WEBVTT 00:00:00.300 --> 00:00:04.135 Let us ask the Holy Spirit's grace on the reading of God's word. 00:00:05.448 --> 00:00:13.379 Lord, open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit, that as the scriptures are read and your word is 00:00:13.477 --> 00:00:18.258 proclaimed, we may hear you with with joy what you say to us today. 00:00:18.821 --> 00:00:19.046 Amen. 00:00:20.928 --> 00:00:22.922 A reading from Genesis 42. 00:00:23.968 --> 00:00:31.101 When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, 'Why do you just keep looking at each other?' 00:00:31.715 --> 00:00:34.946 He continued, 'I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. 00:00:35.515 --> 00:00:40.124 Go down there and buy some for us so that we may live and not die.' 00:00:41.644 --> 00:00:45.453 Then 10 of Joseph's Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt. 00:00:46.240 --> 00:00:53.130 But Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with the others because he was afraid that harm might come to him. 00:00:54.142 --> 00:01:00.968 So Israel's sons were among those who went to buy grain, for there was famine in the land of Canaan also. 00:01:02.156 --> 00:01:07.151 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the person who sold grain to all its people. 00:01:07.955 --> 00:01:09.288 So when Joseph's brothers 00:01:10.891 --> 00:01:18.361 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a 00:01:18.361 --> 00:01:20.685 stranger and spoke harshly to them. 00:01:21.551 --> 00:01:22.528 Where do you come from? 00:01:22.673 --> 00:01:23.314 he asked. 00:01:23.875 --> 00:01:26.552 From the land of Canaan, they replied, to buy food. 00:01:27.642 --> 00:01:31.169 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 00:01:31.826 --> 00:01:35.641 Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, You are spies! 00:01:36.636 --> 00:01:39.269 You have come to see where our land is unprotected.' 00:01:40.168 --> 00:01:44.070 'No, my lord,' they answered, 'your servants have come to buy food. 00:01:44.744 --> 00:01:46.222 We are all sons of one man. 00:01:46.832 --> 00:01:49.047 Your servants are honest men, not spies.' 00:01:49.802 --> 00:01:54.507 'No,' he said to them, 'you have come to see where our land is unprotected.' 00:01:55.341 --> 00:02:01.603 But they replied, 'Your servants were 12 brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land 00:02:01.603 --> 00:02:02.871 of Canaan. 00:02:02.871 --> 00:02:06.290 The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.' 00:02:07.525 --> 00:02:10.928 Joseph said to them, 'It is just as I told you. 00:02:11.233 --> 00:02:14.378 You are spies, and this is how you will be tested. 00:02:15.309 --> 00:02:21.118 As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 00:02:22.001 --> 00:02:24.120 Send one of your number to get your brother. 00:02:24.713 --> 00:02:30.299 The rest of you will be kept in prison so that your words may 'be tested to see if you are telling the truth. 00:02:31.231 --> 00:02:35.116 If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies.' 00:02:35.871 --> 00:02:38.247 And he put them all in custody for 3 days. 00:02:39.484 --> 00:02:45.152 On the third day, Joseph said to them, 'Do this and you will live, for I fear God. 00:02:45.890 --> 00:02:53.517 If you are honest men, let one of your brothers stay in here in prison while the rest of you go and take the grain back for your starving house.' 00:02:54.960 --> 00:03:01.147 But you must bring your youngest brother to me so that your words may be verified and that you may not die.' 00:03:02.029 --> 00:03:03.391 This they proceeded to do. 00:03:04.017 --> 00:03:08.216 They said to one another, 'Surely we are being punished because of our brother. 00:03:08.841 --> 00:03:14.820 We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen. 00:03:15.333 --> 00:03:17.241 That's why this distress has come on us.' 00:03:18.042 --> 00:03:22.771 Reuben replied, 'Didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy, but you wouldn't listen. 00:03:23.669 --> 00:03:25.640 Now he must give an accounting of his blood.' 00:03:26.538 --> 00:03:30.786 They did not realize that Joseph could understand them since he was using an interpreter. 00:03:31.684 --> 00:03:36.461 He turned away from them and began to weep, but then he came back and spoke to them again. 00:03:37.358 --> 00:03:41.991 He had Simeon taken from them and bound before their eyes. 00:03:42.905 --> 00:03:50.410 Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man's silver back in his sack and to give them provisions for their journey. 00:03:51.229 --> 00:03:55.835 After this was done for them, they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left. 00:03:56.541 --> 00:04:04.053 At the place where they stopped for night— for the night, one of them opened his sack to get feed for his donkey, and he saw his 00:04:04.085 --> 00:04:05.754 silver in the mouth of his sack. 00:04:06.396 --> 00:04:09.028 My silver has been returned, he said to his brothers. 00:04:09.606 --> 00:04:10.890 Here it is in my sack. 00:04:12.093 --> 00:04:18.251 Their hearts sank, and they They turned to each other trembling and said, 'What is this that God has done to us?' 00:04:19.325 --> 00:04:24.679 When they came to their father Jacob in the land of Canaan, they told him all that happened to them. 00:04:25.321 --> 00:04:32.118 They said, 'The man who is lord over the land spoke harshly to us and treated us as though we were spies. 00:04:33.272 --> 00:04:36.607 But we said to him, "We are honest men; we are not spies. 00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:40.632 We were 12 brothers, sons of sons of one father. 00:04:40.632 --> 00:04:43.906 One is no more, and the youngest is now with our father in Canaan. 00:04:45.286 --> 00:04:53.262 Then the man who is lord over the land said to us, 'This is how I will know whether you are honest men: leave one of 00:04:53.310 --> 00:05:01.126 your brothers here with me and take food for your starving households and go, but bring your youngest brother to me, and I will 00:05:01.126 --> 00:05:03.645 know that you are not spies but honest men. 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:08.138 Then I will give your brother' 'back to you, and you can trade in the land.' 00:05:09.197 --> 00:05:13.978 As they were emptying their sacks, there in each man's sack was his pouch of silver. 00:05:14.973 --> 00:05:18.005 When they and their father saw the money pouches, they were frightened. 00:05:18.839 --> 00:05:22.497 Their father Jacob said to them, 'You have deprived me of my children. 00:05:23.091 --> 00:05:27.872 Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin? 00:05:28.369 --> 00:05:29.813 Everything is against me.' 00:05:30.551 --> 00:05:36.892 Then Reuben Jacob said to his father, 'You may put both of my sons to death if I do not bring them back to you. 00:05:37.535 --> 00:05:40.601 Entrust him to my care, and I will bring him back.' 00:05:41.308 --> 00:05:44.583 But Jacob said, 'My son will not go down there with you. 00:05:44.664 --> 00:05:47.586 His brother is dead, and he is the only one left. 00:05:48.132 --> 00:05:54.137 If harm comes to him on the journey you are taking, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in sorrow.' 00:05:55.181 --> 00:05:56.449 This is the word of the Lord. 00:06:06.982 --> 00:06:07.812 Begotten. 00:06:07.861 --> 00:06:12.565 Life gives us many chances to show that we're changed people. 00:06:14.595 --> 00:06:19.161 One day, a mother had been baking cookies for her book group that evening. 00:06:19.258 --> 00:06:26.752 She made exactly a dozen, one for each one of her friends and herself, and she set them on a cooling rack on the counter of 00:06:27.905 --> 00:06:30.353 of her kitchen, leaves the room. 00:06:32.415 --> 00:06:40.209 When her 5-year-old son comes in to find a divine aroma and 12 welcoming chocolate chip cookies sitting 00:06:40.403 --> 00:06:42.602 on a cooling rack on the counter of the kitchen. 00:06:43.006 --> 00:06:50.045 And without hesitation, the 5-year-old relieves the cooling rack of one of the cookies, devours it, and leaves. 00:06:51.266 --> 00:06:58.228 Later, the mother takes her 5-year-old son aside aside and talks to him about asking permission next time. 00:06:59.992 --> 00:07:01.123 A month passes. 00:07:01.641 --> 00:07:09.435 It's time for her to host book group again, and she makes the same 12 chocolate chip cookies, sets them on the 00:07:09.452 --> 00:07:12.035 same cooling rack in the same kitchen, 00:07:13.602 --> 00:07:16.637 and she waits to see what her son will do. 00:07:17.784 --> 00:07:25.682 Not because she's a vindictive— because she's a vindictive, vengeful mother and wants to catch her son in the act, but simply because she will 00:07:25.682 --> 00:07:33.438 not know if her son has learned this lesson until the exact same circumstances are 00:07:33.438 --> 00:07:36.133 recreated and he's able to make a choice. 00:07:37.633 --> 00:07:42.351 By the way, you can do the same hypothetical situation with a wife and a husband. 00:07:45.962 --> 00:07:52.857 She doesn't know that her son or her husband is changed until the same circumstances are recreated. 00:07:53.308 --> 00:07:55.548 We would call that a test. 00:07:58.442 --> 00:08:01.991 Have you ever been the cookie thief in this situation? 00:08:02.813 --> 00:08:06.927 Have you ever messed up in a big way and you had to be corrected? 00:08:07.882 --> 00:08:13.809 Have you ever disappointed someone else or disappointed your God. 00:08:14.017 --> 00:08:17.802 And that grief of disappointment led you to true repentance. 00:08:18.687 --> 00:08:21.130 And you came to the Lord and you said, "I'm a changed person now. 00:08:21.178 --> 00:08:22.456 I'm so sorry for what I've done." 00:08:22.958 --> 00:08:26.226 You come to your family, you come to your friends, and you say, "I've reformed. 00:08:26.792 --> 00:08:28.195 I'm different than I once was." 00:08:29.739 --> 00:08:30.607 That is all good. 00:08:31.990 --> 00:08:34.997 But friends, you don't really know you've changed. 00:08:36.205 --> 00:08:43.809 And those friends and family members of yours certainly don't know that you've really changed until you approach the cooling rack 00:08:43.889 --> 00:08:44.277 again. 00:08:45.912 --> 00:08:53.842 Others will not witness your change until they see you in the same circumstances, the same environment as you had before. 00:08:55.972 --> 00:09:03.902 Several years ago, I was speaking to the chaplain of the San Diego Rescue Mission, and I was asking about him, or 00:09:03.902 --> 00:09:11.740 I was asking him I asked him about what recovery from addiction really looks like and what are the great milestones in someone's path 00:09:12.191 --> 00:09:13.677 toward addiction recovery. 00:09:15.163 --> 00:09:18.215 And I was surprised to hear him say, "Relapse. 00:09:19.398 --> 00:09:23.644 Relapse is one of the important milestones on the path toward recovery." 00:09:25.993 --> 00:09:28.791 And of course, he saw my— he saw my— 00:09:30.298 --> 00:09:31.400 the expression on my face. 00:09:32.286 --> 00:09:33.490 And he said, "Here's the thing, Jeff. 00:09:34.454 --> 00:09:41.920 People can sit in a classroom with other students in the program and they can make all of the resolutions they want and they can talk about their transformation. 00:09:42.225 --> 00:09:43.606 Sincerely, they really can. 00:09:44.168 --> 00:09:51.842 But not until they go back into the streets of San Diego and they walk the same sidewalks and they see the same friends and they're offered the same 00:09:51.875 --> 00:09:57.189 stuff as when they had blown up their lives before will you really see whether that person is a new creation." 00:09:57.302 --> 00:09:57.751 creation. 00:09:58.955 --> 00:10:06.213 So when they come back in for the second time to the rescue mission, my friend said, "Ah, that's when they've learned something. 00:10:07.048 --> 00:10:09.890 What stone have you overturned here?" 00:10:10.645 --> 00:10:12.475 That is when the rubber really hits the road. 00:10:12.748 --> 00:10:16.264 The test has been set and you've learned something about yourself. 00:10:16.585 --> 00:10:22.767 You really don't know what's on the inside of you until it's acted on on the outside. 00:10:25.414 --> 00:10:29.120 This moment of the Joseph story marks a test. 00:10:30.003 --> 00:10:37.430 Joseph recreates the situation that he was in with his brothers 22 00:10:37.767 --> 00:10:45.548 years before when he was left abandoned by his brothers while they filled themselves with bread 00:10:46.109 --> 00:10:47.922 and counted out their silver. 00:10:48.949 --> 00:10:56.939 Now And now Simeon has been taken captive and he is going to be potentially abandoned by his brothers while 00:10:57.052 --> 00:10:58.100 they leave with what? 00:10:58.828 --> 00:11:01.871 Plenty of bread and all of their silver. 00:11:03.845 --> 00:11:05.804 Joseph is now 39 years old. 00:11:06.516 --> 00:11:14.247 He was a 17-year-old when he perhaps rather foolishly was telling his brothers about the two dreams that he's had, the dreams where all 00:11:14.619 --> 00:11:18.723 of his brothers would bow down to him and he would rule over them. 00:11:20.201 --> 00:11:21.422 "Are you really to rule over us?" 00:11:21.647 --> 00:11:22.209 they mocked him. 00:11:22.997 --> 00:11:26.336 "Good luck ruling over us when we stick you in the ground." 00:11:26.402 --> 00:11:27.795 And they put him in a cistern underground. 00:11:29.692 --> 00:11:33.266 "Let's kill him and see what becomes of his dreams," they say to each other. 00:11:35.324 --> 00:11:41.367 And Joseph's 10 brothers end up selling Joseph to slave traders and abandoning him and disowning him. 00:11:42.191 --> 00:11:43.532 And the scene ends with his 00:11:46.815 --> 00:11:51.129 See, here Joseph recreates the same circumstances. 00:11:51.466 --> 00:11:52.925 He is making a test. 00:11:54.353 --> 00:12:02.115 If you are honest men, he says, let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody. 00:12:03.109 --> 00:12:09.123 Let the rest of you go, carry grain for the famine to all of your households, and bring your youngest brother— that would be 00:12:09.123 --> 00:12:16.985 Benjamin— So that I know that your words are true, and you shall not die. 00:12:19.344 --> 00:12:20.951 How did his brothers make sense of this? 00:12:22.397 --> 00:12:28.456 Well, remember that they don't recognize their brother Joseph while he recognizes all of them. 00:12:29.871 --> 00:12:37.294 Interestingly, we hear the same verb that was used by the brothers: Father, examine this cloak and see if it is your 00:12:37.294 --> 00:12:37.872 sons. 00:12:38.337 --> 00:12:42.239 See if it is revealed to you as your sons. 00:12:42.368 --> 00:12:50.364 It's the same verb that Tamar uses when she brings out the cloak and the staff and the cord and says, examine these, let 00:12:50.364 --> 00:12:53.976 them reveal themselves to you and see whose they belong to. 00:12:54.057 --> 00:12:57.172 And now Joseph examines his brothers. 00:12:57.830 --> 00:13:02.711 He knows who they are, but they are unable to tell who he is. 00:13:04.429 --> 00:13:12.392 And yet, even though he's dressed up with makeup, he's got his Egyptian regalia on, and they don't recognize him in the place of 00:13:12.457 --> 00:13:20.452 ruling, even though they've bowed down to him, essentially fulfilling the dream that he's had, they still recognize 00:13:20.548 --> 00:13:25.991 Joseph in the circumstances because they start talking to each other in their own language. 00:13:26.344 --> 00:13:28.977 In truth, we are guilty concerning our brothers. 00:13:29.204 --> 00:13:36.013 Our brother, in that we saw his distress when he begged us and we did not listen. 00:13:37.038 --> 00:13:40.689 That is why this distress has come upon us. 00:13:41.735 --> 00:13:46.546 So now there comes a reckoning for his blood. 00:13:49.017 --> 00:13:49.470 A reckoning. 00:13:51.590 --> 00:13:58.875 The brothers recognized the situation 22 years after the In fact, this is the same thing we were in before. 00:14:00.828 --> 00:14:03.233 But they don't recognize Joseph. 00:14:04.217 --> 00:14:12.187 And he hears them while they begin to talk about the distress of their brother Joseph, how he begged for his life 00:14:12.544 --> 00:14:13.648 and we didn't listen. 00:14:14.475 --> 00:14:16.974 Still so vivid in their memory. 00:14:20.026 --> 00:14:26.248 For years as I read this story, I have to admit that I saw Joseph Joseph as being really harsh and cruel toward his brothers. 00:14:27.399 --> 00:14:28.842 He speaks harshly toward them. 00:14:29.882 --> 00:14:36.091 He seems to be moving them around cruelly as pawns in a manipulative game. 00:14:37.757 --> 00:14:45.128 But after looking at this text, I'm coming to understand the patience and the kindness that Joseph shows toward his brothers. 00:14:46.269 --> 00:14:52.852 He is certainly testing them And you can't blame him after all that they've done to him. 00:14:54.185 --> 00:14:57.573 But he's second to Pharaoh in Egypt. 00:14:57.942 --> 00:15:04.268 After all, only with regard to Pharaoh's throne is he inferior to Pharaoh at all. 00:15:04.766 --> 00:15:08.732 Joseph could instantaneously annihilate his brothers if he wants to. 00:15:09.021 --> 00:15:15.375 He could parade them through the streets of Egypt, exposing their crimes before locking locking them up and throwing away the key. 00:15:16.782 --> 00:15:17.440 But what do we see? 00:15:19.578 --> 00:15:27.246 As Joseph hears his brothers recount the guilty conscience that they have, the weight of 00:15:27.246 --> 00:15:34.859 shame that they bear from hearing their brother beg for his life and ignoring him, the shame that they still have for their 00:15:34.859 --> 00:15:37.678 merciless crime, what does Joseph do? 00:15:38.962 --> 00:15:39.456 He begins to weep. 00:15:40.575 --> 00:15:40.996 Weep. 00:15:41.061 --> 00:15:43.428 He has to turn aside to hide his tears. 00:15:45.842 --> 00:15:53.443 He will maintain a strict and terrifying demeanor publicly before his brothers for the next few 00:15:53.443 --> 00:15:53.911 chapters. 00:15:54.342 --> 00:16:00.031 He will show himself to be a heartless and cruel judge in public. 00:16:00.680 --> 00:16:00.777 Why? 00:16:03.058 --> 00:16:09.844 Because it would be too easy for his brothers to confess their their crimes knowing that they would be exonerated. 00:16:11.612 --> 00:16:17.301 Joseph must be sure of their transformation before he reveals himself. 00:16:19.232 --> 00:16:26.279 And so we see Joseph laying the test, and as he does it, what does he desire for his brothers? 00:16:27.979 --> 00:16:31.227 I believe he desires them to be successful. 00:16:32.003 --> 00:16:39.560 To be successful this time, to be successful in this test, to see the cookie rack and to have learned the lesson. 00:16:41.362 --> 00:16:44.894 Joseph was not a manipulative and vengeful brother. 00:16:45.591 --> 00:16:49.157 He is a patient and hopeful reconciler. 00:16:51.414 --> 00:16:55.226 And this begins to sound a lot like the God of the Bible. 00:17:00.079 --> 00:17:07.882 If you ever go see a musical or you see an opera, you listen to the overture, you listen to the introit, and all of the themes of 00:17:07.947 --> 00:17:11.174 the piece of music that's about to come are there in the overture. 00:17:11.897 --> 00:17:16.055 In the same way, the book of Genesis presents all of the major themes that we're going to read in the Bible. 00:17:16.874 --> 00:17:24.754 And just as ancient readers would when they read these stories of Genesis here at the end of the book, They are seeing all of 00:17:24.754 --> 00:17:27.848 the hyperlinks back to the beginning of the book. 00:17:28.826 --> 00:17:36.568 And one of those themes that appears over and over in the Bible and in the book of Genesis is that of testing, testing. 00:17:37.786 --> 00:17:40.464 And think about the earliest test that we have in the Bible. 00:17:41.409 --> 00:17:41.938 Think hard. 00:17:43.157 --> 00:17:46.827 The earliest test, ah, back in the garden, of course. 00:17:48.062 --> 00:17:53.095 He places the man in the garden to work it and to keep it, and then God makes a covenant. 00:17:53.608 --> 00:17:56.465 It's actually a covenant a covenant of works with Adam. 00:17:56.966 --> 00:18:04.901 He says, "If you obey me in all of the things, eating of all of these trees except for the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, there's 00:18:04.966 --> 00:18:05.239 life. 00:18:06.254 --> 00:18:11.758 Ah, but on the day that you eat of the fruit of this tree, you will surely die." 00:18:13.259 --> 00:18:15.874 Now Adam agrees to it, we would assume. 00:18:17.778 --> 00:18:19.246 But how will he know 00:18:20.780 --> 00:18:28.550 And how will he display that he's actually going to trust God's word, that he actually trusts what God says is true and good? 00:18:29.245 --> 00:18:35.677 He's given a choice between life by trusting God's word and death by acting in doubt. 00:18:36.915 --> 00:18:38.041 And now we have to think about this. 00:18:38.186 --> 00:18:43.095 What would happen if the garden didn't have a tree of the knowledge of good and evil? 00:18:44.157 --> 00:18:48.013 Well, there wouldn't be an opportunity to sin, we would say, "Yeah, that sounds good." 00:18:49.422 --> 00:18:53.388 But would we ever know if we truly trusted God? 00:18:55.422 --> 00:18:59.974 Trust must be tested, otherwise it may not be trust at all. 00:19:01.632 --> 00:19:05.971 So when we read this chapter, do we see any similarities to the Garden of Eden? 00:19:06.979 --> 00:19:07.840 Well, of course we do. 00:19:08.956 --> 00:19:14.528 Joseph tells his brothers twice, Do this and you will live. 00:19:14.930 --> 00:19:16.649 Do this and you will live. 00:19:17.019 --> 00:19:22.518 This testing is a matter of choosing between life and death, just as it was in the garden. 00:19:23.777 --> 00:19:28.652 And there's another famous test that we know of, Abraham and Isaac. 00:19:30.330 --> 00:19:38.139 In Genesis 12 through 17, God makes a covenant with Abraham that all of his children are going to be a blessing to all 00:19:38.187 --> 00:19:39.439 of the families of the earth. 00:19:40.354 --> 00:19:44.497 And when God promises this, the Bible tells us that Abraham believed God. 00:19:45.235 --> 00:19:53.087 He believed that God was going to give him, a 90-year-old, and his wife Sarah, who was also elderly and barren, a child. 00:19:53.841 --> 00:19:54.901 The child of the promise. 00:19:54.949 --> 00:19:55.897 He believes God. 00:19:57.197 --> 00:20:04.942 And finally, when the baby miraculously comes, Isaac, God tells Abraham, Abraham to offer the child 00:20:05.088 --> 00:20:07.248 back to him as an act of sacrifice. 00:20:08.882 --> 00:20:09.011 Why? 00:20:10.464 --> 00:20:13.758 Is this a punishment because Abraham doesn't believe God? 00:20:14.242 --> 00:20:16.406 No, indeed, we've been told that Abraham does believe. 00:20:17.275 --> 00:20:18.395 It's just the opposite. 00:20:18.979 --> 00:20:26.932 It is because Abraham does believe God, but he has not yet had the opportunity to show it, to demonstrate his faith. 00:20:28.270 --> 00:20:31.283 And therefore God puts Abraham to the test. 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:34.001 He is not a vengeful God. 00:20:34.583 --> 00:20:42.452 He is a hopeful God who desires his son Abraham to display his faith in a way 00:20:42.452 --> 00:20:49.747 that all the generations of believers like us would hear that story and we would see faith put on display. 00:20:52.745 --> 00:21:00.532 James in the New Testament, Jesus's brother, he talks Jesus talks about Abraham and the fact that you can talk about being a 00:21:00.532 --> 00:21:05.196 changed person all you want, but until that change is tested, 00:21:06.722 --> 00:21:08.213 that change really can't be trusted. 00:21:09.862 --> 00:21:12.031 Show me your faith apart from works, he says. 00:21:13.642 --> 00:21:13.900 Good luck. 00:21:14.305 --> 00:21:15.857 Show me your faith without showing it. 00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:17.588 Good luck with that. 00:21:18.445 --> 00:21:20.968 But I will show my faith by what I do. 00:21:22.170 --> 00:21:25.430 Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. 00:21:26.120 --> 00:21:31.049 But that belief wasn't shown until he offered up his son on the altar. 00:21:32.125 --> 00:21:38.949 So effectively, faith without being demonstrated and confirmed by testing is dead, is what James tells us. 00:21:40.314 --> 00:21:46.544 Here in the Joseph story, we have another son of Abraham, Simeon. 00:21:47.660 --> 00:21:52.675 Being bound and effectively left for dead like Isaac. 00:21:54.062 --> 00:21:57.640 Ah, and a little preview of a few chapters in the future. 00:21:57.785 --> 00:22:01.992 I wonder if there will be a substitute the way that there was for Abraham and Isaac. 00:22:04.647 --> 00:22:07.431 Brothers and sisters, our story is the Israelite story. 00:22:08.187 --> 00:22:10.568 When we read the scriptures, we see ourselves in it. 00:22:11.968 --> 00:22:19.543 Through Jesus Christ, In Christ, God has delivered us from slavery, the slavery of sin and the misery of death, just as God 00:22:19.543 --> 00:22:22.883 delivered his Israelites from the slavery of Egypt. 00:22:23.942 --> 00:22:29.048 He's called us to be his people, and now we've made promises to change. 00:22:29.964 --> 00:22:32.790 In being called his sons and daughters, we make vows to the Lord. 00:22:32.838 --> 00:22:34.347 I will follow you, Jesus. 00:22:35.487 --> 00:22:38.377 All our old ways are set beside us, behind us. 00:22:39.275 --> 00:22:41.894 And we live into the new creation of Jesus Christ. 00:22:42.266 --> 00:22:50.027 Friends, we talk about the faith that we have and our resolutions of trusting God, but unless we're 00:22:50.044 --> 00:22:57.686 put to the test, that faith is never really actually exercised, and we won't know whether that faith is genuine or 00:22:57.735 --> 00:22:58.146 not. 00:22:59.998 --> 00:23:07.081 What tests has God used in your life to expose the fact that maybe Maybe you are weak in some areas 00:23:08.001 --> 00:23:10.068 and his Holy Spirit has to strengthen and encourage you. 00:23:11.082 --> 00:23:12.855 Those tests are a good gift from God. 00:23:14.032 --> 00:23:19.789 In fact, they're called God's discipline, as a wise father disciplining his children. 00:23:21.860 --> 00:23:28.961 After the Israelites were in the desert for 40 years, Moses was about to usher them into the Promised Land. 00:23:29.703 --> 00:23:33.789 He preaches a famous sermon that we call the book of Deuteronomy. 00:23:35.431 --> 00:23:43.334 And Moses says this: Remember the whole story of the Lord, the whole story of the Lord God, and how he's 00:23:43.495 --> 00:23:51.413 led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what 00:23:51.413 --> 00:23:55.032 is in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 00:23:56.705 --> 00:24:04.615 He humbled He humbled you and he let you hunger, and then he fed you with manna, which you didn't even know about, nor did your fathers know, 00:24:05.356 --> 00:24:13.356 that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that 00:24:13.356 --> 00:24:14.751 comes from the mouth of the Lord. 00:24:16.169 --> 00:24:24.015 Your clothing, it didn't wear out for 40 years in the wilderness, nor did your feet swell after all of 00:24:24.015 --> 00:24:24.932 that walking around. 00:24:26.442 --> 00:24:33.583 Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his child, the Lord your God disciplines you. 00:24:35.945 --> 00:24:37.107 And if you've read the whole story, 00:24:38.699 --> 00:24:41.937 you know how often the Israelites fail these tests. 00:24:43.210 --> 00:24:50.920 You know how often they grumble in the desert, even though they've been fed with manna, even though a spring shoots up from the middle of 00:24:51.918 --> 00:24:54.188 a rock, they continue to grumble. 00:24:55.943 --> 00:25:02.535 And so God gives us another man who was tested in the wilderness like them, this time for 40 days. 00:25:03.988 --> 00:25:05.331 He was tempted by Satan. 00:25:06.172 --> 00:25:08.260 He was tested by God. 00:25:09.344 --> 00:25:15.065 Not a vengeful God, but a loving Father who was waiting for his son to show true faith. 00:25:15.470 --> 00:25:19.980 Joseph to show success when the cookie rack was laid out on the counter. 00:25:21.722 --> 00:25:29.065 And every failure of nerve on the part of God's people was a success for that one man. 00:25:30.582 --> 00:25:35.754 Through Jesus' perfect record, we have a God who does not hold our failures against us. 00:25:37.500 --> 00:25:40.315 Like Joseph, God is patient. 00:25:41.352 --> 00:25:42.028 He is hopeful. 00:25:43.203 --> 00:25:47.067 He's pleased with every small effort to trust and obey him. 00:25:47.550 --> 00:25:51.405 It is kindness that is meant to lead us toward repentance. 00:25:53.952 --> 00:25:58.072 What failures, friends, have you been afraid to acknowledge to God? 00:26:00.226 --> 00:26:03.284 What guilt have you lived with in secret? 00:26:05.119 --> 00:26:11.783 See what patience and kindness, what sure and steady confidence God shows toward his children. 00:26:12.522 --> 00:26:18.082 His testing of your faith is meant to show the thoroughness of his love. 00:26:19.351 --> 00:26:22.549 He does not abandon us with that anger of ours. 00:26:23.545 --> 00:26:28.815 He does not leave us bound as a criminal with that worldliness of ours. 00:26:30.197 --> 00:26:34.439 He does not leave us lost in that distraction that intractability of ours. 00:26:35.187 --> 00:26:38.477 He does not disown us in that disbelief of ours. 00:26:40.667 --> 00:26:47.808 As one pastor of this church was fond of saying, God is a better teacher than we are poor students. 00:26:49.805 --> 00:26:57.446 And as Charles Spurgeon said, once we get to heaven, friends, we shall see that we had not one 00:26:57.559 --> 00:26:59.249 test, too many. 00:27:00.798 --> 00:27:01.104 Amen. 00:27:02.330 --> 00:27:02.830 Let's pray. 00:27:08.786 --> 00:27:12.668 Thank you, Lord, for how you show yourself in the stories of scripture. 00:27:14.901 --> 00:27:21.508 And Lord, we thank you and praise you that you are a God who is slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and mercy, 00:27:22.575 --> 00:27:25.636 forgiving thousands of generations. 00:27:27.015 --> 00:27:34.851 We thank you for Jesus, whose perfect faithfulness, perfect righteousness, perfect track record 00:27:34.851 --> 00:27:36.593 substitutes for our own failures. 00:27:37.352 --> 00:27:43.923 And now what that means for us is a true embrace, that you have reconciled us to yourself. 00:27:45.651 --> 00:27:53.575 Lord, as we live and are tested by your hand, will you keep us from dismay and despair, to remember 00:27:53.592 --> 00:28:01.427 in those times how wise a God, how good a Father we have, and to explore and learn and know and trust 00:28:01.764 --> 00:28:03.274 the thoroughness of your love. 00:28:04.189 --> 00:28:06.244 In Jesus' name, amen.