[0:00] Seeking the Lord's blessing, we'll turn to the portion of scripture we read.
[0:13] Genesis chapter 41. And we'll read at verse 41.
[0:38] Genesis chapter 41 at verse 41. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
[0:50] And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand and put it upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had.
[1:02] And they cried before him, Bow the knee. And he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt. Now we saw last time how Joseph withstood the temptation of Potiphar's wife.
[1:25] But as a result, he was cast into prison by Potiphar himself. Potiphar was a powerful man in Egypt. And he cast Joseph into the dungeon where the king's prisoners were kept.
[1:41] And that was to Joseph the depths of his own humiliation. As a young man, God had given him dreams. But before these dreams were to be realized, he was to pass through the valley, like all the Lord's people have to pass through.
[1:55] And as Christ preeminently had to pass through, he passed through the valley. And it was bad enough to be rough-handled by his own brothers and left in a pit, and then sold into Egypt.
[2:08] But no worse than that, he was cast into the dungeon. And as Psalm 105 tells us, his feet were cut with the fetters, the iron fetters with which he was chained.
[2:20] And that tells us that at least in the first part of his term in prison, Joseph was in pain as well as in solitude. And so, if Joseph is a type of Christ, and I hope we've seen very clearly how he is, a type of Christ, then this is his darkest hour.
[2:39] It is the depths of his humiliation, or you could say it is his Golgotha. This is when he is forsaken by man, and to all appearances he looks as though he's forsaken by God.
[2:52] Although the Psalm tells us that the word of God tried him, he laid hold of the word of God in prison. He kept hold of the dreams, and he never forgot them, until finally God opened the prison, and he set him free.
[3:05] And I'm sure on many an occasion, the type of Christ, Joseph, would cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But there is a strange thing.
[3:19] Just as Christ's glory was seen in the midst of the darkness of Golgotha, so Joseph's glory is seen in the darkness of the dungeon as well.
[3:32] God doesn't leave us without witness, even on the cross, with respect to who Christ is. On the cross, in the midst of darkness, and though he has made a curse, still the glory of Christ shines through that darkness.
[3:46] And the same is true with Joseph here. His glory is still seen. The child of God is the same. No matter how deep the valley he passes through, he emits light.
[3:58] He always emits light. And Joseph is like that. You'll notice, first of all, that the Lord gives some favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.
[4:10] And at the end of chapter 39 here, in verse 21, the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. So much so that the keeper of the prison, obviously, unlocks him from the iron fetters and gives him some kind of measure of liberty in the dungeon.
[4:31] So much so that the keeper of the prison, we're told, committed the rest of the prisoners in the prison to Joseph's hand. And not only that, but we're told that someone else recognized the glory of Joseph again.
[4:46] And this actually lends support to what I said a couple of weeks ago. If you remember, I suggested to you that Potiphar never fully believed what his wife said about Joseph. In other words, Potiphar had a fair idea that his wife was not innocent in the affair at all.
[5:02] And he probably deeply suspected that Joseph was really the innocent party, although for his own sake and for appearance's sake, he had to put Joseph into the dungeon. But you look what happens here in chapter 40 and verse 2.
[5:16] We're told that Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief butler and against the chief baker. Now listen, he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard.
[5:29] Now that's Potiphar. The dungeon was connected, obviously, somehow to Potiphar's house, or shall we say Potiphar's premises, to the place where Joseph was bound. And listen to this, verse 4.
[5:40] And the captain of the guard, that's Potiphar, charged Joseph with them. And he served them. And they continued a season in ward. Now what does that tell you?
[5:51] Well, it tells you that Potiphar himself was still seeing the glory of Joseph, even in the depths of his humiliation. In much the same way as the Son of God, hung upon his cross, in the darkness.
[6:07] And yet the centurion was constrained to say, truly, this is a righteous man. So the glory of Joseph shines through. Now, it's also seen in another way.
[6:23] Not only does the keeper of the prison and the captain of the guard recognize that there is something remarkable about this man, that the power of God resides in him, and that he is God's chosen vessel, but God appoints Joseph in the depths of the dungeon to be a dispenser of life to one and a dispenser of death to the other.
[6:47] In much the same way as Christ crucified saves one thief on one side and condemns another on the other side, so here Joseph is a means of life to one and a means of death to the other.
[7:06] Now that is not an accidental comparison. And I say that for this reason. The whole life of Joseph was meant to teach the Jews who would follow what the Messiah would be like.
[7:16] If they would take to heart the story of Joseph and what God was teaching them, they would recognize the signs of the Son of God. And one of the great signs was this, that in the very darkness he would be saving.
[7:30] In other words, he was entering into humiliation in order to bring souls to life and in order to condemn others. That is the very function of the Christ. He descended down into the depth to save souls.
[7:45] He's not inactive upon the cross. He is active upon the cross. And that is what he shows when he saves one of these thieves who says, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
[7:56] And he says to him, truly I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Now I want to look with you at Joseph and these two companions.
[8:07] You could say one on the right and one on the left. Now these two people with him are very important men in Egypt. Let's take, first of all, the butler.
[8:19] Now the butler, or as you could read the expression, the cup bearer, had a particular duty in Pharaoh's household. He had to supervise the whole process of winemaking and serving wine to Pharaoh himself.
[8:35] He was responsible for every part of it, from the crushing of the grape to putting the cup into Pharaoh's hand. And perhaps the single most important part of his duty was to taste the wine that was to be presented to Pharaoh.
[8:51] It was his job to ensure that there was no poison in that wine, that Pharaoh wasn't being got at in any way. All these duties were committed to the hand of the butler or the cup bearer.
[9:04] And then you have the baker. Now the Egyptians were famous for their bakery. Apparently they had 58 varieties of bread itself. But the word baker here again covers a bit more, perhaps more, in the idea of a chef.
[9:20] Again his responsibility was to supervise all the festivals and festivities in Pharaoh's household. He was to see to it that the table was adequate, that it was well furnished, and that the meal was satisfactory for Pharaoh and for all who were partaking of that meal.
[9:38] Now Pharaoh has them both cast in prison and they're put in ward for a trial period because Pharaoh has suspected them both of being accomplices in one way or another in an attempt to be rid of himself.
[9:53] Now, Pharaoh's birthday was coming up and that was an important time for Pharaoh. And very often during the birthday of the Pharaoh he would set important people free.
[10:09] Or it was the custom during the birthday for him to pronounce the fate of certain prisoners. He would on that day rule whether they would be set free or whether they would be condemned.
[10:21] Now three days before that birthday the butler and the baker have a dream. And they both recognize from the urgency of the dream that something is speaking to them in it.
[10:33] It's one of those things where they know it's just not an ordinary event. It's not just a dream. It is a dream that to them carries meaning and it carries significance. They feel there is something in it that it has come from a higher than themselves.
[10:48] And when Joseph walks into their own room or their own place in the dungeon he recognizes on their faces immediately that they are sad. And Joseph asks them why?
[11:00] And they said we have dreamed a dream and there is no one to interpret it. And then strangely Joseph says interpretations belong to God. Tell me the dream.
[11:13] Now friends that is an amazing thing for Joseph to say and it's an amazing thing for the butler and the baker to hear when you think of it that way. After all here's a slave who's been a nobody for several years.
[11:26] A Hebrew. And he comes up to them and says interpretations belong to God. Tell me the dream. It would be small wonder if the butler and the baker turned round to Joseph and said who do you think you are?
[11:42] You say they belong to God the interpretations of dreams. Well why then should we tell you what the dreams are or ask you or in any way trust you with respect to what the dreams mean or what they could be telling us.
[11:55] It's as though the thieves on the cross would as it were cast into the face of Christ come down and save yourself. You who make such great claims with respect to yourself why are you hanging on the cross?
[12:06] Why are you in a place of shame and in a place of damnation and in a place of cursedness? Why should we trust you? Or why should we listen to you? Or believe that you are who you say you are?
[12:19] And it's at this point that the distinction appears. Because the butler straight away comes forward. And shall we say that he comes forward perhaps in a measure of faith.
[12:32] And he immediately tells Joseph the dream that he has dreamed. Now that dream was just a vine with three branches and in his dream he saw the branches coming to life and full ripe grapes on them.
[12:49] and he saw himself in front of the branch with a cup and he laid hold of the grapes and he crushed the grape juice into the cup and he gave it to Pharaoh.
[13:01] That was his dream. It was as simple as that. But he gives that dream to Joseph. He doesn't do it as though he's wanting his fortune read.
[13:13] He doesn't do it because he wants somebody as it were to play games with him or because he's playing games with Joseph. The butler is deadly serious. And the butler if I'm not mistaken has recognized that Joseph is a man with authority and that Joseph has come from God.
[13:30] He's been watching him in the prison. He's been watching his life and he's been listening to his speech. Do you suppose that Joseph said nothing in the prison about God? Do you suppose he said nothing about eternity?
[13:42] Do you suppose he said nothing about Jacob his father? About Abraham? His grandfather? His great grandfather? Do you suppose he was silent on all this? No my friend. Joseph went into the darkness to speak and to witness and to testify.
[13:57] And when Joseph says God can tell you the meaning of it, tell me the dream, the butler doesn't hesitate and he tells Joseph the dream.
[14:09] He sees the nobility of the man. He doesn't speak like the scribes and the Pharisees. He speaks with authority as a man sent from God. I'll return to that in a moment.
[14:21] Then Joseph of course tells him the meaning of the dream. Within three days he said you are going to be back in your place and you're going to be giving the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Forward comes the baker to tell him his own dream.
[14:35] And you think well that's exactly the same. But it's not exactly the same. And I'll tell you why it's not exactly the same. You have a little clue in verse 16 here. Chapter 40 verse 16.
[14:48] Now listen to these words. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good he said to Joseph I also was in my dream and I had three white baskets on my head and in the uppermost basket there was all kinds of baked meats for Pharaoh and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
[15:16] Now how is this different? Well he has a different spirit. It's interesting that he's not the one first to come forward. And he comes forward with a particular motive. We're told that he saw the thing was good.
[15:28] He heard that the message given to his friend there was good and perhaps he saw that his friend's face was lifted up by it. And he says well I might as well as it were get my own fortune told. Or turn it doesn't appear to be faith who is motivating this man.
[15:47] If it was I'm sure the message would be a different thing. It wasn't any respect that he had to the glory of God in Joseph. It was just that he saw that the interpretation was good and he wanted to hear a good thing for himself.
[16:03] Now my friend how true this is at Golgotha as well. When Christ is in the depth of his humiliation there beside him are two condemned men.
[16:13] Condemned to die one on the right and one on the left and one blasphemes the name of the Lord and does not see his glory and does not recognize it.
[16:26] But on the other hand there is one who sees who is beside him and he turns round he started blaspheming but before a few hours had passed he turned round in Lord remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom aren't these wonderful words remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom in spite of the shame of the one who was on the cross in spite of the fact that he was there as a condemned man he saw his glory he saw his glory and he believed that he would die and he believed that he would return in other words this thief saw that the one beside him was the Christ when precious few others were seeing it he saw it and he laid hold of him and in his own humiliation Christ is laying hold of a soul and he is saving him saving him and is all this not true still look friends
[17:28] I am preaching a Christ to you and it's the same Christ that has been preached and proclaimed in this pulpit for many years the same one who was crucified nearly 2000 years ago who died as it were to appearances in shame upon cross and you could say in the shame because he was cursed of God and I am telling you tonight as you have been told before that this is the only means of salvation that God has appointed him as the way and the truth and the life this is the man who still says in the scriptures no man knows the father save the son and he to whom the son will reveal him this is still the man who said come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest and yet some of you see his glory and some do not some of you feel that I am speaking riddles or confusion a story something meaningless and impotent powerless and some of you see in this the means of life of eternal life itself some of you have found in
[18:41] Christ the power of God unto salvation your lives have been changed your souls have been made renewed and you are born again there are some here on the right hand and there are some here on the left hand the same Christ the same Christ some of you could come perhaps almost in the spirit in which some people go to have their fortune told we know that some people go to extraordinary lengths to meet so called extraordinary people who can tell them their fortune which turns out to be bizarre and nonsense but people will spend lots of money on lies and sometimes precious little to get the knowledge of the truth the knowledge of the truth some of you perhaps listen to the gospel like that you'll come and say well I wonder maybe what it is tonight or what it might be this morning wonder what story it is or what incident it is I wonder what he has to say might be interesting or it might be boring others come because Christ is there and they long to hear where his name is spoken of and they love to hear his law and they want to keep his commandments same
[19:48] Christ some on the right and there are some on the left some see his glory and some do not or like the baker the baker is an interesting fellow because he is interested in interacting with Joseph when Joseph is telling him good things is that not right when the chief baker saw the interpretation was good he then speaks there's a lot of people today just like that if you're telling nice things all the time and if you're comforting all the people then they'll talk to you they'll come to listen to you and they'll want to hear but if you're speaking things that are condemning them showing a sin in their life then they don't want to listen at all you remember when Micah the prophet spoke to Ahab well Jehoshaphat the king had gone up to Ahab to help Ahab in what he was going to do now
[20:49] Ahab was going to attack Ramoth Gilead that belonged to Israel and Ahab was going to take it back into Israel's possession and he asked Jehoshaphat to help them now Jehoshaphat ought to have said no Ahab I am not going to help you in this matter but Jehoshaphat actually went up to help Ahab now Jehoshaphat asked counsel once he had committed himself he asked counsel he asked guidance and that's a poor thing to commit yourself and then ask guidance about the thing but all the prophets of Baal were in the court hundreds of them and Ahab asked will we go up to Ramoth Gilead and they all said every one of them yes go up to Ramoth Gilead and some of them made these horns and they stuck them on their heads and they said yes you'll gouge out there you'll have victory you'll push them as it were to defeat with these horns you'll be victorious over them and one after another of the prophets was saying yes it's God's will to go up to Ramoth Gilead and to seize back that town it's God's will all right don't you doubt it for a minute but
[21:53] Jehoshaphat knows that there's something hollow about the whole thing and he says is there not a prophet of the Lord here that we could inquire only always tells us bad things Jehoshaphat says don't speak like that he says get the prophet so Ahab brings out the prophet and of course the prophet was in prison nobody had much time for him and he was brought out and Ahab said shall we go up and attack Ramoth Gilead and Micah said oh yes off you go and take Ramoth Gilead it'll all go well with you me accept what is really in your heart and then the prophet said I see Israel scattered like sheep without a shepherd he sees the armies desolate and he sees them defeated and then Ahab sees there you are he says I told you that that's exactly what
[22:55] I said to you that he would say to me so you see there it is that is the way that he dealt with the and the other prophets were wrong there are lots of prophets in our country today and in our churches who will stroke your back and they'll scratch your ears when your ears are itching and they'll tell you what you like to hear and they'll flatter you and amuse you and they'll play with you but I know that people are seeing through the emptiness and the vanity of all these things I know that when there's nothing but good news all the time preachers so there's no problem that people are seeing through the veneer of it but the sad thing is that people like it so much that they still come out to hear these things you know the Lord says an amazing thing in Jeremiah I think it's the 8th chapter could be the 6th I can't recall but it and then my people love to have it so is that not an amazing thing my people love to have it so they like it that way they had lapsed into a situation where they liked it just like that well let me tell you my friend the gospel is good news but it is a sharp two edged sword the good news is believe in
[24:28] Christ and you shall not perish and the other side of that the flip side of it is don't believe and you will perish and furthermore there is this you have to do absolutely nothing to be lost but to stay the way you are it's not a matter of staying the way you are and you will be all right stay the way you are and you will be lost to be saved you must embrace the Lord you must forsake your sins and you must lay hold upon him and commit yourself to him confess your sins to him forsake them turn to him and you shall have life and you shall have salvation he only prophesies to us what is bad well my friend you see to it and me with you that we never lapse into that spirit and may we not lapse into it as a congregation or a church that sits down and wants to hear nice things about ourselves all the time
[25:28] Ahab surrounded himself with them there was nothing to be found in Israel but these flattering prophets on all sides didn't matter what you did they would justify Micah wasn't like that so he was in prison with a crust of bread and water now the baker saw that the interpretation was good and then he gushed out his own dream but Joseph had nothing good for him he said within three days Pharaoh shall lift up your head from off you and he shall hang you on a tree and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee what a solemn message he had to give now there's something else too and this is a difference we could say between Golgotha and the dungeon in both cases you have the words or something like them remember me but what a difference there is in
[26:31] Golgotha it is the thief who says it to Christ he sees the glory and he says Lord remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom what a wonderful prayer that is but in the dungeon it's Joseph who makes the request and Joseph says to the butler think on me when it shall be well with you and mention me to fail and bring me out of this house for I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews and I have done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon now what's the great difference between these two remember means well the difference is this one was bound to succeed and the other was bound to fail first of all there was one bound to fail and that's when you look to a man perhaps you could put it that way you think the butler would have remembered but he didn't and it's amazing what happens to a man and that belongs to us anyway as opposed it belongs to us all when things go well with us sometimes we forget the agony that we were in once the butler is restored to his position he's back in the giddy whirl of life he's back there mixing with all the people in
[27:56] Pharaoh's court he forgets the dungeon I'm sure he forgets there was such a place he probably wasn't too long there anyway and he forgets me ah my friend that request was bound to succeed no one ever said to Christ remember me who will fail he will know and he will see that Christ remembers him he never forgets let me put it this way he never forget anyone he shares a cell with it's like that he remembers everyone where he shares a prison house with them when Christ was exalted to the right hand of God do you think he forgot the thief no he did not he didn't forget the thief when you are in your own prison and in your own trial and in the hour of your own agony do you think
[29:01] Christ forgets you you say Lord remember me like the captive said in Babylon when the idolatry was burnt out of the church after years in Babylon and they turned and said the Lord has forgotten us he is still not bringing us out of bondage and God says to the church there cleansed in Babylon he says can a woman forget her sucking child yes she may forget but he says I cannot forget you he says you are a graven in the palms of my hands and your walls that is why he never forgets every single one of them is engraved or scarred into the very palms of his own hands do you not think and how pregnant that becomes or that shown to be in the Old Testament when we have New Testament light on it because the Lord himself as the intercessor does he not have his arms raised and what is on his arms scars wounds it is as though his church is imprinted onto the very palms of his hands he says you are engraved on the palms of my hands and your walls are before me continually he will never forget all those with whom he shared a cell and what
[30:23] I mean by that is this when Christ went down into the depths that's where he got us you remember that and me with you that's where he got us he got us in the depths or in the wilderness or in the no man's land where the scapegoat went the place of damnation and curse that's where he found us all and he will take every single one out who says Lord remember me will you not say that will you not say it are you not scared of being a forgotten man or a forgotten woman darkness of a lost eternity do you not fear these things have you come face to face with your sins yet my friend with the fact that you are out of God's favor not living for his glory or for his sake come to see yourself and say Lord remember me and I'll tell you he'll never ever forget you he is the friend that sticketh closer than any brother but we're told sadly at the end of chapter 39 yet the chief butler did not remember
[31:35] Joseph but he forgot him more time passes in the dungeon as the psalm tells us God's word tested him all this time this is another disappointment for Joseph if he was tempted to think well some man can get me out of this he's wrong and God puts him back perhaps or leaves him another while until he's cleansed entirely from any attempt to lean on the arm of man but then God's time comes around notice God's word tests him but the time comes time always comes this time Pharaoh has a dream when two years have passed and he has two dreams in the first dream I'll just briefly state them seven cows come up out of the Nile that's an interesting expression because in Egypt in the heat with the swarming flies you would have the cows something like you see a hippopotamus perhaps sometimes on these native programs you see them low in the water now the cows would be like that they would be right down in the river so that you could see nothing but their heads their eyes to keep them from the heat and the flies now these seven cows came up out of the
[32:49] Nile and they were extraordinarily well fed and fat cows and there followed them seven extremely thin cows and the thin ones ate up the fat ones now Pharaoh woke up and he was troubled again he felt that a higher than himself had spoken to him in this matter when he fell asleep again he had a similar dream this time it was seven ears of corn on one stalk and there were good ears rank and good and then seven thin ears that were blasted with the east Sirocco wind and the seven thin ears devoured the seven rank and full ears and Pharaoh woke and it was a dream and he was troubled by it and he gathered everyone he could to tell him the meaning of it and there was no one who could tell it and then it came to the butler the butler remembered and he said I had a dream he says years back and there's this Hebrew man in the prison and he told me what would happen and he told the baker what would happen and he was right and
[33:52] Pharaoh sent an order to bring Joseph up and we're told that Joseph shaved himself and that gave many a historian a laugh or two until the archaeologists found razors dating from the period he shaved himself changed his clothing and came in to Pharaoh and Pharaoh told him the dream and Joseph interpreted the dream and he said there are going to be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine and he says the seven years of famine are going to be so intense that you can scarcely remember the how that happens often spiritually when a land can be filled with the blessing of God and then when there is desertion you almost forget what the plenty was like I'm sure there are people here who have lived through days of plenty and you're no conscious you're in days of scarcity ah but my friend the Lord has plenty to give the Lord has plenty to give yet
[34:52] Joseph tells him appoint someone double the taxation put someone over the thing bring corn into your storehouses so that there will be full houses of grain and plenty bread to eat during the seven years of famine and when Pharaoh hears it he recognizes the word of God and he says well who else could we appoint over this thing besides yourself he says and immediately exalts Joseph into that position that we read together he said him over the house and he said him over all of Egypt only in the throne will I be greater than thou takes off his ring and puts it on his hand he puts vestures of fine linen on him and a chain around his neck and he puts him in the second chariot to ride and when Joseph passes anyone they have to bow the knee because he is ruler over all the land of Egypt now my friend if the prison is the humiliation then this is the exaltation this is the transition from the depths to the height this is the
[36:04] Christ brought from the low condition and the lowest point and immediately set upon a pinnacle raised as it were to the right hand of God he becomes the grand vizier in Egypt underneath Pharaoh alone and that speaks of how Christ would suddenly be raised from humiliation and put on the right hand of God now when you look at it in that way one or two things become significant first notice his age we're told in chapter 41 verse 40 verse 46 that Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh the king of Egypt remember who Luke tells us that Christ was about 30 years of age notice this emphasis on the prime of life Christ will die and suffer and he will be raised as it were as the lamb of the first year in his prime and in his strength that is the time when these events will take place notice how immediate the exhortation is one minute
[37:17] Joseph is in the dungeon and the next minute he is second only to Pharaoh in Israel is that not the way Paul brings it before us in Philippians that he made himself of no reputation he took upon himself the form of a servant and he was obedient unto death even the death of the cross where for God also has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every other name he was taken out of the pit as it were and he was placed at the highest possible pinnacle that is all prefigured here and typified in the life of Joseph and we're told that everything is put under him he is second only to Pharaoh himself and he's even given a new name Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zafnath Pania which means the revealer of secrets or the revealer of dreams and this giving of the new name is connected with the new authority and with the bowing of the name now do you see how wonderfully these things reflect
[38:25] Christ he's given a new name in Philippians 2 God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father that is the exaltation that is him raised to the right hand of God the Lord did say unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand until I make thy force a stool where on thy feet may stand is there a doctor required there up at the back if someone could please attend up at the back downstairs and how fittingly then that
[39:25] Joseph should call his second son Ephraim when he marries which says God made me fruitful in the land of affliction God made me fruitful in the land of affliction I think all the Lord's people can say that all the Lord's people can say that God made me fruitful in the land of affliction and can Christ himself not say it can Christ himself not say it when thou shalt make his cross he shall see his seed he shall see of the travail of his soul and he shall be satisfied God made me fruitful in the land of my affliction Ephraim Ephraim and so my friend Joseph is the great vizier he has the signet of Pharaoh and he goes around Egypt and he organizes the grain and he brings the food into the store houses and then the famine begins to bite after seven years and it's a famine that's in other nations also it's even up in the land of
[40:35] Canaan and when the curtain falls here it falls on Joseph raised to power and authority and the curtain will rise in Canaan and we're back to a divided household things haven't got any better there they've got worse you can even tell it from the way Jacob speaks notice chapter 42 I'll close with this just how it opens we leave Egypt behind and we're back in Canaan chapter 42 now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt Jacob said to his sons why are you looking one upon another behold I have heard that there is corn in Egypt get down there and buy for us from there that we may live and not die oh how full Jacob's words were whether he realized it or not Joseph's brothers are beginning to feel their sin God is going to make them open their mouths because he will feed them with the finest of the wheat but God always tells bad news before he brings the good news they are going to feel their sins before
[41:40] God is going to have mercy upon them that we may live he says and not die so Joseph's brothers prepare to come down to Egypt we'll look at that God willing next time may the Lord bless our O Lord enable us to look to the exalted Christ to the one who endured humiliation for whose sake the one who was not put to it but who took it upon himself and who stepped down into the depths that he might redeem a people for himself O Lord give us a love for himself draw his nearer to him with cords of love and enable us to commit ourselves to him for he alone is the interpreter of dreams and he is the revealer of the word of God bless to us our meditation upon thy word and forgive our sins for his sake
[42:44] Amen