Sovereignty Saves

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Nick Whitehead

0:14Morning, If you don't know me, my name is Nick Whitehead. I serve here on staff as one of the pastors. And this morning we're continuing our sermon series through the book of Genesis. Uh, as one congregant pointed out to me this morning though I was already aware, I have the privilege to try to get through three chapters this morning. So it's nearly a hundred verses that we're gonna bite off today. And I won't have time unfortunately to read through the entire text. We'd be here for about 15 minutes listening to Genesis. But I would invite you as you're able to open your Bibles up because I do want you to track with me as we work our way through the narrative at a number of points.

1:02I'm gonna read portions of the text and I'm gonna invite you to notice particular voices verses so we've got a lot of ground to cover. So I wanna ask the Lord for his help. Lord, we, we really do want to hear from you this morning. Nobody in here gets any brownie points or golden stars just for sitting through this sermon. The benefits of this time together in your word are in so much as we see you here and as much as we increase in our faith and in our love for you, and we can't see you rightly unless you reveal yourself to us. So I pray like we do every week, that through your word and by your power, you would show yourself and we pray this in Jesus' name.

1:49Amen. Hello, my name is I, NIGO Montoya. You killed my father prepare to die. I'm hearing laughs. So I imagine you are familiar with this line from the classic film, the Princess Bride. This is the line that in Nigo Montoya has rehearsed for 20 years waiting to introduce himself to the six fingered man who killed his father. And when in Nigo finally encounters this man, they engage in a sword dual and in Nigo repeats that ref refrain over and over again until he finally gains the upper hand. In the fight. He slings the six fingered man sword across the room and he threatens him with a list of final demands, offer me money to which the six fingered man quickly replies, yes, of course power demands an ego, all that I have and more replies the man.

2:50And finally in Nigo says, offer me everything I want. And the six fingered man assures him anything you want. But in a blink of an eye, montoya thrusts his sword into the man's torso and whispers, I want my father back. And in this moment a final vengeance. As viewers, we experience some sense of satisfaction as Montoya enacts this long awaited justice on his father's murderer. Like Montoya the hero of our story. This morning, Joseph is finally, after 20 years, face-to-face with the men who have brought him significant suffering and pain. And the question before the reader of Genesis is what is Joseph going to do in this situation?

3:39He has the upper hand, just like Montoya. All the power of in Egypt is at his disposal. The brothers who sold him into slavery are now destitute. They're in need of grain and they're begging at his feet. And Joseph, as we saw in chapter 42, kind of looks like he's headed in the direction of vengeance, right? He speaks harshly to his brothers. He intimidates them. He accuses them of being spies. He takes Simeon captive and he demands that they return with their youngest brother. That's where we're at in this story. The brothers have returned home to Canaan without their brother Simeon. They've reported to their father Jacob, what this Egyptian ruler is demanding and their father refuses to allow his favorite remaining son Benjamin to go back with them.

4:29So they're stuck. But at the start of our text, morning chapter 43, look at it. We see Jacob change his mind after some time because in verses one and two, the famine was severe and they had eaten all the grain that they had brought from Egypt. So Jacob is out of options. His family is heading towards starvation. And so he commands his sons, go buy us a little food. Jacob has stalled this long because he knows he cannot send his sons back to Egypt without Benjamin, whom he's desperate not to lose. And I want you to see this Jacob's sin of favoritism that we've talked about earlier in our series still has life.

5:19Remember Simeon Jacob's second born son is still imprisoned in Egypt. He's been there for several months, maybe even approaching two years. And yet the retrieval of Simeon is not what's compelling Jacob to send his sons back to Egypt. Jacob has ignored Simeon's plight in order to protect his favorite son Benjamin. But what compels Jacob finally is the empty bread box on the counter and something else happens that pushes Jacob over the edge. Look at verses eight and nine. Judah recognizing his father's favoritism offers himself up as a pledge of safety. He says to Jacob, if I do not bring Benjamin back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame forever.

6:12I'm not sure exactly what this pledge of security would've entailed in practice, but I think Judah could be very well signing over his life to Jacob, giving him the right to kill him if he returns without Benjamin. And so this finally motivates Jacob. First, he's got no bread to eat. Second Judah gives up this pledge he can't refuse. And so Jacob sends his sons off to Egypt with a gift to appease the Egyptian ruler. We read in verse 15, the men took this present, they took double the money with them and Benjamin of course, and they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. Dun, dun, dun dun.

6:57Now we already saw last week that these brothers consciences are being awakened to their sin against Joseph from 20 years ago. They already feel concerned that God is behind these testing circumstances with this Egyptian ruler, but we know something that they don't know. The Egyptian ruler that they fear is the very brother whom they sold into slavery. And so as readers we're thinking, you think you're in a bad spot, guys, you don't even know the half of it. The man on whom your life depends is the man whose life you intended to destroy. Imagine for a moment what you would do if you were Joseph.

7:40You're face to face with the brothers who have sold you into lifelong slavery. Brothers who you overheard plotting to take your life. Brothers who have caused you excruciating stress, pain separated you from your father, your family. Perhaps you wouldn't be surprised if Joseph's very next words to his brothers in our text were, hello, My name is Joseph, son of Jacob, you destroyed my life prepared To die. If that was the case, I'd have one more verse to preach. That's not what happens. We've got 80 more verses to unpack this morning to see Joseph's unexpected response, which we're gonna tackle in two main sections.

8:28First we'll see in the rest of chapter 43 and 44 that Joseph continues to patiently test the character of his brothers. But then in chapter 55, the climax of this entire narrative, which started in chapter 37, Joseph does not enact vengeance and instead he speaks some of the most astonishing words in the Bible to comfort his brothers. Before we get there, let's tackle the test. The test that Joseph gives, he really carries out two tests and these chapters the first and and I've kind of described them as Joseph doing a little good cop, bad cop. So the two tests, good cop, bad cop, see if you see this with me, the first test is the good cop.

9:13We see it in 43 verses 16 through 34. So you can glance at those verses. I'm not gonna read them all, but just to summarize, the brothers returned to Egypt with fear and trembling. And this time they find Joseph surprisingly delightful, sort of compassionate compared to the way he treated them before he prepares a meal for them, he dismisses their attempts to return the extra money they found in their sacks. He even grabs Simeon out of prison and has him join the party. He blesses Benjamin. He eagerly asks how their father is doing and and they don't see this, the brothers don't see this, but we get to see Joseph become very emotional.

9:54Verse 30, he has to hurry out of the room to weep and then he washes his face, he collects himself and then he comes back in to enact the test. Here's the test. He sits his brothers down according to their birth order, says in verse 33, and the brothers look at each other in amazement. Here's why I think they look at each other in amazement. These are 10 middle aged, shaggy bearded men probably in the age range of 40 to 60. And Joseph lays them down in order from oldest to youngest. It's pretty incredible. But then Joseph does something stranger, something far more counter-cultural. In verse 34, he serves Benjamin the youngest brother, with a lunch portion five times larger than the others.

10:46Joseph, what he's doing is he's recreating the situation that mimics Jacob's favoritism of Joseph 20 years earlier when he gave him that multicolored robe. Joseph is testing his half brothers to see if they will become jealous of Benjamin, the remaining son of Jacob's favorite wife. What happens? The brothers are not agitated, they're not stirred up against Benjamin. Instead we read in verse 34, the brothers pass the test they drank and were merry with him. They joyfully clink glasses with Benjamin as he enjoys five times more camel steaks or ostrich egg omelets or whatever they're eating. But Joseph's not done with his testing.

11:32So now he tries a different approach. In chapter 44, which you can look at this time, he plays bad cops so to speak. He frames Benjamin, he secretly sneaks his royal silver cup into Benjamin's food, snack food sack. And then the next morning when the brothers are heading off for home carrying their grain, Joseph sends his steward after them to confront them for stealing. And the brothers respond with utmost confidence in their own innocence. They are so sure that none of them has stolen this cup, that they make this wild offer that you see in verse nine, chapter 44 verse nine, whichever of your servants is found with it shall die.

12:14And we also will be my lord's servants. But Joseph will respond, only the guilty man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. As for you go up in peace to your father. In other words, Joseph says, Benjamin alone will be punished. You guys can go free. Joseph is setting up his brothers for another opportunity to betray the favored son. This time their earnings will not be 20 shekels of silver, but their very own freedom. And the question is, are they gonna take up the offer? Will they again abandon a brother to slavery in Egypt? Look at verse 13, chapter 44. Every single one of these brothers pairs his clothes, loads up his donkey heads right back into Egypt.

13:10Unlike what they did to Joseph 22 years earlier. This time they refuse to abandon their brother. They refuse to go back to Jacob without his favorite son. And when Joseph offer offers them that second chance to leave Benjamin, it's Judah who now seems to be leading this pack of brothers who will not stand down. Judah so convicted by his guilt responds to Joseph with the longest and most impassioned speech in all of Genesis. It's a speech that demonstrates Judah's radical transformation and by extension the transformation of all of these brothers. And verses 18 through 32, Judah will explain to this Egyptian ruler how much his father loves Benjamin, even suggesting that his father will die if he loses Benjamin.

14:04And then Judah makes a plea. He begs this Egyptian ruler to let him be enslaved in Benjamin's stead. We see it in verse 33. Look at it. Judah says, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord and let the boy go back with his brothers for how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father. And if you read Judas speech in its entirety, you'll notice something quite interesting. It's the main character of the plea. It's not ju Judah, it's not Benjamin, it's his father. Jacob. Judah refers to his father 14 times in this speech.

14:56His primary concern is for his dad, which I want you to feel how remarkable this is. Remember that Jacob's favoritism is what fueled Judah and his brothers to sin against Joseph in the first place. And Jacob's sinful partiality, as we mentioned, has not ceased even after Joseph's death. He loves Benjamin now more than any of the other sons. So Judah's plea is quite astonishing because now 20 years later, Judah responds to this favoritism, not with hatred, not with jealousy, not with envy or plans to murder, but with empathy for his dad with love, deep concern to restore to his father that which his father loved most.

15:43Judas so transformed, he offers up his own freedom so that Benjamin can go home. And Judah's sacrificial willingness to be enslaved in the place of Benjamin brings Joseph to the end of his tests and the end of himself. The transformation is so evident to Joseph that he finally lets down his defenses. And that's where we get to the climax of this narrative. Genesis 45 verse one, read the first three verses then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, make everyone go out from me. So no one stayed with him. When Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

16:33And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm Joseph, is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. Joseph reveals his identity and these guys are absolutely dumbfounded. They are in shock, they can't even speak. I mean this Egyptian ruler has just sent out all the Egyptians, which includes his interpreter and is now speaking to them in their own language and he's claiming to be the brother they sold into slavery decades ago. And Joseph's brothers are so bewildered that Joseph has to repeat himself. Verse four, I'm your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt.

17:21And it's no surprise these guys can't utter a word. They're already afraid of this Egyptian ruler, but now they're staring in the face of the brother whom they essentially abandoned unto death and they're likely thinking two things at the same time. How in the world can this be? And we are in big trouble. They were already feeling this disciplining hand of God before they knew this was Joseph. And now the guilt and fear are likely paralyzing, they're likely crushing them. And we would rightly expect for Joseph in this moment to deliver those words of condemnation prepared to die, but he doesn't.

18:03And instead he speaks a word of comfort to them. Look at verse five, Joseph says to his brothers, now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you so me here for God sent me before you to preserve life for the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God, he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. So how does Joseph comfort his guilty distressed brothers?

18:54He tells them that their wicked act of selling him into slavery was divinely planned by God to bring about the salvation of many. And Joseph is so intent on communicating this truth that he repeats it three times. You see that three times he expresses absolute certainty that it is God's will, not the will of his brothers. That has been the ultimate controlling reality in all these circumstances. So I wanna walk through these verses a little more slowly. So look at them with me again verses verse five through eight, verse five. Joseph says, you so me here for God sent me before you to preserve life.

19:36This is one of the most classic biblical expressions of God's providential control even of the most evil of actions. Joseph says to his brothers, you sold me into slavery. God sent me to save lives. You did evil. But God is the overruling architect of all these things, designing them for his good and sovereign and saving purposes. So now we see that Joseph has not only been given by God the ability to interpret dreams, he's able to interpret providence, his faith, allows him to see through the evil done to him and understand the divine hand of God in it all and say, it was good, it was good. Then Joseph repeats the idea again. Verse seven.

20:29This time he personalizes it to his brothers to show them it's good for them too. Says in verse seven, God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. Joseph is saying to his brothers, God didn't just use your evil against me to save thousands of lives in this region. He used it to save your very own lives and your very own families.

21:02And Joseph is so set on emphasizing God's absolute sovereign control that he makes an even stronger statement in verse eight. Look at that verse this time, he doesn't say, you sold me into slavery. And instead he says, it was not you who sent me but God. So in order to emphasize God's ultimate control over the affairs of men, Joseph just flat out denies that his brothers had any role in this. Now I wanna pause here because I do think Joseph is speaking hyperbolically in order to make a point. I don't think he's trying to negate human responsibility or excuse his brother's sin as if it doesn't matter.

21:45It's quite apparent from this entire narrative that they are guilty, they have sinned against Joseph. Nowhere in Genesis do we get the idea that God's sovereignty means he's sweeping sin under the rug, that it won't be punished, that it doesn't need to be acknowledged or repented of Joseph's comments are not meant to let the brothers off the hook. They are really guilty. They are really responsible for their sin. Nevertheless, God is sovereign over what they did and that's Joseph's point. God's will not the brother's will is decisive. God has supreme free will to do all that he pleases. God is the ultimate mover and shaker of every minuscule action and decision of men.

22:35God purpose that Egyptian caravan to come by at just the right moment and and God purpose that the hearts of these brothers would be swayed by greed to sell instead of to kill him. Even these evil things are under God's mighty management. And if you're balking at that statement, which I've been there, I implore you to search the scriptures to see how God relates to evil in the world. I'll give you three quick texts. Amos three six asks The rhetorical question, does disaster. That word could be translated evil. Does evil come to a city unless the Lord has done it? Isaiah 45, 7. The Lord says, I make wellbeing and I create calamity.

23:30Also the word that could be translated evil. I am the Lord who does all these things. Psalm 1 0 5 25, this gets a little more specific. It says that God turned the hearts of the Egyptians to hate his people. These are not easy texts to grapple with, but I want you to hear this at least very clearly. Even though God super intends these sinful acts, he never sins He he, he never ever sins humans alone, bear the guilt for their sin. And there's some mystery to this, I want to admit that, but I also want us to affirm everything. The Bible affirms the text never gives us warrant to criticize God for being malevolent or wicked.

24:22He's holy, he's good, he's loving. But in some mysterious way, he orchestrates human sin in such a manner that he does not sin. But instead he wisely and righteously does good at every point and always accomplishes his good purposes. In the end, that's our God. And this is what Joseph draws out in these verses. God's sovereignty over evil and suffering is good and it's purposeful in it all. God is aiming at and accomplishing his good redemptive work, which is exactly why Joseph can speak this as a comforting word to his guilt-ridden brothers, he says, even your sin brothers, even your wicked acts God has brought to pass for his righteous saving purposes.

25:22A few chapters later, we'll get to it in Genesis 50 and thankfully have time to look at this doctrine again. Joseph will say it like this to his brothers, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. God didn't just repurpose the evil deeds or recover the situation at the last second. God from the beginning meaningfully intentionally designed the evil of Joseph's brothers to bring about his saving plan. And the reality with which Joseph is comforting his brothers, I believe is the reality that has first comforted him. Joseph is able to respond to these brothers who have abused and victimized him, not with rage and retaliation, but with grace.

26:11Why? Because God's saving sovereignty over evil is a ballast to his soul. Now, I don't think we should necessarily read the Joseph story as a step-by-step guide for how to forgive those who have hurt us. This won't look the same for every situation that you find yourself in. And yet it is quite clear that Joseph forgives his brothers verses nine through 15. If you see those display this reconciliation there, Joseph tells his brothers to go invite Jacob and all his family to come dwell in Egypt. And he promises to provide all of them what they need during this famine he'll provide for their children and their children's children and their herds.

27:02And I started this sermon with a scene of vengeance. And yet there's something sweeter to watch than revenge isn't there? It's reconciliation, it's forgiveness, it's redemption it. That's what we see finally in verses 14 and 15, I'll read them. Joseph fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept and Benjamin wept upon his neck and he kissed all his brothers and he wept upon them. After that, his brothers talked with him first time in 20 years. This is a beautiful ending. These brothers who threw him into a pit who ignored his desperate cries for help, Joseph now kisses and embraces and weeps upon them.

27:52Joseph has supplanted any further thoughts of revenge toward these brothers by dwelling on God's greater purposes of redemption. I won't read the remaining verses of chapter 45. Maybe that's a homework assignment. But the happy ending to our chapter will continue. Pharaoh himself will invite Joseph's whole family back to Egypt to enjoy the best of the land. And the chapter ends with Jacob after 20 years hearing the report that Joseph is still alive and Jacob says, I will go and I'll see him before I die. So what do we take away from this story? First before I hit the main application, I recognize that what I said above about God's absolute sovereignty over evil and sin may sound horrendous to some of you.

28:51Some of you are in the midst of deep, painful circumstances and it is incredibly hard for you to hear that these are orchestrated by the hand of God. You are chafing at the idea that a good and loving God could ultimately be behind all these circumstances that you've experienced, that he could be the ultimate cause, but but be behind every horror of human history and everything in you wants to keep God's hand unstained from the evil in this world. You wanna sanitize him. If that's you, I just wanna ask you to check that inclination for a moment. Just ask yourself, would you really rather have a God who was not sovereignly in control of the evil and sin and suffering in your life?

29:44Would you rather have a God who does not have authority over your present painful circumstance who is not working through these sins done against you? And I hope that when you ask those questions, you realize that diminishing God's sovereignty will not bring you peace and hope in this broken world. If God is not sovereign over evil, then your suffering is meaningless. If wickedness and suffering are outside of God's control, then you are at their random and relentless mercy. Wouldn't you rather trust Joseph's God? The God who's working his sovereign salvation, even through the evil acts of men, the God who designs suffering in order to sanctify his saints, the God who as Joshua prayed this morning, works all things together for good, for those who love him.

30:43But here's the main application of this massive doctrine and our text this morning. It's to comfort you. I believe Moses recorded this story to comfort Israel with God's saving sovereignty as they endured suffering and sin. And I believe it's written for us to draw us up out of our present pain and give us a bird's eye view of how God is using even the most horrendous of human deeds to accomplish salvation. And if we can see it, I think this text speaks to those who have lost hope, that good can overcome evil. I think it speaks to those who are tempted to consider God absent from their trials.

31:30It speaks to those who are failing to entrust God with their suffering. It speaks to those who are considering taking justice into their own hands and retaliating against their offenders. I don't know what you're going through right now. Some of your afflictions may be lighter than Josephs, some may be weightier. But I do know that sin and suffering are littering your human experience just as they litter mine, broken relationships, broken bodies, divorce, domestic abuse, death. You may have a sick child, sick spouse, sick mom, your car died this morning, can't pay rent, you're fired. You've been falsely accused.

32:19Some of you are maybe even resonating with the specific hurt of being betrayed by your own family. I'm aware of it's why I tear up. I'm aware of and praying for some of the heartbreaking things happening in the lives of this congregation. And I don't pretend to for a moment fully understand the pain and sorrow some of you experience, but with everything in me. I truly believe that faith in the all wise, all redeeming sovereignty of God will help you. It will comfort you. It will strengthen you. God's sovereignty over evil is not just this esoteric, abstract, theoretical idea. It's not just something that gets debated up there in the ivory towers of the academic world.

33:08This reality touches your world. The reality about God's radical and total sovereignty over all things will stabilize your soul and the most horrendous of situations. It will give you peace when life's circumstances are a nightmare. It will comfort you when you experience your deepest remorse and regret. It will defeat despair. It will silence self pity. It will purge you of pride. It's an antidote to anxiety.

33:45God is ruling and he is reigning on his throne. No power of hell, no scheme of man, no stain of sin can destroy his good and glorious purposes. Let me challenge you with one more thing this morning before we close, I want to challenge you not to underestimate what God can do through your suffering. Some of you this morning can hardly see past it. It's right in your face. And I just wanna encourage you, whether you can see it or not, your present circumstances are not the end of the story. I really doubt that Joseph was trudging behind that Egyptian caravan at 17 years old with ropes around his wrists thinking, well maybe in 20 years this will all work out and I'll save a bunch of people.

34:36I'll, I'll preserve the life of my own family. I doubt it. In fact, Joseph, it would take 20 years before Joseph would see the good God was gonna bring about and he didn't even get to see the ultimate good like preserving the lineage of the Messiah who would save us from our sins. And so I encourage you, let this text allow you to just peek around the corner of your suffering for a moment to get a glimpse of how God can use these trials to bear amazing fruits. So don't just endure the suffering. Eagerly anticipate that God is bringing about eternal good that far outweighs the hard things you're seeing and experiencing right now.

35:19This is how our God works. He does incredible things by way of sin and suffering. In fact, it's a very common biblical pattern that we're gonna see over and over again. And this pattern of God bringing about evil in order to save climaxes in the greatest work of redemption in all of history. And Acts 4 27 and 28, the apostles pray this to God. They say, for truly in this city, there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel to do whatever your hand, God and your plan, God had predestined to take place.

36:09You can't get around this text. God predestined his son's death at the hands of wicked men. God accomplished your salvation by ordaining that these rebellious people would crucify the very son of God. Isaiah would even prophesy about this Messiah saying it was the will of the Lord to crush him, to bring him to grief. This is not random evil that happens to work out for good. This is intentional. It's designed by a sovereign God that not only longs to save his people, but he has all authority and power and control to do so. He will bring these redemptive things to pass. And much like Joseph, we watch our savior accept the hard cup of God's providence, doesn't he?

37:02Because he knows that the evil God has ordained for him will bring salvation to many. Does that make it easy? No. You read the gospels, you see how Jesus pleads that his father removed this cup from him? And you can do the same. Ask the Lord to remove this cup of suffering. But he, in the end, Jesus would submit to his father's will, our Savior would hold his tongue. He would be led like a lamb to the slaughter and all of this because he knew his father would work through this evil to save you, to save me. So as you suffer, as you endure the sin against you, may you say like Jesus, pray like he prayed.

37:52Not my will, but yours be done. And may you eagerly hope in May you wait for the redemptive work that God will certainly bring to pass. If it's not in this life, it's in the next. So lemme pray. Father, you know the events that are shaping the lives of these saints in this room. You don't just know them. You brought them to pass the sins done against them, the sins they've committed, the sufferings they endure, they're all under your divine orchestration. So, Lord, would you assure us that even in these afflictions, they will give way to eternal weight of glory? Give us confidence. Give us hope that you can do far more than we could ask or imagine even through our suffering.

38:43We pray this in the name of the one who is slain for our salvation. Amen.

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Sermon Text

Genesis 43:1-45:28