(Genesis) Genesis 41:42-45

I'm reading now verse 42. And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, put it upon Joseph's hand. And by the way, that ring had a signet on it, and you put that down and waxed.

That's just same as Pharaoh signing it, by the way. That's what he's doing. He's making him his agent.

And he put upon Joseph's hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, put a gold chain about his neck, and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. And they cried before him, Bow thy knee. And he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-pe-ah-niah. Now, friends, I like Joe better than I like Zaphnath-pe-ah-niah.

That was the name that Pharaoh gave to him. It's a Coptic name which means revealer of secret things. And he also gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potiphar, a priest of Ann.

And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt. And this man now assumes this tremendous position. Now notice the age of this man, because it's interesting.

Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout the land of Egypt. You see, he'd been in the land of Egypt now 13 years.

Two of those years had been in that prison. That is after the episode with the butler and the baker. So he might have been there a couple years before.

So you see, he'd been in the house of Potiphar for maybe almost 10 years. This gives you some conception of how the time had been divided there in the land of Egypt. May I pick up the thread of our story? Joseph is down in the land of Egypt, and he's had hard luck up to this point.

He's now been called in to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh. And he interprets those two dreams, tells them there to be seven years of famine, and there's to be seven years of plenty to precede it. And that during those years that Pharaoh should gather in all that he can in the granaries of Egypt and prepare for the day that's coming.

And so Pharaoh, he hadn't anyone better to put in charge of this than Joseph. And Joseph now becomes what would correspond, I think, to the prime minister of Pharaoh. Someone's apt to say, well, how in the world did this man get into this unique position? And why was it that Pharaoh was so willing to accept him? Well, primarily, number one, God's with him all the way along.

We've seen that. The hand of God, by his providence, is leading this man. As Joseph at the conclusion of Genesis says, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.

It's wonderful to know that. That's number one. But number two, there's also a very practical reason, by the way.

And that is that at this particular period in the history of Egypt, there had come to the throne of the Pharaohs the Hyksos kings. They were from out in the deserts. They were a Bedouin nomadic group.

And for a period, they came in and took over the throne of Egypt. And they belonged to the same race, the same human stock that Joseph belonged to. Actually, these Hyksos kings found it a little difficult to find in Egypt those that would be loyal and faithful to them.

Now, that is one thing that characterized Joseph that we mentioned at the beginning, the fact that this man knew that God was moving in his life. It made him faithful, faithful to whomsoever he was attached, faithful to his task because he knew God was in it. And he was faithful to Pharaoh.

So that explains the reason that this man found such a ready reception from Pharaoh at that time. Now, he not only at the very beginning proved his ability, but Pharaoh put this chain, as we saw, about his neck, which gave him the same authority that Pharaoh had, and then gave him for a bride the daughter of the priest of On. Her name was Asenath.

Now, that means she who is of Neith, and Neith is a goddess of the Egyptians. In other words, she was an idolatress. That's what the name means.

But Shakespeare said a rose by any other name smells as sweet. But he didn't call it Romeo and Asenath. Juliet sounded much better.

And she evidently comes right out of heathenism. She is a Gentile bride for Joseph. And by the way, there's a parallel, is there not? We've said this man's more like the Lord Jesus, parallels him.

The Lord Jesus is calling out of the world a Gentile bride today. That's the church. And Joseph had a Gentile bride.