The Fulfilling of Passover, Pt. 8

Ronald Weinland

May 14, 2022

This will be Part 8 of the series entitled The Fulfilling of Passover.

Last week we ended in the story flow of how the sons had returned to their father, Jacob, and they had explained to him what had happened in Egypt, and we’ll look at those last few verses and continue on from there. That’s Genesis 42:35.

Again, the whole purpose of this series is to help us be in awe of how God has worked so minutely so through time of setting everything in place. These things are not last-minute things that have taken place in the sense of Him inspiring them to work out the way He did. They’ve all been set aside as a purpose to be fulfilled, and so when it came time God fulfilled them.

We should be in awe of that, because to have a calling, to be called to serve God, even that portion there is something that was predetermined a long time ago by Him before anything was ever created, of the process of salvation, and when you start seeing God in that light in the sense of how incredibly powerful, almighty He really is it helps to see ourselves as being as small as we really are even more so and be in awe of Him, but to be thankful, to be grateful, and even more so to be a part of it at this time.

Because sometimes we fail to really grasp what we have, what we’ve been given. Because there are very few in the last 6,000 years who have been given opportunity to be worked with by God at this particular time. The vast majority of mankind, it’s for the last hundred years, resurrected to a second life for that purpose. Something the world just does not grasp or comprehend.

Genesis 42:35—Then it happened as they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly each man’s bundle of money was in his sack; so when they and their father saw the bundles of money… In other words, they’re relating this story to Jacob, telling him what had happened, how they found the money, and now they’re telling the entire story to him and relaying it to the father. All of them are still at this point here, as it says here, it says, so they and their father saw the bundles of money and they were afraid.

So again here, recognizing what they’d come back with and understanding how this might be perceived by the one that they didn’t recognize was their brother, and going, in that respect, having one left behind, Simeon, they were fearful for his life and what would happen to him.

Then Jacob their father said to them, You have brought me to grief over my losses. And so, he’s sharing with them, in that respect, a displeasure and a heartache because of all that’s happened that’s involved the workings of his sons and so forth. He reiterates some of this. He says, Joseph is no more, Simeon is not here, and you want to take Benjamin.

So, he was deeply grieved by all this because he’d been told now, “To get Simeon back we have to go back, and Benjamin has to go with us” (and he’s the youngest). So again, All these things, he says, have been brought against me.

Then Reuben spoke to his father, saying, 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. In other words, “Entrust in me to get this taken care of.”

But he said, My son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead, and he alone is left, in the sense of his wife Rachel only having the two children, Joseph and Benjamin. This is a part of that story.

If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go, then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. So again, this is where we ended last week.

Then continuing on, Genesis 43:1—Now the famine was severe in the land. It came to pass, when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, Go back, buy us a little more food. So, he didn’t want Benjamin to be taken back. He was willing to wait, and it doesn’t say exactly how long this was in the food and that respect, that they were able to eat. Now they’re down to a need again because they have no more, and so he has to address this.

So again, It came to pass when they had eaten up the grain which they had brought from Egypt, that their father said to them, Go back, buy a little more 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 send our brother with us, we’ll 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.

So in other words, “Don’t come back without him. Because if I see you, and he’s not here, that basically answers everything; you’re spies.” That means their death.

Then Israel said, Why did you deal so badly with us as to tell the man about you still having another brother? So, “Why did you even bring this up?” So they said, The man asked us pointedly about ourselves and our family, saying, Is your father still alive? So, it goes deeper than this. It’s about the father and it’s about the family, and so they didn’t grasp and understand he knew everything anyway so he’s asking pointed questions.

Do you have another brother? So, he’s relaying this, they’re relaying this back again to Jacob. He specifically asked the question, so they had to tell him. Then we told him according to these words. Could we possibly have known that he would say, Bring your brother down?

Then Judah said to Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will arise and go, that we may live and not die, both we, you, and our little ones. I myself will be surety for him; and 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. Which isn’t a great solution, obviously, that his sons would pay the price. And of course, they’re going to pay the price because they’re gone and they’re going to be destroyed if something were to happen. Anyway, kind of a convoluted story.

Verse 10—Now, if we had not lingered, we would have already returned a second time. So, it’s like it’s not their fault, it’s Israel’s fault, it’s Jacob’s fault. So that’s basically what they’re saying. You know a hard thing for human beings to do is to accept blame and fault or error in things that we do. There are always lessons to be learned from stories throughout the Old Testament, let alone throughout the rest of the Bible a little bit, but especially in stories like this.

Now, if we had not lingered we would have already returned a second time. So their father Israel said to them, If it must be so, then do it. “If this is the way it has to be, if this is going to be the consequence of everything and I have to go through this, and Benjamin… So be it.”

Take some of the best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down a present for the man—a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, pistachio nuts, and almonds. So again, not just the money as he’s going to tell them, but also these other things as well.

Take double the money in your hand and take back in your hand the money that was returned in the mouth of your sacks; perhaps it was an oversight. Take your brother also. Arise, go back to the man. May God Almighty give you mercy before the man so that he may release our other brother (speaking of Simeon), and Benjamin. If I am to mourn their loss then I must mourn it.

So it’s like there is nothing left to do except this in order to live, in order to receive grain back, so he’s going to send them feeling the way he was.

Verse 15—So the men took that present and Benjamin, and they took double the money in their hand, and arose and went down to Egypt. And they stood before Joseph.

I think it’s an awesome thing when you go through various scriptures and various things that God gives, that even in this series now starting as we did, I didn’t know this was here. We get to a certain point where God illuminates, shows even more. This is a very interesting word being used here, this word for “present,” because it’s more than that. It goes back to much of what we were talking about in the very beginning here about the purpose of offerings, the purpose of sacrifice.

The sermon is entitled The Fulfilling of Passover, so the purpose of all this is to show, again, the minute way in which God has worked with to establish various truths, to establish things in time, to reveal truth. I think of the phrase we use often, “the present truth,” and I think of them. They didn’t have much of anything, really, so God was establishing various things at that particular point in time. Even for us to understand later on as we go back and read a story like this, to be moved by it, to understand how God gave a little bit here, a little bit there.

In the first 4,000 years there wasn’t a whole lot given. It wasn’t until Christ came that he really began to illuminate, give more of the purpose of why man was on earth. Just a little bit at a time as we continue on through time was given. That’s an awesome thing to understand.

I’m going to back to—hold your place here—but if you want to turn there, Genesis 4:3 is where we first came across this. Genesis 4:3—Now, in the process of time it came to pass… The reason we’re doing this is because this is a rather unique word, this word for present, when they took the present, because it’s only used once. Well, it’s used in other places but before this it was only used in one other place, and that’s where we started this series.

Now, in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering. It’s the word “offering.” It’s translated in most places in that regard, as an offering, because there is a reason for that, of what an offering is all about when given to God. It’s also as a specific purpose as it’s being used here concerning what’s being taken to Joseph.

Now, in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Eternal. Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of the fat. Now, the Eternal respected… In other words, this thing of looking upon to, as the word means “to gaze upon,” which again indicates that He received it. He respected Abel and his offering, but He did not respect Cain and his offering. So, what he presented, even the word “present; present, offering,” that’s what this is about. It’s about an offering. The purpose is for the desire of favor and of mercy. That’s what the word entails.

When it’s a matter of an offering it’s for the desire of receiving something back from someone else, it’s a matter of wanting to receive favor for giving such a thing, but also of mercy, the need for mercy and a recognition of that, and that’s where Abel was able to see various things and Cain didn’t. Cain had a different spirit and a different attitude. So, we’ve already talked about that in the series early on.

So again here, Genesis 43:15—So the men took that offering, because that’s what it was. It was to be an offering to be presented to Joseph who was the leader under Pharoah of Egypt in hopes that, again here, they’re going to find favor for having done so, and mercy. So, they’re trying to temper their approach to him.

And so, there is a lot of that in our approach toward God, to understand the power of Almighty God, to understand His purpose in our life, the fact that we’re created and what we’re created for, especially when we come into the Church, and we’re given greater understanding of God’s entire creation. It’s a desire to be in His Family. That’s what His desire is; and His purpose for creating us is to bring us into His Family.

And to understand what we are and who we are should be a very sobering thing and it should have a lot to do in our thinking as well then as we approach God in recognizing our need to receive favor and our need for mercy. That should stir up a spirit of humility in us. Who are we? What are we? What an incredible, mighty, loving Father and God whom we serve! And so, every time we go before God these are the kinds of things that should be in our mind, that attitude like Abel had as he approached God.

It's not just to get into a routine as so many people do in society in the world and that which is traditional Christianity and some of the scattered Church, after they were cut off from God’s spirit. Because if you do it on a physical plane you can’t have this mind, you can’t have this kind of thinking in you because it requires help, it requires God working with you, revealing things to you especially when He has called you to be worked with in a particular way, and our response to that, our response to Him.

Sometimes the way God is treated is not good. I’ve seen that more than I’ve seen it being less in God’s Church. That’s the scary thing to understand, the attitude of more being wrong, having the spirit worse than Cain in how they approach God. We can look upon something very physical, like that soup of Esau when we go through that story, and we think of what he did in his attitude toward God and the birthright, and what God had promised and what would have been passed along to him. But he didn’t have a right mind toward God at all. It was kind of flippant.

And candidly, there have been many, many, many people in God’s Church who have been very flippant toward God. And you think, what a horrible thing! Because this isn’t the way God has been approached then by them. They’re not fearful to sin. They’re not fearful to not obey God. They can justify sin. They can justify doing something different their own way. They can justify speaking against the leadership that God gives in His Church. Because this is a big one. Because that’s what happens when people get to a certain point, they have to find fault with then God’s leadership. They don’t realize what they’re doing is finding fault with God in the structure, in the way in which God works in our lives.

And so, I’ve seen that. Please understand, I’ve seen this much, much more than I’ve seen the other because many have been called and few have been chosen. That means very few through time, through the past 2,000 years, have responded to God in a way that is pleasing to God. Like Cain, it wasn’t pleasing to God. He didn’t receive his approach, Cain’s approach. Incredible.

So again here, So the men took that offering, and Benjamin, and they took double the money in their hand, and arose and went down to Egypt. And they stood before Joseph. When Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the steward of his house, Take these men to my home, and slaughter an animal and make it ready; for these men will dine with me at noon.

There are many people coming in all over Canaan and the regions around, to get food, and they had to come to him to get it. They weren’t being invited to his home. You think, what a strange environment to be in, and how would you feel if you were them and you’re being told you’re going to come into his home, a leader’s home like this to eat. You’ve got to wonder if the axe isn’t going to drop, or something is going to happen. So, it had to be a fearful thing to them.

Take these men to my home, slaughter an animal, and make it ready; for these men will dine with me at noon. Then the man did as Joseph ordered, and the man brought the men into Joseph’s house. Now, the men were afraid. So just as I was talking about here. So, the men were afraid because they were brought into Joseph’s house; and they said, It is because of the money which was returned in our sacks the first time, and we are brought in so that he may make a case against us and fall upon us. So again, the axe, that’s the expression being used here, and fall upon us and take us as slaves with our donkeys, or servants forever, basically, is what it amounts to.

When they drew near to the steward of Joseph’s house, they talked with him at the door of the house, and said, O sir, we indeed came down the first time to buy food; but it happened, when we came to the encampment, that we opened our sacks, and there each man’s money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight; and we have brought it back in our hand.

So this is what they were doing. They were presenting this. They wanted to be aware of what was happening. It was easier to approach this individual, this servant that was carrying out these things that they were being instructed to by Joseph.

So it says, We have brought down our money in our hands to buy food. And we do not know who put our money in our sacks. But he said… So, he’s trying to calm them down. They’re the expression “scared spitless,” candidly. Because they think this may be it. He may just take us and right off with our heads. So, they’re scared spitless, they’re afraid for each other and for themselves.

But he said, Peace be with you, do not be afraid. So, why would he say something like that? Because he could tell they were afraid by how they were acting, by what they were saying. And so, this is the response, Don’t be afraid. Your God and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks; I have your money. Then he brought Simeon out to them. And so they’re all reunited here.

So the man brought the men into Joseph’s house and gave them water, and they washed their feet. So in other words, “That’s fine, the money is here; that’s not an issue, and here is Simeon.” …and he gave their donkeys feed. Then they made the offering ready for Joseph’s coming at noon. So, they were all a part of this then, they wanted to be able to present this, to open everything up so that he could see what they brought. …for they heard that they would eat bread there.

So when Joseph came home, they brought him the offering which was in their hand into the house, and they bowed down before him to the earth. So, each time this takes place you think of the dream and how they thought of him when he told them about these two dreams, each time, and it made them more upset with him. They were not only jealous of him in the first place but hated him for what he was saying, and yet here it is taking place.

Again, not by chance. God determining this long, long ago there would be twelve sons and these events would take place. They didn’t just happen. God had a purpose for taking them down to Egypt. God had a purpose in all of this way ahead of time, and here is the fulfilling of it.

It’s this kind of thing that should help us to be in awe of how God works in our lives, works in your life, things that you can’t see, things you don’t know because it’s not given to us yet. It’s easy to look back on something after it’s taken place—well, not always easy, God has to give that, too—and to learn from it. That’s the way it is in our lives within the Church.

So often we can play down, or not play down even, but we think, “Why? Why me?” or “How could this be happening?” or “Why is this important?” Or just not really getting it in the first place, that it’s exceedingly important that we’re called and that what God is doing with us and what He’s had planned, He’s preparing us for something. Awesome!

God is preparing things here in an awesome way for the family. They had no idea what was coming to pass. It’s like us, we have no idea what’s in front of us though we know it’s coming.

When the first resurrection takes place? We can’t grasp that. We can’t grasp how incredible it’ll be. We can’t grasp the responsibility that’s going to be there no more than Joseph grasped what was going to happen when he went down to Egypt. I mean, of all things, to go through the process he did and then to be in this position now at his age when he was there standing before Pharaoh at 30 years old. Mind-boggling. Dumbfounding. And yet God brought it about.

Again, it’s hard for us oftentimes then to be in awe and moved by the reality of the awesomeness of our calling and that God has things planned for us that we are not given yet that are beyond our comprehension.

Verse 27—Then he asked them about their well-being. So, they put this offering before them, they bowed down to him to the earth, Then he asked them about their well-being and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom you spoke? Is he still alive? Obviously, they’re in awe in one respect—still afraid—that they’re in a situation and that he remembers and knows these things. And they answered, Your servant our father is in good health; he is still alive. And they bowed their heads down and prostrated themselves. So again, they’re doing this, they’re in this position, not once but continually in their attitude toward him.

Then he lifted his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your… So, this is an incredible relationship in the first place because of how he felt toward his brother directly because of their mother, the two sons, and Benjamin is the youngest and so he had this incredible fondness and close relationship with him in the first place. And so, this is a very difficult thing for him to go through.

So he lifted his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom you spoke to me? And he said, God be gracious to you, my son. Now, his heart yearned for his brother, so Joseph hurried to find a place to weep. So, he went into his chamber and wept there. So, he couldn’t even take it, it was so overwhelming to him to see Benjamin there and to know all that he’d gone through and where he was and what he had, and to see his brothers there like this, and finally seeing Benjamin. He couldn’t contain himself anymore so he had to escape so that they wouldn’t see him in this state.

I think of how he felt in a very strong way toward his brother. What I’m struck by when I read a story like this, going through it, and I think that’s obviously the closest of a relationship. The other brothers were not of the same mother but brothers, but he had this special fondness and desire toward his younger brother.

I sometimes think of relationships within the Church and how people see each other, and especially the older ones, of how they look to the younger ones, and if we can learn from that process in the spiritual manner, in the same way here, to grasp that we are all a family. God has called us as a family, and how we think toward each other is one of the most revealing things to God about where we stand, who we are, and how we think.

Because if our minds aren’t right towards others in the Church then we have some gigantic problems to work with. The longer we’re in God’s Church the more compassionate and merciful and desirous we should be toward everyone in the Body, but especially toward some who are perhaps younger or newer, and a willingness on our part to be patient, to be loving, to be merciful, to be tender-hearted toward them, and to have a desire, obviously, that they make it.

The reason I’m saying all this is because so often we can be so judgmental and harsh. Because that’s our carnal human nature. I see this over and over again, and it still exists. It will never be fully gone but we individually are to work upon this, that we have a right mind in everything we say and think toward another in God’s Church. When I say “brother” I mean brothers and sisters in the sense of something spiritual in how we think toward one another, and that we strive to lift up each other, to be positive toward each other, to want to see each other succeed.

This thing about judging and being judgmental, I get to a point where I think, “You know, I just don’t get it.” But I do. It’s human nature. It’s ugly human nature that does that kind of thing because it has to do with jealousies and envying and how we feel about ourselves, our insecurities and how we are able to do something. We get into these ruts sometimes in the world.

Because it happens in the world. Look at the world. You can look at TV. Look at the news. People constantly tearing each other up, people taking sides, people giving opinions and taking sides to opinions. News is like that anyway anymore. It’s not really news. That’s why I hate news in the United States. In Europe it’s totally different, in that respect. They still have some of that, but not to the degree we do over here. They actually have news, things that are actually happening in the world that affect other people in the world. Over here we’re just hung up on ourselves and whatever it might be. But anyway, very inward.

Again here, especially after having gone through Passover. I think of the title of this sermon, The Fulfilling of Passover, we are supposed to be living it. What does that mean? It means we have a Passover, Joshua the Christ, and what that means to us is that we’re to be looking into our lives, searching out our lives, as it says even before we take the Passover in 1 Corinthians 10 and 11, going through there and what Paul had to say, we’re to examine ourselves. Not just once a year before Passover, we’re to be doing it all the time.

That means we’re to be on guard, we’re to be watchful about how we think, about what we say, about what’s going on in our mind, primarily toward others in the Body of Christ. We are one Body. That’s what Passover is all about. It’s about what Christ died for, so that there would be a body, the Body of Christ, the Church of God. Without that, it wouldn’t exist.

We have our existence because of that, which means we have the ability to go before God, to thank God that we can be forgiven of sin. What sin? Some of the major sins that we have to focus upon, what comes out of the mouth. One of the primary areas we’re judged is within the Body, the Church, “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.” That’s what Corinthians and Passover instruction is all about.

The fulfilling of Passover is happening in our lives as we yield ourselves to that process and seek to change. Those aren’t just words, it’s a way of life. And so, I ache inside when I know of, when I hear of judging that goes on and how people are being talked about or whatever and someone is talking about someone else or finding fault in someone else. You know, we all have fault, but those who have fault should be looking at their fault, each one of us. That’s what it’s all about, we’re to look inside, seek to repent, to grow, to be merciful to others, and to want to see everyone succeed. So, I say this often because it needs to be addressed in our lives more often.

So again here, I think about his attitude toward his brother Benjamin on a physical plane, then I see us on a spiritual plane, and I think, “This has been one of the major failings within the environment of the Church of God.” It truly is one of the major failings. Because it has to do with a mindset, it has to do with thinking and letting down, not putting God first, not having a right mind in going before God in how we live our lives.

Yet some of the major instruction throughout the New Testament has to do with the Church and how we function within the Church, and how we think toward one another within the Body of Christ, the Church of God. Because how we look upon one another, God judges us. I think of some very stern instruction that says, “If we would judge someone else’s servants,” it’s referring to God, “we’re judging God.” Through time the Church has never really got that, as a whole, because the vast majority have left never grasping that. Because if they would have grasped that they would have lived differently, and they wouldn’t have left.

Genesis 43:31—Then he washed his face and came out; as he restrained himself, and said, Serve the bread. So they set him a place by himself, and them by themselves, and the Egyptians who ate with him by themselves, since the Egyptians could not eat with the Hebrews. Interesting. There were these separate areas of separate tables and so there was this seating then that was in a certain way concerning the Egyptians and concerning the Hebrews. Since the Egyptians could not eat bread/food with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination to the Egyptians, according to their beliefs and their religion and so forth.

So, they sat before him, the firstborn, which is Reuben, before Joseph, according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth, speaking of Benjamin. So, they were given the primary places there on probably, as it were, on either side then of Joseph. And the men looked in astonishment at one another. It’s like he knew how to place them at the table, and they were being set accordingly. They couldn’t grasp that. “How could he know the firstborn?” Because this is a custom, this is a traditional type of thing that they understood. But how Joseph would understand this was a mystery to them. They were dumbfounded by it.

Then he took servings to them from before him, but Benjamin’s serving was five times as much as any of theirs. So you know that every one of them saw that. They saw Joseph and the favor that was being shown to Benjamin, and here was five times the amount. Not that he needed it or could eat it, but that was what was placed before him.

It says here, So they drank and were merry. Now, that word “merry” is not a good translation, period, let’s just put it that way. It isn’t really accurate. Well, it is in a way, if you know what it means, but basically it’s a word that can have to do with they drank abundantly, a lot, and can be used “of being intoxicated.” So, they were feeling really good. That’s what it’s about. So, they drank a lot because this was a unique occasion and the alcohol, the wine, whatever was being put in front of them, and they were drinking a lot. That’s what it means, “with him.”

Genesis 44:1—Then he commanded the steward of his house, saying, Fill the men’s sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man’s money in the mouth of his sack. Here we go again. You would think that maybe they would have checked before they left even. I would think. But even if they did it was evidently put out of their mind, but they would be a speck concerned.

Also put my cup, so there is this special cup it’s referring to here (doesn’t say much about it), the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest, Benjamin, and his grain money as well. So he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken. As soon as the morning dawned, the men were sent away, they and their donkeys. So when they had gone out of the city, and were not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, Get up, follow them, follow the men; and when you overtake them, say to them, Why have you repaid evil for good?

Now, this is a lesson being crammed down their throat that Joseph is doing here for a purpose because of what he went through. I think of when it talks about him being able to begin to serve Pharoah and being given Asenath his wife and having the children and how he named the children, he finally had a peace from having been able to deal with all that had happened to him in the past. Because what he experienced because of his family and how they treated him, and being sold into Egypt, and then eventually going into prison as he did, he had these feelings.

Well, all of us, everyone ever called, we have things to conquer and overcome from our past. Everybody does without exception. Because we grew up in a physical world, as a whole, and even within the Church there are things oftentimes that we have to conquer and overcome that have happened in our past. But especially if we’re called directly out of the world and out of family.

We have baggage, and these things affect how we think, they affect how we respond to others, how we deal with various matters of life. It often takes a lifetime to come face to face with them to deal with them. They were coming face to face with what they had done, and they were mindful of the fact that this is of God, that they’re going through this, this suffering because of what they did to Joseph. So, this pops up over and over again in their minds.

And so now they get this, and it says, “Why have you repaid evil for good?” Because when he came down to them as a young lad he wasn’t doing anything wrong. He was being sent by his father, he was going there to find out how they were doing as they were herding in the north, as they had gone quite a way to the north of where they had been living there. Anyway, he’s going to bring back word about their welfare. This is how they treated him, evil for good. Doing nothing wrong. Very harsh in their judgment.

Again, I go back to this thing of how sometimes we can be in the Church and to do that blows my mind, that a word can come out of our mouth about someone else in a wrong way or a thinking in our treatment toward someone else can be wrong. Because that’s just sick, perverted, disgusting, evil. And yet it happens throughout the Church at different times and different ways, but it should never happen.

So again, the fulfilling of Passover is an ongoing process in life. I think of how we’re worked with by God and so often there are lessons that we have to learn. Just like they had to learn there are some things here that God is going to teach them all. Look, ever who has ever gone through this story has been able to read this and learn from the lessons of this, if they’re able to, but especially in the Church to learn from the lessons here of, again, repaying evil for good. Are any of us guilty of doing that in our life? Sure. We have to find out what that evil is, where it is, and get rid of it.

I think as God transforms us in leading us out of Egypt He often makes certain that we ourselves have to come face to face with what’s deeply hidden inside of us. So every one of us, the longer I’ve been in God’s Church, the easier it is to see that process in self. For each one of us it should be that way. Sometimes we don’t grasp what’s going on, and yet we have these experiences of things that are happening and oftentimes more than once. Maybe, obviously, not the same situation, but coming up in a different area so that we have to face it and address it.

Because there are certain things that God wants each one of us to see in our minds, in our nature, that He wants us to repent of and to seek to become different. We have to experience different things in order sometimes to see those. Because they’re not just obvious to us. Human nature is not obvious to us. People in the world, as a whole, can’t grasp human nature. They understand certain things about it, especially in others, and that’s the problem.

It’s easy for us to look at human nature in others and then we bring that in the Church because that’s just our nature. But to see it in ourselves, to realize there are certain things that need to be addressed and that need to be changed and that we should want to change them? That’s another matter. It requires God’s help. Awesome!

Verse 5—Is this not from which my lord drinks, in other words, have they not taken, in other words, from which my lord drinks, and with which indeed practices divination? Now, this is what he’s been told to tell them. It doesn’t mean that he was, especially when you understand how divination is used in scripture, as a whole. But there’s a point to all this, of why this is being said this way. And basically here, this is what he is to come to tell them about this cup, “You have done evil for good. The cup is missing. And does not my lord, isn’t he able to practice divination with this?”

So, whatever the custom was, I have no idea. But anyway, it’s usually this type of thing used in seeking God’s will or God’s purpose or seeking certain things to know things, perhaps of the future, whatever it might be, of God. So, with them it was wrong, with the Egyptians, and here that was something that was practiced in different religions in a different way. So, perhaps Joseph is using a part of this as what’s being done here, and said, again, there’s a purpose behind what’s being said here. Let’s just go on.

So anyway, this is what he was told to tell them. It doesn’t mean that Joseph is doing this, obviously, because he wasn’t. God gave certain things, and we already know what those things were, about the dreams and the like, and that’s what this is about.

You have done evil in doing this. So he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words. So, these were the words he was given to tell them when he caught up with them. So they said to him, Why does my lord say these words? Far be it from us that your servants should do such a thing. Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. So, here it is, it’s there again.

It doesn’t, to my knowledge here, at this point here it doesn’t strike me anyway, that that’s brought up at this point, that the money is there again. But there is a cup in one of them, and the money in all of them, and so whenever those are found or as they’re going to be found it’s going to be déjà vu all over again here because it could easily mean the death of every one of them. That’s what this is about.

Look, we brought back to you from the land of Canaan the money which we found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could we steal silver or gold from our lord’s house? So, the focus right now in what’s being said here is about this cup. With whomever of your servants it is found, let him die, and we also will be my lord’s slaves, so, servants forever type of thing. That’s what this means.

Little did they know eventually this is exactly what’s going to happen as far as Israel is concerned. Because there are going to be different Pharoah’s come along, and they are slaves. Incredible. That’s why I’m in awe of the fact that God created us to be in Egypt. Because spiritually we are slaves; we’re created that way, to be selfish. God doesn’t make us choose what we choose. He doesn’t make us come up with the decisions we do, but we’re made in such a way that we’re going to make decisions that are totally selfish because of the fact that we’re created human.

What an incredible creation and to understand that God leads them out of Egypt on a physical plane, to grasp that we’re created that way in order to experience that in order to come out on a spiritual plane for something far, far greater. Only God’s Church can begin to grasp and understand because it takes God’s spirit to understand that calling and that process.

You tell the world this, “We’re all selfish. You’re all selfish. We’re selfish,” it’s like we’re crazy enough as it is without going through that. Please, don’t do it.

Verse 10—So he said, Now also let it be according to your words; he with whom it is found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless. In other words, this individual, that’s the one that’s going to bear the brunt of all this.

Then each man speedily let down his sack to the ground and opened his sack. So he searched. And he began with the oldest and left off with the youngest. So again here, why does it mention some of this other, I don’t know, but they’re looking for the cup so that’s what’s addressed. …and the cup was found in Benjamin’s sack.

Then they tore their clothes, and each man loaded his donkey and returned to the city. So again here, whether it’s just a given here, they knew they had the money, they knew they were all in trouble, but the one with the cup to be put to death. That’s what they said. The servant said, “So be it according to your words,” so this was their greater concern.

So Judah and his brothers came to Joseph’s house, and he was still there; and they fell down before him on the ground. So this going back and forth like this. It’s hard for me to even grasp the story, to grasp what they felt, to again, go back and forth with this. It seemed like everything was fine. They ate there, they were able to take off with all this food again, and now to be brought back. The emotions.

Verse 15—Then Joseph said to them, What deed is this you have done? Did you not know, so here it is, Did you not know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination? So, he’s using something very physical in a different sort of world, the Egyptians, and the world around them, but the whole point being is there were things given to him that he lived, that he experienced that were from God about the future, and this is it. This is being fulfilled right in front of them.

The whole point being is they never believed him at all about the dreams. They hated him because of the dreams, and yet the dreams were from God. So, this is what it’s going back to, and this is what he’s rubbing their noses in, if you will.

Then Judah said, What shall we say to my lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? “What can we do?” God has found out the iniquity of your servants. So, they feel because of what had happened in the past that this is from God and that they’re suffering because of what they have done.

Good lesson there too, especially in God’s Church. Sometimes, it doesn’t mean all the time, there are certain things we go through that we just suffer because of our human nature and sometimes goofy choices we make. But sometimes God’s involved in our life and brings certain things about in our life to help us learn something. There can be suffering then, hardship in that because we have to face certain things and come to learn the lessons in it. So there is a mixture of how God works with us in our life, and this is one of them.

God has found out the iniquity of your servants. Here we are, my lord’s servants, both we and also with whom the cup was found. But he said, Far be it from me that I should do so; the man in whose hand the cup was found, in other words, to put him to death, because those were the words spoken. He shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father. So now he’s saying all that he requires of this is because of this one, because it was found in Benjamin’s, that “He’s going to stay here and he’s going to be my servant. And the rest of you, go back to your father.”

Then Judah approached him and said, O my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s hearing. Do not let your anger burn against your servant; for you are even like Pharaoh. My lord asked his servants, saying, Do you have a father or a brother? For we said to my lord, We have a father, an old man, and a child of his old age, who is young; and his brother being dead. So, we told you all these things, a younger brother, an older father, and one who is dead. …and he alone is left of his mother’s children. So, in other words, it’s Benjamin, the younger. He's the only one left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.

Then you said to your servants, Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him. Yet we said to my lord, The lad cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. So, in other words, he couldn’t take it. So, “You remember us telling you this story.” But you said to your servants, Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall see my face no more. So it was, when we went up to your servant my father, that we told him the words of my lord.

So our father said, Go back and buy us a little more food. But we said, We cannot go down. If our youngest brother is with us, then we will go down; for we may not see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us. In other words, “Because of what you said this is what we told our father.”

Then your servant my father said to us, You know that my wife bore me two sons; and the one went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn to pieces. So, in other words, he’s relaying this story that this is how Jacob responded, that he felt that he’d been torn to pieces after seeing the coat and so forth, and this is how he felt then, this is what he went through. …and he went out from me, and I said, Surely he is torn to pieces, and I have not seen him since.

But if you take this one also from me, the calamity… So, this is, basically he’s reiterating the story here of what their father has said and they’re telling him this. But if you take this one also from me and calamity falls upon him, you shall bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave. In other words, “It’s going to be too much and I’m going to die from this.”

Now therefore, when I come to your servant my father and the lad is not with us, since his life is bound up in the lad’s life, it will happen that when he sees that the lad is not with us, that he will die. So, this was moving then, obviously, to Joseph as he hears this. Because he doesn’t want that to happen. So the story has, again, purpose in it as to why it’s being told and what it brings forth.

So your servants will bring down the gray hair of your servant our father with sorrow to the grave. For your servant became surety for the lad to my father. In other words, he’s saying, “This is what has been said now,” this surety and this promise that was said, saying, If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father forever. Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the lad as a servant to my lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. So, “Let me stay here; let him go back to his father so that he not die.”

For how shall I go up to my father if the lad is not with me, and I have to see this evil that will come upon my father?

Genesis 45:1—Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by. So this, again, was too overwhelming for him, thinking about his father, thinking about Benjamin.

It’s like certain things we can go through sometimes in our life, that certain things of our past can just pop back up and we realize this is something from our past that we’re having to deal with that we haven’t yet dealt with. It can bring tremendous emotion upon an individual in being able to work through it. We need God’s help oftentimes in some of those situations in life because we’ve kind of buried it.

We’re good as human being in burying things, not addressing that which is unpleasant. But sometimes there are certain things that break at the surface that you have really no other choice but to address it then and there.

So, this is an example of that, That Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, Make everyone go out from me! So, he’s crying out to his servants, “Get everyone out of here except them.” So no one stood before him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. Then he wept aloud, can you imagine how loud, and it says here, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard it. So, it was so loud that they all, they heard it, what was going on. Because oftentimes what happens when something takes place like this anyway, you know, people putting themselves up to the door trying to find out what is being said. So, this is a case of that.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph! Does my father still live? Kind of interesting what it says then. It says, But his brothers could not answer him, for they were troubled, “deeply disturbed” is what the word means in Hebrew.

So again here, they couldn’t understand what was taking place, what he was saying was too much of a shock to the mind, the words that were coming out of his mouth. To believe that he could be Joseph or anything of that nature, I mean, their minds were just blown, if you will, at this time.

So, it says here, so They were deeply disturbed by his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, Please come near to me. So they came near. Then he said, so he said it again, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. Pretty straight forward. So now their feelings and their emotions and their ability to deal with that are being addressed here. So again, what an incredible moment in time for that family.

But now, do not, therefore, be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. Isn’t that an amazing thing? Now, God gave him the ability to know that, to see that. He saw all this being worked out; he could now begin to grasp why he was there. And because of the things of the famine that were taking place and the honor that was given to him, and all that he went through, and he was raised up like he was under Pharaoh, mind-boggling to him. But he could see God’s hand in all that because it didn’t just happen by coincidence. His brothers coming down like that and bowing down before him every time they did those dreams, they were true in his mind, and he could see that God brought it to pass just as the dreams were given. This is an easy thing, in that regard, for him to grasp and say to them, “This isn’t of you. This is of God.”

God sent me before you to preserve life, to preserve their life and on it goes. For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are still five years. This is only two years into the famine. So, they hadn’t been back very long, they’d come back again, had no idea that there was going to be five more years even behind this. Because, again, of what God gave to him in interpreting what Pharoah saw.

There are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. God sent me before you to preserve a prosperity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So again, all these things that had taken place, even the names that are given, astounding.

Verse 8—So now it was not you who sent me here, but God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh. I don’t know why that word is used like that, but anyway, the lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. So, one thing we don’t know was his age anyway, so there may have been that figure. Don’t know. It doesn’t say.

Genesis 45:9—Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not delay. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen. Now, again, going back to this map thing. If you looked up the land of Goshen it’s where all the tributaries, rivers and whatever go into the Mediterranean and it’s more of that rich, fertile region to the north of Cairo, farther up to the north, north of the gulf there on the left side and you see all the rivers on the map there, they’re going out to the Mediterranean. This is the region it’s talking about. So basically, the best land in Egypt.

…and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your children’s children, your flocks, and your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, lest you and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty; for there are still five years of famine.

So warning them, this is something you need to do quickly; this is where you’re to move to, this is where you’re to be, and all of it set out for them. Again, where they would stay and begin to multiply as some guesstimate into a few million by the time that God led them out of Egypt by Moses.

Again, what an incredible story to realize this is all part of God’s plan. It’s all a part of something that happens on a physical plane to teach us something spiritual. Because you can’t help but think about the first Passover that was ever kept, the first Passover ever observed. Before that there was no Passover observed. That was the first one ever given because it had to do with Egypt, it had to do with blood being sprinkled on the door posts. A very physical thing but picturing something that God would give understanding of later on by Christ, a long time later.

I think of this progressive revelation that God gives through time, they didn’t know much. Even by the time that the blood was put on the door posts they didn’t know much; they didn’t know what Passover was all about. They just see something physical that they’re living.

Anyway, we should be in awe, dumbfounded. God planned every bit of it out all along the way, and this happening over four hundred years before they’d ever be taken away, all the things that would happen in this process.

…for there are still five years of famine. Now, your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is by my mouth that I speak to you.

Verse 13—So you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen; and you should hurry and bring my father down here. Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck. Can’t even begin to imagine the emotion of something like this. That the entire family thought he was dead, Benjamin thought he was, his brother, his only brother, immediate brother was dead, and now he’s alive and he sees the attitude, the mind that Joseph has toward him, and it’s just like time has no meaning there.

I think of situations where people have left God’s Church, have been disfellowshipped from God’s Church for whatever reasons, and to me one of the most exciting things is when a person is able to come to repentance and come back. To me, those are some of the greatest of highlights when I have seen those things over the years. Someone comes back and, candidly, it’s like everything that was done, it’s gone, it’s behind, it doesn’t mean anything.

That’s how God is toward this. If we do something, if we sin, depending on different sin as well and we repent, and we genuinely repent, even as we grow and we repent those things are behind us. We don’t have to worry about them. The kind of love that God has is way beyond this.

And if we can see something like this on a physical plane how much more that which is on a spiritual plane? To have that kind of a mind where you don’t hold anything against anyone – and we shouldn’t – and yet too often we do within the Church. We tend to hold things about others because of something that was said a long time ago or experienced a long time ago. I’m talking the entirety of God’s Church right now, okay, because this is in every area because it’s human nature and how we think about one another, and it should always be right.

And remembering something on a physical plane like this, that we should have on a spiritual plane all the time in our thinking toward one another, a thankfulness, a gratefulness for our family, which is evident here. Once you think someone is gone and now they’re there and they’re alive on a physical plane, how much more on a spiritual plane?

That same thing is true when someone goes through a difficult thing within the Church. It’s not to find fault or beat someone down or spread around gossip about what they’ve done or whatever; it’s to bury it, put it away in our own minds. Defend one another. Stand up for one another. Yet I’ve seen so little of that in God’s Church through time. Sad.

Moreover he kissed all his brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him. So again, I can’t imagine in part what this was like, but you have to grasp there’s incredible emotion involved here and incredible feelings, deep feelings. Yet we should have more toward one another because we have God’s spirit that enables us to experience a kind of love that the world can’t experience, that as a whole they weren’t yet experiencing, obviously, as a family, a physical family.

God was working with Joseph. To what degree he was with others on a spiritual plane, we have no idea. Might not have been on a spiritual plane, we don’t know. Just because they’re named in scripture doesn’t mean they’re all going to be in the first resurrection. So whom God works with through time and has worked with through time, some are more evident than others. We can see them in scripture and seeing how God worked with them and God had a purpose for working and knowing that they were being worked with on a spiritual plane, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph. Those are very clear ones. Others always aren’t so clear. We tend to lump everything together.

But again, how much more on a spiritual plane because of God’s spirit and because of that access. That’s why I think of all the scriptures that talk about love that we’re supposed to have. 1 John talks about the kind of love we’re to have toward one another, and it all goes back to what Christ said on Passover night, “You love one another, as I have loved you.” That scripture is so powerful, so meaningful, because, candidly, that very verse the Church has not always understood. It truly hasn’t. Because it’s about a sacrificing love. That’s what he was saying.

So I think, what an incredible thing that God didn’t reveal that until after the Apostasy, that that’s what that kind of love is all about. Awesome. It’s a sacrificing kind of love. “A new commandment,” I’ve heard a lot of debates in God’s Church about what it was talking about, never grasping that what he’s talking about is the way to love. It’s a sacrificing love. That’s what it’s about. Because it’s been very obvious as it talks about in 1 John and so forth that we’re commanded to love one another, but it’s how we love one another in God’s Church that becomes more meaningful.

So again, He kissed all of his brothers, wept over them, and after that his brothers talked with him.

Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh’s house, saying, Joseph’s brothers have come. So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well. So, what an incredible relationship even there, because they saw how he was being worked with in a unique way. Pharoah was able to see those things on a physical plane, how certain things were taking place in Joseph’s life. And though they didn’t grasp the Great God of the universe, they knew that there was something beyond human ability that he had, and that was given to him. Because they still served Ra.

Verse 17—Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, Do this: Load your animals and depart; go to the land of Canaan. Bring your father. So, Pharoah is telling him basically the same thing that he’s already told his brothers. Bring your father, and your households and come to me; and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land. Now, you are commanded to do this: Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives; bring your father and come. Also, do not be concerned about your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.

What an incredible thing, think God giving that kind of favor to accomplish this, to do this in telling a family something of this measure. I mean, just have to be in awe of God, that God can put it in the mind of an individual or individuals to give favor.

Then the sons of Israel did so; and Joseph gave them carts, according to the command of Pharaoh, and he gave them provisions for the journey. So now Pharoah had added to it, because not only are they going up to get them, but they’re given the ability to haul everything in order to bring it back down. So all this provision, the carts and so forth, for this journey.

Verse 22—He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments; but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of garments. So can’t help but laugh at a little bit of this, that each time here is this, Benjamin was special. That was to be made evident to the other brothers as well.

Then he sent to his father these things: ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and food for his father for the journey. So he sent his brothers away, and they departed; and he said to them, See that you do not become troubled along the way.

Then they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to Jacob their father. So again here, another incredible event here when they’d come back with the story that now they’re going to tell their father.

Then they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive. Again, can you imagine the emotion of a father who thought he’d been dead for so long, and now he’s being told he’s alive, and then to be told the rest of the story? …and he is governor (ruler) of all the land of Egypt. Then Jacob’s heart grew numb, because he did not believe them. That’s an amazing thing. It was so overwhelming and so far out to him it’s like a fairy tale they’re coming back with and he just, candidly, couldn’t believe it, what was being said.

But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them, and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. Then Israel said… I get a charge too out of how some of these things have been inspired to be written, that now referring to Israel because there’s a different focus and purpose in all this, and it’s on a very physical plane but it’s about Israel now is going to be in Egypt. Because the bigger story is not about the individuals, it’s about Israel, it’s about the fact that God’s going to work with a nation, it’s about what all that pictures.

Because again, I think of the Church and progressive revelation, that even the things about the 144,000 weren’t known until after the Apostasy. God made it clear after that time the great multitude, the 144,000, it’s all the same thing. No man can count them, could know. No one could because no one has lived for 6,000 years. So God has to be the only one, because He’s the only one that knows every individual who has been molded and fashioned to become a part of the first resurrection. It’s 144,000, a great multitude that no man can count. Don’t have the ability to. And so again, not understanding and grasping some of those things until that time.

The names then of Israel, the children of Israel and those who are part of the 144,000, to understand. Because again, we had to go through a process after coming out of Sardis and God restoring truth to the Church. All that was given was the ability to see things on a physical plane, trying to fit things into what God had given to that point in time. The reality was it was believed that there had to be 12,000 at the end-time out of every tribe except one. So, there had to be 12,000 out of every tribe, the 12 tribes, 12 x 12,000 = 144,000. Then there would be another group come out of Laodicea.

So, we didn’t know yet, we didn’t understand because God hadn’t given those things. No one could help the fact that we didn’t know that before that. It just wasn’t given yet. It wasn’t time.

And so God has His time for when He reveals things. That’s why I love going through stories like this because you can look at the timing of this and realize they didn’t have much yet. And it wasn’t for a long, long time until finally the first Passover was ever given, and it was for an even longer time then before the first Pentecost was ever kept. Because they weren’t able to keep it until they came out of the land of Egypt, on that year when they came, when they were being brought out. Incredible. Because of the wave sheaf being able to be given because of the harvest and so forth.

So anyway, incredible stories that we read like this and realize how God has revealed things through time to His people and how much we have. I know that we still, even though we’re told, don’t grasp the awesomeness of how much we have in the end-time. It’s astounding. It’s not because of the fact of something to do with how great we are or how good we are or anything of that nature. It has to do with the fact that we’re almost to the time that one of the greatest revelations of all time, it’s going to be given. Christ is going to be revealed to the entire world, and 144,000.

Can you imagine different ones that people are going to be told, “Yeah, I lived four thousand years ago,” or “Five thousand, seven hundred eighty years ago, that’s when he was alive.” All of them going to be alive in a great resurrection, going to be ruling the earth, working with Christ to set this earth right. This earth is so screwed up right now.

Then Israel said, It is enough. Joseph my son is still alive. I will go down and see him before I die. So all this excitement then of him being able to go down there with his family, a willingness to uproot everything (because that’s not a small thing either), and to move everything and go on down. This is where they were, and this is what had to be addressed.

With that we’ll stop there today. It’s a good stopping point; continue at least one more in the series next Sabbath.

1. Chapter 1