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Welcome back to Part Two of our bible study of Joseph. We continue with Joseph testing his brothers and being reunited with his family again. We see how Joseph saves the lives of the whole region during the great famine. Find out what God did through Joseph’s suffering and how Joseph was able to forgive his family. Join us for the rest of this exciting story.
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Joseph Part Two
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. Brought to you by DSW Ministries. Your host is singer songwriter, speaker and domestic violence advocate, Diana Winkler. She is passionate about helping survivors in the church heal from domestic violence and abuse and trauma. This podcast is not a substitute for professional counseling or qualified medical help. [00:00:26] Now here is Diana. [00:00:33] Hey there everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. [00:00:37] We’re on the story of Joseph part two, and we’re gonna do a review on Joseph. I do want you to go back to part one if you didn’t listen to it, cause you’ll miss some of the stuff. If you’re not familiar with Joseph, you’re definitely going to be lost. [00:00:58] But [00:00:59] an [00:01:00] update for today on the website, I was just working with my webmaster Etana and the website is still down. We worked on it three hours today. Jet Pack gave me a backup of my site and somehow it didn’t work. We tried everything, and so we’re gonna have to ask Ionas and Jet Pack for help. I don’t know. I don’t know what else there is to do, but I am recording my episodes and I’m able to put them on the podcast platforms. [00:01:40] Although you will notice that, for instance, if you go on Apple Podcasts, it only shows two episodes, whereas this is the hundred and 34th episode, it erased all of my previous episodes. [00:02:00] Spotify is, I don’t know what’s wrong with Spotify, but it hasn’t shown my podcast episodes since Easter. [00:02:10] I don’t know if that’s a Spotify issue or my website. I have no idea, but it’s gonna be another week before my website is back up because neither of us can work on it during the week with our jobs. So you’ll see my website is under construction, right? You can listen to all of the podcast episodes on YouTube [00:02:38] if you wanna look at previous ones. Um, thankfully that is still working. Ah, but yeah, I’m frustrated at this point. This has been a month long nightmare, and it’s, it is discouraging as I mentioned last week, but it is what it is and I have to deal with it [00:03:00] as best I can. [00:03:02] So let’s look at where we were previously. [00:03:08] I’m gonna do like a little bit of a recap just so you remember where we’re at in this story. So Joseph is one of Jacob’s sons. He is second to the youngest, the youngest being Benjamin, and the sons of Jacob become the 12 tribes of Israel. [00:03:30] Now Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son. Even if you don’t know anything about Joseph, most people know about the coat of many colors. And his other brothers were very, very jealous of all the extra attention. [00:03:47] And to make matters worse, Joseph started receiving visions or dreams from God about Joseph ruling over his brothers [00:04:00] and his brothers bowing down to him. So that made everybody angry, and I’m summarizing this of course, but they were going to kill him out in the fields. They put him in a pit and they were going to just leave him in there. [00:04:18] And then they decided to sell Joseph to the Midianites into slavery. They were going to Egypt and they sold Joseph for 20 pieces of silver. He was sold to Potipher in Egypt and became a servant in Potipher House and he did a very good job and Potipher, put him in charge of everything and he made Potipher very successful. [00:04:47] And then one Potipher’s wife wanted Joseph to sleep with her and Joseph refused because one, this is Potipher’s [00:05:00] wife and Potipher been very good to Joseph. And then two, He says, above all, how can I sin against God? So he avoided Potipher’s wife, and didn’t want anything to do with her. [00:05:15] Then one day she caught him by himself when there was nobody around and grabbed a hold of his garment and again asked, lie with me. And Joseph escaped, but just with a loincloth and she had his garment. So of course she, the nasty woman that she was, she told her husband that Joseph tried to rape her. [00:05:41] When in fact it was the other way around. Potipher did Joseph a favor by putting him in the prison and spared his life. [00:05:51] And of course he did such a great job being a prisoner. Somehow he caught the eye of the keeper of the [00:06:00] prison and soon enough, Joseph is running the prison. [00:06:05] Then we meet the baker and the cup bearer who we’re thrown into the king’s prison. And they had these dreams and they asked Joseph to interpret these dreams. So the dreams were that the cup bear would be restored to Pharoah, but the baker, he would get hanged. [00:06:28] And that did come true. And he had asked the cup bearer before he was reinstated , please remember me down here. For I was falsely accused. Well, he was down there for two more years. They forgot about him until one day Pharaoh had a couple disturbing dreams and none of the magicians could interpret the dreams. [00:06:55] And then the cup bearer said, ah, I [00:07:00] remember this Hebrew that could interpret dreams. And he interpreted both my dream and the baker’s dream and the all came true. So of course, this changes Joseph’s life. Pharaoh brought Joseph up. And had him interpret the dream and then made him second in command. Incredible because they realized that God was with him. [00:07:27] And basically Joseph warns Pharaoh, there’s going to be seven years of plenty, and then there’s going to be seven years of great famine. So you need to store up grain for these seven years of plenty for everybody to survive that famine coming and Pharoah believes him. And so Joseph is put in charge. They gave him a Egyptian name, they gave him new clothes, they gave him second chariot, they [00:08:00] gave him a wife. [00:08:01] And so he was in charge of getting the grain. Which was kind of like a tax, everybody needs to give a fifth of their grain and he stored it up for seven years. And then when it was time for the famine, they had enough grain because the entire world was coming to get this grain. And so the other part of the story, of course, is that Joseph’s brothers and his father are starving as well. [00:08:33] So Jacob, of course, says to his sons, go to Egypt and get some grain. Up to this point, the sons told Jacob that, He had been eaten by a wild animal. Jacob [00:08:49] and the brothers don’t realize that Joseph is second in command in Egypt. And so of course they travel all the way to [00:09:00] Egypt to buy the grain. And they meet Joseph. Now Joseph recognizes his brothers, but the brothers don’t recognize him. And you think, well, that’s kind of strange. How could you not recognize your own brother? [00:09:19] Well, went back and did the math. He was 17 years old when he was sold into slavery. He was 30 years old when he went into the service of the king. He had the seven years of plenty. So that’s 37. And then we are now into his time of life where the famine has started and everybody’s coming to Egypt for the grain. [00:09:46] So he’s approximately 37 years old. And Joseph’s brothers, they don’t recognize him because one, he has an Egyptian name, two, he has Egyptian [00:10:00] clothes. He probably has one of those headdresses on. And he has, the eyeliner on that we all know and from the pictures, he is speaking Egyptian through a translator. [00:10:13] Now he knows Hebrew, of course, and his brothers are speaking Hebrew. And he understands what they’re saying and he’s talking very roughly to them because this must have been very triggering and upsetting for him to see his brothers coming for the grain. And he remembers all the things that were done to him. [00:10:38] And he’s going to test these brothers to see if they are still the same scoundrels as they were before because now Benjamin is the youngest, Joseph knows most likely Benjamin is getting all of this spoiling and special treatment and wonders [00:11:00] if his brothers are treating Benjamin the same way. [00:11:05] And he has a special relationship with Benjamin because, He and Benjamin have the same mother, Rachel, whereas his other brothers have different mothers. And I went over that in part one. And so I’m going to review some of the text here. [00:11:23] Let’s see, where do I want to start? So Joseph is accusing them of being spies. You’re coming here to see the nakedness of the land and the brothers are stating, no, we are honest, man. Which is laughable, right? You know, anything about, uh, some of the things that the brothers have done in the past. [00:11:46] You would not call them honest men. So Joseph asks these testing questions. Do you have a father? Do you have any other brothers? Yes, we have a father back home. Well, and we have our youngest brother. [00:12:00] And then they mention, ah, well there’s one who is no more. So they acknowledge Joseph. [00:12:07] They don’t know what happened to Joseph, but they say he is no more. And so I’m going to start in chapter 42 of Genesis [00:12:17] now I’m gonna start in verse 14. Joseph said to them, it is, as I said to you, you are spies by this. You shall be tested by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here, send one of you and let him bring your brother while you remain confined that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies. [00:12:48] And he put them all together in custody for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, do this and you’ll live. For I fear God, [00:13:00] if you are honest, man, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody and let the rest go and carry grain for the famine of your households. And bring your youngest brother to me. [00:13:13] So your words will be verified and you shall not die. And they did so. Then they said to one another, in truth, we are guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us, and we did not listen. That is why this distress has come upon us. And Ruben answered them, did I not tell you not to sin against the boy, but you did not listen? [00:13:42] So there now comes a reckoning for his blood. They did not know that Joseph understood them, where there was an interpreter between them. Then he turned away from them and wept, and he returned to them and spoke to them, [00:14:00] and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes. And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain. [00:14:09] And to replace every man’s money in his sack and to give them provisions for the journey this was done for them. Then they loaded their donkeys with their grain and departed, and as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place, he saw his money in the sack. He said to his brothers, my money has been put back! Here it is in the mouth of my sack! At this [00:14:40] their hearts failed them, and they turned trembling to one another saying, what is this that God has done to us? So let’s, uh, talk about that a little bit. So they’re starting to have a conscience that their deeds are coming back to [00:15:00] bite them in the behind. They recognize God is punishing them. [00:15:05] And Ruben was one of the more sensible ones that did not want to kill Joseph. He was going to rescue him out of the pit when the other brothers went. But he came back and Joseph was already sold into slavery. So now, he’s saying, I told you so, and they’re all speaking in Hebrew and Joseph knows exactly what they’re talking about. And he gets so very emotional, And that must have been really hard for him. He doesn’t know what’s transpired between when he was sold into slavery and now. He just knows these brothers treated him horribly and now they’re coming here for grain. [00:15:52] And so he is testing them by putting their money back into their sacks to see if [00:16:00] they’re going to admit that the money was in their sacs, and they’re going to see, then he’s going to see if they will bring Benjamin to Egypt and he’s going to check to see how Benjamin is being treated. They’ll, he’s going to do a few different tests on these brothers. [00:16:22] Isn’t this gonna take their word for it, that they have changed right? That is part of recovering from trauma and abuse is everybody throws around the word forgiveness. And that is part of our journey, but it is not the first step. Repentance is required for forgiveness, and sometimes you forgive somebody, but that doesn’t mean your relationship is restored. [00:16:50] And we’re gonna see how this pans out. [00:16:52] So we’re gonna go on to verse 29. They’re back in Canaan with their [00:17:00] father. When they came to Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that happened to them saying, the man, the Lord of the land, spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land. But we said to him, We are honest men. [00:17:18] We have never been spies. We are 12 brothers, sons of our father, one who is no more, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. Then the man, the Lord of the land, said to us, by this, I know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me and take grain for the famine of your households and go your way. [00:17:45] Bring your brother. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies, but honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you and you shall trade in the land. [00:17:57] Verse 35, as they [00:18:00] emptied their sacks, behold every man’s bundle of money was in his sack. And when they and their father saw their bundles of money, they were afraid, and Jacob, their father, said to them, You have bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more. And now you would take Benjamin, all this has come against me than Ruben said to his father. [00:18:28] Kill my two sons. If I do not bring him back to you, put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you, or his brother is dead and he is the only one left. If harm should come to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs to Sheol. [00:18:54] So let’s talk about this. [00:18:57] They never told his father what happened, [00:19:00] the real story. So of course Benjamin is. The replacement of Joseph as the favored son. So Jacob is not giving up Benjamin. He refuses. He’s already written off that. Okay, well, Joseph’s gone now. Simeon’s gone. He’s just written it off that, um, I just lost a Simeon as well. [00:19:25] He was not willing to negotiate this at all. And they were afraid because of the money that they took to buy grain. It was all in their sack. And this really disappoints me about Ruben kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you. How does that solve anything? You’re murdering your grandsons. If I don’t bring back Benjamin, that’s, that doesn’t make any logical sense [00:19:53] innocent boys. So at the end of this chapter, it’s pretty much you’re gonna bring [00:20:00] me down to the grave if anything happens to Benjamin. Now we got chapter 43. Eventually their grain is going to run out again and they’re going to be hungry again. one. Now the famine was severe in the land and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go again. [00:20:21] Buy us a little food. But Judah said to him, the man solemnly warned us saying, You shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if you’ll not send him, we will not go down where the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. [00:20:49] Israel said, why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? They replied. The man questioned us [00:21:00] carefully about ourselves and our kindred saying, is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? What we were told him was an answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down. [00:21:18] And Judas said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me and we will arise and go that we may live and not die. Both we and you and are also and also our little ones. I will be a pledge of his safety [00:21:36] from my hand. You shall require him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would now have returned twice. Well, at least Judah has enough sense not to, uh, tell Jacob to murder his sons. He’s [00:22:00] offering himself up as responsible if something happens to Benjamin. [00:22:05] Verse 11, then their father, Israel said to them, if it must be so then do this. Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man. A little balm, a little honey gum, myrrh, mustachio, nuts and almonds. Take double the money with you, carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks. [00:22:37] Perhaps it was an oversight. Take also your brother and arise and go to the man. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. [00:23:00] So the men took this present and they took double the money with them and Benjamin, they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. [00:23:10] Okay. So Jacob’s finally given up and faced the reality that if you don’t send Benjamin, you’re gonna starve. That’s all there is to it. There’s nothing we can do. [00:23:23] And it was customary that you gave gifts when you wanted to be in good favor of a party you’re doing business with. So I think that’s nice little gifts, some fruits of the land, things that they probably grow. On their lands. [00:23:44] So here we are. The brothers are in front of Joseph. Verse 16. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, bring the men into the house and slaughter [00:24:00] animal and make ready for the men are to dine with me at noon. The man did as Joseph told him and brought the men to Joseph’s house and the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph’s house and they said it is because of the money which was replaced in our sack the first time that we are brought in. [00:24:24] So that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys. So they went up to the steward of Joseph’s house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said, oh my Lord. We came down the first time to buy food, and when we came to the lodging place, we opened our sacks and there was each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight. [00:24:55] So we have brought it again with us, and we have brought [00:25:00] other money down to buy food. We do not know who put the money in our sacks. He replied, peace to you. Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money. Then he brought Simeon out to them. [00:25:22] And when the man had brought the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water and they had washed their feet, and when he had given their donkey’s fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph’s coming at noon where they had heard that they should eat bread there. Okay. So [00:25:42] Simeon was restored to them, and they took care of their donkeys, fed the donkeys. Washing your feet was a customary thing they did back in the Bible lands because your feet got very [00:26:00] dusty, dirty, and smelly, especially on a long journey. [00:26:04] And that was what the servants did, was to wash the guests feet. We all know that Jesus washed the disciples feet. That is a, task that only a servant would do. So that showed the servanthood of Jesus and he was setting an example as to how we should treat others. [00:26:28] So they got the presents ready for Joseph. having lunch with him, [00:26:34] there doesn’t seem to be any celebration or greeting to Simeon who was in prison this whole time. Probably in the same prison that Joseph was in. I just find that to be interesting that they didn’t comment here on Simeon. Let’s go to verse 26. When Joseph came home, they brought into the [00:27:00] house to meet the present that they had with them and bowed down to him to the ground. [00:27:06] They’re bowing again, just as Joseph said that they would. Verse 27, and he inquired about their welfare and said, is your father, well, the old man of whom you spoke, is he still alive? They said, your servant, our father is, well, he is still alive. And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. [00:27:32] Verse 29, and he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph hurried out for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he saw a place to weep and he entered his chamber there and [00:28:00] wept. [00:28:00] That must have been really emotional seeing his brother again after all of these years and couldn’t control himself. So I guess the timing wasn’t quite right to reveal himself to his brothers, and so he had to run in the back and cry his eyes out and compose himself before he could continue testing his brothers. [00:28:28] He did not want to ruin what he has accomplished so far. He still is not sure what kind of people they are. [00:28:40] Verse 31, then he washed his face and came out and controlling himself. He said, serve the food. They served him by himself and them by themselves. And the Egyptians who ate with them by themselves because the Egyptians could not eat [00:29:00] with the Hebrews for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. [00:29:05] And they sat before him, the first born, according to his birthright, and the youngest, according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph’s table, but Benjamin’s portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him. [00:29:29] So this is interesting. When he came out and they’re sitting down, and of course this is a cultural thing. The Hebrews and the Egyptians, they did not eat together. That’s how it was. But Joseph had them sitting in order of age. The only one who would know that would be Joseph. He knew exactly where they should sit. [00:29:55] And I wonder if there was an empty chair for where Joseph [00:30:00] would’ve sat. That’s food for thought, huh? [00:30:02] The men looked at one another in amazement, so they thought it was quite odd that they were in order of age. And of course, Joseph gives Benjamin extra portions because he wanted to see if the brothers would get upset at Benjamin getting the extra. Special treatment, we shall see. We are now in chapter 44, [00:30:29] verse one. Then he commanded the steward of his house, fill the men’s sacks with food as much as they can carry and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack and put my cup, the silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph told him. So that cup, [00:30:54] I’m looking in the commentary on my Bible. Uh, that cup has a [00:31:00] great significance. It’s a vessel use for libations and divination. The Egyptian used such wear for, [00:31:09] Defining of the future by observing liquid in a dish. This object was of inestimable value. So he has this cup because he interprets streams and the Egyptians must have given it to him because he has a particular gift of divination. So very expensive irreplaceable cup. Stuck it in Benjamin’s sack [00:31:38] again, testing his brothers. Verse three. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now, Joseph said to his steward, oh, follow after the men. And when you overtake them, say to them, why have you repaid me [00:32:00] evil for good? Is it not this that my Lord drinks, and by this that he practices divination? [00:32:09] You have done evil in doing this. Verse six, when he overtook them, he spoke to them. These words, then said to him, why does my Lord speak such words as these well, or be it for your servants to do such a thing? Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. [00:32:35] How then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord’s house? [00:32:40] Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my lord’s servants. He said, let it be as you say. He who has found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent. Then each man quickly lowered his [00:33:00] sack to the ground and each man opened his sack and a search beginning with the eldest and ended with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. [00:33:12] Then they tore their clothes and every man loaded his donkey and they returned to the city. And we went over this last episode that tearing your clothes was a sign of mourning. You are. Very, very upset about something. Usually a death in the family was very common to tear your clothes or something like In Jesus day, he was stating to the high priest that he is the son of God, and the high priest tore his garments because he was so disturbed by that answer. Though they’re returning to the city. [00:33:54] Verse 14, when Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was [00:34:00] still there. They fell before him to the ground. Joseph said to them, what deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination? And Judah said, What shall we say, my Lord, what shall we speak? [00:34:18] Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my lord’s servants, both we and He also in whose hand the cup has been found, but he said, Lord, be from me. That I should do so. Only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father. [00:34:48] Verse 18. Then Judah went up to him and said, oh my Lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are [00:35:00] like Pharaoh himself. [00:35:02] Verse 30. Now. Therefore, as soon as I come to your servant, my father and the boy is not with us, then as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die. And your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol, or your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy. [00:35:27] To my father saying, if I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life now. Therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers for how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? [00:35:50] I fear to see the evil that would find my father. So [00:35:55] Joseph is seeing that [00:36:00] Judah wants him to take him as the slave and let the rest of his brothers go back to his father. He seems to care about his father and has compassion on him. Does not want to see him die, does not wanna repeat of what happened with Joseph. He seems to be very sincere in that. And we talked about Sheol is the grave in case you, forgot about that. [00:36:31] He does not want his father to go to his grave. Well, let’s see what Joseph is going to decide. We are in chapter 45. [00:36:43] The emotions, the attention, everything that’s happened up to this point has been really trying on Joseph. And this chapter is okay. He cannot take it anymore. Let’s [00:37:00] read verse one, then. Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, he cried. Make everyone go out for me. So no one stayed with him [00:37:12] when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for, they were dismayed at his presence. So the brothers are very confused, Joseph cried so hard. That everybody heard it all over the palace, all over Joseph’s house. Bruce born Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me please. And [00:38:00] they came near and he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God has sent me before you to preserve life where the famine has been in the land these two years, and there yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. [00:38:28] 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. He has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all of his house and ruler all over the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, best, says your son Joseph. [00:38:59] God [00:39:00] has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not Terry, you shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near to me and your children and your children’s children and your flocks, your herds and all that you have there I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come so that you, in your household and all that you have do not come to poverty. [00:39:31] And now your eyes see. And the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father. All of my honor in Egypt and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here. Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck and he kissed all of his brothers and wept [00:40:00] upon them. [00:40:01] After that, his brothers talked with him. Wow. I mean, it’s really hard not to read this and get emotional. Uh, you can just picture the terror on the brother’s faces when they figure out that this is Joseph, their brother, and thinking, oh, great. Now we really are going to be slaves, or he’s gonna do something terrible to us. [00:40:28] But right away, Joseph Says to them, don’t be afraid. God is the one who sent me here. Not you [00:40:36] bring everybody up to Egypt, I’m gonna provide for you. And it gives us a date. There, are five years left of famine. So Joseph is now 39, according to our math calculations, and it’s, it’s so tender reading the part about them[00:41:00] crying on each other’s necks and, um, his brothers talked with him. I would’ve loved to know what conversations they had. [00:41:11] What happened to you, you know, what you’ve been doing the last 30 years, how did you become second in command? And I’m sure Joseph’s probably asking how’s, dad been doing all these years? [00:41:28] So, yeah. So it would’ve been nice to be a fly on the wall for that conversation. So let’s go on to verse 16. When the report was heard in Pharaoh’s house, Joseph’s brothers have come. It pleased, Pharaoh and his servants in Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this, load your beast and go back to the land of And take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of [00:42:00] the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land. And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Have no concern for your goods. [00:42:17] For the best of all, the land of Egypt is yours. So Pharaoh is saying, I’m gonna take care of your family. You have taken care of us and our family, the land of Egypt. I’m gonna take care of all of your family, bring them down. That’s pretty incredible. [00:42:39] Pharoah and Joseph must be very close to make that offer to his family. Verse 21, the Sons of Israel did so and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey to each and all of them. [00:42:58] He gave a change of [00:43:00] clothes, but to Benjamin, he gave 300 sheckles of silver and five changes of clothes to his father. He sent as follows, 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt and the 10 female donkeys loaded with grain bred and provisioned for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away and as they departed, he said to them, do not quarrel on the way. [00:43:29] Interesting thing to say to his brothers. He knows them more than they think, [00:43:35] and again, Benjamin has given extra verse 25. So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob, and they told him Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him [00:44:00] all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph has sent to carry him. [00:44:07] The spirit of their father, Jacob revived, and Israel said, it is enough, Joseph, my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. And so it doesn’t really say here about the conversation of what they had done to Joseph. All they said was, Joseph is alive. And I don’t know if, uh, I guess eventually they talk about it, it comes up. [00:44:37] But right now in this text, all Jacob cares about is that Joseph is alive. [00:44:45] So verse we were in chapter 46, verse one. So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba. and offered sacrifices to the God of his [00:45:00] father, Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in Visions of the Night and said, Jacob, Jacob, and he said, here I am. Then he said, I am God. The God of your father. [00:45:13] Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt and I will bring you up again, and Joseph’s hand shall close your eyes. Then Jacob set out from Beersheba, the sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. [00:45:40] He also took their livestock and their goods, which they had gained in the land of Canaan and came into Egypt, Jacob and all his offspring with him. His sons with him, his daughters and his son’s daughters. all of his offspring he brought with him into Egypt.[00:46:00] [00:46:00] So verse talks about all the names of the descendants of Israel who came into Jacob and his sons. I’m not going to read all of those because that’s a lot of names to pronounce. And I’m tired. So you can read those wonderful names yourself. [00:46:17] Verse 27, and the sons of Joseph who were born to him and Egypt were two. All the persons in the house of Jacob who came into Egypt were 70 verse 28. He had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen. Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father in Goshen. [00:46:47] He presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on his neck. A good while. Israel said to Joseph, now let me die since I have seen your face and [00:47:00] know that you are still alive. [00:47:02] So for the sake of time, I’m going to skip a bunch of stuff [00:47:08] about the livestock. I’m gonna go to chapter 47, verse seven. Joseph’s gonna bring his father before Pharaoh, verse seven. Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood before him. 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. [00:47:41] 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 father’s in the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh, [00:48:00] then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt and the best of the land and in the land of Ramsey’s as Pharaoh had commanded. [00:48:13] And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food according to the number of their dependence. So that’s pretty cool. Jacob, blessing Pharaoh, he’s 130 years old and he’s admitting that his. His life has not been, um, perfect. [00:48:34] It’s a pretty good, um, self-reflection right there. [00:48:38] We’re gonna read in verse 13. Now, there was no food in all the land for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. [00:48:52] And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt. And in the land of Canaan, in exchange [00:49:00] for the grain that they had brought, 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. [00:49:14] Why should we die before your eyes where 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. [00:49:28] Verse 17. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds, and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all the livestock that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent. [00:49:53] The herds of livestock are my lords. There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord, [00:50:00] but our bodies and our land. [00:50:02] Why should we die before your eyes? Both. We in our land, why us enter land for food and we with our land, we will be servants to Pharaoh and give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate. Verse 20. So Joseph bought all of the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians sold their fields because the famine was severe on them. [00:50:30] The land became Pharaohs. As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the ed to the other, only the land of the priest. 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. [00:50:51] Verse 23, then Joseph said to the people, behold, I have this day bought you and your land for Pharaoh. [00:51:00] 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 fifth shall be your own as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and your households and as food for your little ones. [00:51:18] And they said, you have saved our lives. May it please, my 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, and the land of the priest alone did not become Pharaohs. Thus, Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it and who were fruitful and multiplied greatly. [00:51:52] And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his [00:52:00] life were 147 years. [00:52:02] So let’s stop there in comment on the economics of Joseph. [00:52:08] So at first, [00:52:10] Joseph taxed everybody a fifth of the grain to store up for the famine. And then when the grain was all gone, he gathered up all the money in exchange for the grain that they bought. [00:52:25] Then when all the money was spent, then Joseph offered Hey, give me your livestock in exchange for food. Then they had nothing left. So now the people volunteered to be servants in order to have, food to eat. [00:52:43] The people sold their land to Joseph in exchange for food, and then Joseph gave them seed to plant on his land that he owned and asked for a tax [00:53:00] to give to Pharaoh and then they could live off of what was left, and that was the economic plan. Sounds very unusual, but it seemed to have worked. [00:53:12] So they’re regrowing the grain from the seed that Joseph gave them and Joseph’s family. They were fruitful and multiplied. Remember that the name Israel is also Jacob. [00:53:26] They interchangeably use Israel and Jacob back and forth. Israel is a place and Israel is also a person. [00:53:34] So let’s go to verse 29. And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, now, if now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh, and promised to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my father’s. Carry [00:54:00] me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place. [00:54:04] 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. So what is those put in your hand under my thigh stuff? It is a little weird, but it is what they did in those days when you are promising to do something and it’s quite an intimate thing to put your hand under somebody’s inner thigh. [00:54:34] Uh, so that kind of a thing is not taken lightly. If you made a promise your hand under somebody’s thigh, that’s, a binding commitment and very serious, and he’s promising to bury him and Canaan in his plot of land instead of burying him in Egypt. So let’s go on to chapter 48. [00:54:58] Chapter 48, [00:55:00] verse one. After this, Joseph was told, behold your father is ill. So he took with him his two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, and it was told to Jacob, your son Joseph, has come to you. Israel summoned his strength and set up his bed, and Jacob said to Joseph, God Almighty appeared to me at Luz in the land of Canaan and blessed me and said to me, behold, I will make you fruitful and multiply you and I will make you a company of peoples and will give this land to your offspring after you for an everlasting possession. [00:55:40] Verse eight. When Israel saw Joseph’s sons, he said, who are these? Joseph said to his father, these are my sons whom God has given me here, and he said, bring them to me please. That I may bless them. Now the eyes of Israel were dim with age so that he could [00:56:00] not see. So Joseph brought them near to him and he kissed them and embraced them. [00:56:06] And Israel said to Joseph, I never expected to see your face and behold God has let me see your offspring also. And Joseph removed them from his knees and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. [00:56:21] And Israel said, the God before whom my father’s Abraham and Isaac walked the God who has been my shepherd, all my lifelong to this day. [00:56:32] The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys, and in them, let my name be carried on and the name of my father’s Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. [00:56:46] Okay, so let’s stop there and talk about this. This is very traditional when somebody dies to give not only the son’s [00:57:00] blessings, but also the grandchildren’s blessings. [00:57:03] So chapter 49 [00:57:06] he’s gonna talk about his own sons. Now that he’s already taken care of the grandsons, he’s gonna give blessings to his, 12 sons. And I’m not gonna read all of this. And Joseph, of course, is a fruitful bow. [00:57:22] He remains unmoved. [00:57:23] The almighty’s going to bless you. [00:57:26] You have blessings of the breasts and of the Blessings beyond my parents. [00:57:32] He’s going to be set apart from his brothers. Okay, so we’re in at verse 28. All of these are the 12 tribes of Israel. This is what their father said to them as he blessed them, blessing each with the blessing suitable to him. Then he commanded them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my father’s in the cave that is in the field of [00:58:00] Efron. [00:58:00] The Hittite. In the cave that is in the field at the east of Monterey, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Efron. As a burying place there, they buried Abraham and Sarah, his wife there. They buried Isaac and Rebecca, his wife, and there I buried Leia. The field and the key that is in it were bought from the Hittites. [00:58:34] When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and was gathered to his people. [00:58:44] So they promised that they’re going to take Jacob back to the land where his ancestors, his fathers are also buried. So this is chapter 50, [00:59:00] last chapter. [00:59:01] First one, then Joseph fell on his father’s face and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel, 40 days were required for it. For that is how many are required for embalming and the Egyptians wept for him 70 days. [00:59:25] This was very interesting cuz the way that the Hebrews buried their people are different than the Egyptians. the Egyptians were experts in, embalming. In fact, you hear about people like King Tut, who is very well preserved. I mean, you could still see the skin and the facial features because of the embalming practices that they did. Um, so it says the process of embalming [01:00:00] became complex and detailed. It began with the removal of the deceased internal organs, which were preserved in jars. [01:00:09] The body was untreated with natron, a dehydrating, sodium carbonate resin and spices were also used on the skin. The corpse was wrapped in numerous layers of linen and placed into a wooden coffin. By the time of the new kingdom, the process had become even [01:00:31] more refined and often preserved even the hair, nails, and flesh of the deceased. the picture here in my Bible also has, Howard Carter in 1923 opening the coffin of King Tut. And as I mentioned, he was extremely well preserved. So the Hebrews basically would wrap people in linens, and they did have herbs and spices that they would prepare the body [01:01:00] with, I guess make it smell better, I don’t know. [01:01:03] And then when the flesh fell away from the body, all that was left was the bones. They would take the bones and put it into a box, a stone box usually, and that was their burial. It takes up less space to store people’s bones than in an entire body. And so I found that to be interesting. [01:01:28] And, and there’s a whole big bunch of, fanfare that goes on in the Egyptian funeral and the Egyptians wept for Jacob. They got to know him and loved him. Hey, this is Joseph’s father, and and so there was some definite mourning going on here. Let’s look in verse four. [01:01:49] And when the days of weeping for him were passed, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh saying, [01:01:56] Let me please go up and bury my father. Then I will return.[01:02:00] And Pharaoh answered. Go up and bury your father as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers and his father’s household, only their children, their flocks and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. [01:02:27] And there they went up with him, both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the thrashing floor of Athad, which is beyond the Jordan. They lamented there with a great and grievous lamentation and he made a morning for his father seven days [01:02:45] when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanite, saw the mourning he said, this is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. [01:02:53] After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who [01:03:00] had gone up with him to bury his father. [01:03:02] So you think this is the end of the story, but apparently the brothers don’t believe that Joseph has forgiven them. Verse 15, when Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, It may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him. So they sent a message to Joseph saying, your father gave this command before he died. [01:03:30] Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers and their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father. t when they spoke to him, his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants. [01:03:52] But Joseph said to them, do not fear for I am the place of God. As for you, you meant evil against me, [01:04:00] but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. He comforted them and spoke kindly to them. [01:04:16] So, [01:04:17] they’re, talking about forgiveness. They, I think they said a lie to tell Joseph. It doesn’t say that Jacob ever said any of that, but I think they made it up because they were afraid that Joseph was gonna do something to them. But this is the climax of the story. Everybody that knows the story knows this verse, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. [01:04:48] And it’s hard in our lives when we’re going through some horrible trials, some terrible abuse. We don’t see any good coming out of it. We don’t see any light [01:05:00] at the end of the tunnel. God’s abandoned me. I will never have peace. I will never get out of this. But Joseph is stating with his great faith and foresight, maturity, all these terrible things that happened to me, God made something good out of it. Look at all the lives that were saved as a result of me coming to Egypt. And so he’s stating that he has forgiven his brothers. And again, not gonna go into detail, but sometimes people repent a sincere repentance and we can forgive them and the relationship can be restored. [01:05:49] There are definitely times when you’re not gonna be able to forgive them and have a restoration. You have to separate. You may never get [01:06:00] closure on some of the horrible things that happened. Uh, but I like this story. It is my favorite story because it shows that God is with us, even if we can’t see him or feel him. [01:06:16] God is in the background working. Some things behind the scenes. If we have faith like Joseph has to endure and to have faith that God is going to lead you out of this. We might not be, you know, second in command or get a big palace, but maybe to you, God will bring you out, guide you through all that suffering, and he will give you something that you would cherish, that you would find a blessing for me. [01:06:52] You know, I have an awesome job right now. I have a wonderful marriage. I have a ministry to you guys, [01:07:00] to the mending the soul groups that I lead, and I am blessed. I would never. Have believed that I would have this kind of a life based on the suffering I had gone through, suffering with my job, that I went through, suffering with our health and financial difficulties. [01:07:21] We’ve been through so much and the Lord has brought us through those things. And thankfully, we’re in a very good place with God, where our faith, our faith is still strong. God has provided for us and he’s gonna provide for you too. He is with you as well, friend, whoever’s listening out there, uh, men and women, [01:07:43] and, um, I hope that you enjoyed this story. It ends with the death of Joseph in verse 22. So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father’s house. Joseph lived 110 years. [01:07:58] And Joseph said to [01:08:00] his brothers, I am about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Then Joseph made the Sons of Israel swear saying, God will surely visit you and shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died being 110 years old. [01:08:25] They embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. And you might notice that he didn’t live a whole lot. He’s one of the younger brothers, but he died before his older brothers did. [01:08:40] So I don’t know what happened there. I don’t know. He got sick from a disease. It doesn’t really say what he died from. So even though we live a godly life, we’re not always guaranteed that we live a super long time. Jacob lived to 147 and in [01:09:00] bible days, they lived a whole lot longer than we do now, probably because of the, pollutions in the earth, the toxins and our bodies just don’t last that long anymore. [01:09:12] Anyway, he was embalmed to put him, in a coffin Egypt, and then eventually they would go to, um, the land of Canaan to bury him. [01:09:22] So we’re not gonna go into Exodus, but it, transitions into the story of Moses. And I don’t plan on covering Moses, at least not right now, [01:09:36] Now, if you enjoyed the story of Joseph, I encourage you to [01:09:44] Follow Wayne Stiles, his website, wayne stiles.com. He has an entire series on the life of Joseph. He goes into, a lot more detail than I did, [01:10:00] and he has written a book called Waiting on God. He wrote an entire book on Joseph, and so if you enjoy the story, I recommend that you buy the book. It’s available in hard copy and as a Kindle book on his website. Look up his podcast, Live the Bible and look up his series about Joseph. [01:10:31] It is. Excellent. And he’s got more, credentials after his name than I do. So he is able to go onto a lot more detail. I will try and leave the links in the show notes for you to look those up. I hope you enjoyed this study of Joseph, and you can see why he’s my favorite Bible character next to [01:11:00] Jesus. [01:11:00] there’s a lot of lessons that we learned from the study. [01:11:05] Don’t give up. We’re here for you. If you need someone to talk to, I’m available. Definitely available when I’m up. Recuperating from surgery for two weeks, I will be very available. [01:11:20] So that’s what I will leave you with, I hope, to see you here next week. God bless you. Bye-bye now. [01:11:27] Thank you for listening to the Wounds of the Faithful Podcast. If this episode has been helpful to you, please hit the subscribe button and tell a friend. You could connect with us at DSW Ministries dot org where you’ll find our blog, along with our Facebook, Twitter, and our YouTube channel links. Hope to see you next week.