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Bob Davis: There has been a change in their hearts and there ought to be a change of mind. And there ought to be a change in yours as we walk with the Lord. Not perfect, we're growing, but a different heart than what was there 20 years ago. All those years ago when Joseph was 17, those boys were rotten to the core, just like us.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study of the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we by the power of God's Holy Spirit apply his Word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible.

Beginning in Genesis chapter 44, Joseph devises a test for his brothers and Judah steps forward with a heartfelt plea. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: And he commanded the steward of his house saying, "Fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can carry. Overstuff it. Put as much as you can in there. And put every man's money in his sack's mouth. Give them their money back. We're not going to take their money, just like they did the last time. And put my cup, the silver cup, in the sack's mouth of the youngest." That would be Benjamin. "And his corn money." Give him his money back, but put something in there that personally belongs to me, my silver cup.

And the servant, verse two, he did according to the word that Joseph had spoken to him. He did it. He gave them all their money back. He put so much food in there you couldn't get any more in there, ties it up, ready to go. Gives everybody their money back, but in Benjamin's now, he gets his money back, he gets a whole bunch of extra food, plus he's got a silver cup. It's almost like a chalice. It's a beautiful thing.

As soon as morning was light, verse three, the men were sent away. They and their donkeys, they head on out, all 11 of them. When they were gone out of the city and not yet far off, Joseph said to his steward, "Up, get going now. Go, follow after the men. And when you overtake them, say to them, 'Wherefore have you rewarded evil for good? You did something bad to us. Is not this it in which my Lord drinketh?'" In other words, he's talking about his cup. "'Whereby indeed he divineth? You have done evil in so doing. You took my Lord's cup.'"

He overtook them. Now, that's it. You know he's not true. It's not true. It's a lie. It's a plan. He's got a trick up his sleeve. Can you be a Christian and have a trick up your sleeve? Yes. There's something going on here that you've read this many times, but maybe we could learn something here. Listen to this. He overtook them. He's following orders now. Joseph says, "Go get them." He spake to them the same words, in other words, what Joseph told him to say.

In verse seven, they said to him, "Wherefore sayeth my Lord these words? Why do you say why are you talking this way? God forbid that your servant should do according to this thing. We didn't steal any cup. Behold, the money which we found in our sacks the last time we brought again to you out of the land of Canaan. How then should we steal out of your Lord's house a silver or gold or anything?" is the attitude. "We didn't take anything."

Now they're so sure. You ever done this, Christian? Of course you have. "Sure, we know. We know what we meant. We know what we're doing. Of course we know." Watch. "We're not thieves. Whomever of your servants it be found, you check us every one. And if you find that, both let him die and we will be my Lord's bondsmen. You put to death the one that took the cup and then we'll all go back and be servants, slaves, the rest of our days." They're so sure that they haven't stolen anything.

He said in verse 10, "Now also let it be according to your words. He with whom it is found shall be my servant, my slave, and you shall be blameless." In other words, "I'm a nice guy. I wouldn't do that to you guys. I wouldn't take all of you, but the one who did it comes back as a slave for the rest of their life." Then they speedily, they hurried, they just hopped off, took down every man's sack to the ground, opened it, and every man his sack. And he looked and he searched.

And he began at the eldest. Get that. The servant of Joseph is now going to say, "Okay, Reuben, you first. Let's see the bag. Open it up. Back up out of the way. I'm going to check it myself." From the eldest and he left off at the youngest, all the way down from the oldest to the youngest, which would be Benjamin. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Drag. You just gave your word that the one who stole it will be a slave for the rest of his life at Joseph's house. Can you go figure? It's Benjamin.

Do you know who Benjamin is? Have you forgotten because we didn't do this till last Friday, so it's been a whole week? Have you forgotten who Benjamin is? His only son left alive from Rachel. His son is so special to him, he said, "I will not send Benjamin because if something happens to him, it will kill me. I would die." And Judah promised nothing's going to happen to him. Nothing. It was in Benjamin's sack.

Well, look at verse 13. Then they tore their clothes. That's a sign of grief, frustration, sorrow. They tore their clothes and they loaded up every man his donkey, and all of them went back to town. Joseph has still not revealed his identity to his brothers. Joseph is doing something here and since you know the whole story, it becomes obvious what he's doing. It's easy to overlook it because I'll zoom through it and you might too, and we're overlooking what's happening right before our very eyes.

He has not revealed his identity to his brothers. They don't know he can speak Hebrew. He's using an interpreter. They don't know who he is, just that he's kind of mean to them and he's kind of pushy and he's in charge. And whatever he says, everybody jumps when they're doing it. So they don't realize that he's understanding what they're saying because he's using an interpreter. Joseph is testing his brothers. And there's a test going around almost all the time in your life.

God may give you 30 minutes off, but you're being tested. There are tests that come through and you know have I ever failed the test? I have failed tests with flying colors. Have you? But you learn every time. You learn, but you fail. And Joseph is testing his brothers. He's not being mean. You say this is cruel. Why doesn't he just come out with it? Because he needs to see something. He needs to see a heart. And he needs to do something. The guy's brilliant if you ask me. I'm sure God put it on his heart, but this is brilliant what he's doing.

He orders his servants to give them extra amounts of grain, as much as you can get in there. Secretly put their money in the sacks so it costs them nothing. I want to bless them. Get this. We're blessing them. But he also put his personal silver cup in Benjamin's bag. Put it in my little brother's bag. That means the servant when he got there said, "I want to check your bag." "Okay, check every one of them." He started with the oldest one. Why? Well, drama. Because I'm standing there and maybe I'm the fourth son down out of 11.

And I'm going, "I know I didn't take it. I know I didn't take it. I don't think I took it. Did I put something in that bag accidentally?" Now you're a little bit nervous, starting to sweat a bit. What if he did? They might put us all to death. You've got a little time for as the stomach turns. So he starts at the oldest on purpose. Clever. They headed out and now the steward did as he commanded. He started from the oldest to the youngest, knowing all along he put it in the youngest's bag.

Oh boy. You see why Jesus would say to you and me so calmly, "Don't add stipulations. Don't add little innuendos. Just let your yes be yes and let your no be no." Anymore, if anything else comes to sin, right? But no, they have to be, "Hey, we're honest guys. We'll show you. You put to death the one you find." Well, they found their little brother, the one that they fought so hard not to be put to death and not to be left behind. And now you just got yourself in this thing. You really did.

So verse 14 tells me this. Judah and his brethren, verse 14, when they turned back and they came back in front of Joseph to Joseph's house, he was yet still there. In other words, he was still there. They fell before him on the ground. They're bowing down again before Joseph. Remember his dream? All his brothers, this is the second time they bow, third time they bow. And he saw that in the dream and he was 17 years old. And it came to pass. He knew it was God and he knows it's God.

They bowed before him. And Joseph said to them, "What deed is this?" Verse 15, "What deed is this that you have done? Why would you do this to me? Don't you know that such a man as I could divine?" Remember the Bible, Deuteronomy 18, divination is forbidden among the children of Israel. "Didn't you know I could do that? I'm an Egyptian, you know." He's playing it to the max, isn't he? He's not an Egyptian.

And by the way, I'll let you know, even though he's faking, he doesn't divine. God wouldn't have him do that. He doesn't have to. God tells him what he needs to know, just like you and me. So verse 16, Judah said, Judah, remember Judah. It was his idea to sell this kid into slavery. Let's get rid of him. We'll just get him off of our hands and then his blood won't be on our hands. Well, I mean not literally. I mean he'll go to Egypt and probably die there. We'll never see him again. But at least we didn't do it with our bare hands.

He's feeling good about himself. Remember Judah said, "What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? We're in trouble." God, I love this guy for this reason. "This is not you, Joseph. This is not your servant. This is not even us. God just did this." Don't you wish you and I as believers would start to remember that God is in absolute control and not your boss or not your mayor? I mean we surrender to them, we listen.

Who is in absolute control? If God is not, we're all in trouble. But we know that God is. Do this. I know some of you are going, "It doesn't look like it." I didn't say what does it look like. You can't believe what you're seeing. You've got to believe what God says. The world when I was growing up, the world told me believe it when you see it. And God has taught me believe it and you will see it. Because the world says, "I won't believe it until I see it," and God says, "Believe it, you will see it."

So look. Judah said, "What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? There's nothing. Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of me and my brothers, your servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and he also whom the cup is found. We're all yours. There's nothing we can do about it. Whatever happens to us now happens to us. We're yours."

And Joseph, still pretending, this guy's good to keep a straight face and not cry. He's going to burst out crying pretty quickly here, but just think about how hard that must have been for Joseph. He wants to tell them, but he needs to see something. He's just holding out to see something. They said, "We're all yours." And he said, "God forbid that I should do so. But the man in whose hand the cup is found, he shall be my servant." Benjy will be my slave. "I wouldn't do that to all of you. I'm a good guy, but I'm keeping him and you guys can go your merry way. As for you, get up and go in peace." In other words, you've bowed down before me. Thank you for bringing him back. He's mine. You guys can go on home. Take your food, take your just go.

See how the brothers all returned and I like that. That's something that I don't think you would have seen when Joseph was 17. Notice the change in heart. When he was 17, they heard him cry and they laughed. They just moved away so they couldn't hear him screaming and whining. Remember? And then they were happy and then they lied to their dad and when it broke their dad's heart, they said, "I don't care about my dad. At least old bean head, he's off our backs now. We'll never see that guy again. Maybe we'll get a little respect." Remember all that? That was the heart.

Notice something though, not one brother says, "I'm not going back there. Look, I've got my stuff and I didn't do anything. He only wants Benjamin. I'm out of here." Not one of them said that. There has been a change in their hearts. And there ought to be a change of mind. And there ought to be a change in yours as we walk with the Lord. Not perfect, we're growing, but a different heart than what was there 20 years ago. All those years ago when Joseph was 17, those boys were rotten to the core, just like us.

He says, "Don't you know I can divine?" Divination is forbidden by God's Word, New Testament and Old. What is divination? Finding out the future or finding out the unknown through any other means except God alone. Instead of reading your horoscope or trying to read the stars or the tea leaves or trying to read feet. Some people read feet, right? And some people read your wrists and your palms and etc. and so forth. That's divination. That's demonic. It's not of the Lord. If you want to know what's coming, ask God. He'll tell you. If you want to know what's coming, open your Bible and read through it and you'll be amazed at the insight that you get of what's coming.

But Joseph is teasing them. "Do you know I could divine you? You know that you couldn't get away with my cup. I would know right where that cup is." He's not lying, he's bluffing because he wants to know. And he can't just say, "Where's your heart?" "Oh, bro, I love the Lord. Oh, sister, I'm just a I love everybody." We're all going to say it. You have to. You can't get into church if you don't love everybody. Isn't that what I hear? So we're going to say what's the right thing to say. Joseph knows that. They're going to say what they have to say. So he's trying another approach.

Judah as the spokesman for his brothers, listen everybody, listen closely. "God has done this. We'd like to blame it on what's-her-name or on that guy over there or that group or my boss or my this or my that. Who is in charge of everything around you? God. You're not in charge right now. Neither am I. So what do we say? Hey, what are we going to do at church if this happens that happens? And you know what the answer is? Well, Lord willing, we'll do this." Why do we say that? Because it's up to God. It's not up to Pastor Bob. It's not up to you. It's not up to me. We are trusting and listening and growing and look what happened right here. He says God did this and it struck a chord in every brother's heart, metaphorically speaking. In every brother's heart there was something going on. Joseph could see that, just watching how they were acting and the things they were saying. It caused them to confess it with their own lips. "We're guilty and God is reminding us of that. God's bringing that back up. We're guilty." And they're confessing. Did you hear that?

Let me read it to you again. You think I'm making it up, I know I see it in the looks in your eyes. "God has found out," verse 16. Judah said, "What shall we say unto my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how shall we clear ourselves? God has found out the iniquity of thy servants and behold, we are my Lord's servants." We surrender. Both we and he also with the cup. We're all telling you we know we're guilty of sin. Not of stealing that cup, though. What are they talking about? They don't know this is Joseph. But they've been carrying that sin for a long, long time, like a lot of people do. And so Joseph was looking to see their hearts. It caused them to confess with their own mouths. Judah, the leader, but all of them going, "Yep." I mean all of them probably looking at one another saying, "Yep, we're guilty. We're all right here, standing here. God knows what we did to our brother way back there. He knows. God did this."

"So we are all your servants, not just Benjamin, every one of us." "Are their hearts the same?" Joseph is wondering. "As when they plotted Joseph's death when he was 17? Would they do the same thing to Benjamin? Would they let Benjamin stay here and they go on home and tell Dad, 'Sorry, we did the best we could'?" It would kill Jacob. He said, "It would kill me." Would they still do that? But they didn't care about what their dad said before. Remember, they didn't care about Joseph crying. They didn't care about their dad crying. They just got that guy off their backs, put it all together. Joseph was Jacob's favorite and he gave him a coat and they hated him for that and they find a way to get rid of him and they did it.

And Joseph is thinking, "Would they do the same thing to my brother who is clearly Jacob's favorite now instead of me? Would they do the same thing? Have their hearts repented? Have they changed?" Because Benjamin's the favorite. Will they sell him into slavery while they go free? Joseph blessed them with extra money, extra food. First time he let them have all their money back and food. He blessed them and blessed them and blessed them. You can see what's coming because you've been born again for a little while now, haven't you? He blessed them and showed them kindness and allowed them to see.

And then God allowed them to see the sin and they repented. Remember, God is so kind and so good. Soon we just start saying, "Lord, I've got a stinking rotten attitude. Me too, and I'm not sure how long it's been there, probably 50 or 80 or 90 years, I don't know. But Lord, just your mercy and your kindness just brings me to the point where I just I need to confess it all." That's what the brothers are doing. It was the kindness Joseph showed them. Of course, he put them in the right perfect position just like God does for me and you, so that we can repent if we're willing.

Look at verse 18. Judah came near unto him, Joseph, and he said, "O my Lord, let thy servant, I pray thee, speak a word in my Lord's ear. Please let me say something. And let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are even as Pharaoh. You've got the authority of Pharaoh. My Lord asks his servants saying, 'Do you have a father or a brother?' And we said to my Lord, 'We have a father and he's an old man and a child of his old age, a little one. And his brother is our other brother's dead.'" They don't know they're talking to Joseph, remember. "And he alone is left of his mother," Benjamin's the only child left of his mother. "And his father loves him, sincerely loves him.

"But you said unto your servants," verse 21, "'Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him.' And we said unto my Lord, 'The lad can't leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. It would break his heart, he would die.' And you said to your servants, 'Except your youngest brother come down with you, you shall not see my face or see my face no more.' And so it came to pass when we came up unto thy servant, my father, we told him the words of my Lord. Our father said, 'Go again and buy a little food.'

"In verse 26, and we said, 'We can't go down if our youngest brother doesn't go with us. Then we will go down, for we will not see the man's face except our brother be with us.' All he's doing is reminding Joseph what happened and then telling him what happened when we got home. 'And thy servant, my father, said to us, "You know that my wife bore me two sons and the one went out from us, Joseph, and I said surely he is torn in pieces, a wild animal got him, and I saw him not since. He's been gone for years and years and years. And if you take this also from me," verse 29, "and mischief befall him, you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. It'll kill me. I can't make it."

"'Now therefore, when I come to thy servant, my father, and the lad be not with us, seeing that his life is bound up in the lad's life, it shall come to pass when he seeth that the lad is not with us...'" In other words, if we leave him here now, we go home. My dad will die. My father will die. He's old and I don't think his heart will take it. "And thy servant shall bring down the gray hairs of thy servant, our father, with sorrow to the grave. For thy servant," verse 32, "became surety for the lad unto my father. Remember Judah said, 'I will take his place. I will stand up in his place for him.'

"For thy servant became surety for the lad unto my father saying, 'If I bring him not to thee, then I shall bear the blame to my father forever. Now therefore, I beg you, I pray you, let thy servant abide instead of the lad, a bondsman. Let me alone. I will take full responsibility. I will stay and be the servant. Please let my brothers and especially my little brother go home.'" Judah's heart's changed toward his dad. Notice that. They feel bad about Joseph. They think he's dead, but he feels bad. "I've hurt my dad that way before. He can't take it. I don't want I will not do it no more.

"Therefore, I pray thee," verse 33, "let your servant abide instead of the lad, a bondsman to my Lord, and let the lad go up with his brothers. Let them all go. I will give my life for him. For how shall I go up to my father and the lad not be with me? Lest peradventure I see the evil that shall come upon my father. I can't do it. I'm asking you, let me stand in his place." Where have we seen that? Wasn't that Jesus Christ himself to the Father? "I'll go." "You go." And Jesus said, "I'll go. I'll do your will. I'll pay the price. Let me give my life for all of those." Judah was willing to take Benjamin's place and separate himself from his father. Blessed be.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at northcountrychapel.com/studies. That's northcountrychapel.com/studies.

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