Willow Ridge Sermons

January 12th, 2025 • "And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother’s son, and said, 'Is this your youngest brother, of whom you spoke to me? God be gracious to you, my son!' Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother, and he sought a place to weep. And he entered his chamber and wept there." — Genesis 43:29–30

This week's message explores the emotional and spiritual journey of Joseph and his brothers during their reunion in Egypt. We'll look at the themes of necessity, desperation, and divine provision as outlined in Genesis 43. Through Joseph's compassionate actions, we see a reflection of Christ's character as a provider, server, and blesser. Join us as we examine these powerful moments of reconciliation, trust, and the transformative work of God in the hearts of His people.

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Creators and Guests

Host

Beau Bradberry

Senior Pastor

What is Willow Ridge Sermons?

Sermon audio from Sunday services at Willow Ridge Church.

Welcome to the Willow Ridge Sermons podcast.

We're so glad you chose to listen today.

This week's message explores the emotional and spiritual journey of Joseph and his brothers

during their reunion in Egypt.

We'll look at the themes of necessity, desperation, and divine provision as outlined in Genesis

43.

Through Joseph's compassionate actions, we see a reflection of Christ's character as

a provider, server, and blesser.

Join us as we examine these powerful moments of reconciliation, trust, and the transformative

work of God in the hearts of his people.

Thanks for listening.

Well, good morning.

If you got your Bibles, and I hope you do, I want to invite you to join me in Genesis

chapter 43.

It was a great morning.

I'm in our studies today.

I had a wonderful time.

I'm in here.

We're working through a study of angels, demons, and Satan here in the auditorium at 9 a.m.

I know there's other studies happening.

One's in 104.

Other ones are over in building, too.

And so if you're one of our adults, we want to encourage you to come and to be a part of

those.

Just a wonderful time that we can be together.

But then also, you know, just our kids' ministry back in this morning, our student ministry back

in this morning to meet at 9 a.m.

Just a wonderful, wonderful time.

So we want to invite you all.

Hey, it's the new year.

We're building some new practices and some new disciplines into our life and want to encourage

you to come and to be a part of that.

Just a wonderful opportunity for us to do this together.

If you are a first-time guest, at the end of the service, my wife and I will be back here

to my left at the very back at that black table back there.

And if you're a first-time guest, if you wouldn't mind, just a couple minutes, just stop by

there.

We would love to just meet you.

We would love to learn your name.

And thank you for being here and for worshiping with us.

And if there is any questions that you have about our church, about our ministry, about

our outreach, our strategy, our missions, whatever it is that you have questions about, it's

a wonderful place to get those answered.

But we would love to have you with us.

We're grateful to have you with us this morning.

So we're going to get started in our time of studying God's word together.

And by doing so, I want to read one of our verses, or two of our verses this morning from

Genesis 43, starting verse 29, it says, and he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother

Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke of?

God be gracious to you, my son.

Then Joseph hurried out, for his compassion grew warm for his brother.

And he sought a place to weep.

And he entered his chamber and wept there.

Would you pray with me?

God, we thank you for the wonderful beauty and the truth of your word.

God, we thank you that we could gather together earlier this morning.

God, I pray this morning that as we look at Genesis 43, or as we continue to look at the battle and

the famine, God, that we would see very clearly and evidently the work of your hand.

And God, we would praise you for it.

God, thank you for the joy and the beauty of what it means for me to be able to pastor

this church.

God, as I share this morning from your word, God, would there be less of me and there be

more of you.

And it's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Well, last week, we've been working through Genesis.

In fact, I was working on some of my spring teaching calendar this week.

And if you're curious, we've been almost in Genesis for roughly two years.

I think in total, that's like 56 messages so far that we've worked through, which means

we've been taking some breaks.

But I do.

Berger and I were talking.

I think February 16th, actually, we'll kind of wrap up our time in Genesis.

And then I believe we're going to be jumping into Titus at that point.

So it'd be a good opportunity for us to do that.

But we've been working through this and we're seeing the work in the hand of God moving in

and particularly building on from last week in Genesis 40, at the end of 41, actually, and

then end of 42, we see that the reality of where we find ourselves is that a famine has

hit, a worldwide famine has come.

And with that, it brings all the death and the destruction and the desperation of what

we would think of when we think of a famine.

And this famine didn't just affect a village.

It didn't affect a country.

It didn't affect a region.

That God's word is very clear that it affected the entire world.

And that's the point, that's the bottom, that's the valley that we find ourselves in in Scripture

during this time.

And we ask the question in your life and in mine, what happens when earthly optimism, as

limited as that is, and earthly realities collide?

Like what happens with us then?

And what do you and I need to do as we walk through the famines of this world, as we walk

through the difficulties of this world, as we walk through the struggles of this world, how

in the world do we gain a heavenly perspective in these moments?

And we're seeing from the life of this family, this family that we've been journeying with

for a very long time, all the way back to old Grandpa Abraham, we're seeing the faithfulness

in the hands of God.

So for you and I, what do we do, what do we desire when God allows, ordains, sends famine

our way?

And what we came to last week, what we'll be pushing forward this week is continuing on to

trust that God is both working in and working through the famine, whatever that famine looks

like, medical, financial, relational, emotional, whatever famine that you find yourselves in,

that when as followers of Jesus Christ, that we can trust that God is both working in and

working through the difficulty that we find ourselves in.

And I think what we're going to see here specifically in chapter 43 is some specific examples of

how God can choose to work in these times, to give us a hope to piece these together of some

examples within this family, within this circumstance, within this family that I think that we can apply

to our life and our walk of where we find ourselves.

So the story as we look through Genesis, Genesis is built around in a lot of ways as Genesis continues

to be the story of God and His revelation of mankind for who He is and His desire and His will for our

lives.

But we see these individuals that it's themed around during that time.

And we found ourselves now that we're with Joseph.

We're with Joseph.

So just a quick little recap, not as much as last week, but if you weren't here with us,

I want to kind of bring you up to speed that almost 20 years ago in the historical timeline

of Scripture with where we find ourselves in thousands of years earlier, but in the story

of Scripture 20 years ago, Joseph's brothers sell him into slavery, sell him into slavery,

tell daddy's dead.

Right?

Like the epitome of the dysfunctional family.

And this is what we find here.

And being sold into slavery, if that wasn't enough, Joseph goes through some of the most difficult

years of his life.

But what we find is that through that, what is reassuring to us, what reminder and brings hope

to us is that through all of the difficulty, God is faithful to him.

And Joseph, and Joseph, while not perfect, is faithful to God.

So we see this man who's taken from his home, who's betrayed by his family, who's sold into

slavery, whose dad thinks that he's dead, has now found himself through the hand and the

work and the move of God, not through, I do not believe in coincidence, but through the

purposes and plans of God, finds himself, once a slave, once imprisoned, now finds himself

as the second in charge in Egypt.

He's responsible for the finances, he's responsible for the food, for the agriculture.

And so we find ourselves, there's a famine.

There's a famine.

And the beauty of the story is Joseph is not in panic because there is a famine, but Joseph

is in confidence of the plan of God because God had Joseph prepared for this.

Season, in this time, and so there's food stored up in Egypt, and so people come there who

need to buy food, and they must buy it from Joseph.

And so what we found in Genesis, the end of 41, is that when the famine comes, and remember,

it's a worldwide famine, and so it affects Joseph's family.

It says Joseph's dad, Jacob, also known as Israel, sends his other sons to Egypt to buy grain.

And so they unknowingly find themselves standing before their brother Joseph.

And Joseph, instead of bringing a death sentence, instead extends life, extends blessing, extends

favors, favor to his brothers, and sends them back home with grain, but with the expectation

that they will return, and that when they return, that they will bring their younger brother,

Benjamin, with them.

And so, starting in chapter 43, we'll pick up in verse 1.

Now, the famine was severe in the land, so it's continued on.

And when they, this is Joseph's family, had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt,

their father said to them, go again and buy us a little food.

But Judah said to him, the man, now he's speaking about Joseph, remember, but he does not know

that this is Joseph.

The man solemnly warned us, saying, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with

you.

If you will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy you food.

But if you will not send him, we will not go down.

For the man said to us, you shall not see my face unless your brother is with you.

Now, Israel said, why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?

They replied, the man questioned us carefully about ourselves and our kindred, saying, is your

father still alive?

Do you have another brother?

And what we told him was in answer to these questions.

Could we in any way know that he would say, bring your brother down?

And Judah said to Israel, his father, send the boy with me and we will arise and go that

we may live and not die, both we and you and also our little ones.

I will be a pledge of his safety.

From my hand, you shall require him.

And if I do not bring him back to you and set him before you, then let me bear the blame

forever.

If we had not delayed, we would not have returned twice.

Then their father, Israel, said to them, if it must be so, then do this.

Take some of the choice fruits of the land in your bags and carry a present down to the

man, a little balm and a little honey and gum and myrrh, pustachio nuts and almonds.

Take double the money with you, carry back with you the money that was returned in the mouth

of your sacks.

Perhaps it was an oversight.

Take also your brother and arise and go to the man.

May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man.

And may he send back your brother and Benjamin and ask for me if I'm bereaved of my children.

I am bereaved.

So we see this interaction, this reality of what takes place in the beginning of chapter

43 where the famine has continued.

And we see this family who had grain and now they do not.

And again, you and I have talked about, like, we understand the depth of the famine.

I mean, imagine that the pantry is bare, that the cupboard is bare, that the grocery store

is bare.

We had the winter storm that kind of came through, and I enjoyed snow for about 20 minutes.

And not in preparation for a Hoth-leveled blizzard, that's a Star Wars reference, right?

But because my wife wanted to cook chicken stew, and that's one of my favorite meals that she

fixed during the middle of all of that, I decided that it was a good idea to go to Publix to buy

the chicken, and I watched the desperation of the people piling in and piling in and piling

in and piling in, and bread and milk were flying off the shelves just as fast as they could.

Right?

You and I, we don't understand the level of famine.

We oftentimes have the understanding of being inconvenienced, but we see here the desperation

of the famine of what's there.

And if you've walked through, we were talking about this earlier this morning after my study

was over with, what it's like to walk through a season like this.

That while you're in it, you're wondering, Lord, like, why is this happening to me?

I don't know if you've ever asked that question.

I know that I've asked it.

And I'm sure if you're being honest with yourself, that you would agree with me that you've walked

through a time, a season, a circumstance, a famine of your life, and you have asked the

question, God, why is this happening to me?

And it seems like everything is building.

It doesn't just seem like there's one issue, but there's issue after issue after issue after

issue.

And the snowball of destruction is headed right toward you, and there's nothing that you can

do.

And I think in these first 14 verses, that's what we find in Jacob.

That's what we find in Israel.

And so what I want us to see, what God is doing here, is when God creates necessity and desperation.

When God, in your life and mine, creates within us the beauty of necessity and desperation.

Jacob Israel is at rock bottom.

This is hard on our end to understand in this context, but easier on our end to understand

in our context.

We've walked through this.

We've seen this.

We've experienced it.

We know what rock bottom feels like, and this is where this man finds himself.

But we know his story.

We know what he's gone through.

We know what he's experienced.

We know that this is a man of faith.

This is not a pagan man.

This is not a heretic.

This is a man who loves God, who desires to follow him.

He's seen the work and the hand of God move.

Jacob knows that he's blessed by God, promised by God, saved by God, forgiven by God.

In fact, what we see in these last several verses of the scripture, he says, listen, listen,

I kind of know what it's like to deal with someone who's kind of upset with you or they're

questionable with you of what they may do.

Because remember about Jacob with Esau?

Remember what he did at the very first with Esau?

He's like, hey, hey, let's send some gifts to Esau.

And then when Jacob finally encountered his brother Esau, that God had worked and moved

in that situation, and they were restored for a time right there.

And so he says, listen, you're going to this man in a foreign land, and here's what we need

to do.

And he loads them down with what they have left.

And he says, go and take this.

We know that God has worked and moved in the life of Jacob.

But God's not done with Jacob.

And you know that God's worked and moved in your life.

But the beauty of what God creates in famines that we walk through is God saying, but I'm not

done with you yet.

This may be what I taught you, but here's what I'm teaching you.

And this may be what I'm teaching you, but this is what I will teach you.

This may be what I've done in you, but this is what I'm doing in you.

And this is what I'm doing in you, but this is what I will do in you.

And oftentimes for God, what God has to bring us to the point that in our life, that God

has to bring us to a point of necessity and desperation in our life.

And this is what he does in the life of Jacob.

God's going to use a famine.

God's going to use the potential loss of a son.

God's going to use, in Jacob's perspective, right, the past loss of a son to work and move

in the life of Jacob.

But look at where Jacob finds himself.

Look at where Jacob finds himself.

Verse 2, and when they had eaten the grain that they had brought from Egypt, their father

said to them, go again, buy us a little food.

Bring him to the point of the desperation of necessity.

God had to paint a picture that was clear and evident before him and brought it in famine.

He brought it in the loss of, the potential loss of a brother.

Look at verse 6.

Why did you treat me?

This is what he says to his sons.

The sons that have brought him food.

The sons who have said he promises more if we just return with Benjamin.

Why did you treat me so badly as to tell the man that you had another brother?

Not why did you treat Benjamin so badly.

Not praise the Lord.

We get more food.

You just got to bring your brother with you.

But we see the reality of Jacob's heart.

Look at verse 14.

May God Almighty grant you mercy before the man, and may he send back your other brother and Benjamin.

May he send him back.

You see, there's another brother that's in prison.

May he send him back.

May he send back the food that will be sustained.

May God Almighty work and move.

May God Almighty protect Benjamin, not even recognizing what God's going to be doing in his life and in the life of Joseph.

But he doesn't end there.

He doesn't.

It's this point where, in my Bible and yours, there's this period that's there.

It's this part where we see in the praise of God, in the confidence of God.

But then in the weakness, in the limitation of man.

But as for me, as for me, I am bereaved.

I am mourning.

I am at loss.

The lack of joy that is there for me.

And the purpose of famine shows in our life necessity.

Of what we need.

And the desperation for what God needs to do.

With the season of famine that you find yourself in.

The question is, have you humbled yourself?

We look back last week.

Have you humbled yourself to see your necessity?

Of what you need?

And have you humbled yourself?

And become desperate?

Not just that your circumstance will change.

But of the evidence of the work and the move of God himself.

When we, as followers of Jesus, hit necessity.

When we, as followers of Jesus, hit desperation.

What we find in that, the beauty of that, is dependence on Jesus.

The dependence on him.

This is the necessity of my life.

God, of where you brought me.

God, this is the desperation for where I find myself.

And in this and in this alone.

God, I can do nothing else but be dependent on you.

Dependence is the key to faithfulness.

I've heard this statement before.

You know, Jesus, he's just a phone call away.

And I disagree with that.

This isn't implying that in the walk with Christ that you have,

it's that he's far from you.

That he's away.

But that the very presence of God,

and that's why Paul says in 1 Thessalonians,

that you and I, the beauty in the relationship we have with our creator,

the beauty that we have with our savior,

is that he's right there.

And that's why he says pray, pray without ceasing.

Pray without ceasing.

So where you find yourself in these moments,

is there this desperation that's there for God?

And maybe, maybe during your famine,

what God's trying to bring you to is a point of desperation for him.

Let's keep reading verse 15.

So the men took this present,

and they took double the money with them and Benjamin.

And they arose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.

And when Joseph saw Benjamin with them,

he said to the steward of his house,

bring the men into the house

and slaughter an animal and make ready,

for the men are to dine with me at noon.

And the man did as Joseph told him

and brought the men to Joseph's house.

And the men were afraid

because they were brought to Joseph's house.

And they said,

it is because of the money which was replaced in our sacks

the first time that we are brought in

so that he may assault us and fall upon us

to make us servants and seize our donkeys.

Like, this just escalated quickly for them, right?

So they went up to the steward of Joseph's house

and spoke with him at the door of the house

and said,

And when we came to the lodging place,

we opened our sacks

and there was each man's money in the mouth of his sack

and our money in full weight.

So we have brought it again with us

and we have brought other money down with us to buy food.

We do not know who put our money in our sacks.

And he replied,

Peace to you.

Do not be afraid.

Your God and the God of your father

has put treasure in your sacks for you.

I received your money.

Then he brought Simeon,

this is the other brother,

out to them.

And when the man had brought the men into Joseph's house

and given them water

and they washed their feet

and we'd given their donkeys fodder,

they prepared the present for Joseph's coming at noon

for they heard that they should eat bread there.

When Joseph came home,

they brought into the house to him

the present they had with them

and bowed down to him to the ground.

The fulfillment of the dream that God had given Joseph.

Verse 27,

And he required about their welfare and said,

Is your father well?

The old man of whom you spoke.

Is he still alive?

And they said,

Your servant, our father, is well.

He is alive still.

And they bowed their hands and prostrated themselves.

And he lifted up his eyes

and saw his brother Benjamin,

his mother's son,

and said,

Is this your youngest brother of whom you spoke to me?

God, be gracious to you, my son.

Then Joseph hurried out for his compassion,

grew warm for his brother,

and saw a place to weep.

And he entered his chamber and wept there.

Then he washed his face and came out.

And controlling himself,

he said,

Serve the food.

Let's pause here for just a few minutes.

What God does

in his graciousness and his kindness

is he brings times of famine,

times of desperation

to us in our life

so that I believe this,

that we can clearly see

who Jesus is.

when I got saved,

there were illusions

of my life that I believed.

There were things that I thought were reality,

but they were illusions.

There were things that I thought were truths,

but they were lies.

And as I look back on the events

leading up to the day

that God and his goodness

and his kindness

revealed himself to me

and I put my faith and hope

and trust in him,

what I see

is a very painful

three-day journey

for me

and my life

for those around me

where when we look

in the moment

and what we saw

was death,

lies,

and destruction.

You see,

I had convinced myself

in spite of all that was going on

around me

that I was fine,

that I was good,

and what God needed to do

in my life

was bring me

to the rock-bottom point

so that God could not only

just reveal

who he is,

but that God could reveal

to me

who I am

in light of who he is.

And that's what we see.

You've got the journey

of these brothers

and what their life

has been consumed with

is lie after lie

after lie

for 20 years

living in the lie

that their dad thinks

that their brother Joseph

is dead

and they had nothing

to do with it

when it's the sinfulness

of their life

that brought them

to this point.

And what God is doing

in this,

what God is doing

in the famine,

what God is doing

in this moment

of what I believe,

of what we see

in these 16 verses

of what we find

in Genesis chapter 43

is he's going to use

Joseph in a particular way

for us to see

in this moment

and I believe

the brothers

could look back

on this

and see in their life

that in this,

in this interaction

of welcoming them

into their home,

we see a glimpse

of who Jesus is.

And it's the reminder

for you

and for me

that it does not matter

the journey

that we've sinfully

taken ourselves down

that there's the hospitality

of Christ

waiting for you

and waiting for me.

So let's look,

seeing Jesus

in Joseph.

Seeing Jesus

in Joseph.

who are these?

In the standard

of the Egyptian

nobility

and government

and power scheme

and those

of influence,

these men are nothing.

but Joseph

is going to work

in a type of grace

that is unheard of.

Just like Jesus,

Joseph is welcoming.

He looks at his servant

and he says,

bring them in.

Bring them in.

And here's what

I want to tell you

this morning

that in Christ

it does not matter

what you've done.

It does not matter

what you are doing.

It does not matter

what you are capable of.

It doesn't matter

what you have given

yourself over to.

But in the beauty

and the hope

and the gospel of Christ

it doesn't say

that you have to be good

to come to him

but it says

the opposite of that.

It says in spite

of your badness,

in spite of your wickedness,

in spite of your evil,

in spite of your sinfulness

that he is fully good.

And that he tells us

that he's welcoming us in.

Not welcoming us

to be guests

for a meal

but welcoming us

to be sons and daughters

of the living God.

That he is welcoming.

It shows that he is relational.

He says bring them

into my house

and then specifically

welcome them in.

You're going to put them

at my table.

You're going to bring them

before me.

You're going to welcome them

beyond all that they have

and you're going to bring them

into the most intimate

time that I can have

with them together

and what I'm going to do

is I'm going to form

a relationship with them.

And the beauty

of what we find

in Jesus Christ

is that's what he invites you to.

That he's not a God

that we just come

to a building to worship

but he is a God

who is with us.

That he is a God

who we speak to.

That he is a God

that we interact with.

That he is a God

who is relationally

connected with us.

We see that he's a provider.

He gave them

what they needed.

He gave them

what they needed.

What did they need?

They needed a meal.

That he's the provider

that in that moment

Joseph says

they've been traveling.

They've been on this journey.

They're bringing gifts

of all of these things.

They're coming in a land

of famine

and when there is nothing

and when they get there

in the desperation

for what they have

and he says

I'm going to be your provider.

And the beauty

about a relationship

with God

is no matter

where you find yourself

is that Jesus

is always there

to be faithful

to those

who give you

what you need.

To give you

what you need.

To provide for you

and to ultimately

provide for you

the freedom

for your sin.

The forgiveness

of the desperation

of the evil

of your life.

And he provides.

We found that he's

a blesser.

That he's a blesser.

That we see over here

again that Joseph

was like no, no, no, no.

Like you didn't just

forget

but I blessed you

and I gave you

beyond what you needed.

That God's word

tells us

that God

desires

to bless

you and I

and that in the goodness

of who he is

that he doesn't

just bless us

with what we need

but he blesses us

what he determines

that we need

so that we can grow

in him.

So that everything

everything

is a blessing

from God.

It says

that he

served them.

That Joseph

served them.

It says

that they

walked into

his house

and as custom

he had them

wash themselves.

Had to wash

themselves.

They washed

their feet

and they washed

their hands

and they prepared

for the feast

that was before

them.

When we

think to the

gospels

and we think

about Jesus

in the upper

room

the Bible

tells us

that

while he

awaited

for the time

of the trail

he took off

his cloak

and he laid

it down

and he put

on a towel

the marking

of a servant

and he went

around

for everyone

who was in

the room

and he

washed

their feet

and Peter

wanted to

argue

Peter

wanted to

say I

should be

doing this

for you

and he

said unless

the son

of man

washes you

and makes

you clean

you can

have no

part of

him

and he

served

him

and he

desires to

serve you

and me

he's not

putting on

a towel

and washing

our feet

but he

got up

on a cross

and he

spilled his

blood

and through

the work

and the

power of

his blood

he serves

and washes

and makes

us clean

makes us

white as

snow

and he's

compassionate

he is

compassionate

he wept

one of the

number one

things that

I hear

from two

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