Main idea: Focus on promises kept now gives joyful endurance for promises kept later.
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Well, good morning, church family, it's good to see you this morning. We enjoyed so much our resurrection weekend last weekend, and the theme of resurrection is going to show up again today, much earlier in the passage, much earlier in the Bible than you might think. But what a joy it is the promises that we have this week as we look at Genesis, if you're new with us, we are looking at a passage in the first book of the Bible, Genesis that brings together multiple promises that God's made. And we're going to see how Jacob Joseph and Israel lived in light of some promises that have been kept and some that are still coming, and so it's a really precious passage for us. If you're new, I want to add my welcome. I'd love to meet you. I'd love to talk with you. After my wife and I are here, we always love meeting everybody new who comes and excited about that opportunity. So turn with me to Genesis, 4628 you can stay seated this week. It's a long reading, but I want to read it. I won't be able to explain all of it, but at least we can hear it. But just imagine this. Joseph has been separated from his father for 22 years, there has been an old promise that God would bring his people into Egypt so that they could flourish. That happens here. All the reconciliation happens. There's even a really precious moment with Joseph and his fathers reuniting. So let's follow along with this and see what God did in their lives. Genesis, 4628 Jacob had sent Judah ahead of him to Joseph to show the way before him in Goshen, coming from Canaan, now into the province called Goshen in Egypt. And they came into the land of Goshen. Then Joseph prepared his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father and Goshen, he presented himself to him and fell on his neck and wept on on his neck a good while Israel said to Joseph, now let me die, since I have seen your face and I know that you are still alive, Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and will say to him, my brothers and my father's household, who were in the land of Canaan, have come to me. And the men are shepherds, for they have been keepers of livestock, and they have brought their flocks and their herds and all that they have. When Pharaoh calls you and says, What is your occupation, you shall say, Your servants have been keepers of livestock from our youth, even until now, both we and our fathers in order that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. So Joseph went in and told Pharaoh, my father and my brothers, with their flocks and herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. They are now in the land of Goshen, and from among his brothers, he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to his brothers, what is your occupation? They said to Pharaoh, your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. They said to Pharaoh, we have come to sojourn in the land, for there is no pasture for your servants' flocks, for the Famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, your father and your brothers have come to you the land of Egypt is before you settle your father and your brothers in the best of the land. Let them settle in the land of Goshen. And if you know any able men among them, put them in charge of my livestock. Then Joseph brought in Jacob, his father, and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh, and Pharaoh said to Jacob, how many are the days of the years of your life? Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my sojournings are 130
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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 and the days of their sojourning. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh. Then Joseph settled his father, his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses. Pharaoh had commanded, and Joseph provided his father, his brothers and all his father's household with food according to the number of their dependents. Now there was no food in all the land for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished by reason of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and all and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they brought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. And when the money was all spent in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us food. Why should we die before your eyes, for our money is gone. And Joseph answered, give your livestock and I will put I will give you food in exchange for your livestock if your money is gone, if your money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them food in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the herds and the donkeys. He supplied them with food in exchange for all their livestock that year. And when that year was ended, they came to him the following year and said to Him, we will not hide from my Lord that our money is all spent. The herds of livestock are my Lord's. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our land. Why should we die before your eyes? Both we and our land buy us and our land for food, and we, with our land, will be servants to Pharaoh and give us seed that we may live and not die and that the land may not be desolate. So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for all the Egyptians, sold their fields because the famine was severe on them, the land became Pharaoh's as for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other, only the land of the priests. He did not buy for the priests, had a fixed allowance from Pharaoh and lived on the allowance that Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their land. Then Joseph said to the people, Behold, I have, this day, Bought you and your land for Pharaoh. Now here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And at the harvests, you shall give a fifth to Pharaoh, and four fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field and as food for yourselves and households and as food for your little ones. And they said, You have saved our lives. May it please, my Lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh. So Joseph made it a statute concerning the land of Egypt, and it stands to this day that Pharaoh should have the fifth the land of the priests alone did not become pharaohs. Thus, Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, and they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. And Joseph and Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years. And when the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph, and said to him, If now I have found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly with me. Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers, carry me out of Egypt and bury me in the burying place. He answered, I will do as you have said. And Jacob said, swear to me. And Joseph swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. This is the word of the Lord, Lord God, we thank you and praise you this morning for being a faithful God. You have power, might, wisdom, foresight. You have ordained all things to come to pass, and by Your power and your steadfast love, you make it come true. We see that in abundance here, in this passage, we see promises given to Abraham coming true. Here, promises given to Abraham Isaac and Jacob still to come. And we see a way to live in this life with one foot on promises fulfilled and the other foot on promises still to come, so that we may have hope and endurance give us that this day there are many, many who suffer.
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Many weeks we announce engagements or 50th anniversaries, but there are many among us who are single and have been single a long time. Give them comfort and endurance, a fellowship that is understanding and supportive. We pray that You would help the couples among us who have no children, who wanted to never could we pray that you would encourage and comfort them, help them experience your presence and your grace. Many are enduring one suffering or another, physically, spiritually, relationally, we pray that You would help us as your people have. A joyful, abiding endurance, testifying to the grace of the Lord Jesus, Father. We pray for leaders we have sent out across our country. Pray for Josh Sturm and Flagstaff. For Dave Knowles in in New Mexico. Pray that they would be faithful proclaimers of your word, that they would be faithful builders of your church there by your Spirit's power, we pray for missionaries that we have sent and are sending. We pray for the dohertys as they're coming back from supporting dear, precious missionaries for us give them strength and help those who are going to be encouraged built up. There are years of trials ahead, sometimes slow going, and we would pray that they would see what has been done in Christ and what is still to be done, and faithfully persevere. We ask all this in Christ's name. Amen we're going to be doing be doing a short series in between Genesis and Ephesians. We're going to start Ephesians at the end of May. The short series is going to sort of re up faith Bible Church's commitment to the Great Commission, where we not only reach our neighbors with the gospel of Jesus Christ, but we commit, as a church to keep the missionary endeavor going. And that made me think of an example somebody brought to me about the great missionary hero. I would call him Adoniram Judson. He was a Baptist missionary serving in Burma. Now it's called Myanmar, but he did that until 1850 so this was the modern missions movement, and late in his life, this was a statement he was famous for. The future is as bright as God's promises. The future is as bright as God's promises. Now it's powerful coming from his lips, knowing about the start of his missionary service. His first two wives died in Burma, as did five of his children. Early on, he was imprisoned by the king of Burma for 21 months. Much of that time, he was strung up by his feet with only his shoulders and head on the ground for support. His first wife had to bring him food to survive, and even Judson had seasons like the patriarch Israel in our story, once he lamented, this God is to me the great unknown. I believe in him, but I find him not. He persevered. He went on to a minority group. He was forbidden to go with the majority Burmese people. He went to a minority group called the Karen people. He evangelized established churches, Bible schools, seminaries. Today in that region, among the Karen people, there are 3700 congregations and nearly 2 million attendees, Judson suffered for decades with little to show for it, until he went to the Karen people, and in a sudden sweep and move of the Spirit of God, many were converted. Judson's stories not an uncommon story. Very often God moves, slow, slow, slow, slow, and suddenly does something that was true in the lives of Joseph and Jacob
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and the promises kept during Jacob's life could give him endurance for the promises God would keep later. That's why I titled the message kept for now, kept for later, referring to the promises of God. The promises that God has kept for now are one foot to stand on promises that God will keep for later are the other, and they help us with joyful endurance. The big idea is I, as I look at this, especially when we get to this interesting passage all the way at the end the Swear to me, Joseph, to take my bones back. It's probably the most important part of the whole passage, I'll tell you why. The big idea is this, focusing on God's promises kept now gives joyful endurance for the God, the promises that God will keep later, and God is calling faith Bible, church to build joyful endurance. Us. We have a mission and a commission in our city, in our region around the world, and I want you to write this down, decades of endurance, decades of endurance. The Scripture is calling us to decades of endurance. And this kind of endurance is going to look different for everyone. For some it's just a perpetual glass half full perspective, no matter what the circumstance, this person knows that God could do anything in a trial. I hate those people always. You know, the glass is half full. I'm a glass half empty guy, and actually I'm a realist. That might be, you might turn from the glass half empty sort of complainer grouse or to the glass half full Well, I know that God keeps His promises. He could turn things around today. Others turned to singing. I was having a conversation with somebody going through a long standing trial, and I said, How do you deal with the heaviness and the sorrow in your trial? And the person said, through singing, I love to sing. It was as if, when the pain was worse, the singing needed to be loudest. That's never worked for me, because all I can do is croak. Nobody has ever accused me of enduring through singing. They've endured through my singing. Many probably people like you and like me here, have a show up and obey the Lord. That's the kind of confidence. They don't complain. They just show up and obey. It might be hard, and they keep showing and that's their joyful endurance. They just keep trusting God, knowing that he will do what is good and right and keep his promises. And I say this as we reach the end of Genesis, reminding you and me that most of the time God's transformation and God's promises come slowly over years and decades, Abraham had to wait at age 75 for 25 more years for the Promised Son. I Isaac had to wait until he was 40 to get a wife another 20 to get children here. Jacob and his Joseph waited for 22 years to be reunited. Joseph waited 22 years. For 20 years, it seemed like nothing was happening. The reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers took two years. This chapter covers 17 more years. Now I say that because we are get it done. People, this is a get it done culture. We expect to put effort and see a change right away all the time. We don't like how things are going. We expect it to turn around with the next election cycle. But when it comes to the really big changes, more often than not. They come slowly, and we need to stand on God's promises while we wait. Jacob Joseph and the Israelites, they stood on a stack of promises.
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I say that, because this is your first or second Sunday, if you came for Palm Sunday, and you came last Sunday, we're back in Genesis. What you're seeing in chapters 46 and 47 are the fulfillment of a stack of promises. Things coming true, things still to come true. Back in Genesis 12, two through three, Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees, God says to him, I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. He never saw it. He saw two grandsons, in his very old age, says, I will bless those who bless you and Him who dishonors you, I will curse and in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Egypt is where the great nation is incubated. It grows. Now, years later, God makes another promise to Abraham in Genesis 15 he tells Abraham this know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for 400 years. This passage is where Jacob and the family end up in Egypt. And those promises unfold. God promises Abraham, he promises Isaac and he promises Jacob that they would each dwell in the land forever. It starts in Genesis 17, there's one to Isaac, and in Genesis 26 one to Jacob and 28 but listen to this promise to Abraham, I will give to you and to your offspring after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan. See, even though Abraham, Isaac and Jacob lived there, it was the land of their sojournings, not the land of their possession, and then I will give you an everlasting possession, and I will be their God. There is a promise of a life for Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the land, Genesis, 37 says, top of your stack. This is the one that's closest in Genesis, 37 verses, five through eight, there's a vision given to Jacob the sons. And the vision is given through Joseph. Joseph is going to be the ruler of father, mother and the rest of the brothers. Of course, he's rejected for that. His brothers are jealous, hateful. They sell him off into slavery. But this is where that promise comes true. There's several things to say about this. One, God's promises, or God's word, is infallible, meaning it doesn't fail what God says he does. His words never fail. Infallible. There is something to say about God who can predict and then direct and fulfill. He is powerful. He is purposeful, his loving kindness and his faithfulness are steady, and these things produce steady, deep joy and confidence. I want to look at three of the results in this as we take a skim over this long chapter, I want to highlight some really important aspects to it. The first reality is when you see what promises God has kept already, one foot on those, you can find extraordinary peace as you wait for the rest. When Jacob had made it as far as Goshen, Joseph went to meet him. Joseph prepared his chariot. And the promise back in 37 five through eight, is that Joseph was like the sun, and his mother and father were like the moon and stars his brothers and they were bowing down to him. He is going to come in glorious as Joseph prepares his chariot, almost certainly he is traveling with his fine Prime Minister's robes. He is surrounded by attendants, and this particular Hebrew word for presented is most often used for God when God or an angel, stands before one of the characters of the Bible.
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This is that direct fulfillment. Here Jacob comes to Goshen old man. Jacob weighed down and lamenting. Jacob comes, and here comes his son in royal regalia. How many thoughts, pains, memories, the anguish for both of them, 22 years after being sold into Egypt. And here is the moment. Look at Verse 29 Joseph presented Himself to him, and he fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while you can imagine the long minutes, all of the sorrow, all of the grief, all of the bitterness washed out of his eyes in tears of joy and. The long separated father and son embrace. How does Jacob response? Respond? His other name Israel said to Joseph, now let me die, since I have seen your face, and I know that you are still alive, always talking about death. Is Jacob always talking about death? I think Corbin and Rachel would now say, Mom, Dad, you guys are always talking about death. I know with children like you, we could die in peace. Jacob had talked a lot about dying, but without Joseph, and potentially without Benjamin, his gray hairs would have gone down to Sheol in sorrow, and here he could say, I can die in peace. It was a gift to Jacob to see his son in the land of the living, the New Testament. Parallel was to an old man named Simeon who was waiting in the temple and was told that he was going to see the Messiah before he died, and in Luke Chapter Two after Jesus' birth, they brought him to the temple. An old man, Simeon, saw Jesus, and he said to the Lord, You are letting your servant depart in peace the land of the living. I saw Messiah peace, God's promise is kept. Jacob had given up on a promise long ago, the promise that his son would rule over him back in 37 verse eight and verse nine, after Joseph said, here's my second dream. I'm going to rule over dad and mom too. He's like, How dare you think you're going to rule over us? But then it says, But he treasured them in his heart. He thought it was going to come true until he thought he was dead, and now the promises they were coming true. He could see them. He could put one foot on the promise, and he could say, I could die and face what's on the other side. Because I know my God, and I know what he's already done. For Joseph's part, he's ruling over his fathers and brothers, and he is doing it generously, graciously, forgiving. When God raised him as a ruler, it wasn't to oppress his family, it was to bless his family. And for Pharaoh's part, Pharaoh had been so thoroughly blessed by the omnicompetent Joseph that the least he could do was bring Joseph's family down to live and to live in Goshen, the best of the land. But Joseph, being the wise diplomat, knew some things about Egyptian culture. Egyptian culture had their distinct classes of foreigners, servants, workers and shepherds and cattlemen were among the lowest. They were considered an abomination. And Joseph knew what was best for Pharaoh, what was best for Egypt and what was best for his own family. His plan was to have them live in Goshen, away from the main part of the Egyptians,
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so that they could be separate from the Egyptians and their religion, separate from the Canaanites and their religion, and be amply supplied. This is so here's here's the thing I'm going to bring you to Pharaoh. Here's what you're going to tell him, say to Pharaoh that you are cattlemen and shepherds, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. And Joseph, wisely, shrewdly, gave a place for them to dwell, where they could flourish. And the promises under God's man Joseph brought peace to Jacob. They brought peace between the Israelites and the Egyptians for hundreds of years, not for 400 that's another part of the story. Peace Now you're going to go through some lengthy trial that's transforming you, or difficult for you, or heavy upon you, keeping one foot on the promises that have already come true. We're going to look at the end at the promises in Jesus. Is Christ, how they have come true with his death and resurrection prepares you with peace to face the rest of this life and your death. We see it in Jacob. The second thing we see is this prosperity. God is prospering. And this is a direct promise, or answer to promise to Genesis 12 two. In Genesis 12 two, God tells Abraham, I will bless those who bless you. And this is what's coming in, Pharaoh is going to bless Israel. Jacob's going to bless Pharaoh. All are going to prosper under God's promise. There's going to be a prospering now, a care now, we need to start with the first and foremost, that's transformation. The one that starts is the transformation. Reach back a couple of chapters. The prospering of Jacob and his sons first started when they admitted their sin against God. 20 years had gone by. The starvation time had started in Canaan, the brothers show up in Egypt, and Joseph knows he sets a series of tests that take two years, and here we see the transformation of their character. They go from guilty to admitting their sin against God and admitting their sin against Joseph. And here's something that we have to think about. And it kind of goes like this. Here's the formula, adversity plus time plus repentance equal growth. Adversity plus time plus repentance, equal growth. If you want the flourishing of growth or transformation, it normally takes time. The writer of Hebrews, says this, For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant. That's the trial that the Hebrews are going through, but later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it. The first kind of prosperity you want, the first kind of prosperity God brought to Israel was their transformation to trusting God, confessing their sin and being reunited, which is the second area. Reconciliation is a fruit of it. The reunion and embrace of Jacob and Joseph are probably the most significant events in the last quarter of Genesis. The Unity produced among the brothers and the clans are remarkable. They're going to come through this period in several 100 years as a people, 12 Tribes, one identity, the people of Israel. God forged this reconciliation. There's another one about provision. We could say it this way, the apostle Paul makes this promise to the Philippians, My God will supply all your needs according to His riches and glory in Christ. Jesus, here we see the unfolding of the Abrahamic promise of provision. God cares both for Israel. God cares for Egypt, under the leadership of Joseph.
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So Joseph says, I'm going to bring you to Pharaoh. He takes five of his brothers. You're going to vote in small group this week. Were they weakling brothers to not threaten Pharaoh, or were they the strong brothers to impress Pharaoh? I don't know, maybe just 10s of crowd. He brings five of his brothers to meet Pharaoh, and then Pharaoh asks the question, now, what do you guys do? What do you do for a living? And they follow the script, we're servants. Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were. We've come to sojourn in the land. They're in desperate need, and Pharaoh willingly obliges. In fact, Pharaoh says this, If you're anything like Joseph, I'm going to put you guys in charge of all my livestock. I mean, think about it. From Pharaoh's perspective, he's no fool if he could see God's divine power work through Joseph, the promises to Abraham coming true about this sojourn, if he could see all of these things unfolding, he's like, I want Joseph's brothers, even if Joseph's brothers are half as good as Joseph, they're going to do a good job with the livestock. He blesses them. And then there is the provision at the end, Israel is provided for Pharaoh is successful according to God's promise. And one of the side blessings, but it's not really a side blessing. Is the blessing of nations. The blessing of nations, Jacob is brought in. And this had to be an incredibly anticipated event. Is for Pharaoh. I mean, Pharaoh had to be curious. I wonder what my Prime Minister's father is like. He had to be curious about the old man. I mean, if Joseph is endowed by God with such extraordinary wisdom, I wonder what his father is like. So verse seven, Joseph brought Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh stood him. I get the picture of him being wheeled in on a wooden, wooden wheelchair. Joseph helps him up, props him up. Maybe stands behind him, but he said he stood him up. Jacob, hunched over, leaning on a cane, perhaps raises a hand to heaven and blesses Pharaoh. He's taking his prophetic role and praying a blessing for this foreign ruler who is blessing his family with a place to live in Egypt curious Pharaoh is struck with wonder at seeing the old man. I bet he's looking at him thinking he's old. He looks really old. How many are the days of your life? How many are the days of the years of your life? Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. He always counted life on Earth as temporary as a visitor. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life. There's positive Jacob again, sometimes deep, abiding joy doesn't show up in positivity they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers and the days of their sojourning. That wasn't home for them either. What's going on about about this? Well, one person pointed out this. This is not the time for Jacob to be braggadocious. You're standing in front of Pharaoh, the supreme ruler of the land, and you don't want to play one UPS man over Pharaoh. Yes, I've lived a long time, but we consider this life here, my life in Canaan, as a mere visit. And my fathers lived 175 and 180 Yeah, he dies young at 147 compared to my father's. I'm young. We've never been home in this world. I have suffered much if he could record or write out for Pharaoh, all the ways he'd suffer, you would agree his life had been hard much of the time, but here's what he's saying.
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Yahweh has been with us. It's been hard. We're just travelers through this land. My life has been filled with much sorrow, but Yahweh has been with us. I have much to be thankful for. God has preserved us. How can we read that in because of what he does in verse 10, look what he says in verse 10. At the beginning, he blesses Pharaoh. At the end, he blesses Pharaoh. He calls down God's grace upon Pharaoh and walked out of his presence. This is not a man without faith. This is a man like that period of time in Adoniram Judson's life, I consider God to be the great unknown. I believe in him, but there have been times I have seen him not steadfast belief, and now he could sit back and rejoice that God had done such wondrous things, Israel is blessed just simply beyond a place to camp. Joseph gives them possessions in the land of Goshen. They're fed, they're secure, and the story shifts what we read. We don't have time to highlight. I'll summarize for us is how God used Jacob's prayer to bless Pharaoh. We're four years in to the seven year famine, and the people bring the last of their money to buy food. They the people in Canaan bring the last of their money. The people in Egypt bring the last of their money and. Say to Joseph, here's the last of our money. And Joseph says, Here's enough to eat for the rest of this year. The next year, they come back and they say, We don't have any money. And Joseph says, We'll take your livestock, gives them food. Probably they become caretakers of the livestock. It's all now pharaohs. The next year comes and the people come to him, and it's the people's plan this time, we're out of money, we're out of livestock. All that we have is our very lives and our land. You take our lives. We become your servants. You take our land, give us food. What good is it if we all die? And Joseph agrees, he agrees. He's compassionate. He feeds their little ones. He gives them everything that they need. And Joseph knows this is the last year. And so the shift from seed, as in just food, to seed as in what's the plant? He says, Here's your food, here's the seed, but here's what we're going to do. You're going to give a fifth of all your produce every year from now on. What do the people say? Verse 25 they said, You have saved our lives. May it please, my Lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh, the People's plan and Joseph's generosity. It doesn't seem like it's generous 20% but other kingdoms and other kings often took 3040, even 60% for themselves, leaving the people with 70, down to 40% of the crops. Joseph gave them enough for their seed, enough for their little ones. They would now live like the Europeans in the Middle Ages, as serfs on the land, but they would be alive. And that phrase is significant. You have saved our lives. It has come full circle. The plan for raising up Joseph was to save Israel's lives, to save the Egyptians lives. He becomes a temporal savior for the world. God wasn't only interested in Israel. He was interested in anyone who would bless Israel, anyone who would look to Israel's God. Verse 27 Israel settled in the land of Egypt, in the land of Goshen, they gained possessions in it, and were fruitful and multiplied greatly. I mean, think about the the Wonder here of this passage. Israel gets many possessions. They get a land. Egypt loses their possessions. They're alive, but now they are servants of Pharaoh. As far as Pharaoh is concerned, Joseph is the best steward who has ever lived.
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As far as Pharaoh is concerned, Joseph wisdom had Joseph's wisdom had saved the Egyptians, and it had enriched Him and His power, you can't imagine, since Pharaoh was Joseph's Master, you can't imagine a happier master than Pharaoh. He had been faithful the entire time standing on God's promises. Gave Jacob peace. It gave Israel and Egypt the prosperity that they needed. They survived. And then we come to this last passage. It's about perseverance in a surprising way, when you stand on God's promises of the past, you can look to the promises that are to come, and they help you persevere. Promises kept now will help you joyfully, patiently, resolutely endure. Notice this in verse 29 when the time drew near that Israel must die. And I am sure there was ample conversation from the brothers, really. How many times have we been told that dad is about to die? Dad has been telling us he's about to die for the last 19 years. Is this really it? Now that's just me reading it between the lines. No, it's real. He's really, he's really going to die soon. He calls his son Joseph, and says to him, If now I had found favor in your sight, put your hand under my thigh and promise to deal kindly and truly to me. This is the same exact thing that Abraham asked his servant, Eliezer to do when Eliezer needed to go. Back and find a wife for Isaac. It's the same deal. What's the request? Do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place. What's Jacob doing like when he's when he dies. What's the big deal where he gets buried? Why does God include this? Why is this the finish to this section? It's because there's another set of promises that still haven't unfolded yet. He Jacob, like his father Isaac and grandfather, Abraham, were told that they personally would possess the land of Canaan. How can you personally possess something from your bones or your ashes or your dust? You can't. There's no possession when you're dead. What is he counting on? Resurrection? He knew, after the sojourn, after the return, some day in the future, God would resurrect His people to an everlasting possession. From here on out, Jews have always believed in resurrection. 2019 we got to go to Israel. Had a phenomenal trip. Late in the trip, we stayed in Jerusalem. One of the days the tour was to the Mount of Olives, where the LA where Jesus wept and prayed for the night before his crucifixion. You can see the temple mount there. But on the tour, we drove through this area where there was a whole hillside of grave markers, and the bus driver said to us. You know, if you have a million or $2 you still might be able to buy a plot of ground to be buried in billion or $2 what Jews, for decades and decades, have this understanding of the return of or the coming of Messiah, Christians do too. So Christians have bought burial places. Jews have bought burial places because when Jesus comes back, the promise from Zechariah and the promise from Revelation is that he is going to come back to the holy city, and he will come over the Mount of Olives on his way to set his feet in the temple, and the Jews are buried faces toward the east, so that when Messiah comes and they resurrect out of their bodies, they will be the first. If you have a million or $2 a million or $2 million you can get front row seats to the resurrection. Would you like to be first to see Messiah return. Jews always believed in a resurrection. Last week, we celebrate resurrection.
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Jacob wanted to be in the land of His resurrection. Don't bury me here in Egypt. Bury me in my land. This is what you promised to give me this land that would be my possession and my people's possession forever.
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Is that confirmed anywhere? Ezekiel, 37 verse 12. It's this famous story about the valley of dry bones, all the bones being resurrected out of graves. Ezekiel, 37 verse 12, he says, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you into the land of Israel. It's been a long promise. So here, Joseph now has a reason to persevere himself. There is a resurrection coming. We're going to find at the end of the book, Joseph asks for his bones to be brought into Egypt to join his fathers for Resurrection Day and the return of Messiah, Joseph answers, I will do as you have said. Jacob said, swear to me. And he swore to him. He took a sacred vow, and then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed. That means he worshiped God. Joseph, and Israel were to persevere in faith, knowing that a coming resurrection and Resurrection restoration into the land was certain. One foot on promises, kept one foot on promises to come, and they. Could persevere through the long centuries of trial. And here's the question for us all, what lingering, oppressive suffering weighs on you most? We brainstormed it this week. Might be physical cancer, dementia, chronic pain, or you could be the spouse or the good friend of somebody who is dealing with that, trying to bear up with joy, singleness or childlessness that we prayed for earlier persecution some here relational. It could be a marital problem. Could be trouble with kids. It could be friends and strife and backstabbing. It could be work. I know some whose work environment is very hostile, very worldly, hard to remain faithful with the immorality or the language in some workplaces, it could be financial. Will I have enough work? What will I do with inflation? There might be serious struggles with differences on what to do with budget. But here, here's what this passage models for us standing on the stack of promises from God. We stand on a stack of promises from God. We stand on Genesis 12, one through three, two. Paul says it in the book of Galatians, the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, in you, shall all the nations be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. He's quoting Genesis 12 three. What is it to be justified? Then what is to be justified? To be justified is to be made right before God when you were wrong, before God when you were sinful, before God a law breaker, before God to be justified is to be made right. It's having your sins forgiven. It's being adopted into God's family, all by the loving work of Jesus Christ, who gave himself up in our place. What is faith then? So if that's the person that justifies what's faith? Faith is renouncing trust in any other thing that it takes to be right with God. It's renouncing my personal efforts and accomplishments and achievements. It is trusting Jesus alone. So if that's true for you, the place that your foot stands to persevere day by day is on Christ, who has already bled, died, raised and promises to return. Galatians 329, Paul says, if you are Christ's then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs, according to promise, you can look forward to resurrection, new creation. To think of it like this, through Christ, I'm an heir. How much does God have to share? How much does God have to share a universe, an air
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and this is why, through all his trials and all his difficulties, Adoniram Judson could say the future is as bright as God's promises. It does mean transformation. The future hope tells us this Titus 211 says, For the grace of God, has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness, worldly passions, to live self controlled, upright, godly lives in the present, present age, we, like the brothers in our stories, need to put to death, our jealousy, our complaining, unrestrained sexual passions, personal ambitions, course, sinful language, so that we can live godly lives that reflect a holy God. This is waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify himself a people for His own possession. I mean, what Joseph did was faithful, amazing how God used Joseph saved Egypt and it saved Israel. What God does through Jesus, Christ saves, spiritually, eternally, physically now and into eternity, and
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we are transformed now by this power. It we endure. How do you do this? I remember Mark Frankian, kind of a review on a sermon several weeks back, said, how do you cultivate lifelong endurance? And he said, tomorrow, tomorrow, like you're going to get up tomorrow and you are going to say, I know what God has done, and I know what God will do, and I will get through today by trusting him. I mean, that's really the reality. How do you live? How do you cultivate decades of endurance. Well, it starts tomorrow, and days turn into weeks, and weeks into a month, and a month starts a habit, and months and months start habits. And then when you face a trial, you use tools like laments, God, this is painful, and I don't like it, but I'm going to trust you. I know what you have given and I know what you're bringing. The apostle Paul could say it like this. Remember Jesus, Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal, he didn't say to God, after all, I've done for you, look what you do to me. You put me in jail. No, the glory of the gospel of Jesus so great I am willing to suffer. This is the Word of God. Is not bound. Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may attain the salvation that is in Christ, Jesus, with eternal glory, Jacob knew he would be resurrected into a restored world. He instilled that into Joseph, who had the same faith. When Christ returns, we will be raised into a perfected world, and whatever we do endure now testifies to Christ's glory and goodness. When someone sees you suffer in faith with deep and abiding joy, they often say in their hearts, I want a God like that, because this life is filled with sorrows and joys. I want to hope like that, when Christ returns, we will be raised into a perfected world. And for that reason, we can say, with Adoniram Judson, the future is as bright as God's promises. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for these happily ever after passages in Jacob's life he had suffered so much so had Joseph. They give us a glimpse into those seasons of our life where we have seen you do remarkable things. You're doing remarkable things among us. Help us keep our eyes focused on Christ, His love for us and His return. Help us endure the current or the coming trial or difficulty filled with faith and hope Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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