Manipulate & Mediate

I want you to imagine with me for a moment. You’re in a prison cell. With your family, with your spouse, with your children. And you hear a whole commotion with the guards outside your cell. And they come storming in, announcing. That the verdict is in guilty. The punishment. Death. And upon hearing that guilty verdict, the guards grab you and tear you from your loved ones as they cry out and scream out for you. And you cry and scream out for them, knowing full well there’s nothing you can do. There’s no retaliation. There is nothing. There is just the consequence. Death is coming. I want you to hang on to that thought, because we’re going to come back to it. Because in the midst of that thought, in the midst of that pain, in the midst of that idea of the guilty verdict being spoken over us, what we see in our text. Is that there’s a voice that cries out in the middle of all of it. A voice that cries out amidst the chaos and amidst all the emotion that calls out and says, take me instead. We’re going to see that in our Genesis text, and we’re going to see how that connects here to Ash Wednesday. So again, hang on to that thought. But before we get there, to remind you again, again, welcome. We’re glad you’re here with us on an Ash Wednesday service. And if this is your first one, it’s a special service. It’s an opportunity, like Pastor Tim mentioned, for us to prepare our hearts and minds as we approach the cross, as we approach Easter, that we’re going to march the next 40 days towards that cross. And as we do that, what the church has historically done in this season of lent is that we recognize our own fallen nature, and we also recognize our frailty and our mortality because Scripture says it from the very beginning, from the fall, God told Adam and Eve what was to come, what was going to be the consequence of their sin, and now as their descendants, the consequence of our sin as well.

From dust we are to dust we shall return. It’s also in this season that we can prepare our hearts and minds by giving things up, by giving up some vice, by giving up some luxury. I also like to encourage you that it can also be a season of picking something up that maybe you haven’t picked up in a while, maybe you haven’t been in Scripture, maybe you haven’t been in prayer or family devotion. Maybe you haven’t been in church in some time in my encouragement would be in the next 40 days as we approach Easter, that this would be a time to reengage your faith, spend some time in the word. Spend some time with the church and the other believers. So regardless of wherever you’re at in that journey, I just want to remind everyone that we’re in the middle of Genesis, which so interestingly lines up so very well with ash Wednesday. But before we get to our text that we just heard Elvy read for us, let me just remind you of where we’ve been just in the last few chapters. So we’re in chapter 44, but in just the last few chapters, this is what we’ve seen transpire, that there is a famine that has taken place across the known world, and that this forces Joseph’s brothers, the ones who sold him into slavery, forces them who are living in Canaan to go to Egypt, because it’s the only place that has any food. Joseph is there and he is second in command. He is one of the most powerful figures in all of Egypt, and he is the one who has now made it possible for the Egyptians and others to live because of his stewardship. How he’s handled all the years of plenty. Now they can survive in the years of famine. And when the brothers get there, they don’t recognize Joseph for who he is. They don’t realize that it’s their brother standing before them. And Joseph starts to play some games or do some tests. He accuses his brothers of being spies. He takes one of his brothers and throws him in prison and sends the others on their way. The others go back home. They eat all the grain and then they plead with their father, let us go back to Egypt.

Let us go back to Joseph, even though they don’t know it’s Joseph, and ask for more grain. But if we go back, we have to take Benjamin with us. That it was made very clear they needed to take Benjamin. So finally the father, Jacob, allows Benjamin to go after one of the sons. Judah guaranteed his safety. Then Joseph. Once they arrive there, he invites them to a great feast at his house. He also, interestingly enough, he orders them oldest to youngest in the seating, like almost letting them know that he has some insight that they don’t realize. Then Joseph is also deeply moved because he sees his brother Benjamin, who is his only full blood brother. Everyone else has a half brother. This is his full but blood brother from the same mother, and he is so deeply moved to see him. So that case has caught up to 44. And then what we see again is that Joseph is still not letting anyone know that he is, in fact their brother, that they sold into slavery. He’s still playing games. And really, the whole hinge piece of this, this chapter is this silver cup that Joseph devises, this plan to say, I’m going to hide a silver cup in one of their sacks of grain. I’m going to give them all the grain that they need. I’m going to send them back on their way. But I already know I’m going to hide this cup, and then I’m going to send a messenger to go and find the cup so I can bring them all back. He has this elaborate scheme planned, but the brothers have no idea, and it’s so very clear they have no idea that this has taken place. But we see in chapter 44 and verse nine says, the brothers, these are all Joseph’s brothers with all of their their grain is their traveling. They’re accused by this messenger sent from Joseph saying, where is the silver cup? And they so very confidently say, if any of us are found to have it, he will die. I mean, that’s no small thing right there, there, there are assured they did not take the cup. Nobody here took it. And if they did, they’re going to die. And even on top of that, you know what the rest of us will become? My Lords, that is Joseph slay. As if we stole the cup. They are certain that cup is not in their grain. So the steward, the messenger says, very well, then, let it be as you say.

Whoever is found to have it will become my slave. But the rest of you are free from blame. They only. He only wants one where the cup is. And whatever insight that Joseph had about the birth order he shares with his messenger, because what we see happen next is he works right down the line. This messenger proceeds to search and he begins with the oldest all the way down to the youngest. You can almost feel the tension building. Maybe this has happened in your household. If you have multiple kids and you ask who broke something? Where are the keys? Where’s the remote? Where’s something? And you work down and you try to find it. You start with the oldest. And here. Here are all these brothers. And you can just imagine searching this bag of grain. No cup. And the next and the next. And I wonder, do they build any anxiety or tension? Is it finally got down to Benjamin, where inevitably the cup was found? And now what are the brothers to do? What kind of recourse to the brothers have? Because it’s just a single messenger. We don’t know. Where is the messenger with the whole entourage. That is then going to force them to come back. I mean, what he just said, the what the messenger just said is I don’t need all of you to be slaves, just the one who has the cup. So looking at that part of the text, it’s almost to say that if the brothers wanted to be bad brothers like they have been, they could have said, wow, Benjamin, that stinks. And then just head back to Canaan. They could have run, they could have fought. They could have just pushed the blame off on the Benjamin. But they all go back and as we just heard it read, then they enter into this dialog, Joseph knowing the whole time Joseph and what is he doing? Why is Joseph doing all this in these words, brothers, he hasn’t seen for 20 years and all he’s doing is yo yoing them back and forth.

Go home, come back. There’s silver in your back. Oh, now there’s a cup in your bag. He’s just toying with them and playing games. And in the midst of the dialog, all of a sudden one brother steps up and he acts as the spokesperson for the family. And it’s a very curious member of the family. We’re going to see in just a moment why this person is such a curious person to be the spokesperson. This is Judah. And before we talk about what Judah did do, I want us to take a look at what Judah didn’t do. Judah didn’t stand up on behalf of all of his brothers and deny that they took the silver cup. Judah didn’t stand up and try to fight back and retaliate. He didn’t make excuses or try to justify Benjamin’s actions, even though Benjamin himself didn’t steal it. But you didn’t know that he doesn’t try to shut down or avoid. He doesn’t try to lie or cover up. He just goes and faces the facts as he knows them. The cup was found in Benjamin’s sack, and that’s what we’re going to deal with. And let me tell you a little story about why Benjamin is so important, and he needs to go back to his father. But as you look at that list of the things that Judah didn’t do. Let me ask you this. Which ones do you do when evidence has laid in front of you of your guilt? When someone presents you with the receipts of your wrongdoings, what do you have the propensity to do? Is it to own it and to stand up to it and to face the consequences? Or is it to blame and deny and shift and try to hide and run away, or fight back and get angry? Because what I know of my sinful nature is that it could be any one of these things, and that our natural inclination is not to be honest and is not to have integrity. But there is this sin nature inside of us that wants to self preserve and protect, and being found out and being found out in guilt and shame is among the most uncomfortable experiences that any person can experience. So why is why is Judah standing up? Why is he not giving in? Why is he not leaning into this list of our reactions that we so often reach for when faced with guilt? But one of the first tenses if we go back just one chapter, is that we heard that Judah stands up to his father and says, we need to go.

We need to go get grain. This is a famine. And let’s not forget this either. This is a famine, something that none of us have experienced. I know eggs are expensive, but we have not experienced a famine to the extent to say, I don’t know if my children are going to live. That’s what a famine is. I don’t know if there’s going to be enough food for me and for my family to survive. So you’re talking about a rock and a hard place. We have a famine. We have to go to the sky, but to go to the sky, we have to take this youngest son who our dad loves the most. And so Judah pleads with his father so that he can feed his own children. Send the boy that is Benjamin with me, and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live there. It is so that they can actually survive. They need to be sustained. And here he gives us a guarantee. I myself will guarantee his safety. You can hold me personally responsible for him if I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you. I will bear the blame before you. All my life and here again. I know this is a courageous and brave and upstanding Judah, and I mentioned before. It’s very curious. There’s this character, Judah. Well, let’s take a look at why is it so curious that it’s Judah? Out of all the brothers, we don’t have a lot of details on every one of the brothers, but some of them, and we have quite a bit on Judah. Here’s Judah’s rap sheet. Here’s his past, going back to when the brothers were wanting to murder Joseph 20 years ago, and they threw him in a pit. Judah was the one that had the cool head that prevailed and said, you know what? If we murder him, we don’t get any money, but if we sell him, we get money. He’s the one that leads the charge on selling Joseph into slavery. He’s the one that then, after they lie to their father and his father’s grieving the loss of Joseph, thinking that Joseph is dead. That he just hightail it. He abandons his family. He abandons his mourning father. And not only that, he goes off to a foreign land and marries a Canaanite, which would have been against what his family wished for him. Then, after having children with the Canaanite woman, two of his sons are so sinful that God ends their lives.

And in that whole mess, his sons were supposed to be married to someone. And then now it’s Judah’s responsibility, and he mistreats his daughter in law. And at the very end of a special chapter in Scripture, just for Judah, he is caught in his own sexual sin. So this is the Judah that we know up into this point. But all of a sudden he’s standing before his father and making this pledge, saying, I myself will ensure that he comes back, and that even more than that, he’s standing in front of Joseph, this powerful authority figure who has the ability to end his life or imprison him for the rest of his life, and he’s standing up to him for the sake of his younger brother and for the sake of his father. Well. What happened? These look like two totally different people. From the one that wants to sell. The one who abandons, the one with sinful sons mistreating of his daughter to sexual sin. But what happens at the end of the chapter where we learn all these horrible things about Judah and his character, is that in the midst of getting caught in sin? That his response was to repent. His response was to confess, and that is the only things that gives us a glimpse that there’s some type of change that may have taken place in Judah. The other thing that’s interesting to note, as well as Judah is well acquainted with the pain of losing a son. And now he stands in the way of his father potentially losing a son. So Judah tells Joseph, you see your servant, he guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. And I said, if I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you. My father, all my life he’s telling Joseph, this is the pledge I made to my dad. I have to uphold this pledge. That’s why I’m standing here. That’s why it’s not Benjamin. It has to be me. Because I made this promise. And again. And go. How? What changed took place here all of a sudden? Not only is Judah upstanding, but he’s a man of integrity. A man of his word. Again, just for a moment, to move the focus away from Judah and turn it towards our self. How good is your word? Is your. Is your word good 50% of the time? 75%. 80. 90? It’s a good most of the time.

What about when you’re pressed and someone asked you about something that maybe is a little bit uncomfortable? Are you going to be honest every time? What happens when you go in for your checkup to the dentist and they ask you that terrifying question? Have you been flossing? Do we have people that floss out there? Yeah. Some more. More than once a week. And  and what are you going to say here? The evidence. That’s right before you. You already know the answer. Or when you see those shiny lights in your rearview mirror. And the officer comes around, they ask you the question, do you know why I stopped you? Do you are you a person of your word? It makes me think back to when I was a fifth grader. And one of the more terrifying moments of my fifth grade 12 year old life. You see, I was in Cub Scouts, and there was this moment where you’re transitioning from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. Some of you, maybe you’ve walked through this yourself and are you remember this as clear as day family and friends and scoutmaster all around. And what they do there is they take your kerchief and they they put it in some of that special liquid. And what they do is do this ceremony is they’re talking about all the accolades and the things that you should have done up into this point. And before you move on to be a Boy Scout to get this arrow of light, we want to know that you’re a person of integrity, a person who’s accomplished all these things, a person who’s true and honest, and it’s going to be tried by fire. And so they take your kerchief out of this liquid, they put a kitchen lighter to it, and it’s supposed to go into flame. And if the kerchief burns up, you fail the test. But if it lights on fire and the kerchief remains, you pass. So there I am, 12 years old, watching them dip this in the water, watching my friends already having been lit on fire and essentially having an ulcer because I. You know what? I know? I know all the things they just talked about. I know they talked about their you need to be honest and a person of integrity, and you need to be all these wonderful things. And I know even at 12 years old, that’s not me. And now my mom’s here and my dad, and then there’s other people sitting around and they’re going to watch this thing light on fire, and it’s going to go up and everybody’s going to know, Ben’s a liar.

Thanks be to God. The kerchief, because of what they do, didn’t go up in flames. But that feeling, that visceral reaction. To the evidence being laid before us is, I think, something we’re all all too familiar with. And then what are you going to do? Are you going to be able to stand up under it? Or do the wheat going to crush you? Will we see Judah do again? Is he just doubles down with Joseph? And he said, now please let me remain here as my Lord. Let me be your slave. This is so key in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. Nobody else needs to stay. There is guilt here. They said it earlier in the text. There’s guilt. God has found out our guilt. That was at the silver Cup. Or is it all our sins from before? But there is guilt here. Let me bear the weight of the guilt and let them walk free. If you look at the text and you look just at chapter 44. It’s so interesting. What did you do to deserve. Now we ran through his whole rap sheet. We ran through his whole past, and he deserves some type of punishment for those things. But if you look at chapter 44, you might wonder, what did he do here? Joseph is the one pulling the strings, being some sort of maniacal puppet master, trying to trying to test, trying to do something to his brothers, trying to refine them and just find something out. But Judah, at least in this chapter, we don’t see anything other than integrity. Yet he’s willing to lay his life on the line. But again, here on an Ash Wednesday, rather than focusing solely on Jude, let me ask you this what do you deserve? How do you view yourself? All too often we just have these little simple catchphrases like I try. I’m a pretty good person. What? Not what do your neighbors not what does your spouse say? What does Scripture say about what you deserve and what I deserve?

If you go into the book of Romans, you look at chapter six. It says the wages of sin of which we all are sinners. The wages of sin is death. In chapter three, he says that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. In chapter five. In Romans it says that we were enemies of God, not just that we were weak, not just that we just needed a little bit of help. And God, just give me a little bit of a boost. You were his enemy in your sin. Ephesians chapter two says that you were dead in your trespasses. Now there is this bill of guilt and sin, and that the legal consequence of this sin in our life is sin, that we inherited from Adam, and the sin that we act out in thought, in word and deed, and even our desires. The penalty for that sin is death. That’s why we talk about Genesis 319 from dust we came to dust. We shall return that. That is a sure and certain promise that God has made, that all that now have been born are going to die. Because we are all born into sin. And then in that plight, in that place, it raises the question, what are you going to do? The verdict is in. They have the receipts. Guilty. And it’s not a slap on the wrist. It is death. But just as Judas said in his place. That is exactly what our Savior has done for us. For our sake, in our place, God the Father made Jesus, who knew no sin to be sin, so that in Jesus we might become the righteousness of God. That Jesus knew our plight, that God knew before the foundations of the world. Jesus had his eyes fixed on a cross. A cross that had your name above it. And he still said before he even laid the foundation, he said, that’s worth it for them, that I will step down from glory. I will step down from the King of eternity, and I will go, and I will not only go into the muck and the mire, but I will take it upon myself in my flesh, and I will bear not only the weight of their sin, but the penalty I will face death that they deserve. And then the scandalous thing about this grace is it’s not only that the penalty has been lifted from us, and that we are freed from that condemnation.

But even more than that, that the righteousness that Jesus has the right standing in a relationship that Jesus has with the father is freely given to you as a gift. That now, now, when God looks upon any of us that cling and trust in His Son in the finished work of Jesus, that he no longer sees the guilty verdict or the endless number of receipts from all of the countless sins that we have done and are doing and will do. But rather he sees the perfect life, death, and resurrection of His Son when he looks upon you. And so no longer the great enemy, which is death, is something that we have to fear. Death is coming, but it’s been conquered because someone has taken our place. You see that scenario I gave you at the very beginning? It’s a scenario that’s played out in more than one way. One of the ways it’s played out was back in 1941, that Francis and Maximilian, two men, were in a Nazi concentration camp. And earlier in the day, someone from the camp had escaped and the guards were not going to have it. Someone can’t escape this camp because. And we not punish everyone because the others are going to try to escape. So they decided one ran away. We are going to kill ten. And one of the names that they called was Francis. This man here. And just like the scenario I gave you in prison. Guilty. Let’s take him out and let’s kill him. Ripped from his family. And then a voice rang out. Take me instead. Maximilian, a priest who was also there in the concentration camp, offered his life for Francis. And here you can see Francis, who then lived out the rest of his days. Sharing of the sacrifice that this stranger Maximilian was willing to make for him. Sharing that good news that someone was willing to lay down their life for him. But there’s another prisoner two that comes to mind. And I believe parallels with the text that we were looking at as well, especially as we’re headed towards the cross. Because he’s through the whole passion with Jesus. There was a prisoner there in Jerusalem, a prisoner who, like you and I, unlike Benjamin, who was innocent in that story. But like you and I, we are guilty before a righteous and perfect God. There was a prisoner on that Good Friday.

Who had guards come to his cell and let him know that he got to go free, because some other man has taken his place. And his name was Barabbas. I believe if there’s anyone within the text of Scripture that we need to relate with, it is Barabbas, the guilty prisoner who deserves death. But whom Christ has come for, so that they may be set free. And Christ has come and laid down his life on account of them, so that now when we approach the father, we can approach them for Christ’s sake, that we have a restored relationship. We no longer fear death, we no longer fear the penalty of sin and the consequence of that anymore. But we now, like Francis, get to go and share the message with as many people as possible about the one, the one who came for me, the one who helped my cell door, the one who laid down his life so that I might live.

How could I not share with every breath that I have the good news of the one, the one who died for me? Amen. Let’s pray. Gracious Heavenly Father God, we thank you. We thank you for your word. And we thank you that through your Word that we can see so very clearly. God, that the verdict is in that God. All too often we fall short of your perfect will for our life, that we have been so very tainted by sin in what we do and what we say and how we interact with others and God, and how we don’t put you in our proper place. God, we know now full well that we no longer have to fear that sin, fear the penalty or fear approaching you to confess that sin because Jesus has now made right all those wrongs through his perfect sacrifice. God, we thank you for that and let us cling to that hope throughout this Lenten season. We pray this all in Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Right now, I want to invite you to stand, and we’re going to sing out this song that speaks of that, that now we have a restored relationship with our Heavenly Father through the work of Jesus, that we can now run to our Heavenly Father. So let’s sing this out together.