God's Good Intentions

A reading from the book of Genesis, chapter 50.

Genesis 50 · chapter mention

Buckle up.

Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him.

And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.

So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming.

And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die in the tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan.

There shall you bury me.

Now therefore, please let me go up and bury my father, then I will return.

And Pharaoh answered, Go up and bury your father as he made you swear.

So Joseph went up to bury his father.

With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household.

Only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen.

And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen.

It was a very great company.

When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father seven days.

When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians.

Therefore the place was named Abba Mizraim, it is beyond the Jordan.

Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them.

For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field at Makvila, to the east of Mamre, which Abram bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.

After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers, and all who had gone up with him to bury his father.

When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.

So they sent a message to Joseph, saying, Your father gave us this command before he died.

Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers in their sin, because they did evil to you.

And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.

Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

His brothers also came and fell down before him and said, Behold, we are your servants.

But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God?

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

So do not fear, I will provide for you and your little ones.

Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.

So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house.

Joseph lived one hundred and ten years, and Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation.

The children also of Machir the son of Manasseh were counted as Joseph's own.

And Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.

So Joseph died, being 110 years old.

They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

How am I gonna preach on all that?

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman.

Welcome to Redemption Church Denver.

Uh happy 4th of July weekend.

Uh yes, congratulations, everyone.

Let's pray and we'll get into our text for the day.

Lord God, we thank you for your loving kindness towards us.

We thank you for the salvation that you show to us, to your people, throughout your word.

Lord, we pray that we are counted among those people.

That in Christ, this story is our story.

Lord, we praise you for showing us yourself and your word.

I pray that you would give us the wisdom to see who you are and receive your revelation with gratitude, and that we might be transformed by your word, so that we might better understand you and better know you and honor you with our lives, Lord.

You who have given us everything.

We love you and we praise you.

Lift us up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

This is our last morning in Genesis.

In 2020, January 12th, 2020, we preached, we, I, preached our first sermon on uh Genesis 1-1.

Uh the title of the sermon is Ex Nilos, our only Latin title.

I thought it was a trend that I would keep going, but and we uh uh it was our first time meeting here in the Berkeley neighborhood.

Our church had been meeting uh on East Colfax, uh, where our church started.

And we were uh uh meeting at 4 30 p.m.

on East Colfax.

It was great.

It got rave reviews.

Everybody loved a 4:30 p.m.

meeting time.

No, nobody liked it.

It was bad.

Uh part of yeah, it one thing that I'm sure of with uh this church, pretty sure of, is um I think you can throw almost anything at this church.

And it'll it'll make it.

Um you know, here at the end of Genesis, I've just been reflective on what this time has meant for our church in these past three years.

Because uh it was that first time that we met, we had met with the makers and breakers team who would set up and tear down it when we were meeting in Centennial Elementary, and we had trained the day before, and then we had our first morning, and everything went really well.

It went smooth, and it was a joyful time to be over here in this new season in this new neighborhood.

And then only two months later, the deal that we had hoped may happen that we might be able to meet in this building instead happened.

And so we walked out the back of Centennial and we said, look, here is the the building that we'll get to meet in as a church and won't set up or tear down.

And then we started meeting here, and it was uh I should have written down the date, but March 6th or March 8th, March 8th, thanks, Krista, was our first Sunday in this building, March 8th, 2020.

And as I continued reading in my journals, uh we met here one Sunday, and folks from the neighborhood who had like worked to preserve the building came in.

I just kept preaching through Genesis.

I preached on the Nephilim.

Uh I'm not great at church growth strategies.

And uh the next Sunday we shut down, of course.

And then we went through a year of arguing amongst ourselves with the rest of the world.

Then we went through another year of forgiving one another.

And then we uh established all kinds of things uh from church membership to the parish model, setting a direction for our church joining a denomination.

Uh there's been returning and renovating this building.

We've had two, we're on our second landlord.

I'm pulling for three by the end of next year.

There's a not really, they're a great landlord now.

Just like the idea of racking up landlords.

We uh uh have shuffled our kid space around in just about every nook and cranny that this building has to offer.

We have put our kids in and then pumped it full of propane.

We uh that only once for like a winter.

And uh now we're in this pretty joyful season, I think, where where there's this sort of consistency that we're getting to experience for the first time in our church's history.

And it's uh it it's fitting to reflect back on the story of Genesis and then to see where it ends, because Genesis ends in a similar place.

The ending of Genesis, it is a happy ending.

It's a joyful ending, and it's one that looks forward in hope.

And I think that we can mark this time and see it in the text, the same sort of thing.

Um seasons of challenge and difficulty that the Lord brings us through that can be marked with hope and even a goodness at the end of them.

So we're going to look at this story and see how the whole narrative of Genesis kind of comes together here to show us this picture of a good place and hope.

All right, let's begin right in the first couple of verses.

So Genesis 50, verses one through feet verses one through three, it says, Then Joseph fell on his face, on his father's face, and wept over him and kissed him.

And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father.

So the physicians embalmed Israel.

Forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming, and the Egyptian and the Egyptians wept for him seventy days.

I'm actually going to back up a bit into chapter 49, as if there's not enough to preach on this morning.

But at the end of chapter 49, Jacob, who is about to die, right after blessing his sons, he says, Bury me in the land that I bought where Abraham and Isaac, that my fathers bought, that Abraham and Isaac are buried in, the land that was purchased in Canaan from Ephraim the Hittite.

And we've gone through this story because we've gone through all the stories in Genesis, but the it's a whole chapter of Genesis that's dedicated to just working out this deal that purchases this, that where Abraham purchased this land that would just be a burial site for Sarah when Sarah died.

And we were thinking then, why is it that we're getting a whole chapter on Abraham just negotiating with the Hittites about buying this cave east of Mamre?

It's great, you know, especially this time of year.

It's lovely.

But there's uh other than that, why are we getting so much insight into this purchase?

Well, it's the first piece of the promised land that the family of promise owns.

And what it is, is it's their burial ground.

And so it's this it's this piece of hope that says we haven't seen the fulfillment of this promise that we will have the land and we will be a people, but we have this hope that God will continue working.

And in that place, Abraham purchased it from the Hittites and they kept saying, We'll just give it to you, we'll just give it to you.

Abraham was beloved by the Hittites.

And in fact, when we read things like that, we should think, oh yeah, they had come to understand that Abraham's God was God.

They're converts.

And we see the same pattern here, where just as it with the Hittites who came into contact with Abraham, this great man, and then they see him as beloved and they adopt his God and honor who that is, the same thing takes place here.

As at Jacob's death, Joseph weeps for him, but then the Egyptians themselves weep for 70 days for Joseph.

Here we see that the people of Israel have moved outside of the land, but as they have moved outside of the land, people have come to know who the true God is.

So the Egyptians themselves are acting like true believers.

They are seeing Jacob and they are mourning him as one who is not just, you know, the father of the great the great economist, which is like the best hire that Pharaoh made.

They honor him as the one who holds the promise from the Lord.

And it is the Lord who they are honoring when they go up and they honor Jacob.

Now, Joseph commands his servants, as we see in this text, to embalm his father.

So the physicians embalmed him.

Forty days are required for embalming.

Now, we should stop, right?

It's Genesis.

Let's remember the book we're in.

40 days.

What's the last thing that took 40 days?

The flood.

The flood is this chapter ends with uh or begins with this idea of there's 40 days here that it's taking to sort of uh move through the death before they're brought up into the land of Canaan.

And the 40 days is a marker in scripture of we're entering a new world.

We're 40 days of embalming here is a marker that there's a new season coming.

And this season that we've left is one that we're moving.

And then we see that the Egyptians mourn for him for 70 days.

In 70, when we see that number throughout the Old Testament, we should consider what is the first occurrence of 70 that we see?

It's the table of nations in Genesis 10, the 70 Gentile nations around the world that are marked out in Genesis 10.

So 70 is a marker for Gentiles, for those who are outside the family of promise, but who will be brought in.

And so what we see here in the description of the 40 days of embalming and the 70 days of mourning is exactly what's happening in the narrative.

A new world is starting.

This new world of the story of what will be the story of the Egyptian Israelites in Egypt is beginning.

And it's marked by Gentiles being brought in.

This is exactly what the Israelites were supposed to be.

They were supposed to be those who are ushering in a new world by the promise of God, one which would restore the world that has been broken.

And in the promise to them, to the Israelites, there is blessing for the whole world.

And we see that manifesting here in this very story.

This story begins with a reference of 40 days of embalming, and it will end with Joseph being buried in an ark.

So, you know, that's interesting.

Do with that whatever you will.

Verse 6 through 8.

Joseph comes to Pharaoh and asks him to bury him.

And Pharaoh answered, Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.

So Joseph went up to bury his father with him.

With him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household.

I just want you to see the company that is going up to mourn for Jacob's death.

Look at how the good news and the promise of God has moved into the highest levels of Egypt.

Pharaoh is so so quick to say, like this Pharaoh, this is a good Pharaoh.

This Pharaoh is certainly a believer, counted among us, because of the way that he is obedient to Joseph, honors all of his commands, and honors by mourning the life of the patriarch Jacob.

He treats him as though Jacob were his own father.

Now, what we see is this is, I just want us to see here, this is a happy ending.

This is a joyful place to be.

The people are in Egypt.

Yes, that's not the land of promise.

So there's an incompleteness here, but they are brought to a joyful place with a Pharaoh who honors the things that they honor, and with a mourning that celebrates the goodness of the promise that Jacob has been given.

We read it, and I don't quote it here, but we see that when they all go up together to the land of Canaan, and all the elders of Egypt are there, and they have this great mourning for Jacob for seven days.

The Hittites that were there that lived in that land, they they named that place uh the morning of Egypt, or the great mourning of Egypt, which means they didn't even say they didn't name it the great morning of Israel's sons.

They named it the morning of Egypt.

Egypt is mourning the death of Jacob the patriarch.

Look, this is how things are meant to go.

The Israelites were always meant to be a blessing for all nations, and we see that pattern happening here.

And you know what?

It happens for about 400 years, minus some slavery at the end.

But the slavery at the end, which comes at the beginning of Exodus, comes because there's a Pharaoh who no longer remembers the Lord and no longer remembers Joseph, and he sees the success that the Israelites are having and it threatens him.

And then he particularly enslaves the Israelites.

Remember, everybody is in a sense enslaved to Egypt because of the structure that Joseph restructured, but then Israel is made servants of all the other Egyptians.

So they are made particular slaves in the land of Egypt.

But it is because of their success that they are made those slaves and the threat that that felt like was posed.

So we're looking forward to, you know, 300 and let's call it uh 25, really good years in Egypt.

This is a happy ending.

But there's still some things to be resolved because at the changing of the world that that 40 days represents, we also see a changeover of the patriarch.

The one who had held the promise is no longer with the family of promise.

And it had been given to Joseph to bear.

And so there's a shift in the family dynamic.

The sons had, in a sense, been held together.

They'd been restrained by the presence of their father above them.

And the thought of the brothers is perhaps it was the presence of our father that was restraining Joseph from taking his vengeance upon us.

So that's what they say.

Right after burying Joseph, they come back, that old world is closed, and this new world is entered into.

And there is still reconciliation to take place.

Genesis 50, verse 15.

Genesis 50:15

It says, When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.

You see, perhaps it was just Jacob's presence that kept Joseph from taking out his vengeance upon us.

It was just because our father was still around.

So they send a message in verses 16 to 17.

So they sent a message to Joseph saying, Your father gave this command before he died.

Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin, because they did evil to you.

And now, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.

Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

Some commentators, uh, you know, the more critical-minded of commentators say that Jacob didn't actually say that, you know, because they say, Your father gave this command before he died.

Say to Joseph, forgive the transgression of your brothers because of the sin that they sinned against you.

And some critical commentators say, Jacob never said that.

Jacob never actually commanded them.

They're just trying to use their father as a means of, you know, uh manipulating Joseph into not taking out his vengeance upon them.

I don't think that's in the text at all.

Uh Jacob certainly said this.

It's common for Genesis to tell a story and then tell a story a second time and give us more details than we got in the first time.

Remember, we didn't learn that Joseph was trapped in the pit weeping and begging for his life while his brothers ate and ignored him until his brothers come back and Joseph remembers that part of the story.

This is the ordinary pattern of the way that the uh author of Genesis Genesis writes.

This instead of being some cynical manipulation, this is the The deepest repentance that we have seen from the brothers.

Look at these words that they use to describe themselves.

They say, please forgive the transgression, their sin.

They did evil.

Forgive the transgression.

You don't use like the you don't use words like that to describe your actions unless you're repentant.

They reflect back on what they had done to Joseph, selling him into slavery, betraying him, faking his death to their father.

And they now come before Joseph and they say, look, this was sinful, this was evil towards you.

We have transgressed the law of our father and the law of our God.

And what they ask for is just forgiveness.

Forgiveness for the servants of the God of your father.

It's a simple request that leads to this, the most climactic moment of reconciliation in the book of Genesis.

Verses 19 through 20.

But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, for am I in the place of God.

As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

Joseph has lived a lot of life.

Joseph is sold into slavery, betrayed by his family, betrayed by the next household that he winds up in.

He is placed in prison and then forgotten in prison.

He's raised then to the heights of Egypt.

And who knows the pressures and difficulties that a role like that would face, would bring to you.

Joseph has lived the highest highs and the deepest lows that we can possibly imagine in one human life.

And in this, Joseph has not become hard from the lows.

He has not become puffed up from the highs.

Instead, Joseph has become the type of man that views the world with an almost unthinkable wisdom.

And so he is able to say, to begin with, to the first thing that he says to his brothers is, Do not fear.

And then after that, he says, For am I in the place of God?

How is it that Joseph was able to become this type of person that sees with this incredible wisdom, a wisdom which we'll see in just verse 20?

It's because he understands, first of all, that he is not God.

And when he understands that he is not God, then he is able to understand in the midst of the terrible lows of his story, there could be something else going on here that I don't understand.

Maybe even here I could trust in God.

And because of the because he knows that he is not God, when he gets to the incredible highs, he doesn't think, yes, uh, Pharaoh is worshipped as a God.

I likewise ought to be worshipped as a God.

And we see that when he comes to his brothers, he doesn't think I am in the place of God.

Vengeance is mine.

The old man's out of the way.

It's time for you guys to see what it's like to sit in a pit while I hear your cries.

He doesn't think of himself as God.

Now it's on my mind because this is the end, but this is the first lesson of the Bible.

Thanks for the backing track, Zach.

Just kidding, that's a car outside.

This is the first lesson of the Bible.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

This means that everything comes from him, and he is not like us.

We are creatures in a world that he made and stands absolutely over, radically transcends his own creation.

And we are merely his creatures in it.

If you think of God as just a more powerful man, then you will not understand him.

In fact, you'll do silly things that atheists do, especially the new atheists, which are now the old atheists, which is funny.

Don't name yourself new.

It's only a matter of time.

But especially the new atheists, which they they'll describe these things of how we'll make inquiries and we'll look around for God in this space, and we'll look for uh, and we see no evidence of God here, as though God were another creature that we could prove by things that we have in this finite container we're trapped in.

It's a category mistake.

And then they say it proves falsity.

No, it's foolishness, it's evidence of foolishness.

God is not like us, He transcends us.

And unless you get that, you can't be wise.

The low parts of your life will make you hard.

The high parts of your life will foolishly puff you up.

Joseph resists both of these because he gets this first principle.

I'm not God.

There's just more going on here than I can see.

He does things, and I can't tell what he's doing when I'm in the midst of them.

God radically transcends.

Joseph gets this, and it makes him unthinkably wise.

Because he is able to move on to this next part, and it he says this to his brothers, as for you, he says, Don't fear.

Am I in the place of God?

As for you, you meant evil against me.

But God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

If you've ever had like a God's sovereignty and free will argument with anyone, which is another way of asking, were you a Christian in college?

Then this verse has likely shown up because it's it's uh central to beginning to understand that dynamic.

But I want you to see the wisdom that Joseph has to be able to see the world in this way.

First, what it doesn't say.

Joseph doesn't say, you meant evil against me, but God took those things and turned them out for good.

I can understand that, you know.

People can found this on the web.

Siri?

People can do not now.

Gosh, these robot slaves.

People we can do things like that.

But my son showed me a painting that he painted the other day that he named Ocean Wonders, which is the sweetest thing in the whole entire world.

And on it, he said, I was trying to make this a dolphin, but then it didn't really look like a dolphin.

So I just made this the eye and gave it tentacles, and look, now it's a squid.

Now we can do things like that.

Oh yeah, we took this thing that we intended for dolphin and then we turned it into squid.

We took this thing that God took this thing that he intended for evil, but then he was able to make some adjustments here and fix it on the back end so that it would ultimately work out for good.

That's not what Joseph says.

He says, What you meant for evil, the very same thing.

Joseph in a pit weeping because he doesn't want to be murdered by his brothers.

Relatable.

That event, that very thing they meant for evil, and that very same thing God meant for good.

Now, if you think of God as another creature who's just a part of this same this that we are, then the intentions of Joseph's brothers and the intentions of God are competitors.

You know, they they one's gonna win out here.

But God is not like us, another creature on our plane.

He is radically transcendent.

So his so there's no competition between the intentions of the brothers and the intentions of God.

They can take place in the exact same event.

Look at the wisdom that Joseph is able to look at his own story with.

For having me do that.

God was good.

God was good for having me do that.

Not different events, the same events.

Joseph sees God absolutely in his story because he understands the radical transcendence of God, and he understands that he himself is not God.

The very same action.

So here's the moment, you know, the moment for the brothers.

There's another thing that we should see in here.

Well, I'll go in the order that I did my notes.

The moment for the brothers is Joseph can be just against us and take his vengeance, or Joseph can be merciful to us.

There's something like good and evil.

And what would Joseph be doing when he did that?

He would he would be saying something like good and evil, because think of the position that I'm in.

The highest of my brothers, the highest in Egypt.

You know, once I was given a coat that set me apart from my brothers.

And it was something like a kingly or a priestly robe.

And it set me over my brothers.

But that was just a shadow of what was to come.

Now I am over my brothers.

And the the dream that I had been given by God, that they would bow down to me, I can make them bow low for what they have done to me.

And so Joseph would look at this thing that is that uh instead of seeing that what they intended for evil, God intended for good, and somehow there's this, these events, the judgment of those events is something that just belongs to God.

Joseph might say, This judgment can belong to me.

Maybe I am in the place of God.

I can definitely be in the place of God over these brothers, and vengeance will be mine.

You know, I don't know the last time you saw Gladiator, but I hope it's recent.

I re-watched it like a couple of years ago.

It's the Joseph story, right?

Because it's the story about uh uh a king who becomes, he's king-ish, you know, under the emperor, who becomes a who's betrayed by someone like a brother, and then he's sold into slavery, but then he rises up out of slavery or out of slavery and becomes more powerful than the Emperor of Rome.

And I was watching it this last time, and I used to think this is the perfect movie, but it isn't, because the third act in that movie is not very good.

It falls apart in the third act.

And it was trying to figure out why, and I think I figured it out this morning.

The best that you can do in that story without a transcendent reality to appeal to is just take your own vengeance.

All you can do is get your own vengeance.

So Joseph has this held out to him.

You can have your vengeance.

You can put yourself in the place of God.

What does Joseph say?

You intended it for evil, God intended it for good.

I want you to see how all of Genesis is being resolved in this story.

Good and evil in one thing.

Have we seen that anywhere in the story of Genesis?

There was once a tree in a garden.

And it was called the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

And Adam was instructed: don't take from that tree.

Right before Joseph's eyes is this very same opportunity.

You see the good, you see the evil, you could take it.

And if you take it, you would be in the very position of God.

Adam took because he thought he could be like God.

Joseph.

He doesn't eat from the tree.

And as Joseph doesn't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we see something is unwound.

Instead, he allows what is God's to belong to God.

And when he doesn't eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he is now able to offer a forgiveness to his brothers.

And he offers a forgiveness to his brothers by saying, This whole thing belongs to God.

Who am I to take it for myself?

I am not in the place of God.

Instead, I will see the goodness that God is accomplishing here.

It is our clearest picture yet of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil being unwound.

You know, there's another tree that requires us to understand this principle.

This principle that what man intended for evil, God intended for good.

There will come a man like Joseph.

And he will have every legitimate reason to claim equality with God.

The most absolute of reasons, in fact, the only one that really works, he will have to claim equality with God.

And there will be a tree before him.

He won't just resist eating from it.

But instead, he will be placed upon it.

And all the wickedness of man will be taken out upon Jesus.

And Jesus will bear the curse as though he had eaten from the tree, and then he will turn around and he will bless his brothers as though they hadn't.

What is it that the brothers are getting a picture of here as they are forgiven?

They are getting a picture that the there's an older brother.

There's an older brother who will take the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and he will receive all of the curses of it, and they will go forgiven.

You know, there's something inspiring about seeing Joseph, you know, the the opportunity for vengeance right there, like a beautiful apple that he could reach down and take for himself.

And there's something wonderful about seeing him resist it.

But we're more like the brothers.

And what would the brothers say?

He had every right, he had every justification to take out his vengeance on us.

And yet he didn't count himself equal with God.

And so he forgave us.

Well, it's the same thing that we can say in Christ.

Because in in Christ we see that we stand like the brothers.

And we say i he has every reason to take out his vengeance upon us.

But because our older brother did not count equality with God a thing to be jealously held.

He took our curse upon himself and he offered us forgiveness, and so we are forgiven.

Where do you look for your forgiveness?

Where can you look and see so that you might know that you could be forgiven by God?

We can look to the tree.

We can look to the older brother who freely gives it.

And you can know there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus because of what he did on the tree.

Let's conclude by looking at the burial of Joseph.

In Genesis 50, verses 25 to 26, it says, Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.

Genesis 50:25–26

So Joseph died, being 110 years old.

There are three numbers in this 40, 70, and 110.

If only they relate it in some way.

I became a biblical numerologist this week.

They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Joseph comes to his brothers.

Take my bones out of here.

You will be brought up out of the land of Egypt.

How does Joseph see this far?

Well, he trusts the Lord.

And if the Lord said it, that's good enough.

How can he trust the Lord like that?

Well, he knows something about himself.

I'm not God.

Joseph at 110 years old, he dies.

They embalmed him, and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.

Coffin Is not the word.

The word is ark.

He's put in an ark.

What is an ark?

Well, let's remember what book we're in.

An ark is something that goes through the waters.

And it starts a new world on the other side.

Joseph is buried in a place, and he's we're getting this foreshadowing of what's to come.

What's God going to do with his people?

Well, he's going to bring them through the waters.

He'll part the sea with them.

It'll be just like when God brought Noah through the waters on his ark, but it'll be different this time.

He'll bring a nation through the waters.

And there won't be an ark that you're contained in amidst a gigantic ocean.

The ocean itself will split and you'll walk through on the dry land as if to say the whole world will be my ark.

And I will bring people in from all tribes, nations, tongues, that they might see the rescue that I can perform.

And he'll accomplish it most completely in his son, who will pass through the greatest wrath of God.

And then in an empty tomb where the ark ought to be, two angels will be, and we'll see that his body is not there, because the sacrifice has been satisfied.

Genesis shows us that there is one coming who will save.

There is a true Joseph.

Now, the tree is not undone here, but it will be by Christ.

And we will have a second Adam, and he'll look something like Joseph, the one who turns around and forgives his brother his brothers, because he does not count himself equal with God.

And there is hope for this people.

Yes, they aren't in the land, but they're in a pretty good spot.

And when it gets bad, God will bring them out again.

God will continue his faithfulness.

So Joseph hopes, being buried not in a coffin, but in an ark.

So we hope too, but even more completely.

Because we know that he'll bring us through this world into the new creation.

Because his son has already forgiven us.

Are there any questions today, Carlos?

Okay.

When you taught about the structure and stability Joseph brought to Egypt, it seemed you suggested the concentration of power and reliance on Egypt was sinful.

But in chapter 50, we read that God intended this for the saving of many people.

Was Joseph's creation of structure good or problematic?

So I didn't mean to suggest that the structure that was created was sinful.

In fact, part of the frustration of seeing the tyrannical structure that's put in place, or I should say, the structure that becomes tyrannical in its operation that's put in place under the Pharaohs.

What's frustrating about that in the story, in the Genesis story, is that there is no sin.

There is no sin in it.

There's no sin in what Joseph does.

The text offers no condemnation of it whatsoever.

In fact, it seems like Joseph was just doing almost precisely the right thing.

The point that I wanted to show is that even when we're doing what seems like is perhaps like absolutely the right thing, like what Joseph does, if it's not Christ who's doing it, even that will become just tyrannical.

And that's what we see in this Joseph story.

It's like the limit case of the best possible person, Joseph, with the best possible intentions, saving many and feeding the starving world, with the best possible people to do it with, this the sickest pharaoh ever, who just gives you whatever you want.

Even when they all get together and they try and create the best possible world, which is one where we all give freely and then we're all distributed to freely.

That because it is not Christ who is laying out that best of all possible worlds, the end is tyranny.

And so it's not that it's sinful.

That's what's frustrating about it.

It's that only Christ is sufficient to set up the true kingdom of heaven.

That's the that's kind of the point there.

Does that make sense?

No one's nodding.

So that's fine.

Makes sense to me.

And that's the end of Genesis.

Paul recounts it like this.

He says, For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you.

That the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body which is for you, do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way also he took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.

Christ Jesus is the true and better Joseph, who didn't eat from the tree, although he deserved to.

He did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, although it was his to hold.

Instead, he laid it down that he might bear a curse for his enemies.

And then he invites these enemies to table fellowship with him, to eat together in his presence, as adopted sons and daughters of God, that he might call brothers.

We remember that as we come to the meal this morning.

That if the story of Genesis is about anything, it's about the God who saves and sends his son that we might be saved by him.

Holy Father, I pray that you would bless this meal, that you would bless our time together, who are brought together by what Christ has accomplished on the cross.

I pray that you would give us imaginations to see places in our lives that we are treating ourselves like God, by gripping things in anxiety, or by uh ignoring things or trying to remove categories like evil from our interpretation of things, because we don't have the courage to say that you could be there too.

Lord, give us wisdom like Joseph.

Let us begin to see it by seeing what you've accomplished in Christ.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.