Israel In Egypt

Hello, Church.

Hear now the word of the true and living God, Genesis forty seven.

So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, My father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possessed, have come from the land of Canaan.

They are now in the land of Goshen.

And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh.

Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation?

And they said to Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.

They said to Pharaoh, We have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan.

And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Your father and your brothers have come to you.

The land of Egypt is before you.

Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land.

Let them settle in the land of Goshen.

And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.

Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh.

And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How many are the days of the years of your life?

And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my sojourning are a hundred and thirty years.

Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their sojourning.

And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.

Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded.

And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents.

This is the word of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Welcome to Redemption Church Denver.

My name is James Rathran.

I'm the pastor here and uh glad to gather together with you this Sunday morning.

We've got sort of a strange text today.

A bit of it uh we'll move through, although it wasn't read this morning, that describes how exactly Israel uh it becomes enslaved in Egypt.

And it's it's a uh uh it's a strange story.

So we'll we'll look at that this morning.

But first, uh let's pray and ask the Lord to reveal to us himself and his word.

Holy Father, we thank you for your word.

That you have considered our frame and made yourself known to us.

We thank you for the laying out of the way the world really works and the true interpretation of existence that you've given to us in your word.

Lord, I pray that you would give us eyes to see it, that we would see the depth of our need, that you have truly worked things in such a way that we are bound up in sin, that we are exiles who cannot save nor advocate for ourselves.

But Lord, you are gracious and merciful.

You are mighty to save.

Lord, salvation belongs to you.

Lord, you are worthy of our praise.

You are worthy of a true understanding of your word, and I pray that you would give us that this morning, that we might know you and love you more completely.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Now, as we've moved through Genesis, and it's been years, and it it kind of blows my mind that we're coming to the actual end of this book.

And I was sharing with Megan yesterday on the couch, I've I've been uh quite frankly overwhelmed uh as this book get comes together at its at its end here.

We're just two chapters away.

Well, I guess today three chapters away from the end of from the end of Genesis.

And I was thinking back on 2020 when I was preaching through those first 10 chapters, thinking now seeing the rest of the book, I think I would approach those so differently, even.

There's so much more in them than I than I could have possibly seen then.

And I was sharing with Megan last night there's this sense that I have, it's almost a sense of of fear, to be frank.

Uh as after having spent this much time in the book of Genesis and seeing the I I can I can only say it like this this is not this is not a human book.

And I think after spending spending years seeing it and how how the Word of God works and and unveils just the very patterns of existence in this book, the weight of that reality has just hit me in a new way.

And I and I hope it does for our church as well, that there is there is almost a fear of not almost, but there's a new level of fear of handling this word.

Uh that these are the deep things of God that are being shown to us.

And so it's my hope as we move through and continue to that that that begins to really hit us.

And I hope that we can see that and perhaps share it together this morning.

But as we've moved through this book, we've seen that the Bible is not doing PR for its main characters.

It's not trying to present like only the best parts of its characters.

And in fact, oftentimes it makes particular sins very explicit, a real part of the contours of the people that we're learning about.

We see the wrestling and doubt between Abraham and Sarah as they await the promised son.

Uh, we see the temptation to deceit and favoritism that Isaac caves to, and then we see that corrupt his own family as he deliberately chooses the wrong son, but then is deceived by the right son.

We see Jacob is a man whose life is just covered by deception, and his sons, obviously, the whole story of Joseph is one of internal betrayal.

We see the sexual immorality of Judah, the sexual immorality of Reuben.

We see this uh this tangled mess of a family is really what the story of Genesis is all about.

And the Bible does, it minces no words.

You know, it's it's showing us this is the chosen family, they are like this, and deal with it.

That's the way Genesis presents it.

And and the strangeness, it perhaps makes it all the more strange that as you move through Joseph's story, you see that his glaring sin that the Bible highlights is, let's all say it together, I don't know.

It's he's like this outlier of a Bible character.

And uh there's there's if there if there is this drawback, you know, something like a sin in Joseph, and of course Joseph is a sinner, you know.

We we know that.

He's born into sin, just like us.

He's you know, I'm sure he sinned in all sorts of ways in his life.

But narratively, in the description of his life, it feels almost like an omission.

Why is that?

Why isn't that we can't look at Joseph and say, see, don't do this?

Well, today we get something that's close to that in the way that Joseph orchestrates the deal, which allows for the enslavement or causes the enslavement of all of Israel in Egypt.

But then when you look at the way he orchestrates the deal, you you can't put your finger on the sin.

It doesn't seem like, even there, it seems like he does he does nothing wrong.

He there's no sin that Joseph commits.

It's not even neglect.

I mean, another reading of the of the story is that Joseph, once again, saves the lives of thousands and thousands of people, and the way that he works this out.

The way that I'm understanding the Joseph story is something like this it is a picture of the most pure among us.

And what we see is that even the most pure, the most pure person you could you could possibly imagine, the most pure you could find who is a son of Adam is an insufficient savior.

Now, I I think that as we move through this and we if we grasp this, you will see how completely you who are not the most pure among us, I mean, well, somebody in the room is, you know, this that's just the nature of rooms.

Someone in the room is the most pure in that room.

But even that person is an insufficient savior.

And I think when we when you recognize that, when we recognize it in ourselves, uh my hope is that you get this deep sense of just how bound up in sin you are, how impossible it is for you to save yourself.

You cannot save yourself.

And we get this clear sense in this text today that God has worked things in such a way where our only hope is that He saves us.

So let's look through the story and we'll see how these themes come together here at the end of our book.

First, we see this interaction.

It's kind of the story today is book-ended by these two interactions with Jacob.

Jacob meets Pharaoh, and then we see how the deal is structured that causes the enslavement of the Israelites and the rest of Egypt as well.

And then finally, we come back to Jacob again as he requests that his bones not be buried in Egypt, but be buried in Canaan, the land of promise.

So let's begin with this look of the initial entry of the family into Egypt and how Jacob meets Pharaoh.

Now, last week I glanced over this part, but Joseph, when he uh meets his brothers and he's instructing them on how to come into the land of Egypt to escape the famine that's ravaging the world.

He instructs them, you have to be clear that you are shepherds, because shepherds are an abomination to Egyptians.

And so that means that Pharaoh will not place you in the capital of Egypt, where I am, Joseph might have said, but he will instead place you in the land of Goshen, which is a good land.

It's a good land for shepherding.

It's on the outskirts of Egypt, so you won't be in the center of this new world, but you'll be somewhere on the outskirts.

And there might even be a shot here of you preserving your identity as a distinct people from the Egyptians.

So that's what happens.

They Pharaoh uh they they convey to Pharaoh, look, we are shepherds, and so we'd like to continue shepherding.

My daddy was a shepherd, my daddy's daddy was a shepherd before him.

And Pharaoh uh obliges, and and he offers him the best of the land.

This is what Pharaoh says to Joseph.

He says, in verses five through six, Your father and your brothers have come to you.

The land of Egypt is before you.

Settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land.

Let them settle in the land of Goshen, and if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock.

This Pharaoh knows a good thing when he sees it.

Because Joseph comes in, and he saves Egypt from the famine, makes Egypt the most powerful nation in the world because they're the only one with food, so all the nations of the world have to come to them.

And Pharaoh saw the wisdom of Joseph as being given to him by God and says, Okay, I'm going to put all of Egypt in your charge, because the things I put in your charge go great.

So when he finds out, you've got brothers, he says, Look, if we've got our cattle, let's give them to these guys, because look, they're pretty good.

It seems like whatever they touch really goes well.

So Pharaoh spots that, and there's this exchange.

You know, Pharaoh, they're treated just like Joseph was.

Pharaoh puts his own things in their charge and in their care as they come in.

He he recognizes the blessing of the Lord that's upon them.

Now, Joseph, we get this little vignette, just this little kind of sweet personal moment where Joseph introduces Jacob, his father, to Pharaoh.

Joseph had earlier said that God had made Joseph himself like a father to Pharaoh in the way that they related.

But now Joseph gets to introduce this to someone who's almost like his son, gets to introduce his own father, something that he probably never thought would get to happen.

And we get this picture of Jacob, which is a little crotchety, but you also get this sense that Jacob in his old age cannot be swindled by prestige or by wealth or by any of the things that he was.

If you Jacob as a young man, we saw he was the type of man where if you just dangled something in front of him, he it was irresistible to him.

You know, and so he would do these absurd things, you know, like, uh, I'll serve you, Laban, for seven years uh to marry your daughter, and then he gets tricked, and then he says, Okay, I'll serve you for seven more to that I finally get to marry that daughter.

Those are the that's foolishness, you know, is what we see.

Jacob should have said something like, Look, let's cut these numbers in half, all right?

You already tricked me once.

But he couldn't, he he, if you dangled something that seemed prestigious or wonderful in front of him, he was he it was irresistible.

This is a very different Jacob we see here at the end of his life in front of Pharaoh.

Begins in verse 7 and says, Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh.

Jacob blesses Pharaoh at the beginning of their meeting, and Jacob blesses Pharaoh at the end of their meeting.

In the middle, Pharaoh almost just politely says, How how many are the how old are you, basically?

And Jacob responds with this in verse 9, he says, The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years.

Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojourning.

To which Pharaoh said, Okay.

And then Jacob blessed Pharaoh again.

Now, let's just stand and look at the picture.

Here is Jacob, an old man, and he describes his own life as one that is just a life of pain and suffering.

And then standing next to him is the young Pharaoh who has only grown in power and prestige over the course of his life and had this lucky strike with Joseph.

Now they're standing next to each other.

One in the last days of his life, a refugee from a famine, seeking the provision of the most powerful and prestigious man in the world.

Now, who blesses who?

Hebrews teaches us that it is always the greater that blesses the lesser.

We would look at this old man whose life was just pain and ends in disgrace out of his own homeland.

But he is the one who blesses the Pharaoh.

You know, the Bible is giving us a picture of look, you need to have eyes that are able to see things from the story that God is writing here.

Because if you were to just walk into a room and make an assessment by your own flesh, you would miss, you would miss the true hierarchy of the room.

You would miss the structure.

Because you'd be deceived by the glory of Pharaoh and the wonder that his life is, and the stories that he could tell of, you know, crocodiles.

But if you were to look at, and then you would just see the this old man whose life is seeming to end in something like disgrace.

But if you see where the blessing is, then you see that God is the type of God who brings high the low.

And so we need to have eyes that are trained to see the narrative that God is working in order to see things as they actually are.

The refugee on the run in disgrace is the one who blesses the Pharaoh.

So the family is welcomed into Egypt.

And Jacob blessing Pharaoh is something like the last right orientation in the story of Israel moving into Egypt.

Because the right orientation is that the ones who have the blessing of God are the ones who would give the blessing.

And we would see that the ones who are promised by God would be relating to the world as the ones who have the highest things in the world.

But as they move into Egypt, they will be continually brought lower and lower.

We remember that if you look at the whole narrative of Genesis, you could think of it like a long descent because it begins in Eden.

Eden is that place where the four rivers flow from, which means it's the top.

It's the top of a mountain, a mountain sanctuary where God himself dwelled.

And then they are exiled from Eden.

Abraham is called from his home in the north, and he's moved to the land of promise in the south.

And then there's this long descent where the whole family of promise is brought down to the southernmost point of the map, which is Egypt.

It's a long descent.

And in that descent, we see something like a movement where things, as they go down, almost become upside down.

Where the right authority structures, where God is at the top, and the people of God are operating like priests for the Lord's dominion across the world.

Now we see that the people of God are brought down to the lowest point, and in the lowest point, they will be continually brought lower.

And that's what happens.

They are brought in, and Egypt, which we need to think of it like this, it's like the upside down.

Egypt, in the upside down, they are continually brought lower.

So as the family enters Egypt, down they go.

To escape the famine, the pressure of the famine, even when they're in Egypt, does not relent.

The problem is laid out in verse 13.

Now there was no food in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine.

They are getting more trapped.

We can't go back home, there's famine there.

Here in Egypt, there is a famine.

And so none of the land is producing.

The land is not able to sustain the lives of the people on it.

That's the opposite of Eden.

Remember being uh the way that Eden is described in Genesis 2, look, uh, you've got every fruit-bearing uh plant, you've got all this wonderful garden, and you can have everything in it, absolutely all of it is yours.

It is a world of abundance.

There's one tree that you cannot eat from, and all the other trees are yours.

It is a land of provision where things are rightly ordered, and the land from below supports the people above.

The land cannot support the people.

So there's no food in all the land of Egypt.

That means that the only food in the world is that which Joseph had previously gathered.

So all of the food is that which is in the possession of Pharaoh.

In three yearly cycles, we'll see a continued descent, not just of the Israelites, but of all of Egypt, that's met with a rising into something like absolute authority of Pharaoh.

And it's Joseph who works the deal.

First it's money, then livestock, then a land and people.

So in Genesis 47, 14, it says, And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan in exchange for the grain that they bought.

And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.

Okay, I had to read this verse like three times to figure out what was going on.

And what's going on is just exactly what it says, but it's it's hard to wrap your mind around.

All the money.

All the money in Egypt.

So everybody take out all your money.

You you everyone in the room walks forward and they use all of the money that they have to buy grain for the next year.

And then they they go back.

So that means that 100% of the money in Egypt now belongs to Pharaoh.

It is all his.

You offer up to the highest authority in hopes that you receive down those things which give you life.

So they offer up all of the money that they have.

It's a temple structure.

They offer up all of the money that they have to the highest authority, which is Pharaoh.

And then what comes down?

Bread from heaven.

That's the pattern.

So now they have now offered up all of their money, and they get to live one more year.

Verse 15, the second year, and when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food.

Why should we die before your eyes?

For our money is gone.

Now we need to notice, we uh we're we're all familiar with the Exodus story, you know, because of movies.

And in the Exodus story, it just begins with the nation of Israel enslaved in Egypt.

But we're we're not familiar with how that happened.

And this is the story of how exactly that happened.

And I think, you know, the what we would expect if I were to have written the prequel to Exodus, having just known the Exodus, I would have written a story that was something like the Babylonian exile or the Syrian exile that will come later in Scripture, which is a stronger nation comes in and violently conquers you and then takes you as a captured people into slavery.

That's one way that slavery happens.

But that's not what happens in this story.

What happens instead is the people offer themselves up in hopes of the bread that they would receive from on high.

Are they doing something wrong?

Or are they just surviving?

It is a strange pattern.

So they have no money, and they go back, and it says, and when that year was ended, they came to him.

Oh, excuse me, I skipped apart.

Uh, give us food, why should we die before your eyes?

For our money is gone.

So Joseph has this idea that he will receive all of their livestock.

So he says, Okay, what you can offer up to Pharaoh this time in order to receive the grain is all of your livestock.

So there's an offering of livestock.

Um now Pharaoh is in possession of all of the money in Egypt and of all of the livestock and cattle and horses in Egypt.

In verse 18, it says, And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said, We will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent, the herds of livestock are my lords, there is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land.

The whole nation of Egypt is becoming absolutely dependent upon the Pharaoh.

It is an absolute consolidation of every aspect of Egypt.

All of their money, the livestock, and now the last thing that they have to offer up is the only thing that we have to offer is our bodies and the land.

Now, remember what book we're in.

We're in Genesis.

Remember what we've been talking about this whole time since Abraham is a promise that God gave to Abraham.

And what is the promise that they will receive?

A people and a place.

The promised land, and I will make you a great nation.

And now, here at this moment, what gets offered up to Pharaoh?

Our bodies and our land.

Look how deep in the upside down we are.

This is like a precise covenantal inversion, the offering up of their bodies and their land.

We need to see in this chapter, we are seeing the nation of Israel and all of Egypt becoming absolutely bound to the Egyptians.

But even more narrowly than that, because all of the Egyptians now operate in such a pattern where they are completely owned by Pharaoh.

Now, what just happened?

What happened in this three-year cycle?

All of the power was absolutely consolidated into Pharaoh himself.

He owns everything, and the people become absolutely united to just this one man, Pharaoh.

And all that they produce will go to him, and it will be his responsibility to distribute it throughout the rest of the nation.

What Joseph created is the Tower of Babel.

It is an absolute unity joined to an earthly tyrant at the top.

You know how um one of the things that uh my college professors would say is that true communism hasn't been tried.

What would true communism be?

If everyone was absolutely united to deliver all that they created up to one highest authority who would then distribute it amongst us all.

It is an absolute tyranny.

And that's what we see created here.

An absolute tyranny.

That is what Joseph mediates.

Now, here's why it's so hard to wrap our minds around.

It's because what is Joseph where what did Joseph do that was wrong?

He appealed to the highest authority he could appeal to on behalf of the people he was meant to represent, so that he might gather food for them and they their lives might be saved.

I I doubt Joseph even lost any sleep over this.

It's just like, oh, this is one of the this is one of the deals that I had to make.

But what he does is is he creates a tyrant.

He creates a man who is in the position of God.

And he enslaves the entire nation of Egypt.

Not just the Israelites, but the entire nation of Egypt.

Comes under this tyrannical power.

Now, the structure, as it as it turns out, is that uh Pharaoh implements this taxation structure, which is that one fifth of what everyone produces, because it all belongs to Pharaoh, remember.

So one fifth of what everyone produces will be taken by Pharaoh.

Uh uh, and it that will be the accumulation of Pharaoh's wealth and the means by which uh distribution takes place in the society.

Now, that's Joseph's fault too.

Because do you remember uh what the plan was to rescue Egypt from the famine?

It was we'll take one fifth for these seven plentiful years.

And as we take one fifth for these seven plentiful years, then we will distribute during the seven years of famine.

Now, I don't know if you've taken your shoes off at the airport lately, but when you implement a precaution during an extreme scenario, they don't go away.

They don't go away.

And Joseph does precisely this.

He implements a precaution during an extreme scenario, a one-fifth taxation rate for the benefit of the people to save their very lives, but it it can't be undone.

There's a way to think about the the the we've got to remember that we're in Genesis and that we've been shown these patterns before, but they're just taking place in these different ways.

There's one one way to understand Genesis is there's there's there's always a dynamic a dynamic taking place between a flood and between Babel.

Remember, this is the way that the primeval history, before we get to the patriarchal history ends, is there's the story of the flood, and then there's the story of Babel.

And it makes sense because if there was just a flood, what would you want?

Some high ground.

So you make a tower together to save yourselves.

Now, a flood is when the land gives way and can no longer sustain life.

That's what a flood is.

It's the same in sort of a biblical understanding as a famine.

A famine is when the land gives way and is no longer able to give life.

And so, what do you do?

In a flood, you build a tower.

In a famine, you build a tyranny.

And you seek to, as humanity, can consolidate yourselves so absolutely that you can maybe push an authority high enough to where it could reach the heavens, where the bread comes down from.

That always results in slavery.

It saves our lives.

It might save our lives.

Here, Joseph saves the lives of his people.

But he enslaves them all.

I want you to feel trapped.

That's my goal for this part of the sermon.

I want you to recognize this.

If you got everyone in the world to think in exactly the right way, and you got everyone in the world to agree to exactly the right authority, and everyone in the world to commit all that they owned, all that the earth produced, and even themselves and their own land to that project, it would not save us.

It would only result in an absolute tyranny and enslavement.

I want you to feel trapped in the human project.

Because I think that's what this story is showing us.

This is an the if a a flood is think of it like that.

There are two there are two things that we could try to save ourselves.

Okay?

There's the flood way.

What's happening right before the flood?

Does anybody remember like what like why the flood comes?

Ignore the Nephilim stuff.

All the thoughts and intentions of men were evil constantly.

Exactly.

And everyone is doing what seems right to them.

So that's the opposite of getting everyone in the world to agree to the this same this absolute hierarchy, and that we put someone in the world over that absolute hierarchy.

So the opposite the perfect opposite of that is the flood, which is everyone does what is right in their own eyes, and there is no fear of the Lord before anyone.

So that's the that's the elimination of hierarchy, right?

There is no one that is above anyone.

Now, those are two stories in the Bible, the flood and Babel.

Now, what's what's amazing, and what we see as these stories unfold is that those always happen together.

Those always happen together.

Because when there's a when there's an absolute disillusion of people into chaos, then we realize we are completely vulnerable.

The land has given way and it can no longer support us.

Because think of what it is for the land to support you.

Like I had a breakfast burrito the other day.

And as I was sitting there looking at this breakfast burrito, I was thinking egg farmers, pig farmers, flour grown, tortillas made, kitchen done, roads for people to drive in.

You know, there's this, there's and then uh and then this burrito is in front of me.

And it's like, oh man.

Do you know all that had to go right?

You do you understand the amount of cooperation that it took for this burrito to manifest in in front of me?

It's almost like it's almost like bread from heaven in that sense.

Because all of these people had to be operating against all these principles that they couldn't see in hope that burritos will manifest from the from this.

And we will be fed.

That's a bunch of people not just serving themselves, but if everybody were to just serve themselves, then there's no hope for that sort of cooperation, and then there's no burrito.

And the land gives way.

What I'm saying is we participate in these structures.

So that's the flood, the land gives way.

But when it gives way, and and we see, oh, we can't just do what's right in our own eyes.

What's been the problem is we need to create an absolute unity.

And then we'll be able to consolidate all of these things, and because we weren't cooperating with a higher principle that bound us all together to do the right things, we'll we'll establish with uh from among ourselves what this highest principle is, and then we will demand an absolute unity to it, and then we will be saved because we can make those systems that create burritos mandatory.

In fact, we'll say that if you do anything that would that would uh go against this, the truth is you need to understand that the system that you're contributing to, you are owned by.

You're owned by this system.

And so because you are owned by it, we can say this is how you must work in it.

So that's why famines and floods, uh uh chaos and tyranny always come together.

They're always patterned together.

This is the trapped feeling I want you to have, okay?

Because this is where God is binding up his people.

He's saying that you cannot go low enough to save yourself, even if you make it just you, as absolutely individualized, disembodied as just you, you can't save yourself.

Even if you try and just do what's right in your own eyes, you can't save yourself.

And then if you were to make a perfect system that everybody was in absolute agreement to, you can't save yourself.

Both result in just slavery.

You can't save yourself.

You must see the pattern of everybody doing what is right in their own eyes and the encroachment of tyranny in the West.

You must see that pattern.

They are wed.

So here they are.

So strangely, Joseph, the best of them, works this deal that results in slavery.

So here's the family enslaved in Egypt, and they've given over, in a sense, for bread from heaven, the very promise of God.

Uh uh a people and a place.

The last thing that they could offer.

They've offered up now to Pharaoh.

You could think of it like this Pharaoh has gained the right to the covenant promises.

Don't you see how Exodus works now?

Exodus is a story of God coming in and saying to Pharaoh, I am prying the covenant promises that you have swindled out of your hands and taking them back into mine.

That is the story of Exodus.

So is the are the people hopeless?

I guess is the question.

Are the people hopeless?

Another way to think of it is what is what are the people of God at this point?

They're in the pattern of Esau.

Remember, Esau ran in, and because he was hungry, he sold his birthright to his brother for a a mouthful of food.

And because of that, he becomes the rejected son.

Israel is in that pattern right now.

Jacob, the one who has the promises, calls Joseph into him when he's on his deathbed.

And he says this to Joseph Promise to deal kindly and truly with me.

Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers.

Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.

All of the power in the world is consolidated into the Pharaoh.

One of his slaves is a refugee, an old man.

And in this corner of Egypt, in Goshen, in this old man who is enslaved here, there exists this little seed of faith.

And the little seed of faith says, Don't bury me here.

Bury me in Canaan.

Bury me in the land of promise.

Because while everything might point towards, God cannot rescue us.

Those promises of land and a people, we just watched the deal get made.

And it was either we die and it goes away, or we get consolidated to Pharaoh and it goes away.

But there's this shred of faith in this old man that says, even if it's just my bones back in the land, our God will be faithful to his promises.

How could Jacob have drawn that story?

How could he have known how this could be brought back?

But it's almost like it's like Ezekiel 37.

You know, what is it what's back in the land of promise?

It's just dry bones.

They couldn't consolidate themselves high enough to be saved.

And what's back in the land of promise is just dry bones.

Well, what is your faith then?

It is that we have a God who can speak to the bones and bring them back to life.

Joseph is the one that organizes this deal, and the deal can be thought of sort of like a burying of the Israelites.

Genesis is a descent, this is a burial.

All the promises of God are buried with them.

They're owned by Pharaoh.

It's him who puts his stamp on the land and the people.

And what did Joseph do?

Joseph appealed to the highest authority he could.

The people offered themselves up to receive bread from heaven that they might live.

There will be another man like Joseph who will stand at the front of the people of Israel.

His name will be Moses.

And Moses will not just be a uh oh, Moses is not just an officer of Pharaoh.

Moses is an adopted son of Pharaoh.

He's not just somebody who, he's not just hired into Egypt.

He is the prince of Egypt.

That's where they got that from.

He's the prince of Egypt.

And this prince of Egypt will be sent by God through the waters, and he will remove the tyranny of Pharaoh, as he appeals to the one authority that's higher than Pharaoh, which is to God himself.

And the Egyptians will no longer plunder the Israelites, but as God draws them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and rescues his people through the waters, the flood, out of the tyranny, he will rain down upon them bread from heaven.

But you know what?

That Moses doesn't get to enter the promised land.

I want you to feel trapped.

Who is the man?

Who is high enough to send down upon us trapped and enslaved people?

Bread from heaven.

Who can reach high enough to send down the bread from heaven that we might live?

Who can go down low enough so that they might be able to offer themselves up to the highest authority and the offering be received?

Because when we offer ourselves up, it just results in slavery.

We are not a sufficient offering.

Your only hope is Jesus Christ.

The bread from heaven.

How high can he appeal?

He sits at the right hand of God the Father.

He's been sending all of the bread from heaven.

The bread from heaven that comes down upon the Israelites when they are wandering in the wilderness.

Jesus comes in in John 10, he says, That was me.

I'm the bread of life.

Come to me, and you will be saved.

And then it begs the question when we understand how the world works, to get the bread from heaven, it's gonna cost something.

You offer up.

And what is the offering?

He looks at you and he says, This is a sinful offering if you were to offer yourself up.

So Jesus, the very bread from heaven himself, says, I will offer myself up in your place.

Well, how does what what would that mean?

That the one who is the highest would come down and go to the lowest point, would enter into death itself to become the offering that might be sufficient, so that we, when we are offered up to the Lord, would not be, when we offer ourselves up to the highest thing we could, would not be slaves but free.

This is our hope in Christ.

There is only one who is sufficient.

There's only one who can go high enough to bring the bread from heaven and who will and has gone low enough that he might be a sufficient offering on our behalf.

I want you to feel trapped.

See, even personally, you can't be good enough.

You can't craft a system that reaches high enough so that you might attain heaven.

You can't ignore it enough so that your conscience wouldn't no longer be plagued.

It will end in a flood and famine and death.

You are trapped.

But there is hope.

Your hope is in Jesus Christ, the one who we need to come down from heaven to offer himself up on our behalf has come.

He has done it.

You are free.

This is our hope in Jesus.

Are there any questions today, Tim?

Yeah.

What are you talking about?

If all human structures seem to be fruitless, striving and resulting in chaos or tyranny, how should we, as Christians, interact with or participate in the structures in our lives?

We seek to bring them under the lordship of Christ.

This is the Great Commission.

This is the proper structure and orientation of the world.

If we create an absolute unity that is connected on anything lower than Christ, then it results in tyranny and enslavement.

Anything other than Christ results in tyranny and enslavement.

If we create an absolute unity which is structured on the lordship of Christ, we are free.

We're free.

And so this takes some creativity.

This takes some creative thinking.

Well, what does it look like for my family to be brought under the lordship of Christ?

Here's the trick you're under the lordship of something.

It might go back and forth throughout the day.

You know, when when you get home, if you're a father and you get home and you if when you walk into the room, you shift the energy around the insecurities or the things that you're seeking to control in your life, then and then you try and create an absolute unity around those things so that the most so that your whole family feels the most important thing now that we all need to be perfectly oriented around is no spills.

You've created a tyranny.

And those wonderful parts of your children that are explorative and messy are now enslaved and crushed and destroyed.

Now, if it's brought under the lordship of Christ, that very same place, well, it's gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.

It's seeking to demonstrate the not just the uh wonders of cleanliness and how we can sing songs and clean up together, but also how messes happen.

And if uh if the stable is perfectly clean, then that means the oxen aren't threshing.

Which is bad.

And then you scale up and you consider your work.

Where are you ignoring the lordship of Christ there?

Is it happening institutionally?

Where is the lordship of Christ being ignored?

And then you you seek to treat yourself like Adam was treated in the garden, which is you have dominion here, a sense of responsibility.

And the way to honor it is not by making yourself the lord of it.

That will create a flood, if everyone does that, but by seeking to make Christ the Lord of it and submitting to his intentions for that thing.

And then you try and scale that into the responsibilities that the Lord has delegated to you.

And when you see it not happening in those places where it doesn't, then be wise and see, oh, a flood is happening, tyranny's coming.

And people will say, Oh, God, what are you, crazy?

That's not, what are you, some like uh Nostradamus?

It's like, no, this is just the way the world is.

For the Bible tells me so.

I'm not a fool.

So it it's the Lordship of Christ.

That's the difference.

It's the whole difference.

All right.

Let's take communion.

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.

There is only one being in all of existence that can claim absolute ownership over you.

He's your creator.

And everything that you've ever touched or interacted with does truthfully belong to him.

But this same creator, when we eat this bread and drink this wine together, we remember that creator's death on your behalf.

He had absolute rights to claim tyranny.

He laid it down, that way you might be brought to him and treated not as slaves, but as sons and daughters.

Do you not see the hope of Jesus Christ?

There's no other story, there's no other name.

It's Jesus Christ.

It's by him we might be saved.

Let's come feast at his table.

Our Lord bids us come.

Holy Father, we thank you.

What good news.

What good news that you offered yourself, that you went down low, that we might be brought high, that we might receive the bread from heaven freely and without price, because you, Lord, paid the price on our behalf.

It is almost too good of news.

We are no longer slaves to fear, but we are children of God, just as we sung today.

Lord, this is true in Jesus Christ.

Let us celebrate that this morning.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.