Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. It is Monday, so happy Monday to everybody out there. The weekend is over. We've got a new week in front of us, and hopefully you are excited about what God is going to do this week. Who knows what the week's going to look like by the end of it. None of us do. Right. And there's something exciting about the turning the page on, on a week. And I know that's probably not necessarily your perspective, especially if you're listening this on the way to work, but, uh, mint. We have jobs, those of us that are going to work right now that that is something that's good. That's something to be thankful for and grateful for. Or maybe you're at home and getting your kids ready and sending them off to school. That's a. A good thing, a noble thing to be doing as well, or maybe you're at home and you're, you're teaching your kids. You're homeschooling your kids today. That is a, a good and noble task. This is. God has given us another day to day. And that is something to rejoice in. And as scripture calls us, this is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. And so I'll often ask pastor rod, Hey, what's your favorite day of the week? And if you've listened to the podcast, you've heard him say it before. He likes every day of the week. And so, uh, that's, that's a great mentality, great mindset for us as Christians to have because every single day that God gives us ease, just that a gift from God to be stewarded for him. And so today is a Monday and I get it. The case the Mondays, but maybe today. Uh, our, our Monday can look a little bit different if we reframe our perspective on it. If we think about today and say, man, God, you've given me 24 hours today. I may not be awake for all of them. Lord willing. I won't be, I'll hopefully be asleep for some of those days, those hours, but, uh, I want to use the hours that I'm awake and alert and conscious to. Uh, steward them in a way that glorifies you. So, uh, happy Monday, everybody. Hopefully we have a great week this week as followers of Jesus. Uh, our reading today in the daily Bible reading plan is Genesis 43 through 45, Genesis 43 through 45 again, right. Smack dab in the middle of Joseph. And now his brothers have showed up, but they've gone back. And remember we left off yesterday, they had gone back and there was a problem. Each man had his money in his sack. And not only that, but Simeon woods was. Now a hostage in Egypt and he wasn't gonna be freed until the brothers came back with Benjamin. Now, this kind of tells you, uh, where Simeon ranks, I guess, with his family, because, uh, Jacob is not going to send them back right away. He's going to say, uh, no, we're not going to do that. In fact, So long passes that they run out of food again. Th that all the food that each man had brought back in his sack, it's gone. And the famous still they're still very severe and they're left to go. Back to Jacob and say, we need to go back. We need to go back to Israel or to Egypt because that's the only option that we have before us now to get food, if we're going to survive. And after some back and forth and belaboring of the, the. Situation. Uh, Jacob ultimately agrees to send Benjamin with them, but only after Judah steps forward and Judah pledges to be responsible for his well-being and safety Judases. If anything happens to him, you can hold me accountable for that. And so, um, here. Judah is, is used by God and in a way to convince Jacob to say, okay, then, then yes. And so here we see again, the first point of the family who was the first part of the family, the first born and the family was Ruben. Right? And so Ruben should have been the one to step forward. Ruben should have been the leader, but here we see Judah as an example of someone who's a better leader. Uh, not perfect and not by a long shot. Is Judah perfect. Uh, but he's a better leader at least here than Rubin. His brother is in Judah steps forward and says I'll be accountable. I'm the pledge. I'm the shorty. For the safety of Benjamin. And so Israel, Jacob, eventually relents and agrees to allow them to go back though. He says, I want you to take double the money and take gifts in addition. With you in order to compensate for the money that had been returned in the mouth of each man sack previously. In 43 14, it may look like Jacob is a bit of a fatalist here, but I think there's another way to look at this and read this. And that is that Jacob is truly trusting God here. He's saying, may God almighty grant you mercy before the man and may send you back. Your brother and, and Benjamin as for me, if I'm bereaved in my children, I am bereaved. I, I don't think this is a statement of a man who's fatalistic. I think this is a statement of a man who's heavy hearted, but he wants to trust God right now. And so he's going to do that. And so the brothers go back, Joseph. Uh, is going to meet them. And when they show up, Joseph sees them again and he orders a feast to be prepared for all of them. And at one point, when he sees his brother Benjamin, he has to excuse himself again, he had a special place for Benjamin in his heart because Benjamin was the son of his mother. Benjamin was his full true brother. And he sees his brother Benjamin. This is the first time he's seen him. And he has to excuse himself and he goes in weeps and then he cleans himself up and he comes back. Well, the dinner has been arranged in all of the brothers are shocked because. When they come in to sit down to eat. Uh, their plates are arranged in birth order and they're shocked they think to themselves, how would he have known this? How could he have known who was the. The oldest and the youngest and so forth and so on. But notice again, Joseph's affection and affinity for Benjamin shows up because he gives Benjamin apportion five times as large. As anyone else's portion there at the table. Uh, and so here you have this scene of this feast taking place. It's interesting. That we find that things were, were culturally revealed to us here. We get a glimpse into the culture that is. Because Joseph sat by himself, away from his brothers, his brothers sat by themselves. And then you had the Egyptians in the house. They were sitting by themselves. Uh, because it was an abomination for the Egyptians to sit with Israelites or with, with Canaanites, with non Egyptians. And so there's an idea here of the cultural taboo. And we see, we see some of that separation taking place here. Uh, even in Egypt, we know it's true of Israel later because of the law and the commands that God gives. But even prior to the law, we see it in other cultures, that idea of being defiled. By associating with certain groups of people. And we're going to find out, even on top of that later on, when they find out that Joseph's family are shepherds, that's gonna set them even more outside in kind of a culturally taboo position. But chapter 43 of the brothers show back up. And Joseph prepares this feast. Well, chapter 44, Joseph moves to test his brothers again. And this time. He's going to send them away with their food after the feast, but he's going to place, uh, his personal cup. In Benjamin's sack. So now it's not just the money. Uh, now he's going to make it look like he's framing. Uh, the situation to make it look like Benjamin has stolen. His personal cup is he's challenged. He sends the steward after them when they leave. Obviously he knows what he's going to find. The steward shows up and says, how could you repay my master with this great harm? And he opens up Benjamin sack and behold, there's this challenge, this cup there. And so, uh, when this was discovered, they moved to detain Benjamin, but again, here's Judah with his leadership. Judah puts himself forward, fulfilling the word, the domain to his father. And he tells Joseph of his promise to act as shorty for him and the grief that would befall their father, if anything were to happen to him. Uh, before we go any further, let me make a note here. You probably saw, but it says that this was his cup of divination. And Joseph even says to his brothers, did you not know that I practice divination? Uh, this is not necessarily a, an admission, uh, or an implication that Joseph actually did these things. But again, culturally divination would have been something practiced by the Egyptian people. And so as Joseph is continuing this, this ruse. With his brothers, he appears here to be playing into that. Uh, because his brothers must've thought, well, how would he have known about the cup and even where we sat in the birth order and everything else. And so perhaps this is his way of extending the rules by covering this up by appealing to this act of divination. Clearly, divination is not a good thing. It's not something that we are to do or to practice. Uh, we are those that walked by faith and not by sight. We are not to put the Lord, our God to the test. Uh, but this is a situation where I think. These are just. The stream of conscious, this is just part of the culture what's going on here. This is not necessarily an emission of Joseph that he practiced divination. Could he have, is it possible? Uh, it's possible. And would that have been a good thing? No, that wouldn't have been a good thing, but. Uh, here in, I don't think we need to get too tripped up. On Joseph referring to this as his cup of divination here. Uh, rather I think it's just part of, of. His interaction with his brothers here and the continuation of this ruse until he's going to reveal himself. But chapter 44, Uh, this is a bad situation and it's good for us to sit in attention, even though we know the rest of the story. If you've been familiar with the Bible and read this passage, you know, that. Ultimately everything's going to work out. Benjamin is going to be fine, but right now, Ah, man, the youngest one, the one that Jacob was terrified of losing. Is now going to be held and this is bad and he's going to be held. He's going to be a permanent servant. There's no hope of getting them back. And Judah says, well, wait a minute, let me, let me serve as a replacement, as a substitution for, uh, for Benjamin. Let me give my life for his life. It's a weak echo, but I think it's worth note here that there's a descendant of Judah. That's going to do that as well. And not just for a one man, but for all, who would put their faith and trust in him, he is going to say, you know what, rather than all of them be condemned, let me step in. Let me be the substitute to give my life in place of their lives. And obviously that's that's Jesus. And so Judah is going to be the one that is, is the head of the tribe of Judah. And Jesus comes from the tribe of Judah eventually. And so here he is a very weak, very faint. Foreshadowing of what his future descendant is going to do in a much grander, much more significant scale, but here Judah steps forward says, hold me, let Benjamin go. So he's fulfilling his oath here. Well, chapter 45. Joseph can't contain himself any longer. And I think it's when he sees the change. When he, when he sees the man, these were the brothers that threw me in the pit, in that sold me to the Ishmael lights and. All of these horrible things and they hated me and everything else. And now I'm watching one of them step forward and say, Hey, let me give my life in place to the other. I think he's just overwhelmed by the transformation and the difference that he sees in his brother. And so he, he reveals himself. Verse three surprise. It doesn't actually say that in that. The Hebrew or the English or any other texts there, but he says I'm Joseph. And he says is my father still alive? And I love that. The scene. I would have loved to have been there to see this because his brothers are just, uh, just their, their jaws are just on the floor. I have to imagine as Joseph is just giddy, he smiling. I imagine he's going to all of them and, you know, holding their hands and ain't putting his hands on their shoulders and looking at them going, is my father still alive? And. And it says, but his brothers could not answer him for, they were dismayed at his presence, man, that word dismayed there means they were horrified. They were terrified because they knew what they had done to this man. And here he is the most powerful man in all of Egypt. And now they're not only worried about Benjamin's life or Simeon's life. Now they're worried about all of their lives for what they had done to him. And so there are dismayed and, and here's Joseph just overwhelmed saying, it's me, Joseph. He's my dad alive. And he just is dying to know. And he goes on and encourages them and he says, please, don't be afraid. Come near to me. I'm your brother who you sold into Egypt. Don't be distressed verse five or angry with yourselves because you sold me here and notice Joseph's faith here. Notice what's so commendable about him. Again, he was a man of integrity in Potiphar's house, and that has persisted until this point as well. And this is why I don't think that he was engaged in divination. Uh, verse five, he's a man of faith for God sent me before you to preserve life. Joseph knew that there was something bigger than his own story that God was doing. And that God had used the actions, the evil actions, the wicked actions. Remember we talked about it yesterday in the episode that God reveals sin, right? God used his brother sin though, even still to bring about good for, he had sent him before them to preserve life, even to preserve the life of Israel and his sons and his brothers there. Uh, this is, uh, this is such a commendable thing for Joseph, but still this scene would have been. Humorous at at least two to observe and to see, uh, how all this unfolds. And again, this chapter just confirms that that Joseph was a man who understood God's sovereign character. And even willing to overlook their offense because of his faith in God, verse eight. It was not you who sent me here, but God, verse seven, God sent me before you. Verse nine. God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Uh, Joseph is a man who knew. About God's sovereignty. And so here in chapter 45, I mean the main thrust of the story is he's saying, Hey, it's me, I'm here. I'm going to take care of you. Uh, this is what I want you to do. Go back to, to, to Cain and, and get our father and bring him down here and I'm going to take care of you. And so even though, yeah, that's what it's about. I think the thing that, that really stands out and jumps off the page for us in chapter 45 is just Joseph's. Confidence that God had ordained. Everything to bring him to where he was. And I think that's true wherever you are. I opened this up by talking about Monday morning. If you're on your way to work, God has given you that job and puts you there to work for his glory. If you are at home this morning and, and. Maybe it's your day off today, man. God has given you a day of rest today and he's given you that time to recharge and get ready for what's in front of you. If you are teaching your children at home today, God has entrusted to them. To you in this season as a stewardship, if you are sending your kids out the door to school today. Oh, man. God has entrusted you to be responsible over that as well. And over their education, as far as following up with them and talking through things with them, if you are. Wherever you are. You're a married person, a single person, wherever you are, the same God sovereign over Joseph's life is sovereign over your life as well. And that is something for us to rejoice in and be thankful for this morning. So let me pray and then we'll be done with another edition of the daily Bible podcast. God, we do rejoice in that. We are thankful for your sovereignty over our life. And we are thankful that even in spite of sin, Instead of our own sin. You do good things for us. God, you preserve us. You protect us. You don't allow our sin to derail your sovereign. Uh, decreed plans for us or for anyone else. And that is such a good thing. So help us to steward the day that you have given to us. Well, For your honor and glory in Jesus name. Amen. All right, y'all keep, bring your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. 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