two o'clock on Tuesday in between lunch and racquetball in the afternoon. No, get him now, bring him here. Then we see what can only be described as a commencement. This is the commencement of everything that God is about to do with Joseph. He's had him in the dungeon. He has had him in slavery. It has been 13 long, agonizing years, and that is about to change within an hour's time. Think about that. What's about to happen is going to happen so fast that Joseph can't even keep up with it. You're down there taking care of your duties that you have had for years. The same thing every day, okay, we've got this regimen, we've got this routine, it's time for the prisoners to go outside and play volleyball or tetherball or whatever the Egyptians did to give their prisoners some exercise. Maybe it was time to feed them. And he's going through and making sure that everything, all the preparations are made, everything is right in the prison. All of a sudden, somebody comes down and said, hey, Jack, Pharaoh wants you right now. Whatever you do, you drop it, you get there. You're going to see Pharaoh. You're not going to see Potiphar. You don't have some other dignitary coming here. You are going to the man. Look what it says. Pharaoh sent, called for Joseph. They rushed him out of the pit. Now you don't just take a guy straight out of the gutter and bring him into the presence of the king. Certainly not to the Egyptians. In movies and in artistic renderings and depictions, you never see any hair on an Egyptian dignitary, do you? Not on their head, not on their arms. They had some aversion to hair for some reason. The men were always shown as hairless. They even grew hairless cats. You ever seen something as ugly as a hairless cat? The only thing that compares is a baby possum or a baby rat. But they had some aversion to hair, so they bring him up. Joseph's been a prisoner. Do you really think he's had a whole lot of concern for his personal hygiene? He probably hasn't shaved since he's been out of Potiphar's house. In the dungeon, it doesn't matter. Nobody's going to be down there. So Joseph has a beard, and his hair is going to be gnarly. And who knows what his body hair would have looked like. So it says that he comes out, and he has to make preparation. And he has to do it quick, because this is a commencement. This is a big deal. It says that he shaved. He would have shaved his whole body. He shaved himself and changed his clothes. Joseph got out of the garb of the prisoner and got into the garb of royalty to go before the king. He said, you go and you bring him here and you prepare him to be in my presence. And Joseph spent years in Potiphar's house learning the proper comportment for a dignitary. He ran the house of one of the highest ranking officials in all of Egypt. He knew how to behave in the court of Pharaoh. He knew how to dress. He knew how to carry himself. That much had been prepared for him. His ability to give advice on the spur of the moment, his confidence to do it, has all been developed in this time. And we'll see when Pharaoh tells him what the dreams are, Joseph doesn't balk. He doesn't stutter. He knows what to do. He is a man that has been accustomed to having responsibility and taking care of other people. But he's coming into Pharaoh's presence and he shaved, changed his clothes. It's just five little letters, five little words. It says, and he came to Pharaoh. And we said, oh, okay, so we went to see Pharaoh. This would have been huge. Pharaoh was sitting on whatever his throne looked like, surrounded by people that were in all of the garb, the regal garb, the royal circumstances that would have surrounded that. They bring him in. This guy an hour ago was a slave, looked like a slave, dressed like a slave. He's brought into the presence of Pharaoh. He comes to Pharaoh. Joseph has been 13 years waiting on God. How long have you been waiting on him? How long have you been seeking his face on something in your life? How long have you been waiting? And he'd been waiting what seemed to be a very long time. This was a seemingly long and agonizing wait. But when providence is dispatched, and it comes to the point that God has to take the next step in his plan, just what happens to Joseph here is what happens in your life and mine. God's providence moves in, and his providence brings a greater and swifter provision than we ever imagined. Has that ever happened to you? Joseph finds himself not just somebody saying, OK, look, Pharaoh said you're going to get out of here. We're going to give you a pass. You get you get out. No, he's brought into the presence of Pharaoh. He doesn't even know it, but he's about to become the most powerful man on the earth. Because Pharaoh is going to bestow on him. Authority that only Pharaoh on his throne can equal. When they're walking down the street, he has more Respect from the people and more authority over the people than Pharaoh himself. In Potiphar's house, he was second to Potiphar. In Egypt, he will be second to none. He's gone from being in the prison, in the pit, to now being in the presence of Pharaoh, and he is minutes away from being ushered into the highest position in all of the world, because Egypt was the powerhouse of the world at that time. Only God can do that. And it is when God dispatches the next stroke of his providence, it comes swiftly and it causes us to look back and say, why was I ever so worked up about that? He's gonna bring Joseph a wife. Joseph's gonna name his first kid Manasseh because God has caused me to forget all the pain. Yeah, those days were hard, but what God has done in bringing me through that and has provided for me makes all of that dissipate, and it's minuscule, and it's problems that it caused for me. And only God can do that. That is how he moves in the lives of his people. I don't know what it is that you're waiting for. I don't know what you're waiting on God for. All of us have something. I don't know how long it's been, but God gives his best in his time. That's what he did with Joseph. That's what he does for us today, because it's what he does. And his providence is worth trusting. It's worth trusting. was for Joseph. And it's, there's more to come. It's just this incredible and swift provision that is more than he ever imagined is just beginning. It's really about to hit hyperdrive. This is incredible what's about to happen to Joseph. But this is how God moves. He's done it in your life. You've been a believer very long. You know that you've seen this happen in your life. You go from having a need, maybe you didn't even realize it. Maybe it's a need that you had for a long time and then all of a sudden he meets that need with far more than you ever would have asked for. I'll tell you what he's done for me. I needed some kids and I didn't even know it. You gave me twins. I remember the day in that room when we were going against every law of nature and using a sonogram to look in her womb. God wanted you to know what was in there. He'd have given you a window on that bed. You've got to know. I've got to tell you, that's one time I'm glad we knew ahead of time, because if I'd have found out the day she delivered them things I was having to, I would have died in the hospital. Those two shenaniganizers are the most fun that we've ever had in our home. God said, hey, boy, it's been too long. I got to make up for lost time. Here's two. They don't look alike. They don't act a whole lot alike. But God and God's time gave me more than I ever anticipated. And that's how God works. He's a God of excessive blessing. And He's a God that is worthy of our thankfulness. And in our thankfulness, we can experience true joy. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for being who you are. Thank you for being our God. We praise you for allowing us to be your people, not merely allowing it, but you have sought us out to make us your people. Blessings that we are far incompetent to deserve. We praise you that you are in your providence providing for us greater than we ever could imagine and we anticipate great blessing as we study what your providence did and has accomplished in the life of Joseph and what it has meant for each of us as our savior came from the loins of those people and that you had it firmly in control all of the time. Help us to rest in that and to trust you and to praise you with our lives. If you bless the remainder of our night as we have this fellowship together and celebrate this baptism, Lord, we pray that you will be honored in it. We pray it in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen.