The Story of Joseph - When the Past Comes Back - Genesis 42

Well, good morning and happy middle of the summer. Can you believe summer is halfway over with? My goodness. Listen, if you see Kenan later or if you see Joe Cox, that was our student pastor and volunteer that went to youth camp um this past week, would you give them a high five and just say thank you? Can you imagine spending 18 hours awake every day dealing with middle school and high school students? Um that is called a saint right there. So, give them a high five and just say thank you so so much. Um and listen, if you're a guest here today, we're so glad you came. Um, some of you I met as you walked in, maybe if I didn't meet you, my name is Keith Smith. I'm the pastor here at the church and when you came in, you received a handout and in there there's a connect card in there. If you're a guest, we love for you to fill this out. Here's what we always say. We don't ask for your credit card information on the first week. We ask for that the second week. So, you're safe the first week you fill this out. I'm kidding there. But, it just lets us know who you are. I personally love to reach out by text or phone call the week after somebody visits. Um, and many times my wife and I love to just invite you to dinner just to get to know you. Um, here's the thing that we say here at South Sub Church. We may not be the biggest church, but we're the most loving church. We try to build it on relationships because that's what we believe the New Testament church was built on when Jesus instituted thousands of years ago. And that's what we try to do today. So, we're glad you're our guest. And if you would love to fill that card out, you can drop in one of the boxes as you leave, but somebody, myself or somebody will give you a call just to say thank you. Thank you for coming to our church and you picked a good time to come this summer. We've been in this series over the life of Joseph. If you know much about Joseph and I'm talking Joseph, the Old Testament character, one of the patriarchs of our faith. Um we've been looking throughout the book of Genesis and we're in our sixth week this week in this life of Joseph. And it's been an interesting story. But here's the interesting thing. We've kind of ventured as you follow Genesis, we've been focusing focusing focusing on Genesis or on Joseph. But you forget there's another part of his family as well. There there's the part that we're going to find out today in chapter 42. It's two sets of people, two sets of family. They meet each other and it's a little awkward. Um, have you ever been in one of those situations where you brought two sets of people together and it was just kind of awkward? Um, maybe it was a wedding and you had her side of the family and his side of the family and these friends and these families and you're the the host trying to make sure everybody's happy and it could just feel a little weird sometimes. Or maybe you hosted a dinner party at your house and you had people from work and maybe some neighbors. So these people don't really know each other and so trying to get them in the same room to get along can be awkward. But every once in a while you run into a situation where the people just don't know each other. They don't like each other. I remember in 8th grade I learned this firsthand. So here's a story in first grade. Buoie Junior High School every year around Valentine's they voted on Mr. and Mrs. Buoy Junior High School. The student body voted really just kind of the the the class favor, the most popular person. Everybody cast their vote. And it turned out that I was in the running in 8th grade for Mr. Buoie Junior High School. And so remember this is back in the 80s. So this story may seem a little different than what you might hear today, but one of the teachers came up to me and said, "Hey Keith, April Mercer is the girl who may win. And if you because you're going with April, going means I don't know what it meant. Just meant that was your girlfriend, right? He never took them anywhere. But he goes, "You're going with April. If she wins and you win, I'll pay you $10 if you give her a swoop kiss on the stage when y'all are kind of ordained or known to crown Mr. Mrs. Boo in your high school." Again, a little bit different back in the 80s than it is now. Um, and so I'm like, I'm in eighth grade. $10 seemed like a million dollars back then. So, I had it all ready that if I won and April won, um, I was going to swoop kiss her. But here was the problem. The day before Mr. and Mrs. Buoie was crowned, I quit going with April and I started going with Karen. The day wrapped, guess who wins Mr. Buoie Junior High School? I do. Guess who wins Mrs. Buoie Junior High School? April does. Remember, she was the former going with person of Keith Smith. But as an eighth grader, all I saw was $10. $10. $10. The whole student body is in the gym for us to be anointed the Mr. and Mrs. Buy Junior High School. So I'm a man of my word and a man of wanting a lot of money. And so we're standing up there and I swoop kissed April Mercer forgetting that I'm now going with Kieran Keats who's sitting on the front row. Now do I need to go on with the story? C can you feel the tension in Buoie Junior High School gym when all this took place? It was horrible. Let's just say on day number three, I wasn't going with April and I was no longer going Karen either. That just took care of itself right there. But here's why I tell that story. We have all been in situations where you're bringing people into a room and especially if they don't like each other, it can be very tensionfilled. And that's what we're going to run into in the life of Joseph because Joseph is going to become become in the center of the room of his brothers. So go with me. Chapter 42. Um, it says, and we'll start in verse one here. Let me just read some of the verses to you here. And here's what it says. When Jacob heard that grain was available in Egypt, he said this to his sons. Why are you standing around looking at one another? Have I heard there is grain in Egypt? Now go down there and buy enough grain to keep us alive or otherwise I will die. Now, some of you reading that going, Jacob. Now, who's Jacob? Let me just kind of do a review here so you don't know who Jacob is. Jacob is the father of Joseph. As we learned the very first week, he was the father of several sons and a couple of daughters as well. He was the husband of a couple of wives and had a couple of concubines on the side as well. So, here's what we learned about Jacob. That Jacob had a wife and her name was Rachel. And Rachel actually had seven sons. But like I said, he wasn't just a husband of one wife. He also had a couple of concubines, which is kind of like servants that were given to him to also bear children for him. And their names were Bella and Zilpa. And they each had two sons. And then he also had another wife and her name was Sarah. And she gave birth to Sus two sons. Our star of the show, she gave birth to Joseph. And then later on she gave birth to a younger son, the youngest son. His name is Benjamin. So remember the story. Joseph was the favorite son. He was the star of our show. But nobody liked him because of all the dysfunction, all the tension going on in the family. And so within all of this, the brothers sold him. Do you remember this part of the story? The brothers sold him into slavery like 22 years before all of this happened. And so in the family dynamics, there was one family. It was never a happy family and it was a divided family. You had all those kids up there except for Joseph who was long lost sold into slavery out of everybody's mind. So here we 22 years later after this Jacob sitting around there was a famine in the land of Canaan. This is where they live. There was a famine in the land of Canaan. And Jacob the father says guys we're going to starve. Like we got no food. We have no grain. We have nothing. We're going to die. I heard Egypt the next country over. They have food. You guys need to go to Egypt which would have been about 350 miles from Hein where they lived all the way to Egypt. And so it says, "You guys have got to go there and get us some food or we're going to die." And so Joseph's 10 older brothers went to Egypt to buy grain. Now notice 10. There are actually, if you counted all the everybody up there, minus Joseph, there were 11. But since Joseph is out of the picture, Benjamin has become Jacob's favorite son. So there's no way he's going to send Benjamin on this trip because he already lost one favorite son. So he sends his 10 older sons to get this grain. And so Joseph's 10 older brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain. But Jacob wouldn't let Joseph's younger brother Benjamin go with them for fear some harm might come to him. And so Jacob's sons arrived in Egypt along with the others to buy food for the famine in Canaan as well. And then it says this in verse six. And since Joseph, now if you missed last week, let me kind of fast forward, catch up to speed. 22 years ago, Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob, was sold into slavery. The brothers thought, "We can't stand this guy. We don't like him. Our hands are washed. He's taken off and we never have to worry about him again." But we learned last week in chapter 41 over these 20 plus years that they had been separated that all of a sudden Joseph gets gets catapulted. He gets raised to second in command of all of Egypt. There was this famine taking place and Pharaoh said, "I need a really smart person." So he picked Joseph and Joseph is the one who saved all the grain. So when they're heading to Egypt to get this grain, they've got the grain in store. But Joseph, the longlost brother, is second command, the governor of all of Egypt. So since Joseph was governor of all of Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came. And when they arrived, they bowed before him and their faces to the ground. Remember that family reunion? Remember that wedding party? Remember that eighth grade Mr. Buoie Junior High School when it gets a little tension bringing people in together in the same room. We have created in this moment a very tense moment in the life of Joseph and his brothers. And so the Bible says they walk up and you can imagine when they walked up there had been people from all over because all of the countries, several countries around there had been facing this famine. So lots of people were coming to Egypt to try to buy grain so they could survive. And so it had to be just a crowded just kind of messy chaotic room where people are trying to buy their stuff. But the brothers walk in and here's what we learn. They don't recognize Joseph. They don't realize it's their brother. But as soon as they walk in, Joseph recognizes them. But because they don't recognize him, they think he's simply the governor, second command of all of Egypt. Like, we got to kiss up to you because we need what you have and we're going to die. And so, the Bible says they bowed down to Joseph. They did it in a way of honor. It wasn't a type of worship. It was a type of honor. More just kind of thinking like this that you're bowing down. And at that moment, something struck Joseph's mind. Do you know what he might have remembered? Remember the dreams he had in the very beginning of the brothers bowing down to him, the the grain of stalks and the stars and the moons and and bowed down to him. That's what created some strife. Joseph is watching this play right in front of his mind, right in front of his eyes. Can you imagine at that moment if you're Joseph? Have you ever run into somebody that you hadn't seen for a while and maybe the last time you saw them, it wasn't a pleasant departing? Have you ever got in an argument or fight with somebody and all of a sudden then you're sitting next to them in a plane ride that you can't move? So, Joseph is coming face to face with his brothers who they didn't just have an argument, they sold him into slavery because they disliked him so much. The last memory, the last visual picture that Joseph has of his brothers is probably Joseph, his hands are tied and he's walking behind a cart of slave traders that are taking him away to sell him to somebody and his brothers are going, "See you." And all of a sudden, he's in the same room with him. And then it says this. And although Joseph in verse eight, although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn't recognize him. And you might be asking the question, hold on, these are family. Like they gri Joseph was 17 years old when he was sold into slavery. How did they not recognize him? Well, number one, keep in mind, they think he's long gone. I mean, it's been 20 plus years since they've seen him. He's probably not even in their thought of running into one day. They have no idea where he is at. But also just visually they look different. Now we don't have any actual photographs from back then, but historians tell us this that the brothers because they were from Canaan and they were shepherds, they might have looked something like this. They would had the long beards. They would have came in. They weren't clean. They took care of sheep. They smelt. People knew they were coming before they ever got there. And so the brothers probably walked in looking a little like this. But remember, Je Joseph had been an Egyptian for 22 years. He had learned their language. He had learned their ways. He had learned their customs. And being in second command in the official part of the Pharaoh's um entourage, he had to look a certain way. And so most historians think that Joseph probably looked like that. Now, if you have a long lost brother that you've not seen for 20 plus years, that's probably not what you're looking for if you're one of Jacob's sons. And so, they're in this interaction and the brothers don't recognize as Joseph. In fact, the Bible goes on to tell us this, that because Joseph was now bilingual, he could still speak Hebrew, which is what the Canaanites, his brothers would have spoke. But after 22 years of living in Egypt, he would now could speak Egyptian. And so even as he communicated in the story with his brothers, he would go through a translator. He would speak Egyptian and a translator would speak that interpreted and to Hebrew to the brothers. So his identity is hid by the way he looked. His identity is hid by the number of years they've not seen each other. And his identity is even hid by what he talked and what he said. And so his brothers came before him and they built b they they they they bowed down. As they got up through the interpreter, Joseph said, "Why have you come here?" As he's remembering these dreams that he had many years ago. And his brothers very humbly said, "We've come from a long ways. In fact, over 300 miles is how far we've come. all the way from from Dothama or Hebrin all the way to probably Memphis, which is a big city in in Egypt and we've come for grain. You can imagine their humility that they're talking to him with. You can imagine just how kind of like intimidated they were because they're in the presence of this high ranking official in all of Egypt and they said, "We've come to buy grain from you. If we don't, our family's going to starve. And the Bible says this there in the 42nd chapter of Genesis that Joseph again through the interpreter said, "You're lying. You're spies. You've come here." In fact, the Bible describes it that he spoke harshly to them. He said, "You've come here to spy out what we have. You've not come to try to buy something from us. You've come to try to do something to us." And the brother's like, "No, no, no, no. We we promise." And then for some reason they went into their family heritage. They said, "Sir, we're a family. Our father is Jacob. We have 12 brothers." Well, sir, we had 12 brothers, but one is no more. I want to pause there because you can't read and study and think about chapter 42 if you don't feel the emotions. We had 12 brothers, but one is no more. The one who is no more is sitting right there. They're talking to him through an interpreter. How would you like to be described by a family that sold you into human trafficking and when you were described 22 years ago as no more?

Like I wonder, and the scripture doesn't tell us this, but I wonder what kind of emotions are going through through Joseph. It's got to be anger. It's got to be sadness. It's got to be it's got to be just hatred. It's got to be all these emotions are just stirring inside of him. And they said, "One is no more." And then we have a younger brother, but he's back home with dad. Now, Joseph had to have had an intimate, close relationship with Benjamin because Benjamin because he never took part in all the other bad stuff the brothers did to him because he was the one always left at home, but he was his full brother. Remember the picture? Rachel had two sons. It was Joseph and it was Benjamin. And they said, "He's back home." And then but Joseph does something. He looks at him and says, "I still think you're lying. I don't believe anything you're saying right now. So here's what I'll do. I'm going to put all of you in jail. And then I'm going to let one of you go back. And if you bring your youngest brother, the so-called brother to me named Benjamin, then I'll know you're telling the truth about your family, about your story, about why you're here. And the Bible says this that the brothers begin talking amongst themselves and they're going, "What in the world have we gotten ourselves into like he's going to put us in jail for these three days and we can't go out and go back to our brother?" And they're just like kind of freaking out at this point. And then in verse 21 it says this. Then he came back after 3 days and they had been in jail for three days and he said speaking among themselves the brothers start talking. Now I got to set this picture up to you. Joseph comes back to the jail after three days he's going to supposedly release one of them. But as he's standing there the brothers are talking amongst themselves. What language are they talking in? Hebrew. what language they think this governor Joseph dude doesn't know Hebrew. So he's hearing everything they're saying and here's what they start saying amongst themselves. Speaking among themselves, they said clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago. Now imagine the emotions of Joseph. He's hearing his name spoke out of the very lips of the men, the brothers who sold him into slavery. But for the first time in his life, he is recognizing they're taking responsibility of something they did. This is clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life. Remember he's down in the pit. At one point they were going to kill him before the slave traders came. Their whole plan was to kill him until one of the brothers, Reuben, talked him out of it. And they're like, "We saw him down in the well. We saw the anguish. We saw the fear." And it's all coming back to haunt us right now. We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn't listen. That's why we're in this trouble. Karma, it's coming back to get us. And then in verse 22, didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy? Reuben asked. Reuben was one of the brothers. And if you go back to when this all this escapot took place that they were selling him, maybe going to kill him. Reuben's the one going, "Guys, don't do it. Don't do it." "But you wouldn't listen to me," Ruben said. "And now we have to answer for his blood." "So the brothers have no idea this is Joseph. They just think they're getting paid back for something they did 22 years ago." Here's what that tells me. It's been 22 years. They don't recognize Joseph in front of them, but for 22 years, they've been carrying the anguish of their choices. There was a broken relationship. There was more than a broken relationship. There was a fractured relationship. There was more than a fractured relationship. They had done something so bad it changed the course of somebody's life. The question for us, kind of pause and go into our own story here. We probably all deal with broken conflict oriented relationships. And here's my question. Do they ever really go away? I mean, we can quit speaking to somebody and think it goes away. We can quit going to the family reunion and think I have nothing to do with them. We can change our group of friends and think I have nothing to do with them. But when we have broken relationships in our life, when we have unresolved conflict in relationships in our life, whether it's family, friends, co-workers, you can fill in the blank of who it is, but when we have unresolved conflict, it really, really, really never goes away. We can brush it under the rug. We can try to think about something else. But there's something about the way that God designed us, especially as followers of Jesus, who says in the New Testament that our ministry, we have a ministry of reconciliation. That's ministry of reconciliation. First vertically to God, but then horizontally to other people. So it never ever fully goes away. And so they're sitting here talking amongst themselves going, "Oh, this is all our fault. 20 years ago, this happened. God's paid us back. We know Joseph." And so that conflict is still there. And then if you read the next few verses, and I'm not going to read them, you I hope this afternoon you go and actually read this, but here's what takes place. Joseph is sitting here listening to all of it. He's hearing their conversation. He's hearing their hurt. He's hearing their anguish. And the Bible says this at some point as he's sitting, you can imagine the jail is right there. Maybe there's some bars right there and he's on this side and they're on this side and he's standing there and they're having this conversation and he's hearing it. And the Bible says this there in chapter 42 that at one point he had to get up and leave and weep.

We get the first real glimpse of what he's feeling on the inside. You you sense that his anger has just moved to sadness. Sadness for 20 lost years of his life. Sadness for not seeing his dad and having that relationship for 20 years. Sadness at looking at brothers who've been hurting that much for 20 plus years. And the Bible says he just left and he wept. And then he came back to him and he said, ' Okay guys, I've changed my mind. Remember, he's talking through interpreter. They still don't know who he is. I've changed my mind. I'm I'm going to send you all back except one. Originally, I was going to send one back and the rest of you have to stay here. But I'm going to send all of you back but one. And I want you to go and if you want this one brought back to you, his name is Simeon. That's the brother he held back. He said, ' Then then you've got to bring this Benjamin, this younger brother, back to me. And I know all this is telling the truth. And so the Bible says that he kept Simeon there in jail. He packed up the guy's bags. He took their their money that they brought to spend for the the grain. Put grain all their bags. But he told his assistants, "Hey, the money that we took, the money they think they're paying us, don't take it. When you put all the grain in their sack, then put their money on top the sack. Tie it up." Now, I I've wondered so many times, why did he do that? Is he like playing with their minds? Does he not know what he wants to do? Like I don't know the psychology behind why he did that, but he said, "Put the money in their bag." And so he opened the jail and said, "Simeon, you stay there. You got to stay until they bring back Benjamin, but the rest of you can go back home." And so the brothers begin this 250 to 300 mile journey back to Hebrin where their family lives. And the Bible says the first night they made a little camp because they're not staying in hotels. It's just dirt roads from here to there and they make a little camp and one of the brothers is like, "Well, we need to eat something. I'll open up my sack and get some of the grain that he gave us and we'll eat." And when he opened up his sack, guess what? They saw the money. They freaked out again. Oh my gosh. Now, what's going on? God is really trying to punish us. We don't know what's going on. All they knew to do is just tied back up and keep going. And every night they would stop and probably get some more grain from that particular bag. And there's the money. They're thinking, "We don't know what's going on." They finally get home and they're like, "Dad, we're home. We're home." And they've got these bags of grain they're bringing back their carts. They put them on there and like, "We're home." And the dad's like, "How did it go?" Like, "Oh, Dad, we met this dude and he was so mean. Who are they to say somebody's mean?" But he was harsh to us. And dad, here's what happened. Simeon is still there. They they won't let he won't let us bring Simeon back until we take Benjamin back because he thinks we're lying. He thinks we're spies. And they tell the whole story and Jacob is sitting there going, "What?" And then the Bible says this. He looked at him and said, "There's no way I'm sending Simeon. I've already lost one son. His name is Joseph. Now I've lost Simeon, and I'm not sending Benjamin there because I don't want to lose three sons." In fact, let me read it for you. This is exactly what he says in verse 37. Then Reuben said to his father, after he said that, "You may kill my two sons if I don't bring Benjamin back to you." You know, the awkward meeting in Egypt between Joseph and the brothers, I think the meeting between Jacob the father and the brothers is even more awkward because Jacob is going, "No, I'm not sending anybody there. I'm not losing Benjamin. I'm not losing I've already lost Joseph. You've already lost Simeon for me. I'm not losing more sons." And finally, Ruben says, "Listen, Dad. I have two sons of my own. I feel your pain. I understand how you must feel, but dad, you can kill my two sons if I don't bring Benjamin back to you. And then in verse 38, but Jacob replied, my son will not go down with you. My his brother Joseph is dead and he is all I have left. If anything should happen to him on the journey, you would send this grieving whitehaired man to his grave.

If you've never heard this story, you're going, "You got a few more minutes, pastor. What happens next?"

If you've heard this story before, you're going, "Yeah, but but we know what happens. Keep going. Here's the problem. We're done with chapter 42. That's how chapter 42 ends. And you're going, "No, no." Like all this conflict, all this unresolved stuff. You got to tell us how it ends because this is not good. Finish it. Come on. Finish it. Finish it.

Isn't the way this pauses until we get to chapter 43? kind of like our lives.

When it comes to relationships, we either want to seal them and fix them or forget about them.

Yet, we probably all could name one or two or three people, relationships in our life that aren't sealed and delivered or they're forgotten about. And we're living in the conflict of the moment.

You want Come on. Come on.

I don't have a resolve this week. Chapter 42 doesn't give us a resolve.

It's the conflict that we learn from.

And if you're taking notes, this is not a fill in the blank. But if you want to write something down, here's what I would be a reminder to all of us.

Relationships with conflict never ever really go away. Relationships

with conflict never ever really go away. In fact, if you're taking notes, this is some of your last fillins there. When you're in the middle of relational conflict, the path towards reconciliation is always the best path. even when you can't see how that story will end.

Let me say that again. When you're in the middle of a relational conflict, the path towards reconciliation is always the best path, even when you can't see how the story will end. Here's what I mean by that. I'm looking at the story of Joseph. Joseph had the power to execute every one of those guys. He is second command of all of Egypt. He had the power, the authority to say, "Bring the executioner in here and they're going to pay for their past mistakes." But he didn't. In fact, as I read this story, here's what I love about this story, and I've read it a hundred times, and I feel the emotion every time of it. Joseph is going, "I don't know what to do. Do I kill him and hate him? Do I hug him? Do I love him?" I think that's one of the reasons like it's so confusing. Why did he put the money back in the grain? I think he's going, "I don't know what to do. Just do something."

The part where he says it was so upsetting to him that he had to leave and weep.

Here's here's here's what I I think Joseph is showing for us, and we're going to resolve it next week. So, if like you were not going to come to church next week, you probably should if you want to hear the rest of the story because it does get better. But I think Joseph said, "I don't know what to do, but a step towards reconciliation is still the best step. No matter how much they messed me over 22 years ago, no matter how much they did me wrong over 20 years ago, no matter how much they wrote me, they sold me to human trafficking." But he goes, "But I've lived with this tension for 20 plus years. My life is good. He's probably got more money than anybody in the country except for Pharaoh." We learned last week, Pharaoh said this, "When you walk down the street, people should bow down to you because you're really an extension of me." But no matter how good it was on the outside, he still had the tension of broken relationships on the inside. And I think in this moment, Joseph is just going, I don't know what to do to reconcile. I don't know what reconciliation looks like, but I got to do something. So, the best thing I can do is just take a step towards reconciliation.

And church, that's what I think God wants us to learn out of this one. See, I I I I have this my strength, my weakness is I'm a peacekeeper. When there's tension when the kids are growing up, hey, let's all make it better. When Denise and I get invited, we got to make it better. And I'm trying to just correct it so much so quick. But sometimes you can't fix it right then. You can just take a step towards fixing it. And so I don't know where God has you today in relationships,

but if we follow the example of Joseph, a step is all that God's asking. Think about the step when it comes to Jesus. Didn't he take the first step? The Bible says this, that he left heaven and took a step onto this earth. He made the first move. When the soldiers came to rest him on that faithful night that he was about to be led to crucifixion, the Bible says this. He says, "Guys, don't fight them. I'll take a step and go with them."

I I have a feeling the scripture doesn't clearly say this, but when they loaded the cross on his back, they didn't have to make him start walking. He says, "This is the step towards reconciliation for us to God."

And so Joseph is simply just being an example of the very savior that he's paving the way for.

And our lives should follow that same example. And so I'm asking you to bow your head. I'm going to pray and then we're going to sing a song to wrap up today. But as you sit there with your head bowed, here's the question I have. Who does God call you to make a step to? And what might a little step look like?

Not asking to make that relationship all perfect again,

but what is a step in the mess and the chaos of that relationship? What is a step that God would have you make? And so, Father, we come before you now and and I'll be the first to confess relationships are just hard and they're messy and they're inconvenient and they don't always work out the way that I want them to, Jesus.

But you have called us to the ministry of reconciliation to live our lives in so a reconciling

way with those around us that we will show them how you reconciled with us. And so would you just show us what step do we need to make? And we pray [music] this in your name, Jesus. Amen.