This is Connect with Skip Heidzig. Thanks for joining us for today's program. At Connect with Skiff-Heitzik, we're all about connecting you to the timeless truth of God's Word through verse-by-verse teaching. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others. Before we get started with the program, we encourage you to check out connectwithskip.com, where you'll find resources like full message series, weekly devotionals, and more.
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Now let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. When you're growing up, your parents are the smartest people on earth. They're just, wow, they know everything. They're so strong and mighty. And then as you grow, they get dumber.
Until you're like in junior, high, and high school, you go, my parents are so dumb. I mean, they don't even get this modern society. They don't even understand anymore. And then you go away, you leave home, and you come back, and it's amazing what your parents have learned in the time you've been away. And have your own kids and you go, man.
They're wise. You get my drift. There's a respect that this boy, this son of Jacob, has for his father, and he presents himself, and I love it. He fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while. And just imagine.
For 22 years Jacob is believed. Joseph is dead. He understands he's alive. He can't wait for this moment. It's such an emotional moment to find out his son is alive and to look at him and recognize him.
There's a story from World War II. Yeah. That a father received a letter. that his son was missing in action with the Allied forces. But During the war?
Okay. The belongings, the personal belongings of that Boy, the soldier was sent to his father. The war ended and a decade went by. Ten years went by. Eventually They found that that boy was alive.
He had long-term amnesia. And he had a missing identification or he had a An uncertain identification, and somebody eventually flagged it, and he was reunited with his father. Can you imagine thinking your son is dead for that length of time only to discover he's alive? And he's in charge, and he's going to take care of me. Too good to be true, I just won the lottery.
And Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die since I have seen your face because you are still alive. You know what this reminds me of? Do you remember Simeon in the New Testament when Jesus is brought into the temple, and that old man takes that little baby Jesus in his hands and he lifts him up and he says, Now you are letting your servant die in peace, Lord. Because my eyes have seen your salvation. That's how Jacob felt when he saw his son, the one who was saving the world from famine.
And Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh and say to him, My brothers and those of my father's house who were in the land of Canaan have come. To me. And the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock, and they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all that they have.
Okay, we've told you before, and we've outlined a couple of times how Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ. Number one, uniquely loved by his Father. Special treatment, special coat. Jesus, the only begotten Son of the Father. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, uniquely loved by the Father.
Number one. Number two, unjustly hated by his brothers. Number three, he was sold cruelly for 20 pieces of silver. Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver. Number four, the first time that Joseph and his brothers met, Joseph didn't reveal himself to them.
The second time they met, Joseph revealed himself to his brothers.
Okay. The first time, the nation of Israel didn't recognize their Messiah. The second time, Jesus will reveal himself to them. And the prophecy is: they will look upon me whom they have pierced. And they will mourn as one mourns for his only son.
There'll be that recognition. Here we have another type of Christ. Joseph. is the mediator Between his brothers, and the Pharaoh. I'm going to mediate.
I'm a Hebrew. I'm one of you. And I'm related to the king. I'm by all standards Egyptian. I'm the perfect mediator.
Being Egyptian and Hebrew, I'm going to bring you guys together. I'll mediate for you. The Bible says there's one God. and one mediator between God and man, the man, Jesus Christ, perfect mediator. Fully man, fully God.
The entropas, the God-man bringing God and mankind together.
Something else. Not only is he the mediator, He's the instructor. Look at what it says. Verse 33: It shall be when Pharaoh calls you and says, What is your occupation? Let me tell you boys how to answer them.
You shall say, Your servant's occupation has been with livestock from our youth. Even until now, both we and our fathers, the That you may dwell in the land of Goshen, for every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. We explained that a few weeks ago. We talked about the Hiskos dynasty, the dynasty of shepherd kings that was coming to an end at this time. And because The Egyptians in this dynasty were agriculture-based.
The previous dynasty that they were trying to get away from were shepherd-based. There was an abomination. They were trying to make a separation.
So all of the shepherds. would go to the best part of Egypt, the land of Goshen. Make sure that you say that. Because We're glad you guys are here, but we hate shepherds, so you're going to the best part of the land. Funny how that works.
Then Joseph went. And told Pharaoh and said, My father, My brothers, their flocks, their herds, and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. Indeed they are in the land of Goshen. And he took five men from among his brothers. We don't know which ones, but Joseph knew their personalities, and he got the best reps.
And presented them to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to his brothers, What is your occupation? And they said to the Pharaoh, Your servants are shepherds, both we and our fathers. And they said to Pharaoh, We have come to dwell in the land, because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan.
Now therefore please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. And Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Your father, and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land, let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And And if you know any competent men among them, Then make them chief herdsmen of my livestock.
So they instantly get a promotion to being Royal Herdsman. Probably got a wage for it since they're shepherds. And Pharaoh himself, which some believe was the last of the Hiskos dynasty, had his own private flocks. And now they get to watch them.
Now watch this. Yeah. Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob. He's a hundred and thirty. And he set him before Pharaoh.
And Jacob Blessed Pharaoh. That's unusual. For this old man, this famine-ridden shepherd from Canaan to say, I bless you in the name of the Lord. would have blown Pharaoh's mind. Because it implies, it implies.
that Jacob is superior to Pharaoh. According to the custom mentioned in Hebrews chapter 7. The lesser is Is blessed by the greater. That's why Melchizedek, remember, blessed Abraham.
So I'm sure Farrow's going, who is this old coot? Blessing me, I'm Pharaoh. But you know what? You and I have the same privilege. We have a covenant relationship with God, as did Jacob.
Sons and daughters of God have the special calling and opportunity to be a blessing to people in this world. Are you? Wherever you go with people that you meet, are you a blessing when they see you? Do they look at you and go, Oh, look, it's so and so. What a blessing.
Or do they go, oh, oh, here she comes. Oh no. Here he comes.
Some people are a blessing wherever they go. Other people are a blessing whenever they go. Whew glad he left. What a menace. Jacob blessed Pharaoh.
And that's what God wanted Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to be a blessing to the world. He blessed him. And Pharaoh said to Jacob, How old are you? If I tried that, I'd get in so much trouble. You ask people, or like somebody old, how old are you?
Not a good deal. I couldn't do it. But he's Pharaoh. He can do anything he wants. How old are you?
And Jacob said to Pharaoh, Love the answer. The days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. I'm 130 years old, young man. Yeah. Few and evil have been the years of my life.
Few? Did he just say Few? He's 130 years old. He goes, I haven't lived very long.
Well Actually, if you compare him to his great-grandfather Terra. who lived to be 200. five years of age. He was a young whipper snapper. If he compares himself to Grandpa Abraham, died at 185, or Dad Isaac 175, 130 years of age.
Isn't that old? He says, Few and evil have been the days of my life. 47,200 and some odd days, that's 130 years. And they have attained, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the years of their pilgrimage.
So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh, and Joseph situated his father and his brothers. and gave them possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, The land of Ramses, as Pharaoh commanded. Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all of his father's household with bread according to the number of their families. And you go now, wait a minute. What do you mean the land of Ramses?
Weren't they supposed to get the land of Goshen, right? Same land. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we return to the message, consider this. Abraham's life was full of ups and downs, but God was in every moment.
In God print, The Life of Abraham, Pastor Skip unpacks seven engaging messages from the book of Genesis to show how God shapes the hearts of those who trust Him. Through trials and triumphs, Abraham learned what real faith looks like. And this powerful seven message series will encourage you that you can too. This resource is our thanks for your gift of $50 or more to help reach more people with God's Word through Connect with Skip Heidzig.
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Now, let's rejoin today's teaching. Why is it called the land of Ramses? It's an important question because Ramses, the Pharaoh, the Pharaoh at the time of Moses. was called Ramses II. Ramses the first isn't even in power.
He won't be in power for some time. It's called Ramses because this is written by Moses. And by the time of Moses, nobody will have heard of the land of Goshen, they'll have heard of the land of Ramses. If I were to say tonight, here we are tonight in the great state of Texas, you go. Texas.
This is New Mexico. It is now, but at one time it was Texas.
So, I may want to give an explanatory note that we were once Texas, now we're New Mexico. This was the land of Goshen that would become the land of Ramses. Same land. Verse 13: Now there was no bread in the land, for the famine was severe.
So the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. And we're going to read through this pretty quickly because. We have now in this next section the fulfillment of the blessing. that Jacob was to Pharaoh By what his son did for Egypt. His son Joseph was the blessing.
And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house.
So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed. And Joseph said, Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for the livestock, if the money is gone.
So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle, the herds, the donkeys. Thus he fed them with the bread in exchange for all of their livestock. Side note. You know how I like to give you First mentions in the Bible? This is the first time horses are mentioned in Scripture.
And their horses in Egypt. Why is that important? It really won't be important until you get to 1 Kings chapter 9. In the first kings chapter nine, King Solomon. We'll have 1,400 chariots, twelve thousand horsemen, and it says.
The Horses of Egypt. If you come with us to Israel, And you go with us to Megiddo, the city of Megiddo, we will show you the stalls. where Solomon kept the horses from Egypt. You can still see the outlining. Stones of the Stalls.
Underneath the Temple Mount are some of the stables of Solomon. He had chariot cities around the land because he took and multiplied horses unto himself, something forbidden him by law. But the evidence is there, and he gets the horses from Egypt.
So it's an interesting note to tie together.
Okay. When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, We will not hide from my Lord that our money is gone. My Lord also has our herds of livestock. There's nothing left in the sight of my Lord but our bodies and our lands. Why should we die?
Before your eyes, both we and our lamb. By us. and our land for bread. And we will give our land. And we in our land will be servants of Pharaoh.
Give us seed that we may live and not die. that the land may not be desolate. Joseph? bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh. For every man, so the government took it.
or or bought it from the the people for food. For every man of the Egyptians sold his field because the famine was severe upon them.
So the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he moved them into the cities from one end of the border of Egypt to the other. That's where the grain was stored, if you remember, the cities. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh.
So it was government-subsidized religion, as in many parts of Europe still. And they ate their rations, which Pharaoh gave them, therefore, they did not sell their lands. Joseph said to the people, Indeed, I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you will sow your land. The land.
And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you will give one-fifth. To Farrell. 20%. Flat tax. Four-fifths shall be your own, as seed for the field, and your food, for those of your households.
As food for your little ones.
Now, look what they say. They don't go to him and say, 20%, you're a ripoff. I said, you have saved our lives. Let us find favor in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. You know why they said that?
They looked at a 20% flat tax as a great deal because the average tax in the Middle East at that time was 33% plus. A full one-third was given to the government. Part because some were vassal states, part because it was exorbitant taxation.
So 20%, you saved us. We'll be your slaves. They sold themselves. Debt slavery. was very common.
This is how it works. It was a short-term idea. I don't have any money.
So, you know, it's like if you went to a restaurant, you didn't have any money. They're going to make it go back and Wash dishes. We'll watch this is for Pharaoh. We'll now become your slaves. We'll work this off.
Sometimes the arrangement was one week, sometimes it was one month, sometimes it was several years, but they worked off. the food that they got at a certain price. That's how it worked. And they were thankful that they were alive. Joseph made it law over the land of Egypt to this day that Pharaoh should have one-fifth, 20%, except for the land of the priest, which.
did not become pharaohs.
So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt. in the country of Goshen, And they had possessions there, and they grew, and they multiplied exceedingly. Here's the bottom line deal for Pharaoh. God blessed this Pharaoh because he treated Israel. generously.
God will curse another Pharaoh, Ramses II. Under Moses, because he treats Israel harshly. Because God said to Abraham, Whoever touches you, that's not Abraham, that's. The minor prophet touches the apple of my eye, but I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you. That's what he said to Abraham.
God is blessing those who bless Israel. God will curse those who curse Israel. And guess what? The promise is still in effect for today. When I look at the situation in the Middle East and I see Israel surrounded by a lot of people and nations building nuclear arms, and people go, oh, poor Israel.
I go, poor Israel. Poor the other guys. Just Get a history lesson. Look at all those who have cursed Israel. Don't want to be there.
So Jacob lived in the land of Egypt, How long? Huh, seventeen years. How old was Joseph when he was sold as a slave by his brothers? Seventeen See the correlation. Uh For 17 years, Joseph was nurtured by his father.
For 17 years, the father will be nurtured by the son. It is a privilege. As parents get older, to be able to pay them back a fraction. by being there to help take care of them. to be a blessing to them.
Yeah. He's 130 years old, Jacob is. He lived seventeen more years. Awesome.
So it says the length Of Jacob's life was a hundred and forty seven years. Time to go. That's old enough. When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said, Now, if I have found favor in your sight, Please put your hand under my thigh. That's how they would give an oath back then.
We already covered that. It's the muscle of greatest strength.
So, swear to me by my strength is the idea. That's how contracts were made. You didn't have to sign pieces of paper. 500 times with Lawyers print all over them another 200 times. and then have them notarized three times.
Saying if you don't pay me this every month, Till the day you die, then we'll take it back from you. It was a word-of-mouth contract, a handshake. Grab the thigh, make a promise. Good is done. Deal kindly and truly with me.
Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. You shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place. And he said, I will do as you. have said Did Jacob make a mistake wanting to get buried in the land of Canaan? After all, the Egyptians had the edge on burial techniques.
You can dig them up today and you can still see hair. On Pharaoh Ramses II, the Pharaoh who was there, who talked to Moses, you can see his skin and his eye sockets and nose and lips and eyebrows still intact. Why would he want to get buried back in Canaan? It was an act of faith, that's why. God didn't give the land of Egypt to Jacob, but the land of Canaan.
That was the promised land. That was the covenant land, and he wants to go back.
So he's demonstrating his faith. wanting to go back. He's probably a little bit afraid also that This land of blessing, this land of Goshen, this land of plenty. My kids are going to love it here. My grandkids are going to prosper here.
In fact, they might love it so much, they don't want to go anywhere else. Could that be a problem? It becomes a problem when the children of Israel later on get taken to Babylon. When the time comes for them to go back to the land of Israel, Jerusalem, and build the temple, nobody wants to go. We like it in Babylon.
We're comfortable here, man. This is a great place to hang out.
So instead of the entire nation going back, they just send 50,000 missionaries back. Just a paltry sum of people to do all the building, all the work. They became too at ease and comfortable in the wrong place. And maybe Jacob is sensing a little of that. Verse thirty one, and we'll close.
And then he said, Swear to me, and he swore to him, and Israel bowed himself. on the head Of the bet. He was too old to get on the ground and bow, so he was just. Laying on bandy bowed. gesture of Respect and sweetness.
So, Israel is now in Egypt. What are they doing down there? Growing. Multiplying. And pretty soon, by the time we get to the book of Exodus, there'll be.
2,100,000 or 3,000. And they'll be ready to leave Egypt because there will be a Pharaoh who knows not Joseph. It'll be time for them to go. God's plan. Have you created the file, waiting for further information?
Why am I in Egypt? Why are we down here? Why this famine? Why these problems? Waiting for further information.
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That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com/slash donate. Thanks for spending time with us today. And we'll see you next time on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Make a connection.
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