Joseph Reveals Himself

You are going to be so glad you came today. I'm glad I'm here. I hope you're glad that you're here. Genesis chapter 45, Joseph reveals himself. It's been a long time since, since Joseph made himself known. And these guys have thought all along that Joseph was dead. And today we're going to find out he's alive. He's alive. And the parallel to that is, is how the people in Jesus's day thought he was dead. But when they found out that he was alive, everything changed. Same thing with these brothers.

Everything changes when they realize that Joseph is alive. Because Joseph is that, that perfect type of Christ in the old Testament. And what we're going to see today through the life of Joseph is how God works in our lives through his son, Jesus Christ. It's a, it's a remarkable revelation. Let's read it together. Genesis chapter 45, verse number one, then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him.

And he cried, have everyone go out from me. So there was no man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard of it, then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph, is my father still alive, but his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence. Then Joseph said to his brothers, please come closer to me. And they came closer. And he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

And now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold 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 still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting, and God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant of the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore it is not you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and the Lord of all his household and ruler over all the land of Egypt, hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son, Joseph.

God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me. Do not delay. And you shall live in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have there. I will also provide for you for there are still five years of famine to come. Lest you and your household and all that you have be impoverished and behold your eyes see and the eyes of my brother, Benjamin, see that it is my mouth, which is speaking to you.

Now you must tell my father of all my splendor in Egypt and of all that you have seen, and you must hurry and bring my father down here. Then he fell on his brother, Benjamin's neck and wept and Benjamin wept on his neck and he kissed all his brothers and wept on them. And afterward, his brothers talked with him. Now, when the news was heard in Pharaoh's house that Joseph's brothers had come, it pleased Pharaoh and his servants. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this, load your beasts and go to the land of Canaan and take your father and your households and come to me.

And I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall eat the fat of the land. Now you are ordered, do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your father and come and do not concern yourself with your goods for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. Then the sons of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for the journey to each of them. He gave changes of garments, but to Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments.

And to his father, he sent as follows 10 donkeys loaded with the best things of Egypt and 10 female donkeys loaded with grain and bread and sustenance for his father on the journey. So he sent his brothers away. And as they departed, he said to them, do not quarrel on the journey. Then they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father, Jacob. And they told him saying, Joseph is still alive. And indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. But he was stunned for he did not believe them when they told him all the words of Joseph, that he had spoken to them.

And when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father, Jacob revived. Then Israel said, it is enough. My son, Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. Isn't that great? This is, this is loaded with so many truths. We're going to rock your socks today, man. This is going to be great. There are five things I want you to see. I think it's five, maybe it's six. First of all, the revelation, then the reasons, then the reconciliation, then the report, the result, and then our response.

That's where we're going this morning. First of all, the revelation. Two things I want you to notice.

Number one, it's timely. Number two, it's traumatic. First of all, it's timely. The Bible says, then Joseph could not control himself.

That word then is very important. Why? Because Judah had just made his confession to Joseph. Judah had confessed that God had found them out, that their iniquity was great. God knows about that. And Judah had made himself the substitute. He was willing to take the place of Benjamin. He was willing to let everybody else go back to their families and he would stay in Benjamin's place because he was concerned about his father. He was concerned that his father know and have Benjamin because Benjamin was a son that his father loved so much and that he was willing to give his life away on behalf of his brother, Benjamin.

None of the brothers argued about what was taking place. They were all in unison. And what Joseph saw was unity of purpose. What he saw was not resentment, was not anger on the part of the brothers, but he saw a humble spirit, a contrite heart. It caused Joseph to weep because Joseph had longed for this for over 20 years. And now he has seen it right before his eyes. He has seen his brothers breaking down. He has seen his brothers come before him and bow before him. He has seen what he has longed for, for all these years.

And now it'll be time for Joseph to reveal himself to his brothers. You know, this reminds me of Proverbs 28, verse number 13, that if you conceal your sins, you will not prosper. But if you can confess your sins and forsake your sins, you will find compassion. And these boys are going to find compassion. They're going to see mercy firsthand. And so Joseph excludes everybody but he and his brothers. This revelation about who Joseph is, is very timely, but also very traumatic. The Bible says what?

That these boys could not answer him. Remember, he has spoken Egyptian all the time. He hadn't spoken in the Hebrew dialect. Verse number 12 tells us that he's speaking in Hebrew language. He's speaking in their language. And so all of a sudden, he's no longer using an interpreter, but he says to them in their language, hey guys, guess what? I'm Joseph. Ah, how's my father? Is he still alive? Can you imagine? How does this guy know the name of their younger brother, Joseph? How does he know his name?

Is he, is he playing a trick on them? They are traumatized. They can't believe it. And Joseph says, come closer, come closer. Isn't that like our Lord? Draw near to me and I will draw near to you. Come close. Come see for yourself. Look into my eyes. Understand it's me, Joseph. These guys are traumatized. He would reveal himself. And number two, the reasons what's going on here.

I want you to notice what Joseph says. This is so important because this is what makes Joseph as great as he is. Notice there is no rebuke.

There is no reproof. There is no ridicule, but what you find is a reception. What you find is a reward. And what you find is Joseph reminding them of the rulership of God himself. Joseph explains to them everything that has taken place. He's a mature man of God. He loves God. And this man had the proper perspective of the providence of God almighty. And it was that perspective that set Joseph apart from his brothers. It was that perspective that set Joseph apart from anybody else in his day, because he would understand the providence of God and the workings of God in his life.

Two things I want you to see about the reason. Number one, God's providence. Number two, man's preservation.

It was all for their preservation. Listen to what he says. Do not be grieved or angry with yourselves. Verse five, because you sold me here for God sent me before you. God sent me. Now, isn't that a great perspective? You see, you thought you sent me here. Oh, no, you didn't. God did. You see, God's in charge. God sent me here to preserve your life. Wow. What a twist of fate. And you show me a man who has a perception, a proper perception of God's providence. And I'll show you a great man. I'll show you a man who understands the ways and workings of God.

And that's the way Joseph was. God sent me here. What's he saying? For the famine has been the land for these two years, verse six, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you. There he goes again. God sent me here to preserve you for a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God, it was a constant reminder. God sent me here. Look what it says down in verse number nine.

Hurry, go to my father and say to him, thus says your son, Joseph. God has made me Lord of all Egypt. God has ordered the events. God is in charge. Listen over and over again in the gospels. What do you hear? Christ saying, the father has sent me. Why did the father send the son to preserve life, right? To save a remnant, to, to preserve the souls of man. It's all about the working of God. You see, we have a problem with that. We don't get it. You see, when bad things happen, you see, we read the story of Joseph and we say, oh, this is great.

God's in charge. But as soon as something bad happens to us, what do we do? We go wacko. We go bonkers. We put everything in category B, see, for bad. See, if it's bad, it goes in category B or category E for evil, thinking that, that somehow things are not going well, but in, in God's way of, of thinking, it's, it's always category A. It's always plan A, no plan Bs in God's program. And as soon as something bad happens to us, we think, oh man, this is so, this, oh man, this is so bad. Joseph never had that perspective.

He believed that God was orchestrating the bad things to bring about a greater thing. You see, sometimes when bad things happen, we put them in category S for Satan. Then he did it. I want you to know something. Satan can't do anything unless he gets God's permission. Did you know that? Read the book of Job. Read the book of Job. In fact, God even offered up Job to Satan. He says, have you considered my servant, Job? Try him out. Read Revelation 13, the Antichrist. It says it was given to him. It was given to him three times.

Revelation 13 verses five to seven. It was given to the Antichrist, the power to do certain things. He was given 42 months to operate during the tribulational period. You see, Satan didn't give the Antichrist 42 months. God gave the Antichrist 42 months. Why? If Satan was in charge, he'd give him forever, but God's in charge. See, our theology is, is such that we, we kind of think that Satan's omnipresent. Omniscient. He knows everything. He didn't know anything. He didn't know, he didn't know anything except, except what's written, right?

He can't see into the future. And so we need to understand that, that God is orchestrating the events of life to bring about his great purposes. God's providence. And Joseph understood that. His brothers needed to grasp it because they didn't understand what God was doing. Let me tell you something.

Why are you here today? Say, well, I'm here today because I, I want to worship the Lord. That's great. Only you know something, God sent you here today. You might say, well, I'm come because somebody invited me. You're here because God sent you here. Don't think for one moment you were here because you decided to one day wake up and come here. No, God's in charge. God is in complete control of everything that happens in your life. If he's out of control of one thing, he's not God, right? God's in charge of everything.

Everything. Joseph had that perspective. And Joseph says, fellas, God sent me to preserve your lives. Wow. What a perspective. These guys are still in shock. They're still trying to figure out what's going on here. And Joseph is trying to explain to them how he is going to preserve their lives and how God sent him there to do that. How God was going to use Joseph to, to provide for them and to protect them there in the land of Egypt. Amazing, amazing scenario. See, God's in charge. Joseph knew that he got it.

And that's why Joseph was a great man. You want to be like Joseph? Then you got to get and understand the providence of almighty God. God sent me, God made me ruler. You thought you did it. You didn't do it. Wait a minute. They did. They sold him. They sold him into slavery. Didn't they? Sure. They did. They wanted to kill him. They lied to their father about it. Yeah. But God would use all those things to do what? To bring about a greater purpose. See how God's in charge? Because the Bible says that God works all things out for good to those who love God and are called according to his purposes.

That's the way God works. Which leads us to the third point, the reconciliation, the reconciliation. And two things about the reconciliation. There's compassion and communion. I want you to notice what Joseph does.

Joseph takes the initiative, right? He's the one who weeps on them. He's the one who gathers them. He's the one who kisses them. He's the one who says, draw near to me. Isn't that what our Lord does? Sure it is. He takes the initiative. He comes to us. He weeps for us. It would be Joseph who would reach out to his brothers because he loved them so. And I want you to notice, not only the compassion, but the communion.

The Bible says, verse 15, and afterward, his brothers talked with him. Do you know how monumental that statement is? Because listen to Genesis chapter 37, verse number four, when we were introduced to Joseph and his brothers, and his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. They wouldn't speak to him on friendly terms. They hated their brother. There was no communion. They couldn't have communion with this one who wanted to honor his God because they hated him so.

Think about us and our relationship with the living God, right? There's hostility. There's anger. There's no communion with God until God calls us to himself. We turn from our sin, repent of our sin, fall on our face before him. We see and understand his compassion. And then we have sweet communion with Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh, could you, wouldn't you just love to be part of that conversation? What do they say? I don't know. It doesn't tell us. But boy, just to be there and to realize that for the very first time in Joseph's life, he has communion with his brothers.

It's never happened before. They hated him. Man, this is so good. The next thing I want you to see is the report. And two things, number one, it was pleasing to Pharaoh because Pharaoh heard about it and he was all excited about the brothers coming.

And this is kind of abnormal because really a Pharaoh would kill the brothers for what they did. But, but this Pharaoh was different. He had been impacted by Joseph's life. And he was the one who said, listen, this is what's going to happen. Load your beasts, go to the land of Canaan, take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt. And you shall eat the fat of the land. You guys get the best. Reminds you of our Lord, right? That he was able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ever ask or think.

These brothers did not know what awaited them. Just like when we are born again, we don't know what awaits us. Not only was it pleasing to the Pharaoh, but it was beneficial to the brothers. Look what they received from the hand of God had beautifully brought together all that which was bad in their perspective and made it all good. Isn't that great? Next thing I want you to see verses 21 to 28 are the results. The results. First, there was fortune for the family, fortune for the family.

It says in verse number 21, then the sons of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for the journey. To each of them, he gave changes of garments. He gave them garments. They stole his garment. Remember that? Bible says, but to Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments. Isn't that great? Why did you do that? Because Benjamin, Benjamin and Joseph were the answer to Rachel's prayers. Remember that? Remember Joseph's name?

God has taken away my reproach and God will add to me another son. See again, she recognized, Rachel did, that God was in charge. Look what God did. He took away my reproach. He took away that stigma that I had and God is going to add to me another son. She believed God for another son. And Benjamin was born. When Benjamin was born, Jacob said, he shall be called the son of my right hand. And Rachel died. Joseph and Benjamin were bonded together as brothers, having the same mother. And he loved his brother.

Benjamin were answers to mom's prayers. You and me both, man. What a testimony. There was fortune for the family. Took back all these wagons and all these donkeys loaded with all this food and over abundance of food and supplies to bring the whole kit and caboodle back with them, all 70 plus, bring them back to Egypt. Second thing I want you to see is the joy for Jacob, the joy for Jacob.

And as you look at this, I want you to remember one thing. And please listen carefully. You need to get this. Jacob would hold to Benjamin for 22 years. He was the pride and joy of Jacob's life. And God says, I want Benjamin.

And Jacob said, no, he will not die. He will not go. If he goes, what will happen to him? What if he dies? He will stay with me until God made the famine so much more severe that the only choice was for him to finally let Benjamin go.

What did he say? If I'd be bereaved, I am bereaved. He let him go. Listen, when you surrender that aspect of your life, that is your desire and affection and everything you got wrapped up in life about, when you surrender that, then, then you will finally experience the satisfaction of God.

But not until then, because you see, Jacob wasn't satisfied. He thought that his satisfaction was in Benjamin, but he wasn't at peace. He was in turmoil. He wasn't going to let him go. And God says, I want Benjamin.

And Jacob said, no, until he had no choice. And look what God did. Not only does he get Benjamin and Simeon, now he gets Joseph. Didn't even know it. See, God says, I want that one thing that keeps you from devoting your life to me.

We say, no. God says, you give it to me. We say, no. God says, you don't give it to me. I'm going to take it. I'll take it. Better you give it, then God has to take it. Because God says, you don't know what I have for you.

You just don't know. And if you just give it to me, I will show you the blessing of Almighty God that you can't even imagine. And the joy of Jacob, seeing the boys come back, how the whole story goes, you know, we don't know all the details, you know, come back and say, hey dad, guess what, Joseph's alive, Joseph's alive. And the Bible tells us that, that he was stunned. Would you believe him? No, I wouldn't believe him either. He didn't believe. I'm reminded of, of how in Luke 24, it says in verse number 36, and while they were telling these things, he himself stood in their midst, but they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.

They still didn't believe. They still didn't believe. He said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, and it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still could not believe it for joy and were marveling, he said to them, have you anything here to eat? And they gave him a piece of broiled fish. He took it and he ate it before them.

Remember Thomas? He wasn't with them. Thomas, he's alive. No, he's not. Thomas, he's alive. See, we like to look at Thomas, the doubting Thomas.

They all doubted. None of them believed he was alive. Not just Thomas, but Thomas just didn't happen to be there that day. Unless I'm able to touch the nail prints in his hand and stick my finger in his side, I will not believe. Jesus shows up. Reach hither your hands, Thomas. Oh, I believe, he said. And what did Jesus say? Blessed are you because you have seen and believed. But how blessed are those people who have not seen and yet believe? Joseph's alive. No, he's not. Joseph's dead. No, dad. Joseph is alive.

We have seen him. We have seen him. And he wants you to come to him. And when did Jacob believe? When he saw all the provisions from Egypt. My son's alive. I'm going to Egypt. I'm going to Egypt. Wow. What's our response? Three things. Number one is this.

Be reconciled to Christ because he is alive. Be reconciled to Christ because he is alive. If you were here today, I want to tell you something. If you never gave your life to Christ, Jesus is alive. He died. He rose again the third day.

Just like he said. And we need to be reconciled to him. We who are his enemies need to become his friends. We who are hostile toward him, we who are angry with him, we who cannot commune with him must be made to be in harmony with him. And we can only do that through his son, Jesus Christ. Are you reconciled to God? Are you his friend? Need to be because he's alive. Number two, be responsible to communicate Christ because we are his ambassadors.

Be responsible to communicate Christ because we are his ambassadors. Paul would say in second Corinthians five, that we are his ambassadors.

We are his sent ones. As the father has sent me, so send now you. The brothers had to go back and tell one person, dad, we had to tell everybody that Jesus is alive and we are his ambassadors. We are his sent ones. Be reconciled to Christ because he is alive. Be responsible to communicate Christ because we are his ambassadors. And lastly, be ready for the coming of Christ. Be ready for the coming of Christ because that is our assignment. The Bible says in Mark chapter 13, these words, take heed, keep on the alert for you do not know when the appointed time is.

It was like a man away on a journey who, upon leaving his house and putting his slaves in charge, assigning to each one, his task also commanded the doorkeeper to stay on the alert. Therefore beyond the alert. For you do not know when the master of the house is coming, whether in the evening at midnight at cockcrowing or in the morning, lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you, I say to all, be on the alert, be ready because Christ is coming and this is our assignment that we need to be watching and looking and longing for the appearing of our great God and savior, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Because we don't know when he's going to return, but he is coming. That's the emphasis of Genesis chapter 45, the revelation of Joseph helped us all to understand that we need to be reconciled to our God, that we need to be responsible to our God and that we need to be ready for the coming of our God. Let's pray together.