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you you [Music] still in the history of Jacob that was introduced in chapter 37 at verse 2 and much of Jacob story concerns his sons and one of his sons Joseph is where the spotlight currently is in the narrative so beginning in Genesis 42 at verse 1 when Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt Jacob said to his sons why do you look at one another and he said indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt go down to that place and buy for us there that we may live and not die so Joseph's 10 brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt but Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers for he said lest some calamity befall him and the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed for the famine was in the land of Canaan now Joseph was governor over the land and it was he who sold to all the people of the land and Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them then he said to them where do you come from and they said from the land of Canaan to buy food so Joseph recognized his brothers but they did not recognize him then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them and said to them you are spies you have come to see the nakedness of the land and they said to him no my lord but your servants have come to buy food we're all one man's sons we are honest men your servants are not spies but he said to them no but you have come to see the nakedness of the land and they said your servants are 12 brothers the sons of one man in the land of Canaan and in fact the youngest was is with our father today and one is no more but Joseph said to them it is as I spoke to you saying you are spies in this manner you shall be tested by the life of Pharaoh you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here send one of you and let him bring your brother and you shall be kept in prison that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies so he put them all together in prison three days then Joseph said to them the third day do this and live for I fear God if you are honest men let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house but you go and carry grain for the famine of your houses and bring your youngest brother to me so your words may will be verified and you shall not die and they did so then they said to one another we're truly guilty concerning our brother for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear therefore this distress has come upon us and Reuben answered them saying did I not speak to you saying do not sin against the boy and you would not listen therefore behold his blood is now required of us but they did not know that Joseph understood them for he spoke to them through an interpreter and he turned himself away from them and wept then he returned to them again and talked with them and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes then Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain to restore every man's money to his sack and to give them provisions for the journey thus he did for them so they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed from there but as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at the encampment he saw his money and there it was in the mouth of his sack so he said to his brothers my money has been restored and there it is in my sack then their hearts failed them and they were afraid saying to one another what is this that God has done to us then they went to Jacob their father in the land of Canaan and told him all that had happened to them saying the man who is Lord of the land spoke roughly to us and took us for spies of the country but we said to him we're honest men we're not spies we are twelve brothers sons of our Father one is no more and the youngest is with our father this day in the land of Canaan then the man the Lord of the country said to us by this I will know that you are honest men leave one of your brothers here with me take food for the famine of your households and begone and bring your youngest brother to me so I shall know that you are not spies but did you are but that you are honest men I will grant your brother to you and you may trade in the land then it happened as they emptied their sacks that surprisingly each man's bundle of money was in his sack and when they and their father saw the bundles of money they were afraid and Jacob their father said to them you have bereaved me Joseph is no more Simeon is no more and you want to take Benjamin all these things are against me then Reuben spoke to his father saying kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you but he said my son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead and he is left alone if any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go then you would bring down my grey hair with sorrow to the grave Amen so as I said continuing in the Joseph's narrative here we have Joseph having been exalted by Pharaoh to essentially the right hand of ferrell he is the governor over the entirety of the land that having come as a result in chapter 41 of his being able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams correctly and then recommending a course of action in terms of storing up for the seven years of plenty so that they would have for relief in the time of famine the seven years of famine that seemed good to Pharaoh and then he installed Joseph at that particular position at the end of chapter 41 we see that the famine affected all the face of the earth according to verse 56 and Joseph opened all the stores sore houses and sold to the Egyptians and the famine became severe in the land of Egypt so all countries came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain because the famine was severe in all lands so it's not just an Egypt problem but it's also a Canaan problem and that is the reason why in chapter 42 Jacob sends his sons down to Egypt in order to collect food to get grain to sustain their lives back in Canaan and so basically we have three things in the chapter first the brothers are sent to Jakub in verses 1 to 5 secondly the brothers meet with Joseph in Egypt in verses 6 to 24 and then finally excuse me the brothers return to Canaan in verses 25 to 38 so picking up at the very beginning the brothers sent to Egypt by Jacob we note the reason the reason is because of the famine in the land in terms of connection chapter 42 is tightly connected to what has preceded excuse me and certainly what follows the need of Jacob for food and the decision to go to Jake go to Egypt rather presuppose what we see there in chapter 41 Joseph's lordship looks back to 41 41 to 50 Joseph remembers his dreams 37 5 to 11 excuse me as he sees their fulfillment here in verses 6 and 9 as well Joseph's brothers mentioned his disappearance in verse 13 and then confessed their complicity in verses 21 and 22 and then in imprisoning his brothers verse 17 he seems to be giving them at least a dose of their own medicine to some degree and then the closing scene with Jacobs outburst show that 20 years later he is still grieved for Joseph Joseph and Benjamin are obviously his favorites because Rachel was his favorite and it was with Rachel that he had Joseph and Benjamin and then this chapter obviously sets stage for the coming chapters when joseph has Jacob and Benjamin come to Egypt so that seems to be one of the primary concerns driving Joseph in this particular section it's not that he's trying to make sport of his brothers it's not trying to pick on his brothers certainly there's an an anger there certainly their you know the the thoughts of their treatment of him has flooded back to him to be sure but his primary concern seems to be Benjamin he knows what his brothers are capable off and perhaps he's a bit suspicious as to how Benjamin is being treated by these brothers remember there was this sort of division within the family between the sons of Leah and the sons of Rachel's so perhaps joseph has this interest in Benjamin to ensure his safety as well Joseph wants to see Jacob and that seems to be one of the driving concerns also in terms of his dealings here with his brothers so in terms of the reason for the journey it's the famine we see that in 41:57 as we just read and then it's reiterated here in chapter 42 at verse 5 the sons of Israel went to buy grain among those who journeyed for the famine was in the land of Canaan and then note the severity of the famine at the end of verse 2 that we may live and not die seems like the brothers are not taking this seriously it certainly seems that Jacob is still in charge of the family do you look at verse 1 he says why do you look at one another Matthew Poole explains this this way he says like lazy careless and helpless persons each one expecting relief from the other but none offering either counsel or help for all our subsistence in other words this is a severe situation they're running out of food and so Jacob makes the decision having heard there's grain in Egypt to send his brothers down there now notice the participants in the journey verse 3 tells us so Joseph's 10 brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt but Jacob did not San Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers for he said lest some calamity befall him again he lost as far as he knows Joseph he doesn't know that Joseph is the second in charge he doesn't know that Joseph is the governor over the land he doesn't know that God has in fact fulfilled Joseph's dreams that he had in Genesis chapter 37 he thinks that Joseph is dead and Joseph having been his favorite certainly Benjamin is a favorite he doesn't want some calamity to befall Benjamin as well and then that brings us to the brothers meeting with Joseph in Egypt there's two meanings recorded the first is in verses 6 to 17 and then the second after a three-day bout in prison is verses 18 to 24 now the narrative is pretty straightforward some of these passages you just simply need to read them and it is a bit difficult to draw from these certain practical implications for the life of a new covenant church in the 21st century will probably end where we have gone often in terms of our studies in Genesis on the conspicuous nature of God's providence God has ordained everything that we see come to pass even the brothers are conscious of this to some degree or other later on in the narrative and certainly that then foreshadows the the grand concern of the or the grand theme of the entire situation involving Joseph when they meant it for evil but God overruled it for good now with reference to this initial meeting with Joseph and verses 6 to 9 notice that he was governor over the land and it was he who sold bread to all of the people so again this is a position of great notoriety a position of great prestige as well his brothers bowed down to him notice in verse 6 and it was he who sold to all the people of the land and Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth and that is precisely what Joseph had drained back in chapter 37 in chapter 37 at verse 6 so he said to them please hear this dream which I have dreamed there we were binding sheaves in the field then behold my sheaf arose and also stood upright and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf so he's already had this by way of dream and he has seen this and he makes the connection here after the brothers do in fact bow down to him but back to chapter 42 he spoke saw his brothers and he recognized them but they do not recognize him and again the integrity or the entirety of this chapter hangs on that reality their inability to recognize him now no it has been 20 years at least since they have been separated remember that that Joseph was 17 when he went into the pit and then he was 30 when he stood before Pharaoh and then there was this seven years of of Plenty and now they reached the time of famine we don't know how far into the they are John Gill continuously says 22 years that seems as good a guess as any but it's at least 20 years so a lot has happened he's gone from 17 as the younger kid brother that was a bit of a past in an irritant that was quite the dreamer and when they despised to now the vice regent over Egypt so they're certainly his his appearance would have changed they did not notice him he's speaking in the Egyptian tongue they do not know to understand that particular language but of course he recognizes them and then as well he spoke roughly to his brothers notice in verse 7 Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them but he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them then he said to them where do you come from and they said from the land of Canaan to buy food again the text indicates he recognizes them but they do not recognize him and then in verse 9 he remembers the drain then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed about them and then he said to them your spies you have come to see the nakedness of the land of the nakedness of the land means the vulnerabilities of the land and he is using this particular tactic to vet them and ultimately to get them to that point where they often offer up information concerning Benjamin and concerning Jacob and so he accuses them of being spies wanting to survey the land so that they can with their invading armies come and take all of the good stuff of the land and of course they reject that that assertion notice what they say according to verse 10 no my lord but your servants have come to buy food we're all one man's sons we are honest men your servants are not spies except of course the time that we tried to kill our brother and sold him into slavery I mean they didn't put that little piece of data in there but in terms of their present mission they are not lying this is precisely the case and their arguments are pretty pretty pretty tight their purpose is to buy food I mean it is a time of famine that makes great sense as well they have a fraternal connection would spies travel in tents that's another sort of indicator that what is on the up-and-up and then their insistence that they were honest men not spies but that they really just legitimately wanted to buy food so that's what they say to him Joseph again accuses them verse 12 no but you have come to see the nakedness of your of the land and it's here at this point that they offer up additional information that Joseph is going to seize upon and use in terms of the trade deal that he is going to make with that in verse 13 they said your servants are twelve brothers the sons of one man in the land of Canaan and in fact the youngest is with our Father today and one is no more so now he has the data he has the information and he proposes this particular test to them in terms of their acquiring food so back to verse 14 Joseph said to them it is as I spoke to you saying your spies in this manner you shall be tested by the life of Pharaoh now that's a bit of a difficulty because it sounds like he's swearing by the life of Pharaoh not something a good monotheistic Jew would do now some have suggested well you know this was prior to the writing of the law of God in terms of swearing oaths to Yahweh only I'm not sure how to explain this other than to say as the second in charge and all of Egypt it would have been tantamount to his functioning in that capacity to be able to swear by Pharaoh and to be able to engage in this particular activity in terms of the second in charge or the vice-regent he goes on to say in this manner you shall be tested by the life of Pharaoh you shall not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here send one of you and let him bring your brother and you shall be kept in prison that your words may be tested to see whether there is any truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh surely you are spies so he put them all together in prison three days again it's a genius plan in other words in order to get the food that you are after I'm going to keep nine of you in prison that's going to shift after the three days of imprisonment but initially he says I'm going to keep nine of you in prison I'm gonna send one of you down there to pick up your brother once you bring your brother back then I'll free the nine again it's a genius plan so that they are forced into fetching Benjamin so that Joseph can see his little brother that brings us to this second meeting with Joseph at the end of the third day verse 18 then Joseph said to them the third day do this and live for I feared God notice he doesn't say for I fear Yahweh he says I fear Elohim again something that a that a that an Egyptian could say I doubt that they said wow this man fears God that's a good thing that sort of encourages us in terms of all that we're doing at this particular vantage point had he said I swear by Yahweh that would have tipped the scales that way but this reference to God again it wasn't just the Jews that referenced God there were the nations around Israel that also had their gods and then verse 19 if you were honest men let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house but you go and carry grain for the famine of your houses so already Joseph is softening already he is showing mercy we know that ultimately that's where the narrative is going to go he is going to sustain them he is going to provide for them and after the Reeb reveal he is not going to cut them off in order their execution Joseph is a gracious man Joseph is a merciful man Joseph is a kind-hearted man so initially the arrangement was I'll keep nine will send one now I'll keep one and send nine and you guys go fetch your little brother Benjamin and bring him back to me and once that occurs then everything will go well now notice the regret of the brothers this is intriguing verse 20 and bring your youngest brother to me so your words will be verified and you shall not die and it says it and they did so verse 21 then they said to one another we are truly guilty concerning our brother for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear therefore this distress has come upon us go back for just a moment to chapter 37 chapter 37 the narrative there is silent about Joseph's pleading but what they report here in Genesis 42 indicates what occurred at the edge of the pit in chapter 37 at verses 23 and 24 so it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph of his tunic the tunic of many colors that was on him then they took him and cast him into a pit and the pit was empty there was no water in it and they sat down to eat a meal now in all of this Joseph is pleading Joseph is crying out Joseph from the bottom of this pit while they're eating their lunch is saying let me out of here this shows their heartlessness and their callousness in the treatment of Joseph in case we had forgotten well now these regrets come to bear upon their own minds again at least 20 years later John Gill makes this observation and now being in trouble themselves it brings to mind the sin they had been guilty of which though committed 22 years ago was still fresh in their memories and lay heavy on their consciences and I love what he says here for length of time neither makes sin less nor the conscience lighter think about that for a moment length of time neither makes sin less nor the conscience lighter now obviously he's dealing with undealt with sin certainly the washing of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ does make conscience lighter but even if that is the case there are those things we look back on in our past and we have deep regret over that we engaged in that sort of activity we ought to rejoice in the blood of Jesus Christ His Son which cleanses us from all sin there's that bit in the prophet Ezekiel where God is talking about the blessings and the promises of the New Covenant and the unilateral imposition of the new covenant upon the people of God God says I will take out your old stony heart I will put in a new flash Li heart I will put my spirit within you I will put my law within you I will cleanse you I will this I will that and one thing that they will do is they will remember their past abominations and load themselves for it and I think that is what is happening here at least a some degree in these men we are truly guilty concerning our brother for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear therefore this distress has come upon us and then it's at this point that Rubin essentially says I told you so we don't like it when people tell us I told you so do we well sometimes necessary for persons to tell us I told you so the Apostle Paul does this in the book of Acts in chapter 27 he says it to a bunch of Shipman he says I told you so well Reuben says that here to his brothers in verse 22 Reuben answered them saying did I not speak to you saying do not sin against the boy and you would not listen therefore behold his blood is now required of us so as far as Reuben is concerned what they did to Joseph was a capital crime now some would suggest it was either a attempted murder or be it was kidnapping either of which was in fact a capital crime so Reuben is correct in his assessment here the things that we did to our brother has has put us in the place where it is righteous with God to have us execute it his blood is now required of us now notice what we find in verses 23 and 24 Joseph here's exactly what they're saying Joseph knows exactly what they're saying remember they don't recognize Joseph but Joseph not only recognizes them but Joseph understands their language and in verse 23 it tells us they did not know that Joseph understood them for he spoke to them through an interpreter and he turned himself away from them and wept then he returned to them again and talked with them and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes so when it says he turned himself away from them and wept again you've got to imagine the the emotions that have come upon Joe's I mean imagine what has happened to him in these 20 plus years the sorts of things that he endured and again God's providence sustained and throughout it all brought him to this place of prestige and power brought him to this confrontation ultimately with his brothers but it affects him in such a way that he turns away and weeps he'll weep again according to chapter 45 when he's about I'm sorry chapter 43 when he sees Benjamin he's overcome and there he weeps chapter 45 he weeps again when he is going to reveal himself and then ultimately in chapter 46 at verse 29 when he sees Jacob his father there is this emotional response on the part of the patriarch because of the various things that he had gone through the various things that God had preserved him through and the various ways that his family had treated him this man knew certainly about pain and affliction and hardship and suffering there are times in the Christian life or we think that nobody's ever gone this through the sorts of things that we have gone through well all we have to do is read Scripture and we will find persons that have gone through the sorts of things that we've gone through and oftentimes they've gone through it in greater degrees of turmoil and difficulty and aren't yet some of us have difficulties with our family well Joseph certainly knew what it was to have difficulties with his family think about Abel Cain and Abel Abel's brother murder death think about the various persons throughout Scripture this is one of the reasons why we encourage reading Scripture so that we can see faith in action and to see how God sustains his people in the great in the times of great suffering and turmoil and distress the Lord had been present for the life of Joseph whether it was in the good times or in the bad times he certainly arrived at good times now being vice-regent over Egypt but he had gone through his share of bad times and difficult times and certainly weeping is consistent with the various things that he has met with in his life and then notice finally the brothers returned to Canaan in verses 25 to 38 we see first their return to the turn journey in verses 25 to 28 the command of Joseph and verse 25 Joseph gave a command to fill their sacks with grain to restore every man's money to his sack and to give them provisions for the journey thus he did for them again Joseph is playing them in a sinful way but he's ultimately wanting them to be safe to be secure to end up in Egypt and bring their brother bring his brother Benjamin and so in verses 26 and following one of them discovers this they discover that they have the money they discover that they have the grain some have suggested that scribes messed up and we have two different accounts in the chapter no initially it was one of the brothers who wanted to fetch fodder for his donkey who comes across the money later on it's in the presence of Joseph or Jacob rather that the other brothers open up their sacks and they too find their money so the tax ought not to be looked at as sort of being spliced together by irresponsible scribes who didn't spot inconsistencies as good as us 21st century readers I mean sometimes the way people treat the scriptures what's called critical commentators it's just amazing the the suppositions that are involved rather than just accepting it has having come from Moses who wrote by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and the books were preserved for us so that we could read what happened in this particular generation and age so notice what happens when they find the money and they find the grain according to verse 28 so he said to his brothers my money has been restored and there it is in my sack then their hearts failed them and they were afraid now notice their theology saying to one another what is this that God has done to us that's a good view of divine sovereignty they're not sure it's a good thing they're perhaps still thinking in terms of the fact that they had mistreated their brother and this may be a means by which God is going to bring them into judgment but they do understand the sovereignty of God and again I think there's four shadows what Joseph will say in 52 but as for you you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many of people to save many people alive so we have this God or sovereign god in providence responsible for the money and the grain in this man sack Joseph is certainly the instrument of the agent by which the money and the grain found its way into the sack but it's God's sovereignty and that again foreshadows what happens in terms of the entirety of the Joseph's narratives God is sovereign Joseph is as is his agent and it's by means of Joseph that God secures and saves his people Israel and then notice the report given to Jacob in verses 29 to 38 essentially they rehearse what they had just experienced they said that Jay the man of the land the governor of the land had accused them of being spies and then rehearsed the demands made by Joseph in verses 33 and 34 and then in verse 35 it happened as they emptied their sacks that surprisingly each man's bundle of money was in his sack and when they and their father saw the bundles of money they were afraid again they're not sure how to interpret this Providence is like that from time to time isn't it we don't always know exactly what it is God is trying to tell us the event occurs we understand that it comes from God but there's that certain situation where we're not sure if it's a blessing or it's a curse or if it's something you know God is going to do in terms of our benefit or something in terms of our chastisement and so these Jews these monotheistic Jews who serve the God of Israel Yahweh they understand this and there is a fear in their hearts and then verse 36 Jacob their father said to them you have believed me Joseph is no more Simeon is no more and you want to take Benjamin all these things are against me now some have supposed that perhaps Jacob is on to them or is suspecting them in terms of whatever happened to Joseph remem Jacob never saw a body they showed him the coat the tunic of many colors that had the blood of the animal all over it but he never saw Joseph some speculate that he's perhaps a bit suspicious at this particular juncture I'm not sure whether that's correct or not but what I do know is that he is deeply concerned about Benjamin he's lost Joseph Simeon is now compromised as he's sitting in this jail cell in Egypt and certainly he doesn't want Benjamin to go so now Reuben speaks up earlier Reuben was the I told you so die now Reuben is the guy who says kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you put him in my hands and I will bring him back to you now on the surface obviously that's not gonna comfort Jacob if Jacob is sad over the death of his son the death of two of his grandsons is probably not gonna buck him up I think his grandfather's we look at grandsons just like we look at sons we don't say well you know that's that they're just collateral damage I don't think that's it at all I think the point is is that Reuben is putting his money where his mouth is I don't think he really wants to see his sons die nor does he think that Jacob wants to see his sons die but he is pledging he is assuring Jacob that if we take Benjamin I will take Benjamin back now again he doesn't know what we know of this rabble Reuben is the best of the lot Reuben is the one that intervened Reuben is the one that that stayed their hand when they wanted to murder Joseph in the very beginning so Reuben is a decent guy in this regard but then verses verse 38 Jacob highlights his pain his suffering he says my son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead and he is left alone if any calamity should befall him along the way in which you go then you would bring down my gray hair with sorrow to the grave and that's the language that he used in 37:35 when his sons tried to comfort him concerning Joseph and he says for I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning thus his father wept for him so Jacob is deeply pained at the prospect the thought of losing Benjamin he thinks he's already lost Joseph he's pretty much thinking he's lost Simeon for good he doesn't want to part with Benjamin at this particular juncture and then that will bring us to chapter 43 and their need to return to Egypt because the grain doesn't last forever well in conclusion I have two thoughts first the regret of the brothers I think there is a lot of theology in verse 21 we are truly guilty concerning our brother for we saw the anguish of the of his soul when he pleaded with us and we would not hear therefore this distress has come upon us the way to a light conscience is through the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ length of time neither makes sin less nor the conscious conscience lighter there is only one who can do that and that is our Lord Jesus Christ and then of course the Providence of God every jot and tittle every moving part is overseen overruled by God to bring these events to bear just as they occur in the scripture here it truly is an amazing description of God's providence and as I've said as we've gone through these narratives if you're ever in doubt concerning Providence if you're ever wondering concerning whether or not God deals with the minutia of our lives Genesis is a great great place to go because we have many many chapters focusing on the exploits of one particular family and God working in the midst of that family to preserve them to secure them and ultimately to bring from them the Messiah in terms of the Providence of God I thought John Calvin introduced this chapter very beautifully and it's a lengthy quote but I think it's very valuable he says Moses begins in this chapter to treat of the occasion which drew Jacob with his whole family into Egypt I remember that's absolutely crucial as well it's not just the the subsistence of or the supply of given to the Israelites as a result of Joseph Joseph's position as vice regent but when we get to Exodus Israel has to be in Egypt that's just the way the story goes and in order to get to Egypt these events had to transpire in order for God to deliver Israel from Egypt out of the house of bondage and to set forth his paradigm of redemptive history Israel has to be in Egypt and this is the means by which they get their back to Calvin he says and thus leaves it to us to consider by what hidden and unexpected methods God may perform whatever he has decreed again that's a beautiful statement because it's not just them getting to Egypt but the narrative weaves in and out to show us how they got to Egypt and it is in a way that perhaps we would have never ever purposed or plan the the sale of Joseph as a as a slave to Midianite travelers to - to Potiphar's house and then to the prison and then interpreting the prisoners dreams and then going to the the household of farrell and interpreting his dreams and then being exalted we would have never planned that we would have never thought through that but God in His glory and his wonder has put it together this way he goes on to say though therefore the Providence of God is in itself a labyrinth yet when we connect the issue of things with their beginnings that admirable method of operation shines clearly in our view which is not generally acknowledged only because it is far removed from our observation also our own indolence hinders us from perceiving God with the eyes of faith as holding the government of the world because we either imagine fortune to be the mistress of events or else adhering to near and natural causes we weave them together and spread them as veils before our eyes whereas therefore scarcely any more illustrious representation of divine providence is to be found than this history furnishes let pious readers carefully exercise themselves in meditation upon it in order that they may acknowledge those things which in appearance are fortuitous to be directed by the hand of God that is a great way to introduce this particular chapter and definitely a great lesson for us to take from this chapter well let's close in a word of Prayer father thank you for your word and thank you for your Providence and as Calvin says it is a labyrinth and without discernment we just miss it and God thank you for the book of Genesis that causes us to reflect upon it help us to move from this book to our own lives to see how you work in each and every instance how you work and overrule all things for for your glory and for the good of those who love you to those who are the called according to your purpose certainly what we have in these Joseph's narratives is summed up by Paul in Romans 8:28 and we give thanks to you that we are members of this blessed covenant we're members of the covenant of grace those included by you in your electing love we thank you for redemption through Jesus Christ our Lord and we thank you for your great government over our lives as well our Father we thank you for cleansing our consciences from the guilt of sin through that precious blood of the Redeemer and though we may look back in our history to the times when we were at enmity with you to those times and we offended you and transgressed your holy law I mean we nevertheless rejoice in that washing that we receive through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we pray these things in his most blessed name amen