“God's Providence” - Genesis Chapter 37 - Pastor Scotty Brown

Oh yeah, there's a bill passed called HR 690, check it out.

I got that here.

And it's an anti-Semitism bill that really condemns certain scripture, so if you quote

the Bible you may get arrested.

And did I really?

Okay, okay.

You guys got more confidence in me than I got in me, so okay, here we go.

Genesis 37, so we're talking about, it had some really good quotes in it too, you're

not sitting on it, are you Mrs. Tuck?

But we finished up last time looking at Esau and just his heart, and we transitioned from

Esau to probably one of the greatest characters in all of scripture, a fellow by the name

of Joseph.

And there's more literature written about Joseph, Handel's Messiah, you've heard of

Handel's Messiah, his name is George Friedrich Handel, incredible composer.

He composed a play with Joseph as the theme and many others because it's just an incredible

story.

It's a story of faith.

And so he is also an incredible type of Jesus.

And so I think I can remember kind of the sections that I have that broke down here,

but let's just, well we better pray, I need lots of prayer.

Lord, we love you so much and we thank you for these inconvenient situations, Lord, where

you work and it's totally in spite of us and never because of us, and please help us to

maintain that ideal, Lord, that it is truly you and not us.

And you desire to speak something obviously today through this humble, broken, absent-minded

servant of yours.

So we just pray that you would do something, Lord, do something in all of our lives, take

us deeper, Lord.

We as we look at this man's life and how God truly provides and even provides things that,

Lord, that aren't comfortable and actually are even painful at times.

And that saying is really carries a lot of weight.

Without any pain, there's not much gain.

And so Lord, I just pray that you would, by your spirit, that you would speak from your

word this morning, Lord, that it's an incredible chapter.

And it shows a lot of things.

It shows the depravity of man and how desperately wicked we truly are removed from our God,

Lord.

And so I pray that you, by your spirit, would speak now as we look at this word in Jesus'

name.

Amen.

So we're going to start off here with a bang.

Oh my gosh.

Let's read the first 11 verses there.

And it says, "Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger in the land

of Canaan."

This is the history of Jacob.

Now notice the history of Jacob.

Can we put a slash and put in there Israel?

This is the history of Israel.

Do you realize how long ago this was?

This is the book of Genesis.

Does anybody have an argument that predates this, who that land belongs to?

Nobody.

You realize that Islam was not instituted or really came into being until 600 AD.

And so this is the history of Israel.

It says here, it says, "Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers

and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and

Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old

age.

Also he made him a tunic of many colors.

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they

hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him even more.

And so he said to them, "Please hear this dream, which I have dreamed.

There we were binding sheaves in the field and then behold, my sheaf rose up and also

stood upright and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf."

And his brother said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion

over us?"

So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

And then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers and said, "Look, I

have dreamed another dream.

And this time the sun, the moon, the 11 stars bowed down to me."

So he told it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him and said to him,

"What is this dream that you had dreamed?

Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before

you?" and his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in his mind.

So here's this Joseph.

The most recent work that I've seen about the life of Joseph is the cartoon, right?

It's pretty cool.

You should watch it.

It's called Prince of...

Is it Prince of Dreams?

Who's seen it?

Come on.

No, that's Moses.

King of dreams, there we go.

King of dreams.

King of dreams.

And he has a couple of doozies here, right?

And so here's Jacob.

He's back in the land.

He's where he's supposed to be, right?

We've seen the debacle in Shechem and he's back where he's supposed to be.

He's back.

I think he's believe he's in Hebron here and it says that Joseph being 17 years old was

feeding the flock with his brothers.

So here's the younger brother, second only youngest to Benjamin, Benjamin's younger,

but Joseph, here he is and notice who he's with, right?

He's with Bilhah and Zilpah's two boys.

Bilhah had two boys, Dan and Naphtali, and Zilpah had two boys, Gad and Asher.

And so he's with his four half brothers, right?

Same dad, different moms.

Now I don't know about you, but some of the blended families that I have seen over the

years, it's one thing to get married, have some kids, right?

And you have three or four and you sit down at dinner and it's like, or devotions especially,

and it's holy commotion, right?

It's crazy.

But then you start blending families together and man, the things that kids have been exposed

to and the things that they've done and everything, it gets really wild.

It's a miracle anyone makes it.

I think a lot of times parents just go, "La, la, la, la, la, I can't see nothing," right?

They just turn a blind eye to whatever's going on.

And there's some history here, obviously, right?

You remember the one brother, Joseph's oldest brother, well, he would be full blood brother

but from a different mother, but Reuben had slept with Bilhah.

Gad and Asher's, or Dan and Naphtali's mother.

No doubt that created some conversation.

I mean, seriously, the modern day soap opera has nothing on this life of Jacob.

And now this boy, Joseph, is involved here.

And so he's with these guys, he's watching how they work, no doubt probably learning,

but you know he's the punk, right?

You know how little brothers get treated.

Joseph, go water the sheep.

Joseph, go feed the sheep.

Joseph, cook breakfast.

Joseph, get the firewood.

Joseph, right?

Joseph is just, he's the boy, right?

He's the boy and no doubt he's getting treated that way.

But it says, "And Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father."

So some think that Joseph is just a tattletale.

But when you look at Joseph's life, it's almost like Joseph is one of the few people in the

Bible, you know, it kind of irritates me a little bit because we don't really see anything

bad said about him, right?

As we're going to watch his life, he's a man with incredible integrity, even in his youth.

Now I struggled with integrity in my 60s.

It was non-existent in my 20s, right?

In fact, I don't even know that I can define it now, but he brought this bad report.

But Israel, Jacob, he loved this boy.

This was his boy.

And now Israel loved Joseph, it says there in verse three, "More than all his children

because he was the son of his old age."

I don't know what it is as you get older and just how you just have so much love and compassion

for the young ones.

I don't know what that is.

I'm seeing it in my own life.

And becoming more tolerant, even as a parent, my older kids would talk to my wife and I

about how we treated the youngest.

By the time he got around, Connie almost called him it because she said, "That's it," when

he was born.

And my younger boy did some things that the other three would go, "You would have never

let us get away with that."

So you kind of become a little more lenient as you get older.

I don't know if that's a good or bad thing.

Probably not good.

But Joseph loved this boy and it says more than...

And obviously favoritism is problematic, right?

We saw that clear back with Isaac and Rebecca, right?

That they were favoring, she favored Jacob, Isaac favored Esau, and it was a train wreck.

And so it is with us.

You know, I've got four kids and they're all so different.

And I have different relationships with all four of them.

Now I like to think that I try to be fair, but some of them are a little tougher to get

along with than others, right?

And it's just the way it is.

But you love nonetheless and you try to not show favoritism.

And yet in their mind, our children's mind, obviously they've got it already pegged already.

They know who the favorite is.

They can read between the lines, but also they concoct these scenarios in their own

mind.

Kids are crazy.

And Joseph says, "And they hated him even more."

Excuse me.

I jumped ahead there.

"Also, he made him a tunic of many colors to kind of prove his love to him.

But when his brothers saw their father loved him more than all the brothers, they hated

him and could not speak peaceably to him."

It's just like, you so disgust us, we can't even be nice to you, right?

That's how bad we hate you.

Have you ever hated anybody that bad?

I don't know that I've hated anybody that bad.

But they couldn't even speak, it says, peaceably to this kid.

And he makes him this coat.

Now when you listen to John Corson teach about this, he talked about that the coat had these

big sleeves, right?

Okay, we're gonna start over.

I'm just kidding.

Where was it?

Give it to an assistant pastor to throw me under the bus.

It was in his Bible.

That's my...

Hey.

Oh, that's the name of my title of my message.

Now I remember it.

God's providence.

God provided my notes.

So this love for Joseph from Jacob is, it's obvious, it's special.

The whole idea with the big sleeves on the robe or this coat of many colors that he made

him was that it was a symbol of privilege that he could go out and walk around the herds

with his big sleeves and he didn't have to do any work, right?

He didn't have to pull any kids.

He didn't have to muck any manure.

He was just kind of checking things out.

Joseph was kind of sending him out to get a report.

And obviously because of the wickedness of his brothers, there was probably not a very

good report.

And it says, "Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him

even more."

Right?

Talk about adding fuel to the fire.

Now I'm wondering, does Joseph not get this, you know, I think we call it stir in the pot?

Do you know people like that?

They just stir the pot.

They just get people all fired up about things.

And you got to learn to roll with it, kind of like when you don't have any notes.

And so my motto honestly, folks, is blessed are the flexible for they should not be broken.

Right?

You just kind of bend and flex with whatever life throws at you.

And you know what?

God's going to provide.

The Bible says that one man sows and another man waters, but it's God that gives the increase.

God's the one who provides.

He is our great provider.

And you hear that word and sometimes we don't get it because it's an old style word to describe

God.

It's called providence.

When you read the founders, I got a founder's Bible and it's pretty cool, man.

There's some cool stories in there.

But then also a Tim and David Barton book called "The American Story."

And as you read the quotes from our founding fathers, they use this word over and over

again.

And for us, it's a little odd because they actually call it the hand of providence.

Well, what would that, well, that would be the hand of God, right?

That God provides everything in our life.

I was listening to a guy teach on this passage of scripture.

He says, you know, there's no such thing as an accident.

There's no such thing as an accident that God actually moves in things and through things

and he uses things.

I don't totally get it, but I know that God, the hand of providence is in so much of what

happens in our lives.

The founders of America had a providential view of history and especially history of

this country.

And I think that's why when we come to election season, it's important to remember, right,

that God moved on those men's hearts to establish this place we call home, America.

And so often when you read those quotes, you hear that word.

In an address to the United States Congress in 1866, historian George Bancroft reflected

this predominant philosophy, and this was among most of the founders when he said that

God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science, right?

That God moves in the affairs of men is as true as any evidence in physical science.

And so, and then American history is just filled with instances of God's supernatural

intervention and important events in the colonial area.

This included among myriads of examples, Pocahontas providentially saving John Smith's life, God

sending Squanto to help the pilgrims survive in their new home, William Penn receiving

a charter through my God to start a new colony, the miraculous defeat of the French fleet

sent to destroy America in 1746, the great outpouring of God's spirit during the first

great awakening, and God preserving Washington's life during the French Indian War.

God's providence continued during the American Revolution and was acknowledged by all.

I just read to my wife here the other day we were driving down the road and I read that

story from George Washington, right, that he had two horses shot out from under him.

He had a chief that said he rarely missed shot at him 18 times.

And he had holes through his coat, through his hat, and that chief at Washington met

him years later.

He said, "I told my braves to quit shooting at you because this was the man that God was

not gonna let die."

That's providence.

You know, you've seen those war movies, like, you know, when they depict Patton or somebody

- how he'll just stand out there, right?

I mean, bullets flying by him everywhere.

They're confident, right, that either God's gonna provide them and keep them - provide

protection for them and keep them alive or they're gonna die.

And they've purposed in their heart, "Okay, I'm probably gonna die.

That's okay.

We're going - we're fighting on.

We're believing that God is gonna provide for us."

And as we look at this life of Joseph, right, they didn't have a lot of this stuff to look

back on, right?

They had people of faith to look back on and no doubt were inspired to walk by faith.

And so he says to them, "Hear this dream.

I have dreamed.

There we were binding sheaves in the field.

Then behold, my sheep rose and I stood upright.

And indeed, your sheaf stood all around about down to my sheaf."

He's like, "Right.

You guys bow down to me."

I wonder if he had a smirk on his face when he's telling this story to his brothers.

I'm sure they wanted to wipe it off if he did.

And his brothers said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion

over us?"

So they hated him even more in his dreams and for his words, for what he said.

I think he did have a smirk on his face.

"You guys bow down to me."

And he tells them another dream.

Then he dreamed still another dream.

And he told it to his brothers and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream.

And this time, the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bow down to me."

And so he told it to his father and his brothers.

And his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed?

Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before

you?"

And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Right?

Two ways to receive what Joseph was saying.

Now this second dream, I really like it because it actually gives us some pretty incredible

insight into Revelation chapter 12 because of the moon and the stars and the woman that

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

it talks about.

That is very specifically because of this passage of scripture, we know that it's Israel.

Talked about there in Revelation chapter 12.

Revelation 12 · chapter mention

You can check it out.

But notice he told these dreams and I'm just thinking, why does he keep doing this?

You know, I'm convinced, right?

I'm convinced that Joseph, God moved Joseph to say this to his brothers and to his family.

Because you know what?

That their response is going to come back to haunt them.

Right?

You know where the Bible says, "Be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to get angry?"

Because you don't know what tomorrow's going to bring.

Now this at face value looks like a arrogant, right?

An arrogant, self-centered 17-year-old punk that needs a severe thrashing.

Right?

You ever had any of them?

I had four of them in my home.

I've actually had six, counting a couple of grandkids that are around that age.

And there are times when they need a trip to the woodshed.

But I'm convinced, I'm convinced that Jacob rebukes him.

His dad rebukes him.

"What are you talking?

Me and mom are going to bow down to you?"

"Really?

Joseph?

Come on, dude.

What's up with you?"

But his brothers envied, right?

His brothers envy him and his dad kept these things in his heart.

Or you could see it as Joseph being hard-headed and stubborn.

Right?

"Well, I'm just going to tell this to them just because I might just get her eyes out

of them."

And that happens a lot with sibling rivalry.

And so it's kind of like that story I heard about in the Korean War, there was this group

of officers that rented a little place.

And they got this young Korean boy to do the chores.

So he would cook and he would serve these guys.

They just tortured him.

They nailed his shoes to the floor.

They would put a bucket of water above a door and have him as he walked in, the door would

fall, or the water would fall on him and get him all wet.

He took it all in stride.

And after a while, the officers, they kind of got convicted.

They're thinking, "We've been kind of mean to this kid."

So they brought him in and says, "Man, hey, we're really sorry for the way we've been

treating you.

Just know that's not going to happen anymore."

He goes, "Oh, you know more nail shoes to floor?"

They say, "No, we're not going to nail your shoes."

"You know more bucket of water over door?"

He said, "No, no."

He said, "Oh, okay.

No more spit in soup."

I think that Joseph might have been kind of like that, you know?

But Joseph is going to have an "I told you so" moment in the future.

And these reactions to his dreams are going to come into play, where right now, all it

is doing is stirring up hatred and envy.

He has pushed his brothers over the edge.

Envy means, and the Hebrew word means to be jealous or zealous.

Zealous towards hatred.

Because we knew that he already hated them, and they hated him.

And the Bible has a lot to say about this.

Proverbs 14.30 says, "A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the

bones."

A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones.

Proverbs 23.17, "Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the

Lord all the day."

Yeah, it's almost like you got one of two ways you can go.

Be zealous for the Lord or be zealous for this world and what it offers, and envy is

a part of that.

Please, if I can just encourage you to put an envious heart far away from yourself, as

far away from yourself as possible.

You remember, they envied Jesus.

When Pilate finally gave him up and turned him over, it said this in Matthew chapter

Matthew 15 · chapter mention

15, 10, "For he knew that the chief priest had handed him over because of envy."

They were so envy of Jesus and the crowds that would come and listen to him.

In the reading today, they had sent some officers after him, and they came back and they asked,

"Why did you bring him back?"

Because they said, "Ain't nobody ever talked like this guy."

Right?

Envy.

It's like a cancer in the soul.

James chapter three tells us, "For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every

evil thing are there."

Titus 3, 3 says, "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving

various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another."

It just has no place at all.

Some of us was like that, but hopefully we ain't like that no more.

They envied, but Jacob kept the matter in his mind.

I'm sure he's starting to think because God had spoken to him, remember?

He dreamed, he saw the ladder, God had spoken to him.

Funny thing about these dreams get him in trouble, but it's also his dreams.

Dreams that get him out of trouble.

So verse 12 says, "Then his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem,"

I'm going to read a while, so hang with me.

"In Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, 'Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem?

Come, I will send you to them.'

And so he said to him, 'Here I am.'

And then he said to him, 'Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well

with the flocks and bring back word to me.'

And so he sent him out of the valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem.

Now a certain man found him and there he was wandering in the field.

And the man asked him, saying, 'What are you seeking?'

And so he said, 'I am seeking my brothers.

Please tell me where they are feeding their flock.'

And the man said, 'They have departed from here.

I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.'

And so Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan.

And now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near, they conspired against him to

kill him.

And then they said to one another, 'Look, this dreamer is coming.

Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit.

And we shall say some wild beast has devoured him.

We shall see what will become of his dreams.'

But Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of his hands and said, 'Let us not kill him.'

And Reuben said to them, 'Shed no blood, but cast him into the pit which is in the wilderness

and do not lay a hand on him that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him

back to his father.'

And so it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph

of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him.

And then they took him and cast him into the pit and the pit was empty and there was no

water in it.

And they sat down to eat a meal.

And then they lifted their eyes and looked.

And there was a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing spices,

balm and myrrh.

And they were on their way to carry them down to Egypt.

And so Judah said to his brothers, 'What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal

his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him,

for he is our brother and our flesh.'

And his brothers listened and then the Midianite traders passed by.

And so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites

for 20 shekels of silver.

And they took Joseph to Egypt."

And so Jacob has the bright idea.

Does he not see how his brothers hate him?

Why would you send that kid up there?

This is a long ways away now.

We're talking like 50 miles.

And why in the world are they in Shechem?

I think that Joseph's brothers are up to no good.

Right?

They're up to no good.

They're playing with the world.

Kind of like a lot of people in the church today.

Just playing with the world.

Show up on Sunday.

Hey, if I show up on Sunday and hear a little bit of God's word, I'm good to go, right?

No.

You might be keeping coals of fire up on your head.

My stepdad who was, I just told a story about him.

He was a Hallean, right?

Just gotten out of San Quentin.

He'd been out of San Quentin for one month when my mom married him.

And then he was back and forth in prison for the next 12 years.

But he used to tell me something that I thought is pretty good advice from a criminal.

He said, listen, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly.

Right?

He used to tell me that if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly.

And that's kind of what, if you're going to follow Jesus, then follow him.

Don't play around.

If you're just going to play, stay out in the world.

Don't bring your worldly stuff in here.

Now if you've got issues and problems and you've fallen and you don't want to do that,

that's one thing.

But if you just want both, you can have both, right?

Just like the old, you know, Pastor Gordon used to tell me, straddling that fence.

Only thing he gets is a sore crotch.

So he goes and God provides, it's like he's kind of wandering.

I'm on 17 maybe got distracted.

I don't know, but it's like he's wandering.

But the Lord provides a stranger.

He says, what do you, what do you, what are you doing out here?

I'm looking for my brothers.

You know where my brothers are?

He said, well, yeah, I heard him talk.

They're going to Delphin.

Just the right guy.

The divine appointments.

You ever had any of those divine appointments?

Just just just right at the right time.

It's just like those, those times when you're just thinking that this, this isn't looking

good and somebody just shows up.

It's awesome.

I love it.

In fact, Steve just told me about one.

He had this divine appointment with this guy that works here and his, his, his wife's dying

of cancer and are struggling with cancer.

I don't know if she's dying or not, but, but he had talked to him and I had on Friday,

I just talked to the manager of this place and he said, oh, yeah, yeah.

Would you do the vows for my friend and his wife?

She's struggling with cancer.

And it's like Steve was able to share the gospel with them and, and, and I was able

to agree to do their vows for him.

And I'm just like, oh, this, the Lord is moving his chess pieces around.

Yeah, and they're coming to the baptism next week.

So it's just like, oh, God provides.

Now God provided Jacob with some brothers that hated him too, right?

And he's going to provide him with some, some serious, right, disappointments as well.

And I had a, had a run in with a guy, I haven't seen him in a few years at, at Freddie Meyers

here just a couple of days ago.

And he was telling me how the Lord was speaking to him and speaking to him in dreams.

And I was thinking, should I listen?

So I'm going to sift through his dreams that he was telling me about.

And, and, and God's on the move and God's speaking and God's going to use things, but

usually not the way we think.

And so these guys up in Shechem and then going on up to Dothan probably were into some things

they probably shouldn't be into.

A long way from home, Pastor Gordon used to tell me that the guy he knew that claimed

faith, their faith had a 50 mile radius of town, right?

150 miles away, anything goes.

Are you serious?

Like you don't think that God's watching?

God's watching, right?

He's right there with you.

50, 100, 15,000, I don't know.

He's right there with you.

Why is it that people, they, they get that in their brain?

Well nobody knows.

Yes they do.

In fact, he's going to tell everybody because Luke 12, right?

Luke 12, two, every secret thing will be revealed.

You and I don't get away with anything.

And if you're a lover of Jesus, right?

God's not going to let you sin successfully.

He's going to bust your hiney, right?

That needs busted.

And so, so he's, he's providing these things.

He provided the way to Dothan.

So he goes up to Dothan and, and, and it was a trade route there.

And they seen him coming from a long way away and they go, they conspire, let's kill him.

Let's kill him and chuck him into the pit.

Chuck him.

That's my interpretation.

It's actually cast, but it means to fling or to throw hard.

Like the, and some of these cisterns where they would catch, it was a water catch, you

know, for those arid places.

And some of them were 20 feet deep and they, they conspired, it says against him to kill

him.

And they said one to one another, look, the dreamer is coming.

No doubt they said it with poison in their, in their voices because they hated this kid

so bad.

But older brother Reuben, either he has compassion, right?

He's going, let's don't kill him.

Let's don't kill him.

We can just throw him in the pit.

He either has a heart, right, or he wants to try to get right with his dad, right?

Because he committed adultery on his dad with one of his girls.

And no doubt he's thinking, he's thinking he might want to try to get right.

But it does appear that they rough him up in verse 23, they throw him in verse 24 into

the pit and verse 25 is kind of interesting.

Okay, now that that's done, let's eat, right?

Verse 25, it says there, "And they sat down to eat a meal."

Right?

We got rid of that dreamer, we got rid of that punk little brother, let's have a meal.

And as they're getting ready to eat, it says, "Then they lifted their eyes and looked and

there was a company of Ishmael, it's coming from Gilead with their camels bearing spices,

ram and myrrh, and they're carrying them down to Egypt."

And so this was a trade route through Dotham, they end up in this town and Judah, who was

secretly, maybe had a heart for Joseph, he intervenes.

And he says, "Hey, let's pull him out of the pit.

Let's sell him."

Right?

It's interesting there because he's talking about that they won't have to conceal his

blood in verse 26.

So Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal

his blood?"

I'm wondering if he's thinking about Abel at this point, one of his ancestors.

You remember when Cain kills Abel, and what does it say?

When God asked Cain where Abel is, he says, "Where is your brother?

For his blood cries out to me."

Right?

His blood cries out to me.

And Judah, in his wisdom, is thinking, "Can we conceal his blood or will it cry out to

God as Abel's did?"

So it's interesting, it says that they listened to him.

Right?

Judah later, we're going to see him in this story too.

We know this is the tribe that Jesus came from, was the tribe of Judah.

And so his reasoning with his angry brothers that want Joseph dead prevails.

And so they sell him.

But it doesn't talk about it here.

And it says, "Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let our hand be upon him,

for he is our brother and our flesh.

And his brothers listened and the Midianite traders passed by, and so the brothers pulled

Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels

of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt."

Now later in Genesis chapter 42, it tells us what's going on here.

Genesis 42 · chapter mention

And it's when the brothers are convicted because they're faced with Joseph, it says this, "For

we saw the anguish of his soul and they had no pity on him."

Do you see people anguishing in soul?

Do you have pity or care for people like that?

This was their own flesh and blood.

And he pleaded with us and we would not hear.

They wouldn't hear.

They wouldn't hear their little brother's cries.

And so Reuben comes in verses 29 and 30, it says, "And Reuben returned to the pit, and

indeed Joseph was not in the pit and he tore his clothes, a sign of mourning."

He's brokenhearted.

"And he returned to his brothers and said, 'The lad is no more, and where shall I go?'"

This is what makes me think that he's trying to get right with his dad.

He's trying to be in good standings with his dad.

If he's a good big brother to Joseph, maybe dad will just forgive him for his sin.

Well, dad should forgive him anyway for his sin.

All dads should forgive their kids for their sin.

Even if they don't ask, right?

Because dads can show their kids love and show them kindness and show them forgiveness.

Hopefully it will eventually point them to the father because ultimately that's who needs

to forgive them.

That's who they need to seek forgiveness from is the God of heaven.

And so he's here, he's brokenhearted, he tears his clothes.

And in verse 31, it says, "And so they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the goats

and dipped the tunic in the blood.

Then they sent the tunic of many colors and they brought it to their father and said,

'We have found.'" Let's see, "They sent the tunic of many colors and they brought

it to their father and said, 'We have found this.

Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?'"

I'm assuming they were gonna know, right?

So they killed a kid of the goats.

These cowardly brothers killed this kid, dipped the blood in it and then sent it.

They didn't even have the brass to go to their dad with this coat dipped in blood.

Isn't it interesting what goes around comes around?

Didn't Jacob kill a goat to deceive his father?

Right?

He did, right?

He killed a goat and put the skin on his arms and prepared it and fed it to his dad, deceiving

his father into believing that he was Esau and not Jacob.

Just know sin follows you.

It's like that rabid dog, right?

That's just, they won't let up.

They're just right behind you.

And not until Jesus comes and forgives and washes them away.

Don't ever think that you can just go on without dealing with your sin.

You have to deal.

You have to confess your sin.

And so they bring it to and obviously, and he recognized it and said, "It is my son's

tunic.

A wild beast has devoured him.

Without doubt, Joseph is torn in pieces."

And Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist and mourned for his son many

days.

And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted.

And he said, "For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning."

Thus his father wept for him.

And so here, Jacob is brokenhearted with the loss of his son.

I don't know that there's a greater sorrow.

I've seen it in a lot of people who have lost children and it is a tough thing.

And here, for the next 20 years, he's going to believe that his son Joseph is dead.

And it just isn't true.

Can you imagine believing a lie for that long?

Well, some of us have believed a lie for that long.

We believe a lie about our own selves.

We believe the lie that we're good.

We're good people.

We believe the lie that in spite of everything we do, that there won't be any consequences.

And oh, there's consequences because the Bible tells us that, right?

The wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Quite the contrast, right, depending on which direction you're going.

Lastly, God provides a way for Joseph to get to Egypt with the Midianites, right?

And God provides a home for him.

There, that last verse 36, "Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, a officer

of Pharaoh and a captain of the guard."

Now you can look at this story, and especially as we get further into it and you start looking

back, we know how the story ends, right?

But when you're just looking at it from this direction, you're just thinking, "This is

brutal.

This is brutal."

God's got a plan.

God has a plan.

God is gonna provide something with all of these crazy twists and turns that we see in

the scripture, especially for the next, most of the rest of the chapters in the book of

Genesis is really alluding to this.

And the thing that I wanna end with today is the types of Jesus that Joseph is, right?

He's one of the greatest types of Jesus ever in the scripture, right?

The brothers refuse the son's position given to him by his father with the big sleeves,

right?

The father, the patriarch of the family had the right to give that authority to whoever

he wanted, correct?

He had the right to do that.

But the brothers, the brothers weren't having it.

They're like Jesus.

He was the God of the universe speaking to the Sanhedrin and the religious people of

the day and they were not having it.

They hated him and they wanted to kill him.

They sought to kill him.

And they thought they got rid of him by selling him for 20 pieces of silver.

They thought they got rid of Jesus by selling him too, right?

Not realizing, listen, not realizing he'll be back.

He'll be back.

Joseph is gonna show back up in their lives.

Jesus is coming back.

Listen, I think it's really soon, right?

Hope you're paying attention.

It's gonna be soon and very soon.

We are going to see the king.

Joseph is a servant.

He always maintains the attitude of a servant.

And he was serving his brothers.

He would have served them well if they would have been doing well.

And he's an example to us.

An example of faith is Joseph.

How do you treat people?

Think about how you and I treat people.

Because if we know that Jesus is coming, I think we prove it by how we treat each other.

We really do.

Matthew chapter 24, this is what I'll close with today.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

Jesus is, his disciples have come to him and have asked him, "Hey, what's gonna be the

signs of this end time?

What are we looking for?"

And he starts going through a list, right, of what the apostles will probably see, what

the world's gonna see, what the church is gonna see.

And he gets towards the end there.

And in verse 45 of Matthew chapter 24, it says, "Who then is a faithful and wise servant,

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

whom his master made rule over his household to give them food in due season?

Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing."

We're gonna see this in Joseph's life later.

But Jesus is really talking about more about us.

"Blessed is the servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing.

Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods.

But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins

to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that

servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and an hour when he is not

aware and will cut him in two and appoint him his portions with the hypocrites.

There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

You know that you're ready, right?

As a servant of the Lord, you know that you're ready as for the Lord's coming is how you

treat each other.

You get frustrated with people, get frustrated with your family members.

When you're in a place of readiness, it changes you.

It determines your decisions.

The thoughts and the intents of your heart are directed by what you believe, and especially

in these last days.

God has provided all your life experiences.

I want you to think about all your life experiences, good, bad, and indifferent.

Decisions you've made that you know are sin, the sins that people have committed against

you.

God provides all of our life's experiences to do what?

To draw us to Him.

He lets it happen.

And there's things I look back at my life, I said, "Well, why did you let that happen?

I didn't want that to happen."

But it happened.

James 4-8 tells us, "Draw near to God and He'll draw near to you.

Cleanse your hands, you sinners.

Purify your hearts, you double-minded."

We draw near because our redemption is drawing near.

That's why we need to draw near is because our redemption is drawing near.

So how close are you?

How close are you to the Lord right now?

Do you feel distant?

Talked to a brother the other day.

I was shocked at what he was telling me about himself and how he's really drifted away from

the Lord.

And he's got this business and it's just booming.

I mean, it's just booming.

He's raking in the dough.

He's got a wonderful wife and great kids and he's going, "What am I doing?"

And I said, "Are you sitting at the Lord's feet?

Are you getting in the Word every day?

Are you looking for His return?"

He's telling how he's getting chippy with his employees.

What are you doing?

Your redemption is drawing near.

You better be drawing near.

Joseph has no idea how close he's going to get to the Lord in the next several years,

right?

And this all seems hard and harsh, but God's providing a way, not just for him, but for

all those coming behind him.

All of Israel, God is providing a way, just like He has for you and I.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for your way.

It's so above our ways, Lord, that we could never even imagine as you tell us in your

word.

As the heavens are higher on the earth, so are your ways above our ways.

And so would you bring us all to that place of, Lord, just knowing you've provided everything

in our lives, Lord, up until this point right now that we might draw near to you.

Lord, maybe there's some broken hearts here today, just maybe a loss of a loved one or

maybe just some terrible decisions that people have made.

Lord, may you just by your Holy Spirit reach down and touch and heal those wounds.

Bring people to yourself.

You tell us that no one can even come to you unless the Father draws us.

Maybe that's you today as we're just in an attitude of prayer right now.

You sense the Lord might be drawing you back closer to Him, that you need Him.

You need His direction.

You need His word in your heart.

If that's you, just raise your hand up and let me pray for you today.

You just need to draw closer to the Lord.

Okay, I see those hands.

Anyone else?

You bet.

Thank you, Lord.

Father, I just pray for these who are just in that place.

Lord, we want to draw near to you sometimes, Lord, and it feels like there's a brick wall

in between us.

Lord, maybe it's our own sin or our own pride or just doubt.

Lord, I pray that you would remove all those.

Lord, forgive sin.

Wash clean, Lord, and that we would all realize that your mercies are new every morning.

Lord, that your joy would be our strength in these days when joy seems to be nowhere

to be found.

Out in the streets, Lord, it's just, it's mayhem.

And yet in our hearts, we can be completely full and completely satisfied.

So Lord, we pray that you would do that in us.

Lord, I pray for the future.

I pray that you would maneuver people where they need to be in the positions, Lord, that

are Lord, yours to fill.

Lord, you raise one up and you take another down.

Lord, I pray that there's quite a few that need to be taken down, that you would raise

somebody up that loves you in that place.

And so Lord, help us to be those who are lovers of our God until you come, that when you come,

Lord, you'll truly find faith in us on this earth.

In Jesus' holy name.

Amen.

We'll see you next time.