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I’m going to invite you to Genesis chapter 44 is where we’re at together today. By the way, those aren’t all the announcements. So if you want to know what else is happening, you’re going to have to look at the the app or the grab a bulletin sheet when you leave. But Genesis chapter 44 is where we’re at together today. And I’m going to just call this the most underwhelming chapter in Genesis, because that’s the way church history is, has treated this. In fact, when Martin Luther first read this chapter, his response was, I don’t even know why it’s in the Bible. That’s kind of I think you said it in German, but that’s that’s kind of the consensus of what he said. But we’re going to find out. Look, I’m not going to bore you with this chapter, just so you know, but we’re going to find out that this chapter is actually a pretty significant chapter in the life of of a transforming experience in the life of the children of Israel. And it’s important for us to see what this chapter contains. But this because this brings the the reunification of Joseph with his brothers. If you’ve been following this story along, uh, but but Martin Luther was somewhat accurate in, in his, his, his communication about Joseph and as it relates more particularly to this chapter, because this is a kind of garden variety, basic chapter of life. But that’s honestly what makes Joseph’s story so special.
I mean, if you’ve been following along in the book of Genesis, we’ve been following since chapter 12 particular characters in the book of Genesis dedicating, uh, a significant amount of chapters to each character, starting with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and now here we are with Joseph. But Joseph has more chapters than any other character in in the Book of Genesis. But what’s interesting about Joseph is his life was far more uneventful than the rest of the characters that you read about, you know? And part of that is not that bad or uneventful. Things didn’t happen to Joseph. I mean, he was sold into slavery and thrown into prison. Those are pretty big things to have happen in your life. But while he was in prison and while he was in slavery, it was basically the mundane of life, which is is really where we find the majority of our life. Right? Is is learning what it is to walk with the Lord and the in the day to day average typical things that happen to us. And hopefully in those moments you learn to be faithful to God because there will come times of adversity. And when you learn about the life of Joseph, you see that what makes him such a remarkable character is that he was faithful to the Lord and many unremarkable things in his life. I mean, he wasn’t a guy that walked around with a halo, you know, he didn’t perform any incredible miracles.
He never gave some sort of prophecy. He never, never wrote any scriptures, but but rather he was just faithful to the Lord where he was. And because he was faithful to God in in the circumstances that that he faced, he he demonstrated a beautiful life. You know, a healthy faith creates a beautiful life before the Lord. And Joseph was great because he was as faithful to God. And when he faced troubles his his, he saw his his troubles as challenges to confront, not reasons to quit. In fact, they become become the platform to really demonstrate what his faith was all about. Uh, there’s a man by the name of Elbert Hubbard who don’t confuse him with L Ron Hubbard who started Scientology, but Elbert Hubbard was was an author in the in the 20th century, the beginning of the 20th century. And he said this the final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure contemptuous treatment without resentment. And I think that speaks to to Joseph’s life beautifully. He was not defined by his circumstances, but rather the Lord used it to refine him in his relationship with him. And Joseph was a life that that that proved that that faithfulness before the Lord. And here in Genesis chapter 44, we’re at the point of Joseph’s story where he is going to encounter his brothers for a second time after they sold him into slavery.
If you remember how this story goes in Genesis 37, we start to really, really read about the life of Joseph, where he tells his brothers, God gave me a dream, and in that dream, you and dad bowed out unto me one day, and his brothers, already jealous of him, really hated him at that point. And they make the decision to sell him into slavery, and they they sell him to some Ishmaelites that are on their way to Egypt. And Joseph has been in Egypt for over 20 years now. No one has any idea what’s happened to him, that he could be dead. For all they know. We know from his story that he was bought on the slave market to Potiphar. He was accused of something that he did not do. He was then thrown into prison, and he spent 13 years of his life, or over 13 years of his life, uh, as either a slave or a prisoner before the Lord, uh, sets him free. And the way that he was set free was through interpreting a dream for Pharaoh. And in that dream, he told Pharaoh, God is telling us that there’s going to be seven years of plenty. And. Seven years of famine, and the Lord is warning you about the famine and encouraging to use the seven years of plenty in order to prepare for the seven years of famine.
Pharaoh was so impressed by that he put he put Joseph in charge of managing that. Not only was he in charge of managing that, he really put Joseph as second in charge of all of Egypt. The only one greater in Egypt at this time was Pharaoh himself. And so Joseph is leading Egypt through this famine, but not just Egypt. We come to discover that that that Joseph Joseph’s life is used as a blessing to other people groups around Egypt, and particularly to his own family. His own family was was starving. His own family was hungry. They had to journey to Egypt in order to get food. When they go to Egypt, they only journey with ten of their brothers. Joseph’s worried what happened to the 11th brother because it’s his only full blooded brother. And they tell him he’s back in Israel. And Joseph says, look, I’ll give you some food. You go back, but I’m keeping one of your brothers until you return with your other brother. And so the the men go back and they tell the report to their dad all that had happened. Simeon’s the one that stays in prison. Finally, the brothers are starving again. They they’re desperate. They have to go back to Egypt. The father is worried about what’s going to happen to Benjamin, the youngest, if they go. But the father relents and lets them all journey back to Egypt. Once they’re in Egypt, they receive food, and in chapter 44, verse one, we see what what transpires from there it says, then he commanded the steward of his house fill them in sacks, talking about his own brothers.
Joseph’s talking about his brothers. His brothers have no idea that this is Joseph that they’re talking to. And it says, fill them in, sack with food as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack, and put my cup, the silver cup in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain. And he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the morning was was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. Now you can imagine, even for the brothers of this moment, they got to be thinking, this is sort of like a pinnacle moment for their life. They came down to Egypt, desperate, not knowing if they’re going to survive. They’re in the middle of the famine. They’re barely clinging to life. Their brother’s in prison in Egypt. Now they’re journeying with their youngest brother, of which their father didn’t want to go. And they’re worried, what’s going to happen to us? But then all of a sudden, now they’ve had all their money returned, they’ve got food, their brother’s been released from prison, and all of the brothers are now journeying back to Israel. They’re going to be elated. This is this is fantastic for them.
Right? I just think, you know, we’re about to we’re about to read some adversity. They’re getting ready to experience. But but I want us to know for all of us, it is easy to say you’re a Christian in these moments, right? When life goes exactly the way you hoped it would go. And everything’s wonderful. You know, it’s easy to say, I love Jesus because there’s no consequence. There’s no cost to that, right? But it’s when we face adversity that really demonstrates to us the depth of where our love for the Lord is. And so here they are on this journey. They’re so excited brothers with us again, and we’re all going back. We’re all safe. We’re all going to live because we all have food. And then in verse four, they had gone only a short distance from the city. Now Joseph said to his steward, up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say to them, why have you repaid evil for good? Is it not from this that my Lord drinks? And by this that he practices divination? You have done evil in doing this. When he overtook them, he spoke, spoke to them these words. Now I feel like I need to clarify something in this verse before I explain more about this verse. It says in this verse, Joseph wants them to tell them that that cup was used for divination.
Okay, now this verse is not telling you, therefore go buy a cup and practice divination. I don’t know if I need to clear the air with that, but just in case now you know, do not buy a cup and practice divination. Um, I think it’s also important to recognize Joseph isn’t really one that practices divination, but rather he’s put on this facade that he is a true Egyptian because he doesn’t want his brothers to know that. That it’s really him, that it’s it’s the brother. They sold him to slavery. So he’s playing the part. And in Egypt, there’s eastern practice where they would take a cup and read the the waters in a cup in order to practice divination. So Joseph is playing that part and saying, tell them how important this cup is. It’s not only my special cup, it’s my religious cup. Right? You’ve taken this and you know it’s important to us. And you might look at this and think, you know, what in the world is Joseph doing? Is doing. Does he not care about his brothers? Why would he set him up to fail like this? Why would he set him up to lead him to this point? And it is important to remind ourselves that of Joseph’s intention towards his brothers, it is not for harm. And the reason we know that is because the way that he’s treated his brothers up until this point, being second in command in Egypt when he first recognized his brothers, if he was out for for vengeance, he could have immediately said, I recognize you.
Throw him in jail, right? Or off with. Our heads or whatever he wanted to do, but he didn’t do that. And the reason we’ve learned Joseph didn’t do that is because he’s learned how to put his life into perspective before the Lord. In Genesis chapter 41, verse 51 and 52, we learn that Joseph named his two sons in a way that represented his testimony before God. What God had done in his life and what we learn is Joseph names his sons Ephraim and Manasseh. And what that’s saying to us is that Joseph has learned to, uh, through the name Manasseh, to put the past in the past. And Ephraim step in the double blessing of the Lord. And what is saying is things happen to us in life, but they do not define us. And if my life becomes about vengeance, then it traps me in the past and I live for it. But when I discover who I am in the Lord, I’m able to put the past in the past in order to move forward in him, to live for a greater purpose in Christ. And this is where Joseph has found himself. The joy of the Lord has become his strength. And by the way, do you know what the opposite of joy is? It’s hopelessness.
Hopelessness. You know, what’s important for us to recognize as God’s people is we’re all going to go through difficult circumstances in life. But when you’re in Christ, you can always be a person of joy because you know, what you have in Jesus can never be truly taken away from you. Yes, you might go through adversity, but those things do not define you. Who you are in Christ is what defines you, and what you ultimately have in Jesus endures forever. So you’re never a person of complete hopelessness. You may go through loss in life, but Jesus reconciles all things in Him and Jesus. He counts every tear, every pain, every sorrow. All things work together for good to those who love the Lord, who are called according to his purpose in Romans chapter eight. And so, because of that, you have a hope that transcends the circumstances of this world. And this is where Joseph has found himself. He’s not defined by what his brothers have done to him, but rather it’s refined him into a position to not only bless the people of Egypt, but to bless the known world at the time and even spare his own family. But the reason Joseph is doing this right now is because he wants to know who his brothers really are. When Joseph was first sold into slavery, he was 17 years old. His brothers were still young. Some 20 years have passed and what’s on Joseph’s mind is wondering who his brothers have become.
What kind of men are you today? I mean, it’s one thing, the kind of decisions that you made when you were 17 years old. Not to say we can. We probably have some pretty great 17 year olds in here. Okay, but but it’s something else that as you mature to, to learn in that maturity, what it means to represent the Lord in the circumstances of life, how you live for him and what we discover in the next verses, verse seven, it says, and they said to him, why does my Lord speak such words as these? So they’re accusing him of doing these things wrong. And they’re asking the question, why do you speak these things? Far be it from your servants to do such things. Behold, the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from from your Lord’s house? So here’s what they’re saying. When we came to Egypt the first time you gave us food, when we left, we saw the money that we gave you or it was actually returned to us. And they thought God was after them. Because of that. They thought the Lord was up to something, bringing guilt on them. But when they came back to Egypt the second time, they brought that money from the first trip, and then more money to buy more food.
So they wanted to pay, make sure what they did on the first trip was definitely paid for and then pay for their second trip. And so they’re saying we’re people of integrity. This is what we did, right? How can how how then could you steal silver or gold from your Lord’s house? Verse nine whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my Lord’s servants. So? So they’re coming to this place of of saying to Joseph, you know this, this is the kind of man we are. This is what we expect if something like that would happen to us. Verse ten, he said, let it be as you say, he who was found with, with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent. Verse 11. Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack, and he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack. Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. So here we find Joseph, set them up for this position of adversity. And the reason Joseph set him up for this position is he wanted to discover what kind of men are you now? What kind of men are you, really? 20 years have passed.
Now they’re grown. They have their own families. Who is it you’ve become? You know, I know that you’re not the same person. When I was maybe 17 years old, something’s likely changed in your life. But was it for better or was it for worse? What kind of people are you? Because Joseph wants to understand how he should pursue a relationship with them moving forward. Should he pursue relationship with him moving forward? Are they still the same brothers who had ill intent towards Joseph, or has things changed because adversity has this way of helping us uncover what resides in our in our hearts? Where you find your identity will ultimately determine the steps that you take. And so Joseph is using adversity in his as favor in order to to discover this in his own brothers and as as a believer, we’ve got to to keep in mind who we are is based on whose we are. And so adversity becomes for us, it’s it’s, you know, when we come into these challenges of life, we may not always know the steps that we should take immediately, but we do know the kind of people that God calls us to be, no matter the circumstance around us. And as we walk in that identity of who God calls me to be, we start to discover how God wants me to step. And a verse. For Joseph is going to be used as a tool to understand where his brothers are.
What kind of men have you become? You know, as a parent, I find that this is those are teachable moments for even myself towards my boys and my desire for my, my, my boys is to see them grow up. I don’t have a daughter. I’ve got four boys. But to grow up to be godly men that don’t live in this world in order to serve themselves, but understand who they are before God, in order to live in this world, to bless others. And they’re not going to get it perfect that first time, you know. But but those moments when they’re young are so important because that gives me opportunity to help them understand how to mature, to become godly men. And because, you know, as a child, when you when you’re a child and you make mistakes or you sin or you fall, those consequences are not nearly as big as when you become an adult. Or most of the time, those consequences aren’t as big. When you come become an adult, there are far larger consequences to pay, good or bad, for the decisions that you make. And so seeing that kind of maturity, that’s what Joseph is after. What kind of maturity have you had in the Lord? And he wants them to to reveal that so he knows how to interact with them in relationally.
George Mueller said it like this. To learn strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm at admit severe testing. And so we’re going to look at the rest of this passage for understanding two things then, and that is two opportunities to to prove an adversity. When I face adversity, it creates for me a platform. And that platform really demonstrates a couple of important things. There’s more than that that we could talk about here. But here in this particular passage, we’re going to look at two opportunities that I get to prove in adversity. Point number one in your notes is this who I believe I am, who I believe I am? You know, we could have simply just said what I believe, right? But but what you believe ultimately determines the steps that you take based on who how you find yourself in those beliefs. Right. And so who I believe I am. And when I, when I think about the importance of this moment, my, my mind immediately goes to the the life of Christ as the ultimate example of one who remained consistent in all things because we as as Christians, our followers of Christ and and Jesus becomes that model of what it looks like perfectly right. Not that we are, but he is. He’s that model that demonstrates it perfectly. And that passage that reminds me of that is really in Luke chapter 23, as Jesus got to the end of his life, it tells us in the Gospel of John that he loved his own until the end.
But even on the cross, on the final hours of his life. One of the last comments Christ makes in Luke 23:43, he says, father, forgive them, for they they know not what they do. I mean, how incredible is that? The very last words Jesus saying on the cross and it continues to be selfless and it’s understanding because Jesus knew who he was, because he knew whose he was. And no matter the circumstance he faced, it did not change who he was in light of his relationship to the father. And the same should be true for us. Not that we get it perfectly, but but it reminds me of that during that same time, the life of Peter. If you remember in the story of Peter, Peter, when Jesus was going to the cross, it tells us that he is confronted multiple times as being a follower of Jesus. And Peter continually denied it. And finally, at the last time that he denies it, he tells us that he he curses about it. And then he looks up and he sees Christ looking at him, and he realizes what he’s what he had done, and he runs away in tears. But one of the most beautiful passages, I think, in Scripture is in acts chapter five, acts chapter five.
The apostles are going around preaching. They’ve been warned by the religious leaders in the land to stop doing that. They refuse to do it. They said, we are to obey God rather than man. And so the religious leaders brought the apostles before them, and they beat them. And Peter was one of those that they beat. And in acts chapter five, verse 41, it says this about them. And they left rejoicing that they were worthy to, to to suffer for Christ’s sake, I think. How incredible is that? Here it was Peter, when he when he first had that opportunity to stand with Jesus, he refused. And now in acts, he’s learned. He’s he’s he’s grown. And in between those two stories, we know what’s taking place there. It’s the resurrection of Jesus which changes everything for us. And Peter’s put his trust in who Christ is, having seen the resurrection, and therefore that becomes his identity, that becomes what he wants to to live his his life for and in, in the book of or excuse me, let me let me read this. Hudson Taylor said this. All God’s giants have been weak men who did great things for God. Because they believed God would be with them. It’s not about impressing other people. It’s really about recognizing who you truly are before the Lord and and honestly who God is. When you see the greatness of who God is and that God willing to walk with you and everything, promising to always be with you.
It gives you incredible boldness and anything that you face in life and enduring joy that transcends the struggle of the circumstance. You have an ultimate hope because you’ve not been abandoned. And in Genesis chapter 44, we see in the midst of adversity that platform of opportunity the brothers have here. It says when Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, he was still there, and they fell before him to the ground. And Joseph said to them, what deed is this that you have done? Do you not know that a man like me can indeed practice divination? And Judah said, what shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my Lord’s servants, both we and he also, in whose hand the cup has been found. Let me say a couple important things here in this passage. One, it is highly significant to see in these verses that it’s Judah representing his brothers. It’s Judah who is speaking. He’s not the oldest brother, but but it is important that it is this brother particularly, that’s recognized as the spokesman for his brothers. And the reason for that is is twofold. And in Genesis chapter 37, when Joseph was sold into slavery, it was Judah’s idea that he shared with his brothers that led to the selling of his brothers into his brother, into slavery.
And so, because Judah was the one who spearheaded that, that sin against his brother, it’s important that Judah here in this verse, becomes the one that becomes the spokesman of repentance before his brother. And not only that, right after Genesis chapter 37, we see in chapter 38 that Judah goes into an immoral behavior. He ends up hiring a prostitute, which was his his daughter in law from his his past, his son that passed away. He didn’t know that it was his daughter in law. But you just see this immoral behavior of this man. And here in this story now, we’re seeing a life that’s really been transformed, and we’re seeing a man that’s different than who he was over two decades ago. And the way that we see that is what he confesses in verse 16. He says, what? What shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Um, more than just confessing that the cup was in their sacks. What Judah is confessing is is really the sinfulness of his life, the guilt and the shame that he has walked in for betraying his brother by selling him into slavery. Judah is coming before Joseph, not knowing who Joseph is, and he’s saying, you’re right, we’re guilty.
We’re just we’re we’re guilty people. We have. And in these moments, Judah is laying himself out completely before the leader of Egypt. He’s laying himself completely before the Lord. He’s just saying, look, this is what I’m worthy of as a person. I am completely undone. My life is in your hands because I am. I am not innocent. And Judah, in these moments, he’s he’s finding his his identity and being shaped in really the the confession of his life before the one he’s sinned against and, and the confession of his life before God Himself. He is a guilty man. But, guys, can I just tell you that for us in all of our Christian stories, that this is a this is an important place for any of us in a relationship with Jesus, that in order to have a true, healthy relationship with the Lord, you have got to come to that place where you utterly surrender yourself to God and let God shape who you are. Uh, we we need to get to that place where we’re not trying to impress God with our own behavior, but allowing our lives to be impressed with the glory of who he is because of what he has done for us there. There is no relationship with God until that place that that time happens in your life where you come before him, recognizing who you are apart from him, and you completely surrender your life to him, discovering what God intends for you.
And in Christianity, what we call that is the gospel. Now, what’s important here is to understand there is a massive difference in finding freedom in the gospel and the guilt of religion. Because if Judas story just simply stopped with I’m guilty, that’s it. And that’s that’s really all that religion can produce in your life, is to remind you again and again how much of a failure you are. And in fact, um, some people think that the point of life, or maybe even coming to church on Sunday is, man, I’ve been doing some things wrong, or I haven’t had enough God in my life and I need to make God happy, right? So I better show up. I. Want to be mad at me, right? Throwing some some darts my way or zipping me with some lightning bolts. You know, that’s the kind of image that we sometimes portray of God. And. And while we’re guilty, we may be guilty, sinful people before the Lord. That is not God’s ultimate hope for your life at all. But in order to get to the place where we find that ultimate hope, we need to recognize who we are apart from him and discover we never find the freedom for which we were created until our lives are truly given over to him, because our lives were made by him and for him. And it’s not until our lives are given to him that we discover that.
And so in religion, religion is not liberating. It is not freedom, it is not grace. It is condemnation upon your heads this morning. That is not what we’re talking about at all for us, right? In fact, when you look in the old or excuse me in the New Testament, Paul reminds us of that in multiple places of the Bible, not just the apostle Paul. You have other verses I’ve listed for you well as well in the notes. But listen to this Romans chapter three, verse 20 therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law. Rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin. So he’s saying, no one’s going to be made right by doing religious works. That’s not how this works, but rather the law or religious living points out where you fail. That’s not freedom, that’s bondage. Galatians chapter two, verse 16. Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified or made right. Romans 710 I found that the very commandment that was intended to bring life actually brought death in Paul’s life.
He thought his religion was supposed to set him free, and what he discovered is that his religion pronounced judgment and death upon his head. Now, now, some people have grown weary of religion and they’ll say things like, forget it, right? I’m not walking in that guilt, and I don’t want you to walk in that guilt either. But I’m not walking in that guilt. I’ll just abandon all those things and just live for what I want in a secular society, that that is the basis of America, right? Where we say, look, death to God, there is no God. In fact, the point of my life is to live for myself and whatever makes me happy. And in that kind of life that that kind of life can go a thousand thousands of different ways. It’s just a matter of whatever you want as long as it, you know, quote doesn’t hurt someone else. It’s typically how people put the caveat on it. But you just live for your own glory. But but in Christianity. Uh, Christianity is is one path, one purpose only discovered by your life, completely surrendered to the Lord. And so let me say it like this. For all of us, whether you’re a Christian or not, you have to put your faith in something. It’s impossible not to. You will put your faith in something, whether it be trusting in yourself or trusting in someone else or some other belief.
You have to put your faith in something. What we ultimately should do as people is to find empirical, absolute truth in order to, to to lay our put our lives into something right. What do I know endures? And more importantly, will it endure for eternity and for us as believers, we find that hinge point on Jesus himself, and most specifically in the resurrection of Christ. You will put your faith in something. The question is what your what is your faith in and will it really endure? Does it matter? Is life really just about waking up in whatever makes you happy? I would argue that that life will lead you to a thousand different paths. You can you can follow. But none of them in a true relationship with the Lord. That does not. That does not happen in our life until we realize how much we need God. How broken we truly are. And we surrender ourselves like Judah in this story. But what we discover is the good news. The gospel is that that is exactly where Christ meets us in our brokenness, to take on his righteousness in our lives. And that’s what Galatians chapter two verse 16 says, to embrace what Jesus has given you freely of himself by sacrificing his life so that you can be liberated in your brokenness, in your sin against God, to confess before the Lord and discover that that new identity, that new life that you are in him to, to lay down who you are in the past in order to be able to move forward in the goodness of who God is.
Uh, Tim Keller said it like this. You’re more wicked than you ever believed. It’s not very encouraging, is it? But at the same time, more loved and accepted than you ever dared to hope. You’re never going to surrender your life to the grace of God. The freedom that only Jesus can bring until you realize how desperate you are without him. And Tim Keller in this, this, this famous quote is reminding us of, of the goodness of who this God is. Uh, Jesus said it like this in Matthew chapter 16, verse 20, out of all the paths that you could follow, he said, he who desires to follow after me must deny himself, take up the cross, and follow me. Surrender yourself from being God. Just say the Lord. Lord, I’m tired of me. Lord, what I need is you. Adversity has this way of giving us the opportunity to learn who I believe I am. And the goodness of Christ gives us that liberation. Um, Corrie ten boom, which we’ve talked about the last couple of weeks, I just thought, let’s throw another quote in there for her. She says this there is no pit so deep that God’s love isn’t deeper still. So no matter how how deep your you feel your sin may go, God’s love is deeper still for us.
Adversity provides us platform of truly demonstrating what it is I who I believe, who I believe I am, and number two, what I value, what I ultimately value. And it’s easy to say something that sounds good, but when the pressure is on, that’s where you truly get the opportunity to demonstrate it. Does that really matter to you? And in Genesis chapter 44, verse 17, Joseph’s going to give his brother that opportunity. He says, he says to the brothers, far be it from me that I should do so, talking about keeping all of the men there. But he says, only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go in peace to your father. I mean, this is incredible for Joseph. You can imagine his brothers when when they let sold him into slavery, they left him for dead. They were done. They walked away from him. But now, putting this pressure on his brothers, he sees his brothers as soon as Benjamin is taken into captivity rather or into prison, rather than run away from his brother Benjamin, they run back to Egypt for his life. And now Joseph says to him, look, I’m just going to keep your brother. The rest of you can go free. He’s wanting to know what kind of men have you become.
Who are you really in this adversity? And starting in verse 18, you see Judah give this response. And this is this is the longest speech in all the book of Genesis. And Judah gives this response, demonstrating where his heart now is before really before the Lord. And I’m just going to read all of it. It goes to the end of this chapter. I want you to see verse 18. Then Judah went up to him and said, oh my Lord, please let your servants speak a word in my Lord’s ear, and let not your anger burn against your servant. For you are like Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servants, saying, have you a father or a brother? And we said to my lord, we have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father’s father loves him. Then you said to your servant, bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him. We said to my lord, the boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. Then you said to your servants, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again. And when we went back to your servant, my father, we told him the words of my lord. And when our father said, go again, buy us a little food, we said, we cannot go down.
If our youngest brother does not go with us, then we will go down, for we cannot see the man’s face unless our younger brother is with us. Then your servant my father said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons. One one left me, and I said, surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen his face since. If you take this one also from me talking about Benjamin and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol. Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant, my father, and the boy is not with us, then as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servant will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol. For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, if I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life. Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.
And what incredible love is this? I think he abandoned his first brother, and he has the opportunity to abandon his second brother. But there has been a transformation that’s happened in the life of Judah, to the point that he’s willing to give his own life, that his brother Benjamin could find his freedom for. For Judah, this became a platform to demonstrate the kind of man that he had become, the liberation that he’s experienced in his own soul, by really confessing himself before the Lord. And he’s saying, I would rather die than to go to my father without Benjamin, because when I when I think about the incredible testimony of Judah’s life, it reminds me of the freedom that we have in Jesus, how that love transforms us. And Jesus said in John 15, it scarce will will a good. Man lay down his life for another. But this is exactly what Jesus did for you. And the reason he did it for you is so that you can find freedom in him. And I think about the life of, well, our own lives and the life of Joseph. And some of us feel broken by the past and what’s been done wrong to us. And so is Joseph, a broken by his past. But he found his identity in something altogether different a greater love, a greater calling, a greater purpose because he had a joy that endured the temporal things of this life, because he found out who he was in the Lord.
And here, in the undoing of Judah, he’s discovering the same thing freedom, and what only God himself can do, that we could be liberated to live for his purposes in this world, this unending love that that transforms our lives. It’s it’s the same for all of us this morning. Of all the things that have happened to you that could define you, of all the things maybe that you’ve done wrong or or the choice to continue to live for your own glory, but rather, rather than put your faith in that adversity, has this beautiful opportunity of of demonstrating who I believe I am and what I ultimately value. And the only way that that happens is completely surrendering ourselves to who God is to find our our lives liberated in him, that he gave his life completely for us, that we could be made free. Uh, there’s a story by the man of, uh, named Eric Liddell. He’s. He’s famous by the movie Chariots of Fire. If anyone’s ever seen Chariots of Fire, it’s kind of old now, but, uh, Eric Liddell was grew up as a missionary kid in China, and he was also known as Britain’s fastest runner. And in the 1920s, he won a gold medal and became the fastest man in the world.
And right after he won his gold medal, he decided to return back to the mission field. He went back to China to spend his days serving the Lord, and while he was in China, he he was there during the time of World War Two, and he was captured and put put in a prisoner camp. And when he was put in this, this prisoner camp by the the Japanese, Winston Churchill actually worked for his release and Winston Churchill was successful. A plane was sent to to get out Eric Liddell from this, this prison camp, but instead of getting on the plane, he actually gave his seat to a pregnant lady. Unknown to Eric Liddell, he was suffering with a brain tumor, and shortly after that he started to have headaches and seizures. And not long after that he passed away. But his final words on his deathbed were it is complete surrender to the very end. He knew he remained faithful to the Lord, but during his life he gave this incredible quote. He said, circumstances may appear to wreck our lives in God’s plans, but God is not helpless among the ruins, an incredible God of which we, in the midst of our own adversities, can can lay ourselves out completely before him to discover who we really are and in so doing, demonstrate what we ultimately value to find that he is more than enough.