Joseph

Transcript

oh

lee just sent me a text that she can hear me

good news

all right i gave this um this talk of this presentation

uh a couple years back

to cyc to the kids i don't think i gave it to you guys but if i did

you're hearing it again because

repetition steve is the mother of all learning

repetition steve

is the mother of all learning all right so uh one you know we have a wonderful list of characters in scripture um that paul's tells us that their lives their actions were for our learning all of the things that we read about in the old testament and now in the new testament they're written for us it was certainly written for the people uh whose lives they affected but they they apply to us is now we can gain a lot of insight into uh god's plan and purpose but most importantly for me anyways is what are the life lessons that we can get out of the stories of these individuals of um of faith you know we just read in our readings uh the faith chapter 11 uh hebrews 11. and you know we have these wonderful cloud of clouds of witnesses uh that the writer of the hebrew says uh that are we're encompassed by these you know these these great men and women of faith and we want to be part of those people as well and so it's always good to kind of remind ourselves about the characteristics of righteous and godly individuals uh that lived according to god's uh will and wayne so one of those people was joseph so without getting into too much of the background about we know that they were in the land of canaan he was uh he was one of the twelve sons of uh jacob and we know from scripture particularly from genesis the 37th chapter that joseph was his favorite right remember you know the kind of all the shenanigans that went on in jacob's life with you know labe and label was always you know playing you know fast and loose with the different agreements that they had uh we know that jacob loved rachel but uh laban did the old switcheroo

and uh he ended up marrying you know both leah in and rachel and that's going to cause considerable uh friction within jacob's family right given the fact that rachel can't you know she's barren at this time and she's she's pleading with jacob you know do something and jacob was going what am i going to do i'm not i'm not a god i can't do anything so anyways uh jacob and rachel do finally have children and joseph is the oldest of rachel's children we know that benjamin is going to be born as well but um

rachel's going to die in childbirth right uh so anyways so joseph

jacobs sees some kind of qualities and joseph like oh this guy he's got her together really smart right um he gives him a coat of many colors and so this was really a big deal we look at him like hey what's the big deal gave him a game of coat wow big deal but this was actually jacob passing on the authority of the family

to joseph now think about that for a second you know you have this he's a younger brother right and uh you know you have people like reuben and juder and all of these other kind of strong-willed individuals as we're going to find out right and here's joseph yeah i'm i'm in charge of the family now i'm going to be in charge of the family they're like yeah i don't i don't think so my guy so uh anyway so this is jacob jacob's like hey here you go it's the authority of the family obviously his brothers are extremely jealous at that right so we kind of get a little insight into the the family dynamics with uh 37 right we're not going to look at each verse but you know joseph is going to have dreams

uh the first one uh was about oh we'll take a look at this in the 37th chapter of um

of uh genesis

so there's a couple sequences of dreams that joseph is gonna have right um

verse five

well verse four kind of gives us a little insert right uh ver well i'm gonna say verse three now israel loved joseph more than all his children

because he was the son of his old age and he made him a code of many colors and when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him well that's just a wonderful family dynamic isn't it like they couldn't even speak to him peaceably kindly in a normal fashion they hated him so bad so all of this tension and all of these kind of negative emotions are building up within the brothers right

and joseph clearly is playing favoritism here uh you know and you know we always say with our kids you know oh we we love them all the same right my mother used to say that but we know the truth we know the

truth with jason oh jason just walked in he missed that one [Laughter]

all right um so the first dream verse five so given all this background information right joseph

um he's gonna he's gonna share these dreams with people right this is not gonna smooth things over at all joseph dreamed a dream verse five tells us and he told it to his brethren they hated him yet more oops right he's like hey i had this dream guys yeah we don't care about your dream we still hate you we actually hate you more now and he said unto them here i pray you this dream which i dream for behold we were binding sheaves

in the field and lo my shiva rose and also stood upright and behold your sheaves stood around and made obeisance

to my sheaf right so just imagine like an older brother it'd be like

my youngest brother ben saying hey i had a dream

and all you guys are bowing down to me what

right he's thinking about and joseph wants to share this dream with his brothers like i had this dream dreams were very important right in the ancient world in biblical times um and so he's sharing this like hey maybe this will kind of um you know help you to understand why you know

jacob my father has chosen me i had this dream you guys are bowing down to me right and so uh they said shell verse eight thou shalt are you gonna reign over us you think you're gonna have dominion over us and they hated him for his dreams and for his words verse 9 and he dreamed yet another dream and he told it to his brother now this is interesting brothers and sisters because the first dream didn't go over too well right so joseph's going to say okay you don't accept that dream let's talk about this dream

and he dreamed yet another dream behold i had dreamed to dream more and behold the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obesity to me

so now it's you know it's kind of the sheaves now we're talking about the heavenly constellations kind of escalating a little bit here right um

and so even even jacob at this time like it was too much for jacob and he says uh

and he told it to his father and to his brethren and his father rebuked him

what are you talking about what is this dream that thou hast dreamed shall i and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee and the earth

wow so even jacob is that he's having trouble right with some of these uh some of these dreams and so um without getting into too much detail moving on here uh jacob gave joseph a lot of responsibility as a young man like he he's he sent them out to dathan which is not where they were it's a considerable journey like it's not hundreds and hundreds of miles but you know you had to go up to date and they would that's where they were sharing sheep they had some kind of festival up there for the sharing of sheep and jacob hadn't seen them in a while wanted to know what was going on with his brethren and so joseph comes and all of a sudden this is going to be the catalyst right this is our this is the opportunity for the brethren to get rid of joseph get rid of him right now all right um

and so let's see

yeah so they're uh they're up at uh uh dothan and here's a very um

verse 18 and when they saw him afar off even before he came near unto them they conspired against him to slay him think about think about the mentality of that brothers and sisters think about your own family your own siblings

think about where you have to be mentally to conspire

to kill your own flesh and blood

but this is where we were right this is where we were with within jacob's family within israel's family right the chosen people of god

they have this incredible internal fighting that's going on that's going to lead to while they're going to try to kill joseph completely innocent kid maybe you know boasted a little too much about his future status maybe but to kill him come on so um his is the line verse 19 and they said one to another

behold this dreamer cometh here comes the dreamer here he's got he's got all these dreams

come now therefore and let us slay him and cast him into some pit and we will say some evil beast has devoured him and we shall see

what will become

of his dreams

now it's interesting brother this is that last section um

we will see what becomes of his dreams that's actually on i believe a section of this verse is on the martin luther king jr

memorial in washington dc right i have a dream speech and they pulled this here and says uh you know we will we will see what becomes of his dreams and so there's a parallel there with the you know martin luther king jr in his dream i have a dream his his vision of a future of america living in racial harmony with each other um it's a different type of dream than what joseph was was talking here but there were people opposed to martin luther king there was people opposed to joseph too based upon his dreams and what they represented and so dreams are very powerful um you know you have like one of these really intense dreams that you remember i forget like 95 of my dreams but the five percent of that i remember real doozies

i do i'm not responsible for the things that go on when i'm dreaming all right so um they conspire to kill joseph and blame it on a wild animal right and it's interesting you see reuben right here reuben said hey you know let's not shed blood and his reasoning was that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again so there's always there's like a conspiracy within a conspiracy ruben wants to save joseph out of the hands of these people he's got some morality reuben does anyway he feels responsible as the oldest like i gotta control these guys he was really the one guy outside of jacob that could probably control all of these brothers right but it was hard to do

um next okay all right no frozen maybe

yes okay so reuben the oldest tries to stop uh killing uh joseph

um they take him they throw him back in the well his plan was to come back and save him and bring bring him back to jacob right it was the plan of reuben um but the brethren they had definite other ideas they wanted to get rid of them okay if we can't kill him uh let's let's get rid of this guy and so they looked at a way to make money off of this we make money off of our brother

so okay we won't kill him but let's just let's just sell them into slavery sell them into slave plan b sell them into slavery right um and so uh a caravan of the ishmaelites the midianites right who they were related to by the way right they were related to like their cousins are coming hey we're going down to uh we're going down to egypt you guys got anything here that you want to bring us back uh down to egypt get sell at a good price oh yeah we got this kid right here 17 18 year old kid young strapping buck right here let's move him along and so 20 20 pieces of silver right which is going to be a connection with christ as well there's that kind of echo where christ is going to be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver by his brethren the jewish people um and so uh joseph's gonna head down uh you know to egypt as a slave so he goes from

being the favorite of jacob in this kind of small little uh little tribe of people you know 70 people or so and he's going to go from that position of authority where he's having dreams

and now he's stripped of all of that the code is stripped all the authority is gone and he's by himself as this young kid right as a slave everything is taken from him and he's got to go down to a foreign land

family is gone think about think about the emotion involved in that in fact we get a little insight into that and if we look at genesis 42 and this is kind of afterward right when um

when right before joseph reveals himself to his brethren but uh let's see yeah 20 verse 21 in um

let's see yeah genesis 42 21 and they said one to another this is the brethren okay so the joseph's brethren are talking to each other and they said to each other we are very guilty concerning our brother

in that we saw the anguish

of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear

therefore is this the stress come upon us right so they're remembering back you know 20 years later or whatever they still remembered the anguish

you know imagine joseph kind of you know yelling out to his brothers please don't do this you know just think about that that's and so they remembered it so it had to be a traumatic event it certainly was a traumatic event for joseph we know that but it was i think on a certain underlying level it was also traumatic as well for the brethren when they looked on on their past behavior like they're remembering like oh man that was it was really bad what we did to him we still remember like imagine you know kind of the cries that joseph is yelling out to his brethren think about what he said

right like jason don't sell me into slavery what are you doing

so uh it's a different level maybe sometimes yes

yeah say that in the microphone great point go ahead thanks steve

did the older brethren have children you know later and then this became as their families grew they could understand more what it was like if someone were to sell their kid as a slave yeah that's a that's a great point jason i think that there was a maturing of the brethren as well and i think they had their own families and now they have an emotional connection to a child and just you know imagine because we know that when um when jacob is given the uh coat of many colors that's covered in goat blood you know he couldn't be comforted it says and so i think they as fathers are going to have those same emotions and they're going to look back and say that was awful like it was unforgivable and now god is punishing us for what we did to him so yes great great point

just that growth of character where they saw joseph being taken away and it didn't it didn't mean anything to them right they were just so callous to it yeah but they went through life experiences that they actually grew yes which is so important for us and i walk in the truth to you we're all at different places at different times and that's why it's so healthy that we can get different perspectives because we all have different experiences right yeah that's a great point it it meant something it didn't mean anything to them they're like problem solved see you later but now looking back on it because of those changes and because of the different relationships that they had they looked at it differently their perspective changed absolutely yeah um and so you know not only had they done this now they're going to conspire to tell this lie to jacob they kept this light going for for decades

this lie going with his with their father never told him the truth he's never going to know until he's reunited with uh with jacob so think about just think about the family dynamics that are going on during this time in this family right

um

everything in the bible is not perfect

right it's not perfect this was not a perfect situation at all these were serious family issues that jacob was trying to manage remember simeon and levi you know with the whole diana thing remember that story where you know diane's going she's looking at you know she's going out and seeing everybody and anyways you know

there's an event um you know and whether or not diana you know wanted to marry this person whatever they go and they kill all the sheikamites right they kill them all so these are some of the i think it gives an insight into the mentality of the brothers like they weren't these were hardcore guys who were not to be trifled with they could sell their brother in slavery they could kill the whole town don't matter doesn't matter all right so boom jacob is inconsolable he could you know his daughters go in you know to try to comfort his his daughters-in-law try to go in would not be comforted for a very long time right

okay so uh joseph is brought down into egypt

the captain of the god potiphar so he was a very powerful man the captain of the guard he was actually in charge of pharaoh security

not a bad gig very important kind of like the head of the secret service a man of considerable power and authority and so this is the environment this is the household that joseph goes in now for whatever reason you know joseph

finds favor in the eyes of part of it like hey this guy has potential he obviously picks up languages right he picked up the egyptian language relic pretty quickly

and that's the way you should learn a language by the way they say anyways is to be completely immersed in that jason probably speaking hebrew fluently now

right um you immerse yourself and you pick it up and so joseph was a pretty smart guy and he picked up that language and then he had some kind of leadership qualities that his father saw well guess what part of asari as well what does potiphar do

gives him complete control of his household right like yo you run the show i don't have time for this you work with my wife on the running of the household so um god is going to be with joseph we're told and he's going to bless him and he's put in a position of authority and power in potiphar's house

which is interesting because the dreams now are kind of slowly being um you know the the foundation of those dreams is being laid because those dreams are going to come true absolutely going to come true right um so part of our potiphar's wife probably doesn't spend a lot of time in the house because he's got a lot to do which leaves joseph the other slaves the other members of the household and potter for his wife we're not we don't know her name but she's there as well and so um you know potter for you know once part of his wife wants to have a relationship with uh joseph and so you know tries to you know manipulate the situation sends all of the uh slaves out falsely accuses joseph joseph joseph keeps himself pure in this situation is not taken in but potiphar accuses uh joseph of you know of sexual assault which didn't happen obviously and so he's falsely accused and uh he's sent to prison which is interesting why would he be sent to prison like wouldn't this be something you know a slave tries to harm a a noble woman in egypt

that would kind of be like death wouldn't it you'd think it'd be like yeah that's death but he's not he spared that death and you wonder what that dynamic with potiphar and potter for his wife were right did he spare joseph because he knew that you know the wife was you know a little off i don't know anyways he's sent to prison he's going to do the best that he can in this very difficult situation so think about this you know this is joseph's life

it really is like this wave

uh he's you know sold into slavery down right as low as you can go oh hold on hold on up head to the household of pharaoh

this is a great job this is very nice

down he's back in prison again right

and so uh you know our lives are a lot like that aren't they maybe not to the extent of joseph's where you have these massive up and downs but usually you know your life our lives are all right so he's in prison the only person that joseph has is god

so this this is a situation that he's in a foreign land

and you know he's accused of uh of an inappropriate behavior now he's stuck in jail

by the way um

the prison system in egypt um was kind of like an open courtyard type of situation depending on you know what you had done and so potiphar would have read some things on this but part of who would probably be would have been in charge of the security of the jails as well but you had a lot of freedom within these deals was that within the confines of it you could walk around you could talk to people but you couldn't leave those confines that that was really the jail

so anyways all right going on he sent to pharaoh's prison joseph continues to trust in god through all of this okay through all of these ups and downs um

and god is going to be merciful to him and so i think there's a lesson there as well brothers and sisters in our lives right our life usually goes like this right maybe sometimes you know really something bad happens in our lives is really challenging and it affects our faith and it's very stressful right but then there's other times when things are going great

both of those times brothers and sisters in joseph's life he never forgot about god

and so there's a lesson there as well for us you know when we when everything's going great in our lives just hitting on all cylinders can't get any better what's our relationship with god do we is god part of our everyday existence do we start our day with god through prayer is he on our minds throughout the day

or when we get low and bad things are happening where's god in our lives see god was in joseph's life regardless of the ups and downs

and so that's a that's a reflection reflective question that we have to ask ourselves in our lives where is god where is god in all of this in our lives we know where he was with joseph's life um again joseph has these amazing leadership qualities i guess right he's put in charge now of the jail okay not part of his you know household but hey i'm the big guy in the jail right um there is some kind of palace intrigue that goes on in pharaoh's in pharaoh's house right the butler and the baker right the butler is in charge of serving the king right particularly wine and stuff like that but he also you know you gotta you gotta taste it and make sure that there's no poison in it these guys not only were making the food stuffs and the drinks they were in charge to make sure that there was no poison in it now supposedly

um there was some kind of palace coup where these two guys here um were involved in this palace coup to get rid of this pharaoh right by poison

and so you have the butler and baker pharaoh didn't know which one was involved but they're both thrown into prison okay and they both had dreams and um

and joseph is gonna hear their dreams the butler first well we'll take a look at it and um

let's see here

yeah in genesis 41 uh 40 sorry um so they're going to be put into uh into jail in egypt and they're each going to have a dream

and joseph came and then and then he says then and he looked upon them and said behold they were sad so that's interesting that joseph

was aware of the emotional state of these people of you know it's like why are you sad

like he was perceptive that way you know like people are observant um

you know there's different people that cannot kind of observe when you're like maybe struggling with something they observe things a little bit different some people don't observe things right and that's that's okay some people are very observant like you see that no i didn't see anything what are you talking about look right we're all at different levels anyways joseph is going to see that they're sad and he goes over and asks him which i i think is interesting on like a like in a relationship level like that's a good that is a good sign

or a good characteristic of a leader like knowing about the people that you're you're associated with like what's their emotional state these two guys sad hey what's the story

and so they tell them right and um the chief butler he has a dream

uh clusters of great in the in in verse 11 and pharaoh's cup was in my hand and i took the grapes and pressed him into pharaoh's cup and i gave the cup into the hand right and the interpretation of that dream was in three days he's going to be lifted up into his position again phew

right ah the baker not so much right i got some bad news for you my man

after three days you're dead

oh thank you

so two different directions right one and the dreams came true and so joseph

is gonna say look the only thing that the only payment that i want is remember me remember me when you go back to your station right tell pharaoh about me tell tell people my story

didn't happen forgot about joseph

isn't that human nature though brothers and sisters like the butler like this guy he was kind to you he helped you out he listened to your dreams he saw that you were sad he tried to you know he gave you an interpretation that interpretation came true now you're back into your original position

don't even know that guy

right i think on some level the butler uh

wanted to forget about the whole thing right and so joseph was kind of part of that i don't want to think about jail like you know i think he was embarrassed that he probably had to go into jail and you know that's for the low people

i'm the butler i'm pharaoh's butler right anyways forgets about joseph gone so he's languishing in prison think about the psychological aspect of that of joseph kind of sitting in prison forgotten again right you know i wonder if he was kind of making connections with what happened with him and his brother right he's stuck in a pit you know and now he's stuck in prison again

can't get out it's pretty demoralizing brothers and sisters you know he never lost his faith though which i think is incredible never lost his faith always gave god the credit uh for the things that happened in his life he tells his brothers that in fact we're gonna find out we probably won't get get to it today but um

he's gonna say that this whole plan was for god to save his people to save his family so he went through all of these things in order for god to put him in a position to save his family um

which is interesting all right we talked you know we we went over this right um joseph pleads with the butler to remember him when he gets out of prison he doesn't do it okay joseph's gonna stay in prison for another two

years sitting in prison

we got more dreams though dreams are everywhere in this story right you have the dreams of josie we have the dreams of the butler and the baker and now we have pharaoh's dream and he's got he's he's got a couple dreams now you know um

joseph had two two dreams the butler and baker those two dreams and now pharaoh's gonna have two drapes like an interesting connection right that little thread of dreams throughout this story the power of dreams in the ancient world you know power of dreams actually is going to uh save egypt at this time because pharaoh has these dreams seven fat cattle they're grazing in a meadow really big fat

fatty cows um

and then seven skinny and sick cattle show up and they eat the fat cattle

now we can look at this you know from a modern point of view

where we're not like individually dependent

upon like cattle and wheat and stuff like that in other words we don't have our own farms we're not growing our own food we have someone else take care of that we know we go to the supermarket you know we'll buy three items you don't get out of there for a hundred bucks that's a different story so anyways you know we that's not really part of our existence but to pharaoh his whole existence the whole

entity of egyptian civilization was dependent

upon

the rise and the fall of the nile so if the nile doesn't flood

they're not going to get these fat cattle they're not going to have enough food to feed these cattle they're not going to have enough food for themselves so this was a major thing this was a national security issue this was an existential threat to egyptian civilization at this time okay and so just to kind of reiterate that he's got a he's got a second dream and so we have the cattle that are affected the livestock the second dream is going to affect

a lot of the agriculture as well so both both kind of sides of the agricultural foundation of egypt are affected in pharaoh's dream okay seven stalks of wheat ready to harvest right all the kernels of wheat ready to go harvest those babies so much bread unbelievable

egypt is that was considered the bread basket of the ancient world particularly during roman times okay there was actually two harvests in egypt because of their climate and because of the flow of the nile and so you could have a summer harvest and a winter harvest of wheat so there's a different growing season so in that that period of time they could grow you know twice as many much food so anyways so uh seven seven thin ears are gonna come up damage stock they're gonna look gross and they're going to devour the seven good ears of uh of wheat

pharaoh is obviously very troubled at this like this is a major concern like when a pharaoh has a dream like this

you know the the gods are definitely talking to him directly absolutely this is what he thought in his mind he's trying to figure out what this means now we can look back on it because we have the story or like it's very clear what your dreams are saying but obviously it wasn't clear to pharaoh right now they had a whole elaborate thing with the magicians and everything in the priest we talked about this when we talked about magicians and charlatans and stuff like that so there was a whole deal associated with the interpretation of dreams but even the magicians and the wise men of egypt couldn't figure it out no idea what this means

uh guys there's some there's several clues here i think but anyways they didn't know this whole the dreams of pharaoh now have just engulfed the palace

in the whole government of egypt like this is big like pharaoh had dreams did you hear pharaoh had dreams no one knows what the dreams were

and so this gets you know the butler is going to hear this he sees pharaoh every day so he's going to hear about this

it's interesting now the butler sees his opportunity to ingratiate himself with pharaoh like this this is a time and it's interesting um you know what he says um

in genesis 41 in verse nine

they couldn't interpret the dream verse nine then spake the chief butler into pharaoh saying

i do remember my faults this day right what a what a great way to start a conversation right but he's you know he's showing respect obviously to him right pharaoh was wroth with his servants and put me in ward and the captain of the gods house both me and the chief baker so he's recounting now to pharaoh look i had a similar situation i also had a dream he told me that i was gonna uh be giving back my job he told the baker that he was gonna die it came to pass this hebrew i think he can interpret dreams for you

pharaoh's like great bring him in so far joseph's got to go through the whole um ritual of egyptian cleansing right he had a bathe and everything he had to shave his hair right he had to look presentable he's going to pharaoh um and so he gives the interpretation of the dream very simply hey seven years of plenty it's to be incredible

i keep on thinking my phone's vibrating all right seven years of plenty which is going to be followed by seven years of famine and so he says look pharaoh this is what you got to do so not only does he interpret the dream joseph's got a plan

you know we don't don't come to me with a problem come to me with a solution fair of you know joseph came joseph came to pharaoh with a solution you know it wouldn't i don't think it would be as powerful if joseph comes up and just gives the dream right and then pharaoh goes well what do you think we should do i don't know right he says look at this is what we have to do we've got to someone has got to be in charge of this like you know our civilization is on the line um and we've got to store up all of this extra food that we're going to have in the land of plenty so it lasts us through the seven years of famine well lo and behold who who whoms among us here is better than joseph he interprets the dream he's got this great plan boom governor

right ups and downs again right of joseph's of joseph's life he goes from a slave to being governor of all egypt i'm like joe biden when he whispers governor

all right he's he's like governor of all egypt um you know from from being a slave

judy i'm sorry for that joke

all right so he he's given the complete control over um over egypt to kind of you know make sure and organize

getting all of this extra food into silos

so joseph now is in charge of the governor let's remember back to joseph's dreams

all right now we're getting into a situation where guess what a lot of people are going to be bowing down to joseph both egyptians

and other people as well so um just as joseph said seven years of plenty incredible harvest just oh we're planting new crops you know we're building new canals we're just the bounty is unbelievable

and so um the great famine comes and it's gonna last for seven years and because joseph is a great manager and a leader egypt has enough food to survive while all the other countries around them are struggling to survive it was a really bad famine i think i think the it says you know the famine was sores really bad in the land now we're not told what caused this famine but it's a worldwide famine so it's not just a famine in egypt so it may not have been dependent upon the nile but climate changes in this area may have affected the rainfall down in the southern portion of of ethiopia in that area where the nile river gets all of its water i forget the name of those mountains but they capture all that water and it flows into the mediterranean things change obviously climate change because in the holy land in canaan the famine was sworn everybody from this region

is going to come to egypt to get extra food thanks to joseph so joseph is not only saving his family

but he's literally saving the whole like middle east right the egypt and also the whole of the middle east at this time

atlanta kanan is um hit hard by this they have money so they have resources but they don't have food so let's take the resources that we have the money we hear that egypt has food bring some of this money and some other things and bring it down uh to egypt to buy food and so joseph is really you know i wouldn't say joseph is a micro manager i don't think he was but he knew what was going on right he knew how he had a whole operation of distribution right but it's also a way of egypt saving itself it's also a way of egypt of of getting money as well they have all this extra grain

so finally after decades

joseph and his brothers now come face to face with each other right and guess what they do well they bow down to joseph right and so that dream is fulfilled joseph is the governor of all egypt um

joseph knows who they are

you know after 20 years right if you look at pictures like 20 years ago of me i look relatively the same i mean i've obviously gotten older but 20 years like you you still you just look like the like an old an older person right you still have the same facial features and i'm sure when joseph's looking at his brother he's like oh yeah that's definitely reuben look at these guys right you haven't changed a bit uh you know levi and simeon are looking for fights you know whatever so anyways he sees them they don't know who he is because number one he's speaking egyptian number two he looks like an egyptian because his head is shaven he's dressed like an egyptian they think the last time they knew about joseph he was a slave he was a nobody

so how could this guy possibly be joseph so he wasn't computing in their brains

they were very confused about a lot of stuff that was going on um he he cries when he when he sees them

he cries

i think it sees i think i i wonder how long it took joseph to kind of get over

um how he was treated you know we think that you know he joseph obviously was a very faithful god-fearing person but he was also human being right now he had an opportunity to seek revenge and get into the brother it was perfect

what a perfect set up for joseph

oh i got another dream for you guys right

uh he has a different mentality you know brother jason was talking about things in our lives that change us well joseph went through some things as well

and it changed him he certainly had gotten over he certainly had forgiven his brothers and sisters his brothers for what he had what they had done to him so he was a different person but anyways he's gonna he wants to see what type of individuals he's dealing with because the last time he saw his brothers it wasn't great

so we accused the zimmer being spies you come down now we're just coming here for food now you are spies you're gonna spy out the land

um so we put simeon into jail uh he wants to see benjamin right so we know the story they put the sacks full of grain

and in it joseph puts the money as well

and so they're like freaked out by this they get back and not only do they have the grain but they have the money as well they just had this kind of run in with a pretty gruff

individual who was the governor of egypt it wasn't great and now they're really freaked out by this they got the they got the big sacks of corn which is great but they also have their money and so they tell jacob this story and jacob's like what is going on every time i send you guys to do something there's a problem

so uh

you know he tells the story and jake and it's like the one thing that jacob doesn't want to give up you know the other son by rachel is beloved well what does this guy want

he wants benjamin oh you know jacob's like it never ends with these guys

it's kind of like uh you know david with the sons of zaraga these sons of zero why are too hard for me you know i think jacob probably said that about his kids these kids

i think we've all said that about our kids

all right so anyways uh we'll finish this up uh the food runs out as we know jacob is running out of options he has to send benjamin down they end up in joseph's house for a meal they're having he speaks kindly to his brothers they're having a great time

you know there's a couple of strange things going on they're seated according to uh age

come on you know joseph's just kind of messing with them now right he's according to age and also gives um like five times the amount of food dementia which is great and they're like what is going on but they're having a nice meal okay leave it alone there's a couple crazy things going on okay no problem right um

joseph gives them as much food as they they want um they

but he puts the silver the his silver cup like his cup uh very you know there was symbolic meaning in the egyptian culture to that silver cup we won't get into it but it was it was very it was like a symbol of his authority and power anyways joseph puts it into benjamin sack

right like benjamin says oh he's he's grabbing things left and right right um

they when they find out they you know they say they they're beyond they're beside themselves they are now despairing

you see what has happened here brothers and sisters joseph 20 years before was the one that was despairing

now it's his brothers that are desperate like they they're now the brothers now are kind of forced almost to kind of relive the anguish of joseph

right and judah kind of steps up and says look

let benjamin go i'll stay in his place i'll be your servant please which is interesting because judo is kind of slimy character right he was a little slimy character but he's changes as well

he's changed into a leader he's sacrificing himself now

for benjamin no one sacrificed themselves for joseph at that time no one did right they'd get rid of this guy and so joseph is moved by this he's moved by it and now he comes he clears the house and he cries with a loud voice you know he can't hide it any longer now

we have this wonderful reunion right and he says this is a great line this is what joseph says now therefore be not grieved

nor angry with yourselves don't forgive yourselves he's telling he's telling his brothers to forgive themselves right that ye sold me hither for god did not send me before you for god did send me before you to preserve life this was the reason why i'm here this is why i had to go through these things joseph recognizes that it was god it was in god's hand all along

i'm gonna let's leave let's leave with this with this thought right um

you know how many times in our lives have we been in a situation where we don't know how to get out of it we don't know the end of it just like kind of like joseph sitting in the pit he couldn't see an end of that

but god knows the end from the beginning and it wasn't until joseph went through 20 years of ups and downs in egypt that he could look back and look and say

it was god all along god brought me here for a particular purpose

sometimes when we're going through these kind of down times in our lives it can be hard to see the hand of god

it can be hard to know what the ultimate plan is going to be for our lives now

but joseph remain faithful and we need to remain faithful as well during those ups and downs times in our lives okay so this is the other thing too now they move down into the land of goshen goshen by the way brothers and sisters the best land some of the best land in egypt really primo land okay lessons for us number one trust in god right even when times become difficult forgiveness do we forgive in our lives despite the horrible things they did to him jesus tells us to forgive 70 times seven right we should do all to the glory of god in joseph's life regardless of his circumstances he glorified god and everything that he did he gave god the glory not himself when he could have glorified himself right

god is in control and has a plan you know we just talked about this and then five

remember who you are

remember who we are who are we joseph never forgot his heritage his home his homeland his family his culture and his religious beliefs despite being in a foreign land right and that's a lesson right that's a lesson actually that i think other great men of uh women of faith are going to take and apply to their lives particularly i'm just thinking off the top my head daniel you think daniel daniel was in a very similar search situation right there's also dreams involved in that as well but we know that daniel remained true to his beliefs as the as did joseph