Because of the gift of Christ, we can be forgiven and brought back into relationship with our God.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

 If you've been paying attention to the news, you're familiar with the recent developments in Syria. The Assad regime, most recently headed by Bashar al-Assad, a regime that held power for some 50 odd years, has been overthrown. A dictator known for his cruelty and policy of torment is suddenly no longer in power. Videos can be found all over social media of Syrians tearing down statues of the Assads, of crowds singing in celebration, mothers lifting their children in the air with joy.

The Syrian people are filled with joy because the cruelty of Assad no longer hangs over their future. A new future has opened up before them.

They have a new future before them, the Syrian people. And we along with the rest of the world are waiting to see what that future will be. We have not suffered as they have. But we understand their reason for rejoicing. We can understand what it means to feel as though you are condemned, as though you are a dead man walking, and then to suddenly have everything change. It's the feeling of salvation. Joy reaches new heights when we are relieved of condemnation that we in fact deserve. The Syrian people didn't deserve everything they were suffering. But imagine you were suffering. Imagine you were under a state of condemnation and you deserved it all.

The story of humanity is played out under such a cloud of condemnation. The world is enveloped in a darkness of our own choosing. A life apart from the light of life. A life divorced from God. We live under God's wrath, reaping what we sow. And yet, we are invited to rejoice. Why? King David tells us in his invitation to praise in Psalm 30 verses 4- 5.

He says, Sing the praises of the Lord, you His faithful people. Praise His holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime. Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning. God's people are invited to rejoice because condemnation is met with salvation. The tears are temporary, the celebration everlasting.

This morning I want us to turn to Micah 7 to consider this in more detail. So you can turn there in your Bibles. It will be on the screen as well. And to start, just so you have a bit of a background, we're going to look at a few maps. Because we're moving forward in the biblical story quite far from where we were just last week when we were talking about Joseph.

We're going about a thousand years into the future. From around 1800, 1700 BC to, it's estimated 701 BC when the book of Micah was written.

If you could put the map up, as you can see, Israel was, at a certain point, one kingdom. And it came to be that way, largely, in terms of the territory that we see here, this territory got secured during the time of King David. Now David wasn't the first king of Israel, but he was the most significant.

He was the first king to emerge from the tribe of Judah, fulfilling the prophecies that had been given that the scepter would come into Judah, that the throne would belong to the tribe of Judah. And, so he helped secure their territory and gave them a place from a time that had been under great chaos and from the time of Saul, under great threat from the Philistines, King David helped secure them.

But this united kingdom did not last. The kingdom was eventually split into two, into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. Now, the northern kingdom was especially wayward in pursuing false gods and all sorts of other injustices. But Judah was not all that far behind. Besides idolatry, their crimes included things like abusing the poor, denying them justice, taking bribes, sexual sin, and even sacrificing their own children to idols.

On the whole, both were on a downward trajectory in terms of their devotion to God. And the ultimate outcome would be that both kingdoms would be conquered and large portions of their populations deported into exile. Now, Micah is writing at a time when the Assyrians have basically already done this to the northern kingdom and are threatening Judah.

His prophecy looks beyond their threat to the one that will be realized by the Babylonian empire in 586 BC. We turn to chapter 7 with this in mind, thinking about the conditions of his own time, and then also thinking about our own time. So let's look at Micah 7 verses 1 through 3. What misery is mine?

I am like one who gathers summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard. There is no cluster of grapes to eat, none of the early figs that I crave. The faithful have been swept away from the land; not one upright person remains. Everyone lies in wait to shed blood; they hunt each other with nets. Both hands are skilled in doing evil.

The ruler demands gifts, the judge accepts bribes, the powerful dictate what they desire. They all conspire together. The best of them is like a briar, the most upright, worse than a thorn hedge. The day God visits you has come, the day your watchmen sound the alarm. Now is the time of your confusion. Do not trust a neighbor.

Put no confidence in a friend. Even with the woman who lies in your embrace, guard the words of your lips. For a son dishonors his father, a daughter rises up against her mother, a daughter in law against her mother in law. A man's enemies are the members of his own household. Think about the experience that Micah is relating here in these verses.

He's trying to describe to us in very vivid terms of how miserable things are in the land. He says it's akin to going out to try to pick some fruit at the end of a harvest. You have a hankering for some sweet fruit, but if you go out to the field at the end of the harvest, you're not going to have that desire satisfied, because there's nothing going to be found there.

And the point that he's getting at, and bringing up this imagery, is to say that there is no one who is faithful, there is no one who is upright in the land. He comes up empty handed when he tries to find Instead, everyone is pursuing bloodshed. Their hands are full of evil. The rulers are interested in getting bribes.

The powerful people in society are conspiring together. Situation is so bad that he says, The best of people, the most upright, He says, kind of running with this vineyard theme, they're like a briar, or like a thorn hedge. In other words, they're not that great. If you think about our own times, I think some, we can kind of relate a little bit, where we've become accustomed in our society to judge people relative to other people as like, well, at least they're not as bad as this person, or as bad as that person.

That's kind of the situation for Micah here. He's like, The best of people, they're only relatively better than the worst. And the result is, is, of all this, is you can't trust anybody. You can't even trust your own family members.

You can expect that even your family would perhaps betray you. And, and the thing is, is the things that Micah's talking about here we could relate to today, but in fact they're, they're very timeless to the human condition. As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1: 9, there is nothing new under the sun. Now, having heard all this from Micah, we'd kind of expect that he would just break down in despair at this point.

But that's not what happens. Look at the verse that follows. Verse 7. It says, But as for me, I watch and hope for the Lord. I wait for God my Savior. My God will hear me. Everything is going terrible. Nothing is as Micah would have it to be, nor is it the way that God would have things.

And yet Micah doesn't despair because he knows that salvation will come from the Lord. He knows that God is his Savior and so he is watching and waiting with hope, confident that God will hear him. That God will hear his cry about the condition of everything around him and bring salvation.

When we see how Micah responds to the conditions of his society at that time, it kind of prompts a little self reflection on our part in thinking about, where are, where are our eyes turning when we see everything going bad around us? Are we watching in hope? Are we waiting in hope? Are we confident that God does hear our cries?

We're going to turn to the next few verses here. Verses 8- 9.

We look at verses 8 9. He says, Do not gloat over me, my enemy. Though I have fallen, I will rise. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light. Because I have sinned against Him, I will bear the Lord's wrath until He pleads my case and upholds my cause. He will bring me out into the light. I will see His righteousness.

What we see here on the part of Micah is kind of this defiant tone, but it's not one of pride in himself, It's a humble sort of confidence. It's a humble sort of confidence that's based on the goodness and power of God because what Micah says on his own part is, he says in verse 9, I have sinned against him. I'll bear the Lord's wrath But then everything turns in terms of what God is going to do until he pleased my case and upholds my cause he will bring me out into light and I will see his righteousness. So though he has fallen and he's, Micah is not just talking about himself here, he's really talking about Israel on a whole on the whole, Though they have all fallen they will rise because God is their Savior. Then turning to verse 10, he continues and says, Then my enemy will see it and will be covered with shame. She who said to me, Where is the Lord your God? My eyes will see her downfall.

Even now she will be trampled underfoot like mire in the streets. The day for building your walls will come, the day for extending your boundaries. And that day people will come to you from Assyria, and the cities of Egypt, even from Egypt to the Euphrates, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

The earth will become desolate because of its inhabitants, as a result of their deeds. What Micah is telling here is a reversal of their fortunes. So, he's anticipating judgment, but then he's anticipating a time in which the walls of the city of Jerusalem are going to be rebuilt. A time in which their boundaries are going to be extended.

And he's also anticipating this international response of people going towards Jerusalem. Now what he's talking about is something that we're not going to see within the window of this age. This age in which we're living in. What he's looking forward to is the age to come that's going to be introduced at the return of Christ.

He's looking towards the end of the ages. But this is what he's fixing his hope upon, and it's the reason why he's rejoicing, because he knows this salvation is coming. Now, this idea about this kind of international response, this worldwide response to God, is revealed all the more as we get into verse 14.

Says, he says, shepherd your people with your staff. The flock of your inheritance, which lives by itself in a forest, in fertile pasture lands. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in days long ago. And then, verse 15, this is as though God is speaking. You see, it's kind of a call and response thing. It says, the Lord responds, As in the days when you came out of Egypt, I will show them my wonders.

Nations will see and be ashamed. Deprived of all their power, they will put their hands over their mouths and their ears will become deaf. They will lick dust like a snake, like creatures that crawl on the ground. They will come trembling out of their dens. They will turn in fear to the Lord, our God, and will be afraid of you.

Micah is calling upon God to shepherd his people. And this is, in fact, the typical role envisioned for a king in the ancient Near East. Kings were often referred to as the shepherds of the people. And so, Micah is calling upon God as King to come and shepherd his people, to take care of them, to feed them in these fertile pasture lands.

To bring about a restoration so that they would feed in the fields of Bashan and Gilead as in days long ago. Now what's really interesting is this sort of language that Micah is using here, talking about, this one, about God coming and shepherding his people, is it connects with a prophecy that he gave a couple chapters earlier in Micah 5 verses 2 through 4.

Which has a very clear messianic connotation to it and makes us think about Jesus. There Micah says, But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times. Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.

He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. So, I mean, there's all kinds of things going off as kind of flashing lights that point us to Christ.

The fact that we're talking about Bethlehem, Bethlehem here, and of course Christ was born in Bethlehem, born of, from the tribe of Judah. And these verses are talking about a promised king who would come and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord and in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.

So, when Micah's talking about this one who would come and shepherd the people of Israel, this coming king, and then he's calling upon God to come shepherd his people, he's not making two different appeals, he's making an appeal that is really one and the same, because this One who would be the Messiah, who would be born, is in fact the Son of God.

God Himself come in the flesh to shepherd His people and be their King.

It's also notable that here, how His greatness will reach to the ends of the earth. And when we go back up to these verses that we're looking at in 14 through 16. In verse 16, it talks about how the people are going to, the people outside of Israel are going to be filled with remorse and respond with repentance, really, with fear to God.

And what this is really prophesying is the inclusion of the Gentile people in being brought to God and being joined to the people of Israel. And the reason why we have reason to believe this is when we go earlier in Micah 4, Micah talks about this. Micah 4 verses 1 through 2 says in the last days the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as the highest of mountains. It will be exalted above the hills and peoples will stream to it. Many nations will come and say, Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us His ways so that we may walk His paths.

The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. So notice what Micah is anticipating here. Here in Micah 7 he's saying the world is going to be filled with remorse and repentance. But here in Micah 4 he's talking about how they're all going to be coming to Jerusalem. They're going to be streaming to Jerusalem because they want to know the ways of the Lord.

They're going to be desiring to walk in His paths. Now we don't see this happen in Micah's lifetime. We don't see this at any point in Micah's life before the time of Christ. But once Christ appears, what happens? The gospel goes out to all the nations and all the Gentile peoples begin responding and turning to God and repentance.

And this is exactly what Jesus says would happen. in John 12:32, he says, and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. So if you're a student of history, and you look at, okay, this is what Micah said, you know, 700 years before Christ, and then you have this guy, Jesus Christ, who shows up, says he is the Messiah, this promised king, and then after the fact, you see people from all across the globe, from all different nations and tribes, turning to him, turning to God, turning to him.

Turning to Christ as their Savior. Well, it sure looks like everything that Micah has prophesied here is being fulfilled before our eyes.

Now, part of the reason why people would turn to God is out of remorse and repentance, a certain fear, because they've realized, wow, we've really messed up here, and we really do need to, honor and glorify the one true God. But Micah closes out his chapter here with a note that points out another reason why people are going to be turning to God.

Verses 18 through 19. 18 through 20, rather. He says, Who is a God like you, who pardons sin, and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance. You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us. You will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.

You will be faithful to Jacob and show love to Abraham as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago. And once again, it's just so incredible to me because at least 700 years before Christ, even if, you know, you're a different kind of biblical scholar and you're like, Well, I don't know if it was actually 700 years, we're still talking hundreds of years before Christ you have this prophecy given, anticipating this message of forgiveness being offered to all people.

If you took this and you didn't know what, where it was from, you'd say, oh, this is from one of the Gospels or from the New Testament or something. Now it is noticeable, notable here that it says, when it's talking about God pardoning sin and forgiving transgression, those who are forgiven, those who are pardoned, are not everybody.

Micah is not prophesying universal salvation here in the sense that everyone is just automatically forgiven. Everyone is automatically pardoned. There have been some people over the centuries, unfortunately, who have looked at the Scriptures and twisted them and said, Well, you know, Jesus is the Savior and He just automatically saves everybody, regardless of how they respond.

Well, if you look at the scriptures, we don't have any reason to think that. People need to respond in repentance, and faith. And if they do, if they do accept this gift of salvation that's offered to them, then they are included in this remnant. This remnant of His inheritance that are pardoned, that are forgiven.

I mean, this lines up with just what we hear in Revelation 20: 15 where there is a distinction at the end of the ages. It says, anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire. There's an opportunity to be pardoned and forgiven and redeemed, but we need to accept it.

We need to turn to God and accept it in Jesus Christ. Now, the forgiveness that God is offering, and Micah is describing here, Is neither reluctant, nor is it any sort of just fake sort of forgiveness. God does have real anger towards sin, but Micah says he delights to show mercy. It's important for us to remember that.

Sometimes when we, we have these images in our minds about God, they're very inaccurate. They don't reflect the God of the Bible. Sometimes we have an image of God in our minds where He's just a very stern judge. And He just really wants to whack everyone over the head. God hates sin. But God does not hate you.

God's desire is to show mercy. And He delights in showing mercy. And when He forgives you, He truly forgives you. He doesn't keep a secret list of all your sins and say, Well, what about the time you did that, that, and this. When he forgives you, it's wiped away. And I love the imagery here, it's like it's tossed into the sea.

It's like, if you took your phone, and you tossed it out into the ocean, it would be like, good luck finding that thing again. That's what God does with our sins and with our guilt. He's like, this stuff, this stuff that, you know, all these things that you've done wrong, that make you feel terrible about yourself, these things that have in fact separated you from me, well, guess what?

They no longer separate us anymore. They're getting chucked into the middle of the ocean. Nothing's going to keep us apart any longer.

All of this, Micah says, is just God simply keeping his word of promise. It says, You will be faithful to Jacob and show love to Abraham as you pledged on oath to our ancestors in days long ago. You remember, we've referred to this again and again, and I'll refer to it again in Genesis 12, verses 2 through 3, God promised Abram, He said, I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you, and I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you, I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. So if you just think of this kind of umbrella of, of promise. God said, He's gonna bless the children of Abraham. Well, critical to that, them receiving that blessing, there being the possibility of forgiveness.

If they cannot be forgiven, if they cannot be restored or redeemed, then they're only under a curse. But God promised blessing. And God also promised that the world would be blessed through them. That it wouldn't just be about the Jewish people, but rather through the children of Abraham, the whole world would be blessed.

And this is what Micah is anticipating. He's anticipating the appearance of this salvation. Maybe this Christmas season you feel like Micah. You feel miserable. Not just because of the sins of others, but because of your own sin. In the midst of this, you're invited to rejoice, to be filled with joy. It doesn't make a lick of sense.

In fact, it can kind of sound crazy unless you take Christmas seriously. If Christmas is about Santa, presents, ho ho ho, and Dominic the donkey, then yes, it is foolish to sugarcoat your sorrow. But that's not what Christmas is about. Christmas is the celebration that salvation has come. The birth of Jesus is the beginning of the end for sin, death, and the devil.

All of the rottenness that we see around us are Satan's pathetic last gasps before all evil is obliterated from the universe in Christ's return. Christmas is that time that reminds us that God delights in showing us mercy. He wants to forgive us, and in Jesus we can be forgiven. We can be accepted and embraced by the Father, we can belong to him.

The apostle John reminds us in 1 John 1:8-9, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

The truth of Christmas is our cause for rejoicing. It is the truth of our salvation that gives us joy.

If you're not feeling that joy, then maybe you need to meditate more deeply on this truth. It is very easy to lose perspective. To allow all our problems to block out this reality. Kind of like how you take your thumb and you can use it and block out the sun. You think, especially when you're a kid, you think, Oh wow, my thumb's bigger than the sun.

That's how we treat our problems sometimes in life. Oh, this thing is so huge. We lose all sense of proportion. The reality is, is that nothing is too big for Jesus Christ. He's going to roll every stone away. So let us pray that God would help us see things as they really are. And to be filled with the joy He wants us to experience.

Let's pray.

Dear Father, Father, like Micah, we, we do confess our frustration with the condition of our world. Of our society. And Father, we confess our frustration with our own personal condition. How we recognizably come up short of who we're supposed to be, often on a daily basis, Father.

Father, we pray that, You would fill us with joy, knowing that this is not all there is. That our hope is not found in the status of this world, how things are going. Our hope is not based upon what we can do about it. That our joy can be found because you are our Savior. You are our King. You are our Shepherd.

And that this has been made utterly apparent and clear because you gave us your Son, Jesus Christ, to be our King and Savior. Father, help us to turn to Him, to trust in Him, to receive this gift of forgiveness, this gift that truly removes all guilt, and removes the divide between us. Help us to delight, Father, in this good gift, knowing that you also are delighting and filled with joy to give it. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

As the children of Israel lay their father to rest, fear of retribution from Joseph starts to rise in the brothers, but Joseph offers mercy and forgiveness much like we are offered the same through Christ.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

 Burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him? So they sent word to Joseph saying, your father left these instructions before he died.

This is what you ought to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs that they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.

A reward is given to those who are worthy. They deserve, they are due what they receive. Those who receive a gift have no right to demand that it be given to them. Those who give it give it freely. Of all gifts, there would seem to be no greater gift than forgiveness. Forgiveness is the epitome of someone receiving a gift they don't deserve.

Many human stories that are told center on revenge. Getting back at those who have done us wrong. The Christmas story is the complete opposite of this. And so is the story of Joseph. Then, as now, is difficult for people to believe in the real possibility of forgiveness. But as we'll see, it is both real and necessary.

We turn to Genesis 50, starting in verse 1. You'll recall, if you were with us last week, that Jacob has just passed away. And so, upon seeing his father, now lifeless, says, Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him. Then Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel.

So the physicians embalmed him, taking a full 40 days, for that was the time required for embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him 70 days. When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh's court, if I have found favor in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him my father made me swear an oath and said I am about to die; bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan. Now let me go up and bury my father. Then I will return.

In these opening verses we see a very real glimpse of humanity. True sorrow and grief at the loss of one's father. And the preparations that are made for Jacob are both similar and different than the preparations that we often make for our own dead. Would have been unique across the rest of the world at that time, but not unique in Egypt.

In our own time, it's not uncommon for people to be embalmed once they pass, so the body might be preserved for some time. We can assume that this wasn't something that everyone had access to, but because of Joseph's position in Egypt, this was a possibility for his own father. It makes us wonder, why did he do this?

Why did he seek to have his father embalmed? It may have been out of some sensitivity towards the religious sensibilities of the Egyptians. They had very peculiar notions about the afterlife. They believed that basically the body needed to be preserved in order for it to kind of, kind of almost act as a home base for the afterlife.

And this is why when they crack open those tombs of the pharaohs they find all kinds of trinkets and things like that, because they supposed that they were taking these things with them to the afterlife. Now, it could be that there was a religious aspect to these physicians, but it may be notable that it says that physicians embalmed Jacob, not priests.

So it may have been that Joseph was trying to respect some of those sensibilities while not trying to adopt some of their religious notions. Perhaps there is a practical element, they wanted to preserve the body as they go on this journey to Canaan. Whatever the case, it was quite a process. And it's interesting to kind of look into the process of how they embalm these bodies.

Because it was very much a surgical procedure. They took out all the organs of the body, wrapped them up, took out all the brains. Kind of gross to think about. They took a hundred yards, a hundred yards of linen and wrapped the body very intensively. And so it took forty days to accomplish that.

And it says the Egyptians altogether mourned for him seventy days. So not just Jacob's family. But all of the Egyptians went to a state of mourning, which just underscores the importance of Jacob and his family at this point in Egypt. And so they went through this process of mourning, mummified him. As I think about this, this idea of mourning someone for 70 days, it kind of, I think it's an important reminder for us that it's okay to take time to grieve for those that we love, for those that we lose.

I think in our society, we're so quick to like, okay, we have to, and we, bam, we're done with that. Now we're going to be happy, happy, joy, joy afterwards. That's not natural. What's natural is us grieving those that are dearly loved. And that grief goes beyond just 70 days. I think about holidays. For many of us, it can be a difficult time.

And for myself, it's a difficult time. A year ago, I lost my grandfather. And the pain of that grief is not as sharp as it once was, but it's still there. We think about Pastor Bill and how we lost him a year ago now. It's okay to grieve for those that we love and not to be in any rush to kind of stuff that away.

So they, they, they give all sorts of honors to Jacob. And then Joseph makes this request that he would go to Canaan to bury Jacob per the oath that he made to his father. And, continuing on in verse six, Pharaoh replies, He says, Go up and bury your father as he made you swear to do. So Joseph went up to bury his father.

All Pharaoh's officials accompanied him, the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt, besides all the members of Joseph's household and his brothers and those belonging to his father's household. Only their children and their flocks and herds were left in Goshen. Chariots and horsemen also went up with him.

It was a very large company. When they reached the threshing floor of Atad near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly, and there Joseph observed a seven day period of mourning for his father. So all these details that are being told here are just meant to communicate to us they were getting all the honors.

And, we see once they reach their destination, again, they engage in seven days of mourning. And all this ceremony was so noticeable that the Canaanites took note of it. In verse 11, it says, when the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, the Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning. That is why that place near the Jordan is called Abel Mizraim. So Jacob's sons did as he had commanded them.

They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephraim, the Hittite. So once Jacob is laid to rest, then everything else really begins. And in the case of Joseph's brothers, worry begins to set in.

Worry begins to fill their minds. Continuing on in verse 14, it says, After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?

So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father left these instructions before he died. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. Now, if you haven't been tracking this story with us the whole way, you should know that Joseph's brothers did him real wrong.

First, they just wanted to straight up kill him. They threw him in an empty cistern when he went out to check on how they and their flocks were doing. And they said, we're just going to kill him out here and tell Dad that a wild animal got to him. One of the brothers thought better of it, Judah, saying, Well, it's not the nicest thing to have our brother's blood on our hands.

That might be kind of a bad omen for, for us. So we'll just do this. We'll just sell him into slavery and we'll get some money on the side from it. And so that's what they did. They sold their own brother into Egyptian slavery and told their father that some wild animals killed him. And many years later, though, they were reunited with Joseph, under very surprising circumstances.

Circumstances they would never have expected. They were starving, their whole family was starving because of a famine going on in the land. And so they had gone to Egypt to seek food. And lo and behold, the man who was second in command was their brother Joseph. Now, they didn't realize it at the time, and through a series of circumstances that would play out, in which Joseph tested his brothers, it would eventually be revealed. And when it was revealed to them that this guy, this all powerful fellow in Egypt, was their brother, they were terrified. But at that point, in Genesis 45, he told them this, in 45, verse 5, he says, And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you. Now, having seen that Joseph said that, you would figure out, okay, all's good. Everything's all set, but put yourself in the brother's shoes.

If you put yourself in their shoes, you can imagine some doubt creating, creeping in. Dad's dead now. Maybe, just maybe Joseph was just treating us nice because he knew that his father would want him to do that. What if now that Jacob has passed away, what if now he intends to get his revenge finally, and so they send this message to Joseph and saying that Jacob had left some instructions for Joseph that he was to forgive his brothers.

Now it is, it's not very clear here that this is an actual genuine message from Jacob. Kind of seems as though maybe the brothers fabricated this, this message. Joseph would have no way of knowing whether his father had told them to say this to him or not.

But whether it was a genuine message or not, when he receives it, Joseph is just absolutely broken. Continuing on in the second half of verse 17. It says, When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves, they said. But Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid.

I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. We notice a couple things here in Joseph's response. The first thing he says, apart from saying don't be afraid, is he says, Am I in the place of God? What Joseph is basically saying here is that I'm not the judge. I do not sit on the throne of God.

And the meaning was, is that, how could he judge them in God's place? He's not going to take measures into his own hands in holding them to account for what they've done. And this is kind of anticipating what Jesus tells his disciples. In Matthew 7, 1 through 2, says, Do not judge, or you too will be judged.

For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged. And with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. Now, when Jesus says, Don't judge, He doesn't mean that we shouldn't call evil, evil. He's not saying that we should just keep our mouths shut. Kind of as often in our society, people are kind of expected to do, Oh, don't judge man.

You do you, I do me, that kind of thing. That's not what Jesus is talking about here. What he's talking about is, do not put yourself in the position of God, so that you would either damn someone outright, or especially, most especially, taking matters into your own hands, here and now, to render justice as you see fit.

It lines up with what Paul tells the Romans in Romans 12: 19 about not taking vengeance. It says, Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, It is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. That's what it means not to judge. It means that I'm not going to pursue revenge.

I'm going to leave it to God to set things right. Especially as Christians, it's important for us to remember how much we've been forgiven and how that should dispose us towards others who are in need of our forgiveness. Jesus tells his disciples this in Matthew 6. He says, For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. We can't expect the forgiveness of God if we're going to withhold forgiveness from others. Now, when we're talking about forgiveness, we're talking about forgiving those who show genuine repentance for the wrong that we've done, where people don't show repentance for the wrong that we've done for the wrong that they've done we're not reconciled to them, but we don't pursue vengeance because like Paul says, leave it to God, leave it to God. Show mercy. You're showing mercy in the, in those circumstances and we can all show mercy towards people regardless of whether they repent or not. But as people repent, and they say, I'm sorry, and Joseph's brothers here are indicating their sorrow. They're recognizing the wrong that they've done. As people repent, we need to offer forgiveness. Because we have been forgiven much ourselves. Now, kind of the second element here in terms of thinking about what's striking about Joseph's response is he's saying, you know, am I in the place of God?

No, I'm not in God's place. And there's kind of a corollary to this, which is that He says, I'm not in the place of God. And look what God has done through this. God has revealed this saving purpose by letting all this play out. Yes, you sold me into slavery, but it resulted in me coming into second hand command.

And the result is, is that I've been able to save many lives. The lives of the Egyptians, the lives of our neighbors, especially though, the lives of of our family members. But Joseph's kind of like, how can I stay mad now, after I've seen what God has done in this situation? How can I see all the good that God has brought from this, and decide, well, I'm still going to show, show my brothers what's what?

He's deferring to God's wisdom and sovereignty, saying, I'm not going to tread where God judges. He shows grace towards his brothers. He promises that he's going to take care of them and their children. And we can imagine that it maybe took a little time for them to really be able to accept that this was really real.

That he was going to offer this mercy and kindness to them. Because it says that he reassured them and spoke kindly to them.

In these last verses of Genesis, we come to the close of Joseph's life. Verse 22 says, Joseph stayed in Egypt along with all his father's family. He lived 110 years and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also, the children of Makir son of Manasseh were placed at birth on Joseph's knee. And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die. But God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up from this place. So Joseph died at the age of a hundred and ten.

And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. So Joseph lives to the age of a hundred and ten. Pretty long life, especially from our point of view. Not as long as his father and his grandfather and his great grandfather's lives. Just kind of an interesting observation of how there is a decline and how long human beings are living.

Probably a result of genetic mutation. But as far as the standards of the Egyptians go, 110 was a perfect age to die, it was like, they all loved it if they could live to 110. And he was able to experience many blessings. He saw his great, great, great grandkids through Ephraim, and his great grandkid through Manasseh.

Now, you can imagine for the family, now that, you know, all the past is behind him. He is truly kind of their protector and guardian. You can imagine that the occasion of Joseph's death is a scary moment for Israel, for the people of Israel. Once again, Joseph wants to comfort his family. He tells them in verse 25, But God will surely come to your aid. And the reason why that promise is so important is because it lines up with what's anticipated in Genesis 15, with what God foretells to Abraham regarding his family.

In Genesis 15, 13 through 14, the Lord said to Abraham. Know for certain that for 400 years, your descendants will be strangers in a country, not their own, and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

So whether or not Joseph could see all this that was going to happen, probably, certainly familiar with some of this tradition, whether he could see everything that was going to come, he wanted his family to know that God is still with you.

He's going to come to your aid.

And he's going to, not just be an aid to you in the land of Egypt, but what does it say in verse 24? It says, he's going to take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So they're not, they're going to be in Egypt for a long while, hundreds of years. But it's not home.

It's not their destination. They are still looking towards that promised land of Canaan. And God is going to bring them there. And so these burial instructions that Joseph gives to his family regarding bringing him there to that land, not on the, at the time of his death, as was the case with Jacob, but when they go, when all of them return to Canaan, and giving them those instructions, Joseph is showing his faith in God's promises.

And the writer of Hebrews comments on this faith in Hebrews 11, 22. It says, By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. And gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones. And so they follow his instructions. He is embalmed, he's placed in a coffin and he awaits his journey to the promised land of Canaan.

Over 1500 years before Jesus was born, we see the same weave of God's handiwork in the life of Joseph. God's plan of redemption cannot move forward without grace, without forgiveness. Imagine if Joseph refused to forgive. Imagine if he chose revenge instead. The people of Israel are only saved by grace.

And it's only by grace that they have a future. God's love for us is revealed by the grace He shows. Paul tells us in Romans 5: 8, But God demonstrates His own love for us in this, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. There is no death, there is no resurrection if Jesus is not born. And Jesus is only born because God intended to offer us forgiveness through him if we would turn to Jesus. Even while we didn't deserve it. Even while we were active in our rebellion and our rejection of God. The Apostle John, a beloved disciple, tells us in 1 John 1: 9 If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

You see, our forgiveness doesn't await our purification. Our forgiveness does not await our perfection. We are forgiven up front in Jesus. And then our purification follows. God forgives us, and then we become who we were supposed to be. As we follow the story of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, we have seen all the ways things could have gone off the rails.

And in the end here, we might expect a divided family. A family falling apart after the death of the patriarch who's, like, holding them all together. It's a sad experience some of us know in our own families. The knives come out. But God pours out his grace through Joseph. So that there is a future for the family. The people of God. God is eager to use you as the vessel by which the grace of Jesus Christ will be poured out in your family. In all of your relationships. Especially among Christians, the Apostle Paul tells us in Colossians 3: 13. Bear with each other, and forgive one another. If any one of you has a grievance against someone.

Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Give the gift of forgiveness. Give freely what has been freely given to you. Don't close off the possibility of what God can do. Let the past pass away. And let God's grace give you a future. Let's pray.

Dear Father,

We stand in awe of how you were able to bring good out of so much brokenness. And we see that in the case of Joseph's story, the story of his family.

Father, we see your redeeming hand. We see your grace in Joseph's life as he offers forgiveness to his brothers who betrayed him. Father, we pray that we would follow in Joseph's footsteps. More than this, Father, we pray that we would follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, who laid down his life for us, even though we were your enemies, even while we were standing against you, Father. Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, soften our hearts so that we would offer the same forgiveness that we've received to others. And Father, put your redeeming touch not only within the life of this church, father, but in all the points of connection beyond it. Father, help us to be lights in our family that are communicating this grace and bringing healing. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

As Jacob's life comes to a close, he offers his final words of blessing and warning to his sons.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

  Today's reading is from Genesis 49, 8 through 12. Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down to you. You are a lion's cub, Judah. You, you return from the prey, my son. Like a lion crouches and lies down, like a lioness -- who dares to rouse him?

The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come and the obedience of the nations shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes.

His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

Advent is a season of anticipation. We look towards Christmas, anticipating the birth of our Savior. Even when everything Christian gets stripped away from this holiday season, the Christmas season can't help but have this sensation of anticipation as children look forward to unwrapping presents under the tree.

A birthday party is coming. And in Christ's birth, the possibility of our new birth, of being born again, arrives with Him. This is God's gift to us. Jesus Christ, His Son. He is our blessing. He is the blessing long anticipated. We are looking back even as we look forward in our immediate calendar, a promise kept now celebrated.

But for thousands of years, God's people could only look forward, anticipating a blessing that awaited in the haze of the future. They fiercely gripped the glimpses of that glimmering hope revealed to them by God. As we near the end of Genesis, we catch one of these glimpses, disclosed in Jacob's parting words to his twelve sons; words of blessings and foreboding. So turning to that chapter, Genesis 49, starting in verse 1. It says, then Jacob called for his sons and said, gather around so I can tell you what will happen to you in days to come. Assemble and listen, sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. Reuben, you are my firstborn.

My might, the first sign of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. Turbulent as the waters, you will no longer excel, for you went up onto your father's bed. As we turn to this chapter, we're met with a mix of both blessing and prophesying and also just describing kind of the characters of Jacob's son.

Some of these details that Jacob speaks regarding his sons are details that are that are apparent in the immediate, some of them in some years to come, and some very far in the future, as we will see in the case of Judah. And some of these details are easy to pin down, while others of them are obscure.

In the case of Reuben here, his first born son, naturally the first one that he would address he's really just speaking to the character of his son and of how much promise his son had as his firstborn and how greatly Reuben let his father down when he betrayed his trust by taking to bed his wife Bilhah.

And so we don't really have a word of blessing here for Reuben. It's interesting, it's interesting to kind of call this chapter, you know, chapter of blessing because a good many of these sons here it's not a blessing as you would expect it to be. Jacob is just really stating things as they are, and in some cases as they will be.

In the case of Reuben, he doesn't really have much of a future compared to some of the sons will have. Continuing on in verse 5, it says, Simeon and Levi are brothers. Their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased.

Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel. I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel. So, Jacob addresses his sons, Simeon and Levi. And as you go through these sons, you'll notice that it's following birth order. It's also following the various wives, these four wives that that Jacob had.

So he's keeping them in their sibling groupings. Simeon and Levi are brothers, full brothers of Reuben. And if you'll remember from several chapters ago, we learned about how they violently responded to the assault against their sister, Dinah. And how they, when making a deal with the men of Shechem that they should be circumcised in order for Dinah's hand to be given in marriage, used that as an opportunity to slaughter all the men, in fact the city, to ravage it, while they were incapacitated.

Clearly, based on what Jacob is saying here, there was nothing positive about what they did. He says, let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Now, it's interesting that it says hamstrung oxen, because in ancient times, they would not have typically hamstrung oxen, because oxen are just agricultural animals.

The animals that you would typically hamstrung would have been horses. And if you don't know what that means, it's just basically slicing their legs so they're not able to be used. So in the case of horses, you'd do that because you didn't want the enemy to use them to assault you any further. But oxen, those are assets.

You'd want to keep the oxen so you could use them for yourself and no one could really cause harm against you with them. And so some, some commentators suggest that, it's suggesting just how gross their violence was, that they assaulted, either, either that they literally assaulted these oxen, or these oxen are representative of their assault against innocent people, among those that they attacked.

And so, Jacob curses their anger. Curses their fury and he says they'll be scattered in Jacob and dispersed in Israel, and that, in fact, turns out to be the case. Simeon, the tribe of Simeon does not have a territory of its own. They have land holdings within the territory of Judah, and in the case of the Levites, you know, a very blessed tribe in the end, because they're serving in the priestly caste, but they themselves also do not have a territory of their own, they have cities.

And so, in this case, we can very clearly identify what Jacob is anticipating here. Now we turn to verse 8, verses 8 through 12, which were read. I'm just going to read it again, because this is a very, if you, if you want to mark out in your Bible significant passages in anticipation, that are anticipating the Messiah, this is one to put a star next to.

Jacob says, Judah, your brothers will praise you. Your hand will be on the neck of your enemies. Your father's sons will bow down to you. You are a lion's cub, Judah. You return from the prey, my son. Like a lion, he crouches and lies down, like a lioness -- who dares to rouse him? The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he to whom it belongs shall come, and the obedience of the nation shall be his.

He will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

From the start, in this verse, we have a little bit of a play on Judah's name. When Leah named her son Judah, in chapter 29, verse 35, she said, This time I will praise the Lord. And the reason why he's called Judah is because it seems to have some suggestion of the Hebrew word praise. And so to start, Jacob says, Judah, your brothers will praise you.

And there's a lot of poetic elements in these blessings that are lost to us as English readers. And even I myself, I'm studied in Greek, I'm not studied in Hebrew, so I'm not able to pick those things out. But, Biblical scholars say that these passages are replete with all kinds of poetic elements to it.

And so you see that very clearly though in the case here of Judah. And what Jacob foretells for Judah is that his brothers are going to bow to him, bow to his descendants. And this is something that seems very akin to what we heard in the case of Joseph. Remember he had that dream in which all his brothers are bowing down to him, even his father and his mother are bowing down to him.

The point that's being tried to made, be made here is that Judah is going to come into great authority and strength. His hand is going to be on the necks of his enemies. He's going to be like a lion. And this is where we get that, appellation, the lion of Judah.

The authority that he possesses is not going to depart. It will not leave from, the ruler's staff will not leave from between his feet until, it says in verse 10, until he to whom it belongs shall come, and the obedience of the nations will be his. It's, it's a very interesting kind of phrasing here. It's suggesting a sort of transition that's to come in the rule of Judah, but a transition that does not lead to downfall, but to something that is greater, that even surpasses that which has come before. It's anticipating a time in which a son of Judah would gain the obedience of all the nations. Now, when we look to Ezekiel 21, we're going hundreds of years later. When Judah has fallen into great sin, they've been disobedient to God, and they're going to be handed over to Babylon.

But notice what it says here in Ezekiel 21, verses 25 through 27. It says, You profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax. This is what the sovereign Lord says. Take off the turban, remove the crown, it will not be as it was. The lowly will be exalted, and the exalted will be brought low.

A ruin, a ruin, I will make it a ruin. The crown will not be restored until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come; to him I will give it. It seems here that we find Ezekiel is matching up with what is said in Genesis 49, and it tracks with the historical record, which was that after Israel was sent into exile in Babylon, they never really, truly, fully regained that former glory that they had.

And it leads the way to Christ to come as this promised king. Isaiah 11:10, it says that in that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will rally to him and his resting place will be glorious. There's this anticipation that from the Root of Jesse, and Jesse's of the tribe of Judah, that there's this king that is going to come that will gather the nations to himself.

In Psalm 2, verses 2 through 9, It says, The kings of the earth rise up and the rulers band together against the Lord and against his anointed, saying, Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles. The one enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. He rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath, saying, I have installed my king on Zion, my holy mountain.

I will proclaim the Lord's decree: he said to me, You are my son; today I have become your father. Ask me, and I will make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. You will break them with a rod of iron; you will dash them to pieces like pottery. Now this is King David who is writing this psalm, and he never saw this in his lifetime. Yes, he was a strong king in his own territory. But the nations were never made his inheritance in his lifetime. All of this is looking forward to a coming king. And we find again and again in the Gospels of how Jesus, both in his person and what he says, and what the Apostles observe about him, Jesus is the one who's fulfilling all this anticipation.

We see this again in just another detail here in Genesis 49. So it talks about how the obedience of the nations will be his. And then it says he will tether his donkey to a vine. His colt to the choicest branch. He will wash his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk.

Very interesting imagery. This idea of tying a donkey to a vine, which, I'm guessing is probably not a great idea. Usually, especially a choice vine, because the donkey will probably be like, I'm out of here, and it's going to tear that vine away. But it's picturing for us a very, kind of, idyllic future. A future in which things have been perfected, and there's perfect tranquility.

It's giving us a picture of a royal rule that is just marked with glory and excellence. That his eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than milk. Now it's, it's interesting that it talks about how his garments will be washed in wine, and his robes in the blood of grapes. Now, that could be talking about kind of the color purple, and purple has kind of a royal bearing about it.

But it does make you wonder, you know, is this anticipating also Christ's suffering, the shedding of his blood? We see all these details brought together in the prophecy given in Zechariah 9, verses 9 through 10, which we also end up seeing fulfilled in Christ's ministry as He's entering into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, and they're shouting, Hosanna.

Look at what it says there in Zechariah 9. It says, Rejoice greatly, daughter Zion. Shout, daughter Jerusalem. See your King comes to you, righteous and victorious, lowly and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey. I will take away the chariots from Ephraim, and the warhorses from Jerusalem, and the battle bow will be broken.

He will proclaim peace to the nations. His rule will extend from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth. So just in this passage, he's capturing all these details, of this, this idea of a, of a king on a donkey, and How he brings the nations together under his rule. It's incredible how Jesus fulfills this in his own ministry.

All the details that are fulfilled in him that go beyond conspiracy. Because he couldn't have possibly arranged them to all come together in that sort of way. When we think about Jesus, I think sometimes we're apt to think of him in other imagery than that of a king. Because he is so kind, because he is so humble, we can think of him as a teacher. As a healer. We even think of him as a saviour, but sometimes we don't think about him as king. But he is king. And he makes this claim for himself. This is not something that's been foisted upon him. Yes, he says, my kingdom is not of this earth. He is not a worldly king.

But when Christ is raised from the dead, and when he stands before his disciples, preparing to send them to the ends of the earth with the gospel, he tells them this in Matthew 20: 18. He says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. That's something that a King says. That's something someone who is the King of Kings would say.

Now, these words that are being spoken to Judah, this anticipation of this King who would be the King over all the nations is, It's a promise that goes right in line with the word of promise of blessing that Jacob received from his own father. Genesis 27: 29, Isaac says to Jacob, May nations serve you and peoples bow down to you.

Be Lord over your brothers and may the sons of your mother bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed. And of course, this is just playing off of what was promised to Abraham that the world would be blessed through Abraham and his descendants. And the vanguard of this blessing is this promised coming king. If you're looking at all the blessings here in this chapter, I mean, this stands out as a blinking red light.

This is really important, and it kind of overshadows everything else. So there is some other things to note here. But again, some of the details that are given here are obscure and difficult to completely understand. In verse 13, the blessings continue. It says, Zebulun will live by the seashore and become a haven for ships.

His border will extend towards Sidon. Issachar is a rawboned donkey lying down among the sheep pens. When he sees how good is his resting place and how pleasant is his land, he will bend his shoulder to the burden and submit to forced labor. So just trying to pick up some of the details here. The land that Zebulun will occupy is not exactly on the shore.

It's not exactly on the coast. But some scholars, as they've looked at the words that are being used here, it can also suggest being towards the coast. And they did have dealings with the Sidonians. The Sidonians were not of Israel, a Gentile nation. As far as Issachar is concerned, what Jacob is saying here is that Issachar is, is strong and he's going to have this rest, and yet he's going to willingly, basically hand himself over to forced labor and that that does in fact happen to the tribe of Issachar.

They willingly hand themselves into Sidonian servitude. Verse 16, he says, Dan will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Dan will be a snake by the roadside, a viper along the path that bites the horse's heel so that it, so its rider tumbles backward. I look for your deliverance, Lord.

Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels. Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king. Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns. So again, some more details here that are difficult to kind of sift through. It seems that by saying that Dan will provide justice for his people, as one of the tribes of Israel, that what Jacob is saying is that he's going to establish his people among the people of Israel, but he's going to have trouble along the way. And we do see some indications of some of the poor character of those that were part of the tribe of Dan in Judges 18. Basically, for good or for ill, there's a lot of scrapping that, that is going on. And we see that, that's also the case with the tribe of Gad.

Gad will be attacked by a band of raiders, but he will attack them at their heels. And Gad kind of occupied kind of a borderland, so they were to be accustomed to having to deal with some violent encounters. And it's interesting that we have this kind of very brief interlude by Jacob in verse 18. He says, I look for your deliverance, Lord.

It's interesting that he says that. And we also have this description given both for Dan and for Gad, in which they're biting or attacking after heels. Because remember, Jacob's name means the one who grabs after the heel. He's the heel grabber, because when Esau came out, he grabbed onto his heel as he was coming out.

So it may be that Jacob here is reflecting on his own life experience, and he's crying out for deliverance for his sons. It says Asher's food will be rich; he will provide delicacies fit for a king. It's not an obvious kind of, I mean, except for what it's just transparently saying there, that he's going to have some involvement with the royal food.

There's not something I can point you to to say, oh yes, you know, that's what he's talking about. But just because we don't have that doesn't mean that's not the case. But this is what Jacob's anticipating for his son, Asher. And the same thing for, for Naphtali. Just looking forward to their fruitfulness.

Then we turn to verse 22 and we turn to another major figure here, Joseph. His Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring, whose branches climb over a wall. With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility, but his bow remained steady, his strong arm stayed limber, because of the hand of the mighty one of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, because of your father's God, who helps you, because of the Almighty, who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb. Your father's blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age old hills. Let all these rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers. Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.

In this blessing to, given to Joseph, we see this bit of exchange. This bit of, kind of stark comparison to what was spoken of Reuben versus what's spoken of Joseph. Reuben is the firstborn, basically cursed. You see Joseph here in the favor that he enjoys. Verse 26, identifying him as a prince among his brothers.

In 1 Chronicles 5, in terms of this kind of changing of the guard between Reuben and Joseph, it says this, it says, The sons of Reuben, the firstborn of Israel, he was the firstborn, but when he defiled his father's marriage bed, his rights as firstborn were given to the sons of Joseph, son of Israel; so he could not be listed in the genealogical record in accordance with his birthright.

And though Judah was the strongest of his brothers, and a ruler came from him, the rights of the firstborn belonged to Joseph. So this is important to keep in mind here. So, Reuben lost his status as firstborn. Yes, Judah has this incredible future that awaits, that brings promise to all of Israel. But in the immediate, Joseph is really standing as the firstborn among his brothers.

Jacob describes him as a fruitful vine. And this seems to be kind of playing off of possibly his son's name of Ephraim. In Genesis 41: 52 it says, The second son he named Ephraim and said it is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering. And Jacob says basically that, you know, Joseph's been under fire.

He's had all kinds of arrows shot at him. But he has been steady. His strong arms have been made limber. And the reason that Jacob gives is this. Verse 24 says, Because of the hand of the mighty one of Jacob, because of the Shepherd, the rock of Israel, because of your Father's God who helped you, because of the Almighty who blesses you with blessings of the skies above, blessings of the deep springs below, blessings of the breast and womb.

When Jacob says that Joseph has found his success, and he says that Joseph has stood firm because God has been looking over him as a shepherd, It kind of brings to mind what we hear in Psalm 23. That opening line that everyone knows, The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. It's interesting, later in the Psalms, We have a Psalm that speaks along these lines, explicitly connected with Joseph.

In Psalm 80, verses 1- 3, it says, Hear us, shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, You who sit enthroned between the cherubim. Shine forth before Ephraim, Joseph's son, Benjamin, and Manasseh, another of Joseph's sons. Awaken your might; come and save us. Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. The God of Jacob is Joseph's. God also. And their God is a rock.

Moses in his song in Deuteronomy 32 describes God in this way, saying, He is the rock, His works are perfect, and all His ways are just. A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is He. And as we look at these details here, of how, of the explanation that Jacob gives as to how his son was able to stand firm, it reminds us that this isn't about Joseph. It's not about how great and awesome Joseph is. It's about the God who has looked over him. The God that he has stood upon and relied upon. And this reminds us that in the hardships that we encounter, that we face down, that it's not about us. We are not strong to stand in ourselves.

The question is, is who is your shepherd? Who is looking over you? What are you standing on? Are you standing upon God as your rock? Or are you standing upon something else that will fail you? You remember Joseph's life. He could have stood on all kinds of things. He had opportunities to claim, oh yeah, the interpretation of dreams, that's my power.

Could have collected the glory for himself. He could have conspired to make his life more enjoyable. Cheated with Potiphar's wife. He could have done a bunch of things. He could have taken revenge against his brothers as soon as they showed up and had them all beheaded or something like that. But he didn't do any of that, because he was looking to God as his shepherd.

And he stands as an example to us of what we should also do when we are facing trials of our own.

Now there's just a few lines, a couple lines here regarding Benjamin. It says in verse 27, it says Benjamin is a ravenous wolf. In the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he devours the plunder. It's, this is again something we can't flesh out some great specific detail of how this is fulfilled.

This is just a characterization of who Benjamin is, his strength, some of his violence. And if we look throughout the history of the tribe of Benjamin, you do see elements of that. We recall that Saul, King Saul, the first king of Israel, that he comes from the tribe of Benjamin, and we certainly see some of those qualities in him.

Now, having spoken these words of blessing, Jacob very quickly comes to the conclusion of his life. But before passing, he offers one final word of instruction. Verse 28. It says, All these are the twelve tribes of Israel. And this is what their father said to them when he blessed them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.

Then he gave them these instructions. I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. The cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre in Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephron the Hittite. There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave and it were bought from the Hittites. When Jacob had finished giving instructions to his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed, breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. So, as he had told Joseph before, of how he wanted to be buried in Canaan, so he tells all his sons that this is his wish. And he wants to be buried with Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and his wife Leah, who enjoys this honor of being buried with the patriarchs. This isn't an honor afforded to Rachel because she died in Canaan in the midst of their travels, and so she's buried in Bethlehem.

And they are buried in Hebron. That's the basic location apart from, yes, they were buried in a cave. And pictured behind me is the traditional site as to where they were buried. I think I shared that last year when we were looking at Abraham. But that ends up being the resting place for Jacob, and we'll see that transpire in the following chapter.

But this is a pivotal moment for Israel and his family. Israel's family is on the threshold. He has passed. The future awaits his sons and their children. Among them all, it is Judah's blessing that strains our eyes to the horizon, looking for the promised coming king, the king who will rule all nations and usher in everlasting peace and prosperity. We know that this is Jesus Christ, the one who possesses all authority on heaven and on earth. The one who has dispatched his disciples to the ends of the earth to gather the nations to himself.

He has come, and he is coming again. He first came to make a way for us to be redeemed, to rescue us from sin and demonic captivity. He is coming again to gather to himself those who belong to him. The Apostle John relays to us what he clearly saw on that day in his revelation, a day that is quickly approaching.

In Revelation 19, verse 11, John says, I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself.

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with an iron scepter. He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.

On his robe and on his thigh, he has this name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Judah's blessing is being fulfilled. We are in the midst of it. And there's more that is to come on that day. When heaven meets earth, when the heavenly city of Jerusalem lays its foundations upon this earth made anew, John tells us it will be like this in Revelation 21. Says, the nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their splendor into it. On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. When glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it, nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life.

See, God is inviting us to be filled with anticipation, excited for what he is going to do next. But many in this world are going about life clueless, unaware, not having this sort of expectation. Instead, they're excited about the next iPhone. They're already thinking about the next election. They're counting down the days to vacation.

They're dreaming about a manned mission to Mars. They're thinking about these things, but not about what God is doing, about what is just over the horizon. And if we're honest, they are sometimes us. Now, the business of living is good. And I'm not knocking those things I just mentioned. But, they all amount to nothing if our name is not found in the Lamb's Book of Life.

King Jesus brings both salvation and a sword. Now is the day of salvation, the time to turn to Christ. Tomorrow comes the sword, the sword of judgment and deliverance. The sword that annihilates evil and establishes God's kingdom upon earth.

So we should live with anticipation. You should live with anticipation, both for your sake, and for the sake of those not yet in the book.

Don't let your hope be decided based on what seems possible, or what the experts say. Fix your hope on God's word of promise. That word of promise which has and which will come to pass. Let us pray.

Dear Father,

it is incredible,

it is incredible to look at scriptures and to see your plan. A plan that stretches across thousands of years. Father, in it, we see your faithfulness towards us. We see your mercy towards us. That rather than leaving us in our sin and our brokenness, a brokenness that is reflected in so much of these words that Jacob speaks to his sons.

In the midst of all that, Father, you planted a seed. You planted a promise, that there would be a promised King who would bring about our salvation and our redemption. Father, our prayer this morning is that we would fix our hope in him, that Father, we would receive him as our savior today and trusting ourselves to him.

And what's more Father, that as we do that, that every day from that moment that we submit ourselves to him and trust our lives to him, we would live in the hope of his return and that new reality that he's going to bring. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

Through a season of hardship for Egypt and Canaan, God continues to bless the Israelite people according to His promise.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

  Thanksgiving is an opportunity for us to take stock of all the ways that God has blessed us. It's an invitation to pick up what we have taken for granted and to see it in its proper light. God's shining goodness toward us. It's also an opportunity to double down on our praise for all the awe inspiring, expectation defying ways that God has blessed us.

Those hardships he turned to occasions for rejoicing. The defeats that give way to victory. We have been following just that kind of storyline here in Genesis. Mankind has sold itself under sin's power for the lies of the devil. But God is trailblazing a path of redemption. God promised to bless the world through Abraham. An aged, childless couple, Abraham and Sarah were promised a child through whom would come forth a nation that would dwell in the promised land of Canaan. Against all odds, years of disappointment, they were given that son through whom that nation would arise. They were given Isaac. Isaac fathered two sons, Esau and Jacob. But God promised blessings for the younger son, Jacob, over the elder brother, Esau. Much drama ensued thereafter, sin and deceitfulness, and Jacob left the land of Canaan for Haran in search of a wife.

But he leaves it with the promise that he would return. And return he did, after many years of trouble, gaining four wives and twelve sons. Though in the land of promise, he experienced great heartache along the way. His beloved Rachel died in the return. His son Joseph was later thought to be killed by wild animals, though he was in fact sold into slavery in Egypt.

But now, Jacob has learned his son is alive. He's learned that he's in fact second in command of Egypt. Jacob could not see God's hand at work before, but he, but it appears clear as day now. Joseph is inviting him and all the family to live in Egypt. But there is a question hanging over all of this. What does it mean for them to leave the promised land of Canaan?

What is the future of Jacob's, of Israel's family? We'll begin to learn what is in store today by considering chapters 46 through 48. And the first several verses of chapter 46 have been read. I'll pick up in verse 5, chapter 46. God has made promises to Jacob. And it says, Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel's sons took their father Jacob and their children, sorry, lost my place, and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt, taking with them their livestock and the possessions they had acquired in Canaan. Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters, all his offspring.

So, as was told in the first four verses, that were previously read, as Israel, as Jacob, you will remember that Israel is just a different name for Jacob that was given to Jacob after his encounter with God, meaning one who wrestles with, with God. As he's leaving Canaan, going towards Egypt, he offers sacrifices to God in Beersheba. And God meets him in a vision that night, and he has some things to communicate to him. One, the first thing that he assures him is that he should not be afraid to go to Egypt. And the reason why Jacob should not be afraid to go to Egypt is because some good things are going to happen there.

He's going to be made into a great nation while in the land of Egypt. And moreover, God promises his abiding presence. He's going to go with Jacob and he's going to bring him back to the land. Now that's significant because in ancient times it was very often thought that the gods were kind of geospatially located.

So, and each god almost had, like, their own territory. Territory is no problem for Israel's God, though. He's going with him and his family into Egypt, and he's promising to bring them back to the land. So what God is telling Jacob is, My promise is sure to you. You are to inherit this land. And this is the land of promise, but you're going to spend some time over here in Egypt and become a great nation.

And lastly, on a kind of a more personal touch, he's assured that his son Joseph, his beloved son, will in fact be the one who will close his eyes at his time of death. And so, in response to what God promises him, Jacob picks up all he has and brings it to Egypt. Now, remember Pharaoh had said you didn't have to bring everything, we'll take care of you, but they didn't do that. They brought everything that they had and they didn't leave anyone behind. Which is a telling step of faith because you might imagine that he might be tempted to leave kind of a rear guard behind, so that, okay, the rest of us are going to go to Egypt.

We'll make sure you guys get fed, but I need you to stay here, so that when we come back, our, our claims on the land are secure. Jacob doesn't do that. He leaves it all behind, trusting in God's promise. Moving on into verses eight through, going through, thirty, or twenty seven. We have a record of those that went down to Egypt with Jacob.

And I'm not going to read all the verses, but I'll just kind of summarize for you. In verses sixteen through eighteen we have, or rather, verses eight through 15 rather, sorry. We have the descendants of Leah, that were born by his wife Leah. In verses 16 through 18, through her handmaiden, Zilpah.

Verses 19 through 22, the children born through Jacob's wife, Rachel. And then, in verses 23 through 27, those born through Bilhah. Now, the thing that's interesting about this genealogical record is that it's not intended to be exhaustive. It doesn't include the names of the wives. And it's also interesting because when we look at another genealogy in Numbers 26, for instance, we notice some differences between the two.

For instance, if you were to look at in verses 19 through 22 where it talks about the children born of Rachel, and you look at Benjamin, and it look, and you look at the list of his sons, two of those sons listed there, Naaman and Ard, are listed in Numbers 26 as his grandsons. Now you might think, oh, like this is an error in the Bible.

That's, there's no error in the Bible. There's an error in our understanding of what the priorities are here, and the genealogy that's being given. This is not a census record. What it is, is really more of, it's almost like a charter document, saying this is the heads, these are kind of the leaders of this emerging nation.

so it's picking out some important personages that are being represented as they go down into Egypt. And some of them aren't even alive as they go down to Egypt, but they're included on this list because of their significance, and they're counted as part of that migration. Continuing on in verse 28, it says, Now Jacob sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to get directions to Goshen.

When they arrived in the region of Goshen, Joseph had his chariot made ready and went to Goshen to meet his father Israel. As soon as Joseph appeared before him, he threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time. Israel said to Joseph, now I'm ready to die, since I've seen for myself that you are still alive.

So once again, we see in these verses how Judah is taking a progressively more significant role as kind of a leader within the family. At this point, Joseph's still going to outrank him because he is Jacob's favorite. He's also second in command of Egypt. But it's kind of foreshadowing, once again, the role that Judah is going to play in the nation of Israel.

And it's interesting to see how, you know, Jacob's mention of death. He's like, I'm ready to die now. And now it takes a positive turn. Up to this point, we've seen him just be really brought low because of all the misfortune he's experienced between thinking Joseph is dead, Simeon being imprisoned in Egypt, and he's like, I'm basically ready to die, but in a very negative sense.

But now we see things turn around positively, where he's like, now I can, I can go to my rest, because I know all is well. Continuing on in verse 31, it says then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and speak to Pharaoh and will say to him, my brothers and my father's household who are living in the land of Canaan have come to me.

The men are shepherds, they tend livestock and they have brought along their flocks and herds and everything they own. When Pharaoh calls you in and asks what is your occupation, you should answer your servants have tended livestock from our boyhood on just as our fathers did. Then you will be allowed to settle in the region of Goshen for all shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians. Joseph gives his family some tactical advice here in order to secure their settlement within the land of Goshen apart from the Egyptians. Now you ask, well, why would that be important? It would be important in order to retain their distinctiveness as a people. As the, as, in terms of kind of the big picture, as the people of God, this chosen people.

Otherwise, you could imagine that they might just kind of be absorbed into Egyptian society. Now it's interesting that it says that the, that shepherds are detestable to Egyptians. Biblical scholars are not exactly sure why they were detestable to Egyptians. It's been suggested that it may have been just kind of some prejudice against outside immigrants coming into the land, and some suspicion as well, perhaps.

And, whatever the case may be, it, it works towards their favor that they can have a set apart existence within the land while still reaping the benefits of being in Egypt with Joseph. So turning to chapter 47, we see Joseph proceeding with this planned proposal to Pharaoh. Joseph went and told Pharaoh, My father and brothers with their flocks and herds and everything they own have come from the land of Canaan and are now in Goshen.

He chose five of his brothers and presented them before Pharaoh. Pharaoh asked the brothers, What is your occupation? Your servants are shepherds, they replied to Pharaoh, just as our fathers were. They also said to him, We have come to live here for a while, because the famine is severe in Canaan, and your servants flocks have no pastures.

So now, please let your servants settle in Goshen. Continuing in verse five, Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you, and the land of Egypt is before you. Settle your father and your brothers in the best part of the land. Let them live in Goshen, and if you know of any among them with special ability, put them in charge of my own livestock.

Then Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh. After Jacob blessed Pharaoh, Pharaoh asked him, How old are you? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The years of my pilgrimage are a hundred and thirty. My years have been few and difficult, and they do not equal the years of the pilgrimage of my father's.

Then Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence. So, we see here, in these verses, just God's continued hand of blessing, continuing to be upon the family, and that they find favor with, with Pharaoh, in terms of this plan. It's interesting how Joseph selects only five of his brothers. He's like, I'm going to pick the best five of you, the rest of you, you're staying behind, I'm not bringing you to Pharaoh.

And he brings his father before Pharaoh, and, Pharaoh asks this classic question that everyone seems to ask really old people, How old are you? And, Yeah, And Jacob, Jacob's response is interesting. Because he says, The years of my pilgrimage are 130. And he says, my years have been few. Now for us, we think 130, that's a pretty long life, bud.

But it's true, compared to his father and to his grandfather. His father, Isaac, lived to the age of 180. Abraham lived to the age of 175. So relative to them, his years have been few. And he says, they've been few and difficult. And, it's, it's interesting how he describes his life in terms of the pilgrimage.

Just as he describes his, his father and grandfather's lives in terms of the pilgrimage. They have not really been rooted down. Yes, they've been in the land of Canaan, but they've been, they've been on a pilgrimage through life. Now, when you think about someone describing their life in that way, my years have been few and difficult.

I'm sure some of us here might be able to relate to that. You might feel the same way about your life.

Jacob has a clear eyed view of the trouble that he suffered in life. And yet, as we're gonna see as we go through these verses, He still counts himself blessed by God. He's still able to see God's faithfulness through the hardship that he's suffered. Picking up in verse 11. It says, So Joseph settled his father and his brothers in Egypt and gave them property in the best part of the land, the district of Ramses, as Pharaoh directed.

Joseph also provided his father and his brothers and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their children. There was no food, however, in the whole region because the famine was severe. Both Egypt and Canaan wasted away because of the famine. Joseph collected all the money that was to be found in Egypt and Canaan in payment for the grain they were buying, and he brought it to Pharaoh's palace.

Picking up in verse 15, When the money of the people of Egypt and Canaan was gone, all Egypt came to Joseph and said, Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes? Our money is all gone. Then bring your livestock, said Joseph. I will sell you food in exchange for your livestock, since your money is gone.

So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and he gave them food in exchange for their horses, their sheep and goats, their cattle and donkeys. And he brought them through that year with food in exchange for all their livestock. So this famine is really bad. Remember that God had disclosed to Pharaoh through a dream as interpreted by Joseph that there's going to be seven good years of abundance and there's going to be seven years of famine.

Now they're in the middle of those seven years of famine here. It's so bad that they've used all their money. It's so bad that now that they don't have money, the Egyptians are in this place of having to sell their animals to Pharaoh in order to have enough food, and it just gets even worse. In verse 18, it says, when that year was over, they came to him the following year and said, we cannot hide from our lord the fact that since our money is gone and our livestock belongs to you, there's nothing left for our lord except our bodies and our land.

Why should we perish before your eyes, we and our land as well? Buy us and our land in exchange for food, and we with our land will be in bondage to Pharaoh. Give us seed so that we may live and not die and that the land may not become desolate. So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields because the famine was too severe for them.

The land became Pharaoh's, and Joseph reduced the people to servitude from one end of Egypt to the other. Now when you read about that arrangement, you probably read that and you say, that doesn't sound very nice. You'd kind of think, why don't they just give them food? Well, I think we have to be realistic here that Pharaoh was not going to do that.

Pharaoh was a political actor. He was interested in being able to retain power and make himself wealthy. Joseph, while he's second in command, he is not top command. He's not top dog. And so as Joseph is overseeing this plan, he comes up with a solution that does work to the benefit of Pharaoh, but it also benefits the people. It takes care of them. We see continuing on in verse 22, the benefits that they received from this arrangement. So it says, however, he did not buy the land of the priests because they received a regular allotment from Pharaoh and had food enough from the allotment Pharaoh gave them. That is why they did not sell their land.

Joseph said to the people, now that I have bought you, and your land today for Pharaoh, here is seed for you so you can plant the ground. But when the crops come in, give a fifth of it to Pharaoh. The other four fifths you may keep as seed for the fields and as food for yourselves and your households and your children.

You have saved our lives, they said. May we find favor in the eyes of our Lord. We will be in bondage to Pharaoh. So Joseph established it as a law concerning land in Egypt, still in force today, that a fifth of the produce belongs to Pharaoh. It was only the land of the priests that did not become Pharaoh's.

So what we see in these verses here is that the people are, are grateful to have this option available to them. Pharaoh didn't force them into slavery, he's not, he's not like, I'm going to enslave you. The situation was, is that they needed food. And the arrangement that, that Joseph set up was basically in exchange for their labor, their servitude to Pharaoh in exchange for their land.

They would be able to live on the land, and they would have enough food for themselves, so that they would keep four fifths, whatever they produced, and a fifth would go to Pharaoh. And so, their lives were saved. And so we see how God is continuing to bless both Pharaoh, the Egyptians, through Joseph. Now we wonder, you know, how is Israel doing through all of this?

Verse 27, it says, now the Israelites settled in Egypt in the region of Goshen, they acquired property there, and were fruitful and increased greatly in number. Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years, and the years of his life were 147,. When the time drew near for Israel to die, he called for his son Joseph, and said to him, if I have found favor in your eyes, put your hand under my thigh and promise that you will show me kindness and faithfulness. Do not bury me in Egypt, but when I rest with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me where they are buried. I will do as you say, he said. Swear to me, he said. Then Joseph swore to him and Israel worshipped as he leaned on the top of his staff.

So while the Egyptians are enduring quite a bit of hardship because of the famine, and the land of Canaan is experiencing hardship as well, God blesses Israel's family with abundance. They acquired property, they're fruitful, and they increased greatly in number. We can almost think of Egypt kind of being a greenhouse for them.

And yes, they're not always going to stay in Egypt. But it was a place for them to grow, become larger, become strong. And so they were blessed throughout this period. Now, it's interesting, we kind of take a pretty hard shift here to the end of Jacob's life. It says that, Jacob lived in Egypt 17 years, and the years of his life are 147.

Now, it's not like, okay, we're done here. There's going to be a couple more chapters where Jacob is speaking. But we're knowing up front, like, we're going to be dealing with the end of Jacob's life now. And, as I said before, the ages of Abraham and Isaac. He, he died 20 years earlier than Abraham. He died 33 years earlier than Isaac.

So relatively young. and he goes to, he calls Joseph to himself, in order to make a promise to take care of his affairs. And the reason why he's going to Joseph is because in Egypt, Joseph is effectively the new family patriarch. And so, he asks Joseph to put his hand under his thigh, which is a practice that is weird, seems weird to us.

But that was the mode in which they made promises. Promising that when Jacob died, that they would carry him out of Egypt and bury him in Canaan with his fathers. And, Joseph says, I'll do that. I'll do that. Now, we can imagine just the kind of the family connection there, as to why Jacob would want to rest with his fathers.

But, I think, I think it also is just pointing to his hope being in this, the realization of this promise that they would dwell in the land of Canaan. He's not setting down roots in Egypt. And it says that he leans on the top of his staff, which is, I think, translators have had very great difficulty in deciding how to translate what's going on here.

But the point is really the worship. Some have suggested that it's not actually translated. He leaned on the top of the staff. Some said he bowed before his bed because it's been suggested that in ancient, in the ancient times they believed that the gods were looking over their, the tops of their beds.

And so, maybe Jacob had that sort of conception of God looking over him as well. But whatever the case, the point is he is worshipping God. He's worshipping God in light of the promises that have been given to him and this surety that he has in Joseph who has been restored to him. Turning to chapter 48, we're going to begin something that we're not going to complete today.

In which we see Joseph, I mean Jacob rather, begin to offer some blessings in anticipation of his passing to his sons. So in chapter 48, we learn that Joseph, that Jacob has fallen ill. It's really come to the end now. It says sometime later, Joseph was told your father is ill. So he took his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim along with him.

When Jacob was told your son Joseph has come to you, Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed. Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz, which is just another name for Bethel, in the land of Canaan. And there he blessed me and said to me, I am going to make you fruitful and increase your numbers.

I will make you a community of peoples. I will give this land as an everlasting possession to your descendants after you. Now then, your two sons born to you in Egypt before I came to you here will be reckoned as mine. Ephraim and Manasseh will be mine just as Reuben and Simeon are mine. Any children born to you after them will be yours, and the territory they inherit they will be reckoned under the names of their brothers.

As I was returning from Paddan, to my sorrow Rachel died in the land of Canaan while we were still on the way, a little distance from Ephrath. So I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath, that is Bethlehem. So, Joseph and, I mean Jacob, in calling Joseph to himself, with Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, recalls this promise that he was given by God in Bethel of many descendants, of this inheritance of the promised land.

And he tells Joseph, I'm going to count your sons as my own sons. And this helps explain why you don't hear about the tribe of Joseph. Maybe you've always wondered, maybe I've heard of the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, I've never heard of the tribe of Joseph. The reason why you don't hear about the tribe of Joseph is because Ephraim and Manasseh become the figureheads for the tribe of Joseph. You hear the tribe of Ephraim, the tribe of Manasseh.

So, Jacob says, that's what we're going to do here, I'm going to count them as my own sons. And then he goes into this thing talking about how Rachel died on the way into the land. And we wonder, you know, is he just getting emotional here? Why is he talking about Rachel? Kind of reading between the lines, it seems like he might be implying that because Rachel died, and maybe he felt she died too soon, I'm counting, and I, he wasn't able to have any more sons with her, it's for that reason that he's counting Ephraim and Manasseh as his own. So, Joseph brings his sons before Jacob. In verse 8 it says, When Israel saw the sons of Joseph, he asked, Who are these? They are the sons God has given me here, Joseph said to his father. Then Israel said, Bring them to me so I may bless them.

Now Israel's eyes were failing because of old age and he could hardly see. So Joseph brought his sons close to him, and his father kissed them and embraced them. Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face again, and now God has allowed me to see your children, too. Now, it's kind of funny that, you know, Israel, that Jacob asks, you know, who are these?

We kind of suppose that he would have already seen the boys, he'd know who they are. His eyesight is bad, so that might be what's partly factoring in here. But there also, this also could be kind of part of a formality in moving forward in this blessing that he's going to offer to them.

You think about how in a wedding they say, you know, who gives this woman to be this man's wife? That, that sort of thing. We all know, but it's just part of the, kind of the ceremony. And as Joseph brings his sons before his father, he's just absolutely exultant. He gives praise and thanksgiving to God because he's restored Joseph to him and he has been able to see Joseph's sons.

And so he proceeds to offer this blessing upon them, which I think is a wonderful blessing. A blessing I think any grandparent could probably offer for their, for their children, children and grandchildren. It says, Then Joseph removed them from Israel's knees and bowed down with his face to the ground.

And Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel's left hand, and Manasseh on his left toward Israel's right hand, and brought them close to him. But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, though he was the younger and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.

Then he blessed Joseph and said, May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name in the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac.

And may they increase greatly on the earth. When Joseph saw his father placing his right hand on Ephraim's head, he was displeased. So he took hold of his father's hand to remove it, to move it from Ephraim's head to Manasseh's head. Joseph said to him, No, my father. This one is the firstborn. Put your right hand on his head.

But his father refused and said, I know, my son, I know. He too will become a people and he too will become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than he and his descendants will become a group of nations. He blessed them that day and said, In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing.

May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh. So he put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh. Then Israel said to Joseph, I am about to die, but God will be with you and take you back to the land of your fathers. And to you I give one more ridge of land than to your brothers, the ridge I took from the Amorites with my sword and my bow. So once again, in terms of a father giving blessings to his sons or grandsons, we see this reversal of this greater blessing being given to the younger Ephraim over the older Manasseh. We saw this in Jacob's own story, how he, the younger brother, was to receive greater blessing than his older brother, Esau.

Now, it didn't involve all the drama that was entailed with Jacob and Esau's story, where Jacob had deceived his father, making him think he was Esau. Basically swindling Esau of his birthright by having him sell it for a pot of stew. We don't see any of that. God has simply disclosed to Jacob that this is how the blessing should be ordered.

And he does so accordingly. And it's interesting, because we, I mean, we don't know. We know that it was revealed that Jacob was to be favored over Esau. We don't know what Isaac did with that. It didn't seem like he listened, really. He was insistent on sticking with Esau. And so, all that deceit was the fallout from it.

Not so here.

What we see here is kind of thematic in terms of God's way of going about redemption. He doesn't choose the obvious people to bring about his blessings, to bring about salvation. you think about Jesus. Of the tribe of Judah, but born in a small place like Bethlehem, growing up in backwater place like Nazareth, wasn't born in a palace. And we think about ourselves, in terms of those who are counted among the members of Christ's body, Paul in first Corinthians 1 verses 26 through 29 says brothers and sisters think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards, not many were influential, not many were of noble birth, but God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.

God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things and the things that are not to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him. You see, the point is that all the glory belongs to God. And God is content to glorify himself through the weak and foolish things of this world.

Weak and foolish things like ourselves. See, what Jacob understands clearly is that everything that has transpired can only be accredited to God.

In verses 15 and 16 it said, He said, May the God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day, the angel who has delivered me from all harm, may he bless these boys. Jacob's saying, it's God who's watched over me. It's God who has been my shepherd every day of my life.

And if these boys are going to have a future, if they're going to be blessed, it's going to come from his hands. Now this is, I mean, this, this blessing is much larger in terms of God's work of redemption and, you know, bringing forth this people of Israel. But kind of like I said when I read those verses, this is the sort of blessing that we should pray for our children as well.

That when we think about success, so often we think, oh, success is really determined by your career. Really making it.

Jacob understands that success and blessing comes from God alone. And so we should pray that sort of blessing over our children. That God would shepherd those we love and deliver them from harm. In verse 20, he said, he blessed them that day and said, In your name will Israel pronounce this blessing. May God make you like Ephraim and Manasseh.

It's this idea of a, it's God who is bringing all this, God, it's God who's making them.

Now out of this blessing, they're also given an extra inheritance. It seems from the details that what's being referred to here is Shechem. Recall, kind of a nasty episode in which Simeon and Levi, in avenging their sister Dinah, went and killed a bunch of men when they were kind of incapacitated. Just overthrew the city, slaughtered.

They're given this extra inheritance of this city. The standing promise that they have, even as Jacob is about to die, and as they might fear, you know, what does the future look like? It's really captured in verse 21. Where he says, I'm about to die, but God will be with you, and take you back to the land of your fathers. As we've been in Genesis, we just hear this again, and again, and again, that the critical piece is God's presence.

If God is with Israel, they will succeed. If God is not with Israel, nothing is certain. It will fail. God is with them, and so they will go back to the land of your fathers, their fathers. That's what's critical for us as well. Is God's abiding presence in our life. We can count God's blessings now, just as Jacob's family had much to be thankful for at that time.

There's a whole famine going on, but they were being fruitful. They were getting bigger. It was great. But we can also say, like Jacob, as we might observe certain blessings in our life now, that we are looking for something more. Our years are few and difficult. Mercifully, some of us know a bit of the happiness that Jacob knew before he entered his rest.

God pours out his goodness even today. Even so, we are looking to some greater promise. Then, Israel anticipated their inheritance of the promised land of Canaan. Now, we anticipate inheriting all the earth in God's coming kingdom. Remember, remember this, that Jesus tells his disciples, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

There's a true fulfillment that's going to be realized. A true fulfillment of the promise given to Abraham. A true fulfillment that's going to be realized at Christ's return. When Christ returns and he introduces new heavens and a new earth and God will make his home with us.

We are reassured in the same manner that Jacob reassures Joseph. God will be with Joseph. He will bring him back to Canaan. Christ assures us that he will always be with us saying, surely I'm with you always, to the very end of the age. Jesus tells us in John 14, Do not let your hearts be troubled. Do you believe in God?

Believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going to there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am. We give thanks, not just for what God has done.

We give thanks, not just for what God is doing right now. We give thanks for what God has promised to do. Jesus is coming back. Our shepherd is going to gather us together, so that we may forever know the peace of dwelling with our King and Maker. In this promise, He tells our troubled hearts, peace, be still.

Those who have ears to hear, know there is no greater gift than this peace he freely gives. Thanks be to God. Let's pray. Dear Father, the scriptures that we have read this morning offer testimony to your abiding faithfulness.

How you restored Joseph to Jacob, and how you brought the family back together and how you blessed the family of Israel and Egypt in the midst of hardship. You preserved them, Father, and you gave them a future. And I know they knew your presence was with them. Father, we thank you that that promise of your presence is not just something in the past.

We thank you that you continue to be present with us today, and that your blessings abide today. And that even while we might admit that we do face difficulty and hardship now, Father. We rest assured that something far greater is coming and will be introduced when Christ returns again. Father, we thank you for your present abiding goodness, and for the overwhelming goodness that's going to be revealed the day of his return.

In his name we give you praise and thanksgiving. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

As Joseph reveals himself to his brothers, we see the changes in their hearts as well as the incredible faith shown by Joseph. Even in immensely difficult life circumstances, Joseph looks to God for purpose in his suffering.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

Scripture this morning is taken from Genesis 43, 15 to 18. So the men took the gifts and doubled the amount of silver and Benjamin also. They hurried down to Egypt and presented themselves to Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, take these men to my house, slaughter an animal and prepare a meal that they are to eat with me at noon.

The men did as Joseph told him and took the men in Joseph's, to Joseph's house. Then the men were frightened when they were taken to his house. They thought we were brought here because, because of the silver that was put back into our sacks the first time. He wants to attack us and overpower us and seize us as slaves and take our donkeys.

Some healing. requires cutting. It is a reality that defies our intuitions. Everything in our natures would shrink away from any blade that would cut our flesh. But as any of you know, who have suffered some cancer, some illness of your heart, some deterioration of your body, It is sometimes necessary for our bodies to be cut open for us to be made well.

We experience both fear and pain in the process. But correctly done, we are ultimately made well through gifted surgeons. Life, personally, historically, universally, life is like surgery. Life is like surgery as long as there's a kind hand behind the blade. If there is no God, then life's suffering has no rhyme or reason.

Unlike surgery, this suffering could not be working to any good end. If there is no God, there is only pain without purpose. I want to say that again because it's so important for you to remember that as we face pain and we deal with doubts. If there is no God, there is only pain without purpose.

Random, chaotic, brutish. But God does exist. His purposes for us are good, and his hand is sure. And so life is like surgery, painful, yes, but under God's hand working towards the healing and redemption of those who will belong to him. Joseph's story is marked by pain. He has been betrayed, falsely accused.

The blade is cut deep, but now the healing has begun. He has been made second in command of Egypt, enjoying great splendor. He is serving in a great mission, administrating supplies of food in a time of starvation. He has a wife and two sons. And now, when he least expected it, the brothers who sold him into slavery have come back into his life, unbeknownst to them.

They've come bowing before him, as God foretold Joseph in a dream many years earlier. He has now waited two years for what would come next. Two years wondering if they would return to reclaim their brother, Simeon, whom he imprisoned in order to test them. Waiting two years to see if they would bring with them his brother Benjamin.

Now the moment has arrived that every tragedy and triumph has been building towards. Their reunion in the next chapter for the family of Israel. So we continue in Genesis 43. And as Ernie read in verses 15 through 18, the brothers appear once again before Joseph. And when they appear before him, they brought gifts.

They brought gifts in order to smooth things over. To make sure everything was alright, because they had received their silver back in their sacks, and they were worried that this was some accident, but an accident for which they would be blamed. They brought gifts because they were afraid, and didn't want anything to befall their beloved brother Benjamin, their father's beloved son, Benjamin.

Joseph, when he sees them, invites them over to his house. He's going to host a dinner for them. A meal, at noon. And, as soon as this invitation is given, and they're being led to his house, they're totally suspicious. They think this guy's got designs on us. He's going to make us into slaves. He's trying to steal our donkeys.

Which is kind of funny. I mean, when you're second in command of Egypt, you have better things to do than to steal some guy's donkeys, you'd think. But, they're just on edge. They're paranoid. This guy's up to no good. And so, just to make sure that, you know, everything's all right between they and him, they go up to Joseph's steward.

Verse 19, it says, So they went up to Joseph's steward and spoke to him at the entrance to the house. We beg your pardon, our lord, they said. We came down here the first time to buy food. At the place where we stopped for the night, we opened our sacks, and each of us found his silver, the exact weight in the mouth of his sack.

So we have brought it back with us. We have also brought additional silver with us to buy food. We don't know who put our silver in our sacks. So they were like, listen, we don't know if you're trying to do something with us because of what happened, but it was totally a mistake, we brought all the silver here, we're all good, right?

It's just so funny the way that the steward, how the steward replies, putting them at complete ease. Verse 23, it says, It's all right, he said, don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father, has given you treasure in your sacks. I received your silver.

Then he brought Simeon out to them. The steward took the men to Joseph's house, gave them water to wash their feet, and provided fodder for their donkeys. They prepared their gifts for Joseph's arrival at noon, because they had heard that they were to eat there. It's so interesting to see how the steward reinterprets their circumstances, because if you'll remember last week, the brothers were really down about everything that was happening.

They were like, we're under a curse because of how we betrayed our brother Joseph. Jacob is feeling cursed because he believes his son is dead and his other son Simeon's imprisoned. Here, from the mouth of the steward, we hear some correction. You're not cursed. You're blessed. Now obviously, the silver didn't just appear in their sacks, it was because Joseph had it put back there.

But we see how the page is turning here, where they have to understand what God is doing, the grace that he is showing towards them. So, they're in Joseph's home, waiting for him, and he appears. Verse 26, it says, When Joseph came home, they presented to him the gifts they had brought into the house and they bowed down before him to the ground.

He asked them how they were and then he said, How is your aged father you told me about? Is he still living? They replied, Your servant, our father, is still alive and well. And they bowed down, prostrating themselves before him. Verse 29 says, As he looked about and saw his brother Benjamin, his own mother's son, he asked, Is this your youngest brother, the one you told me about?

And he said, God be gracious to you, my son. Deeply moved at the sight of his brother, Joseph hurried out and looked for a place to weep. He went into his private room and wept there. After he had washed his face, he came out and controlled himself, controlling himself, saying, Serve the food.

As Joseph is in his home with his brothers, we see how his love towards them continues to bubble up to the surface. He inquires about how his father's doing. And then he sees his, his younger brother Benjamin. And the reason why he asks whether this is his brother Benjamin, is because, while he suspects he is, it's been a very long time since he saw him.

Remember when Joseph was betrayed and sold into slavery. He was 17 years old. Benjamin is younger than him. Benjamin was just a kid. At this point in the story we can estimate that Benjamin was probably around 30, maybe in his 30s thereabouts. He's a man now. And Joseph has just moved to tears. This guy's like an emotional wreck.

He's having to run out of the room just to cry it out, so he doesn't give it away. He has, he has some more things he needs to do before he discloses his identity.

The next thing he does really gets the wheels turning in his brother's head. Verse 32. It says, They served him by himself, the brothers by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, because Egyptians could not eat with Hebrews, for that is detestable to the Egyptians. The men had been seated before him in the order of their ages, from the firstborn to the youngest, and they looked at each other in astonishment.

When portions were served to them from Joseph's table, Benjamin's portion was five times as much as anyone else's, so they feasted and drank freely with him. So the brothers are wondering, what in the world? Because, it's like, how did he know to put us seated in our birth order? It's really freaking them out.

And then, Joseph gives five times as much food to Benjamin. And you wonder, could the guy even eat all that food? In any case, he gets a lot more food than the rest of them. And you might wonder, you know, why is Joseph doing this? Well, he does love Benjamin. We just saw that. He was moved to tears seeing him again.

But we might also think that Joseph is doing a little bit of a test here. Remember, his brothers were very jealous of Joseph because of the favor that he received from his father. So jealous that they were willing to kill him, and eventually settled on just, just selling him into slavery. So now he's, we can imagine that he's probably testing his brothers here.

How are they going to respond to all the favor that I'm showing to Benjamin? Are they going to get jealous? After eating with his brothers, Joseph proceeds to the next step in his testing of them. Which is really going to bring all these things together. Continuing on in chapter 44, verse 1. Now Joseph gave these instructions to the steward of his house.

Fill the men's sacks with as much food as they can carry, and put each man's silver in the mouth of his sack. Then put my cup, the silver one, in the mouth of the youngest one's sack, along with the silver for his grain. And he did as Joseph said. As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys.

They had not gone far from the city when Joseph said to his steward, Go after those men at once. And when you catch up with them, say to them, why have you repaid good with evil? Isn't this the cup my master drinks from and also uses for divination? This is a wicked thing you have done.

So Joseph has already previously put silver in their sacks and you kinda wonder why the brothers might not have inspected their sacks again to see if there was silver in them again. But they don't. But, beyond just returning the silver to their sacks, he now introduces his silver cup, putting it in Benjamin's bag.

Basically setting up a worst case scenario where this youngest brother, the beloved son of Jacob, is going to be held most culpable for this high crime of stealing the second command's cup. Now it's interesting here because it says that this was a cup used for divination. And you think about that and it's like, well, that doesn't exactly sound very Christian using a cup for divination.

Well, there's a lot of questions here. There's a question of whether Joseph was just using this as a device that would have been commonly understood as a cup of divination because that was a practice at that time. What they would do is they'd take a cup like that and they might put some oil into the water or look at the ripples and try to divine some signs from that as to what the future held.

Perhaps Joseph engaged in things like that. We have to understand that, especially early on in the Biblical story, we find Biblical characters engaged in activities that aren't necessarily condoned by God later on. Right now, there is no prescription against this. But we've talked about previously how we see polygamy in the Old Testament, and how that's not God's ideal either.

So it may be that Joseph is using this cup, but it may be also that he's just using it as a device. And in an unorthodox sort of way, he is using it as a cup of divination. He's using it to test his brothers. He's using it to find out something about them. So continuing on in verse 6, the steward catches up with the brothers and it says he repeats these words to them.

But they said to him, Why does my lord say such things? Far be it from your servants to do anything like that. We even brought back to you from the land of Canaan the silver we found inside the mouths of our sacks. So why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house? If any of your servants is found to have it, he will die, and the rest of us will become my lord's slaves.

Very well then, he said, let it be as you say. Whoever is found to have it will become my slave. The rest of you will be free from blame. Notice how the brothers just find a way to kind of make things worse for themselves. They propose slavery and death if they're found guilty of what they're being accused of.

Death for the one that is found with the cup and slavery for the rest of them just for being found with this silver. What's interesting is that the steward doesn't agree to the death sentence. He just says, no, we'll just enslave the one who was found with the cup. It's almost like he is kind of winking at what is to happen in the story of Joseph.

How Joseph was enslaved. And now Benjamin, because we know what's going on here, Benjamin is the one with the cup, he's being put in a position where he too will be made a slave, since he is, he will be found with this cup. Well, continuing on in verse 11, it says, Each of them quickly lowered his sack to the ground and opened it. Then the steward proceeded to search, beginning with the oldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. At this they tore their clothes, and they all loaded their donkeys and returned to the city.

Joseph was still in the house when Judah and his brothers came in, and they threw themselves to the ground before him.

The brothers are obviously overcome with grief, as seen by the fact that they, they tear their clothes. Classic ancient sign of grief and woe, because literally the worst case scenario is the one thing that their father told them is make sure you bring Benjamin back. And now Benjamin's been found with the cup.

And so now they are simply at the mercy of Joseph. You find Joseph's response, continuing in verse 15. Joseph said to them, What is this you have done? Don't you know that a man like me can find things out by divination? What can we say to my lord? Judah replied. What can we say? How can we prove our innocence?

God has uncovered your servant's guilt. We are now my lord's slaves. We ourselves, and the one who is found to have the cup. But Joseph said, Far be it from me to do such a thing. Only the man who is found to have the cup will become my slave. The rest of you, go back to your father in peace. Now, it's interesting that Joseph says here, Don't you know that I could find things out by divination?

Perhaps he was giving them some indication of of leading them along those sorts of lines by the fact that he ordered them that birth order because they would have figured how else could this guy know this by other than having some deep insight like that. What's also interesting is that the brothers don't try to mount any sort of defense.

They didn't, they didn't steal anything. The stuff just appeared in their sacks. But they have no hope of being able to offer an adequate defense. They're just trying to make the best of the situation. And the best they can do in this situation is just to say, We'll all be your slaves. Remember they had said the one who was found with the cup would be put to death.

They silently pulled that off the table. Okay, how about we just all agree that we'll just all be your slaves. No more of this, you know, capital punishment business. Well, Joseph doesn't insist on any executions either, but he says, Far be it from me to do such a thing. Only the man who is found to have the cup will become my slave.

He's like, I'm a man of justice. I'm not going to make the rest of you be my slaves. It's interesting how the real issue here is just the cup, not the silver, but that seems to be the case. It's just the cup. Only the one who's taken the cup will be my slave. The rest of you can go back. Now notice how he has perfectly set everything up to test them.

He's shown great favor to Benjamin, giving him all these, you know, extra portions of food at the meal. He's now set up this situation in which the rest of them can go home. Benjamin's been found with a cup. All they have to do is just sell him down the river, leave him behind in Egypt, and go back to their father Joseph. Or Jacob, father Jacob. So how will they respond? Well, picking up in verse 18, we see how the response is far different than the treatment that Joseph received at their hand. I'm going to summarize the next series of verses. Judah steps up as the spokesman. There's been a transition that we've noticed over the past few chapters where before Reuben as the firstborn, the literal firstborn was the one who is always stepping up to the front to speak.

Now, Judah is the one who is really stepping up as the leader amongst the brothers, which is anticipating the role that the tribe of Judah is going to have in generations to come with King David and of course, Christ. Judah comes before Joseph and acknowledges Joseph's authority in the situation and basically just relates to him everything that's going on in their family situation.

Things that they've already told Joseph about how, you know, remember, remember how you asked us if we had a brother and how our father is old and how his, the youngest brother's brother, older brother, is dead. And continuing on in verses 21 through 26, they relate to him the whole situation about how Joseph demanded that they would bring this brother back to Joseph, back to Egypt.

And the conflict that that set up with their father Jacob, because he wasn't interested in that, in them bringing him back to Egypt because he was afraid that he would die.

We see that especially in verses 27 through 29. It says there, Your servant, my father, said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons. One of them went away from me, and I said, He has surely been torn to pieces, and I've not seen him since. If you take this one from me too, and harm comes to him, you will bring my head down to the grave in misery.

So that's really setting up the whole situation there. It's just, in short, you told us that we need to bring our youngest brother back. Father didn't want us to do that. But we're, we're in this situation where we need food. We've, we've brought him back. But if we don't return home with him, our father is going to die, basically.

Verse 30 says, So now, if the boy is not with us, when I go back to your servant, my father, and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy's life, sees that the boy isn't there, he will die. Your servants will bring the gray head of our father down to the grave in sorrow. Your servant guaranteed the boy's safety to my father.

I said, if I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life. Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord's slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No, do not let me see the misery that would come on my father.

We see here in Judah a case of radical transformation. If you go back to Genesis 37, when the brothers are trying to decide what they're going to do with Joseph, they've thrown him in a pit, they figure they'll just let him die. Judah in verse 25 of Genesis 37 says, how about we make a buck off him? How about we sell him into slavery?

Avoid some bloodshed, but it's just a very callous sort of calculation regarding Joseph. Now, these many years later, Judah is stepping up to the front and saying, don't let, don't have Benjamin be your slave. I'll be your slave. Let him return back to our father.

What we have here, really, is kind of a foreshadowing of Christ, of how he stepped up, he stepped in our place to receive the punishment that we deserved. He paid the price that we needed to offer unto God, a life of perfect obedience even unto death on a cross. In Isaiah 53, verses 4 through 5, it says, Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was on him. And by his wounds, we are healed. Christ died our deserved death. He offered the obedience due to God in order that he might offer a new way for us to come to God through himself.

We have this anticipation in Judah and how he responds in this moment. When Joseph sees that Judah has been radically transformed from the man he used to be, his emotions just break loose. In chapter 45, verse 1, it says, Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, Have everyone leave my presence.

So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh's household heard about it. Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still living? But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come close to me. When they had done so, he said, I am your brother, Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt. And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

It's interesting what Joseph first says to his brothers when he reveals himself, he says, I'm your brother Joseph. Boom. Just laying that out there. And then he asks, is my father still living? Seems a little bit of a curious question since it seems clear from everything that the brothers have been telling him that yes, his father is still alive.

Commentators kind of suggest that what Joseph's really driving at here is he's asking, really, you know, really, how is dad doing? That kind of question. Now, as you would imagine, as all of us would feel in their shoes, the brothers are shocked, and they're terrified. They're shocked because this guy looks nothing like our 17 year old brother that we sold into slavery.

They're terrified because this guy could just kill us all. And they're probably thinking, what would I do if I was in his shoes?

Joseph realizes this. He perceives their, their fear. And so he offers reassurance. He says, don't be distressed. Don't be angry at yourselves. Can you imagine, you've already kind of got this sense of how they've been angry at themselves because of everything that's been happening. They're like, we're cursed.

We brought this on ourselves. All the trouble we've been experiencing with this back and forth with Egypt. He says, don't be angry at yourself because God has been at work here. God has had his purpose in all this trouble, all this sinfulness even. His purpose was this, is that it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.

It's to save lives.

Now the depths of that purpose are almost without measure. It was obviously to save the lives of his family. They needed food. But it's also for the sake of the Egyptians, and for the sake of all the surrounding peoples. And brings back to mind what God promised Abraham in Genesis 12, that the world would be blessed through him.

This is God's common grace being shown to humanity. And maybe we can even read so far out as to say that, yes, Joseph was a part of this story leading to Christ, that through him, as one of these stepping stones, that salvation will be brought to the world. Because if you don't have Joseph, and you don't have all this lead up that will bring Israel into Egypt and Israel out of Egypt, we don't have everything that leads to Jesus Christ.

All that hangs together. In verse 6,

joseph relates all the specific details of how specifically he's been used to save the lives of people. Verse 6, it says, For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

So then it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household, and ruler of all Egypt. Now hurry back to my father and say to him, This is what your son Joseph says. God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Don't delay. Continuing on in verse 10, it says, You shall live in the region of Goshen, and be near me, you, your children, and your grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have.

I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise, you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute. You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you. Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen.

And bring my father down here quickly.

So he invites them to move in. To enjoy all the blessings that God has given them, given him.

It's a picture of reconciliation. It'd be one thing if he just showed them mercy and said, I won't kill you, now go away. I don't want to have anything to do with you guys. You're the worst. You sold me into slavery. He doesn't do that. You see here a picture of complete forgiveness. Now, come. All of you.

Your whole families, even your grandkids. Bring dad back. Things are going to get tough, but we're going to hold it together here in Egypt.

We see just his emotions in verse 14 it says, Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept. And Benjamin embraced him weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterwards his brothers talked with him. When the news reached Pharaoh's palace that Joseph's brothers had come, Pharaoh and all his officials were pleased.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, tell your brothers, do this, load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you can enjoy the fat of the land. You are also directed to tell them, do this, take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come.

Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours. Once again, we see God's blessings just on the family of Abraham that Pharaoh is just saying, move on in. Don't even worry about bringing your stuff. I mean, that's the worst thing with a move. When you're moving a new house, it's like you got to pack all the stuff into the U Haul.

You're just like, I'd just love to just jump in the car and just walk into the new house and it's all set. That's what Pharaoh is saying to them. Don't worry about having to move all this stuff. Just come over here. We're going to give you everything that you need. So in verse 21 it says, The sons of Israel did this.

Joseph gave them carts, as Pharaoh had commanded, and he also gave them provisions for their journey. To each of them he gave new clothing, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five sets of clothes. And this is what he sent to his father, ten donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and other provisions for his journey.

Then he sent his brothers away, and as they were leaving, he said to them, Don't quarrel on the way. So, Joseph just continues to bless his brothers. Gives them new clothing. Gives Benjamin a set of five clothes. Now, sometimes I think it's difficult for us to appreciate the luxury of clothes. Because we have so many sets of clothes in our homes.

Clothing was not something easily produced. So the fact that he gave each of them a new set. Maybe you think of it as a nice suit. And he gave Benjamin five sets of clothing. He's just like, wow. And he sends all these gifts to his father, which I think is going to act as proof, like, yeah, this is legit. He actually is second in command of Egypt.

It's interesting, he says, don't quarrel on the way. Now maybe he thinks, I know you guys, you like to argue, you get bickering with each other. It may be though that he's concerned that along the way they're going to start having some misgivings, like this can't be real, right? Like he's inviting us, he's going to, he's going to invite us to come to Egypt with all our families and he's just going to slaughter all of us.

He's really going to punish us, you know, this is a trap. He's trying to really put them at ease and say, don't quarrel, don't worry. Make your way back here. Enjoy the blessings. So when they get back, to Canaan, you find Jacob's response to all this. It says in verse 25, So they went up out of Egypt, and came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan.

They told him, Joseph is still alive. In fact, he's ruler of all Egypt. Jacob was stunned. He did not believe them. But when they told him everything Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts Joseph had sent to carry him back, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. And Israel said, I am convinced my son Joseph is still alive.

I will go and see him before I die. Jacob's fear, his abiding grief, collapses under the weight of this incredible joy. His son is alive. Jacob's spirit is revived. He's a new man. This sudden turn of fortune, this good kind of catastrophe, is the sort that awaits all of God's people. Our suffering will give way to joy.

But this is not because our suffering itself heals or restores. The power is not in our experience of pain. All the world's pain could never save it. It is only by the hand of God that good can be brought out of suffering. God has already acted decisively. In this regard, through the Son of God, Jesus Christ, by his wounds we are healed once and for all.

We do not suffice, but Jesus is all sufficient. The writer of Hebrews makes this distinction in Hebrews 7, verses 23 through 27. Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office. But because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.

Such a high priest truly meets our need. One who is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

This is the gospel. It has been decided in Jesus Christ. Go to Jesus. In Him, your sins are no longer held against you. There is no condemnation in Him. Go to Jesus. Receive your salvation. He is the relief to your famine. We don't need to bring anything with us. We are told to leave it all behind. Because Jesus will give us all things when he comes to this earth again.

Today's trouble pales in comparison to the joy he has set before us. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweihs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is temporary, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Do not delay. Go to Jesus. Go to Jesus. He will wipe away every tear and invite us into his blessings. Let's pray.

Dear Father,

we see your goodness towards us in Joseph's story.

Father, we are connected to that story through Jesus Christ. And we also see ourselves in that story. Because Father, like Joseph's brothers, we have fallen far short of what you've desired for us. We've betrayed you in multitude ways. And yet, Father, you have worked, even through our wrongdoing, to make a way so that we would be saved.

So that we would be reconciled to you, so that salvation might be offered to the world, and you have done this father in Jesus Christ, your son.

Lead us to him, father, lead us to put our faith and trust in him. To set aside our distress, to no longer be angry with ourselves, father, for the messes we've made. But to receive him, and the gifts of grace and blessing that you wish to give to us in him. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

When trouble arises in Jacobs life, he is led to despair. As humans, we often find ourselves in similar situations, but God promises that though we face trouble, he has already overcome.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

Good morning. So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second in command, and people shouted before him, Make way!

Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, but without your word, no one will lift a hand or foot in all of Egypt.

Sometimes things just go your way. I had a moment like that on Monday. I arrived early at James's school for pick up, and so I figured I'd just go down the street and wait at a park and do some studying until I needed to go get him. After a bit of time, things got interesting. I heard sounds of yelling in the distance, and I just kind of figured it was someone out in their yard, you know, enjoying some horseplay or something.

I thought that until a police officer showed up and dashed into the woods with a man I presume called the police. I had a few minutes before I needed to leave and so I figured I'd just wait. I was a bit curious about what was going on. Before I knew it, another policeman pulled up and, and parked right behind my car.

And other police officers besides showed up on the scene. It suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't going to be pulling out to pick up James anytime soon. I figured I should begin walking the mile to pick him up. So I got out of my car, approached the street. But as soon as I stepped up onto the sidewalk, I heard a friendly holler across the street.

My grandma just so happened to be at the intersection and was offering me a ride. So I was very elated, you know, praising God, because he provides when we least expect it. But sometimes things don't seem to go our way. Last Christmas was very hard on me. I was sick with some sort of cold. You all will probably remember that.

That's why you gave me cough drops. I was sick with this terrible cold, and then my grandfather passed away. I was an emotional wreck, but I was also a physical wreck. I was getting sicker and sicker, as sick as I'd ever been. And I was later diagnosed with some form of bronchitis and had to get antibiotics and an inhaler.

It was a difficult season. It felt like nothing was going my way. It can feel like God is absent in those times. The words of Psalm 22, the words of Christ come to our lips. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me. Has he? Has he forsaken us in those times? Or is it that our eyes cannot see what he sees? As we continue Joseph's story this morning, I want you to put yourself, not in Joseph's shoes, but in the shoes of his father and brothers.

In your imagination, limit yourself to what they see, to what they know at this moment in the story. But before we get to them, we orient ourselves by getting a fuller picture of Joseph's new status as second in command of Egypt. And we're picking up in Genesis 41, verse 41. Nick read those verses for us.

And in these verses, we learn how Joseph has been raised to this position of great authority, second in command of Egypt. And he has all the symbols of authority given to him. He is given Pharaoh's signet ring, so that basically Joseph can sign off. They would make a mark with this ring. He can sign off on whatever needs to be done, and he has the authority of Pharaoh standing behind him.

He is dressed in new clothing, robes of fine linen. He has a gold chain put around his neck, signifying that he is a very important person. He's given a chariot. Not everyone had chariots back in that day. A chariot was basically a limo, the limo of its time. And so, Joseph is now riding in style, and there's men, servants, going before him saying, make way.

He was basically given secret service officers.

Altogether, he is given such authority that Pharaoh says, without your word, no one will lift hand or foot in all of Egypt. Now, in addition to these symbols of authority that Joseph is given, being raised to this position, which is just astounding, from being a slave, being a prisoner, and now he's in second command.

He also receives a new name. And begins a new life. Continuing on in verse 45. It says, Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah. And gave him Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

And Joseph went out from Pharaoh's presence and traveled throughout Egypt. Now, this name that Joseph is given, commentators are not exactly sure what it means. One suggestion is that the name means, the one who knows. Which would make sense since he, he is known for his ability to interpret dreams.

He's known for his wisdom. In any case, he's beginning a new life. And, he gets himself a wife. Who is the daughter of Potiphera, who is a priest of On, so he marries into a very important priestly caste within Egypt. He's married into a very influential family. And, he's still pretty much a young man.

He's 30 years old. But think about everything that he's experienced. Remember, he was sold off into slavery at the age of 17. Imagine all the things that he experienced over those 13 years. Being a slave. Being in prison. And now he's been raised to this position. And so, now that he's got this start in life, he begins to get to work.

Continuing on in verse 47. It says, During the seven years of abundance, the land produced plentifully. Joseph collected all the food produced in those seven years of abundance in Egypt and stored it in the cities. In each city he put the food grown in the fields surrounding it. Joseph stored up huge quantities of grain like the sand of the sea.

It was so much that he stopped keeping records because it was beyond measure. So, if, you'll recall, the reason why Joseph has been put into this position, the reason why he is collecting this grain is because he interpreted Pharaoh's dream in which Pharaoh was warned by God that there would be seven years of great abundance, followed by seven years of famine.

So during the seven years of abundance, there's this need to store up food so that Egypt would have enough for when those years of famine came. And so that's what Joseph is doing. He has a plan. He goes to each city and from the surrounding areas, they collect the food from the surrounding area into that city.

And it was so much that grain was like sand in Egypt. So, the land of Egypt is experiencing fruit, agricultural fruitfulness. But Joseph is also enjoying fruitfulness in other ways in his life. Continuing on in verse 50, it says, Before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph by Asenath, daughter of Potiphera, priest of On.

Joseph named his firstborn Manasseh and said, It is because God has made me forget all my trouble in all my father's household. The second son he named Ephraim and said, It is because God has made me fruitful.

It's so interesting, we kind of get a little bit of insight here into, kind of, Joseph's emotions, given everything that has transpired. You'll recall that when he was in prison and he was requesting that the cupbearer would plead his case with Pharaoh, he was telling him about how much injustice he suffered in his life.

And now that he's in this much different place where now he has a family, he's being blessed with children, he's just so grateful. He's giving praise to God. And he's not even anticipating, at this point, any possibility of being reconciled to his family. You know, he says, in naming his son Manasseh, he says, Because God's made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household.

He's like, good enough, I'm glad to just forget them. They sold me into slavery. He's just grateful for how far God has brought him thus far. But there is going to be more to come here. Now, following the seven years of abundance, seven years of famine likewise arrive. Continuing on in verse 53. It says, The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end.

And the seven years of famine began, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food. Then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, go to Joseph and do what he tells you.

When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold grain to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe throughout Egypt. And all the world came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe everywhere. So this famine that the people are suffering under is very significant.

It's not only striking Egypt. It's striking all the surrounding lands. And we can only imagine how many people would have died had not Pharaoh been warned to save up food during those seven years of abundance. Now the manner in which Joseph went about collecting that food is they basically put a 20 percent tax on all the produce.

They gathered in 20 percent of the produce into these storehouses. And then out of that abundance, they actually sold it back to the people. So, Joseph has been a very great blessing to Pharaoh in everything that's transpired here, because Pharaoh is becoming wealthy, and in fact, as they bring in other people from other countries seeking food, Egypt is getting wealthy as they're able to be basically a breadbasket for the area in this great time of need.

Now, it's at this point, in the midst of this famine, Joseph's father and Joseph's brothers are brought back into the story. So again, I want you to put yourselves in their shoes as things unfold. Continuing on in chapter 42, verse 1. It says, When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why do you just keep looking at each other?

He continued, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy some for us so that we may live and not die. Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others because he was afraid that harm might come to him.

So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also. So, Canaan is among these lands in which the famine is bad. The favorite, my favorite comment here is just, Jacob speaking to his sons saying, Why do you keep just looking at each other? He's kind of, he's like, Get doing something.

And so he sends his, his ten sons, but no Benjamin because, remember Joseph and Benjamin were born to Rachel. And Rachel was, Joseph's favorite wife. And, Joseph was his favorite son, and he already lost Joseph. And now he is fearful of losing Benjamin in some way. And so he says, the ten of you can handle this, I'm just gonna send you.

And, as they go to Egypt, they encounter their long lost brother, Joseph. Continuing on in verse six. It says, Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them.

Where do you come from? he asked. From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food. Now, just kind of take a pause here. Just It's, notice how everything is coming together here. It's, it's so crazy that they are encountering Joseph in these circumstances. And it's so crazy that they don't even notice any sort of striking resemblance in this man to their brother.

For the, you know, first point, it's been 13 years. He probably looks a little bit different. But he certainly looks different, given that he's in all this royal garb, he's in this position of authority. They assumed, at best, he was still a slave. At worst, he was dead. So, but Joseph recognizes them. He knows exactly who they are.

And he takes notice of the situation here and just how profoundly it fulfills what God had revealed to him. Continuing on in verse eight says, although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, you are spies. You've come to see where our land is unprotected.

No, my lord, they answered. Your servants have come to buy food. We are all sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies. No, he said to them, you have come to see where our land is unprotected. But they replied, your servants were twelve brothers, the son of one man who lives in the land of Canaan.

The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.

So Joseph recognizes his brothers, and he recognizes the situation in which they are bowing down before him, is fulfilling the dream that he had, where he dreamed that before his sheaf of wheat, all his brother's sheaves of wheat would bow down. He's like, wow, this is getting crazy. He was grateful for this, being raised up to this position of authority, but now, to see all this coming together, one can only imagine everything that's going through his mind.

Rather than just coming right out and saying, hey, I'm your brother, though, he does this interesting move of accusing his brothers of being spies. Now you might wonder, why is he doing this? Well, kind of reading between the lines here, it seems as though he's trying to set up a test. He's trying to discern the sorts of men that his brothers are now 13 years later.

So, continuing on in verse 14. He continues to insist, saying, It is just as I told you, you are spies. And this is how you will be tested. As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. Send one of your number to get your brother. The rest of you will be kept in prison so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth.

If you are not, then surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies. So, the test that Joseph is setting up here, is he wants to confirm that his younger brother is still alive. And besides just confirming that he's alive, he probably also just genuinely wants to see his brother Benjamin. And, he's interested to see how his brothers are going to respond under duress.

He initially says that, you know, the rest of you, most of you can stay in prison. Nine of you can stay in prison here and send one back to fetch this other brother. And, continuing on in verse 17, it says that he kept all of them in custody for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, Do this and you will live, for I fear God.

Now, if you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay here in prison, while the rest of you go and take grain back for your starving households. But you must bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words may be verified, and that you may not die. This they proceeded to do. So the brothers agree on this arrangement that one of them is going to stay behind in prison, the rest of them are going to go back, in theory, to bring back Benjamin.

Now, we can kind of see the test that Joseph is putting them to here, in that, they're going to leave one brother behind, and so there's this question of, are they going to just let him rot away in prison, or are they going to come back to get him? It's an interesting dilemma that they're kind of placed in, and they begin to feel the weight of that dilemma, because they know that their father does not want Benjamin to go to Egypt, and so in verse 21, they say to one another, surely we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen. That's why this distress has come on us. Reuben replied, didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? But you wouldn't listen! Now we must give an accounting for his blood.

They did not realize that Joseph could understand them since he was using an interpreter. He turned away from them and began to weep, but then came back and spoke to them again. He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes. So the brothers interpretation of all this misfortune that they're experiencing is that God is cursing us because of our sinfulness.

God is cursing us because of the way in which we betrayed our brother, selling him into slavery. Now, as Joseph hears them, it's so interesting that he went to such lengths to kind of cover his identity that he used an interpreter, even when he didn't need to use an interpreter. When Joseph hears what they're saying, it moves his heart.

And he began, it moves his heart to hear their regret. And so he begins weeping. But he hides his tears, so they're not like, why is this guy crying? He doesn't want to give it away at this, at this point. So they do have one of their brothers remain behind, and that brother is Simeon. And so, with Simeon imprisoned, the rest of them make their way back, bringing grain that is given to them, and, as they've purchased it.

Now in verse 25, we see how that transaction goes down. It says, Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man's silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left. At the place where they stopped for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his silver in the mouth of his sack.

My silver has been returned, he said to his brothers. Here it is in my sack. Their hearts sank, and they turned to each other trembling and said, What is this that God has done to us? So, their line here is that, again, Joseph wasn't giving them grain out of charity. They purchased this grain with their own silver, but Joseph put their silver back in the sack.

And one of them discovers it and is like, Again, kind of, oh man, we're under a curse here. What is God, what is God doing to us? Now we kind of wonder, what is Joseph doing here? Again, I think he's, he's putting them to a test. He's putting them to a test to see, are they honest? Are they going to bring this silver back, or are they just going to keep it to themselves?

Continuing on in verse 29, it says when they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them. They said, the man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spying on the land. But we said to him, we are honest men.

We are not spies. We are twelve brothers, sons of one, sons of one father. One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan. And then, in verses 33 through 35, Um, they continue to summarize more of what transpired. But in verse 35, they come to discover that all of them have silver in their sacks of grain.

And when they, it says, when they and their father saw the money pouches, they were all frightened. And this leads Jacob to his own response of despair at everything that's transpired. In verse 36 it says, their father Jacob said to them, you have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me. Then Reuben said to his father, you may put both my sons to death if I do not bring him back to you. Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back. But Jacob said, My son will not go down there with you. His brother is dead, and he is the only one left.

If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.

Jacob has suffered some real loss in the life of his family. Thirteen years prior, he had lost Joseph, and he assumed that he was dead because the brothers made it look like Joseph had been killed by a wild animal. Now, his other son, Simeon, is imprisoned in Egypt. And it seems Jacob figures he's as good as dead.

And this leads him to exclaim, in verse 36, Everything is against me. Everything is against me. A very human moment, I think a lot of us can relate to, where you just, misfortune stacks upon itself, and eventually we just are put in this place of just saying, Everything feels like it's against me. And yet, we know, we understand that what Jacob cannot see is that God is bringing all things together so that his family might be restored to him.

Now, So, Reuben is really desiring to get back, to get Simeon back, and he's willing to even offer his own sons, the life of his own sons, in the case that he wouldn't bring Benjamin back alive. But, now, you wouldn't think Jacob would want to lose his grandsons, either. But whatever the case, you know, this is at least Reuben indicating how serious he is in his commitment that I'm gonna bring Benjamin back just as I would seek out, you know, the safety of the lives of my own sons.

It's not enough for Jacob. He's like, I can't take any more grief. If I lose anything else, if I lose anyone else, I'm just gonna go down to the grave as a, as a sorry man. So he, he says no. He rebuffs. He says we're not going to do this. Nonetheless, Jacob's fears could not stop the reality of famine. And so in chapter 43, verse one, it says, now the famine was still severe in the land. So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go back and buy us a little more food. But Judah said to him, the man warned us solemnly, you'll not see my face again unless your brother is with you. If you'll send our brother along with us, we'll go down and buy food for you.

But if you'll not send him, we will not go down because the man said to us, you'll not see my face again unless your brother is with you. It's just interesting to see here, how Judah really steps up to the front here, kind of in a, as a spokesman. And this is anticipating the role that Judah, the tribe of Judah, is going to play in the life of Israel, as the tribe from which the kings of Israel would come.

This promised line of David. Jacob really wants him to go back to Egypt to get food. But Judah says, hey, the deal is we have to bring Benjamin. There's no getting food unless we bring him with us. So in verse 6, it says Israel, now remember Israel is just an alternative name for Jacob. It's the name that Jacob received from God, means struggling with God.

He says, again, just a very human moment, why did you bring this trouble on me by telling the man you had another brother? And they replied, The man questioned us closely about ourselves and our family. Is your father still living, he asked us. Do you have another brother? We simply answered his questions.

How were we to know he would say, Bring your brother down here. You can kind of empathize with the brothers here. It's like, this is a super random request this guy made of us that we would bring our younger brother. You can't be mad at us that we told him about our family when he was accusing us of being spies.

They couldn't have anticipated this was going to happen. So then Judah again, steps to the front. Verse eight says, then, then Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy along with me and we'll go at once so that we and you and our children may live and not die. I myself will guarantee his safety. You can hold me personally responsible for him if I do not bring him back to you and set him before you.

I'll bear the blame before you all my life. As it is, we had, if we had not delayed, we could have gone and returned twice. So, Judah steps up as a leader and says, I'm going to take on responsibility. I will bear the blame if Benjamin is not brought back. So between Judah's leadership and also I think the reality of the situation, the need of food, and also the fact that with Judah taking on responsibility, maybe that meant something more.

Because Reuben was the firstborn, but Reuben had already betrayed Jacob by cheating with one of Jacob's wives. And also the fact that he was kind of in charge, and on his watch, Joseph got killed. So between Judah kind of stepping to the fore as this new leader in the situation, Jacob concedes. Verse 11 says, then their father Israel said to them, if it must be, then do this.

Put some of the best products of the land in your bags and take them down to the man as a gift, a little balm and a little honey. Some spices and myrrh, some, some pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double the amount of silver with you, for you must return the silver that was put back into the mouth of your sacks.

Perhaps it was a mistake. Take your brother also and go back to the man at once, and may God Almighty grant you mercy before the man so that he will let your other brother and Benjamin come back with you. As for me, if I'm bereaved, I am bereaved. So Jacob says, Listen, we gotta make sure that this guy's gonna be happy when you show up.

Take gifts, bring enough silver so that you can return the silver that he gave you. That was, or that seemed, by some mistake, ended up in your sacks, enough to buy more grain. And then, he basically just is throwing himself, his family, upon God's mercy. So that, this man in Egypt, this man in second command, would allow Simeon and Benjamin to come back.

And he's kind of just resigned himself to whatever will happen. He's just like, if I'm gonna be bereaved, I'm gonna be bereaved.

Standing in the shoes of Jacob and his sons, not knowing what Joseph knows and what we know, we can imagine that we too might feel like everything is going against us. We can imagine reflecting on our past sins, wondering if God is now cursing us for what we did wrong in our lives. As we look at the story, we know that while everything seems to be going against them, God is actually working out everything for the blessings of Jacob and his family.

Joseph trusted God in his hardships, but his family is struggling with the difficulties they are facing. The reality for both is that God has not abandoned them.

We also will sometimes feel forsaken. Like everything is against us. Unless you are dealing with the direct consequences of something you did wrong, though, you should not imagine that God is punishing you because of your past. God gives us grace in Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 verses 17-19a says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come.

The old is gone, the new is here. All this is from God who reconciled to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. If God was interested in holding our sins against us, He wouldn't have ever sent Jesus in the first place.

God sent his son in order that we might receive mercy from him. Jesus knows what it's like to feel alone. He knows what it's like to feel abandoned, like everything is going against you. You can't feel any more rejected than he did when he was hanging on that cross. His comfort was the truth, the reality, that despite his terrible circumstances, the Father was with him.

He tells his disciples in John 16 this, A time is coming, and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone, yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me. I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart.

I have overcome the world. Jesus knew rejection. He knew trouble. But he has overcome. You and I are not promised a trouble free life. Jesus, in fact, assures us that things will be stacked against us. But He is our encouragement. Jesus is our encouragement because He has overcome. And because Jesus has overcome, so shall we.

Our comfort is this truth. So that in Jesus, even against all odds, we can have peace in Him. Let's pray.

Dear Father,

We can empathize so much with the emotional experiences of Jacob and his sons. Not understanding the trouble that they're suffering. Feeling as though rather than being blessed, they're being cursed. Father, we, we admit that there's times in which we do feel forsaken. As though we call out and you're not listening.

Father, our prayer this morning is that you would strengthen our faith. So that we would have confidence that even in the face of trouble, even when it seems like everything is going against us, that we would know that you are working out all things for our good. For the good of those who love you. That we would trust in your promise of blessing because we are now counted among the people of God.

We are counted among the children of Abraham because we have been saved by Jesus Christ.

Help us to proceed in faith to walk in the peace that you give to those who trust in you. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

Even when circumstances seem impossible by the world’s measures, God can move and make incredible things happen.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

   It depends on who you ask. Our study of the natural world deals very much in possibilities and impossibilities. What this or that thing can or cannot do. We learn our limits as human beings and often seek medicines and technologies to exceed those limits. But when we cannot exceed those limits. We say a thing is impossible, is impossible by the laws of nature.

But as Christians, we know that while we do live within the limits of the laws of nature, the author of creation is able to strum those laws to his pleasure and even surpass our natural limitations to accomplish his purpose. George Mueller trusted in God's power. He was confident in God's provision despite all circumstances.

George lived in England during the 1800s doing the work of a pastor, evangelist, and administrating a sprawling orphanage ministry over the course of his life. The thing that was curious about him was that he would not ask for donations to support his work. Instead, he trusted the Lord would provide what was needed.

That trust of his was put to the test on a notable occasion at his orphanage, and the story is told as follows. The children are dressed and ready for school, but there's no food for them to eat, the house mother of the orphanage informed George Mueller. George asked her to take the 300 children into the dining room and have them sit at the tables.

He thanked God for the food and waited. George knew God would provide food for the children as he always did. Within minutes a baker knocked on the door. Mr. Mueller, he said, last night I could not sleep. Somehow I knew that you would need bread this morning. I got up and baked three batches for you. I will bring it in.

Soon there was another knock at the door. It was the milkman. His cart had broken down in front of the orphanage. The milk would spoil by the time the wheel was fixed. He asked George if he could use some free milk. George smiled as the milkman brought in ten large cans of milk. It was just enough for the three hundred thirsty children.

God provides in seemingly impossible circumstances. He makes a way where there seems to be no way forward. And we see this in action in Joseph's life. We have pointed out the paradox of Joseph's life up to this point. He was favored by his father, but betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery. He was favored by his master.

But falsely accused by his master's wife, and so tossed into prison. He seems cursed, and yet he is blessed in the midst of hardship. Behind bars, seemingly as low as one could get, short of death, what hope could he have? What could God possibly do for him beyond being merely a privileged prisoner? We pick up his story in Genesis 40.

Genesis 40 beginning in verse 1. It says, Sometime later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time, each of the two men, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison, had a dream the same night. And each dream had a meaning of its own. When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected.

So, we open up this chapter by learning that Joseph's going to get some company. There's a couple of officials of the Pharaoh who have earned his displeasure and so they're being cast into prison. Now what's interesting here is how it says that the captain of the guard assigns these two to Joseph. Now you remember the captain of the guard is Potiphar.

Potiphar, the man who had previously really favored Joseph until Potiphar's wife made false accusations against him. You'd almost imagine that after all that, that Potiphar wouldn't entrust anything to Joseph, but that's not what we see here. In fact, we see that Potiphar still recognizes something in Joseph and is showing him favor by allowing him to oversee these two newcomers.

Now these positions to, you know, us who are living in the 21st century may not seem important on the surface. What does it mean to be a cup bearer? So he's just the guy that carries a cup around or something? Or even a, a baker. You know, I mean, bakers are important. I mean, I enjoy bread. But, they are the chief, he's the chief baker, so it's like, okay, maybe he's in charge of the kitchen.

But why are these positions so vitally important? The reason is simple. If you wanted to poison Pharaoh, you'd have to pass through those guys. So the cup bearer, holding, presenting the cup to Pharaoh, he's the one who would ensure that no poison had entered that cup, to test the cup, even, to make sure. So, if anything goes sideways, he's the first to fall, and Pharaoh knows that, okay, I'm not drinking from that cup.

And the same thing with the baker. So, these are important positions among Pharaoh's officials. What's interesting is that as these men come into prison, they both experience dreams and Joseph noticed that they seem dejected, and so he inquires with them as to why they're looking so low. Picking up in verse seven, it says, so he asked Pharaoh's officials who were in custody with him and his master's house.

Why do you look so sad today? We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams. So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, and on the vine were three branches.

As soon as it budded, it blossomed, and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and put the cup in his hand. So, the reason why they're so dejected here, we learned, is that there is no one to interpret their dreams. Which is kind of an interesting to think about, thing to think about, because we don't, usually in the West, put so much stock into dreams.

But in Eastern cultures, they do tend to put a lot of stock into dreams. And you'll still find that today. Now, at this time, there was actually professionals in the work of interpreting dreams to whom you would go to ask, okay, what does my dream mean? And they even put together books to offer guidance in the interpretation of dreams.

Now, Joseph is not a professionally trained interpreter of dreams, and he has no access to such a book. His source of authority for interpreting the meanings of their dreams is different. His source of authority is God. He says, do not interpretations belong to God. And it's on that basis that he invites them to tell him about their dreams.

So, picking in verse 12, he offers an interpretation. He says, this is what it means. Speaking to the cup bearer. The three branches are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cup bearer.

But when all goes well with you, remember me, and show me kindness. Mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison. I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here, I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon. So the interpretation that Joseph gives him is that, is one of good news.

Promising that the cupbearer is going to be released from prison. That he's going to be restored to his position. That he's not going to be put to death. Now what he asks of this cupbearer in return is that, simply that he would remember him. That he would mention him to Pharaoh because of the situation that he's in.

He's suffered injustice at the hands of his brothers. That's how he ended up in Egypt in the first place. And he suffered injustice by being imprisoned under a false accusation. And so it's here at this point, we haven't really seen too much of this, up to this point. It's at this point that we see Joseph really expressing his frustration with his circumstances.

He suffered a lot. He suffered a lot of injustice in his life, and yet, he's continuing to trust God. So, we know that both things are possible. It's possible to express your frustration and disappointment when you do suffer injustice, even while you're trusting in God. You don't have to be apathetic about the wrongs that you're, you're dealing with.

Continuing on in verse 16, he turns to offer help to the baker. Baker says, hey, I want my dream interpreted as well. Says, when the chief baker saw that Joseph had given a favorable interpretation, he said to Joseph, I too had a dream. On my head were three baskets of bread. In the top basket were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket in my head.

This is what it means, Joseph said. The three baskets are three days. Within three days Pharaoh will lift off your head, and impale your body on a pole, and the birds will eat away your flesh. So, we see in the case of both the cupbearer and the baker, their fate rests upon three days. And just kind of as a side note here, isn't it interesting how you almost hear an echo of Jesus' three days in the grave here?

History is not repeating itself, you know, very different circumstances. But, there's a bit of a rhyme here, it feels like. Thinking about these three days, in which their fate is being determined. In the one case, in the case of the cupbearer, his head is being lifted up. He's being restored. And kind of using a play on words here, Joseph is saying in the case of the baker, your head's gonna be lifted, but it's gonna be lifted all the way off.

You're gonna get beheaded. So he brings him no good news. And besides that, he's gonna experience the indignity of his body being impaled on a pole, and it being eaten by birds. Very brutal. Joseph's not determining his fate, he's just telling him, this is what's gonna happen to you, and society back then could be quite brutal.

So when we go to verse 20, we see that everything comes to pass just as Joseph predicted. It says Now, the third day was Pharaoh's birthday and he gave a feast for all his officials. He lifted up the heads of the chief cup bearer and the chief baker in the presence of his, of his officials. He restored the chief cup bearer to his position so that he once again put the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he impaled the chief baker, just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation. The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph. He forgot him. So, once again, Joseph is experiencing some frustration. He's like, I did something good for these, for these guys. Maybe the baker didn't really want to know what was going to happen to him.

But he helped out the cupbearer. And yet again, he experiences this wrong, in that the cupbearer forgets him. He's forgotten by him, but Joseph is not forgotten by God. Desperate circumstances arise, that ultimately bring Joseph back to mind, two years later. So we continue on into chapter 41. It says in verse 1, When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream.

He was standing by the Nile, when out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the river bank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows.

Then Pharaoh woke up. So, just to kind of take a pause here in the action here, one basic question that may come to your mind as we're, learning about this Pharaoh is, who was he? When was he living? Well, we don't know the identity of this Pharaoh, and it's not unusual at the time of the writing of this text that they wouldn't have specified the personal name of the Pharaoh.

It would have been sufficient to refer to him as Pharaoh. But based on the genealogies we have in the scriptures, we can estimate that this was probably sometime in the Middle Kingdom. And during the 12th dynasty, so you're talking sometime between around like 1963 BC and 1786 BC, likely in that 1800, period.

There's a whole lot of debate, and it's really interesting if you look online about just looking about the historicity behind that. Behind all this different theories, but there seems like there's pretty solid agreement that it's during this period that this is taking place. Now, the nature of Pharaoh's dream is employing everyday imagery.

Cows. Cows aren't unusual. Cows going into the water to cool off is not unusual. What's unusual is having some fat cows coming out of the water and some thin scraggly cows coming out of the water and the thin cows eating the cows. You don't see cows eating cows every day. so it's a pretty disturbing dream.

I'd probably wake up from a dream like that. Pharaoh woke up and it says that he ends up falling asleep again and having another dream. This, this guy's having a very restless night. So continuing on in verse five, it says he fell asleep again and had a second dream. Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk.

After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted, thin and scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads. Then Pharaoh woke up. It had been a dream. In the morning his mind was troubled, so he sent for all the magicians and wise men of Egypt. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but no one could interpret them for him.

So just looking at some of the imagery here in this second dream that he experienced. You have the east wind, which is a desert wind coming along, and that's why those stalks of wheat aren't doing so great, they're really beaten up. And once again, you have this weird situation, this weird imagery of stalks of wheat consuming other stalks of wheat.

Obviously, you know, some of us, again, as Americans, some of us, if we had a dream like that, we'd be like, I'm not eating burritos again. You'd think maybe I just ate something last night and it just messed, messed me up. But, Pharaoh, especially given his position, and because there's almost like this, the Pharaohs at that time had this self understanding that they had close proximity to the gods.

And they had statues made of themselves. So if Pharaoh has a dream, he thinks it's important. And, in theory, he should be able to interpret it himself. But he himself is unable to understand what this dream is about. And he calls upon all the pros, the magicians, the wise men. No one is able to interpret this dream for him. And so he's sincerely troubled. He's not just merely curious about, you know, what does this dream mean? He's sincerely concerned about what it might hold for him and for his kingdom, and so it's at this point of desperation that his chief cupbearer comes to the rescue. Continuing on in verse nine, it says, then the chief cup bearer said to Pharaoh.

Today, I am reminded of my shortcomings. Pharaoh was once angry with his servants, and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. Now a young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard.

We told him our dreams, and he interpreted them for us, giving each man the interpretation of his dream. And things turned out exactly as he interpreted them to us. I was restored to my position and the other man was impaled. So Joseph is remembered after all this time. And he's sent for, so it says in verse 14.

Pharaoh sent for Joseph. And he was quickly brought from the dungeon. When he had shaved and changed his clothes, he came before Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream, and no one can interpret it. But I have heard it said of you, that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. I cannot do it, Joseph replied to Pharaoh, but God will give Pharaoh the answer that he desires. So they drag Joseph out of the dungeon and here we have a little bit of imagery of something of Joseph's physical appearance. We can imagine that his clothes probably were a bit shabby or not, at least up to court standards.

We also can know that he had a beard, because he had to shave. And it was typical for Semitic peoples to have beards. But it was not typical in the court of Pharaoh for people to have beards. So, I have this picture here that kind of depicts maybe what it looked like. And everyone is very, very clean shaven.

So this is the manner in which Joseph would have come before Pharaoh. And, what's interesting here Is that, as Joseph is sitting before Pharaoh, he has this prime opportunity to set himself up, to get himself out of prison, by really puffing up his image. Pharaoh says, I've heard that you can interpret dreams.

Joseph could have responded by saying, oh yeah, I'm the best interpreter of dreams. Here's my resume, I interpreted those two guys dreams, I got it right, I got you, Pharaoh. It's so interesting, he doesn't reply like that. He says, I cannot do it. And there's like a dramatic pause. He says, I cannot do it. But God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.

So even when Joseph has this opportunity to make much of himself, seemingly to his own benefit, he's continuing to trust God, by giving the glory to God, rather than pointing to himself. Once again, we just see the depth of Joseph's faith and his integrity. So, going on in verses 17 through 21. I'm not going to read this because it's basically just a reiteration of dreams that have already been described, except it's emphasized that the cows were lean and ugly.

And then in verses 22 through 24, the grain dream is also told to Joseph. And, once again, Pharaoh just emphasizes, I haven't been able to get any answers from my magicians. No one can explain these dreams. So, picking up in verse 25, Joseph says to Pharaoh, The dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he's about to do.

The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. It is one and the same dream. The seven lean, ugly cows that came up afterward are seven years, and so are the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind. They are seven years of famine. So once again we see Joseph giving credit to God.

It is God who has chosen the to give you this insight, Pharaoh, by giving you this dream. He's going to show you what he's about to do. It's not that God is punishing Pharaoh, it's that God is giving Pharaoh a warning about what is going to come to pass. He's giving him a heads up. And so, Joseph has explained to Pharaoh, those Seven ugly cows that you saw, those lean ugly cows that you saw, and the seven worthless heads of grain.

Those represent the fact that you're going to have seven years of famine. Now the other seven, the other seven good cows, bring promise of something good. Continuing on in verse 28. So it says, Just as I said to Pharaoh, God has shown Pharaoh what he's about to do. Seven years of great abundance are coming throughout the land of Egypt, but seven years of famine will follow them.

Then all the abundance of Egypt will be forgotten, and the famine will ravish the land. The abundance in the land will not be remembered, because the famine that follows it will be so severe. The reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God, and God will do it soon.

So first, Egypt is going to experience seven years of abundance. Things are going to be great. And then they're going to have seven years of famine. Now we can see how this would be a useful warning. It would be a useful warning under any circumstances. But, if you're going to experience a set of really good years, you might become a little bit careless and think like, the good times are just going to keep on rolling.

And Pharaoh and Egypt, they could have been blindsided by this. And the fact that the dream is presented in two forms, Joseph says, indicates that God's serious. This is going to happen. It's going to happen soon. And so, All this information is given to Pharaoh in order that he might adequately prepare in anticipation of those seven good years and these seven bad years.

And Joseph steps to the front in order to offer some counsel to Pharaoh on how he might prepare. Continuing on verse 33. It says, And now let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh appoint commissioners over the land to take a fifth of the harvest of Egypt during the seven years of abundance.

They should collect all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh to be kept in the cities for food. This food should be held and reserved for the country to be used during the seven years of famine that will come upon Egypt. So that the country may not be ruined by the famine.

So what Joseph's prescribing here is basically storing up reserves, putting essentially a 20 percent tax on the people so they can store up enough of this food. So they're taxing food, not, not money, but you could get money if you sold the food. So he's taking the food that the farmers are producing in order that they would be ready for this famine that's going to come so that they can avoid ruin.

And Pharaoh likes the idea. Picking up in verse 37 it says, The plan seemed good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the Spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you.

You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you. So Joseph has come, he's interpreted these dreams, and he's offered this counsel. And Pharaoh's, like, you've said that I should appoint someone to do these things, but you seem pretty, a pretty good fit for the job, since you just kind of laid out everything that I should do here.

But what's more is that Pharaoh is acknowledging the reality that Joseph testified to. He doesn't just give the credit to Joseph. He doesn't just say, well, you're just this perfectly wise man who has these amazing powers. He says, no. This is, he recognizes that Joseph is one in whom the Spirit of God is present.

The Spirit of God is making all this known to him and giving him this wisdom in order to direct Pharaoh. And so in a way, now we're not suggesting that Pharaoh became devoted to the one true God, but in a way, Pharaoh's recognizing that he needs what God has to offer him through Joseph. And so he puts him in charge of his palace.

He puts him in second command. So it's a huge reversal of of circumstances for Joseph. I think it could be said that testimony characterizes much of Scripture, testifying to what God has done. But I think it especially characterizes this passage. By Joseph's story, we learn of God's power. How he can bring deliverance in impossible circumstances.

Joseph cannot completely comprehend God's purposes at this point. But he has trusted in him all along. And now God has shown that he's not going to disappoint Joseph's trust. It's a wonderful testimony because it has both universal and personal application. Universally, we can appreciate how God is working out all things to redeem a people for himself. He is not letting the world go to hell in a hand basket. Joseph is a piece of the puzzle that leads to Jesus Christ. And when things seem their darkest, when Christ is hanging dead on the cross, God remains present. His hand of salvation is revealed three days later. When Christ's head is lifted, and he is raised from the dead.

And now, the salvation available in Christ is being brought to the ends of the earth. You and I, we, are part of that story. We are not on the sidelines. In your personal circumstances, perhaps you feel you have hit a wall. You feel like you've met the impossible, and there is no moving forward.

All I can urge you is, do not only trust in what your eyes can see. You might not understand what God is doing, but He does. You are part of His plan. You may feel overwhelmed. But he is not overwhelmed. His power remains. Call on his power. Point to him, not yourself. Trust in him to supply what you cannot do on your own.

He will provide. That's what we see in the story of Joseph. Let's pray.

Father,

we are filled with awe at the way in which you work.

We stand in awe, Father, at your power. That you could take Joseph through such this winding path of betrayal and disappointment. To raise him up, Father, to be second in command of Egypt. Father, we pray that you would help us to have the same sort of faith that Joseph had. That rather than relying on our own strengths and pointing to ourselves and making much of ourselves, rather than just believing in ourselves, Father, to try to get ahead in life, that we would trust in you.

That we would trust in your power and provision. And that we would give all glory to you. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

After Joseph is sold into slavery by his brothers, he first prospers and then finds himself in more trouble. But through it all, he holds fast to his faith in God and holds true to his character, and God blesses him for it.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

   Good morning. The scripture reading today is Genesis 39, 1 through 5. Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man.

And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him, and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, and became his personal servant. And he made him overseer of his house, and all that he owned he put in his charge.

It came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and over all that he owned The Lord blessed the Egyptians house on account of Joseph Thus the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned in the house and in the field.

Most kids like Legos, some adults like Legos too. No glue is required, you just stick bricks together, and an endless variety of creations can be brought forth. While there are some true creatives out there who can imagine all the pieces required to bring a certain idea to life, most of us require instructions to bring anything very impressive to life.

Now, I have a creation here that my son built. He built this TIE fighter. Pretty, pretty cool, right? Um, it always impresses me when he puts together these things. I didn't have that kind of patience when I was a kid, to follow the instructions. I was too eager to get to the playing. Um, Now, I don't think it's any knock on him to say that he couldn't have done this without following the directions.

I think he would say the same thing himself. Um, and like I said, I, I know I certainly couldn't. Without following the instruction manual, he wouldn't have experienced the joy of creating a machine that looks just like the spacecraft on television. Without attending to each direction, he, and any of us, would only experience frustration if we tried to take shortcuts.

Now, thankfully, kids are sometimes blessed to have a father, grandfather, uncle, or maybe a mom or aunt as well, who will step in to set things right, ensuring he won't give up, ensuring the creation will, in fact, come to life. I think the process of putting together Lego creations captures some of the dynamics we see in the Old Testament.

Yes, there is a steady hand, the hand of God, working behind all things, so that even evil cannot help but work toward the good that God intends. Nothing stops his plan. Every blessing he promises is firm. But when human beings do walk in his ways, when they follow the instructions, we see that they are especially blessed, even as they walk through valleys. And we see this clearly in Joseph's story. But before we turn to him directly, Genesis gives us a bit of an interlude regarding Judah, who's one of Joseph's brothers, his half brother, and his family. A series of events transpires that will figure into God's redemptive work.

In the text, we find here striking contrasts with what we will see in Joseph's life. Now, there are some kind of like mature themes in this chapter. And so, because we are kind of focused on Joseph really this morning, kind of combined with those two considerations, I'm going to offer you a summary. But I do want to invite you to open up to Genesis 38, as we kind of summarize what transpires there.

So in Genesis 38, we'll look at first verses 1 through 12. We learn that Judah married a Canaanite woman. Now, not exactly great. Not because God is racist. God is not racist at all. But we must remember that God's intention is to form a distinct people. And we also must remember, at this time, ethnicity and religion are very tightly bound together. So by Judah marrying a Canaanite woman, he's inviting foreign religious influences into the life of the family. Now, it doesn't get into all of that in this chapter, but that's just something to keep in mind. Not great. He has three sons named Er, Onan, and Shelah.

Er marries a woman named Tamar, but he is struck dead because of his wickedness. And so the duty expected at this time was that a younger brother would marry the widow, so that the name of his older brother may be carried on into the future. This was the practice known as Levirate marriage. We see instructions about it in Deuteronomy 25.

And so it was just expected that this is what the brothers would do for each other should one of them pass before the other, and before a son could be born that would carry on his name. Now, Onan's not exactly thrilled about this duty. Because, again, it's strange to think about because it's just so foreign to the way that we think about things.

If he was to have a child with Tamar, that child, to their understanding, wouldn't be his. It would be his son's brother. His brother's son, rather. And that son would carry on his brother's name, not his own name. And so, Onan avoids completing his marital duties. Doing that which would be sufficient for Tamar to actually become pregnant. And so, God punishes him with death.

So now, Judah has lost his son, Er, and his son, Onan. And he only has one son left, Shelah. Now he tells Tamar, I will have Shelah marry you. Because this is, again, this is the expectation that this widow is supposed to be taken care of. And So that she would be able to bring forth these children for the older brother.

And this is something that Tamar's desiring for herself. It's not, again, such a foreign concept to us. We would kind of think like, well, you know, maybe she doesn't want to marry any of these brothers. But no, she really does desire a husband herself. And Judah tells her, no, you're, okay, you will wait for Shelah.

I will marry him to you. But instead of actually following through on his word, what Judah does instead is marry his son off to someone else. There's a little bit of fear operating in Judah's mind here, because he's like, Okay, my oldest has married this woman, my second has married her and died. And so he's like, well, I don't want my youngest marrying her.

Now, it had nothing to do with the woman. It had everything to do with the wickedness of these men. But that was Judah's thinking. Well, Tamar, as a result, takes matters into her own hands. And she deceives Judah into believing that she's a shrine prostitute. Now, an idea of shrine prostitute is just something that's also foreign to us.

This would have been a pagan practice where, in order to promote fertility in the land, women at temples would have offered themselves to men. Very wild, very out there, but the practice of that time, and she took advantage of that practice by presenting herself as a shrine prostitute and approaching Judah.

And Judah obliges, and he ends up, ends up that she becomes pregnant with his two sons, Perez and Zerah. Now this becomes significant much later on in the biblical narrative, because when we look at the genealogy of Jesus, we see that he's descendant from Perez so, you think about all the messiness of what's going on here.

Jesus bloodline runs through this, this messiness.

His family line runs through this messiness. Now, eventually, you know, she's, she's concealed her identity. Judah didn't know that this was his, his daughter in law. Um, but he had left with her his staff and also a seal, a kind of a seal that would have been functioning kind of as his signature. Now, when it became obvious that she was pregnant, they were prepared to stone her saying well, that's it, you were supposed to yeah, you you've you've been sleeping around that kind of thing, but then she produces his possessions and this leads Judah to admit in 38:26 that she, Tamar, is more righteous than I since I wouldn't give her to my son Shelah.

Now, this is important because again, Judah is going to be a significant figure moving forward. He ends up becoming the leading, the leading brother. You think about the tribe of Judah from whom David comes from. And of course, Jesus. We have one last little note here in this, in this chapter where it's noted how Zerah initially was the one that was being born and then his, the other brother, the other twin brother, Perez, kind of like pulls him back in and he comes, he emerges first.

And, and so this is just kind of playing into a general theme that we're finding in these chapters of younger brothers emerging above older brothers. And that's relevant in the case of the story of Joseph, because remember, he's had these dreams. He's had these dreams where his brother's sheathes bow before his sheath.

Where the sun, moon, and stars all gather and worship him. Bow before him, that is. Not worship, bow. So now we turn from this troubling episode of Judah and look at what transpires in Joseph's life. Now remember, at this point we're in Egypt, so he's gone from all the way up here, now he finds himself in Egypt. And first, we, we look at verses 1 through 5, which Rena read for us.

You'll recall that the way that he ended up in Egypt was that he was sold, effectively, effectively to the family's cousins, the Ishmaelites. And that he was purchased as a slave by Potiphar, who is a captain of the guard. Pharaoh's captain of the guard, and and he was living as a servant in Potiphar's house.

Now, despite his circumstances, which seem obviously less than ideal, he goes from being a favored son to now he's a servant in somebody's household, he prospers. He enjoys success, favor, so that eventually Potiphar puts him in charge of everything in his household. And the reason that's identified here is found in verse 2. It says, it was that, it was because the Lord was with Joseph. It was because the Lord was with Joseph that he prospered. Now this is a theme that we see running throughout Genesis with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It's because of God's abiding presence that blessing is enjoyed. And not only is Joseph blessed, But in fact, all of Potiphar's household is blessed.

Everything that belongs to Potiphar. And this goes right in line with what God promised in Genesis 12: 3. That others would be blessed through this, through this family.

And so as Potiphar raised him up and blessed Joseph, he just increased further blessing in his household.

This brings to mind uh, what the psalmist writes in Psalm 1, 1 through 3. Blessed is the one who does not walk and step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season, and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever they do prospers.

Now, the thing that's interesting about this is, we think about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They had moments in which they weren't always walking in the ways of the Lord. Or sometimes they went off a little bit. We haven't seen that with Joseph. And in fact, what we're going to see here is that he is in fact walking in the way of righteousness.

He is walking in the ways of the Lord. But it's interesting just to note this paradox. The paradox of enjoying God's blessings. And I think it's a paradox that we all experience in which we can enjoy God's blessings even in less than ideal circumstances. Think about it. These verses are talking about how blessed Joseph is.

But remember, he's still a slave. He's still a servant. But God is still blessing him even in the midst of hardship. And God is ready to do the same for us in our own lives as we're going through hardship. He doesn't promise that He'll take away the hardship. But He will bless us in the midst of the hardships that we go through.

Now, the thing is, is Joseph's enjoying all these blessings and he's thinking, Well, who knows what this is gonna, you know, where this is gonna take me. Things seem to be just getting better and better. Well, eventually some trouble emerges that seems to bring everything kind of crashing in. So looking at verses 6 through 9.

It says, again, just kind of continuing the positive themes here. So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care. With Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Now Joseph was well built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, Come to bed with me.

But he refused. With me in charge, he told her, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?

So, everything's going well for Joseph. He's been put in charge. He's been put in charge. Potiphar trusts him implicitly. But then, an occasion in which Joseph might violate that trust emerges when Potiphar's wife notices, hey, this guy looks pretty good. He's pretty handsome. And in short, she wants to cheat on him.

Cheat on her husband with Joseph. And it's at this point where we just see Joseph's noble character just step right into the spotlight. He says to her, How could I possibly do that? Your husband has trusted everything to me. He's not looking over my shoulder with all the things that I, I do. He's like, no, you take care of it.

It's all good. The one thing that he's withheld from me, and all his goodness has just been you. And then he says this in verse 9. He says, How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? Notice Joseph's insight here. He recognizes that this would not merely just be a sin against his master, who's been, who's been good to him.

He recognizes that this would be a sin against God. And that is the true reality of all sin, is that whatever harm we may cause someone else, ultimately our sin is against God. Because we are failing to be the sorts of people that He created us to be. We are not our own. Our being comes to us because God brought us into existence.

And so we owe all of ourselves to God, and we are to reflect His righteous character. And when we sin, we are depriving God of the life that we should live unto Him. David in Psalm 51 verse 4 recognizes this. He says, Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.

So Joseph has taken this bold stand, he says, No, I'm faithful to your master, I'm faithful to my master, your husband, and I'm going to be faithful to God. And we think, that's great. Should be all set, right? He just, he just took this bold stand. Well, Potiphar's wife is not easily deterred. We read and continue in verses 10- 14.

It says, And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her, or even be with her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, Come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household servants. And continuing on. Says she said to them, Look! This Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us. He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.

She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Then she told him the story. That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I cried for, cried, screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. I think what we've seen these verses here is just a very accurate example of the nature of temptation.

How nice would it be if just temptation only If we only encountered temptation once. And that was it. We took our one stand. We're good. Smooth sailing from here. But that's not how temptation works. You see, the devil is very much interested in seeing you stumble. He's very interested in seeing you not offer your life unto God in the way that you should.

And so, with Potiphar's wife, we see that she came to Joseph again and again, day by day.

What's interesting is to see the way in which Joseph responds to this temptation. We've already heard him articulate the reason why he's not giving into this temptation. What's notable is the actions that he takes here. Notice that it said that he even tried to avoid being with her during the day. He didn't want to be in her presence and have that temptation gnawing at him.

And ultimately, when she found the set of circumstances where she thought, Now I've got him. No one else is in the house. What does he do? How does he respond? Anyone? Yeah. He ran out of the house. He ran away. He fled temptation. He didn't stand there. He didn't say, okay, I'm going to have a debate with you about this.

It's like, listen, there's no persuading this woman. There's no getting, the only way I can get away from this temptation is to run. It's to flee. And his actions line up perfectly with the wisdom of scripture. In Proverbs, and then in Paul's words to Timothy. Proverbs 1: 10, it says, My son, if sinful men entice you, do not give in to them.

You know, be resistant, like Joseph. Proverbs 4, verses 14 through 15, Do not set foot on the path of the wicked, or walk in the way of evildoers. Avoid it. Do not travel on it. Turn from it, and go on your way. And Paul, writing to Timothy, says, Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

You see, sometimes we try to be too tough, I think, when it comes to temptation. We put ourselves in circumstances in which we are inviting failure. The best thing that you can do is, when you can, is to simply flee temptation. The other thing we need to do, though, besides just fleeing temptation is to do what Paul tells Timothy, which is pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.

You can't just avoid that which is bad and expect to succeed. You must pursue that which is good. Ultimately, you know, what's, what's so incredible about, that we see here in the case of Joseph is he doesn't have all the benefits that we now enjoy today. We have been united with Christ. The person of the Holy Spirit dwells within us is making us into new people so that sin no longer holds power over us.

We need to lean into that if we're going to succeed, if we're going to hold off temptation. Without it, if we're putting ourselves in bad circumstances, if we're not feeding ourselves with God's word, we will fail. We will not stand in the day of trial.

Now, Joseph is so committed here that even as she's pleading with him and grabbing on him, he's like, I don't care. I'm out of here. And he leaves his cloak behind. Now we don't know what else is wearing. Maybe, maybe he had to run away naked. Who knows? But he was just, I don't care if I lose my cloak, I'm leaving that.

Well, unfortunately for him, he's like, I'm just trying to be, I'm so desperately obedient. I don't care about the cloak. Well, the cloak ends up producing problems for him. At this point you have to imagine Joseph's just like, I'm, I'm done with clothing wear, man. My, this, this nice coat that my father gave me got me thrown in a pit and sold off to slaves, as a slave.

And now this, this cloak is being used against him to tell a very different story than what transpired. He left his cloak behind because he was so desperate to get out of the situation. Instead, what the tale that Potiphar's wife spins is, well, he was really trying to, you know, tempt me, and he only ran away when I started screaming.

And, you know, he already had his cloak off and stuff, and so that's why I have it here. So terrible.

This puts Potiphar in a very difficult position when he hears this story from his wife. We continue on in verse 19. It says, When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, This is how your slave treated me, he burned with anger. Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.

But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him. He showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.

It's interesting to wonder whether Potiphar truly believed his wife. Some commentators have suggested that he may not have truly believed his wife. It says that he was angry. We wonder, why was he angry? On the surface, it seems like he's just angry at Joseph. And maybe he did believe some of what his wife had said.

But apparently, he, he wasn't. He either didn't believe his wife, to some extent, or he really loved Joseph, despite even what he was told that he tried to do. Because, what we would have expected to happen would have been that he would have had Joseph executed. Joseph is a mere slave in that society. To do something like that, yeah, off with his head.

Instead, he's thrown into prison. He's thrown into prison along with the king's prisoners. So these are more like political prisoners. Guys who've kind of received kind of a softer sentence than off with their heads.

And as he is in prison, once again, verse 21, it says, the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him. And so even in prison, Joseph, he enjoys favor from the warden. And he's put in charge of the other prisoners. And he's enjoying success in prison. So once again, we see this paradox of blessing. God allowing Joseph to go through these terrible trials.

It just keeps like, it seems like it just keeps getting worse for him. In some really, you know, vivid sort of ways. Concrete ways. And yet, every step along the way, the Lord is with him, and he's able to enjoy God's blessing even in those difficult circumstances. Now, it is no surprise that Jacob's family is blessed.

We know what God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He promised to bless them. Very often we've seen how they've been blessed despite their sinful circumstances. In the case of Joseph, we see a striking difference. While his forefathers often reacted impulsively in the face of fearful circumstances Joseph exhibits none of that.

He is courageously righteous. Despite being a slave. Despite being thrown in prison. He is resolute in his faithfulness to God. He is not deterred. He is not swayed. In his example We see a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus was blessed. Jesus was also obedient to the point of death on a cross. He was a man familiar with sorrow and pain, and yet he was also blessed.

Joseph was taken from the favor of his father and cast into prison. But even there, he was met by favor. Jesus Christ, the Beloved Son, was sent by the Father from Heaven to make his bed in a cold tomb. But even the grave could not conceal him from the Father's favor. He arose. We have here in Joseph both example and encouragement.

When temptation calls upon you and I, we are invited to join Joseph's reply. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? We are invited into his passion for obedience. We are likewise encouraged. We are encouraged that blessing will be found. Even in hardship, God will give us everything we need for the journey in a lasting joy that no resort to sin could ever provide.

How can I say this? I can say this because God is with us just as he was with Joseph and he has promised never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. Let us pray.

Dear Father, We do thank you for your faithfulness. And we see your faithfulness again and again in the pages of Scripture as we look at the line of Abraham. As you're working out your redemptive mission, Father. We thank you, Father, for the example that we have in Joseph, who leaned into your abiding presence by responding with faithful obedience.

By doing what was right by fleeing temptation. Father, help us to do the same. Help us to be courageously righteous. Give us the wisdom to flee and avoid temptation when it arises. And Father, give us the strength to stand when we must face it down. Fill us with righteousness, Father, as we devote ourselves to the wisdom of your Word.

Strengthen us, Father, by the work of the Holy Spirit who is making us more and more like Jesus Christ day by day.

Give us comfort, Father, even through our trials, knowing that even when things get very low, that you are with us and that you are bringing us forward from the depths of the grave, the new life, which is ours in Jesus Christ. We give you praise in his name. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)

RCC is doing something NEW! Introducing - Truth Rooted, our affiliate YouTube channel hosted by Pastor Tom Loghry. The purpose of TR is to root RCC (and others!) in the truth of Scripture and in the community of church. The video series we produce will culminate in supper discussions, transforming online conversations into in-person connections.

Our first series is "God + Government", exploring the purpose of government, the extent and limits of its power, and what this all means for us as Christians.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

The story focus shifts to Jacob’s son Joseph. Favored by his father, Joseph is hated by his brothers; he is despised all the more after sharing his dreams depicting him in a position of authority over his family.

.Listen on Spotify

Listen/Download on iTunes

Watch on YouTube

Transcript:

 The reading today is from Genesis 37, 5 through 11. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, Listen to this dream I had. We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field, when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.

His brothers said to him, Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and told it to his brothers. Listen, he said, I had another dream. And this time, the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.

When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I, and your brothers, actually come and bow down to the ground before you? His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

I think there are a few things that human beings despise more than betrayal. If you're a New Englander, if a Red Sox player becomes a Yankee, they're dead to us. A name like Benedict Arnold becomes infamous because of his betrayal of the American Army during the Revolutionary War. He did other things, but he is only remembered for his treachery.

Of course, betrayal also hits much closer to home in our lives. Some of us can tell stories of how a family member or a friend betrayed us. Their act cuts much deeper than if it simply came from a stranger. It appears to be a chronic symptom of human sinfulness. Betrayal is very old and ever new. In the book of Genesis, we see it aplenty.

And we see it especially in the story of Joseph. And so as we turn to Genesis 37, we are turning to really a new segment of the story which will ultimately lead Jacob and his family into the land of Egypt. So looking at chapter 37, beginning in verse 1, the scene is set. It says, Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.

This is the account of Jacob's family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age, and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him, and could not speak a kind word to him. So, we find Jacob's family in the land of Canaan, as promised. They're living there. All seems to be going well, on the surface at least. But, as we see right here from the beginning of this chapter, there's trouble brewing within the family.

Joseph it said, who is at 17 at the time, brings back a bad report about the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah. Now this would have been his brothers Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. Basically kind of tattletales on them. Maybe he wasn't just a situation of tattletailing, though, he may have been put in a kind of supervisory role.

Because after all, it says here that Joseph was Jacob's favorite. And the reason why he was his favorite was because he was born to him in his old age. And it doesn't say this in the text, but we might also suppose it's because he was the firstborn of his most beloved wife, Rachel. And because he loved him so much, he made him an ornate robe, and this has been kind of traditionally described as a, as a coat of many colors.

Now, we don't know if it exactly looked like the rainbow, if it was, but the idea was that it was a very nice coat. And, in fact, wearing such a coat may have signaled at that time, a person occupying sort of a managerial sort of role. Almost like you think about someone wearing a suit jacket. It's nice. And in relation to his brothers, getting this nice jacket, he's kind of being identified as an important one amongst all of them.

And the brothers take notice. They notice, and you've got to consider, because Joseph was born later on, when his father was older, that means all these other brothers, most of them are older than him, if not all of them are older than him. And, so they hate him because of that. They hate him because they can see that this younger brother is usurping their own position in relation to their father.

And so they can't speak any nice word about him. And so, you have that as kind of just the baseline. They don't like Joseph because Jacob is showing favor towards him. But then things get worse. We turn to verses 5 through 11, as John read for us. Joseph has some dreams. He has some dreams first about some sheaves of grain. Now, we don't necessarily live in an agricultural society any longer, so some of you might be wondering, what is a sheaf of grain? Well, you imagine you have stalks of grain. You've got to take those stalks and then you bind them together. So you kind of have this, all this wheat gathered together, standing up. Well, Joseph had this dream that he had all these sheaves.

His sheaf stood upright, all the sheaves of his brother bowed before his sheave. And the meaning is pretty transparent. You don't have to be a, I don't know if rocket scientist is the right word, but you don't have to have any deep insight to be able to try to discern the meaning of this dream. His brothers understand it.

He says in, they say in verse 8, Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us? And so because of that, they hate him all the more because of his dream and what he said. Now, he also has another dream. And this dream, it identifies the sun, moon, and 11 stars bowing down to him. Now this is basically just the whole family bowing down to him.

His father, his mother. Now it's interesting to think, you know, who the mother is here. Was it Rachel? Rachel had already passed away at this point. Perhaps it was Leah. Perhaps it was Bilhah, because Bilhah was Rachel's handmaiden. It's difficult to know, but in any case, the significance is, is the whole family is bowing down before Joseph.

Now, this makes the brothers all the more angry, jealous. And the reason why they're responding this way, rather than just being like, That's weird, is because Joseph is not telling them these dreams as though it's just a funny story. You know, we have weird dreams sometimes. You know, I had this crazy dream last night, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You know, isn't that nuts? When people had dreams in this time, they took it seriously as kind of foretelling something that might transpire. And even to this day in the Near East people take dreams very seriously. It's been the case that many Muslims have actually come to Christ through dream encounters with him.

That's been a big part in their conversion. So we have to just understand that we're much different people than they are when it comes to dreams. We think it's like, I ate a bad burrito last night. For them, like, this, this means something. And so Joseph is staking a claim out there. Now Jacob, when he hears, especially the second dream, about him and his, and Joseph's mother bowing before him, he's not really amused by it.

But, it says that he kept the matter in mind. So he does think to himself, there might be something to this. And it kind of recalls for us, the idea of how when Mary was told that, how she treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. It's kind of this idea of he, he knows there's something here, even if, on the surface, Jacob's like, I don't really, I don't, I don't really like your tone, young man.

That kind, that kind of thing. Now these details help us understand what follows. The brothers dislike Joseph, Jacob favors him, and now circumstances will come together bringing a conflict to a head. So looking at verses 12 through 17. Now his brothers had gone to graze their flocks near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, As you know, your brothers are grazing the flocks near Shechem.

Come, I am going to send you to them. Very well, he replied, so he said to him, go and see if all is well with your brothers and with the flocks and bring word back to me. Then he sent him off from the valley of Hebron. When Joseph arrived at Shechem, a man found him wandering around in the fields and asked him, what are you looking for?

He replied, I'm looking for my brothers, can you tell me where they are grazing their flocks? They have moved on from here, the man answered. I heard them say, let's go to Dothan. So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. So just to kind of orient you to the landscape here, we've got a map.

I know you can't see it, so I'm going to zoom in in a second. This is the area we're working with. You can see the red lines. That's basically identifying the route that Joseph's journey here is going to take. Hebron, you'll see, is right down here, kind of the starting place of that red line. It's just to the west of the Dead Sea, Salt Sea.

And he's heading up to Shechem. Now remember, they had lived near Shechem before, so, and this is an, this is a family that tends to flocks. And so they gotta go where good grazing is. So, he's quite a far away from home. It's about four or five days walking journey. So he's far away from his father.

He's gone up to Shechem to try to find his brothers but he can't find them. And so he's redirected by a man that he meets out there to Dothan. He says, I heard your brothers were going up to Dothan. So that's even further up north. So, as he heads to Dothan, his brothers are able to see him coming in the distance.

So continuing on, start picking up in verse 18. It says, But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Here comes that dreamer, they said to each other. Come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him.

Then we'll see what comes of his dreams. When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue him from their hands. Let's not take his life, he said. Don't shed any blood. Throw him into the cistern here in the wilderness, but don't lay a hand on him. Reuben said this to rescue him from them and take him back to his father.

So now at this point we really truly appreciate how deep their hatred for Joseph runs. It's gone so far that they are ready to murder him. And we do know that there's some violent impulses among the brothers. We remember what Simeon and Levi did to the men of Shechem when they violated their sister Dinah.

So we know that there's some violent tendencies here, but it is shocking to see that they're ready to commit such violence against their own blood, their brother. And this just reminds us what envy does to a person, when we're jealous of people. It, in Proverbs, it says in Proverbs 14: 30, it says, A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.

When we despise what someone has, that we're lacking, and we want what they have, and in this case, they want the favor that Joseph's enjoying from Jacob, it does us no good. It just rots on the inside. And it turns us into ugly people on the inside. And it's because of that envy that's built up within them that they have such malice for their brother.

And so they conspire, we're going to kill him. We're going to kill him, and we're going to throw him in a cistern, and then we'll just make it seem like an animal got to him. So it's just important to understand exactly what they're prescribing here. First, we're going to kill him, we're going to throw him in a cistern, and then we're going to cover up.

Now, if you're wondering what a, what a cistern is, In those times, they would take, they might either dig out an area that was, had a deposit of limestone, they'd dig it out so that it could collect rainwater, because water was a important commodity so, they might dig it out, they might plaster a hole in the ground in order for it to collect water.

At this time in the year, the hole is empty, so they're not throwing them into a thing of water. It might be muddy. It's interesting in Jeremiah, we see how the prophet Jeremiah was also thrown into a, a cistern and it says it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud, so it may not have been a very, I mean we can be assured it wasn't a nice place to be put, to be put into.

It wouldn't have mattered for Joseph though, because he would have been dead, so he would've been none the wiser. But, Reuben intervenes. Now remember, Reuben is the firstborn of the family. He's supposed to be kind of the responsible one, the one who's overseeing his brothers. Now, you'll recall though, that Reuben's kind of put him, put himself in a bad place with his dad because he slept with one of his wives.

And so, he knows that Joseph is Jacob's favorite son. So he may be thinking to himself a couple of things. One, he's the responsible one, so if he doesn't spare Joseph here, it'll just get worse for him. His father would be like, what were you doing, kind of thing. On the other hand, too, he may think, if I'm able to deliver Joseph back to my father, it may get me back into his good graces.

Of course, he could also just have genuine concern, but I think it is important for us to have a realistic look at the motivations that could be coming into play here. And so he suggests, let's not kill him. Let's not get blood on our hands. Let's just put him in the cistern. Now that's not great either, because his idea is that he's going to go back and get him later, but he doesn't tell that to his brothers.

So instead of just killing Joseph outright, they said, well, let's just put him in the cistern and let him suffer and I guess eventually die. But they go for it. They say, all right, we'll do that. So with that plan in place, they fall upon Joseph once he arrives at their camp. Picking up in verse 23. It says, So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the ornate robe he was wearing.

And they took him and threw him into the cistern. The cistern was empty. There was no water in it. As they sat down to eat their meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were loaded with spices, balm, and myrrh, and they were on their way to take them down to Egypt.

Judah said to his brothers, What will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? Sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay our hands on him. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. His brothers agreed. So when the Midianite merchants came by, his brothers pulled Joseph up out of the cistern and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

So, this awesome jacket that Joseph has, stripped off him, he's thrown into the cistern, and just to see the callousness of his brothers, you can imagine Joseph, he's down in the cistern, he's probably, yelling, let me out, you know, and they're just there. Yeah, we're going to eat lunch. Meanwhile, Joseph's in despair.

And then they see this caravan coming along, this Ishmaelite caravan. Now it's interesting because later on in verse 28, it calls them Midianite merchants. So there, it seems as though the terms are kind of interchangeable here. And we see that actually in Judges 8 the terms used kind of interchangebly. Now, the significance of this, if you recall, is that Ishmael is a son of Abraham.

Now, Midian is a son of Keturah, who is also a wife of Abraham later on. So, what we're talking about here is basically distant relatives, cousins. Their cousins are coming toward them in this caravan, and an idea occurs to Judah. Now, Reuben's the oldest, so Judah's not the oldest. But Judah is going to be kind of a rising brother here in Genesis.

Because it's anticipating everything that's going to transpire, ultimately later on, where you'll have Judah as the one promise, as the one whom this king will come. David, and then ultimately Jesus, because Jesus is of the tribe of Judah. Now, this does not mean that Judah is perfect, and we see just how, how much of a mixed bag he is here.

He says, you know, what do we gain from killing him? Well, obviously, nothing. All they do is, they, they gain guilt, because they've shed their brother's blood. And so his proposal is, let's avoid guilt, technically, by selling him to some, you know, slave traders. Because whatever happens to him then, well, we can't be blamed for that.

And, plus as a bonus, we'll get a little bit of money in exchange for selling out our brother. And so, that's what they do. They sell Joseph as a slave to this Ishmaelite caravan for 20 shekels of silver. Which is a decent amount of money, it's two years wages, likely for a shepherd at that time, but, I mean, split among all the brothers, it's not a ton of money.

And, so they take Joseph. And where he's going to be heading is along this route. And this is a, just a common trade route that will ultimately lead him to Egypt. Now, during this time, the oldest, oldest brother, Reuben, has been away. This isn't that unusual. He may have been dealing with some flock or, you know, away from their base camp.

So he didn't realize all this was going down. So turning to verse 29, we find his response when he discovers what his brothers did. It says, When Reuben returned to the cistern and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes. He went back to his brothers and said, The boy isn't there. Where can I turn now?

Then they got Joseph's robe, slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. They took the ornate robe back to their father and said, We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son's robe. He recognized it and said, It is my son's robe. Some ferocious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces.

Then Jacob tore his clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourned for his son many days. All his sons and daughters came to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. No, he said, I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave. So his father wept for him. Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard.

So, between Reuben's response and Jacob's response, we see kind of a very typical response of grief at that time, which is tearing one's clothes, which is no small thing because we have tons of clothes in our closet these days, but it took a lot of effort to make clothes at that time. So it's a, it's a pretty profound signal of grief that you're gonna tear some clothes that are probably fairly valuable.

And Reuben is grieving. Perhaps for, for Joseph, but if not for Joseph, probably again for himself, maybe feeling a sense of responsibility or a lost opportunity to get back in the good graces of his father, and they proceed with their original plan of saying, making it a cover up that Joseph was killed by a wild animal. They slaughtered a goat. The utility of them taking his robe was this is obviously Joseph's robe. It's not just, his father couldn't have been like, well, you know, maybe it was some, you know, stranger's robe. Nope. He knows that this is Joseph's robe. They dip it in blood and they deceive Jacob.

Now isn't this interesting about how all things come back around. Remember Jacob's own deception of his father, Isaac and securing the blessing from his father. And now he himself is being deceived by his own sons. It's the terrible cycle of sin that we see here. And he's inconsolable. Tears his clothes.

He has sackcloth on, which is not comfortable clothing. And he declares, I will continue to mourn until I join my son in the grave. Now, we don't see how the brothers respond to all of this, they did try to, it says that they tried to comfort him. Later on it, it does seem like perhaps they might have had some regrets after, after doing this, just seeing the way that he responded, maybe they didn't expect that he would respond quite like this. And as for Joseph, at the end of this chapter, we do have this little hint that his story's not over. We're going to pick it up, back up, and we're going to pick it back up in Egypt because he is sold there to Potiphar, who is one of Pharaoh's officials, who's the captain of the guard.

Now, as far as Joseph's brothers were concerned, he was as good as dead. There was no coming back from this. They were never going to see him again. But something much bigger than they could imagine was afoot. Many years before, the Lord told their grandfather, Abraham, that his descendants would be enslaved in a country not their own.

Genesis 15, verses 13 through 14, the Lord told Abraham, Know for certain that for four hundred years, your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.

Little did they realize it, but God was wielding their treachery to accomplish his promised word. That the family would, in fact, leave Canaan. And what's more, that Joseph's dream would come to pass. The betrayal of Joseph brings to mind the betrayal of Jesus. Joseph was sold for 20 shekels of silver.

Judas sold Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. Joseph was rejected by his own brothers. Jesus came to his own and his own did not receive him. Jesus was the light to come into the world, but people love darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Before we sit in pride condemning Joseph's brothers, condemning those who have betrayed us, condemning those who rejected and crucified Christ, we should acknowledge our own acts of betrayal. If anything, who among us has not betrayed God? In fact, before we come to Christ, we are all active traitors, in league with the demonic horde opposing God. Even so, God acts to save us. Paul states it plainly in Romans 5, 6 through 8. He says, You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly.

Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this. While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Joseph's story is an excellent mirror. It reminds us of the wretchedness of human sin. It also reminds us of God's firm purpose and plan.

Joseph's family would indeed bow before him. And every knee will indeed bow before Jesus Christ. As Paul tells us in Philippians 2, 9 through 11, Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Let us pray.

Father. Your word this morning relates to us the condition of the human heart. Of how much we are given to envy one another. So much so that we would even betray those that are our own siblings, our own family.

What we see in this story, Father, is just that. It's the great need for your intervention, your intervention to redeem humanity. And what's so wonderful, Father, is that we see that even in the midst of the terrible corruption and brokenness that we see here, we also see your hand at work bringing about that very salvation.

Father. We confess our own acts of betrayal. We confess all the ways that we've gone astray. But Father, we also trust that no amount of evil is able to foil your plan. And so, Father, we leave behind our past, our past as traitors. And look to you to walk in accordance with your will. Help us to do so, Father, in the power of the Holy Spirit.

In the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray. Amen.

Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from the Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us in person or virtually this Sunday as we continue our series entitled Israel Arises. It's our joy to welcome you into our community.

Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)