we turn this morning to the first book of the bible genesis chapter 43 genesis chapter 43 and we're continuing if you're a visitor this morning our study in the book of genesis in the heart of this story of joseph so we're considering chapter 43 this morning let's give our attention to the word of the lord now the famine was severe in the land And when they had eaten the grain that they 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. Israel said, why do you treat me so badly so as to tell the man that you had another brother? 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 an answer to these questions. Could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down? But Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me. We will arise and go that we may live and not die. Both we and you and our also our little ones i will be a pledge for his safety from my hand you shall require him if i do not bring him back to you and set him before you then let me bear the blame forever if we had not delayed we would now have returned twice then their father israel said to them if it must be so then do this take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the man a little balm and a little honey gum myrrh pistachio nuts and almonds take double the money with you carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks perhaps it was an oversight take also your brother and arise go again to the man may god almighty grant you mercy before the man and may he send back your brother benjamin your other brother and Benjamin and as for me if I am bereaved of my children I'm bereaved so the men took this present and they took double the money with them and Benjamin they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph when Joseph saw Benjamin with him them he said to the steward of his house bring the men into the house and slaughter an animal and make ready for the men are to dine with me at noon the man did as joseph told him and brought the men to joseph's house and the men were afraid because they were brought to joseph's house and they said it is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks the first time that we are brought in so that he may assault us and fall upon us to make us servants and seize our donkeys so they went up to the steward of joseph's house and spoke with him at the door of the house and said oh my lord we came down the first time to buy food and when we came to the lodging place we opened our sacks and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack our money was in full weight so we brought it again with us and we brought other money down with us to buy food we do not know who put our money in our sacks he replied 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. And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house and given them water and they had washed their feet and when they had given their donkeys fodder, they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon. For they heard that they should eat bread there. When Joseph came home, they brought into the house to him the present that they had with him and bowed down to him to the ground. And he inquired about their welfare and said, Is your father well, the old man of who you spoke? Is he still alive? They said, Your servant, our father, is well. He's still alive. And they bowed their heads and prostrated themselves. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son. Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there. Then he washed his face and came out. And controlling himself, he said, Serve the food. They served him by himself and them by themselves. And the Egyptians who ate with them by themselves. Because the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And they sat before him. The firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth. And the men looked at one another in amazement. Portions were taken to them from Joseph's table, but Benjamin's portion was five times as much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him. May the Lord bless the hearing of his word. It is one of God's good purposes for his sheep in the course of their lives to awaken guilt. To awaken guilt. and have such a clear view of the human heart availed to us that we see it, that it begins to bring out within us an understanding of the need for mercy. Mercy. This is all over the Bible. We see this in Acts when in the early church the gospel was being preached and the first thing they would say is, Sirs, what must we do to be saved? That was a desperation cry. That was a cry of utter desperation, understanding what their hearts were before this holy God. And the way that God does that, we've already considered this, you know this. We looked at this last week, we've done it already in the service. The way that God does that, the way that God produces that is to publish His law to us. Not primarily as a way of directing our lives, though it becomes that, But first and foremost, as a way of awakening guilt and godly sorrow that Corinthians says leads to repentance. That's what we saw last time. Isn't it remarkable that for 20 years, there was no turning to the Lord? That's how long Joseph now has been there. None. They didn't go to Dad and say, Dad, you're not going to believe what we did. Nothing. 20 years, no confession. Their lives in the course of it had been ruthless. But God was working. And the deliverance we saw last time was not just seen in God giving them their food and physical famine and solving that problem for them. The deliverance was what we've always believed in Christianity and what we've understood in Christianity to be a deliverance from sin. And that was the scene last time. That's where it all began. Joseph did something and anticipated what would happen later to Israel when they were at the foot of the base there at Mount Sinai and the law would be published. And Joseph, in the midst of them, set before them a standard and he used a little phrase that Paul picks up on, that the New Testament picks up on strongly, based on Moses' use of it. And it was, do this and live. Joseph said it plainly. It was the principle of the law. That they were to fulfill the terms of the law. And not with partial obedience. Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do all things written in the book of the law to do them. All things. And so what he did was he said, do this and live. He did three things. Remember, he accused them. He had charges against them. He spoke roughly to them. And then he gave that principle, do this and live. And he intended there a course of action in front of them to go do that would put them in a certain predicament that they could not get out of without acknowledging their guilt. That was the goal. He orchestrated the very scene of their betrayal of him and then recreated that scene, remember, as he bound one of the sons, left him in Egypt, sent them back with all the money. You see, that was the very thing they did when they sold Joseph. They took money. They sold him for silver. And what did they do here? To go get Simeon back, they would have to go come back and confess, we've got silver. It's not ours. And with the first publishing of this, the first statement, do this and live, What did you see last time? They all started falling apart. They all started falling apart. The first word that's used to describe it was they said, we are guilty concerning our brother. I told you not to do that. The whole scene was they're in utter distress. They are in despair. And that was the ultimate intention to produce that in them. Joseph spoke roughly to them. He accused them. He tested them. And you know, this is why I think it's so important to understand that in the Gospels that Jesus is doing this very thing. He had come upon a whole generation of people who didn't see anything about themselves. And so these three things is exactly what you find Him doing in the Gospels. He's speaking roughly, He is accusing, and He's testing. Those three things in the Gospels over and over and over. And that's why if you struggle ever with Jesus being so radically different than the kind, nice Jesus of today, you're absolutely correct. He was rough in the Gospels with an intention. And that's what we have here. That's why I said last time it's a poor sermon that doesn't make you either displeased with yourselves or with the preacher. I love that quote. The question is, is what is God's intention in doing all of this? What does God intend by doing all this to us? Why does God do this? Why does he show us this over and over and then do this in our own lives? Why do we struggle with the Lord's intention? And it's this question. It's this question that comes out today. In the whole big picture, is the Lord's intention to harm us or to bless us and help us? Why does life take all these twists and turns? Why does it do that? And why does it then, in the midst of those twists and turns, seem to tell a different story about God's disposition and God's attitude towards us. Why do we feel that? Why do we struggle with that? Well, what the Lord is doing for us today in this text is laying before you his ultimate intention towards you. And I love this text for that. When we come to the end of the story and Joseph says, listen, God meant all this for good. That's what he meant. His intention was to give you mercy. His intention was to give you lasting peace. I know that many of you in the course of your lives, many of you today, struggle with doubt. You struggle with guilt. And you have a lingering wonder in the back of your hearts and minds. Is God really going to put up with me for the long haul? That is a real struggle for the Christian. Does he really have an intention for good? I mean that. Does he? And that is often the key source of discouragement in the Christian life. That's the key source of discouragement. And today, what he does is put on display his permanent intention, shows you the beginning and the end of this plan that he had already planned good before they were ever even awakened to guilt. I want you to think about that. He had already planned good for them before they were ever even awakened to guilt. As we come to chapter 43, we come to about as dark a moment as we read, and I think in this whole narrative, it's full of suspense. It just grabs you. You don't want to leave it. In verse 1, we read that the famine was very severe in the land. Most of us have no idea of this. Maybe you get some idea with this water shortage right now in the Central Valley. I was watching the other day that many of these little towns out in the Central Valley, boys and girls, they don't have showers to go turn on right now. They've got to use buckets of water to clean. That's going back how far now? How many years ago? And now they're trucking in water into these towns that have no water, like fireball in these places. It's really interesting when you think about here, the text saying it's a severe famine. They had no trucks to truck in food. They had nothing. This is getting up in the morning and I don't have enough to put on the plate. What's even more alarming as we open up chapter 43 is the state of the Holy Family. When Joseph was killed in Jacob's eyes, Remember what he said, I am going to my grave in sorrow. This is how he's been living for 20 years. Ever seen a miserable old man? The imagery is a family of complete brokenness in every way, shape, and form. In chapter 42, the opening scene was of Jacob sending his sons to Egypt. And remember how we looked at that and the sense of that was, Go get down there and get some food, you lazy good-for-nothings. Sitting around doing nothing. Kind of a good commentary on today's generation, by the way. The sons are back. Now one less son. I mean, this just keeps building, doesn't it? One less son. So, in Jacob's eyes now, one's been murdered terribly. One's now taken. and remember what the boys said on the way back what is god doing to us i think that's really important for this narrative i i gave a lot of thought to that this week and i wasn't quite sure how to take that last week but i do believe that since the guilt of their past had been awakened they are thinking in their minds this is all a result of what we did this is a punishment from god for what we did god's getting us god's getting even and as the famine gets more severe jacob now has come to a point where they can't they're not going to make it if they don't go get food down in egypt if they don't if he doesn't send them back they will die so they have no other choice so he says go back go back to egypt almost as if he doesn't even want to deal with the real issues at hand and immediately the sons respond judah responds dad we the man told us explicitly the man told us explicitly we've got to come back with benjamin the youngest the last son of rachel when jacob hears this he just breaks out why are you dealing so badly with me? Why are you doing this? Why did you even tell the man that we had another son? Why would you do that to your dad? Why would you put me through that? Can you feel this? Most of us accuse at this point, commentators accuse Jacob of idolatry. Maybe. I think it's more probable that Jacob, in all of his years of hardship, Had thought a lot about the promise made to Abraham. That one day a son would come who would deliver and give him the land and he sees none of it. I mean, he sees none of it and everything about life is twisted and turned and none of it looks like what God's promise was. And that now the chief son he thought would be the one through whom the promise would come taken out in his eyes. And now they want to take Benjamin. He's my last hope for this. This is it. The same spirit of what is God doing is filling Jacob. It's filled him. It's filled the sons so that now he has no other choice. He is hemmed in on every side. He's got to let him go. He's been holding out. He's been holding out. They should have gone right back, but he wouldn't. And so verse 14 really gets into the heart of Jacob when he says, May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man and may he send back your older brother Benjamin. And as for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I'm bereaved. What do you hear in that? It's a hopeful cry for mercy. I hope it comes. I hope God will be merciful. If he takes my other son away, then he just does. I've already resonated. I'm going to the grave in sorrow. That's my life. Now that's not the same response of Abraham who when his only son of promise was commanded to be put on the altar and God said sacrifice him, Abraham said, I'm not going to doubt if I did that, he'll raise him up. Quite a bit different, isn't it? Where is Jacob right now? Where Jacob is, where the son's ark can be summed up in verse 36 of the last chapter, Which I view is a shot at God in some way. You've bereaved me of my children. Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more. And now you would take Benjamin. Here it is. All this has come against me. Better said, everything is against me. Everything. That's where he is. And the question any good Bible reader asks at this point is, is everything against him? See, I think Paul has this on his mind in Romans 8 when he says, if God is for us, who can be against us? I think it's this. If everything's against you, you're a doomed man. That's the reality, isn't it? If everything in the world is against you, including God, you're over, I mean, you're toast. But if God's for you and everything else is against you, then you're the most blessed man on the face of the earth. But here we run up against this problem that this is how many Christians live. Miserably. Miserably. What is the single great struggle of the Christian life? Really. Honestly. What is it? We struggle with the accusations the rough speech the law exposing the heart and the very thing that joseph did to his brothers you struggle with guilt who who awoke that by the way world's not really awakened to that who awoke that god awoke that so you now you have the sensitive conscience that he has been working on that he has penetrated that he's opened up and now you have really sensitive hearts as believers and we go through and we start to wonder, you have this looming fear that then awakens over your heads. And the looming fear is this, is God's intention to us really good? That's the heart of this text. That's the question of this text. Is God's intention to us really good? What is he going to do to us because of this terrible ongoing problem of sin which we all struggle with and now we're all sensitive to and sanctification means i see it all the more i i hate it i give into it what what does that now mean and what will god what will god take from me what will god do to me what's god going to put me through you ever feel this i think it's much more real than we talk about he's going to take out a loved one? God going to pull the chair out from under me and let me fall? Is God really for it? Do you ever ask that? That's a fair question. And then we struggle often with severe doubt. Am I the greatest hypocrite ever to live on the face of the earth? Is that possible? Am I really a Christian? Could I be wrong? When the disciples were struggling with Jesus' a statement you know one of you is going to betray me what's the first thing that came out of their mouths is it me is it i sometimes i think we live wondering if god is just out there to make life hard and that's why i asked the question last time what do you think you've known more of in the course of your life blessing or hardship oh come on you know it's blessing if you were to tally it up, you know your life's been full of it. And we're often left in the same place as Jacob, though, because we don't really trust him for good. We really don't trust him for good, and we live this life thinking, I hope at the end he's going to show mercy. I hope I get there. We just kind of hold it out as a giant hope in the wrong sense of the word. Maybe God will strike. I'm guilty, the brothers said for what god is doing to us i am guilty what is god doing to us we live like this hopefully god will show mercy and that sort of life there's this very sensitive contrite heart it goes through it's not able to move forward in hardship by the way it's not able to move forward in hardship it's because it remains uncertain about the intention of god and we've got to get to the intention of God. What is the intention of God to you? Will God show mercy when it's all said and done? And this narrative study in the story of providence, we're able to stop and say, well, don't you see? He's already planned it before they even thought about it. He's already planned it. That's something you'll never get your little puny minds around. One son all of a sudden stands out here. Really strange, isn't it? The greatest thug of them all, Judah. And he was a thug, in my opinion. However you define that. Remember what he did? Ran out of the land, got hooked up with a prostitute, and now offers himself as a surety. In total confidence, I'll get him back. You think, what in the world is that? That's so contrary to Jacob. How can he have that? That's either stupidity or that's faith. I choose the latter. I choose the latter. I'll get him. And if not, let the curse come on me. Boy, that's an anticipation. That's an anticipation. sometimes the real problem is that the way our plans are working out that lead to discouragement look at this jacob sees these are the sons of promise this is joseph this is benjamin sometimes our plans just don't look at all like god's plan and then because those plans are different we fall into depression not realizing that the answer is right in front of us that's another sermon i won't do that we've got sunday school in verse 15 they take presents and benjamin and they go to see joseph they read they come and they stand before him all of a sudden a surprising thing happens joseph commands a um a steward to slaughter an animal and all of a sudden they're brought into his home you may not think much of that but you have the sense here that a great party is being planned. This great feast is being planned. A fatted calf is killed. You have return of prodigals. You have to understand that Egyptians didn't just bring Hebrews into their house, totally defiling in their view. It meant death. And the same spirit that has overcome Jacob has now overcome the sons. This is the climax of the fear. The climax of the fear is he against us. It has to be then, they conclude, he put the money in our sacks. It's a way for him to accuse us. This is a way for him to get us. He's going to seize us. And so they go to the servant and here it is. Here's the confession. They come clean. Notice how we're getting honesty now. Look, when we came down to buy food and we opened up the sacks, there was all the money. We didn't take it. Have it. We don't know who did that. Do you feel the question of Jacob come out here? That Jacob says everything's against him. The sons are saying, what has God done to us? And it's hit the peak of skepticism that God is against him. They must be set up now with the ultimate scheme to put them all into the grave. Because of what they did to Joseph. Now think about this. Because of what they did to Joseph, this is on their mind, God's intention is to take them out. Keep in mind, Joseph's already accused them of being spies. Dishonest men, when they had said, oh, we're honest. If you're going to make accusations like that, you better expect a bad course to follow, right? If you're going to come and hear accusations made against you, there's only a bad course to follow. That's the struggle. You struggle with that? It's all too good to be true. God brings us into His house. He says all these kind things to us. Confronts us and then says, but I declare forgiveness to you. And you think, I don't know. That's too good. I know what I am. I know what I do. And the actual struggle is, is God playing games here? Is His intention ultimately to seize an assault? You know, it's that fear that keeps people away from the house, by the way. Jesus said that. Men stay away from the light because they fear it. That's why church is not valued today. You're just safer out there. You don't have to come deal with this. Why? Because the assumption, and maybe that's been the way Christianity's been pitched, is that God is just ready to throw down a firebolt. At the height of despair, at do this and live, at rough speech, at accusations, they're terrible guilty for all of their human trafficking, Joseph says, bring him into my house. So he sends his servant with a message. I want you to go speak to them. Everything the servant says comes from Joseph. They rehearse all this. Look what we did. Peace to you. Peace. Do not be afraid. Listen to this. Your God and the God of your fathers put back your money. I was the one that took it. And then he grabs Simeon and in front of their eyes he sets them free. They had taken silver to sell Joseph. God gives it back. They had done violence to Joseph. He returns upon them a message of peace upon their broken, distressed hearts. And then he summarizes all of it by saying, this is what God's done for you. And then an announcement is made. Wait, wait, it's not over. Prepare, at noon, Joseph's coming. So he comes in, and immediately they all bow, fulfilling the original dream again. And the first thing he does is, You, the first thing he does is inquire about their welfare. How are you? How is your father? He lifts his eyes and he lays them on Benjamin, Joseph, the youngest son. And right then and there, you get an early form of the Aaronic benediction. The Lord bless you, my son. And he's so overwhelmed with emotion, he darts out again at this point. He can't take it. he's overwhelmed he weeps uncontrollably and it says here here's a key to the text this morning it says his compassions were warm you know what the word is it's the very word that jacob said maybe god will show mercy may god show mercy joseph is showing mercy filled with it the very word what do you think you now you have before you it's a banquet a feast a fatted calf is killed And Egyptian law forbade Egyptians to come in and eat. Well, we read, Joseph sits down in front of his brothers. The youngest, firstborn to the youngest, receiving five times the portions, the last. And they looked in amazement. And yet as still, they don't know who he is. They don't know. They don't know. and look at the intention of Joseph to them. Stripped, hated, murdered, threw in a pit, sold, left for dead. Let me ask you, what's the last thing you ever want to do today to someone who's treated you badly? The last thing you ever want to do is say, hey, would you come over to my house? I'm going to put you in the best seat. I'm going to invite you in. I'm going to feed you with the best food and I'm going to love you. You don't do that. You should do that because that's Christianity, but you don't do that like we should. This is why I think it was Alistair Begg who said refusal to forgive reveals that we've minimized our offense against God and maximized our brother's offense against us. What just happened? Joseph loved them, spoke peace to their hearts, gave them blessings, fed them with delicacies and is about to reveal himself as their Savior. Do you know that story? Of course you know that story. You took the Son of God and you beat him. You. Me. All the while, when they were delivering him up, remember what Joseph's brothers did when Joseph was delivered up? They sat down and had a feast in chapter 37. It was a sick thing. Do you know what the Jews did when Jesus was delivered up? They celebrated the Passover. They sat down to eat and drink as they handed over the just one. And the disciples were totally distressed because none of them could hold their own. None of them could keep themselves. All of them denied Him in the heart of His afflictions. And this son of Judah, this lion of the tribe of Judah says, I'll be their surety, O Father. And he goes into prison. And he goes into the grave. And then on the third day, he rises. And all the disciples are seated in a room. A room full of doubt. A room full of fear. I won't believe Thomas unless I see. And all of a sudden, he enters the room What are the first words? Peace to you. Peace to you. They're terrified. No way. It's him. No way. And while they marveled, Luke 24, same thing here. While they marveled, Jesus takes food and he eats with them in their presence. He dined with them. No anger, no bitterness for their terrible lives against him. And then he says, I promise you a place in my kingdom forever. I'm coming again. We're going to do this in glory. There's a grand banquet coming in my kingdom. And I don't want you to fear because it's the Father's good pleasure to give you that kingdom. And you see, this is where the ancient stories come alive for us because we did this to Christ and we go through terrible things in life and life takes a lot of twists and turns and we wonder what God's going to do to us. Is His intention good or is it evil? Is God for us or is God against us? If God is for us and everything else is against us, then you have everything going for you. His purposes are going to be worked out no matter what the current station, no matter what the current circumstance in life looks like. And every week, I'm closing with this, every week he blesses you with all sorts of good things. Every week. He fills your mouth with good things. He renews your strength like the eagles, even when you've been a dog to him. He gives you bread. And then every week he says, I want you to come into my house. I want you to come. I want you to come out of your weeks which you've been defiled. And I'm going to confront your life, you bet, because you haven't seen what you've been doing the way that you should. But I'm confronting your life with the intention of good, and I want you to confess your sins so that you may know the peace that surpasses all understanding that will guard your hearts and your minds. The Lord, then at the end of it all, he sends his servant to raise his hands. This is why, boys and girls, we have a benediction. Jesus did this. Hands go up, and he says, The Lord bless you as he sends you out. And then he spreads a table in front of you, the Lord's Supper. And he invites you to come, anticipating the grand feast to come at the end. And if you don't believe that, if this isn't a value to you, you don't care much about the table or coming to worship. But at some point, you've got to respond like the brothers respond, I'm in amazement that he brought me in and gave me a place at his table. I can't believe that he would do that. and he did it, wretches like me. And he killed a fatty calf for me, and he opened up his house, and he gave me a seat. I'm not worthy of this, O Lord. I'm not worthy. It's astonishment. In fact, it's so overwhelming, you have to say to him, keep upholding me, because if you don't uphold me, I'll run again. I'll go do it all again. And he says, don't fear. It's in the house that he says, it's my good pleasure to give you the kingdom. I'm going to bring you to be where I am. They're all going to go to be where He is. Unbelievers don't have this. But those who believe in the promises of the Gospel, those who have Jesus, He wants you to know. He means it when He says, if God is for you, who can be against you? He who did not spare His own Son, how will He not freely give us? Everything. If you believe that, then his house and his table, your view of that, it's going to go off the charts. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we're grateful. Where do we begin to say thank you? We confess what we are. Confess what we've done. We delivered up the Son of God. and you want us to have peace. May that peace be alive in us. May we believe you. May we respond to thanksgiving. May we love you with a sincere heart all of our life. And thank you for being so long-suffering and patient, patient with wretches like us. And thank you for your love in restoring us and renewing us and making us a new creation to look a lot like Jesus and how we now love one another. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.