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So now to begin, a few preliminary remarks. And first of all, thank you for your invitation to address you on these Thursday evenings in the month of May. That was kind of you to invite me. And then, trusting in your kindness, I have a confession to make, namely that I have yielded to and been overcome by temptation. You will see. And I first received your invitation, I saw it as my duty that perhaps I should on these occasions take some interesting topic from the word of God and expound it, and tell you what God in his kindness has told me.
It would, of course, be by way of stirring up your pure mind by way of remembrance. And you, let us hope, by God's goodness, would have gone home refreshed and joyful in the Lord. And I should have gone home exhausted, having learned particularly nothing. And thinking like that is where temptation overcame me. For I said to myself that some preachers are allowed sometimes to be selfish and to use their occasions for their own profit and not merely the profit of the congregation. And so I thought, well, on Sunday nights there will be a majority of young people present, and I shall, of course, be required to take the burden of the teaching and to teach positively, uh, and directly.
But on Thursday nights I have observed the habit that it is my senior brethren on the whole and sisters that are present, and among them a wealth of learning and experience over the years, and wherefore temptation assailed me again and suggested that I could profit from this and turn it to my own advantage. And therefore I decided to take the risk, and in these, uh, Thursdays together, God willing, I hope to lead you in working together on the final chapters of the book of Genesis. I shall, of course, make my own modest contribution to our studies, but here is hoping that you will take these studies seriously too, and might be inclined, perhaps in spite of the warm weather and the sunny evenings and the attraction of the flowers and the golf courses, nonetheless to do some actual study and working yourselves upon these chapters and waiting on God, that he might show you things that you could tell all the rest of us, and that the Lord in particular might be merciful to me and show me some things, so that instead of exhausting my scant supplies, these
five Thursdays in May may be a means of storing up my larder, so that when I go, if we go across to that missionary country across the sea, I may have bread in my larder to share with others. With those preliminaries, we come to begin the studies in the final chapters of the book of Genesis, beginning, of course, from Genesis thirty seven. Genesis thirty seven. We'll at least open our Bibles to that place in the text. Really, we ought to begin, as we shall see presently, in Genesis thirty six, but for the moment, Genesis thirty seven.
And the chapters that now follow are commonly regarded as the story of Joseph. We shall find out that though they are about Joseph, and therefore in these coming weeks we shall have to lot to say and to think about Joseph, they are actually the story of Jacob. And that's one of the first things that we shall have to notice. Now, for the moment, let's say the stories are going to be the stories of Joseph. And the question will arise, how are we to interpret these stories about Joseph? Now, one of the first things we shall have to notice and bear in mind all throughout our studies is that when we are dealing with an ancient historical book like this, a book of narrative, we can expound and study the word of God at different levels.
Let me just chalk them up here. Level one. And if you can't see, there are some excellent, though expensive, seats at the front, and you would be welcome at bargain price tonight to come and occupy these seats where you can read the writing. Level one um is, of course, the practical and moral. One level at which we can apply these stories. I shall not be saying much about that level in the course of these talks. For one reason, some six or seven weeks ago, Dr.
Chapman dealt with the story of Joseph and very helpfully concentrated on this level of the story and its meaning and lessons, pointing out to us how Joseph was tempted by very real temptation. At that level, there was no need to call in the help of typology to understand what the book was saying. The book spoke to our hearts directly and very vividly that Joseph was direly tempted in the course of his daily work. Dr. Chapman pointed out to us in the text what things they were that strengthened Joseph in those days of sore temptation and helped him to stand against the pressure of temptation, pointing us, of course, to the lesson that is immediately applicable to us, who likewise from time to time get tempted, get tempted.
As Paul would say it, a little bit sardonically perhaps, let, if any man thinketh he standard stands, well, let him consider himself lest he fall. And if you find a brother that's been overtaken in a fault, well, be careful and consider yourself lest also you should be tempted, because if you were tempted, you too might be overtaken in a fault, yes? So Joseph's story speaks to us immediately at the practical level. And then again, Dr. Chapman reminded us, uh, that, uh, Joseph's brethren dealt very wickedly with him, involving him in years of suffering that he never deserved, that eventually God put him in a position where he had his brothers in his power to do as he pleased with them.
Many a man would have been moved now to take his revenge and spitefully to punish his brothers. And how Joseph, instead of doing any such thing, was merciful and kind to his brethren. And again, Dr. Chapman pointed out to us the practical lessons where Joseph got the moral and spiritual strength from to forgive his brethren, saying to them, well, yes, you meant it to me for harm. But then, looking behind and above all life's circumstances, Joseph could see the hand of God. God meant it to me for good. And seeing God has turned it to good, I don't need to get my own back upon you for the evil things you did to me.
Practical lessons, therefore, that, uh, come to us from the story of Joseph. At that level, of course, we shall doubtless have some questions to ask. Later on, the way, for instance, Joseph treated the Egyptians. When he took over their land and enslaved the people to the Pharaoh, and we shall have to ask if that's the farmers present or who know anything about farming, think that's a very good way to deal with people, and that the state should run the whole nation. Anyway, there's another level, isn't there, at which we could look at the story of Joseph, and that's the level of its context in Genesis.
And if you say, what do you mean by that? Well, I mean this. The story of Joseph is much loved and very well known, and many people have talked about it, but tell me, would it make any difference to you in what book of the Bible the story of Joseph came? Suppose when you opened your Bibles tonight, you'd found that the story of Joseph had flittered and was now to be found in Leviticus. Would it matter to you where it is found? Suppose it was found at the beginning. Suppose it was found at the end of the Old Testament. Would it make any difference? Is it a kind of a self-contained story? Or is it the thrilling finale...
uh, to a thrilling book? Sometimes people read or watch even enactments of famous stories, and uh, they know the time at which it comes on every week, and they look at this episode and that episode and the other episode, but they're bright enough to see we haven't finished it yet. And don't keep us late because we want to get home to see the last episode of... Yes, because if you don't get the last episode, well, that makes a nonsense of the whole story, doesn't it? What is the story of Joseph? Is it just a self-contained story? Or is it the last episode that you need to know about in order to grasp what the book of Genesis as a whole is about.
And would you ever find yourself saying, don't stop me from getting out to actually tonight, because I've heard the earlier story in the term, and I want to get the final story of Genesis. On that, we shall have some more to say, and tonight we shall begin here at level two. And then, of course, there's level three. Whether you approve or not, generations of believers have done it, and they'll go on doing it until the Lord comes, so, well, try and stop them if you like, but you won't. To read the story as a prototype that points us to the Lord.
Now, of course, thousands of believers have seen all sorts of lessons in the story of Joseph. They regard him as a type of the Lord Jesus. Well, strictly speaking, you'd be better to call him a prototype rather than a type, because types are things that God had engineered, like the tabernacle, from start to finish, all its details planned to be a type. Whereas, of course, the story of Joseph is in the first place history, and Joseph is a failing mortal like the rest of us. So at the first level, it's a bit of history. But then it is also a prototype we shall find of the Lord Jesus, and at least the gentleman will know what prototypes are.
When Master Ford was going to build some cars, he first built a prototype of a car, and that was a curious old banger that was. Ha. Well, it's, it had the basic ideas about it. It had four wheels, two at the front and two at the back, and it had a steering wheel, and it had a thing called an engine under the bonnet. There were similarities between that prototype and the real modern deluxe edition Ford car now. So anybody could see the similarities. But of course, the prototype wasn't anywhere near so good as the present advanced model. There are all sorts of differences, of course, and contrasts. And you wouldn't say, ah well, ah look, the prototype is like the type, but here the prototype breaks down.
Never broke up. Do you see? No, the the the real thing nowadays is meant to be different from the prototype. Of course it is. Much better, infinitely superior. In that way, of course, Joseph is not only a slice of big hi- history in the past, but he is a prototype. Though, of course, in our Lord Jesus, you will see glories far more and utter perfection, where Joseph was only a humble first level prototype. Righto, and tonight, therefore, to begin our work, and this I can promise you, our sessions are going to be hard work.
Uh, let's uh, start in at level two, shall we? And if we can restrain ourselves from going too quickly to level three, and even restrain ourselves from wanting immediate lessons from level one, they'll come in due time, both those levels. Let's have a go at reading the story of Joseph in at level two, in the context of the book of Genesis. So, it's no secret, you know, if you want to understand a story, one way is to do, to see how it begins, and then flip over the pages and find how it ends.
Some people are inveterate like that, you know, they can't start a book at the beginning, they always start at the end. When they get the weekly magazine, they start at the end, go backwards. And in a book, they start the story, but then they want to know before, ah, how does it end, you see? Yes, how does it end? And then you fill in the middle bits. Well, let's do that with the book of Genesis. How does it start and how does it end, you see? Well, it's may, it starts with man made in image of God. And God said, in the image of God created he him, and he said, uh, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over the birds of the air and the beasts of the field, have dominion over the earth.
What an exalted position it was that God gave to man. God had in his mind for his creature. Made him, as Psalm eight says, a little lower than the angels, but set him over the works of his hands to be God's viceroy on this planet. And then we read in Genesis chapter two that the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, which incidentally shows you that the rest of the planet wasn't garden, was it? It wasn't all garden, of course it wasn't. Rather chaotic, I suspect, outside, but when God made our planet, then God himself planted a bit of it as garden, put the man inside there, and says, no, Adam, get on with it, and you till the garden, and you make something of it.
And presently, I suppose, man was to issue forth, had he been sensible and done it with God, issued forth out of the garden and developed the rest of the world and made something of our planet. How exciting to be living in those times with Adam and Eve, you know, every morning something new, wasn't it? And you woke up Tuesday, and Eve says to Adam, Adam, do you know, I've been thinking, where do you suppose that river goes? Ha. Josie, wouldn't it be nice one day to follow that river and explore and find out where it goes? Yes, says God. There's some gold down that river. Because Adam didn't n- know what to do with gold, poor man. We know now, don't we?
But, um, he didn't know what to do with it. He'd learn one of these days and to mine the gold and make something of it. What a marvelous task that was for man. Not to be some drone, some slave, but to be God's viceroy with a whole planet to develop for God. And in particular, to look to the tilling of the ground. And we know the sorry story that man fell. Man fell, found out he was naked, and God had to cover his nakedness, was the best thing available at the time, was an animal skin.
And God said that the earth would now bring forth thorns and thistles, and the whole thing would be a laborious, difficult slavery of a task. Well, how does the book end? After all the long chapters in the middle, with a man called Joseph. What kind of a man was he, do you say? Was he a king? No. Oh. Was he a politician? Not really. Oh. Well, what was he then? He was an administrator, yes. Oh, what did he administer?
Well, agriculture. Didn't he now? And how did he become so famous? Well, you say the story is simple, you see. Down in Egypt, the very bread basket of the ancient world, with its rich soil and overflowing river and highly developed civilization, there came years of famine. When the very bread basket of the world was going to be nearly empty. And Egypt herself threatened with economic disaster because of the economic problems and the failure, seven years running, of their noted harvest.
How would you save Egypt in its economic problem, and how would you save all the little nations around Egypt that were dependent on Egypt for their food supply? And Pharaoh and his wise men found that in the end, well, they had no concept of the danger that was facing them, nor any notion how to cope with their economic problems, when along comes Joseph, and he takes over the running of the land, and he takes over the administration of the corn, and he solves their problems and saves the land from disaster.
And when he came out with his scheme for the next, uh, years, and they saw the wisdom of it, Joseph was clothed, wasn't- wasn't he? Were the robes of state? Yeah. What a nice end that is to the book of Genesis, when you think about it, isn't it? And if I'm not careful, I shan't be able to stop you. Well, I don't know that I'm going to try very hard, but if I'm not careful, even now you'll go running off all too fast, and you'll say, but yes, of course, this is the story of our planet, and God made man and put him in charge of it to develop our planet, and man has done a lot, by way of development, hasn't he?
We mustn't be too gloomy. What marvelous things man has done with this planet. What lessons we've learned in agriculture, in science, and goodness knows what else. But what a mess we're making of it. And what trouble we're getting ourselves into with the nations all afraid of each other. They've now, if you please, discover the very secret that makes the atoms tick. And are in grave danger of blasting the whole planet out of space into nothingness. And economic problems, oh, how difficult to solve them.
How many thousands are there as we speak now dropping dead for hunger in our planet in nineteen eighty four? With butter mountains, if not in Ireland, just over the sea somewhere, and wine mountains and milk mountains, and acres in the States of oranges piled up feet deep on the ground and going rotten. While thousands perish with hunger. And that's us, in all our wisdom, in nineteen eighty four, and we can't, our dear wooden heads internationally can't think out how to cope with the problem.
And what man will do when in God's time God rises up to begin to judge, and the plagues come. What terrible famines are going to face this world at the end of this age. Would you say, is the planet going fut? Will the whole thing become unworkable? What hope have we? Oh, ha. Well. What is man that thou art mindful of him, says the psalmist. You made him a little lower than the angels, you put him over the works of thy hands.
Yes, but he fell. Ah, says Hebrews two, but God has not abandoned his original purpose. For we see not yet all things put under him, but we see Jesus, crowned with glory and honor. He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everything. One day he's coming, put over God's creation, and he shall lead nature and our planet to the realization of her goal. Why, nature herself shall be delivered from her bondage to corruption. God's great man is coming.
His name we know, and it is Jesus Christ. Genesis is a very hopeful book. Let's take another slant on it, shall we? Just at this stage, you remember we are at level two. Um, how does the story of Joseph fit into its context in the book of Genesis? Well, let's, uh, take a little bit sharper focus. And we shall remember that the book of Genesis tells us the story of the, uh, world, from the creation to the destruction by the flood.
And then it starts up again, and, uh, tells us the story of the renewed earth. And it starts up, of course, with the story of the Gentiles. You'll remember the story of the Gentiles. There were the great cities of Babel, yes, and Nineveh, and Calneh, and all those great cities, Gentile cities. And eventually, among those Gentiles in a place called Ur, there was a man called Terah, and he had a son, and his name at that stage was Abram.
And God called Abraham out of the Gentiles. So, shall we say, here he comes. Here's Abram coming out of the Gentiles. The God of glory appeared to him and brought him out of those abominable idolatries that were beginning to take root and spread in the Gentile world, brought him out from them and, uh, set him on his pilgrimage. And you will remember that God promised Abraham at least four things when he brought him out. He promised him a land that should be his.
And he promised him seed that eventually should be like the stars of the heaven. And he promised to make him a blessing himself. And then he promised that through him and his seed should all the nations of the world be blessed. So very good. In chapters twelve to fifteen, he brought him into the land, and Abram spent his life as a pilgrim in that land of promise, though he was told that, uh, he wouldn't be allowed to possess it now.
He was to walk up and down in the land, see it, inspect it, not possess it yet, but one day he would. And then from chapter sixteen on to chapter uh twenty uh four, we have the great story of the seed, don't we? The great promised seed that God had promised to Abraham, and all the mistakes Abraham made in trying to produce that seed, and then how in the end God did his great miracle, Isaac was born, and then Isaac was offered on the altar, and then, um, uh, Isaac was married.
And twenty five to chapter thirty five, you say, what's that a story about? Oh, well, that's the story of Isaac and partly the story of Jacob. Let me remind you of some of the big things that happened. This is the bit of Genesis, you know, where old Jacob, at the instigation of his mother, dressed himself up in animal skins and put on a crackpot voice and, uh, did some venison up nice and beautiful, tasty, and took it into poor old Father Isaac, and he said, Father Isaac, now bless me. And he stole the blessing.
Well, yes, we should be keen to get blessings, shouldn't we? But whether stealing it is the right way to go about it, I'm not so sure. Anyway, these are the chapters that deal with the blessing. Mm. Well, you wouldn't be surprised, would you? God had promised Abraham. What had he promised him? That he would give him a land. That then he would give him seeds and multiply his seed. Then he would make of Abraham and his people, he would make them a blessing. That is, he would bless them. So. Yeah? But what's the rest of it about then?
um Thirty six to forty. Would you say there's only one thing it can be about? Because there were four things that God promised. Promised him the land, promised him seed, promised to make him and his seed a blessing, and then fourthly he said, in thee and in thy seed shall all the Gentiles be blessed. Why, of course. And the book, not wanting to leave you without the final story, says that, of course, um, here are the Gentiles once more, aren't they?
Egyptians, the Gentiles, yes. And here goes the seed back into the Gentiles, and Abraham's seed is made a blessing, which you think it is, a blessing to the Gentiles, and the means of saving the whole of Egypt and all the dependent nations from stark starvation. You say, wait a minute, wait a minute, old chap.
You say that's not quite right. No, no, no. When God promised to Abraham to, uh, that in him and in his seed should all the nations of the world be blessed, he was thinking of the blessing that comes to us Gentiles, you know, Irishmen, in we're Gentile enough, uh, the blessing that comes to us Gentiles through Christ. That was what he meant. Well, of course, of course he did. Yes, there you are. You will go in for this prototypical stuff, won't you? I say I was trying to expound the text, and you will have the typology, and I can't stop you. But there you are. That is perfectly true. Galatians tells us that, doesn't it? That when God said to Abraham, in thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the world be blessed, God was looking on eventually to the coming of the seed, which is Jesus Christ our Lord, and through Christ shall all the nations of the world be blessed, and we are happy ourselves tonight to be part of that seed.
For as many of you as were baptized into Christ to put on Christ, if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Of course, that's true. But notice it's true at this earlier level, that Abram called out of the Gentiles is called out of the Gentiles in order that he might eventually be made a blessing to the Gentiles, and was. Before the book of Genesis ends. Nice, that isn't it? But even as I say that, I can't, I can't shut out from my ears the voice of those that have exhorted me many times, brother, be practical.
So let's be practical. There are three levels of this book, aren't there? Here we've been talking about expounding the story of Joseph in its context. Yes? And then we said, uh, yes, in its context, it tells you the story how that Abraham was brought out of Gentiles and made a pilgrim, promised that one day he should be, and his seed, a blessing to the Gentiles, and so the book fulfills it, made a blessing to the Gentiles. And then we said that that is a picture to us, a prototype of what God intended through our Lord Jesus Christ, the seed of Abraham. Yes. Be practical. Stephen says, at least he said in his famous speech before the Sanhedrin, recorded in Acts chapter seven, He began his speech like this, the God of glory appeared to Abram while he dwelt in Ur of Chaldees, and he called him out, and he made a pilgrim of him.
A few chapters later, Luke records how that Saul of Tarsus was driving up the Damascus road one day when a light from heaven shone upon him, and Saul was converted, and he was told that he was going to be sent to the Gentiles. Interesting, isn't it? The God of glory appeared to Abraham and called him out of the Gentiles and made a pilgrim of him. The light from heaven shone upon Saul of Tarsus, a true Jew if ever there was one, and the result was it sent him back to the Gentiles as a missionary. Here I say.
You were born among the Gentiles, weren't you? Sandy Row somewhere, Beaver Park. God of glory appeared to you. Called you out of the Gentiles. Or are you still an old Gentile? Do you know it's possible, isn't it, for us? Our Lord warned us about it. He said, okay, when you pray, don't pray like the Gentiles pray. How do you pray? Like an old Gentile, says Christ.
Oh, I see. How do Gentiles go to work? Oh, when they go to work, they seek all these things. They seek clothes and food and things. You say, well, that's what I do when I go to work. Oh, so you're an old Gentile then. Oh. Hasn't the God of glory appeared to you? Because if the God of glory has appeared to you like he appeared to Abram, uh, the result will be that he will take you out of the Gentiles, make you different from the Gentiles. So that you no longer walk as the Gentiles walk, says Paul, in the vanity of their mind.
And all sorts of objectionable and unclean things. And we oughtn't be Gentiles, did we? And the only way that will stop us being Gentiles, that will take us out of the Gentiles and make true pilgrims of us, is for us to see, like Abraham saw, the glory of the God of glory. Yes, you say, my brother, I've learned that. I separated from the world a long while ago, and I've been treading the path of separation ever since. God be praised. And you're a pilgrim, on your way to heaven. And that's that, you say.
No, it isn't quite that, is it? For God called Abraham out of the Gentiles, that in his seed the Gentiles might be blessed. And before Genesis comes to the end of its story, God has sent the whole lot back to the Gentiles. Not, of course, to behave like Gentiles, but to be a blessing to the Gentiles. God did it at the level of history, as I say. He brought Abram out of the Gentiles, and he started the Jewish race to be a testimony for God as pilgrims in this world. And presently he got hold of Saul of Tarsus, and the glory of God appeared to him too, and he sent him back to the Gentiles.
What for? To be a blessing to the Gentiles. And thank God, Saul of Tarsus, proud Pharisee that he was, responded and went. He didn't say, no, I'm going to tread the path of separation and ask for those impossible Irishmen way out there in the middle of the Atlantic, but no, rotten lot, bad lot, Gentiles of the Gentiles, I shan't have anything to do with them. No, the man felt, true pilgrim that Saul of Tarsus was, felt his responsibility as a believer to go back among the Gentiles with the glorious message of the gospel and became a missionary. So if you want it at the practical level, yes, this story of Joseph is going to tell us of the other end of the scale.
Abraham out of the Gentiles to be distinct, separate, a witness to the true God, a protest against all Gentile idolatry, but eventually taught and trained so that his seed might go back among the Gentiles to be a witness for God throughout the land. And we, in our little way, we may never be, well, I shan't, you might, but I shan't, be minister of agriculture and fisheries anywhere, certainly not in Egypt. Nor rise to high place, but then some of Joseph's brothers didn't either. They managed to be cattlemen. Well, I could come in there, perhaps I have worked on a farm. What a testimony they were in Egypt.
When at last they got there. Yes. Expounding the story in its context. So that'll do for tonight. Next week we shall have to do some hard work and take not the context of the whole book, but the chapters from thirty seven to fifty and see what we can make of them as a whole. It is a perfectly good thing to do, and we all do it anyway, to take this favorite chapter and that favorite chapter and draw our lessons from that, isn't it?
We all do that kind of thing, and probably too. But then, if we're going to study the word of God in its fullness, we shall have to do a bit more than that, not just take an isolated favorite chapter here or there. We shall have to take the story as a whole, can't we? And that will mean starting in chapter thirty six and first of all making ourselves a table of contents from thirty six to fifty. God willing, if we're here next week, that's what I propose to do with you. I'm going to write up a table of contents on this, uh, on this board here as to what the last chapters of, um, Genesis are about.
And that's the easy bit, so I bag that. Don't let anybody else do it. I bag that bit. I'm just going to write down on the board the leading ideas of each chapter. What I'm going to ask you to do is to tell me what those chapters are about, what they mean, and how the story develops from chapter thirty six right the way through to chapter fifty. All right? Very.
