God Takes Care of All People

Genesis chapter 47, as we slowly make our way toward the end of this book of beginnings, Genesis chapter 47 will begin with verse 11, but today we're going to talk about how God himself takes care of all people. God doesn't just take care of a few people, God takes care of all people. God is gracious to all, God is good to all. The Bible says in Psalm 145 verse number 14, the Lord sustains all who fall and raises up all who are bowed down.

The eyes of all look to thee and thou dost give them their food in due time. Thou dost open thy hand and satisfy the desire of every living thing. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and kind in all his deeds. Our God is a good God and he's good to everybody, not just his children. God gives you all things. That's the way God is. Sometimes I think that we have this picture of God as this great big ogre upstairs waiting to inflict pain upon all kinds of people, but that's just not the way God is at all.

God is a good God. In fact, the Bible says in 1 Timothy 4 that he is the savior of all men, especially of those who believe.

In a temporal sense, God is everybody's savior. In an internal sense, he's only a savior of those who believe, but as you read Isaiah 63, you realize that God was a savior of all of Israel, even though not all of them believed in him because he is a provider for man. We need to understand that. In Genesis chapter 47, we realize that Joseph being that perfect type of Christ is gracious and kind and good to all the Egyptians, to all the Israelites, because he demonstrates to us the goodness and graciousness and mercy of God to all people.

Let's read verses 11 down to the end of the chapter, and then we'll spend some time making some comments about some important points. Genesis chapter 47, verse number 11, So Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramesses, as Pharaoh had ordered. And Joseph provided his father and his brothers and all his father's household with food according to their little ones. Now there was no food in all the land because the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.

And Joseph gathered all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food, for why should we die in your presence? For our money is gone. Then Joseph said, Give up your livestock, and I will give you food for your livestock that your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, and the flocks, and the herds, and the donkeys.

And he fed them with food in the exchange for all their livestock that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, We will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent, and the cattle are my Lord's. There is nothing left for my Lord except our bodies and our lands. Why should we die before your eyes? Both we and our land. Buy us and our land for food, and we and our land will be slaves to Pharaoh. So give us seed that we may live and not die, and that the land may not be desolate.

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, and for every Egyptian sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. Thus the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to the cities from one end of Egypt's border to the other. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had an allotment from Pharaoh, and they lived off the allotment which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have today bought you and your land for Pharaoh.

Now here is seed for you, and you may sow the land. And at the harvest you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own for seed of the field, and for your food, and for those of your households, and as food for your little ones. So they said, You have saved our lives. Let us find favor in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's slaves. And Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, valid to this day, that Pharaoh should have the fifth. Only the land of the priests did not become Pharaoh's.

Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt in Goshen, and they acquired property in it, and were fruitful, and became very numerous. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the length of Jacob's life was one hundred and forty-seven years. When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh, and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt, and bury me in their burial place.

And he said, I will do as you have said. And he said, Swear to me. So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed. A tremendous story about Joseph, his leadership in Egypt, and Jacob, and how God prospered him. And if you are to understand Joseph as a type of Christ, you realize that one day when Jesus Christ returns and sets up His kingdom upon earth, and rules from the city of Jerusalem over the land, that this is a typology of what will happen during that time. But you must understand four things about the text.

Number one, the provision. Number two, the problem. Number three, the plan. Number four, the prosperity. We'll begin, first of all, with the provision.

Two things I want you to note about the provision for Joseph's brothers. The encampment, and number two, the endowment.

The encampment, then the endowment. I want you to notice where they were. They were in the land of Goshen. It was the best of the land. And they would come and they would live in this land there along the Nile River, that rich agricultural land, and all their needs would be provided. They would all be taken care of because Joseph promised that they came to Him in the land of Goshen would be theirs. And He would supply all of their needs. And that's the way God works in the lives of His people. God is the ultimate shepherd, provides for our needs, doesn't He?

He takes care of us and says, If you come to Me, I will take care of you. But Joseph's mercy, Joseph's graciousness to his brothers who had wronged him, boy, I tell you, he was so kind to them, wasn't he? He was so good to them. After all the years that he went through, all the problems he went through, he was so kind to his brothers. He gave them the best in the land. Do you know God wants to give you His best? Our Lord never gives a second best.

He always gives us His best. That's why He gave us His Son. It was the best. You need to remember that. And so when you look at this encampment that these men dwelt, it was the best land because that's the way our Lord is.

The second thing I want you to see is the endowment. Joseph provided for all of them. He provided for them in a supernatural kind of way. That while this famine would languish in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, I mean, it was, it was these brothers and their families who were richly blessed by Joseph, their great shepherd. And that's good news because you see, no matter what happens around us, God wants to bless us, not only with His presence so that we can draw near to Him, the one who speaks with authority, but that we can experience the blessings that He has for us.

Now, I want you to notice something. Joseph is providing for them. He promised He would take care of them and that's exactly what He is going to do. Isn't that what God said? He says, I will supply all your needs according to my riches in glory by Christ Jesus, our Lord. I'll supply all your needs. I'll take care of all your needs. Do you believe that? Jesus said that to you. That's a promise He gave to me and to you. He wants you to understand that. That's a provision. Number two, I want you to see the problem.

There's always a problem, isn't there? You know, when God provides, there always rises another problem, but that's okay because God is going to be in that problem as well. Two things I want you to notice about this problem.

It's severity and then it's solution. It's severity and then the solution. You see, God allowed this famine to be so severe. Listen very carefully. It would cause the people to run to Joseph. Joseph was their only hope, their only hope. And you will know as you examine this text, they will say, Joseph, you have saved our lives. You saved us, Joseph. Do you know how Joseph saved them? Joseph saved them when they relinquished everything they had to him. That's when they were saved, right? They gave their money.

When the money was all gone, they had nothing else to give, so they gave the livestock. After they gave all their livestock, what did they give? They gave themselves and all their land. They gave it all. And what did Jesus say in Luke 14, 33? Unless you are willing to give up all that you possess, you cannot be one of my disciples. Can't be. And these people were willing to give it all up. Why? Because their life was at stake, right? They were going to die. And when the sinner realizes that unless he gives his life to Christ, he will die in his sins, there is no hope for him, no hope.

And these people realized, these Egyptians realized that their only hope was in Joseph as the famine grew more and more severe. And the solution was for them just to keep giving more of themselves away, more of what they had away to Joseph. And you know what? Listen to this. This is so good because you know what God was doing? God is so amazing. He was given total authority to the Pharaoh, complete sovereign rulership to the Pharaoh, where everybody would be whose slave? Pharaoh's slave. Everybody.

Why? Because you see, God was orchestrating all the events so that Pharaoh would rise to fame, he would rise to power in the land, and everybody would be subject to him. Why? So 400 years later, God would show himself a greater sovereign, a more powerful sovereign than the one who ruled in Egypt, when he would lead his people out of that bondage to the promised land. You see that? You see, there's nothing that happens in our lives, and we've talked about this so many times, but the book of Genesis emphasizes the sovereignty of God, right?

Unlike any other book, God rules over all, and God takes even the bad things to bring about his purposes for your good and for his glory, right? In terms of the land, he bought all the land of Egypt. Remember, they had given him all their money, right? Now he has all their money, so he uses their money to buy their land. That's a good plan. And then in terms of the people, he moved them all into the cities, all of them. Why? So the government would have complete control over them. This is all part of God's plan.

It was a good plan, but he moved them all into the cities. And then I want you to notice, everybody except for the priests, the Pharaoh had them in his pocket anyway, but I want you to notice what Joseph says.

This is so profound. Remember, Joseph is the perfect type of Christ. I want to draw the principles for you so you understand what he does with these people to show you what Jesus Christ does for his children. Watch this. Verse number 23, behold, I have today, what's it say? Bought you. I bought you. You're mine. Isn't that what Jesus did? First Corinthians chapter 6, verse number 19.

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with the price. Therefore glorify God in your body. Christ has bought us, right? You're mine. You're mine. You see, that mentality is so important for us to understand. Why? Because every morning we should wake up and say, Lord, I'm here to report for duty. What is it you want me to do? You purchased me with your own blood and I'm here to serve you, Lord.

What are my marching orders today? But most of us don't wake up that way, but that's the way we should wake up, right? Because we are owned by a greater master, the king of the universe. Then Joseph says this, I bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now, here is seed for you. He provided them seed that they might be able to grow some of their own food. God says, I bought you.

Now I'm going to give you seed and this seed is going to help you grow. It's going to be all that you need to live from day to day. Isn't that good? That's what God does. And as Joseph would provide for the people of Egypt what they needed to live, so Jesus provides for us what we need to live day by day. And then Joseph says this, listen, he says, at the harvest, after you have sown the seed that I give it to you at the harvest, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh and four fifths shall be your own for seed of the field and for your food and for those of your households and as food for your little ones.

Thus became the birth of the IRS. Genesis chapter 47, it's right there. You're going to give a fifth of what you have back to Pharaoh. Pharaoh's in charge of everything now, right? He is the government. He is the ruler. And 20% of what you have is going to be given back to them. That's very important, isn't it? Joseph is helping you understand the importance of giving, of giving. I like when people always ask you, you know, well, how much, how much should you give? See, whenever that's always the wrong question, you never ask how much I should give to the Lord.

You never ask that. It's the wrong question. Why? Because if you go through the Bible, you get a very, a variety of answers. If you go back and read about Abraham, he gave a 10th, right? You read here, they gave a 20th. You read Zacchaeus, he gave half, 50%. You read about the widow's mite, she gave 100%. So if you're going to ask me how much you should give, I could say, well, 10, 20, 50, 100, you know, what do you want to get? If God said to you, I want 20% of your income, what would you do? Well, I don't know if I want to get 20% or not.

God didn't say that. God didn't say that. He just said, render to the gods those things that are God's. With what you gave today, would God be honored? Had a high school student come to me last week. He said, I don't have a lot of money, but I do want, I do want to give, give to the carpet fund of the church. I said, really? He said, yeah. He said, you got a job? He says, no, I don't have a job. I said, well, how much do you want to give? He said, I want to give him a hundred dollars. I said, you don't have a job.

You want to give me a hundred bucks? He said, yeah, I want to give a hundred bucks. I said, well, why do you want to do that? He goes, you know what? I just feel that I need to honor the Lord. That's all he said. He gave me a hundred dollars in cash. Now think if every high school student gave a hundred bucks. Just think if every adult gave a hundred bucks. You see, a lot of times we like to, like to measure what we give in terms of percentages. How much do I give? You know what? You know, whether or not God is honored by your giving, right?

You know that. If someone was to tell you how much you should give that, that wouldn't be the right thing to do because God didn't tell you how much to give. When you gave your life to Christ, you gave him everything, right? You gave him your life, your house, your money. It's all his anyway, right? What do we have that we did not receive from the Lord? First Corinthians 4, 7.

He gave it, he gave it all to us anyway. That's important to understand. And listen to the response of the people. Twenty percent? Are you kidding me? We can't get that. What'd he say? What'd they say? They said these words in verse 25, you have saved our lives. Joseph, you saved us. Joseph, you're amazing. You're incredible. I can't believe what you did. You saved our lives. Let us find favor in the sight of my Lord and we will be Pharaoh's slaves. We'll serve Pharaoh. Why? Because you saved us.

Spiritual ramifications. Oh Lord, we will save, we'll serve you Lord. Lord, we'll be your slave. We'll do anything you ask. Why? Because you saved us. Whatever you want God, we'll do because you saved us. Isn't that the way it should be? Sure, it should. It's exactly how it should be with the believer who's given his life to Christ. We'll do whatever you ask Lord, because you have saved our lives. The last thing I want you to see is the prosperity, the prosperity. And two things I want you to know, and this is so good.

I couldn't wait to tell you this morning. This is great. Listen to this. Verse number 27. Now Israel lived in the land of Egypt and Goshen and they acquired property in it and were fruitful and became very numerous. Listen, the first thing I want you to notice about this prosperity is that it fulfilled God's promises to his people.

It fulfilled God's promise to his people. They lived in the land of Goshen, right? That they acquired property. They were fruitful and they became very numerous. God was showing them the fulfillment of his promises. God doesn't lie. If God said it, he'll do it. God doesn't do it on your timetable. God always does it on his timetable. You might want it today. He might say no tomorrow. And no matter how much you kick and scream you want it today, it might not be until tomorrow, because God is going to do it in his timetable.

And this was his plan. It was a marvelous plan, a marvelous plan. You see, we need to be able to trust God right in the midst of a problem where we see no way out. You see, it's easy for us to preach about God's sovereignty and we should be faithful and trust God when everything's going good. Everybody trusts God when things are going good, right? Everybody sings hallelujah when things are going, everybody praises the Lord when things are going good. It's right in the midst of heartache is where you got to be able to be as praiseworthy as when there's no heartache.

Say, God, you are so good, because God was faithful to his promise to his people. If you go back and you were to read Genesis 17, 6, 26, 4, 35, 11, and 46, 3, God said, listen, this is what I'm going to do. I'm going to multiply you. I'm going to multiply you. You will become numerous. You will acquire land. You will acquire property. It will all be yours. Think about that. It's all going to be yours. I'm going to give it to you. And God did exactly what he said. Remember, it's been 200 years since the promise to Abraham.

200 years. Haven't seen it yet, till now. 200 years before the fulfillment of the promise began to appear. So you can actually see it. But the good thing is the second thing.

This prosperity fulfilled God's promise to his people, but this prosperity failed to change Jacob's commitment to Canaan. This prosperity failed to change Jacob's commitment to Canaan. This is so powerful, because you know what? We become prosperous, what do we tend to do? Turn from God, right? Trust in our own resources. You know, when you have a lot of money in the bank that you can always draw on, don't have to pray as much, right? Don't trust God as much. Bill comes up, I just pay it. Problem happens, I just write a check.

But Jacob never lost perspective. The prosperity that happened in his life did not cause him to change his commitment to the land of Canaan. Listen to what it says. Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the length of Jacob's life was 147 years. And when the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt. But when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.

Now, just reading that, you think, what's the big deal? You're dead. Who cares where you're buried? Oh, listen, Jacob cared. And not only would Jacob care, but Joseph would care. Listen to this. Let's say someone said to you in the hall of faith, Hebrews 11, Joseph's name was mentioned. And what do you think they're going to say about Joseph in the hall of faith? Oh, man, he was a guy who, who, who when tempted, he stood strong. It's not there. You say, well, uh, uh, Joseph was a guy that, that learned to trust his God and believe in his God when everything around him was falling apart.

That's not there either. Joseph was a great leader. Oh, he was, he was so great that the people would come to him and bow before him. He was a magnificent man. That's not in Hebrews 11 either. Well, he was a man of, of forgiveness and compassion and grace and mercy and love. That's not there either. Of all the things that we have read about Joseph, none of them are there. And yet he's in the hall of faith and listen to what it says about Joseph by faith. Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the exodus of the sons of Israel and gave orders concerning his bones.

That's it. What? I read that. I thought it was a, what, how come? Why did the spirit of God pass over everything else? Because everything else hinged on what it says in Hebrews 11 about Joseph and why he wanted his bones to be carried to the land of Canaan when he died. I don't want to be buried in Egypt. I want to be buried in Canaan. Why? Because that was God's promise. Why could he overcome temptation? Why was he a great leader? Why did he show grace and mercy and forgiveness? Because he had a proper perspective that the Egypt was not his home.

And Jacob had the same perspective. This is not my home. This is not it. There's something greater. It's the promise from God. It is that perspective that made Joseph as great as he was. That's why it said Hebrews 11 verse number 22, because everything else hinged on what he saw. That's why the Bible says set your affections on things above and not on things below.

Why? Because that's where Christ is seated. That's where your object of affection should be. Not here, but there. And Joseph did that. And that's why he was a powerful leader. That's why he was able to forgive his brothers when he had been wronged so badly. That's why he showed grace and mercy to them. That's why he was raised to a level of prominence in Egypt, because he had a proper perspective on God and the promises of God. So did Jacob. And Jacob says, I don't want to be buried here. This is not my home.

It's not here. You see, no matter how prosperous Jacob was, he kept perspective. And then he says, you take your hand and you put it under my thigh, Joseph, and you swear to me. Joseph says, I swear to you. I swear to you, dad. You see, when you were going to make an oath with someone, you would place your hand under their thigh. The thigh is a representative of the strongest part of a man. This is so good. The strongest part of a man whose thigh was touched by God. Jacob's thigh was. Who limped the rest of his life after Genesis 32?

Jacob did. And that thigh, that was the strongest part of his body, that now had become the weakest part of his body. Joseph, you put your hand in my thigh, that place where God touched me, that place where I learned that whatever happens, I am going to do the will of God. No matter what takes place in my life, God is my strength. It's him I will trust. It's him I will obey. It's him I will follow. And I have a monument imprinted on me. My whole life is a monument. The way I walk is a monument to the power of Almighty God in my life.

And Joseph, you put your hand under that thigh and you swear to me that you will do what God said will happen, that God will give us that promise. And while I will never live to see it, it will be fulfilled. How about you? Are you the kind of person that has set your affections below or above? Listen to how the text closed. Or the last verse. Which one is that? 31. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed. You will note that chapter 47 begins and ends with what? Jacob worshiping his God.

You know, Jacob's going to live a little while longer after this. We're going to go through everything he says. It's the longest deathbed incident recorded in scripture because it's so powerful. He's going to bless Joseph's sons, and then he's going to bless his sons, and then he's going to die. But as he's on his deathbed, he bows and he worships. God takes care of all people, every one of us. But those who are his children, he nurtures, provides, tenderly cares for them, and watches over them. And what's our response?

It should be like Jacob's, where we spend the rest of our lives worshiping our God. That's how you know your affection is above and not below. I'm not just talking about coming on Sunday and worshiping the Lord. I'm talking about living a life that honors and glorifies his name every single day. And I trust that that would be your ambition as you leave this place today. Let's pray.