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On those stories as we study them together, unashamed to confess our ignorance where we are ignorant, and generously sharing what we have to share. In a minute, for instance, Dr. Chapman is going to come up and correct some of our notions from last week, which will be very useful too. Just let me remind you of what we have been thinking about so far. And we noticed thus far in our studies, uh, then just to sum them up, that the end chapters of the book of Genesis, while they contain a lot about Joseph, are strictly speaking not primarily about Joseph, but about Jacob.
And that we saw from the headings which we find in scripture to the four major sections in this part of Genesis. Jacob dwelt in the land. Jacob saw there was corn in Egypt. Jacob took his journey and went down to Egypt, and finally Jacob lived in Egypt. And we saw last week that it is the story of Jacob then, who very frequently in this section of the book is called Israel, father of the twelve sons that became the heads of the tribes of the nation of Israel. So that in this part of Genesis, then, we are considering the beginnings of the nation of Israel.
No longer an individual patriarch with one or two sons, but the patriarch Jacob, who has twelve sons, who form the beginning, the embryo of the nation. And the nation that is to play such a tremendously significant part in world history down to this very day, and of course to play such a tremendously significant part in the redemption of mankind. The purposes of God then to be fulfilled not just in individuals like Abraham and Isaac, but the purposes of God to be filled in that unique nation that is Israel.
So we notice then that it's going to be about Jacob and about how he lost his sons, a whole quarter of his sons were lost to him at one stage, and how in his sorrow he was nearly brought down to the grave, but eventually was revived. We mentioned last week what a poignant prototype that is of what has happened to Israel in the course of the years. There have come times when Israel or Rachel has mourned for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are not. The enormous persecutions that have come upon that nation and sometimes threatened to annihilate it, and yet it has survived.
And here, in the very earliest stage of the formation of the nation, you already get that, uh, poignant element of suffering, Jacob mourning for his children, thinking them to be destroyed, and then finding the goodness of God, how that the nation is preserved and brought to position of great influence and honor among the Gentile nations. And we saw last week also that having lived here in Egypt for a while, then eventually Jacob dies and is brought back to Palestine, and brought back not merely by his son Joseph, but by coordinated effort of the Gentiles as well as Joseph and his sons, so much so that when the local Canaanites saw the burial party arriving and heard all the ceremonies and heard all the weeping, they thought it was a, a, a mourning of the Egyptians.
For at the command of Pharaoh, that was the Egyptians bringing the Israelites back to their land. And it caused us to think last week of the great prophecies in Isaiah, notably the one in Isaiah forty nine, where Israel, first of all, weeps and mourns for the children that she has lost in the course of the great persecutions, and shall yet lose in the time of the great tribulation that shall be Jacob's trouble. And yet how, in the end, God will bless that nation so that Israel, uh, Israel shall say what Jacob said of Joseph's children. I hadn't thought to see your face, and God has showed me these children.
Who are these children? Where do they come from? So in the future day, Israel, astounded at the blessing of God and the multitude of her posterity, shall say, these children, whence are they? Where do they come from? And the kings of the earth shall bring your children back to Palestine, says the prophet in Isaiah fifty nine. So then we are to notice, uh, we noticed again last week that in the course of this great story of Israel, that is Jacob, and the beginning of the nation, not only does Joseph feature prominently, as is natural, but also Judah features exceedingly prominently, if not so prominently as Joseph, yet features in significant situations.
And here in each major part, one B here, here is Judah, the story of how he went down to the Canaanites and married Tamar, and from that union sprang Perez, ancestor of Jesus Christ our Lord. That, uh, chapter then exceedingly important. This is the beginning of the line of our blessed Lord himself, and all who love our Lord must take this story very seriously and ponder what the Holy Spirit is saying about it, the origins of the line physically of the Messiah. And then here, at this critical point in the story, two B, uh at the climax of the second expedition, as the sons of Jacob came down to find corn in Egypt and got themselves into that impossible pass where the cup had been found in Benjamin's sack, and Judah was moved to offer himself as substitute for Benjamin, so that Benjamin could go back to his father.
Judah then, prominent in that story there. And then on this occasion, exceedingly significant, when Israel, as the responsible leader of the nation to be, takes his great decision to remove the whole family, seventy souls almost, that little incipient nation took the, the fateful decision to take the whole thing down to Egypt, and was encouraged to do so by God. We noticed that it was Judah that was sent before to pioneer the way and to lead Joseph, uh, uh, Israel and his sons to Joseph and thence to Pharaoh, so as to get them settled in the appropriate part of Egypt.
And why that was important, we shall have to consider perhaps next week. And then finally, of course, when we come to this section four, to that central point that is the blessing of Israel, of Jacob upon the tribes, whereas all twelve get a mention, some of them only get a brief verse or a sentence or two, uh, the two sons that are mentioned at great length are first of all, of course, Judah, and then Joseph. And we saw why that was, of course. We reminded ourselves last week that in the course of the centuries, when the nation came out of Egypt and got settled in the land, particularly in the times of the kings, the nation divided into two parts.
There was Judah, that in those days comprised Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes, and there was Ephraim, named after Joseph's son Ephraim, that constituted the ten tribes, sometimes referred to as Israel and Judah, sometimes referred to as Ephraim and Judah. And why the, in the blessing here, and also in the blessing of Joseph's sons, you'll see here in this section, Jase- Jo- Jacob blesses Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, why such a fuss is made about it is because in the development of the nation in the centuries that were to come, this was constitutionally an exceedingly important thing.
The two major parts of the nation, Ephraim on the one hand and Judah on the other. Ephraim eventually being taken into captivity to the Assyrians, Judah and Benjamin succumbing to the Babylonians. So that begins then to get this part of scripture into our minds. And it's always, of course, one of the first necessities of, of understanding scripture. Uh, uh, the first necessity is to get the facts into our mind, for the Holy Spirit can't show us much until we have got the facts into our heads. But then, of course, when we've got the facts into our heads, how to understand them.
So just let me point out one more thing, and that is that of these four major parts to these chapters in Genesis, uh, there are, uh, again two two major sides. This section one and section two tell us two sides of a story. They tell us how the family was divided and torn apart and brought into great sorrow, that it nearly never did become a nation at all.
The fact that it ever came to be a nation and didn't fly into twelve separate pieces is in itself a remarkable thing. If you go back a generation, or indeed two generations, and remember what happened, Abraham had two sons, but they never formed one nation. Ishmael went off and formed his own nation and left Isaac to form his. Or you take Isaac's children. Isaac had two children, one was Esau and one was Jacob, and Esau and Jacob didn't form one nation. Esau went off and formed his own nation. How did it come about that Jacob's twelve sons managed to keep together and form one nation?
Well, let me tell you what nearly didn't happen. Because they fell out right from the start, and they sold Joseph down to Egypt, and that could have been the last of him, couldn't it? And then Judah, he went off among the Canaanites, and that could have been the last of him. And Israel could have indeed have been brought down to his grave in sorrow, seeing his twelve sons split in all directions and gone to the four quarters of the earth. How did that nation, how did those twelve boys come eventually to keep together and be brought back together so that they could begin to form the nation of Israel?
And of course, what is happening here is that in section one here, they've sold Joseph, Judah has gone off, Joseph is down in Egypt, and Joseph comes to his personal success in Egypt, and had that been the last of the story, there would have been no nation of Israel. For the next thing is that at this point, the famine came, and hadn't it been for Joseph, the whole nation would have been blotted out. There never would have been a nation. So what the story of Joseph is telling us is, uh, not merely how good a chap Joseph was, but how God preserved that in- incipient nation in those most difficult days.
It is a miracle, isn't it? How has Israel survived as a nation and maintained its nan- its national characteristics? I have a friend, I've told you about him before in this city, his name is Otto Goldberger, and incidentally, if you will, pray for him still. He's a very elderly man, brought up as a Jew in Austria in virtual agnosticism, now very elderly, has suffered a stroke through the troubles here in Northern Ireland. Doesn't really know what to believe. Some days he thinks there's a God, some days he thinks there isn't. And then he says to me, and you know when I think there isn't a God, then I see a man walking down the road and I say, that's a Jew.
And he says, isn't it a marvelous thing? How have we maintained our identity all these centuries? Yes, how? It's a very interesting thing at the very beginning, how they were maintained. From extinction. It has been a remarkable thing all down the centuries, how God has providentially maintained that nation, in spite of all the rage of the enemy and the opposition and the pogroms and the persecutions. God has maintained them right to this present, and he will yet maintain them. In the face of Russia and goodness knows who else, and finally the man of sin.
Because that nation was and remains God's chosen people, carrying a special role within history, as witness to the fact that there is a unique God of heaven, and that you will not ultimately account for human history apart from that God and what he has done through Israel. And then, of course, this second bit here, uh, brings it to the second climax, not merely Joseph's own personal, uh, success, but the tremendous story of the reconciliation of the different elements in those, in that family, Judah and Joseph and Benjamin and the father and the sons, and the high point here where Jacob finally realizes that he has been earlier deceived.
Joseph, his son, is yet alive, and there is a future for him and for the nation, and determines to go and see him. So a great climax here. How did that come about is one of the questions we shall have to ask. This second bit, three and four, are another big story. Now the family has been reunited and welded together, and they're going to last, but all they are is a rather big family of seventy people, and I know certain folks in this hall that have families well getting up to that, uh, amount now, what with grandchildren and goodness knows what else. And, uh, that's what they were, uh, nearly seventy souls.
How would they ever become a nation from just being a large extended family? The very interesting thing is that when God, uh, determined to turn them into a nation, he took them out of Palestine. Whatever did he do that for? Ha. They were turned into a nation in those four hundred years that they lived in Egypt, weren't they? Pray, why did God do that? Mm. I give notice of that question, like the parliamentarians. I shan't ask you to answer it this week unless you want to, uh, you'll see.
Uh-huh, uh, but next week you might be asked if you don't volunteer, so beware. So there we are, two, uh, major parts to this story. So tonight, let's look at this first division. And as I say, uh, we promised ourselves last week to look at Judah in particular. We've heard a lot about Joseph from ten thousand five hundred and sixty seven preachers. So now, in our limited time, we're going to look at Judah, you'll see. And we began last week by asking ourselves questions about this story B here, two B. When Judah went down to the Gentiles, was he good or was he bad?
And some of you told me last week it was bad, and some of you told me, well, it wasn't so bad as all that, you'll see, because this is the beginning of Messiah's ancestry. And then we noticed he married a Gentile girl, and some of you said, tut tut, that wasn't very good. And then other people said, but didn't Joseph go and do the same? And they made all sorts of excuses for him and said that was okay if Joseph did it, but not so much if Judah did it. Well, then others disagreed. So it was all very interesting, you'll see. And then there was that good woman, if she was a good woman, there was a woman Tamar anyway. And some of us noticed that, uh, well, she was ancestress of Messiah.
We better be careful how we speak of our blessed Lord's relatives. Hadn't we? And she gets honorable mention in the book of Ruth, again in connection with the genealogy of King David, and still more honorable mention in the genealogy in Matthew chapter one that records the ancestry of our blessed Lord and Savior. And so some of us felt, you know, a little kindly disposed towards Tamar, but we could see, of course, that she got up to some funny tricks. Now, in all that, thank you very much for your help last week, but you were in danger of leading me astray.
It wasn't what you said, it was the wrong notions that I was taking out of it. So this week, Dr. Chapman is going on your behalf to, uh, correct me a little bit and get me into better focus on this very thing. So let's start with the Judah story again, if you can bear it, and then perhaps we'll look at the other Judah story, uh, uh, and put the one along with the other. Dr. Chapman, please. It's such a pleasure to put Dr. Gooding into focus, friend. No small assignment, but, um, just, um, let me say that when you ask the question why of God, you can't be sure to get an answer.
God's thoughts are higher than our thoughts, as the heaven is higher than the earth. So we can ask the questions, but if we don't get the answer, the, um, reason for it in is in Isaiah fifty five: My thoughts are not your thoughts. Now, my job here is to try to answer one question only. What is that this chapter thirty eight about? We were put a bit of homework. Why is it written in the Holy Scriptures as to one question? Why is it put here in the Holy Scriptures? Second. And the third question is, what is the basic message in chapter thirty eight?
So I want to say, first of all, that we may not be able to get all the answers, and if we don't, we shouldn't be too discouraged because the verse says our thoughts are not God's thoughts. And I was only thinking quite recently. We tend to think logically, uh, we try to think logically. Um, that is equal to that, and that is equal to that, therefore that is equal to that. This is, this is logic, and this is the way we think. But not all the cultures of the world think like that, and certainly some of the reasoning in the, in the Old Testament doesn't seem to be going along logical lines.
So maybe we'll not get the answers right because we don't think the right way. The Jews seek after wisdom. They think logically, the Greek concept. But the Jews seek after a sign. Different method of thinking. So let's just keep that in our minds. What is this chapter about? Perhaps it's about, let's go over the people in the chapter. It's about Judah, it's about Hira's friend, it's about Bathshua, Shua's daughter, or the three sons Er, Onan, and Shelah, or about Tamar, or the men of the place, or Perez, or Zerah.
Now, these are the people. It's something to do with that. And I've written down a list of possible subjects, and very quickly I am going to say what I think is the main theme. I'm not going to dodge the issue anymore. The, um... Is it about the effect of Judah going down and his relationship with the Canaanites? Is the story about this man doing this as a picture of what the nation was doing all the time? The constant temptation was that the nation would go and live as a Canaanites did, worship their gods, and God judged them over and over and over again because they went down and did the thing. So maybe that's what it's about.
Maybe it's about the law of the husband's brother. Maybe this is a clear example to teach us the duty of a husband's brother to the husband's widow, and maybe that's what it's about. Well, we could think about that. Maybe it's a clear description of prevention of conception. Maybe this is to teach us the whole concept of birth control and contraception. Here's an example where this thing was practiced, and God judged the man very, very severely. So whatever he did, it's a very serious thing, and God judged him. Or maybe fourthly, it's to show us that while God can overrule the scheming men and women of their time, there is another attitude, and if the people in this chapter had been singing our first hymn, I am trusting thee, maybe they wouldn't have had to take the law into their own hands and work it all out.
So maybe that's what it is. Do what Joseph did, leave it with the Lord and get on with living faithfully for him and not scheming too much. Or maybe fifthly, it's about justice. The scepter shall not depart from Judah. Well, Judah is going to be a very changed man as far as judgment goes. Judgment means administration, and he's the head of the tribe. He's got to give rulings in certain situations. Now, think of this, and, uh, we've just been told that we mustn't speak ill of those who are ancestors of the Lord, and I would certainly agree with that, but we can say what the scriptures say about him. He heard that his daughter-in-law had sinned, and he said, she must be judged.
Bring her out and let her be burned. Now, that's his judgment. That judgment was over strict. She should have been stoned according to the Mosaic law, but anyway, she had to die. So this was his judgment as the head of the tribe. Then later on he said, she is more righteous than I am, meaning I have sinned more than she has. So the obvious logical thinking is, if she deserves to be burnt and I have sinned more than that, obviously I deserve something pretty terrible. But his attitude was, well, let's not bother about it. It's all right, I, you know, I'm not so... And the whole thing was brushed under the carpet because he was involved, and she should have been burned.
So, as far as judgment goes, this shows what judgment there can be when a man's acting in the flesh, and how God will have changed his attitude. The scepter shall not depart. Maybe it's about evidence, Joseph's coat and the wagons, and about the, the seal and the signature. Maybe it's about Perez, the messianic line, or maybe it's about sexual morality and all the things that we read about here, about the prostitution and whatnot. Now, um, my view is that, number one, it's about Perez, and it's put in here to let us see this.
All the other things are secondary, but as a very important second, I would put the going down to Cana, to Canaan. I'm not saying it right, but going down to that place, and I think that that's very important, and so these are the two things. First, Perez, secondly, going down to Cana. Hmm. Thank you very, very much, sir, indeed. Anyone else would like to comment on the chapter? Yeah? All of you who have done the homework this week. Any further contributions?
Simply to put it in the chain, the thing that caught my eye was what you mentioned the first night we were here about, uh, Esau. Uh, if we include that, uh, just the way it's on the board there, uh, kings that reigned before any that reigned over Israel. There you have, as you've pointed out already, the king, uh, and kingly line in this chapter. Uh, not, not, not maybe in the best light at that stage, but as the thing develops, uh, certainly in the section B, uh, you see the character coming out of the kind of king, uh, that God looked for, even, uh, looking forward to King David. Uh, he was a shepherd king, and, uh, taking on to the third stage, uh, he was the one who led the family down into the shepherd country, uh, Shep- Goshen area where they developed, as you said, into a nation.
Uh, he took them there, and as it comes out, you find that this blessing to do with the provision of wine and milk, uh, perhaps the king, the king and the shepherd again linked together, uh, leading on, uh, to the scepter of the, the mighty king that was to follow. Mm-hmm. Yes, so let's then take up the, that, that, that, that strain then, shall we, and see where that leads this evening. Uh, fasting now on Judah and looking forward and listening to what Jacob eventually will say, the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the lawgiver's staff from between his feet until Shiloh come. And remembering that here begins the ancestry of Messiah.
So yes, while this end part of Genesis has a lot to say about Joseph, it is now evident that he's going to talk to us also about Judah, and in the end, Judah will be more important than Joseph. Because it is of Judah that the king will come. It is not of Joseph that the king will come. It is of Judah that the king will come. So let's follow that line and ask ourselves now then, what is happening to Judah, and perhaps from what, uh, Dr. Chapman and Reggie have said, we are to look for progression in the character of Judah.
So let's take it as read, for instance, as Dr. Chapman has suggested, that yes, God did overrule the events of chapter thirty eight. and while we won't speak disrespectfully of our Lord's ancestors, yet here in this chapter there were a lot of careless things, doubtful things, Judah's double standards of morality and irresponsibility to the height. Yes, well, what is the story going to tell us, uh, about Judah and his development? And let me put that in one more context. We are used, are we not, to thinking of Joseph and his great character and the way he suffered.
What makes him such a delightful prototype of our Lord Jesus is the way Joseph suffered. Yes? What is it, by contrast, anywhere in this thing that makes Judah a prototype of the Lord Jesus? You say, well, not here, he's acting very irresponsibly. Right? Is it so that the story is going to show us Judah changing and being changed and being brought to the position where he can become a worthy, uh, vessel of the purpose of God, to be the one whose tribe shall carry eventually the scepter.
Now I'm going to advance the theory that here, in the development of the nation, there were a number of things that were, would have split the nation and did begin to split it. First of all, there were, was a, a, well, where shall I begin? Eh, am I right to think that the trouble began in chapter thirty seven with Jacob's favoritism? If my memory is right, I think some of you were for saying some months ago that Jacob showed a great deal of favoritism to Joseph, and Joseph was a bit of a spoiled boy and had developed into a kind of a prig, and that where parents favor one child, they may expect difficult behavior from the other children.
Are you all agreed on that? No, no, Mr. Hamilton isn't agreed on it. You don't think that's so? No, I think Joseph's character was so beautiful and stood out in stark contrast to the others, that, uh, he did the things his father wanted him to do, the others didn't. I see. Any other offerings? You got a view, sir? I think, I think, eh, you're right that, eh, at that stage Joseph was too young to compete with his brothers. Yeah. In doing, uh, one thing or the other, his father showed favoritism, definitely. Ah, and he shouldn't have done. He shouldn't have done. Ah.
Well, stick your toes in and hold that view. So that will allow me to argue on the other side just for a little minute, sir. What will any of you say to me if I say that in Israel, a father, of course he shouldn't have shown any favoritism, but he had a right to appoint the son that should carry the birthright. What will you say? It was a little bit early for picking up. Oh. And at that stage, the reasons that he rejected Reuben for hadn't been manifested, had they? Yes. They hadn't? Oh, had, yes. Well, at least, now I stand to correction, but the story has already been told us. The story is told us before we get here in about chapter thirty five or six uh, of Reuben's terrible and grave sin against his father.
It is not there said that he lost the birthright through it, but, uh, later scripture, one Chronicles five, tells us because of Reuben's sin, he lost the birthright. Am I not correct in saying that it was the prerogative of the father to choose a son to carry the birthright, and that in itself would have, uh, bestowed some privilege. Well, anyway, I put it into the pool of your thinking. Uh, now on this, uh, question of the thing that began to split the family, they resented Joseph. Some people have said that he told tales out of school. He brought his father the evil report of the sons of Bilhah, and they say told tales out of school.
Alongside of that, perhaps you ought to put the fact, didn't you, uh, that, uh, when our Lord was here on earth, he said this, the world hates me because I bear witness of it, that its works are evil. That certainly wasn't telling tales out of school. But anyway, Joseph had his dreams, didn't he? And it was this in particular that upset the all the rest of the brothers, and I'm not sure his father didn't feel a little bit peeved as well. These dreams that all the other sons would bow down to Joseph, and even the sun and the stars would bow down to him, and they resented the implications of that dream.
Now, I'm going to grant you, for the sake of time, that he may have been extreme in his dreams, because did his father ever bow down to him? The later text says he bowed down to his father when he came to see him. I don't read anywhere that Jacob bowed down to Joseph. But his brothers did, didn't they? Oh, some of the wonderful irony of the stories that follow in this second bit here is when they came in, not once nor twice, but many times, not knowing who he was, they bowed down to Joseph. So we've got to see that one of the reasons why, uh, the, the nation would be split was their resentment that one of them should rule over them.
Yes, uh, then there was another reason, another element. First of all, the cruelty of the brothers. They were going to, uh, kill him. Then the positive deception of the brothers. Some nation this, some family this, wasn't it? Jolly old hypocrites they were, that when they brought the coat to Joseph, to Jacob, they said, discern and see if it's your son's coat, your son's coat, you see. And they rose up to comfort him, the old hypocrites. But then again, there was Jo- Judah's sense, and here we come to our good friend Judah, Judah's sense of profit.
You say, well, he suggested selling him rather than killing him, and that was a good thing. Yes, maybe it was. But Judah actually said, look, there's no cash in it. What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? I tell you a better thing than that, he said, is it business? Ha. We could eliminate him, get rid of him forever, and we could make a bit of cash on the side. Let's sell him to the Midianites, and they sold him for twenty pieces of silver. What profit is there in it for, for us?
It's a thing that has marked a Jewish nation, hasn't it, in many of its eras of its history. What profit is there in it? And of course, we do remember how he was at length sold, was our Lord, by Judas and his love of money. Mm. Profit, profit, profit. Do you know that has been a mark of the Jewish nation? Was with old Jacob, wasn't it? When he was down in Laban's country and got all Laban's stock under his own hand and all Laban's capital into his own bank balance.
So that when Laban and his sons looked around, they saw all the banks around here were owned by Jacob. Didn't like it, and kicked him out, in fact. This profit idea. Now go to see how the story is going to tell you of the nation's salvation depended upon, just for the moment, Joseph. Oh. Here is a Jew who got his hands on the unnumbered and innumerable tons of corn and wheat in Egypt, and all the granaries in Egypt were under his control.
How much profit did he make out of it? Here's the story of Joseph. He's going to be the first key in saving this nation, as well as in saving the world. What is the peculiar thing about Joseph's merit? Why, when he was sold, he became, first of all, a steward in Potiphar's house, and all his master's goods were in his hand. When he got down in the prison, he became a steward, and all the affairs of the prison were in his hand, and the governor of the prison didn't need to attend to it.
And when he rose out of prison to fame in Egypt, all the econ- e- economics of Egypt were in his hand. The characteristic thing of Joseph and his ministry is that he was a steward, that's number one. And secondly, he was an utterly selfless and faithful steward. In his first post, all his master's goods were in his hand, and then his master's wife tempted him. And in the manner of Egyptian society, he could have taken that woman, and nobody would have blamed him. But he protested, saying, look, my master has given me everything, and he doesn't take notice of what I do.
He trusts me so absolutely. Everything of his is in my hand. Only one thing has he kept back, you, his wife. How can I do this great sin against my master? How can I do this great sin against God? A steward that is found faithful, incorrupt in his stewardship. Now we're going at the level of very practical lessons, aren't we? We shouldn't forget at this stage that we are stewards. It is required in a man, in a steward, that he be found faithful. If one of these days we want to rise, so to speak, and reign with the blessed Lord, and have our Lord put into our hands the running of his kingdom in the ages yet to come, number one qualification is that we shall have used our stewardship here faithfully.
And that will mean that we, first of all, regard it as a trust. Not that I have, I call my own, I hold it for the giver. And we shall be tested in our stewardship. And if profit has been our motive in the sense of personal prophet. profit. It's going to lead us into all sorts of temptations and perhaps spoil our chances of being actively engaged in reigning with Christ in the age to come. Not only faithful in his stewardship in Potiphar's house, but when he got down into the prison.
Given them all I've got, now they're finding fault, now they're criticizing, now they're blaming me for what I didn't do, and they put me down in this wretched old dungeon with a lot of old crooks. Well, now they'll find out. I shall just sit here and twiddle my thumbs. What career prospects are open to me down here? Why should I bother? Other. Cool. If you were falsely in prison, what would you do?
No prospect, no career, no promotion, no acknowledgement. And Joseph served down there, as he did in Potiphar's house, as he did when he became second in command of Egypt. Aren't you say, ha, oh, but that has practical implications for us, doesn't it? Stewards. Wanting one day to reign with Christ. Oh yes, I should compete. In fact, I should try and run a bit harder than Mrs. Zebedee, because she's got some ideas about her sons, you know, silly woman.
She's got notions of her sons being the chief. I shall see that she doesn't get in her request first. Get mine in first. Oh, I would serve, wouldn't I? If you can give me a big congregation and thousands of people and much publicity, and it seems a worthwhile job, but in obscurity, under false criticism, being a steward when there seems no future in it, serving people that are much less intelligent and indeed a lot of old crooks. But you know, the way to exaltation and glory lay through that prison for Joseph, didn't it?
And in God's providence, this was the training course for Joseph, whether you think he started off a prig or not. Here he was being in training for his position of glory, and so are we. It's how we're behaving now, how we're using our talents now, in obscure things, and see in, um, Joseph a picture of our Lord. But if Joseph suffered innocently, might I ask you in these last few moments to tell me something about this story two B? What is the point of story two B? It is the crucial crisis, isn't it?
Joseph has come to glory. He has Egypt in his power and all the corn. Here come his brethren, first exibi- expedition, second expedition, and Joseph knows all about them, and they don't realize that. And Joseph is not going to take any revenge. Never takes any revenge. But he doesn't just say the first time they appear, oh, I'm Joseph, you know, and I forgive all you've done. Let's forget that. No, no, no. There should never be forgiveness without repentance, should there? Forgiveness, yes, but when there's repentance.
It would harm his brothers to forgive them if they don't repent. You just imagine the damage you would do to their soul with all their trickery and their lies and their deceit. And now to bring them down to Egypt when they're in need and say, yes, take the corn and then forget about the past, or encourage them to think that it doesn't matter how you behave. That's not forgiveness. There'll be no revenge, but first he'll bring them to repentance. And the Judah that here sold Joseph into slavery will be brought by Joseph until Judah is prepared to be a slave.
Isn't that so? Or the man will be brought to repentance. Climax then of Ju- of Joseph's dealing with his brethren to bring them a repentance is, of course, this story here in B, and it's brought to the end by a tremendous speech by Judah. Now, please tell me what you're going to say about Judah. Have you forgiven him yet? Has he made up for all his irresponsibilities here? What is the point of Judah's speech? Yes, to show his repentance, and in what sense?
What is the point of Judah's speech? Where did Joseph bring him to? To what point did he bring Judah? To show his love for his father and his family. Yes, to show his love for his father and his family. Listen to Judah, he says to Joseph, and he doesn't know who it is. He said, you know, my poor old, our poor old father, he had two sons, and one of them is gone. Cool. He hadn't quite repented, had he? He hadn't got quite round to actually facing the real truth. He didn't get round to that till chapter fifty. One of them's gone, he said, and is no more. Oh. But he said, you know, my father has this other son, he's the son of his old age, Benjamin, and you went and made us promise to bring him, and when I told my father what you said and I got to bring Benjamin down, my father said, no, he cannot possibly come down because if he goes and he's lost, you'll bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.
And he says, says Judah, I can't go back without Benjamin. It would kill my father. Oh, didn't care much about his father here, did he? Didn't care when with Reuben and all the others he brought the coat in and said, recognize that coat? Would this be your son's coat? The poor old boy nearly had a, had a heart attack, nearly died then. Judah didn't care too much about it then, did he? But now he is very careful about his father. He says, it'll be his death. Poor boy will collapse on the spot and die if I go home without Benjamin. So what? What now did he say?
His love for the father, his love for Israel, if I might paraphrase it, yes, use the other title. His love for Israel leads him to do what? Go sure. Yes. Ah, he did that when he left his father, didn't he? He said, I'll go surety for Benjamin. And because he was surety, don't you be surety for anybody or smart for it, says the Proverbs. He not only went surety, but what did he next do? Yes, the man's read the board. He he he, he not only gave himself at the beginning as a surety, he now offered himself as a substitute.
Rather than his father die and Benjamin be left a slave, he offered to take the slave's place for the rest of his life. Though he had the stick and the scepter among his brethren, offered to remain a slave to this, what he thought, foreigner. To save his family, he offered to be a substitute. Do you know what? I haven't traveled very much, and that's the reason why.
But I've heard lots of sermons preached on Joseph as a prototype of the Lord Jesus. How delightful. And I've never yet heard one preached about Judah as a prototype of the Lord. To save Israel. From death by famine. He was in an impossible situation. They couldn't stay, they've got to go down to Egypt. If they didn't, death stared them in the face. Now if they were, so he, he says, I'll become a surety for the boy. Now, if he goes back without Benjamin, corn or no corn, Israel will die.
As Judah, there's only one way for it. I said it, and I'll do it. I'll become his substitute. To save the nation. But then I don't need, at this hour of the night, do I, to apply the lesson to our own hearts devotionally. Could I make one comment? Yes, sir. And it's why, what caused them all to feel guilty, the whole lot of them. It's found in chapter forty two, verse twenty one, and it's a remarkable verse because it applies to them all. And they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear.
Therefore, Mm. is this distress come upon us. Mm. And that was the thing. They remembered the anguish of his soul, and that's what made them feel guilty. I have a line. Isn't it? On a line in my own Bible here. Mm. He, that's the outstanding thing that made them feel guilt. Yes, indeed. They remember the anguish of Joseph Mm. when he besought them, and we were not here. Yes. Well, it's lovely, sir, Mr. Govan, sir, uh, and we ought to have time next week, didn't we? Ought to spend some time on that next week. How Joseph so ordered their circumstances to bring that to their memory.
You know our Lord will do it. We have to repent, don't we? We're not going to be with our Lord, I did it fifty years ago, and I never did repent, so it's okay, and hurry up and come heaven, because when I get home to heaven, nothing will be said. No, sirs. You have us repent. He'll bring it to our mind. We shall stand before the judgment seat of Christ. He'll have us repent.
In addition, Doctor Julian, they shall Oh, sir, they will. Yes, they will. And God will yet bring that nation through their terrible suffering, and they remember what they did to the Lord Jesus. They will indeed. They will, sir. They will indeed. Oh yes, God is, I nearly said tough, but God is. God is tough. He'll not give them peace until they're brought to repentance.
But what tonight I want, the thing I would like to emphasize tonight as we go, when Joseph went, brought them all through these many experiences, bitter they were indeed, but persisted until he brought them to a position where he was satisfied and could reveal him. And that point is here, when Judah offers himself as a substitute for the sake of Benjamin and his father. Yes, sir. Would there be any practical lesson, not for Israel, but the church today? We have become very complacent. Is there a practical lesson here that God could teach us and we could be brought to this as a moment?
Oh, well, I, uh, like all true scripture, this is to be understood at all sorts of levels, isn't it? Practical in those days, as a picture of Mr. Gilpin and others have been saying, and you, sir, of Israel and God's dealings with Israel, when at last they're brought to look on him whom they pierced and re- pierced and remember what they did with him and are brought to repentance, and there shall be great mourning over him. Great mourning, says Zechariah twelve. But you see, those lessons of stewardship, they talk to us as well, do they not? If we're going to be a blessing to the nation, as Israel in another sense is to be a blessing to the nation. If we are to be a blessing to the nation, we must show those two sides, mustn't we?
The Joseph side and the Judah side in our experience. Faithfulness as stewards. We are to follow the example of the Lord Jesus when we suffer unjustly, says one Peter. And we can think about it again next week, so that we too, suffering unjustly, might nevertheless be used of God as a means of bringing people to repentance. And we've got to be prepared to be like Judah, haven't we? In our sense, to suffer that others go free. But I shall get myself into trouble. I shall get somebody to throw me down a pit tonight.
You know, I was congratulated the other week by finish- for finishing at nine o'clock. Nobody'd ever known it before, and they thought that not only Judah, but I had made remarkable progress. Now it's all spoiled, and you, you, you've enticed me into going in on over the time. So forgive me, I shall try and do better next week, and we'll come back to this business of a practical repentance and how we ought to behave if we, like Israel, are going to be a holy nation and a blessing amongst men. But let's think about the Lord as we go, shall we? Joseph, the one who suffered innocently and said, never mind, never mind, you meant it bad, but God meant it for good, and he meant it for your salvation.
And therefore I suffered innocently, but never mind. God has achieved through it the salvation of others. And Judah, along, I'm afraid, with his guilty brethren, guilty as the rest, but now brought to the place where he is prepared to suffer as a substitute. Speaking to us, of course, again, of our Lord, he was utterly without any guilt. He'd no need to come down to our world, but he came as a surety. And he died as a substitute.
For which reason we shall love him and obey him eternally, because the one that will wield the scepter was prepared to be a slave. Isn't that so? He was in the form of God, thought it not a thing to be grasped at to be equal with God, but humbled himself and took upon him the form of a slave. Wherefore God also highly exalted him. That's why he'll have the scepter. Joseph, innocent suffering. Judah, substitutionary suffering.
And together, they point us to the Lord Jesus. Thank you very much for last week, when so many of you so kindly cooperated in the study and helped us enormously in the consideration of the stories at the end of Genesis. Tonight again, uh, I do believe that you're going to help us even more on those stories as we study them together, unashamed to confess our ignorance where we are ignorant, and generously sharing what we have to share. In a minute, for instance, Dr.
Chapman is going to come up and correct some of our notions from last week, which will be very useful too. Just let me remind you of what we have been thinking about so far. And we noticed thus far in our studies, uh, then just to sum them up, that the end chapters of the book of Genesis, while they contain a lot about Joseph, are strictly speaking not primarily about Joseph, but about Jacob, and that we saw from the headings which we find in scripture to the four major sections in this part of Genesis. Jacob dwelt in the land.
Jacob saw there was corn in Egypt. Jacob took his journey and went down to Egypt, and finally Jacob lived in Egypt. And we saw last week that it is the story of Jacob, then, who very frequently in this section of the book is called Israel, father of the twelve sons that became the heads of the tribes of the nation of Israel. So that in this part of Genesis, then, we are considering the beginnings of the nation of Israel. No longer an individual patriarch with one or two sons, but the patriarch Jacob, who has twelve sons, who form the beginning, the embryo of the nation.
And the nation that is to play such a tremendously significant part in world history down to the very day, and of course to play such a tremendously significant part in the redemption of mankind. The purposes of God then to be fulfilled not just in individuals like Abraham and Isaac, but the purposes of God to be filled in that unique nation that is Israel. So we notice then that it's going to be about Jacob and about how he lost his sons. A whole quarter of his sons were lost to him at one stage, and how in his sorrow he was nearly brought down to the grave, but eventually was revived.
We mentioned last week what a poignant prototype that is of what has happened to Israel in the course of the years. There have come times when Israel, or Rachel, has mourned for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are not. The enormous persecutions that have come upon that nation and sometimes threatened to annihilate it, and yet it has survived. And here in the very earliest stage of the formation of the nation, you already get that, uh, poignant element of suffering, Jacob mourning for his children, thinking them to be destroyed, and then finding the goodness of God, how that the nation is preserved and brought to position of great influence and honor among the Gentile nations.
And we saw last week also that having lived here in Egypt for a while, then eventually Jacob dies and is brought back to Palestine, and brought back not merely by his son Joseph, but by coordinated effort of the Gentiles as well as Joseph and his sons, so much so that when the local Canaanites saw the burial party arriving and heard all the ceremonies and heard all the weeping, they thought it was a, a, a mourning of the Egyptians. For at the command of Pharaoh, that was the Egyptians bringing the Israelites back to their land.
And it caused us to think last week of the great prophecies in Isaiah, notably the one in Isaiah forty nine, where Israel, first of all, weeps and mourns for the children that she has lost in the course of the great persecutions, and shall yet lose in the time of the great tribulation that shall be Jacob's trouble. And yet how, in the end, God will bless that nation so that Israel, uh, Israel shall say what Jacob said of Joseph's children. I hadn't thought to see your face, and God has showed me these children. Who are these children? Where do they come from?
So in the future day, Israel, astounded at the blessing of God and the multitude of her posterity, shall say, these children, whence are they? Where do they come from? And the kings of the earth shall bring your children back to Palestine, says the prophet in Isaiah fifty nine. So then we are to notice, uh, we noticed again last week that in the course of this great story of Israel, that is Jacob, and the beginning of the nation, not only does Joseph feature prominently, as is natural, but also Judah features exceedingly prominently, if not so prominently as Joseph, yet features in significant situations.
And here in each major part, one B here, here is Judah, the story of how he went down to the Canaanites and married Tamar, and from that union sprang Perez, ancestor of Jesus Christ our Lord. That, uh, chapter then exceedingly important. This is the beginning of the line of our blessed Lord himself, and all who love our Lord must take this story very seriously and ponder what the Holy Spirit is saying about it. The origins of the line physically of the Messiah. And then here, at this critical point in the story, to be at the climax of the second expedition, as the sons of Jacob came down to find corn in Egypt and got themselves into that impossible pass where the cup had been found in Benjamin's sack, and Judah was moved to offer himself as substitute for Benjamin, so that Benjamin could go back to his father.
Judah then, prominent in that story there. And then, on this occasion, exceedingly significant, when Israel, as the responsible leader of the nation to be, takes his great decision to remove the whole family, seventy souls almost, that little incipient nation took the, the fateful decision to take the whole thing down to Egypt, and was encouraged to do so by God. We noticed that it was Judah that was sent before to pioneer the way and to lead Joseph, uh, uh, Israel and his sons to Joseph and thence to Pharaoh, so as to get them settled in the appropriate part of Egypt.
And why that was important, we shall have to consider perhaps next week. And then finally, of course, when we come to this section four, to that central point that is the blessing of Israel, of Jacob upon the tribes, whereas all twelve get a mention, some of them only get a brief verse or a sentence or two. Uh, the two sons that are mentioned at great length are first of all, of course, Judah and then Joseph. And we saw why that was, of course. We reminded ourselves last week that in the course of the centuries, when the nation came out of Egypt and got settled in the land, particularly in the times of the kings, the nation divided into two parts.
There was Judah, that in those days comprised Judah and Benjamin, the two tribes, and there was Ephraim, named after Joseph's son Ephraim, that constituted the ten tribes, sometimes referred to as Israel and Judah, sometimes referred to as Ephraim and Judah. And why the, in the blessing here, and also in the blessing of Joseph's sons, you'll see here in this section, Jase- Jo- Jacob blesses Joseph's sons Ephraim and Manasseh, why such a fuss is made about it is because in the development of the nation in the centuries that were to come, this was constitutionally an exceedingly important thing.
The two major parts of the nation, Ephraim on the one hand and Judah on the other. Ephraim eventually being taken into captivity to the Assyrians, Judah and Benjamin succumbing to the Babylonians. So that begins.
