FBT Daily Devotional: Genesis 42

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Transcript

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All right. So as the Bible turns, so as we've been seeing as we go through Genesis, um, what I've liked to notice and what I've mentioned a couple times is that reading through these stories, especially as an adult, it really humanizes um all of these situations and it shows me that um the stuff that's got was going on back then is not too particularly different than the stuff that was going on right now. Um I don't say that in a bad way, I just say that we are just really lucky to have a covenant with the Lord Jesus Christ for him to wipe away that stain, wipe away those sins. But starting off with chapter 42, I actually want to jump back just so you know, like they do in all of the soap operas, you know, you get a little bit of a flashback before you jump into the actual current episode so we can see why things where they are where they are. So we won't spend too much time in the past, but I do want to read off a little bit uh from Genesis chapter 37, starting with verse five. One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. Listen to this dream, he said. We were out in the field tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine. His brothers responded, So you think you'll be our king, do you? Do you actually think that you will reign over us? So, with that being said, we will jump straight to chapter 42. Joseph Brothers go to Egypt. When Jacob had heard grain was available in Egypt, he said to his sons, Why are you standing around looking at one another? I've heard there's grain in Egypt. Go down there and buy enough grain to keep us alive, otherwise we'll die. So Joseph's ten old brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain. But Jacob wouldn't let Joseph's younger brother, Benjamin, go with them, for some feared harm might come to him. So Jacob's sons arrived in Egypt along with the others to buy food, for the famine was in Canaan as well. Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was him that his brothers came. When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground. So as we can see, God's word and God's will uh is something that is unshakable. Because as we saw in past chapters, we see how um the road Joseph had to take, we see his brother's intentions for them, for him, which were to basically uh ranging from removing him from the picture in a literal meaning, like he they wanted him to die, to just having him be removed um from the household. But lo and behold, they still ended up in the same situation that they tried to oppose. So just on a grander scale, um, one, we obviously know that we shouldn't try to um get rid of any of our family members or anybody else for that matter. But most importantly, we have to understand that we cannot overtake God's will. When God wills a thing, when God decides something, it's going to happen. And we can kind of get with it or we can kind of get lost, um, unfortunately. But so, long story short, as we were saying, Joseph recognized his brothers instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. So when I read through this, I started thinking, I was like, yeah, there's still a little bit of that trickery that comes down from his father. He's playing games with them at this point, but also um a great way to kind of see the measure of someone, to see the character of someone, is to put them in this type of situation. Because, you know, he hasn't seen his brothers. So, you know, this is an emotional situation for him as well. And we'll kind of get into this as we continue to read. But he has not seen his brothers. He may, may, he may have not have, he may not even remembered that dream in this moment if you think about everything that's going on, because he's the second most powerful man in Egypt, and he's the one, you know, who's making a lot of these decisions. So maybe the last thing that he was expecting was for a wound from his past, maybe something that he might have dealt with, he might have healed from, or there may have still been a band-aid over of uh something protecting him from. But at his point where he has been successful, at his point where he is finally, maybe in his mind, walking in his purpose, even though he was, you know, he was getting to his purpose, you know, despite all the pits and other different variations of uh captivity. But in that moment, he still was faced with his past and he still was, you know, he still had to continue to conduct himself in a certain way. Um, so he does kind of lean in. I'll I'll continue to read, he does kind of lean into it a bit, but there are reasons and there's a method to his decisions that he makes. So where are you from? He demanded. He isn't Joseph. From the land of Canaan, they replied, We have come to buy food. Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn't recognize him. And he remembered the dreams he had had many years before them. He said to them, You are spies. You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become. No, my lord, they exclaimed, Your servants have simply come to buy food. We are all brothers, members of the same family. We are honest men and not spies. Yes, you are, Joseph insisted. You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become. Sir, they said, There are actually twelve of us. We are your servants, all our brothers, sons of a man living in the land of Canaan. Our youngest brother is back there with our father right now, and one of our brothers is no longer with us. But Joseph insisted, as I said, you are spies. This is how I will test your story. I swear by the life of Pharaoh that if you that you will never leave Egypt unless your youngest brother comes here. One of you must go get your brother, and I'll keep the rest of you here in prison. Then we'll find out whether your story is true or not. By the life of Pharaoh, if it turns out that you don't have a younger brother, then I'll know your spies. So Joseph put all of them in prison for three days. On the third day, Joseph said to them, I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live. If you are a really honest man, choose one of your brothers to remain in prison. The rest of you may go home with the grain for your starving families, but you must bring your youngest brother back to me. This will prove that you are telling the truth, and you will not die. To this they agreed. Speaking among themselves, they said, Clearly, we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we would not listen. That is why we are here in this trouble. So that was a mouthful. But long story short, Joseph, he was playing with them a little bit. He was testing their character, but also, um, and I know I just from a human point of view, you know, Joseph was the favorite child, he was the youngest child, but now there's another of them. So he this is a way for him to get his to see his brother. This is a way for him to get his family to Egypt. And there's a method behind what he's doing. Now I said now as we're reading through this, I may not know whether or not he's like being influenced by the spirit to do this or whether this is just something that he's doing just to mess with his brothers and see what's going on. But at the end of the day, we're seeing that despite everything that he has been through, he's still in a position and still has the heart posture to want to help his family. So as we go through our struggles, as people hurt us, as we are in situations where we may feel like we do not deserve to be in them, Joseph, in this moment, um, he's giving us an example, even though he's still displaying his humanity, how we can kind of display that greater character of the Lord and still help others and be and display forgiveness. And with that, um, we can head to the greater um discussion for the group.