Joseph, God's Tool in Egypt

I want to continue in the study that we've been going through of the people that were mentioned in the book of Hebrews as people of faith. And we, of course, initially covered a period or administration of human conscience where it appears that God worked with very, very, very few people.

We studied Abel and Enoch and Noah. That's pretty much the only three you can see that God had, or directly is said, to have work with them and that they were righteous or pleasing to God, or walked with God, or were people of faith.

Beyond that, and we didn't really go through the administration of human government that kind of began with Noah and then the nations that would grow from repopulating the earth. We didn't go through that. There's not a lot that you can go through except you could go through Genesis 11 and go through the Tower of Babel. And I have not chosen to try to go through that because that's not pointing out anybody of faith. It's not pointing out anyone who's honoring God except Noah while he lived and then he would die. But then beyond that, in the administration of the patriarchs, we've covered Abraham that we're all familiar with, the father of the faithful, an individual through whom God began to work with a physical family. He began to work through physical descendants of Abraham, and those descendants were said to be given blessings from God. They were ultimately going to receive many physical blessings. And not only that, but that through Abraham, he would offer a seed that would eventually be Jesus Christ. And when you look at the genealogy of Jesus, you find it goes back to David. It goes back to Isaac and Jacob and Abraham, ultimately. And it's incredible to study the life of Abraham. We've studied a little bit about that. We've also studied Isaac. We went over him last time. And being the son of promise, and he and Rebecca, being the type of symbols, the type of types that they are, there are many things you can learn. We also covered Jacob, who in a sense is a rather significant individual, having been converted by God. Converted from being a scoundrel, a rascal, a deceiver, and running into Laban, who pretty much gave him a lot of his own medicine. And then, finding that he wrestled with God. Genesis 32 is remarkable because you read about, I believe that's correct, I don't have it written down, so it's close, where Jacob was wrestling with God, and where he knew that he was interacting with his Creator. Now, that's not something you and I have done. We interact with God, and he wants us to interact with God in truly a remarkable way through his Word, through Christ living in us, through the Holy Spirit guiding and directing our minds and giving us understanding. But we haven't had the same type of experience that Jacob had.

And so, you know, those three, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, are often referred to as the patriarchs.

And clearly, and we even had in one of our songs today, you know, those three mentioned Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And clearly, you know, that is the way the people of Israel are, you know, designated. They come from those particular patriarchs.

But I think we could add to those names another name that stands out here in the end of the book of Genesis. From Genesis, chapter 37, to the end of the book, chapter 50. Who does this deal with? Who does it cover? Well, it covers Jacob, and it covers some of his sons, but primarily, it covers one of his sons named Joseph. And Joseph, as I want to go through today, Joseph is truly a remarkable individual. And yet, I think that we can point out certain things that God had Joseph go through that can be very applicable to our Christian lives today. We know that Joseph was a favored son of Jacob. Jacob loved Rachel. He loved Joseph, his son by Rachel. He loved later Benjamin, the other son that he had by Rachel. And it appears that he showed that favor quite a bit. But you also not only see about Joseph that he was a favored son of Jacob, but that he later would become a second in command in the nation of Egypt.

And his life is really a remarkable example of trust in God. Now, what we read, and I'm not going to go through all of these, I'm just going to mention many of these things. What we read about Joseph is that as he was in Egypt, he was given a wife from the Pharaoh, a priest or a daughter of the priest of Aon, and he had two sons named Ephraim and Manasseh. Manasseh, I guess, first, and then Ephraim. And again, we're familiar with those names. We're familiar with studying where it appears the descendants of those individuals actually still exist here on earth, and clearly the blessings of Joseph here in the United States and in the British Empire of the past, more so of the past, maybe than today, because both of us are in decline. You see that, you know, that they would become... and actually what you read about is Jacob actually not looking at Ephraim and Manasseh as his grandsons, but as his sons, on the same par as others, and maybe in many ways, even more favorably, looking upon the sons of Joseph in a remarkable way. So we're going to focus on Joseph today, and I'd like for us to consider, since we, every year, as we observe the Passover, and as we observe the spring holy days, the days of Unleavened Bread, we always study the life of Moses. So we may know more about Moses than, you know, we know about any of these other patriarchs, because we go over the life of Moses. We go over the Exodus. We go over the children of Israel being taken out of Egypt, because all of that ties in with the holy days as we observe them, and as they have applicable meaning in our Christian lives. Yet I would say that Joseph's life is really about how God brought Israel to Egypt in the first place. That's, I mean, that is very clear that that was a part of what was taking place. And I, as you think about that, I don't know that I had focused on that as much. I mean, you think of the Exodus, you think of coming out of Egypt, you don't think about how you got in there. And yet Joseph's life and Joseph's service to God in Egypt is how Israel came to be in a thriving location in the land of Goshen in Egypt. So I think that's incredible, incredible that God's plan for man was being worked out at that time. Again, many, many millions of years, not millions, thousands of years ago, several thousand years ago, to bring the children of Israel into. And of course, there was only a small number of these, this family who was going down into Egypt. I want us to look in Exodus 11 because, as we've mentioned with the other patriarchs, Abraham is quite a bit described here in Hebrews 11. Hebrews is where I was wanting to go. Hebrews 11 has a good amount about Abraham. It has a verse about Isaac. It has a verse about Jacob. And in verse 22, it says by faith, Joseph. And so here it does mention Joseph as an example of faith toward God.

But it says by faith, Joseph, at the end of his life, he made mention of the exodus of the Israelites. Now here at the end of Joseph's life, he already fully believes, and God has helped him to understand that he was going to bring his people back to the land of Canaan. And, you know, that wasn't just a dream or that just wasn't a thought. That was not just even a prediction. It was what God was going to do. It was God's providence in the lives of the Israelites. And so it says by faith, Joseph made mention of the exodus of the Israelites. He gave instructions regarding his burial. He says, I want to be buried. I want to be brought back and buried in the land that is the land of promise. And so if we jump back to Genesis chapter 50, we see, you know, this pretty much encapsulated in the last few verses in the book of Genesis.

See, clearly Joseph believed God's promises that he would bless the descendants of Israel.

Joseph and his sons, their children, their grandchildren, but also all of the other sons of Jacob who would comprise the house of Israel or the nation, I guess we should say, the nation of Israel growing in Egypt. In verse 24 of chapter 50 of Genesis, it says, Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will surely come to you and God will bring you up out of the land, the land that he swore to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. See, Joseph had grown to understand what it was that God had done in preserving this people. I don't think he fully understood that at times, and maybe he did, but I'm going to show you I believe he grew in his understanding of God's working in his life, and that perhaps is also a lesson for us. So we should grow in our understanding of God working in our life in a marvelous way, and I believe Joseph grew in that, but he said, God is surely going to bring you up out of the land and carry you to the land promised to our forefathers, carry you to the land of Canaan. And so Joseph made the Israelites swear, saying, when God comes to you, then you are to carry up my bones from here. And Joseph died being 110, so he wasn't terribly old compared to some of the others. I think Isaac was what, 147? I was trying to think Abraham was 175? I believe I didn't look those up, but I was just trying to remember, you know, they all lived lengthy periods of time, but Joseph only lived 110.

And it goes on to say, verse 26, Joseph died being 110, and he was embalmed and placed in a coffin in Egypt. And whenever you study about that, you find out that Joseph was quite prominent in Egypt, as we know. And he was, you know, in a sense, given somewhat of a state funeral. He was embalmed, which would have taken, and there were different methods to do that, but probably the highest level of care was going to be given to this servant of Egypt. It may have taken 40 days for that to occur. In a sense, as I think about it, it almost seems that he may have been mummified. I mean, that would be my understanding of it, so that he would, in a sense, be able to be carried out of there, and that he would wander in the wilderness with them for 40 years and eventually be taken to the land of promise, and he would be buried in Shechem. You know, you can look all of those up. Joshua 2432 says that they were instructed to carry his bones out, and then he would later be buried in Shechem. So you can see that, you know, some remarkable things were taking place in Joseph's life. And I think even our children probably know at least a little bit, and perhaps all of us know a good amount, about the story of the life of Jacob.

Clearly he was favored by his father Jacob, or excuse me, Joseph, is who I'm talking about, Joseph favored by his father. He was a brother to Benjamin by Rachel, so Rachel was the mother of both Benjamin and Joseph. Joseph had a coat of many colors. You know, this was somewhat the, you know, extravagant favoritism that Jacob gave to Joseph. Being a younger son, being someone that may have been kind of coddled and certainly greatly loved.

You find Joseph being sold into Egyptian slavery. You find him being thrown into prison over the incident with Potiphar's wife. You find in prison that Joseph interpreted some dreams.

He eventually interpreted Pharaoh's dream that was about seven years and seven years. You know, what was this about? Well, God gave Joseph an ability to interpret those things, and ultimately he would rise into the second command in Egypt.

Several chapters here in the higher 40s of Genesis is dealing with his brothers as they come to Egypt because they're hungry. And you can read several chapters of things going back and forth and even the way that he viewed them because they didn't recognize him, they didn't notice who he was. Apparently he must have changed considerably or perhaps took on more of an Egyptian look as opposed to, you know, what his brothers may have thought he looked like. I don't guess they had photographs like we have today. I doubt if they had Facebook or whatever the other stuff is where you put pictures out there so easily. They didn't have any of that, and they didn't recognize him. It says, you know, when they came to him, they had no clue. He knew who they were. He figured that out. But eventually he would bring his father, Jacob, and his whole household to Egypt. And he would settle them in the land of Goshen where they and all their flocks could just thrive. Whenever you look at the land, you know, the land of Goshen is essentially the Nile Delta. You know, it looks like the area that would appear to be extremely well watered and well, you know, the silt from the Nile would make up much of the land. It would be a very, you know, a lot of places in Egypt, I think, are pretty sad-looking, you know, sand and other stuff. But, you know, the Nile Delta was not, you know, that was a pretty prosperous area. Everything along the Nile, up and down the Nile, was, because of the water, a blessed land. But right in where they were in Goshen, that was a prominent place.

So what lessons can we learn from Joseph's faithful life? I want to point out five things here. I think I should have time to do so. Five things that may have direct application to each of us.

And I guess the title for this, since Mr. Jackson is going to ask me for that, is Joseph, God's servant in Egypt. Because ultimately, that's what's going to happen. So the first thing I want to mention, and I know that we all know that this is very obvious, when you look in Genesis 37. Genesis 37, verse 2, this is the story of the family of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers. He was helping some of the others. Joseph brought a bad report of the brothers to their father. You know, well, you know, a little brother saying they're out here smoking cigars, or whatever they were doing. I don't know what they, it doesn't say exactly, but I have a remembrance of my little brother telling my dad, hey, they're down there smoking cigars. Hey, David, where's your cigar? Oh, it's here in my pocket. So, you know, I don't know what the bad report was. I imagine it was worse than that. But nonetheless, that's what we see. Verse 3, now, Jacob, Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children because he was the son of his old age, and he had made him a long robe with sleeves or a coat of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than all of his brothers, they hated him.

They didn't like Joseph a bit. They hated him, and they could not speak peaceably to him.

Family feud, difficulty between the siblings.

The first point here is that Joseph suffered family jealousies and rivalries. Now, when you go ahead and read this, you see that Joseph kind of exaggerated this with telling everybody about his dreams. That didn't go over big because in verse 5 through 8, he tells him about the sheaves that all bow down to his sheave. That probably wasn't endearing to the brothers. And in verse 8, the brothers say, are you indeed to reign over us? Are you indeed to have dominion over us? And so they hated him even more because of his dreams and because of his words. And so it looks like he added a little fuel to the fire by even though he was seemingly given a favor by his dad. He was going to suffer from this. And of course, another dream about the sun and the moon and the stars and eventually bowing down to him. And in verse 10, when he told this dream to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him. And he said, what kind of dream is this that you've had? Shall we indeed come? I am your mother and your brothers and bow down to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of Joseph. But his father kept the matter in mind. Now his dad had to consider the fact that, well, I've had a few dreams myself. I've had a few visions. I've had interaction with the creator God. And even though I don't know exactly what these mean right now, I'm going to at least keep that in mind. Although you find that Joseph, or excuse me, Jacob suffered a good deal over the loss of Joseph, over not knowing where he was for a lengthy period of time and thinking he was dead because that was what the brothers would would cause him to think.

So the first point is simply that Joseph suffered family jealousy and rivalry.

See, sometimes, you know, we may suffer some of that as well. In Matthew 10, you see Jesus as he spoke about His coming to the earth. He says in Matthew 10, verse 34, don't think that I've come to bring peace on earth. I've not come to bring peace but a sword.

I've come to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law and her one's foe will be members of your own household.

And whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. But whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it and those who lose their lives, for my sake, will find it. Now, he was clearly making a statement that would be applicable to those who would come to an understanding of their calling from God and their need to respond regardless of what their physical circumstances might be, regardless of who does or doesn't like it. I certainly know in my case, you know, my parents were very favorable toward me learning about the church, but in my wife's case that was not the case at all. You know, they virtually kicked her out of the house, off the porch, and into the street because they didn't like it. They didn't want her to pursue that. And at 17, I guess, which she was, that was a hard thing to do. And yet, and even as this goes ahead to say, you know, we don't often think about the difficulties that arise in our families until there are differences of belief, differences of opinion, and of course then we have to learn how to try to keep those things from dividing us any more than necessary. That's, you know, we don't always do a good job. Joseph did a terrible job. I mean, maybe he had no choice. He had to say what it was that he dreamed, and then they could think of whatever they thought about how this sounds horrible. But you see that Joseph suffered from family jealousy and rivalries, and sometimes if we're going to follow Jesus Christ, if we're going to honor Him and put Him first in our lives, put God first in our lives, then, you know, we may endure, you know, certain suffering as Joseph did. Secondly, as a slave in Egypt, and we know that Joseph was going to be eventually sold into Egyptian slavery, as a slave in Egypt, Joseph's life was not without intense trials. He would eventually be enslaved and serve in Potiphar's house. Later, he would be in prison. In chapter 39, Genesis 39, this chapter you see the encounters with Potiphar's wife, and I'm not intending to go through the entirety of this chapter, but I want to read a verse or two that just point out that even though Joseph was, you know, he was forsaken by his brothers and he was initially thrown in the pit and later sold to the caravan and later in slavery in Egypt and in Potiphar's house, which appears to be a pretty good place to have been, except it wasn't a bed of roses. It was difficult. Verse 10, chapter 39, it says, although Potiphar's wife spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her to be with her. You know, she was continually trying to get him to sin, and it appears, you know, he had to be fending this off considerably over a period of time. And a little later, whenever Potiphar learns of this, and of course she frames him, he throws him in jail. Verse 20, Joseph's master took him and put him in the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were confined and he remained there in prison.

See, amazingly, Joseph's life, Joseph's righteous life, he was right in rejecting, you know, the illicit affairs that this woman was approaching him with. He was right in doing that, but he suffered for it. He got thrown in prison. And if we jump over to chapter 40, even as he's in prison and as he's interacting with the chief cupbearer, and later the chief baker, I guess the chief cupbearer more so because he was the one who had a favorable dream, or a dream that recalled a favorable outcome.

And yet Joseph told him in verse 14, after he had told him what's going to happen, you're going to be restored. That's what your dream means. But he says to this cupbearer, remember me, remember me when it is well with you, please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh and get me out of this place. It almost seems like this wasn't the most pleasant, even though he was given favor and he was allowed to serve everybody and probably had plenty to eat, I would guess, because if that was what he was in charge of.

But this is where I want to be. You know, I don't want to be here in prison. And of course, you find in chapter 41, after two years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by denial, and so Pharaoh has a dream. And he was there for two years. He was in prison for two years. It was not simply in Potiphar's house for a while, but he was in prison. And in a sense, I'm sure that he had to wonder, has God completely forgotten me? I mean, you don't see a life where, you know, everything is just going well. Now, ultimately, things are going to improve, but during this time and during this youthful time, which would appear to be upper teens and twenties, and ultimately, it mentions him being 30, I believe.

So it was during a time when, you know, when he probably wasn't real, secure in his own thinking about what is God doing? And yet he did have, he did have good ancestry. He did have good genealogy from Jacob and Isaac and Abraham. He did have an awareness of the Creator God. He had awareness of someone who could help him, and yet you find that he may have thought that he was forgotten.

And, you know, he probably felt, in a sense, betrayed. He felt, you know, that God's not helping me right now. And, of course, if we think about that as far as our own lives, as God brings us into an understanding of our need for him and of Christianity, we hope that that will reveal, you know, many benefits, and certainly it does. But it also comes along with the trials and the tests and the verification that we truly are fully committed to God and to his plan and to his working in our lives.

And in 1 Peter 4, you know, Peter writes it in such a way that I think it just stands out when we think about, you know, the fact not just that Joseph was, you know, tempted and had to flee Potiphar's wife, but that he had to fight discouragement, he had to fight, you know, feeling that it is, you know, things are just not going well.

I can't believe this. First, I'm in the pit, then I'm in the caravan, and I'm enslaved, in a sense, and now I'm imprisoned. You know, it kind of got bad before it eventually would get better, but here in 1 Peter 4, verse 12, beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you as though some strange thing happened to you. Too many times whenever we labor with difficulties, we often, and Mr. Jackson did a good job of pointing out, you know, how we can approach God, how we can come to rely on God and appreciate what God does for us and know that He knows best as far as even what outcomes are good for us.

But here, Peter is simply saying, you know, don't think it's strange that you endure some trials. Don't think it's strange. But he says in verse 13, rejoice in safaris you are sharing Christ's suffering so that you may also be glad and shop for joy when His glory is revealed.

See, we are. God is working with us in a way where He is preparing us for sonship in His family, sonship and daughtership, children of the great God. And so as incredible as it is, you know, we want to be looking to that future reward and realize, you know, that trials and tests are inevitable. That's clearly what Joseph went through. The third thing I want to mention about Joseph is in chapter 41 of Genesis. Genesis chapter 41. Genesis 41 is where Joseph is interacting with Pharaoh. He's interpreting his dream about the seven fat years and the seven lean years that are going to happen here in Egypt.

And ultimately, he is given a rulership that most of us probably, you know, we're not going to be selected to be the vice president of the United States. We're just not. I mean, some of you may well be able to do that, but I don't think any of us are going to be given that kind of a prominent role, you know, second in command in any big country or Egypt as a prominent nation at the time. We're not going to be in that kind of role, but certainly things turned around for Joseph. Things greatly improved, and he ultimately was given responsibility where he was a ruler in Pharaoh's house and a director of how to prepare for the famine that's coming. And ultimately, he made Pharaoh very, very wealthy, ultimately owning everything and having plenty of food, grain, to be able to live through a time of lean years.

And so whenever, you know, Joseph was given the power that he was given, he used that power to serve other people. And I'm sure that Ephraim and NASA learned something about that as well, because here they are with their father. I'm sure they had a great deal of prominence as well.

And yet, you know, whenever he was given that rulership, he needed to use that as a servant. And he did use that as a servant, preparing the land and preparing even where they could help others around them who would come to them and who were hungry and who would need food. I'm not going to read through all of these verses, but I'll read a couple here in verse 37.

What Joseph proposed to Pharaoh, I pleased Pharaoh and his servants. Verse 38, say, Pharaoh and his servants said, Can you find anyone else like this, one in whom there is the Spirit of God? And so Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are, you are going to be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command? And only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you. He was given a great deal of responsibility. But as we see, he used that in serving. And of course, whenever we find ourselves in any role of trying to lead or trying to help others, we want to keep in mind that, well, there's a wrong way to do that and there's a right way to do that. And the right way to do that is to do that out of the example that Jesus said, which was clearly of serving other people. Jesus' example was the perfect example. He was willing to wash the feet of the disciples. He was willing to serve them even to the very end of giving his life not only for them but for the whole world. But he also explained that well-service leadership is, that's what I'm all about. That's what you need to become about. That's what you need to understand that if you're going to be given authority, if you're going to be given power, then you need to understand how that should be used. Here in Galatians chapter 5, you see Paul stating to the people there in Galatia that they need to use the liberty that they've been given, the forgiveness and the freedom that they have, knowing that they're released from sin. They need to use that in a proper way. Starting in verse 13, Galatians 5, he says, you are called to freedom, brethren.

Only don't use this freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence. But through love, become slaves or servants to one another. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. If, however, you don't do that, if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

If we don't learn to cooperate and love and serve one another, what kind of a leader are we learning to be? Are we preparing to be in God's service? See, Joseph was God's servant in Egypt. It's incredible. I'm sure, you know, he had seen the depths of the prison in Egypt.

He also was now seeing things from a completely different viewpoint as second in command.

And he needed to serve the people not only of Egypt, but ultimately he was going to serve his brothers, his family, his household, and those who would be preserved of the household of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. So the fourth thing, and this is, I think this stands out remarkably whenever you read in Genesis 45, whenever the brothers eventually get down there to Egypt because they need to go there to buy food, Jacob has sent them there. And it says in chapter 45, after Joseph, he was aware of who they were and he put them through a few paces as far as things they needed to do, but ultimately he couldn't stand it any longer. Chapter 45 reveals a heart, a tender heart, that Joseph had a tender heart of forgiveness. And in verse 1, chapter 45, Joseph could no longer control himself because all those who stood by him, before those who stood by him, and so he cried out, send everybody away. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers didn't answer because they were just dumbfounded. They were dismayed at the presence. They couldn't believe their eyes. But you see the care and the nurture that Joseph has in this case. In verse 4, Joseph said to his brothers, come close to me, closer to me. And they came closer. He said, I'm your brother Joseph, whom you sold into slavery, into Egypt. And now, don't be distressed. Don't be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

Again, Joseph's concern for these brethren, these brothers of his, was incredible.

If we drop down to verse 11, he says, I will provide for you. I will provide for you. There's going to be five more years of famine to come so that you and your household and all you have with you will not come to poverty. So you won't die out up in Canaan. I want you to be here. I want to provide for you. In verse 14, he says, whenever Benjamin was brought to him, he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept while Benjamin wept on his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept with them. And after that, his brothers talked with him. See, what an incredible reunion.

And yet the reunion was mostly on Joseph's side because the brothers were just looking at each other, how can this possibly be? And they all had to realize, you know, well, I guess we are kind of bowing before him. If we go over to chapter 50, you see this elaborated even a little more because after their father dies, after Jacob dies and after he is buried, he is actually taken in a very, you know, massive processional up and buried in the land of Canaan. And yet in verse 15 it says, chapter 50 verse 15, realizing the father was now dead, Joseph's brothers said, what if Joseph still bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong that we did to him?

So clearly the brothers are somewhat carnal-minded, as all of us are, and they began to realize, oh, well, Joseph's tricked us off of good while Dad's here, but when he's gone, what if he holds a grudge what if he takes it out on us? And so they, it appears, came up with a plan, they approached Joseph, saying, your father gave this instruction before he died. Now, I don't see where I see that that was given, but that's at least what they came up with. You should say to Joseph, I beg you, forgive the crime of your brothers and the wrong they have done in harming you. Please, now therefore, please forgive the crime of the servants of the God of your father.

See, they, now I would guess they came up with that, perhaps to save their own hide, but maybe, maybe Jacob had told them that. You know, at least it's recorded here and doesn't, it almost sounds like it was put together, but it could have been easily what Jacob could have said. You know, you're gonna, you're gonna, you're gonna really need to make amends here with your brother, but the outcome, of course, in verse 17 is remarkable. Joseph wept when they spoke to him, and his brothers said, as they fell down before him, and said, we are here as your servants, and Joseph said, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people as he is doing today, so don't be afraid. Have no fear. I, myself, will provide for you and for your little ones, and in this way he reassured them and spoke very kindly to them. What kind of a heart of forgiveness, a tender heart, did Joseph have toward his brothers who had clearly treated him wrong, who had clearly been in the wrong, but he was very willing to forgive, because at this point, Joseph had grown considerably. And that's my last point, number five. Well, I'll just mention, you know, we could read Luke 11, verse 4, where it says, forgive others if we wish to be forgiven. That was a part of what Christ stated in the Lord's Prayer. In the model of prayer, he says, you know, you need to be forgiven, and so learn to be forgiving. Clearly, exactly what Joseph had come to understand. But then the last thing that I want to mention is that it appears to me that throughout this scenario that we see described in these numerous chapters, Joseph grew in his relationship with God. He grew in a stronger faith in God, in a stronger understanding of God's involvement in his life. I don't think he thought, what we've read here now about, you know, reconciling with his brothers, I don't think he thought about that when he was in prison.

When he was in prison, he said, get me out of this mess. He was probably imploring God, you know, I need help. But what we find, if we go back to chapter 39, and this is, I think this is just incredible, and it should be something that we each apply to ourselves, that we should, many of us have been around the Church of God for decades, we should have a better understanding of God's involvement in our life today than we did when we were younger. We might think, well, I don't remember quite as much as I used to. Now that's okay. We can grow in faith in God, in trust in God. We can grow in our commitment to God, and I believe that that's exactly what Joseph was doing.

Here in chapter 39, it says in verse 2, the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master, Potiphar. Clearly, whether he understood it or realized it or not, God was with him there as he was a servant in Potiphar's house.

Later on in chapter 39, verse 23, when he was in prison.

Chapter 39, verse 21, please. But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him steadfast love, and gave him favor in the sight of the jailer. The chief jailer committed to Joseph's care all the prisoners who were in the prison, and whatever was done there. And he was the one who did it, and the chief jailer paid no attention to anything that Joseph's care, under Joseph's care, because the Lord was with him. Whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. See, I'm sure during that time, even though, you know, Jacob, or excuse me, Joseph was in a jail, he was being given favor. He was being given encouragement. It was obvious to the jailer that, well, he's got the mightest touch. You know, everything he does turns out well. God, as we read here, was with him. And of course, in chapter 41, verse 37, we've already read this, the proposal, please, Pharaoh. Pharaoh said, can you find anyone else like this one in whom the Spirit of God is? You don't see too many references to people having the Spirit of God in the Old Testament. You see God working with them. Clearly, David implored God, please don't take your Holy Spirit from me. He understood something about how God had worked with Saul and how he was working with him. And so, there weren't very many who could say that they had the Spirit of God, but this seems to indicate that Joseph was guided by God's Spirit. He was aided in understanding and growing, even in what he would later say here in chapter 45. In chapter 45, you see a remarkable statement. This is where he is revealing himself to his brothers. And he said in verse 5, chapter 45, verse 5, he says, don't be distressed, don't be angry with yourself because you sold me into slavery here, for God has sent me before you.

He had come to realize I'm a servant of God. I'm here and I'm in authority, I'm in power in order to serve not only the Egyptians, but the household of Jacob. God, our Creator God, the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Joseph has sent me before you to preserve life. And in verse 7, he says, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you, brothers, who sent me here, but it was God. God was the one directing what happened in Joseph's life. So it was God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and the Lord of all his house and ruler over the land of Egypt. Joseph's understanding of God's working in his life was increasing. This is also when he is very forgiving toward his brothers. He has grown to where he had understood God had prepared this place not only for him and for his household, his wife, his children, their children, but the children of his brothers and of Jacob and of the entire household that would make up the people of Israel. And they had been, they had in a sense, been provided a place of refuge, a sanctuary where they could survive a famine that apparently was massive and be able to be secure during that time. And ultimately, as Joseph would predict, you know, they would eventually be taken by God in an exodus out of Egypt, which of course we study a good amount, you know, as we study the days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover for the spring holy days. So I believe, and even if we want to jump on here to chapter 46, we see that Joseph had come to understand that God had sent him to preserve the people of Jacob.

He understood that I'm not just doing this on my own. I'm not, it's not because I'm so brilliant that I'm the leader here in Egypt. It's because of God using me and teaching me a number of lessons so that I can be useful to him in his service. In this case, clearly, it was going to be in preserving the people of Israel so that, you know, they could grow in Egypt. So we have a number of lessons that we can learn from the life of Joseph, and we have them all contained there, mostly in chapter 37 through 50. Many of them, again, are familiar to us. Maybe some of these could stand out to how God is working in our lives, how he is preparing us to be of service in the kingdom of God, how he wants us to learn to be the type of king or the type of ruler or the type of priest that is truly responsive to the Word and to the Spirit of God. I think that's what Joseph represented. And so I think we can, as we understand the patriarchs to be Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, that we could also add Joseph to that list. Clearly, patriarch would be the primary ones, or Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but Joseph would be considered a patriarch in Israel, whose faith and whose trust in God, even as he grew through God's time of working with him, as it continued to expand, we can learn from that example. And we, of course, should follow his faith and his trust in God.