THROUGH THE BIBLE - Genesis..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, my father and my brothers with their flocks and herds and all that they possess have come from 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 pastor 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.

And 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 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.

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 Ramesses, 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. 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. 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 had bought.

And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. 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. And Joseph answered, give your livestock and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone.

So they brought their livestock to Joseph and Joseph gave them food in exchange for their horses, the flocks, the herds and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. And when that year was ended, they came to Him the following year and said to Him, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my Lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord, but our bodies and our land.

Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? by us and our land for food, and we with our land will be servants to Pharaoh and give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate." So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. For all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. The land became Pharaoh's.

As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy. For the priests had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore, they did not sell their land. But then Joseph said to the people, behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh.

Now here is seed for you and you shall sow the land. And at the harvest, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh and four fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your household and as for food for your little ones. And they said, you have saved our lives. May it please the Lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt.

And it stands to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. The land of the priests alone did not become Pharaoh's. Thus Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen. And they gained possession in it and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years.

So the days of Jacob, the years of his life were 147 years. And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, if now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and 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 the burying place, in their burying place. He answered, I will do as you have said.

And he said, swear to me. And he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. Amen. This is the word of the Lord.

We've been following through the story of Joseph here in the book of Genesis for many weeks now. From chapter 37, we've seen this young man go through his journey and we've seen so many ups and we've seen so many downs in his life. The one thing we must all be 100% sure of as we run our eyes over these chapters in the last 10 or so weeks, is that God is a God that provides for His own. He is a God of providence, and He had made a promise to the people of Israel. He had made a promise to Isaac, to Abraham, and then to Isaac, and now to Jacob, that that promise would be fulfilled in the offspring of Jacob.

And as we've seen these chapters unfold, we've seen so many perilous things that could bring that to an end. Yet God always keeps His promise. God is so sovereign over all the events of the universe. So what we've seen now is we've seen the famine hit the land, not only of Egypt, but Canaan as well as that is a widespread famine. And it was a severe famine.

And the context of our passage here this morning or this evening is that the famine was a little over two years into the seven years, because there was going to be seven years of plenty and then seven years of famine. So we know a bit over two years had passed and the famine is just as severe. And there was a shortage of food in the land. Now that Jacob knows that his son Joseph is alive and he's second in power in Egypt, he decides to come to Egypt to see his son, but not in and of himself. Because the Lord, if you remember a chapter or two ago said to Jacob in a vision, go, go to Egypt, leave the land of Canaan, the land of promise and go to Egypt and I will go with you and I will bring your people back.

But in Egypt, Joseph will close your eyes. So Joseph or Jacob knew that his journey to Egypt would mean that he will not come back in the flesh to see the land flowing with milk and honey. The land promised to his descendants will not be seen by his eyes, but he held to the promise of God and he went. So now comes the time where he, last chapter, our brother told us about the event where Joseph meets with his father once again. And there was a wonderful family reunion, an embrace of love.

And Joseph was just overwhelmed with seeing his father once again. But now comes a time when he needs to introduce his family to Pharaoh. But here's the thing. His brothers were all shepherds. And as such, the text tells us in the previous chapter, the last verses, that shepherds in the land of Egypt are an abomination.

That's a pretty heavy word. They're despised by the Egyptians. They're looked down upon. Yet Joseph comes before Pharaoh, and even though his brothers had done the most horrible of things that any brother can do to another. They treated him like, really, like a feral animal.

Their plan was to kill him several years earlier, probably only because of their greed. They avoided that. They're thinking, hey, what we could do is we could benefit from him. We can sell him to the Midianite traders and gain from him. He'd be as good as dead out of our sights.

Yet we will be richer for it. Yet, even though his brothers had done such a horrific thing in his eyes. even though they are completely unworthy of favor or grace, even though their occupation as shepherds in the eyes of the people in Egypt was an abomination in these people's eyes. They're looked down upon, as I said, they're despised by the Egyptians. This is one thing we need to see, that Joseph was not ashamed of his brothers.

Joseph was not ashamed of his father or his brothers. He held no resentment against them. He held no bitterness towards them. He brought them to Pharaoh and said, these are my brothers. This is my family.

These are my people. Now, we don't know if the Pharaoh knew the ins and outs of why Joseph was there in the first place. Whether he did or not did not matter. In the heart of Joseph, he knew and he had already forgiven his brothers because the Lord had done a work in his life. The work of the Lord, the hand of the Lord was upon Joseph in a special way whereby he had put all resentment aside.

He put all bitterness aside. He's learnt through fire to trust in the Lord. So he presents them in mercy and love, despite their unworthiness, and he brings them to them. And even beforehand, in the previous chapter, we're told he even prepares his brothers to what to say in front of Pharaoh. If you remember the last few verses, he says to them, tell them you're shepherds, even though shepherds are an abomination in the eyes of the Egyptians, because there was a reason for him to say these things.

And our brother explained that for us last week. Joseph was not ashamed to call his brothers my brothers. And that should remind us of something. You remember last week how our brother Nelson said that Joseph is a type of Christ. And when we say a type, it doesn't mean that he is the model or the epitome of perfection and sinlessness like Christ.

Not at all. It just means simply that he's a shadow. There's many things in his life that foreshadow what Christ would one day do and accomplish through the finished work of Jesus Christ, the Messiah to come. And this is the whole reason why God is preserving His people. Because back in Genesis 3, He said that from the offspring of woman will come one who will crush the head of the serpent.

That's Christ, that's the Messiah. This is the people that God is preserving by His providence so that that Messiah would come from these people. And that Messiah will be the savior of the world, as John would say. So this is a reminder for us of Hebrews chapter 2, I think, where our Lord Jesus Christ says there that he's unashamed to call us brothers. He's unashamed to call us his family, even though we too are entirely unworthy.

Beloved, we have nothing to stand upon. We don't stand before the Savior, before the holy and righteous God and say, look at me, look at what I've done. We have nothing to stand upon. But simply we come in mercy and trust that the grace and the love of our Lord Jesus Christ has done it all. And he stands before us and he's before the Father and he says, this is my family.

These are my beloved. there in me, I've paid the price. And as Joseph was the one who earned the favor of Pharaoh, as Joseph is the one through his wisdom and planning that God had given him, and he applied that in faithfulness, in trustworthiness, he became the recipient of Pharaoh's favor. So too, when he represents, when he brings his brothers and his father and says, these are mine, they too share in that glory. They share in that honor and the honor of Pharaoh towards Joseph is now extended.

And what does he say? You find the best of the land and give that to your family. This is a glorious, glorious thing. The second thing I want us to see this evening is how the incredible providence of God is ordering all the events around this family in order to preserve this family, even in the wilderness, or even in a place that is going to be foreign, in a pagan land such as Egypt. And I want you to see how God accomplishes His purpose, and I want us to marvel at how great our God is.

So I want to do this by showing some comparisons between Israel and Egypt. And of course, when we think about these things, it's happening in the context of Egypt. So the Egyptians should, by virtue of the fact that it's their land, They should have the upper hand. The blessings should be mostly towards them in their own land. But that's not the case.

You see, two years into the famine and the Egyptians run out of money, we're told. They've spent all they had buying food so that it would not perish them and their families. And now they're broke. No money. Yet Israel was always fed.

And this is the thing. Israel was always fed without a cost. The two times they came to Egypt to buy food, they went to pay for the food. But when they returned, their sacks were full of grain, and the money was there also. God had provided for them, because God's favor was on these people.

And they'd returned with food and money, and they were fed at no cost. And then in verse 17 of our passage this morning, we're told, the Egyptians, now in dire need, exchange all their livestock for food to eat. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Their horses, their flocks, their herds and their donkeys are now all pharaohs. All of it.

Yet, the people of God, in a strange land, with no such concern. Verse 12 tells us, And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with food, according to the number of their dependents. Beloved, every mouth of the Israelites was fed, every last mouth, and they retained all that they had. But things got even worse. The famine was so severe that it was only, as I said, two years in the seven, and we're only a part of the way through, and the Egyptians now become even more desperate.

So what do they do? They're now willing to part with which is most valuable to them. Before the famine is over, the Egyptians are willing to offer Pharaoh everything they have, including their land. and including themselves, even just to stay alive. So through Joseph's administration, by the time the food crisis had passed, all the land of Egypt, we're told, all the land of Egypt, except the priests' fields, belonged to Pharaoh.

All of it. And all the people had become willing to become servants of him also. Yet at the same time, the comparison. At the same time, the Egyptians had lost everything. Israel had gained everything.

They had no concern for food. We know that Joseph was providing for them already. They retained all their livestock. None of that was given away. And they were given a possession of the very best land in Egypt.

And the word possession is the same that was given when God spoke to Abraham in Genesis 17. And he says, I will give you a land to be an everlasting possession. They were given a land in Egypt and the land of Goshen. It was on the northern tip of the country, and it was a fertile land, a place they could grow crops, a place they were able also, because they were distant from the main cities, a place where they could serve and worship God, far removed from negative influences of the pagan practices of the false religion of the Egyptians. God's providence had given them a place to live in a pagan land where they would be undefiled by the beliefs of the land.

God is concerned to provide not only for the physical needs of His people, but He's very concerned to provide for their spiritual needs also. So by the time the famine had ended, the Egyptians were all in the service of Pharaoh. He owned the land and they, the people, were the tenants. From that point on, Moses tells us a fifth of all their labor would be pharaohs. Now, some have said that the administration of Joseph in this passage is quite, well, harsh or unfair, they would say.

But the Egyptians didn't think so, right? What did the Egyptians say in verse 25? They called Joseph their savior. You have saved us, they said. For without him, they would have surely perished.

Even now 80% of what Pharaoh's land would produce is theirs to enjoy. That's pretty generous if you think about it. But God was providing for his own people and those of the world were recipients of God's goodness also. But Israel remained free. and the product of their labor remained fully their own.

They were greatly fruitful and they multiplied in number. Beloved, a favorable outcome such as this is impossible if God was not sovereignly orchestrating all the events of every minute detail to accomplish His purposes. If God has promised, God will be faithful to fulfil His promises. He always does, despite the greatest odds. And His faithfulness is a display that He is the only true God.

Do you think Pharaoh, do you think Pharaoh, who at the time was considered a god in Egypt, would have accepted Jacob's blessing that we read of in verses, in verse eight? No, not eight. Probably should have written the reference. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh, verse 10, do you think? You think Pharaoh would have accepted his blessing if he thought otherwise?

You see, it's always the greater that blesses the lesser. And if Pharaoh was considered a god, did he accept the blessing of James, he knew there was something different about his family. Because God's hand upon Joseph in wisdom and in interpreting the dreams and in all his faithfulness, all he had done, Pharaoh could stand back and say, You believe in the true God. And he confesses that Joseph had the Spirit of God on him back in chapter 45. But even still, there was something about this family and this people that was beyond Pharaoh's grasp.

And there's a clue for us in Jacob's words to him. And then in his final words in the chapter, you see Jacob tells Pharaoh that he is a sojourner, a pilgrim. a man on the move. Now that's obvious, right? Now he's in Egypt and he's left the land of Canaan, so of course he's in a foreign land, so of course he's a pilgrim.

But that's not what he says. He doesn't say, I am now a sojourner. If you read the text, he's saying for the last 130 years he's been a pilgrim. That's all his life. Jacob is saying he's always been a pilgrim and his fathers, that's Abraham and Isaac, have always been pilgrims also.

And even though he's traveled many places and he'd lived in the promised land, the land of Canaan, but even there he considered himself a pilgrim. just like the author of Hebrew writes, once again, concerning the patriarchs. He writes, they acknowledge that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. And then he goes on to say, but as it is, they desire a better country. That is, hear this, a heavenly one.

This is what Jacob was longing for. This is why Jacob considered himself a pilgrim, a sojourner. Although grateful for God for preserving his life and that of his family, Jacob was unimpressed by Egypt and all it had to offer. He was there because God told him to come. But his heart was on the ultimate inheritance, an inheritance, beloved, that is beyond even Canaan.

It's the heavenly inheritance that he was looking forward towards. You see, he wasn't whinging when he said to Pharaoh that his days were evil. The life in the flesh is filled with evil, and as long as a child of God is in the flesh, he will experience much evil in this pilgrimage on this earth. But God has planned something far greater for his own. Jacob knew this, and Jacob believed.

He couldn't see the intricate details of God's plan, But he believed and acted upon what he knew, and he trusted in God for the rest. That's the point. That's the point Jacob makes in his final words in the chapter. Making his son Joseph swear to bury him in the land of Canaan wasn't a sentimental gesture. It wasn't, hey, I want to just go and be buried with my father and my grandfather.

It wasn't just that. But it was a token of faith. He trusted God and wanted his sons not to be blinded by the good life in Egypt and all he had to offer, but to trust in God for everything, and to know they too are pilgrims in the land, in hope that they too will fix their eyes not only on the land flowing with milk and honey, but in the place and land that is above, the heavenly city whose foundation is God. May the Lord help us as his people to fix our eyes on the eternal and not the temporal, as we've seen an example here this evening. Amen.