WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.720 three, to see God's grace in this story, to Jacob's family, particularly this week to his brothers 00:00:10.720 --> 00:00:19.240 as their famine becomes a feast, to see that God's grace stands right at the heart of the 00:00:19.240 --> 00:00:26.539 storyline of the Bible and at the heart of this story too. We have as a family, as an extended 00:00:26.539 --> 00:00:35.659 family, been on a weekend up in Creaf, enjoying some very windy and wet weather, which is fine, 00:00:36.000 --> 00:00:42.079 but one of the great things about the house is it had an open fire, which you don't often get to 00:00:42.079 --> 00:00:49.780 enjoy anymore. So it's been funny to see each night how family divides. So the fire gets put on 00:00:49.780 --> 00:00:56.140 sometime around seven o'clock and by about half seven the room divides into the people who love 00:00:56.140 --> 00:01:02.579 the heat and who get closer and closer and then the people like me who gradually scale further and 00:01:02.579 --> 00:01:10.239 further back. Heat divides. Some of us love to get close. Some of us stay further back. John Stott 00:01:10.239 --> 00:01:20.740 said this in his book, The Cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is the blazing fire at which the flame of 00:01:20.739 --> 00:01:28.799 our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us. The cross is the one 00:01:28.799 --> 00:01:38.359 fire where we all want to draw near. To become a Christian, to grow as a Christian, we need to come 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:46.299 near to Jesus. We need to come near to the cross to receive his grace, to let the sparks of his grace 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:55.340 and love fall on us. That's what we're going to think about this morning. What is grace? We can think 00:01:55.340 --> 00:02:06.620 of grace as God's unconditional love to the undeserving, indeed to the unlovely. We can think of God's grace 00:02:06.620 --> 00:02:16.280 as that love that stoops down to us, to seek us, to find us, to rescue us, to comfort us in our needs. 00:02:16.300 --> 00:02:24.620 John Newton, 18th century pastor, said the shortest definition of grace that he knew was 00:02:24.620 --> 00:02:32.480 to know Christ. Because when you know Christ, you receive every spiritual blessing from God. That's 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:41.720 grace to us. And that grace that we find throughout the Bible, its flame burns brightest at the cross, 00:02:41.719 --> 00:02:50.840 but we see it all through the Bible, Old Testament and New. And so I want us to see it here in the story 00:02:50.840 --> 00:03:01.900 of Joseph. To see grace as something that's profoundly hopeful. This is the very opposite of karma that so 00:03:01.900 --> 00:03:08.500 many people believe. Do good and good happens. Do bad and bad happens. What do we see to bad brothers? 00:03:08.500 --> 00:03:17.439 They receive grace. It's the opposite of a religion that says you need to prove yourself. You need to earn 00:03:17.439 --> 00:03:29.259 God's favor. Rather, we see it as a loving invitation to all of us in our misery, in our need, unable 00:03:29.259 --> 00:03:37.919 to reach up to God. To reach up to God. God has come down to us in wonderful love. So I hope as we look 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:45.899 through Genesis 43 this morning, we'll see that grace shines through the story, that it points us once 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:55.319 again towards Jesus. And I hope also that we'll see how it connects to our story, that we'll be thinking 00:03:55.319 --> 00:04:03.719 to ourselves, am I close enough for those sparks of God's love to fall on me? How have I responded 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:13.960 to Jesus as Savior? Let's look at how God's grace, first of all, changes Judah's status. 00:04:15.340 --> 00:04:23.240 In verses 3 to 10, Judah finds a prominent place. I've been reading a lot of John Newton this week, so 00:04:23.240 --> 00:04:28.860 John Newton can be a helpful picture of the transformation that God works in a person. So if 00:04:28.860 --> 00:04:36.639 you don't know the story of John Newton, 18th century, he was a notorious slave trader. But then 00:04:36.639 --> 00:04:40.920 in the middle of a storm, when he thought he was going to die, he called out to God for mercy and his 00:04:40.920 --> 00:04:46.660 life was changed. And he became a pastor, he became a preacher of the gospel. And he worked with 00:04:46.660 --> 00:04:54.000 Wilberforce, William Wilberforce, towards the end of his life to abolish slavery in Britain. From profiting 00:04:54.000 --> 00:05:01.620 from slavery to abolishing slavery. And if we were to ask John Newton, how did that dramatic change 00:05:01.620 --> 00:05:07.779 happen in your life? He would say, amazing grace. Sufficient grace is the only explanation for that 00:05:07.779 --> 00:05:16.339 kind of change to take place in a person's life. We can see a dramatic change in the life of Judah, 00:05:16.899 --> 00:05:22.500 one of Joseph's brothers. For those of us who haven't been here for the whole story, 00:05:22.500 --> 00:05:30.540 in chapter 37, we meet Judah. He is one of the ten brothers, and he is the one who decides 00:05:30.540 --> 00:05:35.920 what we should do with Joseph, because we don't like him, because he's our father's favorite, 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:45.259 we should sell him into slavery. So that was Judah. Let's sell our brother off to Egypt. And then in 00:05:45.259 --> 00:05:53.459 chapter 38, we meet him again. And there we find him being unfaithful to his promises to his daughter-in-law. 00:05:53.800 --> 00:06:00.560 And then we find him engaging in immorality as he sleeps with someone he presumes is a prostitute, 00:06:00.639 --> 00:06:10.219 but it turns out it's his daughter-in-law. So this is a man with a very messed up back story. 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:19.320 But God is raising him to a position of prominence in this family. His place in the family, he's the 00:06:19.320 --> 00:06:27.700 fourth eldest, so he doesn't have a natural claim to take headship. He has no claim to be family head. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:36.380 All that we see in Judah's story is God's work. God is raising Judah as family head. God will raise 00:06:36.379 --> 00:06:43.500 him so it becomes clear by the end of the story. He is the son of the promise. Judah is told that kings 00:06:43.500 --> 00:06:52.540 would come from him, and ultimately Jesus will be part of Judah's family line. So we're seeing in this 00:06:52.540 --> 00:07:02.959 story how God is working spiritual change in his life. In verses 3 to 10, Judah is speaking to his 00:07:02.959 --> 00:07:11.139 father. The famine is still there, and they're wondering how food will be provided. And Judah 00:07:11.139 --> 00:07:19.539 gives the logical argument that they have no other option. If Jacob is unwilling to send his precious 00:07:19.539 --> 00:07:27.219 son Benjamin, as requested, they will certainly all starve. Judah says, if you are willing to send 00:07:27.220 --> 00:07:33.240 Benjamin, there is hope that we will get food and that we and our family will survive. 00:07:35.400 --> 00:07:40.920 But another interesting development beyond just his sort of strong logic, and he takes responsibility 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:51.220 and authority. Verse 8, he is willing to bear responsibility. Send the boy along with me and we will go at once. 00:07:51.220 --> 00:08:02.080 I myself will guarantee his safety. You can hold me personally responsible for him. Even in the last 00:08:02.080 --> 00:08:06.880 chapter, we saw a bunch of brothers who weren't willing to volunteer, who weren't willing to make 00:08:06.880 --> 00:08:15.220 any sacrifices, but Judah's changing. Judah's saying, I am willing to bear the sacrifice. You can blame me for 00:08:15.220 --> 00:08:19.220 anything that I am willing to bear the sacrifice. You can't believe in the last chapter. You can't believe in 00:08:19.220 --> 00:08:21.220 that. You can't believe in the last chapter. You can't believe in the last chapter. You can't believe in 00:08:21.220 --> 00:08:28.080 Jacob and Judah. Jacob relents. Jacob says, okay, you can go. Jacob, we can see in verse 11, 00:08:28.080 --> 00:08:36.060 obviously is now in a position where he trusts Judah. And equally significant in verse 15, 00:08:37.480 --> 00:08:43.920 the men, those brothers, took the gift and double the amount of silver, and Benjamin also. So Jacob, 00:08:43.919 --> 00:08:53.199 the father now trusts Judah and Benjamin too entrusts himself to the care of his elder brother. Gone is the 00:08:53.199 --> 00:09:01.279 fear of chapter 42, where Jacob said, there's no way I'm sending Benjamin down to Egypt because he was 00:09:01.279 --> 00:09:09.740 afraid of what might happen to him. But Judah is changing and it changes the family. His status 00:09:09.740 --> 00:09:20.899 is changing by God's grace. And this is a pattern that we see in Jesus' family tree. So often, 00:09:21.840 --> 00:09:29.940 if you look at the genealogy of Jesus, you see that it's marked by grace shown to the undeserving and the 00:09:29.940 --> 00:09:38.299 unlovely. There are so many surprising people who are part of God's family. And on the one hand, 00:09:38.299 --> 00:09:47.099 it humbles us and it reminds us that none of us, just like Judah, none of us deserve 00:09:47.099 --> 00:09:55.779 a place in God's family because we all have a past that is marked by sin in various ways. But the story 00:09:55.779 --> 00:10:01.839 of Judah and the story of Jesus and the story of grace also gives anyone and everyone hope. 00:10:01.840 --> 00:10:12.300 The love of God invites people to receive Jesus and to receive salvation, not on the basis of our merit, but on the 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:23.180 basis of his merit. And more than that, the story of Judah helpfully reminds us of Jesus, our elder brother, 00:10:23.179 --> 00:10:34.599 who offers himself. When we were facing spiritual death, living in spiritual famine, unable to hear the word 00:10:34.599 --> 00:10:41.979 of God and facing certain death and judgment because of our sin, Jesus, our elder brother, he steps in. 00:10:41.980 --> 00:10:55.180 Jesus comes and gives himself as a sacrifice to give believers life. Jesus, the Son of God, the perfect 00:10:55.180 --> 00:11:02.879 Son of God, through faith in him, he offers to change your status and mine. When our faith is in him, we are 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:10.519 adopted as children of God. So no matter who we are, no matter whether society thinks we're high or low, 00:11:10.519 --> 00:11:22.340 in God's eyes, we are precious to him. Adopted into his family. And so that invitation is there to come 00:11:22.340 --> 00:11:31.120 and to join the family of God through trusting in Jesus, asking him to take our sin and to have him as 00:11:31.120 --> 00:11:40.460 Lord and Savior. And for us too, as we think about the story of Judah, we're reminded that every believer 00:11:40.460 --> 00:11:48.759 if you're a follower of Jesus today, you are a miracle of grace. You are a new creation in Christ, 00:11:48.820 --> 00:11:56.500 and that's a miracle that God works in the hearts and lives of his people. Every testimony, every story 00:11:56.500 --> 00:12:05.360 of how God has transformed us is a story that God has written because of his love and grace and kindness 00:12:05.360 --> 00:12:12.860 towards you. Some of us have very dramatic stories, like John Newton or like Judah. You know, once we 00:12:12.860 --> 00:12:21.279 were so far away from God, and then God dramatically intervened and changed us, others, very gradual and 00:12:21.279 --> 00:12:32.860 very slow, but each story written by God. And it's all down to his grace. And so as the people of God, 00:12:32.860 --> 00:12:43.820 we are never to move from the foot of the cross, the place where we see God's grace, where we feel the 00:12:43.820 --> 00:12:54.960 warmth of God's love. We keep preaching the gospel to ourself to remind ourselves that our status of being 00:12:54.960 --> 00:13:06.379 children of God comes from God's love towards us. Now let's think about how we see God's grace to 00:13:06.379 --> 00:13:18.980 Jacob, the father. We see God's grace to Jacob in the promise that is kept. Now Moses, as he writes the book 00:13:18.980 --> 00:13:25.899 of Genesis, and indeed as he writes the book of Exodus, he brings us to these points of tension, 00:13:26.620 --> 00:13:33.220 where we might find ourselves as readers wondering, how is God going to keep his promise in this moment? 00:13:34.620 --> 00:13:41.759 When Abraham and Sarah are promised that they will have as many children as the sand on the seashore, 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:46.960 their descendants will be like the stars in the sky. But Sarah is barren and they're both old. We're 00:13:46.960 --> 00:13:54.340 wondering, how will God keep that promise? When the family of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, they're 00:13:54.340 --> 00:14:00.080 promised this land that would be theirs and they don't have any. And then they find themselves being 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:07.460 slaves in Egypt. There is that tension. How will God keep his promise? And now a very basic level, 00:14:07.460 --> 00:14:18.320 in verse 1 of chapter 43, we find this family enduring famine. And if they can't get food, how will they survive? 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:26.460 And if they don't survive, how will the blessing of God come to the world? Will God's promise fail or will 00:14:26.460 --> 00:14:34.080 God keep his promise? Can we trust the character of God that we find in his word? 00:14:34.080 --> 00:14:46.420 Now, when Jacob speaks to his sons in chapter 43 in verse 2, he makes it sound fairly straightforward. 00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:50.780 When they'd eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, 00:14:51.300 --> 00:14:59.500 go back and buy us a little more food. That sounds like a routine journey and a routine command. 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:06.059 But what we know of the story is very different. It's almost as if Jacob is burying his head in the 00:15:06.059 --> 00:15:11.200 sand at this moment to all the difficulties, all the obstacles. So at this point in time, 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:20.940 Simeon is a prisoner in Egypt. One of his sons is locked away. They are in the middle of famine. 00:15:21.700 --> 00:15:27.100 They have no way to provide for themselves unless they go down to Egypt. But the last time they went 00:15:27.100 --> 00:15:34.580 to Egypt, they were accused of being spies and they were dealt with harshly as they saw it. 00:15:35.399 --> 00:15:42.779 And there is for Jacob too, that fear of what will happen to Benjamin. You know, Judah reminds him, 00:15:42.840 --> 00:15:51.540 look, we can't go unless we do what the man in charge of Egypt says. So there is real fear and threat 00:15:51.539 --> 00:16:00.679 here. And so the tension point is, how will this journey go? Will God look after them? Will God's 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:09.719 promise be kept? And of course, we got to the end of the story. Well, this part of the story. And we saw 00:16:09.719 --> 00:16:19.159 that God was faithful to them. And it establishes a principle for us that salvation always brings glory 00:16:19.159 --> 00:16:26.879 to God. Where they are helpless and powerless. God is acting to save and deliver. 00:16:29.819 --> 00:16:37.379 So what does Israel, what does Jacob, what does Israel say to his sons once he's persuaded by 00:16:37.379 --> 00:16:49.039 Jacob's logic? In verse 11, we hear his side of the conversation. Again, two courses of action he proposes. 00:16:50.059 --> 00:16:58.939 First one in verse 11, he says, you need to send a gift. Send a gift to this powerful man. If you know 00:16:58.939 --> 00:17:05.000 the story of Jacob, you'll know he's already done this with his own brother Esau. Another set of 00:17:05.000 --> 00:17:10.980 brothers where there was tension, where there was division. Jacob was coming back to be reunited with 00:17:10.980 --> 00:17:16.059 Esau, but he was worried that Esau was coming to bring an army against him. And so he sent a gift 00:17:16.059 --> 00:17:22.200 to try and appease his brother. And so he takes the same strategy. Let's send a gift. Let's try and 00:17:22.200 --> 00:17:31.519 reconcile with this powerful man in Egypt. But more significant even than that, we find in verse 14, 00:17:31.519 --> 00:17:44.119 Jacob knows he needs to rest on the mercy of God. It's effectively a prayer. May God Almighty grant you 00:17:44.119 --> 00:17:50.319 mercy before the man. And there's a wonderful recognition here from Jacob. He understands that 00:17:50.319 --> 00:17:57.519 his God will have the final word in this situation. It won't be the gift. It won't be Judah's leadership. 00:17:57.519 --> 00:18:05.039 It won't be this powerful man in Egypt. It will be God who will have the final word. And so he looks 00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:14.119 to God for mercy. He commits his family to the God who had made promises to him. There is an expression 00:18:14.119 --> 00:18:22.900 of faith here from Jacob. And what we see this week, and we'll see it beyond, is that as the story 00:18:22.900 --> 00:18:34.540 unfolds, God's promise to save and to bless will be kept. We will see God's gracious love to this family 00:18:34.540 --> 00:18:42.820 that God will stoop down to comfort, to rescue, to provide for them in their needs. 00:18:42.819 --> 00:18:57.319 It's interesting that Jacob placed his hope in a peace offering. And again, that's a pointer to us of the 00:18:57.319 --> 00:19:10.599 gospel. Jesus is the sacrifice who brings peace, who secures peace between sinful people and a holy God. 00:19:10.599 --> 00:19:21.139 Jesus has come and stood in our place. Jesus has become the sin bearer of the world. Jesus has come to 00:19:21.139 --> 00:19:30.619 satisfy God's anger against our sin as he takes our sin and he takes the wrath that our sin deserves. 00:19:30.619 --> 00:19:42.159 There is, in the sacrifice of Jesus, our peace. 00:19:42.159 --> 00:19:50.839 Jesus has come and said, it's important for us to recognize that when it comes to the Christian faith, 00:19:51.219 --> 00:19:57.559 we can't provide the peace offering. When we know there is something wrong between us and God, 00:19:57.559 --> 00:20:06.559 we can respond in one of two ways. We can either try and make amends morally and religiously. We can try 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:12.879 and turn over a new leaf. We can work really hard at reading and praying and trying to be a good neighbor. 00:20:16.579 --> 00:20:24.879 That will not work because we cannot be holy as God is holy. Rather, we need to trust in the perfect 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:33.140 sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. We need to receive as a gift of grace what Jesus did for us 00:20:33.140 --> 00:20:38.560 on the cross. He is our peace with God. 00:20:40.860 --> 00:20:52.100 And just like Jacob will discover as the story progresses, every believer experiences God's grace 00:20:52.099 --> 00:21:02.099 in that God keeps his promise of salvation. God made promises to Jacob and he kept those promises. 00:21:03.099 --> 00:21:14.059 Jesus is God's promise kept to you if you're a Christian. You can trust God's salvation in Jesus Christ, 00:21:14.059 --> 00:21:20.000 that we can know God's mercy from God's Savior. 00:21:22.059 --> 00:21:32.119 One last way to see grace in this story this morning, and it's God's grace from Joseph as the brothers 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:43.099 arrive in Egypt and what they receive is a generous welcome. It's one aspect of grace is that you get 00:21:43.099 --> 00:21:50.879 what you don't deserve positively, but also grace is not getting what you do deserve. And we see that in 00:21:50.879 --> 00:21:57.639 the story of these brothers. Just to remind ourselves again of these brothers, they have been ready to 00:21:57.639 --> 00:22:04.740 kill their brother. They're full of hate towards him 20 years ago. They betrayed him. They sold him into 00:22:04.740 --> 00:22:13.880 slavery. They then covered it up. 20 years of lying and deceiving their own father, who it turns out doesn't 00:22:13.880 --> 00:22:24.900 trust them. And we find them in the last chapter. No one was willing to volunteer, to stand in the place 00:22:24.900 --> 00:22:33.180 of the others. No one was willing to sacrifice for the others. These are not the good guys in this story. 00:22:33.180 --> 00:22:41.160 Because in the story of salvation, there are no good guys. There's Jesus and there's us as sinners. 00:22:42.779 --> 00:22:49.920 And it's so interesting to see their thinking. So verse 15, they're on the journey. Verse 16, 00:22:50.920 --> 00:22:58.600 Joseph sends his steward to welcome the men to his house. So there's an animal that's killed and 00:22:58.599 --> 00:23:07.740 they're going to have dinner. And rather than regard that as a high honor, in verse 18, the men were 00:23:07.740 --> 00:23:14.399 frightened. There is fear. What are they afraid of? They're afraid that they're going to be attacked. 00:23:15.459 --> 00:23:20.240 They're afraid that they are going to be made slaves and their donkeys are going to be stolen. 00:23:20.240 --> 00:23:29.120 What they did to their own brother still weighs on their minds, as we thought about last week. 00:23:29.620 --> 00:23:36.279 So they begin trying to defend themselves and they explain what happened as a way they hope to avoid 00:23:36.279 --> 00:23:43.220 the ambush they expect. You know, we brought the money, we paid. Oh, we don't know how it appeared in our 00:23:43.220 --> 00:23:50.000 sack. So here are these brothers with all their guilt and with their fear. 00:23:50.240 --> 00:24:00.519 They're expecting judgment. What do they receive in Joseph's house? First of all, we see that they 00:24:00.519 --> 00:24:14.400 receive an invitation to a feast in verse 16. We see that they receive words of reassurance in verse 23. 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:23.120 It's all right. Don't be afraid. Your God, the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks. 00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:33.259 And then we see in verse 24, they are cared for. They are treated well. Their feet are washed. Their donkeys 00:24:33.259 --> 00:24:43.360 are provided for. They had sold Joseph, their brother. Their ears were closed to his cries of distress while he 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:51.879 was down the pit. But how does Joseph respond? Joseph protects them. Joseph provides for them. He honors them. 00:24:51.879 --> 00:25:00.319 He welcomes them. There's this wonderful picture of grace in Joseph's story. And then Joseph arrives at noon. 00:25:00.319 --> 00:25:13.619 Joseph's response. Now, can you imagine Joseph's emotions as this part of his story plays out? So here 00:25:13.619 --> 00:25:19.720 he arrives and the brothers bow down again. There's that reminder that God had made that promise through 00:25:19.720 --> 00:25:26.759 a dream that he would be raised up to a position of honor. He asks if their father is alive and he hears 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:34.259 that his elderly father, whom he loves and hasn't seen for 20 years, he's still alive. And then in verse 29, 00:25:35.099 --> 00:25:43.559 he looks and he sees his brother Benjamin. For the first time in 20 years, he sees his little brother. 00:25:44.740 --> 00:25:51.839 All the way along in chapter 42 and chapter 43, you see the hope for Joseph is that the family 00:25:51.839 --> 00:26:01.279 would be reunited. And so it's no wonder when we get to this stage that Joseph finds himself weeping 00:26:01.279 --> 00:26:12.599 with joy in verse 30. But as Joseph and his brothers are in this house together, there's this lovely bit 00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:18.659 in the story where it's almost as if he's giving clue after clue to try and help them to understand 00:26:18.660 --> 00:26:25.259 who is this man who is talking to them? Who is this man who they are in the presence of? 00:26:26.160 --> 00:26:33.460 He's showing them little by little that he is their brother. So we see it, first of all, in the language 00:26:33.460 --> 00:26:40.600 of verse 23. So you've got an Egyptian steward speaking about your God, the God of your father. 00:26:40.600 --> 00:26:45.060 Where do those words come from? They don't come from the steward. They come from Joseph. 00:26:45.059 --> 00:26:53.819 Calling to mind promises that God had made to their family, of which Joseph, of course, is a part. 00:26:55.139 --> 00:27:02.480 And then we get that special welcome for Benjamin in verse 29. When the brothers arrived the first time, 00:27:04.059 --> 00:27:11.019 Joseph said, are you spies? But when Benjamin comes, he says, God be gracious to you, 00:27:11.019 --> 00:27:18.740 my son. There's a special affection for this particular brother. And maybe they're thinking, 00:27:18.900 --> 00:27:28.039 why? What about the table seating? Verse 33, the men had been seated before him in the order of their 00:27:28.039 --> 00:27:34.799 ages from the firstborn to the youngest. And they looked at each other in astonishment. So this is 00:27:34.799 --> 00:27:43.680 either an incredible coincidence. I asked a nephew of mine who's studying maths, what are the odds of 00:27:43.680 --> 00:27:52.200 being able to correctly place 11 brothers in age order? And statistically, it's a one in 10 million 00:27:52.200 --> 00:27:58.960 chance. So this is either incredible coincidence or maybe adding to their fear, this is some kind of 00:27:58.960 --> 00:28:07.900 special divine knowledge that's come to Joseph or he's been in this family lineup before. 00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:16.500 They don't see it yet, but they will. And then in verse 34, we see the special portion given to 00:28:16.500 --> 00:28:21.960 Benjamin. He's the little one, but he gets five times more than anyone else. Why is that? They must be 00:28:21.960 --> 00:28:29.579 asking themselves. And it won't be till next week that there's the revelation of why. 00:28:31.160 --> 00:28:36.660 But when you look at this story, I don't know if you're like me, but it reminds me so much of Jesus' 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:44.759 parable of the prodigal son. You know that story where there's the father who has two sons, 00:28:44.759 --> 00:28:51.879 and he has a younger son who says to his father, father, I can't wait until you are dead. I want you 00:28:51.879 --> 00:28:58.740 to divide the inheritance and I want to take my money now. And so that younger son treats his father 00:28:58.740 --> 00:29:05.819 disrespectfully and shamefully, takes his money and engages in all kind of wild living. And then the 00:29:05.819 --> 00:29:12.819 money runs out and he finds himself in famine. He finds himself in a shameful situation, in a desperate 00:29:12.819 --> 00:29:21.779 situation. And in that misery, he recognizes it would be better to return and to be in his father's 00:29:21.779 --> 00:29:30.179 house. But he never expects to find a place as a son any longer. The best he hopes for is to be 00:29:30.179 --> 00:29:40.439 welcomed as a servant. He understands that he deserves that treatment. But what happens as this younger son 00:29:40.440 --> 00:29:52.039 comes home filthy and in rags and in shame, the father runs and the father welcomes him and the father 00:29:52.039 --> 00:29:58.519 covers his shame and clothes him in honor and holds a feast in his honor. 00:30:01.400 --> 00:30:09.240 Grace is God's love to those who don't deserve it. Grace is God's love to those who are unlovely. 00:30:09.240 --> 00:30:16.039 And the story of Joseph's brothers shows it to us. The story of the prodigal son shows it to us. 00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:22.660 The brothers, they came to Egypt due to famine. But what do they receive? They receive a wonderful 00:30:22.660 --> 00:30:30.400 feast of grace. It was something that they absolutely didn't deserve. The last time Moses records for us, 00:30:30.599 --> 00:30:36.440 when these brothers sit down to eat together, they're sharing their lunch while Joseph is in the pit. 00:30:36.440 --> 00:30:45.900 They had absolutely no interest in caring for their brother. But Joseph, he returns love, not hate. 00:30:47.840 --> 00:30:55.420 Just like Jesus. Jesus who would pray on the cross, Father, forgive them for they know not what they are 00:30:55.420 --> 00:31:04.980 doing. These brothers had refused to rescue Joseph, but Joseph would deliver them. He was raised up to be 00:31:04.980 --> 00:31:18.079 God's deliverer for them to rescue and to restore and to fulfill God's promise just as Jesus was raised up to do that for you and for me. 00:31:18.079 --> 00:31:27.460 And so grace, as we find it all through the Bible says, come to the feast. You don't need to pay for it. You don't need to earn it. 00:31:27.720 --> 00:31:35.519 You simply need to come and to trust in the Lord Jesus. Turn from sin and believe in him. 00:31:36.079 --> 00:31:44.639 Whoever we are, whatever we've done, to enjoy God's grace in Jesus. 00:31:44.640 --> 00:31:54.320 So we see grace, the sparks of grace all through chapter 43. But of course, the cross is the blazing fire, 00:31:54.420 --> 00:32:00.320 the place where we see and experience the love of God at its greatest extent. 00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:12.240 So today, have you got close enough? Have you got near enough to let those sparks of God's love fall on you? 00:32:13.059 --> 00:32:23.279 To recognize God's kindness in Jesus, to see Jesus as the Son of God and the Savior of the world. 00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:29.579 You know, Jesus, after his resurrection, he told two of his disciples that when you read the Bible, 00:32:29.700 --> 00:32:34.460 you read it appreciating that all of the Bible, the Old Testament speaks about him. 00:32:34.559 --> 00:32:43.839 So Joseph is revealing to us something of the story of Jesus and God's grace towards us in the coming of Jesus. 00:32:43.839 --> 00:32:49.559 And it's not enough to admire Jesus from a distance. 00:32:50.199 --> 00:32:52.039 To think he's a good man or a good teacher. 00:32:52.720 --> 00:32:54.659 We must draw near. 00:32:55.379 --> 00:32:59.779 We must find ourselves living at the foot of the cross. 00:33:00.299 --> 00:33:03.059 That must become our center. 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:10.639 We must constantly be warmed by his love to be drawing near. 00:33:10.640 --> 00:33:14.900 So the question we all need to ask ourselves today is, 00:33:15.620 --> 00:33:25.240 am I close to or am I far from God's grace, God's Savior, Jesus? 00:33:26.860 --> 00:33:30.920 Perhaps today some of us are still living with fear like these brothers. 00:33:31.780 --> 00:33:35.140 We're still carrying a burden of guilt and shame. 00:33:35.140 --> 00:33:42.480 Maybe when you think about Jesus, you're not sure exactly who he is or what he came to do. 00:33:42.560 --> 00:33:45.800 Or maybe you're not sure how he would receive you. 00:33:47.500 --> 00:33:49.400 What should you do if that's you? 00:33:50.520 --> 00:33:52.680 Well, you should go to the cross. 00:33:53.500 --> 00:33:56.640 And you should see his love there. 00:33:56.980 --> 00:34:02.320 You should see God's gracious provision for all of your needs there. 00:34:02.319 --> 00:34:08.519 And if you have come near, if you are following Jesus, 00:34:08.659 --> 00:34:12.279 if you've been surprised by his gracious welcome, 00:34:13.299 --> 00:34:14.559 then stay at the cross. 00:34:15.500 --> 00:34:19.380 Keep feasting on God's provision for you. 00:34:20.599 --> 00:34:23.360 His love for you in Christ. 00:34:24.059 --> 00:34:25.239 Let's pray together. 00:34:25.239 --> 00:34:25.279 Let's pray together.