Auto Generated Transcript
As you turn to the end of Genesis 42 and looking at chapter 43, there’s a few things I’m reminded of as we get ready to engage this passage of Scripture. And one is this everyone has a theology or a belief, and I don’t even care if you claim that there is no God. The things that you do in life are determined by something that you believe. And if you want to know what you believe, just look at how you use your resources in life, the way you invest your time, your money, your energy. It’s all an indicator of something rooted deeper within you, a belief that you have. And when it comes to the idea of belief, I think it’s also important to to acknowledge not everything that you believe is healthy and right. And if you if you don’t believe that this morning, come talk to me after the service. But but not everything that you believe is is healthy or right. And no matter how sincere you might believe in what it is you hold to, you can be sincerely wrong. In fact, uh, today we’re going to look at a story of the life of Jacob that’s really very contrasted in how he demonstrates his faith from the beginning of chapter 42 to the end of chapter 42. At the beginning of chapter 42, he sees a problem. He tells his sons to to step into that problem, to figure out a solution very bold and and telling him telling his sons what their what they should do in that moment.
But by the end of the chapter, we find him reluctant to continue to move forward. And the question is, why was he he’s so bold in the beginning, but all of a sudden he lacks the the boldness to continue to move forward. And one of the things I recognize with us, and it comes to exercising our belief, is that we can often struggle in different seasons of life that something, something in one circumstance we may have believed to be true, that when circumstances in our life change, we’re more reluctant to hold on to it. And one of the reasons is because sometimes following after the Lord by faith, um, it’s easy to do. But then there are other times in our life where we choose to follow after the Lord, and there might be a price to pay. And when we get to those moments, it leads us to a place to reexamine what it is that we believe. And hopefully we better solidify that, or maybe even step away from what we believe. Um, you know, the hope is the purity in those challenges would help us discover the goodness of who God is. In fact, I would even say for us, one of the most difficult places on earth to follow after the Lord. And this might blow your mind a little bit, but, um, one of the most difficult places to follow after the Lord is in America.
And you think that is a weird statement to make because we have religious freedom here? Why would why would following after the Lord in America be difficult? Well, it’s because the mundane and luxuries of life tend to keep us from thinking about the things of God. We just sort of appreciate the status quo of what we have. And therefore, because life is comfortable, we don’t always seek God. And in fact, if we’re to be honest about how we got to where we are and whatever our faith is at this moment, um, for some of us it might be, well, I really when I, when I consider where I took leaps in my faith with the Lord, it was in the most challenging times of my life, and it was in those moments that I sought God with desperation. And to be honest, when when things in life are going easy, that’s really where I’m not really concerned so much with the things of God. In fact, it’s it’s not a surprise. It’s been stated multiple times that if you want to know where Christianity is growing, it’s it’s typically it’s true right now, it’s where the church is facing the most heavy persecution in this world. And here, here in our country, Christianity is on the decline. And I think part of that is because we just don’t think about the spiritual things of this world, because we’re kind of comfortable with with ourselves and our own pleasure and living for our own glory.
Um, but, but but here’s the here’s the bigger question for all of us is that when when it comes to believing in anything, it’s important to recognize that you can be sincere in what you believe, but you can also be sincerely wrong. And so what do you do in those moments? For us as God’s people, we should be humble enough to be honest with that, and we should be driven by the fact that what ultimately sets us free is the truth, and we should not run away from it. And the Bible says in John eight verse 32, the truth is what sets you free. And so no matter what the cost might be, we should be willing to pursue the truth, no matter where it leads us. Now, when I think about the idea of truth, I think it’s important to ask the question, how do you determine what’s true? Because here in America, we’re taught a particular theology that’s honestly adverse to discovering what is true, because the way that we often define truth is human beings is through through our experience. We think that we’re we’re the definer of truth. And when we discover it, it makes us feel good. And therefore it must be true. And we’ll even say things like, well, it must be true. What’s true for you is true for you. And. And what’s true for me is true for me, right? But as long as you believe it sincerely, then it must be true.
And to to be honest, that is not truth. That’s relativism. Some people might refer to it as relative truth, but what we’re looking for is absolute truth. To understand. I didn’t create me and I didn’t invent truth. That truth transcends me and truth is absolute. So how do I discover it? And when I think about religions in this world, there are lots of religions in this world that teach a lot of things about God, and they don’t agree. And you know what? There are people in those religious beliefs that believe what they hold to very sincerely. But let me just tell you, they can’t all be right because they contradict one another. They can all be wrong, but they cannot all be right, no matter how sincere they are. And the way it looks here in America is like sometimes I’ll talk to someone about their faith and I’ll say, why do you believe what they what you believe? And they’ll tell me, they’ll chalk it up to some experience. It’s because I, you know, I sought after this. I prayed and it felt good. Therefore, it must be true. And just because you believe something sincerely doesn’t mean it’s correct. In fact, you can be sincerely wrong. So how do you determine what’s true? And the answer for that is you must find a source beyond yourself, something that transcends who you are.
Something that’s absolute, for which you could put your your hope in. For example, today it’s Father’s Day. I may feel a little fortunate. Today I can even feel like I have $1 million in my bank account, right? I could identify as a millionaire and and I drive to the bank and I say, I would like to make a withdrawal today. Please. It’s Father’s Day. And they could say, what would you like? And I would say my million dollars. And then they look at my bank account and say, sir, you don’t have $1 million. You have you have nothing close to this. And, and I can say I do too. I feel like I do. And they say, I feel like that as well, you know. But but reality is I’m reading your bank account. They look at an external source to determine what’s true. Um, we could even say today maybe there might be someone a little off the rocker among us. And and, you know, we could all climb to the roof and one of us could say, I, I believe in gravity. And then the person that’s maybe not all there right now, you could say, um, and I don’t believe in gravity. Right. And and we can determine, okay, how are we going to know who’s true experientially? You can feel a certain way, but what you feel could be wrong. The way we’re going to find out is we’re going to push them off the side.
And I’m just kidding. We’re not going to do that. But you have to find an external source that that transcends the circumstance to help you, help you determine what is true. Now when it comes to Christianity, here’s the beauty of Christianity is Jesus. For for us chalks it up to to two things. Out of all the things that you believe in this world, what are that Jesus chalks up to two external sources for us to examine. And if these things aren’t true, then Christianity should not be believed. But if it is true, it changes everything, right? And Jesus for us becomes the path by which we should follow. And those two things in Christianity, Jesus states in John 17, sanctify them in truth. Thy word is truth. Jesus says, it’s the word of God. And Jesus says in John 14 six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one gets to the father but by me. And those two claims are what Jesus gives to us as the Word of God in his identity. Now, if the Word of God can’t be trusted, then it should not be believed. And the same thing is true with Jesus. In fact, the Apostle Paul took it a step further in first Corinthians 15 and said, If Christ be not raised from the grave, our faith is in vain, and we are the most to be pitied.
You know, the reason I want to share that with you is because I understand in life we all come from different backgrounds. You may have believed something in your life that you’ve come to discover that it is not true, that foundation has been ripped out from you, and now you’re reluctant to trust in anything else. And so when you when you have this, this understanding that there must be a God out there, but but you’re challenged to discover who he is and you don’t want to be lied to again. How do you determine what’s true? And when it comes to Christianity, it’s those two foundations that give us that opportunity. Now, now, here’s the wonderful thing about Jesus and His death, burial, and resurrection. And the Word of God is those the foundation. Those things are incredible. You know, sometimes when we talk about the idea of faith, um, people typically mean it like this, that you just sort of take a blind guess and hope in the, in the end that you were you picked the right religion, right? Like, I don’t you just they treat it like this. It’s this ignorant game of you pick what maybe feels right or works for you and just hope in the end you were the one that got it correct, right? But. But here’s what I think is important when it comes to faith. Jesus says it like this to us in Matthew chapter 22. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
You know part of what what it is to put your faith in God is to understand God. God made you as a creature with a mind, and God wants you to exercise that mind when it comes to eternity. And. What you put your faith in. And when it comes to the idea of Scripture and the identity of Jesus, I mean, there is nothing in this world that can hold a candle as far as belief systems go that compare to Jesus in the Bible. When you think about what it is to hold the Bible in your hand today, a book written over 1500 years by by over 40 authors on three different continents, in three different languages and one theme. I mean, that is incredible. And you think about some of the the prophecies of the Old Testament, written hundreds of years before Jesus arrives on the scene, giving particular details about the life of Christ hundreds of years before Jesus is here. I mean, even talks about how Jesus would die by crucifixion hundreds of years before the crucifixion even existed. He talks about where Jesus is going to be born, where Jesus is going to die, when Jesus is going to die, how Jesus is going to be betrayed. Hundreds of prophecies about Jesus before Jesus. I mean, God’s Word is incredible. Nothing, nothing compares to that.
And then when you think in terms of of of who Jesus is, that when he he lives his life and the kind of claims he he makes, you know, theologians will tell you there’s only a few choices that you can make with Jesus. Some some try to label him just a moral teacher. But but reality is, theologians will tell you that Jesus didn’t leave the option of moral teacher even on the table. They say when it comes to Jesus, you really have three choices. Either he’s Lord, he’s a liar from hell, or he’s out of his mind a lunatic. Those are the three choices that when it comes to Jesus. But when you see not only what Jesus was willing to do for us by giving his life, and sometimes we undermine the reality of Jesus by saying things like, well, Jesus did that. But you know, it doesn’t matter whatever religion you’re part of, as long as you’re a good person, that’s all it really matters. And to which I say, if, if, if that’s really all that matters, Jesus is an idiot. And you think he gave his life for a reason, and if it didn’t need to take that sort of a consequence or that sort of a payment for you to find freedom, why in the world would he die? That should scream at us the importance of discovering who he is and what that means, and not only in regards to Jesus, but when you think about the first century followers of Christ, you know it’s known about religious beliefs that people will die all the time for ideologies.
It happens over and over again. These ideologies people strive for get even giving their life for it. But when it comes to the first century disciples, they were martyred. But it wasn’t for an ideology, it was for a truth claim. You think with these disciples when you read about the account of Christ when Jesus was crucified, they gave up on him. But then something happened powerfully in their lives that led them from being abandoners of Jesus to now faithful followers, to the point that they are giving their life for him. And the reason they were doing that is for a truth claim. And that truth claim was that they saw a dead man walking and could not deny it, and therefore they were willing to go to the ends of the earth to give their life for Christ, because they could not deny the reality of what they saw in Christ. Now all of those things are true, right? Intellectually, we may know those things are true, but how you choose to live that out in your life will sometimes be determined by the circumstances in which you face. Now, I wish that wasn’t so. I wish you were faithful to Jesus forever. But. But sometimes we go through adversity in life where it causes us to come to a place of of re questioning and how how did I get to where I am? Why do I believe what I believe? And is this for sure true? Uh, Corrie ten boom.
We talked about her last week. Uh, she was a lady who was, uh, she helped Jewish people escape Nazi Germany. She was eventually captured. She and her sister Betsy, they were thrown in a in a concentration camp. Her sister died in that concentration camp. She was liberated after she was liberated. She went on and had a ministry to people that survived the concentration camps and not just the Jewish people, but she also ministered to the Nazi soldiers responsible for torturing the people in the concentration camp. She had an incredible ministry. Uh, but Corrie Ten boom said this about life. She said the safest place to be is in the center of God’s will. Jacob, bold in the decision that he makes at the beginning of chapter 42. But all of a sudden he goes through a season of change in his life. And now, at the end of chapter 42, where he was once bold, he’s now reluctant. And as we look at Jacob’s life, maybe the question we could ask for, for you and for me is this what are you afraid to lose in order to follow the truth? John 832. The truth is what sets you free? Or what are you afraid to entrust in the Lord? Or maybe we could ask it like this.
How is fear leading your life rather than the truth? How can you learn to trust in God and let go of the fears? One person accurately said it like this never take counsel from your fears. And so as we look at the story of Jacob in Genesis end of Genesis 42 into chapter 43, we’re going to really examine five stages we can experience in response to truth, and we’re going to see how Jacob goes through this transition in the season of his life as he steps into something new, realizing there’s a there is a cost in maybe following after Lord, in these moments, we’re going to look how he goes through this transition towards truth. And I want us to know all of us can really find ourselves at any given point in these lives. And one of these transitions, this is not an exhaustive list, but we’re going to learn not only not only from Jacob and how we can interact with truth, but also how people around us, what stage they might be in as as we consider maybe their opportunity to come to know the Lord and walk in him. Five stages we experience in response to truth number one. By the way, that introduction was long, so I got to go through these fast. Number one is this the the denial stage? We go through the denial stage. And the denial stage doesn’t have to be all bad unless you’re a stubborn person, right? I have found growing up as a kid, those people all live in the southeast of the United States where I went to high school.
They are never changing for nothing. Now there is that. So? Sometimes. Sometimes stubbornness. It can be a bad thing, right? But but sometimes people just need opportunity to acclimate and process the information that they’ve been given. And so their immediate response could be just simply a stiff arm. And maybe it’s because there’s some woundedness in their past. They went through a bad experience and they don’t want that to repeat again. I would say for Jacob, he really part of him is in this position because he he one of the things he’s holding on to or he’s afraid to let go of is his child. And because of that, it’s leading to the death of his family. He’s lost one child. He doesn’t want to lose another child, even though the situation calls for it makes sense. But he’s so afraid. And and rather than trust in the promises that God gave him, he’s he’s just denying it right now. He doesn’t even want to look at it. I mean, God has peppered his life with promises and provision for his family over and over again in Genesis 28, verse 13 and 14, in Genesis 35, verse 11 and 12, uh, God gives him his promises there. And he goes on again in Genesis 46, the first few verses of chapter 46, God tells him, don’t be afraid.
I’m going to be with you and your family where you’re going. And so God has has filled his life with his presence, reminding him of his promises. But now Jacob, in the situation he’s facing, while there might be a price to pay, he needs to understand what it means to follow God in these moments. And so he has this initial denial part because he I think he needs this, this time to to process where he is. And the same is true maybe for you, maybe for people that you engage in, you might find when it comes to conversations of faith, that they’re very much, uh, adverse to that conversation. But one question you can ask people to find out, maybe if there is any sort of openness to talk about the things of the Lord, is to ask this if what you believe isn’t true, would you want to know if what you believe isn’t true? Would you want to know? And that’ll tell you right away where they they find themselves in the things of the Lord. In fact, let me read. How about I read some verses here in Genesis 42, verse 29, when they came to Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, they told him all that had happened to them, saying, um, if you remember how the story was in Genesis 42, there’s a famine in the land. And in fact, Joseph, who lives in Egypt, who no one in the family knows, he’s even alive right now.
He was told by God, there’s going to be seven years of plenty, seven years of famine. Take the years of plenty to prepare for the land, uh, the years of famine in the land. And now the children that are in Israel there, in that famine. And Jacob knows that there’s food in Egypt, and he tells his sons, go to that land. His sons were reluctant to go there because they knew that was the direction they sent Joseph in slavery. And they didn’t want to face their past. But Jacob, by faith tells him, you need to. You need to go in that land and see if we can find provision for for our family. And now they’ve gotten food and they’ve returned back and they’re telling their father. The story says in verse 33, the man not knowing that it’s Joseph, they don’t realize it’s their own brother, the man, the Lord of the land said to us, by this I shall know that you are honest men. Leave one of your brothers with me, and take grain from the famine of your household, and go your way. Bring your youngest brother to me. Then I shall know that you are not spies, but honest men. And I will deliver your brother to you, and you shall trade in. Land and Jacob. Verse 36, their father said to them, you have bereaved me of my children.
Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more. And now you would take Benjamin. All this has come against me. Then Reuben said to his father, kill my two sons, if I do not bring him back to you, put him in my hands, and I will bring him back to you. But he said, my son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he is only the only one left. If harm should happen to him on the journey that you are to make, you would bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to Shiel. So you see the the brothers went to Egypt, and Joseph finds out in power. He finds out that his youngest brother is still alive back in Israel, and Joseph wants all of his brothers to come visit him. He wants to see his young brother again. The his his brothers, who are visiting in in Egypt, have no idea that they’re talking to their brother. They sent into slavery. But they tell. He tells them, if you want to come back and get food again, you need to bring the youngest brother. And Jacob is denying this, and he he refuses to to believe this truth. And and rather than walk in that he’s he’s walking in fear and because he’s he’s walking in fear, not only is it costing him, but it’s also costing his family, because the same can be true for us, right? When we choose a path of denial, we’re not only robbing our soul of understanding the goodness of who who God is and why we were created, finding purpose and value in him.
We’re also running the risk of our family being led astray too. And so Joseph or Jacob in these in these moments, his his family is walking in that consequence. They’re slowly dying and starving. But can I tell you, for for most of us, if not all of us, fear for us is often a natural default that we go to. And rather than rather than trust in what God says and his promises and understanding how that fits we, I think our first knee jerk, knee jerk reaction is to respond in fear and trusting in ourselves and realizing maybe we can’t always control those circumstances. The same thing happened in in chapter 42 and verse 28 that if you remember after after the brothers got food in Egypt, they started on their journey back. They stopped and got off their saddles. They looked in their in the sacks on the side of their saddles and realized the money that they had just paid to Egypt for the food had been refilled back into those sacks, and their immediate, immediate thought was, oh no, God’s trying to curse us because we sold our brethren into slavery. They’re walking in guilt and fear. They’re trying to figure out what God is doing. But they assumed the worst of their situation, that that is not only true for those brothers, but if you go back to the beginning of our creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three, once they sinned against God, their natural response was to run, be afraid, and hide from him because they they, they chose to continue to trust in themselves rather than the truth of what God says.
And because of that, they found themselves in this denial stage. Point number two, let me give you this one is there is the the delay stage. Or maybe instead of delay, you could also say the the compromising stage. This is where you you try to take the best of both worlds. You sort of test the Lord out and and you, you want to still live in the world and have your things, you know, live as if you’re king. But sometimes look to Jesus as if he’s king. That’s called Sunday. And then you get Monday to Saturday, right? Rather than seeing the Lord is King of everything. And can I tell you that Christianity doesn’t work with you? One foot in the world and one foot in Christ? That’s not what God calls you to. In fact, the Bible makes it very clear, as God has given all his of his life for you. He calls you to give all of your life to him. There is not this, this compromising or this delay, but this is what you see with Joseph when he realizes the need of his family as he’s processing through this in Genesis 43, it says, now the famine was severe in the land, and when they had eaten the grain that they had had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, go again, buy us a little food.
But Judah said to him, the man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food. But if you will not send him, we will not go down. For the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you. And one of the things I think that helps us in this delay stage is to take time to get to know the goodness of who God is in his care for your life. I mean, ultimately, look at the cross, the sacrifice that God was willing to pay for you and for me. Why would God go to such an extent if he did not love you? Why would God go to such an extent if you did not need this for your soul? And here, here is Jacob in this story. He’s trying to compromise. Where he’s at in this position. I think this is somewhat comical, where he says, okay, we can’t go to Egypt and get a lot of food, disobeying what this guy says.
So he’s like, maybe we’ll take lots of trips and you guys can just go and get a little bit of food. That’s what he said. Uh, maybe just beg for some crumbs. Let’s get down there and just get a little bit. And that’s not the way God offers himself to us, right? He wants us to take all of who he is as we give all of who we are to him. And when you think about, um, you know, the idea of trusting in God and whether or not you’re doing it, maybe we could ask the question for us is, is the course you’re on right now? Is it the best course that you can take to truly follow God with your life? There is no better time to give your heart to God than than now. Some people have this erroneous idea that, you know, I want to follow God, and I see his importance in my life. But, you know, I just need to take care of a couple of things first. Then I’ll do that. Or or maybe this thought, well, I want to come to God, but I got to get my act together first. I need to clean up my life, and then I can come to him. And in either situation, there’s an extreme lack of understanding of who God is. Any time you start the story of coming to God with yourself, you’ve completely missed the grace of God in your life.
The journey of Christianity is not about coming to God to impress him with who you are. The journey of Christianity is to have this vertical view of his greatness and allow your life to be overwhelmed with his goodness. And God gives us the opportunity through that to be able to, to, to to know him and to walk with him and and to find him as sufficient for every circumstance we face in this life. So there is the the denial stage. There is the delay stage, the third stage. Maybe this is the most entertaining one is the blame stage. There is the blame stage. Some of us may call this the anger stage, where you realize there is an issue and you still don’t want to address it. And so in order to combat it, you use anger as a defense mechanism and you lash out and attack. I think it’s important to recognize in those moments of anger is used that way, that it is a a weak demonstration of character. It’s certainly revealing of the state of the struggle that you have within yourself. But this is this is where Jacob is in the story. In verse six, it goes on and says, Israel or Jacob said, why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother? Right? So he’s saying, sons, you went down to Egypt, and why did you even bring up Benjamin as another brother? If you remember Joseph, when when the brothers came to Egypt, he recognized them, but they didn’t recognize him.
And he had a concern immediately because he knew one of his brothers was missing. And the one brother that was missing was his full blooded brother. The rest of the brothers are his half brothers, and he would have thought to himself, man, I know what they did to me. What have they done to my youngest brother? Right? And so he starts to ask questions to find out how his brother’s really doing. And Jacob, not knowing that it’s Joseph asking these questions, Jacob gets angry about this and starts attacking him, not saying to his brothers, look or saying to the boys, look guys, thank you so much for taking the journey that puts you at risk. Thank you for doing this for the family. I can’t believe you got all the way to the Prime Minister of Egypt. That’s incredible. And now you’ve come back with food. And not just food. You’ve returned with all of our wealth. That’s amazing. Right? He should have said that. And. But because he criticized him, the brothers should have responded back. Well, if you don’t like what we did, you should’ve just done it yourself, right? Like, but that’s that’s not how they respond at all. Rather, the way the brothers respond is with compassion. It’s it’s with understanding. And part of the reason they do that is because they can relate to where their father has been.
They know what it’s like to go through loss because, well, they were responsible for Joseph being gone. And so there was a bit of them that could be patient towards, uh, Jacob. And guys, can I say the same thing should be true with us. Not everyone’s going to agree with what you believe, and some people might even respond to that adversely. But rather than react to their behavior, you should continue to walk confident in who you are in the Lord. As you come to know the Lord, discover the position that you have in him, and walk confidently in that regardless of what other people do or don’t do, I understand anger can be just a defensive mechanism where they’re really trying to saying to you, look, this is rocking me and I don’t want to deal with it right now. So they respond in in anger. You know, I would even say in our in our country today, there’s no surprise that America is changing. And it seems like it’s changing rapidly. And somehow we’ve bought into this idea that in order to truly love you, I’ve got to agree with everything that you agree with. And that’s just simply not true. And that’s not biblical. The Bible tells us to walk in truth and to love people. And I don’t have to agree with you to love you. And it’s okay to to not agree with you and and still love you.
In fact, one of the most loving things I can do sometimes is not agree with you. I don’t always have to affirm what it is that you think or how you want to view your life. But. But one thing I do want to do with my life is always honor God, regardless of what people say or do. Now I you know, I may not always be perfect at that. In this moment, we’re seeing how Jacob, he was a man of faith in one moment and all of a sudden meets a new season of life. And there’s some challenge to that. And so we should expect that when people are challenged, that sometimes one of their defense mechanisms to try to stay where they are is to react in anger. But but it’s an encouragement to you just to continue to be faithful to the Lord, regardless of what people do or don’t do. In fact, verse seven, it goes on, they replied, the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, is your father still alive? Do you have another brother? What we told him was in the answer to this question. Could we in any way know that he would say. Bring your brother down. And Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we and you, and also our little ones.
Verse nine I will be a pledge of a safety from my hand. You shall require him, if I do not bring him back to you, and set him before you. Then then let me bear the blame forever. If we had not delayed, we would not have returned, or we could have returned. Choice. He’s saying, look, dad, if you just listen to us the first time, we could have made this trip multiple times. We wouldn’t even be starving to death right now. And, you know, I think the same is important for us to consider. Like, is your delay in giving God your life really benefiting you? Is it benefiting the people around you? I mean, not willing to look or being angry. How is that helpful? And this is what they’re patiently talking to their father with, helping them to understand the state of where he is and how much he needs rescued even from his self in this moment point number four is, is the relent stage. The relent stage. Now this is where you realize things aren’t necessarily going to change the way that you want. So you’re okay with other people pursuing that. You sort of give them permission, but you’re going to stay where you are. And this is what Joseph does in verse 11 and 12, that he’s now given permission for his sons to go do what they what they think is necessary. But he isn’t fully convinced in his own mind.
But at least he’s given them permission. And this is probably one of the more optimistic stands out of the four that we’ve looked. We’ve looked at, right? Because at least there they know. He knows the position of his sons. He’s acknowledged it. He’s been content with him to follow it, though he himself right now is not ready to follow that. Verse 11. Then their father Israel said to them, if it must be so, then do this. Take some of the first fruits of the land in your bags, and carry a present down to the man. A little bomb, and a little honey and gum and myrrh and pistachio nuts and almonds. Take double the money with you. Carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of the sacks. Perhaps it was an oversight. So he’s given them permission to pursue this. But I love this because this is a place of an open dialogue in in faith. Why do you believe what you believe? You know, I think as believers, this is the place that we really want to find in the lives of people. Not to be pushy, not to be overbearing, but to find a space to communicate with love. I’m not here to be your Holy Spirit. I’m not here to force you to, to, to be transformed. I just simply want to share with you why I think this is a valuable, uh, path to consider for your life and faith.
And we want to look for this kind of an opportunity. In fact, when we we don’t find this kind of opportunity in conversation, we always just want to continue to seize it and grace and love, not respond back with hatred or anger when someone treats us that way. But to be patient, to be consistent in character, in Christ for these kind of opportunities where they might relent and at least be open to hear what it is we have to say now, I would have loved to for Jacob to be a man of faith, to say at any point during this time to say, you know what, guys? Let’s gather around and pray for a minute. I don’t know what God’s doing here, but I know what God promised me that he’s going to be with me. And he said that over and over again. He doesn’t want me to be afraid. He’s got great plans for our family. I don’t know what that looks like in this moment, but we can still trust in the one who walks with us, who is the Lord as his hand is over us. But he doesn’t respond that way. He he, but he at least relents. And then number five is this he gets to the faith stage, the faith stage. And in verse 13 he finally says, take also your brother Benjamin, and arise, go again to the man. May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin.
As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. Um, I love I love the candidness of this statement because I see in what what Jacob is saying. It is a step of faith, trusting in God. But it’s not a very impressive faith. And the reason I say that is because he probably should have stopped with his statement about halfway through verse 14. You know, he should have just said, May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin. And then that was it, you know, like I’m wishing you the best. Let’s pray and ask God and trust in him. But instead he’s like, man, if you die, you die. What can I say? That’s that’s not a very optimistic ending, right? It’s it’s showing the struggle of of faith and what he’s saying. But but at least in these moments, he’s taking a step of faith and and where he is and, and for some of us that that might be where we find ourselves. You know, I’ve been lied to. I’ve been hurt. Things have not gone the way that I had hoped. But I still want the Lord. And when I choose to trust the Lord, I don’t want it to fail. And whatever faith that you have, you just want to take that and put it into Christ. And can I just encourage you this morning? God isn’t here to be impressed with the size of your faith.
God wants you to be overwhelmed with the greatness of who he is. Because when your life is overwhelmed with the greatness of who he is, your faith grows in the Lord. It’s not about the size of your faith, but about the greatness of your God and whatever little faith that you have. When you just take that faith and trust in him, the Lord grows it before him. Hudson Taylor used to say it like this God isn’t looking for people of great faith, but for individuals ready to follow him. And that’s what they did in verse 15. They started that journey from Canaan to Egypt. Yeah. I can’t imagine what would have been going through their heads. You know, who knows what’s going to happen to me? Maybe we get robbed. Maybe we get killed on this journey. Maybe we get back to to Pharaoh, and he finds out that our money was returned to our bags, and he accuses us of stealing. Maybe our brother Simeon, that we left there is no longer there. Maybe they killed him. Who knows what’s going to happen on this journey? But they also saw it as an opportunity that when they got living their lives wrong and how they treated Joseph, now they’re going on this journey with Benjamin, and now they get to write a new story and how they honor and care for one another.
And here’s what’s incredible what they discover. Once they get down there, they discover the exact opposite of what they expected. It says in verse 23 he replied, talking about Joseph, peace to you. Do not be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has put treasure in your sacks for you. I received your money. Then he brought Simeon out to them out of prison. And in verse 33 and they sat before him, the first born according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. You know, there are theologians that study the life of Joseph and say, and Joseph very much models the life of Jesus. And the reason for that is Joseph lived a righteous life, but he was unjustly accused of things he did not do to the point he was treated as a slave and thrown into prison. And when he deserved in his righteousness, to go against those who were offensive against him, rather than giving them what they deserve justice. It tells us in this passage that he lavished grace upon them rather than give them justice. The first thing that he says is peace to you. He brings his grace, and rather than keep them in prison, he releases Simeon from jail. And rather than throw all of them back in jail, he treats them to a feast. And can I just say, for all of us, this this is exactly who Christ is, that when we think about what we are owed in life, our tendency when it comes to God, what we deserve, our tendency when it comes to God, is to walk in fear because we know we’re sinful, coming before a holy God.
But what we discover in the arms of Jesus is a hand of grace, a God who would not give up on us, a God who was willing to pursue us, a God who gave his life for us. That we could find freedom in him. There’s what we we know that we deserve. But then there’s what God gives us. And in walking in that truth, that faith in truth, it’s liberating for us to live in the freedom that we discover in in Jesus. There’s all sorts of ways we can respond to the truth in which God gives, but what God’s ultimate desire for us is that we give all of ourselves to him by faith, no matter how small it is, because of the greatness of who God is. Um, I want to close with this little story of a of a guy named William Borden. William Borden was heir to the to the family business, which was Borden Dairy at one point in history. In American history, the Borden family held the number one company for producing dairy and pasta in the United States. But when Borden was just a young man going to Yale University, he gave his life to Christ.
And after he graduated from Yale, he went on a world journey. And he decided while he was on that journey, he saw the desperation of the world and realized, we need more people out proclaiming Christ. So he came back. And not only had he given his life to Christ, he decides to become a missionary. He goes on to Princeton and gets a degree, a seminary degree, and he decides to become a missionary. This made such an impact that such a wealthy person would do this, that the Chicago Tribune even wrote articles on him. And this is a picture of one of those articles that says the young millionaire renounces the world to become a missionary. When when he first told his parents that he was given his life to Christ, his father expressed his frustration and young bordern he opened his Bible and he wrote on the inside of the pages, he he said this no reserve or no reservation. And when he graduated with his seminary degree, preparing to go on the mission field, his father told him, if you’re going to make this choice, you will no longer ever have a position in this family business. You will. You will be no part of it. Of which Bordern opened his Bible one more time and he wrote this phrase no retreat. Bordern had decided in his mind that one he would ultimately go to China, and he wanted to minister to Muslims in China.
And so on his way there, he decided to go to Egypt to learn Arabic before he landed in China to reach Muslims. But while in Egypt. He contracted meningitis, and just before he died, he opened up his Bible and he wrote these words. No regrets. You know, we look at the life of William Bordern. He died at the age of 25. He never ultimately reached the place that he had hoped to spend his life serving. And from a maybe an American business mentality, we could look at that and say, you know how silly, how silly he could have had all of this wealth in his life, and he could have paid for a thousand missionaries to go around the world. But but can I tell you, one of the greatest experiences that happens when someone chooses to follow God is not, is not the transformation that happens to the people around them. It’s the transformation that happens within them. And when Bordern met Jesus face to face for the first time, we can rest assured that before the Lord there were no regrets. Everything that he had given over to God, knowing that God had given everything for him. We all go through different stages when we encounter circumstances in life, but God’s heart for all of us, no matter how great your faith may be, that you would trust in him.