It was God's plan.
This is the LifeSpring One Year Bible Rewind,
and coming to you from Riverside, California,
podcasting since 2004.
I'm Steve Webb, your OG Godcaster.
This is the podcast that comes to you every day,
and we're reading the entire Bible together.
I'm so glad you're here.
Welcome.
The website is lifespringmedia.com.
Today is National Bird Day.
Do you like birds?
My first pet was a little green parakeet
when I was about four years old.
Ever since then, I've loved birds.
When I was attending Fullerton College here in Southern California, majoring in biology,
one of my teachers was involved with a group called Friends of Newport Bay.
They gave nature walks to various schools, Boy Scout troops,
and really just about any group that wanted to learn more about the upper Newport Bay.
I decided to volunteer as a tour guide.
One of my favorite parts of the job was pointing out all the different bird species.
So far, my life list is 84 different species.
That's not the total of all the species I've seen, but I only add one if I have my copy of
the Field Guide to Western Birds with me so that I can definitively identify the bird.
I'll move on. You're not here to hear about my love of birds. This is, more importantly,
The Law Monday. We'll read Genesis 44 through 47. Then I'll have a few words to say about those
chapters, after which we'll have an On This Date in Church History. Let's begin.
Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day to read your word. We pray, God, that you would
teach us. Touch our hearts, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Genesis 44
Then Joseph gave a command to his servant. He said,
Fill the men's sack with as much grain as they can carry. Then put each man's money into his sack
with the grain. Put the youngest brother's money in his sack too, but also put my special silver
cup in his sack. So the servant obeyed Joseph. Early the next morning, the brothers and their
donkeys were sent back to their country. After they had left the city, Joseph said to his servant,
Go and follow the men. Stop them and say to them, We were good to you, so why have you been bad to
us? Why did you steal my master's silver cup? My master drinks from that cup, and he uses it to
learn secret things. What you did was wrong. So the servant obeyed. He rode out to the brothers
and stopped them. The servant said to them what Joseph had told him to say. But the brothers said
to the servant, Why does the governor say these things? We wouldn't do anything like that. We
brought back the money that we found in our sacks before, so surely we wouldn't steal silver or gold
from your master's house. If you find the silver cup in any of our sacks, let that man die. You can
kill him, and we will be your slaves. The servant said, I agree, except that only the man who was
found to have the cup will be my slave. The others will be free. Then every brother quickly opened
his sack on the ground. The servant started looking in the sacks. He started with the oldest brother
and ended with the youngest. He found the cup in Benjamin's sack. The brothers were very sad.
They tore their clothes to show their sadness. They put their sacks back on the donkeys and went
back to the city. When Judah and his brothers went back to Joseph's house, Joseph was still there.
The brothers fell to the ground and bowed down before him.
Joseph said to them, Why have you done this?
Didn't you know that I have a special way of learning secrets?
No one is better at this than I am.
Judah said, Sir, there is nothing we can say.
There is no way to explain.
There is no way to show that we are not guilty.
God has judged us guilty for something else we have done.
So all of us, even Benjamin, will be your slaves.
But Joseph said, I will not make you all slaves. Only the man who stole the cup will be my slave.
You others can go in peace to your father. Then Judah went to Joseph and said, Sir,
please let me speak plainly with you. Please don't be angry with me. I know that you are like Pharaoh
himself. When we were here before, you asked us, Do you have a father or a brother? And we answered
you, we have a father. He is an old man, and we have a younger brother. Our father loves him
because he was born while our father was old. This youngest son's brother is dead, so he is the only
son who is left from that mother. Our father loves him very much. Then you said to us, Bring that
brother to me. I want to see him. And we said to you, That young boy cannot come. He cannot leave
his father. If his father loses him, his father will be so sad that he will die. But you said to
us, You must bring your youngest brother, or I will not sell you grain again. So we went back to
our father and told him what you said. Later our father said, Go back and buy us some more food.
We said to our father, We cannot go without our youngest brother. The governor said he will not
sell us grain again until he sees our youngest brother. Then my father said to us, You know that
my wife Rachel gave me two sons. I let one son go away, and he was killed by a wild animal,
and I haven't seen him since. If you take my other son away from me, and something happens to him,
I will be sad enough to die. Now imagine what will happen when we go home without our youngest
brother. He is the most important thing in our father's life. Our father will die if he sees that
the boy isn't with us, and it will be our fault. We will send our father to his grave a very sad man.
I took responsibility for the young boy. I told my father, if I don't bring him back to you,
you can blame me for the rest of my life. So now I beg you, please let the boy go back with his
brothers, and I will stay and be your slave. I cannot go back to my father if the boy is not
with me. I am very afraid of what would happen to my father. Genesis 45
Since Joseph could no longer control his feelings in front of his servants,
he sent them out of the room. When he was alone with his brothers, he told them,
I am Joseph. Then he cried so loudly that the Egyptians heard him and told about it in the
king's palace. Joseph asked his brothers if his father was still alive, but they were too frightened
to answer. Joseph told them to come closer to him, and when they did, he said, Yes, I am your
brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt. Don't worry or blame yourselves for what you did.
God is the one who sent me ahead of you to save lives.
There has already been a famine for two years, and for five more years no one will plow fields or harvest grain.
But God sent me on ahead of you to keep your families alive and to save you in this wonderful way.
After all, you weren't really the ones who sent me here.
It was God.
He made me the highest official in the king's court and placed me over all Egypt.
Now hurry back and tell my father that his son Joseph says,
God has made me ruler of Egypt. Come here as quickly as you can. You will live near me in
the region of Goshen with your children and grandchildren, as well as with your sheep,
goats, cattle, and everything else you own. I will take care of you there during the next
five years of famine. But if you don't come, you and your family and your animals will starve to
death. All of you, including my brother Benjamin, can tell by what I have said that I really am
Joseph. Tell my father about my great power here in Egypt and about everything you have seen.
Hurry and bring him here. Joseph and Benjamin hugged each other and started crying.
Joseph was still crying as he kissed each of his other brothers. After this, they started talking
with Joseph. When it was told in the palace that Joseph's brothers had come, the king and his
officials were happy. So the king said to Joseph, Tell your brothers to load their donkeys and
return to Canaan. Have them bring their father and their families here. I will give them the best land
in Egypt, and they can eat and enjoy everything that grows on it. Also tell your brothers to take
some wagons from Egypt for their wives and children to ride in. And be sure to have them bring their
father. They can leave their possessions behind because they will be given the best of everything
in Egypt. Jacob's sons agreed to do what the king had said, and Joseph gave them wagons and food for
their trip home, just as the king had ordered. Joseph gave some new clothes to each of his
brothers, but to Benjamin he gave five new outfits and three hundred pieces of silver.
To his father he sent ten donkeys loaded with the best things in Egypt, and ten other donkeys
loaded with grain and bread and other food for the return trip. Then he sent his brothers off and
told them, Don't argue on the way home. Joseph's brothers left Egypt, and when they arrived in
Canaan, they told their father that Joseph was still alive and was the ruler of Egypt. But their
father was so surprised that he could not believe them. Then they told him everything Joseph had
said. When he saw the wagons Joseph had sent, he felt much better and said, Now I can believe you.
My son Joseph must really be alive, and I will get to see him before I die.
Genesis chapter 46. Jacob packed everything he owned and left for Egypt. On the way he stopped
near the town of Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the god his father Isaac had worshipped.
That night God spoke to him and said, Jacob, Jacob. Here I am, Jacob answered.
God said, I am God, the same God your father worshipped. Don't be afraid to go to Egypt.
I will give you so many descendants that one day they will become a nation.
I will go with you to Egypt, and later I will bring your descendants back here.
Your son Joseph will be at your side when you die.
Jacob and his family set out from Beersheba and headed for Egypt.
His sons put him in the wagon that the king had sent for him,
and they put their small children and their wives in the other wagons.
Jacob's whole family went to Egypt, including his sons, his grandsons, his daughters, and his granddaughters.
They took along their animals and everything else they owned.
When Jacob went to Egypt, his children, who were born in northern Syria, also went along with their families.
Jacob and his wife Leah had a total of thirty-three children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren,
but two of their grandchildren had died in Canaan.
Their oldest son Reuben took his sons Hanok, Paliu, Hezron, and Carmi.
Their son Simeon took his sons Jemuel, Jamin, Ohad, Jachin, Zohar, and Shal, whose mother
was a Canaanite.
Their son Levi took his sons Gershon, Kohath, and Moreri.
Their son Judah took his sons Shelah, Perez, and Zerah.
Judah's sons Ur and Onan had died in Canaan.
Judah's son Perez took his sons Hezron and Hamel.
Their son Issachar took his sons Tola, Puvah, Jashub, and Shimron.
Their son Zebulun took his sons Sirid, Elan, and Jalil.
Their daughter Dinah also went.
Jacob and Zilpah, the servant woman Laban had given his daughter Leah,
had a total of sixteen children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
Their son Gad took his sons Ziphion, Haggai, Shunai, Ezbon, Eri, Eridai, and Areli.
Their son Asher took his sons Imnah, Ishva, Ishvi, and Beriah, who took his sons Heber and Malkiel.
Sera, the daughter of Asher, also went.
Jacob and Rachel had fourteen children and grandchildren.
Their son Joseph was already in Egypt, where he had married Asenath, daughter of Petiphora,
the priest of Heliopolis. Joseph and Asenath had two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Jacob and Rachel's
son Benjamin took his sons Bela, Beker, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehai, Rosh, Muppem, Huppem, and Ard.
Jacob and Bilhah, the servant woman Laban had given his daughter Rachel, had seven children
and grandchildren. Their son Dan took his son Hushim. Their son Naphtali took his sons Jaziel,
Junai, Jezer, and Shilam. Sixty-six members of Jacob's family went to Egypt with him,
not counting his daughters-in-law. Jacob's two grandsons who were born there made it a total of
seventy members of Jacob's family in Egypt. Jacob had sent his son Judah ahead of him to ask Joseph
to meet them in Goshen. So Joseph got in his chariot and went to meet his father.
When they met, Joseph hugged his father around the neck and cried for a long time.
Jacob said to Joseph, Now that I have seen you and I know you are still alive,
I am ready to die. Then Joseph said to his brothers and to everyone who had come with them,
I must go and tell the king that you have arrived from Canaan. I will tell him that you are shepherds
and that you have brought your sheep, goats, cattle, and everything else you own. The king
will call you in and ask what you do for a living. When he does, be sure to say, We are shepherds.
Our families have always raised sheep. If you tell him this, he will let you settle in the region
of Goshen. Joseph wanted them to say this to the king because the Egyptians did not like to be
around anyone who raised sheep. Genesis chapter 47
Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh, and said, My father and my brothers, their flocks and their
herds and all that they possess, have come from the land of Canaan, and indeed they are in the
land of Goshen. And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh.
Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh,
Your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. And they said to Pharaoh,
We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks,
for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan.
Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.
Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Your father and your brothers have come to you.
The land of Egypt is before you.
Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land.
Let them dwell in the land of Goshen.
And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock.
Then Joseph brought his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh.
And Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
Pharaoh said to Jacob, How old are you?
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years.
Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life,
and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage.
So Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and went out from before Pharaoh.
And Joseph situated 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 commanded.
Then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with bread,
according to the number in their families.
Now there was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe,
so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine.
And Joseph gathered up 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.
So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan,
all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence?
for the money has failed. Then Joseph said, Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your
livestock if the money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them
bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds, and for the donkeys.
Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year.
When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him,
We will not hide from my Lord that our money is gone. My Lord also has our herds of livestock.
There is nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our lands.
Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us and our land for bread,
and we and our land will be servants of Pharaoh. Give us seed, that we may live and not die,
that the land may not be desolate. Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh,
for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them.
So the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he moved them into the cities,
from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end. Only the land of the priests he did not buy,
for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh, and they ate their rations which
Pharaoh gave them, therefore they did not sell their lands. Then Joseph said to the people,
Indeed, I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh.
Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land,
and it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh.
Four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and for your food,
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 servants.
And Joseph made a law over the land of Egypt to this day, that Pharaoh should have one-fifth
except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh's.
So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the country of Goshen, and they had possessions
there and grew and multiplied exceedingly.
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 drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him,
Now, if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh,
and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie 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. Then he said, Swear to me. And he swore to him,
So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed.
Let's quickly recap what has happened so far in Joseph's life, shall we, in relation to his older brothers.
He was the eleventh son of Jacob, but the first son through Rachel, Jacob's favorite wife.
And Joseph was clearly Jacob's favorite son, because he was born when Jacob was old.
And, of course, Jacob made no attempt to hide his favoritism toward Joseph,
and this caused his brothers to hate him. To make matters worse, when he was a teenager,
Joseph had dreams in which the family would bow down to him, and he told them about the dreams.
And his brothers hated him so much that they sold him into slavery, but they told Jacob that he had
been killed by wild animals. And then, through a series of events that saw Joseph become the
supervisor of an Egyptian official's household, then falsely accused of rape by this same official's
wife, thrown into prison, and then elevated to the Pharaoh's second-in-command because of his
God-given ability to interpret Pharaoh's dreams and devise a plan for Egypt to survive and even
prosper through a coming seven-year drought, Joseph's brothers find themselves bowing down
before him, asking to buy food because the drought had caused a famine that spread beyond Egypt,
even into Canaan. And Jacob remembered the dreams he had as a boy when he saw them bow down to
him. Well, Joseph's brothers didn't recognize him, though he recognized them. This is where the story
gets even more interesting. Joseph lets his brothers continue to think that he's an Egyptian,
and he accused them of being spies. And back in Genesis 41-38, Pharaoh said,
I don't think we can find anyone better than Joseph to take this job. God's Spirit is in him,
making him very wise. Well, even though Pharaoh was not a believer in the true God, he was correct
in his assessment. The Holy Spirit was in Joseph, and it was the Holy Spirit who led Joseph in his
dealings with his brothers when they came to Egypt to buy food. The things that have happened between
Joseph and his brothers from the time they first appeared before him in Egypt, right to where we are
here in chapter 44 today have been to bring God's plan for this family to fruition.
Joseph misled his brothers, not to be spiteful or vengeful, but because God was using him to
bring them to a place of correction and restoration. The brothers had to face what they had done to
Joseph and their father. Back when his brothers threw Joseph into the pit, he cried out to them,
pleading for their help, and as commentator Donald Barnhouse said,
A physicist could compute the exact time required for his cries to go 25 yards to the eardrums
of the brothers, but it took 22 years for that cry to go from the eardrums to their hearts.
And here in chapter 44, it looks as if the brothers have finally come to repentance.
Remember, the brothers still don't know that this apparently Egyptian ruler is their brother,
whom they sold into slavery. So, after the silver cup that Joseph had planted in Benjamin's sack
was discovered by Joseph's servant, and it appears that Benjamin will become Joseph's slave,
all the brothers plead with him to let them stay with Benjamin as slaves, instead of returning home
without him. But Judah, one of the brothers, makes an impassioned plea to Joseph from verse 18 of
chapter 44 to the end of the chapter at verse 34. Of this speech F.B. Meyer wrote,
In all literature there is nothing more pathetic than this appeal.
And H.C. Leupold wrote,
This is one of the manliest, most straightforward speeches ever delivered by any man.
For depth of feeling and sincerity of purpose it stands unexcelled.
Donald Barnhouse called it the most moving address in all the word of God.
Well, this desperate plea broke Joseph's heart.
In chapter 45, he made all the Egyptians who were in the room with he and his brothers leave,
because he was overcome with emotion after Judah's plea to him.
Once the Egyptians were out of the room, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers.
At first, they were terrified by the realization, but he told them not to worry or blame themselves,
because it was God's plan, because God used him to save the lives of people
who would have starved from the famine, including their own family.
Well, after Joseph's revelation to his brothers, he sent back to Canaan to get their father and the entire family to bring them to Egypt so that he could take care of them, because the famine was not yet over.
And when Jacob heard that Joseph, his most beloved son, was still alive, he was overjoyed, and he said, Now I can die a happy man.
Beloved, listen. All the things that happened to Joseph were for a reason.
The hatred of his brothers, being sold into slavery.
imprisonment for a rape he did not commit. God used it all to preserve the family line
from which the Messiah would come. God is sovereign. No matter the decisions or actions of man,
God's plan will always come to completion. Yes, man has free will. He can choose to obey God,
or he can choose to disobey God, but God will have his way. On this, Spurgeon wrote,
How wonderfully those two things meet in practical harmony,
the free will of man and the predestination of God.
Man acts just as freely and just as guiltily as if there were no predestination whatever,
and God ordains, arranges, supervises, and overrules
just as accurately as if there were no free will in the universe.
This kind of reminds me of the old saying,
We can do this the easy way or the hard way.
Beloved, I would much rather be working with God than against Him.
Wouldn't you?
Comment on the show notes page at Lifespringmedia.com slash S12E84
or write to me at Steve at Lifespringmedia.com
or comment at comment.lifespringmedia.com.
1 Samuel 6-10 is our reading tomorrow.
Our verse of the day is Genesis 45-4.
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.
Genesis 45.4
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On this date in church history, January 5th, this has long been observed in the Christian
calendar as Epiphany Eve, the day set aside to prepare for Epiphany, which is the celebration
of Christ being revealed to the nations through the visit of the Magi.
From the earliest centuries, the Church has treated Epiphany not as a quiet afterthought to Christmas, but as a theological milestone.
It marks the moment when the good news of Jesus moves beyond Israel and is revealed to the wider world.
The Magi, guided by the star, represent seekers from far away who recognize that this child is no ordinary king.
Epiphany Eve invites reflection and anticipation.
It reminds believers that the gospel is meant to be seen, recognized, and proclaimed, not hidden.
Jesus does not come only for one people or one place, but as the light of the world, revealed to all.
Remember that Wednesday is our next time to bring our praises and prayer requests to God as a family.
If you have a prayer request or a praise that you'd like to share with the Lifespring family,
You can do that at prayer.lifespringmedia.com, or you can email me at steve at lifespringmedia.com,
or you can text me or leave a voicemail at LifeSpring Family Hotline, 951-732-8511.
If you enjoy the show, tell someone.
I'm so glad we got to spend time together today, beloved.
I'll be here tomorrow. Join me.
Until then, may God bless you richly.
I'm Steve Webb. Bye.
LifeSpring Media
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Since 2004
The LifeSpring One Year Bible Rewind
is a LifeSpring Media production
hosted by Steve Webb, the OG Godcaster since 2004