Genesis 50: Jacob’s Burial, Joseph’s Forgiveness, and “What You Meant for Evil”

Pastor Tony and Lady Laura Simon welcome viewers to Word on Wednesday, pray, and finish their Genesis journey by teaching through Genesis 50. They describe Jacob/Israel’s death, Joseph’s grief, and the Egyptian embalming and extended mourning, noting the dignitary-level honor shown by Pharaoh’s household and Egypt’s leaders. Joseph seeks Pharaoh’s approval to keep his promise to bury Jacob in the family tomb at Machpelah in Canaan, leading a large procession and returning to Egypt afterward. Joseph’s brothers fear he will retaliate once their father is gone, but Joseph tells them not to be afraid, that he is not God, and that although they meant evil, God meant it for good to preserve many lives. The Simons emphasize forgiveness without “forgetting,” learning from scars, obedience through suffering, and God’s larger plan, then invite listeners to their podcast and Zoom prayer and close in prayer.

00:00 Welcome and Setup

01:26 Opening Prayer

03:07 Genesis 50 Begins

04:52 Jacob Burial Request

09:13 Respect and Favor

10:25 Funeral Procession

13:29 Abel Mizraim Meaning

16:49 Brothers Fear Joseph

18:28 Forgive Not Forget

23:34 Modern Parallels

32:22 Forgiveness Without Judgment

33:21 God Meant It Good

33:58 Suffering Builds Witnesses

38:10 Spiritual Warfare Mindset

40:52 When God Removes People

42:09 Josephs Final Promise

45:06 Genesis Big Picture Hope

47:53 Chain To The Messiah

50:43 Imperfect Yet Obedient

54:34 Maximize And Modernize

56:46 Prayer Zoom And Next Topics

01:01:09 Closing Prayer And Blessing

Pastor Tony and Laura Simon live in Orange County, California, and are the founding pastors of New Covenant/Covenant City Fellowship, a wonderfully colorful congregation of vibrant members who love Jesus, food, fellowship, and fun.

Laura is an award-winning author and passionate speaker who serves pastors' wives, ministry leaders, and women seeking to live authentic lives within church culture.

Together, Tony and Laura have two young adult daughters and sons. They'd love to hear from you and can be reached at newcovenant007@yahoo.com.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I just want to wish everybody a good Wednesday evening. Hopefully you are ready to get into the world on Wednesday with the time. And we're blessed to be here with those of you that are with us for the first time. Just let us know where you are viewing us from. We want to reach you in the name for those of you that have been with us and are with us on a consistent basis. Glad to see you as well. We're in Genesis chapter 50. The last chapter of Genesis is where we are. And so we're just we're again we're there. We're at the end of this journey that we have been on for several months now. And I know I have learned a tremendous amount in Genesis and from the beginning all the way to where we are now. So we're gonna pray and then we're gonna get right into chapter 50. We'll do a recap of chapter 49 and then go into chapter 50. Lord, how we bless your name, how we give you thank you, how we give you praise, how we give you honor, and how we give you glory. We thank you for another day's journey that you've allowed us to be a part of. God, we thank you for blessing us that we are able to have our limbs, a mind to think, a voice to talk, legs to walk, and God for jobs to go to, houses to live in, and God, food to eat. And God, we thank you because there's somebody that's less fortunate than we are. But God, we bless you that you have not sought fit to have us be under the freeway overpass, or to have us outside, nor to have us in hospitals, nor in the morgue, but you've allowed us to come together and greet one another in the name of Jesus as we gather as a people of God, ready to study the word of God. Now, God, I pray for what I have learned and what the Lord has learned that you will bring and combinate together, that we will be teachers of your word, and that the hearers will be blessed as well. Now, God, we pray that your Holy Spirit join us as we're in the midst of this hour. Plus, as we discuss your word, that we will see you and catch a glimpse of you through your holy pages and that you will show us who you are as the all-powerful, almighty God that you are. Now, God, we pray for our government, we pray for our president, pray for sick and shut-in, debris families all over this land and country. And God, we thank you for allowing us to yet survive being in the land of the living. So now, God, we pray in Jesus' name that you continue to keep us in perfect peace. We ask that it's your will and that it is your way. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Alright, so we're gonna go into chapter 50. I'm setting up now what I have. I'll be reading from the New King James Version again as we go into this study. If we've gone into the study, we know that Jacob slash Israel has died or is dying. I think in chapter 49, he has died, he's died in 49. And then and they just let us know what's happening in 50. Alright, he has died, he has passed, they are in mourning now, and what we're gonna see is he's not in a traditional mourning setting because of where they are and because of who Joseph is. He has more of an Egyptian type ceremony.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

But he's very honored because that's his big deal for what they're doing.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

But he's honored by what he's doing. It is a dignitaries, funeral service, for lack of a better word, and we are just graciously just looking at what he is accomplished, what they have was accomplished, and his son Joseph has been able to accomplish for Egypt. Okay, so we're gonna get right into the text. I'll read the first five verses and then we will have discussion on the first five verses. Again, welcome to Word on Wednesday with the Simons. Again, we like to let you know that we do have and that the platform of the podcast is up on all podcasts platforms, the Word on Wednesday. So if you want to come back, go back and review the lessons that we are have been dealing with. You can do it by podcast while you're working out or while you're working or doing chores, you can hear the word of God. Alright, Genesis chapter 50, verse number one says, Then Joseph fell over his father's neck and wept over him and kissed him. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. Forty days, they were it was uh forty days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him seventy days. Verse number four says, And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, I am about to die. In my tomb I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan. There you shall bury me. Now therefore let me please go up and bury my father, then I will return. So he gives him the traditional Egyptian burial, because we know by history that they embalmed a people in the Egyptian culture. And he is he's asked in 49, he said that he wanted to be buried with his wife, which is Leah, his first wife, Leah, and his father's fathers and their wives, and they he bought a land. Abraham had bought a land in Cana in Machpelah, and there was the family plot or family tomb. And he makes Joseph make a promise that he will not leave him buried in Egypt, but that he will carry him to Macpilah. And so that's Mach Pilah. Yes, it's no, I looked it up. It's Mach.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

And the emphasis is on Pei.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:56

Mak. Like Mokh.

SPEAKER_03 6:58

Okay. Mok. Alright.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Pei La.

SPEAKER_03 7:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

Alright, I just wanted to tell you.

SPEAKER_03 7:04

You told me.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

That's the English version you're doing. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 7:06

Yes. I I know I'm doing the English version. Alright. Okay. So he's in the family tomb. And in the family tomb, Joseph makes a promise to him in chapter 49. And then he from 49, he now is carrying out on the promise. And so he sends his servants to ask Pharaoh for his absence or a past to go and bury his family. That's in the first five verses. What does yours read?

SPEAKER_01 7:36

Uh, I'm the easy read version. And so it says, When Israel died, Joseph was very sad. He hugged his father and cried over him and kissed him. Two says, Joseph commanded his servants to prepare his father's body. These servants were doctors. The doctors prepared Jacob's body to be buried. They prepared the body in the special way of the Egyptians. When the Egyptians prepared the body in this special way, they waited 40 days before they buried the body. Then the Egyptians had a special time of sadness for Jacob. This time was 70 days. And usually for dignitaries, so to show how much the Egyptians really loved Jacob and respected Jacob, Egyptian for the dignitary 72 days. That they mourn, and they mourn Jacob 70. And he's not even an Egyptian. So look how God does favor. After the time of sadness was finished, Joseph spoke to Pharaoh's officers and said, Please tell this to Pharaoh. When my father was near death, I made a promise to him. I promised that I would bury him in a cave in the land of Canaan. This is the cave that he prepared for himself. So please let me go and bury my father. Then I will come back here to you. So there's a thing about respect on both ends. He didn't go to Pharaoh directly, but he told the officers. So he still knows his place. He's still Joseph, but he's still Joseph. Joseph's still big and in with Pharaoh. So those are the five that I have.

SPEAKER_03 9:17

Okay. And when we see this, when we see this, I'm gonna say this point of respect, they did not necessarily believe in their gods, but they respected their gods and respected what was said and respected Joseph, what respected Jacob because of Joseph.

SPEAKER_01 9:36

And they respect Joseph too.

SPEAKER_03 9:37

And respect Joseph because of what he has done and what he's able to accomplish, what he's accomplished in their nation.

SPEAKER_01 9:46

So that speaks volumes, we can apply that to ourselves. That you don't know who people are, you can get to know them. We don't need to be ugly about other cultures, even though sometimes I can be. You know, we can be, and then you just don't know why we do certain things or certain things. But you have to be careful. And God just allowed favor to be upon Joseph, and so we need to be mindful of that. How we talk, how we act, what we share, what we don't share. That's just very important. And you really need to lean on the Holy Spirit for discernment and just wisdom on knowing what you should and should not do, what you should and should not say.

SPEAKER_03 10:28

Okay.

unknown 10:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

So Joseph went up to bury his father, with him with all of the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his household, all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as the household of Joseph, his brothers, his father's household, only their children, their flocks, and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. So they were coming back. So they left pretty much all their stuff was left in the land of Goshen. Verse number nine says, and they went up with him, both chariots and horsemen. That must have been a spectacular entourage. Entourage, yes.

SPEAKER_01 11:21

What a funeral procession.

SPEAKER_03 11:22

Of a procession.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

That shows how awesome Jacob was thought of.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

And it says, and to enhance what we said, it says in the scripture, it was a very great company. And when they had come to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with very great and grievous lamentation. And he made a mourning for his father seven days. So they sat in one place for seven days.

SPEAKER_01 11:56

Yes. It continued for seven days.

SPEAKER_03 11:58

So it continued for seven days.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Pharaoh recovered. So Pharaoh answered, Keep your promise. That's the swear part. Excuse me. Go and bury your father. So seven says, So Joseph went to bury his father. All of Pharaoh's officials, personal advisors, and all the older leaders of Egypt went with Joseph. All right. That speaks volumes about Joseph and Jacob. And they're not Egyptian. Okay? And then it says, all the people in Joseph's family, his brothers, and all the people in his father's family went with him. Only the children and the animals stayed in the land of Goshen. So there was a large crowd of people with him. There was even a group of soldiers riding in chariots and some on horses. That's grand. Right. And 10 says they went to Goranatad, east of the Jordan River. There they had a long funeral service for Israel, which continued for seven days.

SPEAKER_03 13:07

Wow, so they were in mourning for seven days.

SPEAKER_01 13:10

After all the 72, they had given him that's lying and stayed a long time, isn't it? 72 days is two months, two and a half weeks, two months, twelve days. That's almost two months, twelve. Yes, it's that right at 90, right? Almost 90 days.

SPEAKER_03 13:28

Almost three months, is what we're by our time frame, three months. Verse 11 says, when the inhabitants of the land of the Canaanites saw the morning on the threshing floor at the Tad, they said, This is a grievous morning by the Egyptians. Therefore, the place was named Abel Mizaram. Abel Mizaram. It is beyond the Jordan. And when we look at Abel Mizoram, is a place that is attached. I will give you the meaning of the name.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

Yeah, Abel Miz Mizrain.

SPEAKER_03 14:08

Okay, I'll give it.

SPEAKER_01 14:09

I'm thinking of our friend, our Jewish guy. Remember we met in the He's talking about Yoni. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 14:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:17

Um just practicing all his stuff. This means Egyptian time of sadness.

SPEAKER_03 14:21

Okay. Yep. That's what it means. Your Egyptian mourning. Okay. Yep. There they're they are mourning. And again, it's it says something when you're affect uh infect, I'm gonna say it like that, and affect not only your own people, but other people. This you're you're being mourned and being celebrated because of the personality and man that you are, says volumes. Because again, that I don't think that's gonna be happening uh in this dispensation of time because our leadership is either loved by one or hated by the other, but it's the mourning of the Egyptians. Yeah, they went, they yeah, yeah, he had an effect on not only his own people, but the people that were surrounded him because they've been there for a while. Okay, so when he'd been there for a while, he then affected infected and affected his the people that were around him in Gersham. Okay, so they were there in beyond the Jordan, thus, verse 12 says, Thus his sons did for him as he commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of Pelah. Pelah. Okay, I'll still say Pelah, but you would say Pelah to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephraim, Ephraim, the Hittite, to possess as a burying place. We studied that weeks ago, months ago, that Abraham bought the praise, bought the place for a family, a family burial site. And after verse 14 says, after he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. Okay, so now we're getting to the point to where everything, as far as the celebration of his life, has ended. Correct? Where everything has been accomplished, where they have kept the promise, and the chapter of his life has now come to an end. Okay, so let's pick up verse 15.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

Okay, so 15 rivers, so Jacob's sons, what their father told them, carried the ball out of the you read all that to the cave of the case. So after Jacob died, Joseph's brothers were worried. They were afraid that Joseph would still be mad at them for what they had done years before. They said, maybe Joseph still hates us for what we did. So the brothers sent this message to Joseph. Before your father died, he told us to give you a message. I'm a little skeptical on that. I don't want to call that a lie, but I don't remember Jacob saying any of that. You know how you can put things in.

SPEAKER_03 17:26

You can put anything in in the deceased person's mouth that they didn't say.

SPEAKER_01 17:31

Okay. So he said, tell Joseph that I beg him to please forgive his brothers for the bad things they did to him. So now, Joseph, we beg you, please forgive us for the bad things we did to you. We are the servants of God, the God of your father. That message made Joseph very sad and he cried. His brothers went to him and bowed down in front of him. They said, We will be your servants. Then Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid, I am not God. We say that, we gotta come back to that. I have no right to punish you. It is true that you plan to do something bad to me, but really God was planning good things. God's plan was to use me to save the lives of many people, and that is what happened. So don't be afraid. I will take care of you and your children. And so Joseph said kind things to his brothers, and this made them feel better.

SPEAKER_03 18:33

So let's unpack this one thing. Y'all you guys can jump in with us in this case. His brothers were still under the impression that because of what they had done, he was still mad at them.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

And what would ever give them that impression?

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Because of the fact that's folks. Folks will always read, especially if they've done something and they believe that you are or act or have the same attributes as they do. They figure if it was me, I would be trying to get revenge. And so they act up. That's why it used to kill me when I when we used to go back to our home church. Folks would be like, they didn't know what to say to us. So they'd go, Oh, you look real good. And I'd be like, What am I supposed to look like? What are we supposed to look like? You want us to be desolate and downtrodden? But that was the guilt that they were living with. And can I say this to you all? There's sometimes that folks are awkward with you because of the fact that they're living with the guilt of what they've done. Do not take that on. One of the greatest things that I was able to learn in that transition of time in my life is that I don't have to say nothing. If you do me wrong or you've done wrong by me, you'll tell on yourself. Because your conscience will be dealing with you. I can walk in and out of rooms and be completely clear and conscious. That's the word I'm on here. I want to use. Be completely clear and conscious because I have forgiven. We talked about this on last week and we're going to talk about it again. There is a forgiving, but you never forget. Let's just put that lie out of commission. There's never forgetting. What it is, the forgiveness takes the sting out of it, but there's still the scar that reminds you of where you were when you got the scar. There's some scars that will stay with you so much on your hearts and on your bodies that you would not forget it and you shouldn't forget it because the lesson that God has to teach is attached to the scar. But the scar will be painless. It's just a scar. It is a place of knowing that you have healed and knowing that you have overcome and knowing that you have been strengthened. But this stuff of forgetting when stuff when folks have done you wrong is completely and utterly, in my opinion, and I'll give you just my opinion, preposterous. Because if God says, I am a jealous God, what is he jealous of? He's jealous of something that you have done prior or places that you have been prior for him to be able to say, I am a jealous God, which means he does not forget what you've done. He forgives what you've done, but he does not forget what you've done. Now, and somebody I feel somebody going, but yeah, he said so cast it in the sea of forgetfulness. Yeah, he will cast it the sin into the sea of forgetfulness. It doesn't mean that he forgets. That's just where he casts it that it never rise against you. It never comes up against you because he's put it in the sea of forgetfulness. But as God does not forget, God is great at keeping tally. He's great at telling you, vengeance is mine. What vengeance could there be? If I forgot what I'm revenging, what vengeance could there be? So don't lock yourself into the situation to where you are like the brothers. Cherie said it best. The lesson is to forgive yourself. But now if you didn't forget it. That's hard though sometimes. But if you didn't forget and you you are the offender, how do you think that the offended is not gonna forget? They're not gonna forget. So let's come on. We have to come to the conclusion. That's why we are forgiving in spite of.

SPEAKER_01 22:37

And you have to forgive all the time.

SPEAKER_03 22:38

Which and love conquers what we have gone through.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

That's like the bride of we're the bride of Christ. So forgiving, he told Peter we have to forgive 70 times seven. So we're supposed to forgive.

SPEAKER_03 22:54

So if you're supposed again, let's even evaluate that. If you're forgiven 70 times seven, what are you forgiving unless you haven't forgotten? So he tells you.

SPEAKER_01 23:04

When it comes up, remember and forgive. And it's gonna come up. There are there are triggers, there are things that are gonna happen. Exactly. And it's gonna come up, regardless of what we should say as a people. Stop. You said it best from last week and this week. Stop saying you'll forget. No. Because your brain is a computer. Doesn't forget. The body. That is so true that the body keeps score.

SPEAKER_03 23:29

You're repeating what I the body keeps score. So if your body's gonna keep score, people are gonna keep score. And if people are gonna keep score, the world's gonna keep score. The world's gonna keep score. If we look at this from the totality of us as people of color, and folks, we gotta get over slavery. How do you get over it when the offender doesn't act like they offended?

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Oh yeah, they act like it never happened. Or it wasn't that. And what gets me is you have the Holocaust, they remember, and they give for that. You have the Japanese in the camps, and they remember. Not only do they remember, but they compensate. We are the only people, and folks just don't want to hear this, but it is true that there's it's like I don't even know how I guess I think they're really trying to figure out how do you even compensate.

SPEAKER_03 24:21

You can't for slavery. There's so much water under the bridge, you absolutely can't. And even if you would, we uh I think that there was a some I was reading the other day that says that if they were to even give everyone an ancestry of slavery the 40 acres of the mule, they would pretty much give away at least a half to some or over half of the United States to people of color. And again, we know that the offense was to done to more than us. Okay? Mike says something. Let me see what Miss Audrey says, what the brothers did or didn't. Let me see what she's saying. To what the brothers didn't was that Joseph was on a different level.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

So what the brothers didn't know was that Joseph was on a different level than they were.

SPEAKER_03 25:15

And he had been there prior to it because what we're seeing in the text was what he said to them in the beginning of the story. You're gonna bow down to me. There's nothing wrong with that. He was only stating He just gave it at the wrong time. Yeah, he was only stating what he's seen. But I can't even say it was at the wrong time. It was at the wrong time for them, but it wasn't at the wrong time for him because he saw it. What he had to do was sit on, and I know this hard, but he had to sit on what he was seeing.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Yeah, and that's why at the end I have I thought this I have a summary of it, but we'll come to that. If all this, what had to happen to him based on the brothers. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 25:53

Okay, Mike Starr says, forgetting or forgets leads to repeating.

SPEAKER_01 25:58

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

And again, if you yeah, if you forget, we're gonna repeat. Okay, Jamal says, Do unto others what you want them to do unto you. Joseph gave the love of Christ, he's a type of Christ. Jesus, even on the cross, asked for forgiveness of the sins and the immortality of the people. He did. The father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Immorality.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Yeah, because sin and all the immoral things they were doing.

SPEAKER_03 26:29

Okay. Yes. Yeah, God's saying I know I read it right. Okay, so yeah. So again, this leads us to the fact for those of you that want to practice being martyrs and throwing yourself on the sword. For I tell folks, Jesus is Jesus. I am a follower of Christ. And there's some things I have and some things I'm working on.

SPEAKER_01 26:51

And then it's there are a lot of things I'm working on. You have to, you have to literally, as a human, you have to keep on forgiving. Keep on. Because if you don't, you're gonna be crazy.

SPEAKER_03 27:04

Hence is why Jesus says to take up my your cross how long? How often? Daily. Daily and follow me.

SPEAKER_01 27:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

Because we got to crucify our flesh. Because our flesh will want to forgive. Rise up and not forgive. Not want to forget, nor forget, and want to enact a punishment towards them for what we've gone through. Or revenge. Okay. Cherie says, and then we're gonna we're gonna read, we're going to the text. The scars remind you of where you were and how God brought you from.

SPEAKER_01 27:36

To or from.

SPEAKER_03 27:37

Oh, yeah. So, yeah, it does. It reminds you. I have a scar on my leg right now, on my right leg, from Cleo John Bennett. Those of you know Cleo Bennett. We were kids, it happened on accident. The scar that I got on my leg, but I know exactly what happened, when it happened, what I did, what my reaction was, what his reaction was, why I have the scar because I didn't want to go get stitches, and then the keloid reminds me every time I look up, it doesn't hurt. It didn't hurt past the initial time. But every time I look at the scar, I know where I was. I know what I was delivered from, I know what could have happened. But again, that that's what the scar is for, and that's why I'm stressing to you that that that Joseph forgives his brother, had forgiven his brother, because as Ms. Audrey said, the level that he was on in mature, maturing and knowing what God had him to do is different than what they were on. That's why they went there and were afraid, and he went there clear of conscience. That's just how that we you can walk in a room when you're clear of conscience. You don't have I don't have nothing to feel I did the best I could do. It may not have worked out that way, but I did the best I could do. And if I did the best I can do, I and God knows I did the best I can do, and I know I did the best I can do, I'm free to go and do it as God has instructed me to do. So Joan says slavery still exists just in a different form. Yes, it does, because of the fact if you keep trying to forget or act like it didn't exist or would not acknowledge it, you're gonna repeat it.

SPEAKER_01 29:32

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 29:33

That's what's gonna happen. Okay, just what we see in the case of the brothers. They've had lunch, they made up, they're engoshen, they are employed, they are in a successful place, but in the back of their minds, they have not but they have not released it yet. Okay, we're gonna get to that, Dr. Charlotte, in just a few. So when we look at when we look at what we're dealing with, we we need to know that they're in this frame of mind because they haven't released what they did. They didn't forget, they didn't forgive themselves, and they didn't forget what they had done. Okay, Ms. Pam says it's hard to forget, but forgiveness is in our hearts, should be, so that we are so those that that we who were harmed can move forward in the love of Christ to heal. Should be. In principle, that's a great point in principle, but in practice, we have a tough time not throwing it back up. We are a society, just let's sit on this. We are a society that even when we deal with Julio Chavez, even when we do with Caesar Chavez. Yeah, Julio Cesar Chavez, even when we deal with him, the taking down of the name and painting over the pictures and all this thing. I may have a different taking. You may disagree with me, but here's how I am. I I'm like this. He did the work. He's not perfect. There's no human that's perfect, regardless. He says skeletons, and here's the word that they that I saw used in the news. Alleged. She says she makes a statement that nothing is proven by it.

SPEAKER_01 31:20

And he's very dead. Yeah. So speak for himself. I have a problem with that.

SPEAKER_03 31:24

And they give the word in the news was alleged. So why are we taking down things when it's alleged?

SPEAKER_01 31:32

And changing the name of the holiday.

SPEAKER_03 31:35

All that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

When the mayor said that of Los Angeles, I thought ridiculous. We have a lot of nervous people, humans.

SPEAKER_03 31:41

And we but now we won't forgive him.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

But we want you to forgive us for our sins.

SPEAKER_03 31:45

Exactly. Exactly. We want we want to tear down, we build down, we build up to tear down. But if we had a if we had a forgiving heart, and my thing is, my girl is 95, somewhere like that, 90. You went all this time, and now you want to bring it up, and then they land base him and demean him, and I don't understand it. I really don't. And what to what accord?

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Yeah, what's it gonna gain?

SPEAKER_03 32:14

It's a profit out of it.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

He has been dead 30 something, 40 years. And why are we just now? Same thing with and my man is dead, we're gonna get in trouble for that too. It's Charlie Kirk, who talked about Martin Luther King Jr. Yeah, all these were men. They're men have a problem with bringing it up later, and what are we supposed to do? And the person is dead, and they cannot speak for themselves. Right. That's it. So then why are we doing that? But okay.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Miss Pam says, keep on forgiving. The flesh is weak, but the spirit is willing. And again, when we look at when we look at that, and I'm getting down, we're getting down to the to what Dr. Charlotte wants us to talk about. That his brothers came to him, but look at verse 19. Verse 19 says, But Joseph said to them, Do not fear, don't be afraid, for I am in the place of God. He didn't say I am God. He says, I'm in the place of God.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

And mine says, Do not be afraid. I am not God. I'm not God. And why would he say that? Because he has no heaven or hell to put them in.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

I have no judgment for you. You did what you felt you had to do. God did what he felt I had to be involved in. Look at verse number 20. Explain verse number 20. Verse number 20 says, As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. What you meant in this aspect with your finite mind, God with the infinite mind knew that he had to save souls in the future, and that they were going to have the answer had they not did what they did. Again, I don't know who this is for. It may be for me. As a matter of fact, I'm telling you, it's for me. There's some things in some stripes. I think I talked about this on Sunday, that we endure and go through so that it benefits those that are standing around. It benefits those that don't know they need to be saved. And God's God makes you the scapegoat, put you in position to be unjustly accused, put you in a place to suffer. And again, we don't like to hear that because we don't think that believers ought to suffer. We don't think that. And Paul plainly says, if I want to know the power of the resurrection, I've got to know the power of the suffering. So I'm built to suffer, but I also am built with faith. There's some things I go through as a crash test dummy so that other folks' lives can be spared by what we go through. If we look at it like that, then we're not so bitter with what life gives us.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 35:08

God put you in this position. God lets you survive the fiery furnace so that you can be a witness to what it is to be in a fiery furnace.

SPEAKER_01 35:18

Amen. Now that's good.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Because you're not the only one that's going to be in a fiery furnace situation. But the Bible says that they overcame by their testimony and the word. With the word and the testimony of those that have gone through, we will be able, we will be able to draw others. And that's what we got to do. That's why he says, that's why he says to us in verse number 20, as for you, you intended that to be evil towards me, but God intended for it to be good. God intended more for me to have knowledge, knowing, knowing of him, knowing of my situation, knowing how to interpret dream dreams, knowing how to tell Pharaoh, knowing how to even navigate my situation in Potiphar's house, knowing how to navigate myself in the prison, knowing how to navigate myself even though I'm in power and you don't know who I am, I could have exacted evil and revenge against you, but that was not God's purpose in the end. The purpose in the end nor his plan. The purpose in the end is that his people would be saved. What is the purpose? Why do you go? Why does God take folks like us who have messed up things in abundance and make us his witnesses? Why does he do that? Why does he make imperfect people full of hell? I'm gonna say just like that, his instruments. Why does he do that? Why does he have respect? Why does this man have an entourage of non-believers following him because of the testimony that he presented to them through his son? So when we start looking at that, it now gives us the it gives us the the weight of being able to say that if it had not been for the Lord who was on our side, if it had not been for what he allowed me to go through. I'm witnessing to my father-in-law right now, who's facing a procedure, and I'm telling him, you can't eat this way, you can't do this no more, you can't be like this no more, and not because we're trying to tell you that you're not grown or that you're not that we know better. I went through the most extreme heart surgery so that I can be a witness to you while you go through what you go through. And so when you ask me questions, I'm not telling you what I think, I'm telling you from full knowledge of what I know.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

You're going through, you went through extreme. He's he doesn't have to go through extreme.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

So you're still giving him but we don't want to, we don't want to be witnesses. We don't want to go through, we don't want to suffer. We don't want, we want to resurrect. We want the power of the resurrection, but we don't want the power of the suffering.

SPEAKER_01 38:15

So go to Jamal so I can read this really quick. Okay. Second Corinthians, Jamal said 2 Corinthians 10, 3 through 6 fits Genesis 50-20. And so in the English version, easy read, it says, We live in this world, but we don't fight our battles in the same way the world does. The weapons we use are not human ones. Our weapons have power from God and can destroy the enemy's strong places. We destroy people's arguments and we tear down every proud idea that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We also capture every thought and make it give up and obey Christ. We are ready to punish anyone there who does not obey. But first, we want you to be fully obedient.

SPEAKER_03 39:03

So, but on that, what's that? What's the last one said that we are ready to punish anyone who does not obey?

SPEAKER_01 39:10

But first, we want to be fully, we need to be obedient.

SPEAKER_03 39:14

We gotta be fully obedient.

SPEAKER_01 39:15

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 39:16

Yeah, that great. That was great. That was great, Jamal. That was great insight on there. And that's 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 3.

SPEAKER_01 39:23

We know it in the in the New King James version. You'll hold every thought cap. We got it, but I love that particular thing. So anyway, Genesis, back to Genesis 50, finish it out.

SPEAKER_03 39:33

Let me read it now in the New King James version so that way it's familiar to us.

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Right, familiar.

SPEAKER_03 39:38

Okay. For it says, For though we walk in flesh, that's all of us, we do not war according to the flesh. Okay, for the weapons of our fair are not carnal, but are mighty in God for the pulling down of what? Strongholds, the casting down arguments of every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought, everything we think, to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. You can't punish Julio Caesar if you haven't sinned on your own.

SPEAKER_01 40:21

That's just like when Jesus tells all the men, okay, he you not sinned, you cast a stoner. Go ahead on. And what happened?

SPEAKER_03 40:31

All of them walked away because all of them had been guilty of a sin. We all are. And so again, don't forget that.

SPEAKER_01 40:40

Because sometimes we forget that.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Yeah, because all have sinned and fallen short. Clause falls on all of us. We think things, we do things. I didn't act on it, but you thought it.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

And you say things, we think things, and we do things. All the above.

SPEAKER_03 40:56

Okay. Sonja says, I believe God allowed Robert to be removed out of the lives of his friends so they would no longer follow him and could actually go on their own path that God had set forth for them. I believe that.

SPEAKER_01 41:11

It might have been a hindrance.

SPEAKER_03 41:12

Right. I believe that. Some folks are taken out of our lives so that we can see God instead of matter of fact, it's Isaiah in the year the king Uzziah died. I saw the Lord, he was up in his train, filled the temple. Ziah wasn't a king. Used to be when I heard that preach when I was a little boy. I would think Uzziah was an evil king. And Uzziah wasn't an evil king. Ziah was a prosperous king, and the kingdom prospered under his leadership. But folks start worshiping him. Y'all check it out. Folks start worshiping him instead of focusing on God. I believe what we're experiencing now becomes the thing that God is saying to us as the United States. You need to focus on me. It's not about the presidency, it's not about who's in charge, but it's about me. And I'm gonna show you better than I can tell you. Okay? And so that's where we are. All right, let's go through 22.

SPEAKER_01 42:15

Okay. So Joseph continued to live in Egypt with his father's family. He died when he was 110 years old. During Joseph's life, Ephraim had children and grandchildren. And his son Manasseh had a son named Makir. Joseph lived to see Makir's children, third generation. So the death of Joseph, when Joseph was near death, he said to his brothers, My time to die is almost here. But I know that God will take care of you and lead you out of this country. God will lead you to the land he promised to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then Joseph asked his people to make a promise. Joseph said, Promise me that you will carry my bones with you when God leads you out of Egypt.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

Now, look, now he's basically prophesying in this text because he goes back home, goes back to Egypt. And I think I have lifted this verse up in Exodus chapter 1. And I want to say around about verse 8. They were all chilling in Egypt. And he already told them, God's going to be with you in Egypt. That's what he says to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will surely visit you. God's going to be with you. He tells them in verse number 25. God's going to be with you. So you don't have to be afraid. God's going to be with you. What he doesn't tell them, he said, but he tells them when you leave Egypt, he tells them they're going to leave Egypt, but he doesn't say how they're going to leave Egypt. He doesn't say when they're going to leave Egypt. He doesn't say what state they're going to be in. When they leave Egypt, he doesn't say what they're gonna go through before they leave Egypt. He just says they're going to leave. And when you leave, he says, Do me this promise. Carry my bones out with you. And I I never shall forget. I got this image. When every time I read that, I have this image from the Ten Commandments, where they see them going out of Egypt and they're carrying a mummy or body that's been wrapped. And they say that's Joseph. That we made the promise that we're going to carry him out of the land into the land of promise. Okay, so here you get a right now view and a future view within this text at the same time. In between the line, God is great at making us read in between the lines without telling us what he's going to do in between the line. He never says that you're going to be in bondage before it. He never says that. He never alludes to none of that. What he alludes to the fact is that you're going to go out, and when you go out, take me with you. And so when we look at that, that's God's promise to us as believers, as we close this text and close this this particular book.

SPEAKER_01 45:15

A whole year.

SPEAKER_03 45:16

We look at the dysfunction from the beginning of Adam and Eve all the way through Noah, the rebirth of humanity, and then us getting off kilter again, and then the promise of calling Abram out of Mesopotamia, and then saying, I'm going to take you to a land, I'm going to guide you into a land to where your descendants will number the sands of the sea. All that has taken place in front of our eyes. We've read it word by word, verse by verse, of what God can and is doing. And again, what we see, what we don't see in this, in these 50 chapters, I'm going to say it like that, is perfection. We see a whole lot of imperfection. And out of a whole lot of imperfection, God continues to be perfect. We see the fall of man. We see man then go out of the garden. We see man then end up in chapter.

SPEAKER_01 46:24

And his family is crazy.

SPEAKER_03 46:26

In chapter 11, we see man.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

And they do a lot of things.

SPEAKER_03 46:29

Yeah, mating with angels.

SPEAKER_01 46:31

They did a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_03 46:32

And God destroying the land and God doing what he does. And God and then and then being smart enough and working together in chapter 12 to build a babble. And him having to confound the language and confuse the people. All these things happen happened in the beginning. And so what we're seeing now is just a microcosm of what has always been and will always be as long as man has is left up to his own devices. So there's no need for us as people of God to panic. There is none. There's no need to get uptight. Just know he tells us. What does he tell us in the last book of the Bible? There are going to be wars, rumors of wars. He tells us in the last days men will be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God. That is happening. He tells us in the last days there's going to be a great falling off. There has been. We see plagues. There has been. All these things. So you can't sit here and say that there is not a God. You can't say that the Bible is not true. Because it tells us from the beginning to the end of what we're looking at. It's up to us to be faithful and trust what God is telling us and trust that God will see us through whatever it is that we're going through.

SPEAKER_01 47:58

And so before you conclude it all, I wanted to read this because I thought this summary was really good and it made sense about the verse, verse 19 through 20, where the brothers are afraid. And so it says, As for you, you meant the evil against me, but God meant it for good. And so it says, Every Christian or every believer should be able to see the overarching and overruling hand of God in their life, to know that no matter what evil man brings against us, God can use it for good. So when you go all the way to save his people and to keep everybody alive. So it says, This was the immediate good to come out of the wrong done to Joseph. If this large family did not come to Egypt and live, the family would have perished in the famine. Had the family barely survived, it would have assimilated into the Canaanite tribes surrounding it. So only by coming to Egypt could they be preserved and then grow to be a distinct, which you talked about, the sands of on the those twelve boys had to be separated. So it says, based on Joseph, if Joseph brothers never sold him to the Midianites, then Joseph would never have gone to Egypt. If Joseph never went to Egypt, he would never have been with Potiphar.

SPEAKER_02 49:23

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 49:23

If Joseph was never sold to Potiphar's wife, he would have never falsely accused him of rape.

SPEAKER_02 49:28

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 49:28

If Potiphar's wife never falsely accused Joseph of rape, then Joseph would never have been put in prison.

SPEAKER_02 49:34

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 49:34

If Joseph wasn't put in prison, he would have never met the baker and the butler of Pharaoh. If Joseph never met the baker or the butler of Pharaoh, he would have never interpreted their dreams. If Joseph didn't interpret their dreams, he would have never interpreted Pharaoh's dreams. If Joseph never interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, he would never have become prime minister, second in Egypt only to Pharaoh.

SPEAKER_02 49:57

Correct.

SPEAKER_01 49:57

If Joseph never became prime minister, he would have wisely prepared for the terrible famine to come. If Joseph never wisely prepared for the terrible famine, then his family back in Canaan would have come. So if Joseph's family back in Canaan died in the famine, then the Messiah could not have come from a dead family. If the Messiah did not come forth, then Jesus never came. If Jesus never came, then all humanity remains dead in their sins and without hope in this world. This makes us grateful for what? God's great and wise plan.

SPEAKER_03 50:35

His plan.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

So that's why Joseph could speak kindly and comfort them. Joseph knew his role. And he did the assignment. Joseph knew the assignment. And he did his role. So you know the so for those of us. This is like a conviction for me. You know the assignment. Do your assignment.

SPEAKER_03 50:56

Yeah, play do your role. Do what you're supposed to do. Go stay in your lane. Know what you're supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

And do it.

SPEAKER_03 51:02

And then be wise and have the knowledge of knowing who God is. A lot of us don't know. We worship him, but we don't know who he is. And because we don't know who he is, we're always in the wrong place at the wrong time doing the wrong thing. Again, what we're looking at is God's planned purpose for our lives so that there can be a savior that can save us. And so when we look at Joseph, Joseph did what he was supposed to do.

SPEAKER_01 51:31

And he was obedient. Which goes back to what you were talking about. The main theme of all of this is we need to be obedient.

SPEAKER_03 51:40

Now, watch this. Not perfect, but obedient. Not perfect, but faithful. Those are the things we need to be. See, we think that God is looking at our they're perfect. No, we're none of us are perfect. But he does look at us being faithful. He says the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. He wants folks that are working, not folks that are pointing or folks that are practicing to be a perfect statue. You can only be perfect if you're dead. Outside of that, there's there's no good that is in our bodies.

SPEAKER_01 52:14

That's what Michael Starr Mike is saying. They are charging a dead man. He's dead. Yeah. And and we he can say nothing in his own defense. I just think that's so sad.

SPEAKER_03 52:26

But that's us. That's human beings. That's what we do. We build up to tear down. And I'm gonna say again, to us as a people, please understand what we've endured and why we've endured was so that God can get the best out of his people. We are his people and a sheep of his pasture.

SPEAKER_01 52:46

So he can get all the glory really about him.

SPEAKER_03 52:49

Yeah, and what he and what yeah, God, Jamal said the best. God uses imperfections perfectly. He perfects imperfections. He's we're all on the wheel. So quit beating yourselves up with what you didn't do and why you didn't do it and what mistakes you made. The one thing that I can say I like about me is man, when I make a mistake, correction, no matter how long it takes me to get it, I'm working on correction. I have to. I can't beat myself up. Sitting there moping over it, it doesn't do no good. Just become a better man. I can say, now I'm not bragging, I can say that I'm a better man now than I was on a month ago, five years ago, ten years ago. I'm working because I now cling to what I know about Christ more than what I know about myself. And that's our practice. That's where we sit because otherwise, life and people will beat us into submission and beat us into subjection and beat us into thinking that we're we don't deserve what God has for us. So I don't know who I'm talking to. No matter what your sin is, God is greater. No matter what your mistake has been, God is greater. No matter what you used to do, God is greater. And the moment that you say, God, what is your perfect will for my life, and I'll accept it, it may not be glamorous. Heck, it may not even be easy, but it will be rewarding because you will be in the master's plan. And what you want to be is in the master's plan. Alright. So that's chapter 50.

SPEAKER_01 54:38

Um we have God wants us to maximize our life. Amen.

SPEAKER_03 54:43

Yep, this is caprue. God wants us to maximize. Can't maximize if you don't change. Part of maximizing is changing. Because I'm sitting there, again, I'm not talking about them, but I'm talking about them. There's some things that we do that are outdated. God wants us, it kills me when I'm talking to my older saints, and they, I don't want to use a computer, I don't want to use a phone, I don't want to use this. Then what you are, what you're saying is, God, I want to be behind. I don't you gave you all these gifts you gave, because devil didn't give them.

SPEAKER_01 55:22

Yeah, I want to be outdated.

SPEAKER_03 55:24

And you want to be outdated is an infraction. Because God says brand new mercies. I'm giving you brand new mercies, I'm giving you brand new things, I'm giving you brand new ideas, I'm giving you brand new ways to accomplish the goal if you're gonna do greater works. You can't do greater works if you're still traveling on donkeys, but you can do greater works if you're traveling by jet, by train, by car. Can't do greater works if you don't have the knowledge of knowing what you're doing. But you can do greater works when you know I've made that mistake. I've been there, done that. Joseph knew how to survive a pit. Joseph knew how to survive false accusations. Joseph knew how to survive a prison, and so he also knows how to survive in the palace. He knows how when I get there, how to act like I've been there before. And I'm not gonna let my blessings pull me down. Okay, so I pray that y'all were blessed by the message, by the lessons. What you've now completed, those of us that have been together all these days, have now completed the entire book of Genesis. And we've done an exhaustive look at the book. We just didn't read it. We've broke it down, we've looked at it. And there's still some more stuff that we left on the bone because there's some more stuff we will be praying via Zoom. Those of you that have our Zoom room number, we would love for you to join us. I don't know the Zoom room number off the top of my head. I should, but I don't.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

234-392-172-0.

SPEAKER_03 57:05

So I'm we're gonna type it in. Type it in for me.

SPEAKER_01 57:08

You gotta go back.

SPEAKER_03 57:09

You clicked off of it. So 234, and you we want you to join us for prayer. We start at 6, and again, we don't lag. If it if there's only a handful of us, and it takes us to 6 30, 645, we're gonna we're gonna do it. We're gonna get there. We don't believe in lagging and lingering, but we want to invite you into our fellowship of prayer that is going to take place. And then we're praying. Yeah. Okay. There you go. There, there's the prayer zoom. So come on in. We start at 6 o'clock sharp. And then, cousin, give us your wife's first name. Okay, and that's 234-392-1728.

SPEAKER_01 57:56

Yeah, that's it. Six o'clock.

SPEAKER_03 57:59

234-392-1728. There's always time for prayer. Matter of fact, I'm that's one of the one areas I ask God to grow in, and we're growing and we're committed to it. And the church family, let's join together. You don't have to be a part of our church, but we want you to come on because we are the body of Christ.

SPEAKER_01 58:20

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 58:20

All right. So again, we thank you so much for being with us. Thank you for hanging in with us. And next week we're talking about family relationships. We're going to talk about the God of sex. I have not covered that topic since I was a young pastor at community in doing it. But we're going to do it in a godly form because our kids and us are formulating things about relationships and what God's object and desire of sex to be in the Christian community. We talk about everything else, but in the church, we don't want to talk about money. We don't want to talk about relationships. We don't want to talk about sex. And we're going to cover all three over the summer, over the summertime, and then we're going to go back into the next book, a New Testament book that we're going to walk through and then go back to the free subjects after we walk through the books. So we pray again for you. And again, shameless plug, but it's not shameless. We want you to join in to help us promote our podcast that is on the Apple platform, the iHeartRadio platform, the Google platform. Please go and attach yourself and become a member of the podcast. We're working to uh again expand the word of God to as many people as we can. Invite somebody. God's got to get it straight. I promise you, God's gonna get it straight.

SPEAKER_01 59:56

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 59:57

All you got to do, just take lessons of Joseph and know that God, He said, What you meant for evil, God meant it for our good.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:05

Amen.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:05

Alright. Yes, and we're gonna pray for the kids in schools. These kids are calling themselves cats and dogs. Well, we're just losing our minds. I was just looking at a story on the news, and then I'm gonna delay you, where a grown woman kidnapped a child because he was harassing her child at school. As they say in the country, we're out of hand. We've got to do better. So I'm praying for you, saints. The prayer of the righteous availeth much. So please, sir, please, ma'am, come and tarry with us for an hour while we pray. All right? Anything else you want to add? The word on Wednesday with the Simons is what our the podcast name is. And you you'll find not only podcasts from the Bible studies, but you'll also see some late-night lattes that you can go over with to go over with YouTube. Okay, so we're gonna do that. So again, we're praying for you. Pray for us, pray for our families as we pray for you. Let's go to the Lord. Lord, how we love you, how we thank you for your lesson. God, we thank you for your grace, your mercy that has been with us in spite of how we have acted, in spite of what we have done. God, we are grateful that you call imperfect people, you call ordinary people. God, you got you call people that should not be celebrated. And God, you then promote us and exalt us that we may give your name the great the praise and the glory. Now, God, I pray for everybody that's under the sound of my voice, those that will see the rebroadcast throughout this land and country. Then, God, we pray that your will be done. We pray for our troops, we pray for those that are been on one side or the other with ice. God, we pray for those that are our government workers. We pray for those that have been uh affected by the shutdown. Then, God, we pray for the homeless, and God, we not only lift up the homeless that uh are on have habits, but God, we pray for those that are working and cannot afford the roof over their head and are sleeping in their cars and cannot afford a place to go and call their own. God, we know that we are in these last and evil days, and you said these things must be. And God, we pray that we endure like good soldiers, that we endure the hardships, that we must learn to suffer in order to receive the resurrection power. So now, God, I pray for each and every one on the sound of my voice. I pray for my wife, I pray for her parents, and God, you know we're dealing with when it comes to that issue. Then, God, we pray for our children, all of our children throughout this land and country. Then, God, we thank you for being who you are. Thank you that we have a God that we can serve and a God that we can glorify. God, I pray for my cousin as she goes before the ordination board that you will continue to lift her up. And God, call back to your remembrance those things which she will have studied. Then, God, I pray for every pastor preacher that is under the sound of my voice and that I am committed with and committed to. God, I pray for them. Then, God, we pray for those that will celebrate on this Passion Week, starting on Palm Sunday, this Sunday, going through Resurrection Sunday. It is why we celebrate you, and this is why we are who we are, because you died on the cross for our sins. Then, God, we pray for somebody that may not know you in the pardon of their sins. And they come across this word, come across this podcast, come across this discussion, and then come to know you in a real way. Now, God bless us and keep us. God protect us from all hurt, harm, and danger. Dismiss us from this place, God, but never ever from your presence. That you may get the glory out of our lives. But we ask it in Jesus' name and we pray. Amen. All right, y'all. God bless you, God keep you, is our prayer. Y'all have a great night.