Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Connect with s Giftheidzig. We're glad you've tuned
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by verse teaching of His Word. And that's why we
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(00:23):
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That's Connect with Skip dot com. Now let's get into
today's teaching from pastor Skip Heitzig.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces patients. But
let patients have its perfect work. That you may be
complete and entire, lacking nothing. If any of you lack wisdom,
let him ask of God. You see, the context is

(01:04):
referring to asking God for wisdom when you're in the
midst of trials, Lord, what is this about? What are
you trying to teach me? God forbid that you wouldn't
do that, And it would be an opportunity, that is
a wasted one. Find out what God's trying to show
you and learn from it. Verse twenty four. So the

(01:28):
man brought the men. The man brought the man, that is,
the steward brought Joseph's brothers, all ten of them into
Joseph's house and gave them water, and they washed their feet,
and he gave their donkeys feed. Then they made the
present ready for Joseph's coming at noon, for they heard

(01:50):
that they would eat bread there. And when Joseph came home,
they brought him the present, which was in their hand,
into the house and bowed down before him to the earth.
That's the second time they bowed we saw last week
the first time. Again. Joseph would be thinking about those
little dreams he had when he was a little kid,

(02:10):
and one was all the sheaves were bowing down, and
the brothers said, you little whipper snapper, do you think
we're ever going to bow down to you? Well, this
is the second time they bow down to the earth.
Egyptian tombs are filled with hieroglyphics. You probably already know
that imagery, and a lot of the imagery shows people

(02:30):
bowing down common people and rulers bowing down to pharaoh.
There's even an inscription in an archaeological dig called the
Amarna Tablets from the fourteenth century BC that shows the
protocol for how to bow down to an Egyptian ruler.

(02:51):
To a pharaoh, one was to bow down seven times
facing one direction, and then seven times backwards, seven times forward,
times backward when addressing a pharaoh. That was the protocol.
Now he wasn't the pharaoh. Joseph was the prime minister,
second in command, so probably just a common courtesy bow

(03:11):
all the way down to the ground. He was royalty
after all, but fulfilling prophecy verse twenty seven. Then he
asked them about their well being. Net great, he's the ruler,
How are you guys doing? Not like, why have you come?
I am the great Oz? Just how are you? How's

(03:32):
it been going for you guys? And he said, is
your father? Well, how is the old man? Oh? He
actually says that the old man of whom you spoke
is he still alive? And they answered, your servant, our
father is in good health. He is still alive. And

(03:52):
they bowed their heads down and prostrated themselves. There it
is again. Then he lifted his eye and saw his brother,
Benji ben Yamin, son of my right hand. Jacob called
him his mother's son and said, is this your younger

(04:13):
brother of whom you spoke? And he said, God be
gracious to you, my son. See the last time Joseph
saw Benji, he was just a toddler. Now Benjamin's about
twenty three years old. Been a long time. He sees them,
he recognizes him. Benjamin was Joseph's full brother. The rest

(04:39):
of the guys were only half brothers. They were brothers
of another mother right he had. Jacob had four wives,
but Benjamin and Joseph shared the same mother and father.
They had full blood relations, and Joseph longed to see him.
It's interesting that Joseph remembered well his past. You know,

(05:02):
there's a there's a there's a saying, an ancient saying
about Egypt. The Egyptians used to say this, anyone who
comes to Egypt and drinks of the Nile River will
soon forget his native land. In other words, it's so
beautiful down here, and we've irrigated this and we've got everything.
You won't even want to go back home, not with Joseph.

(05:24):
Joseph will want to be buried back home in Canaan.
Take my bones up from here, he will say. He
remembers his brothers, he remembers his home, and he remembers
his God. He's excited to have this reunion. But as
much as he remembered his past, there's something he chose

(05:45):
to forget. Remember what that was. He chose to forget
the pain of the past, all of the emotional pain.
He didn't harbor a grudge, he didn't nurse a grudge.
He chose to forget the emotion pain that he had
gone through for twenty one years. You remember that he
called his firstborn son amnesia, right Manassa means forgetful amnesia,

(06:12):
because he said, God made me forget all of the pain,
all of the agony, all of the hardships. So he
remembered and longed for relations with his family, but he
forgot the emotional He chose to verse thirty, I love
this now. His heart yearned for his brother. King James

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version says his bowels did yearn upon his brother. Isn't
that lovely? Try that sometime when you meet somebody you
haven't seen him for a long time. My bowels have
been yearning for you all day long. No I suggest

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that you don't. But the modern equivalent of that would
be his heart went out. His heart went out to him.
He churned or burned inside, his heart went out for him.
He was moved emotionally. He yearned for his brother. So
Joseph made haste and sought somewhere to weep. And he
went into his chamber and he wept there. He said,

(07:14):
excuse me, I got an emergency phone call. I'll be
right back. He wept such a tender heart, and he
came back. He washed his face. Verse thirty one came out,
he restrained himself, and he said, serve the bread. Now
they've got to be in shocked, because the first time
they came to Joseph man, he was put off. He
was angry toward them and rough toward them. And now

(07:34):
he's saying, come on, dig in, let's have let's have
a meal, grab a bite. So they set him in
a place by himself, and them by themselves, and the
Egyptians who ate with them by themselves at three different tables.
Because it says the Egyptians could not eat food with

(07:56):
the Hebrews. You go, why is that? It says, for
that is an abomination to the Egyptians. And that's a
little historical footnote to tell you there was a caste
system in ancient Egypt. The Egyptians. It says it was
an abomination to eat with the Hebrews. Did you know
that the ancient Egyptians believed that everyone else on earth

(08:18):
who wasn't an Egyptian was a barbarian, would not even
eat a meal with anyone else. That's how they felt.
You go, well, that's sort of narrow minded. Yep. The
Greeks also said the same thing and felt the same
way a lot of people groups. See, prejudice is an old,
old issue. But there's something more. There's something more, because

(08:42):
you see, the Hebrews were shepherds. They were shepherds, and
you're going to read in chapter forty six that it
says this every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians.
And you're thinking, I still don't quite get it. Why.
Here's perhaps why I believe there had been a dynasty

(09:06):
ruling in Egypt prior to Joseph called the Hiscos dynasty.
Some of you may have read about that or heard
about hy Skos Hiscos dynasty. It was a dynasty. It
was a group of nomadic shepherds that got together, fought
against Egypt, conquered Egypt, burned a lot of the Egyptian cities,

(09:30):
ruled in power for a number of years. They had
a dynasty. They had a succession of people who ruled
called the Hisscos Kings. They were shepherd kings. It is
believed that Egypt, the Egyptians, the native population, finally overthrew
the Hisscos dynasty just prior to Joseph entering Egypt. So

(09:52):
they hated shepherds. They hated because they saw shepherds, you're
roaming around, you have no home, no stable life, sort
of mooching off other people's lands, letting your sheep eat
wherever they can find green grass and drink wherever they
can find a well. They're irresponsible, they're thieves. I have
an interesting story in Israel. There's a group called Bedwins

(10:18):
and Bedwinds have a reputation. They're people of the land.
They have flocks and they're nomadic. They travel around from
place to place. They live in tents, but they're also
known as fierce warriors, and when a bed wind goes bad,
he goes really bad. I remember one time I was
in Israel. I was living on the beach at that time,

(10:39):
sleeping down in a lot down on the beach, and
everybody warned me, you got to watch out for the bedwinds.
There's a lot of thieves around here, but the bedwind
thieves they're the worst. Okay, thanks, So we slept with
our backpack under our head or close to us, right
at our side. The next morning we woke up and

(11:02):
my friend it was a doctor. We were traveling around
Israel together. His backpack was found about fifty feet away
from where we were sleeping, and somebody in the night
saw bedwin robbers taking things from different people on the beach.
They took his knapsack, knifed it open, took the stuff, wallet, money, travelers, checks, passport, everything,

(11:25):
and then they said to us, boy, you were lucky,
because typically they'll knife you and then take your backpack.
So it's interesting that some of the nomadic group still
have that kind of a reputation by many of the
people of that land, just a personal story. I thought
about it when I read it.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we returned
to Skip's teaching, what would your life look like if
God's fingerprints were all over it? In God Print the
Life of Abraham, Pastor Skip takes you through seven powerful
messages on the faith journey of one man who learned
to trust God through crisis, fear, and uncertainty. Abraham's life

(12:05):
was shaped by God, and so can yours be. The
God Print seven message series is our thank you for
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So request your CD package or digital download of God

(12:27):
Print the Life of Abraham when you give a connect
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and nine two two eighteen eighty eight. Now let's get
back to today's teaching with Pastor Skip.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Verse thirty three. They sat before him, the firstborn according
to his birthright, the youngest according to his youth. And
the men looked in astonishment at one another. Then he
took servings to them from before. But Benjamin serving was
five times as much as any of theirs. You gotta

(13:04):
love that. What are they doing? What is Joseph doing?
Testing them the test of jealousy? They passed the test
of sincerity. This is the test of jealousy. They were
so jealous of him with that really cool robe that
he had twenty one years ago. What will they think
if I show favor to the youngest, the favorite son

(13:26):
now of their father. That was the test, and so
they drank and they were merry with him. Okay. The
first thing to notice is that Joseph arranged them in
perfect chronological order, according to their birth order. That's why
they looked at astonishment and one another like, how did

(13:48):
he know? How could he know exactly? You know, when
you get to an agent. They were very similar, many
of them in age, in perfect birth order. Little red
light thing should go off? Hm, They looked with astonishment. Okay.
Then he gave Benjamin five times as that wasn't unusual.

(14:11):
Guests of honor were typically given a larger portion. Did
you know that the ancient Spartans would give double the
portion to a guest of honor. The ancient Cretans used
to give guests of honor four times the normal servant
four times that. When I read that, I laughed, because,
if you remember, Paul wrote to Titus and says, you know,

(14:33):
Cretans are evil beasts and lazy gluttons, wherefore rebuke them sharply.
They just like to eat all day long. Well, Joseph,
the ruler of Egypt, outdid them and gave five times
the amount, five times the amount. It was a test.
Let's see how they do with it, how they pass it.

(14:56):
It says they drank and they were merry with him.
Because Joseph is taking a liking to Benjamin. It's a
good sign. Yeah, we're gonna make We're gonna get through
this unscathed. They're just so happy. Now they're having a party,
they're having a meal. Well, their merriment will soon turn
into misery because there's still another test. They passed the

(15:18):
first one, they passed the second one. The third test
is the test of charity. How much do they really
love that boy? And how much do they really love
their father? So now we get to chapter forty four,
and we have ten minutes to cover part of it.
Here's the third division, from a predicament in Canaan to

(15:39):
a party in Egypt, to now penitence or repentance in
the heart of these men. And he commanded the steward
of his house, saying, fill the men's sacks with food,
take as much as they can carry. Now watch this,
and put each man's money in the mouth of the sack.
It's a rerun. Take two. Put my cup, the silver cup,

(16:02):
in the mouth of the sack of the youngest Benjamin
and his grain money. So they did according to the
word that Joseph had spoken. Now that cup is a
prop It's part of the test, the test of love,
the test of charity. It's a prop Most ancient cups
were clay. If you had a silver goblet, you were
somebody special. He did, he was prime minister. As soon

(16:26):
as the morning dawned, the men were sent away and
their donkeys. When they had gone out of the city
and were not far off, Joseph said to the stewart,
get up, follow them in. When you overtake them, say
why have you repaid evil for good? Is not this
the one from which my lord drinks, and which he
indeed practices divination, you have done evil and so doing so,

(16:50):
he overtook them, and he spoke to them these same words,
And they said to him, why does my lord say
these words? Far be it from us that your servants
should do such a thing. Look, we brought back to
you from the land of Canaan, the money which we
found in the mouth of our sacks. How then could
we steal silver or gold from your lord's house. And

(17:14):
it's true, they didn't steal it. They don't know what's up. Now,
listen to this foolish with whomver of your servants it
has found. Let him die. Gosh, they like to say that,
and we also will be my lord's slaves. Remember that
scripture in James. Let every man be slow to speak,

(17:41):
slow to wrath, quick to listen, Think before you speak,
don't make a promise, go slow on the promises they
were quick to speak. In Proverbs, it tells us death
and life are in the power of the tongue. Or

(18:02):
as I like to say, a closed mouth gathers no feet.
You don't want to say something, and just put your
foot in your mouth. Let him die, and we'll all
be your slaves. Really, And he said, now also let
it be according to your words. He with whom it

(18:23):
has found shall be my slave, and you shall be blameless.
Then each man speedily let down a sack to the ground,
and they opened each sack. So he searched. Now watched this.
He began with the oldest and left off with the youngest,
again in perfect chronological birth order. And the cop was
found in Benjamin's sack. Started with the oldest, went to

(18:48):
the next and the next. Why to heighten the tension.
It adds to the tension. Go through one sack, nothing here,
Go through the next guy, nothing here, next guy. Pretty
soon they're kind of looking at each other like see,
but I tell you you see this is stupid. You
don't have to look at our sacks. We're clean. Let
it go, and the getting more relieved and more relieved,

(19:09):
until they get to the last sack and it says
the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Wow, why did
Joseph do that? He wants to see their reaction of
having another brother as a slave down in Egypt. That's

(19:34):
what they did the first time they sold them to
the Ishmaelites. Joseph is a slave. Okay, I'm gonna do
this with this child. He's going to be a slave
in Egypt. Have you changed from twenty one years ago?
How do you feel about that? Where you go? Cool?
Let us go see ya. We'll make up a stupid story.
We'll run to daddy and say, yeah, it's really weird,
but a beast got him too. All part of a test.

(20:00):
Verse thirteen indicates they're passing the tests. So they tore
their clothes. Each man loaded his donkey and returned to
the city. This is the first sign that they had changed.
For you see, to tear one's clothes is a sign
of deep remorse and regret. When Jacob had heard that

(20:21):
Joseph had been torn by beasts, he tore his clothes.
When Job heard that his children were killed by the Sabians,
he tore his robe. Still in Israel today, I have
a good friend who's an Orthodox Jew and his dad
died and he heard about it. He took a shirt
and he tore it. It's a symbol of respect, it's
a symbol of grief, and it's a sign that these

(20:42):
guys are changing. So Judah and his brothers came to
Joseph's house and he was still there, and they fell
before him on the ground again, bowing to him. Joseph
said to them, what deed is this you have done?
Know that such a man as I can certainly practice divination.

(21:08):
I think I need to explain that. In certain cultures,
ancient cultures, there was a practice called hydromancy. Hydromancy was
the prediction of the future using fluid inside a cup.
Just like in some Oriental cultures, they'll look at tea
leaves on the bottom and dell see the pattern of

(21:29):
the tea leaves and read the leaves. In some ancient cultures,
like the Greeks, they would take melted wax and pour
it into water in a cup, and the patterns would
be read interpreted by the viewer, and he would predict
the future. In Egyptian cups, in the inside there were engravings,
magical inscriptions. Some of the gods were depicted, and the

(21:51):
light would reflect off of the image and onto the fluid,
and they would read the dancing patterns on the fluid. Now,
there is no ripture that tells us that Joseph ever
practiced that himself. There's never an indication or an experiences
as Joseph did that. He is simply asking them a question. Saying,

(22:14):
did you not know that such a man as I
can certainly practice divination? I don't think he did. First
of all, he didn't need to. The guy was a prophet,
He could read dreams, he could interpret dreams, he could
tell what God was going to do in the future
by a supernatural gift. He didn't need to fall back
on that, and there's no indication that he did. Then

(22:35):
Judas said, what shall we say to my Lord? What
shall we speak? How shall we clear ourselves? God has
found out the iniquity of your servants. Here we are
my Lord, my Lord's slaves, both we and he also
with whom the cup was found. No excuses, no story,

(23:00):
no attempted cover up of what happened two years ago.
What he's saying is, you know what, We're busted, and
this is payback time. God's paying us back big time
from what happened twenty one years ago. You see, Judah
wasn't going to abandon Benjamin like he abandoned Joseph. Judah,

(23:24):
as I mentioned, has changed. But he said he said,
Joseph said, far be it from me that I should
do so. The man in whom the cup was found,
he shall be my slave, as for you go in
peace to your father. Yeah, right, like that's ever going
to happen, right? Can you imagine them going back without Benjamin?

(23:47):
Hey Dad, I hate to tell you this, but he's
a slave. They're not going back, right. They've been there,
done that. They're not going back. They're not going to
abandon him now. Verse eighteen to the rest of the
chapter is one of the most heartwarming, touching intercessory speeches

(24:11):
in all of literature. In fact, Sir Walter Scott, the
great Scottish poet and novelist, said that in all of literature,
this section is one of the most beautiful examples of
natural eloquence to be found anywhere. As Judas says to
Pharaoh the words that he says coming clean in total

(24:32):
repentance and lays it all out. But unfortunately we're going
to have to wait till next week to read it
because the time is up.

Speaker 1 (24:43):
Thanks for listening to connect with skip Heitzig before you go,
don't forget to request this month's resource, God Print The
Life of Abraham. This powerful seven message study from skip
Heitzig shows how God's presence shaped one man's life and
how he can shape yours. It's our thanks for your
generous gift of fifty dollars or more. To support this ministry,

(25:06):
call eight hundred ninety two two eighteen eighty eight. That's
eight hundred ninety two to two eighteen eighty eight, Or
visit connectwiskift dot com slash donate and while you're there,
sign up for Skipp's weekly devotional email to grow deeper
in your walk with Christ. Come back next time for
more verse by verse teaching of God's Word. Here unconnect

(25:27):
with Skip Heidsick, Make Next, make a connects of the Cross.

Speaker 2 (25:40):
Song, Makes Next.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
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