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Psalm 105:1-45

“O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: when they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; he suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm. Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom. Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts. He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number, and did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of the ground. He smote all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them. He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give them light in the night. The people asked, and he brought forth quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river. For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant. And he brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness: and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD.”

Introduction

“We are in Psalm 105, ah 105 and 106 then ends the fourth book here, the 4^th Book of Psalms, Psalms is divided into five separate books. Psalm 105 is a song of praise, and it’s a song of praise to the LORD, and what the LORD has done in regards to Israel. Psalm 106 is a song of how Israel responds to God, it’s not a chipper as this Psalm, it’s not as positive. This Psalm gives you a picture of God in his sovereignty and his grace, dealing with his people. Psalm 106 gives you a picture of how God’s people responded to all of his blessing and his sovereignty and his providence, which is not as pleasant a picture as Psalm 105. Scholars argue about when or how this was written, probably after the Babylonian Captivity. But if we, let’s read the first fifteen verses quickly. It says, “O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore. Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen. He is the LORD our God: his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac; and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant: saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance: when they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it. When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people; he suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” (verses 1-15) Now, we know that at least that much of the Psalm, in fact, was not written after the Babylonian Captivity, because David, in his attempt to bring the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem from Kiriath-jearim, the whole process that he went through there, it had been at Kiriath-jearim since it was taken by the Philistines, during the wars with Israel and afterwards, it was in the temple of Dagon and so forth, the Philistines were smitten with emerods (King James, you don’t want those), emerods and boils and all of these plagues, and they kept trying to be friendly, moving it to the next Philistine city, ‘Here, why don’t you guys have it for awhile,’ finally the five cities of the Philistines had had it, they put it on a cart and they loaded it up, and they drove it to Beth-shemish, and there at Beth-shemish they looked in it, and men were smitten, and then they moved it to Kiriath-jearim, where it had been for 80 to 100 years. And David now has united the kingdom [of Israel], he’s ruling in Jerusalem, and he’s decided he wants to bring the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem, where he has made a new Tabernacle, which will be temporary until the Temple is constructed. And David then sends to get the Ark from Kiriath-jearim, and it says when they wanted to bring it up, now what he wants is the presence of the LORD, he knows that Yahweh, the God of Israel, and he made it known himself, dwells between the wings of the cherubim, his presence, over the Ark of the Covenant, the Mercy Seat, where the blood was poured out once a year, that God’s presence was above it there. Now God can’t fit into the universe, he laid out the universe with the span of his hand, Solomon would say there’s no building that could be made where God can be. But he made a place where his presence would be noticed and realized, that place was a place where there was the shedding of blood, it was a prescribed means of worship, there was a place for man’s sake, not for God’s sake, and there was order to the worship. David wanted that, he wanted revival, he wanted the presence of God. And it’s a good thing. So David sends to Kiriath-jearim, and the whole city is excited, everybody’s watching on the walls, he’s got the musicians, he’s got thousands of people in the process, and then they go and get the Ark of the Covenant, and they throw it on a cart, which is how the Philistines had moved it to Beth-Shemesh. And as they start to bring up the Ark of the Covenant on the cart, it gets to a certain place, and it shakes, the oxen stumble, and Uzziah, interesting, his name means “strength,” put forth his hand to steady it, and God struck him dead there. And David then was angry, it says, and he was perturbed. You can imagine there. And he moved he Ark aside then, and into the house of Obed-Edom, which is one of the priests. And you can imagine everybody coming back to Jerusalem that day, everybody’s like, on the wall yea! and people coming back are like ‘Sshhh!, here comes the king, he comes over, he’s bummed out, just this solemn assembly back into the city. And David then has to sit there, and think. And he finally hears the rumour, ‘The house of Obed-Edom has been blessed, because of the presence of the LORD.’ Obed-Edom, a servant, red or ruddy, it tells us when David was a boy, he was a ruddy servant, and he had killed a bear, he had killed a lion. No doubt, David begins to think, ‘No, God hasn’t changed, God still blesses. The problem has to be elsewhere.’ And then what he does, is he finds in the Law that the Ark wasn’t to be put on a cart, the Ark was to be carried, and it had staves, and the priests were to carry it, put it on their shoulders. And it’s almost like God says, we look at today, people want the presence of the Lord, people want revival, and they’re trying to throw it on the cart, like worldly people do, ‘Let’s make this happen, let’s make that happen, let’s do this, let’s get light-shows, let’s get smoke machines, let’s get Rock’n Roll, let’s get the smazzy, the cool, the slick, the edgy, let’s say a few Christian cuss-words from the pulpit,’ and you’re trying to do all this stuff, you know, to get the crowds, to get the people, and God says ‘Look, you can build a tabernacle, you can have the finances, you can make a building, you can do all this stuff, but I’m not going to be drug on a cart, and I’m not gonna be pushed, I’m going to be carried.’ There’s one thing, God will take every other burden. You know, they carried that Ark through the wilderness 40 years, and nobody ever stumbled. He’ll superintend everything else in his providence, but the one thing he won’t remove from us is that place where blood is shed, that’s something we’re to carry as individuals, we can never put that down, that he died for us. That part of the personal relationship is ours to carry, it’s never to be drug on a cart, it’s not part of a program, it’s not part of a religious system, it’s not part of a denomination, it’s just never going to happen. And David all of a sudden must have been sitting there and remembering [light dawns over Marblehead], and he read in the Law, in Chronicles tells us the light went on, and he must have gone ‘Yeeehaaa!’ and he gathered everybody back again, and they were kind of arguing and said, ‘I don’t want to be the next guy to get fried,’ and he said, ‘No, no, I know what I’m doing,’ and they went all out there again, and they got the Ark of the Covenant from the house of Obed-Edom, and it says every three or five paces, they stopped and sacrificed, just to make sure. And they brought the whole thing up to Jerusalem, and then there was great rejoicing, and it tells us in 1^st Chronicles 16, that was a long journey to get to the beginning of Psalm 105, but be patient, so it says, ‘So they brought the Ark of God and set it in the midst of the tent that David had pitched for it, and they offered burnt sacrifices, peace offerings, and all of those things,’ and it says, ‘And then on that day, David delivered first this Psalm to thank the LORD, from the hand of Asaph and his brethren, ‘Give thanks unto the LORD, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the people, sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works, glory ye in his holy name, let the heart of them that rejoice seek the LORD, seek the LORD in his strength, seek his face continually, remember his marvellous works that he hath done, his wonders and his judgments of his mouth. O ye seed of Israel his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen ones, he is the LORD our God, his judgments are in all the earth. Be ye mindful always of his covenant, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations, even the covenant which he made with Abraham, and his oath that he made with Isaac, and hath confirmed the same to Jacob for a law, and unto Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance. When you were but few, even a few, and strangers in it. And when they went from nation to nation, and from one kingdom to another people, he suffered no man to do them wrong, yea, he reproved kings for their sake, saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.’ That’s the exact same Psalm that we have in 105 for the first fifteen verses. And in verse 16 it changes. That could have been written later, we’re not sure, or David could have just added to it, and it survived until the Book was being gathered together. But let’s look at it now, knowing it’s origin, these first 15 verses, borne out of a very remarkable time, a pivotal time in the history of Israel, that finally Israel has the right king, so all of the land is united, and Israel finally has the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. This is a time unparalleled in the history of Israel. In fact, David spread out the borders of Israel to cover 60,000 square miles, from the Euphrates up north of Damascus, down to Egypt, ah, Israel was huge under the reign of David. And they had never seen days like that. So these first 6 verses tell us to praise the LORD, that’s basically what it’s saying, it used words like “make known, call upon his name, sing, talk of his works, glory in him, remember, seek, seek, seek,’ so let’s look at it.

Make God’s Word Real, To Yourself, Your Kids---His Deeds Make Known

“O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people.” (verse 1) by the way, that phrase there “O give thanks” in the Hebrew is one word. Now “make known his deeds” or “proclaim his deeds among the people, that’s a great thing to do, proclaim his deeds among the people. These are not Bible stories, we ruin kids in Sunday school like that. These are historic realities. [Comment: that is why it’s important to mix provable secular history that proves out Bible Scriptural accounts, making it real to our kids. Also good DVDs like those featuring Ron Wyatt’s discoveries of Noah’s ark, and the chariot wheels of he Egyptians in the Red Sea, and so forth.] These are things that actually took place. Make known his deeds among the people, because you can tell who somebody is by what they do. Well somebody says ‘Well I’m a Christian, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t do this, I don’t do that,’ I don’t know who you are, you’re telling me what you don’t do, tell me what you do, then I’ll know who you are [cf. Matthew 25:31-40, “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: and before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats: and he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”] And it says here “make known his deeds” that tells us his nature “among the people.” “Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.” (verse 2) that’s a great way to fellowship. Isn’t it? Sit around with your kids, sit around with fellow Christians, just talk about the Lord, and the remarkable things he does. I love staff meetings, because usually after Sunday we have staff meetings Monday morning, it’s just wonderful to talk about what happened on Sunday, what the Lord’s doing, what we’re hearing is going on in people’s lives, just remarkable. “talk ye of all his wondrous works. Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.” (verse 3) now “glory” means “to boast,” or it means “to brag on.” Listen, this is really cool, we should spend some time bragging on the Lord, shouldn’t we? You know all the stupid things we brag about on our own lives, make sure people know about how wonderful we are, what our talents are, what we can do, or I can sing, or I can do this, or I can do that, you know. I like this, it says ‘Hey man, brag on the LORD, if you’re gonna do something, you’re out there, brag on him, tell people about him, brag about him, brag on him. Who cares what they say, brag on the LORD.’ You know, the culture we’re in, wants you to keep your mouth shut, they don’t want to hear of the Truth. This is saying ‘Brag on him,’ “Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD.” (verse 3) and we’re a people that are seeking him. And then again, “Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.” (verse 4) can’t do anything without his strength. Jesus said if we don’t abide in him we can’t do anything (cf. John 15). And then it says, “seek his face evermore.” Look, isn’t that an interesting process, we’re trying to do that on Sunday evenings, seek the LORD, seek his strength, seek his face. And it finally comes, when you get into his presence, it’s almost as though every other thing is settled there. There is no other thing when you’re in his presence. There’s no worry about the future, there’s no worry about the past, there’s no worry about one thing or another. All of a sudden in his presence, everything is answered. And you’re seeking his face just for his face, not for anything else but his face. Remarkable, the process here, just to seek his face.

Above Everything Else, There’s A Divine Purpose For Memory, For Language

And then look what it says. It says, “Remember his marvellous works that he hath done: his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;” (verse 5) notice, “of his mouth,” so there is above everything else, a Divine purpose for memory, and for language. Above everything else, all of these things we can talk about, it says here, ‘Sing praise, talk of all his wondrous works,’ language, you know, people say, you watch all these, you know, I watch these Discovery channel shows and all, you know, they’re studying how animals communicate, dogs have certain signs, things they do, they try to tell us that plants enjoy classical music [now that’s getting hoaky], that’s really dumb, but you know, ok, your plant enjoys classical music, your plant doesn’t like hip-hop, leave me alone, and whales and the dolphins, they’re trying to figure out what they’re saying, and they’re teaching gorillas and chimpanzees and some orangutans sign language so they’re asking for things, they’ve learned you do this, the guy gives you a banana. In his mind it’s not what they think, but in his own mind he knows you can work this guy real easy, just do this and he gives you a banana. So, language is something endemic to humanity. In the English language, now because of science and technical terms, all this, about 400,000 words they estimate in the English language, and I believe there’s only 6,000 of them in the Bible. Simple, doesn’t take much. John the apostle only used 600 words in the Gospel of John. That’s a first-grade book vocabulary. But there isn’t anything more profound than the tenses and the voicings that he used, and the remarkable things that he said. So, language, above everything else, is something that God gives, his gives us his Word. Memory, of all the things we can remember, it says here, “Remember his marvellous works that he hath done” I mean, you and I, at least I’ll speak for myself, usually when I get in trouble is when I’m not remembering something about the Lord I’m supposed to be remembering. And that could be any category, too. ‘If you do this, you’re gonna get chastened.’ Or ‘If you do this, this is gonna come back at you.’ or ‘If you reprove a fool, he’s gonna do this,’ you know, there’s all kinds of things. If you read the Book of Proverbs every day, there’s always things you’re trying to remember, and memory, what better thing than to be applied. And God cares, look, he says to the children of Israel, ‘You do this, you enact this Passover, every year, throughout your generations,’ thousands of years, the Jews are still keeping the Passover, and they’re remembering the night they came out of Egypt, thousands of years ago. [Comment: And so are the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God, as did the early Christian Church. See http://www.unityinchrist.com/history2/earlychurch1.htm and http://www.unityinchrist.com/lamb/exodus1.html] Paul says ‘I didn’t tell you anything new, I put you in remembrance,’ Jesus says to the Church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, “Remember from where thou art fallen.” ‘Remember the pit from whence you were dug, the rock from which you were hewn.’ We’re told over and over, there are things that we are to remember. We’re not to be stuck in the past, there’s part of that where you’re forgetting the things that are behind you, and you press forward. But there are core things, foundational things, that we’re never to forget, never. You know, you get married, you have a ring on your finger, you made a covenant, you’re never supposed to forget it. You have a covenant with the Living God through his Son, we’re never supposed to forget that. “Remember his marvellous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth; O ye seed of Abraham his servant, ye children of Jacob his chosen.” (verses 5-6) Jacob is his chosen, not so much his servant, as Abraham was, he was more of a scoundrel, but he is his chosen. And now it causes him to phase in to, in verse 7 the patriarchal covenant, that he made with Abraham. “He is the LORD our God:” I like that. “his judgments are in all the earth. He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.” (verses 7-8) I’m glad, he makes it, it stands. And we’re going to hear now, of his covenant, his word, his oath, his law, and it’s going to tell us, that is in regards to the children of Israel, and the fact that he gave them the land. There’s all kinds of stuff goes on in television today about who owns the land, whether Israel can be on the West Bank, can they do settlements, should they negotiate. You have the United Nations telling them that ‘You don’t own the land, we should subdivide Israel amongst all the nations.’ It says here, way before any of these smarty-pants showed up, that God gave it to Israel, it’s his Word, it’s his covenant, it’s his oath, he remembers it to a thousand generations, it’s an everlasting covenant, “Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:” (verse 11) that hasn’t changed. None of that has changed. So here, in verse 8 he says, “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations.” Very interesting, in verse 9 it says, King James says, “Which covenant he made with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac;” the Hebrew says this, literally, “Which covenant” is not there, you can see it’s in italics, the Hebrew says “Which he made, he cut” like you’re cutting something, “Which he cut with Abraham, and his oath with Isaac.” It’s speaking about the day that God made a covenant with Abraham, and he told him to get an ox and a lamb, and a pigeon and so forth, and they cut them in pieces and laid them in half, and it says a deep sleep fell upon Abraham, and God himself went through the midst of the parts. Because. you would sacrifice those animals, then you would walk through the middle with the person you were making the covenant with, and it was then binding. But Abraham cut the animals, laid them out, beat the buzzards off during the day, and then a deep sleep falls upon him, and it says the LORD shows up like a burning furnace, and he goes through the parts by himself. And it says here, that “He hath remembered his covenant for ever, the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. Which he cut with Abraham,” it’s his oath, it’s his covenant, not Abrahams. Abraham was laying there in a stupor. “Which he cut with Abraham, and his oath unto Isaac;” relative to the seed of Abraham, which is the Christ and so forth, “and confirmed the same unto Jacob for a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.” (verses 9-10) King James says “for a law,” the Hebrew says “for a statute.” Statutes were how you performed the law, specific aspects of the Law, and the way they were performed were the statutes. And with Jacob it always had to be practical. “And confirmed the same unto Jacob for a statute, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant.” (verse 10) Here it is now, his covenant, his word, his oath to a thousand generations, it is an everlasting covenant, verse 11 tells us, “Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:” Verse 44 says, “And gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people” he gave it to them. So, this is long before, look, Palestinian, the word Palestinian shows up when the Roman army drove Israel (the Jews) in 70AD out of the land. And they named the land Philistia after Israel’s perennial enemies, the Philistines, to insult Israel. Before that it was Israel [actually, the Kingdom of Judah, the ten tribed Kingdom of Israel having been taken captive and never returned to the land in 721BC by the Assyrians. People probably never make that historic connection]. So the Romans call it Philistia, the modern version of that is Palestine. And anybody born before 1948, whether you’re a Christian, a Jew, an Arab, a Christian Arab, a Muslim Arab, anybody born there before 1948, on their birth certificate it says Palestinian. When the Jews came back, they changed the name of the land back to what it always should have been, which is Israel [and just because the 10 tribes of Israel have not yet returned to the land, doesn’t mean the land is not Israel, or to be called Israel, because it is the land of Israel]. There was no land, ever a land of Palestine, there was never a Palestinian people. They’re non-existent. And certainly, there were over the centuries, Muslims, Arab Christians, Jews, Christians, Armenians who had settled the land and been there in dribs and drabs, but it was the Romans. And of course the irony is, if you go to Israel today, I’ve been there many times, you have a Jew whose giving you a tour of Roman ruins, which is kind of interesting. But here, “Saying, Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance:” (verse 11) Verses 12 to 15 tell us how God protected Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as they’re in the land. He says “when they were but a few men in number; yea, very few, and strangers in it.” (verse 12) referring back to Canaan, in verse 11, “When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people;” (verse 13) Abimelech and the different kings and the tribal lords, “he suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” (verses 14-15) when Abraham went down to Egypt, God stopped pharaoh from messing with Sarah. When Isaac ended up in trouble, God stopped Ahimelech from messing with Rebekah, “he suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes; saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.” Interesting, this quote back to Genesis, where the particular verse in and of itself is not found, but the principle is there. [To view a very interesting movie that highlights the importance of human memory, order and watch the Disney movie “Inside Out.”]

Until The Time That Joseph’s Dream Comes True, God’s Word Tried Him

“Moreover he called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread. He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron: until the time that his word came: the word of the LORD tried him. The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.” (verses 16-22) So look, he’s taken us through the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, they’re sojourning then in the land, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And then Jacob’s son Joseph, here in verses 16 to 22, is a link in the chain of God’s providence. If it’s not for this one line, Israel is not taken into Egypt [which was a kind of national womb for the development and multiplication of Jacob’s 70 individuals into a full-fledged nation], if not for that, Israel does not survive [God bringing Israel out of Egyptian slavery, killing off all of pharaoh’s chariot force], Israel does not become a nation, the Messiah doesn’t come. So this one man, Joseph, it boils down in these verses, to tell us about this young man. It says here, “Moreover he [this is God] called for a famine upon the land: he brake the whole staff of bread.” (verse 16) literally, it is “he summoned for a famine upon the land.” “he [God] brake the whole staff of bread.” he destroyed every form of harvest. Then it says, “He sent a man before them,” now that’s a very interesting perspective. God’s perspective is, “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant [slave]: even Joseph, who was sold for a servant: whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:” (verses 17-18) that God sent him. On Joseph’s side, in time, Joseph, despised by his brothers, the son of his father’s old age, you know, him and Benjamin, finally he has two sons from Rachel, who he loved, he had four wives, it was an ugly family, two wives, two concubines, everybody’s fighting. But the woman he loved deeply was Rachel, and finally from Rachel comes Joseph and Benjamin. And Joseph has this special coat that his father gave him, the other brothers are envious. And then Joseph has a dream, he says, ‘You know, the LORD showed me, that you’re all gonna bow down in front of me, including Jacob.’ And the sons were furious, in another dream with shocks of grain, same thing. And they take him, and they beat him, and they throw him into a pit, this is their brother, then it says they sat down and ate (they said grace together, before they ate, their brother in a pit), and then when these Amalekites came, they sold him as a slave to the Amalekites to take down to Egypt. When he gets down to Egypt, they put him in the slave market on an auction block. And you can imagine, people are bidding on him…and he finally gets sold as a slave on the auction block. It looks like the greatest mishap from Joseph’s side, his heart is broken, his brothers have turned on him, they’ve gone back with his coat all bloody and told Jacob that he’s dead. Jacob’s heart is broken. It says here, from God’s perspective, “he sent a man before them,” into Egypt, he sent him, this is God. It’s like God telling Paul, Jesus telling him, ‘Hey Paul, don’t worry, you’re going to go to Rome,’ you think you’re going to be on a cruise ship or El Al, or something, no, you’re beaten, you’re bit by snakes, you’re in shipwrecks, this is God’s way of sending you. God’s got a different plan sometimes. So he says here, that “he called for a famine…he summoned a famine” this is going to be God’s work, “he brake the whole staff of bread.” and it says, “He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant [slave]:” (verses 16-17) And look, what this is doing, is, this is eclipsing all secondary causes. You know, sometimes you think ‘How could this be happening in my life??? If God loves me, how could he let this be happening? How could this be going on?’ It’s saying here, look behind the scenes. God is going to preserve the entire nation through the difficulties that this young man goes through. But God had planted something in his heart, that is what made it all the more trying. He had this dream, he had this vision, he received it from the LORD, it burned in his heart. And then he had to reconcile, ‘Well how could everything be going wrong?’ He gets to Potipher’s house, he serves Potipher faithfully, it says God begins to bless all of Potipher’s house. It begins to prosper, incredible things, and it says Potipher trusts him so much he sets him over everything he has, but Potipher’s wife has it in for Joe, and she puts on her makeup and perfume, and tries to seduce him. He refuses this Egyptian woman who wants to be intimate with him. And for that he gets thrown into prison. You think finally, ‘ok, God, I did good, I did the job good, the guy’s house is blessed, and now I refused,’ I mean, who would have known? He does what’s right before the LORD, nobody else is watching. And for that he gets thrown in prison. It says here, “whose feet they hurt with fetters: he was laid in iron:” (verse 18) you might have a gloss there, it says “his soul came into iron.” God was doing something in the man, it wasn’t just his body that was chained, his soul came into the iron also. Look at verse 19, “until the time that his word [this is Joseph’s word, the grammar has to refer back to] came: the word of the LORD tried him.” What was Joseph’s word? This dream, this vision, what God has put in his heart. It says ‘until the time that that was realized, the word of the LORD tried him.’ “Tried” there means “to refine as in a fire, to purge,” it means “to fuse metals together,” ‘until the time that he realized the vision that God gave him, it says the word of God refined him, and purged him and tried him,’ he was sitting in prison saying ‘How could this be? Everything is going from bad to worse, and God is saying ‘No, you trust me, no, you do what I say, no, you take my word to heart.’ And you’re thinking, ‘Why should I, I obey you, things get worse.’ It says, the whole time God is refining this man with his own word, as he does with us, in difficult circumstances. It’s a very lonely place, you get all kinds of, you know, arm-chair quarterback advice from people around us. They quote verses to us [when they ought to shut up], are cavalier sometimes. But when we’re in the middle of it, and our life is broken, and we’re hurting, it’s the Word of God that tries us, and refines us. ‘Am I really going to believe this, am I really going to lean on this? Am I really going to find this solid ground under my feet with this much pain in my life?’ it says it tried him. Then it just says this, “the king sent and loosed him: even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.” (verse 20) Look, this has been at least 15 years [some say 13 years], this is no short trial. “the king sent and loosed him: even the ruler of the people, and let him go free. He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance:” (verse 20-21) wait, but how did that happen? Joseph starts to be faithful in the prison, the warden likes him, starts to give him more work, to trust him to do things. And there’s a baker and a wine taster, a cup-bearer there, and they’re worried because they were accused before pharaoh, and they’re wondering what’s going to happen, and they have dreams, and Joseph says ‘Let me tell you what’s going to happen, this is what’s going to happen.’ He says to the wine-taster, ‘You’re going to go back to pharaoh’s house,’ and he says to the baker, ‘You’re going to go back and he’s going to cut your head off.’ That’s what the dream’s all about, So, of course, it happens, they go back, the wine-taster is re-instated, the baker is put to death, and for two years, and he had said to the wine-taster, ‘Just remember me, when you go back there. When pharaoh re-instates you, please remember me.’ He’s thinking, ‘My father, for 13 years now, thinking I was dead. I’ve been here, I’ve been cut off, my iPad, the batteries are dead, I can’t communicate with anybody, remember me.’ And what happens is, the cup-bearer is so joyful that he gets re-instated, he forgets all about Joseph (who can with God’s help interpret dreams). How do you feel when people forget about you? ‘They promised me, they were going to do this, they don’t care about me. They told me they were going to do it, it didn’t happen.’ Well, you know something, God had the wine-taster forget Joseph. There is something called Divine Amnesia, and the LORD struck the wine-taster with Divine Amnesia. Because if he’d have remembered Joseph right when he got out, like he said, the pharaoh might have set Joseph free, he’d have gone back to Canaan to his father’s house. What he did was he forgot about Joseph for two years, until pharaoh gets up in the morning and said ‘Man, I had a really weird dream last night, seven skinny cows, one skinny cow ate the seven fat cows, shocks of grain, some grain ate the other grain,’ and all of his sorcerers and all of his magicians, nobody could tell him what the dreams meant, and then the wine-taster went, ‘There’s a guy I know in prison, he’s a dream guy, let me get him.’ And they go and get Joseph, they shave him up, they wash him, no doubt he had to smell good before he came into pharaoh, you know, got him all cleaned up. And he tells pharaoh, ‘Well this is what this part of the dream means, this is what this part of the dream means, this is what’s gonna happen, there’s going to be seven years famine, so you need to during the seven years of fat cows, seven years of plenty, you need to store your grain, you get all ready, because seven years are going to come that are going to be bad, this is what you need to do.’ And he not only interprets the dream to pharaoh, but he tells pharaoh the plan he should have in place to be sustained through it. And pharaoh’s so impressed, that he takes Joseph and makes him second in command under himself only in the land of Egypt. So Joseph, in 24 hours, goes from prison to the second-most powerful man on the planet, in 24 hours [and also within that short span of time, is given a beautiful wife]. 24 hours before that he was probably griping, ‘Everybody forgets me, there’s no plan, I don’t know what’s gonna happen,’ but if that wine-taster had remembered earlier, none of that would have happened. The wine-taster remembers, his memory has to, as pharaoh wakes up after the dream, so the plan of God, from the man he sent to Egypt, can work the way he wants it to, to sustain the nation of Israel, and you and I, because the Messiah was coming to us through Israel. I like this, can you tell? We should make a movie out of this. So “The king sent and loosed him; even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.” and “He made him lord of his house, and ruler of all his substance: to bind his princes at his pleasure; and teach his senators wisdom.” (verses 20-22) Joseph had authority over all the other government officials. And look, “and to teach his senators wisdom.” Too bad he ain’t around today, huh. Look, we read through this, this can’t just be a Bible story to you, let me read a little thing here. This is in Grant Jeffrey’s book [which I believe is titled] “Handwriting of God: The Sacred Mysteries of the Bible” It says “There is a Yemenite inscription found, it says about the famine during the time of Joseph, ‘In thy name, O God, the God of Hamar, I Teza, daughter of Zoo-shefar, sent my steward to Joseph, and he delaying to return to me, I sent my handmaid with a measure of silver to bring back a measure of flour, and not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of gold, not being able to procure it, I sent her with a measure of pearls, not being able to procure it, I sent them to be ground, and finding no profit in them, I am shut up here.’” So she ground everything to powder, “‘Whosoever may hear of it, let him commiserate me, and should any woman adorn herself with an ornament from my ornaments, may she die with no other than my death.’” It says “This ancient inscription revealed the Yemenite Arab noble woman’s sincere complaint that she could not purchase Egypt’s grain with her gold. It also reveals Joseph’s determination to resist any appeal from a stranger offering gold in return for Egypt’s precious grain reserves. This determination reminds us of Joseph’s similar resolve earlier in his life when he resisted the attempt of Potipher’s wife to destroy his virtue. The tragic history of famines often recorded bartering of most precious metals and luxuries in trade for the smallest amounts of food.” It tells us in Revelation that you’re gonna have to use a days’ wage just to get a loaf of bread, at some point. But here, the Yemenite inscription found, talking about this woman, wealthy, trying to buy grain, she says “from Joseph in Egypt,” and he refused to sell to her. This is history that we’re looking at. And the God of history sent a man to Egypt, that man thought that he was thrown in a pit by his brothers, treated unjustly, no doubt as time went on, he was filled with malice, he didn’t see his father, he resisted sexual sin, got thrown in prison for that, just think, one thing after another, then seven years of prison, finally it looked like there was an open door, and the guy that was supposed to remember him forgot him. God takes a long time sometimes to wind his path [tell me about it], heart-breaking, and difficulty. And in 24 hours he becomes the second most powerful man on the planet [and is given a beautify young wife, don’t forget that Pastor Joe]. Imagine, just, there should be a movie, I’m telling you. Of course, we’d always have to say the book is better than the movie, but it would still be great to make a movie.

The Incredible History Of The Exodus From Egypt

“Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants. He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word. He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings. He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts. He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number, and did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength. He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes. Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.” (23-38) Now, we go from Joseph, what he’s done, and now that’s the preparation for Israel now to come down into Egypt, verse 23, “Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.” I know this sounds like a deli, the land of Ham. Ham is just a different name for Mizraim which is the word for the Egyptians, he was one, there’s Shem, Ham and Japheth, he was one of Ham’s descendants, Mizraim the founders in Egypt. So sometimes it calls Egypt the Land of Ham [cf. Genesis 10:6, “And the sons of Ham; Cush, and Mizraim, and Phut, and Canaan.”] Which doesn’t sound like a place you should go. “And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies. He turned their heart [of the Egyptians] to hate his people, to deal subtilly with his servants.” (verses 24-25) Look, the children of Israel became comfortable in Egypt, they were prospering there. We see it again in the Babylonian Captivity, under Cyrus, he gives relief to the people to return to the Promised Land, and only 50,000 returned, out of probably over a million. Here, the children of Israel become comfortable in Egypt, they’re flourishing, they’re in Goshen, very complicated historical process in the background, where God raises up the Hyksos dynasties, which were called the Shepherd Kings in Egypt, the Egyptians hated shepherds because they considered them lowlife [and it was these Shepherd Kings who were in power when Joseph went down to Egypt, and it was one of these Shepherd Kings that had the dream Joseph interpreted]. And all of a sudden in Upper Egypt, which is really the lower Egypt [near the Sudan], but it’s on the other side of the equator, so we call it Upper Egypt. In Lower Egypt the Hyksos dynasties had taken over, which are the Shepherd Kings, which had been favorable to Israel, until they are overcome again [by the Theban pharaohs from Thebes in Upper Egypt], and then a pharaoh comes in who knows not Joseph, and things begin to deteriorate for them, they’re throwing their children in the river and so forth. It says God allowed them, finally, the Egyptian [Theban] power to be restored fully on the Upper and Lower Nile, and they dealt subtilly with the children of Israel. [Comment: to read an accurate history research article about this period which Pastor Joe just described pretty accurately, and then how it came to be that the Egyptian pharaohs came to turn their hearts to hate God’s people, log onto and read: http://www.unityinchrist.com/lamb/exodus1.html] Then it says “He sent Moses his servant; and Aaron whom he had chosen. They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.” (verses 26-27) Now we have these verses that speak of what happened with the children of Israel and the Exodus. Now, it doesn’t give them in chronological order. When you go back to Exodus, there’s an exact order to the way that the plagues came. It doesn’t do that here, it just summarizes them, so don’t get all upset about that. The interesting thing is, if you want to read an addendum to the Book of Exodus, you want to read Donald Gray Barnhouse’s book The Invisible War, because he’ll tell you in there, that each of the plagues came upon an Egyptian deity. They weren’t just plagues on agriculture and so forth, because the Egyptians were idolatrous, and they kept saying ‘Well who is the God of Moses?’ You know, Yule Brenner just challenged Charlton Heston every time he came, ‘Moses, Moses, whose your God?’ and because he challenged the real God, then God smote all of the Egyptian deities, each one of those plagues came upon one of the Egyptian deities. So it says “They shewed his signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham. He sent darkness, and made it dark; and they rebelled not against his word.” (verses 27-28) now that was at the end. Now the “they” there has to be Moses and Aaron, because the Egyptians did rebel against his word. The idea is, he’s sending Moses and Aaron into this huge hostile environment, to stand in the middle of pharaoh’s court and say ‘This is the Word of the LORD,’ and they didn’t rebel against it. Look, whatever hassle you have at work, whatever hassle you have from your aunt Jane, or you mom, or your brothers or your sisters or relatives [adoptive and flesh and blood], it ain’t nothing like walking into the court of pharaoh with a stick and your brother, and say “Let my people go.” It says “and they rebelled not against his word.” “He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish. Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, in the chambers of their kings.” (verses 29-30) it tells us the frogs were in their ovens, they were in their beds, my wife would not be a happy camper in this situation. “He spake, and there came divers sorts of flies, and lice in all their coasts.” (verse 31) I don’t like flies, I don’t know about you guys. I like to sit outside and study my Bible, and there’s always a fly that comes around to hassle me, its demonic, I know that [laughter], just hassles me, hassles me, hassles me. In fact, once I was drinking a glass of homemade iced tea, and towards the bottom of the glass I was chewing up, you know those pieces of oranges, citrus in there, and there was a fly that got in there, I was chewing him up, you know, that’s how I feel about them all the time now. So, it says he sent all kinds of, and then you think, ‘How could it get worse?’ Here’s how it can gets worse, “flies and lice.” We love lice, don’t we? Every time the nurse over at the school tells us ‘Oh, we got kids over here with lice,’ all the secretaries start scratching their heads [that’s a psychosomatic reaction], you just hear, and you think ‘Man, my head itches,’ there’s no lice, it’s just the lice are in your head and then you think they’re on your head. So they have flied-lice here in Egypt [bad joke]. “He gave them hail for rain, and flaming fire in their land. He smote their vines also and their fig trees; and brake the trees of their coasts. He spake, and the locusts came, and caterpillers, and that without number.” (verses 32-34) Again, my wife would not be happy with caterpillers everywhere in the house. And they didn’t have Anderson Windows or Doors, when they came, they just came, they moved in with you. “And did eat up all the herbs in their land, and devoured the fruit of their ground. He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.” (verses 35-36) and then look, it says “He” the LORD “brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.” (verse 37) King James says “there was not one feeble person among their tribes” “one feeble person” shouldn’t be there, this is the way it reads in the Hebrew, it’s beautiful, “He brought them forth also, with silver and gold, and there was not among their tribes one who stumbled.” Isn’t that interesting? Because the oxen stumbled when they were bringing up the cart, it says two to three million people coming out of Egypt, not one of them stumbled, God’s hand on their lives. “Egypt was glad when they departed: for the fear of them fell upon them.” (verse 38) I bet they were. [see http://www.unityinchrist.com/lamb/exodus2.html]

Israel’s Wilderness Journey, Ours Too---God’s Care For Us All

“He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give light in the night. The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. he opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.” (39-41) Now look, one of the things to realize as we look at this, is this is the most significant venture in human history. Understand, this is two to three million slaves, leaving Egypt, and going out into the desert, not sure of their destination. [Don’t you feel that way sometimes?] Imagine that. This is an undertaking in human history, the venture of which, has never been matched, and it didn’t look very promising, either, to the natural mind. Philadelphia, the population of Philadelphia right now is a million and a half, so imagine twice the number of people that live in Philadelphia, three million people, loading up, carrying everything, getting their sleeping bags, getting their kids, getting their cows, their donkeys, and everybody just heading out into the desert in the Middle East, 3,000,000 people. Think of the logistics, if you were in the military, think of the logistics of feeding and watering, think of the process, it’s just incredible. So the next few verses, verses 39 to 41, tell us of God’s provision and his care for them, in this process. It says, “He spread a cloud for a covering; and fire to give them light in the night.” (verse 39) he covers 40 years in three verses here. “The people asked,” this is Exodus through Deuteronomy, these 3 verses, “The people asked, and he brought quails, and satisfied them with the bread of heaven. He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.” (verses 40-41) Now, again, it’s not necessarily chronological, but he’s saying ‘These are the things that God did in the wilderness in this impossible undertaking,’ it says, he provided a covering. So the cloud during the day is not just something they followed, when you read through the Psalms, 121, ‘the sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night,’ you’re out in the desert with 3,000,000 people, the pillar of cloud went up and then it spread over them like a covering, and kept them in the shade, so the sun didn’t smite them during the day in the desert. It says the pillar of fire gave them light by night, those are high-beams, uber high-beams. When you have a light so powerful that it can light the way at night, in the desert for 3,000,000 people, you got some light shining. [like those highway construction lights used to light highway construction sites where they’re working overnight instead of during the daytime rush-hour times. Those are bright lights.] And by the way, that’s a great discouragement for many enemies messing with you, when that thing is going in front of you by night. So, he provides covering. It says he provides light for them. Very interesting in verse 40, you know the story at Kibroth-hataavah with the quails and so forth, it says “The people asked, and he brought quails,” that was their request. It’s in contrast to “and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.” (verse 40) They whined and complained, and they wanted the quails, and the LORD finally gave the quails, and says ‘you’re not going to eat it for a day, you’re gonna eat it till they come out your nose,’ You gotta do some pulmonary exercises to get a quail out your nose, I’m telling you, ‘just till you’re sick of them.’ That was their request, that’s what they asked for. But it says what he satisfied them with, what literally was “the bread of the heavens, the bread of the heavens,” same as us. “He opened the rock, and the waters gushed out; they ran in the dry places like a river.” (verse 41) Look, Jesus in John chapter 7, verses 37 and 38 says, ‘He stands up on the great day of the Feast [the Last Great Day], Feast of Tabernacles,’ what they’re remembering is their journey through the wilderness, on the Great Day they remember the Rock that followed them through the wilderness, Paul tells us in 1^st Corinthians 10, ‘that Rock was Christ.’ Here it says ‘of that rock, water gushed out of it.’ Jesus said, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water. John said, this he spake of the Spirit, for the Spirit was not yet given.’ So as we look at the picture here, look what it tells us. It says “for the pilgrim” that’s for you and I, we’re not any less precious to the Lord, we’re his blood-washed sons and daughters, you and I. He’s provided a covering for us, the blood of Jesus Christ. He’s provided light for us, through his Word, through his Spirit, more light than Moses and the Prophets had. Jesus said ‘the holy men of old longed to look into the things you’re looking into,’ he said to the apostles [and to us], ‘they longed to hear the words that you’re hearing.’ He’s provided in our pilgrimage, a covering, he’s provided light. It says that he satisfied them [and us] with the bread of heaven. He’s done that, this is the Bread of Heaven, ‘man doesn’t live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ it says in Deuteronomy and Jesus would quote that (cf. Matthew 4:1-11). He opened the rock and let waters gush out, picture of the Holy Spirit, Jesus said, ‘Any man that thirsts, let him come to me, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living waters’ John said spoke of the Holy Spirit. So for you and I, look, in our journey, whatever it seems like, we have a covering. It doesn’t feel like it, sometimes our circumstances are contradicting the Word of God and the promises of God. It’s at that time, like Joseph, that the Word of God is refining us, we have a covering, that’s what the Bible says. It may not seem like it some days, we have a covering, we have light, God has brought us from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. Look, you watch the news, you look at the world, you see what’s going on around us, we’re not blind, we’re not in darkness, we have light. God’s given it to us. We have the Bread of Heaven, God has given it to us, his given to us his Word. We have the Holy Spirit in our journey, rivers of Living Water flowing from our innermost being. We have all of the graces that God wants us to have. And we can gripe, and we can complain, we can point the finger at God, but the day’s gonna come, either at the point of a gun, or in the hospital, in hospice on our deathbed, or in a car crash that’s ready to happen when our life is flashing in front of our eyes, the moment’s gonna come when all of the other things we griped about are going to seem insignificant. And the one thing that’s gonna matter, is do we have a covering? Is the Light we walked in true? Is the Word we believed in really trustworthy right now when I’m ready to take my last breath? If the same Spirit that rose Christ from the dead is dwelling in me, he’s going to quicken my mortal body also [cf. 1^st Corinthians 15:49-54, or see http://www.unityinchrist.com/corinthians/cor15-16.htm]. That’s when all the rubber meets the road, right there, ‘I feel this, I’m dying, I feel this last breath going out, Lord I believe, everything I believed, your arms are there to catch me right on the other side, I’m going to step into your presence.’ All of that is ours today. We take it for granted because we got so many other things going on, we feel healthy, we’re indestructible, there’s nothing going on, we run, we’re at a certain pace, and we don’t take inventory sometimes. But the truth is, right now we have all of this. We have a covering, we have light, we have the bread of heaven, we have living waters. All of it is ours, today to enjoy, in the journey today.

In Summary

He sums it up here in the end, it says, “For he remembered his holy promise, and Abraham his servant.” that promise was made over 400 years before this. “He brought forth his people with joy, and his chosen with gladness: and gave them the lands of the heathen: and they inherited the labour of the people; that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws. Praise ye the LORD.” (verses 42-45) they lived in houses they didn’t build, they ate from vineyards they didn’t plant, Deuteronomy goes over the whole thing. The reason, “that they might observe his statutes, and keep his laws.” because through this nation, the promise made to Abraham about his seed, singular, would be realized. And it ends saying, “Praise ye the LORD.” one word in the Hebrew, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, that’s a great word. God is faithful to remember, for ever, his covenant about the seed that was coming. He’ll never forget it in our lives, he keeps his covenant to a thousand generations. He loves us, he remembers us. Look, he has Joseph down in Egypt, he’s not just a God of multitudes, he is not just the LORD of hosts, the armies of heaven, he is, he’s the LORD of the individual, he’s the God of the individual, he’s our Father [Abba, Hebrew Daddy], he’s our Saviour. And he finds just as much delight in being alone with you during the week as he does being with a thousand who gather on Sunday [or on Saturday, the Sabbath, or on any other day the Church meets together on]. He’s the God of the individual, he hears the voice of his own Son in our hearts, crying Abba, Father, Abba, Father.

In Closing

Again, Sandy McIntosh, southern California, situation, young girl, I think she was 8 or 9, needed a heart transplant, those things come as they come, a young boy was brought into the hospital, was on life-support, there no way to [save him], and the parents hadn’t planned to be organ donors, and the doctors came and said ‘If we can’t save your son, there’s a young girl down the hall, without a heart she’s going to die. Both of them will be dead. If you’d be so gracious, would you be willing to donate your son’s heart, so she can live?’ And the parents said, ‘One stipulation, when this is all over, can we meet the parents and this child?’ The doctors said ‘That’s against hospital regulations, but I’ll ask them.’ And they said, ‘Well of course.’ And they took the son’s heart, put it in this little child, and before the child was let go to go home from the hospital, the parents came in, and they talked, of course the parents of the child that received the heart felt terrible, and just thanking, what do you say, you know. The other parents with tears in their eyes. The father said, ‘Can I ask one favor?’ and the parents said, ‘Anything, what do you want?’ He said, ‘I want to bend down, and I want to put my ear on her chest, and I want to hear my son’s heart beating there.’ And God the Father stoops down and he hears the heart of his Son beating in our hearts. As individuals, he is as concerned with you, as an individual, as he is with the nation that we live in. The Church [greater Body of Christ] as a whole, the multitude of his people which he loves and is concerned about, but he is also the God of Jacob, the God of Jacob the conniver. And he takes delight, bending down and listening to your heart, and when he does, he ears Abba, the Spirit of his own Son, crying Abba, Father [Daddy]. Let’s stand, let’s bow our hearts, let’s pray, we’ll have the musicians come…[transcript of a connective expository sermon on Psalm 105:1-45, given by Pastor Joe Focht, Calvary Chapel of Philadelphia, 13500 Philmont Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19116]