Hi Mike,

Recently we had an opportunity for a large business dealing, during which we discovered the gentleman involved had been lying about certain things. We refused to be a part of his bullying, lying nature in the arrangement. In the natural world nobody would blame us for the way we dealt with this situation, immediately putting an end to any further dealings. The only way to deal with a liar is to have no dealing with him. In fact, we would be commended for our decision. Yet when we do this very wise thing in the spiritual sense, by refusing to deal with a heretic, we are called unkind, judgmental and proud, even tyrannical. Just found it interesting.
C____

Hello C____,

How true this is! “The only way to deal with a liar is to have no dealing with him.” So many principles which are praised in the world are despised when they are applied by God’s elect.
I thought of this same principle during Steve Crook’s last Awesome Hands study. Joseph did not just give Pharaoh’s grain away to those starving people. He indebted them to Pharaoh to the point that in the end Pharaoh owned them, their cattle, their land and all they possessed.

1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
1Co 7:23 Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men.

Where is the love in owning all the people and all they own? Well, the fact is that not one Egyptian appreciates anything which is given to him without the trial of working to support himself. That is why we are told these two truths:

Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, 1) work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Php 2:13 2) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Our salvation is all of God, just as the Pharaoh was the only person in the world with the grain to save the people. Yet the Pharaoh, through Joseph, was wise enough to expect the people to be a part of what He was doing in saving them.
… Which all comes down to this valuable lesson for all mankind:

Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

Joseph, contrary to our natural carnal- minded thinking, did not believe that men could save themselves apart from God. He knew that God’s laws would be abused in the hands of carnal self- righteous men who would have given away the farm instead of teaching the people to carry their own weight. God’s law was in the ark of the covenant, and when that law is placed, by our own failure to abide in it, into the hands of the uncircumcised spiritual Philistines, who are in the land of promise without the benefit of the circumcision of the baptism of fire, it becomes a curse to them instead of a blessing:

1Sa 5:1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
1Sa 5:2 When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
1Sa 5:3 And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
1Sa 5:4 And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
1Sa 5:5 Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.
1Sa 5:6 But the hand of the LORD was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with emerods, even Ashdod and the coasts thereof.
1Sa 5:7 And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us: for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god.
1Sa 5:8 They sent therefore and gathered all the lords of the Philistines unto them, and said, What shall we do with the ark of the God of Israel? And they answered, Let the ark of the God of Israel be carried about unto Gath. And they carried the ark of the God of Israel about thither.
1Sa 5:9 And it was so, that, after they had carried it about, the hand of the LORD was against the city with a very great destruction: and he smote the men of the city, both small and great, and they had emerods in their secret parts.
1Sa 5:10 Therefore they sent the ark of God to Ekron. And it came to pass, as the ark of God came to Ekron, that the Ekronites cried out, saying, They have brought about the ark of the God of Israel to us, to slay us and our people.
1Sa 5:11 So they sent and gathered together all the lords of the Philistines, and said, Send away the ark of the God of Israel, and let it go again to his own place, that it slay us not, and our people: for there was a deadly destruction throughout all the city; the hand of God was very heavy there.
1Sa 5:12 And the men that died not were smitten with the emerods: and the cry of the city went up to heaven.

Christ is the spirit Joseph typified, and of course He had the same mind:

Luk 19:20 And another came, saying, Lord, behold, here is thy pound, which I have kept laid up in a napkin:
Luk 19:21 For I feared thee, because thou art an austere man: thou takest up that thou layedst not down, and reapest that thou didst not sow.
Luk 19:22 And he saith unto him, Out of thine own mouth will I judge thee, thou wicked servant. Thou knewest that I was an austere man, taking up that I laid not down, and reaping that I did not sow:
Luk 19:23 Wherefore then gavest not thou my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?
Luk 19:24 And he said unto them that stood by, Take from him the pound, and give it to him that hath ten pounds.
Luk 19:25 (And they said unto him, Lord, he hath ten pounds.)
Luk 19:26 For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.
Luk 19:27 But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.

“Unto every one which hath shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him” are the words of a loving heavenly Father who know that the laws of God in the hands of carnal men will destroy them.
This story of Joseph in Egypt and the parable of the talents are both a type and a shadow of those who, with Christ in them, are God’s elect of whom it will in time be said:

Gen 41:33 Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:34 Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land, and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
Gen 41:35 And let them gather all the food of those good years that come, and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh, and let them keep food in the cities.
Gen 41:36 And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine, which shall be in the land of Egypt; that the land perish not through the famine.
Gen 41:37 And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
Gen 41:38 And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?

Because Joseph was willing to die rather than deny his Lord’s words and doctrines, God blessed him and made him to rule over all Egypt, as a type of how He will cause the same thing to be done by His elect in due time:

Gen 41:39 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art:
Gen 41:40 Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled: only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
Gen 41:41 And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
Gen 41:42 And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it upon Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck;
Gen 41:43 And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had; and they cried before him, Bow the knee: and he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Our Lord did the same thing with Daniel, and with Esther and Mordecai, and in His way and in His time, He will do the same with all those who learn that 1) we are to work out our own salvation because 2) it is God who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Your brother in the Christ,
Mike