[0:00] We take up then at chapter 42, where we saw at the end of chapter 41, now the famine has begun now to bite in Egypt. We saw at the end of chapter 41, verse 54, the seven years of death began to come.
[0:15] The seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt were ended, and the seven years of death began to come, according as Joseph had said. And the death was in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
[0:28] And as we said, it's quite possible that because of the abundance of the previous years, the first year there might have been enough for the ordinary Egyptians to be able to supply their meat.
[0:41] And the first year, it's quite possible that in an agricultural society, that there's been bumper crops and you might store up a little for the next time, or even store up perhaps a year's worth if there's been abundance.
[0:54] But, you know, maybe you can get through one year of shortage or famine at a pinch, but once it starts being year upon year, then it's trouble for everyone.
[1:05] When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said, I will go to Joseph, what he saved to you do. Famine was over all the face of the earth. Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians, and the famine waxed so in the land of Egypt, and all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn, because the famine was so sore in all lands.
[1:28] Now, of course, Joseph can be everywhere at once. If the storehouses throughout the land of Egypt are being opened up to feed the people, then he cannot be everywhere.
[1:38] It is likely that he has positioned himself either at the capital itself or a place perhaps nearer to the border where he has ordained that anyone coming from foreign countries to buy food will be dealt with there.
[1:54] I'm quite sure there will be separate storehouses and separate distribution for the Egyptians themselves. This is perhaps one of the places where Egypt is most vulnerable, and therefore where they would perhaps need his most particular attention.
[2:09] We take it up now in Canaan itself, when Jacob saw there was corn in Egypt, perhaps because of rumour or because of trading caravans going back with the forwards, or perhaps neighbours had gone down into Egypt and got corn there.
[2:24] At any rate, the word has spread. He said unto his sons, why do you look one upon another? He said, behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down further and buy for us from this, that we may live and not die.
[2:37] Now, two possibilities here. One is either that the famine has begun to bite in Canaan, and as a result there is a certain listlessness that sets in when one is short of food.
[2:51] One becomes far more lethargic, far more weak and unable to concentrate and focus. That's part of the effect that hunger has.
[3:01] And I don't just mean missing a meal. I mean real hunger. After a day plus, you begin to get that kind of weakness. And so it could be that Jacob's sons are beginning to have this kind of listlessness.
[3:14] They know they're hungry. They know they're weak. But they can't do anything about it. They're just sitting there looking at each other. Either that or that Jacob himself still rules over his household.
[3:25] The one doesn't have to exclude the other. Maybe they are waiting for a word from their father. But the evidence of the previous chapters is they're quite happy to act independently without Jacob on other things.
[3:38] For example, the slaughter of Shechem and his fellow citizens after his defilement of Dinah and so on. They are quite happy to act independently when it suits them.
[3:48] But here they are perhaps under Jacob's rule who has said, look, don't sit about here. If there's corn in Egypt, go and get it so that we don't die but rather we can live.
[4:00] Now, in all fairness to them, they don't send off the servants. They don't dispatch it to other people. Joseph's ten brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. They do as their father says. Now, a little aside, perhaps we need to go off on a wee tangent here to emphasize that it is highly likely that Benjamin was not born at the time when Joseph was sold into Egypt.
[4:32] Although that episode of Joseph being sold is what we find at chapter 37, and although Rachel's death is recorded towards the end of chapter 35, it is likely that that has been recorded sort of skipping ahead, as it were.
[4:52] And that sometimes the chronology in the Bible is more like folds in a cloth. If you've got a cloth, say, a blue but with yellow stripes through it, and yet you fold it on the yellow stripe each time.
[5:05] When you've got it piled up there, it may look like it's only yellow cloth because of the folding in it. You've got a sort of concertina effect. Sometimes the timeline in the Bible, as it were, gets kind of folded in that way.
[5:18] So that what sounds like it's happening years earlier, by the time Joseph is going down into Egypt, probably hasn't happened yet. Rachel's death and burial is recorded prior to Isaac's death at the end of chapter 35.
[5:35] But if you look at chapter 37, where Joseph is going down into Egypt, you know, we've got Israel. Verse 3, Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a cult of many colors.
[5:49] He didn't say he was one of the sons of his old age. He didn't say he loved Joseph and Benjamin more because they were the children of Rachel, his favorite wife. The implication, the sense, the context in chapter 37 at the beginning there would imply that Joseph, then age 17, is the only one of Rachel, his father's favorite wife.
[6:11] He is the only son of his old age at that point. Another thing that might imply that Benjamin had not yet been born when Joseph went down to Egypt, which you remember at this stage, is at least 21 years previously.
[6:28] This first encounter between Joseph and his brothers is 21 years after he is sold into slavery. At least 21 years. It might be 22, but in all likelihood, it's about 21.
[6:41] And also, when they say, oh, we're 12 brothers, one is not, here's the 10 of us, and there's one back with his father. You can almost sense Joseph saying, of course there isn't another brother, I know five isn't another brother, my father was ancient when I left, there's no way he could have had another son.
[6:59] They're lying. And this might be one motivation for his desire to test whether or not he actually has a little brother that he hasn't seen yet.
[7:10] A little brother who had no hat in his being sold into Egypt. Now, you could say that much is speculation, but the sense of chapter 37 would certainly be that Benjamin was not around at the point when Joseph was the son of Jacob's old age, when he was the delighted in son, for whom he made the coat of many colours.
[7:34] It doesn't imply that there is another one, a younger one. So, Benjamin's birth almost certainly post-dates, Joseph going down into Egypt.
[7:46] And they come and they bow down before him and they ask that they can buy bread. Joseph knew his brother and he knew them and made himself strange unto them and speak roughly unto them.
[7:59] Joseph was the governor of all the land. He was the soul to the land, Joseph's brother came, and he remembered his dreams. He remembered, verse 9, the dreams which he dreamed of them and said unto them, your spies to see the nakedness of the land.
[8:14] Oh, ye come. Now, of course, he would remember. It's unlikely the brothers remembered Joseph's dreams. But the Lord has a way of bringing these things full circle. Isaiah chapter 60, verse 14 says, God is a way of leveling things up, of making things right.
[8:47] That which Joseph had dreamt and prophesied in the sense he is now seeing come to pass. And he said, Nay, my Lord, but to buy food are thy servants come.
[8:57] We are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spies. And all this time he is able to pretend that he thinks the worst of them and to keep hidden from them his own identity.
[9:11] Now, some commentators have pondered as to why Joseph has never told his father of his own promotion and good prominence that's befallen him in the land of Egypt.
[9:24] You know, he's, um, they say, they ask, you know, could not he who had control over the whole land of Egypt, couldn't he have made a brief little trip, a couple of days up in his chariot, up into the land of Canaan to see his father, to say, look, dad, it's me, I'm alive, and look, I'm the governor of Egypt, everything is okay again.
[9:43] Couldn't he just have let him know? Well, there are various reasons, a number of reasons why he would not have done so, why he would not have revealed his blessings to his father or to his, uh, to his family of this time.
[9:58] First of all, by the time Joseph's brothers come into Egypt for the first time, as we say, it is 21 years since Joseph had been sold into Egypt.
[10:09] By the following visit, which is almost certainly a year later, just the sort of implication is to get a year's worth of grain, and then the second time Jacob sends them down into Egypt, that's when he makes himself known to them.
[10:23] And then he brings his father and all his brethren down into Egypt. We know from chapter 45, at verse 6, where he says to them, For these two years hath the famine be in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall be neither earring nor harvest.
[10:42] So that means you've had the seven years of plenty and the two years of famine. And if you remember that Joseph was 30 years old when he was brought out of prison, chapter 41, verse 46, Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh.
[10:56] This is nine years later, when his father and his brothers finally come down into Egypt. And when Pharaoh speaks to Jacob and he says, How old are you? And he tells her, chapter 47, at verse 9, he says he's 130.
[11:10] So we know that Joseph is 39 when Jacob is 130. That means that Jacob was 108 when Joseph left and was sold into Egypt.
[11:22] No doubt he thought his father was dead. He thought his father was dead, and he thought, Why would I want to go and tell my brothers what's happened? If my father is dead, then there's no reason for me to go back.
[11:34] One reason for saying this is that in chapter 43, when he makes himself known, or rather when he invites the brothers into his house as governor, and they come down and bow themselves to him, he asked them, chapter 43, verse 27, he asked them of their welfare and said, Is your father well?
[11:53] The old man of whom he spake, is he yet alive? It's the first question he asks them when they come back. Is your father yet alive? So as far as he knew, his father would not be alive.
[12:07] If he was 108 when he left, you wouldn't expect him still to be alive 21 years, 22 years later. So he says, Is he yet alive? Well, his father was dead. That's the first reason for not making an effort to go and tell him about his change in providence.
[12:23] But also, as we know from later chapters, despite his exalted position in Egypt, it is clear from chapter 50, if we turn towards the end of the book of Genesis, that despite his position, Joseph would have needed permission to leave the land of Egypt.
[12:41] Chapter 50, verse 4, when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph speak unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray, with the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die in my grave which I had digged for me in the land of Canaan.
[12:59] There shalt thou bury me. Now, therefore, let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury thy father, according as he made thee swear.
[13:12] So in other words, Joseph needed permission. He needed permission before he could leave the country. Despite how high and powerful he was, he needed permission. And with all the work that there was to do, it probably would not have been wise to go ask for that permission just at this stage.
[13:29] But most importantly of all, as a reason why he hasn't gone and boasted of how great things are for him now, Joseph had seen with his own eyes how swiftly a captive slave like himself could be raised up in an absolutist monarchy like Egypt.
[13:49] And he was under no illusions from his experience with the baker and the butler how quickly that honour could be reversed and how quickly he could be brought down at the whim of the king.
[14:03] This was still only the first or at the most the second year of the famine. Nobody's going to give Joseph a hard time while the bumper years are rolling. Okay, he prophesied it.
[14:14] Credit to him. But everybody's fine. Everybody's happy. The time when Joseph is going to come under pressure is when the famine begins to bite and people will say, Okay, what's he done now? Let's see what provision he's made.
[14:26] Let's see whether or not all these grand plans of this are actually going to come to fruition. Has he done enough to feed the people with? Is he as good as he says? People will be waiting for him to fail because this is only the first or at the most the second year of the famine actually biting.
[14:44] This is the first real test of his authority. So far, he's been riding the crest of the wave with the bumper years, all this authority, all this glory. But as he knows from the butler and the baker, that can be ended overnight.
[14:59] He's not under any illusions. And if he were to take the time to go up into Canaan and turn his back on the important work of gathering in all the corn and storing it up and making sure it was rightly distributed, it could easily be that by the time he comes back, there's been some kind of little coup against him and that his position is under threat and that he's no longer in the power that he had.
[15:21] He cannot afford to turn his back on this job. So, these are all reasons why he would not have made himself known before to his father or to his brother as he thought.
[15:43] His father was probably dead. He likewise would have needed permission to leave Egypt. And also, his position, despite being so exalted, was far more tentative than it might seem.
[15:55] But we find here the brother's bowing themselves to him. He's saying, no, no, you're spies. Anxious to see his little brother of whom they speak. And he throws them all into prison for three days.
[16:08] And then after he brings them out, he says, okay, this do and live. Verse 18, for I fear God. And here's this little dig, you know, I'm not going to be as bad to you as I might because I fear God.
[16:22] And the subtle subtext here is there was no fear of God before your eyes when you sold me into slavery. There was no fear of God before your eyes when you lied to our father and told him that I was dead.
[16:35] But I fear God. And he would also have been conscious that it would be his own family, his own uncles and aunts and cousins who would be starving if these men don't get back with food from Egypt.
[16:47] So he sends them all back except one. And he takes Simeon and bound him before their eyes and puts him into prison and keeps him there.
[16:59] Why Simeon? We don't know. Perhaps he was the chief instigator of the original plot. Perhaps he was the one showing least remorse even after three days in prison.
[17:11] But what we do notice is that the guilt and remorse of the brothers only appears to show, verse 21, after they have been in prison for three days together.
[17:25] Although it is the actual sin that they've committed is 21 years earlier, it has obviously never left their minds entirely. And even the sanitized lie that they had told Jacob, oh, he must have been devoured by a wild beast.
[17:42] How it would seem, it's caused probably relations between Jacob and his sons to sour. But, you know, I sent my son off to bring you food and the bread and cheese or whatever and to seek after your welfare.
[17:56] Next thing I know, supposedly he's dead. This is your fault. Now, it's not fair if that had been true. It's not necessarily fair to blame the brothers. But clearly relations were not all that great between Jacob and his sons anymore.
[18:09] And what we find here is that this particular sin is still there at the back of their minds. They are still conscious of it 21 years later.
[18:21] Matthew Henry puts it this way. As time will not wear out the guilt of sin, so it will not blot out the records of conscience.
[18:32] And what he means by that is that simply by letting time elapse between a sin that we commit, we never confess it, never repent of it, never turn from it, it's still going to be sitting there.
[18:43] And the conscience is still going to be mindful of it. It's as though, let's say, you had a big meal, lots of pots and pans and dirty dishes and so on. There they are sitting in the sink. And you think, okay, I really can't face doing all these horrible dishes.
[18:56] So I'll just sit here at the kitchen table and I hope if enough time elapses, it will somehow just also all take care of itself. So you sit there at the kitchen table and you fall asleep on the terms at the night time.
[19:09] And then the next day the sun comes up and you look at the sink and there they are, all still there. So you go out, you do your business, your job or wherever you come back, there they are still sitting there. And you say, I'm not going to clean it.
[19:20] I'm not going to do them. I'm just going to hope they go away. I'm just going to hope that if I leave it long enough, all this stuff that I haven't dealt with, it'll just clean itself. It's not going to clean itself. Eventually what's going to happen is that all the crud that's in all, the dishes and the pots and pans, it's going to start festering.
[19:36] It's going to start growing mold. It's probably going to get cobwebs on it. A little beasties going to come out of it. If anything, it's going to get worse. Unless we address that pile of dirty dishes, it is not going to clean itself.
[19:49] It is not going to go away. And so it is with sin. Sin that we commit things of which we are guilty that seem great at the time. And we think, oh, well, I'll just let time elapse.
[20:02] I'll just let the years go past. And maybe everyone will just forget. Maybe it'll just take care of itself. So if somebody says, oh, what about that thing you did? Say, oh, that was years ago.
[20:14] Oh, come on. You're not going to hold that against me. They're still there in the sink. They're not going to go away. They're not going to clean themselves. They're not going to wash and dry themselves and put themselves away. They're just going to sit there.
[20:25] And they're going to fester. And they're going to breathe germs. And they're going to get cobwebs. And they're going to get worse and worse and worse. The longer they are left. It is the same with our sin. It will not go away by magic.
[20:37] Sometimes people think, oh, how can it possibly be right for a God of love to send people to hell for all eternity when all at the most they've done is they've committed a lifetime of sin.
[20:49] Even if they've committed a lifetime of sin, then it can only ever be right at the most to put them to hell for a lifetime's worth to pay for their sin. But just by going away into hell or whatever, we don't deal with our sin there.
[21:04] We don't pay for our sin. It doesn't undo the sin. It doesn't make it right. That's like sitting at the kitchen table, watching the sink and hoping somehow the dishes won't do themselves.
[21:15] They're not going to. The sin is not going to undo itself. The sin is not going to miraculously just melt away by how much we suffer in our lost eternity. It has got to be dealt with.
[21:27] It's got to be addressed. And just as this sin, 21 years later, is still festering in the conscience of the brothers, so likewise our own sin. And we know that we are all guilty of sin.
[21:39] We know that the things that perhaps we haven't confessed and haven't repented of are still there, deep in our memory. Perhaps we have suppressed them. Perhaps we have tried to forget them. But God sees them all.
[21:50] And they will be presented to our minds and memories at the last day, if not before. We have need not simply to let time elapse. We have need for forgiveness.
[22:03] We have need to have our sin washed and cleansed and put away. And the only way that will be done is through the blood of Christ. It is only through a Redeemer that we can be saved.
[22:15] Such a Redeemer as God has sent into the world. Not with power and chariots of might to throw the Romans out of Palestine or whatever it was, but in the person of an infant child.
[22:28] And it is by, not by might nor by power, but by my spirit, say the Lord of hosts. It is by the weakness of God that is stronger than man. And the foolishness of God that is wiser than man.
[22:40] That God overcomes all our supposed strength and might and power and sin. Through the weakness of the child he sent amongst us who grew into the perfect man of Nazareth and the perfect sacrifice upon the cross.
[22:56] Time elapsing will not deal with your sin or mine. The dishes will not wash themselves. Things will not deal with themselves.
[23:07] We have a need for a saviour. We have a need to be cleansed. As time will not wear out the guilt of sin, so it will not blot out the records of conscience.
[23:23] But as we see now with Joseph's rubrics, it's a strange thing. And I think we should recognise this also with the business of unconfessed and unrepentant of sin in our lives.
[23:35] When this sin was fresh, we go back again to chapter 38, chapter 37, I think, when Joseph's brother sold him into Egypt.
[23:46] When this sin was fresh, they made light of it. It didn't bother them. They sat down to eat bread. Chapter 37, verse 25. And when they sold him to the Ishmaelites, they no doubt congratulated themselves that it was a less severe, less guilt-inducing ploy than outright murder.
[24:05] Because that was their first idea. Come, let's kill this dreamer and see what becomes of his dreams then. So their first thought was murder. Then they threw him down the pit. And then the Ishmaelites came to say, oh, well, let's sell him into slavery.
[24:18] That way we get a wee bit of money. We get a wee bit richer and we're not actually coming. They probably thought that they were very clever. It was less severe, less guilt-inducing than outright murder.
[24:30] And they saw in themselves a measure, no doubt, of both cleverness and mercy. They thought they were just the jack of the lad. They were the clever ones. They hadn't actually murdered their brother, but they were a wee bit richer.
[24:42] They got rid of them as well. How clever they were. How merciful they were. All this when the sin was still fresh. But now, more than 20 years on, 21 years of living a lie with their father growing old with this fearful secret.
[25:02] Which, remember, they couldn't tell anyone. They couldn't tell their wives. They couldn't tell their children. They couldn't share it with anyone who wasn't actually a coal conspirator.
[25:12] Because these things always come out. The minute you begin to whisper it in somebody's ear. They whisper it to somebody else. They share it with somebody else. For 21 years, this has stayed the secret amongst the ten brethren.
[25:26] They haven't told a soul. Because if they have, you can guarantee it would have made its way back to Jacob. They haven't been around. So they have lived with this guilty secret for 21 years.
[25:38] They have grown old with the burden of this secret. And now, being wrongfully accused and imprisoned themselves, it is fearful to them. And it is fresh again and raw as though permitted only the day before.
[25:54] They said, what do we have? Verse 21. They obviously think he is dead by this stage.
[26:19] Reuben clearly, Joseph can hear. He had tried to persuade them not to harm Joseph. Maybe it's for that reason that Reuben being eldest is not the one taken. That Simeon being the next eldest is the one taken.
[26:32] Perhaps he was the one who was least penitent, as we say. Perhaps he was the one who had instigated the whole thing. We don't know. But he is taken. The next eldest is taken and bound before their eyes.
[26:44] And then Joseph fills their sacks with corn. And he gets them to be filled. And to restore every man's money in his sack. And to give them provision for the way. You look at how generous he is here.
[26:56] Not only is he giving them food for their families. And the secret thing of putting the money back in their sacks. But also he's giving them extra provision for the journey. So they're not eating into the corn that they have bought in Egypt.
[27:09] Which would then mean that there was less for their families. So he's being generous to a fault here with them. After this initial harsh reaction he is generous to a fault.
[27:19] If his wrath had been frightening to them. Then his mercy is even more frightening.
[27:30] They don't realise that it's Joseph's plan that has been unfolded here. But rather they laid their asses. Verse 26. With the corn. They parted things. As one of them opened his sack to give his ass provident in the inn.
[27:44] That would simply be at the staging post. Where they'd spend the night. And their asses could be fed and loaded. And they themselves could bed down for the night. This is their first stop over. On the way back from Egypt.
[27:55] Opens his sack. And there's his money in the sack. Now they all don't open their sacks at this point. Because if we were to read on. We would read at verse 35. It came to pass as they emptied their sacks.
[28:07] Behold every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when both they and their father saw the bundles of money they were afraid. So far they think it's only one of them. They think it's only one who's got his money restored.
[28:18] And they're like what's happened here? They're going to think I stole this corn. They're going to think I didn't pay my bill. What is this that God hath done unto us? God's wrath like that of Joseph.
[28:33] Always has a purpose of mercy in it. To the hardened and unconverted soul. Punishment may be grimly anticipated.
[28:45] You know they're not really complaining too much at this three days being in prison. You can see them sort of grinning their teeth and saying to it. Well we've got to convince them somehow. And after all we ourselves are guilty of what we did to our brother.
[28:57] And so on. Punishment we kind of expect. Judgment we sort of expect. God to be harsh with us. We can grin our teeth and we can say fair enough. I did do it.
[29:08] I am guilty. But to the hardened and unconverted soul. Plus punishment may be grimly anticipated. Mercy is absolutely terrifying.
[29:19] This mercy which Joseph has shown to them. They are absolutely terror-stricken. They were afraid saying one to another. What is this that God hath done unto us?
[29:32] They do not understand. They do not understand. They can't understand how they've got all this abundance. All this riches. And their money back. Effectively they have been given everything.
[29:43] And they've been given it free. They've been given it because the one who supplies and controls the grain and the riches of Egypt is in fact their brother.
[29:53] Just as for us. We read of the Lord Jesus Christ. How he is not ashamed to be called. To call them brethren who are his own children.
[30:05] His own people. In chapter 2 of Hebrews. For both he that sanctifyeth. And they who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
[30:17] Saying I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church. Will I sing praise unto thee. Christ is our elder brother. The one who intercedes for us.
[30:28] Is our brother. The one who helps us. Loves us. The one who provides all the riches. Not just of Egypt. But of this world for us. Is one who loves us.
[30:38] Yes he is severe. With our sins. But he needs to be. But more frightening than his severity. Is mercy. Because severity we can cope with. That is the way of the world.
[30:49] We expect a certain quid pro quo. But we cannot deal with undeserved mercy. It terrifies us. It makes us afraid.
[30:59] What is this? That God has done to us. How am I to deal with this? It is part of the Lord. Compelling his children.
[31:10] Into humility. Humility. Humility does not come naturally to us. We want to be proud. We want to stand for our own dignity. And self assertion.
[31:20] This is my identity. This is who I am. Take it or leave it. And we want to stand up. And even to God. Before his tribunal. And say yes. I am guilty of these things. I am going to take my punishment.
[31:32] Like am I. You don't know what you are talking about. You don't know what a lost eternity is going to be like. But God in his mercy. Compels us through his grace.
[31:43] Through the free gift. Of riches and grace and blessing. All that we have asked for and then more. And this is what the brothers have gone down. They have gone down asking if they can buy corn.
[31:56] And at the end of the day. What they have been given is not corn. That they can buy. But corn that has been freely given to them. And it frightens them. And I suppose what we like to think before God.
[32:07] Is we like to think. Okay God you tell me the rules. And I will try and keep them. I will try and be good. I will keep your commandments. I will keep your laws. And if I have been 60% good. Then I can have 60% salvation.
[32:19] If I have been 70% good. I can have 70% salvation. And if somebody ends up only having 30% salvation. Well it is his own fault. Because he has not kept the rules. And he has not been good and faithful.
[32:31] Come on. Let's enter into this contract. Let's do business together. God. That's how so many people think. They think. Well if I try to be good. God will bless me. God is not interested.
[32:42] In our pathetic commercial contracts. God is a God of mercy. A God of love. A God of righteousness. There is nothing that you can do. That can enrich his grandeur.
[32:54] And his majesty. There is nothing you can do. That will add to his holiness. To his power. To his beauty. You cannot give anything to God. All that you can do is receive.
[33:07] Receive his mercy. Receive his forgiveness. Receive the abundance. For which yes. You must ask. Joseph's brothers do not get the corn. By sitting around looking at each other.
[33:18] In the land of Canaan. They have to go to where the corn is. And they have to ask for it. And even if the initial reaction is somewhat severe. Yet they come back.
[33:30] Enriched. And blessed. And it's terrifying. We are not going to receive forgiveness. Sitting around looking at each other. We have to go to the throne of grace. We have to go to the Lord.
[33:41] We have to go where the prince. Of all the riches of heaven. Is ready to give us abundance. If we will but ask. Asking it shall be given. Seeking it shall find.
[33:51] Knock on the door. Shall be opened unto you. But see how they approach Joseph. Although they would never do it. If they knew he was their little brother. Here they are bowing down to him. That is how we must come to Christ.
[34:04] Bowing down before him. And acknowledging that we are starving. We are helpless. It is only by his abundance. That we will ever be fed. It is only by his grace. That we our loved ones.
[34:16] Will ever be spared. And they ask. And they receive. Initially there is a period of severity. When they are reminded of their own sins.
[34:27] When they are confronted again. By that which they thought was a secret. Known only to themselves. Friends you may come to the Lord. With secrets that you think only you know. That believe you me.
[34:39] He knows everyone about. He knows every secret. He knows every sin. He knows everything you may have kept hidden. Even from your nearest and dearest. There is nothing he does not know.
[34:50] And nothing he will not at the last judge. If we are to be spared. Of the consequences. If we are to be spared. Of such a fearful. And precise. And exact.
[35:01] And just. Judgment. Then what we need. Is mercy. What we need is one to intercede for us. What we need is one to give us. Freely.
[35:12] That forgiveness. That grace. That provision. With all as it were. Our money back. Which money cannot buy. The things that we need. Just as Joseph had no need of their money in Egypt.
[35:24] He was already ruler of the whole of Egypt. He didn't need their Canaanite coins. God doesn't need our pathetic. Filthy rhymes of righteousness. He is already the holy one.
[35:34] He is already the one. Who is filled with mercy. Righteousness. Holiness and truth. We come to him. And seek. And ask. For forgiveness.
[35:45] Seek. And ask. For life. In all its fullness. We shall receive. Jesus said. All that the Father. Give with me. Shall come to me. And him that cometh to me.
[35:57] I will in no wise. Cast out. Mercy. Is frightening. When it is in the hands. Of such a powerful God. But mercy. Is that which we need.
[36:08] Mercy. Is that which we must receive. What is this. That God hath done unto us. What God has done unto them. Has given them. What they never desired. Given them.
[36:18] What they. Never. Could have dreamed of. But God's. Mercy. Through Joseph. Is more than they could ever. Have imagined. They knew they were guilty. But God treated them.
[36:29] As though they were innocent. Now God does that. Likewise. For his children. Not because. He's turning a blind eye. To their sin. But because someone else.
[36:40] Is paying the price. Some commentators. Have speculated. Well is Joseph. Is Joseph. Yeah. I'm getting dodgy here. Not taking their money. Does he not owe Pharaoh. That he should take their money.
[36:50] And have an honest transaction. For all we know. He may have borne the price of that himself. From his own money. In fact. He very probably did. It would tie in much better.
[37:01] With the illustration. Of God the son. Who himself. Bore our own sins. In his own body. Upon the tree. It is because. Of God's great mercy. It is because.
[37:12] He himself. He himself. He has paid the price. That we walk away. With abundance. With blessing. With provision. For our souls. Not only for time. But for eternity.
[37:25] Severity. We may expect. But mercy. Is genuinely fearful. That it is mercy. That we must have. And mercy.
[37:35] That God desires. To give. And mercy. That we will have. If we ask. As Joseph's brothers. Had to go to Egypt. And ask. And now the Lord.
[37:46] Comes to us. Not in the might. And power. Of a chariot. Riding conqueror. But in innocence. And helplessness. Of a child. This is how God comes.
[37:58] In great humility. He comes. In great mercy. He comes. To make himself. Approachable. For us. So that we. Don't have.
[38:08] To be afraid. So that we can. Come to him. As he is. We can ask. And he shall be given. We can seek. And we shall find. We can know. That this is a God.
[38:18] Who in wrath. Remembers. Mercy. Because he himself. Has paid the price. Of sin. For all. Who will trust. And believe.
[38:29] In his name. That is worth remembering. That is worth. Celebrating. Though we look. For the day. When he will come again. In power. And glory. With the clouds. Of heaven.
[38:39] That day. He will come. With all the grandeur. And all the beauty. And all the majesty. That is his portion. But when he came to us. He came in a very different way.
[38:51] And that too. Is right. That we are never. Blessed. In all the MARTINs. That was. I don't know. He came in love.