Joseph's life serves as a profound biblical type of Christ, illustrating God's redemptive plan through suffering and reconciliation. The sermon highlights how Joseph, despite betrayal and hardship, remained faithful and was elevated to a position of authority in Egypt, ultimately orchestrating the salvation of his family. This narrative demonstrates that God uses difficult circumstances for His purposes, mirroring Christ's sacrifice to pay the debt of sin for humanity. The message emphasizes that God's grace, like the provision from Joseph's table, is the source of all spiritual nourishment, with differences in blessings being a matter of quantity, not quality, and calls believers to act as stewards, bridging the gap between God and others through compassionate service.
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All sorts of little thoughts beguile the speaker's mind while he's sitting up here on the platform. Sometimes he suddenly forgets his text and he wondered what he's going to speak on. But the little thought that flitted through my mind tonight was a rather depressing sort of a thing, an ego-blowing thought. And it came along on... when our brother Willie was saying that the last two weeks of the conference were all of bargain days. You see now the thought that went through my mind?
Twenty-five percent off, here I am. My brother John Bramwell has to come here next week, and I think I'll write to him and ask him whether or not our feelings ought to be heard or not. Very strange how the mind works, doesn't it? Surely the psalmist was right when he says, we are fearfully and wonderfully made, sometimes wonderfully, most often fearfully, I'm afraid. Well, before we study tonight, let's bow together in prayers. Our Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ, in whose matchless name we may come before thee tonight.
We thank you, Father, that he died upon Calvary's cross, not only that we might be saved, but that we might be with thee forevermore. Father, we look forward with anticipation to return of the Lord. We believe that the return of the Lord is very close. Truly, Father, we are closer to it now than we ever were before. closer to it now than we were when last we were in this building together. And Father, we thank thee that one of these days, except that thou hast take us by the way of death, we shall see the Lord Jesus Christ face to face, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Now, Father, we would not waste these days while we are waiting, but we would redeem the time because the days are evil.
And Father, we ask thee that we might be apprised once again of that which thou wouldst have for us in thy word tonight, this small portion of Scripture, that our minds might be keen and alert and our hearts might be open to thee and to the ministry of the Holy Spirit tonight. We would not be like those who gather together on Mars Hill to gather for no other reason than to tell or to hear some new thing. But Father, we would pray that the Holy Spirit might direct our thinking tonight and refresh all of our hearts. We pray, Father, for any or for all that might be in the meeting tonight who do not know Christ as Savior. The Father, thou shalt speak to their hearts concerning the Lord Jesus. And, Father, point them to him tonight, we pray.
Now, Father, we commend the meeting unto thee and the eternal outcome of it. For we ask it all in Christ Jesus' matchless name. Amen. Your homework for tomorrow night will be to read on in Genesis chapter number forty-four. verses one through seventeen Genesis forty four verses one through seventeen no particular question as such for tomorrow night except I would like to have you ponder one thing that you will find in that passage of scripture in Genesis forty four verses one through seventeen Twice it is mentioned in that passage of Scripture about a particular sort of a cup, and it is called the cup by which Joseph divines.
I don't know if we'll ask you any questions because we might get into too long a discussion on this, but do you suppose this means that Joseph believed in necromancy, or was he a believer in the occult sciences? this cup by which he divined it. Do you suppose it's all right for a Christian to use an Ouija board? Do you suppose it's all right for a Christian to read tea leaves? This sort of thing. I just throw that out for your pondering and say, we may not discuss it. I might not want to get in the water over my head. But I just throw that out for your contemplation because it's mentioned twice in that rather short passage of Scripture for tomorrow night.
Genesis forty-four, one through seventeen. Now tonight we find ourselves in Genesis chapter forty-three, and I'd like to begin reading with verse number nineteen. It rather breaks into the middle of the narrative, but I don't want to make the reading too long. I'd like to begin reading with verse number nineteen of Genesis forty-three. When it speaks of they here, it speaks of Joseph's brothers, all of his half-brothers, and Benjamin, who was his full brother. These brothers of Joseph came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door of the house and said, Oh, sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food.
And it came to pass when we came to the inn that we opened our sacks, and behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sacks, our money in full weight. And we have brought it again in our hands. And other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food. We cannot tell who put our money in our sacks. And he said, Peace be to you, fear not. Your God and the God of your Father has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. Now the question was, who paid the money? Anybody find an answer? I believe that Joseph was excited about Jesus' tragedy and pain and death.
All right. My brother says he believes Joseph's paid the debt. Do we have any other answers? It says here God has given you treasure in your sats. We might say this would be an indirect way, I guess. Very often God uses tools and whatnot. Does anybody get any other answer? I just destroyed and kept an account and was fully paid for the food. And this was a gift from children to his brother. All right.
Do we have any different answers? Now, ladies, you're not allowed to speak, of course, but you can punch your husband and tell him what to say. Well, I would generally agree then that it was Joseph. I think it's a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus, this biography of Joseph here. And the significant thing to my own mind, and it brought tears to my eyes, was to realize that the steward could say, don't worry about a thing, the book's balance. I had your money. You haven't upset the bookkeeping of the government of Egypt. The man on the throne is satisfied that the debt has been paid.
We didn't pay it. No, you didn't pay it. Every opportunity we had to pay it, that currency which we brought was returned to us. It was rejected. That's right. But don't worry about a thing. The price has been paid in full. The books are all straight. And that's a wonderfully perfect picture of that which the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us. There was a time when I brought the currency of my life and I tried to buy nourishment and sustenance and spiritual things and the Lord returned my money every time. I couldn't bring my morality and my good upbringing and my unsullied name. These coins were always returned to me.
They were unacceptable currency. They were valueless as far as purchasing life from the one who was on the throne. But there was one who did pay the debt. A person talked to me last week and they said, If God truly hates sin and if God is not willing that any should perish, then why doesn't God let everybody into heaven? Because the debt must be paid, mustn't it? The word says, the soul that sineth, it shall die. And the book tells us that God sent the Lord Jesus Christ, so that was. He might be a justifier of those who come unto God by Him. Somebody had to pay the debt.
And I believe this was Joseph's. paying the debt out of his own pocket with his own currency, so the steward could say, you don't owe us a thing. The books balanced perfectly. The debt has been paid. And I wondered if the brothers ever wondered who it was that paid the debt. All right, now let's go on. We read that the steward brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water, and they washed their feet, and he gave their asses provender. And they made ready the present against Joseph, came at noon. for they heard that they should eat bread there. And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present, which was in their hand, into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth.
And he asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom ye spake? Is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant, our father is in good health. He is yet alive. And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom ye speak unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste, for his bowels did yearn upon his brother. And he sought where he weep, and he entered into his chamber and wept there. And he washed his face and went out and refrained himself and said, Set on bread. And they sat on for him by himself and for them by themselves, and for the Egyptians which did eat with him by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians.
And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men marveled one with another. And he took and sent messes unto them from before him, But Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs, and they drank and were married with him. The story of Joseph, I think, to my own mind, is the clearest picture we have of a type of the Lord Jesus Christ found by way of biography anywhere in the Word of God. Joseph is one of the very, very few folks about whom nothing negative has ever said. We have Joseph and we have Nehemiah and we have Daniel.
Now, of course, I know we have Enoch too, but we only have two or three verses about Enoch. But Joseph is one of the very few men about whom we have a great deal of information and nothing negative has ever said about him. Not that he was sinlessly perfect, of course, but perhaps to make as full or complete a type of the Lord Jesus as possible, we are given an account of the near perfection of Joseph. Now, he, as we know, was sold into slavery, and all of the details fit wonderfully well with that which the Lord's own people did to him, for he came unto them, and they received him not. And Joseph had a rather hard time of it down in the land of Egypt.
But the psalm said, I believe the psalm, a hundred and five says, that the Lord used this to put iron into the soul of Joseph. Joseph was going through a disciplinary process. as now the brothers of Joseph were going through a disciplinary process. And it seems as if Joseph going down into Egypt being sold to Potiphar, and he soon rises in fame in Potiphar's house, and Potiphar soon gives Joseph the stewardship of his entire household, and we might say, well, you see, all's well that ends well. And we might close it as we do a fairy story and say, and they lived happily ever after, but that's not the way life is.
We find that from the top, Joseph goes down to the bottom again, attempted to fall into licentious sin. He refuses. He leaves his coat behind him rather than his virtue. And then the lady of the house, Mrs. Potiphar, tells stories about Joseph, and Potiphar throws Joseph into prison. And it says Potiphar was angry, but I don't think Potiphar was angry at Joseph. I think Potiphar is angry with Mrs. Potiphar. But in order to save faith, he causes his slave to be thrown into prison, and Joseph is worse off now than he was before. Well, he begins to work his way up, and the passage of Scripture says, And the Lord was with him. The Lord was with him not only in Potiphar's very fine palace, but the Lord was also with him in the prison house.
And when the word is dungeon there in your account in Genesis, the word is literally whole. God was with him in that whole. that sinking, fetid prison, dungeon house, that hole in which Joseph lived. That warmed up my heart towards the Lord. It doesn't say the Lord looked in the window to see how Joseph was getting along. It didn't say that the Lord sent an angel to really inquire about his child, Joseph. It says where Joseph went, the Lord went. It may be in Potiphar's household. It may be in Pharaoh's court. may be in that hole of the dungeon, but where his child went, that's where the Lord went to.
That ought to cheer your heart tonight. Through the funeral home, through the hospital room, regardless of where it might be. If the child of God is there, the Lord is there too. Well, we know how Joseph, by the grace of God, worked his way along, interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, and then went the second mile. He not only interpreted Pharaoh's dream, but he gave advice. He said, now it suggests to you this, that you select out a man who is very discreet and very wise and let him be the superintendent of this thing. And while the seven years of prosperity bring forth all sorts of grain, let this man be over the whole business and let set aside a lot of this grain to see it through the years when there's going to be famine.
And the Word of God says, and it pleased Pharaoh in all of his service. Why? Because I think each and every one of them thought that he would be selected to be the superintendent. If Pharaoh is going to judge upon the basis of wisdom and discreteness, who is more wise or discreet than myself? Pharaoh can't choose anybody else than me. And of course the saying pleased all of Pharaoh's service. And Pharaoh says, I think we found the man right here. This is a man in whom the Spirit of God is. This alien, this former slave, this prison convict is now the Lord of the land of Egypt.
Number two man, even to Pharaoh himself. Well, we know how diligently Joseph went on about his business, and at long last, after a passage of over a quarter of a century or so, One day his brothers came into view seeking to buy grain. And they bought their grain and they returned home again. And the first night they stopped along the way. And when they opened up the stacks of grain, they found that their money had been replaced back in the grain again. And they couldn't understand who had done this thing, but they were on their way. They went home, they consumed the grain. Their father sent them back again. With Benjamin this time, because this is the only way that this Lord of the land would speak to these brothers again, so Benjamin, poor, precious young Benjamin, had to make the long journey again, and they came back.
And this is the situation in which they find themselves here. I think probably, and we try to remember that human nature is always the same, regardless of the culture or the generation in which it finds itself. that these men must have thought as you and I would have thought in a similar situation. Why does everything happen to me? Now, I don't understand why we can't come down here and conduct a simple business transaction and go on our way again. Why all of these conundrums? Why all of these mystifying details? There's Babylonians that come down here, there's Syrians that come down here, there's us Syrians that come down here, maybe there's some Philistines or Phoenicians that come down here, and they go to the marketplace and they buy grain and they pay their money, and they load up their caravans and they go again.
Every time we come down here, something happens. Why does all this have to happen to me? First of all, it was the fact somebody put the money back in the sacks again. And money being as precious in those days as it is now, somebody is trying to frame us into some sort of an accusation. So now the second time when they come down, somebody comes along and taps one of them on the shoulder and says, before you fellas leave, you're to go up to that very fine house up there on the hill. There's somebody that wants to see you up there, and don't you depart the land of Egypt until you go up there. Well, now what could he want with us?
Why can't life be more simple? Why does everything have to happen to us? Why can't we just load up and leave? So here they go, and they're up in Joseph's very, very fine palace now, talking to this steward. Now, think again. These men are not politicians. They're not ambassadors. They're not government leaders. These men are shepherds. They're there with their shepherd sandals on. They're there with their rough, dark, brown shepherd tunics about them. and they're walking down these very finely polished halls of this magnificent edifice and they're most out of place and they know that they're most out of place and you can see this band of men as they undoubtedly grouped together ever closer for mutual comfort and protection and wondering now what's going to happen and they think we ought to have a mediator here in this place and so they latch on to the steward And immediately the words begin to tumble out.
Now you probably want to talk to us about the money that was found in our sacks. And we want you to know that there was no idea of ours. It certainly wasn't any of our doing. Somebody else put the money in our sacks. And you see, we brought the very money back again. And we brought double money with us this time to show that we had no idea of robbing or thievering. And the words just tumble out. And he says, now wait a minute, slow down. Slow down. And he tries to set them at ease. And he says unto them, fear not. Someone has said there's three hundred and sixty-five fear-nots in the word of God, one for every day in the whole year of your life. There's one that will fit any situation. And he says, now peace. He says, fear not.
He says, your God, the God of your Father, has given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. The debt is all paid. The books are all straightened out. And then he brought Simeon out unto them. Now here are several clues that should have tipped the minds of these brothers off that there was somebody working behind the scenes for their good. In the first place, why is Simeon here in the palace? Why isn't he down there in the prison because he is being held hostage by the government of Egypt, do you recall? What's Simeon doing living in this very fine palace? But they don't seem to tumble that there's anything untoward going on here at all. Furthermore, why is this Egyptian steward speaking to them about Jehovah God of heaven?
What does he know about Jehovah God of heaven? Would we dare to suggest that in this verse perhaps this one believed in Jehovah God of heaven because of the testimony which Joseph had in that place? I think later on it shows very definitely in our study that Joseph had a testimony amongst these Egyptian folks, the folks that worshiped the frogs and the lice and the Nile River and the crocodiles and a few other things. He had a testimony for Jehovah God of heaven. And is this one of the persons whom he pointed to the Lord? Is this man speaking from personal experience? This should have tipped the brethren off concerning these things. And he tries to set their minds at ease.
Now not only does he say something, but he does something. It says as we continue on, the man brought the men into Joseph's house and he, number one, gave them water. He, number two, washed their feet. He, number three, gave their asses provender. Now I think if Joseph represents the Lord Jesus Christ, our heavenly Joseph, I think if the brethren here represent the world which needs to be reconciled to the heavenly Joseph, Then I think that you and I, as believers, fit into the typology here of the steward. First of all, we have a comforting message to give.
God has paid the debt. Fear not. There is salvation. There is peace available if you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. But not only is there something for the Christian to say, there is also something very definitely for the Christian to do. Not only must he simply go with words, but he also has to go with deeds. And this is that which he does. Now to me, this is like a train, and various Christians get off at each one of the various three stuff. For instance, the very first one is that the steward gave unto them water. Well, most any Christian will do this.
We have the promise, for instance, in Matthew which the Lord Jesus gave unto us, that if a cup of cold water is given in the name of a disciple, verily that one shall not lose his reward. And even the man of the world will generally help somebody else, whether it's giving cold water or pushing somebody out of the sand or helping at the scene of an accident or doing something. Most everybody will be glad to provide somebody else with water, because this is an equal basis. To hand somebody water, you're standing up and they're standing up and there's no problem here. But when we get to the second station, some folks get off the train. Now, we're stepping downward, as it were, in pride.
The next thing is, washed their feet. He gave them water and they washed their feet. Now, would you be willing to provide for this? This means that there has to be an inequality, you see. And the last thing is, and he gave their asses provender. Now he's no longer even ministering to the people. Now he's ministering to their beasts of burden. And a lot of folks are not on the train by the time it gets to this third and last station at all. And yet I think it's one of the most important things that we need to keep in mind if we're trying to point somebody to the Lord.
A man who wasn't saved said one day, speaking about a certain soul winner who was trying to get him to trust in the Lord, the unsaved man said, I wish he loved me the way he loves my soul. And I think that's a truism. I think many times we're so interested in simply pushing people into the kingdom that we forget we need to be friendly with them and cultivate them and so on and so forth to get them to trust in the Lord. This man here, this steward, was willing to do some act of service, not so much for the particular people that he was trying to impress peace upon and so forth, but he was willing to do something for something which they owned.
Now, sometimes you can strike up a conversation or begin to bridge the gap between yourself and an unsaved one by borrowing a tool or by loaning a tool. or a recipe, or a cup of flour, or a cup of sugar, or helping in some way somewhere along the line. A man once, several years ago, was preaching down in one of the assemblies in South Florida, and unknowing to the preacher there was a man in that Sunday night meeting who was away from the Lord. A man was a Christian, but He had let other Christians get in the way, and he'd stumbled over them, and he'd gotten rather disgusted with the whole situation, and he had been away from the Lord for quite some time.
And the message which the preacher was bringing had to do with restoration and the love of God and how the Lord seeks the wayward one and so forth. But while the man was sitting there, most of this was rolling just off of his mind. He said, that's simply a biblical truism. This is simply a moral statement. This is something that everybody talks about and preaches, but nobody really cares and so on and so forth. And after the service was over, the preacher went down and struck up a conversation with this man in the audience, and they introduced themselves back and forth, and they walked out of the chapel together and over to the man's car and noted that the right front tire was flat.
And the preacher took off his coat and said, well, let's get the tire changed. Well, it's cold, and it's after dark, and so forth. But by taking off their coats together and getting their hands dirty together, the man said, this one not only believes what is preached from the Word of God, but he's willing to back it up. I think it was a case of giving the ass of that man some provender. And the man later testified, he said, after the tire was changed, I got in my car. And I went back home and I went to my bedroom and I knelt down and I made everything right with the Lord. And the man was restored and to this day he's going on with the Lord. In our own meeting, we had a lady who started coming to a family Bible hour and I said to her, I wish you'd give me your name and address.
I'd like to come by and visit you and your husband. And she was horror stricken. And she said, oh, I wouldn't dare let you know where I live because my husband is violently opposed to anything spiritual or religious. and those that have called upon him before, he has literally turned his two dogs loose on the visitor." Well, about that time I thought it might be wise to ask a couple of the elders to go by and call on this man rather than me. Well, the problem is, how are we going to reach this fellow if we can't get past the dogs? Well, it rained the next Sunday and a couple in the assembly said to the lady, let it take you home.
She consented and they did. So now we knew where the house was. But we also knew where the dogs were. And then we had a sunshiny day and another sunshiny day. And this couple kept taking the wife home. And one of those Lord's days when they took the wife home, the husband was out in the yard. And the man doing the driving said, How are you? I see you've got a boat there with some fishing poles out the back end. You like to do much fishing? Love to fish. Well, I do too. Have you ever been up such and such a place? Wonderful hole up there near two cypress stumps. Marvelous fish in there. No, never tried it. And this is the way the thing began. And the first thing you know, the husband was there at the eleven o'clock family Bible hour without the dogs, if you will.
He was there. He got saved later on, got baptized. And when he was baptized, he was baptized at seventy-seven years of age. Lord saved him late in life. But what was it? It was a couple, you see, who believed, well, we'll begin by giving some of the provender to the asses. We'll talk about fishing. We'll talk about hunting. We'll be willing to leave a door of contact open. They're not ready yet to get saved, maybe, but I want to be available. I want to leave the door open. I won't get mad if they don't trust the Lord today, they may trust the Lord tomorrow or next week. But this steward was willing not only to give what was needed to the ones who were there but also he says, and I'll also go out and give some provender to the ashes.
I think this is what we as Christians need today. Are you willing to use tools in order to somehow get into the heart of the person? If the one that you're trying to win is a grandparent, I'll tell you the best tool. It's the biggest pry bar that you can ever find. You know what it's called? It's called a grandchild. Boy, if you're talking to an unsaved grandmother or grandfather, All you have to do is say, do you have any grandchildren, and then step back. Step back. They just happen to have a few pictures, you know. Wow. That's a wonderful way to open a door. Wonderful way to do it. And so they did. And I think this is what we need to do, too. What is the steward doing?
He is caring for these folks in the absence of his master. In the absence of his master, the steward is doing all that he can. to bridge the gap that is existing here between these people. All right, now I want to point you, leaving the steward, I want to point you to the brothers. You notice in verses twenty-six and twenty-eight, they did something that they said they never would do. When Joseph came home, they brought him to present, and they bowed themselves to him to the earth. And then verse twenty-eight says, They bowed down their heads and made obeisance. And these, you recall, are the two dreams which Joseph had when he was seventeen years of age.
He said, The stars bowed down and made obeisance to me. And this is part of the reason why the brothers got mad at him. And even his father remonstrated with him and said, What? Should your mother and your father bow down and worship you too? But... Jacob is doing the same thing here because in verse twenty eight they said thy servant our father thy servant our father is in good health and Jacob is right there with the rest of them bowing down that which they said they would never do is the very thing which they were required to do and even the word is the same they bowed down before him and made obeisance they made obeisance that which they said they would never do now Joseph says, all right, let's have a bit of lunch together, as he's home for the noontime break.
And so they set up three tables, apparently, one for Joseph, because after all, he's the Lord of the Land, and he has to have a place by himself. And then they have to have a separate table for the Egyptians, because the Egyptians won't eat with these Hebrew folks, because the Egyptians said there are seven different forms of occupation, and way down at the very bottom of the ladder, step number seven, is the occupation of a shepherd. And these Egyptians are not going to eat with these men who make their living by tending sheep, which is the very lowest type of job that the Egyptians thought you could do. And another table, you see, is set up for the half-brothers and for the brother of Joseph. Interesting thing to note, that even before a Jew comes on the scene, the Jewish folks and the Gentile folks are split now.
They're even split here. Jewish folks and Gentiles before God brings on to the stage even the first Jewish man himself. Here's already the gulf being formed, you see. And already it's formed even today, didn't it? They're killing each other across the Suez Canal or were until the rather shaky temporary ceasefire went into effect. They're separated even here. And you'll notice that that which is done in verse thirty-four, Joseph took food from his table and dispensed it to the table at which his brothers were sitting, and at Benjamin's place, Joseph directed that five times as much food be given to Benjamin as was given to the other brothers.
Now the situation you see is this, is Joseph testing these brothers to see whether or not in the passage of over a quarter of a century... Have they matured enough so that they don't get jealous anymore? Can they see somebody else being blessed without wishing that they might have the same blessing themselves? When Joseph had that coat of many colors, they couldn't stand it because he had that very fine coat and they were dressed in their shepherd's arms. Can they now, after the passage of all these years and supposedly all of the lessons of maturity have gone by, Can they see now one of their brothers receiving five times as much food as they did and not become jealous over this?
Now apparently they can, because not a word is said about any sort of mumbling or grumbling going on about why did Benjamin get five times as much stuff as we did? Why was all this done? Why was this sort of thing done in this particular way? And so Joseph, I think, here is testing these brothers to see whether or not they have learned anything or matured in this particular way. Now, lastly, we want to look hurriedly at Joseph. Here we find Joseph in verse number thirty-three, when he puts the brothers in their particular places, no name cards here, but Joseph, as the host, says all right speaking to Ruben now you you sit here this is the place of the eldest this is the place of the one who has a birthright so you're entitled to sit here and so on and so forth down through all of the brothers until way down at the end of the line comes the youngest one of all Benjamin he says all right son now you can sit here because you're the youngest and your Bible records for you there that these men marveled one at another how did he know which one had the birthright.
How did this Lord of Egypt know which one was the oldest? They were all about of the same age, that is as difficult to tell with mature men, which one is forty-four and which one is forty-three, as the case might be. But this man singled them out all the way down the line, never made a mistake once, and said, you're entitled to sit here, you're entitled to sit there, you're entitled to sit someplace else. And son, you're the youngest. You sit down there in the place of the eldest. And the men marvel one at another. And still they didn't think that there was anything untoward going on in this situation here. In other words, Joseph knew more about them than they believed that he did. And so it is the case of our heavenly Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He knows me better than I know myself because he is the one that has formed me. He knows the thing which will trigger my emotion one way or another. He knows the things which irritates me and the thing which disgust me and the thing which discourages me and the thing which will lift me up and the thing which will encourage me and put me on the victory side again. The Lord knows more about me than I even think he knows about me. And so is Joseph here. Also, you'll notice in this particular portion that when he spoke to Benjamin in the last part of verse number twenty-nine, he said, God, be gracious unto thee, my son. signifying that you may have the favor of the ruler upon you, but unless you have the grace of God, you're still way, way out.
You're still lost. For all the benefits that may be yours, unless you know the grace of God, you don't possess a thing. How much will a man give an exchange for his soul, and how much is a human soul worth? We've had a rash of kidnappings in our political world these days. And these men will say, all right, now, in exchange for this human life, we want a half a million dollars. A little boy was kidnapped not many weeks ago, and they demanded eight hundred thousand dollars ransom for that little boy. We said we believe he is worth eight hundred thousand dollars. What is a soul worth? It costs the Lord Jesus Christ his life. It costs God the Father the dearest treasure that he had in heaven.
That's what a soul is worth. God, be gracious unto thee, my son. The favor of the ruler is thine, but this is not enough. This won't save you. You need also the grace of God in your life and in your heart. And then the tides of emotion begin to well up within Joseph's being. And he feels his eyes beginning to dim with tears. And he has to excuse himself. And he goes into a secret chamber. And there the flood dams break loose. And he weeps and weeps and weeps. And then finally he is able to compose himself again, and he washes his face, tries to straighten out his reddened eyes, and assumes his composure, and goes back out into the dining room again. Seven times you have a record of Joseph's weeping in the life story, which is his life story.
And this is one of those times. The first time he can simply turn his back and weep. The first time, the second time, he has to leave their presence and go out and weep. The weeping is becoming stronger and deeper, you see, especially as he is thinking about the reconciliation with his brothers. And this is the same thing, of course, that the Lord Jesus Christ sometimes does with us. And the record is found in the Gospel by John chapter number eleven. In the Gospel by John chapter number eleven, especially verses five and six, where it tells of Lazarus dying. and Mary and Martha, having sent a message to the Lord Jesus, saying, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick, and so forth.
And in John chapter eleven, verses five and six, it says, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. When he heard, therefore, that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. Therefore, verse six, therefore, always a connecting word. Therefore, connection back with the thought, Jesus loved Mary and Martha. And therefore, because he did love them, he stayed two days further in the place where he was. Now they would not define that as love. They would say, if you really loved us, you would have come when we needed you, and you would have touched Lazarus, and you would have healed him and restored him to health again.
And the Lord had to say unto them these rather unreasonable sounding words, I stayed away because I did love you. And when he got there, he wept. The Lord wept. Now he knew he was going to raise Lazarus to life again, but the tides of tears overflowed the eyes of the Lord Jesus Christ as they did the eyes of Joseph. And the Lord Jesus Christ wept. And brethren, I believe the Lord does sometimes the same things to us today. Because he loves us, he sometimes says no. because he does love us, because there is a therefore in there. He will not come when we would like to have him come.
He will not speak when we would have him to speak. He will not help when we would have him to help because he's got some greater thing that he's going to do for us down the road. We would say, Lord, we don't define love as you define love, but nonetheless, I think he does the same thing with us in these days. And so, so Joseph did. And they sat down and they had a rather happy luncheon together. And the fears of the brethren seemed to have been evaporated by all of the conviviality around the table. Benjamin had the unusual portion of the fact that he had gotten five times as much as anybody else at the table did, but it doesn't seem to upset the brothers because they had all that they needed.
But you notice this fact there. at all of the provision, whether it was one portion or whether it was five portions, all came from the table of Joseph. This leads us then to say that the gifts of God do not differ in quality, but only in quantity. It all comes from the same place. It all comes from the table of Joseph. It's all the same food. It's all the same nourishment. Not several menus prepared, but to hear some Christians talk, you think this were the case. The Lord loves her better than he loves me. The Lord blesses her with better things than he does me.
That's never the case. It's never the case. The Lord never blesses somebody with better things than he blesses somebody else with, but the Lord may bless somebody else with more of the same than he blesses you with. But it's all the same. It all comes exactly from the same table. Folks say, well, she's got a better knowledge of the Word of God than I do. Well, how do you suppose she got it? Did the Lord send an angel down and bestow miraculously upon her a great knowledge of the Word of God? No, she got it by digging it out. She got it by hours and hours of study. The Lord made him a great prayer warrior.
The Lord didn't give him any magical sort of a gift to suddenly make him a prayer warrior. He spends hours in agony on his knees to become that prayer warrior. The gifts of God do not differ in quality, but only in quantity. And the quantity very often is dependent upon us. August Van Ryn says, sometimes after a conference, a person will come up and say, Brother Van Ryn, I certainly enjoyed that word tonight. And he very often answers this. He says, well, you ought to. It took me forty years to get it ready. Now that's what I'm talking about. All of the meditation, all of the prayer, all of the searching of the word, the cross-references, the hard work, the hard study, the hard prayer, but it's that which each of us has.
Each of us has a measure of prayer, a measure of knowledge of the word. And the gifts of God do not differ in quality, but only in quantity. Benjamin may get five times as much as the others got, but it all comes from the same table. Praise his name tonight. Praise his name. I wonder if in closing we might sing a hymn. Hymn number three hundred forty-eight. I thought of the brothers of Joseph in connection with this hymn as they talked to the steward and later as they had fellowship with Joseph. Our times are in thy hand. Father, we wish them there. Our life, our souls, are all we leave entirely to thy care.
Verse three, our times are in thy hand. Why should we doubt or fear? Our father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear. This is our prayer tonight. Him number three hundred forty eight.