He briefly in just a few words refers to his fathers and their pilgrimage and I in line now am a pilgrim with them I mean, Jacob could have stumbled all over his feet trying to say something that would have impressed the Pharaoh. He could have immediately started bragging on his son and all he had done. to make Joseph what he ended up being. And yet for just a few brief moments, he stands before Pharaoh and acknowledges the sovereignty of God. God has led me in this pilgrimage, and in effect I am following in the line of those who follow God.
Have you ever longed for a reunion that seemed impossible? A broken relationship healed. A prodigal child returned. or a season of separation finally ending. In today's message, Stephen Davy walks through the time when Joseph is finally reunited with his father, Jacob.
After 25 painful years, the sun once believed to be dead, is alive and ruling Egypt. This moving story reveals God's hand behind every hardship. and each delay. You'll see how repentance, restoration, and God's timing come together to heal a fractured family. Here's Stephen with today's message.
Captain Howard Rutledge was a POW for 13 years. during the Vietnam War. The L.A. Times, February 19th, 1973, carried the story of his return home after 13 years of being away. There's a book in my study that I've probably read two or three times.
It's rather dog-eared now. It's the story of Howard Rutledge as he became a believer there in the what they called the Hanoi Hilton, as he trusted Christ and how God kept him over 13 years. And the story in much more detail in this book tells of how Howard Rutledge sent word that he was coming home. And his wife and children were ready. By that time, he didn't know it, but he was a grandfather.
One of his three daughters had married and had a son. He also didn't know that his son had had an accident and was confined to a wheelchair.
So everyone was expectant of his return and soon enough he departed where he was staying, I believe, somewhere on the West Coast, headed for just a brief jaunt to LA. And all of the media was there. There were thousands of people. You may have heard or read or even seen clippings of this reunion. It showed the men disembarking from that plane and an announcer would tell the name of the man who was finally home.
And finally, the announcer said Captain Howard E. Rutledge and the camera scanned the audience and a lady broke free and ran into the arms of Rutledge and they embraced. You can only imagine, of course, then as he was reunited with his family, his son as he observed him in a wheelchair, his son undoubtedly anticipating his father's response. How would he handle the fact that now I am confined to the chair, and his father, there as he was reunited with his son, knelt beside the wheelchair, they gathered each other up in their arms. And they hugged and wept.
There is something in our hearts that loves a story about a reunion. There's something in our hearts that loves going home. There is something about roots. Perhaps it's because I've been studying this passage that when I was in Virginia, Preaching in a missionary conference this last week, I decided to go back home where I was raised and hadn't been back for 13 years, hadn't seen the house, and decided to go. And my brother wanted to come along with me.
He was available at the time, and so we drove back home to 4713 Regal Court, and everything had changed. Of course, the trees were gone, different things had occurred. And we went up and knocked on the door, and a gal answered it, and she had a baby on her hip. I said, my name is Stephen Davie. I was raised in this house.
And she said, for real. And I said, yeah, for real. And she thought I was out, you know, on a limb probably. I said, would you mind if we just came through and looked at the house? She said, Come on in and so she went upstairs and got her dad and He came down and we began going through the home.
Evidently this family had purchased it from my parents. They had moved when I was a college student. And we went all through that house looking at all the little nicks and nooks and corners and nicks too. We put them there. And everything from the laundry chute that we stuffed our little brother in to the little basement where we would hide, all through that place and finally upstairs to the little cubby hole that finally was my bedroom.
after my brother went away to college. And it was there as an eighteen-year-old that I can remember kneeling And giving my life to Jesus Christ. And after 13 years being back, it was really an interesting experience. There's something about going back. The moment we began studying Joseph's life, we all were waiting.
To get to this chapter, and if we didn't have so much to learn in the process, we would have gone directly here as finally he is reunited with his father. Let's take a closer look. You remember, if you've been studying with us, that the brothers have come to Egypt, and Joseph has finally announced in the Hebrew dialect, Dani Yosef, I am Joseph. They were terrified, their legs trembled, and they were afraid that now would be the axe until he was very compassionate. And he told his brothers to go home and tell dad, tell Jacob that I'm alive, and I have an open invitation for you to come back to live with me.
And that's where we pick up the story again as he is saying goodbye to the brothers, sending them home to get Jacob. You'll note in verse 17 of chapter 45 the favor that Pharaoh has given these brothers because in verse 17 it says, Say to your brothers, Joseph, do this, load your beasts and go to the land of Canaan. Take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt. And you shall eat the fat of the land. We don't know why.
Perhaps the Hyksos dynasty, we think, was a shepherding dynasty. And so they were a little bit more sympathetic to these shepherds or this shepherd family. But then the Pharaoh says, Do this, verse 19, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives, and bring your father and come.
Now, when we read a verse like that, we immediately think that he's talking about some wooden, rickety old carts with wheels about to fall off. Take these old rickety carts with some donkeys pulling them and go get your family. If we were to go back in time, culturally, carts were an unheard of thing because everyone walked or rode a beast. But the Pharaoh, he had, in a sense, the automobiles. He had the transportation.
He had carts, and these carts were covered with jewels. They were pulled by handsome animals, and they were attended by the finest of Pharaoh's court. And you just didn't ride a cart unless you were somebody. You can imagine this entourage of gold-covered carts pulling into a famished area like Canaan where they had never seen anything like that. He said, in effect, go in style.
Go back and get your family in what today would be a limousine service. Go get all of your beloved and bring them back. And this was probably the talk of Canaan for decades.
So the sons of Israel did just that. And verse 22 tells us that Joseph gave them all changes of garments. But to Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver. And five changes of garments. And then he sent them to his father.
Note verse 24. He sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, do not quarrel on the journey. I have to stop and ask the question, why would these brothers quarrel? I thought now everything was patched up. If you're taking notes, let me give you two reasons why I think it's possible that they would break into quarreling.
Number one, because of sudden wealth. You didn't have silver. You didn't have hard cold cash where they came from. He traded in goat's milk and wool. You lived close to the earth, and these men were now given an incredible amount of money.
And wealth, as you and I should know, does not tend to unify, it tends to separate. It tends to cause problems, and perhaps it's the sudden wealth that would bring about the problem. But I think as well, there is a hidden, subtle temptation that Benjamin is given more. Benjamin is given garments five times more. And as I studied and restudied the passage, I thought we could principalize it this way.
Repentance, as they have done from their sins of dishonesty, repentance doesn't alleviate future temptation. Just because the brothers had repented of their dishonesty, living a lie. They were, in a sense, still having to handle the temptation of dishonesty. They could have, as they did to Joseph, bump him off, get what he had, and go back to Canaan with another story, as you know. and live wealthy lives.
But I think the second thing is perhaps more significant and I think Maybe closer to the truth, and that is there was the knowledge of serious confrontation. You see, they were going back to Canaan. And they were going to have to tell their father that they had lied. They were going to have to tell the story of what had happened. They couldn't just walk up and all the text relates is that they walked up and said, Your son is alive.
Joseph is alive. No. Dad would say, Now wait a second. 25 years ago, you brought me a blood-stained tunic. What happened?
What really happened? And they knew that there would be confrontation involved. They would have to fess up. They would have to admit everything to Jacob. And let me say this, repentance doesn't erase future consequences.
Repentance doesn't erase future consequences. They had to go to Dad and tell Dad that they had lied. Perhaps you've had brothers and sisters. Having three brothers, I can well remember many times doing something that was wrong, led astray by one of my brothers. I can still remember one day getting in trouble at school, my older brother and I, and from the bus stop, the school bus stop two blocks to our house, we argued the whole way as to what the story would be.
Well, let's say this. No, let's say this. And we constantly bickered. You let me take care of it. No, you let me handle it.
Well, what do we have here? We have 11 brothers who are having to go back to their father and tell them what happened. And I can just hear it now. I can hear Reuben.
Now, look, you need to make sure when we tell him the story that you leave me out of it because I wasn't there. You remember that? I can hear Judah saying, well, don't forget that it was my idea to sell them to the Midianites and not kill them. Benjamin saying, well, wait a second, guys, I'm not part of this. I wasn't even there.
Oh, well, who do you think you are, you goody-goody? You know, we're going to tell them everything we wanted to. I can see 11 brothers by the time they end their three-week journey at each other's throats. And I think that's the reason why Joseph comes along in verse 24 and he says, listen, don't quarrel on the journey. He knows his brothers.
And when they're heading back with money that they've never had, with garments, these are rough men, men of the earth. He says, don't bicker. You know, don't start trading your outfits. Don't quarrel about what you have. Don't look at Benjamin and get upset because he's been given so much more.
And whatever you do, don't begin to argue about the story you'll tell Jacob, our dad. Just go back and tell him I'm alive. I wish we could been in the cart to listen to their stories as they returned home. But they did, and they came to Jacob and they said, verse 26, Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is the ruler over all the land of Egypt. But Jacob was stunned, literally his heart went numb.
And he couldn't believe them. Verse 27. When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons, that is, when he saw the gold-covered carts, when he saw the jewelry, when he saw their garments, he knew. That Joseph must indeed be alive, and the spirit of his father Jacob. revived.
Now, we had studied the life of Jacob, but we need to pause and focus on him for just a moment, because if this is the old Jacob... Jacob will load up the baggage, he'll pack the suitcases, and without any further ado, he is headed for Egypt. But Egypt, you remember, is warned of by the prophets. Egypt was the place where Jacob remembers Abraham, my grandfather, lied and got away from the Lord. Isaac, he was warned not to follow in his father's footsteps in going to Egypt.
I can't go to Egypt if I am to be obedient to God. And all of a sudden, Jacob is faced with a tremendous tension. With a struggle. He decides to do something uncharacteristic of Jacob. He decides to stop and pray.
Look at verse 1 of chapter 46.
So Israel set out with all that he had, but when he came to Beersheba, Beersheba is the southernmost tip of Canaan. It's right before you cross the border. And when he gets to that southernmost tip, before he takes a step into the desert that will lead him to Egypt. He stopped and he offered sacrifices, probably at the same place where Abraham and Isaac had in Beersheba, to the God of his father Isaac. And I don't know what his prayer was, but it must have been something like, God, you know that my son is there.
You know that food is there. You know that the promise is that we will multiply. And it makes sense that I go to Egypt. Why should he even pray? I can't help but apply this directly to you and me.
If we were given the same conditions, More money? Closer to family members? A better situation all around, able to provide so much more by leaving, pulling up roots, would we even think that God couldn't be in it? And yet Jacob stops and he says, Lord, in effect, what should I do? And God spoke to Israel.
Note the use of the word Israel, Prince of God. In a vision, and he said, Jacob, here I am. Jacob responds. And God says, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt.
In the margin of your text, I want you to write two words. The first at the end of verse 3, the word expansion. These are self-contained prophecies in the book of Genesis. That is, we will see them prophesied, and in a later book, we will see them fulfilled. One of the greatest proofs of inspiration.
Expansion. You go to Egypt, and I will make you a great nation there. About 70 people, that's how many people were heading to Egypt. Before that, Abraham had been given the promise of a great nation. 70 people.
Isaac had been given the promise of a great nation. 70 people. Jacob had been reiterated by God that same covenant promise: I will make you a great nation, and still, three generations later, all he could count. was 70 people. And yet we'll learn in Exodus chapter 15 that when they leave Egypt, on the Exodus after staying there.
For many years, nearly 4 million people. will leave Egypt. 70 people. Multiplied to four million. Verse 4 is the second word, right at the end of verse 4, Exodus.
Note how he promises Jacob and Exodus, I will go down with you to Egypt. Don't worry, I'm with you. But I will also bring you back. That is, although you're going to Egypt, which is not part of the promise, I will bring you back to Canaan, to the promised land. Don't be afraid.
This is my way of multiplying this tribe into a nation in the valley or the region of Goshen, which is very fertile, the best that Egypt had to offer.
So Jacob stops and he prays, and God gives him confidence and encouragement that he should go. And now The reunion. Verse 27 of chapter 46. And the sons of Joseph who were born to him, all of them total, were seventy. Yeah.
Jacob sent Judah before him to Joseph to point out the way before him to Goshen, and they came into the land of Goshen, and Joseph got the news from a messenger, and as soon as he did, Joseph prepared his chariot. I have the idea that Joseph went by himself unattended. He prepared his own chariot, and he went up by himself to Goshen to meet his father Israel. And as soon as he appeared before him, He fell on his neck and he wept on his neck. A long time.
It's hard for you and for myself to identify. With this kind of reunion, all we can do, not even from our own personal lives, have we probably experienced something like this? is go back 25 years when dad and son We're torn apart. By the jealousy of brothers, they hadn't seen each other in 23 to 25 years. And now Jacob finally, he sees that chariot coming in the dimness of his eyesight.
He looks and he sees this Egyptian monarch riding toward him, riding in a chariot, a chariot of gold pulled by prancing steeds, and he sees him coming. And I imagine his thought is that it can't be Joseph. And yet Joseph with his headdress worn by the Egyptian royalty, clean-shaven, unlike a Hebrew, dressed with all of the garb, finally reins in his horses and he steps down off the chariot and he walks over to his dead. And perhaps it's then that his father looked closely and he recognized. Yes, this is Joseph.
We don't know of any words that were said. All they did was embrace. and weep. For a long time. And finally, through the sobbing of Jacob, he lifts his voice and he says in verse 30, Now.
Let me die. This is the fulfillment of my life. My son that I thought was taken from me is back. If I'm going to die happy, let me die now. It's all he could utter.
What a reunion that must have been. He said to Joseph finally in verse 30, Now let me die since I have seen your face. Yet you are still alive. What happens next is a further indication of Joseph's character. I want to give you two things.
Two important elements about Joseph's life that should be characterized in our lives as well. Let me give them to you rapidly. Number one, he had a sense of family responsibility regardless of how painful the past. He had every right to stick his brothers over in some corner and elevate his father, Jacob, his beloved father. To forget his brothers.
To send them away. And yet he continues evidencing forgiveness. Because look at chapter 47 verses 11 and 12. Joseph settled his father and circled that and his brothers. and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land.
Regardless of how painful The abandonment was. How cruel they had been as he pleaded that they not send him away with the Midianites. They refused to hear. They stopped up their ears.
Now, 25 years later, Joseph gives his brothers the best of the land. I wonder if we can have that sense of forgiveness in our hearts. for those in our past. He also had a sense of family pride. regardless of how humble the origin.
This is beautiful. His dad's a humble shepherd. To rest roughly. Perhaps even a little uncouth. He's used to living out in a tent.
Close to the earth, fingernails dirty. Unshaven. I can imagine once they are reunited. Joseph talking with his dad and his dad saying, Joseph, tell me about your work. I'd like to go see it sometime.
Nah, dad. You don't want to get around the court of Egypt. That's really not the place for you. See, Joseph could have had an attitude of cover-up, of embarrassment. To keep his father away.
Why, to think of how humble his origin was. And now his position as Prime Minister of Egypt But do you know what he does? He arranges for a personal introduction, verse 7. Then Joseph brought his father Jacob. and presented him.
That is, as he would a dignitary, as he would someone of great prestige, someone of diplomatic relationship. He does the same thing to his old, 130-year-old father, Stoop Shoulders, who shuffles in. Joseph proudly says, Pharaoh, I want you to meet my father. I imagined the courtroom buzzed with people. That's Joseph's father.
Certainly he was groomed for years for this position. He must have come from wealth. The shepherd? We know that shepherds were loathsome to the Egyptians. And Joseph probably sticking his chest out, says to all that court, this is my dad.
How often a young man or a woman will rise to prominence and in the process forget. Their origin. I think of Marion Anderson, a famous Black contralto. who had won a number of awards. was among other things, a United States delegate to the United Nations.
She had given private concerts for presidents' families and the King and Queen of England. She had been presented with a Presidential Medal of Freedom. She had written an autobiography and it was immediately a bestseller. And once the the press cornered her and said, Marion, what is the greatest moment of your life? And she said without even blinking, she said, the greatest moment was when I went back to the tenement house.
to my mama. and I told her she won't have to take in washing any more. Of all the times in Joseph's life to be embarrassed, ashamed of where he had come from, instead he introduces his father. with great respect and pride. to the Pharaoh.
I love what Jacob said to Pharaoh. He said in verse 9, The years of my sojourning are 130. Few and unpleasant have been the years of my life, nor have they attained the years that my fathers lived during the days of their pilgrimage. And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from his presence. There are a couple of things, as I briefly mentioned before, but this is really a testimony that we miss in our translations, in our cultural distances.
What Jacob was really doing as he stood before the Pharaoh is mustering up his faith in God, and twice he references a pilgrimage. To the man who to that culture was the embodiment of the sun god Ray, who would live forever, and Jacob in effect says, we will die. I have lived 130 years in my pilgrimage. And in effect saying, you are on a pilgrimage too, O great Pharaoh, and you will die. It was a tremendous declaration of life's brevity.
to a man who was worshipped as God. But it was also a testimonial of God's sovereignty. He briefly, in just a few words, refers to his fathers and their pilgrimage. And I in line now am a pilgrim with them. I mean, Jacob could have stumbled all over his feet trying to say something that would have impressed the Pharaoh.
He could have immediately started bragging on his son and all he had done. To make Joseph what he ended up being. And yet for just a few brief moments, he stands before Pharaoh and acknowledges the sovereignty of God. God has led me in this pilgrimage, and in effect I am following in the line of those who follow God. But you'll note twice he does something to Pharaoh.
What does he do? He blesses them. We can't understand that, but here he is in the court of a pagan, idolatrous king. And he blesses him. We happen to think in America, well, what did he do?
Say good morning and then have a good afternoon? No, this was a spiritual, this was in effect the bestowing of an acknowledgement of the God who blesses. We don't know what he said. All we know is that Jacob held out his trembling old hands and he blessed Pharaoh. And then he left.
I can't help but think as I view this reunion. of what it signifies to you and to me. Joseph being a type of Jesus Christ. with many illustrations of that which is foreshadowed that would be fulfilled in the life of Christ. One thing that strikes me is in the message he gave to his brothers and that message I want to leave with you.
Joseph basically told his brothers to do three things. He said, I want you to go back. Go back to your family. Go back to your friends. Go back to the relatives.
Go back to the tribe. And do what? Tell them, number one, that I am alive. Secondly, tell them that I am exalted. I am the Lord of all of Egypt.
And thirdly, tell them there is an open invitation for them to come and live with me. Do you see it? Jesus Christ Has come and given us, his brethren, a message. Go back to where you have had roots. Go back to your family.
Go back to your tribe. Go into the neighborhood where you are and tell them three things. That Jesus Christ is alive. Tell them he is exalted. and tell them there's an open invitation to come.
and to live with him. And what a reunion that will be. What a day. It will be. When my Jesus I shall sing.
When I look into his face, the one who saved me by his grace. And he takes me by the hand and leads me. to the promised land. What a day. What a day that will be.
Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. This is the Bible teaching ministry of Stephen Davie. Stephen is the pastor of the Shepherds' Church in Cary, North Carolina. As we close today's broadcast, I want to take a moment to tell you about a free resource that can help you stay connected to God's Word wherever life takes you. If you haven't already, I encourage you to install the Wisdom International app on your phone or tablet.
it puts Stephen's entire Bible teaching library right at your fingertips. Through the app, you can follow both the wisdom journey and wisdom for the heart, listening to or reading each message at your convenience. You'll also find daily devotionals, Stephen's blog, and a year-long Bible reading plan to help guide your personal time in Scripture. One of the app's standout features is the built-in Bible tab. You can read through any passage, or if you're on the go, simply press play and listen to the Bible being read aloud.
It's a great way to stay rooted in Scripture even during a busy day. And another feature you'll love is how Stephen's teaching is integrated directly into the Bible text. As you're reading, If Stephen has a lesson on that passage, a link will appear at the top of your screen. One tap takes you straight to his teaching on that passage. Just search for Wisdom International.
Then join us next time.
