I Still Hate Tests

It's continued to be mystified and perplexed and frustrated by the things that are happening to them. But what a great comfort and a great encouragement it is for us to know the end of the story and for us to know what Joseph has in mind and to be able to see how he orchestrates, how he works and directs all of these affairs to that end. Father again, we're people who are perplexed and confused and frustrated by things that we all too often don't understand. We need for you to grant to us the faith that we need to believe, that you are Joseph, that you have good endings, and that you are working with wisdom and power to accomplish those ends in each of our lives, or your people need to be reminded of this, they need to apprehend it in their souls. And so come and help and assist us as we consider your words, see and understand the truth that is here. He prays in Jesus name, and then he may be seated and Bob gave me a note after the announcement so that I want to pass along the youth. And that is just to let you know that I hadn't father died this morning of colon cancer and other complications, and Thai is in Cincinnati with his father along with Patricia. So I would encourage if you would to add Thai and Patricia, particularly Thai to your prayers as you make your way through the week this week. Just keep these folks in your prayers. Thai, I guess you could say, along with Scott and Angie, along with lots of us in our respective ways, are facing tests. I hated tests last week, I still hate tests this week. Not just for me but for others, the kind of thing that's gotten angier dealing with, the kind of thing that Thai is dealing with, I have some friends, they're fairly new friends. But who are themselves facing a test, sort of a literal test, but it's a spiritual test as well. The husband in this family has been preparing and studying and working hard to take a test. And last week he took a test and he didn't pass the test. It softens it to say that he didn't pass the test. It's more harsh to say he failed the test, but he failed the test, he didn't pass it. The tests are hard things but they don't go away. We all, as my friends and this Thai and Patricia and Scott and Angie know right now, we all face tests and tests do some things, they expose weaknesses among other things. The kind of tests that my friends have been through, not the literal tests sitting in a classroom and filling out blue books or writing little black marks in those tests that get read by machine, not those kinds of tests, but the spiritual tests that these folks are going through, expose weaknesses, they expose, they test, they try our faith and our convictions and our belief and how secure and solid we are in those convictions and in that faith and in that belief. And when you come to tests, it makes all the difference in the world. It seems to me, it makes all the difference in the world to know something about the one who is administering the test. And Dr. Leslie is a junior at Covenant College about three weeks ago, she had a big math test. Now you need to understand that Malone's do not possess math genes and when a Malone faces a big math test to matter of some concern, it's a reason to pray. And after Leslie took the test, we talked to her on the phone, she said, Dad, Mom, you're going to believe this, but the professor prayed for us before we took the test and he really wanted us to do well, makes all the difference in the world to know something about the one who is administering the test. Joseph's brothers are facing a test and what we said last week is that Joseph in his relationship to his brothers is a picture of God and his relationship to us. For the brothers, the test is confusing and perplexing, for the father, it's excruciating. But here are the things that we saw about Joseph. He's free of the influence of his brothers. He doesn't exist and he doesn't exercise his authority because the brothers have voted him into this position of authority. And with the wisdom and the power and the authority that he has, that Joseph has, he works and he orchestrates. You've even seen this over and over and over again. And he has good purposes and we know the end of the story and so we know where it's going. And so the anguish and the excruciating nature of the whole thing, we don't feel the weight of, but they did. And what we can see is that Joseph is using his wisdom as authority, his power for good and his friends. He's independent of them, but then the other things that we saw is that he is personal. He's personal, knows his brothers, knows their differences, knows what he's doing with them, and then even more significant independent and personal Joseph is engaged with his brothers. Five times he leaps, he leaps for his brothers. He loans for reconciliation, he loans for their restoration. He leaps over them, even as he orchestrates these excruciating circumstances in their life. It makes a difference to know something about the one who's administering the task. It makes a huge difference, but now what about the ones who are being tested? What are the brothers? What's the outworking of this whole thing? Well, as you look at chapters 43 and 44, and as the brothers make this return trip, to Egypt, the story no longer is so much the story of the brothers, though the brothers are there. It really becomes the story of one of the brothers that becomes the story of Judah. It is Judah who emerges as the leader of the family. It is Judah who is the one above all the others who passes the test and who steps forward and who then intercedes for the family. It's a great story. It's a great biography to study, if you will, the life of Judah. Here's kind of a quick rehearsal of that biography, a quick review of that story. Judah is the fourth of Jacob's sons. Typically, in this culture, the oldest is the one who should emerge as the family leader, but Judah is the fourth of Jacob's sons, behind Ruben and Simeon and Levi. That's the birth order that's given in Genesis 29, verses 31 to 35. How does Judah emerge as the family leader? Well, in part, because the older three brothers fail in their responsibility as older brothers. Ruben, by right, should have been as the first born, the one who inherit that mantle. If you read Genesis 35, this one verse, Genesis 35, 22, Ruben gives up that right because of an act of arrogance and presumption he sleeps with one of his father's concubines. He sleeps with Bilha, Rachel's servant. It's a presumptive, arrogant thing that Ruben does. When Jacob later in Genesis blesses all of his sons, he actually said from Ruben because of Ruben's arrogance and presumption, he, quote, went up on his father's bed, and so will not have preeminent among the brothers, the presumptive act, an arrogant act. You see, an illustration of it in 2 Samuel 16, mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, I think, when Absalom in the midst of his rebellion and after David has fled the city in fear of his life, Absalom sleeps with David's concubines and his counselors encourage him to do it out in the open, pitching a tent on a patio at the King's palace, an act of presumption and arrogance in Ruben forfeits the blessing because of his arrogance. What about Simeon and Levi? Regenesis 34, and you read there of Simeon and Levi's indiscriminate acts of revenge, Dina had been violated by the son of the King of Shechem and Simeon and Levi murdered all the men of the city in retaliation, in response, vicious, brutal, indiscriminate acts of revenge. And so in Genesis 49, 5 through 7, again, when Jacob is blessing the sons, he removes his blessing from these sons because they are willful and impulsive and bloodthirsty, and so they forfeit the right to this family mantle of leadership. And so then there is Judah, the fourth son, but as you read Judah's biography, there's not a whole lot of difference between Judah and his three elder brothers Ruben and Simeon and Levi. You read chapter 37, which is the chapter in which this whole plot to sell Joseph into slavery is concocted, it means to have Joseph preserved and kept from being murdered, but it is Judah who has the idea to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelite traders. It looks like an act of mercy, but if you think about it, it's not really an act of mercy. It's an act by which Judah can keep his conscience clean and not be responsible for having shed innocent blood that he spares life, yes, but what was he more interested in? Not interested in Joseph's life, simply interested in not having blood on his own hands. Let's let the blood be on the hands of the Ishmaelites. He had no idea what would happen to Joseph. He could have no confidence that the Ishmaelites would not sell Joseph into some horrible situation where in some horrible situation he would die either by murder or by deprivation. You can almost hear Judah saying, we want to be rid of this arrogant nuisance, but we want to be rid of him in such a way that there is no blood on our hands, so let his blood be on their hands, not exactly stellar leadership, then in chapter 38, this first verse is such a powerful metaphor for what is going on in Judah's life. The text says that Judah went down in among the Canaanites and the metaphor is that he left by going down. He left the lofty and high calling of covenant relationship with the one true God. Is there a God as great as our God? Where is he? What is he? Who is he? Doesn't exist. He doesn't know who performs miracles. The one true God is the one who displays his power among the people. There are no other gods. And Judah forfeits all of it. He gives it all up to go down in among the Canaanites and to marry a Canaanite woman. An unbeliever. And then having married this Canaanite woman, having sons by this Canaanite woman, his son, then, oldest son, marries another Canaanite woman. But the son dies, and so the woman is given them to the second son, but that son dies, and Judah fails in his duty to care for the wife of his dead son. And she's left exposed. She's left without help. She's left without safety. And so she conceives a plan in her mind. And by her plan, she puts herself forward as a temple prostitute. She seduces Judah. She conceives twins by Judah. The other part of her plot and her scheme against Judah is that she secures his signet, probably a little ring that had something on it that was Judah's mark. His signet, his cord, and his staff. And later, when it is determined that she is pregnant, he asks that she be brought out and in effect tried, and in the course of the trial, she presents these things that belong to Judah. And this is the critical moment in Judah's story. It's the critical moment in Judah's story. Don't pass over this moment too quickly. It's the critical moment in Judah's story. It's the critical moment in anybody's story. It is the place where Judah has the choice to acknowledge and accept who he is as one who has sinned and broken God's law and violated another image, bear of God. Or he can be engaged in games and blame shifting and denial, pushing responsibility for his sin away from himself. It's the critical moment in Judah's life, and Judah, Judah responds well. And when confronted with another, it says, literally, she is righteous, and I am not. In most of the translation, there's a more comparative sense to the phrase, she is more righteous than I am, but in the original, it's very, she is the righteous one, this canonite woman, she is the righteous one, this woman who is a canonite, she is the righteous one, and I am not righteous. It's a turning point for Judah, it's a turning point for anybody. It's a turning point for a person who has never really understood the nature of his or her own sin and rebellion against God. Maybe that's you. Maybe these are words that you've heard. Maybe you've heard words like sin and rebellion. Judah certainly had, but they've never been anything more for you than ideas or theories, but understand, and I plead with you to understand this. A baguette eye is this because the consequences are so significant, understand that sin is rebellion against the one true God who really does exist and who will gather all men and women at the bar of justice and will render verdicts concerning guilt or innocence. Judah understood that for the first time, but maybe you've heard it, maybe you understood it at some point in the past, but you've sort of forgotten it. If you've forgotten that sin continues to be a problem and continues to be a problem, and you're engaged in these denials and this bleam shifting and this ishing a wensibility from yourself, it is a fool's errand to do that, it's a fool's errand. Judah understands that, the pivotal moment for him, the turning point for him, he faces his sin, his unrighteousness, and in effect, he repents, he repents, he owns his own rebellion against God, his own violation of God by his sin, and it begins then for Judah, this sort of upward movement, it's not perfect, it's not without its hills and valleys and its tight spots and difficulties, but Judah, from that point forward, begins to emerge as a family leader who is deeply conscious of himself and his relationship to God and who as the narrative makes very clear, is sensitive to the problem of sin, so as the famine narrative begins in 421 and throughout the chapter, when the brothers speak, as the narrative unfolds, it is Judah who gains the ascendancy, it is Judah who steps forward, in chapter 42 it is the brothers speaking together, verse 7, they said, verse 10, they said, verse 10, we are all sons, twice and after Ruben speaks in chapter 42, 43, but after Ruben speaks the second time, speaks rashly and impulsively saying, kill my two sons, if I don't bring your son back to you, after that it is Judah who emerges, and throughout chapter 43 and then chapter 44 it is Judah who speaks, he speaks first to Jacob, he reasons with Jacob, he steps out from the crowd and addresses his father and seeks to reason with his father regarding taking vengeance, and then in chapter 44, verse 14, now it is no longer just the brothers who are identified, but it is Judah and his brothers, Judah identified separately from the brothers and through the rest of chapter 44 it is Judah who speaks, Judah speaking for the family, something's happened in this guideline, he's a different person, he's owned responsibility for his sin, he's owned responsibility for who he is, he's repented of it, he's turned from it, he's been restored, he's returned, and now he emerges, he comes out of the pack, out of the group, nobody else speaks, nobody else vies for this position, Judah emerges and comes out of the group to speak for the family, to intercede for the family, Judah has passed the test, Judah has passed the test, Judah doesn't seek to blame somebody else for what happened as Ruben did, Ruben you'll remember was the one when the whole plot was concocted who opposed the plot, who didn't want for this all to happen, and who then in chapter 42 says basically see I told you this was going to happen, pushing away from himself, pushing it on to his brothers, Judah doesn't do that, Judah acknowledges his guilt, and their guilt, 44 16, said what shall we say to my Lord, what shall we speak, how can we clear ourselves, God has found out the guilt of your servants, what guilt is he talking about, not talking about the guilt of stealing money, of extorting money from Joseph, he knows that he is innocent of that charge, he also knows that it's not Joseph with whom he has to do finally, he knows that it is God with whom he has to do, God has found out the guilt of your servant, doesn't press it away, he acknowledges their guilt, he knows that they are innocent of the one charge but guilty regarding Joseph, Judah passes the test by remaining loyal, remaining loyal to the family, remaining loyal to the promises of the covenant, and then Judah passes the test in a couple of other ways, he emerges as a leader, interceding for his family, before Joseph, and he merges as a leader in verse 33, offering himself as a substitute for Benjamin, how different from Rubens response, if I don't bring Benjamin back, kill my two sons, Judah offers himself, one of the commentators notes that this is the first time in all of scripture, where one person offers himself for another person, that's the biography of Jacob, the biography of a man who is changed, the biography of a man who doesn't press responsibility away from himself, who doesn't dismiss it, the biography of a man who when confronted acknowledges the fact that it is true, and who having acknowledged the truth about himself begins to be true to emerge as a selfless, sacrificing man willing to give himself up for his brother Benjamin, for the safety, the well-being, the security of his family, great story, great biography, great spiritual truth in it, but you know if you stop with Judah, if you just stop with his biography, all you have is a lesson in morality, that's all you have, if you stop with Judah, if you look at Judah's life and you don't go beyond Judah, then all you can say to yourself having looked at Judah is, and all I could say to you having looked at Judah is, go be like Judah,

but there's more to Judah's story than Judah, the whole thing, the whole story, the whole narrative is intended to point beyond itself, beyond Judah to the greater Judah, to the lion of Judah, to the one from whom the sector will never depart to the one who has authority to rule even Jesus, the heir of Judah, the descendant of Judah, Judah is intended to direct our attention to Jesus, who liked Judah but in a far greater way passed the test, not just the test but every test.

The story is intended to direct our attention to Jesus, who was tempted in every way as you are, and yet did not sin to Jesus, who, though a son, the very son of God, learned obedience through the things that he suffered, Hebrews 5. Judah's a great story, great story about one who passed the test, great story like the stories we read of David who roused himself and bared his arm and

and I tell you folks that if we stop with Judah and we stop with David, all we do is teach one another and teach our children to be great moralists and great Pharisees who will go away from the scriptures relying upon their own strength, looking to their own abilities, rousing themselves by their own strengths to try to be something for God. It's not about Judah, it's not about David, it's about Jesus, Jesus who vanquishes the lion, Jesus who slays the opponents of God, Jesus who is the commander of the Lord's armies, who rouses himself and past and leaves us and enables us to follow him in his wake as he goes forth to fight for the Lord. The story of Judah is not about Judah, it's about Jesus who passed not an isolated test having failed previously but who passed every single test throughout the course of his life who emerges as one who is in a position to offer himself as a substitute for those who have failed. So you got to look beyond Judah, you got to see Jesus in it, you got to see Jesus as the one who lived the perfect life for you who are guilty. Are you guilty this morning? I mean people come to these services of worship, I know they do, they don't disclose the things to me that are going on in their head and in their heart. What's the last week been like for you? Where have you failed? I say this to you periodically, where have you failed? Not in some new area, it'd be nice wouldn't it wouldn't it be nice to fail in some new area? Wouldn't that be a refreshing change? But where have you failed in the same area? Again having failed there before a thousand time.

Husbands where have you failed to love your wives as Christ loves the church, denying himself, setting all of his preferences, all of his desires aside? With a singular focus of loving his bride even to the point of death so that she might be spotless and radiant. Where have you sacrificed yourselves for them, wives? Where have you in turn submitted yourselves to your husbands,

resisting all of these voices and cries out there in the culture? That you have rights and you stand for your rights and you cling to your rights and you demand your rights. Where have you cast it all aside? And said no! But I will lay down my life from my husband, from my children, from my neighbor. Have you failed to fulfill this admonition and Ephesians that we submit to one another out of reverence for Christ? Where have you failed with your anger? Where have you failed with your lust? Where have you failed to act with courage and address something in yourself or something in somebody else? You come here with guilt, folks. You come here with lots of it. Lots more than you know and you see the story of Judah points you beyond itself to the one who has passed every single test. Where have you been tested and failed? Here's the work of Christ for you. Come with guilty consciences. You come burdened. You've been tested, you've failed. But know this, know this. Scriptures are teaching you that at every single point where you have been tested and failed, Christ has been tested and been victorious. You've been victorious. And so, folks, it's not about you going out of here and trying to be Judah-like or David-like. This is the point. All that does is produce Pharisees and I hate Pharisees. I hate them, but I really hate their sin. This passage is telling you to look beyond yourself, look beyond your performance, look beyond your doing of things to Jesus who has performed and who has done so that you don't have to. You don't have to perform anymore. You don't have to do anymore. Making nervous? Good. Cause your feet to shift, good. Because Jesus has done it all and the only thing for me to do now and the thing that sets me free and the thing that enables me to go forth and do, however imperfectly, but with joy, the thing that enables me to do that is knowing that Christ has done it and I receive it by faith. We look to so many things, look to our own efforts, look to our own strength, look to resources outside of ourselves, but I swear to you, we look first and it seems always as a kind of a first impulse and instinct made rather than to God Himself, who has provided everything for us and Jesus. So you come here and I come here and folks I come here to, I come here painfully aware of my own weakness and failing.

All too conscious of the particulars of it. I come into the presence of one who has passed every test, failing none for me and the only thing for me to do is rest in what He has done and that's the only thing for you to do. Rest in what He has done, pray to get it. Where Jesus, this is the hardest thing in the world for us, we're successful people, we're hardworking people, we're ambitious people,

we're afraid to admit and acknowledge our family. It's very difficult for us to give up the trying, give up the doing, give up the performing, and simply rest. You, the one who has passed the test for us, the Lord help us. Give us your grace, give us your comfort, give us your encouragement, but mostly give us the faith to rest in you.