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We're in Genesis, chapter 37, and we kind of big back up the story that we had of Jacob and his children, and we're going to change focus here, though, as we're going to go into Joseph, specifically his son, a lot more than Jacob. Just got done with the generation and the genealogy of Esau, and now it's kind of picking up a new storyline with Joseph, and Joseph's a really famous character of the Bible. He's in a lot of chapters here that we're going to be reading, pretty much all the way to the end of Genesis, it's going to be focused on Joseph primarily, but one of the reasons why I believe Joseph is such a popular character in the Bible is because he pictures Jesus so easily and so much throughout the Scriptures that I think that's why he's kind of one of the more popular characters in the Bible, and this chapter is really exceptional in the fact that just so much of Jesus and his life is symbolized through this chapter, and so I kind of want to focus on going through this chapter and looking at a lot of the symbolism, but I don't even believe I could cover all of the symbolism in this chapter in a single sermon. I'm sure even as you look at it, you could pick out things as well because there's just so much here, but let's kind of just dig in and start picking off the really easy ones and kind of looking at some of the bigger picture parts here, but it says in chapter 37 verse 1, And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. So we start out with Joseph at this point in time, he's seventeen years old. Notice one of the things that the Bible describes him as, a lad. So apparently, lad is still synonymous with the idea of seventeen. That's a little shock to me because when I hear lad, I think of like a five year old or a seven year old or something like that, but from the biblical perspective, a seventeen year old is still considered a lad, so therefore you have to turn at least eighteen to be an adult, right? No, I'm just kidding. I don't know where you get that idea or that doctrine, but you know, according to the Bible, you're still a lad when you're seventeen. And I think seventeen year olds should realize you're still kind of a child, you need to grow up a little bit, and you realize you mature for a long time even beyond the age of seventeen. In fact, insurance companies will not lower the rate for men until the age of twenty-five because of how immature men are in comparison to women. Women actually mature quicker than men do as far as like the ages are, and so that's just something to keep in consideration. But another thing that's interesting is that Joseph is coming and bringing an evil report unto his father. It's specifically the children of the concubines that are the worst, isn't it? And you know, that's not a shock. We've kind of covered that in some of our previous chapters about how the sons of the concubines ended up being some of the worst of the litter, as it were. And also kind of just illustrating that, you know, when you have relations outside of marriage or you're having, you know, children out of wedlock that oftentimes will damage the children or give them a bad upbringing or put them in a bad situation. And really that's what we see here, where Joseph is the son of the intended wife, Rachel, and these other children are just kind of these random relationships that were actually built out of what? Envy, exactly. Why do all the children exist that he's bringing up an evil report for? It's because the two women were envious one of another, they were trying to vie for the attention of their husband, and they felt like if they had more children that would somehow give them more favor to their husband, so they asked for him to lie with their concubines just to get more children just because they were envious of their husband's attention. And it's going to be no shock that then their children are going to end up falling victim to the exact same sin and being children of envy, children that desire things that don't belong under them and doing very wicked acts. And what, you know, the parents do in moderation, oftentimes the children will do in excess. And so it's very important that you realize that your actions, the way you talk, the things you do, the sins you commit, oftentimes will roll downhill and they can affect your children. So it's important to try and raise them correctly and give them a chance to succeed. Also, you know, Joseph is a righteous person, you know, especially when you skip ahead and you start reading the Bible. He's a godly person. God has favor for Joseph. And he has a pretty uncomfortable job here, right? Who wants to go and basically say, Dad, you know, they're doing wrong, they're doing evil. But at the end of the day, it's appropriate if your brother and sister are doing evil, you got to tell mom and dad. I'm not talking about tattling, you know, obviously, tattling, you know, should be should be thrown out, right? It should be dismissed, okay? We don't want to encourage tattling necessarily. But when you're your brother and sister doing something evil or wicked, you need to tell mom and dad not go along with it, not make a deal or a pact with your brothers and sisters against your parents. No, you need to tell mom and dad and make sure that what they're doing gets caught so that the parents can deal with it so that, you know, it's appropriately handled. Joseph is setting a good example here of not playing favorites, of doing the respectable thing, you know, in the workplace, someone's doing evil, you need to be the whistleblower. In fact, in the state of Texas, if you witness a felony, it's illegal not to report it. You have to report a felony. Me as a pastor, if someone comes to me and talks to me, everything they say is pretty much 100% private, okay? The only exception would be the fact that my wife and I share, but again, anything I share with her is not to be shared with any other person. The only real exception to this would be in the situation where someone's coming and telling me felonies, okay? When someone's coming and telling me felonies, I have to report them, like I'm not allowed to just be a scapegoat for criminal activity or anything like that. So if you commit felonies, don't come and, you know, ask me, you know, what I think about that, okay? Now, if the felony's like for soul winning or something, okay, then we'll talk, right? But I'm just saying, like, if you're going to come and tell me, you know, I committed, you know, murder or whatever, did this perverted act or whatever, I'm going to be the first person to report you. I'm just going to immediately call it in. And look, I know, because I've unfortunately had to deal with this, but some pastors, they'll have people come up and admit that they're a pedophile or whatever, and they won't turn them into the cops. And I'm thinking, like, don't think I won't. That's the nicest thing I'm going to do to you is turning you into the cops, okay? So obviously, we don't want to cover anything up. We're never hiding anything. You know, people come and they just, they'll say, I got this issue or this problem or whatever. And you know, as a pastor, there's confidentiality with that situation. But you don't want to just cover up evil. Notice this is an evil report, okay? You want to be honest, you want to be upfront so that you can deal with it. Verse number three. Now, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a code of many colors. Now, a few things about this verse. First of all, we see that he has a clear favorite. And again, I've already said this, but parents often will have favorites, okay? It's just reality. It doesn't mean that it's right or wrong. It's just what happens. You're going to favor one person over another. He ends up favoring Joseph over his brethren, and specifically because he's the son of his old age. This verse leads me to believe that Benjamin's probably not born yet, okay? That's one of the reasons why I think that Benjamin may not. Because it's kind of weird to say, like, I love Joseph more than everybody else when Benjamin's actually younger, you know, and still from the same mother. That would be one reason why it would be kind of confusing. It could be, though, that the Bible is just describing his feelings towards Joseph at the point that he was born. So even though Benjamin's already born, the reason why he just likes Joseph is because he has a special connection that that was the firstborn of Rachel. Rachel had been barren for a really long time, and so he just has this special bond with Joseph. Maybe Benjamin's already born. I guess it's possible. Verse 4, and when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. So notice, they despise their brother because of the fact that his parents favor him. And you know what? This unfortunately ends up, you know, exaggerating a situation where, you know, the parent kind of favors one over another, well then it causes the divide to become even greater sometimes. And notice as the Bible describes it, they hated him. I mean, that's not very nice. It says they could not speak peaceably unto him, meaning every conversation, they're upset, they're angry, they're speaking rashly unto him. And you know, when it comes to Joseph, as it's implied, he's not doing anything to deserve this. What has Joseph, from verse 1 to verse 4, what has Joseph done to deserve this? Now you could say, well, he didn't have to bring up the evil report to his parents, but you know what? Everyone should do that. It's not his fault for doing that which is right and telling the truth and being honest. And if that makes people hate you, they're just bad people. Because if you're doing wrong, you should get caught. You know, you should have people, you know, testify of what's going on so you can get that right and get that fixed. And you shouldn't hate the messenger who's being honest and doing their job and telling it as it is. Also, is it really his fault that his father loves him more than all the other children? No, he can't control that, that he's a better son, or that he just happened to be born in that situation. Often, the youngest is sometimes the favorite of the parents, which is how it is, you know, and they'll be like, wow, you just love the baby more. And this is how it is, you know, you get old and annoying and the baby is still cute. So it's like, they just like the baby a little bit more, you know, it's a little bit easier to like the two year old than the 17 year old is smelly and gross or whatever. And then when you're 17, you're still more likable than the smelly old 30 year old or whatever, you know, the dirty old man at that point, you know, it's like, yeah, you know, he's still like, the lad, we've got the lad, maybe they just use lad really generously because they just want to consider him a kid still, you know, he's still the baby. My mom was like that she'd call me the baby, you know, I'm 20 years old or 25 years old. It's like, he's still the baby, right? Because they want to hang on to their youth or something. But it's not his fault that his brethren hate him. You know, his dad makes him this special coat. That could be another reason why the envy and the hatred is coming towards Joseph is this coat, but he didn't make the coat. And you know, probably wearing it makes them a little, you know, kind of upsets them a little bit, right? He puts on that coat. But you know, if your parents give you a coat, you put it on. You're like, hey, I got the coat of many colors, you guys, you know, one color or whatever. Also, you know, you could look at symbolism here. You know, I don't necessarily have another verse on this, but one inference could be that this coat of many colors kind of illustrates the diversity of, you know, Joseph. And we think about Joseph, he pictures Jesus in a lot of ways throughout the Bible. We can prove this, especially when you get later through here. And if we think about Jesus and diversity, you know, God's the God of the whole earth, not a respecter of persons. He doesn't just love one ethnic group over another or one race, so called, over another. In fact, I don't even believe in race, you know, race is a made up manmade thing. It's not a biblical concept. We don't see in the Bible where it says there's five races or anything like that. That's just man making up his own opinion, you know, and it's weird how they even classify things. No, it's just like, non white, Hispanic, or whatever. It's like, I don't know, what does what does that even mean? Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, or Asian, you know, like, which one is it? Like, I don't, I don't know. And here's another thing that's interesting. Pretty much if one parent's black, all the children are black. Right? Let's think of all the combos. Black parent, dad, and white mom, black kid. Black dad, Hispanic wife, black kid. Black dad, Asian, you know, Native American, I don't care what. Black kids, you know, that's how it is. How does that work? You know? Even though they have the same, look at Barack Obama, his mom is like the whitest person you've ever seen in your life, but then he's just a black guy. You know, he just gets, you just inherit 100% of the one more dominant skin color and that's your race? Like, that doesn't even make sense, you know, and now today there's been so much whitewashing in America, like from a race perspective, you know, the black people today, they don't look black. Cory Booker? I mean, that guy doesn't even look black anymore and he's considered black. I mean, he's more white than he's black. I guarantee he has more white descendants than black in the most recent history. Okay. Yet, he's still considered a black person, which is race. You know, this thing is just stupid, it's foolish, it's not scientific, it's not real, it's just a bunch of, just a junk to just divide people, but look, God did divide people on purpose. He put them in separate nations. You know, I think that that is biblical, that makes sense. You know, people should be divided in nations and tongues and specifically ideologies, that helps. Okay. But, you know, when it comes to these race things, it doesn't really make any sense and since God is the God of the whole earth, we have Joseph here with a coat of many colors, one parallel could be the fact that it's illustrating how Jesus loves all people, red, yellow, black and white, they're all precious in his sight. And he's not a one-color God, he's not a one-color Savior, he saved all the colors. And if we think about his brethren, his brethren, picture what, the Jews. And guess who the Jews hate? Every color but theirs. So, of course, they're not going to like their brother, who's the coat of many colors, who wants to save everybody, they, you know, basically are just showing their hatred for the Gentiles and everything else. I think that's kind of an illusion that could be made here. Look at verse number five. And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed, for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheave arose, and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves stood round about, and made obeisance to my sheaf. And his brethren said unto him, Shout thou indeed rain over us, or shout thou indeed have dominion over us, and they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. This is what's really interesting about this. Pretty much every single thing that could tick off, you know, his brethren, God's just doing. Just think about it, right? He is already the favorite. He's already got the coat of many colors. He already told mom and dad, they're doing evil, right? Then on top of that, he's like, hey, I'm also getting dreams from God that you're all going to bow down to me. And think about this, he's the youngest. It's like every single way that they could be mad about something, God's just allowing that to be what's happening. And you know, it's not Joseph's fault that any of this has happened. And some people, when you let them know about certain circumstances or situations, they call you prideful. Right? This is probably what they would say about Joseph, always prideful. You're going to have dominion over us? Who do you think you are? Right? And what do they do? They're kind of despising his youth, even probably, which the Bible would bring up. And this happens today, where if you ever exert your authority, people will bucket that, even if it's coming straight from the Word of God, right? Like what if a man gets up and says, I'm in charge of my house. And they're like, oh, you're so misogynistic. I need to set your wife free from you. You know, whenever we get a bunch of protesters and publicity, this is what they do. They'll all send messages to my wife on Facebook. And they'll be like, we know you're so oppressed, we'll help you escape, you know. Tell us honey, you know, tell us when, you know, tell us if you're okay, you know, blink twice or whatever. It's like, it's so silly, you know, and they'll be like, you're so prideful, because you're a man, that's why you believe that you should be in charge. And I say, no, it's because God said it. I didn't say it. I didn't write the Bible. I didn't determine who should be in charge. God did. And just because I happened to find myself at the top of the food chain, I'm not going to back down from what the Bible actually says, though. So just because you find yourself to be in Joseph's circumstance, where it's like, look, God said I'm going to be in charge, you know, then you just be in charge. You know, when you read other places in Scripture, people are put in positions of authority or they find themselves in positions of authority. If that's what the Bible says, then you should exercise that authority and not back down, not shy away. Here's a good example. How about a pastor? The Bible says that you're not supposed to let any man despise your youth. The Bible says to rebuke with all authority, and you'd be like, well, you just say that because you're the pastor. No, it's what the Bible says. So if the Bible says it, just because you happen to be in that position doesn't mean you can't get up and make it clear where you're at, what God said, use God's Word to your disposal. In fact, you should. Joseph shows that example, doesn't he? Hey, God said I'm going to be in charge. He didn't make it up. He didn't decide that he was going to be in charge. God told him he was going to be in charge. And if God says you're going to be in charge, be in charge. You know, if someone puts you in a position of authority, what you should do is exercise that authority. Not back away, not shy down, not be like, well, people are going to get kind of rubbed the wrong way because I'm younger than them. All right, like what if we put someone in a position of authority? They're the soul-winning leader. They're the guy that's going to lead the music. They're the guy that's going to, well, you just want to tell me what to do because you're the leader. You know, it's like, yeah, you're younger than me. Who cares? If you're in a position of authority, you exercise that authority, you do that which is right, and you don't shy away from the fact that, well, it looks bad. The youngest just, he must be prideful because he just wants to be in charge of us or he thinks he's better than us. No, he must be more humble because God resists the proud and gives grace unto the humble. So he must have looked at Joseph and said, Joseph can handle this. Joseph can be the youngest and yet be in charge. Joseph can have all the favor and yet still be in charge. Joseph, you know, has to give this evil report. And that's probably why God likes him is because he's willing to give the evil report. And look, when you're the younger brother, you don't want to give the evil report because you know what they're going to do when mom and dad aren't looking. Oh yeah, I was the victim of that. I mean, I would give my brothers and sisters the evil report and then I was terrified because then my mom and dad would be like, hey, they're going to babysit. And I'm thinking of like, oh no, you don't want that. And it was kind of a combination for me. I wasn't a perfect Joseph, okay? But because I brought the evil report, I mean, my siblings literally, literally, and I'm not giving ideas, okay, or suggestions here, they would literally hang me on the wall by my underwear. They would take, they would put the nail on the wall and they would hang me up. My brother put me in the dryer one time, um, you know, my brother would hold me down and hock loogies in my mouth. And that's just the brotherly love you get, you know, and I was a lot younger. So you know, there wasn't even, you know, sometimes you're a little bit younger, but you still can kind of put up a fight. I was eight years younger than my brother. I mean, I didn't even have a chance, okay. Whatever he said, I just did it, you know, and it was, it was an interesting relationship. All right. He's apologized since then. So I just tell you that to say that the fact is that no matter what happens, you know, you still got to do that, which is right. And it's not easy. You know, after they hang you on the wall, you're thinking like, I don't really want to give any report again. You know, you don't want to necessarily say this is what happened or this is wrong. And they said, you know, I didn't tell my parents that they did that. So maybe I failed, but they were like, you don't tell them what happened this night. And it was just like, okay, yeah. Not going to do that again, right? Verse six. And he said to them here, I, Oh, sorry, we already read this. Look, look back down to verse nine now it says this, and he dreamed yet another dream. And told it his brethren, he said, Hey, I got another dream for you, buddy. And he said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And he told his father and his brethren and his father rebuked him and said unto him, What is this dream, Dallas dream, shall I and my mother and my brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to the to the earth, and his brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. So not only does he say, Hey, all of you guys, all of you are gonna bow to me, mom and dad too. And notice there's a parallel. The sun is kind of a picture of a father. Moon's kind of a picture of a mother, rather, and are kind of pictures of stars. You could use this symbolism a lot other places in the Bible makes a lot of sense, because the husband is kind of like the one that's shining and the wife kind of is a reflection of the light shining. And yeah, for you flat earth or sorry, the moon's not a light, okay, in the sense that it's beaming light, it reflects light, though, so looks like a light and it, for all intents and purposes acts as a light. It's just we understand that it's radiating and beaming the light that's coming from the sun. Otherwise, you could never have an eclipse, folks. Okay. If it's a light, and a lights covering another light, it would never be dark. Oh, you know. So just a little bit of science and reasoning can instantly disprove your stupid theories. Okay. And these people are literally stupid. Explain me an eclipse, if the moon is beaming its own light, impossible, obviously, it also is illustrating that the moon is closer than the sun, because the moon would have to come in front of the sun. Another interesting thing is how did God create an entire universe where these two bodies, planetary bodies, vastly different sizes, are like the exact same size to us? I'm sure it's coincidence, right? No, obviously, God is creating everything perfectly. Just, you know, that kind of symmetry is not within just, oh, an explosion. No, that's perfectly timed. And look, all of our timing comes from the sun, moon, and the stars, and all these planetary things. That's how we even understand time. Otherwise, we would have no idea. I mean, we don't know, without modern inventions of clocks and these type of things, we have no idea what a week and all these days and all this other time is. That's what even helped them have time and keep time throughout history. So we have a lot of different symbolism here. Two things about this verse as far as Benjamin, again, it's just interesting to me when I think about it. But Benjamin could possibly have been born, I kind of think no. Why I think no is, why would he bring up his mother and then his father say, well, how's your mom going to bow down, she's not even alive, right, he kind of brings up the mom as if she's still alive, which we know from previous chapters, she died immediately at Benjamin's birth. So that's kind of interesting. But he does also mention 11 stars, which at this point in time, if Benjamin's not born, then we wouldn't have the 11 star. I think when you study the timeline, here's another possibility and then I'm just speculating. Maybe his mom was pregnant because the timeline of Benjamin being born is probably got to be if he hadn't been born yet would be like right after he got sold and him being and she being pregnant would then allow him to know there was 11. Another option is he's just prophesying, he's just saying I saw 11 stars, I don't get it. And then he's really interested when he meets them later down in Egypt, he's like, oh, there's another one? You know, that would fit that dream and then he wants to see him and he yearns on his brother. I don't know. There's a couple different options there. I tend to believe that Benjamin just was not born yet. Maybe probably not even conceived because of the fact that the father loves Joseph so much more than every one of his children and that doesn't really fit the line of if Benjamin's in existence at that point in time, okay. Now we also have the dad rebuking his son. Now again, he doesn't really know if this is a prophecy from the Lord per se I guess. He's kind of, he kind of thinks it could be, obviously, otherwise he wouldn't observe the saying. But he's kind of rebuking his son like why would I bow down to you? And he has a real, obviously his father Jacob in Israel believes in authority, right? The father's not going to bow down to the son. That doesn't really make any sense and everything like that. That's why he's kind of rebuking him, thinking like you're too big for your britches. You're being prideful. But again, he's being accused of being prideful and you know what? Anytime you preach the word of God, anytime you actually lay down the law or you say thus say the Lord, people will accuse you of being prideful even if you're the humblest person on the planet. I mean, if you're the meekest man on the earth like Moses was, they'll accuse you of being prideful. You know, if you're the most humble person they've ever met, they'll accuse you of being prideful just for preaching the Bible. You know, going out and knocking on doors and saying, are you 100% sure you go to heaven? People say, how could anybody be 100% sure? That's prideful. And it's like, I'm not being prideful. I'm just telling you what the Bible clearly says. And you know what? I'm humbling myself by saying the Bible is true here and telling us what's right. And you know what? It's more humble to preach the word of God and say exactly what it says than to ever attack anything the Bible says. Okay. You could never be more prideful than the person not agreeing with the scripture than the person that actually agrees with the scripture. Okay. So that's a silly argument. Oh, you believe what the Bible says? You're prideful. No, you're prideful for not believing what the Bible says actually. You know, the real prideful person is the one that's attacking God's word or incredulous for the word of God. That's the truly prideful person. A humble person submits to whatever the Bible actually teaches. Let's keep reading. It says in verse number 12, and his brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. Israel said unto Joseph, not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come and I will send thee unto them. And he said to him, Jeremiah. And he said to him, go, I pray thee. See whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the veil of Hebron and he came to Shechem. Now this is where we really get some of the strongest parallels of Jesus and Joseph in the Bible. Thinking about, it gave us a little bit of a setup, but now it's just going to really get into Jesus. Think about what's being asked. He's saying, hey, I want to send you to the flocks to see how they're going. See and go to your brethren to see. And he asks for his son to come because here am I, and then he sends him. You know what that makes me think of? Jesus. Why? Because the father asked Jesus to go down. He commands Jesus to go down and to see what? His brethren. And to see how the sheep are doing, see how the flocks are doing. We have a lot of verses here. Keep your finger and we're coming back. Go to John chapter five for a moment. Go to John chapter number five. And look at verse number 23. Bible says in John 5, 23, that all men should honor the son, even as they honor the father. He that on earth not the son, on earth not the father, which hath sent him. Skip down to verse 30. I can of my own self do nothing, as I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the father which hath sent me. Look at verse 36. But I have greater witness than that of John, for the works which the father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear with witness of me that the father hath sent me. Verse 37. And the father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me, he hath neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape. So notice we just see in the book of John, especially chapter five, father sent me, father sent me, the father sent me, the father sent. Why is Joseph going to see his brethren? Because the father sent him. Why was Jesus here on the earth? Because the father sent Jesus. In fact, he made it abundantly clear it wasn't even his own will, it was the will of the father that sent him to see his brethren, illustrating multiple wills, which is the same. Did Joseph want to go see his brethren? No. The Bible doesn't say that. The father is saying, I want you to go see him. And he's obedient in the father, he's doing what the father commands. Similarly, what Jesus is going to do, go to 1 John chapter four, go all the way to the end, go to 1 John chapter number four, so we see an interesting parallel of Joseph starting his journey the same way that Jesus started his journey by the father sending him to see. And obviously, you know, we could even allude to previous mentions where it's talking about he's getting an evil report of the brethren, maybe, you know, in some way the father's hearing about the evil report of the Jews and everything like that, because the Bible often talks about how God is hearing about how bad it is on the earth, you know, hearing about how bad it is in Sodom and Gomorrah, right? Hearing the cries. And we see, you know, throughout the Old Testament, God's constantly talking about how he's hearing of the evil that the children of Israel are doing. And so it's obviously coming to a culmination, it's coming to a boiling point for Jesus finally going to be sent, really get that eyewitness, you know, on what's going on. Just like he sent the angels to be eyewitnesses of Sodom's destruction, Jesus is kind of like an eyewitness of the evil and how bad the Jews really are at that time. But the Bible's crystal clear that Jesus was sent by the father. First John chapter 4, look at verse 14. And we have seen it to testify that the father sent the son to be the savior of the world. Now, here's more insight. Why was Jesus sent? To be the savior of the world, okay? And that means every single person. But his brethren, knowing that prophecy, think about this, Joseph already gave that prophecy and that testimony before it ever happened, didn't he? Now what does Joseph end up going to be doing? He's also going to be the savior of all of his brethren. And in fact, if you think about it, Joseph is a savior of the world. Now I'm going to talk a lot about, I'm ruining the Bible. You already know the Bible, okay? I'm going to tell you everything that's going to already happen. This is a Bible study. We're just digging deeper in these chapters. Joseph is the savior of the world. Because at the time that Joseph eventually goes into Egypt and is standing before Pharaoh and he talks about the seven years of plenty and the seven years of famine, that famine is not just Egypt, it's like everywhere. It's the whole world essentially at that time. And when I mean world, where people live. And when the Bible used the word world, a lot of times it's just talking about people, right? People love to love the world. You know, it's not talking about the earth physically, it's talking about people that live on the earth, that's the world, okay? And so Jesus is the savior of the world spiritually, Joseph was like a physical savior of the world by storing up the grain for the whole world to be able to eat and to have money and it brought all the riches of the entire world into Egypt and Joseph literally made Egypt the richest place on the earth. That's why they had all that gold and silver. Why do you think we have the pyramids and we have all this stuff? It's because they collected and accumulated so much wealth and money from everybody through that time, but they did save the world. So obviously people are willing to give all their money, get food when you're starving. When you're starving, you'll give all your money away for that. In fact, it's funny when the children of Israel are in captivity, like a part of dove dung is sold. Think about that. Can you imagine? It's not even dove dung. It's a part of dove dung. He's like, next on the block, a part of dove dung. I'll give you 50, I'll give you 100. It's like people are literally buying dove dung to eat. That's how hungry they were and look, when you get that hungry, it's crazy, okay? But when the prophecies are coming of him being the savior of the world and people bowing down to him, they didn't believe it. And the same happens with Jesus. Go to Luke chapter 19 for a moment, go to Luke chapter number 19. Let's see more of the prophetic nature here. Look at verse 14. And I know this is a parable, but it's very reminiscent of the situation we have. Luke chapter 19, look at verse 14. But his citizens hated him and sent a message after him saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. Now in the parable, it's talking about a nobleman and he sends his servants in to check on what's going on, which pictures the prophets, okay? But the citizens, and then he sends his son and they end up hating his son. They end up hating the messengers and they refuse to have the son rule over them and it's kind of a picture of how they refuse it. They don't want Joseph to rule over, he's his younger brother. You know, I want to listen to my younger brother. Why would I want, and in fact the Bible often talks about that, how a prophet is not without honor saving his own house, right? It's often very difficult for family members to respect other family members in the cause of Christ, but just because that's true doesn't mean you have an excuse. If it's your younger brother, it's your younger brother, praise God, he's serving the Lord. Who cares if he's serving the Lord better than you, right? In fact, you would be a wicked person to not want your brother to serve the Lord better than you. Why would you want to have to be the best, you know, well, I'm the older brother. You know, oftentimes the younger is better in the Bible. Think about Jacob, he's the younger, Esau was the elder, right? Joseph, one of the youngest of the children, okay? Sometimes the oldest is the best, Jesus is the first one, right? So, you know, Cain, worst, Abel, pretty good, but then we get from Seth, we're, you know, basically descendants of Seth spiritually, also physically in a lot of ways. So, age really is just a number, can't say, well, you know, you should be a subject to me because you're the younger brother, blah, blah, blah, no, you know, if someone's the man of God, they're the man of God, you should just accept that and embrace that and not become envious of someone. You know, why did they not want Jesus to rule over them? Because they were envious of that position, they wanted to be the ruler. But if they were the ruler, they wouldn't have saved the world. Every one of Joseph's brethren, if they had been put in charge, they wouldn't have interpreted the dreams correctly and they would have not saved the world. Think about this, how does Joseph even save the world? Through dreams. They hate his dreams, but think about this, him being able to understand the dreams and the Word of God is actually what saved them. And here's the thing, you know what saves people today? People understanding the Word of God. You should get mad at someone who understands the Word of God, you should appreciate them delivering to you the messages and the Word of God today. It's a very important job, not getting envious of all this. Now, he's sending Joseph and Joseph's going to what happened? Die. Now, when I say die, I'm saying it kind of like in quotes. Think about the little picture we have. Joseph's sent, he dies, but he's not really dead, is he? And then, his son is going to end up still being alive and his father is going to end up being joined back together with his son. And so, we have like a mini gospel with Joseph here and that's kind of hard to preach in one chapter because it covers all the chapters, but I'm just kind of giving that foreshadowing. Joseph's going to go down, he's going to kind of die, but he's coming out of the pit, which we read in the story and then they're going to be reunited and it's kind of the same with the gospel. He dies, comes to the earth, dies, he goes to hell, he comes back, and he's reunited with his father in the future and guess who's going to be in charge? Joseph. And guess what? The father committed, you know, everything under the sun. He's going to let the sun rule and reign and be in charge of everything. So, we have another picture of how all that is going to work. But also think about this, Jacob and Joseph. Joseph isn't going to come back all the way to where Jacob is. Jacob's going to end up going where Joseph is and think about this, eventually the father is going to come down from heaven and dwell with us on earth where the sun is. So, the sun basically sets up the kingdom here on earth and then the father comes down. Just like Joseph kind of sets the kingdom up in Egypt and then his father came down unto him. You're going to have a lot, you just have a lot of symbolism here, a lot of pictures here that all kind of picture and foreshadow all the things that are going to happen. I mean, how can you say just some peasant wrote the Bible? Like the symbolism and how these things fall into together, the synchrony of the Bible, the symphony, I mean all of it. It's just incredible. Okay. Go to verse 15 now. Genesis 37 and look at verse 15. The Bible says, and a certain man found him and behold he was wandering in the field and the man asked him saying, what seekest thou? And he said, I seek my brethren, tell me I pray thee where they feed their flocks. And the man said they are departed hence, for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan and Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. So he goes, he runs into a random dude and the dude's like, what are you looking for? And he says specifically, I'm looking for my brethren. Now this makes me think of another verse, keep your finger and go to Matthew 15 for just a second. Matthew chapter number 15. And I kind of was thinking about like, why is that in the Bible? Because it's just kind of like a random detail that I just kind of was thinking like, that seemed really pointless in the story. Why didn't he just say like, he went, couldn't find him and then went somewhere else. You know, why does it bring them to the other guy? I think it just illustrates the purpose and the mission of Joseph. What is the purpose and the mission of Joseph? He's only looking for his brethren. He meets another guy, not interested in him. You know, he has a conversation with them, but then he's going only to his brethren, seeking his brethren only. I think that points to the fact that when the Bible says about Jesus is he didn't come to talk to everybody. He only came unto his people, came unto his own and his own received him not, right? And the Bible says, for the son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost. Also, he was going to find someone that's lost or not where they're supposed to be, not the guy that was there. So you've got a picture of him going to the lost, a specific mission, and look at Matthew 15 verse 24. The Bible says, but he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So again, Jesus had a very specific mission only sent for certain people, which was his brethren, which is the exact same thing we have here where Joseph is going and we get this foreshadowing of how Jesus is coming unto his brethren, not to some lost person. So someone came up to me, he's like, I found the Jesus of the Bible. He went into India. No and he went to North America and talked to the Indians and buried, you know, treasure in the earth with the Indians and no, he was only sent to the lost house of Israel. The lost sheep of Israel had a very specific mission. He went to the Jews and you know what, it makes it really hard to have a Christ after that when all the Jews don't even exist anymore. Think about it, after the Jewish diaspora, 80, 70, and they're just everywhere, how do you then just only go to the lost sheep of Israel all of a sudden? That's really hard to do. So of course what's going to happen in the end times, the antichrist is going to shut up a fake Israel and then come to them, you know, but without the Jews kind of being in a promised land, having a group of Jewish people, you can't even kind of fulfill that scripture or make it seem somewhat legitimate. But you have to understand about the antichrist and the devil is he's an imposter. He's going to try and mimic as much as he possibly can, just like he's going to mimic his own little death, burial, and resurrection with his little antichrist and mimic a lot of different things here, but then eventually declare himself God. So an important fact, Jesus only came unto his brethren. So I think that verse actually gives us some of the information that's going to happen. Go back and look at verse 18. And when they saw him afar off, so the brethren are seeing Joseph coming, because even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. Now this verse would be a parallel, and I'm not going to every place, I'm just going to kind of tell you, but whenever Jesus heals Lazarus, he isn't yet coming to Jerusalem, so they know he's going to come in for the feast, they already began conspiring to kill him while he's afar off, while he hasn't necessarily shown up yet, they make this conspiracy plot to kill him. Do you believe in conspiracy theories? Yeah, it's called the word of God. It's full of conspiracies, where you see evil people plotting murder, deception, theft, and all kinds of evil, you know, coups, military coups, all kinds of stuff in the Bible, and that's what reality is. It's full of all kinds of conspiracies. They happen all the time. That doesn't mean every conspiracy theory is true, and there's really not any point in trying to figure them all out, because there's probably not, but you should be aware that they exist. You should be aware that there is evil out there, and they plot the death of the righteous on a regular basis. It says in verse number 19, and they said one to another, behold, this dreamer cometh. They're mocking him. It makes me think, what, how they mocked Jesus. Verse 20, come now therefore, and let us slay him, and cast him into some pit, and we will say, some evil beast hath devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams. What is it that they really hate? His words. Think about it. Ah, we want to get rid of his dreams. You know, they want to get rid of his words. You know what that's what they hate about Jesus? They hate the word of God that was coming out of his mouth, didn't they? And they wanted to kill him. They wanted to slay him, and cast him into some pit. Verse 21, and Reuben heard it, and he delivered him out of their hands, and said, let us not kill him. Reuben said unto them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness, and lay no hand upon him that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. It says in verse 23, and it came to pass when Joseph was coming to his brethren, they stripped Joseph out of his coat, a coat of many colors that was on him, and they took him and cast him into a pit, and the pit was empty. There was no water in it. Now, Joseph shows up, Reuben kind of says, let's not just kill him, let's throw him in a pit first. Now, he's not really telling them why. He's kind of in his mind thinking, I don't want to let them kill him. I want to return him back to his father. He's the eldest, so he's going to be the most responsible. He doesn't want to have the responsibility of his brother's blood on his hands, so he's hoping that they'll just kind of throw him in a pit, forget about him, Reuben will come and rescue him later or something like that. They take his coat off, which again probably symbolizes things like Jesus, when they crucified him, they took his coat, and they even gambled on it. They cast lots in a sense to see who would get his garment, and his coat is kind of mentioned as being a special coat, you know, it was like woven, especially Jesus's coat, so we kind of have like two special coats, they're stripped of him at his death, kind of picture Jesus's death here. Then he's cast into some pit, right? And the pit specifically has no water in it. What is this foreshadowing? Hell. Yeah, absolutely. You know, some people are confused, they think that it's moist in hell or that it's humid in hell. There's no water. Now, it's called a lake, but that's a metaphor, okay, because in fact when you look it up, it's nothing, there's nothing about water going on there, it's just molten, it's so hot that it just looks kind of like a liquid, it kind of acts like a liquid in a sense, but it's not because there's water in it, it's not mixed with water, okay, if you mix lava with water, it would turn into rock, it would cool it, and it would like cause it to turn into rock or whatever, the fact that it has an absence of water is actually what caused it to constantly be in this liquid hot molten state. But one description of hell according to the Bible is a pit. Now, this is shown throughout the scriptures, keep your finger here and go to Isaiah 14, go to Isaiah 14. Let me show you the symbolism first, that hell is described as a pit. Isaiah 14, look at verse 15. We're talking about the devil and symbolism and Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon. Isaiah 14, look at verse 15, yet thou shalt be brought down to hell to the sides of the pit. Now that's a clear verse, telling us that the pit is also a picture of hell. Go to Revelation chapter 9, go all the way to the end, Revelation chapter number 9. Let's get some more clear descriptions of hell being a pit, and it even elaborates on this. Revelation chapter 9, look at verse number 1, and the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth, and him was given the key of the bottomless pit. The hell is described as a bottomless pit. If you think about it, if you're in the center of the earth where there is no, you know, the gravity is different in a sense, where is the bottom exactly? You know, I mean, even if you're in the absolute center, it's not like really there's a bottom because you're just kind of like, you could just be a pendulum, just kind of being whatever, you're just like in this weird state of like floating without a bottom, and it's just this pit, but at the same time it's a pit. Think about it. We're talking about a hole that has no bottom somehow. Now that wouldn't make any sense unless the earth was a globe, because if it was flat and it's going down, it's like, well, eventually you get somewhere, right? But if you think about it with an infinite globe, you're inside a pit, but there is just really, where is the bottom? There is no bottom because you're just in the center of this pit of just fire and you're just possibly falling in a sense. I don't know. A lot of people alluded to the fact that they're just constantly in a state of falling. Falling has got to be terrible, right? You know, when you kind of start falling, you get this moment of like panic and anxiety and whatever, and you know what? When you're falling, you don't feel secure. No security, because you're just kind of in this state of just like, ah, you know. People when they fall are usually making noises too, right? They're not just like quietly falling. They're not just like, you know, it's not a tree, you know, they're like, ah, you know, as they're falling. I mean, they're just, everything that's bad is like happening to people in hell. You can't dream anything worse up. I mean, you just, you're falling, it's dark, but you're somehow on fire at the same time and there's no rest day or night. There's no water, constant regret, you're never getting out, there's other people there weeping and gnashing of teeth, that's it, it's called hell. And you know, the Bible says that that's what death is. Death is going to hell. If you're dead, you're in hell. If you have the state of being as being dead, the location is hell. If you're not in hell, then you're not dead. Read the Bible. Because God's not the God of the dead, but the God of the living. So if you're on earth, you're not in hell and you're not dead. If you're in heaven, you're not dead and you're alive, okay? Now you can be spiritually dead while you're on earth, but you're not in hell and you don't have the quality or the state of being as being dead. The quality and state of being dead is that your spirit's left your body and that spirit is in hell. That's what it means to be dead. Now go to Revelation chapter 1, and this is an important point because this is about Jesus. Why is Joseph in a pit where there's no water? Because he's symbolizing what Jesus is going to do. He's going to die. And here's the thing, Jesus really died. He didn't just really die, he was dead. That's an important distinction. It's one thing to die, it's another thing to be dead as an active, present state of being. Because the present being of being dead means you're in hell. That's all that can mean, okay? Look what it says in Revelation chapter 1 in verse number 18. I am he that liveth and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, that the keys of hell and of death. Now this really sums it up because he's saying I'm alive and I was alive, but then there was a point in time where I was dead, right? But now I'm alive again and forever. Now if I said I'm alive forever, you know what that means? I'm never going to hell. If I never die, I never go to hell. That's why it says that you should not taste death, you should not see death when you believe on Jesus Christ. You know, when you believe on Jesus, you don't get to see death. Now obviously I'm going to shed my spirit from my body, and that's another definition of dead, quote unquote, in the Bible. But you don't have the quality of the state of being dead. Because you weren't dead at any point. You just shed your body, but you stayed alive. You know, oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? Meaning as soon as your physical body takes its last breath and the spirit departs, if you are saved, you're not dead. There was never a point, you know when we died? We died when we believed in Jesus Christ. And we became alive. Inside, our spirit became alive, and that spirit will never die. Whosoever believeth in me shall never die, believeth thou this, is what Jesus said. The very important point. Look at chapter 2 verse 8, and then the angel of the church in Smyrna write, these things say the first and the last, which was dead and is alive. So Jesus was dead, but he's alive. Meaning what? Jesus literally went to hell. Go to Acts chapter number 2, go to Acts chapter number 2. Now this is crystal clear. Here's another thing. Some people say, well I think Jesus went to heaven when he died. Well then how come when he was resurrected and he was talking to people, he said, I have not yet ascended up to my Father. How did he go to heaven then? There's no question that Jesus went to hell, if you actually believe the Bible. Now you could believe fairy tales, you could just make up a story in your head, you could call anybody you want Jesus, but the Jesus of the Bible went to hell. Some people argue, well what was he doing there? Well again, I'm just going to let the Bible tell me. But it's clear he went, look at verse 31, Acts 2.31, he's saying this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus God raised up. That's crystal clear, because if you weren't left somewhere, it means you had to be there. So we have clear verses saying that Jesus' soul was not left in hell, even though it went there where there was no water. Now here's where some people debate, what's he doing in hell? Is he just taking a tour of the place? And literally this is a doctrine that has been believed by every generation basically from the time of Christ to now. People believe this weird doctrine, like the harrowing or the harrowing of hell, and it's a doctrine that Jesus just went there and was just like, oh that is terrible. But he wasn't suffering. Even though that seems suffering, you know, like if you're going somewhere that's ugly, you know, it's like you go to Galveston and you're like, the beach, the beach, you know. It's like, obviously that's an extremity, okay. But I'm just saying like, you know, if you go somewhere and you're just kind of like, eh, you know, that's not really that fun either. But in this chapter, it tells us more information. Because look what it says in verse 23, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, he have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. So they took Jesus, God already knew this, they crucified him just like he said. Verse 24, whom God hath raised up. When did he raise Jesus up? Three days and three nights later, right? It was on the third day. When he raised him up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that he should be holding of it. So what does it say that was, he was, how was he loosed from the pains of death? Was it the moment that he died? No, because it's the moment he was resurrected. What does it say? Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death, okay. What is death again? Death is hell. So that means that Jesus was suffering pain and hell, which when did he get loosed from that pain of death? When he was risen again. If you say, well, I think that's just talking about the cross, okay. But here's the thing, none of us, let me say this. We can all suffer while on this earth, just like Jesus did. Maybe not in the exact same way, but we could all be crucified theoretically. We could all be beaten. We could all be scourged. We could all have that evil happen to us. So it's weird to point out the things about Jesus being unique if they weren't possibly unique. You know what's unique is that he went to hell and we're never going to hell. But here's another thing. While you're on a cross alive, you're not dead. I don't know if this is like a weird radical idea. When you're alive, you're not dead, okay. So if he's suffering on a cross, it's not the pains of death. The pains of death is when you're dead. And where are the pains of death experienced and felt? Hell, okay. So it's really clear, just like Joseph went into the pit, and let me see, Joseph wasn't having a picnic down there. Joseph wasn't having a good time. He wasn't playing, you know, on his iPhone or something. He was suffering, didn't have water, just like Jesus, had to go down to hell, and suffered. But praise the Lord, both were taken out of the pit, right? Go back if you would. Let's see how he gets rescued. Notice he gets taken out to be sold. Now what's interesting about Judah is I think he kind of, kind of is like a bittersweet mention here. I'll give you the bad news first, okay. The bad news is he kind of pictures Judas, doesn't he, selling out, you know, his brother, you know, the Ishmaelites. And in fact, later in this chapter, let's skip down a little bit further, he says in verse number 28 again, it says, and they passed by Midnite's merchant and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver, and they brought Joseph and Egypt. That sounds familiar because Jesus sold for what, 30 pieces of silver, right? Kind of a similar parallel to Judas himself, which Judas is kind of a picture of the Jews and how they sold out Jesus and they covenanted for this money and they sell him out. But here's the positive mention, right? Because you got Reuben who causes him to be thrown in the pit, and I believe Reuben pictures Israel, Israel and the Jews, they kill Jesus, Judah rescues him out of the pit picturing Christ who ends up what? And you know how Jesus rescues us from the pit and we don't have to go into the pit, and it's not a coincidence that it's Judah that draws his brother out of the pit and ends up being his savior, even though it's kind of misguided here. I'm not saying that Judah is like a good guy in this picture necessarily, but we're going to see a theme of Judah always being kind of the rescuer and the deliverer in the book of Genesis, whereas the other brethren are the evil, wicked ones, okay? Another kind of just picture or foreshadowing of where the lineage of Jesus is going to come out of Judah, right? We have verse 29, Reuben returned into the pit, and behold, Joseph was not in the pit and he ran his clothes. And he returned to his brethren and said, the child is not, and I, whither shall I go? And they took Joseph's coat and killed the kid of the goats and dipped the coat in the blood. And they sent the coat of many colors and they brought it to their father and said, this have we found, now know whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it and said, it is my son's coat and evil beast has devoured him. Joseph is without doubt rent in pieces. Jacob rent his clothes and put sackcloth upon his loins and mourned for his son many days. And all sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, I will go down into the grave under my son mourning. Thus his father wept for him and the many nights sold him in Egypt under Potiphar, an officer of Pharaohs and captain of the guard. So a couple more points I want to make real quick. Go to Romans chapter 8. That's the place I'll have, last place you'll have a turn, okay? We kind of have a mini gospel, just in this one chapter, if you think about it, because we have him being sent, we have him killed, you know, in theory, put in the pit, brought up out of the pit. So we have kind of the death of a mini mock gospel of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, okay? And then from a big picture, we're going to have even more of that when we have the fact that I'm going down to Egypt and then the father returning unto him, so we kind of see this foreshadowing of Joseph constantly going through the kind of the death, burial, resurrection of Jesus Christ, a constant reverb of the gospel over and over again. Other symbolisms that we have here is the goat. You know, blood put on the coat and the coat is dipped in this blood is kind of a symbolism of how Jesus Christ's blood is going to be put on what? All nations. We give them salvation, his death is for all people, for all nations, for all, you know, for anybody to believe on. You know, he's the savior of all mankind, we kind of get a picture. And you know, the goat in the Bible often pictures the more sinful of the animals. Kind of the lamb is pictured as like the spotless, you know, no blemishes or whatever. The goat is symbolized, you know, in the Bible, they'll put the hand on the goat and they'll confess all the sins on the goat and the goat's kind of picturing the sin aspect of the crucifixion. You also have the goats and the sheep, you know, being divided. Goat's kind of more the sinful animal, sheep is kind of the innocent animal in a sense. And Jesus pictures both because while he's the innocent spotless lamb, he has to become sin on the cross. So he kind of becomes the goat for us, he becomes that scapegoat that gives us. So the goat is kind of picturing his death, you know, and that that blood, how he's taking the sin. Because the goat has to take our sin and become sinful so that way we can get forgiveness of sins. So the goat's blood being applied on the garment is kind of a picture of how our transgressions and iniquities were laid upon Jesus and that gives us that salvation. So we have a lot of symbolism here, all kinds of pictures of the gospel over and over. Here's another thing, he then gets sent down into Egypt, right? Another foreshadowing, Jesus is going to be sent down into Egypt and he's going to live there for a little bit and out of Egypt he's going to call his son. So you know, and we get that picture and prophecy of the fact that all of the children of Israel go down into Egypt and then they come back, it's kind of a picture of Jesus going down into Egypt and coming back out. But notice who initiates that, Joseph. Because if it wasn't for Joseph, all of the children of Israel would have never gone into Egypt to live and to dwell. They might have gone to get food but they weren't going to dwell there except for Joseph actually drawing them and bringing them down into Egypt. So it's really Joseph that is giving us that prophecy of how Jesus is going to end up going into Egypt for a short period of time for what? Physical deliverance. Just like Joseph and his brethren are going for physical deliverance, Jesus also is going for physical deliverance from Herod and from the destruction of the Romans at that time. So just infinite numbers of just like, parallelism and symbolism throughout the Bible. But we just think about this chapter as a whole. Let's kind of think back just about this chapter and what's being mentioned and kind of talked about. Kind of have envy, constantly being brought up. And you know, envy is a wicked sin. They delivered Jesus because of envy, that's what Pilate had perceived. The Bible even says in Acts, chapter number seven, for envy they sold Joseph, the patriarchs ended up selling Joseph. And you know, we need to be content with the lives that we have. We need to be content with the situations that we find ourselves in and not become envious. And you know, for Joseph it's probably harder than them because while it might be hard to be content when it's like, oh, my younger brother gets to be the ruler, my younger brother gets to have the favor, my younger brother gets this, think about Joseph's life. Joseph's a 17-year-old kid that's just been sold into slavery. Isn't it going to be kind of hard for him to be content with his life all of a sudden now and be like, why am I here? You know, why would God give me these dreams to then get my brother and just be mad at me and then sell me into slavery? My father probably thinks I'm dead. He's probably upset that his father is worried about him, you know, his father is mourning for him potentially. He doesn't get to see his father and mother. I mean, what kid wants to just go and be put in that situation, horrible situation, yet we're going to see throughout the Bible that Joseph always has a positive attitude. He's still, you know, and he still serves the Lord. Even though his circumstance has changed dramatically, he still is a servant of God. And you know, that would be a challenge to all of us. Imagine if, you know, you were just shipped off into just human slavery, China comes in here and they're like, yeah, we installed Joe Biden and we're bringing you all back to China with us. That would be kind of an upsetting turn of events, wouldn't it? Or what if they just dragged some, they just dragged us. They're like, we're taking, we're just going to take a few prisoners, we're going to take steadfast Baptist church and we're going to hunt all of you down and we're going to take you with us, you know, or what if they said that and everybody in here like turned and they're like, we're, we support the Chinese, but you didn't, you were fabled to God. And then they're like, well, we're just taking you back. Now you're on your own headed to China where they speak Mandarin. Remind you who in here speaks Mandarin. Good luck. Think about it. Joseph's going into Egypt. They don't speak Hebrew there. When they came down, his brethren came down, they had no idea what they were saying. Remember, if you can think about the Bible, he's going to a place where he has no idea what they're saying. Doesn't know the language, is put in slavery, doesn't have mom and dad, has been stripped of his clothes, just been betrayed by everyone. That's pretty hard to have a pretty, you know, positive attitude. It'd be pretty easy to be upset about the situation. None of you are in this situation. None of you are having that bad of a day because Joseph is happy. Yet Joseph is still going to serve God, still going to be a godly person. And I think what helps him is that God gave him these dreams. You know, God gave him the word of God to help motivate him and encourage him through the dark times. And you know what? It's very possible that you will have to go through very difficult circumstances, dark times, hard life situations, but God didn't forsake you. God didn't leave you. God isn't saying, you know, I'm not going to continue to fulfill all of my will for you in your life. You just have to continually have faith that the Lord's will will be accomplished in your life. And you say, well, how do I know that? Well, let's read the Bible, Romans eight, 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. That's an often quoted verse. It's a pretty popular verse, but you know, it's a verse that we should live by. You know, when you're doing that, which is right and evil comes along the way, you know, instead of getting discouraged by it, you should say, somehow this is going to work out for good. And you know what? It's really important that he goes down into Egypt for a lot of reasons. First of all, that's how they're going to save the world. Secondly, he's going to be put in Potiphar's house and he's going to become in charge of it. He's going to become a lot of training and important, uh, principles and learning how to guide a house, how to be a steward, how to manage resources, how to speak the language, how to interact with business transactions and all these things, you know, probably even learning the law, probably even learning, you know, certain officers and certainly, I mean, think about the house that he's going to Potiphar's house, a captain of the guard. We're not talking about just some rando. We're talking about someone of high importance and he's going to end up being put in position of authority there, learning all these different things. Then he's going to go to jail and learn a little bit more about that because when he's going to be brought before Pharaoh, he's going to be put in charge of the entire kingdom. That's an important job and, and you know, that's not someone you just want to hand. You don't want to hand the keys to someone that can't even run a house, you know, can't even run anything. What has he done? He's already shown he can run an entire house full of servants and goods and managed resources. He can run the prison, you know, so he's a very responsible person. He learned a lot of character. He learned how things work. He was able to mature. He was able to grow. He's able to learn how God can deliver him out of some of the craziest circumstances and not get discouraged by the situation he's in and I think some of us, we have to go through really hard things and we constantly think this, I feel like God's like forsaking me because I'm going through this difficult process, this difficult situation, this difficult task. Rather than thinking, wow, maybe God's giving me an opportunity to learn a very important lesson so I'll be prepared in the future when I come into that situation. You know, I've gone through some stuff and I'm just thinking like, that was horrible. That was terrible. I don't, it doesn't make sense to me but then later I thought about this. I said, you know what? Honestly, I'm a better person today having gone through that scenario or that situation than if I'd never gone through it. I know more. I've learned more. I have more experience. I have more character. I have more maturity, just whatever and thinking like I can't put a price tag on that either. You know, it's not like I could just buy that. You can't buy integrity. You can't buy maturity. You can't buy peace. You can't buy hope. You can't necessarily buy wisdom. You know, you can buy a piece of paper that says you're smart. You know what? To actually have wisdom, you have to study and learn and go through hard things and go through difficulty and struggle a little bit and sometimes we go through all this evil and this difficulty and these struggles because God wants to prepare us and mold us and shape us into the person that he can use in the future. And notice what the Bible is saying. All things work together for good, meaning that every single life circumstance you've gone through, all the evil that you've gone through, God can somehow use that for good. You know, a big example, you know, maybe you've lost a child. That's a pretty big evil but maybe God gave you a lot more character and a lot of integrity to be able to empathize and help and encourage other people when they lose a child. Because I've met people that are young, they lose a child and they want to quit on God, they want to not have children again, it's a traumatic experience to them. Someone that could come alongside and say, you know what, I've gone through that, I've seen that, encourage them, support them, help them through those difficult situations because they've been there. They know the same thoughts, they know the same feelings, they understand the situation better. All kinds of evil that people have gone through, all kinds of struggles, the loss of a loved one, you know, battling cancer or, you know, maybe being abused even, abused by a parent. Sometimes you'd wonder and think like, how is that going to benefit me? You know what, it can give you empathy for others that have the same situation. All the stuff that's happened in your life, oftentimes God can use that for his betterment. You know, you speak multiple languages, God could use that for you to preach the gospel in multiple languages. You know, you're raised in a certain area or certain household, you have certain family members, you have certain friends, you know, God could use those relationship situations for his good, for his glory, and instead of getting discouraged by the difficulty and the evil we go through, we should look at it as an opportunity. The Bible says the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and he delighteth in his way. Every single step of Joseph is clearly choreographed. All the way down to the, I mean, just running into a random guy and asking where his brethren are. That's a prophecy of, you know, Jesus coming to his brethren, being thrown in a pit. You think that Joseph was sitting here thinking like, there's no way God could use this for anything, but doesn't God use that to illustrate Jesus going to hell? Being sold in Israelites, how is God going to use that? Showing the fact that his whole family is going to be rescued by going to Egypt. You know, I guarantee Joseph often in his life was thinking like, I don't know how God's going to use this or, you know, when he's in jail, when he's in a land, he's the only one that knows how to speak, you know, Hebrew and no one knows how to communicate with him. And so when we look at the stories of Joseph, we need to use this as a model of encouragement and to say, you know what, we need to just stick with what the Bible says, no matter what situation we find ourselves in, no matter what evil happens to us, just stick it out with God and realize he's a faithful creator, he's going to put you through the things that you go through on purpose, and we should just never lose faith, we should just continue to be steadfast. He was the first member of Steadfast Magic, Joseph. I mean this guy is steadfast, he's unmovable, always abounding the work of the Lord. I mean this guy is a really faithful guy and we should look to him as a spiritual model of how we should live our lives. Let's close in prayer. Thank you Heavenly Father for this chapter, thank you so much for all the spiritual pictures you gave us of what Jesus did and his sacrifice and his love for us, that he would taste death for us, that he would experience death, that he was dead, that he rose again and he gives us the opportunity to conquer death and hell through his suffering, not our own. I pray that we would also look at this story as a way to motivate us to always be encouraged no matter what difficulty we go through, that somehow it can give honor and glory to you and that we would use all of our life's circumstances and experiences to your glory and in Jesus' name we pray, amen.