(Genesis) Genesis 45:13-28

Now, will you notice as we read on here, And ye shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that ye have seen, and ye shall haste and bring down my father hither. And he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck, and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. This is a tender scene.

These two brothers, full brothers, both marvelous men, Joseph and Benjamin. And moreover he kissed all of his brethren and wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked with him. Don't you see that they absolutely were puzzled, they were stunned, they didn't know what to say.

Now they begin to recover their senses and they have quite a talk. And so this thing now is spreading abroad, we read here, And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Joseph's brethren are come, and it pleased Pharaoh well and his servants. You see, what had happened was that all this noise of this carrying on, that it caused everybody to hear, and Pharaoh wanted to know what was going on.

One of the servants from Joseph's house came by and Pharaoh said to him, What's going on over there? He said, Well, do you know those eleven men that came down from the land of Canaan, they are his brethren. Well, it delighted Pharaoh, and why would it delight him? Well, he was of the same racial strain that Joseph and his brethren were. You see, the Hyksos kings were on the throne now, and they had come from out in the desert, and they probably hadn't been able to trust the Egyptians too much, and so Pharaoh was delighted to have somebody that he could trust.

Now he's delighted that there are going to be some more. And so Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, This do ye, laid your beasts, and go, get you into the land of Canaan. Take your father, your households, and come unto me, and I'll give you the good of the land of Egypt, and ye shall eat the fat of the land.

Now thou art commanded this, do ye, take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones. And note that word, wagons, because they say the wheel is quite an invention, you know. And these men from the land of Canaan were not using the wagons yet, but the Egyptians were well advanced, and he says, Now take your wagons up there, and bring your father, and come.

Also regard not your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. Don't need to bring anything extra, you will have it down here, we'll furnish it to you. Children of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.

To all of them he gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver, five changes of raiment. To his father he sent after this manner ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with corn, and bread, and meat for his father by the way. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed.

And he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of the land of Egypt, and came unto the land of Canaan, unto Jacob their father. They told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, he is governor over the land of Egypt.

And Jacob's heart fainted. He just couldn't believe this was true. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them.

And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived. This was a thrilling moment for him. And Israel said, It's enough.

Joseph my son is yet alive, I'll go and see him before I die. But the prospect of seeing Joseph certainly influenced Jacob to make the decision to go down to Egypt. But do you think that he intended to remain in Egypt? I don't think so.

I think he intended to pay a brief visit to his son, then return back home soon as the famine was over. But he never returned except for the burial, his own. He came back for his own funeral, for he died in the land of Egypt.

And his whole family was moved down there. This is a tremendous story, and we'll follow it on. The hand of God is now very evident in the life of Joseph.