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Votes was, uh, raise your hand. Look at this. I see some hands, okay. What, uh, Jim, uh, I see a hand there. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um, go ahead. What's that? Did they? Okay, you know, I don't even remember. But just to kind of go through it again, and uh, I don't know if this is exactly like we gave it, but the first coat was the son's coat, the one that the father gave him that, uh, was a special, unique coat that set him apart from all of his brothers.
And of course, that's the coat that they took off from him and, and put it in the, the blood of a goat and brought it home and deceived their father. And then the second one, the second robe was a servant's robe. When he went into Potiphar's house, now his clothes were changed and he's dressed as a servant, and we're reminded of the Lord Jesus in Philippians two who took upon him the form of a servant. And then the next one, uh, was the prisoner's robe. When he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife, now he was taken from prison into j- in to judgment, like the Lord Jesus was, uh, it says that about him in the book of Isaiah fifty three.
That Joseph was put in prison, and uh, there he served in the prison, and we had some of that last week. And then the prisoner's coat is exchanged for a prophet's coat. In verse fourteen. he is gonna appear before Pharaoh, and so he changes his clothes, and uh, then finally a prime minister's coat or robe in verse forty two. Well, we're not gonna focus on the, the son's coat or the servant's coat or even the prisoner's coat very much, other than just to say that, um, when we left off last time, Joseph was still a prisoner in the dungeon. And uh, as a prisoner, he had been falsely accused, as we remember, just as the Lord had many false accusations brought against him.
And yet in all of this, Joseph was faithful, and Bob brought that out last week. Uh, I wasn't here to hear it, but uh, Joseph did his work well. He focused on the task at hand. We think of the Lord Jesus who said, uh, my meat or uh, my uh, uh, food is to do the will of him that sent me and to finish the work which he gave me to do. So he was falsely accused, he was faithful, and, uh, yet in all this faithfulness, he wasn't focused on himself, as as was brought out to one of the turning points, the beginning of the turning point in Joseph's, uh, downward spiral, as man would look at it, his what man would call hard luck, but what we know was divine providence and God working in his life in preparation for the next step.
Um, the turning point came when he looked over at the chief, uh, butler or the cup bearer, and he looked at the, uh, baker, and he said, uh, how come you guys look so sad? Now, if it had been me, they probably would have been looking over and saying, how come you're so bummed out? I mean, Joseph had been falsely accused. He'd been put in prison for no reason, sold by his brothers. If anybody had something to be upset about, it was Joseph. And yet, as it says in the, the book of Philippians, chapter two, look not every man on his own things, but every man also on things of others. And this noticing of the sad countenance was the beginning of a turning point, because then they were able to share the dreams, and Joseph told those dreams, and that later was remembered.
So not only was Joseph falsely accused and faithful, but he also was forgotten. In verse twenty three, uh, we remember that the chief butler, however, did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. And that's kind of where we left off. Joseph had said, remember me when it's well with you, okay? When things are, are well and you're brought back into, restored to your job as I prophesied, remember me. And Joseph, uh, was still forgotten for two whole years. You can't count on people to remember things, and uh, there's a verse that says, cease from man whose breath is in his nostrils. I think twice in the book of Psalms it says, vain is the help of man.
In Psalms one in verse eight, it says that, uh, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. I remember a story of a dear brother in the Lord, a faithful servant of the Lord who was leaving his, his, uh, residence with someone else who was kind of tagging along with him, and they watched him stick the key in the door and turn the key in, and the guy said to him, uh, he says, don't you trust the Lord? And this old, uh, faithful brother answered back. He said, yeah, I trust the Lord. He said, it's man I don't trust. And, you know, it's as as far as we are concerned, as it says in one place, we are all as water, weak as water spilt upon the ground, which cannot be gathered up again.
So two years go by, and yet this was God's timing, because in thinking about this, and you may or may not agree, but I believe that if the butler had, this cup bearer had gone immediately to Pharaoh, and he had remembered it, that Pharaoh probably, probably wouldn't have meant too much to him at the time, because Pharaoh had no need right then for an interpreter of dreams. And so it would have been brushed aside and perhaps missed altogether. But God's time is always perfect. And so in verse forty one it says, when two full years had passed.
I have in my Bible the words, the word full underlined, Two full years. I always think of in Galatians where it says, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman. Uh, in the book of Romans, we read that when we were yet without strength, at just the right time, Christ died for us. And so God had a time in mind for the exaltation of Joseph, and it wasn't when the cup bearer was restored to his job. God still had things to do in Joseph's life, and finally now we're coming to that point in time where the prisoner's robe is going to be exchanged for a prophet's robe.
And so, uh, we see God's, uh, perfect timing, and, uh, we see Joseph is going to take on that role of a prophet. And, uh, in re- connection with the prophet, I want to just mention a few things. If you're a note taker here, you might write these things down. And the word, the letter R is prominent here. The first thing is what we're going to look at is God's remarkable intervention for Joseph. And we'll start with that in verse one. And then the remembrance of Joseph, verse nine. All of a sudden, the cup bearer is going to remember something that happened two years ago. And then there's the resurrection of Joseph in verse fourteen, It's a picture of Jesus being raised from the dead.
And then the reliance of Joseph, as he doesn't trust in himself to interpret the dream, but he relies on the power of the Spirit of God. And then the revelation given to Joseph from God in interpretation of the dream. And finally, the ready counsel of Joseph in verse thirty three. And so we'll, uh, we'll r- repeat those as we go along here, but that's kind of how we want to break this down. So in verse one, when two full years had passed, uh, Pharaoh had a dream. When, uh, uh, went out, uh, he w- he was standing by the Nile, went out of the river there came seven cows, sleek and, uh, sleek and fat.
In the book of Job, we read that God speaks once, Job thirty three says, yea, twice in a dream, in a vision of the night. We need to remember that at this particular time, they didn't have the Bible. And God would use dreams to speak to people, just as he had already used dreams to speak to Joseph earlier. Joseph's life is associated with dreams over and over again, and the interesting thing is, is that Joseph's dreams, or the people who came to him with dreams, always seem to come in pairs. If you remember, first of all, there was the sheaves that stood up in the field and bow- and bowed down to Joseph's sheep, and then all of a sudden there's another part of that dream where the sun and the moon and the stars bowed down.
And with the butler and the baker, it was the same way. And now with Pharaoh, there's going to be the dreams about the cows and the dreams about the, uh, the, uh, grain, uh, stalks that grow up with the seven uh, stalks on each, uh, head of grain. Well, they come in pairs, and God used dreams. And, uh, so what happens here is just the right time, Two full years later, Pharaoh falls asleep, and like many people, he probably had dreams all the time. And he's just dreaming away, and all of a sudden this dream stood out, probably was far more vivid than any other dream that he had ever had.
And, you know, it started off as in this dream of seven cows standing by the river Nile, coming up in the, in the marsh there by the side of the river. And to an Egyptian, cows were something that they actually worshipped. It was a symbol of the fertility god. And, uh, he looks at these healthy cows that were, you know, something that, as we would put an, an American eagle on the back of a coin, the Egyptians would look at a cow as something very, very important, even far more important than we would the American eagle, which Theodore Roosevelt said was just a dandified vulture, and he didn't think we should use that for our national symbol. He said we should use a grizzly bear.
He thought that was better. But they looked at those cows and they said, yeah, uh, here's these seven fat cows, and and somehow in Pharaoh's dream, he's probably thinking of the fatness of Egypt and how well everything is going. And then all of a sudden, the dream changes to a nightmare, so to speak, and that is, now you have seven skinny, ugly, wasted cows, emaciated cows, coming up out of the river, and these seven emaciated cows that when you first read the dream, you don't get it. But if you read Pharaoh's retelling the dream to Joseph, he adds a couple of details.
One of those details is he says they were the ugliest emaciated cows that he ever saw. So he doesn't say that in the first part when you read about the dream, but Pharaoh says later to Joseph, these were the worst cows I ever saw. And he says, in fact, when these lean, ugly cows ate up the fat cows, they weren't any fa- less emaciated than they were before they started. And the word where it talks about, and it says that, uh, the cows ate up the sleek fat cows is a word in the Hebrew word that means to chew. Okay? So obviously this is not something that could happen in real life. You don't have cannibalistic cows or carnivorous cows walking up and chewing on one another.
But in the dream, that's the way it appeared to Pharaoh. He sees these cannibalistic cows biting and chewing into the cows that were fat, and they eat them all up, and they're no less fat. And then he sees these ears of grain, and they are not chewed, but the word in the Hebrew is the word for swallow in the original. So they're just swallowed up. I've never seen heads of grain swallow other heads of grain. But when you dream, you dream strange things. You know, I don't know, maybe, maybe you don't eat too much ice cream before you go to bed. But if you do, sometimes you'll have those kind of dreams, and you think, where in the world did that come from?
But they just swallowed it up. It was, again, another nightmare. It was a terrifying thing. I remember when my wife and I were newly married, and we just had just two kids, Joe and Ben, and we were living in a log home, and we had this one bathtub in the house. And this one bathtub, it just, it didn't have, there was something wrong with the drain, and it didn't have the screen in it. So we just put a plug in that drain temporarily and just pulled the plug out whenever we needed it. And when Joe was about two or so, he was taking a bath, maybe real close to two, I guess, and at the end of the bath time, we pulled the plug out, and he's standing in the water, little naked kid, you know, and all of a sudden, you know, he had his favorite little washcloth in there, and he'd been playing with that, and the washcloth just went down with the water, and all of a sudden it went and just sucked down the drain.
And he looked at that, and he was terrified. In fact, the next time we tried to put him in the bathtub, when he was like, he looked at his mother and he says, with just a terrified look on his face, the Duane, the Duane. He thought he was going to suck down through there, just like the washcloth, because you just don't, when you're a little kid, you don't have perspective of those kind of things. You can imagine the terror of, of, uh, Pharaoh when he just, you know, this nightmare of this crane just, you know, he looks at all this fatness and goodness and everything seems fine, and then all of a sudden it's interrupted. In fact, he woke up between the two dreams, if you realize that. And so he's extremely troubled. And so what does he do?
We find out that, uh, that, uh, Pharaoh's wise men are called in to try to interpret the dream. But as it says in First Corinthians one twenty seven, God has chosen the foolish things of this world to confound the wise and the weak things to confound the mighty. And so all the king's horses and all the king's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty back together again, no, couldn't interpret the dream for him, okay? They couldn't tell Pharaoh what it meant. I, I kind of think that when they finally heard the interpretation, they probably went like, why didn't we think of that?
Because it seems quite simple once you see it, but these guys puzzled over it. Once again, we see the vainness of the help of man or turning to the wisdom of this world to figure out the answers of life, because it's not in man, it says in Proverbs, to direct his step. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. And so all of these wise men of Egypt, which is a picture of the world, couldn't give an answer to satisfy Pharaoh's troubled heart and mind as he thought about what he had seen in this vision.
And so, uh, the first, the next thing we see in this is the, uh, the remembrance of Joseph. The remembrance of Joseph. In verse nine, it says, then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, today I am reminded of my shortcomings. The King James says, I do this day remember my faults. Okay? There was a guy back there in the prison who had said, remember me when it's well with you. I don't want to digress too much, but just to say this, that we just had a remembrance of the one who Joseph is a picture of, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the l- last words, really, to his disciples before going to the cross, in a sense of a, of be- or I should say before leaving that upper room, because he did tell them out in the Garden of Gethsemane to watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. But before leaving that upper room was, you know, remember me. This do in remembrance of me. I hope that when we remember the Lord, it doesn't become like a ritual or a dead thing to you. Some people here that have in the past attended a Calvary fellowship would recognize the, the name of, uh, one of the servants of the Lord who ministers among those people named John Corson.
And John Corson, who is now down in Costa Mesa, California, used to minister at a church in the Medford area called Applegate Fellowship. And John Corson was sharing about the early days of Applegate, when God was saving people and lives were being changed. And he said, you know, we had communion every day. He said, in fact, there were weeks because it would be celebrated in the evening somewhere, in the morning somewhere, and in the middle of the day somewhere. He said, there were some weeks where we celebrated communion fifteen times in one week. Well, I'm not saying we need to do that necessarily here, but I'm saying let's not lose the freshness of what it means to stop and just remember what Jesus did for us.
Let's not forget his request before going to the cross. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's not minimize that, but let's remember him and what he went through for us. And because our, I think the reason the Lord instituted that is because we are so forgetful, and we tend to just go on and forget what he did for us. And so there's a fresh calling back to remember him. Well, the cupbearer remembers his shortcomings, and you know, it's better late than never. Maybe you said, oh, I want to serve God, I want to do this, and the Lord put something on your heart, or somebody, you told somebody you were going to do something, and then you forgot all about it.
Well, if you remember it, it's never too late to go back and do what you promised that you were going to do, or what God convicted you about doing. And so there's this, uh, uh, remembrance of Joseph. This was God's appointed day for Joseph. He didn't know it. Joseph is still down there in the dungeon. He's still down there in his prison clothes, and he doesn't know what happened in the palace of the dream that Pharaoh had had that night. And he doesn't know about this conversation with his cupbearer that he thinks has forgotten him. All this is going on without him realizing that this is the day.
This is the day when the promises and prophecies made about him thirteen years earlier, when he was back at his father's house, when he had dreamed of the sheaves bowing down to his sheaf, and all of those things were going to be fulfilled. It didn't look like they were going to be fulfilled. Anybody looking on in that prison at Joseph wouldn't have thought anything was going to change or be different. The fellow prisoners would not have guessed it. But God was moving behind the scenes, and he's moving all the scenes that he's behind. And we may think God is not working, you know, where are you, Lord?
It doesn't seem like things are getting any better. And I would just share a little secret with you. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better. Because we have to let patience, as the Bible says, have its perfect work. Well, now patience had had its work. God had done in Joseph what needed to be done in preparation for the next step. Someone said about Moses, he spent uh forty years in Egypt learning to be somebody, and then he spent forty years in the wilderness learning to be nobody, and then he spent forty years seeing what God could do with a nobody. And every single one of us are in one of those categories, either learning or thinking we're somebody, or learning to be nobody, or we're in a situation where we're seeing what God could do with a nobody.
Joseph had spent his thirteen years now learning to be nobody, and he is about to see what God is going to do with a guy from the dungeon, a slave, falsely accused, condemned, and in a prison, resurrected out of that prison, and, uh, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it says in, in the book of Acts that it was not possible that death could hold him. I think of the words of that hymn that says, um, death could not keep its prey. Jesus, my savior, he tore the bars away.
Jesus, my Lord. And just as death couldn't keep Jesus in that grave, Joseph, who was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, is going to be brought out of the dungeon, no longer to be a man of sorrows, no longer to be acquainted with grief, but to be exalted to the highest place in Egypt as the hymn says, Man of sorrows, what a name for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim, hallelujah, what a savior. Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood, sealed my pardon with his blood, hallelujah, what a savior.
Lifted up was he to die. It is finished, was his cry. Now in heaven, exalted high. Hallelujah. What a savior. That's what this is, a feeble little picture of the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, one who God is highly exalted and given a name which is above every name. The resurrection of Joseph, we see it's a picture of Christ, and it happened quickly. Verse fourteen, Pharaoh sent to Jo- for Joseph, and he was quickly brought from the dungeon. One minute, he thinks he's forgotten. The next minute, he's the prison doors open.
Pharaoh wants to see you, and there's a, he shaves because it wasn't right for a, a person to stand before these Egyptians unshaven. The Egyptians shaved their faces, the Hebrews did not. There's a shaving, and then there's a changing of clothes. Now the prison clothes are put aside for the prophet's clothes, and uh, we find that now he is going to stand before Pharaoh. And so verse fifteen, it says, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream. Sounds like Martin Luther King, doesn't it? Martin Luther King said, I have a dream. Right? But here, I had a, he says, I had a dream, and uh, no one could interpret it.
Isn't that amazing? Again, all the king's horses and all the king's men. But he says, uh, and uh, I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Now, Joseph could have said, all right, Mr. Pharaoh, I'll bargain with you. I'll tell you the dream if you let me out of prison. He didn't say that. There's no bargaining, there's no manipulation here. I don't think anywhere through this is any manipulation or any attempt, as we're going to see, to connive his way out of the dungeon. This is totally and completely the hand of God and the work of God in Joseph's life for him to say just the right things at just the right time with just the right attitude.
If any of those things were missing, it may not have been as it turned out. But here he's standing there, and what is Joseph? We see not only the remembrance of Joseph and the resurrection of Joseph, but now the reliance of Joseph upon God. In verse sixteen, he says, I can't do it. I cannot do it. In my own strength as a believer, I can't do it. But with God, all things are possible. As Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. Joseph takes the focus off himself and puts it on God.
What an amazing example for each and every one of us. This past week, I got some emails from my son Nathan, who's down there in, uh, Mexico, and, uh, it was good to hear Jo- Jeff praying for different missionaries from this fellowship who are out somewhere. And in these, these, these photos, there's a picture of him. Some of you maybe got this, and he's, he's sitting in a chair on the side of a mountain, and you see the people lined up on these benches, just these crude, rough benches outdoors. There's a tarp over their heads, a blue tarp, you know, like you sometimes see here on the Key Peninsula.
Okay? If you fly over it in an airplane, you'll see a lot of them, you know? Right? And Nathan is sitting down in a chair, the word of God is open, and he's teaching the Bible to these people. And, you know, as a dad, that thrills your heart, that he is lifting up the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, we live in a day where a lot of ministry and teaching is man-centered. But how good, and I just want to challenge young people here that God may be calling to be serving the Lord someday in a, in the mission field or in teaching a Sunday school class or working with youth or young people, or someday pastoring in a ch- church fellowship where you're teaching the word of God.
Exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't have to run around telling people how great you are and what you're doing, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that, and look at me. No, God resists the proud, and he, uh, gives grace to the humble. And Joseph just simply exalts Christ. And what an example for us, his reliance on God. And the next thing we see is in verse twenty five. I'm gonna jump down here a little bit for the sake of time, and also, as we've said, we don't want to add or detract to what has been written here. We're not going to spend a lot of time on the ugly cows. Um, but we find, uh, the revelation given to Joseph, the remembrance of Joseph, the resurrection of Joseph, the reliance of Joseph upon God, the revelation given to Joseph.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. Verse twenty five, then Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one and the same. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. And he talks about the famine and the years of plenty that Rob read to us about, the abundance that's going to be in the land, and, um, how that God's going to do this, and he's going to do it soon. And he just interprets this thing. If we were to turn over to First Corinthians chapter two, and and you don't need to turn there, but I'm going to read this. It says in verse fourteen, the man without the spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit, for they are foolishness to him.
He cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Verse sixteen says, but who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? And then he finishes, but we have the mind of Christ. The Egyptian rulers with their natural minds, the Egyptian wise men, couldn't help Pharaoh. But Joseph, who had the wisdom of God, could, because the natural man does not understand the things of God, neither can he know them, the Bible says. In fact, they're even foolishness to him because they're spiritually discerned. But Joseph, who was walking in the spirit and relying upon God, got a message from God because the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and God can give us just the right words to say at just the right time.
Because here Joseph is a little type or picture of the one that Colossians says, are in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Joseph had connections with God, and so do you and I. We have connections with God. We don't necessarily have to wait and, and figure out dreams for people, but we can pick up the word of God and read it and be equipped, and then God can give us just the right word to give at just the right time. But Joseph didn't stop there when he interprets the dream. He just goes right on.
Unsolicited advice. It's what we, the sixth thing here is it's a ready, the ready counsel of Joseph. We have the revelation given to Joseph, and now the ready counsel of Joseph. Isaiah nine six, he shall be called wonderful counselor, the mighty God. Unsolicited, he tells Pharaoh what he should do. Now, don't think for a moment here that Joseph is trying to manipulate Pharaoh and say, underneath, if I just say all the right words, I'm going to get myself a job and get out of the dungeon. I believe Joseph is just giving the mind of the Lord.
He is just right here serving God in the capacity and in the place and in the realm that God had given him at this particular moment to serve him. And not only does he interpret the dream, but he gives godly, spiritual, biblical advice for Pharaoh, never dreaming. I better rephrase that because he did dream about it way back when. Never thinking at that moment that he was going to be the one. All he knew is he would interpret that dream and go straight back to the dungeon. He do- he wasn't expecting a reward here.
And just like that, in a moment of time, Joseph went from the dungeon to being prime minister of Egypt that quick. Because, as it says in the book of Proverbs, the king's heart is in the hand of the Lord as the rivers of water, and he turns it whatever way he will. And as Joseph gives this counsel, they're looking at each other, the m- the leaders in Egypt and Pharaoh's advisors and counselors, and uh, Joseph had just said, you know, find a wise man who you can trust and put him over all the land and, and have him store up not ten percent, but it's a double tithe, twenty percent of everything during these years of plenty, because there's so much coming in that you only need to set aside twenty percent of it, and it's going to feed them through those next seven years.
That's how abundant this provision was that came from God. And so, all of a sudden, uh, they're looking at Joseph, and he's telling them what they need to do, and basically it's kind of like Nathan the prophet. You're the man! You're the man! Can we find a person like this who has within them the very spirit of God? I don't think the Egyptians knew very much about God, but they recognized that there was a power and that Joseph knew, and there was a demeanor that he had, and there was a wisdom in what he said that didn't come from himself, because here was a man who had been faithful, walking with God through those thirteen years, learning the lessons that God wanted him to learn, and patience now has completed its perfect work, and now out of that dungeon is brought Joseph to become the prime minister of Egypt.
And we, we'll look at that here. It says, uh, we'll look at the exaltation of the prime minister. In verse thirty seven. The plan seems so good to Pharaoh and to all his officials. So Pharaoh asked them, can we find anyone like this man, one of whom is the spirit of God? And Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you. So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.
Then Pharaoh took the signet ring from his finger. Speaks of authority because it was used to, to, uh, signify the king's seal on documents and decisions that had been made. He put on Joseph, put it on Joseph's finger and dressed his robes. There's the change of clothes, now the robes of a prime minister, and put the gold chain around his neck. You can read about that in Revelation one about Jesus having around him a, a gold, gold, uh, golden girdle around his chest. And then you find out that, uh, he's put him in his chariot. Now, I don't know whether that chariot was a Ford or a Chevy. I don't think they had those back then, but I think that it was probably, for you guys that like cars, it was the hottest thing in Egypt.
It was something that set Joseph apart, and if you look at the King James, and if you look at the New American Standard, or if you look at the footnotes of your Bible, forget this make way stuff. It's bow the knee. It's bow the knee. Okay? And, uh, so there's the cry before him, bow the knee. There's a country music song by a guy named Toby Keith, and Toby Keith writes a song about, uh, don't ask me how I know this, okay? But he, he writes a song about, uh, some girlfriend that he knew back in high school or somewhere that dumped him, and now he's this multi-millionaire country music rock, uh, singer, you know, and big star.
And the song is called How Do You Like Me Now? Now that I'm on my way, you know, you, you know, you could have had me and you dumped me. Well, I don't think Joseph had a proud attitude, but I couldn't help but think of that song when I read this, and I thought about Potiphar's wife. You know, I can picture Joseph going down the roads in Egypt in his chariot, and people ahead of him are saying, Balvani! And there's Mrs. Potiphar standing there by the side of the road, and Joseph just kind of looking out of the corner of his eye as he goes by. And I wonder what he thought, and I wonder what she thought.
But here's one who was once despised and rejected. One who this world looks at with disdain as a lowly servant. One day they're going to see him in all power, because all power has been given unto him in heaven and in earth. And every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Highly exalted, given a bride. Find that a little bit farther here that, that, uh, there's a Gentile bride that, uh, named Asenath in verse forty five that's given to Joseph. And here he is now exalted.
Not something that he did on his own. Somebody was talking to Grady Wilson, who was one of Billy Graham's associates, and who knew Gr- Billy Graham very well and grew up with him. And they said something about, it's amazing how God has used Billy Graham to preach to thousands of people all over the world. And Brady Wilson says, well, when I think about Billy Graham, he says, I think about, it's kind of like a turtle on a fence post. And the person listening to that looked a little puzzled. And Grady Wilson said, well, if you were walking along, these are country boys, of course, you know, from South Carolina, if you were walking along and you saw a fence post and there was a turtle on there, you'd know one thing.
What's that? He didn't get there by himself. Turtle can't climb a fence post and get up there. Someone put him there, and that's where Joseph was put, not by Pharaoh. Later on, he's going to say, God sent me here to save you alive. God sent me. This is God's purposes, highly exalted. And he's given a new name in verse forty five. Now, Josephus writes about this name, and he says the name means revealer of secrets. And others who have studied the Egyptian language say it's a s- a name that means, in Egyptian, savior of the world. God has taken Jesus and exalted him as a prince and a savior, Peter says in the book of Acts.
And in verse forty six, we find he was thirty years old when this happened. When did Jesus start his earthly ministry? At age thirty. It's a lot of interesting parallels here. Verse forty one, we find the, the power. Not only we do we have the exaltation of the Prime Minister, but we have the power of the Prime Minister. All power is given unto me. He says in verse forty one that no one, uh, could even... That's not the verse I'm looking for, but he says, uh, no one can even move, will lift verse forty four— will lift a f- hand or a foot in all Egypt without your word, Joseph.
You don't even make a move unless Joseph gives you permission. And the Bible tells us that God holds in our hand our very breath. He gives life and breath to every living thing. And finally, we see the blessings of the prime minister. Verse forty nine, there's huge quantities stored up. If you read the King James, it says without number, couldn't number them. Too many to count. New American Standard says beyond measure. That's the way the blessings of God are. Too numerous for us to even count them up.
And Joseph is the one dispensing of all this. He is dispensing of these blessings. Are you enjoying the blessings of God? My wife and I met somebody on an airplane this past week. Her name is, uh, Tanya. She lives in Tacoma, and she just talking about the love of God and the grace of God, and and just, it just bubbled out of her. She said, you know, I went through a divorce, I went through some difficult times because of choices of my own. I got saved when I was twelve years old at a camp. I got saved because I didn't want to go to hell. I can remember that. She grew up in a Baptist church, okay? She heard hellfire and brimstone preaching, but she says, now I'm learning about the love of God and the grace of God, and I am enjoying.
God is so good. She says, he is so good, and you know, I'm just praying for the blessing of God in my life in the area of a husband, because ev- after all I've been through, I didn't even want to get married again. But God's put it on my heart, and now I want to get married because I want to be a wife to to a man and a spiritual helpmate and to love him in a way that a godly woman should. And you know, God is so good, and I'm just enjoying the blessings of God. And it just came out of her. She is a stewardess. She's supposed to be waiting on people. I told Karen if I'd have stood back there the whole time, she'd have never served anybody. You know, I said, well, what about all these other people? Oh, my friends will take care of them.
They're Christians too, she says. They understand. And she's just enjoying the goodness of God. Well, we find the sons of Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. Manesseh means forgetting. Forgetting. God has made me forget all my troubles. And because of that, the next one is named, uh, Ephraim, which means twice fruitful. I don't want to carry this too far, but I think about this. Some people never forget the troubles of the past. Somebody said something to them. They went to a church and there was this problem, and it just, they're carrying that baggage with them everywhere they go.
Joseph wasn't that kind of a guy. He didn't run around bemoaning what happened at the father's house or what happened to Potiphar's wife and being falsely accused or all the time he had to spend in prison that was unjust. That would have held him back. God had allowed him to forget those things that he had suffered. Doesn't mean that if he really thought about them, he couldn't remember them, but they became minute in his thinking because he was so much enjoying the blessings of God and the fruitfulness of God. And so the next one is named twice fruitful. And I just want to say this, that I believe that we as Christians sometimes need to learn how to forget.
If we're really going to be fruitful, there's things that we have to forget what is behind and press on in serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, people take prosperity for granted, and they don't wait- lay up for the future, and so Joseph has to do that for them here, and people look to the government. We saw that with a hurricane that happened in New Orleans, you know, everybody wants to blame the government for what happens, and the government should bail everyone out. But Joseph is a little bit different. He doesn't enable laziness. In fact, he is going to charge. We don't find the principle in the Bible.
We governments are there to execute judgments and bring in, you know, bring criminals to justice and fight wars. But when it comes to helping people who don't work, it's never a biblical principle that the government would take care of that. If somebody is in need, the church should step in and help somebody who has a financial need. But Joseph didn't just give to all these people everything there. He sold it to them. He made them pay money for it. But in contrast to that, you know, in in fact, when they came to Pharaoh, which people do, they run to the government for help. You know what Pharaoh said? Go to Joseph. And Joseph was the one who dispensed the bread of Egypt.
And Jesus is the bread of life. He said, I am the bread of life. He that eateth of me shall never hunger. And Joseph was the dispenser of the blessing and the bread of Egypt. Well, the difference is that Joseph sold it. Because he was working as a government situation. He's not giving everybody just free, free ride here. And so all types and pictures fall short. Because I want to tell you what, Jesus said, whosoever will, let him come and take of the water of life freely. Isaiah ah fifty five says, why do you spend your money for that which is not bread and that which satisfies not?
Look unto me, incline your ear and come unto me, hear and your soul shall live. Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. And the only satisfaction and sustenance for your soul that is going to last comes through the salvation that is provided by Jesus, the bread of life, and he offers that salvation free of charge. Doesn't cost anything. God is too rich to sell salvation, and you and I are too poor to buy it. Well, we, just to conclude, just mention four things.
May the Lord help me in this, and you as well, to wait God's time. Even when it, things don't seem to be happening, to trust the Lord. An old hymn says, through waves, through clouds, through storms, God gently clears the way. We wait his time, soon shall the night, uh, soon shall the night end in blissful day. We need to be ready to give an answer when the time comes. We need to exalt Christ and not ourselves. And we need to store up the blessings of God, not to hoard them for ourselves, but so that when people come with a need, we can freely give them to others.
Freely ha- we have received. Freely we should give. Are you giving of what God has given you, whether it's your finances, whether it's the scriptures that you're learning? And just want to encourage you as young men here, learn the word of God, so that when God sends you out, as he does some of these people we prayed for this morning, that you'll have something to give them, that you'll have a storehouse of blessing to give to others who are in need. Let's pray. Lord, bless your word today. We, we just give it to you, Lord, to use. Thank you for this story of Joseph, so rich and so full.
Take what's been shared here today, Lord, and use it for the blessing of speaker and each one of the hearers as well. Lord Jesus, in your name we pray. Amen.