“Testing Your Brother” - Genesis Chapter 44 - Pastor Scotty Brown

I just wanted to do maybe just a real quick update. The world continues to have

birth pains, right? And one thing about birth pains is they get more intense and

closer together. And just this morning I was reading about an

earthquake in the Philippines, flooding in China, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, killing

some people. Israel on the brink of all-out war, as quoted from some Russian

military dude. Israel, after successfully eliminating Hamas and Hezbollah

leaders in Lebanon and Iran, it seems like the imminent threat from Iran,

Turkey, and Russia seems to be inching closer and closer to Ezekiel 38 and 39.

As we watch that, it is quite interesting. You know, you would think

that we've had some of these skirmishes at the border of Israel and then it

would maybe soften or lighten up, but it seems to be intensifying. So it could be.

So it's definitely something that we need to be watching. The US commodity

prices are in the tank, and that's wild. They said spud farm. Any spud farmers in

here? Because the potato market sounds like if you don't have a contract, spuds

are gonna be at about two bucks. And I think it's, that's two bucks for

100 pounds of potatoes, which I think they, you know, they contract at 10 and

above, possibly, but they, that could be pretty devastating. I think most spud

farmers have ulcers anyway, but I know I would, because it's about $3,000 a

acre just to get them implanted in the ground. That's quite

interesting. And then Venezuela's elections have been crazy. The US

recognizes opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzales as the winner. However,

Nicolas Maduro, or Madro, however you pronounce it, under whose 11-year

presidency, Venezuela has taken an increasingly authoritarian

track and been plunged into economic chaos, has claimed a victory in last

Sunday's vote. So there, it's like mayhem there. And it's funny, because one

of the guys that has gone to church here over the years, he was, he grew up

in Venezuela, and he grew up in a time when it was very prosperous and did

quite well. And he's told me several times, he said, "It is happening in

America. What's happened in Venezuela is happening in America." And so that's

something that we need to be watching and praying about as well. It is

interesting, the turns that our upcoming election is taking. In a recent

speech at Coppin State University in Baltimore, Maryland, Kamala Harris said,

listen to this, this is a quote, I saw it with my own eyes and ears, "When we invest

in clean energy and electric vehicles and reduce the population, more of

our children can breathe clean air and drink clean water." I'm just like,

seriously? The White House immediately released a transcript of

the speech where the word "population" was crossed out and "pollution" was added in

brackets to imply that this was the VP's really intended, what she really

intended to say. So, it is, listen folks, it is as, and somebody just said it to me

as they were walking in, it is as though there is a spirit of absolute stupidity

slash insanity has taken over our world. Not just America, though it seems like we're

leading the way, but the whole world. And so as believers, man, just speak truth.

Because it makes sense to most people, the truth does. But people are, there's a

there's a verse in Daniel that talks about world leaders and the certain

world leader that we know is coming will cause deceit to prosper. It appears that

deceit is prospering now and getting a lot of momentum. So, Jeremiah 4.22 says

this, and I'm using the ESV because of the wording, but it says, "For my people

are foolish. They know me not. They are stupid children. They have no

understanding. They are wise in doing evil, but how to do good they do not know."

And that just seems to be what's happening, isn't it? It's just, it's just

it's like there there is truly this veil and this this blindness. Second

Corinthians mentions it in 2nd Corinthians 4, 3 and 4, "But even if our

gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing." You ever shared the

gospel, shared about Jesus with people, and they just kind of shake their head

like, "I don't get it. I just don't get it." And yet a lot of that is because of a

improper self-view. That, "I'm good. I'm a good person. I've never murdered anybody.

Why would I need this this Jewish carpenter, martyr, Savior dude?" And so, and

it goes on, it says, "Whose minds the God of this age has blinded who do not

believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of

God, should shine on them." And I don't want to be a like a downer, but the

bright side is, is God is on the throne. Right? He's got it. I mean, it's

exciting to watch because it's been prophesied, and now we see it

happening, and the reality of it all is just, it's starting to sink in.

You just go, "Wow. How wild is that?" Right? Daniel talks about, in verse 4, or

chapter 4, excuse me, verse 35, "All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as

nothing. He, God, does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the

inhabitants of the earth, no one can restrain his hand or say to him, 'What

have you done?'" Right? God is on the throne, and that's why we can look at

this stuff, right? We don't have to get spun up. We don't have to walk in fear.

We can just smile and say, "According to your word, O Lord. According to your word."

Man has been fulfilling these predictions and these prophecies of

the Word of God for years. We're really good at it, even when it comes to

doing things that are stupid and are against his word. Jeremiah 32, 17, "Ah, Lord

God, behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and

outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for you." Right? And so the Lord can

restore sanity. And I think we need to pray to that end as the body

of Christ, that God would make himself known to people. Because obviously

we're struggling with that. And the Lord's given us a voice, so if there's

ever a time to speak truth and to be bold as lions, it's now. And so we're

gonna get into Genesis. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for your word. We love it. We

thank you that you are on the throne. Lord, that all of this really is nothing

to you. In that your ability to change the course of the heart of men and women,

Lord, and to turn them whether so ever you wish, Lord, them to go. And you're

willing that none should perish, Lord. And you've been so gracious and so

merciful to us as people, Lord, to show us mercy and to be kind. And you've

overlooked so much foolishness. But Lord, it seems like there is a foolishness now

in the world that is going to great lengths to defy you, Lord. And I know

that you will only have a certain threshold that you'll tolerate

that, Lord. So we just thank you that you're a great judge. You're also a

merciful God. We lift up our family members who need to turn to you and turn

from their own ways, their own foolish ways, and that God, that they would be

saved. I just think of our children and our grandchildren and our friends and

our neighbors, Lord, and our co-workers, Lord, that we have actually had an

opportunity to be a witness. And you're gonna use that to draw them to

yourself, Lord. May your words be on our lips, Lord, that they would have something

that the Holy Spirit can prod them with, Lord, to come to you. And so bless your

word now as we look at this beautiful story here in Genesis, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Okay, this is a test. It is only a test. We've heard that over the years, right?

And we look back, and God, many times, I think, takes people to a

certain place where they're absolutely helpless. And maybe He asks, He's asked

you or He's asked myself before things, to do things that we don't think that

we're capable of. In Genesis, the glaring one is obviously when He tells

Abraham to offer up his son Isaac, his only son Isaac, the son whom he loves.

And He asked him to do that, not knowing, Abraham not knowing it was a test.

And the old saying is really true, "A faith that cannot be tested cannot be

trusted." And so if you're going through some heavies at the moment, just

know that it's a test. It's also been called the refiner's fire. We don't like

that one so much. It seems to be more painful. But here in Genesis 44, we see

Joseph continuing his testing of his brothers, right? He sent him back

home, said, "Bring your brother back or you're not even gonna see my face." They

had quite the family feud over it. Jacob resigning to his own demise,

thinking that he's gonna have to mourn the loss of more sons and go to the

grave. Just a bitter, heartbroken, grief-stricken old man. And yet it was

just a test. Just a test. But he doesn't know that yet. And some of this stuff we

don't know yet. We don't know what God's gonna do. "My car might show up in my

driveway tomorrow morning." Guy pulls my address off. He's almost out of gas. He

said, "Well, might as well give it back to the stupid fool that left the keys in it."

An older gal messaged my wife and says, "Hey, I saw that car going down 17th

Street Friday afternoon." Yeah, because how can you miss that car? You should have

heard me trying to explain it to the police officer. He says, "What color is it?"

Yeah, so, anyway. Funny stuff. But Joseph isn't done.

He has the meal with these brothers. He kind of puts a test out there

with giving a super serving to his brother Benjamin to see if the

elder brothers would respond. Didn't seem to get a rise out of him, so he shifts

gears. And in verse 1 of chapter 44, he says, "And he commanded the steward of his

house to fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry and put each

man's money in the mouth of his sack. Also put my cup, the silver cup, in the

mouth of the sack of the youngest and his grain money. So he did according to

the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning dawn and the men were

sent away, they and their donkeys, and when they had gone out of the city and

were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, 'Go up, follow the men, and when

you overtake them, say to them, "Why have you repaid evil for good? Is not this the

one from which my Lord drinks and with which he indeed practices divination? You

have done evil in so doing." So Joseph here, he sends them away, but not without

stacking the deck first, right? He's setting them up. He's setting them up.

And the steward knows about it, and Joseph is making sure that this

violation is going to be a weighty one, right? That you're sinning against not

just Egypt, but you have sinned personally against the most powerful man

in Egypt by thievery. And so... And it was in the realm of worship, right? You ever

notice how passionate people are about their worship? I mean, they could actually

be a backslidden worshiper of maybe Buddha or Joe Smith or, you know, Jehovah

Witnesses, but if you speak anything about those religions, the people who

have grown up believing that, holy cow, do they want to fight. I don't know

how many of you've talked to Jack Mormons before. You start talking about

Mormonism, "Oh, bull, they're fired up." "Oh, I believe it." "Yeah, but you sure don't

live it." "Yeah, but I believe it, and you shouldn't be talking bad about that." I

mean, they get fired up when you start encroaching on their belief system. And

so here they've stolen what it says there that, "Did you not

know that he practices divination?" And divination is trying to

foresee the future. Now, and try to determine whether it's through poem

reading, crystal balls, right? They had a cup thing that they used. You can look it

up. And we know from other sources that the ancients did use sacred cups of

divination and different devices, and it is possible, though not likely, that

Joseph did also, because there was not yet specific revelation from God.

Obviously, this is before the law that the practice should be forbidden. The

point was to make the brothers aware that this was a special cup, and it was a

terrible crime to take it from someone so powerful. And so Joseph has a lot of

leverage on his bros at this point. Somebody got a lot of leverage on you? I

know a lot of people that have a lot of leverage on me if they wanted to, so I

probably wouldn't do so good running for public office, right? Because that closet

would get opened up and all the trash would come flying out, you know? And

because they do dig deep, right? When people try to step out and do

public service or whatever. But Joseph knows all the ins and outs. He knows

all the faults and failures of his brothers, and here he has created a

big one. And so verse 6 tells us, it says, "And so he overtook them, and he spoke to

them these same words, and they said to him, 'Why does my Lord say these words? Far

be it from us that your servants should do such a thing. Look, we brought back to

you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks.

How then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house? With whomever of

your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my Lord's slaves.'" I do

not know what it is about us that we always think so much highly of ourselves

than we ought to. Paul talks about this. He says, "Don't think more highly

of yourself than you ought to." Why? Because we have this bent. And they're

going, "No, we wouldn't do that. Really? I think you'd chuck your brother in a hole

or send him on down the road in shackles for 20 pieces of silver." Sure you would.

You would. I would. We have this nature, and why it is that we're so

bent and twisted towards these things, but when we look in the mirror, we think

we see something so much better than we do.

We're good people. We're honest men. We wouldn't do this. In fact, we're so

confident in our goodness that whoever you find the cup, whoever's possession,

kill them. That's a little rash, isn't it? Because don't we all deserve the sword? We all

deserve to die for what we've done. And I know there's somebody in this room right

now thinking, "Oh yeah? Speak for yourself, Pastor Scotty."

But they said, "No. We wouldn't do this. We, you know..." Instead of just shutting up,

just letting it play out. Being slow to speak is such a virtue, but nobody has it.

I don't know why they would say that. They watched their dad say it, right? When

he had the conflict with Laban, and Laban's searching for his gods that had

been stolen, and Jacob says, "Well, whoever you find them with, kill them." He just

threw Rachel under the bus. His pretty little bride that he'd worked 21 years

for. And that's where we find ourselves, and so often just that proper

self-view is something that I'm convinced that the reading of the Word

of God on a consistent basis keeps that part of your life in check. Otherwise,

you just, you automatically, when the Word of God is not coming into your

heart on a consistent basis, you automatically elevate. You just start

going up. You start swelling up like a toad. We do. It's just this

condition that we have that we have to ride hurt on our whole lives. And so they

rashly, right, say the perpetrator should die. Well, that should be all of them.

In verse 10, it says, "And he said, 'Now also let it be according to your words. He

with whom it is found shall be my slave.'" So the steward knows what's going on, and

so he's no doubt, I'm sure he's just fighting back the snickers and the

smiles, because he knows what's going on. And here these guys are, willing to

throw that one who is guilty to the lions. And I'm sure the steward is

really going, "Okay, as you guys have spoken, so they can be my

slave, right? They can be my slave, and you shall be blameless. Then each man

speedily let down his sack to the ground, and each opened his sack. So he searched,

and he began with the oldest and left off with the youngest." Here it is again.

No doubt. I don't know that they were in line, right? Youngest to oldest. But this

is the second time that this sequence has been brought to their attention,

right? So oldest to youngest, "And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. And then

they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the

city." Now Joseph is getting somewhere, right? Now he's getting somewhere. With

these guys, this test, it's really starting to reveal their heart.

And they tore their clothes, and they went back to town as though somebody did

die. They're thinking, "Oh my gosh. Their heart has changed. Their heart has

changed towards their sibling. Their heart has changed towards their dad." Do

you need a heart change towards someone in your life? You know, over the years, as

a believer, the times that the Lord has put his finger on something in my heart

that I had towards someone. In fact, usually it was people who had offended

me, right? Or had hurt somebody close to me that I loved, and I had a hatred for

them. But one time, as the Lord would have it, I took a new job. I had

worked for Christians for a couple years. You know, you get in your little

Christian bubble sometimes. You know, you're kind of safe. You know,

you're safe from the stinky part of the world. And I was kind of safe for a

couple years. And then I stepped into this crew of about, probably

there's probably about 25 of us. And they were construction guys, and they were

vile individuals. And I hadn't been around that at a time. I hadn't been

around the language. And golly, one morning I walked in the break room, and

here's about 15 or 20 of them, and they're sitting there, and they're

talking about their wives. And I'm just like, "Whoa, I ain't gonna stay here." I

mean, I just walked in and turned around and walked out. But there was this one

particular guy, right? He had kind of some longer hair, kind of greaser,

greaser looking dude, right? And I could tell he mocha-toped a lot. He smoked a

lot of weed. And I'm just like, and I heard him talk, and I'm just like, "Lord,

please don't ever let me hang around that guy. I just, I just gotta be away

from that guy." Well as the Lord would have it. You guys know where this goes,

right? The very next day I was in a transport with this guy, transporting

equipment all day long. And I had made this judgment, and I just kind of, you

know, I used to bounce people's, like, him's head off the pavement

when I was a hellion. And I just, and we started talking, and I started sharing

with him. By the end of the day, I was almost in tears. I had such a compassion

for this guy. God had changed my heart so much in just a very short time. I kind

of just despised the very look of him. And to this day, when I see him, I mean,

we shake hands, and, you know, I ask him if he's ready to ask Jesus into

his heart yet. And so, because I'd shared the gospel with him, and he'd grown up

and been exposed to church a little bit. And so I was kind of pressuring

him a little about becoming a Christian, and kind of told him my

testimony. And he said, he looked at me, he goes, "Yeah, Scotty, but you got to want

it, right?" I said, "Yeah, Chris, you got to want it. You got to want it." And so,

the Lord had to check my heart. And when he puts that in your face, and he's

calling you out, please respond. Because I'm telling you, suspicion and hate and a

discontentedness with somebody else, it's just like a poison. And yet, when the Lord

comes along, and he puts his finger on it, says, "No, I want to turn that into

compassion." And to this day, I love this guy. And, you know, greasy hair and all.

I did offer to cut his hair, but... But it's just amazing when you'll... Just be

honest with the Lord. And just let him touch your heart and put

something in there that you don't have the capacity apart from him to do.

It's such a beautiful thing. And the Lord has taught these guys some

things over the years. And so, in verse 14, it says, "So Judah and his brothers

came to Joseph's house," right? Notice all of them. It says, "They tore their clothes."

Most Bible commenters think it's all of them. They all tore their clothes as

though somebody had died because they think that Benjamin might be toast. And

they all loaded their donkeys back. Every one of them went back. Not one of them

said, "That's it. I'm out of here." Right? "Too much drama for me. I'm going home."

Nobody did. They all loaded up and they went back to Joseph's house.

And he was still there. And they fell before him on the ground. Third time. This

is the third time they bowed before Joseph, just like his dream had showed

him. And Joseph said to them, "What deed is this you have done? Did you not know

that such a man as I can certainly practice divination?"

Verse 16, "Then Judah said, 'What shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? Or

how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of your servants.

Here we are, my Lord's slaves, both we and he also with whom the cup was found.'"

Would they equate it again? They equated it to their sin against

Joseph. And Joseph sees the agony in the faces of his brothers, the same agony

that he had experienced when they sold him. And he begged them not to. And here

they are in a place and they are on their knees and that saying is so true.

What goes around, comes around. What goes around, comes around. You reap what you

sow. Actually, you usually reap more than what you sow. You sow to the wind, the

Bible says, and you reap the whirlwind. And so here they are, they're

absolutely reaping what they sold. And maybe Joseph in his heart's going, "Okay,

now, now you know how it feels. Now you know." Doesn't this irritate you when

people give you counsel and when you're going through something and they

have no idea? It's kind of like those cocky single people that try to

tell you how to raise your kids and they've never had any. I think that's

Kamala's problem, right? Your kids are gonna be happy when we raise the

population, right? And they can breathe clean air and drive, you know, electric

vehicles. No children. You should have children. If you're young and you can

bear a child or adopt one, please have a child. Because they truly knock the rough

edges off, I'm just telling you, right? You know how it feels. You know, people

that can minister to my heart are usually people that have been there,

right? If I'm going through something, when you're going through something and

somebody speaks to you that really has no idea what you're going through, like

parents that have lost children and the things that people say to them, "Golly, if

you haven't lost a child, don't say anything. Just go hug them and tell them

I'm praying for you." But Joseph is seeing now that his brothers, he's making a

connection. Oh, you guys, you're starting to get a taste of it.

You're starting to understand what it feels like to be totally abandoned and

totally at a loss. So now he can get on with the reconciliation. Oh yeah, and by

the way, you can all go free. Just leave him here. "Oh, I only want the one that's

guilty," he said. And then the intercessor shows up. I'm sure it was getting weighty

when they thought, "Oh my gosh, he's gonna let all of us go and he's gonna take

Benjamin." But the steward should have given them hope because he told them, "No,

he's just gonna be a slave. We're not gonna kill him." And so Judah's

intercession here in the rest of the chapter, and I'm just gonna

read it, is pretty powerful. Judah had learned some things and he obviously is

a picture of Jesus here as he steps up. And then Judah came, verse 18, "came near

to him and said, 'Oh my Lord, please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's

hearing, and do not let your anger burn against your servant, for you are even

like Pharaoh.' My Lord asked his servants, saying, 'Have you a father

or a brother?' And we said to my Lord, 'We have a father, an old man, and a child of

his old age, who is young. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his

mother's children, and his father loves him.' Then you said to your servants, 'Bring

him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.' And we said to my Lord, 'The lad

cannot leave his father, or if he should leave his father, his father would die.'

But you said to your servants, 'Unless your youngest brother comes down with

you, you shall see my face no more.' And so it was when we went up to your servant,

my father, that we told him the words of my Lord, and our father said, 'Go back and

buy us a little food.' But we said, 'We cannot go down if our youngest brother

is with us, then we will go down, for we may not see the

man's face unless our youngest brother is with us.' And then your servant, my

father, said to us, 'You know that my wife bore me two sons, and the one went out

from me, and I said, "Surely he is torn to pieces, and I have not seen him since. But

if you take this one also from me, and calamity befalls him, you shall bring

down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. Now therefore, when I came to your

servant, my father, and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in

the lad's life, it will happen when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he

will die. So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant, our

father, with sorrow to the grave.' For your servant became surety for the lad to my

father, saying, 'If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame

before my father forever. Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead

of the lad as a slave to my Lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. For how

shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, lest perhaps I see the evil

that would come upon my father?'" And so this is a powerful thing that Judah

does here as the spokesman for his brothers. Now you remember, Judah

is the one that said, "Let's sell him. Let's sell him." He's singing a different tune

now, quite obviously, and he reminds Joseph, he goes, "Listen, we did everything

that you asked us to do. We did it all. We went back, we got our little brother, we

brought him down to you." Now it is interesting that in verse 28, Joseph

hears the lie. He hears the lie that was told about him, right? There in verse 28,

"And the one went out from me, and I said, 'Surely he is torn in pieces.'" That's what

you told him? Joseph is probably thinking, "You told him I was torn in pieces?" So you

told dad? No, that one that was torn in pieces? He's standing right here. It's

like a little granddaughter. "Right here! Hello?" But Judah's adamant, "There is no

way we can do this to our father," right? So his intercession that pictures

Jesus, obviously, Joseph is overwhelmed by this presentation, by

intercession. Intercession should overwhelm us. It overwhelms me every time

I think of my grandma Brown. That woman, she would not quit talking to God about

us. And so the hounds of heaven were just like, just on us all the time. I couldn't

be satisfied in my debauchery because of grandma. And I look back on that and I

just think, I'm so thankful that she did that. That she prayed. I remember Rick

had the audacity to ask grandma Brown. Jewel Dean Brown was her name. She had

these really thick glasses. So when she looked at you and she was mad at you, her eyes

looked like this big because they were behind magnifying glasses. And then she

had these hands that were just really big, you know, and when she walked you, you

knew it. I still remember her killing chickens. Man, could that woman kill

chickens? And sometimes the way she looked at us, we thought we might die too.

But Rick asked her, said, "Grandma, how often did you pray for us?" And she was

almost offended. She goes, "I prayed for you, boy, every day of your life."

Really? No wonder we had to give up. Intercession, it's so

powerful. It's so life-changing. It's life-changing in a family. Wives, pray

for your husbands. Husbands, pray for your wives. Right? Parents, pray for your

children. Intercede. Go to battle for them. Right? Sick the hounds of heaven on

them. They've heard enough words out of your mouth. Right? Just pray for

them. I love talking to parents thinking, "We've been talking to our son or

daughter for 20 years and they just won't listen." Well, shut up and pray for

them. Right? God knows which buttons to push, right? And he starts pushing those

buttons and you're just like, you're sitting back there going, "Oh, this really

works." Right? What a picture, right? Of Jesus. So we're...let's see here. I've got a

couple minutes. I'm gonna jump into the...because we got to see the meeting

here real quick. So he hears this from Judah. He hears all of these words. No

doubt he's brokenhearted for his father. He wants to reveal himself.

So verse 1, it just continues right into chapter 45. "Then Joseph could not

restrain himself before all those who stood by him. And he cried out, 'Make

everyone go out from me.' And so no one stood with him while Joseph made himself

known to his brothers. And he wept aloud in the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh,

heard it. And then Joseph said to his brothers, 'I am Joseph. Does my father

still live?' But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed in his

presence. And Joseph said to his brothers, 'Please come near me.' So they came near

him. And then he said to them, 'I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into

Egypt. But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves, because

you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. For these two years

the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years in which

there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to

preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great

deliverance. So now it was not you who sent me here, but God. And he has made me

a father to Pharaoh, and a lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the

land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, 'Thus says your son

Joseph, "God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not tarry. You shall

dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your

children, your children's children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you

have. There I will provide for you, lest you and your household and all that you

have come to poverty. For there are still five years of famine. And behold, your

eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to

you. And so you shall tell my father and all the glory of Egypt that of all that

you have seen, and you shall hurry and bring my father down here." Then he fell

on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Moreover,

he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked

with him. And they all lived happily ever after.

Do you imagine? You just, you just, you can't even hardly get your mind. But his

brothers could not answer him. They're, "Whoa! Here you are! You're not dead. You weren't

torn to pieces. The shackles hurt you, right?" This is interesting, you know, the

word "dismayed" there, it may actually means amazed or frightened or even

terrified. "Come near me," where it says that in Genesis 45, it implies that his

brothers cringed back in terror. There's Jewish legends about this,

actually, about this story. Obviously this is a very famous story among the Jewish

people, but there's a Jewish legend that says his brothers were so shocked that

their souls left their body. And it was only by a miracle of God their souls

came back. You know, when your sin is found out, a couple things happen, right?

I think a lot of times shame goes right out the window, but sometimes there's

shame when our sin is found out, but sometimes, a lot of times, there's

freedom, right? That's why the Bible says, "If you're faithful and just to confess

your sin," right? If you'll confess your sin, He's faithful and just, excuse me, to

cleanse you from all unrighteousness. There's a freedom that comes. And so

these guys know they're found out, they're shocked, they can't even talk to

the guy, but he affirms them by telling them, "You guys didn't do this." Well,

maybe a little bit, but God sent me here for a much bigger reason than the

scabs on his wrists and his ankles from the shackles. He sent me here to preserve

life, your life, and the life of your children, and the life of your

grandchildren. That's why God sent Joseph to Egypt, and that's why God sent Jesus

to earth. So you, and for me, and for our kids, and for our grandkids, he has purpose

and he has a will for the lives that are coming after us. I don't know what's

gonna happen if the Lord tarries. It doesn't feel like he's going to, but if

he does, I want my children and my grandchildren to know eternal life, to

know it, and to know that they can have it because of what Jesus did. And so this

is really what's gonna happen. Their dismay was kind of a preview of the

prophecy of what will happen when Jesus shows himself to the Jewish people.

Zechariah 12 10 says, "And I will pour out on the house of David, on the

inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will

look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one who mourns for

an only son, and grieve for him as one who grieves for a firstborn." That's what

was going on in the hearts of the brothers, no doubt. Warren Wiersbe says,

"It wasn't a time for explanations and excuses, but for honest expressions of

love and forgiveness. Joseph embraced his brothers and kissed them, especially

Benjamin, and they all wept together because hidden sin had been exposed and

dealt with and forgiveness had been granted." Oh how good it is to be

forgiven, right? Oh how sweet it is to be forgiven. Whether it's from the Lord or a

fellow human, people that have forgiven me, you know, from my kids to some of the

little kids at school to some brothers and sisters that I've offended over the

years, it is so good to be forgiven and have relationship restored. Three things

I just want to close with real quick. The types of Christ is always important to

bring out in Scripture. First, Judas points to Jesus as a sacrificial

substitute. He was willing, he said, "No, I have to be that one that you keep. You

cannot keep my brother. You can't put him in a place of judgment or punishment." And

that's what Christ was for us. Judas said, "Now therefore please let

your servant remain instead of the lad as a slave to my Lord, and let the lad go

up with his brothers." I read about just this morning in the

Scripture reading in chapter 9 of Romans where Paul wanted to be that. He said, "Oh,

if I could just take the place of my brothers, that they would be

saved." That's the heart, not only that Christ had, that Judah had, and Christ has,

but it's to be the same heart that you and I have.

Matthew 20, 28 shows Jesus' heart when he says, "Just as the Son of Man did not

come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many." He was

that sacrificial substitute for us. Secondly, Judah's intercession is a

powerful picture of Jesus. I've already mentioned that, but in Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 7 · chapter mention

7, 25, "Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God

through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them." Don't ever

say that, "Well, nobody's praying for me." Yeah, they are. Jesus is praying for you.

Right? And he always lives to make intercession for us. Man, if that

doesn't comfort your heart, I don't know what does. Know that Jesus is praying

for you. The great intercessor, Christ Jesus. Thirdly, God used Joseph's life to

change his brothers. Right? Joseph, he had a big stick. Now, he spoke softly, right?

But he had a big stick, and he could have really bludgeoned these guys with it, but

he didn't. He put them to the test. And God uses the life of Jesus to change us.

Right? God uses the life of Jesus to change us. When you examine the life of

Christ Jesus, the fellowship of his sufferings, the scripture calls it,

right? That when you identify with that, it can't help but change you. It'll do

one of two things. It will soften you and make you into pliable clay in the hands

of a mighty God, or it will harden you, and you will turn your heart towards him

and cause your heart to be a stone and not listen to the whisperings of the

Holy Spirit. I love this scripture, Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this

Philippians 1:6

very thing that he who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the

day of Jesus Christ." Right? Three great pictures there of our Lord and Savior. I

don't know where you're at in your life today. There may be some trouble. You may

be getting tested, but when you go through the test, don't abandon the Lord

and run from him, but run to him. Let's pray. Lord, thank you so much for your

word. Thank you that you're in the business, Lord, of reconciliation. Lord,

that we've been reconciled to you by the blood of your cross. Lord, that you are

willing to come and be that sacrifice. And Lord, as we recognize that,

then you enter into that being that ultimate intercessor that intercedes on

behalf of half of your people. Lord, help us to be that. Help us to be like you.

And Lord, as we see this example of Judah, the one whom Christ Jesus came from, the

Lion of the tribe of Judah. Lord, you used his life so powerfully. Lord, you

used the life of Jesus in our lives today, Lord. So may we have a passion to

read those letters written in red, Lord, that truly are life and spirit to us.

And so if anyone's here today, Lord, that hasn't come to that place of surrender,

surrendering to the Lord Jesus. Lord, being forgiven, what a joy. And Lord, I

just pray for that goodness for anyone that hasn't done that, Lord, that they

would humble themselves. And if that's you, if we're just in an attitude of

prayer, I'm just gonna close with the sinner's prayer. And if you've never

prayed this prayer before, just pray it. Pray it with a sincere heart. God hears

you. He sees all of the stuff going on in your life. And just yield your mind

and your soul, your heart to him with this prayer. Pray this prayer, "Lord Jesus, I

ask you to forgive me. I recognize that you are that sacrifice for me, that your

blood washes away my sin," as it says there in Revelation 1:5. "Lord, that you've

Revelation 1:5

given me a future and a hope, and I have this hope of eternal life because of you.

Lord, I want to walk with you. I want to turn from my sin and turn wholeheartedly

to you with all of my strength and my might and my soul. Give me that strength.

Fill me with your Holy Spirit, I pray, and I surrender to you. In Jesus' mighty

name, amen." Hey, let's all stand. We're gonna worship. If you prayed that prayer,

let somebody know.