Somebody Loves You

Raul Ries: If Joseph would've never gone to Egypt and he would've stayed, they would've starved to death. This would've never happened. It would not be written in the scriptures. But you see everything that's in the scriptures, God's purpose is for us to read, to understand, and to live by it so that we one day as we stand before him, we can hear the voice of the Lord, "thou good and faithful servant, come in." Come in.

Narrator (Male): Welcome to Somebody Loves You Radio, the Bible teaching ministry of Raul Ries in Diamond Bar, California. We are focusing on God's call for Christian dads to be spiritual leaders in the home. And today, Raul will contemplate the life of Joseph, a man who was sold into slavery but allowed the Lord to use him in an extraordinary way. As you stay with us today, you'll be inspired to follow Joseph's example of faith and surrender as you obey God's will and serve your family in righteousness. Today's lesson is taken from Genesis chapter 45. Here is Raul Ries.

Raul Ries: Joseph, a type of Christ. Remember, I've told you before that Joseph is not only one of my favorites, but also the way he comes out in his own personality and what he does in the kingdom of God. He's now in Egypt. He's been there now for 20-some years. And his brothers come down to Egypt. They've been coming down because there's a famine coming.

And they want to not only have something to eat, but they come to Egypt, and it's an opportunity for Joseph to see them and to actually bring them down to Egypt and have a time of repentance and a time of coming to forgiveness. Forgiveness is very important in the Christian life. If you don't forgive, how can Christ forgive you? And Joseph becomes a type of a person that teaches me, teaches you today, the real act of love. Love is another thing that we need to understand and have in our lives. Because true love forgives.

Joseph, when you study him, is a type of Christ in his own life because he's coming to that place where he has to forgive his brothers. And he does forgive his brothers. And we're going to study that this morning. Joseph is coming to that place now where he's going to reveal himself to his brothers. Let's begin in chapter 45, verse one. "And then Joseph could not restrain himself any longer before all those who stood by him."

So everybody standing by him is his brothers and these guys that are Egyptians that are taking care of not only all the kingdom. They're soldiers. And they're standing there and Joseph is here watching his brothers and watching these guys. He says, "Go out from me," so no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He told these guys to get out, go away, and let him just stay with these young men and of course his brothers.

I mean, how would you feel when you don't see your brothers for 20-some years and all of a sudden you see them and you recognize and you know that they were the ones that sold you to the Egyptians because they didn't like you. Jesus was sold to the Romans. And what did they do? They crucified him. Peter, James, and John, they recognized that he was the Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one of God.

And Joseph is going to try really to bring his brothers together and his father together. And he wants to reconcile, he wants to make things right before his family. But one thing they don't recognize who he is. They don't know who he is. Again he says here, "And so no one stood with him while Joseph made himself known to his brothers." So here we are, he could not restrain himself. His emotions are totally bringing forth this emotion where he's going to be weeping in a moment.

Imagine how we're going to feel when we see Jesus after 2,000 years. He's going to come. Imagine the Jews how they're going to feel, rejecting him and then he's coming to restore their lives and to bring them into the Kingdom Age. And Joseph must have gone through all these emotions in his life, recognizing here are my brothers, the one that sold me to the Egyptians. They're the ones that hated me. And here I have the opportunity to put them to death, to get rid of them.

But God placed in his heart this love, this love that he had now. How about you today? Who is it that you don't love today? Christ doesn't hate anybody. But he loves people. And maybe you feel like you can't forgive, maybe you feel like that person can't forgive you for what you've done to them. But what I've done and what you can do is you can go to that person if you have offended them or done anything but they hate you, to go to that person and say, "Listen, what did I do to you? I want you to forgive me."

Taking that step of faith, taking that step with the love of Christ, that you're doing what is right and biblical in the Word of God, and that is to forgive even your enemies. That's a hard thing to do, believe me. Look at verse two. The love revealed here to his brothers. "And Joseph wept out loud." Now weeping for us, when you do a funeral, somebody dies, you see people crying. But in the East, when someone cries, it's like they're yelling loud.

You can hear them from, if we're here and they're in the lobby, you can hear them screaming, yelling, in tears, emotions. "My father, my mother, my wife, my husband has just died." And it's important that we understand when we read the word weeping here, it's weeping out loud with deep emotion because I love them. And now they're gone. Well, here is Joseph. He wept out loud and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard him on the other room.

They go, "Man, why is he weeping that loud?" Remember Jesus wept twice. One for Lazarus and the other one he's looking at Jerusalem, recognizing that Jerusalem was going to be judged by the Romans. That Titus would come and destroy the city of Jerusalem. And when you go to Israel, we can see those stones that Titus took not only Jerusalem but took stone upon stone and you can see the stones stacked up in the back of the city of Jerusalem.

And maybe you've been weeping a lot. Maybe you've been weeping. There's nothing wrong with weeping emotionally. You can really talk to those that have come against you and it hurts you. And maybe here today there's something that has been bothering you for a long time or maybe you've been weeping in your own personal life, that Christ can bring that peace that passes all understanding. That your heart can be right before the Lord, which we see Joseph here.

His heart is right on for the Lord. He sees his brothers, he's weeping, he's crying because now he's going to make things right. They were supposed to make things right but he takes that initiative to make things right and to love them and to forgive them. This is needed in the church today like never before. He goes on in verse three, and he says and Joseph said to his brothers, he makes himself known, "I am Joseph. Does my father still live?"

The first thing that he does is asking about his father, Jacob. Is he still alive? Israel, governed by God? He's very old. He's going to die soon. But he wants to make sure out of all those years that his father was alive. He wanted to see his father because he loved his father. And then he goes on and he says, but his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed in his presence.

They couldn't talk. They couldn't believe that this was Joseph. They thought Joseph was dead. Joseph was gone. And imagine how they must have felt standing back looking at Joseph. And here is Joseph showing love to them and saying, "My brothers, how is my dad?" And he wanted to hear not only from them but they couldn't speak. They couldn't speak because they were in shock that this was Joseph, the one they came against and the one that they hated.

Verse four, Joseph stands there, love now for his brothers. And Joseph said to his brothers, "Please come near me," causes them to be near so he can love them. He can hug them. And he can say, "You guys, I love you, I've forgiven you, and come close. I'm not going to do anything to you," because remember he had the power to do whatever he wanted to do.

Jesus said, "I am the bread of life" in John 6:35, 48, and 51. He said, "I am the light of the world" in John 8:12. "And before Abraham, I am" in John 8:58 Jesus said. "I am the door to the sheepfold," John 10:7 and 9. And Jesus was the type of a person not only revealing himself as light and then as he not only got himself and revealed himself to the disciples, the disciples not only were blown away but here is Joseph once again.

Because Jesus after the resurrection when the disciples saw him, they couldn't believe it. So here are his brothers. "I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt." He says, "You guys sold me into Egypt. I want you to know that." Why? Because I have nothing against you. He could have never said this but he said it. He said to them, "I am Joseph, your brother whom you sold into Egypt." How do you think these guys felt when he said that?

Is he trying to get even with us? Does he want to remind us? No, he wanted to let them know because he was forgiving them. Just like Jesus forgiven you and has forgiven me. Coming from the world, things that we did that Jesus was able to forgive me and continues to forgive me. He takes my sins, he casts them as far to the east to the west and buries them in the deepest part of the ocean and remember them never, never again.

Narrator (Male): You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. If you'd like to email Raul your Bible questions or prayer requests, his address is pastorraul@somebodylovesyou.com. And for biblical resources to encourage and guide you on your spiritual journey, visit somebodylovesyou.com. Now back to more of our lesson, Joseph: A Type of Christ.

Raul Ries: Paul says in Romans 8:1, "Therefore there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." We are in Christ. Don't let the devil condemn you. Jesus wants you to repent but if you keep going back to the same sin something is wrong. Here Joseph is making things right with his brothers and his brothers are going to make things right with Joseph. They begin to see that Joseph has forgiven them like Christ has forgiven you and forgiven me.

Verses 5 through 8 here, the perfect will of God accomplished. First verse 5 we see here Joseph's purpose here. "But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me. For God sent me before you to preserve life." You guys, it was God. I didn't see it 20 years ago but I see it today that you sold me, and Potiphar, his house, and then how I went to jail and now I am second in command.

God placed me here so that I can take care of you during the famine and you would not die and you would not be put to death but I could bring you to Egypt in order I can bring you here to Egypt and then 72 you come and then later on 400 years later what's going to happen? 3 million people would be there and then they would be released from Egypt. God's purpose, God's ways are not our ways. Remember that.

What God had for me, what God has for me, and what God's going to have for me in the future, I don't know, but man I'm lined up with the Lord. Whatever he has. I don't want to neglect what God wants to do in my life, the gifts he wants to give to me. I want to be at the right time at the right place. I want to make sure that I'm reading and I'm praying, listening to the Lord because that's what I'm supposed to be doing and to recognize that our time is short.

Jesus is coming. We need to be ready, ready to meet the Lord. Ready to say I have done thy will, oh Lord. Jesus said that. "Father, I am doing your will. You want me to go to the cross, I will go to the cross. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." I pray that today God will speak to us in such a powerful way that when we leave here not only we've learned but begin to practice what we preach. Begin that people can see that we're really fully committed to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Joseph was 39 years old at this time. In verse 6 he says, "And these two years of famine has been in the land and there are still five more years," so seven years. "In which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. There will be a shortage of food. But listen, I am Joseph and God has provided and I'm going to take care of you just like Jesus is taking care of us." The world will suffer because God's going to judge but with us the Lord is going to take care of his sheep, his lambs.

God has called us, he saved us, he's taking care of us. And let's check this out what he says in verse 7. He says, "And God has sent me before you to" do what? "To preserve posterity for you in earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance." He tells them the purpose of God, sparing them. Using Joseph. If Joseph would've never gone to Egypt and he would've stayed with his father and his brothers, they would've starved to death.

This would've never happened. It would not be written in the scriptures. But you see, everything that's in the scriptures, God's purpose is for us to read, to understand, and to live by it so that we one day as we stand before him, we can hear the voice of the Lord that good and faithful servant, "come in." Come in. One day we're going to stand before the Lord and we're going to have to give an account of our lives. And we're going to spend eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then sadness is those that will never be there because they rejected Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. In verse 8 he says, "So now it was not you who sent me here," again "but God. God sent, God is the one that sent me here. That's why I'm here." Imagine what they're thinking in their minds, what's going on in their hearts, thinking wow, we never knew that God was in control. God is in control of all of our lives here.

Don't ever think he's not in control. He's always in control of my life. This is why if I'm not walking in the ways of God, what does he do? Because he loves me, he spanks me. As a father, as a parent, you spank your children because you love them, not because you hate them. And God will continue to do that in my life, in your life. He wants you to walk that narrow, straight line. Not the broad way, the narrow straight line.

So that one day as we walk that straight narrow line we can hear the voice of our Lord that good and faithful servant. Again verse 8, "So now it was not you who sent me here, but God as he has made me a father to Pharaoh and the Lord all his house and ruler throughout the land of Egypt." He was in charge with Potiphar, he was in charge in jail, remember, and now was in charge with the Pharaoh because he's a leader.

He's a great leader because his number one priority was God. God was his priority. God has to be our priority. Nothing else. Everything else is secondary. God first, family second, and whatever else is number three. But if God is not your priority, everything will be out of order. But if God is my priority, everything's aligned, everything is done by God himself. There's order in my life. And when there's order, there's rewards.

God rewards his faithful. And I would pray and hope this morning that God would not only bless you but that you would bless him by giving your full attention to him. To give him everything that you have in your life, that he will be the one to not only take and balance your life. But you come to that place where not only you know that you're doing what is right like Joseph but you'll be able to love people that maybe you don't love today. For God so loved that he gave. You need to learn how to give yourself.

Verse 9, he says, "Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph." Go with him and tell him what I said. "God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me and do not tarry." Imagine he wants his father to come down because now Joseph is in charge of everybody, second in command. And he has a power now to have his brothers and his father to be in a place that God will give to them because of their flocks.

A place where they're going to not starve to death but God is going to take care of them and to prepare the way for the next 400 years what's going to take place. They're on the way to the Promised Land but that's going to be a little while, 400 years before it happens. Verse 10, "And you shall dwell in the land of Goshen." Notice. But I guess what he says here in verse 11, "There I will provide for you."

There he is again, "I will provide for you again, lest you and your household and all that you have come to poverty, for there are still five more years of famine." And what does he say? "I'm going to take care of you." How long has God been taking care of you? Since you came to Christ for sure. He's taken care of you, he continues to take care of you, and he will continue to take care of you until Jesus comes again.

But you've got to trust him. You've got to have faith in him. You've got to stop having unbelief in your heart. And you need to be loving to people, you need to be kind to people, and you need to understand that God has called you, he's saved you, and now he's going to use your life just like he did Joseph and just like he did his brothers. He goes on in verse 12, "And behold, your eyes and the eyes of your brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

So you shall tell my father and all my glory in Egypt and all that you have seen and you shall hurry and bring my father down here." He wants to make sure that he hurries up. He wants to see his father. And that's what we do. "Lord, come quickly. Lord, come quickly, please Lord, come quickly." Look at the world today. Verse 14, "And then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and" what did he do? "He wept and Benjamin wept on his neck."

There's a reconciliation, notice. There's a uniting of brothers. Like one day we're going to stand before the Lord and we're going to be weeping. We can't believe what he's done in our lives. And when we get to heaven, there's no more weeping. No more death, no more weeping. We're going to be just like him and we're going to have an incredible time forever and ever and ever and ever. Not 70 years, forever and ever.

And then he says, verse 15, "Moreover he kissed all of his brothers" again, "and he wept over them and after his brothers talked with him." Four times he says that he wept. And they wept.

Narrator (Male): Your life may look different from what you'd envisioned for yourself, but we hope that Joseph's experience has been a motivation for you to stay the course and serve the Lord wherever he has you. You're listening to Somebody Loves You Radio with Raul Ries. Our study today was titled Joseph: A Type of Christ. If you'd like to get an unedited version, we'll be happy to send one to you for a donation of five dollars or more. Just call us at 800-634-9165.

We'd also like to come alongside you in maintaining a strong spiritual witness for your family. Raul's six-part series for fathers is available on both CD and thumb drive. Challenging you to carve out more time for personal devotions, this resource will assure you that when you look to God for strength and instruction, he'll equip you with all that you need to carry out his perfect plan.

Visit somebodylovesyou.com or call 800-634-9165 to order Raul's six-lesson Father's study. We'll send you the CD set for 19 dollars, or if you'd like, the flash drive for just 10 dollars. That's 800-634-9165. You can also get this resource by writing to us at Somebody Loves You Radio, Post Office Box 4440, Diamond Bar, California 91765. Don't forget podcasts of all of these programs are available on iTunes and Spotify.

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