 So I am going to speak about the Joseph anointing and then I'm gonna open the floor for questions So if any questions pop up in your minds while I speak Hang on to them You might want to write them down and we're gonna take roughly the last 15 to 20 minutes as a time for questions the story of Joseph It's the last 14 chapters of the book of Genesis It's one of the most riveting Narratives in the Bible and in ancient world literature in general. It's one of the most well-known stories still popular today in Musicals like Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat put to music put to drama and It's the story of The 11th of Jacobs 12 sons But it's interesting because he's not the oldest son Ruben Nor is he the son who will Eventually be the ancestor of the kings of Israel the royal son. Which one is that? That's right. Oh, this is a biblically educated audience. I love it Nor is he the son who will be the ancestor of the priestly tribe who is Right But he's the 11th son and Yet he has more chapters devoted to him than anyone else in the book of Genesis even the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob Even they don't have as many chapters devoted to them as Joseph It's a very intricate narrative incredibly well constructed rich in character Development and in this unfolding drama, you see a man who is tested in every way and His character is forged in the furnace of suffering and not only that but the Outcome of what happens with Joseph plays a key role in the unfolding of God's plan because it's because of Joseph That Israel ends up in Egypt The whole family of Jacob ends up in Egypt where they're going to stay for 400 years And eventually God's gonna get them out of Egypt in the greatest act of deliverance of the Old Testament the Exodus But in order for God to get them out of Egypt. He's got to first get them into Egypt And that's the Joseph story But for us as Christians There's even more to it Joseph is one of the most remarkable Types or Perfigurements of Jesus Christ that can be found in the Old Testament When Jesus after his resurrection walked along that road to Emmaus With two of his disciples. It says beginning with Moses Meaning the five books of Moses the Pentateuch and all the prophets he interpreted for them Everything about him in this written about him in the scriptures So that means he began with the book of Genesis. What do you think Jesus talked about? It was a long walk from Jerusalem to Emmaus by the way If the Amai if Emmaus is is where many archaeologists place it. It's actually 18 miles from Jerusalem Jesus was on that walk. This was a many-hour Bible study and No doubt Jesus went into depth in the story of Joseph and I picture those two disciples Were their hearts burning as they began to understand How everything about God's glorious plan for his son Was prophesied hidden prefigured in the pages of the book of Genesis So I'm going to unpack this story in itself because simply in itself It's an incredibly profound and rich story simply in the literal meaning of Genesis But then I'm going to show how it points forward to God's whole plan of salvation in Christ So buckle your seatbelts because there is a there is a lot to cover here First of all to really understand the story of Joseph. We've got to understand it within the context of the whole book of Genesis So hopefully you have a handout Here which shows just the very basic skeleton of the structure of the book of Genesis Now in the ancient world People didn't use chapter divisions or chapter headings or section headings or anything like that but they actually did give clues to how they were organizing a piece of writing and Very often it's by using a formula that gets repeated And so Genesis has this formula. These are the descendants of These are the descendants of these are the descendants of and the Hebrew word is Toledot Sometimes it's translated the generations of and it's actually from that word that we get the very name of the book Genesis because that was the the Greek translation of Toledot was Genesis so If you follow the formula as it appears you see Genesis is actually structured in 10 sections There are two major parts to the book The first part of the book is Genesis 1 through 11 Now those are our modern chapter divisions that were put in in the Middle Ages They weren't what the biblical author put there But we'll just use those chapters 1 to 11 are what is called the primeval history the the story of the origins of the world and The second half of the book chapters 12 through 50 is The patriarchal history the story of the patriarch patriarchs Each of those two sections or those two parts those two major parts has five sections So altogether we have ten sections in the book of Genesis. Sometimes they're they're called two pentads two sets of five sections and In this first major part of the book of Genesis the primeval history the narrator recounts the The the the whole plan of creation how God Created the world in in six days followed by the day of rest and we see God creating humanity and and God Placing our first parents in a garden a place of beauty and life But then we see how that that beautiful purpose of God for humanity was torpedoed by sin Which introduced into the world all kinds of disorder and chaos So that's basically the first part of the book of Genesis chapters 1 through 11 the first pentad of Genesis is the unraveling of God's beautiful plan for humanity and for creation Then the second major part of Genesis chapters 12 through 50 the second pentad Begins to tell us how God acts to reverse That tragedy of sin How he begins to form a chosen people Through whom he's going to undo the curse of sin Eventually and restore his blessing to the whole human race now at the beginning of The first part the primeval history We see God creating Adam and Eve in his image and likeness so God Creates Adam and Eve and he he gives them this blessing He blessed them and he said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion So Essentially what God is is doing there is he's creating human beings as those creatures that will Unlike any other created being on the earth will reflect the very glory of God Will be God's image is a picture of God and They are to have dominion over the earth. That means they are to be God's royal representatives in in other words there to be God's vice regents in a sense to to represent God in caring for his creation reigning over it Bringing it to the order and the perfection that God plans for it But then as I said in Genesis chapter 3 We see sin come into the world tempted by the serpent our first parents disobey God Drastically undermine the whole plan of God You know what they were supposed to do by by subduing the earth and having dominion over the earth is Essentially extend the garden of Eden To the entire earth make the entire earth a place of beauty of life of flourishing and of intimate Communion with God You know they walked with God in the cool of the day. So that's what they were to do but sin Undermine that entire plan They are ejected from the garden. They are exiled from that place of beauty and from there The whole thing just snowballs and in the very next chapter Genesis 4 you have the first what? murder The fruit of the disobedience of Adam and Eve is even greater sin Cain's murder of his brother Abel and so Fratricide the hatred between brothers is introduced into the human community and ever since then There's been war of brother against brother in fact really every murder is a fratricide Because we're all children of Adam and Eve therefore we're all brothers and sisters so that first murders is really just emblematic of all hatred and violence ever since then but in the midst of this unfolding tragedy There's a key verse a crucial verse that is so important. It's actually called the proto gospel the proto evangelium It's it's the first glimmer of hope that all is not lost that God Actually has a plan to undo this horrible tragedy It's Genesis 3 15 and you remember this verse, right? It's where God says to the serpent I Will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed You will crush his heel or bruise his heel he will crush your head That means the the serpent will give the seed of the woman a damaging blow but not a fatal blow But the seed of the woman is Going to crush his head give a fatal blow the undoing of the serpent and all his works So that promise of the seed of the woman that God gives right There in Genesis 3 right when he's outlining all of the tragic effects of sin Is a hope that is meant to be kept alive the seed of the woman Now because Adam and Eve are presented as kind of royal figures having dominion over the earth That's a hint that the seed of the woman is also royal Because what do you call the son of a king and queen a king, right? so So far in Genesis 3 15 is just a hint. There's gonna be a seed of the woman who is going to Undo the serpents damage So the rest of Genesis 1 through 11 is is further snowballing effects of sin then in Genesis 12 God calls Abraham Out of the blue. He chooses this one man And he tells him to leave his homeland To go to a land that God will show him and he begins to form this man He promises him these great things. He he promises to make him a great nation. He promises That he's going to have descendants later on he expands a descendants as the stars of the sky as the sand of the seashore He also promises Kings will come forth from you It's supposed to be an echo The promise of the seed of the woman kings will come forth from you And that his descendants will be a blessing to all the families of the earth so God gives Abraham those promises in Genesis 12 and The rest of the book of Genesis is the adventures of Abraham's family If you've read Genesis 12 through 50 You know that there is no more dysfunctional family On earth than the family of Abraham. I Mean any kind of sin any kind of brokenness disorder Sexual in terms of violence in terms of hatred division you name it. They've got it so God's plan seems to keep encountering all these Obstacles all these setbacks all of these problems But we have to keep in mind the promise of the seed of the woman who will crush the head of the serpent Now let's come to the last section of the Pentad of the patriarchal history the story of Joseph Joseph is Jacob's great-grandson. I'm sorry Abraham's great-grandson Isaac's grandson Jacob's 11th son and He's the firstborn of Jacob's beloved What's what's the name of Jacob's wife whom he loves dearly? Rachel Jacob's beloved he married Leah kind of accidentally shall we say Because he was tricked by their father Laban by the father of Leah and Rachel Rachel is his beloved and it turns out that she is infertile and Leah starts giving birth and has child after child after child Rachel has no children She prays and finally God gives her a child. It's Joseph so Joseph is something of a miracle baby and in fact That's also like his father Jacob and his grandfather Isaac because their moms were also infertile In fact all three of the great matriarchs Sarah Rebecca Rachel were all infertile. They were all plagued by this Threat against the very continuation of the family of God All three of them were barren women and yet in each case God sovereignly acts to do what human beings couldn't do To bring a child forth from the barren woman and the barren woman bears a son and Each time it turns out to be somebody who's absolutely pivotal in the whole plan of God So so Joseph is kind of another miracle baby born to the infertile woman So now we come to the Joseph story proper which begins in Genesis 37 and this story opens with Joseph as something of a brash annoying teenager 17 years old and it turns out that he's a tattletale on his older brothers Because it says he brings his dad Jacob an evil report of his brothers Can imagine how happy that made the brothers Not coincidentally Couple of chapters later Joseph himself is gonna be the victim of an evil report He himself is gonna be falsely accused by the wife of Potiphar There's a theme that runs through the book of Genesis what you so is what you reap Now we don't know if whatever Joseph whatever bad report he brought of his brothers was true or false Doesn't say in a way. That's not important But he was saying bad things about his brothers. He was guilty of the sin of detraction So it starts out with you know not of a very heartwarming picture of Joseph To make matters worse Jacob dad shows blatant favoritism He apparently forgot the lesson of his own parents because if you read the story of his upbringing You might remember that his brother Esau was a man's man and the favorite of his father Isaac Whereas Jacob was the mama's boy the favorite of his mom Rebecca Jacob was the guy who liked to hang out at home. He's kind of the homeboy Whereas Esau was the guy who liked to go hunting, but that favoritism shown by Isaac and Rebecca is what led to all kinds of animosity and rivalry between Jacob and Esau Which led to the breakup of the family, but apparently Jacob hasn't learned a lesson Because what does he do? He shows just how happy and proud he is of Joseph by making him a long robe with sleeves the famous Technicolor Dreamcoat Now there's a lot of debate about what exactly the Hebrew words about this robe mean, but it may well have been a kind of royal robe designating Joseph as the heir apparent in other words as The successor to Jacob as head of the family In other words bypassing the first ten and if so you can imagine why the first ten weren't so happy about that either To make matters even worse Joseph then has these two grandiose dreams And as we're going to see pairs of dreams dreams come in two in the whole story of Joseph so he has these two dreams and In these dreams He sees the whole family bowing down to him Do you ever met a 17 year old? He thinks he's the center of the universe Not very endearing right So Joseph Ghibly shares his dreams with his whole family. Hey guys. I had these dreams. You're gonna love them Let me tell you about this dream in the first dream His family members are symbolized by sheaves of wheat. They all bow down to him in the second dream His family members are symbolized by the Sun the moon and the stars. They all bow down to Joseph And he's like that great Like no, I don't think so It says in Genesis 37 Verse 8 their hatred increased the more and yet more in Hebrew. It's Yosefou Yosefou It's a word play on his name Yosef Joseph His word his name Joseph means increase Yosef means increase, but the only increase right now is the hatred of his brothers So there's a real irony in his name But there's another irony in his dreams They're gonna turn out to be prophetic sheaves of wheat What's gonna be the cause of Joseph? Having this absolutely astronomical rise to power in Egypt His prediction about the harvests of wheat and then the famine of wheat Sun moon and stars You know what the Egyptians worshipped as gods Sun moon and stars His dreams are actually a hint of things to come in more ways than one But of course the brothers don't know that So One fine day the brothers are out pasturing their flocks and Jacob Says to Joseph Joseph go go see how your brothers are You might think it might occur to Jacob. You know, he seems to be not very observant It hasn't really occurred to him that they hate his guts Joseph why don't you go way out into the field where nobody else is around and see how your brothers are doing? Not a very good idea in fact The very words used here when Jacob says go now and Joseph says here. I am If you're paying close attention It's an echo of another story in Genesis. We're a father Sacrificed his beloved son The exact same phrases are used in Genesis 22 with the offering of Isaac So Joseph goes obeying his father he goes to seek his brothers He's seeking his brothers Yes, he's going to geographically locate them where where are they where where have they taken the flocks? But there's there's more than that. He's seeking his brothers He's seeking that fraternal love that communion between brothers that is God's plan That is the desire the longing of every human heart He's seeking that but by now their resentment has hardened into murderous hatred They see him coming at a distance and they say let's kill him and we'll see what's become of his dreams Well at that point the the firstborn Ruben the oldest son Realizes that might not be a very good idea since God is forbidden murder. So instead Let's throw him into a pit And we'll you know just abandon him there in a pit that he can't get out of that's much better than shedding his blood But Ruben does plan to pull him out later So they say okay, that's that sounds like a good idea They strip him of his robe Hold that in your minds. They strip him of his robe and then at the suggestion of the fourth brother Judah they see some Merchants coming by some ishmaelite ishmaelite traders and they say hey, let's sell him to the traders Let's sell our brother into slavery So sure enough they do Joseph goes into slavery in Egypt What's gonna happen to the entire nation of Israel a little while later They all end up in slavery in Egypt What you so is what you reap It's not accidental So Joseph then is going to spend the rest of his life in Egypt isn't it interesting That this nation of Egypt the the what becomes the nemesis of Israel the oppressors of Israel the Epitome of the pagan world the epitome of those who who worship idols who oppress God's people Isn't it interesting that God in his plan has his own chosen people Israel Spend four centuries there He has his own people get their formation in Egypt It's also true of Moses It's also true of Jesus He spends his toddler years the son of God himself spends his toddler years in Egypt the very last place you'd expect What about us children of God? Why doesn't God have us grow up in our faith in paradise? Why doesn't he have us mature in some holy enclave some kind of spiritual bubble Some kind of greenhouse or hot house where everybody's holy and everybody loves the Lord Why would he have us mature in this fallen broken disordered idolatrous world? It's his plan It's in Egypt That the character of Joseph will get forged Through his suffering It's in Egypt that the very son of God Will grow in his formative toddler years It's in Egypt meaning the world that we the children of God get our formation Now meanwhile back to the brothers They take Joseph's robe that they stripped off and they dip it in the blood of a goat and they bring it back to Joseph Their dad with crocodile tears. Oh Joseph oh poor Joseph. He must have been killed by an animal What's interesting about this if you look back at the story of Jacob in his upbringing He deceived his brother out of his father's blessing his brother Esau. How did he do it? using clothing and The skins of a goat Clothing and a goat now his own sons are deceiving him With clothing and the blood of a goat What you sow is what you reap what goes around comes around But then there's this very sad verse where Joseph or Jacob cries out in anguish Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces Literally, he says torn torn is Joseph Tarof to rafio safe Tarof to rafio safe in Hebrew. It's this poetic Cry of anguish at losing his beloved son the firstborn of his beloved Rachel And he vows to mourn for the rest of his life There would be a typical period of mourning sometimes as long as 30 days Just Jacob says I'm gonna mourn for the rest of my life. I'm never gonna be happy again now in Genesis 38 There is almost a whip lash effect as you're getting engrossed in this story of Joseph and his brothers all of a sudden scene changes and the spotlight for this one chapter Genesis 38 is on Judah and What unfolds here is this? Sorted affair of Judah's liaison with a prostitute who actually turns out to be his daughter-in-law And this is one of those chapters They don't include in children's Bibles It's one of those really R rated chapters of the Bible Did you ever wonder why does the Bible have so many R rated stories? Because the Bible is not a fairy tale The Bible is not about a utopia in the realm of ideas The Bible is the reality of the fallen human race and what God is doing in the very midst of our Fallenness and brokenness to heal it So this is a it's a very disturbing chapter about this this misfortune or this sin in the life of Judah Why why insert this right in the middle of the story of Joseph? Well, there's a very specific reason The narrator wants you to see the contrast between Joseph and Judah They both left the family But Judah left the family seeking fortune and pleasure among the Canaanites The native inhabitants of the Promised Land He wants to go sow his wild oats. He wants to go have his fame and seek his fortune Joseph leaves against his will Because he's been sold as a slave into Egypt Judah goes seeking a prostitute seeking earthly pleasure Joseph on the other hand flees temptation when it comes to him So that the the narrator is setting up this contrast now It's also interesting that Judah ends up getting tricked by the woman He thinks is just a prostitute who turns out to be his daughter-in-law Tamar And the way she tricks him is with unusual Clothing and an agreement about a goat Does that ring a bell? this theme of Deception by means of clothing and a goat it keeps coming back through Genesis Now why Judah why this story here? remember that God promised Abraham That he would be a great nation and that kings would even descend from him When we get to the end of Genesis we read Jacob's blessing of his 12 sons That's when we find out which son is the father of the royal tribe the tribe from which the kings will come beginning with David and as as you know, that's Judah, right? It's the fourth son Judah who's the father of the royal tribe and That means that is through Judah That the promise of the royal seed of the woman Will be fulfilled When Jacob is blessing Judah he says the scepter shall not depart from Judah Nor the ruler staff from between his feet until he comes to whom it belongs And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples It's a it's a prophecy It's kind of moving forward the prophecy of the seed of the woman The seed of the woman is going to come through Judah The problem is He's unworthy In chapter 38 he shows himself to be selfish sexually immoral Unfaithful to God's plan leaving his family Uncaring about the inheritance of the family of Abraham and the promised land. He's not worthy Now when you get to the end of chapter 38 in it, which I won't describe in detail in a stunning turn of events Judah is convicted and he's basically chewed out by the person you at least expect His own daughter-in-law Tamar who is a Canaanite pagan who is basically haranguing him for his unfaithfulness so He is actually humbled He is actually chastened by a Canaanite and So when you see him again in this later in the story of Joseph Judah is a changed man He's he needs to be made worthy of the role that he is going to play in the plan of God So that's why that seeming digression, which is not a digression at all But now we come back to the story of Joseph in chapter 39 this arrogant cocky teenager who boasted of family members bowing down to him is now nothing more than a common slave in the house of an Egyptian officer But he's a trustworthy and reliable slave and eventually he gets put in charge of the whole house of Potiphar and Potiphar finds that the more he entrusts to this young Hebrew Joseph the more the Lord blesses his house for Joseph's sake It's a hint God is gonna bless not only the house of Potiphar But the entire nation of Egypt and all the surrounding nations through Joseph That's a partial fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham through you I will bless all the families of the earth However as Joseph is serving faithfully in the house of Potiphar Potiphar's wife happens to notice the dashing young Hebrew and she propositions him Now in the ancient world Slaves were considered the property of their masters including sexual property Usually men, but that could include the woman who was the the aristocratic owner Joseph would surely know that doing sexual favors for this woman could help advance his career very quickly Could be very useful to his future Career if he would do sexual favors for her But he doesn't He's a model of faithfulness in exile That's a model Israel will need many centuries later when they themselves will be in exile in fact You could say Joseph is a kind of new Adam who's undergoing his own temptation and Where Adam failed and gave into temptation? Joseph is faithful and he resists temptation however, Mrs. Potiphar is not impressed With his refusal She tries to wear him down with repeated seduction. She's relentless. She finally gets annoyed at him. And so she grabs his garment This is the second time this has happened to Joseph She grabs his garment. He flees out of the house the servants come in she then frames him She says look he he tried to make love to me. He left his garment with me She's accusing him of attempted attempted rape. Joseph gets thrown into prison His life is becoming a series of unfortunate events There's a children's book series with that title the series of unfortunate events and that's Joseph Just when you think he's finally hit bottom it gets worse and His dreams of glory as a 17 year old Must look like a cruel joke now Now he's not even a slave. He's a prisoner and Yet through this chapter that gets really to the bottom of Joseph's fortunes There's this refrain that keeps repeating The Lord was with Joseph The Lord was with Joseph the Lord was with Joseph You could say shirt and look like that at the time. I Mean sure looked like God had abandoned him I mean by now this guy has been rejected Betrayed by his brothers. He's been trafficked He's been sexually harassed. He's been falsely accused. He's been wrongly condemned. He's been unjustly incarcerated He's been abandoned by everyone The Lord was with Joseph When we have tough circumstances like Joseph did Are we tempted to think? God has abandoned me He easily could have been tempted to think that But he trusted the Lord was with him The Lord was with Joseph is the Lord with you When you hit bottom when things are as bad as they can get and they get even worse Yes, the Lord is with you How do we know? Because God gave his son a name Emanuel The Lord is with us and we can hold on to that promise No, is God up there in heaven looking at everything that's going on in the life of Joseph and saying, oh, no You know first he's thrown into a pit that he sold into slavery now. Oh, he's accused. He's thrown into prison Oh, no, what am I gonna do? This is really derailing my plan for Joseph No God is saying this is all part of my plan what I am going to do is not In fact, in fact Father Morosini said this in their previous workshop God's plan for Joseph is not going to take place In spite of what his brothers did and what the wife of Potiphar did and everybody else did it's through those very things It's through those very sins against Joseph the injustices against Joseph that God's awesome plan is gonna unfold So Joseph is a model for us Now There are two men who end up in prison with Joseph They are the baker and the butler or cupbearer of Pharaoh Now these would have been the two of the most important officials in the royal kingdom of Egypt because these are the two officials who have the very sensitive task of Attending to the food and drink of Pharaoh Now in a world of palace intrigues and potential assassination attempts You better make sure that your butler your cupbearer and your baker are Reliable people right that's why they were two of the most important high-up people in the royal court and And they had to be known to be above reproach and and very often because of their importance. They were wealthy and very influential But these two guys Somehow had offended they had managed to offend Pharaoh and so they were both thrown into prison and one night They both have these strange dreams So here's another pair of dreams second pair of dreams we've seen Now you know if it had been us we might say what you know that was the beetle pizza I had last night Egyptians worship beetles. That's why I said beetle That was the beetle pizza I had last night, but in ancient Egypt Dreams were taken very seriously as Messages from the gods in fact there were skilled Professionals who would train for years under a master and would be highly paid to interpret dreams Because people needed to know what the gods were saying to them through their dreams But as prisoners of course these guys have no way to pay the professional dream interpreters. So it's no wonder that they're troubled So Joseph asked them he sees their downcast faces. What's wrong guys? And they tell them they've had these strange dreams and you know at this point Joseph could have said You know, I've had some dreams myself. I'm not a big believer in dreams anymore They didn't exactly pan out But he didn't say that He said do not interpretations belong to God He puts all the credit where credit is due He gives the credit to God. He says if God is speaking through dreams, then he is gonna provide the interpretation Joseph in exile has not forgotten the God of his fathers The true God the living God the God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob So he invites them to tell their dreams So the the butler seems really eager to tell his dream and he says no I in this dream I had some grapes. I pressed them got wine put it in a cup gave it to Pharaoh Joseph says That dream means in three days Pharaoh's gonna lift up your head I E you're gonna get your job back. You're gonna he's gonna promote you back to your previous position and By the way Butler mr. Cup bearer, please don't forget me when you get out of prison What's the butler gonna do when he gets out of prison? forget Joseph Joseph has been sinned against a lot hasn't he? Even by a fellow prisoner to whom he didn't do any harm Well, the chief baker now says to himself wow that sounds pretty good. I think I like this dream interpreter So I'm gonna share my dream and he shares this dream I was carrying three big baskets on my head with delicacies for Pharaoh the best of You know the baked goods that Pharaoh loves but then the birds came and ate up these delicacies from the basket on my head Now for anybody who Interprets this in light of the whole scripture You might keep in mind that whenever we have the image of birds eating It's a sign of evil in the parable of the seeds Jesus says some of the seed fell on the path and what happened to it The birds ate it up That's seed of the word of God fell on a hardened rocky path the birds ate it up So birds eating things up our symbol of evil very often it talks about the birds of prey eating corpses after a battle so You know, you know if we had been the chief baker, we might not have been so eager to tell our dream It's it's it's not a very promising dream so Joseph says Okay, good to hear your dream. That means that in three days Pharaoh's gonna lift up your head Now that's just what he said to the butler, right? But this time he says fair is gonna lift up your head meaning Decapitate you hang you Probably meaning hang you and then decapitate you. That was like the worst way to End your life in the world of Egypt because if your body is not intact. You'll never make it into the afterlife That's why wealthy Egyptians spelt spent so much time and money and effort on building their tombs and Mummifying their bodies. So I mean, this is pretty ominous what Joseph says to the baker But sure enough, it's exactly what happens Now two more years pass Joseph is still languishing in prison How easy it would be to think now He's really been abandoned by God You know, I had my one chance for a lucky break with that butler and apparently he's forgotten me, too So Joseph he must have felt So abandoned and rejected rejected, but he held on to his hope in God But now Pharaoh himself has two disturbing dreams. So it's yet another dream pair and And in this tree in this pair of dreams Pharaoh is standing by the Nile Which is the source of the entire economy of Egypt because the annual flooding of the Nile River Irrigates and fertilizes the entire Nile River Valley, which brings forth the crops that both feed the the animals of the livestock of Egypt and also bring forth the the grain that feeds Egypt. So the Nile is really the the The umbilical cord that it's it's the lifeline of the whole nation of Egypt and In this dream Pharaoh sees seven sleek fat cows rise up from the Nile That sounds like Egypt's wonderfully prosperous economy, but then Seven gaunt thin cows rise up from the Nile and Eat up the first seven fat ones And then the in the second dream is kind of the same thing in a different way Seven plump ears of grain get eaten up by seven thin blighted ears of grain Well Pharaoh he tells his dream none of his interpreters can figure out what the dreams mean Possibly because they don't want to say anything that wouldn't puff up Pharaoh's ego But for whatever reason nobody can interpret it. The butler is suddenly cured of amnesia. Oh There was this guy in prison and he turned out to have a 100% track record of accuracy in interpreting dreams. Just remembered it Pharaoh says get him up here right now He tells his dream His dreams Joseph interprets the dreams and then he goes on to say here's what you should do about it He not only gives the meaning of the dreams He says here is how you apply the dreams. God is he's giving you as the ruler of the nation a Prophetic warning of what's gonna happen. There are going to be seven years of incredible bounty of plenty Followed by seven years of devastating famine the seven years of plenty are to help you get ready for the years of famine Here's how you should organize things to store up the grain and so Pharaoh says I like this guy He he sounds compelling. He convinces me and here we come to a line that is Often overlooked, but it's really a high point of the Joseph story Genesis 41 verse 38 Pharaoh said to his servants Can we find a man like this in whom is the spirit of God? In whom is the spirit of God? Now in Pharaoh's mind that simply means I See that this guy has something supernatural is going on like the gods are speaking through him But for us as readers of Genesis For the ancient Jews as readers of Genesis They would remember the spirit of God has been mentioned only one other time in the entire book at creation The spirit of God was hovering over the deep The spirit of God was bringing order into chaos And so without even realizing it Pharaoh is saying something of capital importance about Joseph This is a man In whom the very spirit of the living God the Creator God Dwells Why not just because he's able to interpret these dreams, but because he has held on to Faithful trust in the Lord God even in his time of trial in repeated Devastating trial after trial he has remained faithful to God while he was humbled and brought very very low And because of that he's going to be raised up high and So to say this is the man in whom it is the spirit of God is the Joseph anointing and that Joseph anointing To be one in whom the very spirit of God dwells is for every Christian Because what happened at Pentecost and what happened to you on the day of your baptism and your confirmation The spirit of God came to dwell in you So that you can live a life of fidelity to God as Joseph did well Pharaoh is so impressed He raises up Joseph on the spot to second the command of the whole nation of Egypt in other words He's prime minister of Egypt second only to Pharaoh Grand vizier is also a term that is used Pharaoh decrees every knee is Gonna bow before Joseph And he puts on him a gold chain and he gives him His his signet ring the ring of royalty and he gives him clothing of fine linen That linen of ancient Egypt. I mean even today Egyptian linen is you know high quality But you can even see it in ancient painting paintings. It's so fine. It's almost transparent So he he clothes Joseph this guy who's been stripped of his clothing twice is Now clothed in the linen of royalty and As he goes through Egypt every knee bows before him and so sure enough The dreams come true the seven years of plenty followed by the seven years of famine Joseph organizes all this storage of grain during the seven years of plenty and Egypt is saved from famine and not only Egypt, but the surrounding nations begin to come to Egypt to buy grain The the entire world of the ancient Near East is saved from famine and again It's a beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham Through you all nations of the earth will be blessed But now we come back to the other eleven brothers the ten older brothers and the youngest brother Benjamin Back in the land of Canaan back with on the family farm They're feeling the effects of the famine themselves Actually, I shouldn't say farm. They're not really farming. They're living in tents But they're feeling the effects of famine and their animals are going hungry and things are not good And so Joseph sends his sons to go to Egypt, you know look sons. We're we're not gonna survive here But I've heard there's plenty of grain in Egypt go buy grain for us They get to Egypt and they are brought into the presence of the prime minister the grand vizier of Egypt a man of incredible royal stature and What do they do they bow to the ground before him? three times Way back when Joseph was recounting his dreams the word bow was used three times And it's exactly what's fulfilled here. They bow to the ground before him three times Having no idea who he is of course What does Joseph do he arrest them he accuses them of being spies Why would he do that this is Joseph getting his his bitter revenge on his brothers No, it may look like that But this is his plan to test them Joseph is going to find out if his brothers have changed Since that terrible day many years ago when they sold him into slavery So they they tell Joseph we're all sons of of one man. There were 12 of us, but we lost one Oh, it was such a tragedy There's still one other he the youngest, but he's back home with dad in the land of Canaan Joseph says you're lying and So I I don't believe you if you want to prove that you're telling the truth. I'm gonna Bind up one of you. So he binds up Simeon He puts Simeon in in a prison and he says in order to see if you're telling the truth I want you to go back to Canaan and come back here with that youngest brother you mentioned And then I'll know that you were telling the truth and you're not spies And they're they they begin trembling and they start saying to themselves This is happening because of what we did to our brother Joseph Little do they know they just think it's divine punishment little do they know whom they're speaking to So then as they're about to leave he Joseph took takes the money that they paid for their grain And he secretly puts it back in their sacks Looks like he's framing them for a crime. Why would he do that? Well think about this when they get home and they open their sacks and they find all this money They're gonna have lots of money, but a missing brother Does that sound like anything that happened in the past? He's reminding them he's re-creating the scene He's reminding them of the sin that they had committed against their brother Joseph Well, they get home and they say um dad Simeon is still there in Egypt And Joseph is like can you explain to me why one brother is still in Egypt. They're like um It's kind of hard to explain dad and they tell the story and Joseph says you've bereaved me of my children again, it's an irony little does Jacob know how true that is and They say, you know, we can't we can't get Simeon back until we bring Benjamin back to Egypt and that way the Prime Minister will know that we were telling the truth and we're not spies Jacob says absolutely. No way. I've lost one son of Rachel. I am not losing the other son of Rachel my youngest son No way you're taking Benjamin back to Egypt Well time passes and time passes and the famine is worse and now the family is in danger of starvation Judah says dad, we got to go we're gonna starve and And dad's and Jacob says not with not with Benjamin. You're not bringing back dad We can't go back into the presence of this Prime Minister without Benjamin Judah says I will offer myself as surety. I Myself will be the guarantee We will bring Benjamin back in safety Along with Simeon Jacob says, okay, I don't like it, but okay he gives them lots of Valuable goods he gives them balm honey myrrh gum and double the money to take back to this Prime Minister of Egypt But it's interesting Because now the brothers are heading to Egypt in a caravan with a son of Rachel and gum balm myrrh and other valuable goods It's exactly the way Joseph had gone into Egypt on a caravan bringing those exact same goods It's a recreation of the scene Well, they get back to Egypt they produce Benjamin. They said see we weren't lying Joseph hosts them the Prime Minister hosts them at a meal and amazingly He lines up the brothers at table in their exact order of birth And they're thinking whoa, this guy's like psychic like whoa, he's got you know supernatural information from the gods Little do they know Then Joseph he gives them all their portions out of you know fine dining in the Royal House of Pharaoh He gives Benjamin The one who's hit the his full brother Five times the portion he gives all the others Why is he doing that? Just to show favoritism like his father did and his grandfather did No, he's testing them Are you still jealous brothers as you were before are you still envious at the blessing of another brother or have you changed? He restores Simeon to them he lets them go in peace But this time he does something else he hides his own silver cup in the sack of Benjamin and then he has his steward follow the caravan as they're heading home to Canaan and The steward says we have discovered that one of you has stolen the silver cup of the Prime Minister You can search our sacks. We would never do that The sacks are searched the cup is found in Benjamin's sack They rend their clothes and return to the city All right, Joseph. We're your slave or no, they don't call him Joseph. They don't know he's Joseph. All right, Prime Minister. We're your slaves No, only the guilty one will be my slave the rest of you can go free Here we come to a crucial moment in the story Will they once again abandon a brother to slavery in Egypt a son of Rachel or have they changed at This point is is really the high point of the whole story Judah The fourth son the very one who had first proposed let's sell him into slavery To that caravan of merchants Judah has been humbled He's been humbled by that experience with Tamar and he's been humbled by the the whole unfolding thing going on now with the famine and He tells this grand Prime Minister Look, if we leave Benjamin here as your slave Our father will die of sorrow. We will bring his gray hair hairs down to the grave in sorrow We can't do that. Let me stay as your slave in his place Wow What a radical transformation Instead of let's get rid of our brother that we don't like let's sell him into slavery Let me suffer in place of my brother Let me pay the price be the surety so that my brother can go free Judah is a changed man and His speech in Genesis 44 is one of the most moving passages in the entire Bible when you read the speech of Judah to the Prime Minister of Egypt whom he doesn't yet know the identity of You cannot but hear the heart of Jesus Let my brothers and my sisters go free and let me pay the price in their place Judah has finally become Prepared become worthy of his role as the father of the royal tribe From whom will come the seed of the woman Now when Judah finishes that speech Joseph can't contain himself anymore He shouts to his servants everybody leave the room and He's weeping so loud the Egyptians hear him and he reveals himself to his brothers. I am Joseph your brother You can imagine how stunned they are up to now. He's been speaking through an interpreter. They're speaking Hebrew He's speaking Egyptian through an interpreter. They have no idea. You can imagine the deer in the headlights. Look It must have taken them some time to let it register your Joseph our brother and you can imagine the very next thought is oh We're in trouble And what does Joseph do He embraces them He kisses them He weeps and weeps and weeps and he offers them pardon and Then Joseph says to them at the beginning of chapter 45 and Now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here For God sent me before you to preserve life What Joseph I thought hateful and jealous Angry brothers sold you here and greedy merchants brought you here God sent me No matter what it looks like on the surface God is at work Bringing about his plan for those who trust him God sent me before you to preserve life and God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and To keep alive for you many survivors So it was not you who sent me here, but God What an incredible act of forgiveness From the very time of the fall When God cursed the ground he didn't curse out of many but he cursed the ground thorns and thistles through thorns and thistles Where will the ground bear through? Famine has threatened the very survival of God's people fact way back in Genesis 12 Abraham himself had to go to Egypt because of famine So famine is continually threatening God's people Joseph in time of famine Has preserved the life of God's people so that the family could continue until the promise of the royal seed is fulfilled so Joseph has provided bread For a hungry people not only the family of Jacob, but Egypt and all the surrounding nations at the same time Since the fall and the the murder of Abel by Cain Brotherly hatred brotherly conflict Tensions in the family have plagued the covenant family of Abraham from generation to generation By his forgiveness Joseph reverses that he reconciles with his brothers Later on in chapter 50 After Jacob is brought to Egypt with the brothers and and then Jacob dies the brothers are thinking Oh, you know now he's gonna get his chance and he's wanted to kill us all along now He's gonna kill us because dad is dead Joseph says to them fear not am I in the place of God as for you You meant evil against me But God meant it for good To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as They are today So Joseph is Undoing the threat of famine and he is undoing the Brotherly hatred that has plagued God's people through the generations So through Joseph you see God beginning to fulfill his promise to undo the damage brought by the serpent to Reverse the trajectory of evil that began with the fall and then as the story concludes Joseph with the enthusiastic agreement of Pharaoh invites the whole clan to relocate to Egypt To brief provided for to survive the famine Pharaoh gives them the best of the land Goshen that the most fertile part of Egypt and and then it says Thus Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the land of Goshen and they gained possessions in it and were fruitful and Multiplied exceedingly Does that remind you of something way back in Genesis 1 The very blessing that God gave Adam and Eve and the commission God gave them be fruitful and multiply It was a blessing and a commission then with Abraham it became a promise. I'm gonna multiply you I'm gonna make you fruitful, but now for the first time it becomes a reality Now God's people are Fruitful and they multiply So Joseph who started off Possibly not even being conceived because his mother was barren becomes a miracle baby of the infertile woman and Becomes a means by which the threat of famine and starvation is is removed and the fratricide and the brotherly conflict is reversed Joseph has become a model or a type of the royal seed of the woman who would crush the head of the serpent and then In this interesting detail it says Joseph gave Festive garments to all his brothers Festive garments If you notice how clothing has run through the story What's the very thing that the very first thing that happened after the fall of Adam and Eve they looked down and noticed that they were naked clothing symbolizes dignity status Nakedness symbolizes the shame of sin Joseph was clothed in a royal robe by his father Jacob the long robe with sleeves But then he was disrobed stripped of his robe by his brothers Then he was again stripped of his robe by the wife of Potiphar So he hit bottom, but then he was clothed and royal linen by Pharaoh But the end of it is not just Joseph having that royal clothing he gives his brothers Festive garments So he shares with them the royal Festive celebratory Clothing that he himself has received Does anybody seeing ways at this points forward to the fulfillment of God's plan? the very end of Genesis we have we have the list of the descendants of Jacob who come to Egypt when the whole clan moves there 70 descendants already by that time It's alluding to the 70 nations of the world that were listed in Genesis chapter 10 Hinting at the vocation of the family of Abraham To restore all the nations of the world to God's blessing Now in light of the whole book of Genesis We can see more clearly How Joseph even though he's not the royal son Judah or the priestly son Levi How in his life he models What the ideal ruler looks like The royal seed of the woman promised by God who would crush the head of the serpent Joseph typifies it in his own life When we've seen that Then we can see more clearly How Joseph points forward to the true Royal seed of the woman Just think of this and I'll end with this Think of another son who was beloved of his father Envied by his brothers Particularly his fellow Jews Who foretold his future glory who was sent out by his father To seek his brothers until he found them who was conspired against Betrayed by those closest to him Stripped of his robe and if you think of the robe as a symbol of royal dignity you could say twice stripped of his Divine Royal dignity first by becoming incarnate As a mere human being and secondly by being obedient even to death on a cross Twice emptied of self Who was cast down into a pit sold for pieces of silver Who became a servant Who was faithful to the Lord in humiliation and trial But the Lord was with him a son who was tempted and did not sin Who was falsely accused Who foretold the future in whom the spirit of God dwells and Every knee will bow before him and confess his name Who was 30 years old when he began his life's work Like Joseph 30 years old when he began in the court of Pharaoh Who was raised to high honor and clothed in royal garments the garments of divine glory Who forgave his brothers and therefore reversed the very curse of Cain and the curse of sin Who preserved life By giving bread to a starving world the bread that is himself Who restored God's original blessing to the human race and Who has given Festive garments the the garments of salvation to all his brothers and sisters and Has become a savior to the whole world Jesus is the new Joseph and His Joseph anointing is for all of us Amen