Los Angeles Conference: 1990
Table of Contents
Joseph and his brethren
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
I'd like to turn to Genesis chapter 45. This lovely chapter brings before us Jacob. Joseph rather making himself known to his brethren.
Many of us, perhaps all of us know the Lord Jesus is our Savior. We need to have a fresh glimpse of him. We need to have him before us. We need to be in communion with him. Communion means common thoughts. And so I think there are perhaps things that can speak to each one of our hearts as we read this chapter. Because if we've got away from him and sort of lost sight of him, then how wonderful those words he restore us, my soul. And so at the beginning of.
Here you can start out with having him before us because he knows what is ahead. Just as Joseph making himself known here in a sense, was preparing them for what was ahead because the famine wasn't over. It was still going on, but there was a way they could be taken care of and cared for in that famine.
So let's read the chapter together.
Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him. And he cried, Cause every man to go out from me. And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud. And the Egyptians in the House of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live. And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence.
And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom he sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me. Hit her, for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be earring nor.
Harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hit her, but God. And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and the Lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Haste ye, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt.
Come down unto me, tarry not.
And thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me, thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all thou hast. And there will I nourish thee. For yet there are five years of fathom, lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty. And behold your all, see in the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you.
Shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, ye shall haste and bring down. My father. Hit her, and he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, And Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brother, and wept upon them. And after that his brethren talked with him. Nathan there always heard in Pharaoh's house saying, Joseph, brethren are come, and it pleased.
Well and his servants. And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto my thy brethren, this do ye lay your beasts, and go get you unto the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat of the fat of the land not. O hath commanded this. Do ye take you waggons out of the land of Egypt for your little lungs.
For your wives and bring your father and come also regard not your stuff, for the good of all. The land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way. To all of them he gave each man changes of land, and to Benjamin he gave 300 shekels of pieces of silver and five changes of.
And to his father he sent after this manner Tennis is laden with good things of Egypt, and 10 sheasses laden with corn and bread and meat for his father by the way. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed. And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And he went up out of Egypt, and came unto the land of Canaan, unto Jacob their father.
00:05:06
And told himself.
Official alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted when he believed, for he believed them not.
And they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, It is enough. Joseph, my son is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die.
I think all of us are very well acquainted with the story of Joseph and how he was sold by his brethren into Egypt and how God used him for the deliverance and blessing of his people. But I believe this restoration of his brethren and Joseph were making himself known to them can speak to each one of our hearts. We think of how often we have strayed from the Lord too. We haven't walked near to him.
And perhaps, in our own way, we have.
Left him out of our lives. We saw him, so to speak, and yet the Lord has his eye upon us. God hid his eye upon those bothering, even though they had dealt so badly with Joseph. And Joseph's heart, in spite of all that they did to him, was still toward them in love and kindness. Because any of us that have become careless and we haven't been given the Lord his rightful place in our lives.
I can assure you of this, His love hasn't changed, it's the same.
It says having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them under the end. So through all this and God was working with Joseph to bring something about that would be for blessing to them. And so we see the point has come. Joseph has been dealing with them. He's been.
Shall I say, causing them to go through a great deal to bring them to repentance. Sometimes the Lord has to pass us through things in our lives, has to surmount difficulties and things that we can't understand. Sometimes as we read this story about Joseph, we wonder why he did these things. Why did he make himself known the first time they came down? Wouldn't have that been a lot easier for him and for them?
But but that wouldn't have produced the necessary exercise.
That wouldn't have produced the necessary exercise in their hearts. That was for their good and for their blessing. And so says he spoke roughly to them and some of us sometimes in trials that come into our lives, we might say, well, as the Lord allows such a rough path for me, so difficult, so trying. He has power. He could have made it a lot easier for me.
Joseph spake roughly to them, but it wasn't because he didn't love them, but it was because he was seeking to.
There's something in them that would be for their blessing and even something we couldn't understand why he would let them leave and put that silver cup in Benjamin's sack and everything. That was something that's kind of difficult for to explain. And there might be things in your lives and mine that we say I don't know why.
Have often thought. Now in the 12TH chapter of Revelation it says.
No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grieve us nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.
It doesn't say that we learn the reason why what it says were exercised thereby. There may be things in your life and mind you say I don't just know why that happened, but maybe there was something that was brought about in your life that it couldn't have happened. Unless that situation that you can't explain or understand had taken place. It's good to be exercised, brethren, by everything that the Lord allows in our lives, whether we understand it or not.
All things work together for good.
And it tells us to you that his ways are past finding out. And so we found here that God had been working.
And gradually through Joseph dealing with them, they're brought to the point where they're brought back, and I believe we could say a repentant company, a whole group of his eleven brothers. I believe God had brought them to this point. And now Joseph realizing this and all that he had.
In his heart toward them says He could not refrain himself. I think that's such a lovely expression. He could not refrain himself. And that is, God's heart is so full of blessing, so desirous for a blessing, that he's waiting far more anxiously than we are to the time when all these trials and difficulties are. The willingness will be over, and he will joy over his own, the singing, and rest in his love.
00:10:16
His joy will exceed ours when He has all His own with him, as it tells us in Isaiah chapter 53. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. How can He be satisfied with me with all the mistakes I've made? How could he be satisfied? Ah, because He knew all about me before, and loves and loves through everything, just as Joseph loved his brethren.
And so tells us.
Here he cried, 'cause every man to go out from me, and there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. I think the thought is here that restoration is an individual thing.
Just as we find when the Lord had to cut off Saul, we read how David said, tell it not in gas, publish it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice. Sometimes we talk about people's failures, we talk about what they have done. But he said, don't talk about what Saul has done, just rejoice in the Lord's goodness.
And so he will find that this was a personal thing, so I'm not here to point my finger at somebody.
And say this or that that there is in your own heart a relationship I trust with the Lord, and the Lord wants to bring you to have it out personally if there is anything that's come between your soul and mine that would hinder our restoration. So they all went out and Joseph wept. Joseph wept. They were the ones that should have been weeping because they had been the willful ones they had been.
The disobedient ones, but.
Joseph worked we find the same thing with our blessed Savior here he was walking the midst of in the midst of his own when he was here upon earth. And we find that they were rejecting him. They were rebelling against him in spite of all his love and kindness. And yet he kindness to the city of Jerusalem and he wept over it. He wept over it and you say there's the Lord and wind of my trials. Isn't it wonderful here to see Joseph weeping over his.
He knew all the trouble that they have got into because of their willfulness and disobedience. It also shows us brethren, that God may set everything in the world in motion to accomplish his purposes and the Lord Jesus was to be born. It tells us that since we passed a law that that the whole world should be enrolled and that force Joseph and Mary to go up to.
Jews out to Bethlehem rather to be enrolled. And if it had been a matter that you and I were living in that day, we might say, well, how did it happen on such and such a day so inconvenient? The baby was about to be born, but we see the plan of God in it. The plan of God was to fulfill the Scriptures that the Lord Jesus should be born in Bethlehem of Judea.
I don't suppose that Caesar knew when he made that.
Ruling that he was just fulfilling the ways and purposes of God without knowing it and perhaps not thinking of it. It might have been that Joseph and Mary might have said, oh, it's such a difficult time, why is the Lord allowed it? But the scriptures must be fulfilled. And if there's something difficult in your life and mine, God could set the whole community into.
Into motion to accomplish a purpose that He has for you, because he's dear you dear to him.
And so this was all blinded and arranged of God. And he went, and the Egyptians and the House of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph, doth my father yet live. Wonderful those words must have been, as they send in years of those 11 brethren. I am Joseph, and you think of the Lord in the Book of Revelation.
When even John.
Fell down to worship the Angel. Why the Angel said, see thou do it not, and immediately say it goes on to say, I, Jesus have sent mine Angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. How it must have struck the heart of John. It must have felt rebuked that the Angel had to say, Don't worship me. And immediately the Lord appears, so to speak on the scene and says.
00:15:03
I am Jesus, I am Jesus, I am Jesus.
And so if you and I have got away from him, how wonderful it would be if the Lord would make himself known to our hearts by just saying I am Jesus, I am your Lord, I am your Savior, I am the head of the body, the church. It says they were troubled at his presence. Sometimes we feel uneasy because things have been allowed in our lives. We come to the meeting and we don't just feel at home.
We need other Christians. We don't feel relaxed, and it is because there's something that needs to be made right with the Lord. Well, if there's any hindrance to communion, let's judge it in His presence because He wants our company and what we want His to.
Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near unto me, I pray you. And he often pray to the Lord, that how remarkable. Come near unto me, I pray you. And the Lord is, so to speak, beseeching each one of us to live in the enjoyment of his presence and his company. Come near unto me, I pray you. And they came near.
And the Lord says this to us. Do our hearts respond?
Do we come near to him even when was the morning comes, we have the privilege of coming. Perhaps what I'd say while I'm tired. It's difficult this morning, but he says come near unto me, I pray you. And we don't just come to the meeting for our own sakes. We often get a real blessing by coming and we come because the Lord wants us there. I believe rather than in Nehemiah. That's the force.
That expression where it says the joy of the Lord is your strength. And sometimes it's thought that it's our joy, but I believe the thought in the verse is the Lord's joy. And if you read the chapter, I don't have time to turn to it now, but you read the chapter, you'll see how that they were weeping as they heard the words of the law because they knew that they hadn't responded to the Lord's claims like they should.
And.
So me and I says to them, he says, do we? The joy of the Lord is your strength. And I've thought of it in this way, that it's the thought that we're giving the Lord joy. Perhaps I can use an illustration that might help to bring before you what I mean. Supposing a friend has invited you over to his house and it's a very bad evening, Stormy, and a lot of things you say, oh, I don't think we should call. It's far too.
Tonight, and when you're talking about it, wondering whether you should go, the phone rings and your friends on the other end of the line and says, are you going to come over? Don't let the weather Hindi. And we really are looking forward to having you. We're all prepared for a happy evening together. We'll be disappointed if you don't come. What happens when you get a fresh shot of strength, don't you? And you say we must go, We must go. Why? Because.
Person wanted you and I wasn't this lovely. The joy of the Lord is your strength. Next time you I hesitate to come to where the Lord is in the midst. Let's just think that the Lord says don't wait, don't allow something to hinder you. And I'm going to find joy in seeing your face there. Let me hear thy voice, let me see thy face, for Thy voice is sweet and thy countenance is comely.
No, he reminds them of their sin here he says I am just.
Joseph whom he Saul into Egypt, but he doesn't dwell on it. He doesn't dwell on it. We have to face reality. They have to be brought down to repentance. They had to remember that it was grace and grace alone that was going to be shown toward them. But immediately he changes the subject. Isn't that lovely just briefly mentions the soul into Egypt now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that you soul be hit her.
For God did send me before you to preserve life immediately. He has brought this before them. And it says the winter. Remember the rock from whence we were healing and the pit from whence were digged, but not to dwell upon it, but to remember, because that keeps us humble. It gives us to realize fresh glimpses of his grace. And then he says, either group, be angry with yourselves that you saw me hit her. For God did send me before.
For you to preserve life, that is the hand of God falls in all that happened. And here we see Paul in the epicenter of the Ephesians. He was in prison. He could have said, and I was rejected by my brethren there in Jerusalem, and that's why I'm here. But he says I therefore the prisoner of the Lord for you Gentiles.
00:20:20
How, how lonely to see this? And so it turns from all this occupation, I could say.
Say it was S to bring before them how God was over all, and God did send me before you to preserve life.
Isn't it lovely when you look at the circumstances in our lives from God's viewpoint? There's a verse that say in the Psalms that says He made known his ways unto Moses, His acts unto the children of Israel. Children of Israel just looked at the acts. That is the things God did, and he murmured. When there was no water, they complained. When they got tired of the manna and so on, they looked at God.
'S acts. But Moses saw God's way.
That the very thought that they learned the difficulties of the wilderness made them realize in a new way the provision that God was able to make for them there in the wilderness. So let's not just look at God's acts. Let's think of His ways, His purposes of love, and how He over rules situations and circumstances in our lives.
And then he says, For these two years hath the.
Common men in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall neither be earring nor harvest. He mentions this again later on about these five years in the 11TH verse. And I believe this is simply to bring before us here today. We're beginning a new year. Many of us know what's ahead if the Lord doesn't come.
But I expect they'll, as far as the conditions in this world, are going to be years of famine.
That is things you're going to get worse as God tells us, even modern seducers shall walk worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And perhaps too we will see more weakness coming in even among the people of God, because the last state of the church has described in Revelation 3 of Laodicea is not a state of spiritual prosperity. It's a state where certainly you can see and very rich and increased with goods thought they had.
Nothing thought there was a tremendous spiritual lack and and you say, well, I get discouraged, I come to the middle. I don't get felt like I should and things bother me that happened and most of the assemblies seem to have trials. Joseph said. Two years were passed. There are five years more, five years more. He didn't put a bright picture before them as to events happening around them, but he made a provision that without.
The famine ceasing, we would be provided for and I believe that's what we need. Brethren, the Father is not going to cease, but there is full provision. My God shall supply all you need according to His riches and glory by Christ Jesus. And I think most of us know that five represents human weakness comes from the idea, I believe of our hands.
That we are we only have 5 fingers. Humans That we are, we are, we only have 5 tones.
The abilities before us, human weakness, and none of us in this room have this efficiency in ourselves to handle the problems of life that get more and more complex and difficulties that so often arise in our homes and in the assembly. There yet five years of famine. But isn't this lovely there yet five years of failing, in which the there shall neither be earring nor harvest and God.
God sent me before you to preserve a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So as we look forward and face what may be ahead of us in this year, or if the Lord leaves us here a little longer, let's not expect a bright picture. Let's not expect that conditions are going to get better in this world. It's under the judgment of God. But let us thoroughly expect that our God is able that.
When there were doubts in that little company, in the 28th chapter of Matthew, it says, When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some doubted. When they were doubts in their mind it says, And Jesus came and spank unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Says in Ephesians, that Christ is head over all things to the church, which is his body, the furnace.
00:25:09
Him that forth. All in all, Peter says that he's at the right hand of God and angels and authorities and powers are subject to him. Absolutely nothing happens in the realm of our cult, that life or home life or assembly life, that God hasn't allowed it, that he could change if it were his will. But it is able to provide for us in those times, our famine, those times of necessity and trial.
And so he says in the 70s.
And God sent me before you. And so at the end, save your lives by a great deliverance. A great deliverance. You know how often we've experienced this as we meet situations and many of us can look back perhaps over just this past year, some problem that seemed insurmountable faced us. And we saw the Lord come in and there was a great deliverance. He has all power, brethren.
He could take us out of any situation and if he lets it remain for two years like he did here, it was for their good. If it only lasted for one year, I think they would have said, oh, we, we can get by for a year. But when the next year came, they couldn't get by. They couldn't get by and the Lord brings us to impossible situations, so we might lean thoroughly and fully on Him.
So now it was not you that sent me his.
But God isn't this lovely grace on the part of Joseph. And he did say he sold into Egypt. Now he says it wasn't you, it was God to see God's hand. Just like Paul is saying again in prison, he's not this prisoner of mural. He doesn't say it's my Jewish brethren that really caused this. Now he's a prisoner of the Lord, the prisoner of Jesus Christ.
May we have grace? I don't say I always have.
Grace I don't, but the Lord is willing to supply because it says of His famous have all we received and grace for grace or Mr. Darby translates that grace upon grace that is a limitless supply ready for us when we call upon him.
And then he tells of his possession of power, Lord over all his house, and our ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.
Well, it's just simply, as I've been saying that Christ is head over all things to the church, We don't see an open display, that he moves behind the scenes, that he's in control of every situation, whether as I say it's the home or the assembly, I can only see his hand.
In it now, as we've gone here in the ninth verse, he starts to tell them how they will be provided for in this time. He says in the ninth verse, Hasti, and go up to my father, and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph, God hath made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down unto me, tarry not, and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen, and thou shalt be near unto me.
Thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast. Perhaps he might like to have been cared for back there in Canaan, and not have had to come down. But the important point was to be near to Joseph. Sometimes in difficulties we'd like the Lord to come in, but we haven't really.
Learned what he's showing us and we're not really near to him.
Weird a hand. So you will see here the importance of coming down. Look for to be near to him and to know his resources Well, that's what we all need. Bothering me. You remember how in those young believers were saved in Antioch? It tells us about Barnabas having a true pastoral heart.
He said that that with purpose of heart. He exhorted them that with purpose of heart.
They would cleave unto the Lord. What's that mean cleave? Well, it means to stay real close, doesn't it? And so that's what Joseph's message is here. And he says in the ninth verse, haste. Ye didn't say, now just think this over. You're going to have further problems back there. You think this over now he said, haste, G, the Lord's coming is drawing near, brethren.
00:30:04
We believe it's very near. We only.
The rest of our time, we may be a very short time and we really thought the Lord was coming. We'll say within a week, how would we like to spend that week? Wouldn't we want to spend that week in the newness of communion with the Lord, living our lives for Him? I'm sure we would. And so we often speak to sinners and say now is the accepted time.
Now is the day of salvation, and that's God's message to anyone.
In this room we're not saved. Now is the accepted time, but I believe we can apply it to ourselves as Christians and Hebrews. It says today if we will hear his voice, harden not your hearts and you need to hear his voice. And that we only have such a short time that we should live as it says in Peter, the rest of our time to the will of God.
So he tells them to.
That they might be dear, but not only themselves.
Tells us in Romans chapter 14 none of us liveth to himself.
And no man dieth to himself. Our lives have an influence on others. As I look back in my life, I can think of people that had an influence upon my life. And I would say especially my father and my mother and I say to those who are parents, you will, you and I, as parents, we have an influence upon our children. They know where our hearts are. And it's interesting here how he says this.
Thou and thy children, and thy children's children, and thy flocks, and thy herds, and all that thou hast.
Yes, we found a mention about Timothy. We have about his mother, we have about his grandmother. And so we find here you let grandparents have an influence on their children and on their children's children and all this is brought before them.
I think it's very lovely to see in the scripture how God deals in families so often.
Because believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house, and thy house. As soon as Rahab became interested in being being cared for and the judge, when the judgment fell on Jericho, she immediately was concerned about her father and her mother and those who were dear to her by natural ties.
And the place was provided for them if they would but.
Come into that place of shelter under the scarlet line, and then all that thou hast, all that thou hast. I used to wonder a little bit why the Lord said to that man who came to him to send all that he had.
And give to the poor, and come take up his cross, and follow me. And then I thought, well, really, that is what takes place when we get saved, if we really recognize the Lord's claims. Let me put it this way, before you and I were saved, it was our car, it was our money, it was our home, it was our time. We were considered ourselves.
A master of all that we had, that we could do what we like with it. But there's a change of ownership when you get.
Saved and you and I recognize Jesus is Lord really saying my car belongs to the Lord, my house belongs to the Lord, my money belongs to the Lord. Let's tell a very interesting little instance that took place in one of the gatherings. There was a girl who was saved. She had a fair amount of money personally because her parents were well off and she was saved and she wanted to give everything she wanted to fulfill.
Scripture and give everything to the Lord and she came to one of the brothers in the assembly and she said I have quite a bit of money I'd like to give it all to the Lord and should I sign my bonds and put all the money on the plate or what what should I do that'll help the brother gave her a very wise reply he said to her well he said if you do that you need the assembly the.
Steward of what you have. But the Lord wants you to be the steward. He wants you.
To be the steward, and he says he may need some of that for things later on, for your own personal needs, of course, but also that you can do something for the Lord with it. So I believe that dear sister who is happily in fellowship still, she, she gave to the Lord and she felt she should each Lord's day, but she recognized that she was this steward now of what she had.
00:35:15
And knowing her a little bit, I know that it's been very happy decision too.
Because it has become necessary for her to live the other place where she has quite a little distance to come to the meeting, and her parents are not saved. And so she needs a car and she picks up others and comes to the meeting. If she made the assembly, the steward, how she would have been able to do this. But she has done it and she has acknowledged she, as shall I say, sold out. She recognized the Lord's claims. And so let's not be afraid.
To own the Lord's claims.
Over ourselves, over our children, our grandchildren, and all that we have. How, how lovely it is to see what he says near to him, the land of Goshen, when he makes a pledge in the 11TH verse. And there will I nourish thee for yet five years of famine, lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty.
He asked how often we as Christians do come to poverty.
Just like it says in Revelation 3, which increased with goods. And no, it's not that there are poor and wretched and miserable and blind and naked boy. Well, because we're not acknowledging the Lords rights and claims in our lives and they have plenty.
Physically, but we come to poverty in our souls and our spiritual life. And so he says that he would nourish them. He makes a a promise. Isn't it good for us to count upon God's faithfulness, God's faithfulness? And I believe if I can just pass on little personal thing, you know, decisions that we come to. Let's not try and measure ourselves and say, can I do that?
But rather ask the question, does the Lord?
Want me to do that? And if the Lord wants you to do it, for he says no man goes to warfare at his own charges, he'll, he'll take care of you. He'll not send you out without providing. No government sends out their men without providing the food and the ammunition that's necessary as long as they obey the orders. And so you and I have a path before us.
We will feel, and we do feel quite an article for a lot of the situations that we have to meet.
But all isn't it wonderful? There I will nourish thee. They had a promise, and my God shall supply all you need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
Now it tells us here too that they need to carry a message back to their Father who wasn't with them. Perhaps that brings before us the privilege that we have, carrying the message to others. And that's a privilege that we have as we had in our chapter in the meetings. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead.
He reconciled to God, and if you can see Joseph's brethren coming back.
And I can just see you being in your face as when they told their father of all the glory of Joseph and all the provision that he had made and his promises and everything. He didn't just state them as a cold matter of fact. They went back, I believe, with hearts rolled. Mr. Doherty said our testimony to the world is our joy in the Lord. As we carry this wonderful message to this world, we ought to in the very way we tell it in the very.
Face reflection, my face like Joseph, we I like. I like Moses when he came down from the mountain, right there ought to be a message. Well, and now he falls upon your necks and kisses them.
Perhaps the reason that he paid special to Benjamin attention to Benjamin was because he was his own particular brother, and all the others were born, and others not of the same mother as Benjamin had been born. But in a typical way, I like to think of it in this way, that Joseph was the nearest one to him, and so he had a special feeling going out toward Joseph and when.
Back it tells us in the 22nd verse 12 of them he gave each man changes of Raymond but Benjamin. He gave 300 pieces of silver and five chains of women and I just like to suggest that the reason for this is the mirror we are to the Lord the more we will appreciate what he has done for us. Silver is a figure of redemption. You know that was the redemption money was 1/2 shekel of silver and.
00:40:08
Scripture, silly word, is a figure of redemption.
And if you and I are new to the Lord, there will be with us, Father, I believe a growing appreciation of what the Lord has done for us. Often as you hear a brother get up in the meeting and give thanks, you can sort of sense that there is a deep appreciation in his heart of what the Lord has done. And I believe the reason that we're so with Benjamin was because he.
Who is the nearest to him? Let's be near the Lord plead to him with purpose of heart. And then also it says, and what he gave to Benjamin it says 5 changes of raiment, 5 changes of raiment, all 5 figures, weakness. And we are poor, weak things. But I believe there's a greater change produced in his life too.
Paul had such a great appreciation of what the Lord had done for him that had produced such a tremendous change in his life that it says he preached the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me. The committee believed even when he came up to Jerusalem, they couldn't believe that such a great change had taken place. They said, well, this man was an enemy of God's people.
That a great change took place and I believe.
Rather than you, I get closer to the Lord. There'll be a greater change. It's not something we try to produce. Moses didn't even know that his face shone, but other people saw it. Why? Because he had been nearer to the Lord than all the rest. Even up there in the Lord's company. How could he help but have his face shining? And now we find too, that.
As he sends them back, he gives full provision for the way.
Tells us here in the 18th verse.
And take your thought, and take your father, and your whole souls, and come unto me, and I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land. Thou art commanded. This do you take your wagons out of the land of Egypt for your living ones and for your wives, and bring your father, and come and regard not your stuff for the good of all. The land of Egypt is yours.
That's what the Lord says to us all.
Things are yours, whether life or death.
Whether Paul or Cephas or the world, things to come, he says, all are yours and you are Christ, and Christ is God's. Know how rich we are, for we know that all is ours, the ones whom the Lord might use to encourage our hearts. Paul, Cephas, others, him too. The world by everything belongs to us.
In the strange how we.
After things as if they didn't belong to us, but it all belongs to us. Walking in that path of communion with the Lord, we prove how rich He is, not only in the spiritual things that we have, but also to provide for our needs in the pathway of life.
And it says they were commanded to do this. And, well, what about those things back there? They might have to leave some things back in Egypt.
And he says, regard not your stuff, your stuff, you know that. Let me talk that way. We usually talk that way about things that we don't place too much value. All that stuff, we speak that way. Something we don't value. What? Isn't it strange how we have so much stuff that we don't want to leave? But if they had tried to bring all those things down, it would be as though.
Joseph was not sufficient to provide for them when they reached.
The name of Goshen to be in his company.
And so he tells us also, I just wanted to mention that 15th verse. Wherever he kissed all his brethren and wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked with them, with him. But as after he had learned all this, after he had showed them all this and they had learned it, and then seems like every barrier was removed, they just talked.
And this is communion, brethren, this is communion. The Lord likes to have us talk to Him. Or we can do that in our homes. I'm sure many of us do. As we wake up in the morning, we talk to the Lord. As we face situations, we talk to the Lord. And I believe there's a special privilege too, as we come sit in His presence as worshippers.
00:45:04
It says in First Corinthians 14, every one of you.
At the same half the hymn at the doctrine. In other words, he was one of us not to delight, to communicate with him. You know that in the assembly the sisters may do it silently, but I believe the Lord sees that and values that praise. I think the most important one at the feast in John chapter 12.
Was nearly herself, and we don't read that she said a word.
She simply poured out that box of ointment and the house was filled with the order of the ointment. Others did some talking, but they were a little bit out of place and what they said. But she didn't say a word and the Lord could approve of her. So brothers and sisters, we can said, let's come brethren, with our baskets full.
Said in his presence, and leaving the low, as I say, the sisters may do it silently. The brothers are called upon to do it audibly by its privilege. We ought to have baskets full when we think of what he's done for us. So after he had kissed them, after he had wept upon them, after that his brethren talked with him.
And then we start back for the land of Egypt. And he'd set all this wonderful provision, not only for their journey up to their father, but also to bring their father back. The 24th verse. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed. And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out. By the way. The enemy is always busy, brethren. And we learned these wonderful things.
We learn these.
Precious things and our hearts are thrilled as we think of our portion in Christ and the abundant provision, but don't we let little personal matters so often come in to spoil fellowship with one another. It's truly shared. That means we contend for the faith, but even that in the spirit of love. I have people that many of the difficulties that come in among us.
Are just little, shall I say, personal matters that we allow to hinder.
Our communion with the Lord and with one another, you would think after a wonderful occasion like this, so.
Marvelous having Joseph make it himself known to them, and telling them to come down and be near to him, giving him all his provision, would say, surely they won't call among themselves but the Lord.
Brought his disciples with them, took them up to the Mount of Transfiguration, gave them the most wonderful experience of their whole life. I suppose to see him there on the Mount of Transfiguration and.
Then when they come down from the mind, he doesn't know until they were coiling which should be the greatest. Oh brother, let's watch the little weeds that come in before Peter exhorts us to. He says his newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word. He says, laying aside all malice and hypocrisy and evil speakings, as new thorn babes desire the sincere milk of the word.
My brother and how we have to watch those little foxes, those things that come in. The Lord tells us that He has forgiven us so much and we can forgive all those little things so small in comparison to what He has forgiven us. Only the Lord give us grace. And as we start a new year, if there's anything that we have allowed in a personal way to come between US and another.
Let's seek to make it right. It's going to hinder our worship. It's going to hinder our enjoyment.
Lord, so Joseph had to meet this little remark to his brethren. See that you fall not out. By the way, 25th person, they went up out of Egypt and came into the land of Canaan out of Jacob their father, and told him, saying, Jesus is yet alive. That's the first thing he said. Joseph was yet alive, didn't talk about the carts and provisions and everything. That was all there. And he soon saw it too.
But it was a person that they brought before him. And as we proclaim the good news of the gospel, it says.
That Philip went down to Samaria and preached Christ under them.
When he was sent to Ethiopian Union, he began the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus in the resurrection of Jesus, and then when he stood on Mars Hill, he preached to them Jesus in the resurrection.
00:50:04
Let's remember that as Paul said in Seven Corinthians 4, he preached not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves, your servants for Jesus sake, as we present them us as. Let's make certain that we present Christ because he is the one and the only one who can say. He's the only one who can bless. He's the only one who can keep. So they said Joseph.
Is yet alive and he is governor over all land of Egypt.
That's like only Jesus as Lord.
It is we own him as the one who is Lord. That's the way of salvation. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth, Jesus as Lord shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. But it's not just when we get saved that we should own him as Lord. We should acknowledge him as Lord constantly, all the time in our lives.
The little sun.
We often singing limited my life by crying me now thine shall the glory be. And so we need to all of him is that not only when we get saved, but all the time recognizing him as Lord. He's governor of all the land of Egypt. Jacob's heart fainted for he believed in that, that he was seen too good to be true. He just couldn't believe it. So they went on talking.
And they told him all the words.
Of Joseph that he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. So they told him. It says he believed in that when he, when they told him that Joseph was yet alive, then he told him all the words of Joseph. Put some other thing that's very important in preaching too. Preach the word, preach the word, people.
Don't get saved just by.
Little many sayings and everything the word of God thanks cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God and it's important that we bring the scripture before them. I remember there was a boy in the Sunday school class that I had many years ago and I thought all the ones in my class, they were a little bit older. They were saved at all as far as I was concerned had made a profession being saved and.
Last stage 1 if there was any special verse to them, perhaps the verse that gave in the assurance of salvation and you know they told some nice verses. Quite a few of us have different verses. I think my verses the blood of Jesus Christ his son claims that's not all sin. People have different verses and this one particular boy came to me afterwards and he said.
He had a doubts, but he never realized.
It is how averse and he could as it will rest upon when the enemy came to taunt him and try and put doubts into his mind. It's nice to have a worse that when enemy comes. You know how the Lord Jesus answered every temptation by saying it is written and it's good for us to have a verse, a verse that specially means something to us. That is the assurance to our own souls of salvation. So they told him all the words of Joseph.
In which he had said unto them in vainly.
The wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived.
What was the three things? They first of all said Joseph Salai, then they told him his words, and then they showed the fruit of it. And then I believe our lives ought to show the fruit of it. People ought to see in us that we have received the word and that it has made a difference in our lives.
Because our lives as well as our groups have a testimony tells us in Philippians blame us in harmless. That's our lives. And it says holding forth the word of life. There's two parts. When Gideon's men went out to the battle of the Midianites, they had a lamb and one picture that speaks of our lives and a trumpet in the other that speaks of our testimony that we speak.
And so believe there's two parts.
The word that we present in the testimony of our lives, and they say all these things that they had carried back for the good of Jacob. And I noticed the change. It says Jacob their father revived, and Israel said thanks enough.
Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. Since the change from Jacob to Israel. Jacob, I believe, brings before us what he was in nature. I believe it means the supplanter he had tried to plan his own life.
00:55:13
He got the birthright from his brother, he deceived his father, he did a lot of things to try and work out his own plans and he went into a lot of difficulties and frustration. But when he was seen with the Lord, the Lord changed his name.
And his name, Israel, means a Prince with God.
So here we find them to change it says Jacob their father revived, and Israel said he rises so to spade him to the enjoyment and dignity of his position, a Prince with God. And so he says it's enough. And well, in every one of us we're Princess 2 So is the Revelation chapter 1 unto him that loved us and lost us from our sins in his own blood.
And has made us kings and priests, and to God, who?
Father and we shall reign, I'll have many 40 years to know that we have been brought into such a position. And you can perhaps understand a little of the feelings of the heart of Jacob at this time and how he now rises to the enjoyment of his proper place. And privilege is wrong. And brethren, let's enjoy the place we've been brought into. We couldn't be brought into a nearer place. We couldn't be brought into a more wonderful place.
God remembers the body of Christ. We're going to reign with Christ another day. We're live with an unchanging love. Surely our hearts respond and say it is enough. We'd rather be maybe five years more famine. There may be testings that prove our weakness if the Lord leaves us here, but the Lord Jesus is enough. As we sing in that little heat in Jesus thought enough the mind and heart to feel. Perhaps we could sing that little hymn. I think it's 172.
174 I guess it is.
Yes, 174. Her patient spotless when our hearts in weakness train to bear value that we may last obtain 174.
Patience.
Me.
As Frank.
Jesus.
Nice days.
So.
I will call you.
By 4:00 AM.
We ask the Lords blessing in prayer the blessed God.
01:00:07
Headship of Christ