Title: Foreshadows of Saving Grace
Genesis 47
I told this story a long time ago, but I thought it was time to tell it again.
It’s how I got the scar on my head.
My friends and I were going to go see a movie on a temperate winter day in Tennessee.
We met at one of our houses, planning to ride together from there.
It had snowed in the morning, warmed in the afternoon, and then turned cold again that evening.
The dad of the home where we met up was trying to encourage us to stay there.
He told us that he had just ordered some pizzas.
We were old enough that he wasn’t going to force us to stay in.
And we were also too young to wonder if his concern about the roads should be something to consider.
Over and over again, he told us, “I’ve got pizza coming. Why don’t you all just stay here.”
But each time, we responded that we wanted to catch the movie.
As we’re heading out the door, we could hear him – “the pizza’s almost here!”
About to pull out of the subdivision, the girl who was driving argued with my buddy in the back seat.
He was refusing to put on his seatbelt.
And she told him that she wasn’t going any further until he did.
I’ve mentioned before that there doesn’t seem to be a single straight road in East Tennessee.
And the road we pulled onto didn’t disprove that.
As we came around a corner, there was a spot where the snow had melted across the road during the afternoon and then frozen again that evening.
I remember the car swinging wildly back and forth and then seeing headlights flying at us from over the hill.
If we’d stayed at my friends house, I wouldn’t have this scar on my head.
My friend who was driving wouldn’t have broken her leg.
And the pizza guy would’ve made his delivery.
He didn’t because he crashed into us instead.
There’s so much irony in this story that it makes it interesting to tell it.
There’s the fact that we crashed into the pizza guy or that my friend just forced my other friend to put on his seatbelt.
It’s irony, but you can’t say that it’s foreshadowing because foreshadowing requires an author.
Foreshadowing comes when an author wants to highlight something that will come into play later.
It’s foreshadowing in To Kill a Mockingbird when Atticus tells Scout it’s a sin to kill a mockingbird because it’s innocent.
It’s foreshadowing in the Charlotte's Web when the goose warns the rat that the rotten egg he’s storing is going to explode one day.
It’s also foreshadowing that Luke Skywalker has a sibling when Yoda assures Obi Wan that Luke isn’t the Jedi’s only hope, telling him, “There is another.”
It’s foreshadowing when Kramer is hitting golf balls into the Hudson River in the same episode that George is lying to his date, telling her he’s a Marine Biologist.
These are examples of foreshadowing where writers sought to point towards what’s coming.
And the writers were building anticipation of the climax by teasing the reader or viewer with foreshadows.
This morning, we’re looking at - Foreshadows of Saving Grace
I mentioned a few weeks ago how my thinking has changed regarding Jesus being foreshadowed in the OT.
I used to look at it like a convenient illustration or a little easter egg of what is to come in Christ.
Now, I recognize that He is the Alpha and Omega.
He can’t help but pop up and be shown through the people and events because it’s all about Him.
Joseph is one of the characters of the Old Testament that points the most to the ministry of Jesus.
This is probably why his story makes up the largest block of the book of Genesis.
If you recall, Joseph is the favored son sent by his father to go and find his brothers.
But Joseph was rejected by his brothers, disrobed, mocked, and eventually sold for the price of a slave.
Jesus came to seek the lost, coming first to His own countrymen but was rejected by the Jews and betrayed for the price of a slave, disrobed, mocked and killed.
Joseph was put in a pit, Jesus into the grave
Like Jesus, Joseph’s mistreatment plays into the salvation of his whole family.
Jesus’ mistreatment ultimately makes salvation available to all people.
This morning, we’re going to see foreshadowing of the amazing benefits that followers of Christ experience.
we’ll find Joseph’s family is privileged and totally provided for.
And it’s all due to the position and achievements of their family member, Joseph.
So we move ahead into Ch. 47 as we come to where Joseph introduces his family to Pharaoh.
1 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.” 2 And from among his brothers he took five men and presented them to Pharaoh.
Joseph introducing representatives of his family to Pharaoh would’ve been a customary show of good will.
Their interview is a good example of peaceable dealings between a sojourning people and an earthly power. - 1 Pet. 2:11–17
Joseph mentions they’re living in the land of Goshen.
3 Pharaoh said to his brothers, “What is your occupation?” And they said to Pharaoh, “Your servants are shepherds, as our fathers were.” 4 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. And now, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen.”
Having been coached by Joseph as to what to say to Pharoah, his brothers inform him of their work as shepherds and herdsmen.
They also mention they’re already living into the land of Goshen and request that they might stay there.
Apparently, the famine is worse in the land of Canaan as there was no pastureland remaining for them there.
5 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Your father and your brothers have come to you. 6 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.”
v. 5 could be interpreted as Pharaoh saying, “[Since] your father and your brothers have come to you…
Pharaoh basically tells them that they’re welcome to settle in Goshen or any other place that is better for their flocks.
Joseph’s good reputation becomes the cause of his brother’s favor.
Like Joseph’s Family the follower of Christ has decided to -
1. LEAN ON JESUS’ ACHIEVEMENTS.
As followers of Christ, we benefit from Jesus using his achievements and reputation for the salvation of those who trust in Him as Savior.
This picture of Joseph presenting his family before Pharaoh and Pharaoh’s favorable response points to how those who trust in Christ as Savior benefit from His good reputation with God as God.
Romans 8 encourages us to remember this on even our worst days as it asks us
* Romans 8:31–34 31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.
What we’re being told is that salvation through Christ means that God the Father and God the Son are on our side.
And no circumstance should convince us that God is not actively loving us as our Heavenly Father.
The follower of Christ has chosen to lean on Jesus’ achievements in the sense that we have accepted His righteousness to count toward our account.
Romans 3 celebrates how we can meet the righteous standard that is required for us to have a relationship with God – being forgiven by His grace. It’s -
* Romans 3:22–24 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
Did you catch that there’s no distinction.
We don’t have to belong to Jesus’ family like Joseph’s brothers.
we only need to trust in the person and work of Jesus to lean on His achievements for our salvation.
In the 1800s, men's coats often had long tails.
If someone were close enough to grab and be pulled along by those coat tails, they might be able to move forward without doing any of the walking themselves.
This would be called “riding on someone’s coattails”
This picture was invoked in this saying, meaning
“to have one's success dependent on the achievements or reputation of someone else.”
It was a common political metaphor.
It might describe a lesser-known or less-popular candidate wining an election by being associated with a much more popular candidate.
If you know Christ as your Savior, you’ve ridden on His coattails into a gracious relationship with God.
If you know Christ as your Savior, do you believe that God sees you through Christ’s righteousness?
If you don’t know Christ as your Savior, do you think that God simply accepts you as you are?
I don’t mean to be rude.
But seeing yourself as acceptable before the all knowing, completely righteous God is very arrogant.
It also insults His standard of righteousness.
Well we continue with the foreshadowing as Jacob stands before Pharaoh
7 Then Joseph brought in Jacob his father and stood him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. 8 And Pharaoh said to Jacob, “How many are the days of the years of your life?” 9 And Jacob said to Pharaoh, “The days of the years of my sojourning are 130 years. 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 in the days of their sojourning.” 10 And Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from the presence of Pharaoh.
Jacob’s meeting with Pharaoh begins and ends with him blessing Pharaoh.
This is significant.
In that time, a greater person blessed a lesser person.
This is certainly a sign of the elevated status that God had given to His patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob).
Jacob also seems to carry himself with the understanding that he is different.
Note that he doesn’t refer to himself as “your servant” as his sons do.
And it’s an implication of God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3
* Genesis 12:1–3 1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 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.”
Some of you might think that Pharaoh is being rude by asking Jacob’s age.
But in those days, old age was a sign of God’s blessing and the presence of wisdom from their years of experience.
Jacob comes from a line of those who had been blessed by God.
His grandfather Abraham had lived to be 175 and his father Isaac 180 years.
Yet Jacob shares that his life seems to be waning at 130 years.
We know from a later verse that he’s god 17 years remaining to his life.
But Jacob also shares that his life has been difficult.
This is likely due to the treachery and subversion that he had experienced with the loss of Joseph and the misbehavior of some of his sons.
And the woes that Jacob has as a father can be attributed to his own lies and trickery of his father and brother coming back around to him.
11 Then Joseph settled his father and his brothers and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Rameses, as Pharaoh had commanded. 12 And Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father’s household with food, according to the number of their dependents.
Goshen was later known as the land of Rameses.
This would’ve been the name recognized by the original readers.
While the known world was experiencing famine and as we’ll see that the Egyptians were also driven to poverty, Joseph provided his family with all that they needed.
Once again, is a picture of Jesus.
Like Joseph’s Family the follower of Christ should –
2. ENJOY WHAT JESUS PROVIDES.
We’re provided with an overabundance of grace as God works everything to conform us to the image of Jesus.
Joseph’s abundant provision for his kinfolk is similar to how we are recipients of “every spiritual blessing in Christ.”
This is talked about in Ephesians 1:3
And Ephesians 1:13 describes how the follower of Christ is secure in God’s grace from now into eternity.
As it states –
* Ephesians 1:13 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
Have you ever heard of a sweepstakes where people can win a lifetime supply of something?
When I was a kid, I kind of dreamed of winning one of those contests.
I imagined it being a lifetime supply of pizza or Oreos or something.
With my luck, it’d probably have been Windex or shoe pollish.
Now that I’m an adult, I think, “If I won a lifetime supply of pizza, I’d get sick of it after a few weeks.”
And that’d be truly tragic.
By receiving Christ as Savior, you’ve received an eternal supply of grace.
This is what’s meant by –
* Romans 5:1–2 1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
So, how do we enjoy what Jesus has provided.
One way is by remembering who we are in Christ. (insert)
What would Joseph have said if he pulled up in his chariot and his brothers were trying to grow gnarly vegetable plants in the famine struck ground.
He would’ve told them, “Why are you concerned about growing your food? I supply you with all you need.”
In the same way, Christ has supplied us with all the Acceptance, Security, and Significance that we could ever need.
We’re move into an extended section that describes how Joseph handles the needs of the Egyptian people.
This isn’t going to be an expose’ on socialism vs capitalism or how Joseph would make the Marxist upset.
What’s to be noticed is how Joseph’s family continues to live in light of the hardship of the Egyptian people.
Next, we learn how the rest of the people of Egypt got by.
13 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. 14 And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, in exchange for the grain that they bought. And Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh’s house. 15 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.”
Notice that it’s both Egypt and Canaan that are described as going through the famine.
16 And Joseph answered, “Give your livestock, and I will give you food in exchange for your livestock, if your money is gone.” 17 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.
18 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. 19 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.”
Notice also that the people of Egypt suggest to Joseph that they become Pharaoh’s servants.
20 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. 21 As for the people, he made servants of them from one end of Egypt to the other. 22 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.
At this point Egypt basically becomes a serfdom or vassal state.
This form of debtor’s slavery was common in those days.
It was often a helpful arrangement for a person to have the option of turning over a portion of their proceeds rather than to starve due to not having the resources to afford seed.
23 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. 24 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 your households, and as food for your little ones.”
25 And they said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.” 26 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 Pharaoh’s.
Present day woke ideology would try to “cancel” Joseph at this point.
In this instance, he would be defined as an “oppressor” because he has means that he’s using them to the benefit of Pharaoh.
Regardless of what you may think of Joseph’s decisions, the statements of the Egyptians stand for themselves.
Notice their assessment of the situation in v. 25 -
And they said, “You have saved our lives; may it please my lord, we will be servants to Pharaoh.”
The Egyptians owe Joseph and Pharaoh their lives.
This makes them debtors.
And so, they live with the consequence of the situation that they survived – indebtedness to their saviors
But notice how life is different for Joseph’s family.
27 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.
Jacob and his sons have a very different life in Goshen.
All the food they need for themselves and livestock is provided for them by Joseph.
They gained possessions (probably at bargain prices) since everyone around them is fending for themselves.
They’re also able to focused on becoming a great nation.
☺ - The stork is working overtime in Goshen.
I think it interesting how the terms seem to point back to the intention that God had for mankind.
We see God’s personal people in a place to be fruitful and multiply.
So we see a stark contrast in how Joseph’s family is thriving because of Joseph’s powerful position.
Like Joseph’s Family, if you know Christ as your Savior, you should –
3. EMBRACE YOUR PRIVILEGED POSITION.
As God’s redeemed people, we’re in a much different position than the world around us who owe a debt to God that they could never pay.
There’s two ways that people approach God from.
One way is a person trying to work their way into God’s good graces.
This person is thinking that they can make God owe them salvation or blessing.
Romans has two things to say to this person
* Romans 4:4–5 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due.
* Romans 6:23 23 the wages of sin is death
So the person that thinks they can work their way into a relationship with God or that even some small part of it is reliant on their works fall into a relationship with God as their boss.
And all their going to get in terms of a wage is death, because that’s what our sin deserves.
And everything that we do is tainted with it.
The second way that a person can approach God is throwing themselves on God’s grace.
Let me finish these verses from Romans that I’ve shared.
* Romans 4:4–5 4 Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. 5 And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness,
* Romans 6:23 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We glorify God greatly by believing the gospel and resting from our working for salvation – resting in the finished work of Christ.
Think of someone born in a third world country but adopted by an American family.
Through their adoption, they became full-blown American citizens, holding American passports.
If they were to visit to the place where they were born, would they lose their American citizenship? – no
They would carry with them the full privileges of their American citizen wherever they go.
Does this make them better than or more worthy of their liberty or opportunities that they have? - no
But they would be no less grateful for what their American citizenship affords them.
their new citizenship would be something to be grateful for and something they would carry with them.
We have a wonderful Savior who has brought us into His family – made citizens of heaven.
If you know Christ as your Savior, God set you aside and chose to lavish His blessings on you.
This is what we’ll see soon discussed in Ephesians 1:3
* Ephesians 1:3 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
We aren’t called to live out of a “debtor’s ethic” or “debtor’s code.”
We’re not to live with a mentality of thinking that we need to somehow repay God for His grace in some guilt-driven-duty.
We’re called to freely receive God’s grace and thank Him for it.
It glorifies God when we recognize that we have been given and will be given grace that so valuable that we could never begin to repay Him what it’s worth.
We’re also not called to feel guilty over the grace that God has chosen to show us instead of others.
But we should seek to freely give the invitation for others to know Christ as their Savior and become the objects of God’s amazing grace.
28 And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt seventeen years. So the days of Jacob, the years of his life, were 147 years. 29 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, 30 but let me lie with my fathers. Carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burying place.” He answered, “I will do as you have said.” 31 And he said, “Swear to me”; and he swore to him. Then Israel bowed himself upon the head of his bed.
With all the provision for he and his family that Jacob has been experiencing in Egypt, you might think that he’d be setting his heart on his family staying there in the lap of luxury.
After he dies, maybe he could have Joseph erect one of those big obelisks or even a Sphinx in his memory.
No, Jacob understands that the blessing on his family is coming from the God that keeps His promises.
And he understands the significance of the Promised Land in that blessing.
So, in faith, he makes Joseph promise that he will be buried back in Canaan because Jacob believes that Canaan is the place where his family will eventually return.
He provides for us in this life, but it’s nothing compared to what He has planned for us when He welcomes us home.
He assures us that He will bring His own into the ultimate Promised Land.
