Good morning, it's great to be here, not only in this building, but in the pulpit, it's been a while, so I'm glad to be back. David read to you the announcement about the town hall meeting coming the first Sunday in March, and I do want to encourage you to come to that. We're kind of excited about what God has put on our hearts as far as where we think we need to go in our church as we seek to accommodate the growth and visitors that God brings our way, and as we want to serve Him in the advancement of His kingdom. So please, if you can, make it to that Sunday school time, where we'll talk about that. This morning, as I read the Scriptures to you, I'll read all the way through to verse 17, but then verses 18, through to the end, through 28, I will leave unread, we'll refer to some of them during the message, but I wanted to reserve as much time as possible for talking about this idea of how do people change? Hear what God Himself says to you in this reading of His Word. The seven years of abundance in Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began just as Joseph had said. There was famine in all the other lands, but in the whole land of Egypt, there was food. When all Egypt began to feel the famine, the people cried to Pharaoh for food, then Pharaoh told all the Egyptians, go to Joseph, and do what he tells you. When the famine had spread over the whole country, Joseph opened the storehouses of grain and sold grain to the Egyptians, where the famine was severe throughout Egypt, and all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe in all the world. When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, why do you just keep looking at each other? Your laughing is though, you know why they keep looking at each other. He continued, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt, go down there and buy some for us so that we may live and not die. Then ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt, but Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others, because he was afraid that harm might come to him. So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy grain for the famine was in the land of Canaan also. Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its peoples, so when Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them, where do you come from, he asked. In the land of Canaan, they replied to buy food, although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him, then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, you are spies, you have come to see where our land is unprotected. No my Lord, they answered, your servants have come to buy food. We are all the sons of one man, your servants are honest men, not spies, no he said to them. You have come to see where our land is unprotected, but they replied, your servants were 12 brothers, the sons of one man who lives in the land of Canaan, the youngest is now with our father and one is no more. Joseph said to them, it is just as I told you, you are spies, and this is how you will be tested. As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place until your youngest brother comes here, send one of your number to get your brother, and the rest of you will be kept in prison so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies, and he held them all in custody for three days. I tell you, that Moses is a great storyteller. He received all that training in the land of Egypt, and as he writes it, it is a great read. So, how many of you have family reunions in your families? For some families, it is a great time, at least for some of the people in the family reunion, they love it. It is when all the brothers and sisters and parents and children and grandchildren gather and there is good conversation, and it is a wonderful time, sometimes in that very same family reunion, while some are rejoicing and happy to see everyone together, it is just miserable for others, and they go, they have to psych themselves up to go to the family reunion, and they stay just as long as they can bear and then leave. My family, we didn't have family reunions all the time growing up. It wasn't until I was an adult and moved out that my mom kind of instigated family reunions, and my mom was married to her third husband when I was growing up for my teenage years, and there was a family reunion or two during that time, and then she divorced him and married another fellow, and there was family reunions, and it just didn't feel like family to me, and the whole idea of going to that, let's just say I had to psych myself up for it, but even my family seems normal in comparison to Joseph's family, and the psyching up, Joseph will reveal himself to his brothers in chapter 45. He hasn't done so yet, he will do that, but there are some stuff that is going to take place beforehand, and we've read, we see he recognizes his brothers, but they don't recognize him. It might be worth our while to review a little bit about this family as we think about their pursuing, or this God kind of bringing it to where there's going to be a family reunion. What is Joseph's family like? Well, remember Joseph's father, Jacob, Jacob himself grew up in what we would call a dysfunctional family. His parents were kind of pitted against each other, they didn't get along, they weren't on the same page, they each had their favorite child and pursued their personal favoritism, and worked against each other. Jacob, Joseph's father, he was always fighting for his rights, for the things he thought he should have, he took advantage of his brother, he stole his brothers' blessing, he deceived his father, and his father, I mean his brother, his brother was so filled with rage by what he had done, he planned to kill him, kind of a dysfunctional family, it's when Jacob runs away through his uncle Laban, that he finds out it's not just his immediate family that's dysfunctional, but he, well it just gets worse, he hangs out with his uncle Laban, there being a day from his brother, Esau trying to kill him, and his uncle Laban takes advantage of him, Jacob had fallen in love with Rachel, the younger of two daughters, and had pledged to work seven years for her, and Laban took advantage of him, and well he ended up working 14 years for two wives, and between the two wives, and they're made servants who became concubines, there were four women in competition to see who could produce the most children, there were 13, one daughter, 12 boys, kind of a dysfunctional family, and among the boys, they weren't all together good, one of them sleeps with his father's concubine, two of them are so upset when their sister is raped, that they don't kill just the guy who raped her or just his family, but the whole city, and all the brothers decided to help out and go and loot the city and take all the people and all the belongings where their share of the conquer. Judah who will figure large in the line of Christ, Judah marries a cane of night and has boys and marries off the first boy to a woman, and well just to get to the point, at some point he goes and he sleeps with a woman he thinks as a prostitute and it turns out to be his daughter, his widow daughter in law, dysfunctional family, and that's not even getting to chapter 37, where we read about how Jacob loved Joseph more than any of them, Joseph was the 11th son born, but the first born of Jacob's favorite wife, Jacob loved him, in a balanced, destructive way for the family, and the brothers hated him, the older brothers all hated him, they couldn't speak a kind word to them, they were up to him, they were jealous of him and ultimately decided to kill him, but instead sold him to a caravan that just happened to be passing by on its way to Egypt. The last time Joseph saw his brothers was when he was crying to them and begging them not to do what they were doing, but they would not listen to his cries. And now some 20 years later, there they are, come into Egypt, come into Bygrain, it's not wonder he didn't say, brothers, it's me, Joseph, don't you remember, it's so good to see you, how you been?
Instead he recognizes them, but they don't recognize him and he conceals his identity and keeps it a secret, and he speaks harshly to them. And he will see from chapter 42 through the time where he reveals himself in chapter 45 that they're changed. I don't know if he's actually looking to see if they're changed or just trying to get his brother Benjamin by his side, but he does see their change, and it raises the question, how do people change? And I want us to talk a little bit about that this morning, I'm going to give you the fill in the blanks, at least most, yeah, all the fill in the blanks and kind of rapid fire, it's kind of theological, this service you'll have no problem hanging with me, but do listen, write these things down, and then we'll look at at least Joseph and his brothers' lives and talk about this change and how it really occurs, because it's one thing to learn theology, and our shorter catechism just has such beautiful question and answer when it comes to what is saving faith, what is repentance unto life, they give great succinct answers, it's worthy of memorizing, of learning, of identifying those elements, but I'll tell you, life seems to happen in less than precise theological terms, right? So we'll look at the theology and then we'll look at life, that's the plan, well how does change occur, these folks haven't seen each other for 20 years, and there has been some changes, first thing I want to tell you is that change comes by God's grace, godly change comes by God's grace, we could talk about ungodly change, there are some people who seem to go from bad to worse, but that would be a different text, maybe in Samuel with King's Saul or someone like that, and we'll save that for a different time, this morning we'll talk about positive change, godly change, change the kind of change God wants, and that kind of change comes about by God's grace, and usually in two ways, the first thing that happens is God just works in the person's heart, it's invisible, we don't see it, even when we're experiencing it, we may not be aware that that's what's happening, the God's at work in our heart, but that is what's going on. The other aspect of what God does is he brings about change by his grace, is he orchestrates all the details of our circumstances in such a way that we're forced to deal with stuff. This story just screams of that, the one area that's the closest we won't look at today, but I'll mention it quickly is Jacob, that bad boy has changed just a little bit, he's a man of faith, he's been born again, but he's slow to change. He favors Benjamin now, and he's not letting Benjamin out of his sight during these chapters, the big fight is getting Benjamin away from his father,
and it's not until the circumstances are such that everyone in his household will die if he doesn't let him go, that he exercises faith. But again, we're not looking at that today, just take my word for it there, there's another aspect, change comes through faith and repentance, through faith and repentance. God's grace is using both our circumstances and that mysterious and visible work of his spirit to bring about change, and when it hits us, it hits us in terms of re-exercise faith and repentance, and I've broken down two little statements here regarding that. First of all, faith includes always believing God. Does that sound a little bit awkward to you? I mean, when I wrote it, I first wrote it, faith always includes believing God, and I thought, well, I want to give emphasis to this word always, so faith includes always. We're always supposed to believe in him, and this is important because it's easy for us to understand that we believe the gospel, we believe the nice and creed, or the apostles creed, or the statements of faith, and if we believe it all the time, but it's not necessarily resident and ruling in our lives, but when faith and repentance come about, when there's this faith that brings about change, it's in the middle of circumstances, and I'll just give you an example in family life, man and woman get married, and usually, often at the wedding, there's talk about what love is, love is patient, love is kind, we do first Corinthians 13, if I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not loved it, prophets mean nothing, we define it, love is patient, love is kind, it is not rooted, it is not, you know what I mean. And everyone knows what love is, and everyone believes it, they believe by faith that that's what love should look like, and that in that marriage, the husband ought to reflect something of Christ and the bride ought to reflect something of the church, right? And their love relationship should reflect Christ in his church. They believe it, but what happens when junior comes along, the little boy six weeks old, he's been crying for three weeks straight at night, and they're both pretending they're asleep, does faith in that situation say I'm going to love my spouse and not pretend to be asleep, but certain, that's just an idea, this is something Joseph certainly going to have to struggle with, how am I going to treat my brother, he's starting by speaking harshly and concealing his identity. Well, there's not only faith, there's also repentance, repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of heart, that leads to a change of behavior, and that order is important. Faith and repentance are a work of God's grace, keep that in mind and this order, a change of mind that leads to a change of heart, that leads to a change of behavior, that's what's going on, and I want us to think about it now in a real life situation. Let's start with Joseph. Joseph hasn't seen his brothers in 20 some odd years,
like we said, the first, last time he saw him, it was under adverse circumstances. You know, the text says that he recognized them, but his brothers didn't recognize them, but they bow down to the ground and he remembered his dream. Let me ask you, was that the first time he had remembered that dream, those dreams? Yeah, I see someone shaking their head now, I don't think so. I think he thought a lot about what happened to him, what they did to him.
Some of his thinking may have been doubts, I don't know all the things that he thought, but certainly he thought about it, I just can't imagine him not. And why is it that he's watching over international trade? The man is over all of Egypt. He could sit in, maybe not an air conditioned room in his day, but he could be left alone and served and manage things and orchestrate things any way he wanted. Why is he watching the international trade? Don't you think he thought about what his brothers did to him and what he dreamed when he was being carried in the caravan to Egypt and when he was in Potiphar's house and when he was in prison? And especially when he interpreted the dreams of the cup bear and the baker and the three days and then it happened just the way the dream he interpreted it and then there's all these years and he's forgotten in prison. Don't you think he thought about it and when Pharaoh had his dreams and there were two just like Joseph had and now there's been seven years of plenty and they've started the seven years of famine. We know by chapter 45 he's able to tell his brothers, okay you sent me here by evil intent but God sent me to preserve life. Those are like three or four times. Can you imagine the emotional turmoil? I'll tell you something else I think and it's not in the text although Moses you know he's telling us he could have just said and the brothers came to Egypt. Joseph hid his identity from them until a certain time when Benjamin came and he rebuild himself and thus all Israel was saved and came to Egypt. Something short less than a chapter but we have all these words, these long chapters that tell us in detail what's going on. I think I think Joseph's probably like you were me in that he had discussions with them in his head. When I see those brothers this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell them and I bet he worked through I don't know this I know how I am I would have worked through a couple scenarios. I would have certainly worked through the harsh scenario and given them the justice they so richly deserve. Let them rot in prison.
I probably would have had the I'm bigger than they are conversations with them about how they did it for evil but I will protect them and take care of them and all that sort of stuff. I don't mean to be little Joseph at all I mean to say that's how I think that's how we all are right we we think that way we have those kind of conversation and I don't know if this is none of mine ever work out according to the way I think they will so I'm not trying to suggest he's got this all figured out I'm just trying to say he would have been an emotional wreck when he saw his brothers it's no wonder he concealed his identity and spoke harshly and I think there's something in the text that points out that there's a struggle going on namely they're in prison three days before they go to prison they're saying this get the irony we're honest man he knows they're not spies though doesn't he and yet he says you're spies and by this we'll know I'm gonna put you all in prison and that one of you go back and bring back your younger brother improve your words and then in prison for three to three days and don't you know he was struggling during those three days and this is where we see something of change look at what happens when when this time is these three days are over it says he put them all in custody for three days that's verse 17 on verse 18 on the third day Joseph said to them do this and you will live for I fear God if you are honest man let one of your brothers stay in prison while the rest of you take grain back to your starving household you hear the difference he's gonna let him all go except for one rather than keep them all except for one that's a change it's a change in the way he's treating them you get the sense there's even a change in his tone before it tells us he spoke harshly your spies you've come to look at the unprotected part of the lands it's legitimate you would expect such things going on it's they believe it but when he speaks to them after three days it's do this and live where I fear God do you see it there's at least an expression of faith I fear God do this and live for I fear God no you're spy do this and live for I fear God there's some kind of change that's taking place in his thinking and we see again in verse 25 we didn't read down that far but you haven't printed on page 7 Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain to put each man silver back in a sack and to give them provisions for the journey
just change there's a change of heart there's that that faith I fear God and then there's this change of heart that's invisible change of mind that leads to a change of heart but we do see the change in behavior don't we what about the brothers we're going to look at them again next week but we'll take a few minutes to look at it in this text you know it's amazing they they say some two things and some not true things we're not spies true enough we're honest then well
and they tell about that they tell the truth about you know we're 12 brothers one with dad the land of Canaan and one's no more that's no that's true in their way of thinking of it when they sold them into slavery they didn't anticipate him surviving that they probably even thought of themselves as honest men and I think we'll see evidence over these chapters that they're changed but they've been living on the basis of a lie for 20 years they knew when they told dad hey dad here's this blood stained coat it it looks like Joseph please examine it and see if it's your son that was all a con job they were the ones that killed the animal and put the blood on it having sold their brother into slavery and they have lived on the basis of that lie for 20 years and it's it's driven them crazy after Joseph speaks to them and tells them what they have to do after their three days in prison verse 21 they said to one another surely we are being punished because of our brother we saw how distrust he was when he pleaded with us for his life but we would not listen that's why this distress has come upon us verse 22 Rubin replied didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy but you would not listen now we must give an account for his blood I don't think Rubin didn't be better off he was part of the duplicitous life of dad and all that other stuff not as bad there's different degrees of bad right and he's bad but not as bad any change you know there's enough there's an awareness of sin that that someone without any faith or any repentance could make this comment yeah I killed him so what yeah hang me I deserve it so what you can be aware of your sin you can be aware that it's wrong and and not have any change of heart no change of mind that leads to a change of heart that leads to a change of behavior but is there any evidence that that's what's going on here maybe just a little bit in these verses for example remember the last time they saw Joseph their brother they said here comes that dreamer listen to the way they talk now our brother we are surely being punished because of our brother refer to him as the boy small but there's a change and in the text between now and when Joseph reveals himself to them there's really four tests Joseph says you're going to be tested to see if you're honest men and this is the test you bring Benjamin back and on though you're being honest but there's really there's there's at least four tests there's the Benjamin test you're gonna are you really honest and remember he knows the answer he knows they're not spies he knows that there's twelve brothers and there's your younger brother at home
he knows it he keeps pushing for Joseph he wants his brother his full blooded brother but there is something of a test with the silvery puts the silver back in their bags and and I don't know what to make of it is he is he merely expressing his kindness because as I read the text and reread the text and reread reread the text I see that he never demands it back they fasts up then fact they feel terribly guilty when when they see the money look at the last line on page seven what is this that God has done to us they bring it back they show that they're honest that's kind of important too when you think about what they did to Joseph selling him for silver when they do bring Joseph back there's another test there's a dinner that's set up for them a lunch whatever noon day meal whatever you'd like to call it maybe it was a covered dish meal but Joseph had him all sit according to their birth order at the same table the Egyptians at another table and Joseph at his own table and they were served portions from Joseph's table don't you know that they were a little bit unnerved by the the seating arrangements when they went to that meal they were already scared and already pleading with the servants at the house like we brought the silver we brought gifts we we didn't mean to do anything wrong we brought back the silver that was in our bags from last time and the guy says relax your god gave you that I got your silver when they ate all the portions that they ate came from Joseph's table and they were all equal except for Benjamin's he got five times as much a little bit of favoritism the brothers gave no evidence of jealousy or hatred and you know how you can tell we we can be at someone house for a meal or they at our house and we can watch the interaction the frustration the none of it they enjoyed their time together and then when Joseph again ups the ante and in his deception says to them trickery I don't know maybe I shouldn't use deception whatever it is that Joseph's doing this game he's playing with him this charade when he has this his silver cut put in Benjamin's bag and you know sends them on with their grain and and after they've left since soldiers to chase him down and says you stole from my master and they say oh we didn't still if you find anything of your masters in our stuff well I'll be your slaves and we'll kill the one who did it and the guy says okay and they go through the sack starting with the oldest getting to the youngest and they know where they put it and they all come back all come back all come back and Judah gives the most beautiful speech
he shows what substitutionary atoneman is all about but we'll look at that next week there is a change the change in heart change of mind that led to a change of heart that led to a change in behavior but I want to just one thing in in conclusion you know with his brothers there's not any reconciliation god is still taking care of them although they've never dealt with this with god they've never dealt with it with their dad they've never been honest about their sin and dealt with it and it's driving them crazy even though god is gracious to them even though god is at work in their lives even though there's going to be reconciliation and forgiveness right now their sins are driving them crazy what about it how is god changing you I'm sure he's changing and especially you have put your faith in Christ you see him giving you faith in the moment how he changes your mind on something that leads to a change of heart that leads to a change of behavior is there some unfinished business though some secret sins that are dogging you that you've never said anything about to anyone I don't mean to tell you how to work that out but I do mean to tell you to work it out
to get it out to talk to the appropriate people and let god set you free from it's a part of his grace it's a big part of the kind of change in our lives that brings the peace of god that surpasses all a comprehension what a beautiful story god how amazing is your word that you would tell us things that really happen and we can see it and how how the theology parts of your Bible just really stack up well against it and show this is what it looks like when we live it out and in real life and Father we we can identify with Joseph and his brothers and his family at some level
and some of us do have dark secrets that changed us we're different but we've never dealt with that have mercy by your grace working in our hearts and in our circumstances so that's free we ask for Christ our Lord