Scott Moore: Welcome to the "Building Faith and Family" podcast with Steve Demme.  I'm your host, Scott Moore. Thanks for joining us today. Good morning, Steve. How  are you? 

Steve: My dear wife, on Christmas came down with some respiratory thing. After  battling through the weekend, we finally went to the doctor yesterday, who then sent  us for an x‑ray. 

For the first time in many trips to the hospital for this, pneumonia was ruled out, but  she does have a respiratory infection. Now she's on an antibiotic and we're waiting for  that to kick in. In the meantime, she had another long night, and didn't sleep. We have a plumber coming this morning. This is life. It's OK. If I waited till my ducks  were in a row, I would never do anything. 

Scott: Wow. I think I lost my ducks a long time ago. 

Steve: I don't think my ducks have ever been in a row very much, but I wanted to  encourage everybody. This is life. It's not like I'm sitting in an ivory tower immersing  myself in the scriptures and having podcasts. 

It's also cold, so I waited as long as I could before I took the pups out for their walk. I  fed them first, and then we went out. It was in the 20s, and the wind was blowing. Scott: You've never struck me as the ivory tower type. 

Steve: Thank you. Yep. Here we go. We're going to go back to Genesis, the 43rd  chapter. We're going to finish up Genesis and do the first five chapters in Exodus. I  know the whole Old Testament does not have as much content as these chapters do,  but there's a ton of stuff here. 

If it was a normal podcast, we would have spread it out to about three or four, but  we're going to plow through, and hit some highlights. We're trusting that as you, the  listener, are reading along in your Bible reading schedule, that you're getting insights  as well. I wish I could hear them. 

I'd love to hear what you have to say because I'm sure you're seeing things that I  haven't seen. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for Your word. Thank You that it's inspired.  Thank You that it wasn't written in an ivory tower, either. 

We get to watch from afar, you might say, from a different perspective, what our  forefathers went through, and what they endured, and the lessons that you were  teaching them. I pray that you'll help us to learn from them. 

I know what Paul writes, "these things happened to them as an example, but they  were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come." (1  Corinthians 10:11) I pray that we will glean what you want us to glean today from  Genesis 43 through Exodus 5. In Jesus’ name, amen. 

Scott: Amen. 

Steve: OK. Now we have this dynamic being worked out. Joseph is in Egypt. His  brothers had already come down and they had seen Joseph, but they didn't know the  full story yet. 

The 43rd chapter, the famine was still in the land, and their food that they had taken  back on the first trip had diminished, and so they said, "It's time to go back." The  father said, "Go ahead." Judah said, "No, no, we can't. He told us we're not going back  unless we take our little brother." 

Everybody can read this. I don't need to go over it, but I think something that is worth  noting is what a pastor friend of mine observed once. He said even Judah, in all his, if  I can put it this way, carnality, for Judah was a piece of work. 

We read about him and his daughter‑in‑law, Tamar, and boy, this was not a stellar  moral character. He did say this in the ninth verse of the 43rd chapter, "I will be a  pledge of his safety." Another translation says, "I will be surety.” In essence if I don't  bring him back, you can have my sons, you can have me." 

He reiterates this in the 44th chapter. This is Christ‑like. This is what Jesus does.  Jesus was from the tribe of Judah. Perhaps this was a characteristic of that tribe. I  don't know anybody else in the tribe, but this was Judah. Christ was from the tribe of  Judah, as was David. 

He says, "If I don't bring him back, then I will bear the blame before my father all my  life." This is the kind of thing that you have to slow down when you're reading  because the storyline is pretty clear what's happening. 

Joseph has been burned, and he's shy, and there is all kinds of things going on. He's  placing their money back in their sacks, and this was serious stuff. I noticed in the  45th chapter, in the third verse, it says, "Joseph said unto his brother, 'And I am  Joseph. Does my father yet live?' His brothers could not answer him, for they were  troubled at his presence." 

Another translation says they were dismayed. I looked that word up. It's bahal. It's a  lot more than they were disturbed or dismayed. They were terrified. The gig was up.  They were trembling in their boots. This was the ruler of Egypt. Now they find out he's  their brother that they had betrayed, and that's a lot to take in in a short period of  time. 

They were more than dismayed. They were terrified. Then Joseph tries to assuage  their fears. He says, "God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the  Earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. It was not you who sent me here, but  God. He's made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all His house, and ruler over all  the land of Egypt." 

I am older man now who's endured life and looks at things differently than I did when  I was younger. When I was younger, I probably would have read that and thought,  "Oh, all things work together for good. Lighten up, guys." 

You and I know, because we're going to read it in a couple chapters, as soon as their  father dies, all this guilt comes over them again, and they said, "Now he's going to  take our lives now that Dad's not here standing between us." 

Joseph, we've already seen, had children, but he was still experiencing the pain of  being taken from his father's side and from his land. This is a theme that I'm seeing more now that I'm older, is yes, we know that God's working all things together for  good, but it's still pain, life is hard. 

Sadly, now Joseph has become the big brother. He was the second to the youngest,  and now he's the one calling the shots. That's exactly what his dream predicted in the  24th chapter, that he was going to be...the sun, the moon, the 12, they were all going  to bow down to him, and they did. 

This is a fulfillment of that. When they're leaving, he exhorts them, "Don't quarrel on  the way." This sounds like a mother. This is a big brother saying, "I know you guys.  Do not quarrel on the way." 

The 46th chapter, they returned. This was hard for Jacob. Jacob had all these  promises made to him about the land, about the promises made to Abraham and to  Isaac, and it was hard for him to leave the land and move to Egypt. Yet, ”God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, 'Jacob, Jacob,' and He said,  'Here I am.' Then He said, 'I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go  down to Egypt, for there, I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down  with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again, and Joseph's hand shall close  your eyes.'" 

Man, that brings me to tears. God knew the struggles of Jacob's heart, and He came  alongside of him, and you can almost feel Him, put His arm around him, and He says,  "I know. Don't be afraid. I'm with you. I'll go down with you. This is part of my plan." Then in the 47th chapter, we see these two mighty men. In my mind, they're mighty,  perhaps not in the eyes of the people of the day, between Jacob, this godly patriarch  and Pharaoh.  

You can see this man has changed. God loved Jacob. We're tough on Jacob, but God  loved him. You can see the change in his character. He had become deep. He had  suffered much. Here he was, this godly patriarch, and now he's standing before  Pharaoh, who was the ruler of the known world. 

Pharaoh says to him, "How old are you?" He says, "Well, the days of the years of my  pilgrimage are 130. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they  have not attained unto the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of  their pilgrimage." 

This was a humble, broken man, and a godly man. Then he prayed for Pharaoh. This  is the big cheese. This is like the president of the United States. This is prime minister  of whatever country. "Will you pray for me?" So Jacob prayed for him. Then 48th chapter, the blessing, the birthright. Remember, Reuben, Levi, Simeon, the  three older sons, should have received this birthright, and they didn't. We know why,  because we are reading our bibles. 

I'm going to read from Hebrews, the 11th chapter. "By faith Isaac invoked future  blessings on Jacob and Esau. By faith Jacob, when dying, blessed each of the sons of  Joseph, bowing in worship over the head of his staff. By faith, Joseph, at the end of his  life, made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and gave directions concerning his  bones."

We don't understand Hebrews unless we read Genesis 48, but this is where Joseph  brings his sons to him. Joseph, one of the 12, is now no longer, you might say, one of  the 12. His sons have taken his place. This is what happens here. 

Jacob/Israel says, "No, your boys are going to be mentioned now." Ephraim and  Manasseh appear before him. You notice even how I said it. I said Ephraim or  Manasseh. Manasseh was the oldest, and he was supposed to get the right hand  blessing, but he crossed his hands. 

I have a friend that says, "You know what those boys saw when they looked up? They  saw the sign of the cross." For whatever reason, God knew Ephraim was going to  become the main man, and he blessed them. 

Notice what it says in Hebrews 11 again. Isaac invoked future blessings on Jacob and  each of the sons of Joseph. He didn't invoke future blessings on the other tribes. It  was the sons of Joseph who received this birthright, which Joseph had inherited from  his father. 

You're going to find out, readers, listeners, as you read through the Old Testament,  there's going to be a split. After Solomon dies, Rehoboam comes up, they split the  kingdom, and those northern tribes become the 10 tribes, and they are synonymous  with Ephraim. 

Ephraim, you'll see in Hosea and different minor prophets, when God is speaking  about those 10 tribes ‑‑ I'm not going to go into the whole thing right now ‑‑ but  Ephraim becomes their name, and Judah is often the name of the two tribes. 49th chapter. Jacob called his sons and said, "Gather yourselves together that I may  tell you what shall happen to you in days to come or in the latter days." Sadly,  because of what Simeon and Levi did in their anger, which was horrible, wiping out  that country, he says, "I will divide you in Jacob and scatter you in Israel." They lost their identity. Now Levi became the priestly tribe, but they had no heritage  of the land. What I want to focus on is the 10th and 11th verses, but really 8 through  12. When Reuben, Simeon, and Levi have been addressed, now he focuses on Judah.  I'm going read this slowly. 

"The scepter," Scepter we know is what a king holds. This is royalty. "The scepter shall  not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet until Shiloh comes,"  which is until Christ comes. Shiloh/peace. "Until Shiloh comes, the scepter shall not  depart from Judah. 

Who did have the scepter? David had the scepter, and you'll see David's lineage. I'm  getting ahead. You'll read it. "To him shall be the obedience of the peoples. When  Christ returns, to him shall be the obedience of the peoples." Wow. This is clearly  speaking of Jesus, who would come from the tribe of Judah. 

"Now 49th chapter, still, the 22 through 26, you'll see when he gets to Joseph, these  blessings, this prophetic ministry that the Father had as He was praying and uttering  these prophecies for Joseph is significantly different than all the others. Judah clearly  

is going to be where the king comes from, royalty. That's where Christ will come  from. 

"Joseph," it says, "is a fruitful bough," and it says “his arms were made agile by the  hands of the mighty one of Jacob. From there is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." We  talked about this before. "By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty  who will bless you with blessings of heaven, above blessings of the deep crouches,  beneath blessings of the breast and of the womb. 

"The blessings of your father are mighty beyond the blessings of my parents, up to  the bounties of the everlasting hills. May they be on the head of Joseph and on the  brow of him who was set apart from his brothers." Wow. Incredible promises to  Joseph and his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, in the latter days. 

Then Jacob dies. They take him back, and I will say this for the Egyptians and the  people of that day, they knew how to mourn. In our day, when we lose a parent, then  in three days we have a funeral and a viewing, and then nothing. 

Even those three days, we don't have a chance to mourn because we're making  decisions, we're talking to relatives, we're making arrangements. They took a long  time to mourn over the passing of this wonderful man. 

They went to Abel‑mizraim, which in Hebrew “Abel” means mourning, “mizraim”  means Egypt. The name of that town became “mourning in Egypt.” Everybody in that  region saw the personages that accompanied the Israelites to mourn. Now we're in Exodus. "There arose a new king who knew not Joseph." That one  statement gets me all the time. A new king who knew not Joseph. This was hundreds  of years. 

When we think about it, we don't even know today what happened 400 years ago in  America. That's the 1600s. We don't teach much history nowadays, sadly, in most  government schools. Here, we have these people in Egypt, they forgot Joseph. They wouldn't have even been there if it wasn't for Joseph. Their land would have  been wiped out by famine if it wasn't for Joseph. They didn't have a sense of history. Then we have midwives. Our fourth son was delivered by a midwife. We were living in  Georgia at the time, but we drove all the way up to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania,  where we live currently, because we wanted a midwife. 

We got to know our midwife. She said sometimes when she goes to an Amish home,  and the woman is working on some project in the house, perhaps she's refinishing  furniture or something, and then she comes out and she has the baby, and then  pretty soon, she's back refinishing furniture. 

This is what I think of when I read the first chapter of Exodus because they were  hardy. The Egyptians had to go (like today) to the hospital and be there for three and  four days, and have people helping them and a meal train set up and the whole thing. The Amish are pretty quick, have a baby, back to work. That's a little colorful  commentary. Then in the second chapter, Moses is fleeing, like Jacob fled from Esau,  now Moses is fleeing from Pharaoh. 

I noted that Jacob, when he was fleeing from Esau, watered the flocks, and that's how  he met Rachel. Moses, fleeing from Pharaoh, watered the flocks. This is where he meets Zipporah and Jethro. He has his first son, and names him Gershom for "I have  been a sojourner in a foreign land. This is pain. This is what I see." Then in the second chapter, the 24th verse and 25th, it says, "God heard their  groaning. He heard the children of Israel groaning, and God remembered His  covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the people of Israel, and  God knew." 

That word saw (Ra-ah) is the same word we encountered way back in the 22nd  chapter, when God saw Isaac being offered up, and God took note, and He knew. Well,  God looked, He saw the people of Israel.  

In the third chapter, He says, "I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in  Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings,  and I have come down to deliver them." 

Ninth verse, "Behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to Me, and I also have  seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppressed them." When God sees, God  knows, and God is God, and He'll take care of it. 

This struck me this time going through. I don't remember doing this in the past, but  then again, this is my 50th time through the Bible. 

19th verse, it says, "I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled  by a mighty hand. So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders  that I will do in it. After that, He will let you go. And I will give this people favor in the  sight of the Egyptians. 

"When you go, you shall not go empty, but each woman shall ask of her neighbor and  any woman who lives in her house for silver and gold jewelry and for clothing. You  shall put them on your sons and on your daughters, so you shall plunder the  Egyptians." 

God laid it right out. "Moses, I know what's going to happen. This is what's going to  happen. He is not going to let you go, and it's going to take wonders that I'll do, then  he'll let you go. When you go, this is what you do." 

Boy, that sounds nice sitting in your hammock, but then it doesn't take long before  the Israelites, if I can put it this way, thought, "Wow, what happened?" Because when  Moses told them what was going to happen, it says in the fourth chapter, the people  believed. 

“When they heard that Jehovah had visited the children of Israel and that he had seen  their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshiped.” This is good news. All I  could think of was when I first came to Christ, all I heard was I could know Jesus  personally. I could have my sins forgiven. I could go to heaven. I could have a  relationship with God. 

I thought, "This is good stuff. No wonder they call it the good news." Then life  happens. I lost my brother. I don't need to go into all my stuff, but life is hard. God  predicted the same stuff. He says, "But I will be with you." He has been with me. I'm like Jacob looking back. I haven't lived long, haven't done as much as I thought I  was going to do. I didn't even get even close to doing what my forefathers have done, but God is God. God tells them, "This is what's going to happen," and then what  happens is Pharaoh says, "OK, no more straw." 

Getting ahead of myself. Let me make another couple comments. What I wanted to  comment on in the third chapter, it says, "Moses was keeping the flock of Jethro, his  father in law, the priest of Midian. He led the flock to the back of the wilderness and  came to the mountain of God unto Horeb. 

We know this was significant because this is where Moses meets God face to face. I  don't think it requires a lot of commentary. You can read it. I want to note that they  came to the mountain of God. 

Then in the 12th verse, "Certainly, I'll be with thee, and this shall be the token unto  thee. When you have brought forth the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God upon  this mountain." There's something about geography that we need to be taking note  of. 

We're reading about this dynamic between Moses and Pharaoh and Moses and the  children of Israel, but there are landmarks, and one of them is this mountain, Horeb,  because when they come out, they're going to come to this mountain. Then we get to the fourth chapter of Exodus, and in the fourth chapter, poor Moses, "I  can't talk, I can't do this, I can't do that." I noted that God didn't get upset with him  when he said, "I can't do this, I can't do that." He simply addressed them. He says, "Well, then do this," and, "Look, I'll give you this, and you have this sign, and  you can do this and that." It was only when Moses said, "You know what, can't you  send somebody else?" Then it says God was not happy. 

13th verse, he says, "Send, I pray, somebody else. The anger of Jehovah was kindled.”  I think this is something that we all need to take in that when God calls us to do  something, you can say, "Yeah, I have trouble speaking, and what am I going to do  with this, and this, and this?" God patiently answered him and gave him solutions. Then when we get to the point where he says, "You know what? I don't want to go.  Send somebody else." It didn't go well with Jonah when he said that either. Then in  the fourth chapter, we have this interesting experience when they finally head back. This is hard to read when you read about this, but it says, "At the lodging place on the  way, Jehovah met him and sought to put him to death." We don't know all that's  happening here. I look at it and think apparently Zipporah was not into circumcision.  They had not circumcised his boys, but it was important to God. 

Then Zipporah took a flint, cut off her son's foreskin, touched Moses' feet, said,  "You're a bridegroom of blood," and then they went on. I simply read it, believe it, and  think, "Wow, circumcision was important to God." I think Moses learned something  that day. 

Then something that I've noticed, and I thought this was fascinating because I'm still  reading my New Testament. When I read my New Testament, I start in Matthew at the  same time that I started in Genesis. Both of these charts are on my website. I noticed for the first time that the children of Israel were, you might say, birthed  through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob in the land which we call Israel today, but in the Promised Land, we'll call it that. Then they went to Egypt. They had to because of the  famine. 

God said, "This is OK. You're going to spend 400 years here. I'm going make you into  a nation." Then they came back. Moses led them back through the water. You might  say through baptism. They came back to the land. 

I noticed that Christ was born in the promised land in the city of David, Bethlehem,  and then because Herod was trying to kill him, God warned Joseph in a dream, He  went to Egypt, where he stayed until Herod had died, and then he came back from  Egypt into the Promised Land. Never saw that before. 

I'm still learning things as I'm reading through my Bible, but I noticed this  progression. It was a parallel with what happened to Israel. Then we see in the fifth  chapter, straw. Straw is taken away. This is a new challenge. 

The people had been all happy, they had worshiped when they heard that God had  sent a deliverer, that he was going to take them out. He told them exactly what was  going to happen, but when the rubber hit the road or when the straw was not  supplied, life became hard. 

I'll mention two applications that I get from this. God has told us what's going to  happen in the last days, and it is not happy. This world is going to be shaken like it's  never been shaken before. 

We need to be in touch with God so that we can live by faith because apparently, we  won't be able to buy or sell without a mark. I'm not getting the mark. If I perish by  starvation, I perish. My attitude is similar to those three worthies in Daniel. I believe  God can deliver me, but if He doesn't, I'm still not getting that mark. Let's not talk  about it anymore. 

It's going to be hard, and there's going to be wars, rumors of wars, nation rising up  against nation, tribulations. Jesus told us exactly what was going to happen, but we're  like the children of Israel. 

"Oh, I liked it better when we were just going to be adopted into your family and  become children of God and go to heaven and live happily." We need to give heed to  what God has spoken to us. It's just like He spoke to them. 

We have to draw near to God, be in touch with God, be led by God, because even  Moses wondered. He says in the 22nd and 23rd verses, fifth chapter, "O Lord, why  have you done evil to this people? Why did you ever send me? Since I came to Pharaoh  to speak, he has done nothing but evil to this people, and you've not delivered them." See, when they're in the process, life looks differently. Before, when they're just  receiving promises, "Yay, amen, let's go for it." 

We know that God is going to fulfill His word to the letter. Everything He said was  going to happen is going to happen, and He was with them, and He did birth them,  and they did become a great nation, and they're still a nation to this day on this Earth. We need to not turn on God and say, "Why have you done this?" when things get  tough because God has told us what's going to happen. It's going to be tough, but He  also said, "But I will be with you." All right, brother. I am done. What do you think? 

Scott: Wow. There is way too much in there for me to limit myself to one thing, but I'll  try to not say too much. Again, it's one of those things where I'm like these are not  the leaders I would choose if I was making up a religion. Moses, this guy that's going  to lead the people out, like, "Nah. Send somebody else." 

These are not the Navy SEALs that He's sending to rescue His people and to take His  message forward. One of the things that I would have mentioned, were I in your  shoes, is the meeting between Moses and God when God says, "I will be with you." That's all the assurance he gets. He doesn't give him a recipe for everything that's  going to happen and how he's going to do it, which is what I always want. When  Moses says, "Who shall I tell them when they ask me who's sending me?" He says, "I  am. Tell them I am sent you." 

That sets up some really ugly moments for Jesus and the Pharisees later on when  Jesus says “I am”. 

Steve: Yes! 

Scott: That's a big moment, I think, in this whole scene. 

Steve: Amen. Now I'm feeling badly. There's so much more we could have said, but  we've only got 30 minutes. 

Scott: Exactly. There's so much in here. 

Steve: He says, "I am that I am." That's it. 

Scott: There's so many "little" things, too. All these characters that I barely even  remember their names. I've read the Bible a bunch of times, and you're connecting  things, I'm like, "Oh, wow. Really? OK." I probably need to know a little more about  each of these people and what's going on with them. That's very cool. Steve: Thank you, Father, for your word. Thank you that we apprehend it with all the  saints. Thank you for Scott's insights. Thank you for insights you've given me over the  years. Thank you for what you're teaching everybody as they read the Bible  themselves. We're your students. We're your pupils. 

Give us ears to hear what you want us to hear. Give us eyes to see what you want us  to see, and help us to take courage and fresh hope from what we're reading today. In  Jesus' name, amen. 

Scott: Amen. That's our show for this week, folks. Thanks for joining us for the  Building Faith and Family podcast with Steve Demme. If you have a question for the  show, email Steve at spdemme@Gmail.com. Thanks for joining us. Have a great week.