The brothers returned home. They shared with their father that the only way they could get more grain and retrieve their brother Simeon was to return toEgyptwith Benjamin.

 

Jacob would not hear of his only living son of Rachel being taken toEgypt. Reuben offered his sons as a pledge, but Reuben’s words brought no comfort to his father.

 

The day came when they had no choice but to travel back to Egyptto get more grain, and the brothers knew that they would receive nothing without Benjamin. Judahlooked at Jacob, and he did not offer his son’s life, but he offered his own. We read in John 15:13, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.” I believe Jacob looked intoJudah’s eyes, and he saw that he could trustJudah with his precious Benjamin.

 

Judahknew of Jacob’s pain, and he understood Jacob’s love, having already lost two sons himself. Here we seeJudahact as the redeemer for his brothers. Here, for the first time, we can begin to see the picture of Christ rising up inJudah, the son of Jacob.

 

Jacob knew the promise of God. He knew that he was in covenant with God. He knew that this covenant would carry through one of his sons. What he did not know was which son it would be. I wonder, as Jacob watched his eleven remaining sons ride off toward Egypt, if he was reminded of his grandfather Abraham and his father, Isaac, and the time when God said, “Take your son whom you love and offer him as a sacrifice to Me.”

 

As I read this, my imagination takes me to the heavens.

Can you see the conversation in heaven, between the Holy Trinity, as God the Son looks at God the Father, and says, “I will go and lay down my life for them, as You love them I love them, as You created them, I created them”…

Jesus said in John 10:15, “Even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father and I lay down My life for the sheep.” If we could ever fully grasp the love our Creator has for us, we would never doubt Him.

 

 

 

 

 

Joseph questions his brothers as they stand before him. He accuses them of being spies, and this leads them into explaining who they are and where they came from. Joseph could not see his brothers’ hearts, but he could see that they were lying about him and to him.

 

Joseph’s deepest concern here was the condition of his little brother Benjamin. I am sure he was afraid that Benjamin was now the hated one. In order for Joseph to discover the truth about the safety of his little brother, he placed a test before them that would bring Benjamin toEgypt.

 

Jesus told us that we would be known by our fruit (Matthew 7:16–20). Joseph would know the truth of his brothers’ words by the produced “fruit” of Benjamin. I am sure he did not know that the test he would lay before them would trigger the guilt of their sin.

 

In this test, the brothers immediately went to the memory of what they had done to Joseph so many years before. Joseph’s brothers argue before him in Hebrew; they do not know that Joseph understands. They do not know it is Joseph. Joseph is so overwhelmed that he has to turn away from them and weep.

 

I wonder, had the brothers turned to Joseph at that moment and confessed their sin before this man that they did not know was Joseph, would he have revealed himself to them then? I believe he just might have.

 

In Matthew 15:8, Jesus quoted the Prophet Isaiah: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far away from me.” God is omniscient. He knows our hearts and our innermost thoughts. He doesn’t need to test us to see if we speak truth. We, on the other hand, need him to test us so that we can see for ourselves if we speak truth.

 

As the saying goes, “talk is cheap.” It is easy to speak words; it is harder to actually back those words with action. We may say one thing, but through trials and testing, we and others may discover that we did not mean what we said. James 1:2 tells us to consider it all joy when we go through various trials, knowing that through endurance by the testing of our faith we might be made complete and perfect.

 

Joseph’s brothers stood before this man who was ruler over them, and though they were attempting to honor him with their lips, they were lying through their teeth. They were trying to make themselves better men than what they were by hiding their sin from him.

 

Precious one, are you trying to hide your sin?

 

Do we not do this before God?

Do we not come to Him on Sunday and sing a beautiful song and hope that if our words are sweet enough He will just look over what is hidden in our hearts?

 

When struggles come in your life, do you see them as some type of punishment for a past sin?

 

My friend, it is not punishment. It is simply God’s way of encouraging you to come to Him. He wants you to be free, to be perfect and complete before Him.

 

Do you know that Jesus said that whoever commits sin is the slave of sin (John 8:34)? Do you know that not confronting and confessing your sin keeps you in bondage to that sin? Do you know that Jesus said that it is the truth that sets you free (John 8:32)?

 

My friend, do you know that “there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1)?

 

Oh, precious one, don’t hold on to your sin; “confess your sins one to another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed” (James 5:16). God built His church that we might edify one another and hold one another accountable. Find someone you can trust and lay aside whatever sin, past or present, that is entangling you (Hebrews 12:1). Draw near with confidence before the throne of grace (Hebrews 4:16) and let the truth (John 14:6) set you free.

 

 

 

 

In the previous devotion we discussed how Joseph’s brothers’ ignorance in recognizing who he would be allowed him to become who he is now, second in power over all of Egypt. We learned how their sin against him was used by God to save them and the world. Now their sin once again keeps them from recognizing him, even when he stands right in front of them.

 

Joseph had power over his brothers not just because of the authority of the position he held, but also because of the advantage he held in the knowledge that his brothers would only recognize him if he chose to reveal himself to them. The whens, wheres, and hows were all completely in Joseph’s control.

 

For you see, Joseph’s brothers could not recognize him because they were not looking for him. If they had been searching for him with all their heart, they would have recognized him immediately.

 

You see, the brothers were not looking for Joseph because to find Joseph would mean they would be faced with the guilt of their sin, and this guilt they wanted to keep hidden.

 

When I read this verse in Genesis and this part of Joseph’s life, I am reminded of Luke 24:15–14: “While they were talking and discussing, Jesus Himself approached and began traveling with them. But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him.” When Peter made his confession in Matthew 16:16, Jesus replied, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.”

 

We are so blinded by our own sin and by the god of this world, Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4) that we cannot and could not see God if He did not reveal Himself to us. We would not even know to look for Him if He did not call out for us. To find Him means we must come face-to-face with our sin against Him. We, like the brothers, want to keep this sin hidden.

 

God, in His great mercy and grace, reveals Himself to us through His creation (Psalm 19:1–6), through His Word (Psalm 19:7–13), and through Jesus Christ (Psalm 19:14). God has never left us without a witness or without signs declaring that He exists and He is God. Psalm 65:8 says, “They who dwell in the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your signs.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jacob and his eleven sons and their families need food in this famine. Jacob sends his sons—all but Benjamin— toEgypt. Oh, what a surprise it will be when they learn that the very one they wanted to rid themselves of is the only one who can give them life.

 

My friend, what a surprise it will be when those descendants of Israelwho have so wanted to get rid of Jesus discover that the very Jesus they have been trying to rid themselves of is the only One who can save them. In Acts 2:36 we read, “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

 

Paul explains to us in Romans 11 that God has placed a partial hardening over His people so that the nation does not recognize Jesus for who He truly is, but the day is coming when the hardening will be removed. Then all ofIsrael will be saved.

 

They will recognize Him and they will worship Him. They will mourn when this realization hits, but still they will praise Jesus as the Messiah. They will know Him as Lord and King.

 

As Jacob said, “Behold, I have heard there is grain in Egypt,” Israel will say, “Behold, I have heard that there is life in Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). They will say, we have heard that He is the true bread that comes down out of heaven and whoever eats this bread lives forever (John 6).

 

In Zechariah 12:10 we read, “They will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him.” We can read on in Zechariah 13:6 that “one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then He will say, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.”

 

Yes, Jesus was wounded by those who once claimed to love Him. He was not turned over to the cross by the Gentiles but by His own people. Yet it was for God’s purpose. Had the nation ofIsraelrecognized Jesus for who He truly was, then they would never have sent Him to the cross, and it is only by the cross of Christ that we may all be saved, Jew and Gentile.

 

If Joseph’s brothers had recognized him for who he was going to be, then they would not have sold him as a slave. Yet by the suffering Joseph received from his brothers, he was not only able to give them life, but he was able to give life to the world.

 

So are we to hate Joseph’s brothers for their ignorance?

 

Joseph, the one they sinned against, did not hate them. Joseph saw the big picture. He knew that God was in control, even when he didn’t completely understand. Joseph never stopped loving his brothers.

 

My friend, Jesus does not hate those who put Him on the cross. He has never stopped loving them. It was His great love for them, for us, that led Him to that cross and held Him to that cross. Sin was what threw Joseph in that pit. Sin was what sold him as a slave, and it was sin that sent him to prison. The same is true of the cross. Sin—mine, yours, and the world’s—sent Jesus to the cross.

 

Oh, precious one, do you hear?

Do you hear that He provides for His own in ways that we cannot even fathom?

 

Have you heard that the nation of Israelwould have perished before the nation could have ever begun had it not been for her God, who sent Joseph ahead of her to Egypt, and not just Israel, but the nations of the world? Here we are, and here is the whole world dying in our sins, yet there is a way. Have you heard there is the way (John 14:6)?

 

 

 

 

 

Pharaoh gave instructions to the people to obey Joseph. If the people were to live, they were to obey Joseph. All the peoples of the earth came toEgyptto buy grain from him—not just Egyptians, but all peoples.

 

The storehouses were built and filled by the Egyptians. The grain in them was offered to them first. As the famine went on, word spread about the grain inEgyptand all peoples began to come. None were turned away if they had the money to pay. The people sold all they had, including their lands and even themselves, in order to buy this grain.

 

The famine was severe in all the earth in this day of Joseph, and it is severe today. The famine of sin, the drought of depression and sickness.

The starvation of souls is rampant upon the earth.

 

Just as God made the way for Joseph to supply grain to all who hungered and came to him, God has made the way for us. In Matthew 17:5, God speaks on behalf of Christ and says, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!” The Word tells us in John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life.” Just as Pharoah said, “Go to Joseph, whatever he says to you, you shall do” (Genesis 41:55), so God has told us to go to Jesus, and whatever He says, we are to do.

 

Oh, precious one, Jesus says He is the way, the truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father except through Him (John 14:6). He tells us in John 6:35, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger.” He says that the one that comes to Him will certainly not be cast out (John 6:37).

 

Jesus came to the Jews first, but just as Joseph’s grain was available to all peoples, so His gift of life is offered and available to all, “for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

 

Joseph’s grain required a payment, but Jesus Himself covered the cost of His grain. He knew we could never pay the price. We could not even sell ourselves, for we were already slaves to another.

 

We were slaves to sin and we owed sin its wage, but when we come to Jesus, He pays off our sin debt and then He offers us the free gift of God, which is eternal life in Him. His bread is free to all who come. We may be in the midst of a severe famine, but in Christ and through Christ our every need will be supplied.

 

Are you suffering in sin?

Come to Christ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The truth of the Word of God and His omniscience and omnipotence never ceases to amaze. As that young man who was thrown into a pit by his brothers and then sold as a slave into a foreign land, would Joseph have ever thought that he would be hearing these words of Pharaoh addressed to him?

 

In 1 Corinthians 2:9 we read that, “Eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him.” Even more so, could Joseph have ever imagined the fact that God was using the story of his life to foreshadow the truth of the coming Messiah?

 

The Pharaoh of Egypt hands all rule over to Joseph. In Matthew 28:18 Jesus says, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Ephesians 1:20–23 tells us that Jesus Christ has been set far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and all things and all peoples are in subjection under him. Pharoah told Joseph that it would be only in the throne that he would be greater.

 

In John 14:28, Jesus is speaking to eleven of the disciples (Judas Iscariot has gone out from them), and He tells them, “If you loved Me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.” Many have taken this verse and used it to diminish the deity of Jesus Christ. Let me take this opportunity to explain:

 

We read in Philippians 2:6–7 that although Jesus existed in the form of God, He did not regard equality with God a thing to hold on to. He willingly emptied Himself and took on the likeness of man. Now in this likeness of man, Jesus has positioned Himself under the authority of the throne of God. So while Jesus was on this earth, the Father was greater than Him in position. This never diminshed the deity of Christ.

 

He was and is and always will be God.

 

Jesus is the One of the Trinity that we were able to see and touch. He is the One who walked among us. His walking among us never diminished His dominion over us. “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9).

 

Joseph walked among the people in a way that Pharoah could not, yet this never diminished his authority over the people. Just as Pharaoh placed Joseph over all ofEgypt, so has God placed Jesus over all the earth.

 

Jesus was with God and is God; He was and is “faithful as a Son over His house, whose house we are, if we hold fast our confidence and the boast of our hope firm until the end” (Hebrews 3:6). Joseph held firm his hope in God no matter what life threw his way, and great was his reward.

 

Oh, precious one, we cannot even fathom what God has planned for us.

 

In Jeremiah 29:11 we read, “For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.”

 

Jesus tells us in Revelation 3:21, “He who overcomes, I will grant him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.”

 

The question is, my dear friend, will you be one who overcomes?

 

 

 

 

Two years have passed since the cupbearer’s release from prison.

Two years can seem like a very long time.

 

Two years, and the cupbearer has not remembered Joseph, yet the day has come that God will remind the cupbearer about the Hebrew youth who was able to interpret his dream.

 

Now the one who dreams is Pharaoh himself. The sovereignty of God is seen through this dream, as God speaks to the heart and mind of a man who does not honor Him as God. Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the Lord; He turns it wherever He wishes.”

 

Pharaoh’s dreams greatly disturb him. He calls all his magicians and wise men before him and shares the two dreams with them, yet they cannot interpret. They stand clueless. The cupbearer then comes before Pharaoh, for it is time for him to remember Joseph.

 

Joseph is brought before Pharaoh and his first words are to give all glory and credit to God: “It is not in me; God will give” (Genesis 41:16). We see another picture of Jesus Christ as He said, “For I did not speak on my own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak” (John 12:49). Jesus was God, yet in the flesh here on this earth He laid aside His glory and humbled Himself and did not consider equality with God something to be grasped (Philippians 2:6).

 

Joseph was not taking credit for what he knew was the sole act of God. How much better off we would be if we would give only God the glory for our talents, gifts, and abilities. Joseph did not struggle with pride. I am sure his years in slavery and prison helped him with that.

 

God has intricately designed each of us. He has given us talents and personalities and strengths, and when we receive salvation, spiritual gifts. How easy it is to forget that these are only ours at the good pleasure of God. How easy it is to pat ourselves on the back or accept the accolades of man as they tell us how great we are.

 

May we remember, as Joseph remembered, that “all things have been created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16). If we boast in anything, we are to boast in our weaknesses (2 Corinthians 12:5) and in the cross of Christ (Galatians 6:14).

 

 

 

 

There is nowhere that we are hidden from God. There is not a prison on this earth deep or dark enough to separate us from our Creator God. There is no chain strong enough, no enemy wise enough to keep us held back from what God has purposed to do through us.

 

Our Father in heaven will complete what He has started in us, and His will shall certainly be accomplished.

 

Here in prison, Joseph meets the chief cupbearer and the chief baker of Pharaoh. Joseph notices the sadness and dejection in their countenances and goes to minister to them. He asks them why they are so sad, and they share with Joseph about the dreams that have burdened their minds. Joseph knows that interpretations belong to God, and he asks the two to share with him their dreams.

 

It appears that immediately God gives Joseph the interpretations of the dreams. Joseph has to deliver very bad news to the chief baker and very good news to the chief cupbearer. To the cupbearer Joseph requested that he would please remember him before Pharaoh and share his story, that he might be released.

 

Both interpretations come to fruition just as Joseph spoke them, yet the cupbearer did not remember Joseph.

 

Joseph is forgotten by man again, yet still faithful to God. I am sure he heard in his heart, “Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold I have inscribed you on the palm of My hands” (Isaiah 49:15–16). Joseph held fast to his God. He held fast in the face of circumstances that looked as though God had forsaken him, yet God had not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joseph, sold as a slave to the Ishmaelites and then to Potiphar in Egypt, now finds himself in the king’s prison. It appeared that everywhere Joseph went, the world was against him, but God was with him. If God is with us, who can be against us (Romans 8:31)?

 

Every attempt by the world and the evil one to knock him down or remove him only placed him right where God needed him to be. Joseph’s situations did not catch God by surprise. As persecution and lies rose against him, God was right there with him. Everywhere he went, whether as slave or prisoner, God caused all he did to prosper.

 

I believe the enemy notices when God causes the works of our hands to prosper, and he wants to stop it. He knows by our prospering that God is up to something. However, I believe he has no knowledge as to what that something is. If the enemy had a clue, he would never have pushed so strongly to get Christ on that cross, and he would never have tempted Potiphar’s wife to bring this accusation against Joseph.

 

In 1 Peter 4:12–13 we read,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We return now to the life of Joseph, sold into slavery and bought by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh. Now Potiphar saw that Joseph was someone special. He recognized that the Lord was with him. He recognized that he had begun to prosper since Joseph had come into his charge.

 

Potiphar made Joseph his personal servant and placed him as overseer of his house and all that he owned. Potiphar could trust in Joseph, and so he worried about nothing while Joseph was in charge.

 

Potiphar had a wife, and his wife took quite a liking to Joseph and she pursued him. Joseph, however, would not return Potiphar’s wife’s advances. Day after day, she pursued him, and day after day, he refused her. He replied that Potiphar was his master, he trusted him, and he would not violate this trust. Even more, Joseph professed that he would not go into Potiphar’s wife and commit this great evil and sin against God.

 

This adulteress female did not want to accept Joseph’s no, so she grabbed his garment and commanded that he lie with her. Joseph ran, leaving his garment in her tightly gripped hand. In 2 Timothy 2:22 we read, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”

 

Joseph did just that; he fled!

 

When this woman, in her rejected anger, went to her husband and demanded that Joseph be killed because he violated her, I believe her husband knew the truth because he knew his wife and he knew Joseph. The Scripture says that “his anger burned” (Genesis 39:19).

 

I believed it burned not against Joseph, but against his wife, who had forced him into this situation. He had to address the charge, and he could not place the word of a slave over his wife. I believe Potipher’s belief in Joseph’s innocence is made evident in the fact that instead of killing Joseph, he placed him in the king’s prison.

 

Joseph knew that all sin was against God. He also knew that he could not hide himself from God. Joseph did not want to be the kind of person who would need to hide from God. He did not desire to be a man who could not look his master in the eyes.