Let us continue in our study of Genesis 45. We begin this study in verses 19-20, where we read:
Now thou art commanded, this do ye; take you wagons out of the land of Egypt for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. Also regard not your stuff; for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.
In this account, we have consistently seen that Pharaoh is a picture of God the Father. As we continue on in our study of Genesis, this fact should become more and more comfortable for us, because Pharaoh as a picture of God the Father fits extremely well into the historical situations that we will be reading about in Genesis.
As we have seen, Pharaoh is speaking directly to Joseph and commanding him to relay his words to the brethren, Israel. In looking at this further, we have seen this is a picture of how God commands or speaks the Word, and how Christ then gives that Word to the believers.
Pharaoh says, “Thou art commanded, this do ye.” We have seen how this deals with God’s command to those who are in the churches and congregations today to come out. We have seen how this is a commandment to leave the congregation, and that it is given to every single person in every single church, no matter where they are located in the world.
Now this is a very good example of a command that God gave a long time ago but is at this time opening up for understanding in our day. For most of history, God hid this command in His Word, the Bible.
For another example, this same command is hidden in Revelation 18, with the language referring to Babylon, “Come out of her, My people.” For all of history, up until our day, no one truly understood the meaning of this command. No one understood what Babylon represented or what God was saying when He commanded that His people were to “come out of her.” God had sealed up the Word and hidden these truths. Because of this, during the time of the Reformation—a time when the church had become extremely apostate—believers had no thought of leaving their churches or of the Church Age being over. Rather, at that time, they understood that they were to reform the church and to begin to build new churches and congregations that would be more faithful to the Word of God. This is because God had hidden this understanding of His Word.
This is the same situation that we have in Genesis 45. No one has been able to understand the spiritual significance of Pharaoh commanding Joseph to relay Pharaoh’s words to Israel. Throughout the entire history of the world, no one has been able to understand the spiritual significance of this account of Jacob and Joseph.
We, however, are living in the day when God is opening up the Scriptures. Today, we can see that when Joseph is revealing himself, he is a picture of Christ revealing Himself during the dividing point of the Great Tribulation. He is a picture of Christ opening up the information that had been sealed till the time of the end (Daniel 12:4).
This information was hidden; it was well veiled. Yet, it includes details on coming out of the churches. We see it with Pharaoh issuing a commandment and telling Joseph’s brethren that they must leave Canaan and come into Egypt.
Who, in the past, has been able to understand any of this? It is only in our day that God is allowing us to see these things, causing us to understand what they represent and how it all fits together. We now realize that this commandment in Genesis is a commandment of God to every professing Christian. It does not matter what church they are in. It does not matter what denomination they are a part of. This is a commandment to everyone that it is time to leave the church and enter into the world.
God has every right to hide the meaning of His word in the way in which He has hidden it. It is also God’s privilege to issue a straightforward commandment—one such as “Thou shalt not kill.” He can issue forth straightforward commandments, and we realize that those types of commandments are given to everyone and are to be obeyed. We know that according to the Ten Commandments, we are not to kill. He also says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” We know that we are not to lie. We know that we are not to steal or to commit adultery (Exodus 20:1-17). Though there is some spiritual significance to these commands, they still have a moral teaching, and they are to be obeyed on that level also.
We, however, also realize that God gives commands that are to be understood on a spiritual level. Once again, we will look at Proverbs 31:4, where we read:
“It is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink.”
Is this verse only referring to someone who happens to be born of royal blood—maybe an heir to the throne of England? Are they the ones whom God is referring to when He commands that they should not drink wine or strong drink?
No, we understand that this commandment is dealing with the spiritual designation that God gives to believers. We are prophets, priests, and kings, and it is not for kings to drink wine or strong drink (1 Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:10).
From this verse, we understand that we should not drink alcohol—that is a commandment of God. He did not come out and say, “Believers, thou shalt not drink alcohol.” Instead, He instructed the true believers in such a way that caused us to have to search out the Bible to understand what God meant with His reference to kings and princes. Only then could we understand the meaning of Proverbs 31:4—that it is not for believers to drink alcohol.
A person could say, “I am not going to listen to this teaching because it is only someone’s interpretation. I am going to drink whenever I want to drink, and I am going to have a beer whenever I want to have a beer.” That is, of course, a person’s privilege to do so, just like it is a person’s privilege to disobey God on any point. God says, “Thou shalt not kill,” yet people kill all the time. He says, “Thou shalt not steal,” yet people steal all the time. In doing so, however, they are disobeying the plain commandments of the Word of God.
This is no different than when people disobey the spiritual commandments that are hidden deeper in God’s Word. But it is important to understand that God holds people accountable to His commandments on both levels, whether it is a literal commandment that is right on the surface or whether it has a deeper hidden spiritual meaning. God holds mankind accountable on both levels.
In our last two studies, we looked at Luke 17 where we read the account of the ten lepers that had been cleansed by God and sent to Jerusalem to show themselves to the priests. Let us look again at Luke 17:14-17 and see how this passage gives us a commandment that is to be obeyed and tells us what God’s expectations are. We read:
And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go show yourselves unto the priests…
That is a commandment of God. Christ is God and He is telling these ten lepers, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” It is an imperative that they are to obey. The passage continues:
…And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan. And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?
Ten lepers were cleansed. Jesus commanded them, “Go show yourselves unto the priests,” and so they went to Jerusalem to find a priest. Jesus told them to do that; it is in the law of Leviticus 14 that a leper in the day of his cleansing was to show himself to the priest and that a sacrifice was to be made. They were going to Jerusalem to find a priest, and this was in accordance with the Law of Moses.
But then the Samaritan sees that his leprosy is gone, that his skin is normal. Out of joy, he runs back to the Lord Jesus Christ, falls at His feet, and gives Him glory. Jesus asks, “Where are the nine?”
Where did those nine go? Were they not being obedient? Did they not listen to the Word of God? Jesus is the Word; the Word plainly told them, “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” If we were to understand the Bible literally, we would do what the Word tells us. We would not look for a deeper meaning when we have a statement such as this.
That is just what the nine did. They went to Jerusalem and found a priest. They were involved with the sacrifice. They fulfilled the Law of Moses. They were obedient to the Words of Christ, were they not? But what does Jesus say in verse 18? We read:
There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.
This stranger, this Samaritan, was the one who seemed to disobey. He was told to go to Jerusalem and show himself to a priest, but he ran back to Christ. Yet he gave glory to God, while the other nine failed to do so. This tells us that God can give a commandment that is not obvious on the surface, but hidden.
Christ commanded, “Go show yourselves unto the priests,” but what does that truly mean? What did God have in mind when He said that, or when He gave that law in Leviticus? Go to the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus is the great High Priest. The spiritual meaning of this commandment is that when a leper, a sinner, becomes cleansed from his sin, he is to go show himself to Christ, the only one Who can wash away sin. The Samaritan fulfills the spiritual meaning of this command. He does go back to Christ.
The spiritual meaning has greater weight and authority than the plain, surface command. Therefore, the nine failed to give glory to God.
It is God’s privilege and His good pleasure if He wants to hide a commandment, yet the commandment is still there and it stands: “Go show yourselves unto the priests.” If you fail to do that, then you fail to give glory to God.
God can hide a commandment like “Come out of her, My people.” You may not understand what Babylon means, and a lot of people do not want to understand what Babylon means. You may not understand what it means to come out of Babylon. You may not understand that Pharaoh is a type of God, or what is meant when Pharaoh commanded that Joseph’s family was to be brought out of Canaan and into Egypt.
These things we may not understand, yet we are accountable to God for our lack of understanding. Simply because someone is dead in sin and does not understand, due to the blindness of their sinful condition, is no excuse. God can give us commandments that we cannot obey because we do not spiritually recognize them, but to not obey is still disobedience to God’s commands.
God gave a command in Genesis 45 through this historical parable. We read of a famine that had come upon the land, which typifies the Great Tribulation. Pharaoh is a picture of God the Father and says in Genesis 45:20:
Also regard not your stuff…
We have seen how that relates to Matthew 24:17 and Luke 17:31. When you are on the housetop and your “stuff” is in the house, as God says in Luke 17, you are not to come down from the housetop to take away your stuff. You are to leave it.
Again, this is God commanding believers to remain on the housetop, to remain involved in sharing the Gospel. What happens on the housetop? For one, Peter was praying on the housetop (Acts 10:9). Again, Jesus said, “What ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops” (Matthew 10:27). The housetop is a place of preaching.
When the man with the palsy was brought to Christ, he was taken to the roof, the housetop. The roof was uncovered, and the man was lowered down to Jesus (Mark 2:3-5). It is through the housetop that people can find the way to Christ. We are to stay on the housetop. We are not to stop bringing the Word. We are to continue sharing the Gospel during the Great Tribulation.
However, we are not to come down into the house, because the house is typifying the churches and congregations. Judgment begins at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17). We are not to go into that house even if our stuff is there, our loved ones or our family. Whether it is our mother or father or son or daughter or husband or wife or close friends or people we have witnessed to and shared the Gospel with who are in the church, we are not to go down into the house in any way.
“Regard not your stuff,” Pharaoh says. He is telling them historically, “Do not worry about your household belongings. Do not worry about your furniture or the treasures that you have collected over the years. Do not worry about that stuff. You can only fit so much in the wagons; fit what you can and come to Egypt. The good of all the land of Egypt is yours, and you will receive manifold more than you ever left behind. You will receive many more blessings.”
This is the king of the land of Egypt, which is now the mightiest nation in the entire world, telling them these things. We know that this is really God telling believers, “Do not let relationships or any other kind of involvements with the church snare you into staying. Regard not your stuff. Come out of the church. Go home, if you have to; sit in your room on Sunday; turn on the radio, and read your Bible. But whatever you do, do not go back into the church. Do not return to the congregations. Furthermore, do not worry about it, because the good of all the land of Egypt is yours.” We have God looking out for us, and He will take care of each of His children.
Pharaoh, because of Joseph, has a wonderful concern for these Israelites. Pharaoh has been greatly blessed by Joseph. Therefore, anyone who is of the family of Joseph could not have it any better than in Egypt. Because of Joseph, Egypt went from just being one nation among the other nations of the world, to the mighty power that would rule supremely over all the earth for many years to come.
There was a famine over all the earth, and there was no corn anywhere but in Egypt. Egypt had storehouses stocked full. All the lands were coming to Egypt because they had the corn. Egypt was gathering all the money—they could charge whatever price they wanted. They had food for their army. They had suddenly risen to be the superpower of the entire world because God revealed to Joseph what Pharaoh’s dreams meant and provision was made against the time of famine.
Egypt (and Pharaoh and Joseph) became exalted to a glorious height that never would have been possible without that famine. In other words, during the Great Tribulation, God will be exalted and glorified and lifted up in a way that He never was during the time of plenty, which typifies the Church Age. In the little season of Great Tribulation, God will be magnified more in His plan for saving a great multitude than He ever was during the Church Age.
Joseph’s brethren had it good. For Joseph’s sake, Pharaoh poured out his blessings upon them. It is the same with true believers; as God moves us to do His will and we come out of the church, God will pour out His blessings. He will take care of each one of His elect spiritually.
I think many people can testify that in leaving the church, which has been experiencing the famine, they have entered into the world of God’s great blessing. You will not see that blessing in the physical realm. You will not experience it by receiving greater houses or more money. God is not speaking of those kinds of blessings. We have blessings in the spiritual realm, in sharing the Gospel and in spreading the Word of God. God is blessing His Word.
Going back to Genesis 45:21, we read:
And the children of Israel did so: and Joseph gave them wagons, according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provision for the way.
They were obedient. Pharaoh gave a command, Joseph relayed it to his brothers, and they obeyed. There was no arguing. No one said, “Wait a second, let us talk about this.” There was no speaking back. The response was, “Yes, we see the situation. We understand.”
Joseph had just explained to them that for two years the famine has been in the land, and there will be five more years to come. It is a grievous famine; his brothers must leave Canaan and come into Egypt. Then Pharaoh gets involved and outlines how they are to do this. He will give them wagons. They are going to go with food for the way. They are to load the wagons with their families. They are to quickly come out of Canaan and go into Egypt.
The children of Israel did so; they obeyed. Whenever God gives a commandment, obedience is expected of the servant. When the Creator speaks, the creatures are not to question. We are not to say, “Do I like this commandment? Do I like the idea that the Church Age is over? Do I like the fact that God says in His Word that Satan is ruling in the churches, and that the Holy Spirit is not there? This is not a popular thing that you might hear everyday. For nearly two thousand years, church has been the place where the people of God have met. This teaching feels very uncomfortable, and I do not know if I like it.”
That is not the attitude in view in Genesis. The child of God is going to obey. The children of Israel did what Pharaoh commanded. They went back to Canaan.
Joseph gave his family wagons. We have seen that wagons are used in the Old Testament about twenty-four times. Fifteen of those times, wagons have to do with service to the temple or the sanctuary. One place we saw this word was in Amos 2:13, translated as “cart.” It says there:
Behold, I am pressed under you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves.
This verse is very interesting because in other parts of the Bible, the time period of the Great Tribulation is related to harvest time. It is related to the time of separation of the wheat and the tares. It is related to the time when God is gathering together His harvest. Wagons are sent. The people of Israel will get onto those wagons, leave Canaan, and go into Egypt.
Also, let us remember Joseph’s dream about his brethren. He dreamed that his sheaf arose and that their sheaves bowed down to his sheaf. We saw that this also had to do with harvest, and that it was likening his brethren to sheaves. As we read in Amos, sheaves are placed onto the wagon and pressed into that wagon. You would want to fit as many sheaves as you could on that wagon. A farmer back then probably had only one wagon, not to mention a long way to go to sell his merchandise. He would have tried to press down his sheaves and to fit as much as he could on that wagon.
The wagons are sent into Canaan. The ladies, the wives of the sons, will get on. Their children will get into the wagons. Israel will be loaded onto wagons and carted out of Canaan. It is harvest time, the time to put the sheaves onto the wagons and to separate the wheat from the tares. It is time to get the sheaves out of Canaan, meaning that God will use this commandment to call His people out of the churches and congregations, to bring about that separation to harvest His crop.
Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh and provision for the way. We know that when the Bible talks about “the way,” it has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. He is “The way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6). Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1); it is another way of referring to the Gospel. The Apostle Paul said that he “Persecuted this way unto the death” (Acts 22:4). The idea was that those who followed “the way” were followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Provision is given for the way, for the Gospel. What is the Gospel? Is the Gospel only found in Matthew 26-27 where we read of Christ going to the Cross and dying for the sins of His people? That is what some people believe. For them, this is a very convenient idea because then they do not have to listen to the other parts of the Bible. They do not have to read the books of Jeremiah or Ezekiel or Daniel, or pay attention to the many portions of the Bible that deal with God’s judgment on the churches and congregations. They believe that they do not have to listen to those parts of the Bible, because they only want to focus on the Cross.
There are a lot of churches today that might be preaching on Matthew 26 or Matthew 27, yet they are not preaching the Gospel. The Gospel is the whole Word of God, the whole Bible. That is why I am very comfortable reading in Genesis or Matthew 26 and 27 or Haggai or anywhere. It is the entire Gospel; and if what we are teaching is true and faithful to the Bible, then we are teaching the Gospel.
The Gospel has the power to save. Can God save someone through hearing the genealogy of Genesis 5? Yes, it is the Word of God; it has life that quickens (Hebrews 4:12, Rom 1:16). The Word of God can save our children. We do not have to concentrate our teachings in Matthew 26 and 27 in order for someone to become saved, we can read any part of the Bible. The book of Jeremiah can save an individual. As long as the Word of God is proclaimed faithfully and truthfully, someone can become saved.
Some people do not like the true Gospel. They do not enjoy hearing the Words that God has given us in the Bible. They accuse, “You talk too much about the judgment on the church.” But how many times does God talk about it? How often has God spoken on this subject? We have fifty-two chapters of Jeremiah and forty-eight chapters of Ezekiel, twelve of Daniel. What does it mean that Daniel was in Babylon? We read Ezra and Nehemiah and see how they came out of Babylon because God judged His church. We read Haggai and Zechariah, books written at the coming out of Babylon. Then what about Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21 and the whole book of Revelation? There is Scripture after Scripture, a great many more than I have even mentioned, speaking of God judging His people.
If that is what God wants to write about, who are we to argue? We should not be saying, “I would rather hear something else.” Rather, we teach what God gives us. God, in His great wisdom, has determined to give us much information about the judgment on the church during the Great Tribulation. He is opening these things up, and we are proclaiming them. This is “the way.” Whatever God says in His Word is “the way.”
This holds true even if He makes a change in His program, like He did with Peter in Acts 10:9-16. Peter went up on the housetop. There God gave him a vision of clean and unclean animals and said, “Rise, Peter; kill, and eat.” Peter said, “Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean.”
God is the One who made something unclean in the first place, and if He wants to now say, “They are clean—you can eat of those animals that were once forbidden for a Jew,” that is God’s business. Who is Peter to argue back with God and say, “No, I am not going to eat that. I am too holy and good to eat those animals. I am going to follow the way that we have been following, and I am not going to make any kind of change. It has been good enough for my forefathers; it is been good enough for Israel for nearly two thousand years. Now, You are going to tell me we have to eat those animals?”
Peter would have been disobedient to say that. Yet God had mercy on him. He gave him the same vision three times. He sent Gentiles from Cornelius’ house bearing the message that Peter was to come and share the Gospel with Cornelius and the Gentiles (which those unclean animals were pointing to). That is God’s prerogative to do so.
God is now revealing information that the Church Age is over. He is opening up these truths. He has made a change in His program after nearly two thousand years, yet this is “the way.” Some people can be embarrassed by it, not wanting to speak about it. They may not like it, but this is “the way” we are to go. It is the Word of God saying these things, and this is what we are to follow.
Let us skip down to verse 24, where Joseph tells his brethren:
So he sent his brethren away, and they departed: and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way.
This is a warning. “See that ye fall not out by the way.” God knows what He is writing here, and it is information that deals with our present day. He is letting us know that “the way” (what the Bible teaches, the Gospel) is going to include some information that is not very pleasant or easy to accept. We can see this even historically with Israel, these brothers of Joseph, who now had to go back to Canaan and face their father.
That was not an easy thing to do. If we remember, twenty-two years earlier (twenty-three years inclusively) when Joseph was seventeen, these brethren had thrown him into a pit. They wanted to kill him, but Reuben prevented it. Instead, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. They took his coat, dipped it in blood and brought it to Jacob, saying, “Here is Joseph’s coat. What do you make of this?” Jacob said, “Without any doubt, my son is rent to pieces by some evil beast” (Genesis 37:13-36).
From that point on, Jacob was certain that his son was dead. For twenty-two years, he thought that. These sons had lied to their father on top of all of their other sins. Just as the Bible says, “Your sin will find you out” (Numbers 32:23), they had to go back home. There was no way around this. Because of the famine, they would surely die if they did not exactly follow what Joseph was telling them to. They had to go back home and say, “Joseph is alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. Joseph is second in command to Pharaoh.” Let us read Genesis 45:25-28, which says:
And they went up out of Egypt, and came into the land of Canaan unto Jacob their father, And told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt. And Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them: and when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob their father revived: And Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die.
They went home and told their father, “Joseph is yet alive.” We can imagine what a shock this was to Jacob. First he hears that his son is alive. Not only that, he had the additional shock of hearing that Joseph was alive not as a slave, not in prison, but as a ruler; not of some small town or little city that saw Joseph’s wisdom and lifted him up, but as the ruler over Egypt, the greatest country on the face of the earth. We can imagine how Jacob “believed them not.” This was too unbelievable; he could not understand how it could be.
Then it says in verse 27 that “they told him all the words of Joseph,” all the words that Joseph had said unto them. Joseph is a picture of Christ, the Word; therefore, it is the Word of God that convinces Jacob. Even though it sounds impossible, even though it is almost preposterous, even though it is so incredible that historically it just could not be, the words of Joseph (the Lord Jesus Christ) convinced Jacob.
Likewise, the information on the end of the Church Age may seem far-fetched, but it is the Word of God that convinces the true believer that these things are so. That is what happened after Jacob heard all the words and saw the wagons. Everything in the situation was fitting together, falling into place. He recognized that Joseph was alive and his spirit revived. I think some of us can understand what this is pointing to.
Jacob, I am sure would have begun to think, “What about that coat of many colors that had blood all over it? Where did that come from? How did it get full of blood?” The sons would have had to finally tell him the truth. God has given us a portion of what actually happened—and there is a lot of information we are not getting here—but believe me, Jacob would have heard the truth from his sons. He would have known what had happened.
It would have been a hard thing for those children to admit the sin that they were involved with in their youth and to confess it to their father, but they did. That is because God was working on them and causing a change to take place in their lives. It was through this time of famine, through this awful time, that great things were happening and that great blessings were taking place among the children of Israel.
Let us just close with this idea of Jacob’s spirit reviving. The word “revive” is actually the word “live,” and this word is overwhelmingly translated that way. We could literally say, “The spirit of Jacob their father lived.”
This is the word used when Elijah raised the boy to life, and his spirit revived (1 Kings 17:22). This is the word that is found when people are said to “live.” “The spirit of Jacob their father lived.” Was Jacob dead?
We could see how he would have been depressed—he had always had sadness over the loss of Joseph. Now a famine had come and Simeon was held captive in Egypt. Jacob did not know what was going on with his sons or why Benjamin was required to show himself in Egypt. He was very cast down in his soul, very sorrowful and depressed.
Yet now, suddenly, the unexpected happens. The almost unbelievable thing takes place. His sons proclaim, “Joseph is alive! Joseph is ruler in Egypt! There is plenty of food—wagons full of Egyptian goods and of corn and meat and bread from Egypt.” It is as though the famine suddenly disappeared. What happened to that terrible famine that they had been suffering through? What happened to those dark and dreadful days that they had all been experiencing? Poof, they were all gone, and the spirit of Jacob their father revived; he lived. I think we can understand this when we turn to Revelation 11:7-11, where we read of the two witnesses. It says:
And when they shall have finished their testimony…
This relates to the end of the Church Age and the beginning of the Great Tribulation. It continues:
…the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them. And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves. And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth. And after three days and an half…
Three days and a half would be the first part of the Great Tribulation. In Genesis, this was represented by the two years of ignorance, two years in which Joseph concealed who he was from his own brethren. Then he revealed himself at the dividing point of the Great Tribulation. Then after the first part, the three and a half days, we read:
…the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.
The Spirit of Jacob revived; it came to life. That is why God uses the word “lived.” It was as though he was dead for the first two years of that famine, typifying the Great Tribulation, and now, in his spirit, he lived. God is not telling us that he became saved—he was already a saved man—but his spirit lived because he is typifying the two witnesses. They have been lying dead in the street for the first portion of the Great Tribulation, but now they stand upon their feet.
Likewise, Jacob is suddenly encouraged. He is full of joy and probably bubbling over. He could likely tap dance his way to the wagon in order to go to Egypt. He is so happy at the situation because everything has been turned around. So it is for the people of God during this time of Great Tribulation. Christ is alive. God is alive and He is ruling in the world, nourishing and taking care of His people. “Come out of the church and enter into the world, and I will feed you. I will give you the good things, the spiritual riches of the Kingdom of God. I will take care of you.” It is at this news that the Spirit of the believers, who will share the Gospel to the world, is lifted up and revived. This is a revival in its truest sense. God is the one doing it and He is going to save a great many souls, which we, Lord willing, will get into as we continue in this historical account of the life of Jacob and Joseph.