The Line of Reconciliation

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And uh just ask you, church family, I know that you are, and we'll conclude the service this way, but continue lifting your prayers for our government leaders, for soldiers, for the families of those who have already experienced loss, and that God's will would continue throughout this conflict.

And trust that you'll not panic but pray.

And uh there in Genesis 42.

I want to give you just so I don't forget, because I can, prone to wander.

Um at the end of service, we're gonna be having our quarterly business meeting.

So, covenant members of the church, if you would hang out, if you have children, if you would go get them uh first, and we're gonna have one extra song at the end of service.

And during that time, if you got kids, if you'll go get them, and we just want to add this to the end of service, and uh invite you please stay around so we can share our the report since the last quarter and have you here with us.

One more, so I don't forget, uh, because of the rain and what happens to our soccer field during rain, all of upward soccer is canceled today.

I would forget if I didn't tell you now.

So now, Genesis 42.

Um, turn your Bibles there, and we're gonna be talking about holding the line of reconciliation.

I was walking across the Fairwinds Christian School parking lot, and I kicked a rock and it jumped up and it hit Mike in the back of his calf, and I turned around and I said, Oh, I'm sorry.

And then the next thing I know, a rock flew through the air and hit me in my back.

And I saw him, and as went my sophomore junior year, I said, Well, that ain't gonna work.

And so I followed Mike into the locker room and I said, What's your problem?

He pushed me, I pushed him, and then I ended the fight.

I punched Mike right in his face.

I know, I'm sorry, church.

Well, that happened, and a few months later that December, Mike had a birthday party that I went to, and I spent the night with Mike.

And as far as I can tell, for the rest of our existence together, me and Mike were friends.

Adults.

Somewhere along the way, we have forgotten how to reconcile like kids.

What is reconciliation?

Good question, church.

One of the words for reconciliation that you see a little more often is dialoso, and it means to turn or to move toward.

That which was once together has now separated, alienated in some way, and now that which was separated is reconciled.

It means to turn towards.

Dialoso is turning towards that which once was and now isn't.

And so something that is mutual between two parties.

One person may initiate, uh, but two people come together in a compromise.

That is dialoso.

Matthew 5.23 talks to us about this dialoso, and it says, if you have a gift, bring your gift to the altar, but if you are wrong with somebody, leave there your gift, and first be dialoso, be reconciled.

That means compromise, forgiveness, and mutual.

That's two people coming together.

Now, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it talks about Christ came to reconcile us.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

It's a different word.

The word there is cataloso, and it's used for God reconciling us.

It is, now the other was mutual.

This word, cataloso, is one-sided.

It's one-sided where God reaches down towards man.

I want you to know, church, that you and I are not saved today because we mutually decided together that we were going to get something done.

You and I are saved today, Romans 5.8, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

The message of the cross is God came towards us, reconciled you and I.

And here is the truth: no man will enter heaven unless they first meet with the message of the cross, which is reconciliation.

Cataloso.

Would you pray with me?

Father, help us to understand the messages of reconciliation in your word and put it in our hearts.

God, this life is a vapor.

And we see even with things happening today, Lord, we don't know what time we have.

So I pray that you would help us see through the story of Joseph, his brothers, his father.

God, this message you wanted us to hear today.

And help us to hold that line.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

In Genesis 42, first, I want you to see this problems pave a road.

Genesis 42, 1 and 2.

Now we're going to skip from 42 to 46 this morning.

So track with me.

When Jacob saw, verse 1, that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look at one another?

And he said, Indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.

Go down to the place and buy for us there that we may live and not die.

Letter A is the devastating circumstances.

This famine, this seven years of lean has begun.

And Jacob asked a good question as a father to his sons.

Why do you look at one another?

It says, Ra'ah, which is to perceive, he says, see, inspect.

The famine is dire.

Do you not recognize this?

To see or to perceive something.

Do you understand when the famine of your heart is dire?

Recognition is key, an honest evaluation.

He says, why are you looking left and right?

It poses this important idea.

What are you going to do about devastation in your life?

Will you be honest about things?

Satan would have you first look left.

Well, there's the problem.

Look right, well, there's the problem.

Maybe look up, look down.

Where is the problem?

And then Jacob says, Don't you see?

So can you take a moment today before we move any further?

And I'll pause.

And just think about here.

Not left, not right.

Because as we follow, I think it's important that you do a check on you.

Jacob said, Why are you looking at each other?

There is a famine here.

Go down to the place.

Boys, there is no food.

Go that we might have food, that we might revive the paternal instinct in Jacob.

Think about this.

And scripture has him at 130 years old.

And Jacob, 130, looks down at his strapping young 40 to 50-year-old sons, and he says, Will you kids go get us some food?

I'm hungry.

You can drive dad's horse, I don't care.

Go get some food.

You can get yourself some bubblegum at the gas station along the way.

I don't care.

Just get us some food.

I can't do it for you.

You see, famine here was the vehicle for family reconciliation.

Sometimes, church, you're going through a problem that's paving a road.

This family was Israel that we're still today fighting for.

And God was setting the stage in this for the next book that's going to see more of this, the next book of Exodus, where there's going to be more triumph and there's going to be more tragedy.

But this is setting the stage for family reconciliation.

Letter B, I want you to see the desperation, the desperate core.

Look at chapter 42 and go to verse 18.

And mind you, in verse 8, and I can't hit everything, but in verse 8, Joseph recognizes that his brothers are up ahead and they're coming towards him.

They don't recognize him yet, but he recognizes who they are.

And then in verse 18, then Joseph said to them, he calls them spies, holds them in a prison.

So then Joseph said to them the third day of their imprisonment, Do this and live, for I fear God.

If you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house.

But you go and carry for the famine of your houses, and bring your youngest brother to me, so your words will be verified, and you shall not die.

And they did so.

Then they said to one another, We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear, therefore this distress has come upon us.

And Reuben, the eldest, answered them and said, Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not sin against the boy, and you would not listen.

Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us.

But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he spoke to them through an interpreter.

And he turned himself away from them, and he wept.

So now they're in this desperate position.

Joseph sees them coming, he calls them spies, he puts them in prison for three days.

They admit in a conversation that they don't know that Joseph can understand their guilt for what they had done to Joseph, and now they're feeling that their blood is going to be on their hands.

Joseph asks them, he says, Do you have any other brothers?

He finds out there's a Benjamin, and he says, I'm gonna need you to go get your brother Benjamin, and then you can be free.

Okay?

And so Joseph keeps as a holding their brother Simeon.

All of this is desperation.

And for them, they might feel like this is the worst case possible.

We came down here to get help.

We came down here to get out of this famine, and now we gotta go back and get our father's other favorite son, and we gotta take him back to this man who knows what he'll do.

And so for them, the desperation is mounting.

Sometimes desperation drives us to the place we need to be, church.

There's a New Testament passage where Jesus encounters a man who's lying on a mat, and he asks him an important question.

He's lying on a mat, and Jesus says to him, Do you want to be made well?

That seems like a ridiculous question for a paralytic man on a mat.

But Jesus said to him, posing, Do you want to be made well?

And immediately the man begins giving excuses why he can't get to the water.

And Jesus didn't ask him, Can you get to the water?

He said, Do you want to be well?

Desperation drives you.

There was a man named Darius who met Jesus and his daughter had just died.

And Darius was driven by desperation.

He would do anything to get to Jesus who could heal his daughter.

Following Darius, there's a girl you meet in scripture, the woman with the issue of blood for 12 years.

And she said, If I can just but touch the hem of his garment, I know that I can be made well.

Desperation drove her to that decision.

Get to Jesus.

Is there anything driving you to that decision today, church?

Are you desperate for him?

Well, again, Joseph, the foreshadowing of Jesus throughout this passage.

If their brothers can get to the one who has food and famine, they'll survive.

If you can get to the one who has food and spiritual famine, the bread of life, survival will come, church.

There's desperation.

Second point this morning is this proof precedes restoration.

We should go over to Genesis chapter 43.

Genesis 43 · chapter mention

Look at verse 8.

So they come home with this desperate situation of needing to bring Benjamin back.

They tell their father.

Then Judah, verse 8, said to Israel, his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die.

Both we and you and our little ones.

I myself will be surety for him.

From my hand you shall require him.

If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.

For if we have not lingered, surely by now we would have returned this second time.

And their father Israel said to them, If it must be so, then do this.

Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down a present for the man, a little balm, a little honey, spices, myrrh, pistachio, and almonds.

And so we see letter A, this benevolence that's being tested.

Judah's an interesting character that we meet, and I think it's important that you hear a little bit about Judah this morning.

Judah was the brother, if you remember back, that suggested selling Joseph when they were in the pit.

And now we're meeting this place where there's a moral reversal.

He says to his father, I, I will be surety for Benjamin.

It's on me.

Let it bear on me.

This is a move to take Benjamin to Joseph.

So what is benevolence?

Let me ask this question.

What are you willing to do for those whom you say that you love?

But why Judah?

If you study Judah through this, Judah may stick out as the biggest scoundrel of the family.

If you look at Judah's life, Judah had two sons that were killed for immorality.

Judah is tied up in something.

He's the one that suggested that Joseph be sold.

Judah.

And Judah's going to put on his back the family needs.

Why Judah?

Judah was a son of Leah.

Joseph and Benjamin were sons of Rachel.

It would make sense for someone else, right?

Not Reuben, the oldest, but Judah.

And we look at the whole scenario and we go, you know, Joseph would be the obvious choice for a kingdom to be built upon.

Everything we've learned, we would go, Joseph.

But in my Bible, if you look at it closely and you study, you know what it says?

It says that Jesus comes from a tribe, and his tribe calls him the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

One could argue this, that Joseph's dreams and his holding of the line was to protect Judah.

Judah.

The one who would have the line that would go to Jesus.

Judah.

And why did God do all that?

I wonder.

Why is Judah going to be the one that goes before Joseph?

Well, maybe he was the one with the biggest need of reconciliation.

But this I know, aren't you glad, church?

That God offers you the same grace as he offered Judah.

I shouldn't ever come close to registering on God's radar.

But the scripture says, who are man that you are mindful of him?

God blessed Judah.

And Jesus was born out of the line of Judah despite his sins, despite all of these problems.

Romans 3.23, church, says, for all.

And that isn't just a few, that's all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

And God chose grace.

God has blessed me, church, despite all of my sins.

And I sing, and you can sing with me.

I won't sing, but I can say the words.

Wonderful, the matchless grace of Jesus.

Greater far than all my sin and shame.

Higher than a mountain and sparkling like a fountain.

All sufficient grace for me, for even me.

Don't you believe that, church?

That grace that's for Judah.

That grace that's for you, and that grace that's for me.

You see, God uses Judah in his story because he's the great reconciler of men.

In spite of my every misstep, and God knowing what was going before me, he has offered me abundant grace.

Knowing all my failures.

He decided already on grace.

The Bible says where sin abounds, grace does what?

Do you know it?

It does much more abound.

So I want to ask you when it comes to benevolence, have you decided on grace?

With people?

Have you decided already?

Grace is going to be a part of what I am and what I do.

That was God's decision about you.

Have you decided on it for your family?

For your future, for your enemy.

Have you decided on grace?

Letter B takes us to the brotherhood transformation.

I want you to turn to Genesis 44 there and look at verse 32 through 34.

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.

So after Joseph, just a quick rundown of what happens in between those spaces, he hosts his brothers as into a feast, and Joseph secretly tells a steward to place a silver cup in the bag of Benjamin, along with all the grain that he's going to send back.

Early the next morning, the brothers leave Egypt, unaware of the setup.

The steward goes ahead of them to overtake them and accuse them of stealing his silver cup.

The cup is discovered.

Guess where?

In the youngest's bag, in Benjamin's bag.

The brothers, in this now scenario, rend their clothes.

This is the worst of the worst.

They return to the city where they stand before Joseph, and he claims Benjamin will be his slave, and the others will be free.

Back to Judah.

Judah steps up, not just to his father back here.

Remember, he said, Dad, I'll be surety.

Now before Joseph, when the situation is completely dire, he says, Let your servant remain, and not the boy.

The one who sold Joseph is now standing before Joseph on behalf of his little brother.

And the Hebrew word is tashe, and it means instead of signaling substitution.

Remember, the brothers showed no grief whatsoever when they threw Joseph in the pit and they sold him about how their father would be concerned.

And now Judah's entire plea centers on their father's sorrow.

Sounds like they're growing up a little bit, right?

Maturity has Judah saying, I could not see, don't want to see the evil upon my father if he is to know that Benjamin, first Joseph, now Benjamin is going to be a slave.

That church is transformation.

Judah consented to Joseph becoming a slave.

Now he volunteers.

He says, I'll be your slave.

That's transformation, church.

When somebody will do something for your betterment, for your behalf.

Judah, now, the sin of selling your brother is confronted now with the substitution of Judah for what?

Unity of the family.

Judah says, For the sake of this family, I'll substitute me.

I'll go in, coach.

Psalms 133, church says, Behold, how good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity.

It's a beautiful thing.

A few years ago, I hurt my sister's feelings.

And you know when you text or you get on the phone with someone that you've known for a long time, something is just a little different.

I couldn't quite figure out in my head why it felt different for.

A couple of weeks of text or phone calls, and then it dawned on me, and I thought, oh my, what have I done?

I have been thoughtless about something really important.

And you know what I did?

I coldly waited for five more years.

No, I didn't wait for five years.

I immediately began to take steps to write this with my sister.

Why?

Because I love her.

And who you say you love, what will you do?

If I mess up, I own it.

That's what you do.

Proof, church, is not words of apology, but reversal of behavior.

Judah says, I will substitute.

Let me in.

Let me take this.

Joseph structures this test precisely.

All that Joseph is doing, it can feel like, I think, because don't miss the weight of what Joseph had been through.

Maybe he wrestled through this situation and scenario testing his brothers.

You know, the worst of it so far is that they spent three days in prison.

Remember, Joseph spent two years, was sold in a pit.

And so, not too bad of a fair trade if you're the brother organizing this.

But here's the question I think that Joseph maybe pondered.

Will they repeat the pattern?

Church, you have not transformed until you respond differently.

I want you to think about that.

Thirdly, the pardon produces rest.

I want you to go to Genesis chapter 45.

Genesis 45 · chapter mention

Look at verse one through five.

Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him.

And he cried out, Make everyone go out from me, so no one stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Hear this.

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 to me.

So they came near.

Then he said, I am Joseph, your brother, who sold, who you sold into Egypt.

But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourself because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.

Letter A is Joseph revealed himself.

So all this back and forth, it's been chapters, it's been days since Joseph recognized his brothers, and who knows how long he had carried this thought or what this one day might look like.

But now in this apex of the moment, it says he could not restrain any longer.

He cries out.

He weeps over 20 years of consideration.

If you think for one moment that Joseph is just a good man and he has never dealt with all this grief, you're lying to yourself.

The grief of missing his father, his mother Rachel, his brother Benjamin, the grief of not having a family in your home, all of this grief.

Joseph is hurt.

So this reconciliation was not an easy task.

God hasn't called us to easy.

This might have been the hardest of the hard things that Joseph is about to enter into.

These brothers hurt him, and he had had nothing but 20 years to consider it.

Joseph, I said you'll have a hard time finding much fault in him, but he wasn't superhuman.

He wasn't divinity.

Joseph was human.

And reconciliation, this process had to strip his heart.

I'm sure that he had a broken heart.

I'm sure that he had to fight anger and jealousy and pride and envy.

Don't miss the weight.

Because it says, everyone in the house heard his weeping.

This wasn't a little tear coming down his face.

Everyone in the house could hear Joseph bellowing out in tears.

By the way, church, psalmist says that God blesses the broken heart and contrite spirit.

There's some here today what you really need is to be able to weep.

It might be a prayer for you today, God, make it so that in my heart I can be broken again.

To weep.

Society would have you believe that tears are weakness.

Just wall up, right?

I'm just gonna wall up against all that.

I don't want to be hurt, and so my mechanism to fight hurt is that I'll wall up.

Bible says there is a time to weep and a time to mourn.

And Joseph, instead of plotting evil or revenge or looking for his brother's wrong to be on public display, what he does, it says, He reveals himself.

Through his emotion, Joseph reveals himself.

And God blessed him with this moment of emotion.

Let me paint it this way.

In Genesis chapter 3, man rebels against God in a perfect society, and sin is placed in his heart, and it's this wedge that separates us.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It's this great gulf, this chasm between us and a perfect father.

And when that all happened, I want you to think about this question.

Who took the first initiative when man sinned?

Church, it was an almighty, holy creator God.

God took care of the divorce, God took care of the divide.

God reconciled the whole world to himself.

He reached down to us.

And how did he do it?

By revealing himself through his son Jesus that was born to this earth and died on a cross.

He revealed himself to us.

Our great need of reconciliation was the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Joseph revealed himself.

His emotion made him.

Otherwise, they see this ruler, this strong man just weeping, and what of it?

What's wrong with this man?

Church, your brokenness may accomplish the thing that you never intended, but the thing that you always needed.

A shocking moment for them watching this man who had all of the answer to their physical need just weep.

And he says, Come near.

Matthew 28, church, he says, Come near.

You that are weak and heavy laden, come unto me, come near.

He reassures them in this moment, a sweet moment of grace.

He alleviates them.

He says, Don't grieve, don't, don't be mad at even yourself.

Don't be grieved.

Don't even be angry at you.

He says this.

God sent me.

God sent me for this moment.

Joseph moved towards his brothers.

And how could he do that?

The words he just said.

Only God.

In our human humanity church, this is something that is far beyond difficult.

Only God working in the heart.

I don't believe a Christian has or a non-Christian has much of an easy time at reconciling on things.

But God, he said, God, he said, don't be grieved, don't be mad.

What you've done, yes, it's wrong.

God sent me.

So he reveals himself.

I want you to look over at 2 Corinthians for a moment.

2 Corinthians chapter 5.

2 Corinthians 5 · chapter mention

Look down at verse 19.

We can start at 18.

Now, behold, all things have become new.

Now all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given, hear this, us the ministry of reconciliation.

That is, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ.

As though God were pleading through us, we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God, for he made him who knew no sin to be sent for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

It says we're ambassadors of reconciliation.

What's an ambassador, Pastor?

I'm glad that you asked that question this morning.

An ambassador represents someone else.

It speaks on behalf of someone else, the message of somebody else.

We that are Christians, we that are saved have assumed a position of reconciliation, a responsibility.

We've been given a ministry.

Well, I haven't accepted yet, Pastor.

Okay.

It's like jury duty, right?

I haven't accepted it.

I accidentally lost a jury duty sheet of paper.

And the date and all is it's God, okay?

The date and all came back to my mind somewhere, and I meant to call it and all this, but uh when it came back to me, I started searching frantically because I looked on my counter, I was like, the date is getting close and I cannot find this paper.

And I didn't really know what it meant.

I thought it can't be that big a deal.

It's just jury duty, right?

And so then I get a certified letter in the mail, and it says, if you have not responded, all this stuff, and and I started reading into what can happen.

It didn't matter when you were born, church.

You all signed up for jury duty.

Doesn't matter, they're not playing.

So I get to jury duty.

50 hours I'm in jury duty.

Y'all, they sent me six cents per mile.

I got a check for two dollars and something for my 50 hours of jury duty.

I almost missed.

And when I looked at the print about it, I need y'all to know this.

I almost missed.

They can arrest you if you miss jury duty, and it says it doesn't likely happen.

Can you imagine the headlines there?

Pastor from the church at Chelsea Westover arrested for not doing his civic duty.

I'm like, thank God he gave me the memory of that date and I searched it out.

It's not even in the conversation, church.

If you are a Christian, you are a sense ambassador.

As much as Jesus reconciled you, you are to reconcile and help people reconcile.

You're signed up.

So if you need to reconcile, Matthew says, leave your gift at the altar and go.

And then in so doing, you show the world Jesus Christ.

Egypt was in famine, and reconciliation was Joseph's family's biggest need.

This world around us, church, is in spiritual famine.

And God, through the bread of life, has given you bread, and you've got a basket.

And he's sending you out.

You're sent.

You don't have to sign up.

You're sent by salvation to be an ambassador of somebody else's reconciliation.

And so, because he gave it to you, he's sending you out in the world to give it to them.

So report for duty, ambassadors.

Show Jesus Christ to the masses.

Well, let me share with you what finishes in the story.

It's beautiful.

Let her be a reunited household.

Look there at Genesis 45, 14, and 15.

Then he fell on his brother.

So they bring Benjamin to him.

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.

Joseph is reunited with his brothers with Benjamin.

They share this embrace.

What a beautiful thing that we see.

Want you to look down at verse 26 through 28.

They go back to their father, Jacob, verse 26, and they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he's governor over all the land of Egypt.

And Jacob's heart stood still because he did not believe them.

But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their fathers, revived.

Then Israel said, highlight that word Israel, it is enough.

Joseph, my son, is still alive.

I will go and see him before my death.

Over 20 years.

Picture it, church.

You that have children.

Twenty years thinking that your child has lost his life, or thinking the worst scenario.

Jacob, it says, his heart fainted.

That's strong language.

It felt like permanent loss.

And this picture of what happened, his heart fainted and then it came back.

His resurrection language.

What was dead, my son is now alive.

There was shock to him from this hope that felt, I bet, dangerous to believe.

If I believe this is true, and it's not.

Don't play with me about Joseph.

Don't mess with me about this.

If this is really, boys, this is a dangerous thing for my heart to believe.

So if it's true, please.

When all this started, we spoke about this dysfunctional family.

And people, you know, settling for their roles.

We're just that family.

A family with four moms and a dad who had favorites and a dysfunctional brother.

And now the passage takes an interesting turn because it's talking about the family.

It uses the name Israel.

Jacob was grieving, Jacob's heart felt still.

And now, from the grieving father to Israel, the covenant family lying.

Notice Israel's response.

No bitterness.

You boys lied to me.

You deceived me.

No bitterness.

No anger.

I can't believe you would do that.

No tell me about the story that you told me years ago.

None of that.

No replaying the old wound.

You did this to me.

And here is the hiccup and reconciliation, right?

You did this to me.

You hurt me.

Why would you ever none of that with Israel?

All he wants to do is move forward.

He says, I will go and see my son.

The rest of it is behind me because the reality is we can't do anything about the rest of it.

But what's ahead of me?

Hope is ahead.

Israel says, Hope is before me, 130 years old.

He says, I can go see my baby boy.

Look at how he responds.

Genesis 46.

It's important.

Who knows what the hours are leading to this moment?

But Jacob, who by the way, if you study Jacob, he's a little bit, he was a little bit of a scoundrel himself.

Jacob said, Oh, the grace of God.

I'm glad that it pardoned me.

So Israel took his journey with all that he had, and he came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father Isaac.

Then God spoke to Israel in the visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob.

And he said, Here am I.

So he said, I am God, the God of your father.

Do not fear to go down to Egypt, for I will make of you a great nation there.

I will go down with you to Egypt, and I will surely bring you up again.

And Joseph will put his hand on your eyes.

On his way to see Joseph, fresh off the near heart attack, he stops at an important place, Beersheba.

Bersheba is the place where Jacob's father Isaac met with God and he built an altar.

We're talking about legacy later in church.

Man, I hope someday that this place gives my kids a feeling.

I hope that they visit it and say the tears of the saints fell at this place.

I go to camps, and Heather and I go back and I go, I can't help but feel this feeling because when I come to this place, this altar, I see where God has moved.

And Jacob said, Daddy was here.

And this is where he built his altar.

And I know that if I can get to that place, I'll find God there.

And it says he met with God there.

This reconciliation moved Jacob to worship.

And it says that he stopped there to sacrifice, to worship at the altar to God.

And he praises and lifts up the name of God, and God met him in that worship.

You see, it's not just that reconciling is relational, it's spiritual warfare, church.

And doing what God says to do in scripture, you're fighting spiritual warfare against the enemy for revival.

You see, division suffocates, bitterness hardens, unforgiveness blockades, but worship releases and revives.

Bersheba was revival ground.

And can you picture Jacob there?

I'm going to see my boy.

And here I'm meeting with my God.

Finally, 29 and 30 of chapter 46.

They came to the land of Goshen.

So Joseph made ready his chariot and he went up to Goshen to meet his father.

And he presented himself to him, and he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while.

And Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die, since I've seen your face because you are alive.

Church, can you imagine?

A hundred and thirty-year-old man, and revival takes place in his heart.

He looks at his family reconciled again, and you know what?

You don't find a scripture where he comes back, pulls them all together, and says, Now let's hash out all this stuff.

He says, We're together.

And my heart, he says, I can just go to heaven now.

It's a picture of Jesus and his reconciliation for you and for me.

What Jesus did on the cross, church.

We had a fix, a gulf.

There was something that kept us from God, and we couldn't get there no matter what we did.

And God sent his son and he said, That blood, that cross, that propitiation was sent so that I could get back to God, my Father.

He did that for you and for me.

He reconciled.

And now, church, he's put that bread in your heart to give out.

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