The Test

We come to our next scene in the story of Joseph. We have skipped two chapters. You probably have noticed last time we were dealing with chapter 39. Chapters 40 and 41 we haven't dealt with, but what happens there is we see that Joseph experiences a remarkable turnaround. Last week, if you remember, we saw Joseph in the crucible moment where God is refining most Joseph.

Joseph has been sold to a man named Potiphar as a slave. Several months or years passed, and Joseph has worked his way up to the head slave or head servant of the household. But temptation comes at which he resists and Potiphar's wife, who wanted to sleep with Joseph, falsely accuses Joseph of attempted rape. He is put in jail for this. But after several years again, Joseph finds himself to be a hardworking man.

The Bible says that God is with Joseph there and he prospers and he is made to be the head of the prisoners at the time as well. During his time in prison, however, a couple of servants of Pharaoh are found to be alongside Joseph as a prisoner. A cup bearer and a baker, and we may know the Sunday school stories very well. They have two profound dreams one night at the same time, and they share this with Joseph. Joseph explains to the baker that he will die because as a result of this dream, and the cup bearer will live and be released by Pharaoh.

These exact same things happen exactly the same way. The cup bearer is released. The baker is executed. Cup bearer says to Joseph, I will remember this favour. I will remember what you've done to me, that you've interpreted this dream, and I will tell Pharaoh to release you.

But he forgets. Somehow, he forgets Joseph, and Joseph is imprisoned for years. Pharaoh, in chapter 41, has a dream also. Two dreams back to back.

He doesn't understand what they're about. He gets his wise men to come and give him counsel and interpret for him. They don't understand. And the cup bearer remembers a man by the name of Joseph in prison who could interpret dreams. They haul Joseph out of the dungeon and bring him to Pharaoh and he interprets correctly these dreams to Pharaoh.

There will be seven years, Joseph says, of plenty of good harvest, of rain and plentiful food in the land of Egypt, which will then immediately be followed by seven years of famine and drought. The Pharaoh is amazed at this. It just has the ring of truth to it, and he says to Joseph, I'll put you in charge of making sure that we're ready for this drought. And so Joseph is placed, he's released from prison. He's placed in this position of authority, and eventually, he ends up being only the second in command to Egypt.

He is the Prime Minister of Egypt. Quibi read to us the situation nine years after Joseph's release. Seven years of good, plentiful harvest had gone by, and we're two years into the famine. But this is not simply a famine we see in the land of Egypt alone, but it has spread to the surrounding countries into Canaan as well. We see that Joseph had stockpiled plenty of grain in Egypt, but the famine was severe and a man by the name of Jacob and his 11 sons sit around the breakfast table, starving.

And this man Jacob says to his sons, looks them square in the eye. And he says a word to them that evokes a terrible, terrible hollow sensation in the guts, in their guts, and that is, I hear there is food in Egypt. Guilt. It's a horrible, horrible feeling and it can rear its head at the most inconvenient of times as well, and it does for these ten particular men. Jacob and his boys are sitting at the breakfast table, but there is very little to eat.

Jacob says to his boys, there's food in Egypt and that name, that word strikes a chord of searing heat in their hearts and minds of these hard nosed men. Egypt. The land to which they sold their brother as a slave. They received 20 pieces of silver for him. Egypt. The land far, far away, they thought that would hide this awful deed that they had done. Egypt, the land their father is telling them to go to now.

He says, why are you looking at one another that way? You can see just Reuben glancing at Simeon, Simeon glancing at Levi as they hear this command. He says, get going to Egypt. This is the story, like I said, of a very dysfunctional family, but it is a story of what God is doing in a dysfunctional family that is of significance to us. The first lesson of this passage that we've read is actually a lesson that we see at each chapter of this story and that is that the God of this story is the God of perfect providence.

The God of perfect providence. And providence is a word that we use to express the way that God provides for us. God's providence is one of the biggest themes, however, of the Joseph narrative, and we see His hands so clearly in this story. You don't have to look very hard to see it. We see how God sends dreams to various people at various times.

We see that God sends two dreams to Joseph of sheaves bowing to him, of a sun and a moon and stars bowing to him. God sends two dreams as well to two prisoners besides Joseph. And God also sends two dreams to Pharaoh as well that are perceived by even these pagan men. This is the important thing. These pagan men that don't know God to be very significant dreams.

They're different to your regular dreams. And we see the providence of God in His hand at sending each dream twice. Twice. In every occasion, He sends two dreams. And Joseph has, like I said, two dreams with the same meaning, but he makes this statement himself to Pharaoh in the previous chapter, chapter 41.

He says the reason the dream was given to Pharaoh in two forms is that the matter has been firmly decided by God and God will do it soon. The fact that these dreams are repeated therefore has God's fingerprints all over it. This is not just a random bad nightmare after watching some horror show. There's a meaning behind this. It is so full of God in this story that you can't untangle Him out of it.

And that is God's providence. It is His intervention. But what I want to specifically focus on this morning, specifically regarding God's providence, is how slow it can be. How slow it can be. How slowly God can work in the life of His people.

It'll take us seven weeks to work through the story of Joseph. We're halfway through. Seven weeks and we're done with the story of Joseph. If you were to go home tonight or this week with your family and read the entire story of Joseph, and I suggest you do if you haven't done so yet, as a family understand it, you could do the whole story in a couple of hours. Reading from Genesis 37 to 50, but what we've just read today took twenty two years.

Joseph was sold as a boy of 17 to slave traders. At age 30, after years in prison, Joseph becomes Prime Minister. He sees seven years of bountiful, plentiful harvest, and now we're into the second year of the famine. Joseph is now 39. And twenty two years have passed since God gave him a dream about his brothers and his father and his mother bowing to him in honour.

Twenty two years. And hundreds of kilometres have separated Joseph from this family that should be doing this. Twenty two years and now look who turns up. His ten brothers. And what do they do unknowingly?

They bow to him in humility. Friends, this is a great lesson for us to learn as God's people. That the providence of God can be a long time in the making. And the question is, are we able to take the strain of God taking twenty two years before He even gives us a glimpse of seeing a promise come to fruition. Where were you twenty two years ago?

I can tell you I was 10. I was living in New Zealand, and I was a fresh, new immigrant boy from South Africa. Could I have ever imagined that twenty two years later, God would sovereignly work in such a way that He would bring me to look at you face to face on the sun kissed beaches of the Gold Coast in Queensland of Australia? No. A lot happens in twenty two years.

Will you stay in the fight to see the providence and the intervention of God come through? Or will you give up praying? Will you give up hoping? Will you give up witnessing for that wayward child who you think is all but lost to the grace of God and the message of Christ? Have you been praying twenty two years for them?

Probably not. I think we give up a lot quicker. Will you give up on waiting to marry a Christian man and just grab any old bloke because you're getting older? Or have you been waiting twenty two years for a husband? God has long term plans, friends.

And because we're not mature, this long term perspective sits uneasy for us Christians who think God works far, far, far too slowly because we're not mature enough to take the strain of waiting and we give up. But this morning, we're reminded again, don't give up. Hang in there. Hang in there. Be patient.

Continually go back to your God. And you may not get it your way, but you will get it God's way. And that will always be the best way. Someone once said about prayer life, if you could know all the things that God knows, if you could know it all like He knows, you would be asking in your prayer life exactly for what God will give you and how long it will take to come to you. Trust that God is good.

That is what we need to do. Even waiting twenty two years, trust that God is good and trust that God is in control. And then we are patient. The God of perfect, patient providence we see in the first point. The second thing we see is the godly wisdom of Joseph, a man who has been moulded and broken and reshaped by God over many, many years. When those brothers of his came through the door, everything in Joseph, I'm sure, would have screamed, tell them who you are.

Tell them what they've just done. Tell them that the dreams have come true. And yet, Joseph doesn't. Why? We see Joseph rather making up this convoluted spiel, he gets a translator to interpret the Hebrew that he understands.

He wears his Egyptian clothing. He speaks to his brothers harshly as strangers, as foreigners. He sees his brothers bowing down before him and it all falls into place, yet he doesn't point out any of it. Why? Because the 17 year old Joseph would have done that, not the 39 year old.

Because he's seen God's long providential grace and he's also learned God's spiritual wisdom. And we see it summed up in a conversation he has with them. They tell him we're not spies. We're honest men. Trust us.

Believe us. We're not liars, and yet he knows they are liars. They've just said that they had a brother who has died, is no more. He didn't die. They sold him into slavery.

Joseph knows this, but he holds his tongue. Joseph realises with immense sadness. His brothers are not reconciled. Their brothers have not owned their guilt and sin. His brothers are still lost.

These brothers are still hardened, rough necked, sinful men who did such horrible things so many years ago. These are the same men who in Genesis 34 deceived a village, massacred all the men in brutal revenge for one man sleeping with their sister. Reuben, the oldest, we see previously slept with his father's own concubine. Another brother, Judah had two sons so wicked that God took their lives, and so Judah decided to sleep with the wife of his son who he just so happened to think was a prostitute and therefore was okay. These aren't examples of godly men.

And Joseph sees after twenty two years that not much has changed. But he had changed. God had refined him in that furnace of His watchful and fatherly discipline and He had humbled him out of that arrogance of that 17 year old boy. And now, Joseph knows that God will use him to refine his brothers. We see Joseph come up with a plan, a test, a severe and terrifying test that may just lead his brothers back to God, perhaps for the first time to God.

Joseph shows that he gets it. He has come to know God in a way that he had never done before. He says this: this man, this Joseph, who looks like an Egyptian for all accounts, comes to his brothers and says, I fear God. The Hebrew God. Why does an Egyptian fear the Hebrew God?

He says, I'm going to let one of you stay, the rest of you are going to go back and bring this so called young brother here as well. How strange this would have sounded to them, but it was true. Joseph had come to know God in a deep life changing way. The way that only can be brought about by a genuine humility, a genuine realisation of need for repentance and faith. He says, I fear this God.

I revere God, he says in verse 18. But he thinks to himself, you don't yet. And Joseph plans a test that will reach into their consciences that will bring about a conviction of their sin and brokenness, and he does it in very clever ways. First of all, have a look at this. He confines them.

He puts them in prison like they confined him and put him in a well. He gives them two plans. He says, first of all, I'm going to send one of you back and all the rest of you will stay here. And he changes the plan on them and he says, now all of you will go except for one. Just like they did with him.

We're going to put him in the system and we're going to kill him. And then they change the plan, there's some slave traders. We'll sell him. Joseph is sold for a few pieces of silver. Guess what they find in their sacks?

A few pieces of silver. Joseph is just planting these little time bombs that they discover along the way that just pushes the finger into the wound. And he knows how these hard men must learn hard truths and he speaks harshly to them. He knows that they need the friction of hard words to break through that thick armour, to bring that guilt into proper perspective. And Joseph knows that people can regret what they have done without ever asking forgiveness for that thing.

He gives them a test to reveal if their hearts have really changed. And this is the ultimate test. Bring back the youngest, Benjamin, who is now the favourite. What did you do with your favourite before? You sold him. You wanted to kill him.

Joseph says in verse 18, do this and you will live. I fear God. But that is a double entendre, a double meaning. On the one hand, he says, do what I ask of you and I'll let you go with some food. But Joseph says, more significantly, pass this test and you will live eternally.

This test will provide food in the famine, but also a restoration for spiritual famine that had gone so long on in the house of their father Jacob. And this brings us to our third point. The kindness of God is seen in the conviction of the most shameful of sin. The boys, they head back with one less brother, but a shift has taken place. Their thoughts have been lifted.

Joseph, in this exchange, in verse 18, had said, I fear God. He's the first to witness to them about God. They don't talk to him about their Hebrew God. He talks to them about the Hebrew God. But then they wonder in verse 28 when they see these time bombs going off.

They say in verse 28, what is this that God has done to us? They're not looking to one another anymore. This is God doing something here. They have become God conscious, and we see the working of the Spirit just working on those consciences. We've seen it already starting in verse 21 where they say, surely we are being punished because of our brother, because of what we've done.

Verse 22, Reuben actually calls their actions sin. He doesn't say it's a bad choice. He doesn't say, man, that was a lapse in judgment right there. It's a mistake that I've made. He calls it sin.

And then in verse 35, when they see the money in their sacks, verse 35 says they are afraid. And Sinclair Ferguson, pastor and scholar, he points out that this fear, this word, is exactly the same word that was used of Adam and Eve when they realised, when they had eaten the fruit, that they were exposed and naked before God and they feared God. It is that fear that wants to run away. It is the fear that wants to hide. It is the guilty fear and interesting, this happens all the while in Joseph's hearing.

He hears it. But why doesn't Joseph tell them? Why doesn't he just say, it's okay. It's okay, guys. I see you're afraid.

It's me, Joseph. Why doesn't he do this? Because Joseph is being used by God to test his brothers to reveal the sickness of their hearts. Because they needed to know that there is a very significant difference between feeling guilty, feeling bad, but not truly knowing that you have sinned against God who will stand in judgment. And there is a very significant difference with how you deal with that.

You can feel bad. You can feel guilty and you can even regret all of it and yet still not turn to God in faith and repentance. You can do it all. But apart from that, and you are lost. Failing to believe that there is grace for you, to cling to the work of Jesus Christ on the cross as your only source of hope.

Without true conviction of sin, friends, there can be no true repentance. Without true repentance then, there would be no true reconciliation for these brothers with their father, with Joseph. Does this story seem harsh? It does. Why would God put them through it?

What is this that God has done? They whispered to one another. But Romans two verse four says that it is actually the kindness of God that leads sinners to repentance. Without the conviction of their guilt, without the dread of punishment, these boys would have not lifted their heads to heaven. Without these great tests of character to show their flaws, they may have felt guilty, they may have resolved themselves to never go back to Egypt again, to never think about their brother Joseph again and pretend that he really is dead, but without the scalpel like incision of God's convicting power uncovering their hearts, even these hardened shells of theirs, these boys would never have been right with God.

It is the kindness and the mercy of God working through Joseph which cuts them wide open to reveal the depths of their sin and they have no place to run. My friends, that is where we need to be. If we are ever to know whether we are true children of God, if we have never reached godly sorrow for our sin, the truth is we may have never experienced the wonder of God's grace. If you have never truly known just how incapable you are at being right with God, living in such a way to please Him, if you have never known the joy of living leaving your sin at the cross, taking up the new life that Christ offers and walking out of there without that sin, then I want to urge you to ask God even right now to show your need, to lay it bare, to expose you, and then for others who have walked this path before, who have been here many times before, who have received God's forgiveness, who have the assurance of His love. For those of us who understand this very well and have received it before, receive it afresh.

Knowing there is continual hope. Knowing there is an eternal abundance of second chances and then knowing that God is not against you, but for you, and that His kindness has led you to repentance. But we have to repent of sin. Just as a side note, this is why we have to be as a church very, very strong about what churches preach about sin and the need for God. Leave all of that at the cross forever.

Nail it along with all that sin that has gone before, and don't come around to pick it up again. Leave it alone. It is done. It is finished. Go home.

Leave it right here. It's a terrible thing, guilt. It brought the worst feelings of these brothers to the fore, but praise God for His work in us and in them as we'll see. That at one point, they may have sung as we sing like that hymn goes, my sin, oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin not in part of the whole, was nailed to that cross and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Let's pray. Lord, the book of Genesis, the first book in the Bible, is so profusely permeated with the glory of the gospel, of a God who is relentless in His pursuit of His people, who calls and elects and draws the worst of the worst to Himself to show the kindness and the glory of His grace. Who speaks with bright burning hot truths to reveal the darkened mess of life, of sin. Father, we need to hear these words.

We need to hear the urgency of this to be right with You, Father, and then we need to accept the call that You place on us, to live lives worthy of the forgiveness You gladly give us. Father, we thank You for Your providence. We thank You for Your intervention. We pray that we may be patient in that. We pray, Lord, that You will grow us and refine us to have godly wisdom to apply and to seek the restoration of Your truth in the lives of our friends and family and in our own lives.

And then, Father, we ask, Lord, that You will show us our flaws, that we can continue to be shaped and moulded and remade more and more into the image of Your Son Jesus who has gone before us as an example. And so Father, we lay all our sin before You. Father, we take up the newness of life that You gladly and freely offer us. We drink it in. And Father, we promise that we walk out of here changed in the truth and the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.