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and try to put yourself into those characters and see what they're thinking. It's a great story. So I hope to do it justice here tonight. And we're gonna look at the first half of Genesis 42 because there's a lot to cover here. And starting at verse number one, and let me just give you where we've at. Basically, we saw in the last chapter how Pharaoh had this dream and Joseph is pulled out of prison to basically interpret the dream. And Joseph interprets the dream. He gets put into power. He's the second most powerful man now. And he said, there's gonna be seven years of plenty followed by seven years. Jacob said unto his sons, why do ye look one upon another? And he said, behold, I have heard that there was corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. Now there's a relatively similar story in the Bible. Go to 2 Kings 7, 2 Kings 7. When I read Genesis 42, this reminds me of 2 Kings 7. And in 2 Kings 7, you have the Syrians are the enemy of God's people here in 2 Kings 7. And notice what we see here in 2 Kings 7, verse one. Then Elisha said, hear ye the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, tomorrow about this time shall a measure of fine flour be sold for a shekel and two measures of broccoli for a shekel in the gate of Samaria. Then a Lord on whose hand the King leaned answered the man of God and said, behold, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, be, and he said, behold, thou shall see with an eye, shall not eat thereof. And you know, basically they're in a difficult situation. They're lacking food. And then Elisha is saying, there's gonna be a miracle where basically tomorrow it's gonna be, you know, you're gonna be able to buy. It's gonna be perfectly fine. And then a Lord on his hand, the King leans. So this comes from here in 2 Kings 7. Notice what it says in verse three. And there are four leprous men at the entering end of the gate. And they said one to another, why sit we here until we die? And so these four men that are lepers are sitting there and they're basically saying, you know what? If we go in to try to get food based on the knowledge that we have, we're just gonna be captured by the Syrians. We're gonna be destroyed. And of course, when you have a fearful situation, you're not gonna wanna do that. But they're saying, hey, you know what? We're gonna starve to death. So we might as well just do it, right? Why sit we here until we die? We're just gonna sit here and starve to death so that they can die and see what happens. Verse four, if they will enter into the city, then the famine is in the city and we shall die there. And if we sit here, sit still here, we die also. Now therefore come and let us fall onto the host of the Syrians. If they save us alive, we shall live. And if they kill us, we shall but die. And in the story, imagine if the only country in the world that had food right now was China. I mean, do you really wanna just immediately go to China to get food? You're probably gonna try to figure it out on your own for a while because you know what? If you're like me, you probably don't fully trust going to that country, right? It probably wouldn't be the safest thing. And you know what? Traveling during this time period would have been very dangerous. And so it's basically a last resort where it's like, we don't wanna go there to get food. We wanna figure it out on our own, but the famine's not ending. And it's like, you know what? Why sit in here until we die? We're just gonna go forward and see what happens. Go back to Genesis 42, Genesis 42. This is what you call desperation. There is no other option, right? You have to go to, verse three. And Joseph's 10 brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, turned out with his brethren for he said, lest for adventure mischief befall him. Now in the Bible, when you're seeing the word mischief, it's always associated with death. And so, I know in America, there's sort of a phrase where it's like, oh, someone's a mischievous person. And it's just saying, he understands there could be danger. Now the distance they're said to have traveled is 400 kilometers. That's a long distance. And I read something else that said it would have been at least a 10 day journey. Well, kilometers, it's gonna take more than 10 days. All right, that's a long distance to travel back then. I mean, that would take long enough just in a car. It's gonna be like a full day trip or more, right? And so, this is a long distance that they're going and it's absolutely out of desperation. Whenever you're going on a long trip, there's gonna be problems along the way. We have modern conveniences where it's kind of hard to understand how dangerous this would be. Obviously, Jacob understands it's very dangerous. He doesn't. Benjamin is the youngest. The other thing is Benjamin is the only full-blooded brother of Joseph. And of course, he still has this longing for Joseph who he assumes to be dead. And he would not wanna lose Benjamin as that's sort of like the last remnant of Rachel, his wife that has already died. So, he does not send Benjamin heading to Egypt to buy. This is what everybody's doing. It's a desperation thing. Now, I don't believe that everybody would have been capable of going to Egypt to buy corn. And there'd probably be a lot of neighbors saying, hey, you know what? If you do this for me, then we'll give you a percentage of whatever because for health reasons, they can't travel. I mean, it's a desperation time, but Joseph's job is to actually sell to the people, the land. He is involved in doing this. Now, turn to Genesis 47. Genesis 47. Now, it seems to indicate when you're reading this about Joseph here in this chapter and other places that Joseph is very involved in the work of selling the food. And you know what? I think that's a good thing because you have the Egyptians as share of the profits since it was their food to begin with. However, it would not be wrong to sell to another country. It's just the fact that he took the food from the Egyptians and then he's selling it back to them. Now, if he's selling to other people, that's fine as long as you give some of the profits, this food you took to begin. But this is what I was talking about last week in Genesis 47 verse 13. It says, and there was no bread in all the land for the family was very sore. So the land of Egypt and all the land of Canaan fainted by reason of the famine. The land of Egypt is prepared, but even they are fainting. Let us find peace in the sight of my Lord and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And they're willingly saying they're gonna be the servants of Pharaoh. It's like they took your food and now you're thanking the government when they stole from you and bankrupted you and they made you slaves as a result. And then they're thanking you. It's funny because they're destroying us. I mean, taxes are so common today that we think that's normal. Actually, that's wrong. I mean, the amount of taxes they take in the modern day from pretty much any country is what they'll do to do governmental programs. It's ridiculous. And the government's not harming the people. That's not the intent, the original intent of the government. And yet these Egyptians are saying now it's saved our lives. And it's like, what is wrong with you? They didn't save your life. They sold you into slavery by taking your food and yet they're thanking the government. It doesn't make sense. We'll talk about Genesis 42 verse six. And Joseph was a governor over the land and he wasn't sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. Now, a lot of time has gone by since he last saw his brothers, since he was sold into slavery himself. You say, how much time has gone by? So back to chapter 37, chapter 37. Chapter 37 verse two, chapter 37 verse two. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old, but in the lattice with the sons of Billa and with the sons of Zobel, father's wives. And Joseph brought him to his father, their evil report. And you know, Genesis chapter 37, you start to see all this stuff take place and he's the age of 17. So he's roughly, you know, an old teenager, right? At this point, you know, a little bit of time is gonna go by, but all the land of Egypt. And so Joseph stands before Pharaoh, which we saw last week at the age of 30. At that point, roughly 13 years go by. What he says is there's gonna be seven years of plenty. So add another seven years on. They're not begging for bread during seven years of plenty. You got 13 years. You've got, he is, his brothers don't recognize him. He recognizes his brothers. Now, this makes sense in a lot of ways than all of his brothers. Here's the thing. You're gonna change more from the age of 17 to 37 than you would from 25 to 45, because you know what? You grow up from 17 to, you know, your early 20s, you probably fill out. You probably build some strength and things like that. And so when I was 17, you don't, I didn't even have a full beard. It's, you know, like patchy is generally when you first start growing facial hair. But as you get older, then it fully fills out. And so if I went a couple of weeks without shaving, you know, I'd be scratching like crazy because it'd be long. And here's the thing. I don't know for sure whether Joseph had a beard, but I would say most likely he probably did. I'd say in general, people during that time period probably did have beards. And so at the age of 17, he probably doesn't have a beard. Well, if you're 17 years old, and then all of a sudden you're 20 years later and you got a beard covering your face, it's gonna make you hard to recognize, especially when they're not expecting to see you. Right now, I will say this. I looked this up online, and supposedly in the culture in Egypt in ancient history, they were usually clean-shaven. Joseph might've kept his roots of his ethnicity and said, well, I'm not really an Egyptian. He might've looked different. This is my guess. I don't know this for sure. But that's one reason why maybe he wasn't recognizable. It makes perfect sense so that he would recognize his 10 brothers because you know what, there's 10 of them, right? I mean, so he knew them, but made himself strange onto them and spake roughly onto them. And so what he's doing is, you know, probably making sure his accent doesn't sound like it did or trying to, you know, talk differently. He's trying to make it himself unrecognizable, which probably they wouldn't recognize him anyway. When he spake roughly onto them, he was a bit, probably, bastos to them, a bit rude, a bit sharp in his words is what we're seeing. And he said unto them, whence cometh the land of Canaan? And they said, from the land of Canaan to Bibles. And you know what, he asked this question, very basic question, where did you come from? That question makes sense. And then it says in verse eight, and Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. Now, we're gonna see this as the chapters develop. So I don't wanna just give out, I mean, I don't believe there's indication he initially forgives them. Now, here's the thing, when Joseph was in prison in the earlier chapters, he isn't holding any bitterness. But just think about in events in life, you can forget about something and forgive, but when something brings something back to your memory, all of a sudden, it's, you know, that bitterness can come back, that anger can come back. And the thing is, you don't see an indication that he just immediately forgives them. In fact, it seems like he doesn't wanna see them. The one person he really wants to see, why? Well, Benjamin is his brother. Benjamin didn't sell him into slavery. I mean, that makes sense. And when we develop the story, he wants to see Benjamin, he loves Benjamin, doesn't seem to wanna see his 10 brothers. Not only that, but he doesn't really seem to fully wanna see talks about his father, but he seems to be kind of in between on his father, Jacob. When you're reading this, he doesn't just immediately be like, man, it's my brothers, can't wait to see you. You say, why? He's not happy with them. Blame Joseph. I wouldn't handle it better than he did. I don't think that you can read this and think that Joseph handles it perfectly because he does not just instantly forgive his brothers when you read this chapter. Verse nine, and Joseph, from Genesis 37. Genesis 37, verse six. And he said unto them, here I pray you this dream which I have dreamed, for behold, we were abiding sheaves in the field and lo, my sheep arose and also stood upright and behold, your sheep stood round about and made obeisance to my sheep. And his brethren said to him, shalt thou indeed reign over us or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. So they're already mad at him because he's the favorite brother. Now they're getting mad at him and hating him because of the words that he said. I mean, they mocked these dreams. They laughed at him for this because remember when they sell them into slavery, they're mocking him like, oh, let's see, you know, his dreams coming forth. I mean, they're mocking him. If I was Joseph, we're mocking these dreams, I would be thinking, well, here you are right now, bowing before me, right? And Joseph does not have that reaction, right? He's not like being rude to them or he doesn't mock them, you don't see this. He just doesn't immediately forgive them though. Verse number nine, and he dreamed yet he told it to his father and to his brethren and his father rebuked him and said unto him, what is this dream that thou has dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth? And so Joseph remembers these dreams and he remembers, you know what, this is what is prophesied. Now go to Esther chapter four, Esther four. Now several chapters from now, what Joseph does fully forgive his brothers, cause there's no doubt he fully forgives them. And he has no resentment and no bitterness eventually. When he fully forgives them, he says that, you know what? God put me in this position, but he's not there yet in Genesis 42. He's not at that point where he's basically fully forgiving them. I mean, he's not happy with them. Now Esther chapter four is kind of a similar story because notice what it says in verse 12. And they told him Mordecai Esther's words. Then Mordecai commanded the answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. For thou all altogether holdest thy peace at this time. Then shall their enlargement and deliverance rise to the Jews from another place. For thou and thy father's house shall be destroyed. And who know it whether thou art come to the kingdom for such a time as this. Anyway, what Mordecai says to Esther, because Esther's in a situation she doesn't want to be in. She's the one who can actually help them. Her life is the one that's at stake. I mean, she's married to the king. This isn't something that she wants. And then Mordecai is like, maybe God puts you into this position for such a time as this, right? And he says, you know what? That if you're not going to help out, deliverance is going to come from somewhere else because God's not going to allow his people to be fully wiped out by a wicked person. But he's saying, you know what? God puts you in this position. And sometimes in life, we might be in difficult situations, be in positions we don't want to be, but we should take the attitude, maybe God put me in this position for such a time as this. With Joseph, obviously he didn't want this to take place, but why was he in Egypt? Why did he go into slavery? Why did he go to prison for such a time as this? Go to Romans 8. Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. Look, I doubt any of us are going to have the miserable situations happen to us like happened in Joseph, right? But what I'm saying is that if you're right with God, if you have not done, we're not talking about a situation of somebody getting addicted to drugs and then their wife leaves them and their kids don't want to have anything to do with them. And it's like, well, God has just led me all this way. I mean, have you heard people talk like that? Where they destroy their lives and they say, God just led me down this path. It's like, no, you chose to be a drunker. You chose to do drugs. You can't blame God for your life being messed up when it's your fault. But here's the thing, if you're right with God and you haven't done anything to cause certain things, realize God might've brought you there for a reason. Bible says here in Romans 8 verse 28, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. There is no doubt that Joseph is a man that loves God. Joseph is a man that's trying to serve God. Joseph is a man with great character, right? We've seen that. He's not perfect. We do see him making some mistakes, but he is a man with great character. And here's the thing, if you love God and you're doing right, and it's not your fault why things are happening, it's not his fault he was sold into slavery. It's not his fault that Potiphar's wife lied about it. Those things aren't his fault. Then you can take it in your mind, you know what? This is for God's purpose. And all things are gonna work together for good to fulfill God's purpose. Go back to Genesis 42. Genesis 42. Hey look, if your life hits a rough patch and it's because it's your fault, you need to take responsibility and get right with God. But what I'm saying is if your life hits a rough patch and it's not your fault, you haven't done anything wrong, right? Obviously we're all sinners, but I'm saying you don't have some major sin. I mean, you're reading the Bible, you're going to church, you're trying to live a clean life. And then all of a sudden you hit some major problems in life. Maybe you have a big health problem, right? Or maybe you have a big financial problem, right? Or maybe you don't want to be in. You have to realize that, you know, God is gonna provide your needs, number one, but God is allowing you to go through certain things. And maybe it is to test your patience, to help you build character, or maybe on a level like Joseph, he's there to do some greater good. But realize there is a purpose, you know, Joseph is putting his brothers to the test. I don't believe that to really be the case, to be honest. I believe God is putting his brothers to the test. Joseph, I don't really think he fully understands what he's doing because he kind of is emotionally going back and forth if you pay attention, like he's not really sure. Eventually he forgives. Obviously he was not expecting to see his brothers. And the first thing he says is, you're spies, right? He's like, you know, you're just here to spy on the land. I don't think he really believes that. I think he's just saying something out of emotion. I don't think he really knows, you know, what he's gonna say. It's kind of like if you're put in a really difficult position out of nowhere, you never really know what's gonna come out, right? You know, and so for Joseph, he says, you're spies to see the nakedness of the land, you're come. Of course he doesn't believe his brothers are spies, but that's just, you know, what he says. Verse 10, and they said unto him, nay, my Lord, but to buy food or thy servants come. We are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spots. And I'm sure Joseph is thinking, you're true men? You're honest men? Really? Because that's not really my experience. He doesn't say this. I mean, the Bible says that he's seen by an interpreter, you know, during this time as well, we see in these chapters. But here's the thing. It's just like, I would be thinking, you sold me into slavery. Then you obviously lied to our dad about what took place in your true men, right? It's just like, you know what? Verse 12, and he said unto them, nay, but to see the nakedness of the land, you're come. And look, once again, he knows that's not the case. This is what he says. And they said, thy servants are 12 brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, behold, the youngest is this day with our father, referring to Benjamin, and one is not. Referring to Joseph, right? I mean, this is a story that, you know, is not, and what they're implying is that, you know, Joseph is dead, but of course they don't really know that. They sold him into slavery. They actually probably wouldn't think that he is dead. He probably got sold into slavery and one wasn't dead, right? But they say one is not. They're not really being 100% truthful in this situation. Verse 14, and Joseph said unto them, that is it that I spake unto you, saying, ye are spies. Hereby, ye shall be proved, meaning ye should be tested. By the life of Pharaoh, ye shall not go. Benjamin's gonna be stuck with him, and all the other brothers are gonna be gone. He wants Benjamin, right? He's not really forgiving his brothers. He wants to see his brother, Benjamin. Send one of you and let him fetch your brother, and ye should be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether there be any truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely ye are spies. And he put them all together in a ward, three days, and Joseph said unto them the third day, this do and live, for I fear God. This is a very interesting statement that Joseph makes, where he says, I fear God. If you're to ask the average person in this world today, in this country, do you love God? Most are gonna say yes, right? Do you love God? They're gonna say yes. If you ask them, do you fear God? Most are probably gonna say no. Why would I fear God? God's my friend, right? I mean, most people probably wouldn't say that they fear God. Now, they should. I mean, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. I mean, even if, you know, if you are that healthy fear and respect to God, God Almighty, and what he can do to you, right? Joseph makes a statement, I fear God, and this is someone who's living in Egypt, making this statement, I fear God. Look, the Egyptians didn't fear God. And it says, they were not afraid of their gods, not most of them anyway. In most ancient civilizations, if you whacked a statue of a god with a reed or anything really, you'd be very afraid of nasty repercussions from the gods. So according to this, they practiced idolatry, but if they accidentally broke one of the arms of the idol, they didn't worry, oh no, now God's gonna take off my arm. Other cultures did believe that. If you accidentally knocked off the arm of an idol, wow, you're gonna lose an arm, right? But they didn't believe that in Egypt. What it says is the ancient Egyptians believed the gods were on their side, whether their wish was granted or not. So basically, just do whatever you want, and God loves you, and it was a very loving and benevolent gods that they worship, is what it says. Most people in ancient Egypt were afraid of one particular god, the god Ammon. Ammon was a god with a crocodile head. Now, wrong name on the god, because I saw the name of the god, was it started with an S, like Saboch or something like that, I can't remember, but the one god they feared was the crocodile-headed god. Now, the reason why they feared the crocodile-headed god is because the Nile River, and so because a lot of people were being killed by crocodiles, the reaction of an idolatrous country is, well, we've gotta worship a crocodile god, and then I will not get eaten by a crocodile in the river. And if somebody gets eaten by a crocodile in the river, it's because they weren't worshiping the crocodile god, and that's the one god they feared because crocodiles were very dangerous there. It's very interesting, it's kind of like trying to understand the Indians or ancient Egypt, the Greek civilization, the way they view their idols and their gods and all of these things, it's very bizarre, right? Now, so in general, what I'm showing you, though, is Egypt did not fear their gods. Joseph makes it very clear that he believes in one god in verse 18, and he says, I fear God. That is an interesting statement because that is not what the average Egyptian would say. They wouldn't fear their gods, and they wouldn't say God's singular. He says, I fear God, right? So he's making a statement of his religious beliefs. He's not really hiding his religious beliefs. He's saying, I fear God, right? Which is a true statement, he does fear God. Go to Proverbs one, Proverbs one. Proverbs chapter one. Let me just show you some verses on the fear of God. Do you mean Jesus? Anyway, it depends on what country you're looking at, how they view their idols and their gods. Like in the voodoo cultures, like in Haiti, they fear their gods, and they believe that if an earthquake takes place, it's because God has cursed the land. And I agree with them. My opinion, though, is he cursed it because of your voodoo, and practicing voodoo even more zealously is not gonna fix the problem, but they feel like, well, we had this earthquake take place because we're not worshiping the gods enough. But they have, in their culture, very much a fear of their gods. Now, in India, Shiva's kind of the wrathful god. He's quick to anger. He's like the exact opposite of the personality of the actual god. Because God is very long suffering, but when he blows, it's just like, big punishment. Whereas Shiva is very quick to anger, but then he gets over it really quickly. He basically just, you know, he's like, you know, screams, and then he's perfectly fine, right? You know, the one with the, well, one of their gods with the snake around his neck. He's more of the god that you fear. So those that worship, you know, Shiva is their version of the main god they worship. They believe more in like a god that you're supposed to fear and obey, whereas some of the other versions of Hinduism or denominations, they don't necessarily have this fear on, you know, which gods you're worshiping or how you view it. You know, in Haiti, as I said, they really fear their gods. In India, it kind of depends. In Egypt, they did not fear their gods, except they were afraid of getting eaten by a crocodile, so they worshiped the crocodile god. That's the one thing. You know, you find out what God says to do, and you do it. And of course, you want to obey God, you love God, but here's the thing, there should always be this healthy fear because the Bible says perfect love cast about fear, right? And here's the thing. If we had a perfect love for God, we wouldn't really have anything to fear because we would be perfect. We wouldn't be perfect. Ecclesiastes 12. Now, why would somebody despise wisdom in instruction? Well, one thing is pride. They don't want to be told what to do. I'll figure it out on my own, right? Or it's like, I don't want somebody bossing me around. Foolish! Right, when God says don't touch alcohol, it's for our benefits. I mean, all of God's commandments, they do good for us. It's not like, man, if I can just break God's commandments, my life would be so much better. It would destroy your life. And so for people that just despise the wisdom and instruction and don't want to do what God says, don't obsess in my life. I mean, don't you want to get to the end of your life and say, you know what, I fought a good fight. I put energy to raise my kids. They grew up, they love God, right? And I was involved in church. I got people saved. I had a happy life because I was serving, obeying God. I mean, I had a blessed life. I mean, wouldn't that be what you want to do? But see, a lot of people are foolish. This world is filled full of people that are fools that, you know what, they don't want to have a God that is telling them what to do. And there's even saved people, right? It's not like most saved people would like our church. Most saved people would not like our church. Why? Because they don't want to have a bunch of rules that they're supposed to do. But I hate to break it to you, there's a lot of rules in the Bible. God put them in, but here's the thing, they're for our benefits. They will help our life if we do them. Things happy are ye if ye do them. I don't consider it a burden. You consider it actually a blessing to be in God's will and to obey what God says. Go to Ecclesiastes chapter 12. You know, when you see kids growing up, my son Zeph, and he's old enough to understand the concept, we're talking about how it's tough to do right. And he says, yes, Dad, sometimes it's tough. I want to watch something I shouldn't watch or whatever. I mean, even at a young age, they start to deal with this stuff where they want to do something that they know they're not supposed to, and they struggle with this stuff. But you know, kids love it when their parents are pleased with them. Isn't that true? When mom and dad are pleased with their children, right? Here's the thing, it's the same thing when it comes to God. You know, something that brings you great joy is just the fact that God is pleased with you. Say, well, how do I know if God's pleased with me? Are you doing what he says? Right, that's how you know he's pleased. Go to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12. Hebrews chapter 12. I mean, there's some religions that not only don't teach a fear of God, they mock the idea of fearing God. And the one religion I really think of is Buddhism. Buddhism mocks the idea of fearing God, and they think it's foolishness, like there'd never be a fear, and it's going to judge us, send us to hell. Well, I hate to break it to them, but if they don't get saved, they're going to find out one day there is a God that's going to send them to hell forever. They ought to fear God before they reach that point. Hebrews 12, verse five. Why should we fear God? Because God's going to punish us. Proves that he loves us. Think about this. I punish my son Zeph when he does bad. I punish my daughter Christabel when she does bad. I'm getting close with Ezra. He's starting to get, you know, intelligent. I will punish my children when they do bad. You say, why? I care about my children. I know it's my job to help them become good kids and grow up and be good adults and love the Lord, and it's for their benefit. It's the responsibility that I have. It's far more than other kids. This is why I believe parents ought to really invest in the lives of their own kids. And oftentimes, you know, that's not something that actually takes place in today's. Into your own kids because you love them and you care about them. And one proof of that is I discipline my kids because I don't enjoy disciplining my kids. I don't enjoy spanking my kids. It's not fun. You say, why do you do it? Because I know it's necessary for them. I know that they need to learn.